From Chuck Simmins, who tends to find this sort of thing...
A researcher from the University of Wisconsin at Madison has figured out a better way to slice cheese; just use a laser. "At any other university, people would have just laughed. But this is Wisconsin. It's cheese. And this is no laughing matter," said Xiaochun Li, a mechanical engineering professor and laser expert... Li, working with engineering graduate student Hongseok Choi, has adapted the same kind of laser used for eye surgery to slice Wisconsin's most famed food product. At first, Li tried using a traditional commercial laser that uses heat to cut by melting or evaporating; it fried the cheese. "It smelled really bad," he said.
"Eeewww! Who cut the cheese?"
Li tried again using a new class of laser that emits light in ultraviolet, and therefore shorter, wavelengths. That laser, known as a cold laser, cuts by blasting apart the molecular bonds that hold materials together.
And when you get done cutting the cheese, you might try the simple liquid oxygen shortcut recommended by the Evelyn Wood School of Speed Barbecue...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 16:04 ||
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Hey, you make it sound like I intentionally seek out the weird and perverse!
Is it just me, or is it at all odd that two Chinese guys are using lasers to slice cheese in Wisconsin?
#5
There's a lesson in this for al Qaeda: Do you really want pick a fight with a country that can afford to spend millions of research dollars perfecting the cheese-slicing laser?
Posted by: Tibor ||
01/13/2004 17:09 Comments ||
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Fred, good one, "Who cut the cheese?" I think I just woke the guy in the next cube.
Lucas Tomas, 22, was said to have held his jacket like a bullfighterâs cape at one of Buenos Aires zooâs two lions. Super Hose recommends that all drug dealers be required to label containers of LSD with a warning against use of psychedelic drugs at the zoo.
The lion, Quique, reacted by pouncing on him and repeatedly biting at him. TV footage showed the animal on top of him, visibly biting him at least once. Are you sure his name wasnât Jonny Knoxville?
Hospital officials said Mr Tomas was being treated for wounds to arms and face as well as psychological problems. He obviously hallucinated that he was a famous bull fighter... of lions.
The zooâs chief veterinarian, Miguel Rivolta, described how Mr Tomas entered the enclosure on Sunday and tried to goad one of the lions. "He jumped into the lionâs pen, and when the lions didnât react, he took off his jacket and egged them on," said Mr Rivolta. "It was an act of lack of consideration madness as I didnât have film in my camera." He said the lions initially took no notice of their unexpected visitor - being used to the zookeepers - but the man persisted in teasing them. Zoo officials eventually managed to tranquilise Quique, and Mr Tomas climbed out and was taken to hospital. Fernandez Hospitalâs chief medic, Juan Carlos Ramares, said the patient told the authorities he had been ordered by "voices from God" to enter the lionâs den. And God is now saying, "I took care of this bozo for years, when he started waving his coat like a cape, I just couldnât take it anymore." At least he stayed away from the bear exhibit.
That's for next week, after he's healed up...
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 1:30:47 PM ||
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as punishment for this he should become the lions next meal.
Had this e mailed to and thought it was worth passing along.
Itâs really right on the money.
>Allah or Jesus?*
>by Rick Mathes
>
>Last month I attended my annual training session thatâs required for
>maintaining my state prison security clearance. During the training session
>there was a presentation by three speakers representing the Roman Catholic,
>Protestant and Muslim faiths who explained their belief systems.
>
>I was particularly interested in what the Islamic Imam had to say.
>
>The Imam gave a great presentation of the basics of Islam, complete with a
>video. After the presentations, time was provided for questions and
>answers.
>
>When it was my turn, I directed my question to the Imam and asked: "Please,
>correct me if Iâm wrong, but I understand that most Imams and clerics of
>Islam have declared a holy jihad [Holy war] against the infidels of the
>world. And, that by killing an infidel, which is a command to all Muslims,
>they are assured of a place in heaven. If thatâs the case, can you give me
>the definition of an infidel?"
>
>There was no disagreement with my statements and without hesitation he
>replied, "Non-believers!"
>
>I responded, "So, let me make sure I have this straight. All followers of
>Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not of your faith so they
>can go to Heaven. Is that correct?"
>
>The expression on his face changed from one of authority and command to
>that of a little boy who had just gotten caught with his hand in the cookie
>jar. He sheepishly replied, "Yes."
>
>I then stated, "Well, sir, I have a real problem trying to imagine Pope
>John Paul commanding all Catholics to kill those of your faith or Pat
>Robertson or Dr. Charles Stanley ordering Protestants to do the same in
>order to go to Heaven!"
>
>The Imam was speechless.
>
>I continued, "I also have a problem with being your friend when you and
>your brother clerics are telling your followers to kill me. Let me ask you
>a question. Would you rather have your Allah who tells you to kill me in
>order to go to Heaven, or my Jesus who tells me to love you because I am
>going to Heaven and He wants you to be with me?"
>
>You could have heard a pin drop as the Imam hung his head in shame.
>
>Chuck Colson once told me something that has sustained me these 20 years of
>prison ministry.
>
>He said to me, "Rick, remember that the truth will prevail." And it will!
>
>
>* Senders words: I think everyone in the US should be required to read
>this. The author, Rick Mathes, is a well known prison ministry leader.
Posted by: Michael ||
01/13/2004 1:25:16 PM ||
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Probably what snopes.com classifies as "gurge", mainly because no imam will admit, in English, what the Koran requires.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 13:32 Comments ||
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Does Mr Mathes still have his prison clearance? I would think it would be yanked after this display of "insensitivity".
#4
I wish this were true but it doesn't ring true. Since when do imans hang their heads in shame? Also,I don't believe Muslims, even the worst of the lot (and that's saying a lot) support killing all non-Muslims. Subjugating non-Muslims, yes, but killing them all, probably not (not that we can't be killed with impunity). No, the whole thing here sounds very convenient and contrived.
Posted by: Seymour Paine ||
01/13/2004 13:47 Comments ||
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#5
Allah's recruiters for prisons are Wahabis; confrontation would have resulted in an immediate knife fight, a car bomb within 24 hours or a FatOne Fattawah, at a minimum.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 14:03 Comments ||
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#6
Definitely hokie.
Posted by: Dar ||
01/13/2004 14:18 Comments ||
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#7
this is probably not true - but the words ring true. non-believers are to be killed- at least according to the religion of peace!
#2 Does Mr Mathes still have his prison clearance? I would think it would be yanked after this display of "insensitivity".
Posted by: Desert Blondie 2004-1-13 1:39:16 PM
still gets me how mulsim's can use the most inciteful language towards non-mulsims and not be labeled "insensitive" by the left but a christian say's something and they jump all over the place.
if you hate the west then leave! we do not need you - goddam 5th elements!
#4 Subjugating non-Muslims, yes, but killing them all, probably not (not that we can't be killed with impunity).
Posted by: Seymour Paine 2004-1-13 1:47:28 PM
So Seymour Paine have you begun sending your tribute to OBL?
Posted by: Dan ||
01/13/2004 16:25 Comments ||
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Snopes says it's "incomplete", but has an article from the original source (Rick Mathes) that says it's the truth.
One of the many things that Jesus said was that "you shall know them by their fruits". Islam is a religion of hate; Christianity is (supposed to be) a religion of love. Jesus also said, "Love one another", and included even our enemies. These kinds of things, the Muslim total disregard for the Ten Commandments, and much else I've read over the last 40 years leads me to believe that the Jews (and their descendants, both genetically and religious) are on the right track, while the Muslims have grabbed what they want out of Jewish and Christian teachings, contorted and distorted it to fit their personal desires, and balleyhooed it as the "Final Word of God". I more closely associate their "god" with the guy running the hot place.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/13/2004 17:34 Comments ||
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At LGF, Rachel "Araflat" Corrie is the (posthumous) winner of the Fiskie. For those who donât know, sheâs the one who died last March when she tried to protect a smuggling tunnel.
#9
oh how i laugh at this sad flatened person.I say build a giant bulldozer about a mile in length,no make that 10 miles powered by a nuclear reactor that just squashes all the palo's and thier fuck buddies into the ground.
#12
Yeah, but can she sweep both the Fiskie and the Darwin in the same year?
Posted by: A Jackson ||
01/13/2004 18:44 Comments ||
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#13
JS UK, Sharon found it much cheaper to build a wall. Turns out Paleos can only visualize two dimensions; verticality is beyond them.
Posted by: john ||
01/13/2004 19:03 Comments ||
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#14
pleased to say that I voted for the flag-burning b*tch. I mentally included her deluded post-60's lefty parents for that stupid portrait of her they personally gave to Arafat. Bet that was toilet paper in the next siege of Ramallah
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/13/2004 19:56 Comments ||
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#15
that stupid portrait of her they personally gave to Arafat
Was it just me or did she look a lot like a young Elvis in that photo?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/13/2004 20:54 Comments ||
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#17
With 765 messages as of this moment, the Fiskie announcement is closing in on the LGF record for longest string, currently standing at 836.
Naturally, this desecration has enticed large numbers of Rachel-worshippers and other looney-left morlocks to enter the LGF lizard's-den and spew their self-righteous dogma. It was, of course, an ambush, carefully laid by the Lord High Lizard of LGF, Charles Johnson himself.
The Rachel lovers and other outraged LLLs are being cut off, surrounded and massacred in detail. Don't miss it: the LGF lizard minions are feasting on gamy morlock buttocks and aged hippy haunch!
#19
IHOP ISM has now served up a vegetable with their pancake: British ISM tool Tom Hurndall has died. Hurndall had been in a "vegetative state" since being shot by an IDF trooper on April 11.
THE BBC has agreed to reinstate Robert Kilroy-Silk after suspending him for describing Arabs as âsuicide bombers, limb amputators and women repressorsâ.
But he has had to agree to new producer guidelines designed to prevent him causing offence to anyone. This column sat in on his comeback show.
KILROY: Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the show. Today weâre talking about freedom of speech. My first guest this morning has had a tragic life.
He lost an eye and both hands while on missionary work in Afghanistan and has had to subsist on benefits ever since. Please welcome, from the Finsbury Park mosque, Captain Hook.
(Loud applause).
KILROY: I know this is difficult for you, so take your time. What would you like to say to us?
HOOK: Death to the infidel! Death to the Jews! Death to America! Death to the West!
(Even louder applause.)
KILROY: Youâre clearly very upset and thatâs understandable. I know what you must be going through. Did I mention Iâm part Irish?
(AUDIENCE: Death to the infidel! Death to the Jews! Death to America! Death to the West!)
KILROY: I feel your pain, I really do. Iâll come back to you later in the show. My next guest is from al-Muhajiroun. What would you like to say to the viewers, sir?
AL-MUH: September 11 2001 was a towering day in history â a mighty blow against the Great Satan. It is the duty of the faithful to rise up and join the jihad.
(Riotous cheering).
KILROY: I can tell emotions are running very high on this issue.
AL-MUH: The oppressor must be destroyed. The Jews must be driven into the sea!
(Audience goes berserk).
KILROY: Well, youâre certainly entitled to your point of view. Iâm sure many, many of the people watching will be able to relate to what you are saying.
AL-MUH: Can I just mention that weâre holding a recruiting drive in Tipton on Tuesday?
KILROY: Of course you can. Iâm from Birmingham, by the way. (Turns to camera). And donât forget, if youâre watching at home, if youâd like to make a donation to Hezbollah In Need just ring the number at the bottom of your screen. Our operators are standing by.
(AUDIENCE: Death to Israel!)
KILROY: Letâs welcome our next guest. Itâs a pleasure and a privilege to have on Kilroy, a leading QC, a champion of human rights, wife of the Prime Minister, the Wicked Witch herself, Cherie Booth QC.
(Polite hissing from audience)
KILROY: Cherie, thanks for coming in. I used to be an MP, too, you know.
Like me, youâve got a bit of a reputation for being outspoken on the subject of human rights, havenât you?
WW: Yes, Robert, I have.
KILROY: And I think, also like me, you got yourself in a bit of hot water over something you said to the Saudi ambassador.
WW: All I said, Robert, was that Saudi Arabia had a pretty appalling image in the eyes of the world because of the disgraceful way they treat women.
KILROY: What, exactly, did you mean by that?
WW: Well, for instance, they wonât let women drive, deny them the vote, deny them property rights. Women in the Arab world are second-class citizens.
KILROY: Steady on, Cherie. Thatâs a bit harsh. I can fully understand why our audience might easily take exception. Iâm surprised an intelligent women like you would rush to judgment without knowing all the facts.
(AUDIENCE: Death to the Wicked Witch!)
WW: What I actually meant to say . . .
KILROY: Thatâs enough. I wonât have such vile, offensive language on this show.
HOOK: I object to appearing alongside infidels and half-
naked harlots.
This is a deliberate insult to Islam.
KILROY: No offence, Captain. But we do live in a tolerant, multi-
racial, multicultural society.
HOOK: Not where I come from, we donât.
KILROY: What, Finsbury Park?
HOOK: Infidel dog! (spits on studio floor).
KILROY: My next guest is a young man, Ali, from Salford. Heâs just volunteered to go to work in Jerusalem as a suicide bomber. Thatâs an interesting career choice.
ALI: Iâve always wanted to travel and kill Jews.
(AUDIENCE: Death to Israel! Death to The West!)
KILROY: Good for you, Ali. So many young people are prepared to sit around on their backsides these days. Not like when I was a young, working class lad in the West Midlands, before I became a famous TV personality and newspaper columnist.
AL-MUH: We have thousands of martyrs like Ali waiting to bring death to the unbelievers.
(AUDIENCE: Kill, Kill, Kill!)
KILROY: And they say modern youngsters are only interested in sex, drugs and mobile phones. Thatâs about all weâve got time for. Iâd like to thank all my guests, Captain Hook â good luck with the deportation appeal; al-Muhajiroun â hope the jihad goes well; Ali â come back and see us when you, er, perhaps not.
(Sound of sirens. Enter boys in blue.)
PLOD: You thought youâd got away with it, chummy, didnât you? Robert Kilroy-Silk, I am arresting you for possession of an offensive suntan. Now stand still while the sergeant chops your arm off.
KILROY: See you in the morning.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/13/2004 8:32:58 AM ||
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Kilroy was here :)
Posted by: The Dodo ||
01/13/2004 8:47 Comments ||
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But he has had to agree to new producer guidelines designed to prevent him causing offence to anyone.
Another phase of the disarmament process in Afghanistan began yesterday as dozens of famed mujahedeen fighters turned over their weapons to the International Security Assistance Force near Kabul. Looking haggard and in various states of dress, about 180 hard-core resistance fighters brought AK-47s, rocket launchers and numerous other weapons to the 7th Division Afghani militia headquarters, once a training camp for al-Qaida terrorists. It was a symbolically important handover as the once-proud "freedom fighters" lined up, listened to a few short speeches from their former commanders and laid down their arms at the base known as Reeshkhor. The base was formerly a Taliban stronghold controlled by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, considered the most dogmatic Islamic fundamentalist leader in Afghanistan.
Except that in those days Hek and the Talibs were two different things. The Talibs were sitting safe on their backsides in Pakland, while Hek... ummm... sitting safe on his backside in Pakland. But he did have cannon fodder on the scene.
"These are basically citizen soldiers; these were the backbone of the resistance," Canadian Forces Maj. Bob Knight said after watching the ceremony. "Theyâre fighters, theyâre not regular army, and theyâre very proud of who they are." The mujahedeen, or Islamic warriors, made up much of Afghanistanâs guerrilla opposition. They were a powerful force, active in much of the country from 1979, fighting both Soviet forces and the Soviet-backed Afghan government. After 1989, when Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan, the mujahedeen fought a civil war against the Afghan government, which devastated the country, Kabul in particular.
An episode known as dog-eat-dog. Not the high point in Afghan history...
Although later defeated by the Taliban in the Afghan capital and in the countryâs desert-covered southern regions, the guerrillas continued to reign over most of Afghanistanâs steep-sloped mountains to the north.
That was when they became "warlords" instead of "freedumb fighters."
But after more than two decades of battles, the soldiers said yesterday they are tired of fighting. "They will give me work as a labourer," said Mohammed Asif, who began training with the 7th division when he was 12 years old. "Weâre happy that the Taliban and al-Qaida is no longer here," said Asif, 28. "We want work, jobs."
"There are other things in life than lugging an AK everywhere you go. Like babes."
Knight said the former fighters recognize "the war is over. Itâs time to get on with rebuilding Afghanistan." So far, nearly 800 members of Afghan militias have handed in their weapons in exchange for a small amount of money, clothing and promises of education, farm equipment or jobs. Fulfilling those promises is critical to ensuring Afghanistan doesnât disintegrate into all-out war. "This is the whole key to the program, not the money, (nor) the suit of clothes that they will receive," said Knight. "The real success of the program will be the reintegration, the job offers that are available to them, job retraining, all of these things that the lead nation and the United Nations development program are working toward getting going." The aim of the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program, is to disarm 2,000 soldiers by the end of January.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 12:42:41 AM ||
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I don't think these fellas probably have many basic job skills. We better get McDonalds and Walmart in there fast unless Afghanistan plans to become the mail-in, gun repair, capital of the world.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 11:24 Comments ||
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#2
Some of them could remove garbage from Iraqi streets.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 14:04 Comments ||
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#3
I don't think these fellas probably have many basic job skills.
I wouldn't be too sure. A lot of these guys are part-timers, just like the Vietcong. For a while, the Taliban offered them jobs that tooking them away from planting crops or herding sheep, courtesy of Saudi and Pakistani money. Now that the salad days are over, they'll probably return to tending either crops or livestock. Of course, they could also join the security force for opium cultivators or heroin smugglers.
#4
For a while, the Taliban offered them jobs that tooking them away from planting crops or herding sheep, courtesy of Saudi and Pakistani money.
That should have read: For a while, the Taliban offered them jobs that tooking them away from planting crops or herding sheep, courtesy of Saudi and Pakistani money.
Up to 10 people were killed in an attack on a police checkpoint in south-west Afghanistan today, according to the Taliban. Dozens of suspected Taliban fighters armed with assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades staged the attack in the Khashrow district of Nimroz province, about 120 miles south-west of Kandahar, said Hakim Latifi, a spokesman for the radical group. Earlier reports, quoting a governor in the province, said the casualties were four policemen. "Maybe more than four have been killed, but I know of only four," Kareem Baravi, the governor of Nimroz, said.
"Four, ten... Let's say more than zero..."
Authorities have stepped up security in Nimroz in recent months to trace suspected al-Qaida fugitives and fighters of the Taliban militia believed to be hiding there. The Taliban has regrouped and is increasingly targeting police and soldiers who are cooperating with the government. The violence has been concentrated in the south and east of the country, near the Pakistani border. But there have also been incidents in the north.
Not very many at all, though...
The attack follows a bombing yesterday in Mazar-e-Sharif, the main northern city. The bomb exploded in front of the office of the French aid group Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development, injuring two people, the Afghan military said. Two employees of the agency have been detained as part of the investigation.
The solution to that problem would be not to hire anybody who speaks Pashto...
Last Thursday, police removed a bomb from a ditch near a UN office in Mazar-e-Sharif and destroyed it.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 12:39:35 AM ||
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Saudi Arabia angrily rejected Monday a âtendentiousâ campaign led by US hawks after an advisor to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld lumped the kingdom in the âaxis of evilâ. State-monitored media led the charge warning that Washingtonâs own interests were being damaged. Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence service chief and today ambassador in London, branded Richard Perle a âZionist extremistâ. The envoy told the Al-Hayat newspaper that Perle âhas predicted the disintegration of Saudi Arabia and expressed his own point of view much more than that of Washington.â âPeople have been talking about the disintegration of Arabia and the overthrow of its regime since the kingdom was created in 1932,â said Prince Turki, a senior figure in the royal family. Saudi Arabia owed its existence to âGod, followed by its faithful people,â he added.
The Okaz newspaper set the tone of the riposte in the media, which generally reflects official Saudi thinking. âThe hawks stubbornly follow the same political line they laid out for this administration to impose their hegemony over the world and not to lead it,â it said. âWhile the whole world refuses war as a means of settling conflict ... Washington is alone against the tide, losing friends and making enemies,â the daily said. Okaz warned that âby tolerating campaigns directed against its strategic interest, the (Bush) administration is acting against American interests.â The United States imported 13.46 percent of its oil from Saudi Arabia in 2002, the paper noted.
... in a not so veiled threat.
Al-Watan hit out at such âirresponsible statementsâ which the daily charged were part of a âtendentious campaignâ. âRichard Perle, one of the main planners of the war in Iraq, knows only the language of force, murder and destruction,â the paper said. âFrom his statements and those of his ilk, we do not believe that the United States wants to improve its image in the world. âThis image will not change until it changes the policy based on the recourse or threat of recourse to force.â
The Mecca daily Al-Yaum branded Perle a ârotten fruit ... dishing out accusations left and right.â âThrough its flagrant interference in the affairs of other states,â Washington was becoming âa tool destroying world peace,â added the Riyadh daily Al-Jazira.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:54 ||
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Prince Turki was the former head of Saudi intelligence who made a devil's deal with bin Laden and may well have known that 9/11 was coming - he was stripped of his post of intelligence guru after 30 years and made ambassador to London only a month before the attacks. Whether he knew or not, he stands to lose quite a bit more than his title if the US starts digging deeper into the more Machiavellian aspects of the Saudi hierarchy.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 1:01 Comments ||
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#2
Ain't there a bunch of Shites on the east coast in need of liberatin' from those bad Wahabis?
Posted by: ed ||
01/13/2004 1:07 Comments ||
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#3
the United States wants to improve its image in the world
I'd say our image has improved dramatically, just not the way the soddis would like. Just ask Colonel Mo.
