The Doha Players theater was destroyed by a suicide bomb on March 19, which killed one U.K. citizen and injured 15 other people. Lone attackers were responsible for previous anti-Western attacks in Qatar--the 2001 shooting of two contractors and the failed ramming of the gate at the U.S. base at al-Udeid in 2002. The March 19 attack breaks this trend, representing the work of a terrorist network, perhaps a small one, within Qatar.
Though the attacker did not select a hard target (such as Qatar Petroleum facilities where the Egyptian suicide bomber had worked for a number of years), there are signs that the attack on Western expatriates was carefully planned, patiently reconnoitred, executed with determination, and that it came close to causing mass casualties.
While the car bomb used was relatively small, the assembly of such a device suggests the presence of a highly capable terrorist cell within Qatar; and locating the bomb-making facility will be the prime target for the emirate's security forces and Western forensic advisers.
The extension of an advanced cell structure into Qatar mirrors similar developments in Bahrain and Kuwait since last summer. The Doha attack was probably facilitated by the current head of the al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula, Saleh al-Oufi, who issued a communique two days before the attack that placed Qatar at the top of the list of Gulf states in which local citizens should act against Western interests.
Significantly, the bomber had lived in Qatar for 15 years and can thus be considered a "homegrown" Qatari terrorist. A range of motivations inherent in Doha's maverick policies are likely to continue to provide al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula with local Salafist/Wahhabi Sunni Arab proxies. These include:
* Pro-U.S. policy. Qatar continues to be closely associated with the U.S. military effort in Iraq, which it made possible through its provision of basing. The recent attack coincided with the second anniversary of the war.
* Engagement with Israel. Qatari officials from Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani downwards have strongly defended the country's diplomatic engagement with Israel, whose deputy education minister, Michael Melchior, visited Qatar in February, following up a meeting between Israeli and Qatari foreign ministers in May 2004.
* Democratic reform. The development of a new constitution, and elections in 2005, place Qatar at the forefront of the modest democratization in the Islamic world, which radical Salafists consider to be a form of apostasy.
* Religious and sectarian tolerance. Qatar has hinted that it will allow the building of at least six Christian churches and may allow Jewish representatives at its annual interfaith conference in May. The government is also liberalizing personal and family law to allow Shia Arabs and non-Muslim expatriates to resolve family, marital and inheritance issues in special courts, a move also perceived as apostasy by radical Salafists.
* Censorship. Government actions to restrain the Al Jazeera television network's domestic and Iraq coverage, and also local Wahhabi preachers, cause resentment.
Though dissatisfaction among the general public rarely surfaces, the country does host a range of radical Salafist or terrorist elements that complicate the process of maintaining public order.
Qatar has a longstanding tradition of hosting exiled Islamic terrorists and radical preachers from Algeria, Chechnya, Egypt, Lebanon and the occupied territories. Their presence ties up internal security assets that might otherwise be used to investigate emerging threats and can draw political violence to the emirate, as it did in February 2004, when Chechen leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was killed in Doha. Charismatic radical preachers such as Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi stir up local antipathy towards the government's support for U.S. policy and engagement with Israel.
Saudi Salafist exiles related to the Qatari royal family were sheltered in Qatar and integrated into the Interior Ministry and religious establishment following the 1979 attack on the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The former emir appointed a Wahhabi exile from Najd as Qatar's senior cleric. Former Interior Minister Sheikh Abdallah bin Khalifa al-Thani, and his father before him, were appointed from the Wahhabi clique within the Qatari establishment. Though Sheikh Abdallah was purged from power last summer, this clique remains embedded among mid-level Qatari security officials.
Salafists are being slowly weeded out of the Interior Ministry (controlling the police and public security organs) or are being undercut by new parallel security institutions such as the State Security Agency and the Internal Security Forces (established in 2003 and 2004 respectively). As this process unfolds, these figures may prove as disruptive to effective counterterrorism operations, as disgruntled Salafists have been in Saudi and Pakistani security services.
The root causes of violence by Qatar's violent fringe are unlikely to recede in the coming years of political and economic liberalization, suggesting that repressive policing mechanisms will be the main means used to suppress such violence. With the Interior Ministry under the de facto control of one of the emir's loyalists, Sheikh Abdallah bin Nasser bin-Khalifa al-Thani, and the State Security Agency and Internal Security Forces reporting directly to the emir, internal security in Qatar is likely to be well resourced and supported in the coming years.
The country's intelligence services are quickly readjusting to face the terrorist threat, showing moderate effectiveness in investigating and prosecuting two Russians accused of assassinating Yandarbiyev. Until the new security services complete their reorganization and realignment, Qatar will receive strong security assistance (in the forensic, intelligence-gathering and keypoint security fields) from Western states.
Operating within a very small native Sunni Arab population, strong local intelligence-gathering and protective security operations are likely to unravel the cell responsible for the March 19 attack and disrupt most future attempts to launch follow-up attacks.
Keypoint defense of government and hydrocarbon sector infrastructure remains very strong. Oil and gas facilities are largely modern and thus have been built with safety, security, health and environmental considerations in mind. Qatar is developing improved coastguard capabilities and offshore facility protection.
The weakest element of the hydrocarbon sector is the foreign personnel on which the sector overwhelmingly depends. Even so, protective security at Western compounds and hotels has been increasingly responsive to security threats for some time, perhaps influencing the selection of a nonresidential target for the March 19 attack. Though an expatriate exodus would represent a severe blow to economic development, there are no signs that al Qaeda's local proxies can launch the sustained series of highly effective attacks needed to shake expatriate confidence in the relative safety of Qatar. However, other less-robust sectors, such as tourism (where Qatar plans to spend $15 billion to hold the Asian Games in 2006 and attract 1 million tourists per year by 2010) and education (involving a raft of joint ventures with foreign universities), may be more seriously affected by sporadic terrorist incidents.
In the light of the clash of ideas and interests in Qatar, the March 19 attack, while unprecedented, was not unexpected. Further violence is likely to be infrequent and focused on soft targets such as expatriates. The al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula is clearly seeking to spread violence throughout previously quiescent Gulf states, raising the prospect of similar profile-raising strikes in the United Arab Emirates or Oman.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2005 12:20:25 AM ||
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Qatari authorities have found the house used to prepare a suicide car bombing that killed a Briton at a theatre in the Gulf Arab state, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.
A ministry statement carried on the state news agency QNA said the car had been rigged with explosives at the house before an Egyptian man rammed it into the theatre popular with Westerners last Saturday in the capital Doha.
It gave no further details on the investigation into the attack, the first in the energy-rich country which hosts the US Central Command that directed the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
A source close to the probe told Reuters the attack was "sophisticated" and authorities were investigating whether the bomber acted alone. A government official has said it was too early to tell if Al Qaeda was involved.
The US embassy in Doha urged its citizens to be vigilant and avoid public gatherings during the Easter holiday after an unknown group claimed responsibility for the bombing and vowed to hit churches and "crusader" military bases in the region.
"The recent attack on our consulate in (the Saudi city of) Jeddah and now the suicide bombing here in Doha highlighted the capability and motivation of radical militant groups," the embassy said in a message dated on Thursday.
The British mission said there was a "high threat of terrorism" in Qatar and advised its citizens to take security precautions. "Attacks could be indiscriminate and against Western, including British, interests."
Qatar has boosted security around Western residential compounds and schools, some of which remained shut, after the bombing which wounded 16 people, mostly Arabs and Asians.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2005 12:14:32 AM ||
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The leader of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia recently issued a statement denouncing Saudi claims of his death. Saleh al-Oufi disappeared in 2004, and was presumed dead, until resurfacing in March. He has issued five tape recorded messages recently, as well as a textual clarification. In the explanation of the message that follows, al-Oufi asserts that the Saudi Arabian and Iraqi al-Qaeda organizations have continued to strengthen their membership and capability for survival in the face of international prosecution. Additionally al-Oufi outlines strategies for mujahideen troops on the Kuwaiti/Iraqi border.
Outlining possible future strategies of the mujahideen, al-Oufi suggests "if the element of borders disappears...the transportation of food supplies will be impossible" and further that "the mujahideen in Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia should concentrate on hitting oil (facilities)" in order to make air transport financially untenable for the American military.
This article starring:
SALEH AL UFI
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2005 12:06:06 AM ||
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All in all, an optimistic — and fairly realistic — assessment. I wonder at the significance of this being published in the Green Truth. Does this mean the princes have started to decipher what the handwriting means?
Amir Taheri
Where do we go from here? This is the question that Islamist groups are posing these days in the murky space they inhabit on the margins of reality. It is asked in mosques controlled by radicals, touched upon in articles published by fellow-travelers, and debated in the chat-rooms of websites operated by militant groups. Leaving aside the usual suggestions to hijack a few more passenger jets or to poison the drinking water of big cities in the West or to blow up this or that monument in Western capitals, the movement appears to have run out of ideas. It may even be passing through its deepest crisis of imagination since the 9/11 attacks against the United States.
That's because they're a one-trick pony. Running around with a turban and an AK, being willing to die for Allan, that's all very romantic for 19-year-olds. Controlling territory setting up a government actually winning friends and influencing people, that's a lot harder, and hard boyz aren't the tool to do it. The "political wing" of al-Qaeda — Hizb ut-Tahrir, al-Muhajiroun, the Pakistani Jamaats, the Chechen "government" — range from the outlandish to the ludicrous.
