A military commander belonging to the Afghan faction of ethnic Uzbek warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and two of his bodyguards were killed on Tuesday in an ambush in the trouble-plagued north. Commander Shahi was driving to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif when his car was ambushed in the Char Bolak area about 18 miles to the west, one of Dostum's deputies, General Majid Roozi, told Reuters. The identity of Shahi's assailants was not known, but Dostum's faction has a tense rivalry with the Jamiat-e-Islami group led by ethnic Tajik Ustad Atta Mohammad. Shahi, who led about 300 fighters, served for more than 15 years as a commander for Dostum.
Although Dostum and Atta are both members of the central government of President Hamid Karzai, their forces have clashed repeatedly in the past year for control of territory in the north. Shahi's killing came a week after bitter clashes between Atta and Dostum's fighters in Maimana, the capital of Faryab province, in which 16 people, including one of Atta's commanders and two civilians, were killed. A temporary truce was enforced in Maimana after talks involving officials of both factions and the United Nations, but reports from the town on Tuesday said the situation remained tense and the two factions were prepared for a possible resumption of fighting. Bloods and Crips, Afghan style.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 07:57 am ||
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Dostum has never been happy with the post-war booty and status he received. He thought of himself as the big reason for the N Alliance success... ignoring US air support which broke the years-long stalemate, of course.
Afghanistan is a rathole. The people are as duplicious and perfidious as the Arabs. It is a perfect preview, scaled down, of what it would be like to "do" Pakistan. Kabul and a few square miles scattered around 3 or 4 other places is all that will ever be called pacified / civil. As long as we can kill real terrorists there, we will probably keep our hand in. Otherwise, it's not worth warm spit. Dostum is worth less.
As General Jay Garner entered the stage by presiding Tuesday over the first meeting of some major Iraqi groups and personalities opposed to the now defunct regime of Saddam Hoseyn, Saudi Arabi invited the foreign ministers of countries neighbouring Iraq to meet on Friday to review the fallout of the war, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal announced. The "Emergency Regional Conference" was called by Saudi Arabia on instructions from King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdollah, in charge of the nationâs affairs, the English-language "Arab News" quoted Prince Saud as having said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. "The conference comes in response to the current circumstances and developments in Iraq, which affect the Iraqi people in particular, and the repercussions on the countries of the region in general" the Prince said. "What're we gonna do? What're we gonna DO?"
Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Syria and Iran have borders with Iraq. Kuwait, which provided a launch pad for US troops heading to Baghdad, also borders Iraq, but it is not clear if it will come to the Riyadh meeting or not. A similar conference, called by Egypt and Turkey, was held last January in Istanbul in a bid to prevent the US-led war on Iraq. And we all saw how well that worked...
Prince Saud made the announcement after a surprise visit to Damascus on Sunday, following increasing American threats and warning to Syria, a close ally of the Saudi Kingdom and particularly to the Crown Prince Abdollah. During his impromptu visit to Damascus, Prince Saud discussed with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad repeated American accusations that Syria possesses weapons of mass destruction and has allowed senior Iraqi leaders to escape through its territory or has sheltered some of them. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also reiterated the accusations, saying his secret services had information about top Iraqi officials having fled to Syria. Sharon called on Washington to increase pressures over President Asad to stop its support for the Lebanese Hezbollah organisation in the one hand and booting out of Syria all radical Palestinian organisations that are present in that country. That would sound like a sensible thing to do...
But Jose Maria Asnar, the Spanish Prime Minister, who is the junior partner of the United States and Britain in the war against Iraq assured Tuesday that America does not intend to attack Syria. At least not yet. It's still early in that game...
Washington threats against Damascus, menaced with economic and diplomatic sanctions, have seriously angered Arab nations. Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa dismissed the allegations of Syrian support for Saddam Hoseynâs regime and said he had been "astonished and astounded" by the allegations. "What? Syria? Support Iraq? Oh, pshaw!"
Following the fall of Baghdad, Saudi Arabia has been active diplomatically as a new situation emerges in the Gulf, Arab News observed. Foreign Ministers of the six-members (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council also met in the Saudi Capital on Monday, discussing the aftermath of the war. "French Foreign Affairs Minister Dominique de Villepin held talks with his Saudi counterpart in Riyadh on Sunday and both agreed that the return of Iraq to Iraqi control must remain a priority".
There's probably not a dry set of Depends to be found among the senior princes. 4th ID hasn't been used yet, and 1st AD's supposedly still on its way, minus DIVARTY. 1st Cav's orders have been cancelled — but there's nothing to say they can't be called again in a couple months, for a liesurely deployment for some "maneuvers" in the cool fall weather. Meanwhile, Syria's oil's turned off. Powell — the good cop — is saying bad things about them. It's going to be a very long, hot summer for Bashar, unless he comes around. And the rest of the Arab world has suddenly gotten the message to stop screwing around. The Soddies are going to be very busy with damage control, and the oil they're going to be spreading isn't only the type that comes out of the ground. The Frenchies see the opportunity to edge further into alliance with the "Arab Nation," at the same time the "Arab Nation" is going to be under increasing pressure to break apart. And they said Sammy was a master of miscalculation...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 07:33 pm ||
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Syria may not be a direct target for invasion, but Baby Asshat may be spending his time looking for the incoming Tomahawk.
Eastern Med to Damascus, 30 minutes?
Posted by: john ||
04/15/2003 19:50 Comments ||
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#2
If you can keep calm while those around you are losing their heads, you probably don't understand the situation.
#3
Sooner or later we're going to HAVE to deal with the problem of Soggyrabidia. Where did the hijackers for 9/11 come from? Where does Oslimey's money come from? Where does the money come for Hamas, Hezbollah, the PLFP, the Palestinian Authority, and all the other jihadis? Where does Wahabism itself come from? All the arrows seem to point to a single place. Guess that might be a future target, hmmmm?????? Can you imaging how totally torqued the Muslim community would be if suddenly they weren't allowed to go on Haj????
And then down at the BOTTOM of that desert is a place called Yemen...
I don't see any tear yet.... Guess most people just don't care.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2003 23:21 Comments ||
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Iraq's ambassador to the Arab League denied on Monday he had sought asylum in Yemen, saying he would continue representing Iraq in the League. "I am still at the League to express the interests of the Iraqi people," Mohsen Khalil told reporters after a meeting of the permanent representatives to the league, which focussed on the situation in Iraq. "I mean, I've been doing such a good job of it, I'm sure they'll want me to stay on and keep sending me paychecks..."
Khalil said he had urged the 22-member body to "move quickly to achieve stability in Iraq and to end the state of looting and destruction under the eyes of the occupying forces." Can't see as the Arab League has any say in it...
Khalil, a former press secretary to President Saddam Hussein, has been an ardent supporter of Saddam's government. As late as Monday last week, as US tanks were moving through Baghdad, he told a press conference in Cairo that Iraq was winning the war. At least, he hoped it was...
A Yemeni Foreign Ministry official said on Sunday that Khalil had applied for asylum to the Yemeni consulate in Cairo on last Wednesday — the day Baghdad fell to US forces. "We have agreed to host him (Khalil) as a guest in Yemen and we anticipate his arrival within 24 hours," the official told The Associated Press on Sunday. But the Yemeni ambassador to the league, Abdel-Wali al-Shumeiry, said he had no knowledge of Khalil's request for asylum.
It's not surprising to see that the bragadoccio's not gone with the regime. The idea that the new Iraq is going to retain a Baathist party hack as its spokesman to the Arab League, which Arabs pretend to take seriously, must be laughable even in Cairo. Next step is probably a forcible removal from his offices by representatives of the new regime. If he's lucky, maybe they can have a shootout.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 06:20 pm ||
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Ha...fools! I'm not hiding in Yemen, I'm hiding in Egypt.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/15/2003 18:42 Comments ||
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"The idea that the new Iraq is going to retain a Baathist party hack as its spokesman to the Arab League, which Arabs pretend to take seriously, must be laughable even in Cairo."
Oh I don't know... some innefective organization might be a good place for him. Keep him out of trouble.
Say-- how about UN ambassador?
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
04/15/2003 19:36 Comments ||
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#3
That's "iNNeFective"... with one n and two fs. Aargh!
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
04/15/2003 19:42 Comments ||
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#4
If we want him somewhere totally ineffective, we could always make him the Supreme Arab League ambassador to the Axis of Weasels.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2003 23:26 Comments ||
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EU foreign ministers discussed ties with North Korea in their meeting in Luxembourg today. In their conclusions, the ministers noted that "the positive signals made by North Korea in recent days on the question of a multilateral framework for dialogue should be encouraged." The ministers agreed to review the issue at a later stage in the light of further developments. The EU summit in March had suggested that a special EU meeting on North Korea be held with neighboring countries including China and Japan. How does one have a dialogue with someone whose conversation alternates between extolling the virtues of juche and saying he wants to turn your country into a sea of fire? There're only so many things to discuss, aren't there?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 04:20 pm ||
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Even Oscar-winning Director Kidnapper Chairman Spymaster President-For-Life NukeDude Playboy Kim Jong Il, Wagging The Dog all by himself for months now and finally accepting that his tantrums are not very impressive or effective, considers the EU irrelevant.
That sorta ranks the EU just a tad lower than snake shit in a bottomless pit, IMHO.
#2
The EU-niks have been shut out of Iraq in the sense that they will not run the show. So, in a semi-desparate effort to gain legitimacy in the world, they are exploring other venues, and the Hermit Kingdom (TM) just happened to come along as a handy opportunity. We, the SKors, and the Japanese have been dealing with this nutcase nation for half a century (count 'em 50 years!) and we have basically gotten nowhere. One can negotiate with reasonable people, but like Fred sez, there are only so many things to discuss. Speaking softly and carry a big stick is working. Kimmie will use the EU-niks because they will grovel and appease, and he knows how to play that game very well. The problem is that the EU-niks have no big stick and no backbone. NK is an evil regime that does not serve its population and needs to go. They have a 50 year legacy of doing so. Helping them out only enables this inhuman behavior. Just like the Iraq of late.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/15/2003 16:45 Comments ||
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#3
EUnuchs want to establish dialogue = They want to surrender
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/15/2003 18:39 Comments ||
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Did anyone even invite them in the first place? Note to EU -- crashing parties doesn't make you one of the cool kids, ok?
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
04/15/2003 19:58 Comments ||
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President Jacques Chirac spoke to President Bush today for the first time since February. The 20-minute telephone call about the war in Iraq had been "positive", said a spokeswoman for M Chirac. The French President told Mr Bush of "France's willingness to act in a pragmatic way on issues relating to the post-war reconstruction of Iraq". She added: âFrance believes the international community must do all it can so that things work in its favour and involve the United Nations as soon as possible." âItsâ being France, or the International Community?
The call came after Dominique de Villepin, France's Foreign Minister, moved to rebuild bridges with a Bush Administration infuriated by French opposition to the war in Iraq. M de Villepin said that he had a "pragmatic" telephone conversation with Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, over the Middle East.
Officials have suggested that France would back away from threats to veto any United Nations resolutions that failed to give the UN a dominant role in Iraq. "Our aim is not to make intransigent protests all the time, it is simply to hinder anything possible," said one.
"It's useless to go back over what has divided us," M de Villepin said after a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels last night. "We need an international community that is united."
Commentators are beginning to point out that the so-called "peace camp", headed by France, Germany and Russia, ended in failure and now has less influence over global affairs than ever. âWeâre relevant! We really are! I swear! Please let us be relevant?
"If Washington tries to strong-arm Syria, what can France do to help?" said Le Figaro today. "Why would France be more efficient in the Syrian crisis than it was in the Iraqi crisis? These questions point to the limits of French competency influence."
Many analysts say that if France wants to play a role in world affairs, it has no option but to start co-operating with the US. But M Chirac could face a backlash from the French public for warming to the White House. Many French people, including well-educated, middle-class white-collar workers, view the Bush Administration with deep distrust, and it is not uncommon to hear them explain that George Bush is more dangerous than Saddam Hussein. Sigh⊠Yes, yes, regularly he tortures us. He makes us put up with listening to blather from CHIRAC.
The French view was summed up by a front-page cartoon in Le Monde today, which showed American intellectuals working in a library. In the place of pens, they held missiles. Hmm. Interesting analogy. If one were to carry it over to the French, what would they be holding� Suggestions?
#1
Sorry â I had to take a page out of FormerLiberalâs book -
In other fake news today: U.S. Secretary Defense Donald Rumsfeld apologized today for referring to France and Germany as an "Axis of Weasels." "I'm sorry about that Axis of Weasels remark," said Mr. Rumsfeld. "I didn't mean to dredge up the history France and Germany share of pathetic compliance with ruthless dictators. " The Defense Secretary said he was "way out of bounds" with the comments. "I should have known better than to remind people that these two nations--which live in freedom Thanks only to the righteous might of America, Britain and their allies--that these nations are morally and politically bankrupt, and have failed to learn the lessons of history," he said. "It really was an inappropriate thing to say--you know, the Axis of Weasels thing. I really should not have called them the Axis of Weasels. I think it's the 'Weasels' part that was most offensive ... you know, when I said that France and Germany form an Axis of Weasels. Of course, I'm so sorry." The Defense Secretary continued, "I want it to be known that no other man holds the weasel in as high a regard as I do, and I'll be the first to point out the crucial role this noble creature plays in our ecosystem. I went way over the line comparing the weasel to a bunch of rude, unwashed, leftist Euroweenie surrender monkeys who change their underwear once a month whether they need to or not. And I just did it again, didn't I? I just insulted the monkeys. I'm quitting while I'm ahead."
#2
Hey! - Your fake access is better than my fake access! I might have to start telling bigger lies in order to maintain what little access I have now.
#6
Isn't it comical how the Euro trash have to refer to the idiots that oppose Bush as 'Well-Educated.' The inference is that only the dimwits support the U.S. (Bush). These guys are as bad as the Arabs when it comes to reporting.
#7
You can watch Bush's approval rating go through the floor if he allows France to act like our friends again. If it's 70% now it'll be 7% a month from now.
Posted by: g wiz ||
04/15/2003 15:43 Comments ||
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What strikes me is that the Frenchies get their version of things out first. Our side of the event waits on Ari's performances.
"...he had a "pragmatic" telephone conversation with Colin Powell."
"The 20-minute telephone call about the war in Iraq had been "positive", said a spokeswoman for M Chirac."
Y'know, when there are translators involved, a 20 minute conversation is probably less than 5 sentences each. Yet it is reported as if something significant occurred. Ari didn't use the word "positive" - but he didn't saw we had declared war, either - so NOT significant.
I think g wiz is right: even the appearance of dealing with France or showing anything but disdain and dismissal is a colossal mistake... even AFTER they publicly choke down a few shit sandwiches. Even then, I'd stiff 'em.
#10
Re: The Phone Call (TM). France is making this a BFD. They will put more of a positive spin on this than a SNECMA gas turbine. "I called and everything is on the mend." Bush has always been a gentleman, and has taken heaps of abuse from the French and other Weasels, the press, and all the ships at sea. But it will not change the fact of the utter duplicity and backstabbing of Chiraq and Co. Bush will not forget this, and his actions will speak volumes. Based upon previous history, I believe that this will be so with TFC. France will be shut out, no matter how the press digests and ruminates this story. Watch the hands and not the mouth.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/15/2003 17:02 Comments ||
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Later, President Bush called back, asked if they had Prince Albert in a can, told them to "let him out before he suffocates" and then hung up after laughing maniacally...
#13
I lament that so many Americans have just an academic hatred of France. Screwing us over in NATO under de Gaulle, trying to take control of Europe 3 times, selling arms to Iraq and their brilliant handling of Vietnam. Those are all purely academic complaints. Our distaste for their regime should be much deeper and more vigorous.
Posted by: Brian ||
04/15/2003 18:04 Comments ||
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#14
Bush: "Hello! Is this the President's residence. I'd like to cancel my order of Frence Wine"
#15
TGA -- I think what was meant in the "fake news" was not just having diplomatic/business/etc relationships with ruthless dictators, but actually having them as rulers. Every country on this planet has had some dealings with many, if not all of the tyrants on your list. No country is lily-white in that regard, and I don't think anyone here would say that the US is.
The thing that is so incomprehensible to most is that the French seem to really LIKE not only having them as sometime allies, but being under their domination.
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
04/15/2003 19:51 Comments ||
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To TGA: all during the Cold War, not lately. Have some perspective: it was a big standoff, many methods were used in a pretty desperate situation, against the same methods from the other side. Now it seems to be different: one does not need to put up with dictators except for some questionable political ends.
#18
True German Ally; that list ya made is of the deposed why not get current. Start with the emerging dictators and surregate un lackeys'
Schroedr fischer
chirac villapin
Castro No Name
Putin lackey
kofi of Gahnarhea
oh well you get the idea....your walk down memory lane is to divert attention from the present.Duly noted that you omitted der fuerur and his band of timely demons, masquerading as governments.
Germany didnt elect to go Socialist, you'll find this out by August.
J Fisher that thug you have representing subversion in the un, he'll be unemployed very soon...
With Germanys record of supporting Just causes as dictators, it's obvious you have learned nothing, and that you are failing once again to overcome this character flaw. Go Ahead and cast your collective lot on the wrong side of Right...be stupid, its OK!
#19
Anonymous, Schroeder is a mediocre politician, he is anything but a (emerging) dictator. He will be voted out of office. Germany is one of the most democratic countries in the world. We have learned from history. Have you?
