Bahrain is planning unprecedented five-day activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Dilmun civilisation next year, a senior official said.
In fabled Dilmun, ancestors of today's Arabs used to sit around drinking beer, cracking jokes, and eye-balling the girlies. That was 4500 years ago, of course, well before they got religion...
The golden jubilee celebrations will start on November 27, 2004, with an exhibition displaying documents and pictures of the Dilmun period from the archives of the Moesguard Museum in Denmark, assistant undersecretary of culture and national heritage, Sheikha Mai Al Khalifa said. The documents were collected by the Danish expedition team during 1953 and 1954. The celebrations will be held under the patronage of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
After the Flood, Utu Napishtim, the Sumerian version of Noah, was made immortal by the Gods. He went to live in Dilmun. I wonder if he's moved?
"In addition to a special concert, there will be a three-day conference on the Dilmun period and the related settlement," Sheikha Mai said. The conference will be held from November 29 to December 1. Other programmes will be held at the Bahrain Fort, Bahrain most prominent historical site. "The discovery of the Dilmun civilisation was significant locally as well as internationally," she said. "Through the golden jubilee celebration, we are reviving the importance of this archaeological discovery."
After Enkidu died, it was Gilgamesh who mused, "the sleeping and the dead, how alike they are." Gilgamesh sat by Enkidu's side for three days, "until a worm fell out his nose" â Enkidu's, not Gilgamesh's â then went to Dilmun to seek out Utu Napishtim.
Before 1954, the Dilmun civilisation was unheard of, she said. According to archeologists, Dilmun was an influential civilisation based in Bahrain and the Arabian Gulf. It provided a major trade route in the ancient world. It is also the meeting point for Mesopotamia. "The first time when Dilmun was mentioned before its discovery was in 1953 when Geoffrey Bibby visited Bahrain for the first time as an employee of one of the oil companies," noted Sheikha Mai. "As Bibby walked around the lands of Bahrain, he was struck by a strange site, large quantities of mounds of equal size in all directions across a very large area." Bibby returned to his colleagues in Aarhus, Denmark, where they began to study the site. To them, Bahrain was not more than a large historical burial place for the dead from neighbouring areas in ancient and subsequent historical times, she said.
Except for that really, really old guy who lived down by the wharf...
"The turning point was when a leading archaeologist, BF Globe [she means P.V. Glob], made a challenging claim that Bahrain was the centre of a special civilisation different from other nearby civilisations. "Globe claimed that burial grounds were used to bury the people of that civilisation. He argued the traces of Dilmun capital, villages and temples must be located beside these burial grounds somewhere on the land of Bahrain."
Gilgamesh arrived in Dilmun and asked Utu Napishtim: "What is the meaning of life?" Utu Napishtim gave him beer.
Globe and Bibby, formed the first Danish scientific archaeological expedition, the first of its type to reach the area in search of Dilmun. "The expedition took time to complete the excavation work in Bahrain and its neighbouring countries to uncover the 5,000-year-old civilisation," she said. "Dilmun was different from other civilisations. It had burial mounds, round seals and red pottery," she said.
More importantly, it had beer and babes. It developed into a center of trade and commerce, sending ships to import luxury items from Harappa, which is now in Pakland. You can guess what happened next...
The most important sites discovered so far are the archaeological Bahrain Fort, where the team had uncovered seven levels of archaeological towns; the Barbar temples, where they uncovered three levels of temples, the Deraz, where they uncovered an ancient Dilmun village; and Al A'ali burial mounds, explained Abdul Rahman Mesameh, director of Bahrain National Museum. "The golden jubilee aims to boost archaeological awareness among the residents and encourage research on the topic," he said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 14:22 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Bahrain kinda of a natural spot for an early trading civ. With the sea level lower they may not have needed the causeway.
A Yemeni provincial governor survived an apparent assassination attempt on Thursday but his brother was killed, the official news agency Saba reported. Ali Ahmed al-Rassas, governor of the oil-rich eastern Shabwa province, was slightly injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire on him during a visit to southern Yemen, an Interior Ministry official told Saba. His brother, Rassas Ahmed al-Rassas was killed, the official said. ''Preliminary information indicate that the incident was of criminal nature,'' he added.
"Hmmm... Unknown gunmen open fire on a provincial governor from ambush... LeGume! I believe this may be an incident of a criminial nature!"
"Brilliant, inspector! Brilliant!"
Yemen has faced lawlessness and attacks by suspected al Qaeda supporters.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Al Q, Al Q, oh my Al Q! It aint't Al Q it's your cousins!
The Ibb Appeals Court has backed on Monday the death sentence against Abid Abdulrazzaq Al-Kamil, the killer of three American aid workers of Jibla Hospital. Al Kamil, 30, killed one doctor, one administrators, and a purchasing agent in December 2002. The verdict stated that the excruciation should be made public.
They're going to excruciate him? Sounds painful...
He was sentenced on May 10 for premeditated murder of the three Americans. The judge clarified that all accounts of murder are directly blamed on the defendant, and that all evidence confirms he murdered the aid workers intentionally, and hence deserves capital punishment by firing squad. The ruling endorses the earlier ruling of the preliminary court of Ibb that issued a verdict of death to Al-Kamil. Al-Kamil confessed his crime, saying that the doctors were missionaries and converted some Muslims to Christianity.
Well! That certainly explains it...
After hearing the verdict, Al-Kamil, who was behind the bar, appeared calm and never showing being sorry; rather, he thanked God and prayed to him, lashing out at Arab leaders, accusing them of being the protectors of the âZionist stateâ. And that, according to him, there must be a crack down on these protecting forces of Israel.
Yeah, yeah. Somehow it's always the Jews' fault...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
If only he could kill more. Then the birds would sing and the frogs would croak. Life should end, yes death. Sweet death, like candy, little mints.
A New Zealand engineer who made world headlines with his home-built cruise missile says he has received "very serious" offers from an Iranian company to invest in the project. Bruce Simpson said the firm was linked to the aerospace and missile industries and was one of a number of inquiries from several countries including Pakistan, China and Lebanon. After "worrying about the bigger picture" and turning down the offers, the cash-strapped engineer found himself bankrupted by the Inland Revenue Department for non-payment of taxes.
The Iranians made "very serious inquiries about investing in the development of the X-jet technology," Mr Simpson said on his website, aardvark.co.nz. "I have since had emails from Pakistan, Lebanon, China and other countries, all of which sought to obtain details of the X-jet project and some of which have involved seemingly genuine offers of not insignificant payment for such information."