There are several reasons for this. To start with there is the fact that Al-Qaeda which operated as an efficient organ of command and control has been smashed into pieces. Of the top 20 leaders of the network only two, Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri, are believed to be still alive and free, albeit in hiding. But the two appear to have no regular organizational contact with Islamist cells anywhere in the world. Since December 2001 the two have managed to send a total of six authenticated messages from their hideouts. That the messages reached the outside world is mainly due to the fact that an Arab satellite television channel was prepared to broadcast them virtually unedited. Al-Qaeda, which published a total of 83 books and pamphlets in 2001, has managed to bring out only one book since 9/11, dealing with the war in Iraq.
"Decentralization" doesn't work as well as they thought it would, not even as well as we thought it was. They've become all tactics and no strategy, and they were light on strategy when they started. Otherwise they'd have spent another five years building their infrastructure before 9-11.
The difficulty of contacting Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri, generally referred to by the Islamists as "the sheikhs", was illustrated recently when Abu-Mussab Al-Zarqawi, the leader of the Al-Qaeda group in Iraq, tried to obtain a fatwa (edict) from them authorizing the mass murder of Iraqi Shiite women and children. It took Al-Zarqawi nearly six weeks to obtain the green light he wanted from Al-Zawahiri.
Everything has to be done through runners, and runners can be intercepted just like radio communications. When a runner's caught, the head cheeses have to find new quarters — or more usually, new intermediaries — for fear they'll sing. Tracing back the links is old-fashioned intel work. Now it's being coupled with newer-fashioned intel work like critical node analysis.
The disruption of Al-Qaeda's leadership has had other consequences. For the past year or so Al-Zawahiri has been urging militants from all over the world, including North America and Europe, to converge on the Middle East for a regional "jihad" in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Bin Laden, however, has been preaching a totally different strategy. He wants the jihadists, including "sleepers" in America and Europe, to carry out other "spectacular coups" inside the United States.
Thereby implying they're not colocated...
So far, however, both strategies have failed. There is no sign of the new fronts that Al-Zawahiri wanted to open in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.
Afghanistan is becoming surprisingly pacified. The "Taliban" are pretty obviously now a Pak phenomenon, almost totally. The Paks are busy trying to bring down Perv, but he's put a large dent in the sectarian groups. He's also been reacting to pressure — and money — from us and cutting back his support to most, though not all, of the jihadi groups. Lashkar e-Taiba appears to be the only one he's intent on preserving.
At the same time Bin Laden's desperate pleas for doing "something big" inside the US have produced no results.
We've obviously been busy, despite the holes in our security that are so gleefully pointed to by the press. I also don't think Qaeda had a very effective organization in the country prior to 9-11 — probably a sizable proportion of them got jobs, got married, settled down, and forgot about the jihad thing as they aged out of the phase where young men consider themselves indestructible. The U.S. is a pretty comfortable place to live, and religion isn't the center of everything, like it is in Pakland or Arabia. No doubt some have remained true to the Cause, but looking at Allan worship as a way of life on one hand and bowling, business and babes on the other, probably the majority now own bowling balls, 7-11s, and Paris Hilton videos.
More importantly, the governments of the regional countries targeted have begun to fight back. In Pakistan more than 13,000 schools suspected of propagating extremist ideas have been shut in the past two years. In Yemen, the number of such schools to be shut is around 24,000. There are also signs that Afghan, Pakistani, Saudi, and Iraqi authorities have managed to infiltrate at least some terror groups.
That's something we haven't discussed yet, but it makes a lot of sense. Agent Starchedshirt of the FBI isn't going to do it, but Mahmoud and Ahmed can — and probably have. Probably not all of them have gone over to the other side, either.
Since 2003 hundreds of terrorists have been picked up in the countries concerned, in most cases thanks to tip-offs from repenting militants.
We've been rolling our eyes and mocking when the bad guyz "repent," but maybe we spoke too soon. On the other hand, Taheri's writing in Arab News, so maybe he's being polite. More evidence, please...
The Islamist websites, and sermons at mosques controlled by Al-Qaeda sympathizers in the West, are these days full of warning against the "munafeqin" (hypocrites) who join the movement to denounce its members, often in the hope of reward. In Pakistan alone the CIA is believed to be spending some $80 million a year on a network of informers that has provided information leading to dozens of arrests by Pakistani authorities. Earlier this month, the Russians managed to find and kill Aslan Maskhadov, the principal Chechen rebel leader, thanks to a tip-off that cost them $10 million. Pakistan, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia have also scored major successes in "turning-around" operations aimed at persuading the militants to repent and return to normal life. More than 1400 former militants have thus been "turned-around" in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, according to official estimates.
Hokay. The cockles of my heart are now toasty warm...
While thus hemorrhaging, the Islamist movement is also finding it increasingly difficult to attract recruits, especially within the Muslim world. But even in Western Europe, where Muslim communities still represent fertile ground for recruits, the number of "volunteers", having reached a peak in the autumn of 2003, has been falling since.
Not seeing an awful lot of results, were they? And maybe had a few guys come back that didn't get the 72 virgins but did lose a few inconvenient body parts? 72 virgins is something to strive for; a colostomy bag isn't quite the same.
One big problem is that the number of places where Islamists could hide in safety is dwindling. According to regional intelligence sources, the terror networks cannot hide more than a few dozen people in the remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan at any given time. Gone are the days when Bin Laden and his cohorts ruled over mini-emirates of their own in the Hindukush and Waziristan with their several wives, numerous children and extended entourage. Today, the only place between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean where the FBI is not present is the Islamic Republic of Iran where the trail of Al-Qaeda goes cold. But even then the Islamic Republic can never be regarded as a permanent safe haven for Bin Ladenists whose aims include the killing of as many Shiites as possible.
That's a purely tactical alliance, but the ayatollahs are going hang onto it as long as they can. Not an awful lot of strategy there, either...
For the first time in two decades, the Islamist movement is also beginning to face fund-raising difficulties. The generous donations that indirectly came from various regional countries have stopped while scores of bank accounts operated by the militants have been frozen. A total of 103 charities suspected of raising funds for terror have been shut or otherwise neutralized in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Kuwait alone. Some businessmen still manage to channel funds to various groups, often through third parties. But these channels are also being detected and shut one by one.
Those'd be the guys with the green eyeshades, tracking the dollars in their unspectacular manner. That's the part of the war we never see, and most of us wouldn't understand it if we did...
One reason for the growing ties between the Iraqi branch of Al-Qaeda and pro-Saddam terror gangs is the fact that the latter still have vast sums of money, mostly stolen from the Iraqi treasury before the fall of he regime, at their disposal.
... and they're burning that money at a rapid rate, as well. Even though it's a big pot, eventually they'll start hitting bottom. The more aggressively we press them, the higher their burn rate. Our economy's not happy with our burn rate, but we've got more bottom than they do...
The Islamist terror movement has suffered another disappointment. Its hopes of an international anti-American front, led by France and Germany, would emerge to isolate the United States and Great Britain have been dashed as President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder have balked at the idea of several more years of bad relations with Washington. Even the Spanish government of Prime Minister Zapatero, which owes its election to the Al-Qaeda attack in Madrid last year, has been careful to tone down its anti-American rhetoric.
And that's the result of the diplowar. It all ties together, even if the MSM can't quite manage to see it. You have to pay attention for that...
The biggest setback that the Islamists have suffered, however, is a change of mood in the Islamic heartland. The elections in Afghanistan, West Bank and Gaza, and Iraq, the freedom movement in Lebanon, the beginnings of reform in Egypt, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia have helped generate new interest in democratic reform. Also important are the efforts by Mahmoud Abbas to transform Palestine from an emotional cause into an issue of practical politics. Today, even Hamas, the most radical of Palestinian movements, is obliged to end its boycott of normal politics, and is getting ready to fight in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. While Bin Laden's message of hatred and terror still resonates in sections of the Muslim communities and the remnants of the left in the West, the picture is different in the Muslim world. There, people are demonstrating for freedom and, in some cases like Egypt a few weeks ago, even for more trade with Israel. This is a new configuration in which Islamist terrorism, although still deadly dangerous, has only a limited future.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Excellent in-line analysis, Fred. Spot-on and illuminating. I realize you stayed within the confines of Taheri's article outline, and that he was writing for The Green Truth - a damned narrow audience, lol, but much of the vacuum created by jihadi losses and failures is being filled - at least on the fringes, by something new... Bush Doctrine-generated ideas and notions of freedom and democracy. I'd like to hear what your thoughts are, when the limits are removed, heh.
IMHO, regards the Doctrine's pressure on the ME Shitocracies... it's just a taste here and there... but it's happening in places that have never even dreamed about it, much less gotten a taste, before. What's subtle is how quickly the tipping point is reached, once that taste is acquired. There are interesting times ahead. Some will get it faster than others, but all will want their turn, sooner or later. Even in the Heart of Darkness...
I believe the writing's on the wall and changes will keep coming as long as there's someone with Bush's vision and cojones in the Big Chair. I've joined the ranks of people, Verlaine in Iraq, et al, who are already beginning to wonder and worry about 2008. A 4 year setback with some Socialist Moonbat tool / panderer would not be reversed overnight.
#2
but looking at Allan worship as a way of life on one hand and bowling, business and babes on the other, probably the majority now own bowling balls, 7-11s, and Paris Hilton videos.
They don't have a prayer. In Americka a man who works his 7-11 can actually have the Pony and a bass boat.
EFL
Marxist guerrillas in Colombia have established cells in Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama in what U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement authorities say is an effort by the rebel organization to expand its arms- and drug-trafficking operations.
Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez confirmed the presence of members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in the three Central American countries last week, saying the organization was seeking to "infiltrate Central America to buy more weapons and destabilize the rule of law ...."
Mr. Alvarez told reporters in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, that arms traffickers in that country were trading automatic weapons, mostly AK-47 assault rifles, to the FARC in exchange for drugs, which were being sold to buyers in the United States. The weapons were identified as coming from Nicaragua, left over from that country's civil war in the 1980s.