#20
Brian,
Speaking from flyover country, our dislike of the French (I had to wash my hands after typing that word) has moved well beyond academic to the visceral. We have all the concern for them as three day old road kill.
#21
Always wrong? Then we must have been wrong too the last 50 years, being US allies?
We were wrong about Schroeder, granted. But in democracies errors can be corrected every four years. And they will be. Maybe even earlier.
#22
Do I care what the French think?
No
Do I care about French feelings?
No
Is it helpfull to have France involved on the international stage?
No âFrance believes the international community must do all it can so that things work in its favour and involve the United Nations as soon as possible." â
I read that as France saying the internationl community should do everything it can to further French interests.
Screw the French?
Hey guys ease up on TGA.While Germany(Re:Schroder)was obstructionist at the U.N.,
(1)Germany's constitution expressly forbids forign military involvment.
(2)Germany did not obstruct use of airbases for tactical and logistical support.(You know like the venal Turks)
(3)German police activlly protect our bases and personel.
(4)Where do our wounded go Riemstien.
That gasbag,Schroder,will be gone soon enough.
In Chandigarh, scores of dalits (low-caste Hindus) on Monday embraced Buddhism, Christianity and other religions. Talking to IRNA on the reason for the conversion of almost 200 low-castes Hindus to other religions on the 112th birth anniversary of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Udit Raj, president of the All India Confederation of Scheduled Castes and Tribes Organization, said on Tuesday that low-caste Hindus are being murdered, raped, confiscated of property and discriminated in all walks of life and now they want to seek a dignified life. People are converting to escape from the rigid caste system of Hindu society practiced in India, he added. Kind of a slap to the old hinduvta, isn't it? The RSS will be calling for more legislation against conversions...
He said Ambedkar, the father of the Indian constitution and who was a low-caste Hindu, rejected Hinduism and converted to Buddhism due to its malpractices and the discrimination that is embedded in Hinduism. Udit Raj, who is a leading figure in encouraging low-caste Hindus to convert to other religions, himself renounced Hinduism and has converted to Buddhism along with 15,000 low-caste hindus. Raj insisted that many lower-caste Hindus were voluntarily converting to other religions. In the ceremony at Chandigarh, in the Union Territory of India, organized by a collection of lower-caste and minority organizations like the Dalit Panthers Force, the All-India Confederation of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Organisations and the National Federation of Dalit Women, the ceremony to convert dalits to Buddhism was conducted by a monk. Later, young volunteers from a local church washed the feet of 10 dalit children and declared them Christians. And now they're not dalits anymore. Next thing you know, they'll be eating McDonald's and learning how to read and write. Yasss... Legislation's definitely called for.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 04:09 pm ||
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More power to them.
But if the untouchables opt out, then the Sudra(laborers) become the poluted ones. Can't have them touching things, so the Vaisyas (merchants) will have to do menial things and the warriors run the shops. That would mean the Brahmins would have to fight the Pakis...
You're right -no more conversions!
Posted by: Scott ||
04/15/2003 17:26 Comments ||
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The Hindus already have lots of anti-conversion laws. Expect these untouchables to be treated in the same way that "uppity niggers" were in the Old South.
The conversions don't really free them from the prejudices the Hindus already have of them. Rather, it's a statement that they are becoming part of a community that respects them, and that they will not submit to a set of ideas that tries to make them believe in their own inferiority.
Mojahedeen Khalq Organisation (MKO), the outlawed Iranian armed group based in Baghdad confirmed Sunday they have lost at least 18 of their members, with 43 other wounded after some of their bases in Iraqi Kurdistan was attacked by forces they claimed were Iranian Revolutionary Guards. In a statement, the MKO accused the Islamic Republic of Iran of having "violated" Iraqi borders by dispatching "large amount of heavily armed forces" into Iraq, attacking its camps. I'd really tend to doubt that claim...
But Iranian Radio and Television said the attackers were "Iraqi Muslim combatants" who attacked the "terrorist group" near the Kurdish city of Kerkook, "killing scores of them", adding that the bodies of MKO terrorist members still lie in their camp. That sounds a little more accurate. Unless they claim it was the SAIRI al-Badr Brigade...
Before the arrival of Kurdish and U.S. forces in the oil-rich city, which was "liberated" last week, the people of Kerkook had already killed some MKO members, and their bodies were lying alongside the bodies of Iraqi intelligence (Estekhbarat) agents, the State-run, conservatives-controlled Radio reported. Oooh. I didn't know about that...
Other MKO camps, situated in Khaneqeyn, also in Iraqi Kurdistan and considered one of the Organisationâs major base that fought the Iraqi Kurds alongside Iraqi forces of Saddam Hoseyn were also attacked, the pro-conservative, but moderate "Entekhab" daily reported Sunday. And a bang-up job they did...
In another development, Mr. Jalal Talebani, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), announced that the second phase of PUK attacks against the MKO would start soon, the Radio and Televisionâs Central News Bureau reported, citing PUK sources in northern Iraq. Entekhab said some members of the MKO had started negotiations with Mr. Talebani and American commanders in the region to surrender and being moved either to Iran or another country of refuge. In a letter signed by 30 MKO members to Mr. Talebani, they called on him to stop attacking, promised to surrender, blaming their leader, Masâood Rajavi and other Organisationâs high-ranking officials for the tragic situation, stating that Mr. Rajavi and some of his closest colleagues had already fled Iraq to an undisclosed destination. I tend to doubt it's Iran, so Syria sounds like a good bet...
Last week, Iranâs Intelligence Minister, Hojjatoleslam Ali Yoonesi announced that some 100 of MKO who had repented had returned to Iran and were living "normally. If we — and the Kurds and the Iranians — are lucky, we can mark this bunch as "retired," too. But of course, Iraq wasn't involved with terrorism...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 07:16 pm ||
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I dunno, like I was sayin yesterday, we can't stop all those long knives. Just like we can't guarantee justice for all Saddam's crimes. Some things have to take care of themselves.
Posted by: Scott ||
04/15/2003 22:44 Comments ||
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...this just in..... Abu Abbas, head of the Palestine Liberation Front... captured on outskirts of bagdhad. I hope someone remembered to kick him in the nuts for Mrs. klinghoffer.
Guess Syria really didn't let him in. It'll be nice to mark him as "retired" from the terrorism business. Don't forget to pick up all this minions, though. Dead's better than alive.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
04/15/2003 04:42 pm ||
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#1
Already sentenced to 5 lifeterms in Italy.Let them have him and save us a bunch of money.After a liberial dose of giggle juice.
#5
I hope someone remembered to read him his Miranda rights. "You have the right to remain silent as long as you can stand the pain..."
Posted by: Matt ||
04/15/2003 17:09 Comments ||
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#6
From NY Times ( on what he is being charged with)
Mr. Abbas faces a life sentence in Italy, and American prosecutors have left open the possibility that a federal indictment for piracy, hostage taking and conspiracy could be revived. It was dropped in the 1990's, partly because of a statute of limitations and partly because Justice Department officials were not sure that their evidence would stand up in an American court.
Gee, I wonder what he'll have to say after 4 days of no sleep.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
04/15/2003 18:00 Comments ||
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#7
[The charges named by Frank] It was dropped in the 1990's, partly because of a statute of limitations and partly because Justice Department officials were not sure that their evidence would stand up in an American court.
WTF??? Not stand up in court? The man committed piracy on the high seas, murdered a defenseless man, and took a couple hundred hostages! This fella could be tried on the piracy case alone based on the following evidence:
Prosecutor (to each witness): Did you see the defendant aboard the Achille Loro with a weapon in his hands?
Witnesses: Yes I did.
Prosecutor: The prosecution rests, your Honor.
And as I recall, there's no statute of limitations on murder. Ditto on piracy.
Acccccckkk! Did the State Department invade and conquer the Department of Justice while we weren't looking?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/15/2003 18:23 Comments ||
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#13
...and who was it that ran the US Attorney Generals Office in the 1990's, what was here name again?, she looked like a wookie,came from florida, cant quite remember her name though....
full link of the info refered to above from the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/15/international/worldspecial/15CND-ABU.html
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
04/15/2003 21:15 Comments ||
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The war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ended in victory yesterday with U.S. Marines capturing the dictator's final stronghold of Tikrit, capping a lightning-fast military campaign that subdued Iraq in 27 days. "That's why we've won, is thanks to the Pentagon," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said yesterday to a reporter's question about reconstruction. At the Pentagon, a spokesman said major battles are now over. "I would anticipate that the major combat engagements are over because the major Iraqi units on the ground cease to show coherence," Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said at a Pentagon press conference. "Tikrit was the last area where we anticipated seeing major combat formations, if in fact they were there." Today's statement of the obvious...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 04:31 pm ||
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A hearty "Job well done" to all services. Simply outstanding.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/15/2003 18:28 Comments ||
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#2
And don't forget the "job well done" to the Bush team. It'll be interesting to watch them deal with the efforts of the Arab pack to snatch the bone away from us...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2003 19:35 Comments ||
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#3
A salute to our British, Aussie, and Polish allies are also in order.
A veteran Pakistani politician on Tuesday asked the United Nations and the Organization of the Islamic Conference to send a peacekeeping force to Iraq. In an interview with IRNA, Nawabzadah Nasrullah Khan, president of Pakistan's main opposition alliance, said that there would be no peace as long as US forces stayed in Iraq. He underscored the importance of the US-led coalition pulling out its forces, adding that the UN, OIC and Arab League should devise a joint strategy on restoring peace to the war-devastated country. That'll be just as successful as their joint strategies on dealing with Sammy, WMD, terrorism, and the common cold...
"Restoration of peace is prime concern of the world body and in this connection, the US or any other country, no matter how powerful it may be, has nothing to do with this matter," was his firm view. That statement makes no sense on its face. On deeper consideration, it still doesn't make sense.
Nawabzadah, president of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, contended that the US should stop interfering in Iraq's affairs and let the people handle the situation on their own. Just like they handled Sammy...
He warned against the establishment of a puppet US-backed regime, and said that such a blunder would be counterproductive and further push Iraq towards chaos and anarchy, and destabilize the region. Didja ever notice that when you come upon a really, really stagnant pond, and you take a stick and stir it up, the first thing that hits you is the smell?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 04:03 pm ||
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"Arab League Strategy" is almost an oxymoron. But then again, so is "Arab League" as "league" implies cooperation and "Arab" doesn't. "Strategy" also kind of implies everybody is on the same page.
Chief Warrant Officer Richard L. Gonzales, the leader of the weapons specialist team at the plant near Karbala, played down the inspectors' problems and said he remained convinced that proof of unconventional Iraqi weapons would be found eventually. "We're not going to find just a smoking gun, but a smoking cannon," he said. "It's only a matter of time."
Some Iraqi opposition representatives, meeting under U.S. auspices, agreed Tuesday, April 15, that a future Iraqi government must be democratic and based on the rule of law, and that no leader should be imposed from outside on Iraq. To me that sounds reasonable. But I'm not a Muslim...
Concluding a meeting organized by the United States in Ur, just outside the southern Iraqi town of An-Nasiriyah, the opposition figures concluded in a joint statement that the ousted Baath party must be dissolved. The statement further stated that Iraqis and Anglo-American forces should cooperate in tackling the immediate issues of restoring security and basic services, while Iraqis must immediately organize themselves for the task of reconstruction at both the local and national levels. It called for a democratic federal system, but said a future government of Iraq should be chosen on the basis of countrywide consultation and not based on communal identity. Iraq must be built on respect for diversity including respect for the role of women, added the statement. Political violence must be rejected, it said, and there should be an open dialogue with all national political groups to bring them into the process. "What? You mean we can't kill each other? That'll never work..."
Addressing the gathering, Meshaan el-Gabouri, a scholar from An-Najaf, called for the establishment of a secular government in Iraq that separates religion and politics, claiming this would better serve Islam. One of Iraqâs 's main Shiite groups, the Iranian-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), refused to attend the meeting in protest at the U.S. role. Hmmm... You get the impression they don't think they'd do well in general elections?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 03:52 pm ||
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SCIRI is one to watch out for - they don't play well with others, resent never get picked for student council, and hang together in a small group over on the Iranian side of the playground.
Future Fatwa-issuers and guerrilla supporters with Iranian help
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/15/2003 18:39 Comments ||
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The commander of the Iraqi army's Anbar sector command, who led 16,000 troops with control extending to the Syrian border, surrendered to US forces today. "I am ready to help. Thank you for liberating Iraq and making it stable," Iraqi General Mohammed Jarawi told US Colonel Curtis Potts after signing the surrender in the western Iraqi desert. "I hope we have a very good friendship with the United States," he said.
Colonel Potts, commander of the 4th Brigade of the US 3rd Infantry Division, told the general: "Now is the time to rebuild Iraq and turn over the country to the Iraqi people." Colonel Potts gave Jarawi and his brigadier cigars after the signing, in what he called a gesture to the Iraqi general's professionalism. "I was honoured to represent coalition forces and the United States, and humbled because as I looked across the table I saw a professional soldier who was doing what was right for his nation, for the country of Iraq and for his people," he told AFP. "It was not easy for him. It was humbling for me that he had the courage to do that."
After the ceremony, General Jarawi told the colonel: "We ask you to try to secure the Iraqi people." Colonel Potts replied: "That's the plan, and that's what we are here for." General Jarawi said: "Thank you for your help, especially for the good treatment."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 03:28 pm ||
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We Rantburgers have given the various Iraqi thugs a big bag of sh*t before, during and after this war, so I think we can be magnanimous towards Gen. Jarawi. He did the right thing, did so with class and dignity, and should be congratulated for it. All of that said, if this guy's past has involved crimes, thuggery, etc., he should pay an appropriate price.
Posted by: Tibor ||
04/15/2003 19:12 Comments ||
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He doesn't sound or act like it. If he was in charge of the far west of Baghdad, he wasn't in a plum assignment. Sounds like a guy who knew what the hell he was doing, and survived by not making noises when shipped out to the hinderland...
Iraqâs main Shia opposition party announced on Monday it would boycott a US-sponsored meeting of Iraqi organisations in Iraq to map out the post-war political map of the country. The Iranian-based Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution (SAIRI), which draws its support from Iran Iraqâs Shia majority, said Tuesdayâs meeting to be held in the southern Iraq city Nasiriya would not benefit the Iraqi people. âWe are not going to attend the Nassiriya meeting because it is not to the benefit of the Iraqi nation,â said Abdelaziz Hakim, a SAIRI leader based in Tehran told a news conference. "Nope. Nope. No benefit. Nope."
âWhat is most important in our view is independence,â he said. âWe refuse to put ourselves under the thumb of the Americans or any other country.â "Why did we fight so heroically to throw Sammy out of office if to knuckle under to, ummm... Wait a minute. That wasn't us. All we did was hold a parade. They're the ones who kicked Sammy out. But now we want to be in charge, dammit! 'Cuz we're Shiites, an' they're not!""
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 03:23 pm ||
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SAIRI,refuses to attend meeting.Ok,that is how a Democracy works nobody is forced to participate.But by the same token when you don't get what you want you have no reason to complain.
#2
Hasn't taken too long for them to turn French, has it? Guess we should have stood aside and let them liberate themselves, since they were making such good headway on their own.
Posted by: Dar ||
04/15/2003 15:30 Comments ||
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Screw em. They can cooperate now or be cannon fodder for years to come. Their choice.
Posted by: g wiz ||
04/15/2003 15:59 Comments ||
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Hey, folks, the democratic principle is simple (simplisme'?) and so is the process...
Inside the tent you get to speak your mind and have a voice in what comes next.
#5
The Iranian-based Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution (SAIRI)
Iranian-based? Well that sure explains a lot.
âWe are not going to attend the Nassiriya meeting because it is not to the benefit of the Iraqi nation,â said Abdelaziz Hakim, a SAIRI leader based in Tehran told a news conference.
Someone please explain how a Tehran-based leader would know what is going to benefit the Iraqis that have just been liberated.
I'd be interested in finding out how much support this "SAIRI" group really has in Iraq.
#6
Split the country into thirds. It'll piss off Syria, turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia all of whom are on the shit list anyway. It also means it won't break down into anarchy in 10 years when the factions start fighting.
#7
You might have something there, Yank.
If for nothing else than to publically thank the Kurds (screw the Turks) and show the world what we do for those friendly to us.
I'm starting to think that the freedom and gov't we enjoy isn't appreciated in other places - the mid-east, Europe... If the French and Russians don't get it, what do you think the learning curve is gonna be in Iraq?
Posted by: Scott ||
04/15/2003 23:30 Comments ||
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Scott: Careful, now. There's a crowd 'round these parts that phreak out if you don't luv Turkey. They'll try to make you personally responsible for every nasty thing the PKK has ever done. It doesn't matter that Turkey voluntarily burned every bridge they ever had pointing West, they're luverly and you're bad. Just thought you'd wanna know. Take care. BTW, I think you and Yank are right. Who gives a rat's ass what the dictatorships and monarchs of "Arabia" think? Time for some new rules and some fresh prespectives. They won't be around much longer, anyway.
#9
PD, in previous years, before I found out just how deep Saddam's thuggery went, I used to rant that we should cut him a deal - 'You want the Arab peninsula and a Pan-arab state? Go get it. You take care of our little islamic fundy problem and BTW, oil, to us, is $10/barrel or your brother rules nest week.'
This would be under the heading of 'better the devil you know..' I mean who do we actually trust in the ME? But now the landscape is changed. We're not gonna be understood in this region. Some on the ground will appreciate the liberation, most will revert to tribal warfare.
