Saudi Arabia and Oman yesterday urged Israel to implement all international resolutions, support peace initiatives and withdraw from Arab territories in order to achieve a peaceful Middle East settlement. In a joint statement at the end of the three-day official visit of Sultan Qaboos of Oman, the two countries also urged the Israeli government to stop its aggressive practices against the Palestinian people and halt the expansion of Jewish settlements.
The two sides said Israel should stop ignoring the internationally backed road map and also an Arab peace plan, originally proposed by Crown Prince Abdullah which offers the Jewish state normal ties in return for its withdrawal from occupied Arab territories. "Implementation of the land-for-peace principle and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital are essential for the realization of a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East," the statement said. It also opposed Israel's construction of a separating wall in the West Bank.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2005 00:00 ||
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That's nice. We'll get back to you on that very soon.
#5
Arabs attacked Israel. If the Arabs had won, they would have SAT ON THE LAND and kept it. "Spoils of war" they'd say.
However, Arabs attacked Israel, and ISRAEL WON. So, they should SIT ON THE LAND and keep it. "Spoils of war" they should say.
What? That can't be fair because YOU'RE ARABS and THEY'RE ISRAELIS?
FOAD, two-faced, hypocritical, arab racial supremacist assholes.
I respect other peoples religions out of a desire to obtain respect of mine. BUT KEEP PUSHING BARE-FACED HYPOCRISY like this, and I'll be glad I paid the 300% premium for super-duper, 24 golfball flushing commodes my wife insisted on. She wants flushed cockroaches to be GONE.
Should work too on INDIVIDUAL PAGES OF THE KORAN:
1. Tear out one page per visit.
2. Shred.
3. Depositt into toilet.
4. Liberally moisten with urine.
5. Add feces (0ptional, as nature dictates).
6. Flush.
Sultan Qaboos, who left Riyadh yesterday for Kuwait, held talks with Crown Prince Abdullah, Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, and other Saudi officials. Saudi Arabia and Oman also called for a collective international campaign to combat terrorism. "The two sides renewed their call for an international effort to combat the phenomenon of terrorism, which has taken multiple dimensions and forms that threaten world peace and security," said the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency. The SPA statement referred to Prince Abdullah's call at a counterterrorism conference in Riyadh last February to set up an international center to combat terrorism. Saudi Arabia has been successful in tracking down suspected Al-Qaeda militants who are blamed for a series of shootings and bombings across the Kingdom over the past two years. Riyadh and Muscat also expressed support for "the political process" in Iraq and "non-intervention in its internal affairs," saying they wanted to see "an end to the Iraqi people's suffering" as a result of the ongoing violence.
The statement said Prince Abdullah and Sultan Qaboos had reviewed the existing cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Oman and explored ways to strengthen them. "They also exchanged views on various regional and international issues and developments," SPA said. "The two sides expressed their satisfaction over the level of their bilateral relations and agreed to strengthen them at all levels in order to take ties to new heights," the statement said. Referring to the resolutions made at the recently held consultative summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh, the two sides emphasized that the GCC would be able to confront international challenges only by strengthening its unity.
The two sides reviewed the progress of the GCC and pledged to work together to strengthen the six-member regional organization, which they said was a strategic option for the Gulf states. Sultan Qaboos was accompanied by a high-level delegation including Foreign Minister Yousuf ibn Alawi Abdullah, Finance Minister Ahmed Makki and Commerce and Industry Minister Maqbool Sultan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2005 00:00 ||
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I thought the railroads did away with Qabooses......?
June 8, 2005: The mystery of the aircraft carrier Varyag continues. After rusting at dockside in China for more than three years, the former Russian Varyag has recently been moved to a dry dock at Dalien (formerly Dairen of Russo-Japanese War fame). The ship is being subject to some maintenance. She is being sand blasted (to get rid of all that rust) and a scaffolding has appeared around her superstructure. The actual extent of the work beyond that is unclear. The ship is under guard, and the guards will only say that the maintenance work is for military purposes.
Old and suffering from years of neglect, the ship could be restored to a serviceable condition at considerable expense. Although there is some speculation that the Chinese want to put her into service as a proper carrier, it is more likely that she may be used as a helicopter carrier, or as a large, fast auxiliary to provide logistical support to an amphibious effort against Taiwan, or as a training platform in order to gain experience for the design and construction of a new carrier to be built from the keel up. Whatever the case, the Chinese aren't scrapping the Varyag. Yet. But they aren't talking much either.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/08/2005 09:35 ||
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Damn, the wiley Chinee have stolen a march on us! They're jumped two generations in Rat Holes. Our last response was the Sgt. York and it died young. :(
#2
Damn, the wiley Chinee have stolen a march on us! They're jumped two generations in Rat Holes. Our last response was the Sgt. York and it died young. :(
Pushing trans-Atlantic defense cooperation to a new level, Northrop Grumman Corp. and the parent company of Europe's Airbus have agreed in principle to join forces in a bid to break Boeing Co.'s monopoly on supplying aerial-refueling planes to the Pentagon.
