Nearly three quarters of British people believe there are too many immigrants coming into the country, according to an opinion poll published today. A YouGov survey for The Economist suggests that record levels of immigration are now the principal concern of voters, ahead of public services, crime and terrorism. The findings also indicate that groups normally regarded as holding more liberal views, including Londoners and the young, are as ill-disposed to immigrants as the majority. The poll confirms what politicians have been noticing for months - that immigration has returned with a vengeance as a political issue after years of quiescence following the fierce controversies of the late 1960s and 1970s.
Labour has pursued an increasingly "open door" policy, with David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, saying he saw ''no obvious limit'' to the numbers Britain can take. Ministers believe the economy needs overseas workers and they contribute to the overall well-being of the nation. The poll suggests people are happy if the newcomers arrive to work but they draw the line when immigrants get preferential access to public services or benefits. The Economist says: ``The newcomers that grate are those who strain the delicate British sense of fair play: 85 per cent cite either asylum seekers or illegal immigrants as the main reason the country is being overrun.''
A drunken soldier sparked a security alert when he left a costume party dressed as a suicide bomber, wearing a turban, false beard and a combat jacket stuffed with pretend explosives, British police said Friday.
Hummm, sounds like a hate crime, slurring the good name of turban wearers everywhere.
A member of the public called police after seeing the sergeant in his costume walking along a road near the Aldershot army base in southern England on Wednesday. Fifteen police squad cars, armed officers, dog handlers and members of the Royal Military Police were called to the alert.
I'll bet he kissed a lot of sidewalk
The soldier, a member of the Coldstream Guards who had been attending a costume party celebrating his regiment's role in the 1815 battle of Waterloo, was arrested and spent the night in custody. He was charged with a public order offense and fined around $150, police said.
Boy, is he going to hear about this in the mess.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/10/2004 9:33:52 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
you can just imagine how much he thought they'd love it as he got out of his car and walked up to the party...hahah.
The UK's most senior military officer has blamed media coverage on the Black Watch redeployment for attacks which claimed several soldiers' lives. Chief of Defence Staff General Sir Michael Walker said the media's coverage may have prompted Iraqi insurgents to attack the soldiers. He told BBC Two's Newsnight programme attacks were "enhanced" by reports. Five members of the 850-strong battlegroup died during attacks when they moved closer to Baghdad. "The contribution towards the initial attacks against the Black Watch was certainly enhanced by, if you like, a media picture that was being laid across a number of channels in all sorts of places," he said.
"Y'mean loose lips still sink ships?"
"That's ridiculous! They din't have no ships in Basra!"
The reports meant "there could well have been a response by those who wished us ill to go and meet us with something like a bomb", he said. Most of the attacks on the Black Watch happened during the early stages of their redeployment from Basra to near the Iraqi capital, where they relieved US forces preparing for an attack on the city of Falluja. They included roadside bombs as well as mortar and small arms attacks on their base at Camp Dogwood. Gen Walker said: "Certainly the attacks against the Black Watch happened at that stage. "I'm certain, too, that the media coverage would have made it easier for anybody who wanted to conduct those attacks to do so."
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom ||
12/10/2004 00:51 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
The same concept multiplied a thousand fold should have every self-respecting media outlet riddled with guilt for the untimely deaths of coalition soldiers throughout this entire war.
Oh wait-self-respecting media? What am I saying!?!?!
Fears of Islamic terrorists using Latin America as a base for operations against the United States have, so far, not produced much evidence. There are six million Moslems in Latin America, most of them immigrants from the Middle East. The area most often mentioned as the center of Islamic terrorism in South American is the tri-border area. Here, where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet, the Paraguayan city of Ciudad del Este has long been known as a haven for smuggling, counterfeiting and all manner of illegal activities. The local government officials have been bribed into inactivity. But only about seven percent of the 300,000 city residents are Moslem. And most of those are Shia, who do not get along with the Sunni Arab dominated al Qaeda at all. But some of the Shia Arabs in Ciudad del Este do openly support Hizbollah, an Iranian supported, Shia Arab terrorist organization in Lebanon. The Ciudad del Este Hizbollah supporters are believed to have had something to do with two bombing attacks against Argentinean Jews in the 1990s. But beyond that, there's nothing but rumors. Many Moslems throughout Latin American favor Palestinian terrorists in their attacks against Israel. But efforts to find proof of any tangible involvement have so far failed.
Part of the reason is the corruption, and indifference (to Islamic terrorism) in many Latin American countries. Businesses run by Christians and Moslems must deal with the suffocating government bureaucracies in the region. The deals often involve bribes, and the bureaucrats do their part by looking the other way. At the same time, the local Moslems know they are a religious, and ethnic, minority in a very Christian part of the world. Tolerance could quickly turn to hatred, persecution and expulsion if Moslems were found to be involved in terrorist activities. Since many of the South American Moslems are refugees from various wars and tyrannies in the Middle East, they don't want to ruin their welcome and have to flee again. This, more than anything else, is what is keeping al Qaeda from setting up shop in South America. Most of the local terrorists are either communist (atheist) or Christian. There has been a lot of terrorism in South American over the last half century, and terrorists are not very popular, no matter what their cause.
There wouldn't be too much concern among the indigenous population if a few muslims "disappeared", the regional military has that down to a art form.
This is not to say that al Qaeda could not set up bases in the region, and build a support network that would enable attacks inside the United States. What can be said is that al Qaeda would be operating in a hostile neighborhood. The United States is said to have an informant network, courtesy of its anti-drug efforts in the region. As long as the cash keeps going out, tips on which new group is up to what will keep coming in. If American counter-terrorism organizations keep listening, they should hear about a threat before it becomes a disastrous attack.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/10/2004 10:11:46 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Most of the local terrorists are either communist (atheist (Shining Path)) or Christian. There has been a lot of terrorism in South American over the last half century, and terrorists are not very popular, no matter what their cause.
Christian terrorists? Does the IRA have branch offices in SA, or is it someone else? Or are they talking about last-gasp hold-overs from the military dictatorships that used to infest the continent?
#3
OTOH, Michele Malkin has live links to articles that dispute the "no worries/only rumors/no evidence" starategypage assessment of the terrorist threat from south of the border countries. Also read the links provided in the comments that follow, particularly the one about Mexicans cheering OBL in a recent soccer game. BTW, there are currently Islamic schools in 13 different Mexican cities - are we to believe that Muslim clerics in Mexico are preaching solely the peaceful variation of Islam? :
"What's the Spanish word for terrorist"
July 24, 2004
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/000275.htm
Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group re: conversion to Islam:
http://www.islamfortoday.com/americanlatinos2.htm But in growing numbers, Hispanics, the country's fastest-growing ethnic group, are finding new faith in Islam, the nation's fastest-growing religion. In the Washington region, the population of Latino Muslims is largely from Mexico and Central America, as it is in western states, according to Latin American Muslim Unity, an advocacy group in Fresno, Calif. In other eastern cities, including Miami, significant numbers of converts are from Puerto Rico and Cuba.
"I think what many [Hispanics] are finding in Islam is a community that they find more nurturing," said Nicole Ballivian, a Los Angeles documentary filmmaker who is completing a movie about Latino Muslims called "Luces Sobre Islam" ("Islam in Focus"). She has traveled throughout South America and the Caribbean and visited many Hispanic Muslim communities here.
Then there's the article in the Washington Times about AQ seeking out ties to local Mexican gangs. The WT article brings out a little known fact-that last year alone 60,000 "Other than Mexican" illegals were caught trying to cross the southern border-that's a small percentage of the number of OTM that got in:
www.washtimes.com/national/20040928-123346-3928r.htm The Salvadoran gang, known to law enforcement authorities as MS-13 because many members identify themselves with tattoos of the number 13, is thought to have established a major smuggling center in Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas, from where it has arranged to bring illegal aliens from countries other than Mexico into the United States. Authorities said al Qaeda terrorists hope to take advantage of a lack of detention space within the Department of Homeland Security that has forced immigration officials to release non-Mexican illegal aliens back into the United States, rather than return them to their home countries. Less than 15 percent of those released appear for immigration hearings.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24987
Another agent, of supervisory rank, stated, "The smuggling traffic of Mexicans has really slowed. We are experiencing a tremendous increase in OTMs" â border lingo for "other than Mexicans." "Yeah, it varies, but about one in every 10 that we catch, is from a country like Yemen or Egypt."
Then there's http://www.nbc4.tv/news/3901282/detail.html
" Terrorists at the Border/" 11/08/04 It's a place that used to go by the name "Cocaine Alley" because of all the drugs that were smuggled through. But now some officials are more concerned about human smuggling, specifically illegal entry at the border by individuals who are not actually from Mexico. They're called "Special Interest Aliens," because they're coming from countries believed to be a threat. "People are coming here with bad intentions. I know of 10 that have been detained at my station alone," said a Border Patrol agent whose identity has been withheld at his request. He said this is something that agents have been told not to talk about. "We know for a fact that people coming from the Middle East are now coming into Mexico and spending a year, even two years in Mexico, to learn how to speak Spanish," the Border Patrol agent told NBC4."The key is to pass yourself off as a Mexican," said retired Army Colonel Ben Anderson. He has been following what he calls the terrorist trail and connecting the dots on his website. He said it's a journey that begins on the other side of the world."You come out of Cairo International and you go either to England or Madrid. From there, you either go to Paraguay or Brazil. There is a huge infra structure there waiting for you to learn how to speak Spanish. You're then going to transition your way up through Latin America ... into Mexico," Anderson said.
And it's estimated that of the Other than Mexican illegals caught in 2003, 6000 of those in 2003 were Special Interest illegals- from terrorist source nations.
http://www.house.gov/tancredo/newsroom/press/2004_08_04.html
"Twelve Congressmen Ask DHS for Inquiry into Non-Mexicans Who Enter the U.S. Illegally"
And http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/15/wmex15.xml
"Arab terrorists are getting into the US over Mexican border" Over the past month, border agents from Arizona and Texas have anonymously reported recent encounters with dozens of Arab men, who have made their way across the 2,000-mile Mexican border.Mr Ortiz also claims that immigration officials have privately warned him that a number of suspicious foreigners have been detained on the Mexican border and then released, including some who claimed to have travelled from South and Central America but were unable to speak Spanish.
Let's face it, the Southern and Central American nations are knee deep in corruption, so that fact in itself makes for a fertile ground for AQ operatives to thrive. Strategypage's optimism that there's no evidence that there's a terrorist threat to the USA from terrorists Muslims living/visiting in S.and C. America is hogwash.
#5
Let's face it, the Southern and Central American nations are knee deep in corruption, so that fact in itself makes for a fertile ground for AQ operatives to thrive.
So, if you take the corruption thread on rantburg today and this one, and add them to the "lack of imagination" finding of the 9/11 commission-what do you have? Opportunity.
Why wouldn't the jihadis take this chance:
Bribe Brazil (the hypercorrupt) to enter Venezuela, bribe Venezuela to get on a boat to Mexico (thereby bypassing extra palm grease and all those pesky Central American borders), and blend into a crowd of thousands of other people sliding across the border between Mexico and the US?
#6
As I recall, Chavez was reported to have given up to 20,000 Venezuelan visas to Arabs who are not friendly to the US. He is Not Our Friend and would not need bribing.
Posted by: too true ||
12/10/2004 15:05 Comments ||
Top||
RUSSIA reserves the right to carry out preventive strikes with conventional weaponry on terror bases anywhere they are found in the world, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has said.
Hmmm... Is there an echo in here? ...echo in here? ...echo in here?
"We do not rule out the possibility of carrying out preventive strikes on terrorist bases at any location in the world," Mr Ivanov was quoted as saying in an address to Russian military-diplomatic officials here. "The only limit is exclusion of strikes with nuclear weapons," he said.
Carpet bombing doesn't involve nuclear weapons, keep in mind...
Mr Ivanov referred to UN Security Council resolution 1566 stipulating that any country had the right to protect itself against the threat of terrorism and said that "a legal basis for carrying out such strikes exists today."
And always has, even in La Belle France...
"Russia," he said, "is far from being the only country to announce its readiness to carry out preventive strikes on terrorist bases."
Though if it wasn't for the U.S. it's be close to the only country. But there will be more...
Without directly naming the US, he said that "precedents have already been set in Afghanistan and Iraq" for such pre-emptive military action. Washington has carried out what it described as preventive anti-terror military strikes in both countries. Mr Ivanov's comments came three months after Russia's chief of staff, General Yury Baluyevsky, made a similar announcement as he met in Moscow with NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, General James Jones. "We will take steps to liquidate terror bases in any region" in the world, Gen Baluyevsky said on September 8.