From now out, make our decisions based on our security and that of our friends: Israel, the Kurds and... and... (I'm tired, so I might be overlooking someone) Being the lone superpower means never having to say you're sorry.
Posted by: Scott ||
04/16/2003 0:42 Comments ||
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The mystery of what happened to the Iraqi Republican Guard defending Baghdad appears to have been solved if a report in today's Le Monde is to be believed. The French daily reports that Maher Sufyan, Commander of the Republican Guard reached an agreement with American forces in which he ordered his forces to surrender in exchange for his transfer via an American Apache helicopter to an undisclosed safe haven. Le Mondeâs correspondent in Baghdad said that Sufyan ordered all Republican Guard forces to lay down their arms and go home. Shortly thereafter an Apache helicopter escorted Sufyan from the Al Rashid camp, east of Baghdad, to an unknown location. Maher Sufyan is not included on the infamous âdeck of cardsâ created by US defence officials to highlight the most wanted individuals from the Saddam Hussein government. Iraqâs popular Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed Al Sahaf, Naji Sabri, Iraqâs Foreign Minister and Oumid Medhat Mubarak, the minister of health are also not included on the list. Info Man's reported to have hanged himself. Did Sabri and Mubarak sell out? I take back the bad things I said about Franks enticing these bastards out from behind the couch with a bowl of milk — it looks like it worked. Who'da thunkit?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 03:18 pm ||
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This is what the Arab press is reporting. The want to save face because of the butt-kicking the took. FYI Apahce helicopters carries a pilot and gunner NO PASSENGERS. If you doubt their mentality, I refer you to the former Iragi Info minister.
#3
Skeptical that he flew in an Apache. It's a 2 seater, ill suited for giving these guys rides. But, omissions from our 'infamous' deck of cards are certainly good indicators of who cooperated.
#4
Sorry for repeating. Cyber's comment was not there when I opened the comment window. But I did notice that Fred might want to adjust his timestamps for daylight savings (assuming he's in the eastern time zone).
#5
I think Fred's on CDT, not EDT. IIRC, the time has been updated since Daylight Savings kicked in.
Posted by: Dar ||
04/15/2003 15:42 Comments ||
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I think we only put people on the Most Wanted list when we didn't know where they were. Also, I had read rumors that SF and CIA types had paid off army commanders to stay out of the fighting. Don't know if Sufyan is wanted for any war crimes or if he is just an army officer.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 15:43 Comments ||
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If he really did fly out on Apache, I'll give him all kinds of kudos for having balls... considering the closest its got to a third seat is either on a wheel or on one of the weapons mountings.
The first talks on the future of Iraq attended by Iraqi political and religious leaders, as well as US and British officials, ended on Tuesday with an agreement to meet again in 10 days. Jay Garner, the former US general leading the effort to rebuild Iraq, opened the conference saying: "A free and democratic Iraq will begin today." Participants met at a makeshift US air base beside the remains of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur in southern Iraq in a tent pitched next to the famed ziggurat temple. About 60 Iraqis — radical and mainstream Shia and Sunni Muslims, Kurds and supporters of the monarchy axed in 1958 — were expected to attend the meeting. But in nearby Nassiriya, thousands of Iraqis protested that they did not need American help now Saddam Hussein had gone. Yeah you do. You just don't know it.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 03:04 pm ||
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Yeah you do. You just don't know it.
They know it, they just don't want to ADMIT it. Also, the ones NOT participating in the meeting are the ones that want to replace Sammy as the IOT (Idiot on Top). The more they play these games, the more convinced they should be left out. Like three miles on the other side of the Iranian border out.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2003 23:15 Comments ||
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Considering the source, the use of salt is recommended.
Iraqi refugees who have taken shelter at Iraq's borders near the Iranian town of Dehloran over the week have claimed that Information Minister Saeed al-Sahaf had committed suicide, the Iranian newspaper, Mardomsalari reported Tuesday. A similar report was published in Iran's Arabic newspaper, Al Wifaq. "Lies! All lies! It is the invaders who are committing suicide at the gates of Baghdad!"
According to these reports, al-Sahaf hanged himself a few hours before Baghdad fell to US forces on April 9th. The refugees gave no source to confirm their claim. "This cannot be true because Baghdad has never fallen. Even Robert Fisk agrees with me!"
Posted by: Mike ||
04/15/2003 11:41 am ||
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In fake news from hell today, Saeed al-Sahaf denied reports of his death. "I am not dead!" he said at a press conference attended primarily by late CNN bureau chiefs. While CNN's reputation in hell is one of integrity and accuracy, some from hell's higher circles are suggesting that the bureau chiefs are taking al-Sahaf's claims that he still lives at face value because they don't want to risk losing access to Satan. "Hell is a simply a place one has to have a bureau," said Eason Jordan, speaking on behalf of CNN's living correspondants. "Sure, Satan is the Father of All Lies," but spreading his lies makes us look good, and that's what's most important."
We really need to find a body, or stories like this will be showing up in tabloids for years.
Saddam Hussein is holed up in a desert fortress with his generals preparing for a final bloody showdown, war commanders believe. Final Bloody Showdown IV - The Fortress of Al Hawijah
US troops who swept into his home town of Tikrit were told by residents that Saddam was in the city four days ago. They did? I must have missed that, I was busy watching the house to house, hand to hand combat raging as Sammy's forces defended Tikrit to the last man. Or was I cleaning the garage?
But he fled to the desert village of Al Hawijah with his family, aides and a personal army as Allied soldiers advanced on the city. A personal army, this must be the Super Secret Special Elite Republican Guard, Fisk Division.
The dictator left behind hundreds of Fedayeen paramilitaries to defend Tikrit and buy him some time â but they folded as US Marines moved in. Marines have that effect on people
Saddam has now turned Al Hawijah â about 60 miles north-east of Tikrit and 50 miles west of Kirkuk â into his last stronghold. Last Stronghold v3.0
Kurdish police were massacred when they ventured into the village a day after he arrived. They run into the Turkish Army? (Hi Murat)
Survivors said the area was now overrun with foreign Arabs loyal to Saddam. Loyal at least until he leaves the room
But it is not known if murderous sons Uday and Qusay were with him â or if they are already dead. (sniff) Smells like dead to me
Al Hawijah now threatens to be the scene of Saddamâs final battle as Allied troops close in. Saddam's Last Stand, Attack on the Fortress of Death, The Battle for Al Hawijah, Desert Showdown, Bloody Sand, and my favorite, Sammy and Sons II - The Final Chapter.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 11:18 am ||
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A desert fortress is exactly the kind of tale you tell the people when they catch you slipping out of town in the middle of the night with all your valuables. Fight on, delay them while we prepare the defenses at the, ah, ah, desert fortress.
#7
C'mon--they didn't lug the MOAB all the way over there just to bring it back! We all know the military is going to want to test every newer conventional weapon in the arsenal before the shooting stops.
If not in Iraq, then perhaps the appropriate situation will present itself in Afghanistan. But I expect the brass is eagerly looking for an appropriate target to field test the newest Bad Boy.
Posted by: Dar ||
04/15/2003 15:29 Comments ||
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Perhaps they could "field test" that MOAB in Damascus! I hear they have a small problem with terrorists setting up training camps there, and I'm very SURE the Syrian government would appreciate our help in stamping those out!
American style of DEMOCRACY
US troops opened fire on a crowd of Iraqis opposed to the US-installed governor in Mosul today, killing at least ten people and injuring as many as 100, according to witnesses and doctors. Gee, those Iraqis will never learn, if you are not with us you are against us.
The incident overshadowed the start of US-brokered talks in al-Nasariyah over post-war Iraq and could ignite anti-US sentiment in Baghdad. Witnesses said that US troops had fired into a crowd which was becoming increasingly hostile towards the new governor, Mashaan al-Juburi, as he was making a pro-US speech in the northern oil city. "There are perhaps 100 wounded and ten to 12 dead," said Dr Ayad al-Ramadhani at the city hospital. I told you, don't interrupt a pro-US speech, sieg heil!
Oh, so it wasn't just a "crowd", it was a "mob"...
US forces said that they had come under fire from at least two gunmen and fired back, but did not aim at the crowd.
An armed mob...
A military spokesman said: "There were protesters outside, 100 to 150, there was fire, we returned fire." He said that the shooting came from a roof opposite the building, about 75 metres (yards) away. "We didn't fire at the crowd, but at the top of the building. "There were at least two gunmen, I don't know if they were killed. We shot at the roofs and the crowd were hit by bullits falling down, the gravity did it.
No doubt the crowd was easier to hit than the gunnies...
"The firing was not intensive but sporadic, and lasted up to two minutes." Marwan Mohammed, 50, a witness, said: "The people moved toward the government building, the children threw stones, the Americans started firing. Then they prevented the people from recovering the bodies." What, you liar Americans would never do that, they are here to liberate you, one more word and the next bullit is for you!
Ayad Hassun, 37, said: "They (the soldiers) climbed on top of the building and first fired at a building near the crowd, with the glass falling on the civilians. People started to throw stones, then the Americans fired at them. Dozens of people fell."
Yasss... Terrible things sometimes happen at riots...
Posted by: Murat ||
04/15/2003 09:27 am ||
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For one thing Murat There aren't many US troops in Mosul. Just Special Forces, so I doubt they did it. And how come only the aFP reported it. Something like that would be all oer the WEB. Especially from the leftist Guardian. I want to know more about this. Who actually did the firing (Perhaps Kurds). And secondly, if there is someone from the crowd firing perhap it was the guy fired from the crowd who dropped those people.
Posted by: George ||
04/15/2003 9:48 Comments ||
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#8
The same article, almost word for word, is on Sky News here. Again, nothing specific about US forces firing on the crowd itself. It doesn't say anything about rock-throwing, or US forces shooting into the crowd.
I'm beginning to believe that "Murat" is a former Soviet Disinformation School graduate. Sure sounds like it, the way he twists stories to suit his purpose.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2003 11:10 Comments ||
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#10
Does Murat know where the Iraqi information minister is hiding? It must also pain Murat that he is posting his anti-American propaganda using an American built computer.
Your pattern of language usage, diction, and tone, especially the typos you make, are very indicative of a US English speaker, albeit a fairly illiterate one.
So try better with your trolls. You're being way too obvious.
EFL
Led by a retired Iraqi air force engineer who walked in off the street, U.S. paratroopers inspected several sites south of Kirkuk on Monday and found about a dozen 20-foot-long missiles, more than two dozen large green tanks full of an unknown substance and crates of suits and masks designed to protect troops from chemical attack. Much of the material was covered with camouflage netting, and there were some fake fiberglass missiles nearby that seemed design to fool aerial observation. Local Kurds said the farmland was owned by Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein who is known as ``Chemical Ali'' for his role in ordering chemical attacks in 1988 that killed 5,000 Kurdish civilians. Now known as "Compost Ali".
Some of the missiles, which had booster tanks attached, were mounted on mobile launchers. The military later identified them as Soviet-made S-2 surface-to-air missiles. The missiles and the tanks had English inscriptions on their surfaces but no indication of their country of origin. English inscriptions on Russian SAMs? Export model, perhaps?
``Remove carefully. Handle with care,'' read a label on many of the green tanks. It wasn't known whether any of the missiles or tanks contained chemical or biological agents or whether their ranges made them prohibited under U.N. resolutions that regulated Iraq's weaponry. Could be fuel. Wonder if these are some of those SAMs that had been modified into surface-to-surface missiles.
Tahir Kareem, who walked into the municipal government building in Kirkuk to tell U.S. troops about the sites, said he was a Kurd who had retired in 1996 from the Iraqi air force. ``There are many things buried out here,'' he said, after leading a convoy of Humvees in his car to the location about 12 miles southwest of Kirkuk. I'm sure there are.
The U.S. paratroopers marked the locations, which were to be examined by experts. ``The weapons inspectors never would have found this stuff,'' said Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo, the battalion commander who led the team to the sites. ``It would have taken 40 years.'' Even then they wouldn't have found anything.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 09:14 am ||
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``The weapons inspectors never would have found this stuff,'' said Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo, the battalion commander who led the team to the sites. ``It would have taken 40 years.''
The assumption being that Blix and his cronies actually wanted to find something.
HONG KONG - Because of the doctrine of preventive war promoted by the administration of US President George W Bush, observers are now examining the implications of the imminent defeat of Iraq for the Middle East and elsewhere. Is the Middle East really changing?
"Change" is not a concept that can be neatly captured. In fact, the vocabulary to describe and understand change in international system remains very limited.
To the extent scholars talk about change at all, the approach has strictly focused on the profusion of a new cluster of influential actors. Hence, change has strictly revolved on how non-governmental organizations (NGOs), multinational enterprises (MNEs), think-tanks and epistemic communities exert their impact on the policy process of various countries and multilateral institutions.
Beyond the addition of newer actors, change is also conceptualized within the context of polarities: Whether an international system is unipolar; bipolar; tripolar or multipolar. In turn, the polarities are investigated on the basis of whether they tend to increase or decrease the war-proneness of the international system. Kenneth Waltz, a political scientist at Columbia University, argues that bipolarity is more pacific as misperception is reduced.
Traditional concepts of change, in other words, have been measured from the quantitative dimensions. That is, change is analyzed from the standpoint in which it can affect the high and low politics of international relations. A parallel increase in the number of NGOs and MNEs, for instance, signals an increase in the stakeholders. A state can no longer make its policy without proper regard for the interest of these two constituencies.
On the other hand, the transition from bipolarity to unipolarity, as occasioned by the end of the Cold War, signals the increase in the preponderance of the United States in regions that had hitherto relied on its presence as a stabilizer.
As can be seen above, change is seen or examined in a metric manner. Nevertheless, change is a complex topic that is deserving of greater attention for the simple fact that the world is constantly undergoing ideological and technological revolutions as well.
From the Enlightenment to the present post-modern age, for instance, the world has witnessed both the arrival and departure of different ideologies. Their impact, familiar to any student of world history, has been significant.
Nationalism, fascism, communism and liberalism have each tried to exist independently or in combination with others. The progressive introduction of the telegraph, radio, airplane, television and the Internet has also changed the face of society. Technology and ideological revolutions have often caused societies to experience disruptions.
Robert Gilpin, a professor at Princeton University, has provided a useful starting point in any discussion of change. He distinguished three levels or types of change: systems change, systemic change, and interaction change.
Systems change involves change in the organizing structure of the international system itself, including the character of the actors themselves. A shift in a system of empire to nation-state constitutes systems change. This occurred most profoundly in 1945, after the end of World War II, where imperialism and colonialism were invalidated.
Systemic change, on the other hand, refers to change in the governance of an international system, which means change in the international distribution of power, the hierarchy of prestige, and the rules and rights embodied in the system. In other words, which country gets to be the top dog? This type of change involves basic shifts in power arrangements that facilitate or undermine the ability of hegemonic states to "govern".
Interaction change is a residual category. It refers to change in the relations, processes, and specific agreements among states within the system. It refers to the vast array of day-to-day events in world politics, popularly known as globalization.
In trying to draw any lessons from the Iraq war, one would find that any so-called change is merely cosmetic. The removal of Saddam Hussein does not necessarily mark any change in the Middle East or, for that matter, in international relations. This is because US unilateralism has electoral limits. The hawkish policy of the Bush administration can only have another term at the most.
Nor is regime change, a seemingly subversive idea, at all unique in the annals of international relations. In fact, history is replete with democracies removing dictators, only to install other tyrants that favor the interest of democracies, an act described by John Owen IV as the process of "deposition" - in other words, the creation of congenial regimes.
During the period 1815-2000 there were 110 depositions of leaders by foreign states as a result of war or as a result of intervention in an ongoing civil war to support one of the warring states.
Ninety-one depositions occurred in the 20th century, including 29 brought about by the United States, 17 by the Soviet Union (or Russia before 1917), eight by the United Kingdom, five by France, nine by Germany, and four by Italy. These are the most prominent ones; there are other minor ones that include depositions during World Wars I and II. The 110 cases are only "successful" ones (as opposed to failed attempts such as the US effort to change the regime in Cuba, for example).
Writing in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman has averred that the US war in Iraq is unique in the Middle East in that the United States is trying to export democracy to the Middle East through Baghdad. In other words, the US is using its military arsenal to transform radically the ideological character of another state and, ultimately, surrounding states as well.
Yet, on keener analysis, this would be shown to be superficial. When Britain invaded Iraq in 1917, it made the same claim, but no such thing occurred. It remains to be seen whether the United States will avoid repeating the United Kingdom's mistake. This is doubtful, because to transform the Middle East, the US has to contend with the fact that none of the Arab countries are at present truly democratic. In attempting to change Iraq, it has to make the same aim to change other countries around Iraq, without which the Middle East would still remain volatile and vulnerable to the growth of terrorism.
Hence, what would make the US war on Iraq distinct depends greatly on whether it has the will to change the entire Middle East. This would inevitably involve toppling Syria and Iran and pressuring the monarchies in the Persian Gulf region to accept democracy.
Since the US can only err on the side of caution, its strategy in the region must be very conservative at best. The Middle East will not be transformed by this war any more than it was it transformed by any of the other wars that have occurred in this unstable region before. What will change is merely the balance of power - in favor of the US and Israel.
Inevitably, the combined presence of Israel and the United States would only weaken the legitimacy of Arab leaders, rendering it more shaky with each growing day. The death of Arabism would also usher in a higher degree of Islamism.
However, whether Islamism will turn violent or otherwise would depend very much on how the Arab leaders co-opt the younger Islamic activists and the bulging youth population who increasingly cannot tolerate the impotence of their leadership in the face of naked US and Israeli aggression.
