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Libya Ratifies Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
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Transparent Move
Pop quiz: You’re in charge of protecting the national security of the United States. There’s a pivotal country--let’s call it Badistan--that plays a crucial role in advancing American interests. But elements within that country--including some who work for the government--are abetting actors that virulently oppose America. The leader of this government has pledged to cooperate with the United States, but the two attempts on his life over the past month suggest his domestic position is precarious.

What approach do you take to Badistan?
A) Directly pressure Badistan’s leader into cracking down on anti-U.S. elements
B) Indirectly pressure the leader by allying more closely with the country’s rivals
C) Provide support for the government in power and hope for the best
D) Combine the carrots and sticks as best as possible
E) Push for democratization
F) Invade the country
G) Invade Iraq again
I know the answer isn’t (G). Current force deployments render (F) a non-starter. (C) is not so much a policy as an admission you don’t have one. And the results from pursuing (A), (B), and (D)--some combination of which we already employ--are far from perfect. Crazy as it may sound, it may be time to give democratization another chance.

Dealing with strategically located, non-democratic countries ruled by vulnerable elites-- countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia--has always been a complicated chore. When advocating democratization and/or human rights, U.S. policy--regardless of party--has been to treat these countries as too important to pressure into liberalizing, or the results of liberalization too volatile to tolerate. The problem is that weak, unelected leaders are tough to bully in international negotiations. More than 40 years ago, Thomas Schelling pointed out that, "in bargaining, weakness is often strength." Fifteen years ago, Robert Putnam demonstrated that leaders with domestic constraints on their bargaining position have an advantage in international negotiations. The reason is that, in a game of chicken, leaders with restive domestic opponents can act like they’ve thrown the steering wheel out the window: They can always claim that, even if they want to accommodate U.S. pressure, they have little choice in the matter since accommodation would collapse their regime. At times they may even be telling the truth.

At first glance, pushing democratization would seem to be the absolute worst policy option in a situation like this--particularly in light of the current state of Muslim public opinion toward the United States. Encouraging these countries to implement greater democratic representation would seem to empower the very elements of society with the greatest enmity toward the United States. So why would any American ever want Islamic extremists to control either nuclear weapons or the world’s largest petroleum reserves just because they happen to be democratically elected?

Well, no American would. But, at present, there’s no way to know how politically popular Islamic extremists are in these countries. Weak authoritarian leaders always have an incentive to say that they face restive populations--because there’s no metric to confirm it. A key advantage of democracy, by contrast, is transparency. Compare Saudi Arabia with Pakistan. Although neither could be categorized as democratic, the latter does boast a more open society, a recent familiarity with the concept of democracy, and more institutions that could be properly labeled as upholding the rule of law. As such, it’s been easier to detect the weakness of Pakistan’s leadership than Saudi Arabia’s. For example, an early barometer of Musharraf’s political strength was the strong electoral performance of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party, which won regional elections in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province in late 2002. Those election results, as much as the assassination attempts, made clear that Musharraf was in a weak internal position. (Though Musharraf’s unwillingness to work with secular parties could overstate this weakness.)

As for Saudi Arabia, there we’re still dependent on traditional analyses of palace intrigue. A recent example is Michael Doran’s cogent examination of the "murky depths of Saudi Arabia’s domestic politics" in Foreign Affairs. Doran’s thesis--that there’s an ongoing struggle for power between reformers and traditionalists within the Saudi government--makes sense. But the essay is ambiguous about the power of each faction. With some element of democracy, on the other hand, it would at least be possible to gauge the relative strength of the threats to American interests. More important, perhaps, a policy of aggressively supporting democratization would bring greater consistency to U.S. foreign policy. As Samantha Power pointed out recently in The New York Times: "We have ’official enemies’--those whose police abuses, arms shipments and electoral thefts we eagerly expose (Zimbabwe, Burma, North Korea, Iran). But the sins of our allies in the war on terror (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan) are met with ’intentional ignorance.’" A more consistent policy on this front would give the United States greater credibility in advocating democratic values. And there’s also a tactical advantage--greater credibility leads to more resolute and believable bargaining positions.

The $64,000 question, of course, is what would happen if democratization led to extremist rule. This is undeniably a scary prospect. Still, the case of Iran, whose leadership seems increasingly out of step with its younger, pro-American generations, suggests that radical elements will experience difficulties retaining popular support over the longer run. Likewise, Hugo Chavez’s attempts to pursue dogmatically anti-American policies in Venezuela have been met with increasing opposition. Anti-American jihads are of limited utility if they fail to deliver the goods. And, in any case, none of this is to suggest that democratization should be the sole instrument of American foreign policy. Some mixture of carrots and sticks will always be the de facto position of the U.S. government. The question is whether, over the long term, this approach has any chance of succeeding unless democratization becomes a part of the policy mix. Increasingly, the answer to that question appears to be no.

Some people believe in democracy, some people sacrifice goats to the Great and Powerful Zool. For myself, I believe that a workable democratic system is dependant upon individual liberty, which doesn't necessarily grow out of a putatively democratic system. Democracy comes as a result of liberty, rather than leading to it. A democratic system gave Venezuela their latest would-be dictator. Perv is demonstrably to be preferred over the "democratically" elected MMA big bellies. That's because he's shifty and Byzantine, but they're nuts. Putin, with his own healthy skepticism about the utility of democracy, is to be preferred over Zhirinovsky, who's a nut. The Russians had "democracy" under Yeltsin, yet it led to large-scale corruption and looting by commies who grew to adulthood with a description of captitalists as heartless plutocrats; when they became non-commies, they became what they were told capitalists are.

I've made the point before that we use "democracy" as shorthand for individual liberty, and that it's a bad habit. The two aren't necessarily one and the same. The state must retain the right to defend itself against elements that try to destroy it. That's inconvenient in the case of regimes we'd like to see destroyed, for instance the Soddy princelings. But it's just as essential for liberal states. Nigeria, for instance, has a democratic system, but it just put down a mini-rebellion by a local "Taliban." It's in Nigeria's interest as a state to dismantle the structure of shariah-based separatism they've allowed to grow in their Muslim-dominated regions. But if one of the base premises of the government was individual liberty — "your rights stop where mine begin" — then shariah wouldn't be able to take hold. The imams wouldn't have the right to impose themselves on their neighbors, not even their Muslim neighbors.

In the same vein, Bangladesh, another putatively democratic country, is banning Ahmadiyya books preparatory to carrying out a large-scale pogrom against them. In a state based on liberty that couldn't possibly happen; the right of the Ahmadiyyas to practice their religion, regardless of what the rest of the country thought of it, would remain sacrosanct. What we should really, truly be pushing isn't so much democracy as the Bill of Rights. I can't think of another framework, despite the amount of time we spend arguing over its status as a "living document", that affords as much protection to the individual.
Posted by: tipper || 01/14/2004 9:36:04 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Cut to the chase...

A modern democracy is depedent upon a modern Republic Of Laws, where the rights of the individual, not groups nor government, are (supposedly, mainly when the Dems are out of power) held as the highest good.

Remember - the US is not a Democracy, it is, as Ben Franklin said "A Republic, if we can keep it".
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/14/2004 15:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Right. Regular folks in the countries described above would prefer their countries political, economic, and social systems based on the rule of law. Today. Democracy in the elective/parliamentary system can come later. The way Hong Kong was run by the Brits for several generations is a good example. No democracy in the pure sense there, but individuals and businesses there knew that they could take grievances before an independent judiciary, at least. If only we could see development in countries like Badistan similar to that of colonial Hong Kong, I think the majority of citizens would be satisfied.
Posted by: Michael || 01/14/2004 15:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Wolfowitz is often a proponent of encouraging democracy in countries that are ruled by despots. The Philipines islands under Marcos are an example of a country that Wolfowotz defines as ready for democracy.

Zimbabwe and the current domino effect going on in South America are examples of how a democratization policy can run amok. Chaos often results when democracy is implemented in societies that lack underlying cultural respect for property rights. In these countries the populus will tend to vote into office whichever candidates espouse the most socialist redistribution of property. Over time the result is that capital flees these countries, an effect which increases poverty in locations that are often richer in resources than more prosperous nations. Corruption at all levels accelerates disaster by siphoning off any positive results of the remaining economic activity. This negative economic deevolution is like watching a slow-motion train wreck.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 21:42 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Hapless president stuck in the middle as two wives go to war
A bit of humour to brighten the day
Kenya has become transfixed by a bedroom farce engulfing President Mwai Kibaki’s family. The septuagenarian president has been revealed as having two wives, and the two women have been engaged in a very public spat.
Polygamy is every man's dream, every man's nightmore...
A New Year’s Eve party attended by many dignitaries broke up in chaos after the First Lady became engaged in a shouting match with the vice-president. A few days later she forced her husband to sack his right-hand man. Political pundits say the scandal has done what could be irredeemable damage to the administration just a year after its landslide election victory. Last month the press revealed that, as well as being married to Lucy Kibaki, the president had a second wife, Mary Wambui, and another daughter, Winnie.
"And she has another husband. And he has another wife. And they have a child. And that child, John, is... ummm... me."
Afterwards, both women were seen at state functions, usually on alternate days, but it swiftly became apparent that this seemingly cosy menage belied hidden tensions.
"Grrr... Brazen hussy!"
"Social climber!"
"Slut!"
Matters came to a head at a New Year’s Eve state dinner attended by Lucy. Moody Awori, the doddery but amiable vice-president, turned towards her and proposed a toast to "the Second Lady". Mrs Kibaki was not amused at what Mr Awori insisted was a "slip of the tongue". Her husband and his aides tried to mollify her as the vice-president launched into a long-winded apology, but the First Lady had the bit between her teeth. She flounced out and refused to attend the night’s main festivities.
"I'll be in my room! And you won't!"
It was all reminiscent of a New Year function in 1976 when Daniel arap Moi, then vice-president, tried to persuade his wife to dance with Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first head of state. She refused and so Mr Moi divorced her, assuming the presidency as a single man two years later.
"You gotta dance with Jomo! He's a national hero!"
"He smells funny!"
"Then get the hell out!"
That scandal was suppressed - but not this one. A statement, purportedly written by the First Lady but bearing the name of her husband, was released last week insisting that Mr Kibaki had one wife - Lucy. "Kindly refrain from making references about any other purported member of my immediate family," the statement added. In earlier times such words would have been an ominous warning to the press. No longer. Television bulletins gave blanket coverage to the saga. It was revealed that Mr Kibaki had even paid a dowry of several goats and cows to secure the hand of Kenya’s "Second Lady".
"Honey, do you love me?"
"You know I do, Snookums!"
"How much do you love me?"
"Several goats and cows, at least, my Dove!"
There is serious concern at Lucy Kibaki’s perceived meddling in politics. At her insistence the president’s chief aide, Matere Keriri, was sent on indefinite leave. The two had clashed over the president’s diary and Mr Keriri was also seen as an ally of the First Lady’s arch-rival. Many people are appalled, less by the news that the president has two wives - which is legal in Kenya - than by the sense that he cannot seem to control either of them. In a society where many still believe that a woman has her place, the president’s competence and, more importantly, his virility have been called into question. An article in the Kenya Times read: "The recent happenings in Mombasa convinced many of us Kenyans that President Kibaki may be too weak physically, mentally, psychologically and even as head of his own family to provide effective and sound leadership." A columnist on the East African Standard took a similar line, asking: "Who is in control at State house?"
Ummm... He hasn't told them about Trixie?... Never mind.
Mr Kibaki is clearly in awe of his first wife. Diplomatic sources say she has a reputation for using physical strength to settle arguments, not just with her husband but also with cabinet ministers.
"Honey, please let go of Mr. Minister of Defense's testicle!"
Among the population there is a sense that things must change. "If Kibaki cannot control his wife, how can he run this country?" a cobbler asked. "No-one will ever vote for him again. He is finished unless he divorces her and sends her to a hut up-country to look after his chickens."
"Yeah! Beat it, Toots!... Hey! Put that down!... No! Don't throw [CRASH!] that."
But it is unlikely the president can do without his wife. A stroke last year has led to memory lapses and generally poor health. Mrs Kibaki nurses him physically and assists him in periods of befuddlement, often offering him the impartial advice he rarely gets from his ethnically motivated kitchen cabinet.
Posted by: tipper || 01/14/2004 8:13:45 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Europeans Lag Behind Progress - AGAIN
The news story is a few days old, but the conference took place yesterday.
Farmers around the world planted biotech crops at a double-digit pace in 2003, the seventh consecutive year of growth for the technology, according to the annual report on biotech crop acreage from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).
Except guess where?
During a Web cast and teleconference at 10 a.m. EST, Jan. 13, Clive James, chairman and founder of ISAAA, and Randy Hautea, global coordinator and director of the organization’s Southeast Asia Center, will release the complete findings of the report detailing continued global adoption of biotech crops by farmers in developing and industrial countries.
Guess that means Western Europe is neither developing nor industrial. Too bad.
The report says that biotech crops were grown in 18 countries in 2003, up from 16 in 2002, with the addition of Brazil and the Philippines. It will provide a provisional estimate of acreage planted to biotech soybeans in Brazil, the world’s second largest soybean producer. The report also will assess the future growth of the technology.
Without the Euros, of course. It’s just as well; they’d regulate it to death.
As new traits in maize and cotton are brought to market and more countries approve biotech crops, adoption is expected to continue with the global market value predicted to reach $5 billion or more by 2005.
NONE of which will go to the Zeropeans, who still think of the GM foods we already eat as "Frankenfood." BWHAHAHAHAHAH
With an international network of centers in the Philippines, Kenya and the United States, ISAAA is a not-for-profit organization committed to alleviating hunger and poverty by sharing crop biotechnology applications with resource-poor subsistence farmers throughout the developing world.
Which the "compassionate," "caring," "civilized" Euros mightily disapprove of.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut bskolaut@hotmail.com || 01/14/2004 1:41:38 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let's just hope this biotech stuff doesn't bite us in the ass later on. To be completely honest, I have zero confidence in the food-growing/producing industry. More crap being produced at a faster pace isn't necessarily a good thing. The last thing we need now is Mad Maize Disease. We already get healthy doses of hormones, anti-biotics and other wonderful stuff in our meat, vegetables, and farmed fish.
Posted by: Rafael || 01/14/2004 14:16 Comments || Top||

#2  The only safe things are to grow your own using distilled water, not (acid)rain water, or to import your food from France where they still grow their food using time honored 12th century techniques.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 01/14/2004 14:37 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll take 12th cent. over modern, thank you very much. Go to eastern Europe to see how food should really taste (but do it quick before they get spoiled by the EU).
Posted by: Rafael || 01/14/2004 14:41 Comments || Top||

#4  I think I'm firmly with Rafael. Actually I'm not so much worried about possible health hazards the consumption of biotech food may pose, but I want a clear choice. I don't want it forced down my throat because of unclear labeling (or in the case of processed food lack of labeling). I don't want the farmer, who sticks to his traditional growing methods, to have his fields "contaminated" by flying seeds from biotech fields and then - yes it has happened already - to be sued for "growing biotech food without a (paying) license.

And that thing about Europe obstructing Africa's need to feed it's people is a red herring, sorry. The African farmers will have to BUY their seeds every year, they are not even allowed to use the seeds from their harvest due to licensing contracts.

12th century? I tell you something. Say about France what you like but go to a farmer's market there and taste the products. Yes they actually TASTE of something. I had delicious biologically grown Sicilian tomatos today and they really tasted like wonderful tomatos. The Belgian/Dutch greenhouse crap you get in the supermarkets looks good but just tastes of water. And I don't see it as a progress if new biotech tomatos will look good for 2 months while vitamins and taste are zero.

Too much big business for Monsanto and others, litle value for me. Unfortunately, once again, we won't have much choice in the future.
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/14/2004 15:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Regarding #4 I understand and agree with your opinion on tasteless food. But what does that have to do with whether the food is GM? I'm sure that the "Belgian/Dutch greenhouse crap" is not GM. Most people I know who buy "organic" do so fo rthe better taste. Since one of the real benefits of GM foods is a reduction in the fertilizers and pesticides, I actually think that there could be a net improvement in taste.
Posted by: Simon || 01/14/2004 15:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Oh my god, Martha! It's FRANKENCOTTON!!
Posted by: mojo || 01/14/2004 15:52 Comments || Top||

#7  Simon, the Belgian/Dutch food is not GM yet, but it's already bad enough. GM food will not make it better. When you buy a GM tomato you won't know whether it was harvested 2 days or 2 months ago.

Canadian studies have showed "that yields were found to be lower because contamination was wider than predicted, herbicide use was not reduced, and often had to be increased, and volunteers were much more difficult to deal with than expected. There were no gains to consumers that might have balanced the losses to the farming producers. And the environmental impacts, assumed to be benign on the specious principle that GM crops were "substantially equivalent'' to non-GM varieties, turned out to be seriously adverse. There was damage to wildlife, new superweeds were generated and ecosystems that support insects and birds were destroyed." (MIchael Meacher, former UK minister for the Environment).

The thing is, once GM food is out, there is no way to put it back into Pandora's box if things mess up. And what's the benefit for consumers? Cheaper food? No, just non GM and biofood will be more expensive because it will be expensive to protect it from GM seeds.
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/14/2004 15:54 Comments || Top||

#8  When you buy a GM tomato you won't know whether it was harvested 2 days or 2 months ago.

Well, that's true if you're a moron.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/14/2004 16:04 Comments || Top||

#9  No, because it will look the same.
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/14/2004 16:13 Comments || Top||

#10  TGA, no tomato will last two months without a lot of expensive storage (like a 97%N2/3%O2 atmosphere at 55F -- which only gets you to six weeks, not eight). The GM extended-shelf-life varieties are being developed so the tomatoes can be picked ripe (instead of green) and still make it to market.

The reason so many commercial tomatoes taste bland is that they're picked while they're still green and allowed to redden in-transit. If you had a tomato that lasted longer once it was ripe, the flavor would be improved immensely.

I really don't get the European religious aversion to GM foods. You guys are seriously whacked out on that. I especially love Europe being so against GM foods they're willing to see Africans starve to make the point -- such dedication!
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/14/2004 16:40 Comments || Top||

#11  TGA, I understand you to have two problems with the Genetically Modified (GM) foods: the quality of the food must suffer as a result of the modifications being made, and an aversion to introducing new strains of a food into the food supply. On the first, one of the benefits of GM foods versus breeding programs is that greater control can be exerted over the desirable traits, and undesirable traits can be excluded. If customers want longer shelf life at the expense of taste, that can be done. But there is no reason that the desirable traits of taste have to be lost in order to gain other desirable traits. As to the second, well, I understand your apprehension. More reading of exactly what is involved in the creation and testing of these crops may allay your concerns. My point is that this type of development actually gives more control over the end-product than other forms of food modification. Please don't reject the entire process over fear of what may theoretically happen. It is better to embrace and regulate this technology, in my opinion.
Posted by: Simon || 01/14/2004 16:53 Comments || Top||

#12  Robert, the "EU starving Africa" argument is loathsome (It is one I really hold against president Bush).

The reasons why Africa is starving (apart from droughts and pour soil) are US and EU subsidies for their own farmers (in that sense we ARE guilty), African farmer's lack of access to basic infrastructure such as irrigation and transport, as well as cheap credit with which to buy seeds etc. PLUS the ruining of once healthy agriculture by communist dictators (Zimbabwe was Africa's bread basket without GM).

GM seeds must be bought each season or royalties paid if they are kept from one harvest to the next. This then gives the corporations the ability to control seed markets. For example, 91 percent of GM seeds grown in 2001 came from Monsanto. Global agricultural production is in this way being increasingly dominated by a few major corporations. GM crops have been developed for large-scale commercial systems of production that are rare in Africa where small farmers still predominate, who cannot afford the fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides or irrigation that these crops need.

And Europe simply doesn't need GM. We have way too much food already. What we need is better , healthier quality. GM is not going to give us that. What it will give us over the next decades is "patented food", royalties to pay for it whether we wanted to use it or not in the first place.
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/14/2004 17:09 Comments || Top||

#13  Robert, the "EU starving Africa" argument is loathsome (It is one I really hold against president Bush).

It is, however, accurate. African nations refused shipments of US grain because, had they accepted it, Europe would have stopped buying anything from those African nations for fear of getting American cooties.

GM seeds must be bought each season or royalties paid if they are kept from one harvest to the next.

This is false. You're applying policies used with GM seeds developed for First-World markets and assuming they're used for all markets. For example, Monsanto (or MONSATAN?) has agreed to license their patents that are involved in producing golden rice for free.

And for that matter, there's nothing about GM that makes it unique in licensing; hybrids can be subject to the same patenting and licensing. Do you have the same issue with hybrids?

What we need is better , healthier quality. GM is not going to give us that.

Well, not if you blindly refuse to consider them.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/14/2004 18:07 Comments || Top||

#14  The EU has made it very clear that this would NOT happen. It was just a (Zambian) fear because Europeans don't like GM food. The Daily Telegraph reported that there was a deep suspicion of America's apparent altruism in dispatching free maize to Africa. GM maize is thought to be fed mainly to animals in America, and some believe that the next stage in the experiment is to feed it to Africans.
Now I won't get into details but what tells you that Monsanto's Third World Policy won't change AFTER GM food is grown evderywhere. People fear that they are accepting a Trojan Horse. But I would agree that the matter is more complicated, yet the argument that Europe "starving" Africa is preposterous and hypocritical. Check out the aid the EU countries give to Africa and compare it with U.S. aid.

Btw, I don't "blindly refuse" GM. What I want is clear labeling, protection of those farmers who don't want it, my liberty to chose. I know very well that GM will make its way into Europe very soon, but I want to have a say on the conditions it does so.

And no, I don't want my grand children to pay royalties to a couple of large companies, if they want to plant tomatos or potatos and GM food has extinguished (or at least) contaminated the non GM varieties beyond recognition. At least in Europe it will be impossible to keep GM fields apart from non GM fields.
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/14/2004 18:43 Comments || Top||

#15  TGA, growing up in the San Joaquin Valley (probably one of the lushest and most bountiful agri areas in the world) I can tell you that GM foods are the only way to meet world population demands. Tomatos, potatoes and various plants have been genetically modified for centuries just take a look at the sweet potato and the yam's history. Is quality control constantly needed though? Yep and you can be damn sure that even now the FDA does take extreme measures to watch it. There was an incident early last year I remember reading about, apparently some GM feed corn for pigs was found mixed with the leftovers of harvesting of a GM corn harvest meant for humans (the difference between the two corn types was a vaccine type meant for pigs to reduce their chance of certain infections). Although the feed corn was deemed harmless by researchers roughly 200 tons of corn from that harvest and a few others were confiscated and destroyed just because no one wanted to take a chance.

