Saudi Arabia has abandoned its policy of diversifying foreign reserves into euros, deeming the eurozone unfit to manage a major world reserve currency.
Bwahahaha!!!
Muhammad Al-Jasser, the deputy chief of Saudi Arabia's monetary agency, said the dollar remained the safest bet for central banks in the Middle East, despite America's trade and budget deficits. "The euro has not yet gained a competitive status against the dollar as a major reserve currency. People are not going to switch to euros until European financial markets become more competitive, deeper, more liquid and diversified," he said.
A spokesman for Frits Bolkestein, the European single market commissioner, said the criticism is harsh but true. Mr Bolkestein has devoted much of the last five years trying to break down barriers to free capital movement, but has met with implacable resistance from vested interests.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/17/2004 1:06:34 PM ||
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#1
I guess the Soddies are looking to get the most bang for their buck.
#4
as long as the world buys in dollars the euro's are just blowing smoke and will not create a viable pole. and until the euro's can make concessions within thier own eu this will stay as is, and having the french in the midst we can confidently say this will not happen.
we should watch the russians with concern, thier policy is in direct confrontation to us since they are trying to help facicilate a pole to balance the US. i do think Bush is misstaken in his belief we can supplemnet middle eastern oil with middle russian oil. all that would do is solve one problem and create a much more complex problem. just imagine russian nationalist with the money reserves of some of these shieks in the middle east..not a pretty picture.
Posted by: Dan ||
05/17/2004 16:57 Comments ||
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#5
Hate us, love our dollars.
I wonder if any of these loonies have considered what will happen to them if we go down.
Or do they even care.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/17/2004 17:33 Comments ||
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#6
Michael - They can't think that far ahead.
They're also too stupid to realize that, if we go down, it's Sharia law worldwide in the not-too-distant future. And everyone can be equally poor.
Of course, before that happens I think there will be a glass parking lot in Mecca....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/17/2004 18:09 Comments ||
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Milton Friedman, the Nobel-Prize winning US economist and one of the most influential economists of the 20th Century believes there is a "strong possibility" that the 12 member euro zone could collapse "in the next few years"...
"I'm not saying it is a certainty, just that it is a strong possibility".
He suggests that the euro could be replaced with the old national currencies.
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
05/17/2004 21:36 Comments ||
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#8
Hate us, love our dollars. I wonder if any of these loonies have considered what will happen to them if we go down. Or do they even care.
We're not going down. But Eurostan sure is.
The Saudis are running from the Euro primarily they do not see them as a strong repository for their investments because the Eurostani economies are moribund with regulations and a bloated state welfare system.
"I'm not saying it is a certainty, just that it is a strong possibility". He suggests that the euro could be replaced with the old national currencies.
#9
Let's hope this is true.
I've thought for a while that the Saudis were playing the money markets against us by investing heavily in the EUro.
(Now they're playing the OPEC card instead.)
They're conflicted: they want to hurt the USA, but then they're greedy enough to realize that the EUro is no better than Monopoly money and that if they want some profits, they have to go with the dollar.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA is right!
Posted by: Jen ||
05/17/2004 22:30 Comments ||
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#10
Nothing would make me more happy to see the Euro collapse and the complete hysteria of 450 million Socialist going ape pooo. Personally one of the saddest days of my life was when Eurabia Union made the Lira go bye-by. The next day Italy was 15 to 20% more expensive. I hate Eurabia! A group of people who trust government more than themselves deserves a vile and painful demise!
#11
In defence of the euro - it has moeny in the bank and the member countries are at least NETT making more money than they are spending.
US fiscal policy has for years been short termist and you cannot keep spending more money than you make, eventually you'll run out. Whilst the US has so much coming in this is putting off the problem, once this stops then the problems start.
This is why the US recessions are so much deeper and longer than most of the rest of the worlds because the cash coming in slows.
Ultimately there will be a reckoning, and US debt. will plunge the US in a hole similar to 1929 and (Long Haired Republican) there was no socialist president then!
The global reserve currency will then be the next biggest which will be either oil, gold or Euro's.
The rather cynical move by The House of Saud must have been on the back of white house pressure. Arguably in real terms the 35bn in cash that Saud had in Dollars is now worth 27bn - If we agree that the USD has hit rock bottom then shifting USD into EUR now would just exaggerate that loss so of course Saud is not going to move it.
Mark your cards, the next time that the USD is at a high you'll see this entire issue start up again and the USD will once again plunge.
Al-Qa'ida terrorists whose suicide bombs killed 35 people and injured 200 at a housing compound in Riyadh last May were secretly assisted by certain members of the Saudi National Guard which protects the royal family, military trainers employed by a US firm have claimed. In exclusive interviews with The Independent on Sunday, the former trainers for the Vinnell Corporation, which has an $800m (£460m) contract to advise the Saudi National Guard, allege:
* Some members of the Saudi National Guard knew about the bombing in advance and gave inside help to al-Qa'ida, including possibly a detailed map of the target.
* An "exercise" organised by the national guard removed 50 of 70 security staff for the day of the bombing, thus leaving the compound "defenceless."
* Security was generally lax, with machine guns unloaded and guards unarmed.
* Vinnell and the Saudis were given detailed, repeated warnings that Islamic militants were planning an attack, but did nothing to upgrade security.
These claims will renew the controversy over the failure of the Saudi royal family to deal with Islamic insurgents. In recent weeks al-Qa'ida has renewed its attacks on Western targets in Saudi Arabia which have killed several British workers. The former trainers, who were injured in the attack, will require long-term medical care and now plan to sue Vinnell for compensation. They thus have a case to make, but their lawyer, Richard Fields, of Dickstein Shapiro in Washington, said: "They believe that Vinnell failed completely to take any measures to protect them." Vinnell, a subsidiary of the US defence contractor Northrop Grumann, has denied that security arrangements were deficient. It maintains the compound was "secure" and "hardened" but declined to comment when further questioned by the IoS.
The bombing on 12 May 2003 was implemented with precision based on meticulous intelligence. Lt-Col Raphael Maldonado, then a Vinnell instructor, claims al-Qa'ida received inside assistance from National Guard members. "This compound was too big and complex to be bombed without inside help", he said. He points to the discovery of a detailed map in the car left behind by the assailants and an improvised ladder consisting of concrete blocks and the trace of shoe markings made by people rushing to escape just before the explosion. On the morning of the atrocity, Lt-Col Maldonado noticed that none of his Saudi co-workers was present. A fellow Vinnell adviser angrily told him that a Saudi National Guard commander had suddenly notified him that they were leaving the compound to perform night manouevres with 50 trainers. "I don't understand why they are suddenly going into the field for just one night," he told Lt-Col Maldonado, who was even more concerned when he drove past the local mosque at noon and noticed far fewer shoes outside the door than usual. Lt-Col Maldonado believes that removing 50 of the 70 Vinnell trainers on what he claims was a "pointless" and unscheduled expedition 40 miles away just before the bombing, was deliberate, leaving the compound defenceless. "There is no doubt we were set up," he said. "Someone in the upper echelons of the Saudi National Guard knew the bombing was imminent."
A former Vinnell security officer, Felix Acevedo, argues that the compound was a sitting target because of the lack of vigilance on the gate. "The terrorists could see that the security was insufficient to keep them out," he said. Despite regular complaints, security was not upgraded. "It was unbelievable," said Lt-Col Maldonado. "The large steel gates were left open. There were just two to four Saudi guards at one corner with only 9mm guns. There was a machine gun on a vehicle, but it was unloaded because the gun did not have a belt to connect the ammunition to the gun's feeder. The lighting was inadequate and there were no night-vision devices. There were no wire barriers above the security walls, no metal detectors, no cameras to monitor access, no weapons checks and no bomb-detection dogs for vehicles. And Saudi nationals not working at Vinnell were not checked on entry."
The bomb, estimated to be 400lb of Semtex, was devastating. The front of the high-rise block was destroyed and the blast was so extensive that it was felt miles away. But it should not have been a surprise to the Saudi royal family and Vinnell. For there had been warnings that al-Qa'ida was targeting softer, less-secure sites in Riyadh. Two weeks earlier an individual was seen videoing the front-gate operations at the compound. A guard gave chase but he avoided capture. A week later the same individual was one of nine terrorist suspects captured during a raid in Riyadh. On 1 May 2003 the US State Department declared there were "strong indications" that Islamic militants "may be in the final phases of planning an attack on American interests in Saudi Arabia". This was based on intercepted satellite phone calls and "intelligence traffic" showing contact between Osama bin Laden's son, Saad, and an al-Qa'ida cell in Riyadh. The US ambassador, Robert Jordan, pleaded with Vinnell to upgrade security. And, a week before the bombing, a huge weapons cache was discovered by police at an al-Qa'ida safe house in Riyadh. According to The Washington Post, the arms had been sold by Saudi National Guard members to al-Qa'ida. The Saudi Interior Minister, Prince Nayef, condemned the bombing and called for public assistance in capturing 19 suspects. But the reaction showed how al-Qa'ida has retained support. Three prominent clerics declared the terrorists were "devout" men and called on people to disobey the regime's request. They said any help to the police would constitute aid to the US in its "war against Islam". Ten of the suspects remain at large.
For the former trainers the memory of 12 May is intensely painful. Lt-Col Maldonado now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Mr Acevedo was so badly lacerated that he was unrecognisable. He needed 94 units of blood and was kept in hospital for two months. "It was a senseless and needless tragedy," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/17/2004 1:22:08 AM ||
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#1
I could easily see something like that happening in the US. There are hundreds of thousands of "American"-muslims eager and willing to help (or look the other way) their brothers from abroad to carry out attacks on American Soil. I believe that those "American"-muslims are far more dangerous than muslim terrorists from outside the country.
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banners openly. But a traitor moves among those within the gate freely, and his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys are heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to their victims and wears their face and their garments, and appeals to the baseness which lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of the nation; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared."
#2
Three prominent clerics declared the terrorists were "devout" men and called on people to disobey the regime's request.
And these "three prominent clerics" are still walking around free after openly advocating sedition? This is a clear symptom of the real problem at hand. The terrorists are merely a byproduct of these beturbaned thugs.
#3
The Saudi OPEC oil barons having been playing the American public for suckers for years, while bankrolling every Wahhabi-cult-linked terrorist group in the world. Not helping matters what-so-ever are some of the largest American, British, Dutch and other multinational oil companies which have been in bed with the 'royal family' of Arabian terrorist promoting backstabbers.
Soon, after the two interconnected rouge jihad promoting states of Syria and Iran are dealt with firmly (action is forthcoming, count on it) the House of Sa'ud must be toppled, and the vast Arabian crude oil reserves protected from the jihadic enemy (if possible).
The missing link concerning Sa'udi Arabia's enormous petroleum infrastructure is, will al-Qa'ida's planted terrorist moles already deeply hidden among the thousands of oil workers employed in Sa'udi Arabia, collapses the Sa'udi economy by way of multi-targeted acts of devastating sabotage, which would also immediately result in a panic on Wall Street, coupled with the commodity, currency and bond markets.
Any major attacks on the enormous Sa'udi oil fields will trigger a rush to buy crude oil contracts and therefore increasing global prices to levels resulting in dangerous hyperinflation, not seen since the last time the Sa'udis triggered the Arab Oil Embargo against America for assisting Israel against invading Arab states during the Yom Kippur war of October-1973.
It's high time we had the Sa'udis over a barrel!
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 2:18 Comments ||
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#4
It's high time we had the Sa'udis over a barrel!
It's also high time that America divert its fabulous technological expertise towards supplanting internal combustion driven transportation. Sadly, an H2 infrastructure is still gated by onboard storage within the vehicles themselves. New metal hydride chemistries and composite containment tanks show great promise but need massive infusions of grant based research to drive them towards fruition.
So long as big-oil and the automotive industry are able to collude in steering America towards continued dependency upon Middle East petroleum and oil in general, our nation's military and economic security are dangerously compromised.
Regarding the Saudis, at some point, we must be able to say; "Let them drink oil."
Until then, we are at the mercy of the very worst sort of blackguards and thugs known on earth.
#5
Zester,
"And these "three prominent clerics" are still walking around free after openly advocating sedition? This is a clear symptom of the real problem at hand. The terrorists are merely a byproduct of these beturbaned thugs."
This is because the branch of the the Royal Family that advocates breaking all ties with the US is protecting those clerics. Remember Prince Naif, the one who still says that Sept 11th was carried out by the CIA and the Mossad? He is part of that branch.
Both branches do agree on one thing: that they need the Imans and Mullahs to preach hatred towards Americans and Jews to divert the saudis' attention away from the rising unemployement and the rapid fall of living standards.
Those clerics were probably put on probation. We will not cut your heads off this time but, you have to promise to double your dose of hatred towards jews and westerners, mainly Americans, in your sermons and to never, ever, mention the Royal Family again.
#6
A Hydrogen economy will do diddly squat to solve the problem. What is your energy source to produce the hydrogen? H2 technology is just greenie snake oil. As I have pointed out before there are only three options to become free of oil imports.
1. Build hundreds of nuclear power stations.
2. Build a massive coal based syn-gas and syn-oil infrastructure
3. Build massive infrastructure to import LNG, although this still leaves the USA dependent on imports.
Take your pick?
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/17/2004 3:49 Comments ||
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#7
I still reckon a good way off of Saudi black slag is ethanol.
Cars already run on it, no need to change the infrastructure. Just need to modify engines: no plastic/aluminium (i think) parts will go as the ethanol eats it, but everything else = OK. I remember ages ago I posted links to rantburg about the specs of converting an engine so it takes ethanol.
Ethanol can be produced by growing corn-stalks or non-THC Hemp (ie: hippies can't get high off it).
YES it is more expensive than Saudi Black Slag.
BUT it is BETTER than paying billions daily to people who are trying to KILL us!
I'd rather pay double and be weaned off the habit.
Several car companies already make ethanol cars you can buy one today. I posted that link here ages ago, too.
Here's a different site from Canada. Ignore the greenie stuff and just focus on this: freedom from Saudi black Slag (oil)
http://www.ethanol-crfa.ca/vehiclehome.htm
Here's a site that tells you how to modify your EXISTING vehicle to run on ethanol fuel:
http://terrasol.home.igc.org/alky/alky1.htm
Ethanol used to be used (and i think still is in some cases) to operate farm machinery. Farmers loved it as they could make their own fuel when needed.
Nuclear is not the answer. We have gas reserves before we go Nuclear.
Nuclear can never be the answer because the pollution it produces lasts for millenia but human civilizations only have detailed memories for a few hundred years.
Case in point: old Nuclear dumping grounds that no longer have warning signs on them. Case in point: people now living in the exclusion zone of Chernobyl less than 30 years after.
Hidden environmental, social and medical costs associated with cleaning up after the nuclear industry mean it is actually more expensive than other seemingly less efficient but greener technologies.
#8
Anon1 - Ethanol from agricultural products takes more energy (about twice as much) to produce as it yields in energy. So for every barrel of oil equivalent of ethanol you produce, you have to import 2 barels of oil. Moronic is not adequate to describe this lunacy.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/17/2004 6:19 Comments ||
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#9
Drill on the North Slope of Alaska
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/17/2004 7:34 Comments ||
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#11
Gotta disagree,Phil.H2 fuel cell is the way to go.
The probles are,for now:
High initial cost for fuel cell engines.
This will drop with improvents in technology and manufacturing.I heard on a docu the other day that Germany has 1 or 2 subamrines that are operating on fuel cell tech(can you back this up TGA)
And infrastructure,I believe the oil industry is instramental in delaying this.
You still haven't answered the key question -- where's the H2 come from? It takes energy to produce it, where's that energy supposed to come from?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/17/2004 9:22 Comments ||
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#13
Phil B gets to the heart of the problem we face with a new energy source, and that is where do we get the hydrogen? Something has to be converted to make hydrogen, and that takes energy. Petroleum was the product of chemical reactions powered by the sun millions of years ago, sort of a solar savings account. Now we are withdrawing from that account.
The answer is that we will have to use and develop lots of alternatives to oil. Crude oil is a relatively easy source of energy to exploit, which is why it is so hard to get off of. Since we as a people have not had the will to look seriously down different paths since the embargo of '73, maybe prices will kick us collectively in the butt to make it happen.
The debate of which way to go is a matter of public policy and not the bailiwick of closed door meetings. However, I do not think that our present national leadership, and I include the congress in this, have the courage and fortitude to make things like getting off Saudi crude a reality.
When the people lead, the leaders will follow. I think that this is one of those situations.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/17/2004 9:38 Comments ||
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#14
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious.
A4617 - And in John Kerry we have an ambitious fool.
All Alaska Drillers - Yes, but, how to we get past the eco-cabal in the congress?
Very good DBT, but the problem is where do you get all the electricty needed to extract the H2 from the H2O? Electrical generating plants are having trouble keeping up with current load.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/17/2004 12:54 Comments ||
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#18
It's high time we started drilling at home so Persian Gulf oil can remain there, in the sand & under the warm waters of the Gulf.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 13:22 Comments ||
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#19
What is your energy source to produce the hydrogen?
1. Build hundreds of nuclear power stations.
Nuclear power can be operated safely. Merely examine France's power generation program. Sadly, in America our government only had expertise in building nuclear bombs and handed the reins of power plant building over to commercial interests who low-bid these vital and potentially dangerous facilities.
To paraphrase Hyman Rickover:
"The problem with commercial nuclear power is that you do not have the military option of taking wrongdoers outside and shooting them."
We need to build many nuclear power plants thereby consolidating the eletrical generation needed for hydrolizing water on a massive scale. This will reduce the environmental impact of scattering all sorts of less effecient generating sources (solar, wind, tidal) plus reduce incipient losses in gridding their power output. Such building must be accompanied by similar thrusts towards the attainment of fusion based power generation. Our current natural gas delivery infrastructure can be reconfigured to deliver hydrogen rather well. Modern valve and interlock technology, along with compact inexpensive hydrogen sensors have rendered many originally valid safety concerns irrelevant.
America has the technological expertise to overcome it's unnecessary dependence on oil. The Alaskan slopes only contain a few months or years of operating capacity for our country and are definitely not the answer. We need to get unhooked from the slow drip IV of death that Arabian oil represents.
#20
The debate of which way to go is a matter of public policy and not the bailiwick of closed door meetings. However, I do not think that our present national leadership, and I include the congress in this, have the courage and fortitude to make things like getting off Saudi crude a reality.
Thank you, Alaska Paul, for making sure this did not escape our discussion. Special interests (i.e., Detroit and big-oil) are buying off every vote imaginable to prevent America from attaining oil independence. This needs to be a top priority and it is not at this time.
Oil has enormous "hidden" costs in terms of pollution and other side effects (cancer, spill cleanup, etc.) that, if properly accounted for, make it insanely more expensive that current economic projections exhibit.
The Saudis are not our friends and never have been. It's time to change dance partners and bring our own technological solutions to the table. All leaders of every political stripe who have prevented this in the preceeding decades will one day face condemnation for their shortsighted policies regarding this matter.
If America cannot bring itself to find a solution to oil dependence, we must gird for a routine and regular string of 9-11s in the future.
#21
Nuclear can never be the answer because the pollution it produces lasts for millenia but human civilizations only have detailed memories for a few hundred years.
The concerns over nuclear waste and its potential hazards to future generations pale in comparison to the clear and present danger of oil-funded terrorists. Which do you honestly fear more? What does the future postulated unaccounted-for and unshielded waste matter if we are all dead? We must solve the more difficult political problem of oil-funded terrorism by getting off the oil teet. Waste storage is/has been a solvable techincal problem. I have lived, worked and slept near (measured in feet) reactors and fuel storage faciities for years. Not one of them has threatened to kill me in creative ways.
For an overview of the future of nuclear power, read this Sandia Lab article.
#24
Nuclear can never be the answer because the pollution it produces lasts for millenia but ....
Why is everyone so goddamm irrational over nuclear power. Pollution is minimal and wastes can easily be disposed off by putting them in deep holes in the ground.
Ontario (Canada) has solved the (PR) problem by calling the technology used in its dozen or so nuclear power stations 'Slowpoke'.
Al Qaida was said to be preparing for another major attack in Saudi Arabia. Western diplomatic sources said embassies and foreign companies have been warned of the prospect of another major Al Qaida strike in the kingdom. The sources said the Al Qaida network in Saudi Arabia has been encouraged by the flight of Westerners from the kingdom in wake of previous insurgency strikes. "The most likely prospect is an attack on a Western compound or office," a diplomatic source said. "It's a tried-and-true method and it causes the most panic among the expatriate community." On Saturday, a gun battle took place outside a Western housing compound on the edge of Riyad. Reports of the shooting were sketchy with witnesses asserting that four gunmen were captured. Nobody from the compound was injured, and later the Interior Ministry denied that an attack had taken place.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/17/2004 1:07:02 AM ||
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Hat tip LGF
(London) Members of two British gay rights groups were attacked when they attempted to participate in a demonstration for Palestinian rights.
OutRage and Queer Youth Alliance went to the protest march at Trafalgar Square to show their support for people of Palestine. But they also urged the Palestinian Authority to halt the arrest, torture and murder of homosexuals.
As soon as they arrived at the square members of the two groups were surrounded by an angry, screaming mob of Islamic fundamentalists, Anglican clergymen, members of the Socialist Workers Party, the Stop the War Coalition, and officials from the protest organizers, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).
They variously attacked the gay activists as âracistsâ, âZionistsâ, âCIA and MI5 agentsâ, âsupporters of the Sharon governmentâ and accused the gays of âdividing the Free Palestine movementâ.
PSC organisers asked the gay activists to âstand at the back of the demonstrationâ, and when they refused blocked their placards with their own banners and shouted down the gay campaigners as they tried to speak to journalists and other protesters.
Most people at the Palestine protest expressed no hostility towards OutRage! and the Queer Youth Alliance. Some expressed positive support.
In the end, the gay groups were allowed to march in the demonstration. The two groups carried placards reading: "Israel: stop persecuting Palestine! Palestine: stop persecuting queers!"
âWe call on the PLO and Palestinian Authority to condemn homophobia, uphold queer human rights, and to order an immediate end to the abuse of lesbian and gay Palestinians", said OutRage! protester, Brett Lock.
"Having experienced the pain of homophobia, we deplore the suffering inflicted on Palestinians by the Israeli governmentâ.
Another protester, Peter Tatchell, said: "Gay Palestinians live in fear of arrest, detention without trial, torture and execution at the hands of Palestinian police and security services. They also risk abduction and so-called honor killing by vengeful family members and vigilante mobs, as well as punishment beatings and murder by Palestinian political groups such as Hamas and Yasser Arafatâs Fatah movement".
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 14:19 Comments ||
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#2
That's just it Doctor, you have to remain BROTHERS. No sisters allowed though, since they would taint allah's "Glorious" Mujahideen into violating them and destroying a families honor.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/17/2004 14:24 Comments ||
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#3
Members of two British gay rights groups were attacked when they attempted to participate in a demonstration for Palestinian rights.
#4
These f&%kwits actually thought a bunch of congenital wife beaters wouldn't take the opportunity to assault some gays for an afternoon's diversion? Sounds like a bunch of shoe-sized IQs* to me.
#6
Gay used to be such a happy word. So sad, (sigh)!
Paleos seemed in denial at first, and, probs after owning up to being homos, marched at the gay rally, there being not many goats or camels in mid-London town prettier or more manly than Mr Peter Thatchell and his friends. A shag is a shag, to all these people and I'm so gay happy for them I could cause a riot. (Quaint English for having a laugh).
#7
#sigh#
Here in San Francisco the gay community is so insanely anti-Bush that in a recent protest I saw some guys waving a couple of "Queers for Islam" signs around with this kind of pink scimitar symbol on it.
I kid you not.
They really, really, really don't get it. What was that old Dead Kennedy's lyric? Oh, yeah: "When the new order comes you'll be the first to go!
Update on previous articles today
THE US has notified Seoul it will withdraw 4000 US troops from South Korea for combat duty in Iraq, a Pentagon official confirmed today. The redeployment was part of a phased rotation of US forces in Iraq, said Lieutenant Commander Flex Plexico, a Pentagon spokesman. "Over a period of months, the army looked at various units and recently, very recently, came to the conclusion that the best unit to provide the support was going to come from South Korea," he said.
Via the Prof: Ryongchon Explosion Eight Times as Great as North Claims
Japanâs Kyodo News, citing numerous diplomatic sources in Vienna, reported Saturday that the force of April 22âs train explosion at the Northâs Ryonchon Station was about that of an earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale, which would have required about 800 tons of TNT -- about eight times that officially announced by North Korea. The sources referred to earthquake figures gotten by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization. The Northâs official Korean Central News Agency had previously reported that the destructive power of the blast was that of 100 tons of dynamite, and explained that the accident was caused by "the electrical contact caused by carelessness during the shunting of wagons loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer and tank wagons".
The CTBTO feels that the cause of the explosion may differ from the Northâs explanation, and noted the explosion might have been caused by highly-explosive materials like military-use fuel going off. Officials at the CTBTO plan to look into the causes of the accident. The CTBTO said the explosion at Ryongchon was observed using seismological observation stations in Korea, Japan, the United States and Russia. The stations were built to detect nuclear tests. In Japanâ case, seismological observation stations in Nagano, Oita and Okinawa picked up the Ryongchon blast. The CTBTO collected data from various observation posts, analyzed the data at its International Data Center and estimated the size of the blast. About a week after the explosion, it provided the data to CTBT member states.
The CTBT, written in 1996, has to be ratified by all its signatories for it to be effective, but 44 nuclear and potentially-nuclear states like the United States, China, Pakistan, India and North Korea have put off ratifying the document, which is now on the verge of collapse.
Posted by: Anonymous2U ||
05/17/2004 11:44:54 AM ||
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#1
Kim Jong-Il wants the world to know that he can make an earthquake. However he won't leap tall buildings at a single bound because he's afraid of heights. (Remember, won't fly in a airplane)
#4
As I recall from a Tom Clancy novel where the nuke fizzled at Denver stadium, there wasn't much of a crater and no shock wave. There was sufficient nuetron flux to fry the 70,000 attendees at the game, but a guy in a Brinks truck was protected by being behind bags of nickels!
In that ficticious case the main charge did go, but it discharged over too long of a time period because the bad guys failed to renew the "booster".
