#2
at $4.50 for regular in San Diego, I'd prefer if that blood comes from a MMGW-spewing anti-oil lefty's forehead, in fact, I'd like to start wih Maurice "nationalize em" Hinchey. Drill NOW
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/20/2008 8:28 Comments ||
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#3
graphic makes it look like shes more like 100 feet tall
Poor Baby Alex. John McCain can't have him. Mom's not going to let the child make that choice. We know the kind of Mom the child has and the kind of man Baby Alex is going to make:
The military's never going to be a career choice for Baby Alex, because Mom's against war and stuff. He's never going to drive a tank, fly a helicopter, land a C130 on a patch of dirt, or stand watch on a destroyer on a stormy night.
He'll never become a policeman because they deal with all sorts of sordid people: tacky, low-class people who are really oppressed by the system, but, well, you wouldn't want them in your home would you?
He'll never hang around the firehouse with the guys, polishing a truck and waiting for an alarm. He'll never drive an ambulance, never stop somebody's bleeding, never crack somebody's ribs administering CPR, though he might have a class in high school, if it's a required course.
Baby Alex will never experience the pleasure of hunting, because guns are dangerous and they kill people and why would Baby Alex want to kill Bambi? Or even Thumper?
He'll never spend an afternoon fishing, never pull in a big 'un, because fish have feelings, too, y'know. How would you like to be pulled into the water with a hook in your lip? And he might fall into the drink and drown.
He'll never play football with the guys because he'll prob'ly get hurt. Maybe some touch football, but only if the Kennedys are playing. Nor will he play hockey, because getting a mouthful of puck might ruin his orthodontic smile.
He's never going to spend a day baling hay and squirting sweat, never going to enjoy the smell of cow shit, chase a shoat, or ride a horse without wearing a helmet.
He'll never spend a summer working on a construction crew. He's never going to slave for a bricklayer, mixing mortar and learning bad language while watching a few pallets of bricks become a building. He's never going to fish wire or pipe a house or even shingle a roof. He's too good to work at minimum wage or barely above. And lots of those kinds of people are Mexicans or Guatamalans or other foreigners.
Baby Alex is gonna be misdiagnosed with ADHD while he's in pre-K. He'll spend the years between 4 and 11 in a prescription drug-induced haze and then he's going to turn 12 and develop acne. He's going to spend his teenage years sitting in front of the teevee playing video games and complaining to his Mom about how tough his so-called life is.
He's going to attend junior college, eventually majoring in modern dance, where his English professor is going to help him resolve the youthful crisis of his sexuality and then he's going to spend a couple years hanging around Gay Pride gatherings. Sometime around the age of 23 or 24 he's going to meet a muscular black woman named Sylvia and discover he's not really homosexual and never was.
He's going to end his days an attempted suicide, the barrel of a .38 in his mouth. He's going to lose his nerve at the last moment but still manage to blow his lower jaw off, drowning in his own blood. His mother is going to have him buried in the cheapest coffin they make and sue the paramedics for not getting there sooner or being more interested.
He'll live and die without ever knowing that John McCain actually doesn't want him.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I dont know from this moveon shit, or whatever, but ADD is real, and the meds can be livesavers. I dont need no terror apologists to tell me that.
#2
no, because Alex will run the motel long after Mother quits.
"What's that you say, Mother? The nasty Military-Industrial Complex is sending nasty girls to use our rooms?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/20/2008 0:29 Comments ||
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#3
Baby Alex will grow up and understand America is free because its the home of the brave. He will join the Army, disown his nutty mother, and lead a normal adult life. The poor kid is just gonna have a rough childhood.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/20/2008 0:46 Comments ||
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#4
I really am of the opinion that these nutjobs really do want America to completely disarm, to surrender to our enemies, and to allow them to roll over us and the rest of the world in an unresisted wave.
When they're standing up against the wall waiting for the machineguns to start firing they're going to be on their knees wailing "Why? Why?" and, God willing, there will be someone else standing nearby, waiting without crying out, in stolid bravery for his or her own death bravely who will say "Because, you fuckwit, you disarmed us when we had real enemies, but you were too stupid to see it. You disarmed us because you craved peace so badly you were willing to do anything to see it. You disarmed us when real enemies were telling you that they really were trying to kill us. You believed so strongly that the Republicans were murdering warmongers that you forced us to disarm and then you let the bastards take over all in the name of your vaunted peace. You disarmed us, you insufferable cretin, and now you're standing here with me about to die. Have the courage of your own beliefs, or at least let me give you some of mine. Get on your feet. If you're going to die, die standing up!"
#8
Classic Fred commentary, but I'm with 49 Pan: Baby Alex spends a lot of time watching TV; happens to see this; realizes that those things between his legs are called "testicles"; goes Recon; wins Navy Cross; breaks Moms heart.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/20/2008 8:46 Comments ||
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#9
Assiming the V-chip mommy had installed allows him to even see that recruitment ad (or anything else besides Barny the Dinosaur...)
#13
these nutjobs really do want America to completely disarm
No they don't. They expect others to protect them---and to feel infinitely superior to these, low-brow, "myrmidons". Peacenicks are not really pacifists---they are free riders.
Or Matt, maybe he sees this commercial and realizes what it takes, and goes to serve as 49Pan said.
(Love that video, and if you look close in the middle. you'll see a Cavalry Stetson on an officer who is being saluted, just like the one on the wall over by my desk, next to my spurs /proud)
#15
It's high time we purged this traitorous sub-culture from our midst. We have a nifty little country here, and I for one am sick and goddamned tired of hearing what a piece of shit it is.
The military *is* the gaurantor of our nation's constitution.
We are America's sons and daughters who love our country so much that we volunteer and offer up our lives to keep it.
Have these people ever considered the magnitude and depth of any sacrifice of that sort? Have they no sense of patriotism, no love of the country that protects their freedoms and way of life, no idea of the virtues and values of self-sacrifice for a common good?
These Move-On poeple are selfish, spoiled, stupid and in the end, pathetic.
#17
These nuts no longer bother me. Had they not "exagerated" and lied about the war, I believe we would of never done the surge. People questioning what was really happening as thier exagerations were debunked, gave Bush the chance to push for the surge.
#18
Or . . .
The kid is going to grow up to be a serial killer, killing women who remind him of his Mom.
