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US arrests sixth Saddam aide
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Afghanistan
US envoy warns Pakistan on Afghan stability
Very clear sign that the US is not happy with Pakland
The US special representative to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has warned Pakistan that anything that undermines the Afghan government's stability is a challenge to American interests.
Diplo-Speak for get your act together you stupid pa... or we'll come and get you.
Khalilzad said on Saturday that Washington wanted good relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the consolidation of the US- backed government of President Hamid Karzai was in Pakistan's interests. He was speaking here after talks with Pakistani officials in Islamabad. "Success of the new Afghanistan's stability is in America's interests and any effort that undermines that stability, that threatens it, is a challenge to America's interests," he said. Afghan officials say recent guerrilla attacks by remnants of the former Taliban regime have been mounted from Pakistani territory, and hundreds of Pakistani militiamen have crossed the border.

They have also accused Pakistani forces of involvement in an attack in the Pakistani border town of Chaman last Sunday, which killed a cousin of an Afghan provincial governor. "We want problems to be resolved in a friendly cooperative atmosphere and America is willing to play a constructive role in resolving any disagreements or disputes or misunderstandings that may exist between the two countries," Khalilzad said. Asked how serious he felt the incursions were, he told reporters: This is not helpful, this is not good. If there are forces...that are here from the other side, they ought to go out." He said that Islamabad's foreign ministry had stressed it wanted the Karzai government to succeed and would not allow its territory to be used against any other country.

Khalilzad expressed the hope that the dispute could be resolved before a state visit to Islamabad next week by Karzai, at which border security is expected to top the Afghans' agenda. Khalilzad said that there had been an increase in anti-government activity in Afghanistan that appeared to be the result of opponents trying to take advantage of the distraction of the Iraq war.
Posted by: rg117 || 04/20/2003 07:14 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Several terrorist plots unveiled, thwarted in Kabul
IRNA -- Kabul's National Security (KNC) sources said Saturday that several terrorist plots have been unveiled and thwarted during the past three days. The sources told IRNA that the chief officers of the KNC managed to detonate two BM1 missiles that were ready to be fired, aimed at the very populous "Timanee" district of the capital, on Friday night. According to the sources, the terrorists had quite professionally attached a very sensitive wick of the bombs to an amount of C4. It would have resulted in a small explosion initially after the setting aflame of the C4 material, and a massacring a large number of innocent civilians when the BM1s would have reached their targeted very populous spot. The top KNC officials believe the terrorists wished to attract more people to the place of the first explosion to inflict heavier human casualties when the main bombs would explode.
They picked that one up from the Paleos, I believe. Civilians make such good targets. Usually they're not armed. And if you use a rocket, it doesn't even matter if they are...
Kabul TV, too, announced on Saturday night, quoting the Afghan capital's police commanders, "The Kabul police forces managed to discover and detonate a land mine planted in third street of Kabul's Akrourian district on Saturday morning." The KNC officials accused the remnants of Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces, as well as the supporters of the head of Afghanistan's outlawed Islamic Movement Party Golboddin Hekmatyar responsible for such terrorist moves, although usually no one claims responsibility for them here.
They only claim the successful ones...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 12:55 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Smell a little odd here.
When you set c4"aflame"(odd word to use,also)it burns.
Posted by: raptor || 04/21/2003 7:02 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Sanctions must stay till Iraq has a government: Saudi Arabia
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal has said that the UN sanctions on Iraq should end only when the country has a legitimate government. His statement came after President Bush’s plea that the United Nations should now lift the sanctions against Iraq.
But... But... What about the 5,000 Iraqi children who starve to death every day because of the sanctions? Where are the Berriganistas? They said sanctions were a "weapon of mass destruction". What about the genocide?
“Iraq is now under an occupying power and any request for lifting sanctions must come when there is a legitimate government which represents the people,” Prince Saud told reporters after a meeting on Iraq by eight Middle East nations, including Iraq’s neighbors. A joint statement after the Riyadh meeting said US-led forces in Iraq had no right to exploit its oil and that the US had to reestablish security and withdraw as soon as possible, allowing Iraqis to form their own government. “If what the occupying forces intend is the exploitation of Iraqi oil, it will not have any legitimate basis,” Prince Saud said at the end of the meeting. “The ministers affirmed that the Iraqi people should administer and govern their country by themselves, and any exploitation of their natural resources should be in conformity with the will of the legitimate Iraqi government and its people,” he said, reading from the joint statement.
Shucks. That's kinda what we had in mind, too. Guess you can shut up now and let us get on with what we were doing...
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are concerned that their revenues might be hit if Iraqi oil is once again sold on the open market. Iraq has the world’s second largest proven oil reserves.
Oh. You mean it's all about oil?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 11:44 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Security Council did not pass sanctions against Iraq because Iraq had WMD, it passed them because Iraq's (or rather Saddam's) WMD posed a threat to world peace. Iraq may still possess WMD but they are no threat anymore as the country is under US control. No threat, no sanctions. Everything else is pure hypocrisy. Asking the US to reestablish security in Iraq and denying the country the only source of income at the same time is about as infamous as it gets. And who could that "legitimate Iraqi government" be right now? Elections next sunday or what?
Posted by: True German Ally || 04/20/2003 13:05 Comments || Top||

#2  The United States wasn't able to get the Global Endless Debate and Fist-Shaking Society to approve of the war. Now that it's over, the same group that couldn't decide it needed to be done wants to be in charge of everything. We need to continue as we started - the Coalition will do what it needs to do, and the rest of the world can go play ostrich in the warm sands of Gay Arribie. What's the rest of the world going to do, take its marbles and go home? THAT will surely accomplish a lot, I don't think!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2003 19:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Bypassing the UN worked recently, so by induction, we should try again. They will blow great quantities of smoke out their collective asses for a perscribed time and then Chiraq will call W again and want to kiss and make up. No problem.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2003 19:16 Comments || Top||

#4  "The sanctions can end only when Iraq has a government."

"The sanctions can end only when Iraq has a government representative of its people."

"The sanctions can end only when Iraq has a government that is recognized by its neighbors."

"The sanctions can end only when Iraq has a government that is recognized by the U.N."

"The sanctions can end only when Iraq has a government that honors all debts run up by Saddam Hussein."
--

Gee, this diplomacy stuff is pretty easy, I just predicted world history for the next year.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/20/2003 22:26 Comments || Top||


Europe
It’s All About The Alimony...
The former head of French oil giant Elf, Loik Le Floch-Prigent, on Tuesday admitted to a Paris criminal court that corporate funds had been used to pay for his costly divorce settlement. "What was done was done according to my instructions," Le Floch-Prigent said when asked about the EUR 5 million (USD 5.4 million) allegedly paid to ex-wife Fatima Belaid from secret Elf accounts in Switzerland.
The article linked in the title of this post plus the information in this article give a fascinating look into the ugly intersection of French politicians and TotalFinaElf.

There's a lot to read, but well worth your time!
Posted by: seafarious || 04/20/2003 06:42 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh, Fatima! Why did our love die and all this hate and messy money come between us, my dear? Jeeze, where in the hell are my pills...think I am going to vapor lock..........
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2003 19:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Where is the halabaloo,like in Cheny+Haliburton?
Posted by: raptor || 04/21/2003 7:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Tried to e-mail both CNN/MSNBC about Chretin+TotalFinaElf+Chiraq+Iraq connections to complain bitterly about the lack of investigation/reporting on said connections.
I couldn't get the e-mail links to work.Could someone send them to me via e-mail.

w_r_manues@yahoo.com
Posted by: raptor || 04/21/2003 9:54 Comments || Top||


France’s Islamic heartland
Late night last night, so I'll lay off the commentary...
The wooded hills of deepest Burgundy are the unlikely setting for a place that could play a key role in the development of a European Islamic identity. The unhelpfully-named European Institute for Human Sciences (IESH) is in fact a theological college, which for 13 years has been training up a new generation of indigenous imams for France and the rest of the continent. In the heart of what the French call "La France profonde" (deepest France) - amid the herds of cream-coloured cattle and the breathtaking scenery of the Morvan natural park - veiled young women sit studiously at their texts. The sound of Arabic mingles with the birdsong. "Why are you surprised to find us here? Religious institutions have always sought remote locations to encourage contemplation and inner thought. Here we are dead in the centre of France," said Zuhair Mahmoud, 51, the IESH's founder and director.

Zuhair Mahmoud is a former Iraqi nuclear scientist, who was sent to France by Saddam Hussein 20 years ago as part of a co-operation deal with Paris. But prompted by his misgivings about atomic weapons he underwent a religious conversion and stayed in exile. "In the 1980s it became clear that the Muslims of France and Europe were integrating definitively in their adopted countries. Here a generation has grown up with French as its mother tongue," he told me in his office in the institute's main building - a converted holiday centre. "These people need imams to pass on the religious values of their parents. Leaders from elsewhere cannot do it because they do not understand the language or the customs and habits that prevail here. They have to come from inside."

The 170 students take a two-year Arabic course, and then can stay on for a four-year qualification in Islamic jurisprudence, Koranic studies, history and preaching. Three-quarters are French, and the rest from elsewhere in Europe. "I was very surprised to learn this place existed because I always thought France was intolerant of Muslims," said Adil Rehman, a 33-year-old computer programmer from Stratford in east London, who is in his fourth year. "The first time I came here, I got completely lost. I was wandering round the countryside at two o'clock in the morning." According to Adil Rehman, the college plays a vital role by creating a generation of Muslims capable of interpreting Islam to the West and vice-versa. "The irony is that this type of institute can only really develop in the freedom provided by the West. But the reason is clear if you think about it. Here the political systems have no understanding of Islam, so they cannot direct it or make people think in a particular way. In the East, it is different. Governments there are well-versed in manipulation. They know what they want you to learn and what they don't want you to learn."

Another British student, Kazi Luthfur Rahman, 19, from Poplar, came to the IEHS after giving up his ambition to study in the holy city of Medina. "It is certainly a bit isolated after London, but you get used to it. My only problem is at mealtime. I cannot stand French food!" said Rahman, who last year took third prize in the International Holy Koran Competition in Egypt.

Around 70 students are young women - they wear headscarves but share classes with the men. Many said their aim was to return to their communities to teach Arabic and share their new knowledge of Islam. "What we have learned is to distinguish between law and custom," said Aziza from Strasbourg in eastern France. "It has been easy for men in our society to tell us what to do by saying it comes from religion. But things like forced marriage are not in Islamic law. They are only customs and can be discarded," she said.

The IEHS is fully supported by the French Government, whose policy is to encourage a homegrown Islamic identity and wean the five-million-strong community away from its financial and doctrinal dependence on foreign states. Last week elections were held for a French Council for the Muslim Religion — which is set to become Islam's first ever official representation in France. Zuhair Mahmoud was himself chosen for the Council's general assembly. However not all Muslims are happy with the course Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has taken, nor with the growing influence of the IEHS and its parent body, the Union of Islamic Organisations in France (UOIF). Progressives note that the UOIF is linked to the highly conservative movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, and fear that Sarkozy has taken the easy option by dealing with the traditionalist establishment instead of working with more liberal forces. "For a long time the UOIF has been trying to infiltrate the cogs of state and assume control of the Muslim community by marginalising secular Muslims," said Antoine Sfeir, president of the Middle East Studies Centre in Paris. "These people are a real threat to secularism," he said. But Zuhair Mahmoud is quick to retort: "Have we done anything to counter France's humanistic values? We believe that to live in a country you must accept its laws. If we didn't accept them, then we would live elsewhere."
Posted by: Bulldog || 04/20/2003 07:33 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Muslim Brotherhood.Of course.The French have discovered a new defensive doctrine - preemptive surrender.
Posted by: El Id || 04/20/2003 9:48 Comments || Top||

#2  So much for the French separation of church and state.....the Kinder, Gentler Version of Islam that the govt supports will be co-opted by the heavies when the time is right. I hope that we and other European countries learn the lesson. France is goin' down.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2003 11:18 Comments || Top||

#3  "In the 1980s it became clear that the Muslims of France and Europe were integrating definitively in their adopted countries."
Can't allow integrating, or worse, interbreeding! That would upset the purity of the Master Race(s)!
Posted by: Dishman || 04/20/2003 11:40 Comments || Top||

#4  "Here we are dead in the centre of France". There are so many ways that could be interpreted, but none of them the way Monsieur Mahmoud was probably thinking.