Posted by: Anonymous ||
04/15/2003 09:00 am ||
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Democracy did not come overnight for South Korea or Tawian. Kuwait and Qutar are trying, with baby-steps, to follow the right course. The region is not hopeless, just behind the curve.
#2
"This is doubtful, because to transform the Middle East, the US has to contend with the fact that none of the Arab countries are at present truly democratic."
He's too pessimistic - the region is far different than it was in 1917.
Iraq is bordered by Turkey a democracy. By Jordan and Kuwait, neither a democracy, but both with some liberal elements in their political systems. Israel is also a regional example of a democracy - generally not a model for arabs, but Iraq for unique reasons may be an exception.
In 1917 the Iraqis were liberated from the Ottomans - Arab nationalism looked like a hopeful new departure. Today they know the costs of Arab (as opposed to Iraqi) nationalism. In 1917 the Kurds were actively trying to get a seperate state - today their leaders are much more realistic.
So IMO it is possible to change Iraq, without first changing the whole region. Changed Iraq will then lead to further changes in the region.
#4
The big thing is to export a Republic of Laws, under a Federal system, with democratic means for sustaining it.
That is, the rights of individuals should be established first - laws that no government can unreasonably abridge - liek our bill of rights.
Then the laws supporting local government - cities and states - is especially important in Iraq, since it has severla distinc cultrual and ethnic area, historically.
After all that, a Federal (over-arching) system is needed to provide some unity and the ability for each of the localities to benefit from the strengths of the others, and to provide for the common defense. The other duty the Federal system would have is to guarantee those individual rights against state-local encroachment.
And the bottom line way to establish this is through a 1-person 1-vote system, be it parliamentary (UK) or representative (US), with some sort of a bicameral legislative body (one proposing, the other disposing).
And of course a seperate court system to judge the laws.
EFL
CRIPPLED Iraqi youngster Ali Ismaeel Abbas is set to be flown to Kuwait for lifesaving surgery. The 12-year-old boy, who lost both arms and suffered 60 per cent burns to his body when his home was bombed, could be airlifted from Baghdad this afternoon. America gave the go-ahead after Tony Blair ordered all the stops pulled out in a bid to save Ali's life.
Today a spokesman for the Health Ministry in Kuwait confirmed Ali would be treated in one of the country's hospitals as soon as America and Britain arranged for him to be flown from Baghdad. Dr Ahmad Al Shatti said: "We're expecting him any time. We're just waiting to receive him through the right channels. We're waiting for the Alliance. I just received instruction from the Minister of Health that during the governmental cabinet meeting they decided to fly Ali here. We have been told to make everything possible to bring the child in. This is a direct response to the media news about this child Ali. It's worth noting that Ali will be the ninth Iraqi kid to receive specialist treatment in Kuwait since the start of the war.
I'm very optimistic. If he arrives in the right time, he will survive."
The airlift due to ferry the 12-year-old gives a lifeline to the desperately ill youngster. Staying in hospital at Baghdad, where conditions are chaotic and specialist care lacking, would have spelled death. Now Ali, who lost his arms and has third degree burns to 60 per cent of his body, will be assessed by doctors at a burns and plastic surgery clinic. Their expertise might stave off possibly fatal blood poisoning stemming from Ali's severe injuries.
Posted by: Tadderly ||
04/15/2003 08:40 am ||
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Darn it. I forgot to take out the anonymous and make it the me.
#6
Ptah: Nah. I posted it so those self-aggrandizing hysterics would possibly stop beating this unfortunate kid's case, and to let folks know he was actually being moved to where he can get the treatment he needs. Also, to show that we ARE taking care of business.
BTW - who the heck is this ranting twit Anonymo - lots of diatribe, not a jot of relevance...
#9
Tadderly: I was just pointing out that this resolution to a problem Murat posted earlier wasn't the sort of thing he, Murat, would post as a follow up. It WILL have the very effect you predict. Good call, and the reason why I come to Rantburg.
Iraqi refugees who have taken shelter at Iraq's borders near the Iranian town of Dehloran over the week have claimed that Information Minister Saeed al-Sahaf had committed suicide, the Iranian newspaper, Mardomsalari reported Tuesday. A similar report was published in Iran's Arabic newspaper, Al Wifaq. According to these reports, al-Sahaf hanged himself a few hours before Baghdad fell to US forces on April 9th. The refugees gave no source to confirm their claim. Sob, we'll miss Bob. Well, no, we won't.
In his press briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, said the US government believed former Iraqi leaders, including deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and al-Sahaf, may be hiding in Syria.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 08:22 am ||
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Didn't Jorge Heider (Austria) just tell us that al-Sahaf was safe (presumably in Austria)?
Posted by: Jim ||
04/15/2003 9:56 Comments ||
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No, that was Naji Sabri. (He's the one with the moustache...)
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2003 14:54 Comments ||
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I kinda thought Bob and Terry both bought it in the Mansour bunker.
Turkeyâs vacated embassy in Baghdad yesterday became the latest target of looting in the wake of the Iraqi regimeâs collapse. An armed security team, made up of non-Turkish locals enlisted to defend the building after its staff was recalled to Turkey for its own safety, was able to successfully repel the looters, but warned that they could not do so indefinitely. US forces have come under criticism for failing to take measures against looting since their takeover of the capital. Yesterday the Chinese and the Belgian embassies were also targeted by looters and were less lucky than Turkeyâs, as they fell prey to the roving thieves.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 08:17 am ||
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Let's see...the anarchic Baghdad mobs have so far sacked the German embassy, the French cultural center, the Chinese embassy, and the Belgian embassy. All random victims, no doubt. I don't seem to recall seeing anything so far about crowds going after anything associated with other random countries, like oh, say Australia, Italy, South Korea, Poland, etc. Funny how rampaging looters can be so oddly discriminating at times.
#4
I think most countries save for the US, Britain and Kuwait had diplomatic relations with Iraq (presumeably with an embassy), or at least diplomatic "interest sections" in Baghdad. The Russian and French embassies themselves were not looted because armed guards from those countries were still there keeping an eye on things.
#5
Sorry for the caps. That's how it was printed in the Turkish news site I lifted it from. Here's a little something extra to make up for it: A group of looters attacked on Turkish Embassy building in Iraqi capital Baghdad. The looters fled from the area after nearly 10 guards including two Palestinian brothers opened fire on them. There was not any immediate reports of casualties in the incident.
Palestinians are good with guns, aren't they?
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 10:28 Comments ||
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"hat's how it was printed in the Turkish news site I lifted it from."
Hmm, maybe thats why Murats posts all do that. I guess the Turks cannot operate the Shift Key.
#7
Schroeder is truly mad about the looting of the German embassy in Baghdad. He had all these nice brochures about his policy there. Not a single one was stolen.
Ali Ismail Abbas, the 12-year-old Baghdad boy who lost his arms in a US air strike, yesterday accused the media of letting him down. He does not want sympathy. Speaking with fluent indignation, in his grimy ward in Chewader hospital, he demanded to know why numerous promises that he would be treated in the West had not been kept. "The journalists always promise to evacuate me - why don't they do it now?" he asked, his brow furrowed with pain and glistening with sweat. "Please take me out of Iraq to be safe and cured." Poor kid, he's learning the hard way that a journalist's job is to chatter and posture, and NOTHING ELSE. If anyone comes through for him, and I hope they will, it'll be the U.S. military docs.
Posted by: Bent Pyramid ||
04/15/2003 08:03 am ||
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yeah...the us likes to grab it's glory, just ask gen custer about this. [dam them unchristian indians!!!]
Couldn't it be said that the people who were freed from wrongful and barbaric imprisonment in Iraq were MOST DEFINITELY not freed in the names of Charlie Sheen ... Susan Sarrandon ... Danny Glover ... Jenean Grrrrrafalo ... (etc. ad nauseam)?
I think they should be made to sign another letter stating that blatant human rights violations are far less important to them than attempting to besmirch the name and reputation of our sitting President.
#5
Whenever I read the word "Anonymo", I picture some dorky super-hero wannabe in a Superman knock-off outfit (picture a big A,instead of S)wearing horn-rim glasses. Wish he'd suffer the same fate too.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/15/2003 16:48 Comments ||
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Anonymo -- the new Weapon of Mass Disgust!
Mike N -- actually, I think he's more like the dorky guys in that infamous Saturday Night Live skit where William Shatner goes to a Trek convention. You know, the one where he riffs about 38 year olds who live in their parents' basements and have never kissed a girl.
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
04/15/2003 20:38 Comments ||
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#7
The journalists always promise to evacuate me - why don't they do it now?"
Trust CNN
Posted by: john ||
04/15/2003 21:14 Comments ||
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#8
Where is a photograph of this child? Shouldn't we have a photograph of this child so we can raise some help for him?
Posted by: Compassion for the kid ||
04/15/2003 22:03 Comments ||
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The Italian government asked parliament Tuesday to authorize the deployment of up to 3,000 people to Iraq, including military policemen and relief workers, to help restore order and provide humanitarian assistance. The proposal, outlined by Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, was expected to be endorsed by the legislature, where Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservatives have a solid majority. "We can't allow the aftermath of the war to make more victims than war itself," Frattini told Italian senators. The full contingent would number between 2,500 and 3,000, including a military component that Frattini said was essential to make sure supplies would not be looted. Mine clearers, doctors and other relief workers would also participate, and a field hospital would be set up.
Italy has been supportive of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. It did not send any troops, but has said it would contribute to Iraq's reconstruction.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 07:46 am ||
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More than 2,000 Iraqi policemen reported for work in Baghdad yesterday as efforts were made to curb the looting and vandalism. Following American radio appeals, the officers arrived at the National Police College to register for work. Later American soldiers made their first joint patrol with Iraqi policemen. Two marine Humvees accompanied five Iraqi police cars through the eastern part of the capital. Yet this largely symbolic start to a crackdown on lawlessness has made little difference so far. Baghdad normally has 40,000 police and it will be some time before all of the new volunteers are deployed on the streets. For comparison, Chicago has about 13,700 sworn officers for about 3 million people.
Four of the capital's six general hospitals are closed, plumes of black smoke rise across the city, only a handful of shops are open and looters wheel their gains through the streets with apparent impunity. Baghdad's five million people still have no electricity or reliable water supplies. Cars piled high with furniture, typewriters and air conditioning units are common sights. Six young men strode through the al-Thawra area wearing black fencing masks and carrying foils, all pilfered from a gymnasium. Compared with the looting frenzy that followed the arrival of Americans in Baghdad last Wednesday, the wholesale theft has subsided. Capt Frank Thorp, a central command spokesman, said: "We're beginning to see a downward trend in looting." This is largely because Baghdad's obvious targets have been plundered to destruction.
Marines have responded by abandoning their armoured vehicles and mounting foot patrols. Two hundred men from 17 Weapons Company were deployed to bring order to the Karrada area. They sealed off several streets with barricades of bricks, protecting St Raphael's Hospital, a small Christian clinic and a nearby Roman Catholic church. The marines gathered in groups of three or four on street corners, their M16 carbines held at the shoulder. Shopkeepers felt confident enough to open for business. Ghazi Said, 65, said he had reopened his small supermarket only because three marines were standing within 20 yards of its entrance. Asked why most of his shelves were still empty, he replied: "I am keeping most of my stock safe at home because I do not know if this stealing will start again."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/15/2003 12:57 am ||
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#1
Situation:
Security: most of country secure, some sporadic fire from "3rd country nationals" mainly in Baghdad.
Law and Order: Largely restored, still some looting in Baghdad, though declining even there. People returning to streets. LE by mix of Coalition troops, Iraqi police, volunteers from Shiite mosques, Free Iraqi exile forces, Kurds
Health and hospitals: Looting stoped, but after effects include shortages of medicines and equipment. Continued power and water problems. Major "fog of peace" UPI reports 6 of 7 Baghdad hospitals functioning, Brit press 1 of 7 functioning. Also mixed reports on whether coalition military hospitals are available to Iraqis.
Power and Water: Mixed reports - Centcom reports progress, BBC reports frustration. Claim that power will be restored to Bagdad in 72 hours. Centcom claims that where water not restored its being trucked in.
Food: pre-war household stocks close to used up, reports that local produce flowing into Bagdad again. Distribution of external food aid still limited.
Political situation: Again mixed sit on ground, in some areas shiite Imams, tribal leaders, and exiles are de facto "mayors". Not clear what relationship of these mayors is to US sponsored process. First meeting near Nasiriyah, about 50-50 exiles and locals. SCIRI and al-Dawa boycotting, but they offer no clear alternatives or set of demands. Situation in Najaf unclear. Situation in Kirkuk and Mosul unclear.
Philippines' President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced the appointment of a new ambassador to Iraq, even as US-led coalition forces had yet to establish full control over the war-torn country and set up an interim government. In a speech to the graduating class of the Philippine National Police Academy, the President said she was appointing businessman Jose C. Ibazeta as ambassador to Baghdad. What happened? We bomb the old one?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 04:17 pm ||
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Is this called recognition of the "new" regime?
Congratulations to the Philippines for being the first!
Posted by: john ||
04/15/2003 21:23 Comments ||
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Show of support and acceptance of the new reality on the ground.
EFL
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Tuesday the government will carefully consider whether to dispatch staff to the U.S.-led administration of occupied Iraq. "We do not have a clear picture of the structure of the body," Fukuda said. "We will decide how we will be involved in it after further study."
According to the Foreign Ministry, there are no legal restraints on sending Japanese civilians to assist the organization -- called the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, a unit of the U.S. Defense Department -- as long as it does not engage in military operations.
However, the dispatch of Japanese to areas affected by wars is a politically sensitive issue because Japan's Constitution renounces war. Fukuda said the conflict is continuing and that the government will make its decision after watching developments. Foreign Ministry officials have said the ORHA is now a civilian organization, but its structure and activities are still unclear.
Since September 11, it looks like we can't hold two guns at the same time," Clinton said. "If you fight terrorism, you can't make America a better place to be."
#1
Was he biting his lip and waving his thumb when he said that? Or was he fucking a kid young enough to be his daughter with a cigar?
Posted by: g wiz ||
04/15/2003 22:33 Comments ||
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Clinton will go down as one of the America's worst presidents. I confess that I voted for him twice. Yes, I'm an idiot that needs a hot shower to wash away the disgust I feel.
#3
Why is it the Dummycheat presidents just can't go park their patootie in their "presidential" libraries, and keep their yaps shut? WHY do they have to continue to make fools of themselves for years and years after leaving office? Both Peanut Farmer and Blowjobman are terminally addicted to their own prattle.
Clinton said "sooner or later the United States had to find a way to cooperate with the world at large".
Uh, donkeyshit, Bush didn't send Tomahawk missiles to blow up empty tents, or an aspirin factory. Bush didn't walk away from American soldiers in harm's way, but put more force in play to see those men were rescued. The job in Afghanistan isn't over, but it's a thousand percent better place now than it was during the 1990's. The rest of the world, used to rhetoric and no moxie suddenly either respects or fears the United States. Those people who wish to trust us feel there's a much better chance today that we will be trustworthy. Those that want to flaunt the rules of polite diplomatic society do so now with trembling knees, or they keep their yaps shut. The flag of the United States is suddenly something to be proud of, instead of something to use to wipe off the dipstick.
Yeah, Bush is going to cooperate with the rest of the world, but it won't be Clinton-style cooperation - bending over and spreading cheeks. Bush is more a kicker than a kickee, and the world has learned that small lesson. God bless this nation, and God bless George Bush. He's NOT Bill Clinton.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2003 23:39 Comments ||
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#5
an out of context quote from an unknown source - go stuff it. Clinton has been supportive of Bush on this.
How convenient to forget the "Powell doctrine" and Powells ties in the Pentagon, and the constraints that placed on "draft evader" and "pro-gay" clinton wrt to the use of force. Anyone remember Powell and Carter going to haiti to prevent Clinton from using force???
How about a deal - we wont dredge up Bush. Sr's mistakes, or dubyas pre 9/11 mistakes and wrong signals and also we wont engage in partisan attacks on Bill Clinton. Lets keep this focused on the Post 9/11 WOT, and not partisan advantage.
#6
I have to take issue with you on this one, liberalhawk. For DECADES it has been a silent rule that past Presidents not publicly SHIT on the sitting President ... no matter what their personal thoughts. Rush Limbaugh made the call way back in '97 when he said that Clinton would be the first president to break this "code of silence". He sure did, didn't he? And in what interest?? To continue to try to re-write history, and build a legacy. You know, it's one thing for the people of the United States to bitch and moan about presidents, past and present. That's our right (responsibility, really) ... but for a past President to publicly bash the sitting President ... that's just not honorable. Frankly, any criticism Bill Clinton receives is warranted, even to this day. Not since Carter has a single man worked so hard to run this great country down, and I for one will make sure than NOBODY forgets what he did during his eight year tenure.
As for not bringing up Bush 41's mistakes ... You know what? Bring it on. There's not one that could hold a candle to Clinton's reprehensible actions while he was Philanderer in Cheif!