He's going to be a mild mannered slacker by day, and a ferocious predator by night.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/20/2008 11:13 Comments ||
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#19
Al- will he be leaving one foot at a time in the ocean in vancouver?
#20
Maybe.
Most serial killers are "sexually confused" and have frequently been abused in order to "cure" of their maleness.
Kids in that situation either find a way to reassert themselves in a socially approved manner (Think Teddy Roosevelt) or turn violent.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/20/2008 12:49 Comments ||
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#21
Using an actress with a child to hide behind my child. How...Typical.
She is acting, you can see it in her eyes - she has no children IMO and if she does she does not care for them half of what my cat cares for my daughter. Why do I have the final scene in The Dead Zone movie flashing before my mind?
#22
Gents, I am in Southampton of "The Hamptons" and I have to tell you there are lot of these Mommy's and Alex's out here. They all drive black Land Rovers, wear ugly clothes that some one calls "fashion" and eat arugula washed down with bottled water. Their cars all sport "Support the Troops - Bring them home" ribbons. They think Obama is the second coming of a Lord they don't believe in. They get excited at the playground if their kid starts to play with other kids, especially if they run after each other and play tackle. They are the kind of people who give money to MoveOn.org and make these airheaded TV ads. They know nothing of God, duty, Country or sacrifice. Honor to them is a cute name for their baby girl. I sweat nothing these people believe in since I probably am 180 out of what they believe. I had a guy I know here tell me he was voting for Obama and I asked him why? He said because he was smart and would make changes to the current value system in the country. I asked him what was wrong with our value system. He had no single issue just a bunch of ad hominen BDS type vitriol. So, I don't think Alex will ever amount to much more than a sniveling, spoiled, impatient idiot - just like his Mom wants him to be.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/20/2008 13:03 Comments ||
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#23
Jeeeebus, FredMan breaks the no-nukes rule.
A crater... a damn crater, that's all that's left. Gawd amighty.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
06/20/2008 13:12 Comments ||
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#24
I dont need no terror apologists to tell me that.
Obviously you were medicated through the 'grammar' portion of the curriculum.
#26
The actress may exhibit Gen X attitudes, but Move-on has missed a generation shift. Talk to the Gen Y parents, they use terms like "bubble wrap free" and "free range rearing". The children of the baby boomers are making their own parenting choices.
#27
Will the lad play video games with the other kids? If yes, he'll learn all he needs to know. If there's another 9/11 will he learn who caused his school to go into lockdown? Then if he is capable of developing what is needed, he will respond to the call. Plenty of recruits are where they are now because of 9/11, regardless what their parents think -- because those are the parents that taught them they have a responsibility to fix the world. And if the parents mistakenly thought it meant their children would recycle and drive hybrid cars instead of putting on a uniform...
MoveOn.org's impassioned videos aren't going to sway anybody not already a believer, and certainly won't much prevent children reared to be idealists behaving so idealistically as to strive to protect the world from the evil they will be aware of, even if their parents willfully choose to be blind. Of course some will turn out as Fred predicts, and their parents will never figure out how they lost the parenting competition to the other family whose kid went to the Olympics and then became a professor of Classical Persian at a name school after retiring from the Army. ;-)
#28
Eh the kid won't take part in any the normal activities as normal kids do. As the result he will become a loner and try to re-live Columbine except on a larger scale. He might join up with the terrorist organization of the day and end up in some training camp in some mideast $hithole. He might be naive and think he going to go to our enemies and try to change their mindset and end up the main actor in their snuff movie. He might join some moonbat organization such MoveOn.org that hates America. Good luck lady. I'm surprised you didn't about the poor kid because you most likely believe in such things.
#30
He might be naive and think he is going to go to our enemies and try to change their mindset and end up the main actor in their snuff movie. He might join some moonbat organization such MoveOn.org that hates America. Good luck lady. I'm surprised you didn't abort the poor kid because you most likely believe in such things.
#2
Brits are long on guts, short on tools of war. BP, in a long range fire fight what's your preference, SAW vs Ma Deuce? Fire superiority trumps bravery.
#3
It's interesting. The govt approved the EuroFighter and the Carriers, when the money is really needed for things like.
UAVs.
Air Transport (Heli)
Proper Supplies.
Body Armour and Night Vision kit.
MRAP Vehicles.
A Decent Troop Rifle.
Heavy Transport(Air and Sea).
oh and it also looks like we British could do with some CROWS systems too.
#5
BP, my wife will be in New Ferry, Wiral, Merseyside for three weeks visiting her mother. She isn't happy with what is happening to her beloved England either.
#6
God help the Tommys - they are doing so much with so little. The government needs to step up and arm those guys properly - they will take the fight to the enemy every bit as well as the US does, at least when they have the gear.
#7
God help the Tommys - they are doing so much with so little.
As I read various histories of WWII, WWI and before, it appears that the Tommys have always done much with so very little.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2008 11:05 Comments ||
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#8
BP - I'm sure the US would gladly sell you the Kitty Hawk when she retires, but it'll take you five to ten years to be able to use it properly. You don't develop carrier operations capability overnight, especially not catapult-launch, multirole mission capable operations. I don't know how much Britain is putting into its two carriers, but a Nimitz-class ship costs us about $10 billion. The 80 or so aircraft on board cost another $40 billion. That could pay for a lot of the stuff the British Army is currently doing without.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/20/2008 11:11 Comments ||
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#9
Are you saying British troops are crap?
The UK as a nation is quickly going into the levels of 1940 France where governemnt kowtows to Muslims and police tells to citizens not merely to not resist but to cooperate (should I tell collaborate?) with burglars. And that ends permeating to the troops. They havce the SAS and a few others very goos ones but remeber how they allowed Basra and their sector of Aghanistan going to crap. Remember also the patrol boat captured withe Iraninans and the abject spectacle delivered by a their crew on Iranian TV?
rits are long on guts, short on tools of war. BP, in a long range fire fight what's your preference, SAW vs Ma Deuce? Fire superiority trumps bravery.
Yes, But the Bristsih are teh ones to blame for lacking the tools of war. There is a soite (sorrry but I don't have the URL) who details how time and again the British military bought european equipement for two or theree times the privce of comparable (at times much superior) American equipment. Everything to keep happy their Bruxelian masters.
#10
I've had the privilege of working with the British Army in Basrah the past two months. The soldiers are excellent, but they are absolutely hamstrung by cowardly policies, meager equipment and poor facilities.
