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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Shriners' hospital faces dilemma
None of the 22 Shriners children's hospitals has a billing department. Every child is treated for free. But a money crunch is forcing Shriners to reconsider its 81-year tradition of free care. Low interest rates and a three-year stock market slump have eroded the fraternity's endowment, which provides 90 percent of the hospitals' funding. Since December 1999, the endowment has decreased by $2billion, to $6.2 billion. Meanwhile, operating costs have soared. Administrators proposed closing as many as eight Shriners hospitals, beginning with the little-used Minneapolis hospital. But last week, delegates at the national Shriners convention nixed that idea and told administrators instead to study other solutions. One possibility is boosting the endowment's investment returns. If the stock market returns to 1999 levels, the budget problems would be solved. The Shriners also hope to boost fund-raising and cut costs.

Perhaps the most difficult option under consideration is to begin billing patients' insurance companies. The hospitals would not turn away uninsured patients or charge insured patients for expenses such as co-pays that aren't covered. But Shriners hospitals say they will be cautious about pursuing the insurance-payment option. They worry that doctors, who have the rare privilege of practicing medicine as they see fit, would have to justify their treatments to insurers. Doctors worry, for example, that HMOs wouldn't cover surgeries deemed experimental or would limit the length of hospital stays or number of therapy sessions. "We're not going to decrease the quality of care, and we're not going to turn away any patients that can be helped," said Lewis Molnar, chief operating officer of Shriners Hospital Corp.

In addition to its hospitals, the 500,000-member Shrine of North America is known for its colorful parades, distinctive red fezzes and playful Middle Eastern rituals. The Shrine opened its first hospital in Shreveport, La., in 1922. Chicago's hospital opened four years later. In the early years, the Chicago hospital mostly treated kids with polio. After polio cases dropped with the introduction of vaccines in the 1950s, the mission was broadened to include several specialties. Today, two-thirds of the hospital's patients have cerebral palsy, a condition that occurs during infancy and causes abnormal motor control. The 60-bed hospital also treats spinal cord injuries, cleft lip and palate deformities, clubfoot, curvature of the spine and spina bifida. It is perhaps the world's leading hospital in treating rare brittle bone disease. There are 500 kids on the waiting list.

The Shriners, if you're not familiar with them, are the guys with the funny hats you see at small town parades. Occasionally you'll find them at conventions, drinking beer, cracking jokes, and sometimes pinching cocktail waitresses. I've never read about a Shriner being arrested for dipping into the till. Sanctimony, Incorporated, tends to ignore them, belittle them, or make fun of them, because they do things for untrademarked Children and most of them are businessmen or retired folks. When they come by shaking the cup, kick in generously. And if you have the time and you're an extrovert, join them.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/14/2003 14:50 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Knights of the Mystic Shrine", IIRC. You have to be a 32nd-degree Mason just for starters.

And no, you don't get a fez for donating...
Posted by: mojo || 07/14/2003 14:54 Comments || Top||

#2 
Shriners Hospitals depend on the generosity of many individuals, Shriners and non-Shriners alike, for the funding needed to continue operating this extraordinary philanthropy.

Shriners Hospitals for Children is a fully qualified 501(C)3 charitable organization under IRS regulations. Donations are tax-deductible. Charitable contributions work hard at Shriners Hospitals. Less than 5 percent of Shriners Hospitals' annual operating budget is used for administrative and fund-raising costs, and Shriners Hospitals are ranked at the very top among "charities that watch their pennies best."

To make a donation to Shriners Hospitals for Children, you can send a check, made payable to "Shriners Hospitals for Children," to any of the 22 Shriners Hospitals (see addresses of individual hospitals) or to the Office of Development, International Shrine Headquarters, 2900 Rocky Point Dr., Tampa, FL 33607-1460.
Posted by: Chuck || 07/14/2003 15:39 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghan Forces Seize Big Taliban Weapons Cache
SPIN BOLDAK - Afghan forces seized 300 rocket-propelled grenades and dozens of anti-tank mines Sunday in a raid on a Taliban hideout near the Pakistan border. The weapons had been brought to the suspected rebel training camp, six miles from the southern border town of Spin Boldak, for attacks on government and U.S.-led forces. Taliban fighters guarding the camp escaped the government swoop. The haul included 300 rocket-propelled grenades, dozens of anti-tank mines, 20 AK-47 rifles and various types of ammunition and explosives. It was seized from a Taliban group led by a commander called Hafiz Abdul Rahim, a local commander said.
Where do you pick up 300 rpg’s ?
Are they Chinese, Russian, Chilean made ? What kind a arms manufactoring capability exists in the ME ?
Posted by: Domingo || 07/14/2003 10:50:24 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Where do you pick up 300 rpg’s?
At any local Wal*Mosque, Where the slogan is "Always low prices, Allah willing"
Posted by: Anonymous || 07/14/2003 11:08 Comments || Top||

#2  You get them from religious charities!
Posted by: Lucky || 07/14/2003 12:28 Comments || Top||

#3  go, afghan forces!
Posted by: liberalhawk || 07/14/2003 17:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Them Afgans have sure come a long way.
Posted by: raptor || 07/14/2003 18:32 Comments || Top||

#5  WalMosque!

Now that's just plain funny. I am having visions of the WalMosque "Greeter".
Posted by: Shipman || 07/14/2003 19:52 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Lethal Force in Solomon Islands Authorized
Police and troops serving in the regional intervention force in the Solomon Islands will be empowered to use lethal force if necessary, backed by helicopter, patrol boats and armoured vehicles. Details of the far-reaching intervention plan are contained in confidential briefing papers obtained by the Herald.
Ooh, secret plans!
Prepared for the Solomon Islands cabinet by Australia and New Zealand officials, they set out ambitious plans for the deployment of more than 2000 defence personnel, 400 police and the insertion of at least 100 foreign civilians into all key areas of the Solomons Administration in the next 12 months. Entitled COMPSASI (Comprehensive Package of Strengthened Assistance to Solomon Islands), the proposal sets out three main areas for the intervention: police, military and economic development. The comprehensive package of strengthened assistance is intended to help the Solomon Islands break the cycle of lawlessness and economic decline, it says. The provision of armed peacekeepers is an integral part of the intervention and designed to protect all those participating in it from intimidation and threats. These peacekeepers will be mostly tasked with supporting the work of 400 police officers drawn from round the region who will be at the cutting edge of the early days of the intervention, which is expected to focus on disarming hundreds of ex-combatants still in possession of stolen weapons. The rule of law has never been re-established in the nation of 500,000, which has been suffering a prolonged form of Melanesian mutiny since a coup ousted the democratically elected Government three years ago. A Solomon Islands proposal that there be a short amnesty to encourage the voluntary return of firearms has been agreed to by the Australian and New Zealand Governments. The combat element will be deployed in the Solomon Islands for as long as it is needed, the papers say. The package will be civilian and police-led assistance backed up by a military component (armed peacekeepers) that will be deployed to protect the operation from intimidation and threats. However, no definitive plan has been made for dealing with the rebel leader Harold Keke, accused of scores of deaths on Guadalcanals Weathercoast.
This should be job #1. Make an example of him and the rest will fall in line.
Displaced people from the Weathercoast have in recent weeks urged the rapid deployment of the intervention force to the remote southern coastline of Guadalcanal, where there have been a series of attacks on villages in recent months.
It would not suprise me if the SAS was already there.
Australia will also build the Solomon Islands a temporary remand facility and a new prison, and provide up to 50 personnel to run them as well as providing a senior magistrate to deal with high-profile cases that remain unresolved.
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 1:59:50 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lethal Force Authorized in the Solomon Islands?

This is a job for Lou Diamond!
Posted by: Shipman || 07/14/2003 20:01 Comments || Top||


Darwin Stories: Porn and prawn are off the menu
Given recent talk about Navy basing rights in Darwin, I thought this would be on-topic. EFL.
Sunday mornings in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, used to mean one thing: the celebrated "strip and prawn" sessions laid on by the city’s clubs. A few dollars bought a plate of barbecued prawns and a cold beer in front of a stage on which a succession of ladies removed their clothing. Those were the bad old days - or the good old days, depending on your point of view. Over the years many strip joints have closed as clubs sought to appeal to a more discerning clientele. Darwin was keen to shake off its redneck image and recast itself as a sophisticated, cosmopolitan city. To the chagrin of the Territory’s red-blooded males, wine bars and quality restaurants replaced the drinking barns.
Don’t want to be a Navy town, eh?
But the city still has rough edges, and the men in question were heartened by plans for a new X-rated club at Stokes Hill Wharf, a redeveloped port district. The Pumphouse Gallery’s owners had already opened a fish restaurant on the site. Now they were promising "upmarket adult entertainment" upstairs, with male and female "exotic dancers" from across Australia and overseas.

They had reckoned without the wrath of Darwin’s feisty female residents, who were horrified by the prospect of a return to porn and prawn. The women, including a female alderman, Carole Miller, organised a petition and lobbied the Licensing Commission without mercy. The wharf was a place where families came to eat fish and chips overlooking the water, they complained. Surely the authorities would not countenance children having to pass this den of iniquity?

The owners of the Pumphouse, who had spent £1m redeveloping the building, gritted their teeth and proceeded as if nothing was amiss. Just a few weeks ago, they advertised in a national men’s magazine that they would be staging the Miss Exotic Angel Australia competition at the club. But the date of the competition passed and they had still not received a licence.

They finally gave in last week, announcing that they had withdrawn their application. They now plan to use the upstairs space for more restaurant seating. No exotic dancers. No angels. One of the owners, Bob Kendray, said they had been taken aback by the ferocity of local opposition. "Obviously, Darwin is changing," he said.
Obviously Conard won’t be coming to this place any time soon.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/14/2003 3:00:19 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  mo no nonNOOOO
bring the marines

there will be prawn and porn aplenty if you just bring us the MARINES
Posted by: Anon1 || 07/14/2003 5:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Sakes, it's all about the children again.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 07/14/2003 10:02 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm indifferent on the issue of strippers (mainly because most aren't all that attractive) but don't take away my barbecued shrimp!
Posted by: Mike || 07/14/2003 12:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Titties and beer! Titties and beer!

And speaking of shrimps...
(rim shot)
Posted by: mojo || 07/14/2003 12:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Stupid, why mix prawn and shrimp. The expensive sea-side location should be a restaurant. The stripclub should be in the industrial part of town where kids don't walk by and where those that want to find it can find it.

The feisty female residents will complain but at least its not an insult right in their face so they might not have the staying power they otherwise would have.
Posted by: Yank || 07/14/2003 16:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Hey, it all smells like fish, right?

Ouch, sorry, wrong thread.
Posted by: therien || 07/14/2003 17:13 Comments || Top||

#7  Ahhh,tuna tacos.
Posted by: raptor || 07/14/2003 18:39 Comments || Top||


Europe
VDH on Greece
Indeed, this summer I suddenly sensed something I had not noticed in my prior annual visits: There seems to be few Americans anywhere. Germans? French? Dutch? They are ubiquitous. But there is hardly an American to be seen. America-Stop signs, reruns of "Married with Children," and MTV schlock-is everywhere; but Americans themselves are almost nowhere.

Maybe we are staying home because of the general fear of terrorism in the post 9-11 climate. Maybe it is our recession-or the steep price hikes brought on by the strong Euro. Yet I think there is also something else special to Greece going on that might explain why Americans would forgo such a safe and beautiful country, replete with a history unrivaled elsewhere. My gut feeling is that after years of splashy anti-Americanism, most Americans-quite wrongly I think-finally concluded it was a hostile place better left alone.

A nice little piece by Victor Davis Hanson. Nuff said. Go thou and read it all.
Posted by: Ptah || 07/14/2003 8:36:29 PM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's indeed a nice piece, until near the end when it suddenly pretty much goes ethnoracist and xenophobic about the evil German people conspiring to take control of Greece and the rest of Europe from Berlin. *rolls eyes*

That one paragraph would work better as a bit of self-satire when he had previously (and correctly) mocked some of the conspiracy theories about America. Conspiracy theories about the EU (and the eeeevil Germans) are okay though, right?
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 07/14/2003 21:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Turnabout is fair play I think.
The US is entitled to some paranoia after 40 years of the same from pretty much the entire European intelligentsia. Perhaps some Greek could do something about Greek idiocy before he starts beating on the Americans ? We may get the impression that you really don't like us after all -
Posted by: Anonymous || 07/14/2003 23:02 Comments || Top||

#3  "Perhaps some Greek could do something about Greek idiocy before he starts beating on the Americans ? "

And what makes you think that I haven't done something about Greek idiocy before I started beating on the Americans? What makes you think that I haven't spent years doing a lot of somethings about Greek idiocy before I started "beating on the Americans"?

Anonymous idiot.

