The US Defense Department on Monday told the Congress that it had approved the sale to India of logistics support worth $133 million for two Lockheed Martin Corp. P-3C reconnaissance aircraft it plans to lease.
"The two leased P-3C aircraft will replace two existing Indian Navy patrol aircraft, Soviet-built IL-38 May aircraft, which are quickly reaching the end of their fatigue and operational service life," the Defense Security and Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said yesterday.
The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said the logistics support includes training devices, operations and maintenance training, as well as spare parts.
Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed would be the prime contractor, which DSCA said would help improve India's security, while at the same time strengthening the US-India strategic partnership.
Congress has 30 days to block the proposed sale, although such action is rare.
The United States and India signed a military cooperation pact in June that opens the way for stepped-up weapons procurement as well as cooperation on missile defense.
The DSCA said India needed aircraft for land-based maritime patrol and reconnaissance against submarines and surface warfare ships as well as to protect its economic exclusion zone.
"Modernization will enhance the capabilities of the Indian Navy, support its regional influence and meet its legitimate self-defense needs," the agency said.
Posted by: john ||
11/15/2005 05:57 ||
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"Thanks for leasing with DoD. We know you have a choice, and we appreciate your confidence in us. Here's a nice bottle of 'New Plane Scent'. Don't bring it back with any dents, okay?"
#1
Unless subsequent weeks involve only a token lashing, I wouldn't think he'd live through the 15 weeks. I guess it is only torture if Americans do it.
Posted by: James ||
11/15/2005 11:25 Comments ||
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Radical cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammad plans to return to Britain to see his wife and children and meet with his students but ruled out âa permanent move to London even if they gave me Queen Elizabethâs throne.â
In a telephone conversation with Asharq al Awsat on Saturday, the firebrand cleric indicated that his return depended on renewing his Lebanese passport and affording a plane ticket, which he expected to pay for by studentsâ donations. The Syrian-born Islamist Sheikh, who is barred from returning to Britain in the wake of the July 7 attacks, revealed he had not âasked his lawyer Ikbal Ahmad Haq to appeal against the decisionâ.
Instead the spiritual guide of the al Ghurabaa movement and the former leader of al Muhajiroun which disbanded itself in October 2004, will apply for a tourist visa. The British authorities had informed him in an official report, handed over to the Lebanese authorities, that his leave to remain in the United Kingdom was revoked and he would not be allowed to return. The 46-year old confirmed that he needed a tourist visa to fly back to Britain and added that his children had already applied for one on his behalf and were awaiting the result. âMy wife and children live in London and so do hundreds of my students who call for my return,â he said.
Asked whether he would exercise his legal right to appeal the British Home Office's decision to revoke his residency, Bakri said he did not to do so for reasons relating to Islamic Shariaa. âClaiming political asylum is allowed in our religion since the early Muslims migrated to Abyssinia ,â he added. âFrom the point of view of Shariaa (Islamic law), Islam permits me to travel a second time to Britain as a visitor or a new migrant.â On the contrary, his permanent return to Britain would involve appearing before an appeals judge who would not follow the rule of God in his ruling, which he considered âidolatryâ.
Bakri denied that the British governmentâs failure to secure its anti-terror bill as MPs voted Wednesday to reject a 90- day detention for terrorism suspects was an open invitation for his permanent return to Britain. However, he did say that if the Commons had refused to allow the 28-day detention without trial of suspects, he would return to London the next day.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2005 00:00 ||
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the firebrand cleric indicated that his return depended on renewing his Lebanese passport and affording a plane ticket, which he expected to pay for by studentsâ donations.
And Jesus said...send me money and a self-address stamped envelope and I will send you an original, photo-copied, 100% gen-u-ine guarantee of your salvation.
Australia has advised its nationals to stay away from Indian hotels and other tourist locations as terrorist attacks are likely in 'the next few days'.
Australians in India have also been advised to exercise caution while travelling in the country following attacks on hotels in Amman, Jordan.
The advice has come as a part of comprehensive travel advisory issued by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade few days back.
The advisory has also cautioned Australians not to travel to Jammu and Kashmir as the state was plagued by 'armed clashes and terrorist activities'.
Travel to Ladakh via Manali or by air has been kept out of this advisory.
Besides hotels and popular tourist destinations, the Australian government has also warned its nationals to avoid going close to 'prominent government buildings, public transport and commercial and public areas' that could be 'potential targets for terrorist attack'.
Tourists have also been advised to be 'particularly vigilant' around to days of national significance in India such as Republic Day and Independence Day.
The northeastern states of Assam, Nagaland, Tripura and Manipur have also been declared places where 'extreme caution' should be exercised 'due to the uncertain security situation'.
Australians have been advised to reconsider their plans to visit these states.
Australia's foreign department travel advisory also talks about exercising 'caution and monitor developments' because of the risk of terrorist activities in other parts of India.
Communal tensions have also been highlighted as another reason for being extra vigilant while travelling in India.
Though the document has not mentioned any specific incident involving communal differences, Australians have been advised to 'pay close attention to your personal security'.
They have also been asked to monitor media reports for information about 'possible new safety or security risks'.
The advisory has cited suicide attacks on hotels in Amman, Jordan on November 9 for issuing such drastic warnings.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/15/2005 12:17 ||
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On Tuesday Balkan defense ministers congregate in Skopje for a two-day meeting of the U.S.-Adriatic Charter signatories. NATO representatives will attend along with U.S. government officials.
Albania, Croatia, Macedonia and the United States signed the U.S.-Adriatic Charter in Tirana on May 2, 2003. The following month, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution supporting the U.S.-Adriatic Charter and supporting the candidacy of Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia for NATO membership.
The Skopje session will discuss issues involving NATO and European Union integration, regional security, and deepening bilateral military cooperation among members.
Bulgarian Minister of Defense Veselin Bliznakov, Macedonian Defense Minister Jovan Manasijevski, Croatian Defense Minister Berislav Roncevic and Albanian Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu will meet with invited guests Greek Defense Minister Spilios Spiliotopoulos, Serbian and Montenegrin Defense Minister Zoran Stankovic and Bosnia and Herzegovina Defense Minister Nikola Radovanovic.
Croatian Defense Minister Berislav Roncevic is unable to attend, so Ministry of Defense State Secretary Mate Raboteg will represent Croatia.
Macedonian Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski will open the conference. The participants will end the session by issuing a joint statement. Somewhere, under the radar, skies are blue...
France was not always opposed to the American invasion of Iraq. . . . In December, 2002, a French staff officer visited the Pentagon with a proposal from his government. France would send 18,000 troops (about what they contributed in 1991) to join the Iraq invasion force. However, France wanted a specific area of occupation after the war, with full authority in that area for as long as Iraq needed to be occupied. The American State Department backed the French proposal, Surprise meter at 0.
but the Department of Defense didnât trust the French, "Chirac, de Villepien; they're called 'weasels' for a reason, Colin."
and were suspicious of their motives. So the French officer went home empty handed, and the French government decided that invading Iraq was really an evil thing to do.
What exactly were the French up to? No one is sure, but the most plausible theory was that the French wanted to be in Iraq, after Saddam fell, to make sure no embarrassing documents, or witnesses, showed up. France had been supplying Saddam with weapons, and other assistance, for over three decades. Moreover, how better to help get the Sunni Arabs back in power, than to have 18,000 French troops occupying, say, western Iraq. They might also have tolerated the presence of "insurgents" in the French zone of occupation, so long as the insurgents refrained from attacks on French troops.
This sort of arrangement is nothing new for the French. Although France participated in the Balkans peacekeeping of the 1990s, France was known to be pro-Serb, and French officers were later caught helping out the Serbs in illegal ways. Very embarrassing, but not unexpected. The Pentagon was well aware of how the French pulled their pro-Serb stunts in the 1990s, and apparently wanted no more of that nonsense in Iraq.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/15/2005 11:38 ||
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They pulled the same stunts in Afghanistan.
Posted by: john ||
11/15/2005 13:46 Comments ||
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#2
We'll gaurd the oil fields, ok?
Posted by: The French ||
11/15/2005 16:10 Comments ||
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Peace Action: Congressmembers Rebuke Bush's Rewriting of History on Iraq
News Advisory:
WHAT: Congressmembers and peace leaders speak at the launch of Peace Action's Peace Voter 2006 and will address points made by the President in his Veterans Day speech.
WHO: Speakers: U.S. Representatives Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Barney Frank (D-MA), Danny Davis (D-IL), Hilda Solis (D-CA), Bob Filner (D-CA), Maxine Waters (D-CA), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Sam Farr (D-CA), other Congressmembers, Kevin Martin, Executive Director of Peace Action and Paul Kawika Martin, Peace Action's Political Director.
