September 22, 2005: Saudi Arabia is still having a hard time accepting the fact that 79 percent of the 911 attackers were Saudis. That feeling was made worse when reports coming out of Iraq indicated that up to half the al Qaeda suicide bombers, who were mostly killing Iraqis, were Saudi volunteers. Naturally, the Saudis conducted their own study, and concluded that only twelve percent of those suicide attackers were Saudi (20 percent were Algerian, 18 percent Syrian, 17 percent Yemeni, 15 percent Sudanese and 13 percent Egyptian.) Many Saudis believe that, either itâs just a lie that so many Saudis were involved in 911, or that evil al Qaeda (or maybe the Israelis) deceived weak minded young Saudis into getting involved. Meanwhile, the Saudi government has added new counter-terror efforts to keep Saudi volunteers out of Iraq. These efforts seem to be working, judging from the experience Iraqi police are having with Saudi al Qaeda volunteers of late. The captured Saudis (who have often fled from al Qaeda control) tell of deception and coercion being used to get them into Iraq to serve as suicide bomber. Such desperate measures to obtain suicide bombers is not unusual. The Palestinian terrorist organizations had to use similar coercive techniques when they ran short of volunteers. Some bad publicity, or a lot of failed attacks (and live bombers being sent to prison for a long time), would discourage a lot of potential volunteers. To make up the shortage, kidnapping, blackmail or other forms of coercion would be used.
The Iraqi government has captured many Saudi volunteers, and presented them on television shows intended to show government success against the terrorists. Several of the recent captives were Saudis who told a convincing tale of kidnapping, coercion and not really wanting to have anything to do with suicide bomb attacks. Based on reports from all over the world, it would appear that al Qaeda is running into recruiting problems. While millions of (mostly young) Moslems, the world over, profess a willingness to be suicide bombers, very few actually follow through, and find themselves doing the deed. Partly, this is because the middlemen, who find the volunteers, and get them to the teams that can train, equip and guide the volunteers to the target, are few, and often on the run from the police. Not only is Saudi Arabia finding and arresting (or sometimes killing) these middlemen, so are many European nations. Recently, France arrested six such middlemen, who had recruited about two dozen French Moslems for suicide bomber duty. The police arrested everyone before anyone could travel to the Middle East. Similar arrests have been made in other European nations recently. For the past four years, European police have been digging into the Islamic radical underground in their own back yards. Itâs been slow going, but results have become more frequent as more information piles up. Meanwhile, in Iraq, American and Iraqi military operations have done major damage to the terrorist infrastructure. U.S. commanders say they have destroyed some 80 percent of the terrorist infrastructure in northern central Iraq over the last month. The survivors of terrorist organizations are scrambling to find other towns or neighborhoods where they can rebuild their operations (bomb workshops, safe houses for suicide bombers and technical staff). This is getting more difficult, as more Sunni Iraqis turn against the terrorists, and use the growing number of cell phones to rat out the bad guys.
Saudi Arabia is angry with al Qaeda for other reasons as well. With a large Shia minority, official Saudi policy is that Shia are not heretics. But many Saudi Sunnis believe otherwise, and the government has long looked the other way as some Sunni clergy preached that Shia are heretics, or worse. No more of this is allowed (some of theses preachers have gone underground) officially, and the Saudi government has openly condemned al Qaeda for advocating âwarâ against Iraqi Shia. These efforts are long over due, but they are often too late. Decades of allowing radical Sunni clergy to preach hatred of the Shia, and all non-Moslems, has created millions of Moslems who believe all this hateful stuff. You canât just turn it off like a faucet. Itâs going to take a generation to eliminate the attitudes that provide all the pro-terrorist attitudes.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/22/2005 09:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Itâs going to take a generation to eliminate the attitudes that provide all the pro-terrorist attitudes.
I would think it would take longer than a generation. Just think how a parent's attitude often influence a childs outlook. Bigotry and ignorance can be reduced in each generation, but some of it always continues along.
How about the opposite side of the coin? The islamofascists are engendering a lot of wariness and hostility among many believers in Western pluralism and democratic priciples. That attitude may, as well, take generations to pass.
Posted by: DO ||
09/22/2005 11:02 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Trouble recruiting volunteer boomers? Maybe on Career day at the local mosque you could have famous, successful suicide bombers show up and give inspiring talks to convince.... ah, never mind.
#3
The article recognizes the important point, and one missed by the left, that for every thousand radicals, maybe one has the intestinal fortitude to get trained, pack up and move to another country to commit some act. Their supply is finite.
When something happens that discourages terrorists, the effect is not on the one, but on the other 999. This means that the one still has to be dealt with directly, but the other 999 are less inclined to cheer loudly to the instigators.
Eventually, enough doubt is planted with the 999 that they lose interest in cheering altogether, and just prefer to dwell on other, less violent, things.
An August 29, 2005 program on Saudi Iqra TV was devoted to supporting Jihad in Palestine. The program host began by telling all Saudis that they must donate and explained how to do so.
A caption then appeared on the screen: "Saudi Committee for Support of the Al-Quds Intifada, Account No. 98, a joint account at all Saudi banks." A moderator stated that "Jihad is the pinnacle of Islam" and explained that the funds would go directly to those waging Jihad, where it would "help them carry out this mission."
The program included the secretary-general of the Saudi government's Muslim World League Koran Memorization Commission, Sheikh Abdallah Basfar, who explained why it was an "obligation" for all Muslims to support Jihad. He also promised that "all of the funds sent via the known charities and organizations" would reach "your Muslim brothers."
Posted by: ed ||
09/22/2005 08:07 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Muslim World League Koran Memorization Commission
Taking useless government expenditures to a whole 'nother level...
#6
The program included the secretary-general of the Saudi government's Muslim World League Koran Memorization Commission, Sheikh Abdallah Basfar, who explained why it was an "obligation" for all Muslims to support Jihad.
Well, you certainly can't argue he doesn't know what the Koran says.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/22/2005 16:40 Comments ||
Top||
#7
that was the Arabic version. The english ROPMA version is only 20 pages
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2005 18:53 Comments ||
Top||
ABU DHABI â Hamad Al Junaibi, the UAE charge dâaffaires in Damascus, escaped unhurt yesterday when shots were fired at his car. The culprit has been arrested and is being interrogated by the Syrian authorities, a Wam report said.
Does he get the full #7 treatment or just a love tap, inquiring minds want to know.
The report, quoting Abdullah Rashid Al Nuaimi, UAEâs Foreign Ministry Under-Secretary, said the man âfired shots at Al Junaibiâs car when he was leaving the embassy building in Damascusâ. The diplomat didnât receive any injury, but the car was damaged as a result of the shooting, the report said.
Al Nuaimi said a team from the ministry has been rushed to Damascus to continue the investigations into the incident. All aspects will be looked into except those that the Syrians won't let them see.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Colombian paramilitaries and Marxist guerrillas are running kidnapping, extortion and smuggling rackets as they infiltrate Urena and other communities near Venezuela's border, residents and officials say.
"There are more and more FARC in Apure and in Tachira [two western border states of Venezuela] present in the communities, and they are recruiting," said Virginia Trimarco, regional representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"That makes people inside the country, and the Venezuelans, worried about security and selective killings," she said, near the end of four years of working in Venezuela and more than 20 years in Latin America.
On the outskirts of this hot, dusty town several hundred yards from the border, Colombian refugees fleeing the violence take shelter in dusty shacks of paper and branches.
Mrs. Trimarco estimates there are about 1.5 million Colombian refugees now living on the Venezuelan side of the border. Government estimates are as high as 3 million, and nongovernmental organizations have put the number as low as 350,000.
Venezuelan cattle ranchers and a local state official -- who asked not to be named -- said the government of President Hugo Chavez turns a blind eye to FARC guerrillas operating in Venezuela, pushed to the border by the success of the U.S.-backed Plan Colombia, aimed at eradicating the cocaine trade in Colombia that funds the rebels.
Right-wing Colombian paramilitaries are not far behind them, running "protection" operations.
Restaurant owners, taxi drivers and even Colombian refugees are forced to pay what is locally known as a "vaccination" -- money to protect themselves from these armed groups.
The FARC's favorite fundraisers are kidnapping for ransom and cocaine trafficking. Venezuela is a major transshipment point for Colombian cocaine headed for the United States and elsewhere.
"There is arms trafficking, drug trafficking, people trafficking," said Mrs. Trimarco, one of the few officials ready to speak out about what many in these border towns will say only in private.
"The situation is slipping out of their control. Nobody wants confrontation or war, but the military are worried," she said.
Much of the violence is invisible. Villages of whitewashed houses with red-tiled roofs clinging to the sides of the Andean foothills appear idyllic, but cafes are guarded with shotguns at night and drivers head home after 11 p.m.
"As [Colombia's President Alvaro] Uribe pushes his war and illegal armed groups to the borders, they are moving over the borders, and moving their [cocaine] labs into neighboring countries," said Mrs. Trimarco.
"The border areas are heavy with conflict between the illegal armed groups fighting for turf," she said.
Venezuelan ranchers reportedly sometimes hire Colombian paramilitaries to protect themselves -- either from the FARC or from rural workers trying to invade their land. Even so, in towns like San Cristobal, there are daily kidnappings and assassinations; the local La Nacion newspaper even runs a daily kidnapping column.
More obvious is the daily gasoline-smuggling operation at popular border crossings like San Antonio de Tachira, which leads to the bustling shopping town of Cucuta in Colombia.
Hundreds of beat-up Dodges, Fords and Chevrolets from the 1970s -- the period of Venezuela's last oil boom -- make the crossing every day, carting as much as 100 extra gallons of gasoline in specially built tanks.
Gasoline in Venezuela costs about 18 cents per liter -- 72 cents a gallon -- but about 85 cents per liter -- $3.40 per gallon -- in Colombia. In addition to being a motor fuel, gasoline is also used in the processing of cocaine.
Colombian women who have survived the killings of their villages come straggling over the border with numerous children in tow. They settle in dusty shantytowns like El Cuji on the outskirts of Urena, and until they get Venezuelan papers, they are not allowed to travel more than 10 kilometers [about 6.2 miles] from the border.
Their shacks are not much more than mud and paper, sometimes just plastic bags and empty flour sacks glued together and held up on sticks above the dirt floor. Many of the children suffer from respiratory diseases and blisters from the unsanitary conditions.
Local government officials fill each family's drum with water, but it runs out fast, and families are forced to cope. The lucky ones, whose children or newfound husbands do underpaid work in small factories nearby, pool their money to buy extra water.
The UNHCR, along with Caritas and Jesuit Relief Services, two Roman Catholic charity groups, struggle with meager resources to integrate the asylum seekers into the Venezuelan community and process their claims. But many of the Colombians streaming across the border are too afraid to identify themselves.
"There is a great degree of insecurity, because of the high rate of murder and crime" all along the border, said Jenncy Penaranda, a UNHCR protection assistant. The husband of one woman seeking help was slain last month on the dirt track outside his home, she said.
A 34-year-old mother of seven bathed her youngest child, who stood naked in a cement wash tub, using a small plastic pail to pour water over the crying child, trying to keep her children clean to prevent the diarrhea and skin diseases that plague many people here.
"I came from Colombia four years ago because of the violence," said the mother afterward, as she balanced one of a pair of twin girls on her knee while sitting on a broken chair. She asked that her name and those of her children not be used.
"I lived in a village far from the border, but my kids were in danger," she said, light brown hair blowing around her face. "They would cut off people's ears. I was so scared I could not even sleep."
One of her young sons added from behind his mother's shoulder: "And cut their tongues out." Life for this young mother and other families nearby is measurably better, she said. But the guerrillas and paramilitaries that tortured and killed their fathers, brothers and husbands have not disappeared with their move to Venezuela.
Her husband works in a furniture factory, earning the equivalent of $10 per week, barely enough for water and food for the family of nine. A teenage son manages to bring home about $2.50 a week in bolivars for working in a motorbike maintenance shop.
"There is no safety," said the mother. "Anyone can come here and rip the wall," she said, gesturing at the burlap bags and tin roof beside her.
"We also pay the 'vaccination' here for protection," she added when the UNHCR representatives were out of earshot. "Someone comes to pick up the money."
Government commissions have dealt with 700 asylum requests in the past two years, and only 300 applicants were considered refugees, said Mrs. Trimarco in her office in Caracas.
"It is a very slow procedure, but they are slowly getting better. At this pace, we will not meet the needs," she said.
And the needs increase every day as the guerrillas and paramilitaries penetrate deeper into the border towns, not only of Venezuela, but also of neighboring Brazil and Ecuador, said Mrs. Trimarco.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Right-wing Colombian paramilitaries are not far behind them
Note how FARC is simply 'Marxist', not 'left-wing'. I love a little splash of bias with breakfast!
North Korea on Wednesday accused the United States of intending to disarm the communist country and then "crush it to death with nuclear weapons" â two days after a landmark disarmament agreement that was expected to ease tensions. North Korea pledged to give up its nuclear weapons program in return for economic aid and security assurances at six-nation talks in Beijing on Monday â the first breakthrough in more than two years of negotiations. However, the country's rhetoric since then has cast doubt on its commitment to the agreement and underscored its unpredictability, though none of its negotiating partners say they expect a breakdown in the disarmament talks, scheduled to continue in November.
"The ulterior intention of the United States talking about resolving the nuclear issue under the signboard of the six-party talks is as clear as daylight," the North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "In a word, it intends to disarm and crush us to death with nuclear weapons," the commentary said.
Washington has repeatedly denied North Korean allegations that it is planning an attack. Just hours after this week's agreement among the two Koreas, United States, China, Japan and Russia, North Korea threw its pledge into question when it said on Tuesday it wouldn't dismantle its nuclear weapons program unless Washington agrees to supply light-water reactors for civilian power â a condition Washington already had rejected. South Korea, which has pursued closer economic and political contacts with the rival North in recent years, interpreted the North's latest demand as a negotiating tactic. "It seems (North Korea) has started laying the groundwork in advance of the next round of negotiations," South Korean envoy Song Min-soon said, according to the Yonhap news agency.