As far as licensing concerns go, thats a legitmate concern, IF you were doing agribusiness. Think about it a second will ya? What if you found a couple of strains of rice (such as the one recently developed by Carnegie Mellon) to grow without water for several months in regions like Afghanistan or even Iraq and can produce yields of 3-4 tons per acre? Assuming that same rice yields a mill rate of 50% at least of head rice thats extremely competitive with agribusinesses then, combine that with low labor costs in some third world countries and govt subsidies (or worse enforced labor for agriculture) and what do ya get? Competition you cant fight. The best way to look at is like what China is experiencing right now with digital media piracy. How the heck do you manage to enforce certain patents and licenses when its so widespread? Mind you the rice isn't the best example, but it is still a legit concern, the only way you get around is for the businesses themselves to officially waive licenses for certain countries for a period of time (they after all dont want it to come back and bite them in their asses).
Posted by: Val || 01/14/2004 20:55 Comments || Top||


New Uniforms for Soldiers in Iraq !
via Instapundit - you gotta see this picture !
Posted by: Anonnonon || 01/14/2004 12:36:02 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lucky for that Soldier it's a PhotoShop job, but I love it.
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 13:18 Comments || Top||


Dem Advertisment
Whats wrong with these people. Why all the pussy-footing and weasling around.
Can’t they say what they really mean?
Posted by: tipper || 01/14/2004 8:58:08 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Always keep in mind how "tolerant" these assclowns claim to be.
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 01/14/2004 9:05 Comments || Top||

#2  That should help firm up GWs base. Didja notice the producer's name: Mark Spittle?
And we used to think Harry Truman used foul language.
Posted by: Gasse Katze || 01/14/2004 9:34 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder how much longer we're going to have to listen to nonsense about how today's Bush-haters are allegedly no worse than the Clinton-haters of the 90's. Jeez, that advertisement's foul...
Posted by: Dave D. || 01/14/2004 10:25 Comments || Top||

#4  The ad I would make would correctly portray The Democrats as traitors and pedophiles.......communist cowards!
Posted by: gawdamman || 01/14/2004 11:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Being objective for a moment, as someone with a marketing background, this ad is sucessful in that it is tailored to the MTV /beer commercial attention span where shock value is at a premium. It could get a few laughs in some demographics. I will even go so far as to say it is more of a "get out and vote" message than a "Hate Bush" message.
The question is will anybody remember the ad after the bong hits wear off???
Posted by: Capsu78 || 01/14/2004 12:53 Comments || Top||

#6  The funniest thing is that all of shots of Bush look great! There's not an unflattering photo in the lot.
Posted by: Norman Rogers || 01/14/2004 17:00 Comments || Top||


Ice delays talk on warming
Yeah, tell me about Global Warming. Current temperature in Boston: 4, Wind Chill: -15...
Government agencies and nonprofit groups throughout Oregon have canceled meetings over the past week because of snow, ice and freezing rain. However, an e-mail notice postponing an event scheduled Thursday night in Portland inadvertently was humorous.
How humorous was it, Johnny?
“Due to inclement weather and massive amounts of ice everywhere, tonight’s Healthy Environment Forum on Global Warming with Dr. Patz has been postponed,” wrote Sarah Doll of the Oregon Environmental Council in an e-mail sent to reporters.“We will announce a new date soon,” she wrote.“Sorry for any inconvenience and hope you are staying warm.”
We’ve got no choice, lady, because of the Global Warming! Don’t you read the papers?
Dr. Jonathan Patz, of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, had been scheduled to discuss global warming and the possible link to the West Nile Virus, SARS and other diseases at the Multnomah Athletic Club.
What about AIDS? Has he figured out a way to tie that into his little spiel? That’s always good for the fundraising.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/14/2004 12:17:20 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just can't stop the end of the Ice Age but with enough cash a guy can create a tenured kingdom.
Posted by: Lucky || 01/14/2004 0:54 Comments || Top||

#2  I am convinced that a certain portion of the general population is always anticipating disaster, while a certain portion of the academic/nonprofit group population is always poised to feed off their fears. It's the old "snake oil salesman" or "patent medicine" routine. For every anxious dope there's a scammer eager to speak authoritatively and profit by it.
Posted by: Tom || 01/14/2004 8:12 Comments || Top||

#3  The way to stop Global Warming is to cut off all the funding to university professors for research into the possibility of global warming. This is nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophecy that continues to be treadmilled into outrageous proposition to keep the money flowing. Reminds me of lawyers representing the majority of politicians and legislators - some one has to sow so others can reap!
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 01/14/2004 9:41 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm pulling for an ice age, just to prove all these idiots wrong.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/14/2004 10:55 Comments || Top||

#5  My position continues to be that we can all counter the proliferation of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by allowing our lawns to grow one inch higher. Whenever I announce my position, a neighborhood kid, who does yardwork for cash, eggs my house.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Global warming seems to be selective: 12 degree Celsius here today, blue sky, sunshine...
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/14/2004 13:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Ahhh... It was a balmy 0 degrees today here in Cow Hampshire USA. That was before the windchill.

The trusty ol' Volvo had trouble turning over. You don't see that often with these cars.

There was a weather advisory on the radio -- not for storms or what have you (it was a bright sunny day), but because of the cold.

So, what were these putzes going to jabber about at this conference again ?
Posted by: Carl in NH || 01/14/2004 17:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Super Hose- great idea! I've been saving the world for years and never knew it! Although the lawn does get mowed once it reaches about 6 inches longer than the nieghbors'....about twice a summer...
Posted by: S || 01/14/2004 17:08 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Top Saudi clerics praised Al-Q attack on ’Arab brothel of Riyad’
From Geostrategy Direct
Saudi Arabia is being forced to confront an extremely alarming prospect: Al Qaida’s suicide attacks in Riyadh two months ago might have been aided by the kingdom’s religious police and several leading clerics.
Common goals on this one, so why not joint venture the project?
The prospect that the eye-rolling truncheon-wielding spittle- spewing controversial religious police was involved in the attack on the Muhaya compound in Riyadh on Nov. 9 has emerged as a real possibility. Al Muhaya was not chosen because it contained hated Westerners. Instead, Muhaya was the playground of rich Arab Muslim expatriates who believed they could live a life in the lap of luxury behind the high walls of the compound. Western security sources said the Muhaya compound in Riyad was regarded as a playground of Lebanese advisers to the royal family. The compound featured baby milk factories topless dancers, pornography and bikini-clad women around the pool, which enraged the religious police.
That would wind the turbans up a few RPM, all right.
At one point, the regime stopped a planned raid of the compound. "The attack was hailed in some circles of the regime because they felt that those in Muhaya were taking liberties never seen before in Saudi Arabia," a security source said. "Powerful members of the royal family did not want to alienate these people because of their skills in finance."
Gotta keep the mullah moolah moving.
Once a compound dominated by the U.S. defense giant, Muhaya quickly [became] the residence of Egyptians, Lebanese and Palestinians in 2002 and 2003. Many of the Lebanese served the royal family in investments, accounting and other economic activities. As a result, Muhaya was virtually immune from raids of the Saudi religious police. The sources said Muhaya was known as a pleasure ground for those who sought to escape the segregation of sexes in the kingdom. This included a makeshift nightclub, belly dancers and strip shows as well as a pool where women sunbathed in bikinis. The Saudi religious police, termed the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, tried twice to raid Muhaya, termed the "Arab brothel of Riyadh," but was blocked by senior members of the royal family who did not want a scandal or the flight of vital financial advisers. The sources said the suicide bombing of Muhaya was privately hailed by leading Saudi clerics.
Now the Arab brothel of Riyadh has been dealt a blow, the Religious police need to watch their sixes, as they have, in effect, become useful idiots for Al-Q.

Geostrategy Direct is behind the curve on this one. We reported it from a Las Vegas Sun/AP article back in November, and again in December, from an Asia Times article. I don't know if the Inquisition was actually involved or not, but I suspect they may have provided the "intelligence," perhaps fuelled by fertile Islamic imaginations, for the guys who did the deed.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/14/2004 4:59:55 PM || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hmm ... I wonder if anyone's checked on the rumors about the Saudi royals and child kidnapping lately ... that alone (in my world :P) would be casus belli ...
Posted by: Lu Baihu || 01/14/2004 22:35 Comments || Top||


Al-Q has infiltrated Saudi military, security agencies
From Geostrategy Direct
Saudi Arabia has quietly acknowledged that Al Qaida has infiltrated its security forces and military. 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 vehicles from the National Guard or its insignia, which can be applied to trucks to deceive soldiers at checkpoints. Al Qaida’s use of military and security equipment allowed insurgents to attack the Muhaya compound in Riyad on Nov. 9. The security sources said a planned but foiled Al Qaida attack later that month included use of a forged military vehicle. Al Qaida has a range of sources for military equipment. Several tailors around Riyad who service the military and National Guard routinely sell uniforms without asking clients for identification.
who would just whip out forged papers anyway.
On late Jan. 11, Saudi state television said several suspected insurgents have confessed to participating in recent Al Qaida suicide and other strikes on Saudi cities over the past year. The suspects were captured in Riyad on Dec. 14 amid a failed Al Qaida operation.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/14/2004 4:50:34 PM || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Again, I'd be more surprised at finding non-Al'Qaeda in Saudi security forces.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/14/2004 18:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Lessee, who's playing the Wahhabi card and controls the Security Forces... No, don't tell me, it'll come to me in a moment... uh, ummm... oh it's right there... uhhhh, ummm.... Oh! I remember! Prince Nayef?

Doh!
Posted by: .com || 01/14/2004 23:33 Comments || Top||


Kadyrov to press Soddies on Chechen terror funding
On the eve of a visit to Saudi Arabia, Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov said Tuesday he would expose the real situation in Chechnya to the Saudi authorities, indicating he intended to press his hosts to rein in widespread support there for rebels fighting federal forces. Moscow has repeatedly said Saudi charities provide funding to Chechen separatists, who are seen by many in the Muslim world as Islamic freedom fighters but who Russia insists are terrorists linked to al-Qaida and other international terrorist organizations. The Kremlin also maintains that the gunmen who seized the Dubrovka theater in October 2002 made telephone calls to Saudi Arabia, and Moscow often blames militant Wahhabi adherents for leading terrorist attacks. "I intend to describe the real situation in Chechnya to members of the Saudi elite and to depict an objective picture of events ... where there is politics and where there is banditry," Kadyrov told Itar-Tass. "It will be interesting for them to know the truth about the so-called liberation movement in our country."

Kadyrov will meet with Crown Prince Abdullah and other high-ranking government officials to discuss cooperation in the spheres of health, ecology and humanitarian aid, Itar-Tass said. Meanwhile, the Chechen rebel web site Kavkaz Center on Tuesday quoted warlord Shamil Basayev as pledging to bring the war closer to the Russian people. "The people of Russia today are experiencing and will continue to experience all the delights of the war unleashed by the Kremlin regime," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:23:09 AM || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe the Kremlin will adopt .com's annexation plan. Good for them if they do. They have always wanted a warm water port. For me its not about the oiiilllll.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:44 Comments || Top||


Britain
Sudanese Man Arrested at London Airport
A Sudanese native was arrested at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday on suspicion of possessing ammunition, police said.
Oppression! Don’t you know possessing ammo is part of his religion?
The 45-year-old man had arrived on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Washington D.C. and was in transit, a spokesman for London’s Metropolitan Police said.
Somebody please have a chat with the baggage screeners in D.C.
He was arrested under Section 1 of the Firearms Act after passing through a security check, the spokesman said. He did not describe the suspected ammunition but said it was undergoing forensic tests. A spokesman for BAA PLC, which operates Heathrow, said the man was trying to board a flight to Dubai when he was arrested.
Isn’t carrying ammo to the Middle East a bit redundent?
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 10:20:26 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More like carrying coal to Newcastle...
Posted by: Raj || 01/14/2004 12:11 Comments || Top||

#2  A few more details from Fox News:
Police officials told Fox News that there were five rounds of suspected ammunition found with the passenger. The man was being held under Section 1 of Britain's Firearms Act because officials are not yet treating the incident as something terrorist-related. Officials told Fox News that they're trying to determine whether the ammunition was live or something as harmless as a shell casing. They're trying to determine whether the man had the suspected ammunition with him when he boarded the plane at Dulles International Airport in Virginia or whether he got them at Heathrow.
Officials were also looking into an unconfirmed report that the man had overstayed in the United States and was being deported on the Virgin Atlantic flight. Police sources said the man is not a known terror suspect.

Yawn.
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 12:23 Comments || Top||

#3  New from BBC, maybe it's not a yawner:
A Sudanese man stopped at Heathrow Airport for allegedly carrying five bullets in his coat has been held under the Terrorism Act. The 45-year-old man, who flew into Heathrow from Washington DC in transit to Dubai, was initially arrested under the Firearms Act. He was taken to a central London station to be interviewed by anti-terror police on Wednesday night. The British airline pilots' union, Balpa, says "questions will be asked" about security at the Washington end.
The man was questioned earlier by Heathrow police, while forensic experts examined the ammunition that security staff said they found on him. Passengers who came in on the same flight said the man told staff he did not realise the items were in his coat pocket.

Next thing you know, it won't be his coat either.
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 15:37 Comments || Top||


Europe
Germany to cut troops and close bases to save £18bn
Germany’s defence minister, Peter Struck, ordered drastic cuts in the military and slashed defence spending by £18 billion yesterday. He said changes since the Cold War and a government austerity drive were behind the decision to reduce numbers by 35,000 to 250,000 and to close 111 bases in the next eight years. His decision led to a debate about the future of mandatory military service, a feature of German life since the country was unified under Bismarck in 1870. Army conscription in Germany could be axed ’within the year’. Mr Struck insisted no changes would be made before elections in 2006. He added: "Those who want to suspend military service must provide a lot of additional funds to pay the people we would need to replace the draft soldiers."

But people close to the government said the days of conscription were numbered. Angelika Beer, the leader of the Green party, the junior partner in the government coalition, said she expected a cabinet decision "within the year". The family ministry also said it would present proposals tomorrow on the future of non-military national service, which is available to those who refuse to wear uniform. Every year about 95,000 young men who do not want to work in the military take up posts in the social field. The umbrella organisation for charities and social schemes said it was braced for the end of subscription by 2008, saying the move would increase the cost of employing charity workers by 37 per cent.

Conscription is held in high regard in Germany where, because of the militaristic past, it is viewed as an appropriate way of keeping the army in check. Traditionally, conscripts have carried out their service close to home in order to nurture the sense of a citizens’ army protecting the homeland. But Germany has come under increasing pressure from Nato partners to scrap the system, which is deemed inefficient and unreliable in dealing with more modern demands such as crisis intervention and peacekeeping. Demands on the army are greater than at any time since the end of the Second World War. It is involved in more foreign operations than any other country apart from the United States, including Afghanistan and the Balkans.

Mr Struck’s announcement demonstrated in particular his commitment to channelling more money into producing higher calibre career soldiers whose new focus would be international missions. The military will be divided into three categories. The 35,000-strong "intervention forces" will be available for multinational operations; "stabilisation forces" will have 70,000 peacekeeping soldiers and "support forces" will train new troops and be available for other operations. Mr Struck denied reports that under the cost-cutting drive the government was reducing its order of 180 Eurofighter aircraft, which Britain is also buying. But the defence ministry intends to streamline orders for naval helicopters and delay buying other equipment, including 10,000 vehicles. Local councils attacked the plans to close bases. They said this would have a detrimental effect on their economies, particularly after last week’s announcement that the United States is to close bases in Germany and withdraw thousands of its troops.
Posted by: rkb || 01/14/2004 3:30:56 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  where do you start? I guess all that I can really say is that both Germany and France show how quickly crummy leadership can drive a good country into the ground.
Posted by: B || 01/14/2004 17:45 Comments || Top||

#2  The USA should add a surcharge when 'Peans and Canadians buy or echange for dollars, to pay for the defense and protcection these free loaders get from US tax-cows like me.
Posted by: Hyper || 01/14/2004 19:52 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't read this as necessarily bad. It sounds as if Struck is desperately trying to bring Germany's armed forces up to professional standards - ending the draft, which has meant that soldiers really don't leave home, focusing limited funds on equipment for a clear operational mission ....

Or am I missing something here?
Posted by: rkb || 01/14/2004 19:58 Comments || Top||

#4  rkb,

I'd buy the "trying to bring Germany's armed fores up to professional standards" argument IF the emphasis in the statements I've seen were not on the SAVINGS of £18B. Reducing NUMBERS of troops for better quality efforts might well make sense, but while effectiveness would go up, the PRICE wouldn't necessarily go down.
Posted by: Ralph || 01/14/2004 21:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Local councils attacked the plans to close bases. They said this would have a detrimental effect on their economies, particularly after last week’s announcement that the United States is to close bases in Germany and withdraw thousands of its troops.

Send your "appreciation" to the Gerhard & Jacques Show.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/14/2004 21:28 Comments || Top||


Mali woman excised daughters in France
More about the nuanced justice of Europe, so different from the brutal and racist ways of the US. /sarcasm off
A woman from Mali was handed down a five-year suspended jail sentence in a French court on Tuesday for the genital mutilation of her three French-born daughters.
grrrrr
Defence lawyers for Aminata Sall, 42, had argued that she had been unaware that excision, or genital mutilation, was illegal in France, and was only "respecting Malian custom". Sall had denied in court on Monday that her daughters, now aged 10, 14, and 15, had been excised. However, on Tuesday she confessed to having "been present" during their excisions. The mother maintained that she had not assisted in the procedure, a painful operation which typically involves cutting off the clitoris and other parts of genitalia in pre-pubescent and teenage girls. Prosecuting lawyer Philippe Bilger had not sought to have Sall given a prison sentence.
oh no, that would be judgemental and disrespectful of cultural differences
An estimated 130 million women have been subjected to female genital mutilation, and two million undergo the procedure each year, according to officials at a conference on excision held last November in Sweden. Widely practiced in many African countries, despite laws that outlaw it, excision impairs breeding stock's a woman’s ability to enjoy sexual relations, and is traditionally seen as controlling female sexuality and improving a girl’s marriage prospects.
Posted by: rkb || 01/14/2004 2:47:25 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  FIVE years suspended? Strange law. In Germany 2 years suspended is the maximum, if you get more years, it's mandatory prison.

How many suspended years do you get for stoning people? After all, it's a custom, right?
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/14/2004 15:13 Comments || Top||

#2  It's official, Sharia is the new law in France. I
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/14/2004 16:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Start cutting off two testicles for each clitoris removed and see how soon this 'custom' ends. A eye genital for a eye genital.
Posted by: Gasse Katze || 01/14/2004 17:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Scum. Lousy F'ing scum...
Posted by: Hyper || 01/14/2004 18:09 Comments || Top||


Transatlantic rift grows over falling dollar
From the Financial times, EFL & subscription required for full article. I’ve been watching the fallout from currency prices for several months now.
France is co-ordinating efforts with Germany to ensure that next month’s meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers sends a strong signal on the need for stability in the currency markets.
’stability’ here means they want Euro-priced goods to be competitive against $-priced goods and they don’t want to change their central bank policies to get there
But both countries are facing an uphill task in persuading the US administration of the need for G7 action to correct the steep decline in the dollar against the euro. The growing rift was highlighted on Tuesday when Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, played down the dollar’s weakness and repeated his view that he saw no problem in funding US deficits. His comments came just a day after Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank president, signalled his disquiet at the euro’s rise against the dollar, insisting it had been "brutal" and a sign of "excessive volatility". Speaking in Berlin, Mr Greenspan said he saw "little evidence of stress funding US current account deficits".
In fact, there has been a small rush TOWARD US bonds in anticipation of economic improvement in the US, despite lower interest rates here. Counterintuitive, but it’s happened before & bespeaks confidence that the US will remain a leading global economy.
He said the dollar had fallen broadly against other currencies. He conceded that the dollar’s steep decline had put eurozone exporters under pressure but noted it was not fuelling inflation, which remained "quiescent", or endangering the global recovery. His comments drew heavily on speeches he made two months ago when he stressed the dollar’s decline had created no "measurable disruption" and warned it was vital to thwart creeping protectionism. Over the past year the euro has risen more than 20 per cent against the dollar. European policymakers fear that the relentless rise of the euro could put the eurozone’s fledgling export-led upturn at risk.
It wasn’t so long ago that Eurocrats threatened trade sanctions targetted to hurt Bush’s re-election prospects. The controlled fall of the dollar is a much more subtle but effective counter-thrust.
Most analysts believe the Bush administration favours a weaker dollar to help domestic exporters and narrow the ballooning trade deficit. It would be loath to see a dollar rise just ahead of the presidential election. "It will be pretty hard to get the US on board [at the G7]," said Mark Cliffe of ING. " The US is on a global growth campaign and the ball is now very firmly in Europe’s court."
This is the money quote.
He said the ECB might have to cut interest rates before the US was prepared to sanction any G7 concern about exchange rates.
Not too long ago, Eurocrats were chuckling over prospects that investment money would flow from the $$ to the Euro and that major industries would start pricing products in Euros instead of dollars. If they have to lower their interest rates to try to deal with the major structural problems that haunt the Eurozone economies, the $ may well continue to be attractive despite the projected deficit spending.

There are other side-effects of a lower $. The value of outstanding Treasury debt drops when the dollar is lower against other currencies. Not a trend we want to go too far, but in the short run and to a limited extent, this is a very effective tactic to indirectly have those debt holders help to pay for the war on terror. Since some significant portion of that debt is probably held by oil princes, there is also a certain amount of poetic justice here.

As with most aspects of macroeconomics, this can all be carried too far: we want our debt to be considered worth holding and we want there to be global consumers who are wealthy enough to buy our products and services. But I somehow doubt that the French and Germans will get much of a sympathetic hearing at the G7 meeting given how flagrant their gloating was last year. Germany’s issue is deeper in that, since the rampant inflation of the early 20th century, their banks have always favored stability over growth. But that comes at a major cost with the post-war generation aging - without growth it will be very hard for them to meet their pension etc. obligations.
Posted by: rkb || 01/14/2004 2:33:55 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why won't the EU central bank lower interest rates to stimulate growth? Is it a hold-over from the German central bank historic fear of inflation?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/14/2004 15:49 Comments || Top||

#2  The run-up of the Euro is also threatening adoption of the Euro by additional countries, a goal dear to Das Frankenreich, especially when others see that an Audi A8L is selling for a third less in the US than its Euro price in Europe according to the Wall Street Journal. This is serious payback and it couldn't happen to a better pair than Chiraq and Schroeder.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 01/14/2004 15:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Trade, like other things, tends to roll downhill.
Posted by: mojo || 01/14/2004 15:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Mr Davis... if it is payback, it's payback for Aznar and Berlusconi as well.

Despite the strong Euro Germany is Number 1 export nation in the world again and is likely to remain so in 2004. We export more than the U.S., go figure. Most exports are inside the EU, so the dollar rate doesn't influence them. Energy prices are lower, holidays outside the EU zone cheaper (hello Miami?).

When the Euro was worth 84 cents people whined, now it's worth 1,27 dollars and other people whine. In 1995 the dollar traded for DM 1,37 (70 US cents or €1 = $1,42). We survived that too.
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/14/2004 16:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Fred and Steve's favorite saying come to mind here: Cause and Effect.
Posted by: Charles || 01/14/2004 16:12 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm sure this little tidbit is entirely unrelated:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. trade deficit narrowed unexpectedly in November while wholesale prices outside of food and energy posted a surprise drop last month, government reports showed on Wednesday.

The trade gap shrank to $38.0 billion from $41.6 billion in October, as civilian aircraft sales pushed exports to their highest level in three years, the Commerce Department said.

It was the smallest trade gap in 13 months.

Payback, as they say, can kick you right in the crotch if you're an America-bashing eurocommie.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/14/2004 16:20 Comments || Top||

#7  TGA,

We'll all survive. The question is whether the Euro will. Perhaps the Spanish and Italians will have second thoughts about having hitched their economic wagons to Das Frankenreich.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 01/14/2004 16:27 Comments || Top||

#8  Mr. Davis, don't hold your breath just yet. I'd rather see Germany reverting to DM than Spain to Peseta and Italy to Lire.

It won't happen.
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/14/2004 16:46 Comments || Top||

#9  There is a 2nd issue linked to this one, namely the intent to file suit against the deficit waivers given to Germany and France again this year. Poland, Spain and Italy are among the countries who are insisting that the EU actually enforce its economic discipline rules. If I recall correctly, a while back Spain and Italy had some hard times when France & Germany insisted they toe the economic line and they are outraged at the idea that the two larger countries can cavalierly ignore the same rules for several years in a row.

One justifiable reason for the current $ valuation is that we will be doing some deficit spending during the war on terror. But Greenspan is right: the high interest rates in the EU do serve as a trade protection barrier *if* the US can be strongarmed into propping up the dollar.

In the short run, European consumers benefit from a strong Euro, just as companies that manufacture using $-based labor and materials benefit from selling to those European consumers. In the mid-term, however, the result will be more employment in the US and a smaller tax base for the EU governments. Check out Martin Wolf's column in the FT today, if you're a subscriber: he makes the case, despite himself, that the American consumer is confidcnt and is a driving force in the US recovery, while the European consumer is not confident and is not doing the same.

