#4
A welcome cut that would be too, were old Zarq to turn the knife on himself.
I'm trying not to follow the links to the pics and story.
AC, posting a warning against going to see ugly nekkid people is like handing me a sock and saying this sock smells so bad, smell it. I know it will be horrible but feel compelled to do it anyway.
Why lay such egregious choices before me, view it and know the horror of the belly of satan, or don't look and find myself wondering just how horrible it is. Tough choices, but
I'll err on the side of prudence this time, but maybe not...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/28/2005 19:01 Comments ||
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#8
There is an actual website that is dedicated to nekkid protesters. I don't have the link handy or I would post it. Most are truly disgusting. Like the new Country and Western song, "I Don't Look Good Nekkid Anymore". Truly acid burned brain dead people.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/28/2005 19:08 Comments ||
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#9
There must a distinct mental disorder associated with the desire to get naked in public. Maybe you can find it here. Mebbe they have secret fantasies about Mommy or Daddy or a return to some imagined childhood moment. I don't find it urgent enough to seriously investigate, lol.
Here's a list of sites I've run across where gettin' naked is the key. Some are generic, some event-driven, some "topical". All are mentally unbalanced and pathetic LLL wannabees.
I issue the standard warning: Viewing this shit may scar you for life. Lol.
#13
I have noticed that, generally speaking, the only people willing to get naked in public for free are really, really ugly.
Every woman there must've gotten a terrible case of prickly heat. Ouchie.
The most horrible sight is the weird dye job on the beach ball boy's head. If you click on the previous link, you'll see it's the same "style", so I don't think it's some sort of terrible shoe polish accident. Freak! Freak!
#14
Lol, SPo'D! Hmmm... Um, since this is all official and everything, I'm thinking I could unload on this thread about 4-5 months of accumulated, um, oh, sorry - nevermind. Heh.
#16
I was scarred, I was scarred
Scarred for life (Scarred for life)
I fought my way through the trouble and strife
I was scarred (Scarred for life)
My reputation it cuts like a knife
I was scarred (Scarred for life)
Been knocked around had a hell of a life
I was scarred (Scarred for life)
I fought my way through the trouble and strife.
I was just scarred for life, .com (lyrics by Rose Tattoo)
#19
I can't stop laughing... I made it as far as the first site .com listed, scrolled down a bit, and found a goofy item about "God's Children Know No Shame: Free-Range Humans Enjoy a Dip" with a picture of a bunch of naked bozos splashing around in what looks like a swamp.
How in the hell do people get that daffy???????
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/28/2005 20:23 Comments ||
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#20
Howcome that one woman has a tit growing on her right hip?
#22
Lol, mojo - you have no idea (Or maybe you do, lol!) what I see surfing each day. If I sent you a list, I'm afraid you'd actually freak out, lol! Almost everything is out there, somewhere...
#24
you know you're getting "loose" when viewers have to use the scroll wheel to see your breasts in their entirety
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/28/2005 20:56 Comments ||
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#25
I see an entire season's worth of Jerry Springer episodes in that one web page.
If there's anything better than revolutionary nudity, it's revolutionary transgendered nudity.
Posted by: ed ||
07/28/2005 21:10 Comments ||
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#26
Speaking of "transgendered," there are some "protestors" with tattoos that I can't tell if they're really tough chicks or men who need bro's (or mansieres)...
Someone help me!
Guess in SanFran, you never have to say "I'm sorry." 'cuz it's all copacetic.
Wouldn't touch any of them without 2 pairs of rubber gloves and a bottle of bleach.
#1
He has an undeniable bond with, and concern about, the impoverished and disenfranchised in Saudi society, even visiting slums to hear the concerns of their inhabitants
excuse me while I go throw up.
I'm so tired right now, I can't really read this article, but I can tell you this is a puff piece.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, July 28 (UPI) -- Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah has granted amnesty to prisoners who are not held for security reasons to mark King Fahd's recovery from a severe case of pneumonia. An Interior Ministry source said Thursday "after King Fahd recovered from illness with God's help, Crown Prince Abdullah ordered to give pardon to several prisoners who do not pose a threat on public security."
Recovered? Does this mean he's no longer stable?
The source did not mention the number of prisoners who will be given amnesty, but said suspects and convicts in major crimes and those convicted or under trial under Islamic law will be excluded. "Those who were granted amnesty will have to pledge not to return to illegal action or their previous sentences will be reinstated," the source added.
"Go forth, and sin no more!"
King Fahd was admitted to hospital three months ago after suffering from severe pneumonia.
Don't they also release prisoners when a old king dies and a new one get's crowned?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 09:09 ||
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BIRMINGHAM - Only their battered maroon Nissan car, parked erratically in the street outside, had drawn attention to the Somali inhabitants of 63 Heybarnes Rd, Birmingham, in recent months. But the air of normality in this tree-lined street in the eastern suburbs lasted until 35 armed police arrived at the door of the three-bed semi-detached house.
Residents were awoken at 4.30am (Wednesday night NZT) to the sounds of shouting and banging. Once inside, officers from West Midlands Police and the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch found Yasin Hassan Omar, who police believe attempted to blow himself up in a packed Tube train at Warren St station, London, a week ago. They located him in the bathroom wearing a rucksack, according to one local police source. The Mirror newspaper claimed Omar yelled: "Get back or I'll take you with me."
Might as well have said "Shoot me"
But the 24-year-old Omar was knocked down with a 50,000-volt charge from a Taser gun. Ninety minutes later he was led from the house in a paper boiler suit, plastic handcuffs and plastic gloves. Andrew Wilkinson, who lives opposite, said: "The guy was in his twenties, and looked Somalian. He bears a striking resemblance to one of the four guys linked to the terror attacks - the one with the darkest skin and curly hair [Omar]."
The trail to Heybarnes Rd possibly led from a flat at Curtis House, North London, where Omar has been the registered tenant since 1999, sharing the property with Muktar Said Ibrahim, who police believe tried to bomb the No 26 bus in Hackney, East London. An hour after events began unfolding in Heybarnes Rd, several dozen officers - many armed and some with dogs - arrived at 59 Bankdale Rd, about 3km away. There, three young men of east African appearance were led away, handcuffed, into unmarked cars. Forensics officers emerged at 1pm carrying two large sealed bags.
Meanwhile, further details have emerged of Omar's background. A friend said Omar had lived in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and had led a feral existence. Jamal Mohammed, who met Omar during football games, said Omar had mixed with militia men during the conflict in Somalia. "He was only a boy but he said they had fascinated him at the time with their guns."
Hung around with the hard boys, did he? They start them off rather young, I'd be surprised if he wasn't a gangbanger there.
"He said he had lived on the streets during the day, getting what food he could. Then his parents managed to send him to Britain."
That worked well, didn't it?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 14:27 ||
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Omar had mixed with militia men during the conflict in Somalia. "He was only a boy but he said they had fascinated him at the time with their guns."
Good thing Slick WIllie pulled out (ooo, no pun intended!) before Omar got wacked there.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2005 15:07 Comments ||
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#2
They start them off rather young, I'd be surprised if he wasn't a gangbanger there.
'gangbanger' is pretty much the best description of it all.
#3
I really think they should start rumors that the guy was sexually abused by men and that's what drew him into Al Queda. Start the myth (could be true) that they are sexual deviants trying to strike back at the world.
Might cut into their recruitment if they are really painted as whacked (from an Islamic perspective).
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2005 11:22 ||
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you guys have done your homework, now we need to get this kind of analysis to the main straem media.
Posted by: bk ||
07/28/2005 12:09 Comments ||
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#2
For centuries Christianity provided the spiritual goods and motivation needed to fight back against jihad and eventually reverse its momentum. With Christianity weakened into another life-style choice, particularly in Europe, what can take its place to steel us for doing what must be done to stop the slow death of the West by appeasement, indifference, and demography?
If VDH is correct, and the only thing that held off the horde for 800 years was Christianity, then we are headed for a long, tough road!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2005 12:15 Comments ||
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Don't worry too much Bobby, we got the Bomb, the Beer, the Babes, the Baltimore Orioles, Babcok & Wilcox, Blue Blogs and Bingo nights.
MI5 tried to recruit senior al-Qaida figure Abu Qatada as an informer in a bid to keep terror off the streets of Britain, it was reported Wednesday.
Documents seen by the Evening Standard state that the domestic intelligence agency sought to recruit Qatada in the hope that he "would not bite the hand that fed him" and "keep terrorism off the streets of the U.K."
Qatada, described as Osama bin Laden's "ambassador" in Europe, was arrested in October 2002 at a south London apartment and detained in Belmarsh prison. After a law lords' ruling last December that such indefinite detention was unlawful, Qatada was released on bail under stringent control orders.
It is expected he will be deported to Jordan under terms of a deal between London and Amman to deport extremists without fear of mistreatment.
The 45-year-old radical cleric, described by one judge as a "truly dangerous individual," is known to have given religious advice to shoebomber Richard Reid, who attempted to blow up a U.S. airliner in 2001.
Security experts have claimed for many years that Britain is a safe haven for extremists, leading the capital to be nicknamed "Londonistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/28/2005 10:37 ||
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England's unwritten constitution apparently is a suicide pact.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/28/2005 14:01 Comments ||
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You need the Keystone Cops pic for this story. On second thoughts, the KCs would probably be a lot more effective than MI5, which shut down its Islamic unit under the leadership of Stella Rimmington.
Posted by: Infidels R Us ||
07/28/2005 19:09 Comments ||
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We were outside New Scotland Yard, getting ready to do a live shot, when police suddenly began cordoning off the area around us. Cars blocked the entrances at both sides of the street; armed officers moved in close.
It was all a familiar sight in England since July 7, and doubly so since the attempted bombings July 21.
Inside the cordon for a change, we got close to what was attracting all the attention. Workmen had been doing construction there just minutes before, and we were curious what they had to say.
Did it have something to do with the bombings? That seemed a natural question, given the past month.
A suspect in last week's failed bombings in London received thousands of dollars in rent subsidy for an apartment police believe was used as a bomb factory.
The Evening Standard reports that Yasin Hassan Omar got 75 pounds ($130) a week through May. His total benefit may have been as much as 24,000 pounds (almost $42,000). Omar lived in a one-bedroom apartment in a 12-story building in North London. Neighbors said that another suspect, Muktar Said-Ibrahim, had been staying there and that they had seen men carrying boxes into the apartment.
Omar is one of two named suspects in the bombings. A total of five are being sought.
Thursday's blasts were a grim echo of the deadly bombings two weeks earlier, with three explosions on Underground trains and a fourth on a bus. But the bombs failed to do much damage, possibly because the explosive material had deteriorated.
A Birmingham MP has called for the chairman of the city's Central Mosque to resign after he said the government could not be trusted.
Chairman Dr Mohammed Naseem made the comments after terror suspect Yasin Hassan Omar was arrested in Small Heath on Wednesday morning.
Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood said Dr Naseem had brought the role of mosque chairman into disrepute. But Dr Naseem said he did not believe he had been offensive or controversial. "To the best of my belief, I haven't said something I thought was unhelpful," he said. "I was trying to put the record straight. "We have got a long tradition of democracy and a rule of law and that's what I think we should uphold."
On Wednesday, Dr Naseem said there was no excuse for terrorism, but he said Tony Blair had lied over Iraq. "Now we cannot give our blind trust to the government," said Dr Naseem who has recently actively supported George Galloway's Respect Party. Speaking to BBC Radio WM on Thursday he questioned the existence of al-Qaeda. "I don't think al-Qaeda exists because we Muslims all over the world have not known this organisation," he said. "The only information about this organisation is coming from the CIA. Now, the CIA is not known for telling the truth." Mr Mahmood said: "What he has done is brought into disrepute the role of the chair of the Central Mosque and the Muslim community in Birmingham. "If he wants to make cheap political points then he really ought to relinquish his position as chairman and let somebody who is neutral and has the interests of the community do it."
Dr Naseem is one of the elder statesmen of Islam in Britain and has been a leading figure among Muslims for many years in Birmingham.
His position in the city arguably means he runs one of the most important Islamic institutions in Britain, the mosque being regularly used by thousands of Muslims from across the west Midlands. However, he has previously clashed with Mr Mahmood as he has been active in Respect, the party led by MP George Galloway to oppose the government's involvement in Iraq.
Dr Naseem, who stood for the Respect-Unity Coalition in Birmingham Perry Barr, Mr Mahmood's consitutency, received 2,173 votes at the last election, representing 5.6% of the votes cast. Mr Galloway, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, has had success in wooing traditionally Labour-voting Muslims away from the party.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 08:52 ||
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Indicative of the problems the mainstream muslims who go down the pub, fornicate and generally indulge in other 'Kufr' activities face from the leaders of their community. Get him a one way ticket to Pakland pronto.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/28/2005 9:16 Comments ||
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#2
"I don't think al-Qaeda exists because we Muslims all over the world have not known this organisation," he said.
