Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 ||
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A perrenial problem. I've heard they also hang around because the hospitality is so peachy, but that may be exaggerated. Mebbe the ride the Saudis "offer" is better than going home in the belly of a tramp steamer, heh.
Arab countries must urgently establish a framework for democracy before impatience and anger spread among the masses, Qatar's First Deputy Prime Minister warned yesterday. "I am afraid of what could happen if we do not speed up the process of democratic reforms in the region," said Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Al Thani, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. "I fear that people could become impatient and expectations could turn into anger in the streets. We are talking a lot about democracy but we have not yet materialised the concept into programmes with a framework and a time schedule."
Shaikh Hamad was addressing delegates at the Doha Forum for Democracy and Trade which concluded here yesterday. He said that as the masses become keener on acquiring human, political and civil rights, governments should guarantee proper frameworks and timetables to meet the people aspirations. "The issue is not only to have democracy, but how and when to start it. There are countries in the region where there is not even a debate on when to start the democratic process." Shaikh Hamad stressed that foreign pressure on the issue would not achieve any results, as reforms must abide by religious, social and cultural peculiarities of each country. "To import democracy would be a terrible mistake, we cannot impose systems which do not take into consideration our cultural and social features."
I'd say the first step would be to stop thinking of them as "the masses." Us masses are just as human as you sheikhs and holy men. We have our own opinions, and if left to our own devices some of us will screw up and most of us will muddle along quite well enough, thank you. Some of us will even do great things.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
This is almost mind-bending: anticipating the ClueBat? Whoa! I'm sure this is as much an exercise in figuring out how to hold onto their privileged positions and power as it does with meeting the "desires of the masses", lol!
"The issue is not only to have democracy, but how and when to start it."
To poke fun at the SocioFascistTranziMoonbats:
"What do we want?"
"Democracy!"
"When do we want it?"
"Now!"
Iraq's neighbouring countries are all looking for a solution to Iraq's problems and feel in trouble themselves, said the Secretary-General of the Arab League. Amr Mousa was talking at a two-day symposium in Sharjah about Iraq and its relations with neighbouring countries, organised by the Gulf Research Centre. "Everybody is worried about the situation in Iraq and think it will affect them in one way or another," he said. Mousa said if the Iraqis wanted a new democratic future they should work hand in hand, regardless of political or religious sects. He said people would not be able to turn their country into a democracy if this did not happen. "If the Iraqis reach this point, then there will be a democracy in Iraq," he said, adding that the Iraqi election was welcomed and it should be seen as an important step, but it should not be exaggerated as a symbol for democracy in the Arab world. Iraq would not achieve any development without unifying all Iraqis' points of view.
Dictators "unify" all their citizens' points of view. Democracies may accomodate them. Dictatorships issue orders; democracies spend a good deal of time arguing. The trick is for them to learn when to compromise and when to hold fast. Arabs tend to hold fast on the wrong points and to compromise with the wrong people.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 8:58:33 PM ||
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#1
None of these stories about the nervous and jittery leaders of Arab shitocracies has anything, anything, to do with the Bush Doctrine, of course. That dumb cowboy chimp. He just lucked into it. It was obvious that this would have happened anyway. *snicker*
Five American soldiers have been arrested for trying to smuggle hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine into the United States on a U.S. military aircraft, the U.S. military said. The five unidentified Army personnel were detained on Tuesday and are being held in the United States for "allegedly trying to transport approximately 16 kilograms (35 lb) of cocaine," U.S. Southern Command said in a news release late on Thursday.
"The Department of Defense and other federal agencies, in close cooperation with the Colombian government, are investigating these charges both in the U.S. and Colombia," Southern Command said. The cocaine could be sold in the United States for $300,000-$500,000. The U.S. Congress has authorized the presence of up to 800 U.S. troops in Colombia to train Colombian soldiers and provide support for the country's war on cocaine and Marxist rebels, as well as up to 600 civilian contractors. The United States has provided Colombia with more than $3 billion in mainly military aid since 2000. The arrests recalled a previous scandal to hit U.S. operations in Colombia. The wife of a U.S. Army officer who headed anti-drug operations in Colombia was sentenced to five years in prison in 2000 for trying to mail $700,000 worth of heroin to New York. Her husband admitted he knew she was laundering drug proceeds and was sentenced to five months, angering Colombian legal officials who complained this was too lenient.
#4
To give some kind of estimate for UK ( Although its shipped further than USA )
Street value in the UK is approx £60 a gram
Which would equate to £9.6 million , BUT (a guess) it would cost importers £0.20 and then get 'distributed' where everyone takes their cut and waters down the 'quality'
In the US its different/cheaper ( I expect ) .
#6
well, my sis works for Johnny Law and she sez the price's gone up lately - pure is $40-50K/Kilo. For a while Meth was putting the crimp on Coke use and pricing, but Law's been smashing the big meth labs (smell gives em away - from miles away), so Mexican stuff is the big thing here in SD. Used to be bikers, tweakers, independents
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2005 17:41 Comments ||
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#7
hehe dont bring hunter s thompson into the equation Franki !
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Duh. You never let the bastard come back! Sheesh! Don't you guys read good spy novels and watch late movies? Man, I could make a bundle as an advisor for these fools, heh. Just dial 1-800-HugeDuh or 212-867-5309. Ask for Blade.
North Korea is waiting for the United States to apologize for calling it an "outpost of tyranny" before the communist state will return to nuclear talks, a senior official said, as the North announced Friday it will convene a rubber-stamp parliament expected to endorse its boycott of the talks. In a one-sentence dispatch, the communist country's official Korean Central News Agency said the meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly would be held April 11. Pyongyang originally said it would convene the meeting in early March, after its bold Feb. 10 statement that it had nuclear weapons and would indefinitely boycott six-nation disarmament talks.
The parliament, filled with regime loyalists and lacking any real power, was expected then to endorse the North's decision to avoid the arms talks. A week before the February meeting, the session was postponed without explanation. The delay triggered speculation among North Korea watchers, with some believing Pyongyang might be leaving itself room to back down from its Feb. 10 statement and return to the talks. Friday's announcement that the parliament will meet comes after North Korea said Thursday that it wanted to be treated as an equal at the six-nation disarmament talks, now that it claims to have nuclear weapons. It also urged the United States to verifiably remove all its potential nuclear threats in the region. "Now that we have become a nuclear power, the six-party talks should be disarmament talks where participants can solve the issue on an equal basis," an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Still, Pyongyang is waiting for the United States apologize over U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice labeling the North one of the world's "outposts of tyranny." Rice has refused to apologize, but during a trip to the region last month she pointedly labeled the North a "sovereign" country - a comment many saw as an attempt to soften her earlier remark. However, Han Song-ryol, deputy chief of the North's mission to the U.N., said Pyongyang felt Rice's recent comment "cannot be taken as being equivalent to an apology."
"In order to reopen the talks, there should be the right justification and conditions," South Korea's Yonhap News Agency quoted Han as saying. "That is a clear apology from the U.S. for the outpost of tyranny remarks." Han said the North's statement Thursday was meant to highlight Pyongyang's view that the latest crisis stems from a perceived U.S. nuclear threat. Washington has said it has withdrawn all nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula. "It depends on the U.S. whether the six-party talks resume or not," he said. "But, I don't think the U.S. will drop its hostile policy."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/01/2005 12:44:41 AM ||
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#1
They're right... we shouldn't have called them a mere outpost of tyranny.
Brutal murderers, more pleasant than Stalin only by degrees.
#3
We're sorry you starved to death more than 10% of the population.
We're sorry North Koreans had to resort to cannibalism.
We're sorry you have 400,000 thousand polical prisoners, jailing 3 generations of a family, in gulags that would make Stalin ashamed.
We're sorry that 25% of these prisoners are killed each year by murder, starvation, and poison gas and biological weapons experiments.
We're sorry that North Koreans are trapped in a cold, hungry, sadistic, and ignorant hell of you and your father's making.
We're sorry you are only 4'3".
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2005 8:39 Comments ||
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North Korea is waiting for the United States to apologize for calling it an "outpost of tyranny" before the communist state will return to nuclear talks, a senior official said,..
Please, someone flash those NorK idiots the middle finger.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Uh, oh! Kimmie's a one-trick pony: threats for goodies. What will he do if the game evolves to the next level? Oh my! Somebody's doomed! Doomed I say!
#3
I think that the Chicoms are playing the Norks like a puppet to break SKor away from being a US ally. Just keeping them on the edge so they won't fall over. Though it is a fine edge.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/01/2005 23:28 Comments ||
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EFL: Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Australia's prime minister has outlined a vision of "the three great Pacific democracies" - the United States, Japan and Australia - playing an increasingly important security role in the region, even as Australia and Japan draw closer and take on larger out-of-area responsibilities. In a major foreign policy speech on Thursday evening, John Howard closely aligned Canberra with President Bush's drive to expand democracy in the Middle East, where Australia participated with Britain in the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein.
"We can choose to turn inward or we can lend a hand for freedom at a moment when the voices of democratic hope are being heard right across the Middle East - from Iraq to Saudi Arabia; from Lebanon to Egypt," he said in a speech at the Lowy Institute, a new foreign policy think tank in Sydney.
Howard also ruled out the possibility of a quick withdrawal of Australian troops from the multinational coalition in Iraq. "We will not stay a moment longer than is necessary; and we will not leave a moment sooner than is sufficient."
Much of the speech focused on Asia, and the challenges and risks ahead. "History will have no bigger stadium this century than the Pacific Rim," Howard said. He predicted that in the decades ahead, Asia would "assume a weight in the world economy it last held more than five centuries ago." But it was also home to the world's three most volatile flashpoints outside the Middle East - the Taiwan Strait, Korea and Kashmir.
Howard disputed the view that the war on terrorism had diverted America's attention away from Asia. "If anything, the larger trend is towards Washington engaging more purposefully with Asia. This has led to a more balanced American worldview when compared with its understandably Eurocentric focus of last century." That, in turn, was beneficial to Australia as it sought to strengthen ties with Asia while intensifying its post-Cold War alliance with the U.S.
"Compared with a decade ago, there is now a deeper appreciation of how close links with the United States are a plus -- not a minus -- in forging stronger links in Asia," said the prime minister, who has been in office since 1996.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/01/2005 9:13:14 AM ||
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Most Australians consider U.S. foreign policy to be as threatening as Islamic fundamentalism, according to a survey released Monday.
More than two-thirds of respondents, 68 percent, said Australia takes "too much notice" of the United States when setting its foreign policy agenda, and 57 percent judged U.S. foreign policy to be as much of a threat as Islamic fundamentalism.
The Lowy Institute for International Policy surveyed 1,000 randomly selected Australians on their foreign policy views. The survey's margin of error was 3.1 percentage points.
The Sydney-based think-tank also found a majority of Australians ranked the United States near the bottom of their list of favored allied.
Asked to rate their "positive feelings" about a list of 15 key countries or regions, Australians put the United States at 11th place, ahead of only Indonesia, the Middle East, Iran and Iraq.
Australia's participation in the war in Iraq divided respondents, with 46 percent favoring postwar involvement, saying it was in Australia's best interests to support democracy. But 51 percent said Australia never should have been in Iraq in the first place.
Australia sent 2,000 troops to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and currently maintains about 900 troops in the Middle East with 300 in Iraq.
The think-tank's executive director, Allan Gyngell, said the findings reveal an "antipathy toward the United States" and its foreign policy.
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2005 6:47:36 AM ||
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#1
If you equate 'threat' with 'change' then, yes, US policy is now on a course that like Islamic fundementalism creates a threat to the static order of many people's perceived notion of the world. The static world delivered 911. The US has now embarked into 'interesting times' and is now the major revolutionary agent for change rather sustainment of the status quo. For many, that will be a threat. However, the one charateristic of the American culture which all too often is lacking from the rest of the world, is the willingness to rush towards an uncertain future, rather than simply reenforce the failures of the past.
#2
I'll wait to hear from phil_b and our other down-under correspondents, but I won't be surprised to hear that the Lowy Institute for International Policy gets most of its funding from the Tides Foundation and George Soros. The only polls that really count are the ones that use ballots. Howard won the last one handily and I have no reason to believe he would not do the same tomorrow. Good on ya, mates.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/01/2005 9:26 Comments ||
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Most Australians consider U.S. foreign policy to be as threatening as Islamic fundamentalism US foreign policy was well down the list of threats. Interestingly nuclear proliferation was the top threat. And the 'positive feelings' question really just measures the warm fuzzies factor. The Iraq War was devisive and the striking thing is very few think the outcome is bad. The reality is a large proportion of the Australian population is pro-American and probably an more or less equal proportion is anti-American reflecting the Right/Left divide. I wouldn't read too much into the survey and the heavy anti-American MSM spin in the article.
#4
The questios asked and the choices made are listed in the above pdf. A more concise question-answer format is at Lowy Institute Poll Data Book 2005 (315KB PDF)
I don't think the Lowy Institute is a far left Tides-MoveOn type of outfit. The first item on their webpage is the transcript of a lecture given yesterday at the institute by Prime Minister John Howard.