A senior Hizbullah official warned Monday that fallout from the US-led war in Iraq may soon affect Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iran and the region. That's a pretty good bet. What're you gonna do about it? Sheikh Naim Qassem, deputy secretary-general of Hizbullah, was speaking to reporters after visiting Aram I Keshishian, Armenian Orthodox Catholicos of the House of Celicia, at his seat in Antelias. Qassem said the visit was part of a âbig tourâ by Hizbullah officials involving religious and political leaders and designed to discuss developments concerning Lebanon in particular. âTime has proved that the American steps in Iraq are the beginning of steps covering the whole region and providing an appropriate cover for Israeli designs,â Qassem said. â(Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon is talking about the favorable chances he is expecting from the aggression on Iraq. In addition, there are accusations against Syria that it possesses weapons of mass destruction. This confirms that the Iraqi step is an American crossing over to other steps covering Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iran and the whole region.â He added that what happened in Iraq âdoes not mean it can happen again in other spots, because the circumstances are different and so are the governments.â The enemy is the same, and the tactics are the same...
Accordingly, we cannot prevent a possible danger but we can prevent events which others think of realizing, he said. Sounds nervous, doesn't he?
Replying to a question about the recent âcampaign against Damascus,â Qassem said: âWe and Syria are in the same trench and will remain united in confronting challenges.â "We're gonna go down together..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 09:32 pm ||
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What he meant to say: 'After the American-British butt kicking we Arabs took in Iraq, I know my days are numbered. To that end I am leaving for France, where a terrorist can live out his life in comfort. Last one out is dead!'
#3
Brilliant analysis. Especially from the famous seat in Antelias. This is why he gets to wear the funny hat.
I've been to the House of Celicia - or was that the House of Cecilia? She took me on a "big" tour, too. I saw some of these guys there, I think. She told me I could have any one I wanted. I chose the redhead with the fire hydrant hooters. It was great. Highly recommended.
(4.5 stars)
The Hizbullah fighter, one of three manning an observation post on Sheikh Abbad Hill, ignored the taunts of âTerrorist! Terrorist!â from an unseen Israeli soldier in the giant concrete compound on the other side of the border fence, and simply said: âWhatever happens, we are ready.â "Yup. Yup. Ain't no infidels gonna roll over us. Nope."
They had better be, as analysts believe that in the post-Iraq phase of the âwar on terrorism,â Hizbullah and Syria are seen as the obvious next targets for the hawks in the administration of US President George W. Bush eager to capitalize on their triumph over Saddam Hussein. âI think Hizbullah will be a principle concern on the grounds that first it is a threat to Israel, that it provides support for operations inside Israel and certainly Washington believes that,â said Professor Gary Sick, the director of Columbia Universityâs Middle East Institute. âBut also that Hizbullah has a reach that goes beyond Lebanon and its neighbors â I am not sure how accurate that is by itself but thatâs how itâs taken in Washington. That obviously is an important factor.â Doesn't have to go any further than the Marine barracks in Beirut, Clem...
Hizbullahâs military build-up in south Lebanon and its prominence on Washingtonâs numerous lists of âterroristâ organizations since Sept. 11, 2001 have kept alive anticipation of a US-endorsed Israeli assault against the party. That prospect has dimmed, partly out of a recognition that the military option is unlikely to work against Hizbullah. Instead, it has become clear in recent days that Washington intends to use an indirect channel to neutralize Hizbullahâs military capabilities by applying political pressure on Damascus, backed up by the presence of some 200,000 US troops in neighboring Iraq.
Golly. Y'think?
I think the WMD issue is ultimately going to be small potatoes in dealing with Syria. Their sins lie elsewhere â with Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Ein el-Hilweh, the PKK, and likely Turkish Hezbollah. Syria's the pivot-point for Middle Eastern terrorism, and it'll be for this that they're called to book. The opposition will come from Arabs accusing us of taking the Israeli side against the Paleos, since much â but not all â of the terror operations Syria facilitates are directed against Israel. Ultimate control of Hezbollah and Jihad lies in Teheran â the overboss appears to be Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Mohtashami â of course, but the money flows through Damascus and the command and control lines flow through Damascus and Beirut.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 09:25 pm ||
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The Hizbullah fighter, one of three manning an observation post on Sheikh Abbad Hill, ignored the taunts of âTerrorist! Terrorist!â from an unseen Israeli soldier in the giant concrete compound on the other side of the border fence, and simply said: âWhatever happens, we are ready.â
....And after seeing the contrails of a large plane flying far overhead, the terrorist turns to look at it through his binoculars when he notices a small object falling and seemingly coming closer and closer and then
#2
âWhatever happens, we are ready.â
They always say that. Yep. Every time.
And then someone goes and says something like this: "...the military option is unlikely to work against Hizbullah." Yep. They say this, too. I dunno what it means, but hey, it's what they say.
And then someone shoots someone. Rat-a-tat-tat. And someone starts hollering and then others join and pretty soon it gets real loud. There's lots of chanting and banners and marching and stuff. And then everything gets kinda confusing and really loud with lots more shouting and chanting and stuff. Then come lots more rat-a-tat-tats and even more chanting and marching around waving banners and shooting full clips of rat-a-tat-tat into the air and at people with different banners and chants and stuff. Then these really serious-looking people come over. They stay a little way away and watch and make coffee and watch some more. Then sky the rains GPS-guided HE and laser-designated iron. When your ears clear, you hear running feet. The lucky guy - sent out to get pizza. Then the smoke kinda clears away and it's real quiet. Yep. Always happens.
Lebanonâs Shiite clerics on Monday condemned the current tension in Najaf, an important Shiite religious center, and called on the allied forces to protect it. One of the leading religious leaders, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, had been under house arrest by 50 armed pro-Iranian Iraqis since Saturday, who had demanded that the cleric leave Iraq within 48 hours. A Kuwaiti Shiite cleric said that several tribal chiefs from the Euphrates area had intervened and put an end to the ayatollahâs captivity. "Mahmoud! Ali Sistani's in trouble! Get some gunnies over there to protect him, quick!"
The group of armed men were reportedly from the same group which had brutally killed pro-Western Shiite cleric Sayyed Abdel-Majid al-Khoei in Najaf on Thursday. "Die, infidel dog! And you, too, whoever you are!"
The vice-president of the Shiite Higher Council in Lebanon, Sheikh Abdel-Amir Qabalan, played down reports about tension in Najaf. Speaking to a group of Shiite clerics who gathered at the Higher Shiite Council to discuss the latest developments in Najaf, including leading cleric Mohammed Ibrahim Amin and other clerics from Lebanon and abroad, Qabalan called on all Shiites to work together for the good of their common cause. He added that Lebanonâs Shiites wanted Iraq united without clashes between the Shiites and the Sunni, or among Muslims and non-Muslims. âWe call upon our brethren in Najaf to defend the religious authorities, Ayatollah Sistani and Mohammed Said Hakim, and other religious authorities in Najaf,â Qabalan said, stressing the closeness of the links between Lebanese Shiites and Najaf. Qabalan called on Shiite religious leaders to join hands and urged all Iraqis to unite for the countryâs benefit. "Just be patient. Hold off on killing each other until the infidels are gone..."
Qabalan said that the gathering of ulema was aimed at condemning what was going on in Iraq, especially in Najaf. âWe are totally opposed to the invasion forces remaining in Iraq and we call on all Iraqis, Arabs, Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis to work together,â Qabalan said. "Yeah. We didn't need them to get rid of Sammy, so what do we need them for now?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 08:13 pm ||
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EFL -- I swear, Pravda must pay by the word, or they all think they are Doestoevsky. Food/beverage alert!
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov happily stated during his visit to South Korea that a number of addresses to the Russian Defense Ministry pertaining to deliveries of up-to-date conventional arms had increased greatly. The minister did not fail to thank the American government for advertising cheap and reliable Russian arms for free. As they say it in Russia, there is a part of joke in every joke. I think he means truth in every joke, but then we are talking about Russian military gear....
Experts are right when they say that the increase of the interest to Russian arms occurred on the moment when American officials accused Russia of illegal arms deliveries to Iraq. "Hey, you mean I have other options than just Pierre?" In the beginning of the Iraqi campaign, American military men claimed that American smart bombs are not that smart because the Iraqi army allegedly used up-to-date Russian defense technology. And we ALL saw how well it performed, too!
The popularity of the Russian weapons has not suffered a bit on account of the fact that the Iraqi army lost the war. At the end of the day, the Soviet weapons - Kalashnikov guns, MiG planes and guided missiles - defeated the American army in Vietnam. However, the prosperity of the Soviet defense industry was over years ago. Still stuck in the glory days of the '60's, just like Hanoi Jane.
Nevertheless, specialists of the Russian defense industry say that the number of defense orders has been already increased 10 or 15 percent - approximately 700 million dollars of the extra profit. A lot of countries (especially Muslim ones) evince their interest in compact anti-aircraft complex Phoenix, which is capable of detecting and downing air targets. The demand on ABM systems and heavy armoured vehicles grows too.
The Russian defense industry does not produce any modern weapons in a large scale at the moment. New models of arms are produced only for foreign contracts. The Russian leadership will need to have a lot of courage and political will to arm the whole world. Russia might help a lot of countries in this respect, if it is allowed to do so, of course. How humanitarian of them!
The American administration is deeply concerned about the growing export of Russian arms. In addition to that, American officials are not happy with the interest that a lot of countries (including America's so-called allies) evince in the opportunity to acquire Russian arms. It is worth mentioning here that members of the Saudi royal family have already released public statements like "we are buying Russian weapons whenever we want, and the USA is not an instructor to us." It is rather hard to imagine that American officials will quietly watch the Russian defense industry selling more and more modern weapons, especially to those countries, which might become another target for the USA to hit.
The American administration just keeps on creating the image of Russia as of a hypocritical friend, who secretly arms America's enemies. The Washington Post wrote in one of its articles that Putin was ruling the country, in which retired cunning generals shared their military knowledge with Saddam Hussein for money; in which scientists sold nuclear technologies to Iran; in which the army waged one of the dirtiest wars in the world — in Chechnya. As the newspaper wrote, America is not supposed to break all negotiations and relations with Russia. Yet, according to the Washington Post, America must keep a certain distance in its relations with Russia. The newspaper also recommended the American administration not to swear eternal friendship to Russian politicians, who continue arming America's enemies on the sly. Nice to see one of the weasels is telling the truth.....
Anyway, the Russian defense industry managed to set a record in sales last year, without any interest that appeared as a result of the war in Iraq. In 2002 Russia exported arms in the sum of 4,8 billion dollars. Among defense contracts of the year 2002, experts single out a contract to sell Su-30 pursuit planes to India and China. China also purchased eight Russian diesel submarines and two torpedo-boat destroyers.
The Russian corporation MiG has reportedly managed to sell its pursuit planes to Sudan (America has serious claims about this country). Another breakthrough on the Asian market, as Rosoboronexport believes, is the deal of selling anti-aircraft missile complex Igla to Malaysia. The Russian defense industry has allegedly earned 4,3 billion dollars in the beginning of the current year. In other words, the current year might become a year of record sales in Russia, if the USA does not deal with the Russian military export seriously, of course.
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
04/15/2003 08:50 pm ||
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"The popularity of the Russian weapons has not suffered..."
Cheap. Little training required. Hell I'd by them too.
#2
"Kalashnikov guns, MiG planes and guided missiles- defeated the U.S. [military] in Vietnam."
Wow! Nice rewrite of history. Try: LBJ, McNamara, NY Times, Jane Fonda and the rest of the home grown Marxists.
Another complete story from Hi Pakistan...
ANKARA: Turkey said on Tuesday that Syria should not be next target of America. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said this during a joint press briefing with his Israeli counterpart Silwan Shaloom.
Did he say who should?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 06:39 pm ||
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#1
Currently watching the Syrian Deputy Ambassador to US on CNBC. Would not answer questions directly. He is blaming all the stories and concerns on Israeli fabrications. The oil pipeline has been there for 70 years; just shut down for maintenance. We have no WMD, they are all in Israel. Jay Garner is a stooge of Sharon. Rumsfelds gets all his information from Israeli Intelligence.
Posted by: john ||
04/15/2003 20:18 Comments ||
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#2
I suspect Iran would top the Turkish list, as the Iranians have been trying to overthrow the Turkish government for years on end. They are also the chief source of Islamic Terrorism, Inc., whether the Shi'ite or Sunni variety. Saudi Arabia, of course, functions as the ideological hub as well as the primary bank.
Destroying the Islamic Republic of Iran would be a service on behalf of civilization.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/15/2003 22:44 Comments ||
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#3
Wrong again! The Iranian theocracy is already under extreme internal pressure and will implode shortly without U.S. direct intervention. Syria on the other hand is a real Baathist/Socialist supporter of "terrorism" and will sooner or later have to be dealt with militarily.
#4
The major terrorism that Syria sponsors is, with the exception of Hezbollah (which will likely fall apart when the cash stops flowing from the ayatollahs), directed at Israel. More to the point, Syria doesn't sponsor al-Qaeda. Iran does and is already harboring some top leadership folks.
More to the point, say Iran is about to collapse. If the ayatollahs recognize that, they may well try to go out in one last blaze of Dire Revenge(TM). And as they'll have nukes soon, that would seem to be of far more paramount concern to US policy.
The hardliners may well be on their way out, but given what I've seen some of these "reformists" saying lately (today's articles are a perfect illustration of this), I see little indication that they'll be any nicer to us or Israel than the ayatollahs once they get nukes.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2003 0:07 Comments ||
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Headline (and the entire story) from HiPakistan...
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and France on Tuesday agreed that Iraq should be in control of its people, media reported.
Being neither Soddy Arabian nor French, I continue to remain under the illusion that Iraq should be under the control of its people, rather than vice versa. But maybe that's just me...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 06:34 pm ||
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Fred, what we have here is a failure to communicate. Or maybe not. Do you think that the construction of the sentence (which you caught) was what they were trying to say?
I mean, we know that the Arabs don't get it (gov't of people, by and for) but is it possible the French don't really either? That their revoluccion was really just polemic? The reason why they are antagonistic with us is they don't really understand why, given our position, we aren't more hegemonistic? They know THEY would be, if in our place, still seeing themselves as a traditional colonial power (minus the power). They're more comfortable with Russia, with whom domination is second nature, something they "get". And maybe ALL of Europe is that way. They don't trust us, even after 3 WW wins (hey, works for me) mostly on THEIR behalf. Wasn't it odd they way they stood back and watched Kosovo and Bosnia, until we did something. Maybe our frustration with Europe is that we're preaching to an empty choir loft.
Posted by: Scott ||
04/15/2003 22:22 Comments ||
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Malaysia will call for a meeting with Cuba and South Africa, the other members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) troika, soon to discuss latest developments in Iraq. "Yes, by God! That's it! We'll have a meeting!" Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said on Tuesday that this was being done in its capacity as NAM chairman. He said the troika members â the past and present chairmen of NAM â will discuss the position of Iraq as a NAM member and the role that can be played by the United Nations in the reconstruction of the nation. He said Malaysia proposed that the meeting take place soon in the light of the latest developments in the Middle East which were "very worrying." "I'm so worried! Oh, hold me, Fatimah!"
Syed Hamid said besides the urgent need to rebuild Iraq, the talk of Syria being the next target of the US and its allies had brought about more uncertainty. "It is very worrying...it is like all problems can be easily settled through military means," he told newsmen after receiving donations totalling almost RM500,000 (US$131,578) from various organisations to the Iraqi Humanitarian Fund at his office here. Well, not all problems, but lots of them...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 04:25 pm ||
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Yes, yes, a meeting! And soon! (Good call, Fred!)
Prolly in a 5-star in Paris or Geneva. Wanna guess how much of that $$$ ever even gets to Iraq, much less actually HELPS someone there who needs it?
Iraq is no longer "non-aligned" folks. Get over it.
#2
Malysia is deeply worried because it is only a semi-legitimate state. In most of its territory (Eastern Malaysia) ethnic Malays are a minority as are muslims.
Since independance it has a policy of creeping islamicisation. Laws against apostatsy and forcing non-muslims who marry moslems to become moslems themselves. As well showering money and services on the malays and moslems, while non-malay and and non-moslem, indigenous people live in poverty without running water and other basic services.
The message has been clear - If you want a better live learn Malay and become a muslim!
They have presented this as a fait acommpli (sp?) and through draconian security laws and control of the press have stiffled dissent. Mandatory education in malay has limited access to (generally english) sources of information.
The Malaysian government is afraid that increasing freedom and access to information will result in result in resistance to Malay dominance and islamicisation.
NAM is just a front for illegitimate states and makes the UN look like a paragon legitimcy.
Posted by: Phil B ||
04/15/2003 22:03 Comments ||
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`Kayhan International' on Tuesday proposed the Islamic Republic of Iran's system as the best model for the next government in Iraq. "The Iraqis have a few options before them and might end up under a new form of dictatorship preceded by an imposed and unpopular interim ruler if they fail to close ranks and rally behind the banner of Islam," highlighted the English-language daily in its Viewpoint column. Oh, I disagree. I think the best model for them is something that venerates some sort of totem and requires everybody to wear curly-toed shoes and hotrod orange turbans. But since it's their country, neither of our opinions count, do they?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 04:15 pm ||
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Oh yeah The political model for the Ages.
So, uh, what do you do when your population youth bubble bursts - finally reaching its critical mass of frustration, rises up and squishes your aging Rev Guards, and confines you to house-arrest in the mosque?
The Black Hats always give me Buzzword Orgasmia:
Classic myopic mercenary dogmatic Islamofascists.
#4
"curly-toed shoes and hotrod orange turbans"
LOL. Gonna put the Shriners in charge? :-)
(Come to think of it, that might not be a bad idea!)
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
04/15/2003 20:01 Comments ||
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#5
When are countries going to stop wasting their time trying to re-invent the wheel?