We should use the term "liquidate" more often in English, I think. I has a ring of finality to it...
Those comments, made in the immediate aftermath of the Beslan school hostage tragedy and a string of attacks that rocked Russia just before it, raised some concern over the new direction in Russian defence policy. But British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw expressed support for the new doctrine, calling it "understandable."
Posted by: tipper ||
12/10/2004 9:05:23 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
RUSSIA reserves the right to carry out preventive strikes with conventional weaponry on terror bases anywhere they are found in the world, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has said.
"We do not rule out the possibility of carrying out preventive strikes on terrorist bases at any location in the world," Mr Ivanov was quoted as saying in an address to Russian military-diplomatic officials here.
And we'll be cheering from the sidelines. Too bad we'll be cheering a resurgent dictatorship given the way Putin's been handling things after Beslan.
Ironic how he's actually doing to fundamental rights in Russia what the left fears Bush MIGHT do here in the United States.
My apologies to the prescient rantburger who pointed out the Russian bear is still yearning for tyrannical power, and just got scorned for their trouble because Putin did the right things when it came to the War on Terror. I can't remember who they were, for the life of me.
#2
Russia is making a mistake in trying to attack the problem from a similar direction as the US. It should use its strengths to engage where the US has not. For example, they should attack the instigators of violence personally, with assassins. These could be any number of targets that the US refuses to attack, from Saudi princes to Pakistani Imams or radical Islamist political leaders. It is not only very cost effective, but it would give them plausible deniability: everyone would assume the US (or Israel) did it. And best of all, Russia could run hundreds of such ops simultaneously on a very tight budget. 100 such troublemakers could be elaborately terminated for the cost of a single cruise missile and to 100 times the effect, killing leaders instead of henchmen.
#3
the legendary Russian Assassin⢠was usually Bulgarian ...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 10:08 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Anonymoose has the right idea. Instead of a Russian ad campaign with TV, radio, newspaper, and billboards announcing preemption, go for the quiet well planned, suprise wetwork ops. And if the Russian military is not up to it, then contract it out to competant subs, along the line of what Frank said. Results speak louder than propaganda. Also keeps your enemy existentially paranoid.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/10/2004 10:14 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Hmm, didn't think of THAT. The KGB did a great job retrieving Russian diplomatic workers in Lebanon. Right up their alley, it is.
#6
What Anonymoose said. Division of labor. Note that the Russian military, unlike their spooks, is completely incompetent, corrupt, demoralized, brutalized. We don't want or need their help. But we could use the Russians to provide arab world assets where our own incompetents, the CYA, have been unable to develop same. A pretty neat fit, actually.
#9
WA - The Right isn't as squirrelly as a $3 bill. We don't fear what isn't happening. The rest of your comment is, thus, inoperative in this case. We have freedom and it isn't being threatened by Bush, whereas Putty is transparently seeking consolidated power. There is no parallel.
#10
No, you misunderstand me. I wasn't suggesting it WAS happening in America, i was simply saying that the right does FEAR it (the taking away of personal rights ) happening (not because of Bush, but in general).
#11
WA - Anyone with a functioning brain would "fear" a loss of rights without serious just cause and due process with all of its built-in safeguards. I FEAR you are playing strawman, heh. But FEAR? Caps hurt my eyes, not to mention overstate the BULLSHIT factor, lol! As the saying goes, "Nothing to see here, move along, move along..." ;-)
Speaking on the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the Russian army advance into Chechnya, a top adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Moscow has few options left for a negotiated end to the violence.
"Nope, nope, can't do it no more, nope."
Aslambek Aslakhanov said a decade of war with Russia and internecine fighting among Chechen clans has stripped rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, the republic's former president, of any real power. Speaking at Columbia University, Aslakhanov said Russia should focus on talks with lower-level rebel commanders who have not participated in terrorist acts. ``Maskhadov is just a banner'' the rebel groups rally around, he said. ``Without him, they are only a group of bandits, but he's weak as a president.''
But they'll still try to whack him.
His comments reflect official Kremlin policy of refusing negotiations with Maskhadov since the war in Chechnya flared for a second time in 1999, after a period of de facto independence after the first war. Moscow should focus instead on reconstruction and creating jobs in the devastated region, Aslakhanov said. Aslakhanov, on a weeklong trip to Great Britain and the United States to meet with anti-terrorism officials, said both countries have offered assistance in tracing foreign assistance provided to the Muslim insurgency in Chechnya, chiefly from Middle Eastern countries. The United States is assisting Russian authorities in determining the identity of three hostage-takers suspected of being from the Middle East, Khailov said. The two countries' intelligence agencies are exchanging ``operational data'' on the men, who were killed in the fighting that ended the siege, he said. The 9/11 Commission has offered assistance in probing the three-day Beslan ordeal, which ended with explosions and gunfire and left more than 338 people dead, more than half of them children. Aslakhanov, a former member of the Russian parliament from Chechnya who is considered the Kremlin's moderate voice on the war, was scheduled to meet Friday with commission members in Washington.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/10/2004 1:21:35 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
I thought of those 3,500 American soldiers and many soldiers of other nations who did not return with us â those men who died of the extreme cold, malnutrition or abuse at the hands of their captors,â he said.
Handwringers and America-haters take note: POWs during the Korean War died as a result of abuse. Real, honest-to-goodness abuse, something much, much worse than being forced to wear underwear on one's head.
Edited for brevity.
Japanese lawmakers urged the government on Friday to consider sanctions on North Korea -- a reflection of public anger after Tokyo said bones claimed by Pyongyang to belong to kidnapped Japanese were of other people. North Korea handed over the bones at talks in Pyongyang in November, saying they were the remains of Megumi Yokota and Kaoru Matsuki, two of 13 Japanese who Pyongyang has admitted abducting in the 1970s and 1980s to help teach spies about Japan. Ruling and opposition party lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution at a meeting of a parliamentary panel on the abduction issue but others in the government, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, are more cautious about the idea. The resolution, which called on the government to strongly consider sanctions, also urged Tokyo to suspend all food and humanitarian aid until North Korea responds "sincerely" to Japan's efforts to find out about its missing citizens.
Posted by: Dar ||
12/10/2004 2:51:50 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
A US soldier serving in Iraq wants Tim Tams for Christmas and Prime Minister John Howard is keen to oblige. A caller to Melbourne radio 3AW told Mr Howard today she needed his help to get the treats to her sister's husband — an American soldier serving in Iraq. "We are just wanting some information as far as sending food parcels for Christmas ... he loves his Tim Tams," Leanne from Sydenham in Melbourne's north-west told radio 3AW. She said the family had been sending parcels to an address in Iraq but they were taking more than six weeks to get there. Mr Howard offered to help Leanne get the Australian snack to the soldier. "I guess we'd want the bloke's name and his unit ... that would be handy, and we'll see what we can do, we'll try to help," he said. Mr Howard said "thank you" to Australian forces serving in Iraq and that he would be sending them an official Christmas message.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/10/2004 5:07:53 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
The federal government has cast doubt on the validity of claims by Australian terrorist suspect David Hicks that he was tortured in American custody. In an affidavit released by his lawyers, Hicks says he was forcibly injected with drugs, beaten for hours while blindfolded and handcuffed and had food withheld by his jailers at the American military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the affidavit appeared to contradict earlier statements by Hicks' lawyers. "It sits a little uncomfortably with some of the earlier statements by Mr Hicks' lawyers that certainly affirmed that while at Guantanamo Bay he'd been humanely treated," Mr Ruddock told reporters. "(The statements also) suggested that while he was at Guantanamo Bay there were no allegations specifically in relation to Mr Hicks other than I think deprivation of his liberty and like matters. "My view is that those matters, when raised, need to be fully investigated and that's why we invited the United States to look at those issues.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/10/2004 10:32:44 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"A confidentiality agreement signed with US authorities prevents Terry Hicks and members of David Hicks' legal team from detailing other abuses."
They likely have already breached any agreement they might have had.
I also question that since he has been in Cuba he has ever been were a gun butt could have been used on him. Guns and prisoners are kept apart. Thats SOP. If a firearm is needed it would be a sharp shooter seperated by a fence taking someone out. Guards might have a batton and some kind of chemical spray. Dogs would only be used on a violent prisoner or to break them down by being put near the moose limbs as they "are unclean animials" but a prisoner with his throat ripped out is usless as a source of info. Lots of this "abuse" like with holding extra food and such is used to control asshats who will not get with the prison program. This isn't a fun camp it's a prison. You are expected to act a certain way and live by certain rules. If you don't shit happens. If you get violent or resist pain will be used to get you to comply with instructions. Non of it illegal or "abuse." The only other option is to shoot the stupid bastards. Seeing as they are still breathing that option hasn't been exercised.
Anyone who thinks these assclowns don't know how to exploit any propaganda value they might have is fooling themselves. These clowns are in prison still for a reason after all.
#2
The most despicable people on the planet are the "rights" groups like Amnasty and the MSM hacks who cry wolf with this "he touched me" stuff. It devalues claims of horrific torture and unimaginable suffering. I hope there is a special place in hell for those who use the truly desperate as nothing more than a foil to forward their political agendas. No one is more despicable than they. No one.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/10/2004 10:31:57 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This was the case where the person in question (Scrafton) claimed to have discussed 3 separate topics with Howard, including telling him that refugees throwing their children overboard was untrue. Howard continued to say refugees threw children overboard, which is the basis for the misled/lied claim. Phone records subsequently showed the phone call was all of 51 seconds long. Clearly too short a period of time to discuss 3 topics as Scrafton claimed, but he was trapped in his claim and proven to be the liar (but never let it be said the Australian Labour party doesn't know how to flog a dead horse). Aint technology a bitch.
An exodus of native-born Dutch in search of a new life abroad has reversed immigration flows for the first time since the post-war era.
Last year more people left the Netherlands than arrived as migrants or asylum seekers, even though unemployment remains low at 4.7 percent and per capita income is higher than any major country in Europe.
Lawyers, accountants, computer specialist, nurses, and businessmen are lining up for visas to the English-speaking world, looking to Australia, New Zealand and Canada as orderly societies where people have the space to breathe.
The new wave of "middle-class flight" has quickened this year following rising ethnic violence and crime committed by and against immigrants, and in response to fears that social order is breaking down. In the first six months there was a net outflow of 13,313 people.
They are disengaging from a multicultural experiment once hailed as the model for the world but now stretched to breaking point. They are also escaping traffic jams and chronic over-crowding.
Requests for visa information have exploded since the murder of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch film-maker and acerbic critic of Muslim views on women.
An all-party report by the Dutch parliament this year concluded that the country's immigration policy had been a failure, leading to sink schools and ethnic ghettoes.
The Netherlands has been transformed in barely 30 years from a tight-knit Christian society into a polyethnic state, with three million people of immigrant background.
The Netherlands has been transformed in barely 30 years from a tight-knit Christian society into a polyethnic state, with three million people of immigrant background.
Most of whom don't want to assimilate, but rather to destroy the society that has given them shelter and more freedom than their home countries could even dream of.
Congratulations, tranzis and multi-cultis - your evil child has borne its poisonous fruit.
Rot in hell, the lot of you worldwide. I'm sure you're happy now, tranzi destroyer of worlds.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/10/2004 22:58 Comments ||
Top||
#2
This rubbish is so barkingly biased its not worth commenting on, except to raise the point that a net outflow of 13,313 people in a country with a population as large as Holland is hardly a mass exodus. May i also suggest that emigration between states in Europe is, and always has been, high. Its an insult to all thinking people, regardless of political stripe, that someone thought to post it here.
#3
WingedAvenger, you one of them self-anointed "nice people" who likes to strut around in a Che Guevara T-shirt and reflectively raise you fist when the International is played?
Got you in one didn't I?
Not hard really, because only someone living in an Alternative Universe would be so clueless, bordering on idiocy as to be unaware of the critical situation of group antagonism, bordering on civil war, that is currently the result of the failed "multicultural" policies in Holland. Ever heard of Theo Van Gogh? any idea why he was ritually slaughtered as a sacrifice to the moon god?
As for the demographic argument raised, what part of "reversed immigration flows for the first time since the post-war era." don't you understand?
#4
If that many people were leaving the U.S. at the same rate, we'd be losing about 478,000 per year. That would be Denver and a couple of suburbs to be named later. The immigration rate is nearly twice that, and most of the immigrants are Muslim. The reproduction rate is only just able to keep up, and if reports are correct, a larger and larger percentage of that is among the Muslim population.
It's not just the number of people leaving. One must consider who is leaving, and why. If the emigrants were predominately older folks who are sick of tulips and wooden shoes, it's no big deal. But if educated younger couples are leaving because they don't want their daughters raped by Islamofascists who consider every non-burqa-clad female to be a whore....