Anytime I hear some 'advisor' to the administration has gone off about something juicy, I always wonder what the REAL message could be. Is saddam talking about deals with soddi intelligence under turki? Moving money around for AQ from the peninsula? Is the flag going up to the soddis to start having heart attacks? Just makes me go 'hmmmm'.
#4
Quite. Perhaps he's fishing? Perhaps it's a way of letting them (SA) know that unless they get their act together, they'll be put on the real shit-list - and doesn't the US have some troops in that area? Oh, and isn't there a large airbase in Qatar?
Cue .com and the 40km strip... (I like this idea of getting the 40km meme into the public psyche!)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
01/13/2004 2:21 Comments ||
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#5
But GOD gave us the oil and GOD is all knowing and infallible. So what we are doing is right cos GOD gave us the oil.
To severely paraphrase Napoleon - 'How many divisions does it take to prove GOD made a mistake?'
#6
Bit by bit, we're ratcheting up the pressure on the Saudi oil ticks. The latest step in that ratcheting up is Richard Perle's and David Frum's new book, An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror, which I assume was the trigger for this Saudi diatribe. I just got my copy last week, and am looking forward to reading it.
I suspect that many of the people who've been advocating a showdown with the Saudis expected (and wanted) an abrupt, direct confrontation; but I don't think it's going to happen that way. Instead, the pressure we apply will be in stages, each too small to trigger a reprisal, that will culminate- perhaps several years from now- in a blunt, non-negotiable demand that they shape up or else. And by that time, it'll be too damn late for them to do anything about it.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/13/2004 6:57 Comments ||
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#7
Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence service chief and today ambassador in London, branded Richard Perle a âZionist extremistâ.
Someone tell me again just what Israel has to do with Saudi Arabia's entanglement with terrorism?
#9
Wasn't Faisal posting in Rantburg this last weekend?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 11:34 Comments ||
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#10
Someone should warn the Saudis publicly that playing the Asshat game will get you hammered into the glowing sands. The entire Wahabbi crowd needs to be ground into tiny slivers, leached into a concentrated sulfuric acid bath, and dumped into the "empty quarter" to bake for a few hundred centuries.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/13/2004 12:32 Comments ||
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#12
Bomb-a-rama: First rule in the Arab Dictator Playbook...."when you are confronted with irrefutable evidence of ineptitude, stupidity, or previous friendships that have gone sour and are now biting you in the ass, ALWAYS blame the Jews!"
Second rule....."always threaten to cut off the oil supply if the Americans expect you to act in accordance with civilized behavior."
#14
I have been thinking about how too destry all these shit spreading countries,lets just cut off thier food supply and let the rag heads starve to death.That way no fallout from nukes and we can use thier land for ourselves after we've cleaned up all the millions of thier shrivled carcases.Give them a real slow starving death.
#18
Sorry folks, Dad's leg was acting up and he got into the cheap stuff.... It is nice to be in the valley tho... you can't believe what real estate done here since CBS brought us California.
Posted by: Luke ||
01/13/2004 19:06 Comments ||
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Saudi Arabia has launched an all-news satellite television channel to present a new image of the Gulf Arab kingdom.
"Ta-daaa! It's showtime!"
Ikhbariya, inaugurated on Sunday by the kingdom's first female news presenter, will broadcast in Arabic for 12 hours a day before stepping up to round-the-clock programming, director Muhammad Barayan told Reuters. "We want to tell the world about our country, to give a new image," he said. "The American media... put out things about Saudi Arabia that are not true - like that Saudi Arabia is not fighting fundamentalists."
It's not that they're not fighting fundamentalists. It's that they're all fundamentalists.
Critics say the kingdom fuelled "militancy" by promoting anti-Western sentiment in schools, giving "radical" clerics a platform and failing to stem the flow of funds to "extremists". Saudi officials deny those charges.
So where'd they get the dough? And where'd they get the Soddy krazed killers and controllers and runners? Just coincidence, huh?
Riyadh is battling a wave of attacks by suspected insurgents believed linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida group. Bomb attacks have killed more than 50 people since May 2003.
Prior to that they didn't give a rat's hindquarter. Now they still try and bribe their way out of it when given half a chance...
Barayan said the state-owned channel would correct false perceptions, including some about the role of Saudi women. Breaking new ground in the deeply conservative Muslim kingdom, Sunday's opening news bulletin was delivered by female presenter Buthaina al-Nasr, modestly dressed in black headscarf and white jacket.
Did the religious cops show up and haul her off on camera?
"Some of the things they say about women in our country aren't right.
Y'mean, like they're breeding stock?
This channel will have women reading the news and will also discuss social issues related to women," he said.
Like whether they can be divorced by instant messaging?
Saudi Arabia already has three terrestrial television channels, including one English-language station. But most Saudis ignore them in favour of livelier programmes aired by Arab satellite channels Al-Jazeera in neighbouring Qatar and Al-Arabiya in Dubai. Although satellite television has never been formally legalised in Saudi Arabia it is widely watched across the country. Al-Jazeera is a favourite even though its correspondents have been barred by the Saudi government which was angered by some of its reports. Businessman Hassan al-Hussaini said although the new channel was likely to transmit the same government-approved news as existing channels, its rolling news format and slicker presentation would attract viewers - at least in the kingdom. "If you want local Saudi news, the only choice right now is the staid, all-male Channel One. This will be a bit more pleasant and accessible," he said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:25 ||
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...And later on 'Late Night With Faisal Ibn Al-Saud', we'll have the Top Ten Reasons Why We Really Don't Have ANYTHING To Do With Bin Laden, And Even If We Did, It's All The Fault Of The Joos Anyways!
Coming up after local fatwas.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/13/2004 11:05 Comments ||
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#7
It's all started for the Saudis. In ten years, tune back in and Buthaina al-Nasr will be broadcasting the weather with no shirt on. Sweeps week can have a brutal effect on the content of television.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 11:38 Comments ||
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Not to mention their answer to "The Mole": "The Jew".
"A tense, gripping show about a group of young jihadi whose ranks have been infiltrated by a Mossad agent. Tune in each week to see them guess which one is the infidel. The winner gets an expense-free trip to Paradise, accompanied by 72 doe-eyed virgins."
Keep in mind that the Saudi National Guard is the equivalent to the royal guard, so if al-Qaeda can infiltrate that, they can whack any princes they want.
Saudi Arabia has quietly acknowledged that its security forces and military have been infiltrated by Al Qaida. Saudi security sources said Al Qaida has succeeded in obtaining military equipment and uniforms for suicide operations in the kingdom. The sources said the insurgency group has also obtained either vehicles from the National Guard or its insignia, which can be imposed on non-official trucks and deceive soldiers at checkpoints. Al Qaidaâs use of military and security equipment allowed insurgents to attack the Muhaya compound in Riyadh on Nov. 9. The security sources said a foiled Al Qaida attack meant to take place later that month included the use of a forged military vehicle. The sources said Al Qaida has a range of sources for military equipment. They said several tailors around Riyad who service the military and National Guard routinely sell uniforms without asking clients for identification.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 12:11:42 AM ||
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#2
I'm more surprised there are non-al'Qaeda in the Saudi National Guard.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 8:06 Comments ||
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...Actually, this should be a SERIOUS "Oh, s**t' moment for those wacky Al-Sauds.
A bit of a history lesson - the SNG is almost 100% Bedouin, and its leadership is descended from the Bedouin tribal leaders who rode into Riyadh eighty-something years ago with the first of the Al-Sauds to found the modern kingdom. As was mentioned, these guys are the royal guard - and they were the ONLY Saudi military unit that was 100% trusted by the family. If there's any question at all as to the loyalty of the SNG, that is an extraordinarily BAD thing for the royal family - they tend to deal with that kind of problem in ways that might just make the situation a whole lot worse.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/13/2004 11:11 Comments ||
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Mike, as I was reading this, I was thinking the same thing. This is very, very bad for the Sods. But, things are looking up for the Hashimite Kingdom of Arabia.
Saudi state television aired on Monday what it said were confessions by captured militants, in the latest offensive against al-Qaeda supporters blamed for suicide bombings that killed more than 50 people last year. In the prime-time broadcast, the repentant militants said they were lured by promises of paradise, lectured on the Muslim duty of jihad, and played tapes from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to persuade them to take up arms. Saudi Arabia is battling a wave of violence. Suicide bombings against residential compounds in the Saudi capital Riyadh in May and November killed more than 50 people. Last month, in a possible change of tactics, militants targeted and narrowly missed killing two senior security officials in separate attacks, including a top counter-terror officer liaising with Western intelligence services.
The government has vowed to strike with an "iron fist" all those behind recent violence. It has also worked hard to eradicate any public support for the militants and repeatedly promised leniency for those who surrender to authorities. It was not clear if any of the Islamic militants shown on Monday were directly involved in any attacks. They were not named and their faces were digitally obscured. "We say thank God we were caught before we carried out any crime and harmed Muslims," one of the men said.
Others told how they were won over to the goal of a purist Islamic state and fulfilling religious demands to rid Arabia of non-Muslims, even declaring other Muslims who did not share their belief to be infidels. One said he was shown fatwas, or religious edicts, on the Internet, including rulings which warned against working for the Saudi government which had become a "false God." Another described how recruits went to a resthouse in Riyadh where they learned to handle and clean guns, and how they were taken out to the desert for "training." Some went to the holy city of Mecca where they spent three or four days in a camp learning to assemble and fire weapons with the militants. "I was one of them, until recently. Thank God I was jailed and God enlightened me," said one.
Mondayâs broadcast included a government appeal to Saudi parents to "protect their sons from exploitation by terrorist groups who use them to fuel the fire of crime and aggression." Showing graphic pictures of the destruction and injuries caused by last yearâs bombings, it said more than 23 tons of explosives had been seized by security forces, as well as hundreds of rocket propelled grenades and explosive belts. The broadcast followed a series of televised retractions last year by three radical clerics who had praised the militants and urged Saudi citizens not to cooperate with security forces trying to round them up.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 12:07:01 AM ||
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#1
Yeah, "repenting". They're big on that over there.
You're free to go. And don't let me see you here again. Peace be upon you.
#2
The Saudi's need to contract Ernest Ansley (sp?) to heal these guys.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 11:54 Comments ||
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Ernest Angley is noted for his spiritual healing technique of laying the palm of his hand forcefully on the forehead of the faithful and saying loudly, "Be Healed!" If that doesn't work, the Saudis could substitute something else...
EFL
Scientists suggest building a massive shield in space, which would absorb excess amount of solar rays, stabilize climate and save the entire human kind of the most dangerous threat such as Global Warming. Iâm wondering if Christopher Lambert will be starring in this one as well...
According to the scientistsâ plans, hundreds and thousands of metal "rubbish" will be dumped in the upper atmospheric layers. In addition, billions of tiny metal balls will serve as a special barrier preventing rays of the Earthâs closest star from reaching our planet, informs The Observer. Just what we need, more space junk.
Another idea: Millions of metal-covered air balloons under a great pressure filled with helium will be launched to the stratosphere (35,000 feet). They will be able to stay there for five years. Afterward, they will simply fall and will be in need of replacement. These people really have it in for NORAD, donât they?
Scientists from the National laboratory of Lawrence Livermore in California who suggested the scheme, claim that such temperature decrease will also benefit crops, since damaging solar rays will be liquidated. Ah, THEREâS the Kalifornia connection! I donât know if this article was any less kooky before the Russian translators got ahold of it...
#1
Ahh hahh, the great bugaboo of our time, GLOBAL WARMING! Just tell the people in Boston that it's getting warmer. I understand next Thursday they might get above freezing again. :P
#2
4thInfVet - That's obviously proof of global cooling. Oh, the horror!
Well, if Gorebot can go to California during a hot spell a couple of summers ago and say that record heat in California was proof of global warming, then record cold in another state must be proof of global cooling, right? After all, Gore (the divinity school flunk-out) must know a lot about the environment - he wrote a book, didn't he?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/13/2004 17:44 Comments ||
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4thInfVet - No need to remind me, thanks... :-)
#4
For those who care about us up in the cold dark northeast, we had a 2-day tropical spell (low to mid-30s). From tonight, we are expected to be back down to subzero temperatures.
So, when will this friggin' global warming thing finally kick in, fergawdsake ?
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
01/13/2004 18:04 Comments ||
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Maybe someone picked up on this earlier and I missed it: last week I heard that Harvard - of all places - was about to publish a study that debunks the whole global warming theory. The study says(?)that the baseline being used is too recent and doesn't look far enough back. Anyone have any details?
#7
Cheer up, Carl in N.H.- looks like you're in for a MAJOR influx of hot air once the Iowa caucuses are done. As an added bonus, your fields will also be fertilized with a huge load of fresh manure.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/13/2004 19:00 Comments ||
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#8
Morons... intense cold where you live is an early warning of global warming.
Send money.
Me and Jimmuh are working on the theory of Nuclear Spring Time and it's effect on Mr. Peanut.
Ptah! Danger! Danger! Onion crop in threatened by virus? We should remind AQ that most PeaceKeeper fields require 3 lbs. Vidalia onions a week else, the passive action link fails and the go code is automatic.
#9
Methinks Shipman is spending too much time at Outback.
Posted by: john ||
01/13/2004 19:37 Comments ||
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I heard that there was supposed to be some big symposium on the menace of Global Warming in Salem, Oregon the other night but they had to cancel it since no could get there due to the ICE STORM. True story.
#12
I forsee giant mylar balloons in geo-synchronous orbit, freezing out Dear Leaders, Grand Muftis, and Pak tribal areas -- another "cold war"!
Posted by: Tom ||
01/13/2004 19:45 Comments ||
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#13
Laugh Yankee dogs, but the precious fields of Vidalia are threatened by a virus. If it comes to it... the GA Dept. of Natural Happiness will ban all out of state shipments of onions except to their close friends in North Florida., and you suckers will be left holding an empty panty hose.
#14
Shipman: Ha ! That's a bumper sticker if I ever saw one:
"Intense cold is an early warning of global warming. Send money."
Posted by: Carl in NH ||
01/13/2004 21:32 Comments ||
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I expect that the either a shield or balloons would be destroyed post haste by Siberian cosmonauts hoping to grow their own ganga crop.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 21:56 Comments ||
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I sometimes wonder if our entire "Scientific Establishment" is on a sustained 'high' from illegal substances. They continue to fight a battle they've already lost, making themselves look utterly foolish in the process. Of course, the "information" industry - with the obvious exception of the Internet - aids and abets these losers, regardless of how stupid their crackpot theories are. The Sun controls the earthly thermostat, and it's turning up the heat a bit. In another 200 or so years, the heat will probably be turned down a bit, and we'll have frost in Vidalia every winter. Likewise probably as far south as Miami. Better get out all those faux furs, Miamians - you will need them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/14/2004 0:51 Comments ||
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Britainâs worst mass murderer Harold Shipman — a family doctor who killed hundreds of his patients— hanged himself in his prison cell Tuesday.
G'bye! Don't forget to rot!
Shipman, whose suicide was immediately condemned by victimsâ relatives as a final act of cowardice, was nicknamed "Dr. Death" after a horrific, 23-year-long killing spree in which he murdered at least 215 of his patients. "He was found dead, hanging in his cell," a prison service spokesman told Reuters. He said Shipman had used bed sheets tied to his cell bars to make a noose.
"I mean, that sucker's neck musta been three feet long! Never seen anything like it!"
Shipman was convicted in 2000 of murdering 15 of his patients and sentenced to life in prison. An inquiry later ruled he had murdered at least 215 patients with heroin injections, making him Britainâs - and one of the worldâs - most prolific serial killer. The bearded, bespectacled doctor killed his patients over a period from 1975 to 1998. Of his victims, 171 were female and 44 male. The oldest was a 93-year-old woman and the youngest a man of 41.
"I make dead people!"
A statement from Wakefield high-security prison in northern England, where Shipman had been held, said he was found at 1:20 a.m. EST Tuesday, the day before his 58th birthday. "Despite the best efforts of staff who immediately attempted resuscitation, he was pronounced dead by a doctor at 8:10 a.m.," it said.
"It was no use. His neck was too long..."
Shipmanâs body was driven away from the prison in a funeral service van flanked by a police escort. The prison said Shipman was alone in his cell when he died and that an investigation into the death would be carried out.
What kind of investigation? To find out if anybody cares?
The official inquiry into Shipmanâs killings found he had murdered his victims quietly, coldly and systematically, ending their lives in a betrayal of trust "unparalleled in history." It said he may have been "addicted to killing," but found no conclusive motive. The death means his victimsâ families will now never know what drove him to kill their loved ones. Danny Mellor, whose 73-year-old mother Winifred was one of Shipmanâs victims, said the killer was a coward whose death made it "desperately hard" for families to live with the mystery.
It's a lot easier that it was for poor Winnie.
"I always harbored the remote possibility that one day I could confront him and ask him why," he told Reuters. "Now thatâs been taken away from me."
It's doubtful he'd have told you anyway...
Shipmanâs conviction in 2000 sparked horror among Britons at how a doctor who had previous convictions for forging prescriptions to feed his own drug addiction was able to continue his career and run a one-man practice. Working alone, he was able to stockpile huge amounts of diamorphine - the medical name for heroin - at his home and surgery, ready to use on his often elderly victims. He was finally captured after the daughter of Kathleen Grundy, his last victim, challenged a new will that left all her motherâs wealth to Shipman. Her body was exhumed and traces of the fatal dose of heroin were found in her remains.
Golly. Y'think the money might have been a motive? Along with the pure joy of killing folk?
Prosecutors at Shipmanâs trial said his drive to kill was fueled by his need for a God-like power over life and death. Others say the killer was profoundly affected by the experience of watching his own mother die from cancer - and taking diamorphine to ease her pain. The trial judge said Shipmanâs actions were a "calculated and cold-blooded perversion" of his medical skills. Ann Alexander, a lawyer who represents some of the victimsâ families, said many of them would feel cheated.
Not as cheated as his victims were...
"They had hoped that one day they would be able to find out why ... and would have some understanding of why he did what he did. Now, of course, they are never going to know."
Posted by: Korora ||
01/13/2004 11:54:18 AM ||
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#1
What can I say.... We feel lowly from time to time and have to read the message written on the lawns in the secret shadow writing.
#2
Shipman, whose suicide was immediately condemned by victimsâ relatives as a final act of cowardice, was nicknamed "Dr. Death" after a horrific, 23-year-long killing spree in which he murdered at least 215 of his patients.
What's the big deal here? No one's tax money is going to go towards keeping the guy fed and clothed, since he inflicted on himself that which he inflicted on a lot of his former patients. He's DEAD. This is a Good Thing.
"They had hoped that one day they would be able to find out why ... and would have some understanding of why he did what he did. Now, of course, they are never going to know."
Oh no, more cases of Root Cause&trade Syndrome. Who gives a rat's ass about root causes? Is anyone really going to feel better knowing the why? What if he had simply said, "Because I felt like it"?
Good heavens, I can't for the life of me understand some people and their tendencies to fixate on the weirdest things.
#3
A first for Rantburg, Shipman posting from afterlife? Those tinfoil hats really do work!
Posted by: john ||
01/13/2004 15:05 Comments ||
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Indeed they do John. I've lived in a Farraday Cage for most of my adult life, I feel safer and less angry knowing that the DNC can't read my DNA. Unfortunately I am required to depend on my Goldie Hatfield to take care of most of my shopping and like most Goldies he can't make change and is quite color blind. I think Hatfield is also ripping me off....
Mark Steyn nails it again. Go read the whole thing:
Let me see if I understand the BBC Rules of Engagement correctly: if youâre Robert Kilroy-Silk and you make some robust statements about the Arab penchant for suicide bombing, amputations, repression of women and a generally celebratory attitude to September 11 â none of which is factually in dispute â the BBC will yank you off the air and the Commission for Racial Equality will file a complaint to the police which could result in your serving seven years in gaol. Message: this behaviour is unacceptable in multicultural Britain. But, if youâre Tom Paulin and you incite murder, in a part of the world where folks need little incitement to murder, as part of a non-factual emotive rant about how "Brooklyn-born" Jewish settlers on the West Bank "should be shot dead" because "they are Nazis" and "I feel nothing but hatred for them", the BBC will keep you on the air, kibitzing (as the Zionists would say) with the crÚme de la crÚme of Londonâs cultural arbiters each week. Message: this behaviour is completely acceptable.
But itâs not really about Kilroy or Paulin or Jews, or the Saudis beheading men for (alleged) homosexuality, or the inability of the "moderate" Jordanian parliament to ban honour killing, or the fact that (as Jonathan Kay of Canadaâs National Post memorably put it) if Robert Mugabe walked into an Arab League summit heâd be the most democratically legitimate leader in the room. Ouch
Itâs not about any of that: itâs about the future of your "multicultural" society. One reason why the Arab world is in the state itâs in is because one cannot raise certain subjects without it impacting severely on oneâs wellbeing. And if you canât discuss issues, they donât exist. According to Ibrahim Nawar of Arab Press Freedom Watch, in the last two years seven Saudi editors have been fired for criticising government policies. To fire a British talk-show host for criticising Saudi policies is surely over-reaching even for the notoriously super-sensitive Muslim lobby.
Since then, societal organisation-wise, things seem to be going Islamâs way swimmingly - literally in the case of the French municipal pool which bowed to Muslim requests to institute single-sex bathing, but also in more important ways. Thus, I see the French interior minister flew to Egypt to seek the blessing for his new religious legislation of the big-time imam at the al-Azhar theological institute. Rather odd, donât you think? After all, Egypt isnât in the French interior. But, if Egypt doesnât fall within the interior ministerâs jurisdiction, France apparently falls within the imamâs. And so, when free speech, artistic expression, feminism and other totems of western pluralism clash directly with the Islamic lobby, Islam more often than not wins â and all the noisy types who run around crying "Censorship!" if a Texas radio station refuses to play the Bush-bashing Dixie Chicks suddenly fall silent. I donât know about you, but this "multicultural Britain" business is beginning to feel like an interim phase.