For nearly fifty years, Peace Action (the merger of SANE and The Nuclear Freeze), the United States' largest peace and disarmament organization with over 100,000 members and nearly 100 chapters in 30 states, works to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs and encourage a foreign policy that embodies respect for human rights.
The Honorary Host Committee includes: Hon. Lane Evans (D-IL), Hon. Sam Farr (D-CA), Hon. Barney Frank (D-MA), Hon. Michael Honda (D-CA), Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Hon. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Hon. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Hon. James McGovern (D- MA), Hon. Gwen Moore (D-WI), Hon. Major Owens (D-NY), Hon. Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Hon. Hilda Solis (D-CA), Hon. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
WHEN: Tuesday, November 15th from 6 to 8 p.m. Most Members of Congress will speak between 7:10 p.m. and 7:40 p.m. or after.
WHERE: Council for a Livable World, 322 4th Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002 At 4th and D Streets accessible by the Union Station and Capitol South metro stations
WHY: "While the President calls the peace movement 'irresponsible,' the polls show the American public hungers for a more responsible policy in Iraq. For 2006, Peace Action supports those candidates with foreign policies based on international cooperation and human rights," stated Paul Kawika Martin, Peace Action's Political Director.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/15/2005 15:40 ||
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#1
Yeah, there's a good 7% of the vote up for grabs.
They are crazy in the head, but they are up for grabs.
#2
"Peace Action (the merger of SANE and The Nuclear Freeze)"
ROFL! YJCMT(F)SU.
I used to go to the "peace concerts" after my hair grew back. I got lots of Piece Action. It was anything but SANE. This lot sounds like the ones who went home alone back then.
#8
History follows currents because peoples behavior remain generally the same -
Copperheads (Peace Democrats)
Although the Democratic party had broken apart in 1860, during the secession crisis Democrats in the North were generally more conciliatory toward the South than were Republicans. They called themselves Peace Democrats; their opponents called them Copperheads because some wore copper pennies as identifying badges.
A majority of Peace Democrats supported war to save the Union, but a strong and active minority asserted that the Republicans had provoked the South into secession; that the Republicans were waging the war in order to establish their own domination, suppress civil and states rights, and impose "racial equality"; and that military means had failed and would never restore the Union.
Peace Democrats were most numerous in the Midwest, a region that had traditionally distrusted the Northeast, where the Republican party was strongest, and that had economic and cultural ties with the South. The Lincoln administration's arbitrary treatment of dissenters caused great bitterness there. Above all, anti-abolitionist Midwesterners feared that emancipation would result in a great migration of blacks into their states.
As was true of the Democratic party as a whole, the influence of Peace Democrats varied with the fortunes of war. When things were going badly for the Union on the battlefield, larger numbers of people were willing to entertain the notion of making peace with the Confederacy. When things were going well, Peace Democrats could more easily be dismissed as defeatists. But no matter how the war progressed, Peace Democrats constantly had to defend themselves against charges of disloyalty. Revelations that a few had ties with secret organizations such as the Knights of the Golden Circle helped smear the rest.
The most prominent Copperhead leader was Clement L. Valladigham of Ohio, who headed the secret antiwar organization known as the Sons of Liberty. At the Democratic convention of 1864, where the influence of Peace Democrats reached its high point, Vallandigham persuaded the party to adopt a platform branding the war a failure, and some extreme Copperheads plotted armed uprisings. However, the Democratic presidential candidate, George B. McClellan, repudiated the Vallandigham platform, victories by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and Phillip H. Sheridan assured Lincoln's reelection, and the plots came to nothing.
With the conclusion of the war in 1865 the Peace Democrats were thoroughly discredited. Most Northerners believed, not without reason, that Peace Democrats had prolonged war by encouraging the South to continue fighting in the hope thatthe North would abandon the struggle.
Source: "Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War" Edited by Patricia L. Faust
#10
TS34534:
It's true Lincoln won based on the victory of Sherman, however, Sherman was unopposed on his "March to the Sea" except by State Militia. If the casualty figures for Spotsylvania Court House and Cold Harbour had been allowed to be published it's doubtful Lincoln would have been re-elected. Lincoln surpressed the figures until after the election. Lincoln's userpation of the
Constitution guarenteed the survival of the Union. The Ends Justify the Means, as the saying goes and I, for one Alabaman, agree on this particular ocassion. The one thing I don't like is that the Lincoln administration assured that the Federal Government was SUPREME over States Rights. It's the lesser of two evils: States' Rights to continue slavery or a VERY strong and overarching Federal Government with a "one size fits all" mentallity. I have to go with the Federal Government and try to change the course down the road.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/15/2005 19:09 Comments ||
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#11
Deacon - The SOUTH shall RISE again!
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/15/2005 21:05 Comments ||
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Interesting comment Thaviger. So can we now call these folks Neo-Copperheads
(This document was distributed today at the Senate Republican Policy Lunch.)
IRAQ & WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION:
WHAT THE DEMOCRATS SAID AND WHEN THEY SAID IT
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: "What Was Said Before Does Matter. The President's Words Matter. The Vice President's Words Matter. So Do Those Of The Secretary Of State And The Secretary Of Defense And Other High Officials In The Administration." (Sen. Edward Kennedy, Congressional Record, 11/10/05)
Executive Summary:
Democrats Consistently Warned The Nation Of The Threat Posed By Iraq's Weapons Of Mass Destruction
Posted by: Steve ||
11/15/2005 15:22 ||
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The most incriminating comments should be compiled, turned into a commercial, and run as frequently as all those union-backed anti-Arnold commercials shown on the tube here in CA in the runup to the recent election. (and they were run frequently)
#2
Always remember that the lying Politicians and Diplomatic Corps couldn't have gotten away with it for this long if they weren't aided and abetted by the MSM.
Very interesting to read the roll call of MSM credited as the forum for many quotes:
ABC, CNN, NBC, CBS, The Washington Post, PBS, The Indianapolis Star-Tribune, Associated Press, CNBC. You know the NY Times, and plenty, others are on this list, too.
#3
Still, I can't help wondering whether ol' Billy-Bob might have actually done something about Saddam - with world approval - had the Republicans not had their panties in a wad about a f0cking blowjob. Throw their words back in their faces if you want, but remember that the only difference between the Dems now and the Reps then is a whole lot of crappy performance art and papier mache.
#4
B-a-R, go to gop.com. The commercial's already done. Windows media or Real format.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/15/2005 18:03 Comments ||
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#5
President Bush has done it yet again. He has this knack of letting his opponents formulate, nurture and "own" a losing position, then he shoves it straight up their @$$. Besides resolve, this might be President Bush's greatest strength. (granted that Bush's opponents do make it easy; Democrats never seem to learn from their mistakes)
Posted by: Dave ||
11/15/2005 21:00 Comments ||
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#6
"... can't help wondering whether ol' Billy-Bob might have actually done something about Saddam - with world approval..."
Billy's words were, as usual, glib and insincere. Of all the "lip service" that took place in the Clinton Oval office, Monica's were perhaps the least damaging to American National Security.
Posted by: Dave ||
11/15/2005 21:07 Comments ||
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#7
Kerry: "According To The CIA's Report,
So, see - he is on both sides of the fence again - He' either right, or he was 'misinformed
by the CIA's report!
Whadda weasel!
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/15/2005 21:08 Comments ||
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Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman continues to wage a recklessly self-interested behind-the-scenes battle to allow the federal government to keep distributing anti-terror funding as political pork rather than according to the risk of attack.
For the sake of a few guaranteed bucks for the voters at home, Lieberman is determined to deprive millions of people in New York - and in Washington and in Chicago and elsewhere that Al Qaeda might actually target - of a full share of protection. How can he sleep at night?
It is largely because of Lieberman, ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, that the Senate has stalled sending a reauthorization of the Patriot Act to a conference committee with the House. The House version of the legislation would slash pork-barrel spending by ending every state's right to claim .75% of homeland security money, whether or not the money is needed.
That fixed funding formula is why states like Wyoming and Alaska have been rolling in anti-terror money while New York has been forced to dig into its own pocket for $1 million a week in police overtime to protect the subways. The formula is also why radios for first-responders in small-state Connecticut are fully compatible, while the NYPD and FDNY still have radios that can't talk to each other.
The House version of the new Patriot Act would limit states to automatically receiving only .25% of the annual security grants and allocate the rest based on threat, as urged by the 9/11 commission. The Senate would guarantee each state .55% of the money. That's far too much, but Lieberman wants to keep it that way.
He's doing a great disservice to the 60,000 Connecticut residents who commute to work in the city - and he is likely shortchanging his own state by trying to keep money flowing to the boondocks. As New York's neighbor, Connecticut lives in the shadow of attack and has a number of targets of potential interest to terrorists. The state, for example, is home to the Coast Guard Academy in New London and to the Navy's nuclear submarine pens and the Electric Boat shipyard in Groton. Connecticut also has 98 miles of the nation's most important highway, I-95, and busiest passenger rail corridor.