The decision to pursue the high-profile venture comes amid closely related trade tensions and conflicting political pressures in Congress.
Citing a trade dispute between the U.S. and the European Union over aircraft subsidies, the House voted last month to effectively bar the Pentagon from giving major contracts to Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., or EADS (see related article).
Meanwhile, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee berated Air Force officials yesterday in the latest hearing on the Air Force's thwarted efforts to acquire $23.5 billion of Boeing tanker planes. That saga has become a case study in the potential for abuses when the awarding of a contract involves no competition.
The committee's hearing focused on a report released yesterday by the Pentagon's inspector general and its conclusion that several current and former civilian and uniformed officials violated mandatory and "prudent acquisition procedures" through actions that ended up favoring Boeing.
The report provides the most detailed criticism yet of the decision by Pentagon leaders to accelerate the leasing of Boeing's tanker while failing to consider alternative suppliers and supporting "inappropriate" acquisition strategies. It also lays out how Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and departing Air Force chief Gen. John Jumper supported those strategies.
The Pentagon report could bolster the case for allowing EADS to compete for at least part of a contract to replace the Air Force's aging, all-Boeing tanker fleet. The Pentagon already has endorsed using foreign aircraft for sensitive contracts, ranging from the future presidential helicopter to an Army spy plane to a pending contract for a small transport aircraft where the only two competing airplanes are European-built.
According to people familiar with the Northrop-EADS talks, the companies have a draft agreement and are considering dates in July to announce the partnership. EADS is forcing the issue somewhat by planning to announce on June 22 where it will build a U.S. factory if it wins work on the Pentagon tanker. Northrop has participated in choosing sites, which so far have been narrowed to four cities in the Southeast.
Any Northrop-EADS partnership would be provisional, given that the Air Force still is awaiting various studies before determining how to replace tankers in its 500-strong fleet. That affords Northrop a grace period to reconsider the venture, which is politically risky at a time when the third-biggest U.S. defense contractor, by sales, needs congressional allies to protect its existing Pentagon programs against budget cuts.
Still, Northrop executives are drawn to the tanker program, betting that the Air Force will divide its tanker purchases between Boeing and EADS. That foothold ultimately could lead to additional Pentagon work, using Airbus planes not only as tankers but also for transport and surveillance missions.
Northrop, of Los Angeles, has said it is discussing a potential venture with EADS, a Franco-German consortium that owns 80% of Airbus. (Britain's BAE Systems PLC owns the remainder.) Northrop spokesman Randy Belote yesterday declined to comment on a joint tanker bid other than to say the company is "very interested in participating if there is going to be a full, fair and open competition." He said Northrop continues to assess the "competitive and political landscapes" to see if there will be a sufficient business case for a tanker bid.
An EADS spokesman declined to comment. EADS last year formed a North American subsidiary to expand its business in the world's largest defense market.
The latest Pentagon report into the Boeing tanker fiasco says that from the beginning, the proposal to lease -- rather than buy -- the planes was designed to circumvent procurement rules, laws and procedures in order to quickly sign a contract to prop up Boeing's 767 production line. The report concludes that Edward "Pete" Aldridge, the head of Pentagon acquisition until the spring of 2003, his acting successor Michael Wynne, former Air Force Secretary James Roche, and Marvin Sambur, the former head of Air Force acquisitions, were responsible for many of the contracting short cuts, starting with the failure to justify the need for rapid action.
Mr. Roche, the report said, falsely told lawmakers on various occasions that the Air Force had conducted a comprehensive and deliberate review that validated the entire Boeing lease concept. Later the Air Force "was not able to provide any supporting details" backing those assertions, the report said.
The report also indicates that while Mr. Rumsfeld supported the Air Force's lease plan, at times he felt uneasy defending it. On Jan. 31, 2003, Mr. Roche sent Gen. Jumper, the Air Force's top uniformed officer, an email recounting a meeting with Mr. Rumsfeld in which the tanker lease was discussed. The defense secretary "asked that the decision be delayed until after" his testimony to a congressional committee because "he doesn't want to touch it," according to the email, which was included in the Pentagon report.
A Pentagon spokesman said many of the report's recommendations "already have been identified and are being addressed." In separate responses included in the report, Messrs. Roche and Wynne said they were following the acquisition blueprint approved by Bush-administration officials and three congressional committees. Mr. Aldridge, who declined to be interviewed by the inspector general, and Mr. Sambur couldn't be reached for comment.
The report makes clear that inside the Air Force, even some senior officials favored giving EADS a chance to compete for some of the tankers, if the German and French governments agreed to buy Boeing C-17 transport planes. Other than raising political hackles, "this could avoid the dependence on a single class of aircraft, and will avoid monopoly," Mr. Roche wrote in a Feb. 14, 2002, email.
Posted by: too true ||
06/08/2005 11:58 ||
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Grumman? Airforce gents better get ready for Probe & Drogue.