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2005 10:07 Comments ||
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#5
Let's face it - the media in every country in the world, include these United States, is reflexively anti-American. And the Australian public gets its information from the Australian media. Garbage in, garbage out.
From a practical perspective, the lack of warm fuzzies doesn't prevent either the politicians or the public in these countries from supporting a policy of cooperation with Uncle Sam. In the short run, Australia has issues with Indonesia. In the long run, Australia will have issues with China. Australia could deal with these potentially existential threats alone. Or it could try to notch up brownie points with Uncle Sam. Note that without the US Navy, Australia would have been occupied by Japan during WWII. Australia isn't Europe. There are major threats on Australia's horizon. And that helps to concentrate Australian minds, even though it may not make Australians love Uncle Sam.
#6
I think you might find the same numbers if you picked a 1000 in the US for your survey. There is a strong isolationist streak, especially with the tranzis, and a lack of knowledge on how the US really keeps the peace on matters like safe sea lanes and such that don't get the attention of the media.
Having said that, I love Australia, but everyone kept giving me VB (an Ale) and denegrating Fosters (a Lager thus a superior product by nature). I couldn't understand that but figured the Irish influence must have been far stronger than I suspected despite the massive Greek ethnic makeup of the VB fans.
#8
It seems like just about all the people I know, including my family, are vehemently anti-Bush, but I don't think there is a great deal of anti-American feeling per se, apart from the usual leftist sources.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
04/01/2005 17:00 Comments ||
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The Aussies appear dedicated to be fulfilling Ireland's manifest destiny for Ireland and Northern Ireland as a whole. What plan does the Failed/Angry Left International Lefts and Left-dominated Anti-US agendists have except to make Mackinder's World Island of Eurasia, aka Communist Asia, a reality despite the alleged "demise" of the USSR and Red China unto Comunist-controlled "Fascism-Rightism" for Communism!? Presuming that all the world gives full power and authority of governance to the Left, what's the Left's plan iff "Mackinder" doesn't work, andor how can Human Society as a class positively, proactively, and progressively evolutionarily transcend "Mackinder" unto the better next stage of development - ANSWER, THEY DON'T AND WE DON'T! THE LEFT HAS NO PLAN FOR AFTER MACKINDER, FOR BETTER THAN OWG AND GLOBAL COMMUNISM-SOCIALISM AND ASIANISM - NO WORLD ISLAND OF THE AMERICAS OR WORLD ISLAND OF EURAFRICA,NO PACIFICA OR PANGEA OR TRANSGEA, ...........etal@ to transcend or substitute for beyond Commie Asia. In reality America's critics and Socialist enemies are fighting for a Global Tribute/Slave/Peon State, and unfoirtunately for all Americans and peace-lovers the dialectical, politiczed Failed/Angry Left will NOT accept nor tolerate America NOT waging global war for Empire - iff America does NOT attack or wage war, America will be attacked and warred against NO MATTER WHAT AMERICA DOES! THE LEFT WANTS EMPIRE AND POWER AT ANY PRICE, EVEN IFF THEY HAVE TO DESTROY THEIR OWN BELIEVERS AND THE WORLD TO GET THEIR WAY - as for Clintonian Amerikans of the USSA, the CPUSA, and the People's Waffen SS Soviet Red Army, the choice for Aussies and everyone is either Asian Communism; or Western Fascism for Asian Communism; Fascist = Fascista and anti-Mackinderians for Mackinder!?
The chairman of the congressional committee overseeing US immigration laws warned on Thursday that Congress was unlikely to extend an October deadline for the European Union to adopt biometric passports.
The warning, from Republican James Sensenbrenner, raises the possibility that many European travellers to the US could be forced to acquire visas after the October 26 deadline, adding substantially to the time and expense involved in visits to the US.
In a letter to the European Commission, Mr Sensenbrenner said Congress was "unlikely" to respond to the EU's request for a longer deadline.
"The increased awareness and concern, of both the American public and most members of Congress regarding continued weakness in US border security, will make an additional extension difficult to accomplish," he wrote. "I strongly suggest that the European Commission plan without the expectation that there will be an extension of the deadline."
The visa-waiver scheme, under which travellers from 27 mostly European countries can easily enter the US, has been criticised by some Republicans in Congress as a loophole that could be exploited by terrorists.
In an effort to appease those concerns, the US has insisted that all visa-waiver countries adopt passports with fingerprints or other biometric data incorporated in the documents to help safeguard against stolen passports being used by terrorists to enter the US.
Visa-waiver countries account for about 13m travellers to the US each year, and the State Department lacks the resources to begin issuing visas to those travellers.
#3
to go to such efforts while leaving the Mexican border as a sieve, is insane.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2005 15:04 Comments ||
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Looking at my almost new US passport I can't see any "biometric" data and I didn't have a fingerprints taken when I applied either. As far as I know they are asking of other what they don't require of them selves. As long as you can walk across the US and Canadian border most places it's moot.
#5
I think it is a pre-emptive attack on the EU's trade sanctions. Why? Because the EU will reply in kind and as SPoD notes US passports don't have biometric data so no grand tours of the EU by US students and old ladies.....
To paraphrase a Slashdot tagline I saw once, this guy is Ward Churchill without the funny smell.
You'll also notice this guy spells his name as LeVine, inasmuch as his family name is likely Levine. I guess it helps gain 'cred' in Islamic and middle east stuff he seems to espouse.
It is time for the United States to declare a truce with the Muslim world, and radical Islam in particular.
This may sound like a naïve, 'May? May?!? even defeatist I think you are on the right track statement in the context of The 9/11 Commission Report's reminder that America remains very much at war with "Islamist terrorism" and the ideas behind it. Yet a truce -- in Arabic, hudna -- rather than an increasingly dangerous "clash of civilizations," is the only way to avoid a long, ultimately catastrophic conflict. And it's up to Europe to be the good broker. Oh, they've been brokering sh*t alright. Arming Saddam and then fighting against Iraq' liberation. They are brokering, no question. Ask Kojo.
Indeed, there is no chance for a halt in the war on terror, Not no chance. All they hafta do is give upor any fundamental change in U.S. foreign policy as long as George Bush is President. Ain't it cool? Even if John Kerry wins this November, the possibility that he might initiate such a transformation is slim. However, there is one major difference -- at least rhetorically -- between the two possible presidencies: Kerry has made a point of saying that he would "listen" to European allies and strive to build a common approach to combating terrorism. Style over substance, that's the difference. And, correct me if I am wrong, but didn't we strive to build a common approach?
European leaders face the threat of an increasingly bloody conflict with Muslim extremists thanks to the continent's imperial past in the region and, more important today, their perceived support for U.S. policies in Israel/Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq. They would be wise to suggest that President Kerry call a truce so that the U.S., the European Union (E.U.), and more broadly the "West," can have the time collectively and publicly to explore the root causes of the violence against them that emanates from the Muslim world Well, Markie, the root cause of terrorism is a collective of criminals who commit the violence. That is the root cuase of violence.-- something the 9/11 Commission should have, but did not, do. At least there's a chance Kerry might listen, especially if the war in Iraq continues to spiral out of America's control.
Posted by: badanov ||
04/01/2005 7:33:29 AM ||
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OTTAWA - While publicly denouncing the killing of Zahra Kazemi in July 2003, Canadian officials were also quietly allowing an Iranian government official to visit Canada, according to documents obtained by CBC Radio. Iran had requested that one of its officials, Seyed Abu Talib Najafi, be briefed on the workings of Canada's new Advance Passenger Information database, designed to identify potential threats to civil aircraft before they board.<
You mean to say you briefed a terrorist supporting state on the workings of how you screen airline passenger lists for terrorists? Nice going, hoser.
According to e-mails obtained under the Access to Information Act, Customs officials were concerned about the visit becoming public. One e-mail said: "We should keep this as low-key as possible." Two e-mails within Canada Customs suggested there were concerns: "What's our position about the requesting country? ... in view of the current situation with Iran."
Your position is what it's been all along - on your knees
Just eight days previously, the Department of Foreign Affairs had recalled Canada's ambassador to Iran because it had refused Canadian inquiries about the Zahra Kazemi case. Kazemi, a Montreal-based photojournalist, was beaten to death after being arrested for photographing a Tehran prison riot. Iran maintains her death was accidental. Foreign Affairs told Customs officials its only concern was "whether [Najafi] will be able to get his visa in time."
They might as well work for our State department
In dozens of e-mails, there is no mention of Kazemi, and no one questions why Canada would help Iran, considered by some to be a brutal police state. As well, no one asks why a government with a known track record of sponsoring terrorist attacks might want information about a new passenger security screening procedure.
Yeah, how about that?
With just days to go before the visit, a flurry of e-mails reveals that there were last-minute concerns about Najafi's identity. Canada believed his first name was Nasser — only after he landed in Canada did they learn his actual name. And in an e-mail sent after Najafi was already en route to Canada, Chrystiane Roy, Iran desk officer at Foreign Affairs, informed Customs that if Najafi already had a visa, "it would be too late to do any screening." In the end, it was only the huge North American blackout of Aug. 14, 2003 that prevented the briefing session. Instead, Rachelle May, now acting director general of the Canada Border Services Agency, took Najafi across the street for a coffee. In a report sent afterwards to Foreign Affairs, she writes, "He showed interest in Advanced Passenger Information." She adds: "He was pleased that I took the time to meet him."
"Thank's for the briefing, infidel bitch. We'll make good use of it"
Posted by: Steve ||
04/01/2005 1:30:17 PM ||
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Quelle surprise.
(My meter just registered minus 10)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/01/2005 14:45 Comments ||
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#2
geez - an entire country that swallows
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2005 14:56 Comments ||
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#3
I feel for my Canadian cousins--the ones who aren't in a head long rush towards dhimmitude. Their official institutions sure aren't looking after their long term best interests in this area.
#4
An interesting link is the Canadian 40MW heavy water reactor (plutonium factory) sold to India (used to make plutonium for Indian A-bombs). Design then sold by India to Iran. Foundation laid in Arak, Iran and planned to become operational in 2007. So this is what Canadians mean when they tout "soft power".
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2005 16:29 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that he expects this year's Base Realignment and Closure process to be more modest than estimates that have been used in the past six years, due to the large number of troops moving back to the United States. A March 2004 study by the department indicated that military facilities nationwide were at 24 percent excess capacity, and a 1998 study estimated it was between 20 and 25 percent. But Rumsfeld said those numbers came before officials reassessed forces stationed overseas, and decided to rotate thousands of troops out of Europe and east Asia. "It looks now like actual number will be less than the lower end of that (1998) range," Rumsfeld said at a news conference Tuesday. "But how much lower still remains to be seen."
In August, President Bush announced plans to return to the United States about 70,000 troops from Europe and the Pacific, to reflect global posture needs. Units have begun planning moves, but exactly where they'll be based has yet to be announced. The BRAC commission is scheduled to announce its closure recommendations on May 16.
After the May report is released, the BRAC commission will review the list with defense officials and submit its final recommendations to the president in September. In November, the president is scheduled to submit his recommendations to Congress, who will announce their final list in late December. Several Democratic lawmakers have pushed to stop the BRAC process in recent months, saying that the uncertainty surrounding those troops' futures and the ongoing war on terror makes closing down bases a risky prospect.
But Rumsfeld referred to the BRAC commission as "a good thing" because it helps make sure taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely. The defense secretary said no decisions have been made so far as to which facilities will be closed or reduced. Defense officials have emphasized closings will be done only if facilities aren't needed, not based on political considerations. Rumsfeld said he has not met with any state governors about the process, even though a number have visited Washington to lobby on behalf of their military bases.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/01/2005 11:43:35 AM ||
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#1
And throw in the rebuilding of the Army from a low of 480K [per capita the lowest since 1940], then some installations on the cut list may well be needed in the expansion. The US Army was operating with 750K volunteers at the end of Gulf War I, so a larger expansion is still possible. It just takes more time to build up than to cut.
#2
Not to mention the effect that base closures have on reserve units and retirees. Yeah, that base over in the next county is under-utilized, but it is also the place where the reserve units in your part of the state train. Close it down, and now the units have to travel another 150 miles on the weekends. Which translates into fewer training hours and, unless the CO is a real hard-charger, probably fewer weekends down range overall.
Bottom line: If you're going to use the Reserves and Guard like they're regular forces, you need to have lots of excess bases for them to train at.
#3
plus, the difficulty in establishing new bases is enormous - enviros and lefties out of the woodwork. Can you imagine tring to get Camp Pendleton or North Island Naval Air Base built in today's environmental/NIMBY climate and land prices?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2005 14:53 Comments ||
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480K [per capita the lowest since 1940],
Wow! I didn't know that. I figure the pre-WWII build up had started.
Of course the irony is that without Camp Pendleton Southern California would be an uninterrupted sea of townhomes and strip malls from Ventura down to the Mexican border.
Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, a former White House national security adviser, plans to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, and will acknowledge intentionally removing and destroying copies of a classified document about the Clinton administration's record on terrorism.
This should be fun, get the popcorn ready
Berger's plea agreement, which was described yesterday by his advisers and was confirmed by Justice Department officials, will have one of former president Bill Clinton's most influential advisers and one of the Democratic Party's leading foreign policy advisers in a federal court this afternoon.
What a lovely phrase that is
The deal's terms make clear that Berger spoke falsely last summer in public claims that in 2003 he twice inadvertently walked off with copies of a classified document during visits to the National Archives, then later lost them. He described the episode last summer as "an honest mistake." Yesterday, a Berger associate who declined to be identified by name but was speaking with Berger's permission said: "He recognizes what he did was wrong. . . . It was not inadvertent."
Under terms negotiated by Berger's attorneys and the Justice Department, he has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine and accept a three-year suspension of his national security clearance. These terms must be accepted by a judge before they are final, but Berger's associates said yesterday he believes that closure is near on what has been an embarrassing episode during which he repeatedly misled people about what happened during two visits to the National Archives in September and October 2003.
Lanny Breuer, Berger's attorney, said in a statement: "Mr. Berger has cooperated fully with the Department of Justice and is pleased that a resolution appears very near. He accepts complete responsibility for his actions, and regrets the mistakes he made during his review of documents at the National Archives."
The terms of Berger's agreement required him to acknowledge to the Justice Department the circumstances of the episode. Rather than misplacing or unintentionally throwing away three of the five copies he took from the archives, as the former national security adviser earlier maintained, he shredded them with a pair of scissors late one evening at the downtown offices of his international consulting business.
The document, written by former National Security Council terrorism expert Richard A. Clarke, was an "after-action review" prepared in early 2000 detailing the administration's actions to thwart terrorist attacks during the millennium celebration. It contained considerable discussion about the administration's awareness of the rising threat of attacks on U.S. soil.
Archives officials have said previously that Berger had copies only, and that no original documents were lost. It remains unclear whether Berger knew that, or why he destroyed three versions of a document but left two other versions intact. Officials have said the five versions were largely similar, but contained slight variations as the after-action report moved around different agencies of the executive branch.
It was the notes that Clinton cabinet members, advisors and staff made in the margins that was the problem. Those copies had to be destroyed.
National Archives officials almost immediately suspected that Berger had removed materials after his Oct. 2, 2003, visit. They called Bruce R. Lindsey, a former White House lawyer and Clinton's liaison to the archives to complain. Lindsey, sources said, called Berger, who soon acknowledged to archives officials that he had removed documents -- by accident, he told them -- and returned notes that he made, as well as the two documents he had not destroyed.
A criminal investigation, which eventually brought witnesses before a grand jury, was soon underway. The probe came to light last July, prompting Berger's resignation as a senior foreign policy adviser to 2004 Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.Berger's archives visit occurred as he was reviewing materials as a designated representative of the Clinton administration to the national commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The question of what Clinton knew and did about the emerging al Qaeda threat before leaving office in January 2001 was acutely sensitive, as suggested by Berger's determination to spend hours poring over the Clarke report before his testimony.
The Berger associate authorized to speak with reporters described the chronology the former national security chief gave to the Justice Department in his negotiations with the Justice Department. On Sept. 2, 2003, the associate said, Berger put a copy of the Clarke report in his suit jacket. He did not put it in his socks or underwear, as was alleged by some Republicans last summer. On Oct. 2, 2003, he again spent hours at the archives and took four more versions of the document. Back in his office, he studied them in detail, realized they were largely identical, and took the scissors to three of the copies, the associate said. Berger friends regarded the agreement as fair, given the circumstances, and Breuer's statement praised the "professionalism" of the lawyers he worked with at the Justice Department.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/01/2005 8:51:56 AM ||
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#1
Sandy, baby. Are those top secret documents stuffed down your pants or are you just glad to see me?
#5
If Martha Stewart gets 6 months for doing nothing illegal, I hope he spends a year at leavenworth for stealing state secrets. I'd love to see him do the perp walk into the paddy wagon.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/01/2005 10:53 Comments ||
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#6
In six months, Berger will be back on TV. He will be described as "Clinton's NSA" and no mention will be made of his guilt. Anyone "tasteless" enough to bring it up will be called a "McCarthyite" and given a stern lecture to "move on".
In 2008, Berger's "suspension" will expire. He will be on the short list of candidates to be in a Democrat administration. Any mention of his crime will be met with screeches about "witch hunts", "fascism", and even sterner lectures to "move on". We'll all get to hear about how the US is the land of forgiveness and how people who have made mistakes should be given another chance.
Meanwhile, the press will never ask anyone, anywhere, anytime, just what the hell Berger was covering up, who he was protecting, and why he's gotten off so easily. No one will look into the political affiliation of the DOJ lawyers who acted so "professionally" in giving Berger a hummer instead of throwing the book at him. No one will ever wonder if, maybe, what he did wasn't just the mishandling of documents but out-and-out treason.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/01/2005 14:20 Comments ||
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#7
The AP version of this story in the local paper ommits any mention of hand-written notes or the fact that 3 of the 5 copies got the scissors treatment.
Judge Laurence H. Silberman, co-chairman of the commission that released its report on U.S. intelligence failures yesterday, was given "full and complete access" to whatever information he needed. But when it came to what questions President Bush asked of the CIA, Silberman learned everything he needed to know from Bob Woodward.
"Actually, if you read the Woodward book, it would appear that the president did ask tough questions," Silberman said in a news conference hosted by the White House.
Why would the commission, with unfettered access to the government's most sensitive documents, rely on a book anybody can buy at Borders?
Pressed on this point, Silberman allowed that the commission did not interview Bush or Vice President Cheney during its 14-month inquiry -- although it had a "discussion" about "the nature of our inquiry."
The exchange set the tone for yesterday's session at the White House. Silberman and co-chairman Charles S. Robb flanked a beaming Bush as if they were bodyguards -- and in a sense, they were.
The commission -- appointed by Bush at a time of public pressure for a congressionally appointed panel -- was directed to look at how intelligence was developed, not how policymakers used or misused it. But in their appearance before the cameras at the White House, Silberman and Robb did a good job of acquitting Bush for the way he portrayed the intelligence leading up to the Iraq war.
Silberman acknowledged that "our executive order did not direct us to deal with the use of intelligence by policymakers" -- but he and Robb proceeded to do just that. Asked whether policymakers should be held to account, Silberman argued that they used it properly: "The intelligence community came up with a 90 percent certainty of weapons of mass destruction, and that was pretty high, number one. Number two, we looked at the flow, or the stream of intelligence that came to the White House in the two years before that, and if anything, it was even more alarmist."
Silberman echoed a line from Bush's campaign speeches, arguing: "The truth of the matter is that every intelligence agency that we know of, that cooperates with the United States, in the world, had the same views."
Robb had more exoneration: "There was, in the judgment of the intelligence community -- at least as presented to the senior policymakers -- very little evidence of any doubt."
The commission report is plenty tough, but it directs its fire at the intelligence professionals -- the same ones already beaten up by the Sept. 11 commission and congressional reports -- and gives the political figures a pass.
The contrast with the Sept. 11 commission is sharp. That commission, truly independent because it was created by legislation, had public hearings, issued subpoenas, quizzed Bush and Cheney, and released a report that led to sweeping legislation.
The Silberman-Robb commission made little public effort to show its independence -- evidenced yesterday by the decision to release the report in the White House complex. White House aides sat in the front row; at one point, during Robb and Silberman's presentation, national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley and homeland security adviser Frances Townsend could be seen sharing a laugh.
Bush was visibly delighted as he celebrated the commission for its "unvarnished look." His 800 words of praise for the commission included no direct admission that the prewar Iraq intelligence was wrong, but he hailed the commission for criticizing the intelligence community. "The commission report delivers a sharp critique of the way intelligence has been collected and analyzed against some of the most different intelligence targets, especially Iraq," he said.
The president ignored a question as he left the room, but Silberman and Robb proved able surrogates. Asked whether there was political pressure on the CIA, Robb was categorical in denial. "We found absolutely no instance," he said.
That statement by Robb, a former Democratic senator from Virginia, went too far for Silberman, who was made an appellate judge by President Ronald Reagan.
Silberman said intelligence analysts were questioned "a number of times" on an "important connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda or terrorism." The analysts were "quite resistant" to that notion.
After 36 minutes of this, Silberman called an end to the session. White House staff held reporters in the room until commissioners could be spirited out of the building -- and away from further questioning.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/01/2005 12:09:00 AM ||
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Lol! It's fun to read between the lines of a WaPo story where they didn't get to bash Bush - and clearly wanted to, lol! Sucks to be you, all pumped up on Tranzoids and no one to take it out on, heh. I'll bet the Editors gave this extra-special care and handling to put as much suggestive spin as possible (e.g."as if they were bodyguards -- and in a sense, they were") into the piece. But knowing the source, it's merely entertainment to watch them squeeze and strain, popping veins, and getting zilch for their hemorrhoidal effort. Whores.
The U.S. Department of Defense has developed Kevlar shorts for the troops, to provide protection from one the more common fatal wounds, a severed femoral artery. When this blood vessel is cut, large quantities of blood are lost quickly, and it is difficult to stop the bleeding. The femoral artery is deep in the thigh, making a tourniquet difficult to apply. The new shorts, weighing eight pounds, also protect the genital area from shell or bomb fragments. The new shorts are not bullet proof (but will stop some pistol bullets and ricochets), has 28 layers of Kevlar material, weighs eight pounds and are bulky. The infantry won't use them because of the weight and movement restrictions. But for troops escorting convoys, they are a welcome bit of additional protection against roadside bomb fragments. The new Kevlar shorts have not been issued yet, and are still being field tested. Funny how we get closer and closer to fielding knights in suits of armor again. I wonder if we'll ever come up with another weapon that will defeat all modern armor and begin the cycle anew?
Posted by: Dar ||
04/01/2005 1:55:37 PM ||
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Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
04/01/2005 14:11 Comments ||
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The new shorts, weighing eight pounds
Can anyone imagine wearing underwear that weighs eight pounds?
also protect the genital area from shell or bomb fragments
OK, for that, I will.
Funny how we get closer and closer to fielding knights in suits of armor again. I wonder if we’ll ever come up with another weapon that will defeat all modern armor and begin the cycle anew?
Of course we will. That's been the course of weapons technology for centuries. Better defense -> better offense -> better defense -> better offense...
I suspect we'll see something like Heinlein's Mobile Infantry in ten or twenty years. I can think of at least three trends supporting their development -- information technology on the battlefield, armor requirements and limitations, and the need for forces that can make precise but massively destructive strikes at short notice.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/01/2005 14:24 Comments ||
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weighing in at 8 lbs , do they come with a zipper :))
#5
My dad said that the Marines tried a version of these during the Korean War. Fifteen pounds of steel plate. They gave them the option of wearing them on patrols. Very few guys did.
#8
I've seen concept videos of body armor that can switch between being flexible at joints and being locked up for serious protection ... think nanotech and lots of computer smarts built in. 2015 or so for deployment, maybe.
Posted by: too true ||
04/01/2005 17:03 Comments ||
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The Defense Department has approved Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F/A-22 fighter for full production, people familiar with the matter said, giving the stealthy supersonic jet the seal of approval just when the White House is targeting it for budget cuts.
The decision is a critical milestone for the complex and controversial aircraft, which has been under development since the Cold War and whose costs have soared. The green light could provide ammunition for advocates of the F/A-22 ahead of congressional budget votes and a broader Pentagon review of long-term acquisition priorities. That is because the approval by the Defense Acquisition Board, the Pentagon's top procurement panel, is an endorsement of the plane's capabilities as well as Lockheed's ability to produce it at the rate and cost determined by the Air Force.
A Pentagon spokesman said only that the board met Tuesday and that a formal written decision is being drafted. Tom Jurkowsky, a spokesman for Lockheed, of Bethesda, Md., said the company hasn't been officially notified of the decision.
To maintain global air superiority, the Air Force says, it needs 381 F/A-22s, which can fly at supersonic speeds for prolonged distances. The F/A-22 "is really the only plane either manned or unmanned" that has both the speed and the radar-evading capability to counter surface-to-air missiles and advanced fighters being built by other countries, Gen. John Jumper, the Air Force's chief of staff, told a House appropriations subcommittee last month.
Over the service's objections, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and White House officials seized on the high-profile program to show their determination to rein in Pentagon weapons spending. President Bush's latest budget proposes buying only around 180 F/A-22s and halting production at the end of the decade in order to save $10.5 billion.
Central to the swirling debate about the jet has been its cost. Critics say that including development spending, each F/A-22 costs some $250 million. Air Force generals counter that going forward, the price tag will be about $110 million apiece, not much more than the current top-of-the line F-15 fighter.