And the US isn't "entitled to some paranoia" when by "paranoia" you mean "xenophobic racism". Nobody is.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 07/15/2003 5:32 Comments || Top||


Jakarta sends terror suspect to Germany
HAMBURG - Authorities in Indonesia plan to extradite an Islamic terrorism suspect to Germany this coming week to face prosecution, according to a German news magazine.
The report in Der Spiegel, published Monday, says the Egyptian-born German national has been linked to the al Qaeda terrorist network.
The suspect, identified by the magazine only as Reda S., is said to have close ties to high-ranking members of Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist organisation.
Indonesian authorities detained him shortly before the Bali bombings last October which claimed 202 dead. Lacking evidence linking him to the blasts, however, an Indonesian court convicted him of immigration violations.
That conviction came after the German embassy in Jakarta revoked his German passport, making him an illegal alien in Indonesia and forcing authorities there to move against him.
Posted by: seafarious || 07/14/2003 6:48:30 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


’Torturer’ safe in UN Kosovo role
The UN has refused to arrest a Zimbabwean police officer accused of torture who is currently working for it in Kosovo as a member of an international training team.
Just what is he training anyway?
The UN was informed in early June that the alleged torturer, Detective Inspector Henry Dowa, was working for it in Prizren, Kosovo, but it declined to take any action, according to documents obtained by the Guardian. Zimbabwean police thought to have done a good job by the country’s government are often seconded to UN peacekeeping missions, where conditions are comparatively good and they are paid in dollars.
How nice, do a good job torturing Bob’s foes and you get an all-expense paid trip to Europe working for the UN. They got food and everything!
Mr Dowa has been named by several Zimbabwean torture victims as having directed and carried out beatings with fists, boots and pickaxe handles, and as having administered electric shocks to the point of convulsions, at Harare central police station throughout 2002 and in early 2003. The charges have been backed up by medical examinations which confirm injuries consistent with torture. Redress, an organisation that seeks reparation for torture survivors, had urged the UN to detain Mr Dowa until he could stand trial under international law. But the top UN official in Kosovo refused. "We acknowledge the gravity of the allegations made about the officer," wrote Michael Steiner, the UN’s special representative in Kosovo, to Redress. "We have with regret concluded that the United Nations interim mission in Kosovo cannot pursue criminal prosecution of the officer in Kosovo on the allegations you properly brought to our attention. We have to dedicate our scarce resources to pressing and serious cases in Kosovo."
Translation: It’s not my job.
Calling the UN decision "unacceptable", the executive director of Redress, Frances D’Souza, has appealed to the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, to have the accused officer arrested and tried. The controversy highlights the concern of human rights groups that the UN is not properly vetting police and troops seconded to it. "We question why the UN is accepting secondments from Zimbabwe, where it is well documented that torture is endemic," Dr D’Souza said.
If they turned him down, how would they meet their diversity quota?
Mr Dowa is a well-known figure in Harare where, wearing a traditional fringed hat made of tree bark, he has been seen commanding police when they inflicted inappropriate force on peaceful Zimbabweans. Lawyers working for Redress said the UN had a legal obligation to arrest Mr Dowa, as it was extremely unlikely that he would face charges laid by the Mugabe government when he returned to Zimbabwe.
No shit!
According to sworn testimony from victims, the torturers said they had been granted special powers by President Mugabe, and they would never be charged.
Don’t be your life on it.
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 2:22:39 PM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ah, yes, that wonderful peace- and law-loving UN, yet again showing their concern for the well-being of (wait for it)..... THE BAD GUYS!

Tell me again why we should give a shit what they think, or even why we allow them in our country?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 07/14/2003 22:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Ah, yes, that wonderful peace- and law-loving UN, yet again showing their concern for the well-being of (wait for it)..... THE BAD GUYS!

Tell me again why we should give a shit what they think, or even why we allow them in our country?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 07/14/2003 22:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Fred - sorry for the double comment. Don't know what I did wrong. Can you delete one of them?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 07/14/2003 22:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Anybody else asking the question "Why does the UN need a torturer in Kosovo?"
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/14/2003 23:01 Comments || Top||


French Exceptionalism Again in the EU-(via Merde in France)
For you Francophones out there, the French are up to their old tricks again, getting French "cultural exceptionalism" enshrined in the basic law of the EU. Once again we see the hatred of classical liberalism and its consequence, limited government, by the so-called leaders of "Unified Europe." This is why such exception is taken to comparing "United Europe" to the United States. The two are founded on radically different attitudes towards freedom. In the former, "freedom" is the gift of the government to be revoked at will, while, in the latter, freedom is the natural right of humans and not the provenance of the government.
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 07/14/2003 12:33:02 PM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I was going to deliver a really scathing anti-french diatribe, but what's the point. Those of you whose opinions I value already agree or think worse of them than I do. The EUrons will respond with blah-blah-blither-blah-blah. I'm moving this week, and I don't have time for their shit. Later.
Posted by: Hodadenon || 07/14/2003 13:02 Comments || Top||

#2  "The two are founded on radically different attitudes towards freedom. In the former, "freedom" is the gift of the government to be revoked at will, "

And I say that you have absolutely no clue what you are talking about.

And btw, I thought that personal opinion pieces weren't allowed here, only commentary to articles? Or may I also just post a link to an article, and then pretend it's connected to whatever irrelevant rant I want to follow it with?

For the non-Francophones among us, can you explain what "cultural exceptionalism" means?

Hodadenon> Is there anyone whose opinion you value and yet disagrees with you in anything whatsoever?
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 07/14/2003 13:38 Comments || Top||

#3  In a nutshell, monarchy, except ruled by the many who think they should be or are king/queen.

Polyarchy? Elitistarchy? Cluelessarchy? Anything but the USA-archy? I'm sure the blogosphere can come up with a better term.
Posted by: Anonymous || 07/14/2003 13:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Happy Bastille Day!

Here's an impressive picture of French military hardware on parade in Paris today. As you can tell from the facing, these French tanks are at the rear of the parade.
Posted by: Dar || 07/14/2003 13:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Good catch, Dar. And I don't see any battle damage on these tanks, either. Do they stay in port like the DeGaulle?
Posted by: Matt || 07/14/2003 14:27 Comments || Top||

#6  Aris,

"Is there anyone whose opinion you value and yet disagrees with you in anything whatsoever?"

Certainly there are. Believe it or not, most of my friends are fairly left-wing, as they all went to the indoctrination mills...er...college while I enlisted during the Vietnam war. I value their opinions on the arts, in some fields of science (where they actually studied)and in what we call "Grand Philosophy"...night-long discussions on the whichness of why, angels on the head of a pin, etc.
But on politics and national security, they go their way and I'm correct ; )
Posted by: Hodadenon || 07/14/2003 14:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Dar > Thanks for the pic post. I knew the French had something like a Swiss Army knife....

Weapons that have never been used.

Actually, they were headed the other way, but the lead tank saw a couple elderly German tourists. It was just a natural reaction.
Posted by: Paul || 07/14/2003 16:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Must be pretty novel for the French to see French armor rolling through Paris. I wonder how many spectators surrendered?
Posted by: BJD (The Dignified Rant) || 07/14/2003 16:04 Comments || Top||

#9  Correct me if I'm wrong on this but don't those tankers appear to be wearing the white kepis of the Foreign Legion and not the usual tanker helmet?
Posted by: Don || 07/14/2003 16:34 Comments || Top||

#10  Aris,

My French translation skills are too limited to do justice to the article, so I linked to it in order that everyone here could go to it and see it for themselves.

"And I say that you have absolutely no clue what you are talking about."


Fine, where are the classical liberals at work on the EU Constitution? They are non-existentent, as far as I know. d'Estaing and company positively -love- the concentration of government power that our Constitutional authors correctly distrusted.

The architects of the EU despise the classical liberal notion of rights as natural to humans and as ultimate restrictions on the state in practice. As for "cultural exceptionalism," are you unaware of the French "language police" and Internet filtering? You keep promoting the EU as some "superstate" where everyone will be a good multicultural Euro-citizen, but the evidence is otherwise. I would like to see a GENUINE union of the PEOPLE of Europe on classically humanistic and liberal grounds of tolerance and acceptance of common humanity, with a consequent denunciation of resentment and regional chauvinism as being poisonous to such a union. European chauvinism, anti-semitism and anti-Americanism argue otherwise. The EU is not based on such concepts and is not designed for either -real- union of the European peoples or -genuine- respect for human rights.

Posted by: Ernest Brown || 07/14/2003 16:45 Comments || Top||

#11  "Fine, where are the classical liberals at work on the EU Constitution?"

No, dude, *you* made the claim that inside the European Union rights are granted as a gift and "can be revoked at will", and therefore it's on *you* that the burden to prove such an outrageous claim is laid.

On the meantime, go pretty please to Freedomhouse's most recent yearly essay and count the number of times that a Eastern European country is said to have improved its civil and human rights because of the need to raise their standards to EU level. Dozens of years of American influence didn't manage to raise Turkey's civil rights one iota. Compare it with the effect EU is having.

The rest of what you say is just babble, and does nothing to respond to the fact that what the article was about had little to nothing to do with what your biased anti-EU rant was about, making that posting of yours nothing but an opinion piece, thinly disguised as commentary on an article.

As for the offensive insinuation about "European chauvinism, anti-semetism and anti-Americanism" as being integral to the EU as currently being built, then why don't you look at how much the communists hate the EU? Why don't you look how much the neo-Nazis hate the EU? Why don't you look at how much the fascists of every stripe hate the EU?

If it was all about anti-semetism and anti-Americanism shouldn't communists and Nazis be the first in line to support such a union?

But since you probably name anti-Americanism anything that seeks to stand outside American domination, I am not surprised to hear you call the EU that also. How cute that about 90% of Eastern Europe are at the same time "Anti-Americans" by voting to join the EU, and yet their countries supported you in the war on Iraq.

Whatever.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 07/14/2003 18:02 Comments || Top||

#12  "But since you probably name anti-Americanism anything that seeks to stand outside American domination"

Bingo-there's my point. Most Americans would rejoice if EUnicks such as yourself would get on your own two legs and solve Europe's problems -without- American intervention. I seem to recall that we were dragged into Bosnia/Kosovo "unilaterally."

Regarding Eastern Europe, I'm glad to see you admitting that you're holding yourself to such a low standard of comparison as to view coming up from Marxist dictatorship to European nanny-state statist bureaucratic hell to be the ultimate triumph of human political aspiration, compared to which the political philosophy responsible for the longest running constitutional republic in existence is a mere hiccup. BTW, nice ethnocentric swipe at the Turks, Aris, you might work on your own residual Greek nationalism before pointing fingers at others.


As for the Eastern Europeans and "anti-Americanism," I was clearly speaking of the self-confessed anti-Americanism of the European elites who are behind the creation of the EU, not the propaganda about the EU being "needed" for "economic prosperity" that is being used to sell it in the East. The Eastern Europeans are going to learn, to their regret, that Chirac's attitude is that of the EU bureaucratic oligarchs as well. The Communists are against the EU because it competes with their own pan-European ideals at the level of bourgeois social democracy, not because they hate the idea of a socialist anti-American Eurostate! The European right hates the EU either because of the (false) claims of liberalism that the Union's backers are
shoveling out (Since they are revanchist nationalistic chauvinists, fascists would hate the genuine union of European peoples that I champion above. It is possible to be against a bad thing for a bad reason, Aris.) or because the EU is aimed at destroying unique national institutions that have historically done a better job of protecting liberty than d'Estaing's dubious "constitutional innovations." (cf. anti-EU Tories on the destruction of the British Constitution)

Finally, I cannot believe that you expect me to accept that the masters of the EU -do not- believe that basic human rights are not subject to bureaucratic re-definition in the name of "public safety." Cf this entry, with particular reference to the last paragraph
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 07/14/2003 20:13 Comments || Top||

#13  R. McLeod> Since Ernest seemed to imply that EU was being based on Anti-Americanism, when the most one can say is that EU strives to be not an enemy, but a *rival* of the US...

And when I talk about "domination", I mean it in the way we speak of the US as being a dominant power in world affairs. By setting up the Euro, the Europe may strive to escape the dollar's domination of the economic scene. By setting up a Euroarmy, we may have military capabilities that won't require any American support anymore. There's a de facto domination of any superpower in world affairs, benevolent or not. Trying to escape that, trying to set up a rival superpower is not anti-Americanism, no matter how much some people may want to present it as such.

American influence? Certain sparse attitudes asides, few people care to avoid American influence, meaning American movies/American music/culture/etc. Only the Islamists do that. Not the EU.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 07/14/2003 20:25 Comments || Top||

#14  R. McLeod,

Thanks, I already pointed out to Aris that the Communists simply wanted a "Comintern" rather than the EU, while the nationalistic Fascists oppose it because of their moronic "our country, right or wrong" mentality.

I'd be as happy as the cliched clam if Europeans beat us at our own game. However, they are not going to do so by whining, resentment and chauvinism. It appears that "nationalistic" exceptions are being made in order for France to perpetuate its pathetic attempts at cultural exclusivity.
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 07/14/2003 20:30 Comments || Top||

#15  Ernest> "glad to see you admitting that you're holding yourself to such a low standard of comparison as to view coming up from Marxist dictatorship to European nanny-state statist bureaucratic hell to be the ultimate triumph of human political aspiration"

And Americans rejoiced Iraq's and Afghanistan "liberation" when they merely replaced two tyrannical regimes with ones currently prone to civil war and anarchy. I'd say that compared to that, the establishment of stronger democracies in the Eastern Europe is something worth mentioning.

But hey you can also compare the Eastern democracies that *aren't* close to joining up the EU. Like Belarus or Ukraine or Moldova. Check the civil rights there.

"BTW, nice ethnocentric swipe at the Turks, Aris,"

You know, I ethnocentrically get annoyed when people use the greek word "ethnocentric" without seeming to know what it means. It's not "ethnocentric" to indicate the one sucky nation under American influence, instead of Soviet one, which is currently improving because of *EU* (not American) influence.

"I was clearly speaking of the self-confessed anti-Americanism of the European elites who are behind the creation of the EU"

Oh, yes, and what self-confessed anti-Americanism is that? The one that "self-confesses" we want to be a rival power? That's not anti-Americanism, you bozo. Look at Al-Qaeda rhetoric, *that's* anti-Americanism.

The communists are against the EU, because the EU is a place of liberal democracy. Same reason all fascists hate the EU. Same reason Heider hated the EU.

And as for national institutions having "historically" done a better job of protecting liberty than the dubious "constitutional innovations", please, "historically" give me an example of the EU doing anything that went against the personal liberty of an individual. Give me a single example of the EU depriving a right from a citizen that the member state in question provided.

