'This is a fascist, apartheid measure being done, and we do not accept it,' Arafat said of the fence. 'We will continue rejecting it by all means.'
Huh? So those who don't allow you to kill them because of their Jewishness are racists? Hmm. Might be time to loosen the old headbib a little, Chairmen -- let the blood circulate more freely around your brain. Might even keep your eyes from bulging so frighteningly. The whole problem with Islamism isn't ideology or anti-Semitism. They're just products of the deeper, underlying problem: tight turbans. They'll do ya in every time.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 07:30 pm ||
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Iraq said it was ready to cooperate with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Kuwait to resolve the issue of persons missing since the 1991 Gulf War. But Iraq "will not take part in the meetings of the tripartite committee because of the presence of states that are not concerned by the issue," the foreign ministry added. Iraq has boycotted meetings on Kuwaiti POWs since December 1998, demanding the withdrawal of US, British and French representatives. It has however proposed the formation of an Arab League committee on the issue. The Kuwaiti government has rejected the Iraqi proposal. The Arab League wasn't happy that Iraq dismantled Kuwait, but it didn't think it was actually important enough to do something about.
Kuwait maintains that 605 Kuwaiti and other nationals disappeared during the Iraqi occupation of the emirate from August 1990 to February 1991. Iraqi officials have admitted that their country took prisoners, but said they lost track of them during an uprising by Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq following the ouster from Kuwait. Iraq also says 1,142 of its nationals have been missing since the 1991 conflict. I'm surprised the number's that low, given the number who tried to get the hell out of Iraq when given the opportunity.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 09:11 am ||
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In a fight for his survival, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would be likely to unleash his arsenal of chemical and germ warheads on American troops and Israel, military sources and analysts say. That deadly prospect, they say, makes it paramount that any war plan approved by President Bush contain tactical surprise, pre-emptive air strikes and a strategy for turning some Iraqi military units against their supreme leader. That may be so. Or the press may be fighting the last war again. I'd expect the people planning the operations to provide for such an obvious eventuality.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 10:07 am ||
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#1
All the more reason to skip the Gulf War I overkill and hit Saddam with the division-sized attack he cannot stop. 2/3 of that force is already on the ground. With additional equipment in storage in Kuwait, we could roll with 3 Armored Brigades in 48 hours. With the help of the 18th Airplane Gang [in-house term for paratroopers] and the Marine brigade we have floating in the Indian Ocean, we could own southern Iraq in 4 days.
BTW, Chem and Bio weapons require fairly massive delivery mechanisms [e.g. battalions of BM-21 rocket launchers]. They would be wiped out first.
Posted by: E. Almasy ||
06/17/2002 14:35 Comments ||
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General Secretary Kim Jong Il provided field guidance to the Anju Chicken Farm newly built by servicemen of the KPA. He heard a report on the successful completion of the farm from the commander of the unit which participated in its construction. The farm with a total floor space of over 27,000 square meters is one more gift presented by him to the people with a strong desire to supply more meat and eggs to the army and the people. Whoa! Stop the presses! We'll get out an extra!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 05:56 pm ||
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They've got the farm, now they just need a chicken...
Pakistan will "reciprocate" a withdrawal of Indian forces from border areas, foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said. "Once India starts withdrawing, our forces... will reciprocate," Khan told a regular press briefing. "We were obliged to send our forces to forward positions only in a defensive posture after India deployed its forces. We will reciprocate that particular gesture. I think it's a very desirable thing that should be done immediately." Khan's comments follow signs of a thaw in India and Pakistan's frosty recent ties, with New Delhi announcing a series of measures to defuse their tense border stand-off. This would be the signal for the jihadis to initiate as many and as severe attacks as they can — it looks entirely too much like peace!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 09:12 am ||
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A car bomb attack on the US consulate in Karachi was a warning to Washington and its allies in Islamabad to abandon their war against terrorism. The blast killed 12 people including six women and injured more than 50, blew a four-metre hole in the consulate wall and shattered windows within a one-kilometre radius. "Abandon your war on terrorism or we'll blow things up!" It'd make a lot of sense to comply with that demand, by golly.
The death toll rose late yesterday after a policeman seriously hurt in the blast died of his injuries, hospital officials said. Although investigators initially believed it was a suicide attack, they now suspect the bomb could have been a remote-controlled device planted in a driving school-owned Toyota Corolla carrying four women. Police believe the blast may have been carried out by the same Al Qaeda-linked militants suspected of launching a May 8 suicide bombing outside the Sheraton hotel here that killed 11 French nationals. Oh, wotta surprise.
