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Page 1: WoT Operations
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Scrappleface: NY Times Selects ’Individual of the Year’
(2003-12-22) -- After word that Time magazine had selected ’The American Soldier’ as its Person of the Year, The New York Times today announced its pick for "2003 Individual of the Year" -- The African-American Unemployed, Uninsured, Lesbian Woman with an Unwanted Pregnancy.

"We noticed that Time feigned patriotism by putting American troops on the cover, even though the story savaged President Bush’s foreign policy," said Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., publisher of The New York Times. "So, we just wanted to praise the heroism of the woman who’s fighting conservative laws which prevent her from marrying her lesbian partner. She worries that her children won’t be able to get into a good college due to the Bush war on affirmative action. She struggles to make ends meet due to Bush’s economic policy failures. And she desperately needs a partial-birth abortion to protect her mental health, but it’s illegal now and even if it weren’t she has no insurance."

Mr. Sulzberger said the Times’ editorial board’s second choice for Individual of the Year was Valerie Plame, wife of former ambassador Joe Wilson, who might have been one of the great undercover CIA agents of all time if an unnamed Bush administration official hadn’t revealed her identity to columnist Robert Novak
Scrappleface: News Fairly Unbalanced, We Report, You Decipher - best in Satire!
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2003 10:36:07 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What? No AIDS? No crack addiction? She's not homeless?
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2003 22:47 Comments || Top||


Farmer Collects Severed Limb And Drives For Help
A farmer whose arm was torn off in a tractor accident picked up the limb, climbed back on and headed for home to get help. "What was I supposed to do? Lie there and die?" James Arlen Mondy’s wife quoted him as saying. Doctors at St. John’s Regional Health Center in Springfield, Mo., were unable to reattach his arm after the Dec. 16 accident. He was recovering at the hospital Tuesday. Mondy, 56, was bumped off his tractor when it hit a hole. The spinning blades of a brush cutter then chopped off his arm at the shoulder.
I’ve put in a lot of miles on one of these brush cutters, they still scare the hell out of me.
On his ride home, he had to stop to open a gate, drove through, then got off the tractor again to close the gate, and continued on his way.
Got to make sure the cows don’t get out.
He started to feel lightheaded, but met a passing couple who summoned help.
Still grow them tough in the Heartland of America.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 4:26:11 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds a lot like that guy that cut off his own arm in UT. Tough-as-nails people - ya gotta love 'em.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 16:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Bet he paid for the ambulance in cash.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 17:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Bet he's back on that tractor pretty damn soon, too. Too much work to do to be sitting around a hospital.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/23/2003 18:13 Comments || Top||

#4  They ought to have the guy fly to a meeting of the Arab League and give a seminar on what it is to be tough. Maybe they would see the light and stop messing with us.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 19:46 Comments || Top||


Anti-Bullet Charm Fails Test
A traditional healer in Nigeria has died after an anti-bullet charm he prepared failed a potency test. The healer, Ashi Terfa, was allegedly shot dead by a client in Benue state, during trials for his product.
Damn! Now he won’t get to test his invisibility pill.
The herbalist reportedly tied the charm round his neck and asked his client to shoot him to test its efficacy. The client, Umaa Akor, has been charged with homicide since the herbalist allegedly asked to be shot at, according to the police spokesman Bode Fakeye.
Hey! It’s capitalism.
AFP news agency reports that the traditional healer’s skull was shattered after he insisted that a gun be fired at him. Mr Akor had reportedly gone for an ’insurance’ against bullets from the traditional healer.
Could be a market for flak-jackets in Nigeria.
Belief in witchcraft and charms thrives in Africa. Traditional healers are widely consulted for ’cures’ of various ailments and magical powers to protect their clients from wide range of misfortunes.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler || 12/23/2003 2:38:01 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This has been posted before, yet I'm still smiling at the thought.
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 2:49 Comments || Top||

#2  The post that keeps on giving.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 7:44 Comments || Top||

#3  But this one takes a back seat to the German guy who advertised on the internet for someone who be interested in being killed and then eaten by himself. He got over 12 answers and even rejected some of them who showed up as being "too fat" since his Mommy always told him to eat lean meat!
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/23/2003 8:06 Comments || Top||

#4  expect to receiv emails from this fool's "son" offering to share in his fortune....
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2003 10:52 Comments || Top||

#5  ...and you won't fall for it unless you're a journalist!
Posted by: Raj || 12/23/2003 12:09 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Joya Speech Breaks Wall of Silence
EFL
I think Afghanistan is going to be all right in the end.
Some call her a hero; some say she should be silenced. But the young female delegate from western Afghanistan who dared to call mujahedin leaders "criminals" has captivated her fellow citizens - even those who didn’t care much about the Constitutional Loya Jirga before. The speech of Malalai Joya, a 25-year-old delegate from Farah province, on the fourth day of the Loya Jirga was widely publicised, and now the public is clamouring to see photos of her.
One wonders what the Taliban did when it came to wanted posters.
Joya’s words caused a storm of controversy - not because her opinion was unusual, but because public criticism of jihadi leaders is rare and has always brought a severe backlash, including death threats.
Criticism of the murderers of innocents results in death threats. No surprise there.
But her speech, less than two minutes long, has broken through the wall of silence, and ordinary people now feel they can voice their criticism, too. Safia Shahab, a Kabuli in her mid-20s, said Joya is the leader of Afghan women. "Malalai’s speech was absolutely correct," she said. "These mujahedin blew Kabul city to pieces in the civil war."
That would be Hekmatyar, Islamically heroic former prime minister...
Mohammed Nasir, a 25-year-old resident of Khak-e-Jabar village near Kabul, is among Joya’s big fans after he heard about her speech on the radio. "If I get her picture, I will keep it with me, because she has pulled back the curtain to expose the facts," he said. Demonstrations have been held in support of Joya in several provinces, the BBC has reported.
Demonstrations against the jihadis in Afghanistan - this is surprising to me.
Some think so highly of Joya that they want to give her the title of "the second Malalai". Malalai is a famous 19th century Afghan woman who is credited with turning the tide in the battle of Maiwand, against the British. When the morning of the battle began with numerous casualties and Afghans began surrendering or running away, Malalai took up a sword to fight the British herself, singing an Afghan song, and inspired her countrymen to keep fighting.
The wahhabi deal doesn’t look like it’s any better of a fit for Afghanistan than communism was.
Joya’s foes, however, believe that her words were an offense to Islam and jihad.
Jihad was offended. Oh no. Maybe jihad should sample the decaf.
Abdul Halim Haqparast, 60, said that Joya be tried for saying such "rubbish, and insulting to Islam and mujahedin. She should be put on trial. And the court should be made off Ulemas [religious scholars].
Shouldn’t that be a jury of her peers? Guess they haven’t drafted that part yet.
"Any decision the Ulemas make should be implemented, so that other women don’t dare to do the same."
"Danged uppity wimmin!"
A student of Islamic law faculty at Kabul University, Sayed Afzel Sayidi, thinks that Malalai got it backwards, "The communists are the criminals who brought all this misfortune to our country - not the mujahedin. The mujahedin’s protection of our country’s daughters was a blessing, and they protected women from the evil of communists."
For 10 years I have protected my own daughter without making her where a full body gunny sack. So far so good. No communists have accosted her; we have kept her out of public schools.
While not directly using the words jihadis or mujahedin, Joya referred to some of the Loya Jirga delegates and leadership as criminals who "destroyed the country".
I guess she decided to forgo the appeasement option.
"They made our country the centre of national and international fighting," she said in her speech. "They were the people who put our country in its current condition, and want to again
. They should be tried in national and international courts. Even if our people forgive them, history will not." Her remarks caused some jihadi leaders to charge the stage, crying "Death to Communism!" and "Allahu Akbar [God is great]!"
I thought the Islamists were the fellow travelers of socialists and communists loke Arafat and Assad.
They are, whenever it suits them.
Loya Jirga chairman Sibghatullah Mujaddidi at first tried to remove Joya from the assembly, but backed down when other delegates objected. Joya was then asked to apologise, but she stood her ground and would not retract her accusations. Joya, who is staying with other delegates in the dorms of the Polytechnic near the Loya Jirga tent, has been given additional protection by the Afghan National Army and ISAF peacekeepers. The night of her speech, a group of men awakened the female delegates by shouting threats and calling her names. But security officials said they were not aware of any direct threats to Joya’s life.
Intimidation tactics? Does anyone remember the intimidation used by Hillary’s opponent in the race for the senate seat? Now that was some intimidation.
Sorry, Fred ran long - the rest was just incoherent remarks by her detractors. Edit as you like.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 12:16:57 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  God Bless Joya for standing up and saying what the men there wouldn't. I pray she doesn't go the way of so many others before her.
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 12:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Lincoln talked at Gettysburg, also for about two minutes, and only got eight profound sentences out. I'm missing something here. Not having elsewhere to look, I went back to the source link. Her critics crap carp about communists, but there's no quote of her advocating communism. Are all anti-Islamofascists communists? Or is this more primeval than that?
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 12:52 Comments || Top||

#3  I thought the Islamists were the fellow travelers of socialists and communists loke Arafat and Assad.

Not in Afghanistan, where the word "communist" doesn't conjure up images of French politicians and students who sympathize with the Islamist program, but rather brings back images of the Soviet invasion and occupation.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/23/2003 13:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Glenn- its a mix it think - in afghanistan in the '60s and '70s the SU was a big presence with foreign aid, etc. Most modernizers, feminists, etc were, IIUC, either members of the Communist party or fellow travelers of one sort or another. While the Party split into factions whose relationships are too complex to contemplate (think the usual leftie proclivity for splitting on ideological lines combined with the Afghan proclivity for changing sides, tangled personal loyalties, etc) at least some of which ended up more or less anti-Soviet, the Islamists would naturally tend to lump them all together. Apparently communist front groups still exist in Afghanistan, and are among the most bitter critics of the warlords and Northern alliance mujahadin - RAW (revolutionary Afghan Women, or whatever) would be one example.

Is it fair to call this woman a communist with no particular evidence? Of course not. But we should think back to how effective a tactic McCarthyism was here. And if lumping every feminist and secularist in with communism is McCarthyism, arguably lumping in Rahabani and other Mujahadin in with Al Qaeeda is no less.

I certainly agree that this womans defiance is a good thing, and the positive response is a good thing, but I would caution that Afghan politics is particularly messy and (as RC states) very much influenced by the memory of the Soviet occupation and who was on which side then, which are of rather greater significance to Afghans than Iraq or the World Trade Center.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 12/23/2003 13:35 Comments || Top||

#5  But we should think back to how effective a tactic McCarthyism was here.

*sigh*

So effective the fellow it's named for ended up abandoned by his own party and in disgrace. So effective that, today, accusations of McCarthyism have a more chilling effect on speech than actual McCarthyism did.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/23/2003 14:09 Comments || Top||

#6  I din't intend to steer us into the McCarthyism ditch. I think that the chief reason that the Communist regime was a miserable failure in Afghanistan was that the proponents tried to strip away the Afghan culture. I think the Taliban made the same mistake. From the way I read the following passage:

Malalai is a famous 19th century Afghan woman who is credited with turning the tide in the battle of Maiwand, against the British. When the morning of the battle began with numerous casualties and Afghans began surrendering or running away, Malalai took up a sword to fight the British herself, singing an Afghan song, and inspired her countrymen to keep fighting.

I don't think that culturally the Afghan women are subservient or the story of Malalai would not exist. The "women as cattle" strikes me as an import that hopefully will be rejected.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 14:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Perhaps she is/was a commie, but what other choices did she have in Afghanistan fair?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 14:52 Comments || Top||

#8  'Nother DP... meaning I don't think the Junior League was setting up a lot branches.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 14:53 Comments || Top||

#9  So that's what happened to the Kabul Debutantes' Ball...
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2003 15:11 Comments || Top||

#10  RC - McCarthy fell when he went to far, attacking the Army. and yes, its not real effective HERE anymore, but then we havent felt threatened by Communism in some time. Afghanistan was ruled by them, fairly brutally for some time. So its not unnatural that it would appeal there.

Shipman - well yeah, that was the problem - there really wasnt a liberal democratic tradition in Afghanistan.

SH- Good point - thats why its a good thing - the question will be how to institutionalize what youve pointed out.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 12/23/2003 15:24 Comments || Top||

#11  libhawk: Note my rhetorical "Are all anti-Islamofascists communists?" Considering myself to be anti-anything-fascist and simultaneously anti-communist (Marx was a dreamy visionary hopelessly deluded by Rousseau) and anti-Stalinist (Stalinists are both communists and fascists) I meant that as it read. And as far as McCarthy is comcerned, he was off the deep end, but post-Gorby we now know many of those he went after were traitors. In the Constitutional sense of the word. . .. ...
MUST RANT
Can't hold it back. Goddamned motherfucking atavistic Islamoturd assholes are offended because some woman dared open her mouth. Anybody disagree with that assessment?

I wanted to express it without profanity but I can't.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 15:34 Comments || Top||

#12  Glen - he called them criminals. Cant hardly fault them for not liking that. And yes, they DID fight a bitter fight for years against the communists. And then AGAINST the Taliban. Remember October 2001?? I do. We were working together witht the Norther Alliance. Some folks here in the West denounced Dubya for doing that, claiming the Northerne Alliance was "taliban lite" Well, in a country where the taliban didnt let girls go to elementary school, the mujahadin want MARRIED women to get their husbands permission before going to college. In a country where the Taliban didnt let women have any public role, the mujahaddin are ok with women voting, and sitting in the loya jirga - they just get upset when said women call them criminals. Taliban lite indeed. That was a slur, and it still is. Now i certainly hope that the power of Rahabbani and Abdul Sayaf is limited - they ARE the most reactionary pols in that country - but they are also much abused, and often unfairly. THEY risked their lives and lived in caves, fighting the Soviets, and eventually brought down the evil empire, while we ran TV specials about Poland. They deserve a tad more understanding.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 12/23/2003 15:45 Comments || Top||

#13  should be SHE called them criminals.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 12/23/2003 15:45 Comments || Top||

#14  LH, I don't think that we need to institutionalize anything for the Afghans. There appears to be a necessary confrontation by Afghans with the imported wahabbist cult from Pakistan.
From what I have read about the Leninists that returned from indoctrinization in Russia, I think they were morons. Lenin adapted Marxism to the situation in Russia, and Mao adapted Leninsm to China. The Afghan comminusts pissed everyone off by refusing to deviate from the Soviet model.

The trick was to get the Afghan people to recognize that they were being forcing to comform to Arab cultural norms that were not inherent to Islam.

My recommendation to anyone wishing to force Afghans to conform is to wear kevlar.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 16:30 Comments || Top||

#15  Please forgive me, but since we've already gotten our feet muddy in the McCarthy ditch...
"...we now know many of those he went after were traitors. In the Constitutional sense of the word..." I know I'm probably preaching to the choir in this venue, but I just like to see those words as often as possible. The 'usual media suspects' only tell us about the extremism of McCarthy, but they are quite muted about the many instances where he was proven right. Sorry for going off topic.
Posted by: Les Nessman || 12/23/2003 23:42 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudis confront soaring crime
EFL:
Saudi Arabia’s deeply conservative Islamic society is coming to terms with a crime wave ushered in by a population boom, rapid social change, increased unemployment and a reduction in oil revenue. A report this year by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency said crime among young jobless Saudis rose 320 percent from 1990 to 1996 and is expected to increase by an additional 136 percent by 2005.
The dumb ones go off on jihads, the clever ones stay home and become crooks.
Although official crime and unemployment statistics are not available, the number of jobless Saudis is estimated to be as high as 35 percent, and the al-Riyadh daily newspaper has reported that in 1999, courts dealt with 616 murder cases. The highest number of murders was in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.
Holy outrage, Batman!
"People here are totally confused. They don’t understand how crime can keep rising in this Muslim society," the newspaper said in a two-page special on crime.
I’m sure they are. They’ve been told since birth that all good muslims are, well, good. And since Saudi is the holy seat of the universe, it should be overflowing with goodness, right?
The days when Saudis could leave their homes unlocked, even when they went on vacation, are long gone. Thieves have taken to robbing whole apartments, after brazenly parking a van in the street outside. Police recently arrested a Saudi man, based on fingerprint evidence, who had burgled at least 25 houses in the capital. Riyadh police say that in the past three years, they have recorded more than 13,000 serious robberies. A highly publicized visit by de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah, a reformer, to a slum in a Riyadh suburb in January helped put the spotlight squarely on social deprivation. The mass-circulation Okaz Arabic-language daily subsequently ran a frank three-part series on Kerantina, a slum to the south of Jidda, from which undercover journalists reported that prostitution, drug abuse and alcohol smuggling are rife.
I’m sure they spent a lot of time investigating this problem, at least that’s what they told their editor.
The whole area, the article said, becomes a police no-go area after dark.
Any wonder why the cops can’t catch terrorists when they can’t bust hookers and bootleggers?
The number of drug smugglers, dealers and users in the kingdom has increased sharply, from 4,279 in 1986 to 17,199 in 2001, according to the latest published statistics. These figures probably only reveal the tip of the iceberg. At least three districts of Riyadh — Batha, Olaya and Badia — are safe havens for alcohol and drug smugglers, as is the Kerantina district of Jidda, the main city in the al-Jouf region on the Iraqi border, Sakaka, and Jizan, near the Saudi-Yemeni border in the south.
Note that the same areas show up in reports of firefights with terror suspects.
Heroin, hashish and amphetamines are the most commonly used drugs in Saudi Arabia, according to Maj. Gen. Sultan al-Harithi, director-general of the country’s antinarcotics department. But in an interview with a Saudi daily this year, he said, drugs are considered "a phenomenon, not a menace."
Right
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 10:43:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  People here are totally confused. They don’t understand how crime can keep rising in this Muslim society

Hmmm... I think I see the problem right there.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/23/2003 10:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Correction: Delete all after "confused."
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 11:39 Comments || Top||

#3  No Glenn, they seriously don't understand how crime can keep rising in their "Religion of Peace". It's un-thinkable to them that a Muslim would do harm to another Muslim. Therefore, it must be Mossad!
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 11:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Police recently arrested a Saudi man, based on fingerprint evidence, who had burgled at least 25 houses in the capital.

Serious crime my ass. Pros always wear gloves.

"Dumb jihadi crook!"
Posted by: Raj || 12/23/2003 12:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Charles #3: No. To feel confused, and to be confused, are not always congruent. Like I was sayin...
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 13:23 Comments || Top||

#6  "People here are totally confused. They don’t understand how crime can keep rising in this Muslim society,"

-blaming the Jews/Infidel in 3.....2.....1.....
Posted by: Brainiac || 12/23/2003 14:07 Comments || Top||

#7  It seems to me that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of Saudi society as we know it. They have been surfing in a dream world built on a big wave of oil money. Hang ten and all that. Now they are going to hit the beach and will have to adapt or go under. My two cents is on bottoming out, followed by upheaval and anarchy, and maybe, just maybe, a slow march forward. But that is just the optimist in me.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/23/2003 15:36 Comments || Top||

#8  An aside: The Kerantina neighborhood gets its name from the English "quarantine" referring to the old days when pilgrims just off the boat were thought to carry diseases. It was just as seedy in the '80's when I lived in Jeddah. I guess urban renewal still hasn't made its way there.
Posted by: Michael || 12/23/2003 16:52 Comments || Top||

#9  AP, that might be the longest (and best) surfing metaphor I've ever seen.... but you forgot to mention the sharks.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 17:18 Comments || Top||


GCC agrees to revise textbooks
Gulf Arab leaders have agreed to revise school textbooks which Washington claims fuel anti-Christian and anti-Jewish sentiments. The announcement came at the end of an annual meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - a political and military alliance grouping heavyweight Saudi Arabia with Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates - on Monday. The GCC has come under pressure from Washington since the September 11, 2001 attacks to reform school curricula. The educational reforms, stated in a treaty adopted by the leaders pledging to combat "terrorism", include removal from school textbooks of material describing followers of other religions as infidels and enemies of Islam. Critics say language exercises in Saudi schools have sometimes asked children to complete sentences like "God hates..." - the correct answer being "infidels".
That's very... ummm... not subtle.
A text used by 13 and 14-year-olds in Saudi Arabia used to call on Muslims not to befriend Christians and Jews because "emulation of the infidels leads to loving them". The passage was recently erased.
"Yeah. Go ahead. But watch yourselves!"
US officials, arguing that 15 of the September 11 hijackers were Saudis, have claimed such teaching lies behind the anti-Western sentiment that led to the attacks. The GCC said the educational reforms were based on a document presented by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Window dressing. Far too little. Far too late.
Posted by: .com || 12/23/2003 11:06 Comments || Top||


Britain
British "Student" held in Iraq released
A 21-year-old British student who was held captive in Iraq after allegedly trying to join a terrorist group has been released and is now back in the UK. Urslaan Khan, from Yarm, Teesside, was detained by a Kurdish group in early November near the northern city of Irbil.
Urslaan Khan, good British name that
It has now been revealed he was handed over to the Americans on 18 December and he is now believed to be back in the North East. After he was picked up, Kurdish forces told The Times newspaper they believed he travelled to Iraq to join Ansar al-Islam.
Now there’s a smart career move.
The US has designated the group as its main "terrorist adversary" in postwar Iraq.
Well, one of them.
Urslaan’s father, Abdul Khan, has always denied his son was intending to fight for the Iraqis against coalition forces, and described him as an adventurer rather than a terrorist.
I’d classify being grabbed by the Kurds as a possible Ansar member as a adventure.
Mr Khan was taking Arabic Studies at Manchester University’s Department of Middle Eastern Studies and was spending his third year at Egypt’s University of Alexandria.
Gee, nothing in this backround to make me think he was a terrorist.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 9:25:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!
Posted by: BH || 12/23/2003 9:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Awww, guys! Maybe just a terrorist wannabe?
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 10:18 Comments || Top||

#3  " Revenge is best served cold, and space is very cold. "
" Too bad you're in a prison cell. "
" Damn you Kirk. "
" My name is Steve. "
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 11:46 Comments || Top||

#4  "From hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."

"For the last time, Khan, we're letting you go. Here's your plane ticket back to England."

"Oh, OK."
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 11:55 Comments || Top||

#5  So: In the future, will the Army of Steve control the Federation?
Posted by: Matt || 12/23/2003 12:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Down, Ahab...
Posted by: mojo || 12/23/2003 13:20 Comments || Top||

#7  Hope he learned something in his adventures....
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2003 13:42 Comments || Top||

#8  Matt #5: Yes, but not the Federation you're thinking of:

Johnny Rico: "Someone asked me once if I knew the difference between a civilian and a citizen. I know now. A citizen has the courage to make the safety of the human race their personal responsibility! Dizzy was my friend. She was a soldier. But most important, she was a citizen of the Federation!"

Join the Army of Steve Mobile Infantry and save the Galaxy!
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 13:47 Comments || Top||

#9  Does the article specify what he was studying?
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 16:56 Comments || Top||


Muslim academic threatens to sue British MP
Expands on the article from four days ago...
A Palestinian academic is considering legal action against a British member of parliament after she accused him of "supporting terrorism". Dr Azzam Tamimi, spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), threatened to sue Louise Ellman MP if she ever repeated the accusations outside of the House of Commons. Ellman - who is protected from libel actions for statements she makes in parliament - accused Tamimi and other MAB members on Thursday of inciting racial hatred against British Jews. The MP cited a series of speeches in which Dr Tamimi attacked Israel and supported Palestinian resistance group Hamas, who she accused of murdering civilians.
On pretty good evidence, I'd say...
She also alleged he told a conference in Vienna that Jews should "sail on the sea in ships back to where they came from and all drown in it". Ellman told fellow MPs that the MAB and Tamimi were provoking anti-Semitism under the guise of anti-Zionism. "He and his arguments incite hatred against Jews," she said. "Messages put out by this association and other Islamist groups... incite growing violence against Jews in the UK."
Hate speech. Don't you hate it when those laws turn around and bite you?
However, Tamimi now believes he can proceed with legal action after Ellman stood by the allegations in a BBC radio programme. Dr Tamimi told Aljazeera.net on Monday: "We are seeking legal advice at the moment, but given what she said to the BBC on Friday I think we have a definite case against her." And the academic, who is one of the MAB's most prominent public faces, defended his support for Hamas. "I do have a formal relationship with Hamas and some of the leading members of Hamas were my classmates. I consider them a legitimate part of the Palestinian liberation struggle."
Your opinion doesn't negate her facts. In fact, it seems to strengthen them...
But he denied making some of the more inflammatory statements that Ellman, who he describes as an "arch Zionist", attributed to him. "It is against my Islamic and human principles to say things like 'We should drown the Jews'. My vision for a future Palestine is a larger entity where Jews, Muslims amd Christians can live together like they have done for 13 centuries.
"All they have to do is pay their dhimmi tax and we'll all get along fine, unless they have something we want, of course."
"What I did say is that if there are Jews who choose not to live in such a place, then we will help them to go back."
"As long as they can walk on water..."
He added: "I don't know where she gets things like that from ... I haven't even been to Vienna for two or three years and all the speeches I made there were in Arabic.
"None of you guys understand Arabic, do you? I thought not."
"Either she is lying about what I said or it has been poorly translated or distorted."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Either she is lying about what I said or it has been poorly translated or distorted."

OR you'll just a ass-hat trying to cover your tracks.
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 2:52 Comments || Top||

#2  If the guy's speech was poorly translated, then that can't be Ms. Ellman's fault now, can it Dr. Tamimi? If so, why is SHE being sued?

Oh, I get it - suing Ms. Ellman makes more sense because she's a higher profile target, right?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 12:45 Comments || Top||


Europe
Leaked Document Warns of New Attacks in Turkey
Police fear militants have infiltrated Turkey to organize attacks on U.S., Israeli and other Western interests or Istanbul’s most popular shopping mall over the Christmas season, according to an intelligence document made public Tuesday. "It is being detected that the preparations for a large-scale third wave of attacks to follow up the suicide bombings has been completed," said the document. "Some of those who will carry out the attacks entered Turkey from Syria, and the others were preparing to enter," it said.
Syria, huh? Didn’t they say they had caught all the bombers and sent them back?
The warning was dated Monday and signed by two senior police officials, including the head of the Istanbul security department. Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah said in a statement that the leaked document was an internal intelligence document aimed at "preventing possible attacks and warning (police) units to be vigilant and to be more sensitive." Cerrah said the document was erroneously sent to the security departments of several private companies, adding that the police officer responsible has been reassigned.
He’ll be walking a beat about now.
In Juneau...
The document was being circulated Tuesday through e-mail by staffers of the private companies. The leaked document warned of possible attacks against Western and Israeli targets, as well as the popular Akmerkez shopping mall, which has several foreign-owned shops.
Foreign-owned, staffed by Turks for Turkish shoppers. I thought they were trying to avoid muslim victims?
It said that Habip Aktas, a key suspect in the November bombings, was among those planning the new attacks. Captured militants have identified Aktas as the head of al-Qaida in Turkey.
Now he’s back in Turkey, or is he planning from Iran, Syria, etc?
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 3:56:13 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't know why AQ thinks that killing a bunch of muslim customers and salespeople at the Gap in Istanbul is effective PR for their cause.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 17:00 Comments || Top||

#2  As for hurting The Gap, losing a store and receiving worldwide free advertising is not a money loser for them either.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 17:02 Comments || Top||

#3  It doesn't matter who works there or who would be killed; it's all Western pollution to them. Compare to France's leftist nutjobs (a triple redundancy?) attacking and occupying a McDonald's.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/23/2003 20:53 Comments || Top||


France left out
Not EFL, its all good
France congratulated Britain and America yesterday for persuading Libya to surrender its weapons of mass destruction and admitted it had been kept in the dark throughout the talks. Dominique de Villepin, the foreign minister, took his hat off to London and Washington’s "exemplary" diplomatic efforts over the past few months that led to the Libyan leader Col Gaddafi’s surprise announcement on Friday, calling it a victory for "the entire international community".

But he was forced to admit in Le Figaro that France knew nothing of the nine months of secret negotiations. "We were not kept informed," M de Villepin said. His disclosure underlined the continuing mistrust in relations between the English-speaking powers and France, which made much of its opposition to war in Iraq. M de Villepin sought to gloss over the differences, describing the relationship as one of "extremely active and fertile co-operation".
"There is so much bullshit spread, how could it help but be fertile?"
His words contradicted those of Michele Alliot-Marie, defence minister, who claimed on Sunday that France was "perfectly informed of the negotiations" several months ago. Bizarrely, Mme Alliot-Marie denied there was any discrepancy between the two accounts, suggesting the foreign ministry was not as involved as her department.