So, how long before Mr. Steyn gets his very own fatwah?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/13/2004 11:11:16 AM ||
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#1
Commission for Racial Equality - isn't SD O'Connor the head of that in the US?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 11:41 Comments ||
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SH. No I think Jesse Jackson is (self proclaimed).
#4
If you read Steyn's article you will see that he quotes CRE's Phillips who says that apart from appologizing Kilroy should give his money to a Muslim Charity. Would that be Hizbollah or Hamas?
Posted by: Barry ||
01/13/2004 13:16 Comments ||
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#5
just for begging for money for his terrorist buddies, Kilroy should donate to the Jews,that'd really fuck that Phillips fuck wit off.
Fifty thousand people have voiced opposition to the BBCâs suspension of a popular television show after its host Robert Kilroy-Silk made inflammatory remarks against Arabs, a British tabloid newspaper said. As a row over the comments simmered on, the Daily Express said 50,000 had responded in a phone poll to back Kilroy-Silkâs reinstatement. "Thousands" more had protested to the BBC, added the Express, which accused the public broadcaster of "gagging" Kilroy-Silk, a former Labour party lawmaker. The BBC suspended the veteran hostâs morning show "Kilroy", on which guests discuss topical and personal issues, pending an investigation after the presenter lambasted Arabs as "suicide bombers, limb amputators, women repressors" in an article published in the Sunday Express on January 4. "You canât handle the truth!"
"Weâre sick and tired of being gagged" was the front-page response of the Daily Express Tuesday, which said there was "growing anger over what is being seen as a test case for the very principle of freedom of speech in this country." The rightwing paper claimed the support of Michael Howard, leader of Britainâs main opposition Conservative Party. Howard told the Express: "While it is absolutely wrong to talk about people in categories, I also think that our tradition of free speech is precious and that is something we should never lose sight of." In an editorial, the paper accused the BBC of political correctness. "The corporation, once synonymous with truth around the world, is guilty of censorship," it blasted. Oh, I think we passed censorship a long time ago.
Kilroy-Silk told the paper: "People are getting sick of debate being stifled while at the same time you have (Islamic) militants on the streets of London shouting "Kill the infidel!â" Guess a lot of British noticed that.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/13/2004 8:56:05 AM ||
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#1
Time to form the angry mob! Get the torches and cock-tails!
Posted by: Charles ||
01/13/2004 10:35 Comments ||
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Hail Kilroy! Like what he said about "People are getting sick of debate being stifled while at the same time you have (Islamic) militants on the streets of London shouting "Kill the infidel".Im say someone needs to organise a Massive protest out side finsbury park mosque and demand Abu hamser leave the country or die under the feet of the mob,actually lets just trample hook hand to death anyway!
EFL Looks like somebody took the Bali bombing personally.
Australia might buy U.S. missiles as part of the Bush administrationâs planned defense shield, the defense minister said Tuesday while acknowledging the plan could fuel a regional arms race.
Who in the region's going to keep up with Australia?
The government announced in December that it would join the American plan to build a missile defense system, calling the threat of ballistic missiles too grave to ignore. Details of that involvement were being hammered out with U.S. defense officials visiting Australia — one of Washingtonâs staunchest allies — this week to negotiate a memorandum of understanding.
Defense Minister Robert Hill on Tuesday offered the first hint about the contents of the agreement being discussed, saying the government might incorporate the missile defense systems on three air warfare destroyers planned for the Australian navy. Hill previously had said his country likely would help research the multibillion-dollar defense project and had no plans for a ground-based missile defense system on its own soil. Hill said he was impressed by last monthâs successful firing of a Standard Missile-3 interceptor missile from a Navy Aegis cruiser that knocked a target rocket out of the sky over the Pacific. "Itâs got the capability to basically meet and intercept missiles outside of the atmosphere," Hill told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. Hill did not give more details about the missiles being considered and a spokeswoman declined to comment while discussions with the American representatives were ongoing. Critics says the technology for such shields is complex, unreliable and expensive, and that the plans could spark a new arms race. So did critics of the gattling gun. Soon they changed their minds while low-crawling away from the battlefield.
Asked if Australiaâs moves could escalate an Asian arms race, Hill said: "There is an argument that that would encourage others to develop their attack missiles further or to proliferate them. But the proliferation is already there." Sounds sensible.
Hillâs comments came just days before Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was due to visit Australia for talks. Australia has in the past angered some Asian neighbors with its close strategic links to the United States. Getting blown up will change your friends.
In Jakarta, an opposition lawmaker in the Indonesian parliament insisted Tuesday that Indonesia was a clear target of any proposed Australian missile defense system. No, you donât understand. The target is the missiles that our flying at our populus.
"We are really concerned with this military buildup, itâs not defensive anymore, itâs offensive already," lawmaker Djoko Susilo said. How exactly can shooting missiles out of the sky be considered offfen... Forget it. I figured out who might be offended. Ron Huisken, an expert in U.S. defense policy, said the government needed to justify why such systems were necessary. "Itâs a complicated business. It makes a big difference whether you aspire to defend Australia itself or whether you aspire to defend Australian expeditionary forces going overseas, thereâs a lot of holes in the story so far before we spend lots of money," said Huisken, who is based a the Australian National University. Ah, Mr. Huisken works at a University. What a surprise.
What part about "sea of fire" can't he comprehend?
Last year, Hill announced government plans to spend $10.3 billion, or 1.9 percent of the nationâs economic output, on defense for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2004. Hopefully, Japan will follow as well. Wouldnât do to look like an easy target.
This sea-based system was outlawed under the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, but the United States withdrew from the treaty last year. The plan also calls for the development of ground-based interceptors. Seems to me that any treaties held with the Holy Roman Empire and the Ching Dynasty would also be abrogated.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 1:18:02 PM ||
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"In Jakarta, an opposition lawmaker in the Indonesian parliament insisted Tuesday that Indonesia was a clear target of any proposed Australian missile defense system."
Umm... doesn't this sound like an admission that Indonesia intends to lob missiles at Australia?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 13:31 Comments ||
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Hmmmm might wanna take a look at the Russian 'Sunburn'. I read somewhere that these cuties can bring down any aircraft carrier and the Bears have it now in Syria and china has them too.
#4
your clearly not a very military minded child are you faisal,to even think your sunburn missles would survive the first strike is a joke in itself.You best go and read about military tactics of the superior allied forces before you drag your russian made flying trash cans into this,after all we all know how good russian weapons systems are don't we? just ask the republican guard.oh wait they were wiped out along with all thier commie weapons before they knew what was happening to them.Don't mess with superior minds faisel it only makes you look even more stupid,oh ps you on boarded your bannana boat yet to come and get me?
#5
Hmmmm might wanna take a look at the Russian 'Sunburn'. I read somewhere that these cuties can bring down any aircraft carrier and the Bears have it now in Syria and china has them too.
#6
That "sunburn" might be followed by a couple of "sunbursts" over the launcher's capital. In any case, there isn't a Third World nation around that could maintain them well enough to launch them, and the Chinese aren't stupid enough to sign their own death warrants.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 15:14 Comments ||
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I have never, ever been able to rationalize just how a defensive system escalates an arms race. Especially when said nation in question does not really possess offensive arms. While Oz could probably give the Indonesians an bloody nose in a naval conflict they do not have the means to prosecute an offensive champaign againt Jakarta. Not that they would anyways. But I think the Aussies are starting to have some of the same worries about their situation that I would in their shoes. A large mostly empty nation with populous neighbors to the north and west. I wouldn't be too suprised if the Kiwis start changing their minds in five to ten years too.
#8
Clearly, Australia get it, while the EU may not. Check out the Newsday article: EU makes Economic Overture to N. Korea. Warning - take migraine medicine before reading. Maybe we should make a point of meeting with each company that is setting-up shop in NK to discuss the unlikelihood of qualification for US funded rebuilding contracts in NK. I think everybody involved would catch our drift.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 16:29 Comments ||
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#9
SM3 wouldn't be aimed against a SunBurn. But for info a SunBurn carries roughtly 1/10 the explosive power of a Mitsubishi piloted by an educated Japanese warrior. Which needless to say is somewhat quicker that A. A Russian CPU and B. Any ten Jihais. C. Anything named after an Arab.
#11
I read somewhere that these cuties can bring down any aircraft carrier
Hey, Faisal, you're out of step, man. We've already decommissioned our three flying aircraft carriers. All that are left are the normal surface version and the two new submarine carriers that have recently been commissioned. The Sunburn, like the oil-seeking missile the Russians designed to bring down our older, shakey cargo aircraft, has been rendered obsolete by American advances in technology. So solly, non-GI, you ruse.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/13/2004 18:18 Comments ||
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We've already decommissioned our three flying aircraft carriers
Yeah but we still have the 'Enterprise' commanded by Captain Picard. Not to mention all the other Star Fleet vessels.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/13/2004 18:33 Comments ||
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#13
Rafael... We don't talk about that weapon system.
#16
According to Global Security, the SS-N-22 "Sunburn" missile has a 370 kg warhead, that is not enough to "take down" a carrier. And that is also the reason you have integrated radar coverage (i.e. Aegis, Hawkeyes, all tied into the carrier, I think) that can coordinate an appropriate response to a SU-27 or TU-95 Bear that is getting within launch range of the carrier and sending the intending aircraft to the bottom of the ocean. I am not saying it can't cause some serious damage, but if it was to make launch with the CAP coverage you would be able to track where the aircraft came from and a send them a special "gift."
#17
Many carpet kssing apologies Rantburgers. But today was a local in-service day and I couldn't find a sitter for Faisal. Normally he hang's out at the park but recently the local gendarmes had to remove him from.. well never mind about that. Anyway , thanks for being nice to Fritz.
Fiji's Home Affairs Ministry is keeping a close watch on the military to ensure recent promotions and reports of high-level meetings are not a threat to national security, the Fiji Times has reported. The military scrutiny follows unsubstantiated reports that military commander Commodore Voque Bainimarama has been meeting senior officers and demanding their allegiance. Principal assistant secretary of defence, Peni Lomaloma, said that after being told of a meeting between the commander and his senior officials, the ministry has been keep an eye on developments to ensure "it does not threaten national security".
Personally, I'd say having the Commodore demanding the loyalty of groups of officers exudes an odor of fine antique mackerel...
"The talk is that some officers cannot see eye to eye with him," Mr Lamaloma said. Mr Bainimarama would neither confirm nor deny a special meeting, but said he met with senior officers every week. "The Ministry probably picked that information from the roadside," he said. "What is confidential to us cannot be released to the media."
"We wuz talkin' about things. Important things. Things youse wouldn't understand."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:25 ||
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Here's another fine mess a colonial government has left for the locals. The Fijians are slowly being squeezed out of their own nations by the imported Indian population, which has little or no actual loyalty to Fiji. The pot boils over about once every ten years, there's a massacre, a lot of people scream and shout, the "world powers" impose a peace, and things fester for another ten years. It isn't the worst place, it isn't the only place, but it's a constant source of friction in the world at large. It's a festering sore that won't heal, can't be cleaned up, and like a cat mess in the pantry, hard to stomach.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/13/2004 16:27 Comments ||
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A court on Tuesday ordered the founder of the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam jailed until Feb. 2 pending an investigation into allegations he plotted the attempted murders of his political rivals. An Oslo appeals court ruled that there was sufficient grounds to hold Mullah Krekar, overturning a lower courtâs decision to release him last week. Krekar claims he is no longer its leader, but the Borgarting appeals court said it found reason to believe he has maintained a key role in the organization. "Several witnesses leave the impression that suicide and bombing actions would not have been carried out without (Krekar) being made aware of it, and according to the suspectâs statement to police no one could be punished without his approval," said the ruling. The court also said Krekar should be held because there is a risk he could flee the country. Good idea.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/13/2004 1:33:28 PM ||
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They got him from statements he made on the internet.
EFL
German politicians have long been debating plans to abandon the draft in favor of a professional army. A professional military works pretty well in America....
But getting rid of conscription would also entail an end to its alternative — community service. Oops.
According to reports in the Financial Times Deutschland, this would be the first step towards a phase-out of both military and community service by 2008. A government spokeswoman declined to comment on the reports ahead of a meeting on Thursday, when the Minister for Family Affairs Renate Schmidt, is due to present her report on the future of community service. Around 90,000 young German men are registered yearly for community service, and approximately 80 percent end up working in hospitals or senior citizensâ homes doing essential work such as driving ambulances, caring for the disabled and elderly, and delivering meals.
Holding onto compulsory community service once military service is abolished would be unconstitutional in Schmidtâs view.
Why's that? I thought the two were equivalent? If they're equivalent, then all that would be available would be the community service option. Presumably it wouldn't be a requirement for those doing a stint in the regulars...
She says voluntary service should receive more recognition and more financial backing, perhaps from the â¬885 million a year currently spent on the community service program. German Defence Minister Peter Struck is already preparing the armed forces structurally for the post-conscription era of fewer troops and a tighter budget. Heâs reported to be planning cuts in armament projects for a projected savings of â¬26 billion.
So they're not doing away with the conscripts in the interests of making the armed forces better? Doesn't make sense to me...
Opposition conservative leaders have called the planned cuts a "Waterloo for the Bundeswehr." Christian Democrat defence spokesman Christian Schmidt said that the drastic savings measures will painfully reduce the armed forcesâ clout in future peace-keeping and peace-enforcing missions abroad. However, Struck said the cuts are in keeping with an overall restructuring plan for the Bundeswehr to prepare it for new strategic objectives within the NATO alliance and the planned European rapid response force. Gotta be ready to defend France....heaven knows the French wonât do it!
Will this be implemented before or after they agree on a European constitution??
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/13/2004 13:21 Comments ||
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#2
...to prepare it for new strategic objectives within the NATO alliance... Don't they realize that if NATO is 'restructured' is will probably mean that there will be FEWER US troops there, not more? Who do they think will take up the slack?
#3
The idea of a draft in which you my not end up in the military but do end up doing some community or national service work is the primary thing that was wrong with the draft in this country. It should of been everybody with the exception of the mentally and severely physical handicapped. If you were in a wheelchair there was no reason that you couldn't do some clerical work. There were plenty of jobs that could of been done that would benefit the country as a whole. Plus I think if everybody had to put in 18 to 24 months in a disciplined enviorment we'd be better of as a nation today
#4
I think if everybody had to put in 18 to 24 months in a disciplined enviorment we'd be better of as a nation today.
Yes, but compulsory national or community service won't do it. Most of the "agencies" that handle community service (Red CrossThingy, YMCA, programs for the mentally and physically handicapped, etc.) are hotbeds for leftist activities, do NOT require discipline, and are a major participant in the destruction of the established social order. I wouldn't mind seeing a disciplined, uniformed group of draftees policing our border (in the old GI tradition of policing, I.E., picking up all the trash the illegals drop on their way to their "new jobs"), preparing and maintaining truly effective civil defense and civil recovery efforts, perhaps even "Homeland Defense". The rest is pure crap.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/13/2004 18:36 Comments ||
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In Germany there is no such thing (at least in theory) as a free "option" between military service and community service (Zivildienst). Military service is obligatory, but the constitution says that you can refuse it as a "conscientious objector". This regulation certainly made sense in 1955 when it was introduced (only 10 years after WW2).
In the 70s and 80s interogations to find out whether you qualified as a conscientious objector could be very tough, in the 90s they eased a lot because the Bundeswehr didn't need all the young men and the state was actually happy with everyone who preferred community service, which never had enough people.
Community service is compulsory only for those who refuse to serve in the military... hence if you abolish the draft there goes obligatory community service. It would require to change the constitution (2 /3 majority in parliament needed) to install a compulsory community service without the draft.
It is not true that community service does not require discipline. Let's say if you do service in the Red Cross (ambulance etc) you will be required to wear uniform, follow regulations and orders like in the military (if you don't disciplinary measures can even land you in prison in extreme cases). Sure you don't find much of the military "Sir, yes Sir!", but you do learn to assume responsibilities. Many community service people are very dedicated to what they do. It is often believed that they just take the easy road, but actually in most cases this is not true. Community service is always a bit longer than military service and military service usually means that you face very rough first six weeks of "basic training" (Grundausbildung), but after that things can be quite easy. Community service can be very hard, for example when caring for severely physically and mentally handicapped people. In the 70s and 80s mostly leftist took that road but today politics are not the big issue anymore.
#6
Germany Announces Military Cuts
http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1432_A_1088018_1_A,00.html
Military bases will be closed and troops will be cut back in an effort to save â¬26 billion. But the future of the country's compulsory military conscription remains uncertain.
German Defense Minister Peter Struck said Tuesday that he will shut about 100 military bases and cut troop numbers in an effort to slash â¬26 billion in military spending plans and make the armed forces more professional.....
Posted by: GR ||
01/13/2004 21:03 Comments ||
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Refusing to accept denials, the Bush administration continues to question Russia about whether it provided Iraq with military equipment before the war last year. "Our concern is to ensure that measures are in place so that this kind of proliferation doesnât happen again," State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said Monday. Glad to see State is finally on board, eight months after the liberation.
The equipment was said to include antitank guided missiles, jamming devices and night-vision goggles. President Bush called Russian President Vladimir Putin last March to express U.S. complaints. Putin, in turn, charged the United States was creating "a left-wing political catastrophe humanitarian catastrophe" in Iraq. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov denied selling military equipment to Iraq in violation of international sanctions. "No facts supporting the Americansâ anxiety have been found," he said. Until recently.
"The witnesses are all dead!... Ummm... Or in custody."
The United States contends the Russian government should be held responsible for sales by Russian companies and should do more to monitor the companies and stop exports. "We told the Russians that we take this matter very seriously and we raised the issue with the government numerous times at senior levels," Ereli said Monday. "We continue to look into this case. We gave Russia a lot of data to establish the veracity of our contentions and we will continue our dialogue with Russia on this issue," he said. Wonder if this will have some practical consequences for Vlad?
At the same time, Ereli said, "Cooperation in other areas has continued." Thereâs the signal, Vlad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/13/2004 12:51:55 AM ||
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I remember reading about all of these Russian GPS jammers they distributed around Baghdad. Whatever became of that? They obviously didn't work too good.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/13/2004 10:19 Comments ||
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We destroyed them with GPS-guided bombs. No, they didn't work too well.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 10:50 Comments ||
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#3
Inertial nav working off of the last hard position fix from the GPS system. Kaboom.
An Italian court indicted three former members of the Nazi SS Monday on charges of having carried out a massacre of 560 people in a Tuscan village, a local news agency reported. In August 1944, some 300 of Hitlerâs elite SS surrounded SantâAnna di Stazzema, which had been flooded with refugees, in what was supposed to be a hunt for partisans. Instead, they rounded up all villagers they could find - 80 percent of whom were women, children and elderly - and began shooting them, according to witnesses. Others were herded into basements and enclosed spaces and killed with hand grenades. Not the worst atrocity these particular bastards ever committed either, Iâll wager.
The ANSA news agency said indictments were issued against Gerhard Sommer, 83; Alfred Schonenberg, 83; and Ludwig Sonntag, 80, all former members of an SS Panzergrenadier Division were indicted, the ANSA news agency said. The court in La Spezia, northwestern Italy, decided not to proceed with cases against two other former SS members and asked for further information on a third, it said. Judicial officials in La Spezia could not be reached for information after the ruling was issued late Monday. The accused were not in court Monday, ANSA said. Further information on the men was not immediately known. German prosecutors have also been carrying out investigations in the case and last year recommended the prosecution of eight men. Among those cited was someone referred to only as Gerhard S. Stuttgart prosecutors handling the German case could not be reached for comment Monday night. The Italian trial is scheduled to begin in April, ANSA said. Try âem fair and hang âem fair.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/13/2004 12:40:45 AM ||
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I've never been able to understand how guys like Karl Wolff escaped prosecution. I have no doubt Wolff cut a deal since he surrendered Italy, but he of all people certainly knew of all of the horrors of the SS and deserved the hangmans noose. Now that he's been dead for awhile I guess it doesn't matter, but it shouldn't make a difference whether you actually pull the trigger or you knowingly orchestrate the circumstances that enable others to, such as Wolff did.
#2
Kudos for the Italians for finally bringing these goons to justice.
However, I can't help but get the sinking feeling that the reason these European courts are all hot to prosecute the long-ago crimes of anti-Semitic Nazis is to assuage their guilt over ignoring the current crimes of anti-Semetic Muslims.
EFL
Bulgaria has dismantled Islamic centres with possible links to Saudi-funded extremist movements, the head of military intelligence, Plamen Stoudenkov, said on Monday. - of course in the USA, nearly every Islamic org has Saudi money behind it directly or indirectly
âThere are religious centres in Bulgaria that belong to Islamic groups financed mostly by Saudi Arabian groups, that possibly have links to radical organisations like the Muslim Brothers in Egypt,â General Stoudenkov said in an interview with the daily newspaper Dvevnik. He said the centres were in southern and southeastern Bulgaria, where the countryâs Muslims, mainly of Turkish origin, are concentrated, and âhad links with similar organisations in Kosovo, Bosnia and Macedonia. For them Bulgaria seems to be a transit point to Western Europe.â Stoudenkov said the centres were dismantled by the authorities in September and November 2003.
Maybe more fallout from conversations we haven't seen reported?
He said the steps were taken to prevent terrorist groups gaining a foothold in Bulgaria, which shares a border with Turkey. Senior interior ministry official Boiko Borissov on Thursday played down the events, saying the police had âlaunched two or three operations against Muslim missionaries at Velingrad and Pazardikâ in the south. In an interview with foreign media, he stressed, âthere are no problems concerning Islam or terrorism in Bulgaria.â
"And we're making sure there won't be."
