UNITED NATIONS, April 26 -- Sudan's president has rejected a U.N. appeal to allow its peacekeepers into the Darfur region to help stem a tide of violence that has left more than 100,000 dead and more than 2 million displaced over the past three years, a senior U.N. official told the Security Council on Wednesday.
The remarks represented a setback for a U.S.-backed proposal to send more than 15,000 U.N. and NATO peacekeepers to Darfur to replace an underequipped African Union force of more than 6,000 troops. The Bush administration has accused Sudan and a government-backed militia of committing genocide in Darfur.
Hedi Annabi, the United Nations' second-ranking peacekeeping official, told the 15-nation council in a closed session that Khartoum formally rejected a request to send an assessment mission there. "Such an assessment remains an indispensable step in the planning process," said Annabi, who briefed the council on a recent meeting with Sudan's president, Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Bashir, in Khartoum.
Annabi warned that Sudan's opposition could doom U.N. peacekeeping plans. He suggested the council look outside the United Nations for troops if it decides to intervene in Darfur without an invitation from the government. "The government of Sudan remains opposed to a transition to a United Nations operation in Darfur and has so far been unwilling to cooperate with our planning efforts," Annabi told the council.
The Bush administration accused Khartoum of stalling. "This is just delaying and delaying and delaying, and it's consistent with the pattern that the Sudanese government has followed for years in this," said John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Annabi said the Sudanese leader left open the possibility of some U.N. role in assisting peace efforts if Khartoum makes peace with two Darfurian rebel groups. Peace talks underway in Abuja, Nigeria, are to conclude Sunday.
If those talks fail, and the Security Council were to decide to intervene without Khartoum's approval, Annabi said that "such a mission is better undertaken by means other than a U.N. operation." The Bush administration has secured NATO approval for a plan to send several hundred NATO advisers to bolster the African Union peacekeeping mission, as a first step in the transition to a U.N. mission, officials said. The Bush administration also sponsored a resolution Tuesday imposing a travel ban and freezing the assets of a senior Sudanese air force officer and three other Sudanese nationals for committing war crimes or impeding the peace process in Darfur.
SANAA - Yemen is due to put 60 more suspected Al Qaeda members on trial soon, a news report said on Thursday. The Defence Ministrys newspaper, 26 September, said security authorities had completed interrogations with all men detained over suspected links to al-Qaeda or terror acts. Quoting official sources, the newspaper said prosecutors reviewed files of more than 170 detainees and found out that only 60 suspects could be sent to trial.
Meanwhile, the paper said security officers would stand trial before a military court next week over their negligence in the escape of 23 al-Qaeda operatives from a high-security jail in Sanaa last February. Authorities have said that eight of the 23 escapees surrendered or were recaptured.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2006 09:51 ||
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Saudi Arabia released 500 al-Qaida sympathizers after they underwent religious counseling to bring them back to the moderate path of Islam. Member of the counseling committee Mohammed Bin Yehya Nujeimi was quoted Wednesday by al-Jazeera as saying the committee, affiliated with the interior ministry, had conducted dialogue with 800 Saudis who had allegedly sympathized with prisoners convicted in cases of terrorism. Out of the total, 500 were released following intensive studies and counseling sessions which moderated their views.
Nujeimi said those released were informed that they will be closely monitored by security forces, in addition to being continuously contacted by members of the counseling committee. He said instructions were given by Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs Prince Mohammed bin Nayef to help reintegrate those released in the society, including returning them to their original jobs or securing new work opportunities for them.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Mmmm... didn't Mubarak just free a load of Osamanauts??
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/27/2006 7:19 Comments ||
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On the final exam, they have to explain why suicide bombing of Israeli civilians is OK but why suicide bombing of Saudi plutocrats is not OK.
They also have to explain why Shia are apostates but shouldn't be killed unless and until Saudi ministers tell the police to kill them.
Tough essay questions, but not so hard if it is multiple choice.
#3
Saudi has the same issue of too many AQ sympathizers. If we rolled up all the AQ Sympathizers in the US the far left woud be destroyed, and hollywood, and Seattle, etc...!!!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/27/2006 9:51 Comments ||
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Do catch and relase programs really work? I mean like those hooks cause infections in the mouth and the big fish just get to eat more little ones when you release them... It's counter-Darwin!
Aljazeera reports that explosions took place in Bahrain, citing the Gulf state's Interior Ministry sources. But Associated Press said a steel pipe sound bomb exploded on Wednesday in the capital Manama. The bomb went off in the evening without causing any casualties and police defused a second similar device, according to the Interior Ministry.
In a statement read on state television, the ministry said a "sound bomb" had exploded in the evening in al-Adliyah, a district known for fashionable restaurants and cafés that attract affluent Bahrainis and expatriates. The bomb was made in a steel pipe that was left in an empty side street, the ministry said. The statement did not give more detail on where exactly the explosion occured, nor did it say whether it inflicted damage.
Big firecracker in a length of pipe to sound bigger than it is? Perhaps like the fabled Turkish "sonic bomb".
Jeff Breslau, a spokesman for the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, said he had heard reports of a blast but said local authorities were handling the incident. A Reuters photographer who went to the area where the stun grenade exploded said there were no signs of damage or any heightened security. The least wealthy of the Gulf Arab oil producers, the island state of Bahrain, has a history of political and sectarian tension.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Might have been a potato cannon used as Mortar practice, but used something more substantial than hair spray for propellant...
Security forces in Bangladesh say they have arrested the last two senior leaders of an Islamic militant group. The authorities say they now have all seven members of the ruling council of Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Last year at least 28 people, including four suicide bombers, were killed in attacks blamed on the organisation.
The BBC's correspondent in the capital Dhaka, Roland Buerk, said the two men were arrested within hours of each other in separate operations. Mohammed Salauddin was seized from a hideout near the city of Chittagong in the south east of the country. Khaled Saifullah was taken into custody after an all-night siege in Dhaka.
The JMB has been blamed for a series of bomb attacks last year. At several of the blast sites leaflets were found which called for the introduction of Islamic Sharia law. The government responded with a crackdown on suspected Islamic militants and at least 1,000 people have been taken into custody.
The JMB's alleged leader, Sheikh Abdur Rahman, and the man accused of being his deputy, Siddiqul Islam, known as Bangla Bhai, were arrested last month. They face trial in more than 100 cases in connection with the bombings.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2006 09:32 ||
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Continuing a trend that began last year with the Justice Department's sweetheart plea bargain for confessed national security document thief Sandy Berger, department lawyers are said to be reluctant to prosecute accused CIA leaker Mary McCarthy.
The National Review Online's Byron York reports:
"Since the firing of McCarthy rested in large part on her failure of a CIA-administered polygraph test - evidence that would not be admissible in court - the Justice Department might ultimately decide not to take action against her."