The Pentagon's approval is a boost for Lockheed, which had to overcome crippling software problems in the F/A-22. Modern fighters are analog platforms for battle software ... HUGE numbers of lines of code, which must operate in real time. no small challenge & nothing in the civilian world comes close in complexity or difficulty
Posted by: too true ||
04/01/2005 12:53:13 PM ||
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Good, strike missions can be handled by RPVs, but to gain air supremacy requires a man in the cockpit. F-15s and 16s are getting old and are not stealthy. When we go up against China in the future, we'll need this plane to counter their advantage in numbers.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/01/2005 13:20 Comments ||
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We can ignore the build numbers, because once this line is started, it will be hard to shut down till the plane loses consistently to UCAVs. Then there will be the export market.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/01/2005 13:54 Comments ||
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Mrs Davis - Exports with a magic "off" switch hopefully. :)
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
04/01/2005 14:13 Comments ||
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I dunno Mrs. D. Once upon a time I thought the rapid approach the 40th birthday of the buffs would keep the B1-B in production. Having not learned my lesson I later thought the rapid approach of the 50th birthday of the buffs would keep the B2 line open. I predict the DOD will get no more than 1/3 of the F/A22s they've requested.
#7
Don't the Brits have too many fighters that they are committed to buy? I read somewhere that the UK gov is trying to sell off at least half of the 232 Typhoons even before they are delivered? Last I heard, the cost is now over 80 million euros a copy. Then there is the upcomming F35 buy.
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2005 15:40 Comments ||
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Unfortunately the MOD hasnt much foresight when it comes to purchases , and as a joint venture we felt obliged to buy Typhoons , to show how good they are (insert laughter here )
As regards the F-35 (although I confess to knowing little about it ) I feel we would get more use out of the F-22 ...
Then again , the MoD knows best , right ?
#9
I think the F35 buy is for the two planned large deck carriers (and maybe the existing Harrier carriers). There is no alternative to the vertical takeoff F35 since the two carriers are not scheduled to have catapults (last I heard). This is really interesting because without catapults, the carrier won't have any E2 early warning and control planes, thus becomming a really big version of a Harrier carrier.
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2005 16:11 Comments ||
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BTW the planned F35 buy was 150 planes and the British were a tier 1 partner (specification input, part of the design and build work)
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2005 16:18 Comments ||
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My feelings are that we have enough VTOL fighters , and they are handy and versitile , but we need supplimentry air support to complement what we do have ( a complete overhaul of air defence would be a financial disaster). The F=22 in small numbers would be more beneficial especially in todays operational enviroment of *cough* *splutter* rapid response.
#13
The British large platform carriers may have a "cat capable" build... whatever that means. Meanwhile sell them some F-22, give some to the IDF and allow Japan to buy all they want. And the Aussies cut 'em a deal, they need 24... you will note ima bring down unit costs. Give Canada a nice picture and a few airshows, unless they can find the dough, thisn the big time.
#16
It means catapults can be retrofitted. This seems foolish since they are starting with a partially capable carrier. The bow has a ski slope, so only the side landing strip can later accommodate a catapult. Hope they angled the deck enough so that a fully extended E2C won't hit the ski slope on launch.
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2005 17:18 Comments ||
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I'm all for selling the F22 to the UK, Japan, Australia. But I think the current build price around $110-130 million. Any additional quantities won't lower the cost that much. Then factor in R&D cost, some of which the USAF may want to recoup on any overseas buy.
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2005 17:24 Comments ||
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#18
Ship, throw in a US-citizenship special offer to the remaining skeleton of the Canadian armed forces who are disgusted at the situation there.
The chief U.N. internal watchdog was himself accused of wrongdoing on Thursday after investigators found that an assistant he hired with money from the Iraq oil-for-food plan did no work for that program. The charge against Dileep Nair, who heads the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services, was the latest in a steady drum-beat of bad news for the United Nations. The organization has struggled to regain its footing following a wave of top staff changes, wrongdoing charges against several officials and findings of impropriety and mismanagement in the oil-for-food program. U.N. refugee chief Ruud Lubbers resigned in February amid sexual harassment allegations, and word leaked out this week that Carina Perelli, the highly regarded head of the U.N. elections unit, was accused in a confidential U.N.-commissioned report of making unwanted sexual advances toward a male employee and creating a sexually charged work environment.
"C'mere, you stallion!"
"Help! Help! She's gonna get me!"
The Nair allegations surfaced just weeks before the end of his five-year term in office. U.N. chief spokesman Fred Eckhard read a list of the top contenders to succeed him seconds after announcing that he had been charged with violations of U.N. staff regulations. In a second matter targeting Nair, Eckhard said the United Nations would commission an outside review to help decide whether to reopen an inquiry into charges of sexual harassment and hiring favoritism on the basis of nationality.
His entire 800-member staff consisted of 18-year-old Brazilian girls? What's wrong with that?
Those allegations, leveled against Nair by the U.N. Staff Committee on the basis of an anonymous letter, had been dismissed last year. But the staff committee has been pressing for further action after presenting more detailed evidence. Nair had no immediate comment on the two actions but in the past has vigorously denied any wrongdoing.
"There ain't nothin' wrong with 18-year-old Brazilian girls! Take my word for that!"
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 1:07:50 PM ||
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UNITED NATIONS: The head of the UN elections unit has been accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward a male employee and creating a sexually charged work environment, according to a confidential UN-commissioned report. The allegations were more bad news for Secretary-General Kofi Annan as the United Nations faced findings of impropriety and mismanagement in the $67 billion oil-for-food programme for Iraq and sexual abuses by UN peacekeepers. In addition UN refugee chief Ruud Lubbers resigned in February amid sexual harassment allegations.
Carina Perelli, the highly praised Uruguayan director of the Electoral Assistance Division, who helped organise elections in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been charged with violating UN staff rules and was preparing a written response to the charges, UN officials said on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Her defence would be analysed by senior official to determine if disciplinary action was warranted.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#11
. . . Carina Perelli . . .was accused in a confidential U.N.-commissioned report of making unwanted sexual advances toward a male employee and creating a sexually charged work environment.
If someone who looked like her made sexual advances at me, I wouldn't want it, either.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/01/2005 14:09 Comments ||
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#12
Can you imagine what she did to create a "sexually charged work environment"?
*gulp*
I think I'm gonna be sick...
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/01/2005 14:29 Comments ||
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#13
My God! Must I hire someone even uglier to stop this shit! Is that even possible!
Bring the damn limo around! I'm drinking early today...
Posted by: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan ||
04/01/2005 14:32 Comments ||
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#14
Rosie O'Donnell
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2005 14:50 Comments ||
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US officials have warned that a group of Muslim separatist guerrillas with whom the Philippine government is set to begin peace talks may have ties to two al-Qaeda-linked outfits.
President Arroyo's administration is to begin talks with the MILF in Malaysia on April 16. The 12,000-member MILF has been waging an armed campaign since 1978 to set up a Muslim state on the southern third of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines. "We have been receiving information from the Americans about the link (between) MILF, Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf," Ermita said, referring to two Islamic militant groups with alleged ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network.
Washington has included the Southeast Asia-based Jemaah Islamiyah and the Mindanao-based Abu Sayyaf on its "foreign terrorist organization" blacklist, alongside the communist New People's Army (NPA) which is also mounting a guerrilla campaign in the Philippines. Ermita said the Philippine government suspects that a number of MILF factions may be providing shelter or even training facilities to militant groups in Mindanao. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Fallon said: "I think the government here has a big challenge because there are several groups, several insurgencies that are ongoing."
The two allies are pursuing counter-terrorism-oriented joint military training. The next exercises are set to start on the Abu Sayyaf stronghold of Basilan next week. Ermita said Manila asked Washington to refrain from including the MILF on the State Department blacklist for now, to give the peace talks a chance to succeed. "The national government has made it known to the US that maybe we should give the peace process a chance to move forward so we have expressed to them that the MILF should not be included in the list of FTO (foreign terrorist organizations), for the moment," he said. "We have some degree of confidence about how the peace process is moving as far as the MILF is concerned," he added.
Manila is observing a 2003 ceasefire with the MILF, with Kuala Lumpur and several other Organization of the Islamic Conference states providing a small list of ceasefire monitors to the south. Peace talks with the NPA's parent organization, meanwhile, have broken down over the US blacklist.
This article starring:
Adm. William Fallon
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita
New People's Army
Abu Sayyaf
Jemaah Islamiyah
Moro Islamic Liberation Front
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/01/2005 12:05:21 AM ||
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The three seamen kidnapped from a Malaysian tugboat were sighted with five gunmen in the Tawi Tawi chain of islands in southern Philippines just hours after their vessel was attacked.
However, no ransom demand has been made for the Bonggaya 91 skipper Resmiadi, 31, and crewmen Erikson Hutagaol, 23, and Yamin Labuso, 26.
The three Indonesian nationals were grabbed at gunpoint near Pulau Mataking in the Sulawesi Sea at about 10.20am on Wednesday.
"I have received reports that the gunmen and the three victims have been seen at the main island of Tawi Tawi," said Nur Jaafar, a former Tawi Tawi congressman and now a special representative of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in southern Philippines.
He told The Star the eight were spotted less then six hours after the attack, which has set off a massive hunt by Malaysian and Filipino security forces in the border waters off the east coast of Sabah.
Jaafar said the group responsible for the kidnapping could have some connections with the East Ocean tugboat raid last April. The Indonesian skipper and two Sarawakians taken hostage then are believed to be dead in the jungles of Tawi Tawi.
According to the Philippines military, it is suspected that the gunmen could be linked to the Abu Sayyaf militant group, which the United States have accused of being part of the Jemaah Islamiah and al-Qaeda network in this region.
In Semporna, Sabah deputy police commissioner Senior Asst Comm I Mohd Bakri Zinin said the police had sought the help of their Philippines counterpart to locate the victims.
"Our security in the east coast is under control and the incident occurred outside Malaysian waters," he told reporters yesterday after meeting security forces patrolling the Sabah east coast.
He added that the four remaining crew members of Bonggaya 91 and its barge, Bonggaya 90, who returned to Sandakan at 8.30am yesterday, were under the care of the police.
On reaching the jetty at Kampung Kombo, the four gave their statements to the police.
SAC Bakri also said the police believed the latest incident was not linked to a series of pirate attacks off Lahad Datu about two weeks ago but were investigating if it had any links with the East Ocean raid.
The Filipino gunmen attacked the tugboat as it was negotiating the Alice Channel along the international shipping lane about three nautical miles from Pulau Mataking, an hour's high-speed boat ride from Semporna.
Syarikat Pengangkutan Bonggaya director Vincent Chang said this was the first time in the Sandakan-based company's 40-year history that one of their tugboats had been attacked.
"We have not received any word from the gunmen or our abducted crew. We don't know their whereabouts," he added.
Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman said the police and armed forces would continue to patrol the border areas to ensure that such incidents did not recur.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/01/2005 12:34:46 AM ||
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Authorities in the Philippines say the militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) has halted its training operations on the southern island of Mindanao. It follows a recent statement by Singapore's home affairs minister that JI is using Mindanao as a training base to build a South East Asia terrorist network. The Philippine police intelligence group director, Ismael Rafanan, says JI's training in the south stopped in the middle of last year, and the terrorists have been since on the run. Our reporter in Manila, Shirley Escalante, says security forces continue to conduct air strikes on suspected training camps in the central Mindanao.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/01/2005 12:33:49 AM ||
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Philippine authorities said on Friday they were investigating what a Palestinian, linked to local Muslim extremists, may have been planning when he entered the country without a visa recently.
Just the usual...drinking, wenching, cockfights, re-establishing the Caliphate.
Intelligence officials said they are looking into the local contacts of Fawaz Zi Ajjur, 39, who was detained on March 26 after arriving in the southern city of Zamboanga after travelling a circuitous route across the globe.
Doubling up on his frequent jihadi miles...
Fawaz was originally due to be deported but was detained after two former militants of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, identified him as allegedly being one of six "Arab-looking foreigners" who trained guerrillas in their camp.
"Abu al-Hebroni...yah we'd know his ugly mug anywhere."
The two Abu Sayyaf members, who have turned state witness, said the Palestinian worked with the group in 2000 and instigated the Abu Sayyaf to stage kidnapping attacks to gain international media attention and embarrass the government. A smiling Fawaz, wearing an orange T-shirt of detained suspects, was presented to the media in Zamboanga Friday by regional military chief Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza and immigration chief Alipio Fernandez.
"Ya got me, infidels. Bring on the pliers!"
Fawaz made no remarks in his brief appearance before he was taken away by the intelligence agents. Fernandez said "our interrogation will continue and we will file a case against him," although he did not give specifics.
Note: it involves ladies' finery.
"This is a big fish," Fernandez remarked.
Note: Aqua-colored finery.
The military said Fawaz had a commerce degree from the University of Kuwait and has been married three times, to a Filipina, a Kuwaiti and a Ukrainian.
Needs one more to be Just Like Mo...