Mr Simpson said he contacted the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service who advised it was "certainly not sensible" to export such technology. Instead he signed a heads of agreement with a United States firm that would have set up a research and development plant in Waikato. The deal was scuttled last Monday when he was bankrupted. A bitter Mr Simpson says Inland Revenue was stupid to quash a deal that would have reaped cash "hundreds of times the value of the outstanding debt".
The 49-year-old engineer, website developer and software technician worked within a budget of $US5,000 to build his do-it-yourself cruise missile. The X-Jet is similar to the pulse-jets that powered Germanyâs V-1 missiles in World War Two and the GPS guided missile has a range of 160 kilometres, with a 10-kilogram warhead. Mr Simpson said he acquired most of the parts from the online auction house eBay, including a GPS system purchased for $US120 that "was delivered by international airmail in less than a week and passed through customs without any problems". The missile was no longer in his possession and its whereabouts would be kept secret "until an appropriate time", he said. BTW, any Rantburgers who feel like building their own cruise missile can purchase plans through Mr. Simpsonâs website aardvark.com.nz
Posted by: phil_b ||
12/06/2003 2:45:11 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Purchase plans? Great, now everyone will have cruise missles. And cheaper than ours!
Posted by: Charles ||
12/06/2003 11:40 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Anybody who goes into the average Hobby store in the country has most of the workings of cruise missle. Your average R/C enthusiast can hobble together enough technology to allow an aircraft to fly unassisted to a predetermined target.
recipe for cruise missle:
1 - off the shelf large scale R/C aircraft
1 - GPS with computer interface connection
1 - small lightwieght computer ( older off the shelf laptop will work nicely.
1- GPS maplink software
1 - custom made laptop to servo interface. ( the tricky part)
Assemble parts - test the system.
Adjust scale of aircraft to accomodate payload.
Most GPS will report speed and altitude accurate enough to provide a rudimentary " Internal Navigation System' to the R/C aircraft.
The only tricky part is writing software to interpret changes in direction requested by the "INS" into servo movements to the controls of the aircraft. There are serveral prototypes that could be used that are off the shelf. Lego mindstorms provides a compact simple to use and easy to interaface module to allow control of "servos" with computer driven commands. You probably wouldnt use it in the final model, but as an example of how the whole system would fit together, it would provide a pretty good baseline.
Posted by: frank martin ||
12/06/2003 13:25 Comments ||
Top||
#3
So you're telling me that when I go, it could be at the hands of a toy airplane cobbled together by jihadis and controlled by a PDA and Legos...
I'm so... not comforted.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2003 13:57 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Well, it's a bit more complicated that that to put together a missile with any accuracy at all.
GPS is only one part of the guidance system. What I am used to seeing called the Inertial Guidance System is based on gyroscopes used to detect yaw and pitch.
The basic principles behind the filtering algorithms which smooth and interpolate the readings from the gyros (usually plural) and the location device (in this case the GPS receiver tuned to the commercial band, non-corrected band) are well known, but accuracy with them is a fine art. Been there, been involved in doing that.
Of course, if all you want is to fly a model aircraft a mile or so and hit anything in the vague vicinity, then that's another matter. But I rather suspect you'd best use that radio controlled model airplane + laptop + GPS in calm weather .... ;-)
#5
remember - terror weapons dont have to be particularly militarily effective, they just have to scare the hell out of people. The jihadi designed - donkey deployed missle systems demostrate that design methodology.
As far as gyros go, the germans built versions of this sort of thing using 1940's pre-silicon age technology, Im sure there are all sorts of things today that could provide gyroscopic feedback to a system via a generic computer interface, which would then control the servo controls.
The Jihadis would never go for a solution like this, its much easier to get some hopped up pimply faced, 15 year old beat-off artist to simply drive a truck full of explosives to the local mall. Weapons systems innovation is not their forte, killing innocent women and children with weakminded pubescant males as weapons guidance systems and bulk explosives is their style.
Posted by: frank martin ||
12/06/2003 15:15 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Frank: a single board computer ($100 or so OTS) will work even better.
#7
Couple months ago there was a story about how this british RC club had just flown a robot model aircraft across the Atlantic totally under it's own control. GPS and a mini computer. They only used their remote for takeoff and landing. All you have to do is scale it up.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/06/2003 21:28 Comments ||
Top||
Just when you think itâs safe to cut back on the French-bashing, maybe have a nice Haut-Medoc with dinner tonight, the French go all French on you.
Families of Sept. 11 victims are outraged by a French Internet video game in which players shoot down passenger jets before they hit the World Trade Center towers. A video game. Yeah, letâs make a game out of the people who burned to death in the planes or fell to their deaths from the Towers. Good, clean fun. This gameâs been around for a while.
"New York Defender" has been played more than 1.5 million times since it was launched on the website Uzinagaz.com one month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. One whole month? Really hit you guys, didnât it?
Jonathan Pitcher of Paris, who runs the website, said heâs not trying to make fun of the killing of 2,752 people. "After the attacks, we felt there was nothing we could do," he told the New York paper. "But with the game, you could pretend to defend the World Trade Center." But the thing about this "game" is, you canât win.
Players shoot at the planes as they attack the towers, but the jets keep coming at a faster pace, and when a few strike the buildings the towers collapse. Because dudeâs trying to make an Important Political Point™.
Pitcher said he and his colleagues "wanted to show there isnât any way to win against terrorism. Because it doesnât matter how many planes you shoot. There are always new planes." And all kinds of new targets. The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Musee dâOrsay, the Invalides, Notre Dame, the Ile de la Cite, Montmarte, the entire Left Bank...
Posted by: Christopher Johnson ||
12/06/2003 12:20:54 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
You knew this was inevitable.
No sweat - they will reap a whirlwind that pales the WTC murders by many factors. I pity the average French citizen, no really, I do. Most people are simplisme - and being led by the nose by their "chosen" thought leaders - to use the fuzzy-wuzzy modern double-speak term. What a bullshit-shattering wake-up call awaits various populations living in self-satisfied little bubbles, as we were prior to 9/11, and the Turks were until last month. Sooner or later, each society will begin receiving it's "fair" share - and bubbles will be bursting everywhere... sort of like a Lawrence Welk show of Rogers & Astaire waltzing through murder, mayhem, and grief. (Is that an ugly image, or what?!)
Phrawnce, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chirac & De Villepin, Asshats Inc., will return to being France, regular "WTF Hit Us?" people soon enough. Then we shall see examples from our betters regards how we should think and react, etc. I do not look forward to it, however... it's just as obvious as a trout in the milk that it's coming. (Apologies to Hank)
#2
Pitcher said he and his colleagues "wanted to show there isnât any way to win against terrorism. Because it doesnât matter how many planes you shoot. There are always new planes."