Dr Naseem is one of the elder statesmen of Islam in Britain and has been a leading figure among Muslims for many years in Birmingham.
His position in the city arguably means he runs one of the most important Islamic institutions in Britain, the mosque being regularly used by thousands of Muslims from across the west Midlands.
Another "moderate" heard from.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2005 9:39 Comments ||
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#3
Community leader, spiritual guide, influential public figure, and pig nasty nutter. Wonderful. Given the standard conspiracy/slipspeak bs he's willing to utter publically I bet you'll find that he's actually quite full of the murderous seething rage Root Cause thingy. Respect. Sure. One problem old, CIA-fearing, evil man of faith. You've got to earn it as is the case with trust. These are not handouts. Piss off and begone.
#4
There was a tornado in Birmingham this afternoon - quite a rare occurrence for the UK. How long before this assclown claims it as God's punishment for the Kafirs? Get him on the plane now.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/28/2005 11:17 Comments ||
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#5
khalid muhammed, the MP is the moderate. Nasseem is NOT a moderate. The insistence of the MSM that folks like Nasseem ARE moderates, when they are NOT, has undercut the work true moderates, like Khalid Muhammed.
#6
I've heard it reported, Howard, that the UK has the highest incidence of tornados in the world. It's just that they are little harmless ones - tornadinos - if you like.
It may be quite likely that the wannabe bombers think Allan has intervened and chosen that they not be splodydopes. That's what we've got to convince them, anyway.
Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev tried to organize an attack on highland villages in Dagestan, Interior Forces press service chief Col. Vasily Panchenkov told Interfax on Thursday.
"Basayev tried to gather his men in Vedeno Gorge last week for an attack on highland villages in Dagestan," he said.
"No more than 40 men gathered, although he expected 300-400. Basayev did not come to Vedeno Gorge himself," he said.
"This is not the first attempt by Basayev to organize a large-scale attack," Panchenkov said.
"The federal forces' command was ready for a special operation in the Vedeno district of Chechnya, but eventually decided against it for fear of hurting civilians," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/28/2005 10:54 ||
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Fear of hurting civilians trumps jihadi whackamole in Chechnya? That would be a new one.
THE Federal Government could not deport bogus asylum seekers unless it proved their country of origin was safe, the Federal Court has ruled.
The ruling means more than 1000 asylum seekers facing deportation might be able to stay in Australia. So name one f**king Muslim country that is "safe", whatever that means.
It means whatever they say it means. Nice system, huh?
The decision by justices Murray Wilcox, Rodney Madgwick and Bruce Lander means temporary protection visa (TPV) holders will no longer be forced to prove their refugee status when their three-year visa expires and they could instead be issued with a permanent visa.
Brisbane immigration lawyer Bruce Henry said the Federal Court ruling in the case of his Afghan client â identified only as QAAH â undermined the Government's policy of forcing asylum seekers to prove they would be harmed if they were returned to their homeland. The ruling moved the onus to the Government to prove asylum seekers would be safe if forced to return and potentially opened the door for thousands of similar cases, he said.
"It means that anyone who's still on a temporary protection visa, so anyone whose application for a permanent visa has not ended favourably for them, has the right now to be saying to the department that; 'You've got to reassess my case, you've got to adopt the correct approach under the convention'," Mr Henry told ABC radio. "Which means that the department has to show why it's safe for them to return to Afghanistan, why it's safe for them to return to Iraq or Iran, rather than for the TPV holder to have to make out another case.
"There's a few thousand in that position of not yet having been granted the permanent visa."
Refugee lawyer David Manne doubted there would be a flood of other cases but said it gave hope to hundreds of people seeking permanent residency in Australia.
QAAH's lawyers argued the Refugee Review Tribunal failed to consider whether the government of Afghanistan was willing or able to protect QAAH against threats of persecution, including from the Taliban because he was a Shi'ite Muslim. The judges agreed with QAAH's lawyers, ordering the appeal be upheld and Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone pay the appellant's costs. "It should be ordered that the decision made by the tribunal be quashed and the appellants application for a permanent protection visa be remitted to the tribunal for further hearing and determination according to law," Judge Wilcox said in his judgment.
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said the court decision was further proof the Government had made a complete mess of immigration law. "Everything in it is a mess," he said.
So you'll sponsor a law to reverse the decision, right?
#1
The Ozzies have the same problem as the rest of the West: their institutions, with the judicial being the most important, have been packed (read: selected, not elected) with socialist, tranzi, and fool appointments. Guess they're fucked, too. Join the club, it's the same everywhere, it seems. I guess when the Second Civil War kicks off in the US, mebbe our true allies and friends might want to join in the festivities - sorta like Ex Lax to cure the "Ism" Constipation plaguing us all. Or you guys can go first - and help seed our revolution. I'm not picky, I just want it done.
#2
Jebus, there is NO non western state that is considered safe to thise TRANZIs and Commies. Scerw them it's time we have a openly hostile program of shunning and deicrimination against the TRANZIs and their ilk. It's us or them and I vote for them.
#3
This *really* burns me. Not becuase it happened in Australia, were it to occur anywhere else I would be equally angry.
It is fundamental to democracy that elected officials or their nominees make laws and public policy. The role of judges is to ensure those laws are fairly and uniformly applied. Remember in Australia we do not have a constitution for the judges to interpret. I smell the stink of 'international law' taking precedence over laws enacted by duly elected officials. Fuck, this makes me angry.
#4
Let the court enforce it's ruling then. Screw them, other than words what real power do they have? Only that power which the people give them. The people need to remind them apparently. Not just there but here as well.
#5
The only thing we have to fear is fear ourselves.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2005 5:35 Comments ||
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#6
I'm slowly coming 'round to the view that we don't have a prayer of prevailing in this war against totalitarian Islam until we first free ourselves-- by force, if necessary-- from the corrosive influence of the Left.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/28/2005 5:47 Comments ||
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#12
The judiciary is asking the government to prove a negative: to say that a country is safe is really to say that there is no danger there.
It can't be done. The courts are supposed to understand that.
The onus of proof is on the person making a claim, such as an asylum seeker who claims his life is in danger because he's a musician and the Taliban would kill him. Since the Taliban are gone, that argument's gone too.
The Australian judiciary has now destroyed any semblance of reason in the asylum process. The only proper response from the legislative branch should be to pass laws saying "Fine, NO asylum seekers accepted ever" and the executive branch should set up an immediate deportation program of all asylum seekers, past and present.
A Hamburg imam has, for the first time in Germany, proclaimed a Muslim legal pronouncement against terrorism.
Terrorism and killings of innocent people are "criminal misdeeds," and should be outlawed by Islamic law, said Seyyed Abbas Ghaemmaghami, the imam at Hamburg's Islamic Center. It was unclear when Ghaemmaghami made the pronouncement, called a fatwa.
Ghaemmaghami, a Shiite imam, is the only ayatollah living in Germany, and is considered the religious leader of the German Shiites, who make up roughly 4 percent of 3 three million Muslims in the country.
Ghaemmaghami's fatwa should be binding for Muslims in Germany, a spokesman of the center told the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which reported the fatwa Thursday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/28/2005 10:41 ||
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Its just a shiite. We need more Sunnis to condemn terrorism. whatever involvement Iran has, its Sunni communities in the west that spawn terror, not, AFAICT, Shiite ones.
#3
Why no fatwas (except the Salmon Rushdie type) in the 70's, 70's, 90's, 2000-2005? Could it be they are feeling the heat of deportation? No more land of free milk and honey and scantily clad infidel wimmen?
Posted by: ed ||
07/28/2005 12:28 Comments ||
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DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - Senior figures in Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army-linked party, left Wednesday for the United States ahead of an expected major new peace declaration from the outlawed IRA.
The British, Irish and U.S. governments have been pressing since December for the outlawed IRA to disarm fully and disband in support of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord. The pact's key goal - a joint Catholic-Protestant administration for the British territory - has been hold since 2002 because of Protestant refusal to cooperate with Sinn Fein, the major Catholic-backed party.
The British and Irish governments both expect the IRA to release a new policy statement soon, perhaps on Thursday, outlining its intentions. Both governments insist the IRA must disarm fully and renounce violence and criminal activity - commitments the IRA has refused to give in the past. Sinn Fein deputy leader Martin McGuinness and the party's North American representative, Rita O'Hare, were planning to meet supporters in the Congress and President Bush's envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss.
In a sign of recent U.S. pressure on the Sinn Fein-IRA movement, O'Hare in February was barred from traveling into the United States - the first time that happened since she became Sinn Fein's senior U.S.-based lobbyist in 1998. O'Hare has been on the run from British justice since the early 1970s in Northern Ireland, where she absconded on bail while awaiting trial on charge of attempting to murder British soldiers.
Lovely lass, perhaps we can hold her for the Brits?
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/28/2005 00:00 ||
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This is good news. Maybe we can all go out for a beer now and concentrate together on the new and larger enemy in our midst.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/28/2005 5:23 Comments ||
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Posted by: gp ||
07/28/2005 7:56 Comments ||
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Done. Hopefully they live by it and convince the splinter faction thugs to do the same. That will be the problem over the short term. Old habits are hard to break for some. It isn't as if the "armed struggle" accomplished much beyond what was on the table for a long time and free for the taking. Ironic how worried provos are about parting with all those weapons the vast majority of which were never even used!
A Briton facing extradition to America for perpetrating "the biggest computer hack of all time" left a message criticising American foreign policy on an army computer, a court heard yesterday.
Gary McKinnon, 39, From one Gary to another, change your name, creep. is accused of accessing 97 US government computers, causing damage estimated at $700,000.
An extradition hearing at Bow Street magistrates' court was told that McKinnon, of Wood Green, north London, deleted files that shut down more than 2,000 computers in the US army's military district of Washington for 24 hours "significantly disrupting governmental function".
It was claimed he left a note on an army computer in 2002 saying US foreign policy was "akin to government-sponsored terrorism". The note allegedly said: "It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand down on September 11 last year. I am Solo. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels."
McKinnon is accused of 20 counts relating to the American army, navy and air force, Nasa and the Department of Defence.
One allegation is that he deleted files and logs from computers at the US Naval Weapons Station Earle at a critical time after the Twin Towers attacks, rendering the base's network of 300 computers inoperable.
Mark Summers, for the American government, said: "The defendant was acting from his own computer in London. He effectively owned those computers by virtue of the software he had transmitted. His conduct was intentional and calculated to influence and affect the US government by intimidation and coercion."
It is also alleged that McKinnon obtained secret passwords or information which might become "indirectly useful to an enemy", and interfered with maritime navigation facilities in New Jersey.
When McKinnon was indicted, Paul McNulty, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said: "Mr McKinnon is charged with the biggest computer hack of all time."
#2
Actually this guy unintentionally did some good which is to point out the terrible state of the US Information Infrastructure and the unified lack of security and standards. We should be really thankful that this was not during some major engagement and being done by an enemy who realized that they could cause major grief at the same time of an attack. What they should do is offer him a deal where his sentence option is Jail and fines or long term service to the US and UK governments cracking systems and doing security audits.
Posted by: Robi Sen ||
07/28/2005 10:33 Comments ||
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#3
There's a picture of the slime on Drudge. I'd love to beat that smirk right off his face.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 10:44 Comments ||
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A major Protestant denomination demanded Israel tear down the security barrier it has built along the West Bank and pay reparations to Palestinians harmed by it, a vote that provoked criticism by Jewish leaders.
More than 3,000 delegates of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a resolution stating the barrier has had "devastating effects on the lives and livelihoods of Palestinians living in the occupied territories" and they should be compensated for their losses.
"We might say â sarcastically â along with Robert Frost that good walls make good neighbors. No, they do not," William McDermet III of Panama, N.Y., an ordained Disciples minister, told delegates attending the church's general assembly.
Good walls don't make good neighbors, but they do tend to keep sociopathic neighbors out of your backyard.
Quoting former President Ronald Reagan, he shouted into the microphone: "Say to Ariel Sharon, 'Tear down this wall.'"
You're not worthy to quote Ronald Reagan.
The vote by the Disciples of Christ follows passage of a similar resolution by the United Church of Christ earlier this month.
The resolution was denounced by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, who attended the congregation's general assembly in Portland. "This resolution is an abomination," said Cooper. "It demands that Israel take action that would put millions of its citizens in immediate harm's way...no other nation would ever be asked to do the same and as a result, this politically-driven resolution is functionally anti-Semitic," he said.
