An Afghan official accused Pakistan on Monday of backing the re-emergence of the fundamentalist Taliban militia, and of involvement in the murder of two relatives of a provincial governor. A cousin and another relative of Kandahar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai were killed by suspected Taliban militants in the Pakistani border town of Chaman on Sunday, while his brother, Sharif Sherzai, was also injured. "Pakistan's hand is behind this event," Governor Sherzai's spokesman, Khalid Pashtun, told Reuters. "The Taliban carried out the attack, but it happened in areas under the control of Pakistan and we have in the past passed on to them our complaints about their support for the Taliban. "Without the support of Pakistan, the Taliban would not have been able to do it," he said. The surprise here is that someone said it for the record.
The attack, carried out by two people on motorcycles, came a day after the governor's son, Asif, was beaten up in Chaman by several people, including Pakistani army officials, Pashtun said. The motorcycle boys again. Local branch of Hells Angels?
He said the shooting was carried out by members of the ousted Taliban regime which Pakistan backed until the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The Taliban was ousted by U.S.-backed opposition groups in late 2001. Around a thousand Afghans, mostly local government officials, demonstrated outside Pakistan's mission in Kandahar to protest against the killings, witnesses said. Goody.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 09:40 am ||
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sherzai'a people seem more "pro-Karzai" then Karzai. Defiant of both Khan in Herat and of the Pakis.
This will be more important when it comes from Kabul govt, which is more likely to have cleared it with the US first.
All evidence is that US sees Syria as "next on the list" - and of course Nkor needs dealing with (that is starting to come together) so unlikely either Pakland or Saudi will be addressed soon.
Yemeni intelligence arrested 45 volunteers who had returned from Iraq after fighting against U.S. and British forces, touching off a protest at Sanaa's international airport. "Welcome home, hands up!"
Airport sources told United Press International Monday that returning volunteers were arrested by intelligence officers though Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh had ordered Sunday the authorities to facilitate the repatriation of Yemeni nationals, including diplomats, from Iraq. The opposition Nasserite Unionist Party said some of its members who were studying in Iraq and had no links with Muslim extremist groups who dispatched fighters to Baghdad, were among the detainees.
What were they studying? The effects of auto batteries on human genitalia? Where were they studying? At the university of Salman Pak? 'Splain yourself, Mahmoud!
The move touched off protests by some 200 people who arrived at the airport Monday morning to welcome the returning volunteers.
"Hurrah! Y're heroes! We'll bring you cigarettes in jug! We promise!"
Many Yemenis fought alongside Iraqi forces against U.S. and British troops. The Yemeni authorities also banned many of them from traveling to Iraq via Syria, causing a clash at the airport between the volunteers and security forces. Yemen has not officially reacted to the outcome of the war in Iraq, maintaining that the situation following Saddam Hussein's apparent ousting was "unclear" and "confusing." The two countries have traditionally had good relations, but strains appeared recently as Baghdad implicitly criticized Sanaa for a lack of support.
And we can see how many scars that raised...
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 09:28 am ||
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S'okay, guys. Everyone gets a "Get out of jail free!" card.
#2
They should have some space for them, considering 10 terrorists ran away not long ago.....
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
04/14/2003 18:03 Comments ||
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Yemen has not officially reacted to the outcome of the war in Iraq, maintaining that the situation following Saddam Hussein's apparent ousting was "unclear" and "confusing."
They are "unclear" as to their position on "the list".
And it is quite "confusing" to see America taking action to protect herself, when Islamonazis all over the world were assured by Clinton's performance that Americans were "wussies".
Edited slightly for length
Iraq's ambassador to Russia has not been seen in public or spoken to the media for days, despite his love for publicity and penchant for statements of bravado. Abbas Khalaf Kunfuth disappeared from public life as the government he represented collapsed sometime last week. Embassy officials refused to say Monday whether the silence is merely an existential crisis or a prologue to an attempt to apply for political asylum in Russia. "Tomorrow," was the recurring refrain from officials, despite daily requests for interviews over the past week.
The embassy has escaped the wrath of Iraqi exiles, who stormed the London embassy last week, tearing down pictures of Hussein and whacking them with their shoes. Kurds protested outside the embassy in Stockholm, and police with submachine guns now patrol the embassy in Berlin. A Russian driver, cleaning out the dilapidated buses that the embassy uses to drive the children of embassy staff to an Arabic school near the Kremlin, said the children were continuing to attend classes until the May holidays. He didn't know what would happen after that.
An embassy official told Kommersant that he had not heard from his family in Baghdad since the start of the war. "It's all in the hands of Allah," he said.
Iraqi ambassadors around the world are in diplomatic limbo. Some have accepted the end of their government and asked for political asylum, while others are standing firm. The Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Al-Douri, was the first to admit defeat, saying last Wednesday that "the game is over." The ambassador in Armenia soon followed. The ambassador in Egypt, Mohsen Khalil, has applied and received asylum in Yemen. The ambassador to China has remained defiant, saying televised and photographed scenes of celebrating Iraqis were fake. Officials at the Iraqi Embassy in Minsk said Monday that they would comment "tomorrow." No one answered the telephone at the embassy in Kiev.
It all sounds so... desolate. Too bad. How 'bout them Cubs?
Iraq's ambassador to Russia, who was appointed to the post on Sept. 26, 2002, never managed to match the boundless optimism of Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, whose aphorisms of unrealistic defiance before he disappeared last week have become a cult favorite on the Internet. But Kunfuth, a former translator for Hussein, remained vocally defiant of the United States until the end, even joking on April Fools' Day that the Americans had fired a nuclear missile on coalition troops. There are no pictures of Hussein outside the embassy now. Kommersant reported it found pictures plastered outside and a whole gallery inside â Hussein with a glass of wine, Hussein with flowers â on a visit last Friday. Early Monday afternoon, the ambassador's car pulled up in front of the building with a small Iraqi flag fluttering on the hood. A man resembling Kunfuth walked out of the embassy, briefly glanced in the direction of the journalists outside the embassy gates and drove away.
Naji Sabri, Saddam Hussein's high-profile foreign minister, may have disappeared from public view but he is not dead, extreme-right Austrian politician Joerg Haider said on Monday. "He is in safety", the former leader of the extreme-right Freedom Party told private radio Krone Hit, describing Sabri as a "personal friend". "Ve haff musch in kommon..."
"He has good connections the world over. We don't need to worry about him," he said, adding Sabri was not in Carinthia, the southern Austrian region of which he is governor. Haider, who last year made three controversial visits to Iraq and was twice received by Saddam, had offered Sabri asylum in Carinthia earlier this month. "There is always space in my home for a friend," Haider told News magazine. They can sit around in their brown shirts and talk about the good old days.
He said he would offer Iraq's most senior diplomat, who is close to Saddam, a place to stay in the provincial capital Klagenfurt if he were chased out of Iraq by the United States. Haider said last year his visits to Iraq had led to substantial Iraqi investments in Carinthia. Investments = bribes.
At the end of one of his trips he brought back several severely ill Iraqi children™ to be treated in Klagenfurt hospital. The children™ had illnesses that could not be cured in Iraq. You knew they had to work children into the story somewhere.
He forgot the part about how he single-handedly rescued the puppies, kittens and baby ducks.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 10:56 am ||
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So where is Tariq Aziz? Did he become JDAM jelly or did he skidaddle to Syria. I would sure like to get an accounting of that little maggot.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2003 15:59 Comments ||
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Yep, Haider is the one to know..lol. Everybody knows that he was received by one of Saddam's doubles in Baghdad.
EU member states could send troops to Iraq to help maintain order in the war-ravaged country, France's European Affairs Minister Noelle Lenoir said Monday. "Nothing has been decided, but nothing has been excluded with respect to a European Union presence in Iraq that would go beyond humanitarian aid," she said ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Ummm... Lemme think. No.
"What we don't want is for each country to go off on its own, a situation we regretted a short while back," the minister explained. "Each country can make proposals and suggestions, we've done it ourselves. But when it comes to action, the Union must present itself as a political entity, a community of states, all going in the same direction."
Which direction is that? It's not forward, it's not back, it's not left, it's not right. And it's not up...
"Once the country is made secure, we hope that the postwar phase will be under UN control, that Iraq's territorial integrity will be maintained and that it will regain its sovereignty," the minister added.
All correct except for the first one...
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a staunch supporter of the US-led war, said last week he was ready to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq if parliament approved.
Which is entirely different from the Eunochs as a whole sending troops.
Posted by: George ||
04/14/2003 08:42 am ||
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Take a hike, Noelle. We didn't need you before and we sure don't need you now. We sure don't need you given the price you'd want to extract from us in return for your troops.
The Italians, on the other hand, would be welcome.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2003 8:52 Comments ||
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Cheeze. "Now that the US and the UK and Australia have borne the brunt of all the danger, we'd like to rectify the lack of our presence there." Grubbers.
#5
Each country can make proposals and suggestions
"And more proposals and more suggestions, and then we can debate the proposals and suggestions and the next thing you know it's like Kosovo all over again and we haven't actually done anything.
We feel this method is best because it gives us room to find fault with those who actually take action."
Posted by: g wiz ||
04/14/2003 9:46 Comments ||
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"But when it comes to action, the Union must present itself as a political entity, a community of states, all going in the same direction."
IE we dont want to see Italians, Spaniards, Danes, Poles, etc showing up without France being able to wring political concessions out of the US first. How likely that they will follow France???
'France says it will be "pragmatic" about post-war Iraq, setting aside differences with the United States over what exact role the United Nations would play in reconstructing the country.
"Let us be pragmatic, let us start from the reality of the problems," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters during a meeting of European Union foreign ministers.
"It is in the interest of Iraq, the region and the international community," he added.
"It is obvious that the US administration has a role to play," Mr Villepin said.
"It is useless to go back to what divided us... let us turn to the future." '
#8
The more proposal and demands that the French make to try and stick their nose in, the more desperate they look - let's keep this up - it's a lesson to the rest
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2003 10:38 Comments ||
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Non, Non, Non, Non! I have a suggestion for the entire Frog leadership: Fly to the U.S. and visit the Children/Widows/Parents of those that died in a war you REFUSED to help in. If they forgive you, then sure you are welcome to help!
#10
I am very sorry, but I must withdraw my offer. My troops are now committed to defending Syria from imminent aggression by America. Russian and German troops will be playing cards with them there. I want to be sure that if the Americans formally invade Syria, it is an attack on my the European Union. Sorry about the sudden withdrawal, maybe next time.
Posted by: J. Chirac ||
04/14/2003 20:11 Comments ||
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Do the United Nations, European Union, and Axis of Weasels think The Coalition will just hand the reins over to them with a collective "Duuhhhâ¦" Nah.
Do they wish to see all our efforts EUthanized and UNdone to an AWful degree?
#13
Keep encouraging the dialogue and proposals. It is a source of innocent merriment.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2003 17:53 Comments ||
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The Ivory Coast problem is bubbling up again, there's a minor war going on between the Central African Republic and Burkina Faso, and the Congo is beginning to bubble over again. All these people speak French. I'm sure Mssr. Chiraq's troops would be better utilized if they attended to the problems associated with these FORMER French Colonies, than muddling around in Iraq. Thanks, but no thanks.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2003 22:48 Comments ||
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We might need some of those frenchies blowin thier whistles in Syria soon enough.Hey frogs you can have all the oil wells in Syria ya want,just go in there and take em.
NNI: President Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) and parliamentary leader Ch.Shujat Husain has stressed all the political parties in the country to join hands for protecting the sovereignty of Pakistan in the wake of fast changing global scenario after war on Iraq. "Really. It coulda been us..."
Addressing the stone laying ceremony of Native University at Kharak Azad Kashmir, he said in view of the global events the Kashmir issue has to be considered seriously. Speaking on the occasion Shujaat emphasized the need that PML (QA), Jamaat Islami, PPP, JUI and all other parties should unite themselves on Kashmir issue so that this issue could be resolved. He said the time has come that no one should play his own politics but come out of groupism. Referring to the US aggression on Iraq, the PML stalwart said "I do not accept USA as a super power as Allah almighty is the only super power of the world". Then you won't mind if we pave your country, right?
He said the world is dividing into two blocks. France, Germany, China and Muslim countries are gathering in a block and the time is nearer when America will disintegrate. "We're me-e-e-e-l-l-l-l-t-t-t-t-i-i-i-i-n-n-n-n-g-g-g
Ch. Shujat Hussain said the attack of US and its allies on Iraq did not reflect that the people of USA and Britain are against the Muslims. Had it been so there would not have been protests of 1.5 millions people in support of Iraq. The USA and British administration is using such tactics has jolted the civilized world ... and Pakistan, too...
but sooner they will be exposed. The PML leader said his party has been determined in difficult time to face big crisis but it did not accept any pressure whereas there have been talks that we should ask for facilities and get our loans written off. We get rid of the country from slaved mentality. He said he had already stated that USA and its allies will face the music. They had a plan to conquer Iraq in two days but on the expiry of 22 days they are still wondering in the desert. Inshallah the victory will be of the truth, he asserted. They have a desert in downtown Baghdad?
Ch. Shujat Hussain said some politicians call General Pervez Musharraf as a dictator whereas in the past the military rulers have been in the power for ten years saying, "if General Pervez Musharraf wanted to do so then who could have stopped him. General Musharraf transferred power to the elected representatives on his own and now it is our responsibility to strengthen routs of democracy". He said, "if we did not learn a lesson from the past then the end will be identical as of the past. Our party has ensured cooperation to the MMA and other parties on the issue of LFO [Legal Framework Order]. I hope there will be progress in the dialogue but I will say there are some people who are dictated from abroad." "It's them insidious furrin' conspiracies, Fatimah. Deep-laid plots agin' you 'n' me 'n' all our kin..."
Ch.Shujat Hussain has said that an agricultural revolution can lead the country on the path of development. He said the past government tried to bring an industrial revolution in the country the results of which are before us. He said he had asked Punjab Chief Minister Ch. Pervez Elahi that to give special attention to the agricultural sector and after it to the Education, health and other sectors.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/14/2003 08:39 pm ||
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Well, Mr. Hussain, you can rant and rave, but here is one of the main reasons your country is such a disfunctional shithole. Look at the different country's literacy rates, courtesy of the 2002 CIA World Factbook:
LITERACY: definition: age 15 and over can read and write
PAKISTAN
total population: 42.7%
male: 55.3%
female: 29% (1998)
IRAQ
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 58%
male: 70.7%
female: 45% (1995 est.)
TURKEY
total population: 85%
male: 94%
female: 77% (2000)
ISRAEL
total population: 95%
male: 97%
female: 93% (1992 est.)
USA
male: 97%
female: 97% (1979 est.)
total population: 97%
Less rantin' and more readin'---like me pap used to say...........
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2003 20:58 Comments ||
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Alright Baghdad Bob, come on out, we know it's you in there.
Posted by: g wiz ||
04/14/2003 21:18 Comments ||
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"...stone laying ceremony...
Was that a headstone?
#4
*holds up card* 7.4 Link was not permanent, and so points were deducted due to inablity to verify if promising statements (responsibility to strengthen routs of democracy) were truly the work of the speaker and not due to incompetent translation or editing.
#5
Paul, what does your book say about India? (out of which Pak sprung) The craphole you're referring to is really the whole subcontinent. There is less respect for human life (depending upon the caste) in India than Pak. Not exonerating Pak. If the state there is sponsoring terrorism, fry 'em.
But both countries are trying to emerge from centuries of cultural horror that their respective religions have caused. (when in India in '92, I had a bishop tell me that to this day, NO major public works project happens without a human sacrifice, a paper in Bombay said there were 700 unclaimed bodies in the railyards the last WEEK [probably suicides - next atavar or whatever] and both countries kill missionaries and converts regularly.
Like Paul Harvey says, "It's not one world".
I have a bit more grace for Pak than say Syria or Iran. They've both had significantly more civilization, we should expect better from them.
Posted by: Scott ||
04/14/2003 21:49 Comments ||
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This rant, plus several others I've read lately, prove unequvocally that there's a major problem in the Middle East. These people live in Cloud Cuckoo land. They really don't have a clue what the United States is about, what's going on in this nation, and how it all fits within our kind of government. They're making some pretty stupid decisions because they're being fed a bunch of propaganda from the Arab press, the "Arab street", and most of all, from the Muslim "leadership". That leaves 'em kinda hanging out to dry when they run across the REAL US.
The other side of the same problem is the lies they're told about their 'superiority'. After a few dozen years of that, they begin to believe it, regardless of the lack of any real success in anything other than killing one another.
It's gonna take a looooooonnnnnngggg time to get this bunch back to reality, I'm afraid.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2003 21:50 Comments ||
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Scott---
INDIA
total population: 52%
male: 65.5%
female: 37.7% (1995 est.)