His passport showed that he left Kiev, Ukraine on March 11, landed in Bangkok where he stayed for a week, then took a train to Kuala Lumpur, flew to Sandakan and from there, flew to Zamboanga City. He had only 2,000 pesos (36.50 dollars) with him when he arrived in Zamboanga, raising suspicions, Fernandez said. Intelligence sources said Fawaz had been receiving money via Western Union but did not say who was sending it to him.
Is he a message courier maybe?
The government has been on the look-out for foreigners who may be involved with the Abu Sayyaf which has been linked by both Washington and Manila to the Al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.
Good catch, Pinoys.
This article starring:
Alipio Fernandez
FAWAZ ZI AJJUR
al-Qaeda
Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/01/2005 12:10:09 AM ||
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Say what you will about Bashar Assad, dictator of Syria and perhaps the dimmest eye doctor ever produced by British medical schools, but subtle he is not. Since the huge street demonstrations against his occupation of Lebanon, three terrorist bombings have occurred there, all in heavily Christian, anti-Syrian neighborhoods. Only slightly less subtle was the nearly half-million-man Beirut rally demanding Syria's continued occupation, staged by Syria's Lebanese client, Hezbollah, followed by the "spontaneous" demonstration Assad orchestrated for himself in Damascus.
Then there is this week's public admission by a captured Hamas terrorist in Israel that he was trained in Syria. This is the first direct account of such active involvement by Syria, although everyone knows that the Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad are headquartered in, and assisted by, Syria. Everyone also knows that Syria is abetting the terrorist insurgency in Iraq. Syria made its intentions unmistakable when Assad sent his prime minister to Tehran to declare an alliance with Iran when world pressure began to build on Damascus after the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
All this regional mischief-making is critical because we are at the dawn of an Arab Spring -- the first bloom of democracy in Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine and throughout the greater Middle East -- and its emerging mortal enemy is a new axis of evil whose fulcrum is Syria. The axis stretches from Iran, the other remaining terror state in the region, to Syria to the local terror groups -- Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad -- that are bent on destabilizing Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and destroying both Lebanese independence and the current Israeli-Palestinian rapprochement.
Iran is the senior partner of this axis of evil. Syria is the crucial middle party allowing a non-Arab state to reach into the heart of the Middle East. For example, Hezbollah receives its weapons from Iran, shipped through Syria. And Iranian Revolutionary Guards are stationed today in the Bekaa Valley, under Syrian protection. The alliance goes back a long way. Syria under the Assad dynasty was the only major Arab country to support Persian Iran against Arab Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War. They form a true axis because, unlike the 2002 State of the Union axis, all of the parts are connected and working with each other. The last axis of evil -- Iran, North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq -- was evil but no axis. They were more like points of evil, with North Korea included, as I wrote at the time, as a concession to ethnic diversity.
Today the immediate objective of this Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas-Islamic Jihad axis is to destabilize Syria's neighbors (Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian Authority) and sabotage any Arab-Israeli peace. Its strategic aim is to quash the Arab Spring, which, if not stopped, will isolate, surround and seriously imperil these remaining centers of terrorism and radicalism.
How, then, to defeat it? Iran is too large, oil-rich and entrenched to be confronted directly. The terror groups are too shadowy. But Syria is different. Being a state, it has an address. The identity and location of its leadership, military installations and other fixed assets are known. Unlike Iran, however, it has no oil of any significance. It is poor. And the regime is weak, despised not only for its corruption and incompetence but also because of its extremely narrow ethnic base. Assad and his gang are almost exclusively from the Alawite sect, a Shiite offshoot considered heretical by many Muslims and representing about 10 percent of the Syrian population.
Syria is the prize. It is vulnerable and critical, the geographic center of the axis, the transshipment point for weapons, and the territorial haven for Iranian and regional terrorists. If Syria can be flipped, the axis is broken. Iran will not be able to communicate directly with the local terrorists. They will be further weakened by the loss of their Syrian sponsor and protector. Prospects for true Lebanese independence and Arab-Israeli peace will improve dramatically.
As Iraq, in fits and starts, begins finding its way to self-rule, the center of gravity of the Bush Doctrine and the American democratization project shifts to Lebanon/Syria. The rapid evacuation and collapse of the Syrian position in Lebanon is crucial not just because of what it will do for Lebanon but because of the weakening effect it will have on the Assad dictatorship.
We need, therefore, to be relentless in insisting on a full (and as humiliating as possible) evacuation of Syria from Lebanon, followed by a campaign of economic, political and military pressure on the Assad regime. We must push now and push hard.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/01/2005 10:54:57 AM ||
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WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- Iran was quietly making gas centrifuges at a site in Tehran that was later detected by international inspectors, says a report released Thursday. A Washington-based anti-nuclear proliferation group, the Institute for Science and International Security, said Iran established the facility called Kalaye Electric in 1995.
The Persian name, which means "electric goods," was chosen to mislead people about the real purpose of the site, said Corey Hinderstein, a deputy director at the institute who researched the Iranian site. "They have been using the site to research, develop and manufacture gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment," Hinderstein said. The centrifuges can also be used for enriching weapon-grade uranium. The United States believes Iran is secretly working on a project to make nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge.
Hinderstein said Iran had to reveal the real purpose of the site when international pressure forced it to allow inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to visit Kalaye Electric in May 2003. Samples collected by the IAEA inspectors from the site but " had signs of uranium," she said.
That last sentance is mangled in this story. From UPI source:
Initially Iranians were reluctant to allow the inspectors to collect samples from the site but "they have now come clean and allowed IAEA inspectors to take samples and some of these samples had signs of uranium," she said.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/01/2005 9:27:46 AM ||
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President Bashar Assad has quashed jail sentences imposed by the state security court on two students who walked free Thursday, one day after the Syrian leader pardoned 300 detained Kurds, a human rights lawyer said. "President Bashar Assad refused to approve the verdict issued by the state security court against students Mohammed Bashir Arab and Muhannad Debes, who were released today," Anwar Bunni said. The lawyer praised the releases but called for the "cancellation of all verdicts issued by the state security court which is an emergency tribunal, as well as the release of all political prisoners," including six opposition members still held after being arrested in September 2001.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Lebanese opposition leaders yesterday accused Syria and its local allies of trying to block elections due in May to stave off likely defeat and prolong the life of the mainly pro-Syrian Parliament. As Syrian forces evacuated positions near their main military and intelligence headquarters in Lebanon yesterday after a night of bomb scares in Beirut, opposition leaders had been meeting to discuss a protracted government crisis. "The Lebanese-Syrian security authority, with its political and constitutional symbols, is working to sabotage the parliamentary polls in a dangerous attempt to extend the term of the current Parliament, illegally and unconstitutionally," the loosely allied opposition front said in a statement.
The statement reiterated an opposition demand for a government composed of ministers not running in the polls. "Everyone should bear their historic responsibilities and hold the elections without hindrance or delay," it said. Syrian-backed Prime Minister-designate Omar Karami has said he will step down today because he had failed to convince the opposition to join a national unity Cabinet. Meanwhile, witnesses said troops had dismantled two military posts near Anjar, the nerve center of Syria's presence in Lebanon. About 18 trucks loaded with soldiers and equipment from the posts near the village in the Bekaa Valley drove into Syria overnight. Troops in the southern Bekaa were also seen preparing to abandon their posts.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Syrian President Bashar Assad, in a bid to fortify national unity, issued a presidential decree pardoning 312 Syrian Kurds accused of taking part in riots in Syria last year. The decree by President Bashar said that the "Syrian Kurdish citizens have been released in the framework of a presidential pardon that was based on a desire to enhance national harmony and unity in the country." Observers saw the presidential pardon as part of a wider plan by the government to introduce more reforms and implement practical measures to meet some demands by the Kurdish activists in the country. Syria promised the United Nations this week to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon before the elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Since the Palestinian Authority was established, dozens of citizens have been found guilty of treason by its civil, military, and state security courts. The offenses have included passing information to foreign countries, murder and rape. Many of the guilty Palestinian civilians have been sentenced to death by firing squad. However, to date only a few of these death sentences have actually been carried out. prolly saving the bullets for joos.
According to the Basic Palestinian Law, which serves as the interim Palestinian constitution, "the death sentence will not be carried out by any court except after being approved by the president of the Palestinian National Authority." During his rule, previous PA Chairman Yasser Arafat approved a small number of executions; now, the cases of those condemned to death await the approval of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). so the chairman approves the executions, not a member of the judiciary. how progressive
Approval of Executions in the Context of the PA's Reform Program
Recently, a number of leading Palestinian officials announced the PA's intention to carry out pending death sentences. Northern Gaza Governor Sakhr Bsiso announced that Abu Mazen recently approved [the carrying out of] a number of death sentences. As the Palestinian Justice Minister Farid Al-Jallad explained, "The PA will carry out the death penalty with regard to a number of Palestinians accused of collaboration and passing information to Israel." ohhhhh so THAT'S who gets executed first. I sorta figured they'd go after murderers and rapists. silly me. heh. Military Justice System Director Saeb Al-Qidwa even announced that "the executions will be carried out by the security apparatuses, under the supervision of the civil and military judicial apparatuses." This is some crowd, eh Yussuf?
Yer not kiddin' Achmed
Been a long time since we've seen a good execution, y'know? Gives a Believer a warm feeling all over.
yeah. if only it was a joo.
yeah.
It should be noted that the Palestinian Minister of Justice Farid Al-Jallad and the Mufti of the PA Ikrima Al-Sabri explained that those who were sentenced to death, especially those sentenced by military courts for expedited justice and state security courts that were abolished in July 2003, can turn to the Palestinian cabinet to request a retrial. According to Al-Jallad, the Palestinian Ministry of Justice has already received two such requests. expedited justice. heh.
The Palestinian factions and the families of the crime victims have been pressuring the PA to carry out the executions. Thus, for example, on February 5, 2005, a group of some 100 gunmen burst into a Palestinian Legislative Council session in Gaza, expelled the police personnel who were present, and took over the building. According to an investigation of the incident by the Al-Mezan Human Rights Center, the gunmen were representing a group of families who had lost members in violent incidents in the PA, and they had burst into the building to pressure the PA to execute their relatives' murderers. According to the investigation's findings, the group left the building after a brief meeting between Abu Mazen and the heads of the families.
The Union of Palestinian Ulama urged Abu Mazen to quickly approve the executions "in order to prevent bloodshed, to curb the domestic social situation, and to act to guarantee security and the stability of the regime." that is one of the scariest sentences I have ever read: approve executions to maintain order. Continued on Page 49
A decade ago, the AV-8 Harrier was the most accident-prone plane in America's arsenal. Engine program manager Lt. Col. Robert Kuckuk of the Marines' Harrier program office helped redesign its engine and its maintenance program after a series of deadly accidents killed 45 of his fellow Marine pilots. That program now takes 25 man-hours per flight hour, but accident rates plunged. At the same time, the AV-8 has found its niche amidst the urban operations that have characterized Operation Iraqi Freedom. After the Harrier's most recent engine redesign overhaul, serious accidents dropped from 39 every 100,000 flight hours to 3.17 per 100,000 flight hours in 2001. In Iraq, Harriers have now flown nearly 11,000 hours without a mishap since May 2004.
One of the AV-8B Harrier's most valuable assets is a camera pod that was designed to guide bombs but can spot men and cars in almost any weather, at distances where subjects don't know they're being watched. The Harrier's outstanding slow flight and hovering performance makes it uniquely suited to employ its camera, then accurately deliver ordnance in minutes within 150 meters of friendly troops in cities like Fallujah. The Marines first bought the British-designed Harriers in 1971, replaced them with a newer model in 1985, upgraded them in 1993 and fixed them in 2000.
Posted by: Dar ||
04/01/2005 3:39:28 PM ||
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#1
why don't they just mount cameras like those on helos?
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
04/01/2005 15:45 Comments ||
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#2
Yeah, thisn a press release. The USMC changes their maintenance guys too often for this plane. The Brits do fine with it, but their maintenance people stay with the plane for years.
The U.N. Security Council has approved a resolution to prosecute Sudanese war crimes suspects before the International Criminal Court, after the United States reversed policy and agreed not to veto the document. The United States, which abstained with three other countries, won significant concessions, including ironclad guarantees it sought that Americans working in Sudan would not be handed over to either the ICC or any other nation's courts if they committed crimes in Sudan. With U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan looking on, the council voted 11-0. Algeria, Brazil and China also abstained. Acting U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson said the United States still "fundamentally objects" to the court but was determined to get something done on Sudan.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 12:54:43 PM ||
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A U.S. Army captain convicted in the shooting death of a wounded Iraqi was dismissed today from the armed forces, but the military court did not impose a prison sentence. Capt. Rogelio "Roger" Maynulet, 30, was convicted Thursday of assault with intent to commit voluntary manslaughter, which carries a 10-year maximum sentence. He argued the killing was "honorable" because he wanted to end the man's suffering. Maynulet, who was convicted of a lesser charge than the one he originally faced, assault with the intent to commit murder, said he was sorry to be forced to leave the Army. "It's bittersweet," he said. "I'm happy to have my life back, but I'm being forced out of my family. Still, I'm definitely happy I'm not in confinement."