"Hmm, where should we look for examples to follow? Where oh where in the entire world could we look to see any examples of countries that have great prosperity, freedom from arbitrary dictates of rulers, lack of domestic strife, ability for people to say and believe and practice whatever they choose without habing to fear being strung up or tortured or getting stoned or their heads chopped off?"
"Nope, can't see any examples."
Posted by: ray ||
04/15/2003 20:40 Comments ||
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curly toed shoes and hotrod orange turbans:thanks,Fred....I just pissed my pants.
A report by the Parliamanet (Majlis) Article 90 Commission on a complaint by Ebrahim Yazdi and several other members of the so-called "religious-nationalist" group here on Tuesday triggered a scuffle at the chamber. The report that was being read by Hossein Ansari-Rad, the chairman of the commission, drew angry protests by deputies from the Parliament's minority faction. Meanwhile, several members of the faction rushed to the podium and tore up the report after taking it from Ansari-Rad. Still, Parliament Vice Speaker Mohammad-Reza Khatami urged Ansari-Rad to go on reading another copy of the report. If they can just get rid of those damned ayatollahs, they've got the makings of a robust democracy going there...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 04:11 pm ||
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Khalid Amin Al Hafidh, son of the former Syrian president Amin Al Hafedh, appealed to international and humanitarian organizations, in addition to the Syrian leadership, to save the lives of hundreds of Syrian defectors stuck on the Syrian-Iraqi boarders for three days, stressing that no Arab volunteer fighters are among them. "Nope. Nope. No volunteers. Maybe a few bodyguards..."
Talking to Al Jazeera from Amman, Khalid Al Hafedh said the Iraqi government had received these Syrian defectors over 30 years ago, when they left after the 1966 coup. They are suffering extreme hardship, with little food or medical supplies. Most of those stuck on the border are children, women, and old people, he added. Al Hafidh said that one of his father's companions managed to call him from the Albu Kamal border town, asking him to contact Syrian officials and save their lives. US forces are approaching the nearby town of Al Qaem and it is feared that they may be mistaken for Arab volunteer fighters who had entered Iraq to fight US-led forces. Oh, I doubt it, if they're children, women, and old folks...
"Through Al Jazeera I am sending an SOS to President Dr. Bashar Al Asad, the Syrian government, and all international and humanitarian organizations to save the lives of the defectors who were thrown out of Baghdad after the US troops had entered the Iraqi capital" he said. "I stress that their humanitarian situation is dire, they need to be rescued because their lives are threatened. They have no IDs or passports." I guess life's sometimes tough for hangers-on...
"The Syrian government is apparently refusing to let these defectors into Syria, fearing that if it did so, the US would accuse it of aiding Arab volunteer fighters", he added. Amin Al Hafedhâs son said these Syrians had been driven out of their apartments in Haifa Street in Baghdad — formerly known as Al Jaefir. Saddam Hussein presented these flats to them. However, the old inhabitants of Haifa Street claim that President Hussein's government had confiscated their houses, demolished them, and built huge residential complexes in their place. Sammy rewarded them for their faithful service, did he? They were probably the ones who took care of his puppies and kittens, right?
Amin Al Hafedh entered Iraq following the 1968 revolution in Iraq, becoming a member of the National Command of the Arab Baath Socialist Party. After assuming power, President Bashar Al Asad pardoned all Syrian defectors save those who had fled to Iraq.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/15/2003 03:11 pm ||
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Secretary of State Colin Powell, calling Cuba's human rights situation horrible and getting worse, urged the U.N. Human Rights Commission to censure Cuba for suppressing dissent.
The commission, winding up its annual meeting in Geneva, is expected to vote on a Cuba resolution this week. Oh yeah, that'll scare them.
Powell spoke in unusually harsh terms about Cuba when he was asked Tuesday for an assessment of its rights record at a news conference. ``It has always had a horrible human rights record. And rather than improving as we go into the 21st century, it's getting worse,'' Powell said. He noted that scores of dissidents were arrested and given long prison terms recently ``just for expressing a point of the view that is different from that of Fidel Castro.'' Not to mention those three ferryboat would-be highjackers who were executed after a one day trial. Why, the outrage of the death penalty opponents against Cuba this week was.....Where was that outrage, anyway?
Powell said Cuba's behavior ``should be an outrage to everyone. It should be an outrage to every leader in this hemisphere, every leader in this world.'' Cuba insists that the jailed dissidents were subversives because they had been working closely with the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, which has been advocating a change in government on the island. Fidel has been cracking down pretty hard lately, sounds like he thinks not everyone is happy with him running things. Getting paranoid in his old age?
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 02:57 pm ||
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Hey, there hasn't been much news out of Venezuela lately, has there?
#2
Most of the prominent people who introduced the Varela project (calling for more democracy in Cuba) are now in jail for 20 years. It was Jimmy Carter who brought this project to attention during his Cuba visit.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that U.S. forces have shut down a pipeline used for illegal oil shipments from Iraq to Syria, but he could not assure that oil is not still flowing between those two countries. During a question-and-answer session with reporters, Rumsfeld denied that coalition forces had destroyed any pipelines. "We have preserved infrastructure in that country," he said.
However, Rumsfeld said, coalition forces are working on securing the particular illegal pipeline. "I hope they have cut it off," he said. Thought that this had been done earlier, guess not.
There were allegations that, in violation of U.N. sanctions, Syria has received 150,000 to 200,000 barrels of oil daily through the pipeline, which opened in 2000. No oil for blood. Sucks to have to buy it at market prices now, doesn't it?
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 02:26 pm ||
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This is going to hammer Syria's already basket case economy. According to the CIA http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sy.html Oil form 68% of exports.
We don't know how much of that is Iraqi oil, but Syria has both declining production and money problems.
Shell was pressed by the cash-strapped Syrian government to step up production (against Shell's advice) to 100,000 bbl/d. The result was serious reservoir damage, and in April 1989, output plummeted to 30,000 bbl/d. from http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/syria.html
I predict that Assad will be gone within a year!
Posted by: Phil B ||
04/15/2003 14:55 Comments ||
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EFL
TEHRAN (Reuters) - A top Iranian conservative official said on Tuesday the United States should expect Iran to ask for "rewards" if it expected to restore normal ties with its arch-enemy.Mohsen Rezaei's comments appeared to reflect growing concerns among Iranian government officials and non-elected members of the clerical establishment that after the end of the war in Iraq, U.S. attention will turn in part to its neighbor Iran.Many foresee a potential for increased U.S. pressure for change in Iran, which is on Washington's "axis of evil" list and considered a rogue state sponsoring terrorism."If America takes a wiser approach toward Iran, it will reach better results. But if it expects Iran to step back and not ask for rewards, it's clear that we cannot reach any conclusion," Rezaei, secretary of the Expediency Council, Iran's top arbitration body, told a news conference.Rezaie did not say what these rewards should be.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
04/15/2003 12:52 pm ||
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Ummmmm, the last time we took a "wiser approach" to Iran we ended up supporting a Shah. I say we take a more foolish approach and promise Iran that we won't nuke it back to the stone age (not very far to go, actually) if they start playing ball according to our rules.
#2
Can you say "Bakhsheesh"?? Bakhsheesh was "tribute" paid to government middlemen in the old Ottoman Empire to get them to actually do some work. Sounds like Iran is trying to revive the old system, just as they've tried to turn the clock back in social development.
Sorry, the United States is not for sale, and neither is our political or cultural interaction with others. Try Russia. Or France. Or maybe even Guyana. One of them might take you up on it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2003 13:07 Comments ||
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#3
God bless the US of A, you've never done anything bad in history's past, have you assholes!
#4
You would think people would notice that, right or wrong, the hard men are in charge in Washington right now and they would be wise not to push their luck.
#5
"But if it expects Iran to step back and not ask for rewards, it's clear that we cannot reach any conclusion"
We've got your rewards right here, pal *does crotch grab*. Iranian mullahs who can pretend there's any benefit to us by normalizing relations with their current regime will still be wondering what happened when the people start stringing them up. Fantasyland is apparently open in Iran
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/15/2003 13:16 Comments ||
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#6
This is a thought that deserves a middle finger salute.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
04/15/2003 13:30 Comments ||
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#7
Anonymo
You think once damned, always damned? Then every nation on the planet is irredeemable!
Douglas De Bono
Absolutely! One "I'm #1 salute" @ the tyrants, coming upâ¦
#8
Interesting note... I think there are 2 points to keep in mind about Iran and their "leaders."
1) Shi'a
The "black hats" that run the shouting match called Iran are supposedly descendents of Big Mo. Think about it: this is a finite number. The Sunni's just promote the "holiest" guys... so there's an unlimited supply of foolishness.
So the Shi'a side of the equation is weak. Hey, 10 or 15 TLAM's could take out 75% of the black hats in a flash.
2) REAL Revolution
The Iranian people, fed up with these asshats, are probably going to "depose" them (from Gov't, at least) sooner, rather than later. The demographics are written and these goofs won't be able to stop the tide. Ironically, they STARTED it when they took over - and banned contraception.
I just love it when people parade back and forth in life's shooting gallery.
If you fuck with the bull, sooner or later you'll get the horn.
#9
To PD: Big Mo didn't have any sons and only daughter who lived beyond childhood (assuming the accuracy of the islamic holy stuff. So the biological line of prophesy is weak. What is nice about the Shites (aside from what their name connotes in lower anglosaxon) is that the weakness of the biologic succession should imply a separation of religion and govt. Khomeini reversed this but given the mess the theocrats have made of Iran in the past two decades, there is a good chance it could go back the separation idea.
Edited for brevity.
RIALTO, Calif. â Rodney King, whose videotaped beating led to the deadly 1992 riots in Los Angeles, was hospitalized with a broken pelvis after he lost control of his SUV while weaving through traffic at 100 mph and crashed into a house, police said. King, 39, was spotted Sunday by a police officer who said King was speeding and weaving through traffic in his 2003 Ford Expedition when he slammed into a utility pole, a chain-link fence and then the home, police said. No one in the home was injured. Police said they suspect that King was intoxicated, and a blood sample was drawn to determine his blood-alcohol level. Test results have not yet been released. King was not arrested, but a report detailing the crash circumstances will be submitted to prosecutors, police Lt. Kathy Thompson said. Sounds like Rodney wants a few more minutes of infamy.
Posted by: Dar ||
04/15/2003 12:32 pm ||
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Seen on The Corner (as Rodney's climbing onto the home's turf) - "Can't we all just get a lawn?"
Article from Chosun Ilbo April 15, 2003 http://english.chosun.com/
This is the way the South stands up to the North. Ain't it just great.
Seoul to Skip Human Rights Vote by Kwon Dae-yeol (dykwon@chosun.com)
Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan will be absent Wednesday when the United Nations Commission on Human Rights votes on a resolution to censure North Korea for its human rights violations. Yoon's decision indicates that Seoul will abstain from the vote.
Yoon explained at the National Assembly's Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee that the situation on the Korean peninsula and the strategic implications of such a resolution must be considered.
The resolution was submitted by the European Union on April 10. This is the first time a resolution on the North Korean human rights issue will be put to vote.
Posted by: Michael ||
04/15/2003 11:35 am ||
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#1
This provides SK with a chance to go on official record as condoning human rights violations in NK. It has been unoffical policy for years and is truly sickening.
#2
Sounds like a kind of invertibrate strategy to me. Is FM Yoon Young-kwan working for SK or NK? The UNCHR is just a wuss org anyway, but a SK vote in favor of censure would at least send a message to Kimmie.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/15/2003 12:13 Comments ||
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#3
I know most rantburg readers will LOVE this link.
Check out Kim Jong Il's web diary: http://www.livejournal.com/users/kim_jong_il__
Best reason for attacking Syria yet! Lets us pull in the big fish with it.
Iran will not remain neutral if the United States attacks its ally Syria, but military strikes against U.S. forces are not an option, Iran's former Revolutionary Guards chief said Tuesday. "We will not engage in military confrontation with the Americans, but will employ all our nonmilitary facilities to prevent such an attack or to support Syria," Mohsen Rezaei told a news conference.
That's Persian for "We'll do... ummm... something else." When there's general ass-kicking going on, it's never a good idea to bend over...
Rezaei, now secretary of Iran's powerful advisory Expediency Council, said Iran was "happy" to see Saddam ousted because he "invaded our country, devastated our economy and killed hundreds of thousands of our troops and civilians" during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. "But Syria is our puppy strategic ally," said Rezaei, whose comments represent views held by Iran's ruling conservatives. "During the (Iran-Iraq) war, our warplanes took off from Syria to bomb targets in Iraq."
"We couldn't just turn out backs on them. Of course, we can step back a good distance and watch what happens to them..."
Rezaei also said Washington should compensate Tehran for damages sustained by stray coalition missiles that landed in southwestern Iran during the latest war and for damages to its economy.
That's Persian for "give us money."
Rezaei said President Mohammad Khatami's policy of detente toward America was "on the verge of failure" because Washington has so far rejected Iran's overtures to mend diplomatic ties severed since the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran.
What's the temperature in hell these days? Getting close to freezing?
Posted by: Ben ||
04/15/2003 11:30 am ||
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"We will not engage in military confrontation with the Americans, but will employ all our nonmilitary facilities to prevent such an attack or to support Syria," Mohsen Rezaei told a news conference.
Translation: terrorist attacks via Hezbollah and sundry other Iranian-backed terrorist organizations.
If the Iranian mullahs try such a thing, they're going to be dead meat.
Rezaei also said Washington should compensate Tehran for damages sustained by stray coalition missiles that landed in southwestern Iran during the latest war and for damages to its economy.
The only thing that he should get is the big middle finger.
#2
And the Iranians said: "Hey America, how 'bout a little something, you know, for the damages caused by the stray coalition missiles that landed in southwestern Iran?
And America says, there won't be any money.... but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness...
#3
"During the (Iran-Iraq) war, our warplanes took off from Syria to bomb targets in Iraq."
now there's an interesting revelation! do iraqis know this?
ATHENS, April 15 (Reuters) - Despite U.S. efforts to sideline the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan came to the Greek capital on Tuesday to find common ground on postwar Iraq among major powers at a summit of divided European nations. Annan will seek agreement from the leaders of France, Germany and Britain, as well as Russia's foreign minister, on a political role for the United Nations in Iraq, although no major decisions are expected. "I look forward to discussing the post-conflict Iraq situation with key leaders in Athens and for us to try and find a way to move forward and to bring the U.N. Security Council together," Annan told Reuters en route to Greece.
In Athens, heads of the 15 European Union members will watch 10 mostly former communist nations sign accession treaties this week to join the EU in 2004 at a ceremony at the foot of the Acropolis. World leaders from Germany to Pakistan have called for the United Nations, not the Pentagon, to play a central role in trying to organise a new Iraqi government, they say, will give the country's new leaders greater independence and legitimacy. "I do expect the United Nations to play an important role. Above all the U.N. involvement does bring legitimacy, which is necessary for the country, for the region and for the peoples around the world," Annan said. But so far the Bush administration harbors deep resentment over the 15-member Security Council's failure to approve a resolution authorising war and sees a U.N. role limited to humanitarian aid.
At best, it would accept a special representative joining some talks but has shied away from the Afghanistan formula, where the United Nations steered the process of selecting an interim government and helped administer the country afterwards. U.S. officials invited Annan's special adviser, Rafeeuddin Ahmed, to Washington on Monday and Annan agreed to send him despite objections from Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov, who said several times that Ahmed did not have a mandate to negotiate with the occupiers.
Ahmed chaired a group that drew up plans this year for the United Nations to step in about three months after the end of the fighting to help to forge an interim administration. But the contingency plans reject a full scale-U.N. takeover as in Kosovo or in East Timor as well as any security role.
While the United States and the United Nations are circling each other with vague comments, Annan and the Security Council are doing the same. Annan has not publicly presented a plan to council members, who only recently began private discussions on post-war Iraq, at the instigation of Mexico, the current president. "The Security Council has begun quietly and informally to discuss the detail of what needs to be done," Britain's U.N. Ambassador, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, said. "But there are still clearly sensitivities in a number of areas and all of us know we will have to move carefully on this."
There are some council members and even U.N. officials who feel the United States will have to come to the world body -- at minimum to lift sanctions on oil sales, which would involve a clean bill of health by U.N. weapons inspectors. And Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the U.N., said the world body's leadership was wary about being expected to play too large a role without having the resources to do so. "I work for people, including the secretary general, who have seen the United States time after time commit to a long-term involvement in a country -- Haiti, the Balkans, Somalia -- and is gone as soon as the next crisis comes along," he said. There is a big 'C' caution about jumping in and saying we will do the reconstruction."
Posted by: Tadderly ||
04/15/2003 11:10 am ||
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Germany's temp (reuters)
"Gernot Erler, a senior member of Schroeder's Social Democrats in parliament, was more robust when commenting on speculation that Germany will be asked to help fund Iraq's rebuilding: "If we pay for reconstruction, German companies must get business deals."
Defense Minister Peter Struck agreed, saying "It would be absurd to demand Europe help finance reconstruction, then insist that certain European countries are not given contracts."
#2
Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the U.N., said the world body's leadership was wary about being expected to play too large a role without having the resources to do so
Let me see...the UN has to take the lead, and we'll be expected to provide the resources for jerks like Mark Brown to screw us over? I don't think so
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/15/2003 11:48 Comments ||
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#3
LOL Kofi, those former Communist nations know what a powerless lackey the UN is. They used it, they're gonna trust it now?
Posted by: Scott ||
04/15/2003 12:19 Comments ||
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#4
When Kofi takes France's temperature, I hope he uses the Mother of All Rectal Thermometers(TM).