And I note that the article you linked talks about "Constitutional rights" and talks about the Second Amendment, as if the Constitution and the Second Amendment *provided* the right to have guns, instead of simply recognizing a god-given pan-human right.

Funny that, and hypocritical. In other forums I've heard Americans speak about how there's no such thing as "right to privacy" because it's nowhere mentioned in the constitution. Another cute thing, which I'd never expect a European to utter.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 07/14/2003 20:47 Comments || Top||

#16  Aris,

"Since Ernest seemed to imply that EU was being based on Anti-Americanism..."


No, but it is one of the chief -actual- motivations for the EU's existence, aside from a -genuine- necessity for Europeans (and not -just- Europeans) to rid themselves of bigoted nationalism. Look, Aris, we "cowboy Americans (or Europeans)" here at Rantburg who distrust the EU's creators are not anxious for there to be more ethnic violence and potential world war triggers happening on the European continent. (If there is anyone here who -does- want this please speak up for yourself) The EU is shaping up as a top-down inflexible bureaucratic model that just seems to be a re-statement of the mistakes of Europe's past history written on a continent-wide scale. Much of the political success the U.S. has had in preserving freedom has come from the -profound distrust- of concentrated political power that was the best legacy of our Founding Fathers. This isn't a case of "America good, Europe bad." I'm the first to admit that the United States needs a revival of good Enlightenment values and classical liberty.

The second point is that Europe shouldn't even -worry- about the U.S. before it fixes its own house. If you transfer the international resentments between European countries (justified or not) to America (ditto) as an -excuse- for unity, then you have just transferred a chief "sin" of nationalism to the EU.
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 07/14/2003 21:05 Comments || Top||

#17  "Much of the political success the U.S. has had in preserving freedom has come from the -profound distrust- of concentrated political power that was the best legacy of our Founding Fathers."

Actually the best success in preserving freedom came only after the abolition of slavery, and that was a case of federal concentrated power stepping in to ensure the human rights that the separate states were *not* ensuring.

And you have no clue what you are talking about when you compare some of the current rivalry and occasional resentment towards the US in Europe with the traditional old hostilities between Europea nations, carved in dozens of massacres and tons of blood.

It's a whole different league, and *that's* why I get annoyed when you talk about EU anti-Americanism, as if it's anywhere near the way the Serbs and Croats started massacring each other, or the way Greek chauvinists would still feel towards Turkey and vice-versa.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 07/14/2003 21:17 Comments || Top||

#18  Aris,


"And I note that the article you linked talks about "Constitutional rights" and talks about the Second Amendment, as if the Constitution and the Second Amendment *provided* the right to have guns, instead of simply recognizing a god-given pan-human right. Funny that, and hypocritical."

*Sigh,* not at all. I suppose that I should have pointed out that I disagreed with Den Beste's use of "preserved." It indicates an philosophical confusion in his entry, which actually points out that it is the people who have internalized the defense of those rights which guarantee the same rights and not a "scrap of paper" which is obviously not self-enforcing and which was not regarded as being self-enforcing by the people who wrote it, hence the 2nd Amendment!

Also, Aris, keep in mind when speaking of things like "the right to privacy" that not all Americans are (or were) classical liberals.
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 07/14/2003 21:29 Comments || Top||

#19  "carved in dozens of massacres and tons of blood"

Tons of blood???...is that one of those EU things? Some new form of liquid measure meant to confound simplistic Americans?
Posted by: Hodadenon || 07/14/2003 21:34 Comments || Top||

#20 
"Much of the political success the U.S. has had in preserving freedom has come from the -profound distrust- of concentrated political power that was the best legacy of our Founding Fathers." Actually the best success in preserving freedom came only after the abolition of slavery, and that was a case of federal concentrated power stepping in to ensure the human rights that the separate states were *not* ensuring."

You failed to pay attention to my "best" in "best legacy," Aris. The -worst- legacy of the Founding Fathers was the Constitutional compromise that -mandated- the protection of slavery at the Federal level in the first place. (which, ironically, rather disproves your point) Even the most racist of them (Jefferson) recognized that it was a fatal contradiction, and as it happened it caused the United States to be the only country in the world to -not- end slavery by the stroke of a pen.


As for current European criticisms of American domestic and terror policy, the camps at Gitmo are a direct legacy of the seizure of power that Lincoln took upon himself in the Civil War. (Lincoln established such military tribunals -within- the borders of the United States for "unlawful combatants") It is not the first time that a desirable end (eliminating slavery) has had undesirable side effects.
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 07/14/2003 21:49 Comments || Top||

#21  As a European (capitalist but born on the wrong continent) having lived in Sweden, Switzerland, France, the UK, and the US, I can confirm that European culture is overwhelmingly as follows: individual "freedom" is a mere privilege granted and limited by the State (not to say The Collective). There is NO understanding of the American concept of individual freedom that defines and limits the scope of government.

And Aris is either in need of education or dishonest. He would profit from reading Aristotle, for starters.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 07/14/2003 21:53 Comments || Top||

#22  Kalle,

Indeed! The sad thing is that I'm not even saying "America good, Europe bad, ook ook" as Aris implies.

As Americans, we know from experience what happens when you put just -one- bad thing in an otherwise pretty exemplary (but not "holy writ")document. The EU Constitution isn't nearly that good!
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 07/14/2003 22:04 Comments || Top||

#23  I forgot to mention that, in the 8+ months I've been reading Rantburg regularly, I cannot recall a SINGLE instance when Aris ever conceded a point. Not one.

All those posts, all those people, all those thoughts from brighter-than-average minds with wildly varying experiences and knowledge were all either stupid and wrong - or they had stupidly misunderstood him - and were wrong.

We are all boneheads and need to yield the thread, immediately without question, should Aris decide to grace us with his undeniable wisdom.

We are not worthy.
Posted by: PD || 07/14/2003 23:16 Comments || Top||

#24  Mr. Kettle, Mr. Pot is on line one,
Mr. Pot call from Mr. Kettle on line two
Posted by: Anonymous || 07/15/2003 15:34 Comments || Top||


Pussy Gets Whacked
Russia’s first and only "sniffer cat" has been run over in what police are calling a contract killing. The cat was killed just days after starting work with police battling the illegal, and often bloody, caviar trade. Rusik was adopted as a stray kitten by police in the southern Russian town of Stavropol after wandering through a checkpoint a year ago. The officers, battling the illegal trade in caviar poached from the nearby Caspian sea, raised the young male, feeding him scraps of fish and fish eggs confiscated from the smugglers. After considerable training, the cat went on duty with officers for the first time last Tuesday. He performed spot checks on vehicles and travellers, sniffing out the tell-tale stench of fish eggs. With the cat’s detective powers fuelled by a more basic instinct than a desire to uphold the law, its first few days met with some remarkable successes. "The cat finds the caviar in any hiding place," a Stavropol police spokesman said. Investigators said the car which ran Rusik over had been stopped by the feline sleuth just days earlier, and caught smuggling sturgeon. Police suspect a revenge killing. They have said they may consider training another cat. The Caspian sea, which lies on Russia’s south-eastern borders, produces about 90% of the world’s caviar. The trade that has almost driven the sturgeon to extinction. The finest caviar can fetch up to £2,000 a kilogram on the open market in the United States.
That’s pretty expensive bait.
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 10:37:34 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I bet it smelled like fish, too.
Posted by: mojo || 07/14/2003 12:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Think we'll hear any outrage from PETA? Of course, it won't be directed at the driver who ran over the cat, but those imperialist, fascist pigs who are exploiting the cat and forcing it to work!
Posted by: Dar || 07/14/2003 13:36 Comments || Top||

#3  AWWW!! Poor kitty!
Posted by: Ptah || 07/14/2003 14:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Apparently Rusik wasn't the first cat to die in the line of duty:
Rusik's demise was the latest blow to Stavropol's crime fighters. The Siamese used to work alongside another cat called Barsik, Mr. Kovalenko said. But Barsik — which means little snow leopard — died a few weeks ago after eating a poisoned mouse.
One dead kitty might be an accident, two is a war.
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 15:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Bast will be annoyed. You do not want to annoy Bast.
Posted by: Chuck || 07/14/2003 15:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Better get Ace Ventura over there pronto!
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/14/2003 22:56 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Disney Steps In It Again
The WALT DISNEY CO. is set for maximum controversy when it releases a "warts-and-all" portrait of U.S. Army life with the fuss-film BUFFALO SOLDIERS. As American men and women put their lives on the line in Iraq and other locations throughout the world, DISNEY and its subsidiary MIRAMAX have set a July 25 opening for the story of enlisted man running a profitable drugs and stolen goods business out of an Army base!
Oh yeah, this is going to go over real well.
The film’s director Gregor Jordan describes SOLDIERS as a robust satire illustrating the corruption, drug use and violence that goes on in US Army bases. At the film’s open, a painted US flag is on the ground and is stepped on by marching soldiers. The film features an excessive amount of profanity by senior officers, suggestive sex [oral sex in bed, sex in a car, sex in a swimming pool], theft of government property, and rampant drug use by soldiers.
I guess the director never heard of "Golden Flow".
Actor Joaquin Phoenix explains, "I don’t know why anyone would be offended. It wasn’t a movie that was intended to offend. And if we don’t show things as they really happen, then what’s that about? Censorship!"
No one is going to censor you Joaquin, we just ain’t gonna go see your movie. Or go to Disneyland.
The movie studio has been receiving complaints from military insiders, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
Note that in Hollywood complaints equal censorship.
One letter written by a retired Army Colonel, representing the Ninth & Tenth [Horse] Cavalry Association, the group of real "Buffalo Soldiers," warns of the film’s racial overtones.
"Scenes show MP’s, who are black, committing acts of violence and engaging in corruption," writes Col. Franklin J. Henderson. "These scenes, intentionally or unintentionally, provide a bad image of black soldiers and degrade the sterling service of the real ’Buffalo Soldiers’ who were mostly black men."
Yup, not only anti-military, but anti-black. Two for the price of one!
Director Jordan was so concerned by the mood of the country during the most recent military activity in Iraq that he asked for the movie’s release to be delayed from springtime.
"I thought, This is not the time to be putting this movie out. If we leave it a couple of months, the war’ll be over and off all the front pages. Then we’ll go."
Brilliant plan.
"Here in the UK no one gets upset, but over there, where the President is fighting these military campaigns in the name of democracy, the first casualty seems to be freedom of speech, the cornerstone of any democracy."
Typical, they can call Bush a lying, baby-killing cowboy all day long, but the slightest hint of protest to one of their movies and they cry foul.
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 10:03:38 AM || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  --enlisted man running a profitable drugs and stolen goods business out of an Army base!--

Well, gee, there's a novel idea.

M*A*S*H had this on more than one occasion, and I seem to recall more than 1 WWII movie did also, except for the drugs.
Posted by: Anonymous || 07/14/2003 13:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Sorry for my post I didn't see this! This movie DID NOT NEED TO BE MADE! There are 1.5 Million people in the Army there are bound to be a few bad apples. If Jessie and the other super sensitive groups don't jump on this, they should be shot. The name alone and it's association with Black service men oozes with racial overtones.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC California Chapter) || 07/14/2003 14:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Hey guys don't be so hard on him. He's just against the war.

He says he supports the troops though.

Yeah, right. ASS!!!
Posted by: Paul || 07/14/2003 16:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Absurd that Disney made a movie like this, especially now, but that's under the bridge.

Boycott the film, don't use Disney products. It's a tactic LOOOOOONG used by others, including the left. It ain't censorship, it's refuser-ship.

It is interesting though, how Hollywood always reacts to boycott threats. It's always censorship. They're pretty unclear on the concept of what censorship actually is. It's when government intervenes and interferes with expression. When individuals refuse to support that expression, it's simply the marketplace reacting to what it does or doesn't want.
Posted by: R. McLeod || 07/14/2003 16:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Speaking of Disney and corruption, maybe the no fly-zone should be lifted.
Posted by: Mr. Oni || 07/14/2003 16:55 Comments || Top||

#6  We've got a local Buffalo Soldiers club, honoring the Ninth and Tenth US Cavalry. They're going to be delighted when they learn about the title and ballistic when they learn about the content
Posted by: Matt || 07/14/2003 17:23 Comments || Top||

#7  I just went the the Miramax site for the movie and I have to tell you the story line doesn't seem as anti-Army/U.S. (but then I haven't seen the movie). It kind of looks like a cross between MASH, Three Kings, and Kelly's Heroes. Still not something that needs to be released while troops are in harms way (Just my honest opinion). If Miramax and Disney had any decency they woudl let a group of troops view it first and let them review it. What am Italking about? They would never do that!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 07/14/2003 19:26 Comments || Top||

#8  We've got a local Buffalo Soldiers club

Gebus... Didn't think of that Matt. I do wonder what the Rev.s Al and J will say.
Posted by: Shipman || 07/14/2003 20:09 Comments || Top||

#9  Walt must be spinning in his ice box...
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/14/2003 23:09 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Adil Al-Jazeeri Handed Over
A suspected longtime aide to Osama bin Laden has been handed over to American authorities and flown out of Pakistan, a Pakistani official said Monday. Adil Al-Jazeeri was blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back while he was taken to an American plane in Peshawar late Sunday in Peshawar, the intelligence official said on the condition of anonymity. The official said he believed the al-Qaida suspect was flown to Bagram, an American forces base in neighboring Afghanistan.
He ain’t busting out of this jail.
Pakistan officials believe Al-Jazeeri, arrested in Pakistan last month, is a ranking member of bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network. "He was interrogated here. He is among the important people of al-Qaida. Useful information can be obtained from him during further investigation," the official said.
Squeeze him dry.
Al-Jazeeri, an Algerian national, was arrested in the upscale residential district of Hayatabad in Peshawar, which borders Afghanistan. Another al-Qaida suspect, Abu Naseem of Tunisia, also was arrested near Peshawar the same day Al-Jazeeri was caught.
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 10:14:04 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Who knew what about Uranium?
The Daily Telegraph reported that "US intelligence sources believe that the most likely source of the MI6 intelligence was the French secret service, the DGSE. Niger is a former French colony and its uranium mines are run by a french company that comes under the control of the French atomic energy commission."