Any bets on when shari'a replaces the Code Napoleon in France? Do the French really believe that we are going to go running to their rescue a third time?
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 04/20/2003 12:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Nicolas Sarkozy was on television today, he had to persuade the crowd to remove their scarves from their heads to take picture. When he did this he was met with jeers. He actually looked scared. And this guy was talking so tough against the Corsican separation movement.
Posted by: George || 04/20/2003 14:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Any bets on when shari'a replaces the Code Napoleon in France?

30 years. Militant Islam represented in the government within 15.

Next bettor?
Posted by: Shana || 04/20/2003 14:52 Comments || Top||

#7  If you haven't already seen it, this posting by Steven Den Beste is quite revealing about the situation in France: http://www.denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2003/04/Extremesolutions.shtml
. Apologies to those who already read USS Clueless regularly!
Posted by: Kathy || 04/20/2003 15:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Right on, Kathy. I read it early this morning and it is very well reasoned, informative, and frightening. All the more reason why we in the US must keep looking back at our founding principles and keep them in mind as we work through this war on terror with our enemies, both foreign AND domestic.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2003 16:45 Comments || Top||

#9  Any bets on when shari'a replaces the Code Napoleon in France?

I bet in 30 years Azzam.com will have added France to their "Jihad Lands" section.
Posted by: RW || 04/20/2003 16:59 Comments || Top||

#10 

Please view this new web site and send your recommendation.

http://www.f-roohani.com/

Regards



Posted by: tavosi || 06/09/2004 17:37 Comments || Top||

#11  Religious institutions have always sought remote locations to encourage contemplation and inner thought. Here we are dead in the centre of France.

There's a lovely irony in that . . .
Posted by: The Doctor || 06/09/2004 17:41 Comments || Top||


More of Germany’s help to Saddam in run-up to war documented
Germany's intelligence services (ultimate oximoron) attempted to build closer links to Saddam's secret service during the build-up to war last year, documents from the bombed Iraqi intelligence HQ in Baghdad obtained by The Telegraph reveal.
Link has copy of the actual document
They show that an agent named as Johannes William Hoffner, described as a "new German representative in Iraq" who had entered the country under diplomatic cover, attended a meeting with Lt Gen Taher Jalil Haboosh, the director of Iraq's intelligence service. During the meeting, on January 29, 2002, Lt Gen Haboosh says that the Iraqis are keen to have a relationship with Germany's intelligence agency "under diplomatic cover", adding that he hopes to develop that relationship through Mr Hoffner. In return, the Iraqis offered to give lucrative contracts to German companies if the Berlin government helped prevent an American invasion of the country.

During the meeting, Lt Gen Haboosh tells the German agent that Iraq has "big problems" with Britain and the United States. "We have problems with Britain because it occupied Iraq for 60 years and with America because of its aggression for 11 years," he says. He adds, however, that Iraq has no problems with Germany and suggests that Germany will be rewarded with lucrative contracts if it offers international support to Iraq. "When the American conspiracy is finished, we will make a calculation for each state that helps Iraq in its crisis."

Now that we've reached "game over" with regard to Sammy, we can no doubt make a calculation for each state that helped Sammy and his boyz in their crisis. Wonder which company provided the auto batteries? But then, they weren't embargoed...
Posted by: Constitutional Individualist || 04/20/2003 06:47 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Posted same last night with a pointed question to True German Ally - basically: "What the F*&k???"

It's one thing to oppose our Iraq action in the UNSC (after previously supporting it) in the name of national interests or on some kind of 'principle', but to actively provide aid and comfort to Iraq, who would soon be facing US troops? Perfidy is the best term, I can think of a lot worse. This is the kind of thing that breaks alliances, and freaking phone calls and flowers won't heal it. Bastards! I won't be surprised if we find invoices for WMD's. The only thing that can heal this kind of breach is the downfall and replacement of the German and French gov'ts - we already know Putin's staying.... Bush won't forget, and Realpolitik only goes so far
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2003 8:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmmmm I don't know yet what to make out of it. I was looking at the date of this alleged meeting which is only a few months after 9/11. German intelligence services have excellent contacts in the Midle East and much valuable info about terrorist activity comes from Germany. (So much for the "ultimate oxymoron".)
We don't know if the document is just a fairy tale of the Mukhbarat boss to please Saddam, whether this German guy just gave a few easy, non endorsed promises to get some info about terrorist activity (something that might even have been endorsed by US intelligence) or what else is behind all this.
Reading this document I see Mr Haboosh talking a lot while the German just says: "My organisation wants to develop its relationship with your organisation." (Which organization btw, the BND who maintains excellent relations with the CIA?).
That Iraq was more sympathetic to Germany than to the US or UK is rather obvious.
Anyway that affair will indeed be investigated and if there is any truth to it and there was any collaboration between the German government and Iraq about this that will mean the end of Schroeder.
But I can't ignore the date. That was way before any invasion talks, that was at a time when the search for terrorists was in full swing (and any info about terrorists might have been considered good info). We have to find out more about this Mr Hoffner, which service he worked for, and what the circumstances of this meeting were. What Mr Haboosh may have "hoped for" and what he actually got are two things.
The document says: "He also urges Mr Hoffner to lobby the German government to raise its diplomatic mission in Baghdad to full ambassadorial level." This at least was never done. At the moment this is just spooks's babble but if there is more of it you can be sure the German press will put its bloodhounds to work. But drawing conclusion from one paper without knowing what's behind it might not be a good thing.
And lets not forget that the US now has full command over any papers it wants to release..or not.
Posted by: True German Ally || 04/20/2003 9:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Agreed - I will withhold further venom til more comes out, but.....
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2003 9:53 Comments || Top||

#4  I fully agree with the "but"... yet I hope that Iraqi papers are not randomly thrown around without serious investigation about what's behind them. The collaboration between US and German intelligence is excellent. I find it hard to believe the German government (even Schroeder) would do something like that. Nobody in Germany in his right mind had any illusion about the fact that the US would go into Iraq. For me it was crystal clear after Bush's "Axis of Evil" Speech in January 2002. I suppose the German government knew that too.
I still believe that Schroeder's stance was election related and he just handled it teribly wrong.
Let's hope that his lefties do the dirty work and topple him. They have experience with that, they already brought down a much better chancellor 20 years ago... Helmut Schmidt.
Posted by: True German Ally || 04/20/2003 10:08 Comments || Top||

#5  This "discovery event" is analagous to a publicly traded company being charged with "accounting irregularities". Once you see the first shoe drop, you tend to see even more shoes drop as a more "formal" investigation unfolds. The usual, best course for the investor to take-- regardless of his or her belierf of the people in charge-- is to sell the shares in the "discredited" company immediately-- mainly because the uncertainty factor is likely to get worse, not better over time.

My hope is that the emerging links between German intelligence and Iraq prove quite innocuous. There are differences, indeed, between the functions of States and those of individual companies. However, each can be just as corrupt and misleading to their "invested public" as the other...

Keeping an open mind on this event and reserving judgement is the "right" thing to do-- unless you have a vested interest at stake (we at Rantburg don't-- the German government does). And if Germany were a stock and I were an investor... I would sit myself in "Switzerland", at least until these events unfolded.
Posted by: Lexicon || 04/20/2003 23:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Well said,TGA.
Just seems like every otherday another shovel of dirt keeps adding to the pile.
Posted by: raptor || 04/21/2003 7:37 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Dear World
Dar Al-Hayat 2003/04/18
We're an understanding bunch. Really we are. The good ol' USA has 280 million people, and there are 280 million different opinions. This is one. Actually, this seems to be many of them...
Dear World,

Knowledge, to a certain extent, is learning from one's own mistakes. Wisdom, on the other hand, is learning from the mistakes of others. This is our message to you...

Who are we? We are the rational, logical, peaceful, realistic citizens of the country you know as "America." Trust me, we are not necessarily proud of our geographic, circumstantial identity. However, we are, essentially, trapped.

If you hate us, we understand. We hate "us" too.

Our nation will soon collapse. It is inevitable. The Bush Camp cronies are leading us gallantly over the edge. We will fall to our demise, like buffalo, and lay historically amidst the corpses of, among others, our Egyptian, Greek, and Roman counterparts.

But we - those of us who are capable, wish to send you a message. Our last rites--or better yet, the dying wish, so to speak, of those who understand.

PLEASE realize that what has happened here, the point that our "great" nation has fallen to, is not unique to our people. In essence, let our demise serve as an example of what ANY race or nation of people can regress to.

It is now April 2003. Soon, the world will be hell. After that, those outside of our borders will pick up the pieces and sort out the confusion.

Please. PLEASE don't let this happen again.

Any system based on greed, any system that promotes the concentration of power, any system that enables those with money to influence political decisions is FLAWED!!

We are not a world of nations. We are a nation of this world. For Humanity's sake, stop trying to outdo one another. Share!!! Help eachother. Love one another. Borders are imaginary. So is money. Educate yourselves. Don't let capitalist pigs buy your submission and control your media. Make America the last of it's kind. Evolve.

Sincerely,

"American"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 12:03 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I been reading that alot lately,about the downfall of the U.S.A.I only have one thing to say if it falls it better be a whimper instead of a bang,because if its a bang this world going into a dark age it never recover from.We have enought nuclear power destroy alot of this world.
Posted by: djohn || 04/20/2003 12:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Dear Dar Al-Hayat:

Would this imaginary money be what you don't use to pay your imaginary rent or buy your imaginary food and clothing? Or are you a leech, depending on someone else's imaginary money for your upkeep? (I'm betting yes.)

Let's see you cross North Korea's imaginary border - I'd like the popcorn concession for that show.

You urge everyone to share. OK, I'll share this: You're full of shit.

(Gee, maybe you're right - I shared, and I feel better already!)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/20/2003 12:18 Comments || Top||

#3  ..."capitalist pigs"? What happened to "Love on another"?
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/20/2003 12:22 Comments || Top||

#4  It is a shame that a REAL PIG like this one exist.
Freedom of speech?
Soldiers are DEAD to defend the freedom of this REAL PIG who will never understand their honor and his own PIGGINESS.
He or she should get out of this Country and go to China or somewhere else to enjoy the good life without that money he SAYS to hate.
Posted by: Poitiers || 04/20/2003 12:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Love on another? Oh, so now you bring Clinton- Lewinsky up again
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2003 12:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Dear "American" --
I, a liberal, truly do not want to see any person trapped in a horrible, oppressive system where they feel that they cannot express themselves fully and openly. I am saddened that you feel so threatened here that you cannot sign your real name.

I do not feel that I would be living up to my responsibilities as a liberal if I didn't allow you to find your bliss, so to speak. So, if you wish, I will use some of that capitalist lucre I have accumulated, meager though it is, to help you escape to a land where you will be liberated.

I so believe in freedom of choice and association that I would be willing to buy you a one-way ticket past America's "imaginary" borders to whichever utopia you choose. It would have to be "economy class", so I hope you don't mind being around those other victims of capitalistic hegemony in the back of the plane.

Look at it this way, maybe you can use the time back there to agitate for social change amongst those who have not reached your level of political consciousness! Yeah, there's no free booze back there like in first class, but the cause, baby, the cause!!