M de Villepin rejected suggestions that France lost face by being kept out of the diplomatic loop, arguing that it was a perfect example of his vision of an interdependent, multi-polar world at work. "It is only natural that those who are best placed at a given moment to use their capabilities to the common good do so, as long as their action is of an unquestionably multilateral nature." He cited the recent diplomatic success of France, Britain and Germany in helping to persuade Iran to open its nuclear facilities to inspection.

He faced much the same difficulty as domestic critics of George W Bush and Tony Blair in seeking to explain away the apparent link between the effect of the allied invasion of Iraq and Col Gaddafi’s sudden surrender. Even the normally pro-government Le Figaro described the Libyan deal as a complete "semi-failure" for France, which has been against tough action against rogue states. Annick Lepetit, the Socialist party spokesman, said it signified "the isolation of France and French diplomacy in an area where it is traditionally influential".

In a further sign that France is still paying the price of its anti-war stance in Iraq, one of President Chirac’s closest aides yesterday accused certain members of the American administration of seeking to "isolate" Paris on the international scene. France is acutely sensitive to hints that it is being punished for its stance on Iraq. The latest target is the French aim to host an international experimental thermo-nuclear reactor in Cadarache. Pierre Lellouche, the French representative at the talks, said: "If at the end of the day the difficulties turn out not to be technical but political, we’ll all have to draw our own conclusions." He added: "I know very well that within the American administration some people intend to pursue a deliberate strategy of isolating France." Negotiations ended without agreement after America, along with South Korea, threw its weight behind Japan’s bid to host the reactor. Russia and China voted for France. Commentators also agreed that the deal has weakened France’s hand in compensation talks over the 1989 bombing of a French passenger plane that killed 170.
What did they expect?
Posted by: JerseyMike || 12/23/2003 2:51:14 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When I saw the title of this post, I thought it meant there had been regime change in France. Alas, it was not to be.
Posted by: Tibor || 12/23/2003 14:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Den Beste's article on this is, as usual, worth a look.
Posted by: BH || 12/23/2003 15:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Hell, this sounds so weird that maybe the Frogs did something right... NAW.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 15:04 Comments || Top||

#4  They're not being " punished for its stance on Iraq", they're being excluded from sensetive negotiations because they're a bunch of loud-mouths who're obviously on the OTHER side.

We didn't tell the freakin' Syrians or Iranians or Norks either. Figure it out, Dominique...
Posted by: mojo || 12/23/2003 15:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Beautiful. Please welcome Jacko and Little Nicky to the Wrong Side Of History©, ladies and gentlemen. Crow will be the main course, accompanied by a bitter cup of whine.

This should also be a stark reminder to the DNC about how a policy of "NON!" is usually doomed to failure.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/23/2003 15:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Annick Lepetit, the Socialist party spokesman

Great name, what a scream....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/23/2003 16:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Actually, several months ago Powell said France would pay a price. See, Dom and Jacques, Moamar was able to figure out that the AOW comprised sissies. How else do you explain that France initially accepted $34 million for UTA and we got 2.7 billion? You can bet Moamar had to chuckle over that. And then the French screaming that they wanted comparable money? Or they'd scuttle the US/Brit-Libya agreement in the UN?

AOW talked the talk in Iraq, but were Saddam and cronies saved? Moamar sure doesn't like us, but at least he respects us. He likes France but disrespects them. If you're Bush, how do you want to be considered?
Posted by: Michael || 12/23/2003 17:04 Comments || Top||

#8  I was watching French News last night and they were practically crying over Libya. The could not understand why Mumar would suddenly (and unilaterally) give up WMDs. France didn't get a chance to threaten them with their new Aircraft Carrier. Le besoin pour jouer notre jeu? Jouer avec notre balle et nos règles ou vous recevrez envoyé aux douches. France still thinks it is relevant, don't tell them the truth!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 12/23/2003 17:08 Comments || Top||

#9  But he was forced to admit in Le Figaro that France knew nothing of the nine months of secret negotiations.

"We were not kept informed,"

Goddamn straight. If the French would of been informed Everyfreaking body would of known about it
Posted by: Cheddarhead || 12/23/2003 17:35 Comments || Top||

#10  wwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

French whine. AHHH. The taste that refreshes.
Posted by: alaskasoldier || 12/23/2003 18:58 Comments || Top||

#11  The latest target is the French aim to host an international experimental thermo-nuclear reactor in Cadarache. Pierre Lellouche, the French representative at the talks, said: "If at the end of the day the difficulties turn out not to be technical but political, we’ll all have to draw our own conclusions."

So if the damn thing fizzles, it's Bush's fault?
Posted by: Ptah || 12/23/2003 21:56 Comments || Top||


German Court Won't Detain Mzoudi
A Moroccan charged with aiding the Hamburg al-Qaida cell that included three of the Sept. 11 hijackers can remain free while his trial continues, a court announced Tuesday, rejecting prosecutors' request to return the suspect to custody.
"Yeah. Go on. Have a beer or something..."
The Hamburg state court freed Abdelghani Mzoudi Dec. 11 after German federal investigators presented records of comments believed to have been made by Sept. 11 suspect Ramzi Bin al-shibh. It said only four people in Hamburg knew of the attack plot - and Mzoudi was not among them. Prosecutors lost a federal appeal against the decision Friday. On Tuesday, the Hamburg court said it had denied their second request to re-arrest Mzoudi, made after a federal agent testified last week that German authorities have more evidence against him. A court statement said the suspicions against Mzoudi remain not serious enough to warrant custody.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 14:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let us take a lesson from the Mossad. How many living members of the Black Semptember Movement are still drawing breath.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 17:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Great, now he can do that Christmas thing in the States. Thanks, germany.

If this mutt is involved in any attacks on us during the Holidays, maybe schroeder and fischer need to find an emtpy septic tank to hide in.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/23/2003 18:12 Comments || Top||

#3  The U.S. can't withhold EVERY evidence of substance, then send a fax that Binalshib sez Mzoudi wasn't involved and THEN expect our courts to convict him.

Sorry folks. Blame Ashcroft, not us. Just saying that "ummm we have some evidence but you can't have any of it" just doesn't cut it. Secrecy does only go that far.

Do you really think we want this guy to walk if he's guilty of something?
Posted by: True German Ally || 12/23/2003 18:41 Comments || Top||

#4  There will be guys that you can't get without losing more bigger fish. When he walks follow and see if he goes anyplace interesting. He will probably incriminate himself and others in another way shortly enough.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 19:54 Comments || Top||

#5  The WOT is against the jihadis not against each other. Be patient; most of them will be iced soon enough.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 19:57 Comments || Top||

#6  Do you really think we want this guy to walk if he's guilty of something?

Josak Fischer: "Of course Saddam is a dictator and what he has done to his people is evident..." [fischer] added that the international community should continue to use sanctions against Iraq to enforce compliance of Security Council resolutions.

As a matter of fact, I DO think there are people in germany, some of them holding ministerial rank in the government, who want to see this guy walk. What's a few hundred thousand in mass graves to fischer if he can stick it to Bush?
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/23/2003 21:58 Comments || Top||


Turkey seizes ’bomber’s cousin’
Who does those Beeb headlines? They've seized the 'bomber's cousin' and now they're 'working him over.' It's probably 'very painful.'
Turkish police have arrested a relative of one of the suspected masterminds of last month’s Istanbul bombings.
All together now; "It’s a family afair".
Mehmet Kus was taken to a state security court on Tuesday, according to Anatolia news agency. Turkish papers say police seized enough explosives in his house for five lorry bombs of the kind used to attack two synagogues, a bank and the British consulate, killing 62 people. Mr Kus is reported to be a cousin of Habip Aktas, who is alleged to be one of the key planners of the attacks.
Habib Aktas, Azad Ekinci and Gurcan Bac are the three reported leaders who either skipped to Iran, or are in Iraq planning attacks on US Forces.
Turkish media say his arrest came after another arrested suspect, Osman Eken, made a confession to prosecutors.
"Ouch, that hurt! The explosives are in Kus’s attic, now stop hitting me."
Mr Kus’s arrest also reportedly led to the detention of 11 people in Istanbul and the town of Konya, including one man, Harun Ilhan, who is alleged to have links with al-Qaeda. Among the explosive materials allegedly found in Mr Kus’ house were 12 sacks of potassium nitrate fertiliser, which was used in last month’s attacks. One report said the explosives were being stored for use once the current security clampdown had been come to an end.
Hiding explosives and lying low, good idea. Hiding explosives in your own house, dumb idea.
A man arrested last week, Adnan Ersoz, was described by police as the link-man between a Turkish extremist cell and an international terrorist group.
Which shall remain (al-Qaeda) nameless.
Newspapers said he got instructions directly from al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
He now says meeting was in 2001, prior to Tora Bora. With planning of bombing taking two years, that fits.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 11:25:54 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Murat? Have you admitted you were wrong about this, yet, or are you still holding out for the PKK?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/23/2003 11:42 Comments || Top||

#2  So they were planning to bomb the US air base in Turkey for two years, and only at the last moment decided that there was too much security and switched to softer targets? That seems unlikely...
Posted by: seafarious || 12/23/2003 11:42 Comments || Top||

#3  He's already in front of the court:
A court charged a Turkish man with aiding terrorists Tuesday after police found enough chemical fertilizer in his home to make five truck bombs like those used in last month's Istanbul suicide bombings, news reports said.
An arrested relative of Habip Aktas, a suspected leader of al-Qaida in Turkey, helped lead police to the 12 large sacks of chemical fertilizer at the home of Mehmet Kus in Istanbul, Turkish newspapers and television reported.Cables and explosives were also seized in the raid at the house, Sabah reported. The fertilizer was the same as that used to make the bombs in the four attacks, the Vatan and Sabah newspapers said.
On Tuesday, a State Security Court in Istanbul that deals with terrorism cases charged Kus with aiding and abetting terrorists, the semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported. Conviction on those charges carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Kus testified that the materials were given to him by another relative, but said he did not know what they were used for, Anatolia reported. NTV and Vatan said Kus was related to Aktas.
Police also detained Harun Ilhan, a suspected top member of al-Qaida in Turkey, Anatolia reported. It said he was detained in the central city of Konya. NTV television said some 20 people have been detained in Konya and Istanbul in the most recent sweep against militants. Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler on Tuesday refused to comment on the reports, citing an ongoing investigation. He told reporters a statement would be made later.


"I can say no more, at this time"


Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 11:47 Comments || Top||

#4  He's dead.
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 11:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Didn't the Turks eliminate the death penalty as part of their package to get into the EU? Can't they reinstate capital punishment temporarily and recind it at a later date.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 17:17 Comments || Top||

#6  SH#5 Ever hear 'died of natural causes,' or how about 'shot while trying to escape?'
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 18:59 Comments || Top||


Turkish police seize bomb-making materials in attacks probe
Turkish police have seized a large quantity of bomb-making materials, including fertilizer, as part of their investigations into last months’ deadly suicide bombings in Istanbul, press reports said on Tuesday.
They’ve been very busy rolling the bad guys up.
The materials include potassium nitrate fertilizer, explosives and electronic detonators, the newspapers Vatan and Sabah reported. They were found in the attic of a house in the city. The discovery followed a confession by Osman Eken, who has been taken into custody following the suicide attacks on November 15 and 20 in which 62 people were killed, including the four bombers. Nitrate-based bombs were used in the attacks against two synagogues, followed by the British consulate and offices of the London-based HSBC bank five days later. Sabah newspaper quoted Eken as having told police that the chemical fertilizer seized by police was to have been used for future attacks in the city.
Eken has been singing like a bird.
It's the result of skilled truncheon and moustachio work...
Turkish police have also warned US authorities about possible attacks in Iraq by Turkish members of the Al Qaeda Islamic extremist network, according to the Zaman newspaper. Three Turks, wanted by investigators into the Istanbul attacks, have reportedly recently entered Iraq via Syria and are reported to be organising attacks in the Iraqi town of Tikrit.
I thought they had fled to Iran?
Their identities and details have been passed on to the US authorities by Turkey’s security services, the newspaper added. About 30 suspects have been charged over the four suicide bombings in Istanbul for which the Al Qaeda network and the radical Islamist IBDA-C group have claimed responsibility.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 11:13:01 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Most of the Turkish al-Qaeda (or at least those directly involved in the Istanbooms) beat it for Syria or Iran after the attacks. The Syrians were said to have repatriated a couple dozen, but it looks like some slipped through the cracks and the Medes and the Persians tossed a few PKK Ankara's way to assuage their concern about Iranian involvement in the Istanbooms.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Turkish bombing have identical MO to Oklahoma City?

Murrah=Murat? Can't be!
Posted by: john || 12/23/2003 22:29 Comments || Top||


French official examines possible Cheney prosecution: paper
A French official is examining whether to prosecute US Vice President Dick Cheney over alleged complicity in the abuse of corporate assets dating from the time he was head of the services company Halliburton, the French newspaper Le Figaro said yesterday.
Must not be any financial crimes in France to prosecute. Everyone knows how honorable TotalFinaElf is.
The case stems from a contract by a consortium including the American company Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a Halliburton subsidiary, and a French company, Technip, to supply a gas complex to Nigeria, the newspaper reported. A Paris investigating magistrate has been conducting investigations since October into allegations that $US180 million ($A243.18 million) was paid in secret commissions during the late 1990s up to 2002 from funds established by the consortium in Madeira, the report said. Cheney was Halliburton’s chief executive between 1995 and 2000. In a letter to the attorney-general’s department, magistrate Reynaud van Ruymbeke ruled out directly prosecuting Cheney on a charge of bribing foreign officials, Le Figaro said. But the official did not exclude the possibility of prosecution on the grounds of complicity in misuse of corporate assets, it added.
The French really are on a one-way road to irrelevance and oblivion!
Posted by: Steve White || 12/23/2003 1:57:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The French really are on a one-way road to irrelevance and oblivion!

Even more so when you consider that their main idea on fighting "terrorism" is to ban the wearing of head scarves in school by muslim girls. Between that and leading the charge to form the RRF to compete with NATO just shows you how absolutely ego-centric and balmy Chirac and his ilk.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/23/2003 8:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Of course, anyone in the know can easily figure out what this is all about. Think Francois Pinault. (a buddy of Chirac's)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 10:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Anybody got a Lincoln Portrait says this isn't a clumsy attempt to forestall the delicious scene of Chirac on the witness stand in a California court to defend the character of buddy Francois Pinault over the Credit Lyonnais / Executive Life flap? Arnold's got a budget crisis to deal with, he can use every billion he can get!

Repeat after me: Independent Judiciary.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 10:35 Comments || Top||

#4  HEY! Quit writing comments while I'm trying to write the same comments! (:-)>
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 10:38 Comments || Top||

#5  I like the french they make me laugh.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 12/23/2003 10:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Root? Not Enoch "the Red" Root, I hope.
Posted by: mojo || 12/23/2003 10:54 Comments || Top||

#7  This is likely to be a Dem talking point one of these days. Perhaps Clark will run this up the flag pole to see who salutes it.

Off topic, but Clark has unleashed another classic:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2003/12/22/172630.shtml.

He says Clinton deserves credit for Libya's WMD decision. Why stop there? Why not credit Carter? Or LBJ?
Posted by: Tibor || 12/23/2003 12:06 Comments || Top||

#8  Or Franklin Pierce.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2003 12:36 Comments || Top||

#9  I credit Harrison for the decision.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/23/2003 13:13 Comments || Top||

#10  Hmmm... That's right. I forgot about "Tippecanoe and Tripoli, too!"
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2003 14:23 Comments || Top||

#11  Come to think of it, why not King George? If he hadn't overtaxed us and forced us to quarter British soldiers, we never would have revolted in the first place.

And if Columbus hadn't discovered America . . .

It's like Johnny Cochran said on South Park: "If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit!"
Posted by: Tibor || 12/23/2003 14:52 Comments || Top||

#12  Thomas Jefferson was the first President to smack the Libyans (et al.), so he gets credit for beginning their training. Hasn't anyone here heard of The Barbary Pirates?
Posted by: snellenr || 12/23/2003 17:12 Comments || Top||

#13  Hey RB'ers, the line "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute," is often credited to Jefferson, but it somehow doesn't sound like him. Anyone know the source? No, it wasn't Charles C. Pinckney (of XYZ fame) in Paris, either. His line was, "No! No! Not a sixpence!"
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 19:05 Comments || Top||

#14  Glenn, this link explains the origin of the phrase during the Jefferson presidency, and tells the tale of militant islam over the years. Interesting stuff:

http://www.zianet.com/wblase/endtimes/barbary.htm
Posted by: Tibor || 12/23/2003 20:01 Comments || Top||

#15  I just noticed that we RBers have managed to quote the South Park version of Johnny Cochran and Thomas Jefferson in the same thread.
Posted by: Tibor || 12/23/2003 20:03 Comments || Top||

#16  thanx, T. Page looks familiar, I may have been down this very road before, and there's the line, but no citation. 1800 was an election year, it's disappointing to think it came from some nameless political hack writer. Otoh, the impressive history Dave Barry Slept Here does have a still-timely Jefferson quote:

"To Hell with those dirtbags."
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 20:34 Comments || Top||


A little more on al-Qaeda financing of the Istanbooms
A man charged with helping organize last month’s suicide bombings in Istanbul has said al Qaeda provided $150,000 to carry out the attacks, local newspapers reported. Adnan Ersoz’s confession would be the first time a suspect has acknowledged al Qaeda financing of the bombings that killed 62 people. Ersoz, believed to be a senior member of al Qaeda in Turkey, was charged Friday with an offense amounting to treason. Police believe he was a link between the terror network and suicide bombers. Ersoz told police an Iranian sent him $50,000 by courier, and he later contacted Habip Aktas, the head of al Qaeda in Turkey, to get another $100,000 for the attackers, the newspapers reported. In court, Ersoz had denied advanced knowledge of the attacks or that he had received orders from Osama bin Laden, Anatolia news agency reported. He did admit in court to receiving military training in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:17:49 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  $150,000 ought to keep him in smokes, and buy him a marmonica to pass the time ... unless he's a punk.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 17:22 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
On The Road To Bangkok
EFL:
Even as the proposal on the construction of the world’s one of the largest rail network connecting New Delhi to place as far as Hanoi in Vietnam is beginning to determine India’s emerging role in the political and economic progress in South-East Asia, New Delhi has added another dimension to its ’look-east’ policy by offering support to a mega-construction project of an international highway connecting Delhi to Bangkok.
Be one hell of a road trip.
And if the visit of Myanmar’s Foreign Minister U Win Aung to New Delhi for a meeting with his Indian counterpart Yashwant Sinha here today is any indication then all this and much more would be reality within no time. New Delhi, which has been aiming for long to achieve economic supremacy in the South-East Asian region, has reasons to back the proposal as it would not only mean realistic commerce, but also India’s political pre-eminence in the subcontinent.
Becoming a major power in the region, and very few people in the west have noticed.
New Delhi is keen on reopening India’s ancient trade route to Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam that would not only help in the larger integration of the Asian region, but if India’s foreign policy observers are to be believed then it would also bring in mutual trade and commerce benefits bringing closer the rapidly changing South-East Asian economies to India that already is hitting headlines for its growing political and economic initiatives.
Not to mention military. Look at the map and you’ll see why India wants that aircraft carrier.
The federal government, led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who recently attended the Asean summit, has strongly favoured such initiatives as part of the government’s "look east" policy. "It is widely believed that with Saarc (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) and the Asean beginning to move closer, the Bangkok-Delhi highway and the rail link would change the way people look towards the Asian subcontinent," sources in the government said.
I think we know how the Chinese will look at it, they think it’s supposed to be their playground.
"If there is a slow but sure economic integration of Asia on the lines of European Union, it would mean a completely new world order," says an official at the Prime Minister’s Office.
We’ll be watching.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 3:03:29 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  gotta watch that bridge over the River Kwai, though
Posted by: liberalhawk || 12/23/2003 15:06 Comments || Top||


Imtiaz Jafferi arrested in Karachi
Pakistani police arrested a suspected member of a banned Shiite Muslim group accused in the killing of dozens of rival Sunnis, an officer said on Tuesday. Imtiaz Hussain Jafferi, 33, was arrested on Monday in a raid in Karachi’s Gulbahar neighborhood, said Omar Khitab, a deputy police superintendent in this southern port city. Jafferi allegedly belongs to Sipah-e-Mohammed, a Shiite group among seven militant organizations banned by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in a crackdown against religious extremism. Jafferi is wanted for alleged involvement in the killing of 38 Sunni Muslims and wounding 16 others in various attacks in Karachi, Khitab said.
So long, Jaff.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 2:42:32 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bad Bill Longley only killed 32. But they weren't Sunnis.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2003 14:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Did they take away the keys to his Motorcycle of Doom?
Posted by: seafarious || 12/23/2003 15:29 Comments || Top||


Chinese militant ’shot dead’
What's with the scare quotes? After he was 'shot dead' he started to 'rot.'
A man China put top of its first "terrorist" wanted list has been shot dead in Pakistan, Pakistan’s army and Chinese state media have said.
That was fast.
Hasan Mahsum, who China says set up the East Turkestan Islamic Movement with al-Qaeda’s help, was shot on 2 October, a Pakistan army spokesman said.
Well, no, I guess not.
He was one of eight people killed when troops besieged a suspected al-Qaeda hideout in South Waziristan. The spokesman did not elaborate on the delay in reporting the incident.
"Hey Ahmed, this guy the Chinese are looking for, doesn’t he look familiar?"
"Could be one of the guys we bagged couple months ago, anyway, all those chinese look alike to me."

Earlier, two Chinese official publications, the Beijing News and the International Herald Leader, reported Hasan Mahsum had been operating on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. They said he had been killed in a joint Pakistan-United States operation, but the Pakistan military spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, told the BBC that there ain't no such thing only Pakistani troops were involved.
"Nope, no Americans here, never happened."
"DNA tests were conducted to determine it was him," he said, adding that China played a part in identifying the body.
Guess we need to mark him down as a "maybe".
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 9:12:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "What's with the scare quotes?"

It's the beeb. BBC News "does" that.
Posted by: Korora || 12/23/2003 11:36 Comments || Top||

#2  I know. But it still looks "stoopid."
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2003 12:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Fred, the Beeeb..... Voice of the unwashed left in England. Of COURSE they look stoopid. Lately, though, it's been even worse. I'm sure they've been getting help from the US Democrats.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/23/2003 13:28 Comments || Top||


Pakistan suspects nuclear ’greed’
Pakistan has said a probe into possible nuclear technology transfers to Iran has shown some of its scientists may have been "motivated by greed".
No, you mean they weren’t motivated by their deep religious convictions?
Pakistan launched the investigation following information from Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said: "There are indications certain individuals might have been motivated by personal ambition or greed." Mr Khan insisted that the government had never authorised any transfer.
"Nope, nope, wasn’t us, it was them."
But he stressed that the probe had not yet made a "final determination".
"There may be a bit of wiggle room here, if we can just..."
"Let’s not jump to any conclusions," he told a news conference in the capital, Islamabad. Mr Khan said that only a "very small number" of Pakistan’s scientists were being questioned.
The expendable ones, perhaps?
On Monday, the government said the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was being questioned. At least two scientists from the country’s top nuclear facility, Khan Research Laboratories, were also debriefed this month. One of them is former director-general Mohammad Farooq, who is still being held.
I guess somebody’s bank account is going to show unauthorized deposits. If not, they will.

Now that IAEA has the evidence, in the form of Iran's technology that just by coincidence happens to ape Pakland's early technology, they have to stop flat-out lying. Plan B seems to involve selling a few people down the river.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 9:00:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What's this "nuclear greed" crap? Seems to me it's simply plain, run-of-the-mill greed, period.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 10:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Iran is the nut that needs to be cracked. How, dunno. But if a large attack happens here. Targets in Iran should be hit along with other targets.

Remember that whole "death to America" thing wasn't just a meaningless campaign sloagan.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/23/2003 11:52 Comments || Top||


Operation Clean Up
At the crack of dawn, December 15, 2003, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck unleashed his small military machine to expel an excess of 3,000 heavily armed Indian separatist rebels belonging to three different groups - the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) and the Kamatapur Liberation Organization (KLO). These rebels had made the Himalayan kingdom their home for the past 12 years, and from here they launched murderous hit-and-run strikes on security forces, other symbols of Governmental authority, as well as civilians, on Indian soil.

After years of vacillation, why did Thimphu decide to act now? The ULFA has been operating in Bhutan ever since the Indian Army launched Operation Bajrang in November 1990. The NDFB joined the ULFA later. It is, in fact, the relatively smaller and rag-tag group, the KLO, and its affiliations and linkages, more than the ULFA or the NDFB, that provide the key to the question as to why Thimphu chose to act now. Security circles in both India and Bhutan had been rattled by news of the launching of the Bhutan Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) on April 22, 2003, the 133rd birth anniversary of Lenin. Pamphlets widely circulated by this new group in the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal and in areas inside Bhutan itself revealed that the new party’s objective was to "smash the monarchy" and establish a "true and new democracy" in Bhutan. That was enough for the Indian and Bhutanese security establishment to put the ULFA, NDFB and the KLO under intensive surveillance and scrutiny.

It didn’t take long for New Delhi and Thimphu to identify the KLO as the group with a far greater nuisance value than perhaps the ULFA or the NDFB. The KLO is active and has pockets of influence in the strategic North areas of West Bengal and could act as a bridge between the Maoist guerrillas in Nepal (the Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist, or CPN-M) and the newly emerging Maoist force in Bhutan. Indian intelligence agencies were also aware of the fact that the KLO had provided sanctuary to fleeing Maoist rebels from Nepal, that the outfit has acted as a link between the Nepalese Maoists and radical left-wing activists in the Indian State of Bihar, and that it had received help from the Maoists in setting up a number of explosives manufacturing units in North Bengal. It was these deepening linkages that forced both New Delhi and Thimphu to agree that it was time to launch a direct assault on the rebels in Bhutan before the situation went out of hand.
Maoist groups seem to be growing quite large in India, Nepal, and now Bangladesh, so similar groups emerging in Bhutan was probably just a matter of time. Although the King might have saved his country by acting now, rather than latter.
But it takes quite a bit of money to run a serious insurgency. I wonder where that's coming from?
As far as the rebels are concerned, they need alternative bases as soon as possible, to cool their heels and plan their next course of action. The jungles of Myanmar, across Arunachal Pradesh, are one favoured destination. According to Khagen Sarma, Assam Police Inspector General (Special Branch), there are an estimated 400 ULFA rebels in a number of camps inside Myanmar. However, if the 1995 joint operations by the Indian and Myanmarese Armies, codenamed ’Operation Golden Bird,’ are any indication, Myanmar may not be a safe resting place, and still less a secure staging area, for the Indian insurgents. Dozens of ULFA and other Northeast Indian rebels were either killed or captured by troops of the two nations in a pincer attack during Operation Golden Bird along the Mizoram border.

That leaves two main options for the rebels to look for as an alternative destination: Bangladesh or Nepal. Neither, however, is going to be as easy as it had been in Bhutan. Contacts in Bangladesh will certainly be able to provide the rebels some more safe-houses (top ULFA leaders have been operating from safe houses in Bangladesh for years now), but that will not be enough to maintain a strike force of several hundred, or even several thousand, people. Areas within Nepal that are currently dominated by the Maoists, and where the Government’s presence is weak, may provide a temporary safe haven. However, considering Kathmandu’s friendly ties with New Delhi, this could at best serve as a transit base for the Northeast Indian rebels, and they would eventually be targeted by Nepal’s security forces. There has long been dissatisfaction among the ULFA cadres based in Bhutan on the hardship they have had to suffer, while the top leadership lives in relative security and significant luxury in Bangladesh.
That's certainly unusual, isn't it?
The ongoing Bhutanese assault could push these strains to breaking point. And to the extent that NDFB and KLO depend overwhelmingly on ULFA for their own survival and operational capacities, the weakening of the principal insurgent group in the region can only leave them deeply debilitated as well. While the precise direction of the future can hardly be predicted with certainty, Bhutan’s determined action against Indian insurgents on its soil will surely be a turning point in the history of several insurgencies in India’s Northeast.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/23/2003 12:22:54 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You can cross Myanmar off your list:

Myanmar Foreign Minister U Win Aung on Tuesday told reporters in New Delhi that his government would also be joining the Indo-Bhutanese crackdown on Indian insurgents. Speaking after attending a meeting to finalise modalities for a trilateral highway project, he said: "We will flush out Indian insurgent camps if any in our country." Asked to comment about reports that United Liberation Front of Asom(ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and Kamatapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) rebels were sneaking into Myanmar from Bhutan in the wake of the military action launched by the Royal Bhutan Army, he said there was no truth in it. "We have a policy of not allowing any insurgents to get into Myanmar. We will take whatever action is necessary," he said. Myanmar, he said, "will cooperate with the Indian Government" in this regard.