Maynulet stood at attention as Lt. Col. Laurence Mixon, the head of the six-member panel hearing his case, announced the sentence. He then embraced his defense lawyers and his wife, who burst into tears. Prosecutors had sought a three-year prison term for Maynulet in addition to dismissal from the armed forces, arguing that a strong penalty would send a signal to other U.S. soldiers that such behavior would not be tolerated.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 12:39:13 PM ||
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Another major Shia religious festival, which lasted from 29-31 March, ended without incident. The government made a major effort to provide security for the large gatherings of Shia Arabs attending religious ceremonies. Sunni Arab terrorists, especially al Qaeda, consider these ceremonies a major insult to Sunni religious beliefs. The government deployed a security effort on the same level as the one rolled out for the January elections. Coalition troops deployed mostly as back up and quick reaction forces. Al Qaeda tried to use suicide car bombers, but none of them got through to large assemblies of Shia Arabs. In one incident, a car bomb went off and killed five people, which was the most any of the attacks were able to do.
Another reason the attacks were not successful was that, in the days before March 29th, police arrested hundreds of Sunni Arabs and foreigners suspected of being terrorists. Many were, and this is because an increasing number of Sunni Arab religious leaders have changed their minds about armed resistance to democracy, and coalition forces. This has made it easier for Sunni Arabs to pass on information to the police. The Sunni religious leaders have done the math and concluded that they were backing the losing side. Some have made deals with the government, to provide information, or pro-government sermons, in return for favorable treatment (money, access to jobs for their followers, reconstruction projects). But most have simply stopped preaching violence, or cut back on the intensity of their calls for violence against Kurds, Sunni Arabs and infidels (non-Moslems). Many Sunni Arab clerics have also noted that most of their followers are not in favor of terror attacks that kill Iraqis, no matter what their religion or ethnicity. The terrorists have largely given up attacking American troops. The level of such attacks is about half what it was a year ago. The reason is that the attackers are much more likely to fail, and get killed, when they attack American troops. It's much easier, and safer, to attack Iraqi civilians, or even Iraqi police and troops. But the Iraqi government forces are becoming more lethal as well, and Iraqi government forces usually have American troops backing them up.
The impact of all this has been striking. The overall level of terrorist violence has fallen by about half in the last month. Terrorist attacks that target Iraqis has been very unpopular in Iraq, and caused even many Sunni Arabs to turn against al Qaeda and Sunni Arab terrorist organizations. But at the street level, most Iraqis are more concerned with criminal gangs (who commit far more violence against Iraqis than terrorists) and corruption (which is encountered daily, while you might go weeks without even hearing about a terror attack in your neighborhood.)
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2005 7:30:20 AM ||
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Proselytising Pakistani clerics, an Algerian fundamentalist group allied to al Qaeda and growing resentment of U.S. foreign policy were causes for concern but did not make West Africa a hotbed of terrorism, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said. "There are enough indicators to justify caution and greater western involvement out of security interests, but it has to be done more carefully than it has been so far," ICG's West Africa project director Mike McGovern said in a report. Mindful of the al Qaeda training camps that emerged in Afghanistan, some U.S. officials say countries like Mali, Niger, Chad and Mauritania, which are among the world's poorest, make similarly fertile hunting ground for militants seeking recruits. U.S. Special Forces and military experts have trained soldiers in all four countries as part of efforts to help them fight the threat in the region's vast swathes of desert.
Preachers, most of whom are Pakistani, from a fundamentalist Muslim missionary society called Jama'at al-Tabligh (Tablighi Jamaat) have been converting former Tuareg rebels in Mali, it said. The group's teachings are similar to those that underpin the philosophy of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Although the movement itself was staunchly apolitical, its converts included British "shoe bomber" Richard Reid and the "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, captured in 2001 during the war in Afghanistan, ICG said. "Both Western and African intelligence services consider them a significant potential threat," it said. "Many analysts agree that a turn toward Tablighi fundamentalism is sometimes a first step toward a career in violent Islamist militancy."
The Tuaregs, a pale-skinned minority who live and work in the Sahara, launched insurgencies in Niger and Mali in the early 1990s because they felt persecuted by a black elite governing far away in the countries' capital cities. Resentment remains high among former fighters in the ancient Saharan trading towns of Kidal and Timbuktu in Mali and Agadez in Niger. They say too little has been done to integrate them. U.S. policy in the Sahara has so far focused on fighting smuggling networks and stopping Algeria's last powerful rebel force, the al Qaeda-linked Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), from gaining a foothold outside its homeland. Many Tuaregs in Timbuktu and Agadez viewed the presence of elite U.S. forces in their towns with suspicion during training exercises last year, seeing them as a threat to the delicate balance of power that has lasted for generations in the Sahara. ICG welcomed plans by Washington for more social and economic support but said Islamic charities, some of whose operations have been under scrutiny since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, were already filling the aid vacuum.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
04/01/2005 2:22:57 AM ||
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Al Qaeda had progressed much further toward developing a particular biological weapon before the Sept. 11 attacks than the United States realized, the presidential commission investigating intelligence on weapons of mass destruction found.
The intelligence community was surprised by al Qaeda's advances in a virulent strain in the disease, identified by the commission only as "Agent X" to prevent al Qaeda from knowing what the U.S. government has learned.
The discovery of al Qaeda's work came only after the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan removed the Taliban from power, the report says.
"Al Qaeda's biological program was further along, particularly with regard to Agent X, than pre-war intelligence indicated," the report says. "The program was extensive, well-organized, and operated for two years before September 11, but intelligence insights into the program were limited."
It was not so advanced that al Al Qaeda had a functioning weapon, the report says.
U.S. officials have previously said they found signs of al Qaeda's work in anthrax weapons in Afghanistan, but it was not clear if "Agent X" referred to anthrax. Other diseases that may be turned into weapons include smallpox, plague and ebola.
The work on Agent X was done at several sites in Afghanistan, including two with commercial lab equipment. Some intelligence information suggests cultures of the disease had been isolated and basic production was possible, the report says, but notes this is uncertain information.
U.S. assessments of al Qaeda's other efforts to acquire a weapon of mass destruction did not change substantially after U.S. and Afghan forces removed the Taliban from power after the Sept. 11 attacks, the report says. Al Qaeda was studying nuclear weapons and contacted Pakistani scientists to discuss nuclear weapons, it notes.
"We found that just prior to the war in Afghanistan in 2001, the Intelligence Community was able to correctly assess al Qaeda's limited ability to use unconventional weapons to inflict mass casualties," the report says. "Yet when the war uncovered new evidence of WMD efforts, analysts were surprised by the intentions and level of research and development underway by al Qaeda. Had this new information not been acquired, and had al Qaeda been allowed to continue weapons development, a future intelligence failure could have been in the offing."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/01/2005 12:04:05 AM ||
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#1
I remember the video CNN paid some asshole for - and watching the puppy die. Yeah, they've got a bug. I hope they get first-hand experience in its effects - before they get the opportunity to use it on innocents.
Yo, Moonbats in the US Legislature - are you getting this? Figured it out, yet?
Perhaps we could offer Kennedy, Pelosi, McKinney, Rockefeller, and Clinton to the asshats to "negotiate". No deposit, no return.
#3
When will the public figure out that these guys want to destroy western civilization, root and stock, so they can live a "pure" Islamic life in the desert with goats, a tent and no cell phones?
This isn't about some political protest. These are guys who truly wish to kill millions of people.
#4
Given the general stupidity of these terrorist types, it's likely that use of any deadly biological agents to kill their enemies will result in their demise also.
During their years in a Jordanian prison, inmates remember Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in his Afghan dress weeping uncontrollably in the courtyard whenever he knelt to pray. "Abu Musab cried constantly. He was very emotional, almost like a child," said 35-year-old Yousef Rababaa as he recalled the young militant.
"Abu! Quit that blubbering right now, or I'll give you something to blubber about!"
Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born one-time street thug who is now the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, is remembered as a gentleman obsessed with Islam's past glory.
"Gone! All gone!"
"Ohfergawsake! Mahmoud! Get him some more tissues!"
His intense loyalty, his former cellmates say, went hand in hand with a fanatical adherence to his religion. He dreamed of an Islamic utopia where people would relive the puritanical lifestyle of the faith's early founders.
This reads like a PR Release, Zarqawi is pumping up his resume for head turban.
The Arab Bedouin whose fanaticism condones the killing of fellow Muslims and is blamed by Washington for the beheading of foreign captives and suicide bombings that have maimed and killed hundreds, was a gentle almost stoic figure, his cellmates remember. They say his ability to mesmerise the closest people around him was another facet of a shadowy illusive character who has so far evaded capture.
Yup, he's going for Binny's crown.
"It's his eyes! Don't look in his eyes, Mahmoud!... Damn! Too late!"
Rababaa who left prison with Zarqawi after an amnesty in April 1999 recollects how Zarqawi stood out among his peers for his piety. "Abu Musab would be as preoccupied with writing letter after letter to his old mother as spending long hours reciting the Koran," said Rababaa.
"He's a good boy, took care of dear old mum and read the Koran while field stripping an AK, blindfolded!"
It was piety of an extreme nature that moulded Zarqawi's militancy, according to Islamlists and experts who follow many of the young adherents of the Salafi brand of Islamist jihadis. "Emotions for militants like Zarqawi shape much of their behaviour and mentality and drive them to wreak revenge for perceived injustices without thinking of the consequences," said Mohammed Najjar, a Jordanian scholar who follows radical Islamist political movements.
"Really. He's just a big bundle of sentimentality!"
Another cellmate, Khaled Abu Doma, 36, recalled the young Zarqawi's long days spent kneeling with another inmate on a mat in the prison courtyard as he patiently helped him memorise verse after verse from the Koran. Zarqawi would also wash other prisoner's clothes and scrub and clean prison lavatories, chores which other prisoners usually shunned, Abu Doma said.
So, he was the prison bitch
But Zarqawi's commitment to a purist brand of Islam put both Muslim and non-believers at odds with his ideology, said Laith Shubailat, an prominent Islamist dissident who spent years in prison for his opposition to Jordan's pro-western monarchy. Shubailat, an advocate of non-violence and a parliamentary democracy to limit the Jordanian monarchy's extensive powers, recalled that the young militant's view of the world made him reject moderates like him.
"Piss off, you moderate! I'm booked up!"
"Zarqawi may be more faithful to the tenets of Islam, but he and his followers have gone astray in their search for the truth," Shubailat said as he recollected a morning when Zarqawi invited him for breakfast. "I was an apostate for them. They have no grey. You have to be white completely. They put difficult conditions," said Shubailat, whose belief in reform from within the establishment made it impossible for him to find common ground with Zarqawi.
"Lemme see, here. I want people to have individual rights, to vote, to have a say in how their government is run. You want to cut my head off. I'm sorry. I just don't see any common ground there. Good day to you, sir."
Prison inmates and associates say Zarqawi found solace in an austere brand of Islam that gave him spiritual comfort from the social alienation he endured in a deprived upbringing. The childhood of Zarqawi, the son of an elder Bani Hassan tribesman, was shaped by poverty and the politics of the bleak industrial city of Zarqa, a melting pot of downtrodden Palestinian refugees and Bedouin tribes.
Cue the violins
Influenced by radical mosque preachers whom he encountered in the city, Zarqawi then in his late teens left in early 1989 for Afghanistan where his fellow Islamists were then fighting the "great infidels" -- the Soviet army. Zarqawi was among the last of the thousands of Arab volunteers who went to wage jihad (holy war) in Afghanistan, the most prominent of whom was Saudi born militant Osama Bin Laden. The alienated Muslim zealot who returned to Jordan in 1992 found a country going through rapid social change and could not come to terms with Westernising influences.
"Titties. Them women got titties. I just can't come to terms with that!"
Within three years he had fallen foul of the establishment. He was arrested and charged for concealing explosives in a plot to destabilise the country. Zarqawi's four years in Jordanian prisons until his release in 1999 further distanced him from mainstream society but prepared him ideologically for his future endeavours, his prison comrades say. "Those prison years were critical in shaping Zarqawi's leadership qualities among his circle of followers that prepared him for his future role in Afghanistan and later Iraq," said Najjar. In September 1999 Zarqawi went back to Afghanistan before moving to Iraq where he is still thought to operate.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/01/2005 12:15:37 AM ||
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#3
Very good article and insight to this Zarqawi psycho who has modeled his life after Muhammad's. As the Koran demands all Muslims to do. The "nice" Muslims block out and deny the evil Muhammad did and can lead a righteous life only by engaging in these mental gymnastics.
#5
Crying? Bet he quickly became the prison's favorite biatch.
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2005 8:28 Comments ||
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#6
Mac
Tosser or not, Zarq gets around pretty good for a peg leg Pete. He got his prosthesis in Saddam's Iraq where he got the best hospital, best treatment.