U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement authorities yesterday said the FARC -- considered Latin America's oldest, largest, most capable and best-equipped insurgency -- has continued its high-profile terrorist attacks in Colombia and expanded its arms- and drug-trafficking operations into Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
The FARC, with as many as 12,000 armed combatants, has been named in connection with numerous bombings, murders, mortar attacks, narcotrafficking, kidnappings, extortion and hijackings, as well as guerrilla and conventional military actions against Colombian political, military and economic targets.
Earlier this month, Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that many nations in Latin America and specifically the Andean Ridge were threatened by regional terrorist organizations supported and funded by illegal drug trafficking and other criminal ventures, including the FARC.
Gen. Craddock said 90 percent of the cocaine and 47 percent of the heroin that reaches the United States annually originates in or passes through Colombia. And it passes, of course, the border between Mexico and the U.S., which doesn't seem to be as guarded as it should be.
Posted by: True German Ally ||
03/26/2005 7:38:07 PM ||
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#1
"And it passes, of course, the border between Mexico and the U.S., which doesnât seem to be as guarded as it should be."
Not a problem..don't worry...be happy...afterall life is short.
Posted by: sieve head ||
03/26/2005 21:01 Comments ||
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This is one bit of Bush's policy I cannot follow, his leniency with Southern border issues.
Fingerprinting German tourists in JFK and insulting people as "vigilantes" who try to follow people (maybe terrorists and narcos) slipping across an unguarded border... I'm lost here
#3
Hmm no mention of Hugoland. Is that because Hugo is helping the FARC? He sees them as the right kind of people and the rightfully elected covernment of Columbia as the enemy of the people. He certainly knows and allows them to operate from his side of the border. Hugo is the new Fidel. Assclown.
Islamic extremists may be a force in parts of Central Asia, but they are unlikely to profit much from any void in Kyrgyzstan following the collapse of the government in Bishkek, experts say.
They said Islamic militants from Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries were unlikely to try to set up base in Kyrgyzstan or win over most Muslims there.
"Why would they give up Waziristan, the northern border between Afghanistan, Pakistan, and go to Kyrgyzstan?" asked Alex Vatanka, the Eurasia Editor at Jane's Sentinel Security Assessments.
"Somebody like Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants, they've been such a success hiding there for so long," Vatanka told AFP.
"Unless that area becomes totally unavailable to them, why would they go to totally new territory where you don't have the kind of connections with the clans and the warlords they've had in the past?" he asked.
Kyrgyzstan's regime under president Askar Akayev fell apart Thursday after opposition protesters took over the seat of government and the presidency in a dramatic escalation of rallies against a disputed parliamentary election.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is weakened. Its military leader Juma Namangani probably died in Mazar i-Sharif, Afghanistan in 2001, during the US-led war that toppled the Taliban and drove out bin Laden's Al Qaeda, while IMU political leaders were believed to be hiding in Waziristan, he said.
Nor is Kyrgyzstan particularly fertile ground for Islamic extremism, according to both Vatenka and Oksana Antonenko, a specialist at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
Antonenko doubted that Hizb-u-Tahrir, which is the only organised Islamic group with declared political ambitions, would emerge as a "unified force" across the country following the collapse of the government in Bishkek.
Hizb-u-Tahrir has also described itself as non-violent.
With a possibly chaotic transition period, "it is possible that on some regional level, particularly in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan, some of those organisations will be able to recruit perhaps even more members," she said.
"But it's very hard to see the Islamic forces actually playing a substantial role. I don't believe that they are in any way leading that opposition," Antonenko said.
Vatenka agreed, saying opposition in Bishkek appeared secular, akin to the popular movement for democracy that toppled the government in Ukraine.
Vatenka also told AFP that Kyrgyzstan simply did not have the widespread conditions to breed the puritanical brand of Islam embraced by al-Qaeda and the Taliban, unlike in neighbouring Uzbekistan.
"The Kyrgyz, being nomadic, don't have ties to mosques, mullahs and so on. The Uzbeks sitting there in Bukhara, in Tashkent and so on, they do listen to the mullahs," Vatenka said.
"If you do find radical Islamism in Kyrgyzstan, it's not among ethnic Kyrgyz, it's among ethnic Uzbeks who live in Kyrgyzstan who make up 15 percent of the population and who live in the southwest of the country bordering Uzbekistan."
Rene Cagnat, a former French military officer who specialises in Central Asia, thought Islamic extremists might be able to "infiltrate, organise" if chaos lasted but Washington and Moscow had mutual interests to re-establish order.
Washington, which used an air base outside the capital Bishkek for missions in nearby Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks, says its interests would be best served by "a stable, prosperous and democratic Kyrgyzstan."
In the words of Stephen Young, the US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, on CNN, "you could say Kyrgyzstan was a long way from home but we realised that unstable societies anywhere in the world can come back to threaten American stability and stability generally around the world."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2005 12:12:22 AM ||
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As Kyrgyzstan's ill-coordinated opposition politicians struggle to convert the abrupt triumph of "people power" into an orderly change of government, they have been freed of anxiety on one count. Vladimir Putin, who made no secret of his hostility to regime change in Georgia and Ukraine, has been swift to declare Russia's readiness to work with the new leaders of this small but strategically sensitive Central Asian republic.
The gesture is doubly important because of the fugitive Askar Akayev's claim to be the country's unlawfully dislodged President, and his insistence that he intends to return. Mr Putin has understood the necessity, after Kyrgyzstan's almost accidental revolution, of minimising the dangers of continuing uncertainty in a poor and perilously disillusioned land where north-south divisions are already so acute that the country could, with destabilising effects on the whole of Central Asia, potentially split apart.
Neither Russians nor Americans should have problems doing business with Kyrzyzstan, however. Foreign policy was not an issue in this revolution: proximity to China makes most Kyrgyz value friendly relations with Russia, which they have no difficulty in reconciling with closeness to the United States. The Opposition is largely composed of former Akayev allies — including a former Foreign Minister, police chief, and Finance Minister — who broke with him as his appetite for enriching his family eroded his credentials as a moderniser. Many have huge support in the increasingly radicalised Islamist south, but they consider themselves to be "Western" politicians. There is no reason to expect them to be any more amenable to Islamist terrorism, or to Afghan drug trafficking, than was the Akayev regime.
Their ability to assuage the south's profound discontents, however, is in question. And it is its troubled south that makes Kyrgyzstan pivotal in the broader war on terror. The cities of Osh and Jalalabad, where the revolution first took hold, lie along the eastern rim of the Fergana Valley where Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan meet. The valley has served as a base from which terrorists affiliated to al-Qaeda have launched raids. The threat remains.
That is one reason why what happens in Kyrgyzstan, a poor and moderately badly ruled country, matters more than its apparent isolation might suggest. The other is oil. The Central Asian "stans" are run by Soviet-era holdovers, strongmen who combine communist bureaucracy with clan-based authoritarianism reminiscent of the khanates. These regimes are sitting on the world's biggest untapped oil and gas fields, whose development is vital to the industrialised world, including China. Corruption and political risk hold back the foreign investment needed. If Kyrgyzstan can make democracy work, that will pile pressure on the dynasties of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. West and East are no longer fighting over these sweeping plains. It is in the interest of both that Central Asians should discover better ways to rule themselves.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2005 12:11:07 AM ||
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Article: Foreign policy was not an issue in this revolution: proximity to China makes most Kyrgyz value friendly relations with Russia, which they have no difficulty in reconciling with closeness to the United States.
After giving up 1200 sq km (a little larger than NYC's five boroughs) to China in a recent border settlement, I guess they have reason to be nervous.
The United States has warned its citizens against travel to Kyrgyzstan due to violent clashes between government and opposition forces and the possibility of terrorists targeting US citizens and interests.
"The continued instability in the cities of Jalalabad and OSH has significantly added to concerns about the security situation for Americans residing and visiting there," The News quoted the State Department as saying in a statement.
"The US government is also aware extremist groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a terrorist organization with links to Al-Qaeda, may be planning terrorist acts targeting US government facilities, Americans or American interests in Kyrgyzstan," it said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2005 12:07:12 AM ||
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Kyrgyzstan's new leaders tightened their grip on power yesterday, naming an interim head of state and calling a fresh election, as the nation's ousted ruler denounced what he called a coup d'etat and vowed to return. In Bishkek, gunshots were heard in several areas as security forces fired into the air to deter looters. Broken glass and naked mannequins ripped from shop windows littered the streets after the revolution degenerated into a night of looting and vandalism.
As Parliament named Kurmanbek Bakiyev, one of the leaders of the fractious opposition, to head the new regime, deposed president Askar Akayev insisted he had not resigned. "The rumors about my resignation are not true," he said in an e-mail message to a Kyrgyz news agency, his first public comments since Thursday's protests swept aside his regime in what he called "an unconstitutional coup d'etat." Akayev confirmed he had left the country but insisted it was only temporary "in order to avoid bloody excesses" and that he would return. "The attempt to rid me of presidential powers via an unconstitutional route is a crime against the state," he added. "My current stay outside the country is temporary." It was unclear where Akayev was speaking from. Unconfirmed reports say he fled to neighboring Kazakhstan after protesters seized the seat of government and presidency in the capital Bishkek.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Uh oh.... thought it was Jefferson for a minute.
The Russian amphibious ship Nikolai Filchenkov has crossed the Ukrainian border near the town of Feodosiya in the Crimea without Ukraine's permission and begun landing personnel and hardware at the naval training ground near Mount Opuk, Interfax news agency reports.
"Didja miss us?"