However:

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Government continues to maintain the view that there are no Indian insurgents on its soil. "There is no room for any terrorist or insurgent on our soil, and we have never allowed any terrorist as we can ill-afford this," Bangladesh Foreign Minister Morshed Khan was quoted as saying.

Bangladesh is in need of a good enema.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 10:14 Comments || Top||


Kashmir Korpse Kount
Twelve people were killed in separatist violence in Indian Kashmir and 14 were injured in a grenade attack on Monday, police said. Suspected militants hurled a grenade at a police patrol at Kulgam on the main highway between Srinagar and Jammu, injuring 12 civilian bystanders and two policemen, police said. Overnight, two militants barged into the home of a member of a state-backed militia in Daraj village, in Rajouri district, and tried to kidnap him and his son, a police spokesman said. The militiaman, Mohammed Sharief, killed one of the militants but was seriously injured and later died in hospital. Meanwhile, two women, Sharifa Begum and Kulsuma Bano, and a man, Ghulam Rasool Lone, were shot dead by suspected militants in Baramulla district. In the neighbouring Budgam district, police said militants shot dead Ghulam Ahmed, an alleged police source who was associated with the National Conference party. Three militants were killed by troops in shootings, said police
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/23/2003 12:15:21 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bhutan unearths huge arms cache
Apart from the killing of large number of their cadres, the ULFA and NDFB also lost huge amount of arms and ammunition during the ongoing army offensive against the outfits and KLO in Bhutan. As per the list given by the Bhutan government to its Indian counterpart, more than 700 types of assorted weapons have been so far seized from the camps which were busted in the jungles, according to official sources here. As many as 500 AK-47 rifles, over 100 pistols and other sophisticated weapons as anti-aircraft guns, 60 mm mortars, SLRs besides 150,000 rounds of ammunition and 80,000 rounds of AK series ammunition, were seized from the camps.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/23/2003 12:14:14 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm starting to love the hell out of this operation. I know the bad guys are still going to be in business this time next year, but it feels good to see them getting seriously beat up.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2003 0:18 Comments || Top||

#2 

If the truce with Pakistan turns out to be real (although I'm not holding my breath) wouldn't that free up more Indian troops to control the Indian side of the border? With any luck, that would leave them with only having dependable sanctuary in Nepal, if there, right?

Posted by: Phil Fraering || 12/23/2003 0:32 Comments || Top||

#3  These rebel groups are active in the North Eastern states of India, far away from the Pakistani border. Although if the ceasefire does hold for the next few months at least, then the Indians could transfer some of their troops to those states.
However, the major base of all these tribal based, non-muslim groups is Bangladesh, which refuses to do anything to crackdown on the camps or the leadership of these groups, which are now their only sanctuary. This is because Bangladesh is currently ruled by a coalition of Nationalist and Islamist parties, both of whom are anti-India and pro-Pakistan.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/23/2003 0:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Phil#2: Paul's source for his related post asserts the Indian Army is active, trying to seal the border, quietly helping behind the scenes. It would appear New Delhi was 1) cued, 2) not displeased by the setpic-tank-mucking. Hard to tell from the map, and probably some rugged country, but it looks like there's no escape from Bhutan without crossing either Indian or Chinese territory.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 4:32 Comments || Top||

#5  The big problem is, it's only about 40 miles from the Bhutan border across India to the Bangladesh border. There are places where it's only five or six miles between Bangladesh and Nepal. There's also a third small kingdom, Sikkim, between Nepal and Bhutan, but it's so landlocked it's almost impossible to go THROUGH it - better to go around. The area's a nightmare for India, because it's the bottleneck to India's eastern provinces. Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan are all mountainous, but the portion of India that goes around and between these nations and Bangladesh is rather flat - part of the Ganges-Bramaputra floodplain. To add to India's miseries, the Nagas of the far eastern portion of the country along Burma's border are also seeking to create a "tribal homeland". The whole area is a bonfire ready to be kindled.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/23/2003 13:44 Comments || Top||


Iraq
3 tied to top Iraqi are held
American troops have detained three Muslim militants with ties to Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a fugitive former top aide to Saddam Hussein, the head of the U.S. military task force here said on Tuesday. Douri, who has a $10 million bounty on his head, is No. 6 on the list of 55 Iraqis most wanted by the United States. He is believed to have helped direct anti-American insurgents and is one of the top former Iraqi officials still being sought.
Be nice to find him before he dies from that cancer he is supposed to have.
The U.S. military has been trying to determine possible links between Saddam loyalists and Muslim militants who may have crossed Iraq’s border to fight the occupation. Officials have alternately blamed Iraqis, foreign fighters or both for attacks.
I’ll take "both" for $500, Alex.
The head of the task force in Baquba, Lieutenant Colonel William Adamson, said the arrested men also had links to central Iraqi cities that are the fiercest areas of anti-American guerrilla resistance - Baquba, Falluja and Ramadi. "There are three individuals in custody, including the cell leader," he said. Adamson said the arrests, part of raids in Baquba over the past 24 hours, also netted another important four-member cell that included Major General Mumtaz al-Taji of the former intelligence department. He said all four were in custody and being interrogated. Taji is suspected of recruiting former Iraqi soldiers and directing attacks against U.S. occupation forces in the area. Witnesses and residents reported similar raids in several towns in the area. Dozens of suspected Saddam loyalists, Baath Party backers and Islamists are believed to have been arrested.
That must have been one hell of a list Sammy had.
I'd guess that the guys on his list had lists of their own...
Since Saddam was captured last week, the focus appears to have shifted to hunting middle- and low-level supporters of the former dictator.
That’s all that’s left.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 12:03:07 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That’s all that’s left.

Yeah, we kinda captured most of the high level ones. And the low-level people just keep dying for some odd reason.
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 12:08 Comments || Top||

#2  What's with these misleading topic headings today? When I read this one, I thought we had captured Chirac, Schroeder and George Galloway.
Posted by: Tibor || 12/23/2003 20:06 Comments || Top||


Fussing and Fighting in So. Iraq
On Wednesday 17 December soldiers from the First Battalion The Light Infantry in Basrah broke up a major tribal feud after two days of violence in the city. The fighting, between the Al-Abtut and Al-Hamadne tribes, ended after a one-hour gun battle between a hundred tribal members which left at least ten people injured. The dispute began in the Al Hartha area on Wednesday 17 December after a disagreement over a CD recording in the local market.
That sounds like reasonable grounds for a shootout between 100 guys...
It quickly spiraled into violence, and within hours groups of armed men were on the streets. British troops moved in to keep the tribes separated, and one Iraqi man was shot dead after he aimed a rocket-propelled grenade launcher at one of their vehicles.
"Jones!"
"Yessir?"
"Explain to the survivors: that's a no-no!"
Major Karl Hickman, commander of D Company 1LI, said a truce which, had been hastily brokered, broke down a few days later. “One of the WARRIOR crews on patrol spotted a large group of armed men, and another firefight began,” he said. “We deployed to the area to try and identify the troublemakers without becoming embroiled in the firefight itself.” The British troops were fired upon on several occasions with small arms and RPGs. One rocket hit Maj Hickman’s WARRIOR, but bounced off and caused no damage. “There was a bright flash, and that was it,” he said. “There is a small dent in the side of the vehicle, but that’s about it.”
That right there is enough to frustrate the hell out of a turban. They'll probably seethe for months over that.
As the firefight continued, two Challenger 2 tanks from D Sqn The Queen’s Royal Hussars were deployed to assist. Showing great discipline, the troops encircled the battle and began firing warning shots to encourage the tribes to disperse. As the fighters scrambled away, they were followed by the Challengers’ thermal sights, which enable the houses they were hiding in to be identified. A search operation was mounted and 25 men were arrested, many of whom were heavily armed.
"Hands up, Mahmoud! Drop the FROG launcher!"
Four heavy machine guns, ten AK47s, an RPG launcher and a considerable amount of ammunition were recovered, including 25 RPG rounds. The captured tribesmen were handed over to Iraqi Police. “The fighting was so intense that a large number of innocent people could have been shot and killed,” Maj Hickman said.
"Luckily, all the bad boyz were standing out in the middle of the street, looking heroic as they fired from the hip."
“This kind of fighting has restricted the amount of reconstruction work we have been able to do in this area. “I’m quite certain that it would have been a lot worse if we hadn’t been there.” Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Cuthbert, Commanding Officer of The Queen’s Royal Hussars Battlegroup, called a meeting with the Sheiks of the tribes involved and brokered a ten-day ceasefire to allow them to come to a peace agreement. “These two tribes have been feuding with each other for the last 40 years,” Maj. Hickman added.
"They started it."
"Did not. You started it!"
"Did not!"
"Liar!"
"Go fer yer guns, Mahmoud!"
"KNOCK IT OFF!"
“But we have left the sheiks in no doubt that ny further violence will be severely punished, and that the blame will be laid firmly at their doors.”
"Happens again, you guys lose your sheikh licenses. Understand?"
"Yes, effendi. (mutter mutter mutter...)"
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/23/2003 10:29:31 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "feuding ... for the last 40 years” but for the last 35 years the Baathists have had their heels on them. What this looks like is merely restarting the dialog of the local political crisis. It needs to be guided. "... ten-day ceasefire to allow them to come to a peace agreement" looks like as good a place to start as any.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 10:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Ten dead over a CD?

C'mon, guys. And not in the city, huh? If you just have to whack each other, take it out in the desert somewhere, ok?
Posted by: mojo || 12/23/2003 10:59 Comments || Top||

#3  "Drop the FROG launcher!"

A FROG is pretty durn big to be a handheld weapon. Maybe that guy should trade in his turban for a free weight set and angle for a job as circus strongman!
Posted by: Mike || 12/23/2003 11:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Yeah, the FROG launcher is just a couple dozen feet too long. And I doubt they would know how to use it anyway.

" Mahmoud, how do you work this thing? "
" How should I know? Read the manual. "
" I don't know how to read French though. "
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 12:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Mojo:

Ten dead over a CD?

Actually, 10 *injured* over a CD. I got a grim chuckle out of the image of 100 of these Bad Boyz(TM) blasting away at each other, yet no deaths.

Only death was a guy shot by a Brit, after the turban forgot Gun Safety Rule #1: Never point a weapon at a real soldier.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. || 12/23/2003 12:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Wonder who the artist on the CD was?
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/23/2003 12:29 Comments || Top||

#7  "Hands up, Mahmoud! Drop the FROG launcher!"

Subsequently, the launcher and the Frenchman both hit the ground with a sharp THUD.....
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 12:32 Comments || Top||

#8  "Luckily, all the bad boyz were standing out in the middle of the street, looking heroic as they fired from the hip.

Conscripts of the army of Luckies. I talked to 'em after the action and they were all piss'n and moan'n.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/23/2003 12:35 Comments || Top||

#9  Wonder who the artist on the CD was?

It was one of the "Golden Throat" CDs. Rumor has it they wanted to hear Phyllis Diller singing "Satisfaction" one more time.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/23/2003 13:15 Comments || Top||

#10  Wonder who the artist on the CD was?

Paris Hilton?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/23/2003 13:53 Comments || Top||

#11  Just so everybody can get a really good laugh, a FROG (Free Rocket Over Ground) is a SOVIET rocket, fired from a tracked or wheeled chassis. The FROG-7, which was the major Soviet export model, was mounted on a ZIL-135 8x8 truck that weighed in at about 14,000 pounds. The FROG had a range of about 35 miles, and could carry an HE, Chemical, biological, or tactical nuke warhead.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/23/2003 14:28 Comments || Top||

#12  When Nike Air hits the suuk, Basra society will surely unravel.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 17:49 Comments || Top||


Latin Night in Saddam’s Palace
The brass section strikes up a fiery tune, the congas set the beat and Sergeant Cesar Castro belts out a fast-paced salsa. It’s Latino night in Saddam’s palace, proudly brought to you by the U.S. forces occupying Iraq. Behind the band, a huge mural displays combat troops in action, a US flag and the words "God Bless Taskforce Ironhorse." Standard issue M-16 assault rifles are placed against the wall, and dress code is DCU — desert camouflage uniforms. The musicians are all from the U.S. army’s 4th Infantry Division, deployed since April in Tikrit, a hotspot of anti-coalition activity and the hometown of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, 180 kilometers (110 miles) north of Baghdad. Their inaugural gig a few days ago drew a small crowd of soldiers longing for the sounds of their native Puerto Rico, Mexico or Colombia after putting their lives on the line patroling the badlands of Iraq. The mood was a little subdued, perhaps because of the lack of rum or tequila, but the band managed to gradually warm up the cold hall in one of the three dozen palaces that dot the landscape of the Ironhorse military base. "The music connects us with our past, with the culture we miss out here," said Sergeant Juan Garcia, 37, who plays the congas in the band, called Fierro Caliente (hot iron.)
It's fun, too. Don't forget that part.
The 3,000 troops at the base include many Latinos, most born in Puerto Rico, Mexico or Colombia, but also in Peru, Ecuador or Venezuela. While they are all U.S. citizens or permanent residents, they say they miss the sounds and flavors of the lands of their forefathers. EFL
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/23/2003 9:15:53 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They are all American Army.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 10:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Rickeeee! I wanna be in the show! Waaaaaah!

Oh, Luceee!
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/23/2003 10:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Eat's like being on bacation
Posted by: Lucky || 12/23/2003 12:53 Comments || Top||


OPERATIONS CAPTURE TARGETED ENEMIES
During the last 24 hours, soldiers in Al Anbar conducted 237 patrols, including 32 joint patrols with the Iraqi Border Guard and Iraqi Police. Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division also carried out six offensive operations. Earlier this morning in 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division’s area, paratroopers conducted a cordon and search northwest of Fallujah to kill or capture former regime elements that continue to resist Coalition Forces in Fallujah.
"Your choice, Mahmoud: kill or capture. What's it gonna be?"
The operation resulted in the capture of 26 enemy personnel, including two former Iraqi generals and an Iraqi Special Forces colonel. Various small arms weapons were also confiscated during the search. Also, paratroopers worked on improving relationships with the local population with extended personal interaction.
"Hey, Hajji! Howzit goin'?"
"Hey, infidel dog! How're they hangin'?"
In 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division’s area, the soldiers carried out Operation Devil Siphon, which was an operation carried out in conjunction with the Iraqi Police to prevent the illegal transport and sale of black market fuel. The operation resulted in the confiscation of more than 35,000 liters of black market fuel and the detention of 30 Iraqis by the Iraqi Police. In Ar Ramadi, the owner of a gas station gave away the captured black market fuel to waiting customers.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/23/2003 8:27:41 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Operation Devil Siphon I'm missing my calling in life, who's the lucky devil that get's to make up these names?

Course I'd called this one Operation Georgia Credit Card.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 10:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Operation Devil Siphon

Operation Ex-Wife?
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 11:33 Comments || Top||

#3  In Ar Ramadi, the owner of a gas station gave away the captured black market fuel to waiting customers.

And there goes "War for Oil".

Steve: LOL! I take it you have personal experience.
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 12:00 Comments || Top||

#4  "Operation Ex-Girlfriend"

No, I'm not bitter...
Posted by: Raj || 12/23/2003 12:42 Comments || Top||


"We ain’t got game!": Iraqi students riot over GIs playing basketball
Students of an Iraqi university rioted on Monday, protesting the presence of US soldiers on the campus to play basketball.

Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division had been invited to the Diyala university outside Baquba, some 60 km northeast of Baghdad, to play a friendly match with the students.

But some 200 students, angered by their presence, started to demonstrate, said university spokesman Qusay Abdul Khaleq.

Two buildings were looted, with windows smashed and doors ripped off their hinges, he added.


Our Pravda-envious pals over at Agence France Press strike again!
(No need to employ our weapon of EFL because details of this are so "sketchy.")
Notice how the Leftist media will cover every Iraqi who suffers from indigestion when they eat a U.S.-made can of Spam (like Saddam) and blame America first but will ignore important news like the peaceful anti-terror, pro-Coalition demonstrations that have been occurring with more and more frequency in liberated Iraq.

In this case, it looks as if a couple of hundred young Iraqis got violent because they so clearly "ain’t got game."

AFP doesn’t spell out anything specific that is anti-American, but the implications are there, not the least of which is that they decided that this was "news."

Sounds like a simple case of Christmas pick-up to me and the Iraqis who "rioted" were just bitter because they couldn’t "join in any reindeer games." Ba’athists=Rudolph?
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/23/2003 7:14:14 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jennie--What's the URL to the story?
Posted by: Dar || 12/23/2003 9:31 Comments || Top||

#2  I fixed it.

Putting the anchor ("<a href") in the source line breaks things. The program adds in a second one.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2003 10:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Fred--The link now points to a Yahoo news article about Arafat. I looked but couldn't find the above article there.
Posted by: Dar || 12/23/2003 10:39 Comments || Top||

#4  There are and always will be those Arabs that are offended that the sun rises but once over their land. F%$K EM! Some GI's are playing Basketball so they destroy their classrooms? Next they will complain how unsafe the campus is. Hooligans! Round em up and send them to the gulag.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 12/23/2003 10:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Are there ice rinks in Iraq? Take these "students" and one by one, strap them to a goal net and let any GIs that know how to play hockey take one good shot...
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 10:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Found the link at Hindustan Times -- sounds much like the situation with the Egyptial foreign minister in Jerusalem yesterday. I'm angered by these students' presence in the university -- do we get to kick them out now?
Posted by: snellenr || 12/23/2003 10:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Dar#3: I couldn't find it in Yahoo news, either, but found it through them. Not to put past they'd pulled the story and re-used the URL. 'sok, the one you found was approximately as credible. And relevant.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 11:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Glenn--Thanks, that worked! I thought there'd be more, but this is pretty much the article in entirety here.
Posted by: Dar || 12/23/2003 11:46 Comments || Top||

#9  Here it is guys from the Hindustan Times:
Iraqi students riot over US soldiers' presence on campus
(Poor Fred. He thought he was fixing the link but he posted yesterday's of mine. Sorry, everyone!)
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/23/2003 12:40 Comments || Top||

#10  There must be a mistake. Shouldn't this have been an American university?
Posted by: Highlander || 12/23/2003 16:24 Comments || Top||

#11  Shouldn't this have been an American university?
Michigan State Univ isn't in session right now -- I was sorry to see that Googling "basketball riot iraq" actually brought up more stories about my old alma mater than Iraq. Sigh...
Posted by: snellenr || 12/23/2003 17:36 Comments || Top||

#12  Take these "students" and one by one, strap them to a goal net and let any GIs that know how to play hockey take one good shot...

Another reason to blame Chretien for not sending any Canadian troops....
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2003 21:15 Comments || Top||


Ayatollah Sistani says that clerics must stay out of politics
Some seven months since the fall of the regime, the elusive Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani remains adamantly against the involvement of Muslim religious leaders in Iraq’s politics and political institutions, but still advocates the elections of a constitutional convention.
I think he's "elusive" because he's trying to avoid getting bumped off...
In a rare communication with the press, Sistani outlined his thoughts on the new Iraq to Iraq Today, conveying his concerns and hopes for Muslims in Iraq. Sistani has long argued that the men of religion must advise people in their daily lives and concerns and open their mind to dangers matters of consciences they may face if they were to veer from Islam or religion in general. But, he said, religious men must give Muslims the chance to decide for themselves what is best for them. Men of religion should not order people or using them for their own sake and interests, because if they do they will lose the basic sense of being religious men.
They become politicians, like Iran has.
Nonetheless, he remains adamant that the new Iraqi constitution be formed soon with an election of constitutional convention members. "Everything should start with a general election to put the first steps to form the constitution conference in place," Sistani said. "As for the law, because Islam is the religion of most people in Iraq the rules of our Islam must be represented in some of the rules of the constitution."
But not based on it.
The steering committee responsible for choose the people who will likely write the constitution visited Sistani on several occasions several times, he said, and they agreed that elections should be organized to form the constitutional conference.
For that area of the world, Sistani is the voice of sweet reason. I'm not surprised his rivals are trying to ice him...
It has been a turbulent few months for Sistani, who has found himself in direct clashes with Moqtada Sader, Najaf’s fiery and confrontational preacher. Last month, clashes between Sader’s men and supporters of Sistani left 14 dead in a week of skirmishes centered on gaining control of the holy city from Sistani. "We hope that this kind of clash doesn’t happen again in the future," Sistani said. "When the clashes began I sent a special envoy to calm down the situation there and tried to solve the problems there. He succeeded in that."
Gave the boy a good talking to? I have a hard time believing that was all there was to it...
Sistani offered some reasoning for his abrupt pullout from Karbala’s town council two weeks ago, a move that sapped away much of the council’s legitimacy. The council, which was heavily populated by Sistani’sbackers, was expanded to 40 members to allow other groups to have a voice, including Sader’s. But in a sudden move, Sistani pulled his men out insisting that he did not want to answer for the council’s mistakes. "Our marja prefers not to interfere in the administrative affairs of the city," he wrote Iraq Today. "We will make sure to supply the needs of poor people and the people who need any kind of help with all the capabilities a marja can have." But Sistani refrained from any comments about the new government that [was] formed by Muqtada Al Sader and about his policy and what he has doing lately in Iraqi street. Despite a decades long feud, Sistani insists he is still in charge.
Wasn’t Sistani imprisoned for 15 years by Saddam Hussein? Was he running the feud from jail or was a proxy carrying it on in his absence?
Sader’s men have long dismissed Sistani for being non-Arab, insisting that al-Hawza be an Arabic institution. But Sistani rarely answers their dismissals, delicately managing the aggressiveness in order to avoid even bigger battles. Sistani may be fighting the battle of his life as infighting amongst the Hawza and the Shia in general has tainted the post-Saddam life of many Muslims in Iraq. But, he says, he is still confident his creed will prevail.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:12:43 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nothing poisons a religion worse than it becoming a governing force. Look a the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, buying and selling indulgences, playing politics with princes, etc. It almost destroyed itself and europe with it.

Look at the witch trials in New England under the auspices of the protestant churches there, and the backlash against the churches in the area as a result.

Look at the misuse of the Shinto religion in Japan to bolster pseduo-Bushido and promote Japanses racism that resulted in things like Nanking, Bataan and the Japanese WW2 biological torture experiments, as well as mass suicides like at Okinawa.

And look at what the Wahabbis have done in Saudi: preverted Islam in the name of power, with the ultimate expression being Bin Laden and his warped views. And of course there's the mullah-ocracy in Iran.

They not only screw up the country they govern, but they also screw up the religion they are supposed to have at their core.

Maybe Sistani noticed this. Smart man if he did.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/23/2003 4:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Anon #1: History shows, as you point out, merging religious and political authority corrupts both, explains the "Render unto Caesar ..." remark. This creates a problem for Islam; politics and religion are intertwined by definition. Mohammed first made his mark as a military leader. It takes a wise Imam to walk the Line.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 4:51 Comments || Top||

#3  "When the clashes began I sent a special envoy to calm down the situation there and tried to solve the problems there. He succeeded in that."

"I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 8:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Absolutely correct, people. When you merge religious and secular power, the church becomes merely a path that ruthless and hypocritical men use to climb to power. Happened to the Papacy. Cardinal Clinton? *shudders* Noooo thank you!

Let the Church teach men to listen to God, and challenge those who claim to be God's voice.
Posted by: Ptah || 12/23/2003 10:14 Comments || Top||

#5  You're all correct, of course, but the problem is that Islam is not only a religion, but it's a "political" system of government, too with shar'ia and the ulema.
If the clerics and imams can reach a point where they're comfortable keeping mosque and state separate (as in Turkey), then maybe we can get somewhere!
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/23/2003 10:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Not only has Sistani reached the point of keeping clerics out of govt, he would I think, claim that its been that way for a long time, at least among Shia, despite whats happened in Iran. In fact for most of the history of the muslim world the rulers were secular princes, though they were influenced by the Ulema (which basically means the clerical class, with overtones of connection to the urban merchant class ) The Sharia is a system of religious law that also regulates aspects of personal and social life deemed secular in Christianity - in that way its very similar to Jewish Halachah. The Jews, lacking a state till recently, and that state being founded by secularists, have done reasonably well at ignoring aspects of the Halachah that impinge on statecraft. The muslims have done that more recently, but until the rise of the fundies in the last 40 years they were making strong progress. Lets not confuse the claims of the fundies with the actual course of history in the muslim world since 1800.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 12/23/2003 11:06 Comments || Top||

#7  Gee, libhawk, you forgot whole swathes of the 19th and 20th Century that involved Islamic governments of the ulema and shari'a in which Muslim clerics drove the ideology of the state, usually involving violence--there's the entire Middle East thing from 1921 or so until today, then there's the Mahdi murdering Gen. Gordon at Khartoum at the turn of the last century,
the Ayatollah's violent takeover of Iran in '79, the split-off of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from India in 1949, and "new" 20th Century countries like Egypt putting "we must all be Islamic" in their constitution, which they are thinking of getting rid of now, and so on and so on.
I know you're trying to make us feel all warm and fuzzy about radical Islam, but check with Tom Friedman before you try to channel him.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/23/2003 13:01 Comments || Top||

#8  The muslims have done that more recently, but until the rise of the fundies in the last 40 years they were making strong progress.

The Muslim Brotherhood began, when, exactly?

Pakistan ("the land of the spiritually pure") splintered from Indian in what year?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/23/2003 13:23 Comments || Top||

#9  Most of the islamic heartland was ruled from 1800 to 1918 by the Ottoman empire, which WAS trying to modernize (see Bernard Lewis). Pakistan was founded as a SECULAR state, it was Muslim in the same sense that secularist Israel was Jewish. Egypt has been secularist for decades, and in fact Sayd Qutb (you DO know who he is, dont you?) died in an Egyptian prison. The ayatollahs takeover of Iran was part of the "last decades I was speaking of"

RC- The MB was founded in Egypt in the 1920's, but had little influence then. Egyptian MB first really burst on the scene with the assasination of Sadat in 1981, though the Egyptian state had been fighting it for some time before then.

Remember, "making strong progress" does not mean there was no resistance, or that there was unanmity.

And RC, as above, Pakistan was founded as a secular state in 1947.

and of course im not trying to get anyone warm and fuzzy about radical islam. Im trying clarify that not all muslims are radical muslims - something which our great President, George W. Bush, says all the time. And his good pal James Baker would probably agree.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 12/23/2003 15:19 Comments || Top||

#10  "An increased awareness among Central Asian Muslims of their religious inheritance or the practice of the tenets of Islam presents no intrinsic danger to Western energy interests in the region. Islam as a faith need not hinder close economic relatio ns between Western firms and Muslim states, as seen in long-term partnerships with many Islamic governments."

from a study by the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy
Posted by: liberalhawk || 12/23/2003 15:27 Comments || Top||

#11  "We're very quick to talk about Islamic fundamentalism and I think that is the wrong way to speak of it. Saudi Arabia is an Islamic fundamentalist state, but it is a friend of the United States and very important to the United States. And the national interests that we have in the Gulf I think we've demonstrated in -- in the aftermath of Kuwait. So, I always say, and I'm very careful to say whenever I speak of it, radical Islamic fundamentalism, because that really is what we're talking about. And it truly is antithetical to the West--to democratic values, free market principles, and to the principles and values we believe in. So, we should oppose it to the extent that our national interests require."