The French secret service is believed to have refused to allow MI6 to give the Americans "credible" information showing that Iraq was trying to buy uranium ore from Niger, the Telegraph reported.

A third British newspaper, The Guardian, cited government officials saying the nuclear claim came from a "close ally" but one which didn’t want Britain to give it to the US as a further pretext for war.

So, French Intelligence knew exactly where Chiraq was speaking from. OTOH, if Chiraq wants to get back into Bush’s good graces, he can go a long way towards that by being honest.
Posted by: Dishman || 07/14/2003 11:21:43 PM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is via Instapundit.
Posted by: Anonymous || 07/14/2003 23:24 Comments || Top||


Iraqi Council Rips Into Arab Media
Iraqi council blasts Arab media
From correspondents in Baghdad

THE new 25-member Iraqi Governing Council savaged the Arab media today for romanticising deposed dictator Saddam Hussein and turning a blind eye to the atrocities he committed against his own people.

"I say this to the Arab media: stop advising the Iraqis to fight the Americans," Nasseer al-Shadershi, the Sunni Muslim head of the Iraqi Democratic Current, told reporters to a roar of applause.

He was joined by Mohammed Barhul Ulom, a Shi’ite cleric who fled Iraq in 1991 for London.

"These media are threatening us from the first day of the war until now," he said, lambasting some Arab media circles for glorifying Saddam in the build-up to the US-led war which triggered revulsion and mass protests across the Arab world.

"Saddam is gone, he’s history, he’s never coming back."

He scolded the media for ignoring the crimes of Saddam, invoking the 1988 gassing of the Kurds and the brutal supression of the Shi’ite and Kurdish uprising at the conclusion of the 1991 Gulf War.

"Come see the mass graves," he said, to a furious round of applause.






Posted by: ColoradoConservative || 07/14/2003 11:29:02 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Get these guys armed guards cause they're toast.
Posted by: Lucky || 07/14/2003 13:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Can he get an AMEN? AMEN!
Posted by: Hodadenon || 07/14/2003 13:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Excellent--this is just the thing I need to read on a Monday! Once basic services are in place and are more reliable (and less frequently sabotaged), the most important next-step in my opinion is to get the Iraqis online and blogging away. Get the word out about what life was really like under Saddam and put an end to all the lies in the Arab press blaming the West for all their problems, instead of looking at their own backward, repressive regimes.
Posted by: Dar || 07/14/2003 13:07 Comments || Top||

#4  I agree with Lucky. I like what they are saying but it's so far out of 'mainstream' arab media, they are in grave danger now. For those that don't know, Arab media is controlled by Arab leaders. God speed gentleman!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC California Chapter) || 07/14/2003 14:29 Comments || Top||

#5  This Al Jeezera (all Al-Queda, all the time) will report this? In Arabic?

You'll notice I'm not holding my breath.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 07/14/2003 17:45 Comments || Top||


16 "Infamous" Words. Media and Democrats Gone Wild.
THE "INFAMOUS 16 WORDS": "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Tim Russert on Meet the Press described this sentence by President Bush in the State of the Union as "the infamous words the president uttered on January 28th."

All of Washington and the weekend talk shows were in hysterics over the "False Statement in State of the Union Address."

The Democrats running for President think they now have the goods to attack Bush on foreign policy and national security. Forgive me if I think this is all a political sideshow and a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking.

Kate O’Beirne on CNN’s Capital Gang did one of the better jobs of summarizing the facts of this "scandal":

The dishonesty here are all of the people who are ignoring the facts to this hysterical reaction to the 16 words in the president’s speech. It is, in fact, not true that a possible nuclear program was the most fundamental reason for going to war.

Colin Powell, when he made his case, which everyone agreed at the time was the most compelling case about the need to defend ourselves at the U.N., never mentioned a nuclear capacity. So that’s just rewriting history.

Secondly, our intelligence agencies agreed in a confidential report last October, they all agreed, that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear program. They offered six reasons, none of which had anything to do with buying uranium from Africa.

Fact, the president said the British intelligence finds that Iraq has sought to buy uranium from Africa. That was true then, and it remains true. British intelligence still say that is the fact. They haven’t shared the intelligence with us, but they still stick by that assessment, and they say it had nothing to do with the forged documents. Niger in the past had sold uranium to Iraq and lied about it. So certainly they’re not going to be telling Joe Wilson whether or not they did so this time.

In fact, in the early ’90s, we found Iraq’s program was nuclear program was far more advanced than either the U.N. or the CIA thought. There should have been a presumption in favor of the British intelligence report being so, and they still stick by it.


Gee, you mean those "infamous words" the president uttered are actually true? Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see the huge scandal here. What liberal media? This sentence was a small piece of a very large argument for why the world needed to do something about Saddam Hussein.

The President came to the conclusion after 9/11 that Hussein’s Iraq posed a threat to the U.S. and our allies and he made a decision to act and do something about that threat. A lot of these criticisms are very easy to make with 20/20 hindsight, but you have to remember before any war starts you can not be sure how things may go.

Given their honest belief that Hussein posed a real threat to the U.S., Bush’s administration had an obligation to produce as much public support as possible for the country’s effort in Iraq. It’s not a shocking revelation that in attempting to do this the administration would choose to highlight any reasonably credible evidence available at the time that bolstered its argument.

Furthermore, it’s very easy after the fact to say you shouldn’t have included this or that piece of evidence. The flaw in this argument is that it assumes the "evidence" contained in the intelligence reports on which the White House rely are akin to simple math problems like 2+2=4 when they are really much more ambiguous documents that force policy makers to make judgment calls. And I would much rather want the President to err on the side of protecting our country, its citizens and its national interest.

Posted by: ColoradoConservative || 07/14/2003 11:17:24 AM || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Here's a fun little mental exercise:

Assume the worst; assume that the Democrats' critique is true--there was no Iraqi WMD program, Bush knew this, he deliberately misrepresented it to build up the case for war, there was no threat, yadda yadda yadda.

Now what?

Do we withdraw from Iraq? Restore Saddam to power? Put the secret police and fedhayeen back on the job? Put the kids back in the children's prison? Shoot a few thousand more Shiites and Kurds as a gesture of conciliation to the Ba'athists? What?

C'mon, trolls, let's hear it. (And no, "regime change in Washington" is not a complete answer; you have to tell us what the new regime will do.)

Don't everybody raise your hands at once.
Posted by: Mike || 07/14/2003 12:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Good job CC. Also, wasn't this story about the forged Niger document reported months ago? I know because my anti-war hs senior son told me so. From what I gather, the current storm rises from Ari's statement on Monday saying the line should not have been put in the SOTU. Why? It wasn't based on US intel. Fine, OK. Why can't we live with that? But, no. I watched PBS Newshour on Friday, and at least 25 minutes was devoted to this story. Nobody, except David Brooks, said the Brits still stand by their sources. Good enough for me. But the slant was pronounced on that broadcast. I was ready to break the TV. Yesterday's shows were good. I'm glad Condi and Rummy were there, especially Rummy. He gave it good to George by telling him," You don't listen".
There was no such dissecting by the Western media of Iraq's documents submitted back in December detailing its WMD program. It was recognized by everyone as being bogus, but since it was Saddam lying, then OK, that's normal, now let's move on to the question of "Has the Prez made the case for going to war? Eleanor Clift, what's your opinion?" bs.
One thing I wish W would do is when answering this question, please be as specific and stiff-boned as Condi and Rummy were. Geez, it looked like he was avoiding the issue altogether while in Africa. Fine, Iraq is/will be better off because Saddam is gone, but W, if your story is true, give dates and an understandable context so those of us watching Jennings and Brokaw can see a prez standing up for himself rather than spouting generalities.
Posted by: Michael || 07/14/2003 12:43 Comments || Top||

#3  NPR and its on-air analyst, Cokie Roberts, are so excited about the "16 infamous words" I thought they were going to puddle themselves this morning.
Posted by: ColoradoConservative || 07/14/2003 12:58 Comments || Top||

#4  Severe strategic mistake. If the Dumbs were going to try and make a big deal out of this, the should have saved it for 3 days before the election, like the DUI thing. They've given us way too much yime to discredit them in their turn.
Posted by: Hodadenon || 07/14/2003 13:07 Comments || Top||

#5  Also, to their 16, I reply with 4, by acronym: F O A D
Posted by: Hodadenon || 07/14/2003 14:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Actually, Lt. Smash reminded me of one teensy reason it is not possible for those 16 words to have "tricked" us into war: State of the Union Address: January 2003. Congressional war resolution adopted: October 2002. Just waiting for the explanation of how the space-time continuum was warped to bring about that little cause and effect accusation... that would be quite the trick, I'd say.
Posted by: BJD (The Dignified Rant) || 07/14/2003 15:54 Comments || Top||

#7  The Uranium flap cannot help Kerry, Gephardt et al. The only Dem who can really make hay from this is Dean. But why would Terry McAuliffe want to help Dean, a sure loser? Maybe hes thinking what I am - No dem has a chance against Bush in 2004 - (historically you cant beat an incumbent unless the economy is in the tank - which this economy WON't be in fall 2004, not if it takes Keynsian pump priming to save it) Ergo its better if Dean takes the fall in 2004 so that a New dem gets nominated in 2008, rather than a new Dem losing and handing the party to the left for years.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 07/14/2003 16:03 Comments || Top||

#8  if the dems want to attack dubya on security, they should ask what the hell happened to the Small pox vaccination program. If they want to attack him on foreign policy, they should ask why Russia keeps getting a free pass among the weasels, why we're neglecting afghanistan, and if we have any idea what we're doing with Pakistan.

Uranium in Niger? A distraction, that at best will be of interest to inside the beltway types, and at worst will blow up in the Dems faces.

Dean, Levin and the brit left are leading on this one, and Kerry et al are being swept by the tide.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 07/14/2003 16:08 Comments || Top||

#9  LH: With all due respect, the smallpox vaccination program was killed by the (ahem) Democratic nurse and first responder (cops and firemen) unions. I think I'd stay away from that one, myself.
Posted by: 11A5S || 07/14/2003 16:57 Comments || Top||

#10  it was the admins job to make the case to the first responders on why it was necessary, and if they refused to see the light, to pressure them, or to come up with another way of doing things. Instead they seem to have "moved on" - ie theyre ignoring it. BTW, IIUC the unions wanted compensation for (what turned out to be rare) side effects - the admin didnt have this in place early. In any case i think that issue is now settled. So what the hell is going with the vaccination program?

Posted by: liberalhawk || 07/14/2003 17:05 Comments || Top||

#11  from todays WaPo editorial

"Analyzing what went wrong with the civilian program, insiders and outsiders point in part to the government's mistakes and in part to the political and even psychological resistance of the doctors and nurses who were meant to carry out the vaccinations. Health workers say the government failed to consult widely enough with hospital administrators and doctors, who, short-staffed already, feared the vaccination program would prove too costly and take staff away from other tasks. The administration's initial failure to propose compensation for health workers who were made seriously ill by the vaccine helped fuel a union-led revolt against the program. And because the program was launched on the eve of the Iraq war, many concluded that it was part of a Bush administration propaganda campaign and declined to participate on political grounds."

And yet the admin calls the program a success.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 07/14/2003 17:27 Comments || Top||

#12  i looked at Josh Marshall, and he seems to be flooding the zone on this (uranium) , and has been for days - nothing on Sharon, Abbas and Arafat, nothing on Paul Bremer and the Iraqi council, nothing on the 3rd ID being held in Iraq, nothing on ANYTHING other than Uranium from Niger.

I think folks like Josh are misjudging the times. They recall that when Clinton made some technical lies about trivia, he was impeached and almost removed from office, and almost certainly cost Gore the presidency in 2000. They figure that even if Bush wasnt under oath in the SOU, this was not about trivia, and so this is as big as monicagate. What they forget is that Monicagate was a luxury of peace and prosperity. We're at war now. Suppose Bush did lie in the SOU about Niger Uranium or whatever - or they can show Condi lied, or whatever. Most Americans wont care, as long as they believe the war in Iraq made them safer - and whether THAT is true has far more to do with whats happening now in Iraq and the Middle East and Iran than with technicalities about 16 words. So the GOP may look like hypocrites for arguing about what you mean by the word "is" (I dont know whether thats precisely what its about - i dont really care) who cares - we wanna know will the Iraqi people support the new council, will the 3rd come home soon, will there be change and will we get Bin Laden.