I cannot ignore a tortured soul in pain, especially on Easter. Please let me know how I can help.
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 04/20/2003 12:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Okay, Fred, you've lost me here. How is this "news" and not an "opinion piece"? And why are people assuming that "American" is indeed an American?
Posted by: Tom || 04/20/2003 12:53 Comments || Top||

#8  I think you are falling into a trap here. This article doesn't sound like it was written by a poor tortured American soul, it sounds like something an editor of that paper wrote up himself. Or was Mr Sayaf at work here? "I now inform you that you are too far from reality." Good he found a new job. But he was better at his old one. At least more entertaining.

I'll rather side with Mark Twain when it comes to America: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
Posted by: True German Ally || 04/20/2003 12:53 Comments || Top||

#9  Tom,

Watch the meme. The U.S. collapsing started with Binny, and it's been spreading from the Islamists to the anti-globalization anarchokiddies. I'm assuming this was written by one of them. They're effectively allied now.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2003 13:02 Comments || Top||

#10  The left (and you know I don't mean Bill Clinton by this)has been predicting 'the imminent collapse' of capitalism since Marx's "Communist Manifesto" in 1847.Followed by revolution,a communist state,eternal bliss for all blah blah blah.It's the Islamists who've been loaning ideas from the western leftists,although they'd never admit it.Change 'Allah' for 'Marx' and look how similar the movements are.
Posted by: El Id || 04/20/2003 13:18 Comments || Top||

#11  Any system based on greed, any system that promotes the concentration of power, any system that enables those with money to influence political decisions is FLAWED!!

You mean, like Iraq, where ALL the power was concentrated in the hands of one man, and all the wealth generated by that nation only went to support his desires? Do you realize that EVERY NATION ON EARTH has a government based on greed, one that promotes the concentration of power, and one that enables those with money to influence political decisions? That includes the vaunted Vatican. The big difference is, in our country, we have a system set up where every person willing to work for it can reach those "august heights" of power and money. We also have a system of checks and balances that, up until the early part of the 20th century, worked very well to keep those with money and power hobbled. We still do a pretty good job of it.

We are not a world of nations. We are a nation of this world. For Humanity's sake, stop trying to outdo one another.

For humanity's sake? Show me one major achievement that wasn't done to "outdo" someone else, or to achieve personal fame and wealth?
"Humanity" is not some unified whole - it is a fractured, divided mob that can only be evaluated as being in a constant state of change. Some move forward, others slide back, some just cut across everything, leaving chaos in their wake. For "Humanity's sake"? You've got a hole in your sock - your brains are leaking out.

Share!!! Help each other. Love one another. Borders are imaginary. So is money. Educate yourselves.

Stealing again, are you Dar? Tapping into the JudeoChristian faith for the words you need to try to manipulate others? How gauche. Who isn't sharing, Dar? Is Islam sharing? Do we see money going to help poor starving children coming from Saudi Arabia? What happened to all the money Hussein made in his "Oil for Palaces food" program? Why were there tons of food and medicine stockpiled in warehouses, while the local people starved, and died like flies without medication? Why did Stalin starve 10 MILLION Georgians and Russians, just to concentrate his power?

The capitalist United States provides more money, food, and human capital than any other nation on earth, and more in some cases than whole REGIONS of the earth, and we share it with everyone. All that capitalist power allows us to concentrate wealth, more than enough to meet our needs, which gives us the ability to help others, and we do. But that's not good enough for you, because it's coming from capitalism. What an idiot you are! How can people share if they don't have more than they need? How can people give when their own needs aren't being met? How many African and Asian countries are so destitute they can't even meet the minimum requirements of their people, because their system is so rotten only those at the very top can acquire any wealth at all? The only nations in Africa and Asia that can feed themselves are those that have a capitalist system, or some modification of a capitalist system, because that's the ONLY system that produces an excess of goods, services, and food.

Don't let capitalist pigs buy your submission and control your media. Make America the last of it's kind. Evolve.

Into what, something like Cuba, where the economy is so bad people can't make enough to feed themselves? Into North Korea, where the local people have to eat GRASS AND RATS? Into China, where a disease epidemic was unreported, because it might bring "bad feelings" against the government? Show me ONE NATION, one PEOPLE, who have enough of everything they need, outside those nations run by "capitalist pigs". Even China, in order to feed itself, had to turn to capitalism. Check out Moscow today - during the Soviet era, there were always food shortages. Today, there aren't great excesses, but the Russians can feed themselves, even after divesting the nation of its most productive farmland.

You are a hypocrite and a fool. You have no concept of how the REAL WORLD works, but you want to force your ideas onto others, and IN MY NAME!!! How dare you!!! You are not representing me. You do not represent my God. You do not represent the good, faithful, loyal, and PRODUCTIVE people of the United States. You are a parasite, and a deadly one. The sooner you leave, the sooner you remove yourself from this place you loathe so much, the better off this nation will become.

Somebody grab the flush lever, and pull!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2003 13:43 Comments || Top||

#12  "Trust me, we are not necessarily proud of our geographic, circumstantial identity."

AH HA !! It's the new Dixie Chicks song !?!
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/21/2003 7:44 Comments || Top||

#13  we wish to send you a message... from those who understand.

Pitiful, they think their own poorly-informed opinionised position can claim a monopoly on 'truth'.

Oh please, shed some of your enlightened wisdom on the rest of us plebs, as we can't possibly be as sensitive as YOU innalekshuls!
Posted by: anon1 || 04/21/2003 8:13 Comments || Top||

#14  Make that 279,999,999 'Mericans... this imaginary "American" just exploded from all the bullshit he tried to pack into such a tiny space.

I KNOW I'm supposed to feel "bad" about our success and freedoms and wealth and lifestyle and power and all of the amazing accomplishments we've achieved in just a fraction of the time that many of our detractors have been piddle-farting about on the planet. - but I don't. And THAT kinda sorta little-bit maybe makes me feel bad... NOT!

Fuck 'em if they can't handle reality or take a joke: their own pathetic systems and history and the obvious fact that they haven't the will or the guts to change - when it is blindingly obvious that there are better systems and ways out there that they could emulate. Just Fuck Them. Of course, I don't have any strong feelings on the subject..

What a hoot! LOL!!! Good find Fred!
Posted by: PD || 04/21/2003 8:14 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
UAE offers criminals in return for flights
I found this on an Indian News Channel. India has been trying to extradite criminals from numerous countries in the Middle East and SE Asia. Dawood Ibrahim is the Mafia guy responsible for a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai (Bombay), India around 1993 that killed almost 300 people in a single day. He currently lives in Karachi, Pakland courtesy of Perv and ISI. India is having to bribe the UAE to extradite these criminals, something pretty screwed up with that. I think India should use the US method of negotiation, with an aircraft carrier.
Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain has confirmed that there is an informal agreement between the Indian government and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to exchange wanted criminals in return for more connecting flights. The four recent deportations of mafia dons based in Dubai like Ijaz Pathan, prime accused in the Mumbai blasts case and Iqbal Kaskar, Dawood Ibrahim's brother, are in fact part of the straightforward unwritten deal between the two governments.

In return, just days after the two criminals landed in Mumbai, the Civil Aviation Minister allowed Emirates Airlines to fly as many as 500 extra passengers into and out of India every week - a decision taken during a one-on-one meeting between Hussein and the UAE Foreign Minister. "We have a good understanding with them. If they are helping us then we should also give them what they want," said Hussain.

Sources have confirmed to NDTV that the deal has been on for some time. Talks were initiated in December 2002 when Dubai let Anees Ibrahim, the younger brother of Dawood Ibrahim, get away despite India's request to extradite him. In a retaliatory snub, New Delhi had cancelled concessions to Emirates, the UAE national carrier. The bookings had been completed and the airline was planning to operate 16 flights in the holiday season to clear the rush. But when the application came up, the Director General of Civil Aviation cancelled it and said that he was acting under the advice of the Foreign Ministry. "There was no way that the Dubai-based national airlines would have been allowed additional flights in these circumstances, " a senior official from the ministry said. Things have changed dramatically since then – an example of economic rationale working where South Block’s tough diplomacy had failed.
Posted by: rg117 || 04/20/2003 07:03 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Indian Army to raise US-type special forces: Army chief
IRNA -- The successful US military campaign in Iraq has had an immediate impact on India with Indian Army Chief N.C. Vij ordering the raising of special operations forces along the lines of the US Special Forces for offensive operations in enemy territory, the local media reported on Sunday.
"Dang! I wanna get me some o' them!"
The training for India's Special Forces will be undertaken in close coordination with Israel.
Did I just hear somebody's turban unravel? Was that you, Perv?
Like their American counterpart, the Indian Special Forces will be small, flexible groups under the direct command of the regional army commander, and will undertake specialized missions designed to have a political or strategic impact. In December, India's Cabinet Committee on Security approved the raising of four battalions of special forces, but only for counter-insurgency work. After watching the US assault on Iraq, Vij decided to raise four more battalions to work outside India. For this, Vij recently ordered the Directorate of Military Operations and the Army Training Command to study the recent US campaign and work out a doctrinal underpinning for India's Special Forces.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 07:10 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Four more battalions to work outside India?

[open map]
Lessee -- to the south we have water, nope, not going there. To the east we have Bangladesh, nah, nuttin' there worth taking. To the north we have Nepal -- ok, that's a place to be eyeballed. We also some itty-bitty countries to watch. We got China, but the Indo-Chinese cold war seems real quiet.

West. Hmmmm, west, well, what do we have here?
[close map]
"Hello, General Vij, can we make that four divisions of special forces?
Posted by: Steve White || 04/20/2003 22:43 Comments || Top||


Seven US, Pakistani soldiers hurt in firing on helicopter
Three US soldiers and their four Pakistani counterparts were injured when their helicopter received hostile fire near Dera Bugti in Balochistan. The helicopter was fired upon by automatic weapons, most likely by AK-47 assault rifles when it was on a reconnaissance mission in Dera Bugti region. Although the sources were tight-lipped about their mission, it is believed that the military officials of Pakistan and United States were combing the area to find possible hideouts of Osama Bin Laden. The helicopter returned to Jacobabad airbase where it made a crash landing. The sources said the injured US soldiers were later shifted to Oman for further treatment. Four Pakistani army personnel, who were also injured, were evacuated to Quetta for medical treatment. One of the injured Pakistanis was an army colonel, the officials said.

Dera Bugti, a tribal region of Balochistan, is currently tense as the federal government is contemplating a military operation in the area to punish the tribesmen for their violent protests against the exploitation of their gas reserves. The tribesmen had blown up the main gas pipeline supplying the gas to upcountry in protest against the failure of government and the gas companies to honour the agreement with the local tribes that guaranteed jobs and basic civic amenities to the local people. Since the federal government is getting ready for a military operation against the local tribes, the presence of the military helicopter in the area would have alarmed the local people prompting them to shot it down.

Likely, this being Pakland, they're fixin' to get ready to make plans to hold a meeting about discussing military operations against these bloodthirsty primitives, but some clergyman will issue a fatwah against it and they'll eventually drop the idea. If the Bugti bitch is about jobs, I can't see any reputable company in the petroleum industry hiring them — what would they do? Kill trespassers and eat them? The Bugtis seem to spend all their time blowing things up and killing rival tribemen.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 11:57 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Folks: Balochistan and North West Frontier Province are run by pro-Taleban jihadis. Yet the Bush government allows tens of millions of US aid dollars to filter into these degenerate entities, under Pakistan's federal-provincial redistribution formula. Bush is subsidizing the murder of Americans.