James Baker, Middle East Quarterly, 1994

Posted by: liberalhawk || 12/23/2003 15:30 Comments || Top||

#12  So it turns out James Baker not only doesnt see all muslims as radical islamic fundamentalists - he doesnt even see all islamic fundamentalists as radical - the Wahabism practiced by the Saudi state is just fine with him. Well on that I would respectfully disagree - it was the Wahabism practiced by the Saudi state that subverted the secular state in Pakistan, among other places.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 12/23/2003 15:34 Comments || Top||

#13  I don't know why you are so "queer" for James Baker, but I wish you'd give it a rest!
You've totally wandered off the topic of this thread (Typical Leftist).
We're not concerned with James Baker here (who is Pro-Israel and anti-IslamoFascism) but with this cleric and whether or not his stance for a secular government in Iraq will "catch on" with other Islamic clerics.
It's no secret by now that Saudi Arabia has been exporting radical Wahhab Islam around the world for years and their chief targets for money and support have been mosques, clerics and madrassas.
You libs with your "5 Minute Hate" Du Jour (like James Baker right now) need to get over yourselves.
Your boy Al Gore lost in 2000, we owe 9/11 largely to the inaction and cowardice of Bill Clinton and the Dimocrats are going to lose BIG in 2004. Thank God!
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/24/2003 8:01 Comments || Top||

#14  Oh, wait! I do know why you Lefties are queer for James Baker--because he "helped" Bush "steal" the election in 2000.
You know what? And I mean this sincerely:
You rabid Dimocrats are CRAZY and need to get professional help NOW.
Don't wait another minute.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/24/2003 8:03 Comments || Top||


Kurds demand Kirkuk
Thousands of Iraqi Kurds gathered in Kirkuk on Monday to demand inclusion of the northern oil centre in a future autonomous Kurdish region. "Kirkuk, Kirkuk, heart of Kurdistan," they chanted in the city centre. "We demand federalism for Kurdistan".
Bet that tightens the Turkmen turbans. Not to mention the local Sunnis...
It was the biggest demonstration in Kirkuk since the Baath regime fell on 9 April. Kirkuk lies south of the three provinces ruled by Kurdish rebel factions in defiance of Saddam Hussein and is populated with Arabs and Turkmen as well as Kurds. Protesters waved the red white and green Kurdish flag, which bears a yellow sun in the middle, but no Iraqi flags were on show. A giant US flag was also unfurled. The demonstration was split along party lines between the two main former rebel factions - the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Masud Barzani, a prominent Kurdish member of Iraq's interim Governing Council, has said the Kurds are claiming the Kirkuk region as a historical right and not for its oil riches. "The Kurds are not claiming Kirkuk because the region is rich in oil... but because its towns and villages are important in Kurdish history and are situated within the geographical borders and administrations of Kurdistan," Barzani told Al-Takhi newspaper, mouthpiece of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which he heads.
"The fact that it's rich in oil doesn't hurt, of course..."
"The Kurdish people consider a federal system as the best solution to our problem, and any future government should not repeat the mistakes committed by former Iraqi governments and should not ignore the will of the Kurdish people," he said. "After 12 years of autonomy, the Kurds will never accept less than the areas they already control and hope for other regions of Kurdistan, which before the liberation of Iraq was subjected to demographic changes," added Barzani.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You want Kirkuk? Okay, you got it.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler || 12/23/2003 2:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Vlad Tepes Drakula, we burried your head in Istanbul before, well burry it again :)

Murat the vampire killer
Posted by: Murat || 12/23/2003 3:03 Comments || Top||

#3  LOL!
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/23/2003 3:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Murat, don't look at it as "losing part of Turkey." Try, instead, to think of it as "putting the Kurds on a reservation." Giving the Jewish people a homeland tended to shut up the majority of THEIR crazier nutjobs. Giving the Kurds a homeland of their own might do the same.

And who knows? If they can make a go of it in a Kurdish North Iraq, you might want to consider taking any Kurds who refuse to assimilate into Turkey, walking them to the border, and telling them "Hey, here you go. Free Kurdistan. Come back THIS way again, and we open fire..."

It's what worked for America. Native Americans who wanted to assimilate (and could stand the culture shock) did so, joining the melting pot and leaving their old culture behind. Those who couldn't or wouldn't leave it behind stayed on the reservations and understood that the old "loot, rape and pillage" lifestyle wasn't going to be tolerated anymore.

And before anyone yells at me for being racist, I'm part Pawnee myself. My great-great-grandfather was one of the looting, raping, et cetera sort, and bragged about it. Heh. Then he got old, tired, and noticed that this white woman standing over there had GREAT breasts... Hey, peace has broken out over sillier things.

Ed Becerra
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 12/23/2003 3:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Ed, FYI I do not see it as losing a part of Turkey, cos Kirkuk is part of Iraq, I think it is up to the Iraqis to decide about the fate of their cities, not the Kurds or the temporary council or anyone who yells the most load.
Posted by: Murat || 12/23/2003 5:10 Comments || Top||

#6  If you don't see it as losing part of Turkey ( Which your right, it isn't part of Turkey ), then what do you see it as? I think what's going to happen is the forming of 3-4 States, all being a part of Iraq. Most likely the borders will be similar to the "fly-zones" that were in place after the Persian Gulf 1.
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 6:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Murat, I still haven't seen the "proof" of my identity you promised to post. I'm expecting to see it soon.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/23/2003 7:30 Comments || Top||

#8  Berxwedan Jiyan? Is that you?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 8:04 Comments || Top||

#9  I think it is up to the Iraqis to decide about the fate of their cities, not the Kurds . . .

Uh, Murat, little buddy, um, I don't mean to be disrespectful or anything, but I need to point something out to you, so s'cuse me for being blunt, but:

THE KURDS IN IRAQ ARE IRAQIS!
Posted by: Mike || 12/23/2003 8:27 Comments || Top||

#10  Supposedly, according to some nutjobs, the Kurds captured Saddam, drugged him, stuffed him into that spider hole, then notified the Merkins of the bastard's location. Yeah, Suuuuure. I also happen to have some beachfront property in Nevada in which, I think, you'd be interested.

Of course, if that WERE the case, I'd GIVE them Kirkuk.
Posted by: Ptah || 12/23/2003 10:42 Comments || Top||

#11  Mike, true, so are the Arabs, Turkmen and the rest of the minorities too, so what would happen if all of them just claimed parts of Iraq without consulting the others? right, civil war, smart as you are buddy.
Posted by: Murat || 12/23/2003 10:45 Comments || Top||

#12  C'mon, Murat, stop being a coward. Where's the evidence you said you had?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/23/2003 11:01 Comments || Top||

#13  Murat:

I merely wished to point out that the Kurds have as much to say about the future of Kirkuk as anyone else that lives there. I read your comment as implying that the Kurds had no place in the conversation. If that was a misreading, my bad.
Posted by: Mike || 12/23/2003 11:10 Comments || Top||

#14  I wonder if they could get around to stuffing Murat into a hole so someone could find him if anyone would want to.
Posted by: buzzard || 12/23/2003 13:19 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
"Malays who oppose the Islamic state proposed by PAS are proxies of Jews"
Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has criticised Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat for his remark that Malays who opposed the Islamic state proposed by PAS are proxies of Jews. The Prime Minister said the callous remark had hurt the feelings of Malays.
Oh, cripes. Now they're gonna seethe...
“We are all Muslims. No one will be able to accept his argument of linking and identifying us with Jews,” he told reporters after opening the national Multaqa Ahlul-Dhikri, or forum for public speakers, at Mint Hotel here yesterday. During a briefing about the Islamic state concept in Kuala Terengganu over the weekend, Nik Aziz had said that Muslims who opposed it were proxies of Jews, adding that a “true Muslim” would not oppose the concept.
Now we're differentiating between Muslims and True Muslims™...
Abdullah said that Muslims should strive to not only improve the “system” but also themselves. He said they should acquire knowledge and skills for the development of the Muslim community and humanity. He said that Islam exhorted its followers to seek knowledge for the benefit, not the destruction, of humanity. For example, he said, doctors should not use their knowledge to abort foetuses indiscriminately. Abdullah said that Muslims had to be careful and sensitive towards the feelings of other races. “We cannot avoid the fact that we are a multi-racial country, and the races have their own religions. We are not a homogeneous society,” he said.
"We're working on imposing homogeneity, but it'll take time..."
He said that multi-racialism was a strength, and had contributed to the country’s growth and development. Abdullah urged public speakers at the forum to update themselves with latest information on government policies. This would enable them to brief people more effectively, he said, adding that the Government’s efforts to develop the country was for all races. “Development is carried out by consensus within the Barisan Nasional Government based on the concept of power sharing,” he said.
Posted by: TS || 12/23/2003 12:51:45 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He said that Islam exhorted its followers to seek knowledge for the benefit, not the destruction, of humanity.

Odd, that's not what the other fellows have been saying.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/23/2003 13:30 Comments || Top||


Abu Rusdan didn’t like bombing churches but didn’t try to stop them - Mukhlas
A convicted Bali bomber said yesterday that Abu Rusdan, the caretaker chief of the Jemaah Islamiah terror network, had opposed some of its bombing campaigns. "Abu Rusdan possibly knew about who conducted the church bombings in 2000 and 2001, that they came from the Mantiqi (JI regional command) number one," said a written deposition from the Bali bomber Mukhlas, which was read at Rusdan’s trial in South Jakarta court. "But at the time, Abu Rusdan was against and did not approve of such bombings."
"I weep for you, the Walrus said..."
JI’s church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000 killed 19 people. Mukhlas himself is appealing against a death sentence for authorising JI’s Bali attack which killed 202 people in October 2002. Rusdan is accused of failing to report Mukhlas to the authorities after Mukhlas allegedly claimed responsibility for the Bali blasts at a JI meeting in Central Java on October 17, 2002 - five days after the attack. He could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted under anti-terror laws. Mukhlas, alias Ali Ghufron, said in his deposition he was not sure when Rusdan became aware that the Bali bombings were his doing.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:39:43 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Philippines to share Abu Sayyaf intel with Germany, France, and Finland
THE PHILIPPINES will pass on to Germany, France and Finland information obtained from a captured Abu Sayyaf leader that could lead to the dismantling of terrorist cells, the military said Monday.
Finland? You mean like on the other side of the world? With reindeer and Lapplanders? The country that probably has absolute least in common with the Philippines?
Military chief General Narciso Abaya assured diplomats from the three countries Monday that Manila was willing to share with them information obtained from the militant, Galib Andang, a military spokesman said.
The three governments consider this month’s arrest of Andang, alias Commander Robot, "a serious blow to the Abu Sayyaf and more widely to terrorism," Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Lucero said. Andang led a faction of the al-Qaeda-linked group that kidnapped 21 Finnish, French, German, Lebanese, South African, Malaysian and Filipino tourists and resort workers from the Sipadan diving spot off Borneo Island in April 2000. All hostages were released in batches after several months, allegedly after payment of ransom reaching up to 25 million dollars and provided by Libya. Abaya promised the diplomats access to any valuable intelligence data Andang might divulge, including the scope of the Muslim group’s operations in the south, Lucero said. "They asked whether the (military) will allow their respective investigators to have access to Robot and the chief of staff gladly told them that the (military) is willing to share with them" any information, he said.
"We're still wringing stuff out of him. Any time we want more, we just have Big Narciso, here, whack him on the stump a time or two."
Troops captured Andang on December 7, effectively neutralizing Abu Sayyaf which has carried out numerous kidnappings and deadly bombings against Christian and foreign targets in this overwhelmingly Catholic country in the past decade. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said last week Manila would allow German prosecutors to interrogate Andang, after a court in Goettingen said it wanted him extradited to face trial there for the abduction of a German family of three who were among the Sipadan hostages.
"Oh, and we'd like to borrow the stump thumper, too."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:37:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "All hostages were released in batches after several months, allegedly after payment of ransom reaching up to 25 million dollars and provided by Libya, a former negotiator has claimed."

Now that's a cute trick. The Libyans have invented a new way to pass money to terror cells in the very face (and with the approval) of counter-terror operators.

Just arrange a kidnapping, then demand ransom, and when the persons/countries demanded upon either refuse out of the correct principle of never paying tribute, or they can't afford the ransom, in steps a kind and wealthy nation (on the terror watch list) that pungles up the bucks, the hostages get released, the terrorists get funded (right under the noses of the anti-terror folks) and everyone goes home happy.

Why does this smell so bad, and was it linked to the recent "rejection of WMD's" that Libya just pronounced?
Posted by: Rivrdog || 12/23/2003 1:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Nice take Rivrdog.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/23/2003 12:26 Comments || Top||


Singapore wants pirates treated like terrorists
Pirates roaming the waters of Southeast Asia should be regarded as terrorists, Singapore’s Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said amid a rising number of attacks on ships and tankers. Wong told AFP in an interview last week there should be no distinction between pirates operating for personal gain and terrorists, with the motives of anonymous attackers impossible to judge until they are caught.
He means if the results are the same, the motivations don't matter. Interesting legal theory, ain't it?
"Although we talk about piracy or anti-piracy, if there’s a crime conducted at sea sometimes we do not know whether it’s pirates or terrorists who occupy the ship so we have to treat them all alike," he said.
"Mr. Ibrahim! Get a rope!"
"Aye aye, Cap'n!"
"So in other words if it’s piracy we treat it just like terrorism because it is difficult to identify the culprits concerned unless you board the ship." Wong was speaking in the context of the growing piracy menace in Southeast Asia, with the threat particularly high in the waters between Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Defined, I believe, as the "most dangerous waters in the world."
The region is also home to a range of Islamic terrorist and militant organisations, including the Jemaah Islamiyah groupand the Abu Sayyaf kidnapping gang of the Philippines. The London-based International Maritime Bureau, an industry watchdog, recently warned Indonesia’s waters were the most piracy-prone in the world, with 87 incidents in the first nine months of this year resulting in 85 people being kidnapped and two killed.
"Martha! Cancel the cruise tickets, will you? We're going to the Grand Canyon."
It last month detailed a range of piracy attacks in the region, including the hijacking of an Indian-registered tanker off Indonesia’s Bintan island, which is about an hour’s sailing time from Singapore. And a Singapore-owned tugboat, hijacked on September 19 while sailing from the city-state to Indonesia, was found more than a month later off Malaysia’s northern Penang state. In his interview with AFP, Wong warned of the danger of an incident that initially looked like a piracy incident escalating into a terrorist attack. "Terrorism camouflaged as piracy. That’s a bigger concern for us than just simple piracy," he said, giving an example of assailants boarding a ship laden with liquid gas and sailing it into their target.
That'd make a bigger boom than I'd want to see...
The International Maritime Board also reported last year an unusually high number of tugboats being hijacked and analysts have warned terrorists could load them with explosives to ram into ships or ports. The Straits of Malacca, which form the busiest shipping line in the world and run between Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, rank number one on regional authorities’ lists of maritime piracy and terrorism concerns. The 1,000-kilometre-long (630-mile) straits are very narrow but link the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and the Pacific, making them a tempting chokepoint for terrorists wanting to disrupt world trade. Indonesia and Singapore agreed on Friday to strengthen their efforts in combatting the maritime security threat in the Malacca Straits. Wong said Singapore had also introduced, or was implementing, many measures on its own to deal with maritime security threats, including investing 840 million US dollars on a global satellite-based ship identification system. He said the tracking of vessels and who was on them needed to be as accurate as in the aviation industry. "When you look at an aircraft coming in you know what the aircraft is, where exactly it is now and where it is heading," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:35:25 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I used to have an office over-looking the straits of Singapore and those Liquified Natural Gas bulk carriers came through regular as clockwork every day. I never counted them but there were a number each day. I used to phantasize about making a movie, in which one of them gets highjacked and they stop it in the middle of the straits, where there always a hundred plus cargo ships waiting their turn at the port not to mention an urban density along the shore similar to the Manhattan shore line. The terrorrists then turn on the taps or just blow the pressured containers and I believe LNG is heavier than air so will roll out across the water forming a blanket. Light to non-existent winds are the norm in the area. LNG meets at some point a naked flame and one hell of a scary scenario.

I don't doubt the Singapore governement has run this scenario and would have a response, but I doubt whether they could actually stop it.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/23/2003 2:14 Comments || Top||

#2  You don't have to sit in Singapore to fantasize about that. Boston harbor contains an LNG receiver as does Cove Point about 60 miles SE of DC on the Chessie. However, it would be a real task to get through all the EM controls, overrides, computer safes and so forth to release any of the LNG which is cryogenic and sealed in big old thermos' (that is those 3 big balls on the deck). Then of course once the pressure and temp are reduced and increase respectively, it vaporizes back to gas. But there is the risk albeit, nanoscule, that it could just go poof one day due to some EM failure. All of that LNG is headed from Arun on Aceh province (we know about those guys, right)to Korea and Japan.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/23/2003 8:37 Comments || Top||

#3  JIB.... but the tank, would it be hard to breach the tank? Or is the tank subdivided?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 10:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Singapore wants pirates treated like terrorists

I say blow 'em out of the water with a well-placed shot.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 10:27 Comments || Top||

#5  The Red Thingie has this to say:
... What made piracy an "international crime" was the fact that any state that gained custody of the perpetrator could try him, regardless of his or the victims' nationality, or of the place of the crime. This concept, now known as universal jurisdiction, has been more recently applied to genocide, certain war crimes and crimes against humanity.
They don't specifically mention "international terrorism" but I don't see that as much of a stretch. I believe generally international law has been interpreted that all nations have the right and responsibility to suppress piracy, etc(?) and that pirates, etc(?) are stateless, i. e., they have no rights to be respected. If you catch them, you just kill them. It's not like they're prisoners of war or anything.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 12:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Jack is Back! - I heard a radio report yesterday that they (al-Q, whomever) were targeting a large LNG shipment into Boston Hahhbahh today, and that some people weren't going into the Financial District area because of that. Here's today's report on it.
Posted by: Raj || 12/23/2003 12:59 Comments || Top||

#7  The principle of a BLEVE, or Boiling Liquid Explosive Vapor Explosion would apply. If the tank were ruptured by a small metal-penetrating charge, and a fire resulted on the surface of the tank that started heating the tank, eventually, the contents of the tank boil, which exceeds the structural integrity of the tank as a whole, and the major rupture then releases super-pressurized boiling liquid fuel into the fire.

The BLEVE effect in a tank as small as a railcar has killed people at over a half mile from the explosion. The fuel-air scenario is almost as devastating. The Russians lost a passenger train full of people in the taiga a couple of years ago because of a blown gas well laying down a fuel cloud and causing a 5 kilometer fireball.

The BLEVE from a 3-tank LNG ship has already been modelled, and could EXCEED the explosion of a tactical nuclear weapon.
Posted by: Rivrdog || 12/23/2003 14:58 Comments || Top||


Indonesia jails McDonald's bomb plotter
An Indonesian court has jailed for 18 years a man who supplied Islamic militants with the explosives used in a McDonald's restaurant bombing. Arman was found guilty of assisting the bombing in South Sulawesi in December last year, and of illegally possessing firearms. Three people including the bomber were killed in the attack on McDonald's. The court found that Arman had brought the explosives and had helped to survey prospective targets.
I hope he has a very large and amorous cellmate named Ronald...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:10 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like somebody needs a Happy Meal and a big hug.
Posted by: Dar || 12/23/2003 7:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like somebody needs a Happy Meal and a big hug.
Followed by a rope and a short drop over a deep hole. "Jail" for terrorists is sending them to finishing school.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/23/2003 15:14 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
U.S., Saudis Oppose Al Qaeda-Linked Bosnia Group
The United States and Saudi Arabia have asked the United Nations to add a Bosnia-based representative of a nongovernmental organization to its list of groups tied to al Qaeda, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday. The Treasury said the U.N. was asked to name Safet Durguti, who represents an organization called Vazir in Travnik, Bosnia, to a list that makes him subject to travel and other sanctions.
Another name for the list.
In a statement, Treasury said both countries also asked the U.N. to list Vazir as simply another name for Al Haramain, a Saudi-based charity that was placed on the U.N. list in March 2002.
So, Vazir = al-Haramain. Got it.
It said the new nongovernmental organization, Vazir, was formed in May 2003 as an association for sport, culture and education, but was based in the same business space as Al Haramain.
Just changed the stationary.
The United States also named Hochburg AG, based in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, as a successor organization to a company called BA Taqwa that was previously named a "specially designated global terrorist" in 2002 by the U.S. Treasury.
And Hochburg AG = BA Taqwa? Geez, it’s as bad as Pakistan keeping up with the name changes.
BA Taqwa had its assets frozen, under U.N. sanctions, in 2002.
A Treasury release said that Hochburg and BA Taqwa share the same business registration number and said records in Liechtenstein indicate that BA Taqwa was renamed Hochburg AG early in 2002.
It’s Liechtenstein, anybody can open a office there, but you have to keep your paperwork up to date. They’re picky about that.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 2:27:18 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Crackdown on al-Qaeda financiers
THE United States acted today to financially paralyse two foreign entities and an individual believed to be providing money for al-Qaeda’s terrorist network. The US Treasury Department added to its list of suspected terrorist financiers: Vazir, a non-profit organisation headquartered in Travnik, Bosnia; a key representative of the group, Safet Durguti; and Hochburg AG, a company located in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. The department’s designation freezes their financial assets in the US. It also means they are prohibited from conducting financial transactions in the United States and bars Americans from doing business with them. The United States and Saudi Arabia also asked the United Nations to add the three names to its blocking list, which is honoured by member countries, the Treasury Department said.
Though often in the breach...
Juan Zarate, the Treasury Department’s deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, said that Vazir is picking up where the closed Bosnia branch of Al Haramain, a Saudi-based charity, left off. That branch of Al Haramain was put on the US list of terrorist financiers last year, which is aimed at severing the group from the US banking system.
A hand-off? Or a false nose and moustache?
Treasury said Durguti helped to open the Vazir office this year in the same location as the former office of Al Haramain.
"You don't think this false moustache makes my face look fat, do you?"
Hochburg AG sprung up as the successor organisation to BA Taqwa for Commerce and Real Estate Co Ltd, which the United States also put on its list of terrorist financiers last year, Treasury said. Youssef Nada, who was put on the US blocking list in 2001 and had a controlling interest in BA Taqwa, "maintains an ongoing interest in the liquidation of Hochburg", Treasury said. Hochburg and BA Taqwa share the same business registration number, the department said.
"I dunno. That false nose makes you look... well... Irish."
Discussing al-Qaeda’s financing, Zarate said: "I think the notion of al-Qaeda having a big pot or stash of money somewhere is sort of a false assumption. Al-Qaeda generates its funds constantly in part through these charities, in part through big donors," he said. "We are convinced that we have cut down the flow of funds to al-Qaeda. ... To say that we’ve cut off all fund flows to al-Qaeda would be incorrect. ... Even $US2,000 ($A2,733) available to al-Qaeda, in our minds, is too much," Zarate added.

On other terror financing matters, Zarate said the United States continues to work closely with Syria, Lebanon and Jordan to turn over Iraqi assets found for Iraq reconstruction. Zarate would not say how much money in Iraqi assets has been found in the three countries. He characterised as "gross overestimations" media reports that $US2 billion ($2.73 billion) to $US3 billion ($A4.1 billion) in Iraqi assets were stashed in Syria, but he refused to provide an estimate.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:15:32 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  2nd! A curse upon your beard, Dan.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 15:18 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda may have trained and licensed pilots in their ranks
Authorities raised the terrorist threat assessment over the weekend after new intelligence indicated that operatives of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network, possibly trained and licensed to fly passenger jets, may now be pilots for some foreign airlines, ideally positioning them to carry out suicide attacks, U.S. officials told NBC News on Monday.
Is the Saudi national airline still flying through the US post-9/11? I’ve always been mighty suspicious about whether or not the Egypt Air flight that went down near the Big Apple a couple of years back was one of the fruits of Ayman’s labors, given the number of top Egyptian brass aboard ...
Reinforced cockpit doors intended to thwart hijackers after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks would now protect any terrorist pilot at the controls, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
I guess that's because doors swing both ways. Since there's not a solution to that particular problem, why bitch?
Authorities would not describe the terror threats in detail publicly, but the U.S. officials told NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski that the threat alert would remain at “orange,” or high, through the end of January, which they said was an indication of its seriousness.
Until the Superbowl's over...
New intelligence indicates that al-Qaida remains intent on attacking large gatherings of people with chemical or biological weapons. They said law enforcement agencies were looking closely at two rural locations — one in the East and the other in the Southwest — that were believed to be high on the terrorist target list.
I’d still say that Shukrijumah and Jdey are the most likely folks to perpetrate an attack on US soil, given that indications are that they’re already here. It might well be a good idea to get us seeing their faces on the Terriblevision as often as we now see Jacko’s, just for safe measure ...
Most troubling, the officials sad, were indications that al-Qaida may already possess a radiological weapon, or so-called “dirty bomb.” They did not elaborate.
MI6 told the BBC that al-Qaeda built at least one at a camp near Herat ~1999, the same place that Zarqawi used to run al-Tawhid out of ...
Experts said a potent dirty bomb could spread radioactive material for a half-mile in all directions. People in the fallout zone would be bombarded with radiation levels that they would not otherwise be exposed to from natural sources for a full year. While it may not particularly deadly, the psychological impact of a dirty bomb could be devastating, experts said. "The point of a dirty bomb is not mass casualties,” terrorism specialist Roger Cressey, chief of staff for President Bush’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board from November 2001 to September 2002, said in an interview. “It’s much more to instill fear and panic into the general population."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:09:16 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dirty bombs are not meant to be a casualty-producing weapons system, they are an area-denial weapons system.

The detonation of a dirty bomb would require massive cleanup, but our own US plaintiff's attorneys, acting as a fifth-column (either intentionally or unintentionally, the result is the same), would sue to see to it that the contaminated area was never used again, even if scientifically safe.
Posted by: Rivrdog || 12/23/2003 1:41 Comments || Top||

#2  They might try that, but it won't work. Qaida would detonate the firty bomb in a big city like NY or LA. You aren't just going to declare mile-wide circle in the middle of LA "off limits".
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 2:48 Comments || Top||

#3  I’d still say that Adnan al-Shukrijumah and Jdey are the most likely folks to perpetrate an attack on US soil, given that indications are that they’re already here. It might well be a good idea to get us seeing their faces on the Terriblevision as often as we now see Jacko’s, just for safe measure ...

Yeah, right. Like reporters are ever going to rank potential terrorism as a bigger story than Whacko Jacko. Besides, showing their pictures would be prejudicial and would be a violation of press neutrality.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/23/2003 8:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Charles, why wouldn't you, if that city were contaminated by too high levels of radiation?
The Russkis had to do it at Chernobyl.
And it would remain that way for hundreds of years, if not thousands.
A "dirty bomb" wouldn't outright kill many, but many more would die later from their exposure to radiation and there's, of course, the panic or terror factor.
The fact that Padilla just about got his walking papers from a US court this week would make this type of terrorism now that much more likely to be used.
As long as they're not caught doing it and a US citizen, dirty bombs away, right?
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/23/2003 10:32 Comments || Top||

#5  The results of a "dirty" bomb would be (relatively) easily cleaned up. An area would not likely be contaminated by high levels of radiation. It certainly would not be radioactive for hundreds of years. There would be no deaths immediately (except from the blast itself), and except for a few very unlucky people, most of the radiation-induced deaths would be due to cancer, years later.

Padilla hasn't been released into the wild, he's just been ordered released from military jurisdiction. And that had nothing to do with what type of attack he was planning, and therefore no bearing on the attractiveness of dirty bombs as a tactic.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 12/23/2003 11:05 Comments || Top||

#6  I agree that 'dirty' bombs are more of a psychological weapon than a militarily effective weapon, but would the US public see a weapon like this, with the dreaded 'N' word involved, as some kind of Rubicon?

In other words, would a 'dirty' bomb attack on the US, lead to a nuclear response?
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/23/2003 11:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Dirty bombs are nothing compared to a large release of anthrax in, say, the NYC subway system. It would likely never be used again.
Posted by: Rawsnacks || 12/23/2003 11:56 Comments || Top||

#8  Authorities raised the terrorist threat assessment over the weekend after new intelligence indicated that operatives of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network, possibly trained and licensed to fly passenger jets, may now be pilots for some foreign airlines, ideally positioning them to carry out suicide attacks, U.S. officials told NBC News on Monday.

Reinforced cockpit doors intended to thwart hijackers after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks would now protect any terrorist pilot at the controls, the officials said on condition of anonymity.