There is web access to the CIA world factbook. Here is the link:
Old Patriot---India is not much better, as far as literacy goes. All of these countries in the area have a great mass of people that get very emotional but have no tempering of the emotions with judgement. There is just no or little connection. Then you have the religious fanatics that feed the fire with gas. Somehow one must start with good schooling, teaching rational and critical thinking. And who is gonna start that off in Iraq, Pakland, Syria? This will be the biggest nut to crack in straightening out the middle east. Maybe an analogy of the middle ages with the church and the scientists and the plagues. In the middle ages, the church held much of the power. But the plagues came and the church was helpless, so the heritic scientists and their art were allowed to do their thing. Maybe the middle east needs to really bottom out with ranting and jihad and Islamists before they can climb back up again. I sure do not see the moderate Muslims standing up and showing the way, most of the time.....
A special Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Pakistan on Monday handed down the death sentence on the two suspects of last year's suicide bomb attack on the US Consulate in Karachi which killed 12 Pakistanis and injured 50 others. The chief of the little-known group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen-ul Aalami, Muhammad Imran, and its deputy chief, Muhammad Hanif, were sentenced to death while two other activists, Shariq Arsalan Farooqui and Hafiz Zubair, were sentenced to life in jail. The court found the men guilty of masterminding the bombing which was believed to have been meant for the US staff. Inasmuch as Pak atrocities can be termed "masterminded", anyway...
However, no member of the staff was injured in the attack. The person in-charge of the group's financial affairs, Muhammad Asghar, was acquitted as the prosecutors failed to prove the charges against him. The judge found the condemned guilty of murder, conspiracy, terrorism and other charges. The vehicle used in the attack failed to penetrate the consulate's walls and instead hit passersby and security officials outside the consulate building. The ATC Judge Maqbool Rizvi heard the case inside Karachi's central prison and also handed down the judgment there for security reasons. The court has given a week's time to the accused to appeal against their sentences. The defense lawyers have indicated they will challenge them.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/14/2003 11:14 am ||
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Difference between Pakistan and America,they'll get that sentance in the next couple days.
The United States Middle East policy is aimed at expansion of Israel and destruction of the military capability of Muslim countries in the region, said a Pakistani expert. Talking to IRNA, a Pakistan Peoples Party senior member, Izhar Amrohvi, said that the US has been a hostage to the powerful Jewish lobby and the same is reflected in its policy towards Muslim states and other weaker nations. That's terrible. Meryl! Stop it this instant! Judith! Knock it off!
"Under the Israel-centric policy, America was focusing on how to protect and strengthen the Zionist regime in the Middle East," he said, citing the current aggression on Iraq as an obvious example of this policy. Oh, obviously. It's all about Je-e-e-e-ws!
In each election, he pointed out, the powerful Jewish lobby in America plays a crucial role and influences pro-Israel presidential candidates. He was firmly of the view that the unilateral and unjust military aggression against Iraq would have a far-reaching impact on regional as well as global politics. He's got that part right, anyway. Kinda like the Gordian knot that Rabbi Alexander dealt with...
In the second stage, Amrohvi, who is a parliamentary party secretary of the PPP in the lower house of parliament, said that some other Islamic countries like Syria could become the US' and its allies' next targets, notwithstanding the open and clear opposition of the world community. Well, of Pak "experts" anyway. I think even in the Arab world there aren't many who care a big vent of methane about Syria...
He pointed to the fact that Washington has of late been already hurling threats and accusing Syria of possessing chemical and biological weapons. He blasted the US for its double-standard polices, and dubbed it the "top international terrorist, putting at stake world peace to pursue its own and Israel's interests." Like killing terrorists. Pak "experts" hate it when that happens...
To a question, he maintained that the only possible way of countering any challenge to Israel's expansionist designs would be for Islamic nations to forge unity in their ranks, setting aside petty differences. Needless to say, he said, one by one all Muslim nations with military capability and sound economic bases would fall prey to America's immoral and unjust policies if they fail to forge unity. "Yes! Rather than reform our corrupt and stagnant societies, we should all band together to oppose the Americans and Brits and the Israelis, with their insidious prosperity, their hypocritical freedom from being beaten to death in the streets by fundos, with their nonsensical individual rights..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/14/2003 10:45 am ||
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Fred, it seems you really do have a wild hair about Pakistan. You might very well be the voice in the wilderness. While everybody else took the deke in the west ME...
How do you view Musharrif?
Posted by: Scott ||
04/14/2003 13:45 Comments ||
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Everytime I see the J-e-e-e-w-w-s comment it reminds me of Kinky Friedman (Jewish himself) on Imus's show saying that Jews was a multisyllabic word in Texas - lol
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2003 17:58 Comments ||
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Fred is not the only voice in the wilderness on Pakistan. We had to make a deal with the devil to get to Afghanistan and the way there was through Pakistan. All the fundos and nutcases are doing their best to deep six all we have accomplished in Afghanistan. Pakistan is a big jar of picric acid on top of a shelf, waiting to fall. Musharrif is trying to hold a bale of crazies together and placate the US at the same time. Palistan's fundos keep the Kashmere pot boiling, the military has nukes that they rattle from time to time, they have madrasses that promote more of this rabid dog foamer behavior. I would say that they are a big problem for us and for any progress in making ME better. Otherwise things in Karachi are great.........
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2003 18:09 Comments ||
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Shall I wax lyrical about Our Good Friend Perv? He's a man with feet of purest clay, always guaranteed to disappoint. He rounds up the crazed killers and we cheer. We're not supposed to notice that they're not jugged, they're under "house arrest." Three months later they're free to go. It's all gesture, with no follow-through. He's determined to keep the jihad going in Kashmir, and I'm convinced he's also decided to go for "strategic depth" in Afghanistan, using the same tactics.
Perv knows who and where the heads of Lashkar and Jaish are - the former runs Jamaat ad-Dawa and he's in the papers regularly. The latter the Indos have been trying to have extradited. He was Omar Saeed Sheikh's roommate in jug in India, and both were freed when an Indian airliner was hijacked to Kandahar. He's walking the streets. The head of Sipah e-Sahaba's in the legislature. So are Qazi, Fazl, and Noorani, the heads of the three largest eye-rolling, spittle-spewing fundo organizations.
Most everything on Pakistan that's been collected here for the past year and a half has been from the Pak press - Dawn, NNI, Friday Times, Pak News, Jang/Nation and a few others. It's not Indian propaganda. The Pak press paints a picture of a nation like no other, a nation of loons, led by a tin-hat who's a good illustration of the difference between crafty and canny. They make Yemen look civilized fergawdsake!
My sympathy goes out to those Paks who aren't a part of it - but I get the impression that's about a dozen people.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2003 19:20 Comments ||
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putting at stake world peace to pursue its own and Israel's interests."
Oh my God!
America is putting America first? America is putting her only true ally in the ME first? Why is she not bowing to Islamonazi terror tactics like France?
This will not stand! The world must Islamicized!
forge unity in their ranks, setting aside petty differences
He's not serious is he?
These freakazoids can't quit killing each other for 20 effin' minutes, let alone band together to oppose America. Their lives orbit around tribalistic nonsense.
The most they can crank out is a few nutjobs with no sense of self-preservation who will blow themselves up in a deluded belief of instant access to the Muslim Mustang Ranch in the sky.
Gimme a break...
#7
I only seek the truth. Well, you know, the stuff I want to hear.
All my Pak experiences are just personal relates, -emigrees. When I meet a muslim I always ask my acid test question, -"Do you believe suicide bombers go to heaven?" (then depending upon their answer - I kill them) I worked with two about 6 mos ago ans asked them.
Both these guys didn't hesitate, "no! They go Hell!" Which tells me (probably nothing) they're likely nominal muslims. But they said their view is the general one throughout Pak. They also said they REALLY like Pervez (hey, he approved their exit visas!)and that they believed he would stand up with the US against fundis even in Paki.
They also said they hate and mistrust India and like Jesus. (just LIKE, oh well, it's a start)
I know it's dangerous to make a general out of a specific, but it does shed a little light.
Musharrif is walking a high wire like a Wallenda. So far, I give him a break. But of course, I've been wrong before...
Posted by: Scott ||
04/14/2003 20:57 Comments ||
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The British military has moved to a policy of zero tolerance on looting in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, according to a senior British military spokesman on Monday. Group Captain Al Lockwood told Reuters at Central Command headquarters in Qatar that looting and violence had slowly been reduced in the city in the last few days. "The tolerance level that we had has gone. We're very much looking to maintain law and order," Lockwood said, adding that British forces had started joint patrols with local police in Iraq's second biggest city. "The general looting that followed in subsequent days will now no longer be tolerated. Law and order will be maintained," he added.
Capt. Abdul Amir Qasim, a 32-year police force veteran had stayed away from work as Basra was being overrun by looters, ''We wanted to protect the city from the pillaging but I was afraid,'' he said. ''By the grace of God, I am now ready to go back to work.''
Restoring a municipal police force is a key first step in helping Basra regain its footing, said Wasfie al-Kanani, an ex-army officer who has emerged as one of the main local figures advising British officers. ''I don't care who was here from before or what he did. If he was not good, the others will judge him later,'' he said. ''For now, we need to show people that order is back. I saw my city being torn apart. People were demolishing the city for nothing. My priority is to help bring the city back to normal and restore order. It will take time, but we have that now.''
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/14/2003 08:15 pm ||
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Many grains of salt unto thee:
An Iranian news agency close to top conservative military figures attributed the fall of Baghdad to a secret tripartite agreement between Saddam Hussain, Russia and the U.S. I first saw this report in the Tehran Times.
According to the Baztab agency, 13 days after the start of the war, Saddam and Russian intelligence allegedly pledged to hand over Baghdad with minimal resistance to allied forces provided they spared the lives of Saddam and a hundred of his close relatives. The U.S., for its part, promised to safely send Saddam and his entourage to a third country.
Y'mean, what the Arabs been offering to set up before the war started?
Baztab added that Mohammed Saeed Al Sahaf, Iraqi Information Minister, was instructed to stay in Baghdad until the very last moments to lend the impression that everything in Saddam's camp was under control. The agency also claimed that Russia gained $5 billion to orchestrate this agreement. Iran's state TV, which is under the supervision of the supreme leader, also attributed the fall of Baghdad to a secret deal between coalition forces and the deposed Iraqi president. It aired the fall of Baghdad without showing scenes of Iraqis dancing in the streets. Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said there are serious questions surrounding Saddam's demise. Seems like it's obviously in the interests of Iran for people to believe this, and much reason to doubt it. But is there any plausibility to it?
Deep-laid, insidious plots, with nothing but transitory benefit to our side, where Sammy performs out of character, and the Russers trade their good relations with the U.S. for $5 billion worth of pottage. Yeah. Makes sense to me, in an Islamic kind of way.
#1
Iran got it wrong. This was actually a conpiracy to make Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf the next "Yakov Smirnoff." Follow the money - it'll take you where you want to go . . . Saeed's shot at the Center Square.
#2
Hmmm considering how much of a blow to the collective Arab street ego about their ability to fight and resist Evil America this war was. This is something that is to be expected. It makes it more palatable. "Iraq didn't really Lose he negotiated a way out, otherwise the American's would have never been able to take baghdad or Iraq."
#3
The Hindu News seems to have bought it. This from The Corner on NRO: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/01131809.htm
Actually, I have to agree it's just another way to hide from the fact that Iraq was a hollow strong man, and once actual battle began, the entire government collapsed in a house of cards (those 55 "most wanted" variety).
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2003 16:53 Comments ||
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They're all wrong. Find Elvis and you'll find Sammy.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
04/14/2003 16:53 Comments ||
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The questionable Debka also addresses the idea that Bagdhad was betrayed but leaves open the possiblility that it occurred without Sammy's consent.
Bottom line is that the faster than anticipated victory over what was supposed to be one of the best Arab/Muslim military forces in the world shows up the readers of several of the publications now trafficking in conspiracy theories. There is probably a kernel of truth to these stories in that the US did indeed negotiate the capitulation of several major Iraqi units. However, the Medes and the Persians (Tehran Times), as well as the Russians and to a lesser extent the Israelis (Debka) and Hindus (The Hindu) were shown up by the US military performance as compared to their own vs. similar enemies. It's not surprising that these publications would follow the Arab tradition of constructing elaborate conspiracy theories to avoid inconvenient facts.
#6
Wait, how do the alien bodies from Roswell fit into this? Oh, I know, they mysteriously disappeared from the museum in Baghdad.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/14/2003 17:12 Comments ||
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It was an Area 51 thing...black helecopters, chemtrails, ingots of gold bullion, dogs and cats living together.....etc etc. Or its a typical islamist delusion thing........wanna buy the Brooklyn Bridge for cheap?....eh?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2003 17:47 Comments ||
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By the way, how can you have a halfway decent Mideast conspiracy theory that doesn't involve the CIA and, above all, the Mossad? Maybe Sammy's living in Tel Aviv.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/14/2003 18:46 Comments ||
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An Iraqi nuclear scientist has surrendered to authorities in a Middle Eastern country and is being interviewed by American officials, a US defence official has revealed. Jafar Jafar is believed to know key people and locations of facilities connected to Iraq's nuclear weapons programme, the official said. He declined to specify what country was holding him.
His personal zoo has lions, cheetahs and a bear. Michael Jackson?
His storehouse has $1 million in fine wines, liquor and heroin. Darryl Strawberry?
His house has Cuban cigars, cases of champagne and downloaded pictures of prostitutes. Bill Clinton?
While most Iraqis suffered under the U.N. sanctions that drove their country into poverty, Saddam Hussein's eldest son Odai lived a life of fast cars, expensive liquor and easy women, a tour through his bombed house showed Monday. Sigh, fast cars, expensive liquor and easy women. OK, so he also had a few bad habits.
The walls of a gym were plastered with photographs of women downloaded from the Internet â "the biggest collection of naked women I'd ever seen," said Army Capt. Ed Ballanco, of Montville, N.J. "It looked like something at the Playboy Mansion." Among the photos were those of Jenna and Barbara Bush, President Bush's 21-year-old daughters, "dressed up very nice in evening clothes," Ballanco said, adding that soldiers took them "to protect the president." Uh, huh. I'm sure they are being very protective of those pictures
Odai Hussein's compound is in a back corner of the Presidential Palace compound, a small city that boasts six-lane avenues, traffic lights and a hospital. U.S. soldiers who now occupy the grounds say they believe Odai's portion included a house, a warehouse, a gym, a gaudy house for women and a zoo. OK, so who did these guys have to shoot in order to occupy this little love nest? This scene needs to go into that GW2 movie.
Scattered among the debris from a bomb that tore through Odai's house and exploded in a bunker below lay stationery with Odai's name in gold lettering, photographs of Odai and dozens of copies of Odai's doctoral dissertation, "The World After the Cold War." The house also indicated Odai's sybaritic side, something Iraqi dissenters have told of for decades: a hunger for alcohol, drugs and lots and lots of women. There were bottles of Cuervo 1800 tequila, Danska vodka and Delamain cognac, as well as Chimay, Corona and Miller Genuine Draft beers. Which I'm sure the troops seized for "testing".
There were bags and boxes of pills and medicines everywhere â ginseng sexual fortifiers, heartburn medication and Prozac â and an Accu-Rite HIV Antibodies Screening Test Kit in Odai's office. Humm, anyone look in the bunker for Elvis?
The house was filled with boxes from handguns and piles of magazines, including "Guns and Ammo" and "Guns," as well as Spanish car magazines and catalogs of JetSkis. Soldiers said they found receipts for sports cars signed by Odai. The underground parking garage and indoor swimming pool were destroyed by bombing that gutted the center of the house.
In the next-door storehouse, were roomfuls of alcohol, tobacco and firearms. Ballanco estimated the alcohol's worth at $1 million. There were "Dom Perignon, French wines â all appellation controlee, some 30-40 years old â a lot of very good brandy, a lot of good whiskey," Ballanco said. "There were boxes of Cuban cigars that said `Odai Saddam Hussein' on them, hundreds of them. My guys smoked them." Life is good, very good.
He said there were also six bags of heroin. He didn't know how much they held. "There are UNICEF boxes in there with kids' school supplies meant for the children of Iraq, yet these jerks took it," said Maj. Kent Rideout, 39, of San Antonio, Texas.
Odai's obsession with sex was evident everywhere. The house was adorned with paintings of naked women, as well as bundles of Internet printouts of what appeared to be prostitutes, complete with handwritten ratings of each. Publish these names as a public health alert.
One black book listed hundreds of women's names and phone numbers. Odai's bed was painted in gold trim, and his bathroom featured a sink and tub fitted with fixtures in a swan motif.
One house apparently wasn't big enough for Odai's women. To one side, a gaudy house filled with bedrooms that is now a camp for U.S. soldiers appeared to once have housed women. It had statuettes of couples in foreplay, and couches everywhere with fluffy pillows. And it boasted another swimming pool, with a bar. "The pink and the cheesiness suggest it was a concubines' house," Ballanco said. Get your shots.
Behind the house was a pen holding two cheetahs, five lion cubs and a young bear. Three German shepherds who guarded the compound have been adopted by soldiers, who feed them military rations. For the wilder animals, soldiers have been throwing in sheep from a nearby pen, said Spc. Pete Adams, of Lexington, Va.