THE United States wants to move some of the 37,000 US troops stationed in South Korea to Iraq, South Korean officials said today. "The US government has told us that it needs to select some US troops in South Korea and send them to Iraq to cope with the worsening situation in Iraq," said Kim Sook, head of the South Korean Foreign Ministryâs North American Bureau. "South Korea and the United States are discussing the matter."
Posted by: tipper ||
05/17/2004 12:50:17 AM ||
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#1
about friggin' time. Off the tit, SK!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/17/2004 0:57 Comments ||
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#6
Actually, I am concerned about how we work this out with SK. If we get their agreement, then no problem, but if they object, then the obvious tit for our tat is to withdraw their forces from Iraq (claiming they are needed to replace US forces to protect SK), which can hurt us.
Posted by: Carl in N.H ||
05/17/2004 11:50 Comments ||
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#7
Nope! Don't need more troops in Iraq. Have just exactly the right number. Have provided all the combat commanders exactly what they say they need. Force size and structure just perfect. Don't need to expand the Army by two divisions. National Guard and Reserves can fill the slack. Won't have any impact on retention. Every day, in every way, things are getting better and better.
Sorry, I heard that stuff from McNamara in the 60s and 70s. Whatever his merits, Rumsfeld just doesn't have a clue when it comes to military operations tempo. The reality of Iraq/Afganistan/Horn of Africa don't map to his Pentagon restructing plan.
#8
Ohh, how I do remember the South Koreans protesting us last year, in they're streets! They should be in the streets raving with joy...where are they?
 SEOUL, May 17 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States wanted to pull some of its 37,000 troops out of South Korea to help operations in Iraq,confirmed a South Korean official on Monday. The United States has recently notified Seoul of its intention and the two countries have just begun talks on the issue, Kim Sook,chief of the Foreign Ministry's North American Affairs Bureau, wasquoted by South Korean Yonhap News Agency as saying.
The South Korean official stressed the talks are at a "very early stage" and that nothing specific has been decided. The official also said the issue has nothing to do with Seoul's plan to send 3,000 additional troops to Iraq, rejecting speculation that the US plan is meant to pressure South Korea to act quickly on its troop dispatch promise.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
At the request of Washington, Seoul decided to dispatch 3,000 troops to Iraq besides the some 500 non-combatant troops which now are working in the Middle East country. But the plan was delayed for several times because of the deteriorating security situation and the changing of deployment site.
Kim's comments were a response to a newspaper report that about 4,000 US troops stationed in South Korea will be redeployed to Iraq within several weeks. The vernacular daily JoongAng Daily said the US government plans to withdraw a brigade-level force from the 2nd Infantry Division, the most forward-deployed among the 37,000 US troops near the inter-Korean border, and send it to Iraq.
And if you can't trust a vernacular daily, who can you trust?
It is unclear whether those troops will return to South Korea after conducting stabilizing operations in Iraq, the paper quoted an unidentified government official as saying. "We cannot completely rule out the possibility of a brigade-level force leaving the Korean peninsula and not returning," the official was quoted as saying.
Or it might be a new rotation plan.
Meanwhile, the US military here neither confirmed nor denied the plan.
"We can say no more!"
"A number of options are being discussed to help ensure the US meets its obligations to Operation Iraqi Freedom, while ensuring the US also meets its ongoing commitments throughout the Asia Pacific region," said Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a spokesman for the US military in South Korea.
Another fine member of the Army of Steveâ¢.
"When any decision is made on future deployments, we will conduct consultations, notifications and announcements at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/17/2004 12:31:40 AM ||
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#1
annyonghi kyeseyo. Goodbye Land of the Morning Calm. Time for the 2nd ID to come home.
#2
Had a customer recently back from Deathcon two. Served near Bagdad one. Thought Panhandle was a little to long. He was with teenage son and happy wife. Very polite but had a story that wanted telling beyond just his emotion. Was very pissed at being mortored so much. Good guy but not happy!
Bury Americans on Korean soil? Nah... There'll be enough Korean cadavers after Kim Jong Il makes his move to unify Korea. What the US needs to do is leave the peninsula completely, unit by unit.
#6
Whiskey Mike, sorry for the funky wording, was at a BBQ all day swill'n brew. But the deal is the guy was just back from Iraq (D2), he thought they were spread to thin (panhandle) and wasn't real happy at being mortered so much (pissed). His wife and son were very happy to have him back. The guy retires out of the US Army soon. Nice, polite guy but was a little emotional and couldn't say what he wanted to say.
#7
"It is unclear whether those troops will return to South Korea..."
No,it is very clear,they ain't going back to SK unless the North invades.We are seeing a smooth face-saving means of withdrawing from Korea.The combat troops will exit first(w/talk of returning when tour is up),then some of support units,leaving cadres behind to keep southern depots ready in case the North heads South.
Posted by: Stephen ||
05/17/2004 16:43 Comments ||
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A British-born Muslim convert was recruited by al-Qaida for a plan to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra with a truck bomb, prosecutors said Monday on the opening day of the manâs trial. Jack Roche, 50, was told by senior officials in Osama bin Ladenâs terror network to form a terror cell in Australia to carry out the plot, prosecutor Ron Davies told Perth District Court. Roche has pleaded innocent to one charge of conspiring to damage the Israeli embassy by means of explosives, and as a consequence harm diplomatic staff. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in convicted.
Prosecutors told the jury Roche traveled to Afghanistan to meet with senior figures from the terrorist organization â including bin Laden â in March 2000. Davies said that Roche had several meetings with one of bin Ladenâs deputies, identified in court documents as Abu Haifs, and had one meeting with bin Laden himself in which the plan to bomb the embassy was forged. It was not immediately clear if the court papers were referring to Abu Hafs al-Masri, the alias of Mohammad Atef, a top lieutenant of bin Laden who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan in 2001. In the indictment papers, Roche reportedly told Australian Federal Police that the man identified as Abu Haifs was bin Ladenâs second in command.
Roche trained with explosives for 10 days at an al-Qaida camp nine miles from Kandahar, Afghanistan, before returning to Australia and beginning surveillance operations of the Israeli diplomatic building in Canberra, as well as the Israeli consulate in Sydney, Davies said. He also began recruiting people to take part in the plot and checked the availability of explosives, the court heard.
Ibrahim Fraser, who learned about explosives while working in a mine, told the court he met Roche at a Sydney mosque, where Roche boasted to him several times he was going to destroy Canberraâs Israeli embassy â and that bin Laden had told him to do it. "He said it was bin Ladenâs way to remind the people of the problems in Palestine," Fraser told the court. "I thought he was crazy." Fraser said Roche had asked him how he could get hold of TNT.
Raids on Rocheâs house in Perth recovered video recordings, still photographs and notes made during the surveillance, the court was told. Davies quoted Rocheâs comments in a newspaper interview before his arrest in November 2002, in which he was asked about targeting the Israeli embassy. "He said he had no qualms about the Israeli people around the embassy ... in his words, not mine, they were fair game," Davies said.
Roche, who is an Australian citizen, converted to Islam more than 10 years ago.
Posted by: TS(vice girl) ||
05/17/2004 8:47:48 AM ||
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The Aussie court system needs to send a loud message, warning anyone else who wants to join the death cult of Islamic fanatics, do not bother or you will be in the clink!
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 10:29 Comments ||
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An Algerian imam deported from France for defending wife-beating says he has a visa to return. It follows a French court ruling that last monthâs deportation order for Abdelkader Bouziane was unlawful. Mr Bouziane, 52, who was the imam of a mosque in Lyons, said he was looking forward to seeing his family again. It is still unclear when Mr Bouziane will return to France, but he told French television on Monday it would be "in a few hours".
The cleric was deported to Algeria on 21 April for saying that the Koran authorised the stoning and beating of adulterous women. The remarks caused an outcry in France, with many Muslim leaders condemning them as un-Islamic. But two tribunals have ruled the deportation illegal and said Mr Bouziane should be allowed to return to France.
Charges
The new Interior Minister, Dominique de Villepin, had argued that the deportation was legal on the grounds that the imam used his mosque to advocate violence. But on Monday, his lawyer Mahmoud Hebia told the Associated Press: "I am in the process of organising his return to Lyon." He refused to say when the imam would return "in order to protect him".
Mr Bouziane had lived in France for 25 years on a renewable residency permit and reportedly has 16 children there. But he may not get a friendly welcome from the French authorities. A state prosecutor has opened a case against him on charges of excusing a crime and encouraging harm to others. And French President Jacques Chirac said that if the law needed to be changed to prevent a repetition of the Bouziane saga, then modifications would be made.
EMPHASIS ADDED
Sixteen children?!? Isnât an investigation of polygamy or at least one of child abuse called for? Imamâs are not famous for their high salaries. Similarly, neither are their wives usually well compensated executives or major bread winners in any case. Where is the money coming from to support all of these children? If there is no readily apparent source of income, shouldnât the contributions to this violent thugâs life style be scrutinized thoroughly? This stinks like week old fish.
#1
An Algerian imam deported from France for defending wife-beating says he has a visa to return. It follows a French court ruling that last monthâs deportation order for Abdelkader Bouziane was unlawful. Mr Bouziane, 52, who was the imam of a mosque in Lyons
How could I not hit my wife. She burnt my toast at breakfast. This is an act of disrespect.
#2
The cleric was deported to Algeria on 21 April for saying that the Koran authorised the stoning and beating of adulterous women. The remarks caused an outcry in France, with many Muslim leaders condemning them as un-Islamic.
I'm impressed; I think this is the first time Muslims have claimed that something coming directly from the Qu'ran is unIslamic.
From the "Skeptic's Annotated Qu'ran":
4-34: "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great."
Seems pretty clear to me. And on an unrelated note, 4:82 actually could be used to negate the entire Qu'ran on the basis of incongruity. Nearly died laughing when I saw that.
KIEV, Ukraine - Ukrainian security officers have arrested two Middle Eastern men whom they said possessed a substance that has been touted by sellers as an ingredient in nuclear weapons and dismissed by others as a hoax. Security agents in the southern city of Odessa seized 24 pounds of a substance they said was radioactive and identified as "red mercury," a State Security Service spokesman said Monday on condition of anonymity. He said they arrested two men from a Middle Eastern country,
Any country we'd have heard of before?
"Foreign citizens were looking for an opportunity to purchase a quantity of radioactive material in Ukraine and to sell it in the Middle East," said the spokesman, who would not say what country the men were from or where the material came from. He said the arrests were made several weeks ago. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, black marketeers have been peddling substances they call red mercury, apparently passing it off to buyers as a highly radioactive compound that purportedly was developed in Soviet nuclear facilities and could be used in powerful weapons.
Pssst, hey! You, in the turban. Wanna buy some Red mercury? Good stuff, un-cut, I promise.
Samples that have turned up in Europe have proved to be bogus, however, and many scientists and law enforcement officials say the substance does not exist or is far less potentially dangerous than it has been made out to be.
Errr, either it doesn't exist, or it's less dangerous, make up your minds.
Still, the Ukrainian statement appeared likely to add to concerns that terrorists have been seeking to acquire radioactive substances in the former Soviet Union.
Don't want any Red Mercury? How about a suitcase nuke then? Only one owner, never been used.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/17/2004 1:09:43 PM ||
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Jeez. I've seen the rumors, too. If someone got 24 pounds of that stuff, it's extremely worrying. (If it exists.)
Does anyone remember a story about Ukranians seizing some tritium a couple weeks back? I wonder if it's related.
Posted by: Pete Stanley ||
05/17/2004 14:09 Comments ||
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#2
"No, no, we said Freddy Mercury."
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/17/2004 14:17 Comments ||
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#5
Well, this "Red Mercury" could be moderately radioactive slag, and still be hazardous to human life.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/17/2004 14:42 Comments ||
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A Ballotechnic Mercury Compound
Presumably red in color. Ballotechnics are substances which react very energetically in response to high-pressure shock compression. Google's Sci.Chem group has had a lively ongoing discussion about the possiblity of a an explosive form of mercury antimony oxide. According to some reports, red mercury is a cherry red semi-liquid which is produced by irradiating elemental mercury with mercury antimony oxide in a Russian nuclear reactor. Some people think that red mercury is so explosive that it can be used to trigger a fusion reaction in tritium or deuterium-tritium mixture. Pure fusion devices don't require fissionable material, so it's easier to get the materials needed to make one and easier to transport said materials from one place to another. Other reports refer to a documentary in which is was possible to read a report on Hg2Sb207, in which the compound had a density of 20.20 Kg/dm3 (!). Personally, I find it plausible that mercury antimony oxide, as a low density (nonradioactive?) powder, may be of interest as a ballotechnic material. The high-density material seems unlikely. It would also seem unreasonably dangerous (to the maker) to use a ballotechnic material in a fusion device. One intriguing source mentions a liquid explosive, HgSbO, made by Du Pont laboratories and listed in the international chemical register as number 20720-76-7. Anyone care to look it up?
If contaminated during the irradiation process, it may be useful as a radiological bomb component. Beyond that, it sounds more like a scam.
#8
My hypothesis concerning the utilisation of this substance as an agent for cold fission relies on two mechanisms. One is muon induced atomic fission (initiated by cosmic radiation) and the other is a neutron cascade due to the neutron mirror effect of mercuric ions trapped between antimony and lead atoms at temperatures in excess of mercury's normal boiling point. The analogy between the densification of tinted lead in the (so-called) alchemical gold and that of mercury, amalgamated in a 5 MW reactor with the pyro-antimonate, also represents an important condition for and strong constraint upon this hypothesis. It is the point at which RM and PS become crucially codependant on each other's existence. If the one never existed then, in all likelihood, the other never can.
The Netherlands will refuse entry to Pakistani Muslim militant Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who was controversially booked to speak at meeting organised by the Dutch-Belgian Arab European League (AEL) later this month. A Justice Ministry spokesman confirmed on Sunday that Hussain Ahmed will be denied entry to the Netherlands based on national security and public order reasons, news agency ANP reported. Colleagues of Hussain Ahmed also told the Dutch branch of the AEL on Saturday night that the leader of Pakistan's largest Islamic party is not welcome in the Netherlands. The AEL â which campaigns for the rights of Muslims living in both the Netherlands and Belgium â had invited Hussain Ahmed to visit the Netherlands and speak at a public meeting. He was due to arrive on Wednesday. According to the AEL, the Pakistani politician possesses a diplomatic passport and his party is investigating legal options in a last-ditch bid to allow him to enter the Netherlands.
The Hague-based Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) has warned the visit will endanger national security due to Hussain Ahmed's incitement against non-Muslims. It urged the Dutch government to refuse entry to the Pakistani. CIDI director Ronny Naftaniel also said on Sunday the decision to refuse Hussain Ahmed entry is more than justified. Hussain Ahmed is the leader of the Pakistani fundamentalist party Jamaat-i-Islami. He is known to have supported the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and has in the past expressed sympathy for Osama bin Laden, the leader of terror network Al Qaeda. The AEL had planned to hold its public meeting on 21 May, but has run into difficulties in finding a venue. Both the Nederlands Congress Centrum in The Hague and the Haagse Hogeschool have refused to host the event. The AEL was founded in 2001 in Antwerp, Belgium. The organisation â which later set up a branch in the Netherlands â claims to support integration, but not assimilation of Muslim and Arab immigrants into European society.
Cuz that would be un-islamic.
In April this year, the AEL's website "saluted" the armed resistance to the US-led coalition being mounted by "the Iraqi population" in Fallujah.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/17/2004 9:58:09 AM ||
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Four small bombs exploded outside branches of British bank HSBC in the Turkish cities of Ankara and Istanbul on Sunday night, hours before British Prime Minister Tony Blair was set to visit Turkey.
Police and local media said the blasts caused minor damage and no casualties.
A police official said one percussion bomb, believed to have been placed under a car, smashed windows of a bank branch in the capital Ankara when it exploded around 10.30 pm (1930 GMT).
There was also an explosion in front of another branch in the city, he said.
State-run Anatolian news agency said there were two similar blasts outside two HSBC branches on the Asian side of the country's commercial hub Istanbul around 10 pm, which were also caused by percussion bombs and caused some damage.
Percussion bombs, often used by militant groups in attacks in Turkey, generally produce a loud bang but little damage.
Television pictures showed slight damage to the wall of one of the banks, which had been cordoned off as police officers inspected the area for evidence.
Blair was expected to pledge his support for Turkey's bid to join the European Union and to discuss turmoil in neighbouring Iraq during his six-hour visit to the capital Ankara.
He will be the first British leader to visit Ankara since Margaret Thatcher 16 years ago and is expected to praise Turkey's political reforms and stress its importance as a moderate Muslim country espousing democratic, secular values.
He is set to meet Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
Iraq, which has badly sapped Blair's support at home, will also feature on Monday's agenda. Some Turkish left-wing groups are planning protests against Blair's visit over Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/17/2004 1:01:06 AM ||
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"Turkish public opinion strongly opposed the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein and has been shocked, like the rest of the Muslim world, by photographs detailing abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers."
Of course! How could I have forgotten that those photos justify and give muslims the right to do just about anything, from decapitation to bombing banks, to avenge the humiliation suffered by those poor angelical prisoners. Idiotic reporters!
#3
stress its importance as a moderate Muslim country espousing democratic, secular values.
WRONG! Turkeys importance is that it's actually TRYING to become a moderate Muslim country. They've made progress, but still have a long way to go. The Turkish people must also come to terms with the reality of an inevatible Free Kurdistan.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/17/2004 14:33 Comments ||
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TEHRAN, Iran: Two Iranian war invalids unveiled a plaque outside the German Embassy in Tehran on Friday that accuses Germany of supplying chemical weapons to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88.
Say, whatever happened to the left-overs?
One of the two veterans who unveiled the plaque, Ahmad Paryab, who spoke with plastic pipes running into his nose to assist breathing, called for the prosecution of Germanyâs top officials during the Iran-Iraq war. "We demand that the then leaders of Germany be tried in an international court for war crimes and that the German government pay compensation to us," Paryab told about 100 people who attended the ceremony. Paryab was wounded by chemical weapons in the war, as were other members of the crowd.
"The world has not forgotten the crimes committed by Hitler during World War II. And it should not forget this crime as well," he told reporters.
An apt comparison.
In Germany on Friday, government officials said the German ambassador to Tehran had sent a letter to the associations of Iranian victims of Iraqi chemical attacks, expressing sorrow for their plight but rejecting any German government responsibility.
#1
"And it should not forget this crime as well," he told reporters.
And some people will not soon forget the crime of forcibly taking over international soil while holding hostage people with diplomatic immunity. Maybe this is why Iran was left to twist gently in the breeze. Sending out ten year-old boys as human mine sweepers in advance of troop sorties is just more icing on the proverbial cake.
Iran's whining about war crimes will get little audience so long as they continue to promote international terror.
#2
Let us all use the occasion of the unveiling of this plaque to solemnly remember and honor the lives that were tragically lost or damaged when Iranian government agents blew up a bomb in a restaurant in Berlin. My that dastardly crime committed by the Iranian government never be forgotten.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/17/2004 7:37 Comments ||
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Are we supposed to just beleive the Army when it says there was Sarin gas?
seems to me these fellas in control havenât exactly been forthright with anyone up until now....but now weâre being told a single shell was found that contained traces of sarin gas -- but this time its the truht?!?!? anyone want to bet that, in the interest of "national security", no one is allowed to inspect the shell and it will be destroyed in some remote field.....
That didnât take âem long, did it? (Note the posterâs excellent written rhetoric, spelling, and punctuation.) The thread just opened up as of this posting; check back later in the day to see how far from reality these moonbats can get.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/17/2004 2:56:24 PM ||
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THERE CAN'T BE NERVE GAS!
W.w.w.why if there was nerve gas, Bush was telling the truth, that's impossible!
#3
I would think that it would be unusually hard to inspect an artillery shell that has been exploded vice fired. I am willing to give this joker the chance to sniff around the residue, though. Every decon team needs a canary.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/17/2004 15:32 Comments ||
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#4
Perhaps some of the naysayers and koolaid drinkers will takes this opportunity to personally inspect the suspect weapons? If they keel over in writhing pain and die they would be wrong! In fact I would support a whole battalion of these yahoos that could clear mine fields and ride in front of convoys. Why believe the U.S. government when they can see/do/smell for themselves?
#5
I think they're on to something here, people: Either the army's making it up to make Bushitler look good, or one of the less competent lieutenants dropped the shell as he was loading it into the black helicopter.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 17:26 Comments ||
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Oil futures close at a new high of $41.55
U.S. stocks end sharply lower on Iraq instability, oil
Rosy scenario for the U.S. economy didnât last long
Gold futures, metals shares at seven-session high
"Simply put, oil is a runaway train," said Kevin Kerr, editor of newsletter If anyone is interestested I predict oil is going to 60$ per B at which point Asian economies tank and Europe goes into a severe recession. Some time in July looks about right.
#1
U.S. stocks end sharply lower on Iraq instability, oil
You mean the instability created by the media? (Hint: In the local paper, there's a story that's titled "Senators want top-level probe". And right above it? "Iraq in turmoil".)
"Simply put, oil is a runaway train," said Kevin Kerr, editor of newsletter
What Kerr fails to mention is that every train has an engineer. They don't drive themselves.
#2
The Seoud and other Arab friends are trying to cause regime change in the USA. If the economy enters recession from here to November then the chances of Kerry winning increase. Thus they raise oil price.
#4
At these prices oil shale starts to look good and ehtanol use is exploding. OPEC and the energy companies are shooting themselves in the foot. Btw, oil prices can't hurt the economy... the US economy is simply to big now. It's not the 70s anymore. I think we use about 8 billion barrels a year.. that's about 320 billion dollars of oil vs 240 billion if it was at 30 bucks. Assuming oil stays at 40 for a full year (doubtful) it would only cost the US 80 billion dollars.... the us economy is expected to grow about 500 billion this year...
#5
The only way to make large scale production of oil shales feasible is by 'heating them up' with nuclear explosions. I have already railed against the lunacy of ethanol once today, so I won't repeat myself.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/17/2004 21:01 Comments ||
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#6
Phil, regarding your overview & comment; "I predict oil is going to 60$ per B at which point Asian economies tank and Europe goes into a severe recession. Some time in July looks about right." may be right on the money.
In 1999 crude oil sunk to a low of almost $10 a barrel, then in a matter of less than one year oil futures shot up over $20... to $29-$32 a barrel without the current energy market fears of today.
From $40 to '$60' could indeed transpire through pure fear promoted by the Islamic enemy, of course with some institutional trader greed thrown in for an extra few dollars added to the price of every barrel of crude.
By the way, for each penny oil rises or falls amounts to $10 for each penny. A $2 jump in one trading session earns 2K per oil futures contract, and a bit less on an oil option's contract. With profits like these is it any wonder one reason behind the dramatic price rise in oil if the incredible amount of money which can be earned through the free market system?
Number one: Having incredible success in the outcome of Spain's recent national election, the radical Islamists will attempt the same vicious stunt in terms of the Bush/Kerry presidential race. It's well known who the jihadists will be rooting for. Let's just say George Bush will not garnish the Muslim vote in November.
Number two: As of this posting NYMEX crude oil futures for July-04 are right about $42.00 per barrel. If the Muslim terrorist stage a spectacular disruption of Saudi oil exports, the supply fear factor will be worth most likely another $10 to $15 upward jolt in crude, heading in the direction of $60.00 a barrel in panic buying looking toward the colder months, including skyrocketing prices for heating oil, natural gas, propane and of course unleaded gas going off the price trending charts.
Number three: The objective of al-Qa'ida's 9-11-01 multi-passenger jet-bombs was to decapitate Wall Street thus the targeting of the 'World' Trade' Center (economic symbolism) in the center of global trading, New York. The goal of the jihadists has not been altered one bit. Sinking the western economy through fear of reduced energy supplies by way of organized acts of petrol-sabotage is not difficult for al-Qa'ida, since many terrorist moles have been planted deep inside the greater Persian Gulf nation's crude oil infrastructures.
Number four: Our only counter measures to the jihadic terrorist movement, besides the continuation of intense monitoring, infiltration, disruption and the removal of as many potential Islamic terrorists as possible, is to blockade the monetary source of Shi'ite linked terrorism, OPEC's Iran. The leftwing mass media has the public scared about Iraq, making firm action to counter Iranian terrorist promotion a tough bill of goods to sell to the voters.
Number Five: Will America wait until we have sunk into a severe recession brought on by Muslim terrorists blowing up the Saudi oil fields triggering a meltdown on Wall Street because of fear that the future will bring about increased instability resulting in a depletion of vital energy supplies and that of the free world?
Number Six: Do we immediately begin importing crude oil requirements from non-Persian Gulf exporters, plus legislatively allow for safe exploration & drilling for oil & natural gas within the United States, by way of passing a massive energy deregulation bill. Sad to say, we will probably not deregulate nor embargo or blockade Iranian oil or 'secure Saudi oil.
Number Seven: Will we take the necessary measures to severely reverse the enemy's ability to function in terms of arms shipments & huge sums of money flowing in to them, or allow the enemy to gain the upper hand over our very way of life through inaction regarding the arch-bankrollers and terrorist hubs located in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and other strongholds of the death cult?
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/25/2004 3:37 Comments ||
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Any and all proof of Saddams ties with AQ need to be brought out and publicized as much as possible. Anyone that thinks Iraq was insulated from Islamists and some sort of isolated secular haven in the midst of that middle east rat hole is denying the obvious. Saddam had cut his deals with those murderous sob's just as most others have over there to keep their citizens from getting boomed.
Dozens of videotapes of American guards allegedly engaged in brutal attacks on Guantanamo Bay detainees have been stored and catalogued at the camp, an investigation by The Observer has revealed. The disclosures, made in an interview with Tarek Dergoul, the fifth British prisoner freed last March, who has been too traumatised to speak until now, prompted demands last night by senior politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to make the videos available immediately. ...
Dergoul tells of one assault by a five-man ERF in shocking terms: âThey pepper-sprayed me in the face, and I started vomiting. They pinned me down and attacked me, poking their fingers in my eyes, and forced my head into the toilet pan and flushed. âThey tied me up like a beast and then they were kneeling on me, kicking and punching. Finally they dragged me out of the cell in chains, into the rec[reation] yard, and shaved my beard, my hair, my eyebrows.â
After their release last March, Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Ruhal Ahmed, the so-called Tipton Three from Staffordshire, told of similar ERF attacks. Rasul said they led to a new verb being coined by detainees: âto be ERFedâ. That, he said, meant being slammed against a floor by a soldier wielding a riot shield, pinned to the ground and beaten up by five armed men.