The solution is simple: profiling, the way the Israelis do it. The question is, is the U.S. government willing to do it over the objections of idiot organizations like the ACLU and CAIR?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 12:40 Comments || Top||

#9  Maybe so, Angie, but dirty bombs are far easier to sneak into the country and into the cities to use.
And perhaps YOU think a radioactive dirty bomb's bad stuff can be cleaned up "pretty easily" but 1) Has that ever been done? Don't think so.
2) Tell that to John and Jane Q. Public and your friends and neighbors.
The Padilla case tells Islamofascist terrorists that they can "work" our legal system to either escape punishment or to actually get free because they haven't actually killed large numbers of Americans.
In my mind, someone who joins Al Queda or any other Islamist terror group, regardless of whether they're an American citizen or not, is indeed an "enemy combatant" and I look forward to Padilla's case being moved.
He's not going free. Not in my country!
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/23/2003 12:50 Comments || Top||

#10  Re: Dirty Bomb Clean Up. Good discussion. You really need to break the problem in two, though. The first problem is the radioactive debris that lands in the streets and roof tops. Rain and wind will take care of most of that in a relatively short amount of time (as compared to halflife). Within a year or two, outdoor radiation will drop to background levels, especially in a city like NY where there is very little exposed soil. The second problem is all of the radioactive debris that gets sucked into building HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems. Some gets stuck in the filters, but some gets dispersed throughout the building. Even if the resulting radiation is within safe limits, I doubt if any such building would ever be occupied again, given liability laws and the general cancer fear in this country.
Posted by: 11A5S || 12/23/2003 13:09 Comments || Top||

#11  Re: Egyptair Flight 990. The Atlantic Monthly had a good article about that, detailing the non-cooperation of the Egytian authorities, etc.

FWIW, Debka reported the July 4, 2002 LAX shooter was a one-time room mate of the pilot of that Egypt air flight.
Posted by: Pete Stanley || 12/23/2003 14:48 Comments || Top||

#12  Re: Dirty Bomb Clean Up- I have other long term concerns- The second tier of the problems would involve the deflation of that areas housing bubble. Home and building values for that area would plummet, no one moving in, no loans to be had, regional exodus (Think OK Dust Bowl in the 30's) Billions in lost home equity savings boomer are counting on for retirement. Financial effects could extend well beyond the unlucky ground zero zip code. Remove your closest regional economy from the GNP, and it will ripple across the national picture. It will be everytones problem IMHO. (Sorry for the downer prognosis. It really HAS to be prevented even if a few civil liberties get footprints on them.
Posted by: Capsu78 || 12/23/2003 17:15 Comments || Top||

#13  Jennie, a dirty bomb is no easier to sneak into a city than a nuke. Their advantage is that they're a lot easier to build, using any old radioactive material you might have lying around the lab. A real nuke takes some skill to create.

Yes, explosions like that have been cleaned up before, mostly as a result of lab accidents. Admittedly, this is on a very tiny scale.

You (and others) are correct that perception is nearly everything in this case. Many people would never believe that an area hit by a dirty bomb could ever be "clean" again. Then again, I would wager that you could set off a bomb filled with some easily-aerosolized but completely harmless substance, and simply call it a dirty bomb, and get much the same psychological effect. It's one thing to recognize the danger these bombs pose, and another thing entirely to give into hysteria about them.

Again, Padilla's chosen tactic has nothing to do with his legal status.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 12/23/2003 17:23 Comments || Top||

#14  Angie, Sorry, but I'm not buying it.
First of all, I think the terrorists have explored and learned the technology for both "real" nukes and dirty bombs.
How awful a dirty bomb will be is dependent upon the amount of radiation used--maybe it would just be a little heap of cesium from a medical lab, maybe it would be enough uranium or plutonium to cause some real damage, but not enough for a warhead.
IIRC, no one has ever cleaned up a CITY or a whole area of a city that was contaminated before (unless you think cleaning up Ground Zero after 9/11 was no big deal).
If someone merely called something a "dirty bomb," Geiger counters would reveal whether or not they were bluffing, if not the actual injuries sustained.
And Padilla's legal status is being played with because although he's clearly a jihadi member of Al Queda, he's also an American citizen (of sorts.)
Sadly, he got put into the civil domestic justice system before our goverment had worked out how they legally want to handle any killers who were American citizens.
The key thing is that they got him locked up, which is where I hope he will stay.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/24/2003 7:51 Comments || Top||


Middle East
So sleepy...
Huzzah. There’s a new interfaith Middle East peace initiative.
[Episcopal Church]Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold joined 32 other Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders in announcing a new collaborative effort to mobilize broad public support in the pursuit of peace in the Middle East.
Grizz needs something to do since half his church wants him to resign and the rest of the Anglican world won’t return his calls. But why the urgency?
Where does the idea come from that Bush isn't already pursuing peace in the Middle East? As far as I know, there was no burning bush (no pun intended) involved in the compilation of the road map. Where does Frank think it came from?
In letters to President George W. Bush and members of the Congress, the religious leaders are calling on the administration to make peace in the Middle East a high priority, warning that “if the Road Map is allowed to fail, Israelis and Palestinians will sink even deeper into cycles of violence, jeopardizing the prospect of a two-state solution, escalating regional instability, undermining the global campaign against terrorism, and threatening vital U.S. national security interests.”
And the Cardinals won’t find a decent starting pitcher and the Maker’s Mark distillery will burn down. The end of civilization as we know it. Gotcha? So what does this complete waste of time plan involve?
The religious leaders endorsed four steps that could renew momentum on the Road Map, the Bush administration’s incremental peace plan that includes establishing a Palestinian state. First step would be a call for an end to all acts of violence and a renewed effort to work for a ceasefire.
You mean just really nicely asking Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Yasser’s boys to pretty please stop exploding? It’s so simple, it’s brilliant!
Doh! Why didn't I think of that? The man's obviously a genius!
Second, keeping a visibly active special presidential envoy in the region,
A special presidential envoy to the Middle East? Sounds like kind of a radical step.
Kind of like Zinni used to be, maybe? I'm not sure the Peace Processor® can puree that kind of corpse counts...
followed by more specific steps by the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority, with a timetable and vigorous monitoring.
In other words, we have no idea what Israelis and Palestinians should do but whatever it is, it’s going have a timetable and be strictly monitored.
Finally, support for benchmark ideas for possible peace agreements from earlier negotiations and initiatives such as the Geneva Accord, an official plan signed December 1 that is drawing support.
Meaning, that if any of you out there in Rantburgland have any ideas, we’d really appreciate it if you sent them along. Because we drew two deuces. Yeah, I can see broad public support for this thing [end corrosive sarcasm]
Posted by: Christopher Johnson || 12/23/2003 6:37:30 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fred, would you mind highlighting that bit between "And the Cardinals" and "involve?" Slipped by me. Thanks.
Posted by: Christopher Johnson || 12/23/2003 18:39 Comments || Top||

#2  How timely, I loved Griswold in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"!

wait, that was Clark Griswold, wasn't it?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2003 19:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Its been the mantra of the Left for at least a generation that 'good-will solves all problems' - what ever the problem, more good-will will solve it. And of course violence doesn't solve problems. The last few weeks and months must be causing some serious cognitive dissonance on the Left cos violence as the threat of violence is producing results in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya.

It looks like Israel has a solution that gonna work to stop terrorism. Its called the WALL. No wonder we are seeing all these leftist peace initiatives. Its shocking to them to see that violent and coercive solutions work.

Personally, I would move the entire population of the Gaza strip 50 miles west and the entire population of the west bank 50 miles east. Would make the WALL a hell of a lot shorter for one thing.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/23/2003 19:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Something must be done! Something must be done!
Thanks for the input, Griz baby.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2003 22:19 Comments || Top||

#5  BTW - my last name is Gaines, not Griswold, just wanted to make that clear....what an asshat
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2003 22:38 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Malvo gets life
The jury in the Washington sniper case Tuesday spared Lee Boyd Malvo from the fate awaiting his mentor John Allen Muhammad - the death penalty - after his lawyers portrayed him as an impressionable boy who had fallen under Muhammad’s murderous spell. Malvo, 18, will be instead be locked away for the rest of his life.
Posted by: JP || 12/23/2003 6:15:54 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remember, this is for just one killing in a multi-state killing spree. There will be other opportunities for the death penalty.
Posted by: Mike || 12/23/2003 18:39 Comments || Top||

#2  That's good to know, Mike. I feel better already.
Posted by: JP || 12/23/2003 19:00 Comments || Top||

#3  If this guy doesn't deserve the death penalty, I don't know who does. Lets hope the next jury sees fit to put this POS out of our misery
Posted by: JerseyMike || 12/23/2003 19:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Mike--But were any of the other shootings in VA, where the death penalty is an option (and for a 17YO offender at that)? It's not the case in DC or MD.
Posted by: Dar || 12/23/2003 19:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Dar: interstate murder spree -> federal death penalty.
Posted by: someone || 12/23/2003 21:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Ah, so! Thanks, someone.
Posted by: Dar || 12/23/2003 21:37 Comments || Top||


For Vietnam Vet Anthony Zinni, Another War on Shaky Territory
Just the first few paragraphs, great review of Zinni.
Anthony C. Zinni’s opposition to U.S. policy on Iraq began on the monsoon-ridden afternoon of Nov. 3, 1970. He was lying on a Vietnamese mountainside west of Da Nang, three rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle in his side and back. He could feel his lifeblood seeping into the ground as he slipped in and out of consciousness. He had plenty of time to think in the following months while recuperating in a military hospital in Hawaii. Among other things, he promised himself that, "If I’m ever in a position to say what I think is right, I will. . . . I don’t care what happens to my career."

That time has arrived. Over the past year, the retired Marine Corps general has become one of the most prominent opponents of Bush administration policy on Iraq, which he now fears is drifting toward disaster. It is one of the more unusual political journeys to come out of the American experience with Iraq. Zinni still talks like an old-school Marine — a big-shouldered, weight-lifting, working-class Philadelphian whose father emigrated from Italy’s Abruzzi region, and who is fond of quoting the wisdom of his fictitious "Uncle Guido, the plumber." Yet he finds himself in the unaccustomed role of rallying the antiwar camp, attacking the policies of the president and commander in chief whom he had endorsed in the 2000 election. "Iraq is in serious danger of coming apart because of lack of planning, underestimating the task and buying into a flawed strategy," he says. "The longer we stubbornly resist admitting the mistakes and not altering our approach, the harder it will be to pull this chestnut out of the fire."
More at the link. Zinni is just the kind of tough-nosed opposition on the war that GWB needs.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/23/2003 6:03:16 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I certainly respect Zinni's views and his long service. I also thinks he makes some valid points about accountability for post-war failures in Iraq. But his comment about "Have you seen "Desert Crossing?"" just seemed like sour grapes. Also, to compare the administration's pre-war statements to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution is just nutty. The GoTR was a solution in search of a problem. GWB's Iraq policy "solved" a 12+ year problem that had avoided all attempted solutions, including Zinni's 1998 attacks.
Posted by: Tibor || 12/23/2003 19:02 Comments || Top||

#2  I heard him lecture at Joint Forces Staff College. He's the man. Excellent speaker, leader, been there-done that and got the scars to prove it.

DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING ZINNI SAYS LIGHTLY.

He is thoughtful, intelligent man, who you would WANT to go to war with, on YOUR side.
Posted by: alaskasoldier || 12/23/2003 19:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Zinni was appointed Centcom chief during Clinton's term. As with Powell and Shinseki, I don't doubt his courage and his loyalty. I doubt his judgment. 9/11 occurred because the military high command repeatedly bugged out of symbolically important engagements, giving the US a reputation for being a muscle-bound giant with a glass jaw. The military high command, from Carter through Clinton, are the reason that the names Desert One, Beirut and Mogadishu remain major themes in the propaganda departments of America's enemies, Muslim or otherwise. They were responsible for America's loss of deterrence. And now Zinni wants to criticize Bush for trying to reinfuse America's enemies with a sense of their vulnerability? We wouldn't be in this pickle if Zinni and his cohorts had done their jobs properly.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/23/2003 19:18 Comments || Top||

#4  In the WaPo article, he says there was never proof that Iraq had WMD. If so, then what were the Iranians and the Kurds sprayed with, bad tuna? I find this particular disturbing.

Even smart sensible people get caught up in something. You could say that about any of us. I think he is caught up in the meme that leaving saddam and the sanctions in place was the thing to do even if it cost 100K of civilian deaths a year.

I think he is wrong on that, reputation not withstanding.
Posted by: capt joe || 12/23/2003 19:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Among other things, he promised himself that, "If I’m ever in a position to say what I think is right, I will. . . . I don’t care what happens to my career."

That time has arrived.

Over the past year, the retired Marine Corps general has become one of the most prominent opponents of Bush administration policy on Iraq, which he now fears is drifting toward disaster.


When one is retired, not much can be said that's going to harm a career.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 19:54 Comments || Top||

#6  capt joe - I'm starting see the Iraq never had WMD meme develop and it bothers me.

Otherwise the USA has made plenty of mistakes in trying to transition Iraq to democracy, but practice makes perfect and I expect the next country to go a lot better.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/23/2003 19:58 Comments || Top||

#7  "Iraq is in serious danger of coming apart because of lack of planning, underestimating the task and buying into a flawed strategy,"

Does he bother to offer any evidence of this? Or is it simply assumed?

Personally, I'm sick of the "lack of planning" crap. Inevitably, it comes from people who cannot possibly know. I get the feeling the whole "lack of planning" line really means "I don't agree with what they did".

More importantly:

"The longer we stubbornly resist admitting the mistakes and not altering our approach, the harder it will be to pull this chestnut out of the fire."

This requires ignoring every instance of a change in operations/governance. We sacked an administrator and replaced him; we've shifted the time table for handing power over to the Iraqis; we're still learning how to deal with the Saddam loyalists and foreign terrorists, but we're learning.

Yeah, thank him for his service, and he did a hell of a job in Afghanistan -- but his comments sound like they're coming from a Vietnam-obsessed Democrat.

Also, note the change in spin concerning Desert Fox. At the time, and since, it was described as an effort to "degrade Iraq's WMD program" -- but now it's described as an effort to bring down the Iraqi government. It's always been known that most of the strikes were not on WMD-related targets, but this new spin seems to be a way to isolate the Clinton administration and Zinni from the WMD claims.

And then there's the constant attacks on Wolfowitz, which, IMHO, are likely part of the recent campaign against him.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/23/2003 21:17 Comments || Top||

#8  because the military high command repeatedly bugged out of symbolically important engagements

I have to disagree with that statement. Keep in mind, the use of military force is ultimately a POLITICAL DECISION, and thus the shots are called by civilians (i.e., les aspin, bill & hillary). The military "bugged out" of Mogadishu at the orders of the Administration, after having sacrificed a bunch of good troops for no good reason whatsoever. Alternatively, we had to camp out in Bosnia for years after a certain president promised it was a year-long deployment, tops.

The military is staying put and doing the job in Iraq, as difficult as it is in the face of all the naysayers, at the orders of the Administration. Now, I have no doubt Zinni didn't want to see marines and soldiers killed in some b.s. military scheme during his service to defray attention from goings-on in the Oral Office. I also doubt that Zinni is in on the J-3 thinking, so the "lack of planning" line is pretty uninformed.

It's also not a surprise the WaPo ran this article. Unfortunately for them it also sounds like it's about a month too late to make any political hay bashing Bush.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/23/2003 22:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Keep in mind, the use of military force is ultimately a POLITICAL DECISION, and thus the shots are called by civilians (i.e., les aspin, bill & hillary).

This political decision depends on casualty estimates. The easiest way to deflect military action is to put forth the highest possible number for casualty estimates. And that's what the high command is responsible for, and that's what was botched up earlier - high casualty estimates without consideration for the cost of inaction. The McClellan syndrome lives on in today's army.

But I agree - politicians were equally responsible, as were ordinary Americans, for not demanding action in the face of insults to American honor. And at the same time, I can understand why career soldiers are risk-averse - the cost of being wrong is early retirement, and transitioning from military to civilian life can be difficult.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/23/2003 22:57 Comments || Top||


Holding Their Ground:As Critics Zero In, Paul Wolfowitz Is Unflinching On Iraq Policy
Severely EFL on this good article on Wolfie.
In late September, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz appeared in Manhattan at an event sponsored by the New Yorker magazine. As he began to speak, he was interrupted by shouts of "War criminal!" and "Murderer!"

"I can’t resist," he said evenly, surveying the audience. "This is what is wonderful about this country. It is -- "

Another shout: "Shame on you."

Wolfowitz drove on: " -- and what is finally wonderful is 50 million, roughly 50 million Afghans and Iraqis, are finally able to speak this way without having their tongues cut out."

A few minutes later, a young man ran to the base of the stage, jabbed a finger at Wolfowitz and shouted: "You should be tried for treason, you Nazi!"

If Wolfowitz was jarred by the attack, he showed no sign of it. Rather, he looked a bit distant as he coolly responded: "Frankly, my own reading of history is that exactly this kind of tactic is what the Nazis did and what the totalitarians did in trying to stop people from listening and talking."
Much more at the link. Wolfowitz is a thoughtful, intellectual and utterly driven man.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/23/2003 6:01:03 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  On Brit Hume's show tonight his whole panel agreed that Wolfowitz is a visionary and not much of a hawk. He is pro-democracy. He convinced Reagan not to support Marcos beacuse Wolfowitz felt that the Phillipines were ready for democracy.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 20:05 Comments || Top||

#2  I think Wolfowitz's biggest problem is that he will be proved right, again and again. A leftist can be wrong over and over again, and he's glorified as being a 'victim of the man'. A conservative can be right once, and he's branded "HITLER!" for the rest of his life.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/23/2003 23:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Wolfowitz has hit it right on the mark. If you question the left they resort to name calling or saying things like 'your so full of shit'.... Never mind the thoughtful dialogue such as on Rantburg.

The funny thing is, the person calling him a 'Nazi!' is, himself, acting the part to a T and doesn't even know it. So sad.

Especially considering the history of Wolfowitz's extended family. (Mentioned in the article).

The real question seems to be:

Would Hitler be considered a modern day Conservative or a modern day Liberal?

Would Stalin be a Considervative or Liberal?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/23/2003 23:30 Comments || Top||


Middle East
IDF Resumes Anti Paleo-Egypt Subway Ops
From Middle East Newsline
Israel has resumed a large-scale operation to search and destroy Palestinian tunnels that smuggle weapons and insurgents from Egypt.
The Paleos are not happy unless they are booming or burrowing.
An Israeli infantry and armored force resumed the operation overnight Tuesday in the Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah along the Egyptian border. The force, backed by helicopters, sought to find and destroy Palestinian tunnels that reach the Egyptian side of the divided Gaza Strip city of Rafah. Israeli and Palestinian sources said five Palestinians were killed and more than 25 were injured in a clash during the military operation. They said Palestinian insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and detonated mines to stop the Israeli force, which included about 30 tanks and armored personnel carriers. Palestinian sources said several Israeli vehicles were damaged. The Israeli operation was described by an Israeli military source as seeking to stop Palestinian insurgents from renewing tunnel operations in Rafah. The source said military intelligence had received information that insurgents were trying to refurbish tunnels destroyed in a previous Israeli operation in October.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/23/2003 4:22:18 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  when you want to get rid of pests, rodents, what do you do? Fumigate? I'd pump the tunnels full of gas and let whoever finds it suffer the consequences, especially on the Egyptian end....

OK, possibly taboo because of the bad memories of poison gas for Israelis, but...
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2003 17:00 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Firefighters Find Booby-Trapped Condo
From WFTV.com:
Firefighters showed up to a small fire in a condominium and, when they went inside, they found it was booby trapped with explosives. Now they’re searching for the man who lives there. This is all happening at the Springwood Condos off 434, just east of I-4. Investigators are still trying to determine if this man was trying to hurt firefighters. We’re told, firefighters climbed into the condo through an open window. That’s where they saw the smoke coming from. When they got inside, they saw dozens of small devices, little bags and boxes with wires coming out.
Oops!
"At that time, firefighters were just about to start to make entry through the front door. Immediately, they were told not to make entry through the front door because it could be booby-trapped. So we were very, very lucky," says Alan Harris, Seminole County Fire Rescue.
Could be booby traps, could be nothing. Better to be careful.
As for the man who lives in that condo, when a condo employee approached him, he took off. The sheriff’s office chopper is up searching for him.
Is it a Black Helicopter?
Neighbors describe him as very strange, usually dressing in all black with a tin foil hat.
I swear, on a case of Shiner Bock, I didn’t make this up.

Here's the current version of that story, from the same site...
Seminole County firefighters thought they had an explosive situation on their hands Tuesday. They responded to what they thought was a condo fire near 434 and I-4 in Longwood. When they went inside, it looked like the place was booby-trapped. But that was just the beginning. Firefighters were worried because they were just about to go in the front door when one noticed all of the strange wires. They called in the bomb squad, who spent much of the day taking apart the devices, while deputies searched for the man who put them there.
Come out, come out, what-... errr... wherever you are!"
Firefighters were the first to arrive, thinking unit 166-A was on fire. Kim Day saw it for herself. "I was emptying the trash and I saw smoke pouring out of the building and the man that lives there was standing over here and he saw me and started running."
"I have been observed! I must abscond!"
Firefighter Mike Resnick was the first one inside, crawling through a window, then right back out again.
"Holy spit!"
"Wossa motta, Mike?"
"Do NOT go in there!"
"Basically, there was a charcoal pit on the floor and wires going to suspicious objects from the front door all the way back through the structure," Resnick explains. He called in the bomb squad. They detonated the packages.
KABOOM!
Turns out they were just bunches of wires and batteries placed among the foil covered windows and doors.
That's one of the simpler methods of keeping out the mind-control rays. It doesn't always work... Must resist mind... control... ray...
Tarps separated the rooms. There was even an altar, but nothing criminal.
"I mean, he hadn't actually sacrificed anybody... Not recently, anyway."
"According to our bomb disposal experts, nowhere in there was anything that would go boom," says Steve Olson, Seminole County Sheriff's Office. Instead, they found a homemade burglar alarm and a device to open a door amid trunks with videos and piles of trash and clothing.
Videos of...?
Ryan Cullen was one of eight families who couldn't get home. His upstairs neighbor, Richard Dolan, hasn't tried to come back. The condo owner says Dolan has already been evicted. "He's very bizarre and strange. He sometimes wears a foil hat on his head, wears white robes and carries a staff, just very strange," Cullen says.
He sounds so... so... mainstreamed.
Now deputies want to find him to get him medical help.
"Time for your meds, Mr. Dolan!"
But Dolan could still face charges. The state fire marshal is still deciding whether the fire in the condo is considered arson and the owner who was renting to Dolan could press charges for criminal mischief.
"They're coming to lock me away, hah hah! They're coming to lock me away!"
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 4:14:27 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Black actually goes quite nicely with tin foil...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2003 16:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Black actually goes quite nicely with tin foil...
Saw that on an episode of "Queer Eye for the Seriously Disturbed Paranoid Guy".
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 16:31 Comments || Top||

#3  fashion faux pas: wearing the shiny side up
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2003 17:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Tin hats are in, as long as it's not a macramed beer can hat.
Posted by: BH || 12/23/2003 17:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Mr. Farraday's all the rage this season.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 17:13 Comments || Top||

#6  It's obvious the guy's a crackpot. EVERYBODY knows the only reliable shield against the government's Mind Control Rays™ is copper mesh.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/23/2003 19:11 Comments || Top||

#7  "He's very bizarre and strange. He sometimes wears a foil hat on his head, wears white robes and carries a staff, just very strange," Cullen says.

There's now a vacancy for a Dean campaign coordinator in Seminole County...
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2003 20:54 Comments || Top||

#8  Neighbors describe him as very strange, usually dressing in all black with a tin foil hat.
I swear, on a case of Shiner Bock, I didn’t make this up.


LOL! Good thing I'd just put my cup of decaf tea down when I got to that line!
Posted by: Ptah || 12/23/2003 22:33 Comments || Top||


Malvo Jury Reaches a Decision - Death or Life?
The jury that convicted Lee Boyd Malvo of murder in the Washington-area sniper case reached a decision Tuesday on whether he should get the death penalty. The decision was to be announced late in the afternoon. The jury was asked to decide whether the 18-year-old Malvo should be executed or sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Was supposed to be at 4PM EST, delayed while juror fills out paperwork, standby......
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 4:02:08 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's life, dammit! Oh, well, there's other states standing in line to try this a-hole for murder.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 16:16 Comments || Top||

#2  IIRC - Lee-boy shot blacks, whites, women, children... Life in prison gets him off death row and in the general population.....his life will be short, unpleasant and a violent end at the hands of other prisoners...

I'm OK with that.
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2003 17:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Death or Chi-chi?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 17:13 Comments || Top||

#4  He's too easily manipulated by others. I move that we give him solitary for the duration. Just for his own protection.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 17:24 Comments || Top||

#5  I certainly hope he gets in front of a camera wearing a burnoose and starts spouting his OBL bullshit. Force the media to acknowledge that they were only acting like good jihadis.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/23/2003 17:28 Comments || Top||

#6  We should reinstitue life at hard labour with out parole. If convicts want to lift weights let them lift a 10 lb maul all day long. We still have a shortage of gravel in this country. The main problem I have with the Death Penalty is the possibility of error. Of course the idea of an island where we can just drop people like this off and let them fend for them,selves has a certain atraction too.
Posted by: Cheddarhead || 12/23/2003 17:40 Comments || Top||

#7  In most cases I am against the death penalty becuase it gives the slime an easy out, gives them a big spotlight which they crave and gives them an known end while the family of the victim suffers forever.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 20:09 Comments || Top||


Ground Moving Target System Hits Tank With JDAM
EFL:
In the early October test of the Affordable Moving Surface Target Engagement (AMSTE) system, a Northrop Grumman-led team used two Ground Moving Target Indicator radar sources and a U.S. Air Force F-16 carrying a live Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) weapon to detect, track and obliterate a remotely driven M-60 tank moving through a congested and potentially confusing traffic environment. Just prior to the engagement, the tank crossed paths with several vehicles at an intersection. The AMSTE tracking system successfully maintained track through the confusion.
That’ll come in handy.
The test team used two radar systems developed by Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems to track the tank. An APY-7 system installed on a Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) test-bed aircraft flew 100 kilometers from the target. A prototype Joint Strike Fighter active electronically scanned array aboard a BAC 1-11 flew 35 kilometers from the target. The F-16, flying at 20,000 feet, was more than 11 kilometers from the target when it dropped the GPS-guided weapon. As the JDAM fell, it received location information on the tank from the Joint STARS that was so precise that the live bomb hit the tank directly on its turret completely destroying the tank.
Cool, with this precision you can use smaller JDAMS and hit more targets per mission.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 3:36:20 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nice, that the word Affordable is right there in the name.

"So, what sort of weapon systems do you offer?"

"Oh, both kinds! The Affordable system, and - er, the other one."
Posted by: BH || 12/23/2003 15:44 Comments || Top||

#2  You can now JDAM a particular vehicle in a traffic stream. Use a concrete-filled practice bomb with a live guidance system (the "Acme Guided Anvil Mk1") and you have a nifty little assassination weapon with low-to-no collateral damage.

Think of the possible uses!
Posted by: Mike || 12/23/2003 16:03 Comments || Top||

#3  They should give a few to the IDF. They can cast up a couple of concrete bombs and send them to Hamas leaders in time for Christmas, or at least New Years.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/23/2003 16:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Next step in the project: "What seat did you say he was sitting in?" No warhead necessary -- just attach a tag to the side facing the target with the immortal words "That was your left nut... NOW are you willing to negotiate?"
Posted by: snellenr || 12/23/2003 17:17 Comments || Top||

#5  It's all relative. The US can afford it. Everybody else (what don't speak Anglish) it's like looking at a Dreadnaught.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 17:25 Comments || Top||

#6  "Mahmoud and I will never surrender. (SPLAT) Well, Mahmoud will never surrender."
Posted by: Matt || 12/23/2003 17:34 Comments || Top||

#7  I knew I'd see the day where a blivet could be as deadly as a live round on soft targets.

Just didnt expect to see it so soon on a hard target.

Dropped from a bomber flying 600MPH at 40K ft, thats a lot of kinetic energy, even if it were just a guided concrete block.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/23/2003 23:32 Comments || Top||

#8  I knew I'd see the day where a blivet could be as deadly as a live round on soft targets.

Using the 'classical' def for blivet, I guess? :)

No wonder Crazy Col. Mo gave up, it's over.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/23/2003 23:45 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Mubarak calls Sharon, thanks him for Maher visit
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak telephoned Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Tuesday night to thank him for the "welcome and the successful meetings" held Monday in Israel with his Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher.
We're glad Ahmed survived his visit, too...
Officials in the prime minister’s office said, "The two leaders discussed ways to advance the diplomatic process in the region. Mubarak emphasized his desire to advance Egyptian relations with Israel and expressed his interest in helping to advance the peace process." Meanwhile Farouk Kaddoumi, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s political department, arrived in Cairo on Tuesday to apologize for the violent harassment of the Egyptian Foreign Minister within Al-Aqsa mosque by Palestinian thugs extremists during the visit. "My main mission in coming to Egypt, upon the mandate of Palestinian President [Yasser] Arafat, is to present our extreme apology for what happened to Mr. Ahmed Maher during his visit to Jerusalem," Kaddoumi told reporters at the airport.
I’m waiting for ara-fat to apologize for all the other violence he’s perpetrated in the region
He called the attackers "a rogue group that has no connection to the Palestinian people."