The violence in Buddhist Thailand's Muslim-majority south, in which more than 700 people have been killed since January 2004, is not a religious conflict, the head of an international Muslim delegation said yesterday.
"It's probably the heat. It gets pretty hot here..."
"Compared with many other countries, we find here permissiveness and tolerance. Nobody interferes with the Muslim community," he told a news conference in Bangkok.
Maybe that's the problem...
The government has imposed martial law on parts of the far south, a relatively undeveloped region along the Malaysian border, where 80 percent of the population is Muslim.
It wasn't long ago that all of Thailand was "relatively undeveloped." It's pure coincidence, no doubt, that the Mooselimbs are lagging...
El-Masri said he hoped the government would take steps to ensure tragedies such as October's Tak Bai incident, in which 78 Muslim protesters died in army custody, were not repeated.
Ummm... Were they protesters or rioters? I forget...
However, he said that, overall, southern Thai Muslims did not appear to get a raw deal — even though they have described themselves regularly as second-class citizens in the past. "They are carrying out their culture and religion freely. We have seen schools supported by the government imparting Islamic teaching. We have seen universities in the south also supported by the government for Islamic studies," El-Masri said. "We have observed so many elements that point out that tolerance is practiced in this part of the world."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2005 00:00 ||
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âThe roots of the problem could be anything but religion...â
Lol. C'mon, tell that he and his OIC pals are not insane. They are also evil, stupid, apologists, and fools. Yes, indeed, all those things. But I have no doubt that they're well and truly insane. It can be the cake or it can be the icing, makes no odds to me, lol.
If it's all grown up and it's broken*, well then, you're just going to have to kill it.
- Paco's Survival Rule
* It just won't stop trying to harm / prey upon you and yours.
#4
He's right - the unrest against the Muslims isn't religious but purely defensive -- against the muslims killing infidels and imposing their twisted religion on everyone else under pain of death.
Killing infidels and forcing people to submit to Islam under pain of torture, rape, and death isn't 'unrest' in the eyes of the OIC... its standard operating procedure.
#1
Fifty fighters went in total, Abu Ibrahim says now, but after a few months he returned to Syria with three others - the only surviving members of the group.
Abu and his three cohorts should consider themselves lucky.
"Phuque with the best, and you'll die like the rest."
#2
Article: Abu Ibrahim is unmoved to learn of the assault. "They think jihad will stop if they kill hundreds of us in Iraq. They don't know what they are facing. Every day, more and more young men from around the Muslim world are awaking and coming to the jihad. Now the Americans are facing thousands, but one day soon they will have to face whole nations."
I don't think these people understand. When we face whole Muslim nations, we will burn their cities down and kill them by the tens, if not hundreds of millions.
Abu Ibrahim, the most radical of his family, was not one of the lucky five of his brothers and had to stay in Syria, which did not go down well with his Bedouin wife. "My wife accused me of being a coward. She accused me of being happy that I didn't have to go."
Is there maybe a hint of prior domestic disharmony here?
The husband can say "I divorce you" three times, but the wife has to nag her husband into blowing himself up.
Posted by: James ||
06/08/2005 17:19 Comments ||
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very simililar to a WaPo article today
interestingly he was a peaceful Sufi but abandoned it well before the Iraq invasion, before 9-11, before pretty much everything for the Salafi branch
#5
Zhang Fei: No, they don't understand, they are incapable of understanding. Tribal.
They will be educated if necessary. It probably won't be. They overestimate their influence.
We will not be ruled by religion. Ever.
"The priests fear me, and with good reason For I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
-- Thos. Jefferson (full quote)
#7
I read this, and I think it is pretty good justification for beginning the annihilation of all Muslim fundamentalists on the planet. While we're at it, let's get also rid of ALL religious fundamentalists - Christian, Jew, Hindu - whatever.
Religious fundamentalists are too dangerous to leave standing. They are intolerant, anda danger to civilization.
Hey, this is a place to RANT, right?
Selective genocide - I'm in. But - start with the Islamacists - now. Hunt them down to the last Mullah.
In the wake of Lebanon's first elections following Syrian withdrawal, American policy toward the world's remaining Ba'athist government is approaching support for regime change.
President Bush's top foreign policy advisers met last week to discuss the government of Bashar al-Assad, mulling, according to two administration officials briefed later, a tougher policy that would allow American forces or encourage Iraqi soldiers to pursue terrorists that escape to Syria from Iraq for safe haven.
At the State Department, the Bureau of Near East Affairs and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor have asked Congress for explicit legal authority to fund liberal opposition parties inside Syria through regional initiatives that have hitherto focused on reforming American allies such as Jordan and Egypt, two administration officials told The New York Sun.
The White House is also pressing to expand the U.N. inquiry into the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, to include a probe of the June 2 murder of the anti-Syrian journalist Samir Kassir in Lebanon. Later this month, the White House is expected to apply tougher sanctions to Syria, possibly freezing bank accounts of the regime's top leaders, in accordance with the 2003 Syria Accountability Act.