Witnesses said about 15 to 20 American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents made a second visit to the blast site and spent about two hours collecting objects such as fragments of devastated cars. The agents worked in an area of garden opposite the consulate where most of the wreckage fell and which has been cordoned off since the blast. "They were carrying handfuls of bags with small and big pieces of all kinds of debris, leaving almost no nook and corner of the garden and road unchecked," said a police officer posted at the garden for security. That's why Qazi wants them out. They're quite a bit more thorough than the Paks' Fatty Arbuckle Kopper Squad.
Pakistani police have so far not been able to trace any record of the previously unknown group, Al Qanoon (The Law), which has claimed responsibility for the attack. Meanwhile, Al Qanoon called for Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to resign. Otherwise, the group threatened more attacks, it said in a message to the Pakistani newspaper Umat. And if he does resign, they'll blow things up for some other reason.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 05:47 pm ||
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Pakistani authorities say they have detained a number of people, including two American passport-holders, who were trying to enter the country from Afghanistan. Foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said investigations were underway into the group, which was trying to cross into tribal areas. He said he had no further information about the nationality or the size of the rest of the group.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 06:11 pm ||
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United States forces in Afghanistan are reported to have carried out a cross-border raid into northwest Pakistan on Sunday. Reports from the area say the Americans, who were accompanied by allied Afghan fighters, searched caves in the semi-autonomous tribal area of North Waziristan, but found only weapons and ammunition. The area contains the mausoleum of a revered Muslim holy man, Faqir Ipi. Local tribesmen have expressed anger about the raid and say they have organised armed groups to prevent such operations in the future. American officials said their troops had been looking for al-Qaeda and Taleban activists who they believed had been hiding in the area.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 06:13 pm ||
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LAHORE, June 17: Various religious, Kashmiri, and political leaders on Sunday warned of a tough resistance against the Musharraf government if it took an Afghanistan-like U-turn on Kashmir or compromised the most cherished national cause.
"Kashmir Jihad will continue till the liberation of Kashmir from Indian occupation and implementation of UN resolutions. The military government which had already sold out Afghanistan must not do the same with Kashmir because it would amount to betraying Pakistan, and all religious forces now stand united to resist it," they warned while addressing a mammoth Kashmir Conference organised by Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA) here.
The leaders of the six-party alliance demanded immediate expulsion of the US army, FBI and CIA officials from Pakistan, warning they (US forces) would destroy Pakistan's nuclear programme to enslave the nation. They also advised Gen Musharraf to see through the US-Indian conspiracy of secluding the army from Mujahideen, religious forces and the people, and avoid taking punitive measures against Jihadis.
All of the leaders sent messages to Kashmiri leadership, Mujahideen and people that this mammoth gathering was a proof that the Pakistani nation still stands unitedly behind them and support their freedom struggle.
The conference was presided over by JI Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmad who warned that if the US forces were not expelled and their bases from Pakistan not abolished immediately they will destroy the Pak nuclear programme. "If that happens, the entire Kashmir, nuclear programme and our independence will be taken away from us," he said. He said freedom of Kashmir was the completion of Pakistan and was duly allowed by the UN and other world organisations who had acknowledged it as a genuine freedom movement until 9-11. After that the anti-Muslim Jewish conspirators ruling the US overpowered the entire west and dubbed all Muslims as terrorists.
He advised Gen Musharraf not to back out from Kashmiris support otherwise the nation would not allow him to rule any further. "Musharraf should rest faith in Allah's help and do what is right, the nation will be behind him." Qazi warned if referendum like rigging was repeated in general elections it would be the end of Musharraf. He demanded reorganisation of Election Commission and voters lists.
JUI-F Amir Maulana Fazlur Rehman accused the military rulers of selling out Islam, Pakistan, Kashmir, Afghanistan and nuclear programme to the US masters. He said: "The Pakistan Army always served the US interests, while religious parties always acted according to Islam. Incidentally the US interests coincided with Islam during the Afghan Jihad against Russians, that was why army supported that Jihad, but against Taliban and now in case of Kashmir the US interests were against Islam that's why army leadership is against Muslims and jihadis." He alleged the Musharraf government had already accepted the independent Kashmir option against the will of Pakistani and Kashmiri people.