A decision not to prosecute McCarthy would come despite what sounds like a smoking gun confession, with the CIA saying last week that an unnamed officer - identified by others as McCarthy - admitted to having "unauthorized discussions with the media in which the officer knowingly and willfully shared classified intelligence, including operational information."
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/27/2006 13:24 ||
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Lovely, now we can look forward to many more willing leakers.
#2
Since Ms. McCarthy was fired, does that mean she loses her pension? Most of those fired for cause, as she was, will not get lucrative book and speaking contracts, because most of them will not be as fascinating to the opposition as is the pet contact of Dana whatshername of the Washington Post. The probablility of being despised by former colleagues as well as pensionless can focus the mind wonderfully. A few more firings will change the atmosphere at the CIA nicely. A wholesale clean-out will do the job better, of course. Carry on, Mr. Goss.
#3
TW, this will be the nub. If they try to deny her pension without prosecuting her, I expect her to sue for wrongful termination. The government would have to either cave or prosecute the case they apparently do not want to.
I suspect the CIA HR attorneys have been all over this. That's why she wasn't terminated until a week before her resignation became effective. I'd bet the objective of her firing is to cleanse the CIA, not to punish a wrongdoer. More moles will follow Mary Looselips. Whether to prosecute her is a tough call, especially without all the information.
#6
Interesting choice of words, eL. A long American Thinker post ends thus,
Speaking of dealing in commodities, this whole affair brings us back to square one and Mary McCarthy. One of her previous employers was Beri, SA. Possibly by coincidence Beri provides a Mineral Extraction Risk Assessment service for up to 145 countries that are expected to show rapid growth in oil, gas, and mineral extraction capacity. If one had advance access to economic intelligence and had fostered close business ties over the years with uranium producers, huge financial gains would be possible. Could the Wilson-McCarthy-Africa connection may indicate another instance of US intelligence and Foreign Service personnel taking advantage of regulatory loopholes and lax security in third world countries for personal gain?
There have been many indicators since the Iraq War started that the CIAs internal war against the administration is much more than ideological. For some in the CIA, the Global War on Terror is not just about the struggle for democracy and freedom to protect our national interest.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said Thursday he is considering legislation to cut off funding for the Bush administration's secret domestic wiretapping program until he gets satisfactory answers about it from the White House.
"Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress at the moment," Specter, R-Pa., told the panel. "If we are to maintain our institutional prerogative, that may be the only way we can do it."
Specter said he had informed President Bush about his intention and that he has attracted several potential co-sponsors. He said he's become increasingly frustrated in trying to elicit information about the program from senior White House officials at several public hearings.
Specter also agreed with Democrats who say that any of the bills to tighten guidelines for National Security Agency program and increase congressional oversight could be flatly ignored by an administration with a long history of acting alone in security matters.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/27/2006 13:22 ||
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Bush's backing of Spectre in the primary is coming back to haunt him.
#3
Nobody trusts Arlen "Scottish Law" Specter with any facts. With Congress having a 22% approval rating, Arlen is closer to 9%. At least he has the full dem support on his anti-George rants.
#6
Going to be a bloodbath for the Repubs. in November. The conservative base will stay home.
Disagree. The mid-terms are location and candidate specific. The Reps have some quality candidates (Michael Steele, Mark Kennedy (MN)etc.), and one delusional one: Harris. Steele and Kennedy alone would replace two donks.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/27/2006 15:59 Comments ||
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Specter heading the Judicary Committee is a joke. He was decent on Supreme Court nominees, however.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/27/2006 16:00 Comments ||
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If he blocks funding, I hope someone blocks his re-election.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/27/2006 16:17 Comments ||
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Not much chance of ditching Senator Sphincter; the liberal crowd here in southeast PA just loves the guy.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/27/2006 16:20 Comments ||
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What is Specter's problem?
He seems to be suffering from some mental anguish or disease lately.
Is he being blackmailed?
Is he ill?
Is he slipping into dementia?
#11
Dave D.,
Great! That's the worst news I've heard all day!
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/27/2006 16:39 Comments ||
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poisioning with Assholium
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2006 16:49 Comments ||
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Hey Arlen - your "institutional prerogative" when it comes to making war is a simple yea/nay authorization to the executive branch. Which you already gave.
I tell ya, Frank, I truly hate that dickhead. I wish there were some way to get rid of him, but he's become an indelible part of the Pennsylvania political landscape over the years, kind of like a vaginal wart on an old whore.
The only competition the guy could have in this enfeebled state would be an extreme liberal Democrat-- but Arlen is so damn far to the left it'd be a real trick for any of them to get past him on that side.
Is it better to have Sphincter inside the tent pissing in, or a Democrat outside the tent pissing in? I dunno...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/27/2006 17:53 Comments ||
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From a patriotic American's point of view, a much more rational and effective action would be to cut off the salaries, benefits, and perks of the US Senate. Most of them have no time for America and are either AWOL or totally self-serving. Give them what they've earned, as a body, nothing. Most are incompetent sluggards and profiteering reprobates.
I won't mention the other far more appealing alternative that occurs to me.
#16
Given that, even today, the NSA's charter itself remains classified information, it's a safe bet that substantial portions of their budget flies under radar as "black" projects that could keep them running for years. Specter is a fool to try and threaten such a vital wing of our intelligence gathering network. Idjit.
According to a copyrighted article in the Salt Lake Tribune, counterterrorist agents arrested five men on Wednesday. One of the men was aprehended in the Cottonwood Heights area of Salt Lake, and the other for men were arrested in California. The men were arrested and idicted as part of an investigation into the U.S. connections of a suspected senior al-Qaida operative imprisoned in Iraq, according to the Tribune article.
For now, the federal indictments against the men - all of whom have ties to Utah and all of whom are related to accused terrorist Shawqi Omar - involve only fraud and money laundering. But FBI agents say that some of the money alleged to have been stolen in various schemes wound up in Jordan. And now they want to know whether that cash has ended up in the hands of terrorists. According to an FBI agent working with the Terrorism Task Force in Utah, the Omar family has extensive ties in Jordan, where Shawqi Omar moved his family in 1995 and where he now stands accused of helping terrorist mastermind Abu Masab al-Zarqawi plot a chemical attack.
Human Rights Watch panicking about appointment of KPS Gill - a badass Sikh policeman to confront maoists
India must use lawful methods to tackle Maoist violence, a human rights group warned on Thursday, fearing serious abuses in a strife-torn state.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the government to repeal the Special Public Protection Act in central Chhattisgarh state or amend it to conform to international legal standards. The New York based group said the act and the appointment of a known human rights abuser as security advisor to the state are likely to lead to serious abuses.
Indias most celebrated policeman Kanwar Pal Singh Gill agreed earlier this month to join the fight against Maoist rebels.