Lieberman should be fighting to get Connecticut - and New York - as much money as they deserve based on threat instead of trying to funnel cash everywhere it's needed least. So, Joe, you really like pork, huh?
The United Nations on Tuesday reinstated the only U.N. official who was fired over the Iraq oil-for-food scandal after an internal appeals body ruled that he had done nothing wrong, his lawyer said. Joseph Stephanides was advised of the decision in a letter received Tuesday morning, said his lawyer, George Irving. Secretary-General Kofi Annan still believes that Stephanides, fired on May 31, violated staff rules in his handling of an oil-for-food contract, but agreed the punishment was too harsh, Irving said.
The Joint Disciplinary Committee, an internal U.N. appeals board, ruled last month that Stephanides should be reinstated, issued a written apology and paid about $200,000 â about two years back pay â for the emotional suffering and damage to his reputation caused by Annan's handling of the case. The ruling, disclosed to The Associated Press last week, concluded that Stephanides was fired mostly because of the public scrutiny from an investigation that found the $64 billion oil-for-food program was poorly managed and corrupt. Annan was not required to heed the decision. Instead, he agreed that Stephanides be reinstated so he can retire with his reputation intact, but refused to apologize, Irving said. "They just maintain their decision that he did something wrong," Irving said.
Stephanides, 60, was fired for divulging bidding information related to an oil-for-food contract to Britain. He argued he was acting under the instructions of a U.N. Security Council sanctions committee. U.N. officials had maintained that Annan stood by the adverse findings made against Stephanides by a U.N.-backed probe of the program. Led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, that investigation accused him in February of tainting the bidding process over a contract to inspect goods going into Iraq. On Stephanides' request, Volcker reopened his investigation into Stephanides this summer. But Volcker's team reaffirmed its findings in a final report in late October. Irving said he would take the case to the next step up the internal U.N. appeals ladder, to the Administrative Tribunal. Unlike the disciplinary committee, its decisions are binding.
#1
I admit openly, without shame, that I get a little misty every time I hear stories like this one. Stories about immigrants to the U.S. that are so inspired by what the U.S. stands for -- the Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights -- that they feel the calling to serve as her defenders. These are the individuals that have been enriching the culture of our country for last couple of hundred years. It reminds me not to take my own freedoms and opportunities for granted.
The Nation of Riflemen have been writing about Walt Gaya and Adam Plumondore for some time. Check the archives if you want to read more.
First part of this is good -- about Iraq's vice-president. I cut the last half which is usual liberal drivel.
Adel Abdul Mahdi, Iraq's vice president, may seem a bit unfeeling as he assesses the ongoing violence in his country. It is very hard, he says -- but better than during Saddam Hussein's day, when, Mahdi says, each year 30,000 Iraqis were executed or assassinated by the regime or killed in the dictator's wars.
It may sound unfeeling, that is, until you remember that, just days before Mahdi's visit to Washington last week, his older brother was killed in a drive-by shooting.
This he does not speak about quite so matter-of-factly. But Mahdi, who was imprisoned and then exiled by Hussein, puts even this fresh murder in historical context. "My brother always suffered," Mahdi said. "Whenever they had a problem with me, they would detain him, they would torture him . . .
"They waged terrorism from within the government," Mahdi added. "Now they are waging the same attacks, as an opposition, from the streets. . . . These are the same methods, practiced by the same people."
A Shiite political leader with a good chance of becoming prime minister after next month's elections, Mahdi brought to Washington a familiar complaint: that the U.S. media and their audience focus exclusively on the bad news, ignoring Iraq's "tremendous achievements." Turnout was high in Iraq's first election, higher for its constitutional referendum and will be higher still, he said, in the December vote -- all despite death threats to anyone who votes. In the face of terror, Iraq's progress toward democracy is unprecedented in the Middle East.
But, he says, Iraq and the United States are "victims of different agendas."
"Iraq's is a life-or-death agenda -- how to build a democracy," Mahdi said. "Others' are political agendas."
As the writer then goes on to demonstrate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/15/2005 00:05 ||
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In MSM, Commie Fascists ? might NOT be Fascist Commies Clintonian Amerika, ALAN ALDA [GASP!]portrays a REPUBLICAN on WEST WING - 'nuff said. If I said more Madonna will faint.
#3
The Republicans are running scared. This is bad, Bush needs to get off his ass quit touring the world and make continuous speeches non-stop making the case pounding it into the peoples minds. Bush sat back as the LLL's slowly beat down the "hearts and minds" here in the states to now we got a uphill battle to come back and the other Republicans are running around like rats jumping ship. McCain is going against Iraq war interrogation, leaks about our prisons (which by the way is just the most recent in a long line of intel leaks that should have been punished in FULL), now you got them basicly handing the terrrorist a 06' we are pulling out or very soon after no later than 08'. They cowed down on Anwar when oil is over 60 a barrel and we are hooked to the Middle east by the short hairs, we need a leader.
Iraq has established an intelligence unit to fight Al Qaida insurgents near the Syrian border. The Iraqi Defense Ministry has formed a unit termed "Desert Protectors." The unit was meant to maintain order and fight Sunni insurgents in the Anbar province in western Iraq. Desert Protectors has become part of the Iraq Army, Iraqi and U.S. officials said. They said the unit was designed to gather and respond to intelligence on insurgency cells. "They've got amazing access to intelligence," U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for the Multinational Force-Iraq, said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2005 00:00 ||
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The United Nations has reported that the US military in Iraq is detaining people faster than a new board can review their cases to determine whether their rights are being respected.
What do they want us to do? Win the war more slowly so they can keep up with the paperwork?
The US-led force continues to hold far more prisoners than the Iraqi government, and most are individuals picked up in mass arrests and detained for "imperative reasons of security," the world body said on Monday. "While progress in reviewing cases led to the release of hundreds, the overall number of detainees continued to increase due to mass arrests carried out during security and military operations," the UN mission said in its latest progress report on human rights, covering the period 1 September to 31 October. "There is an urgent need to provide remedy to lengthy internment for reasons of security without adequate judicial oversight," it said.
I recall reading that one of the Amman boomers was picked up in one of those kinds of operations and released because they didn't have enough to hold him. No doubt the UN thinks there should be more like him.
The number of detainees now held by the multinational force has climbed to 13,514, according to the latest Pentagon figures, up from about 6000 in June and 9600 in September. That is far more than the 7,577 in the custody of Iraq's Justice Ministry, the 3916 held by its Interior Ministry and the 342 juveniles in the hands of its Labour and Social Affairs Ministry as of 26 October, according to Iraqi figures.
Thast's why the Learned Elders of Islam have been squealing like little piggies about our operations. If the Bad Guyz are flowing into the country too fast to catch, that's one thing, but if we're catching them faster than they can be dispatched from Syria, that's something else entirely.
The United Nations has repeatedly expressed concern about the large number of detainees being held in Iraq without apparent due process, alleging that thousands were being held for extended periods without charges or even preliminary reviews to determine whether charges were ultimately likely. The US military insists Iraqi detainees are having their cases promptly reviewed, whether though referral to an Iraqi court or through the new prisoner review board.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
What do they want us to do? Win the war more slowly so they can keep up with the paperwork? lol!
The US-led force continues to hold far more prisoners than the Iraqi government
I'm not sure, but it appears that they suggesting that we utilize Iraqi methods of dealing with the problem. Well..ok. Hey Mo.. do you know how to drive a back hoe?
#2
The US military insists Iraqi detainees are having their cases promptly reviewed, whether though referral to an Iraqi court or through the new prisoner review board.
Who acntually gives a rat's ass about the UN thinks?
#5
As a US citizen I'm mortified and disgusted by my fellow countrymen's apparent lack of regard for the clear truth of the matter - that our military's presence in Iraq is what is causing the numbers of insurgents to grow so rapidly. These are human beings, and we are destroying their homes and lives. Of course they are going to resist. Duh. So would you if you had any balls. If you think that writing this makes me Un-American than I strongly question your definition of what it means to be American. As far as I'm concerned the definition that I'm gleaning from these comments is one that will ultimately lead to our country's economic demise as the nations of the world turn their backs on us in disgust, and rightly so.
#6
I think your comments are insipid mewlings from a know-nothing who would rather cower than fight. I don't respect your "arguments" enough to call them un-American, anonymous loser
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/15/2005 14:39 Comments ||
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#7
Whew! I was getting a little worried we might not get our Recommended Daily Dose of Clueless ToolFool Finger Waggage. Thanks, Spiper.