However, it is Dergoul who now reveals that every time the ERFs were deployed, a sixth team member recorded on digital video everything that happened. Lieutenant Colonel Leon Sumpter, the Guantanamo Joint Task Force spokesman, confirmed this last night, saying all ERF actions were filmed so they could be âreviewedâ by senior officers. All the tapes are kept in an archive there, he said. He refused to say how many times the ERF squads had been used and would not discuss their training or rules of engagement, saying: âWe do not discuss operational aspects of the Joint Task Force mission.â
The Observer can also now disclose that a British military interrogator posted to the now notorious Abu Ghraib abuse jail raised the alarm about maltreatment of detainees by US troops as long ago as last March. While ministers insisted last week that the three Britons working in the jail did not see any of the systematic and sadistic abuse, an unnamed lieutenant - a debriefer trained to deal only with co-operative witnesses - made an official complaint to US authorities after seeing what he considered to be ârough handlingâ of prisoners. ...
In London, Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, said: âThe Government must demand that these videos be delivered up, and the truth of these very serious allegations properly determined once and for all. âThe videos provide an unequalled opportunity to check the veracity of what Mr Dergoul and the other former detainees are saying.â
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/17/2004 8:11:42 AM ||
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And, now, a look with less sensationalism:
âThey pepper-sprayed me in the face, and I started vomiting.
Pepper spray will do that. What did he do to deserve the pepper spray?
They pinned me down and attacked me, poking their fingers in my eyes, and forced my head into the toilet pan and flushed.
Thus clearing the pepper spray from his eyes. I guess they COULD have left it in his eyes...
âThey tied me up like a beast and then they were kneeling on me, kicking and punching.
He wouldn't cooperate, so they used force to make him cooperate.
Finally they dragged me out of the cell in chains, into the rec[reation] yard, and shaved my beard, my hair, my eyebrows.â
And they did what they could to get rid of the lice he had since Afghanistan.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/17/2004 8:48 Comments ||
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#2
This issue has "jumped the shark". People with no experience in the professional operation of prison facilities are making authoratative comments on matters they know nothing about. ERF type units are used when a prisoner is uncooperative and threatens violence. Better the prisoner's feelings and body get bruised than a corrections officer be injured. Turn it around. How many of our troops should be injured in order that this guy get deloused?
#4
Three years ago I read "NEWJACK: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover. He spent a year as a prison guard. And the stuff that goes on in American prisons is FAR worse than anything in Iraq.
Also, I think a lot of these guys getting out now are exagerating or just plain lying.
#5
Re: the Gitmo prisoners, I wouldn't care if they tear their nervous systems out by hand to string their guitars. These guys are al-Qaeda, they have no human rights. None.
#6
B, I can't agree more. It's like a lifer complaining because he can't beat up guards. The publicity will 'de-traumatize' what has happened. I can't say I feel sorry for any of their Brits that 'happened' to be in Afghanistan and were captured. Their stories are as flimsy as one of the Kerry's daughters dresses. I bet that more than one of them attempted to 'put the guards in their place.' I was a guard in Korea for a short time and they (prisoners) always feel they have to test the rules or try to intimidate the guards. After an encounter with the Emergency Response Force they lose that desire.
#7
More photos of terrorist abuse by prison guards, this time in the US! Why the silence? Where is the worldwide outrage!
Posted by: ed ||
05/17/2004 12:31 Comments ||
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#8
Still more photos! When will the horror stop! I can just feel the umma's indignation and cry for justice.
Posted by: ed ||
05/17/2004 12:39 Comments ||
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#9
And Ed if you saw your buddy get shived by some low-life would you not want to correct his 'attitude'? I am sure the Brits were the mouthiest of all prisoners because they âthoughtâ they had some right to do whatever the hell they please. I am not a mean person but I would not think twice about cracking some mouthy jihadist on the head if they continued to give me trouble. The world would have been better off if we had left them in a hole in Afghanistan.
#10
I think the average person is out of touch with what bad guys do, and what has to happen to make them stop--in a prison situation or othewise.
The Islamoidz have found a Western "hot button" with this "prisoner abuse" thing, and will keep pushing it if they can get publicity--which all too likely this election season.
I suggest publishing story after story about what the Islamoidz do. Talk about shockers! Would make the normative treatment of prisoners at gitmo pale in comparison. But the media wants to back Kerry, generally speaking, so no luck on "fair and balanced" reporting (a rare occurence in the best of times).
Another superb article by Mark Steyn. As they say, read it all.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/17/2004 12:06:16 AM ||
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#1
I think it has been 3 straight Sunday mornings that the prison scandal has dominated the talk shows, the ultimate indication of what the Beltway insiders and mass media are thinking.
Last month on this date, it was Fallujah and Sadr that dominated the airwaves. Now that we have turned the majority of the Iraqi Shiaa majority against Sadr and quieted Fallujah, there is nary a word on these successes.
WMD? We know Libya and Iraq are no longer threats.
The PCA has already turned over to Iraq around 6 ministries, such as Agriculture and Foreign Affairs, two very important ones.
A provisional constitution was OK'd and sovereignity will be passed over on 6-30. An Iraqi free press. Oil production, electricity exceeding Saddam levels, and schools with entirely new ciruccula. This isn't progress?
Then yesterday all the polls that show W and Kerry in a neck and neck. Well of course, the public has been treated for the last two months to the most negative headlines and commentary re Iraq on ABC, NBC,CBS, NYTimes, B Globe, etc.
And W has felt the pressure. Therefore, apologies to the likes of Abdullah of Jordan; the specter for foreign audiences of Rumsfeld being castigated by hypocrites like like Pelosi (Her company Bechtel is doing OK in Iraq, right Nancy? It's not all Haliburton and Cheney) and even Repubs like McCain and Graham looked like they couldn't wait to be on camera posing and preening. Graham especially. You could see him just having a fit saying to himself, "But I wasn't informed. Well I'm a gd Us senator!" Believe me the message was received and digested for our friends and enemies in the ME. Nobody on our side could draw any optimism over the spectacle of our spasms of self-flaggelation for a group that was mistreated but at least kept their heads.
Has anyone seen any p. 1 headlines or leads on the TV news over the 280,000 jobs created last month? Two months of Clinton growth so naturally this item is not mentioned by the mainstream since the majority of media members badly want Bush out. Even Kristol, Will, etc. are losing their fire.
Let Bush know he has to maintain course. The silent majority can no longer be silent.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/17/2004 14:08 Comments ||
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I don't worry too much about Bush sticking to the plan. OTOH, Kerry wobbles but he don't fall down.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/17/2004 21:19 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the Washington office of the International Committee of the Red Cross has resigned for "personal reasons," amid turmoil created by a secret ICRC report on Iraqi prisoner abuse by U.S. forces.
Christophe Girod, a 17-year veteran of the international body, declined Monday to comment on his reasons for leaving and would not say whether his decision was linked to dismay over the world bodyâs handling of the Iraqi abuse scandal.
"I am leaving for private reasons. I have had 17 years of the ICRC and itâs time to try something else," said Girod, who heads up the ICRCâs work in the United States and Canada.
In Geneva, the ICRC said Girod resigned "for personal reasons" about a month ago and the decision had nothing to do with the prison abuse scandal.
Earlier this month, a 24-page ICRC report was leaked to the media in which the Red Cross said the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers was "in some cases tantamount to torture."
The February report came to light days after the U.S. media published graphic photographs showing U.S. forces humiliating and degrading Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
The report raised questions over the ICRCâs policy of neutrality and public silence over what it hears or sees about prisoners as a price for gaining access to jails in trouble spots around the world.
Asked whether he thought the ICRC had handled the prison scandal correctly by not speaking out earlier when it knew of the abuses, Girod declined to comment.
"I have nothing to say on the matter," he said. "This is not our policy to go public with internal matters and our relationship with detention powers."
The ICRC, which complained repeatedly in private to U.S. authorities over possible prison abuses, only reveals acts of torture or worse when faced with flagrant cruelty and impunity and when the authorities involved refuse to take action.
For example, it spoke out against blatant violations in the late 1980s in a bid to win the release of prisoners of war captured during the Iran-Iraq conflict. It also went public with criticism 20 years ago about Israeli mistreatment of detained Palestinians.
Girod broke this tradition of silence last October when he publicly criticized the indefinite detention of "war on terror" suspects being held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay. So the Red Cross only goes public when its the USA, Israel or Iran, and only when the âvictimsâ are Arabs. My suprise meter is reading 0.000.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/17/2004 8:41:06 PM ||
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#1
For example, it spoke out against blatant violations in the late 1980s in a bid to win the release of prisoners of war captured during the Iran-Iraq conflict. It also went public with criticism 20 years ago about Israeli mistreatment of detained Palestinians.
Pretty effective, both sides just went ahead a released all their prisoners from their respective mortal coils.
Moral equivalence: execute POW's = force detainees to play "Smell the Glove."
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/18/2004 1:10 Comments ||
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A Thai policeman was killed and another wounded in separate shootings Monday in the countryâs Muslim south where troops were on high alert for possible militant attacks on the first day of a new school year. The Muslim policeman died in hospital hours after he was shot in the head as he rode his motorcycle to work in Pattani province, police said. In a separate incident, gunmen shot a former drug-busting Muslim policeman in Narathiwat province as he walked to a tea shop. "He was shot three times in his cheek, chest and torso and is being treated," a police colonel said. "We suspect some drug gangs might want to take a revenge on him or Muslim militants might just want to cause havoc."
The shootings came as thousands of heavily armed police and soldiers guarded about 1,000 schools in the restive region, where at least 200 people have died since January in a flare-up of separatist violence that had been dormant for two decades. Thai television showed armored vehicles bristling with machine guns parked inside playgrounds as students dressed in crisp, new uniforms greeted their teachers in the three southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia. State-run schools have been targeted by militants as symbols of government authority since the unrest began in January.
Bomb blasts at three Buddhist temples in Narathiwat on Sunday threatened to escalate tensions between Buddhist Thailand and its Muslim minority, who make up 10 percent of the countryâs 62 million population. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Monday the temple attacks had been carried out by the "same group of militants" who had raided police outposts on April 28. Thai troops and police crushed the uprising, killing more than 100 people, mostly young Muslims. "The majority of Muslims in the region disagree with this means and they never think of causing religious conflicts," Thaksin told reporters in Bangkok. "But the perpetrators never give up and they want to convince our society that there is such conflict," he added. Many within the predominantly Muslim local community were outraged at what they said was an excessive use of force on April 28. In the bloodiest incident, soldiers and police stormed a historic mosque in the town of Pattani and killed 32 militants hiding inside. Mystery still surrounds the mainly machete-wielding attackers. Officials say they were drug-crazed and manipulated by extremists, who gave them magic spells to recite and told them prayer beads would ward off bullets.
Malaysia, which had earlier irritated Bangkok by offering temporary refuge to Thais fleeing the violence, has deployed an extra battalion to boost security along its border with Thailand, Malaysiaâs national news agency Bernama reported on Sunday. Malaysia now has four battalions totaling 1,600 soldiers patrolling the border, Bernama quoted the army chief, General Azumi Mohamed, as saying.
The Thai government has issued conflicting statements about the latest chapter of a conflict that dates back centuries, to when the kingdom of Pattani in southern Thailand ruled the south and parts of present-day northern Malaysia. Thaksin has blamed the violence on drug dealers, contraband smugglers and gunrunners, acting under the cover of separatism. But cabinet members and top military officials say they suspect the attacks are the work of Islamic radicals with support from foreign militant groups. Anger over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq may be a contributing cause. Last month, the Thai embassy in Sweden received a letter threatening attacks like those on Spain in retaliation for Thailand sending troops to Iraq.
Posted by: TS(vice girl) ||
05/17/2004 8:13:22 AM ||
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EFL. This may be nothing, but the Asian economies seem particularly fragile right now. At any rate it bears watching
Asian stocks slumped after oil prices climbed to a 21-year high, threatening to slow global economic growth. Samsung Electronics Co. and Advantest Corp. led declines. `A rise in oil prices would mean a profit squeeze for companies, which isnât good news,ââ said Kiyohide Nagata, who helps manage about $3.2 billion at Invesco Asset Management (Japan) Ltd. in Tokyo. Taiwanâs Taiex Index tumbled 5 percent after China warned President Chen Shui-bian three days before his inauguration for a second term that he must accept Chinese sovereignty or ``face destruction by playing with fire.ââ Indiaâs Mumbai stock exchange halted trading for an hour after the Sensex slid 10.9 percent.
Posted by: RWV ||
05/17/2004 2:01:33 AM ||
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#1
Bares watching is right. Fear has a hold on many traders in numerous market across the world, not only the Asian sectors.
Just one additional attack on any OPEC related oil installation and I see another coupled of dollars being added to the price of crude which will result in increased inflation (if sustained for 4 to 6 months) and the market in general does not like the unknown when everyone already knows interest rates will have to rise in an attempt to curb expanding inflation caused of the high cost of energy and transportation.
Many energy traders have already factored in the eventuality of $50.00 per barrel crude oil, but what transpires once oil reaches $50.00, will it head to $60.00 causing unleaded gasoline prices to shoot up to $3.50 to $4.25 a gallon? The likelihood is there and the terrorists unfortunately are in the 'drivers seat' in terms of deliberately triggering enormous price hikes in oil resulting in their pre-planed sabotage on oil 'targets' as one main economic method of harming us.
Remember this, the majority of OPEC members hate us and with every $1.00 added to a barrel of oil on the international market these terrorist supporting states earn more petrol-profits to financially assist the very killers we are combating in Iraq, Afghanistan along with other areas throughout the world the death cult is trying to gain inroads.
My partial solution to Iran exporting terrorism is a rigorously enforced blockade all supertankers loaded with Iranian crude from exiting the Persian Gulf and in doing so the principal source of revenue Iran has been suing for over 25 years for the sole purpose of spreading their Islamic cancer will suffer a server economic setback. I am not holding my breathe on that recommendation to be carried out since our good 'friends' in the E.U. will cry about it because, as in the case with Saddam, too many 'deals' have already been cemented with the enemy behind the enemy ...Iran.
Keep an eye on the currency and bond markets. A rocky road has begun.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 4:06 Comments ||
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I think that Saudi Arabia will put its 2 million Spare Capacity Production to use and will also try to sway other OPEC members to increase production very soon. SA cannot afford a global economic slow down like the one in 1973. They will do anything to try to bring the price of oil down. They will flood the market if they have to.
I wouldn't bet on it and anyway its not the real issue. The sources of oil are inherently unstable as well as the trasportation routes. A couple of well coordinated attacks could take millions of barrels off the market for months. I'll ignore the potential for market manipulation by suppliers deliberately staging such attacks. Saudia Arabia has gained billions of dollars from the terrorism and instability to date.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/17/2004 6:13 Comments ||
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#4
The fed doesn't HAVE to raise the interest rates - they would only do so to prevent inflation. If the price of oil goes up, wouldn't that make all goods more expensive, thus accomplish the same effect as a raise in the interest rates?
Seems to me that a rise in oil prices will prevent inflation and allow us to keep our interest rates low. Keeping the interest rates low should encourage investment here in the US instead of elsewhere.
#5
Some of this is probably the US transfer of troops away from Korea. Whatever they might say about America, the US is the ultimate guarantor of the sovereignty of East Asian countries against China.
#6
Often markets are prescient. And East Asia is very dependant on imported energy. The market could be anticipating a catastrophic event and as ZF points out this could be loss of the US security guarantee. I don't think it will happen. In fact I am sure it won't, but the market is anticipating something. BTW the election of Congress in India didn't help - old fashioned socialists.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/17/2004 10:17 Comments ||
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#7
Funny how the socialists always manage to seem to come from behind and pull ahead at the last minute, to everyone's surprise.
Maybe we should be looking a little bit more closely at this phenomenon.
Posted by: B ||
05/17/2004 10:23 Comments ||
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#8
To Phil B, your comments on the Sa'udis: "Saudia Arabia has gained billions of dollars from the terrorism and instability to date." are right on the money.
Keep it coming! Open up on the Sa'udis with both 'barrels' of truth!
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 12:10 Comments ||
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An uprising in southern Thailand by Muslim separatists â in which Thai soldiers recently killed more than 100 suspected radicals on a single day, including 30 who took sanctuary in a historic mosque â has opened a new front in Southeast Asia's war on terror.
Eric Teo Chu Cheow, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said Jemaah leaders met twice in southern Thailand to plan the bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali in 2002 that killed 202 persons, mostly foreign tourists.
Local officials say one of the suspects sought for involvement in a January raid at an army camp in southern Thailand is related to Hambali, al Qaeda's operational leader in southeast Asia, who was arrested near Bangkok last year.
Independent estimates already put Jemaah membership in southern Thailand as high as 10,000, and the Thai military says that it is hunting down at least 5,000 armed separatists.
In the growing unrest, Buddhist Thai nationalists see a threat of "Arab influence" in the region, first brought home in 2002 when two dozen Middle Eastern suspects were arrested for forging travel documents for al Qaeda.
Southern Thailand is also home to the Yala Islamic College, run by influential hard-line cleric Ismail Lufti. The modern college is funded by Saudi money and has 800 students taught hard-core Wahhabi doctrine.
Vairoj Phiphitpakdee, a Muslim member of parliament for Pattani, has said that some Thai Muslims mistakenly believe that Islam is just about adopting Arab customs.
"They're taken to the Middle East, and they're brainwashed," he recently told reporters.
The success of the military operation against the Islamist militants depends on closer cooperation from neighboring Malaysia.
Thailand says the terrorists find refuge in the northern Malaysian states of Kelantan and Kedah. While there have been official pledges by both governments to boost border patrols, all that has been achieved thus far is the arrest of a sole Malaysian taxi driver, who was charged in Kuala Lumpur with aiding the Thai militants by ferrying some of them across the common border.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/17/2004 12:57:22 AM ||
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(We shall see who is stupid very soon.)
Iranian Supreme leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has condemned what he described as the "stupid" and "shameless" actions of US troops in the Iraqi Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. This bearded, 7th century looking Shiâite âclericâ, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , neglected to include Iranâs ongoing infiltration of hard-core jihadists, and their Tehran ordered methods of instigating fire fights with American, British, Italian, Polish and other Coalition troops whose duty is re-establish order, along with assisting in the rebuilding of the nation Saddam & his Baâath Party cohorts ruined.
Iranâs dictatorship is fully aware an economically stable Iraq via exporting Iraqi crude oil in huge amounts for needed national revenue, coupled with a higher standard of living (if allowed) will eventually draw the attention of Iranâs dissatisfied population to their own deplorable repressive condition.
The ruling, fanatical, Iranian mullahs have had the population of Iran enslaved since 1979. Since over 50% of Iranian were born after Khomeini was allowed to overthrow the Shah in 1979 the younger people of âPersiaâ want the same freedoms other youth have in western nations.
The Iranian âleadersâ of world-wide jihad revolution are on a time table and time is not on their side much longer.
He said the abuse of prisoners in Iraq showed that the US had merely taken the place of Saddam Hussein, and that it was time for them to leave the "bog of their own making". The following are excerpts from his remarks, delivered in a speech to theology students and broadcast by Iranian radio:
No Muslim, particularly a Shia, can remain calm in the face of the recent events in Najaf and Karbala...
[The US soldiers] have taken their tanks and artillery and armed forces to the holy site of Karbala. They have shown disrespect to the sacred dome of the Lord of the Faithful. They have fired bullets at the dome. That is not something that faithful Muslims can tolerate or accept... We would not want to upset the dear peace loving terrorists, would we? Let them hid their imported weapons in the massive Shiâite cemeteries, and use mosques as operational bases to murder more Americans and anyone else who is on the jihad hit list....itâs okay Iran, although you export thousands of terrorist trained killers into Iraq, we will just roll over....all of you ....with our tanks!
The Americans have combined stupidity with shamelessness. They are audacious and unrestrained. They are encroaching upon the peopleâs sanctities and what the people love... Muslim people, particularly Shia - in our own country or in Iraq, in various Iraqi cities or in other parts of the world - will not remain silent at this American encroachment and audacity... They think they can rule Iraq without any difficulty, take Iraqâs oil and humiliate the Iraqi people. What happened at Abu Ghraib prison showed this, and recently it became clear that this has not happened only at Abu Ghraib. It has happened at all, or at least most, American prisons in Iraq...
The president and the gang ruling America say they did not know what was going on. That is how they have apologised. They say they did not know and that they have closed Saddamâs torture chambers... You have not closed Saddamâs torture chambers. You have replaced Saddam... They say they did not know. They are lying, because the Red Cross explicitly declared that it had informed senior army officers and Americans of what was going on a long time ago...
It was wrong for the Americans to go into Iraq. It was wrong for them to stay. Their treatment of the people was wrong. Imposing an American ruler on the people was wrong. Going to Karbala and Najaf was wrong. The things that they did recently were especially wrong. They should realise that the Islamic world, and particularly the Shia world, will not remain silent... They have killed the innocent people of Najaf and Karbala. The have killed dozens of people. The crime that they have committed is the greatest of crimes. The Islamic world condemns it. The Iranian nation condemns it. The worldâs Shia condemn it. Najaf and Karbala??...WOW we did that ..there was not one terrorist in either one of those rat holes..WOW!
The Americans will fail on this path. The more they go along this path, the more they will sink in this bog of their own making... The Americans are trapped. There is nothing they can do. They will fail if they continue along this path, and they will failif they pull out. But continuing will be the greater defeat. Hey, Mr Shiâite! If you check your road map you shall notice the only one trapped ...........is you! We have you surrounded on Iranâs southern flank in the Gulf! Eastern and western borders, those are ours too...what options remain? Jump in the Caspian Sea and swim for it? That might work :) This crumb must have overdosed on his on verbal rubbish!
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 3:40:48 AM ||
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Yet he neglects to mention the stupidity of Islamic philosophies . . . and the ultimate ironic twist of a religious nut stuck in the seventh century criticizing modern warfare . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 12:29 Comments ||
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#2
Wishful thinking here. Bush-Powell don't have another $150,000,000,000 American taxpayer chump change, to spend on another folly.
Take the nukes off the dust gathering shelves, treat the locals like vermin, repatriate the oilfields to Anglo-American interests, and make the Kaba uninhabitable for several hundred years.
#3
Uh, DBT, you do know the Ka'baa is in Mecca, Saudia Arabia, and not Iran, right? No offense intended; just checking.
Although I suppose they *do* wish they could have the holy cities in their loony little Mullahland instead of the Magic Kingdom . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 12:36 Comments ||
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#4
I had an interesting conversation with a young expat Iranian the other day; during the discussion he was curious as to what I knew about Iran. I told him what I know of the geography, language, etc., but when I mentioned that I was aware it was an Islamic country, he went out of his way to inform me that Iran had it's own native religeons before Muslim invaders turned it into an Islamic nation.
I came away with the impression that young Iranians do not identify with the ruling mullahs at all, and have a strong sense of Persian nationalism that trumps the Saudi-fostered creed of Global Islamism. In fact, I'm beginning to believe that the Iranian Theocracy really is treading on thin ice these days.
... if it [Iran] were an efficient police state, it might survive. But itâs not. It cracks down episodically, tossing dissidents in prison and occasionally even murdering them (like a Canadian-Iranian journalist last year). But Iran doesnât control information â partly because satellite television is ubiquitous, if illegal â and people mostly get away with scathing criticism as long as they do not organize against the government.
The embarrassing point for us is that while Iran is no democracy, it has a much freer society than many of our allies in the Middle East. In contrast with Saudi Arabia, for example, Iran has (rigged) elections, and two of its vice presidents are women. The Iranian press is not as free as it was a few years ago, but it is now bolstered by blogs (Web logs) and satellite TV, which offer real scrutiny of government officials.
I was astonished that everywhere I went in Iran, people would immediately tell me their names and agree to be photographed â and then say something like, "There is no freedom here."
All this means, I think, that the Iranian regime is destined for the ash heap of history. An unpopular regime can survive if it is repressive enough, but Iranâs hard-liners donât imprison their critics consistently enough to instill terror.
Pet dogs, for example, are strongly discouraged in Iran as dirty and contrary to Islam, and traffic police regularly arrest dogs and their owners. But the number of pet dogs is multiplying, and Tehran now has dozens of veterinary clinics. ...
In the end, I find Iran a hopeful place. Ordinary people are proving themselves irrepressible, and they will triumph someday and forge a glistening example of a Muslim country that is a pro-American democracy in the Middle East. I treasure a memory from the airport: after I was detained, a security goon X-rayed my bags for the second time and puzzled over my computer equipment. He snarled at me, "American reporters â bad!" The X-ray operator, who perhaps didnât know quite what was going on, beamed at me and piped up, "Americans â very good!"
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/17/2004 8:41:28 AM ||
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One can hope for an end to the Mullarchy but there are profound questions about how this can happen.
1. there is no organized opposition; no means of maintaining civil order after the mullarchy falls; there are a lot of groups with some, but not much power- the army, the mullah controlled goon squads, Palestinian mercenaries; what can keep these groups from freelance violence if the mullarchy falls
2. there is a lot of pent up anti-Mullah (and anti Islam)rage; while anyone can sympathize with this, the rage could generate violence with thousands of innocents being hurt or killed in the abscence of civil order
#5
Let's hope it happens soon. The mullahs are months away from their first nuclear weapon and they're on record that it would be their religious duty to use it against Israel as soon as they obtain it. If Iran's nuclear program is left unchecked, this needs to happen in the next 18-24 months or the entire Middle East go up in flames.
.... a 15-year-old ... was raped by a visiting relative and impregnated. .... her 16-year-old brother ... slashed her with a meat cleaver around the head and shoulders and pounded her with rocks. ....
.... brothers Ferit and Irfan Toren were arrested and charged with shooting their 22-year-old sister, Guldunya, twice in the head, killing her, as she lay in a hospital bed recovering from an earlier attack by the same brothers. ....
.... Mehmet Halitogullari confessed to strangling his 14-year-old daughter, Nuran, with a wire, after she had been kidnapped on her way home and sexually assaulted for six days. ....
Such killings are also getting unprecedented public attention in Turkey. The news media report each new case, and doctorsâ organizations, bar associations, womenâs groups, law professors and several prominent artists are campaigning for a crackdown on the crime.