Please explain the neo-Stalinist, personality cult that binds Americans to the over-achieving jackass who pollutes the White House. Americans have taken an unnecessary $1,000,000,000,000 economic hit, in order to indulge this dirtbag's quixotic attempt to unite the so-called "common faiths of Abraham." America was a "faith based" sick puppy until its people established a secular state. Don't let Bush-Norquist fanaticism drive it into the ground.
Posted by: Anonon || 04/20/2003 12:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh, look, an Easter troll!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2003 14:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Sweetie, it's obvious that you have never spent time in a country with a personality cult. Or Stalinism, old school or neo-. And, quite frankly, this is the first time I've ever heard one of your ilk refer to the president as an "over-achiever".
Thanks for the laughs......now, please go back to the kiddie table. And no banging on your high chair, or the Easter Bunny's going to take your candy back, m'kay??
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 04/20/2003 14:54 Comments || Top||

#4  "Please explain the neo-Stalinist, personality cult that binds Americans to the over-achieving jackass who pollutes the White House. "

I'm a little confused here - over-achieving jackass?

Is that someone who's so dumb they keep kicking your ass over and over again?
Posted by: mojo || 04/20/2003 18:15 Comments || Top||

#5  When I was a little kid I though the term oxymoron referred to someone that was cut off from oxygen when they were born. Now I know that it is another term for troll, heh heh...
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2003 18:54 Comments || Top||

#6  True or False or Too Complex to Understand?:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010917-11.html

The difference between Holocaust Denial and Bush Jihad Subsidy Denial, is one of degrees, not kind. I am aware that the Volk, likes their "faith based" Reich, but mostly: their Fuhrer.


Posted by: Anonon || 04/20/2003 19:07 Comments || Top||

#7  What, first we're Stalinists, now we're Nazis?

Make up your mind, kid.
Posted by: mojo || 04/20/2003 21:34 Comments || Top||

#8  Mojo.. He's a troll. He doesn't HAVE a mind... C'mon, I know that's in the minutes somewhere...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2003 21:58 Comments || Top||

#9  Must be a new Anonon,agin.
Seems we've kick that Pak-U.S.Aid$ horse a couple of times hear.Go home little boy,I hear your Mama calling.
Posted by: raptor || 04/21/2003 8:04 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Newsweek / MSNBC Chronicles Human Rights Abuses in Iraq
A hat tip to the Command Post ( http://216.134.209.67/~command/ ) for the link to this article which is too long to post in its entirety, and too revealing to excerpt.

Like the Nazis and all good totalitarians, Saddam’s Baathist henchmen kept records. Last week, at the Baghdad headquarters of the Mukhabarat, the secret police, an Iraqi man went up to photographers from NEWSWEEK and the Los Angeles Times carrying a bulging, grimy white rice sack. “Tell the world what happened here,” he said. Inside were more than 200 cassette tapes, videos and passports, photographs and negatives, CDs and floppy disks, as well as a fat binder thick with documents addressed TO THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE IRAQI INTELLIGENCE SERVICE.
Posted by: John Phares || 04/20/2003 09:40 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This stuff will probably be slowly and painfully leaking out of Iraq for the next 50-60 years. I hope it will all be posted on the internet and permanently archived for all to see, indefinitely into the future.
Posted by: Tresho || 04/21/2003 12:03 Comments || Top||


US arrests sixth Saddam aide
The United States military says its forces in Iraq have captured a sixth member of Saddam Hussein's former regime. A statement from US Central Command in Qatar said Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Gafar, who was minister of higher education and scientific research, was taken into custody on Saturday. Mr Gafar is ranked 54th on the US list of 55 wanted Iraqi leaders, who are pictured on packs of cards handed out to US forces in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 07:32 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


14 Iraqi agents killed in family revenges
IRNA -- Fourteen former Iraqi Ba'ath Party agents have been killed in the last three days in Kirkuk and Khaneqin cities, a security official of the Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said on Saturday. He said the agents were killed by family members of the victims of the former Iraqi government's brutalities. "The security agents have launched a vast operation to identify and arrest those responsible for these revenges in a bid to prevent tribes and groups from settling scores," the official who asked not to be identified said.
Yeah. This ain't Balochistan, y'know...
Meanwhile, the source said eight kurds have also been killed and 10 others injured by landmines left in the Kurdish region after the withdrawal of Iraqi forces.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 07:14 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  any Baathist who didnt skeddadle as fast as possible out of Kurdish territory deserves a Darwin award.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 04/20/2003 22:49 Comments || Top||


U.S. seeks enforcers of Saddam’s regime
The U.S. must-find list of Iraqis who helped keep Saddam Hussein in power goes well beyond the top officials pictured on the military's now famous playing cards. Less visibly but no less actively U.S. officials are seeking thousands who enforced Saddam's control through assassination, torture and misdeed. Catching these lower-level operatives — and ultimately putting them on trial — promises to be a massive and lengthy undertaking.

The administration is planning prosecutions for alleged war crimes committed during this war as well as the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Cases also are expected to be pursued for alleged atrocities committed over decades by Iraq's government against its citizens. "Numerous abuses, both past and present," are being catalogued, Pierre-Richard Prosper, State Department ambassador for war crimes, said recently.

"It's a big challenge," said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org. "I think that they have clearly identified the major war criminals ... but I haven't seen any indication of what they propose to do with them. And I've seen no indication of how big the B list is and what they propose to do with the B list." Human rights experts says Saddam had layers of security apparatus — secret police, militias, intelligence agents — whose members committed widespread atrocities to quash political dissent and keep the Iraqi president firmly in control of the nation of 25 million. Tens of thousands of people had such jobs. U.S. officials do not know how many survived the war or how many committed rights violations.

Coalition troops are sorting more than 7,000 prisoners captured from the battlefield, deciding who to release and who to hold for prosecution on war crimes or past rights violations. "The whole fabric of society was corrupted by the violations all the way down to the local police officer who participated in the arrest of someone on political grounds," said Alistair Hodgett of Amnesty International USA. "But the ultimate decision rests in the hands of the Iraqi people to decide how far down the line do the trials go. If you're a guy ... whose brother was taken away, imprisoned and tortured, it's not for the United States to say the (perpetrator) is a small fry."
Another NGO with its hand in the till that wants to call the shots. The US is the "Guardian of Record", and will do what it deems best for both the Iraqi people and the United States.

Abuses have been reported for years. A U.N. report said membership in certain political parties was punishable by death, as was insulting Saddam or his party. The State Department says Saddam's government targeted dissidents' family members.
Yet the UN did nothing but squabble about these abuses. Yea, team. Rah. Rah. {puke}.

American troops in Iraq carry a deck of cards with pictures of leaders in Saddam's government who are wanted most urgently. Several have been captured. Coalition forces are questioning them for information about Iraq's weapons programs, the whereabouts of other leaders and Iraqi links to terrorists. Bringing them to trial is a lower priority. The administration says it has not decided what charges might be brought against them or who would prosecute. As for lower echelons of suspects, Iraqis have given information that has aided some captures. Over time, more tips and captured documents will help U.S. officials decide who else to apprehend, Pentagon officials said. Hodgett and other rights advocates oppose the U.S. plan to help Iraqis prosecute rights violators, noting the country's judicial system has been in disarray for years. He said the United Nations should name a group to begin planning the rebuilding of an Iraqi justice system immediately because it has extensive experience and because justice delayed could result in a rash of revenge killings.
Sigh. Here we go again. "Only the United Nations has the experience, only the United Nations, can do it right, the United Nations has to be involved." Can these twits even go to the bathroom without the United Nations holding their hands? The United States has the longest-running record for a truly JUST system of jurisprudence of any Western Power, save Britain, who happens to be a co-participant and partner in this endeavor. The United Nations can go play games in NKor if it wants, but keep your filthy hands off Iraq.

Pike said that because abuse was pervasive, Iraq could consider something like South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Another purveyor of jurisprudence, South Africa. Sheesh, do these people ever read anything but their own propaganda? Just leave us alone, and let us get the job done.

I'm beginning to seriously doubt the ability of the United States to accomplish anything in Iraq without first dismantling the United Nations and all the NGOs that support and suck up to it.


I'm worried that the combination of Arab governments, screaming muttwitts in the streets, shrieking ayatollahs in the mosques, the Axis of Weasels, the UN and its pushers, the NGOs lining up at the till, SAIRI, Iran, and the Baathist leftovers will tire us and cause us to quit early, before the rebuilding job is actually done. We'll be able to blame them, but blame doesn't buy any groceries and we're not going to get another chance to remake Iraq.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2003 03:25 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We have won the war and now we have to win the peace. This is one of the biggest projects we will ever have to do. It is daunting and challenging, but in order to remake the middle east we are going to have to remake Iraq. And that means we are going to have to build from the bottom up AND we are going to have to exert some authority on every half-wit imam, mullah, mufti, and wannabe religious leader and warlord in the country. There is no way the country will come together with SAIRI, Iranian influences, Baathist leftovers vying for their piece of the action. Some of the young ones we will teach, some of the old ones and the fanatics will have to be squashed. We better have our best brains on this one! In another light, if we can pull this one off, radical Islam is finished. One of the biggest poker games you will ever see, folks.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2003 19:08 Comments || Top||

#2  "I've seen no indication of how big the B list is and what they propose to do with the B list."

Are there any other Gilbert and Sullivan fans here? The Mikado, Lord High Executioner, "I've got a little list...". Gotta love it!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2003 22:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Some of these NGOs could be useful. Amnesty Intl has a pretty dossier on Saddam's abuses. Combine it with all the intel we'll get out of the captured documents and the testimony from the victims and their families, and then hold a Nuremburg-style war crimes trial for each member of the B-list.

Don't fight all the NGOs -- turn some of them. Could be very useful.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/20/2003 22:54 Comments || Top||

#4  And let us not forget:Lybia chairs the U.N.S.C.'s Human Rights Commision.
Posted by: raptor || 04/21/2003 8:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Supposedly (if it's not disinfo) in the late 1990's Sadam set up a squad of 3,000 just in case Iraq was invaded.
It's too bad intel doesn't seem to think the Internet is a valuable Intel tool; if I can find some of these bastards, why can't they?
Posted by: Anonymous || 10/01/2003 13:47 Comments || Top||


Iraqis Say Museum Looting Wasn't as Bad as Feared
Hat tip to Oxblog. This was from Thursday, but missed by one and all...
Last week's looting of the Iraq National Museum, which saw numerous items disappear from a vast collection spanning eight millennia of Mesopotamian history, has provoked world-wide outcry — and criticism of the U.S. military for its failure to protect Iraq's priceless cultural heritage. But, thanks to Iraqi preparations before the war, it seems the worst has been avoided. Donny George, the director-general of restoration at the Iraqi Antiquities Department, Wednesday said his staff had preserved the museum's most important treasures, including the kings' graves of Ur and the Assyrian bulls. These objects were hidden in vaults that haven't been violated by looters. "Most of the things were removed. We knew a war was coming, so it was our duty to protect everything," Mr. George said. "We thought there would be some sort of bombing at the museum. We never thought it could be looted."

Earlier this week, some museum workers reached foreign journalists to complain about an orgy of looting in the museum, saying that little of the collection remains. As secrecy long enveloped the museum — where part of the collection had been siphoned off by Saddam Hussein's family and sold abroad — it isn't clear whether these museum workers knew about the prewar preparations to hide the most-valuable artifacts.

Along with the destruction of ancient manuscripts at the Iraq National Library and other acts of vandalism throughout the city, the museum's looting has prompted a wave of anti-American anger. A belief often voiced in the streets of Baghdad holds that U.S. soldiers themselves stole the most-precious objects in the collection and used the looters to cover up the crime. Mr. George, standing side by side with the American commander in the area, Lt. Col. Eric Schwartz of the U.S. Army Third Infantry Division's Task Force 1-64, dispelled this view. But he said many valuable items are still missing. Among the antiquities unaccounted for so far, Mr. George said, are the sacral vase of Warqa, from Sumerian times, and the bronze statue of Basitqi, from the Accadian civilization.

The museum compound was occupied Wednesday by a company-size tank unit, and a notice by the gate says the site is protected by the U.S. military. The museum floor is littered with debris, and access inside is forbidden because Iraqi specialists are working to catalogue what remains and to try to restore some of the items, Lt. Col. Schwartz said. "There was a tremendous amount of looting just for destruction purposes — and there were artifacts that were not destroyed at all," he said. "It was not as bad as I thought it would be."