In total, 142 marines and 28 pieces of military hardware from the Black Sea Fleet's 382nd Marine Battalion were landed on Ukrainian territory. Ukrainian authorities halted the operation and forced the ship to leave the country's territorial waters. The incident, which took place on Wednesday, has raised tensions between Russia and Ukraine who are seeking an agreement on the withdrawal of Russian naval forces from the Crimea. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry plans to present a letter to Russia's Charge d'Affaires Yevgeny Panteleyev, concerning the marines' actions, the ministry's press service has announced.
The head of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) Alexander Turchinov has lashed out at Russia over the incident. The lodgment of Russian naval forces is contrary to the national interests of Ukraine, he said. However, in compliance with a Russian-Ukrainian agreement on the Russian Black Sea fleet base in Sevastopol, Russian naval forces cannot be withdrawn before 2017. Earlier this month Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told journalists that Russian forces were not going to leave the Crimea. "In 2013 we will start considering the prolongation of the terms of our stay in Sevastopol," he said.
"You'll pry those bases out of my cold, dead hands."
A least eight Russian naval subdivisions are currently based in the Crimea.
This link is huge. That may be why I could not put it in the Source box. EFL
Let American war deserters apply for immigrant status
By any normal measure, Jeremy Hinzman is no refugee. The 26-year-old American does not face persecution if he returns to the United States. He faces court martial and, probably, jail for deserting his regiment in late 2003 just before it was deployed to Iraq. But that is not quite the same thing. He is not likely to be prosecuted in the U.S. for his political or religious beliefs. He does not face torture. These are the criteria to qualify as a refugee under the United Nations convention that Canada follows.
That having been said, there are good reasons why he should be allowed at least the chance to stay.
The main one is that he would probably make a good citizen. Canada did well in the 1970s, when the last flood of war resisters - both draft dodgers and deserters - came across the border. Some went home eventually, but a good many - including House - stayed on. Most integrated themselves easily and loyally into their adopted country. Some became quite well-known, and well-respected, figures in Canadian society. Others pursued slightly more disreputable occupations in the media (no, I'm not one).
These draft dodgers and deserters did not come as refugees. They did not have to. In those days, foreigners were able to apply for landed immigrant status once they were in Canada. Hinzman would have done the same but for one thing. Since 1976, foreigners wishing to immigrate to Canada have been required to apply from outside the country.
So, here's an idea. Let's stop bending the very valuable category of U.N. convention refugee into pretzel shapes in order to accommodate people who realistically do not qualify. Let's create new categories instead for people like Hinzman. During the Cold War, for instance, Canada created a special category for immigrants from Communist countries. We called them defectors and they were almost always allowed in.
So let's consider Hinzman and other U.S. deserters to be defectors from George W. Bush's America. Most Canadians don't agree with his war in Iraq and neither does the federal government. Why not follow through? Let's allow these defectors to apply for permanent resident status - not as refugees but as immigrants - after they've crossed the border.
And then let's apply the same standards we would for any other immigrant: Do they have useful skills? Do they pass security checks? Are they free of criminal records?
If these standards were applied to Hinzman and his wife, social worker Nga Nguyen, they would almost certainly be accepted. So, why don't we let them make their case as potential immigrants? We can only win.
Let's fortify our borders and quit NAFTA. Let's see how long the Canadians last without being able to sell us car parts and the Mexicans without picking fruits and veggies. Let's face it, our neighbors are welfare queens.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/26/2005 8:11:42 AM ||
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Mrs. Davis...Ssshhhhhhh. Please, let there be an inviting escape route for all the Moores and moonbats. Let the blue leak freely out of the land. Once they take citizenship from another country and then overburden and trash the system [like they've already done in California], we don't have to take them back, that's when we seal the border :)
#2
And then letââ¬â¢s apply the same standards we would for any other immigrant: Do they have useful skills? Do they pass security checks? Are they free of criminal records?
In which case they can return to Detroit, and apply for landed immigrant status. Bwahahahahah!
Apparently the TS would not only change the definition of refugee status, they would change the rules regarding all landed immigrants.
There is a reason I cancelled my Star subscription, and complimentary copies left in my driveway go straight in the recycle bin. Logical thinking is not in the Star writing guide.
Next week, they will be arguing that feeding tubes are just artificial life support.
Posted by: john ||
03/26/2005 10:52 Comments ||
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Good to hear not everyone in the GWN thinks that way. I was beginning to wonder.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/26/2005 11:20 Comments ||
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Someone relieves me of a doubt. What happens to Americans taking another nationality? Do they get a double nationality or do they automatically lose their american citizenship and their right to vote for Hillary/Dean in 2008?
#5
If, while an American citizen, you apply for and accept another nationality, you lose your American citizenship. That is what was explained to me when I was in Thailand and toying with the idea of staying permanently.
If you are a citizen of another country and apply for and are accepted for US citizenship is where it gets murky, muddy, and irretrievably stupid. "Officially", the US does not recognize dual citizenship -- except under a certain list of circumstances. Otherwise, when you think about it, the oath is a joke. The oath is a real, no-shit, oath of loyalty - read the words and it's clear enough. Dual citizenshipt is just fucking stupid. I've heard the arguments, and they don't change dick, IMHO. ;-)
#6
Yep, that's the way it is. Still you gotta do the right thing the way you see fit.
Posted by: Bobby Lee ||
03/26/2005 15:56 Comments ||
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Ok, .com. Just what I wanted to hear. Then let's organize an effort for having the greatest number possible of useless Democrats (Hollywood types, professors in pseudo-sciences, ambulance chasers) migrate to Canada and take Canadian nationality while replacing them with some red blooded, Chirac and EU hating, rifle thumping, football loving, pro-Bush engineers of old Europe. :-)
#10
Well, Canusckistan is not composed of moonbats entirely, I know about 5-6 people that aren't.
Maybe there is more of us...
Well, there would be a bit of decline of that count, at lest 2 of us are heading south...
But I would suggest that Canada sets aside some territory, like Baffin Island--quite large piece of surreal estate--it is pristine, natural, a bit icy but the moonbats can surely find ways to warm themselves, maybe snuggle up with baby seals... they could create the utopia of their dreams there for all of us to see...
What? That they wouldn't last a month? What has that to do with anything!? ;-)
Petty Officer 3rd Class Pablo E. Paredes decided to protest the Iraq war by not sailing with his ship when it left San Diego Harbor on Dec. 6. And holding a press conference about it
Yesterday, the Navy decided to charge Paredes, 23, with being absent without leave and missing movement, charges that could send him to military prison for as long as a year and limit his employment options. The action by the Navy surprised Paredes, who made headlines and drew supporters and critics with his stance. "Consequences? Nobody told me there would be consequences!"
"I showed up at the base expecting to hear whether the local Navy command had approved my conscientious objector status. Instead I was read the charges against," said Paredes, who is on temporary latrine duty at Naval Base San Diego.
"It's ironic. The other day marked the two-year anniversary of a war that was criminal from the beginning, and today I get charged for not participating in it," said Paredes, a weapons control technician who joined the service in 2000. it's not "ironic". It's sublime, asshat
Attorney Jeremy Warren, who represented Paredes, hopes the Navy will follow the recommendations of one of its chaplains and grant his client conscientious objector status. "I'm still optimistic that the Navy will do the right thing" and agree with a chaplain who said that "it was morally imperative that the conscientious objector status be granted," Warren said.
Warren said the Navy could deem Paredes a conscientious objector and still prosecute him, although he hoped the latter would not happen. Not gonna happen. He's too high-profile and too bigga mouth (even bigger than Chuck Simmins)
No date has been set for the court-martial. If there was a bright spot yesterday, Paredes' brother Victor said, it was that the process is finally moving. LOL"At least now we have a clear and definite direction to work in," said Victor, who lives in New York City. "It is definitely a lot more concerning when you are in limbo." Paredes agreed. "At least we are moving somewhere. I want to be out of the military, and this is moving toward that." But there could be a detour, said Jeremiah J. Sullivan III, a San Diego attorney who represents military defendants.
"The big thing is that they want to give him a bad conduct discharge and maybe some brig time. With a bad conduct discharge, he'd find it difficult to get a job with the state or federal government." Or any other patriotic companyIn December, Paredes called several members of the media to tell them of his one-man boycott. Then he turned up pier-side wearing a shirt that read: "Like a Cabinet Member, I Resign."
Unlike a Cabinet Member, you have a committment of time and to take orders. Wasn't a problem til you found out that it might mean getting shot at. Coward and Grandstander. Ward Churchill's illegitimate son
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2005 10:39:32 AM ||
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With a courts martial he'll have a federal felony conviction on his record as well. That wipes out a lot of employment opportunities. However, I'm sure the bleeding hearts in Hollywood can find you a 'show' job to make them feel, ah, so important. Like adopting some foreign orphan or such.
BTW, he seems to have forgotten his 'oath' was executed "...without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion...". Attorney Jeremy Warren, who represented Paredes, hopes...
Hope is not a plan.
If he asks for 'peers' on his courts martial, make it up from the Marines recoverying from their injuries from Fallujah.
#2
Sublime, indeed, Frank: on which side of the Naive or Sentimental argument do you suppose this huckster falls? I think Schiller would be proud that his ideas are still topical.
Enjoy your post-prison career at 7-11, Pablo.
Posted by: Armchair in Sin ||
03/26/2005 11:18 Comments ||
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Let me help you with your career preparation, Pablo. Repeat after me:
Do you want fries with that?
Posted by: Dar ||
03/26/2005 11:48 Comments ||
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Not a felony conviction unless convicted at General Court Martial. If convicted at Special Court Martial, is a federal misdemenor conviction. The Big Chicken Dinner can be given at either.