#7
Ahmed al-Jihadi: "He liked me to reach around while I was taking him to paradise from behind. He was actually very attentive, nothing at all like the media's image of him as a hard man (even though he had his moments, if you know what I mean). I hope to bugger him again some day, insh'allah."
Posted by: Tibor ||
04/01/2005 10:08 Comments ||
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#8
You got me bellowing and guffawing on that one, Tibor.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2005 10:19 Comments ||
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#11
"Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born one-time street thug who is now the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, is remembered as a gentleman obsessed with Islam’s past glory."
Hmm. Again, the crying and the obsession seem like displaced trauma having to do with sexual abuse. Recovering "past glory" seems a clear and recurring metaphor.
All of these Islamic leaders follow the same type: quiet, soft spoken, "devoted" to their circle--surrogate "father figures" who promise to fill the void many young Moslem men feel, but concealing a hidden drive to "get even" and create a utopia where (presumably) they can finally escape what they cannot face and process.
But wasn't he also in jail for sexual assault in Jordan?
The United States will only fuel a rise in Islamic militancy in countries bordering the Sahara desert if it takes a heavy-handed approach to fighting terrorism in the region, an influential think tank said on Thursday.
Proselytising Pakistani clerics, an Algerian fundamentalist group allied to al Qaeda and growing resentment of U.S. foreign policy were causes for concern but did not make West Africa a hotbed of terrorism, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said.
"There are enough indicators to justify caution and greater western involvement out of security interests, but it has to be done more carefully than it has been so far," ICG's West Africa project director Mike McGovern said in a report.
Mindful of the al Qaeda training camps that emerged in Afghanistan, some U.S. officials say countries like Mali, Niger, Chad and Mauritania, which are among the world's poorest, make similarly fertile hunting ground for militants seeking recruits.
U.S. Special Forces and military experts have trained soldiers in all four countries as part of efforts to help them fight the threat in the region's vast swathes of desert.
But a military policy that offers no alternative livelihoods to already marginalised nomadic populations risked causing resentment and radicalising locals further, ICG said.
Preachers, most of whom are Pakistani, from a fundamentalist Muslim missionary society called Jama'at al-Tabligh have been converting former Tuareg rebels in Mali, it said.
The group's teachings are similar to those that underpin the philosophy of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Although the movement itself was staunchly apolitical, its converts included British "shoe bomber" Richard Reid and the "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, captured in 2001 during the war in Afghanistan, ICG said.
"Both Western and African intelligence services consider them a significant potential threat," it said. "Many analysts agree that a turn toward Tablighi fundamentalism is sometimes a first step toward a career in violent Islamist militancy."
The Tuaregs, a pale-skinned minority who live and work in the Sahara, launched insurgencies in Niger and Mali in the early 1990s because they felt persecuted by a black elite governing far away in the countries' capital cities.
Resentment remains high among former fighters in the ancient Saharan trading towns of Kidal and Timbuktu in Mali and Agadez in Niger. They say too little has been done to integrate them.
U.S. policy in the Sahara has so far focused on fighting smuggling networks and stopping Algeria's last powerful rebel force, the al Qaeda-linked Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), from gaining a foothold outside its homeland.
Many Tuaregs in Timbuktu and Agadez viewed the presence of elite U.S. forces in their towns with suspicion during training exercises last year, seeing them as a threat to the delicate balance of power that has lasted for generations in the Sahara.
ICG welcomed plans by Washington for more social and economic support but said Islamic charities, some of whose operations have been under scrutiny since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, were already filling the aid vacuum.
"Even organisations known to most Americans purely as terrorist groups, like Hezbollah or Hamas, use a large part of their funds to provide social services," the report said.
"Such services are especially welcome in settings like Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad where government does not come close to meeting the needs and foreign aid is minimal."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/01/2005 12:39:21 AM ||
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Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas held a series of meetings in his office Thursday with commanders of the PA security forces to discuss ways of restoring order to the city following Wednesday night's shooting attack on the "presidential" Mukata compound.
"Hmmmm. Shall we bust a few heads, jug the rest, and make a statement on teevee that this type of behavior is unacceptable and will result in severe penalties? Or shall we blame the Jooos?" ........ "Never mind."
Dozens of Fatah gunmen went on a shooting rampage in the city, beating passersby and smashing furniture inside some of the city's prestigious restaurants, including Darna and Bardouni. The gunmen also beat some diners and waiters, forcing them to flee. Eyewitnesses identified the assailants as members of Fatah's armed wing, Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades. They said the gunmen, who were carrying automatic rifles and handguns, shouted slogans against Abbas as they attacked the restaurants, which are usually frequented by senior PA officials and their families. "We are living in a jungle," the owner of one of the restaurants told The Jerusalem Post. "These men think they are above the law and everyone is afraid of them." What law is that?
The attack started shortly after 11 p.m. when scores of gunmen arrived at the Mukata and demanded to meet face-to-face with Abbas. When the guards refused to let them in, the gunmen opened fire at one of the buildings inside the Mukata, but no one was hurt. Abbas, who was holding a meeting with top security officials in his office, later left the compound under heavy security. According to a senior Abbas adviser, the PA chairman was "enraged" by the behavior of the gunmen and ordered the security forces to arrest all those involved in the incident. The gunmen then marched towards the city center, shooting into the air and beating several passersby and merchants. They also went on the rampage inside five restaurants and cafes, beating customers and workers. "They behaved like a mafia," a waiter at one of the restaurants said. "They destroyed everything inside the restaurant and attacked some of the men and women who were there. You see such things only in cowboy movies." The waiter and several eyewitnesses said PA policemen who arrived at the scene failed to interfere to stop the attack. "They were clearly afraid of the gunmen," he added.
Read Dan Darling's article on Zarqawi at Regnum Crucis. This is a much more in-depth discussion of the rogue than one usually finds. Example:
...Who is Ahmad Fadil Nazal al-Khalayleh? "He is the most dangerous terrorist in the world," the friendly gentlemen of the General Intelligence Department (GDI) in Amman say. They must know. After all, Ahmad Fadil Nazal al-Khalayleh tried to blow up their offices some time ago. When the Jordanian secret service GID stopped a truck on the Syrian-Jordanian border in the night of 31 March last year, it discovered explosives hidden in the cargo. The driver and the co-driver were subjected to meticulous questioning, commonly known as torture. What they disclosed got the GID interrogators into a state of utter panic. Plans exist for a concerted action to blow up the US Embassy, the office of the prime minister, the residential home of the GDI director, and the headquarters of the Jordanian secret service with the help of 20 tons of explosives. What paralyzed the investigators was the information they got during the interrogations: a second series of explosions is to release highly toxic chemical warfare agents. Is this the expected chemical weapons attack that all intelligence services fear? In the course of their investigations, the Jordanians then come across Muwaffaq Ali Ahmad Odwan and Azmi Abdal Fatah Hajj Yussef Jaiousi. After tapping their phones and keeping them under surveillance, the investigators strike out. Odwan is killed, while Jaiousi is arrested. Both are acknowledged experts for explosives. Both were instructed by Ahmad Fadil Nazal al-Khalayleh to carry out a chemical mega attack. At least 80,000 people could have been killed in this terrorist attack, the Jordanian authorities believe. Had the attack been successful, "this would have torn to pieces the entire Middle East," Jordanian GID officers say today, "because without state support from Syria and Iran, Al-Khalayleh's career would never have come to this point."...
The U.S. military has been ordered to delay plans for the start of a withdrawal from Iraq. Officials said the Defense Department has revised plans for the start of a withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2005. They said the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs of Staff have concluded that Iraq's military and security forces would not be ready to take on major security responsibility in the Sunni Triangle for at least another year.
Instead, the U.S. military was told that any major withdrawal would be suspended until at least mid-2006. Officials said a review of Iraqi military and security forces would be completed by the end of 2005. "So over the period ahead, we'll see some adjustments in numbers," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. "But I would be the last person to think I'm smart enough to know what that rate at which their competence and capabilities will proceed relative to the intensity of the insurgency, because one of the other things that affects the insurgency is the extent to which the Iraqi people are willing to provide intelligence and tip in favor of their government."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
The title is misleading. The US position has always been and always should be that we will leave when they are ready to handle security, all flavors and varieties, without us. Nothing else makes sense, ClueBat to the Moonbats, and nothing else should ever be communicated to the asshole MSM - any of them. Ever. Period.
Syria has demanded Iraq release two Syrians who it said were forced to confess to being spies in an Iraqi television broadcast, Syria's official news agency said yesterday. Damascus said the men were merchants and their statements aired on Iraqi television earlier this month were false. Syria's interest office in Baghdad has "presented an official complaint to the Iraqi foreign ministry about the baseless allegations that were broadcast by the government's satellite channel", the Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana) said. It said Ahmad Al Farra and Mahmoud Al Rammah "were forced to present themselves falsely and under threat as intelligence officers of the Syrian army".
"Syria urged the release of the two Syrian citizens ... and for them to be allowed to return to their homes," Sana said. Al Rammah and Al Farra had "frequented Iraq to buy leather", the agency said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Sure. Things are a bit unsettled, at the moment, so it may take awhile for all the Govt positions to be filled, duties assigned, and for everyone to settle in, but we'll get right to it - as soon as you file Form 766/233-A-85Q443-BZZ. What? Don't have one? Well, we'll get to that when the Govt Printing Office opens. Just take a seat over there, behind the DMV line.
Ebrahim Al Jaafari, the man set to become Iraq's next Prime Minister, has asked Tony Blair to help break deadlocked talks between Shiites and Kurds, Gulf News has learnt. A source close to Al Jaafari said his representatives had met with Downing Street officials and appealed to the British Prime Minister to "put pressure" on the Kurds. The Islamic Dawa Party, led by Al Jaafari, is also keen for the United States to step into the argument, the source said, although he made clear no formal request for US diplomatic intervention had yet been made. "We have had a series of meetings with the British Foreign Office and with Tony Blair's office in the last couple of weeks they understand our position. We said, frankly, international pressure needs to be put on the Kurds. They know that, now it is up to them," he told Gulf News.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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We said, frankly, international pressure needs to be put on the Kurds. Which decodes to the pressure is on us to make concessions and not on the Kurds, becuase the Kurds can afford to wait as long as it takes.
Hundreds of Egyptians ralled in Cairo yesterday demanding the departure of President Hosni Mubarak. Protesters heeded the call of the Kefaya movement in Cairo and the northern cities of Alexandria and Mansura, in the largest popular action against the 76-year-old ruler to date. Security forces were deployed in thousands to thwart what some commentators have suggested could one day lead to Egypt's own velvet revolution.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Well, I just hope everyone was properly braced and everything.
The Constitution gives the opposition the right of protest but the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) cannot force traders to participate in its shutter down strike on April 2, said Muhammad Basharrat Raja, Punjab minister for Law, while addressing the Punjab Assembly on Thursday. Replying to a point of order raised by Arshad Mehmood Baggu of the MMA, he said that traders were against strikes and the business community was helping the government with development programmes. Raja said that the government would protect traders from politicians who tried to interfere in their business. He said that there was a complete ban on processions throughout the province. He said that the MMA had violated Section 144 by taking out a procession in Faisalabad. The result was that law enforcement agencies took action against them and many MMA workers were arrested, he added.
This article starring:
ARSHAD MEHMUD BAGGU
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
Muhammad Basharrat Raja, Punjab minister for Law
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 9:43:48 PM ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Interesting. For one, I'm less than thrilled with the situation and our arrangements with Pakistan. So much could happen - but isn't happening, and won't.
Indians, regular Ravis, one on one, are open-minded regards Americans - and would give their right arm for the chance to come over... but when you get into a group of more than one, their insecurity complex and jealousy come to the surface - and they sound like any third-world group of hate-filled fools. They don't even see it in themselves.
When I brought it up with one I knew well in Saudi - he denied it. Then, next time the situation arose and I was there - I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Listen to yourself, your friends here. Why should I put up with this shit? You fuckwits have a nice lunch - without me." I ran into him a few days later and he said they'd talked about it - argued like hell, in fact - during that lunch... but he "got it". We were never good friends after that - his choice. He couldn't give up the camaraderie of his Indian buddies, isolated in Saudi, for his once in awhile Merkin friend, but he told me that was what they taught in school and it was tough to get past it. I presume immersion in America is about the only cure, but nonetheless, I do not see India as anything like and ally - just as PakiWakiLand is the most tenuous sort and a stretch.
I don't know what Singh has in mind, but he could work on their education system, for starters, and remove the Socialist Moonbat demonization of America. Maybe 20 years from now, we'll be able to call them our friends - and mean it.
#2
India is a big complex place. It has some of the world's best businesspeople and probably more raving marxists than anywhere else on the planet (China included). But India has a large educated middle class whose concerns are not that different from those in developed countries and religion is viewed in a similar way as the West. Pakistan is an ally of covenience because of geography and Cold War hangovers but India is a natural ally.