The North demanded at the outset of six-party talks last week in Beijing that it be given a light-water reactor â a type less easily diverted for weapons use â in exchange for disarming. U.S. officials opposed the idea, maintaining North Korea could not be trusted with any nuclear program. The issue was sidestepped in the agreement, with participants saying they would discuss it "at an appropriate time." North Korea's negotiating partners made clear that the reactor could only be discussed after it carries out its pledge to rejoin the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and accepts inspections from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
..though none of its negotiating partners say they expect a breakdown in the disarmament talks, scheduled to continue in November.
Continue? That would be insanity. Why even bother?
#2
"The ulterior intention of the United States talking about resolving the nuclear issue under the signboard of the six-party talks is as clear as daylight," the North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "In a word, it intends to disarm and crush us to death with nuclear weapons," the commentary said.
Man...MAYBE a 2 at best. But it's still the Nork invective we've come to expect. How long did the millenium last this time, about 72 hours?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/22/2005 7:23 Comments ||
Top||
#3
lets just give em what they want and nuke the shit out of them i'm tired of reading the same shit everyday
The EU's "big three" are said to have backed down from a demand that the UN nuclear watchdog should immediately report Iran to the Security Council. Diplomats from France, the UK and Germany said the shift came amid opposition from Russia and China. They are now reportedly proposing that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should only implicitly threaten Tehran with such action. Iran is accused of developing atomic weapons, an allegation it denies.
The Islamic republic insists its nuclear activities have not violated the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It has warned that if referred to the Security Council, it could start uranium enrichment - a possible step toward making nuclear arms - and stop allowing unfettered IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities and programmes. The IAEA board of governors is meeting this week in Vienna.
At least a dozen of the 35 member states opposed the original EU draft resolution - backed by the US, a stern critic of Tehran - that called for immediate referral to the UN Security Council, a move that could trigger sanctions.
According to the Associated Press news agency, the new draft now says only that suspicions over Iran's nuclear programme are "within the competence of the Security Council". It accuses Iran of "excessive concealment, misleading information and delays" in giving IAEA officials access to nuclear materials. It also expresses serious concern that Iran has failed to "re-establish full suspension of all enrichment-related activities", a reference to last month's resumption by Tehran of uranium conversion. Conversion is a prelude to enrichment - a key step in the manufacture of nuclear arms.
The US appears to be behind the revised resolution. "Our goal is to build the broadest possible consensus," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said. The threat of referral was not being withdrawn, he told reporters, adding it was "a question of not if, but when" the issue would go before the Security Council.
Posted by: ed ||
09/22/2005 07:12 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That cave came quicker than I expected. I figured the charade would go on for another month or so.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/22/2005 7:56 Comments ||
Top||
#2
At least the Russkies and Chinese know how to play hardball. Too bad it's for the other side. The "EU3" need to go back to the sandlot.
#7
When the only thing you have is soft power then the only line you can adopt is a soft line. Even when the perspective is a bunch of dements with nukes, missiles who can reach you and who have publically told they would provide nuclear technology to the highest (islamic) bider
#9
When the only thing you have is soft power then the only line you can adopt is a soft line and when the only thing you have is a soft dick then you are condamned to impotency.
Sorry for the language but I am real mad about the eunuchs who are endangering with the lives of my children.
#10
JFM, Can't blame you for being irate. Come on over. We have plenty of states hurricanes never reach.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/22/2005 9:36 Comments ||
Top||
#11
The US has done no better. We knew this day has been coming for several years. Instead of building up forces to invade/destroy the mullahs, the US has done nothing. We used to be able to fight 2 1/2 major wars simultaneously. Now the US can't even handle 1 occupation and 1 war.
The Iranians will go nuclear and nuclear weapons will spread to every little Bumfukistan. The West will stand and watch and Russia and China will do anything to gain an advantage. I expect in my lifetime to see multiple nuke off over US cities.
Posted by: ed ||
09/22/2005 9:53 Comments ||
Top||
#12
EU drops hardline stance on Iran
EU backs down demand to-> UN = a new property of softness.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/22/2005 9:57 Comments ||
Top||
#13
ed - nukes are so mid-20th century. With the human gnome decoded, the US and a couple of other countries have the means, just not the will, to develop a designer plague and its antidote. Make the antidote and keep it for your side. Tell everyone else to enjoy their record in history. After about the second nuke on the US, the attitude of its either us or them is going to make it them.
#15
an IAEA vote would have been abotu 20-15 in favor of referral - it would have highlighted the split between the West including the EU on the one hand, and the Russians, chinese, and most of the third worlders on the other. We have good reason to want that split out on the table - the EU3 are trying to hide it.
Basically in an a staring match between Putin and the EU, the EU blinked. Unfortunately this isnt much of a surprise.
The fact that the price oe oil is high, strengthenig Putin, and Germany is without a govt, are also factors.
#16
Good stuff. Many countries have nuclear power - including the USA. Why shouldn't Iran?
G.
Posted by: G. ||
09/22/2005 11:48 Comments ||
Top||
#17
A little taste G:
----
"If a day comes when the world of Islam is duly equipped with the arms Israel has in possession, the strategy of colonialism would face a stalemate because application of an atomic bomb would not leave any thing in Israel but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world", Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani told the crowd at the traditional Friday prayers in Tehran.
"Jews shall expect to be once again scattered and wandering around the globe the day when this appendix is extracted from the region and the Muslim world", Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani warned, blaming on the United States and Britain the "creation of the fabricated entity" in the heart of Arab and Muslim world.
----
"Death to America" is the mantra of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It has sponsored numerous attacks on Jews and Americans. How about the USA applying "Death to Iran" before the former can be implemented, or are only muslims allowed to do that?
Posted by: ed ||
09/22/2005 12:05 Comments ||
Top||
#18
The UN continues its unfettered descent into irrelevance ...
Aferdite Hasanaj looks like any of her high school friends. But there's a difference: Every three months for the past 13 years, since her family fled Kosovo on the eve of the Yugoslavia war, she's had to ask permission to remain in Germany. As a refugee whose asylum claim was rejected, she was subject to expulsion any time. In April, the government told her to go back "home" to Kosovo, squashing her dreams of going to college in Frankfurt. "I've never been to Kosovo, I can't speak the language, don't know the culture," the 17- year-old said at a recent rally held to protest her expulsion. "The feeling of not having the right to belong fills me with despair."
Across Germany, 220,000 war refugees denied asylum have shared Aferdite's plight. But in a backdrop of public wariness about their perceived drain on the social system and an improved political situation in their countries, the government is speeding their return. "How can a country expel a child who's been here for 13 years, who is good in school?" says Volker Ludwig of the GRISP Theater in Berlin, which staged a play about the deportation of a family. "Such a practice is unique in Europe, and it's outrageous."
This summer, Germany's 16 state interior ministers voted to hasten the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees to Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. And in May, the state of Hamburg began repatriating Afghans, saying that stability there had returned. The trend is spreading across Europe, especially in countries with former liberal asylum policies such as Holland, Norway, Denmark, and England. Governments are implementing plans for faster and more efficient returns of refugees. "There is a new intensity in the harshness of the repatriation," says Karl Kopp, European representative of Pro Asyl, a Frankfurt-based advocacy group for refugees. There's a boom, says Mr. Kopp, in so-called "departure institutions," where refugees with failed asylum claims receive counseling meant to prepare them to leave voluntarily in exchange for receiving a stipend and food. "The thinking in these institutions is: 'what can I do when I can't expel somebody?' " says Kopp. "The only way is to make life more difficult - to limit the people's freedom of movement, to go as far as possible so that the people have no choice but want to leave."
Government officials stress that those denied asylum know from the beginning that they will not receive legal status. Doing so "would send a signal to those who want to come to Germany: to stay here permanently, all you have to do is postpone getting your permit," says Wilfried Schmaeing of the Interior Ministry. Germany's asylum regulations are considered among Europe's toughest. Until recently, only victims of state persecutions could receive asylum. Those fleeing civil wars like in Kosovo received a "tolerated status" because the persecution they had suffered did not come directly from the state. The new immigration act that went into effect this year loosened the regulations, recognizing persecutions by nonstate agents such as those suffered in Kosovo. At the same time, Germany has become more efficient and less human in sending home those denied asylum, critics say.
"The issue is becoming very politicized," says Patricia Coelho of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles in London. "Politicians are concerned about sharing with their public that they are being tough on asylum." In England, "uncooperative" asylum seekers with rejected claims, with the exception of those with families, now see their welfare benefits withdrawn. In Holland, refugees denied asylum can now be denied social support after 28 days. Last year, Norway started charging hundreds of special officers with returning asylum seekers. Refugees denied asylum can also be denied access to the labor market or social protection. "There is a tendency for industrialized nations to develop a policy to help induce or force people who've not been granted any kind of status to repatriate," says Ms. Coelho. Those asylum seekers, she says "form a growing segment of vulnerable, poor and marginalized people in European societies." Although there are fewer and fewer asylum seekers in Europe, those asking for asylum are seeing their claims denied in greater number, says Ms. Coelho.
In Frankfurt, Europe's most multiethnic city, Aferdite's classmates rallied to her side. And Aferdite will most likely be able to stay at least until she finishes high school because a German family has committed to support her financially here. But her mother and two siblings are most likely going to be expelled next year.
Posted by: ed ||
09/22/2005 06:56 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sympathy meter reading on zero. I wish we were doing the same thing to all the illegals here.
Posted by: mac ||
09/22/2005 10:37 Comments ||
Top||
#2
It's less what you do then how you do it.
After being ultra-liberal in their policies for years, when the pendulum swings the other direction they end up deporting them like Jews before WWII.
America has long been much harder for legitimate refugees to enter, but as a rule we try to be fair about it. Stay or return, we don't as a rule kick them down a flight of stair on the way out if we decide they can't stay.
As far as the illegals in the US, there really should be a double standard. If you work hard and better yourself and your family, you are welcome. If you are a criminal, troublemaker or just hope to live on the dole, get out now and don't come back or we will put you in a subcontracted prison in Mexico.
I know a handful of third-generation Mexicans living in the US, and they have totally integrated into the middle class. They call themselves Americans, not Mexicans or Mexican-Americans, and often vote republican.
Unlike other immigrants who follow the 1st-2nd-3rd generations rule, the Mexicans are unique because all three generations are in the US at the same time. But if the current crop of 3rd generations are any indicator, they will be a fine asset to our country.
#3
As far as the illegals in the US, there really should be a double standard. If you work hard and better yourself and your family, you are welcome. If you are a criminal
they already spit on our national sovereignty and borders. They already ARE criminals
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2005 21:22 Comments ||
Top||
It's not easy staging a cross-country antiwar protest, even a tiny cross-country antiwar protest. Just ask the organizers of Cindy Sheehan's "Bring Them Home Now" tour, which rolled into Washington Wednesday, starting with a hassle with police near the Capitol and ending with a minor traffic accident just a few yards from the White House. It was that kind of day.
Sheehan was scheduled to appear at noon on the front lawn of the Capitol. It couldn't be called a rally; just a handful of Washington supporters showed up on the lawn to join dozens of journalists. The real stars were the TV crews; 15 cameras were set up in a semi-circle in front of a bank of microphones where Sheehan would speak.
But noon came and went, with no Sheehan. A young man named Ryan Fletcher, from an organization called the Mintwood Media Collective, paced around, a cell phone to his ear, getting updates from the three buses in which Sheehan and her supporters were riding. Less well-known than Fenton Communications, which advised Sheehan last month during her protest near the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, Mintwood describes itself as "a worker-owned and operated public relations firm born in the aftermath of the mobilization against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington DC, April 16th and 17th, 2000." "Major funding for the Cindy Sheehan Show is provided in part by Mintwood Media Collective--Your One-Stop Solution for Speaking Truth To Power and Sticking It To The Man.SM"
During that protest, Mintwood boasts, it came up with "a comprehensive media strategy that succeeded in placing stories on the front pages of major newspapers, on local and national television and radio, and Internet information sites worldwide." It promises to do the same for clients today. "If you have a Truth to speak to Power, a Man to Stick It To, or a major international conference to disrupt, give us a call or visit our website at . . ."
But on this day the clients were having a hard time getting to the media. Fletcher explained that the buses had been held up by Capitol Hill police "Omigaia! The Pigs--they're gonna shoot Mother Sheehan! Rove planned this, I tell ya. Run, Cindy, it's a trap!"
while officers performed routine searches for weapons and explosives. They'd be arriving soon.
But 15 minutes passed, then 30, then 40, and still no Sheehan. . . . To keep the moonbats entertained, Steve Earle pulled out his guitar and sang the extended club-dance remix version of "The Revolution Starts Nowin 20 minutesLater Today Whenever The Hell Cindy Gets Here, And I'm Tired Of Waiting Too, Damnit."
But when the buses arrived, they weren't buses at all. Instead, the "Bring Them Home Now" bus tour â the "o" in "Now" was a 60s-style peace sign â consisted of three rented recreational vehicles, "Gas-guzzling RVs! With every mile, despoiling the fragile ecosystem and putting more obscene profits in the pockets of the Bush Oil Conspiracy! Who's the treasonous Rethuglican behind the wheel?"
"Cindy Sheehan."
"Oh. Never mind."
each with perhaps ten or twelve people on board. That was it. "Our movement is growing every day. Yesterday we only had nine."
First out was a woman named Lisa Fithian. A well-known organizer in the world of anti-globalism anarchists and antiwar protesters, Fithian played a major role in the violent shutdown of Seattle during the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting, was a key planner in protests at the Republican and Democratic national conventions in 2000 and 2004, and organized demonstrations at trade meetings in Washington, D.C., Prague, and Genoa. Last month, Fithian told National Review Online that she had been with Sheehan since the first day of the Crawford protest. And Wednesday, in Washington, Fithian was clearly the woman in charge. . . .