#9
As a US citizen I'm mortified and disgusted by my fellow countrymen's
*snicker*
Hey Spiper, you're a citizen, but you aren't native born, are you? At least for your sake, I hope your tortured language is due to the fact that you learned English with a French or a British accent. Otherwise, you are one raging geek. Do you wear a little bow tie?
Saddam Hussein's trial will resume on schedule despite the slaying of two defense lawyers and the threat by others to boycott the proceedings over an alleged lack of security, a senior Iraqi judicial official said Sunday. The court is ready to appoint a new team if defense lawyers fail to appear, added Raid Juhi, one of the judges on the special tribunal trying the former dictator and others.
Saddam's team said in a statement earlier in the day that about 1,100 Iraqi lawyers had withdrawn from the defense, arguing that inadequate protection was evident after the killings of two attorneys who were defending co-defendants of the ousted leader. The statement did not say if those lawyers included Saddam's chief Iraqi attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi, but it said other team members continued their duties "under complex and dangerous circumstances." Al-Dulaimi suggested last week that defense lawyers would not show up for the next session Nov. 28. The attorneys who withdrew were among some 1,500 enlisted to help Saddam's defense, mostly researching legal precedents, preparing briefs and performing other tasks outside the courtroom, said Jordanian lawyer Ziad al-Khasawneh, who was once part of the defense team.
Juhi said the defense threat "will not affect the work of the court." He said the Iraqi High Tribunal is ready to appoint new defense lawyers if none appear. "We have many legal experts and lawyers, and (the court) will choose from among them" to defend Saddam and the others, he said. That could result in further delays, Juhi conceded, saying replacement lawyers could ask the court to postpone the trial to give them time to prepare their case.
Still, the defense moves could leave the proceedings in disarray, embarrassing both the Iraqi government and the United States, which have insisted that Saddam face justice in his homeland before his own people. If the court appoints new attorneys, Saddam will refuse to accept them and the trial will degenerate into "a total farce," Abdel-Haq Alani, a London-based lawyer who is a leading member of the defense team, told The Associated Press by phone.
Might we be so bold as to suggest a drumhead, three officers of field grade or higher, a blindfold, and a cigarette?
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2005 00:00 ||
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In a videotaped confession, Sajida Mubarak Atrous, 35, told Jordanian authorities how she and her husband prepared to kill themselves. "He taught me. He taught me how to pull, what to do, and how to control it," she said.
What's to control? You pull it, you go boom, you're flying meat.
The suicide bombers arrived from Iraq four days before last week's attack and stayed in an apartment building in Amman. "There was a wedding at the hotel, children, women and men," she continued. "My husband detonated himself. I tried but it didn't detonate."
"It's too bad. I really wanted to kill a lot of people and to be flying meat."
The attack came precisely one year after the United States launched its ground assault on the insurgent strongholds in the Iraqi town of Fallujah. In that offensive, Sajida's brother, a top deputy to insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed. Officials tell ABC News they believe the timing was no coincidence. "There is an element of devotion, an element of revenge, an element that 'I would like to exact revenge on the enemies of Iraqis and the enemies of Zarqawi,'" said Fawaz Gerges, a professor at Sarah Lawrence College and an ABC News consultant.
"Since the Merkins beat the crap out of us every time we get close to them, we figured we'd kill some Jordanians. It seemed fair, in an Islamic sort of way."
Sajida is one of the estimated 50 female suicide bombers worldwide since the 1980s. "I think she will be seen as a twisted, horrible woman who is going to hell," said Rachel Bronson, director of Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. "Suicide is against Islam and she targeted Muslims, another taboo."
Except the boomers are almost exclusively Islamists, and the number of dead Muslims killed by their own outnumbers the dead infidels by a wide margin.
Today, the use of women and explosive belts suggests a shift in tactics that alarms many U.S. security analysts. "The fact that they're using strap-ons means they are now trying to attack targets they probably can't get close to with car bombs or truck bombs," warns Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant and former White House counter-terrorism official. "But using people, particularly women who look innocent, they are able to get into the buildings and can cause casualties."
Which means our countermeasures will have to change. And our guys hate shooting women, not coming from a society of savages.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/15/2005 11:46 ||
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#1
I wish there was a way to legitimately target their women. It's the only way to put a dent in their most effective weapon - population growth.
#2
"The fact that they're using strap-ons means..." Well it means the Islamic men just aren't cutting it as lovers these days. It's always Jihad, jihad, jihad all the time, not time for the loving.
After marathon all-night negotiations, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Tuesday announced a comprehensive agreement between Israel and the Palestinians designed to open up the Gaza strip to Israel and the outside world.
The deal set terms for freedom of movement on three borders: traffic across the Rafah border into Egypt, Gaza's main link with the outside world; commercial trucks at the Karni crossing into Israel; and bus convoys between Gaza and the West Bank, the separated parts of the Palestinian Authority.
Just as important long-term, the deal allows the Palestinians to begin work on Gaza's airport and seaport, Rice said.
The deal is the most significant movement in the peace process since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza two months ago and the first broad agreement between the two sides in nine months, since talks at Sharm-el Sheikh, Egypt.
For the first time since 1967, the Palestinians will gain access of the borders in the areas where they live, Rice said at an unusual press conference with international envoy James Wolfensohn and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana just for the press traveling with Rice, but no local journalists. The target date for the opening of Rafah is Nov. 25.
"The important thing here is that people have understood that there is an important balance between security on the one hand and on the other hand allowing the Palestinian people freedom of movement. The other important point is that everybody recognizes that if the Palestinians can move more freely and export their agriculture, that Gaza will be a much better place, where the institutions of democracy can begin to take hold," Rice said.
In an important boost for the stagnant economy in Gaza, where up to 70% of the labor force is unemployed, the Israelis will permit the export of all agricultural produces from the current harvest -- instead of rotting in warehouses. The number of trucks that will pass through the Karni crossing to Israel will reach 150 by year's end and 400 by the end of next year.
Bus convoys to move people between the West Bank and Gaza will begin by Dec. 15 and truck traffic by Jan. 15.
Both Israeli and Palestinian officials were upbeat after a long night of intense negotiations. "It's a document designed to organize the whole issue of the flow of people and goods in and out of Gaza. It's more ambitious than a lot of us thought at the beginning. Everyone wants to have a deal in the run up to both elections," said a senior Israeli foreign ministry official.
Later, he said a broader agreement was made possible when talks changed from a deal on Rafah to a comprehensive agreement on all crossing, which allowed for creative solutions."
The Palestinians are scheduled to hold elections Jan. 25, while the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is under pressure from the new Labor Party leadership to hold early elections, which now appear likely. Without a deal now, the diplomatic effort could get deferred for many months -- and potentially even become an election issue that would particularly help the Islamist movement Hamas.
The deal involves major compromises on both sides. "No one is happy with the deal but we have to do it," said Mohammed Dahlan, civil affairs minister.
The agreement is a major personal triumph for Rice, who has been dogged in not letting the long-illusive deal slip through her fingers during the last stop of her six-nation Middle East tour. "It was not a one woman show, but clearly nothing would have happened without her amazing combination of steel, charm and energy," said a senior U.S. official who was in the midst of the negotiations.
An agreement could have particular impact on the stagnant Palestinian economy and on security for the Israelis, who in the negotiations are pressing for security measures to prevent extremists and weapons from moving in and out of Gaza. An agreement would also help calm the generally tense atmosphere between the sides since Israel's withdrawal, U.S., Israeli and Palestinian, officials say.
The Bush administration is particularly eager to win agreement now to generate new momentum and prevent a further delay in the peace process, given increasing political turmoil in Israel that threatens to force Sharon's government into early elections and possibly further divert attention from talks with the Palestinians.
#1
Israel gave up it's right to close the crossing, It will only be able to monitor the crossing remotely. The EU will have "observers." WTF that may mean is not really stated.
I assume Israel will blow stuff up if should the Paleos do "bad things"
#2
The EU will have "observers." WTF that may mean is not really stated..
It probably means that the EU personnel aren't going to do diddly squat regardless of what they "see". However, one suicide/murder bomb attack by a Paleo individual or the discovery of a commercial truck carrying weaponry or explosives should scuttle this little arrangement pretty quick.
AMMAN, Jordan, Nov. 13 - At a cultural festival last year, Sameer al-Qudah recited a poem of his depicting Arab rulers as a notch below pirates and highwaymen on the scale of honorable professions. Within days, Jordan's intelligence police summoned him.
Mr. Qudah, sentenced to a year in jail for a similar offense in 1996, was apprehensive but not surprised. The secret police, or mukhabarat in Arabic, is one of the most powerful and ubiquitous forces in the Arab world. Jordan's network had surreptitiously videotaped his reading. "We are hungry for freedoms like the right to express ourselves," said Mr. Qudah, 35, whose day job is supervising construction projects as a civil engineer. "But our country lives under the fist of the mukhabarat."