Conversely, it doesn't matter how many skyscrapers the terrorists bring down - we can always take out another Muslim state sponsor.
#3
Pitcher said he and his colleagues "wanted to show there isnât any way to win against terrorism. Because it doesnât matter how many planes you shoot. There are always new planes."
In reality, planes don't just appear out of nowhere to fly themselves into buildings at an ever-increasing pace, so it doesn't make sense to try making a point by crafting a video game, as the video game environment is too easily manipulated and doesn't take many other factors into account.
I noticed this story in another website about two weeks ago. The details were skimpy: a 16 year old girl was found dead, with her body partially burned. Very sketchy details about the "culprits", except that I had the feeling that important details were being deliberately withheld. I looked around some more today and I was right:
The authorities have denied a newspaper report on Monday that there was a family link between the culprit and murdered schoolgirl 16-year-old Maja Bradaric. It refuted claims made in newspaper De Telegraaf that Maja was killed by her 18-year-old nephew, Goran M., a Bosnian Muslim of Nijmegen. It is alleged in the report that Goran committed premeditated murder, an NOS news report said. Sources close to the investigation claimed the schoolgirl, also of Bosnian descent, was killed because she had become too "westernised" and in regards boyfriends, had turned her back on the Muslim culture, bringing shame to her family circle. But the sources refused to label the murder an honour killing, a term frequently applied to deaths among the Muslim community. Such killings are designed to reverse any dishonour a victim has allegedly brought to a traditional Islamic family. Meanwhile, it is also alleged that Goranâs 18-year-old Muslim friend, Ferdi 0., helped him carry out the murder. Majaâs former boyfriend, 16-year-old Goran P., might also be prosecuted for being an accomplice to the crime. It is alleged that he is an important witness who has failed to come forward with information about the murder. Majaâs burning body was found shortly after midnight near the eastern city of Nijmegen on 18 November. The cause of death has not been made public, but an autopsy indicated the girl was dead before her body was set alight. The Dutch authorities are trying desperately to pin this on the former boyfriend and are steadfastly denying that this could have anything at all to do with religion or "culture". Some of the Dutch press Iâve been reading seems to say theyâre having increasing problems with their "immigrant" populations. BTW, Majaâs funeral was attended by over a thousand people. Her death struck a nerve somewhere.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
12/06/2003 3:18:31 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A Bosnian Serb general has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, for commanding a deliberate two-year campaign of terror against civilians during the blockade of Sarajevo. The general, Stanislav Galic, rained sniper fire and shells on the Muslim sector of the city that killed hundreds of people and wounded thousands, the conviction said. By a two-to-one decision on Friday, the United Nations war crimes tribunal said Galic, 60, ordered his troops to fire on civilians while they were shopping, tending gardens, fetching water from the river or going about their daily lives.
I remember one incident, where a pretty girl in a white dress went out to walk her dog. The sniper shot the dog first, then her...
It was the first decision at the UN court for the former Yugoslavia dealing exclusively with the siege of Sarajevo during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war that brought the world images of "Sniper Alley" and corpses of children killed by shells while playing in the snow.
And pretty girls dead in the street... Rot in jug, you rat bastard.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ordered his troops to kill little girls, did he? 20 years is too light. 200 years is more like it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/06/2003 1:14 Comments ||
Top||
#2
JFM, point made. Double standards are a bitch. There is plenty of brutality to go around. The news coverage on those conflicts were pretty one sided around here. No Rantburg, that I knew of, to keep me well informed then.
#3
At the core of all of these passion plays is the question: How far back do you want to go to establish "right" and "wrong" and "who owns the land" and "who conspired / collaborated with whom" etc. ad infinitum ad nauseum.
The Serb's 60 yr old revenge claims against Croats or Slovaks or Bosnians or Branch Davidians or Howdy Doodians who collaborated with Hitler have to end somewhere. As do all the other similar grievances, real or imagined. I would find it interesting to read what the Tito-approved history books used to indoctrinate the Serbs had to say...
Anything exceeding an average lifetime is pretty obviously slipping into the "Great Lie" category - assuming it had substantial truth to it in the first place.
And we haven't even begun to discuss what actions the "aggrieved" take in their campaigns of retribution... Genocide / ethnic cleansing ala Serb-style, arguably, is a course that should only be taken when faced with annihilation. The Serbs haven't faced that since the end of WW-II - and probably didn't even then. No wonder the Euros balked at dealing with the Balkans...
And we have Northern Ireland... Michael Collins and the whole mish-mash of Great Lies propagated by all sides (in degree, anyway) there...
And then we have the Paleos and their flavor of the Great Lie... Promulgated by their Egyptian "President" Arafish.
Ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Civilization? What civilization?
#4
How far back indeed. At one point or another, every square inch of land in the world has probably been stolen from somebody. Given that we are essentially territorial animals, and attacks and counterattacks will go on as long as we exist as a species (?not as long as we would like to think?)
The subjecyt about what the Muslims did to the Serbs during WW2. It was about the signal the Muslims sent to the Serbs by electing a member of a genocidal group. The kind of signals who make people nervous. In that case if you are very heavily outnumbered (like ten to one or more) then you flee, if you aren't then you split.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said they had the same sensitivity for all divine religions and the holy values of humanity, not just those of Islam. He said he sought to keep the distance between the integrity of faith and faith mixed up with terrorism. While cursing people involved in terrorism using holy values as an excuse, Erdogan said, "Racist, religious, and regionalist terror will always be condemned according to us and humanity."
I like Erdogan a lot more lately than I did back in March...
In his speech at the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Parliamentary Group meeting, Erdogan used the expression 'religionist terror' for the first time. He had previously explained that "the expression of Islamic terror offends me" as why he never linked the terrorist attacks in Istanbul to religion.
But now he has the guts to do it...
Erdogan underlined that the government describes all attacks against innocent people as terror, regardless of their opinion and beliefs. "We are the members of a big consistent movement that defines religionism, racism, and regionalism as our red lines, even in the legal political field. Since we are sensitive in the field of legal politics, it is obvious that we curse those who are involved in terror by using these elements as a means. It is our job to protect our nation, land, population, and our noble religion that is full of beauty from this trouble." Erdogan gave messages in his speech yesterday similar to the ones he gave immediately after the bombings. "People who thought they would be heard by exploding bombs will soon understand how wrong they are. A perception that demands concessions from justice and basic human rights will never have a right to live in this country."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Pamphlets supposedly circulated in the Tribal Areas by a little known Afghan organisation promised lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of rupees for killing any Pakistan Army soldier or âPakistani or foreign mujahideenâ, residents of the area told Daily Times.