Bulgariaâs Turkish minority accounts for 10 percent of the countryâs eight million people. Younal Loufti, one of the leaders of the Turkish minority Movement for Rights and Freedom, the junior partner in Bulgariaâs governing coalition, said in late November that the party was guarding against extremism taking root in Bulgaria. He said five years ago that âsectsâ from Arab countries that tried to recruit followers in Bulgaria were âchased away by the population,â adding: âWe are very careful.â
"We tried that totalitarian stuff. It wasn't any fun."
Members of the Turkish population near the southern town of Kardjali confirmed that foreign groups had tried to recruit members there. the source is a liberal Pakistani newspaper - who knows just how well this story was written - the article has a lot of somewhat contradictory info in it
Posted by: mhw ||
01/13/2004 12:08:05 AM ||
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Does the BCLU know about this? Sounds like profiling to me.
In a practice not seen in Russia since Soviet times, the Kremlin has put forward its own men to stand against Vladimir Putin in the presidential election in March. The move has proved necessary because Mr Putin, whose support is estimated at 70 to 80 per cent, is so dominant and his stranglehold on Russian politics so tight that leading opposition candidates have all refused to stand.
Fearful that the election will be seen as undemocratic, or that turnout might fall below 50 per cent if the result is considered a foregone conclusion, the Kremlin has persuaded a leading liberal and a host of unknowns to join the race to try to spice it up. Electoral authorities have announced that 10 candidates, including Mr Putin, will stand. But analysts say that almost all registered on the instructions of the Kremlin. One candidate, Sergei Mironov, the Federation Council speaker, inadvertently encapsulated the bizarre nature of the election by admitting he supported Mr Putin. Explaining his decision to stand against Mr Putin, he said: "When a leader who is trusted goes into battle, he must not be left alone. One must stand beside him."
Among the other candidates are a former boxer, a magnate apparently trying to escape prosecution, and an unknown reported to be a stooge for the exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky. The only even semi-serious alternative to Mr Putin is Irina Khakamada, a liberal of mixed Russian and Japanese descent. But she failed to be elected to the Duma last time round and lacks even the backing of her own tiny party.
Since he was elected four years ago, Mr Putin has tightened the noose on the free media and sought to crush opposition parties. But the hardline tactics have worked almost too well. In parliamentary elections last month, pro-Kremlin candidates won more than two-thirds of the seats in the Duma. The results damaged Russiaâs image abroad, where commentators mourned the end of a decade of vibrant, if flawed, post-Soviet democracy. Now the Kremlin is apparently trying to make the presidential election less one-sided. But all the big-hitters have opted to stay out of the election. Gennady Zyuganov, the veteran communist leader who almost ousted Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, complained the contest was unfair. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the ultra-nationalist whose party scored highly last month and who almost always supports Mr Putin, appointed his bodyguard, a former boxer, to stand instead of him. Grigory Yavlinsky, Russiaâs most prominent liberal and head of the Yabloko party, refused to nominate a candidate at all, saying the election was a sham. He lamented Russiaâs return to what he called Soviet-style one-party rule and said: "I can hardly imagine that Mr Putin is going to have a debate with Mr Zhirinovskyâs bodyguard."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 12:04:23 AM ||
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I for one am willing to give Putin a pass, as long as he doesn't do something outright stupid (and "tightening the noose on the free media" and crushing opposition parties do not qualify... yet). Putin is not a bad choice given the alternatives.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/13/2004 0:23 Comments ||
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#2
I agree with Rafael. Putin may not be a poster-boy domocrat, but he the looks the best person for the job. I have little doubt that Putin will win the election and win fairly. Take a look at Belarus and most of the stans to see the likely alternative to Putin - some megalomaniac tin-pot dictator.
#3
As much as I dislike Putin and his ilk, he seems the least terrible alternative. There are basically three parties in Russia right now with any degree of electability: Putin's faction (i.e., KGB), the Communists, and Zhirinovsky's faction (which are, well, National Socialists.)
If his job is to crush democracy in Russia while still maintaining a respectable profile abroad, yeah he's definitely the best person for the job.
"Take a look at Belarus"
Belarus, the dictatorship of which supports and is supported by Putin you mean?
Since the "alternative" is Zhirinovsky's bodyguard, saying that Putin is better than the alternative doesn't mean much. Only reason that Russia makes even a pretense of democracy is that it still needs its international "image" abroad...
#5
Hi Aris, Russia is a fuctioning democracy (although its still working on the checks and balances bit) and seems remarkably unconcerned with its international image. Its a big country thing! Where the government is not that concerned with how foreigners perceive them. A typically European obsession.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 11:50 Comments ||
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#7
If his job is to crush democracy in Russia...
If by crushing democracy in Russia he prevents people like Zhirinovsky (or Communists for that matter) from coming to power, then by all means, I wish him all the best.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/13/2004 13:15 Comments ||
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#8
Don't worry Kerry is getting ready to make a move in Schevestopol.. Schevestopol... that town 120 miles west of Moscow.
This oneâs for you, Fred:
Police in northern India are being paid an extra 65 cents a month to grow moustachios a mustache to give them more authority, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Mayank Jain, a superintendent with the Madhya Pradesh state police, told The Asian Age that research showed that police with mustaches were taken more seriously. Police with mustaches and trunchoens are taken very, very seriously.
However, he added, the shape and style of police mustaches would be monitored to ensure they did not take on a mean look. "Honey, does this make me look mean?"
"Ummm, no, Iâd say it makes you look stern."
"Thanks, thatâs the look I was going for."
Posted by: Steve ||
01/13/2004 10:21:42 AM ||
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What's the intimidation factor on the Handlebar?
Posted by: Dar ||
01/13/2004 11:09 Comments ||
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Handlebar - over the top, too Colonel Blimp-ish; don't want to be a source of amusement for the natives
Dinky Goatee - Shouldn't you be protesting something at your college ?
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
01/13/2004 11:57 Comments ||
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#6
When I worked for DP&L several years ago, I was contractually obligated to remain cleanshaven. The responses to some of their public opinion research indicated, that DP&L customers considered cleanshaven service people to be more trustworthy. Not sure how this applied to my job job supervizing maintenenance personel in a power plant, located several hundred miles from Dayton.
Facial hair didn't rally work for me anyway.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 12:01 Comments ||
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#7
On the other hand, an excess of facial hair makes a man look like a goat.
#8
talk about conflicted - I shaved off my beard to a long Fu Manchu style - just for a change. Then a *male* coworker told me I had sexy facial hair.....DAMN! LOL
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/13/2004 20:01 Comments ||
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#9
Frank... seriously... do you ever have MetroSexual thoughts? If you do.. could you share them? Do they have anything to do with Tom Seaver?
The intelligence agencies, probing into two suicide bombing attacks on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, accompanied by police officials conducted more raids in various localities in the provincial metropolis and arrested nine persons on suspicion of their involvement in the attacks. âWe were directed by authorities in Islamabad to raid two seminaries of Al-Hafiz Town, Hanjerwal area, and nine persons were taken into custodyâ, said an official who took part in the raids, adding though they belong to religious organisation yet they donât have any connection with the extremist outfits. He said while in police custody, they were thoroughly interrogated by the personnel of intelligence agencies. âThey seem to be innocent and have no connection of any sort with the assassination attempt on Musharraf,â he said.
Interestingly enough, when this scribe contacted Provincial Police Officer Syed Masud Shah on his cell phone to ascertain details of the raids from him, Shah switched off his phone after listening to the detailed query. The sources say after the Rawalpindi police arrested a religious extremist namely Jamil in connection with assassination attempt he gave them a lead about the involvement of Habibullah - Amir of Harkatul Jehad Islami Burma chapter. The investigators suspect that Habibullah might have masterminded the suicide attacks on President Pervez Musharraf. DSP Rawalpindi Rana Shahid raided a seminary in Tara Garh in district Kasur late Friday night and took into custody a teacher namely Habibullah. âHabibullah belongs to a banned extremist religious organisation and has participated in Afghan Jehadâ, the sources say.
The administrator of the seminary, Qari Abdul Karim, said that 16 students are getting religious education here and Qari Masud had referred him Habibullah, a resident of Rajgarh in Islampura. Habibullah is married with two wives and has five children. He currently has been living in a three-room house constructed on the first floor of the seminary. The sources claim that the raiding team, got a picture of a suspected namely Ihsan whom they blame for attacks on President Pervez Musharraf. âIhsan is wanted in Bahawalpur Church attacks and he had allegedly faxed the messages to various newspapers offices fixing the responsibility of attacks on Jaish-i-Muhammad. The fax message also include the name of Bilal,â sources say, adding that the whereabouts of both Bilal and Ihsan are still unknown.
All those picked during raids were shown the picture of Ihsan for identification but none of them recognised him. The police also took into custody three brothers namely Rizwan, Sulaiman and Usman from Masjid-i-Ibrahimi during the raids. However, the investigators released Sulaiman and Usman after a few hours interrogation but Rizwan is still in custody. âThe investigators kept asking the whereabouts of Harkatul Jehad Islami, Burma Chapter Amir, Habibullah, for almost two hours from the three brothers. But we donât know who Habibullah is,â sources told quoting the family members of the three brother.
The sources say that the policemen were kept in dark till the raids were conducted, adding that some officials of intelligence agencies from Islamabad led the raiding party.
That must have really torqued Mahmoud the Weasel...
SSP Operation Aftab Ahmed Cheema, who supervised the raids, and the outgoing City Police Chief Khawaja Khalid Farooq were not available for comments despite repeated attempts to contact on their cell phones and on residence numbers. It may be noted that the police raided two adjacent seminaries Madrissa Baqiyat-ul-Shuhda and Khanqah and Masjid Syed Ahmed Shaheed besides women hostel of Darul Uloom Madina Lil Muslimat. After a detailed search of the seminaries and hostel, the sleuths picked up six more people. Three of those picked up were released after a few hours questioning but all the others were in the police custody till the filing of this report.
When contacted Interior Minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat said that those involved in assassination bid on the President have already been identified. âThe raids are conducted at the information provided by the intelligence agencies and it takes time to elicit information from the arrested peoples,â the Minister said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 1:07:15 AM ||
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Bangladesh has banned publications by the minority Ahmadiyya movement amid demands from Islamic hardliners that it be declared non-Muslim. The Religious Affairs Ministry took the decision late on Thursday, with the ban beginning on Friday. A 5,000-strong rally marched to an Ahmadiyya mosque in the capital Dhaka on Friday to denounce the movement. The Ahmadiyyas, who number 100,000 in Bangladesh, do not believe Mohammed was necessarily the last prophet. The government said it was banning the publication, sale, distribution and preservation of all books and booklets on Islam published by the Ahmadiyya in Bangladesh. A home ministry statement said the ban "was imposed in view of objectionable materials in such publications that hurt or might hurt the sentiments of the majority Muslim population of Bangladesh".
A few days ago a commentor named Faisal was saying that we need laws and rules and regulations against hurting people's feelings. This is what that sort of thing leads to.
Hardliners had threatened to start dismantling Ahmadiyya mosques if action were not taken against the group by Friday. The BBCâs Waliur Rahman in Dhaka says the ban is believed by many to be the first step towards declaring the 100,000 Ahmadiyyas - also known as Kadiyanis - non-Muslim. The East Pakistanis are finally starting to catch up with their western cousins.
The Ahmadiyya movement, which claims 200 million members worldwide, was founded in the 19th century in what is now Pakistan. It vows to revive Islam by stressing non-violence and tolerance. But it also believes there can be prophets after Mohammed, which mainstream Islam regards as blasphemous.
Therefore they're apostate. They must be killed.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/13/2004 1:07:04 AM ||
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It vows to revive Islam by stressing non-violence and tolerance.
Which is why it's being declared "non-Islamic".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 8:10 Comments ||
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"The Ahmadiyyas, who number 100,000 in Bangladesh, do not believe Mohammed was necessarily the last prophet."
A necessary precondition, of course, for nominating your own guy as the next prophet.
Interior Minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat has said the people who are criticizing the operations for the arrest of people involved in terrorist activities are rendering no service to the nation.
Depends on which nation you're talking about. It's a definite service to the caliphate...
"Those who criticise should at first see how much destruction those people have created in the country against whom operation is being carried out", the Minister told BBC. Those who have to criticise may do that but so far as national security is concerned there will be no compromise of any kind. "We are not prepared to listen to them", he added. The critics ought to see how these people have undermined the very infrastructure of civilization in the country. If somebody is making such criticism he is not rendering any service to Pakistan and his loyalty to Pakistan becomes doubtful, he added. He said the government has clearly stated that people involved in terrorist activities are extremist groups and a war is going against those very people.
Guess it depends on which side you're on...
Faisal said many people behind the attack on President Musharraf were arrested and on their identification many other people have been arrested. Perhaps in future some more people will be arrested. He said the people arrested so far belong to various organizations and it is premature to confirm their exact affiliation. His attention was drawn to a statement on behalf of government that all those arrested are local people the Minister said, when people are arrested they tell their identity. Sometimes it so happened that this proved wrong. Therefore, it will not be reasonable at this stage to say with certainty that they are Pakistanis, he added. "Unless the investigations are complete we shall not be able to divulge their identity with certainly, he maintained. So far as outside people are concerned it is a certainty, because now a days terrorism is a world phenomenon. It is not limited only to Pakistan and its links go to various countries, he said.
Yeah. HUJI's Burma branch makes it really interesting.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 1:02:02 AM ||
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#1
Dan, Rooters has an article: Al Qaeda on NW Frontier Follows Old Tracks. Had some basic Wazistan background for pikers like myself, but also included a charecterization of the ongoing efforts between Paki's and Americanskis to not shoot each other.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 16:37 Comments ||
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Two people have been killed and 27 others injured in a bomb attack at a crowded Muslim shrine in northeastern Bangladesh. A 14-year-old boy and an unidentified woman were killed instantly by the blast, which left a large crater in the ground. The blast sparked scenes of panic at the Hazrat Shah-Jalal shrine complex, which was packed with several thousand worshippers for a Muslim saint's festival.
Hmmm... Laughing, happy people, at the shrine of a Muslim saint... Guess the local Salafists just couldn't take it anymore.
Police said the "quite powerful" bomb was buried in soil near the complex. The shrine had been evacuated and officers were searching for more explosive devices, said a police source.
No arrests had been made and police did not known who may have planted the bomb or why.
If the victims were Sufis or maybe Shiites, we can guess who. If they were Ahmadiyyas, we're positive...
About a dozen people have died in unexplained explosions in the country in recent years. The large Hazrat Shah-Jalal shrine, in the Sylhet tea-growing district, is a well-known landmark in Bangladesh.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:25 ||
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History of Hazrat Shah Jalal here. Also this on what may be the festival that got boomed:
Urush: This is the annual gathering of the Sufis and general people during the anninversary of Shah Jalal's death. Urush is also observered fob his deciples in many part of Sylhet. Thousands of Fakirs (transient men who live in jungles and shrines of Sufi saints), in red robes with iron sticks in their hands and colorful garlands in their necks, travels to Sylhet from all over Bangladesh. Some even travel from distant parts of India. These Fakirs closely resembles the original Hindu Sadhu-Sanyashis (hermits) who treaded this land for centuries. Many of them are for simple pleasures of Ganja (Marijauna), Hashish, etc, but nobody knows who is the real one. Strict Islamic clerics tried, though unsuccessfully, to stop these festivities, as Islam strongly forbids any saint worship or assigning divine power to any human.
Seems to be Sufi shrine, guess those strict clerics are trying again.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/13/2004 9:27 Comments ||
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The government is set to start a major operation in South Waziristan Agency to capture those involved in attacking Pakistan Army camps and suspected of sheltering Al Qaeda remnants, sources told Daily Times on Monday.
Good idea. Hunt them down and kill them all...
Around 250 Special Services Group (SSG) personnel supported by fully equipped regular infantry were shifted from North Waziristan Agency to Wana. Sources said the government had sealed the South Waziristan Agency-Afghanistan border so as to stop infiltration of foreigners during the operation after army camps at Zeri Noor and Wana were attacked with rockets. Reports from across the border suggested that allied forces in Paktika provinceâs Birmal area had intensified search operations against Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants. It was believed that the Pakistan Army and allied forces would start operations on both sides of the border in tandem so as to check the movement of suspects and defeat anti-American elements. Allied forces on Sunday captured 30 Pepli and Safli Kabulkhel tribesmen in Birmal and are interrogating them.
"You guys are a little outside your territory, ain't you?"
"We only came to visit relatives! The Bugtis are in town, y'see..."
Please! My heartstrings! I'm an old man. They can't take that kind of tugging...
They said the government undertook the operation without consulting the tribal elders and that was why the locals were annoyed. They said if anyone broke the law, the elders were charged, but when such operations were launched, they were not consulted, which was unjust.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:25 ||
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At least 25 students, teachers, journalists and others were injured at Karachi University (KU) on Monday in clashes between supporters of the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO) and the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT). The Rangers arrived at the scene half an hour late and resorted to a baton charge injuring several students, teachers and journalists. Witnesses said tensions had been building between the two groups for the past many days, but the Rangers did not attempt to avert the situation.
"They're the ones that're supposed to get along. We just thump 'em when they don't."
At about 8:30am on Monday, a scuffle broke out between students at a bus stop that later led to the beating up of two chemistry department students. At about 1:00pm supporters from both sides fought for about 15 minutes. Scores of students from both sides were injured. The Rangers deployed on campus responded late, tried to snatch an Urdu daily photographerâs camera and baton charged some Peopleâs Students Federation (PSF) students who had nothing to do with the clash. When the three injured PSF students went to KU Vice Chancellor (VC) Dr Pirzada Qasimâs office to protest, Rangers Captain Khalid abused them in front of the VC and teachers. KU Teachers Society President Sarwar Naseem managed to calm the captain down. When Dr Qasim was asked why the clashes could not be prevented, he said several efforts were made to defuse the situation, but they had failed. Condemning the baton charge, the VC said he had nothing to do with the Rangersâ aggressive behaviour, but they acted to restore order at the university.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:25 ||
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that later led to the beating up of two chemistry department students.
Now I know these people are idiots. You never, never, NEVER attack chemistry students - they're the people that have access to the precursors of all that stuff that can kill you, like explosives, chemicals, poisons, etc. Of course, if you're a student of the Quran, you wouldn't have the knowledge to understand that, since there isn't much chemistry (or much of anything else but idiotarian drivel) in the Quran.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/13/2004 20:14 Comments ||
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Working full-tilt, nine contractors have finished crafting 160,000 Interceptor body armor vests, and the equipment is now en route to units preparing to deploy to Iraq and a central distribution point in Kuwait, according to Army officials. Thatâs a lot of vests
This monthâs production run of the Interceptor tactical vests fulfills a promise to Congress by Army officials, who said that by January the service would have enough of the vests to outfit every soldier deployed to Iraq, according to Army spokesman Maj. Gary Tallman. âCongress has been notified that the requirement has been met,â Tallman said Friday. Interceptor vests are the Armyâs best body armor. The $1,585 items are composed of layered sheets of Kevlar, with pockets in front and back for ceramic plates that protect vital organs. The vests are highly effective against ammunition and shrapnel. Soldiers wearing the vests in Iraq have been shot at point-blank range with AK-47s and lived to tell about it. Everyone had a vest, they just didnât have this vest.
As units assigned to Iraqâs first rotation make their way home through Kuwait, they will turn in their assigned vests to a central collection point at Kuwaitâs Camp Victory, Tallman said. Those vests will be checked out and reissued to Operation Iraqi Freedom 2 personnel who are staging in Kuwait. Other units will get their vests before stepping off American soil, Tallman said. Ok, letâs see...Interceptor vests, check. Upgrade armor for Hummers, purchase order in at Kurdâs Armor RâUs, check. Whatâs the next bitch?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/13/2004 3:29:21 PM ||
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Don't forget the new RPG-shields on the Strykers.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 15:49 Comments ||
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"Whatâs the next bitch ?"
Easy - gas mileage on all the up-armored Hummvees.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
01/13/2004 18:01 Comments ||
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The way the US supply system works in 3 months we'll have an Interceptor brand vest for every living body in the military (including Submariners) then we'll have two..... then 1 for every friendly citizen then 12... then you'll be able to buy them for $3.00 lb. at Jacksons in St. Pete.
While itâs still free, check out Professor Naglâs War The title is misleading. Maass was also interviewed today on this article on NPRâs Fresh Air, which has other unpublished material.
Gen. Richard Myers, Americaâs top military official, inspected a line of Mongoliaâs soldiers Tuesday and thanked this central Asian nation for sending troops to support the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. "They are disciplined. They are tough. They are physically fit. They are highly motivated," Myers said as he reviewed troops expecting deployment to Iraq later this month. The first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to visit Mongolia, Myers also met with Mongoliaâs president and military chief of staff.
I'll bet they tighten the Iraqi undies almost as much as the Turks...
A contingent of 173 Mongolian soldiers began serving in Iraq last fall under a Polish-led multinational force. They are operating around Hillah, in the southern part of the country. Although their area has been subject to mortar and grenade attacks, they have taken no casualties, said Maj. Gen. M. Bombatar, Mongoliaâs deputy chief of staff. At the end of the month, they will rotate home, and another company will be sent to replace them. The number of Mongolian troops in Iraq is small, compared with the thousands of U.S. and British troops in Iraq, but their presence represents the former Soviet satellite stateâs efforts to gain international prestige and Americaâs good favor by supporting peacekeeping missions worldwide. There have been a lot of Mongolians going through english language training at DLI. Great folks, and the Mongolian female troops are hot!
Bombatar said his country plans to triple the number of troops available for such missions. "The Mongolian government has openly supported the global war on terrorism," he said. Mongolia, situated between the giant nations of Russia and China, is also said to be planning to turn their country into a training center for other peacekeeping forces. Already, a group of U.S. Marines have ridden horse patrols in the Mongolian steppes alongside native troops. Return of the Horse Marines, bet there was a hell of a fight to get that assignment.