In Jordan and across the region, those seeking democratic reform say the central role of each country's secret police force, with its stealthy, octopuslike reach, is one of the biggest impediments. In the decades since World War II, as military leaders and monarchs smothered democratic life, the security agencies have become a law unto themselves.
Last week's terror attacks in Amman accentuate one reason that even some Jordanians who consider themselves reformers justify the secret police's blanket presence - the fear that violence can spill across the border. But others argue that the mukhabarat would be more effective if it narrowed its scope to its original mandate of ensuring security. "The department has become so big that its ability to concentrate is diluted," said Labib Kamhawi, a businessman active in human rights. "The fact that the intelligence is involved in almost everything on the political and economic level, as well as security, might have loosened its grip on security."
In Jordan, one of the region's most liberal countries, the intelligence agencies vet the appointment of every university professor, ambassador and important editor. The mukhabarat eavesdrops with the help of evidently thousands of Jordanians on its payroll, similar to the informant networks in the Soviet bloc.
What a remarkable coincidence.
Much, much more at the link.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/15/2005 00:27 ||
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Steve White writes:
What a remarkable coincidence.
As the late-night conspiracy talk show hosts are fond of saying, there are no coincidences. But I doubt you'll ever hear them discuss it in _this_ context.
#3
I've said this before, but this seems a prime moment to expand on the idea a little. Dictators, whatever their flavor, always have their secret police for the status quo is the most precious thing to a Kingy Thingy (or whatever) sort.
When you add in Muzzyness, you get a blending of the very worst of Stalin, Hitler, Mohammed - the bottom of the pit of mankind. I like his Harley, but nothing else about him.
Another accommodation of the Pervy sort that yields tiny amounts of good stuff - and perpetuates evil. I will cheer at his fall with the same gusto reserved for the Mad Mullahs and The House of Saud. The differences are momentary convergence of interests and convenience.
I know - I've already heard the so-called realpolitik crap - the Standard State Department line. Changes nothing - it is convenience and temporary gain, usually miniscule, in exchange for our blind eye to what we would describe as evil under any other circumstances. This too, shall bite us in the ass someday.
O/T P.S. ed - Yes, I can only get Preview to work once in awhile, now. Started about a week ago. Sucks.
Posted by: Fred on Debian ||
11/15/2005 13:52 Comments ||
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#5
Nope. Nuthin. Just "ignores" the click. I try it every time my post is more than 2-3 sentences. Works about 1 out of 10-12 times, on avg. Using IE, too, which always worked with all of the edit buttons before, which I can't say about Firefox. The only thing I can think of is something thinks there is insufficient memory to fire off a new window, but I can fire off a new IE window when it happens. No real clues to offer, I wish there were. BTW, it failed on this comment. :(
The United States has turned to Israel for technology and expertise to protect American troops in Iraq from improvised explosive devices. But the Bush administration was said to have limited this cooperation with Israel to avoid an Arab backlash.
Screw the backlash. I'm a lot more concerned about our guys getting shredded than I am about Arab sensibilities.
Israeli sources said the military has supplied technology and components for development of IED solutions to the U.S. Army. They said the U.S. requests have increased in recent weeks in wake of an assessment that the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah supplied IED technology to Sunni insurgents. "More than anybody else, we know Hizbullah tactics and technology," a military source said. "This has become the key to helping the U.S. troops in Iraq. The U.S. help has been requested by Brig. Gen. Joseph Votel, the director of a Defense Department joint task force to fight IEDs. The sources said Votel has been in steady contact with Israeli commanders as well as weapons researchers.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2005 00:00 ||
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But the Bush administration was said to have limited this cooperation with Israel to avoid an Arab backlash.
coupled with an even better offense..ie. project pain to Hizzyland.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/15/2005 1:59 Comments ||
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#4
"But the Bush administration was said to have limited this cooperation with Israel to avoid an Arab backlash."
You don't really think that this is factual, do you? Sheesh. There's what we see on TV, what we read in the MSM, and then there's reality, which seldom matches the carefully selected agenda BS. You know this.
On a side note, I look forward to the day when our western world uses technology, science, cooperation and 21st Century tactics to render these IEDs useless. It will be interesting to see what levels of human brutality the cave men will sink to then.
it's all unsourced information except for the Penatgon press release. The only thing thing you have to realize in order to understand this 'story' is who is hurt and who benefits from this 'story.'
This story, as written encourages jihad elements and their leftist allies that the US is not coping with IEDs very well. The result could wind up being more IEDs in the weeks ahead.
Leftists must be thrilled more Americans could die.
Israeli and Palestinian officials are set to hold fresh talks on the reopening of the Gaza-Egypt border, with US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice staying on in the region in the hope of a deal, according to a Palestinian official. Rice might even join the talks late on Monday night between Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan, the official added, asking not to be identified. Earlier on Monday, Rice decided to delay her departure to Asia while talks continued to nail down an agreement on reopening the Rafah terminal, according to her spokesman.
Aljazeera's correspondent in Palestine reported that the talks conducted by Rice with Palestinian and Israeli officials had failed to produce a breakthrough. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack had said Rice would fly to Jordan to pay a condolence call for the hotel bombings, but return to Jerusalem rather than continue on to Pusan for an Asian regional conference. "We're still working the issues with both sides," McCormack said of efforts to reopen the Rafah terminal, a key transit point between Egypt and Gaza which has remained largely closed since Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip, completed on 12 September.
Before news of the failure was confirmed, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had struck an optimistic note after talks with Rice, saying an Israeli-Palestinian deal on reopening the Gaza-Egypt border was imminent.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2005 00:00 ||
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Tehran, 15 Nov. (AKI) - A demonstration in front of the Italian embassy in Tehran, more than 100 university events marking the anniversary of his death and a 'documentary' about his life to be aired on Iranian state television. The subject of such obsessive interest in Iran is the late Edoardo Agnelli, heir to Italy's most famous industrial family, the Agnellis, who own the FIAT motoring empire. Under an Iranian urban myth, recently resuscitated and embellished, Edoardo Agnelli's suicide five years ago was 'a Zionist plot' to rob him of his inheritance because he had 'converted to Islam'.
State television is broadcasting a 'documentary' which accredits the thesis of a "Zionist plot" to get their hands on FIAT wealth by killing Edoardo Agnelli. The programme is also being shown on the Sahar satellite channel, translated into Russian, English, Arabic, Urdu and Azeri. For the record, Edoardo, 46, parked his car on a high bridge near Turin on 15 November 2000 and threw himself to his death. A sensitive and reclusive figure, with a keen interest in religion and some past problems with drug use and depression, Edoardo - only son of patriarch Giovanni Agnelli - had long been excluded from any business role in FIAT.
The attempt to make the late Agnelli a Muslim martyr and portray him as persecuted by Jewish business interests is also part of a wider campaign to discredit Italy - one of Iran's biggest trading partners - in a moment of tension betwen Iran and the international community over its nuclear ambitions. Rome and Tehran have been at loggerheads since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments last month that Israel should be "wiped off the map". The Italian government immediately summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest against the remarks, while the Tehran did likewise once news broke of a pro-Israel rally organised by a Italian daily newspaper outside the Iranian embassy in Rome.
The main orator at a demonstration outside the Italian embassy on Tuesday was Hassan Ghadiri Abianeh, an architect who studied in Florence and served briefly at the Iranian embassy in Rome just after the Islamic Revolution. Ghadiri is the author of the urban myth which portrays Edoardo Agnelli as a fervent Shiite who had chosen the name Mahdi, like the 12th imam whose reappearance is awaited by all Shiites.
Ghadiri is also the author of the 'Zionist plot' theory, and argues that Edoardo, whom he claims was a "friend" confided to him shortly before his death "that he had learnt about a plot to eliminate him and pass it off as suicide with the aim of opening the path for the takeover by Zionists of the management of FIAT". Iran's foreign ministry has in the past tried to contain Ghadiri Abianeh wild proclamations, but with the victory of hardline elements from the Revolutionary Guard in recent elections and the coming to power of Ahmadinejad, this 'urban myth' has become a key instrument of pressure by Iran on Italy.
The al-Zahra university in Tehran has decided to 'honour' Edoardo Agnelli dedicating the Aula Magna to him. Radical student associations say they will make a formal application to the court in Turin, the northern city where FIAT has its headquarters, for the inquiry into his death be opened. The news agencies close to the government, such as Fars and Mehr, have given unprecedented coverage to any form of protest against the Rome government.
Iranian press coverage of a candlelit rally in Rome Thursday - to show solidarity with Israel after the Iranian president's recent statements that it should be 'wiped off the map' - has focused on the decisions by two government ministers not to attend the event. The demonstration was organised by the small Rome-based daily, Il Foglio, close to prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, but drew support from across the political spectrum, and from Italy's Jewish community. One Italian Muslim group also rallied for Israel's 'right to exist".