When the group made it to the microphones, it soon became apparent that, after six weeks in the public eye, there was nothing much that Sheehan could say that she had not said â and had not been reported â a thousand times before. "Hi, it's been one month and fifteen days since crawled out of the slime I sat down in a ditch in Crawford, Texas," she began. "I had no idea that this would be the result. I knew we were going to be here for the United for Peace and Justice rally in September, on the 24, and I knew I was already asked to speak at that, but I didn't know we were going to be bringing a whole movement with us." "A whole dozen of 'em!"
Well, sort of. After Sheehan and a few others spoke, the group pulled out a blow-up of a letter to President Bush, which Sheehan signed as photographers captured the scene. As the rest of the group added their signatures, Sheehan walked away to sit on the lawn behind the microphones. A few photographers followed her, and when she sat down she seemed to muse on the strangeness of it all. "Cindy Sheehan sitting on the grass," she said.
As she did, Fithian assembled a huddle of the organizing team and began to give orders for the rest of the day. She explained how they would be going to the White House, how they would set up a mini-Camp Casey on the Mall, how they would take the subway to a hostel that had been arranged for them to stay during the protest.
About that time, a cameraman shooting the scene noticed something. "I've seen a lot of these people before," he said. Pointing to a woman a few feet away, he said, "That one was at the World Bank thing. They're professional protesters." . . .
Indeed, the photographer's observation pointed to something telling about the day. On close examination, the Cindy Sheehan phenomenon appears not to be a mass movement of any sort but rather to consist of a small group of relatives of U.S. servicemen and women â there were perhaps 30 in all with Sheehan on Wednesday â accompanied and guided by a group of full-time puppeteers organizers like Fithian, Benjamin, and the people from Mintwood Media Collective. People like Sheehan and the other Iraq relatives â many of them grieving and angry â don't know how one goes about organizing protests. Fithian and Benjamin do.
This isn't a "grassroots" movement, it's an "astroturf" one.
After the Capitol meeting broke up, the group re-boarded the gas-guzzling eco-unfriendly RVs and headed toward the White House. . . .
At the White House, the small group was nearly crushed by photographers as Sheehan handed the signed letter through the iron fence to a staffer inside the White House grounds. Sheehan was asked about a report that top Bush adviser Karl Rove had referred to her as a "clown" in an off-the-record discussion. "I may be a clown, but a lot of people who are in there are criminals," Sheehan said, pointing behind her. "And we need to get them out of our house."
After a few more questions, Sheehan headed back to the RVs. When the group arrived, someone turned on an external sound system, which began playing "The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary." The air was filled with folk music from many decades ago.
"This land is your land, this land is my land..."
What follows needs no embellishment. Truth is better than fiction, every time.
The entourage began to pull away. But just at that moment, as the RV in the rear of the group began to move, someone on the sidewalk yelled out, "The Vespa! The Vespa!" It turns out the rear bumper of the RV had caught on a motorcycle parked on the sidewalk; when the oversized, gas-guzzling eco-unfriendly RV moved forward, it dragged the fuel-efficient Vespa to the ground and broke off a large piece of its windshield.
Peter, Paul and Mary kept singing. "How many roads must a man walk down? Before you call him a man?"
Fithian stuck her head outside the RV. "Oh, sh*t," she said, seeing the fallen cycle.
"You broke the Vespa!" someone yelled from the street. "You broke the Vespa!"
Fithian called for some men to help her prop up the cycle. She then began to write a note to leave for the Vespa's owner. At that point, a man came out of a building â he said he knew who owned the cycle â and began to write down the RV's license plate number. He said he would go find the owner.
Fithian decided to wait. Unable to stay still for long, she paced back and forth for a while before pulling out a cigarette. "No wonder I started smoking," she said as she lighted up.
Peter, Paul and Mary kept singing. "It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe..."
After a while, the owner, a middle-aged man, came out, carrying a small digital camera. He was quite understanding about the accident and exchanged information with Fithian. He took a few pictures of the damage. Fithian pulled out the RV rental brochure â on the front, it said "Your fun has just begun" â and pulled out a document to give the man. There was a long wait while someone went inside to copy it.
Peter, Paul and Mary kept singing. "That's what you get for lovin' meeeee..."
While all this was going on â a half-hour passed before the situation was cleared up â Sheehan and the rest of the group were stuck in their RVs, waiting to leave. . . .
"Rove did it, I tell ya! He put that Vespa there to frame Cindy so's they could arrest her and send her off to Guantanamo in a black helicopter and distract attention from . . . ."
Posted by: Mike ||
09/22/2005 11:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
"Fithian called for some men to help her prop up the cycle." Exactly how weak are these vegan protestors? A vespa can't be that hard to stand up, hell my 14-year-old daughter could stand one up. And she was smoking and driving an SUV? Pandering to BIG tobacco and oil? If they stopped by McDonalds then they have to turn in their anti-globalization and ACLU cards.
I feel like a little rant thingy. Pretend this was "found" on The Blog Of Death or something.
[rant]
Sometimes, no matter what the facts, people simply refuse to accept reality if it fails to match their preferred World View. That self-selected, not reality elected, World View may be Universalist Utopian, Gaiain, Nirvanian, Islamo Club Paradiso, 72 Virginian, Ganja Rastafarian, TranzioSocioFascioMaoIstapukian, Pinkly Partisan Proctological, Holy Holesome Hollyweirdness, Social Net Testers For A Free Ride, Grand Marches and Traffic Jams For No Reason, Naked Romps For Piece, Naked Spelling Bees, Paper-Mache Latte Artsy-Fartsian, Roaring-Head Big Hugs, Fools For Tools, Comet Cult Cutesy, or Stoners For - um - I Forget. Same same. It ain't reality, so it's fantasy. To say they're persistent is to acknowledge their institutional alliance, from the Perverted Press to Idiotarian Intelligentsia to Academicians of the Revisionist Revolution to Ist-Enabler Foundations of Piece in Our Minds.
Ironically, without the social base of normal sane people, underpinning every aspect of society, these superfluous parasitical pukes couldn't exist - they'd have to get real and get jobs and perform - or starve. These hardworking folks carry the dead weight of the fantasists on their backs. The burden is considerable - and worsening. Something Ugly This Way Comes. A tipping point will come when they say, "Why? Why play by the rules when the game is rigged with such huge pus-filled pockets of zoomers and slackers, systemic hernias, a plethora of pointless pikers? Why not get me a piece o' that pie? Screw this gig - working for a living be hard - and they prove that you don't have to..." And well they should ask, for it is so on an individual level. Cumulatively, however, that shifts the tipping point - advances the moment of truth. I think that point approaches quickly.
Let 'em win. Yeah, you heard me. Let the dipshits have it for awhile - say 8 years. You can either bleed for a long time, dancing on the edge of gangrene and systemic failure - or you can take preventative action - and amputate the diseased limbs. Let the process run on high for awhile - and demonstrate its fatal nature. Pull out all of our forces - from everywhere. Bring 'em home for R&R. Let 'em see The Real Enemy. Let the Oil Machine both nearly ruin us with costs and fund those who hate us so much that they live to die and live to kill us, however ineptly. Let them set us up for a few major hits - and take it on the chin a few times. There will be some terminal irony - the focus will be on the Moonbat enclaves. NYC gone? Damn! That sucks. SF gone? Oh shit! I'll miss The Wharf. ChiTown slid into the Big Waters? Gosh, where will I get good Italian Sausage Deep Dish Pizza, now? And let the ChiComs become a bona-fide threat - militarily our equal - almost. It's inevitable that we will be forced to decimate them, en masse, someday - they insist - a job for a very few Boomers, actually. Let that moment become crystal clear.
So. When the shit and fan become one and feces have been flung far and wide and everyone with sense thinks this is It, Take It Back - by force. Amputate the losers - and that means whatever they want it to mean, as long as it means they cease forever living in LalaLand. The Big Sleep. Working stiff. Whatever. Terminate The Little Kingdoms, The Middle Kingdoms, the WakiLands, the TackyLands, the Jungle Schemers, and the Tranzi Dreamers - the lot. Fuck it. Randy Newman was right: No one likes us. *sniff* Neutron devices would be best. We'll sit by the campfires with our surviving understated Cousins and gregarious Ozzy bros and feel really bad. We'll sing "Kumbayah" out of key, pop a few brewskis, tell tall tales of imagined loss and commiseration, just for them. It'll be quite touching. We'll stage something like the Hunter Thompson DeathFest of Pointless Pomp & Poopery. Promise. Later.
I'm thinking trauma is not to be avoided, but embraced. Beats the hell out of this death by a thousand cuts bullshit.
#8
at about $1000 a week and $.30 per mile rental per, plus gas, twelve occupants per RV (!), gonna be some extra cleanup charges incurred, this is the best they can do?
Posted by: john ||
09/22/2005 14:30 Comments ||
Top||
#9
YJCMTSU?
Posted by: Mike ||
09/22/2005 15:01 Comments ||
Top||
Perhaps nothing signifies the death grip in which the Far-Left now holds the Democratic Party than this announcement: Hillary Clinton has agreed to meet with antiwar extremist Cindy Sheehan. The leftist rag the Village Voice has reported that this weekend, between rallies at the White House sponsored by United for Peace and Justice and International ANSWER, Sheehan will make a side trip to share her concerns and keen foreign policy insights with the likely 2008 Democratic presidential candidate.
Hillaryâs decision comes after Sheehan told the press she was âso frustratedâ with the Democratic all-star for not endorsing immediate, unilateral withdrawal from Iraq. At a rally on Sunday, Sheehan reassured her supporters Hillary is âwaiting for the best political moment to sayâ she favors the pullout, warning Hillary in no uncertain terms: âYou say it, or youâre losing your job.â
Sheehanâs fiery rhetoric represents a new tactic: targeting prominent Democrats for defeat if they do not parrot her solution to Iraq. âItâs time for them to step up and be the opposition party,â Sheehan said. Learning the lessons of Vietnam, Sheehan forecasts, âThis war is not going to end unless the Democrats are on board with us.â
Sheehan has already alerted the public that Sen. Dianne Feinstein âwill also go on our Hall of Shameâ for opposing her cut-and-run plan â which experts agree will lead to massive bloodshed and the collapse of the new democratic government. (Sheehan claimed the aide Feinstein dispatched to meet with her acted âdefensive and borderline rudeâ â and probably sexist, too.) In her open letter to Congress, she threatens politicians of both parties, âMeet with us, answer us, and show us that there need not be a Camp Casey in your district.â
Posted by: The Ghost of Vince Foster ||
09/22/2005 10:14 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Cindy sure got off to a big start yesterday: Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed fighting in Iraq and who camped for weeks outside U.S. President George W. Bush's Texas ranch to protest the war, brought her message to Washington on Wednesday with rallies and lobbying ahead of a larger demonstration this weekend. Sheehan was joined by about 30 supporters in her march down Pennsylvania Avenue to deliver a letter to Bush urging him to pull the troops out of Iraq.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/22/2005 10:20 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The Washington Times reporter counted "about a dozen" supporters and a "scrum of unruly camera operators and reporters."
#4
...and make sure there's a helluva lot more witnesses people then that around. I thought you were famous or something?
Posted by: The Ghost of Vince Foster ||
09/22/2005 10:31 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Sheehan was joined by about 30 supporters in her march down Pennsylvania Avenue
But did she have her own theme music? I think Jonah Goldberg got more people than that walking down Washington Avenue in Minneapolis. Partly because Jonah's no moonbat, and partly because he had the theme music. ("You should be dancin'... Yeah!"--thanks for the detailed account, Mr. Lileks)
#6
I wonder what Hillery is planning. I can't see any advantage to her meeting with Sheehan, but it coould hurt her with the more centrists of the Democrats. she's got nothing to gain.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/22/2005 11:06 Comments ||
Top||
#7
poor hilary. at least she doesnt have to meet with Monica.
#8
I can't see any advantage to her meeting with Sheehan
She has to appease the far-left activists that have become the base of the Dimocratic Party. If she doesn't, they can cause a lot of trouble during primary season.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/22/2005 11:33 Comments ||
Top||
#9
You think Hillary will ask her about the $100,000 or so that Shitheads(sheehans') CRONIES stole out of La.?????
Maybe she'll punch Hill in the mouth!!!!
#14
If you hold a protest in DC while the Mother Of All Storms is leveling Houston, will anyone hear you?
Damm, Karl Rove is good.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/22/2005 13:31 Comments ||
Top||
#15
if hilary doesnt meet with sheehan, they'll sya shes just like Bush. this way she defuses that - but doesnt really offer sheehan anything - the woman who lived with Bill all those years is quite capable of meeting with someone, and not opening up to her. MOre so than Bush, I suspect. and shes not the president, so getting a meeting with Hilary simply isnt that big a deal.
#16
Wonder if Hillary!--or John McCain, for that matter--is meeting with Mother Sheehan for the express purpose of doing a Sister Souljah on her. I can see Hillary! pulling it off, though having ex-POW McCain quote Cindy's more aggressive anti-American rhetoric in front of the cameras, and then proceeding to rip her a new orifice, would be much more effective.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/22/2005 13:51 Comments ||
Top||
#17
nah, mike, Hilary isnt as bold as Bill was, and shes in a different position. In 1992 the left had been on losing streak, and clinton promised victory, out of the blue _ DLC was young and vibrant and the left was dead. And sista souljah was a perfect target - even blacks (the ones who were old enough to vote) didnt like her. Now hilary has to deal with the likes of Soros, and Moveon, and Kos. And Sheehan, is, lets recall, a mom of a dead soldier, not a rap star. Nah, Hilarry wont pull Souljah here. She'll poliitely nod, then make a statement that ignores what Sheehan actually said. This is like taking medecine for Hilary you dont like it, but it must be done.