The new approach is also palpable in routine diplomatic matters. Last Friday, when envoys from the Arab League arrived for a State Department briefing on Mr. Bush's meetings with the Palestinian Arab leader, Mahmoud Abbas, Syria's representative was turned away from Foggy Bottom and told his government was not invited, according to one diplomatic source who requested anonymity.
The latest developments in Washington suggest a more concerted effort by the Bush administration to foment the collapse of the regime, according to America's ambassador in Damascus between 2001 and 2003, Theodore Kattouf.
"My sense is that this administration is willing to roll the dice and take a chance on a post-Bashar al-Assad leadership if he is not willing to drastically change Syria's internal and foreign policies," Mr. Kattouf said in an interview yesterday. "However, Bashar is not the regime, and his fall would not necessarily lead to the result this administration would welcome."
America's message to the Arab world has been stern regarding Syria. A front-page story ran yesterday in the influential, Saudi-owned Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, which quoted anonymous Bush administration sources as saying that their "advice to Mr. Assad is to retire." Arab journalists here on Monday were briefed by Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs David Welch.
The story yesterday prompted an exiled opposition group, the Reform Party of Syria, to send out an e-mail proclaiming that the State Department for the first time had endorsed "regime change" for Syria. "These are the pre-steps to the final countdown of the Assad regime. America is already preparing for the alternative, which is democracy," the president of the Reform Party of Syria, Farid Ghadry, said yesterday.
The Washington bureau chief for al-Hayat, Salameh Nematt, told the Sun yesterday, however, that the Asharq al-Awsat story will be read by the Syrians as a message from the Saudis. The paper is published by Prince Faisal bin Salman, the son of the deputy prime minister and head of the air force.
"The Syrians are going to read this story as a message from the Saudis, whom the Syrians fear might get excited about a prospect of a regime change that will bring the Sunni Muslims, who are the majority, to power in Syria," Mr. Nematt said.
Damascus has taken steps to meet, on the surface at least, the demands of the international community to end its occupation of Lebanon. Not only have the Syrians withdrawn troops, but yesterday at a Ba'ath party conference, the Syrian vice president who exercised so much influence over Lebanon, Abdul-Halim Khaddam, announced his resignation.
The message to Syria is being carried by some of the president's domestic opponents. On Monday, after meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Annan regarding the inquiry into Hariri's death, Senator Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and harsh critic of the president's foreign policy, said he believed Syria was squarely behind the slaying of the former prime minister.
"There is no question, no question in mind from all I've seen, they were behind the assassination, and I think that the only good thing could be said from that assassination is that they so overstepped, maybe it was the arrogance of power, so overstepped their position, Syria did, that we've all seen the public reaction against it," Mr. Leahy said.
An administration official familiar with the U.N. report also said that it shows very clearly that Syria was behind the murder of Hariri.
"Could we prove this in a criminal court? Not beyond a reasonable doubt. But there is no other plausible explanation. There were movements of individuals before the assassination who would have been known by Syrian intelligence, the preparations for the attack could not have escaped Syrian intelligence," the official said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/08/2005 15:05 ||
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Ahhh, the old "safe haven" trick! I've always be a fan of "hot pursuit", but you can't get to Damacus that way!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/08/2005 16:12 Comments ||
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Ahhh, the old "safe haven" trick! I've always be a fan of "hot pursuit", but you can't get to Damacus that way!
Oh, I don't know, we could just say that we were in really hot pursuit and overshot the target so much that we ended up in Bashar's palace in Damascus. Whoops! I guess we'll have to park the 4th ID here and let them catch their breath.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
06/08/2005 17:09 Comments ||
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SANAA, Yemen, June 8 (UPI) -- Yemen is expected to bring up Iranian support for a rebel leader during a two-day visit by the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council. An official Yemeni source told United Press International Iran's Rohani Rohani will discuss political tensions that erupted after Yemen accused Iran of supporting Yemeni rebel leader Badreddine al-Houthy in the province of Saada, near the Yemeni-Saudi border. Rohani began a two-day state visit Wednesday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi denied the charge, saying his government does not wish to interfere in Yemen's internal affairs. He urged the Yemeni government to respect minorities, a reference to the Shiite minority, which was criticized and defamed in government newspapers.
Iran's ambassador to Yemen, Hussein Kamalian, was quoted in the official daily al-Thawra as saying the talks will focus on issues of joint interest. Rohani was expected to brief Yemeni officials on Iran's nuclear activities. Kamalian hailed "the distinctive and close relations between the two countries."
Posted by: Steve ||
06/08/2005 13:06 ||
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In a June 6 story about suspected al-Qaida operatives in Iran, The Associated Press erroneously quoted Hasan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, as saying Iran had arrested and deported 5,000 suspects. Rowhani, speaking in Persian, said 500 suspects were deported. The number was incorrectly translated at the news conference.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2005 00:00 ||
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Fred, you are a gentleman and a scholar. Now if we can get the MSM to correct themselves...