Two Paris-based Arab writers called upon the US Administration in its push for democracy in the Middle East to "reflect upon the Tunisian experience as it is worthy of much consideration". In an op-ed piece published by major French daily "Le Figaro" (www.lefigaro.com), philosophy professor Mezri Haddad and magazine editor and author Antoine Sfeir say Washington's pursuit of the "Greater Middle East Project" can be easily understood considering that the region suffers from two major ills, "religious fundamentalism and political nepotism". But the authors express their fear that "the democratic domino effect sought by US neoconservatives could turn into a nightmarish snowball pattern serving the objectives of Islamist totalitarianism." The writers see therefore a "great dilemma" for the US Administration in its attempt at "spreading democracy throughout the Arab world while making sure this virtuous dynamic benefits democrats and not theocrats."
"In this regard, it would be perhaps useful to reflect upon the Tunisian experience as it is worthy of much consideration," argue the authors who explain that from their point of view "the American project aimed at democratizing the Arab-Muslim world, getting rid of the fundamentalist virus, anchoring a culture of tolerance, and achieving women's liberation doe in fact vindicate Tunisia's strategic choices." Sfeir and Haddad explain that "the various reforms advocated by the United States for the purpose of eliminating the inherent causes of religious fundamentalism, have already been achieved in Tunisia".
Tunisia's multi-dimensional approach to fighting fundamentalist extremism has been the subject of much attention in international media in recent years. In its last issue, "The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs" (www.wrmea.com) points out that "Tunisia's anti-poverty drive -along with such other factors as educational reform, democratization, promotion of the rights of women and the separation of religion from politics — was instrumental in defeating a radical fundamentalist movement in the early 90's". According to Mezri Haddad and Antoine Sfeir, fighting fundamentalist radicalism did not divert the attention of Ben Ali from pursuing the "decisive" objective of "anchoring democracy" based on the understanding that democracy is a comprehensive and gradual process; it is not an ex-nihilo kind of creation."
The other corollaries of the Ben Ali democracy-building approach are that "there is no democracy without a minimum of social well-being and economic prosperity" and that "there is no democratic culture without the separation of the religious from the political, without the existence of a civil society, without the secularization of education, and without the liberation of women." Despite limited resources Tunisia has achieved a steady economic growth of about 5% since 1987. Its middle class spans 80% of society while the poverty rate was reduced to 4% of the population. Based on their observations, the authors argue that "The Tunisian experience might not be perfect, but can nonetheless serve already as a paradigm for all Arab-Muslim countries desiring, whether by choice, fear or constraint, to undertake homegrown reforms."
Sfeir and Haddad also note that recent positions taken by President Ben Ali, such as his pro-reform stands during the Arab Summit held in Tunis in May 2004, and the invitation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to participate in the World Summit on the Information Society reflect an "ambition to be a regenerative force in the Arab world".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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There are several problems with this recommendation of Tunisia as an alternative model - but there's one that well and truly beats the band:
It requires the anathema, the abomination of Arab Society: an honest leader.
You'll only need one hand to count the number of Arab countries (out of 22) with even the slightest chance of having such a curiosity occur -- without having to overthrow the old normal corrupt shitocracy first, that is. You'll even have fingers left over to dial the NYT to announce the miracle. Whadayaknow!
Sincere applause to Ben Ali. The exception to the Arab Rule. Um, Ben, baby, please tell us about the right of redress and the succession clauses in your constitution thingy. You know how curious free people are, right? Hear it all the time at home do ya? Such fine-print details don't seem to have reached Paris, yet.
Apologists never seem to have a follow-up act for their performances... Haddad and Sfier are invited to identify where else this will occur without, uh, um, assistance. We'd be happy to drop them from the list, assuming these two typical cliff-jumping Arab clowns know shit from shinola, have another Arab "country" they can point out, and we agree.
Otherwise, this is one hand jackingflapping clapping. Duh, boyz. Not in public, puhleeze.
After months of prevarication, General Pervez Musharraf's government has 'retreated' on the issue of the religion column in passports. ... Most Pakistanis instinctively know that the issue has nothing to do with any love for "Islam". No Muslim country in the world insists on religion as an element of identity for passports. Nor has it got anything to do with making life more difficult for the apostatized Ahmedis. ... With every concession extracted from the state in the name of "Islam", the MMA gets politically stronger... Therefore it fiercely resists state policies that seek to depoliticize Islam, irrespective of their functionality. Thus the MMA wants Friday back as a holiday; it refuses to rationalize the blasphemy laws; it defends "honour-killings" because outlawing them would dilute the Qisas and Diyat laws.
The people know all this. Therefore they perceive this 'retreat' as yet another sign of conscious propping up of the MMA. Worse, they are reinforced in their belief that "enlightened moderation" is a sham designed only to placate the West. But the fact is that the West too is becoming increasingly cynical of General Musharraf's "visionary" meanderings.
We are told that both General Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz were opposed to this 'retreat' and that a majority of cabinet members felt likewise. So what happened? It appears that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the PMLQ president, insisted on it because he had given his "word" to Maulana Fazlur Rehman. And what was the quid pro quo? ... Was it the sop of allowing the chief minister of the NWFP to attend meetings of the National Security Council, despite a continuing boycott by Maulana Fazalur Rehman? But that's no big deal. The NSC was still-born when the Maulana refused to sit in it as leader of the opposition. Nor is the participation of the NWFP CM going to revive its legitimacy or utility. So there must be much more to the PMLQ-MMA "deal" than meets the eye.
This 'retreat' is, in fact, a strong indication of the persistence of the political alliance between the PMLQ and the MMA on the one hand and General Musharraf and the PMLQ on the other. The need to consolidate this three way relationship has increased since General Musharraf started making overtures to the PPP in a bid to quell domestic apprehensions in general and international disquiet in particular of what might happen to Pakistan's post 9/11 polity in the event that something untoward happened to its architect. Indeed, the slow but sure international interest in a revival of "democracy" in Pakistan has much to do with the demand for the political rehabilitation of the mainstream and liberal PPP which in turn is linked to growing question marks about General Musharraf's "indispensability".
In the absence of a popular leader, the PMLQ is desperate to lean on General Musharraf and join hands with the MMA to thwart the PPP in the next local body and general elections. ... The last thing General Musharraf wants is for the PPP to sweep the elections and for Benazir Bhutto to become a far worse headache for him than Nawaz Sharif. ... But equally, he doesn't want the MMA to blackmail, threaten and undermine him personally. So the best political arrangement that would suit General Musharraf would be a more "democratic" one in which the PMLQ still rules the roost, but the PPP is brought into the power sharing loop at the slight expense of the MMA. This 'strategy' will diminish the MMA's clout and enable the PMLQ-ISI to juggle General Musharraf's political opponents and partners at the centre and in the provinces...
The real problem is that General Musharraf and his military colleagues still see the PPP as an "anti-establishment" force with which they cannot do business. They still see the mullahs as a "necessary evil" for various political and geo-strategic reasons. This is a wrong assessment on both counts. Unfortunately, it means there will be no significant roll-back of political Islam or liberal rebirth of Pakistan in the short term. Most regrettably, it also implies that the long term political stability and viability of Pakistan is not assured by the great helmsman.
Posted by: Fred ||
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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.
Arab countries must urgently establish a framework for democracy before impatience and anger spread among the masses, Qatar's First Deputy Prime Minister warned yesterday. "I am afraid of what could happen if we do not speed up the process of democratic reforms in the region," said Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Al Thani, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. "I fear that people could become impatient and expectations could turn into anger in the streets. We are talking a lot about democracy but we have not yet materialised the concept into programmes with a framework and a time schedule."
Iraq's neighbouring countries are all looking for a solution to Iraq's problems and feel in trouble themselves, said the Secretary-General of the 
North Korea is waiting for the United States to apologize for calling it an "outpost of tyranny" before the communist state will return to nuclear talks, a senior official said, as the North announced Friday it will convene a rubber-stamp parliament expected to endorse its boycott of the talks. In a one-sentence dispatch, the communist country's official Korean Central News Agency said the meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly would be held April 11. Pyongyang originally said it would convene the meeting in early March, after its bold Feb. 10 statement that it had nuclear weapons and would indefinitely boycott six-nation disarmament talks.
OTTAWA - While publicly denouncing the killing of 
The chief U.N. internal watchdog was himself accused of wrongdoing on Thursday after investigators found that an assistant he hired with money from the Iraq oil-for-food plan did no work for that program. The charge against 
Philippine authorities said on Friday they were investigating what a Palestinian, linked to local Muslim extremists, may have been planning when he entered the country without a visa recently. 
Lebanese opposition leaders yesterday accused Syria and its local allies of trying to block elections due in May to stave off likely defeat and prolong the life of the mainly pro-Syrian Parliament. As Syrian forces evacuated positions near their main military and intelligence headquarters in Lebanon yesterday after a night of bomb scares in Beirut, opposition leaders had been meeting to discuss a protracted government crisis. "The Lebanese-Syrian security authority, with its political and constitutional symbols, is working to sabotage the parliamentary polls in a dangerous attempt to extend the term of the current Parliament, illegally and unconstitutionally," the loosely allied opposition front said in a statement.
Syrian President Bashar Assad, in a bid to fortify national unity, issued a presidential decree pardoning 312 Syrian Kurds accused of taking part in riots in Syria last year. The decree by President Bashar said that the "Syrian Kurdish citizens have been released in the framework of a presidential pardon that was based on a desire to enhance national harmony and unity in the country." Observers saw the presidential pardon as part of a wider plan by the government to introduce more reforms and implement practical measures to meet some demands by the Kurdish activists in the country. Syria promised the United Nations this week to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon before the elections.
The U.N. Security Council has approved a resolution to prosecute Sudanese war crimes suspects before the International Criminal Court, after the United States reversed policy and agreed not to veto the document. The United States, which abstained with three other countries, won significant concessions, including ironclad guarantees it sought that Americans working in Sudan would not be handed over to either the ICC or any other nation's courts if they committed crimes in Sudan. With U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan looking on, the council voted 11-0. Algeria, Brazil and China also abstained. Acting U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson said the United States still "fundamentally objects" to the court but was determined to get something done on Sudan.
His intense loyalty, his former cellmates say, went hand in hand with a fanatical adherence to his religion. He dreamed of an Islamic utopia where people would relive the puritanical lifestyle of the faith's early founders. 
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas held a series of meetings in his office Thursday with commanders of the PA security forces to discuss ways of restoring order to the city following Wednesday night's shooting attack on the "presidential" Mukata compound. 
The U.S. military has been ordered to delay plans for the start of a withdrawal from Iraq. Officials said the Defense Department has revised plans for the start of a withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2005. They said the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs of Staff have concluded that Iraq's military and security forces would not be ready to take on major security responsibility in the Sunni Triangle for at least another year.
Syria has demanded Iraq release two Syrians who it said were forced to confess to being spies in an Iraqi television broadcast, Syria's official news agency said yesterday. Damascus said the men were merchants and their statements aired on Iraqi television earlier this month were false. Syria's interest office in Baghdad has "presented an official complaint to the Iraqi foreign ministry about the baseless allegations that were broadcast by the government's satellite channel", the Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana) said. It said 
Hundreds of Egyptians ralled in Cairo yesterday demanding the departure of President Hosni Mubarak. Protesters heeded the call of the 
The Constitution gives the opposition the right of protest but the 
Two Paris-based Arab writers called upon the US Administration in its push for democracy in the Middle East to "reflect upon the Tunisian experience as it is worthy of much consideration". In an op-ed piece published by major French daily "Le Figaro" (www.lefigaro.com), philosophy professor Mezri Haddad and magazine editor and author Antoine Sfeir say Washington's pursuit of the "Greater Middle East Project" can be easily understood considering that the region suffers from two major ills, "religious fundamentalism and political nepotism". But the authors express their fear that "the democratic domino effect sought by US neoconservatives could turn into a nightmarish snowball pattern serving the objectives of Islamist totalitarianism." The writers see therefore a "great dilemma" for the US Administration in its attempt at "spreading democracy throughout the Arab world while making sure this virtuous dynamic benefits democrats and not theocrats."
After months of prevarication, General Pervez Musharraf's government has 'retreated' on the issue of the religion column in passports. ... Most Pakistanis instinctively know that the issue has nothing to do with any love for "Islam". No Muslim country in the world insists on religion as an element of identity for passports. Nor has it got anything to do with making life more difficult for the apostatized Ahmedis. ... With every concession extracted from the state in the name of "Islam", the MMA gets politically stronger... Therefore it fiercely resists state policies that seek to depoliticize Islam, irrespective of their functionality. Thus the MMA wants Friday back as a holiday; it refuses to rationalize the blasphemy laws; it defends "honour-killings" because outlawing them would dilute the Qisas and Diyat laws. 
In the absence of a popular leader, the PMLQ is desperate to lean on General Musharraf and join hands with the MMA to thwart the PPP in the next local body and general elections. ... The last thing General Musharraf wants is for the PPP to sweep the elections and for 