A feeding on Sunday, he said, "looked like something from the National Geographic Channel." PETA will have a fit.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 02:25 pm ||
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Other than a worry of making the animals ill, they could throw in Ba'athists.
#3
In fake news today, the finding of Uday's ridiculous Heffneresque has had the effect of decimating the younger ranks of various protest organizations across the world. "Holy shit!" said Fred Campallata, 19, of Oxnard, Ca. "I thought that shit was only in movies. Now, while I gotta agree I'm no, like, stud or nuthin', shit, I ain't ugly like that [Uday] guy. He gets all the pussy he wants, and the only real sex you can get at a fuckin' rally is a hand job from some middle-age chick who still thinks it's 1967, doesn't shave anything, and smells like incense and fuckin' patchouli oil. Screw this shit. I'm gonna be fuckin' dictator!"
#6
The walls of a gym were plastered with photographs of women downloaded from the Internet â "the biggest collection of naked women I'd ever seen," said Army Capt. Ed Ballanco, of Montville, N.J.
I'm kind of wondering if Cindy Margolis "contributed" to that collection.... ;)
#9
So, lets see...This is a guy who has more money and resources available than the annual budfget some states have here. He spends it on a lifestyle that sounds like it was out of the late 50's here? That is paradise to one of the most powerful leaders of the Arab world? Pathetic!
U.S.: Mobile labs found in Iraq EFL. Iâll let you folks do the commentary.
KARBALA, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. troops have found 11 mobile laboratories buried south of Baghdad that are capable of biological and chemical uses, a U.S. general said Monday. There were no chemical or biological weapons with the containerized labs, which measure 20 feet square. But soldiers recovered "about 1,000 pounds" of documents from inside the labs, and the United States will examine those papers further, said Brig. Gen. Benjamin Freakley of the Army's 101st Airborne Division.
"Initial reports indicate that this is clearly a case of denial and deception on the part of the Iraqi government," Freakley told CNN's Ryan Chilcote. "These chemical labs are present, and now we just have to determine what in fact they were really being used for." Troops found the mobile laboratories near a weapons plant outside Karbala, about 50 miles south of Baghdad. Though buried, they appeared to contain about $1 million worth of equipment and were "clearly marked so they could be found again," Freakley said.
In February, U.N. weapons inspectors "found nothing untoward" at an ammunition filling plant close to where the troops have found the mobile labs, a U.N. inspection team spokesman said Monday. Inspectors visited the site -- referred to as the Karbala Ammunition Filling Plant -- on February 23. "There was no hint by anybody, no special tip that led us there," one U.N. official said. No banned weapons or related materials were found there.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in February told the United Nations Security Council that U.S. intelligence indicated Iraq had production facilities for biological weapons "on wheels and on rails," and on at least 18 flatbed trucks. He insisted the labs existed and called them "most worrisome."
"The trucks and train cars are easily moved and are designed to evade detection by inspectors," Powell said. "In a matter of months, they can produce a quantity of biological poison equal to the entire amount that Iraq claimed to have produced in the years prior to the Gulf War."
Powell said the evidence included firsthand accounts from four sources -- among them, an Iraqi chemical engineer who supervised one of the facilities and an Iraqi civil engineer "in a position to know the details of the program."
U.N. weapons inspection chief Hans Blix said his inspectors never found evidence of such labs.
On March 7, Blix told the U.N. Security Council, "Several inspections have taken place at declared and undeclared sites in relation to mobile production facilities. Food-testing mobile laboratories and mobile workshops have been seen, as well as large containers with seed-processing equipment. No evidence of proscribed activities have so far been found."
These labs and the documentation are important finds. They show the intent. And hopefully we can pick up the trail of where they sent the things they have made. The constant delays in action since November of last year have given the Iraqis time to partition, and hide or ship the weapons they made - possibly in Syria, but hopefully not with terrorists.
Bio weapons are the hardest to deploy effectively, but the easiest to transport and store once they have been developed, especially in the case of Anthrax.
Chemical ones, unless they are modern binary munitions like those of the US and Soviet era, are difficult to store for long periods.
#3
Does that mean that the reports of the Cyanide, and and Mustard Gas in the Euphrates where as bogus as the rest turned out to be? I always wondered why that got put to bed so quickly.
And what about the underground compound that had a bunch of "nuculer" "stuff" in it? Crap too?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/14/2003 15:17 Comments ||
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Too true, OldSpook. The Weasels gave Iraq a lot of time, and there are still thousands of sites to check, and, apparently, a 1,000 pounds of interesting documents. Doing a thorough search necessarily will take MUCH longer than it took to get from Kuwait to Tikrit.
#5
My guess is we have already found quite a bit of stuff, but we arent releasing it for general knowledge for one very good reason.
Leverage.
Imagine sitting in the french ambassadors office, with a big portfolio of pictures taken from a recovered bioweapons site in Iraq. Imagine having actual physical receipts,logs and ephemera from the Iraqis to the French( you dont really think Rhone-Polenc only makes insecticide, do you?).
Then imagine telling the french ambassador to get his military HAZMAT team together and get in to clean it up, and oh, by-the-way "mr. ambassador", if we find out you're selling any of this stuff to anyone else, this portfolio hits the front pages of the newspapers tommorow morning. Imagine asking in the most condescending way possible for the french to tell us everything they know about any possible other sites int Iraq. Of course before you start, you should warn the french ambassador that this is not the only site we have found, and our attitude towards the french nation is likely to be reflected in how "honest and forthright" the french ambasssador is.
Get my drift, Mr. Villepan?
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
04/14/2003 15:44 Comments ||
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Nope. They've found full warheads with traces of nerve agent around 'round inserts' -probably fill ports. They've found others with blister agents. Even MSNBC ran their own tests on a bombed out bunker and got positives. But then the stories are gobbled up.
We're covering up. Something we're not very good at. And I don't know why. Possibly giving cover for the Axis, now that it's out that they were up to their neck in embargoed arms to Saddam. Behind the scenes, Powell might be extracting something we consider more valuable (like a free pass when we do Syria)
I was hoping some 'imbedded blogger' would post some bombshell, here, for instance. It'll come out.
Posted by: Scott ||
04/14/2003 15:48 Comments ||
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Humm..
so.. which governments haven't demanded any evidence of WMD?
BAGHDAD, 13 April 2003 â Iraqi Muslims came to the aid of Baghdadâs tiny Jewish community yesterday, chasing out looters trying to sack its cultural center in the heart of the capital. OK, my surprise meter works. Not that Iraqi Muslims helped their Jewish neighbors, but that they even have any Jewish neighbors.
âAt 3:00 a.m., I saw two men, one with a beard, on the roof of the Jewish community house and I cried out to my friend, âHossam, bring the Kalashnikovs!â said Hassam Kassam, 21. This phrase also works on door-to-door salesmen.
Neither Hassan nor Hossam, who is the guard at the center, was armed at the time but the threat worked in scaring off the intruders. Two hours later, the looters returned again and Hassan Kassem used the trick once more. The center is located in a freshly painted white house on a lane off Rashid Street in Baghdadâs old town. Two days ago, amid rampant looting in the capital, neighbors removed the sign reading âSpecial Committee for the Religious Affairs of Ezra Menahem Danielâ to make the premises less conspicuous. On Friday at about 10:30 a.m., two men seized an opportunity created by the guardâs mid-morning break to try to force open the door in a first attempt to burgle the center. âWe came over right away and asked them what they wanted,â said Abdallah Nurredin, 50. They tried to explain that they wanted to talk to the guard, Nurredin said, âbut when they saw the look we were giving them, they left without saying another wordâ. Yesterday, Hossam the guard left to look for a real gun in case the persistent thieves returned.
âThe Jews have always lived here, in this house, and it is only normal that we should protect them,â said Ibrahim Mohamad, 36, who works in a small undergarments factory near the center of town. Thank you, Ibrahim.
Although the majority of Jews fled the country in the early 1950s, many of their Muslim tenants come each week to pay their rent to an old woman at the center, Mohamad said. He recalled that in October 1998, a Palestinian killed two Jews and two Muslims in an attack on the community center. âWe raced help to the victims, regardless of whether they were Jewish or Muslimâ. Note that it was a Palestinian. Couldn't stand the fact that Jews and Muslims were getting along.
In the Batauin district near the Saddun commercial artery, the entrance of a large synagogue is blocked by an immense iron portal. The way onto the street is obstructed by trees and chairs. A self-defense militia formed Friday to fight back against bandits. âWe are defending the synagogue like all houses on the street and we will not let anyone touch it,â said Edward Benham, a 19-year-old computer science student. The young Christian said Jews normally came each Saturday but because of the lingering security problem, no one came today.
Iraqâs Jewish community settled in Mesopotamia in the seventh century BC and numbered more than 100,000 before the creation of Israel in 1948. Currently, about 50 Jews live in Iraq.Let's keep the Islamic "volunteers" away, please. They'd like to make that number even lower.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 01:36 pm ||
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"By the Rivers of Babylon, where we sat down..."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2003 14:53 Comments ||
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Does Ibrahim work in a factory that makes small undergarments, or is it a small factory that makes assorted sizes of undergarments? Such sloppy reporting.
An Albanian army unit was to leave on Tuesday for the Gulf region to contribute to maintaining peace and protecting public buildings in Iraq alongside American soldiers, Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano said. "We are obliged and honoured to remain with the coalition to contribute to reconstruction of peace and democracy in that region," Nano said Monday at a ceremony in Tirana. Thank you
Seventy soldiers of an Albanian commando unit will join the 5th corps of the US army, currently deployed in Iraq. "Our soldiers will contribute to maintaining the peace," General Pellumb Qazimi, chief of staff of the Albanian army said, adding that the unit would also be charged with protecting important public premises in Iraq. Good, we need cops now.
President Alfred Moisiu said Tirana was "convinced that Iraq, with the US engagement, supported by the United Nations and the international community, will take the road towards development and progress after the war." Albania was among the first eastern European countries to support US military intervention in Iraq, opening its air space and ports for the coalition.
Its soldiers have so far taken part in the international peace missions in Afganistan and Bosnia. Welcome aboard
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 12:50 pm ||
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Beautiful - an international peacekeeping force begins to take shape and there's not a powder-blue helmet in sight. Nice shot across the bow of the UN here.
Posted by: B. ||
04/14/2003 13:34 Comments ||
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I couldn't find an e-mail address for the Albanian Embassy in Washington, so I sent an e-mail to the U.S. Embassy in Tirana (wm_tirana@pd.state.gov) and asked that they pass on my thanks and the thanks of other Americans for this.
Albania is now on my list of European countries to visit the next time I travel east, rather than the Axis of Weasels, as I used to do.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2003 18:42 Comments ||
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Can't we deploy these guys directly to France? 70 Albanians vs. 65 million French is about right.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/14/2003 18:49 Comments ||
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R. Lee Ermey for US Ambassador to France.
With the other Marines already present at the embassy, that might be enough to force their surrender.
Top-secret Iraqi intelligence documents found in Baghdad show that Russia funneled spy secrets to Saddam Hussein and that Moscow was still training Iraqi spies last fall, in violation of U.N. sanctions, reports say. Don't bother checking the batteries on your suprise meter.
The captured documents also show that the Kremlin gave Saddam lists of assassins who could do "hits" in the West and that Iraq and Russia signed deals to share intelligence and help get "visas" so agents could go to Western countries, the London Telegraph reported. The Arabic documents -- the first in a likely flood -- show cooperation between Russia and Iraq that's far more extensive and recent than previously reported. There were even copies of Christmas cards exchanged by Iraqi and Russian intelligence chiefs, the report adds. Oh, how nice! Christmas Cards! I didn't know the Mukhabarat celebrated Christmas.
They also raise new questions about Russia's motives when it formed an axis of the unwilling with France and Germany to block U.S.-British efforts to have the U.N. Security Council to get tough with Saddam. New questions? Same old questions I've always had. How 'bout you?
The San Francisco Chronicle reported documents found in personnel files of Iraqi intelligence agents show they got spy training as recently as last September from the "Special Training Center" in Moscow, complete with diplomas. One agent's file -- found at an annex to Iraq's Mukhabarat spy agency -- showed he completed "acoustic surveillance" training last Sept. 15, and got a diploma with Russia's double-eagle insignia, the report said. Last September 15th, didn't President Bush go to the U.N. on the 12th?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/14/2003 12:23 pm ||
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Hmmm... I just flashed a mental image of putin being questioned about this and slamming he shoe on a desk a la Kruschev.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and the ships in their battle groups will leave the Persian Gulf this week and return to their home ports, a U.S. defense official said Monday. The departure of the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Constellation reflects a winding down of the air campaign. The Kitty Hawk will return to its base at Yokosuka, Japan, and the Constellation will return to San Diego, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Well done, sailors!
With respect to movements of aircraft carriers, Vice Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of all naval forces participating in the Iraq war - including two carriers in the eastern Mediterranean - had said in an interview Saturday that he hoped the Kitty Hawk and Constellation could leave soon, although he said no orders had been received.
The Kitty Hawk is scheduled to leave first, around the middle of this week, followed shortly by the Constellation, the defense official said. That will leave only one carrier in the Gulf - the USS Nimitz, which just arrived to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln is headed back to its homeport of Everett, Wash. Should be plenty what with our new air bases in southern Iraq.
Keating said Saturday that either the USS Theodore Roosevelt or the USS Harry S. Truman battle groups - both in the eastern Mediterranean for air missions over northern Iraq - may be sent home soon. Officials said Monday it was not clear whether any decisions had been reached on those carriers.
After the Kitty Hawk deployed to the Gulf in February, its duties in the Pacific were taken up by the USS Carl Vinson, which remains in the Japan area and may stay even after the Kitty Hawk gets back if the carrier requires significant amounts of maintenance, officials said. "Hi Kim, my name is Carl, and I'd like you to meet Kitty. I guess we're neighbors!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2003 11:19 am ||
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Both the Kitty Hawk and the Constellation are older carriers, still oil fueled, and with less room for aircrews as the newer "Nimitz" class, which includes the Truman, Lincoln, Roosevelt,and Carl Vinson. While we will only have three carrier groups in the Middle East, they will be three of the newest and best. The US Fleet in the area will still pack quite a whallop, if they need to.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2003 11:39 Comments ||
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I was at the Vidalia Onion Festival Air Show this last weekend where the Blue Angels performed. On static display were F-14 Tomcats from the Abraham Lincoln, who had flown in the previous Thursday about 500 feet over my car as I drove back. Damn, I never felt so proud to be an American, nor felt so good about paying my taxes this year.
Too bad the pilots weren't around to receive my thanks.
The leader of a main opposition group in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), in a statement on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the infamous "Anfal" liquidations, called here Sunday for the trial of the toppled Baghdad regime's leaders as "war criminals." I think we had that in mind, just on GPs...
"The Iraqi regime committed the biggest crime in history some 15 years ago in its "Anfal" campaign which led to the disappearance of some 182,000 Iraqi Kurds," the statement said. "The Iraqi people are celebrating their newfound freedom amidst the fall of the Iraqi regime and which coincides with the anniversary of the brutal human crimes committed by the regime which has not been addressed yet," it added. Oh, yes. Now I remember all the lefties out in the streets protesting and demanding that Sammy and his boyz... Uh... No. That was something else.
The PUK statement called on international human rights organizations and the United Nations to exert more effort to find the 182,000 people who disappeared in the "Anfal" campaign or clarify their status. It urged the next government in Iraq to revive investigations into the crime, clarify the status of victims, arrest, try and punish the offenders. Saddam's military, in the so-called "Anfal" campaign, systematically burned, bulldozed and bombarded towns and villages populated by as many as 70,000 people in Iraqi Kurdistan some 15 years ago. Might want to bring that up, next time somebody accuses us of "genocide" in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/14/2003 10:34 am ||
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a few years worth of trials on Arabic television, in Arabic would do the Arab world a lot of good.
"Mustaffa if such a thing is a war crime when Saddam does it, is it also a war crime when Assad does it?"
Nice to see the Arabic world see rule of law in action.
A Kurdish official said Monday Saddam Hussein's half-brother Watban Ibrahim al-Tikriti would disclose the fate of more than 180,000 Kurds who went missing in the 1980s when the regime undertook a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Kosert Rasul, a politburo member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan told United Press International, that al-Tikriti, arrested by U.S. forces on Sunday, was minister of interior and highly placed in the security apparatus when the ethnic-cleansing operations against Kurds were launched.
He'd since left that job and spent his time recently laundering the Saddam family fortune...
"Al-Tikriti is supposed to have information about those operations and the location of mass graves of their victims," Rasul said. He said the Iraqi regime never gave a hint about the fate of 10,000 members of al-Barzan tribe who were rounded up in 1982 and some 182,000 other Kurds who were the victims of the campaign in 1988. "Watban al-Tikriti was in the inner circle of the regime and held high-ranking security positions in the 1980s ... That is why it is possible that he has answers to the queries of the families of those victims," Rasul said. The Kurdish official said he hoped al-Tikriti's arrest will be followed by similar arrests of Iraqi officials "who committed crimes against humanity." He also urged Iraqis to inform humanitarian organizations and U.S. and British forces about the hideouts of Saddam's aides who vanished after Baghdad's fall to coalition troops.