Posted by: Steve ||
11/15/2005 15:33 ||
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FIAT = Fix It Again Tony F&%k Islamists And Tehran
Damascus, 15 Nov. (AKI) - German judge Detlev Mehlis, who is heading a comission of inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, has complained to the United Nations that Syria is failing to co-operate with the probe, sources in Lebanon say. Mehlis apparently sent a telegram to the United Nations - which mandated him to carry out the investigation - listing his grieviances with Damascus. The telegram was sent shortly after a Thursday 10 Nov. deadline set by Mehlis for Syria's co-operation expired, the sources said.
Mehlis has said he wants to question several top Syrian officials which he has linked to Hariri's 14 Feb. murder and that he wants to do this in Lebanon. Damascus has said it is willing to allow the officials to be questioned, provided this does not take place on Lebanese territory.
On Tuesday, Syrian authorities denied reports that Syrian foreign ministry legal advisor, Riyad al-Dawudi had reached an agreement with Mehlis on a venue for the questioning of the officials and the method to be employed.
According to the sources in Lebanon, Mehlis rejected a proposal by the Syrians for the questioning to be held in Syria under the auspices of the Arab League. On Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister, Faruq al-Sharaa, reiterated Syria's objection to the questioning being held in Lebanon, citing the need to "safeguard the stability of Lebanon," that, he added, would be threatened by "demonstrations from supporters of both sides".
Acccording to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1636, which stipulates the conditions for Mehlis' probe, Syria is requested to "unconditionally collaborate" with the inquiry, and that failure to do so should be reported to a committee tasked with overseeing the resolution's implementation. The committee then has 15 days to decide what steps must be taken next.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/15/2005 11:05 ||
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German judge Detlev Mehlis, who is heading a comission of inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, has complained to the United Nations that Syria is failing to co-operate with the probe, sources in Lebanon say.
Ex-president Bill Clinton urged Israelis over the weekend not to overreact to comments by newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recommending that Israel be "wiped off the map."
"Really, would anyone ever try to wipe out an entire race?"
Speaking at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on Saturday, Clinton acknowledged that the remark was "outrageous," but he cautioned that the Iranian leader was "not elected because of his hatred for Israel or the West." "He was elected because of the economic distress of ordinary Iranians, and which he promised to relieve by giving them financial assistance," Clinton explained, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Bill is a professional politician, his lips are held on by superglue
He warned Israel not to act unilaterally when reacting to terrorist threats, saying that "true peace and security can only come through principled compromise.
Clinton urged Israelis to "organize their politics" so "their search for peace can continue" regardless of domestic policies.
"Ya'll are ruining ma chances for that Nobel Prize. If I only had my good friend Yasser around, we could still have a chance to work things out"
On Oct. 27, President Ahmadinejad told a "World Without Zionism" conference that Israel is a "disgraceful blot" on the Middle East that should be "wiped off the map."
Posted by: Captain America ||
11/15/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I see Bill warming up for the Kofi job. Hear no evil; see no evil.
Posted by: Captain America ||
11/15/2005 0:09 Comments ||
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#2
"true peace and security can only come through principled compromise."
I prefer: "Peace through superior firepower." myself but then I'm not a politician...
#7
Jebus, EX-presidents should keep their mouths shut.
This clown is lucky not to be in jail. What he didn't do could have saved us from 9/11. So really, just STFU Bill Clinton. Israel doesn't need your "ex-purt" advice.
#8
Do you suppose Clinton thinks if he follows Jimmy Carter by actively opposing American interests overseas that he too will get a Nobel Prize? For a supposedly intelligent man, he is either ignorant or perverse beyond imagining.
#10
in 3 more years Bill's spirochete problem will make him a perfect replacement for kofi's Arafat's gig.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/15/2005 1:53 Comments ||
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#11
The Dems right now are pretty much promo themselves as the REAL CONSERVATIVES, REAL RIGHTISTS, REAL AMERICANISTS, plus the true PARTY OF LAW AND ORDER, wid Dubya's GOP as the one in supp of laissez faire, alternatism, and "liberalism", etc. Clinton's post "Big Dog" remarks plus these only shows, AGAIN, that America will the only one blamed for Iran, regardless of whether Iran [indigenously]devs one or 100 nukes, andor from Russia-China. ALso shows that the Lefties are depending on America and JudeoXtianity to "justify" and save Islam, as oppos to Islam by for and from dedicated Muslims.
#15
This serves to help set up the Dhimmidonks for the moment of truth - when Iran is either defanged or we allow an insane Muzzy regime to gain the offensive power of deliverable nukes to set the world back a few centuries. I tell you, the day is coming when you the unwashed masses of US citizens have finally succumbed to the two things which can lead to our demise: isolationism and tranzi-ism. When that moment comes, we will either fight to regain America and rebuild it as the bastion of freedom in the world - Civil War - or we will meet our demise. I would prefer we pull our heads out of the sand, now, of course.
Clintoon the Socialist Whore is setting the stage for sapping our will just when it is needed to meet this pivotal moment with Iran. This cowardice will be quoted as if it came from a Churchillian Statesman, instead of a hedonistic asshole and pluperfect tool of freedom's enemies.
Clinton would be perfect as first against the wall.
#17
Speaking of things Clintonian, I hear through the Washington grapevine that the other Clinton is talking to corporate America about bringing back her plan to take over the health care industry. The deal is, corporations support her plan (and her run for Prez), in return they get to off-load their corporate health insurance plans, which have become a big headache for them. So far this deal seems to be under the radar of the MSM and punditry.
Posted by: jolly roger ||
11/15/2005 7:26 Comments ||
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#18
He's caught whatever-it-is that Jimmy Carter has! Do you suppose it's contagious?
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/15/2005 7:27 Comments ||
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#19
He's caught whatever-it-is that Jimmy Carter has! 'Chicken' Flu?
#21
Clinton is saying nothing that is not part of the dhimmidonk line. So my question is, TW & LH, why do so many Jewish voters continue to vote for them?
#25
While sitting in the Shaman's Office last Friday waiting for my monthly injection I broke down and picked up a Time magazine. There was an article on Hillary and how she has used her office to open up a colaborative between some very small cottage industries (out of home VERY small business) and EBay to market their products. It seems this has been a very succesful venture for these small businesses. Make no mistake, she is VERY dangerous. Things like this are actually very good for the people she represents and are among the things Senators should be doing instead of getting more Pork for their respective states. I still don't think she will abandon her leftist, liberal ways should she become President. Just an observation on my part as to why a lot of people will vote for her.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/15/2005 10:00 Comments ||
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#26
"He was elected because of the economic distress of ordinary Iranians, and which he promised to relieve by giving them financial assistance,"
It's always "it's the economy, stupid" with this guy.He makes Calvin Coolidge look like a giant of statecraft.
#28
Yeah, don't take it so hard. It depends on what your meaning of "wiped off the map" is.
Posted by: William Jefferson Clinton ||
11/15/2005 11:30 Comments ||
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#29
Clinton is saying nothing that is not part of the dhimmidonk line. So my question is, TW & LH, why do so many Jewish voters continue to vote for them?
Just because they're Jewish doesn't mean they're smart, Unaimble Whurt2220. Besides, just like the African-American community, the percentage of Jews voting Republican/Conservative is at the beginning of an asymtotic curve. Just before the last Presidential election I was invited to hear Senator Kerry's Jewish brother speak to the local Jewish movers and shakers (I'm still not sure why, but I accepted with alacrity). The key topic of conversation afterward was how to win back the Jews who weren't going to vote Democrat that year. As I recall, even Liberalhawk voted for Bush, because right now to him the War on Terror is the most important thing.
#30
It's not just GWOT and Israel, TW. When I talk with my Jewish friends about a whole range of domestic issues, welfare, affirmative action and crime for example, they sound like trunks but then when it's time to vote, they vote tail. Some habits die hard, I guess. That's why Rove wants to get the Hispanics now.
#31
For those of us who are intelligent (yes, I do flatter myself, I know), UW2220, it is about GWOT and Israel first. There's a difference between being stretched to the limits of one's ability, and having higher limits than the majority. Again, just because they're Jewish doesn't mean they're smarter.
#32
Slick Willie has bodyguards around him who pack heat, so he can say anything without consequences.
Iran threatened Israel with total destruction. Do the Israelis blow it off as propaganda or take the threat seriously?
1. If you blow off the threat, and the threat is carried out, then you are royally f**ked. Game over.
2. If you take the threat seriously and take countermeasures and nothing happens, then fine, but if the threat is attemped, then you have a defense and you survive.
Sounds like #2 is a win/win.