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/08/2005 0:37 Comments ||
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From the WaPo Corrections Box:
"Friday's 'Federal Page' reported on John Smith's promotion from Special Assistant to the Assistant Deputy Undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security to Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Special Projects at DHS.
Further investigation reveals that this was actually a demotion."
Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, a key player in the country's politics for the past half century, said he would resign and give way to the younger generation of politicians as the ruling Baath party held its 10th congress mulling serious reforms in the country. Imad Mustapha, Syrian ambassador to Washington, told CNN on Monday night that he had already learned about Khaddam's plan to step down. "This is quite natural as it indicates the party's political flexibility and its great ability to change," Mustapha told CNN. Khaddam, who served for years as foreign minister before being appointed vice president in 1985, cited personal reasons for his resignation.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2005 00:00 ||
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"I'm outta here - vacationing in France"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/08/2005 8:16 Comments ||
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The Algerian extremist formation, the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has reportedly been isolated by the cells of al-Qaeda abroad because of the high number of defections from its ranks, according to Algerian anti-terrorism experts quoted by al-Hayat. The analysis in the pan-Arab daily suggests that the Algerian terorrist group decided to take responsibility for the attack against a detachment of the Mauritanian army last Saturday in order to try to breach this isolation.
Sources of the ministry of defence in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott believe the attack, in which 17 soldiers were killed, was the work of Mauritanian and Mali extremists, linked to a few GSPC and smugglers operating along the borders between Algeria, Mali and Mauritania.
Despite this, al-Hayat notes, the Algerian GSPC wanted to claim the paternity of the attack through an official statement released in recent days, to gain credibility in the eyes of the al-Qaeda network.
"The mujahadeen of the GSPC carried out an operation that is the first of its kind: an attack on the apostate and traitorous Mauritanian army on 3 June 2005," the group said in a statement posted on its own website.
The discrepancies between the two terror formations are said to have beguan in April when Tunisian police arrested ten alleged terrorists who were heading to the Algerian mountains to join guerilla training camps. The ten were reportedly preparing a major attack against the capital Tunis, but Tunisian police managed to uncover the cell as a result of informants within the Algerian Salafite group.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/08/2005 15:11 ||
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An alliance of influential Sunni Muslims in Iraq said on Wednesday that it would not take part in drafting a constitution unless its community was given a fair number of seats on the committee working on the project.
"Fair" would be no seats at all, you self-involved, arrogant jerks.
The Gathering of the Sunni People agreed at a conference to demand that 25 Sunni Arabs be named to the committee, on which 55 members of parliament now sit. The Shi'ite-led government has said it could expand the committee to accommodate more Sunnis -- at present only two have seats on the body.
You told 'The Gathering of the Shiacidal Sunni' not to vote, and they didn't. You should be grateful they even allow you in the same rooms with you. But gratitude is not a Sunni attribute, since their understanding is that the world owes them tribute.
The government has promised Sunnis a prominent role in the political process despite the fact that few of the once-dominant minority took part in the January election which produced the present parliament, meaning there are few Sunni legislators.
I'm starting to really regret the "inclusiveness doctrine." The concessions that the Shia and Kurds have made to the Sunni have only increased the slaughter; and the rhetoric.
"The number of our representatives must be 25 so that we have fair rights with the current constitutional committee," said the alliance in a resolution agreed by delegates. If the National Assembly rejects this we will resort to discussions with representatives between us. If they stick to their position we suggest suspending our participation and the concerned parties' bear the responsibility of not giving us the chance to participate."
"Yeah. It's always somebody else's fault. Remember, Allan helps those who can't help themselves."
Any Sunni boycott of the constitutional process would deal a blow to the government's efforts to bring in more Sunnis in a strategy aimed at defusing the Sunni-led insurgency.
Wishful thinking.
Although they make up around 20 percent of the population and dominated Iraq during the rule of Saddam Hussein, Sunni Arabs have been left with minimal representation in parliament because many of them boycotted the Jan. 30 elections. There are 17 Sunni Arab lawmakers in Iraq's 275-member parliament. "The constitution cannot be drafted without the participation of all Iraqis. Any constitution written without that would not be legitimate," said the Sunni alliance.
"All our demands are legitimate. Our imam could look it up for you."
Sunni Arabs have a potential veto under a rule written in to the U.N.-sponsored interim constitution at the insistence of the Kurdish minority concentrated in the north. The new text can be blocked if voters in three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject it in a referendum. Sunnis predominate in three provinces. Sunni demands for a greater role come at a time of intense guerrilla violence that has killed more than 800 people since the government was formed in late April and raised fears Iraq could be moving toward civil war. Iraqi officials have said the constitution will be ready by an Aug. 15 deadline even if Sunni Arabs are given time to choose representatives to help draft a document. Under Iraq's political timetable, once a constitution is written it must be approved by a referendum. If it is approved, a new general election will be held by the end of the year.