However, I will tell you that the British Mastiff (a variant of the MRAP) is probably the best vehicle to be in over here.
#12
Comparing the British Capability to the US Capability is like comparing the KC Royals to the NY Yankees. The KC players go out every day and play their hearts out...it is just that the upper management has been atrocious over the last 10 years and the team could be better if the higher ups had made better decisions procuring/keeping key positions back when. But they still go out every day with the intention of winning games.
#13
But the Brits have air power and good air power at that especially tactical air-ground. So, why are we sitting in armored prams firing auto rounds at a distance of 1/2 mile or more when it would be just as easy to call in a few Harriers to lite up the compound?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/20/2008 13:15 Comments ||
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#14
You don't develop carrier operations capability overnight, especially not catapult-launch, multirole mission capable operations.
Um... The RN invented all the above. Also see armored flight deck and angled flight deck.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
06/20/2008 13:29 Comments ||
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#23
What it goes back too, then, is that Tommy could do miracles if only the bloody politicians would part with a few shillings per pound they're now spending to keep jihadis on the dole, yes?
#24
There you go again, TW, trying to get us back on topic :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2008 16:08 Comments ||
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#25
But Darth, you do have to give them credit for the Who, and that more than makes up for the Stones and Gary Glitter.
And adding to TW's point - think if they coudl take 10% of the welfare they pay to non-assimilated "Asians" (as they are called there), and put that into small arms, heavy weapons and vehicles for the British Army.
#26
Well, since H&K rebuilt the SA80s, they are good rifles. But the Brits definitely need lots more M2s, Mark 19s, and a better armored patrol vehicle. And since the Brits want to buy European so much nowadays, they should consider the 4-man armored patrol car that the French make - it is a member of the VAB family.
#28
Cool pictures from Eurosatory 2008 -- thanks, Elmavirong Johnson3058! link. Even though I haven't a clue what most of the technical words mean, I wouldn't mind if Mr. Wife bought me a toy or two as a souvenir on his current business trip (probability approaches zero from the far side, I know, but a girl can dream!).
#33
The Brits and French are in the same predicament: both have some damned good troops who, man for man, are the equal of any in the world. Both also have governments that are craven and not to be counted on to stand up for those troops against the accusations from domestic leftist moonbats. Soldiers don't fight well when they're looking back over their shoulders wondering when they're going to be attacked from their own side.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
06/20/2008 19:31 Comments ||
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#34
/sorry Pappy.. Ima too loose with the exclamation marks... my Doctor she's been a treatin me! >:
They're appropriate in this case. It's when they accompany a "Master of the Obvious!!!" comment that really torques me.
Afghan and NATO forces cleared Taliban guerrillas from a cluster of villages outside Kandahar on Thursday, removing for the moment any threat that they might try move into their former stronghold in the southern part of the country.
The Taliban fighters, who had infiltrated as many as eighteen villages here, largely retreated before a force of about 1,100 Afghan soldiers that began moving into the area Wednesday, Afghan and NATO officials said. NATO planes and helicopters supported their advance.
For the Afghan army and NATO forces, which have suffered a number of setbacks in the area, the news seemed all good: Afghan soldiers killed 56 Taliban fighters during the operation, including a number of foreigners, General Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said at a press conference. The operation was carried out without loss of civilian life, Afghan and NATO officials said. Following the deaths of two Afghan soldiers Wednesday, the Afghan army suffered no new casualties. "Arghandab is totally cleared out of the enemies," General Azimi said at a press conference in Kandahar. Azimi conceded that a number of Taliban fighters appeared to have slipped away.
By Thursday evening, ISAF, the NATO-backed force deployed in the area, was urging the roughly 4,000 Afghans who had fled their homes to return.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
That was quick enough. Press didnt have time to build the usual "quamire pending" hysteria.
(Xinhua) -- The United States said on Thursday that it will impose sanctions against a Saudi-based charity accused of funneling money and other support to al-Qaida. The Treasure Department said in a statement that its action covers 'the entirety' of Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, including its headquarters in Saudi Arabia.
And it's hasn't even been quite seven years...
Under U.S. law, any financial assets found in the United States belonging to the charity will be frozen. Americans are also forbidden from doing business with them. It was reported that the United States, in years between 2002 and 2004, had taken action against 13 branches of the charity, including locations in the United States, Afghanistan and the Netherlands.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Looking at 100 yr. bid in Supermax
Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza lost his High Court battle today against extradition to the United States where he faces a potential jail sentence of 100 years. That'll give him plenty of time to learn to wipe his ass with those hooks.
The decision means the hook-handed fanatic can be sent across the Atlantic to face terror charges and is likely to spend the rest of his natural life locked up for 23 hours a day in a "super-maximum" security jail in Colorado.
Two High Court judges sitting in London ruled that the decision to extradite Hamza was "unassailable" but they also gave his lawyers 14 days to apply for leave to make a last ditch appeal to the House of Lords, the highest court in the land. Ultimately, he could delay the move further by taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights Followed by the appeal to Meepzor, All Knowing Oracle of the Galaxy...
Hamza was the first person to be arrested under a new, streamlined Anglo-American extradition treaty in 2004. Four years later he has still not been successfully extradited but the latest ruling brought that much closer. 4 years? They consider that "streamlined"?
The latest failed four-day appeal at the High Court added another estimated £100,000 to an already spiralling legal bill for taxpayers. Ah, that infidel dime...
Hamza, 50, from west London, who is fitted with hooks on both his partially-amputated arms, is currently in Belmarsh prison in London serving a seven-year jail term imposed by a British court for stirring up racial hatred and inciting his followers to murder non-believers.
US authorities want him to stand trial there on up to 11 terrorism charges including sending money and recruits to assist al-Qa'eda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. They allege that Hamza was involved in a global conspiracy to wage jihad against the US and other western countries. Among the most serious accusations is one that he was involved in the kidnap by Islamic radicals of 16 tourists in the Yemen in 1998. Four hostages, including three Britons, died in a rescue attempt. Hamza allegedly bought the kidnappers a satellite phone and gave them advice and assistance. US authorities also claim that he tried to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon between 1999 and 2000.
At the High Court in London Sir Igor Judge and Mr Justice Sullivan dismissed his appeal against extradition. Cherrio! Enjoy the trip across the pond.