Posted by: Bill ||
03/26/2005 13:23 Comments ||
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Big Chicken Dinner? LOL! I love it
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2005 13:38 Comments ||
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Glereger-
Under the UCMJ, 'peers' simply means 'other enlisted personnel'. His lawyer (who, unlike others I've seen, seems to have a dim idea as to how the military justice system actually works) hopefully will not let that happen - because the result will be 12 grizzled CPOs glaring down on him from that jury box. Better he go with the officers, statistically they're more lenient.
And Frank is right - this case was WAY too high profile for the USN to cut him a break. He actually had several valid, legal options open to him under which he could have had all the publicity he wanted and the Navy couldn't have done a thing about it. But, like all Classic Asshats(TM), he got greedy.
Hope you like USMC Disciplinary Barracks Quantico, Pablo. My dad was an MP there in the 50's and one of my troops got sent there in the late 80's.
It hasn't gotten any better.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/26/2005 13:57 Comments ||
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Twits! it's all gone down hill since they closed Portsmouth. Reopen and close Gitmo.
While there is no doubt that Muslims are more sinned against than sinning, it is also true that we need to take a good hard look at our own conduct and how we appear to others. There is no point in screaming: "They hate Islam and they hate Muslims anyway". We should calmly and dispassionately go into some of the things that we say and do in Islam's name. By continuing to sulk and playing the stricken party, we will help everybody except ourselves.
It is in this context that a recently published report by the Centre for Religious Freedom, New York, should receive attention, not only of those who do not come out of it looking very good, namely the Saudi authorities, but of others who wish to restore the image of Islam and remove what they believe are misunderstandings in the West about one of the world's great religions and its adherents. The Centre is a division of Freedom House, founded more than sixty years ago by Eleanor Roosevelt, Wendell Willkie and others who were concerned about what they saw as threats to peace and democracy. The study undertaken surveyed more than a dozen of the principal mosques and Islamic centres in America, chose 200 of the books and publications they housed, 90 percent of them in Arabic, had them translated and then analysed. All documentation had some connection to the Saudi government. Not all, but many of the mosques surveyed receive financial support from the kingdom. In some, the staffing is done by the Saudi government. The results were quite shocking as much of the literature being distributed by these religious outlets preaches hatred for other religions and cultures. The bulk of the material was gathered in 2003, some as recently as November 2004.
A typical tract declares that America is the "abode of the infidel", the Christian and the Jew. "Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law. There is consensus in this matter, that whoever helps unbelievers against Muslims, regardless of what type of support he lends to them, he is an unbeliever himself." Another says, "Never greet the Christian or Jew first. Never congratulate the infidel on his holiday. Never befriend an infidel unless it is to convert him. Never imitate the infidel. Never work for an infidel. Do not wear a graduation gown because this imitates the infidel." The last bit is for graduating Muslim students in America. The book from which this is taken is called 'Greetings from the Cultural Department' of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Washington.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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While there is no doubt that Muslims are more sinned against than sinning,..
Well that was pretty fast - the obligatory reference to victimhood appeared in the first damned sentence.
Nope don't hate you - just want the animals and those who advocate unbridled hate and sensless slaughter among you dead.
Live in the desert, worship the false prophet, hump goats and live in the 7th century all you want.
KOFI ANNAN, the United Nations secretary-general, is said to be struggling with depression and considering his future. Colleagues have reported concerns about Annan ahead of an official report this week that will examine his son Kojo's connection to the controversial Iraqi oil for food scheme.
Depending on the findings of the report, by a team led by the former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, Annan may have to choose between the secretary-generalship and loyalty to his son.
American congressional critics of the UN are already pressing him to resign over the mismanagement of the oil for food programme, and even his supporters have been dismayed by the scandals on his watch, including the sexual abuse of children by UN peacekeepers in Congo.
One close observer at the UN said Annan's moods were like a ''sine curve'' and that he appeared near the bottom of the trough.
Kojo, 29, was employed by a Swiss company, Cotecna, but left before it won one of the contracts under the oil for food programme. Last week it emerged he received up to $400,000 from the company. The UN confirmed that Kofi Annan three times met executives of the firm, twice before the award of the oil for food contract and once afterwards.
Mark Malloch Brown, Annan's British chief-of-staff, said the meetings were brief and had nothing to do with Cotecna's contract. If some of the allegations against Kojo were confirmed, that would create ''a very different situation, but for Kojo - not the secretary-general''.
snip
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/26/2005 9:53:16 PM ||
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Don't let the door hit you in the back, on your way to hell.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/26/2005 23:16 Comments ||
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Lol, Barb! I never thought I'd be in the crowd at street level urging the mental midget on the roof to jump, but... ROFL! If there was ever a deserving suicide, this be it. But that would only be the start - the whole goddamned bunch would have to jump to make me happy, heh.
Iran is quietly building a stockpile of thousands of high-tech small arms and other military equipment — from armor-piercing snipers' rifles to night-vision goggles — through legal weapons deals and a U.N. anti-drug program, according to an internal U.N. document, arms dealers and Western diplomats. Tehran also is seeking approval for a U.N.-funded satellite network that Iran says it needs to fight drug smugglers, stoking U.S. worries it could be used to spy on Americans in Iraq or Afghanistan — or any U.S. reconnaissance in Iran itself. Much of the military hardware has been hard to hide — sales of tanks and anti-ship missiles by Belarus and China, or helicopters and artillery pieces from Russia have been well documented by U.S. authorities and international nongovernment agencies. Other weapons are smuggled and may be revealed only by chance — such as the consignment of 12 nuclear-capable cruise missiles delivered by Ukrainian arms dealers to Iran four years ago but divulged by Ukrainian opposition officials only recently.
The smaller weapons and related material Iran is amassing may not be as eye catching. But they are of U.S. concern because of their origin — through U.N.-funded programs or technically advanced western countries — and because they could harm U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan or ultimately Iran, which President Bush has not ruled out as a military target. Iran says it needs the satellite network, high-tech small arms bought on the European arms market and night-vision goggles, body armor and advanced communications gear through the U.N program to fight drug smugglers pouring in from neighboring Afghanistan. "We need assistance," Pirouz Hosseini, Iran's chief delegate to U.N. organizations in Vienna told The Associated Press, dismissing U.S. fears as "a political stance not based on realities."
Austrian officials with access to counterintelligence information told AP that Iranian diplomats in European capitals routinely focus on securing arms deals. Like the Western diplomats, the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. Just four months ago, U.S. and Austrian authorities arrested two Iranians in Vienna on charges of trying to illegally export thousands of sophisticated American night-vision systems for Tehran's military — a powerful force in the region. In a more recent — and legal — deal, Iran last month took delivery of hundreds of high-powered armor-piercing snipers' rifles with scopes from an Austrian firm, as part of a consignment for 2,000 of the weapons.
A draft proposal obtained by AP, to create a regional satellite network that would survey Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq is on hold, with Iran shifting it to the U.N. office on drugs and crime after opposition stalled it in the U.N. office on space affairs, also based in Vienna. "The U.S. and Britain and France had questions as to what the intention and purpose of the proposal is," a senior U.N. official told AP, requesting anonymity because of the sensitive topic. "One of the worries — is it only drugs they are worried about or something they could use to track other things?" Still, suspect material is reaching Iran in connection with an aid program created in 1996 by the U.N. drugs office, which also provides training, vehicles and other help to fight what is generally acknowledged as a serious drug problem.
An internal U.N. summary of the program lists France and Britain as providing night vision equipment, mobile global positioning systems, computers and body armor to help Iranian anti-smuggler attempts. Iranian officials confirmed such items were shipped. A diplomat familiar with the program described the shipments of sensitive equipment as "likely in the hundreds." In London, the Foreign Office confirmed 250 night vision goggles were approved by the British government two years ago for use by Iranian border patrols along the Afghan border. Another shipment of 50 body armor vests and 100 body armor plates was en route as of last week, as part of British help to Iran that's exempt from a strict embargo and arms and related material, said Foreign Office officials.
Iran says more than 3,000 of its police officers have died in the last 10 years battling drug smugglers, some equipped with machine guns and rocket launchers. In a report last year, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said Iranian intelligence had shown him pictures of a drug convoy of more than 60 vehicles with armed escorts crossing from Afghanistan to Iran.
#1
Iran is quietly building a stockpile of thousands of high-tech small arms and other military equipment â from armor-piercing snipers' rifles to night-vision goggles â through legal weapons deals and a U.N. anti-drug program, according to an internal U.N. document, arms dealers and Western diplomats.
This might sound harsh, but any drug problem in Iran is simply not worth Western involvement if any provided materials/equipment can be used for purposes other than combatting drug-running. And as long as the mullahs are still running the show, there is no question that some equipment is going to be used for something else other than its intended application.