JUP leader Gen KM Azhar (retd) said Jihad is the essential part of our faith and as the armed forces of Islamic republic of Pakistan the military leaders must not shy away from it.
Allama Sajid Naqvi said only unity could steer the Ummah out of the present situation as the rulers were taking decision which were against the national interests. He said the public was wise enough as they could differentiate between friend and foe, adding that Jihad could not be stopped at any cost as it was the essence of Islamic teachings.
APHC leader Ghulam Mohammad Safi said UN was now backing out on its verbal support to Kashmir under the US pressure. He said Kofi Annan paid tributes to East Timorese guerilla struggle against Indonesia in the first ceremony of East Timor nation. "But he is dubbing Kashmiris as terrorists which is unjustified."
PML-N leader Kh Saad Rafiq also expressed full cooperation on behalf of his party to the MMA leadership regarding the Kashmir cause. Jamiat Ahle Hadis leader Sajid Mir said the Musharraf government was the first regime that had openly backed out of the 50-year-old national policy on Kashmir and started dubbing freedom fighters as terrorists.
Jamaat-ud-Dawah leader Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki said the large number of participants was a clear signal to the government that it would not let any person to bargain or take a U-turn on Kashmir. He said the public had rejected the government's 'step-back' policy on national issues. He said instead of resisting the anti-Pakistan policies, the policy-makers were giving benefit to the enemies of the country.
JI AJK Amir Abdul Rasheed Turabi said the struggle of Kashmiris had entered a final phase and the time was not far when the Kashmir would be a part of Pakistan. The MMA leaders also appealed to the nation to boycott the interest-based economy and withdraw their accounts from UBL which has filed a petition against the riba-free banking system. At the end of his speech, Qazi Hussain Ahmad announced that MMA has decided to boycott UBL.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 07:23 am ||
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That headline doesn't make any sense, does it?
The Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels have vowed to fight the Khartoum government until there is peace in the southern Sudan, the Sunday Vision newspaper reported. SPLA commander Edward Abyel Lino, a director in the office of SPLA leader John Garang, was quoted by Uganda's leading English newspaper as saying that the SPLA forces had stepped up their operations against government forces to protect areas under their control. "We are definitely stepping up our operations. If the Khartoum government goes ahead with war we are going to fight them to the end," he said. Why'd you bother with peace talks and reaching an agreement then? Oh, yeah. The gummint troops were thumping you regularly then. I remeber now.
The SPLA made an advance and captured the southern Sudanese strategic town of Kapoeta from the government troops on last Sunday. "Our advance on these areas has nothing to do with neighbors, " he said, adding that "we have to defend ourselves so that the liberation continues." Or at least until the gummint troops get the upper hand and kill large numbers of you. Then you can have another ceasefire and break it.
The SPLA commander's speech was carried one day before peace talks on the Sudan conflict are scheduled to open in Nairobi on Monday. Meanwhile, Sudanese First Vice-President Ali Osman Taha has urged the United States to put pressure on the SLPA at the peace talks due to open in Nairobi. Since the Sudanese government has shown good faith in all this and the SPLA hasn't, it would seem to make more sense to work with the government on ints internal structure, pointing out as often as we can that economic development and individual liberty are so tightly intertwined as to be nearly inseperable. And we could look the other way as they kill the faithless rebels.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 09:12 am ||
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Other than the fact that the gummint looks the other way as the southerners are taken as slaves
#2
Still doesn't absolve the southerners of their obligation to stick to the agreements they make. If they ignore them when convenient, why have an agreement? Even if they get one in their favor, what's to say they'll adhere to it?