I don't really want to indulge in too much schadenfreude here, if only because I do realize the potential downsides for me, in the long run, to having Europe continue to stagnate. But frankly, given the sanctimonious and condescending attitudes that have come our way from Europe in the last few years - and especially given the overt announced threat by EU officials to use trade sanctions to negatively affect jobs in some key election states here, so as to defeat Bush -- well, it's worth noting that things aren't playing out quite that way at present. And, while you feel comfortable, a quick Google of recent news makes it clear that French and German politicians, and the EU finance people, are running scared over this.
Posted by: rkb || 01/14/2004 16:57 Comments || Top||

#10  Anyone remember the whining in the 80s?

Even the IMF had to agree that we're the engine of world growth, bet that had to bite. A few days later they claimed we're disorderly.

What I still find interesting is this, thanks to Econopundit.com. A little old, but Steven doesn't think it had changed too much:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GOVERNMENT DEBT AND PENSION LIABILITIES AS PERCENT OF GDP (1990)
===net conventional debt=======net pension liabilities
CANADA===52================121
GERMANY==22================157
ITALY====100================259
UK=======27================156
US=======35=================90
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Essays on Pension Reform, Max Alier PhD Thesis, University of California LA, 1997; quoted in R.E.A. Farmer, Macroeconomics, South-Western, 2002, p. 162.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/14/2004 21:27 Comments || Top||


Iman Rapped for Wife-Beating Book
A Muslim cleric who wrote a book that advised men how to beat up their wives without leaving incriminating marks has been sentenced by a Spanish court. Mohamed Kamal Mustafa was given 15 months in jail, which he will not serve as Spanish law suspends sentences of under two years for first offences.
Turn him over to me and my sisters - we’ll figure out a suitable punishment. And he won’t have a mark on him afterwards.
Mustafa’s book, Women in Islam, sparked outrage among women’s groups when it was published three years ago. In his defence, the imam said he was interpreting passages from the Koran. A jury in Barcelona found Mustafa guilty of inciting violence against women, lawyer Jose Luis Bravo told reporters. He was also fined euros 2,160 ($2,735). In his book, Mustafa wrote that in disciplining a disobedient wife: "The blows should be concentrated on the hands and feet using a rod that is thin and light so that it does not leave scars or bruises on the body." Mustafa - imam at the mosque in the southern Spanish town of Fuengirola - said he was opposed to violence against women
uh huh
and had been simply interpreting the Koran.
and of course we all know no one should criticize any aspect of someone’s religion ...
The book incensed women’s groups and, in July 2000, around 90 groups filed a lawsuit in a Barcelona court to have the book withdrawn.
you go, hermanas mias.
The book - some 3,000 copies of which had already been distributed - was removed from Islamic cultural centres around Spain. Mustafa’s case has made headline news in Spain,though not for the obvious reasons, says the BBC’s Katya Adler in Madrid. The media has cited it as an example of sexual rather than racial discrimination.
why on earth would this be racial discrimination???
Domestic violence is an issue of growing public concern in Spain, she says, where until just over 25 years ago it was not considered a criminal offence. Women’s groups across the country were celebrating the sentence, she added. Two groups representing Spanish Muslims came forward ahead of the trial distance themselves from the cleric’s book, saying that the Koran and other sacred texts condemned violence against women.
Could you pass that message along to Muslims elsewhere?
Posted by: rkb || 01/14/2004 1:32:49 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  why on earth would this be racial discrimination???

Because someone with skin darker than a Spaniard's was criticized.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/14/2004 13:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like he needs a "Bobbit" calibration session.
Posted by: alaskasoldier || 01/14/2004 14:52 Comments || Top||

#3  He obviously didn't get the memo: In Europe, if you want to get away with advocating violence, make sure it's against the Jews!
Posted by: Captain Holly || 01/14/2004 17:26 Comments || Top||

#4  "The blows should be concentrated on the hands and feet using a rod that is thin and light so that it does not leave scars or bruises on the body."

Sounds like ye olde pimp coathanger beating to me. The Imam must've found some old copies of the Iceberg Slim books someplace. Not to say there's a big difference between an imam and a pimp...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/14/2004 20:51 Comments || Top||


France Won’t Drop Demand on Iraq Transfer
At least they’re consistent.
France remains committed to helping rebuild Iraq, but will not drop its demand for the transfer of power into Iraqi hands for the chance to bid on lucrative reconstruction contracts, the defense minister told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Michele Alliot-Marie’s comments came after the Bush administration hinted it would lift a decision barring allies who opposed the Iraq war from participating in rebuilding contracts. Germany said Wednesday it would be "very happy" if the ban was lifted. "We have expressed for a long time our availability to participate in Iraq’s construction," Alliot-Marie said. "But obviously only if it is in the framework where the Iraqi authorities will get back their sovereignty and the ability to exercise their powers in full."
Oh well. We tried. Nice knowing ya.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that a handful of countries, which he declined to name, may be eligible to bid for a waive of reconstruction contracts worth roughly $4.5 billion. His comments came after President Bush announced that Canada would be allowed to bid. Alliot-Marie was expected to take up the issue during a meeting Thursday in Washington with Rumsfeld. In Berlin, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Germany believes Iraq’s reconstruction - including the awarding of contracts - is a joint international task that we want to control. "If this view became a general one and were reflected in the awarding practice of U.S. authorities, we would be very happy," spokesman Walter Lindner said.
Better yet, why don’t you boys pony up some cash?
Posted by: Steve White || 01/14/2004 10:47:45 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  France Won’t Drop Demand on Iraq Transfer

Fine. Cut them off permanently. It's not worth wasting time playing footsie with Chirac and his minions.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/14/2004 11:14 Comments || Top||

#2  When they next ask for a five-spot, I intend to make my kids ask me in French. I want to train them right.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:48 Comments || Top||

#3  SH, are you also going to have them spit in your face and curse at you while they hold their hand out?
Posted by: BH || 01/14/2004 12:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Sorry BH, that's will only get them a ten-spot and a promise of a new bike.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 13:16 Comments || Top||

#5  that's will only get them a ten-spot and a promise of a new bike.

SH wants his youth to be fluent ya see.... :)
Posted by: Shipman || 01/14/2004 15:53 Comments || Top||

#6  When they next ask for a five-spot, I intend to make my kids ask me in French. I want to train them right.

The correct language would be Arabic, not French. Need to plan ahead for the cultural change in France SH.
Posted by: Charles || 01/14/2004 16:16 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda targeting Belgium over the holidays
Osama Bin-Laden’s terrorist network Al-Qaeda was plotting an attack in Belgium at some time over the new year holiday period according to US press reports. Citing unnamed US intelligence experts, the Monday edition of USA Today newspaper said two "foreign sources who had been reliable in the past" had provided Washington with information about possible terror attacks in Belgium, Saudi Arabia, and a number of sites in the USA itself. It is thought that the targets in all of the locations cited would have been oil refineries, oil pipelines or nuclear power stations. But the Belgian Interior Ministry reacted coolly to the news that Al Qaeda appears to have specifically targeted Belgium for the first time. "Obviously we are always vigilant but we have taken no extra measures to deal with this apparent threat," a spokeswoman for Patrick Dewael, who is both Belgium’s Interior Minister and the country’s deputy Prime Minister, told Expatica. "We were not unduly alarmed by the news," she added.

According to USA Today the intelligence on the possible attacks in Belgium and elsewhere was one of the reasons why the US government decided on December 21 to raise its level of national security alert from ’Code yellow’ - an ’elevated risk’ - to high risk ’Code Orange’. That move led to the cancellation of a number of trans-Atlantic flights over the recent holiday period, most notably services scheduled to fly to the USA from London and Paris. Washington has since lowered the alert to yellow again. The reasons behind Al-Qaeda’s apparent decision to target Belgium are not known. But some analysts say the decision could be linked to the recent high profile trial in the country of 23 suspected militants from the terror network, which saw 18 of the defendants receive jail sentences.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:04:47 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The reasons behind Al-Qaeda’s apparent decision to target Belgium are not known.

Because they are pussified apologists who will examine the reasons "why they hate us" instead of retaliating. AQ knows they have nothing to fear from the EU.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 01/14/2004 7:23 Comments || Top||

#2  A Kufr is a Kufr I guess.
The Belgians may be getting whacked just because
it may be easier to do it to them (they being busy eating all these chocolates and nursing their fat pensions).
Posted by: The Dodo || 01/14/2004 15:09 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Fast Times At Baghdad High
or Back to Baghdad. Long article, if you have the stomach for it...
Sean Penn went to Iraq a year ago not as an actor, but as a father, a husband and an American.
That statement smells like old bluefish...
He made the visit, from Dec. 13 to 15, 2002, to shill for Saddam Hussein learn about the American-Iraqi conflict from the people who weren’t thrown into the shredders were living through it. A year later, the week before Saddam Hussein was found in a sewer captured, Penn returned to Iraq to find out how life had changed after the American invasion. What follows is his account of what he saw.
This is Sean speaking...
Doc Birnbaum filled the last of three receptacles with my blood (he was concerned about my looming cholesterol problem and had graciously made a house call), then slid the needle out of my vein as my phone rang.
I see you have experience in that area, Sean.
I answered as the doc pressed a cotton ball onto the puncture in the crook of my arm. It was Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of Global Exchange, a San Francisco human rights organization. I had put out the word that I wanted to return to Iraq to write a piece for The Chronicle, having been granted a press credential by its editor, Phil Bronstein. Medea called to tell me that she would be taking a delegation of parents of servicepeople, both killed in action and on active duty, for a weeklong "mission of peace" to Iraq -- a trip unprecedented in the history of U.S. military activity. They would be departing Saturday, Nov. 29 (our phone conversation took place on Thanksgiving Day), embarking from various U.S. airports with a rendezvous point at the "Meditation Room" at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam. Our conversation ended as the doctor placed a Band-Aid over the cotton ball, wished me a happy Thanksgiving and left with my blood.
I, me, my... It’s all about you, isn’t it? I thought this was supposed to be a follow-up on Iraq?
Ever since the bombing of the U.N. building in Baghdad in August, I had felt increasingly tugged toward Iraq. As I had made my cautionary opinions known prior to our military engagement, in a self-financed letter to the president in the Washington Post (Oct. 18, 2002),($50K - Ed.) and then reiterated those thoughts after our invasion of Iraq in a self-financed ad in the New York Times (May 30, 2003),
So much for the crushing of dissent.
I felt a responsibility to change or reaffirm my position in light of the fact I was wrong the context of the new situation for our U.S. soldiers, and Iraqi civilians as well. The call from Medea fixed my decision to go.
"That, and I don’t have any movies currently in the dock!"
Gaining the support of my family would be tricky. My reputation within our home is one of impulsiveness, hubris and an overall bloated sense of my own survival instincts.
And that’s different from your public persona in what way?
Of course, this is entirely unfounded, but we’ll leave that for another day.
Right...
My wife and 12-year-old daughter are different people in the sense that my wife will occasionally kiss me on the lips, and my daughter, occasionally on the cheek. With this one exception, they’re exactly the same person.
Uh, no, they’re not...
"Mr. Jackson! Mr. Penn on line two!"
And when I told them, "I’m thinking about going back to Iraq," they rolled their eyes and said, "Uh-huh." I interpreted that to mean "You’re an idiot" or that they just didn’t want to invest in my explanation. So much for guidance.
One man’s idiocy is another man’s bravery, I suppose.
But my 10-year-old son said rather quickly, "Could you get killed?" I immediately and idiotically responded with, "I could get killed crossing the street -- or struck by lightning -- and SARS, what about SARS?"
"I could roast to death in an episode of global warming!"
What follows is barely restrained criticism of our military and our efforts to free the Iraqi people from thirty years of fascist repression. Vanity, thy name is Sean Penn.
Posted by: Raj || 01/14/2004 1:59:57 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Did he even act in his last movie?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/14/2004 14:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Hate his politics, but his acting in "Mystic River" was outstanding. Great movie, but no way would I watch it more than once, really depressing.
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 14:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Comparing Penn's remarks to stinking rotting bluefish is an insult to a fine sport-fish.
Posted by: Sgt.DT || 01/14/2004 15:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Just don't try eating them, Sgt.DT. Even my cats wouldn't touch it!
Posted by: Raj || 01/14/2004 15:21 Comments || Top||

#5  I've seen Bluefish that could eat cat.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/14/2004 15:55 Comments || Top||

#6  My God, this is the most painful read I've had in a long, long time! I wonder if they had to edit out his descriptions of his own bowel movements? Can anyone read this article and not come away feeling that Sean Penn loves Sean Penn and believes the world--nay, the universe--revolves around him?

If you've got plenty of time to waste and want an exercise in separating the wheat from the chaff, here it is.
Posted by: Dar || 01/14/2004 15:56 Comments || Top||

#7  Sorry, I stopped being interested when he mentioned Medea Benjamin...
Posted by: mojo || 01/14/2004 16:02 Comments || Top||

#8  I stopped being interested when I saw the name Sean Penn. I decided not to read the rest when I saw the sentence about SARS.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/14/2004 16:21 Comments || Top||

#9  I was going to post this article. In fact I had started to but after EFL'ing (Editing for Length) and cutting all the concieted 'I'm so great' parts... there wasn't anything left...

What a concieted selfish prick! I'm suprised he did not describe in exquisit detail the smell and sound of each of his holy farts.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/14/2004 16:46 Comments || Top||

#10  Andrew Sullivan has a different take. Too bad I, and it seems everyone else, didn't have the stones to read this self-aggrandizing piece of bluefish tripe to its bitter end, or maybe I'd find myself agreeing with Andrew.
Posted by: Raj || 01/14/2004 16:51 Comments || Top||

#11  Raj--I did read it to the end, and once one does get past the me-me-ME crap it is interesting. It's just that it is so aggravating having to trudge through the crap about his blood being drawn, and his wife and daughter, and how he has to settle for hummus and olives instead of lamb, the poor thing!

I bet he screams out his own name when he's coming. We could ask his wife--or his daughter, since they're both exactly the same person.

Maybe that's why he and Saddam got along so well. They're both complete egomaniacs.
Posted by: Dar || 01/14/2004 17:28 Comments || Top||

#12  That daughter statement is reeeally creepy. Makes you wonder if the needle was pumping something in instead of pulling it out. Most interesting the bit about the call from Medea. At least we know whose pulling the puppet strings.
Posted by: B || 01/14/2004 18:02 Comments || Top||

#13  So what's Medea doing over there again? Running the "Famous Visiting Asshat" bread and breakfast?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/14/2004 20:57 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Army soon will have just 500 available troops
By September, the Canadian army will have only 500 troops available for deployment, fewer soldiers than the National Hockey League has players. Last year’s sudden deployment to Afghanistan was the last straw after years of cutting corners, senior commanders told David Pratt last month as he assumed his new position as Defence Minister. That unexpected 2,000-person deployment to Kabul taxed the 11,900 soldiers in the army’s field force beyond its limit. Rotations home had been deferred and training delayed. In consequence, 6,200 troops will need to go on operational waivers (the army’s term for downtime) in the coming months. Another 2,600 are scheduled for training courses. There are 600 committed to peacekeeping in the Balkans, with 200 doing similar work in the Middle East. The army has a smattering of peacekeepers and observers in such places as the Congo and Sierra Leone. That means, Mr. Pratt was told, that starting Sept. 1, for a period of about one year, the Canadian army will be able to field only 500 regular troops for new commitments. Whatever the United Nations might need of us, whatever might be NATO’s requirements, whatever coalitions the Americans might ask us to join, whatever the need may be in Afghanistan once our current deployment ends in August, Canada will be ready, aye, ready with 500 men and women.

There are qualifications. About 150 reserve troops could supplement that regular force, if required. It might be possible to scrape up a few more soldiers if they were integrated into an international force that could provide all the logistical support. In a national or international emergency, the army could throw out the rules and rush troops back into service. In the absence of such an emergency -- which would in the long run make the situation even worse -- this country has only a few hundred troops ready to answer the call.
On January 6, 2004, in my predictions for the New Year, I wrote: Canada will disolve its armed forces in favor of defense by junior hockey leagues. Is that spooky or what?
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/14/2004 9:09:48 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No, it's not spooky. Utterly insane, yes, but not spooky.
Posted by: Charles || 01/14/2004 9:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Good. Now, if we want to annex Canada, we just have to give a call to the North Dakota National Guard.
Posted by: Sorge || 01/14/2004 9:39 Comments || Top||

#3  If there weren't so many French up there, I'd say let's just take it over as a training exercise.
Posted by: KofiAnonymous || 01/14/2004 9:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Even though the US is the root of all evil in the world the Canadians seem to trust us.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/14/2004 9:57 Comments || Top||

#5  The entire field force of the Canadian Army amounts to only 11,900 troops??? I might be mistaken here, but doesn't that constitute a smaller armed force than the New York City Police Department?

Who the hell are the Canadians counting on to defend them if the shit hits the fan, anyhow?

Oh, wait, I think I know the answer...
Posted by: Dave D. || 01/14/2004 9:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Since when does Canada have a military? I thought they just relied on goodwill to keep their nation afloat.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/14/2004 10:02 Comments || Top||

#7  ...FWIW, after serving alongside the Canadians, I wouldn't want to mess with five of their guys, much less five hundred. They are still smart, tough and professional - and they have always fought above their weight.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/14/2004 10:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Fighting above your weight isn' all that impressive when you are junior fly-weight. I ain't knocking the Canadian troops, I know they are absolutely top-notch. But come on! Their field army IS smaller than the NYPD (something like 38,000 I think?). Lucky for them, they'll never have to defend themselves from an external enemy. Geography and having a Superpower as a neighbor has it's benefits, eh?
Posted by: Swiggles || 01/14/2004 10:37 Comments || Top||

#9  Mike K:
Just curious, are you the same Mike Kozlowski that worked for Chuck Fowler at NCR/Symbios?
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/14/2004 10:45 Comments || Top||

#10  I seriously think that the US military should organize a Canadian Brigade. I'm sure there are enough tough Canadians that would like to actually contribute to the defense of the West but find themselves unable to do so in Canada. Actually, I think the US could use a division or two of foreign soldiers willing to trade a 7-year hitch in the US Army for citizenship. In addition to Army basic and peacekeeping training, we could give them US history and Government courses as well as intensive US language training (including the Canadians, eh). These guys could later be attached to other US units to serve as translators, etc., as needed.
Posted by: Tibor || 01/14/2004 11:49 Comments || Top||

#11  shhh. When they are down to 500 troops, we storm across the border throgh Maine and Michigan and execute a classic pinchers movement. I can't believe they fell for the old "we need help in Afghanistan," whopper.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:54 Comments || Top||

#12  Super Hose, nope, we're gonna have the Marines cross the Great Lakes at Detroit and drive north to James Bay cutting Canada in half at the narrowest point, liberating the western states. Then we throw a wall across the Penn/New York border isolating the liberal North East states joining them with Quebec and forming New France. Problem solved.
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 13:35 Comments || Top||

#13  Well, if the US wanted to, it could raise an Army Corps worth of recruits in about ten minutes in Manila.
Posted by: buwaya || 01/14/2004 14:15 Comments || Top||

#14  "we need help in Afghanistan,"

Actually, Canadian special forces did play a considerable role in the early Afghanistan campaign. I don't know the combat specifics, but who do you think escorted all the bad guys to Gitmo? Yup, Canadians. Seems there's still some trust left between the respective SOGs.
Posted by: Rafael || 01/14/2004 14:39 Comments || Top||

#15  hey, Steve - give us a heads up when you plan to put up that wall ... otherwise we'd be stuck in New France.

On the other hand, I suspect a few people around, say, West Point might object to your plan. How about we put the wall on the eastern border of NY? Republican sentiment is actually growing in NY of late.
Posted by: rkb || 01/14/2004 14:52 Comments || Top||

#16  Rafael, I did read somewhere (maybe here, maybe Damien Penny) that a Canadian sniper team in Afghanistan arranged quite a few unexpected meetings with Allah, at awesome distances. Thanks.
Posted by: Matt || 01/14/2004 14:53 Comments || Top||

#17  Kozlowski is correct. Their staffing levels weren't helped by the four we killed in that blue on blue incident, either. And they did set the world sniping distance record in Afghanistan. So let's make sure Cretin and Martin get the blame for this, not the guys in uniform.

Now, if only someone could explain why they name a unit the Princess Patricias.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 01/14/2004 14:59 Comments || Top||

#18  How about we put the wall on the eastern border of NY?
Toss that junior senator over it and you've got a deal. Hudson River would be easier to defend, just drop the bridges and man Fort Ticonderoga again.
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 15:25 Comments || Top||

#19  "Dufils Brigadda"(Correct the speeling,if you wish TGA)=Devil's Brigade
Posted by: raptor || 01/14/2004 15:27 Comments || Top||

#20  >>Now, if only someone could explain why they name a unit the Princess Patricias.<<

Sure. It's part of the British tradition of naming units after their honorary commanders-in-chief, who were (and are) members of the extended Royal Family. I disremember exactly who Princess Patricia was, though; I think she was that unit's honorary C-in-C around the turn of the century. The book I'm reading right now on Queen Elizabeth II does say who she was, but unfortunately I left it out in my car. I don't know if the Queen commands any regiments personally - after all, in name anyway, she's the chief honcho of the whole UK military structure - but her husband does, and Prince Charles commands a double hatful of regiments (and so does the rest of the family, even Prince Edward, which is paradoxical considering that he quit Royal Marine training).
Posted by: Joe || 01/14/2004 18:20 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Chennai exporter is US terror suspect
Employees at White House Business Solutions are an anxious lot. Abdul Haye Mohammed Ilyas, owner of this software export company, was suspected to be an elusive Al-Qaeda terrorist. American authorities even cancelled Paris-LA flights during last year’s Christmas season to net him.
This is the guy the French cops were supposed to be looking for after he didn’t show up for the flight to LA. Name was the same as that of a known al-Qaeda gunnie.
Like many Muslim families in Chennai, Ilyas is a second generation exporter. His father Abdul Haye was in the leather and garment business. "Our boss has been a frequent flier to the US and Europe. We are foxed as to why he was mistaken to be an Al-Qaeda man. Just because he shared his name with a terrorist? Even now he is in London for a trade exhibition," a company official said.
Then why did he book a flight out of Paris and not show up?
Company employees wonder why the 42-year-old businessman did not show up for his Paris-LA flights on December 24 and January 7, which made the American authorities more suspicious.
I just said that.
"Our boss will put all matters to rest once he returns next week," said an executive.
He could do that by dropping in to see the London cops, I’m sure it was in the papers there. Or you could ask him about it when he calls. He is keeping in touch, right? Don’t know too many bosses on a business trip who don’t.
He, however, admitted that a newspaper report on Tuesday had anxious callers inquiring about Ilyas’ safety.
1. Innocent, all will be cleared up when he comes home.
2. Bad guy, ain’t coming home.
3. Innocent, got wacked for his papers, bad guys picked a guy with wrong name and changed plans. Ain’t coming home.
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 1:14:58 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hmmmmm... $2 sez he ain't comin home.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/14/2004 16:13 Comments || Top||

#2  You're on....wait, I don't have enough in my wallet. Those theiving JOOOOOSSSSS!!!
Posted by: Charles || 01/14/2004 16:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Wonder if Atta's dad got a call yet? After all, it's been 2-1/2 years.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/14/2004 21:51 Comments || Top||


Libyan nuke tech came from Pakistan
Hey! Careful with that feather! You almost knocked me over!
The Bush administration’s success in persuading Libya to reveal its weapons of mass destruction programs has created a new and potentially embarrassing problem: Pakistan a vital U.S. ally in the war on terror appears to have been a main supplier of nuclear know-how to Libya, and possibly to North Korea and Iran.
Comes as a surprise, huh? I know. It floored me, too...
Libya pledged to name its suppliers when it announced last month it was giving up its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs. Officials say many of the names probably will be Pakistani. They say evidence points to Pakistani nuclear experts as the source of at least some technology Libya used in its nuclear weapons program. Similar reports have arisen about probable Pakistani assistance to Iran and North Korea, countries President Bush said comprised an "axis of evil" with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. "This ought to get front-and-center attention," said Henry Sokolski, a Pentagon arms control official in the first Bush administration. The United States has given Pakistan evidence that its scientists were involved in the spread of nuclear weapons technology, Secretary of State Colin Powell said last week. Powell said he didn’t have enough information to say whether Pakistan was a source for Libya’s program.
Not yet, anyway...
While strongly denying government involvement, Pakistani authorities last month detained two top nuclear scientists and questioned the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan. Pakistani officials said they were acting on information from Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Pakistan presents a difficult diplomatic problem for Washington. Critics say the idea that a major ally is giving nuclear technology to three countries on Washington’s list of terror exporters is an embarrassment to President Bush, who has argued his top priority is keeping weapons of mass destruction away from terrorists and rogue states. They want the Bush administration to lean harder on Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, to stop his country’s clandestine nuclear activities.
Pakland is a rogue state. We all know that. Eventually it will either reform or be declared a rogue state and treated accordingly. Perv knows this, Bush knows this, Powell knows this, and all are pretending it's not the case in the hope that the Paks will reform instead of making us do terrible things to them...
Other experts say that if Washington pushes Musharraf too far, Pakistan could scale back its anti-terrorism help. In a worst-case scenario, Musharraf could fall, and Islamic extremists hostile to the United States could get their hands on Pakistan’s nuclear technology. "How do you stop Pakistan? No one has found a way," said David Albright, a former United Nations nuclear inspector. "We have this set of conflicting priorities. The United States is reluctant to crack down too hard."
That's why we try diplomacy first. If the diplomacy doesn't work, then we can invade them...
At issue are high-speed centrifuges that can separate uranium into its highly enriched form to be used in nuclear bombs. Khan helped start Pakistan’s program when he stole uranium centrifuge designs in the 1970s from Urenco, a European uranium processing consortium. Among evidence pointing to Pakistan’s proliferation is that centrifuges and centrifuge parts found in both Iran and Libya are similar to the Urenco designs, both U.S. officials and outside experts say. Pakistani scientists distributed a brochure several years ago offering to sell parts and plans for such centrifuges. The United States last year sanctioned Pakistan’s Khan Research Laboratory, its main nuclear weapons lab, for cooperating with North Korea on missile technology. "It shows the countries who are outside the system cooperate with each other, and that’s very important to recognize," said Lee Feinstein, a top State Department arms control official under former President Clinton.