Uhuh. Sounds like a setup...
The pamphlets, written in Pashtu, offered Rs 0.5 million for killing a soldier, Rs 0.3 million for âa Pakistan mujahidâ and Rs 0 5 million for âa foreign mujahidâ. The pamphlets also offered unspecified amounts of money to anyone attacking âarmy installations or any state interests inside Pakistanâ. Maybe those âIndian consulatesâ in South Afghanistan are finally going to live up to all the Pak whining... or maybe the Northern Alliance has had enough of the ISIâs games...
The leaflets asked the tribal people to help the Islamic government in Afghanistan. However, the local Wazir tribesmen expressed surprise at the pamphlets urging the targetting of Pakistani soldiers. Islamabad deployed thousands of regular troops in the Tribal Areas on its border with Afghanistan since December 2001 to stop possible infiltration of Al Qaeda and Taliban elements. Of course the Northern Alliance and the Indians see no difference between the âMujahideenâ and the Pakistani soldiers, but regardless of who is behind it, I would expect an attack on one of the Indian consulates in the next few months.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
12/06/2003 3:59:58 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
India said Friday it has developed a rocket engine that uses supercooled liquid fuel, a technology that would allow it to launch high-altitude satellites, send a man to the moon - or build intercontinental ballistic missiles. The engine proved its endurance by firing for nearly 17 minutes on the ground, the Indian Space Research Organization said in a statement. In a typical flight, the engine would need to burn only for about 12 minutes. Flight time to Karachi, 2 minutes. Flight time to Beijing, 5 minutes.
Such engines, known as "cryogenic" engines, are fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Rockets using these materials are primarily used to launch 2.5-ton communications satellites to orbits 22,000 miles above the earth. At that altitude, they match the speed of the rotating Earth and therefore stay fixed at one point above the ground. Only a few countries - including the United States, Russia and France - can build cryogenic engines. "It is a great milestone. I was never in doubt it would happen and I am happy it has happened now," said Rakesh Sharma, who traveled on a Russian spacecraft in 1984, becoming Indiaâs first man in space. Sharma said the technology was "crucial to the ultimate moon shot," alluding to Indiaâs plan to send a manned mission to the moon before 2015. They or the Chinese might get there before we get back.
The advance could also give India the ability to build intercontinental ballistic missiles. India has nuclear weapons and tested them in 1974 and 1998. India developed a rudimentary form of its cryogenic technology in 2001 and several tests were held after that to fine-tune it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/06/2003 1:35:33 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm not familiar with any hydrogen LOX ICBMs. I guess the Atlas was the last US ICBM to use liquid oxygen... doesn't exactly store well.
#2
I worked out in the missile patch around McConnell for three years. The payload didn't bother me, but the fuel scared the crap out of me.
Titan IIs used Nitrogen Tetroxide for a oxidizer and Aerozine-50 as fuel. A-50 is a 50/50 mix of Hydrazine and UDMH. The oxidizer and fuel are hyperbolic, they ignite when mixed. They would also turn your lungs to water and cause your eyeballs to melt.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/06/2003 21:54 Comments ||
Top||
The Sindh provincial assembly, in its first session on Friday after a break of 18 days, saw a heated exchange between members of the ruling Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the opposition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal over the harbouring of Al Qaeda operatives by religious parties. During a debate on the law and order in the province, Mustafa Kamal, a minister, charged the religious parties with protecting Al Qaeda terrorists in nazimsâ houses. âThese people evade any serious action against them,â he said. âIf ever a single such person (terrorist) was found in any MQM memberâs house, all of us would have been sitting here with handcuffs on, Mr Speaker!â He referred to a suicide bombing on a bus outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi in May last year in which 14 people, 11 of them French naval engineers, were killed, and questioned who was behind it. The government should revamp the education structure, he said, to discourage the growing wave of terrorism in Pakistani society.
Sounds like a good idea to me...
MMAâs Nasrullah Shaji, from the Jamaat-e-Islami, was enraged by the ministerâs speech, and said: âI am proud to be a jihadiâ.
At least we know which side he's on...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Suspected Maoist rebels abducted some 200 teenagers from two schools in western Nepal. Armed rebels raided the Nandeswari Secondary School in Achham district, 445 kilometres west of Kathmandu, and took away 130 boys and girls, the official said. Seventy other students were taken away on Thursday from the Bindeswari school in the same district, he said. Security forces did not know where the children were taken but that troops have launched a search. A security official said the rebels may have wanted to train the children as reinforcements for their self-styled People's Liberation Army. Officials say at least 300 teachers and students have died since the Maoists launched their insurgency in 1996, with the rebels viewing schools as symbols of government authority.
Maoism, like Islamism, works best when The Masses™ aren't too heavy on the book learnin'...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Kidnapping my kid from school wouldn't be a good way to develop my sympathy for your grassroots revolution.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/06/2003 17:54 Comments ||
Top||
"Bonded laborers"? You mean, like slaves?
The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday recovered and released 38 bonded labourers including 22 children after they were held captives by a brick kiln owner. LHC judge Syed Sakhi Hussain Bukhari promised petitioner Muhammad Abbas that he could seek Kasur district police officerâs help against brick kiln owner Haji Yousaf. Earlier, the court bailiff produced all the detainees in the court. The freed included Muhammad Sultan, Muhammad Sooba, Nizam Din, Muhammad Ramzan, Muhammad Hussain, Shafi Muhammad, Inayat Ali, Ramzan Ali, Zainab Bibi, Sughran, Zahida, Manzoor and Sharifan Bibi.
Slaves... Kids... Forced to make bricks... Amazing.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Shouldn't be big uptick on the surprise meter. Antebellum Southerners comparatively had to spend a lot of $ to buy Blacks for their houses and fields. Slavery is actually much more economically rational now. Still a prime source of stoop labor in Asia, and young female bodies for brothels there and elsewhere. Check out the September National Geographic.
Following the lead of the federal government, officials in Azad Kashmir have banned six militants groups, including one accused of staging a deadly terrorist attack on Indiaâs parliament two years ago. Five of the militants groups had been banned before and responded by renaming themselves. The sixth is a pro-Taliban group with offices in Pakistan and Britain.
That renaming yourself trick only works if the government wants to be tricked...
The new bans imposed Thursday, were the latest in a series of confidence-building measures taken by Pakistan and India to improve strained relations. The Kashmir offices of the banned groups also are being closed, said the regionâs deputy commissioner, Ahsan Khalid Kiyani.