A year ago, the Turkish national assembly abolished a law that allowed light sentences in honour killings, raising the maximum to 24 years in prison. But activist groups, citing legal loopholes, continue to push for comprehensive reform of Turkish penal code provisions that favour men over women. Such reform is now well underway. Draft amendments to the code are before the justice subcommittee of the national assembly and said to be only weeks away from becoming law. The action reflects an apparent willingness to end official complicity in the killings through laws that allow the perpetrators â who are always male â to get off lightly. .... Four years ago, a sustained campaign by Women For Womenâs Rights led to the overhaul of Turkeyâs civil code. .... Partly as a result of the process, the government last year abolished Article 462, which had given judges discretion to reduce a murder sentence in honour killings by as much as 80 per cent. But other articles still allow such killers to get off lightly, Bilgutay says.
"The âunjust provocationâ article is one. It says that if you suddenly do something bad to me and I react with rage and kill you, I get a reduced sentence because you were unjustly provoking me. In honour killings, men are getting reduced sentences by arguing, `I saw my daughter with a boy in front of the cinema, so I was really shocked and provoked, and I killed her.â In fact, most honour killings are premeditated." ....
Aysegul Kaya, an Istanbul lawyer active in womenâs rights issues, takes hope from what she sees as a landmark judgment set on March 9 in the southeast city of Sanliurfa ... The victim in the case was Emine Kizilkurt, 14. After she was raped and impregnated by a villager, a family council of men resolved to kill her. A 20-year-old cousin, Mahmut Kizilkurt, strangled her to death with a scarf. At trial, judge Orhan Akartuna handed Kizilkurt an aggravated life sentence, the stiffest penalty possible. For their complicity, the judge also sentenced the father, an uncle and six cousins to jail terms ranging from eight months to 16 years. "This is a first in Turkey," says Kaya. "There will be an appeal, but a judge has ruled that the family council was responsible, not just the killer." The sentences totalled 133 years and eight months.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/17/2004 12:39:09 AM ||
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Let's do the math:
99.99% of the offenses that incite these "honor killings" murders are sexual crimes committed by men against unwilling women.
Due to tragic and catastrophically irreversible side effects like broken hymens or unwanted pregnancies these women are then murdered so that they cannot serve as a lasting reminder of the affront done to them or their Direly Offended⢠families by such criminal men.
99.99% of these "honor killings" murders are then committed by men in order to essentially cover up the wrongdoings of their fellow religious brethern.
Why the f**k is it that these Direly Offended⢠male relatives cannot bring themselves to go out and cut the ba||s off the b@stard who dishonored their family in the first place?
Oh ... please pardon my naivety. Doing that would take substantially more courage, moral fiber and ostiones than slaying a helpless rape victim in the confines of her own home or hospital bed.
Worse yet, it might shed a glimmer of undesired light upon the inbred and entrenched culture of male privilege that has spawned this farcical miscarriage of justice in the first place. Perish the thought!
"Sunlight is the best disinfectant."
- LOUIS BRANDEIS -
#3
Murat, do you spend any time and energy contributing to this fight against honor killings in your country?
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/17/2004 7:56 Comments ||
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#4
I have a better idea. When an "Honor Killing" murder occurs, every male member of the immediate family, and the family of the perp, over the age of 13 is taken out and shot in the back of the head.
I think that the "Honor Killings" murders would come to a rapid halt.
-AR
Posted by: Analog Roam ||
05/17/2004 9:32 Comments ||
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#5
I have a better idea. When an "Honor Killing" murder occurs, every male member of the immediate family, and the family of the perp, over the age of 13 is taken out and shot in the back of the head.
I think that the "Honor Killings" murders would come to a rapid halt.
As an American, I am unable to condone such mass retaliation. However, since such measures are often not at all looked down upon in the Middle East, I'm at a loss to explain why this much more effective solution has not been put in place.
I can only assume that keeping women "in their place" is of far greater importance than stopping their routine and senseless slaughter, maiming, disfigurement, assault ... ad nauseum .
#6
As an American, I am unable to condone such mass retaliation. However, since such measures are often not at all looked down upon in the Middle East, I'm at a loss to explain why this much more effective solution has not been put in place.
Well...this American is more than willing to not only condone, but implement said measures. Women are not viewed as Humans in these "so-called" cultures. Only men are seen as having value, so, if you want to alter their reality without taking generations, you're going to have to get brutal.
I can only assume that keeping women "in their place" is of far greater importance than stopping their routine and senseless slaughter, maiming, disfigurement, assault ... ad nauseum
This, is the crux of the biscuit!
-AR
Posted by: Analog Roam ||
05/17/2004 18:25 Comments ||
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LONDON â The European Union has decided to ignore U.S. sanctions on Syria.
EU officials said the Bush administrationâs decision to impose economic sanctions on Damascus would not affect plans by Brussels to increase trade with Syria. They said the EU planned to maintain a high-level dialogue with the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad to facilitate the signing of a trade agreement.
On Sunday, European Commission Vice President Loyola de Palacio was scheduled to arrive in Damascus to meet Assad and other Syrian leaders. Officials said the discussions would focus on the role of Syria in a regional energy network. Syria exports natural gas and has proposed serving as a way-station for the transfer of Egyptian gas to Europe.
Egypt to Syria to Europe. Hmmm, isn't there something in between Egypt and Syria? Gaza? Well, yeah ..., um, something else ... hmmmm ...
Spain, which invited Assad to Madrid in early June, has criticized the U.S. sanctions on Syria. Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos said Europe and Spain must cooperate in supporting Syria as a Euro-Mediterranean partner. "Sanctions donât ensure the appropriate climate for a constructive understanding, but they focus the minds of the thugs in charge in Syria increase factors of tension in the region." Moratinos said. "They have to develop and defend the fruitful relations with the terrorist thugs who run Syria."
Zappie's apologist offensive continues.
Britain was the only EU member to support the U.S. decision to impose sanctions on Damascus. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said his government shares U.S. concerns over Syriaâs weapons of mass destruction programs and its harboring of groups deemed terrorists. "We have concerns also about WMD, terrorism, human rights and cooperation over Iraq," Dean MacLaughlin, a spokesman for Blair, said. "We expect Syria to take these concerns seriously. In particular, we expect Syria to take a constructive approach to the situation in Iraq and work with us to restore stability and aid Iraqâs reconstruction."
But the British goverment ruled out imposing similar sanctions on Damascus. London has sent a series of military delegations to discuss cooperation with Syria, but does not export lethal weapons to Damascus. "We have similar objectives and concerns to the U.S., but we pursue those through a policy of critical and constructive engagement which allows us to encourage and support reform while talking frankly and robustly about issues of concern," MacLaughlin said. "Sanctions are a matter for the EU as a whole, not individual countries."
Which undercuts the ability of the Brits to be the good cop as they were in Libya.
Political sources said senior figures in Blairâs Labor Party have urged the prime minister to disassociate from Washingtonâs policies in the Middle East. They said a key area where Britain should not follow the United States regards sanctions against Syria.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Natural gas, hmmmm?... I hear that stuff's real explosive, y'know? Y'all be careful, now.
#4
hope they travel to Madrid by train...Syrians and a Spanish Train - sounds convenient
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/17/2004 10:16 Comments ||
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#5
Surprise, surprise,
Who if not the EU vultures would be first to see an economical opportunity to prosper in the wake of American sanctions on Syria ??
May any Syrian money gained from your wheelin' dealin' with the rotten Baby Assad get stuck in your fat gullets.
May you get blown high in the air by Syrian supported terror acts.
After All it is not for nothing you are known as
Euristan.
And finally, may all your daughters get to wear the burka when they are collected to the harem's
twenty years from now !
Posted by: The Dodo ||
05/17/2004 11:23 Comments ||
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#6
I do not look good in a burka, no matter the colour :)
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 13:29 Comments ||
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#7
Syria exports natural gas and has proposed serving as a way-station for the transfer of Egyptian gas to Europe.
#8
I think the thought process goes something like, "Let's see, the US won't trade with them, so we won't have any competition AND it'll piss Bush off... Win-Win." And what the hell, we can look good in anything, even a burka...."
#4
This is pretty sorry. They should have just sawed somebody's head off. Nobody seems to care about that sort of thing.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
05/18/2004 0:15 Comments ||
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#5
Who cares if these bloody terrorists were forced to wear 5 pairs ladies pink panties at the same time.
Making these dangerous verminoids scared or shamed into spilling the beans on operational plans, names & numbers, is the objective, so additional homicide bombings, as took place on Monday, can be stopped.
How much mass media air play was given to the four slaughtered and burned Americans? The Italian man who was held hostage then murdered? Nick Berg is not even on page 10 any longer. This whole thing is a media 'stick to the Coalition', since that is the easiest method to try and elect Kerry & the 'liberals'.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/18/2004 0:32 Comments ||
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#6
Theoretically,you should be able to get infinite life out of one pad.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/18/2004 0:58 Comments ||
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#7
The slippers would push them off the deep end for sure LOL
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/18/2004 1:24 Comments ||
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#8
Oh is that what those are?? For a minute I thought... nevermind.
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/18/2004 1:26 Comments ||
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#9
Jen,
I do not know who designed those slippers but he/she should market them. I bet, they are more comfortable (cushier) and better for the feet than those thin slippers when performing surgery.
AUSTRALIAN mercenaries are risking their lives to make a fortune in Iraq on protective security detail. About 100 Australians - including about 40 former SAS troops - are working as hired guns in private security forces. An Australian security worker checks over a bombed out ute in the Iraq desert. The former SAS elite earn up to $9000 a week to guard corporate managers and infrastructure projects. Each day they face attack or ambush, including bombs hidden in dead dogs beside the roads, an ex-SAS officer said from Baghdad. Yet six ex-SAS, who were part of last year's invasion force, quit Australia¡¯s front-line troops to sign up. Other soldiers of fortune include former Australian Federal and State Police from counter-terrorist and specialist units. "It really is a scene out of a Mad Max movie - incredibly lawless with no one fully controlling the highways," said Gordon Conroy, a former regiment major and head of athletes' security at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Mr Conroy, who commanded the SAS's counter-terrorist squadron until 1997, is now co-director of security firm Unity Resources Group. "We have been caught by IED (improvised explosive device) ambushes on roadways, rocketed and mortared in our accommodation, caught in protests that have suddenly turned violent and turned on our men," he said. "We've been involved in small arms and RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) attacks, driven through checkpoints minutes before suicide car bombs have gone off. We've had to evacuate clients out of various hot spots with little or no military support, had to deal with false police checkpoints."
An unknown number of international privateers among the estimated 10,000 security contractors have been killed. Some, like the four US security contractors slain in Fallujah last month, have suffered a gruesome and very public death. "I can't say how many have been killed since the end of the war but the majority of PSD (protective security details) working out here all know of people who have been injured or killed," Mr Conroy said. "It's an intense environment and most security operators in Iraq will witness and be involved in incidents that would take their counterparts working elsewhere in the world a lifetime to experience. Two days ago we drove a client from the Green Zone to Baghdad International Airport and came across a soft-skinned Land Cruiser with a single expatriate inside who had been attacked in a drive-by shooting."
Mr Conroy said Iraq was still in a state of war, a year after Saddam Hussein was toppled. "We have been living and operating in many of the hot spots that have been in the news recently," he said. "There have and continue to be a number of tricky situations faced by our men on a daily basis." This Australian guard protects a bullet-riddled utility after it was ambushed. "Travel along the roads and highways throughout Iraq is risky business - every day coalition convoys are hit. Contractors are seen as soft targets and are more frequently hit by IEDs which are secreted along the roadways in Amco rail barriers, cemented into guttering or hidden in roadside debris such as dead dogs, soft-drink cans, rubbish bags."
Attacks had become more sophisticated over the 11 months Mr Conroy has been in Iraq as experienced terrorists enter the conflict. "The foreign terrorists have had a lot of practice, been able to refine their modus operandi and time is definitely on their side - not ours," he said. "Attacks are now combining IEDs with small-arms fire follow-up. You cannot take this environment for granted for a second and people who first arrive here see it as truly surreal. Over time, people tend to become more accustomed to things - this is when you must be very careful and never become complacent. The environment is absolutely ruthless to those who don't respect it." Mr Conroy said the coalition military was overstretched and often unable to support private security officers. "When you get into trouble you have to get yourself out and this may not be just the one time during a journey, it could be a few," he said. Better for us than against us.
Posted by: Townsville Post ||
05/17/2004 8:40:42 PM ||
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#1
I have no problem with our Aussie trained friends helping out - G'd Luck Mates!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/17/2004 23:16 Comments ||
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#2
They are doing a great job and most are well trained, working in difficult situation to keep aid workers and contractors safe in the rebuilding of Iraq. To call them mercenaries, hired guns or soldiers of fortune is a crock. They are employed by a company who is contracted by USAID. It is a legitimate job, and to say they are being paid $9000 a week is an even bigger load of rubbish. The journalist(who shall remain nameless), like most journalists obviously enjoyed overstating the situation. Gordon Conroy (if they are in fact his own words) has done nothing more than make the guys he employs sound like a bunch of cowboys, when nothing could be further from the truth. Other than that the report does give some indication of the dangers they face on a daily basis.
Three Palestinians militants were killed early Tuesday and eight people were wounded when an Israeli helicopter fired three missiles at an unoccupied part of the Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza-Egypt border, in what appeared to be the beginning of a large-scale Israeli operation aimed at widening a border buffer zone.
All three Palestinians killed were identified as gunmen in factions linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafatâs Fatah movement.
A helicopter gunship hovering above the camp fired the missiles into a group of masked gunmen, killing three who were taking cover behind a wall. Medics said eight people, including militants and civilians, were hurt in the attack.
A few minutes after the missile strike, Israeli bulldozers began leveling land next to the refugee camp. Palestinian security officials said the huge, armored bulldozers moved to the edge of the Qishda section of the camp near the border and began working on land in an Israeli-controlled zone. Personaly, Iâd widen the security strip to encompass the whole of Gaza.
#2
good point - how about those "civilians"? Holding AK's for...um...somebody else?
Word is out that there's IDF pain coming for Rafah, these mooks were probably all set to ambush a D9 and found themselves on the wrong end of an Apache. Good for them, martyrs for Allan and all that crap....now get 'em their SunMaid raisins and "buh-bye", you're going to the hot place....
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/17/2004 20:28 Comments ||
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#3
IDF eneterd Rafiah. 5 more terrorists bit the dust. The operation really shapes up as a very major cleanup.
Posted by: marek ||
05/17/2004 22:19 Comments ||
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Chechnyaâs top separatist field commander Shamil Basayev has claimed responsibility for the Grozny blast that killed Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov on Victory Day at the Dinamo Stadium, in a letter published on the separatist kavkaz.center.ru site. The suspected terrorist also made vague threats against Russiaâs top leadership, referring to the Prime Minister. According to Basayevâs statement, the stadium blast that killed six people and wounded 89 was part of Operation Revenge, and the sentence issued by the Chechen Shariat court has been carried out. Basayev called May 9 a holiday â âa small victory over fascism and Russism[sic].â âWe want to apologize to President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov for not being able to throw the head of Kadyrov at his feet as we promised a month ago,â Basayevâs statement read.
An FSB official in Chechnya, commenting on Basayevâs statement, said investigators are looking into several versions of the incident, including one in which the blast was organized by Basayev. âThe version⊠is being investigated, but it is not the only one,â the regional FSB chief, Yuri Rozhin, told Interfax. Basayev, meanwhile, made further threats in his statement, alluding to the prime minister and the Russian president. âWe are interested in who will be prime minister of Russia, Masha, or Katya... if, through the kindness of Allah, we successfully conduct special operation Moska-2,â he said. Masha and Katya are the names of President Vladimir Putinâs two daughters.
Meanwhile, according to investigators, the chief suspect so far is bricklayer Lomali Chupalayev, who was detained May 12, the Izvestia daily reported in an interview with the suspectâs family. As MosNews reported earlier, Chupalayev, 37, had been involved in construction work at the stadium, including laying the foundations. On April 15 and 16 he had taken part in construction work on changing rooms beneath the stand where Kadyrov was killed. Chupalayev is also suspected of being involved in the activities of militant groups, the newspaper reported, citing a police dossier on the suspect. One of his brothers served in a militant group led by field commander Ruslan Gelayev, another â Said-Magomed Chupalayev â served under Shamil Basayev and was sentenced in 2003 to 16 years in prison. Five people have been detained in connection with the blast so far. Investigators are working on four different versions of the attack, Russian media quoted the nationâs deputy general prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky as saying. According to one, the blast was an assassination attempt of a member of the Chechen administration. According to the other three, the blast was a terrorist act meant to destabilize the situation in the republic.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/17/2004 5:01:14 PM ||
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Mauritanian man was arrested by the Gambian authorities on suspicion of belonging to a dormant al-Qaida cell in the West African country, sources said. The source, who spoke Monday to United Press International on condition of anonymity, said Abdullah Ould Nafeh was arrested Saturday for interrogation "and is being held in an unknown place where even his family could not reach him." He said he got the information from the Mauritanian expatriate community in Banjul. The source said Mauritania's consul in Banjul appears to be involved in Ould Nafeh's arrest. Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has several dormant cells in the western part of the African continent where the Senegalese authorities arrested two nationals two weeks ago carrying powerful explosives. The two detainees were accused of belonging to al-Qaida.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/17/2004 4:48:23 PM ||
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#1
Hey, GAMBIA! Pink or lavender women's panties, worn as a hat. Works like a charm!
Chadian security forces quelled an overnight mutiny by soldiers disgruntled over pay at an army barracks just north of the capital N'Djamena, a source close to the presidency said on Monday. A diplomatic source said forces loyal to President Idriss Deby had surrounded the barracks on Monday and "contained" 80 to 100 mutineers, after arresting up to 30 ringleaders. Residents in the dusty, rundown capital said they had heard sporadic shooting at about 3 a.m. on Monday. There was no official word on casualties.
Witnesses said there had been unusual troop movements in the central African country's capital on Sunday with loyalist soldiers taking up positions around the state radio and television stations. Two tanks were positioned outside the presidency on Monday morning, the diplomatic source said, although the city was otherwise calm with businesses open as normal after the weekend. The source close to the presidency said the mutiny had been triggered by Deby's recent decision to suspend wage payments to soldiers in an effort to fight corruption in the armed forces. "The group of mutineers was encouraged by officers who lost out due to the president's measures," he said. "The situation is under control. The officers have been arrested and the soldiers loyal to them have also been detained." Deby announced he wanted to reorganise the army last year after finding out the payroll included non-existent troops and that some soldiers were claiming ranks higher than their genuine positions. He then suspended military pay earlier this year. Acting Defence Minister Emmanuel Nadingar declined to comment on the abortive mutiny. He said the government would issue a statement later on Monday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/17/2004 4:47:00 PM ||
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The Afghan government has launched a nationwide campaign to disarm the countryâs militia forces, seen as crucial to the holding of elections. The Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) initiative has been running as a pilot programme in five Afghan regions since October. The United Nations-backed plan is for 40,000 former fighters to be demobilised by the end of June. But UN officials say that some regional leaders are jeopardising the process.
The campaign was launched at a Kabul military base where a former anti-aircraft defence unit ceremonially handed over its missiles. But most of the missiles did not look especially threatening. Many had holes in, and several were missing their nose cones. Major Jerry Knight, a British officer watching the handover, admitted that in their current state none of them would work. "But with a bit of loving care to the electrics and some explosives and propellant, some of them could be brought back into service. So there is value in removing this stuff from the streets," he said. It was perhaps not the most convincing start to this nationwide disarmament campaign.
The UN officials who run it admit that it is going to be difficult, especially when it comes to persuading powerful regional leaders to comply: men such as Ismail Khan, the governor of Herat, or Mohammed Atta in Mazar-e-Sharif . One issue is that no-one really knows how many men they control. Nationwide, the estimate is that there are a 100,000 militia fighters, but no-one believes that. In many cases commanders have given inflated figures, partly to enhance their local status and power, but also in the hope of claiming more funds for demobilising their men.
Yet some Afghans are concerned the Western-backed disarmament programme is uneven, pressuring some commanders but not others, and therefore risking renewed instability. The picture is just as confusing with heavy weapons like missiles and tanks. They are all supposed to be in central government control by the time elections are held in September. But disarmament officials still do not have an accurate inventory of what is hidden around the country. Some Western diplomats say even the Defence Minister, Qasim Fahim, is a problem on this issue, dragging his feet on revealing what weapons his supporters still control. Yet as one political analyst argues, with the elections approaching, no-one has any incentive to come clean right now. Everyone with an armed force is bargaining right now for their position after the elections are over.
This news report is from the Bahrain Tribune so read between the lines at times. The editors of this newspaper are Sunni Muslim thus share no love for the âinfidelâ Shiâites.
Shiite militiamen clashed with coalition troops yesterday as the month-old uprising by Shiite scholar Moqtada Al Sadr raged on and the US military came under new fire over the abuse of prisoners. Three Iraqis were killed in a rocket attack targeting a British camp near the main southern city of Basra and another two were killed and 15 wounded during clashes in the central holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. Twenty people were also wounded when a shell exploded in a market in the southern city of Nasiriyah, where Al Sadr loyalists traded fire with Italian forces. Dozens of people have been killed in fighting between Al Sadrâs Mehdi Army militia and the US-led coalition since Friday. Two Iraqis working for the US-led coalition were shot dead and two others wounded when their vehicle came under a hail of gunfire in southern Baghdad late on Saturday, the US military said. The US death toll in Iraq has risen to 782, the coalition said, after one US soldier was killed in a roadside bombing late on Saturday.
With less than 50 days to go to the coalitionâs June 30 deadline for the handover of power, interim foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said the Sadr uprising was inflicting great harm to the aspiration of Iraqis. Zebari said Al Sadr should concentrate on contesting January elections rather than fighting coalition forces and Iraqi police. But despite becoming increasingly isolated among the Shiite community, the renegade scholar was offered help from across the Islamic religious divide. Nine pick-up trucks filled with food and medicine were brought for his militia by a delegation from the Sunni insurgent bastion of Fallujah where fighters battled US forces for more than a month. The trucks were parked outside Kufaâs grand mosque, a Sadr stronghold where he normally delivers the sermon at the main weekly Muslim prayers.
Despite the persistent violence, Secretary of State Colin Powell stressed that a US commander would manage a multinational force for a âconsiderable period of timeâ. âThere will be a period of time, some considerable period of time, before we can see conditions of security that can be placed totally into the hands of Iraqi security forces,â Powell told Fox television said. He also told NBC that Washington would also accept any government chosen by the Iraqi people in elections tentatively scheduled for January, even an Islamist one, when asked if an Iranian-style theocracy would be acceptable. In a fifth straight day of clashes in Karbala, US tanks made a brief foray into the city centre yesterday morning, approaching two of Shiite Islamâs holiest shrines. Although the coalition has urged residents to leave the city, around 500 gathered for a rally called by another hardline scholar to protest the coalition onslaught against the city. âLong live Sadr, the Americans are an army of infidels,â the demonstrators chanted as some 15 tanks approached the area before pulling back as the crowd swarmed towards them.
In the holy city of Najaf further south, two Sadr militiamen were killed and two wounded when they attacked a US convoy, a US officer said. And in Nasiriyah, 20 people were wounded when a shell exploded in a market as Sadrâs militiamen and Italian troops continued to trade fire, officials said. On Saturday, 13 civilians and journalists were evacuated to the Italian base from the Nasiriyah headquarters of the US-led coalition as it came under fire, said an Italian military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe Perrone.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 3:48:14 AM ||
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I believe this 'uprising' are classic Soviet-style diversionary operations, masking other activities.
Think about it. A former military trained by the Soviets who probably told them proudly about how rear area 'partisans' were used to disrupt enemy rear areas. In some cases those operations were used to mask insertion (or extraction) of NKVD agents as well as disrupt enemy supply operations in anticipation of renewed offensive operations.
Our media loves to talk about those romantic resistance 'movements' and 'uprisings' nearly in every case failing to understand these human events are rarely spontaneous; they carry with them much more practical and military reasons for being.
U.S.-led forces in Iraq have killed 51 guerrillas, including 20 in an air strike on insurgents loading and unloading weapons from vehicles in southeastern Iraq, the U.S. military said Monday. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told a news conference U.S.-led forces had killed 17 militiamen loyal to rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr near shrines in the holy city of Kerbala in the past 24 hours. Thirteen Sadr militiamen were killed in other areas, he said. Insurgents had fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and automatic rifles on U.S. forces in the city, 110 km (68 miles) south of Baghdad, Kimmitt said. "Sounds of fighting in the downtown area could be heard for much of the night," he said. One other insurgent was killed Monday in Najaf when U.S.-led forces were sent to defend police stations which had come under attack, he said. Fighters from Sadr's militia say U.S.-led forces in Iraq routinely exaggerate casualties. U.S.-led forces are trying to crush Sadr's uprising before handing sovereignty to a new Iraqi government on June 30.
#1
U.S.-led forces in Iraq have killed 51 guerrillas, including 20 in an air strike on insurgents loading and unloading weapons from vehicles in southeastern Iraq, the U.S. military said Monday
makes my Monday a little more sunny ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/17/2004 13:13 Comments ||
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#2
Should they be called "good" insurgents?
BTW, I liked Rice's comparison of them to Klansmen after the Civil War. I wonder if referring to them as "Klansmen" would change the debate?
#5
great score this,anyone got a totaliser that keeps track of all the Islamozoid deaths just as the western media love to whore over American death numbers.Bet they've lost about 300 in the last month if not more and yet are media still tell us were losing and in a quagmire! Bet the red cross would say they were all innocents,mainly women and children.If we lost 51 troops in Iraq in one day our media would be screaming and bawling that its a disatster etc etc, yet they lose 51 men and they barly report it, it makes me sick with rage at the media propaganda campaign! Anyway sweet that we zapped 20 in one hit :)
Posted by: Shep UK ||
05/17/2004 13:48 Comments ||
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#6
Shep, my incomplete count (no figures from Fallujah after 17-4) makes it 1345 insurgents killed since 1-4-04. In assembling its own much lower figures two weeks ago, AP completely ignored known insurgent deaths in Baghdad.
#7
wow 1345 is excellent,keep the totaliser running,im gonna try counting too,lol counting the rag heads getting shredded that is not just counting.
Posted by: Shep UK ||
05/17/2004 14:09 Comments ||
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#8
AC, any tips on how to keep score for those of us following along on home, or is (shudder) actual work involved ?