Powell says he has raised the nuclear proliferation problem repeatedly with Musharraf. "We know that there have been cases where individuals in Pakistan have worked in these areas, and we have called it to the attention of the Pakistanis in the past," Powell said last week. "And I’m very pleased now that President Musharraf is aggressively moving to investigate all of that." In the past, the U.S. government sanctioned Pakistan repeatedly for its nuclear weapons program, even before it went public with a 1998 nuclear test. President Bush lifted most of those sanctions shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks when Musharraf agreed to help fight al-Qaida. American experts are skeptical of Pakistan’s denial of government involvement in nuclear technology transfers.
That's because they're neither stoopid nor blind...
"These activities were tightly held, state-run activities," said Sokolski, the first Bush administration official who now heads the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center in Washington. "The idea that they would be shared with countries of this sort, without the knowledge of people senior in the government, strikes me as very unlikely." If Musharraf’s government was not involved in the transfers but its scientists were, Islamabad’s control over its nuclear complex would be questionable. That raises the possibility of al-Qaida or other terrorists being able to get their hands on some of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, materials or technology. Pakistan already has questioned some of its nuclear scientists about links to al-Qaida and the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In past years, Pakistan has asked for U.S. help with security at its nuclear sites, former Energy Department nuclear official Rose Gottemoeller said at a 2001 conference.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:37:51 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  2 of Perv's siblings (?) live in greater Chicagoland. I sort of live near one and a friend lives down the block from another. Expensive homes, too.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/14/2004 12:40 Comments || Top||

#2  How many good men did the guy in the bible have to find to save the cities of Sodom and Gamorah? Bet he would not enough to make Pakistan worst sparing. Am I being too optimistic?
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 13:28 Comments || Top||


3 wanted Pakistanis surrender in Waziristan
Authorities in South Waziristan tribal agency scored their first success in forcing the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe to surrender wanted men when three tribesmen suspected of involvement in anti-state activities were delivered to the political administration on Tuesday. Arsala Khan, Gul Abbas Khan and Sher Mohammad belonging to the Gangikhel subtribe were handed over to the authorities in Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan. Rahmatullah Wazir, assistant political agent, Wana, said the three men were sent behind the bars to face interrogation on their role in sheltering "foreign terrorists" and indulging in violence. The arrest of the three wanted men happened on the day the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe started raising two tribal Lashkars to hunt down those accused of sheltering al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects in South Waziristan.
Lashkar means "army," so I’m guessing this is a tribal militia of some sort.
Armed tribal elders from the nine subtribes of Ahmadzai Wazir met in Wana to discuss their modus operandi. Official sources said the elders started sending messages to the wanted men to surrender or face punitive action. According to the assistant political agent, lists of 57 wanted tribesmen were given to the two tribal Lashkars. The Lashkar of the Zalikhel, the biggest Ahmadzai Wazir sub-tribe, was assigned the task to deliver 29 wanted men. Among them were Nek Mohammad, Sharif Khan and Maulvi Abbas, whose homes were demolished by the Pakistan Army’s Quick Reaction Force and the Frontier Corps militia in a big military operation in Kaloshah village near Wana on January 8. All three have denied charges of involvement in any anti-state activity.
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't us."
More than 50 elders of the Zalikhel subtribe drove to Azam Warsak Tuesday to establish contact with Nek Mohammad, Sharif Khan, Maulvi Abbas and other men on the wanted list. They launched efforts to make the wanted tribesmen surrender and defend themselves against charges. The Lashkar of the other eight subtribes of the Ahmadzai Wazir was provided a list with 28 wanted tribesmen. Following the surrender of the three men from the Gangikhel sub-tribe, the list has been reduced to 25 names. The Lashkars were hoping to make substantive progress today.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:19:03 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Pressure on Bangladesh over support for insurgents
EFL
The presence of Indian insurgents in safe havens in Bangladesh has never been in doubt, considering the volumes of hard intelligence input that New Delhi has. If confirmation was needed, a spate of reports relating to multiple incidents on January 2, 2004, and Dhaka’s subsequent responses, gave confirmation to India’s long standing complaint that its neighbour was being less than honest on the issue. On January 2, Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) raided a hideout of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and captured six of its cadres and seized some weapons and a mobile telephone set. In another incident on January 2, the rebel All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) chief Ranjit Debbarma’s residence in Dhaka was attacked by rocket propelled grenades (RPG). Indian media reports said five ATTF rebels were killed in that attack and eight others, including Debbarma, were wounded. On January 2, Bangladeshi security forces reportedly arrested as many as 34 rebels belonging to the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) from different parts of Dhaka.

Nevertheless, the flow of insurgents from India to safe havens in Bangladesh continues. Indeed, with ULFA having lost its bases and once-secure staging areas inside Bhutan, it is expected to turn to two obvious alternate locations, Myanmar and Bangladesh. But Yangon is already supposed to have turned on the heat on Indian insurgents in the country, leaving Bangladesh the only place that rebels like those of the ULFA have to hold on to. This, too, may not be easy anymore. Dhaka might continue to push ahead with its stand that no Indian insurgents are located or operating from the country, but may have to move as quietly as possible to neutralize these rebels and choke them off within its territory to escape a possible foolproof indictment by the international community as a nation that has not done enough to combat terror.
A lot of these Indian groups, like ULFA, ATTF etc. have become major players in the Bangladeshi underground, and there are many linkages between them and the intelligence services of Bangladesh and Pakistan. The DGFI and ISI have allegedly managed to bring about a dozen of these insurgent groups into an umbrella organisation called the ULFSS, while at the same time, the huge numbers of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants in the border districts of India have developed their own seperatist groups organised into a grouping called the AMULFA. The latter of which is tied in with other Bangladeshi jihadi and Islamist outfits.
Intelligence sources indicated that the January 2 ’rocket attack’ - actually two grenades lobbed into Debbarma’s residence - took place in the Shamoli building apparently owned by a leading Bangladeshi political figure. The chiefs of the ATTF and ULFA were reportedly staying in this highly secure building. After the attack on the building’s 2nd floor, where the ATTF chief was allegedly staying, the local police swung into action and rounded up almost everyone in the building. Some of those picked up were supposed to have been Bangladeshi intelligence operatives. Later, all those picked up were released by the police. Sources claim that top officials of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI, Bangladesh’s Military intelligence agency) intervened to secure the release of these men. It is also claimed that members of a local mafia group called ’Seven Star’ were behind the rocket attack.
It’s also possible that RAW used their contacts in the underworld to put out a hit against these leaders, who operate in Bangladesh much the same way that the Laskar and the Jaish operate in Pakistan.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 01/14/2004 12:04:59 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


JeM, LeT, LeJ, and al-Qaeda all implicated in the Perv assassination attempt
That’s quite posse that Ayman managed to get together to carry out his demands ...
Building on clues from a cell phone data card, investigators probing last month’s assassination attempts against Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, say they are increasingly convinced that the bombings were partly orchestrated by militants associated with the radical Muslim group Jaish-i-Mohammed, a onetime ally of Pakistan’s security services with links to al Qaeda.
"Onetime" meaning as recently as last week...
Call records from the memory chip, which was found among the debris after two men detonated truck bombs near Musharraf’s armored limousine on Christmas, have helped lead to the detention of up to 40 people, including members of Jaish-i-Mohammed and a like-minded group, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. Among those detained for questioning over the weekend were students and teachers at several seminaries in Punjab province affiliated with hard-line Sunni Muslim religious parties that constitute the core of the political opposition in Pakistan’s parliament. Jaish-i-Mohammed and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi have a history of joint operations. Their members have been implicated along with al Qaeda in the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.
Jaish provides the money and brains, and Jhangvi provides the muscle...
"We have seen in the Daniel Pearl case that local jihadis can work in harmony with al Qaeda," a Pakistani investigator said. "Unless we have reached to the bottom of this cesspool plot against the president, al Qaeda will remain a hot suspect." The suspected involvement of members of Jaish-i-Mohammed and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, possibly with help from al Qaeda, underscores the threat posed by homegrown militant groups that over the years have been cultivated by Pakistan’s security establishment as a strategic asset against enemies in Afghanistan and India. For almost two decades, successive civilian and military governments in Pakistan have permitted the flourishing of armed Islamic groups as a kind of irregular army — first in the CIA-backed war against Soviet occupiers in Afghanistan and more recently in the violent conflict with India over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir. Soon after Sept. 11, 2001, however, Musharraf ended Pakistan’s support for Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement, which had provided al Qaeda with a haven to train Islamic militants from around the world — including many from Pakistan. He also vowed full cooperation in the U.S.-led war on terrorism. Pakistan has since handed over about 500 suspected al Qaeda operatives, most of them foreigners, but has moved far more cautiously against Taliban remnants and extremist groups fighting in Kashmir, both of which still enjoy some public support.
They love 'em in NWFP and Balochistan...
Musharraf also began to attack religious extremists as the main threat faced by Pakistan, a conviction that associates say has only deepened following his narrow escapes on Dec. 14 and Christmas. Musharraf has recently hinted at a softening of Pakistani demands on Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan, and last week pledged in his accord with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that Pakistan would not allow terrorist groups to operate from its soil. At best, said Ayesha Siddiqa, a former Defense Ministry official who writes on security matters, militant groups "might be diluted over the years." But Siddiqa, who said he remained skeptical of Musharraf’s commitment to cracking down on the extremists, added: "Militancy is not going to go away. The pattern is the whole thing might actually shift to Pakistan" — especially if Sunni militants start to target Musharraf and his government with the same ferocity they have previously reserved for foreign enemies or members of the country’s Shiite Muslim minority. "They are frustrated because they were working on a particular project, and if they are frustrated obviously we run the risk that they will convert their wrath inwards," Hamid Gul, who ran Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) toward the end of the Afghan war, said of the fighters he still describes as mujaheddin, or holy warriors.
Think of Hamid as a barometer of Perv's seriousness. If Hamid gets jugged, or meets with an unfortunate accident, then Perv's serious. If Hamid continues shooting his mouth off, Perv's going through the motions, whether for internal or external consumption doesn't matter...
The danger posed by militant groups is considered so serious that those in charge of Musharraf’s security recently barred soldiers and police assigned to guard the presidential motorcade from carrying cell phones out of concern that they might be used to coordinate another assassination attempt. In a similar vein, Musharraf has told associates that he is reluctantly considering a move into the official president’s residence in Islamabad, which would reduce the amount of time he spends traveling on public roads. He currently lives with his wife in the city of Rawalpindi, about 12 miles from the capital, in the elegant colonial-era residence to which he is entitled as army chief of staff. Although Musharraf’s political position has in some ways never been stronger — he won a vote of confidence last month in parliament and Pakistan’s four provincial assemblies — diplomats judge him so vulnerable to another attack that they have recently begun studying Pakistan’s rules of succession.
Being in a secure political position doesn't help you if you're dead...
Investigators said the Dec. 14 attack on Musharraf, in which a bridge in Rawalpindi was wired with explosives, generated few clues. The charge detonated moments after Musharraf’s motorcade had passed over the bridge, apparently delayed by U.S.-supplied electronic jamming devices that interfered with the remote control device used to set it off. The second attack, however, involved suicide bombers driving Suzuki pickup trucks packed with explosives. The assailants’ remains and personal effects have yielded an abundance of evidence that has produced a clearer though incomplete picture of the terrorist cell they believe was behind both attempts. One of the bombers, officials said, was carrying an identity card that allowed investigators to piece together his history as a native of the Pakistani-held part of Kashmir who was once associated with the Islamic militant group Harkat ul-Ansar and later with a faction of Jaish-i-Mohammed. The same man, officials said, had received training in Afghanistan during the 1990s and subsequently joined thousands of other Pakistanis who rushed to the aid of the Taliban against U.S. forces in the fall of 2001. Arrested by Afghan troops and imprisoned near Kabul, he eventually was returned to Pakistani authorities, who released him in September.
That's an episode I'd be looking into intently, if I was Perv and I was serious...
The second bomber has not been identified, but what remains of his face has led investigators to believe he may have been an Afghan or Arab, suggesting another possible al Qaeda link. "By all accounts it is a blowback of the strategy we have pursued since 1980," said a senior Pakistani official, speculating that the bombers could have been motivated by anger over Musharraf’s perceived softening on Kashmir. "Such a reversal in policy always triggers a desperate response."
"... since they have no control over their actions."
The possible involvement of Jaish-i-Mohammed, in particular, has aroused interest in Western embassies in light of the long history of close ties between ISI and the group’s leader, Masood Azhar. A militant cleric who was returned to Pakistan by India in 1999 as part of a deal with the hijackers of an Indian Airlines jet to Kandahar, Afghanistan, Azhar was placed under house arrest following Musharraf’s decision in January 2002 to ban Jaish-i-Mohammed and a number of other militant groups. Early last year, however, a Pakistani court ordered his release, and Azhar resumed his fund-raising and political activities.
Really, it would be better if Azhar went someplace by private plane and the aircraft unfortunately went down, killing all aboard...
Following the assassination attempts, some Pakistani officials said publicly that Azhar had "absconded" and that they were unaware of his whereabouts. But other officials said privately this week that Azhar was in his home town, Bahawalpur, under heavy surveillance, and has been questioned in connection with the bombings. Officials emphasized that they had not determined whether the leaders of the groups were involved in the attacks on Musharraf or whether they were carried out by factions acting without approval from the top. A link to Jaish-i-Mohammed "was obviously the initial reaction, and that may be true," Interior Secretary Tasnim Noorani said in a telephone interview. "However, there may be other angles to the whole thing also."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:02:27 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I doubt if Massod Azhar of Hafiz Saeed had anything to do with the assassination plot, it's mroe likely to be an ad-hoc arrangement with some lower ranked Jihadi outfits receiving some assistance from contacts within the establishment.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 01/14/2004 0:07 Comments || Top||

#2  What remains of his face.

bleh.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/14/2004 1:50 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Suicides in Iraq
Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At least 21 U.S. troops have committed suicide in Iraq, a growing toll that represents one in seven of American "non-hostile" deaths since the war began last March, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

The Defense Department’s top health official said the military plan to deal with "battle stress" in Iraq more aggressively than in past conflicts such as the Vietnam War and the 1991 Gulf War.

"Fighting this kind of war is clearly going to be stressful for some people," Assistant Defense Secretary for Health Affairs Dr. William Winkenwerder told reporters in an interview.

"There have been about 21 confirmed suicides during the past year associated with Operation Iraqi Freedom," Winkenwerder said, adding that 18 were Army troops and three others were in the Navy and Marine Corps.

The suicide toll is probably higher than 21, he added, because some "pending" non-hostile death cases are still being investigated.

BULLSHIT ALERT

Per the National Institutes of Mental Health:

  • The 2001 age-adjusted rate was 10.7/100,000
  • Among young people 20 to 24 years of age, the suicide rate was 12/100,000
  • Per this NIMH chart, rates for white males in the age group 15-24 approximate 20:100,000.

While the rates may be high for the military, they appear to be the same rates as those of the general population. Since many of those serving in Iraq are civilians called up into the Guard and Reserve, it would seem logical that the rates would be very similar. Watch for the LLL to make a bigger deal out of this than the facts show.

Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/14/2004 1:28:06 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The media tried the same thing with the pneumonia 'epidemic' with simular results.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 13:32 Comments || Top||

#2  The fact is that overseas deployments are always stressful because of their effect on relationships and families. Divorces and breakups are common, and probably account for a significant number of suicides.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/14/2004 13:48 Comments || Top||

#3  This is, I believe, the second time someone's tried to spread this lie. den Beste dealt with the first, and I'm pretty sure it got mentioned here.

The enemies of civilization (and, yes, Reuters is among their ranks) will do ANYTHING to try to discredit the defense of civilization.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/14/2004 14:03 Comments || Top||

#4  AP is saying that the peacetime rate runs 10.5-11:100,000 and the current rate is 13.5:100,000. Apart from incorrectly comparing peacetime and wartime, the rates appear similar to the general populations. No story here.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/14/2004 14:28 Comments || Top||

#5  What's worrisome is that we're fast approaching the most dangerous time of the year for potential suicides... Spring. The middle of April is a dangerous time for otherwise rational people.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/14/2004 16:16 Comments || Top||

#6  10.5-11:100,000

The US shouldn't discriminate against midgets by calling them half a person.
Posted by: Charles || 01/14/2004 16:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Rates actually peaked in 1995 under you know who but the story was ignored by the press back then. Call this the suicide rediscovery watch then.

http://web1.whs.osd.mil/MMID/CASUALTY/Death_Rates1.pdf
Posted by: Dave || 01/14/2004 19:09 Comments || Top||

#8  I blame Bush. Or the Easter Bunny.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/14/2004 21:10 Comments || Top||


Germany to consider humanitarian aid of Bundeswehr in Iraq
German sources only for now
The Spiegel reports that Schroeder has proposed to send a "flying hospital" (Medevac airbus) operated by the Bundeswehr to Iraq, if the UN okays a NATO mission. Medevac would provide medical aid to coalition troops in Iraq and fly them out. The German opposition seems to approve of the plan. Schroeder also pledged more logistical assistance to European countries militarily involved in Iraq like the UK and Poland.
Small steps, and probably intended as a good will proposal. Schroeder is going to meet Bush next month...
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/14/2004 1:21:32 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hey, nice move. US-German relations are on the mend.
Posted by: Rafael || 01/14/2004 13:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Most excellent. Chirac still has the all-important support of the Belgians, though.
Posted by: Matt || 01/14/2004 14:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Wonder if a Sunburn would be effective against a flying hospital?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/14/2004 16:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Shipman - you're incorrigible
Posted by: Frank G || 01/14/2004 21:27 Comments || Top||


Heads Up, Incoming?....
This is a bit worrisome if for no other reason than both of these individuals have - IMHO - shown themselves to be pretty relaible in the past. Were something like this to happen, may Allah indeed have mercy on the Islamofascists, for the shade of Curtis LeMay will once more walk the Earth...and he will have none.

Mike

This is a partial transcript of Special Report with Brit Hume, Jan. 13, that has been edited for clarity.
[snipped, duplicate article]
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/14/2004 12:27:19 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If the Mullahs can sneak 12 warheads across a border they can damn sure sneak a nuke across as well.

If this attack does take place I doubt there will be an Iran before the year is out.
Posted by: badanov || 01/14/2004 12:39 Comments || Top||

#2  I like Mansoor and all but he's claimed a lot of wacky stuff that never comes true... I think he just makes a lot of this crap up to be honest with you.
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 01/14/2004 12:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Makes sense, AQ did say that another attack would come by the end of a February holiday. Remember, they pushed their Thanksgiving timeline to February.

Ok, could Bremer go on TV/radio, $25m for each unexploded warhead and $500K per terrorist alive?

And let the hunt begin, talk about reality TV.

And for the Kurds, kiss any independent state goodbye. I didn't protect them for 12 years for this treachery.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/14/2004 12:54 Comments || Top||

#4  FYI: Mansoor first made a splash when he showed up in Khartoum, Sudan, circa 1994, and made a play to get a percentage of the former Chevron oil concession. He was received by Hasan al-Turabi and General Bashir (the government leaders) because he could demonstrate Islamist credentials -- thanks to his father's contacts in Pakistan. Simply put, much of his reporting -- as you suggest -- is simply not believable.
Posted by: Tancred || 01/14/2004 14:17 Comments || Top||

#5  One problem I have with Ijaz is that he is a huge democrat backer and has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Clinton (both of them) campaigns. It's even been said that he would vote for Hillary when she runs. Where does his allegiance lie? Anybody who pals around with Bill and Hill deserves a grain of salt to anything he says. On the other hand I really respect Brit and find it hard to believe he would feature someone without credibility unknowingly.
Posted by: AF Lady || 01/14/2004 20:22 Comments || Top||


Mansoor Ijaz sez terrorists are planning an attack in Iraq
BRIT HUME, HOST: The administration is not saying anything about this, and it is not even clear officials know anything about it. But some sources in Iraq are talking about a development that could prove an important turn in the search for weapons of mass destruction. For more on this we turn to the man who so often seems to know things before everybody else. Fox News foreign affairs analyst Mansoor Ijaz, who joins us now from Berlin. Mansoor, what?s up?
MANSOOR IJAZ, FOX NEWS FOREIGN POLICY ANALYST: Well, Brit, what I have learned in the last 24 hours is that about three days ago in the northern part of Iraq, a convoy of trucks and jeeps and cars was brought across from Iran where some of the Kurdish Peshmergah -- these are these Kurdish rebels that are sort of like Mujahideen, if I may put it that way, from the old Afghan War. They intercepted one of those trucks that were carrying a large warhead that had extremely sophisticated plastic -- C- 4 plastic explosives in it. And when the driver of that truck was put under interrogation, he then admitted that as many -- there were a total of 30 warheads that apparently were scheduled to come across.

One of them got caught, and 29 made it across somehow or the other. Of those 29, we are told now that somewhere between six and 12 of them may have, in fact, been laden with chemical explosives that would be then attached to a rocket of some sort inside Iraq that?s already there in a separate convoy. And that those warheads would then be exploded over, for example, an encampment near the Coalition Provisional Authority or something like that.

Now, what alarmed me about this and the reason that I felt it was necessary to get this out as soon as possible, is because I have now heard three times in the last week, from separate sources that I have been talking to that something big is being planned for Baghdad. In which the idea that is being put forward is to kill as many as 3,000 to 5,000 people at one shot; something that would be similar to a World Trade Center type of attack. In that part of the world, the only way you could get that done is if you launched a massive chemical or biological attack.

HUME: Now, talk to me a little bit about the Kurdish forces who were involved in this event. Are these -- are they friendly to the United States and the coalition? Are they not? And what -- you know, and how credible are they?
IJAZ: Yes. It's a good question. The strange thing here is that what I have been told is that the sources that got this information out, what they saw on the ground physically going on is that the Kurdish leaders that had -- the Kurdish rebels that had caught this guy had taken the warhead and were actually trying to sell it back to the Iranians along with their silence. Because there's something else going on here that's of a larger political nature.