To reopen around the block?
Pakistanâs Interior Ministry said Friday it had asked officials in Kashmir to move against the six groups banned by President Pervez Musharraf last month. âWe will not allow banned groups to operate in our controlled areas,â said Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, a senior official at the ministry in Islamabad. The six militant groups that were banned by Kashmir are Tehreek-i-Islami Pakistan, Millat-e-Islami, Khudam-ul Islam, Hezb-ul Tehrir, Jamiat-ul Furqan, and Jamiat-ul Ansar. The anti-India Khudam-ul Islam militant group was formerly known as Jaish-e-Mohammed. Jamiat-ul Ansar, another anti-India group was formerly known as Harkat-ul Mujahedeen. Hezb-ul Tehrir is a pro-Taliban group operating offices in Azad Kashmir and in Britain, said Kiyani.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Two recently banned religious extremist organisations, the Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan and Islami Tehrik Pakistan have decided to appeal to the Supreme Court (SC) against the governmentâs ban on them, sources told Daily Times.
"Yeah! Youse can't do dat to us! We got mouthpieces!"
âOther banned outfits including Jammiat-ul-Ansar, Khuddamul Islam and Jammat-ul-Furqan have decided to remain underground till the heat's off situation is normal,â sources said. Sources said these organisations would also seek the release of their bank accounts which were frozen by the State Bank of Pakistan and their offices which were sealed by the government.
I think they changed the subject again and they're back to the two groups going to court, rather than the ones that are "underground."
Sources said the Islami Tehirk Pakistan had formed a panel of lawyers headed by Advocate Syed Zulfiqar Naqvi. âMr Zulfiqar is now formalising the panel of lawyers and preparing the appeal to the SC,â sources added. Sources said the Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan had appointed Advocate Syed Ather Hussain Bukhari to form a panel of lawyers to file the petition against the governmentâs decision. Former Jaish-e-Muhammad which was divided in to two factions by the names of Khuddamul Islam headed by Maulana Masood Azhar and the other one Jammat-ul-Furqan headed by Maulana Jabbar, were also banned by the government in its recent exercise.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Hardball and razor-wire fencing. A surprisingly informative article from the NYT.
Excerpts:
As the guerrilla war against Iraqi insurgents intensifies, American soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in barbed wire. In selective cases, American soldiers are demolishing buildings thought to be used by Iraqi attackers. They have begun imprisoning the relatives of suspected guerrillas, in hopes of pressuring the insurgents to turn themselves in.
The Iraqis nodded and edged their cars through the line. Over to one side, an Iraqi man named Tariq muttered in anger. "I see no difference between us and the Palestinians," he said. "We didnât expect anything like this after Saddam fell."
"You have to understand the Arab mind," Capt. Todd Brown, a company commander with the Fourth Infantry Division, said as he stood outside the gates of Abu Hishma. "The only thing they understand is force â force, pride and saving face."
Posted by: roger dodger ||
12/06/2003 1:24:02 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I see no difference between us and the Palestinians," he said. Hey, walks like a duck...quacks like a duck....
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/06/2003 13:46 Comments ||
Top||
#2
You have to understand the Arab mind," Capt. Todd Brown
Democrats Vow to Avenge 2000 Florida Loss
In the state that decided the 2000 presidential race, Democratic leaders on Saturday accused Republicans of stealing the bitterly contested election and pledged to avenge that loss next year. "Al Gore won the state of Florida in 2000, and we should never forget it," Democratic Party whiner Chairman Terry McAuliffe said as state activists gathered for the second day of a three-day convention. Just before her lips fell off...
"Recount? We don' need no steenkin' recount!"
Meeting amid the resorts and attractions at Disney World, A very approprate setting for the Donks
the 5,000 delegates were hearing from most of the party's presidential candidates, all of whom were serving up criticism of President Bush. "Everything that you care about ... is vanishing," said Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo. "Our good jobs are vanishing. A lie.
Our civil rights are vanishing A lie..
Our clean air and clean water is vanishing. Another Lie
Osama bin Laden has vanished. Probably dead - no new videos for awhile.
Saddam Hussein has vanished. There is only one way to fix the problem: We've got to make George Bush vanish." Eh. Dick, President is not spelled v-a-n-i-s-h.
Added Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts: "On issue after issue, George Bush has given Socialists America a raw deal, and everyone in this room knows it." Kerry, in remarks prepared for delivery, said that the president "goes to Baghdad to carry around a fake Thanksgiving turkey while he cuts support for our troops and 40,000 veterans are left on a hospital waiting list." Ok. Flash test. Who cut support for the troops the most - Bush (either) or Clintion? And yes Kerry you can look at your books.
Kerry was referring to Bush's visit last week to U.S. troops, during which he posed with a turkey cooked to perfection and adorned with the makings of a table setting. Was the turley faked?
The freewheeling program also was planned to include front-runner Howard Dean, retired Army Gen. WeasleWesley Clark, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Sens. John Edwards and Joe Lieberman and former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun. The ninth major candidate, Al Sharpton, skipped the event to guest host NBC's "Saturday Night Live." Another fitting venue....
At least it was intentional comedy...
Florida Democrats say memories of the 2000 election still energize party voters. The Supreme Court halted the recount of state ballots after five weeks, with Bush ahead by just 537 votes out of 6 million cast. "We're going to beat George Bush again in the state of Florida in 2004," McAuliffe said. Just like we did in 2000.... in our wet dreams.... Carrie Meek, a former congresswoman from Miami, accused Bush of stealing the 2000 election and shouted to the crowd, "We should be ready for dire revenge!" Kerry, a Vietnam veteran and national security expert in the Senate, said: "I'm running for president because George Bush has shown he has no experience to be commander in chief and no plan for peace in Iraq. I know what it's like to be serving on the battlefield and looking back toward home at an administration that is failing the troops."
Me, too. That's why I wouldn't vote for Kerry while I still have fingers...
Kerry accused Bush of bowing to special interests over domestic policy, particularly the Medicare bill Congress recently passed. "The AARP (which supported the bill and just happens to represent millions of elderly) pays actors to play seniors in TV commercials. But real-life seniors are getting left out in the cold," he lied said.
#1
"Carrie Meek, a former congresswoman from Miami"
you'd think the "former" part of that statement might give them a clue as to how well this will actually play out. But it's tough to clue in the clueless.
Posted by: B ||
12/06/2003 13:22 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Was the turkey faked?
Must have been. Who would know more about fakes and turkeys than Gephardt and Kerry?