Posted by: Dar ||
04/15/2003 12:25 Comments ||
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#5
Dar---MOART sounds like an instrument from the Little Shop of Horrors. Uhhhhhh....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/15/2003 13:58 Comments ||
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#6
Yes, Paul, but "I'll be a dentist!" is much more melodic than "I'll be a proctologist!"
I'm thinking more along the lines of "Pulp Fiction", where Chiraq is the gimp!
Posted by: Dar ||
04/15/2003 15:23 Comments ||
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#7
Kofi's Paradim: Let me run Iraq and I promise to ask for your money to make it happen!
Posted by: john ||
04/15/2003 20:04 Comments ||
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#8
What is it with these guys and their delusions of grandeur? (Oops, is "grandeur French??? My bad!)
The UN doesn't "bring legitimacy" at all. A nation is determined de-facto, by declaring itself such, and by its actions. Or do they think that declaring, oh, saym Cuba, Red China, North Korea to be "not legitimate" will make any difference in the real world?
And "remiving sanctions"??!!??!! It is to laugh. All that is needed is for Bush to say that the sanctions are over, and they WILL, de-facto, be over. Regardless of what the UN says or doesn't say.
Geesh.
Posted by: ray ||
04/15/2003 20:33 Comments ||
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#9
Ray -- "grandeur" may have started out as French, but it's ours now. Just like the Statue of Liberty and just like the ethnicity of a bunch of pissed-off Americans. What we got from them, we built on and made it ours, just like we did from every other country. We deserve that word, the blood of French Americans, and the Statue. Too bad the French don't remember freedom anymore.
South Korea is ready to donate 200,000 tonnes of fertiliser to famine-hit North Korea this year, as Seoul seeks to entice Pyongyang into peace talks. South Korea has provided hundreds of thousands of tonnes of fertiliser in every year since 1999 at North Korea's request. So that's where it comes from!
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 10:30 am ||
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Hmm. Either it's being used for tired land to produce crops, or they're making the biggest series of home-made pipe bombs of which I have ever heard!
#2
So what kind of fertilizer is being sent north? SK is just making appeasment motions all the time. But I can somewhat understand the reason being that Seoul is so close to the border of nut-land. Sometime, though, they will have to take a stand.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/15/2003 12:17 Comments ||
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#4
Ususally, it's 'lil Kim that's spewing the fertilizer (B.S.) in the South's direction. Proximity to this madman is a dangerous thing, but I wish that once, just once, S. Korea would show some stones.
Posted by: Tibor ||
04/15/2003 12:36 Comments ||
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#5
Sweet! Hey Kimmie, what's brown and sounds like a bell? Dung!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/15/2003 12:49 Comments ||
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#6
Q.Where did s. korea get this fertiliser?
A.The pentagone recently emptied the president's 'chemica' toilet!!!
#11
Now that's 200,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, right?..... hmmm. should do the job....
Posted by: Luigi ||
04/15/2003 20:27 Comments ||
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#12
Totally OT, we had a local engineer who bonded copper to steel for weld technology purposes. He would bury copper and steel sheets and ammonium nitrate in a local sand pit and detonate the stuff. I think the local cops got tired of the neighbors calling and shut him down. Hell of a process though.
Posted by: john ||
04/15/2003 21:35 Comments ||
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#13
I was in S.Korea in 1974,used to watch Papa-son laddle fertilizer on crops from a bucket(honey-bucket).Where did he get the fertilizer?
He simply went to the nearest outhouse and scooped it out.
Say it ain't so, Rantburg! On the eve of war, military brass listened intently as Michael Drosnin expounded the Bible code this is a bucket of salt, no?
I'd call it an "Ohfergawdsake!"
Among the hundreds of meetings and briefings that took place in the Pentagons bowels in the months leading up to Operation Iraqi Freedom, one earned the fleeting disdain of The New York Times, whose columnist, Bill Keller, sniffed that "several man-hours of valuable intelligence-crunching time" had been "consumed [by a writer] who claims â I am not making this up â that messages encoded in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament provide clues to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. "Maybe we're all a little too desperate these days for a simple formula to explain how our safe world came unhinged," Keller said.
The gathering, which reportedly took place Feb. 21, was said to have been convened by Paul Wolfowitz, the hawkish U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defence, and attended by 10 top military intelligence officials, including Vice Admiral Lowell "Jake" Jacoby, director of the massive Defense Intelligence Agency, and Wolfowitz's deputy, Linton Wells, who is in charge of the Pentagon's nerve centre, known as 3CI (Command, Control, Communications).
"Hey, guys! Guess what I've lined up for our lunch hour today?"
"One of those card trick magicians? Ewww!"
"Another hootchy-cootchy dancer, Paul?"
"Nope! This one's even better!"
On the eve of war, the military brass listened intently for a full hour as Michael Drosnin expounded on his two brisk-selling volumes on the Bible code. Drosnin argues the Hebrew Torah â the first five books of the Old Testament â were intentionally encrypted, by a higher power, with prophetic warnings that have accurately predicted the Great Depression, the Second World War, the Kennedy assassinations, the moon landing, Watergate, and 9/11 â and foretell the fall of Saddam Hussein and the precise location of bin Laden.
Can it tell me how to get next to Patty Ann Brown? (Pant!)
The Americans "took it very seriously," Drosnin says. "They're practical people and I wanted to give them something of practical use."
"Yeah. Well. Okay. Thanks fer the info, Mr Drosnin. We'll get back to you..."
As a result of the meeting, Drosnin says U.S. and Israeli intelligence forces are hot on bin Laden's trail in that very place the Bible mentions, "right as we speak." Of course, he would not divulge where that place is.
Damn. And neither Gog nor Magog has returned my call yet...
As for Saddam Hussein, the Bible's embedded code ponders, "Who is destroyed?" and then, in the same matrix, answers, "Hussein," with the following number crossing his name: 5763, the Jewish year that corresponds to 2003. "That foretells the outcome of this conflict," Drosnin says confidently. "It might be obvious now, but it wasn't when I told them."
Oh, certainly not...
It could be that the U.S. defence establishment is grasping at straws, or that more and more people in Washington are motivated by a White House that frequently invokes God and religious imagery. Drosnin discounts the religious angle. "This is not based on faith. This is based on experience. The code keeps coming true."
Yeah. I lost my car keys the other day. Looked all day, until I decided to have a look in Leviticus...
Drosnin is a nut secular Jew, a former police reporter for the Washington Post and former writer for The Wall Street Journal. To be sure, his books, The Bible Code (1997) and last year's sequel, Bible Code II: The Countdown have been used by various fundamentalists, prophets of doom and supermarket tabloids as sure signs the Good Book knows all and that the end is nigh. Detractors point out the code violates the Bible's own ban on soothsaying.
Does he get checks from Weekly World News when they use that stuff? I mean, I've got a few prophecies tucked away in my underwear drawer, but I'm not letting them out until I've got cash in hand...
Drosnin himself says he did not fully believe the code's power until Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered in November, 1995. Having learned Hebrew and the computer program that searches for hidden words, he found "Yitzhak Rabin" intersected with the letters that formed "assassin that will assassinate." Drosnin says he warned the doomed leader in a letter in September, 1994, that the Bible predicted he would be assassinated during that Jewish calendar year. Say it isn't so, please... I have horrible thoughts of Reagan's astrologer...
Posted by: Anon1 ||
04/15/2003 10:10 am ||
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#1
wow! you american's are too far out man,try reading the bilebal, and realise that it's all just a big con, to keep suckers like yourselves in your obidient places!!
Considering the Old Testament is 3,000 years older,and the New Testament 1,000 years older than the Koran speaks alot about the legitamasy of the Koran.
At least I can question what I read in the Bible,how about Muslems.The way I understand it if a Muslems questions anything in the Koran they are beaten or killed.That speaks volumes about the legitamacy of Islam.
#6
*rolls eyes* put this in the same category as Blue Book, Area 52, and black helicopters. I don't think, personally, that the phenomenon of the Bible codes can be disputed: there are programs available for download that anyone can use to verify the phenomenon itself, its clearly refutable, and nobody's refuted it yet.
Problem is, they're strictly ex-post-facto: none of the "predictions" have dates attached, and you have to know the event to supposedly "find" it in the text. Its a squirrely form of "prophecy" that a really serious student of Bible Prophecy wouldn't consider being the real thing.
What you should take with a grain of salt is that the government itself is taking it seriously. I think there may be some government officials who, taking advantage of the current climate, wanted to talk to the guy for their own personal satisfaction, and who used their position to get him to speak to them. Senators on committees get to meet celebrities using the same trick.
Are the bible codes valid? I think so. Can they be used to predict events? Definitely not. Is the government interested in the bible codes? Some government officials are interested, but to the same extent that they're interested in UFO engine technology.
#7
You can't refute something you cannot understand, or don't have first-hand knowledge of. I'm sure the Pentagon has been deluged with emails, phone calls, and snail mail about the "Bible Codes". This is a nice way of saying "Yes, we know about them, and we're taking the matter under advisement." It DOESN'T mean they're taking it serious (although it's possible, but not very probable). Since the head of DIA and 3CI were both there, it's also possible they were looking for information that someone was using the "Bible Codes" to pass intelligence. ANY book can be used for a "Book" code, as long as the books used for encryption and decryption are identical. BTW, 3CI is "Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2003 10:59 Comments ||
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#8
Honestly, you'd think the government would have learned something when the Belloq (a frenchman, of course) and the Nazis tried to open the Ark of the Covenant.
#9
Old Patriot's got it right: You must learn about something first before you can say that it won't work for you.
The bible codes are interesting, but not the sort of thing I'd hang my faith on: For my part, I'd like to confirm that the phenomenon does NOT exist in other, non-biblical texts, before I'd say it was a strong indicator of the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, a la Evangelical Fundamentalism. I suspect a lot of it has to do with properties of the typography of the Hebrew language that do NOT exist in other languages (I.e. no written vowels).
#11
Another trouble with the codes is that they only "work" if one can say decisively which of the extent texts and scraps of texts are the real, official, first-drafts-as-they-came-from-the-pen-of-the-prophets (and/or scribes). When one considers how many thousands of texts there are to choose from, well, good luck.
And, Anonymo, since this thread is regarding ancient texts: Do you have any idea how many different versions of the Koran there have come to be over the centuries? You'll need more than ten fingers to figure it out.
#12
wow! you american's are too far out man,try reading the bilebal, and realise that it's all just a big con, to keep suckers like yourselves in your obidient places!!
(note: I'm a pretty much devout Catholic, coming to this beleif late in my life. IMHO, stuff like this is bogus and contrary to the core of the Christian religion: *belief*. This code stuff is just so much distraction and extraneous to the religion. Its more of what I call "Indian Jones & the Ark of the Covenant" type theology.)
Word clusters such as mentioned in Witztum's and Drosnin's books and the so called messianic (Bible) codes are an uncontrolled phenomenon and similar clusters will be found in any text of similar length. All claims of incredible probabilities for such clusters are bogus, since they are computed contrary to standard rules of probability and statistics.
(undersigned by many PhD mathematicians)
http://math.caltech.edu/code/petition.html
A brief summary of the codes claims is that the Hebrew text of the Bible (especially of the Torah, the first five books) contain intentional coincidences of words or phrases that appear as letters with equal spacing.
The most serious claim of scientific evidence for the Codes was made by three Israelis: Doron Witztum, Eliyahu Rips, and Yoav Rosenberg (WRR). They claim that biographical information about medieval rabbis is "encoded" in the Hebrew text of Genesis. Specifically, the rabbis' names and other appellations are claimed to be encoded closer to their dates of birth and death than should be expected by chance. WRR's "experiment" appeared in the respectable journal Statistical Science in 1994.
The first serious attack on WRR's paper was published by mathematicians Dror Bar-Natan and Brendan McKay. They found that a small change in the choice of appellations for the famous rabbis can lead to War and Peace performing just as well as Genesis.
An extensive refutation of the famous rabbis experiment, and of many other alleged experiments, was published by the same journal that published WRR's paper. The paper, by Brendan McKay, Dror Bar-Natan, Maya Bar-Hillel, and Gil Kalai, appeared in the May 1999 issue of Statistical Science (printed in September).
Here are some links
http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/StatSci/
One of our favourite reactions to WRR's "experiments" is to produce similar-looking "experiments" in War and Peace
One of the links is here:
http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/rosh/
Moby Dick predicts assasainations per the "Bible Code" methods.
http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/moby.html
In summary, the Bible Codes are just pseudo-scientific trash thats put together by perhaps well meaning individuals, but has been perpetuated to sell things to the ignorant.
#16
I had read several years ago, around the time that The Bible Code first came out, that you could follow the same procedure with any text of signifigant length. I believe that they had used a Tom Clancy novel to confirm the predictions of The Bible Code.
Posted by: B W ||
04/15/2003 14:56 Comments ||
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#17
And, oddly enough, Tom Clancy has come as close as any fictional author I know to having predicted the events of 9/11 onward, including the way Gulf 2 would go.
#18
Actually, the amount of textual "drift" in the Hebrew texts is a lot less than one would think. The Hebrew scribes used a form of checksumming (counting the number of each letter in copied sections of the text and comparing them against known values), and double verification (another scribe did the letter counting), that are used to ensure integrity of transmitted messages as well as ensure quality work in various manufacturing processes. The number of errors between the received Isaiah text and the Qumran Isaiah text was "a handful" that didn't change the meanings of that many words.
Old Spook's references are more promising: To me, the main selling point was that the Bible Codes were unique to the Torah. If other texts generate the same results, then its a textual phenomenon that isn't unique.
*scratches head* Now, I recall that there is some american novelist in the early 20th century that never had the letter "R" in his books, but I'm darned if I could remember his name.
#20
The Bible Code is real, and can be proven if you understand statistics. If you want to believe in it, it's easier because you'll make the effort. If you think it's bunk, you'll need a different dose. I recommend reading ALL the text on the www.biblecodedigest.com website. If you're not taken to reading, the History Channel has an excellent video on the Bible Code for sale and have asked the producers to create additional programs. While this video gives only a fair-minded presentation--allowing the viewer to side with the skeptics--I'm certain the follow-up programs will use the proofs that now exist for the code. The code is real. Granted you can find related words in any text, you'll never find multiple recurring and meaningful sentences and phrases such as these in any other text on Earth:
⢠If the Friend of Evil will Thirst for the End of My Innocence, His Home is an Urn. Let Judas Have His Day. To Me, the Exalted One, They Fasted. Where are You? Its Content will be Written from My Mouth. Father, Indeed You will Raise the Dead Over There
⢠There is Quarrel in His Speeches. A Living Brother Uttered Words to Them and to Me. And Zubaidah Turned to His Sea, Without Then Lying for a Whole Week. Oh, the Mountain of Her Interior Will Bear a Testimonial to Her Name.
⢠Or Come Down, for the Father of Destiny will Make You Rejoice. Who is Jesus?... Our Master Over Death. Prevent My Fever for Him. And Who is God?... Who, Like Their Nation, Has Crushed You?
⢠The Island was Restful, Elevated, and it Happened. Where is Libya? And You Have Disrupted the Nation. She Changed a Word, He Answered Them with Combat. Why the Navy and the Smell of the Bottom of the Sea?
⢠The Trouble of the Newborn One is Vigilant and Honest because of the Ruin. Get Out as if Iraq had been Sent Out. The Majority is Aware that, Rest in Peace, You will comeâthe Villainy with Light. You will Understand the Heart of Granite.
⢠For Where Has God Consumed from You? And In It Are Stones of Substantial Sickness for Us. You Will Indeed Delay Their Diagnosis, Because of His Own Reflection in the One Who Solves.
⢠The Public Representative Will Deliver the Will. My Son, 'Tis the Season for Him to Strike, Predicting the Shocks of Tora Bora. Where is My Fear? So I Will Multiply It Ten-Fold By Striking Whom?
⢠Let the Oppressed be Congratulated, Saturated from Him at 2001. And Let Them be Guarded by the Echo of the Father's Son, Supported by the U.S. I Will See but He has the Knowledge.
⢠If Indeed All the Detail of This One is a String, Does Peter Detest the Burden of the Extra Ships? And Does My Throne Rest? So Spoke God's Poor
⢠Rabbi, Behold! The Temple Mount is Dormant. And He Will Deliver the Fallen, as well as My Mother, as She Will See. She Will Lead a Dried Out Enemy With Her Guilt Offering
⢠He Calmed Down from His Imperfection, Lost His Way in It. And in It, the Inner Radiance was Similar to a Beautiful Tea from Among Them, in V.I. Lenin, in Me.
⢠Imprison Your Burden There, to Immerse Her Distinct Feature, and in My Waters to Anthrax, King of All. Embrace It in the Sea.
⢠God and a Sovereign Day Will Express an Echo. Let the Rule of the Worldâs Poor Have Its Season. It is Finished and Will be Realized.
⢠Hussein is a Vapor. Like a Guarded Lamb, God is Keeping Jews and Levites Whole. And the Cell Inside Your Dwelling will become a Torture Chamber.
⢠From the Salt of Betrayal and from Fire, a Sand Dune Provided the Foundation for a Peace Treaty. Yahwehâindeed GodâCame to the Heights of the Mountain.
⢠Indeed I Will Strike Among You. The Rest of Me is Getting Lost. Iran Has Wailed. His Flame Will Become a Father, and My God Will Whisper.