We now know that during the past week, the reformists in Iran have been pummeled and stopped from allowing their candidates to be fielded for the upcoming elections. We also know that there is, as we have said here before about a month and a half, two months ago, that there is a wintertime offensive being prepared with the help of the Iranian and Revolutionary Guard in Afghanistan, maybe with the help of Al Qaeda, maybe even bin Laden, al Zawahiri, and people like that who, as we've said here before, are in Iran right now.

And at the same time, they're trying to launch something in Iraq. The idea of which would be the wag the dog scenario, where if your domestic politics, you can't fix it, and it's getting too much pressure under honor the mullahs in Iran right now. Better to start the fire and ratchet it up a notch on both sides outside, both in Afghanistan and Iraq at the same time.

HUME: Now, how great a likelihood do you believe that you are finding this out or others finding this out, and it getting out, will have on it actually happening?
IJAZ: Well, I think the first thing we've got to do is go and talk to those Kurdish rebels and find out where the heck those other convoy trucks went. The second thing that we need to do, and I talked with General McInerney earlier this evening to determine what the range is, what type of warheads would be used and how these things could be put together. He made a very strong recommendation, and I agree with that, that we need to get Global Hawk One back in theater. Because if these things...

HUME: That thing out of there now?
IJAZ: ... these chemical warheads were attached -- they are out of there right now, and they're not in theater. And the trouble is that they're in desolate areas in which these rockets could be launched from. And remember, a chemical weapon, to have massive -- the most massive impact that it can have to have a midair burst. Which means that it needs to be launched from, let's say, 100 kilometers away or 50 kilometers away or 200 kilometers away. These are areas that our people are just not, you know, focused on right now because we've got so much work to do in and around the urban areas in Iraq. So I think we need to get down to finding out where that convoy of 29 warheads are and do that immediately. And get our Kurdish friends to help us rather than trying to sell them back to the Iranians. That doesn't make any sense.

HUME: Oh, we?ve got just a few seconds left. The credibility of your sources, your assessment?
IJAZ: They?re unimpeachable. Again, I think they've been right all along. We'll find out in the coming days in a print report about the bin Laden story in great detail. Everything has been verified. We will see that.

HUME: Thank you Mansoor.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:24:24 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ..Curses - beaten by three minutes!!!

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/14/2004 12:33 Comments || Top||

#2  So Iranians smuggled 30 chem warheads and rockets over the border to start a major attack in Iraq?

Excuse me,this sounds like total BS.
Posted by: El Id || 01/14/2004 12:44 Comments || Top||

#3  I think Mansoor Ijaz said that soon there would be some proof that the Iranians were sheltering Bin Laden as well. He's been accurate in the past.

Still, this all seems to be a perfect excuse to go after Iran. Almost too perfect. It's hard to imagine the Iranians would be so obvious.
Posted by: ruprecht || 01/14/2004 12:45 Comments || Top||

#4  ruprecht, what's he been accurate about? I usually here him making claims that so and so will happen immenently and then I never here anything else about it and it never happens. This sounds like another one of those...
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 01/14/2004 12:54 Comments || Top||

#5  This story smells for many reasons:
1. carrying a large warhead that had extremely sophisticated plastic -- C- 4 plastic explosives
C-4 is used for demolitions, I don't believe it's used in warheads. Of course, it's the only explosive reporters would be able to name off the top of their heads, so that could be the problem.
And what does he call large? 100 lbs? 500, 1000?

2. six and 12 of them may have, in fact, been laden with chemical explosives that would be then attached to a rocket of some sort inside Iraq that's already there in a separate convoy.
Again, size counts here. 122mm rocket? 155? Scud? If you only have 6 - 12, that's not a lot when you're talking about a chem attack. There's a reason Soviet tactics called for using massed banks of multiple rocket launchers for chem attacks. You need to deliver a lot to kill masses of troops.

3. the idea that is being put forward is to kill as many as 3,000 to 5,000 people at one shot
6 - 12 warheads ain't enough unless you're talking about civilians bunched together. Even then, you'd have to get lucky.

4.that there is a wintertime offensive being prepared with the help of the Iranian and Revolutionary Guard in Afghanistan
Anyone think the Iranians are this stupid? I mean they might give food, shelter and arms to al-Qaeda and some Taliban, but direct military action in Afghanistan? No way.

5. And remember, a chemical weapon, to have massive -- the most massive impact that it can have to have a midair burst
It goes off up in the air, wind blows it away and disperses it. Warhead needs to be down where the targets are, low level.

6. it needs to be launched from, let's say, 100 kilometers away or 50 kilometers away or 200 kilometers away.
Okay, this is in Scud class range. Think they're gonna be dragging 6 to 12 Scuds around without somebody noticing?
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 14:14 Comments || Top||

#6  ...been laden with chemical explosives...

Now there's a coded message for ya.
Posted by: Rafael || 01/14/2004 14:27 Comments || Top||

#7  been laden with chemical explosives

This is the statement that jumps out at e the most.
While it is true high explosives are made-up of chemicals,chemical weapons are not explosive.
Posted by: raptor || 01/14/2004 16:10 Comments || Top||

#8  Anyone think the Iranians are this stupid?

Yes, actually. Never underestimate the stupidity of people who use human wave tactics.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/14/2004 16:17 Comments || Top||

#9  Never underestimate the stupidity of people who use human wave tactics.

The waves are going to turn into nuclear slush if Iran goes through with this. If it's even true.
Posted by: Charles || 01/14/2004 16:40 Comments || Top||

#10  Well, THAT didn't breed confidence. McInerney (sp) was just on Brit - they had no idea. W/in 15 minutes info was in Baghdad.

McInerney had lunch w/a kurd last week, it would play into their goals well.

As to C-4 not being used in warheads - if true, we have to start thinking about known unknowns. I'm no chem expert, obviously, but just because it's never been done doesn't mean someone won't try.

My motto is after 9/11 - anything is possible.

This'll make or break Ijaz.
Posted by: Anonymous2u || 01/14/2004 18:23 Comments || Top||

#11  A2U, I think Ijaz and his source are credible. The guy who I do not trust is the driver of the truck with the C-4 and or the Kurdish militia members who tried to sell the material to Iran.

I would expect a Kurd and/or an Iranian that was caught in illegal activity to create a the story on a detailed ficticious conspiracy out of whole cloth.

Culturals in that area of the world will tend to generate misinformation. I will continue to take what Ijaz says seriously in any case. There is always some truth at the heart of these stories. I found Monsoor's explanation of why he thought the first attempt on Perv's life was a fraud to be credible. He was able to describe the area of the bombing from a first hand perspective. An American that can speak about Pakistan from a first hand prespective is quite uncommon.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 22:13 Comments || Top||

#12  John Loftus of john-loftus.com thinks the report is credible (he said the explosive was RDX), but thinks that it is part of a bigger Iranian scheme (i) by the Mullahs to threaten the US with wider war (to distract from the Mullahs internal problems) or (ii) by the reformers to try to get the US more involved in the overthrow of the mullahs. Either way, I think there is reason for concern.
Posted by: Tibor || 01/14/2004 23:25 Comments || Top||


I Seen Da Lite!
Former Ba’ath Party leaders in Northern Iraq denounced the party of Saddam Hussein Tuesday and exhorted the people of the region to work with the Coalition to build a free and unified Iraq. More than 50 leaders who once supported The Ba’ath Party objectives met in the city hall of Ash Shurah, a small town 35 kilometers south of Mosul, to discuss their role in the future of Iraq. During the meeting, ten 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier leaders of the party publicly denounced terrorism, violence, and voiced the need for all Iraqis to work together for the future of the new Iraq. The event was marked by impassioned speeches to cajole those who persist in identifying themselves with the Ba’ath Party to help end disruptive violence and join with them to make Iraq a better place.

Simultaneously, in a related event in the nearby town of Al Hadr, about 25 former Ba’athists, including several 3rd tier Shua’bah leaders, also denounced violence and pledged to work with the Coalition. The 101st facilitated the events to support reconciliation by former regime elements in order to ensure the democratic process includes all Iraqis who are willing to support a free, safe and democratic environment. The events signify a shift among the top regional leaders of the Nineveh province toward supporting the reconstruction of Northern Iraq and increased cooperation with Coalition efforts.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/14/2004 8:32:11 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great news! Looks like the "insurgency" is dying with a whimper not a bang...
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 01/14/2004 10:59 Comments || Top||

#2  They see which way things are going, so they're changing sides while it's still easy to do.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/14/2004 12:53 Comments || Top||


Number 54! Paging Number 54!
As a result of aggressive combat operations, we announce the capture of Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad, number 54 in the top 55 “Deck of Cards” list. Khamis is a former Baath Party regional chairman for the Karbala governate. He was captured in a combined operation by members of the 82d Airborne Division and special operations forces on Jan. 11 in the vicinity of Ar Ramadi. He is currently in Coalition custody. Due to circumstances of his capture, we cannot provide more details at this time.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/14/2004 8:30:14 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  


There's a holdup in the Bronx, 

Brooklyn's broken out in fights. 

There's a traffic jam in Harlem, 

That's backed up to Jackson Heights. 

There's a scout troop short a child, 

Krushchev's due at Idlewild...... 

CARD 54, WHERE ARE YOU???!!!
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 01/14/2004 8:39 Comments || Top||

#2  SOMEBODY just revealed their age, and it wasn't me (Although I, too, remember Car 54). I made a comment to my teenage daughter about "Gunther Toodey's" the other day, and she still hasn't figured out who I was talking about.

I can't wait until the "Deck of Evil" Card set is re-issued, with black borders around the mug shots of those that have been killed, and the big circle-and-diagonal-slash international symbol across the face of the rest.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/14/2004 11:16 Comments || Top||

#3  OP, ask and ye shall receive (at least mostly):

LINK 1 - me
LINK 2 - CPA
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/14/2004 11:42 Comments || Top||


Sammy said to watch those foreign jihadis ...
Saddam Hussein warned his Iraqi supporters to be wary of joining forces with foreign Arab fighters entering Iraq to battle American troops, according to a document found with the former Iraqi leader when he was captured, Bush administration officials said Tuesday. The document appears to be a directive, written after he lost power, from Mr. Hussein to leaders of the Iraqi resistance, counseling caution against getting too close to Islamic jihadists and other foreign Arabs coming into occupied Iraq, according to American officials.
There are a couple of reasons for doing this, not the least of which being a desire to preserve his own security, preventing sectarian tensions from breaking out (there were Iraqi Christians in Sammy’s ranks), plus a fear that the Fedayeen might decide that it was cooler being Binny’s thugs fighting in the global jihad than setting out to defend the Revolution(TM).
It provides a second piece of evidence challenging the Bush administration contention of close cooperation between Mr. Hussein’s government and terrorists from Al Qaeda. C.I.A. interrogators have already elicited from the top Qaeda officials in custody that, before the American-led invasion, Osama bin Laden had rejected entreaties from some of his lieutenants to work jointly with Mr. Hussein.
Why, since interactions with the foreign jihadis has nothing to do with what Sammy may have done before the war? Of course, far be it from the Times to note that Ibn Shaykh al-Libi says that al-Qaeda did work with Iraq, as have likely Muammar Ahmed Yousef. Khalid said they didn’t after he was captured and Abu Zubaydah’s answer as reported in the Weekly Standard was that Binny was willing to cooperate with anybody who hated the US, which explains his diamond deals with Chuck down in Liberia.
Officials said Mr. Hussein apparently believed that the foreign Arabs, eager for a holy war against the West, had a different agenda from the Baathists, who were eager for their own return to power in Baghdad. As a result, he wanted his supporters to be careful about becoming close allies with the jihadists, officials familiar with the document said. A new, classified intelligence report circulating within the United States government describes the document and its contents, according to administration officials who asked not to be identified. The officials said they had no evidence that the document found with Mr. Hussein was a fabrication.
And there does the news end and the Times’s spin begin with this article ...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:15:23 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  These days, the NY Times reads a lot like the Nation. The idea that alliances are just temporary arrangements over short-term common interests rather than communal lovefests doesn't seem to have occurred to this NYT analyst. How simplistic can they get?

Of course Saddam is going to warn against al Qaeda infiltration - he wants to restore a Baathist state under his rule, whereas al Qaeda wants a theocratic state under some al Qaeda organizer's rule. For now, their common goal is to expel the American presence. Once this is accomplished, they will fight each other for control over Iraq. Saddam wants to keep his security apparatus free of al Qaeda influence because of the dangers of betrayals and assassinations by al Qaeda after the US is expelled.

Bottom line: The NYT analyst is either being naive or deceitful when he lays the story out in this manner. Whichever it might be, this analysis is simplistic in the extreme in its denial that rivals for power can ally to achieve intermediate goals.

* Even we were worried about subversion during our alliance with the Soviet Union - justifiably so - given that the Soviets were running spy operations against us, the most successful of which was the theft of nuclear secrets via the Rosenbergs. We don't exactly encourage even friendly countries to infiltrate and spy on our government agencies - Jonathan Pollack, who spied for Israel, is serving out a life term as I type this. What Saddam said was just common sense - preserve the integrity of the security apparatus by avoiding infiltration by al Qaeda. Only an NYT journalist would read that as meaning Saddam did not cooperate with al Qaeda.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/14/2004 9:55 Comments || Top||

#2  So they were reluctant to cooperate. It's also obvious that there were enough of these cocksuckers crawling around Iraq to make Saddam nervous. Cooperation also means giving them a cozy home to work from. Similar to, oh I don't know, say Afghanistan.
Posted by: KofiAnonymous || 01/14/2004 9:58 Comments || Top||

#3  I guess these guys have never heard of von Ribbentrop, eh?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/14/2004 10:41 Comments || Top||

#4  So they were reluctant to cooperate.

No, they weren't reluctant to cooperate. Saddam was reluctant to get too close because he feared this would result in an al Qaeda takeover of his security apparatus.

From the NYT article: Military and intelligence officials say they have detected cooperation at the tactical level, on individual attacks, but have less evidence of any coordination at a broader strategic level.

We cooperated in a similar fashion with the Soviets during WWII - even as our strategy differed from Soviet strategy, which was to promote and fund world revolution. James Risen, the NYT reporter is simply drawing invalid conclusions from the data.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/14/2004 10:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Bottom line is that Saddam wanted to limit the number of contacts (and the amount of socializing) between the two sides to operational contacts* because he feared the religious influence of al Qaeda. He was afraid his people would be converted to al Qaeda's way of thinking and cease being his vehicle for regaining power.

* for specific missions
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/14/2004 10:51 Comments || Top||


US forces capture possible al-Qaeda suspects near Mosul
As U.S. forces in Iraq faced hostile fire in the air and on the ground, raids in northern Iraq yielded several suspected terrorists, including some who might belong to the Al Qaeda terror network. Military sources in the field reported that members of Al Qaeda were among those rounded up by the 101st Airborne division near Mosul. But senior Defense officials at the Pentagon would not confirm that some of the captured were Al Qaeda. The 101st Airborne division was using lists of several people they were seeking; the raids conducted to seize those people were successful, Pentagon sources told Fox. But, the sources added, "they don’t carry membership cards" so it wasn’t immediately known whether or not they belong to Usama bin Laden’s terror network. And intelligence sources said they didn’t have information that any members of Al Qaeda were detained recently either. Other senior officials told Fox News there was some information that the detainees might be connected to Ansar al-Islam, which in turn has links to Al Qaeda. But since the data on the raids was still being analyzed, the officials said they couldn’t yet confirm the identities of those captured.
My own opinion is that the difference between the core network and the affiliates is basically one of semantics and it looks like the troops in the field seem to share that view.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:07:05 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I read in Oliver North's book that out of ten fedayeem killed, seven would be carring foriegn passports of one type or another. If we fingered printed all the dead guys before they were bulldozed into a pit, wouldn't it be damning if the prints on some of them matched prints found in Afghanistan?
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 15:00 Comments || Top||


GIs Nab Izzat Ibrahim Relatives
SAMARRA - U.S. troop raided two homes in this central Iraqi city Wednesday morning, arresting four family members of the most-wanted Iraq insurgent still at large. The military said two of the detainees were suspected of keeping former Iraqi Vice President Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri in hiding. Forty soldiers from 720th Military Police Battalion out of Fort Hood, Texas, raided two houses in the central Iraqi city of Samarra after a tip. The raid appeared to bring coalition forces even closer to al-Doury, who is believed to have been orchestrating continuing attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/14/2004 23:19 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If you're going to take hostages, aren't you supposed to leak periodic bogus reports about their declining health? I'm new at this.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 13:37 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
The Women of Jemaah Islamiah
Sorry, no centerfolds. Long article from BBC detailing what we already guessed about family connections. EFL:
Mira Augustina married her husband the same day she met him. It was the first time he had proposed, by way of the 21-year-old’s father. "We met at nine o’clock in the morning. We talked a little, and then he asked if I wanted to be his wife. And by 6pm we were married. Oh yes, it was a very happy day for me," Augustina said. Augustina was told her husband was an Indonesian named Mohammed Asseqof. In fact, authorities say he was an Iraqi man with a Kuwaiti passport named Omar al-Faruq, and he was reportedly a key link between al-Qaeda and the regional militant network, Jemaah Islamiah (JI), which has been blamed for the Bali bombing. Augustina’s father, an alleged arms runner, introduced al-Faruq to JI activists, as well as to his daughter. Al-Faruq was captured last year, and the CIA removed him from Indonesia. His wife and their two daughters haven’t seen him since.
"The marriage alliances are the glue that holds the organisation together. said Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group in Jakarta. "Oftentimes senior members of the organisation will offer their sisters or sisters-in-law to new and promising recruits, so that not only is someone drawn into the organisation, but they’re drawn into the family at the same time. "They’ve been in control of finances in some cases. They play a role as couriers, in ensuring that, particularly after imprisonment, communication among different members of the organisation is maintained," Ms Jones said. She said the women of Jemaah Islamiah for the most part remain behind the scenes.

One Malaysian family illustrates this more than any other.
The father trained in Afghanistan in the late 1980s, where he probably met the men who would later marry two of his daughters. One daughter, Paridah Binti Abas, is married to Ali Gufron, also known as Mukhlas, who was recently convicted of masterminding the 2002 Bali bombing. Paridah was pregnant with her sixth child when Ali Gufron was arrested in 2002. When their son was born, the couple decided to name him after one of their heroes, Osama. Unlike Mira Augustina, Paridah seems to have known what her husband was doing all along. She says even her young children support him. Paridah had a comfortable childhood, but her husband Ali Gufron grew up in a poor village. He became a preacher and fled to Afghanistan to fight for a better life. Paridah now lives in that village, far from Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. There, her ailing father-in-law and mother-in-law occupy a humble shack. They are parents to three men who have been found guilty of carrying out the Bali bombing - Ali Gufron and his younger two brothers, Amrozi and Ali Imron.
Just one big happy family, like the Mansons.
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 4:04:50 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Come on, Steve! I was expecting at least one picture of Paris Hilton al-Faruq biting a pillow or something...
Posted by: Raj || 01/14/2004 16:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Wasn't this a Playboy special two months ago?
Posted by: Fred || 01/14/2004 17:11 Comments || Top||


Singapore Detains Two Suspected Islamic Militants
EFL:
Singapore has detained two more suspected Islamic militants, including the father-in-law of slain Indonesian bomb-maker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, in connection with a 2001 plot to blow up Western targets. The arrests, one made late last year and the other in 2002 but announced Wednesday, bring to 37 the number of suspected Muslim militants detained in Singapore, where officials say a threat from Southeast Asia extremist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) lingers. One of the detained, Hosnay bin Awi, was trained in the Philippines by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), an Islamic militant rebel group, the Ministry of Home affairs said. The other man, Alahuddeen bin Abdullah, was an MILF soldier who fought against the Philippine army, the ministry said.
Those Phillipine training camps keep popping up, SE Asia’s new Afghanistan.
He was detained in Singapore in October 2002 but the government only announced his arrest Wednesday, without saying why it was doing so now.
The info they may have gotten from him has gone stale.
Both were arrested under Singapore’s Internal Security Act which allows for detention without trial for up to two years. Hosnay, arrested after returning from Indonesia in November, was the father-in-law of al-Ghozi, one of the most wanted men in Asia before he was gunned down by Philippine police last year.
Cue the "Family Affair" theme song.
He had fled Singapore during sweeps on Islamic militants in 2001 and 2002 but was found by police in neighboring Indonesia and jailed while working in a shop run by the Jemaah Islamiah, the Home Affairs statement said.
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 9:32:03 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Dirt Nap for Thai Muslim Informant
A Muslim informant of the Thai Armed Forces Security Centre was killed on Monday night in Muang district. Police said Marophi Di-sa-eh, 28, of Krong Pinang sub-district, was attacked by four men on two motorcycles while on his way home from a mosque about 7.30pm. Marophi’s throat was slit with a knife. There was also a 15cm knife wound in the back of his head.
Tried to cut it off, did they?
He was reported to be an informant of the Armed Forces Security Centre, the military’s intelligence unit. It was not known if the attack was motivated by personal conflict or for his being a military informant.
What the hell do you think?
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 01/14/2004 1:16:35 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is this the world's first drive-by throat-slitting?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/14/2004 7:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Machetes don't kill, people do!
Posted by: Steve White || 01/14/2004 10:44 Comments || Top||


NPA weaponry is coming from MILF
THE antitank weapons used by New People’s Army guerrillas who raided a power plant in Cala­ca, Batangas, on Saturday came from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, confirming the tactical alliance between the two rebel organizations, Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said on Tuesday. In an interview at Camp Agui­naldo, Ermita said military intelligence had long established that the milf has become one of the NPA’s arms suppliers. “These antitank weapons indicate that [the NPA] may have bought them from the secessionists in the South, because it is the Muslim secessionist group that has these weapons,” Ermita said.

Troops recovered two light antitank weapons left behind by the Calaca raiders. The Law, or the M72-series, is described as “a lightweight, self-contained, anti­armor weapon consisting of a rocket packed in a launcher.” Ermita said these weapons were leftovers from the Afghanistan War in 1995, in which several milf fighters trained and took part. Stressing the alliance between the NPA and the milf, Ermita said, “[The two groups] go by the dictum that the enemy of my friend is my enemy. Who is the common the enemy of the two groups? The Armed Forces of the Philippines.” Ermita has urged the milf leadership to stop supporting the NPA rebels “because it is destroying the atmosphere of peace.” Milf spokesman Eid "Lipless Eddie" Kabalu admitted that the milf has an existing alliance with the NPA but denied that it is supplying the guerrillas with antitank weapons. “Our alliance doesn’t include the sharing of weapons,” he said.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
“The alliance was forged merely to prevent our group and their group from clashes in areas where we both operate, particularly in Central Mindanao,” Kabalu said in an interview. Four soldiers were killed and six others were wounded before dawn Saturday when more than 50 NPA rebels stormed the National Power Corp. plant in Dancalao village, Calaca. Military intelligence also showed a delivery of an undetermined number of Laws on Mindoro Island in early 2003. Ermita suspects these were the same weapons used in the Calaca attack.

On December 23 the military monitored the landing of about 20 communist rebels in Balayan Bay, Batangas. The group reportedly came from Mindoro Island, a known bailiwick of NPA insurgents. Military troops were sent to the area to check but the operation was frozen when the government called a Christmas truce with the NPA. “Their operation was limited to small unit patrols and intelligence gathering as the government cease-fire had already started,” the declassified report said. “Likewise, sightings of armed communist terrorists also ceased perhaps due to the CPP unilateral cease-fire.”

Despite the Calaca attack, the government is determined to resume formal talks next month with the NPA and its political arm, the Communist Party of the Philippines. Details of the talks are being ironed out by both parties and the government of Norway, which is the third party facilitator. “This is a new source of momentum for our political and economic security,” President Arroyo said.
"We'll give them what they want. Maybe they'll leave us alone."
The chief government negotiator, Silvestre Bello 3rd, said the government is waiting for the National Democratic Front to sign the joint statement, which would pave the way for the resumption of talks. The NDF is the political umbrella of the CPP and the NPA. Bello said the NDF’s chief negotiator, Luis Jalandoni, had committed to signing the statement. “I have no reason to doubt his words,” he said. The talks are expected to resume either on the first or on the second week of February, and will be held either in Thailand or in Vietnam.
That'd be appropriate, wouldn't it? They can argue over the shape of the table for a year or so...
Eighty-six safe-conducts have been issued to officials of the communist negotiators, including Gregorio Rosal, CPP-NPA spokesman, who accused the government of stepping up its efforts to reopen the talks to attract votes for the May 10 national election. “The jasig [joint agreement on safety and immunity guarantee] is in effect. The 86 names submitted to the government are covered by the safe-conducts issued by the government,” Bello said. He warned that despite the safe-conducts, those who have them could still be arrested if a crime has been committed. “We had to know and we had to tell you that the jasig or safe-conduct pass is not a permit to commit an offense. It is intended only to provide unhindered passage to those involved in the peace talks. If you commit a crime, you can still be arrested,” Bello said.