Back years ago, I had an electrician who was drinking and screwing up. He got suspended w/o pay for 3 days. He called me up one evening and said that I was the trouble and he was going to come over and blow me away. I told him that he was drunk and to take a nap. He said that he was coming over with his hunting rifle. I told him that I was armed, and that I was calling the police. He said that he was heading out the door. I called the police and they picked him up on his 4-wheeler with a rifle. He got convicted of assault in the 4th degree, DWI, etc etc. I took his threat seriously, and Ima writing on RB, so here I am, alive and well, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/15/2005 17:07 Comments ||
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#33
Jews proclaim Billary non kosher
Posted by: Captain America ||
11/15/2005 19:26 Comments ||
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#34
AP - What I wanna know is, if someone had knocked on your door, how many times would you have fired before opening it? I'd guess a clip, or two, would be a fair start. The cops did have the good sense to call you, right? Lol. :P
#37
"...true peace and security can only come through principled compromise."
In part, compromise means you don't get everyhing you want-just some of what you want.
So apparently, Bill would overlook partial destruction of Israel, just not complete destruction. More "they deserved it crap" from a liberal-big surprise there.
#38
"...true peace and security can only come through principled compromise."
In part, compromise means you don't get everyhing you want-just some of what you want.
So apparently, Bill would overlook partial destruction of Israel, just not complete destruction. More "they deserved it crap" from a liberal-big surprise there.
Despite its military withdrawal, Syria continues to control the opium trade in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. A leading U.S. expert with links to the American intelligence community said the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has maintained control over most revenues from neighboring Lebanon. Gary Gambill, an analyst with Freedom House, said the Assad regime continued to benefit from the illegal heroin production and trade in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border. "The Assad regime is not yet in trouble," Gambill wrote in an analysis for Middle East Forum. "Syrian troops may no longer be in Lebanon, but none of its most important Lebanese revenue streams have been cut. Drug producers in the Bekaa Valley and corrupt bankers in Beirut will continue paying off the Syrians as long as Damascus can guarantee that the authorities in Beirut leave them alone." Gambill said Syrian farmers continued to smuggle produce into Lebanon with help from the Assad regime. He said most Syrian workers -- estimated at nearly 1 million -- remained in Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2005 00:00 ||
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one million? Isn't that like two cents in the drug world? Brings to mind that Austin Powers scene...
Iran has backed Syria in its rift with the United Nations over cooperation with an inquiry into the killing of a former Lebanese prime minister. "We declare our support for uncovering the truth vis-Ã -vis the assassination of Mr. Rafik al-Hariri and I have seen that the officials in Syria support this issue in a good way," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said after talks with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Monday.
He also called for confronting US "dubious moves" in the Middle East. "We pin our hope that the investigation team continues its work on a pure legal foundation and does not work on politicising the investigation." US pressure on Syria peaked in recent weeks to cooperate with a UN investigation into the 14 February killing of al-Hariri in a Beirut bomb blast. The head of the UN team, German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, complained in October that Damascus was not cooperating with his investigation that linked some Syrian officials to the killing.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2005 00:00 ||
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IOW, the Iranians=China supp their future unannexed province-proxy/slave state of Tehran=Beijing known as Syria=North Korea.
Via JihadWatch
Islamic radicals have been using the Temple Mount as a focal point for planning and preaching the establishment of a world Islamic state with Jerusalem as its capital.
One of the radical groups operating on the Temple Mount is Hizab Altahrir (Hizb-ut-Tahrir) (The Islamic Liberation Party), which espouses an ideology similar to Al Qaeda. Hizab Altahrirâs network spans most Western European countries. The party puts Islamic revolution and an uncompromising form of Jihad (holly war) at the top of its political agenda. The group advocates subjecting the entire world to Islamic law (Shariya), and destroying non-believing nations and religions.
The party has targeted Europe, specifically Denmark, for spreading its ideology, and providing a springboard for renewing Islamic conquests in Europe. A senior party activist in Jerusalem, Sheikh Issam Amira, expressed this philosophy in a recent speech which he made on the Temple Mount:
âListeners! The Moslems in Denmark make up three percent [of the population], yet constitute a threat to the future of the Danish kingdom. Itâs no surprise that in Bitrab (the ancient name of Medina, a city in Arabia to which Mohammed immigrated) they were fewer than three percent of the general population, but succeeded changing the regime in Bitrab. âItâs no surprise that our brothers in Denmark have succeeded in bringing Islam to every home in that country. Allah will grant us victory in their land to establish the [Islamic] revolution in Denmark.â
After Denmark, the Sheikh said, the party will carry the revolution to Oslo and change its name to Medina. âThey will fight against their Scandinavian neighbors in order to bring the country into the territory of the revolution,â he said. âIn the next stage, they will fight a holy jihad to spread Islam to the rest of Europe, until it spreads to the original city of Medina where the two cities will unite under the Islamic flag.â
Sheikh Riyad Salah, head of the Islamic movement in Israel has also been active teaching the tenets of âIslamic revolution.â âWe are at the gates of the Islamic revolution,â he proclaims in his sermons to Arab citizens of Israel. âThe global forces of evil will be eliminated from the world and the Islamic nation will remain in place in order to bring about the world Islamic revolution, with its capital, Jerusalem.â Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
11/15/2005 11:51 ||
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Israel should just knock it down and put in a multi-story parking lot with arch digs in the basement. They might uncover Arafat's tunnels and maybe even a few Templar ones.
Not knocking it down just shows weakness to the Muslims.
#2
Heh, 3dc, funny you should mention the Templars. I watched a History Channel story on them this morning and something my Mormon genealogist mother once told me finally "clicked" into place. She said we were mainly Scots and from the Sinclair Clan - once known as the Saint Claire Clan and hosts to the Knights Templar when they sought refuge from the Pope. She said we were blood relations to 2 of the Knights. I was a leetle-beety kid then, so the notion of Knights and such had an impact - and stuck - but the story behind it was lost on me until this morning, lol. Knights Templar... Fucking-A, Bubba, lol.
#3
If they knock it down they'll restore the HEbrew temple that was once there. I think the restoration of said temple is some sign of the Apocolpse so I'd expect to see a lot of people going nuts after that.
#5
The party has targeted Europe, specifically Denmark, for spreading its ideology, and providing a springboard for renewing Islamic conquests in Europe.
WTF? Someone please explain the obsession with Denmark? Like the Scandihoovians are going to be real receptive to a bunch of Hitler-worshipping genocidal filth. At least these morons are announcing their intentions. Time to get Viking all over their worthless Islamist @sses.
#7
Denmark is the country that has funny cartoons about Mo the pederast. When the mullahs called on the PM to chastise him, he told them not to bother. Denmark has free speech. Denmark is the Jr Great Satan now, beating out the UK and Oz.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawiâs terrorist network in Iraq attacks a broad range of targets, but his assault on the Shiite community has been particularly focused and devastating. Although Zarqawi swore an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden in October 2004, his targeting of Shiite civilians contradicts the strategy of al-Qaedaâs original leadership. A letter from al-Qaedaâs putative second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, dated June 2005 and released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence earlier this month, questions the political wisdom of terrorizing the Shiite community. But although Zawahiriâs objection received the most media attention, Zarqawiâs tactics had already garnered criticism and sparked a debate within jihadist circles. Zarqawiâs insistence on targeting Muslim civilians has created a divide within the Sunni resistance movement and may be alienating his public support base.
Groups linked to al-Qaeda continue to target Shiites in isolated attacks, but since the early 1990s, bin Laden has urged tactical and logistical cooperation among like-minded Shiite and Sunni groups. Iran and Hizballah have frequently assisted al-Qaeda operatives. Hezbollah and al-Qaeda have overlapping contacts in South America, Africa, and the Middle East, and have cooperated in fundraising and training. Iran has provided financial support to al-Qaeda operatives, facilitated the travel of several of the September 11 hijackers, provided safe haven to al-Qaeda operatives including bin Ladenâs son Saad, and may have assisted in the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia.
Despite his anti-Shiite rhetoric and terror campaign, Zarqawi has also availed himself of Iranian support. He has traveled through Iran essentially unmolested; key leaders of his group sought refuge in Iran during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003; and senior military and intelligence officials in the United States and Britain believe that Iran provides explosives and other support for Zarqawiâs terrorist network.
On September 14, Zarqawi issued an audiotape declaring âtotal warâ on the Shiite population in Iraq, announcing ex post facto a strategy he began to enact more than a year earlier. His letter to the al-Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan, published by the State Department in February 2004, already articulated his intention to attack Shiites with the aim of igniting a sectarian conflict. Zarqawi was certain the United States would withdraw quickly from Iraq, but wrote that Shiite militia members already dominated the new Iraqi army, putting his group on the defensive. The situation was dire enough in Zarqawiâs analysis that he was willing to risk a strategic break with bin Laden and Zawahiri. He wrote, âIf you agree with us on [targeting Shiites] . . .we will be your readied soldiers. . . . If things appear otherwise to you, we are brothers, and the disagreement will not spoil our friendship.â In December 2004, bin Laden issued an audio statement recognizing Zarqawi as a key al-Qaeda leader.