#1
Maybe we can divert some of the military aid headed for Egypt towards the Monogolian horde. We seem to have 173 more Mongols helping us than Egyptians. They might not even funnel the weapons we by them to the Hammas either.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 14:20 Comments ||
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Sexist I know, but where's the link to the pictures of the hot mongolian female troops?
Posted by: Jim K ||
01/13/2004 14:23 Comments ||
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Maybe the Mongolian troops would get a measure of respect in Fallujah. "So widespread was the panic that an unsupported Mongolian horseman could come spurring into a village, cut down dozens of persons, and drive off the cattle without anyone daring to raise a hand against him. The populace had lost the capacity for resistance." From The Life and Work of Jalal-ud-din Rumi by Afzal Iqbal, about the aftermath of the Mongol conquest of Persia and Iraq in the 13th century.
For the first time since the fall of Saddam Husseinâs regime, Baghdad has a fire boat patrolling the Tigris Riverâofficially. The Future 2, a fire boat found looted and inoperable by soldiers of the 40th Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Division, on the bank of the Tigris near the 14th of July Bridge, has been repaired and returned to duty. The boat was finally rededicated by 1st Armored Division soldiers and Iraqi firefighters in a ribbon-cutting and christening ceremony on the Tigris near where it was found.
Cheeze. Now there's a thought. With the Muslim hangups about sex and women, what there hell is there to talk about at the firehouse?
Soldiers discovered the fire boat during the summer and saw its potential for use in river patrols and search and rescue, according to Maj. Robert J. Bayham, operations officer, 40th Engineer Battalion. âThis was a great opportunity for the Coalition Forces to help improve public services for Iraqi citizens,â he said. The unit hired a contractor with experience in marine repair to rebuild the boat, which they initially thought the Iraqi Police could use to patrol the river, Bayham said. However, the police did not have the means to maintain or man the vessel, so it was turned over to the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC), which includes the fire department. The $12,000, 40-day repair project on Future 2 included rebuilding the engine, repairing the water cannons and repainting the hull and deck. It was completed about a month ago, and the boat has been in service since then, according to Capt. Mark St. Laurent, executive officer, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 354th Civil Affairs Brigade, an Army Reserve unit from Riverdale, Md. Before the war, the ICDC had 12 boats, including the Future 2, for patrolling the river. Now, the Future 2 is the only boat in use. Though the rest were stolen, damaged or destroyed, projects to restore more boats are being planned. Although the boat is designed to put out fires, its main purpose will likely be in search and rescue or recovery operations and to assist boats in distress on the Tigris, Bayham said. St. Laurent, a firefighter and paramedic in Washington, D.C., said that there is an international brotherhood between firefighters. âIt does not make a difference what part of the world weâre in, we are one.â
File under the category of "Holy Shit!" Task Force âAll Americanâ troops discovered a substantial weapons cache northwest of Hit last night. This cache consisted of 900 122mm high-explosive rounds, five 155mm rounds, five 152mm rounds, 416 100mm high-explosive anti-tank rounds, two 122mm rockets, one 90mm recoilless rifle round, 70 rocket-propelled grenades, 600 14.5mm rounds, 6 cases of 23mm ammunition, 800 TNT charges, 400 meters of electrical wire, passports, photo albums and various manuals written in both Arabic and Russian. Elements of the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment destroyed all munitions in place. The cache is the largest found in the Al Anbar province.
At 10:15 a.m. this morning, elements of 3rd Squadron were conducting an area reconnaissance near Hit when they discovered an additional cache. Among old fighting positions, they discovered 314 RPGâs and 93 RPG rocket boosters. The material appeared to have been recently buried and was in good condition. The patrol also found 40 155mm rounds, 20 57mm high-explosive rounds and 1200 14.5mm rounds nearby. The patrol removed the rounds for destruction. This morning at 10:30 a.m. this morning, Task Force âAll Americanâ soldiers discovered two additional weapons caches in Ar Ramadi. These caches consisted of 98 122mm artillery rounds, which were also removed for destruction.
By Daniel Williams, Washington Post Foreign Service. EFL
Less than a year ago, Ismael Mohammed Juwara lived high in the food chain of President Saddam Husseinâs Iraq. He was a secret policeman feared and respected among his comrades and in his hometown, enjoying a cornucopia of privileges from the government. "I was a contendah!"
Now, as he scrapes out a living by selling diesel fuel illegally, he is a pariah in the new Iraq. "We were on top of the system. We had dreams," said Juwara, a former member of the Mukhabarat, the intelligence service that reported directly to the now-deposed president. "Now we are the losers. We lost our positions, our status, the security of our families, stability. Curse the Americans. Curse them." Cue worldâs smallest violin . . .
Hundreds of thousands of men from this area, now known as the Sunni Triangle, joined Husseinâs extensive goon squads security apparatus, including the army and multiple police and intelligence agencies. As such, they are mostly outcasts from the new governing system under construction by U.S.-led occupation authorities and their selected Iraqi political allies. . . . and are not well-loved by the Iraqi people they used to prey upon, either.
. . . People such as Juwara form the core of resistance to the occupation and the developing order, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. Frequently referred to as Baathist remnants or dead-enders, they are resentful and unwilling to accept their lot quietly. For that, they make no apologies. "Was being a Baathist some sort of disease?" Juwara said, raising his voice suddenly. "Was serving the country some sort of crime?" . . . Uh, yeah, being a Baathist secret police goon was a crime.
Besides his economic woes, Juwara expressed deep feelings of humiliation.
Look out! He's gonna seethe!
He told of a trip to the Central Bank in Baghdad on a quest for records of his account in Thuluiya. He said the bank records were looted after the war. "You know what they told me? âYou are from Thuluiya. You are a dog. Go and ask Saddam for the money,â " he recalled. "A few months ago, they would never have treated me like that. They wouldnât dare." What can I say? Paybackâs a . . . oh, you know . . .
Quoth the Instapundit:
Thereâs nothing wrong with looking into why anti-American forces feel this way, though thereâs also not much news here -- former swaggering thugs resent loss of status! -- really.
But I agree with Captain Ed that the absence of any attention to the moral component here makes this Post story by Daniel Williams a bit iffy.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/13/2004 6:19:24 AM ||
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Daniel Williams should be repeatedly spat upon whenever he shows his face in public. His home's cable service should be replaced with a special connection that shows nothing but the videotapes recovered from Baathist torture cells. His car's radio should play nothing but the screams of the victims of the people he wants us to pity.
Williams and the editor who approved this story, and everyone who was involved in publishing this piece of crap should be forced to spend the next five years helping to uncover and catalog the mass graves in Iraq. Maybe then they'll understand what the "humiliated" Baathists were up to.
In any case, none of those responsible should ever be allowed to work in reporting ever again, and I'd be loathe to see them in even the most base job, given the complete lack of morality they've shown here.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 8:17 Comments ||
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Now, as he scrapes out a living by selling diesel fuel illegally, he is a pariah in the new Iraq. "We were on top of the system. We had dreams," said Juwara, a former member of the Mukhabarat, the intelligence service that reported directly to the now-deposed president. "Now we are the losers. We lost our positions, our status, the security of our families, stability. Curse the Americans. Curse them."
#5
so sweet reading stuff like this,really makes me proud to be a member of the coalition that destroyed Saddam and his army of muppets.Great stuff this.
#8
Yeah, he had dreams of moving up from operating the plastic shredder or running the kiddie jail. Maybe he could have become one of the guys who gave the order to shoot people in the back of the head so they could tumble into mass graves. And the Coalition took those dreams from him and the rest of his buddies in Thuluiya. THANK GOD!
Yes, but they involved feeding people into plastic shredders and someday being promoted to the rape squad.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 12:59 Comments ||
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They really should transfer Williams over to Italy to interview the SS men on trial. He can write another pity piece there, too.
"Was being a Nazi some sort of disease?" Sommer said, raising his voice suddenly. "Was serving the Reich some sort of crime?"
Posted by: Dar ||
01/13/2004 13:17 Comments ||
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If Daniel Williams thinks that the henchman, Juwara, is sore about his loss of power, then he should report on how pissed off the head villian must be. Saddam, the poor tyrant, has his lost freedom to brutalize, torture, and murder at will. It's just too sad.
Williams should have asked Ismael about the autracities commited by his vaunted regime.
#12
I'm sure a turd like dan williams can make no distinction between a former mukhabaRAT thug and our special forces. In his shit-addled mind, the two are equivalent. Maybe he should ask for iraqi interrogation techniques from his lil' buddy. I'm sure the thug wouldn't mind showing him the myriad of uses of a car battery.
Needless to say, the 'media' is lost in this country.
#13
You heartless bastards. I hope you never have to live in your own town when you've been instrumental in killing every 18th person, and suddenly you are on the streets. On the streets! Like an Infidel Bum! I won't give you a quarter or a nickel! Me and my friend Faisal will walk on by.
#14
We should gather up these former members of the muck-it-up-bad and put them in a big room. Let in a couple of hundred of the family members of people whose children, parents, husbands, wives, etc., were tortured and killed by these bastards.
Close your ears to the screaming, and just wait. When the room becomes quiet again, go in and clean up for the next one.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/13/2004 21:04 Comments ||
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L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq, on Monday rebuffed a demand from the country's most influential Shiite Muslim cleric for early elections that many analysts say would put power into the hands of the country's large and impoverished Shiite majority. Bremer said that a plan devised last November for a transitional assembly created through a system of regional caucuses would proceed despite the opposition of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. The caucus system is "the best way forward before the return of sovereignty to the Iraqi people and to provide for elections in about a year now to a constituent assembly," Bremer told Radio Free Europe. Sistani's opposition poses a serious challenge to American plans to cede authority in Iraq this summer to a transitional government. So far, the largely Shiite south has been relatively friendly to American-led occupation forces. But some violence has flared in recent days, giving a taste of the danger should Shiites resist en masse. In his statement Sunday, Sistani alluded to the possibility of violence among fellow Shiites unless direct elections were held. He has yet to put his objections into the form of a fatwa, a religious edict that many Shiites would consider law.
I still think that something will be worked out. Sistani's too important to ignore.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:25 ||
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Sistani can threaten what he likes. We've already Iraqified this debate -- via the Governing Council members, who are (with a few exceptions) as screwed as anyone if Sistani turns out to have veto power over the governance of their country (not to mention balance-of-power issues etc.).
#2
Good! You have to remember that Iraqis have a fairly vague notion of what democracy is all about. The one-person-one-vote bit mr. Sistani probably gets. The notion of checks and balances is probably harder for him to grasp.
In a multi-ethnic state there has to be protections for minorities.
#3
Since Iraq has a built-in Shiite majority (60%), constitution amendments (if they ever get around to writing one) should probably require 75% majorities. The national legislature should resemble the US, with one chamber based on population and other with a fixed number of seats per province. Electoral districts for national elections within a given province should be determined by elected provincial legislatures once a decade, as in the US.
Another domino teeters.
Formal peace talks aimed at ending a 35-year communist insurgency will resume next month, three years after they broke off, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Tuesday. Chief rebel negotiator Luis Jalandoni, reached by phone at his home in exile in the Netherlands, confirmed that the rebels are ready to resume formal talks next month. Arroyo said in a statement that details were being finalized by both sides along with Norway, which has brokered the peace process with the Communist Party of the Philippines, its military arm the New Peopleâs Army, which have both been declared terrorist organizations by the United States and the European Union. The peace talks with the communists have been stalled since 2001, but both sides have continued informal contacts. The Philippine government suspended the last round of peace talks after communist guerrillas killed a former congressman they accused of human rights violations. I believe the Philipino Commies have adopted the strategy of utilizing the Islamists as something we used to call a "Poop Screen" (paraphrased for a family-friendly enviroment.) The idea is when trouble is headed your way, you duck behind another target that is so glaringly delinquent, that you escape while trouble is busy beating up your screen.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 1:00:07 PM ||
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Thai soldiers searching for suspected Muslim militants with links to terrorism have raided Islamic schools in the three provinces bordering Malaysia. The Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who initially blamed "bandits and gun-runners" for an outbreak of violence in the provinces earlier this month, now suspects that some of the 300 islamic schools, or "madrassahs", may be fronts for militant activities.
Gee. Golly. Y'think? Has that ever happened before?
The Thai army has deployed helicopter gunships, armoured personnel carriers, special forces and hundreds of troops in their hunt for suspected militants. Government officials were ordered by Mr Shinawatra to find the stolen weapons within a week or lose their jobs. Dozens of suspects have been held for questioning and local media reports say at least six arrests were made. Security at Thailandâs border with Malaysia has been tightened. Thailandâs Justice Minister, Pongthep Thepkanjana, requested that Thai students studying at Indonesian religious schools be closely monitored. Thai authorities are keen to reassure tourists visiting the country that they are not at risk from terrorists. Mr Shinawatra promised to ease unrest by encouraging economic development in the three Muslim provinces. The region is 200 miles from the nearest tourist island, Phuket. Some security advisers suggest that the recent spate of violence in southern Thailand may be inspired by radical Islamic groups operating beyond the countryâs borders. General Kitti Rattanachaya, the governmentâs security adviser, criticised the Thai authorities for being "in denial" about the severity of the Muslim threat.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 12:31:21 AM ||
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Let's see how this works: "Find the guns or lose your jobs" is a pretty good impetus toward finding the guns. Please have a followup to this -- I anxiously await the results. Kind of funny that they immediately went to search the Islamic schools.
Is it the fool, or he who follows the fool ... severely EFL
Former President Carter will offer words of praise for Howard Dean when the Democratic front-runner attends church services with him in Georgia on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, aides to the two men said Tuesday. Whereas a Democrat of much greater stature and person has explicitly chosen to "bat for the other team" ...
A show of support from Carter could boost Deanâs appeal in the South. Carter, a Baptist, also could help Dean in his recent effort to appeal to religious voters. Clinton and Gore were Baptists too, and look how that turned out ...
Dean has sought Carterâs advice throughout the campaign. During an appearance on CNNâs "Larry King Live" in September, Carter said he sees a little of himself in Dean. Does he see failure, surrender and "punish[ing] the innocent" by "spar[ing] the guilty"?
Posted by: Lu Baihu ||
01/13/2004 10:08:29 PM ||
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Boost Dean in the South? Cuz Carter did so well himself in '80 down there...
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/13/2004 22:14 Comments ||
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It's good to see Dean going back to church again after 25 years. 'Cause right now he doesn't have a prayer. By the way, what's Carter's stance on bike paths?
Posted by: Tom ||
01/13/2004 22:22 Comments ||
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Does this officially make it the "Road to Ruin" tour?
Was McGovern busy? That would've been the real trifecta. They could've sold the pictures on Ebay.
Chalk up another one for the Peaceful ReligionTM
A Saudi millionaireâs son who went from a freewheeling Houston college student to an observant Muslim pleaded guilty Monday to nearly decapitating a longtime Jewish friend in the accusedâs Galleria-area apartment but offered no explanation.
Lopped his nut off, did he? How very... ummm... Islamic.
Mohammed Ali Alayed, 23, who spent the last three years in Houston on a student visa, admitted slashing the throat of Ariel Sellouk, also 23, with a 4-inch butterfly knife Aug.6. Alayed, who was to go on trial Monday on murder charges, pleaded guilty in a deal that will limit his punishment to 60 years in prison when he is sentenced in April by state District Judge Joan Huffman. Thatâs, what, 10-and-out for lopping off the guyâs dome?
Although there was no direct evidence the killing was a hate crime, attorneys said jurors might have been particularly unsympathetic to Alayed because the slaying raised the specter of Islamic extremism and stereotypes surrounding terrorists. "Now is not a good time to be trying a case with these facts," said Alayedâs attorney, George Parnham.
Hey, George! When's a good time for trying a case where somebody cut somebody else's hat stand off?
"I believe a jury well could have given him a life sentence." Gee, wonder why that is? But why would life in the hole be a bad idea, Jawge? Dude lopped off the guyâs dome. The sad thing is that these two guys used to be friends:
Alayed and Sellouk became friends while studying at Houston Community College. Alayed attended Selloukâs 21st birthday party, and the two spent time together, visiting local bars and socializing with young women. Until the Peaceful ReligionTM came along:
But Alayed severed ties with Sellouk about one year before the killing. The defendant had undergone a religious reawakening and had recently reformed his typical American student behavior to a more conservative, Islamic lifestyle, authorities said. But the really great thing about the Peaceful ReligionTM is that when you screw up, it motivates you to stay and bravely face the consequences of your actions:
Alayed then immediately called a friend for a ride to a nearby mosque. He later told his roommate he planned to flee to Saudi Arabia to avoid prosecution, authorities said. Where he would have gotten his own TV show or a cola named after him. Guess who Texas thought might help the guy make bail? Yup:
Alayedâs bail was set at $5 million after prosecutors said they feared the Saudi Arabian government would help post his bond. The Saudi consulate had posted previous bonds for Alayed on minor traffic violations, St. Martin said. Guess the Saudi entity thought he could do them more good in the hole. Punch up the Wahhabi recruiting, maybe
Posted by: Christopher Johnson ||
01/13/2004 7:17:50 PM ||
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According to another story linked from LGF, this guy's "religious reawakening" occurred "about two years ago". I'm guessing it happened two years, four months ago.
Oh, and the reason this case raised "stereotypes" about Arab Islamic terrorism? Because it's a prime example.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 20:02 Comments ||
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Looks like an easy payday for Barrister Parnham... and not in rials please.
Even the discharged, disgruntled and disgraced Paul OâNeill agrees with the majority of Americans that President Bush is superior to any of the Democratsâ White House wannabes. (You an almost hear the whine at DU from here)
OâNeill said this morning on NBCâs "Today" show he was guilty of using "vivid" language during his hundreds of hours of interviewsfor a book. As for his quote about the president being "like a blind man in a room full of deaf people," he claimed, "If I could take it back, I would take it back." (And that blind man lead us OUT of the recession!)
OâNeill said he "probably" would vote to re-elect Bush in November. "I donât see anyone who is better prepared or more capable," he said. (Ouch! Thatâs going to leave a mark on the Nine Dwarves!)
That little comment ought to be better than eau de skunk for stopping the Democrat candidates from embracing him. (And they were ready to proclaim him a god!)
OâNeill insisted, "It was not my intention to be personally critical of the president or anybody else," but rather to collaborate "on a chronicle of 23 months" in government. He may still get an Xmas card from Bush, but no Hickory Farms basket. And to the Demo-Nine: HA HA HA HA!
#2
Rove must have got to him. That's it! Those evil Republicans!
This whole episode makes CBS look very retarded. Bet the media approaches subsequent "whistleblowers" with a bit more care, which may be the actual point of the exercise. The Moronbush beats them everytime.
Posted by: john ||
01/13/2004 19:17 Comments ||
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If a "blind president" is "better prepared and capable" than any of the Democrats... can somebody call in the ophthalmologists?
The forests near Rahrah [note: 11 miles from Sissboombah] are only about 30 kilometres from Spain and when the weather is clear, the European mainland can easily be seen from the top of a hill. Some 4,000 migrants have drowned in the past five years trying to get into Spain. The migrants pay between $500 and $1,500 to people traffickers, known as "samsara", to get to Europe. In some cases the price can be doubled with no guarantee of arriving alive. The forests in the north have now become a "waiting room" for some Africans to get to the "European Eldorado". But now the Moroccan security forces are cracking down on the migrants living in the shacks. Hundreds of them have been sent back to the Algerian border where they entered Morocco after trekking across the Sahara desert.
Charles sports a beard and dreadlocks, and he had worked for seven years in Libya before he came to Morocco on a mission to cross the Straits of Gibraltar. After half an hourâs walk on a path wriggling along the slope of the mountain, a camp came into view. During the march we met several migrants on the way to the shop for some supplies. Several were relaxing on a piece of cardboard. Small tents were fixed between the trees. In the distance, a woman was cooking soup on an open fire, while others were talking loudly. Sounds like SF.
"Have you visited the camp to see how we live like animals hunting for something to eat?" asks Richard, a young man from Nigeria. A guy named Richard might make a better EU citizen than some. Ask him whether his culture practices "honor killing."
He alleged that the Moroccan security forces are very brutal, punching and kicking any migrants they catch. At times they also rape women during their operations to flush out illegal immigrants, he said. His claims are promptly supported by his colleagues who all have tales about their nasty experiences of the security forces. I guess they donât have a policy comparable to "catch and release."
"Look at my back," says one. "Honestly, I canât understand why the Moroccan authorities treat us this way," says a Ghanaian who is desperate to cross to Europe. A: because the EU asked them to discourage your efforts.
Priscilla, a teenager, is five months pregnant but refuses to leave the forests to consult a doctor because she is scared of being arrested. She only hopes that she will make it across the Straits of Gibraltar before she gives birth. Sounds as if her name should be Juanita living in TJ. If Spain needs cheap labor, maybe we could work out a swap. We could swap some Spanish speaking individuals for anyone not named after a varient of Mohamed.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 4:54:11 PM ||
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doubled with no guarantee of arriving alive.
How much for the arive-alive upgrade?
#2
Several were relaxing on a piece of cardboard. Small tents were fixed between the trees. In the distance, a woman was cooking soup on an open fire, while others were talking loudly.
Sounds alot like Lemans 1969.
Posted by: John Wire ||
01/13/2004 20:52 Comments ||
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He alleged that the Moroccan security forces are very brutal, punching and kicking any migrants they catch.
Kinda like the Mexican police when they catch Guatemalans crossing their border.
EFL - (unusual article from Rooters: ie. I could detect no anti-American spin)
Iran-born architect Nader Khalili has a technique for building earthquake-proof houses, but he is struggling to sell it to governments even though he teaches it for free and it could save countless lives. Called "superadobe," it uses nothing more sophisticated than sandbags and barbed wire, and it has been approved as quake-safe by the hard-to-please building authorities on Californiaâs seismic fault line. Khalili hopes to put the technique into practice in places like his native country, where an earthquake last month killed more than 30,000 people.