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
05/17/2004 16:45 Comments ||
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#9
Carl, I bookmark major media reports then correlate these with Centcom briefings, the English language Iraqi media, and various first hand reports, including Iraqi bloggers and individual soldiers.
Hat tip LGF
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday blamed Yasser Arafat for blocking U.S. efforts to strengthen Palestinian security forces as a means of ending terror attacks on Israel.
Winding up his latest effort to push peacemaking forward, without any apparent concrete results, Powell also criticized Arafat for a statement the Palestinian leader made Saturday to his people urging them to "find whatever strength you have to terrorize your enemy."
"Mr. Arafat continues to take actions and make statements to make it exceptionally difficult to move forward" on peacemaking, Powell said at a news conference before returning to Washington from the World Economic Forum held at an isolated Dead Sea resort.
He said Arafat "refuses to allow consolidation of security forces" among the Palestinians, a key U.S. demand intended to curb terror attacks and motivate Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to push ahead with efforts to reach a settlement with the Palestinians.
"What I need from the Palestinians is for them to get themselves ready to exercise solid political control over Gaza when itâs turned back to them and to put into place security forces that can do that," Powell said later in an interview taped with ABC for broadcast on the networkâs "This Week" show. "What they need to do is to wrest control of the security forces from Chairman Arafat. ... The Palestinian leaders can do it and the leaders of the Arab world can do it by saying to Chairman Arafat that youâre policies have not been successful, your leadership has not be successful in moving this process forward."
In a separate interview for the same ABC show, King Abdullah II of Jordan avoided a direct answer when asked whether Arafat was an obstacle to peace, but said: "There is this unfortunate competition between Palestinian political society and that is weakening the Palestinian position. Until they can unify and come up with strategy that allows the international community to help them, then they will be in a very weak position. Arafat will have to decide how he is going to sort of implement himself in the future of Palestine."
Powell also had some criticism for Israel at his news conference.
"We oppose the destruction of homes," said Powell. "We donât think that is productive. We know Israel has a right for self-defense, but the kind of actions that theyâre taking in Rafah with the destruction of Palestinian homes we oppose."
Powell met Saturday with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei in Amman, the Jordanian capital, and urged him to seize the opportunity for dismantling Israeli settlements in Gaza and some on the West Bank under a proposal offered by Sharon.
Qurei was noncommittal in his public statements afterward, but Powell said the prime minister, on whom the Bush administration has pinned much of its hopes for a reversal in lagging peace efforts, had agreed to look at whatever refinements Sharon makes in his proposal to evacuate all soldiers and the 7,500 Jewish settlers from the coastal strip following its rejection by hard-liners in his own Likud party.
President George W. Bushâs national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, is due to meet in Berlin on Monday with Qurei as part of the renewed Bush administration effort to bring about Palestinian statehood sometime next year, a goal the president himself recently acknowledged was in danger of not being met.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher, standing beside Powell at a joint news conference, said he hoped the meeting with Rice "will be a step toward moving the process forward."
Powell, again endorsing Sharonâs proposal, called it "a way to get us out of this circle" and said the Israeli people want to move ahead on coming to terms with the Palestinians.
On the touchy issue of U.S. soldiers mistreating Iraqi detainees at a prison in Baghdad, Muasher said "there was an uproar" among Arabs, while Powell said "we are doing everything we can to deal with the frustration in the Arab world."
Posted by: Korora ||
05/17/2004 11:56:20 AM ||
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#1
"What they need to do is to wrest control of the security forces from Chairman Arafat. ... The Palestinian leaders can do it and the leaders of the Arab world can do it by saying to Chairman Arafat that youâre policies have not been successful, your leadership has not be successful in moving this process forward."
They will never wrest control from Arafat's shaking hands. They are all suicidal maniacs.
I hope powell is not so stupid to believe his own words.
What is needed is a brutal and blunt removal of Arafat from power (and preferably from the land of the living).
Only then there may be a slim chance of some pragmatic leader leading these maniacs to the voice of reason.
Posted by: The Dodo ||
05/17/2004 12:46 Comments ||
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#2
Winding up his latest effort to push peacemaking forward, without any apparent concrete results, Powell also criticized Arafat for a statement the Palestinian leader made Saturday to his people urging them to "find whatever strength you have to terrorize your enemy."
"Mr. Arafat continues to take actions and make statements to make it exceptionally difficult to move forward" on peacemaking, Powell said at a news conference before returning to Washington from the World Economic Forum held at an isolated Dead Sea resort.
"Exceptionally difficult"? How about straight talk, and just say "impossible"?
One other question: does anyone in their right mind still think Arafart is some sort of statesman or "peacemaker", and not really a terrorist?
Well... Reformatted a litte. But not one word changed.
I read the commnets in yeloow shades on my article and was gretly surprised and pettied on the foolishness of this man who critcised me in such a manner that he nver can be regarded as human because he is prejudistic and let me tell you one thing man... Islam is a religion of peace and you people consider there freedom fight an dmovements terrorism because you fear of their supremacy because you have an experience in past.. the experience of the sword of muslim. Isalm has not changed and we still ahve the spirit of jihad thats why Waziristanis supported there brothers ...because every muslim is the brother of another muslim....and this spirit and brotherhood is lacking among you...
You called the Alqaeda fighters dogs...on account of terrorism...but you are so stupid that you never thought of the Bush and Shairoon who are indeed the greatest devils and suppotters of terrorism.The word; TERRORISM was first used by American politicians... which is clear indication of the raise and growth of this term form there(US). What BUsh and Sheroon doing in Israel and Iraq and in Afghanistan....is that not terrorism???IS to kill the innocent people nad to break the records of bombarding the innocent afghani childs is not terrorism?? What u want from afghanistan and iraq?why You are becoming our masters? We are enough to ourself.....
by; ZAHEER ABBAS MASEED ISHANGI
EX-CADET OF CADET COLLEGE RAZMAK(N.WAZIRISTAN)
GOVT COLLEGE UNIVERSITY LAHORE
CONTACT ME THROUGH MY GROUP...GROUPS.MSN.COM/CADETCOLLEGERAZMAK
Ladies and gentlemen, you may fire when ready.
Posted by: ||
05/17/2004 7:34:10 AM ||
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#4
Yo, please tone down the veral garbage. Put your used dishrag back on your head and try selling that stuff elsewhere.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 12:12 Comments ||
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#5
ex-cadet, huh? Couldn't pass logic, truth, spelling and language?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/17/2004 12:19 Comments ||
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#6
Islam is a religion of fake Maseed, pure fake. All those places muslim think are holy, fake. Must be a bummer Abbas to be stuck in that fake religion and having to deal with all the guilt associated with it.
#7
Islam is a religion of peace ... the experience of the sword of muslim.Isalm has not changed and we still ahve the spirit of jihad
Zaheer, can you say "cognitive dissonance?" Since he's talking about a sword, I assume he means the religion of piece.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/17/2004 12:39 Comments ||
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#9
The word; TERRORISM was first used by American politicians... which is clear indication of the raise and growth of this term form there(US).
Zaheer, be advised that America is also the land of the " raise and growth " of the MOAB and the Daisycutter. So please be more careful of your rhetoric. What BUsh and Sheroon doing in Israel and Iraq and in Afghanistan....is that not terrorism???
I dont know about Bush, but "Sheroon" is definitely looking for ugly palestinian suiciders
to teach them a lesson.
Same as "boosh" is trying to do to Al-Qaeda assholes.
AstaLaVista ! Baby.
Posted by: The Dodo ||
05/17/2004 13:01 Comments ||
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#10
I have more faith in Muslims than our Muslim friend here. I think Muslims can run their own affairs without being led by thugs, dictators and theocrats if given the chance. The US is providing that chance and he's so busy hating the West he can't see what's in his own best interests.
To be blunt: Islam was the greatest power in the world at one time. Then they turned towards fundamentalism and were dominated, conquered, and subdivided. Its time for Islam to turn away from fundamentalism if they want to improve again.
#12
First of all, grammar lessons would help us to take you a bit more seriously, though probably not much.
As for Muslims not being terrorists, look at the freakin' statistics. It is Muslims who are blowing themselves up, Muslims who kill and then celebrate by yelling "Allah is great," Muslims who want to bring the world under their perverted brand of "religion." And it is the Muslim world that is sending itself straight down the crapper right now. Get a clue.
Can Islam reform itself? I think it can, but it needs to give up its delusions of victimization, superiority, and aspirations for global conquest. They need to embrace the modern world and its philosophies. Find out what makes our system work, and incorporate it into your own. Allow for flexible interpretation of your holy books and for criticism on your history and deeds. Give yourself the same freedoms the West provides in abundance. If you're so superior, if you really are a "religion of peace," then stop fighting wars to prove it.
Face it: Islam is not superior, not anymore, and unless we give up the fight, it never will be again. Christianity went through a dominant period, but it was reformed and exists quite nicely with the modern world. Same with Judaism. Fact is, Islam had its chance, and now it's been relegated to the same realm as Marxism: it's been passed by, but it still thinks it's going to triumph. Terrorism is deliberately targeting innocents for the sole purpose of getting across a political message. Kicking your ass Marine-style is warfare, not terrorism. Yes, there will be civilian casualties; this is regrettable but unavoidable. It has happened in every war throughout history, including a hell of a lot of the Muslim ones (and see the Qu'ran for details on that; they're in there, for crying out loud!).
And I will grant you that every Muslim is the brother of every other Muslim . . . unless they happen to be of another (Sunni/Shi'ite/Sufi) sect, in which case more often than not they're both "not true Muslims" and appropriate for targeting.
We disagree with Islam here. We say so. We do not go out and kill the Muslims in our neighborhoods; we try to live peacefully with them. It is the ones overseas, the ones who target us and want to slaughter our people and push their own beliefs on us whatever the cost, that we go after, because they are the ones not fit to be called human. They commit crimes against humanity in the name of their perverted religion, and have forsaken their right to live. The moment one picks up a gun in order to fight for one's cause - be it noble or twisted - one becomes a legitimate target. It just so happens that we're better shots than you. Yes, the West is superior, and unless Islam shakes itself free of its delusions and tries to catch up, it's going to become extinct.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 13:50 Comments ||
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#13
Fuck these fucking fucks. Bring on Crusade II, and this time let's finish them off.
#16
Wow! A real life Wazibilly - and semi-literate at that. Bet your sisters haven't been to college eh? Probly knit a good rug though...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/17/2004 14:51 Comments ||
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#17
"you fear of their supremacy because you have an experience in past. . . . the experience of the sword of muslim"
These guys are completely bent on trying to prove their masculinity (the muslim "sword"), because they are impotent in their personal lives, in their relationships, and within their silly "religion." They haven't a clue what they're trying to free themselves from, so they think it's us they need to get free from. I suggest every Moslem male get a mirror and look at his face about twenty times a day. Or let me put it this way:
Musim non-men: change your own governments, change your own culture of blame, and change yourselves by all means--you could start by ending the subjugation of women and the sexual abuse of children, which is rampant thoughout your pathetic societies.
You are not world conquerors. If you conquered the world (ha-ha-ha! like that would ever happen) you wouldn't even know what to do with it.
All well and fine ... so it's the Militant Muslims that are the terrorists. This latest tripe volcano in no way changes the immediate necessity of killing every last one of them.
#27
Ruprecht, maybe a Venn Diagram would be useful in explaining your argument to Abu Zaheer. I bet he does better with pictures. Make sure to use some color, but no stick-men, as Allah would not approve.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/18/2004 1:02 Comments ||
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A man from Maidstone had this letter published in the Independent last week. âWhy is it barbaric,â he asked, âto decapitate an innocent man with a knife but civilised to do it with a laser-guided bomb?â Or to rephrase the question, is the video executioner of Nicholas Berg in any way morally deficient compared to the general or politician who gives an order that - whatever the intention - will almost certainly lead to the death of an innocent somewhere?
Other, similar, relativities have been knocking around this week. Also in the Independent, former editor Andreas Whittam Smith - infuriated by the government response to the Iraqi prison scandal - contrasted the high language of exporting democracy with the accusation that âthe coalition appears to have created a gulag stretching from Afghanistan through Iraq and ending in Guantanamo Bay, where "undesirables" ... can be mistreated for as long as Stalin, sorry I mean Messrs Bush and Blair, decide.â
Mr Whittam Smith, I am sure, doesnât really believe that Mr Blair is like Stalin. One of the most important characteristics of Stalin (as with his imitator, Saddam) was, after all, that no one got to say that he was a dictator and survive. But you know what is being said here. That if the coalition ever held the moral high ground it has forfeited it. And then there is something implied, as it has been implied in virtually every anti-war position which has ignored the question of what would have been happening in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere had the invasion not taken place. This something is the idea that, even if you were to forget about Fallujah and the abuse of detainees, âour wayâ is no better than âtheirâ way. That what is going on is essentially, a collision of two cultures, with ours wrongly attempting to gain supremacy.
Letâs see. The beheading of Nick Berg has now become probably the most public execution ever staged. This strangely guileless young manâs murder caused Acme Commerce of Malaysia to shut down the Ansar website, initially because of the volume of net users who wanted to see him die. Those viewers would have heard Bergâs self-identification, almost exactly like that of Daniel Pearl two years before, then heard him scream as his head was cut off with a large knife. The accompanying statement was all about retrieving honour and averting shame. So, the shame of Islam could be partly mitigated by the decapitation of any American that the killers could get their hands on.
A week before the Berg killing I found myself in conversation with an Iranian man in his late thirties. He told me how he had run a family business in Tehran. There, five years ago, he met a girl, they had had an affair, and shortly afterwards he came to Europe. After his departure there was silence from his lover - she didnât return letters and her phone was silent. A year or so later an aunt advised him to stop looking for the girl. âShe is dead,â the woman said. âShe was pregnant and they executed her. So donât ask any more.â And this, the Iranian man said with contempt, in the 21st century.
I was worried about this story so I began researching into judicial executions for sexual impropriety in Iran, and - because this was also possible - into extra-judicial honour killings. Sure enough, until very recently women (and men) were being stoned to death in Iran for adultery. In July 2001, according to the Financial Times, a Maryam Ayoubi was executed at Tehranâs Evin prison at dawn. Iranian newspapers carried an account of her being ritually washed, wrapped in a white shroud and then carried to the place of execution on a stretcher where she was buried up to her armpits. There were many such stonings during the Nineties.
In 2003 an aide to the governor of the Iranian province of Khuzestan told the press that his office had received reports of the murder of 45 young women in a two-month period in honour killings. None of these crimes were prosecuted. Honour killings are rife in Pakistan, and there are a large number in Iraqi Kurdistan. In Jordan the sentence for carrying out an honour killing is set at six months. In the first part of this year more than a dozen Jordanian women were killed by their relations for having âsullied the reputation of their familyâ.
And just so that we have an idea of what we may be talking about here, a fortnight ago there was a report from Istanbul about the trial of the father and brothers of a 14-year-old girl. This child had been raped and imprisoned by another man. The men of the family, from eastern Turkey, held a council and decided their honour could only be salvaged if the girl was killed. She was strangled by her father with a piece of electrical flex. He told police: âShe begged as I was strangling her ... but I did not take notice of her cries.â
In the 21st century? And there are less appalling variants of the same attitude. In Baghdad a month ago, while Nick Berg was staying at a hotel just down the road, I spoke with a representative of Moqtada al-Sadr. There were two things that concerned this cleric most about the new Iraq. The first was the rights of minorities to exercise a constitutional veto, which he opposed, and the second - more substantial - concerned his rejection of a code enshrining equality for women. He wanted it to be illegal to dress âimmodestlyâ, for example. This was his red line.
Now, this is not a matter of Islam versus Western values per se. Those who have campaigned hardest against honour killings have been Muslims themselves, and the tribal values that are enshrined in the commodification of women precede Islam. In Jordan, Queen Rania has come out for tougher laws but until now she has been thwarted by Islamist parties in the Jordanian parliament, who complain about a possible breakdown of family values if men are punished for killing erring wives and daughters.
Last September, in Britain, Abdulla Muhammad Yunis was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his 16-year-old daughter, Heshu. The judge, passing sentence, said it was âa tragic story arising out of irreconcilable cultural differences between traditional Kurdish values and the values of Western societyâ. An organisation called Kurdish Women Action Against Honour Killing wrote to him and rejected the possible logic of his words. The group demanded âthe recognition and insistence that universal human rights must be a redeemable promissory note for all ... With the turning of a âblind eyeâ, the notion of human rights loses meaning as a set of principles that govern all.â
Do we agree with this? And if we agree with it here, why would we not agree with it in Iraq or anywhere else? True, an easy assumption of superior virtue can blind you to what is good about others and what is bad about yourself. But do we really believe that it is the same thing accidentally to kill a civilian with a bomb as it is to cut off his head on camera? Or that a society and polity that is rightly horrified by prisoner abuse is to be compared with the one presided over by Stalin?
The other night I met a progressive American journalist - hated Bush, was, on balance, against the war in Iraq. Somehow we got to talking about capital punishment in the US, and he told me it didnât bother him too much, though he knew the English didnât like it. âI guess itâs a cultural thing,â he said.
If thatâs true, then what the hell is it all for? Why tell the Mississippi folk how to treat their ânigrasâ? Ainât that cultural? And wouldnât it have been less imperialistic of Robinson Crusoe to tell Man Friday that he ought to go back to the cannibals because, on the whole, it would be better for him to be eaten?
Posted by: tipper ||
05/17/2004 10:42:32 AM ||
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#1
A man from Maidstone had this letter published in the Independent last week. âWhy is it barbaric,â he asked, âto decapitate an innocent man with a knife but civilised to do it with a laser-guided bomb?â Or to rephrase the question, is the video executioner of Nicholas Berg in any way morally deficient compared to the general or politician who gives an order that - whatever the intention - will almost certainly lead to the death of an innocent somewhere?
Clue: that taped beheading was directly aimed at an innocent individual. Can someone point out an instance where a house in Iraq was randomly picked out and a bomb dropped on it in retaliation for the killing of American soldiers?
I sure hope that Maidstone isn't populated with more wankers like this individual.
Must be one of those ficticious WMD shells Saddam didn't have that got used by the terrorists who weren't connected to Iraq.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
05/17/2004 10:43 Comments ||
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#3
Is this gun smoking enough for anyone on the left? Nah. I think all of midtown Manhattan would have to be a smoking ruin before they noticed. And they'd only notice because their cocktail party would have to move to a new location.
#5
I'm holding my breath, waiting for a comment from Hans "Magoo" Blix... turning blue... world going dark... please, Hans, make a comment... life flashing before eyes...Auuuggh.....
#6
The only evidence the left would accept as valid would be large scale casualties, military or civilian, from a chemical attack.
Which they would then use to politically attack Bush.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/17/2004 10:49 Comments ||
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#7
It's a PLANT by CIA/MOSSAD/Bushitler.
It came from SYRIA! (Nevermind that they came from Iraq back in '03)
On a serious note, aside from "nerve gas" have there been any solid IDs on what it was? The way I understand it (I'm prolly totally wrong, but what's new), Iraq was the only one in the region that had the money/expertise to manufacture VX-family nerve agents.
This is huge. No need to let the left's own stupidity to diminish the importance of this find. They have spent their political capital on pushing the idea that Bush lied all the while ignoring even the Frogs said there are still WMDs. It is time the left either comes up either with a knee dragging apology to each and every memeber of the armed service fighting there now, or they need to go out of business.
I vote Number Two.
Moreover, the weapon was actually used against our forces.
#10
Wonder if it was a deliberate attack with chemical weapon, or some guy wired a old 115mm shell he found as a IED without knowing what was in it?
Posted by: Steve ||
05/17/2004 11:10 Comments ||
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#11
Steve, you mean somethin' lyin' around that Saddam forgot to move to Syria last year. Maybe. But with the unexploded one also found(mentioned elswhere) it seems more likely that someone has a stash.
In spite of what was said publically, I think the CIA has someone wearing a pink panty hat until some info is derived where the stash is.
#12
The 155-millimeter round, which was rigged as an improvised explosive device, was found by a U.S. convoy and detonated before it could be rendered inoperable, producing a very small amount of nerve gas, Kimmitt said. Two members of the ordnance team were treated for minor exposure to the nerve agent, he said. The shell was an older round with two compartments containing two chemical components that need to be mixed before the agent is produced, Kimmitt said. It was designed to work after being fired from an artillery cannon and the ability to mix and distribute the gas from an improvised explosive device is ``very limited,'' Kimmitt said.
Binary round, needs to be fired to "spin mix" the agents together. That's good news, now we need to find the storage site this came from.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/17/2004 11:17 Comments ||
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#13
Where is the radical Left now? What about all the screaming in defence of Saddam not having any WMD? Ummmmm??
The truth comes forth in a deadly way for the whole world to witness. Those Iraqi WMD not shipped to Syria, the Bekka Valley or sold on the open market, could now be used throughout Iraq unless the Coalition forces discovers where the terrorists are hiding all stockpiles of nerve agents.
The death cult jihadists once again prove they care nothing for fellow Muslims or anyone else using sarin gas or other chemical agents.
Iran has chemical weapons may be importing them to use on Coalition forces and Iraqi population which they hate since they are Arabs, not Persians. If Iran or Syria is proven to be behind any chemical attacks in Iraq, a swift military response must be forthcoming for both renegade terrorist promoting entities.
We knew one day Saddam's WMD would indeed be uncovered and it looks like the enemy has shed light on this subject through a failed sarin nerve gas attack on our men.
#15
One added comment: Maybe it will take thousands of hard-core leftists being directly involved in a Islamic terrorist chemical attack in order for them to grasp the true nature real world.
Then again most of them will blame the 'vast rightwing conspiracy :)
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 11:26 Comments ||
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#16
Some info on Sarin:
http://cfrterrorism.org/weapons/sarin.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,76856,00.html
BTW,Steve, where's the link to that info about it being a binary agent?
#17
Since this gas in the shell wasn't used very effectively, I bet whoever rigged this bomb didn't know it was a Sarin shell. They probably just got "lucky" - but I still would like to find out where it came from. Imagine what might happen if Zaqarwi got ahold of it.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
05/17/2004 11:32 Comments ||
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#18
1155 EST - FNC is saying that 'senior administration officials' are confirming a mustard gas round discovered 'recently'.
Tell me again how dumb Dubya is, trolls.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/17/2004 11:53 Comments ||
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#19
Mike K - Mustard and Sarin in seperate incidents?
The DNC is in deep doodoo - Quick Terry McAuliffe. You need to hire Baghdad Bob to get you out of this one.
My friends Terry McAuliffe and John Kerry want you to know that the reports of chemical weapons in Iraq are false.
#24
One added comment: Maybe it will take thousands of hard-core leftists being directly involved in a Islamic terrorist chemical attack in order for them to grasp the true nature real world.
I don't like socialists any more than you do, but I really don't want things to get to that point, even if political points can be made for conservatives; its not worth a human life, even if the left doesn't value human life, which they clearly don't.
#26
badanov - Even if hard-core leftists were directly affected by a terrorist attack, there would still be some (probably 10%) of them who would want to "Understand the rage, and what was done to cause the terrorists to be violent. It must of been something we did."
Yeah, we were breathing.
Mark E speaks the sad truth. I think 90% of the leftys would get a dose of survival instinct. Like when we were hit on 9/11 90% of all the US had survuival instinct - for about 6-8 weeks.
#27
..Just looked at what the gentleman at LGF had to say, and he's definitely got a grasp of the technology. (FULL DICLOSURE: My specialty was conventional munitions, but i did have some training in this stuff.)
One thing I'd add - the Rest Of the World does not always follow conventions on marking and labeling, and one of my concerns is that a great deal of this stuff ISN'T missing, but is sitting in the weapons dumps, waiting for us to blow it, not knowing what's in them.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/17/2004 12:29 Comments ||
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#30
BTW,Steve, where's the link to that info about it being a binary agent?
Fox story here: The round was an old "binary-type" shell in which two chemicals held in separate sections are mixed after firing to produce sarin, Kimmitt said. He said he believed that insurgents who rigged the artillery shell as a bomb didn't know it contained the nerve agent, and that the dispersal of the nerve agent from such a rigged device was very limited.
"The former regime had declared all such rounds destroyed before the 1991 Gulf War," Kimmitt said. "Two explosive ordinance team members were treated for minor exposure to nerve agent as a result of the partial detonation of the round." The shell had no markings. It appears the binary sarin agents didn't mix, which is why there weren't serious injuries from the initial explosion, a U.S. official told Fox News.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/17/2004 12:35 Comments ||
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#31
Thanks Steve.
Hey guys, any bets on how long until the story gets forgotten or lost?
#36
I don't like socialists any more than you do, but I really don't want things to get to that point, even if political points can be made for conservatives; its not worth
Once again, NOT EVERY socialist opposed US intervention in Iraq. I suppose Tony Blair is too "New Labour" to count as a Socialist, but theres also Christopher Hitchens and Paul Berman.
#37
The Islamic death cultists are showing their true colours now.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 14:01 Comments ||
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#38
i'm so angry already the main UK media is saying 'oh this is nothing' 'its old' the BBC devoted about 40 seconds to the story with an incredably sneerery manner. I just want to beat the living shit out of the Baathists who run the BBC!
Posted by: Shep UK ||
05/17/2004 14:13 Comments ||
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#39
Any bets on which gets more time on the evening news tonight? Abu Ghraib or the two chem rounds found recently?
I'm betting it's at least 3:1 in favor of Abu Ghraib.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/17/2004 14:26 Comments ||
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#40
6 - 1 for abu ghurib
Posted by: Shep UK ||
05/17/2004 14:41 Comments ||
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#41
Murat, Where are you!? Explain to me how these aren't really WMD's!
Posted by: Charles ||
05/17/2004 14:47 Comments ||
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#42
A4021 - NOW YOU ARE STEALING MY LINE (comment #34)! Check out the "Cumming soon" thread.
Posted by: Tibor ||
05/17/2004 14:54 Comments ||
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#43
Lemee See : RECAP of News Noon PDT
FOX News:
WMD: Headline
Gov Council Head Killed : 2nd
Abu-Gharib : not listed
CNN :
WMD: not listed
Gov Council Head Killed : Headline
Abu-Gharib : listed below 3rd
MSNBC:
WMD: 3rd
Gov Council Head Killed : Headline
Abu-Gharib : 2nd
ABC :
WMD: 2nd
Gov Council Head Killed : Headline
Abu-Gharib : 3rd
CBS :
WMD: listed on side
Gov Council Head Killed : Headline
Abu-Gharib : listed below headline
WMD, one of the primary reasons for the war have been found, and only Fox seems to understand the significance.