Some are doing that. That part of it's starting to come together nicely, in fact...
Al-Tikriti was arrested in the region of Rabia'near the Syrian border after residents told U.S. forces of his whereabouts. He was taken by a U.S. helicopter to an undisclosed destination to be interrogated. Ah, yes, the world famous "Undisclosed Location". Now he has a very short time to make a deal before we don't need him. Life in a U.S. prison vs dancing at the end of a rope.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 09:22 am ||
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"You have your choice of retirement facilities. If you cooperate, it will be on the shores of the Carribean. If not, it will be Halabja."
Arabic 'ALAWI, plural 'ALAWIYAH, also called NUSAYRI, plural NUSAYRIYAH, or NAMIRI, plural NAMIRIYAH, or ANSARI, plural ANSARIYAH, any member of a minority sect of Shi'ite Muslims living chiefly in Syria.
The roots of 'Alawism lie in the teachings of Muhammad ibn Nusayr an-Namiri (fl. 850), a Basran contemporary of the 10th Shi'ite imam, and the sect was chiefly established by Husayn ibn Hamdan al-Khasibi (d. 957 or 968) during the period of the Hamdanid dynasty (905-1004), at which time the 'Alawites had great influence in Aleppo. With the fall of Shi'ite rule, however, the 'Alawites, with other Shi'ites, became the victims of persecution. They were ill-treated by waves of Crusaders, by Mamluks, and by Ottoman conquerors, in addition to fighting a number of internecine wars.
Considered by many Muslims to be heretics, the present-day 'Alawites obtained a legal decision about their status as Muslims from the Lebanese leader of the Ithna 'Ashariyah (Twelver) sect of Shi'ite Islam. The 'Alawite sect has become politically dominant in Syria, particularly since 1971, when Hafiz al-Assad, an 'Alawite, was elected president of the country. The sect is predominant in the Latakia region of Syria, and it extends north to Antioch (Antakya), Turkey. Many 'Alawites also live around or in Hims and Hamah. They are second in number within Syria to the Sunnite sect, which makes up about three-fourths of the Muslim population of mostly Muslim Syria.
The name 'Alawi is more generally used to refer to all the groups affiliated with one of the 'Alis; thus the Muslims usually refer to the Syrian 'Alawites as Nusayriyah, or Namiriyah. Though well established in Syria since the 12th century, the 'Alawites were not able to fully adopt the name 'Alawi until 1920, the time of French occupation of the area.
The basic doctrine of 'Alawite faith is the deification of 'Ali. He is one member of a trinity corresponding roughly to the Christian Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 'Alawites interpret the Pillars of Islam (the five duties required of every Muslim) as symbols and thus do not practice the Islamic duties. They celebrate an eclectic group of holidays, some Islamic, some Christian, and many 'Alawite practices are secret. They consider themselves to be moderate Shi'ites, not much different from the Twelvers.
US marines today entered the centre of Tikrit, the final stronghold of Saddam Hussein's leadership, as they battled the last military units loyal to the Iraqi regime. Pan-Arab satellite station al-Jazeera said that the troops had the town under control. The channel broadcast live pictures of marines walking through Tikrit and US tanks taking up position in a central square. Excellent!
Al-Jazeera's correspondent in the city, Youssef al-Sharif, said: "Tikrit is totally under US control, and they are talking with tribes to control the city and take out all pockets of resistance." Said pockets being the foreign hard boys, fools and rubes imported from the finer madrassas in Syria, Paleostine, Yemen and Pakland.
A Reuters correspondent in Tikrit today reported that three US Cobra attack helicopters were firing machine guns into the city. The reporter said that he heard four loud explosions in the distance, but could not identify the helicopters' target. A taskforce of the First Marine Expeditionary Force had earlier attacked units of the Iraqi Republican Guard on the southern edge of Tikrit, which lies 110 miles north of Baghdad, in a push towards the town centre. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, at central command in Qatar, said that US forces in Tikrit had encountered "less resistance than anticipated".
Who wants to be the last one killed when you know the game is lost?
"This morning, the attack entered Tikrit, securing yet another the presidential palace there and also beginning the search for any remaining regime supporters," Gen Brooks said. "This is really the only significant combat action that occurred within the last 24 hours." He added that military work "is not at a close", but said he expected future confrontations across Iraq to be localised and not centrally organised by Saddam's regime.
Assuming any have been so far...
The forces rolled into the centre of Tikrit overnight. Yesterday, they rescued seven US prisoners of war in a push to the outskirts, as warplanes bombarded fighters defending the last major Iraqi centre in the hold of the Ba'ath party. Waves of helicopters and warplanes passed overhead, Matthew Fisher, a correspondent for Canada's National Post, told CNN as the marines went into the city. "It's a very significant attack. They've brought forward a great number of Cobra assault helicopters and there are Marine F-18s overhead," he said.
They knew it was ripe, but it's still better not to have any unpleasant surprises...
The 30,000-strong US 4th Infantry Division, known as Taskforce Iron Horse, has also been moving north from Kuwait, and is thought to be advancing on the town. They'll be happy the war is virtually over, and unhappy that they were late.
4th ID is either earmarked as occupation troops now, or there's something else on the back burner that could pop without warning — namely Syria. Having a fresh, highly mechanized division or two (1st Armored) on hand will make the hairs stand up on the back of the collective Syrian neck...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2003 09:01 am ||
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#3
I hope we are careful about how we deal with Syria - our troops are NOT likely to be welcomed there, the way they are in Iraq. Despite Syrian conventional weakness, it has much more "quagmire" potential than Iraq did, and more chance of real reaction from "arab street" I would hate to have a "quagmire" developing in Syria while we still have work to do in Iraq, Afghan, and Korea.
Granted pressure on them in regard to escaping Iraqis is timely and may be necessary I wouldnt want to go beyond that.
Yeah Hezbollah is a problem to Israel, but Israel can put pressure on Syria itself, by creating facts on ground in Golan, especially with Iraq situation having been progressed.
Subtle pressure can be put on Syrians in Lebanon (subversion, espionage, etc) that is less dangerous than conventional attack. But must be cautious even there - re-starting Lebanon civil war will not be popular in Arab world.
#4
Liberalhawk, all your points are valid. Ask yourself this one question though: If you are George Bush, do you want to be remembered twelve years from now for stopping at a border just like Daddy?
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2003 10:40 Comments ||
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LiberalHawk's points are well-taken. I don't get the sense that the average Syrian is desparate for their government to be overthrown. Does anyone know if Baby Assad maintains the same kind of torture apparatus, to the same extent, as Sammy & Sons?
Just our being in Iraq, coupled with some discrete moves by Israel, could bring about change in Syria.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2003 11:10 Comments ||
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#6
Let's remember...Syria is controlled by Ba'athists, and they're no better than a terrorist organization. Just as we rooted out the Nazi's all over Europe, we should be aware of the possible need to do the same in Syria.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/14/2003 11:19 Comments ||
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#7
re: analogy to Bush sr in 1991.
In april 1991 shiites and Kurds rose in all cities where they were the majority, pushing out Saddam then would have been easier militarily than Iraqi Freedom. No such rebellion, happening this time in Syria - at least not yet. when and if it happens of course we should be prepared to move quickly.
"possible need to do the same in Syria"
i agree, broadly. The question is timing. My view on Syria now is close to that of the "hawkish doves" on Iraq a few months ago - yes to regime change, but we have other stuff to handle first. Except that position is more right now wrt Syria then it was then wrt Iraq. Syria is farther from Nukes then Iraq was (unless something big has been smuggled over). Syrian leadership is more sane (ergo more deterable) than Saddam regime was. Now we have not just Afghanistan to rebuild but also Iraq. that is not only a burden financially and on troop deployments, but must be accomplished to rebuild goodwill in region and globe before taking on someone else.
Contain Syria (and in different ways, Saudi and Pakland) - be wary - complete nation-building in afghan and Iraq - "rest and refresh" - make some progress in Israel-PA (NOT forcing Israel into unreasonable concessions on misguided notions about arab street - but use new US power to consolidate position, push Arafat out, then implement some variant on Road map) Continue work against AL qaeeda and Jihadis world-wide. Use evolving Iraq position as basis for public dipolomacy in muslim world. Focus on political situation in Iran, and ways to influence it. Consolidate position with regard to North Korea (notice where the carriers are going?)
#8
I disagree with with Liberalhawks point primarily because Syria is a Shia country dominated by a Sunni minority. I think the Shia would welcome US intervention and we've made a good showing with the Shia in southern Iraq recently.
Certainly the Sunni will fight on and be much less likely to cave than the Iraqi Sunni but we also have three big favors on the US side this go around (1) we don't have a history of stopping short and letting the dictator slaughter the uprisings (2) the recent Iraqi example will send a real powerful message (3) Syrian troops in Lebanon are an easy pretext and Syrian connections to terrorist are well documented.
#9
"is a Shia country dominated by a Sunni minority"
Just the opposite - majority of pop i sunni, with Shia and Druze minorities. Sunni were historically dominant, but many Shia became army officers. Assad family and its associates are Shia. Sunni fundies rebelled about 20 years ago in city of Hamma (sp?) Rebellion easily crushed, none since.
We certainly need to study Syrian situation carefully before taking precipitate action.
#10
Don't forget, we can squeeze that oil pipeline from Iraq to Syria. You know, take it down from time to time for "regular unscheduled maintenance".
The Shia in Syria might be more welcoming to us if we pause for a while to help build up a stable, free Iraq. There's no need to spread ourselves too thin. I think Syria has gotten the message that we can smack them down without working up much of a sweat.
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
04/14/2003 12:30 Comments ||
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#11
Baba Yaga---I think that the oil angle would be the best one to try first. Sort of diplomacy by flow control valve....see if they get the message.
-Ãà ïà Ãà øà (damn..I was trying to sign "Papa Pasha" in Cyrillic, but it is not coming through right)
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2003 13:30 Comments ||
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#12
To add to LiberalHawk, Assad and the ruling thugs were mostly from the Alawite sect, long considered by most Muslims to be not true Muslims. Daddy Assad in 1975 got a Muslim cleric in Lebanon (surprise!) to declare that Alawites are Shi'a Muslims. This apparently has fooled no one in Syria.
The Alawites comprise 12% of the population according to CountryWatch.com, whereas the Sunnis are 74% (Druse 3%, Christians 10%, Jews 1%). The Alawites control most of the top positions, and Baby Assad was challenged for the presidency by his uncle because, among other things, Uncle thought that Bashir wouldn't be ruthless enough to keep the Alawites on top.
So Baba Yaga and Yank should consider that the "Shi'a" are the Alawites and are already top dogs. We would want to appeal (carefully, as LiberalHawk notes) to the Sunni majority, making sure that we could control where they finally end up.
If one were devious, one could simply goad the Sunnis to stage a coup. Only problem is that until Daddy Assad hacked them at Hama, a lot of the Sunnis belong to the Muslim Brotherhood. The hard feeling would be useful to help orchestrate a coup, but we'd likely be replacing the Ba'athist party with a mullah-ocracy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2003 13:47 Comments ||
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Liberalhawk:
Assad and much of the Syrian officer corps are actually Alawites, not Shiites. I cannot find a good web citation for what exactly Alawites are. Apparently they are a Middle Eastern mystery sect much given to borrowing from Shia Islam and Christianity. Neither the imams nor the bishops are much enamored of them.
Another excellent story by John Burns. It appears the fundamentalist Shiite's are gaining strengh in Saddam city.
Much of their concern focused on events in Saddam City, the Shiite stronghold on Baghdad's outskirts, which has been a virtual no-go area for American troops. Many of the looters reaching the city center have come from Saddam City, which community leaders have renamed Al Sadr City, after Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, a leading Shiite cleric who was killed in the holy city of Najaf in 1999, in circumstances many Shiites say involved Mr. Hussein's secret police. A cauldron of repressed loathing for the toppled Iraqi ruler, the area appears to have become, in a matter of days, a stronghold of heavily armed Shiite militias. American military units have stayed away from the area, effectively ceding control.
Can't let that go on. If we do, it's going to bite us in the collective heinie...
Reporters reaching Saddam City today said the area had been cordoned off by militia checkpoints that appeared to be well organized, many of them under the control of neighborhood mosques. At one mosque, several machine guns were mounted on the roof. Some militias appeared friendly to Westerners, waving and shouting, "Bush good!" But others, the reporters said, appeared hostile, in ways that suggested that they might have been organized by Iraqi opposition groups based in Iran that have espoused a militant form of Islam similar to that which inspired the Iranian revolution in 1979.
I guess this is what SAIRI did instead of fighting. Hope they realize that to the Marines, one thug with a gun isn't any different from another thug with a gun...
Some of the men at the checkpoints were described as having headbands bearing the legends of militant Islam, as well as checkered head scarves. Groups like those have been a major worry for American officials planning for a postwar Iraq. Their concern has been that schisms in Iraqi society that were suppressed by Mr. Hussein's dictatorial rule âbetween the majority Shiites and the minority Sunni, between Arabs and Kurds and Turkmen and other ethnic groups, and between those favoring an Islamic republic and those eager to maintain the secular form of rule favored by Mr. Hussein â could erupt in ways that could leave the United States sitting atop an Iraqi powder keg.
Not if we kill significant numbers of them early in the game...
Thus any sign that Islamic militancy is gaining the upper hand in Saddam City, especially so soon after Mr. Hussein's overthrow, would be a major headache for Washington.
If they don't get the upper hand soon after the overthrow of Saddam, they're not going to get it at all. So whack them now...
In middle-class districts of Baghdad, many people were not waiting to find out what the events in Saddam City might portend. Using local self-defense committees formed in the hope of warding off looters, some people spent the weekend drawing up petitions to American commanders and to prominent Muslim clerics in Saddam City, warning against the risks to Iraq of allowing Islamic fundamentalist groups free rein in a period when Iraq has no government. One prominent scholar, Wahmid Ladhmi, a professor of political science at Baghdad University, compared the vacuum in Iraqi politics with the period of uncertainty and direction that followed the collapse of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's rule in Iran in 1979. Dr. Ladhmi said that after watching the American failure to curb the looters, many middle-class Iraqis feared that "the carelessness shown by the invading power," meaning the United States, did not bode well for Washington's ability to manage the complex interplay between Iraqi ethnic, religious and political groups. In this effort, he said, it was crucial that the Americans engage early on with Shiite groups that favor genuine elections and parliamentary institutions, and not allow other groups that have an agenda similar to the one followed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran in 1979 to gain the upper hand.
That's what I said: come down on them with both feet, allow no nonsense, and they'll evaporate. Indulge them now, and we'll be putting up with them for the next 30 years...
"We would like to see a secular state preserved in Iraq," he said. "We don't think that there is a Khomeini here, because the Shiites are too divided, and we know that a great many Islamists in Iraq accept the idea of democracy and an alternation of competing groups in power through elections. But there are others for whom elections are a one-time thing, a way station on the road to the end of democracy," he said. "The message we want to get through is that no one represents the word of God â or rather, that it is the people, not the clerics, who represent the word of God."
What an unusual attitude for the Middle East. Definitely keep him around...
Posted by: Anonymous ||
04/14/2003 08:44 am ||
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#1
Sounds like this is a real good idea to introduce some fundamental concepts like "self rule" and "self control" to the Baghdaders.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2003 8:54 Comments ||
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#2
we have locals returning to police and other govt functions under US/UK auspices, we have INC growing in some places, we have friendly shiite clergy and unfriendly (SCIRI-influenced?) Shiite clergy in some places, happy Kurds, nrevous Turkomen, nervous sunni arabs.
I am optimistic, but this will require sustained attention and rapid action to keep things on the upswing. We cant wait for UN action (though we can welcome Coalition of the willing contributions, EG Canada, Phillipines, and now Italy)
Meeting in Nassiriyah tomorrow should be interesting.
""The locals said they wanted to take charge of Saddam City and we said: 'Roger that',"
Lieutenant-Colonel Lew Craparotta, commander of a Marine unit that moved back from the fringes of the suburb, told Reuters.
Local leaders told U.S. officers that non-Iraqi Arab fighters were still a threat in the mainly Shi'ite district.
"It's much easier for them to identify the enemy than for us. We really can't tell who is who," Craparotta said."
Posted by: Kathy K ||
04/14/2003 14:58 Comments ||
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#4
"Lieutenant-Colonel Lew Craparotta,"
That would be "Loo Crap-a-rotta"? Didn't he star in "Top Secret" as Latrine?
Posted by: Dave ||
04/14/2003 20:33 Comments ||
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#5
You know, we DO have to let a few of those long knives come out. Some of them Tories need to swing, and if you think that needs to be left completely to their justice system - then just look at our own.