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2002 7:10 Comments ||
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Sudan decided Saturday to extend the Nuba Mountains ceasefire agreement due to expire in the next four days. A mini-cabinet meeting, chaired by President Omar al-Beshir, renewed the Nuba Mountains ceasefire agreement for another six months as the current deal expires on June 19, presidential peace advisor Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani told reporters. Atabani hailed "the positive aspects in the application of the agreement" brokered by the United States to allow humanitarian supplies into the war-battered region. The government signed the truce deal with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) on January 19. It was renewable on a six-month basis. The region, with a 500,000 population, was seen as a test case for efforts to end the 19-year-old civil war in Sudan pitting successive Arab and Muslim governments in Khartoum against mainly Christian and animist southern rebels. And it's been the southern rebels who've systematically broken the agreement. Bad on them.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 09:41 am ||
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Morocco has banned imams in the country from engaging in any "electoral propaganda" during the weekly sermons of Friday. "It is forbidden for Imams to undertake any form of party or electoral propaganda at the Friday sermons," Moroccan minister of Habous (endowments) and Islamic affairs, Abdelkbir Alaoui M'daghri said Wednesday. "The preachers have the right to adhere to political parties, but must not use mosques to diffuse political or electoral propaganda." Any preacher who would support or attack any political side will be severely penalized, the minister insisted. The move is part of Morocco's drives to ensure free and honest elections next September. Wonder how much of that is to keep them from disseminating Salafist propaganda? The decision was issued four days after the arrest of the Soddy Boat People.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 04:23 pm ||
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Heavy fighting has flared up between rival militiamen in the fertile Middle Shabelle region of southern Somalia. Supporters of Dahir Dayah, the interior minister of the Transitional National Government, clashed with forces loyal to warlord Mohamed Dhere, who controls the regional capital of Jowhar, some 90 kilometres north of Mogadishu. According to eyewitnesses contacted on VHF radios in the Mahadday district, close to the fighting, the two sides started exchanging heavy gunfire outside the village of El-Baraf, about 150km north of Mogadishu, just after morning prayers. The eyewitnesses confirmed seeing more than 13 battle wagons and hundreds of heavily armed militiamen from both sides. At about noon on Monday, the fighting seemed to have spread close to the Mahadday district in the villages of Ali-Foldhere and Magurti. It is difficult to obtain exact figures about the casualties as the fighting is still raging. However, independent sources have confirmed that at least 19 people were killed and more than 30 others wounded from both sides. They aren't done yet. They'll let us know when they are.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 06:08 pm ||
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Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said early Monday the authorities had picked up intelligence that five Palestinian bombers were preparing new assaults in Israel. "We know the preparations are well along and these attacks could happen at any moment," the minister told Israeli state radio. The Yediot Aharonot newspaper said the would-be assalants comprised three men and two women. The army stepped up its surveillance of Palestinian towns it has surrounded while police were on a state of alert on the "green line" separating Israel and the West Bank, military sources said. The police, meanwhile, said they had thwarted three attempted bombings since May in Jerusalem, which has not seen a suicide attack since a Palestinian killed herself and six others near a crowded market on April 12. Get some good booms goin', with lotsa civilian casualties, and that goads the Israelis into hitting the PA infrastructure. Then... Well, then something will happen, and it won't be peace. If peace were to come, why, think of all the gunnies who'd have to get jobs! Then the donations would drop off from the the Soddies and the Iraqis, and Iran might cut funding. The Paleostinian mullahs would see their incomes dry up...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 09:12 am ||
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Israeli entered the northern West Bank town of Yamoun, near Jenin, and shelled the house of a local Hamas leader. Seven tanks and three army jeeps, backed by two helicopters fired shells and heavy machine-guns from the ground and air at the house of Raed Frehat. It was not clear if the 30-year-old Hamas thug was at home at the time. Doesn't sound like they cared if he was, either...
The Israeli army could not immediately confirm the operation but military sources quoted on Israel's public radio said a booby-trapped car had exploded next to Frehat's house. The radio said that the car bomb, which was to be used in an attack inside Israel, went off when soldiers fired at it. Palestinian sources confirmed a car explosion in Yamoun, but said it was not next to Frehat's house. They could not say whether it was a booby-trapped vehicle. "No, no! It wasn't next to his house. It was next to... uh... next to his neighbor's house..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 09:12 am ||
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The Arab League blasted the Israeli project to build a high-tech security fence that would wall off the West Bank from Israel and Jerusalem. "This fence is a new Berlin wall," Arab League chief Amr Mussa told reporters in an allusion to the barrier that divided the German capital from 1961 to 1989. "It reminds us of practices that the world did not accept," he said. The Commies built the Berlin wall to keep their own people in. Israel's building their fence to keep their neighbors from sneaking into their bedrooms and exploding. Where's the similarity? Further, unless my memory's ossified beyond repair, the Arab League used to think the Commies and their wall were pretty swell, and called the U.S. warmongers for wanting it torn down.
Palestinians fear the fence snaking along the West Bank will worsen the Israeli occupation, and have likened it to South Africa's old apartheid system of racial segregation. Apartheid wasn't instituted to keep one people from inflicting mindless violence on the other.