Hattip to Glenn
a few juicy bits:
For those who think Iraq or Gitmo radicalized Abu Ibrahim, consider what he did after 9/11:
Two weeks after the attacks in New York and at the Pentagon, the group felt bold enough to celebrate in public in Aleppo with a "festival," as it was called, featuring video of hand-to-hand combat and training montages of guerrillas leaping from high walls.
Afterward, Abu Qaqaa was arrested by the Syrian authorities, but he was released within hours. By 2002 the anti-American festivals were running twice weekly, often wrapped around weddings or other social gatherings. Organizers called themselves The Strangers of Sham, using the ancient name for the eastern Mediterranean region known as the Levant, and began freely distributing the CDs of the cleric's sermons.
This report also adds a twist to the Al Jazeera-Al Qaeda claim that in late 2003 the US bombed an innocent Muslim wedding party near the Syrian border.
Abu Ibrahim admits another incident touted as a US mistake —an attack on a bus near the Syrian border— was in fact an Al Qaeda infiltration and supply operation:
"Once the Americans bombed a bus crossing to Syria. We made a big fuss and said it was full of merchants," Abu Ibrahim said. "But actually, they were fighters."
So US and coalition intel got it right (at least once).
On Memorial Day weekend, three Marines from the 24th Expeditionary Unit who had been wounded in Iraq were joined by 300 other service members for a wreath-laying ceremony at the empty pit of Ground Zero. The broken pieces of the Twin Towers have long ago been cleared away. There are no faded flags or hand-painted signs of national unity, no simple tokens of remembrance. So why do they come? What do they hope to see?
The World Trade Center Memorial will break ground this year. When those Marines return in 2010, the year it is scheduled to open, no doubt they will expect to see the artifacts that bring those memories to life. They'll want a vantage point that allows them to take in the sheer scope of the destruction, to see the footage and the photographs and hear the personal stories of unbearable heartbreak and unimaginable courage. They will want the memorial to take them back to who they were on that brutal September morning.
Instead, they will get a memorial that stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the yearning to return to that day. Rather than a respectful tribute to our individual and collective loss, they will get a slanted history lesson, a didactic lecture on the meaning of liberty in a post-9/11 world. They will be served up a heaping foreign policy discussion over the greater meaning of Abu Ghraib and what it portends for the country and the rest of the world.
The World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex will be an imposing edifice wedged in the place where the Twin Towers once stood. It will serve as the primary "gateway" to the underground area where the names of the lost are chiseled into concrete. The organizers of its principal tenant, the International Freedom Center (IFC), have stated that they intend to take us on "a journey through the history of freedom"--but do not be fooled into thinking that their idea of freedom is the same as that of those Marines. To the IFC's organizers, it is not only history's triumphs that illuminate, but also its failures. The public will have come to see 9/11 but will be given a high-tech, multimedia tutorial about man's inhumanity to man, from Native American genocide to the lynchings and cross-burnings of the Jim Crow South, from the Third Reich's Final Solution to the Soviet gulags and beyond. This is a history all should know and learn, but dispensing it over the ashes of Ground Zero is like creating a Museum of Tolerance over the sunken graves of the USS Arizona.
The public will be confused at first, and then feel hoodwinked and betrayed. Where, they will ask, do we go to see the September 11 Memorial? The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation will have erected a building whose only connection to September 11 is a strained, intellectual one. While the IFC is getting 300,000 square feet of space to teach us how to think about liberty, the actual Memorial Center on the opposite corner of the site will get a meager 50,000 square feet to exhibit its 9/11 artifacts, all out of sight and underground. Most of the cherished objects which were salvaged from Ground Zero in those first traumatic months will never return to the site. There is simply no room. But the International Freedom Center will have ample space to present us with exhibits about Chinese dissidents and Chilean refugees. These are important subjects, but for somewhere--anywhere--else, not the site of the worst attack on American soil in the history of the republic.
More disturbing, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. is handing over millions of federal dollars and the keys to that building to some of the very same people who consider the post-9/11 provisions of the Patriot Act more dangerous than the terrorists that they were enacted to apprehend--people whose inflammatory claims of a deliberate torture policy at Guantanamo Bay are undermining this country's efforts to foster freedom elsewhere in the world.
The driving force behind the IFC is Tom Bernstein, the dynamic co-founder of the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex who made a fortune financing Hollywood movies. But his capital ventures appear to have funded his true calling, the pro bono work he has done his entire adult life--as an activist lawyer in the human rights movement. He has been a proud member of Human Rights First since it was founded--as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights--27 years ago, and has served as its president for the last 12.
The public has a right to know that it was Mr. Bernstein's organization, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, that filed a lawsuit three months ago against Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was Human Rights First that filed an amicus brief on behalf of alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla, an American citizen who the Justice Department believes is an al Qaeda recruit. It was Human Rights First that has called for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the alleged torture of detainees, complete with budget authority, subpoena power and the ability to demand that witnesses testify under oath.