#2
Iraq = Iran = North Korea = .... rogues in all preparing for preplanned guerilla.people's war against any US or US-led invasion. The collusory Failed/International Lefts want America's volunteer army to become bogged down in PC, LeftMedia-verified global "Quagmires" while MACKINDER'S WORLD iSLAND, AKA COMMUNIST ASIA, I.E. RUSSIA-CHINA, BUILD UP TO ATTACK NORAM DIRECTLY, and of course simul with the Clintons running for POTUS. By the time Chelsea runs for POTUS, America is intended to be either under anti-sovereign Socialism and OWG, read Commie World Order, or else militarily destroyed.Left- Alleged American"imperialism", like Radical Islam, is just PC diversion for the Commmies to gather the world community as cannon fodder for their "final struggle/conflict" against America and Western democracy, A Nation is not enough - the Failed/Angry Left wants Nations, Regions, TransNations, and Worlds, ...Universes just to counter American and Western firepower and influence. If America does not appease these anti-democractic nations and goivernments with myriad global concesssions, they will attack and destroy us - what do you expect of medieval Bandit- and Slaver armies, Predators, and Warlords!? Dubya and GMD > King's Army or the local Sheriff/Marshal - these Lefties may want you to think they're ROBIN HOOD, but they're NOT! We may have to fight Radical Islam, World Terror,Iran and North KOrea, etal. BUT THE REAL TARGET, THE BATTLEFRONT/BATTLEFIELD IS AMERICA ITSELF, AND CONTROL OF WASHINGTON - the Left is so Power-obsessed and DIalectically POliticized they prefer to enslave if not destroy the entire world, and prefer SOLYENT GREEN, i.e LEGAL PC CANNIBALISM/GENOCIDE, than to lose or share power, than the very Utopia they proclaim to be fighting for!?
#8
I've thought about it... my homebrew is going pretty well, but I need a bigger kitchen. The local microbreweries are very popular, but they can hardly keep up with the demand. The been you get there is so green you get a hangover *immediately* after having your second beer.
Executive Summary
On 14 February 2005, an explosion in downtown Beirut killed twenty persons, among them the former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri. The United Nations' Secretary-General dispatched a Fact-Finding Mission to Beirut to inquire into the causes, the circumstances and the consequences of this assassination. Since it arrived in Beirut on 25 February, the Mission met with a large number of Lebanese officials and representatives of different political groups, performed a thorough review of the Lebanese investigation and legal proceedings, examined the crime scene and the evidence collected by the local police, collected and analyzed samples from the crime scene, and interviewed some witnesses in relation to the crime.
The specific 'causes' for the assassination of Mr. Hariri cannot be reliably asserted until after the perpetrators of this crime are brought to justice. However, it is clear that the assassination took place in a political and security context marked by an acute polarization around the Syrian influence in Lebanon and a failure of the Lebanese State to provide adequate protection for its citizens.
Regarding the circumstances, the Mission is of the view that the explosion was caused by a TNT charge of about 1000 KG placed most likely above the ground. The review of the investigation indicates that there was a distinct lack of commitment on the part of the Lebanese authorities to investigate the crime effectively, and that this investigation was not carried out in accordance with acceptable international standards. The Mission is also of the view that the Lebanese investigation lacks the confidence of the population necessary for its results to be accepted.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2005 11:08:23 PM ||
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Lebanon and Syria yesterday slammed a UN report on the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri as one-sided. Lebanon's president, Emile Lahoud, urged the United Nations to do whatever is needed to find out who killed Hariri after the hard-hitting UN report backed Lebanese opposition demands for an international probe. Lahoud made the appeal in a telephone conversation with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hours before the release of the report that was sharply critical of Syrian and Lebanese authorities over the Feb. 14 bomb attack that killed Hariri.
The UN fact-finding team said Lebanon's inquiry into the killing of Hariri was seriously flawed and an independent investigation is needed to "find the truth." In what could be the most damning piece of evidence, the team's report gave credence to alleged threats made at a meeting of "physical harm" by Syrian President Bashar Assad to Hariri prior to his Sept. 8 resignation as Lebanon's prime minister. The report cited numerous accounts of the meeting between the two based on Hariri's statements to others. They had met to discuss extending the term of President Lahoud, which Hariri and Druze opposition leader Walid Jumblatt opposed. Bashar was quoted as saying he "would rather break Lebanon over the heads of Hariri and Jumblatt than see his word in Lebanon broken." Syria's UN Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad said he was quite certain Bashar "did not threaten physical harm." He called the report "one-sided, full of rhetoric and devoid of proof."
"I was not there when President Assad talked to Mr. Hariri, and nobody else was there. I think nobody has the right to speak (about) such a meeting," Mekdad said. The fact-finding mission, led by Irish Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald, did not determine who was behind the attack but said Syrian military intelligence bore primary responsibility for a lack of security, protection and law and order and that Lebanese security forces showed systematic negligence. "It became clear to the mission that the Lebanese investigation process suffers from serious flaws and has neither the capacity nor the commitment to reach a satisfactory and credible conclusion," Fitzgerald wrote. The United States and France were expected to introduce a resolution in the UN Security Council calling for an international inquiry, council diplomats said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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An Islamic leader on a U.S. terrorist list threatened a holy war Friday if an African peacekeeping force enters Somalia to try to install a new government and stop more than decade of clan warfare. Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former Somali army colonel suspected of having ties with the al-Qaida terror group, told reporters that allowing foreign troops into Somalia was contrary to Islamic teachings. It would be the religious duty of all Somalis to fight any peacekeeping force, he said. Clan fighters might find God's forgiveness for helping plunge Somalia into chaos if they cleansed "themselves with the blood of the foreign invaders," Aweys said.
Somalia's new government in exile, which so far has been unable to establish itself in the Horn of Africa country because of the security concerns, has asked the African Union to send a peacekeeping force to secure the capital, Mogadishu. Regional leaders have pledged to send 6,800 troops to back up the new government, which is made up of warlords and clan leaders. Islamic fundamentalists, who make up a very small percentage of Somalia society, refused to participate in the peace process.
This week, clan fighting that broke out in the western Baikol region left at least 20 people dead, a witness reached by two-way radio said. "Most of the dead were combatants from both sides, though several civilians were killed," said Shiek Omar Gaab. The fighting appeared to be related to a months-long dispute over grazing land and water wells, he added.
The normally reclusive Aweys told a news conference in Mogadishu that he did not reject the new government, led by his longtime rival President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, but said if it was truly legitimate, it would not need foreign troops to protect it. "Somalia needs a government, an administration for the restoration of the rule of law," he said. "But that does not mean Somalia needs foreigners to restore them their dignity."
Aweys led Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, a Somali group that the United States says has ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror organization. Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya and Aweys are on a list of terror groups and suspected terrorists that are under U.S. and U.N. sanctions. Aweys has denied having any ties to al-Qaida or being involved in terrorism. While many Somalis, including Aweys, insist al-Itihaad no longer exists after Ethiopian troops attacked the group in 1993, a U.N. investigative team reported on March 14 that Aweys was still leading the group and he had established 17 training camps to prepare militiamen to fight the new government and the AU peacekeepers.
Aweys spoke cryptically about his own militia and the Islamic courts he has established to bring order to the central Galgudud region, north of Mogadishu. "We can disarm our militias, if we're serious, it wouldn't take us six months to pacify the Somali capital for the new government to work peacefully," he said. "While in the central region, I discovered that the Somalis really need a real leadership whom they can trust with their destiny."
The interim Somali parliament, during a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, dissolved into a brawl March 17 over whether neighboring countries would be allowed to contribute troops to a peacekeeping force. The interim president is a close ally of Ethiopia and has suggested Ethiopian troops might be used to help secure Somalia, despite objections from most of the lawmakers.
This article starring:
President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed
SHEIK HASAN DAHIR AWEYS
Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya
SHEIK HASAN DAHIR AWEYS
Islamic Courts
Shiek Omar Gaab
Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2005 12:16:49 AM ||
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Peshawar Corps Commander Lt Gen Safdar Hussain has said 48 military operations have been carried out in the length and breadth of South Waziristan Agency and that the possibility of Osama Bin Laden being in one of the target areas cannot be ruled out, The Christian Science Monitor reported on Friday.
"Last year, thousands of military and paramilitary troops battled Al Qaeda militants and tribal supporters in South Waziristan Agency. The 48 military operations resulted in more than 500 deaths, including 304 foreign and local militants and around 200 troops," it reported. "After three years of poking around caves, raiding compounds and getting the slip from motorbike mullas, the intelligence communities chasing Osama finally seem to know what they're on the lookout for," it added. "To find the world's most wanted man, Pakistani forces are trying to spot signs of his elaborate security," it reported. The paper quoted Lt Gen Hussain as saying that Osama was guarded by some 50 men, divided into concentric circles of security.
"Despite President Pervez Musharraf's recent statement that Osama's trail had gone cold, the hunt goes on," it added.
It quoted Lt Gen Hussain as saying that he (the corps commander) was desperately looking for the signature of Osama's security; because it was then he could declare victory. "Finding the signature means either I will get hold of him or I will kill him," Lt Gen Hussain told the Monitor.
There was a ring of very close guards, there was an outer guard and then there was an inner guard, and also several circles, the Monitor quoted Lt Gen Hussain as saying. It quoted Lt Gen Hussain as saying that Osama's group moved in caravans and dressed in women's clothing to avoid detection by satellite. "Now I have also given orders that when every vehicle is checked, the women are asked to say something," he told the Monitor.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2005 12:13:07 AM ||
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Afghanistan has not changed its stance on Osama Bin Laden and the chase is still on to find the world's most wanted terrorist, President Hamid Karzai has assured. Karzai, speaking on the ATV Khyber news channel, said neither the stance of his government to hunt down Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has changed nor has the hot pursuit against him ended. "I don't know where he is, but Osama is the enemy of Afghans, he killed our kids, deprived them from schools, tortured and humiliated our women and burnt our orchards. I am after him and will find and punish him one day," Karzai said.
The Afghan president admitted that whereabouts of the most wanted man in the world were not known, but reiterated his resolve to continue the hunt and take him to task for the crimes he has committed. Karzai had a one-on-one meeting with President General Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad on Tuesday and both the leaders have vowed to fight a joint war on terror and bring the criminals to justice. "Wherever Osama is hiding, I will go after him," vowed Karzai.