Cooper, who traveled to Portland along with a 25-year-old survivor of the Cafe Hillel suicide bombing, had hoped the young woman would be allowed to speak before the general assembly. But he said church leaders told him only congregation members could address the assembly during the debate. "We came here to present a Jewish voice â but were not allowed to," said Cooper. "We have traditionally had very warm and very strong relations with Protestant groups....left unaddressed, these kinds of actions will begin to corrode" that, he said.
Tzippy Cohen, 25, of New York, who accompanied Cooper, said she came to tell the general assembly about what it was like to be inside Jerusalem's Cafe Hillel on Sept. 9, 2003, when a suicide bomber killed seven people. "When I hear the words 'tear down the wall' â I hear exploding cafes, buses blowing up," she wrote in the statement she had hoped to read to the assembly.
In New York, the American Jewish Committee called the resolution "unfortunate," but stressed that a single resolution does not destroy an entire relationship, said David Elcott, who is the group's director for interreligious affairs.
The thought behind the resolution, however, just might.
While delegates of the 770,000-strong denomination that's based in Indianapolis overwhelmingly voted in favor of the resolution, several members spoke passionately against it. "Who are we to tell our friends in Israel how to defend themselves?" said Jim Wilson of Coffeyville, Kan.
But the church also heard from 40-year-old Rula Shubeita, a Palestinian who belongs to the congregation and who flew in from Jerusalem to urge her church to pass the resolution.
The wall, she said, has divided her family â a 3-mile trip to visit her brother has turned into a 40-mile excursion. "The Israelis claim they are building this for security. Obviously, they do so to take more Palestinian lands," she said.
#1
darn, I'm tired right now. So..having only skimmed this in a major way I can only say...who cares what these frauds say.
So fricken sad that in a world where Christ's teachings could really benefit the disenfranchised, willing to blow themselves up rather than feed the poor, we have to put up with freaking frauds.
As God wills it. Inshallah.
As rantburger's already know, I'm a fan of Christ's message, but who the **&^ are these guys?
3000? Come on!!! That's like saying that 20 people showed up for a protest in Pakiland. Most of America views themselves as Christian, yet we have a mere 3000 stating view? Pleeeeas...f'n please!
#4
I suppose these people would have Taiwan eliminate its coastal defenses too. And South Korea eliminate the DMZ. And let's just throw open our border for any Mexican or terrorist who can walk or crawl across it. What the heck, China should tear down the Great Wall too -- it's a vestige of old hostilities. And raze all the castles in Europe and walled cities in the Middle East...
Apparently the 770,000-member Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is similar to the U.N. -- passing lots of resolutions so they they can feel all warm and fuzzy that the've done their part for world peace. And it accomplishes nothing except to encourage more Islamic fanaticism that would ultimately like to convert or kill them. Brilliant. F'ing brilliant.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/28/2005 10:34 Comments ||
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"We might say â sarcastically â along with Robert Frost that good walls make good neighbors. No, they do not," William McDermet III of Panama, N.Y., an ordained Disciples minister, told delegates attending the church's general assembly.
Actually, I agree with this assessment (although from a different viewpoint). I'd say the Paleos are STILL bad neighbors, even with the fence up.
The vote by the Disciples of Christ follows passage of a similar resolution by the United Church of Christ earlier this month.
2b, good observation on the 3,000 number. If this group (Disciples of Christ) are tied to the Church of Christ, that would explain it. Talk to a guy very often who's a member of Church of Christ (I believe it's the United CoC, but not 100% sure). Many other Christian denominations consider them almost a cult. Started by a man up in Boston back in the 70's. But, even so, I know they probably have 3,000 members alone in 1 of their churches here in Atlanta (they've met their founder's goal of having a church in each city worldwide with a 100,000 population or more). Pretty impressive expansion, but are currently undergoing a MAJOR shakeup and power struggle, as their leader has been found w/ his hands in the cookie jar to say the least. This group (of 3,000) could be the moonbat group looking to seize power and a "voice" for the church.
Posted by: BA ||
07/28/2005 10:38 Comments ||
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#6
Rock of Ages
Where's my snake?
Let's us to the geld embrace,
From the morons in the aisle
To the screechers pedofile
Screeching Jezus that's the game
Please don't knock us
we're insane
#7
fred, how many posters do you get on Rantburg? Perhaps its time you form the Church of Rantburg (reformed) (or church of Fred, whatever floats your boat) and send out a press statement in support of the wall on our behalf.
#11
The Christian Church broke with the Disciples because many do consider them a cult. We even dropped the Church of Christ and changed our church name because we don't agree with their philosophy. I assure you most Christians are pro-Jewish, just as our founder was.
#14
Dad's been fighting the same shit in the Lutheran Church. Me I don't care anymore. FckEm.
What happened dates back to Vietnam. Remember that draft with draft exemptions for clergy. Well, guess who became clergy in large numbers and are now starting (due to age) to run all the churches.
#15
Real Christian churches would be sending money to help build the wall! Screw these twits. The mainline churches are dying and this is one reason why.
The CIA is squelching publication of a new book detailing events leading up to Osama bin Laden's escape from his Tora Bora mountain stronghold during the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, says a former CIA officer who led much of the fighting.
In a story he says he resigned from the agency to tell, Gary Berntsen recounts the attacks he coordinated at the peak of the fighting in eastern Afghanistan in late 2001, including how U.S. commanders knew bin Laden was in the rugged mountains near the Pakistani border and the al-Qaeda leader's much-discussed getaway.
Berntsen claims in a federal court lawsuit that the CIA is over-classifying his manuscript and has repeatedly missed deadlines written into its own regulations to review his book. His attorney, Roy Krieger, said he delivered papers to the U.S. District Court in Washington after hours Wednesday.
The CIA declined to comment because the suit had not yet been filed officially.
During the 2004 election, President Bush and other senior administration officials repeatedly said that commanders did not know whether bin Laden was at Tora Bora when U.S. and allied Afghan forces attacked there in 2001.
They rejected allegations by Sen. John Kerry, then the Democratic presidential nominee, that the United States had missed an opportunity to capture or kill bin Laden because they had "outsourced" the fighting to Afghan warlords.
"When I watched the presidential debates, it was clear to me ... the debate and discussions on Tora Bora were â from both sides â completely incorrect," said Berntsen, who won't provide details until the agency finishes declassifying his book. "It did not represent the reality of what happened on the ground."
A Republican and avid Bush supporter, Berntsen, 48, retired in June and hasn't spoken publicly before.
His book chronicles chapters of his 23 years with the agency. Berntsen spent most of his career as a case officer in the Middle East, serving as the top U.S. intelligence official in three countries.
It covers his role handling the agency's response to al-Qaeda's 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa. And the book continues through late 2001 when he was assigned to command a CIA team inserted into Afghanistan, code-named "Jawbreaker" â the title of his book, tentatively due out in October.
Berntsen said the story highlights the actions of four brave Muslim American men who went with him.
It's also about decision-making: "Who stepped up, who didn't in all of this," said Berntsen, the recipient of two of the CIA's three highest medals, one for preventing Islamic extremists from assassinating the Indian prime minister in 1996.
He said he felt compelled to write his story. But he also acknowledges he retired two years early because he ruffled senior management feathers. It was clear he wouldn't get further promotions.
Krieger said his client's First Amendment rights are being violated. He's also suing under the Administrative Procedures Act, arguing that the agency has taken more than twice the 30 days allowed by regulation to review the 330-page book.
Berntsen's book is one of a handful written recently by former CIA officers who have wrestled with the agency over what could be published.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/28/2005 10:18 ||
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In a story he says he resigned from the agency to tell,
Shouldn't have bought that BMW so soon, he may have to return the royalty advance and cancel all the TV interviews he was lining up. The condo in the Carribean may need to be leased out too ...
Pfeh.
Posted by: too true ||
07/28/2005 10:25 Comments ||
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#2
Coming soon to a grocery store checkout line near you.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 10:41 Comments ||
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#3
Sounds more like he's run afoul of the reigning Clintonians and Halfbrightians still infesting the Agency....
Whadda you say, Old Spook?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2005 10:47 Comments ||
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#4
Sandy Berger is still checking his notes for the forward.
#6
Yawn, just another hit piece. The only one who knows if OBL was at Tora Bora and was allowed to escape is OBL, the rest are just idle speculators and profiteers.
Oh, and they are all "Republican and avid Bush supporters" don't ya know.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2005 16:50 Comments ||
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#7
A Republican and avid Bush supporter, Berntsen, 48, retired in June .... he also acknowledges he retired two years early because he ruffled senior management feathers. It was clear he wouldn't get further promotions.
He's having his mid-life crisis.
The intelligence community ought to develop some professional guidelines about the proper passage of time between leaving and publishing memoirs.
The public benefits when such memoirs eventually are published, but cases like this book are blantantly improper, in my opinion. Beyond the considerations of protecting sources and methods, his rush to publish is unprofessional and unsavory. He is profiting prematurely from inside knowledge obtained while on a government salary, and he is exploiting an opportunity to kick his superiors publicly while they cannot kick back.
Unfortunately, this kind of publication is becoming more common. I think the professional guidelines ought to dictate at least a decade between leaving and publishing.
That said, I must admit that I recently enjoyed reading the book First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan by Gary Schroen. It seems to me that he wrote most of the book during his last CIA assignment. And he publicly lambasts everyone who disagreed with him or crossed him during that assignment. But, my enjoyment of all that was wrong.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/28/2005 19:25 Comments ||
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#8
Just a regular guy, with an agenda. WELL I DIDN'T GET A DECENT RETIREMENT EITHER!
Posted by: Jack Rubenstein ||
07/28/2005 20:01 Comments ||
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#9
thanks for your ethics lecture, Kofi-boy
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/28/2005 21:05 Comments ||
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#10
But, my enjoyment of all that was wrong.
It's all about MEEEEEEE!!!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2005 21:26 Comments ||
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New Yorkers have more to fear from homegrown terrorists inspired by Osama bin Laden's message of hate than from seasoned al-Qaida operatives sent to the city to carry out attacks, a federal official said Tuesday.
"We have to be concerned about who is already is in our midst, as opposed to somebody who is being deployed from abroad," John O. Brennan, the outgoing interim chief of the National Counterterror Center, said at a corporate security conference. "Who is a terrorist among us?"
Brennan also warned that Iraq has become a breeding ground for terrorists who - unlike their predecessors trained in Afghanistan - have honed their skills in urban settings. He said the new generation could enter the United States "and bring with them the tactics and techniques they've developed there."
The remarks came at a conference organized by the New York Police Department to encourage more vigilance by private security at large hotels, Wall Street firms, Broadway theaters, storage facilities and other businesses.
Brennan, a 25-year CIA veteran and Middle East expert, has headed the new federal center that coordinates the nation's fight against terrorism by analyzing intelligence from 15 independent spy agencies and law enforcement officials in state and local governments. He is scheduled to leave the post next week after announcing his retirement in May.
Brennan said U.S. military forces and law enforcement agencies succeeded at disrupting al-Qaida's operations. But the bombings of mass transit targets in London and Madrid, he added, revealed the new face of terrorism: less sophisticated, radical Muslims from local communities who have "a willingness to engage in a less spectacular attack" than that launched on Sept. 11, 2001.
The homegrown terrorist has "responded to the call, the exhortations of bin Laden and others, to reach out and damage and hurt those who are being portrayed as damaging to Islamic ideals, Islamic values and the Islamic people," he said.
He likened al-Qaida to a cancer that has metastasized.
"Whether or not al-Qaida has a reach into the boroughs of New York or the areas of East London or not, I think we're going to be seeing the metastases developing more and more along the continuum of radicalism, extremism, violence and then leading to terrorism," he said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who hosted the conference, credited law enforcement with thwarting a handful of local plots in the wake of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. He said the arrests last year of "two homegrown jihadists" in an alleged scheme to blow up a subway station in busy Herald Square were proof the city could protect itself.
The London attacks "again raised the fear that another terrorist strike against New York City is inevitable," he said. "I, for one, do not subscribe to that belief."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/28/2005 10:36 ||
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Muslims in America need to get the word out, and make it perfectly clear: You really do not want this to happen. Foreign terrorists are one thing, but DO NOT let Americans believe that you guys are potential bombers. Let me say it again: You really f*cking don't want Americans to believe this.
#2
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group, said the ruling does not represent a new position on terrorism.
Which, bluntly put, means this one will be as weasel-worded as all the others. I mean, CAIR? Half their executives have been convicted of supporting terrorism, and they've just dropped three quarters of their complaint against anti-CAIR -- specifically the bits that tie them to terrorism.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2005 10:38 Comments ||
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#3
CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper and radical Islam
At the Islamic Association of Palestine's third annual convention in Chicago in November 1999, CAIR President Omar Ahmad gave a speech at a youth session praising suicide bombers who "kill themselves for Islam." "Fighting for freedom, fighting for Islam â that is not suicide. They kill themselves for Islam, " he said.