The Netherlands may be approaching the tipping point.
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
12/11/2004 0:15 Comments ||
Top||
Europe's far right parties are considering the creation of a pan-European far-right movement, which would be the first such extreme hardliner coalition covering EU territory. Filip Dewinter, the leader of the Belgian Flemish extreme right-wing party, told Austrian media yesterday that they were considering creating an extreme right grouping in the EU legislative body, the European Parliament.
Last month, Vlaams Blok officially changed its name to "Vlaams Belang" (Flemish Interest) in response to a court ruling that found the party had violated Belgium's anti-racism laws. The Belgian Supreme Court confirmed a lower court's ruling that the Vlaams Blok was a racist organization under Belgian law, cutting off the party's access to state funding and television airtime, and effectively shutting down the extremist group.
The planned European-level coalition would include Austria's Freedom Party, Italy's Lega Nord, France's National Front, the Dutch New Right Party, and Dewinter's own Vlaams Belang. Dewinter said forces should now be joined to combat the "Islamization of Europe". All these parties are known for their anti-immigration stances in their home countries, while the Belgian right-wing party is also known for its radical xenophobic platform and a separatist campaign for independence in the northern region of Flanders.
Dewinter said he was considering Jörg Haider, leader of Austria's Freedom Party, to head the new movement, which they hope to form in time for EU elections in 2009. "I've had several talks with Jörg Haider and have the feeling that he's interested in this cooperation. I'm proposing to Jörg Haider that he be the top candidate of our movement," Dewinter told the Vienna weekly News magazine. Haider became a well known personality in Europe five years ago, when his party joined the center-right government. Other European countries responded by slapping sanctions on Austria. One of the key figures from Haider's party, Andreas Mölzer, met in Antwerp last week with like-minded figures from Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Italy. Mölzer, an early strategist behind Haider's rise to power in Austria, is now a member of parliament representing the Freedom Party.
Just how "far right" are they, we talking brown shirts here?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/10/2004 10:10:03 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
i think it varies, a bit. The austrian freedom party includes Haider, a Nazi apologist,and Le Pen is an antisemite and Vichy apologist. The Italian Northern League is, IIUC, more libertarian and antiimmigrant, without the antisemitism - but then Italians (even in fascist times) were always more sane (and less antisemitic) than their neighbors north of the Alps. The Belgian group Ive heard mixed things about.
So not quite Brown shirts, but definitely NOT our friends. And avoiding extremists like these, is one of the good reasons why centrist and liberal euros MUST deal more effectively with Islamic radicalism, and with unassimilated immmigrants.
#2
LH
Since there is no good way to deal effectively with Islamic radicalism other than reduce immigration and tighten security, wouldn't the best way to combat the goofy right be to essentially steal the best part of their platform?
#5
err, right medicine, maybe, but wrong doctors. Many of these guys are smelly little racists who not long ago (Le Pen, esp) were trashing Israel and the US.
The point re the Islamist threat is not their religion but their politics, which is fascist. Which is why liberals should be front and center in opposing and denouncing it. You don't defeat fascism with fascism.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/10/2004 15:36 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I don't want Le Pen's people on my side. Because they're not on my side-- they hate the US and Israel as much as they hate the muslims-- and also because, like the Russian Army, they're a group of incompetent hacks with no real staying power or capability. Their support isn't worth it.
#8
Oriana Fallaci and Chris Hitchens, sure. Willen (?sp), that courageous Dutch legislator now under police protection-- absolutely. But not Haider or Le Pen. They won't make us any safer or prove effective partners in the long run.
#9
lex, yours is a very typical American/Anglophone response- assimilate - Americans/Angloculture as the Borg, and why not, it works for us. But you have to keep in mind that large parts of Europe, ethnicity, language, race is institutionalized. Take Belgium as an example. In 200 years Flemish and Walloons have lived largely separate existances. To suggest they take an assimilation approach with their muslims immigrants is ludicrous when after 200 years they failed to assimilate their existing cultures. These so called extremists are people who want to go back to they way things were and not get assimilated into a global culture, which is the only alternative on offer.
#10
If they really are brown shirts, I doubt they can gain all that much power. I don't really understand parlimentary systems. But... if flyby night competition puts your globally entrenched Enron competitor out of business...is everyone better or worse off?
#11
phil b, i tend toward the anglo assimilationist approach, but im not closeminded - shutting immigration MAY be the right thing for some countries. But these guys arent JUST antiimmigrant (well other than the Italian Northern League, IIUC) theyve got other baggage along as well.
#13
In Europe, being either pro-capitalism, pro-Israel, anti-UN, or anti-EU automatically makes you a right-wing extremist in the eyes of the mass media as well as a "fascist" in the words of the communists, socialists, and eco-fascists.
Not to speak of the names thrown at those who uphold the death penalty, the right to self-defense, or the right to keep and bear arms.
At college I was regularly called "fascist" because I denounced communism (even when I was denouncing fascism...).
I know first-hand that decent classical liberal parties in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland were called right-wing extremists within and across borders by the mass-media.
Le Pen is a racist who mixes a few arguments for economic freedom in his speeches -- which makes it complex to argue against him when you're a confused leftist or centrist. Remember that he was the only alternative the French people had when they last elected Chirac...
The European problem is that there is no national dream similar to the American Dream, thus no motor of integration for immigrants. And then, there are the millions of anti-Western Moslems they've let in. Anyone who speaks up against the Moslem invasion is immediately called racist or fascist, thus strangling any rational, public debate on the topic of immigration and Islamofascism.
In my eyes, there is no way out for Western Europe -- it's fast leading to a violent civil war. We'll see Europeans expel the Moslems the way the Greeks did in the 19th century. And it won't be pretty. The only alternative would be to make the Moslem world (e.g. Morocco, Algeria, Turkey) more attractive and prosperous than Western Europe -- which is not going to happen anytime soon.
#14
Kalle, civil war is never good, but at least we know how well Islam does in real war lately....
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 18:53 Comments ||
Top||
#15
In Europe, being either pro-capitalism, pro-Israel, anti-UN, or anti-EU automatically makes you a right-wing extremist in the eyes of the mass media as well as a "fascist" in the words of the communists, socialists, and eco-fascists.
Don't be ridiculous. Communists hate the EU, and so do the most left-leaning socialists. Being anti-EU is indeed to a far greater extent the province of the *leftist* parties, with only the most moderate of the leftists supporting the EU. (for example in the French Socialists' referendum for the European Constitution, it was the leftist side that opposed it, it was the moderate side that supported it. Similar examples from my own nation exist and the socialist parties there.)
It'd be much more accurate to say that moderate right-wing and moderate left-wing both support the EU, and it's both the extreme right-wing and the extreme left-wing that hate it.
#16
Don't be ridiculous. Communists hate the EU, and so do the most left-leaning socialists
Not as I see it, Aris - this is the perfect bureaucracy place to infiltrate, take over and conquer. Good luck
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 20:20 Comments ||
Top||
#17
Not as I see it, Aris
Too bad that, unlike me, you can never share the factoids you supposedly see, nor the data-points that lead you to said conclusions. Makes your smug and fact-free posts a complete waste of time.
Find me a single Communist party that supports the European Constitution in any parliament of any European nation. *Then* dispute my facts.
Unless as usual, you don't care about facts, you only care about your preconceptions.
#18
my point was, unlike you, I can see this clay being molded into something terribly familiar....
no, I don't have a quote, and never said that I did, strawman
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 22:30 Comments ||
Top||
"Don't think because nothing hit New York, nothing was tried," says Swetnam, who used to be a CIA officer and a special consultant to the first President Bush's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. "Plenty was tried, but everything was thwarted. And this might surprise you, but French intelligence was key." There have been at least four attempts uncovered in the past two years to strike the U.S., he says, including specific attacks on New York, but the plans were intercepted and the operations preempted. "The last one was a big attempt to strike our financial centers. A year before that, they were putting together a ricin attack. Both attacks were planned and staged from Great Britain," says Swetnam. Also, adds Redlener, "attacks on American and international schools overseas have been detected in advance and prevented."
How is that possible, when the CIA's intelligence-gathering is supposedly in a shambles? Because of good friends in shadowy places. "The French intelligence services have been just phenomenal," says Swetnam. "We wouldn't have captured those cells in Great Britain if it wasn't for the French, as well as the British and Germans." Even the ISI—Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, which once used drug money to help finance the Taliban in Afghanistan—has become a crucial U.S. partner in the spy game. "They're really a bad intelligence service, in terms of morals, but really effective," says Swetnam.
Posted by: Chuck ||
12/10/2004 4:15:36 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That's prolly cuz they don't have the ALCU and other "patriotic" groups whining whenever they come out of their offices to investigate things.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
12/10/2004 9:37 Comments ||
Top||
#2
This should be no surprise: having a first class covert intelligence service is probably the most prudent thing to have if they can't afford a REAL military force. Fits right in with their character...
All snarkiness aside, I thank the French spooks. I can hope Old Patriot has a few French contacts and can pass those thanks along.
#3
I think that the American problem is that civilians, bureaucrats, political leaders and the intelligence community have lost touch with what spying is all about. By their Cold War definition, spying is about "gathering information". But while important, there is a lot more to spying than this. Going back to bibical times, spies were assassins, saboteurs, fifth columnists, agents provacateurs, *and* gatherers of information. In truth, they are "expendable", and never to be trusted fully. They exist in the shadows and should never be allowed to stand in the corridors of power.
#6
A hearty thank you, then, to that part of the French government that values results over posturing. So, does this begin to make up for their forged Nigerian yellowcake documents? (The ones that Wilson made such a fuss about?)
#7
France does an excellent job in identifying and deterring and handling domestic threats. Their security forces are far better organized than ours and their judges have vastly more power than the most hysterical anti-Patriot Act idjets can even imagine.
#8
And they are not hamstrung by Church Committee fallout / insanity... IIUC, our CIA is even officially proscribed from bribing officials of any government. Hell, if followed, that puts 95% - oh, okay, 99% - of the world off-limits to effective intel. Sigh.
#9
Thank Frank Church (may he rot in hell) and his commission to destroy American intelligence that the CIA can't get their hands dirty by dealing with nasty people.
As though Boy Scouts would know about the bad stuff coming down.
Luckily the rest of the world isn't so naive.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/10/2004 15:20 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Okay, I'll bite - iff this article bodes true then what is CHIRAC doing, or hoping to accomplish, with his virulent anti-Ameicanisms!?
The main U.S. military representative in Turkey was slightly injured Thursday when he was hit by a ricocheting bullet accidentally fired by a Turkish soldier assigned to guard him, an official said. U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Peter U. Sutton was getting into his car at Ankara's Esenboga airport when the gun of the soldier accompanying him accidentally fired, said U.S. and Turkish officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. Ooops, sorry hehehe :)
The general was hit and slightly injured in the ankle by tiny pieces from a bullet that ricocheted from the ground, said a senior Turkish military official, also speaking on condition of anonymity. Sutton was only slightly hurt in the incident, and was treated at a hospital before heading to his home in Turkey, a U.S. diplomat said. Sutton is the main U.S. military liaison in Turkey, responsible for a U.S. security assistance program. He also advises the U.S. ambassador on defense and military matters.
Posted by: Murat ||
12/10/2004 3:06:25 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That's a Turkish solider alright. Make sure you don't have the Turks on your flank, they break too easily.
#5
"aaargh he must have thought: Pig season is opened"
Murat, just so you know - I trained w/the Turks a while back. They were generally tough guys but had no clue about safety when it came to weapons. (They also had this propensity to want to arm wrestle Americans for what ever reason.) During a morning formation one of them had a negligent discharge and almost blew off his own foot. We were on a P.T. run about a hundred meters away - giggling like little girls at their stupidity. We could take Turkey with 10 tanks, two baseball bats & case of schlitz.
#6
Friend of mine's Probation Officer walked into court(bout 2 months ago)her Glock 9mm was holstered and cocked.When she went to sit down she shot hersewlf in the ass.Still on the disabled list.
#8
We could take Turkey with 10 tanks, two baseball bats & case of schlitz.
If this is supposed to be the 'cream of Turkish manhood', you could probably cut the number of tanks by four and the beer to a six-pack. (Kinda also tells you where our Turkish troll is on that scale).
#9
FWIW, to both Phiter and Murat: my Dad knew some Turkish troops back in the 50's when he was stationed there, and was impressed with them.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/10/2004 18:49 Comments ||
Top||
#10
From what I've heard, some of the Turkish troops are tough and disciplined in unit tactics. Not so much, perhaps, in the "little" things ....