But as simple, secure and cheap as superadobe appears to be, Khalili has battled for more than a decade to get the technique widely implemented -- with little success. The problem, he says, lies in the reluctance of bureaucrats to accept an idea that is not based on conventional steel and concrete. "The only things they accept are imitations from the West," Khalili said in an interview. Superadobe takes an ancient technique -- building with earth -- and improves upon it. Soil dug from the construction site is mixed with a small amount of cement and water and rammed into tubular bags which are laid one on top of the other to form walls. Barbed wire is placed between the layers to hold the bags together and provide reinforcement. In the simplest form of superadobe, the bags are laid in a circle about 12 feet across. The diameter of the rows gradually decreases toward the top. The result is a self-supporting dome, a traditional building form in much of the Middle East and Mediterranean. Superadobe can be used to build a one-room structure, or by combining the domes, more complicated multi-room houses.
Similar houses from Catal Huyuk date from about 8000 BC, only without the bob war...
"Bam created a disaster, but in the long term Iran can turn it into a great opportunity, to take the best of the past and build on it, to make traditional techniques better and stronger." Iranian village names are quite onomatopoetic. I wonder if there is also a town called Kab in the vicinity.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 2:29:10 PM ||
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So if I understand the design correctly, he is selling an adobe igloo ?
I can imagine the bureaucrats' response to that: "Uh, yeah, we'll add your proposal to our files. Good day, sir.
...
I said, Good DAY, sir !"
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
01/13/2004 14:51 Comments ||
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I think one major problem this addresses is the typical Middle-Eastern one-story rural house built of unreinforced mud brick.
These are very unsafe of course, but they are not the major source of mass earthquake casualties, but rather multi-story mud-brick construction.
Cheaper steel rebar, cement, and galvanized roofing would in fact be the solution for multi-story. I don't know why these are not more popular in the ME, because in the Philippines even squatters use these in construction.
The Air Force wants to return to the Cold War-era practice of basing fighter jets and other strike and support planes on Guam, the Pacific island that is in ready striking distance of the Korean peninsula, the Air Forceâs top officer in the region said Tuesday. While no final decisions have been made to add air power in the Pacific, the Air Force has made the case for basing a variety of aircraft on Guam, a U.S. territory that generally welcomes an expanded military presence, he told reporters in a wide-ranging interview. Jobs = $$$$
Aircraft and other U.S. offensive forces that had been based on Guam during the Cold War were withdrawn during the 1990s defense budget cuts and drawdown of U.S. military capabilities worldwide. A few years ago the Air Force began building up the infrastructure on Andersen Air Force Base, the main air base on Guam, including stockpiling large amounts of munitions. Most of the base buildings were totally rebuilt after the 1998 typhoon.
In 2002, the Navy based two attack submarines at Guam, the USS San Francisco and the USS City of Corpus Christi, and it plans to add a third this year. The Navy also is considering basing an aircraft carrier there. Begert mentioned basing a fighter wing on Guam as well as air refueling aircraft, the new unmanned Global Hawk spy plane, and long-range bombers like the B-2 stealth bomber, for which special air-conditioned hangars were positioned there last year before the start of the Iraq war. These are "very attractive kinds of options that in todayâs world, with the importance of Asia in this century, all make good sense," he said. Begert noted that last spring the Air Force deployed B-1 and B-52 long-range bombers to Guam temporarily. Begert also pointed out that Guam is about 1,500 miles from the Korean peninsula and a similar distance from the Taiwan Straits, which is a potential flashpoint for conflict with communist China. Another big plus is that we own it, donât have to get permission before we go up aside someoneâs head.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/13/2004 1:29:57 PM ||
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how far is that in flying hrs to these places? Does 2.5-3.5 hrs sound right?
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/13/2004 13:41 Comments ||
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Bitch to get to.
My husband dove Truk this past summer.
They do need the money. I'd prefer him to go back there than the Philippines, which they're discussing now.
#5
YS - B-2 and B-1 speeds are listed as "high sub-sonic", that's around 500 mph, so 3 hours is about right. B-2 has a un-refueled range of 6,000 miles, so that's a piece of cake.
Anon - Yes on the snakes, they've pretty much cleaned out all the birds.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/13/2004 14:08 Comments ||
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I agree 100% with this idea. Pull the troops out of South Korea and Okinawa and build up Guam as the forward positioned base.
#8
I would imagine the thinking behind basing a fighter wing there would be
1)It's a couple thousand miles closer than being based at Nellis,Mountain Home,Hill,etc.That's several dozen aerial refuelings that don't have to be made,as well as time saved getting you close to active theatre.
2)You don't have to worry about increasingly scarce a/c being caught on ground by NK sudden attack.
3)You can dogfight to your hearts content w/out noise restrictions or intruding civil a/c.
Posted by: Stephen ||
01/13/2004 18:45 Comments ||
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Problem is, Guam's a small place. We need to spread out. Guam has about as much as it can hold with one airbase, a naval port, and a small army contingent. We do have other options in the Pacific, and I thing we should use them. Truk, Palau, Micronesia, etc., are all former Trust Territory of the Pacific territories, currently under US protection. I don't think basing a wing or two of US fighters there would upset them terribly, especially with the additional hard currency it would provide. The problem is, these places are in a tropical climate, and that's not good for airframes, personal belongings, and most other manufactured things. That said, I would LOVE to see the US presence return to the Philippines, and for the US and Australia to set up a joint operating force in the western end of a liberated, democratic New Guinea. The other options would be "liberating" New Caledonia and French Polynesia from the French in retaliation for supporting Iraq against the United States. Of course, that might upset the French enough they might even declare an embargo against the US, or, even worse, keep forcing the idiotic pro-French slave document"constitution" onto the members of the European Union. They may also try to bring charges against the United States in that new International Court of theirs, run by their Belgian lapdogs. One good Tomahawk would end that threat.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/13/2004 19:00 Comments ||
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That said, I would LOVE to see the US presence return to the Philippines,
Hell, OP wants to see another landing on Leyte. :>
A prominent Islamic clergyman was arrested Tuesday on an indictment alleging he concealed links to groups that committed terrorist attacks against Jews when he applied for U.S. citizenship a decade ago, officials said. Imam Fawaz Mohammed Damrah, who leads the Islamic Center of Cleveland, Ohioâs largest mosque, is accused of withholding information on his membership or affiliation with several groups, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, U.S. Attorney Gregory White said. White said the indictment did not allege that Damrah, a Palestinian, committed any terrorist activities. The indictment did not specify what type of support Damrah may have provided to any of the groups.
Probably just the usual — money, arms, ammunition, a few bodies with clean passports...
Damrah, 41, who also uses the name Fawaz Damra, was charged with unlawfully obtaining U.S. citizenship by providing false or fraudulent information, White said. He gained citizenship in 1994. If convicted, he could face loss of his citizenship, up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Same charges used against old nazis.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad has been identified by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization, White said. Other groups for which Damrah is accused of concealing an affiliation or membership were Afghan Refugees Services Inc., also known as Al-Kifah Refugee Center, and the Islamic Committee for Palestine, also known as Islamic Concern Project.
They have false noses and moustaches in 12 hot colors, don't they?
Damrah represented the Islamic community at interfaith gatherings in Cleveland after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Then, local TV stations broadcast a videotape from a Chicago gathering 10 years earlier showing him making anti-Jewish comments in a speech. He called for rifles to be directed at Jewish people, and referring to them as "the sons of monkeys and pigs." Videotapes a bitch, ainât it?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/13/2004 1:18:05 PM ||
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I'm pretty sure this guy's gotten some coverage over on LGF. I'll have to dig into it tonight.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 13:34 Comments ||
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Chicago hosts that "gathering" every year over Labor Day weekend.
#3
The citation of this same event at cleveland.com left out the part about Damraz losing his job teaching about Islam at a Cleveland area community college after publicity about his anti-Semitic remarks surfaced on Cleveland TV stations 2 years ago.
A report published by the US Army War College has criticised the war against Iraq as a strategic error. It also suggests that the Bush administrationâs global war on terror may be unsustainable. The report, by academicJeffrey Record, has been dismissed by US defence officials, who say it does not represent the view of the US Army. But BBC Pentagon correspondent Nick Childs says the report could be an embarrassment for the Pentagon. The BBC? Now thereâs a unbiased opinion.
The author of the report is a visiting professor at the prestigious college in Pennsylvania and his conclusions about the Bush administrationâs conduct of its war on terrorism appear quite damning. He calls the invasion of Iraq "an unnecessary war of choice" and a "detour". He forgot quagmire....
Mr Record says that by lumping together a host of threats - from the destruction of the al-Qaeda network to stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction - the administration has set goals in the war which are unsustainable. "The United States may be able to defeat al-Qaeda, but it cannot rid the world of terrorism, much less evil," he says in the report.
It'll always be there. But if we're successful, it won't be organized, and it will draw the opprobium it deserves. Our war is as much against the image of the Heroic Mujaheddin⢠as it is against al-Qaeda. The two are inextricably intertwined...
Mr Record adds: "[The war] against a deterred Iraq has created a new front in the Middle East for Islamic terrorism and diverted attention and resources away from the security of the American homeland against further assault by an undeterrable al-Qaeda." The new front is the entire idea. You *want* to fight the war on the enemyâs territory and not your own.
US officials have played down the report. They say the views are those of the author alone and do not represent any official policy. In a disclaimer, the US Armyâs War Collegeâs Institute for Strategic Studies adds that the report does not represent the views of the college. They said staff and students at the War College are encouraged to be critical and that the college was founded to promote independent analysis. Our correspondent says the suspicion will nevertheless be that the views are shared by some in the US Army. Mr Recordâs views also echo many of the criticisms made by the administrationâs political opponents.
I doubt the views are shared by many staff and students at the War College. I don't know what Mr. Record teaches, but if it's strategy, I hope they don't renew his contract. There is room for legitimate differences of opinion on the course the WoT will take. Iraq had some points against it as a target for military action, but military action against a terror-supporting state was a desirable move in the war. That would have meant Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya or Sudan, possibly Somalia. Had I been Bush, I may have gone with Syria and Iran â the two are closely intertwined. But because they're so closely intertwined, Iraq was a simpler target. Libya was peripheral, Sudan was protesting that it was no longer involved in the terror business, and Somalia's such a mess, with so many targets to hit, that there isn't really anything there to beat up. Pakistan, the root of terror muscle, is our Friend and Allyâ¢. Soddy Arabia, the root of all terror money, would represent a declaration of war against all of Islam due to its status as protector of the holy sites. I suppose we could have cleaned out the Pankisi Gorge, but that would have tweaked the Russian nose; or we could have cleaned out Gaza and the West Bank with three or four divisions, but the Israelis are dealing with that, and the targets aren't al-Qaeda. So Iraq was it, by process of elimination and by virtue of Ansar al-Islam, with the PLA and Abu Nidal as a bonus.
Posted by: CrazyFool ||
01/13/2004 10:12:49 AM ||
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"The United States may be able to defeat al-Qaeda, but it cannot rid the world of terrorism, much less evil," he says in the report.
No, the U.S. can't rid the globe of terrorism, but if it puts the kibosh on terrorism directed against Americans and American interests, then that's what matters.
#2
I'm amazed at the amount of effort being expended to turn our victory into a defeat.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 10:21 Comments ||
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Jeffrey Record's essays are full of errors. You have to read his Vietnam stuff to realize how full of crap this guy is. When I read one of his essays, the errors of fact and the evasions of important issues kept on jumping out at me, until I finally gave up. It is amazing how a sloppy researcher like this guy manages to stay employed. (Actually, maybe it's not so amazing, given some of the other stuff I have read).
#4
Seems to me that Jeffrey Record's prescription for battling Islamic terrorism is precisely the approach that got us attacked on 9/11. Or am I perhaps missing something?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/13/2004 11:32 Comments ||
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...a visiting professor at the prestigious college in Pennsylvania... I thought Colombia had all these guys on staff.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 11:52 Comments ||
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Hate people like Jeffery who are after nothing more then a good bit of shit stirring,I too noticed the BBC jumped on this but with thier currant reputation i don't think many will take notice especially of that Nick Childs (childlike) prick.The BBC is losing so much faith from its viewers.I hate the BBC.
#7
The argument is that we can't liberate everybody so we shouldn't liberate anybody. For a good article to the contrary, from a German newspaper no less, see:
#11
Not Strategic? Someone run a urinalysis on that man!
He's smoking something.
1) Geopoloitially speaking, its a keystone. Its across the "supply lines" for Iran-to-Syria/Lebanon, and vice versa. (i.e. terrorist supply routes).
2) Democracy+US Military presence in the area immediately pressures Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.
3) It shattered several pet myths of"The Arab Street" having to do with Allah, racial and religious bigotry, and so on. Consider that it was considered the "most Arab" nation, given that it goes back to ancient times of Babylon (Not to be comfused with "Most Islamic", which is Saudi given al the religious sites there).
4) And it also shattered the Myth that the US could not and would not undertake a large invasion.
5) It demonstrated that the US can and will take casualties in the pursuit of justice. And the US population will not "Vietname" all over again (despite the best efforts of the Press and the Democratic Party and the "Hate Bush" crowd).
6) It provides a centralized base of operations, and land infilataion routes for special operations and intelligence far superior to any other place in the region.
7) It has drawn out all the terrorist form the woodwork in Syria and other countries, where they try to take their shot at the US, and armed tained troops generally fare a lot better than civilians. Plus, lost in all the press fog about US Casualties, there are a more Dead terrorists and plenty more in captivity now than there would be had we not gone in.
I could go on, being as I do know a thing or two about strategy, but I think the above are enough, prima facia, to show the fellow to be either stoned or stupid - or simply another vindictive micro-cephalic Hate-Bush bastard.
#12
Unlike civilian centers of alleged 'higher' education, the war college(s) really do encourage opposing views and critical analyses. They're doing the right thing by publishing this guys paper, no matter how much it flies in the face of reality, or how flawed his thesis. If only to give the future generals a little insight into how the military-haters and appeasers think. I like to bash the brass (of ALL services) as much as anyone about being too 'harvard' and p.c., but I think they're right about letting this mutt spout. And you can be assured, there are plenty of colonels who are tearing this guy's arguments to shreds, much like OldSpook.
ps. can you imagine someone going for a phd at berkeley or harvard by submitting a thesis that was laudatory of the Bush administration and foreign policy? they'd be shouted down, drummed out of the program, and blacklisted by the stalinist thought police
#13
Good points all. I didn't like Fred's final claim that Iraq was chosen by default or process of elimination (well not exactly) after considering targeting Syria, Soddie, Libya, etc.
Iraq was targeted for many reasons but no one here has listed the most important: We were already in a 12 year conflict (a real quagmire) against Saddam and losing it.
That needed to change.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro ||
01/13/2004 17:27 Comments ||
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I know a few things about strategy, too, but in this case, you don't really have to. Just look at a map.
War on terror means fighting terrorism on four plans:
1) Political: Deterring Arab/Muslim/Turban leaders from supporting, aiding, hiding terrorists and/or using them for their own political/dictatorial/megalomanic goals, with or without WMDs. Progress: Pretty good: Talibs out, Saddam out, Baby Assad wetting his pants, Ghadaffi hanging them out to dry, Soddies worried, Musharraf in dire need to solve Talib and Kashmir problem, the Black Hats backing down as well (but on very close watch). Not bad..
2) Financial: Stopping the money flow. Major attacks need money, WMD attacks need even more money. Controlling the money flow and taking out anyone who finances terror must be pursued with determination (Saudis especially). Progress: Saddam's contributions to suicide bomber families stopped, Saddam's billions probably iced very soon (the Swiss, Syrians, Lebanese need a bit more encouraging on that one) . The Saudi money trail is the biggest problem, but to have troops so close to the major sites of Saudi income (oil strip) is priceless.
3) Ideological: Silencing those who preach hate, dire revenge, jihad against the West. Much more needs to be done in that respect: in our own countries (Al Mujahiroun etc) and in islamist countries (taking out any Abu Bin Goebbels we can get hold of). Progress: Saddam stopped dead on his way to become a "religious leader" with WMD, Taliban stone age islamism driven back into the caves it came from.
4) Intelligence: Infiltrating, interrogating and confusing the terrorist networks. Progress: Pretty good. Afghanistan provided us with Al Qaeda and Taliban intelligence (Guantanamo), Iraq with the Mukhbarat archives (should be interesting read). Add Ghadaffi's (grain of salt) willingness to provide info about terrorist networks: a direct result of the Iraq war.
#15
Well, who knows what the college was thinking. But perhaps the ideal staff solution was to occupy a certain 40 km area of SA make glass of the rest, starve Syria, test the EarthQuake machine on Iran, and wait for the Jew H.A.A.R.P. to destroy Baghdad. I think the public outcry would be worse.. But you have to admit it's a better plan.
#16
I would bet a large portion of my worldly wealth that Mr. RobertsRecord should have stuck with his own neighborhood. He certainly isn't as intelligent at Rumsfeld and Rice, especially when the two of them work together, with Rice playing devil's advocate.
I wrote an email to President Bush back in May congratulating him on his overall Middle East strategy. I won't repeat that here, but suffice to say, nothing that's happened since has changed my thinking - only my admiration of a multiple-level, multiple-target, multipronged attack that a) has gone well, b) has achieved a number of interim objectives with fewer casualties and at significantly lower cost than I would have considered, and c) has had some serindipitous effects even far outside the actual zone of combat.
I dont' know what the President plans to do next. I do know there are dozens of options, each of which could be accomplished by our government, and all of which could prove as benificial in the long run as the war in Iraq. I'm also not privy to the government's timetable as to which option will be exercized next, but I eagerly await what will happen, and where, knowing that the plan's been vetted by adults who understand what they're doing, and also understand the benifits and consequences of their actions.
As for Mr. Jeffrey "Broken" Record, I hope he has a taste for crow, because I think he's going to be eating a lot of it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/13/2004 19:34 Comments ||
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EFL:
A federal jury has found a suburban newspaper publisher guilty of failing to register as an agent of the Iraqi government and lying to federal officials. Twelve jurors deliberated for about a two hours Monday before convicting Khaled Abdel-Latif Dumeisi of spying on people opposed to former Iraqi leader Saddam Husseinâs regime. Dumeisi was convicted of two counts of perjury and one count each of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Gillogly said Dumeisi used his role as owner of the "Al Mahjar" newspaper, a pro-Hussein publication, to spy on the Iraqi opposition. He received direction and guidance for his job as a spy from the Iraqi mission to the United Nations in New York. Dumeisi "crossed the line" of being a reporter. "He in fact became a paid publicist for Iraq," Gillogly said. Gillogly said Dumeisi had two motives for acting as an Iraqi agent: money and admiration for Hussein, because he was the one person who stood up for Palestinians. The week-long trial opened with a video of Dumeisi making a speech in which he called Saddam "our inspired leader." Ouch!
The "Baghdad file," which federal authorities recovered last June after the fall of Iraq, contained reports, phone numbers and photographs of Al-Shammari, who defected to the United States in 1986 and began an Iraqi opposition group in 2000. Gillogly reviewed testimony in which people identified three of about six pages in the file, which belonged to Iraqi intelligence group known as the Mukhabarat, as being written in the hand of Dumeisi. Double ouch!
His conviction could carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Suzanne Conlon set March 30 for sentencing. Dumeisi has been held in custody since his arrest last year — one day before he was set to leave the country for Jordan. Grabbed him just in time.
More likely they had their eye on him for awhile and grabbed him when he was about to do a flit.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/13/2004 9:49:30 AM ||
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Just what Rantburg needs. A feel good story about Hamas. BTW âgranâ is a term of affection for your grandmother in the UK. EFL
A WELSH grandmother has become one of the most militant voices in condemning Israelâs policies in the West Bank and Gaza. Anne Gwynne, a former bank manager in Aberystwyth, has lived as an ambulance nurse in the West Bank town of Nablus. The 65-year-old claims Israeli soldiers have wounded her and threatened to both frame her for carrying explosives and to rape her. Maybe she shouldnât have carried the explosives in the first place! Or maybe find a journalist who can write english.
Ms Gwynne has become well known in the pro-Palestinian internet community but has been condemned by critics for defending the use of violence, including, in some circumstances, suicide bombing. She claims Hamas is seen by Palestinians as the true representatives of their nation. She told The Western Mail, "Palestine is Hamas and Hamas is Palestine. The Palestinian Authority is just a tool of Israel. They are nothing, except they hold the purse-strings. Tool of Israel! Yep, always suspected that!
"They love [Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat] for his past and hate him for his present." Ms Gwynne has been interviewed for tonightâs edition of current affairs programme Y Byd ar Bedwar. Suprise! Suprise! Not the BBC.
She was due to meet the film crew in Nablus but upon arrival in Israel she was arrested, interviewed, and held in a detention room overnight. Following her demands that she be allowed to leave she returned to Britain. Reporter Eifion Glyn was astonished by Ms Gwynneâs fervency when he first met her. He originally intended her to be the backbone of his programme. He said, "I got the shock of my life when I talked to her."
"I mean, she was a friggin' moonbat!"
Her claims that the Palestinian Authority has lost support in Nablus had, he agreed, some credibility. He said, "Sheâs been there for months and I got the feeling a number of people donât think a lot of Yasser Arafat; the Palestinian politicians havenât delivered. Words fail me!
"Youâre talking about 60% of Nablus being out of work."
I'd have said Cause=Intifada -> Effect=60 percent of Nablus being out of work. But what the hell do I know?
Ms Gwynne hopes to return to Nablus in the near future. She was first inspired to visit the occupied territories after attending pro-Palestinian meetings in the United States and London where she heard details of the deaths of children. No mention of baby ducks.