Lt. Col. Schwartz, whose functions also include feeding the lions in the abandoned Baghdad Zoo next door, said he couldn't move into the museum compound and protect it from looters last week because his soldiers were taking fire from the building — and were determined not to respond. There is an Iraqi army trench in the museum's front lawn, and Lt. Col. Schwartz said his troops found many Iraqi army uniforms inside. "If there is any dirty trick in the book," he said, "they sure used it."
Unfortunately, this is the only article I've seen discussing this topic, and it's hidden in the Wall Street Journal. Wonder how much else is being covered up by our wonderful US reporters.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2003 03:25 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  AAAAAAARARRGGHHHH! Stupid computers! The title of this article should be "Iraqis Say Museum Looting Wasn't as Bad as Feared". Somehow, the last half was left out when I pasted it. Fred, is this something you can repair? IF not, we'll just go with it as it is...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2003 15:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, this will give them one less thing to cry about.
Posted by: George || 04/20/2003 16:19 Comments || Top||

#3  "feeding the lions", trouble-making Muslim clerics, hmmmmmmmmmmm! I've got an idea!
Posted by: Tom || 04/20/2003 16:31 Comments || Top||


Saddam’s son-in-law surrenders: INC
Saddam Hussein's son-in-law, Jamal Mustafa Sultan, has surrendered, an Iraqi opposition group says. The long-exiled Iraqi National Congress (INC) says Sultan has surrendered to them and will be handed over into US custody within hours. "He is the first close member of the family to be detained," INC spokesman Zaab Sethna said. He says Sultan had been in Syria but the INC had persuaded him to return to Baghdad and give himself up. Sultan is the nine of clubs in the US-issued pack of cards showing its 55 most-wanted Iraqis.
Another one bites the dust. Glad to see the INC is working with us, instead of against us, like the SIIRI is shaping up to be.

Y'gotta actually feel sorry for these mutts. The mortality rate for Sammy's sons in law was either at or near 100 percent, either way. He's probably feeling relief at the prospect of a nice, safe jail cell instead of a meat hook.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2003 02:31 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great News, O.P! If the guy WAS in Syria, then it's proof of what we've been saying about Syria hiding Iraqi leadership.

Dear Assad: the buzzing you hear means we have missile lock on your sorry ass...
Posted by: Ptah || 04/20/2003 15:56 Comments || Top||


SCIRI opens bureaus in Najaf
IRNA -- Opening three offices in Holy Najaf, Iraq's Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution on Saturday officially started its political activities in this major center of world Shias' academic studies. A source close to the Iraqi political parties, informing the IRNA correspondent in Najaf of the development, said, "The Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SCIRI) is going to focus on political, cultural, propagational, and humanitarian activities in Holy Najaf." Adding that the SCIRI had already opened its offices in Kout, Jisan, Badre and Nasseriyyeh in southern parts of Iraq, the Iraqi political analyst said, "the general manger of SCIRI's Holy Najaf bureaus is Seyed Sadreddin Qapanchi."
What? They don't rate a Hakim?
According to this source, the extent of the people's enthusiasm to join the SCIRI in all different cities where it has opened its offices in Iraq has been beyond imagination and in most cases the SCIRI officials have run short of the application forms for the crowds interested in cooperating with them.
Selling like hotcakes, are they? That's 'cause they brought in a Hakim.
The first religious meeting sponsored by the SCIRI in Holy Najaf on Friday, to mourn for the Third Infallible Shia Imam Hussain (PBUH), was attended by over 4,000 Najafi citizens. SCIRI Speaker Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer Hakim is among the members of the transitional supreme council of Iraqi dissidents, that is commissioned the task of monitoring the tough task of regime change in Iraq, and arranging for the first free elections here. That of course depends on many factors, including when the US occupier forces would give hold of Iraq's affairs to the Iraqi nation, which will be some two years from now according to the latest Pentagon announcements.
Guess you'll just have to wait, then...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 12:49 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Shia clergy denounce US troop presence
What part of "conquered people" don't you understand?
A cleric at one of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines in the Iraqi city Karbala denounced the presence of US troops in the country during Friday prayers, saying it amounted to imperialism by “unbelievers.”
Oh, horrors! Unbelievers! Oh, hold me, Fatimah!
“We reject this foreign occupation, which is a new imperialism. We don’t want it anymore,” Sheikh Kaazem Al-Abahadi Al-Nasari told thousands of Muslim faithful at the mausoleum of Imam Hussein, revered by the Shias and the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. We don’t need the Americans. They’re here to control our oil. They’re unbelievers, but as for us, we have the power of mouth faith.”
He also didn't believe the Merkins and the Brits were going to demolish Sammy's regime in three weeks. And no doubt Mr. Imam could have easily done so himself, without our help — he just didn't get around to it...
Friday prayers resumed at this sacred site last week for the first time since May 2002 after being banned by deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, fearful of Shia opposition to his rule. Iraq’s 25- million strong community is 60 percent Shia and were violently repressed and politically not represented under Hussein.
That's why they rose up in their wrath and threw him out, by Gawd! But then those Merkins and Brits came in and ruined everything...
The Shias are flexing their collective muscle for the first time in decades. Sheikh Nasri denounced “those politicians who are coming back to Iraq supported by the Americans and British, who given the opportunity would only obey American orders.” His speech may have been a veiled jab at Ahmad Chalabi, who bills himself as a secular Shia, and reportedly a Pentagon favorite for leading Iraq. Chalabi, who left Iraq in 1958 and returned in recent months, said Friday he had no plans for running the country.
"We don't need nobody from outside the country. Except maybe from Iran. They understand us..."
Spirits were also high in the Shia shantytown in Baghdad were the Al-Hikma mosque held the first Friday prayers since 1999 riots sparked by the assassination of a prominent cleric Mohammad Sadeq Sadr. Some 50,000 people jammed the streets of Al-Sadr City, formerly known as Saddam City, patrolled by Kalashnikov-wielding guards.
Wonder who they were, and what they were guarding against?
Hundreds of thousands poured out of mosques and demonstrated against Washington’s presence. The sermons around the city offered the first clear reaction among Muslim clergy to the three-week war and US occupation. At the Al-Hikma mosque Sheikh Mohammad Fartusi said the Shia would not accept a brand of democracy “that allows Iraqis to say what they want but gives them no say in their destiny. This form of government would be worse than Saddam Hussein.”
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 10:36 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Sure, Saddam was a torturing, murdering bastard who liked to rape our women in front of us. But he was OURS! Ok, sort of ours, since he tried to kill Shias just for breathing.....At least he didn't try to make us govern ourselves and be responsible!"
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 04/20/2003 11:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Muslim clerics have a lot to learn. They need to be invited to a reception to receive a brief indoctrination about how best to get us to leave in a timely manner. So far, they definitely don't get it. I'd be tempted to send a few of the more vocal ones on temporary holiday to Gitmo.
Posted by: Tom || 04/20/2003 13:07 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm sure some of the crap these guys are spewing is coming directly from Iran. Iran has a serious problem with us being in both Iraq and Afghanistan - it's called "Legitimate fear of being next". Perhaps we should even partially support the Shia muslim imams and their desire to have us leave - by going east... Naaah, they'd complain about that, too.

PERSONAL NOTE TO JOHNNY: Put a second shift on at the rope factory, we may need it.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2003 14:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Round up his immediate family and put them all in one of saddams old cells (cramped style please). Give them 15 minutes to decide whether or not they want to fully and without condition support the US occupation.

If its a no, they can stay in jail forever.

Posted by: flash91 || 04/20/2003 18:31 Comments || Top||

#5  They need to be invited to a reception to receive a brief indoctrination about how best to get us to leave in a timely manner.

Makes me think of Laos' greatest king, Khun Borom Rajathiraj. He invited all the kinglets of the feuding Tai tribes who were giving him lip for a big peace conference. When he got them all in one place, he just poisoned them.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2003 19:02 Comments || Top||

#6  "Hundreds of thousands poured out of mosques and demonstrated against Washington’s presence"

Western sources have been giving numbers of 10,000 to 30,000 for Fridays demos. And Wapo indicates it was mainly Sunnis. Al Jazeera is unreliable, but thats a big discrepancy.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 04/20/2003 22:54 Comments || Top||

#7  At 60% of the pop. they can generate numbers. But they are unable to cooperate except on the grand scale (such as generic hate targets: can you say, "Great Satan?") as they compete with each other for followers. Iran is the key: does it implode before it gains nukes or the means to mfg them? Will we sit calmy by while this occurs? These are the only Shia aspects that are actually worrisome beyond the usual hollering and arm waving.
Posted by: PD || 04/21/2003 7:13 Comments || Top||


Power plant employees locked out
Employees of a major Baghdad power plant were also bewildered by the presence of several explosive devices planted around the Jameela facility, which supplies one third of the capital’s electricity. Trip-wire detonators could be seen strung across doorways inside the building, and packs of ready meals (MRE), trademark of western military forces, were visibly scattered across the floor. Plant director Nasser Hussein expressed serious concern over the work stoppage. The landmines, he said were intended to control rather than destroy the premises. “We are ready, but we have one problem. The mines, which the Americans have planted to control the Jameela plant, will hamper the distribution of electricity in all parts of the city and will deny the citizens this service.”

This one sounds like a propaganda setup. The place is mined, the "evidence" of U.S. perps is spread all over the place, but the article doesn't say they're there... Where are the troops? I know of instances where booby traps have been set in the remote past — back when I was young and brontosaurs roamed the hills and tunnels of Vietnam — but generally, if we own it we don't mine it. There's too much chance of civilian casualties, not to mention damage to the structure that we want to keep... If we wanted to keep people out, we'd just park a tank or an IFV out front and tell them to stay out.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 10:25 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


US bars access to oil ministry, power plant
While many Iraqis began returning to work, oil ministry employees were wondering why US forces, heavily guarding their offices, barred them from re-entering the building on Saturday. For most Baghdad residents life appeared to be edging towards normal as looting subsided, shops began to re-open and traffic picked up on city streets. US troops were seen directing many former state employees, including police and civil servants, back to work. But Massar Farouq, a telecommunications engineer from the oil ministry, said she did not understand why US troops prevented her from returning to work. “All the employees are here, but as you can see, US forces are preventing us from entering the building,” she said.
Hmmm... Probably something sinister! Prob'ly it's All About Oil™! Or they could be rooting through the records to see who got the illegal oil exports, but that's prob'ly not it...
As many as 100 oil-industry employees loitered around the ministry complex, as soldiers stood guard behind barbed wire barriers. Unlike other state buildings, the Ministry of Oil escaped the bombing unscathed, and has been heavily guarded by American troops since invasion forces entered the capital.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 10:16 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  First we have to do a little looking around, and then we have to sort out friend from foe. And then, if you're judged to be friend, you're going to have American soldier minders for awhile. Get over it.
Posted by: Tom || 04/20/2003 13:01 Comments || Top||


US wants to keep Iraqi bases
well duh! EFL
The United States will seek continuing access to military bases in Iraq to maintain its strong Middle East presence, despite growing anti-American sentiment inside and outside Iraq.
If you start every question to an Iraqi or Arab - "would you like to see the Americans eventually leave?" - guess what the answer would be?
White House officials said they may not seek to keep a standing army in Iraq in the long term but the US did want to maintain access to Iraqi bases. Four likely bases were nominated: Baghdad's international airport; Tallil, near Nasiriyah; an isolated airstrip called H-1 in the western desert; and Bashur airfield in the Kurdish north. "There will be some kind of a long-term defence relationship with a new Iraq, similar to Afghanistan," a senior administration official told The New York Times. "The scope of that has yet to be defined - whether it will be full-up operational bases, smaller forward operating bases or just plain access."
Whatever, just the fact that our forces are based on Irans', Syria's borders will make an attitude change, or provide basing for the big stick to whack them
The US at present has bases in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. The Saudi bases were set up in response to Saudi concern about Saddam Hussein's territorial ambitions. Now that he has been deposed, the US is keen to reduce its presence in Saudi Arabia. The architect of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Osama bin Laden, repeatedly said it was the presence of US troops there that helped fuel his hatred for the West.
Get out of Saudi, then start the ratcheting up of pressure
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2003 09:27 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Also an excellent Op-Ed on OpinionJournal by Francis Fukuyama - time to get US troops out of Saudi Arabia
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2003 9:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Amen. My first impulse is that we should melt the electronics and pothole the ramps and runways while we're walking out the door, too. I know how they say that they paid for it. So fucking what, is that first response... Without us, it would seem, the whole lot would return to the sand in a few years. But, since they will need SOMEONE to protect their totalitarian regimes, they'll have to make nice with the Russians or similar... So I think that first gut feeling was the correct one: destroy the bases as / after we leave.