They look into a mirror often.
#3
LOL. The Donks didn't want a straw vote at the Florida donk fest.... the drawfs thought it might affect their standing in the Iowa livingroom ballot. Thank you Mayor Maddox! Who BTW has the most pissed upon SUV in Tallahassee.
#7
Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo. says "Our good jobs are vanishing."
Which "good jobs"? Democratic congresscritters? Democratic staffers that plan how to screw the Constitution? Democratic "power brokers" who find they're so marginalized they have no power to broker?
I've been offered two "good jobs" this past week: one as a computer software test technician ($38K a year) and as a technical writer for a computer chip manufacturer ($36K a year to start). Unfortunately, my disabilities make it impossible for me to take either.
In this city, there are two kinds of jobs: jobs related to technical services that require a strong background in science and a high competence factor in reading, writing, and speaking technical English; and tourist/service related jobs that require a warm body, strong back, and who cares what you think. The first pay well, the second pay minimum wage or a bit above. The higher the education level, the better the pay in the first category, while the second is cannon fodder, no matter what you know. The Democratic/Socialist political agenda has created thousands of people who cannot even think of filling the better jobs - their education is a joke, they have no skills, and they can't string five words together in a coherent sentence. At the same time, the Democratic party has jacked up the minimum wage so high, most jobs don't produce enough to make it worthwhile to hire someone to do them.
It's not the good jobs that are vanishing, it's the good candidates. And the blame for that can be laid directly at the Donkeys' feet.
I am constantly amazed at how fitting the Democratic Party's mascot is, and how the party grows into the image more and more every election.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/06/2003 21:04 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Dems think in terms of the Great Unwashed putting on their cloth caps and grabbing their lunch buckets in the morning and going down to the plant. It's still 1933 in Demland...
A walk down Nork Memory Lane...
Nine years have passed since leader Kim Jong Il left the first great footprints of his Songun leadership at a post of the Korean Peopleâs Army surrounded by young pine trees on the New Year of Juche 84 (1995). In this period, the Korean people have created a great epic of heroic feats which others would be unable to perform even in centuries. Yeah, the nineteenth century...
These miracles of Songun Korea praised by the world people as "myth of human history" include the blasting of the "fiction of collapse of north Korea," leap to a possessor of earth satellite and start of the grand march for building a prosperous powerful nation, adoption of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration and repatriation of 63 unconverted long-term prisoners, land rezoning of over 200,000 hectares in a matter of a few years, excavation of the Kaechon-Lake Thaesong Canal stretching over 150 km, emergence of a world "marathon queen," the creation of the grand mass gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" acclaimed as the acme of human culture, Kim Jong Ilâs foreign tour covering more than 50,000 ri that shook the world. White slag, magic rocks, flesh traffic, No Dongs... the list goes on and on.
The U.S. imperialists, reactionaries and mouthpieces on the payroll of imperialism set afloat a hundred and one rumors, crying with bravo that "the âdestructionâ of north Korea is a matter of time" and "socialism will disappear soon on the earth with the âcollapseâ of north Korea." The "fiction of the destruction of north Korea" about which the Western media shouted themselves hoarse went to pieces in every step of Kim Jong Ilâs unceasing journey of Songun leadership for 9 years. Yeah, well letâs not put that one to bed just yet...
The DPRK, a small country, put a satellite on the orbit in the first launch entirely with its own technique and wisdom in the difficult days of arduous long march. Now itâs the "arduous long march"? In six months, the "grueling arduous long march"? This might piss off their Chinese cousins. Not a good thing.
With the launch of satellite as a signal for building a prosperous powerful nation, the DPRK started the grand march towards the majestic goal. Kimmie gets porn! Everyone else...starves!
The historical summit meeting of the north and the south and adoption of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration were greatest event that set off a storm of sensation at home and abroad. I remember. We had a cookout...
63 unconverted long-term prisoners came back at a time to the socialist motherland. This was an auspicious event of the nation. I remember. We had another cookout...
On May 4, Juche 87 (1998), land-rezoning of gigantic scale was announced in Taebaek-ri, Changdo County, Kangwon Province. In the following five years at least 236,360 hectares of crop fields have been rezoned across the country, bring tremendous changes. Now we use even more land to feed even less people... or something like that. Hey, Kimmie said it was a great idea. What are we gonna do, say no?
The over 150km-long canal tens of meters wide from Taegak-ri, Kaechon City, South Phyongan Province, to Lake Thaesong in Kangso District, Nampho City, is a monumental creation of eternal value built by the Korean army and people in the Songun era. Tens of meters wide?
On August 29, Juche 88 (1999) Jong Song Ok, the DPRK woman marathoner, carried away gold medal at the womenâs marathon race of the 7th International Athletic Championships held in Sevilla, Spain. I run to take my mind off my hunger.
Great was the stir created by the grand Gymnastic Display and Artistic Performance "Arirang" performed by over 100,000 persons that opened at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang on April 29, Juche 91 (2002). Sounds like the Nork version of "Rent".
In Juche 90 (2001) the world was aboil with "Kim Jong Il Impact" and "Kim Jong Il Storm". Kim Jong Il made a long journey of more than 50,000 ri in Russia from July 26 to August 18 that year to perform an immortal exploit peculiar in the histories of the DPRK-Russia relations and world politics. Remember that? "Kimmie Fever"? Hello? Hello?
These miracles of Songun Korea are, indeed, a great pride of our sunâs nation. Now what nation can compete with that?
Posted by: tu3031 ||
12/06/2003 1:23:25 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Great was the stir created by the grand Gymnastic Display and Artistic Performance "Arirang" performed by over 100,000 persons that opened at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang
I remember it well...especially when they played the theme from "Chariots of the Sea of Fire"
#3
Complete divorce from reality - commie-style. "Kim Jong Il Impact" for a train ride in Russia? Lots of Songun and Juche. I give it a 7.5. Not a true rant, but classic moonbat stuff anyway.
A former prison inmate on a Honolulu-to-Seattle flight charged toward the cockpit, shouting that he wanted to see the pilot, and was subdued by undercover air marshals who were on board to monitor him.
I find that somehow comforting...
The incident involved 29-year-old Reno U. Maiava and occurred about 2 1/2 hours into Thursday's Northwest Airlines Flight 924, according to Dave Adams, spokesman for the federal air marshal service. Maiava, who spent 10 years in prison on two assault convictions, is on active supervision, according to the Washington state Department of Corrections.
What seat was his supervisor in?