Hamza's lawyers had argued that extradition is unlawful because evidence gained from others by torture would be used against him. That would violate Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees the right to a fair trial, they said. They also contended that it would be "unjust and oppressive" to extradite Hamza because so many years had passed since the alleged offences. Can't we just...move on?
London's City of Westminster Magistrates Court had previously ruled he could be extradited and in February this year Home Secretary Jacqui Smith gave her approval.
The July 7 London bombers were among those inspired by Hamza's sermons and the would-be bombers of July 21 were regular worshippers at Finsbury Park mosque in north London where he was formerly the imam. In 2003 he was dismissed from his position there after making inflammatory speeches. Sorry, Abu. We gotta let you go. No..it's not because of the hooks. Really.
Hamza, who was born Mostafa Kamel Mostafa in Alexandria, Egypt, worked as a nightclub bouncer in London before marrying a British woman, fathering seven children and becoming a radical preacher. He lost both his hands and one eye in Afghanistan in the 1990s. Okay, boys, now I'm gonna juggle five grenades!
He was arrested on the US charges in May 2004 but subsequently charged by British prosecutors and tried for incitement to murder at the Old Bailey where he was jailed for seven years.
Hamza followed the appeal proceedings through a video link from Belmarsh where he is said to be in poor health with diabetes and raised blood pressure. Quit whining, ya bitch.
In the US he faces life locked up in a 48 sq ft by 80 sq ft cell which he claims is also a breach of his human rights. How about a six foot deep hole in the ground?
#1
They also contended that it would be 'unjust and oppressive' to extradite Hamza because so many years had passed since the alleged offences.
Of course, the reason so much time has passed is that he has spent so much time fighting the extradition.
He can also hope for an executive pardon from President Obama.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
06/20/2008 16:32 Comments ||
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#2
If and when he gets extradited, can't he just be dropped off the boat or out of the plane over the Atlantic. If he does end up in Supermax, he will most likely be fitted with prosthetic arms instead of hooks. He will get muslim treatment such as they get in Gitmo. Probably gain weight. He will most likely thrive in this environment all at the taxpayers expense. Maybe it would be better for us if he were put in some prison in the general population--perhaps he would then get justice--a shank in the ribs.
#9
I went fishing Monday, drove by Supermax on the way. Every time I see that place, I get cold chills. "Breaking out" is not only unfeasible, but once you're out, you've got to traverse at least three miles of open ground that primarily grows cactus, yucca, and wire grass - nothing over three feet high. Lots of snakes and scorpions and nasty as HE$$ neighbors. Oh, and one of the three Colorado Veterans Homes is just a mile on the other side of the main road. The weather is hotter than a blast furnace in the summer, colder than a witch's heart in the winter. Yeah, I'm sure ol' Abu Hasma will LOVE the place.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/20/2008 22:06 Comments ||
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#10
Hummm.... sounds more like Tu is a madeMan now, congrats!
Nope.
Only Ethyl, the Keeper of the Pills, gets a gander at the books.
A German court jailed an Iraqi man Thursday for three years for distributing Al-Qaeda propaganda on the Internet in a landmark case on recruiting for extremist groups. The regional high court in the northwestern city of Celle convicted Ibrahim Rashid, 37, of seeking supporters for the Islamic radical network in web chat rooms between October 2005 and October 2006.
Presiding judge Wolfgang Siolek said the sentence should serve as a 'warning signal' for other recruiters for banned groups. The court found that Rashid had posted video recordings in which Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and other extremists urged attacks against the West on the Internet at least 22 times 'and supplemented them with his own remarks'. He also uploaded videos showing car bombings and sniper attacks.
Siolek said the defendant was a 'fanatical jihad fighter' and used the Internet 'to create a global climate of fear of ubiquitous terror.'
Siolek said the defendant was a 'fanatical jihad fighter' and used the Internet 'to create a global climate of fear of ubiquitous terror.'
Rashid is the first person in Germany to be convicted under a law passed after the September 11, 2001 suicide hijackings by Al-Qaeda in the United States banning recruitment for terror organizations. Previously, only belonging to a terror group and supporting a banned radical group with actions such as fundraising were against the law.
The defense had argued that Rashid only posted texts and videos that were already widely available and said the accused was not actively seeking new members for Al-Qaeda.
The defense had argued that Rashid only posted texts and videos that were already widely available and said the accused was not actively seeking new members for Al-Qaeda.
His lawyers said the case risked putting the German justice system on a slippery slope that could lead to 'criminal law being broadened to cover laws on political convictions.'
Although Rashid, who was arrested in October 2006, has already served half of his sentence, the court said he must remain in custody because he had shown no remorse and would likely attempt to leave the country if released. 'It remains advisable that he be deported after serving his sentence,' Siolek said.
Rashid, a political refugee of Kurdish origin, arrived in Germany in 1996 and lived with his wife and four young sons in the western town of Georgsmarienhuette near Osnabrueck. An attorney for Rashid said he would appeal the verdict.
This article starring:
IBRAHIM RASHID
al-Qaeda in Europe
Wolfgang Siolek
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2008 00:00 ||
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H/T The Corner
Intelligence agencies in the United States and Canada are warning of mounting signs that Hezbollah, backed by Iran, is poised to mount a terror attack against 'Jewish targets' somewhere outside the Middle East.
Intelligence officials tell ABC News the group has activated suspected 'sleeper cells' in Canada and key operatives have been tracked moving outside the group's Lebanon base to Canada, Europe and Africa.
Officials say Hezbollah is seeking revenge for the February assassination of Hezbollah's military commander, Imad Mugniyah, killed by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria. The group's leaders blamed Israel, an allegation denied by Israeli officials.
There is no credible information on a specific target, according to the officials. Suspected Hezbollah operatives have conducted recent surveillance on the Israeli embassy in Ottawa, Canada and on several synagogues in Toronto, according to the officials. Latin America is also considered a possible target by officials following Hezbollah's planning.
Given Iran's successful ops in Buenos Aires ...
A senior US counter-terrorism official told ABC News, 'There are concerns Hezbollah might be ready to do something along those lines.'
Three US law enforcement agencies say they have been briefed on the developments by intelligence agencies. A spokesperson for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says the agency does not comment on the existence of ongoing intelligence operations.