Gill, credited with ending a 13-year-long bloody Sikh rebellion in the 1990s, is now going to Chhattisgarh to help the beleaguered administration. The government should remove the special adviser K.P.S. Gill who led the Punjab police at a time of widespread rights violations, HRW said. Some 669 people died in 2005 in violence linked to more than 9,000 armed rebels who have spread over 15 states, according to government estimates. New Delhi refuses to negotiate with the armed Maoists, who launched their campaign in 1967. AFP
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2006 21:19 ||
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The abuses inflicted by the maoists are apparently ok?
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2006 21:37 Comments ||
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The abuses inflicted by the maoists are apparently ok?
They are to HRW. Anything for the cause, eh?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/27/2006 21:40 Comments ||
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How about a bullet for every HRW member and anyone admitting socialist/communist proclivities.
Lawful has to do with people under the protection of the law such as common criminals. Terrorists are outlaws, outside the protection of the law and should be dealt with as such.
Posted by: SPoD ||
04/27/2006 22:08 Comments ||
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NEW DELHI - Suspected Muslim militants in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir injured fourteen people, including seven tourists, in a grenade attack, news reports said. The incident occurred in the tourist resort of Pahalgam, 96 kilometres south-east of state capital Srinagar, IANS news agency reported.
The suspected militants hurled a grenade at some policemen near a hotel in the town, the report said, quoting the police. Fourteen people, including seven Indian tourists, were injured, a local police official said. One of the tourists was in critical condition. We have arranged for evacuation of the injured tourists to Srinagar city for better medical care, said Sheikh Owais, deputy inspector general of police south Kashmir range.
Pahalgam is a popular summer destination for Indian tourists. The police said there were hundreds of tourists in the town, which also functions as the base camp for Hindu pilgrims on the way to the Himalayan cave shrine of Amarnath.
This years pilgrimage is scheduled to begin on May 11 and will continue for two months after which the route is closed due to snowfall in the higher reaches of the Himalayas.
The Indian authorities have increased security measures for the pilgrims after a militant attack on August 6, 2002 in which nine pilgrims were killed and 37 injured. More than 70,000 people - security personnel, militants and civilians - have died in Jammu and Kashmir in a violent separatist movement that peaked in 1989.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2006 09:37 ||
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More than 70,000 people - security personnel, militants and civilians - have died in Jammu and Kashmir in a violent separatist movement that peaked in 1989.
Those are Pak figures. Like their 700,000 Indian troops in Kashmir, quite unlikely.
From an interview with Former J+K Governor Giresh Saxena (a former RAW head).
Musharraf also claims that more then 70,000 people have been killed in Kashmir.
I do not know who gave him those figures. According to statistics that were made available to me, 13,600 people lost their lives in the last 14 years. Of these 10,000 were killed/massacred by terrorists in various incidents of violence. Rest 3,600 lost their lives in crossfire between the security forces and the terrorists. I am telling you these figures because each body was identified.
I must tell you that the security forces lost 3,600 personnel and killed over 16,700 terrorists since 1989. Seventy per cent of these were foreigners.
What kinds of arms and ammunition have been seized during the operations?
The Indian Army and paramilitary forces have seized over 25,000 Kalashnikovs, 325 sniper rifles, 1,000 machines guns, 1,800 rocket propelled grenade launchers, 4,000 rocket launchers, 10,000 land mines, 50,000 hand grenades, 30 tonnes of explosives, 7.5 tonnes of RDX, 10,000 revolver pistols and 4,000 wireless sets.
This speaks about the kind of assistance terrorists groups have been getting from Inter Services Intelligence.
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2006 16:38 Comments ||
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Suspected Muslim militants
I suppose "pakistani islamic terrorist" cuts too close to the bone?
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2006 18:21 Comments ||
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KATHMANDU - Soldiers shot dead six people on Wednesday and wounded three others after firing on a crowd of protesters outside an army camp in eastern Nepal, an army official said. The soldiers shot the demonstrators after they had gathered and fired two shots to protest the death of a woman who was killed by troops in an ambush after reported suspicious activities near the camp on Tuesday evening, the official said. For self-defence they opened fire and killed six people and injured three others, said the official on customary condition of anonymity.
Shooting at cops anywhere in the world generally earns you a hail of lead ...
A rights activist said some 2,000 people had gathered at the base after rumours spread that the woman had been raped and killed by a soldier.
Security forces opened fire at 1:30 pm (0745 GMT) at the camp in the town of Belbari, 590 kilometres (370 miles) southeast of Kathmandu, said Kundan Aryal, general secretary of Informal Sector Service Centre, a Nepalese rights group. The rights group said the army had taken the six bodies.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Security forces arrested two Afghan nationals from Miranshah in North Waziristan on Wednesday and recovered important documents from their possession, Geo Television reported. The Afghans, Khalilur Rehman and Sharifullah, were arrested during a routine check at the central check post, the channel reported. Security forces recovered war maps and formulas to prepare explosives from the men, the channel said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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A paramilitary soldier was severely injured when a bomb went off inside a government school in North Waziristan, sources told Daily Times. Khalid Khattak of the Frontier Corps was wounded in the explosion at the Government Hurmuz High School in Mir Ali bazaar on Tuesday evening, they said. "The soldier was checking a schoolbag, left behind by an unknown student in one of the classrooms, and the moment he touched it there was an explosion, wounding the soldier seriously," sources said, adding that the authorities were questioning schoolteachers and students.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Suspected tribal militants beheaded a cab driver in South Waziristan for being a "US spy" and a frequent visitor to an American military base in Afghanistan, official sources told Daily Times on Wednesday.
The body of the man, identified as Khan Mati, was found on Tuesday near Angoor Ada, the last Pakistani town before the Afghan border in South Waziristan, sources said. Mati, who had been missing since April 17, was believed to be a frequent traveller to the US military base in Macha Dadkot in Paktika province in Afghanistan. He is the second taxi driver to be abducted and killed in Angoor Ada over suspicion of being a US spy.
Sources said that Haji Omar, the Taliban chief in South Waziristan, said that "we do not waste bullet on such suspects and prefer beheading them".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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These morons are the same ones that spook everyone by wearing lip stick, dancing only with other guys and swapping nephews on cold wintery nights. They use the same Waziri logic on relationships: "Women are for breeding and boys are for fun". I say daisy-cutters are too good for these twisted fake Muslims. They should do everyone a favor and trot over to the nearest cliff and do a swan dive or do somersaults through the nearest uncleared minefield.
NAJAF, Iraq - Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani called Thursday for Iraqs next government to dismantle the deadly militias that have pushed the country to the brink of civil war. Sistani, perhaps the countrys most influential figure, told prime minister designate Nuri Al Maliki in a meeting at his Najaf residence that militias must be disarmed and that weapons should be in the hands of the government alone.