#44
Watched part of 'We Hate America' this morning. They mentioned the Gov Council death (briefly) in their mad rush to sodomize the Abu-Gharib dead horse issue some more. No mention of the WMD (but then it might not have been known then).
#46
"Two former weapons inspectors Hans Blix and David Kay said the shell was likely a stray weapon that had been scavenged by militants and did not signify that Iraq had large stockpiles of such weapons."
See, what did I say. There are no chemical weapons in Iraq.
:D
(I think I'm gonna need some valium to sleep tonight)
#47
Incredible. It's scarily logical - if we didn't find them in stockpiles, we'd find them being used on us. Yet they still want to deny that there are any chemical/biological weapons in Iraq. Newsflash, morons: even if the former regime didn't have any, the use of them means they're in the country!
My God, how many people have to die for these people to be proven wrong?
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 17:16 Comments ||
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#48
My God, how many people have to die for these people to be proven wrong? No number will ever convince them. Ever.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
05/17/2004 17:32 Comments ||
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#50
My guess is that this is only the first...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2004 17:44 Comments ||
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#51
No number will ever convince them. Ever.
Absolutely. Go pick up The Black Book of Communism if you don't believe it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/17/2004 17:50 Comments ||
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#52
Fred: My guess is that this is only the first...
After some thought, I have to agree. I think it's extremely unlikely that they'd have just accidentally used a gas shell instead of an HE shell. OK, they're unmarked -- but don't they weigh less? Look different? Do they have to have the chemicals loaded, or are they stored pre-loaded?
Also, look at the connected story -- a mustard gas shell was used earlier. Let's say you're going through Saddam's Secret Stash #46, shell by shell. What are the odds that you'd use ONE sarin shell and ONE mustard gas shell, and no more than that. If you're pulling from one case or pallet, you'd get all the same type, no?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/17/2004 17:55 Comments ||
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#53
The rounds are color-coded in every arsenal I've ever heard of.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2004 18:15 Comments ||
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#54
The thing that's bugging me is the report I read earlier today (and I'm sorry, but I lost the link) where some reporters asked their pentagon sources about the story, and the sources were suprised that Gen. Kimmitt announced it because it was supposed to be classified.
How many other discoveries of this sort of thing in Iraq are out there, classified, or miscategorized as pesticides?
When you mix pesticides into a drum of nerve agents (or the binary components of same), does it suddenly become "acceptable dual use pesticides" for all practical legalistic purposes?
And the stuff that was found _before_ in arsenals, or in artillery rockets, bugs me too. As someone else pointed out, if it wasn't chemical agents, what was it?
I think the phrase was, was the Iraqi army preparing to shoot dishwashing detergent at the enemy?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/17/2004 18:36 Comments ||
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#55
Completely removed from CNN?
It it that good a news item for GWB that they deny it happened?
American soldiers based here donât have to call in air strikes against foreign fighters or exchange gunfire with Baathist loyalists. Nor do they live in mortal fear of deadly IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, along the roadsides. In fact, says one soldier who travels in this area, "I always see the thumbs up, and little kids offer us candies."
Major John T Hubert, one of around a hundred members of the US army and special forces based in the Sulaimaniyah governorate in north-eastern Iraq, said, "I tell people I have the best job in Iraq. People love us here." He and his fellow soldiers in the 451 civil affairs battalion are assigned to monitor up to 28 CPA projects initiated by the local Kurdish government. The Kurds have been running their own governments in parts of northern Iraq since the end of the 1991 Gulf war. With a budget of 1.6 million US dollars, the civil affairs soldiers have overseen school renovations, bridge and sewage reconstruction, and the building of a 195,000 dollar dialysis centre. They have also equipped student activities centres, and other smaller projects.
Based in an old Iraqi military facility on the outskirts of Sulaimaniyah, the American troops spend their spare time playing cards and chatting online with their families and friends back home. They also venture out to explore nearby mountains or stay in the luxurious hotel at Dukan Lake, 45 minutes from Sulaimaniyah. To make life a bit safer for them, Kurdish peshmerga fighters protect the American base and accompany soldiers on the main roads. "I gain a lot of comfort from the PUK [Patriotic Union of Kurdistan] leaders and peshmergas," said Sgt George L Rivera, who sent Iranian rugs and jewellery to his family in America, along with the standard photographs. "I feel safe here," he said. Other US soldiers echo his feeling. "The Kurdish military and police made every resource available to ensure the safety of American troops" said Major Mike Simonelli of the US army reserves who served in Sulaimaniyah from the end of the fighting last year until this March.
Significantly, the Kurds do not view the US soldiers as foreign occupiers of their land. "We look at them like guests who will not stay here forever," said police officer Abdulla Kamal. The Kurdish press - both party and independent - never refer to American forces as "occupiers", "invaders" or "the enemy", as do news outlets in other parts of Iraq. Here, they are called coalition forces, US soldiers or liberators. And in other parts of Iraq, where Shia and Sunni religious leaders form a nucleus of opposition to the coalition forces, Kurdish clerics espouse a more tolerant view. "We are happy the American forces are here," said Sheikh Majed Hafid, whose grandfather, Sheikh Mahmood, led the Kurdish rebellion against the British occupation in the early 1920s. The sheikh is the Imam of the Grand Mosque which lies in the heart of the Sulaimaniyah bazaar, not far from a billboard-sized mural of his grandfather who looks over a bustling traffic circle â the site of demonstrations against the British and their Iraqi government in the 1920s. Deep inside the mosque, Sheikh Majed sits at his computer in front of a bookshelf which houses classical poems in the Farsi language by the Iranian poet Hafiz, along with Arabic religious texts and Kurdish language Islamic books. Throughout the centuries, the sheikh points out, the Kurds have been under the rule of Persian, Ottoman and the Baath party invaders. But the Americans are a lot easier to get along with. "We donât care if they stay here for another 100 years," he said.
Posted by: tipper ||
05/17/2004 10:34:09 AM ||
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Too bad this will never be seen on the nightly news!
#2
How can this be true, i Don't believe it, Hans Blix told us all that there were no WMD in Iraq. :)
Posted by: Shep UK ||
05/17/2004 11:51 Comments ||
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#3
"Deep inside the mosque, Sheikh Majed sits at his computer... We donât care if they stay here for another 100 years."
And, thus, we will be able to leave Kurdistan to the Kurds far sooner than Shitstan to the Shi'a or SunniLooniLand to the boggled Ba'athist losers. Compare and contrast this image and this real-world pragmatism with ooga-booga "Holy City" idiocy & 1000-yard stare of Shi'a Space Alien Ayatollah Shitstani, et al.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said Monday it had found an artillery round loaded with the sarin nerve agent in Iraq. Bingo!
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/17/2004 10:33:08 AM ||
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I'm sure further tests will show it to be full of dishwashing detergent, just like all the others.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/17/2004 10:37 Comments ||
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....What amazes me - or really shouldn't - is watching the briefing on FNC right now while BGen Kimmitt tries to explain this while some idiot keeps trying to change the subject to Abu Ghraib.
This is big. big news no matter what, with a bunch of very disturbing questions attached. Where did it come from? How much sarin was in it?
Is there any more?...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/17/2004 10:38 Comments ||
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#3
Fox is now reporting that there was a release of gas from a roadside bomb.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/17/2004 10:39 Comments ||
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#4
U.S. Finds Sarin-Loaded Raid Cockroach Spray-Filled Artillery Round in Iraq
-Terry McAuliffe, DNC Chairman
#5
Sure sure, ofcourse yeah sure, must be fallen of from those mobile biological weapons labs that Colin Powell showed on the sattelite pictures before. No doubt it is real!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Murat ||
05/17/2004 11:13 Comments ||
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#6
Murat, your spittle is frothing.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/17/2004 11:14 Comments ||
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#7
Well Murat, if you don't think they are real then you won't mind if we give all we find to the Kurds.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
05/17/2004 11:18 Comments ||
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#8
LotR - Novel! Novel! They have some intrangisent Ba'athists in their jails. I'm sure the Kurds could do tests to prove it isn't bug spray.
#9
Its so big it rated ten seconds on the BBC world news after being excluded from the news summary.
Out dammed pesky facts! Out! (with apologises to Shakespeare)
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/17/2004 11:24 Comments ||
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#10
I suppose a Saddam fedayeen dropped it out of his pocket right?
No no you found it in the arshole of one of the Abu Graib prissoners, good hiding place but you found it bwahahaaa
How deep can America sunk, Pinokio Bushes nose has grown another inch. Rabit and Lauren you guys are killing me, I got belly cramps.
Posted by: Murat ||
05/17/2004 11:24 Comments ||
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#11
The Left and muslims make great natural allies because of their pathological aversion to facts.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/17/2004 11:26 Comments ||
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#12
Murat, you kurd-sucking apologist. If you have nothing to offer - shut the f*&k up!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/17/2004 11:32 Comments ||
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#13
Inset here the wordless music "Classical Gas", by Mason Williams.
I have an idea - A Rantburg test on the contents of the shell. Murat volunteers to sniff the gas. If he keels over, its Sarin. If he just throws up, it's Black Flag ant spray, if he starts to laugh uncontrollaby, it is Nitrous Oxide. Laughter thay say, is the best medicine.
#15
I get the feeling Murat was much, much happier when Saddam was killing Kurds.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/17/2004 12:48 Comments ||
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#16
Murat - please get real...your ok as long as the news is bad and gives the allusion that the US is lying.....your posts have sunken to a new low - your sounding like Antiwar...just babble and no substance....
got belly cramps - that time of the month?
saddam did have wmd and we all know chems and bio's can be hidden and/or destroyed quite easlily compared to nuclear... you dumbass- just because they were not found right away and just because the UN's point man say's there are none means jack..it ain't over till the fat woman sings..goes the saying...your a dumbass...
so how are your new niegbors?
Posted by: Dan ||
05/17/2004 13:01 Comments ||
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#17
Nothing to see here. Move along. Prisoner abuse. Anyone but Bush.
/leftist "reporter" mode
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/17/2004 17:37 Comments ||
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Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal acting president Qazi Hussain Ahmed escaped unhurt when the stage he was seated on at the Kashmir Integrity Conference (KIC) collapsed on Sunday, the organiser said. The incident spread panic at the conference, he said. Political and religious leaders of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Northern Areas also fell but there were few minor injuries. Jamaat-e-Islami activists rushed towards Qazi Hussain and encircled him after the stage was collapsed. However, Islami Jamiat Talba Pakistan President Zubair Ahmed Gondal continued his speech without any pausing and succeeded in regaining the attention of the audience.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/17/2004 2:31:41 AM ||
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Maybe Allah was trying to send them a message?
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 10:15 Comments ||
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First Chechnya and now here. Pre-trials for the Olympics I guess.
Did anyone check to see how much fertilizer they used on the field? Olympics field manager to self, "My, my,...the grass really does grow greener here".
Posted by: B ||
05/17/2004 10:20 Comments ||
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#3
Much like William Howard Taft, MMA "acting" president Qazi needs to run on a platform of reinforced concrete.
ARAB prisoners beaten and tortured, innocent bystanders killed by gunfire - another damning human rights report. But the difference this time is that the violence is being perpetrated not by coalition forces in Iraq, but by the Palestinian Authority, and the victims are its own people. The report, partly funded by the Finnish government, claims Palestinian cities are in a state of near anarchy, with people on the payroll of Yasser Arafatâs Palestinian Authority (PA) blamed for 90 per cent of gangland violence. It highlights numerous incidents of torture of prisoners and refers to the killing of civilians in gunbattles between Palestinian factions.
It is another blow for Mr Arafatâs organisation, which was recently accused of misusing £134 million of European Union funds. Mr Arafat was accused of signing cheques to people linked with terrorist activity. The organisation behind the latest report, the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG), has won few friends for its work documenting human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Although it has been strongly critical of Israeli treatment of Palestinians, its criticism of the PA has seen its funding by European governments slashed. Its latest report describes the situation in PA areas as "the Intraâfada" or "the chaos of the weapons", and paints a picture of a society where the proliferation of guns has brought grave consequences for the people. It says: "PA security forces do not live up to international laws and regulations concerning the treatment of individuals under arrest. There have been several cases in which Palestinian civilians were arrested without proper reason, and suffered beatings and other forms of torture at the hands of the police."
It cites an incident in July last year in which a worker from Bethlehem was forcibly taken from his house and interrogated by members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, working with the PA, who accused him of collaborating with Israel. "Under threat of violence [including firing at his feet] the man confessed to having committed certain thefts, but insisted that he was not responsible for Israeli assassinations of Palestinians in Bethlehem. "When he finished his âconfessionâ, the militants broke his hand and leg, smashed his teeth and hit him with an iron bar on his back. He was then dumped into a garbage container where he was found the next day."
The report says the examples quoted are the tip of the iceberg. "Violence permeates the security forces, and it is worsened by legal confusions. Unless and until more accountability and order is introduced, the problem will remain and could worsen as PA control continues to deteriorate," it says. Just as the Red Cross and Amnesty investigators focused on cases in Iraq where civilians had been caught in gunbattles, the PHRMG identifies incidents in PA-controlled areas in which innocent bystanders have been struck by bullets. "Sometimes violence erupts between police members and loyalists of political factions," it says.
The report does lay some of the blame for the violence at the feet of Israel. It says that the failure to reach a substantive and acceptable peace agreement has led Palestinians to vent their feelings of futility against Palestinians. According to the US-based Middle East Media Research Institute, Basem Eid, the man who set up the PHRMG after years investigating Israeli human rights abuses, has struggled to find funding because his former backers were concerned about the political implications of being seen to support a group that exposes Palestinian abuses. Yesterday, MEMRIâs director, Yigal Carmon, said that as soon as Basem Eid decided to investigate Palestinian abuses as well as Israeli abuses, his support dried up
Posted by: tipper ||
05/17/2004 8:57:13 AM ||
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Just six more months of Abu Ghraib coverage left!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/17/2004 9:13 Comments ||
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And I shudder to think what might lie at the end of those six months.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/17/2004 9:31 Comments ||
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From Jihad Unspun
The American occupiers now routinely invade Pakistani territory by crossing over the Pakistan border regularly. On Saturday they entered in the tribal areas and kidnapped a tribal chief which they later took back into Afghanistan. According to details, the American forces along with collaborators were from the tribe of Tani entered in Waziristan agency in Pakistan and surrounded the house of Malik Nur Khan who is a leader of the Madakhel Tribe. They forcibly evicted him from his own house and then took him to Afghanistan. The afghan collaborators beat the men who tried to argue with the men to not take the respected leader. They also attempted to kidnap another leader, Fatah Khan, but he was away at the time. It remains to be seen what the tribal Jirga will rule on the matter considering one of its leaders was kidnapped in broad daylight by American criminals.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/17/2004 8:31:26 AM ||
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does this mean that we got someone good?
Posted by: B ||
05/17/2004 10:04 Comments ||
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Cash is king!
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/17/2004 10:07 Comments ||
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It remains to be seen what the tribal Jirga will rule on the matter considering one of its leaders was kidnapped in broad daylight by American criminals.
rule? I don't really give a F*&K! Good going men!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/17/2004 11:02 Comments ||
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#5
As I said last week. Border????
Platoon Sergeant: Damn GPS. . . Anybody got a couple of AA batteries? Oh well lets talk to that tribal leader over there and ask HIM where we are. He says Pakistan, we say he's a liar, we nab him and send him to Gitmo. He says Afghanistan, we nab him and send him to Gitmo. It's a win-win.
Pak tribal leaders have been among the biggest facilitators of bin Laden's continued flight from prosecution. If Perv doesn't have the ostiones there's plenty of good American fighting men who do.
A suicide car bomb killed at least nine people outside the main coalition headquarters in Baghdad Monday, including the head of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, officials said. Abdul Zahra Othman Mohammad, a Shiâite council member also known as Izzedin Salim, had been waiting at a checkpoint to enter the sprawling "Green Zone" compound in Baghdad when the bomb went off, Deputy Foreign Minister Hamed al-Bayati told Reuters. "Izzedin Salim was martyred," he said. Salim, from Iraqâs Shiâite majority, was the head of the Islamic Dawa Party in Basra and the editor of several newspapers and magazines. He was one of the nine council members who each hold the rotating presidency for a month at a time.
Bayati said Salimâs car had been the last in a convoy which included other council members. "The other members escaped unharmed. They managed to get through the checkpoint before the explosion. Salim was still waiting to enter. It is too early to say whether the attack specifically targeted the Governing Council convoy," he said. Salim, who had been the current holder of the rotating Governing Council presidency, was the second of the 25-member Council to be killed. In September gunmen assassinated Aqila al-Hashemi, one of the three women in the council.
U.S. officers said the explosion had been caused by a car bomb. The checkpoint was crowded with civilian cars and minibuses. More than a dozen vehicles were destroyed by the blast, which melted the asphalt of the road and covered it in pools of blood. Doctors wearing masks and rubber gloves pulled burned bodies from twisted wrecks of minibuses. Shoes and body parts were hurled through the air. A scorched foot hung from barbed wire 30 yards away. "There was a huge crowd at the checkpoint," said Raad Mukhlis, a security guard at a nearby residential compound. "There were a lot of cars and people on foot standing there, and then this massive explosion. I saw body parts and martyrs everywhere."
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/17/2004 3:55:30 AM ||
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Savages!
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 4:07 Comments ||
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"Islam is Peace" Says President
Remarks by the President at Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., September 16, 2001
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much for your hospitality. We've just had wide-ranging discussions on the matter at hand. Like the good folks standing with me, the American people were appalled and outraged at last Tuesday's attacks. And so were Muslims all across the world. Both Americans and Muslim friends and citizens, tax-paying citizens, and Muslims in nations were just appalled and could not believe what we saw on our TV screens.
These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it's important for my fellow Americans to understand that.
The English translation is not as eloquent as the original Arabic, but let me quote from the Koran, itself: In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil. For that they rejected the signs of Allah and held them up to ridicule.
The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war.
When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace. And that's made brothers and sisters out of every race -- out of every race...
Women who cover their heads in this country must feel comfortable going outside their homes. Moms who wear cover must be not intimidated in America. That's not the America I know. That's not the America I value.
I've been told that some fear to leave; some don't want to go shopping for their families; some don't want to go about their ordinary daily routines because, by wearing cover, they're afraid they'll be intimidated. That should not and that will not stand in America.
Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don't represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior.
This is a great country. It's a great country because we share the same values of respect and dignity and human worth. And it is my honor to be meeting with leaders who feel just the same way I do. They're outraged, they're sad. They love America just as much as I do
Posted by: Muslim Lover ||
05/17/2004 4:40 Comments ||
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#3
Muslim Lover,
What are you trying to achieve by posting the same message over and over again?
#6
That's not up to me Anonymous4617, let the Iraqi people vote, seems they don't like the American "democratic" form of appointing interim Puppet Governments.
Let's be clear on this one, I am not Iraqi but if I where I would resist occupation too till my last heartbeat, what would you guys do if the Russians occupied the US because they don't like Bush hypothetically?
Posted by: Murat ||
05/17/2004 5:11 Comments ||
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#7
I have a better idea. I am for making Saddam the leader of the Turks. BTW, Murat the article about honor killings has given us fine examples of Turkish "honor" and "morality".
#8
At least we have "honor" and "morality", you lack them both
Posted by: Murat ||
05/17/2004 5:32 Comments ||
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#9
Murat,
How are they going to vote? if the Sunnis, who really want Saddam back, are not killing them, then the foreing "freedom" fighters or the different shiia fanatics are. No, Saddam has to come back and unify them!
I am not an Iraqi either but I live in Saudi Arabia and the advise of some Saudis to some of the Iraqis here left over from Gulf War 1 is : get Saddam back and your country will be peaceful again. Do you not think it has certain logic to it?
#10
So Murat, you've put the United States into the same category as Hitler's Germany?
That's a fine piece of logic. With the gas chambers roaring and people being marched into concentration camps here everyday, I can see how you would come to such a conclusion.
Tell me Murat, what were you calling the people who "collaborated" with Saddam when he was killing 300,000 people and tossing them into mass graves? Patriots? Friends of yours?
#11
"At least we have "honor" and "morality", you lack them both", says Murat.
Well, it is called for some reason "honor killing", but it is in fact "shame murder", and shamefull practice it is... blaming victim instead of the perpetrator, with the terminal effect on the victim. And you have the gull to call this morality?
As I said, I don't care if Iraqis want Saddam back it's their bussiness, and if they want Muqtada al Sadr it's fine for me too, at least it would be the will of the Iraqi people and not a puppet government installed by an occupying power.
You guys bring up that Saddam was a murder, lunatic, whatever... all of that is true but it doesn't justify the installation of a puppet government. I don't think different about Saddam, but again that's not up to me nor the Americans, the Iraqis themselve have to choose their leader
Posted by: Murat ||
05/17/2004 6:03 Comments ||
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#13
#4 Number one puppet succesfully deleted, I wouldn't regret the loss of a Nazi collaborator if I where Iraqi.
but you are Turkish and eermm in 1938, Turkey navigated a treacherous course to neutrality throughout the war under Ãsmet Ãnönh, when neutral Istanbul became a major spy center Turkey did not repeat the same mistake that it had made in 1914 and remained neutral until the end of the war however, there were certain concessions made to the Axis powers, such as the 1942 Capital Levy on Jews and Christians . makes your father and his friends nazi collaborators dont it Murat . Hypocrital git dont even know his own history
#14
That's not up to me Anonymous4617, let the Iraqi people vote, seems they don't like the American "democratic" form of appointing interim Puppet Governments
Listening to what you are saying, if we apply it to us here, that means were someone to gun Kerry down, we can safely assume the people of the Unite States do not like what Kerry has been saying, right?
The 'people' of Iraq has no more spoken with this attack, than the democratic party speaks for the rest of us.
#15
Bush is about to get into a lot of political trouble with me. I can always stay home in November if he insists on negotiating with these folks while they continue to murder.
It is clear that negotiating with terrorists such as Al Sadr is not working; it is time to take off the gloves and put these folks down for good.
Just like you, Murat, I frankly do not give a flying f@#$ about Iraqis, being gassed, mutilated, dismembered, poisoned, physically tortured, experimented on, etc. I say, you are right! Since, they "elected" Saddam in the first place (do you remember the name of the other candidate running against Saddam when he was first elected?), why not give them the right to elect him or somebody like him again. I think, just like in the past, they are free to express their opinions and chose appropiately, do you not think so?
#17
Murat is a coward. He was nowhere to be found when Sadaam was hiring men to rape women and grind his own people through paper shredders. Now he's Mr. Big Man who bravely demands that we apologize for abuses that pale in comparison. Meanwhile, he extends his sympathies for the people who cut heads off. He knows we won't send secret police out to his house, so he puffs his chest and blathers on like the rest of them. Maybe if he gets really mad, he'll strap on an exploding penis and go blow up some babies on school bus.
Murat, the Purveyor of Peace, and the other fools like him are the reason that our population will eventually have to take off our gloves and fight a much less humane war. We are still trying every way we know how to avoid that, even as the Murats egg us on.
#18
Since, they "elected" Saddam in the first place (do you remember the name of the other candidate running against Saddam when he was first elected?), why not give them the right to elect him or somebody like him again. I think, just like in the past,
First Saddam did grab the power, he was not elected, there you are right, but strangly that did not bother the US at first as long as he played according pro American rules. Anyway be it a Saddam, Saddik or Saddok the Iraqis should choose. If you guys propagate 'democracy', you should act to that and not install a remote controlled puppet government and call it Sweet democracy.
So said I don't blame those Iraqis when they blow up those collaborators, I would have done the same.
Funny thing is June 30 is comming closer and your puppet needs a few stiches to keep him together. :)
Posted by: Murat ||
05/17/2004 6:52 Comments ||
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#19
Muslim lover - why do you keep reprinting this when it only highlights the difference between your "bad people" and our "bad people".
some don't want to go about their ordinary daily routines because, by wearing cover, they're afraid they'll be intimidated
Sure we have some mean people who give women dirty looks. But Islam has an entire army who wants to blow us up as we go about our daily routines. We're tired of you asking for our sympathy for "intimidation" and then excusing an army of savages.
It's not working anymore. We understand that many Muslims are good people. But now we understand that many are not. Chanting "the religion of peace" over and over and over again won't make us fail to notice the barbarism committed in the name of Islam.
You can keep chanting it though, if it makes you happy. But it's not doing anything but making this comparison ever more clear.
#20
First Saddam did grab the power, he was not elected, there you are right, but strangly that did not bother the US at first as long as he played according pro American rules
Reading from the Socialist International playbook, are you?
Saddam took power in 1969, a time when radical Islam was an amusement amoungst academics, and when Arabs had the good sense not to attack the USA.
911 changed all that, and it changed our priorities.
Of course with socialists like Murat, 911 was a justified attack, right Murat? You believe that Americans had it coming,right, Murat.
You believe that this Iraq politician had it coming too, right? You believe in murdering Americans is okay, and any one perceived to be their puppet gets a pass for murder, right, Murat?
You fully support active terrorist operations, right Murat?
Let us know something, Murat. Inquiring minds wanna know.
911 changed all that, and it changed our priorities.
In those changed priorities was an unwillingness to let the Iraq situation continue down the path it had been going. You might remember the no-fly zones, the embargo, the specially protected area for the Kurds...
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/17/2004 7:17 Comments ||
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#26
Murat,
I was being sarcastic. I know all that, since this is my 7th year in the Middle East. The irony that you fail to grasp is that the power that gave the Iraqis the opportunity to choose and elect is the one you want to see destroyed.
I have never said that the US is doing what is doing in Iraq purely on a altruistic basis. If Sept 11th would have not happened, Iraq and Afghanistan would have not been invaded. It is the survival of the US at stake and it will do what it takes to guarantee this survival (any country, including yours, would do the same). Now, if in the process of guaranting its survival, the US gets rid of 2 or 3 murderous dictators, why would you oppose this? Why would you not help the people of Iraq to get a shot a creating a society where they are not afraid to protest, elect, speak their minds, decide on their future, etc? Unless you think that the various groups fighting the Allied troops and murdering iraqis citizen just trying to rebuild their country or continue with their normal lives (remember the 14 children who were burned to death on a school bus/) are better for Iraq than those who are trying to rebuild it. If that is what you believe, then there is nothing else to say.