Officials say the CIA, the NSA, and British and Canadian intelligence agencies began to pick up a steady stream of information - from electronic intercepts, human sources and surveillance - about a possible Hezbollah attack on Feb. 17, just days after the Beirut funeral of Mugniyah where Hezbollah leaders publicly declared they would seek revenge.
'They want to kill as many people as they can, they want it to be a big splash,' said former CIA intelligence officer Bob Baer, who says he met with Hezbollah leaders in Beirut last month. 'They cannot have an operation fail,' said Baer, 'and I don't think they will. They're the A-team of terrorism.'
Alarms were first raised in Canada, where as many as 20 suspected Hezbollah members have been under surveillance after as many as four suspected 'sleeper cells' were activated, including one known as 'Rashedan,' intelligence officials tell ABC News. The members also received instruction to send their family members home to Lebanon, according to officials.
Let's just advertise all this more loudly so that the Hezbies can figure out their mistakes in tradecraft and correct them. Cheez.
Officials have also reported that a known Hezbollah weapons expert was followed to Canada, where he was seen at a firing range south of Toronto, near the US border.
Intelligence officials said the recent Hezbollah activities were being coordinated with the help of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. 'Hezbollah would not carry out an attack in the west, or wherever this attack is going to occur, without approval from Tehran,' said Baer, the former CIA intelligence officer.
Baer says his Hezbollah contacts told him an attack against the US was unlikely because Iran and Hezbollah did not want to give the Bush administration an excuse to attack.
Apparently they're not concerned about a Canadian reprisal. Wonder why ...
While US officials say there is no credible information of a Hezbollah attack on American soil, the Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, told Fox News two weeks ago, that 'they make al Qaeda look like a minor league team.'
'Hezbollah remains a threat to security in different parts of the world,' said FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko, section chief for the national Press Office. 'The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces conduct investigations into different groups that potentially pose a threat to the US or our interests overseas; however, the FBI and DHS have no specific intelligence about any group or so called sleeper cells planning an attack. Our job is to gather intelligence, work with our domestic and international partners to identify and disrupt any terrorism event,' said Kolko.
Toronto has long been considered an important city for Hezbollah fund-raising and organizing, according to officials. Pro-Hezbollah rallies and billboards depicting Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, have outraged Jewish groups.
'Because of lax immigration policies, it became a center for Hezbollah operations outside the Middle East,' said Malcolm Hoenlein, of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.
Hezbollah was declared a terror group by the government of Canada in December, 2002, leading to an increased surveillance of suspected members.
#1
If Hezbollah attacks Canada, then Lebanon will be the next Afghanistan. NATO will be all over them like white on rice. After what happened to al Qaeda, you would think that Hezbollah would think twice before attacking a NATO country.
If theres a hit on a Jewish or Israeli target in Canada, on the scale of the buenos aires hit, and NATO fails to hit Iran directly, Israel will hit Iran. All bets are off at that point.
#3
Crosspatch, you say that NATO will be all over them like white on rice". Yeh, right. NATO and whose army? Outside of the US, there is no country in NATO that has anything like an effective army that is actually able to wage war on any scale. At most they have small weak peacekeeping forces that fold under fire. Look at the Brits and Basra, or any of the Canadian or European forces in Afghanistan. Thr troops sent to Afghanistan have to deal with a minority(Taliban) force of a minority tribe(Pushtun?) that has little local support due to their savage ways. All those Eurotroops were doing so well that they needed us to send in a few good Marines. This is Hezbollah, backed by Iran, we're talking about. Iraqi troops would probably be the best to send there, if they weren't so busy at home. Israeli troops with effective leadership would do well, also. Except for the US, NATO can't even begin to protect itself.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/20/2008 13:11 Comments ||
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#4
I think NATO troops could be more effective if their govts gave them ROE that allowed them to do what they are trained to do. Maybe a hit on the Canadian would change their mindset, then again I could also picture them saying it was their fault since they followed our lead and that this is the reason they need to pullout.....
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
06/20/2008 13:50 Comments ||
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#5
Such an act could blow up into a regional war and that might be what Iran wants. For example ... Hezbollah attacks a target in Canada, NATO invokes Article 5. Israel attacks Lebanon with massive round the clock US and French air support along with special operations forces from several NATO countries. Now Syria tries to get into the act and at some point fires at one of our planes or sends troops in to back up Hezbollah. Then we attack Syria from Iraq and the pressure on Iran's frontier with Iraq is relieved.
So you could end up with regional turmoil which is exactly what the current lunatic administration in Iran "needs" to precipitate the coming of the 12th Imam.
Note that since Chavez got caught with his hands in the FARC cookie jar, he has a special grudge right now. He is likely to offer Hezbollah any support they request for operations in North America. We could have active Hezbollah cells coming across the Southern border that we haven't detected yet. Just because we have detected activity in Canada doesn't assure that Canada is the target. There could be a wider activation that we haven't detected outside of Canada.
Might also just be a drill for activation procedures across the Hemisphere in the case of any action against Iran. Or if Israel's recent air exercise was designed to send a message to Iran, maybe this is simply designed to send a message to the West.
"Intelligence officials tell ABC News the group has activated suspected 'sleeper cells' in Canada and key operatives have been tracked moving outside the group's Lebanon base to Canada, Europe and Africa."
That would seem to mean something larger is in the works. Maybe Iran is preparing to test a nuke and is positioning assets ahead of time in case there is some kind of a response.
#6
It's interesting to talk about a NATO response when just yesterday the Frenchies were talking about down-sizing their military even further so as to afford any of the basics of modernization.
Outside of the US and Britain, NATO lacks an expeditionary force. There isn't a single other NATO country that could project power more than 100 miles outside their borders for more than 30 days. They simply aren't sustainable.
So while I'd like to think that Crosspatch has a point, and that a Hezbie hit in a NATO country would have serious consequences, I don't think it will happen.