Now there's a radical concept
In the last year, the septuagenarian cleric has watched Shiite militias take up arms against the countrys Sunni minority in defiance of his repeated warnings against seeking revenge for rebel attacks. Weapons must be in the hands of government security forces that should not be tied to political parties but to the nation, Sistani was quoted as saying in a statement released after his meeting with Maliki.
Maliki, who was chosen to be Iraqs prime minister last week, is under pressure to form a power-sharing government that would curb sectarian violence, allegedly fueled by Shiite militias operating within the countrys interior ministry. Last week, he vowed to crack down on these militias, saying there were about 11 such armed units operating across Iraq.
The best-known militias are the well-organised Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) -- the main party in the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance; and the radical cleric Moqtada Al Sadrs Mehdi Army. The young upstart Sadr, who is Sistanis major rival, holds the single largest parliamentary bloc with 32 seats in the 275-member parliament and is a staunch supporter of Malikis fundamentalist Dawa Party. These militias have been accused by Sunni politicians of killing hundreds of Sunni Arabs following the bombing of a Shiite shrine in the northern town of Samarra in February.
After his meeting with Sistani, Maliki reiterated his call for the militias to be disarmed after taking a similar stance during Wednesdays surprise visit by the US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. During their meeting, the reclusive Sistani also offered a broad roadmap to Maliki for the formation of the new national unity government.
According to Sistani, the first task for the government is fighting insecurity and putting an end to the terrorist acts that threaten innocents with death and kidnapping. The cleric added that the new cabinet needed capable and honest people who have a good reputation and care about national interests, not personal, religious or sectarian interests. Sistani said special attention needed to be paid to fighting corruption and getting infrastructure, like water and electricity, back up and running.
The revered figure, whose stature dwarfs any Shiite politician, has ventured into the political arena at critical moments since the US-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003. His return to the Najaf in August 2004 settled a deadly confrontation between the US military and Sadrs Mehdi Army. He also pressured the Americans to expedite the path to democratic elections in early 2004 and was the guiding force behind the creation of the Shiites powerful political coalition in parliament.
During the protracted four-month deadlock on forming a government, Sistani urged Shiite politicians to settle their differences ahead of Saturdays breakthough of tapping Maliki for prime minister.
Sistani keeps impressing me. hope he has real good security
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2006 09:46 ||
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That's why I call him the Godfather. "Sadr's small potatoes."
#6
I'm hoping Sistani has airtight security. Tater already killed one favorable Shite leader when he arrived from the UK (2003)
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/27/2006 16:13 Comments ||
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"Sistani" keeps sounding so much associated with "cistern",the sort that is so closely association with the septic tank till you can't tell them apart.
#8
The question in my mind is whether Sistani thinks that the Shia who count are already in the government, the army and the police... meaning that the only militias left are Sunni, Sadr's and Badr. In other words, the competition.
#9
"...militias must be disarmed and that weapons should be in the hands of the government alone". Hmm... that smacks of gun control big government. There is much to ponder at the implications of that coming from Sissitani.
Istanbul, 27 April (AKI) - Turkish politician and Kurdish rights activists Leyla Zana continued her visit to Iraq on Thursday, in part of an effort to find a political solution to growing violence between the Turkish state and Kurdish separatists which threatens to spill over into Iraq's Kurdish regions. Zana's Iraqi trip which began Monday came after a statement from Turkey's military chief of staff, Hilmi Ozkok, that Turkish troops could enter northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) separatists based there. Ankara has blamed the PKK of for being behind a wave of riots and bombings that have hit Turkey's Kurdish eastern region and some of the country's largest cities.
Zana, a former parliamentarian for the pro-Kurdish HEP party, who was released from a Turkish jail in 2004 after serving 10 years for alleged links to the PKK, was the 1995 recipent of the EU's Sakharov Human Rights award. On Tuesday during her meeting in Erbil with Mesut Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdistan autonomous region and leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Zana, discussed the increased number of Turkish troops stationed in southeast of Turkey along the border with Iraqi Kurdistan.
Barzani told Zana that he believed Turkish Kurds could gain their rights by peaceful means, Kurdistan TV reported. "Radicalism is over. Toughness just brings blood. Everyone realises that it is impossible to achieve our aims through weapons. We can succeed if we get together," Barzani was quoted as saying. Barzani called Zana the symbolic hyacinth of the Kurds in Turkey, welcoming her peace-seeking efforts.
On Wednesday, Zana visited the Kurdistan regional parliament, and met Kurdistan's prime minister, Nechirvan Barzani and the parliament's president Adnan Muftu. Zana is scheduled to meet Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, who is a Kurd, later on Thursday.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed an estimated 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK took up arms for self-rule in southeastern Turkey.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2006 09:28 ||
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Baghdad, 27 April (AKI) - Behind the deadly roadside bombs in Iraq, which in three years have killed more than 800 foreign soldiers and countless Iraqis, is the hand of the M-21 of the Mukhabarat, the Baathist intelligence service, according to military experts. The knowhow for construction of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) - like the one which Thursday morning killed three Italian soldiers and one Romanian in Nasiriya - is provided by the M-21, a recent assessment in the specialist magazine Military Review reports.
Within the M-21, there was a laboratory tasked with designing and creating deadly IEDs to hide inside common objects such as suitcases, belts, car seats and books. Chemists and electronics experts at the laboratory also penned manuals on how to conduct road-side attacks using IEDs.
Following a series of attacks in the first months after the US-led invasion of Iraq, experts noted a growing sophistication in the preparation of IEDs, which suggested the handwork of explosive experts. According to British intelligence sources the creation of such devices is limited to a small group of explosive experts who produce IEDs on an "industrial scale".
General Martin Dempsey, the commander of the fifth corps of the first US armoured division, said he considered there is a central group that provided the planning, the training and the actual improvised devices.
The four deaths in the southern province of Nassiriya - in an explosion Thursday morning against a passing coalition military convoy - brings the total of registered military deaths from IEDs to 815, according to the website 'icasualties.org' which attempts to provide a head count of the number of victims since the April 2003 invasion of Iraq.
From their data, IEDs emerge as the main cause of death for foreign soldiers, of whom 2,605 have lost their lives. The American contingent is the hardest hit - 778 of their 2392 dead were from roadside bombs. During the same period, the site estimates that 4556 members of the Iraqi security forces and more than 8500 civilians were also killed.
Italy has some 2,500 troops based at Nasiriya in southern Iraq. A truck bomb attack against the base in November 2003 killed 19 people - most of them carabinieri and soldiers.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2006 09:23 ||
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A bomb blast rocked an Italian convoy at a base in southern Iraq on Thursday, killing three Italian soldiers and a Romanian, the Defense Ministry said. The roadside bomb targeted a four-vehicle convoy on its way to relieve troops at an Iraqi police station in the city of Nasiriyah, the ministry said in a statement. One of the vehicles was destroyed, killing the four soldiers and seriously injuring at least one more passenger.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi said he was "profoundly grieved" by the deaths. Center-left leader Romano Prodi, who will head the next Italian government, said in a statement that "this tragedy strikes at all of Italy" and he shared the pain of the victims' families.