H2 & H3 certainly will provide convenient basing. We can cache whatever we want all over the western desert, too - and we can do it without leaving a trace. For that rainy day... Yeah, I know it's desert... Rains there, too, folks, like a MoFo sometimes.

I think that we should open up the air route options by taking Syria / Lebanon - and put the REAL cure to the Hamas & Hezbollah issue: state sponsorship. Think Iran is getting friendly now? Wait till you knock off their partners in crime: Syria & NKorea. We would receive the equivalent in diplomatic relations of an Inari Vachs or Bobbi Bliss incredibly messy / wonderful / noisy blow-job. It would reverberate throughout the remainder of the Arab world - and no doubt the Islamic world, as well. Hey, we're already the Great Satan. It WILL be Us vs Them (and I hate cliche's as much as you do!) someday soon. Might as well get a leg up and put down our markers. We'll find out if they can stand or if they fold.

Leaving Saoodi behind will be a HUGE move - it changes the nature of our relationship. No longer the Special Relationship of WW-II to now, it gets THEM out of the middle of our Phreaking Phoreign Policy - and that is something we've needed to happen since 1973 when we were punished for Israel's outfuckingstanding military success. Can you say embargo? How about, "You backed the Ireali's! You are our blood enemies!" Remember? There was ZERO doubt that we WOULD, but they were surprised - and incredibly pissed off - when we DID! Fucking duplicious fantasist jerkwads.

Of course, if we're going to be "crucified" by everyone, West and East alike, for being imagined imperialists, oil-hungry thieves, etc... perhaps we should just go ahead and take it. Take it all. Iraq. Saudi. Shit, where should we actually stop? France? Germany? Anything stupid enough to pop up on the radar screen should get clipped or swallowed...

Maybe. Just thinking aloud in the old "what if" mode. I'd LOVE to see what real planners with real data have come up with...
Posted by: PD || 04/20/2003 10:23 Comments || Top||

#3  I will agree with you, PD on getting out of Saudi. The big finance boys (no need to say "persons" in the Middle East) in ME are/were Iran, Iraq, and Saudi. We took care of Iraq. Heat is being racheted up on Syria and Iran, but we need to get out of Saudi. Without our technical expertise, the Kingdom, at least the military part will go down the drain. We have to cut off the sources of terrorist money, and getting Saudi out of the picture will also put the heat on Pakistan, which is a client state of us and the Saudis.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2003 11:34 Comments || Top||

#4  In the name of security, efficiency, and expediency, I am willing to suffer the "slings and arrows" of being called an imperialist. I've called the opposition worse.
Posted by: Tom || 04/20/2003 13:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Something just popped up on my radar screen. Please feel free to take potshots at it, but I think one of Bush's goals is to cripple OPEC. He can do it, if he controls Iraqi oil, or has a strong hand inside the government of Iraq that will do it for us. That, and opening up the ANWAR for drilling, which I expect soon, even if it takes a Presidential Executive Order. The Congress of the United States is too busy pandering to the loonie left fringe. We're already seeing the hand of George Bush in our Environmental policy re the forestry issue.

Not saying it's chiseled in stone, but it makes sense. A crippled OPEC is one less weapon in the hands of the islamofascists.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2003 15:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Old Patriot---I do not know about your hypothesis of Bush's goal of crippling OPEC, but if we had ANWR on line and the Nat'l Petroleum Reserve to the west of Prudhoe Bay on line, we would not miss Saudi Oil plus change. The enviro weenies have been successful in blocking ANWR on a very emotional basis, which has played well in Washington. Modern directional drilling and the use of insulated ice pads and drill roads has drastically reduced the footprint of oil wells and the impact on the land. We need to seriously get our oil sources away from ME while they transition to more rational beings. We meaning everyone but the middle eastern countries. It is bad policy to depend on obtaining the life blood of modern civilization from psychopaths.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2003 16:57 Comments || Top||

#7  Bashur and H1 make sense. Well located, isolated from large population centers, and basically out of the way.

Bashur keeps N Syria, Turkey and N Iran in reach.

H1 is good for NE Saudi, Jordan, the western desert of Iraq, and coverage of Damascus and the inland population areas of Syria (coastal reas, we have carriers).

None needed around Basrah - Kuwait can host the troops there, and possibly a Seabee & Coastguard detachment at Umm Qasr.

But we do need on central-south (Saudi) and a truly central one, and possibly one more between the Kurdish area and Basrah near the central and southern Iranian border.

Nasirrah or An Najaf fulfills the south central - but the truly central one being Baghdad International? I dont want a large US military base in the middle - attracting all the loonies.

I'd say find something NE of the city itself - look at the airfields there, and the road reach. Plus its in reach of Iran.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/20/2003 22:33 Comments || Top||

#8  I can see it now:
Shut down and withdraw from Saudi,Germany,and Turkey.
Establish 4 permanent basis's in Iraq.

Saudi:removes one of Osama's motives(won't make a difference to Osama,but chips away at his legitimecy).Bases not needed,Iraq is more stratigically located.U.S. no longer has to make nice with the Saudi's.

Turkey/German bases.Nice to have but not worth the headache.Both country's economy hurting, withdrawl and shutting down U.S. bases would put a serious dent in thier economy.

Iran/Siria:Have apopaliptic fits causeing heart palpitations.

Luv it,warms the cockles of my heart.

Posted by: raptor || 04/21/2003 9:25 Comments || Top||


Iran
Daily hopes Iraqis will establish an Islamic Republic
IRNA -- Current incidents in the war-battered Iraqi nation suggests that the Iraqi people have taken the first step to establish a fledgling Islamic Republic in their country, noted `Kayhan International' in its Viewpoint column on Sunday. The unprecedented turnout of Iraqis at Friday's congregational prayers in Baghdad, Basra, Kut, Karbala, Najaf and a number of other cities in the war-torn nation reveals a "most striking contrast" between what the American troops have tried to make out by calling themselves "liberators" and what the absolute majority of Iraqi citizens wish for through their shouts of protest, highlighted the English-language daily.
Either that, or that Iraqis are no different from any other Arabs, or, indeed, any other large group of people. Half of everyone you'll ever meet will be below average. Many of them will attend mosques.
Interestingly, just a few days before Iraq was bombed by the coalition forces, the Guardian daily of London quoted a US State Department expert on March 15 as saying that the "US government can't insist on democratizing political systems in the Middle East since, present circumstances indicate that if people in the region were offered an alternative form of government, fundamentalists and those believing in an Islamic government would definitely be their final choice, the daily noted.

Al-Guardian was indulging in false literalism to buttress its point against U.S. involvement — "it's impossible, so don't even bother." "Democracy" consists of something more than merely voting, a point Pakistan has never caught onto. I think what we have in mind is something that will guarantee individual liberties — freedom to mouth off; freedom to criticize each other; freedom to be a Shiite, a Sunni, a Christian, or nothing at all; freedom from capricious abuse by the powers that be, all those things that we on these pages would rightly clarify as libertarianism.

Only if those rights — pretty much all of the U.S. Bill of Rights — is embedded in their governmental structure, will they be a "democracy." The idea of leaders appointed by God and accountable only to him is something that went out shortly after Louis XIV ran out of money to pay his tailor.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 07:25 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Freedom and responsibility---too words that are missing in the basic tenants of existing Middle Eastern governments.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2003 20:20 Comments || Top||

#2  If we allow any more "Islamic Republics" to take hold, anywhere, this entire effort is a waste.
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/20/2003 20:36 Comments || Top||

#3  AP... unfortunately, that last word, "responsibility", is found missing in most of today's "Liberal" dummycheats. Personal responsibility is the flip-side of personal freedom. Too few understand that. Wouldn't it be ironic if we actually got that message across to the Iraqis, when so many of today's "college class" can't get it?
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2003 20:40 Comments || Top||

#4  OP - Im getting a little tired of gratuitous domestic remarks on international affairs threads. I guess the if the blog owners dont mind theres nothing i can do about it, but it sure dont improve the blog. Theres plenty of other places where Republicans can rant about Democrats, and vice versa.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 04/20/2003 22:41 Comments || Top||

#5  OP- I am a student a Drexel(Philadelphia engineering/comp school), of everyone I know here, only one is an idiotic lefty, everything I've read has indicated it is the professors are lacking a rational compass and largely the students have rejected their bs.. so uh..thanx for the class generalization there, much appreciated.. made me feel all warm and tingly inside…


http://drexelobj.org/
Posted by: Dcreeper || 04/21/2003 0:09 Comments || Top||

#6  OP - Your assessment is 35 years off - the students of 35 years ago are the administrators and teachers of today.
Posted by: Jeff Brokaw || 04/21/2003 7:07 Comments || Top||

#7  On Topic (remember the topic?)-
Fred: You're too generous - the Shia are the rousers here and they claim their power by right of being descendents of Big Mo. So they aren't appointed by God (OR Gawd), but by thin little strands of DNA and large dollops of records-fixing several hundred years ago... As for some weenie from Foggy Bottom being quoted, only the Guardian (and its ilk) would think that made some difference. The Foreign Service boys are at the bottom of the current pecking order - and you can bet that they hold no (read: zero) sway with the Bushies. Whether that's good or bad is in the eye of the beholder.

Re: Off-Topic Rantomania against OP:
With apologiers in advance to Dcreeper, who writes in complete sentences and OBVIOUSLY has his shit wired tight - and a hat tip to his excellent observation regards faculty burnouts...

OP's observations re dummycheats is definitely a bit broad, and apologies to those in Gen-X with their heads screwed on straight is due, but there IS truth in there, like it or not. Today's crop regularly makes headlines as the bunch that can't find their own asses on a map and score so low, relative to other countries in general knowledge, as to make them prime candidates for vegetable substitutes.

In addition, and I have no doubt that this point is part of what OP was referring to, they and their burnout parents were the tools of the ANSWER crowd in the demonstrations and missed every point regards Iraq. He was, I believe, referring toa host of self-absorbed fools who thought that it was about War for OIL or US Imperialism - or any number of other demonstrably false signage paraded in front of the cameras.

liberalhawk: As for your assetion that OP's comment was off-topic (I disagree) and really about local US Publican - Democrud politics, it's more than obvious that you're WAY too sensitive - and getting your shorts in a bunch over it rather indicates you can't handle it well - calling upon the Moderator Gods to save you. Gawd, what a pussy. So do the vice versa squeel in those other blogs - apparently your view of the world is too narrow and dogmatic to encompass thoughts of a differing variety - or too far afield..
Posted by: PD || 04/21/2003 8:01 Comments || Top||

#8  PD -

Dummycheat? Democrud? Pussy? And you call me "narrow and dogmatic"?

There are plenty of places on the net to vent your partisanship. This is one of the few that presents a summarized intel brief, available for comments, on military and strategic issues in the WOT.