#18
Yes, LH, but will Cindy Sheehan keep her yap shut and go back to California after the meeting? Her "Crusade" is nothing more than a few hangers-on being run by professional agitators. I don't see her being a player and I don't think Hillary has anything to gain by meeting with her. Except to say, "I did and Bush didn't". Even Feinsein wouldn't. That really got some of the real loonies knickers in a not. The were claiming she was a closet Republican. The attacks on the Democratic leadership are really something to read.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/22/2005 16:23 Comments ||
Top||
#19
Hillary's gonna turn into Darth Vader's wife when them two meet; I think Sheehan's toast. But like LH says, the war between hard left and left / centrist/left (for lack of a more descriptive term) will continue regardless of what happens here. It looks like the MSM will cover Sheehan quite a while after most of us (especially myself) predicted Sheehan's use to them would have been well over.
#20
So the leading candidate for the Democrats is going to meet with the face of ANSWER and other anti-American groups.
Why is this news? The Democrats love the people who hate the US, and vice versa.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/22/2005 16:46 Comments ||
Top||
#21
You make a pretty persuasive case there, 'Hawk. Still, I wonder . . .
Let us imagine (per 'Hawk's speculation) that Hillary! meets with Cindy and issues this mushy, wishy-washy, noncommittal statement that can be spun either way on the war but ends with "oh, and I met her but the president didn't." Then, Cindy meets with John McCain -- and McCain pulls the Souljah, just unloads on her about her anti-Americanism like he's dropping napalm from his A-4. How does that play out? Badly for Hillary!, I think.
Now, Hillary! is nothing if not smart. Might she already have wargamed this scenario?
Posted by: Mike ||
09/22/2005 16:55 Comments ||
Top||
#22
I am wondering if Cindy heard the Godfather theme when she was ushered in to see Saint Hillary? "Why did it come to this?"
Al Gore is poised to make a comeback and could pose a serious challenge to Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential race.
Treebeard vs the Hilldabeast, what a choice
Thatâs the surprising news from "Inside Washingtonâ columnist Deborah Orin of the New York Post, who writes that the former vice president "is suddenly re-emerging as a vocal and visible Bush-basher.â
He never left
A Democratic insider told Orin that Gore â who is slated to star at a Democratic National Committee fund-raiser next week â is "keeping a very strong public profile. "He was the first major Democrat to oppose the Iraq war. Heâs keeping in touch around the country and doing a lot of speeches. You donât do all that if your goal is to play celebrity golf.â Why should Hillary worry?
Al knows where the bodies are buried?
Iraq is the hot-button issue for the staunchly left-wing Democrats who have a major impact on the presidential primaries, and while Gore was loudly anti-war from the start, Clinton voted for the war.
Hillary Clinton - Warmonger! Bwahahaha!
Orin writes: "Itâs one thing for Clinton to contemplate a 2008 anti-war foe like little-known Sen. Russ Feingold (Wis.). Itâs quite another to face the MoveOn darling who won the popular vote against George W. Bush.â
I can hear the chanting now; "Al Gore, he's our man! If he can't do it, BusHitler stole the election!"
A top Democratic strategist told Orin: "Americans love comebacks. "He could come back as the new Nixon â somebody who went into the wilderness and found himself.â
But would he recognise himself?
Posted by: Steve ||
09/22/2005 15:23 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
Historically speaking, Gore's pissing into the wind. Check this list out. 12 of the 13 VP's who got to President did so right after their service as VP; Nixon was the only one to have an interregnum (my nominee for word of the day).
Here's the list in chronological order, compiled by me:
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
Martin Van Buren
John Tyler
Millard Filmore
Andrew Johnson
Chester Arthur
Teddy Roosevelt
Calvin Coolidge
Harry Truman
LBJ Tiger Woods Gerald Ford
George Bush Sr.
#9
Actually if Gore would consider the veep spot after losing badly in the primaries the Dem ticket in '08 could be almost unbeatable. With the Hildebeeste swerving sharply to the right and a raving lunatic leftist on the bottom of the ticket they'd be very tough to defeat.
#14
"So, essentially, Democrats are convinced their path to power lies in the defeat of the United States." That hasn't changed sine the late 70s. I may be a Kool Aid drinker but I really think they all hope something bad happens so they can pretend to have an answer. Thank God they are not in power or we would be at the mercy of some tin-horn mad mullah.
#15
2007 will be the coldest year on written record as AlGore tries to resell Kyoto. It's karma
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2005 19:28 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Everybody should remember that Al and Tipper Gore bitterly hate the Clintons. Bill Clinton was best described as a bully to Al, and spent a lot of time humiliating and even physically abusing him. And Hillary was such an utter bitch to Tipper that Tipper refused to go anywhere near her.
Al has actually been pretty cagey since he lost the election, staying in the background and slowly building up support among those-who-hate-Hillary-but-are-not-utter-moonbats.
He holds few illusions about getting elected as President. But it would be a major victory for him if he could prevent Hillary from winning, or at least if he could say he did.
Knowing that Hillary has a big machine, and is more than willing to use it to crush her enemies in the nastiest of ways, Al has to play his cards right if he wants to derail her without ending up as another victim.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/22/2005 20:40 Comments ||
Top||
#20
No, no, no.... No butter. I'm gonna need a lot and butter's fattening!
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/22/2005 20:51 Comments ||
Top||
#21
Robert, I assume that was for publication purposes, not a sudden insight.
Certainly not a sudden insight.
I'll be 35 this October. I cannot remember a time when Democrats stood behind this country and supported it. All I remember is a party dedicated to tearing the country apart or down, or tying us up with endless treaties signed with countries that will crap on the paper before they'll hold up their end.
I believe that Martin Luther King, Jr. is the ideal we should aspire to in re race: "the content of the character, not the color of the skin". The Democrats call that racist; we're supposed to grant people special privileges based on their skin color, apparently because Democrats used to grant OTHER people special privileges based on their skin color. Nothing's changed, I guess, except who the Democrats are getting their votes from.
I hear more bigotry and outright hatred from the left than I do from the right. Yes, there are extremists on the right -- but they don't have a place of honor in the Republican party, and the Republicans have gone so far as to endorse Democrats rather than show even a speck of support for people like David Duke. On the other side, Cynthia McKinney, Robert Byrd, and hundreds of others who are openly racist are warmly welcomed.
As far as I can tell, the Democrats have turned into the "rule or ruin" party, out for power for its own sake. The future of the US never enters their minds; do they care if they poison race relations with lies, if it gains them a percentage point in the next election? Do they care about destroying the best hope for a change in the Middle East (and improved security for civilization in general), if they can garner a handle of votes in the process? Hell no.
I certainly don't agree with the Republican party or its base on everything; I don't care about abortion (except that I don't think the courts should be the legislators), and I'm opposed to chasing science out of the schools to make the overly-literal-minded happy. But at least you can still find Republicans who give a damn about the future of this country.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/22/2005 22:10 Comments ||
Top||
#22
Don't call it a comeback! He's been there for years! ALgore was a political animal from birth, he knows nothing else in this world. Poor wounded animal he is, I can't see him avoiding sticking his own foot in his A*% early in any campaign. The competition's up to beating AlGore to a bloody pulp but suffering from a few gaping blindspots in her political CYA/Exploit vision. Clinton's problem is that in essence she is no more than just a lying heartless opportunist who always wanted to be the boss of everyone because she knows best and is, in her estimation, morally and intellectually superior to the hubby she loathes but all her supporters admire. She can't help but look ugly when taken in doses beyond a soundbite because the need to be everything to all takes it's toll in quick order.
#25
Gore missed his chance to be president when Clinton dodged the impeachment bullet. Looking at Raj's list of vice presidents who became president, I was struck that everyone on the list between Van Buren and Ford became president through the death of the president. For all intents and purposes, Ford became president upon the political deaths of Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon. George H. W. Bush is the only vp in modern times to become president through election. No chance, Al. You would be better off to become Governor of Tennessee.
#28
âEverybody should remember that Al and Tipper Gore bitterly hate the Clintons...[as they should-he paid Billâs bill]...Bill Clinton was best described as a bully to Al, and spent a lot of time humiliating... him...[donât feel singled out now, Al-itâs Billâs specialty.]
âActually if Gore would consider the veep spot after losing badly in the primaries the Dem ticket in '08 could be almost unbeatable. With the Hildebeeste swerving sharply to the right and a raving lunatic leftist on the bottom of the ticket they'd be very tough to defeat.â
The cast of characters might change, but the principle could work. What is that war adage about confusing your enemy?
Over the din of beating tom-toms, surrounded by activists wearing antlers and dressed as polar and grizzly bears, Senator Clinton yesterday dismissed high gas prices and the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina as a "diversion," cautioning that proponents of arctic drilling were exploiting recent crises to make their case for a long-term anti-environment agenda.
Mrs. Clinton's remarks were delivered to hundreds of demonstrators amassed on the West Lawn of the Capitol as part of Arctic Refuge Action Day, and her midday speech followed remarks by other congressional Democrats, including Senator Kerry of Massachusetts. The roster of participants included several environmentalists and left-leaning activists, among them the director of the Religious Action Center of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi David Saperstein, and a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Mrs. Clinton told those opposed to drilling to be "absolutely firm in our opposition" to drawing petroleum from Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "Some might say, 'Well, senator, we have gas prices going up - don't we need to drill in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge?'" Mrs. Clinton said. "And of course the answer is that we do not. The answer is that that is a diversion. The answer is that we need to break our addiction to foreign oil."
Posted by: ed ||
09/22/2005 07:49 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
From the Clintons and the Democratic party - master exploiters of disaster. Hey, wasn't RFK Jr the first to blame Bush for Katrina happening becasue he didn't sign the Kyoto protocol? And didn't Kerry and Edwards denounce Bush for the "slow response" of the Feds to Katrina. Funny that this latest instance of Dem's hypocrisy is not commented on (yawn) since its become their standard operating procedure.
#5
"Bemoaning the fate of the porcupine caribou resident in ANWR..."
We're not talking endangered species here...
http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/ANWR/anwrcaribou.html
Excerpt: "Both the Porcupine and Central Arctic Herds are biologically healthy. After a long period of stability at around 100,000 animals, the Porcupine Herd began to grow steadily during the late 1970s and 1980s and reached 180,000 animals by 1989. The herd then decreased during a series of severe winters and was down to 160,000 in 1992. In 1994, the Porcupine Herd numbered 152,000..."
We've got about 50% more than during "a long period of stability". And they migrate too -- it's not like they'll be hanging out at the oil rigs all the time.
#7
In honor of Hillary and RFK Jr., I believe New Yorkers and Massachusetters should use as much oil as they can produce in New York and Massachusetts.
Posted by: ed ||
09/22/2005 9:36 Comments ||
Top||
#8
I shoulda gone dressed as a pipeline...
LOL, w/ a little bucket of oil. That would make the loons go wild.
Clintoons 'a mangling: After the next couple of years we won't be able to recognize the triangle.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/22/2005 9:39 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Does Clinton oppose Senator Inhofes' bill because of her enviromental concerns? Maybe her comments were just to see the dancing bears cheer. Or is it something more partisian?
(S. 1711) would allow the EPA to ease environmental laws to facilitate the post-Katrina rebuilding effort, [as] "is necessary to respond, in a timely and effective manner, to a situation or damage relating to Hurricane Katrina."
If the Dems want to bitch about beauocracy slowing down federal response look no further then the massive red tape of the EPA.
#13
Ram it down their throats with votes every month til it passes, and rules to expedite refinery construction. Make Hillary and Chucky vote against ANWAR so that when grandma dies in the cold they have to wear the badge of shame
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2005 21:14 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Wait - I thought HIGH GAS PRICES = GOOD. Didn't Algore say that.
Senators from both parties accused the Defense Department on Wednesday of obstructing an investigation into whether a highly classified intelligence program known as Able Danger did indeed identify Mohamed Atta and other future hijackers as potential threats well before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The complaints came after the Pentagon blocked several witnesses from testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a public hearing on Wednesday. The only testimony provided by the Defense Department came from a senior official who would say only that he did not know whether the claims were true.
But members of the panel, led by Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said they regarded as credible assertions by current and former officers in the program. The officers have said they were prevented by the Pentagon from sharing information about Mr. Atta and others with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A Pentagon spokesman had said the decision to limit testimony was based on concerns about disclosing classified information, but Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said he believed the reason was a concern "that they'll just have egg on their face." Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, accused the Pentagon of "a cover-up" and said, "I don't get why people aren't coming forward and saying, 'Here's the deal, here's what happened.' "
The Pentagon has acknowledged that at least five members of Able Danger have said they recall a chart produced in 2000 that identified Mr. Atta, who became the lead hijacker in the Sept. 11 plot, as a potential terrorist, but they have said that others with knowledge of the project do not remember that. "Did we have information that identified Mohamed Atta?" said William Dugan, an assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld for intelligence oversight, restating a question put to him. "I've heard the testimony presented, but I don't know."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:07 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I watched these hearing. I am really upset with lawyers (JAG et. al.).
They have hurt us.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush paid tribute to the nation's Gold Star mothers on Wednesday, honoring the deaths of their sons and daughters in the military as activists began gathering for an Iraq anti-war protest on Saturday.
Bush proclaimed Sunday as Gold Star Mother's Day and instructed that the U.S. flag be flown over government buildings. He also urged Americans to display the flag as well. ``On Gold Star Mother's Day, we recognize and pray for the devoted and patriotic mothers of these men and women in uniform who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our liberty,'' the president said in his proclamation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Did they ever get that hang up fixed with letting the Phillipino mom into their ranks?
NEW YORK - A Saudi Arabian charitable organization and two Saudi princes were dismissed as defendants in three civil lawsuits accusing them of providing support to Al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
US District Judge Richard Casey made the rulings on Wednesday as he continued deciding who could remain as defendants in cases brought by representatives, survivors and insurance carriers of the victims of the attack. He made similar rulings in January, when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, three princes and several financial institutions were dismissed as defendants.