Lawmakers from the extremist parties of the center-left coalition seized on the news to criticize Italy's decision to send troops to Iraq and demand that the government quicken the withdrawal of its military contingent there. "Today's attack that caused the deaths of Italian soldiers is an additional loss that Berlusconi's wicked choice to stand by his friend (President) Bush brings today to our country," Communist lawmaker Marco Rizzo was quoted as saying by the Apcom news agency.
Prodi opposed the war and has pledged to bring Italian troops home by the end of the year. Italy already has begun withdrawing troops under Berlusconi, who also was prepared to end the Italian participation in the multinational force this year.
The Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry condemned "the terrorist attack" and expressed its condolences to the family of the Romanian soldier. The Romanian Defense Ministry identified the soldier as corporal Bogdan Hancu, a 28-year-old military policeman from the eastern city of Iasi. He is Romania's first combat casualty in Iraq. The country has 860 troops in Iraq as part of the multinational force.
The attack brings the number of Italian military deaths since the Iraq war began in 2003 to 30, including 19 killed in the bombing of a military barracks in November 2003. The deaths also include intelligence agent Nicola Calipari, who was shot in March 2005 by U.S. soldiers as he was escorting an Italian journalist to the Baghdad airport after securing her release from Iraqi captors.
More than 2,000 Italian troops are stationed in Nasiriyah.
Since the start of the war, at least 212 foreign soldiers have been killed in Iraq. At least 2,393 U.S. military members have died.
#2
May Italy soon have a new government that merits the sacrifice of men such as these. Premier-elect Prodi's shaky hold on power shouldn't last much past his installation anyway.
JERUSALEM, April 26 Israel's prime minister-designate, Ehud Olmert, told top security officials today to swiftly plug the gaps in the separation barrier around Jerusalem. His order came nine days after a Palestinian suicide bomber struck again in Israel. Israel's separation barrier still has numerous openings around Jerusalem, and Israeli security officials consider the city one of the places most vulnerable to attack.
Legal challenges in Israel resulted in temporary injunctions against building the barrier in several parts of Jerusalem. Israel's Supreme Court recently dismissed the injunctions against building, though the justices have yet to issue final rulings in the cases, according to Marc Luria, a founder of the Security Fence for Israel, a private group. The court could still rule against the state's proposed route, which would require the barrier to be moved. But Mr. Olmert said some sort of obstacle should be put in place as soon as possible. Mr. Olmert ordered "all gaps be closed immediately by means of temporary fences until they are permanently closed by the security fence," according to the prime minister's office.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled in 2004 that building the fence inside the West Bank, where most of it is being erected, is a violation of international law. Israel rejected the decision, saying the barrier is necessary to prevent suicide bombings and other attacks. In Jerusalem, much of the barrier runs along the eastern edge of the city, keeping virtually all of the city on the Israeli side. About three-quarters of the Jerusalem barrier has been completed or is under construction, while about one-quarter has been blocked by the legal challenges, according to Mr. Luria.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, which is part of the West Bank, in the 1967 Mideast war and subsequently annexed it, a move that has not been recognized internationally. The Palestinian leadership has traditionally sought East Jerusalem as a future capital, and objected to the barrier inside the West Bank, which it seeks as part of a Palestinian state.
In the most recent suicide bombing, a West Bank Palestinian killed nine people at a restaurant in Tel Aviv on April 17. Israeli officials have not said how he reached the city, though Israeli media reports cited officials saying that they believe he came through an opening in or near Jerusalem.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2006 12:00 ||
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#1
And where the fence is, there will be Israel's permanent border. Good.
GAZA - Two Palestinian militants who survived an Israeli missile strike that tore apart a car in the Gaza Strip on Thursday were killed soon after by another missile as they ran from the scene, Palestinian security sources said.
I love a story with a happy ending
There was an air strike on a cell that was en route to carrying out a terror attack, an Israeli army spokeswoman said. The two Islamic Jihad members had jumped out of the vehicle, which the security sources said was loaded with rockets, before it exploded and fled on foot.
"Quick Ahmed, the car's getting ready to blow! Ha, we got away this time......hey, what's that sound?"
An Israeli aircraft then fired a second missile, killing Wael Nassar and Ahmed Nejem and wounding a third militant who had been in the car with them.
Two out of three ain't bad
Additional from JP: An IAF helicopter targeted a large van in Dir el-Balah in Gaza, and then fired another missile at a vehicle near the evacuated former settlement of Netzarim Thursday morning, according to Israel Radio. Two Islamic Jihad terrorists died of their wounds in the strike. The vehicle hit in the strike, according to IDF and Palestinain sources, functioned as a mobile Kassam launcher, and caused an enormous explosion after it was hit. The IDF confirmed that the targets were Islamic Jihad operatives who were on their way to fire Kassam rockets at Israel. According to IDF sources, the same squad had fired Kassams at Ashkelon and other Israeli targets in the past.
The Islamic Jihad men were identified as Wael Nassar, 27, and Ahmad Abu Najam, 23, senior field operatives in its military wing. They were both initially pronounced dead by Palestinian Health Ministry officials, but doctors at a Gaza hospital found them to still be alive upon there arrival. One of the men sustained chest wounds and lost both of his legs, while the other lost a leg and part of his head.
And died a slow painful death
Three people were also reported wounded, while Islamic Jihad called for revenge. "God willing, reprisal is coming and it is going to be like air shaking," said spokesman Abu Ahmad. "We are going to shake the air under their feet. They had experienced us in Tel Aviv and more is coming."
Islamic Jihad is responsible for almost all Kassam rocket attacks on Israel since the pullout from Gaza last summer, and has recently raised its capabilities by acquiring and firing Grad-type Katyusha rockets, which have a longer range and carry more explosives, at Israel. In the past two weeks Israel has stepped up an offensive in northern Gaza aimed at halting the rocket fire. The offensive has consisted of expanding its artillery offensive. The leader of Islamic Jihad vowed two weeks ago that rocket attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli targets would continue, despite the Israeli offensive in the northern Gaza Strip.
In a statement posted on the Islamic Jihad Web site, Ramadan Shalah said Islamic Jihad considers rocket fire a "direct threat" to Israel. "Therefore firing rockets will continue," he said. He also said the organization was making efforts to infiltrate Israel with suicide bombers from the West Bank. "The nonstop crackdown against our resistance might limit this effort, but it's not going to stop it," he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2006 10:00 ||
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Hits 0.000000001 on sympathy meterupdate - 11:33 26/04/2006
$450,000 said stolen from PA foreign minister during visit to Kuwait
By Haaretz Service
Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar has had $450,000 stolen from his hotel room during his current visit to Kuwait, the Itim news agency quoted the Kuwaiti media as saying Wednesday... al-Zahar had asked the Kuwaiti authorities to keep the theft under wraps, but the incident was confirmed by a security official at the hotel.