In fact, the IFC's list of those who are shaping or influencing the content and programming for their Ground Zero exhibit includes a Who's Who of the human rights, Guantanamo-obsessed world:
⢠Michael Posner, executive director at Human Rights First who is leading the worldwide "Stop Torture Now" campaign focused entirely on the U.S. military. He has stated that Mr. Rumsfeld's refusal to resign in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal is "irresponsible and dishonorable."
⢠Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, who is pushing IFC organizers for exhibits that showcase how civil liberties in this country have been curtailed since September 11.
⢠Eric Foner, radical-left history professor at Columbia University who, even as the bodies were being pulled out of a smoldering Ground Zero, wrote, "I'm not sure which is more frightening: the horror that engulfed New York City or the apocalyptic rhetoric emanating daily from the White House." This is the same man who participated in a "teach-in" at Columbia to protest the Iraq war, during which a colleague exhorted students with, "The only true heroes are those who find ways to defeat the U.S. military," and called for "a million Mogadishus." The IFC website has posted Mr. Foner's statement warning that future discussions should not be "overwhelmed" by the IFC's location at the World Trade Center site itself.
⢠George Soros, billionaire founder of Open Society Institute, the nonprofit foundation that helps fund Human Rights First and is an early contributor to the IFC. Mr. Soros has stated that the pictures of Abu Ghraib "hit us the same way as the terrorist attack itself."
While Gov. George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and LMDC are focusing their attention on the economic revival of lower Manhattan, there has been no meaningful oversight with respect to the "cash cow of Ground Zero." Meanwhile, the Freedom Center's organizers are quickly lining up individuals, institutions and university provosts with this arrogant appeal: "The memorial to the victims will be the heart of the site, the IFC will be the brain." Indeed, they have declared the World Trade Center Memorial the perfect "magnet" for the world's "great leaders, thinkers and activists" to participate in lectures and symposiums that examine the "foundations of free and open societies." Put less grandly, these activists and academics are salivating at the prospect of holding forth on the "perfect platform" where the domestic and foreign policy they despise was born.
Less welcome to the Freedom Center are the actual beneficiaries of that policy. According to the New York Times, early renderings of the center's exhibit area created by its Norwegian architectural firm depicted a large mural of an Iraqi voter. That image was replaced by a photograph of Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson when the designs were made public. What does it mean that the "story of humankind's quest for freedom" doesn't include the kind that is fought for with the blood and tears of patriots? It means, I fear, that this is a freedom center which will not use the word "patriot" the way our Founding Fathers did.
The so-called lessons of September 11 should not be force-fed by ideologues hoping to use the memorial site as nothing more than a powerful visual aid to promote their agenda. Instead of exhibits and symposiums about Internationalism and Global Policy we should hear the story of the courageous young firefighter whose body, cut in half, was found with his legs entwined around the body of a woman. Recovery personnel concluded that because of their positions, the young firefighter was carrying her.
The people who visit Ground Zero in five years will come because they want to pay their respects at the place where heroes died. They will come because they want to remember what they saw that day, because they want a personal connection, to touch the place that touched them, the place that rallied the nation and changed their lives forever. I would wager that, if given a choice, they would rather walk through that dusty hangar at JFK Airport where 1,000 World Trade Center artifacts are stored than be herded through the International Freedom Center's multi-million-dollar insult.
Ground Zero has been stolen, right from under our noses. How do we get it back?
Ms. Burlingame is a member of the board of directors of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines fight 77, which was crashed at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/08/2005 09:58 ||
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I had posted this late yesterday with the following comment: "The author, the sister of one of the 9/11 (non-terrorist) pilots, points out how the far left is coopting Ground Zero. It's powerful stuff and very well written. I hope my fellow RBers can help make a big enough stink that this PC crapola is nowhere near Ground Zero. Anybody know any NYC firefighters who can raise a stink about this? The ones "that I know are dead, killed on 9/11.
Posted by: Tibor ||
06/08/2005 10:22 Comments ||
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This story makes me sad. Everything about the Sept 11 memorial rebuilding, ect has been done poorly.
Jordan's state security court Wednesday issued an ultimatum to a wanted terror suspect hiding out in Syria to surrender or face trial in absentia.
I'm not too sure what the value of that is. When they do catch them after their trials in absentia, I believe they give them a new trial...
Judge Fawwaz Baqqour gave Abdel Mooti Abou Maaliq 10 days to return from Syria, where he has sought shelter, and surrender to the Jordanian authorities. Abou Maaliq and seven other defendants are accused of planning terrorist attacks against Israeli interests in Jordan and recruiting militants for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to carry out the operations. The indictment also accuses the defendants of exposing Jordan to dangers and undermining its relations with a foreign country. The authorities arrested the other seven defendants last February, but Abou Maaliq managed to flee to Syria.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/08/2005 09:47 ||
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June 8, 2005: There's always terrorist violence going on outside Iraq. For example, here are significant terrorist events in the first three days of June, outside of Iraq and Afghanistan
1 June
· Pakistan. Masked gunmen killed a tribal elder in the Northwest Frontier region
· Russia. A bomb destroyed a major electrical line near Kursk, though power was not interrupted.