Israel "is reinforcing its occupation of the Palestinian territories and the separation between the societies," Moussa added. The Arab League chief called for a "redoubling of efforts to put an end to the occupation, to ... dismantle existing settlements instead of constructing a wall of separation." The settlements are a subject Moussa could talk on. There are legitimate arguments, both pro and con. Adding in Berlin Walls, apartheid, and eventually Hitler, Ferdinand and Isabella, and the time Og the Neanderthal hit Thag the Cro-Magnon, adds nothing and puts any audience he has left to sleep.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 09:12 am ||
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A suspected Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up near where Israel has begun building a massive security wall along the West Bank."Border guards in a jeep spotted the man on a road leading to the village of Barka el Sharkyeh next to Israeli territory," an army spokesman said. "When the border guards questioned the individual, who appeared suspect, he set off the explosive charge he was carrying, damaging the jeep without leaving casualties." "We asked him what he was doin', and suddenly, 'Boom!' Flyin' mealoaf!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 09:12 am ||
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The fence project has drawn bitter criticism from Palestinians, who call it an instrument of an apartheid-like policy that will have severe consequences for their economy and likely trigger more violence. Is there anything that isn't likely to trigger more violence? I'll agree, though, that for an area whose only export is retail explosives, there will be an effect on the local economy.
Right-wing Israelis fear the fence may become the acknowledged border of an eventual Palestinian state and isolate Jewish settlers. The National Religious Party has threatened to quit Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition government over the issue. But government officials insist the fence is a necessary adjunct to their efforts to neutralize militants through their current campaign of hit-and-run raids on West Bank towns. Another bunch who has trouble with the difference between "is" and "should be." Wonder what their Better Idea is? Anybody heard?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 09:12 am ||
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On June 7, 2002, the Kuwaiti Al-Watan daily published the following report:
"Yesterday, Al-Watan received documents from private sources in the Cairo branch of an Arab bank showing that Yasser Arafat had deposited in his name $5.1 million into a personal account. According to sources, this is theft of Arab aid funds allocated to the Palestinians through an arrangement between Arafat and his Cairo office head Ramzi Khouri."
"The sources added that according to the documents, these funds were deposited in the personal accounts of President Arafat to cover some of the president's personal expenses, including the costs of his wife Suha and their daughter who live in Paris and Switzerland."
"The sources added that nobody knows of this theft, with the exception of some of Arafat's closest cronies, including his Cairo office head Ramzi Khouri and Khaled Slam, originally from Iraq, whose real name is Muhammad Rashid and who is one of Arafat's top 'and most influential' advisors."
"The sources added that some weeks ago Muhammad Rashid had bought, on Arafat's instructions, 14% of the shares of the Jordanian Cement Company for the [Palestine Commercial Services Company] with funds received by Arafat from the Arab Gulf states, 'to increase the profits of Arafat's investments abroad,' in light of the increase in cement prices following increased demand due to the reconstruction of what the Israeli forces destroyed in their recent incursion into the West Bank cities."
"Al-Watan adds to this news item photos of the documents received from its Cairo sources regarding the deposit of U.S. $5.1 million by Arafat into his personal account in the Arab Bank in Cairo." Oh, hand me a tissue, please! It's only $5.1 mil, taken from the mouths of widows and orphans and the destitute...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 09:39 am ||
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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, termed as not completely stable, appears unimpressed with Israeli military might or U.S. diplomatic pressure. A new study by the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism says Arafat is not intimidated by Israeli or U.S. pressure. The profile of Arafat said the Palestinian Authority chairman can be somewhat influenced by economic pressure and by a personal appeal from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "Spectacular military operations — such as air strikes, massive fire directed at targets in the areas of the Palestinian Authority — have a limited effect on Arafat," the report said. "He knows the limitations of Israel's power and in situations of confrontation feels at his best, tends to take risks, and is willing to make sacrifices, more so than in normal circumstances." The profile recommended that Israel's military stage limited precision operations. The study said this would undermine Arafat's sense of control. Yasser's convinced that the Israelis won't — nay, can't — kill him. Chances are Twiggy slim that they'll toss him out of the country. And if a bunch of his countrymen are blown up or shot, what the hell? It's not him, and he doesn't even know most of them. If Yasser is showing signs of Alzheimer's, he's not going to get any more coherent than he is now. And the chances of a big miscalculation on his part increase, approaching the point of certainty within the next two or three years at the outside.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 10:22 am ||