And then I look at LiberalHawk's comment and say yep, that's the next step. There is NO WAY the Israelis, even Olmert in charge, will allow Hezbollah to kill Jews anywhere in the world. If the Hezbies hit a synagogue or cultural center in Canada and NATO doesn't respond, that Israeli practice air mission becomes real.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2008 15:55 Comments ||
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#7
two clarifications, SW
First, I dont mean to imply thats cause Israel would NEVER let Jews be killed in the diaspora. IIRC their response to Buenos Aires WAS focused on Hezb in Lebanon, not on Iran. But now is differnt. Things are getting tenser and tenser with Iran, and a semi-overt terror act by Iran would certainly trigger a major response (though Im not sure it would be the full hit on the nuke program - not yet)
WRT - NATO 1. Several NATO countries have SOME troops that can deploy abroad - see Afghanistan - now some of thema arent fighting, (the French and germans) but thats political choice, not capacity, IIUC (though granted, in afghan they have US logistical support, but they would in the ops crosspatch envisions) 2. Im not envisioning a land op - (which I think is a mistake against Iran) It would be an air op - again it might not be the big one against the nuke program, something like a Clinton TM pinprick, though somewhat bigger, Id think. It would be mainly US, with a few others along for political symbolism, mainly.
dont rule out the possibility that the Hamas "calm" is precisely to clear the tables for something involving Iran. That the practice was the next day shouldnt be treated as mere coincidence (and no, as usual, thats not insider info, or in this case, even something I saw - pure deduction)
As to NATO, let's be clear that most of the NATO units in Afghanistan depend on our logistics. If the Air Transport Command and US logistics train were to go home, they'd be stuck. The Germans, French, Dutch, Italians, Spanish: none of these major NATO powers can sustain an expeditionary force, let alone the smaller countries or the new Eastern bloc countries.
Of course, when you spend less than 1.5% of your GDP on defense, one of the things you give up is logistics.
As to the idea that the Israelis are doing the truce-thang with Hamas in order to clear the decks for the Iranians, I'd like to buy that, but I'm one of the ones who thought the truce would have been broken already. And if Teheran thought the truce was going to be used this way, they wouldn't have let their poodle Hamas go for it.
But we'll see.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2008 17:23 Comments ||
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#11
I suppose my point was to remind people that to attack a NATO country is to attack them all. I wasn't really so much interested in specific military scenarios. The idea being that Iran would suddenly find itself in a completely different ball game concerning any sympathy from the rest of the world concerning sanctions, tolerance for their nuclear games, etc.
Iran would be demonstrating their complete and total stupidity if they attacked any targets in a NATO country.
#13
FOX NEWS AM > RUSSIA WARNS ISRAEL NOT TO ATTACK IRAN.
IMO many Isaeli Netters recognize that ISRAEL is being contained/isolated, + MUCH UNCERTAINTY EXISTS ON WHETHER ISRAEL JOINING NATO ANDOR US REGIONAL GMD-TMD WILL BE ENUFF TO STAVE OF A PREEMPTIVE OR "FIRST-STRIKE" MISSLE ATTACK [Ballistic + ALCM/GLCM] FROM IRAN, OR SEVERE NUCLEAR-WMD TERROR VV ISLAMIST-TERR GROUPS???
As for TERROPS IN CANADA [Mexico-Lower Americas] > NO US-IRAN WAR + PAN-ISLAMIST NUCLEARIZATION- STRATWEAPNZ = CONTAINING/ISOLAT THE USA LIKE ISRAEL ANDOR DIVERTING THEIR MILPOL ATTENTION + RESOURCES + KEEPING THE USA = USA-ALLIES OUTSIDE AND AWAY FROM NUCLEARIZING IRAN + CENASIA AMAP AFAP ASAP.
MORE BIG[GER] GOVT IN FASCIST = LIMITED COMMUNIST, etc. AMERIKA, the USA = USSA/USR, vv "TOTALITARIAN/SOCIALIST PEACE" + "UTOPIA"???
#14
I'm really beginning to think it's time we went over the top in attacking Iran. I don't think it would take a week to destroy most of their army and the rag-tag air force they've got. Once they're out of the way, troops could be sent on a special op to take the Natanz facility out completely.
Destroy it, and the Iranian power plant at Bushehr, and break a few more things. Particularly make it a point to wipe their electrical generating and petroleum refining capacity absolutely slick. Then walk away and leave them to clean up the mess. No occupation, no aid. Just smash their society and leave them to sit in the rubble in the dark.
Make the parting comment that if they screw up again, we'll be back but that next time it won't be with troops, it will be with nukes--and that afterward "Iran" will be described on new world maps as "the radioactive wasteland formerly known as Iran."
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
06/20/2008 19:18 Comments ||
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#15
See also TOPIX > IRAN IS COUNTING ON OBAMA, MISSLES, AND DIPLOMACY TO STOP ISRAELI OR AMERICAN ATTACKS/STRIKES ON ITS NUCLEAR SITES; + CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR [CSM]> IRAN WILL STRIKE BACK UNCONVENTIONALLY IN A SHOOTING WAR AGZ THE US. CSM - Iran's response will likely be more unpredictable than Al Qaeda's, and also in similar/parallel scale or magnitude to any unilater US action.
Also from TOPIX > THE CCP [Chinese Communist Party] AND SYRIA'S NUKES - AN OMINOUS WARNING. General summary of China's original and continuing support for ANTI-US TERRORISM + RADICALIST/XTREMIST GROUPS.
LAHORE: PAF squadron leader Ali Khan was kidnapped from Hyderabad on Wednesday, a private television channel reported. According to Din TV, Khan had gone to Hyderabad from Mianwali airbase to participate in a departmental course.
Indian counter-infiltration action may have precipitated a clash between a jihadist group and a Pakistan army unit, which left four of its soldiers dead and three more injured.
Tusk, tusk ...
Speaking to journalists in Islamabad on Thursday a Pakistan army spokesperson said the troops died in a clash near the town of Hajira, east of the Line of Control, in the district of Poonch, with unknown miscreants. He offered no explanation of how the fighting had broken out.
However, highly-placed Indian military sources stationed in the area told The Hindu that the deaths were most likely the outcome of an accidental clash between Pakistani troops and a jihadist group. Soldiers from the 8 Gurkha Rifles 2nd Battalion, stationed in the Krishna Ghati sector of the LoC, reported seeing movement along the LoC at 11.30 a.m. Suspecting that an infiltration attempt was under way, the troops fired warning shots. Fire was returned from the Pakistani side of the LoC. The sources said sporadic exchanges of fire continued in the area, which lies due east of Hajira, until 4.30 p.m.
Indian troops reported seeing two bodies lying near the LoC, but failed to locate either during searches in the evening.
A senior army official said the clash most likely began when the retreating jihadists ran into a Pakistan army patrol. In the fog of the fighting, he said, it is possible the jihadis mistook the Pakistani army troops for an Indian ambush, or the other way around.