She is adamant that Hamas will cease its campaign of violence if the occupation ends and Israeli attacks on civilians stop, if prisoners are released, and if Palestinians are permitted to return to their family homes within the state of Israel. We have a few other conditions but those are the main ones.
She said that when interviewing members of Hamas she was assured that a Palestinian state would not be a place of Islamic extremism. "He said, âThis land is the holy land. It belongs to everyone.â They believe they hold it in trust to pass on to future generations because it is sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians." During her time in Nablus she has made close friends, some of whose family members were suicide bombers, and she regularly escorted ambulances through military checkpoints. While carrying a stretcher she received a shrapnel wound to the leg when soldiers fired shots. Do bullets cause shrapnel wounds?
She claimed that in February an Israeli military officer in the village of Beit Foriq said, "Have you heard the word rape? Have you ever been raped? In the prison you will be raped very often." Sounds to me like a reference to what the inmates will do. But we have already established the Joos threatened to rape her. So clearly my interpretation is wrong.
Ms Gwynne has re-mortgaged her Welsh home to buy equipment to document the conflict and the conditions it creates. She has also become a regular contributor to US "alternative" radio station Pacifica Radio. She has been surprised at peopleâs reaction to her nationality. She said, "Being Welsh, when you go to Nablus they say, âOh, you were under occupation for the last 700 years.â I guess we have more insight in small nationsâ struggles than perhaps an Englishman from the southeast." Iâd struggle to describe Welsh Nationalists to an American audience. What you can say about people who can build an entire ideology around a language spoken by a few thousand sheep farmers Jean Evans of the Cardiff- based Israeli Information Centre said there were effective ways to make complaints about the military and that these would guarantee that if the incidents described were true the officials would be punished. She said, "I havenât got time to comment on her wild claims which are unsubstantiated."
MALCOLM LOWE, originally from Haverfordwest, is a philosopher and New Testament scholar who has lived in Israel since 1970. And now a whole series of on the money quote!!!!
He said, "Thereâs a lot of crazy people like that. Somebody described Palestinianism as the new religion of the European Left. Itâs like a cult. I think itâs absurd. Some people are so crazy you canât argue with them." Hamas, he said, was driven by religious fundamentalism and not a quest for social justice. "They think [the land] is an eternal possession which has to be redeemed from the infidel." Mr Lowe, who contributes to philosophical journal Efrydiau Athronyddol, said defeating terrorism in Palestine and Israel was crucial to winning any War on Terror. People like Ms Gwynne, he claimed, visited Israel for short periods, had intense experiences, and believed they had a full understanding of the conflict. He said, "These volunteers come here with high ideals, but they know very little about the situation. Experience is not the same thing as knowledge." Mr Lowe argued that the Palestinian leadership was deliberately keeping much of its own population in refugee camps so that it could demand these people have the right to return to original family homes in Israel.
Posted by: phil_b ||
01/13/2004 6:34:41 AM ||
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#1
Be a shame if Miss Gwynne had an encounter with a bulldozer.
#2
Iâd struggle to describe Welsh Nationalists to an American audience. What you can say about people who can build an entire ideology around a language spoken by a few thousand sheep farmers
How's this for a try:
Imagine if West Virginia had a successionist movement...
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 8:25 Comments ||
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#3
Imagine if West Virginia had a successionist movement... Oh Please please please please please!
I wonder if she ever visited a terrorist bombed bus or night club? Didn't think so. She just went on a carefully controlled 'tour' conducted by Hamas.
#13
Stop makin fun of Grand Kleagle Byrd else me, Luke and Little Faisal gonna come outta this machine and whip yawls yankee asses! Yhear? And Pepe too.
#14
It is because of the Welsh that Y is sometimes considered a vowel.
It must drive the Welsh mad to know that the castles built to supress them are one of the major driving forces of their economy these days. Conwy and Caerphilly castles were very cool.
The subject of Georgiaâs Pankisi Gorge (inhabited by Chechen citizens, and according to Russian special services, a hiding place for Chechen terrorists) may be raised at the upcoming Russian-Georgian summit, Russian presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky reported at a press conference in Moscow. "No one doubts the presence of foreign mercenariesâ in Chechnya," Mr. Yastrzhembsky said. "Every terrorist that has been killed has entered Russia from Georgia and itâs a fact. All of them had Georgian tourist visas in their passports." Acting Georgian President Nino Burdzhanadze arrived in Moscow Wednesday morning on a working visit. President Vladimir Putin and Nino Burdzhanadze will meet December 25, the presidential press service reported.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 12:54:50 AM ||
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#1
Could the gorge be filled in with cement or something? We have a pretty large landfill in Fort Wayne that they are fashioning into something that looks like it might turn into a possible ski slope. I'm sure the locals would delay the mogul project to provide some filler for the Georgian government.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 11:47 Comments ||
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#2
Dan, Newsday has an article: U.S. nudges Russia on Georgia Withdrawal. I can't tell whether the U.S. called Russia's bluff or has been victimized by post-Soviet grifters.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 16:32 Comments ||
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An advisor to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, told CNN on Sunday: âThe Saudis qualify for their own membership in the axis of evil,â which President George W Bush described as Iran, Saddam Husseinâs Iraq and North Korea. âI hope that those who believe that we are now getting full cooperation are right,â he added, referring to Saudi Arabiaâs role in the war on terror following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. âI have yet to see the evidence,â Perle charged in the latest assault on the kingdom by influential US neo-conservatives.
He said that the United States had âbig problemsâ with Syria which allowed terrorists to enter Iraq via its territory. âOne of the things theyâre (the Syrians) doing is facilitating the entry into Iraq of terrorists who are there to kill Americans,â Richard Perle told CNN. âTheyâre holding on to money that belongs to the people of Iraq. And theyâre building chemical weapons, at least. So we have big problems with the Syrians.â
On January 5, Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara said he wanted to see improved relations between Washington and Syria following the US adoption of legislation paving the way for unilateral sanctions against his government. Syrian media on Saturday called for Washington to wield its influence and help revive peace talks with Israel that collapsed in acrimony four years ago. But, said Perle, the Syrians âfrom time to time, will throw us a crumb, a piece of intelligence here, or theyâll take a minor step there. And they hope, and in the past theyâve sometimes been right, that that that will deflect us from what ought to be our course, which is a real change in their policy.â
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:51 ||
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Didn't we also have âbig problemsâ with Iraq and Afganistan?
Posted by: ed ||
01/13/2004 0:58 Comments ||
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That's the thing about these two bit tyrants like Assad, Noriega, etc., etc. They are like little yappy dogs. Most of the big dogs run off with their tails tucked, when they rush forward snapping and snarling. The problem for yappy dogs is that they are in a really bad position when the big dog decides to snarl and snap back.
We've snarled - he's been warned we're going to snap. I'm guessing he's just going to keep annoying us until we do.
#4
So what do we have here ?
1. Iraq has made it through the hardest part and will clearly continue to improve.
2. Time to lay out the strategies for the next phase. Any volunteers ? Syria ? Is that you in the back ? Come on up to the front of the class.
#5
Only in the US media could obvious statements be portrayed as 'controversial.'
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 11:56 Comments ||
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I still fault Rumsfeld for not already working to strengthen the US Military. We need at LEAST two more divisions of Army and another brigade-size unit or two in the Marines. We need at LEAST another Air wing or two, and probably two additional Navy carrier air groups. We need to double the size of the National Guard and Reserve forces, at least on paper, with the goal in mind of filling all those slots within ten years or so.
Unfortunately, it takes from one to two years to recruit, equip, supply, and train a new division. We needed to have started on 9/11/01. If we had, we'd have at least two additional divisions we could rotate through Iraq NOW, gaining experience in fighting Arab military and para-military forces. We'd have the manpower and equipment to push simultaneously through Syria and Iran, before needing to stop and regroup, rearm, and rest before heading further east, west, and south.
The War on Terrorism is going to be long, bloody, and difficult. We need adequate manpower to do it right. The sooner we start the military buildup, the better.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/13/2004 19:58 Comments ||
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Jeez OP. I'll go for the 2 Army divsion... but another Marine Brigade (or two)? Operation Olympic was cancelled in 1946 :>
Frankly my theory is that Iraq is about the largest country that can be dealt with by conventional US forces... anything less (SA) we're good to go... anthing larger (IRAN) we're good to go.... using all available means.
The Uganda Peopleâs Defence Forces on Friday killed 23 Lordâs Resistance Army LRA) rebels in two separate fierce battles. The spokesman for the 5th infantry division Lt. Chris Magezi told Sunday Monitor on Saturday morning that the army killed 17 rebels at Orom which is 40kms east of Kitgum town. "We killed seventeen rebels including two rebel officers," said Magezi. He identified the dead LRA officers as Lt. Okot Apeta Luke and 2nd Lt. Ochieng Martin. The UPDF did not suffer any casualties but rescued 14 captives. The regular army and Local Defence Unit personnel jointly carried out the operation. Magezi said the group ambushed at Orom was planning to loot cattle belonging to the Karamojong. "There is little food in Kitgum and Pader so they are almost starving. We ambushed them as they planned to loot Karamojong cattle. They died hungry men," Magezi said. He said because they are hungry they are desperate and can even try to attack Internally displaced Peopleâs Camps to look for food.
At Palabek, which is 32 kms, north west of Kitgum town, the armyâs 9th battalion, with air support, fought a fierce battle with rebels reportedly commanded by Konyâs deputy Vincent Otti. Five rebels were killed and 14 captives rescued while the UPDF did not suffer any casualty. The army recovered an SMG, radio antennas and 50 rounds of ammunition. Meanwhile the army killed one rebel in Pader on Friday and recovered an SMG.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 12:49:50 AM ||
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Is there ever a laconic battle? Or are they all fierce?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/13/2004 21:20 Comments ||
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No, thatâs not a joke.
Haitiâs parliament became powerless Monday as the terms of most legislators expired while a political impasse kept the country from holding new elections. The legislative impasse comes a day after the largest march yet against President for LifeJean-Bertrand Aristide, compounding the turmoil that has engulfed this Caribbean island in recent months.
The legislative dilemma is rooted in disputed elections held in May 2000. The opposition has refused to participate in new elections unless Aristide resigns. He has refused. Out of the 27-seat senate, four senatorsâ terms expired Monday. Eight had previously resigned, leaving just 15 members. In addition to the senate, all 83 members of the Chamber of Deputiesâ terms expired. "The government will continue. Aristide will not govern by executive decree," said Sen. Clones Lans, whose term expired. "But elections are important. We cannot continue indefinitely without a parliament." The senate can continue meeting with a 14-member quorum but no new laws will be passed and no pending loans can be ratified. The new budget was passed before the legislatorsâ terms expired. Former senator and opposition leader Paul Denis said the legislative crisis is the latest blow to Aristideâs embattled administration. "The moment of Aristideâs fall from power is approaching," Denis said. "There is no parliament, but he and his government intend to rule in spite of their illegality." Letâs ship the Haitian government to Liberia and the Liberian "government" to Haiti. I bet it doesnât make a a bit of difference.
Aristide is the countryâs first freely elected leader who won by a landslide but was overthrown in a coup in 1991. He was restored in a 1994 U.S. invasion but forced to step down in 1996 due to a term limit. He won his second term in 2000 and he says he plans to serve out his term until 2006. He is barred at the present time from running for a third term until he changes that law too. Is there not one capable, reasonably honest man in Haiti?
That's the bad part about having to go with the lesser of two evils. You're still left with an evil.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/13/2004 12:48:09 AM ||
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It's a pretty sad state of affairs in a Latin American country when Fidel Castro isn't interested in subverting your populus.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 11:44 Comments ||
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#6
Rendered Powerless means it time to pay a visit to Sears - 5 years ago my wife worked in tools and home and garden near Rocky Mount, NC. They sold a lot of generators during hurricane season.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 22:00 Comments ||
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#7
Letâs ship the Haitian government to Liberia and the Liberian "government" to Haiti. I bet it doesnât make a a bit of difference.
The Haitian fighters would look more chic in women's clothing...
On Monday morning militants fired at the complex of government buildings in Grozny with a grenade-launcher, the Chechen Presidentâs press service has reported. "The attack took place at 10.45 Moscow time. Unknown people fired twice with a underbarrel grenade-launcher at the complex of buildings of the republican government", the press service representative specified. According to him, two staffers of the Emergency Situations Ministry of Chechnya were hurt. They were hospitalized. "An operational group has now gone to the Karpinsky Burial Mound area whence the fire attack was presumably made. Measures to detain the militants are being taken", the press service official noted.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 12:28:19 AM ||
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Syria on Monday denied Israeli and US accusations that it supports âterrorismâ, stressing its commitment to a full and lasting peace with the neighbouring Jewish state. âSyria does not sponsor or back terrorism, but it does side with the Lebanese resistance seeking to liberate Lebanese territory from Israeli occupation,â the official daily Tishrin quoted Information Minister Ahmad al-Hassan as saying.
"See? They're really freedumb fighters!"
He pointed the finger at Israel for hampering the chances of peace.âItâs Israel which (rejected) a series of peace deals with the Palestinians, including the roadkillroadmap,â he said, referring to the US-backed initiative bogged down in stalemate.
The one Hamas wiped their collective heinie with...
âSyria is ready to restart the peace process (with Israel) based on the principle of full peace in exchange for land,â said Hassan. âSyria is committed to a just and complete peace based on Israelâs withdrawal from all land occupied in 1967 and the granting to Palestinians of their legitimate rights,â he added. During previous talks with former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, Basharâs father, then Israeli premier Ehud Barak agreed to an almost total withdrawal from the Golan Heights, save for a narrow strip of land bordering the eastern bank of the Sea of Galilee. But Damascus rejected the proposal, wanting the return of all of the strategic plateau Israel occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:26 ||
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I think all Hafez has to do is continue with this half-hearted masturbating nonsense for a few more years and he can kiss the Golan-Height goodby forever.
We wont buy the same used merchandize over and over again. Offer us something real or we soon annex the Golan Heights !
Posted by: The Dodo ||
01/13/2004 8:40 Comments ||
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#2
âSyria does not sponsor or back terrorism, but it does side with the Lebanese resistance seeking to liberate Lebanese territory from Israeli occupation,â the official daily Tishrin quoted Information Minister Ahmad al-Hassan as saying.
Interesting. What Lebanese territory is Israel occupying?
#3
âSyria does not sponsor or back terrorism, but it does side with the Lebanese resistance seeking to liberate Lebanese territory from Israeli occupation"
Israel withdrew from Lebanon, boys. Jobs done, it's Miller Mecca Kola time!
"...and the granting to Palestinians of their legitimate rights"
Deal-breaker right there. Sharon will never negotiate with Ass-ad over the Paleos. That's the big clue that this is a put-up job.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/13/2004 10:41 Comments ||
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#4
Bomb-a-rama,
That would be the Shaaba Farms. Funny thing is that the UN "sanctified" Israel's withdrawl from Lebanon as complete.
Posted by: Daniel King ||
01/13/2004 10:57 Comments ||
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#5
whats the bettings the lefty suckers will actually believe this crap that that Syria says.Bet the BBC and the Gaurdian over here will somehow twist this against the Israeli's and blame it on America. Syria needs wiping off the face of our Earth.
#6
That would be the Shaaba Farms. Funny thing is that the UN "sanctified" Israel's withdrawl from Lebanon as complete.
Precisely. And also, I seem to remember that quite a few official Lebanese and Syrian documents from many years back indicate that Shaaba Farms was Syrian, and not Lebanese territory.
Syria said on Monday an invitation by Israelâs president to President Bashar al-Assad to visit Jerusalem was not a serious response to Syriaâs recent calls to resume peace talks that broke down in 2000.
Why not? He publicly invited Bashar al-Asshat to come over and talk...
âWhat we need is a serious response, this is not a serious response,â Syriaâs Expatriates Minister Buthaina Shaaban told CNN. âA serious response is to say, âYes, we are interested in peace, we want to... resume negotiations where they stopped, with the co-sponsorship of the United States, as it was in Madrid.â That would be a serious response,â she said.
"I mean, just because we walked out of the last set of talks, that don't mean we shouldn't pick up where we left off. Does it?"
âThe only solution is to go back where we left off... This is the only way we can do it,â Shaaban insisted.
So don't come to Jerusalem. Then you won't have talks. And you still won't have the Golan Heights. Strange, how that works, isn't it?
âThe ball is really still in the Israeli court to respond seriously.â
You got a public invitation from their head of state to your head of state. Should he send his car to pick you up?
Suleiman Haddad, chairman of the foreign relations committee in the Syrian parliament, said that invitation by Israeli President Moshe Katsav is âevasive and problematic,â and could never lead to the resumption of the stalled peace talks.
What part about "come on over and we'll talk" is evasive and problematic? I guess I'm not subtle enough to see it...
The dismissive remarks by Haddad came hours after Katsav invited Syrian President Bashar Assad to come to Israel to talk peace. Haddad also denied the Syrian government had been involved in any secret negotiations with Israel.
He also denied he had black hair and a moustache, and that his name was Haddad...
Saying that Syria wants to resume peace talks with the Jewish state, Haddad told The Associated Press that âIsrael is fully aware that such proposals are evasive and problematic and could never lead to the hoped-for target, which is to restart negotiations from the point they had last reached.â Imad Fawzi Shueibi, a Syrian political analyst, called the Katsav invitation âan attempt to abort the Syrian peace initiative.â
"Words, y'see, don't really mean what they sound like they mean..."
âSyria is not begging for negotiations,â Shuebi said. âThis (invitation) is impossible and they (the Israelis) are fully aware that Syria would never respond to such proposals, which mean a natural end to the Syrian peace initiative.â
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:26 ||
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Looks like the syrians have adopted the paleo policy of never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
âA serious response is to say, âYes, we are interested in peace, we want to... resume negotiations where they stopped, with the co-sponsorship of the United States, as it was in Madrid.â That would be a serious response,â
Pfaaa! How dumb do they think the Israelis are? They had a good offer, they snubbed it, they now find they have no friends, have angered a giant and are looking around for a way out - with the same deal as before?
Look Assad, it's basically a sellers market, the price just got hiked ('cos you assed it up the last time) and the Israelis can take their ball home anytime they like.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
01/13/2004 2:26 Comments ||
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Good !
Baby Assad thinks he can fool everyone all the time ??
We know a dead duck when we see one.
I wonder what info about Syrian deals and treachery was revealed by Sadaam under interrogation to make Assad suddenly become such a peaceful character.
Assad, stop being such an Anal retentive asshole and start liberalizing your country and liquidating the terror bases in your country !
Then, maybe, just maybe we will start considering your "generous" offers.
And you better hurry at it before the Americans volunteer to do it for you.
Posted by: The Dodo ||
01/13/2004 8:34 Comments ||
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#4
As I wrote before, zion needs to be annihilated and the occupiers need to be settled in Uncle Sam's land.
#7
As we've all written many times before Faisal, "Palestine," Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia need to be annihilated. And it will happen. Keep writing on the message boards; it's all you've got.
#8
of for fuck sake not Faisal the fool again,go suck allah's cock Faisal you sick fuck nozzle.Just hope your freaky sick mates in Syria get nuked real soon,and you get turned into a plie of ash with them.Its only a matter of time mate.Best visit your reliteves and say your goodbyes.Have fun faisal you fool.
#9
Thanks, Faisal. I'm not even jewish, but each time you drop by, I'm feeling more and more zionist. My guess is that Israël will outlast some of the current "entities" (saudi entity, Alawite entity,...) in the ME. Why, it has already outlasted the saddamite entitiy.
#10
It's nice to see the rants of the drag queens on this board. Look at this lazy fuck Jon Shep, you need to move yr smelly ass out of the UK cuz i don't think the public supports you there. Crawford seems high on pot again. Coward crawford, you need some harmone therapy. And anonymous.... jewish people and zionists are two different things. So shut the fuck up. What a bunch of losers.
#11
Gee, Faisal, now you've hurt my widdle feewings. Unlike you I'm not making useless threats, I'm telling you the way it's going to be--every last one of those countries WILL be destroyed, whether you like it or not. Of course you exhibit sexual panic and try to make demands about who should be allowed to talk--I guess I would in your sad situation, too.
#13
oh faisal you peice of camel turd,if you'd like to see me out of the U.K then you best ride your bannana boat over here and try it.Me thinks you'll end up with a cross bow bolt nestled firmly in your small empty head.As i said earlier go and suck Allah's shrivlled little cock.As for me being a lazy fuck,i'm not the one who sits in his oversize sand pit jacking off over allah all day long. Start building your spider hole Faisal your gonna need it real soon.
1. The shitty Arab and Muslim countries you worship--Syria, Lebanon, "Palestine," Saudi, etc--will collapse or go the way of Iraq. That is the truth.
2. You cannot handle the truth well, so you say that Israel must be annihilated and its inhabitants resettled. That will not happen.
3. Then you exhibit all the sexual identity problems associated with questioning youths--that is, you call people "pussy," "drag queen," "woman," etc. We've all seen this many, many times.
4. Your posts don't change the facts. See points one and two.
5. We will continue to remind you of these points when you post your bullshit. Appeals to higher authority will be no more effective than your calls to destroy Israel.
#16
Dear Anonymous: I do not worship the arab and muslim countries. 2. If these countries collapse they will take zion with them. doesnt take too many nukes to take out zion does it? 3. I find more abusive language here strange that you reply to the ones that 'hurt' you in the wrong place eh. 4. My posts just tell you what will happen when these countries go down. They'll take the zion with them. See #2. 5. I'll also continue to remind you that stop acting as 'chosen ones'. Jon Shep seems like your zionist masters pay you on a per post basis. Unfortunately, i don't get paid for my posts.
#17
My posts just tell you what will happen when these countries go down. They'll take the zion with them.