Posted by: ed ||
07/28/2005 11:30 Comments ||
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#4
Disagreements among muslims in Britain:
BBC
Call for mosque chairman to quit
A Birmingham MP has called for the chairman of the city's Central Mosque to resign after he said the government could not be trusted.
Chairman Dr Mohammed Naseem made the comments after terror suspect Yasin Hassan Omar was arrested in Small Heath on Wednesday morning.
Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood said Dr Naseem had brought the role of mosque chairman into disrepute.
But Dr Naseem said he did not believe he had been offensive or controversial.
"To the best of my belief, I haven't said something I thought was unhelpful," he said.
"We have got a long tradition of democracy and a rule of law and that's what I think we should uphold."
On Wednesday, Dr Naseem said there was no excuse for terrorism, but he said Tony Blair had lied over Iraq.
"Now we cannot give our blind trust to the government," said Dr Naseem who has recently actively supported George Galloway's Respect Party.
Speaking to BBC Radio WM on Thursday he questioned the existence of al-Qaeda.
"I don't think al-Qaeda exists because we Muslims all over the world have not known this organisation," he said.
"The only information about this organisation is coming from the CIA. Now, the CIA is not known for telling the truth."
Mr Mahmood said: "What he has done is brought into disrepute the role of the chair of the Central Mosque and the Muslim community in Birmingham.
"If he wants to make cheap political points then he really ought to relinquish his position as chairman and let somebody who is neutral and has the interests of the community do it."
Dr Naseem is one of the elder statesmen of Islam in Britain and has been a leading figure among Muslims for many years in Birmingham.
His position in the city arguably means he runs one of the most important Islamic institutions in Britain, the mosque being regularly used by thousands of Muslims from across the west Midlands.
However, he has previously clashed with Mr Mahmood as he has been active in Respect, the party led by MP George Galloway to oppose the government's involvement in Iraq.
Dr Naseem, who stood for the Respect-Unity Coalition in Birmingham Perry Barr, Mr Mahmood's consitutency, received 2,173 votes at the last election, representing 5.6% of the votes cast.
#6
I'd bet dollars to donuts the fatwah will say something like "We condemn the murder of innocent civilians".
Of course, since Israelis all go thru a period of service in the army, that makes them combatants. And since the Americans re-elected Bushitler(tm) that makes them all war criminals. And yadda,yadda,yadda. Muslim logic, bah!
Let's not even mention that some wacky mullah the other day claimed the idea of 'civilians' does not exist in Islam since you either belong to the House of Submission or the House of War.
WASHINGTON â The FBI has failed to review more than 8,000 hours of audio wiretap recordings related to counterterrorism investigations, a backlog that has more than doubled in size since last year, according to a new report issued Wednesday. The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine also found that although the FBI has made progress in improving its translation program, the bureau is still struggling to analyze recordings quickly enough and to hire and retain qualified translators. "The success of the FBI's foreign language translation efforts is critical to its national security mission," the report said. It added that "key deficiencies remain, including a continuing amount of unreviewed material, instances where 'high priority' material has not been reviewed within 24 hours and continued challenges in meeting linguist hiring goals."
The new findings were released on the same day that FBI Director Robert Mueller faced sharp questioning from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who complained during an oversight hearing that the FBI is not changing quickly enough to focus on terrorist threats and has bungled attempts to implement a $170 million computer upgrade. "What happens if there's plans for an impending attack and we don't translate the audio until sometime after the attack?" asked Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the committee's ranking Democrat. "I worry we're not moving fast enough to get those translated."
Mueller said the backlog in the review of audiotapes from counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations involves less than 2 percent of all recordings and includes many tapes of "white noise from microphone recordings." Others consist of "obscure languages and dialects" that are difficult to translate, including one Mueller did not identify that could not be translated by anyone in the U.S. intelligence community, he said. Justice Department investigators also found that it took the FBI an average of 16 months to hire contract linguists. Mueller said the problems are due in part to the rigorous hiring standards and the limited supply of applicants.
Mueller said it will be several years before a replacement for the computer upgrade can be ready.
At which time it will be several years out of date.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 09:58 ||
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FBI: "We blame Stephen Hatfill. He's a 'person of interest' in the crime of our incompetence"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/28/2005 10:29 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON -- Army bases in Texas, Colorado, Washington, Kansas and elsewhere will gain thousands of soldiers as the military brings home 50,000 troops from Germany and Korea and reorganizes into a force designed to better fight modern battles. The shifts will mean upheavals for many soldiers and their families in the coming years. But Army officials said Wednesday the effort will mean over the long term that families will move less often. Gen. Richard Cody, the Army's vice chief of staff, said it was the biggest change in the Army since the beginning of World War II. Ray Dubois, a special assistant to the Army secretary, spoke of the "true cornerstone of Army transformation in the 21st century."
The army is rebuilding around 43 ground combat brigades, each with between 3,500 and 3,900 troops. The goal is to have the brigades operate far more independently than existing ones, which rely heavily on their larger division structures to function in a war zone. Divisions were set up to do battle with an enemy such as the Soviet Union. The new brigades will function in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. The restructuring takes place as the Pentagon withdraws tens thousands of troops from their Cold War homes in Germany and South Korea. Many units from Germany are going to Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Riley, Kan. In some case, the troops will go to other bases and change units.
The new brigades are built around one of three designs:
* light, primarily infantry.
* Stryker, built around the Stryker armored vehicle.
* heavy, which have tanks and armored infantry carriers.
That compares with 13 designs among the 33 old Army brigades, each with between 3,000 and 5,000 soldiers. Some the changes are under way; others will not be completed until 2009. Some troops will go with their unit and change their home base; others will change units but stay at the same base; and some units will rotate to Iraq or Afghanistan, then change their designation and home base when they finish.
Under the reorganization:
* Fort Bliss will be home to the 1st Armored Division, amounting to four brigades and a division headquarters. A division headquarters will have about 1,000 troops under the Army's new design. The unit is primarily based in Germany. Some other Bliss troops, trained in anti-aircraft weaponry, are set to move to Fort Sill, Okla., under the base closing process now under way. Including these moves, the base will have a net gain of about 18,300 soldiers between 2003 and 2011, according to calculations by the Army.
* At Fort Hood, Texas, the 4th Infantry Division will move two brigades, plus its headquarters, to Fort Carson, Colo. The third brigade of the 4th Infantry Division will change shoulder patch and join the 1st Armored Cavalry as its new, fourth brigade. The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment will move from Carson to Hood. The III Corps headquarters, about 1,000 troops, will stay at Hood. Army spokesman Paul Boyce said Hood will have gained a net 700 soldiers between 2003 and 2011 under the military's current plans.
* Fort Lewis, Wash., now home to two brigades, will add a third, and all will become part of the 2nd Infantry Division. The fourth brigade of the division, plus its headquarters, will remain in Korea. The Army is negotiating to move I Corps headquarters, also at Lewis, to Japan. Lewis is expected to grow by 11,300 soldiers by 2011, the Army said.
* Fort Riley will be home to most of the 1st Infantry Division, three brigades and the headquarters. Much of that unit has been based in Germany. A brigade of the 1st Armored Division, now at Riley, will move to Fort Bliss. Riley will gain 9,400 soldiers, Boyce said.
* Fort Carson, Colo., will be home to the entire 4th Infantry Division, four brigades plus a headquarters. Many of these units are coming from Fort Hood. One brigade, formerly part of the 2nd Infantry Division based in Korea, will come from Iraq. Carson will grow by 8,200 soldiers.
* Fort Drum, N.Y., is adding a new brigade to the 10th Mountain Division. Drum will have grown by 6,300 soldiers by 2011, Boyce said.
* Fort Knox, Ky., will add a fourth, new brigade from the 1st Infantry.
* Fort Bragg, N.C., will add a fourth, new brigade to the 82nd Airborne Division, already stationed there.
* Fort Polk, La., will lose the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment to Germany, where it will become the sole ground combat brigade stationed there. A fourth brigade of the 10th Mountain Division is standing up in its place.
* Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, will gain about 3,700 troops under the 25th Infantry Division by 2011.
* Fort Richardson, Alaska, is adding a brigade under the 25th Infantry Division, which is headquartered in Hawaii.
That will leave only three ground combat brigades permanently stationed overseas -- one in Korea, one in Germany and one in Italy. The Army will also break up its 5th Corps headquarters in Europe, Cody said.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 09:44 ||
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This is going to take some serious 'splainin. For example, are major non-organic units, such as Engineers, going to be reorganized into separate Brigades, or be broken up into Battallions attached to combat Brigades? Other CS and CSS branches can only operate with minimum sized units, so how will they be integrated? Either you have Brigades that are far less than organic, or you have the majority of a combat Brigade being non-combat support.
#3
The size of the brigades bothers me. They are about 1/2 the size of the cold war brigades. If they include engineering, recon, etc, then the line units are really small. This might work in a guerrilla war, but will be a disaster if we have to fight the Chinese.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/28/2005 11:09 Comments ||
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#4
I'd have to see more details before I know if I like this. Just before WWII, the Army had a big reorganization, introducing 2 concepts: one that worked, and one that didn't.
The one that worked was Modularization. We made a "standard" infantry battalion, regiment, and division. Ditto for armor. If you commanded the 92nd division, you knew that it had exactly the same TOE as the 3rd division. (Many other countries, notably Germany, did not do this.)
The one that didn't work was Pooling. A division was stripped down to the minimum components that it needed to perform all missions. All the support units were sent up to Corps or Army level, which then assigned them as needed to a unit to perform a given mission, then took them away again. This meant that the tanks and TD units, for example, didn't form a long-term relationship with their associated infantry. Instead, you got assigned a bunch of people you never had seen before and were expected to smoothly coordinate with them. Eventually, higher command would unofficially "marry" support units to divisions, allowing them to integrate into the command.
OK, 65 years later.
I think the Light/Stryker/Heavy works well in maybe 85% of the cases. But how will the 82nd and 101st be labeled? As "Light?" I suppose the 101st could simply be Light that happens to have a lot of air transport assets to it. But the 82nd is unique.
Will the mountain brigades merely become Light? Or will they be Light, with special training? That means we no longer have 3 types of brigades, but 4 or 5. A generic Light will no longer be substitutable for a Light-with-mountain-training brigade. (Let alone a Bud Lite.)
That can be worked out, though. My bigger problem is who gets artillery and engineers and other support units? Will each brigade get, say, one battery of artillery, one company of engineers, one company of AA (besides Stingers), one company of heavy AT (besides Javelins)? Or will we go back to the pooling days?
I would like to follow up more. I am going to do some searching around to see how much is publicly available. If anyone else can find some detailed descriptions, please post in the comments or at least send an eMail to My address.
#5
I'm tied up today, but if y'all go read the various docs at the DOD transformation site you might get a better feel for what is in fact being done and why.
Lots of threads combine to make these changes: mobility, unit rotation (i.e. a guy stays with his unit longer, family gets more stability), technologies such as Future Combat Systems and a whole lot more.
Doctrinal changes, equipment (some of which has been field tested in Iraq and Afghanistan), BRAC reorg ....
and figuring out how to have a single multi-service force that can take on current and future (perhaps totally new) missions that range from stability and sustainment ops (peacecreating/keeping) to that China problem.
I don't know if it's the right move, but it certainly hasn't been done casually or without great thought about what and why.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/28/2005 12:11 Comments ||
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#7
The article does get it wrong in one respect: there will be airmobile brigades (101st Airmobile Division), and Airborne (82nd ABN Div and the Sky SOldiers of the 173rd), and of course the Rangers will retain the Regiment, and the Special Forces will retain their structure.
So the article, intrying to simplify things for the general puyblic glosses over a LOT of detail that you and I could use to make sense of things.
The primary unit of manuever remains the battalion, the primary unit of tactical execution remains the company. Those will likely never change.
Cross attachment remains a normal practice, to form company "teams" or battalion "task force", so thhhis is mainly about making strategic commandable units a bit easier to handle and transport.
As for the smaller size, most of the "new style" light brigades no longer have much organic MP, artillery or anti-aircraft support. ANd the stryker bridgaes have a littl less of it than the heavy brigades. This kind of unit (artillery, ADA) gets cross-attached per mission needs. I am unsure where that falls - at division, or up at corps. But you can bwe the heavy brigades hold a ton of the stuff.
As an example, you dont need artillery in Iraq, you do need it in Korea or for China. Artillery units in Iraq are being turned into MP units. Their tubes are back in the US while their soldiers are getting on-the-job training in patrolling and counter-insurgency operations.
So yelling about how this screws up artillery or other branches is irrelevant -- the combat we are in is already forcing the "destruction" of air defense, artillery and other units. This re-org simply codifies what has been goign on in Afghanistan and Iraq.