Posted by: liberalhawk || 07/14/2003 17:36 Comments || Top||

#13  LH: Maybe the Bush team figured that the first responders would be patriotic Americans and suck it up and soldier on and line up for the god-forsaken vaccines? Is that too much to ask when you're fighting a "war on terror." That was always my assumption, anyway. If we took down the Husseins without them mounting a smallpox attack, then the need to innoculate no longer exists. Why waste the money and political capital. The really sad thing is that there never should have been any political capital spent. I can't even imagine us fighting WWII today. "What! Plant a victory garden in my yard. Do you know how much the sod cost me? I want compensation!" Or, "You want me to give my recyclables to the government for a 'scrap drive.' I used to get paid for that at the recycling center. I want my money."
Posted by: 11A5S || 07/14/2003 17:59 Comments || Top||

#14  LH,

I think that you may well be right about Josh Marshall and "others of that ilk." They REALLY, REALLY believe that the issue was about getting impeached over some "technical lies.' Some of us don't see the issue as quite so trivial, but they certainly do believe that it was. Without wanting to reopen the entire debate about Clinton and his "exaggerations," I'd offer as an example of a REASON why there's room to disagree about the triviality of his statements the fact that they bore on the Paula Jones Lawsuit which he ultimately settled "out of court" for a payment of $850,000. That is a sufficient sum for some of us to view the matter as being non-trivial. However, that doesn't change your point about the probable perception of Josh and company and why they might believe this is worth "making a big deal of." Most of us do tend to act rather rationally based on what we BELIEVE the truth to be.
Posted by: Ralph || 07/14/2003 19:05 Comments || Top||

#15  11A5S
With respect to medical personnel not being willing to stand up for this country; perhaps I could enlighten you. As a healthcare provider who has volunteered services to the local disaster services program for several years I've stuck my neck out several times with no compensation or thanks. (Consider driving TOWARD the ocean when my home town gets a hurricane evacution notice). Instead, as a group we are considered fair game for every insurance company, storyless reporter, and litigant that happens along. Since I have eczema; I CAN'T take the smallpox vaccine; so will have to rely on my old smallpox vaccine as a child. This is not a dead issue, since smallpox vaccine may be the vaccine of choice for 'monkey pox'. But I will still be expected to man my post on call in our local emergency room if the unthinkable occurs. I don't fault you for not giving more consideration to your comment. Most people in this country don't give medical personnel much credit until the excrement hits the rotary oscillator. Then the Public marvels briefly at the courage displayed by these otherwise unsung heroes (until Britney comes out in a new outfit...) OK; that's my rant, reckon I'll go back and lurk...
Posted by: neofyte || 07/14/2003 20:48 Comments || Top||

#16  CC this dog just aint going to hunt! The Dims can't say that the WMDs existed under Zipper Cliton and after he left office they were gone? It COMICAL how the alphabet channels are trying to ride this lame horse. I predict that by next month the Dims will be eatin a big ole slice of crow with humble pie for dessert.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 07/14/2003 21:48 Comments || Top||

#17  I think Sammy was trying to buy uranium from Karl Rove (The Most Evil Bastard Who's Ever Lived), myself. He has lots of it in his secret evil headquarters according to NPR.
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/14/2003 23:27 Comments || Top||


Al Qaeda Group Says Behind Iraq Attacks
A group claiming to be linked to the al Qaeda network said in an audio tape aired on an Arab television station on Sunday that they and not the followers of Saddam Hussein were behind attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. "I swear by God no one from his (Saddam Hussein) followers carried out any jihad operations like he claims...they (attacks) are a result of our brothers in jihad," said the unidentified voice on the tape which was broadcast by Dubai-based Al Arabiya television.
The voice on the tape, which Arabiya aired along with a photograph of an unidentified white-bearded man wearing a turban, also warned of a new anti-U.S. attack in the days to come which would "break the back of America completely."
Bring it on.
It was not clear if he was referring to an attack in Iraq or somewhere else.
They try to keep their options open, that way they can take credit for anything.
The voice said the "Armed Islamic Movement for Al Qaeda, the Falluja Branch," a previously unheard of name, was behind the attacks and that its members were dispersed all over Iraq.
Is a branch bigger than a faction or is it more like a splinter? I get confused.
U.S. forces, who largely blame die-hard Saddam loyalists for the attacks which have killed 31 U.S. soldiers since May 1 -- have come under frequent fire in the Iraqi town of Falluja and other mainly Sunni Muslim town north and west of Baghdad Saddam’s ousting in April. Earlier this month, an audio tape said to be made by Saddam urged Iraqis to fight the U.S.-British occupation of the Arab country and warned Americans of more bloodshed to come.
Calling on U.S. forces to leave Iraq, the voice on the tape warned that "the end of America will be at the hands of Islam."
The voice prayed to God, "to grant success to our brothers who are dispersed in Iraq’s governorates and in the countries of the world, (particularly) Sheikh Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar." He ended the recording by stating the date July 10, 2003.
Trying to make themselves relevent by claiming credit for the Iraqi attacks.
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 9:44:36 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A branch is bigger than a splinter, as it would be a fraction of the faction of the sub national group causing friction.
Posted by: Domingo || 07/14/2003 10:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Thanks, that clears it up.
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 12:45 Comments || Top||

#3  I tried saying that out loud. Now my tongue is tired.
Posted by: Fred || 07/14/2003 13:13 Comments || Top||


Saddam is hiding near Baghdad, says exiled spy chief
Samarra, Iraq: Saddam Hussein and Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali, are hiding in an area of farmland and small villages on the Tigris river between Baghdad and the city of Samarra, says a former senior Iraqi intelligence officer.
"He’s hiding in a trailer park with some white trash girl!"
General Wafiq al-Samarrai, head of Iraqi military intelligence before he went into exile, is assisting American forces in the hunt for Saddam. He said the deposed leader had been able to escape capture because the area was heavily populated and had thick vegetation.
We got any Agent Orange left over?
"He is hiding in an area about 60km [37 miles] long and about 20km wide according to my information," General Samarrai told The Independent in an interview at his house in Samarra. He said that Ali Hassan al-Majid, a senior member of Saddam’s inner circle notorious for using poison gas against Kurds, was also there but moving separately from the former Iraqi ruler.
Didn’t we get Chemical Ali?
America is giving top priority to its search for Saddam, for whom it has offered a reward of $25m (£15m), believing the failure to capture or kill him is encouraging guerrilla attacks.

General Samarrai has always been well informed on the actions of Saddam and his senior lieutenants. In charge of Iraqi military intelligence on Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, he was also head of military intelligence in the 1991 Gulf War. He fled to the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq in late 1994. Other Iraqi opposition leaders have said they believe that Saddam, who disappeared after the fall of Baghdad on 9 April, is hiding a little further to the east near the town of Baqubah..

The general said Saddam had not chosen to hide near Awja, his home village, or the nearby city of Tikrit, because it was not so heavily populated and was more barren, making concealment more difficult. General Samarrai’s pursuit of the former Iraqi leader has already led to retaliation. Late at night 10 days ago, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired into the side of his house, making a small crater in the cement above a window. "I had information that somebody might try to kill me 48 hours before it happened," he said.
Typical Arab assassin, missed by the proverbial mile.
Ali Hassan al-Majid and Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, another long-time close aide of Saddam Hussein, were both reported to have been in Samarra seeking false identity papers just after the end of the war.

The general does not believe that the death or capture of Saddam will end guerrilla attacks against US forces. He said: "Saddam plays a very small role in this. Most of the attacks are by Islamic groups, former military men who are no longer being paid and members of the Baath party."
This might actually be true. Just means we’ll have to catch all the Ba’athists.
A second tape purporting to be from the deposed dictator was left outside the office of Al-Hayat-LBC television yesterday. The first was broadcast by the al-Jazeera Arabic-language network on 4 July. "The return to underground operations that we started from the beginning is the best way for Iraqis to achieve independence," the voice on the tape said, adding that he was speaking "from inside glorious Iraq".
Soon to be speaking from inside a glorious body bag.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/14/2003 2:44:11 AM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just follow the trail of black velvet paintings...
Posted by: mojo || 07/14/2003 10:36 Comments || Top||

#2  We need to get Duane "DOG", the bounty hunter some papers to travel to this area and stake aut the local Taco stands...
Posted by: Capsu78 || 07/14/2003 12:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Chemical Ali reported killed by the British, claim later retracted.
Posted by: Sharon || 07/14/2003 15:40 Comments || Top||


U.S. Forces Launch Raid Against Saddamites
EFL
BALAD, Iraq (AP) - Facing an increasingly organized and violent resistance, the U.S. Army stepped up pressure on pro-Saddam Hussein holdouts Sunday with a fourth large offensive in central Iraq. At least four suspected loyalists were killed and big weapons caches were captured in the operation, called Ivy Serpent, which aims to blunt potential anti-American attacks ahead of now-banned holidays of Saddam’s Baath Party.
Take it to ’em, fellas!
On Sunday, Iraqi police and coalition forces exchanged fire at a military checkpoint in Baghdad, witnesses said. They said a police vehicle drove up to a coalition checkpoint and started shooting, and U.S. soldiers returned fire. It was not clear if there were casualties, and the U.S. military had no immediate comment.
Time to sweep the police stations again.
U.S. forces also detained nine ``high-value targets’’ in raids near Mosul, in northern Iraq, none of them on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis from Saddam’s old regime.

Ivy Serpent, launched late Saturday in Sallahadin and Diala provinces, has so far yielded over 50 detainees in about a dozen raids before key holidays supported by Saddam loyalists. The four suspected anti-American militants were killed when they opened fire on Army scouts near Baqouba, military officials said.
Dumb move by those four, but who’s complaining?
The Army said insurgents planned a series of attacks against U.S. soldiers to commemorate the July 14, 1958, overthrow of Iraq’s King Faisal and the July 17, 1968, Baath Party coup. ``We want to get within the enemy’s temple, disrupt his timing,’’ said Col. David Hogg, commander of 4th Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade. The July 17 holiday was one of six banned Saturday in the first action of Iraq’s new government council, which also named a national holiday marking Saddam’s ouster.
I’m going to have to update my copy of iCal!
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned Sunday that attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq may worsen this summer. ``There’s even speculation that during the month of July, which is an anniversary for a lot of Baathists events, we could see an increase in the number of attacks,’’ Rumsfeld said on NBC’s ``Meet the Press.’’

At least 31 U.S. soldiers have been killed in hit-and-run small-arms assaults in Baghdad and central Iraq since President Bush declared major fighting over May 1. In response, the army has launched a series of high-profile operations - Peninsula Strike, Desert Scorpion, Sidewinder and now Ivy Serpent - to crush the insurgency. The operations have been complex, high-tech nighttime affairs and have produced mixed results.
Better than sitting back waiting to be hit.
In Saturday’s night raids, AC-130 gunships flew over the sites, as Apache and Kiowa helicopters hovered. Tanks established security cordons, and Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles carrying infantrymen stormed houses and walled compounds. Unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicles gave commanders and tacticians at headquarters a bird’s-eye view of the action.

In some raids, U.S. forces acted on specific intelligence and detained many suspects. In the village of Mutlaq Nayif, just north of Taji along Highway 1, loudspeakers ordered residents to get out of their homes. After searching the tall grass surrounding the homes, soldiers walked out with armfuls of assault rifles, machine guns, stocks of ammunition, camouflage military uniforms and the black robes used by Fedayeen warriors. Col. Frederick Rudesheim, commander of the 4th Infantry Division 3rd Brigade, said 35 people were detained.

In the Tigris River town of Hassan bin Mahmud, which Rudesheim described as ``the village that time forgot,’’ a monument to Saddam remained standing in the town square. Locals cursed arriving American soldiers, said Rudesheim, whose men blew up the statue of the ousted Iraqi leader. In Muqtaria, north of Baquba, a group of armed men fled into fields as the Americans approached. Soldiers searched the area, ultimately detaining 10 men. ``It was a cat and rat mouse game all night,’’ Hogg said.

Near Balad, servicemen found two anti-aircraft guns which they destroyed. Near Baqouba, soldiers raided two houses producing anti-American propaganda. They captured a former general in Saddam’s Fedayeen militia, a former air force general and the former number two in the Diala province Baathist party. All are suspected of organizing anti-U.S. violence.
Time to open a new wing in Gitmo!
Posted by: Steve White || 07/14/2003 2:18:37 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Doesn't this open up the Administration to further charges that is "misled" the American public about the end of major combat ops?
Posted by: ColoradoConservative || 07/14/2003 13:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Just had this flash of Klark al-Kent dashing into the tall grass, donning his black robes, picking up his trusty RPG and emerging as FedayeenMan!
Posted by: Hodadenon || 07/14/2003 13:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Doesn't this open up the Administration to further charges...

CC: I don't think that the demo/media-crats have needed to have any other issue "opened" to opine about it at length (see plundered museums, plundered airports, firing @ journalists, etc.), so I suppose we can expect them to raise the issue during one of these scandalcycles.

It's up to Terry McAuliffe to pick the proper time for it, though, so it may be a weekend or two before it comes up...

Posted by: snellenr || 07/14/2003 14:08 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Burma Junta slams US `meddling’
Burma’s military government yesterday accused the US and its allies of ``blind and prejudiced meddling’’ in the country’s internal affairs. In its latest broadside against US support for democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, state-controlled media said efforts to influence political events in Burma were only causing harm to the people.
``The attempts to pave the way for their minions to seize power will further lead to escalation of internal tensions of the victimised country and also create much suffering for the people,’’ said an editorial in the government-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
``This blind and prejudiced meddling in Myanmar’s [Burma’s] home affairs, supporting one side while opposing the other by America and its West European allies have adversely affected the nation’s internal stability,’’ it said.
Two points awarded for correct use of "minions" in a sentence. They worked in "victimised","suffering people", and "blind and prejudiced meddling". Not a bad attempt, not up to N.K. standards, but who is?
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 2:43:58 PM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Burmese junta would be wise to continue with the low-profile strategy.
Posted by: Yank || 07/14/2003 16:27 Comments || Top||

#2  "Meddling"?

Sounds suspiciously like these guys are taking lessons from the Commies in China.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 07/14/2003 17:29 Comments || Top||


BOOM! Indonesia’s Parliament blast
A SMALL explosion smashed windows and damaged a wall at Indonesia’s Parliament building today, but there were no casualties, officials said.
according to nightly news report, bomb went off in carpark under parliament spreading nails and shrapnel across a wide area. Nobody killed.
Last week, police confiscated a huge haul of explosives and detonators and arrested nine Islamic militants they said were planning terror attacks across the nation.
Posted by: Anon1 || 07/14/2003 6:03:28 AM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Last week, police confiscated a huge haul of explosives and detonators and arrested nine Islamic militants they said were planning terror attacks across the nation."
It could've been a LOT bigger Boom...