Posted by: too true ||
12/10/2004 18:54 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Read the book "Soldier" by Anthony Herbert. Now, given that Herbert is a rather self-serving braggart, I assume he still tells some of the truth. Writing about his experiences in the Korean War, he writes about falling back in disarray with the UN troops, under pressure from masses on Chinese Infantry - and ending up on a hilltop with a Turkish infantry battalion. While all the other UN troops fell back, the Turks held their ground. Soo, ther are deep behind enemy lines, completely surrounded - and fighting on all sides. As is wont to happen, they eventually run low on ammunition. Herbert writes; "If you ever have to go to war, and you end up encircled by the enemy, vastly outnumbered, and out of ammunition, do it with the Turks." He says the battalion commander ordered the battalion to fix bayonets, and he then led them downhill on a bayonet charge, aimed the the Chinese regimental CP. They overran and killed everything in their path - with just bayonets - and continued south, attacking Chinese units from the rear - until they eventually make it back to friendly lines.
Your run-of-the mill Turks might be rabble - their professional troops are probably tough as woodpecker lips.
Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, President Bush's choice to be homeland security secretary, has withdrawn his name from consideration, the White House announced late Friday. Presidential press secretary Scott McClellan, in a conference call to news organizations, revealed that Kerik had withdrawn "for personal reasons."
"The president respects his decision and wishes the commissioner and his wife, Hala, well," McClellan said in a statement. "Commissioner Kerik is withdrawing his name from director of homeland security," the spokesman said. "He informed the White House this evening that he was withdrawing for personal reasons from consideration to be secretary of homeland security." McClellan said that Kerik telephoned the president at about 8:30 p.m. EST. Kerik also sent a letter to the White House in which he announced his wishes. McClellan said the White House "will move as quickly as we can to name someone else to fill this nomination."
When Army Sergeant Dennis Edwards spoke at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School last month, 100 students listened in rapt silence as he told chilling tales of battlefield horror in Iraq and criticized President Bush's motives for going to war. Edwards, 23, a Barnstable High School graduate, said he and two other soldiers shot and killed a 10-year-old boy in Iraq who pretended to be wounded and suddenly fired an AK-47 rifle. The boy was found to have explosives attached to his body, Edwards told the stunned audience. Now, Edwards has admitted to his superiors in the elite 82d Airborne Division that the story about the shooting was a lie, Army officials yesterday. As a result, the veteran of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan could be charged with making false statements, face a court-martial, and be stripped of his rank. His confession has also saddened Dennis-Yarmouth teachers and students, who said they felt honored and captivated by his appearance. ''We need to use this as a teachable moment," Superintendent Tony Pierantozzi said yesterday. ''We need to make sure our students . . . clearly understand that sometimes individuals might elaborate stories or examples for their own benefit." No. You should teach your students not to lie. Oops.. sorry that would be to judgemental.....
Edwards, an air-defense technician who remains on active duty at Fort Bragg, N.C., is the first soldier in the famed paratroop division to be investigated on suspicion of lying about his experiences in Iraq or Afghanistan, Fletcher said. Edwards's superiors learned of his comments during routine reviews of media coverage of the division. In an interview later, the Times reported, Edwards said that ''we went over there for one reason, and because that fell through we're stuck over there for another reason." Edwards, who served in Iraq from August 2003 to March of this year, said US officials had not planned well for the mission. Quagmire!
Fletcher said Edwards will not be disciplined for those comments. Although soldiers can be charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for ''disloyal statements," Fletcher said, the 82d Airborne Division has a ''strong policy" not to prosecute for ''political or policy-based" comments. Any comments on if this is a good or bad policy? Continued on Page 49
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Thursday backed off complaints that a highly classified and expensive spy program is ''totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security.'' On Wednesday, Rockefeller had called the program, tucked inside Congress' new blueprint for U.S. intelligence spending, ''stunningly expensive.'' Rockefeller backed off his remarks that the program itself was dangerous to national security. ''He was referring to the fact that it was a misallocation of funds,'' his spokeswoman Wendy Morigi said.
That means the program isn't putting any money into his district
Rockefeller and three other Democratic senators -- Richard Durbin of Illinois, Carl Levin of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon -- refused to sign the congressional compromise that provides for future U.S. intelligence activities. The compromise noted that the four senators believed the mystery program was unnecessary, its cost unjustified and that ''the funds for this item should be expended on other intelligence programs that will make a surer and greater contribution to national security.'' ''Independent cost estimates have shown that this program will exceed its proposed budgets by enormous amounts of money,'' said Wyden.
And this is different....how?
The Senate voted Wednesday night to send the legislation to President Bush. The rare criticisms of a highly secretive project intrigued outside intelligence experts, who said the program was almost certainly a spy satellite system.
No hard data on what this is, rumor has it that it's over budget, behind schedule, and doesn't perform as promised.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/10/2004 10:21:16 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
No hard data on what this is, rumor has it that it's over budget, behind schedule, and doesn't perform as promised
and this is different from other pushing-the-envelope-of-what's-possible programs how?
don't get me wrong - I'm against waste in programs, but I know from experience how hard it is to accurately predict just what it will take to do something that's a big step forward from current systems .....
#4
Not much in the way aerospace industry in their states. How's it feel to be in the minority, guys? Tough not being at the head table. Get used to it. Have to think that taxpayer money will be more effectively spent by limiting access of guys like these to the trough.
#10
I'm just a little offended (on Marino's behalf) that you would bring him into this discussion on an equal of Byrd and Rockefeller. Marino's done much more for the world (maybe less for W. VA)
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 19:30 Comments ||
Top||
The most stirring democratic event since the transformations after the fall of the Berlin Wall is occurring now in Kiev's Maidan Square. "Maidan" is Ukrainian for "independence." This is the Orange Revolution, which the whole world has witnessed and, more importantly, adopted. Western European governments support the claims of the opposition, editorialists applaud their aspirations to join the ranks of free, self-determined people. Will they now do the same come January 30 for the people of Iraq?
Courts function in Iraq, but unlike Ukraine judges in Iraq must worry about being shot. "It is very difficult to build democratic institutions when there is still a substantial zone of instability," Mr. Karatnycky said, especially in the nation's capital city. As important is a thriving middle class--"independent economic forces that can financially support alternative political parties and the like." But he pointed out the danger of minimizing a nation's prospects by underestimating the momentum of the democratic process: "If you establish routinized institutions of even quasi-competitive elections, over time they create opportunities for real contests. . . . When a society matures, like Ukraine, these institutions deepen. In Ukraine it took 13 years, in Georgia [the Rose Revolution last year] it took 12, in Serbia about 10 years."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
12/10/2004 9:59:15 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What amazing times we live in! I remember the sea-change that was the replacement of Ferdinand Marcos by people power, with US support, in 1986. Then the end of the Soviet Empire three years later. And now the replacement of fascist and theocratic regimes in Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and perhaps in Palestine and Iran as well.
Imagine: our children may come to know a world in which democracy, messy and imperfect as it is, prevails from Cuba clear across to North Korea.
I hope this guy is right... my gut tells me people are not naturally automatons and, given, the opportunity - especially if it can be done anonymously, i.e. by secret ballot - will naturally choose the path that offers them choice and freedom. Having been immersed in an Arab society for a stretch of years, my confidence is shaken (but not stirred, heh), but Afghanistan seems to bode well - even for Arabs. The fly in the Iraqi ointment is that, for reasons that sure as hell elude me, they chose that idiotic "slate of candidates" bullshit as opposed to bona-fide representative government... Sigh.
#3
The WaPo had a great picture yesterday of the "tent city" the protesters created in the heart of Kiev. Acres of blue and gray camping tents...complete with a bright orange Christmas tree.
#5
.com, I think the Shia were wise to go the "slate of candidates" route for now. They have negotiated Sadr-boy's attempt at splitting the Shia community and Zarqawi's attempts at creating sectarian war. If it takes having a lot of discussions over tea and a unified "slate of candidates" to kick off democracy there, that's a pretty good first step IMO.
#6
rkb - At the top of the list, according to articles posted here recently, Sistani et al have loaded up a mess of Shi'a Clerics at the top of the slate - not the engineers and teachers described in the article. I wonder which article is giving the more accurate description? An interview with some Columbia Prof on Fox yesterday reiterated the packing of the list with Qom-trained clerics... and the discussion was about the relationship the new Iraqi Gov't would likely have with Iran as a result. Disturbing commentary.
I certainly agree - just getting the ball rolling is something... I recognize that Shi'a will dominate - but I hoped for them to be employed as engineers and teachers, not clerics. Sigh. I guess we shall see. :-)
#7
I ALWAYS prefer engineers - I can never remember all that clerical sh&t
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 20:24 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Lol! Engineers are the only occupation I can directly relate to, heh. On the other extreme, the hair splitters and nuanced werdsmyths just piss me off.
#1
overall good article, but the authors couldn't resist a snarky stab or two at Goss, quoting unidentified CIA malcontents.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 9:55 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I think there is actually a simple criteria, when you boil it all down, to who Goss is dismissing: those individuals who *like* the people who live in their area of interest. A good area leader should have a distrustful distaste for his targets, along with a willingness to "pet the chicken". This means to smile and pick up the chicken, while speaking to it in low, soothing tones and stroking its feathers, to gain its trust and confidence. Then you coldly break its neck.
Terror suspect was offered prostitute Ah, Rooters - a claim stated as bald fact. How, uh, Rooterish.
An Australian terror suspect was offered the services of a prostitute by the U.S. military if he agreed to spy on other detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba, according to court documents. Again, not a claim, but presented as fact since they decline to indicate the "documents" are, in fact, merely Hicks' claims as he wiggles and squirms trying to escape the facts. Rooters is as low as it goes.
In an affidavit unsealed by a U.S. District Court and seen by Reuters on Friday, David Hicks, a 29-year-old convert to Islam, said he was also beaten while blindfolded and handcuffed, threatened with weapons and had his head rammed into asphalt. Reminded him of his rave days back in Oz.
Hicks was arrested in Afghanistan in late 2001 and was among the first small group of Guantanamo Bay detainees to be charged. He has pleaded not guilty to aiding the enemy, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit war crimes. He's innocent, of course - he was vacationing and chasing Taleban wymyns. The AK and RPG were gifts from satisfied girlfriends. They called him "Spanky the MinuteMan" but no one knew exactly why... until...
"Interrogators once offered me the services of a prostitute for 15 minutes if I would spy on other detainees. I refused," Hicks said in the affidavit, which is dated August 5 and witnessed by his U.S. military lawyer Major Michael Mori. Hey, it's no wonder he refused! 15 minutes??!! What sort of man do they take him for?! He's a minuteman and proud of it!
Posted by: .com ||
12/10/2004 3:30:04 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
I read the whole article early last night. It's spinning bullshit mostly. I imagine he has not been an ideal prisoner and has had to be restrained more than once. Much of what he says he "saw" is hear say and worthless no matter what. No matter who witnessed it the affidavit is worthless. It's also more supposed "leakage." Their is a full court press in the international right now to portray the US military man as a NAZI stormtrooper. This is just part of it.
I suggest they call the Major from section 9 in to probe him. :p
#3
This bull%*#@ is straight out of the AQ playbook dealing with resistance techniques. If any asshats from the media took time to read it (I had a translated copy before it hit the internets), they would know that the claims of abuse at Gitmo are part of the enemies game plan. To any media tools - tell me where you want a copy sent and I'll mail it to you - from Bangkok no less.
#4
Can't the Reuter's editors get anything right? The corrected copy: Hicks Offered To Be A Hooker At Gitmo An Australian terror suspect has offered his services as a prostitute in a continuation of his Islamic duties learned in Pakistan, where he dutifully bent over five times a day for his Learned Elders of Islam. Hicks was quoted as saying, "At first I was afraid, but soon became a labor of love."
JEWINDUIST? Give an ignoramus 5 minutes at the cybercafe and he thinks he's a cunning linguist. Go back to drawing figures in the dirt.
Posted by: ed ||
12/10/2004 6:08 Comments ||
Top||
#5
To the first poster , caps lock is located near your little finger on your left hand , and a spell checker can be located here .
I also suggest a course in winning friends and influencing people along with maybe one in anger management .
#6
MacNeils and Ed,
Calm down, I think we have here a rare post
by a true Neanderthal (of the Borrisoid type).
Just lean back and relish each misspelled word.
Chortling is permitted.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
12/10/2004 7:13 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Aahhh , long time since I have seen a pure blood Neanderthal .
He can say what he likes but that caps lock has to go :P
#8
At the risk of stating the blinding f***king obvious. Where do you find a hooker in a US military base completely cutoff from the surrounding civilian population.