Maiava leveled obscenities at federal officials during his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Friday. His hands and feet were shackled and he was accompanied by about 10 U.S. marshals, said Lawrence Lincoln, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. "It was quite a spectacle," Lincoln said.
Gosh. Sorry I missed it.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Two Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles clerks who helped up to 1,000 people obtain fraudulent driver's licenses were sentenced to federal prison terms Friday for document fraud. Consuelo Onate-Banzon, 46, the scheme's ringleader, was sentenced to three years and five months in prison and ordered to forfeit $200,000 in illegal earnings to the government. Her accomplice, Rony Razon, 31, received two years and three months and was ordered to forfeit $100,000. Both pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in September. Onate-Banzon and Razon helped hundreds of people, mostly Hispanic immigrants, obtain licenses over a five-year period. They were arrested in July. Their customers would pay $700 to $2,000 each for the licenses. Prosecutors said the two clerks employed five "runners" who recruited customers and would escort them directly to Onate-Banzon or Razon. There is no evidence that any would-be terrorists are among those who benefited from the scheme, U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty said.
Is there any evidence there weren't? If they had showed up, would they not have sold them drivers' licenses?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Had the same problem in Illinois -- lots of small fish, and a couple of big fish, convicted for this. But that involved selling licenses to truckers who were unsafe and couldn't get licensed otherwise. No terrorist angle then, either, but you never know until you run down all the licenses.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/06/2003 1:17 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Three years and two years. Add up the numbers and it seems the odds were pretty good. Ten and eight would be more like it! But hey, whatever!
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier today that international terrorism, which challenged the whole world, was also one of Russia's greatest threats. Putin was commenting on the terrorist attack that killed Russian Secret Service Director Nikolai Patrushev and Attorney General Vladimir Ustinov, as well as 36 others on a passenger train in Chechnya. 'The enemy is a very cruel, evil killer. It strikes mainly innocent people,' said Putin.
The West had better get it together on the Chechnya situation. The Russers obviously need help on it.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I still wouldn't trust Vladie any further than I could toss the Kremlin, left-handed. The guy just has a smell about him. Danish Mackerel, maybe...
#2
Well, here's part of my problem with the entire war on terror...as much as I would like to go Medieval on the Islamicists, as well as maybe on all of Islam....It does not seem to have done the Russians much good.
I don't want to hear that the Ruskies aren't good fighters B*S*...they have troops on the ground, going door to door, killing who I would probably recommend killing, and in reference to Grosny...virtually leveling whole cities...to no apparent appreciable good effect.
The US and Europe has given Russia a free hand in Chechnya, (but no atrocities Okay? Wink-Wink, Nod-Nod).
And still the Russians seem unable to pacify the population or subjugate the insurgency.
Hummmmm...I must be missing something here. I was hoping that Chechnya might somehow show the way to solve these problems....but alas.
#3
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier today that international terrorism, which challenged the whole world, was also one of Russia's greatest threats.
Question: Were the Russians not targeted, would he be singing the same tune?
#4
Bomb-a-Rama, you certainly are probably correct that without these Chechnya problems Putin would be singing a different tune...in a Major C Sharp Key of anti-US...lol
And Steve is right also, at some level, Chechnya couldn't have happened to two more deserving peoples, (Put the Chechnyians and Russians in a dark room and let God sort out the bodies in the bright light of morning)
But look what Erdogan of Turkey is saying today, posted in a different thread (when he was elected he scared the crap out of me)....maybe this all will eventually all add up to something.
#8
Corruption's one leg of the losing stool. Conscripts are a second leg - that's why they've decided to rebuilt their military.
The third leg looks like intelligence collection and reporting. I don't know the ins and outs of the way their intel resources are deployed, but they're acting like an army without good tactical intelligence. They have way too many surprises, and they're not nabbing enough mid- and upper-level hard boys.
If I was Putin, I'd be begging Bush to loan me the 501st MI Battalion for a year or so.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2003 11:15 Comments ||
Top||
#9
The Russian's war in Chechnya has its corruption and problems, big problems. But they are in some ways in the same boat as the US. We are dealing with the WoT somewhat symtomatically, as we are fighting the Jihadi nutcases. We have to do this. It is like Operation Torch in N Africa in WWII. Get a beachead going, start multiple fronts with the enemy to divide his resources.
The big thing, though is that we are fighting the enemy who derives his resources from petrodollars. Which the civilized world turns over to them. The strategic thing to do is to end this resource stream, and that path leads through the Saudi Royal Family and the Iranian Black Turbines Turbans. Dry up the money and the maddrasses will dry up, the terrorist groups will whither, and the Iranians and Saudis may have a chance to lead a decent life, if they want the opportunity.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/06/2003 13:14 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Alaska Paul you have it down. .com how many oil manifolds do you figure SA requires? I'd ask OP but he wouldn't tell.
#11
Lyndon, I'm an Intel puke, not a petroleum guy. It's not that I WON'T tell, but if I knew, I COULDN'T tell. Leavenworth is not my favorite neighborhood! My personal take is that the only thing that will end the petrodollars flowing to A-Q is an invasion of Saudi Arabia. That will take three to four divisions (it's a big place, and you've got to get ALL the ass-hats), which we don't have to spare right now. We need to start gearing back up for the WoT - we can't fight it with a "police force". We need four or five NEW divisions of ACTIVE forces, and a couple of dozen independent operating brigades of reserves/Guard. That'll take three years, minimum, to recruit, train, and equip. THEN we'll have a force to go east-west, and clean out the bad guys. Until Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld get it through their Texas thick heads we need a bigger military, it ain't gonna happen. Of course, even the current level of forces is better than what the Donkeys would like to see - no military at all.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/06/2003 21:24 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Dearest Lucky:
I could say Lucky Bastard...would that be a compliment? In any case, I thought I had a "LOL," after it. I did not mean this badly...it was a joke.
Still, be that as it may...Old Patriot has it right...just like Hillary Clinton (Grin maybe, but she also wants a much larger military footprint in Iraq), we do need 3 to 4 more active divisions.
But I don't want them ground up in a meat grinder...in Saudi Arabia or anywhere for that matter. Every American or Coalition death cuts me like a knife, as I am sure is true for everyone here.
I'm coming round to a position of preememtion that sould avoid nation building...I think this will become my new mantra.
I will flesh this out over time...but generally, as with Iraq, go in for a very limited period of time...depose whatever government is there...and just leave, telling them to be good...or we'll be back.
If Iraq breaks up into three constituent pieces...that's not our concern...which ever of the three seems a concern...we're back, for a couple of months that's all, however.