#28
I'm confused. Murat's comments give me the impression that during World War Two it was the Turks who fought against Hitler and it was the Americans who remained neutral.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/17/2004 7:42 Comments ||
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#29
Murat, since you claim it wasn't your business when Sadaam imposed his brutal will on the Iraqi people, why do you suddenly find it your business when the Americans do it?
But thanks for further clarifying for us what that Muslim "honor" is all about. It is indeed a difficult concept for us to grasp as your definition of "honor" has a meaning so different from our own.
#30
One thing that shitheads like murass and the rest of the insane left need to do is a simple exercise. Just think about what the world would be like if America was as bad as Nazi Germany. Have any of you mouth-breathing lefties thought about that? The US has the most powerful military this world has ever seen. We can bring to bear more destructive force than any 4 nations combined. If we wanted to destroy our enemies, we could. If we wanted to take all the oil, we could. If we were as bad as the Nazi's, like you teet-sucking, mono-browed freaks think, we would have invaded Canada and taken their oil years ago. We would have nuked Turkey and France for their betrayals. So you morally repugnant little shitheads, do you *really* think you want us to be as bad as you believe?
#31
B,
"Murat, since you claim it wasn't your business when Sadaam imposed his brutal will on the Iraqi people, why do you suddenly find it your business when the Americans do it?"
Excellent question! I suspect she/he cares out pure anti-americanism. She/he would rather see Iraqis murdered and tortured by somebody like Saddam than Americans taking credit for doing something good. Sad, very sad.
#32
AllahHateMe,
Not just the insane left but muslims around the world need to do that exercise. I use your arguments with muslims or leftists when they talk about the israeli/Palestinian conflict. I tell them that, if the Israelis were as bad as they say they are, the palestinian problem would not be a problem because they would not be any palestinians left to complain about it.
#33
"Turks Change Laws In Serious Effort to Suppress Honor Killings"
"#8 At least we have "honor" and "morality", you lack them both
Posted by: Murat 2004-05-17 5:32:05 AM "
Please elaborate on this Honor,morality thing you are talking about,Murat.
.... a 15-year-old ... slashed her with a meat cleaver...
.... brothers...shooting their 22-year-old sister....
....Halitogullari confessed to strangling his 14-year-old daughter...with a wire, after she had been kidnapped on her way home and sexually assaulted for six days. ....
Now what is this thing you were saying about Turkish honor and morality,Murat?
How can you see past that 8x8 mine timber in your eye,Murat?
#34
Murat, since you claim it wasn't your business when Sadaam imposed his brutal will on the Iraqi people, why do you suddenly find it your business when the Americans do it?
Most varieties of nationalism give a bizarre sanctity to the idea of the nation-state in which even brutal internal dictators are somehow less bad than (even relatively benevolent) external occupation, native tyrants less evil than (even relatively benevolent) colonialism, and so forth and so forth.
Since I'm not a nationalist, you'll have to find someone else to explain the twisted reasoning behind this though.
My problem is not Saddam himself, but Iraq, if you guys want to rid yourself from Saddam that's fine with me no objections, but he was not the reason.
You brought up a lot of shit, like liberating Iraq from a dictator, WMD weapons etc. etc, all big lies just to justify occupation. If Saddam was the problem he could have easily be targeted, occupation would have been unnecesarry. But Saddam was just an excuse.
Posted by: Murat ||
05/17/2004 10:09 Comments ||
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#36
Oh hi Aris, it's you....I want you to hear this, and hear it good....
Did you hear that?
That sound you heard was the sound of what I think of you and your meaningless self-important blather. That sound you heard was also response the response that I think you deserve for your ...yawn... adolescent ideas.
Posted by: B ||
05/17/2004 10:12 Comments ||
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#37
B, your tactic of calling "meaningless" and "self-important blather" all the things that you are too dim to understand is becoming quite tiresome.
If you think that my words deserve the sound of silence, then that could be accomplished quite a bit more easily if you actually *stayed* silent.
#38
B, I think in this case Aris was just putting an idea forward; I don't see him actually promoting it there (though if he was, you can bet I'd be happy to help come down on him like a load of bricks).
The point you're missing, Murat, is that there is a better way to run a government. Elections are ultimately more honorable when run cleanly, for they make the leaders accountable to the people - something that the Arab world knows nothing about. And before you yell me down, let me point to the palaces of the House of Saud (and that's not even mentioning their other excesses), and the uncountable luxuries that Saddam and his closest associates enjoyed while the people suffered because of UN sanctions. If he'd done the responsible thing and distributed that money to the people, the sanctions wouldn't have been half as bad. But Saddam kept it all for himself. I will grant you that elections are sometimes played with, but nothing's perfect. Bombing a council is not a legitimate way of expressing your dissatisfaction - that's what we're trying to teach them. Vote in who you like, but remember that if you don't like them, you can always vote them out come next election. And if that happens, they must go. That's moral. That's honor. You try and do it that way in Turkey; why do you not want to see it repeated in other places?
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 10:26 Comments ||
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#39
Isn't it cute how the Doctor always comes to Aris' rescue. Fooling no one but yourself, Aris.
Posted by: The Nurse ||
05/17/2004 10:31 Comments ||
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#40
Doctor> Since I called it "twisted reasoning", I was clearly not promoting the nationalistic belief in the sanctity of the nation-state above even the question of brutality or benevolence.
#41
Nurse, if you are actually claiming that I'm The Doctor, then you are just wacko.
I'll ask Fred, if he could have the IPs of posters show, in order for it to be clear that I'm me and only me, and only post with my actual real-life name.
#42
Nurse, I'm not trying to come to his defense, I'm simply trying to be fair. I disagree with a lot of what he says, but I'm sure people disagree with what I say. But I expect that when I make a stupid point people will call me on it and explain why I'm wrong instead of simply insulting me, and I'm trying to extend that same courtesy.
And just for your information, I don't have nurses. I have companions.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 10:36 Comments ||
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#43
And how dare you suggest I'm someone else! I am the Doctor, the genuine article, one might say, and unless someone's hijacked my name I speak for no one but myself. I could post under my real name if I wanted, but, hey, only on the Internet can one at least start to fulfill a boyhood fantasy of emulating one's hero. *Grins*.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 10:39 Comments ||
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#44
I'll confirm that. Aris and I go back almost 2 years. Aris is Aris and he has never trolled under a diff name. I read his posts and most others and would notice if he is trolling himself.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/17/2004 10:41 Comments ||
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#45
Hey Guys,
No reason to get excited about Murat, he simply forgot to take his lithium today.
also please understand that Murat is basically pissed off since he did not get to kill a defenceless Armenian or a freedom-loving Kurd today, which makes him grumpy.
Murat, dahling, before spewing nonesense about puppet governments, clean your house first!!!
Posted by: The Dodo ||
05/17/2004 11:05 Comments ||
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#46
And for what it's worth, while Aris's nationalism theory is interesting, I think it's something far simpler. David Pryce-Jones puts it best in his excellent book The Closed Circle:
"For at least a generation, 'imperialism' as a metaphor hid the extent to which nationalism lacked political or social foundations in reality. Nationalism . . . manipulated with supreme skill by Nasser and others, served to legitimie aspiring one-man rulers in their bid for power. Listening, approving, conceding, the colonial powers released themselves from their responsibilities to the Arab masses - those masses, who according to the American social scientist Morroe Berger, 'really believe in their inalienable right to be exploited by people of their own nationality.'"
I'm only about halfway through the book (that quote comes from the introduction alone, and the rest of it is just as good), but I highly recommend it.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 11:27 Comments ||
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#47
The only thing left for Murat to do is pick up an AK47 and join his brothers in arms.
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/17/2004 12:37 Comments ||
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#48
The Doctor has been here for a few months and is definitely not Aris.
#49
Thank you, all, for the kind affirmation of my identity; I was worried for a second there.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 13:08 Comments ||
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#50
Murat told "At least we have 'honor' and 'morality', you lack them both"
I could respect honor killers of their raped daughters if they had gone after the raper of their daughter and hanged him by the balls. But the stories given in another article today show _none_ of your Turkish honor killers has gone after the man. They only go for the girl. It is so much safer. In my book a man who has such concept of honor does not deserve to be called a man, even a cowardly one.
But why would Murat want to defend Iraq's misguided nationalistic acceptance of tyranny. Isn't Murat a Turk? Were you calling Murat's reasoning twisted? That was unclear. And are you saying that nationalists will defend nationalism as a supreme "value," regardless of their own national origin? Do you think some Iraqis, like the Kurds, view the Americans as aids in establishing their true national identity, rather then one imposed on them by a dictator, like Saddam, or by the dictator-like insurgents?
(On a personal note: you are being somewhat attack-oriented and defensive, but generally much less caustic and frenzied, which is a good thing.)
Murat probably wouldn't either. Murat's motivation seems to be resisting for the sake of resisting, without giving any thought as to just what exactly what's at stake. He doesn't care that Iraq is in a shambles, only that it is "occupied" and that occupation must be resisted at any cost. No one in Iraq is going to make the jump from being under the thumb of a dictator to full responsible democracy overnight, yet Murat seems to think this is precisely how Iraq should be handled. The likely result of this sort of sink-or-swim approach would simply be that some other individual would probably end up seizing power and it would be Saddam Lite, or worse, Saddam II. What we're trying to do is set Iraq on the right path, and to help it along until a point is reached where it can do what it needs to do on its own, and Murat needs to get that through his thick skull. The alternative would only mean that we'd have to return at some point in the future to clean it out again. But, having done it once and not solved the problem, I for one would be more supportive of simply turning Iraq into one big sheet of Trinitite instead of expending more American lives to rescue them from themselves yet again.
Of course, Murat's not an Iraqi, and probably doesn't give a shit what happens to Iraq anyway.
#57
Amazing the waste of time spent on Murat. The fact is we have two enemies. Each needs to be confronted differently. The first is terrorism, and we have a globar war underway to deal with it. The second enemy is the global left, brought to life by Soviet propoganda and somehow still kicking.
We'll, as we now see, the global left is a big a problem as terrorism itself. The left lends defacto support to terrorists through enemy on my enemy is my friend logic, and they destroy economies and enslave people in poverty.
It is time to declare WAR ON THE GLOBAL LEFT. The Murats of the world cannot be argued with. They need to be marginilized, ridiculed, ignored, but most of all it need to be pointed out that THEY ARE THE ENEMY.
#58
I almost hate to say it, but ne's right. It's an internal war as much as it is an external one. We'll rot from the inside if we don't clean out those who would turn against us.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 17:18 Comments ||
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#59
Thanks Doc-- one thing I'd like to argue is the idea that the left is an "internal" enemy. They are global, and pose as much a threat to others.
Take the reaction of the Indian stock market to the election of the Congress party. The Congress party will hold power only at the mercy of the communists in the government.
The result of this was a 20% drop in the Indian markets over the last two trading days. BILLIONS of shareholder dollars lost, economic growth will slow, poverty will decrease at a slower rate.
#60
ex-lib> But why would Murat want to defend Iraq's misguided nationalistic acceptance of tyranny. Isn't Murat a Turk? Were you calling Murat's reasoning twisted? That was unclear. And are you saying that nationalists will defend nationalism as a supreme "value," regardless of their own national origin?
There are varieties and varieties of nationalists. There's the imperialistic nationalists who don't mind the violation of other nation's sovereignties as long as their own country's sovereignty is held satrosanct. But then again there exist those branches of nationalism which claim themselves "anti-imperialists", and their defining attitude seems to be rejection of any international interference in domestic affairs. They needn't act aggressively against other countries, but will often express nationalism through their attempts to culturally stifle other ethnic groups and foreign religions in their home soil.
I've heard the above categories of nationalist also described as "aggressive" and "defensive" nationalism. When aggressive nationalism is dominant in a country, usually a strong defeat and humbling will turn it defensive -- I have heard it said (for example) that this happened in Greece back in the 20s with the Asia Minor catastrophe and the destruction of the 'Great Idea'. Since then Greece is as nationalistic as ever, but no longer do nationalists express it through the desire for aggressive expansion. They express it through fear and the wish of isolation. "We are a brotherless nation." "Greece belongs to the Greeks." Stuff like that.
But both kinds of nationalism have however the same twisted logic of seeing the nation, not the individual, as the entity that needs protection. Both are ideologies that lead to a twisted view of the world.
Anyway the difference between the leftist supposed "anti-imperialists" and the nationalist supposed "anti-imperialists" seems to be in their internal politics -- in international politics they seem to be identical. And if I can judge from certain Greek speciments of the above subspecies the reason they'd for example oppose any American violation of Iraqi national sovereignty would be their fear (real or feigned) that "they've attacked Serbia, they've attacked Iraq, they'll soon attack Greece/Turkey/Mozambique if we don't stop them now. Run! Run!"
It's really futile to try and convince them that America isn't in the habit of attacking peaceful democracies. They'll just call you misguided and naive. My own feeling is that often their personal sense of the division between democracy and dictatorship isn't as strong as should be -- and why would it be otherwise? When one sees the *Nation* as the unit to be protected, rather than the individual, then no longer does the nation's internal workings matter as much as the Nation itself as a satrosanct entity.
The same way that when I look at a human being I don't care about the individual blood cells inside the human, that's also why some nationalists don't care as much about the individual humans inside the nation.
Mind you, I don't know much about Murat, I haven't followed his posts very closely, so I couldn't tell for sure whether he falls to any of the above categories.
#62
. . . some nationalists don't care as much about the individual humans inside the nation. Mind you, I don't know much about Murat, I haven't followed his posts very closely, so I couldn't tell for sure whether he falls to any of the above categories.
Aris, you make some good points. I would add in a component of loyalty to âsocio-political movementsâ in addition to strict nationalism. My take on Murat is that he is more anti- than pro-. That is to say, more than being a pro-Turk nationalist, or a pro-Iraq nationalist, he is first and foremost anti-American. Unless, he is pro-Communist, which I donât know (because I havenât seen him post enough on that topic. I would guess you are right that a lot of the Iraqis that are against us are pro-Iraq nationalists that see us as intruders (even some of our supporters there see us that way), but I think (more so) that the Iraqis against us are like Murat -- not so much nationalistic as movement oriented. In the case of Iraq, I think our opposition is from those who are pro-âthe way of life Saddam gave them.â They donât understand that kind of thuggery will never return, but (through fear and intimidation) they are trying to rebuild the tyranny from which they profited.
#63
B, Aris is bringing some valid points to the table. I can honestly say I agree with him. He even sounds a little pro-american.
As for Murat - his post have gotten very nationalistic and somewhat of babble. He is not making a stong case as he did last year.
I personally believe he is seeing the remarkable progess the majority of iraq is experiencing(especially the proud nation of Kurdistan) and just cannot handle it. Turkey effectively vetoed any control of the situation and must sit on the sidelines while history passes them by (meaning the EU and a free iraq).
Posted by: Dan ||
05/17/2004 18:23 Comments ||
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#64
Thanks Aris. Very interesting and informative.
It would follow, then, that those who ally themselves with nationalism, as you describe it, soon find themselves backing nationalism at any cost--personal liberty being expendable. (Which, of course, can be a very bad thing, and one reason many have left their own countries to come to America.) I think the most dangerous "brand" of such nationalism here in the US, is the liberal left, which is anything but "liberal." More than any other group, they seek to stifle the individual in favor of a cultural/ideological conformity (i.e., a type of "transcendent" nationalism) that is amazingly fascist, and with it comes a sense of entitlement which allows them to believe they can do no wrong--that their oppression of those with differing views is completely justified. They very much believe that they are the (only) progressive, and enlightened members of society. But like cingold said (see below & #62), they end up being a lot more anti- (whatever) than pro- anything.
cingold: interesting point on certain nationalists being "more anti- than pro-" Those without a tried and true ideology seem to fall that way.
#66
I think the most dangerous "brand" of such nationalism here in the US, is the liberal left, which is anything but "liberal." More than any other group, they seek to stifle the individual in favor of a cultural/ideological conformity (i.e., a type of "transcendent" nationalism) that is amazingly fascist,
Even if what you say is correct, I very much doubt that you can label something "nationalism", if it doesn't have the idea of the nation at its core.
There exist non-nationalistic fascist ideologies also you know. Soviet communism was one, AFAIK. Islamofascism is another.
#67
Even if what you say is correct, I very much doubt that you can label something "nationalism", if it doesn't have the idea of the nation at its core.
True, I think, in the strict sense. But, I think the nation they want and aspire to is ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT. Which, IMO, is pretty scary . . .
#68
But, I think the nation they want and aspire to is ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT.
*sigh*. No offense, but you are stretching the meaning of words beyond their breaking point. That's a bit like calling "racist" a person who believes in a single human race.
The word is simply not used like that. If these people believe in the creation of a single human nation, then they are not nationalists. They may be adherents to other types of collectivism, but not nationalism.
"Which, IMO, is pretty scary..."
In time it'd be good if it would happen, if it was the voluntary union of democracies that supported human and political rights.
#69
In time it'd be good if it would happen, if it was the voluntary union of democracies that supported human and political rights.
OK, it's a stretch to call globalists nationalists. What I mean to communicate is the fervor with which the globalists pursue their agenda. The one world government crowd has the same agenda as the communists and other fascist regimes. The one world government crowd seeks total domination and total control of the human race by the âenlightened few.â Kind of like Platoâs Republic on steroids? IMO, human nature will not permit that kind of political power to coexist with a âvoluntary union of democracies [] support[ing] human and political rights.â Whatâs the saying? Power corrupts, and absolute power absolutely corrupts. The beauty of a world filled with separate nation states is the ability of that world to keep checks and balances on itself, which (in turn) promotes âvoluntary union of democracies [] support[ing] human and political rights.â
#70
The second enemy is the global left, brought to life by Soviet propoganda and somehow still kicking.
I don't think that's it. I believe at the core we have simple hatred of America borne out of jealousy. America is the epitome of success; the perception is that money grows on trees here and that people are always happy and drive big SUVs. Hence if you look around yourself and see nothing but misery (or your notion of it), the natural reaction is to defend your beliefs and the part of the world in which you live: everything American is shit, and everything of yours is superior. This extends to everything American, including a can of beans and Heinz ketchup, foreign policy. If it's American, it must be crap. It is a textbook inferiority complex.
Since communism was essentially the enemy of capitalism, much of this hatred of America takes on leftist attributes. They are natural allies.
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/17/2004 21:48 Comments ||
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#71
cingold> "The one world government crowd has the same agenda as the communists and other fascist regimes"
To tell the truth I have no idea what the "one world government" crowd is. I've known noone myself who currently advocates an actual single world government. Unless you mean things like "international consensus for military interventions" and stuff like that, which if anything has seemed to me an attempt to limit such interventions, not boost them.
When I myself discuss something like a single world government, I imagine it happening far far in the future, if dictatorships have first been effectively eliminated.
THE TROUBLES in Iraq are prompting a swelling chorus of manifestos from critics of the Bush administration, both liberal and conservative, who would have it abandon its goal of establishing a democratic regime in place of the former dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. The critics style themselves as hard-nosed realists; they say itâs time to dispense with the administrationâs utopian illusion that Iraq could be made a model for political freedom in the Middle East. Itâs time, they say, for a more pragmatic exit strategy. Their critique of the administrationâs shallow thinking and incompetent planning is incisive, and they are right that the United States needs to adjust its policy to reflect its depleted legitimacy in Iraq. But thereâs a problem: The ways out of Iraq offered by the "realists" are as illusory in their fashion as were the Pentagonâs plans for a quick and easy transition.
Some want the United States to resign itself to Iraqâs becoming a military-run soft autocracy, like Egypt; they point to the emergence of a military force in Fallujah commanded by former Baathist generals as the beginning of that trend. Yet Iraq could not be consolidated under such a regime without massive bloodshed; that Saddam Hussein remained in power by filling mass graves was not an accident. Some, especially those in Washington who have long championed the cause of the Kurds, favor Iraqâs partition into three loosely confederated mini-states. This would please the Kurds but almost certainly lead to a Yugoslav-like series of wars that would prompt the intervention of Turkey, Iran and other neighbors. The Shiite and Sunni Arab populations in Iraq do not live in easily partitioned districts; Baghdad, for example, is home to millions of both.
Liberal opinion is drifting toward support for unilateral withdrawal or perhaps the fixing of a firm departure date for U.S. troops. But withdrawal in defeat would be catastrophic for U.S. interests around the world and a historic victory for Islamic extremism. The announcement of a pullout deadline would be almost as bad. If Iraqis become convinced that the United States is prepared to leave without achieving its political objectives, those objectives will be immediately discredited, leaving civil war as the only means for resolving how the country will be governed.
The administration was wrong to believe that an Iraqi democracy could be quickly established or that the resulting regime would necessarily become a showcase of liberal values. Yet now that Iraqâs previous dictatorship has been destroyed and the countryâs varied communities have been freed from the apparatus of terror, the supposed utopian solution -- elections -- offers the most pragmatic way of establishing a viable government. Elections, as opposed to war or outside appointment, are still the mechanism favored by the countryâs most powerful political forces for determining Iraqâs future. They offer the best chance of defeating the extremists.
Elections, in short, are the best U.S. endgame in Iraq -- provided the administration adopts a realistsâ view of them. It is sensible for the United States to give the United Nations as large a role as it will accept in organizing and conducting those elections; it is foolish to cling to the idea that U.S. political favorites, such as some of the exiles on the appointed Governing Council, can survive a popular vote. Until the United Nations shows even a minute degree of scrupules or simple competence, they have no place in Iraq. The UNâs "Oil for Food" program is solid proof of their ineligibility for such a monumental and ethically challenging task.
It is unrealistic to believe that U.S. appointees and advisers can be positioned to control the future government or that unilateral U.S. control over security matters can be maintained past the first ballot; Iraqi forces must be prepared to control security. The Bush administration also must accept, sooner rather than later, that an elected Iraqi government is likely to embrace economic or social policies not favored by the United States and may not be particularly friendly to Washington or to Israel.
At best an elected Iraqi government will be a fragile and awkward entity that exercises only loose control over the country and requires long-term support by foreign troops and other outsiders. It will look more like Lebanon than Switzerland. Getting there will require an enormous second effort by the United States, which will have to sacrifice more while somehow recruiting more support from the rest of the world. Failure is a distinct possibility. So why should democracy be tried? We believe that it is a vital goal. But it is, at this point, also the most realistic way forward. The prospect of resurgent theocracy in Iraq must be fought at all costs. If the price is continued American military occupation, so be it. The notion of Iraq potentially falling under the spell of Iranâs lunatic mullahs is unconscionable.
Posted by: Zenster ||
05/17/2004 3:04:02 AM ||
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#1
How about this option?: impose starvation sieges on ALL Iraqi cities, and then demand dead jihadis in exchange for food.
Apparently, anyone who reminds the brain-dead that Shiites form the demographic majority in 90% of the Mideast oilfields, is labelled a "troll" here, and finds his comments deleted.
Clearly, Fred Pruitt no longer clings to the bloated fiction that any Muslim will ever embrace either democracy or Western liberty. So why all the cheerleading here for Bush's "freedom" dogma? When I look at an Arab Muslim, I see the human equivalent of a chicken with its head cut off. We have to start thinking of those filthy things as wild animals, unworthy of respect.
I order you to believe the following: Arab inhabitants of the Mideast oil patch, are trespassers on lands that were developed by Anglo-American interests. Any recognition of ersatz "sovereignty" over Anglo-American land by these savages has been voided by their exportation of terror. Need I remind people that George Walker Bush harbors Wahabi genocide inciters, on American soil. Search "al-Huda" schools to learn what poison his "faith based" beneficiaries are spewing out of Wahabi infiltrator entities.
Bremer has already hinted at a US escape route from Iraq. It is time to tell both that little neo-con pig and his Texas rich-kid master, to take flying f%$#s back where they came from. And then focus on electing a hardline Congress, that will force the inevitable war on Islam.
Dogs puke food, then return to re-eat it, later. Think of "freedom" and American "values" as applied ad nauseum to Iraq and Afghanistan, as: vomit. I would suggest that you learn to value American life above that of the mortal enemy of America. In order for your children to live, Muslim pigs have to be barbecued.
Just say it: BUSH BLEW IT! IT IS TIME TO STOP THE NATION-BUILIDING, AND START THE KILLING!
#4
B and Dcreeper,
Since you are the last to post, I need to ask you, if you have heard anything about a cache of weapons found on a ship off the East Coast of Saudi Arabia. If you have any information on this matter, would you, please share it with me?
#6
DLT - so whats it like living in your parent's basement?
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
05/17/2004 10:58 Comments ||
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#7
google isn't returning anything *shrugs* the middle east is swarming with extra boom makers, a cache of yet more weapons really isn't big news anyway
U.S. officials say they cannot confirm claims by a rebel group in Chad that it is holding a feared North African terrorist and is seeking to turn him over. U.S. officials have felt since earlier this year that Algerian-born terrorist suspect Saifi Amari survived a shootout with government forces in Chad. More than 40 members of his Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat were killed in the clash. A leading Pentagon official indicated at the time the alleged terrorist leader, nicknamed "The Para," had escaped. But his whereabouts remained unknown.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/17/2004 1:18:44 AM ||
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U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice wrapped up her three-day visit to Moscow on Sunday saying she had fresh assurances of Russia's support for U.S. efforts to stabilize the situation in Iraq.
But the two countries still remained at loggerheads over how much control the planned Iraqi caretaker government will have over security and other key issues.
"I think we, the United States and Russia, share a common understanding of how we should move forward," Rice said in a Russian voice-over in a television interview aired after she completed her series of meetings with top Russian officials, including a closed-door meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
In a short interview aired on NTV television's "Namedni" program Sunday, Rice said the United States and Russia had a shared interest in preventing destabilization in Iraq. She offered a generally positive assessment of U.S.-Russian relations, but was noticeably short on details.
"Everyone agrees that the most important thing at the moment is to give Iraq stability and pass a UN Security Council resolution. I hope we will be able to prepare the text of this resolution with help of our Russian partners" among others, she said.
Rice met with Putin on Saturday to deliver a personal letter from President George W. Bush with "general affirmation of our desire to work with them [the Russians] on Iraq and on the broader partnership," a senior U.S. diplomat told reporters Sunday.