The foreign minister, a senior member of Hamas, is on a tour of Arab and Muslim countries to drum up funds after Israel suspended the transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority and Western donors cut off aid to the Hamas-led government.... the Palestinian Finance Ministry has revealed that, despite its empty coffers, the PA has funded the trip for al-Zahar and his entourage
Paleo Foreign Minister has $450k in cash , stolen in Kuwait
Posted by: Mark E. ||
04/27/2006 10:36 Comments ||
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#5
Must have been those thieving arabs...starting with Mahmoud al-Z. Any bets his current visit extends another 10 years while OJ helps him search for the cash?
#8
Claiming it was stolen is a great way to give terrorist funding plausible deniability.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/27/2006 10:55 Comments ||
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#9
You should have used American Express travelers checks. If they are lost or STOLEN you can have them replaced in 24-hours. Anyone want to bet that there is 450k missing from the Paleo coffers? Is this guy part Algerian? I think they invented this scam.
GAZA (Reuters) - About 50 masked Palestinian gunmen, pledging their allegiance to the Hamas-led government, held a training exercise on Thursday as part of a new police force opposed by President Mahmoud Abbas.
"We promise to God ... to be servants of Islam and the Muslims and to give our loyalty and support to the elected legitimate government," the militants chanted in a field in Gaza City as Israeli drones flew over the area.
The exercise was heavy on theatrics as gunmen from the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a grouping of militants from various factions, took cover behind trees and jumped from moving vehicles as journalists invited to the event watched.
But it underscored Hamas's determination to exert security control in the Gaza Strip, where lawlessness has increased following Israel's pullout from the territory last year.
Abbas has rejected the establishment of the rapid response police force that Hamas said it would set up through the Interior Ministry.
Hamas, an Islamic group dedicated to Israel's destruction, won the Palestinian parliamentary election in January.
EARLIER CLASHES
Some 30 people were wounded in Gaza in clashes earlier in the week between gunmen from Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas, violence related to his veto of the new unit and the ministry's appointment of a top militant to a senior security post.
Abu Abir, a spokesman for the militants taking part in the training exercise, said the force would recruit its 3,000 members from the police and volunteers, including members of Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades. He said some 500 would come from the PRC.
The unit, he said, would provide backup for police on various missions and protect government officials if they came under attack.
Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said the new force began its work last week, rushing into the Health Ministry and subduing gunmen who took over the building to demand health benefits for a relative.
He said the unit, once fully formed, would be integrated into the police and Abbas would have no reason to object.
"President Abbas rejected a formation of a separate force that can be seen as an alternative to the police, and we agreed with him. This is a backup force that will be merged into the police," Abu Hilal said.
Fatah gunmen announced on Wednesday they would form a militia of their own as protection against any attempt by the Interior Ministry's force to rein them in.
The Hamas led-government has said it had no plans to arrest militants who attack Israel.
Posted by: ed ||
04/27/2006 9:44 Comments ||
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#2
A little advice to the up and coming Hamas PR campaign: People really get turned off with people in masks. In fact there was a time in the U.S. that we would just shoot people wearing masks. Also its good to see that you have got that militancy working not how about work on feeding your people and building a better future?
The IDF arrested Tuesday night a Palestinian Fatah member on his way to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel, the army reported Wednesday. Security forces acting on a tip had set up roadblocks in the area surrounding Nablus. Near the village of Ein Bidan, the suspect, who was in possession of a 6-kg. explosives belt, was arrested. Another man, who the army believed was supposed to drive the would-be bomber to the site of the planned attack, was also arrested, Israel Radio reported.
On Wednesday evening, Nahal Brigade soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian carrying a rifle and a handgun who opened fire at the troops. None of the soldiers were reported wounded in the incident. Also on Wednesday, a border police unit arrested an Islamic Jihad fugitive in the village of Elyamun near Jenin.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
they should simply march the guy to an open field and tell him to do what he planned on doing.
Israel's attorney general has said that he did not find enough evidence to put on trial a senior Palestinian militant accused of masterminding the assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister. Ahmed Saadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine(PFLP), was snatched from a prison in the West Bank town of Jericho during an Israeli military operation last month.
Israel also hauled off four of Saadat's alleged accomplices in the 2001 assassination of cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi. These four suspects will be tried in an Israeli court in Jerusalem, the Israeli justice ministry said in a statement. Saadat will however be indicted and tried in a military court for other security offenses not related to Zeevi's assassination, the statement said. Ehud Olmert, the acting Israeli prime minister, has vowed to see Saadat tried.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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KOTA BARU: Skipping Friday prayers is a major sin for Muslims and it is punishable under the states Syariah laws, said Kelantan [this is in Malaysia - the template of a moderate Moslem country] Bar Committee chairman Datuk Wan Harun Shukri Noordin.
Therefore, Muslims in the state must remember that Friday prayers are compulsory, otherwise they can be jailed or fined by the religious authorities [I'm not sure which Sharia legal code he is using; my understanding is that Sharia codes generally indicate a penalty of lashes for non performance of religious duty] , he said yesterday.
Jakarta, April. 27 (AP): An Indonesian court sentenced an Islamic militant to seven years in prison on Thursday for sheltering the man who allegedly helped mastermind a string of suicide bombings in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Ahmad Taufik Ridho was also found guilty of illegal weapons possession, said Ardiansah Dali, the presiding judge at the South Jakarta District Court.
The court dismissed allegations, however, that Ridho was involved in a plot to assassinate Americans and other foreigners in Indonesia, saying there was not enough evidence to support such claims.
``The defendant ... has been found guilty of having and keeping illegal firearms, hand guns, ammunition or explosives,'' Dali said in handing down the seven year sentence.
``We also find him guilty of helping hide terror suspect Noordin Moh Top.''
Ridho's brother Al-Ghozi _ killed in a police shootout in 2003 _ was suspected of involvement in a 2000 bomb attack that killed 22 people in Manila.
He was also accused of planting a car bomb outside the residence of the Philippines' ambassador in Jakarta in 2001 leaving him badly wounded.
Noordin is believed to be one of the key leaders of the al Qaida-linked network Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for at least four terrorist attacks in the sprawling archipelago since 2002.
The bombings have together killed more than 260 people.
``I reject all the charges,'' Ridho said ahead of his trial. ``I didn't do anything wrong.''
Russia and Germany agree that there is no alternative but to rely on diplomacy and politics to resolve the crisis over Irans nuclear program.