The government panel noted that the terrorist label pinned by the US government and the European Union on the cpp-npa and its political consultant, Jose Maria Sison, would not hinder the negotiations. “They agreed to conduct the negotiations without any precondition,” Bello said. Part of the joint statement, according to Bello, pertains to the terrorist label. He said the government is prepared to deal with whatever the NDF proposes, which includes asking the US and EU to strike the NDF off the list of terrorist organizations. Last year an attempt to reopen talks with the NDF was halted after the group insisted that they be delisted first. But with the participation of the Norwegian government as a third-party facilitator, Bello said, “They are now eager to talk peace with us.”

Before the signing of the joint agreement, exploratory talks were held on October 9 and 10 and November 20 and 21 both in Oslo and on November 23 and 24 in Utrecht. The government hopes to reach a peace settlement with the communists before the May election. “If not, I think the fact that the present administration succeeded in putting back on track the peace process is already a major accomplishment of the Arroyo administration,” Bello said. Negotiations could continue until June, but Bello said the government would push for a marathon negotiation.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:26:36 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Nice People Around", as they say.
Posted by: mojo || 01/14/2004 0:51 Comments || Top||


Thai ministers says international terrorists behind recent violence
Thailand’s defense minister said Wednesday international terrorists inspired Thai Muslim insurgents to stage recent violent attacks in the country’s south in a bid to raise their profile and win respect from other militants. Thammarak Isarangura na Ayuthaya said about 50 former soldiers suspected of involvement in the attacks had been flown to Bangkok for interrogation and repeated earlier assertions that a terrorist militia had been training in the region for months. "The separatist ideology had died down for years, but it reemerged recently after international terrorist groups intensified their operations," Thammarak told The Associated Press, without elaborating.

Thailand’s predominantly Muslim provinces of Satun, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat were once the stronghold of a separatist movement known as the Pattani United Liberation Organization. At its peak, the PULO commanded more than 20,000 armed guerrillas, but the group dispersed after a government amnesty in the early 1980s.

Unidentified groups that have mounted isolated attacks against police outposts and government-run schools in recent years, earlier dismissed as bandits, have revived the separatist mission, the minister said. "This is the first time (in recent years) that several bandit groups have joined hands and instilled the separatist ideology into the minds of young people," Thammarak said. "They recruited young people and carried out militia training in the jungles. The trainers always wore black uniforms and covered their faces."

The minister said earlier that the recruits were young people studying at Muslim religious schools but did not specify where or by whom they were trained. Thai officials fear local militants are being aided by outside terror groups linked to Al-Qaida. Thammarak declined to say how many young Muslims had been recruited, but said the rebel groups had no hope of establishing an independent Muslim state in southern Thailand despite having mobilized support among local people after a spate of recent attacks. The latest wave of violence came on January 4, when the suspected insurgents raided an army camp in Narathiwat province, killing four soldiers and stealing more than 100 assault rifles from the camp’s armory. Simultaneously, 21 government-run schools were set on fire. A string of bombings and attempted bombings followed, killing two police officers. "Now we have to reinstate the power of the state there (in southern Thailand), so the army can operate against these people," Thammarak said. "We have to stop them from growing up as militants, otherwise the movement will grow."

The army has rounded up dozens of discharged soldiers since the January 4 attacks, he said, and brought them to an undisclosed location in Bangkok for interrogation. "About 50 of them have been flown from here by military plane for interrogation," said Thammarak, who spoke by telephone from Pattani. On Tuesday, Thai and Malaysian military forces began joint land and air patrols along their jungle border for the first time since the 1970s and the Thais announced they had stepped up security at airports across the country.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:21:19 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The latest wave of violence came on January 4, when the suspected insurgents raided an army camp in Narathiwat province, killing four soldiers and stealing more than 100 assault rifles from the camp’s armory. Simultaneously, 21 government-run schools were set on fire. A string of bombings and attempted bombings followed, killing two police officers.

See how we take the high ground. Die copper!
Posted by: Lucky || 01/14/2004 0:48 Comments || Top||


Africa: East
Tanzania could be next operational center for Al Qaida
From Geostrategy Direct
Western intelligence agencies are looking at Tanzania as a new base for Al Qaida. The African state, the venue for the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy, has all the ingredients to be an Al Qaida stronghold. Wahhabi Islam is spreading throughout Tanzania and young Africans are being invited to study religion in Saudi Arabia, completed with generous stipends. The leading Al Qaida supporters are Khalfan Khamis Muhammad and Qaed Sanyan Al Harithi.

The Tanzanians who return from Saudi Arabia have established an infrastructure for Al Qaida. The first stage has been to challenge and take over the Muslim clerical establishment. Two Saudi-financed groups, the Imam Society and the Islamic Call threaten to take over in Zanzibar, Pemba and Stone Town. The next stage is the violence against non-Muslims. In 2002, a tourist bar was bombed in Stone Town in an attack that could have been inspired by Al Qaida-related elements. Tanzania is not seen as a huge base for Al Qaida as such nearby states as Kenya and Somalia. The Muslim community remains small compared to other African countries. But Tanzania could be another stepping stone for Al Qaida in its attempt to dominate Africa in an effort that sees the Islamic terrorist movement working its way toward South Africa. For Al Qaida, South Africa would be a biggest catch yet.
Once again, the money originates in Saudi Arabia. Whether we take .com’s 40km strip in the east, go after financiers, or whatever, we will not win the WoT until we cut off the funding to the terrorists. The sooner we do, the safer we will all be, and our causalties will be minimized. This story also somewhat related to the US presence planned in Mauritania here in Rantburg today.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/14/2004 5:26:16 PM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Al-Harithi (also spelled Harethi) is dead. He was killed by a Predator drone in November 2002 in Yemen.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 17:28 Comments || Top||

#2  The Muslim community remains small - A factual correction. Zanzibar is 100% muslim. Tanzania overall is between 35% and 40% muslim. 30% christian, and the rest traditional beliefs
Posted by: phil_b || 01/14/2004 18:30 Comments || Top||

#3  AP. Someone should at least tell the Saudi's, in no uncertain terms:

STOP THAT!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/14/2004 20:41 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Clark: No al-Qaeda connection to 9/11
A leading US Democrat and presidential hopeful has said in a press conference that al-Qaida was not connected to the 11 September attacks. Speaking in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday, Wesley Clark said that the US president took the country to war for party-ideological reasons. The former four star general accused George Bush of invading Iraq without adequate reason or justification. "I think it was a strategic mistake and wrong for America." Clark added that nothing said by the intelligence services to date had proven any connection between the Islamist organisation and the destruction of the World Trade Towers. Remarks by CIA chief George Tenet did not prove "that al-Qaida was involved in 9/11. I did not believe then that al-Qaida was invovled in 9/11 ... I do not believe it now."
Al-Jazeera may be messing with the quotes here, but this puts him into pure kook territory if it’s true ...

He said later that he misspoke, that he mentioned Saddam Hussein. I give him a pass on this one.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 5:17:06 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Either tha Al Jism correspondent in Somalia is chewing Qat again or the goog General has been smoking funny cigarettes
Posted by: Cheddarhead || 01/14/2004 17:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Actually, for Clark this is quite believable, and par for the course. Look for him to claim he didn't say it, and then when confronted with the evidence, claim he didn't mean it.

It's no surprise that this man gets along so well with the Clintons....
Posted by: Captain Holly || 01/14/2004 17:22 Comments || Top||

#3  FoxNews reported this last night; Clark corrected himself right after this statement, saying he'd meant "Saddam Hussein", not "Al Qaeda".

Al Jizzers, in their endless quest for truth, apparently thought it appropriate to snip Clark's correction.

But Clark's still an ass, in my book.
Posted by: Dave D. || 01/14/2004 17:23 Comments || Top||

#4  one of the few things that the clinton admin got right - firing clark's ass after the fiasco in pristina......
Posted by: Dan || 01/14/2004 17:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Aljazeera: No connection to the truth.

As Dave reported, General Stupid returned immediately to the microphone to correct himself.
Al Jizz must have known that.
Posted by: Gasse Katze || 01/14/2004 19:27 Comments || Top||

#6  Oy. If General Weasel is in Texas, maybe the Mad Shitter will find his way onto the tour bus and leave him a present.

I can't believe this guy. I'm embarassed to have been in 3d brigade when he was a colonel.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/14/2004 19:36 Comments || Top||

#7  Hey, Wes. If you ever have to launch those missles someday, you won't get to step back up to the microphone for a do over. Thank christ we'll never see that.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/14/2004 21:03 Comments || Top||


Latin America
Brazil holds ’obscene’ US pilot
An American Airlines pilot has been detained in Brazil after making an obscene gesture when photographed on arrival, Brazilian police have said.
Guess they didn’t buy his "Brazil’s number one" story.
The pilot was being photographed at Sao Paulo airport in line with new entry requirements for US citizens. The crew of the flight arriving from Miami were also detained, police said.
"Thanks alot, Captain. We get a lay-over in Sao Paulo, and you have to go and screw it up."
Brazil has been photographing and finger-printing US visitors in response to similar US requirements for visitors needing a visa. American Airlines spokeswoman Martha Pantin denied that the pilot had been detained but said he and the plane’s crew were still at the airport on Wednesday afternoon. "There was a misunderstanding upon entry into Brazil," Ms Pantin said. "Questions have been raised and we are investigating the matter".
Oh, I think they both understood what was being said.
Brazilian police said 12 people were being detained and that they were all expected to leave the country later on Wednesday.
Well, there’s another nation to add to my shit list.
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 3:01:17 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sorry, Steve... the Brazilian policy may be a rather shortsighted payback thing but what would happen if a Brazilian (or German) made obscene gestures to U.S. immigration officials? I remember they have rather stern warning in the U.S. immigration halls discouraging you to do that.

I expect more discipline from a commercial airline pilot.
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/14/2004 15:09 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder what AA's policy is on this issue? Maybe he was 'just following orders'?

That said, I'm with TGA on this one.
Posted by: Raj || 01/14/2004 15:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Indeed. When in Rome.....
Posted by: Michael || 01/14/2004 15:28 Comments || Top||

#4  There was a French woman who was a resident of Indiana who repeated took her shirt off during airline wand searches to protest the draconian police practices that had been put in place after 9-11.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 22:18 Comments || Top||


Home Front
This Is A Marine
A Marine from Aurora is making history. Nearly two years ago, Cpl. Chris Chandler lost part of his leg in a land mine explosion in Afghanistan. Chandler was fitted with a prosthetic foot after the explosion. He worked to regain his strength so he could re-take the Marine physical fitness test. He didn’t just pass, he also graduated from jump school, making him the first amputee to ever go through the elite parachuting training. Naturally, his family is very proud. “It is groundbreaking because he does have a prosthetic foot and because he did do it on his own he didn’t have to take an easy way out,” said Stephanie Chandler, Chris’ sister. “It was done just like anyone else.” Chandler has also been promoted to the rank of sergeant. He’s on his way back to Camp Pendleton in California until he is deployed back overseas. No word on just when he’ll go.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/14/2004 1:43:15 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow - Semper fi!
Posted by: rkb || 01/14/2004 14:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Hey Osama -- still think our soldiers aren't tough? Seen any of them running away lately?

Oh wait -- you're not really in a position to reply, are you?
Posted by: Matt || 01/14/2004 14:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Been in the papers here - this is up in my neck of the woods (such woods as we have here in Colorado).
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/14/2004 15:35 Comments || Top||

#4  That's Hard Corps baby, young Devil Dog makes me proud.
Posted by: Jarhead || 01/14/2004 15:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Semper Fi Sarge!!!
Posted by: Sgt.DT || 01/14/2004 15:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Over the holidays, someone sent me this exchange between two Generals RE: Sgt Chandler, titled "Why We Won't lose Wars". It's a bit long, but OT and on subject. Jarhead, you probably recognize the names. We should all be proud to have men like this protecting us.

From: Berndt LtGen Martin R
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 5:18 AM
To: Mattis MajGen James N
Cc: Conway LtGen James T; Gregson LtGen Wallace C
Subject: Sgt Chris Chandler

Jim,
This morning I had an out-call with a Sergeant Christopher Chandler. He leaves tomorrow on his way to 1st LAR and should arrive after the holidays.

Two years ago today, while assigned to 15th MEU and your task force, Sgt Chandler lost a leg to a mine at Kandahar. The CMC awarded him a PH on Christmas day, 2001. We awarded him a NMCAM this morning as a result of his contributions to the Naval Hospital at Bethesda while he was recovering.

In September while assigned to MFL, he was promoted to his present rank and in October he reenlisted and asked to go back to 1st LAR.

On 12 Dec, Sgt Chandler graduated from jump school. Getting him there was the biggest challenge -- not too many amputees attend airborne training. Not only did he graduate, he was the class honor man.

Sgt Chandler is one of most selfless, courageous Marines I've known. He motivates the heck out of all who know of his trials. I'm sure he will be a welcomed addition when he returns to the Division and 1st LAR. All Marines are special. In my opinion, Sgt Chandler stands out among them.

V/R and Merry Christmas


From: Mattis MajGen James N
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 9:15 AM
To: Berndt LtGen Martin R
Cc: Conway LtGen James T; Gregson LtGen Wallace C

Subject: Sgt Chris Chandler

General Berndt:
Thank you for this update. I well remember the day at Kandahar when he and two other Marines were wounded in one of the many minefields that surrounded the airfield there. I had tracked him until he received his first discharge from the Naval Hospital and lost track of him in the last year. I deeply appreciate you bringing me up to
date. I am heartened but unsurprised at how well he has performed since, because even while in shock and being medevaced at Kandahar, his spirit was strong and his concern was for the other wounded. He was in every sense of your word "selfless".

We will welcome him back to his old battalion with open arms. His leadership by example will say more than anyone's words about leadership and sacrifice. He will deploy with his unit to the AOR in a few months and be a great addition to our ranks. Thank you for taking the time to let us know he is inbound. Happy Holidays and Semper Fi.

v/r Jim
Posted by: Gasse Katze || 01/14/2004 16:46 Comments || Top||

#7  That's a true Marine, all right;

I certainly don't mean to belittle his accomplisment at all, but I think I remember a Force Recon Captain also did this back in the Viet Nam era, and managed to retain command of his Recon Company --- does that story ring a bell with any of you? If so, it shows how the spirit of the Corps lives from generation to generation.
Posted by: Ralph || 01/14/2004 17:42 Comments || Top||

#8  Ralph, you may be thinking of Frederick Franks who later commanded the VII Corps during Desert Storm. Franks lost a leg during the Viet Nam war.
Posted by: Gasse Katze || 01/14/2004 19:05 Comments || Top||

#9  This is splendid stuff, and one more item for those not in uniform like myself to keep in mind every day. To quote another comment about another remarkable young American in uniform: "where do we find these young people?"

I like our chances in this here war.
Posted by: IceCold || 01/14/2004 21:10 Comments || Top||


Howard Dean letter to President Clinton
Below is the text of Howard Dean’s letter to President Clinton on the conflict in Bosnia, dated July 19, 1995.
The Honorable William J. Clinton
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

After long and careful thought, and after several years of watching the gross atrocities committed by the Bosnian Serbs, I have reluctantly concluded that the efforts of the United Nations and NATO in Bosnia are a complete failure.
Blasphemy!
I think your policy up to this date has been absolutely correct. We must give, and have given, this policy with our allies and with the United Nations every opportunity to work. It is evident, however, that the cost in human lives in allowing this policy to continue is too great. In addition, and perhaps more importantly for the United States, we are now in a position of ignoring, as many did in the 1940s, one of the worst crimes committed in history. If we ignore these behaviors, no matter where they occur, our moral fiber as a people becomes weakened. As the Catholic Church and others lost credibility during the Holocaust for not speaking out, so will the United States lose credibility and our people lose confidence in themselves as moral beings if the United States does not take action.
How many mass graves did we find in Iraq compared to Bosnia?
Since it is clearly no longer possible to take action in conjunction with NATO and the United Nations, I have reluctantly concluded that we must take unilateral action.
Howard used the "U" word.
While I completely agree with you that no ground troops should be committed for other than humanitarian purposes in Bosnia, I would ask that you take the following steps in Bosnia. First, lift the arms embargo as it applies to the Bosnian government. Second, enforce a full embargo of the sort that is now in effect in Iraq on the Bosnian Serbs and upon Yugoslavia.
Yeah, that worked real well, didn’t it?
Third, break off diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia. Fourth, commit American air power to support the Bosnian government until the situation is stabilized and the civilian murders and atrocities by the Bosnian Serbs have been stopped.
And what about the civilian murders and atrocities by the Iraqi Ba-ath Party, Dr. Dean?
I understand the risks of this policy and their implications for the NATO Alliance and the future success of the United Nations. Surely, however, as you watch and read about the huge amount of unwarranted human suffering, particularly of children, you would agree that our current course must now be changed.

I urge you to make these changes as soon as possible, and I look forward to supporting your policy fully to the best of my ability.

Sincerely,
Howard Dean, M.D.
Governor
No wonder Howard had all his Vermont governor files sealed. Say, you don’t suppose this letter was made public on the eve of the Iowa caucus by Clinton, do you? Nah, why would she he do a thing like that?
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 11:00:45 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  what a freakin' statesman!

'dis is da guy who wants ta negotiate with Hamas soldiers
Posted by: PlanetDan || 01/14/2004 11:41 Comments || Top||

#2  This is classic Clinton ass-kissing by a Dem pol with national ambitions. "I totally agree with your policy, but here's why you should change it."

I think Dean's previously well-deserved reputation for speaking his mind will continue to suffer as more of his previous positions that contradict his current positions come to light. This guy is definitely not ready for prime time.
Posted by: Tibor || 01/14/2004 11:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Yep. A few thousand Bosnian lives warrant unilateral action. Several hundred thousand Iraqi lives? Nope. Nope. Nope.

But it does touch my heart that he's so concerned with the suffering of children--Bosnian children, anyway. He may be a hypocrite, but he's a hypocrite for the children, dammit!
Posted by: Dar || 01/14/2004 12:25 Comments || Top||

#4  This is all part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy! I know I am a member!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/14/2004 12:55 Comments || Top||

#5  I feel that the release of this letter is politically motivated. I also feel that if you have a pinata head, you should not go to Dodger's Stadium on bat day. That't just me, though; do what you want.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 13:19 Comments || Top||

#6  I also feel that if you have a pinata head, you should not go to Dodger's Stadium on bat day.

Impersonating a Pinata was a felony in California, just ask the Motorist Rodney King.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/14/2004 16:01 Comments || Top||

#7  #4 This is all part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy! I know I am a member!

Where do I sign up?
Posted by: Charles || 01/14/2004 16:25 Comments || Top||

#8  First, you need to get yourself a t-shirt "Member of the VRWC."
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/14/2004 21:46 Comments || Top||


Latin America
Castro’s Health Declining?
Ethel! Another pin for my doll!
Weeks after meeting with Fidel Castro during a vacation in Cuba, Bogota’s mayor said Wednesday the 77-year-old Cuban leader’s mind health appeared to be deteriorating. "He seemed very sick to me," Luis Eduardo Garzon, a former communist union organizer, told Caracol Radio. "You could tell he had physical limitations, especially in his speech."
"He only talked for two hours straight!"
Rumors about Castro’s health circulate regularly, especially in the Cuban exile community. But he has not had any known serious illnesses and remains energetic for a man his age, recently speaking for eight hours at a meeting of Cuba’s parliament.
Wonder if the MP’s considered euthanasia?
Garzon, who met with Castro in December before taking office Jan. 1, said Cuba has made significant advances in the fields of education and health but that he was disappointed with the revolution there. "One expects debate ... but in Cuba, everything is driven and controlled by one party," Garzon said. "That’s not right. I have always said there should be no dictatorships, neither from the left nor the right."
Sensible man.
Castro has been in power for 45 years, making him the world’s longest-ruling dictator of a failed state head of government.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/14/2004 10:58:55 AM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wonder if the MP’s considered euthanasia?

For him, or for themselves?
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 01/14/2004 12:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Humm, I think this blog needs a Dead Pool, or should we use the futures market for that?
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 16:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, no! Should I send a card?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/14/2004 21:32 Comments || Top||

#4  possibly an anthrax-powder- filled enveope? sign it: "with love, Mohammad Atta"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/14/2004 21:35 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Libya Ratifies Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Libya has ratified the nuclear test ban treaty, an U.N. agency said Wednesday, less than three weeks after the North African country publicly renounced its weapons of mass destruction. Libya’s nuclear program was nowhere near producing a weapon. Still, the announcement by the U.N. agency overseeing the agreement appeared to be a further sign of commitment by Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi to give up nuclear weapons activities. The Vienna-based agency - known as the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Organization - said in a statement that in ratifying the pact, Libya agreed to host a monitoring station at Misratah. That would be part of a network of 337 stations being set up to verify compliance with terms of the treaty.
Impressive. Q-man took a significant step here.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/14/2004 10:54:31 AM || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm surprised that they hadn't ratified the treaty long ago. NK has demonstrated that you sign the treaty, cheat on the requirements, unsign the treaty once you get caught, and demand huge sums of tribute before you will agree to sign the worthless treaty again.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Nonsense. Clinton & Madcow Albright solved the NKor problem. Bush went & messed it all up by complainig about some irrelevant secret program.
Posted by: Anonynony nah nah || 01/14/2004 12:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Sometimes I wonder if Col. Q's number 1 petro geologist might have said something...., like "Uh boss? Seems someone miscalculated, mistakes were made... we got about 6 months of oil left."
Posted by: Shipman || 01/14/2004 15:42 Comments || Top||


Red Brigades leaders arrested in ...Cairo
EFL
Two key members of the ultra-leftist group the Red Brigades including a woman convicted for the murder of former prime minister Aldo Moro have been arrested in Cairo, Italian police said. Rita Algranati, 46, who was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for the spectacular 1978 kidnapping and murder of the former leader of the Christian Democratic Party, was detained at Cairo airport, anti-terorrism police said. The other detainee is Maurizio Falessi, 49, who was also convicted in absentia to 11 and 23 years in prison for his role as a member of the Union of Combatant Communists, a Red Brigades splinter group that was active in the 1970s and 1980s.
Why were they in Egypt?
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 01/14/2004 10:08:17 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dragon Fly, don't worry about it. Because their doctrines are incompatible, the Red Brigade is unable to collude with Islamic fundi terrorists like the Red Brigade. I know the cooincidence looks damning, but the guarantees NY Times that this is pure happenstance.
subliminal message: Don't look behind the curtain. There is nothing behind the curtain to see. Don't look behind the curtain.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:34 Comments || Top||

#2 
Red Brigades leaders arrested in ...Cairo
Quelle surprise!
Why were they in Egypt?
To meet up with other murdering loonies? Naaah, couldn't be - they must be there to tour the pyramids.