Just like Iran says it will do--just like Iraq said it would do--just as Syria, Egypt, and the rest said they were going to do in 1948, 1968, and 1972 (don't these shitty and unstable regimes deny they have nuclear weapons?).
Don't you realize you're peddling the same yappy-dog nonsense that makes the Muslim world a laughingstock? We don't take you seriously--we have good reasons not to. Meanwhile, the sexual identity and jealousy issues you have can probably be worked out with therapy--perhaps your delusions will soon follow. Let's hope you can find the help you need.
#18
Oooh we've gone and hurt the impotent little f***wits feelings...er I mean mr. faisal's poor feelings. After all hes the true victim here ya know. Guess what you moron if you claim as zion the state of israel that means you claim everyone whos a jew is a zionist and you'd rather see them dead. Logic as I said seems to elude you. Lemme guess you're really 14 years old right? Right? I mean thats got to be the only excuse for being THIS idiotic.
Posted by: Val ||
01/13/2004 16:10 Comments ||
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#19
the occupiers need to be settled in Uncle Sam's land.
Oh why the hell not? The occupiers seem a far more productive bunch than all of their neighbours combined. I'd welcome them here.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/13/2004 16:19 Comments ||
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#20
Glad to see you back Faisal, I thought maybe you'd hurt your self while jumping to conclusions or that maybe you only trolled on Sunday.
At any rate they have a thread going on at Allah or Jesus that lacks your logic and wit. Hop right in there. The Imam can use your learned and sophisticated comments.
#21
Dammit Faisal! Stop bitching and get your ass over here... the dawgs are barking and ready to go hunting quail. You bring the liquor I got the dawgs, weapons and wagon. You need to get here before 8 the regular short bus will be here at 8:30.
#23
Anonymous + Val, please don't assume Faisal is young simply becasue he is stupid. Just because I'm under 18 does not make me ignorant. I think. Well, usually not.
Faisal is an idiot, and deserves to be treated as one. If he is young, well, then I apologize on behalf of all young people of the world for his lack of intelligence.
Posted by: S ||
01/13/2004 20:54 Comments ||
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#24
Shipman from where are you posting your rants?. I hope you went straight into hell lol. Shipman is dead. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3394811.stm
I'm not in uk but i think Jon Shep will be at your service if that's any consolation :-)
#25
OOooh Anonymous. I'm not a woman like you and I do not threaten at all. Read my post again. Brain dead moron i'm sure. A pussy behind a burqa.
Well, well in a somewhat belated comment I will now try to dissect faisal's miniscule psych and lay out the result's for the world to openly investigate:
1) My dear little "shrewed" faisal (I write your name with a non-capital F because I dont think you deserve a capital F in your name yet). Your use of Female characterization of your "enemies" as "Women" and "pussy" etc., is a morbid characteristic of your entire sick fanato-muslim culture. You think you can insult someone by calling him a Woman ??? Let me enlighten you, faisal my little forlorn lamb, there are many women that have more integrity, sense, and courage in their little finger than you have in your entire unwashed body. In fact your brave Iraqui army was vanquished by The US army in which many fighting women courageously serve and do combat duty.
By the way, I am not an American faisal, but I still think you owe ALL women (including your poor mother) some respect !!
2) As for your magnificent plan, my little faisal, for anihilation of ISRAEL ("Zion" in your retarded dialoge) I have some news for you. You will not be able to do anything about Israel. We are here to stay. Forever.
Your civilization, though, is in great danger (or maybe I should say- hope?) of being turned inside out, soon !
Your attempts to lay your hands on nukes will be your undoing. Iran and Syria are now on American
and (Oh, the horror of it all!!)Israeli crosshairs now.
I can assure you that if Rumsfeld and Bush are not through with you, we (the dreaded Elders of Zion residing in our land of Israel) will complete the job.
I predict that within two years the Iranian nuclear program will be devastated (what the hell, Gaddafi is giving his away now semi-voluntarily !- is he a "Woman" or "Pussy" as well ??? Give us a piece of your mind my little faisal, please).
3) In the event that some of your degenerate co-religionists succeed in planting a nuke in America or in Israel I can guarantee that most extremist Moslem countries will become decorated with interesting green-glowing craters(especially Mecca).
The difference between you and us is that we have the means and the resolve to do this.
So, Bye Bye little faisal troll, go to your bed and contemplate what I said here.
Dont forget to turn to Mecca when you pray, while it's still there!
Posted by: The Dodo ||
01/14/2004 3:24 Comments ||
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Israeli President Moshe Katsav invited his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad for peace talks Monday after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said an accord was only possible if Damascus stopped backing âterrorâ.
Head of state to head of state invitation...
âI invite President Assad to come to Jerusalem to seriously negotiate with Israeli leaders on the conditions of a peace accord,â Katsav said on Israeli public radio. âMr Assad will be welcome, but there should be no preconditions,â he added. Sharon said Sunday that he was ready to forge peace with the Syrians but only if they were prepared to show a willingness to bring an end to âterrorismâ.
That's because "terrorism" has been proven to "kill" people...
âIsrael is ready and willing to negotiate once Syria stops its help to terror,â he said, referring to Damascusâs backing for militant Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement. He added that âSyria has been under pressure since the end of the Iraq war ... Syria is suspected of affording cover to terrorism in Iraq and of cooperating with Iran on terrorismâ. Dalia Yitzik, a senior member of the opposition Labour party, hailed the invitation by Katsav as a âcounterbalance to the intransigence of Mr Sharon.â
Or maybe the good cop stepping in...
Fellow MP Zeehava Gal-On of the left-wing Meretz party also gave his backing to Katsav âwho has shown a very responsible attitude, in contrast to Mr Sharon who has turned down every opportunity to talk peace.â Katsav as state president has little formal power, but as a member of Sharonâs Likud party he is unlikely to have issued such an invitation without being given the nod of approval by the more hawkish prime minister.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:25 ||
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I invite President Assad to come to Jerusalem
No way doc's going to Jerusalem. Cyprus maybe.
Iranian reformists allied to President Muhammad Khatami have accused conservatives of making the country look despotic by barring thousands of liberal-minded candidates from a national election.
"It only looks that way, of course. Actually we're quite nice..."
"(The conservatives) are paving the way for enemies who want to show the Islamic Republic is a despotic state," said a statement from Khatami's pro-reform League of Combatant Clerics, carried by the official IRNA news agency on Monday. But senior officials said a compromise was possible over the bans by the Guardian Council, an unelected constitutional watchdog, as Washington demanded the Iranian government should ensure the 20 February parliamentary poll was free and fair.
That's why nobody pays attention to the reformists. Compromise is always possible to the League of Combatant Clerics...
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters, said he would intervene only if the conservatives and reformists reached an impasse. "If the issue goes beyond legal methods and gets to a sensitive point which demands Il Duce's the leader's decision, we will act based on our responsibility," Khamenei said on state radio. Reformists, who won control of parliament in a 2000 election for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution, are fighting for survival after the Guardian Council blocked thousands of Khatami's allies from running in next month's poll. All of Iran's provincial governors have joined senior parliamentarians and government members threatening to resign over the bans. About 100 reformist deputies spent a second night sleeping on carpets in parliament in a sit-in protest. "We will not let the desires of a few turn the will of the nation," said one demonstrating deputy, Ali Shakourirad.
Why not? You've been doing it this long...
The election is considered by many Iranians as a test of popular patience with what they see as a toothless reform movement. Many young people say they will abstain in protest at the lack of social and economic reforms. Leading reformists called on students, often in the vanguard of Iran's political struggles, to join the fight. "Forget it," said one young woman in Tehran. "They just care about their salaries."
When change finally does come, it won't be the Mensheviks that bring it about...
Only about half of the 8,200 aspiring candidates were approved to stand. Those disqualified include 80 members of the 290-seat parliament. Khatami and Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi are taking the case direct to the 12-member Guardian Council. Karroubi said he thought a deal could be struck and urged deputies to trust in the law. "Be careful not to foment tension," he said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:25 ||
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ANY place with a "Supreme Leader" is in bad shape.
#2
Khatami and Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi are taking the case direct to the 12-member Guardian Council.
For all the good that's gonna do. They might as well have "Tell us NO again" tattooed on their foreheads. Furthermore, Khatami is a member of the ruling class anyway, which just makes him Khamenei Lite.
Zahra Eshraghi, the granddaughter of Iranâs revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, has been barred from standing in next monthâs parliamentary elections, reformist sources told AFP Monday. Eshraghi, who is also married to reformist party leader Mohammad Reza Khatami, and is therefore a sister-in-law of President Mohammad Khatami, had registered to stand for a seat in the Majlis in Tehran. However the conservative-run Guardians Council ruled that she was guilty of ânon-respect for Islamâ, was âdisloyal to the constitution and Islamic republicâ and âunknownâ to prospective voters where she hoped to stand.
"Nope. Nope. She'd never do. Try somebody with a turban. And an automatic weapon."
The Guardians Council is a 12-member political oversight body that vets all legislation and also screens candidates for public office. On Sunday it sparked a major crisis when it emerged the body had disqualified massive numbers of reformers. The candidacy of Mohammad Reza Khatami, who heads the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), was also rejected.
"Nope. Nope. Simply won't do. Wrong color turban..."
Eshraghi, who is aged around 40 and holds a degree in philosophy, is well known for her modernist views and open support of the campaign for greater womenâs rights by Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi. Last October, she was among prominent reformers and activists who gathered at Tehranâs airport to greet Ebadi after the announcement the rights lawyer had won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:25 ||
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They say that an apple never falls far from the tree. In this case Grandad must have been a tree on a hill because both his grandkids appear to be views that are as liberal and progressive as you wil find in Shia society.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 14:15 Comments ||
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Federal forces have killed two Chechen terrorists in the Urus-Martan district, the headquarters of the Joint Group of Forces in the Northern Caucasus reported on Monday. Federal reconnaissance units located a camouflaged terrorist hideout near the village of Roshni-Chu last Sunday. "Terrorists fired automatic weapons at the federal troops," the headquarters representative reported. Two militants were killed in the skirmish and one was detained. Food supplies, military uniforms, a portable radio transmitter, a computer, a printer, stacks of writing paper and leaflets with threats aimed at regional government officials and Chechen law enforcement officers were found in the hideout.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:25 ||
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Participants in the seminar held in London on human rights called on the government of Libya to make fundamental change in its political life, and for the respecting public freedoms and human rights. The seminar, which was organized by the Libyan (Monitor) foundation for human rights, accused Tripoli of grave practices within an organized legal framework. The participants called on the Libyan government to open an investigation on the circumstances of the many killed Libyan prisoners in Abu Salim detention camp. The organization also expressed its concern over "the fate of other political prisoners, especially as many of them have been jailed for a decade without trial nor accusations," and called for their release. On the other hand, Seif al-Islam al-Qathafi, son the Libyan leader admitted the existence of human rights violations in his country during the past years. But he added that the human rights record in Libya started to greatly improve, in comparison to what it had been in the past.
Possibly because they couldn't get any worse...
Earlier, Libya had released several political prisoners, including Ahmad al-Zubeir Ahmad al-Sanousi, the oldest political prisoner in its jails. Amnesty International then said that al-Sanousi was detained for 31 years on charge of taking part in a coupe attempt in 1970.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/13/2004 00:25 ||
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Is "oldest political prisoner" recognized by Guiness?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/13/2004 11:39 Comments ||
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Humanitarian needs in Sudanâs war-torn region of Darfur are not being met primarily due to insecurity, according to humanitarian sources. "Only 15 percent of people are in areas that are accessible by the UN," said Ben Parker, the spokesman for the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan. "And even access to these continues to be hampered by difficulties obtaining travel permits." The Sudanese government said in a recent statement that "assistance to the needy is being rendered satisfactorily" in Darfur, but humanitarian workers say they are unable to operate.
"But we find that very satisfactory," interjected His Excellency...
In northern and western Darfur, insecurity is confining agencies to the two towns of Al-Fashir and Junaynah, while from southern Darfur they can access only limited areas beyond Nyala. The prolific supply of small arms in the region, increased banditry and militia activity had led to a "complete breakdown in law and order", commented one source. "Weâre in suspense. Weâre stuck and weâre frustrated. We have supplies, we have funding and staff, we have made arrangements with local partners, but we cannot move because itâs too dangerous," said Parker. "At the same time the needs are increasing."
Just wait a year or two. The needs will ebb gently away, along with the population...
Meanwhile, in Al-Fashir and Nyala, the UN Childrenâs Fund has reported that a growing number of displaced children are working in the markets as domestic labour, and possibly as prostitutes or beggars. Some cases of rape by soldiers have also been reported. Fighting between the army and Arab militias on one side and Darfurâs two main rebel groups on the other has escalated since the breakdown of peace talks in December. Militia attacks on villages have increased, burning them to the ground as well as killing, raping and kidnapping villagers. The Sudanese government has said it is "firm on fully bearing its responsibilities of protecting the lives and property of its citizens and relief workers in Darfur". But observers say it has so far failed to do so.
"Depends on which citizens you're talking about, doesn't it?"
About 700,000 farmers and their families have been pushed off their land since February by militias, who come from the regionâs nomadic tribes. Of these, 95,000 have fled to neighbouring Chad - about 1,000 per day last month - but even there they are frequently attacked by militias. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Chadian authorities say they are continuing to search for inland sites to relocate the refugees away from the insecure border, in the hope of deterring the frequent incursions. In a separate development, Tom Vraalsen, the UNâs Special Envoy for Sudan, is currently in Chad to advocate for a resumption of peace talks - which broke down in December amid recriminations on both sides - and a humanitarian ceasefire. Both rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, have said that the presence of international monitors - other than Chad which has been brokering them to date - is a precondition to ceasefire negotiations.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 12:24:09 AM ||
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More from the Food Pages of KCNA...
Viciavillosa has been widely cultivated for green manure in the Democratic Peopleâs Republic of Korea. Many co-operative farms of Pyongyang, Hwangju County of North Hwanghae Province and other parts of the country harvested 5-10 tons of sweet potatoes from a hectare of the fields fertilized with viciavillosa more than in ordinary fields. ...ordinary fields grow 0 tons of sweet potatoes. Good heroin, though.
It, with many nutritive elements including oil cellulose, is good protein fodder of domestic animals. Domestic animals I think means North Korean farmers.
Viciavillosa honey is popular for its peculiar taste and aroma. Oh, Iâll bet. Gimme some of that manure smelling honey willya, mamasan? Although sawdust is also popular for itâs taste. As is dirt and leaves...
The crop can be cultivated easily everywhere as it grows well and its sowing method is simple. Like...grass?
It, belonging to the pulse family, is sown in maize field as an aftercrop. It opens flowers in the second half of next May and its seeds ripen in late June. Canât wait for KCNAâs articles on the discovery of Soylent Green...
Posted by: tu3031 ||
01/13/2004 12:19:24 AM ||
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Viciavillosa, will it attract more flies (manure) or bees (honey).
Posted by: ed ||
01/13/2004 0:27 Comments ||
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Don't laugh... this is the same process that led to the oyster breakthrough.
#3
Ya know what they're bragging about here? The use of a bean plant as a nitrogen-fixer. The give-away is the fact that the plant "belongs to the pulse family".
American farmers have been doing this for at least fifty years, probably longer: Rotate a field between soybeans, corn, and (in my area) tobacco, and the soybeans replenish the soil-bound nitrogen needed by the other crops.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/13/2004 8:22 Comments ||
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Not only was this done in America for the past fifty years, but worldwide since the Neolithic era. Take a field, rotate it between main crop, legume, and nothing (field fallow, used for grazing, produces manure). In the 17th century, they started using clover instead of legumes, I believe.
"Green Manure" refers to that rotation. It's been known to replenish the soil for at least 3000 years.
Ethiopian police have launched investigations to trace the governor of Gambella region. Okelo Okuaye disappeared on Friday with his bodyguards, the regionâs police commissioner Kongo Lule said. Gambella region was the scene of bitter clashes between ethnic Agnwak and Nuer last December in which at least 57 people were killed. Opposition sources say Mr Okuaye has fled to Sudan after a row with a government official over how many people died in the clashes and who was responsible.
Y'think he might be involved?
But a government spokesman told the BBCâs Mohammed Adow in Ethiopia, that Mr Okuaye had no reservations about the official figures. Our correspondent says that although up to 5,000 Ethiopian troops have helped restore calm, tensions remain high in the region, where many different ethnic groups compete for land. The violence was sparked by an attack on a United Nations vehicle in early December. Eight people in the vehicle, including three government refugee workers were killed. Their bodies were said to be badly mutilated. A radical Agnwak group was blamed for the attack, which occurred as the government officials travelled to Odier, a proposed new camp for Nuer and Dinka refugees from Sudan. The reprisals that followed against the alleged perpetrators were ferocious. Hundreds of homes were burnt down and the killings continued for several days.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 12:16:52 AM ||
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Since a spate of ethnic killing occurred last month in the Gambella region of western Ethiopia, about 15,000 members of the Anyuak community have fled to neighbouring Sudan, according to humanitarian sources.
The situation must be really crummy if they're going to Sudan. I guess it's a marginally better choice than Somalia, though...
Between 100 and 300 Sudanese and Ethiopian Anyuak were arriving every day in Pachala County in the Upper Nile region of southern Sudan, Myron Jesperson, the director of World Relief, told IRIN. Most of the arrivals were in Pachala town, with others scattered throughout the county, he said. Many of the arrivals were camped at a local school and church, and were dependent on either purchased or hunted food, said Jesperson. With little surplus food available from the last harvest, food assistance would most likely be required in Pachala for between eight and 10 months, he added. "Theyâre not in a desperate condition, but the question is what is going to happen to them long-term," said Jesperson. If the refugees stay in Pachala, it will result in a 30 percent to 50 percent increase in the countyâs population, according to World Relief.
Violence in the Gambella region erupted in December when the Anyuak were blamed for an attack on a UN-plated vehicle carrying government officials to Odier, a proposed site for a camp for Dinka and Nuer Sudanese refugees. Eight people in the vehicle were killed and badly mutilated, including three government refugee workers. The Odier camp was supposed to be a neutral haven for the Sudanese refugees who were to be transferred from another camp, Fugnido, where earlier clashes pitted Anyuaks against Nuers and Dinkas. Local sources told IRIN the attack had sent a clear message to the authorities: that the proposed refugee camp site was on Anyuak land, which they were not prepared to give up to the Sudanese. Reprisals against the alleged attackers saw hundreds of Anyuak homes burned to the ground and dozens - some say hundreds - killed over a number of days. Over 5,000 Ethiopian troops helped to restore calm to the area, which has abundant natural resources, but tensions have since remained high.
A local humanitarian source told IRIN: "They [the Anyuak] are afraid because no-one is protecting them. They are afraid they will be killed or arrested." The advocacy group Genocide Watch said many of those targeted had been educated Anyuak men. Over 240 Anyuak leaders were being held in jail without trial, it said, with nine more arrested last week. Competition over land between the Anyuak, who make up 27 percent of the population, and the Nuer, who make up 40 percent, is fierce. The Anyuak see themselves as losing land to the nomadic Nuer, whose numbers are steadily rising. The Ethiopian governmentâs decentralisation policy of distributing power along ethnic lines in local government has exacerbated the problem, say regional analysts, because the Anyuak fear their power base is being eroded. There are currently five refugee camps on the Ethiopian side of the border, which are home to 87,000 Sudanese refugees. A spokesman for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mahary Maasho, said it remained to be seen whether or not the Odier camp would be established.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 12:15:02 AM ||
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More than half of U.N. members have yet to report on their efforts to crack down on the al Qaeda network, as required by the Security Council in September 2001, a council diplomat said on Monday. To date, just 93 of the United Nationsâ 191 member-states have filed reports with the Security Council committee charged with monitoring U.N. sanctions on al Qaeda and Afghanistanâs former Taliban rulers, said Chilean Ambassador Heraldo Munoz, the committeeâs chairman.
The council plans to adopt a resolution on Friday that would put more pressure on noncomplying countries and also tighten the sanctions and facilitate international cooperation in battling terrorism, Munoz told reporters. A resolution approved by the council soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States requires all U.N. members to freeze the assets of any individual or group suspected of ties to al Qaeda or the Taliban. The resolution also orders governments to block suspectsâ movements and bar them from obtaining arms, funds or other resources. Munozâs committee compiles the official lists of suspected groups and individuals, based on information submitted by governments. "International terrorism sponsored by al Qaeda and those associated with this network continue to pose one of the greatest threats to international peace and security. As such, it must be combated by all means, both at national and international levels," Munoz told the Security Council.
U.S. envoy Stuart Holliday urged the committee to work more effectively by focusing more on money moving through informal banking systems and suspect charities. He also called for a crack-down on those governments not meeting the U.N. reporting requirements. "Unwilling states, if any, that lack sufficient political will to address the al Qaeda threat must first be encouraged — and, if necessary, later pressured — to do more," he said. "We, the Security Council, would be negligent in our duties if we were to allow any weak links to undermine our shared counter-terrorism objectives. Al Qaeda surely would exploit them."
Algeriaâs U.N. ambassador, Abdallah Baali, called on the council committee to release the names of those countries that had failed to file their reports, along with their reasons. Baali also expressed surprise that the committeeâs official list named just 371 groups and individuals suspected of links to al Qaeda or the Taliban. He blamed governments that hesitated to share their intelligence findings or refused to acknowledge that al Qaeda affiliates might be operating within their borders.
French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere called for a one-year time limit on the new sanctions regime to be voted on Friday, so the sanctions could be reviewed annually. While Paris has argued for the past several years that all U.N. sanctions should have expiration dates, Washington wants the al Qaeda sanctions to remain in place until the council decides to abolish them.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/13/2004 12:02:53 AM ||
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man, what happens if we decide to enforce that vote?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