Looting is not the only thing going on there. A lot of people got disappeared. Very possibly, the military was wise to stand aside for awhile, let a retribution occur. Let some steam out of that cooker. The people whining for protection on our newscasts maybe got a good reason to need it.
Posted by: Scott ||
04/14/2003 21:16 Comments ||
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EFL
A top Iraqi general who switched sides during the war has backed Washington's claims that Syria has been giving refuge to members of Saddam Hussein's regime. General Ali al-Jajjawi - former Republican Guard commander in the northern city of Mosul - said Saddam's Baath Party deputy Izzat Ibrahim and other top figures had fled to Syria shortly before the city fell last Friday. Earlier, US President George W Bush warned Syria against harbouring fugitives from Saddam Hussein's entourage and urged Iraq's western neighbour to "co-operate" with the US-led coalition. A senior Syrian diplomat went on American TV on Sunday to deny his country was assisting Iraqi fugitives. "Who, us?"
Imad Moustapha, the deputy ambassador in Washington, also rejected US claims that Syria was producing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) - the charge against Iraq which sparked the war there. "It's been a campaign of misinformation and disinformation about Syria since even before the war started - this is just an ongoing series of false accusations," Mr Moustapha told NBC news. "Lies, all lies!"
On the WMD charge, Mr Moustapha said: "We will not only accept the most rigid inspection regime, we will welcome it heartily." As long as Blixi runs it.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 08:06 am ||
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#1
Yeah - and even if Blix does not run it, inspections without active government cooperation are worse than a waste of time, because the overly gullible amongst us adopt the "if you don't find anything, the inspections are working" line of reasoning. We'll be disproving that in due time, with our list of 3000 sites to inspect in Iraq.
The best news here is we now have Iraqi sources who know all kinds of juicy stuff and are willing to talk - I'd imagine Syria and other governments in the region are getting a tad nervous, or should be.
Posted by: Jeff Brokaw ||
04/14/2003 9:01 Comments ||
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#2
More details from al-Bawaba: A senior Ba'ath Party member in Kirkuk said General Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, one of Saddam Hussein's deputies, set off for Syria in a large convoy as the regime collapsed last week, the Daily Telegraph reported on Monday. Said Nazim Khoshid said Gen. al-Duri, who shortly before the war began was put in charge of the northern military region by Saddam, invited him to join his convoy. Khoshid told Kurdish officials that he declined the offer, and said he did not know whether Gen. al-Duri reached Syria. He believed he left in a convoy of two dozen Chevrolet four-wheel drive vehicles and took some US$30 million in US dollars with him.
Two dozen Chevy 4x4s and $30M, how could you miss a convoy this big?
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 10:48 Comments ||
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#3
Breaker one-nine....maintain radio silence...I believe we've got us a convoy!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2003 13:33 Comments ||
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THE nurse tending tragic Iraqi youngster Ali Ismaeel Abbas told Tony Blair and George Bush last night: "Airlift him out, or he will die." Ali, 12, who lost both arms when his home was bombed, is at risk of potentially fatal blood poisoning stemming from severe burns. Nurse Fatin Sharhah said he must be moved from Baghdad to a specialist unit, possibly in Kuwait hundreds of miles away. In a letter "from the bottom of my heart" to coalition leaders, she warned: "The situation is desperate. He will die if he stays. Please send one of your helicopters or planes...You have all this technology to bomb us, to make the missile that burned Ali's house. But you cannot spare one aircraft for one day to save a life?" Fatin's Saddam City hospital is one of a handful of medical centres still functioning in the capital's chaos. Ali, whose parents and younger brother died in the missile strike, is too sick to make a long journey south by road. Yes mr. Bush this would be the least you could do, think also about rescueing the victims you've made during operation liberation Iraqi OIL people
Actually, that's the sort of thing we can and are usually more than willing to do out of the goodness of our hearts. I'm just not sure making a shrieking demand on the front page of The Mirror is the best way to go about making the request. Probably it would be better if she contacted one of the U.S. medical officers in Baghdad about her patient.
Posted by: Murat ||
04/14/2003 05:59 am ||
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#1
I guess Murat must be pissed that the Kurds will have there own country soon....
#2
Anonymus, the Kurds had their country before, the republic of Mahabad, build with Russian support it did not last longer than 6 months. With US support it will last for a year maybe.
Posted by: Murat ||
04/14/2003 6:48 Comments ||
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#5
The Mahabad republic story was one of the many times the Kurds were tricked by the Communists. For some reason, the Kurds were especially susceptible to this. Many (possibly most) of the Kurdish terrorists in Turkey in the 1990s were also generally under the spell of the most psychotic marxist ideology. The Iraqi Kurds have now, almost everybody believes, innoculated themselves against this mental disease and the related diseases of Islamism, anti-Americanism, etc. Much (mabe most) of the Islamic world, however, is infected by one or more of these idiological diseases.
#6
For anyone who's interested, the The Mirror's circulation is in steep decline, and is at it's lowest in 70 years. Not surprising given that it passes this sort of infantile tripe off as news.
#8
"The Iraqi Kurds have now, almost everybody believes, innoculated themselves against this mental disease and the related diseases of Islamism, anti-Americanism, etc"
And they have a sense of humor, too. When Turkey insisted that observers be sent to observe the Kurdish forces in and around Kirkuk, the Kurds response was, "Of course our Turkish brothers may come!"
Posted by: Dave ||
04/14/2003 7:34 Comments ||
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#9
murat = armenians cypriots kurds...... kurdistan!
#11
To RW,
I have an excerpt from our foreign ministry: "Stating that Ankara was ready to help people wounded during the war, Gul added, âWeâve sent 500 truckloads of food and medical aid. We also offered to send doctors and medical teams. The real problem is security. We suggested that we could transport the injured out of the country to Turkey. However, right now there are no security measures for landing or flying planes at the airports. We thought about bringing them by car or truck but this would be a long and risky road. We also thought about transporting them by helicopter but again there is no security this way either. As soon as security is established, we will bring in injured and sick people. Weâve made the necessary preparations at our hospitals.â
"
What about the US, there are plenty of bombs to destroy, but no American doctors available to cure the victims of your "liberation"?
Posted by: Murat ||
04/14/2003 7:56 Comments ||
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#12
Murat, American and Brit docs are treating everyone they see without regard to nationality. Iraqi POWs and civilians have the same access to our military medical facilities in Iraq as do our own soldiers. It's a point of honor for our guys.
Turkey could, if it wished, set up a medical evac unit in Iraq and airlift casualties to Ankara or Istanbul for treatment. I know a couple of Turkish docs (they trained at my university) and I know that Turkish medicine is pretty good. The Turks could set up the evac unit at the Baghdad intl airport, and I'm sure that's something our side would allow. You might want to call your representative in the Turkish parliament and see if you can't make it happen.
Finally, I'm happy to acknowledge and thank the Turks for the humanitarian aid contributed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2003 9:00 Comments ||
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#13
"Liberation"?Murat,it's your country that sends teenagers to jail for saying "I'm happy to be a Kurd."You've forsaken your right to even use the word,you racist prick.
Posted by: El Id ||
04/14/2003 9:39 Comments ||
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#14
Murat
The Kurds will last this time, because they have the US backing them against the genocidal and racist policies of the Turkish government.
The rest start counting the American genocides begining with the Indians (few tribes still living in reservates), Koreans, Vietnamese and lately the Iraqi Arab genocide (sorry I meant liberation)
Posted by: Murat ||
04/14/2003 13:14 Comments ||
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#18
Hey Murat, its only MONDAY and you've already managed to evoke this week's "Fuck You Murat".
#19
Murat,
The essential elimination of the indigenous people of this land is possibly the most horrific and painful memory in our (well, mine and others here) country's history.
But for you to add the Koreans, Vietnamese and Iraqis to this list is utter crap and you know it. Every war does not equal genocide. If genocide were our game we could just drop a couple of nukes and be done with it.
If you can't recognize the extreme efforts we have made to keep civilian and even enemy soldier casualties to a minimum then you need to pull your head out of your butt.
That said, please excuse me if I think a Turk talking about American genocide is the perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black. Prove me wrong and explain the situations revolving around the Armenians, Cypriots and Kurds please. Can't? Didn't think so.
Posted by: Kelvin Zero ||
04/14/2003 14:40 Comments ||
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#20
Murat, your blatant disregard for the truth never ceases to amaze me. How can you say 'Iraqi' and 'genocide' in the same sentence without metioning Saddam??
I mean this in all sincerity ... it's not a rhetorical question: Do you really believe the tripe you spew on a regular basis, or is it a "party line" of sorts that you're touting? Most importantly, though, I'd like to know that WHEN to coalition forces MOVE OUT of Iraq (WITHOUT stealing the oil, raping the women and beating the children), and leave it better than it was when we got there ... will an apology for your grossly misplaced disdain be forthcoming??
You'll not get one. He is a turk and an Islamist - and neither of those 2 groups has any concept of honor, nor do they have courage to face facts.
Murat is a memeber of a cowardly craven people, whose only means of coping is to try to spread lies to defend their egos from the wieght of truth that is now crushing them.
#22
I wonder what the hell he was hitting over the weekend to be so pissed off.
Chances are that whatever it was that he was on was antithetical to Islam (TM)
Posted by: Brian ||
04/14/2003 17:10 Comments ||
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#23
Iraqi Arab genocide (sorry I meant liberation)
Yep.
If one can actually write the above quoted tripe and ignore the barbaric tribalism, despotism, anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, misogyny, rape, torture, murder, and just simple ignorant hate that pours from Arab and/or Muslim lands--and has for millenia--this creature has absolutely no credibility.
EFL
Muslim rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades at an army detachment in the southern Philippines, triggering a firefight that left 12 guerrillas dead and two soldiers wounded. The guerrillas claimed to kill three soldiers. In a separate clash, troops killed two suspected rebels from another Muslim group who were on a boat, apparently trying to escape a military offensive. Run, er, float away!
Also Monday, Philippine prosecutors filed murder and multiple attempted murder charges against 151 Muslim separatist leaders and alleged rebels for an April 2 bombing that killed 16 people in southern Davao city. Those charged include Moro Islamic Liberation Front chairman Hashim Salamat. Salamat and other rebel leaders have been charged separately over a March 4 bombing outside Davao's airport that killed 22 people and injured more than 100 others.
Ah, but is he actually in custody? I don't recall seeing that he is...
In Sunday's first clash, about 40 MILF guerrillas attacked soldiers in Maguindanao province's Barira town. The military retaliated by firing 105 mm howitzers to drive away the rebels. Troops counted 12 bodies that later were claimed by relatives. RPGs vs 105s, you guys have watched "Blackhawk Down" way too many times.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu acknowledged the rebels launched the attack, and said they killed three soldiers. The rebels suffered fewer casualties than the military claimed, he said.
Rule number 37b., subsection 11: "Never admit you suffered as many casualties as you did."
In nearby North Cotabato province, a farmer was killed and his three siblings, including a 5-year-old boy, were injured late Sunday when MILF rebels strafed their house in Pikit town. Strafed? They got a air force?
It was unclear why the rebels attacked the civilians, but Ando said the victims were among those people recently returning to Buliok, a former rebel stronghold seized by the military in February. Killing civilians is what they do.
In another clash early Monday, army troops and pro-government militias wearing night-vision goggles killed two suspected Abu Sayyaf Muslim pirates rebels aboard a boat off southern Jolo Island, officials said. The rebels apparently were fleeing a military offensive to nearby Basilan, officials said. A soldier and a militiaman were wounded in the sea clash off Basilan's Maluso town. Soldiers recovered the rebels' bodies, backpacks, rebel documents, two rifles and their motor boat. A good nights work.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 09:10 am ||
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The dictator has fallen, the media unshackled, democratic elections held, East Timor freed and Indonesia was quick to sign onto President Bush's global war on terror after Sept. 11, 2001. Yet, Washington maintains a 12-year ban on arms sales to the world's most populous Muslim nation to curb continuing human rights abuses, leading Jakarta's frustrated generals to look elsewhere to replace antiquated arsenals. Toward that end, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri travels to Moscow later this month to seek the Kremlin's help in modernizing her 300,000-member armed forces. Ahem, have you been watching the news? Didya catch how well the T-72 performed?
She also is likely to open the way for Russian companies to vie for lucrative deals in the oil and gas sector, long dominated by American and British resource giants. Although far apart on the globe, Indonesia and Russia have basic things in common. Both are run by thugs. Both have massive, multiethnic populations. Both struggle to preserve national unity as they fight separatism and build democracy after the collapse of decades of authoritarian rule. Both are kleptocracies. Both are resource-rich but face huge economic problems made worse by endemic corruption. And, both have opposed the U.S.-led war on Iraq.
One of them's having second thoughts, if they can just explain away that intel cooperation...
Indonesia's Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa says Megawati's meeting with Russian President Putin scheduled for April 21 will touch on the Iraq crisis. But other diplomats say that issue will serve primarily to bring the two closer together on bottom-line issues such as trade and arms sales. Analysts worry that Indonesia's military now is so degraded it no longer can control the borders of the far-flung archipelago, allowing for easy infiltration by extremists. It isn't the lack of modern arms that makes Indonesia so easily infiltrated!
Close ties between Moscow and Jakarta are not unprecedented. Indonesia relied on Soviet military assistance in the 1950s under founding President Sukarno — Megawati's father — but these were severed after the anti-communist Gen. Suharto seized power in 1965. Seems like the daughter is returning to her roots.
The United States quickly became the Southeast Asian country's main weapons supplier, and annual arms sales peaked at $400 million in the 1980s. In 1991, however, the U.S. Congress banned this after Indonesian troops killed hundreds of civilians in East Timor. The destruction [of East Timor] prompted U.S. lawmakers to expand the ban to cover almost all military ties with Indonesia. Since then, some in the Bush administration - particularly Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a former ambassador to Jakarta and an architect of the Iraq war, have pushed for the ban to be repealed. However, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity, ``In terms of military sales, the accountability is still a problem that's out there, and it's not likely that it will be resolved soon.'' As in, into whose hands will these new weapons go?
So far, U.S. lawmakers have reinstated only a limited officer training program. But that is far from enough for Indonesia's generals. Moscow has already had some success in wooing Indonesia as a customer. Jakarta recently purchased some Russian weapons, including 10,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, a squadron of naval Mil-2 helicopters and a dozen BTR-80A amphibious carriers for its marines. Currently, Indonesia uses short-range Rapier missiles purchased 30 years ago to protect its vital oil and natural gas fields in Sumatra, Borneo and Papua from infidels air attack. Air defense commanders want to augment the Rapiers with Russia's impressive long-range S-300 missiles, or shorter-range systems such as the SA-15 Gauntlet or shoulder-fired Igla. The Air Force reportedly is considering purchasing several squadrons of Sukhoi Su-27 interceptors, considered the world's premier dogfighters. Spew! They have to be kidding!
Previously, Indonesian Air Force commanders preferred Western jets that were compatible with the U.S.-made F-16 fighter-bombers already in the Indonesian inventory. But neighboring Malaysia's success in integrating Russian MiG-29s and American F/A-18 Hornets persuaded them otherwise, Sudarsono said. This bears watching.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2003 09:07 am ||
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#1
Megawati is so stupid and anti American that we should call her the Patty Murray of Indonesia.
#2
There's been a slow, dark, unreported war going on in Borneo for the last 40 years. The local tribes hate Indonesian Muslims sent in to develop the island, frequently destroying local villages in the process. Brunei and Malaysia have quietly sided with the locals, and clandestinely supplied them with small arms and some training. Sarawak and Sabah, territories of the Republic if Malaysia, and Brunei, are former British enclaves on the northern coast of Borneo. The rest of the island has long been considered a part of Indonesia, and formerly of the Netherlands Indies, before the Dutch were expelled in 1949. Brunei's oilfields have made its sultan one of the richest men in the world, and have long been in the eyes of Indonesian leaders. There has long been animosity in the region, and I'm sure Malaysia would not be happy with significant upgrades to Indonesia's warfighting capabilities.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2003 9:46 Comments ||
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#3
Yet another former European colony mess that I have a feeling we will end up having to fix, hopefully with only diplomatic and economic tools.
#4
Indonesia's got to be the worst tank country in the world. She's either a fool, or looking to supress her people. That's what Russian tanks are good for after all.
#5
If she wants Russian tanks, I'm sure there are some lying around Iraq that we didn't blow up. Ok, they don't have that "new tank smell", but they have low miles and the warranty might still be good. ;)
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
04/14/2003 12:43 Comments ||
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#6
Generals love tanks. They look really cool in parades, especially lined up facing government legislators in Jakarta.
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2003 12:44 Comments ||
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#7
Su-27's, S-300's. This is definitely a worry to us aussies. I have friends whose job descriptions are "Boss, Tactical Fighter force" and "Boss , Strike Wing"
Posted by: Aussie Mike ||
04/14/2003 18:06 Comments ||
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#8
Read a story that had Madame President Megwati betting with her head spook (an ex-general, to boot) over the length of the Iraq war. She bet it would be a long one. The general bet on short.