A statement from Russian Foreign Ministry reports that Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Lavrovs German counterpart, met in the Siberian town of Tomsk for a joint program by the Russian-German Business Council.
The statement said the two days of meetings between the two ministers are meant to outline a coordinated position on Irans nuclear program.
Both Russia and Germany rule out alternatives other than diplomacy and politics in the enforcement of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, as well as in resolving the crisis over Irans nuclear program.
The deadline set by the United Nations Security Council for Iran to meet demands over its nuclear program will end on Friday.
#2
Didn't Russia and Germany try to solve a world crisis with diplomacy in about '39 or so? I'm not sure I'm interested in their advice on the subject.
#5
Now, Russia says there is "no choice" but diplomacy. But if Iran threw a nuclear missile at Russia, Russia would have "no choice" but nuclear retaliation.
USA:
A Kuwait - Teheran
F Persian Gulf C A Kuwait-Teheran
A Bagdad S A Kuwait - Teheran
Iran: A Teheran H
Russia:
A Moscow H
France:
A Paris disbands
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
04/27/2006 19:31 Comments ||
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#11
I suppose it would be flagrantly off topic for me to mention the complete, near-perfect condition (box lid torn at one corner) Diplomacy game I purchased at the local thrift shop for a whopping $8.00. All it needs are more planning pads.
#15
It might as well be gunboat, Gromgoru. It's not as if anybody is listening to anyone else.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
04/27/2006 22:38 Comments ||
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#16
War, is diplomacy by other means
Actually, DV, the statement is almost a direct quote taken from Carl von Clausewitz's seminal work On War. Bismark was simply quoting an oft-ignored master (Clausewitz is often ignored in favor of others such as Sun Tzu, but he is recognized amongst western military historians as one of the true masters of the art of war - his work is far more detailed, literate, and studied than Sun Tzu could ever have imagined).
Iran has received its first batch of North Korean-made surface-to-surface missiles that put European countries within firing range, Israel's military intelligence chief said in an interview published Thursday. The BM-25 missiles have a range of 1,550 miles and are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the Haaretz daily reported. Israeli security officials confirmed the Haaretz report. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, who spoke to Haaretz, has warned of the new Iranian missiles in several recent interviews to the media. Iran already has missiles capable of reaching Israel, but the BM-25s are a significant upgrade over its existing top-of-the-line missiles the Shihab-4 and Shihab-3. Those missiles spurred Israel to develop its Arrow-2 anti-ballistic missile system, which can intercept the Iranian missiles. Iran has also tested several long-range missiles in recent weeks, including a "top secret" missile capable of being fired from helicopters and jet fighters, Iranian state-run television reported. Iran also tested the Fajr-3, a missile it said can avoid radar and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads. Iran also tested what it calls two new torpedoes.
#4
Germans..."thank you, AhMad, can I have another?"
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/27/2006 16:19 Comments ||
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#5
You mean American or Western weapons only, as the Left> they can attack, scheme, and destroy us at their leisure, but we = Right + Moders can't do the same because of our "success". Our success justifies their evil(s) - you know, Equalism. Pragmatically, also remember that during the Cold War, many in the Left argued that the USSR, China and Commie Bloc must Must MUST be allowed to have more nukes than NATO or the Western democracies for "self-defense" purposes.
On the "United 93" homepage, Universal Studios has a site to cover their butts from the lefty crowd: Why Do They Hate America? A few tidbits; Conflicts Past And Present
Trade routes and immigration began to make the world more of a global enterprise well before our contemporary period. As a result of these and more stable ways of travel, cultures and religions began to collide. There is a long history of division that is rooted in both politics and religion. Here are several highlights that may help identify the history of the conflicts.
The Crusades are a violent episode between Europe and the East. They begin in the eleventh century and last for several hundred years. One notable purpose of the Crusades was to take back the Holy Land (Jerusalem) from the Muslims. Europe succeeded in this endeavor in the first crusade. In the end, history has not looked kindly on this exposition that Pope Innocent II had declared a holy war against the infidels.
Islam rebounded and expanded with the creation of the Ottoman Empire. They won back Constantinople (which changed hands several times before the modern day name change of Istanbul) and took Serbia in the key Battle of Kosovo where the Ottoman army met the Serbs Christian forces. The year was 1389. Then, in 1683, the Ottomans went on the offensive again and took Austria in the decisive Battle of Vienna. Well, no, they didn't: At 4 in the morning, on September 12, the Austrian army on the left, and the German forces in the center moved forward, in an attack (which was aimed at preventing another long siege) against the Turks. Mustafa Pasha launched a counter-attack, with most of his force. Then the Polish infantry launched a massive assault upon the right flank. After 12 hours of fighting, Sobieski's Polish force held the high ground on the right. At about five o'clock in the afternoon, four cavalry groups, one of them Austrian-German, and the other three composed of Polish hussars, totaling 20,000 men in all and led by the Polish king, charged down the hills. In the confusion, they made straight for the Ottoman camps, while the Vienna garrison sallied out of its defenses, and joined in the assault. In less than three hours, the Polish forces won the battle, as the Turkish army beat a hasty retreat to the south and east. The Turks lost about 15,000 men in the fighting, compared to approximately 4,000 for the Habsburg-Polish forces.
This resulted in even more influence given to the Ottoman Empire in the state of European politics. There were now two equally powerful sides and a widening gulf between what would later be called the East and West.
In more modern times there have been several clashes of East and West. The Ottoman Empire quickly declined in the first years of the 1900s due in part to civil unrest. There were also disputes over the British control of the Suez Canal that connected Europe with the Far East in terms of trade. By 1924, the Ottoman Empire came to a close when it was constitutionally abolished internally.
Over the decades, with no clear identification with an empire, fundamentalism grew up within Islam with jihad as a focal point. Jihad is an idea that goes back to Muhammad and means struggle. Taken to an extreme, jihad can mean holy war against those who do not adhere to Islamic faith.
It's in the book, you casn look it up
There are many reasons for the acting out of such views whether in the Middle East due to the development of the nation of Israel in the 1940s, or more recently the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Africa, the first World Trade Center bombing attempt,
Attempt? ATTEMPT?
the USS Cole blast, the 9/11 catastrophe,
Sigh
or the British bombing of last year.
So, they blow up our embassies, the Cole, the WTC, fly planes into the WTC and the Pentagon, bomb the London subways and this may be a reason for jihad? Go see the rest, I'm going to go lay down before my head explodes
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2006 12:13 ||
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#1
The Crusades are a violent episode between Europe and the East. They begin in the eleventh century and last for several hundred years. One notable purpose of the Crusades was to take back the Holy Land (Jerusalem) from the Muslims. Europe succeeded in this endeavor in the first crusade. In the end, history has not looked kindly on this exposition that Pope Innocent II had declared a holy war against the infidels.