President Musharraf in a statement on March 16 said it was a close call for Osama Bin Laden but Pakistani forces hunting down the Al Qaeda leader lost track of him after coming close to discovering his whereabouts several months ago. Musharraf said intelligence agencies had indications eight to ten months ago about the whereabouts of Bin Laden but then the trail went cold.
Regarding the reconciliation with Taleban and other elements opposed to Afghan government and the presence of US forces in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai said that progress has been made in contacting Taliban leaders and the results would be made public in the near future. "On my request, the spiritual father of the Afghan nation, ex-king Zahir Shah is in contact with the Taliban and others to bring them to the mainstream," Karzai told the interviewer.
We might be looking for help in the wrong place. If Binny ever is tracked down and arrested or killed, likely it won't be the Paks who do it. He's got too much overt support among the turbans. The Afghans, on the other hand, seem to be gaining in both self-confidence and organization. The thought of an effective Afghan army, backed by an effective Afghan government, must be a nightmare for the terror bigs.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2005 12:08:03 AM ||
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#1
Yep. Afghans do have a history in small unit warfare that puts the arabs to shame.... perhaps it will be put to good.
A recent message from al-Qaeda in Iraq welcomes new US reservists recently deployed for active duty in Iraq. The statement lauds the news of their arrival, stating that "America needs more soldiers to be sent to death, as all of them want to run away."
Addressing the soldiers specifically, the message argues: "cross worshippers: we have more and more killing and death for you - good news, we will get you [with] soldiers (mujahideen) who love to be martyrs as much as you love to run away."
The current situation in Iraq, according to the communique "is created by the grace of Allah and what was achieved by the mujahideen when they rubbed their (Americans) noses in the dirt of humiliation."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2005 12:03:58 AM ||
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#1
Lol... I think he's rather missing the point, as usual, lol! Perhaps what passes for his brain is in his ass, and after repeated asswhoopin's, he begun to hallucinate to the tipping point: buying his own bullshit. Of course he will watch, safely, from Syria or Iran, while his tools continue to get the shit kicked out of them every time they're stupid enough to pop up. It's flypaper, son... and you're some kind of serious slow climbing the learning curve.
Especially the female SGT who drilled 4 killed 4 with aimed fired from her M4, and 2 more with aimed fire from her M203.
In a fair fight both sides armed (as opposed to the cowardly way of using a bound victim for a beheading):
SGT Leigh Ann Hester 6, Zarqawi 0.
The whole match, box score:
KYARNG MPs 10 troops
Muj 50+ "insurgents"
Handicap:
Guard loses coin flip, Muj given first shot, RPGs, and a favorable ambush position.
Final Score:
Cross Worshippers: Inflict 1 POW, 6 WIA, 26 KIA
Lions of Islam : Inflict 3 WIA, 0 KIA
He was right about one thing - the Muj do have more death ready.
Problem for them its all on their guys. Cross worshippers? Yep - other than the saving cCross of Jesus, apparently its also the cross-hairs on a rifle... "aimed fire", ya know.
Seems the only humilation going on here is teh Mujahdeen - first they get their asses handed to them in Falluja at the hands of th4e Cav and Marie4s, then the locals are gunning them down (see recent enws about the "Wild West" gun down by a shopkeeper of several Muj), and then there comes females kicking thier asses, and thats on top of the Gay Origes confessions on TV.
#5
Spitting up my coffee, .com, both from AMZ's statements and your comments.
Hmmm. Let's see. That little wipe-out south of B'dad last week was peformed by ... uh ... reservists. Military police, no less. The muj propaganda, with the blasphemous, ridiculous, and illiterate Islamic references stripped out, is much like Radio Tokyo in WWII, according to which most of the US fleet carriers were sunk several times. Methinks these nitwits will enjoy the same sort of end as the Japanese militarists.
#11
Z must be a Zionist agent. Who else would be such an insufferable braggart and liar, leading scores of noble jihadis to die like infected dogs? Maybe his mother was a hamster and his father stank of elderberry wine.
#12
This statement is so laughable. I have to think he had help writing it from his Iranian hosts. He isn't even in Iraq anymore. He is such a coward that he had to run to his enablers in Iran.
No, it was achieved by the armed forces of the U.S., UK, Australia, Poland et al. The only things mujahideen have ever "achieved" are ignorance, poverty, filth, disease, misery, oppression, slavery, mysogyny, child molestation and premature death.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/26/2005 12:06 Comments ||
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#14
"cross worshippers...
As opposed to your merry band of cross dressers, Z-man?
#16
The only things mujahideen have ever "achieved" are ignorance, poverty, filth, disease, misery, oppression, slavery, mysogyny, child molestation and premature death.
That, and goats that won't let anything with two legs get behind them ever again.
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
03/26/2005 16:48 Comments ||
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#17
Meebe he missed the news on the Guard MPs.
Especially the female SGT who drilled 4 killed 4 with aimed fired from her M4, and 2 more with aimed fire from her M203.
In a fair fight both sides armed (as opposed to the cowardly way of using a bound victim for a beheading):
SGT Leigh Ann Hester 6, Zarqawi 0.
The whole match, box score:
KYARNG MPs 10 troops
Muj 50+ "insurgents"
Handicap:
Guard loses coin flip, Muj given first shot, RPGs, and a favorable ambush position.
Final Score:
Cross Worshippers: Inflict 1 POW, 6 WIA, 26 KIA
Lions of Islam : Inflict 3 WIA, 0 KIA
He was right about one thing - the Muj do have more death ready.
Problem for them its all on their guys. Cross worshippers? Yep - other than the saving cCross of Jesus, apparently its also the cross-hairs on a rifle... "aimed fire", ya know.
Seems the only humilation going on here is teh Mujahdeen - first they get their asses handed to them in Falluja at the hands of th4e Cav and Marie4s, then the locals are gunning them down (see recent enws about the "Wild West" gun down by a shopkeeper of several Muj), and then there comes females kicking thier asses, and thats on top of the Gay Origes confessions on TV.
Especially the female SGT who drilled 4 killed 4 with aimed fired from her M4, and 2 more with aimed fire from her M203.
In a fair fight both sides armed (as opposed to the cowardly way of using a bound victim for a beheading):
SGT Leigh Ann Hester 6, Zarqawi 0.
The whole match, box score:
KYARNG MPs 10 troops
Muj 50+ "insurgents"
Handicap:
Guard loses coin flip, Muj given first shot, RPGs, and a favorable ambush position.
Final Score:
Cross Worshippers: Inflict 1 POW, 6 WIA, 26 KIA
Lions of Islam : Inflict 3 WIA, 0 KIA
He was right about one thing - the Muj do have more death ready.
Problem for them its all on their guys. Cross worshippers? Yep - other than the saving cCross of Jesus, apparently its also the cross-hairs on a rifle... "aimed fire", ya know.
Seems the only humilation going on here is teh Mujahdeen - first they get their asses handed to them in Falluja at the hands of th4e Cav and Marie4s, then the locals are gunning them down (see recent enws about the "Wild West" gun down by a shopkeeper of several Muj), and then there comes females kicking thier asses, and thats on top of the Gay Origes confessions on TV.
This article a few days old. Apologies if you've seen it already.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero urged Arab leaders to back his initiative to create an "alliance of civilisations" to crush terrorism and bridge the gap with the West.
"In fact, you're welcome to use al-Andalus to build that bridge. We understand it has sentimental value for you."
"We are in favour of a constructive dialogue between civilisations, peoples and religion," Zapatero said as he addressed the opening session of an Arab League summit in the Algerian capital. Everything must be done to "dominate misunderstandings between the Western world and Islam," he said.
"Misunderstandings." Check.
The goal of setting up an "alliance of civilisations" is aimed at forging ahead "toward consolidating a more just international order," Zapatero said.
"A more just international order." Check.
Zapatero unveiled the idea last September at the United Nations.
"Only the UN can fix this." Check.
His project is set to breathe new life into trans-Mediterranean dialogue and Barcelona is scheduled to stage a November summit to mark the 10th anniversary of the launching of the so-called Barcelona Process designed to that end. The process foresees the creation of a zone of political stability and economic prosperity, greater cooperation on social, cultural affairs and education, promotion of human rights and a joint fight against terrorism. A further aim is the creation of a trans-Mediterranean free trade zone by 2010.
Noble goals, all. More talk while the boomers run free.
Zapatero also condemned terrorism and said any attempt to link it to Islam "is a very serious error that only serves to multiply misunderstandings ... (and) to erect a wall more mighty than the Berlin Wall".
"Islam is a religion of peace. Anyone who sez different goes on the poop list." Check.
He also called for international support for the Palestinian leadership "to ensure a just peace with Israel".
"It's those damnable Jooos again. We just can't help ourselfs." Check, please.
Posted by: seafarious ||
03/26/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
More diplomatic ties = support for oppressive dictatorships
Deeper economic ties = investment in corrupt oil companies controlled by the dictator's family/tribe.
More cultural ties = Subsidising more radical imams come to preach and preach in Europe's mosques and hiring Arab nationalist intellectuals to lecture European students about the evils of the West and the Zionists.
But it doesn't matter. It's already too late for old Europe. The old order in the Islamic world is crumbling. Zappy can go on pretending that his decrees, his little meaningless initiatives matter. He can go on offering platitudes. That's what Old Europe is about.
Posted by: John in Tokyo ||
03/26/2005 1:07 Comments ||
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#2
To the tune of "The Duke of Plaza-Toro" by Gilbert and Sullivan
In enterprise of martial kind when there was any fighting
He swore to let the enemy win and put it into writing
During the Exodus I think he'd have supported Pharaoh
That overrated craven ignoble man Cobarde Zapatero
#3
Zappy is following the Chavez model. You know, the completely wrong one. He also seems to be getting tutelage from Chirac in his clown routine.. He apparently didn't need any help with knowing how to insert his nose up the Arab/Islamist ass crack.