Prosecutors today accused Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir of plotting terror bombings in Indonesia and Singapore as part of a campaign to topple the Indonesian government and set up an Islamic state. An indictment filed in court describes the Muslim cleric as "emir" or leader of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) regional terror network. Bashir is formally charged with treason, which is punishable with a 20-year jail term, and three immigration offences. He is accused of conspiring to commit treason with Abdullah Sungkar, Hambali, Zulkarnaen, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas.
Hambali, as the suspected former operations chief of JI, is Asia's most wanted man. Samudra and Mukhlas are awiting trial for the Bali bombings last October which killed 202 people. The 25-page charge sheet does not accuse Bashir, 64, of direct involvement in the Bali bombings. But it says he gave his blessing to the Christmas Eve bombings of churches and priests in 2000 which killed 19 people in Indonesia. Bashir "also approved the planning to bomb American interests in Singapore known as program C," it says. Singapore foiled that bombing plot with the arrest of a large number of JI suspects. The charges, along with thousands of pages of evidence, were handed over in preparation for a trial. A court official said it could take part in Jakarta "within weeks."
"The defendant is the leader and organiser of treason with the intention of topple the government and fulfilling his intention of setting up the Islamic State of Indonesia," the charge reads. It says Bashir and Abdullah Sungkar, who has since died of natural causes, set up JI in the 1990s with Sungkar as leader and Bashir as his deputy. The three immigration charges accuse Bashir of making false documents to show he is a resident of the Java town of Ngruki, where he set up an Islamic boarding school.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
04/14/2003 04:49 am ||
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#1
Only about 6 months too slow. It was more than apparent back when he was identified as being in league with "Hambali" long ago. His sudden illness was hysterical... Great black comedy.
Indonesia is a disaster, going nowhere but down the drain, very very slowly.
First, it has been determined by the lying scum "eyewitness report" that the world received following the death of Corrie was fictional. The IDF performed a complete and exhaustive investigation of the death and discovered the following:
1) Corrie was not sitting in front of the bulldozer, but was obstructed from it by a mound of earth; OUCH!
2) She died not from being hit by the bulldozer - apparently there was no contact between her and the
machine - but rather was hit by heavy building debris that the vehicle was moving; OOOHH!
3) the bulldozer was not demolishing homes at all, but was flattening out an area frequently used as a staging ground for terrorism and arms smuggling, in order to increase Israel's ability to maintain security control of the area. The truth hurts doesn't it.
Rachel Corrie, like so many other self-proclaimed terrorist sympathizers peace activists and human shields, had a very strong ideological "agenda" of hostility and anger. I think they have self-help programs that can help with that.
Myles Kantor, a columnist for FrontPageMagazine.com and Director of the Center for Free Emigration, a human rights organization dedicated to the abolition of state enslavement, also provided an enlightening assessment of the situation. He summed up Corrie's anti-American upbringing, including her
attendance at the leftist Comintern U Evergreen college complete with a main area called Red Square. No squares there in Red Square
He also noted that the ISM's online photo album includes a member shaking hands with Yasser Arafat, and members leading protests in the Middle East with signs such as "America, Stop Supporting Apartheid" and "Ethnic Cleansing in Progress." No - just moron cleansing, thank you.
#1
Just because the majority of Americans approve of eliminating Saddam and stomping on islamic terrorism, doesn't necessarily mean they're willing to give Israel a free pass. Muslims haven't had the only franchise on selfish stupidity in that area.
Israel's received enough of our tax dollars to put every displaced paleo in a condo on the Florida gold coast! But nooooooooooo! We wanna use bulldozers to make room for new settlements. If you think we believe every house they've taken down belonged to a terrorist, then watch Sharon's head jerk back when Bush pulls the slack out.
Americans dying somehow clears away the BS, whether it's Syria's, Russia's or Israel's.
Posted by: Scott ||
04/14/2003 23:06 Comments ||
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You're either with us or you're with the terrorists. ISM is with the terrorists. Good riddance.
#3
Scott,
There are about 5,000,000 Palestinians. Let's say 10 people per family - this makes about 500,000 families.
A condo for a 10 member family will run about $250,000. So this means means $125,000,000,000. Let's say Israel receives about $4,000,000,000, and about half of it, the military part, has to be spent back in the States. So this means that it would take more than 60 years of more or less direct help to Israel to pay for your suggested condominia.
Israel exists only 55 years, and the significant help to Israel started only after 1967.
The rest of your post is as good as your math
Posted by: marek ||
04/15/2003 0:35 Comments ||
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Rachel Corrie was a hateful anti-american as you can clearly see from her wonderful photos burning a paper american flag. I'm only sorry there weren't a couple of her ISM friends with her - good riddance to bad trash
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/15/2003 7:27 Comments ||
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Heh. Truth hurts, which is why deconstructionism tries to debunk it.
John Malkovich knows the French better than most Americans, having lived in Aix-en-Provence for years with his wife, Nicoletta Peyran, and their two children. But as much as he loves his adopted land, he thinks the French have forfeited their right to suggest what the new Iraq should look like. "Why should America listen to what France now has to say?" Malkovich asked when we spoke to him the other day. Quick "spit" take...
The actor is the first to admit that President Bush could have handled the diplomatic end better. At the same time, he believes President Jacques Chirac's opposition to the U.S.-led coalition is "highly cynical and arrogant." Correct.
"The French say that everybody else has a self-interest [in Iraq]," Malkovich said. "But none is more obvious than theirs. And they're absolutely blind to it." Correct again John, you move to the bonus round.....
"Sometimes ignoring other countries is the right response," said Malkovich. "I don't really care what Arab countries think. I don't trust them. Bingo.
"I don't really care what a lot of European countries say. I've lived in Europe for years. I have a lot of dear friends there. But if you talk about politics, I want to say, if they're so smart, why Franco? Why totalitarianism? Why fascism? Where is your humility? I just think they should be curious about their own regimes." Bang! Congratulations Mr. Malkovich, you've got the High score today on "Drop! Your! Jaw!"
The 6-foot-2 actor told us, "My father was a soldier. My uncle was a soldier. And the reason - and one can't say this enough - that our parents fought and died for things is so that people can get up and shoot off their mouths about things they don't know f---all about. About things they don't know the end result about, where they're just guessing." At this point I am shredding my template for hollywood actors. Apparently, they are not all drug addled morons.
And for this clear headed bit of thinking Mr. Malkovich is rewarded with a "shameless plug"!:
With a new comedy, "Johnny English," in the can (it's out in Europe, look for it here in July).
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
04/14/2003 06:58 pm ||
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#1
Excellent. The truth is a tough thing to come by from Hollywood types.
#2
You know, this isn't really that shocking. Malkovich doesn't look like a dummy. He's also one of the truly great pure actors. Smart and talented, a Hollywod rarity.
#4
Malkovich's movies just got better. Come to think of it, has he ever won an Oscar?
He'd might as well not hope for one after this.
Posted by: Scott ||
04/14/2003 21:55 Comments ||
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#5
I always liked John Malkovich as an actor, and I like him even better now. Finally, an actor who can think independently, and is articulate as well.
Posted by: John ||
04/14/2003 23:56 Comments ||
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I really enjoyed the recent showing of the Three Stooges vs Alli Bobba and his fourty thieves.Now theres a true battle of wits.
I guess you could call massing troops on their border while Israel makes faces from the other side "gently"...
The heat is on Syria. On Monday, Damascus received an assurance that it was not next on the list of invasions, but with a rider. It has âimportant questionsâ to answer. There was some solace. The European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged Washington to tone down its harsh statements about Syria, saying it was time to "cool down" the tense situation in the Middle East. "Now, we don't want to make them mad, do we?"
"As far as 'Syria next on the list', we made clear that it is not," British foreign secretary Jack Straw told reporters in Bahrain. "There is no next list," he said. "There are important questions which the Syrians need to answer." "If they don't, then there'll be a list."
Straw claimed there was evidence that Syria cooperated with the Saddam Hussein government in recent months and urged Damascus to change its attitude now that he was gone. "It is very important for Syria to appreciate there is a new reality now the Saddam regime is gone," Straw said. "It's a whole new ballgame, and Syria doesn't have a bat."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/14/2003 06:59 pm ||
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Foreign minister says time not right to apply pressure on Syria The right time would've been years ago, but we're remedying that unfortunate delay.
Visiting French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Sunday that the international community should concentrate on rebuilding Iraq rather than âopening new battle fronts.â Speaking to reporters at Beirut International Airport after meeting with Lebanese leaders, de Villepin said the time was inappropriate for Washington to apply pressure on Syria. âPlease! You canât find out anything else weâve done! It will discredit us in the international world!â
When asked on Franceâs position toward Washingtonâs accusations against Damascus, he called for âconsultation and dialogueâ to resolve the current conflict in Iraq, rather than escalating pressure. âThe time is for consultation, for dialogue and we should be consolidating our energies to try and find solutions because we have enough problems,â he said. ⊠Like the French.
âTo find a solution, we need to have concerted action,â he said, calling for âdialogue between all the countries of the region and with the international community, Europe and the United States.â He added that after the collapse of Iraqi regime, âthe Middle East does not need a new war. We have to concentrate on giving the Iraqi people the victory they deserve.â He also focused on the need to restore security in Iraq and establish a representative Iraqi government. Weâre already working on it, twit.
In recent weeks, Syria has been subjected to verbal attacks from members of the US administration. It has repeatedly been accused of aiding Iraq and of providing military and logistical help to Baghdad. âDemocracy cannot be imposed, it needs to be created in a climate of respect,â Franceâs top diplomat said. He stressed that âinternational law is capable of finding a solution to guarantee Iraqâs future and it is illogical that the UNâs role be limited to humanitarian aspects, since we cannot dissociate them from military and political aspects.â Yeah â the UN did SO well finding a solution to Saddam. *snort*
During his 24-hour visit to Beirut, de Villepin met with President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Speaker Nabih Berri before heading for Riyadh, the last stop in his Mideast tour. De Villepin also visited Cairo and Damascus. Before his departure, he held a joint conference at Beirut airport with his Lebanese counterpart, Mahmoud Hammoud. Aw, COME ON! That name HAS to have been made up!
Asked about his position on the Syrian presence in Lebanon, he said that âFrance is keen on seeing the fulfilment of the Taif Accords,â which ended the Lebanese civil war and called for a phased pull out of Syrian troops. Hammoud reiterated the official stance, that Syriaâs presence here is legitimate and had the full endorsement of the local authorities. Earlier in Baabda Palace, Lahoud warned that the escalation of violence in Iraq and in the Occupied Territories will increase terrorism. He also called on the European Union and the United Nations to step in before it becomes too late. Lahoud also lauded French President Jacques Chiracâs anti-war position and his keenness on seeing the UN take over in Iraq. He reaffirmed that any possible solution to the Iraqi conflict had to come through the League of United Nations, adding that its role should not be limited to humanitarian issues.
Lahoud said that the current political vacuum and the subsequent chaos in Iraq will have negative repercussions for the regionâs future. Regarding the so-called âroad mapâ for regional peace, which was endorsed by the EU, Russia, the US and the UN and which calls for a Palestinian state within three years, Lahoud said it was too early to take a position on the plan since it had yet to be published. Lahoud said it seemed Israel was trying to place conditions on the plan, which could not be accepted by Lebanon, such as the nationalization of refugees in their countries of residence. In addition, Lahoud repeated that Lebanonâs refusal to settle Palestinian refugees was final and one of the pillars of the Taif Accord. He also stressed the importance of activating the road map without any alteration, as a necessary step toward achieving peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Lahoud said that the mechanism for peace should begin with the publication of the plan, and be followed by the declaration of a cease-fire on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides. Yes⊠their previous cease-fires went smashingly.
He also called for steps to shoulder the development of the Palestinian state and the holding an international assembly to declare a Palestinian state. Discussing the peace plan and Iraq is high on de Villepinâs agenda during his tour. De Villepin said the French and Lebanese positions on the Iraqi conflict were in agreement, with both calling for a UN sponsored solution. âWeâll veto if you want to go to war, weâll veto if you want the UN to do anything after the war, we want a UN resolution ⊠BLAH BLAH BLAHH BLAH.. â
De Villepin also briefed Lahoud on the Saint Petersburg summit between French President Jacques Chirac, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and on the preparations for an upcoming European summit in Greece next week. In Ain al-Mreisseh, the speaker said Washingtonâs repeated threats to Damascus in recent weeks did not concern its help to Iraq, but were rather aimed at âdeterring any objection movement to what is to come regarding the Palestinian cause.â Showing his astute understanding of absolutely nothing, again. Gotta find something to take care of that De Villepin.
#1
France wants us to back off on Syria - Ok let talk. How about we get something in return - like a UNSC resolution authorizing our position in Iraq (without conceding political control to UN) plus foregiveness of Iraqi debts???
Its good to be magnanimous after victory, but we still have alot to talk about with the French. Each day that reveals French/Russian illegal weapons sales to Iraq, more evidence of WMD,improvement of the situation on the ground in Iraq,etc makes the axis of weasels position weaker. So lets talk, but not be too quick to cut a deal with people whose negotiating position is crumbling.
#2
de Villepin: le bag du breeze....Call the Kyoto Global Warming cops on him. They signed the treaty.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2003 14:15 Comments ||
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Villepin needs a dose of Foghorn Leghorn:
Go away, ah says go away son, ya bother me.
Posted by: Jim ||
04/14/2003 14:21 Comments ||
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In fake news today:
Visiting French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Sunday that the international community should concentrate on rebuilding Iraq rather than âopening new battle fronts.â Speaking to reporters at Beirut International Airport after meeting with Lebanese leaders, de Villepin said the time was appropriate for Washington to apply pressure on Syria to take advantage of once-in-a-lifetime deals on undelivered orders of UN-disallowed munitions and other military equipment. Said de Villepin, "Well, we suspect that the United States would be more inclined to realize the good the UN can do as a body once our American allies get a taste of the sweet life that can also be had by pimping illegal weapons to terrorist states. I grant that it's no picnic to wake up every morning and realize that one has spent the night in a drunken haze with Germany, but that and supporting genocidal maniancs is a small price to pay for making enough money to buy all the brie one could ever want."
de Villepin then vowed to make this year's Tour de France so difficult that Lance Armstrong could not possibly win. "We're just sick and tired of everybody being better at everything than we are."
#5
Frogger couldn't be any more wrong about the timing of US pressure on Syria. We have 300k motivated, battle-tested troops next door. We know a bunch of leading Iratqis are scurrying their way. It's likely that Syria is babysitting Iraqi WMD and scientists. Plus we get Hezbollah off Israel's back in the bargain (and further put the screws to Iran). It's win, win, win, win to me.
#8
From Best Of The Web today:
Meanwhile, France's Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin was in Damascus over the weekend, meeting with the Syrian FM, Farouk al-Sharaa. CNN reports on a hilarious exchange between the two:
Talking about the Bush administration's military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, Sharaa questioned the United States' motive.
"Look at all these things: Is Afghanistan stable? Have their objectives been achieved? Have they found Osama bin Laden?" he asked, before mentioning the "looting and lawlessness" that followed the fall of Saddam's regime.
"They've left a mess in both these countries and they're not finished. Now turning their attention to a third country," he said. "Historians talk about the Second World War and how the Germans should have been stopped earlier."
Then, just before Sharaa was about to compare the Bush administration to Nazi Germany, France's de Villepin stopped him.
"You do not want to make this comparison," de Villepin said. "Don't do this."
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2003 18:19 Comments ||
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We have to concentrate on giving the Iraqi people the victory they deserve.â
EFL
The shooting deaths of two Israeli-Americans at Los Angeles International Airport last year was an act of terrorism, but the Egyptian-born killer had no links to Islamic extremist groups, according to a final FBI report on the case.
The FBI findings about the July 4 shooting rampage at an El Al ticket counter by Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, which claimed the lives of Yaacov (Jacob) Aminov, 46, a jewelry importer, and Victoria Hen, 25, a ticket agent. Hadayet, who was standing in the El Al passenger line, opened fire with a .45-caliber handgun, killing the Hen and Aminov, and was himself shot and killed by an El Al security guard within seconds. After waffling for months over Hadayetâs motives and whether to classify the attack as terrorism â to the frustration of the victimsâ families and Israeli officials â the FBI in its report concludes that the Egyptian immigrant methodically planned the killings to express his anger over Israeli treatment of Palestinians. Surprise meter didn't budge.
A devout Muslim, Hadayet had âtold people close to him that he believed in violent jihad and also believed in targeting innocent civilians,â Los Angeles FBI spokesman Matthew McLaughlin said April 11. âIt appears clear, with El Al being a government-owned Israeli airline, that he was launching an attack against that government,â McLaughlin added. In the weeks before the shooting, which occurred on Hadayetâs 41st birthday, he had closed several bank accounts, bought guns, and sent his family on vacation to Egypt. It's called premeditation.