So they never got the professional courtesy they should have ...
Members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the al-Badr have staged repeated infiltration attempts this summer along the LoC, often using Pakistan army posts as logistical bases.
Last month, a soldier of the 8 Gurkha Rifles was killed after jihadists shelled an Indian forward post near Salhotri village, between Krishna Ghati and Mendhar. Jawashwar Lami Chhame, a Nepali national serving in the Indian Army, was killed.
The fighting one of nine clashes involving jihadist groups that have taken place on the LoC this year came days after Indian troops interdicted an infiltrating group on the Tarkundi Gali pass. A militant was killed.
Pakistan military spokesperson Major-General Athar Abbas confirmed that the soldiers deaths were not caused by Indian military action. The fire was not from the Indian bunkers, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds like Ye Olde Sneak Down the Middle and Shoot at Both Sides Trick...
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/20/2008 18:21 Comments ||
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#3
Members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the al-Badr have staged repeated infiltration attempts this summer along the LoC, often using Pakistan army posts as logistical bases.
And with that sentence we have yet another example of "western" media either unable, unwilling, or unknowingly accepting the enemies terms of debate - and in the process confusing and undermining the facts needed to understand the necessary response. I only quote "western" since this is from the self-described India's national newspaper, but for practical purposes confronting a common enemy.
Who uses army posts as logistical bases other than an army? How does it NOT insult common sense to in any way distinguish "the Members" from the "Pakistan army"? Is there any known instance of a military unit "using" another military's bases, other than under agreement or treaty or, contra, by conquest and capture?
The headline and story should cover "friendly fire claims Pakistan military casualties - Gurkhas involved."
Police have arrested former Jaish-e-Muhammad leader Maulana Abdullah Shah Mazhar at a seminary in the Monghopir area of Karachi, Geo News reported on Thursday.
Mazhar served as secretary general of the defunct Jaish-e-Muhammad led by Maulana Masood Azhar, but quit in 2002 because of differences with Azhar. He was arrested as he came to attend a conference held on the Martyrs of Islam at the seminary, the channel said, adding that he was accused of holding the conference without the city administrations permission.
This article starring:
MAULANA ABDULLAH SHAH MAZHAR
Jaish-e-Muhammad
MAULANA MASUD AZHAR
Jaish-e-Muhammad
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2008 00:00 ||
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The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) on Thursday claimed responsibility for the deaths of seven army personnel and one police inspector in two separate incidents of violence in Kohlu and Khuzdar districts.
According to a confirmed report, two armed men opened fire on Punjabi-speaking police inspector Rao Ghulam Mustafa in Khuzdar district on Thursday afternoon and killed him. His son, who was travelling with him, escaped unharmed.
The local administration began a search for the escaped attackers and cordoned off major parts of the city. Local police deployment and patrols were also increased in the wake of the policemans murder. Similarly, the police have started searching local people and commuters.
Bibarg Baloch, a BLA spokesman, told Daily Times that his outfit had carried out the attack as a continuation of its cycle of attacks on policemen. He also claimed that the BLA had killed seven soldiers and injured four others when they attacked an army van with rockets and automatic weapons. The army van was heading from Kahan to Kholu when they were targeted, the spokesman said, warning that further attacks of a similar nature would follow in future. However, there was no confirmation of the attack on the army van in Kohlu by the government or by independent sources, as access to the area of the media has been denied.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Security forces, backed by helicopter gunship, on Thursday killed five militants in a retaliatory attack in the tribal Kurram region. The forces retaliation came after suspected Sunni militants attacked a food convoy carrying supplies to Kurram Agency, killing four persons including a truck driver, two helpers and a security guard, an official said.
Atta-ur-Rehman, a senior government official in Parachinar, said militants ambushed a food convoy killing four persons and then set three trucks loaded with goods on fire. The attackers who ambushed the convoy in the tribal Kurram region used heavy weapons including rocket launchers and AK-47 assault rifles, he said. We responded with helicopter gunship and killed at least five militants and wounded four, Rehman told Reuters.
Sunni militants have been attacking vehicles going into the Shia-majority Kurram tribal region on the Afghan border for months. To counter that, paramilitary troops have been escorting supply convoys into the area, but they too have come under attacks. Meanwhile, another official said on the condition of anonymity that the village in which the convoy was attacked was dominated by Sunni Muslims, adding, It appears to be linked to the sectarian tensions.
Sectarian tension has risen in Kurram and other parts of the North West Frontier Province in recent months as Sunni Taliban and Al Qaeda linked militants have been expanding their influence across the region. Parachinar was rocked by sectarian clashes in April in which 50 people were killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
Another successful operation by what may be now the best Arab army on the planet.
They came at dawn, thousands of Iraqi troops and US special forces on a mission to reclaim a lawless city from the militias who ran it. By the end of the day, al-Amarah was under Iraqi Government control - without a shot being fired.
The city had been taken over by the Shia al-Mahdi Army two years ago after British troops handed it to an ill-prepared Iraqi Army. We can't say al-Amarah was entirely bad, there are good people here, poor people. But the city was controlled by the al-Mahdi Army, and these people are all backed by Iran, said Captain Hussein Ali of the Scorpion police brigade, one of the Iraqi units drafted in to take part in Operation Omen of Peace.
Yesterday the city's streets - unpaved, dirt tracks between grubby, low brick houses - were crawling with Iraqi security forces. Soldiers searched houses as police manned checkpoints and Soviet-era tanks guarded bridges over the Tigris River.
The flood of troops, who had moved into position outside the city a week ago, had encountered no resistance as they moved in yesterday. The leaders of the Shia militias that once ruled as crime bosses and warlords were either gone or in hiding. Even the police chief fled a week ago, fearing arrest for his affiliation to al-Mahdi Army, while the mayor, a member of the Sadrist movement, was arrested.
Outside one of the long-neglected police bases built by the British Army, scores crowded to sign up as police officers, the only regular job in a city whose main industry is weapons smuggling from nearby Iran, but a profession that until now was closed to most.
In the past, you needed contacts with the tribal sheikhs or to pay three million dinars in bribes to get a job as a policeman, said Raed Mijbil, 30. All the Iraqi security forces were corrupt.
Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia Prime Minister, has insisted that his large-scale operations in the south are not targeting the Sadrist movement, which has been increasingly weakened by internal divisions, its brutal reputation for murder and extortion, and a more confident Iraqi military. Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the fundamentalist Shia cleric who heads the al-Mahdi Army and the Sadrist political movement, ordered his men not to resist the government forces, and a senior member of his parliamentary block expressed grudging support.
We stand with the Government on imposing the law and we are showing goodwill, said Bahaa al-Araji, a member of the Sadrist parliamentary bloc. But law must be imposed on everybody. We hope the target of the plan is not our movement.
"Please don't kill us!"
Locals said that militiamen had been spotted throwing their weapons into the Tigris or trying to hide them along the lush river banks. One man said that he saw two women digging up a stash hidden by a fighter and taking them into a weapons collection point in the hope of a reward.
Private enterprise in action ...
The ease with which Iraqi forces retook al-Amarah, for long a no-go zone, was in marked contrast to the battle for Basra launched by Mr al-Maliki in March. That conflict ended only when the Government cut a deal with Hojatoleslam al-Sadr, a ceasefire brokered by Iran.
This way is better, said Captain Ali, noting that an army battalion would stay in al-Amarah once the operation is finished clearing out the militias. We don't want to lose people, and in urban warfare women and children can get killed.
While the Prime Minister had personally to lead his shaky forces on the offensive in Basra, he and his army have gained in confidence since establishing control of the southern port city, even flooding the Sadr City stronghold in Baghdad with thousands of soldiers. For the first time in years the young cleric looks unsure of himself. Last week he announced that the main wing of al-Mahdi Army would devote itself to civilian projects, while a streamlined, smaller group would carry on attacking the US military, whom the demagogue deems a legitimate target for resistance.
Nabil Ibrahim, 20, an al-Amarah resident, was pleased to see the influx of government troops but upset that the men who had turned his city into a lawless no man's land had escaped. The leaders who escaped aren't all al-Mahdi Army, they are Iranian intelligence agents. We are sad because they got away and they'll be back.
Captain Ali denied that the criminal leaders had been allowed to get away. We didn't just let them escape, this was a kind of amnesty. This was a last chance for those who were misled by the militias and regretted it, he said. He said that the local population was co-operating with the security sweep, and that the army had found more than 900 roadside bombs in weapons stashes.
A fair number of the 'criminal leaders' will re-integrate into society. You don't need to kill them, you just need to show them that the old days are over.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
06/20/2008 10:20 ||
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Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
#1
BOO!
This shows that the Iraqi army is really becoming something to be feared by the bad guys and liked (or at least tolerated) by the locals.
The bad guys ran away because they had no support locally and if they stayed, they would have been killed or turned it.
#3
I just hope we are smart enough to be running the officer corp through the War College in Carlisle. Having a continual development of leadership is the key to keeping them the best and least corrupt Arab army.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/20/2008 13:22 Comments ||
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#4
How come They Came At Dawn wasn't in the headlines of the RDS&Gazaette? Slackery! Out of the City Room you layabouts!
Posted by: George Smiley ||
06/20/2008 14:43 Comments ||
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#5
Well the comic isn't what it was, georgie old boy. Care for a drink?
Posted by: Jerry Westerby ||
06/20/2008 15:17 Comments ||
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Israel and Hamas halted fighting in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, but with wider peace prospects hazy, both sides voiced doubt over how long the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire might hold.
Just before the truce went into effect after dawn, an Israeli missile strike killed one Palestinian gunman and wounded another near the border fence with Israel in the central part of the Gaza Strip, said medical workers and militants. The truce began at 6 am (0300 GMT) after another day of cross-border violence. Dozens of improvised Palestinian rockets and mortar bombs hit south Israel, without causing serious damage and Israeli air strikes had wounded several Gaza gunmen.
Last chance: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Sydney Morning Herald that the truce pact was the militant groups last chance to avoid another Israeli military incursion into the Gaza Strip.
I think the strategy of Hamas, which does not want to recognise Israels right to exist in the first place, and extremism, fanaticism, and religious dogmatism is the enemy of peace, said Olmert. In a speech on Wednesday, Olmert had warned that the agreement with Hamas was fragile and likely to be short-lived. For Hamas, suspending hostilities should spell some relief from an Israeli-led blockade and may help them gain legitimacy in the West and reconciliation with Abbas, who is in the midst of US-sponsored peace negotiations with Olmert.
Hamass armed wing said in a statement published just as the ceasefire began, that it was fully ready to launch a military strike that would shake the Zionist entity if they did not abide by all the items of the calm. The truce comes as Olmert also pursues a prisoner swap with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and indirect talks with Syria, as well as floating a suggestion of peace with Lebanon. Some of his many critics see all that as part of the prime ministers efforts to defend his political position in the midst of a corruption investigation that could cost him his job.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Charles ||
06/20/2008 8:58 Comments ||
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#3
Surrrrrprise surrrrprise surprise
From the Jerusalem Post
Hamas politburo member: Gaza truce merely a 'fighters respite'
The Gaza truce is local and temporally and merely a "fighters respite" to allow the Palestinian people some breathing space, Hamas politburo member Ayzat Arishak said Friday, stressing that the cease-fire was in no way an abandonment of the armed struggle.
The Damascus-based Arishak said that Israel's agreement to the cease-fire was an accomplishment for the Palestinian factions, but said a truce was in the interest of both sides and that Hamas would be committed to it.
Yeah, Ayzat. I'll bet you need plenty of rest. That Damascus nightlife probably really wears a guy down...
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.
Afghan and NATO forces cleared Taliban guerrillas from a cluster of villages outside Kandahar on Thursday, removing for the moment any threat that they might try move into their former stronghold in the southern part of the country.
LAHORE: PAF squadron leader Ali Khan was kidnapped from Hyderabad on Wednesday, a private television channel reported. According to Din TV, Khan had gone to Hyderabad from Mianwali airbase to participate in a departmental course.
Police have arrested former Jaish-e-Muhammad leader 
Security forces, backed by helicopter gunship, on Thursday killed five militants in a retaliatory attack in the tribal Kurram region. The forces retaliation came after suspected Sunni militants attacked a food convoy carrying supplies to Kurram Agency, killing four persons including a truck driver, two helpers and a security guard, an official said. 
Israel and Hamas halted fighting in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, but with wider peace prospects hazy, both sides voiced doubt over how long the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire might hold.