Is Indonesia waking up to its home-grown Islamozoid problem, you think? Personally, I think it's GREAT that they're doing this shit in their own back yard. SaudiLand, Morocco, Indonoogies, PakiLand. It should be a major wake-up call for them to cooperate in WoT. Now, with the Dictator Doctor stepping down, Malaysia will prolly soon get a taste of the shit they've fostered, too.

Most animals are smart enough not to shit where they eat. Not Islamozoids. Good.
Posted by: PD || 07/14/2003 7:30 Comments || Top||

#2  If only it stayed that way. Problem is, it's the Islamofascists blowing up the moderates with the end goal of turning them into Islamonazis too.

Once critical mass is Islamonazi it's time to turn the attention to the Kaffir world to turn the Dar el Harb into the Dar ul Islam

OBL just changed the priorities around, that is why he was so revolutionary and such a catalyst in the muslim world. He made the Kaffir world the first priority as a means of dragging the moderates into the fight and it worked so well that it has spawned a whole new movement.

Either way it's bad for the West, it just takes longer to get back to us when they target the moderates first.
Posted by: Anon1 || 07/14/2003 8:08 Comments || Top||

#3  If the moderates are stupid enough to allow themselves to be dragged into the fray on the side of the Islamofascists, then we'll just have to liquidate them too.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 07/14/2003 9:58 Comments || Top||

#4  Anon1: Sorry but I don't buy your logic.

"Islamofascists blowing up the moderates with the end goal of turning them into Islamonazis too..."

This is illogical and wrong - and the actions of the various Govt's proves it. Indo citizens being attacked by Indo Izzoids has generated the opposite response - example: the Indo Govt's surprisingly aggressive prosecution of the IJ and other asshats. I think the 'zoids have made a serious mistake -in Indo, in SaoodiLand, and in Morocco.

PakiLand is anyone's guess. Everyone there is in one looney group or another, it seems.

But in the others, the reaction has been a serious crackdown on the Izzoids. When they were killing Westerners, it wasn't much of an issue - with the loss of tourist rev in Bali being an exception - that hurt many Indo's.

Now that they're attacking their own, the Govt's are waking up - it's a challenge to their authority. Indo is prosecuting. Morocco sure made short work of first batch - and the second is in the oven. The Saudis have made some serious efforts - where they perceive threat to themselves. Typically, the Saudis are schizoid in their response, but certainly the official line is not in favor of in-country terror.

OBL. He had $$$ and was willing to trade in his privileged life in SaoodiLand for Afghan caves. Targeting the West was not new - but the funding on such a scale was - and that's all that I see unique about him. Don't elevate him to legend - it was Daddy's money and he was just another spoiled fucking jackoff with a warped perspective. Biting the hand that has nurtured, raised , and fed you isn't new. We and the Brits have suffered from disaffected priveleged brats with asinine politics for a long time. Fuck OBL.

That's my take on it, anyway.
Posted by: PD || 07/14/2003 12:29 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm still waiting for OBL to make his promised video appearance...
Posted by: Rafael || 07/14/2003 17:10 Comments || Top||


Terror Suspect Escapes Philippine Jail
An Indonesian man who allegedly confessed to involvement in bombings in Manila that killed 22 people escaped from jail early Monday, police said.
Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, a reputed leader of Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, escaped from police intelligence custody along with two other Filipino suspected Muslim extremists, national Police Chief Hermogenes Ebdane said. The escape took place before dawn from the heavily secured intelligence command building at Camp Crame, the national police headquarters in Manila. Ebdane said police guarding the three extremists were being investigated.
Shit. Sounds like some of Al-Ghozi’s friends paid some ’bail’
The escape was a serious blow to Philippines efforts to battle terrorism and was particularly embarrassing because Australian Prime Minister John Howard was in Manila to provide counterterrorism assistance. Police chief Supt. Jesus Verzosa, who heads the national police intelligence group which had custody of Al-Ghozi, has offered to resign, according to Ebdane, who did not say if he had accepted. Ebdane identified the other escapees as Abdul Edris and Meram Abante.
Police say Al-Ghozi has confessed involvement in the five Dec. 30, 2000, bombings in Manila. His confessions have been used to file charges against alleged co-conspirators, including Saifullah Yunos, who pleaded guilty to helping plan the attacks.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 07/14/2003 4:42:53 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A strong argument for giving all JI/Queda/Islamofascists the death penalty.
We don't want them getting out and blowing up more innocents.

Come on USA you know you are going to have to use Nukes sooner or later.
Posted by: Anon1 || 07/14/2003 5:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Must not be very secure if they escaped from a "heavily secured intelligence command building".
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 07/14/2003 7:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Ah, the old "crawl into the burn bag" trick...
Posted by: mojo || 07/14/2003 13:18 Comments || Top||

#4  UPDATE: The head of the Philippines' national police force says at least three officers under his control have been implicated in the escape of a senior Jemaah Islamiah figure from a Manila jail. Manila police have launched a manhunt for Indonesian national Fathur Rohman Al Ghozi and two Filipino militants after their escape from a supposedly high-security cell inside the national police headquarters in Manila. Intelligence agencies say he is an expert bomb-maker who taught other JI members how to use explosives.
National police chief Hermones Ebdane has issued officers involved in the hunt with an effective shoot-to-kill order. The police chief described the escape as a black mark against his force.
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 16:46 Comments || Top||


Amrozi lists 'positives' from Bali bombing
Like dead infidels...
Accused Bali bomber Amrozi has told a court in Bali that the deaths of 202 people in Kuta last October could have been an American or Israeli plot.
But weren't...
Amrozi, presenting his defence plea, also gave the court what he called a list of "positives" to come out of the Bali attack. Amrozi admitted he had sent 600 kilograms of explosives and a van to Bali but he denied he was involved in planning meetings or that he had heard of Jemaah Islamiah (JI). Instead he suggested the United States or Israel might have detected the car by satellite, then planted a nuclear bomb outside the Kuta club.
Or it could have been space aliens. They do that sort of thing...
He asked the judges to examine what he said were 'positives' from the attack. "With this incident, God willing, many people realise that they had forgotten God and neglected their worship and avoided places of worship so that mosques became empty, churches became deserted, monasteries and temples also became empty without occupants or visitors," he said. Meanwhile, he says "places of sins" were all packed. He says the blasts had prevented the economy of the island and the rest of Indonesia from falling into the hands of foreigners. "I am also not among those who are against tourists, and tourist arrivals should even be promoted but on condition that they follow disciplines," he said.
That means they should do what people like Amrozi tell them to do...
"They, as guests, should follow our rules and not us follow their rules just because of money." He described the Sari club and nearby Paddy's bar as "dens of vices" set up as part of a US and Jewish plan to destroy religions. At the time he said he only felt remorse for the 38 Indonesians who died. "For the foreigners, I said, you have learned your lesson."
Yeah. We got the message.
Amrozi, who could face death by firing squad of convicted on terrorism charges, again denied any links between the suspects facing trial and JI. "As far as I know, none are members of any organisation ...to my knowledge, they are not linked to any organisation or congregation anywhere and there was no one giving them orders," he said. He added that "I myself only knew about JI during my interrogation by the police and prior to that I never knew or heard about it."
"Dere ain't no sech t'ing as da Mafia..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/14/2003 00:32 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Instead he suggested the United States or Israel might have detected the car by satellite, then planted a nuclear bomb outside the Kuta club.

Egad. Just what did he think 600 kg of explosives was going to do, anyway?
Posted by: Steve White || 07/14/2003 2:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmm. Let's recap: "This act was noble and perfectly justified...and I didn't do it. The Evil American Zionists was them that done it...They are trying to destroy our religion with their degraded temptaions...and this bomb, planted by them, not me, has saved Indonesia from impurities and sin."

Whenever I hear apologists, like numerous Aussie lefties criticize the tourists and the island's industry, I just want to cry.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro || 07/14/2003 4:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Of course, on Australian TV SBS and ABC news completely downplayed the Islamicist aspect. They use the word "god" for instance instead of "allah" when god is a word used by anglophone christians and jews, not by muslims.
etc etc etc.

Also they say he will get off the death penalty even if it is on appeal.

I would like to see the smile ripped off his face with a rusty, blunt, serrated edged knife.

Then let him live in a 1 meter square cage and test cosmetics/medical treatments on him for the next 50 years.
Posted by: Anon1 || 07/14/2003 5:08 Comments || Top||

#4  This Amrozi guy being convicted and sentenced to death, now THAT would be a positive.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 07/14/2003 10:10 Comments || Top||

#5  "They use the word "god" for instance instead of "allah" when god is a word used by anglophone christians and jews, not by muslims. etc etc etc"

As a sidenote, why does that occur? After all Arab-phone Christians use "Allah" instead of the english "God" -- shouldn't anglophone muslims then use "God" instead of the arabic Allah?

In truth I do think that the word Allah should be translated to God in an English-to-Arabic translation, rather than remain standing as is. Makes more sense to me that way.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 07/14/2003 10:48 Comments || Top||

#6  It does to me, too. But when you do it, Muslim pee themselves or explode. Or both.
Posted by: Fred || 07/14/2003 11:36 Comments || Top||

#7  Al-la : the One?

Maybe it's Jet Li...
Posted by: mojo || 07/14/2003 18:33 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Palestinians confirm no massacre in Jenin - study
With a tip o’ the hat to Meryl Yourish
In a study to be released next month by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and provided exclusively to The Jerusalem Post, Palestinian sources confirm that at least 34 Palestinian armed terrorists were killed fighting in the battle for the Jenin Refugee Camp. The total number of Palestinian causalities in the battle was 52, a sharp contrast from the claims of Palestinian propaganda professionals who have openly stated that thousands had died.
Holy Howitzers, Batman, you mean the Paleos and their friends around the world lied to us?
The battle, which was a part of Israel’s Defensive Shield Operation against terrorism, took place between April 4 and April 11 of 2002.

The research was conducted by Jonathan D. HaLevi and the JCPA utilizing a wide and comprehensive variety of Palestinian written testimony and material which was recently published in Palestinian newspapers, books and Websites. The study reveals that for the first time that Palestinian terror organizations saw themselves as "armed combatants" and not as civilians who died in a deadly massacre.
Pretty much how the IDF saw them, too.
The 35 page study, which is based on primary sources, clearly illustrates that Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas prepared themselves thoroughly with automatic weapons, grenades, anti-tank missiles and explosives and perceived the confrontation with IDF troops as nothing less than a "military to military battle."

The study refutes claims by PA leaders at the time that IDF forces were attacking innocent civilians and that the only Palestinians who had perished in the battle of Jenin were innocent, unarmed Palestinian men, women and children.
But what about the unarmed kittens and baby ducks™?
"The study directly contradicts the baseless charges made by PA leaders including Saeb Erekat, that Israel had massacred 500 Palestinians in Jenin," former UN Ambassador and JCPA director Dore Gold told The Jerusalem Post. "That blatant lie made its way from the screens of CNN to the UN security council".

Among other revelations that the study illustrates is that a joint military operations room had been established by Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in preparation for the battle of Jenin. In addition the research indicates that Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas had created a joint bomb making facility in Jenin which produced over two tons of explosives.

The JCPA paper states that civilians were intentionally used as human shields and that both women and children were deployed by Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad to divert IDF troops into ambushes and booby-trapped areas.
But weren’t the women and kidlings promised Paradise as well? What? They weren’t?
The Jenin Refugee Camp was prepared as a "reinforced fortress" where nearly 200 Palestinian terrorists had gathered for the battle, the JCPA research states.

Israel was effectively cleared of charges that it committed a massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in a UN report submitted last year.

The 42-page report, half of which was made up of submissions from Arab representatives seeking to prove that Israel’s actions in Jenin constituted war crimes, also blasted Palestinian ’militants’ for operating inside civilian refugee camps and termed their methods ’breaches of international law that have been and continue to be condemned by the United Nations.’
Don’t expect much from the UN since this doesn’t conform to their pre-conceived notion of what happened.
The report was handed to the UN by Secretary-General Kofi Annan more than two months after the General Assembly passed a resolution requesting
documentation on what transpired in the Jenin camp and other West Bank cities during Israel’s military operation to root out terror.

In May 2002, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations submitted a 150-page report to Annan, and the Anti-Defamation League submitted a shorter report refuting allegations that a massacre took place in Jenin. "The myth of a massacre at Jenin was the ’crown jewel’ of a sophisticated effort to delegitimize the State of Israel," Gold said.
It’s been working, too. Wonder if the Brit or US news media will follow-up on this?
Posted by: Steve White || 07/14/2003 6:23:02 PM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Steve I will not listen to your Zionist rhetoric! I will prove there was a massacre, even if we have to put 450 more people to death to make it true. Didn't you watch the news on CNN? If they said it it must be true! Oh Alah these infidels are stupid. You are just trying to discredit the non-biased Arab press!
Posted by: Saeb Erekat || 07/14/2003 19:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Allah love a Duck! Festering Festung Jenin was not a Zionist Massacre as originally advertized? It was a lie? Some government leader needs to be impeached™ if we can find one! First we must find the responsible government.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 07/14/2003 23:00 Comments || Top||


East Asia
Cambodian mob trashes Christian church
A mob of more than 100 Cambodian Buddhists has trashed a Christian church during a Sunday mass in the remote southeast of the country causing "small casualties", officials have said.
Buddhists?
Hun Neng, governor Svey Rieng province said the mob rampaged through the church, at Kok Pring, smashing windows, lights and ditching bibles into ponds of water. "Yesterday, there were more than a hundred of people who went on the rampage and hit the Christian church during mass," he said. He said the mob accused the Christians of looking down on Buddhists but authorities had deployed police to the area, which prevented the mob from razing the building. "The attack caused small casualties," he said, adding that no further details were available. Cambodia has experienced a rise in religious tensions since Christian evangelists began moving here once this country began emerging out of communism in 1989.
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 4:49:47 PM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Angry Fundamentalist Buddhists (tm)? Geeze, what will they think of next?
Posted by: Secret Master || 07/14/2003 18:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Never HEARD of such a thing... Buddhists trashing anything, much less a church - no matter whose, where or why. Simply put, they aren't Buddhists - as anyone who's lived in a Buddhist country knows, for an absolute fact. Whoever labeled them such, is using a mighty broad brush - they're just thugs. Cambodian thugs. Same breed of Cambodian thugs who trashed the Thai Embassy a few months ago over an imaginary slight. Thais are Therabodan (sp?) Buddhists and would never NEVER do more than protest - and it would have to be something they felt was inhumanly unfair.