I would only remind you that Joe Lieberman and others were focused on these issues at a time when they were not of great concern to most Republicans. You ever hear of Ken Pollack, who wrote the definitive book on the reasons to invade Iraq - he too is a Democrat.

If OP was talking about the Stalinists of ANSWER, why refer to Democrats - the Stalinists have had it in for the Democrats since 1948.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/21/2003 8:31 Comments || Top||

#9  liberalhawk- Yes. Dogmatic. Narrow. Yes.
I don't subscribe to any of them - just a different label on who's doing the looting. You ARE overly sensitive. Stay on topic instead of looking for a fight. I live and work in Saudi Arabia and can handle your narrow ass anytime regard M.E. issues. It isn't Pubs vs. Dems outside of the USofA - no one out here phreakin' cares. No, I didn't vote for him... OR Gore. Both sucked, IMHO. YOU are the one with the local focus, else you wouldn't have gone out of your way to attack OP over such a MINOR infraction of YOUR perceived ruleset.

His comment regards Gen-X is spot-on and the weenies in the streets who did not have Clue One regards Iraq were, by and large, Dems looking to demonize Bush. And they are total tools and primo fools. If you're not one of them, then kudos to you. If you are, fuck off.

The BIG Picture is simple: Western Freedom vs. Islamic Dogma. You can slice it up any way that suits you and isolate patches here and there to argue the fine points, but that is the real issue - and will be for the next 20+ yrs. The Bush Admin "gets it" more or less. For that small favor, I thank them and support the Iraq actions and the US & UK troops.
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/22/2003 0:00 Comments || Top||

#10  I support Pres. Bush as a Republican although I do have my worries about what his real thoughts are about the Sauds. I found out the Sauds are DEEP into Western societies and it GREATLY concerns me. Don't believe me? Do a google search on strattons+saud! The historical associations between (believe it or not) supposedly 'good' American citizens with Nazi backgrounds also concerns me.
Has the world always been so f'd up?
How long has this war between freedom and Islam gone on now? Damnable bastards; how can I, as a Christian, keep from hating their guts?
If they attack USA again, en masse, how will I keep my blood from boiling over?
I predict Anti-war.com arrest coming up: good f you traitor Justin.
Posted by: Anonymous || 10/01/2003 13:45 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon
Syria considers Saddam responsible
IRNA -- Syria once again on Saturday night emphasized that the top officials of the ousted Iraqi regime, and particularly Saddam Hussain himself, are responsible for all miseries suffered by the Iraqi nation, and for the occupation of Iraq by US-British forces. Head of the Foreign Relations and Information Bureau of the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ms. Bathina Sha'ban, in an article published in Syria's state owned Tishrin newspaper, published on the occasion of Syria's Independence day — April 17, 1946 — took a severe snipe at the top officials of the ousted Iraqi regime for the troubles they have caused not only for the Iraqis!
"Yeah. He screws up, and here we are in the poop!"
Sha'ban's article seems to be an indirect response to the incessant US accusations against Damascus on its accused support for Saddam's ousted regime. In her article titled 'The Day the Last Foreign Soldier Was Kickedout of Syria' Sha'ban writes, "We are celebrating the Independence Day of Syria this year amid ambivalent feelings of joy and sadness, since the colonizers' soldiers have once again occupied an Arab country."
"Just waltzed right in and occupied it! It makes me feel so... vulnerable."
This Syrian official considers the recent developments in Iraq as "a full scale catastrophe" and meanwhile "a lesson that should teach the Arab and Islamic world leaders a lot".
They haven't learned yet. Or maybe they're trying to learn the wrong thing...
She further on reiterates, "we do not underestimate the lonizers' capabilities and modern military facilities, but let us not forget also that there were other factors involved in paving the way for the catastrophic military occupation of Iraq." The Syrian diplomat writes, "the ousted head of the former Iraqi regime dragged Iraq into the whirlpool of civil and foreign wars during his 30 years at the office, which had no benefit, save for the great losses of the human and material losses of the Iraqi and other nations, and an unjust long set of crushing U.N. sanctions, that were mainly against the Iraqi nation."
"Us Syrians, on the other hand, confine our activities to playing games with international terror organizations that we try to keep at the thorn in the side level, until eventually our enemies die of exhaustion. If we'd done more than we were, we might have gotten tromped on by our betters. And now this! He screws up, and we're next in line!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 01:11 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq's Interest Section in Damascus still active Damascus
IRNA -- Contrary to Saturday evening news on NBC, sources working for Iraq's Interests Section in Damascus confirmed late Saturday night that the said section is still active. The Iraqi diplomats, who spoke to IRNA on condition of anonymity, said, "the head of Iraq's Interests Section in Damascus, Muhammad Raf'at al-Anani, is still in Syria and will get back to his office on Monday.
Wonder who's signing his paychecks now?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 01:00 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


International
Proposal to form Islamic defence alliance like NATO
NNI: A Belgian-based Muslim human rights activist has launched an initiative with the aim of forming an Islamic defence alliance on the lines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to defend Muslim countries from attacks by foreign powers. Faisal Khan, chairman of the World Peace Mission and an observer in the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), told IRNA that he has proposed the alliance to be named ''Mecca Alliance Treaty Organisation (M.A.T.O).''
How 'bout the Transnational Office of the Mecca Alliance Treaty Organization (T.O.M.A.T.O.)?
Khan, who is based in the Belgian port city of Antwerp, told IRNA by phone that he is in contact with several Muslim countries for discussion of his initiative. Under the proposed treaty, any aggression against any MATO member would be considered as an attack on all its members. Khan, who hails from Pakistan, said the treaty would be signed in Mecca and its head office located in Mecca.
Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. Next time we have to fight some tin-hat dictator like Sammy, all the Muslims can send forces for us to kill. Or, if they're like NATO, they can talk about it until well after the end of the war. This sounds like the Arab League, only with Pashtuns and Indonesians.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 12:41 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They should invite France to join it. Best way to make sure that it will never work.
Posted by: True German Ally || 04/20/2003 12:56 Comments || Top||

#2  TOMATO---ROFL! Fred, that is rich! Hell, if TOMATO wants, they can maybe lease space for their European Liason Office in Brussels at the NATO HQ. It will be fun to be a fly on the wall in their meetings when they get hot and start firing insults across the table. Well, one thing we have accomplished with Iraq: We put the fear of God Allah Zoroaster Satan into them. They must be afraid of themselves getting looted when they fall.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2003 12:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, please, can we make them take France? They're gonna be Islamic in about a generation anyway.
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 04/20/2003 15:04 Comments || Top||

#4  TOMATO will have auxillaries in every country called MERDE

Muslim Extremists Ripping Down Everything

No meetings, no dues. Just form a mob and loot. And you're in!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2003 15:33 Comments || Top||

#5  A distinct non-starter due to the fact they're gonna have way to many chiefs and no where near enough indians. But, and this is an awfully big if, they manage to pull their colective heads out of their camels rear ends they will have an alliance with nukes. Something that is bound to make New Dehli very nervous
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire || 04/20/2003 15:35 Comments || Top||

#6  "A-ttack of the KILLER TOMATOS..."
Posted by: mojo || 04/20/2003 18:18 Comments || Top||

#7  You say tom-a-to
I say tom-ah-to
Let's call the whole thing off





Posted by: john || 04/20/2003 19:05 Comments || Top||

#8  But, and this is an awfully big if, they manage to pull their colective heads out of their camels rear ends they will have an alliance with nukes. Something that is bound to make New Dehli very nervous

It'll make the US of A very nervous too, I might add...
Posted by: Ptah || 04/20/2003 19:32 Comments || Top||

#9  A curse on your moustache!
Posted by: Brian || 04/20/2003 20:40 Comments || Top||

#10  I think Fred's observation that it FINALLY puts all the twinks in one basket - and they get to CLEARLY and OPENLY identify themselves as enemies will mean that either we get to nail their asses in LARGE satisfying numbers - or they will not be able to garner whatever vote is req'd to commit to anything.

The Saudi's, as long as the Royals run it, will think 40 times before aligning directly against the US. The screaming hordes will run a few of the regimes - and will force their rep. to vote, but I doubt it will be any more effective or cohesive than the pathetic Arab League. Looks like the usual hot air, upon refelction.
Posted by: PD || 04/21/2003 7:32 Comments || Top||

#11  Not another rotten TOMATO!!! we'll just have to make TOMATO sauce outta them
Posted by: anon1 || 04/21/2003 8:22 Comments || Top||

#12  I nominate Hekamatyar's Party of Islam to get together with the other Islamists to form the Special Hezbi-Islami Treaty Organization!
Posted by: Tresho || 04/21/2003 11:58 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Seven dead as Palestinians, Israeli army clash
Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces left seven dead in one of the bloodiest nights in weeks. Five Palestinians were killed in Gaza during an incursion into the Rafah refugee camp. It was one of the largest operations in 30 months of conflict. Dozens of Israeli tank, armoured vehicles and helicopters took part in the incursion, which reportedly killed the head of Hamas in Rafah, Mohammed Abu Shamla. Five other Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were killed and 45 others wounded. An Israeli soldier also died in the incursion while three others injured before Israeli forces withdrew. Israel Radio has reported that two tunnels used for smuggling weapons were destroyed.
Still think they should have just rolled in and cleaned out Gaza while everybody was watching Iraq...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 12:29 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think so too. I'll give Israel credit for restraint.

"Teenage boy" in these death notices is code for "aggressive, rock-throwing, gun-toting, or bomb-wearing suicidal vandal who illogically desires to provoke his oppressor so as to promote further oppression".

Assuming he was just rock-throwing, what did he expect to accomplish?
Posted by: Tom || 04/20/2003 16:54 Comments || Top||

#2  hey yanks, we brits are only backing you guys up in iraq to force the fascist isrealis to lighten up a bit.
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/20/2003 18:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Is there some alternate universe in which the above comment (Anonymous's) makes any sense whatsoever?
Posted by: Sade || 04/20/2003 20:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Sade,
Ignore Anonymous, I'm English and IMHO, the reason we're In Iraq with you guys has nothing to do with Israel. We're there because you stand by your mates, and we're doing the right thing by getting rid of a psychopathic tyrant.
Posted by: Tony || 04/21/2003 4:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Hey Tony!
Yeah, I'm Aussie and we too, are just standing by our mates and doing the world a favour at the same tme!

I think Easter brings out the trolls... they have time on their hands all of a sudden
Posted by: anon1 || 04/21/2003 8:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Thanks guy's,nice to have true,stalwart friends.
Posted by: raptor || 04/21/2003 9:43 Comments || Top||


Korea
Koreans must unite against any US aggression: North
Koreans across the world should unite against United States moves towards a war, North Korea's official media says, warning the nation faced "national extermination".
I wasn't aware that we were even making faces at SKor...
"All the Koreans in the North, the South and overseas should firmly unite as one to resolutely smash the US moves for a war of aggression in order to protect the destiny of the nation and the future of a reunified country," a statement carried on the state-run KCNA news agency said. "The grim reality in which the nation stands at the crossroads of a war or peace and reunification or national extermination calls on all Koreans to launch a patriotic struggle for peace against the US and war."
Gotcha. All the Muslims Koreans should stand together to protect Afghanistan Iraq North Korea against the infidels imperialists.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 12:25 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Kimmie's got to be more nervous than a Syrian tank commander.
Posted by: Matt || 04/20/2003 12:57 Comments || Top||

#2  You'd have been surprised just how many people sucked that kind of propaganda up here in South Korea. Nationalist, xenophobic rhetoric goes over well on both sides of the DMZ. However, since the North screwed Seoul by sidelining them for the 3-party talks (which are still being called 2-way talks in the NK media, btw) and followed it up by demanding rice and fertilizer from SK, the South Korean public has become a lot less enthusiastic about North Korea's b*llsh*t. It's about friggin' time.
Posted by: The Marmot || 04/20/2003 14:10 Comments || Top||

#3  *holds up card* 7.4

Good beginning, but too short and lacks a suitable handle to distinguish the writer from his competetors..
Posted by: Ptah || 04/20/2003 20:02 Comments || Top||


Middle East
A look at the maneuvering going into the Paleocabinet...
Jihad Al Khazen Al-Hayat 2003/04/20
It seems that the birth of the new Palestinian Cabinet won't be established unless by a difficult cesarean operation, for President Yasser Arafat insists on complicating the mission of Mahmoud Abbas. Arafat refused the first cabinet formation proposed by Abbas. When the conciliation committee including Abu Al Alaa and Sakher Habash presented eight requests by Arafat, Abbas agreed on 18, i.e. other requests than ministers' names.