⢠His Generation Since the Brother Counts 140. The Interior of Armageddon is Truth. They Will Perish. And Enough with the Lie. God is in the Given
⢠Third Temple, the Fullness of the Illness will take Place. And a Land will Emerge from a Tight Place. God is Lofty, and it is Time for a Prince.
⢠God Delivers the Joyous. I Will Indeed Inflict Pain Upon the Rock. I Am the God Who Strikes. They Wiped Out the Nakedness.
⢠Ascension, be a Cause for My Heart, and Render My Father Transformed. I Will be Ashamed, and Will Divide the Temple of the Messenger..
⢠The Dwellings of Jesus the Son of God, Lamb of Tishri. You Will Mourn Because of Him and Them, and at the Command, âTo God.â
⢠And God from God is a Light that God Brings. The Light of God Will Arise and be bestowed upon Melchizidek.
⢠Gushing from Above, Jesus Was My Mighty Name, and the Clouds Rejoiced.
⢠He Wove the Light to Be My Might, A Living Sacrifice for Him to Put On.
⢠Here is a Hidden Cornerstone+ Here Raise the Gift That is Hers.
⢠And Only Messiah: Dwell in Those Words That He Taught on High As Our Prince.
⢠Please Be Merciful, Miracle of God. Rule Gently. The Son Soars from on High.
⢠God Will Make Them See Her Crying, and The Gentle Rock Will Be Lofty.
⢠You Will Crush the Guilty Saddam and the Month of Iyar (May in 2003) Will be Restful
⢠God is Like Fire, Tyrant Saddam!
⢠A Bush will Rush. There She is. Provide a Complete Peace
⢠Provide a Picture of Terminal Illness. The Days of Saddam Are Over
⢠Hussein is Making Gestures to Me due to the Pressure
⢠And When Hussein Will Recognize the Checkmate, there will be Wine in Them
⢠The High Official Will Answer the Anti-Semite. My Joy Will Be Pure
⢠Woe, N. Korea, My Protection Has Drowned and Died
⢠The Newborn One is a Father with no Yesterday. His Name will melt as Bait.
⢠Deal with the Secret of the Anger of the Living. Terminate Anti-Semitism
⢠The Lamb, the Captain of the Lord's Army, is Mourning
⢠Babylon has Fallen
⢠I Will Cool the Priest from the Faith. Since Babylon has Fallen, His Lamb is in the Storm.
⢠He Ran. It was Finished. But al Qaeda is Awake. Render Him Disabled with a Spike/Stake, and Let Him Expire.
⢠You Will Spit at Tradition, al Qaeda. And You Will Triple What Belongs to Herâthe Multiple Moustaches.
⢠Shame on the Judgment, says Judge Moore. They Close Their Eyes When it Comes to Religion.
An American accused of backing al-Qaida said he accepted responsibility for his actions as he pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide cash, computers and fighters to the Taliban. James Ujaama, 37, pleaded guilty to a single felony count in an appearance before U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein, said John Hartingh, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. Other charges were dropped, including one accusing Ujaama of plotting to set up a terrorist camp in Oregon. Under the plea bargain, Ujaama has agreed to help federal prosecutors in their investigation of radical London cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, according to a government official. The official said this could lead to an indictment against the cleric, who is considered a top terrorist recruiter in Europe and who has praised bin Laden and the Sept. 11 attacks. Little fish used to nail bigger fish
The government has frozen al-Masri's funds for his alleged membership in the Islamic Army of Aden, the organization that claimed responsibility for the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000. Prosecutors said that Ujaama converted to Islam and traveled to London in 1997, becoming a close associate of al-Masri. They say al-Masri provided Ujaama with a letter of introduction that enabled him to attend a terrorist camp in Afghanistan. Didn't everyone go to terror camps in Afghanistan?
Ujaama, who had faced a June trial, made a brief statement in court, saying he accepted responsibility for his actions and knew they were wrong. His plea agreement includes provisions to ensure he cooperates with prosecutors. "We are pleased that Mr. Ujaama has agreed to plead guilty, accept responsibility for his criminal conduct, and cooperate fully regarding others engaged in criminal and terrorist activity both here and abroad," Attorney General John Ashcroft said. "We expect his cooperation to lead to the arrest of additional terrorists and the disruption of future terrorist activity." Prosecutors say Ujaama tried to set up a terrorist-training camp near Bly, Ore., in 1999. Ujaama, who grew up in Seattle, was arrested in Denver in July 2002. As part of the deal, Ujaama will serve two years in prison, with credit for time served since his arrest in July 2002. He could be released from prison in as little as 21 months. He better cooperate with this good a deal.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 08:37 am ||
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#1
I once saw Captain Hook in the flesh. It wasn't a pretty site. Trafalgar Square rally. They have a lot of well educated young men handing out pamphlets. THey're all engineering students for some reason...
#4
Update: Ujaama will serve two years in custody with credit for time served and pay no fine. In exchange, he has agreed to provide information to federal prosecutors, the U.S. military and foreign governments. He agreed to testify anywhere he is told to, including at the military detention camp in Guantánamo Bay. More than 600 designated enemy combatants from the war against terrorism are still held there. His agreement to cooperate will extend for as long as 10 years. If he breaks his agreement, the government can reinstate other terrorism charges, which carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison.
That's the toughest plea agreement I've ever heard of.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 15:35 Comments ||
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#5
Again I must point out the irony of this. When this yahoo and the 'Buffalo seven' were arrested all I heard were charges of racism. I know that liberal never apologize, but were talking about terrorists here. Long live the Patriot Act!
EFL
The heat generated by the speedy collapse of President Saddam Hussein's government is being felt not just by Syria, but also by Iraq's fellows in President Bush's "axis of evil," Iran and North Korea. North Korea now says multilateral talks about its nuclear program - which the United States wants - are not necessarily a bad idea after all. Iran's former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, long allied with Islamic hard-liners against the "Great Satan" America, suggested over the weekend that Iran either hold a referendum or seek a decision from the Expediency Council advisory panel about restoring ties with the United States.
"Saddam's fall and the American military operation's great success has had a real sobering effect on the Middle East. It's a wake-up call," said Scott Lasensky, an expert on the region for the Council on Foreign Relations. Specifically, Iran and Syria are watching to see if the overwhelming force used to implement Bush's pre-emptive strike doctrine brought down Saddam's government or if it buckled because it was weakened by domestic factors, Lasensky said.
Bush's doctrine holds that the United States has an inherent right to attack any state posing an active threat to U.S. security. If Saddam fell purely because of the doctrine, Lasensky said, "that's even more sobering for these regimes." He advised the administration to talk up the ease with which the U.S. military staged such a massive show of strength. "Let the impression of Saddam's defeat sit with these leaders," Lasensky said.
Secretary of State Colin Powell indicated Monday that the United States just may do that. Holding up Syria as an example, he called on all nations in the region to "review their past practices and behavior" in light of the change under way in Iraq. Danielle Pletka, a Middle East expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said some leaders, such as Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are aware of the dynamics in the region. "What we want people to do is to step back, take a deep breath and reassess the decisions that they have been making that not only threaten the United States and our allies in the Middle East, but do not serve in any way the vast mass of the people in the Middle East," she said. "Certainly, initial steps away from sponsorship of terrorism are a smart move."
According to South Korea's chief security adviser, the North Korean government realized that with Iraq neutralized, North Korean had no tactical advantage in continuing to resist global pressure for inspections of weapons facilities. "This war on Iraq seems to have become a significant opportunity in deciding the landscape of international politics," said Ra Jong-il, the South Korean adviser.
In Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon noted that the war in Iraq could lead to new opportunities for peace talks there. Sharon's national security adviser, Ephraim Halevy, said Monday in Washington that even though Arab leaders might react negatively if "a puppet regime" is installed in Baghdad, they also have shown greater willingness over the past year to pursue new paths to peace. Seems like we got their attention.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 07:50 am ||
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#1
Shorrs not a leftist Idiotarian, he tends to be pro-Israeli Labor, pro peace process, etc. While he may look "leftist" here, he's definitely to the right of the the NPR (IE Loren Jenkins) line. He's occasionally clueless, but often reasonable, and sometimes even insightful.
#2
"In Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon noted that the war in Iraq could lead to new opportunities for peace talks there."
So I'm driving my car, listening to Daniel Shorr on NPR speaking about these developments (Iran, NoNo, Israel) and the old fool then actually asks, "Wouldn't it be ironic if the war lead to greater peace?"
Ironic? DUH! What did that moron think we're doing this for?
#3
I heard the jerk yesterday list 5 or 6 recent accomplishments (axis turning away from evil) and could not believe my ears. I usually turn him off as quickly as possible. Maybe he's sick?
I hear a collective sigh in the land of Rantburg.
The White House has privately ruled out suggestions that the US should go to war against Syria following its military success in Iraq, and has blocked preliminary planning for such a campaign in the Pentagon, the Guardian learned yesterday. In the past few weeks, the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, ordered contingency plans for a war on Syria to be reviewed following the fall of Baghdad. There's always somebody at DoD planning. Heck, we probably have plans to invade France, done as an exercise by some honors students at West Point. Wonder if those have been updated lately?
Meanwhile, his undersecretary for policy, Doug Feith, and William Luti, the head of the Pentagon's office of special plans, were asked to put together a briefing paper on the case for war against Syria, outlining its role in supplying weapons to Saddam Hussein, its links with Middle East terrorist groups and its allegedly advanced chemical weapons programme. Mr Feith and Mr Luti were both instrumental in persuading the White House to go to war in Iraq. Bet it was a long document.
Mr Feith and other conservatives now playing important roles in the Bush administration, advised the Israeli government in 1996 that it could "shape its strategic environment... by weakening, containing and even rolling back Syria". However, President George Bush, who faces re-election next year with two perilous nation-building projects, in Afghanistan and Iraq, on his hands, is said to have cut off discussion among his advisers about the possibility of taking the "war on terror" to Syria. I don't think re-election has anything to do with it. This is strategic.
"The talk about Syria didn't go anywhere. Basically, the White House shut down the discussion," an intelligence source in Washington told the Guardian. Faced with rising apprehension over the prospect of a new conflict, Tony Blair also offered categorical assurances to anxious MPs yesterday that Britain and the US had "no plans whatsoever" to invade Iraq's neighbour. "No, my right honorable friends, we will take a short break from deposing dangerous tyrants. Today at least."
Dismissing fears of an Anglo-American invasion as another "conspiracy theory", the prime minister said that Mr Bush had never mentioned an attack on Syria during their regular talks. "I have the advantage of talking to the American president on a regular basis and I can assure you there are no updated plans to invade Syria," he said. "Neither has anyone on the other side of the water, as far as I am aware, said there are plans."
The Bush administration is nevertheless determined to use its military ascendancy in the region to exert diplomatic and economic pressure on Damascus and resolve what Washington sees as longstanding problems, including the threat to Israel posed by Damascus-backed Islamic extremists, Hizbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and Syria's chemical weapons. Mr Rumsfeld repeated accusations yesterday that Syria had tested chemical weapons in the last 12 to 15 months. However, Syria is not a signatory to the chemical weapons convention and would not be breaking international law if it did possess,nor is it suspected of selling chemical weapons to others. One US administration official conceded: "They've not taken any actions that we can see so far that would justify military action."
Mr Blair made clear to Syria yesterday that it must not accept high-level political fugitives or weapons of mass destruction from Iraq. "It is important Syria does not harbour people from Saddam's regime or allow any transfer of material from Iraq to Syria. I have spoken to President Assad and he has assured me that is not happening and I have said it is important that assurance is valid," Mr Blair told MPs.
A diplomat in Washington with close ties to the administration agreed there was no sign of military action on the horizon. "There's no question of this at the White House," the diplomat said, pointing out that the Syrian army would be a far more potent adversary than Iraq's bedraggled forces. "Anyone who lives in the real world would never see this as more than noise." However, if Bashir gets worried and takes some steps to rein in Hezbollah, that would be good.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/15/2003 12:47 am ||
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#1
Plans for economic sanctions are probably being ramped up with some being implemented already.
#2
Economic sanctions never work when you have countries like France. If he doesn't want to hit Syria, then he should consider the Becca valley and the Hezbollah. Finally, Debka is reporting today that France is offering sanctuary for Saddam's buddies.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
04/15/2003 6:57 Comments ||
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#3
Doug, it is true that economic sanctions, by themselves, generally don't do a complete job. However, Syria, which is already a basket case, has depended on ripping off border trading with Iraq for many years and stealing from the oil pipeline from Iraq. Also, the Syrian army depends on fees from the drug trade in Lebanon and bribes and protection money from their occupation of Lebanon. Lots of this kind of revenue is needed because Assad Jr. has to pay off a lot of flunkies to remain flunkies, has to keep the military brass happy, etc. He can be hurt and hurt bad.
#4
"...I have spoken to President Assad and he has assured me that is not happening and I have said it is important that assurance is valid," Mr Blair told MPs.
Heh, Tony's no fool. Talk all you want Assad, but be sure all that talk is valid.
For arabs, it appears the latter is more of a challenge than the former.
#5
Looks like it is time to do some maintenance on that oil pipeline. Y'know, to repair "war damage".
Maybe TotalFinaElf has a tanker in the Mediterranean that could help Syria out in the meantime.
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
04/15/2003 7:17 Comments ||
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#6
"There are no plans on my desk to attack Syria"
Now, where have I heard that before?
Posted by: Steve ||
04/15/2003 7:36 Comments ||
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#7
"Economic sanctions never work when you have countries like France."
Well if France has to make up the costs to Syria of shutting the pipeline, that at least imposes a cost on France :)
The main point is that this is not the time. the main strategy for using Iraq to advance our interests in the arab world is Iraq as a political example, not Iraq as a military base. And that must wait until Iraq has been substantially reconstructed. When Syrians see Iraqis living much better than they do, it will be relatively easy to achieve change in Syria. While they see cities without electricity or water, all Iraq buys us vs Syria is geographic positioning, which is good but not enough.
And i would venture that we dont want THREE nation building projects going on simultaneously.
Yes we should keep up momentum - as Fred Barnes said in the Weekly Standard the other, day, if 5 years go by and we have made no further progress, thats a big lost opportunity. But this is only 1 week after Baghdad fell, only 4 weeks after the war began. I say the same thing to you that i would say to lefties complaining about looting in Iraq - be patient.
#8
These guys aren't rocket scientists. They don't learn from past mistakes. The joy boys of terrorism, Hizbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are eventually going to do something real stupid in Israel. Then all the US has to do is sit and watch as the IDF, taking a page from the US playbook, drives up to Damascus and solves the problem. I don't think there is anyone else available to stop 'em other than the US which will not be in the mood to intervene. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death.
Posted by: Don ||
04/15/2003 9:25 Comments ||
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#9
(1) Demand inspectors. If they have Iraqi transfered WMD they probably didn't have enough time to hide them the way the Iraqi's did. (2) Push for UN involvement in Lebanon and make it uncomfortable politically for Syria to keep their troops there or pretect the training areas there. (3) Put spies into Syria looking for Saddam or his cronies. (4) Blast Syria with VOA broadcasts showing the fall of Saddam and speaches from the Shia's. (5) Watch and listen for something to crack.
#10
Hmm... I'm sorry to see him to this, although I can understand he's doing it for political reasons.
Still, you never want to take any options off the table. It gives you more leverage in negotiations, and I'd love to see Boy Assad sweat it out.
Posted by: Dar ||
04/15/2003 9:05 Comments ||
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#11
"The White House has privately ruled out suggestions that the US should go to war against Syria following its military success in Iraq, and has blocked preliminary planning for such a campaign in the Pentagon, the Guardian learned yesterday."
Military double-talk to quiet the raving crowds. There are ALWAYS plans, for anywhere and everywhere. Things happen too fast in the modern war to wait until AFTER an event before developing plans to contain it. Just to show how serious this is, there are plans at the Pentagon to "invade" the island of Reunion, in the Indian Ocean. There's no real political NEED to invade Reunion, but it's one of several HUNDRED "emergency landing sites" for the Space Shuttle. Should one of those go down and be taken captive by a radical group, say from Somalia or Yemen, the plan is already in place to go in and take it back. I'm sure that includes coordinating with the French before taking such action, and providing support for French troops engaged in the exercise (Reunion is an overseas department of France).
Those plans are written, and get updated on a routine basis, as needed. Saves a TON of hurry-up work at the last minute, where things can get left out or totally screwed up. The United States would be criminally negligent if it DIDN'T have such plans.
There's a big difference between HAVING a plan, and IMPLEMENTING it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2003 11:36 Comments ||
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#12
What's going to happen vis-a-vis Syria is the US will ramp up the pressure economically, politically and militarily. If we have proof that some of the top Ba'athists or some WMD have been given refuge or otherwise found their way into Syria, we may invoke some sort of "hot pursuit" right to go in with the Abrams blazing, but it's more likely, if only to allow us to rebuild our JDAM and TLAM stocks and to park a few satellites overhead, that we ask the UN to demand inspections, etc., for a few months. After some diplomatic wrangling, we will then throw up our hands and say "inspections aren't working!" and start massing the 4ID on their eastern border. Just in time for the Syrian winter . . .
Posted by: Tibor ||
04/15/2003 12:29 Comments ||
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#13
I hope the Syrians aren't getting off this easy. They owe us the lives of the hundreds of Marines and embassy staff killed in separate bombings during the 80's. Syrian-backed Hezbollah was responsible. This blood debt has not been repaid.
I seem to recall that President Bush also said something about having no war plans on his desk regarding Iraq about 6 months ago. If Syria acts up, I don't think this statement is going to save Bashir al Assad from being toppled.
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