In 1992 I was in Bangkok the day before the first elected Govt took over (Sept 30th, IIRC). There were police (ordered to suppress by the Military) and "students" doing their thing in the streets. I was coming out of the Oracle Bldg on Silom downtown just as the festivities swept by. I came out of the door and, other than the police and students, I seemed to be the only person on the street. I hesitated and stared at the scene. After about 30 seconds, the police turned OFF their water cannon and the demonstrators stopped hollering - and it seemed like the whole world was staring at ME! I realized they were calling a pause for me - amazing! I hustled my dumb farang butt around a corner and then I heard them resume the show. And that's what it was. "We're really really happy about the elections and really really mad about the Military's corrupt rule. So we're going to show you how happy we are you're outta here. We'll holler alot and get wet. Fun for the whole family. Farangs need not apply - it's a Thai thing. It's a Buddhist thing."

The worst situation is when a Buddhist resorts to self-violence (immolation) to make his point. There IS no step in Buddhism of violence directed at others, Qwai Chang Caine and Hollywood notwithstanding.
Posted by: PD || 07/14/2003 22:35 Comments || Top||


Africa: West
Mauritania’s president accuses Islamists
President of Mauritania Mu’aweya Wild Taye’ has linked between the failed coupe attempt which took place in June and the issue of the Islamists who called for Jihad against his regime.
No suprise here
Wild Taye’ said during his visit to al-Zweirat bridge to the north of the country that the Islamists and leaders of the coupe moved almost in the same period of time "during which they shared roles and competed to control the authority." The President expressed his wonder on the coincidence between the two moves, saying they targeted to destroy the achievements of his government at the democratic, economic and social levels.
Methinks he doesn’t wonder at all.
He explained that the participants in the coupe talked about "an attack against the presidency of the republic in order to have members joining them as believing that they are moving in the context of the process of defending the nation," expressing his bewilderment over the occurrence of the coupe just five months before the presidential elections.
"Usually we get a coupe after an election."
The rebel soldiers had almost succeeded in toppling Wild Taye’ on June 8 but were defeated after two days of fighting resulted in killing 15 persons and wounding other 68, according to official statistics.
As African coupes go, this is almost bloodless.
However, motives behind the coupe are still unknown, but it came following a campaign of arrest for scores of Islamists in the country whose all of its inhabitants embrace Islam, and a country which in 1999 the third Arab state which establishes diplomatic relations with Israel.
That’s good enough reason for the turban set.
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 12:40:39 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...Mu’aweya Wild Taye’ has linked between the failed coupe attempt which took place in June and the issue of the Islamists who called for Jihad against his regime."

Seems all they could produce was a sedan.


Thank you. Try the veal...
Posted by: mojo || 07/14/2003 12:45 Comments || Top||


Iran
Inquiry after journalist dies in Iran
The Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, yesterday ordered an urgent investigation into the death of a Canadian photojournalist who died in custody after being arrested for taking photos of a notorious prison. Iranian officials said the freelance photographer Zahra Kazemi, 54, was arrested last month by guards at Evin prison in Tehran and, after reporting discomfort, died of a brain haemorrhage on Saturday.
Being hit in the head will do that.
"You should determine the reasons for her sudden death and who is responsible for it," Mr Khatami said in a statement calling on four cabinet ministers to review the case. In ordering the inquiry, Mr Khatami indicated the possibility of wrongdoing. "If in combating irregularity something illegal happened, the violators should be strictly dealt with," he said.
Looking for a scapegoat.
Ms Kazemi held Canadian and Iranian passports and was arrested for violating a ban on photographing or filming Evin prison, which holds dissidents, student activists and journalists who have criticised the country’s clerical leadership. The Canadian foreign affairs minister, Bill Graham, told the Canadian ambassador in Tehran to press for the immediate return of Ms Kazemi’s remains and for a full account of the circumstances of her death, a spokesman in Ottawa said. Ms Kazemi’s son, Stephen Hachemi, told reporters in Montreal that he wanted his mother’s body returned. "That is all that is important at this point," he said.
Canadian forensic examiners are some of the worlds best. They will be able to tell what happened.
The Canadian chapter of Reporters Sans FrontiÚres said the account offered by the Iranian authorities was inadequate and urged an independent investigation. The head of the foreign press department of the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance, Mohammed Hossein Khoshvaght, said the Canadian journalist had presented an Iranian passport when seeking her press accreditation and "was dealt with like an Iranian citizen".
Oops, bad turn of phrase there, Mohammed. Truthful, but bad.
Iranian reporters can face imprisonment and interrogation if their coverage is deemed too critical.
Or they just disappear. In this case they didn’t know she was Canadian and would be missed.
Ms Kazemi’s death came as hardline clergy closed another newspaper yesterday and arrested two more journalists and student activists as part of a intensifying crackdown on dissent following pro-democracy protests last month.
The reformist daily Hambastegi was closed for violating the press law by failing to publish the name of the editor-in-chief, a journalist at the newspaper said.
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 10:27:15 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hey, Iranian journalist, as well as foreign journalist without borders, are not being dealt harshly. Freedom of the people to be informed is a hallmark of an Islamic government. The Candian photographer was probably on a drinking binge and had an accident.
Posted by: Lucky || 07/14/2003 12:59 Comments || Top||

#2  I doubt the Cretin will even send them a stiff note of protest. Why should he care?
Posted by: Hodadenon || 07/14/2003 13:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Step one - Kill journalist.
Friends and relatives in Canada say Kazemi was beaten into a coma. Her son told Reuters earlier in the week that Iranian doctors had diagnosed his mother as having a fractured skull.

Step two - Get rid of the evidence.
Family members and friends in Montreal insisted the body be returned to Canada so an autopsy could be carried out. But a spokesman for Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham said Kazemi's mother -- who is in Iran -- had given permission for the body to be buried. "It has been reported by the family in Iran that the body will be buried today, July 13," he told Reuters.
You don't suppose anyone in the Iranian government "suggested" to her mother that she be buried soon, do you?
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 13:33 Comments || Top||


Africa: East
Uganda army rescues children
Military officials in Uganda say they have rescued about 250 people - most of them children - who were abducted by rebels. An army spokesman in Kampala, Major Shaban Bantariza, said they were abandoned by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) as government forces closed in on them in several areas over the last two weeks. Last month, many children were abducted when their school was raided by rebels. Officials say the LRA has abducted hundreds of children in northern Uganda in recent years, forcing them to fight as child soldiers if they are boys, or to become sex slaves for rebel commanders if they are girls. "We have been closing in on them (rebels) and they have always used any opportunity to flee and leave behind some of the abducted children, allowing us to rescue 150 of them in the last one week," another officer Lieutenant Paddy Ankunda told the AFP news agency, adding no rebels were killed in the operation. When asked if the army was perceived as powerless because they did not confront the rebels, Major Bantariza told the BBC the LRA were particularly hard to track. "You cannot confront terrorists who have no front line, they have no formation," he told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme. "We will pursue them wherever they go. If you say we are weak, how can a weak force rescue hundreds of people who would otherwise not have come back?"
I don’t know if I would call it a "rescue" instead of just finding them after the LRA thugs ran away.
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 9:31:18 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's hard to grasp a situation in which the Ugandan army are the good guys.... but here it is. Hey, isn't the LRA the group lead by the transvestite who says that he's Jesus Christ? Am I way off here? Anybody?
Posted by: Secret Master || 07/14/2003 13:21 Comments || Top||

#2  That's him. Mr. Kony. As whacked as they get, no small feat in this day and age.
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/14/2003 22:28 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Mob attacks pollsters who found few Palestinians want their old homes in Israel
A mob of about 100 Palestinian refugees stormed the office of a Ramallah polling organisation yesterday to stop it publishing a survey showing that five times as many refugees would prefer to settle permanently in a Palestinian state than return to their old homes in what is now Israel.
Lies! All lies!
The protesters pelted Khalil Shikaki, the director of the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, with eggs, smashed computers and assaulted the nine staff members on duty. A female worker was treated in hospital for her injuries. "This is a message for everyone not to tamper with our delusions rights," one of the rioters said.
"Don’t believe these dogs! We know what the people really want!"
Dr Shikaki, a leading West Bank political scientist, was undeterred. He said he was still putting the survey results on the centre’s website and seeking the widest possible exposure. "These people," he said, "had no idea what the results were. They were sold disinformation."
"Please don’t kill me!"
The poll, conducted among 4,500 refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Jordan, was the first to ask where they would want to live if Israel recognised a right of return. Only 10 per cent of the refugees chose Israel, even if they were allowed to live there with Palestinian citizenship; 54 per cent opted for the Palestinian state; 17 per cent for Jordan or Lebanon, and 2 per cent for other countries. Another 13 per cent rejected all these options, preferring to sit it out and wait for Israel to disappear, while 2 per cent didn’t know.
So half are waiting for a state that will never appear, and 13% more are waiting for Israel to go away. In other words, 2/3’s of them are delusional.
The future of more than three million refugees is critical to any lasting peace. It was one of the unresolved issues that caused the July 2000 Camp David summit to break down.
Well, that and all the splodydopes.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/14/2003 2:51:00 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who knows what the Palestinians really think?They don't have much more freedom of opinion than the Iraqis under Saddam.Obviously,quite a lot of them follow the party line.But we rarely hear from the others - for reasons like these.
Posted by: El Id || 07/14/2003 9:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Now you know why you can't trust polls coming out of the Arab world. Anyone (including western polling companies) asking the tough questions using the proper methodology gets killed by extremists. I'm surprised that this poll got past the data gathering phase. The Islamists must have been distracted by the "peace" negotiations.
Posted by: 11A5S || 07/14/2003 9:56 Comments || Top||


Africa: West
Liberia’s boy soldiers plan a final orgy of looting
Built like a brick house and smoking marijuana like a train, Colonel Mohammed Jabbie sank back into his chair beside a checkpoint. He had killed many times, he boasted with a watery smile, pointing to the machine-gun by his feet. "They call me Marabugu," he said, pulling hard on a spliff, "It means ’man with tiny schlong’ ’the death squad commander who always implements orders’." Outside, the river Po flowed lazily under a bridge, 12 miles north of the Liberian capital, Monrovia. If the rebels returned, the muscular militiaman said, he was ready to fight. But with his leader Charles Taylor, fondly referred to as "Crazy Charlie" "Pappy", apparently preparing to flee, he had other ideas. "You think my only focus is the gun. But now we gotta do something. We gotta lift ourselves up for tomorrow."
"And there ain’t nuttin’ that lifts up a man more than lootin’ an’ pillagin’!"
He was thinking of the younger generation, he said. On the wall beside him, a nine-year-old boy, the commander of the "Small Boys’ Unit", gripped an AK-47 rifle and swung his legs lazily. Under Charles Taylor, violence has become a way of life for Liberian teenagers. But as his grip on power weakens, they are growing restless, demoralised and, perhaps, slipping out of control.
This assumes that they were ever in control.
Mr Taylor is a pioneer in the dark trade of child soldiering. He has practically institutionalised it in Liberia. When he started his rebellion in 1990, he used armed boys and girls to oust the government. When he came to power, he used them to defend it. They make for powerful, unquestioning fighters. Bolstered by drugs and alcohol, they use women’s wigs, clothes and enemy bones to give them "supernatural" powers. Those who perish are easily replaced. Now that Liberia’s warlord-cum-President is apparently on the verge of leaving, fears are rising about what will become of his ill-disciplined, unpaid and drug-addict teenage fighters.
They’ll get waxed by the boy-soldiers of LURD, who will in turn get nailed by the next rebel group.
The US is considering sending peace-keeping troops to support a 3,000-strong West African force. Mr Taylor has promised to leave if they deploy. But his fighters, some not paid for months, have hinted at a final spree of looting as a form of severance pay. They call it Operation Pay Yourself. "If those troops come and treat us bad then we go back to the bush. Then we will do some more killing," a gunman from the "Fools Soon to Die" "Jungle Lions" militia said. However, others said they yearned to return to school. "Firing a gun is not what I want to do any more," said Rufus Kollie, a 21-year-old who admitted he could write only his name. "We want things to quieten down so I can learn."
If you were so intent on learning, Rufus me lad, you wouldn’t be hangin’ out with Charlie.
President George Bush’s decision on deployment is expected today after a meeting with Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, in New York. Mr Bush may not see any great strategic value in sending soldiers to Liberia when he is stretched elsewhere. But if nothing is done to stop Liberia’s war "consuming" its neighbours, the International Crisis Group says, "there will be further large-scale violence along much of the West African coastline." Across one border, in Sierra Leone, Mr Taylor helped start the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Across two others, in Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire, he also supported insurgencies. And to circumvent United Nations sanctions he welcomed unscrupulous characters to Liberia.
Did anyone in Liberiaever have scruples?
Those dealings are now coming home to roost. Guinea is supporting the main rebels, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd), which last month nearly stormed Monrovia. CÃŽte d’Ivoire is backing a smaller group to the east. Between them they control 60 per cent of Liberia. Both appear to have a sole objective of toppling Mr Taylor; neither is afraid to kill or maim civilians who gets in the way. The next few days are expected to be crucial. The Lurd has threatened a fresh offensive if America refuses to send troops. And it is not clear what Mr Taylor’s demoralised young soldiers will do.
Die, mostly. Another good reason for us to stay out of Liberia.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/14/2003 2:33:19 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like a child psychiatrist's dream....or nightmare,depending on you perspective.
Posted by: raptor || 07/14/2003 7:30 Comments || Top||