I didn't realize he is physical midget well as a mental one.
#10
with all the same suave charm and intelligence
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2005 15:16 Comments ||
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#11
My Friend Booty? sounds a little to trendy for me.
Posted by: Bobby Lee ||
03/26/2005 15:57 Comments ||
Top||
#12
islam is not a religion of peace nor is christianity and judeaism they are all political tools to motivate people to do what the clergy rabbi or oman says,
wake up people and see the opium of the masses for what it is.
#13
Mr. Marx, I presume? If you stick around for a bit, you'll see that none of us is particularly fond of "holy men" of any persuasion who drive their flocks into paroxysms of hatred and blood feuds.
"Hide the children, Martha! It's the UN!... Martha?"
Sudan's former Southern rebels Friday welcomed a UN decision to send 10,000 peacekeepers to secure the peace accord they signed in January with Khartoum but contentious issues remain before the force is deployed. "We are very happy with the resolution but we are now going to have to work out all the details," said Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) spokesman Samson Kwaje.
The UN Security Council on Thursday approved the deployment of 10,000 UN peacekeepers to shore up the January 9 peace agreement which put an end to the 21-year-old North-South civil war in Sudan, Africa's largest country. "We still have to look at the specific number of troops. There could be more, there could be less. Then there is the issue of the exact shape of the deployment and that of the nationalities involved," Kwaje said. "We are not happy with the present composition of the force," he stressed, in reference to countries considered by the rebels to be too close to the Khartoum government. Sudanese UN Ambassador Elfatih Erwa welcomed the vote but warned that imposing sanctions on Khartoum could impact the government's ability to keep the peace agreement on track. "Needless to say, he who asks the government to undertake all these important responsibilities cannot at the same time think of weakening this government or limiting its capabilities and capacities," he said. Among the countries which have expressed interest in sending troops are China, Egypt, Malaysia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Japan and Germany.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Pakistan may send centrifuge parts for tests by the UN's atomic agency to help establish whether Iran has been secretly developing nuclear weapons, military ruler President Pervez Musharraf said. The move would mark a major turnaround for Islamabad, which recently insisted it would not surrender the components despite admitting that its disgraced nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had given centrifuges to Tehran. The parts could allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna to determine whether highly enriched uranium contamination found in Iran had originated there, or if it had come from Pakistan. "We are considering it, negotiations are under way and we will see," General Musharraf told the private Aaj television channel in an interview late Thursday when asked if Pakistan would hand over the machinery for inspection.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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A PEACE advocate group expressed fears Wednesday that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) would soon be tagged as a "terrorist" with the reports that their camps are the training grounds and refuge of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist training camps. In a statement to Sun.Star Wednesday, Iligan Peace and Development Advocates Inc. chairman Amer Manaya said there have been several alleged JI terrorist bombers who tagged MILF as one of those who helped them in their ghastly deeds. He cited even Fathur Rohman Al Ghozi, Muklis Yunos and the recent capture of Rohmat also known as Zaki who admitted to be among those who initiated the recent Valentines Day bombings.
"Do any of those liars have lips? I'm asking you, here..."
Manaya said MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu is not convinced the MILF will ever earn the terrorist tag.
"Terrorists? Pshaw! They're really more of a shadowy paramilitary outfit that trains deep in the jungle, has lots of expensive munitions, uniforms, generous funding from unknown and hard-to-trace sources, and scads of spiritual advisers with very long beards. I don't know what you are trying to imply here, but be careful of what you say. They're also easily humiliated. And you won't like them when they're humiliated."
He said Kabalu's premise was that US President George Bush has recognized the attempt of these separatist elements to resolve the Mindanao conflict through peaceful negotiation. "It appears that the response of Bush to the late MILF Chairman Hashim Salamat letter was a positive indicator that would rule out the possibility of a 'terrorist' tag on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front," he said.
Can you show us the letter, Amer? Not sure you read properly between the lines.
But Manaya said assuming that Kabalu is indeed speaking the mind of the leadership of the secessionist front, there is "very little hope that one can expect the MILF is prepared to sit down soon and resume the peace negotiation with the government. Apparently, they have idly lived with the frame of mind that since they have conveyed their intention to talk peace, then the proposal to include them in the terrorist list is a remote possibility," he said. "Somehow along the way, the MILF hierarchy has forgotten that terrorist threats have become a major concern for the Americans," he added.
At least as long as Dubya's the sheriff in town.
Manaya reiterated how Americans are convinced that the MILF camps have been veritable training grounds for Al Qaeda recruits. He said intentions to resume talks and even talks without achieving an enforceable peace pact are empty rhetoric.
"Peace is a process, y'see."
"Patience too can be eroded when there are eloquent signs of deception. The delay in the resumption of peace talks since its suspension four years ago negates the intention of the MILF to achieve a permanent and stable peace pact with the government," he said. Manaya believes that each day, some of the remote territories held by the MILF might just be "churning out new trained terrorists." For him, for as long as the main MILF forces are adamant to sign a peace accord, "these fundamentalist elements in their ranks will continue to lend sanctuary to the radical Jemaah Islamiyah and their local clones."
"Er, not that they exist, mind you."
"How can Eid Kabalu claim that there is no way the MILF be tagged as terrorists? On the other hand, we are convinced that given the time that had lapsed on the effort to craft a peace pact between the MILF and the Philippine government, it is not farfetched now that the US and its European allies are now just about to pin the terrorist tag on them," he said. "We have to brace ourselves up for the worst scenario once this thing happen. It will surely be a bloody confrontation, which we pray should not happen," he added.
"Oceans and oceans of infidel innocent blood. We're not looking forward to it in the least."
Posted by: seafarious ||
03/26/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Damn, I thought there'd be pictures; wrong MILF...
Posted by: Armchair in Sin ||
03/26/2005 11:34 Comments ||
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#3
So, has anyone drawn the short straw which means they have to explain to these guys what "MILF" is an abbreviation for, in some circles? Surely they have begun to notice the half stifled snickers, by now...
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.
Kyrgyzstan's new leaders tightened their grip on power yesterday, naming an interim head of state and calling a fresh election, as the nation's ousted ruler denounced what he called a coup d'etat and vowed to return. In Bishkek, gunshots were heard in several areas as security forces fired into the air to deter looters. Broken glass and naked mannequins ripped from shop windows littered the streets after the revolution degenerated into a night of looting and vandalism. 
While there is no doubt that Muslims are more sinned against than sinning, it is also true that we need to take a good hard look at our own conduct and how we appear to others. There is no point in screaming: "They hate Islam and they hate Muslims anyway". We should calmly and dispassionately go into some of the things that we say and do in Islam's name. By continuing to sulk and playing the stricken party, we will help everybody except ourselves.
Iran is quietly building a stockpile of thousands of high-tech small arms and other military equipment — from armor-piercing snipers' rifles to night-vision goggles — through legal weapons deals and a U.N. anti-drug program, according to an internal U.N. document, arms dealers and Western diplomats. Tehran also is seeking approval for a U.N.-funded satellite network that Iran says it needs to fight drug smugglers, stoking U.S. worries it could be used to spy on Americans in Iraq or Afghanistan — or any U.S. reconnaissance in Iran itself. Much of the military hardware has been hard to hide — sales of tanks and anti-ship missiles by Belarus and China, or helicopters and artillery pieces from Russia have been well documented by U.S. authorities and international nongovernment agencies. Other weapons are smuggled and may be revealed only by chance — such as the consignment of 12 nuclear-capable cruise missiles delivered by Ukrainian arms dealers to Iran four years ago but divulged by Ukrainian opposition officials only recently. 
Executive Summary
Lebanon and Syria yesterday slammed a UN report on the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri as one-sided. Lebanon's president, Emile Lahoud, urged the United Nations to do whatever is needed to find out who killed Hariri after the hard-hitting UN report backed Lebanese opposition demands for an international probe. Lahoud made the appeal in a telephone conversation with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hours before the release of the report that was sharply critical of Syrian and Lebanese authorities over the Feb. 14 bomb attack that killed Hariri.
An Islamic leader on a U.S. terrorist list threatened a holy war Friday if an African peacekeeping force enters Somalia to try to install a new government and stop more than decade of clan warfare. 
Afghanistan has not changed its stance on Osama Bin Laden and the chase is still on to find the world's most wanted terrorist, President Hamid Karzai has assured. Karzai, speaking on the ATV Khyber news channel, said neither the stance of his government to hunt down Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has changed nor has the hot pursuit against him ended. "I don't know where he is, but Osama is the enemy of Afghans, he killed our kids, deprived them from schools, tortured and humiliated our women and burnt our orchards. I am after him and will find and punish him one day," Karzai said.
Sudan's former Southern rebels Friday welcomed a UN decision to send 10,000 peacekeepers to secure the peace accord they signed in January with Khartoum but contentious issues remain before the force is deployed. "We are very happy with the resolution but we are now going to have to work out all the details," said Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) spokesman Samson Kwaje.
Pakistan may send centrifuge parts for tests by the UN's atomic agency to help establish whether Iran has been secretly developing nuclear weapons, military ruler President Pervez Musharraf said. The move would mark a major turnaround for Islamabad, which recently insisted it would not surrender the components despite admitting that its disgraced nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had given centrifuges to Tehran. The parts could allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna to determine whether highly enriched uranium contamination found in Iran had originated there, or if it had come from Pakistan. "We are considering it, negotiations are under way and we will see," General Musharraf told the private Aaj television channel in an interview late Thursday when asked if Pakistan would hand over the machinery for inspection.
A PEACE advocate group expressed fears Wednesday that the 