Yet another reason why the 'law-enforcement' model doesn't work against global terrorism.
On Wednesday, the judge dismissed the Saudi High Relief Commission and Saudi Princes Salman and Naif as defendants in three lawsuits, saying he lacked jurisdiction to let the cases proceed in the United States. The Relief Commission, formed in 1993 by then-King Fahad bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, was accused in the lawsuits of acting as a fully integrated component of Al Qaedaâs logistical and financial support infrastructure.
The plaintiffs had said that US forces raided its Sarajevo branch in October 2001 and found computer hard drives with photographs of the World Trade Center before and after its collapse along with photos of two US embassies in Africa that were bombed in 1998 and the USS Cole. The plaintiffs also had alleged that US forces found files on pesticides and crop dusters, the locations of Washington, D.C., government buildings, fake Department of State badges and cash.
The lawsuits said Prince Salman, a member of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabiaâs Council of Ministers and the president of the Relief Commission, and Prince Naif, the Saudi minister of the interior since 1975, had provided material support to bin Laden and Al Qaeda.
The judge permitted the litigation to proceed against other defendants, including Tarik Hamdi and Waâel Jalaidan. The lawsuits allege that Hamdi arranged the delivery of a battery for a satellite phone used by bin Laden to coordinate and order the African embassy bombings. Hamdi asserts that he is a journalist and that he did not buy the phone or battery pack, the judge said.
The lawsuits note that the United States has designated Jalaidan a terrorist, frozen his assets and named him one of the founders of Al Qaeda. The judge said Jalaidan, who served as the general director of a charitable group formed to help Pakistanis, maintains that the allegations against him amount to guilt by association.
And it's a pretty strong association.
The judge said Jalaidan is alleged to be affiliated with several other charities in Al Qaedaâs fundraising network. Still, he reduced the scope of the claims permitted to proceed against Jalaidan and Hamdi. He also allowed the case to proceed against Jalaidanâs charity, Rabita Trust.
Attorneys representing families that lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attack said they were pleased the judge allowed the case to continue against the International Islamic Relief Organization of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a charity they said was supported by top Saudi officials and established businessmen.
The judge found that the plaintiffs had made a prima facie case that IIRO was involved in terror plots and directed its activities against the United States, the Kreindler & Kreindler attorneys said in a news release issued Wednesday evening. The suit against IIRO claims it helped bin Laden nurture Al Qaeda in assassination plots against the pope and former President Clinton in 1995 and in money laundering schemes to fund terror attacks in the United States. It also claims the IIRO helped funnel millions of dollars to the Taleban government of Afghanistan while it was shielding bin Laden.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Casey, Richard Conway
Born 1933 in Ithaca, NY
Federal Judicial Service:
U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York Nominated by William J. Clinton on July 16, 1997, to a seat vacated by Charles S. Haight, Jr.; Confirmed by the Senate on October 21, 1997, and received commission on October 24, 1997.
Education:
College of the Holy Cross, B.S., 1955
Georgetown University Law Center, LL.B., 1958
Professional Career:
Legal investigator, District Attorney's Office, New York County, NY, 1958
Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, 1959-1963
Counsel, Special Commission of the State of New York, 1963-1964
Private practice, New York City, 1964-1997
The country's most powerful Shiite cleric endorsed the draft constitution Thursday, rejecting opposition voiced by two popular leaders of Iraq's majority sect and underlining a rift also on display in anti-British violence in the southern city of Basra. Two officials in the Shiite Muslim hierarchy in Najaf said Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called senior aides together and told them to promote a "yes" vote among the faithful during the Oct. 15 national referendum on the constitution.
Iraq's parliament is stifled by back-room deals and lack of attendance, members say. Sounds like politics as usual to me! A mentor once told me "Law is like hotdogs and bologna, the end result is damn good, but I don't advise watching either one of them being made."
Indeed it takes some chicken lips and rat eye balls to make a good tasty hotdog, just as it takes some horrendous deal making and concession giving to write law.
I say stab it onto a stick, hold it over the flame just long enough, throw some mustard on that shit and chew, but that's just me.
By Jill Carroll | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
BAGHDAD - The Transitional National Assembly was to be a starting point for Iraq's fledgling democracy, fostering political debate and consensus building.
But in the past nine months since the parliament was elected, decisionmaking has largely taken place not on the assembly floor but behind closed doors, say lawmakers.
The country's most vital decisions - naming a president, picking ministers, and writing the draft constitution - were taken out their hands and given to only a few powerful leaders, say several members from different parties who were interviewed by the Monitor.
Assembly members say that more often than not they are told to go along with what party leaders want, whether they like it or not. This, coupled with the fact that many members rarely attend meetings - some worry about the threat of assassination - has largely neutralized the country's legislative body of any real power.
Some analysts say this is not uncommon in parliaments where the members are elected by being put on a list of candidates compiled by a party leader, indebting them to those leaders.
"I don't think it's a crisis but if it operates the way it has, it probably means if an Iraqi political system does take hold, you will see a government by back-room deal," says Nathan Brown, a constitutional expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Mr. Brown says such a system won't be a disaster "as long as it's consensual ... [but] if the party leaders treat the parliament as they do their own party, with indifference, and expect them to just go along," then there will be problems.
He says the critical question will be whether the party leaders are truly representing their constituencies in those back-room dealings.
According to Iraq's Transitional Administrative Law, the national assembly was supposed to be the key lever to force consensus building and inclusion of minorities. Bringing Sunnis into the fold politically is seen by many analysts as the only long-term solution to undercut support for the Sunni-led insurgency.
Hanan al-Fatlawi, a member of the majority Shiite list, says sometimes decisions made by the assembly's committees never reach the assembly floor for consideration. "The decisions made by the committees of the national assembly, they change it or hide it. Even the way they explain [a proposed] law to us, it is different every time," she says.
She also complains that the parties are often too worried about future political needs, rather than getting work done for the country.
Empowering the assembly rank and file would require a structural change in the way the members are elected, analysts say, but also a change in the political culture that is still strongly tribal, relying on patronage networks to determine who gets on the lists of candidates.
All that is difficult when constant violence keeps members from revealing their names, much less building ties to voters who would hold them accountable.
Being a national assembly member carries prestige but it also carries the threat of assassination by insurgents and a dangerous journey to the fortresslike Green Zone, the only place safe enough to hold the meetings.
Two weeks ago the assembly failed to open a meeting because they couldn't reach quorum. In frustration, deputy assembly speaker Hussein al-Shahristani issued a stinging rebuke to the absent.
"Let the nation see what is happening in the national assembly .... we will register those that aren't here," he said after starting the meeting late then delaying it another half an hour in the hopes more members would show up.
In the end, about 70 members were present, about half of the number needed for quorum and far from the full membership of 275 people.
Assembly member Nowal Jawad Shukur, who was at the cancelled meeting, says the assembly has kept busy since finishing its main work of writing a draft constitution. But, she notes, "A bird has to sing in tune with the rest of the flock."
Ms. Shukur says most list leaders don't meet with their members and rarely attend assembly meetings. Instead, a representative of the leader usually gathers members and tells them how to vote. "Even if we don't want it, we have to vote with the list," she says.
Last month's constitutional debate exposed the gulf between party leaders and assembly members when the law governing the process was essentially thrown out the window. The charter's deadline was delayed twice before leaders declared negotiations were over, presenting a lightly modified earlier draft to the body without holding a vote by the assembly.
All of this has left many Iraqis feeling excluded from a process that was meant to make them, and especially the Sunni minority, feel they had a stake in their own governance. "I feel like this constitution and the whole process is not for the sake of the people. Iran has a big influence within the constitution, [the leaders] are serving their interests these days," says Husham Hezawi, a Sunni. I thought this was an interesting comment, one can see general Sunni public opinion in this Sunni's comments. No doubt the Insurgency uses this rhetoric constantly, but I haven't seen much of it in the media until now.
"In the next election, people will not vote for this government," says Hayder Abbas, a Shiite who owns a construction and supply company. "The new government hasn't done anything for the people." Funny thing is, the real power in the Iraqi government, the bureaucrats, that were in place during Saddam are the same people running the country now in its agencies departments, etc...Just like Germany after the War, the same people always run the show, the bureaucrats. Indeed they are probably the only qualified people for the jobs, and probably couldn't give a shit less who runs things as long as they've got a job and a paycheck themselves.
How does the old saying go? "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
Freakin parliamentary systems, they show their inherent weaknesses in their Molasses like pace, and the back door deal making in these situations where real answers are needed and fast.
But, in a multi ethnic society like Iraq's we ain't gonna see a nice, simple two party system are we?
Good luck with it boys!
I guess you can say one thing about the Iraqis, they learned the politician game real quickly didn't they.
Reminds me of the scene in Lawrence of Arabia when everyone got to Damascus, the Brits let the Arabs screw their own show up for themselves, and screw it up they did nicely.
#1
This sounds a lot like the US congress. This body is essentially a lame duck parliament, now that the Constitution has been approved, and everybody knows it. The big election in January is where the money is, and campaigning should be in full swing by now.
One of the problems with the Afghanistan election just held is that the people had no idea who they were voting for. Iraq politicians want to communicate with the people as much as possible, both to let them know who they are, where they stand on a multitude of issues, and what their overall party platform is.
They really get the big picture, and I hope in the next few months to see an astounding display of a pre-election frenzy of debates, arguments, discussions, posters, leaflets, and radio and tv ads. The Iraqi on the street should know a lot about his candidates and their opponents.
Ironically, one of the greatest tasks before the new parliament will be to either re-create the Constitution, if rejected by voters; or to tear it apart and re-build it from the ground up.
The statement put out by al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq group on Tuesday, saying they would only strike the Shiites who don't condemn attacks on Sunnis or the US occupation of Iraq, has provoked a harsh response from one of the groups named as not being a target. "In Abu Musab al-Zarqawi making an exception in our case, the Jordanian terrorist is trying to force a split within the Shiite world," said Riad Nur, spokesman for the movement of rebel Shiite imam Moqtada al-Sadr, when interviewed by the Arab newspaper al-Hayat. "With yesterday's statement, in which our movement was excluded from al-Qaeda's total war on the Shiites, he is trying to divide the Shiite school, insinuating that there is a internal conflict between the groups," Nur said. The Shiite spokesman went on to call on the Jordanian insurgent leader and his followers to immediately leave Iraq and stressed that "for our movement, al-Zarqawi is nothing but an enemy and if he falls into the hands of our militia he will be torn apart."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Nothing gets past him, eh?
al-Zarqawi is nothing but an enemy and if he falls into the hands of our militia he will be torn apart.
Nothing against that, as they say, faster please and then sloooooowly.
Iraq expects insurgents to step up attempts to disrupt next month's constitutional referendum and believes the next three months are critical for the country's future as a democratic nation, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Wednesday. In a speech to the U.N. Security Council, Zebari said the international community has a "moral obligation" to help Iraq win the battle against foreign extremists and "thugs" from Saddam Hussein's ousted regime because the country is fighting "to protect the freedoms of the rest of the civilized world."
He called on the United Nations to take "a more vocal and more visible role in Iraq" during next month's constitutional referendum and general elections scheduled on Dec. 15. He urged donors to provide the $107 million required for the elections and to accelerate reconstruction funding to improve basic services to the Iraqi people. And he said the U.S.-led multinational force must remain in Iraq until Iraqi security and military forces are trained and able to take over. "Nowhere are the goals of freedom, democracy and progress more at stake," Zebari told council members at an open meeting. "We know our clear way forward, but we need your help. We need the help of every member nation and this organization to win this fight. We stick together, or we lose together."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: ed ||
09/22/2005 08:17 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Big talk for a bunch of pricks whose victories consist of forcing mentally deficient children blow themselves up in the hopes of killing innocent civilians. If these pieces of excrement were real men and would actually fight with the weapons they brandish, I might have a different opinion of them. As far as I'm concerned, the IDF can back off and shell Gaza until the rubble bounces and everyone of these pricks and their enablers are nothing but random molecules floating in the dust.
DEBKAfile Reveals Exclusively: Ariel Sharon is on the point of stepping down. Barring a last-minute change of heart, the Israeli prime minister plans to retire to his Sycamore Ranch
September 21, 2005, 11:44 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfileâs political sources report that private opinion polls conducted by his team indicated that all critical Likud votes would go against him. Monday, the central committee will decide to bring forward the leadership primary from April to December, as demanded by his rivals Netanyahu and Landau.
He is not expected to fight this decision or respond by setting up a new party alliance. Our Washington sources add that President Bush has been informed of Sharonâs plan to retire.
Israelâs domestic security chief warned yesterday that Al Qaeda is poised to infiltrate the Gaza Strip and the Jewish state and that Palestinian police are incapable of controlling armed militants.
Also yesterday, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Israel âwonât allow Hamasâ to participate in Palestinian parliament elections in January. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had earlier threatened to withhold Israeli cooperation if the group takes part.
Yuval Diskin, in his first on-the-record briefing since taking over the Shin Bet security service in May, termed the Palestinian Authorityâs ability to enforce law and order in Gaza to be ânegligible at best.â He said that although Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas opposes terror, his ruling Fatah party is crumbling and, if it does not strengthen, will not be able to control Gaza.
Diskin was commenting on the chaotic situation on the Gaza-Egypt border in the days after Israelâs exit from Gaza last week, when thousands crossed unchecked, bringing large quantities of weapons into the coastal strip. He said he is concerned that groups linked to Al Qaeda would find their way into Israel or the Gaza Strip over the newly porous border.
In Egyptâs Sinai desert, âthere is a strong infrastructure of world terror linked to Al Qaida â stronger than the Egyptians themselves were aware of,â Diskin said. âThe Egyptians are having a hard time getting on top of it.â
Abbas visited the Egypt-Gaza border yesterday and said it would be opened on a trial basis for two days, starting Friday, for students and medical cases. He also called on radicals to stop displaying weapons on the streets, his strongest statement on the subject.