Egyptian daily newspapers carried front-page stories denouncing the incident, along with photographs of a visibly shaken Maher being led through the mosque compound by police and security guards. The semi-official Al-Akhbar carried the headline: "A criminal attack carried out by a group of Palestinians on Ahmed Maher at Al Aqsa Mosque," while the more conservative Al-Ahram blared across its front page: "Ahmed Maher saved from a despicable attack inside Al Aqsa Mosque after peace mission to Israel." Ghassan Charbel, the assistant deputy editor of the London-based daily Al Hayat, wrote in his column that the attack was "a dangerous incident, hard to believe and unbearable."
I didn't find it all that surprising. The Paleos have built their culture of violence and intimidation with the cheers of the Egyptians ringing in their ears. Why'd they think they were exempt?
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told Egypt’s Middle East News Agency while visiting Kuwait on Tuesday that "we are sorry for such an assault, which could never serve Arab interests."
since when has ANYTHING they’ve done actually served arab interests?!
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s office issued a statement Monday denouncing the "irresponsible" attack, pledging that it "will not derail Egypt’s efforts to achieve a resumption of Palestinian-Israeli talks, with the effective participation of other peace-loving partners."
"other" partners? there’s someone participating besides the paleos?
Posted by: PlanetDan || 12/23/2003 3:23:06 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hosni could make a clear statement by sealing the Gaza tunnels with concrete. I think Arafat's degenerative disease is making him less and less visible...quivering lip and drool complete the image
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2003 17:24 Comments || Top||

#2  When I heard that the Paleos had beaten Bill Maher, I was very excited. Too bad it was only the Egyptian FM.
Posted by: Tibor || 12/23/2003 19:05 Comments || Top||

#3  ... only the Egyptian FM. Which really did make it Politically Incorrect. This is really amusing watching various entities spin this way and that.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 19:28 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Clark Credits Clinton for Ghadafy Breakthrough
Democratic presidential hopeful Gen. Wesley Clark said Sunday that his old boss Bill Clinton - not President Bush - deserved credit for forcing Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to abandon his weapons of mass destruction programs, even though Gadhafi’s turnaround came nearly three years after Clinton left office.
Also getting a mention should be Carter and Albright!
"It’s a program of squeezing Libya that’s gone on for more than a decade," Clark told a Derry, N.H., audience, according to the Concord Monitor. "The Clinton administration was very much involved with this."
Note: This ‘program’ started with President Reagan, Not Clinton.
In a slap at Bush, Clark said, it "shows that you don’t need to use force to get your way in world affairs," adding that Prime Minister Tony Blair deserved credit for the Ghahafi breakthrough as well.
No you don’t have to use force when a Dictator see’your willingness to use force.
The retired general added new details to his charge that President Bush was responsible for leaving America vulnerable to the 9/11 attacks, saying that President Clinton tried to warn Bush about Osama bin Laden but Bush wouldn’t listen.
Unlike Clinton who had his cross airs on Al-Queda after the bombed Khobar, USS Cole, US Embassies oh never mind.
"He wasn’t paying attention," Clark complained. "He didn’t do his job as commander in chief."
The former NATO commander said that Bush deserves to be "fired" for not doing more to prevent 9/11.
"This is the way it works in the Navy, if you’re the captain of a ship, and it runs aground, they only ask two questions: Did it run aground, and were you the captain?" he explained. "If the answer is yes to both, you’re fired."
Note: General Clark NATO Commander was fired by Secretary of Defense Cohen, so the man knows something about getting fired.
Though Clark has repeatedly pounded away at the theme that Bush is responsible for 9/11, reporters have yet to ask him about Clinton’s confession last year that he turned down a deal for bin Laden’s arrest in Sudan.
Clark just gave them the ‘Evil eye’ and threatened to kick the Sh.t out of them.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 12/23/2003 2:46:30 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We covered this a bit in the comments under the "France Seeking to Prosecute Cheney" thread.
Posted by: Tibor || 12/23/2003 14:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Democratic presidential hopeful Gen. Wesley Clark said Sunday that his old boss Bill Clinton - not President Bush - deserved credit for forcing Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to abandon his weapons of mass destruction programs, even though Gadhafi’s turnaround came nearly three years after Clinton left office.

Somebody buy Gen. Clark a watch with a built-in calendar. He seems to need one. Oh, and don't forget to SET IT for him first.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 15:07 Comments || Top||

#3  General Weasel is gonna burn out some bearings spinning this hard.

I'm really disappointed, he was my brigade commander at Carson. We worked hard for him, thought it was worthwhile. Turns out he's just another spinmeister. Sad.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/23/2003 15:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Any word yet about how this event is clearly a slap in the face for the Bush administration?
Posted by: BH || 12/23/2003 15:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Look up "schlemiel"....

...Slang: A habitual bungler; a dolt.
Posted by: mojo || 12/23/2003 16:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Yeah, that Clinton was like the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus and Kim Jong Il all wrapped up into one. There's nothing Bill can't do! Damn, do I miss him!
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2003 16:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Not the least bit surprised he credits the Clintons after all they're behind his running anyway. He's become part of the rebuilding of the Clinton legacy. More of the rewriting of history campaign of Bill and Shrillery.
Posted by: AF Lady || 12/23/2003 16:42 Comments || Top||

#8  AF Lady, There aint enough brick and mortar to rebuild the Clinton 'legacy'. Clark lives in a fantasy world, much like the rest of the Dems running for office. At least they give us something to talk about until November.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 12/23/2003 17:01 Comments || Top||

#9  We're definitely getting a good look at why Shelton, Cohen, et al., decided to yank him out of the Nato job...
Posted by: snellenr || 12/23/2003 17:20 Comments || Top||

#10  Clark, being a navel expert not a naval expert, forgot another pertinent question for a captain that runs aground: is you ship an LST?
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 17:32 Comments || Top||

#11  I just saw this great post from The Corner:

"RE: UNBELIEVABLE [Jonah Goldberg]

From a reader:

So let me get this straight...according to Clark, Clinton is responsible for an event (Libya) that happens 3 years into the Bush presidency, since he laid the groundwork for it throughout *his* 8 year presidency...BUT he is *not* responsible for an event (9/11) that happens 8 months into the Bush presidency, although he laid the groundwork for it throughout his 8 year presidency.
How did this bozo become a Rhodes Scholar?"
Posted by: Tibor || 12/23/2003 18:00 Comments || Top||

#12  SH #10: As in, Landing Ship, Tank, or Large Slow Target? What kind of navels are you expert in? Flora or fauna?
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 19:17 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Oh, Brothers in Jihad!
This is an extract from an interesting commentary by Joseph Berger in the Washington Times, titled "Three worlds and the price of paradise." I quote only the first world, due to its direct bearing on WoT. The entire piece is well worth reading, however, for its insight into the mindset that WoT is based upon.
In a Friday sermon broadcast on Palestinian television, Sheik Ismail Aal Ghadwan calls for Jihad and Martyrdom:
Not for himself, of course...
"It is the duty of the Islamic nation to open the gates of Jihad, where its strength and honor lie.
Strength and honor don't lie in accomplishments, in building for the future, in providing for one's family and society as a whole...
We are a nation that was given Islam and Jihad by Allah. ..." And of the enemies of Allah, he adds, "When the enemies of Allah, the Jews, may Allah curse them, mutilate [the bodies], chop off organs, these organs will serve as evidence for our sons and brothers for whom Paradise in the high heavens is a place of refuge."
Killing and mutilation have become a bedrock of Olde Tyme Religion™ somehow...
What awaits the martyr? "Oh believing brothers, we do not feel a loss. ... The martyr, if he meets Allah, is forgiven with the first drop of blood; he is saved from the torments of the grave; he sees his place in Paradise; he is saved from the Great Horror [of the day of judgment]; he is given 72 black-eyed women; he vouches for 70 of his family to be accepted to Paradise; he is crowned with the Crown of glory, whose precious stone is better than all of this world and what is in it. ... "
On the other hand, if he doesn't succeed in blowing himself through the Pearly Gates, if he only succeeds in hideously maiming himself, there aren't any black-eyed women waiting to attend him — no one to feed the man with no arms, no one to change his colostomy bag, no one to wheel him to the bathroom. Guess he'll have to go back and try again, assuming he's got enough left of himself to detonate.

I think I've come to the conclusion that the way to win the WoT is to kill all the holy men we can lay hands on.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 13:54 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Agreed. Let's put the "holes" back in "holy men"...and let's start doing it soon.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2003 15:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Also agreed. We need to do something about the 'root causes'.
Posted by: Kathy K || 12/23/2003 18:53 Comments || Top||

#3  "I think I've come to the conclusion that the way to win the WoT is to kill all the holy men we can lay hands on."
Agreed.

"Let's put the "holes" back in "holy men"...and let's start doing it soon."
Agreed.

"We need to do something about the 'root causes'."
Agreed.

Since everyone's so agreeable... there's this stolen 40km wide strip along the Eastern coast of Saudi Arabia that provides the funding for the vast majority of the terror in the world and removing it from the hands of turbans of any stripe would stop the insanity dead in its tracks in 90 days...
Posted by: .com || 12/23/2003 21:04 Comments || Top||


Islamic Wakf Authority Blames Israel for Attack against FM Maher
Adnan Husseini, head of the Islamic Wakf Authority on the Temple Mount told Israel Radio today that the attack against Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher on the Temple Mount yesterday was the “fault of Israeli security forces”.
"Yeah. They know we can't control ourselves. They shoulda stopped us."
Husseini added Israel insists on her security forces being on the Mount to “show sovereignty”.
And the Paleos insist on being there so they have someplace nice to riot.
Husseini added that arrangements were made by the Wakf Authority to oversee the visit of the senior Egyptian official, but “as always, unfortunately, Israeli security forces showed up to show they have sovereignty on the place.”
"That's what set everybody off, of course."
“They interfered in the timetable for the visit, delaying the 14:45 time for two hours. It was not the minister’s fault but the Israelis. They always do it, we have experience. He should have come from north to south and this created difficulties for the minister and people who wanted to beat him up greet him. We arranged a scheduled from south to north and the reversal resulted in an unsecured visit.” The Wakf officials added a group numbering less than ten tried to speak with Minister Maher but approached him in an unruly and disrespectful fashion, creating tension. “There was no attack” he explained until Israeli forces became involved.
"Once the Jews showed up, what could we do? We hadda beat the crap out of him!"
Husseini added he already spoke with Egyptian Embassy officials and relations with Egypt will remain good since the incident “was totally not our fault”.
"Them guys wudn't even Paleostinians, hardly..."
The Wakf Council he added will be sending a letter to Egyptian Foreign Minister Maher. “This happens all the time as Israel attempts to show sovereignty but this will never happen – the Mount will always remain an Islamic holy site,” he concluded. Jerusalem District police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby explained that Maher arrived at 16:45 due to high level meetings he was attending. As far as the route chosen, Ben-Ruby explained that since 1967, Israel Police have always used the Mugrabi Gate to access the Mount and this has never changed.
I know, big surprise Muslims would blame their own problems on others.
Posted by: TS || 12/23/2003 12:43:01 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yep, blame Israel for attacks on the Egyptian FM by Palestinians.

Nothing to see here, folks. Move along now, move along.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 12:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Paleoarab logic:
1. Maher was attacked inside a mosque.
2. Israeli security respected sensitivities, didn't go into the mosque.
3. Ergo: It's the JOOOOOOS fault.

What would have happened if the Israelis did go into the mosque? Even money says all hell would have broken loose. See (3.)

We haven't heard from Araflat. He's scratching his head trying to figure out how the hell to spin this.

al-Jizz now spins Maher wasn't attacked physically, had an asthma attack or something. But why, then, the condemnation from Mubarak? They had to have spoken.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 13:13 Comments || Top||


Latin America
Castro, Chavez Meet in Secretive Venezuela Talks
EFL - saw a reporter ask Boucher about the secret visit by Castro to Venezuala last night on CSPAN. Boucher claimed ignorance so I got curious and went looking.
Cuban President Fidel Castro met revolutionary ally President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela at a secret venue on Monday in a morale-boosting visit to the leftist Venezuelan leader who faces a campaign to vote him out of office. Shrouding the trip in secrecy, government officials declined to confirm the venue even though Venezuelan state journalists said the two held a lunch meeting for several hours on the Venezuelan island of Orchila, a presidential retreat 110 miles north of Caracas. On Sunday, Chavez announced the 77-year-old Castro’s brief trip to oil-rich Venezuela — communist Cuba’s biggest political ally and trade partner in Latin America. Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton described Monday’s talks as a "quick, informal" meeting to review fast-expanding bilateral cooperation.
I wonder whether Sadaam or Lybia were topics of discussion.
Probably only to the extent of "it can't happen to us."
Venezuela’s opposition criticized Castro’s trip as a meddling attempt to support the populist Chavez at a time when he is resisting a determined opposition bid to trigger a referendum on his presidency next year. "I think Chavez is looking for someone to cheer him up," opposition spokesman Timoteo Zambrano said. Castro and Chavez consult frequently and are both outspoken critics of U.S. policy, even though Venezuela is a leading supplier of oil to the United States. If Chavez, 49, was voted out, Cuba would be deprived of a major source of political support and cheap energy supply in the region.
Oil for truncheons, anyone?
Opponents accuse Chavez of trying to install Cuba-style communism in Venezuela. The president, who says his self-styled "revolution" will benefit Venezuela’s poor, has denounced the referendum efforts as a "mega-fraud."
Found a good opposition blog on what is happening in Venezuala: Venezuala News and Views This blog may not be news to anyone who actually follows Venezuala. I am a rank amatuer in South American affairs and in many other things.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 11:43:29 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wonderful, a smoker and the fuel. Just what we needed.
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 11:49 Comments || Top||

#2  "Opponents accuse Chavez of trying to install Cuba-style communism in Venezuela"

Chickens are currently still plentiful in Venezuela but all that could change. I'd keep an eye on that.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/23/2003 12:17 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder what the chances are that Chavez will allow himself to be "voted out of office"?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 12:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Just think of how much good you could have done last night with a 2000-pound JDAM and some GPS coordinates.
Posted by: Mike || 12/23/2003 12:54 Comments || Top||

#5  I liked the proposal a while back regarding space-based, GPS-guided tungsten rods. Quite literally, a blast right out of the blue.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 13:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Update - One of the statements coming out of the meeting is entertaining: Castro: I Warned Saddam to Leave Kuwait
Fidel makes an entertaining rant. I will summarize - me good, Bush bad, Sadaam stupid.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 14:51 Comments || Top||

#7  SH#6-- So they were talking about Sammy after all! Bwahahaha....
Posted by: seafarious || 12/23/2003 15:27 Comments || Top||

#8  I liked the proposal a while back regarding space-based, GPS-guided tungsten rods. Quite literally, a blast right out of the blue.

THOR, the ultimate smart bomb
Posted by: Cheddarhead || 12/23/2003 18:19 Comments || Top||

#9  I saw Fidel kissing Hugo Claus
Underneath the mistletoe last night
Posted by: john || 12/23/2003 22:21 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Blade was in shoe for ’safety’
What was a missionary doing with a razor blade and a hacksaw blade in his shoe at a Miami International Airport security checkpoint?
Indeed
David McIntyre, 38, a missionary with the Harrisburg, Pa.-based Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, was on his way home from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, with his wife and three children when he was arrested at Concourse B on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon. The shoes were an old pair that McIntyre said he last wore about a year ago, when he was living in a bad neighborhood, getting death threats related to his work and feeling under siege as an American. ’’Put yourself in a trunk of a car: You’re tied up. How are you going to get out?’’ asked McIntyre late Monday afternoon, after spending what he said was one of the worst days of his life. ``So I put a razor blade in a shoe because I was getting specific threats on my life and my safety there, and I thought it was a reasonable precaution.’’
Kidnapping is a growth industry in Brazil.
He and his family eventually moved, and the man who had threatened him stopped going to his church.
He was a parishioner?
McIntyre put the shoes in the bottom of his closet and forgot about them. Then his wife packed all his good shoes and he needed a pair to wear on the trip. Aware of airport security measures, McIntyre said he made sure not to pack the scissors he uses to trim his goatee in his carry-on. He made it through two sets of metal detectors, in Belo Horizonte and in Sao Paulo, without any screeners noticing the razor and hacksaw blade.
No surprise there.
At 6:20 a.m., in Miami, where he had to change planes to return to Philadelphia for a year’s furlough, he was stopped. His wife and children, along with his checked luggage, continued on without him. He was taken to the Turner-Guilford-Knight Correctional Center, where he was released on bond. Monday evening, he still had no ticket for his return flight.
Need to check him out, but the story sounds plausible.
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 10:04:18 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He was a parishioner?

Haven't you ever been tempted (after getting up from dinner for the umpteenth time) to go to their meeting/whatever and just stare psychotically at the minister? Never? C'mon... wha? Nobody???
Posted by: snellenr || 12/23/2003 11:01 Comments || Top||

#2  When I was younger me and my Dad just took turns sleeping. Seriously, the guy could turn a 15-minute speech into 1 1/2 hours. He often did do that. Probably why attendance dropped so much back then.
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 12:14 Comments || Top||

#3  I can buy this story. I once went to Barranquilla, Colombia on business and would have felt a lot safer with a razor in my shoe -- or my pocket. A friend who had been there before me suggested that I leave my wedding ring home because it wasn't worth it to risk losing a finger. My wife agreed. I kissed the ground when I got back to Miami.
Posted by: Tom || 12/23/2003 15:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Haven't you ever heard of a "safety" razor?
Posted by: Sgt.DT || 12/23/2003 16:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Haven't you ever been tempted (after getting up from dinner for the umpteenth time) to go to their meeting/whatever and just stare psychotically at the minister?

Never. I can say no more.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 17:29 Comments || Top||

#6  I know this missionary and know that his story is true. We are also going to this same area in a year and may also do the same sort of thing for safety. With packing up a household for one year to come back to the states, it is easy to see how he forgot to take the blades out. And to the person who mentioned his church attendance dropping--You couldn't be farther from the truth. It has grown from 80 to over 300 members in a short time because of the true, pure and honest love that Mac has for the people of Brazil.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/24/2003 1:52 Comments || Top||


Judge Halts Forced Military Anthrax Shots
The Pentagon must stop forcing servicemen and women to take the anthrax vaccination against their will, unless President Bush signs a special order, a judge ruled Monday. Millions of shots have been given and hundreds of service members have been punished for refusing them since the mandatory vaccinations started in 1998. The judge ruled that the anthrax vaccinations fell under a 1998 law prohibiting the use of certain experimental drugs unless people being given the drug consent or the president waives the consent requirement. Congress passed the law following fears that the use of such drugs may have led to unexplained illnesses among veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War that have come to be known as Gulf War Syndrome. "The women and men of our armed forces put their lives on the line every day to preserve and safeguard the freedoms that all Americans cherish and enjoy," said Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court in Washington. "Absent an informed consent or presidential waiver, the United States cannot demand that members of the armed forces also serve as guinea pigs for experimental drugs," Sullivan said. Sullivan rejected the government concern that military discipline would be harmed if courts intervene between soldiers and their military superiors.
That right there could get him reversed.
Believing Iraq and other nations had produced anthrax weapons, former Secretary of Defense William Cohen in 1997 ordered the armed forces immunized. Shots started in 1998 for soldiers in areas believed to present the highest risk of infection - the Persian Gulf, then Korea.
There was a reason for that — everybody and his brother thought that Saddam had anthrax. Judge didn’t seem to consider that. I expect a Presidential waiver sometime in the next couple of weeks.

If there had been anthrax or some other bio agent used on our troops and they hadn't been innoculated, the same people would be turning themselves inside out right now, demanding the heads of those who hadn't been looking out for "our troops."

Anybody got any mouthwash?
Posted by: Steve White || 12/23/2003 1:55:05 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tto be completely honest, the reason I thing I and the guys in my squad didn't end up with Gulf War Syndrome was that our medic gun-decked our "nerve gas" shots.

None of the guys in my squad got it, while other guys in the company did.

That stuff isnt well tested enough. Experimental stuff should be for the rabbits, not for troops. Test and Certify it before you fill soldiers bodies up with it under orders.

This is more legacy of Clinton being a cheap bastard and allowing experimental drugs to be used instead of spending the money to get them fully tested.

Its a shame Bush has continued it. And this is one instance where the Judge does need to get between the troops and their upper command structure, for the protection fo the troops.

Come on Bush anmd Congress. Pay the money to get this stuff fully researched and tested before you order people to be injected with it.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/23/2003 4:08 Comments || Top||

#2  A couple of points to consider:
1. Bush got his shot before everybody else did. 2. A bunch of marines going into Liberia gundecked all their shots as well - and had to be evacuated - I think they got typhus.
3. I think that the pills that were taking prior to the Gulf War I was something else.
4. The anthrax vaccine was rushed, because we had a bunch of people die from an anthrax attack that still has not been solved.
5. Lot's of Nigerians are worried about taking the polio vaccine and children are getting sick there.

Dr. White may have more pertinent observations.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 17:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Another point: judges aren't doctors.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 17:43 Comments || Top||

#4  A bunch of marines going into Liberia gundecked all their shots as well - and had to be evacuated - I think they got typhus.

Malaria. We had one clown who pulled the same stunt before reporting to the ship. He ended up getting medevaced after we left Kenya.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2003 21:04 Comments || Top||


Africa: Central
Ugandan military kills 4 LRA gunnies, rescues 80
THE UPDF has rescued 80 abductees and killed four Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in recent various battles in Pader district. The 5th Division spokesman, 2nd Lt. Chris Magezi, said the army also captured one rebel fighter in a battle. He said the army also recovered seven sub-machine guns and 150 bullets from the rebels. Magezi said 36 of the abductees were rescued from Wii-Dwol in Patongo and five others reported to the Division from other areas. He said the UPDF did not suffer any casualties. Magezi said the security situation in the region had improved. He said with help from the militia groups, the situation would be contained.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:32:55 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


40 LRA hard boyz bagged in Uganda
OVER 40 senior Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commanders and 462 ordinary rebels have been killed in the joint UPDF/Arrow Group operations in Teso.
That sounds like a major dent in the LRA...
The minister of State for health, Captain Mike Mukula, said this in Kitgum on Friday while distributing medicine and other items for the over 200,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in 18 camps in the district. Mukula urged the Acholi to unite and support the UPDF to crush the rebels and restore peace. "We should have a common front as people of Acholi, Lango and Teso so as to bring peace and tranquillity. So we should fight soul to soul, shoulder to shoulder to achieve that goal," the minister said. He said if Joseph Kony does not come out of the bush under the amnesty which expires on January 17, 2004, the army would either capture or kill him.

Mukula, who visited Mucwini and Labuje IDP camps, 14 miles north of Kitgum town, was accompanied by the director general of the Internal Security Organisation, Col. Elly Kayanja and the district chairman Norman Ojwee. Mukula, dressed in military fatigue and a bulletproof jacket, was escorted by armoured personnel carriers. Mukula said the insurgency caused by Joseph Kony’s LRA rebels in the northern and eastern regions, especially Acholi, Lango and Teso, would come to an end because the army had acquired enough military hardware to fight the rebels.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:31:32 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: East
More on the Sudanese curfew in Darfur
The authorities in the western Sudanese state of Darfur have imposed a curfew and banned public gatherings after peace talks collapsed last week. The BBC’s Alfred Taban in Sudan says they are preparing for the worst and aid agencies are also pulling out. Over 600,000 people have fled the fighting and are in dire need of food, shelter and medicines.

The insecurity in Darfur comes as the government and southern rebels are said to be close to ending their long war. Diplomats have described the fighting in Darfur as "ethnic cleansing" with Arab militias, possibly backed by the government, destroying entire villages inhabited by dark-skinned people who speak African languages. The governor of western Darfur state, Major General Suleiman Abdullah Adam, has issued a decree imposing a curfew on Geneina, the main town in the state. Nobody is allowed to move inside the town from 2100 local time to 0700 and vehicles are prohibited from entering the town from 1900 until 0900. The government also banned all gatherings not cleared by the authorities. According to Governor Adam, these measures are necessary to safeguard security following the collapse of talks between Darfur-based rebels and the government aimed at extending the ceasefire. Three days ago the governors of Northern and Southern Darfur states imposed similar restrictions for movement in the main towns and declared a general mobilisation to confront any attack following the failure of the Geneina talks. United Nations agencies have pulled out their staff from Western Darfur state following disagreement over how to respond to the security situation there. A UN official said the army wanted to escort the food convoys moving through the state, something which is unacceptable to the UN.
Escorting the convoys is good for gathering intel. If you're ethnically cleansing, it's good to know where the pockets of ethnics are, so you can come back later and kill them.
Last month rebels seized several relief workers belonging to the Swiss-based aid agency Medair. They were released after several days. The withdrawal of UN personnel and other relief officials from Western Darfur state is likely to worsen the already disastrous humanitarian situation in the area.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:29:26 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A new disease is sweeping through the South of Sudan. Just what they need.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 16:38 Comments || Top||


Somalia festivities cause massive displacement in Galgadud
Inter-clan fighting in Somalia’s central Galgadud region has left over 2,000 families displaced and the numbers are growing, local sources told IRIN on Monday. Dr Ahmed Madhi, who works at the hospital in the regional capital Dusa-marreb, said the health situation was critical and facilities were overwhelmed by casualties of the fighting. "The hospital [in Dusa-marreb] does not have the equipment, drugs and the expertise to treat the number and type of wounds we are receiving," he said. "We have no surgeon and not enough drugs for patients." He appealed to aid agencies to come to the assistance of the victims "and to save lives".

A statement issued by the UN on Monday said fighting between rival militia of the Marehan and Dir (Fiqi Muhumad sub-clan), had left an estimated 400-500 households displaced in Heraale, Abudwaaq district. A further 1,100 households had fled fighting between the Murusade and Duduble clans in Elbur district, added the statement by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It described the humanitarian situation as serious. "I urge the conflicting parties to refrain from further fighting, resolve their differences peacefully and to ensure that the rights of civilians are fully respected,” said Calum McLean of UN-OCHA (Somalia). He added that humanitarian workers must be allowed "unrestricted and safe access" to the affected people.
"There! That oughta do it!"
The majority of the displaced are said to be women, young children and the elderly. The fighting has also led to the destruction of houses, berkads (water stores), and the looting or killing of livestock, the UN statement said. Mediation efforts on the part of elders and religious leaders from neutral clans have so far failed to resolve the dispute, but are said to be continuing.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:26:52 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  " Mediation efforts on the part of ... neutral clans have so far failed ... " IMHO there's serious nation-building needed here. Since the UN apparently is already trying to meddle be active, in the spirit of internationalism they ought to increase their visibility. They could start by moving UNHQ to Mogadishu.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 3:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Within the deaced of the WOT we will return to Beruit and Somalia. I am OK with that. I think we wasted the sacrifice of the servicemen that died in those places when we pulled out. It will be a while before we go.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 16:43 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
FSB sez Basayev’s the Evil Mastermind(TM) behind Chechen suicide bombings
Um, was there ever any doubt?
Patrushev accused a group led by Shamil Basayev, known as Riyadus Salikhin, of organizing recent suicide bombings he said were aimed at sparking "maximum political resonance" by killing as many civilians as possible. Patrushev did not specify the attacks, but he appeared to be referring to at least two suicide bombings this month - one that killed six people outside the National Hotel in downtown Moscow and another that killed 45 people on a train in the Stavropol region, near Chechnya.
Actually, I think you could pretty much pick a boom and Shamil's behind it. People are a passive lot, by and large. Few of them sit around watching the telly and suddenly cry out: "By, Gad, Martha! I think I'll go out and blow up!" Invariably, someone suggests it and, being passive, they say "hokay."
A series of attacks that authorities say were suicide bombings, several of them by women, has killed nearly 300 people in and around Chechnya and in Moscow in the past year. Basayev has claimed responsibility for some attacks, but not the most recent ones. Patrushev said Basayev has been urging other rebel leaders in Chechnya to train suicide attackers. He asserted that the organizers of the attacks enlist "fanatically inclined" women aged 16 to 30 to carry out bombings, as well as use women he claimed are abducted in various parts of Russia.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:24:26 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bas could use a beard trim, with an AK.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler || 12/23/2003 2:41 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Al-Qaeda has Sinister Plan(R) to hit both major cities and remote areas
Al-Qaida operatives may be plotting several unrelated attacks in the United States, targeting not only major cities but also remote bulwarks of the "critical infrastructure" in an effort to cause mass casualties and major economic damage throughout the nation. Senior U.S. counter-terrorism officials said they have been unable to nail down specifics about a time or place for any potential attacks, despite a mad scramble to do so since receiving an alarming cache of corroborated intelligence beginning last Thursday and Friday. But the intelligence they have received — much of it from intercepted communications among known terrorist operatives overseas — clearly refers to at least one series of coordinated, simultaneous strikes, like the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as well as isolated plots of varying degrees of sophistication. "We’re concerned that there could potentially be many separate plots," said one U.S. official with knowledge of the recent intelligence. "It’s hard to establish a certain theme to all of this because we are getting such a massive volume of reporting."