#10
ahhh - they waltz in across the mine fields in stiletto shoes, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 8:19 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Paging Private England...
Posted by: Tom ||
12/10/2004 8:28 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Of course, Frank, that's the traditional way to learn to be light on your feet. *obligatory mutter of 'What do they teach young people nowadays?!?'*
#14
Alas, once again I have been left out of the loop due to the silencing of a troll. I seem to always come into these discussions late after the comments have been removed and miss out on all the fun. But then again, its always the same line, just different spelling and punctuation.
#16
I'd be pissed if we didn't pound this asshole's head into the pavement. Heck if getting a prostitute in helps turn these idiot's I'm all for it. Prostitutes cheap, lives expensive methinks.
Put a military post on an oil platform in the middle of the ocean and hookers would still be able to infiltrate it. Hell, they'd probably be there before the first troops arrived waiting to ambush them. I'm pretty sure that Spec Forces are required to study their tactics.
As the story goes, Gen. Hooker didn't even bother trying to get rid of prostitutes, he just organized them in true military fashion.
#21
I'm still sceptical. Co-incidentally I have been to the nearest city and driven around this part of Cuba. Gitmo wasn't even marked on the Cuban map. Can someone who has been to Gitmo confirm (or otherwise) that Cuban civilians don't get into the base.
Shhhh, don't admit that here in Rantburg!!! Run for cover, run for cover!!!
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/10/2004 18:18 Comments ||
Top||
#23
get in? there's mine fields on both sides of the fence, both designed to keep Cubans from getting in, hence my snarky stilleto shoes comment
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 18:20 Comments ||
Top||
#24
FUCK BASTARD SCUM .
FOR THE CRAP COMMING FROM YOUR BRAIN
IF I HAVE A PERSON LIKE YOU IN FRONT OF ME FOR THE WORD THE YOU ARE USING AGAINST A PRISONER OF WAR ..AND I DO NOT GIVE A FUCK IF THE BASTARD OF RUMSFIELD OR GEORGE THE MORON CALL THEM UNLAWFULL COMBATENT TO ME ARE PRISONERS OF WAR IF I HAVE A LITLE FUGHETY BASTARD IN FRONT OF ME I WILL CHICK YOUR FAGHETY ASS TO PULP
YOU BASTARD SCUM ARE SO AGAINST OF WHAT AMERICA HAVE STAND IN THE WORLD BEFORE AND JEWINDUIST NEVER SERVED IN THE ARMY LIKE YOU IF YOU DO NOT LIKE AMERICA GO BACK TO YOUR SHITTY COUNTRY
The Bush administration has expressed confidence in United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, despite calls for his resignation from several U.S. lawmakers over a scandal involving the U.N.-administered oil-for-food program for Iraq. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Danforth, said Thursday that President Bush has confidence in Mr. Annan, and dismissed speculation the administration was trying to push the Ghanaian diplomat out. Mr. Danforth also stressed the importance of a U.S. investigation of the oil-for-food program, saying it would be the only way to - in his words - lift the cloud from the United Nations.
Before you all get bent out of shape, think of this as the same "Vote of Confidence" baseball coaches with a losing record get before the owners plunge in the knife. Besides, the longer Koffi stays in, the worse the UN looks. I think this is another move by the Grand Master of "Texas Hold'um".
Posted by: Steve ||
12/10/2004 10:40:47 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Well yeah, I have confidence in Kofi too. Confidence that he's absolutely corrupt, and an absolutely worthless head of an absolutely worthless organization.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 12:04 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I think this is another move by the Grand Master of "Texas Hold'um".
Yep. Can't be seen to be overtly fighting Kofi ... "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" is the Texas way nonetheless.
Posted by: too true ||
12/10/2004 12:07 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I think this is another move by the Grand Master of "Texas Hold'um"
I think you're wrong. IMO, this is more of quid pro quo - "you handle the Iraq elections and I keep the House/Senate attack dogs on a short leash and then we're both happy men."
#8
I gave up on the U.N., utterly, about a quarter-century ago. I'm perfectly content to let it limp along to its final resting place under the guidance of a corrupt, ineffective leader; better that, than replace him with someone who will create false hopes for REAL reform that isn't going to ever happen in any case.
Seems to me there are three choices for us regarding the U.N.'s circus tent: be on the outside pissing in (emotionally satisfying, but we lose the UNSC veto), on the inside pissing out (against whom?) or on the inside pissing in. The last choice seems best to me. Let the love flow.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/10/2004 14:59 Comments ||
Top||
The United Nations panel overseeing compensation for victims of Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait has approved awards worth $2.9 billion for environmental damage, the world body said Thursday. The awards by the U.N. Compensation Commission included $2.27 billion to Kuwait for damage caused by Iraqi troops, who used trenches and lakes filled with crude oil to defend their positions. Another $625 million went to the government of neighboring Saudi Arabia for damage caused to its desert environment by military installations set up by the international coalition that forced Iraq's army out of Kuwait. Iran's government also received a small amount.
The panel now has approved claims worth a total of $51.8 billion. Money to pay the claims comes from Iraqi oil sales. Those payments, however, are running well behind the claim approvals. The overall amount released for individuals, companies and governments is now $18.8 billion, the UNCC said. The panel currently is paying out about $200 million every three months, with individuals receiving priority. The next payment is scheduled for mid-January. It is expected to take years to pay all the claims, with big oil companies having to wait until the end. All claims are expected to be decided by June 2005, when the panel will close down. All individuals should receive their money by 2007, UNCC spokesman Joe Sills said.
The panel consists of the 15 permanent U.N. Security Council members. The council decided last year that the claims would be funded by 5 percent of Iraqi oil sales. Until the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein last year, the commission received 25 percent of the proceeds from the U.N. oil-for-food program, which - in an exception to international sanctions - allowed the former Iraqi regime to sell oil and buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods. The oil-for-food program has been plagued by allegations of massive fraud, kickbacks, illegalities, glad-handing, clout, cover-ups and corruption.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/10/2004 1:33:04 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Not only is the UN using Oil For Food proceeds to fund the investigation of their own embezzlement of it, but
Money to pay the claims comes from Iraqi oil sales.
So the UN aids and abets a brutal fascist dictator, actively hinders his removal, and now they're energetically bilking the victims of his oppression. Allawi and the IIG must be delighted.
Posted by: ST ||
12/10/2004 1:59 Comments ||
Top||
#2
ST - You nailed it. Personally, I believe Allawi & Co should tell the UNdead, France, Russia, et al to take a flying fuck at a rolling donut and kick them all out. Zero debt repayment to the crooks who tried to keep them enslaved. Zero compensation to the richer than Gawd Kuwaitis. Zero UNdead access to Iraqi oil or funds. They can sell their oil to whomever they wish - and there will always be buyers at market prices. It's time for Iraq to untangle itself from Saddam's actions and recognize they are suckers to the UNdead and Euros.
#3
I believe Allawi & Co should tell the UNdead, France, Russia, et al to take a flying fuck at a rolling donut and kick them all out. Zero debt repayment to the crooks who tried to keep them enslaved. Zero compensation to the richer than Gawd Kuwaitis. Zero UNdead access to Iraqi oil or funds. They can sell their oil to whomever they wish - and there will always be buyers at market prices. It's time for Iraq to untangle itself from Saddam's actions and recognize they are suckers to the UNdead and Euros.
Maybe if everyone tries to read it a second time, it might make some sense to someone.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
12/10/2004 8:12 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Anything the U.N. does must be right, ain't that so, Mikey? Wrong! This is pure bullshit. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia should be delighted to cancel these debts if for no other reason than to help stabilize Iraq.
"Until the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein last year, the commission received 25 percent of the proceeds from the U.N. oil-for-food program"
That's really interesting. Would this 25 percent (that's hopefully still in the U.N.'s bank account, but I doubt it) be considered food or medicine? And how does it compare to Saddam's take? And how much has already been skimmed off for "administrative charges"?
Posted by: Tom ||
12/10/2004 8:24 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Two short years ago, all the blow-hards were screaming their outrage that Iraq was supposed to compensate Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for the damage that Iraq caused to those two countries. In this context, the blow-hards were outraged that the UN was not doing enough to compel Iraq to pay.
Now the very same blow-hards are outraged about exactly the opposite. Iraq is not supposed to pay for the damage, and the UN should not make the UN pay.
To try to understand the new logic, see #2 and #3.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
12/10/2004 8:31 Comments ||
Top||
#6
1. Mike, it is really simple. There is no contradiction. 2 years ago, Iraq=Saddam.
Saddam=oil-for-food scam. Lotsa participants stuffing their pockets. Sucking the Iraqis dry.
#7
Right Mikey, like you didn't learn one of the mistakes of the Versailles Treaty? The reparations debt undermined the economic viability of the Weimar Republic. So shortly after the conclusion of round 2, a.k.a WWII, the US set up the Marshall Plan. No inherited debt helped for a pacific democratic prosperous Germany, something we could also hope for Iraq.
Posted by: Don ||
12/10/2004 9:36 Comments ||
Top||
#8
maybe if you pulled your head from Kofi's ass to read it the first time it would make sense, MS
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 10:01 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Who's supposed to pay for the damage that Iraq did to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia? Who's supposed to pay for the Kuwaiti oil wells that Iraq destroyed and for all the environmental damage?
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
12/10/2004 12:18 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Saddam is going to "pay".
Posted by: Tom ||
12/10/2004 12:24 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Mike:
It wasn't Iraq that did the damage; it was the Ba'ath party. Did we demand Germans (non-Nazi) pay for Rotterdam or Cantebury? Did we make the Japanese people pay for China? Hell, are we going to make the UN member countries pay for the OFF damage?
UNSCAM has shown the UN cannot be trusted with money. They need to immediately hand over any remaining funds they've leeched from Iraq to its government.
#13
The thing about war is that lots of stuff gets broken. One reason post-war Germany became an economic powerhouse is that all their legacy systems and equipment had been removed (in many cases literally down to the ground), allowing them to start with the very latest.
And anyway, what damage did Iraq do to Saudi Arabia? The environmental damage caused by the American troops camped in the desert for a decade was directly due to the fact that the Saudis prefer to hire their army rather than doing the work to produce an indigenous force.
#14
On further reflection, how is it that the UN still has access to Iraqi oil proceeds, anyway? Or is is that these claims are being paid out of pre-invasion proceeds -- the same funds Allawi begged the UN to turn over to the IIG a couple of months ago. So yeah, what you said, .com, the UN oughta take a flying fuck at a rolling donut. (Great visual, btw!)
Posted by: ST ||
12/10/2004 18:02 Comments ||
Top||
#15
How many of you were, two years ago, making these same arguments that Iraq should not have to pay for the damage? How many of you, two years ago, were saying that the UN should not make Iraq pay for the damage?
Now, all of a sudden, you are heaping all this blame on the UN for this compensation policy.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
12/10/2004 18:47 Comments ||
Top||
#16
So yeah, what you said, .com, the UN oughta take a flying fuck at a rolling donut. (Great visual, btw!)
It's superb wit! Just superb wit!!
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
12/10/2004 18:49 Comments ||
Top||
#17
Saddam/Baathists = Current Allawi gov't in Sylwester/Kofi speak. Makes sense. Not a lot of sense, even less than chasing a rolling ....
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 18:54 Comments ||
Top||
#18
The council decided last year that the claims would be funded by 5 percent of Iraqi oil sales.
Sounds reasonable to me.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
12/10/2004 19:05 Comments ||
Top||
#19
Ah, poor Mikey - jealousy is a pathetic response. Sad. Don't address any of the points, no, that would require you to justify that which can't be justified...
By all means, Iraq (Under New Management - it seems you haven't noticed this inconvenient fact) should continue to bend over to keep the money flowing to the UN, your sacred soulmate - the last bastion of unrivalled greed, corruption, and perfidy financial integrity and unmatched effectiveness.
So what is it, Mikey: Are you a mercenary who's getting something from the UN - something understandable, though despicable - or are you just utterly asinine, inane, and clueless?
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog is warning Iran's nuclear program remains a danger to world security. But Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also says there is no alternative to dialogue between Tehran and the IAEA plus credible inspections, the Financial Times reported Friday.
It's the "credible inspections" part that is the sticking point
"I hope that in discussions everyone puts their cards on the table. This is not just a technical issue, it's a security issue. If you have nuclear material, the weapon part is not far away."
Are you sure this is ElBaradei talking?
ElBaradei's comments come before next week's first round of talks between Tehran and three European governments -- Britain, France and Germany -- on nuclear, economic and security co-operation. The so-called EU3 persuaded Iran last month to suspend uranium enrichment in return for dialogue. But Tehran's Islamic rulers consider the suspension of enrichment, which they say is for peaceful use, temporary; the EU3 wants it to be permanent. "Iran tried to cheat the system. Now they would have second thoughts ... because we've called their bluff," ElBaradei said.