#8
Regardless of whether this will make the military more efficient and better prepared for present and future challenges (I think it does, but I am far from a military expert), there IS one undeniable upside:
the military brings home 50,000 troops from Germany and Korea
#10
think the Light/Stryker/Heavy works well in maybe 85% of the cases. But how will the 82nd and 101st be labeled? As "Light?" I suppose the 101st could simply be Light that happens to have a lot of air transport assets to it. But the 82nd is unique.
ummm.... I have an idea.... Hey Fred man! Is it time to break up jumping divisons?
think the conclusions are, if you fly over a known area of enemy concentration and you don't do anything from a combined arms perspective to prep that area, you're probably going to get your butt shot off.
#13
We were doing some of this back in 91-93 in the 101st. The artillery and airdefense was tasked at Corps level, along with engineers. The units were "assigned" as the mission dictated. For instance, a airfield defense would not get artillery, but maybe a company of stingers and some vulcans. A line unit would get some of each and a unit behind the lines would get mostly artillery support (along with CAS). This let units that are not using their support, like artillery to "loan" their assigned units to other units that were being overrun and were in range of the artillery, but could switch back at a moments notice. I don't know the details of how it worked, but from the grunt's point of view, it worked very well. We were never without anything, except hot food.
#14
Some other Bliss troops, trained in anti-aircraft weaponry, are set to move to Fort Sill, Okla.
This sorta doesn't make sense. If the Patriot is being evolved to an anti-theater ballistic missile system from its anti-aircraft design, you have to train which means live fire. At least at Bliss/Macgregor/White Sands you have the range to do it, to include target launch from an old ammo storage site near Gallup NM. They've been shooting across NM already. Heck of a lot of open, unpopulated space there. Don't know if the citizens [and asshat anti-military folk and their judicial sympathizers] are going to be happy have missile intercepts and debris drops in their neighborhood of southern OK, northern TX.
From The Washington Post, an article by Josh White
Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller told top officers during an advisory visit to Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison that they needed to get military working dogs for use in interrogations, and he advocated procedures then in use at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to court testimony yesterday. Maj. David DiNenna, the top military police operations officer at Abu Ghraib in 2003, said that when Miller and a team of Guantanamo Bay officials visited in early September 2003, Miller advocated mirroring the Cuba operation. ....
DiNenna's testimony at a preliminary hearing for two Army dog handlers provided additional confirmation that the Guantanamo teams brought their aggressive interrogation tactics to Iraq in the weeks before abuse was committed there. While methods employed at Abu Ghraib -- including hooding, nudity and placing prisoners in stress positions -- have been characterized by senior defense officials as rogue, abusive horseplay on the night shift, some of them had been authorized for experienced interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. Dogs, seen menacing detainees at Abu Ghraib in grisly photographs, were also used in Cuba under Miller's command.
The defense teams for Sgt. Santos A. Cardona and Sgt. Michael J. Smith argued during their two-day hearing at Fort Meade, Md., that the dog handlers were doing their jobs when their dogs bit a naked detainee whose cell was being searched for contraband. Defense lawyers portrayed their clients as following orders -- from both military intelligence and military police officials -- they believed to be appropriate. ...
Cardona and Smith, who face potentially lengthy sentences should they be convicted at court-martial, were charged this summer after an initial criminal investigation in early 2004 found that allegations of abuse against them were unfounded, according to their attorneys. It was only after photographs of the two dog handlers surfaced publicly that they again faced legal scrutiny. Maj. Matthew Miller, a prosecutor in this week's preliminary hearing, said yesterday in a closing statement that there is "copious evidence" that Cardona and Smith abused detainees beyond the scope of their duties. ...
The use of military dogs to exploit fear in detainees was approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for use on a specific important detainee in Cuba in late 2002 and early 2003. Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller was later sent to Iraq for 10 days with a team of 17 Guantanamo Bay interrogators and analysts beginning Aug. 31, 2003. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/28/2005 08:57 ||
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"Army General Advised Using Dogs at Abu Ghraib"
#2
While methods employed at Abu Ghraib -- including hooding, nudity and placing prisoners in stress positions -- have been characterized by senior defense officials as rogue, abusive horseplay on the night shift,
They have been charaterized as criminal activity, resulting in mutliple convictions before courts martials. However, I can charaterize such reporting as slanted, bias, dishonest done by a sophist looking for his 10 minutes of fame.
#3
While methods employed at Abu Ghraib -- including hooding, nudity and placing prisoners in stress positions -- have been characterized by senior defense officials as rogue, abusive horseplay on the night shift, some of them had been authorized for experienced interrogators at Guantanamo Bay.
Note the sloppy combination of approved and not approved practices here, in an obvious attempt to make it sound like the abuses were accepted practice.
Maj. Matthew Miller, a prosecutor in this week's preliminary hearing, said yesterday in a closing statement that there is "copious evidence" that Cardona and Smith abused detainees beyond the scope of their duties. ...
In other words, they did what they weren't supposed to.
The use of military dogs to exploit fear in detainees was approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for use on a specific important detainee in Cuba in late 2002 and early 2003.
In other words, there's still no way to tie Gitmo to Rumsfeld without ignoring what Rumsfeld actually said and did.
Clumsy propaganda, Mikey. WaPo is about as bad on this as Jihad Unspun.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2005 9:37 Comments ||
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#4
Just sit there and throw pork rinds at them. They'll talk.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 10:49 Comments ||
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I stopped reading about this shit reporting. The reporters at WaPo, NY Slimes, etc. have an S&M fetish. And they advocate a shield law to protect them? We need a shield law to protect us from these fucking Abu Grhraib redux stories.
And the timing is about right, since McCain and Lindsey Graham have sold out the President's authority to wage war, including setting the terms of confining thug terrorists.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2005 16:58 Comments ||
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#6
Those bastards are lucky I wasn't in charge, I'd have given them something to cry about.
#1
I think this was posted some days ago... and it's highly unlikely.
The "good" cocaine for the wealthy would be screened thoroughly. People dying of poisoned crack would hardly terrorize anyone but the crack addicts.
Also, I don't see how Bin Laden would "purchase tonnes of cocaine". And then what? You invest in a trade but you don't buy the stuff to hide under your turbans.
It's still a good idea to keep a very close eye on the relationship between drug lords and terrorists.
#6
No, Osama, you've got it all wrong. You give them the first taste for free. Then you've got them hooked and they come back for more. No sense poisoning them.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 10:40 Comments ||
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The evil plot failed when the Colombian drug lords bin Laden approached decided it would be bad for their business
Not to mention the narco-Columbians. I hate to be critical of disfigured, one-kidneyed lunatic living in a cave in Waziristan, but strategy does not seem be be ol' Binny's long suit. So far, in his attempt to bring America to her knees, he has managed to lose Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Libya. Not exactly General Giap.
From WND. More trustworthy than BBC or NYT, but check your NaCl supply.
Islamic United Nations representatives blocked an attempt to have the world body condemn killing in the name of religion. The International Humanist and Ethical Union said it submitted the request to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva in response to moves by Islamic clerics to legitimize the current wave of terror attacks.
IHEU representative David Littman tried to deliver a prepared text in the names of three international NGOs â the Association for World Education, the Association of World Citizens and the IHEU â but was blocked by the "heavy-handed intervention" of Islamic representatives of the panel. Littman said that after repeated interruptions, he was unable to complete his speech.
The Muslims members said they saw the text as an attack on Islam. A condemnation of murdering innocents is an attack on Islam? So, you are admitting that Islam is based on murdering innocents? Nice to have that on the record.
The IHEU argued Littman's speech was a report on recent critical comment on Islamist extremism by a number of notable Muslim writers. The intent was for the U.N. Human Rights Commission "to condemn calls to kill, to terrorize or to use violence in the name of God or any religion."
"Nope, nope, that'll never do, nope, nope."
The text referred to recent decisions by high-ranking Muslim clerics to confirm that those who carry out suicide bombings remain Muslims and cannot be treated as apostates. A Saudi cleric, for example, issued a fatwa saying that innocent Britons were a legitimate target for terrorist action. Also, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, dean of the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar University, who has visited Britain, said terror attacks are permissible. Well, isn't that interesting? It took a while, but I've pretty much come to the conclusion that killing moslems is fine and dandy. If you have to kill 1,000,000 "innocent" ones to get one terrorist, I have no objection.
I'd prefer it didn't come to that, but some of these jokers are getting pretty obstinate.
Roy Brown, president of IHEU, said the censorship is "part and parcel of the refusal by the Islamic representatives at the U.N. to condemn the suicide bombers, or to accept any criticism of those who kill innocent people in the name of God."
#4
FUCK the u.n., FUCK islam, gutter pedophile religion. FUCK hillary, FUCK teddyboy kennedy, FUCK allah (dicksucking god of the pedophile), FUCK muhammad, (fucking pedophile bastard). FUCK every goddamn mooselimb on earth....kill 'em all. I wipe my ass on the queeran...and piss on it's remains. FUCK kofi annan....the mooselimb son-of-a-bitch.
Posted by: Tom Dooley ||
07/28/2005 15:23 Comments ||
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To clarify My in-line comment, I do not we should be killing moslems simply because they are moslems. But, if it's a choice between letting a terrorist go, and killing him with the population that is sheltering him, take the shot, regardless of the number.
From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) is expected to continue flying more than 400 Uzbek refugees in southwestern Kyrgyzstan to Bishkek today, where plans are being finalized for them to be flown to a third country for resettlement. The 455 Uzbeks have been living in Kyrgyz refugee camps since fleeing their homes following an uprising and a military crackdown in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijon in May.
Carlos Zaccagnini, head of the UNHCR's office in Kyrgyzstan, refused to reveal the name of the host country when announcing the resettlement plan yesterday. He said the Uzbeks are protected by their refugee status. .... In Geneva, Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed concern that Uzbek officials are in Kyrgyzstan to pressure authorities to hand over refugees.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/28/2005 08:12 ||
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I did not intend to put this on Page 1. Please move it to the appropriate page.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/28/2005 8:16 Comments ||
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With the declaration of emergency law in the provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani, the Thai government has effectively underscored that the Muslim insurgency in the south, despite official rhetoric that it is calming down, has shown no signs of being brought under control. In this area, in addition to security personnel, civilians unconnected to government authority are subject to attacks on a daily basis, many of them motorcycle hit and run attacks and beheadings designed to terrorize the Buddhist population into leaving the Muslim dominated region. Regional police statistics indicated over 200 deaths and 600 injuries over the first six months of 2005. On July 15, according to the Thai newspaper The Nation, the insurgency notched up one of its most daring raids to date, with the destruction of electrical transformers, blacking out the capital of Yala province, followed by a series of detonations of explosives and firebombs in commercial areas [www.nationmultimedia.com].
Soon after the raid, a new decree was signed into law, authorizing Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to declare a state of emergency and implement security measures with powers including the imposition of curfews, the banning of public gatherings, news and publications censorship, travel restrictions, extended detention and phone taps. The measures come as Defense Minister Thammarak Isarangura openly admitted that "the troops that have been deployed have been unable to fight the insurgency effectively because they are trained to fight in the jungle, not in cities and villages." Unease at the performance of the military was also underlined by indications of plans to train up locals to act as defense volunteers to replace the regular troops.
At the same time, the capabilities of the insurgents look set to increase, given the evidence of weapons stockpiling highlighted by Retired Army Gen. Kitti Rattanachaya. Speaking to Western journalists he estimated over 7,000 guns had been amassed since the beginning of the troubles, which themselves began with the attack in January 2004 on an army case where 400 weapons were stolen. A June 21 report in The Nation also detailed how a local Muslim official was arrested after having run a checkpoint. In his pickup truck and his house a total of 880kg of highly concentrated fertilizer, of the type that can be used to make bombs, was found and confiscated. The target of the planned bombing from these materials was to be a national convention of municipal officials in Songkhla [www.nationmultimedia.com].
One interesting detail on strategy was revealed by the paper. Prime Minister Shinawatra's recent trip to Yala was connected with a report by a senior special branch officer concerning a Jihad plan drawn up by a separatist group, the Pattani Malayu Club, which intended to coordinate a series of bombings in the three southern provinces. From a branch office in Malaysia the Club has been organizing young Thai workers and students to carry out attacks, with a particular emphasis on the targeting of teachers. The aim is to prevent students from completing high school, limit their prospects for employment and ensure disaffection from the system, thus securing a new generation of mujahideen fighters. The most recent school casualty was the director of a school in Pattani's Yaring district, ambushed and shot on July 20. The same day a home-made bomb failed to detonate in time against a group of teachers in Narathiwat province [www.southeastasiantimes.com].