Diskin said he was afraid weapons smuggled into Gaza would eventually find their way into the West Bank and that violent groups would shift their focus there. Also, Hamas official Said Siam said radical groups have promised to end all military parades after Saturday. Since Israelâs pullout, completed last week, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have staged large rallies featuring gunmen firing in the air.
Siam said the commitment, made in a meeting with Abbas in Gaza City, did not mean the radicals would give up their weapons. Celebrations at the evacuated West Bank settlements continued. Dozens of gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrsâ Brigades fired in the air. âThis is our victory ... the victory of your weapons,â Zakariye Zubeydi, a leader of the gunmen, told several hundred supporters. âWe will continue to expel them (Israelis) from every centimeter of Palestine.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:06 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Fred's hair has hinted at growing back one day, too.
The militant Islamic group Hamas could one day accept the existence of the state of Israel and negotiate, one of its political leaders said yesterday in an unprecedented sign of compromise.
Okay, now read this article and someone point out any iota of compromise on the part of Hamas. This Scotsman reporter oughta go look up gullible in the dictionary.
For years, Hamas has criticised the ruling Fatah movement of the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, for allegedly selling out claims to all of historic Palestine by recognising Israel and confining the Palestinian struggle to the West Bank and Gaza Strip areas occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. But Mohammed Ghazal, a respected figure within the movement from the West Bank city of Nablus, said yesterday: "The [Hamas] charter is not the Koran. Historically, we believe all of Palestine belongs to the Palestinians, but we're talking now about reality, about political solutions. The realities are different."
Okay, so the 'respected' (by whom?) spokescritter talks about political solutions. Coincidentally,
Hamas is about to join the Palestinian Authority's political system by participating in January's legislative elections. Mr Ghazal is believed to be intent on projecting a more moderate image for the movement as it comes under international scrutiny in advance of the legislative elections and faces mounting pressure to disarm. The movement has made it clear it will not disarm its military wing, responsible for dozens of suicide bombings against civilian and military targets, even after the election.
"Compromise our weapons? Never!"
Analysts differed over whether Mr Ghazal's comments suggested Hamas might take a more moderate approach.
Yes please, let's check with the analysts...since nobody is capable of coming to any conclusions without their keen insights.
Mr Ghazal's remarks were described as "unusual" and "a new language" by Ziyad Abu Amr, a Palestinian MP who is also an expert on the movement. But they elicited cool reactions from other leading figures within Hamas and from Israel.
It's probably the only area in which Israel agrees with Hamas...that Hamas will never accept Israel in any shape or form, and that any attempt to paper over this fact is either willfully ignorant, or actively working to bring about Hamas' aims.
Hamas is considered a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States, but its political potency became clear when it scored well against Fatah in municipal elections earlier this year. Amid dissatisfaction with continued occupation in the West Bank, security chaos and perceived corruption in the Palestinian Authority, Hamas is expected to make another major advance in the legislative elections.
Hamas also generates great organizational charisma in the form of armed henchmen.
Mr Ghazal said it was still too early to talk about recognising Israel "while Israel does not recognise me as the victim".
Always with the victimology. Victim, victim, victim. No compromise here.
He said any Hamas talks with Israel would still depend on its withdrawing from the West Bank and East Jerusalem and a "right of return" for Palestinian refugees.
No compromise here either.
"The Israelis should reach that stage when they feel they should negotiate with us and at that time I don't think there will be a problem of negotiating with the Israelis," he said. The Hamas charter, drafted in 1988, says that "the land of Palestine is an Islamic trust upon all Muslim generations till the day of the Resurrection. It is not right to give it up nor any part of it." It also specifies that jihad, a term that in this context means holy war, is the only solution to the Palestinian problem.
So, exactly which parts of this charter are up for discussion, Mr. Ghazal?
In Gaza, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar yesterday took issue with Mr Ghazal's statements, saying Israel "cannot be recognised as the legal owner of any part of Palestine". Hamas leaders have thus far rejected calls by Mr Abbas's aides that they disarm after the balloting, saying the movement will retain its weapons as long as there is Israeli occupation.
Hmmm. Hamas leadership doesn't seem very compromisational, here. But hey. There's always tomorrow!
Egypt's foreign minister called on Israel Wednesday to follow its withdrawal from Gaza by launching final status negotiations with the Palestinians and halting the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Ahmed Aboul Gheit told the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting that until Israel reaches the goal of a complete withdrawal from Palestinian territories, it also should stop building the West Bank separation barrier and improve the humanitarian situation of Palestinians. "As we welcome the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and few settlements in the northern part of the West Bank, we also call upon the Israeli government to continue the withdrawal of its troops from all the Palestinian territories," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Egypt: Israel Should Launch Negotiations
If Israel should "launch" anything, the ideal would be an attack on Gaza that would kill every single Hamas and Islamic Jihad member within, along with a warning that Fatah will be next if there is one more terror attack that originates from there.
#6
For one I agree with the Egyptians. Isreal should give to their new model of super-super-big-MOAB the name of "Negotiation" and then launch a lot of Negotiations.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has brushed aside an appeal from the Quartet of international peace mediators to dismantle resistance groups, saying he knew best how to handle them.
"Nope. Nope. Can't do it."
"With regard to dealing with the Palestinian organisations, this is our affair," Abbas said in the town of Rafah on Gaza's border with Egypt on Wednesday. "We know more and are more capable than others in dealing with our brothers."
"So you can butt the hell out. And send money, dammit!"
Ministers of the Quartet - United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union - said in a joint statement on Tuesday that following Israel's pullout from Gaza, Palestinians needed to "dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructures". Israel and Washington have long demanded Abbas disarm resistance fighters in order to help restart peace talks. The moderate Palestinian leader has preferred to co-opt resistance fighters with jobs after having coaxed them into a ceasefire in February.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
When are the idiots dealing with the Paleos going to learn? They negotiate in bad faith, they have no idea of what honest government means, and they have no possible hope of making a state out of the collection of criminals and welfare bums in Gaza and the WB. What they understand is a kick in the ass or a bullet to the head. Then they'll move but only as long as they perceive that threat as real. When the Israelis finally throw all the Paleos out, Gaza into Egypt and WB into Jordan, then you'll have peace. Not until.
Posted by: mac ||
09/22/2005 5:37 Comments ||
Top||
AL-QAEDA-linked Abu Sayyaf militants have recruited about 100 mostly Christian men from two Mindanao provinces since July, offering them money to help stage attacks, according to a military report.
The recruits were to be used for unspecified "sabotage operations" in Zamboanga City, said the military intelligence report seen by reporters yesterday.
Predominantly Christian Zamboanga, the seat of the military's Southern Command and venue of ongoing US antiterrorism exercises, has come under deadly bomb attacks by the Abu Sayyaf in recent years.
At least two of the group's leaders wanted by the US government, Abu Sulaiman and Albader Parad, led the recruitment of the men from Zamboanga and the nearby Basilan province, offering them P10,000 to P30,000, said the report, without specifying if the amounts were one-time or monthly payments.
Abu Sayyaf guerrillas used to be based in Basilan until US-backed offensives three years ago forced them to flee to nearby islands and provinces. A recent three-month massive military manhunt, backed at times by US surveillance aircraft, failed to nab the group's chieftain, Khaddafy Janjalani, and his men in Maguindanao province.
Aside from Zamboanga and Basilan, the Abu Sayyaf also has been trying to recruit members in Maguindanao and Jolo province, the report said.
In early 2000, the group's strength reached more than 1,000 when its various factions staged several high-profile kidnappings for ransom in Mindanao. But US-backed offensives have whittled it down to more than 400, military officials say.
The group, which is on a US list of terrorist organizations, has been blamed for many acts of banditry and attacks, including the bombing of an inter-island ferry that killed 116 last year in the country's worst terrorist attack.
Janjalani has been trying to wean the group away from banditry, make it more religious-oriented and lethal by seeking bomb-making and religious training for his members and recruits from Indonesian militants belonging to Jemaah Islamiyah, according to government security reports.
The Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiyah, believed to be al-Qaeda's major ally in Southeast Asia, has been blamed for most bombings in the region.
Janjalani is believed to be on the run with a number of alleged Jemaah Islamiyah militants, including Pitono, also known as Dulmatin, and Umar Patek in Maguindanao, the reports said.
The two Indonesians, who have reportedly provided religious and bomb-making training to Filipino and Indonesian militants, are wanted by the Indonesian government for their alleged role in the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks that killed 202 people.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:12 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I think the correct term here would be 'Hired' not 'Recruited'.....
Joining a group of young Indonesian intellectuals who hold liberal Islamic views was once just a ticket to controversy. Now, it could be life-threatening. Since Indonesia's top Muslim council issued religious edicts in late July that banned liberal interpretations of the faith, death threats against members of the 4-year-old Islamic Liberal Network, known as JIL, have poured in.
I guess that makes sense. Of a sort. In kind of an Islamic kind of way.
The fatwas that JIL says triggered the hate campaign coincide with the closure of numerous unauthorized Christian churches by hardline Muslim groups and the jailing this month of three Christian women for inviting Muslim children to church events.
To reiterate the point I've been making on and off for the past four years, democracy's an effect, not a cause. Indonesia's a "democracy," but freedom â the actual cause â isn't protected, and it can't be seriously protected because, as we're constantly reminded, Indonesia's the world's largest Moose limb majority country. Islam doesn't tolerate freedom of religion, and freedom of religion is tied directly, no exceptions, to freedom of opinion. Freedom of opinion is another way of describing freedom of thought. All the other freedoms are gravy, all dependant on freedom to think the way you damned well please.
The developments have hurt Indonesia's image as a moderate Muslim nation and reflect a backlash against liberal opinion as well as a push by Muslim conservatives to reassert themselves after the failure of political Islam to gain traction during last year's elections, experts say. "The fatwas have had a snowball effect," said Nong Darol Mahmada, a co-founder of the Islamic Liberal Network who has received dozens of death threats via e-mail and text messages. "People believe that JIL is banned and that it is now legally permitted (under Islamic law) to murder us."
I'd note here that Islamic law is not the law of the land in Indonesia. The stench and abomination that is shariah exists separately and independently of the law of the land, but being Islamic it assumes it has primacy over the secular law. In no other type of society is the subgroup given legal freedom to murder those who don't agree with them. Even in the Soviet Union the Party wasn't legally authorized to bump people off; that power was reserved to the state. The closest parallel, and even that one's imperfect, was Nazi Germany, where roving gangs of Brownshirts made free to beat people up and occasionally murder them; but even there the facade of law and order was maintained by the state itself and it never ceded the power to the gangs. Röhm was rather sternly suppressed early on, if I recall correctly.
Police guard the Jakarta office that houses JIL after one militant organization threatened to attack the group, which has never shied from controversy since its inception in 2001. It has been quick to poke holes in the arguments of militant clerics and take the lead in debates about issues from marriage to the role of religion in politics, often using radio to reach a broad audience across the world's most populous Muslim nation.
See? They keep reminding us of that, like it's something to be proud of...
To some analysts, JIL was a key target when the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) issued its non-binding fatwas on July 29. Apart from attacking liberalism, the council forbade pluralism and inter-religious marriage. "We are seeing a conservative high tide which is a reaction to several things, but a common view that Muslim liberals have taken things too far," said Greg Fealy, an expert on Indonesian Islam at the Australian National University in Canberra.
He means they've attempted to maintain the secular state, which is anathema to Islamists.
Fealy said he did not believe such a backlash meant the end of progressive Islamic thought in Indonesia, where Muslims have embraced democracy and have more freedom to express their views than in just about any country in the Islamic world.
As long as they don't mind being murdered for those views. Christians and Hindus and anybody else who's not a Muslim are routinely brownshirted, and now they're extending the privilege to those who are regarded as insufficiently rabid in their beliefs.
While it was clear Indonesians increasingly identified with Islam, last year's elections showed voters did not care for Islamist parties that support strict Islamic Sharia law. Those parties won 23 percent of parliamentary seats last year, up from 19 percent in 1999.
Those two sentences would appear to be contradictory. If they're increasing their representation in parliament that's not an indication that voters don't care for their ideas...
"People are more self-consciously Islamic but it doesn't mean anyone is saying ... we should make Indonesia an Islamic state," Fealy said.
Not everybody's saying that, but it doesn't take everybody to make it happen. It doesn't even take a majority.
Many Indonesian Muslims, especially on the main island of Java, infuse the practice of Islam with local tradition influenced by Hinduism and mysticism.
Prior to the arrival of the Muslims, Indonesians practiced a blend of Buddhism and Hinduism.
Indonesia is also officially secular and recognizes Christianity and several other religions in addition to Islam.
But somehow they're the ones who're regularly attacked with explosives. They can say they've got freedoms, but if the state doesn't exert itself to protect them, which it doesn't, then they don't have the freedoms...
That has not stopped Islamic militants in the past two years from closing down some 25 unlicensed churches that operate from homes and shops. Christians say the growth of such churches underscores the difficulty of getting a permit, which requires approval from local communities where they are usually a minority. Police have said they cannot act because the churches are illegal.
See my point?
In another religious case, a court in West Java this month jailed three Christian women for three years each for inviting Muslim children to church events without parental consent.
But Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist children are free to wander into any mosque without restraint...
JIL was not actually banned in the MUI fatwas, but the message was clear, said Mahmada, 31, an articulate graduate of Islamic studies from Indonesia's most prestigious Islamic university, as she sipped a bottle of iced tea. "I am pretty pessimistic about Islam in Indonesia," she added.
I'd call that an understatement.
Down the road at the Al-Muslimun mosque, Imam Pambudi, 41, a local Islamic community leader, said JIL had to leave the area. "At first we had no problems but after the MUI fatwa, the people here were shocked that something considered haram (forbidden) by the MUI was among us," said Pambudi.