#2
The authors of this tripe are products of what American education has become since the left took over in the 60's. They have a minimal, distorted grasp of history and absolutely no problem solving ability. They are basically useless and if left to their own devices would starve.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/27/2006 13:40 Comments ||
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#4
Who wrote this crap? Obviously they've never encountered a history book.
The Ottoman Empire peaked in 1750, and steadily declined after that. The Spaniards drove the last of the Moors from the Iberian peninsula in 1492. The Greeks revolted in 1824, and between then and 1918, steadily drove the Turks (and therefore, mulims) out of Greece.
The French, Italians, British and Spain colonized most of North Africa between 1798 and 1840. These same nations also gained control of India, Yemen, Ceylon, Burma, Malaysia and many other formerly muslim nations around the same time.
The Turks sided with the Austria-Germany alliance during World War I, and were on the losing side. The Ottoman Empire, which stretched from Persia to Egypt, was broken up as part of the treaty settlement following the war. Kemal Attaturk revolted against the Grand Pasha in 1928, and founded the current secular state of Turkey.
This article is about like Hollywood's movies - based on what the Hollywoodmoles think SHOULD have happened, rather than upon accepted and documented history.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/27/2006 13:45 Comments ||
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#5
Urban II is the pope most associated with getting the Crusades going.
Innocent II took office well after the First Crusade was finished and died several years before the 2nd started.
Also, since the United States wasn't founded for hundreds of years after the last Crusade was finished, I don't see what one has to do with the other except the standard AMERICA IS THE SOURCE OF ALL EVIL IN THE WORLD SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME
#6
you can go further back than that, OP: within 100 years of mohammed's death, the Muslim armies were beaten back at Tours, France by Charles Martel after they overran North Africa and Spain. Rome was invaded and sacked within 200 years. The first Crusade was launched 300 years after Tours, after centuries of provocations.
One has to ask whether this lack of historical knowledge is accidental or deliberate.
#9
The Ottomans did not "win back" Constantinople, which had been a Christian city from the time of its refoundation in the 4th century until its conquest by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II in 1453. True, the city had fallen in 1204, but that was to Western Christians.
Most historians would say that the Ottoman Empire peaked under Suleiman (1520-1566). The early 1600s were not a good time, as the empire was hard-hit by rebellions in Anatolia. It recovered a bit under the Koprolu Viziers in the mid and late 1600s (taking Crete from Venice, for example), but the assault on Vienna was a disaster. The head of the Vizier was sent to the sultan on a silver tray, and soon afterwards the Austrians took all of Hungary from the Ottomans. Its was pretty much downhill for the Turks after that.
#11
When Jan Sobieski arrived at Veienna, he supposedly took one look at the Turkish encampment and knew immediately that victory was at hand. During the course of the bloody 30-Years War (1618-1648), the Europeans had made great strides in the military sciences. They Turks, on the other hand, fell behind -- and were never able to catch up. (Although they did use machine guns quite effectively at Gallipoli in WWI, and then smashed the over-extended Greeks in the early 1920s).
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.
UNITED NATIONS, April 26 -- Sudan's president has rejected a U.N. appeal to allow its peacekeepers into the Darfur region to help stem a tide of violence that has left more than 100,000 dead and more than 2 million displaced over the past three years, a senior U.N. official told the Security Council on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia released 500 al-Qaida sympathizers after they underwent religious counseling to bring them back to the moderate path of Islam. Member of the counseling committee Mohammed Bin Yehya Nujeimi was quoted Wednesday by al-Jazeera as saying the committee, affiliated with the interior ministry, had conducted dialogue with 800 Saudis who had allegedly sympathized with prisoners convicted in cases of terrorism. Out of the total, 500 were released following intensive studies and counseling sessions which moderated their views. 
Aljazeera reports that explosions took place in Bahrain, citing the Gulf state's Interior Ministry sources. But Associated Press said a steel pipe sound bomb exploded on Wednesday in the capital Manama. The bomb went off in the evening without causing any casualties and police defused a second similar device, according to the Interior Ministry.
According to a copyrighted article in the Salt Lake Tribune, counterterrorist agents arrested five men on Wednesday. One of the men was aprehended in the Cottonwood Heights area of Salt Lake, and the other for men were arrested in California. The men were arrested and idicted as part of an investigation into the U.S. connections of a suspected senior al-Qaida operative imprisoned in Iraq, according to the Tribune article. 
KATHMANDU - Soldiers shot dead six people on Wednesday and wounded three others after firing on a crowd of protesters outside an army camp in eastern Nepal, an army official said. The soldiers shot the demonstrators after they had gathered and fired two shots to protest the death of a woman who was killed by troops in an ambush after reported suspicious activities near the camp on Tuesday evening, the official said. For self-defence they opened fire and killed six people and injured three others, said the official on customary condition of anonymity.
Security forces arrested two Afghan nationals from Miranshah in North Waziristan on Wednesday and recovered important documents from their possession, Geo Television reported. The Afghans, Khalilur Rehman and Sharifullah, were arrested during a routine check at the central check post, the channel reported. Security forces recovered war maps and formulas to prepare explosives from the men, the channel said.
A paramilitary soldier was severely injured when a bomb went off inside a government school in North Waziristan, sources told Daily Times. Khalid Khattak of the Frontier Corps was wounded in the explosion at the Government Hurmuz High School in Mir Ali bazaar on Tuesday evening, they said. "The soldier was checking a schoolbag, left behind by an unknown student in one of the classrooms, and the moment he touched it there was an explosion, wounding the soldier seriously," sources said, adding that the authorities were questioning schoolteachers and students.
Suspected tribal militants beheaded a cab driver in South Waziristan for being a "US spy" and a frequent visitor to an American military base in Afghanistan, official sources told Daily Times on Wednesday. 
A bomb blast rocked an Italian convoy at a base in southern Iraq on Thursday, killing three Italian soldiers and a Romanian, the Defense Ministry said. The roadside bomb targeted a four-vehicle convoy on its way to relieve troops at an Iraqi police station in the city of Nasiriyah, the ministry said in a statement. One of the vehicles was destroyed, killing the four soldiers and seriously injuring at least one more passenger.
GAZA - Two Palestinian militants who survived an Israeli missile strike that tore apart a car in the Gaza Strip on Thursday were killed soon after by another missile as they ran from the scene, Palestinian security sources said.
The IDF arrested Tuesday night a Palestinian Fatah member on his way to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel, the army reported Wednesday. Security forces acting on a tip had set up roadblocks in the area surrounding Nablus. Near the village of Ein Bidan, the suspect, who was in possession of a 6-kg. explosives belt, was arrested. Another man, who the army believed was supposed to drive the would-be bomber to the site of the planned attack, was also arrested, Israel Radio reported. 
Israel's attorney general has said that he did not find enough evidence to put on trial a senior Palestinian militant accused of masterminding the assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister. 