Rice also met with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as well as Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov and chief of the presidential administration Dmitry Medvedev.
While Iraq dominated Rice's visit, she discussed a wide range of other issues with Russian officials traditionally high on the agenda between the two countries -- energy cooperation, terrorism, weapons proliferation, Iran's nuclear program, developments in former Soviet republics and the Middle East, according to the U.S. diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Rice also "underscored our continued interest in democratization, the rule of law and independent media in Russia" and "a peaceful solution in Chechnya," but made no linkage to other issues in U.S.-Russian relations, the U.S. diplomat said.
"It is important that democratic institutions take root and strengthen in Russia," Rice told NTV.
Russian officials also chose not to probe sore spots for the Bush administration, with the scandal swirling around the torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. service personnel mentioned only in passing, the diplomat said.
The Russians reassured Rice that Moscow will support a United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing the transition of power from U.S. administration to the planned Iraqi government on June 30, the diplomat said.
He said the United States would share the text of the UN resolution with Russia as soon as it was drafted.
But he declined to comment on whether Washington and Moscow saw eye to eye on how much control the new government and U.S. military commanders would have over security issues, or when and for how long international peacekeeping troops could be deployed in Iraq.
Nor would the diplomat say if the two sides agreed on whether the UN resolution should be adopted before the June 30 transfer of power, or after.
While Washington has said it is prepared to see an international peacekeeping force deployed in Iraq, it wants to retain overall security control after the transfer of power to an Iraqi caretaker government, which will rule until national elections are held.
Russia will support the deployment of peacekeepers, but only if they are given a clear mandate and timeline, Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov said last week.
Russian diplomats have also called for the Iraqi caretaker government to be given greater control, and suggested that an international conference be organized before June 30 to discuss the new government.
During her Moscow visit, Rice said the United States would be interested in discussing the idea of an international forum, which Russia wants Iraqi leaders, neighboring countries and UN Security Council members to attend, but is not ready to support it outright, the U.S. diplomat said.
In comments ahead of Rice's visit, Fedotov suggested that the Security Council adopt two resolutions on Iraq. The first resolution should be passed after Brahimi's announcement, while the second should be passed after consultations with members of the new government to spell out "future steps toward an Iraqi settlement," Fedotov said.
But during Rice's visit, her "interlocutors" made it clear to her that Russia would not insist on passing two resolutions, rather than one, the U.S. diplomat said.
Russia opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and warned that the war could lead to instability and a growth in terrorism in the country. But during their meetings with Rice, none of the Russian officials made any "I told you so" comments, the diplomat said.
Instead, they displayed a "genuine desire to help us ... so Iraq will not become a long-term source of terrorism," the diplomat said.
Rice also discussed with Russian officials the Middle East and recent developments in former Soviet republics, including Adzharia, Nagorny Karabakh and Transdnestr, the U.S. diplomat said.
Sergei Ivanov also briefed Rice on the security situation in Uzbekistan after his recent trip to Tashkent, while Fradkov briefed her on the Russian government's ongoing economic and administrative reforms.
On energy cooperation, Russian officials acknowledged that the decision to cancel ExxonMobil's operatorship of the Sakhalin-3 offshore field "remains on the table," the U.S. diplomat said. Regarding the overall U.S.-Russian energy dialogue, Rice said the results were "a little bit disappointing" as it has stalled, he said.
Rice left Moscow for Berlin on Sunday for security talks with European countries, including France and Germany. The U.S. diplomat said that talks between with Russia would resume Wednesday, when Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton is due in Moscow for two days of talks.
Kremlin and government sources would only reveal the issues discussed with Rice, but offered no further details of the talks.
News of a consensus on Iraq between the two sides could be revealed when Bush and Putin meet during the 60th anniversary celebrations of the D-Day landings in France on June 8, Izvestia reported.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/17/2004 1:16:10 AM ||
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As in WWII, Russia will eventually assist us in our efforts in Iraq. As in WWII, it will be in naked self-interest for their own survival.
Eight Russian soldiers were killed in fighting or by explosions in Chechnya over the past day, an official in the Kremlin-backed Chechen administration said on Sunday. Four of the deaths came in rebel firing on Russian military positions, the official said on condition of anonymity. Another five soldiers were wounded and in all, separatist fighters fired on Russian positions 18 times, the official added. Two servicemen were killed and four wounded in a clash with rebels near the town of Vedeno and another clash near Gudermes , Chechnya 's second-largest city, killed one soldier and wounded three, along with four rebels, the official said. One Russian soldier was killed and three wounded when their vehicle detonated a land mine, the official said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/17/2004 1:08:34 AM ||
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A jirga of the Ahmedzai Wazir tribe on Sunday decided to form a 4000-man lashkar to fight foreign militants in South Waziristan if they did not agree to register with the authorities.
"Yeah! We're gonna getchoo!"
Meanwhile, two Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) parliamentarians were still engaged in talks with the authorities to find a peaceful solution. âWe will take on Nek Muhammad as well if he continues to support foreigners,â Malik Janan from the Kakakhel tribe told Daily Times on the phone from Wana, grimacing ferociously. The lashkar will not move unless a 40-member committee that is engaged in talks gives its approval. âWe will request the foreigners to register with the government. If they refuse to do so, we will ask them to leave Waziristan,â he said.
"Beg yer pardon, but would you mind vacating this end of Pakland? Thanks awfully!"
Brig (r) Mehmood Shah, FATA security chief, said that the lashkar could begin an operation from Monday. âIf they do not register themselves and refuse to leave Waziristan, the lashkar will take action against them,â Janan said, frightening a child with his demeanor. He said the lashkar would not let anyone use Pakistanâs soil against a third country. âWe will defend our countryâs sovereignty,â he added, rolling his eyes. Nekâs absence from Sundayâs jirga indicated that the issue of foreign militantsâ registration is unlikely to be resolved peacefully.
I have my doubts it's ever going to be resolved at all. Talk, talk, talk, make faces, ride around in pickup trucks... That's about the extent of it.
âHe (Nek) did not show up at the jirga,â Janan and tribal elders said. âWhat the government wants is unlikely to happen,â was the defiant message from one of Nekâs aides. âThere has to be a give-and-take policy,â he added.
"Yeah! Youse guys give, us guys takes!"
The Ahmedzai jirga announced stern measures against those who opposed registration. âThe houses of local residents sheltering foreigners will be demolished and offenders will be fined Rs 1 million,â the jirga said. The jirga also recommended 25 years of rigorous imprisonment and forced exile for tribesmen found sheltering foreign militants. Janan said the 40-member committee would meet on Monday in Wana to work out its strategy. But another tribal elder was not optimistic that the lashkar would succeed in its mission. âThe administration will point out where a foreigner is and then the lashkar will move in. This will give the foreigner time to relocate because Al Qaedaâs intelligence network in Waziristan is better than the administrationâs,â said the tribesman who requested not to be named. âIt all depends on how strong Chief Administrator Asmatullah Gandapur is and how much the Army is backing him to deal with the situation politically,â said the tribal elder.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/17/2004 1:04:52 AM ||
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For the past two years, the Mumbai police have been waiting for information on suspected al-Qaeda terrorist Mohammed Afroze from the US, UK and Australia. The wait seems to have been futile and on Wednesday, Judge A P Bhangale of the special Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) court will frame charges against Afroze and his brother Farooq without the information from abroad. Special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam, who is appearing in the Afroze case, told the POTA court recently that the investigation would be incomplete till they received information from the USA, UK and Australia. Only the Australian authorities responded to the request, saying they wanted an undertaking that the concerned person would not be given capital punishment.
The special POTA court in 2002 had issued the letters rogatory to three countries on the request made by the Mumbai police. A letter rogatory is a communication sent by the court, in which a case is pending, to a foreign court requesting information from its (the foreign courtâs) jurisdiction. Reacting to the prosecutionâs claims that the investigation was incomplete without the inputs from overseas, Afrozeâs lawyer, Mubin Solkar, said, âThis is just a delaying tactic. It is true that after filing a charge sheet in the case, the prosecution got court permission to investigate further. However, the court had also asked them to file a fortnightly report on the investigation. The prosecution has never filed those reports.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/17/2004 1:02:48 AM ||
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I hope they didn't phrase the requests in such formal language that a spambot thought it was a #404
Egyptian police have arrested about 50 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement in dawn raids in five cities including Cairo. The organisation said those detained included doctors, engineers, civil servants and businessmen, adding that bank accounts had been frozen. The offices and companies of some members were also shut down by police. The authorities regularly take action against the Muslim Brotherhood, seen as Egyptâs main opposition movement. It is tolerated by the authorities and has 16 members of parliament, who were elected as independents. The Brotherhood was banned in 1954 for advocating violent means to turn Egypt into an Islamic state but today it supports peaceful methods of change. Like killing all the Jews?
Posted by: Zenster ||
05/17/2004 12:37:18 AM ||
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This is their version of rounding up the usual suspects. They arrest them, grab some funds, and in a month or a year, let them out. And do it all over in a few years.
May. 16, 2004 22:56 By KHALED ABU TOAMEH=
Jihad al-Khazen, a prominent columnist and former editor-in-chief of the London-based, Saudi-owned daily Al-Hayat, has called on Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to resign to pave the way for a young leadership to take over. His call came in an open letter to Arafat published in Al-Hayat, one of the Arab worldâs leading newspapers. He also accused Arafat of driving the Palestinian cause to a dead end. Memo to Nobel Committee: Front runner for Understatment Medal.
"Our dear brother Yasser Arafat, I suggest that you resign," Khazen, who describes himself as a longtime friend of the PA chairman, wrote. "You have done your best. It is time to give the wheel to younger hands. The American administration wants you to leave the scene, and Ariel Sharon wants to kill you. And for all the right reasons.
The reasons of both are known. They took a stance from you based on enmity. I came to this conclusion out of love. I am worried about you." Khazen cited Arafatâs age and health as good reasons why he should step down. "You are not young anymore," he wrote. "You are not in the best of health. Your cause is weaker than you are. And Arafat is wholly responsible for weakening the Palestinian cause.
It needs a brilliant mind and hands that do not shake. I ask you to resign because I am your friend. I wish you well and I want your cause to live." Many do not, and rightfully so.
He advised Arafat to resign while he is still popular among his people. "You are a democratically elected president," Khazen noted.
"can u han be mi ips? anks."
"One man, one vote, one time..."
Note: More prize winning material.
"If presidential elections were held in the Palestinian territories tomorrow, you would win again with a sweeping majority. That is why I hope you would leave the presidency in your moment of strength, not weakness. This way, you would always be the father of the revolution and death of the homeland. "I know you do not like to listen to someone asking for your resignation. However, I am your friend; and your friend is the one who is sincere with you. Do you remember how our friendship began in 1967 at the office at Al-Hussein camp in Amman? Perhaps you do not; since you have thousands of friends. However, I remember the stairs that I went up, which led to a large room leading to your office. We came out after a meeting that lasted less than an hour to take photos under a bulb that hung from the ceiling. "Thirty-seven years have passed; I wish them to be 40, even 50 years. Sounds a lot like complicity to me.
"I saw you at the Wahadat camp, then at Al-Fakhani camp. I saw you in London, Washington, Paris, and Davos. Our friendship did not falter in the face of the revolutionâs mistakes in Jordan and Lebanon. I was in Washington during the Israeli invasion. I saw you turn tail and run leave for Tunisia. I boycotted you to object to the accumulation of mistakes in those five years. Later, I weakened in front of the revolution and its leader, and we resumed our friendship." Khazen reminded Arafat that he was present during the signing of the Oslo Accords and the handshake at the White House and later at the Davos summit. "Do you remember when I was with you at the same dinner table next to President Hosni Mubarakâs table and his wife in Davos, and Binyamin Netanyahuâs table was in the corner of the hall?" he asked. "And the after-dinner meetings with supporters. They included many peace-supporting Jews. Where are they now? The last thing that I remember from Davos is your awful speech at the end of January 2001. Who advised you to give that speech? Who wrote it? Why? I did not get a convincing answer when other friends and I blamed you in your hotel suite that evening. "Oh my friend. I write this after a sleepless night; thinking about you and your situation. I am not reviewing the mistakes of Jordan and Lebanon. I am not questioning your position on the occupation of Kuwait or your relations with Saddam Hussein. I will not list the missed opportunities in the peace process. Or, evidently, the horrendous murder committed in his name.
"What you and we are suffering is not enough. The cause is at a dead end, to which you drove it. A scintilla of truth finally leaks out from around the edges of this sob sisterâs story.
This is the truth. You are besieged with the cause. "Do I hear you standing to say: I tried my best, I was right and made mistakes, and I brought back the name of Palestine on the map? Do I hear you say: I resign, and I move out of the way of a leadership which could transfer the name from the map to the land of Palestine? Over 37 years with you, I never doubted your patriotism, and I am not today. You are slime molded by the cause. Since this is the case, I cannot see you allowing Yasser Arafat to become the obstacle or barrier in front of the establishment of the Palestinian state. No matter how much Arafat continues to be exactly that.
"I do not care what the enemies say. I care about you. However, I care more about the Palestinian cause, which must be more important to you than yourself. Something Arafat is utterly incapable of realizing.
Nevertheless, you did your very worst best for Palestine. It is your right now to remain dead relax. If you are offed resign today, you will leave with your head on a pike up high. A democratically elected Arab president resigns. Democratic elections are rare in our countries; resignation is rarer. You folks in Oslo getting all of this?
"My friend, resign. Enough is enough. Do it and give yourself a chance. Give the cause a chance for once." EMPAHSIS ADDED
Posted by: Zenster ||
05/17/2004 12:31:27 AM ||
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He will not listen.
The word "shahid" is written on his forhead.
The old fart has long left any consideration for his miserable people behind him.
He will go down history's garbage-can as the president who destroyed his people.
We (at the IDF) will finally have to assist him to achieve the 72 virgins.
prepare the MOAB !
Posted by: The Dodo ||
05/17/2004 12:04 Comments ||
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#2
"Arab journalist shot by masked gunmen; had called for Arafat's resignation"
Posted by: sf ||
05/17/2004 13:21 Comments ||
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Israeli helicopters have fired missiles at an office of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and that of another faction in Gaza City. Medics said the Fatah building and offices of the Democratic Front faction were empty at the time of Monday's early morning strike and there were unfortunately no casualties. An Israeli military statement said the missiles struck two offices "which served as focal points for Palestinian terrorist activity" in the raid close to the site of an ambush that killed six soldiers a week ago. Ramzi Ramab, of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of the offices targeted, told Reuters his workers had a narrow escape, having managed to flee as they heard the helicopters in the sky, "but the office was destroyed".
I think I'd have helicopters buzzing all different parts of the city. See who starts running.
The Fatah-linked militant group, al-Aqsa Marytrs Brigades, called on supporters "to launch painful strikes against the enemy" in revenge for the missile strike.
"We must have Dire Revengeâ¢!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/17/2004 12:26:00 AM ||
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Yassir must be pondering, 'Do I really buy all this crap about becoming a terrorist martyr?"
The old camel faced arch-terrorist has been screaming for years to his faithful Fatah followers about how he would love to be a real jihadee, well, old baldy is about to get his wish.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 0:34 Comments ||
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Mark,
Wrong city, the Arafish currently resides at the Mukataaa in Ramallah and not in Gaza were the offices were hit.
But do not despair, god willing we will eventually assist him in his long and futile quest for the 72 virgins.
Posted by: The Dodo ||
05/17/2004 12:10 Comments ||
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Hundreds of Palestinians living along the Egypt-Gaza border will soon lose their homes to Israeli bulldozers.
Rantburgers will be relieved to know that the Israelis have made provisions for the baby ducks.
Israeli army chief Moshe Yaalon says the houses in the area of Rafah are marked for destruction and the Israeli Supreme Court is backing them up. The court's three judges say that after one of the bloodiest weeks in the current round of fighting, the army has a "real, imminent need'' justifying the destruction. Thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip last week.
The destruction plans came as Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinians as they tried to cross the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening, Israel Radio reported. Earlier in the day, Israeli missiles struck a branch office of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and a building housing a pro-Hamas newspaper. The campaign appeared to be continuing Monday morning, as Israeli helicopters fired five missiles at an apartment building housing a Fatah movement office in the Gaza City neighborhood Zeitoun. Zeitoun was the site of heavy fighting last week after Palestinians blew up an Israeli armored personnel carrier, killing six soldiers.
The United Nations and the European Union have condemned the Israeli practice of bulldozing people's homes suspected as hideouts or cover for militants.
Far better to rehab them into condos.
The United Nations says Israel has made more than 12,000 families and colleagues of terrorists people homeless in Rafah since the start of a Palestinian uprising when peace talks failed in September 2000. They say further demolitions would be in "grave breach" of unilaterally-enforced international law applied only against Israel and the U.S..
This past Friday, army "Corrie" bulldozers demolished 88 houses in Rafah, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency, which aids refugees. The demolitions left about 1,000 Palestinians homeless, UNRWA said. Peter Hansen, the UNRWA chief, said he was "extremely alarmed" by Israel's plans to take down more homes.
"Youse guys keep dis up and I won't haves me meal ticket!"
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell also expressed rare criticism of Israeli policy, by announcing that the U.S. is also opposed to destroying the homes adjacent to the "Philadelphi" buffer zone. "We don't think that is productive," Powell said at the World Economic Forum in Jordan. "We know Israel has a right for self-defence, but the kind of actions that they're taking in Rafah with the destruction of Palestinian homes, we oppose."
"Marvin! Do I really have to say all this crap?"
"Yes, Mr. Secretary, it's part of the plan."
"Arrgh, someday, Marvin, someday I'll say what I really think."
"Not while you're a diplomat, Mr. Secretary."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/17/2004 12:07:41 AM ||
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The Arab terrorists have for too long utilized private homes as terrorist bases, not caring if they are blown up. So who is guilty?
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/17/2004 0:18 Comments ||
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Any Palestinian whingeing about "collective punishment" is patently ridiculous so long as they continue to collectively punish the Israelis with explosive laden mass murderers.
#3
Just a comment in passing,
we do not destroy homes for our pleasure.
the area in which this will happen is were the palestinians dug more than 70 tunnels for smuggling weapons, explosives, anti tank missiles and and long range rockets into rafah with the egyptian police looking conveniently aside.
These weapons are being used to murder Israely civillians in cold blood and to bomb the town of Shderot and other Israely Kibbutim on the Israely part of the Green line.
As much as I hate to see this happening, we must protect our soldiers and civillians by doing this.
Posted by: The Dodo ||
05/17/2004 12:20 Comments ||
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EFL. Registration required. Israel and Egypt are discussing altering several security clauses in the Camp David accords that would allow Egypt to introduce additional forces close to the Gaza border to fight arms smuggling into Rafah. Clashes between IDF forces trying to plug up smugglersâ tunnels that honeycomb the Egypt-Gaza border and Palestinians endeavoring to keep them open have led to 13 Israeli deaths and dozens of Palestinian fatalities in the past week. "There is no doubt that the Egyptians can do more," Chief of General Staff Moshe Yaâalon told the cabinet Sunday. Under the terms of the Camp David Accords, the Egyptians can only introduce a limited number of lightly armed forces near the border. "They want to introduce better trained forces, but that entails changes in the agreement," Sharon said. Sharon said he is in contact with the Egyptians about the issue, and expects to see an emissary of President Hosni Mubarak â likely Egyptian Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman â about the issue this week. Yaâalon said the arms being smuggled through tunnels in the Rafah area originate in Iran, and â with Hizbullahâs help â are brought to the region through Africa. One wonders if Yaâalonâs remarks are diplomatic or true. Surely the Egyptians wouldnât risk allowing arms shipments into their country that could be diverted to their own Islamists? The Egyptians have know whatâs passing through the tunnels because otherwise theyâd risk losing control.
Posted by: 11A5S ||
05/17/2004 12:12:18 AM ||
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The local initiatives seem to be multiplying in a very constructive way. The Egypt-Jordan tunnel, along with the Egypt-Israel land swap enlarging Gaza (I suspect for relocating Palestinian refugees living in Jordan to Gaza, permanently, and cutting them off from reliance on the West Bank, creating TWO de facto Palestinian states, along with creating a VERY profitable Iraq-Jordan-Egypt trade route.)
Then the possible seawater canal to stop smuggling tunnels, with a redevelopment and security plan for Gaza.
But the Egyptians are front and center for bringing it all about, or pieces thereof. This is all very interesting and novel.
Outnumbered British soldiers killed 35 Iraqi attackers in the Armyâs first bayonet charge since the Falklands War 22 years ago. The fearless Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders stormed rebel positions after being ambushed and pinned down. Despite being outnumbered five to one, they suffered only three minor wounds in the hand-to-hand fighting near the city of Amara. The battle erupted after Land Rovers carrying 20 Argylls came under attack on a highway. After radioing for back-up, they fixed bayonets and charged at 100 rebels using tactics learned in drills. When the fighting ended bodies lay all over the highway â and more were floating in a nearby river. Nine rebels were captured. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/17/2004 12:11:47 AM ||
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... wow.
Posted by: joe ||
05/17/2004 0:25 Comments ||
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100 rebels: 9 captured, 35 bayoneted, and the rest turned tail. I'd say the Argyll and Sutherland Highlaners added to their illustrious reputation. Wow is right!
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/17/2004 0:36 Comments ||
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#3
9 Captured, heh, prolly equals 9 off-target thrusts. Sloppy - the Regimental Sar'nt Major's gonna have some ass, lol! They can expect endless drills, heh. Now this sounds more like our cousins... Wow, indeed!
#6
RWV, they would be better off kissing their asses good-bye. Although I can't help but wonder how 100 AK47-weilding Jihadi's mananaged to miss all but three Highlanders? They must have pissed off some Cherubi(Angels) pretty bad.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/17/2004 2:53 Comments ||
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#7
Thats sorta like asking how a mob of hundreds armed with AK-47s and RPGs keeps failing to hit a CPA HQ building. Whenever I read things like this I wonder if they're shooting the guns backwards or something.
#8
I heard that Marines found that the AK47 was not bad when aimed the American way but that it was awful when fired the guerilla way (not the same firing position).
#10
When the fighting ended bodies lay all over the highway and more were floating in a nearby river. â Could be a news report post Old-firm Derby.(Celtic vs. Rangers - football soccer). The ragheads in Al-Amara appear to have been a thorn in the side of the Brits since the start. Well done lads!
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/17/2004 4:11 Comments ||
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#11
And this, Virginia, is why we still have bayonets.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/17/2004 7:10 Comments ||
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#12
haha poor old towel heads ran when they saw a bunch of men in skirts running upto them . bet they thought it was some crazy western females attacking them with kitchen blades and no burkahs .
all joking aside , nice one lads . and as zenster pointed out, Will the self-inflicted humiliation never end?!?
#13
Colour Sergeant Bourne: "It's a miracle."
Lieutenant John Chard: "If it's a miracle, Colour Sergeant, it's a short chamber Boxer Henry point 45 caliber miracle."
Colour Sergeant Bourne: "And a bayonet, sir, with some guts behind it."
Posted by: Steve ||
05/17/2004 8:40 Comments ||
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#14
Clearly an excellent example of the dangers of standing between a man and his whiskey.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
05/17/2004 9:22 Comments ||
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#15
Hats off to the Brits - can't you see it - the Brits goin through the Iraqis like fear through the French Army.
Posted by: Sam ||
05/17/2004 9:34 Comments ||
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#16
Most of the stuff I learned at field medical school at Pendleton is now lost to time but one thing still stands out - It was SOP when surrounded by the enemy and out of ammo for the senior man still left alive to order fix bayonets and charge.
#22
heh, of topic but.. I once tried a winter diet where I can eat anything I want, BUT I could only wear shorts and a t-shirt, nothing else
my body was using so much energy to produce heat it actually worked!
got frost bite though and that was the end of that ;p
#23
The bright lads, the right lads, I have them in my mind,
With the green flags on their bayonets all fluttering in the wind.
--"The Connaught Rangers," by Winifred Mary Letts
Posted by: Mike ||
05/17/2004 12:58 Comments ||
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#24
I couldn't get to the linked page, but I assume they exhausted their ammo first and then charged with bayonets. Anyone?
Posted by: Tibor ||
05/17/2004 13:33 Comments ||
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#25
According to The Times, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were ambushed and the ensuing firefight lasted four hours. Warrior armoured vehicles were brought in as reinforcements but were unable to dislodge several fighters. The A & S thus resorted to 'classic infantry assaults' in section size groups - 3-5 men'who at one stage fixed bayonets and were involved in fierce and bloody hand to hand fighting.' Tater's supporters have claimed some bodies had been mutilated and pictures were shown on al-Arabiya TV. Well, if those silly Tater boys are going to play grown ups' games...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/17/2004 14:46 Comments ||
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#26
Too cool! Way to go, cousins!
An Army spokesman said: âThis was an intense engagement.â
God, I love British understatement. I'm glad they're on our side.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/17/2004 15:28 Comments ||
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#27
#13 - Steve
nice quote from Zulu, perhaps my all time favorite film (Battle of Roarke's drift, Anglo-Zulu War). Kudos!
#30
Yeah; they're pretty fierce when it comes to throwing down their weapons in the face of a struggle.
Seriously, once again superior training and dedication wins the day. It's this kind of thing that makes me proud and gives me hope for the future of the world. These guys deserve a medal.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/17/2004 17:19 Comments ||
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#31
Is this the same outfit the WWII Germans called the "Ladies from Hell?"
Well, I guess we all now know the answer to that old drinking song question, "What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt"? A righteous pair.
#34
#31 Is this the same outfit the WWII Germans called the "Ladies from Hell?"
#12 Poor old towel heads ran when they saw a bunch of men in skirts running upto them
You can just see the insensitivity mafia - Yikes! This is not fair! 35 dead out of 100 'Qaedas vs 0 dead out of 20 Scots. They must not be allowed to wear the kilts. It is an unfair advantage. Why the poor insurgents are so offended by a skirt.
#37
'#14 Clearly an excellent example of the dangers of standing between a man and his whiskey.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2004-05-17 9:22:42 AM '
Whiskey? The Scots drink whisky!
Whiskey is the product of Irish distilleries, though I think some foreign concoctions also share the same spelling.
#38
Sadly, the Jocks do not wear kilts while on operations: however, many of them do wear ladies underwear as a matter of course.
Makes me proud to be a Brit.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