You have? Sorry, I must have missed that part.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/10/2004 9:25:50 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
But Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also says there is no alternative to dialogue between Tehran and the IAEA plus credible inspections, the Financial Times reported Friday.
Why not just say then that y'all can't do a damned thing about the situation?
"Iran tried to cheat the system. Now they would have second thoughts ... because we've called their bluff," ElBaradei said.
Er, what was that you were sayin' about "no alternative to dialogue"....?
#4
Well, since he's speaking as a Employed for Life UN twitter - and the UN is as toothless as a pack of 20 yr old hounds with only one bona-fido Dobermann is sight who's intelligently not interested in being ordered about by gummy-mouthed historical artifacts, each promoting conflicting self-serving agendas contrary to the Dobermann's interests and living to a large extent on the Dobermann's ability to bring home the bacon - he's right about there being nothing else they can do but talk. Double-heh.
#5
"...there is no alternative to dialogue between Tehran and the IAEA plus credible inspections..."
Sound familiar? [Rewind two years and substitute "Baghdad" for "Tehran".] This clown has no imagination.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/10/2004 14:23 Comments ||
Top||
#6
rope, rope, rope-a-dope...
Remember, the goal isn't to contain Iran, it's to contain the US hegemon.
Iran strongly rejected allegations that it was trying to interfere in the upcoming elections. "The Iraqi people have a shining record in fighting foreign exploitation and occupation and have proven that they won't accept foreign domination," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza said. "Unfortunately, some political currents in Iraq seek to tarnish the trend of elections there and cause concern in the public opinion," Asefi added. Asefi's statement came one day after Iraq's interim President Ghazi al-Yawer and Jordan's King Abdullah II, accused Iran of trying to meddle in the elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2004 9:07:33 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
A former leftist radical who spent 16 years in prison for possessing explosives has withdrawn from teaching a college seminar after her hiring sparked protests. Susan Rosenberg made her decision because it was getting too expensive for us in the best interest of all parties, Hamilton College officials said Wednesday. In response to her hiring, prospective students withdrew applications and donors rescinded hundreds of thousands of dollars in pledges, school officials said. Rosenberg, who earned a master's degree in creative writing while in prison, was to teach a one-month course in January called "Resistance Memoirs: Writing, Identity and Change." She was hired through an on-campus organization that focuses on social justice issues.
Rosenberg, who began her activism in the 1970s, was indicted in a 1981 armored car robbery carried out by a gang of radicals. A guard and two Nyack police officers were killed in a shootout. Rosenberg denied involvement in the robbery, and the charges eventually were dropped. She was convicted in 1984 of weapons possession. Prosecutors said she had more than 600 pounds of explosives that she and another defendant had planned to use in "non-lethal" bombings. Since Rosenberg's 58-year prison sentence was commuted in 2001 by President Clinton, she has worked as a writer and an activist for human rights, prisoner rights and AIDS. She teaches literature at John Jay School of Criminal Justice in New York.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/10/2004 2:54:10 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
And, since she never "got it" and remains as asinine as ever, thanks no doubt to the "rehab" people who are natural symps for her original crime, she can hit the street. Don't let the door hit your tranzi ass on the way out, 'tard.
#5
Yeah, the Sacred 9-Iron is still in the shop, dammit. She 'denied' involvement, but that denial seems to have disappeared once her sentence was commuted.
The withdrawal can be credited to Hamilton's alumni. With any luck, they'll still stick it to their alma mater, just to ensure that this stupidity doesn't happen again.
A distant relative of mine recently went to Greece with three other people from his village. On Nov 5 they were reported to have been shot dead by the Greek police while they were crossing the border at night. However, one of the group's members escaped with injuries.
Later he rang up to give the news of the tragedy, but since then he has not made any further contact. He had appeared very frightened and he was in someone's custody. On Nov 15 a person called up their homes to say that he was a witness that the Greece border police had reportedly buried them on the spot.
Since it is now an international matter, I would request the government, the media and human rights bodies to help ascertain the truth and do the needful for the families concerned. For further information we can be contacted by email or phone as given below.
CH. NAVEEDUL HASSAN
P.O. Phalia Tehsil, M. B. Din District, Tel. # 0456-596835 Cell. # 0320-5525622. Email: naveedzan@hotmail.com
Posted by: tipper ||
12/10/2004 9:12:05 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
December 10, 2004: American Secretary of Defense was holding one of his frequent "town hall" meetings with troops this week. This meeting was in Iraq, and one of the soldiers, at the urging of an imbedded reporter, asked why there wasn't more armor and bulletproof glass for trucks. Rumsfeld said, in effect, that the stuff is being produced as fast as possible. The subject of unarmored trucks in Iraq is an old one, as is the massive effort the army has made to armor its vehicles and protect the troops from ambush and roadside bombs. But for whatever reason, the media jumped on this old story and turned it into a politicians nightmare. You cannot be "against" providing the maximum possible protection for American troops in combat. For the soldiers themselves, protection is a "too much ain't enough" issue. It's literally a life and death matter.
But there's more to it than that. The story that has not made the headlines is the casualty rate in Iraq compared to previous wars. Iraq has the lowest casualty rates of any war in American history. There's no mystery to that. Better protection, in the form of bullet proof vests, protective goggles, UAVs for spotting ambushes and robots for dealing with roadside bombs, better tactics, leadership and training, have all combined to keep the casualties down. But not down to zero. American troops are still getting killed over there. And if you just drove a truck through an ambush, or near a roadside bomb, your answer to; "do you need more protection?" would be "yes."
So why isn't there more protection? There is no correct answer. It's the perfect situation for a journalist. No matter what the Pentagon has done, is doing or promises to do, they don't really have an answer. But after a few weeks, the media and politicians will find another target and move on.
Meanwhile, there are some interesting angles to this that won't get much, or any, attention. One is the fact that non-combat troops, for the first time in history, are taking nearly half the casualties. Normally, the combat troops (mostly the infantry) take 90 percent of the casualties. Even in Vietnam, where there were a lot of places where you had to run convoys through "bandit country," the infantry still took over 80 percent of the casualties. The main reason for the big change in Iraq is that the infantry are much better trained and equipped than they were in Vietnam, while the non-combat troops are not as well prepared for combat as they were in Vietnam. The all-volunteer army led to a bunch of reforms that created the current crew of high performance combat troops. That means that American infantry do their work very well, killing more of the enemy and taking fewer casualties. But for the non-combat troops, the situation is worse. In the 1990s, responding to Congressional demands that women be given more opportunities in the army, men and women began doing their basic training together. Traditionally, basic training, in addition to the training, was used to see who could not handle the stress, and, if need be, get them out of the military. Troops who break down in the chaos of combat get themselves, and others, killed. In the days of the draft, this process often led to some interesting games played by people who didn't want to be there in the first place. But anyone who went through basic remembers seeing one or two guys who didn't finish because they, well, couldn't handle it. The army knew they were in trouble with basic training watered down so women could handle it, but they came up with a solution. Recruits who signed up for combat jobs went to a special, all male, basic training. This version was old school, and strived to make sure only people who could handle the combat stress, went on to become infantry. Meanwhile, the mixed basic ("basic lite") was composed of non-combat troops. But many others who should have stayed civilians, instead went into an army job. The real problem here was that "basic lite" also failed to instill an appreciation for the importance of discipline. By the last 1990s, company commanders in non-combat units were going nuts with the growth of disciplinary problems. This extended beyond people not showing up for work on time or not following orders. Rifles were not cleaned, or fired accurately during annual weapons training. People didn't take convoy training seriously. For the brass, it wasn't a high priority problem, and the captains were told to cope as best they could. And they did, until 2003. All of a sudden, thousands of non-combat troops were in a combat zone, and they made a lot of mistakes. The possibility of death tends to get people's attention, it always does. The non-combat troops got more training and more equipment. Companies that made gear for armoring a few hundred BMWs a year suddenly got orders for thousands of kits to armor hummers. Troops in Iraq scrounged armor and did it themselves. It was the old American "can-do" attitude, helped along by the risk of getting killed if you don't.
But there as another problem. A large number of reserve troops were called up for Iraq duty. Now the reservists had joined with the understanding that they would go to active duty in the event of a major emergency, and would stay on active duty, along with everyone else, until the war was over. But Iraq was not World War 3. It was a "little war," and reservists went over to Iraq for a year or so and went back to being civilians. But because Iraq was a dangerous place for non-combat troops, the army had to provide months of additional training to make sure the reservists had a fighting chance. Additional training centers were set up in Kuwait. Sometimes reservists were rushed over without the additional training, but the army knew that was dangerous, not just for the reservists, but for the careers of any officer caught doing that too often. Many of the reservists were proud to serve, but some, reflecting the electorate back home, did not agree with the war and didn't believe they should be there at all. Journalists loved these guys, as they were a constant source of good tips on stories the brass could not defend themselves on. That just kept the officers on their toes.
Meanwhile, basic training was beefed up, and thousands of trucks were armored, even though this meant that many of them wore out prematurely (usually suspensions and engines) because of all the additional weight in places the vehicles were not designed to handle it. In Iraq, most of the danger was concentrated on a few roads and areas. Units operating there got priority for armored trucks and escorts. There were casualties, but many, many more were avoided because of all the protective measures. Moreover, some of the "safe" areas occasionally got unsafe. If you were driving through the well protected Green Zone of Baghdad, in an unarmored hummer, and a mortar shell landed next to your vehicle, you would get hurt. If you had been in an armored hummer, you probably would not have been hurt. But the regularly attacked routes get priority for the armored hummers. Most troops understand that. In a combat zone, it's usually bad luck or inattention that will get you into trouble, more so than lack of equipment. Out on the road, you are taught that sharp eyes and quick reflexes are more likely to keep you safe than just piling on more armor. Most roadside bombs are discovered before they are set off. Most ambushes do more damage to the ambushers than to their targets.
But ask a G.I. driving down those roads regularly how much protection he needs, and he will say "more." You can't defend the soldiers commander, or Secretary Rumsfeld, in a situation like this. However, we're not talking warfare here, but media relations and politics. So when you get asked a question for which there is no correct answer, the only alternative is to admit you're wrong, proclaim that you will do better, and wait for it all to blow over.
Posted by: ed ||
12/10/2004 8:15:52 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
There are combat, combat support and combat service support elements in the Army. The transportation, maintenance, and medical personnel make up a part of the CSS element. The CSS has never been given the field and combat training the combat and CS elements receive back in garrison. The division and brigade commanders are rated on how well their maneuver units, largely composed of the combat elements, perform. The CSS elements spend most of their time supporting that training. The unit and personnel inventory are designed such that there are no extra units to pick up the support responsibilities for the combat elements if their organic or dedicated CSS units are deployed for focused training. As divisions are given fixed amounts of training resources [dollars, range and field time, etc], they have been traditionally distributed to the combat/maneuver elements. The CSS and to a lesser extent the CS elements are the ones who do not receive significant combat environment training. Basic training is not enough, the training has to be continuously reinforced for all elements, not just for the combat elements. This is the pathology of the beast. To properly address it will require a significant expansion of the forces, not just 24K Congress just approved. The service also has to ignor the critics who alway harp about the tooth to tail ratio of our force. No other Army operates a half a world away with as much of its forces as the US does, requiring a much higher level of CSS than most other armies. Back in GW1, the regular Army was 750K. Both parties cut that down to under 500K in the following years. The most expensive item in the military inventory is the cost of personnel, so don't expect anyone with serious influence to start pumping 100K or more back into the force structure.
Posted by: Don ||
12/10/2004 10:04 Comments ||
Top||
#2
really, my only gripe with the embedded reporter's "trick" yesterday was the "gotcha" aspect and the obvious delight he showed in his email of putting one over on Rumsfeld
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 10:17 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Ditto, Frank G in #2. In principle a valid question. In execution, a typical bit of ambush journalism.
#4
The DemLeft didn't want the USA under Dubya to obey the UNO Resolutions [oobey the UNO]and go to war because it would bust their sacred sancrosant "Clinton balance budget/surplus", the one that Bill himself now disavows any responsibility for. As was indic on the "MY WORD" show vv FOXNEWS, nothing will keep the ordinary combat soldier from upping his equipment no matter how protected or armored it is. DEATH STAR(S) to the M113, nuthing is ever enuff, nor will be enuff.