This will depend greatly on long range military lift capacity....hummmmm....if so, maybe forget the 4 or 5 extra divisions, 2 will do, put the extra money into military lift.
The world may scream, but after several successive governments here or there are deposed...maybe they'll get the idea.
President Fidel Castro insisted Friday that his socialist system will survive him, as he celebrated the 10th birthday of Elian Gonzalez - the shipwrecked boy who was the center of a fierce international custody battle. Castro characterized as "idiots" those who believe that socialist rule on the island will end with his death.
Yeah, you dumb guys! When Fidel dies, Egon Krenz will pick up the banner and march on!
"This revolution does not depend on one individual, or two, or three," Castro declared in a speech of more than two hours at a birthday celebration in the courtyard of Elian's school in the child's hometown of Cardenas, about 85 miles east of Havana. Speaking about a meeting he said occurred earlier Friday in Washington between Cuban Americans and U.S. officials, Castro said "that group of idiots ... would die of bitterness, of frustration and even shock to see how this country has resisted 45 years of blockade." The 77-year-old leader, who will celebrate 45 years in power this New Year's Day, also joked about his "longevity genes." His father, Angel Castro, was in his early 80s when he died October 1956, two years before the triumph of the Jan. 1, 1959 revolution.
Wonder if everybody was happy to see him go, too?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
President Fidel Castro insisted Friday that his socialist system will survive him
Do you see the Cuban flag? Well, the flag was created not by a Cuban independence fighther, but by one of the very early Cuban-Americans, who organized an expedition to Cuba in 1850... To annex Cuba to the United States. (He was captured and killed by the Spanish authorities.)
#6
Cubans don't have "long memories", but Fidel's propaganda machine made sure we didn't forget. The downside of using a propaganda machine, however, is that the people distrust you even when you tell the truth. For example, in 1983, Fidel Castro was right when he said the invasion of Grenada was not motivated by the safety of the American medical students. But the Cuban people discounted that rare truth from Fidel as part of the usual propaganda. We concentrated instead on mocking the highest Cuban military officer in Grenada, Pedro Tortolo Comas, who was rumored to have cowed away when the invasion came. (He actually fought bravely, and risked his life when he ran away to the Soviet Embassy to avoid capture.) To this daym tough, when somebody runs away from a fight we say; "he ran like Tortolo."
A drive to disarm fighters in Ivory Coast was in jeopardy Friday, with rebels backing away from the plan just hours after President Laurent Gbagbo announced it was imminent.
"Nah. We ain't done yet..."
Gbagbo had declared a Dec. 15 start date for nationwide disarmament, meant to secure peace after a nine-month civil war. The announcement Thursday night was enough to disperse mobs of angry pro-government activists who had maintained a four-day siege of the main French army base in Abidjan, the commercial capital of the West African nation. The loyalist protests, at times violent, demanded French and West African peacekeepers pull away from cease-fire lines, allowing the government to reopen attacks on rebels. Gbagbo spoke in the capital, Yamoussoukro, after meeting with rebel officials and peacekeepers deployed along a buffer zone dividing the government-held south from the rebel-held north. On Friday, however, rebel spokesman Antoine Beugre said there was no disarmament deal. "It's not been decided," Beugre said, saying top rebel leaders had not been present at the talks. The rebel leaders would have to review the pact before making a final decision on it, he said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This sounds serious. Perhaps it is time for the Froggies to fire up the nuke carrier Chuck de Gall and send it down Yamoussoukro way. Perhaps the simplissme Merkins could larn a thing or two from their bitters.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
12/06/2003 0:25 Comments ||
Top||
#2
4 days under siege,ah well.Guess that is about what you would expect fro our friends and allies the cheese-eating,surrender monkeys.
#3
Since the French decided to freelance the Ebony Grenadilla Ivory Coast themselves without UN help, they can get their asses out of the sling themselves. It's their show. Have a ball. We are backlogged on the WoT, sorry.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/06/2003 12:50 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The problem is, AP, it's the same war, just in a different flavor and a different location: we have Muslim heavies trying to destroy a secular government and replace it with a Muslim one. We could offer to lend the French a couple of Spectre gunships, and teach them how to use them, except France backs the Muslim rebels, of course.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/06/2003 21:10 Comments ||
Top||
Y'know, when you've got rebels in the north, and rebels in the south, and rebels in the west, maybe you're doing something wrong...
Sudan's government signed a peace deal on Thursday with northern rebels a day before it was due to receive a southern rebel delegation in the capital Khartoum for the first time in two decades of civil war. The agreement between the government and the northern Democratic Unionist party came as the government and southern rebels prepared to resume high-level peace talks in Kenya that have so far excluded the northerners. Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha signed the peace accord in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah with northern opposition leader Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani, according to Sudan's ambassador in the Saudi capital. Mirghani, who lives in exile in Cairo and Asmara, had recently warned that his party's exclusion from the government's peace talks with the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in Kenya augured badly for peace prospects.
Wants a piece of the action, does he?
SPLA leader John Garang said on Wednesday that he wants to share power not only with President Omar al-Beshir but with other political leaders once the ongoing peace process brings an end to the 20-year civil war. He had met in Cairo in May with Mirghani and Sadeq al-Mahdi, head of the Umma Party, the other main northern opposition party. The fresh round of talks with the southern rebels and the rebel visit to Khartoum Friday highlight the dramatic progress both sides have made toward ending the war in the two years since the United States threw its weight behind the negotiations.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A western Sudanese rebel group said on Friday 353 rebels, pro-government militiamen and troops had been killed in two days of fighting over an area with water in the arid Darfur region.
Those casualty figures coming out of Darfur are really heavy. Either there's some ferocious fighting going on there, or there are some first-class liars providing the information...
Government officials were not immediately available for comment about fighting in the area around 70 km southeast of Tina in Northern Darfur state. Officials have previously said there were military operations in the area. Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) Secretary-General Minni Arcua Minnawi said 250 government fighters and seven rebels were killed in fighting on Thursday. A day later, 91 on the government side and five rebels were killed, he said.
If those kill ratios are true, we'd better sign these guys up for Iraq...
âWe defeated them and kept control of an area with two dams. We killed many of their men and captured some of their military cars,â Minnawi said. The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the second main rebel group in the area, said it had also fought government troops and militias in the area but did not have casualty figures.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/06/2003 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So many "liberation movements"...so little time.
#2
Tina, an ethnic Zaghawa center, sits on the Chad-Sudan border. It was the nexus of terrific fighting in the early nineteen nineties as Chad forces backed by the Sudan government sought to (and did) oust Chad president Hissene Habre.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