Home Front
A Muslim Missionary Group Draws New Scrutiny in U.S.
Heavily edited.
The name Tablighi Jamaat is Arabic for the "group that propagates the faith," and its members visit mosques and college campuses in small missionary bands, preaching a return to purist Islamic values and recruiting other Muslim men — often young men searching for identity — to join them for a few days or weeks on the road.
I love it when people go "searching for identity." I always want to ask, "Where was it last time you saw it? Did you look behind the couch?"
"We have a significant presence of Tablighi Jamaat in the United States, and we have found that Al Qaeda used them for recruiting, now and in the past," said Michael J. Heimbach, the deputy chief of the F.B.I.’s international terrorism section.
So turn them or shut ’em down.
The official added, "Then extremists use that as an assessment tool to evaluate individuals with particular zealousness and interest in going beyond what’s offered."
They're called funnels...
"It’s a very great accusation, a total lie," said Abdul Rahman Khan, a leader of the group’s North American leadership council. "Anybody who has been active in our work, who spends at least three days, will have an understanding of our peaceful nature."
Islam means peace, you silly kafirs.
"Lies! All lies!"
They preach a return to the teachings and trappings of Islam’s seventh-century founders, including segregation of women and rejection of activities like voting that they say distract Muslims from the worthier task of preparing for judgment day.
I think the seventh century thing gives it away. I mean in case you had any doubts.
"What we’re trying to do is unite the hearts of all people, and politics has a propensity to divide," said Walid-Muhammad Scott, a Philadelphia activist who is a member of the leadership council. "That’s why we don’t talk about it at all."
Politics have no place in the Khalifa. Nor do mini-skirts, beer, bikinis or naughty pictures.
Meanwhile, three Tabligh acolytes huddled over coffee in a Mexican restaurant across the street... Sprouting a small reddish beard and dressed in a long tunic and loose trousers, he said Tablighi Jamaat had rescued him from drugs. Now, he said, his name is Ali Abdullah and his dream is to study Islam in Pakistan.
Clue alert
"I want to be in a Muslim environment," he explained. Was he also interested in political causes like Chechnya, Kashmir or the Palestinian-Israeli conflict? "Man, I know I’d kill anybody who killed another Muslim," he blurted, rapping a quick drumbeat with his hand on the table. His two companions glared at him. One kicked him sharply under the table.
"Fool. You gave our secret plan for dire revenge to the kafir! There is only one way for you to redeem yourself now..." Laughed out loud, as those crazy kids on the Internet say.
Posted by: 11A5S || 07/14/2003 12:50:07 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Tablighi Jamaat started out as a non-violent movement aimed at 'purifying' those Indians who practised a mixture of Islam and Hinduism. It was in reaction to Hindu organisations who wanted to 'purify' the waverers into accepting Hinduism.
From this article on the TJ
an investigative report...brought to light for the first time the nexus between the TJ and the Harkat ul Mujahideen and their role in supporting Islamic extremist movements in different countries. He quoted office-bearers of the HUM: "Ours is basically a Sunni organisation close to the Deobandi school of thought. Our people are mostly impressed by the TJ. Most of our workers do come from the TJ. We regularly go to its annual meeting at Raiwind. Ours is a truly international network of genuine jehadi Muslims. We believe frontiers can never divide Muslims. They are one nation. They will remain a single entity.
The report also quoted the office-bearers as claiming that among foreign volunteers trained by them in their training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan were 16 African-American Muslims from various cities of the US and that funds for their activities mostly came from Muslim businessmen of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UK.
The February 1998, issue of the "Newsline", a monthly of Pakistan, quoted workers of the TJ as saying that the TJ had many offices in the US, Russia, the Central Asian Republics, South Africa, Australia and France and that many members of the Chechen Cabinet, including the Deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya, were workers of the TJ and participated in its proselytising activities. . One of them, merely identified as Khalil, said: " It is possible that France may become a Muslim state within my lifetime, due to the great momentum of Tablighi activity there."

The article also claims that the major cause of the upsurge in Islamic extremism in Central Asia and the Caucasus that occured after the Soviet Union collapsed, was the presence of hundreds of TJ preachers. It also states that among it's members was Javid Nassir, the then head of the ISI, who was forced out by the Clinton administration due to Nassir providing unused Stinger missiles from Afghanistan to Bosnian Muslims instead of returning them to the CIA.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 07/14/2003 2:35 Comments || Top||

#2  he said Tablighi Jamaat had rescued him from drugs.

Correction: A mental drug was simply substituted for chemical drugs.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 07/14/2003 10:05 Comments || Top||

#3  "What we’re trying to do is unite the hearts of all people, and politics has a propensity to divide,"

That Shia/Sunni thing is soooo political.
Posted by: Pink & Fluffy || 07/14/2003 10:37 Comments || Top||

#4  These are barbarians in our midst who use the very freedom they wish to destroy as a weapon.
Posted by: SPQR 2755 || 07/14/2003 10:42 Comments || Top||

#5  --often young men searching for identity--

Ahhh, living the California dream.
Posted by: Anonymous || 07/14/2003 13:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Thanks, Paul, for the excellent link.

I can't understand why someone isn't pumping money into the Brelvi/Sufi madrassahs and mosques to counter the Wahhabi/Salafi/Deobandi influence.
Posted by: 11A5S || 07/14/2003 14:12 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Palestinian militants threaten violence if disarmed
Does that headline make any sense? Didn't think so...
The two largest Palestinian militant groups have warned they will resume their attacks on Israel if the Palestinian Authority tries to disarm them. The militant Palestinian movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad say they will resume attacks against Israelis if the Palestinian Authority attempts to confiscate their weapons. Israel is demanding the disarming of the groups if the peace process is to move forward. Meanwhile, Israeli security forces are sweeping through the West Bank town of Ramallah where they believe an Israeli cab driver is being held. The 61-year-old's taxi was found abandoned near the town, and they suspect Palestinian militants of kidnapping him. Palestinian security forces are helping Israeli authorities in their search for the man.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/14/2003 00:41 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "If you mess with me I'll attack those innocent people over there!"
Posted by: Steve White || 07/14/2003 2:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Take away my gun and I'll shoot you! er...well...you know what I mean.
Posted by: Hodadenon || 07/14/2003 13:22 Comments || Top||

#3  WaPo this AM says thatthe statements are in response to the first actions of PA security to seize weapons. Anyone see any details on this?
Posted by: liberalhawk || 07/14/2003 13:54 Comments || Top||

#4  My first thought when I read the headline was of that classic scene in Blazing Saddles when Sheriff Bart takes himself hostage...
Posted by: snellenr || 07/14/2003 14:19 Comments || Top||

#5  snellenr,

As long as you don't grant them Bart's intelligence in using said ploy, an excellent parallel.
Posted by: Hodadenon || 07/14/2003 15:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Hodadenon, it would be a stretch to grant them Mongo's intelligence.

Posted by: Dripping Sarcasm || 07/14/2003 17:33 Comments || Top||


Israel questions alleged Irish bombmaker
Israel has arrested a suspected Irish bombmaker in the West Bank and is questioning him about the extent of his contact with Palestinian militants. British and Irish newspapers had reported earlier that a hunt was underway for a former Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombmaker suspected of training Palestinian militants in the West Bank. Israel has been on alert for attacks by foreigners acting on behalf of a 33-month-old Palestinian uprising since two British Muslims carried out a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv nightclub in April, killing three people. According to reports in London's Observer and Dublin's Sunday Independent, the suspect had been a member of the mainstream IRA guerrilla group but switched allegiances to the dissident Real IRA splinter group four years ago. The papers say he entered Israel on a British passport and slipped into the West Bank. Palestinian links with Northern Ireland stretch back to the early days of the three-decade conflict between Catholic republicans fighting to end British rule and Protestant loyalists committed to maintaining it.
Paddy's got a lot of 'splainin' to do...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/14/2003 00:36 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now I'm getting worried. The Paleos have finally figured out, after all those work accidents, that they don't know what they're doing with bombs. So they brought in a world expert.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/14/2003 2:35 Comments || Top||

#2  The IRA has quite a record of work accidents.
Posted by: Chuck || 07/14/2003 11:51 Comments || Top||

#3  The British media reported Monday that an Irish
national arrested by Israel on suspicion of coming
to teach Palestinian terrorists how to upgrade
their explosives is a journalist and not a member
of the Real IRA. Israeli security sources said
that they had received a report of a possible case of mistaken identity Monday evening, and
that they are investigating. The BBC identified the man as Sean O Muireagain, a reporter for the Irish-language newspaper "La," which is based in Belfast. A member of the paper's staff, Ciaran O Pronntaigh, told the BBC that Muireagain was "a well-known Irish language and Palestine Solidarity Committee activist in Belfast," who was reporting from the West Bank city of Jenin.
Muireagain was arrested Saturday in Ramallah
after Israel launched a manhunt for a suspected
Real IRA terrorist, following a tip-off from
the British security services.

The BBC says he's a journalist, so it must be true. Right?
Posted by: Steve || 07/14/2003 13:14 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Nine troops die in ambush set up by Chechen terrorists
Nine federals died, while five were wounded in an ambush, laid out by gunmen near the village of Borzoy, Chechnya, Tass learnt on Sunday at the headquarters of the United Army Group in the North Caucasus.

The terrorist act was committed on Saturday at around 17:00. While a motor convoy of federal troops was moving along a highway, it received a report about a mine, planted on a highway. A reconnaissance group of 15 drove forward in a truck. The truck hit a mine several minutes later. Some troops were killed, while others were fired on from an ambush.

Nine servicemen died in the battle, and five were wounded. A rapid deployment group from the closest military commandant’s office rushed to the place of the incident, dispersing attackers.
Posted by: 11A5S || 07/14/2003 12:21:50 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The terrorist act was committed on Saturday at around 17:00. *frowns* I'd think a terrorist act is technically one committed against civilians.

While a motor convoy of federal troops was moving along a highway, it received a report about a mine, planted on a highway. A reconnaissance group of 15 drove forward in a truck. The truck hit a mine several minutes later. Some troops were killed, while others were fired on from an ambush.

Hmm. Not the sharpest knives in the drawer...
Posted by: Ptah || 07/14/2003 7:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, you have to admit the recon detachment was successful in finding the mine and disarming it, one way or another...
Posted by: Dar || 07/14/2003 13:31 Comments || Top||

#3  I know that I keep babbling on this point, and that I'm "preaching to the choir," but it's interesting to observe the number of "incidents" like this with significant numbers of fatalities that get reported around the world, and compare it to the fact that the U.S. is being attacked 10-15 times a day in Iraq, and has had 31 people killed, by enemy action, since May 1.

Our people are doing "something" right.
Posted by: Ralph || 07/14/2003 19:08 Comments || Top||


Confessions of a Chechen Suicide Bomber
EFL. "I was a right deviationist wrecker." Sorry, wrong confession.
Colonel Ilya Shabalkin said: "During the interrogation, it was determined that terrorists belonged to the armed group commanded by former Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. The woman said, her name was Luiza Asmayeva, she was 23 years old, she came from the Naursky district of Chechnya. She said that she was forced to leave her home on February 9th, 2003. However, we found out that she had never lived on the address that she mentioned. The passport department had no record for the woman’s name either. The medical examination determined, the woman was very exhausted, she was four months pregnant. Her body was covered with bruises. The blood test revealed strong psychotropic drugs. The woman said, she was trained to be a living bomb for an act of terrorism in Grozny. Arab mercenaries were her "spiritual teachers" at a terrorist camp, where she was staying with other Chechen women.
Sounds like what the Symbionese Liberation Army did to Patty Hearst:
"Luiza Asmayeva said, they picked out ’living bombs’ from the Chechen women, who had no respectable men among their relatives, i.e. fathers and elder brothers. To suppress women’s will and make them perform terrorist acts, gunmen used various violent methods, including sexual violence as well. A way back home is cut for such women, because they are considered to be humiliated and stained according to local laws and customs. To speed up the process, terrorists also used psychotropic drugs. Terrorists humiliate women on a regular basis, driving them in despair, and they eventually have to agree to become suicide bombers."
While I don’t trust Pravda, it makes sense.
Posted by: 11A5S || 07/14/2003 12:16:05 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Sorry, wrong confession."

Heh. Wonder if our leftie friends like M.i.T. will own up to their pals who did this?
Posted by: Steve White || 07/14/2003 2:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Admiting to being a "Right Deviationist Wrecker" is never wrong.... unless of course you are a Trotskyite Internationalist working hand-in-glove with the Social Wrecking Centres.
Posted by: Shipman || 07/14/2003 10:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Comarade 11A5S is a clever alias for Grain Hoarding Kulak. I denounce him/her and his/her dawg/cat or small green lizard.
Posted by: Shipman || 07/14/2003 19:57 Comments || Top||



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