Army Gen. Kitti Rattanachaya's comments also stuck a sobering note, that there was "no light at the end of the tunnel" and that "the situation is getting worse", adding in a report published by Associated Press that, in effect, "the separatist movement has complete control of the people. Only the land belongs to us, but the people belong to the movement, 100 percent."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/28/2005 11:10 ||
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Unease at the performance of the military was also underlined by indications of plans to train up locals to act as defense volunteers to replace the regular troops.
Oof. Talk about almost asking for atrocities.
The aim is to prevent students from completing high school, limit their prospects for employment and ensure disaffection from the system, thus securing a new generation of mujahideen fighters.
Odd how frequently that tactic pops up.
Army Gen. Kitti Rattanachaya's comments also stuck a sobering note, that there was "no light at the end of the tunnel" and that "the situation is getting worse", adding in a report published by Associated Press that, in effect, "the separatist movement has complete control of the people. Only the land belongs to us, but the people belong to the movement, 100 percent."
Note what he's saying here: there are no moderates in southern Thailand.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2005 11:26 Comments ||
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Get the guns out and give them the drug dealer bullet through the head treatment...
#4
I live in Bangkok. I accept the conclusion that significant Muslim leaders on the Thai/Malay peninsula are openly and actively attempting to accomplish "ethnic cleansing" of Buddhists from the three Southern provinces. I am utterly convinced that the Buddhist majority - thus far - has not been actively seeking to "ethnically cleanse" the Muslim minority.
I do not grasp how the mainstream media is not picking up on the "ethnic cleansing" aspect of the Muslim behavior in southern Thailand. It is only one small step away from "genocide."
For all the criticism that Thailand (and PM Thaksin) have taken from Human Rights Groups, when I look at things from the perspective of an ex-pat living in Bangkok, I am simply amazed at the restraint that Thailand has shown in not REALLY hammering the Muslim extremists. I suspect that day may not be too far off.
I keep wondering how long Thailand will tolerate the "safe haven" status of Malaysia's northern territory. Tick, tick, tick ..........
#5
Are you suprised Lone Ranger? Hell the MSM has been ignoring the actual genocide in Dafur, Sudan for years. They are too busy worrying about a blonde, spoiled, white, girl who went drinking and got into trouble in Aruba.
Besides these are only 'mud people' (at least in the Left's eyes.... not mine!).
MELBOURNE, July 26 (Bernama) -- Malaysians are among more than 1,700 defence personnel from six nations taking part in a maritime exercise off northern Australia. Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia are taking part in "Exercise Kakadu" which began today off Darwin.
The exercise aims to improve Australia's ability to work with other regional defence forces, Maritime Commander of Australia, Rear Admiral Davyd Thomas, said.
Rear Admiral Thomas launched the exercise, which will go on until Aug 12, in Darwin... Observers from the navies of India, France, South Korea and Thailand will also visit during the exercise.
Looks like this one's winding down, until somebody decides he needs Dire Revenge™...
The Indonesian Government will grant amnesty to rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) who have been jailed or arrested for their political views. GAM began a guerrilla war in 1976, seeking independence from Indonesia. Since then, about 15,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the oil-rich province.
Just a coincidence they happen to be oil rich, of course... Just a coincidence.
"The Indonesian Government will grant amnesty for them 15 days after the memorandum of understanding is signed on August 15, 2005, in Helsinki, Finland,'' the state-run news agency Antara quoted Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaludin as saying. Their rights as Indonesian citizens will also be restored as soon as they receive amnesty, the minister said. Mr Awaludin, however, stressed that amnesty will only be granted to those who have been jailed or arrested for treason. "Members of GAM who were involved in criminal cases will not be granted amnesty,'' he said. Currently, there are 2,053 GAM members serving prison terms for treason, the Minister said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2005 00:00 ||
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In its strongest statement so far, the White House said on Thursday that Iran's president-elect was a leader of the student movement that organized the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
But the United States has not yet determined whether Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was involved in the taking of hostages, a White House national security council spokesman said.
The White House has been checking on assertions by former American hostages that Ahmadinejad was involved in the siege on the U.S. embassy.
"We have looked into the allegations concerning Iranian president-elect Ahmadinejad's involvement in the 1979 hostage crisis," the spokesman said.
"Mr. Ahmadinejad was a leader of the student movement that organized the attack on the embassy and the taking of American hostages," he said. "However, we are still investigating whether or not he was explicitly one of the hostage-takers."
Several Americans who were held during the 444-day 1979-81 hostage crisis have said they recognized Ahmadinejad as a ringleader.
Ahmadinejad has denied he was involved in storming the U.S. embassy in Tehran, denials which are supported by leading hostage-takers.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/28/2005 12:29 ||
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We know it, and he knows we know it. And the Mad Mullahs knew we would know it. And they knew they would appoint - no annoint - him, because they knew we would know it.
In other words, we Mad Mullahs dare you to do something about it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2005 13:07 Comments ||
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Shouldn't we put STUDENT MOVEMENT in Quote marks???...
Are we about to have a "Clint Eastwood " moment here?
Do ya feel lucky punk?... Go ahead, make my day...
#3
But the United States has not yet determined whether Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was involved in the taking of hostages, a White House national security council spokesman said.
Does that matter? I read an article here on Rantburg that said this asshat was in charge of security for the entire period the hostages were there. So he might not have physically seized hostages,(and I stress might not) but he did guard them and give orders to those who held them. So what, we'll let this slide if he didn't actually seize hostages? What's the deal?
The Mad Mullah's are doing this to screw with us, they know damn well who this dude was and what his involvement was in Tehran, that's why they handpicked this political nobody to win the elections, elections my ass.
Debka said this about the move on June 25th..."A virtual nobody on Iranâs national scene, Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 49, was picked by Iranâs radical Islamic leaders and swung ahead of the presidential race to deal âthe heaviest psychological blow to Iranâs enemies.â Those words were uttered by the new president in his first post-election statement Saturday, June 25. They attested to the fact that Iran had chosen him as its tool for getting back at the Bush administration for seeking to bring regime change and democracy to the Middle East and Iran in particular."
I'm prone to agreeing with Debka on this one, and have been following the White House's guarded approach to see what happens.
Let these bastards give us an excuse to invade, oh please Iran ..."all regimes that want to be annihalated please step forward" Syria seen shuffling quietly towards the back of the room
Color me skeptical.
A group calling itself the Army of al-Qaeda in Lebanon and Syria, has threatened to kill top Lebanese Shiite political and religious leaders, including several high-profile Hezbollah militants, a London-based Arab newspaper reported on Thursday. The report comes amid growing fears in Lebanon of increased terrorist activity after security forces on Wednesday discovered an arms cache in Beirut's El-Mazraa district, including rockets, explosives and firearms.
According to the al-Quds al-Arabi daily, in its statement the al-Qaeda group included a hit list containing well-known figures including the Lebanese parliament speaker, Nabih Berri; the deputy president of the Shiite Islamic Council, Abd El Amir Qabalan; top cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Faddallah and top Hezbollah members: Sheik Mohammed Yazbek, of the militant group's religious council and its southern Lebanon leader, Sheik Nabil Qawuuq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/28/2005 10:12 ||
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From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
According to so-called "secret documents" -- the source of which is not disclosed -- Iran continues to purchase nuclear weapons parts, Der Spiegel magazine reported on 25 July. One such deal is between Iran's Partoris company and South Korea's Kung-Do Enterprises and was concluded on 24 December 2004. According to the report, $98,720 was paid for 300 units of nickel-63, which is reportedly used in the ignition of nuclear bombs and which also can be used in smoke detectors. Partoris reportedly used the cover name Parto Namje Tolua. In the second deal, the South Korean firm reportedly bought tritium targets from France's EADS Sodern firm worth $33,000. Tritium targets reportedly are used in neutron emitters, which can trigger the chain reaction in a nuclear bomb.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/28/2005 07:46 ||
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SEOUL CONFIRMS SHIPMENT OF RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES TO IRAN
An unnamed spokesman from the South Korean Ministry of Science and Technology said on 27 July that provision of radioactive isotopes -- nickel-63 (Ni-63) and the hydrogen-based tritium -- to Iran in 2004 was legal, Yonhap news agency reported. "The company, engaging in intermediary trade, adhered to the law and rules when it sold 300 Ni-63 isotopes," the spokesman said. "The company conducted the transfer after receiving a pledge from the Iranian buyer that the substance would only be used for nondestructive testing, such as checking pipes at refineries for oil leaks." The company in question served as the middleman in a deal between Iranian and Russian firms. BS
oppps... that's MS link.... where's the rest of it? Different link?
Iran's outgoing reformist President Mohammad Khatami criticised the "obstinacy" of dissident jailed journalist Akbar Ganji in continuing a one-and-a-half month hunger strike.
"You are humiliating me. And you won't like me when I'm humiliated."
"We are truly awaiting for Mr Ganji to stop his hunger strike and put himself forward to the judicial authorities so that he can use his prerogatives but he has refused to halt his hunger strike," Khatami told reporters, according to AFP. "If you want to solve a problem without fuss everyone needs to act with tolerance and restraint and if every party shows obstinacy then that will only complicate things. I think that even in the case where someone's rights are trampled on, it is necessary to act with restraint to achieve a right that is more significant. I hope that this problem can be solved by being reasonable."
Hat tip: Drudge The link is a bit spotty, so Iâm going to leave more of the actual article in.
Brussels, 28 July (AKI) - The 14-year-old son of controversial film director Theo van Gogh, slain by an Islamic extremist last November, is said to have been threatened and assaulted by Moroccan teenagers in Amsterdam and insulted by his classmates. * * * The family lawyer, Gijs de Westelaken, specified that after the murder, which profoundly shocked Dutch society, Lieuwe was attacked by some young Moroccan youths while he was walking the dog. The boy is said to have suffered bruising, but only spoke about the incident to his mother and did not lodge a police complaint.
Un-fricking-believable! Maybe Iâm just old-school, but it sure sounds like time to pound these fools. The mentality allowing this stuff has to be absolutely, totally and swiftly crushed and obliterated. If Dutch society lacks the will to confront this disease, then Dutch society is finished.
On another occasion he is said to have been threatened with a pistol by two young men of North African descent in the neighbourhood where his father had lived. Neighbours called the police but when they arrived the attackers had fled. According to his grandparents, Lieuwe was also subject to harrassment and insults at school, and was forced to change class after various classmates told him "it is a good thing your father is dead".
* * *
#1
I think I've read that this turned out to be a false claim ... but I can't find the link right now.
Posted by: too true ||
07/28/2005 20:35 Comments ||
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The Dutch Police will deny this until he is found dead. They would rather set up speed traps and write tickets than fight crime.
99% of rapes and robberies are not even investigated. Gang rapes and car jackings are regular occurances. Most are done by those of "north african decsent."
#4
Let's see, what's more likely. Lieuwe was reminded that he could easily wind up like his father, assaulted, threatened, and intimidated, and the Dutch police are relieved to just comply with the conspiracy of silence. Or, local "north African" boys have reached out to him with sympathy, friendship, and kindness, and the grandparents are just a couple of racist old cranks. Yeah.
Posted by: ST ||
07/28/2005 21:58 Comments ||
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#5
I understand that Aruba declared itself independent when the tourism money started flowing in.
If you live at the serene and well-tended Brookside Gardens Apartments off of McKinley Avenue and 100th Street East, you can have a planter on your deck, and a barbecue, patio furniture and one quarter of a cord of wood â but not the American flag displayed for all to see.
I guess itâs not scenic, Old Glory. Or perhaps itâs distracting. Or pushy.
U.S. Flag Codewise, Deanna Wallace, 46, has had hers properly hung â field of stars to the viewerâs left â inside the eave of her third-floor deck since last July.
She displays it to honor the most important men in her life.
Her son, Pfc. Jeremy Wallace, 20, is in Iraq with the Stryker brigade. He is in Mosul, where he survived a roadside bomb attack in which he sustained neck and head injuries from which he has recovered.
Her sweetheart, Sgt. Charles Reid, is in the Army in Afghanistan, building roads in the high country.
The flag is a comfort to Wallace, a reminder that even her fear and loneliness are part of a tradition of sacrifice abroad and at home. Wallace comes from a military family and, as far back as she can remember, has taken her flag seriously.
"To me it means freedom, courage, dedication, everything it says on a magnet on my refrigerator," she said, retrieving and reading it: "The stars and stripes tell a story of dedication, grace and glory."
But her stars and stripes, hung from two small hooks inside that deck eave, are renegade colors.
On July 20, Wallace got a note from Brookside Gardens Apartmentsâ "community manager." "Dear Deanna Wallace," it read. "It is important that I speak with you as soon as possible. Please stop by the business office or call me no later than Friday, July 22, 2005, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m."