"Yeah! Get 'em out o' here! We don't want 'em around! They got cooties and stuff!"
Despite what appears to be a series of blows to Indonesia's Muslim liberals and the country's image in general, analysts like Fealy and Merle Ricklefs, another prominent Australian expert on Islam in Indonesia, remain generally optimistic. "This is a story without an ending, but there are grounds for thinking that the progressive liberalism of Indonesia has withstood the attack," Ricklefs wrote in the Australian Financial Review on September 2. "With its reactionary fatwas, MUI may indeed have sidelined itself within a rapidly changing society."
Uhuh. And my hair's definitely growing back...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
there is no such thing as a moderate muslim country. muslims and muslim dominated countries are only moderate until crisis, then they behave as all muslims do and they look to the profit for guidance as to how to handle the crisis. we know well how mo handled the problems he faced.
Given that the world is full of trouble and is rarely without it, any recent moderation of muslim nations has been simply illusory, a temporary mirage produced by an unusual time of peace and stability for many nations of the world. Now that trouble in the form of outside forces both liberal and radical has come to these places we will begin to see that moderate islam is a lie and only exists when muslims are getting everything their way at the expense of others.
Under pressure over its nuclear programme, Iran flaunted its ballistic missiles and warned any nation considering attacking the Islamic republic would face a "destructive and fiery" response.
On show at an annual military parade on Thursday were thousands of troops and a range of hardware including six of Iran's Shahab-3 ballistic missiles -- which sported banners saying "Death to America", "We will crush America under our feet" and "
Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth". The slogans prompted a diplomatic protest by European military attaches. Oooooh. Scary.
The event marked the start of "Sacred Defence Week" -- the anniversary of the outbreak of a destructive eight-year war with Iraq in 1980 -- and began with another tough speech by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "Our enemies have understood that we are very serious in defending our security," said Ahmadinejad, himself a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. The term "enemies" is used as a reference to the United States and Israel.
"Our nation wants peace, stability, justice and equality in international relations. We have always sought friendly relations with other countries. Our nation wants the well-being of other countries and will not do anything against their national interest," he insisted.
"We want the Persian Gulf to be a gulf of friendship and equality," Ahmadinejad said in a speech at the parade, being staged in the south of the capital near the shrine of Iran's late Islamic revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and carried live on state television.
But he warned that "if some want to again test what they have tested before, the flame of the Iranian nation will be very destructive and fiery." No, no, dummy. It's "Sea of Fire." Check your translation.
"Relying on our nation and armed forces, we will make the aggressor regret its actions," Ahmadinejad warned, telling Iran's army to "prepare their defensive readiness" and calling for an "expansion of the defence industries and the utilisation of the latest technology".
But the vitriolic anti-US and Israeli slogans on the missiles prompted the only EU diplomats present -- military attaches from the embassies of France, Italy, Greece and Poland -- to walk away in protest. "There was a common position among EU members that, if the military parade included any slogans that attacked our allies, we would leave," said a diplomat. And that's about all you'll do, too. Right?
The Shahab-3, like today's speech, is believed to be based on a North Korean design and thought to have a range of at least 1,280 miles -- meaning arch-enemy Israel and US bases in the region are well within range.
#1
ROFL. Sacred Defense Week. And Ahmadinejad is quite the card with the "gulf of friendship and equality..." - what stones. Though he must be dyslexic... "the flame of the Iranian nation will be very destructive and fiery" - he sorta mixed that one up a bit...
#2
Isn't this a lot like bragging how big your Johnson is? Public display of "look how big our missiles are!" Idjits. I just hope that a minimum of innocent Iranians are incinerated by the MM's idiocy
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2005 21:31 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Iran needs to remember one Carrier battle Group can destroy Iran. No boots on the Ground required. Being in the Gulf not requred.
#5
"anywhere" is surely in range at all times, eh, PD? I would prefer the "night of the well-laden cruise missiles" flooding the Iran horizon, taking out MM's homes and properties, strongholds, barracks, nuke sites, ANY holy city. Time to take the Mullahcracy back to a (insincere) vow of poverty
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2005 22:03 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Isn't Iran that big sandy country bordering on the Gulf of Rumsfeld?
Syria is satisfied with UN investigators' handling of meetings with Syrian officials to hear testimony on the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, a Syrian source has said.
I'd call that a bad sign...
"We are comfortable with the manner in which the meetings are being conducted," the official said on the second day of interviews at a hotel near the Syrian-Lebanese border. The official declined to specify what questions were raised during the investigation, which Syrian media have said they fear might be politicised. Another source said legal experts had been attending the meetings, whose records are being minuted in Arabic and signed by members of the UN team and the witnesses. He said the unidentified officials were testifying "in their personal capacities and not as officials".
Some Lebanese have blamed Syria, the dominant power in the country for nearly three decades, for the 14 February attack that killed al-Hariri and 20 others. Damascus has denied any role.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Leading Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said the United Nations has become a sham existing only to put those countries that oppose U.S. policies on trial. Fadlallah's comments came during his weekly seminar. He said the UN eventually legitimized the invasion of Iraq under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction "or in not standing up to America and its web of lies," and now the world's stronger nations want the organization to assist them in supporting new interventions in the Arab and Islamic world, in accordance with a U.S. agenda for the region. "We are noticing in the world today a terrifying inaction when it comes to hunting down the real international criminals," said Fadlallah, explaining that Israel, at the highest levels of its leadership and judiciary, habitually disobeyed the resolutions of the International Court of Justice and UN General Assembly regarding the separation wall. "It seems that international law has turned into a mockery," he said, insisting it had been imposed on the vulnerable and never challenged the powerful.
Israel intends to manipulate global politics to its advantage through its influence over U.S. policy making, said the cleric. Fadlallah stressed: "We should not succumb to political and media threats, as recent experience has proved America is becoming increasingly vulnerable in key areas." "This may lead it to reverse some of its policy decisions despite its insistence that it is currently in a position capable of defeating any challenger," concluded Fadlallah.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"There hasn't been a resolution blaming all evil in the world on the Joooos in, like, months!"
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/22/2005 14:53 Comments ||
Top||
EFL: UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- Eritrea warned the United Nations on Wednesday that it might rekindle its border war with Ethiopia if the world body failed to resolve a lingering territorial dispute between the two neighbors.
"I wish to categorically inform the assembly that Eritrea is determined, and has the right, to defend and preserve its territorial integrity by any means possible," Berhane Abrehe, Eritrea's finance minister, told the 191-nation U.N. General Assembly. "If the United Nations fails to reverse the occupation, it will be as equally responsible as Ethiopia is for any renewed armed conflict and its consequences," he said.
Oh, just go ahead and kill yourselves over a worthless patch of dirt. I really don't care any more.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/22/2005 09:53 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Both piss holes can ill afford to go another round, yet, here they are butter knife rattling and getting all bellicose as best they can.
#3
For the most part the smart Eritreans got out years ago. Like the Palestinians, the ones that like to fight stayed behind. No pity from me, much as I would like to.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- A Cabinet minister said Thursday it was up to Britain to compensate thousands of white Zimbabweans whose farms were seized under President Robert Mugabe's land reform program. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said a constitutional amendment Mugabe signed August 30 that strips landowners of their right to appeal expropriation "finally settled the land question in Zimbabwe." "All title deeds of the farmers have been canceled, with the British government having sole responsibility to compensate the evicted farmers," Chinamasa told state radio.
That's a cute trick. Maybe we can get France to pickup the tab for the people in Louisiana.
Zimbabwe has repeatedly accused former colonial power Britain of creating economic and political trouble in this southern African nation. Mugabe also has accused white Zimbabweans of orchestrating opposition.
Mugabe ordered the seizure of 5,000 white owned commercial farms starting in February 2000, initially promising to compensate farmers for improvements with long-term, low-interest bonds. Farm groups say the government was offering less than 10 percent of the commercial value. Farmers resisted the takeovers, lodging appeals that alleged technical or other irregularities. They refused to surrender title deeds. Their organization, the Commercial Farmers Union, estimates up to 1,000 may still be cultivating small portions of their former properties under agreements with new occupiers. They now face two years in jail if found there by police. Until 2000, whites farmed 17 percent of the country and earned most of its export revenue. Farming was the backbone of an economy now in free fall.
Commercial Farmers Union official Ben Kaschula said Canadian coffee farm owner David Wilding-Davies and his South African manager Allan Warner had Thursday been allowed by doctors to go home after receiving treatment for injuries when they were beaten Wednesday by a mob trying to force them off a farm about 350 kilometers (200 miles) south of the capital. The attack was the first since Didymus Mutasa, head of Mugabe's feared secret police, the Central Intelligence Organization, described remaining white farmers as "filth" and said an operation would be launched to "rid the country of remaining whites."
Posted by: Steve ||
09/22/2005 09:44 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Somebody sing me a few verses of "Kumbaya"--I think my belief in racial harmony is wearing a bit thin.
Posted by: mac ||
09/22/2005 10:32 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"finally settled the land question"
"rid the country of remaining whites."
Somebody's been reading up on "final solution"s.
Posted by: James ||
09/22/2005 11:33 Comments ||
Top||
#3
There's a bloodbath comin' people. Starving folks tend to get very angry, and guess who they're gonna blame?
#4
methinks we should be arming the opposition before they're starved to death
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2005 12:49 Comments ||
Top||
#5
This mean there a check in there for me someplace? God save the queen baby!
Posted by: Farmin B. Hard ||
09/22/2005 16:49 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Trust me Frank G: they are already armed to the teeth. The problem is that there aren't very many of them and they are spread out over a wide geographical area. ALso, world's liberals want them dead for their grandfather's sins.
#9
Mojo, dictators are very good at starving the oppositiion. Look at Stalin and the Kulaks or Mao and the Chinese in general. Starving people become lethargic and just die.
September 22, 2005: Billions of dollars are being thrown at the IED (roadside bomb) problem in Iraq. This means that a lot of ideas that would, in normal times, never get money, now do. Some are strange, and useless, and diligent muckrakers will eventually get to them. But some are pretty interesting, and potentially useful. One of them is the ULTRA AP, a heavily modified Ford F-350 pickup. The 350 (and its cousin, the 250) are favorites with police and armed forces in many nations. The Afghan army recently bought 5,000 modified (for harsh cross country terrain) F-350s for their army. The ULTRA AP (for Armored Patrol) was designed to reflect some of the ideas coming out of Iraq, on how to design a more effective âarmored truckâ for combat patrols in an area where you are likely to encounter mines, roadside bombs and ambushes. The F-350 was selected because it is a mature, proven design that provides a good starting point. The Office of Naval Research (which does stuff for the marines), turned the Georgia Tech Research Institute (which does a lot of defense work, and is considered the âMIT of the Southâ) loose on the project.
They also had a little help from NASCAR
The first mod was the use the light-weight armor that was being used by military trucks in Iraq. This included bullet and blast proof glass. The next mod was more interesting, and based on suggestions from the troops. The seating was changed from four people sitting two by two, to a diamond, one by two by one, arrangement. This meant replacing the current body of the 350 with a new one that made the ULTRA AP look more like an armored car. But this did two important things. It got the passengers farther away from the wheels, which are the things that go over mines and take much of the blast. Second, it put the four passengers in positions troops consider more useful. The driver is in front, taking care of driving. The two passengers behind the driver face the left and right. The fourth passenger faces the rear. This way, the passengers are always giving the vehicle a view of potential threats coming from any direction. The passenger compartment is actually a âblast bucket,â with armor beneath the passengers that deflects much of the blast away. The designers also took advantage of the computer networks that are now standard in motor vehicles, and provided the driver with more control over maneuvering the vehicle on roads, and cross country.
The Office of Naval Research will test the ULTRA AP to see if the design concepts are worth incorporating into future military vehicles. Some more may be built so that they can be tested with mines and roadside bombs as well.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/22/2005 09:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
All of this is nice, and I would like to see some of the ideas implemented (espcialy that diamond seating thing--you cant see anything in the back seat of a humvee or a ASV) but it's like the "concept" cars that infest car shows. Not for production.
Remeber, the military dosen't buy the best stuff, it buys the cheapest that meets minimum standards. That means uparmored humvees. if youre lucky.
Posted by: N guard ||
09/22/2005 10:20 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Clearly this design will have no impact on current conflicts, but I think the ideas are brilliant, and relatively easy to develop.
I believe the ULTRA will make a huge diffence in the not-too-distant future.
Saudi Arabia is still having a hard time accepting the fact that 79 percent of the 911 attackers were Saudis. That feeling was made worse when reports coming out of Iraq indicated that up to half the al Qaeda suicide bombers, who were mostly killing Iraqis, were Saudi volunteers. Naturally, the Saudis conducted their own study, and concluded that only twelve percent of those suicide attackers were Saudi (20 percent were Algerian, 18 percent Syrian, 17 percent Yemeni, 15 percent Sudanese and 13 percent Egyptian.) Many Saudis believe that, either itâs just a lie that so many Saudis were involved in 911, or that evil al Qaeda (or maybe the Israelis) deceived weak minded young Saudis into getting involved. Meanwhile, the Saudi government has added new counter-terror efforts to keep Saudi volunteers out of Iraq. These efforts seem to be working, judging from the experience Iraqi police are having with Saudi al Qaeda volunteers of late. The captured Saudis (who have often fled from al Qaeda control) tell of deception and coercion being used to get them into Iraq to serve as suicide bomber. Such desperate measures to obtain suicide bombers is not unusual. The Palestinian terrorist organizations had to use similar coercive techniques when they ran short of volunteers. Some bad publicity, or a lot of failed attacks (and live bombers being sent to prison for a long time), would discourage a lot of potential volunteers. To make up the shortage, kidnapping, blackmail or other forms of coercion would be used.