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has declared a holy war on the drugs trade gripping his war-shattered country, which produces nearly nine-tenths of the world's opium. He has told a conference of key figures whom he wants to involve in the crackdown that the trade is more dangerous than terrorism. "As we did jihad against the Russian invasion we should now do a jihad against the narcotics, which have dishonoured our nation among the international community," he said. Mr Karzai got the audience of 500 tribal elders, governors, police and world figures, including US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, to repeat after him: "We don't want poppy cultivation."
"We want ponies instead."
Mr Karzai says Afghanistan has to prove it is "not a nation of beggars". After 25 years of war, including 10 years of Soviet occupation, Afghanistan has no transport infrastructure and opium can earn farmers 10 times more than other cash crops. "Whether or not the international community supports us by offering alternative livelihood, we should stop poppy cultivation and restore our honour," Mr Karzai said. "We will destroy poppy cultivation and rebuild our pomegranate gardens back, we will destroy poppy and rebuild vineyards, we will destroy poppy and rebuild almond gardens." He says the "cancer" of drugs is more difficult to tackle than terrorism or the Soviet invasion. "Poppy cultivation is more dangerous than terrorism, it is more dangerous than civil wars because this crop is not only a source of weakness, dishonour and defeat of Afghanistan, but also an internal danger."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/10/2004 12:34:08 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I think we could reliably run this story once every eighteen months or so until the end of time.
However, there have recently been significant discoveries in neurobiology concerning addiction. In the near term it may be possible to immunize a drug addict so that the drug has no effect. Strong genetic links to addiction are also being discovered. Knowing the genes that predispose a person to addiction could lead to medical treatments to help prevent addiction (or help in drug recovery).
Biotech may provide powerful tools in the drug war.
Following the release of Asif Zardari and the heating up of the political situation, two offices belonging to the Jamaat I Islami and the Sunni Tehreek were set on fire by unidentified men in the run up to the deadline given by the MMA to President General Pervez Musharraf to shed his uniform before December 31, 2004.
"Hurrah! Zardari's sprung! Let's burn down Qazi's house!"
While Mr Zardari's release and his visit to rural Sindh has instilled new vigour to the demoralized workers of the PPP-P, it is the uniform issue which is set to provoke political tension between General Musharraf's allies on one side and the MMA plus the main opposition Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD)...The crucial phase, say pundits, will come after December 19, when MMA will hold its last public meeting in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, and announce plans for street agitation which are expected to include more riots public rallies, street demonstrations and wheel jam strikes. It is not beyond the realm of the improbable that mass resignations from the national assembly could be followed by dissolution of the NWFP provincial assembly (which is controlled by the MMA) and the MMA's withdrawal of support to the Baluchistan government, the whole protest movement culminating in a noisy and agitated Long March to Islamabad.
... chanting the while "Only the MMA can bring stability to Pakland!"
In this context, it may be worthwhile to note the real strength of the MMA to determine whether or not it will be able to sustain the protest movement for any significant period of time. The MMA's main strength rests on the organizing ability of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the mass bass of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) in the two border provinces. The JUI (F) lays claim to tens of thousands of madrassa students. But given the failure of the MMA to field a strong protest movement after the US bombing of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, and given its past record of never taking on the military in Pakistan, it is anybody's guess whether the JUI will fully commit its madrassa troops against General Musharraf...
I think it would be better for everyone if Dan Darling was one of the interrogators.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog has agreed terms with Pakistan for putting questions to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced Pakistani scientist who ran a nuclear black market, the Financial Times said on Friday. Khan, once revered as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, has been under house arrest since he was identified early this year at the centre of a scandal involving transfers of weapons technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea. The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is keen to untangle the web of proliferation that Khan oversaw, but Pakistan has previously restricted access to him. But IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said his agency had agreed "modalities" with Pakistan that would allow it to ask Khan for information, according to the FT. "It's important for us to know who else got equipment and whether there are undeclared programmes," ElBaradei was quoted as saying. "It's a complicated issue," he added. "There are legal impediments so we have to work through governments involved, and governments have been quite cooperative."
"Plots within plots! Deep-laid plots! Nefarious, deep-laid plots!"
He said the IAEA was also in talks with Malaysia over access to Khan's associate Bukhary Syed Abu Tahir who is currently held there. Â
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/10/2004 12:00:22 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Elbaradei is unfairly using his UN-supplied VIP Backstage Pass. He should wait in line like everyone else to get Kahn's autograph.
#2
quick work--a.q. was only exposed like six months ago--i'm also sure he'll answer all questions truthfully--like how he stole the original pak bomb designs from the dutch company he worked for--someone cut his aorta already
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
12/10/2004 2:36 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Elbaradei: AQK have you stolen the bomb designs
and sold them to the highest bidder ??? Now be good and tell the truth !
AQK : No, No, Muhamad, I swear by Allan and by my honour I didnt do any of this, you must believe me
after all We are fellow muslims !
ElBaradei : I believe you brother, allah-hu Akbar, Allah hu Akbar. See, He didnt do it !!
He swore by his honour !!
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
12/10/2004 5:44 Comments ||
Top||
#4
A.Q. was a centrifuge expert, not a bomb expert as such. Certainly his Dutch employers were into centrifuges. As I recall, the bomb plans came off-the-shelf from elsewhere. His expertise in this regard would be more in the photocopying line.
In that case, it was nice talkin' to ya. See ya around, maybe...
Palestine Liberation Organization chief Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei said Thursday that the Palestinian Authority continues to follow the main principles of the Palestinian cause and has not veered from the footsteps of its late president, Yasser Arafat. Speaking during a visit to the Rashidieh refugee camp in Tyre, where they were welcomed by the commander of Fatah in Lebanon, Sultan Abul-Ainayn, Qorei stressed: "We cannot fill the void left behind by Abu Ammar [Arafat], but we will try to follow in his footsteps and continue the mission and fulfill the trust.
"Yasser's in stable condition, but we're not..."
"All of Arafat's principles, including the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and the right of return, are a paramount will that must be followed by every Palestinian."
I ask again: If you've got your own state, why would you need somebody else's?
Qorei spoke to the crowd on behalf of Abbas after health reasons delayed his arrival. In his speech, Qorei reassured those gathered about their national rights under the new Palestinian leadership. Qorei also vowed to continue the struggle toward statehood and allowing Palestinians living in the diaspora to return to their homes in accordance with UN Resolution 194. "We will not compromise over this right. We will cling to it and we will struggle for it," Qorei said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2004 9:34:32 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
For wide and easy is the road that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.
Matthew 7:13-14
#2
Yes, Yes,
We will follow in the footsteps of the unholy
Arafat until we all end up in a highly stable condition (courtesy of the IAF).
Trust us, we fucked up once, we fucked up twice,
there is no reason we will not be able to fuck it up thrice.
And thrice is forever !
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
12/10/2004 6:08 Comments ||
Top||
#3
We will continue the practice of never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity
#5
Does that include embezzlement, sirr? Like, Arafish, all the way? Or are you spouting the Arafish bubble line for public consumption, and will change behind the scenes? #1 for 2 billion, Alex.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/10/2004 10:27 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I didnt expect Abbas to unilaterally give up the right to return, esp now, when hes not secure and has an election coming up.
His record on this in the past is decidedly mixed. What he does in negotiations, we shall see. Talk to him, but talk with caution.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2004 12:25 Comments ||
Top||
#10
As I recall, Abbas doesn't believe so much in the violence option as in world politics and outbreeding the Israelis, in order to accomplish the eradication of the Zionist Entity. His dissertation for Moscow U. addressed exactly that. Merely a difference in tactics, and therefore timing, not goals, which is why he hasn't yet been murdered in -- or out of -- his bed.
#11
the dissertation was years pre-Oslo, let alone pre Camp David. Its always brought up to show that Abbas isnt really a moderate.
I dont know what Abbas really is, as he hasnt been sufficiently tested with power. If the Israelis dont want to be outbred, the best thing is to disengage. If talking with Abbas will make that easier go to it.
#12
I didnt expect Abbas to unilaterally give up the right to return, esp now, when hes not secure and has an election coming up.
The mere notion that Mazen would would even remotely consider such a thing, even after winning an election, is laughable. None of the current "leadership" is likely to be capable of pulling off the trick of selling such an idea to the Paleo public. Were Mazen to be elected and then decided to give up the so called "right of return" by his own volition, someone suitably pissed off armed with an AK probably wouldn't have much difficulty bumping the guy off.
Election to office buys security for nobody in Paleo-land.
In a make-or-break vote for Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon and his Gaza pullout plan, his Likud Party voted Thursday on whether to bring in the Labor Party to rescue his teetering coalition. A loss could force new elections and jeopardize the Gaza withdrawal - a centerpiece of efforts to restart peace talks with the Palestinians in the wake of Yasser Arafat's death. But a win would add a partner solidly in favor of the Gaza pullout and resumption of peace negotiations. Some in Labor oppose joining Sharon, but party leader Shimon Peres is strongly in favor. Results were expected late Thursday night. The 3,000-member Likud Central Committee already voted in August against inviting Labor to join the government. But after Sharon fired a key coalition partner on Dec. 1 for opposing his budget, his coalition is more tenuous than ever. He has warned that the choice is now Labor or elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2004 9:31:18 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Syria and Lebanon were "very receptive" to Palestinian requests to upgrade relations with them, PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas said in Jordan after landmark visits to both countries. "We asked Syria to raise the status from a representation to an embassy and in Lebanon, we asked to open an embassy. They were very receptive," Abbas told reporters here. The Palestine Liberation Organization has a representative office in Syria, where Abbas led a high-powered Palestinian delegation earlier this week for talks with President Bashar Assad to mend strained ties.
The delegation, that included Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, then visited Lebanon, home to about 400,000 Palestinian, more than half of who live in miserable conditions in impoverished camps. The trip to Beirut was the first by top Palestinians since the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was forced out of Lebanon a year after the 1982 Israeli invasion. Abbas expressed his satisfaction with the talks in Damascus and Beirut, which he said also focused on "the future of the Middle East peace process".
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2004 9:22:43 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Arab world sure is enamored of ties. They normally don't wear 'em, so I find it a tad confusing, but boy they're always yammering and visiting and drinking lotsa tea - all in the name of better ties. Hint: Get an account at Neiman's and you're set, fellas.
#2
They may be receptive right now. They temporarily forgot that the Palestininans are hated everywhere they go. They tried to destabilize Jordan till Hussein whacked them. They almost destroyed Lebanon in the eighties till we kicked Arafat's ass out of Lebanon.
My guess is that the receptiveness period is going to be extremely short lived !
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
12/10/2004 6:14 Comments ||
Top||
#3
In the spirit of Arab brotherly love and closeness, give all the Palestinians one way tickets to Syria. Then they can do for Syria what they did for Jordan and Lebanon.
Posted by: ed ||
12/10/2004 6:18 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Ed,
sorry cant be done.
Arafat stole all the money before he got stabilized,
so we cant afford the tickets.
Great Idea neverthless.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
12/10/2004 7:16 Comments ||
Top||
From the Dec 9th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, labeled 'free full text' on the page for the current issue. Tables, figures and references excluded.
This is a 2nd article of combat medical photographs from the same issue of the Journal.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/10/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hats off to the Armed Forces medical teams. They are doing an incredible job under tough conditions. One concern is the mentioned shortage of personnel. I thought the US government subsidized the education of many doctors via grants for Reserve, inner city or rural service. Where are they? Also it seems like a good idea to rotate civilian trauma personnel through military units for 6 months or so, both to increase care levels and doctor training.
Posted by: ed ||
12/10/2004 6:39 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Having been a National Health Service corps recipient, I tried to get transferred to the Navy or Airforce to serve my commitment. The bureaucrats in Washington would not share their booty, so to speak. I'm in JAX, and for years the knowledge flow has gone the other direction; we train military medical personnel at our local Knife and Gun Club (U-F Medical Center) so they could see some real trauma. I'm too old for that now, but still give free flight physicals to military and police pilots who's tail stands between bullets and me.
Posted by: Kevin H MD ||
12/10/2004 8:35 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Shands Kevin? Or does UF have a facility in Jacksonville?
#4
Ed, hasn't been true for quite a while -- last time they funded a lot of docs' training was in the '80's, as I recall. I think they still have some sort of financial program for nurses. Kevin is right about the NHS: my understanding is that the NHS wanted to train docs for underserved areas, not the military.
The armed forces do advertise heavily in medical journals, but that generally is aimed at residents, fellows (advanced trainees) or physicians who have already completed training and are looking to make a change.
I posted this article for a couple of reasons: 1) the organization of medical care is very interesting and likely different than many of the vets here remember from their time in service, 2) I'm pleased that the NEJM would put forward a positive, careful description of military medical care.