Sounded serious and mysterious, especially in light of the effort Wallace invests in being a good neighbor at Brookside. Her apartment is immaculate. She does not party or play loud music. She goes to work, the gym, and home and jokes that she has no life. So Wallace responded at once.
"They told me to remove my flag," she said. "They said remove it, or move it back where it canât be seen. Itâs not uniform with the building."
At first, she was stunned, then angry. Then she cried.
She took down the flag.
The next day, she put it back.
The disabled veteran who lives in a first floor apartment in the building next to hers never did take down his American or Washington state flags, though he got a similar notice.
Brookside Gardens is one of 60-some properties managed by Allied Group, Inc., of Renton.
Christy Throm is Alliedâs portfolio manager responsible for Brookside, and the person who, on a site visit, ordered the flag down.
She wants to make it very clear that Allied has nothing against the flag and respects the flag. But, she said, this flag is in violation of the lease and rules and regulations documents Wallace signed.
Throm and I spoke twice. The first time, she said the rules and regulations banned all flags and banners.
"No," Wallace responded, and produced the documents in question.
No mention of flags and banners.
Throm also insisted the flag was attached to the building outside the patio and that it was impinging on public space.
In fact, it is, and always has been, attached to the inside of the patio and hangs inside the patio unless a breeze flaps it into the top-floor airspace. Even then, it takes up no more public air than the bamboo spreading out of a pot in a nearby building or the planter of flowers hanging across the creek from Wallaceâs deck.
When Throm got back to me later, she repeated that Allied has no problem with the American flag.
"Theyâre welcome to put it on a stand on the patio and let it fly or put it inside their patio," she said.
If you saw the sliding doors that make up the apartment side of the deck, you would recognize how impractical that is.
Throm backed away from the flags and banners provision that isnât there.
She hit instead on Item 23: "No storage of personal belongings or furnishings will be permitted on porches or public areas. Deck/patio storage is limited to a quarter-cord of firewood, small barbecue, planters and patio furniture."
No mention of a flag stand there.
Not that Wallace is storing her flag.
Sheâs displaying it, and proudly.
"Iâm not taking it down," Wallace said. "Itâs my right to display it, and itâs staying right where it is.
I salute her â and her flag. In a way, it's like vampires and the Christian cross. Or leftists and the Christian cross, now that you think about it.
#6
She wants to make it very clear that Allied has nothing against the flag and respects the flag. But, she said, this flag is in violation of the lease and rules and regulations documents Wallace signed.
Throm and I spoke twice. The first time, she said the rules and regulations banned all flags and banners.
"No," Wallace responded, and produced the documents in question.
No mention of flags and banners.
#8
Put up a Union Jack to support the British and see if they complain about that. Probably wouldn't, except even the lefties would see the catch now that the flag flap has already begun.
The question of how to fight Islamic terrorism preoccupies many Arab reformists who are working to denounce Islamist thought, to encourage independent and critical thinking, and to establish values of democracy and human rights in the Muslim world. For example, in February 2005, a group of reformists submitted to the U.N. a request that it establish an international court to judge Muslim clerics who incite to violence and bloodshed. The request was examined by the U.N. legal counseland distributed to the U.N. Security Council. [1]
Following the July 7, 2005 London bombings, Arab reformists further expanded their criticism and honed their arguments, not only regarding Muslim extremists, but also regarding the European countries, particularly Britain, which allows extremist activity within its borders in the name of protecting individual rights. They also increased their criticism of the silent Muslim majority and moderate Muslim intellectuals, who capitulate to Islamist pressure and do not speak out decisively against it.
The following are some of the recommendations by reformist Arab writers.
Europe Must Change its Lenient Treatment of Muslim Extremists
One of the most salient reactionsto the bombings was censure of Europe, particularly Britain, for its years-long policy of granting safe haven to Muslim extremists, enabling them to spread their ideas in schools, mosques, and the media, and giving them legal protection â in the name of protecting freedom of expression. Saudi intellectual Mashari Al-Dhaydi, columnist for the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, wrote: "The time has come for those who turn a blind eye to notice that the enemies of freedom have, unfortunately, exploited the atmosphere of freedom provided by the European countries, to destroy the foundations of freedom and to strangle any possibility that freedom would be born as a concept, and subsequently as a reality, in Arab and Muslim countries.
#1
We all know the story of the I-forget-its-name bird, which flew in ever-decreasing-radius circles, until it flew up its'own anus? Talk about circular logic!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2005 21:34 Comments ||
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URIM, Israel, July 28 (Reuters) - Israel is rushing to complete a three-layer-deep barrier of fences and walls on its border with Gaza to keep out Palestinian infiltrators after it pulls out of the territory, military officials said on Thursday. The army insists that, unlike Israel's internationally condemned West Bank barrier, the new project will not cut into Palestinian land. But it still could fuel Palestinian fears that Gaza will be left largely sealed after the Israeli pullout.
That's not a bug, it's a feature
The plan calls for adding two new fences parallel to the border fence that already surrounds the Gaza Strip and putting up seven-metre (23-foot)-high concrete walls in a few places, a senior military official said. He put the cost at $220 million. Israel is beefing up its border defences, including construction of new army bases, to compensate for losing its military presence in Gaza after it removes all 21 Jewish settlements from the occupied territory starting in mid-August. Security officials worry that even after the withdrawal, Gaza militants will try to infiltrate gunmen and suicide bombers into the Jewish state and fire rockets across the border.
"Our purpose is to protect our citizens and soldiers. We have seen ... that we need something other than the existing fence to have full security," the senior official told reporters during a tour of construction sites for the barrier. He said, however, that even the triple fencing of Gaza might not be enough to stop militant attacks, and the army might have to mount incursions back into Gaza after the pullout. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has billed the withdrawal as "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians. Palestinian officials were not immediately available for comment. Echoing Palestinian concerns, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week the United States wanted to make sure Israel did not keep Gaza sealed after its withdrawal.
The military official said Israel had learned lessons from its Lebanon withdrawal in 2000, when it left a single fence line on its northern border where the army has since clashed regularly with Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas. The army is putting up two new fences that will extend about 60 km (37 miles) along its entire border with Gaza, he said. One, made of metal and razor wire, is being installed a few dozen metres (yards) closer to the Gaza boundary line than the existing electronic fence, the official said. The other, embedded with sensors and equipped with surveillance cameras, watchtowers and remote-control machinegun emplacements, will lie 70 to 150 metres east of the existing border fence on the Israeli side, he said. A one-km (half-mile)-long wall will be erected on Israel's border with northern Gaza and walls extending several hundred metres will be in two places where Israeli towns are vulnerable to Palestinian gunfire, the official said. Israel has said it will keep control of Gaza's air and sea space after the pullout for security reasons, although troops are expected to leave the boundary with Egypt.
Palestinians welcome any withdrawal but fear Israel is trading tiny Gaza, where 8,500 settlers live isolated from 1.4 million Palestinians, for a tighter hold on the occupied West Bank, where the majority of 240,000 settlers live. The World Court has declared Israel's West Bank barrier illegal for intruding on occupied land. Israel says the planned 600-km (370-mile)-long structure keeps out suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a grab for land they claim for a state. "The new fence is in our own territory," the senior official said of the Gaza barrier. He said the fencing would be finished by October and all of the infrastructure by mid-2006.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 12:41 ||
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#1
No problem:
Posted by: Steve McQueen ||
07/28/2005 14:09 Comments ||
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On March 3, with little fanfare, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, signed a comprehensive new plan for the war on terrorism. Senior defense officials briefed U.S. News on the contents of the still-secret document, which is to be released soon in an unclassified form. ... Pentagon officials say they have a strategy that examines the nature of the antiterror war in depth, lays out a detailed road map for prosecuting it, and establishes a score card to determine where and whether progress is being made.
Was the United States really winning the war on terrorism, Rumsfeld asked his commanders, and how could we know if more terrorists were being killed or captured than were being recruited into the ranks?
The initial result was a 70-page draft report, which subsequently went through over 40 revisions as it was shared with Rumsfeld's inner circle, then a larger group, called the senior-level review group ("Slurg," in Pentagon-speak), and then regional commanders and other agencies.
For those who wondered why we were doing "nothing" - this is evidence of the answer I gave a long time ago: we ARE doing something, but the public hasn't been told because its classified
Traditionally, the geographic commands have been reluctant to yield to SOCOM on counterterrorism issues, but that's no longer an option... The Pentagon's Special Operations Command is designated in the new plan as the global "synchronizer" in the war on terrorism for all the military commands and is responsible for designing a new global counterterrorism campaign plan and conducting preparatory reconnaissance missions against terrorist organizations around the world.
Under a draft national security presidential decision directive, expected to be approved next month, the White House would have greater flexibility to resolve turf battles in the government's overall counterterrorism effort.
I cannot emphasize enough just how important these 2 steps above are
The new strategy, for the first time, formally directs military commanders to go after a list of eight pressure points at which terrorist groups could be vulnerable: ideological support, weapons, funds, communications and movement, safe havens, foot soldiers, access to targets, and leadership. Each U.S. geographic command is to follow a systematic approach, first collecting intelligence on any of the two dozen target groups that are operating in its area of responsibility and then developing a plan to attack all eight nodes for each of those groups.
Here is the part that will have the left and the Islamist fellow-travelers howling - and its a VERY important change
The terrorist threat against the United States is now defined as "Islamist extremism" --not just al Qaeda. The Pentagon document identifies the "primary enemy" as "extremist Sunni and Shia movements that exploit Islam for political ends" and that form part of a "global web of enemy networks."
Read more - there is a TON of info at the link in the article - and there's also a pre-emptive spin attempt to show this as being kind-of PC (you'll see what I mean)
#1
Want to see something that shows the contrast between Clinton and Bush?
Clinton's Presidential Decision Directive 39, signed in 1995, for example, gives the State Department the lead role in counterterrorism efforts abroad, but after 9/11, President Bush gave the CIA the lead for disrupting terrorist networks overseas.
Yes, you read it right - the lead agency and government official for counterterrorism overseas was State and Madeline Halfbright. With FOggy Bottom ans the striped pants gang in charge, is there any wonder 9/11 happened?
There is why the Clinton administration was such a failure in terms of safety of the republic.
#2
I learned from my time in the military, to really understand what is going on is not to listen to what is being said, but what is NOT being said. I knew we were doing well in the WOT when the higher ups stopped talking about rooting out the terrorist cells around the world and the mid-level Al-Queeros suddenly were not heard from or just plain disappeared.
Good job Spooks!
#3
Putting SOCOM as the "lead dog" on this is what needed to be done - and let me tell you that things are a LOT better with operational people in charge of important things.
And mmurray, you will never hear about the ones that didnt make it to Gitmo.
Sometimes people have to remember that waving the cape around focuses the bull's and the audience's attention on everything except the sword of the matador.
#4
eight pressure points at which terrorist groups could be vulnerable: ideological support, weapons, funds, communications and movement, safe havens, foot soldiers, access to targets, and leadership.
Works for Me!
Yes, and Turban de Durbin, and Filobuster Bagogas Kennedy are ranting about secret prisons...
Rummy continues to store Jihadis there with a good supply of interrogation tools from Victoria's Secret, and Farmer John...
#6
I would like to hope that much of what SOCOM is engaged in is "wetwork" operations along the lines of the Phoenix Program. A lot of their work would boil down to "dead pool" lists, taking out those who support terrorist ops in discreet and numerous assassinations. For example, set up a dozen fake "charities" that make it clear to donors that their money is going to terrorists. If they contribute a substantial amount, they are on the list--instant karma. Imams who shoot their mouths off should have a 72-hour life expectancy. Madrassas should be exploding like ripe puffer mushrooms--a terrible run of accidents. Since the US doesn't assassinate political leaders, they should subcontract hits like the entire Guardian Council of Iran--killed by a pig stuffed with C4. Eventually, the Angel of Death should be so pervasive that entire extended terrorist families should be wiped out--culling the herd, as it were. Levels of "prejudice" should also be re-established, so that especially egregious villains meet particularly gruesome ends.
#7
While I may continue to have some misgivings about Rummy's strategy in reducing SF and other officers in the AF, I really like what I see here. This is solid. I think yesterdays', "Redefinition of terror" article and the questions it produced in my mind about defining terrorism and the enemy have been answered here in this article.
They clearly define who the enemy is, and lay out very specific indicators of success for the WoT.
I am impressed.And many of my fears of an open ended war are obviously being felt within the C&C structure as well. Good deal. I like this move, and look forward to seeing how these command shifts and performance indicators affect depolyment and the larger WoT.
#9
OldSpook: well I know. Perhaps 20 years hence, however, a few of the tales will be told, most likely while bass fishing. I've heard a few authenticated ones from the Vietnam era, and I'm pleased to report that our people were true craftsmen of their art. I suspect that this new generation, filled as they are with the milk of human kindness, will cut down their groves and vineyards and plow their fields with salt.