One of the most brutal attacks on the Shiite community in Iraq followed closely on the publication of Zarqawiâs February 2004 letter. On March 2, 2004, Zarqawiâs group staged a series of bomb attacks on Shiites celebrating the Ashura holiday, killing at least 185 people. Since then, Zarqawiâs group has perpetrated a campaign of assassinations, kidnappings, and bomb attacks against Shiite civilians, including a suicide bomb attack on a Shiite mosque this July that killed ninety-eight people, and a suicide truck bomb attack targeting Shiite workers this August that killed more than one hundred.
Though Zarqawi justifies targeting Shiite civilians on religious grounds, arguing that they are âapostates,â politics, rather than religion, motivates his assault on the Shiite community. He posted his September 14 declaration of war soon after the September counterterrorist raids on Tal Afar, in which five thousand Iraqi troops from the New Iraqi Armyâs Third Division killed 156 terrorists and captured 246 others. It is almost impossible to obtain accurate information about the ethnic and religious composition of Iraqâs army; however, Iraqâs Shiite majority and the terroristsâ efforts to discourage Sunni enlistment mean that Shiite soldiers almost certainly led the Tal Afar offensive. To Zarqawi, the raids must have confirmed his suspicion, articulated in his 2004 letter, that the Shiites had seized the strategic initiative and now dominated the âsecurity situationâ in Iraq. This helps explain why he broadened his groupâs mandate from attacking Shiites involved in direct assistance to the U.S. occupation, to targeting Shiites generally in a âtotalâ conflict.
In an October 6, 2005, speech to the National Endowment for Democracy, President George W. Bush said, âWith every random bombing and with every funeral of a child, it becomes more clear that the extremists are not patriots or resistance fightersâthey are murderers at war with the Iraqi people.â Interestingly, Sunni clerics who support the resistance have begun to criticize Zarqawiâs tactics on similar grounds.
Zarqawiâs Jordanian mentor, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, first questioned Zarqawiâs targeting of Shiite civilians in a statement posted on his website (www.almaqdese.com) in July 2004, and again in media interviews in July 2005. Maqdisi criticized Zarqawi on religious and political grounds. First, Maqdisi rejected Zarqawiâs classification of Shiites as nonbelievers, telling the satellite network Al-Jazeera that he did not consider ordinary Shiites as non-Muslims, and therefore it was âforbidden to equate the ordinary Shiite with the American in warfare.â Maqdisi then argued that attacking civilians and places of worship tarnished the reputation of the resistance. Zawahiriâs letter expressed the same concern that such tactics would alienate supporters, writing to Zarqawi that attacking Shiite civilians âwill not be acceptable to the Muslim populace however much you have tried to explain it.â
After Zarqawiâs September declaration of war on the Shiite community, other proresistance Sunni groups condemned his tactics. One representative of an Iraqi Salafist group, Sheikh Zakariyah Mohammad Isa al-Tamimi of the Higher Committee for Dawa, Guidance, and Fatwa, noted that Zarqawi lacked the religious qualifications to interpret Islamic law. However, like Zawahiri, most critics question Zarqawiâs approach from a political, rather than a religious, standpoint. In Iraq, the Association of Muslim Scholars and several insurgent groups, including the Islamic Army in Iraq, issued public statements rejecting the targeting of Shiites because the attacks âdamage the image of the jihad [and] jeopardize the success of the . . . resistance.â Critics from abroad include the mufti of Saudi Arabia, who said in a statement published by Al-Hayyat that the effort to ignite a sectarian conflict in Iraq âfulfills the goals of the enemies who plot against Muslims.â
The general public in the Middle East may share the Sunni clericsâ reservations. A spring 2005 poll taken by the Pew Global Attitudes Project 5 showed that support for suicide bombings had dropped precipitously in key Muslim countries, including Lebanon, Turkey, and Morocco. Pew conducted the poll in May 2005, prior to the summerâs intense suicide bombing campaign in Iraq, which suggests that support for suicide bombings against civilians may now be even lower.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/15/2005 11:50 ||
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The Sunni nightmare is for a Shia theocratic Iran, working with Shia theocratic Iraq to take over the Shia section of Saudi Arabia. Oil money and high populations compared to Saudi Arabias sand and insanity. No wonder Bin Laden doesn't like the plan that Zarqawi is slowly bringing about.
Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has thrown cold water on US efforts to promote peace in his war-torn country, two days after US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Zoellick left Sudan. "We don't need Zoellick to resolve our internal problems," the official SUNA news agency quoted al-Beshir as saying on Sunday.
The US official spent four days in Sudan trying to support a January peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south war and pressing for a solution to the conflict in the western region of Darfur. Al-Beshir made the comment after receiving proposals from members of his ruling National Congress for a regional conference bringing around the same table all the parties involved in Darfur. "The solution to the root causes of the problem lies with the people of Darfur themselves," al-Beshir said.
Up to 300,000 people have died since ethnic minority rebels rose up against the government in Khartoum in early 2003, according to a British parliamentary report. Two million more people have been left homeless after the government unleashed militias against minority villages. Washington played an important part in the negotiations that led to the signing of the north-south peace deal, which Zoellick said could be used as a model to resolve the conflict in Darfur. It was Zoellick's fourth visit to Sudan this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2005 00:00 ||
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Up to 300,000 people have died since ethnic minority rebels rose up against the government in Khartoum in early 2003, according to a British parliamentary report. Two million more people have been left homeless after the government unleashed militias against minority villages.
OUT OF IRAQ/PALESTINE/FRANCE NOW!!! oh wait, wrong demonstration. I don't know, I just kinda thought this factoid was worth repeating - since it will get little attention elsewhere.
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.
Radical cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammad plans to return to Britain to see his wife and children and meet with his students but ruled out âa permanent move to London even if they gave me Queen Elizabethâs throne.â 
The United Nations on Tuesday reinstated the only U.N. official who was fired over the Iraq oil-for-food scandal after an internal appeals body ruled that he had done nothing wrong, his lawyer said. Joseph Stephanides was advised of the decision in a letter received Tuesday morning, said his lawyer, George Irving. Secretary-General Kofi Annan still believes that Stephanides, fired on May 31, violated staff rules in his handling of an oil-for-food contract, but agreed the punishment was too harsh, Irving said.
The United Nations has reported that the US military in Iraq is detaining people faster than a new board can review their cases to determine whether their rights are being respected. 
Saddam Hussein's trial will resume on schedule despite the slaying of two defense lawyers and the threat by others to boycott the proceedings over an alleged lack of security, a senior Iraqi judicial official said Sunday. The court is ready to appoint a new team if defense lawyers fail to appear, added Raid Juhi, one of the judges on the special tribunal trying the former dictator and others.
In a videotaped confession, 
Israeli and Palestinian officials are set to hold fresh talks on the reopening of the Gaza-Egypt border, with US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice staying on in the region in the hope of a deal, according to a Palestinian official. Rice might even join the talks late on Monday night between Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan, the official added, asking not to be identified. Earlier on Monday, Rice decided to delay her departure to Asia while talks continued to nail down an agreement on reopening the Rafah terminal, according to her spokesman.
Despite its military withdrawal, Syria continues to control the opium trade in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. A leading U.S. expert with links to the American intelligence community said the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has maintained control over most revenues from neighboring Lebanon. Gary Gambill, an analyst with Freedom House, said the Assad regime continued to benefit from the illegal heroin production and trade in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border. "The Assad regime is not yet in trouble," Gambill wrote in an analysis for Middle East Forum. "Syrian troops may no longer be in Lebanon, but none of its most important Lebanese revenue streams have been cut. Drug producers in the Bekaa Valley and corrupt bankers in Beirut will continue paying off the Syrians as long as Damascus can guarantee that the authorities in Beirut leave them alone." Gambill said Syrian farmers continued to smuggle produce into Lebanon with help from the Assad regime. He said most Syrian workers -- estimated at nearly 1 million -- remained in Lebanon.
Iran has backed Syria in its rift with the United Nations over cooperation with an inquiry into the killing of a former Lebanese prime minister. "We declare our support for uncovering the truth vis-Ã -vis the assassination of Mr. Rafik al-Hariri and I have seen that the officials in Syria support this issue in a good way," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said after talks with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Monday. 
Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has thrown cold water on US efforts to promote peace in his war-torn country, two days after US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Zoellick left Sudan. "We don't need Zoellick to resolve our internal problems," the official SUNA news agency quoted al-Beshir as saying on Sunday. 