Disclaimer: the editor of the NEJM and I are friends; he's a great physician-scientist and a great guy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/10/2004 9:01 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Thanks for this posting, Steve. Very informative. FTR, I've been trying to work with Walter Reed Army Medical Center here in DC to volunteer some time with the soldiers recuperating there. Not having much luck, yet. The volunteer services are apparently run by the American Red Cross. The person I spoke with said I would need orientation, which they won't offer again until February. "Fine," I said, "Put me on the list." "We don't have a list," he said, "you just show up." Aargh.
The United States will build stronger defense ties with India, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld vowed yesterday, but New Delhi said proposed US arms sales to Pakistan could affect relations with Washington. Rumsfeld, who is in India on the final leg of a regional tour, held talks on a range of issues with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Minister Natwar Singh. They were the first discussions at this level since President George Bush's re-election last month. "The defense relationship is a strong one and something we intend to see is further knitted together as we go forward in the months and years ahead," Rumsfeld told reporters, adding that he had invited Mukherjee for more talks in Washington. Relations between India and the United States have warmed in recent years, but Washington's decision to embrace Pakistan as a vital ally in the war against terror has been an irritant.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2004 9:21:42 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hmmm... So India's Prime Minister is a Sikh? I wasn't aware. Now, that's interesting....
The Federal Review Board consisting of three Supreme Court judges will take up the cases of over 80 foreign nationals and two Pakistanis detained in Punjab jails, in a couple of days, Daily Times learned on Thursday. A government official told Daily Times that the foreigners were arrested by law enforcement and intelligence agencies a few months ago under the Foreigners Act of 1946. The two Pakistanis were arrested under the Pakistan Security Act of 1952.
The foreigners were arrested for not having valid travel documents. Some of them were suspected of being involved with religious extremists. "The Pakistanis were found involved in spying for a foreign country," the official said. The foreigners, including seven females, belong to India, Bangladesh, Congo, Nigeria, Tanzania, Burma, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Representatives of the ministries of foreign and interior affairs will be present at the hearing. The detainees released by the review board will be repatriated.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2004 8:30:38 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
"Hey, Zardari! I think this death threat's for you!"
"Can't be for me. I already got two today!"
"It's got your name on it."
"Give it to Mahmoud. He can't read. He'll never know the difference."
Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim claimed on Wednesday night that Asif Ali Zardari received murder threats during his visit to Larkana on Sunday and Monday, and the Sindh government alerted police there after Mr Zardari himself informed it of the danger. However, the chief minister declined to provide official security to Mr Zardari, because "we cannot provide security to everybody," he told reporters in Matiari. Mr Zardari "should restrict his movement if he feels unsafe," Dr Rahim said, speaking at a reception in his honour in the town.
Of course he got death threats. He's in Pakistan, fergawdsake!
"Asif Zardari himself wrote a letter to us informing that he is facing a threat to his life, and that government should provide him security," Dr Rahim said at the reception, which was hosted by Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, a grandson of the late Sindhi leader G M Syed. The chief minister also said Mr Zardari's Pakistan People's Party had not been offered a share in the present ruling set-up. He specifically denied that the PPP was being offered power in Sindh, or the office of the chairman of the Senate.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2004 8:29:01 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Maulana Muhammad Shoaib, the Shoba Bazaar mosque imam, who was removed by local traders on Thursday, asked the provincial government to help him gain possession of the mosque, or otherwise he would do so forcibly. "If the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) government fails to help me gain possession of the mosque within 24 hours then my workers will take possession forcibly, and the government will be responsible for the consequences," Maulana Shaoib told journalists during a press conference.
"You know we're unable to control ourselves!"
He called the allegations levelled at him by Shoba Bazaar traders false and fabricated. "I have a property dispute with some traders and I have won a court case against them after which they forcibly occupied the mosque," he said. He said his father, Maulana Muhammad Amir Zaman, had purchased the land on a 99-year lease from the Cantonment Board for the construction of a mosque and a Darul Uloom in 1966, adding he possessed legal documents to support this claim. "The mosque and Darul Uloom has been leased in the name of the Khyber Masjid Committee which has seven members whose names are verified by the police, and which hold regular annual meetings," he said. He said the Shoba Bazaar Traders Association was formed in 1973 and had nothing to do with the mosque management. "Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the MMA chief, is the patron-in-chief of the Darul Uloom and has assured me of his cooperation.
"Yeah! Tell 'em, Qazi!"
However, the provincial government is taking no action against those who desecrated the mosque," he said. Maulana Shoaib said local Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leaders were behind the attacks on the mosque and his house. "In presence of the police, armed traders raided the mosque and my house and they still occupy it," he said. He said he suspected that traders had taken thousands of rupees and gold ornaments from his house. "I do not know the amount of money and gold ornaments they have taken as they still occupy my house," he said.
"I had thousands in there! Hunnerts o' thousands! And jewels!"
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2004 8:48:57 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
make a claim to geico maulana and stfu
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
12/10/2004 2:44 Comments ||
Top||
The military has blunted the ability of foreign militants in South Waziristan to mount attacks, with the result that they are now fleeing the tribal agency and only around a hundred remain in the area, field commander Major General Niaz Khattak told a briefing here on Thursday. The military estimated earlier this year that there were around 600 foreign militants in the area. "We have taken the sting out of them," he said. "They are trying to get out and unable to plan attacks. Their command structure has been disrupted. They are moving out of operation zones," said Gen Khattak, who took charge of operations to secure Wazir areas in March this year.
Wireless communication between militants intercepted by security forces showed that they are on the run and unable to maintain contact with each other, he claimed. The security forces have smashed terrorist training camps in Wazir and Mehsud areas, he said, adding that the 70,000 army troops would stay in Waziristan unless local tribes stood on their own feet to defend themselves. He said around 200 Pakistani troops had died in fighting since March. He could not say the number of terrorists killed, as their accomplices usually take the bodies of fallen comrades with them, making it hard to assess the death toll accurately. Pressed on reports in western media that Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden might be hiding in Waziristan, he said: "I have got no leads to suggest he is in Waziristan," but added that Uzbek militant leader Tahir Yuldashev might still be hiding in the region.
He denied media reports that the Peshawar corps commander had reached a "secret deal" with former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Abdullah Mehsud, saying the one-legged militant leader must surrender unconditionally and get foreigners registered before the government would negotiate with him. He said the Wazir tribes had realised that the foreigners had exploited their traditional hospitality. "Either the Uzbeks or Chechens will leave, or the Pukhtoons will continue to suffer," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2004 8:27:57 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
I see Boris has taken to writing letter to al-Jizzles now...
Dear Dr. KareemâŠ
The only way that peace will ever be achieved in the Middle East is for the U.S. to pull its support for Israel and allow the UN to disband its government by force if necessary.
Then both the Arabs and Israel should be brought to the negotiating table and made to agree on terms that would allow the Jews and Arabs live in peace as neighbors.
The problem is not the people of the two countries. It's political and social agendas led by the Israelis who are waging genocide in Palestine.
Goyim from USA
Profound. Simply profound. Stupid, but profound.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2004 9:11:37 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Perfect comments.
And Dr Kareem's reply? Heh: Dr. Kareem is in Baghdad and cannot respond at present."
That's almost as good as the letter, heh. Silence is certainly no further off the mark. Now as for WTF an Al Jizz operative is doing in Baghdad when they are banned from the country, well...
#4
Pass me the Thorazine darts and the jacket.. nurse - go fetch me a gurney..
Posted by: Howard UK ||
12/10/2004 5:46 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Howard,
May I humbly suggest the use of Iocane powder instead of thorazine.
if it doesn't work we should go forward and do unto him what we did to his mentor Arafat. This will probably terminally stabilize his condition.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
12/10/2004 6:21 Comments ||
Top||
#6
P.S.
Ahmad
will the denuclearizing of Jewland "CERIMONY" include a magician and a surprise visit of Suha Arafat dressed in her Santa Clauss suit ?? Ho Ho Ho ?
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
12/10/2004 6:27 Comments ||
Top||
#7
.com
I love Dr. Karim's picture ! This is way too much, I laughed so much, I almost lost control of my sphyncter:)
As a final gesture of friendship to Ahmad (and before we inject him with an overdose of thorazine) I suggest that after Jewland is denuclearized and returned to the pali's we rename it Suhaland(TM).
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
12/10/2004 6:35 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Sorry,
sphincter it is, methinks ??
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
12/10/2004 6:38 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Come in Number #2 , your time is up .
Caps lock is located near your little finger on your left hand , and a spell checker can be located here .
I also suggest a course in winning friends and influencing people along with maybe one in anger management . Failing that , just walk off a cliff , thanks in advance .
#10
MacNeils
dont be hard on #2, after all he may be performing
the sacred "etekaaf thingy (TM)" of the moslem faith
You cant do the "etekaaf" and stay coherent, especially since you are only allowed 1 minute for defecating and the pressure accumulates (see today's post of nuggets from the Urdu press, for the gory details).
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
12/10/2004 7:26 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Loved the pic. Looks like Peter Sellars in one of his better and now hopelessly unPC movies.
#21
Oops, Steve deleted random verbs/nouns and there was nothing left!
Posted by: Tom ||
12/10/2004 9:18 Comments ||
Top||
#22
Steve,
Obviously, you cant nuke the troll since the whole idea is to denuclearize Israel.
IMHO, we should print his stuff out on a 4X4 ft board and hang it in front of the UN building in NY and then quietly watch as the UNcrats perform Harakiri when they realize who their supporters are.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
12/10/2004 9:33 Comments ||
Top||
#23
EoZ, you're naive. Of course UNuchs know who their supporters are.
#27
Cheer up, Em, the Middle East is full of them. You'll get another chance.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/10/2004 12:28 Comments ||
Top||
#28
It's a given that they come out at the mysterious daily rollover - a nocturnal event wherein Druid Priests rearrange the Stonehenge rocks into spiffy new designs and make crop circles all over England from their spaceships creating ever more spiffy designs until the Twitching Hour when they, uh, um, twitch and stuff. Then they put it all back. But during that time, the Internet calls to the Trollians in a siren song that they dare not ignore... I can say no more cuz I need more coffee... but it's all pretty complicated and Druidy and Twitchy and Sireny. Trust me.
#29
Phil: Or else the guy that played the religious character in Protocol--the one that had the hots for Goldie Hawn and was busted alongside the partiers?
#30
Profound as your jewinduist arse moron scum bag fred the Stupid. I will like to ad the iSZARAEL SHOULD BE NUKED AFTER RESENDING IS LANDLESS CHOUSEN PEOPLE TO RUSSIA AND USA WHRE ARE COMMING FROM AND THEN ROB EVERY RICH JEW SCUM HERE IN usa AND DENUCLEARIZE JEWLAND AND AFTER UN CERIMONY GIVE BACK TO THE PALS
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.
A US soldier serving in Iraq wants Tim Tams for Christmas and Prime Minister John Howard is keen to oblige. A caller to Melbourne radio 3AW told Mr Howard today she needed his help to get the treats to her sister's husband — an American soldier serving in Iraq. "We are just wanting some information as far as sending food parcels for Christmas ... he loves his Tim Tams," Leanne from Sydenham in Melbourne's north-west told radio 3AW. She said the family had been sending parcels to an address in Iraq but they were taking more than six weeks to get there. Mr Howard offered to help Leanne get the Australian snack to the soldier. "I guess we'd want the bloke's name and his unit ... that would be handy, and we'll see what we can do, we'll try to help," he said. Mr Howard said "thank you" to Australian forces serving in Iraq and that he would be sending them an official Christmas message.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog has agreed terms with Pakistan for putting questions to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced Pakistani scientist who ran a nuclear black market, the Financial Times said on Friday. Khan, once revered as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, has been under house arrest since he was identified early this year at the centre of a scandal involving transfers of weapons technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea. The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is keen to untangle the web of proliferation that Khan oversaw, but Pakistan has previously restricted access to him. But IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said his agency had agreed "modalities" with Pakistan that would allow it to ask Khan for information, according to the FT. "It's important for us to know who else got equipment and whether there are undeclared programmes," ElBaradei was quoted as saying. "It's a complicated issue," he added. "There are legal impediments so we have to work through governments involved, and governments have been quite cooperative."
Syria and Lebanon were "very receptive" to Palestinian requests to upgrade relations with them, PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas said in Jordan after landmark visits to both countries. "We asked Syria to raise the status from a representation to an embassy and in Lebanon, we asked to open an embassy. They were very receptive," Abbas told reporters here. The Palestine Liberation Organization has a representative office in Syria, where Abbas led a high-powered Palestinian delegation earlier this week for talks with President Bashar Assad to mend strained ties.
Dear Dr. KareemâŠ