The remaining problem is the entry of Mohammad Dahlan to the cabinet. Arafat insists on putting a Veto on the former Preventive Security President in Gaza, while Abbas insists on joining him in the cabinet as a Minister of State responsible for Security, for he knows that the success, or the failure, of his cabinet relies on controlling security before anything else. He is convinced that Mohammad Dahlan is able to carry out this mission. It seems that Arafat fears his competitor, Abbas, in the short term, and Abu Fadi on the long run.

Abbas agreed on putting back Saeb Erekat, Yasser Abed Rabbo and Mrs. Intissar Al-Wazir (aka Oum Jihad) in specified ministries, as he dealt with Maher El Masri to go back to the Ministry of Economy where he was for years after he refused the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy that was decided to be given to Issam Al Shawa instead of the Ministry of Economy. This is important because the appointed PM agreed on giving up Naser Yussef as Vice-PM. He will be probably appointed as Minister of State.

Naser Yussef might be one of Abbas' "mistakes" in his first formation, for it was only made of prominent opposition personalities to the President such as Hekmat Zeid, Nabil Amro and others. At the same time, his prominent men were set aside such as Saeb Erekat, Yasser Abed Rabbo and Hani El Hosn. It is clear that Arafat was clinging to Al Hasan up to the last moment as a Minister of the Interior. However, Abbas is aware that Hani El Hosn will not be able to control security in a way that facilitates the following negotiation process. The objective of his being in the Cabinet is to undermine its mission no matter how hard other ministers will try. Abbas wonders how to appoint as a minister of interior a man who opposes the Oslo Accords, and states it always, whereas the whole authority work is linked to these agreements.
Does present a bit of a problem, doesn't it?

Arafat is still maneuvering. On Wednesday night, he agreed on the new formation proposed by Abbas. But, the next day, he again contested Mohammad Dahlan. His meeting with the designate PM, for Abbas praised a lot Arafat's leadership, who answered by kissing his head. However, Hani El Hosn, who was present, launched a long campaign on Mohammad Dahlan and said that he is not suited for a security post. It was clear he was expressing the President's opinion. Mr. Dahlan became a red line for the PM, and if the latter will listen to Arafat's suggestions, no minister in the Cabinet will be among his men and he will lose the most important card, that of security.
I doubt Dahlan could do any worse than what they've actually got: 21 separate security forces, and anarchy...

I am writing in the morning before the results of the Central Committee on Saturday. But I expect that the committee will agree on Mr. Dahlan as a Minister of state in charge of security. For without this approval, there will not be any cabinet, and Arafat knows that he can maneuver, but he cannot prevent the formation of the cabinet. In fact, there is a consensus on the presence of a PM who is negotiating and a Palestinian Cabinet because of the agreement between the U.S. and Israel on refusing to work with the Palestinian President.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 12:20 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Erekat and Rabbo are lying sacks of sh*t, so they'll obviously be in the information ministry. The Who were prescient: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2003 12:31 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon
Mullah Fudlullah warns Iraqis about new dictators
Lebanon’s top Shia cleric Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah urged Iraqis on Friday to open their eyes to the US occupation and to rebuild Iraq without Washington or London’s supervision.
Too late for that now. Two months ago, that would have been good advice...
“We call on the oppressed good people of Iraq
to prevent the birth of a new dictator from inside and abroad and to open their eyes to the methods of the occupier,” said Fadlallah in his sermon. “We trust you
to come together without American or British oversight to build a new Iraq that respects the people and gives them their rights.”
"Those rights include cutting people's heads off for severe offenses, cutting their hands off for lesser offenses, burying horny women under piles of rocks, and killing people over obscure points of religious dogma."
Fadlallah warned that Washington would use the chaos in Iraq to show that Iraqis could not govern themselves.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/20/2003 11:37 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Of course the only new rightful dictators of Iraq should be the mullahs, right?
Posted by: True German Ally || 04/20/2003 13:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Fadlallah should stick to getting Lebanon in order first. He should see if he can rebuild Lebanon without Syrian or Iranian supervision.
Posted by: Tom || 04/20/2003 16:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Iraqi national oil trust. Each Iraqi gets cold, hard dinars every year.

Makes it a bit harder to control the population and turns the Iranians and Saudis into Chicago democrats with the tag line, "Where's mine?"
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/21/2003 2:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Seems to work great for Alaska as well as Native Americans.
Posted by: raptor || 04/21/2003 9:49 Comments || Top||


Korea
Aussies capture North Korean Drug Boat
(Hat Tip to Den Beste Followup to a story from the 18th)
Special forces brave big seas to capture drug boat
HMAS Stuart is escorting a North Korean vessel at the centre of a suspected international drug running syndicate into Sydney Harbour. The trawler, the Pong Su, registered in Tuvalu and owned by a North Korean company, was seized off the New South Wales mid north coast earlier today.
No cement, no scuds this time, just heroin
It is alleged to have been involved in the importation of 50 kilograms of high grade heroin, near Lorne in Victoria last week.
(street value = $2 Million per kilo per story on 18th)
The Defence Force's Special Operations Commander, Major General Duncan Lewis, says heavily armed officers seized the Pong Su in very high seas. "Very dangerous operation obviously with large surge going up and down the side of the vessel, they quickly boarded the vessel and then sought to dominate by securing the bridge," Major General Lewis said. "The vessel was brought under our control in a matter of minutes really from the time the boarding commenced and as soon as the ship was declared secure, then very clearly, in accordance with the regulations, we handed jurisdiction back to the customs and Australian federal police officers." The Pong Su's 30 crew have been detained for questioning. In the meantime, four people have been arrested and charged over the drug seizure in Victoria last week.
More export operations from Pyongyang.
The only thing they can export anymore is illegal arms & missiles, drugs and scientists
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2003 08:27 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jesus, give Pyongyang a break. At least they've finally realized that export-led growth is the way to go. Perhaps we're finally seeing the great economic reforms that Kim Dae-jung and Noh Mu-hyeon have been telling us were happening in North Korea. And by the way, I've heard they also export prostitutes to northern China, as well.
Posted by: The Marmot || 04/20/2003 10:29 Comments || Top||

#2  NK---a living laboratory experiment in evolution mutation.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2003 11:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Now it all becomes clear. LiL' Kimmie isn't a film fanatic. He's heavily into gangsta rap! Look at the evidence:
1) he sells drugs
2) he exports hookers (or ho's)
3) he likes to go off on how BAAAAAAD he is (instead of "I'm puttin a cap in yo ass!" he gives it juche and comes up with "my army-based philosophy is going to make your country a sea of fire!")
4) the hair and funny clothes. Ok, they're not from Sean John's latest collection, but he's trippin', boo!
5) he likes high dollar booze.

Posted by: Baba Yaga || 04/20/2003 11:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Baba - Oh great! Now I've got this visual of ol' Lil Kimmie doing army-based rap videos on MTV - Spanking New! with some bling-bling Harry-Karay- style glasses
crap
oh well, happy easter
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2003 12:21 Comments || Top||

#5  "...The trawler, the Pong Su, registered in Tuvalu and owned by a North Korean company..."

Hey, sounds legit to me! Er, doesn't "Pong Su" mean something like "Huge Drug Runner"?

Well maybe not, then...
Posted by: mojo || 04/20/2003 18:28 Comments || Top||


International
United Nations a potential casualty
This is the clearest indication yet, I have seen, that the USA is determined to relegate the UN to its proper and natural function in world affairs, namely as an impotent talking shop. A few highlights!
The United Nations, created ''to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,'' is a potential casualty of the latest war.

It will continue to run its humanitarian programs and ruminate on the great issues. But the Bush administration and its supporters, still smarting over the U.N. refusal to officially bless the war in Iraq, have essentially declared that in a new world policed by American power, the United Nations won't be a player and should be consigned to the ash heap of history.
In the words of ex-Republican Party official Clifford May, now president of a Washington think tank, there are ``five things grown-ups should no longer believe in: Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Tinker Bell, the United Nations and the `international community.'''

The U.N. bashers aren't disturbed in the least by President Bush's declaration the other day that the United Nations should play a ''vital'' role in postwar Iraq because they know that Bush's definition of ''vital'' (humanitarian aid) is far narrower than the internationalist definition (the United Nations as chief administrator). And because they agree with Bush that the victor in war should write the rules.

'Maybe we've leveraged down the United Nations' image so badly in this country that we can't ever bring it back up,'' he said. 'But without the U.N., America cuts itself off from the rest of the world. Sure, the `international community' is something of a myth, but some myths are necessary. It's a way to aspire to something. If we didn't have the myth of the United Nations, we'd probably have to create it.''
OTOH most myths are immature fantasies!

May said that Bush ``isn't going to go back to the United Nations for anything, except maybe to ask them to get him sandwiches from the corner deli. The United Nations can't be a managing partner in Iraq. It can come and hand out cookies and bandages.
I liked this! More on the 'bunch of kids' trying to play in the adult world meme.
BTW, if you are interested I have a satirical piece on the UN over at Samizdata titled United Nation legitimacy and credibility.
Posted by: Phil B || 04/20/2003 03:37 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Welcome home,Bro.
Did'nt know you were a serving member of the Armed forces.
Did you run across Murat,I miss our little troll.
Posted by: raptor || 04/20/2003 6:13 Comments || Top||

#2  UN = DEAD.

Perfect. Apply the money and effort wasted there to getting shit done. Their talent, talking things to death and designing incredibly inefficient programs and dreaming up titled positions as an employment scheme for the utterly useless and terminally cultured, has always failed any rationality / ROI test we could care to apply.

And welcome home!
Posted by: PD || 04/20/2003 10:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Welcome home, Phil!

As for the United Nations, I don't think anyone's confused about my take. However, I have to agree - the United Nations is good for something. We have all these delegates meeting together, all whining about how terrible the United States is. What better place to keep track of who our friends are, and who our enemies are. We just need to stop paying so da$#$%$^#% much for the information. Cut our dues back to the same as other nations, including France, Germany, Russia, China, and Japan. Then cut that in half.

Old medical motto: feed a cold, starve a fever. With all that hot air being generated, the UN HAS to have a fever.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2003 14:16 Comments || Top||

#4  "...consigned to the ash heap of history."


OOOH! Dead giveaway! I'd guess...ANSWER!
Posted by: mojo || 04/20/2003 18:20 Comments || Top||



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Sun 2003-04-20
  US arrests sixth Saddam aide
Sat 2003-04-19
  Iraqi cash find valued at $650 Million
Fri 2003-04-18
  Another Baath Big nabbed
Thu 2003-04-17
  Ceasefire With MKO
Wed 2003-04-16
  Lebanese government resigns
Tue 2003-04-15
  Abu Abbas nabbed
Mon 2003-04-14
  US starts buildup along border with Syria
Sun 2003-04-13
  N.Korea Makes Shift in Nuclear Talks Demand
Sat 2003-04-12
  Rafsanjani proposes referendum for resumption of ties
Fri 2003-04-11
  Mosul falls to Kurds
Thu 2003-04-10
  Kirkuk falls
Wed 2003-04-09
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Mon 2003-04-07
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