Nothing to see here, move along.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 01/14/2004 17:49 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Muslim Groups’ IRS Files Sought
EFL:
The Senate Finance Committee has asked the Internal Revenue Service to turn over confidential tax and financial records, including donor lists, on dozens of Muslim charities and foundations as part of a widening congressional investigation into alleged ties between tax-exempt organizations and terrorist groups.
Uh oh, you’re in trouble now!
The request marks a rare and unusually broad use of the Finance Committee’s power to obtain private financial records held by the government. It raises the possibility that contributions to charities such as the Holy Land Foundation or the activities of such groups as the Muslim Student Association could be subjected to Senate scrutiny. An IRS official said the agency expects to comply with the request because the committee clearly has the statutory authority to examine such records.
That, and the fact the Senate controls the IRS’s budget.
The request includes leadership lists, financial records, applications for tax-exempt status, audit materials and the results of criminal investigations.
Forward copies to Rantburg, please.
The Senate-led probe follows more than two years of investigations by the FBI, the Treasury Department and other federal agencies into the activities of Islamic charities suspected of having ties to al Qaeda; the Islamic Resistance Movement, also known as Hamas; and other groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. "Government officials, investigations by federal agencies and the Congress and other reports have identified the crucial role that charities and foundations play in terror financing," the committee’s leaders, Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking Democratic member Max Baucus (Mont.), wrote in a Dec. 22 letter to the IRS. "We have a responsibility to carry out oversight to ensure charities, foundations and other groups are abiding by the laws and regulations, to examine their source of funds, and to ensure government agencies, including the IRS, are policing them and enforcing the law efficiently and effectively."
Standard complaints follow:
But many Muslim leaders and attorneys for the charities complain that the government’s tactics have unfairly smeared law-abiding Muslims and have dried up financial support for groups that try to provide medicine, ammo food and other goods to the Middle East and elsewhere. Several representatives of the groups said the Senate Finance Committee’s probe is needlessly intrusive and will scare away more contributors.
As they say, it’s not a bug, it’s a feature
"The Muslim community would view this as another fishing expedition solely targeting Muslims in America," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Washington.
Hooper's the guy that wears the brassiere cup on his head. Hussein Ibbish is the fat guy that looks like a Don Martin cartoon...
"Are they now going to start a witch hunt of all the donors of these now closed relief organizations, so that Muslims feel they’re going to be targeted once more based on their charitable giving?"
Yes, if you give money to terrorist groups, you’re a target.
Roger C. Simmons, a Frederick, Md., lawyer who represents the Illinois-based Global Relief Foundation, whose assets have been frozen by the government, said: "This kind of blanket request would further chill the tendency for American Muslims to give money. As far as the organizations themselves, I’m not sure what else they can do to them that they haven’t already done."
I’m sure we could come up with a few things.
... some of them involving blindfolds and cigarettes...
The foundations and charities named by the committee in its request include many that remain targets of ongoing investigations by U.S. authorities. Among them are the SAAR Foundation and its affiliated entities, a defunct network of organizations based in Northern Virginia; Global Relief, whose founder was deported to Lebanon; and the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the largest Muslim charity in the United States, which was singled out by President Bush for allegedly supporting Hamas. Its assets have been frozen. Other groups on the list include the Muslim World League, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth and the Islamic Society of North America. "We want to look into where all their money comes from," one committee aide said. "Is it from Saudi foreign embassies? Does money come from Saudi royals obscure individuals in the Persian Gulf? We’re the only ones that can look at this."
Dig deep, guys.
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 9:16:31 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If they think we're evil enough to be the 'Great Satan', then how evil would the 'Great Satans' satan be?

I can't wait to see the reports the IRS has on these guys.
Posted by: Charles || 01/14/2004 9:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Given the interest the IRS has shown in auditing "charitable" groups, I doubt they have much.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/14/2004 10:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Robert Crawford - right on. Such auduts are deemed 'politically sensitive' at both the federal and state levels; I was routinely denied permission to perform such audits at the Mass. DOR, regardless of the actual audit issues.
Posted by: Raj || 01/14/2004 12:21 Comments || Top||


Muslim figures out that America is a great place
EFL & Hat tip to and lifted from Instapundit
As a Muslim in Amercia I was already used to being treated with ignorance and suspicion and now I was increasingly sickened by the prospect of a reckless but inevitable war in Iraq. Of course, I was impossibly naive: the Middle East existed for me, like all things Islamic, in a sort of exotic orientalist ether of veiled women, the Ka‘ba and the Virgins of Paradise. I set off for Egypt convinced that, unlike America, there was no corruption and hypocrisy in the Arab Muslim world and that it bore no responsibility for its own appalling condition. People told me that Egypt was, like its Muslim neighbours, a ruthless dictatorship, but until I lived there I refused to admit this to myself. I wanted only to be an expatriate novelist, a dissident, and to enjoy the celebrity of being a convert in a Muslim country. For a week I managed to persist in the happy belief that I was not living in a brutal police state. . . .

In Mecca, I found the same mixture of confusion, oppression and apathy I thought I had left behind in Egypt. But as in Egypt, nothing worked, even at the blessed hajj, for we were visitors not to an Islamic state but to yet another cynical Arab kleptocracy which only pretended to adhere to the true ideals of Islam. . . . I fled home the next week, leaving all my illusions of the Arab world in my Cairo flat. I couldn’t wait to be in America again. On the long flight home, I promised myself I would never accept anything less than full democracy for my fellow Muslims in the Arab world or apologize for the tyranny that now masquerades as Islam.
Read the entire article here.
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 01/14/2004 9:09:51 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dammit, don't spread the word. You think we want your brothers here?
Posted by: BH || 01/14/2004 12:17 Comments || Top||

#2  After reading this, it's hard to give it much credibility. This guy was born in the US and raised as a Baptist, then he converted to Islam. This is not some immigrant who's truly lived, breathed, and thought as a Muslim. He's not much different than a wannabe John Walker Lindh who decided to run back home when reality didn't measure up to his ideals.
Posted by: Dar || 01/14/2004 12:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Fatwa countdown.

5, 4, 3, 2…
Posted by: Steve from Relto || 01/14/2004 13:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Correct. Another naive American whose projected fantasy of the world has collapsed. The same happened regularly to US communists back in the day.
Posted by: buwaya || 01/14/2004 14:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Let me introduce you to your future roommate
Mr. Salman Rushdi.
Posted by: The Dodo || 01/14/2004 14:55 Comments || Top||


Middle East
ANOTHER PALI SPLODIDOPE
A female
seems they are running out of males
Palestinian homicide bomber blew herself up Wednesday at the main crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, killing four other people. Israel Radio reported that the four dead were Israelis. Officials said seven other people
including some palis
were wounded. The Islamic militant group Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades issued a joint claim of responsibility, according to Lebanon’s Al-Manar satellite television station. The explosion occurred shortly before 10 a.m. at the Erez crossing, the main entry point into Israel for thousands of Palestinian workers.
that’s right- give them work and a chance to survive and they reward you immediately with exploding women
However, few Palestinian workers were in the area at the time, Israeli officials said. Palestinian witnesses said the bomber was a woman viper waiting on line to pass through to the Israeli side. A witness identifying herself as Amena, 42, said four Palestinian women went into a security office at the border crossing, and as she was waiting outside the explosion occurred inside. "I heard soldiers screaming. The blast was very strong, and I saw one of the women, the last one who went into the room, bleeding from her legs," she said. Another witness, who declined to be named, said a woman waiting with the laborers was walking strangely. When the witness offered to help the stranger, the woman brushed her off. The bomb went off shortly afterward. The soldiers forced everyone out and shut down the crossing after the blast, witnesses said. The seven wounded people were being evacuated to hospitals, according to Moshe Vaaknin, an official with the Magen David Adom rescue services.
I guess Rantissi and Yassin et al. are now cowering in their spider holes. Sharon may take this personally after having made some peacnick statements on record before the Knesset (Israerli Parliament)
Wonder if it's in response to Katsav's invitation to Assad to come to Jerusalem?
Posted by: The Dodo || 01/14/2004 6:52:39 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OK, Sorry for the All Caps title, but this is my first post and I am still Figuring Fred's interface
Posted by: The Dodo || 01/14/2004 6:57 Comments || Top||

#2  I heard this splodeydope had 2 children aged 1 & 4. What kind of brainwashed delinquent a-hole do you have to be not only to try mass murder but to intentionally deprive 2 little ones of their mother. Although in this case maybe now that their brain damaged mother spread herself out in a most gruesome (and hopefully painful) manner - those little 2 may actually now have a chance at a decent life. On the other hand given that this sort of thing is glamorized in the Paleo world, they may only grow up to try it also.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 01/14/2004 7:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Now the kids are going to be brainwashed by their Grandparents into thinking this is all Isreals fault. That way, when they run out of women, the children are in plentiful supply.

Makes you want to beat them with a truncheon, doesn't it?
Posted by: Charles || 01/14/2004 9:27 Comments || Top||

#4  "Yes, love my children and Allah so much that I decided to murder people I do not know and kill myself in the process. See it Allah's will that my children grow up without knowing who their mother is.

I do not worry about my children that I will never know. My husband is a fine man. He is already teaching my son how to tie a bomb belt on a Ken doll. And my beautiful daughter? My wonderful husband has already saved enough money to buy a jar of acid to throw in her face if she dishonors the family."
Posted by: AKScott || 01/14/2004 9:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Fred,
Thanks for the extra editing

By the way, I wish it was simply a hairbrained pali woman. However from the exploits of the Tanzim and the Arafish we now now that many times the recruited women are pushed into their glorified "martirdom" by the heinous Islamic recruiters because they commited adultery or some other "immoral" act (in accordance with the famous Sharia(TM)).
Such poor creatures elect to die "heroically" And take many other lifes with them rather than face being knifed or shot by the "pious" family members on background of dishonoring their families.
We must not forget that most arabs are a culture based on SHAME (which they erroneously interpret as honor).
Posted by: The Dodo || 01/14/2004 10:13 Comments || Top||

#6  excertps from Reuters

professed love for her children before launching an attack that she said was meant to turn her body into "deadly shrapnel".

Smiling at times in a videotape that showed her cradling a rifle, 22-year-old Reem Al-Reyashi said she had dreamed since she was 13 of "becoming a martyr" and dying for her people.

"It was always my wish to turn my body into deadly shrapnel against the Zionists and to knock on the doors of heaven with the skulls of Zionists," said Reyashi, wearing combat fatigues with a Hamas sash across her chest.

Reyashi left behind a 1-1/2-year-old daughter and a 3-1/2-year-old son. "God gave me two children and I loved them so much. Only God knew how much I loved them," she said.

paleos sure have a strange way of professing their love, ya know?
Posted by: PlanetDan || 01/14/2004 10:14 Comments || Top||

#7  The explosion occurred shortly before 10 a.m. at the Erez crossing, the main entry point into Israel for thousands of Palestinian workers.

Explosives detection devices anyone?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/14/2004 11:22 Comments || Top||

#8  The up side to all this is she can't download any more future Jihadis.
Posted by: badanov || 01/14/2004 12:53 Comments || Top||

#9  BAR: Easier just to not allow any Palestinians in to work. There's gotta be some people from the Phillippines or ex-Soviet Union that would love to have the jobs.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/14/2004 12:56 Comments || Top||

#10  If male martyrs get 72 virgins to attend to their every desire, what do female martyrs get?

Ladies, any ideas?
Posted by: Captain Holly || 01/14/2004 13:01 Comments || Top||

#11  CH: Raisins
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 01/14/2004 14:08 Comments || Top||

#12  What is the source please of comment #5 (Fred's) assertion concerning coerced female Palestinian 'martirdom' (sic)?
Posted by: shalom inshallah || 01/14/2004 14:18 Comments || Top||

#13  A headache?
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 01/14/2004 14:39 Comments || Top||

#14  Inshallah
No Source,
I was speculating before I saw on TV tonight how poison soaked she truely was.
BTW this was not Fred posting this but a short message from me to fred.
"Inshallah" Indeed, but dont get carried away
it seems like a long long way to peace.
Posted by: The Dodo || 01/14/2004 14:40 Comments || Top||


The Pharisee’s Role In Gold And The Dollar Crash
Moderately amusing example of the Arab conspiracy mindset coupled with an impressive ignorance of economics. From Al Jiz & EFL
Since Day 911, the US dollar has fallen over 40% as compared to the Euro, the European currency “basket.” About half of that drop occurred since May 2, 2003, when hostilities in Iraq were reported to have ended. If you were to ask your local bank VP to explain the relationship between gold and the dollar, you could expect a long and confusing answer, ending with something like this: "Nobody knows what will happen in the final analysis."
Welcome to free markets 101. if people were sure what was going to happen then it would have already happened. This is the point of markets! Now if Allah were telling you what is going to happen you would have me attention!
But the big usury-bankers (internationalists with license to print diluted money out of thin air) who own and run the Federal Reserve anti-bank and its clone anti-banks in world financial centers understand gold very well. You, too, can understand it and so can your l3-year old, if he is bright and willing. Here are a few questions: What do serial wars have to do with gold and the dollar? How is our currency diluted? What does the Federal Reserve System (FED) do? Why didn’t CNN or 60 Minutes explain this? Who owns the gold?
Vague ideas about supply and demand cut
New production [of gold] is dwarfed by one month’s U.S. federal deficit, which is headed for 500 billion dollars this year alone. To put it another way, there is not much gold compared to the money supply. It is a pea compared to an orange. There are natural gold consumers that buy as a method of savings
 they have no other choice. Gaza City in occupied Palestine is a very poor place where this writer visited. When you bank in Gaza City, you might wonder if your bank will be there the next morning, and because Gaza Arabs are literal prisoners of the State of Israel, they are forced to use Israeli currency.
Interesting point here that the author did not intend, which is that the Israeli Shekel is the currency in Gaza and that because Israel is where the money comes from.
Now we get to the interesting bit
My Arab friend took me to the gold market in Gaza City, and there I stayed for a few hours, talking to two of the businessmen who make their living converting Shekels—the money used in Gaza—into 22 and 24 karat gold jewelry for people who are fortunate enough to accumulate paper money. The parties negotiate quietly for a few minutes, the buyer discussing the several handcrafted bracelets with his wife. He quietly settled on three bracelets, each about a half ounce, which he paid for with thousand Shekel notes. The young Arab businessman slipped the purchased bracelets onto the arm of his lady where they disappeared under the black sleeve of her garment. They departed, having converted fast-decaying and hated Shekels to wealth that they could carry and that would not decay. The lady looked pleased; there is not much wealth in Gaza, and the family’s savings account on her arm is safe against dilution; it is portable wealth that requires no banker and that “moths cannot eat.” The Gaza Arab has real problems. He might have to leave his home or see it destroyed at a moments notice. He is subject to search, and his house could be bulldozed with no recourse available to him. His bank could be blown to bits by a missile. But even if none of these things happen, he knows the Israeli currency loses 20% or more of its value every year. He is a natural gold buyer.
In 2003 the Israeli currency strengthened significantly against both the USD and a trade weighted basket of currencies, but hey facts are not an Arab speciality.
What about those who think we live in safe and war free countries? With savings accounts returning two percent per year or less, some savers have figured out it is logical to accumulate gold in place of bank deposits, T-bills or CDs. Err! I thought charging interest was punishable by death under Islam.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/14/2004 4:40:52 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's the Federal Reserve & the Rothchilds.

/whisper
Posted by: Shipman || 01/14/2004 7:32 Comments || Top||

#2  When I worked in Silicon Valley and then southern California in the 70s-80s, many of my co-workers from Taiwan and Hong Kong kept some 24 karat gold jewelry on their persons daily. Some of them had parents that had fled mainland China or who had assets seized in Malaysia or Singapore, so they always made sure they had some portable wealth they could carry if they had to flee.

After gold, they bought real estate - their houses might have almost no furniture, but they were generally in decent neighborhoods where prices were likely to increase over time.

New or fancy cars, clothes, tv/stereos, eating out and vacations were way down their priority list. Many of them did immediately begin sponsoring a younger sibling to come here, go to school and then get a good technical job, too.

They've all made great Americans. Too bad that the Arabs who are within Israel have chosen not to take advantage of Israeli economy, schools and high tech industries in a similar way.
Posted by: rkb || 01/14/2004 8:11 Comments || Top||

#3  "With savings accounts returning two percent per year or less, some savers have figured out it is logical to accumulate gold in place of bank deposits, T-bills or CDs."

How many percent do you suppose the Gaza Arabs lose in the typical cash-to-gold transaction? Dopes.
Posted by: Tom || 01/14/2004 8:23 Comments || Top||

#4  They departed, having converted fast-decaying and hated Shekels to wealth that they could carry and that would not decay.
Doncha just feel sorry for that ignorant jewelry dealer who is now stuck with paper Schekels. He probably even more foolishly put the profits in an Israeli bank.
I feel like I wasted my money on that Money and Banking course at the university when I could study higher economics with Al Jazz for free.
Posted by: Gasse Katze || 01/14/2004 9:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Maybe if the paleostinkians invested whatever wealth they had in something besides explosives and arms (and furs for suha), they wouldn't fear the modern banking system. Oh well, can't drag EVERYONE out of the 11th century, can we?

And of course, al-jizzwada is the flag carrier for all these lies. Big shock there.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/14/2004 11:07 Comments || Top||

#6  News Flash: Most money is just bits in a computer somewhere. Counters, for the great game...
Posted by: mojo || 01/14/2004 12:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Bits in a computer?

I thought time = money and time's relative..
thus Money = Relatives.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/14/2004 16:31 Comments || Top||


Africa: West
US opens new front in war on terror
ELF
The United States is sending troops and defence contractors to the Sahara desert of West Africa to open what it calls a new front in the war on terror. A small vanguard force arrived this week in Mauritania to pave the way for a $100-million plan to bolster the security forces and border controls of Mauritania, Mali, Chad and Niger. The US Pan-Sahel Initiative, as it is named, will provide 60 days of training to military units, including tips on desert navigation and infantry tactics, and furnish equipment such as Toyota Land Cruisers, radios and uniforms. West Africa is not known as a hotbed of support for Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network but Washington is taking no chances in a region with strong Arab and Muslim ties. "A team of military experts has been here since Saturday to teach, train and reinforce the capacities of the Mauritanian army charged with frontier surveillance against cross-border terrorism," Pamela Bridgewater, a US deputy undersecretary of state for African affairs, told reporters in the capital, Nouakchott.

Since dropping support in the mid-90s for Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime, the government of Mauritania has angered some local Islamic groups by forging links with Washington. At least one such group was allegedly behind a failed coup last year but some sceptics claim the government exaggerated the threat. Mali, Chad and Niger also have porous borders, sizeable Muslim populations and disgruntled opposition groups but al-Qaeda has so far concentrated its African operations in the east: blowing up US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and a rocket and car bomb attack against Israeli targets in the Kenyan resort of Mombasa last year. Armed groups roving the desert have abducted western tourists and caused the Paris-Dakar rally to be rerouted, but whether they are opportunistic bandits or Islamist guerrillas is not clear.
Neither is it clear whether there's a difference...
Ms Bridgewater said there had been threats against US interests in Mauritania’s neighbour Senegal, the scene of extraordinary security measures during President George Bush’s visit last year. West Africa is comprised largely of former French colonies and Paris might be expected to be wary. The French defence minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, is to visit Washington this week to meet Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser.
Posted by: tipper || 01/14/2004 3:22:02 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Watch closely for the marketting message that picking a clever moniker for your club can get your organization extra attention. This way you can move to the head of the matrydom line without engaging in tedious actual operations that might keep your virgins waiting for years.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:37 Comments || Top||

#2  So, is Marie going to bring a toy helicopter as a gift to Rummy?
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/14/2004 12:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Notice they mentioned Landcruisers...

Cutdown Landcruiser or Toyota pickup with an old 105RR or a Ma-Deuce = Heavy Tank in that region.

(Ma-Deuce = .50 Cal Heavy Machine Gun for you civilian types)
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/14/2004 16:00 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Safire gets it.
The link is to Safire’s latest commentary. It refutes most of what the numbwit below wrote for the War College. Safire’s neither a conservative or a member of the LLL, so this is encouraging.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/14/2004 1:04:09 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good big picture summary! IMHO he restricts himself to phase 1 WTO targets, and ignores a wider picture where all ideologies (specifically including Islam) that advocate the West's overthrow are our enemy and must be defeated.

I view this as like a snowball. The longer it rolls the bigger it gets.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/14/2004 2:40 Comments || Top||

#2  In Iraq, where casualties in Baghdad could be compared to civilian losses to everyday violence in New York and Los Angeles, ...

Interesting comparison. Where are the calls for U.S. to pull out of New York or Los Angeles?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/14/2004 9:17 Comments || Top||

#3  How embarrassing is it to write a 56 page article, walking way out on a limb, and then in a period of only 4 weeks, 6 or 7 independent events all fly right in the face of your key theory?

(Chandler Bing voice)
Could he be any more wrong?

As I commented here - dry up the money and the room to operate, and terrorism will whither on the vine. Chasing them all individually, while allowing the system that creates them to flourish, would not be effective, because we simply do not have the people to infiltrate these networks to a sufficient degree, and because it would go on forever.
Posted by: Jeff Brokaw || 01/14/2004 11:11 Comments || Top||

#4  I beg to differ with Safire being a conservative or not. He's the New York Times conservative fig-leaf so they can claim they are impartial. From a bio page I found: "He worked on the first Eisenhower Presidential campaign and later became a senior speechwriter in the Nixon White House. Sounds conservative to me. link to bio
Posted by: ruprecht || 01/14/2004 12:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Nixon? Gimme a break. Nixon was all about power, even if it involved socialism.

Working for Nixon hardly qualifies one as conservative. Remember the Wage and Price controls he put in his policies? The guy was an old line Banker/Lawyer/Big-Business Republican, not a Conservative by any stretch.