Much of the recent intelligence makes broad references to large urban areas, including New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, while other pieces of intelligence cite such obscure locales as Rappahannock, a county in Virginia, and Valdez, Alaska, where tankers load oil from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. According to information received as recently as Monday, authorities remain primarily concerned about al-Qaida operatives plotting to hijack commercial airliners and cargo planes and fly them into U.S. targets, as Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Sunday in announcing the decision to elevate the terror threat level one notch, from "elevated," or yellow, to "high," or orange. They cite a large amount of corroborated and specific intelligence that refers to efforts to hijack planes not only outside the United States, where security is not as tight, but also at domestic airports by using new and improved techniques that terrorist operatives believe could thwart the nation’s vast new homeland security apparatus.

But the FBI, the CIA and other authorities have also picked up troubling intelligence about other plots, and efforts to blow up chemical and hazardous materials facilities, nuclear power plants, dams, power grids, ports and airports. One senior federal law enforcement official said the FBI and other authorities are alarmed and frustrated because the intelligence varies so widely according to potential targets and methods of attack, as well as by its degree of specificity and corroboration. Of particular concern, he said, are vague references to upcoming attacks on "major metropolitan areas and events that we’re looking at ... bowl games, New Year’s events, that kind of thing."

"There is no one specific threat here. There is no place or time to tie to this," said the senior federal law enforcement official. "So we have to take all this information and do analysis." A recent FBI alert alludes to such confusion. Citing unconfirmed intelligence reports, it warned that al-Qaida may be preparing an attack in the United States before the end of the month. But, the alert adds, "We have no information on the possible operatives, target, timing or method of a possible attack." On Monday morning, Ridge, FBI director Robert S. Mueller III, CIA director George J. Tenet and several other senior counterterrorism advisers spent more than 50 minutes briefing President Bush on the long list of threats, as well as on recent efforts to dispatch thousands of federal, state and local agents to defend potential targets around the country. As part of that effort, the Department of Homeland Security has asked governors and mayors to specifically protect several hundred individual "critical infrastructure" facilities that, if attacked, "could result in a catastrophic loss of life or a devastating effect on the economy," according to the senior U.S. official. For instance, authorities in Los Angeles have identified several chemical facilities and dozens of other potential targets throughout Southern California but asked that they not be disclosed in order to better protect them from attack.

The intelligence that has prompted such an unprecedented level of concern comes from conversations among known terrorist operatives of both senior and foot-soldier rank, and also from information gleaned from intercepted e-mails, discussions in Internet chat rooms and interrogations of al-Qaida detainees on several continents. The information, the officials said, comes from intelligence gathered by the CIA and the National Security Agency, as well as from allies such as Britain "and a host of many, many other countries," said the senior U.S. official. Unlike past elevations of the terror threat level, the decision to raise the alert to orange this time was unanimous and decisive, because it was based on what senior Bush administration officials described as the most alarming, credible and specific information they had ever seen. "I have never seen the national security leadership as tense and anxious as they are right now," said a second senior federal law enforcement official. He said even the timing of the elevation of the threat level was moved up a day because of rapidly developing concerns over the weekend. Bush administration officials were so concerned, he said, that they sent a plane to Missouri on Saturday to bring Attorney General John Ashcroft back to Washington from vacation.

"In the past, there were disagreements over whether the elevated alert was needed," that senior official said. "This time, everyone said, ’Yeah, let’s do it.’ It is the most specific and credible information we’ve had, period." In Los Angeles, FBI officials quietly reopened their command center last week for the first time since the beginning of the war in Iraq. The move, officials said, was aimed at bringing the FBI’s third largest office into an around-the-clock counterterrorism footing in the event the latest threat materialized. On Monday, the Los Angeles FBI office also convened an unprecedented meeting of about 100 federal, state and local law enforcement officials to outline strategies for safeguarding the region. "Everyone you could think of was there," said FBI spokesman Matthew McLaughlin. The meeting, he said, was aimed at coordinating security measures for the five-county region served by the local FBI office and other federal agencies. The area, with a population of more than 18 million, includes a number of high-profile targets like Los Angeles International Airport, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and various tourist attractions. "What’s new this time is the credibility of the threat," said McLaughlin. "In this case, in addition to do more to safeguard locations, we are taking additional investigative steps to get ahead of this threat in a real aggressive way."

In Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities, counterterrorism agents fanned out Monday for hundreds of interviews with individuals — including longtime FBI or CIA informants — who may know about Middle East extremists. "We have had other alerts," said San Francisco FBI spokeswoman LaRae Quy. "But this time, we are reaching out more to human sources to glean whatever information we can about this threat. We are asking them if anything doesn’t feel right or sound right, if they are noticing any unusual travel by persons they have been watching. We are just trying to be more proactive than usual."

Roger Cressey, a former senior Bush administration counter-terrorism official, said the current intercepts have authorities so concerned because they so closely mirror the conversations picked up before the Sept. 11 attacks. "It is known bad guys talking in that expectant chatter, saying things like we’re finally going to respond to Iraq, Afghanistan and strike down the infidels ... that something big is going to happen," he said. "It’s the volume and the quality of the intelligence that is wigging everybody out, and the fact that they just don’t know" where or when an attack may occur.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/23/2003 12:20:20 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Without the specifics, this is a very tough task - and I appreciate both the enormity of the problem and the efforts of the various agencies and their people attempting to safeguard us. I fully expect the bad guys to succeed in something. In fact, if they fail to pull something off before the end of the first week in January, it will be amazing - and due I'd bet to the efforts described here.

When it happens, not if, I guess the scale will determine the response... and that qualification I do not agree with. Any attack, of any size against any US target, should unleash the most violent response we can muster against every identified and corroborated target of which we are certain. I hope against hope that we will be able to determine the state associations of as many of these terrorists as possible, too, for those are fixed targets -- and the enablers should pay the highest price - just as the direct perps.

So, there's this stolen 40km wide strip along the Eastern coast of Saudi Arabia that provides the funding for the vast majority of the terror in the world and removing it from the hands of turbans of any stripe would stop the insanity dead in its tracks in 90 days...
Posted by: .com || 12/23/2003 0:45 Comments || Top||

#2 
Any attack, of any size against any US target, should unleash the most violent response we can muster against every identified and corroborated target of which we are certain.
I couldn't agree more! One car bomb should equal the detention of every muslim in the tri-state area. They blow up our federal buildings, we blow up their capitals.
Posted by: Islam Sucks || 12/23/2003 1:29 Comments || Top||

#3  PD, old buddy, (.com to the newbies), if al-Q and their Soddi financiers do something to hurt us in our homeland again, and I'll march with you -- we don't want 40 km, we want about 100 km or so. Have to give our new dependency some growing room, doncha think?
Posted by: Steve White || 12/23/2003 1:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Any attack, of any size against any US target, should unleash the most violent response we can muster against every identified and corroborated target of which we are certain.

I am with you as long as it includes Mecca and Medina and the rest of the Arabian peninsula.
Posted by: ed || 12/23/2003 3:19 Comments || Top||

#5  As we used to say, "Be Alert. America Needs More Lerts!"
Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 9:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Heh, good luck here down south in Vidalia: The locals are damn tired of hunting deer, and would look forward to going after two footed varmints. Heck, more people would probably be hurt from friendly fire than the terrorists would hurt.

And I wouldn't advise the nuclear power plant south of here: We have a large clump of state prisons in the area, the utility pays top dollar, and so has the pick of the best. Or so I hear.

Hell, the Liberals and Greens would inflict more damage screaming about shutting down 20% of our electrical grid than any Jihadis would do just TRYING to attack a nuclear power plant, much less succeeding.

The 9/11 hijackers had to attend US schools to learn how to fly the jet aircraft. THAT loophole has probably been plugged, so woe be the nation back to whom we trace any pilot training of terrorists.

The last time I flew on business, I looked around as instructed by the pre-flight instruction. I locked eyes with several other male passengers, gave a slight nod, and they responded in kind: I knew I wouldn't be alone if I tackled a hijacker.

A pack, not a herd.
Posted by: Ptah || 12/23/2003 9:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Ptah you in S. Georiga? I'm trying to place the Nuke plant.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 10:06 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm probably going to be putting around the countryside during the holidays. If I see someone fiddling around an electricity transmission line tower, they're going to end up like the flies and mosquitos on my truck's front bumper.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 10:17 Comments || Top||

#9  I think Al-Q would be very stupid to do something like this just before the 04 election. Something like this will almost guarantee Bush the 04 election.

On the other hand, pissing off the post powerful nation on earth wasn't very bright to begin with -- they have a record of biting off more then they can chew (let alone swallow).

Ptah - Yes, we are a pack of wolves, not a herd of sheep.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/23/2003 11:00 Comments || Top||

#10  Wretched over at Belmont Club seems to agree that at least one attack will likely succeed. He also speculates about why Dubya hasn't made threats of reprisal and that the scope of a response might well be extreme. Good! I think his logic is interesting and more sound than not, though nukes are farfetched without solid post-attack ties to a fixed high-value target -- a deep Iranian nuke facility perhaps? I especially find his reasoning sound regards Dubya's silence so far. Thoughts. anyone?

IMHO, Wretched should be a regular read for Rantburgers, if he isn't already. He poses solid questions and his provocative analyses hold up surprisingly well - even against the recently frequent Den Beste Logic Assault™ - which normally leaves "adversaries" (victims?) looking like Don Knotts after a long round with Rocky Marciano. :-)
Posted by: .com || 12/23/2003 11:04 Comments || Top||

#11  I'm a regular belmontclub reader, and while I like the style and agree with the most conclusions, often he/she uses logic with whopping big holes in it.

Like anything else on the internet, a grain of salt is advised...
Posted by: flash91 || 12/23/2003 12:24 Comments || Top||

#12  Someone in Al-Q is getting expert advice from a sophisticated government with an excellent intelligence service. I make no assertions as to who that nation is - I have no idea. But what they're doing is "flooding the zone" - sending tons of information, 90% of which is bogus, in order to confuse the intelligence services of the opposition. The real problem with this kind of information overkill is you never know which is the "right" information, and which is the 'fluff', so you have to take ALL of it at face value.

I do agree that a major attack on the United States should result in two things - the militarization of about 1/3 of our 18-36 year olds, and a huge hurting on everyone from Indonesia to Algeria that won't cooperate in eliminating Al-Q and all its subsidiaries. "Manifest Destiny" extended the US borders from New England to Los Angeles. The next round may see them extended from Jakarta to Dakar. The hayrabs have been warned enough. One more smack from Al-Q and it's time to take direct, PERMANENT action. And to rub salt into the wounds, we'll demand they all convert to Buddhism.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/23/2003 13:06 Comments || Top||

#13  Close. The. Fucking. Borders.
Posted by: Hyper || 12/23/2003 14:50 Comments || Top||

#14 

The Arab world is only now feeling the true 'Shock and Awe' of seeing the former dictator of Iraq looking like the Rat that he is when he was captured. Many in the Arab world feel humiliated by his capture and Al-Qaeda hopes to capitalize on this with a revenge attack.

If a attack is carried out successfully, the US has a free card to hit back at those states the harbor terrorist. This would include Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, and Sudan. Perhaps Libya realized this and so decided to throw in the towel and get itself removed from this list.

Posted by: ZoGg || 12/23/2003 14:51 Comments || Top||

#15  If a attack is carried out successfully, the US has a free card to hit back at those states the harbor terrorist. This would include Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, and Sudan.

Also, Israel will probably get to do whatever it wants in the West Bank and Gaza and there won't be a thing that Korei or Arafart can do about it.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 15:15 Comments || Top||

#16  Here is a hypothetical for you folks...lets say they drop a bomb in LA....and kill 10,000 people....what is the govt going to do? Go after Binny? We've been after him for 2 years....what are they going to do? Invade Greenland? Liberate Grenada? The govt knows who is behind it, they know where the funding comes from, they know who is supporting the terrorists, they know where the terrorists come from---Saudi Arabia? They already know all of this and can they protect us? No, ...they cant....and why? Cause they wont. They know all the details, they already know this information....why wont they do something about it? Because its political...its not about revenge or justice or Islam or anything else. They arent going to nuke anybody, they arent going to do a damn thing about it if we are attacked....
We have been attacked and what did we do? We invaded Iraq. Was Binny in Iraq? No, we acted like we were chasing him, but the govt decided to stop that and pull the troops into Iraq...why? Political....
When we are attacked again and we probably will be...dont expect any grand retribution or revenge...there wont be any....there will be conferences and appeasement and investigations...but there will not be any strike at the ones responsible.....that wouldnt be prudent or PC....and meanwhile the enemy grows stronger and more confident...because they know we cant catch them and we are not going to bomb anyone.....we are at their mercy, no one wants to say it but thats the fact Jack!!
Posted by: Skeptic || 12/23/2003 15:24 Comments || Top||

#17  Skeptic, You seem unclear on why the US invaded Iraq so I'll lay it out for you. The US invaded Iraq to send a message that any government that even thinks about supporting terrorists will be taken out no matter how much insurance they've purchased from France and Russia.

Quadaffi got the hint, I think you can bet on the fact that others have taken the hint as well.

Oh, and we stopped chasing Bin Laden because he's dead.
Posted by: ruprecht || 12/23/2003 16:05 Comments || Top||

#18 

Here is a hypothetical for you folks...lets say they drop a bomb in LA....and kill 10,000 people....what is the govt going to do?

Hmm, try and stop it from occurring first off.

Go after Binny? We've been after him for 2 years....what are they going to do? Invade Greenland? Liberate Grenada?

Nice examples there. I think the countries I listed would be a little closer to the mark. As for Binny, if his brains aren't splattered on some cave in Tora Bora, I am sure the military would would have zero restrictions on hitting him again no matter the location.

The govt knows who is behind it, they know where the funding comes from, they know who is supporting the terrorists, they know where the terrorists come from---Saudi Arabia?

The Government isn't as all knowing as you think.

They already know all of this and can they protect us? No, ...they cant....and why? Cause they wont.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that the US has a open society, founded on freedom and liberty?

They know all the details, they already know this information....why wont they do something about it?


You make it sound like a light switch or something.

Because its political...its not about revenge or justice or Islam or anything else.


Actually all three things you listed are very much embedded in Arab society.

They arent going to nuke anybody, they arent going to do a damn thing about it if we are attacked....


The US would never Nuke anyone unless it was to save the lives of its own citizens, the same reason it used them in World War II. As far as doing something about it, if anything the invasion of two Terrorist sponsoring States is far from not doing anything. Raising the threat level to orange actually cost allot of money to sustain and is a direct demonstration that the US Government is doing something to prevent a attack.

We have been attacked and what did we do? We invaded Iraq. Was Binny in Iraq?


Actually the US invaded Afghanistan, and continue to occupy it.

No, we acted like we were chasing him, but the govt decided to stop that and pull the troops into Iraq...why? Political....


Tora Bora wasn't a act. Troops in Afghanistan continued to mount operations before, durring and after the invasion of Iraq, your living in a dream world.

When we are attacked again and we probably will be...dont expect any grand retribution or revenge...there wont be any....there will be conferences and appeasement and investigations...but there will not be any strike at the ones responsible.....that wouldnt be prudent or PC....and meanwhile the enemy grows stronger and more confident...because they know we cant catch them and we are not going to bomb anyone.....we are at their mercy, no one wants to say it but thats the fact Jack!!


That could actually be a true statement if made ten years ago.

Posted by: ZoGg || 12/23/2003 16:05 Comments || Top||

#19  Left wing skeptic: We have been attacked and what did we do? We invaded Iraq. Was Binny in Iraq? No, we acted like we were chasing him, but the govt decided to stop that and pull the troops into Iraq...why? Political....

If the US invades Saudi Arabia, the custodian of the Muslim holy sites, it might as well declare war on every Muslim country in the world - because they will certainly declare war on the US. Besides, invading Iraq was a huge diplomatic and political undertaking by itself - how the heck was the US going to justify invading Saudi Arabia? And was the whole Saudi Arabian government going against the US, or just rogue elements within Saudi society and the Saudi government? With Iraq, there was no question - Saddam was the state - he had the resources of the entire state working for him.

Besides, Iraq is just a stepping stone. Just as the US worked its way up from the South Pacific en route to Tokyo, Afghanistan and Iraq are just waystations on the road to victory in the War on Terror. The key aspect of being in Iraq is that the US has 100,000 troops in-country and a number of air force bases, which means that it has the ability to inflict a lot of punishment on any terror-sponsoring country in the Gulf region, and leaders there know it. In a way, it would be better if no WMD's were found in Iraq - this will send a signal to Muslim countries that they can't get away with their usual game of sponsoring terrorists on the side, because the US will retaliate even if they've been successful in covering their tracks.

There was no way the US could have chased bin Laden down short of invading Iran and/or Pakistan, both of which are tougher nuts to crack, since their defense installations haven't been under attack for a decade, and getting access is far harder.

Why Iraq? It was the low-hanging fruit - it was unfinished business - something the US had to get out of the way before it could redeploy for action elsewhere. Afghanistan did not preclude Iraq, just as Iraq will not preclude another campaign. US troops only need to be in Iraq long enough to get basic governmental structures going - note that American troops did not stick around in North Africa or the South Pacific after German and Japanese positions were overrun. The Democrats love this nation-building stuff, but that's not the point of these two campaigns, which is to crush terrorists and deter terror-sponsoring governments. Ultimately, the objective is to wipe the stain of Vietnam, Desert One, Beirut and Mogadishu from Muslim minds - only then will deterrence be regained.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/23/2003 16:29 Comments || Top||

#20  Left wing skeptic: They know all the details, they already know this information....why wont they do something about it? Because its political...its not about revenge or justice or Islam or anything else. They arent going to nuke anybody, they arent going to do a damn thing about it if we are attacked....

And a little bird told left-wing skeptic all this. Right. Left-wing skeptic feels comfortable assuming moral equivalence between our leaders and the terrorists. I don't. End of story.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/23/2003 16:39 Comments || Top||

#21  Well put responses...and I am not left wing...I am just tired of seeing our country being attacked by the ROP and our govt seemingly evading the issue by dirrecting our attention elsewhere....I cant reply to each point that was made in response to my rant....some make sense, some dont....but I still say, we will NOT respond in kind if we are attacked....WHY NOT!!!
I am all for turning the ME to glass, but we cant do that.....no little bird told me anything, I can see and read and comprehend on my own...and Zhang Fei, your first response made a lot of sense, but then you for some reason, go off the track.....my point is we have invaded Irag, we "occupy' Afghan, I know all of this...but we are not safer than we were are we? I still say we will not retaliate if we are attacked...our govt will not do it.....I say bomb the mother f***rs to dust.....THAT will send a message, but we wont do that.....and that pisses me off.
Good holidays to you all....I'll go back to my head banging.....wall type, not music type.
Posted by: Skeptic || 12/23/2003 16:52 Comments || Top||

#22  Close. The. Fucking. Borders.

No. Throw the bastards off our planet.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 17:34 Comments || Top||

#23  Skeptic: I still say we will not retaliate if we are attacked...our govt will not do it.....I say bomb the mother f***rs to dust.....THAT will send a message, but we wont do that.....and that pisses me off.

I understand your frustration - on 9/11, my initial view when I emerged from a midtown subway stop was of a cloud of ashes where the towers used to stand. I fully expected the use of nuclear weapons in Afghanistan. But it never happened.

At the same time, I understand why GWB held back. The use of nukes would have really upped the ante. That's not to say that it won't happen if tens of thousands of Americans are killed this time around. I suspect that if an event surpassing September 11 occurs on American soil, a draft will be reinstated, and a number of other Muslim countries will be invaded. I don't see nukes being employed except against an existential threat - it's not the American way to kill large numbers of even hostile civilians in the absence of such a threat. (If GWB did use 'em, God bless him - I'm glad I'm not responsible for making these decisions. Nonetheless, I would support the use of nukes - not that he'll need anyone's permission to use them).
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/23/2003 19:04 Comments || Top||

#24  Close. The. Fucking. Borders.

Won't make a difference. I'm more worried about the Enemy Within - two million or so Muslims with a chip on their shoulder about Uncle Sam.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/23/2003 19:07 Comments || Top||

#25  I'm more worried about the Enemy Within - two million or so Muslims with a chip on their shoulder about Uncle Sam.

It's possible we're about to find out the practical reasons why a number of Japanese Americans were interned during WWII. I hope we don't, but it wouldn't surprise me if political correctness about Muslims leads to the deaths of tens of thousands - we'll get to find out if the fear of wrongly interning someone temporarily makes up for mass death caused by a member of that community.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/23/2003 19:24 Comments || Top||

#26  ..we'll get to find out if the fear of wrongly interning someone temporarily makes up for mass death caused by a member of that community.

Assuming that there's still a shread of common sense in the general public, if it ever comes to pass that political correctness played a pivotal role in any massive loss of American lives, there WILL be hell to pay.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 20:12 Comments || Top||

#27  Kudos to you all - this is an excellent (and needed, since it is a question of when, not if) discussion and I'm one of those who appreciates what I learn on RB - great stuff.

ZF - I have a different take on what the "Arab World" would do in the case of an invasion of SA. I propose an very limited form - 40 (or Steve's 100!!!) km strip along the Eastern coast. I stand by my assessment of the incredible positive fallout it would have in a remarkably short time.

As for the negatives, I think Iraq has demonstrated what we can actually expect from the Arab World: seething and bluster and paralysis - and eventually the letting loose of the fringe (as long as deniable) who have no life other than the jihad drilled into them by their imams. It would be more of the same, IMHO, not some sudden millions upon millions spilling out in retribution. After living among them for years I do not believe that is their psyche nor do I believe that more than a tiny fraction are True Believers - most action-oriented types are mercs and the vast vast majority are little more than social robots who do what they do because it is what they were taught, what they understand, what is approved of by their society / peers, and the typical human fear of ostracism and the unknown to abandon it.

I want to hear where you differ and why. I respect your expertise and experience, but mine tells me something different here - so I want to understand where we part company!

Thx, in advance, for your take if you see this before rollover!

And anyone else, please chime in. This WILL happen TO us - they can't seem to help themselves, no matter how illogical or ill-serving it may be toward their "cause." What will we do about it and what will be the ramifications?

Only one persion, brother flash91, has responded to the Wretched commentary - and I think he brushed it off a little too easily - Den Beste actually agrees substantially with much of Wretched's stuff and there is no escape from the logic boxes he builds - so try again, flash91!

Can anything be more important than this, in fact? I don't think so. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to hear from everyone! Thx!
Posted by: .com || 12/23/2003 20:41 Comments || Top||

#28  As for the negatives, I think Iraq has demonstrated what we can actually expect from the Arab World: seething and bluster and paralysis - and eventually the letting loose of the fringe (as long as deniable) who have no life other than the jihad drilled into them by their imams. It would be more of the same, IMHO, not some sudden millions upon millions spilling out in retribution.

With regard to a Saudi Arabia invasion scenario, an uptick in al Qaeda terrorist activity from newly-recruited isn't the danger. The risk is Muslim countries starting to actively cooperate with and fund al Qaeda, which could mean the need for WWII-style campaigns against those countries, one after another. What happens when the Russians or the Chinese decide to defend allied Muslim countries? Will a WWII-style draft, when 12% of the population was under arms, be necessary? Will defense spending have to go up to 50% of GDP? The list of unknowns is just staggering.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/23/2003 21:41 Comments || Top||

#29  "The risk is Muslim countries starting to actively cooperate with and fund al Qaeda..."

Okay. Hmmm - you sure that's what your gut tells you? I don't agree, but that was what I asked for!

I believe that the "leaders" of the remaining Arab countries, in particular, would do the opposite (to stay in power - as they are mercs, too, and of this I have no doubts at all) and put as much distance as possible between themselves and AlQ - and US retribution.

I'm less sure what Malaysia, Indonesia, and Pakiwakiland would do, however. In the 90+ days term, when the merc money had dried up, Malay and Indo would follow suit, IMHO. Shorter term, I don't know or have a good feel. Perv's patch would be the one place, IMHO, where no logic would hold - and it could tip either way based upon more factors than I could track, I'm certain. That's why I've always seen Pakiwakiland as an aspiring smokin' / glowin' hole - the worst case scenario since they have enough nukes to cause serious damage.

As for Russia - I don't buy the idea that they would back Muslim interests - certainly not openly.

China is another voodoo equation, like Pak - I don't know how they'd fall, but I would guess it would be under the radar support if they chose that route, thinking themselves to be master strategists ala the Iranian Black Hats.

We ARE going to have this knock-down battle somewhere along the line. The WoT won't be a low-grade game forever because they WILL succeed in hitting us hard, again, since it's obvious that it's too much for most to take the extreme pre-emptive approach. And after that happens to us, the unthinkable will evolve into the obvious in some form. That's my immediate take, anyway. I'll stew on your response and see what happens.

Okay - thanx, ZF! As always, you make me think!

Anyone else???????
Posted by: .com || 12/23/2003 22:11 Comments || Top||

#30  Yes, Shipman, South Georgia.
Posted by: Ptah || 12/23/2003 22:47 Comments || Top||

#31  Nobody will probably read this because its yesterdays link but here's my prediction if there is an attack larger than Sept 11.

(1) The US won't need a draft, the lines to enlist will be blocks long. Congress will pass legislation giving the military branches the money to hire as many as they need. (2) Anti-Islamic tone that has been bottled up will come out and if we don't see internment camps we will certainly see an outflow of non-American Arabs. An end to visas from the Arab world, and probably an outflow of Arab-Americans heading for Canada. (3) A dozen dictators throughout the world will pull a Libya in the hopes of clearing their name before the US goes into action. (4) The US will get the full backing of the UN for any action even if they don't go to the Un looking for support.
Posted by: ruprecht || 12/24/2003 1:16 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Libya invites US oil companies back
This oughta light up Indymedia like a rocket...
Libya says it would welcome back US oil companies, which are eager to return to their abandoned operations, should Washington lift economic sanctions after Libya pledged on Friday to abandon weapons of mass destruction. "The US has oil advantages in Libya," Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Abderrhmane Chalgam told reporters. "We will try to convince US oil companies to return. We currently produce 1.5 million barrels per day and we aim to increase the oil output to 3 million bpd in 2020," Mr Chalgam said. The major US oil firms were once responsible for producing about 1 million barrels per day of Libya's crude. In Washington, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said positive developments in Libya could eventually lead the US to lift economic sanctions that bar US companies from doing business in the oil-rich country. "As Libya's policy changes, Libya's behaviour changes, Libya's circumstances change, we'll be willing to look at those things," Mr Boucher said. Five US oil firms were active in Libya before sanctions on investment in 1986, including Marathon Oil, Amerada Hess, ConocoPhillips, Occidental Petroleum and Grace Petroleum. "We've made no secret that we would be very interested in returning to Libya if permitted," said Larry Meriage, spokesman for Occidental. "It was our Libyan discoveries that launched Occidental as a major player in the international arena. It also put Libya on the map as a major world oil producer."

Seafarious e-mailed me, suggesting a post-holiday Rantburg get-together. I guess it'd be premature to plan to hold it in the O-club at Wheelus, huh?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Libya must be concerned about those oil discoveries in Chad down south. A smart move on Libya's part if their conversion is genuine.
Posted by: Rafael || 12/23/2003 1:52 Comments || Top||

#2  ...hold it in the O-club at Wheelus

Darn officers, always trying to stick it to the enlisted.