The FBI concluded that Hadayet had acted as a loner. Yup, just like the DC sniper. Oh, wait......
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 11:41 am ||
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#1
Meanwhile in other news, IUPAC calls gold "Element 79."
#3
Well, now maybe we can get Grey Davis to call it terrorism too, and, heaven forbid there's a next time, call in someone more suited to deal with it than the CHP. (no disrespect meant to the CHP of course...)
Posted by: Ken ||
04/14/2003 12:21 Comments ||
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#4
Nothing wrong with Gray Davis calling it terrorism, just make sure that he doesn't have to handle any money while doing so.
#5
Logic must have been the last possible avenue in cracking this brutally mysterious case. We all knew the moment we heard the "breaking news" that it was a Islamic terrorist! Who are these people? Federal Bureau of Idiots perhaps???
In other "This just in news," the FBI projects that the war on terror will be won by the year 2948..."
Israel joined pressure on Syria on Monday, demanding it get Hezbollah guerrillas out of Lebanon and accusing it of supporting terrorism. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, visiting Turkey, accused Damascus of harboring terrorists and granting refuge to senior Iraqi officials. "All I have to have to is turn the screw like this ..."
"Ow-w-w-w! Okay, they're leaving!"
President Bush on Sunday warned Damascus it must cooperate with the United States and deny help to Iraqi officials fleeing a post-Saddam Iraq. "Silvan, you want to show me how you did that?"
"Sure, Colin, hold this lever and turn it clockwise like this to increase the pressure."
[Background]"Ow-w-w-w-w-w-w! They're leaving, they're leaving!"
"Silvan, thanks, I think we'll give it a try."
"Feel free, Colin!"
Shalom, speaking after talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, accused Damascus of undermining peace in the Middle East amid fears the U.S.-led war in the region could now spread to Iraq's neighbors. Baby Assad's a Ba'athist. It's natural for him to behave this way.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2003 11:29 am ||
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#4
Amazing how a little regime change can impact regional politics. "Howdy neighbor "S", let's discuss how cutting the grass and taking out the trash can make the whole neighborhood better. Oh neighbor "T", we are going to paint the fence, so we expect your help."
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2003 12:25 Comments ||
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"undermining peace in the Middle East... " Oh come on now, we can't possibly be expected to believe that kind of talk about a respected member of the security council! I suppose next you're going to say that Libya was a poor choice for the U.N. Human rights council
Palestinian Authority Chairman-for-Life Yasser Arafat has refused to endorse the new Palestinian cabinet formed by the incoming Palestinian premier Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinian sources said Arafat was displeased with a number of new ministers whom he viewed as too critical of his policies. "I mean, these guys're gonna make me feel... irrelevant."
A meeting of the Fatah Executive Committee which was supposed to take place on Sunday for the purpose of endorsing the new cabinet was cancelled by Arafat. The sources said the meeting would still take place Tuesday or Wednesday if Abu Mazen made the changes demanded by Arafat. "Cheeze, Yasser! Okay. What do you demand?"
"Chuck it."
The composition of the 20-member cabinet includes some of Arafat's erstwhile critics. Abbas appointed the former Gaza Preventive Security Chief Muhammed Dahlan as minister of state for interior affairs. Dahlan was quoted as expressing confidence that he could put an end to guerrilla attacks against Israel. However, two former PA ministers, information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo and local affairs minister Saeb Erekat, have refused to join the cabinet. Once the Palestinian cabinet is approved, possibly later this week, President Bush is expected to unveil a 'road map' to Palestinian state. But not before, which means not until...
The Zionist regime has voiced serious reservations about the plan and dispatched a Sharon's aide to Washington to press the Bush Administration to take them into account.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/14/2003 11:26 am ||
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#1
If there ever was any question about Arafart's desire for one-man rule (as in HIS), this should be proof enough.
#4
Yasser is not really a failed dictator, just a wanna be failed dictator.
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
04/14/2003 16:03 Comments ||
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#5
Arafat needs to go back to Egypt - in a leaky pine box. Not a very big one - about the size of a Cuba Libre cigar box, about half empty. Maybe we need to send him one of those vests we discovered in that school in Baghdad.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2003 22:33 Comments ||
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#6
The best thing we could do for Mideast Peace is to put Arafat in orange-jumpsuit-land. Until his lethal injection, of course.
EFL
Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal discussed Iraqi security and sovereignty Monday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during an impromptu visit to Damascus, the official SANA news agency said. Their talks focused on "efforts by Iraq's neighbors to restore security and stability and to preserve the country's territorial integrity" SANA said. Preserving their jobs and necks.
Prince Faisal's unexpected visit came after the United States stepped up criticism of Syria, accusing Damascus of possessing weapons of mass destruction and allowing senior Iraqi leaders to escape through its territory. Syrian nationals also battled US troops in Baghdad after entering Iraq by the busload, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld charged Sunday. Lost that road game
Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa dismissed the allegations of Syrian support for Saddam Hussein's regime as groundless, the official Syrian daily Tishrin said Monday. "Mussa judged yesterday as groundless the accusations of certain American leaders against Syria," the newspaper said. "The United States and major powers should use their military force on behalf of the Palestinian cause and end the Israeli occupation of Arab lands," it quoted Mussa as saying. That's some good shit he's smoking.
On Sunday, US President George W. Bush said Syria has chemical weapons, and warned Damascus it must cooperate with Washington as the United States pursues its overthrow of Saddam Hussein. "There is a campaign of false information and disinformation against Syria which began even before the war", the embassy's deputy ambassador Imad Mustapha told NBC television. "Lies, all lies!"
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 11:05 am ||
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#1
The only action in which the U.S. military should use its force with regard to the Palestinian problem is to kill every last member of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and whatever other terrorist groups that share similar views and modi operandi.
#2
Arabs circle wagons. Chief Faisal warns Chief Asshat that infidel cowboys don't use bows 'n arrows or antiquated French / Russian stuff, have really big firesticks and ride in unstoppable iron buffaloes, very big magic. Counted beaucoup coup in next valley. Many scalps taken. Shhhhh. Consult spirits, gain wisdom. Stop dancing with wolves and hyenas and fools. Clean wigwam.
(BTW, I am a Native American, Comanche ("take no prisoners"), so no pissed off loonie PC's need get their shorts in a bunch...)
#3
Saudi Arabia knows they're on the short list, but thought they'd have a couple of years at least to reform and kiss butt. Now Assad Jr. looks like he's accellerating his own demise and the Saudi's are worried. If the dominos fall to quickly the Arab people might get the wrong idea and start taking things into their own hands.
#5
Deliberately mixing metaphors: As one more swamp is drained, the rats scurry to the next available cesspool of corruption and terrorism. But what happens when there are no more havens? Perhaps then they will find it necessary to sit down, talk about peaceful coexistence with Israel and learn to live with the world.
#6
You speak softly and carry the big stick. That leaves them an out that is favorable to your outcome. After you speak softly, you wait for a response. If they respond and speak back softly, you talk. If they dont you wack them with the big stick. Then speak softly again and see what happens. Actually it can easily be programmed as a subroutine using a loop and conditional expressions.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2003 13:42 Comments ||
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#7
PD,
LMAOSHIUDARDANIAAW (Laughed my ass off so hard I unknowingly did a rain dance and now I am all wet.)
Posted by: af ||
04/14/2003 14:19 Comments ||
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#8
We finally got to play Cowboys and Muslims (tm) guess who won?
Palestinian leader, Muhammad âAbbas (aka Abu Abbas) has fled from his home in Baghdad towards the Syrian border, Palestinian sources Sunday told Quds Press. According to these sources, the Syrian authorities refused to allow him to enter the Syrian territory. Abbas, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, heads the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF). The Abu Abbas-led faction has conducted several attacks against Israel. Abbas's group also was responsible for the attack in 1985 on the cruise ship Achille Lauro and the killing of a US citizen. A warrant for Abu Abbas's arrest is outstanding in Italy. Since the Achille Lauro attack, the PLF has based itself in Iraq. And now he's looking for a new home.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 10:49 am ||
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#1
I thought this guy was reported dead in Iraq some time ago by CNN? Something else they did not tell us?
Posted by: Bunky ||
04/14/2003 11:12 Comments ||
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#2
He can have a private cell in Gitmo.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2003 11:15 Comments ||
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#3
You're not thinking of Abu Nidal, are you? That was back in September.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2003 11:17 Comments ||
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The German Peace Movement announced plans for holding nationwide demonstrations in the near future in solidarity with Iran and Syria while protesting America's pre-emptive war strategy, the German press reported on Monday. If at first you don't succeed...
"There should be no further offensive wars against, for example, Iran and Syria," an unidentified peace activist was cited as saying following a weekend meeting of the German Peace Movement in Frankfurt. He further said that any other new wars, just like the US war in Iraq, would be "illegitimate." German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder warned last week the US against starting new wars in the Middle East region, reacting to American threats against Iran and Syria. "I am warning against repetitions," Schroeder said. Warn away.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 10:16 am ||
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#1
does gerhard offer peaceful options? we're quite eager to embrace those wrt Iran.
BTW - i wonder how German public is reacting to news of Russian arms and intel cooperation in Iraq, and axis support for "dual-use" equipment. I'd love to see Schroeder go down and have US reach out to Chancellor Merkel.
#6
The Lefty Lackwit Boot-licking Appeasement Monkeys⢠have taken over Germany.
The more they talk, the more they marginalize themselves. Germany, France, and many other Old European countries have revealed themselves to be nothing but Socialvik regimes gasping like old cancerous geezers drifting in and out of a pre-death morphine-induced coma.
Let's just hope that the rotting corpse of Old Europe doesn't stink up the world for too much longer.
The German Peace Movement announced plans for holding nationwide demonstrations in the near future in solidarity with Iran and Syria while protesting America's pre-emptive war strategy, the German press reported on Monday.
I SUPPORT FREE SPEECH FOR THE DUMB! It's the easiest way to single them out for ridicule.
#8
I really wonder what kind of German papers IRNA is reading. Can't find anything here and we have quite a choice when it comes to reading.
Instead I read quite a lot about French and Russian dealings in Iraq and the German comments getting... shall I say... a bit chillier.
Schroeder still is in deep trouble over the economy, his SPD party doesn't want any reforms and now the members are challenging him on a general party reunion taking place on June 1st. The Red-Green coalition might not survive this year.
Angela Merkel isn't known to like the French government too much.
#9
TGA,you have been a good friend and voice of reason and I thank you.
"solidarity with Iran and Syria"
Standing shoulder to shoulder with State sponsers of terrorisam,makes a person wonder about thier sense of morality and justice.
#10
That "solidarity" is an invention of IRNA. Not even that "unidentified peace activist" says that. And German peace activists like attention, they don't go by "unidentified".
Tomorrow IRNA will probably quote the German garbage guy (who comes from Iran btw).
EFL Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa on Saturday denied U.S. allegations that Syria is hiding deposed Iraqi leader Saddam's Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and sheltering leaders of Saddam's fallen regime. At a news briefing with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, Sharaa said U.S. complaints against Syria came "from fanatic circles" in the Bush administration who want to "degrade Syria's role in the region."
That's a thought that cheers must of us here in the rational world...
De Villepin arrived in Syria for meetings with Syrian President Basher al-Assad the day after Syria, responding to U.S. pressure, closed its border with Iraq. At the news briefing, Sharaa faced more questions about U.S. claims. "Sometimes I don't think the Americans know what they want," he said. "They accuse us of hiding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but they don't listen when we tell them we don't have any. We have no weapons and we harbor no one and they bring us no evidence."
But sometimes he's afraid the Americans do know what they want...
Then, talking about the Bush administration's military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, Sharaa questioned the United States' motive. "Look at all these things: Is Afghanistan stable? Have their objectives been achieved? Have they found Osama bin Laden?" he asked, before mentioning the "looting and lawlessness" that followed the fall of Saddam's regime. "They've left a mess in both these countries and they're not finished. Now turning their attention to a third country," he said. "Historians talk about the Second World War and how the Germans should have been stopped earlier."
On the other hand, what possible motive can we have for invading and occupying two Third World ratholes other than the ones we've stated? Can anyone think of any reason why we'd really want Afghanistan for our very own?
Then, just before Sharaa was about to compare the Bush administration to Nazi Germany, France's de Villepin stopped him. "You do not want to make this comparison," de Villepin said. "Don't do this."
Good move. Real good move. Chills must have run up and down Dominique's spine when he started on that tack...
Sharaa regained his composure and talked about the need to maintain dialogue and peace in the region. U.S. intelligence officials said that while some relatives of senior Iraqi officials have crossed into Syria, they have no clear evidence any Iraqi officials themselves have done so. The United States said it is watching the Iraqi-Syrian border closely.
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
04/14/2003 10:09 am ||
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#1
If Syria doesn't get any rhetorical support from Egypt or Saudi A within 24 hours, they will have lost face within the Arab world big time.
#2
Oh PLEASE! This sounds canned to me. For all practical purposes, he made the comparison. The news services are busy churning out press releases just like this one and you know that makes him a happy camper. CNN, Al-Jazeera and others will spread this far and wide to the world. The talking point, that Bush is Hitler, is exactly the lie he wanted repeated "often enough" to the Arab world. He can just thinks he can avoid the political fallout that would occur if he could actually be quoted for saying it. What a bunch of weasels.
#3
mhw..we posted at same time. Your remark is more to the point. It doesn't really matter if the "slip" was on purpose (or not)- however, the Arab response to it will be telling.
#5
thanks becky; Even though Assad Jr. has been in power for a few years now he still doesn't have his own flunkies in power (he uses his dad's flunkies); he also tends to give out instructions without thinking things through and this has gotten him in trouble with his Arab financiers a few times before. The profit he got from skimming Iraqi sanctions busting trade is gone (probably in the tens or hundreds of $millions/yr); some of the Syrian troops have left the richer parts of Lebanon (where they could extort some good protection money). Of course, there is the continuing little problem that a lot of the population resents the Alawites. Things are looking a little skaky for regime.
all weapons, etc that went into iraq went through Syria. Anything - files, people etc - that went out went through Syria.
US is asking Syria to make a full accounting of what went in (and what went out?) Since 9/11 we've taken it easy on Syria, since they cooperated on intel. What we want from them now is intel.
And that must be making the French and Russians very nervous, if Syria knows whats been moving where and with whose knowledge. Easy way for Syria to get US off its back is to turn "state's evidence" against the axis - France has to be rushing in to guarantee them that France and its pals can protect Syria, as long as Syria protects France. Of course France's failure to protect the regime in Iraq has to effect Syrian thinking.
The United States has apparently began a major military build-up along Iraq's western borders with Syria, the daily Bild cited confidential remarks by an unidentified US general. New American troop contingents and heavy military hardware, including A-10 fighter planes, M1 'Abrams' tanks, 'Apache' combat helicopters and massive bomb arsenals, have been secretly deployed in the Iraqi town of Ar-Rutbah. "Hi, we're the 4th ID. We'd like to talk to you about the Neighborhood Watch Program."
Washington has repeatedly threatened Damascus over the past days for allegedly aiding the deposed Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. Syria has dismissed the American charges. "Lies, all lies."
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 09:48 am ||
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#1
I always laugh when I hear the A-10 called a "fighter plane". Just goes to show what some of these people know. (or don't know, as it were)
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
04/14/2003 11:46 Comments ||
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#4
Bomb-a-rama, speaking of people not knowing, The gal on Fox News Yesterday thought that the AK47 was used by the U.S. And the Armchair General thought they we're hearing an AK firing while the camera was on, and the world was watching, a U.S. Marine firing.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/14/2003 12:28 Comments ||
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#5
Syria needs to arrest and return All Iraqi baathists who crossed the border in the last four weeks and send them back for Trial...
Or Else!
Posturing must not be allowed to become an acceptable course of action.
Someone tell these dopes we have satellites with very good eyes ( 20/20 vision ) watching them and that we are unlikely to show them what we have seen simply because they already know the truth.
#6
Considering that the US now controls the oil pipeline that used to be used to smuggle oil to Syria and the roads that used to be used to smuggle oil to Syria, we can probably put quite a hurt on Syria without actually using any military vehicles. The military hardwaredoes just seems to put the exclamation in the point.
#7
I think Syria will come around. Expect Assad to liberize his system in the weeks and months to come. He knows the jig is up and he'd probably just as soon not have be sent away, via JDAM, from this mortal coil.
#8
Methinks that the Iraqi Information Ministry can readily find employment in Syria. He has just the kind of resume and body of pathological prevarications that Assad is looking for!
#9
Wait! We declared a War On Terror long before we did on Saddam. Just handing over escaping Ba'athists ain't enuff! They've been bad, really bad.
I recall Lebanon used to be an actual country, but became Daddy AssHat's buffer zone and training center. I recall one helluvalot of DEAD US MARINES (237?) on Syria's watch. One is infinitely too many. I recall that they have supported terrorists (Hezbollah - in concert with Iran) forever.