The Iraqi government has captured many Saudi volunteers, and presented them on television shows intended to show government success against the terrorists. Several of the recent captives were Saudis who told a convincing tale of kidnapping, coercion and not really wanting to have anything to do with suicide bomb attacks. Based on reports from all over the world, it would appear that al Qaeda is running into recruiting problems. While millions of (mostly young) Moslems, the world over, profess a willingness to be suicide bombers, very few actually follow through, and find themselves doing the deed. Partly, this is because the middlemen, who find the volunteers, and get them to the teams that can train, equip and guide the volunteers to the target, are few, and often on the run from the police. Not only is Saudi Arabia finding and arresting (or sometimes killing) these middlemen, so are many European nations. Recently, France arrested six such middlemen, who had recruited about two dozen French Moslems for suicide bomber duty. The police arrested everyone before anyone could travel to the Middle East. Similar arrests have been made in other European nations recently. For the past four years, European police have been digging into the Islamic radical underground in their own back yards. Itâs been slow going, but results have become more frequent as more information piles up. Meanwhile, in Iraq, American and Iraqi military operations have done major damage to the terrorist infrastructure. U.S. commanders say they have destroyed some 80 percent of the terrorist infrastructure in northern central Iraq over the last month. The survivors of terrorist organizations are scrambling to find other towns or neighborhoods where they can rebuild their operations (bomb workshops, safe houses for suicide bombers and technical staff). This is getting more difficult, as more Sunni Iraqis turn against the terrorists, and use the growing number of cell phones to rat out the bad guys.
Saudi Arabia is angry with al Qaeda for other reasons as well. With a large Shia minority, official Saudi policy is that Shia are not heretics. But many Saudi Sunnis believe otherwise, and the government has long looked the other way as some Sunni clergy preached that Shia are heretics, or worse. No more of this is allowed (some of theses preachers have gone underground) officially, and the Saudi government has openly condemned al Qaeda for advocating âwarâ against Iraqi Shia. These efforts are long over due, but they are often too late. Decades of allowing radical Sunni clergy to preach hatred of the Shia, and all non-Moslems, has created millions of Moslems who believe all this hateful stuff. You canât just turn it off like a faucet. Itâs going to take a generation to eliminate the attitudes that provide all the pro-terrorist attitudes.
Posted by: ed ||
09/22/2005 06:43 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The head of U.S. troops in the Horn of Africa warns terrorists and insurgents may begin leaving battlegrounds in Afghanistan and Iraq and head for east Africa. One of the main reasons for the move may be ongoing instability and lack of central governments in struggling nations like Somalia.
The Commander of the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa says officials remain concerned that instability and weak governments in east Africa may draw international terrorist groups seeking a safe base of operations.
Major General Timothy Ghormley adds he has already seen terrorists crossing through the region on the way to battlegrounds in Afghanistan and Iraq. But now, he warns terrorists may be leaving war zones in those countries and coming to east Africa.
"I see the terrorist threat coming south, at some point," General Ghormley says. "We're winning up north, we're winning in Afghanistan, we're winning in Iraq, they're going to have to go someplace. We see the possibility of them coming south. That's why it's so important for us to get our message out to people that there's an alternative, that we can protect them."
The joint task force based in Djibouti has been helping train foreign soldiers and build the anti-terrorist capacities of governments in the region, but U.S. forces have yet to enter Somalia, which has been without a functioning central government for more than a decade.
Earlier this year, Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, warned an al-Qaida cell has been active for years in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and continues to operate there.
General Ghormley says Islam is on the rise in Somalia, but adds he has limited intelligence to confirm terrorist fears over that country.
"I know from reports I get that mosques are springing up rather rapidly in Mogadishu. But I don't know about the number of madrassas that that would involve or include. ... I don't know of any severe radicalism in the area that I operate," General Ghormley says.
General Ghormley says Somalia will remain a key concern for the United States, especially as a newly formed government seeks to establish itself alongside powerful warlords and clan leaders.
In the meantime, he says the joint task force will continue seeking to strengthen nations in the region to prevent future generations from turning to violence and radicalism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:26 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
UNITED NATIONS - Seven months after Nepalâs king seized absolute power, a government minister announced that the country will hold municipal elections by April 2006 and national elections within two years.
Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey told the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday that King Gyanendraâs commitment to multiparty democracy âis unflinching and total.â In a speech to the General Assemblyâs annual ministerial meeting, Pandey said the king âis determined to re-energize multiparty democratic institutions by restoring sustainable peace, and making democracy meaningful, matured, cultured and refined.â
âTo this end, we will be holding municipal elections by April 2006, to be followed by national elections to parliament within two years. This will be an important step forward in re-energizing the democratic institutions through free and fair elections,â Pandey said.
Pandey urged countries and organizations that support democracy âto come forward and help us to conduct free and fair elections.â In his speech, Pandey said people have the right to choose the system of democratic government that is best suitable to the countryâs âneeds and aspirations.â
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
In a sign of the times, militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir are increasingly becoming technology savvy, as the Indian army recently discovered. The Army recovered dozens of computer discs and electronic devices in addition to a cached of weapons hidden in a natural cave in a thick mountainous forest in Gurez along the Line of Control. One of the discs was found to contain a step-by-step technical manual for assembling different kinds of improvised explosive devices bombs and rockets. It also featured military training information. Commenting on the seizure, a spokesman for the Indian army, Officer Vijay Batra, said âIt indicates that at least half a dozen militants are experts in creating bombs and were training for a large scale operation.â
The use of computers by militant groups is not an entirely new phenomenon. In 2002, the army conducted âOperation Exterminationâ against militants in the mountainous terrain of Hill Kaka in the border district of Poonch and recovered several laptops from cemented bunkers previously used by fighters. On a number of occasions, security forces in Kashmir foiled militant plans to use the internet and send coded messages preferring the worldwide web to phones and mobiles that more easily to tack. The internet was suspended IN 2002 throughout the disputed provinces of Jammu and Kashmir to avoid being used by fighters but the ban was later reversed.
According to Major General Mukesh Sabarhwal of the Indian army, the weapons depot uncovered contained enough material to make between 50 and 100 car bombs and would have caused great damage. More than a dozen Kalashnikov rifles, 5000 rounds of ammunition, rocket launchers, guns, detonators, the explosive material RDX, night vision devices, and radio sets were also part of the military arsenal skillfully hidden in an eight-meter long cave. In the last five years, the army has also confiscated more than twenty-five satellite phones from militant groups who use them to communicate with supporters on the Pakistani side without having to fear being overheard.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Computers are even useful than paper trails made of paper. While this makes things more difficult for the troops on the ground, rounding up the whole lot of them ... Let them use cell phones, sez I.
The Taleban rejected Afghanistanâs elections as a US drama and vowed yesterday to intensify their war, calling into question President Hamid Karzaiâs contention that the need for military force had diminished. UN vote organizers say that about half the 12 million registered Afghans voted in Sundayâs national assembly and provincial polls hailed by Kabulâs allies as a step forward for democracy.
Taleban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said only four million had voted, less than 15 percent of a population he put at 30 million. âThe Taleban are thankful to the Afghan people for rejecting the US drama,â he said, adding that the parliament would not represent Afghans and would be subordinate to the United States. âOur jihad (holy war) will continue until the withdrawal of foreign infidel troops, and our attacks will be expedited. The Taleban will become more organized and strong.â
Women made up 41 percent of the six million Afghans who voted in the elections, around the same as in last yearâs presidential poll, organizers said. âWe project out of total number of votes cast, 41 percent are by females and 59 percent by males,â said Sultan Baheen, spokesman of the UN-backed Joint Electoral Management Body. âThe distribution by sex is practically the same as that of the registered voters,â he added.
The Taleban had vowed to derail the polls but failed despite a wave of violence in the months leading up to the vote in which more than 1,000 people died, most of them insurgents. The Taleban launched dozens of harassing attacks last weekend in which 14 people died, but poll organizers said voting took place at all but a handful of 6,200 polling centers.
They've been reorganizing and regrouping now for four years and they still haven't gotten it down. I'm not too terribly worried about this temper tantrum...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Seeing as how they did such an effective job of disrupting the elections, . . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
09/22/2005 11:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
They've been reorganizing and regrouping now for four years and they still haven't gotten it down.
Maybe they just can't cope with the brutal Afghan winter.
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.
ABU DHABI â Hamad Al Junaibi, the UAE charge dâaffaires in Damascus, escaped unhurt yesterday when shots were fired at his car. The culprit has been arrested and is being interrogated by the Syrian authorities, a Wam report said.
orth Korea on Wednesday accused the United States of intending to disarm the communist country and then "crush it to death with nuclear weapons" â two days after a landmark disarmament agreement that was expected to ease tensions. North Korea pledged to give up its nuclear weapons program in return for economic aid and security assurances at six-nation talks in Beijing on Monday â the first breakthrough in more than two years of negotiations. However, the country's rhetoric since then has cast doubt on its commitment to the agreement and underscored its unpredictability, though none of its negotiating partners say they expect a breakdown in the disarmament talks, scheduled to continue in November.
The EU's "big three" are said to have backed down from a demand that the UN nuclear watchdog should immediately report Iran to the Security Council. Diplomats from France, the UK and Germany said the shift came amid opposition from Russia and China. They are now reportedly proposing that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should only implicitly threaten Tehran with such action. Iran is accused of developing atomic weapons, an allegation it denies.
Over the din of beating tom-toms, surrounded by activists wearing antlers and dressed as polar and grizzly bears, Senator Clinton yesterday dismissed high gas prices and the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina as a "diversion," cautioning that proponents of arctic drilling were exploiting recent crises to make their case for a long-term anti-environment agenda.
Senators from both parties accused the Defense Department on Wednesday of obstructing an investigation into whether a highly classified intelligence program known as Able Danger did indeed identify Mohamed Atta and other future hijackers as potential threats well before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The complaints came after the Pentagon blocked several witnesses from testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a public hearing on Wednesday. The only testimony provided by the Defense Department came from a senior official who would say only that he did not know whether the claims were true.
NEW YORK - A Saudi Arabian charitable organization and two Saudi princes were dismissed as defendants in three civil lawsuits accusing them of providing support to Al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
The statement put out by al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq group on Tuesday, saying they would only strike the Shiites who don't condemn attacks on Sunnis or the US occupation of Iraq, has provoked a harsh response from one of the groups named as not being a target. "In 
Iraq expects insurgents to step up attempts to disrupt next month's constitutional referendum and believes the next three months are critical for the country's future as a democratic nation, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Wednesday. In a speech to the U.N. Security Council, Zebari said the international community has a "moral obligation" to help Iraq win the battle against foreign extremists and "thugs" from Saddam Hussein's ousted regime because the country is fighting "to protect the freedoms of the rest of the civilized world."
Egypt's foreign minister called on Israel Wednesday to follow its withdrawal from Gaza by launching final status negotiations with the Palestinians and halting the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Ahmed Aboul Gheit told the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting that until Israel reaches the goal of a complete withdrawal from Palestinian territories, it also should stop building the West Bank separation barrier and improve the humanitarian situation of Palestinians. "As we welcome the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and few settlements in the northern part of the West Bank, we also call upon the Israeli government to continue the withdrawal of its troops from all the Palestinian territories," he said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has brushed aside an appeal from the Quartet of international peace mediators to dismantle resistance groups, saying he knew best how to handle them. 
Joining a group of young Indonesian intellectuals who hold liberal Islamic views was once just a ticket to controversy. Now, it could be life-threatening. Since Indonesia's top Muslim council issued religious edicts in late July that banned liberal interpretations of the faith, death threats against members of the 4-year-old Islamic Liberal Network, known as JIL, have poured in.
I'd note here that Islamic law is not the law of the land in Indonesia. The stench and abomination that is shariah exists separately and independently of the law of the land, but being Islamic it assumes it has primacy over the secular law. In no other type of society is the subgroup given legal freedom to murder those who don't agree with them. Even in the Soviet Union the Party wasn't legally authorized to bump people off; that power was reserved to the state. The closest parallel, and even that one's imperfect, was Nazi Germany, where roving gangs of Brownshirts made free to beat people up and occasionally murder them; but even there the facade of law and order was maintained by the state itself and it never ceded the power to the gangs. Röhm was rather sternly suppressed early on, if I recall correctly. 
Syria is satisfied with UN investigators' handling of meetings with Syrian officials to hear testimony on the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, a Syrian source has said. 
Leading Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said the United Nations has become a sham existing only to put those countries that oppose U.S. policies on trial. Fadlallah's comments came during his weekly seminar. He said the UN eventually legitimized the invasion of Iraq under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction "or in not standing up to America and its web of lies," and now the world's stronger nations want the organization to assist them in supporting new interventions in the Arab and Islamic world, in accordance with a U.S. agenda for the region. "We are noticing in the world today a terrifying inaction when it comes to hunting down the real international criminals," said Fadlallah, explaining that Israel, at the highest levels of its leadership and judiciary, habitually disobeyed the resolutions of the International Court of Justice and UN General Assembly regarding the separation wall. "It seems that international law has turned into a mockery," he said, insisting it had been imposed on the vulnerable and never challenged the powerful. 
In a sign of the times, militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir are increasingly becoming technology savvy, as the Indian army recently discovered. The Army recovered dozens of computer discs and electronic devices in addition to a cached of weapons hidden in a natural cave in a thick mountainous forest in Gurez along the Line of Control. One of the discs was found to contain a step-by-step technical manual for assembling different kinds of improvised explosive devices bombs and rockets. It also featured military training information. Commenting on the seizure, a spokesman for the Indian army, Officer Vijay Batra, said âIt indicates that at least half a dozen militants are experts in creating bombs and were training for a large scale operation.â 
The Taleban rejected Afghanistanâs elections as a US drama and vowed yesterday to intensify their war, calling into question President Hamid Karzaiâs contention that the need for military force had diminished. UN vote organizers say that about half the 12 million registered Afghans voted in Sundayâs national assembly and provincial polls hailed by Kabulâs allies as a step forward for democracy.