Republican Conservatism started with Barry Goldwater (following W.F. Buckley), and was brought to the national forefront by Ronald Reagan.
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/14/2004 16:06 Comments || Top||

#6  I voted for Noxion. And then he went cosmo. But give him credit where its due, but only!
Posted by: Lucky || 01/15/2004 0:28 Comments || Top||


Africa: East
Sudan violates treaty with Uganda on LRA
The army spokesman has accused Sudan of violating a protocol it signed with Uganda about two years ago. The agreement authorised the Sudanese military to occupy former bases of the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels in southern Sudan. "[They] did not occupy the bases [from] where we flushed the LRA as we had earlier agreed," Maj. Shaban Bantariza said by telephone yesterday. The camps include Bin Rwot, Lubang tek, Lara and Kempacho. Bantariza said yesterday that the rebels are now trying to retreat to those camps. "For the last three weeks the LRA commanders have been trying to withdraw back to Sudan running away from our attacks on them," the spokesman said. "They are trying to run and survive as individuals but the fear is that they might get re-armed because they still have caches there."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:42:22 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wouldn't include the Sudanese military on the short list of the world's crack miltary outfits. They seem to have the self-preservation angle down to a tee, though.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:07 Comments || Top||


Africa: West
Nigerian Taliban sez the fight will go on
An Islamic militant detained by Nigerian police over an armed uprising says the self-styled "Taliban" group wants to overthrow the government because it has sold out to the West. Ismail Abdul-Fatai, a chemical engineering student of Lagos State Polytechnic, was arrested with other militants after a week-long series of attacks on police stations and government buildings in five northeastern towns two weeks ago. Nineteen members of group have been killed in a massive security sweep of the area near the Niger border, which is now under army control. "Our group has definitely suffered a setback, but our objective of fighting corruption by institutionalising Islamic government must be achieved very soon," Abdul-Fatai told Reuters at the police station in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, on Monday. "Our aim is to cause serious confusion and overthrow the government of infidels headed by the crop of present politicians who have sold us out to the West to the detriment of Islam," he added, before being whisked away by men in white coats police.
"We got turbans, and we got automatic weapons! We'll tell you what's right or wrong, 'cuz God talks to us and not you!"
The governor of neighbouring Yobe state, where most of the violence occurred, said he had found a partial list naming 54 core members of the group, which emblazoned "Taliban" on one of the cars used in the attacks.
Boy, was that a bright move! I guess we're not talking about the dean's list here...
The rebellion has set alarm bells ringing in Western embassies in Nigeria, particularly because of the "Taliban" label, which they fear could indicate the involvement of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network in Nigeria for the first time. "Up to now it seems this group was responding to local concerns, although they were clearly inspired to some extent by a global movement," said a senior Western diplomat in Nigeria, adding that intelligence on the group was thin.
I'd guess there are similar groups, with different names, all along Islam's bloody border...
Abdul-Fatai said he did not recognise secular law. "There is only one legal system we know and that is the one based on the Koran," he said.
Give 'em an inch of shariah and they'll try and take the whole state...
Security sources say al Qaeda members are believed to be at large in Somalia and have used Kenya as a base for planning attacks in the region. The loose-knitted network also has support from Islamic guerrillas in north Africa, but has made little headway in west Africa so far, despite a huge Muslim population.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:40:55 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  FYI: no Muslim can only accept secular law as provisional to shariah. That is why the West should reconsider both citizenship grants to Muslims, and immigration of same.
Posted by: Wasserman || 01/14/2004 2:43 Comments || Top||

#2  FYI: A Muslim can only accept secular law as provisional to shariah. That is why the West should reconsider both citizenship grants to Muslims, and immigration of same.
Posted by: Wasserman || 01/14/2004 2:43 Comments || Top||

#3  A few more details from AP story:
The students were followers of a Nigerian Islamic cleric known as Abu Umar, or Mullah Umar, students and Nigerian security agencies told AP.
Little is known about Umar except that he, like all his followers, is under age 30. He drew his flock largely from northern Islamic states, but also from the majority Christian southern states of Oyo, Osun and Lagos. The students included children of top northern government officials, police said. The young men called themselves Al Sunna wal Jamma, Arabic loosely translated as Followers of the Prophet's Teaching. Leaving prosperous homes and university study, the students settled with Mullah Umar in a tent city on the banks of the Yobe River at the town of Kanamma. At least 200 students lived there - roughly the same number as is believed to have taken part in the uprising, said Yobe state spokesman Ibrahim Jirgi. Security agencies say the group may secretly have had as many as 1,000 members, spread out in cells.
---------------------------------
Mohammed said a friend introduced him to Mullah Umar, when Mohammed was an economics student at Bayero University in the northern city of Kano.
"Umar saw my interest in the Koran and the Islamic way of life," the jailed student said. "So he showed me portions of the Koran which says we should consider those who don't follow Allah's law as followers of Satan."
-----------------
Umar eluded arrest, and is being sought by authorities. Under Mullah Umar, the group for two years limited itself to political activity - handing out leaflets critical of officials they saw as lax on Islamic law, for example. Then, the sect began clashing with residents over fishing rights around their Yobe River camp.
Increasingly militant, students took over a primary school in Kanamma, hoisting a flag that labeled it "Afghanistan." Yobe state Gov. Abba Ibrahim said he was trying to persuade the students to disband when they launched their attacks.
The offensive failed, not only because security troops moved in, but because the rich students failed to connect with the area's Muslims - 80 percent of whom live on less than $1 a day.
"They put Islam upside down," said Ibrahim Tijjani, a Maiduguri-based Muslim cleric. "Violence is only justifiable in Islam when one's religion, life, family or property is attacked - none of which happened in this case."
Posted by: Steve || 01/14/2004 15:16 Comments || Top||


Africa: East
More feuding between Somaliland and Puntland
The authorities in the self-declared republic of Somaliland have warned neighbouring Puntland to "stop playing with fire" and withdraw its forces from the disputed region of Sool, a senior Somaliland official told IRIN on Wednesday. Tension has been rising between the two sides ever since forces of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland took total control of the Sool regional capital, Las Anod, late last month. Abdillahi Muhammad Duale, the Somaliland information minister, told IRIN on Tuesday that Somaliland had been patient and had ignored numerous provocations from Puntland with a view to averting destabilising confrontations, but the situation had now "reached a point at which we can no longer ignore their actions".
"Youse guys have gone too far this time!"
"The Majerteenia [Puntland] must remove their forces at once or take full responsibility for the consequences of their action," he warned. However, the Puntland spokesman, Awad Ahmad Ashara, told IRIN that "Puntland forces are within our borders, since Las Anod is an integral part of Puntland". He accused the Somaliland authorities of instigating the conflict, adding that the people of the area "do not consider themselves part of Somaliland". Sool and Sanaag regions fall geographically within the borders of pre-independence British Somaliland, but most of the clans there are associated with Puntland. These are the Warsangeli and the Dhulbahante, which, along with Majerteen - the main clan in Puntland - form the Harti sub-group of the Darood. Duale said Somaliland had been working since 1991 towards the achievement of a lasting peace "within the borders of the former British Protectorate" and had "been successful in reconciling the various clans." He charged that "continuous provocations" by Col Abdullahi Yusuf, Puntland’s president, were meant to derail the "stability and the democratisation process and thwart the success story of Somaliland".
I’m just going to leave that last bit for you all to digest on your own, I nearly spit out my coffee when I saw it.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:35:13 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Actually, the trouble started when a small group called for a newly independant "Freekickland".
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/14/2004 10:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Actually, I thought that the breakaway republic of Somaliland was genuinely one of the few parts of Somolia that was relatively stable and democtatic. Anybody?
Posted by: Secret Master || 01/14/2004 10:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Chuck, I thought that the Detroit Lions had trademarked the name Puntland.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:04 Comments || Top||

#4  SH, actually the Lion's trademarked chokeland (just before Green Bay).
Posted by: Jarhead || 01/14/2004 15:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Has Faircatchland weighed in on this yet? They'll probably do nothing but stand there.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/14/2004 20:43 Comments || Top||


Somalia festivities kill 21
This must be more of that slow genocide that Museveni was talking about ...
At least 21 Somali fighters were killed when a long-running dispute between rival clans over grazing rights degenerated into clashes in the central town of Ceelbur. Elders who traditionally defuse tensions between younger clansmen failed to stop the confrontation, which broke out on Monday and persisted on Tuesday in the town. The confrontation set members of the Murusade clan against fighters from the Duduble clan, both branches of a bigger clan known as Hawiye. Sources among the Murusade fighters said they had lost 13 men while the Duduble said eight of their men had been killed. Clan sources said more than 26 combatants were wounded.
Painfully, I hope, with attendant infections...
Residents said the clash was rooted in a dispute that has been rumbling for weeks over access to nearby wells for cattle in the arid area. The violence erupted as various Somali faction leaders met in Kenya to try to revive a stalled peace process for the country, carved into a patchwork of rival territories since the central government was overthrown in 1991.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:33:19 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You don't hear as much about grazing rights in Western countries. The other night I did notice one large woman at the Golden Corral salad bar that thought she owned the place, though.

Does Kim sell licences for grazing rights to his citizens in Korea? - mandatory NK joke.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:19 Comments || Top||


Sudan bombs town and villages in western Darfur
Sudanese government planes have bombed the town of Tine in Sudan’s western Darfur region, a diplomat in Chad said on Tuesday. "The bombardment comes after an ultimatum made a few days ago by the Sudanese authorities, demanding that the town of Tine be evacuated, failing which they would raze the town," the diplomat, who asked not to be named, said. The rebel Movement for Justice and Equality (MJE), which controls Tine, confirmed in a statement that the Khartoum government had launched a bombing raid on the town and other areas in Darfur on Monday, killing 45 people, "most of them children, women and the elderly".

"The terrorist regime of Khartoum began the bombings on Monday January 12 at 9.45am on the town of Kornoi and the village of Forawya, destroying more than 100 homes, killing 25 people and injuring 41 others," the statement said. At least "20 people were killed and 53 injured" when the raids moved on to "the town of Tine and the villages of Bassaw and Be-ter", said the statement, written in French.

Personnel at the Sudanese embassy in Chad refused to confirm or deny the alleged bombing raids. "If there were bombings, they would only target rebel sites and positions," the embassy said, adding that "no civilians live in Tine, only rebels". Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir vowed in December to annihilate the Darfur rebels, who rose up against Khartoum in February last year, claiming their region was being neglected by the government. The uprising has so far claimed about 3 000 lives, displaced about 670 000 within Sudan and sent 80 000 fleeing to neighbouring Chad. The MJE is said to have been created with backing from a key radical Islamic leader in Sudan, Hassan al-Tourabi, although he has denied any involvement with the group.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
The Sudanese embassy in Chad has said that the two rebel groups "are one and the same", and the MJE’s military spokesperson, Colonel Abdallah Abdel Karim, told AFP in Libreville by satellite telephone that the two groups "coordinate military activities".
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:31:14 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe they get the ammo from passengers on Virgin Atlantic via DC!
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 01/14/2004 9:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Isn't razing towns considered passe in polite company these days?
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:20 Comments || Top||

#3  ...the embassy said, adding that "no civilians live in Tine, only rebels". Disregard my previous comment; they must have obtained a waiver of the non-razing requirement.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:23 Comments || Top||


Uganda hopes Sudanese peace deal will help to end LRA scourge
UGANDA HAS called for the establishment of a government in southern Sudan following the signing of a wealth-sharing deal between the Khartoum government and the Sudanese Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) in Kenya last week. Defence Minister, Amama Mbabazi, told The EastAfrican that in the interest of stability in the region, it was important that the SPLA and Khartoum move quickly to set up a government so that terrorist groups such as Joseph Kony’s Lords Resistance Army (LRA) do not use the territories as a spring board for their belligerent actions. "We the National Resistance Movement [NRM], the government and the people of Uganda are very happy that the hopes for peace in Sudan look good now," he said, adding that the apparent progress in the Sudan peace talks could signal an end to Uganda’s northern rebellion.

The 20-year-old war in southern Sudan has been interminably linked to the 17-year old-war in northern Uganda. At one point or another, both Khartoum and Kampala have admitted to fighting proxy wars across the border. Another official said the weath-sharing deal "has implications for Uganda because the terrorism and lynching of civilians in northern Uganda emanate from Sudan. We expect they will control their territory effectively," said the official. The establishment of a government in southern Sudan is also expected to curb small arms trafficking. Since the mid 1980s, the war in northern Uganda has proven a difficult one to manage. Although several rebel groups which came into being after President Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986, have been uprooted, the LRA has been the most slippery, mainly because of their alliance with the Sudan government. Many of the LRA bases are in southern Sudan, where the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces cannot reach. Whenever the LRA rebels are cornered in Uganda they retreat to southern Sudan to regroup and get more weapons. Major Shaban Bantariza, army spokesman, said recently that most of the LRA fighters had retreated to Sudan following hot pursuit by the UPDF.

Both the Uganda and Sudan governments signed an agreement in 1999 to cease their support to the rebels in their territories. But accusations have arisen several times that support was still going on. As recently as September and October last year, the Ministry of Defence reported recovering ammunition from the LRA bearing Arabic insignia. Uganda has never hidden its sympathies for the SPLA. The language between Kampala and Khartoum has been diplomatic ever since the two governments resumed normal relations in December 2002. To this end, Ugandan officials have been saying that they do not believe the recently confiscated arms and food supplies from Sudan originated from official sources, but from "rebel" Sudanese military leaders.

Uganda and Sudan signed an agreement in March 2002 which gave the Ugandan army permission to follow the LRA inside Sudanese territory. But Kony is now believed to be hiding further inside Sudan. Army spokesman Maj Shaban Bantariza said: "If southern Sudan gets a government, then it will no longer serve as a haven for our criminals. The SPLA controls southern Sudan but it is not a government. We are not co-operating with any authority there." The signing of the agreement to share the oil wealth extracted from southern Sudan is considered important because it was one of the major causes of the conflict between the two sides. The deal – under which the sides will split the revenue from the 250,000 barrels-a-day oil in half – was signed in Naivasha, Kenya, on December 7 by vice President Ali Osman Taha and SPLA leader, John Garang, who described it as "truly irreversible." So far, all the money has been going to the north. For Taha, the signing of the accord spelled "the end of a long episode of war and conflict in (the) country." He further said, "We desire to go on with this process regardless of other hurdles ahead."

These hurdles include the outstanding matter of who should control three disputed areas: the central states of Abyei, the Southern Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains. Both government and rebels have laid claim to the regions. "We shall discuss these issues and reach an agreement on these areas soon," Garang told journalists. The latest round of Sudanese peace talks began in June 2002, in the southern Kenyan town of Machakos – and culminated in the signing of the Machakos Protocol a month later. This agreement provides for a six-year transition period in Sudan after the signing of a final peace deal. During the interim period, an autonomous administration will govern southern Sudan. People in the south will be allowed to vote on independence from the north when the transition ends. The protocol also stipulates that Islamic or sharia law will only apply in the Muslim north of the country. Sharia banking, which does not allow the charging of interest, will continue in the north, with western-style banking being permitted in the south. A new national currency will be created.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:29:30 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  SLM, LRA, SPLA and MJE. Shouldn't this post be under Pakistan?
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:24 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Congressman wants the US to double the bounty on Binny
The reward for finding Osama bin Laden, the elusive leader of the Al Qaeda network and the world’s most wanted man, should be doubled to $50 million (BD18.9m), a US congressman visiting Afghanistan said yesterday. Mark Kirk, a Republican congressman, also said US-led forces in Afghanistan could remain there for more than a decade to help stabilise the war-shattered and chronically unstable country.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:17:22 AM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...Make it 1 billion even. No Pakistani intel guy will ever be able to resist those kind of zeros.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/14/2004 10:05 Comments || Top||

#2  That's a hefty price to pay for a rotting corpse.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/14/2004 11:35 Comments || Top||

#3  If you are a person living in abject poverty, why would $50M be more attractive than $25M or even $5M. If you are trying to encourage an organization to turn UBL, be sure you have a rough idea of how the extra $25M will be spent. You can buy a whole lot of C-4 with that kind of dough.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 13:25 Comments || Top||

#4  I would let it be known that it was tax free and a lifetime pass to Disney is included.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/14/2004 16:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Who cares. He's been worm food for 2 years.
Posted by: ed || 01/16/2004 23:57 Comments || Top||


Iran
Iran leader threatens mass resignations
Iran’s reformist president has escalated his battle with hardline clerics by threatening the resignation of his entire administration. Mohammad Khatami said his government would "go together" if a ban on reformist candidates standing in next month’s election was not lifted. He described the ruling as biased - his toughest pronouncement yet, says the BBC’s Jim Muir in Tehran. But the president said he was hopeful that talks could solve the crisis.

The conservative Guardian Council of black hats - which vets candidates - is now considering appeals against its own veto of more than 3,000 would-be candidates. Of those, about 80 are sitting members of parliament. The Council - empowered to ensure parliament’s actions comply with Radical Islamic principles - says it will not yield to pressure in its consideration of appeals.

Reformist officials had already made clear that several ministers, lawmakers and advisers would resign if the ban was upheld. But on Tuesday President Khatami said his administration would resign en masse. "We will go together or we will stay together," he said. "At this stage, my historic mission is to prevent the illegal seizing of the levers of power." But he also said he was "not despairing", and that results could be achieved if consultations continued, and if the standards laid down by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were adhered to. Ayatollah Khamenei has said the controversy must be resolved through legal channels.
Any guess who controls the ’legal channels"?
The Guardian Council affirmed that it would do so, the official IRNA news agency quoted spokesman Mohammad Jahromi as saying. But he also warned that the council would not be moved by "pressure or commotion". Following legal procedure means disputes continuing for more than two weeks until the results of the reconsideration are known. It is a tug-of-war in which both sides are trying to maximise their pressure on the appeals process. The government is dominated by reformists, and their mass resignation would see almost all democratically elected officials out of office ahead of the elections on 20 February. At least 80 reformist deputies are continuing a sit-in inside the Iranian parliament, where the tension has boiled over into occasional fist-fights. Among those banned from putting their name on ballots are Mohammad Reza Khatami, the younger brother of the president
and his wife
and Behzad Nabavi - who are both deputy speakers of parliament.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/14/2004 12:10:33 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A mass resignation would be a call! Will Iranians be up to their tea party?
Posted by: Lucky || 01/14/2004 0:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Be a real shame if the Guardian Council got all blowed up, wouldn't it?
Posted by: mojo || 01/14/2004 0:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Be interesting if they could get somone to go all VonStauffenberg on them, and go 'splodey kill the Black Turban cabal.
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/14/2004 2:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Turn da mullahs out!
Turn da mullahs out...
Posted by: TheGapBand || 01/14/2004 12:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Kind of makes on wonder what other messages were sent over w/our humanitarian aid. Wait until the Marines return in March?
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/14/2004 12:42 Comments || Top||

#6  I would have sent blueprints for adobe igloos - but that's just me.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 13:30 Comments || Top||


Africa: West
Al-Qaeda gang busted in Ghana
The Akomadan police in Ashanti have arrested four members of a gang calling itself "Al-Qaeda" at their hideout at Akomadan. The suspects, Prince Adade, Kofi Opoku and Kofi Boateng, were arrested while they were in the process of smoking a brown parcel of dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp. The police retrieved four pairs of scissors, 60 wrappers and a brown parcel containing the dried leaves from them. A police source that briefed the Ghana News Agency at Akomadan on Tuesday, said the fourth suspect Kwame Owusu also had a brown parcel containing dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp on him. The source said the suspects are in police custody pending further investigations.
"First you smoke the ganja, mon! Dat gets de brain juices flowin'. Den you issues your fatwah!"
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/14/2004 12:08:11 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Reassuring the fourth suspect was not Kofi Anon
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 01/14/2004 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like they were skipping school to cut up a pound.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/14/2004 7:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Something tells me "al-Qaeda" is going to be the "Trenchcoat Mafia" of the Third World gangbangin' set.
Posted by: BH || 01/14/2004 10:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Nice mame choice for an underground drug activity. Who wants to mess-around with a sentencing in a juvie court? These guys ensured that they would get worldwide attention and have numerous foriegn goverments express an interest in their getting lots of hardtime in an adult prison.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 11:42 Comments || Top||

#5  These guys ensured that they would get worldwide attention and have numerous foriegn goverments express an interest in their getting lots of hardtime in an adult prison.
I prefer the 30 seconds it takes to drop them through a trapdoor over a long drop, with a short rope around the neck. Does wonders for reducing the recidivism rate. Some of their "friends" may actually get the message that we're not playing around any more.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/14/2004 14:30 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Palestinian Authority Faces Financial Woes
Hit by waning support from fatigued donor nations, the Palestinian Authority has been forced to borrow from banks to pay salaries to its 125,000 employees and may be unable to meet its February payroll, the economy minister said Tuesday.
Oh, my heartstrings! Don't tug so hard!
With unemployment rampant outside the public payroll, Palestinians could be facing unprecedented economic collapse after three years of conflict with Israel. "We took loans from the bank for the past couple of months to pay salaries," Palestinian Economy Minister Maher Masri told The Associated Press. "If this situation continues ... we will not be able to provide salaries next month." Masri did not disclose the size of the loans, but figures are likely to be made public when Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayad presents the 2004 budget to parliament next week.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/14/2004 23:19 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I believe the people in the newspaper business call this a "standing head".
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/14/2004 0:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Let them eat cake. fluffy white cake in the morning and a hearty, deep rich, chocolate cake in the eve. With coffee or whiskey, as the case may be.
Posted by: Lucky || 01/14/2004 0:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Yo, Yasser, how do you spell "put up or shut up"?

W-A-L-L

Bwahahahahahahahaha
Posted by: Hyper || 01/14/2004 0:21 Comments || Top||

#4  "waning support from fatigued donor nations"

Fatigued! I like that! Saddam is fatigued. Gadafi is fatigued. The Taliban are fatigued. Iran and Syria are getting sleepy. Saudi Arabian royals are yawning. They're all Bushed.
Posted by: Tom || 01/14/2004 8:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Didn't know we cut off their funding already...
Posted by: Charles || 01/14/2004 9:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Wonder if Arafart will cough up some of the millions he's secretly squirreled away in foreign banks, siphoned off from the government?

I didn't think so, either.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/14/2004 10:26 Comments || Top||

#7  Watch carefully, as Palestinians and their corrupt Palestinian Authority implodes.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/14/2004 11:27 Comments || Top||

#8  Well, they can always put up a PayPal button on the Palestinian Authority web site.
Posted by: Christopher Johnson || 01/14/2004 16:52 Comments || Top||


Paleo bangs pop, brother, for collaborating
A Palestinian man killed his brother and his father on Tuesday in a family feud over the brother's suspected role as a collaborator for Israel.
The word "abomination" springs to mind...
According to The AP, the fight started in the Omar family in the West Bank town of Baka al-Sharkia when one of the sons - an Israeli citizen who apparently works for Israel's security services - came to visit his father, police spokesman Doron Ben-Amo said. One of the other sons allegedly killed the suspected collaborator and his father, Ben-Amo said. It remained unclear whether the father was killed intentionally or while trying to break up the fight, he added.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/14/2004 23:19 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Killed his bro and his dad. Wants...?
Posted by: Lucky || 01/14/2004 0:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Wonder how the Paleos will handle this? Any proof on the father, if not I believe the prescribed Islamist sentence for patricide is beheading after being disembowled.
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/14/2004 2:45 Comments || Top||

#3  If the Tigris valley is Eden, won't the remaining Omar be exiled to Iran?
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/14/2004 15:03 Comments || Top||


Katsav repeats Assad invite
Israeli ceremonial president Moshe Katzav on Tuesday reiterated his invitation to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to visit Jerusalem and hold direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions. Katzav also called for the resumption of talks with the Palestinians and restated his proposal to address the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in Ramallah. The Israeli president offered Damascus peace negotiations in "secret or public, anywhere and without pre-conditions," in an interview with Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television. Earlier, on Monday, Katzav invited Assad to visit Jerusalem, but Syria rejected the invitation as "not serious". The invitation followed "recent declarations from Syria" and was aimed at "testing the real intentions of Syria about making peace with Israel," Katzav told Al-Jazeera.
Looks like they failed that test...
"The Syrian president must prove his intentions are serious and that he wants peace." Katsav said he wanted to "encourage" al-Assad "to act in public because he has not opted for secret channels." Furthermore, Katzav said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had assured him "he is ready to launch negotiations with Syria without pre-conditions." In addition, Katsav called on Damascus to "end its support for Hizbullah in Lebanon and not to shelter Palestinian factions."
That'll kill it right there...
Meanwhile, in reaction to Katzav's interview with the satellite channel, Syrian MP Sabar Balchut told Al Jazeera that Katzav's call was not sincere. According to the parliament member, it was made to "cover Israeli aggression".
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/14/2004 23:19 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Based on rants from yesterday we should expect some more wisdom on the subject from "faisal"
mixed with lots of "Pussey", "Women" and "Harmone(sic)".
So, were are you Faisal ???? Faisal? Faisaaaaaaaaaaaaal ?
Posted by: The Dodo || 01/14/2004 4:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Good Cop trying one more time.
Posted by: KofiAnonymous || 01/14/2004 10:04 Comments || Top||

#3  pressure is building. It's just going to get exponentially greater day by day. Here's your choice, Assad - cave to the US and face your own people or cave to your people and face the US.

heh heh.
Posted by: B || 01/14/2004 11:04 Comments || Top||


Settler killed in shooting attack west of Ramallah
A settler was killed and two others were injured Tuesday evening in a shooting attack on the vehicle in which they were travelling, close to the Talmon settlement, west of the West Bank city of Ramallah. The injured men both sustained light-to-moderate injuries. One was evacuated to a Jerusalem hospital for medical treatment and the other was treated in the Talmon settlement. According to Israeli media reports, the Palestinian attackers bravely fled the scene of the shooting.
What's up with that? Did somebody fire up the peace processor again?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/14/2004 23:19 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:



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In no particular order...
Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2004-01-14
  Libya Ratifies Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Tue 2004-01-13
  Cleveland imam indicted
Mon 2004-01-12
  Premature boom near Nablus
Sun 2004-01-11
  Premature boom near Qalqilya
Sat 2004-01-10
  Possible Iraqi blister gas weapons found
Fri 2004-01-09
  Paleos Ready to Push for One State
Thu 2004-01-08
  Pak army launches S. Waziristan operation
Wed 2004-01-07
  Russers just missed Maskhadov
Tue 2004-01-06
  Toe tag for Gelaev?
Mon 2004-01-05
  Unknown group claims "attack" on Egyptian charter plane
Sun 2004-01-04
  Navy nabs another $11m hash boat
Sat 2004-01-03
  Pakistan arrests six for Perv attacks
Fri 2004-01-02
  Mullah Krekar arrested in Norway. Again.
Thu 2004-01-01
  At least five killed in Baghdad explosion
Wed 2003-12-31
  Islamist group claims Riyadh bomb attack


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