Anyway, Khaddafi-Qaddafi-Gadhafi-WHATEVER appears to have finally figured 'it' out: quit whining and seething, let in some sunlight, and try to embarass Israel re: their (alleged) WMDs. It's either incredibly canny or incredibly cynical, but either way it's a positive thing (assuming he follows through and the F-111s don't have to make a return trip).

ps. remember, back in the day the french gave us the finger about using their airspace- haven't been an 'ally' since at least then, realistically since 5 seconds after WWII ended
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/23/2003 2:41 Comments || Top||

#3  I wasn't aware that Chad had such a significant amount of oil. I'm sure this played a factor, but the most important factor for Linya discarding WMD I think was the simple fact that it wasn't profitable. You can't eat or drink WMD's, selling them is a invitation to our forces to implement a regime change, and using thme against his neighbors isn't viable because he doesn't have the Tech too deploy Chem or Bio accurately. And the Nukes would make the area un-inhabitable for years.

Gudaffi realized the road to riches and prestige is through money, not conquest. He's just trying to snatch it up before Chad or Iraq does.
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 2:43 Comments || Top||

#4  The only thing worse than being an egomaniac, is being an egomaniac that nobody pays attention to. Godawful is lonely.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler || 12/23/2003 2:48 Comments || Top||

#5  4IV,I have been pissed at France since then,and they have done nothing to change my opinion since that day.
Posted by: raptor || 12/23/2003 7:01 Comments || Top||

#6 
Gudaffi wants to see Disney Land before he shuffles off.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 7:47 Comments || Top||

#7  "Wheelus"? Boy, how old are you Fred? They closed it in 70. Then we bombed it in 86 when we gave them the acronym L.I.B.Y.A. [Lakenheath is bombing your ass].
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/23/2003 8:17 Comments || Top||

#8  If they reopen Wheelus, are bases in Europe then becom COMPLETLY useless (save England).
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 12/23/2003 10:46 Comments || Top||

#9  "Wheelus"? Boy, how old are you Fred?
Careful, Jack! I went into Wheelus in 1966, passing through, and was at Alconbury in 1986 when the Lakenheath boys did a number on it (helped out with the Bomb Damaga Assessment). Some of us "old farts" have looooooonnnnnnggg memories... 8^)

I'm not surprised that Chad has substantial oil reserves. The entire Sahara was a lush forest during the late Cambrian through the mid-Jurasic, and the area's been relatively stable (geologically, anyway) since then. That's the source of all the oil in Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and most of the Middle East. From what I remember of my Paleogeography class, the extent of oil-bearing formations should include about 2/3 of upper Africa, down as far as the upper Congo basin. Chad and Libya had a nasty spat over the Aozou region in the late 1970's through the mid-1980's, with the Chadians giving QaDaffy more than he could handle. Oil may have been one of several things that spat was about.

Surprisingly, there are ALSO vast coal reserves in the African Sahara. The cost of exporting it is about as much as you could make, but it's there for the future.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/23/2003 12:23 Comments || Top||

#10  OP: I believe it was the French Foreign Legion that handled the Chad / Libya war. The link tells the tale. Chad is another of the French colonies in all but name.

A consortium led by two US companies has been investing $3.7 billion to develop oil reserves estimated at 1 billion barrels in southern Chad. Oil production is scheduled to come on stream in late 2003.
CIA Factbook
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/23/2003 12:39 Comments || Top||

#11  4thInfVet---concerning France. I remember the long circuitous route that the F-111s had to take and the many refuelings they had to do as part of the route around France. However, a friend of mine that flew troops to Kuwait just before the war made multiple flights from Amsterdam and over French airspace. So the French may have been publically denouncing and impeding the war effort, but they let our CRAF planes go through. Hedging their bets? I cannot figure it out.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/23/2003 13:01 Comments || Top||

#12  Paul, hon, the French are above all...whores.
I imagine that our American dollars will spend as well there as they will in Tripoli.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/23/2003 13:03 Comments || Top||

#13  ... the French may have been publically denouncing and impeding the war effort, but they let our CRAF planes go through.

That just makes them even more two-faced and duplicitious. Probably passed every bit of operational and electronic intel from the flights right to the soviets Iraqis.

It must be tough on turds like Gaddaphi(? just guessing about the weekly spelling change) when your main super-power sponsor goes tits-up. Plenty of reasons for Colonel Mo to try to cut a deal while he still enjoys the trappings. He really misses his soviet big brother these days, I bet.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/23/2003 14:08 Comments || Top||

#14  I would be hesitant to send Americans into Libya at this point. If he is not reformed, they become real or impled hostages as soon as they set foot on Libyan sand.
Posted by: Super Hose || 12/23/2003 16:50 Comments || Top||

#15  My father was station at Wheelus 68-70' and he once told me a story about a visit by Gadaffy, which led my to find the following article about our first black general. This man Col. Chappie James, was a stud. http://www.moaa.org/magazine/February2001/feature_chappie.asp

Few Americans recall the day that James faced down Gadhafi. The confrontation occurred when Gadhafi ordered a column of Libyan half-tracks onto Wheelus. The half-tracks blew past the gate guards and through the housing area at top speed.

When James was notified of the intrusion, he came immediately to the front gate and lowered the barrier to prevent more vehicles from entering. Standing a few yards beyond the barrier was Gadhafi with his hand resting on the butt of his pistol. James glared at him, his own .45 ready at his side.

“Move your hand away from that gun,” James ordered. Much to everyone’s surprise, Gadhafi complied — and probably prevented an early end to his dictatorship. As James later recalled, “If he had pulled that gun, it never would have cleared his holster.” As if to punctuate the impression James had made, the Libyan Army didn’t send any more half-tracks after that incident.
Posted by: Rick || 12/23/2003 17:30 Comments || Top||


Africa: Southern
Arrests made in Zimbabwe over Perth man's murder
Two men have been arrested in relation to the abduction and murder of a 51-year-old Perth man in Zimbabwe. Phillip Laing was killed after armed robbers abducted seven people from the offices of a tea plantation in the Honde Valley. Mr Laing was tied to a tree and forced to drink acid. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chris Gallus, says authorities in Zimbabwe have arrested two of the alleged robbers, and expect to apprehend the remaining pair soon. "I think it's a very good sign...it shows that the Zimbabwe Government is taking it very seriously indeed and we look forward to having them arrest the other two and to quickly bring this to justice," she said. Australians travelling or working in Zimbabwe are being urged to exercise a high degree of caution.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:07 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon
Toufeili lashes out at Hizbullah, Iran
This is a good rant, plenty of spittle, not much grasp on reality. There's a few more paragraphs. You might want to read them, too.
“Hizbullah has become a guard for Israel’s border and Iran Satan’s servant in helping America execute its agenda in the region,” the former secretary-general of Hizbullah said over the weekend.
Yeah! I was just noticing that myself...
In an interview with the Daily Star, Sheikh Sobhi Toufeili said he had some advice for his former comrades in Hizbullah, and the Iranian leadership. “Shortly after the liberation, I had to warn Hizbullah and the Iranian leadership not to exploit the people’s support for the resistance in order to serve other objectives, away from the struggle against Israel,” he said. “The Iranians wanted to invest the victory for the sake of their own policies, to foster their relations with Lebanon and other Arab regimes.”
No! The Medes and the Persians? They'd do that?
Toufeili also said Hizbullah was a non-independent political institution that follows orders from Iran.
The guys that pay the piper get to pick the tune, don't they? And you didn't notice that, back in the good old days of the Armed Struggle™. Dumbass.
“I cannot criticize Hizbullah, without meaning Iran as well; the Iranian leadership has been and still is responsible for all of Hizbullah’s decisions on everything, since the time we agreed with the late Imam Khomeini to build up the resistance movement,” he said.
"The Persians pull the strings and we dance."
Toufeili also said that he suspects that the Iranians made their country “a bridge to invade Afghanistan.”
I must have slept through that part...
“By supporting the Northern Front and coordinating with the American invaders, Iran committed an act of treason by collaborating with the enemies of God and Islam,” he said.
"Treason, by Gawd! Rank and foul! Titus Oates! Benedict Arnold! Brutus and Cassius and Jane Fonda, all rolled into one!"
Toufeili accused the Iranians and their Iraqi supporters of damaging the people’s struggle against the occupying forces. “For 10 years, the Iranians have been supporting the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which has been negotiating with the Americans in order to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime. The Iranians encouraged and supervised these contacts,” Toufeili said. “Until recently the same Iraqi party was claiming it was opposed to the current military resistance because it served the interests of the toppled president. Now they have no excuse after his capture, but we notice that the Iranians are still against the armed resistance, which proves their treason. In their devilish acts, the Iranian leadership is helping the Americans instigate internal conflicts between Shiite and Sunni Muslims by giving the wrong impression that the former are collaborators and traitors.
Is that a translation problem? Surely he meant the latter?
“The whole region is being reshaped in accordance with the American-Israeli agenda 
 All Arab regimes will be toppled by the United States of America for one reason or another,” Toufeili added.
Or all of them for the same reason, one after the other, because they don't catch on...
He argued that “reconciliation between the peoples and their rulers is not only possible but the correct approach for dealing with the Israeli-American agenda prepared against our states and peoples.”
Now that single statement is a window into Toufeili's soul. The people and their rulers need to be reconciled. The people don't get to govern themselves, they need to be ruled, by men who know what's best for them. Devout men, men with turbans and automatic weapons...
“Meeting the wishes and dictates of this agenda will not change the course of events or save the regimes 
 because the calls for democratization of the Middle East aim at toppling Islamic and Arab regimes without bringing any real democracy or freedom. When our peoples become free, the first step they would take is to drive the Americans out,” Toufeili said.
Depends on your definition of "freedom," I guess...
“Instead of bringing democracy, freedom and modernization, the Americans only encourage chaos,” he added. “As long as the Americans and their allies are able to control a country, they will attempt to marginalize the local people and instigate internal conflicts and wars between the different factions and sects in order to secure their control endlessly. Impoverishment, marginalization and corruption are all maneuvers aiming to achieve that end.”
All of them imposed from without, of course. None of them are the result of greed, ineptitude, and ignorance on the part of the iron-fisted regimes running those countries.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Mufti of Tripoli denounces Arab League for indecisiveness
The mufti of Tripoli and North Lebanon, Sheikh Taha Sabounji, strongly denounced on Sunday the Arab League’s indecisiveness in facing the “US-Zionist” campaign against the Arab nation. Sabounji was speaking during a meeting held at the Makarem al-Akhlaq Association hall in the Tripoli town of Mina, supporting Syria and protesting against the endorsement of the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Act by US President George W. Bush. Held under the theme of “Lebanon and Syria in the same trench against the US Zionist policy” and against the so-called Syria Accountability Act, the event was attended by various medical, judicial and political personalities as well as party and local association members.
I have this vision of a bunch of overweight Rotarians getting together to roll their eyes and holler...
Speaking on behalf of Tripoli MP Omar Karami, Brigadier General Sami Menqara condemned the US initiative, highlighting the duplicity of a US administration that claimed support of freedom and democracy but occupied territories under the pretense of defending human rights. Sabounji questioned why Syria was currently being targeted and expressed his wonder at the reasons behind accusations that claimed Syria was impeding Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s solution of surrender. “Syria is currently being punished and called to account because it is proposing the rise of the Arab renaissance,” the sheikh said, adding that in every meeting and statement, Syrian President Bashar Assad made a clear call to unite the Arab world and vision.
That's some kind of renaissance you guys have got going there...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fred: Implicit in the idea of 'renaissance' is discovering knowledge that has been lost. In Europe the renaissance meant re-discovering what the ancients (the Greeks) knew. The word has deep religous implications relating to the religous notion of falling from grace - getting kicked out of the garden of eden.

Interestingly this rational was used to justify new knowledge and it in fact over hundreds of years led to the modern world.

I suspect the arabs have a similar view and it helps to drive the notion of a return to an idealized past because in present its obvious the arabs are collectively such a failure. Whether it results in the same outcome it did in the west is debateable and if it does occur it will take a long time.

BTW the next post is a classic.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/23/2003 3:39 Comments || Top||

#2  The previous post was me.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/23/2003 3:42 Comments || Top||

#3  roll their eyes and holler... I thought they have to jump up and down to complete the incantation. No?

I can remember back when, it must have been ... ten hours gone by since hearing from the Arab League. They're not moving fast enough to suit Sabounji. He fears they'll go astray after seeing the mass graves without his kvetching inspired guidance.

Fred: (off-topic) Can we get the Lord Robertson piece from yesterday reposted? Sense of danglers left in the thread. Or is it possible / procedure to just add comments to the archive? That might unduly inspire last-word types.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 3:42 Comments || Top||

#4  "next post" Did you mean the next article, or your next comment? (:-)>
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 3:56 Comments || Top||

#5  By next I meant chronologically next, i.e. the article above this one in the list shown in your browser.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/23/2003 5:53 Comments || Top||

#6  phil: ok. Furthermore, yeah, Fred does his stuff really well. Your comment brings up a question.

Wonder by what means are Classics chosen? Is it by feelie, or by acclamation? Or is there some sort of decision procedure? For sheer irony I particularly liked the Saudi Passport story yesterday. But then it didn't come near Jane Fonda Revisited, which made the cut.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 12:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Comment that it should be a classic. Then everyone else can add "yea or nay."

Other than that, I try to avoid adding something to the classics on the day it's posted unless it makes me blow coffee out my nose or it's rilly, rilly big, like Sammy getting snagged. If I can remember it the next day, it's probably a classic from my perspective.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2003 13:02 Comments || Top||


Mieh Mieh resident dies in Iraq
A Palestinian refugee in Lebanon who volunteered to fight in Iraq against US forces some nine months ago has been killed, officials at the Mieh Mieh refugee camp in Sidon announced over the weekend. Hassan Suleiman, the 18-year-old son of Palestinian official Jamal Suleiman, is the second Palestinian resident of Lebanon to die in Iraq after Ibrahim Khalil, who was killed shortly after the US-led forces invaded Iraq.
Only two? Come, now...
He headed to the country with hundreds of his Lebanese and Arab peers. His parents lost track of him after Iraq fell under the control of the occupying forces. The news was confirmed by Suleiman’s friend, who accompanied him there. Hassan’s father received condolences from various Palestinian factions and Lebanese officials at the camp. He said only that Hassan died on Dec. 11 in a suicide attack against a US military base west of Baghdad. A ceremony was held on Saturday at the Moussalli Mosque in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp to commemorate the passing away of the young man. Suleiman’s body will not be returned to Lebanon because it was blown to pieces in the attack. Suleiman belonged to a Palestinian militant group called Ansar Allah, or Partisans of God.
Well, I'm certainly glad he's dead. I hope his passing was very painful. Say hello to Himmler for us, Hassan.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought Mieh Mieh was a panda...
Posted by: Seafarious || 12/23/2003 0:12 Comments || Top||

#2  I think I know the answer to this question, but does occupying Iraq make us liable for the $25,000 payments Saddam's been making to the Paleomartyrs? Nah, didn't think so... heh
Posted by: snellenr || 12/23/2003 1:53 Comments || Top||

#3  does occupying Iraq make us liable for the $25,000 payments Saddam's been making to the Paleomartyrs?

Only in the french courts, I think.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/23/2003 2:31 Comments || Top||

#4  It's time to return the favor. What's the GPS coordinate of the Suleiman residence in Ein el-Hilweh?
Posted by: ed || 12/23/2003 3:45 Comments || Top||

#5  He said only that Hassan died on Dec. 11 in a suicide attack against a US military base west of Baghdad.

A Palestinian suicide bomber in Iraq? Does this mean in order to prevent more attack we will invade the West Bank and hunt Hamas? No, but it's a nice thought.
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 6:40 Comments || Top||

#6  He could have been like Dean's brother - just a backpacker passing through.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/23/2003 8:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Meh. Meh.
Posted by: RussSchultz || 12/23/2003 9:29 Comments || Top||

#8  A Palestinian refugee in Lebanon who volunteered to fight in Iraq against US forces some nine months ago has been killed, officials at the Mieh Mieh refugee camp in Sidon announced over the weekend.

Good! How about killing off more of these terrorist scumbags, and faster?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 10:34 Comments || Top||

#9  ". . . .blown to pieces in the attack."

That would then be "Part-isans" of God wouldn't it? (Rimshot) Seriously, I'm here all week folks. . .
Posted by: doc8404 || 12/23/2003 22:09 Comments || Top||


DFLP escalates campaign accusing UNRWA of neglect
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine pursued on Friday its campaign against the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), accusing it of reducing its budget for medical and educational assistance to Palestinian refugees in the country.
The same people they've been supporting for 55 years?
More than 50 people staged a protest near the offices of the camp’s UNRWA director-general, Richard Cook, raising banners to communicate their suffering and need for medical and educational aid.
Did they scare him?
In a letter addressed to Cook, the front conveyed the Palestinian refugees’ suffering from deprivation of civil and human rights, unemployment, as well as the decline of UNRWA’s medical, social and educational assistance in the wake of the socio-economic crisis in Lebanon. The front said that refugees suffered from two types of problems, the first resulting from the lack of practical and administrative measures for redefining UNRWA’s administrative policy, in addition to the need for stopping administrative and financial corruption within the UNRWA.
A UN agency? Corrupt? Good Lord! When did that start?
The second type consisted of the need to unify work at UNRWA in a bid to pressure the international community to pay its dues to the agency so that the latter could provide the necessary help to the refugees.
Could it be the International Community™ is getting tired of pissing its taxpayers' money away on a never-ending "refugee" problem that's continually exploited for local (and Byzantine) political purposes?
According to the front, the UNRWA should increase the number of beds in its hospitals, and cover the full cost of open-heart surgeries and catheterization operations. The front also called for the full coverage of therapies for cancer and chronic diseases, dialysis, MRI, X-rays and scanner procedures, and for the increase of the number of physicians at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp.
Careful where you're stepping. My jaw's down there somewhere...
Regarding education for refugees, the front denounced the agency’s neglect to improve the educational level and called for its support as soon as possible. The percentage of success in the Brevet examinations, which reached just 32 percent, reflected the deterioration of the educational level, the letter said. The front also imputed the decline of the educational level to the lack of efficient administrative communication within the UNRWA and to the absence of an educational development center for training teachers. The increasing number of students in a classroom, ranging between 50 and 55 pupils, was also cited as a source of concern, since teachers were unable to control and provide the proper care. The front concluded that the refugees’ economic status required careful examination and called for the immediate reconstruction of the sewer system especially since winter was around the corner.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm just guesssing here, but it seems to me that the UNRWA money would go further in Ein-Hellhole if 80% of it wasn't been skimmed off by Yasser and his thug-girls.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/23/2003 1:47 Comments || Top||

#2  I was still a relatively young man when I noticed that my pay check went further if I didn't spend it all on beer and hookers.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2003 10:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Umm, pardon my pissing on their parade, but isn't all this stuff the job of the PA?
Posted by: Ptah || 12/23/2003 11:01 Comments || Top||

#4  The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine pursued on Friday its campaign against the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), accusing it of reducing its budget for medical and educational assistance to Palestinian refugees in the country.

More than 50 people staged a protest near the offices of the camp’s UNRWA director-general, Richard Cook, raising banners to communicate their suffering and need for medical and educational aid.


Why the deviation from form? I would've expected nothing less than a bombing of Mr. Cook's office.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 12:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Maybe thay can get Ben Casey to move into Ein El-Hellhole...

Demanding lot, ain't they?
Posted by: mojo || 12/23/2003 16:23 Comments || Top||


Court sentences 25 in bombings
A military tribunal issued sentences ranging between six-months to life imprisonment for 25 members of a terrorist group on charges of forming a terrorist network with the aim of carrying out bombings against Western targets and harming the country’s reputation. Two of the defendants, Khaled Ali and Mohammed Kaaki, the leaders of the terrorist group, were acquitted of plotting to attack the US Embassy and assassinate the US ambassador, according to verdicts posted on a court bulletin board late Saturday. They were acquitted because they did not execute their plot; however, both Ali and Mohammed Kaaki were found guilty of planning the bombings against Western targets. They were sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment with hard labor and they were deprived of their civil rights.
Hmmm... That's a hefty sentence...
Five people were wounded in the bombings on Western franchises in Beirut and Tripoli. The attacks, which began last year and continued until April, targeted McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Hardees and Spinney’s supermarket. The attacks were seen as part of the wave of anti-American sentiment that washed over the region because of the US occupation of Iraq and the perception that America is biased toward Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians.
Well, that explains it, then. They certainly couldn't be expected to control themselves and obey laws with that sort of thing going on...
The court also acquitted eight suspects for lack of sufficient evidence, the bulletin said. Three defendants at large were sentenced in absentia. One of them, Ahmed Mikati, is believed to be hiding in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh in Sidon. The other two, brothers Bilal and Maher Khazal, Australians of Lebanese origin, were convicted of funding the group in Lebanon. Bilal, who is a former Qantas baggage handler, sent $2,500 to Kaaki, the mastermind behind the bombings. The three men were sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor.
Now all they've gotta do is catch them...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Australia has them, all Lebanon has to do is ask:
AUSTRALIA would respond positively if Lebanon asked it to extradite two Sydney brothers sentenced to jail by a Beirut court for helping finance a terrorist bombing campaign, Prime Minister John Howard said today. Lebanon has yet to ask for the extradition of the brothers, who live in western Sydney. "My advice is there's been no extradition request received by Australia, but if there was one received we will naturally respond positively," Mr Howard told reporters in Sydney, ahead of a visit today to the Solomon Islands. Asked whether the brothers were of interest to Australia, Mr Howard replied: "I think you're all pretty safe in making that assumption."


Posted by: Steve || 12/23/2003 8:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Bilal, who is a former Qantas baggage handler, sent $2,500 to Kaaki, the mastermind behind the bombings.

Well, this isn't very reassuring.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 10:38 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Israeli invasion shakes Jenin
Three Palestinians have been wounded, one seriously, during a major Israeli military invasion of Jenin on Monday.
Golly. Was it another massacre?
The occupation troops entered the northern West Bank town on Monday with 20 military jeeps and tanks, backed by two Apache helicopters which opened fire, witnesses said.
Hmmm... I'll bet they were U.S.-made, weren't they?
A local man who only wanted to be identified by his first name for fear of reprisals from the Israeli military, told Aljazeera.net that tanks and the Apaches entered Jenin in the morning and opened fire on the house of a 29 year-old-man in Halimah al-Sadaya, eastern Jenin. "Apache helicopters were used to target the house of Aysar Abu Srur, his pregnant wife and two children were in the house when the army started shooting from above. No warning was given to the family, so that they could leave the house", said Yusuf.
"Their puppies, their kittens, all their baby ducks — all dead!"
He told Aljazeera.net that Srur, 29, was arrested along with his neighbour Hasan Biss, 44. It is not known why Srur or Biss were arrested, or if the men had any connections with armed resistance groups.
"But we didn't ask, either..."
Local people have told Aljazeera.net that occupation troops pulled out of the area once the arrests were made, but Israeli planes are still flying above Jenin city and the refugee camp. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli occupation force on the latest invasion of the West Bank town, but Jenin has frequently been targeted by occupation troops who have used excessive force to try and crush resistance activity in the refugee camp and city.
I'd deny it if I was the IDF. Screw with their little Paleoheads. "Nope. Nope. You sure it was Israelis?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  TRANSFER
Posted by: Islam Sucks || 12/23/2003 1:30 Comments || Top||

#2  They were taken alive? Before they just fought to the death or were killed running away (Mostly the latter). I guess the loyalty is starting to fade in the ranks.
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 6:43 Comments || Top||

#3  So the local man was afraid of IDF reprisals, eh.
Good. Back at this time in 2001, he would have been bragging of his support for hamas.
Posted by: mhw || 12/23/2003 10:35 Comments || Top||


Egyptian FM returns to Cairo
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, who was hospitalised after witnesses said he was jostled by Palestinians for visiting a Muslim holy site under Israeli occupation, has returned to Cairo.
"I'm gettin' outta here! Those people are crazy!"
Maher arrived on Monday shortly after 11:00pm at the Almaza Airbase in eastern Cairo where he'd left from earlier in the day. The minister, 68, was admitted to a hospital in Jerusalem for three hours. Witnesses said that some 200 Palestinian worshippers shouted "traitor" at Maher after he tried to pray at the al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site, in occupied East Jerusalem. He was also shoved and heckled before fainting.
"Quick, Ethel! His pills!... Too late."
Mosque guards formed a human chain around him as he left the scene. Maher's spokesman Tariq Adal earlier said that the minister was in good health and that the "incident was blown out of proportion".
Anybody recall any other foreign ministers trampled by mobs lately?
The incident occurred while Maher rounded off a one-day visit to Israel during which he held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. His visit was intended to be an important step towards improving strained ties between Egypt and Israel after the Intifada against Israel's occupation erupted three years ago.
He also didn't stop by to kiss Yasser's ring...
Israeli police said that they had detained at least five Palestinians believed to be connected with the incident. Their identities have not been revealed.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He also didn't stop by to kiss Yasser's ring...

I expect that's why he was attacked.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2003 8:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Perhaps. Or perhaps it was because he was meeting someone with the last name "Shalom".
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 11:55 Comments || Top||


Arab League condemns attack on Maher
The Arab League has joined the growing chorus of criticism of the attack on Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher. "We condemn and denounce this criminal act," said Said Kamal, the league's deputy secretary general who oversees Palestinian affairs. Mahir is "known for his strong support of the Palestinian people," he added.
"It ain't like he's one o' them Jews or somethin'!"
Earlier, Egyptian President Mubarak issued a statement saying that he "deeply regrets the attempts made by a small group of irresponsible Palestinians to assault Foreign Minister Maher." Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Quraya told Aljazeera that he was "shocked and furious" over the attack on Maher, whose country signed the Arab world's first peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/23/2003 00:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeah, that is it. Piss off your friends in Egypt, and the Arab League.
Posted by: Ben || 12/23/2003 5:17 Comments || Top||

#2  " We don't need you and your deals! What? NO! Don't close the tunnels! "
Posted by: Charles || 12/23/2003 6:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Quraya told Aljazeera that he was "shocked and furious" over the attack on Maher, whose country signed the Arab world's first peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

And that's pretty much the long and short of it. Nothing else will happen, and nothing else will be done about the incident.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/23/2003 10:20 Comments || Top||

#4  If Mubarak or his son (who will be the next President of Egypt) wants to take an anti Palestinian tack, he has an excuse to get the Egyptian street going in his direction. Remember Mubarak is known to detest Arafat and Arafat hasn't condemned the rioters yet.
Posted by: mhw || 12/23/2003 10:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Interesting. While the western press tried to mask the identity of the assailants, calling them "Muslims", the Muslims themselves didn't have a problem identifying them as Palestinians.

I wonder if this is the beginning of disengagement of the Arab front line states from the Paleos.
Posted by: Ptah || 12/23/2003 10:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Ptah: Personal Q: Are you using ancient Egyptian name as a symbol of something? Two quickies:
1) Do Egyptians see themselves as Arabs?
2) "Western press" in this context is al-Beeb.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/23/2003 11:16 Comments || Top||

#7  Glen (not..)
I can't answer @1. However, the name of the Egyptian state is Jumhuriyat Misr al-‘Arabiya. [Misr means Egypt] So they see themselves as both Egyptian and arab but apparently Egyptian first.
Posted by: mhw || 12/23/2003 12:28 Comments || Top||



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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
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Fred
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2003-12-23
  Libya invites US oil companies back
Mon 2003-12-22
  Egyptian FM attacked by Paleos in Jerusalem
Sun 2003-12-21
  Syria seizes six AQ couriers, $23 million
Sat 2003-12-20
  Train boom masterminds identified
Fri 2003-12-19
  Libya to dump WMDs
Thu 2003-12-18
  Malvo guilty!
Wed 2003-12-17
  Big-time raids in Samarra
Tue 2003-12-16
  Izzat Ibrahim hangs it up?
Mon 2003-12-15
  Sammy sings
Sun 2003-12-14
  Saddam captured
Sat 2003-12-13
  Swiss uncover al-Qaeda cells in the Magic Kingdom
Fri 2003-12-12
  Noorani: "Rosebud!"
Thu 2003-12-11
  Senior Sammy Fedayeen Leader Iced, Toe-tagged
Wed 2003-12-10
  Boom boy nabbed at U.S. embassy in Beirut
Tue 2003-12-09
  Six dead in Moscow boom

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