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Egyptian authorities were said to have foiled an attempt by Al Qaida to forge cooperation between Islamic insurgents in Egypt and the United States. Arab diplomatic sources said the attempt was conducted by Jose Padilla, a suspected Al Qaida agent arrested in Islamabad and now in U.S. custody. The sources said Egyptian officials have relayed to Washington information that Padilla tried to negotiate a cooperation accord with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization. Padilla, the sources said, was believed to have been an envoy of Jihad leader Ayman Zawahari, the chief deputy of Osama Bin Laden. Zawahari has been seeking to renew the Islamic insurgency against the Egyptian regime. The London-based Al Hayat daily reported on Thursday that Padilla arrived in Cairo in March to meet Jihad representatives. The newspaper said Egyptian authorities were informed of the meeting and forced Padilla to leave the country. That would seem to promote Padilla/al-Muhajir out of the "cog" category and into greater things â maybe even into the lower rungs of the Big Shot category. The fact that he screwed it up is beside the point...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 11:00 am ||
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Fred, does anything about this report strike you as weird? Namely, that the Egyptians "knew" about Padilla's meeting and who he repped, and their reaction was to "force him to leave the country?" What ever happened to the good old secret police and their habits of removing spleens with red hot pincers?
Posted by: Bill Quick ||
06/17/2002 20:40 Comments ||
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#2
I'd say it represents discretion on the Egyptians' part. The Secret Police and their hot pincers work fine with the locals, but if they nab a Merkin then they have to explain why. There'd have been 752 lawyers with 70s-style poodle haircuts and $800 briefcases, each followed by a TV camera, rushing to his defense because after all he hadn't "done" anything -- nothing had exploded. There are people in the U.S. right this moment who are jumping up and down and hollering about the same thing -- he didn't actually blow anything up, he only intended to.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2002 7:08 Comments ||
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The Chinese government says Islamic extremists, backed by Osama bin Laden, have assassinated local officials and religious leaders, poisoned livestock and blown up buses over the past decade in an effort to wrest control of Xinjiang from China and establish a state of their own called East Turkistan. In Aksu, a city of more than 2 million, the local police chief was gunned down in August in a firefight with Muslim separatists running a bomb-making lab. Since Sept. 11, the Chinese government has argued that its crackdown on separatist-minded Muslim Uighurs here should be considered part of the U.S.-led war on terror. "Terrorism is not only a threat to Xinjiang," Wang Lequan, the Xinjiang Communist Party chief, says. "It is an enemy to the neighboring countries and to the entire world."
The Bush administration has rebuffed efforts by the Chinese to equate their efforts to end the conflict with the ethnic Uighurs with the fight against the Taliban and bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network. Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department noted that China has been a victim of terrorism in Xinjiang, but it added: "We have made it clear to Beijing that combating international terrorism is not an excuse to suppress legitimate political expression or freedom of religious beliefs. Effective counterterrorism requires a respect for fundamental human rights." Aaaaaargh! This is what's so aggravating about the Bush administration! If you're gonna have a War on Terror, then you've got to take the war to all the pieces of the terror networks. You can't stop and say, "well, those guys are meanies, so their terrorists can't be in the network." If al-Qaeda moved into North Korea and started blowing things up, they'd still be al-Qaeda. We wouldn't particularly like being on the same side as the NKors, but we would be, through no fault of our own, or of theirs. Same applies to China. We can argue later over whether post-Marxism can allow enough individual liberties; we know damned well Islamism doesn't.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/17/2002 09:33 am ||
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Innocent Uighur civilians have suffered under the Chinese regime's policies specificially directed at them. Even the Weekly Standard had an interesting article a year or so ago about Chinese oppression of their muslim minorities (I doubt they're quite so excited about articles detailing oppression of muslim separatists now.)
Let's leave the relativism to people who lack principles. The US isn't supposed to support a *lack* of civil liberties anywhere. Innocent civilians should not be shot or left languishing in prisons for years on end, whether he be Uighurs or Chechyens or some other group at war (even terrorist war) against a regime all too willing to shell them. The US can only be better than these guys, but we still have to urge them to fulfill that superior premise.
#2
Yeah, Islamist self-determination means the obliteration of liberty. Let's not attribute freedom of conscience to any "abd" (slave) "allah" (Moslem god).
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.