Taking down "states" that support terrorism is the only truly effective means of slowing or stopping it. You take away the haven, the financing, the documents, the places where they train these twisted-from-birth-by-Qu'ran volunteers, and a host of other reasons. This is one of those "states" and deserves no slack, period.
Am I missing something here? Do we let Syria skate away if they just help a little with the Iraq thing? Wha?
#10
Not that driving Syria and Hezbollah out of Lebanon,or even ousting Baby Assad wouldn't be a good thing,but Bild is not the most reliable newspaper in the world and I'd wait for confirmation from another source.Note the "unidentified US general".Sam Mildener,perchance?
Posted by: El Id ||
04/14/2003 16:04 Comments ||
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#11
The gal on Fox News Yesterday thought that the AK47 was used by the U.S.
I'll bet that if the magic words "assault weapon" were used, she'd probably snap to. Or maybe not...
In any case, I understand the A-10 confusion. But come on, A is for Attack... F is for Fighter... C is for Cargo Transport, B is for Bomber...you'll go far with those little triggers.
Posted by: Brian ||
04/14/2003 17:25 Comments ||
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#13
It all makes sense until you try to explain the F-117.
#14
We don't want to go into Syria. I'd guess the 4ID will spread out with the 101 and interdict the border. We have lots and lots of nifty toys that will tell us if a snake crawls across. Meanwhile, no iraqi oil, and the Israelis making ugly noises.
Bet on photo-documented humint on the folks that aren't there soon. When it shows up, we'll shove it right down their lying throats.
US Marines on Sunday arrested a reporter of Iran's Arabic television channel Al-Aalam in the Iraqi city of Kut and took him to an undisclosed place, the channel's cameraman said. Abdol Hadi Zeighami was arrested while reporting on US tanks rolling into the eastern town, around 170 km southeast of Baghdad. US Marines also took away the film which the Al-Aalam crew had shot from the war scene. "American Marines seized the camera and after taking out its film gave the camera back," the cameraman said, adding they also took away some of the "technical equipment" of the Al-Aalam crew.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/14/2003 09:58 am ||
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Edited Prime Minister John Howard wants to reform the United Nations, saying the presence of France as a permanent member of the Security Council "distorts" the council. He wants Japan, a South American country and India to be represented on the Security Council. France was there only because it was a global power at the end of World War II, he said.
And now it's not. And becoming less so...
Asking France or any other permanent member of the Security Council to voluntarily surrender their seat was "a major undertaking", he conceded.
It'll be fun to watch them oink and wiggle, though...
His comments risk the ire of France before the first visit to Australia by President Jacques Chirac, who is due in the country in July.
Want us to stitch up those ire wounds for you, John?
France angered the war coalition nations with its strong opposition to a second UN resolution backing military action. Once the troops went into Iraq, President Chirac was a vocal opponent of the war. Mr Howard offered a compromise, which he said would make the UN more representative of the modern world — three levels of Security Council members, the permanent members, the rotating members and a new group of permanent members that had no veto. It would be "a far better expression of world opinion", he said. Despite his criticism of the Security Council, Mr Howard said the UN had a complementary role to play in the reconstruction of Iraq. But the interim authority would be run by the US with help from Britain, Australia and others.
Either that or just can the daggone thing as an idea whose time has gone. The League of United Nations has raised being ineffectual to new levels, at the same time it's presented an opportunity for relatives of Third World bigshots to find cushy jobs and take potshots at countries that actually work. It can be replaced by a network of alliances among genuine allies, along with an autonomous group of NGOs that can be funded based on performance.
Also yesterday, Mr Howard attacked "armchair generals" who criticised the conduct of the war, while it had run largely according to plan. "Of all the doomsday scenarios that were predicted, not one of them has been realised," he said.
That's Australian for "nyah nyah nyah!"
Posted by: George ||
04/14/2003 09:29 am ||
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#2
Oh the Greenies in Oz must be pulling their hair out that none of their warnings came true, and that Howard is more of a leader than any of their phoney candidates could ever dream of being.
Posted by: g wiz ||
04/14/2003 9:54 Comments ||
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#3
Hurray for John Howard. The Aussies have rightly won the honor of landing the first blow in the upcoming Froggendammerung. Dropping France from the UNSC may well be our price for continued participation in the UN.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/14/2003 10:01 Comments ||
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#4
Japan and India are far more deserving and representative - they shoudl have a permanent seat. A third rate, failed colonial power, France, has no business being there with a veto.
#5
I LOVE this guy! Someone had to say it, and he deserves accolades for having the balls to call the French what they are: has-been whores trying to live off a beauty they no longer have
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2003 10:12 Comments ||
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#6
Hey Frank, I didn't know John Howard and John McCain were related. Come to think of it....
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2003 10:30 Comments ||
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#7
John, couldn't remember McCain's exact words, so I did the best I could. Had something to do with former film queens living off their former beauty. I think the French aspire to that but deserve less
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2003 10:41 Comments ||
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#8
I'm all for India over France, but as someone recently remarked, giving India a seat makes it look like rewarding them for going nuclear...although by that logic, I'm not sure what France did to deserve its seat, uh, donate massive acreage to Allied graveyards, maybe.
Posted by: (lowercase) matt ||
04/14/2003 10:41 Comments ||
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#9
India actually has a lot going for it other than just being a nuclear power. There's a billion people there, as opposed to France's 65 million; the second largest population of Muslims in the world; and it's the world's largest democracy. Whether they would want to be part of the Security Council is anyone's guess.
BTW, didn't the Aussies call their participation in the coalition "Operation Bastille"?
I love the Aussies!
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
04/14/2003 11:53 Comments ||
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#10
If India were added along with Brazil and Japan it would not appear to be rewarding them for going neutral but instead recognizing the dominant regional players.
The US should jump on this, and start saying any attempts to stop Japan, India and Brazil are based on racism.A United Europe only needs on veto after all. And if we play it right we can be on the side of the small guy and the third world.
#12
My personal recomendiation is South Africa. Yes they were against the war but the fact that they gave up their entire WMD program voluntarily shows that they are a mature country. Plus they would be able to represent Africa. One thing going against them is the way they dealt with the Zimbabwe issue.
#14
I know it might take a rewriting of UN charter, but has anyone floated the idea of dumping France from the Security Council? I mean, WHY are they still there. Stalin's question about the Pope seems appropo here.
Possible replacement players could be: (we could have fun here)
-Japan (I know, no divisions either - but definite specific gravity)
-The Whole EU as one seat (GB must exit)
-India (imagine that - tooooo scary)
-Brasil (doesn't emerging Sud America rate a seat?)
-If it's just GNP you want, how 'bout Taiwan?
Posted by: Scott 4/11/2003 1:54:48 PM
Further proof of Rantburg's global reach. I'm still rooting for Taiwan, right after they purchase mainland China, in exchange for solving their SARS problem.
Posted by: Scott ||
04/14/2003 13:32 Comments ||
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#15
"One thing going against them is the way they dealt with the Zimbabwe issue."
And another is their irresponsible handling of AIDS...and another is the corruption in the ANC...you get the picture.
While it would be nice to see an African country in a responsible position it would be a terrible mistake to describe South Africa as "a mature country".
#16
India should definitely have a seat. I mean, they're only the 2nd largest country in the world in terms of population.
However, bear in mind that India is perhaps even more anti-American than France is. During the cold war, they sided with the USSR and had very close ties. They still mourn the demise of the USSR.
So, the net effect would probably be the same, only less whiney. Indians have a sense of dignity that the French lack (the French think they have it, but they just look ridiculous)
Posted by: Jeremy ||
04/14/2003 17:40 Comments ||
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#17
Think Pakistan will have a hissy if India makes it to the Security Council?
(grin)
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
04/14/2003 18:18 Comments ||
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#18
I have a better suggestion. Let's just dump the entire UN mess, bills and all, and form a NEW organization, built around the Coalition. Might be easier. No "security council", no "open membership", just those that understand that some things need to be done, and are willing to roll up their sleeves and pitch in. I think it will take about three problems to get the attention of the rest of the world, and the EUnunchs in EUrope will find themselves slowly slipping down the shower drain, with the rest of the scum.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2003 18:37 Comments ||
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#19
France relying on England's veto? Oh, boy - Wouldn't that twist their knickers?
#20
Like his Commonwealth colleague, Tony Blair, John Howard has shown himself to be a man of steel. He has stood up to, and now crushed, the whole saddamite fifth column in Ozland: media-monkeys, pinko senators, muslim infiltrators, and slavering greenbats alike. The duplicitous frogs and their hench-scum must be shitting themselves every time they hear his name.
Despite North Korea's apparent warming toward the notion of multilateral dialogue to resolve its nuclear standoff with the United States, any such discussion is likely to be held back by arguments over which countries to include. South Korea prefers the so-called "two plus four" model, featuring the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. But North Korea and China are opposing the participation of Japan and Russia, insisting that they are not directly related to security on the Korean Peninsula. "The North sees no reason for Japan and Russia to join the multilateral talks because it wants to discuss the abolition of the armistice pact and the signing of a non-aggression pact with the United States during the forum," said a ranking official at the Foreign Ministry.
The armistice agreement, which ended the 3-year Korean War in 1953, was signed by four combatants - UN, US, North Korea and China. "Instead, the North wants the European Union (EU) to participate in the multilateral forum in an apparent hope that EU may play a leading role in providing economic aid to Pyongyang," an official said. Seoul officials have said the multilateral talks, if opened, will incorporate not only the North's nuclear arms program but also the international community's economic support to the destitute communist country. The United States has wanted a broader multilateral setting to include both Koreas, five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Australia, Canada and EU. But Seoul officials said the North is uncomfortable with such a format.
Washington persistently rejected Pyongyang's demand for direct negotiations to address the nuclear standoff and discuss other security issues. In a significant turnaround, North Korea said Saturday it would consider any form of dialogue with the United States if Washington agrees on discussions about economic aid and security assurances. South Korea and the United States welcomed the North's softening of its demand for the bilateral talks, regarding it as a positive development in resolving the nuclear issue.
The nuclear dispute started after the United States said last October that the North admitted to having a nuclear program using enriched uranium. Since then, the North has expelled UN inspectors monitoring sealed nuclear reactors, declared that it was withdrawing from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and has begun to reactivate its nuclear plant. Pyongyang's changes in attitude came days after the US-led forces toppled the Saddam Hussein regime in a war which South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said had "petrified" the North.
Like I say, each success is going to make subsequent successes easier. Two weeks ago the NKors were frothing at the mouth and threatening seas of fire. Today, they're frothing at the mouth and demanding negotiations.
Posted by: george ||
04/14/2003 09:03 am ||
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The silent treatment seems to be working, so let's keep it up. And Kimmie's so scared that he's been burrowing to...well, let me check my globe...uh, burrowing to Bolivia, it looks like.
Posted by: (lowercase) matt ||
04/14/2003 9:28 Comments ||
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#2
Someone else sees the "Axis of Weasels" as a bunch of "useful idiots". Do they really think the United States will subject itself to the decisions made primarily by the two countries that caused it so much grief in Iraq? We need to keep the pressure on Kimmie, he's beginning to sweat. Maybe he'll lose some of that paunch he's gained, living like a king while his people ate grass.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2003 9:34 Comments ||
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#3
Just for laughs the US should insist that France attend the talks with China, SK, NK and us.
#4
You know, that creepy little hobbit once wanted to be a filmaker so badly that he had a director kidnapped; it was more convenient than calling, I suppose. So here's what we do - we continue to bribe Kim, but we make our payments in filmakers. Think about it: Michael Moore, Barbara Streisand, heck, we could even finally get rid of Kevin Costner. It's frikkin' brilliant.
#5
FormerLib - I'd forgotten that, thx for reminding me lol
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2003 11:25 Comments ||
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#6
I only remembered it because I saw an extremely depressing - and now infuriating - "Frontline" documentary on Thursday. The gist was that while the Carter/Clinton bribe was remarkable for its stupidity, cravenness, and inability to actually be implemented fully, the current attitudes of the Bush administration towards NK removes the almost transparent patina of safety and security that the bribe purchased for us, which is why the Carter/Clinton fellatio of Kim is still better than Bush's refusal to get on his knees.
One astouding political benefit of the Iraq war has been all the interesting worms that have exploded out of the proverbial can. I wonder what we'll find in NK?
Fleeing leaders of Saddam Hussein's regime aren't welcome in Iran, and if they sneak in they'll be tried for war crimes from the 1980-1988 war, state television reported Monday. "If any Iraqi leader wants to enter Iran legally, we will naturally reject it. But if they come illegally, we will try them for the crimes they have committed against our people," the television quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying. "Iranian guards carefully watch any activities on our long western border with Iraq," Asefi said.
Asefi said he was assured on Sunday by British Foreign Office minister Mike O'Brien that the presence of U.S.-led forces in Iraq will be "limited." He said Iran will continue to seek war reparations from Iraq. Iran claims it sustained an estimated $1 trillion damages from the war. Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw rejected fears Monday that Iran was on the target list after Iraq. "We've been developing better diplomatic relations with Iran," he told the British Broadcasting Corp. radio from Bahrain. "We're grateful to the Iranians for the support and cooperation which they gave during the course of this military conflict." Another reason that the British were assigned the Basra area.
Unlike the Syrians, the Medes and the Persians have managed to decipher what "mene mene tekel upharsin" really means — and it's not referring to them this time.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 08:50 am ||
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EFL
An accused Chinese double agent who was having long-term sexual affairs with two veteran FBI counterintelligence agents was a key source for a special Justice Department campaign-finance task force, NEWSWEEK has learned. Set up six years ago in part to investigate an alleged Chinese plot to influence U.S. lawmakers, the task force has since disbanded: it was never able to prove the Chinese government was behind millions of dollars in suspect campaign contributions to former president Bill Clinton and members of Congress during the 1990s. But last weekâs arrest of Los Angeles businesswoman Katrina Leung — an accused spy whose code name was Parlor Maid — has prompted an intense FBI review to determine if she compromised highly sensitive counterintelligence investigations, including the campaign-finance probe. Leung, sources say, was the task forceâs chief source on prime target Ted Sioeng, a suspected Chinese âagent of influenceâ whose family and businesses contributed $250,000 to the Democratic Party in 1996 and an additional $100,000 to a California GOP Senate candidate. Leung and Sioeng (who sat next to Al Gore at his Buddhist-temple fund-raiser that year in Los Angeles) were âclose friends,â one source says. Task-force prosecutors hoped to use Leung to lure Sioeng back into the United States in the spring of 1997. But the ruse failedâapparently because Sioeng got suspiciousâand the case collapsed. Now FBI officials want to know if Leung sabotaged the probe and was actually protecting Sioeng. It just keeps getting better.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2003 08:16 am ||
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#1
Thanks, Janet Reno, for nothing
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2003 18:06 Comments ||
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Since Syria is in the news a lot lately, I thought it would be handy to post these links which profess to describe the Syrian run terrorist infrastructure that supports almost every terror group in the region. Assuming this information is correct, Syria seems to me to be a lot like Pakistan, with anonymous intelligence agents and military men pulling the strings behind a multitude of terrorist groups that claim to act independately, but at best are kept on a tight leash by Damascus, and at worst are simply tools of that countries foreign policy interests.
These articles are too long to post here, but if you are interested, you can find information on Syrian support for Hamas here.
They also sponsor an alphabet soup of less important groups like the PKK, PFLP, DFLP and Asbat ul-Ansar; but the aformentioned groups are the most important.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
04/14/2003 03:53 am ||
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#1
The PKK is quite large and I believe has racked up a larger body count in terms of the number of victims than any of these groups except Hezbollah.
And Asbat al-Ansar is regional node of al-Qaeda and hence more than worth noting.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2003 6:58 Comments ||
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#2
However the PKK has been operating under a cease fire ever since the Turks nabbed Ocalan, and they are unlikely to carry out any attacks in the meantime as long as Ocalan is desperate to avoid being executed.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
04/14/2003 7:23 Comments ||
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#3
Dan, most of the stats you've cited for PKK deaths include their own people. Based on just your previous posts, PKK members have been killed at a rate 3-5 times that of non PKK members.
I think that there's a lot of double counting in the PKK issue. And perhaps a decmil point issue, too, as is so often the case with numbers being reported from the Middle East.
#4
I'm aware of that, but the fact is that no matter how one does the number crunching, the PKK has knocked off several thousand civilians. That puts them on par with Hezbollah in terms of sheer ruthlessness if not capabilities.
I agree that they're relatively dormant now that Occalan is on ice in an effort to save their guru, but the same can be said of Abu Abbas for the most part. Also, there have been some skirmishes this year between them and the Turks and our brave socialists have said that they want to go kill Americans as well (cause we're imperialists, don't ya know?). This would tend to make Syria's support for them, like Iran's for the Kurdish Islamists, a matter of concern rather than a side issue.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2003 11:59 Comments ||
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#5
How about,pounding hell out of the Bekka Valley,then send in elements of the 4ID,and 10th Mountain Division to clean-up.
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