· Syria. Sheik Mohammed al-Khasnawi, a prominent Kurdish leader, was found dead from torture in Dayr-az-Zawr, several days after he had been reported kidnapped. The Syrian government says the murdered was committed by criminals, while Kurdish sources believe it was done at the orders of Syrian security.
· Straits of Malacca: In the first attack since early April, pirates boarded a Thai-owned tanker and took off two of the crew; ransom demands have been made.
2 June
· Greece. Shortly after midnight, the "Revolutionary Struggle" radical group set off a bomb at the Ministry of the Interior, causing some damage but no injuries due to the hour.
· Kashmir. The National Conference party leader Abdul Hamid Balawasriy was assassinated in Srinagar; he was the son of former party leader Ghilam Mohammed, who was assassinated several years ago.
· Lebanon. Samir Kassir, a prominent anti-Syrian journalist, was assassinated when his car blew up.
· Bangladesh. A prosperous timber merchant was kidnapped in Meherpur. Although this may be just a criminal act, no ransom has so far been demanded.
3 June
· Spain. Unknown persons torched the car of Judge Bathezar Garzon, who has been prominent in prosecuting both ETA and al Qaeda terrorists, and was a key player in attempted to try former Argentine Dictator Augusto Pinochet.
June 5, 2005: The presence of Islamic radicals in some parts of Latin America is well known. With its vast wildernesses and weak governments, Latin America has been used for safe houses, transit routes for personnel, and even training bases. The focus of these activities has been on moving and training Islamic terrorists. Recently, however, a potentially disturbing trend has begun to develop, as intelligence suggests that the Islamic radicals are establishing ties with domestic radical and criminal groups in several countries.
Haiti - members of an Islamic group known to have ties with al Qaeda have apparently been providing training in weapons and explosives use to one of the pro-Aristide gangs, while also attempting to convert gang members to Islam.
Dominican Republic - two local radical groups seem to have been in contact with Islamic radicals, seeking financial and technical assistance.
Nicaragua — Al Qaeda, which is believed to have moved important operatives through the country from time to time, may be trying to reach out to dissatisfied fringe elements with the intention of helping them undertake terrorist attacks against the government.
Three Frontiers Region-- Hizbollah, and perhaps other Islamic groups, have been able to operate rather freely in the porous borderlands where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay come together, taking advantage of rampant corruption, to establish training camps, safe houses, and logistical bases.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/08/2005 09:29 ||
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Three Frontiers Region is an old NAZI hangout. Just birds of a feather. Nothing new... Go away...
Refusing to retract the comments he made in Pakistan, former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishn Advani resigned yesterday as president of the Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party. Within hours of being asked by Sangh Parivar to "review" statements he made in Pakistan, Advani called Sanjay Joshi, RSS point man in the BJP, to his residence and handed in his resignation.
In the letter of resignation addressed to Sanjay, written "just before departing from Karachi," Advani said: "I have decided to request the party to relieve me of presidency — I have taken this decision after pondering the matter very carefully — I have not said or done anything which I need to retract or review." The Sangh Parivar, or the conglomeration of Hindu groups, did not take kindly to Advani expressing regret over the demolition of the Babri Masjid and describing Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah as a "great man" who espoused the cause of a secular Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2005 00:00 ||
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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.
Saudi Arabia and Oman yesterday urged Israel to implement all international resolutions, support peace initiatives and withdraw from Arab territories in order to achieve a peaceful Middle East settlement. In a joint statement at the end of the three-day official visit of 
Sultan Qaboos, who left Riyadh yesterday for Kuwait, held talks with Crown Prince Abdullah, Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, and other Saudi officials. Saudi Arabia and Oman also called for a collective international campaign to combat terrorism. "The two sides renewed their call for an international effort to combat the phenomenon of terrorism, which has taken multiple dimensions and forms that threaten world peace and security," said the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency. The SPA statement referred to Prince Abdullah's call at a counterterrorism conference in Riyadh last February to set up an international center to combat terrorism. Saudi Arabia has been successful in tracking down suspected Al-Qaeda militants who are blamed for a series of shootings and bombings across the Kingdom over the past two years. Riyadh and Muscat also expressed support for "the political process" in Iraq and "non-intervention in its internal affairs," saying they wanted to see "an end to the Iraqi people's suffering" as a result of the ongoing violence.
The violence in Buddhist Thailand's Muslim-majority south, in which more than 700 people have been killed since January 2004, is not a religious conflict, the head of an international Muslim delegation said yesterday.
Syrian Vice President 
An alliance of influential Sunni Muslims in Iraq said on Wednesday that it would not take part in drafting a constitution unless its community was given a fair number of seats on the committee working on the project.
Refusing to retract the comments he made in Pakistan, former Deputy Prime Minister 