The euphoniously nicknamed Sgt. Scream is just doing what comes naturally in a deadly combat zone. He shouts a lot. He's the high-decibel desert warfare leader on "Over There," producer Steven Bochco's ("NYPD Blue") intense, unflinching fictional depiction of the Iraq war, which explodes in prime time at 10 tonight on FX.
"If a mortar lands on you, we won't find enough to fill a condom. Now shut up!" Sgt. Chris Silas (Erik Palladino, "ER") loudly instructs the inexperienced young soldiers under his command, giving them the hard truth at top volume after a scary nighttime firefight erupts outside a mosque. Staying alive, that's what matters.
And "Over There," which explores the perilous stories of an Army unit on its first tour of duty in Iraq, is the first scripted TV series set during an ongoing war involving the United States. It's clearly unlike anything else on television right now. Bochco and writer Chris Gerolmo ("Mississippi Burning") set out to capture vivid emotional snapshots of the violence, humanity and raw fear at the heart of combat life. Like "Saving Private Ryan" and "Platoon," which captured World War II and the Vietnam War in microcosm by tracing the lives of a small group of warriors, FX's latest imaginative adventure in hard-edged television for adults delivers a grunt's eye view. The basic cable network has already carved out a distinctive niche for gripping, no-holds-barred drama with such series as "The Shield," "Rescue Me" and "Nip/Tuck."
Now, by luring Bochco to cable for the first time, FX boasts an Emmy Award-winning producer who has spent more than two decades breaking new ground with such series as "Hill Street Blues," "L.A. Law," "NYPD Blue" and "Murder One." Even the man's flops -- the singing, dancing "Cop Rock" -- possess unique storytelling flair. But it's Gerolmo -- who created "Over There" with Bochco and directed the riveting pilot -- who heads the writing team which bring these young male and female soldiers to life.
The roll call includes rawboned Texan Bo Rider (Josh Henderson), an undersized private who's been overcoming long odds most of his life; Frank Dumphy (Luke MacFarlane, "Kinsey"), the Ivy League college grad they call Dim because he must be incredibly stupid to have wound up in the Army; Avery King (Keith Robinson), nicknamed Angel because he sings like one; Esmeralda Del Rio (Lizette Carrion), a.k.a. Doublewide, a new mother who's fighting in Iraq while her husband plays Mr. Mom back home; Brenda (Mrs. B) Mitchell, an obstinate new recruit with an unpredictable mean streak, played by Nikki Aycox; and Smoke, played by Kirk Jones (a.k.a. Sticky Fingaz, who spends much of his Army life stoned.
"Over There" also portrays revealing moments from the home front, tracing the effects of the war on family and loved ones. But most of the story is set in the lethal combat zone, where the soldiers live in an atmosphere of almost suffocating stress and anxiety, thanks to insurgents, land mines and suicide bombers. It's a world of scary uncertainty, where intense camaraderie mingles with daily helpings of dread.
One of the soldiers hasn't yet learned that his wife back home is sleeping around. Another will lose a limb, then passionately insist from his hospital bed that he will eventually get back to his combat unit in Iraq. And it may be wrong to doubt him. As it attempts to walk the apolitical line, "Over There" intelligently keeps most of its compelling focus on the human-scale tales of this band of brothers and sisters.
No simplistic flag waving or anti-war attitudes. No politicians, no generals. No liberal, no conservative. Instead, "Over There" supports the troops the best way it can. By telling their stories honestly.
I TIVO'd the first episode, but haven't watched it yet. A quick review of the MSM papers shows a lot of reviewers are disapointed that it isn't more political, which gives me hope. Anybody watch it and have a review for us?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 11:21 ||
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#1
The stories I've read say actual vets consider it an insult. The show has them doing really, really stupid things, for example.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2005 12:05 Comments ||
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#2
Mild Spoiler Alert:
I watched and thought it portrayed the military slightly negatively and the war somewhat more negatively. One of the main characters has a fight with his wife before leaving for Iraq. He comes across as a jerk. He also is supposed to be 22, but his wife has a kid who looks at least 10 -- not impossible, but odd. In country, one Sgt. bitches about being about to go home and being extended for 90 days -- also true, I'm sure, but clearly highlighting the negative. The Lt. was called (behind his back) Mad Cow -- he suffers from a brain-wasting disease according to Sarge. The rules of engagement seem a bit screwy -- some terrs are holed up in a mosque (strangely, a mosque with no minaret) and the soldiers get chastised for returning fire when fired upon. Sarge complains -- "We are getting shot at while some General 75 miles from here decides whether we can shoot back" -- as we know from Afghanistan, some lawyer (or General) can hold up timely action on a technicality. Later, there is a prolonged period of negotiation followed by a sandstorm and a terr attack. There's also a patrol with the soldiers in doorless Humvees and unarmored 5-ton trucks -- I'm sure that happened, but not so much any more. Of course they hit an IED and some plucky kid who joined the Army because his college football scholarship would have only paid for part of his education loses part of his leg. He is medevaced by a Huey -- possible, I suppose, but I've only seen BlackHawks doing evac. There's also a lot of focus on the 2 women -- "What are THEY doing here?" asks Sarge -- and whether they can cut it.
It's too early to deliver a final verdict, but the tone of the first episode was clearly consistent with the MSM line that morale is low and Iraq is complete chaos. I wonder what this series would be like if Arthur Chrenkoff collaborated with Michael Yon or Dave Bellon of The Green Side or Ausitin Bay.
Posted by: Tibor ||
07/28/2005 12:11 Comments ||
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#3
The New York Times loved it! What more do you need to know?
#4
Thanks for the review Tibor. When I saw the previews for it, I automatically assumed it would portray the military and the war in a negative light. What else would I expect from Hollywood/TV MSM? Sorry to see I was right.
#5
I watched it also and expected more. Kinda cliched and sterotyped. And the Huey they did the medevac with had to be the first waxed Huey in a combat zone in US Army history. And with white skids!
All in all, I'll give it a few more looks but disappointing so far.
#6
"...and Smoke, played by Kirk Jones (a.k.a. Sticky Fingaz, who spends much of his Army life stoned."
Whhaaaat? Every time I turned around, whilst stationed overseas, we were getting randomly piss-tested, for the eeee-vile weed. And someone known to be, or nailed as a pothead was about as popular as a child-molester, because once he/she was nailed on it, the investigators would be looking askance at all their friends, their unit, their known associates.
Either things have changed... or someone has just dusted off some old "Tour of Duty" scripts...
#7
Some quotes from the comments section at blackfive:
Rob:
"...Where were the true pro's? Nowhere, for the same reasons we've rolled in Afghanistan and in Iraq-- the media have no better understanding of what it takes to be this good of a fighting force than do the Taliban or any other murderous band of psychos we might butmp into...."
Some Soldier's Mom:
"...From my blog:
My friend Melinda (an Army wife) said: " My husband & I watched it. At twenty minutes past the hour, I looked at him and said, "well, now that they have run through every possible stereotype, what will they do for the next 40 minutes?" My husband spent most of his time pointing out inaccuracies or things that were too 'Hollywood'". And another Army wife said, "My husband watched this, thought it was cheesy, and unrealistic. He thought that was ok, because anything "too real" might not be great to watch."
So, Mel, they filled the other 40 minutes with gore and horror...
and yup... appeared to have covered all the bases:
white Columbia (Cornell?) grad (but called "Dim" 'cause he's stupid enough to be in the Army anyway?),
poor white southern kid that needs money for college (but he loves the Army),
ghetto kid,
over the edge (Sgt. Screamer) NCO,
by the book (idiot) NCO,
paternal captain,
tough girl,
young mother,
doper...
covered everyone? what?? the Army is apparently composed of just 18-22 yr olds? no career, dedicated soldier from middle class America that actually felt a duty to serve? ok, maybe in episode 2... that's when I guess we'll also get to meet that psycho "nothing happens in my town unless I say it happens" Sgt. in #2 as shown in the previews? I can't wait (sigh). But I'm certainly glad they dumped on al-Jazeera...
I can't say whether the battlefield depictions are accurate, I'll leave that for the vets to say... I'll give it another episode or two. I'm really more interested in the character development and how they portray our soldiers and the situations of which we are already aware -- I picked up the references to Abu Ghraib... and the shooting from the mosque... and the needing permission to return fire which may have been less than accurate, but also the references to incident reports and the paperwork when gunfire is exchanged...
My only other comment is that the theme song SUCKED. terrible. mothers are crying? fathers are sighing? what the hell is that? the ABCs of rhymin' simon? they should sh*tcan it and find something better. I think they were going for the "Suicide is Painless" (M.A.S.H.) feel but missed entirely. the words are imbecilic and the music unmemorable. awful..."
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/28/2005 13:16 Comments ||
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#8
"Staying alive, that's what matters."
Nope - and this shows the fundamental discoonect. Executing the Mission is what matters. and thats why soldiers give their lives for each other. Staying alive is PART of that, but not the ONLY PART of "what matters".
"and Smoke .. who spends much of his Army life stoned."
Yeah, right. So they never piss test the guy, and his squadmates dont mind going into a combat zone with a liability like this assclown of a character, aand never report his ass...
#10
C'mon, lighten up guys. Is there anyone who thinks Hill Street Blues was an accurate portrayal of a cop's daily life. It ain't supposed to be Band of Brothers you know, it's TV - like fiction? you know entertainment?
#14
If someone is doing a portrayal of a currernt situation, it should at least be reasonably accurate. I watched it and it was crap. I turned it off after a half an hour. The soldiers were inept and poorly trained. The command structure was inconsistent. The ROE and battlefield stuff was just BS. (You have a large force firing from a mosque. First, they said that they could get no aircover...BS....then they say that they can't fire back because they are going to negotiate with the haji's....maybe, but probably BS, because in almost every case if someone is taking significant fire from a mosque, they will level the place, (even if it is the 4,768th most holy place in Islam). The characters were cartoons. Having seen Hill Street Blues, I hoped for better. This was garbage and had the Vietnam prism all over it.
#15
Mucky, I had forgotten about that stupid line. "Blacks never succeed in the US military, right General Powell?"
Remoteman, I also had forgotten about the "no aircover available in our sector" line.
Posted by: Tibor ||
07/28/2005 14:15 Comments ||
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#16
TheWaPo review noted the soldiers were drinking out of *plastic canteens*. When I help the USO distribute goody bags to the deploying soldiers, I always check out the groovy desert camo Camelbaks...
#18
. . . someone has just dusted off some old "Tour of Duty" scripts . . .
IIRC, the first season of Tour of Duty was pretty good. The second year, the scriptwriters were all replaced by the second string from the China Beach writing staff, and the quality went down quicker than a Huey with a main gearbox failure.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/28/2005 14:56 Comments ||
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#19
And Tour of Duty had a catchy theme, too. Rolling Stones Paint It Black
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2005 15:03 Comments ||
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#20
So, when does Colonel Flagg make an appearance?
#21
The characters were cartoons. Having seen Hill Street Blues
You could have stopped right there. What was HSB but a cartoon? Thought the show was great when I was a kid, but when I see the reruns, boy was the acting awful! Ed Marinaro, call your agent! What? He won't return your calls?
BTW, haven't seen the show yet, but any military show that depicts the troops constantly complaining is pretty accurate. Also, on my 2nd deployment, one of my men did get a "I'm 3 months pregnant" letter during the 5th month of our cruise.
#24
Watched the first ten minutes of classical Hollyweird/Leftwood stereotype characture of soldiers. If the same people who write this stuff watched similar stereotyping of any other group there would have been an uproar about the bigots who write such things. Its a LLL's wet dream of what soldiers are.
There are great stories out there [re: Michael Yon], but Hollyweird is not going to deliver them. From the same people who's genius is on display this summer at the box office, remakes and sequels.
#28
At some point some of the troops will return from Iraq, buy a $3,000 digital MiniDV camera and computer with editing software and cut their own movie.
Nam has the explosion of books. I believe with the new and cheap technology Afghanistan and Iraq will have an explosion of movies. I wouldn't doubt if a few guys have more portable less expensive digital camcorders now to film stuff.
The 7 July 2005 detonation of four nearly simultaneous explosions in London's transportation system -- killing 55 and wounding 700 -- were the latest attacks in a campaign against U.S. allies announced by al-Qaeda deputy chief Ayman al-Zawahairi in 2002. At that time, al-Zawahiri stated that an al-Qaeda campaign was underway to punish nations assisting the United States in either Afghanistan, or which might assist in the pending invasion of Iraq, "Some messages have already been sent to the deputies [allies] of America, so that they may restrain themselves in getting entangled in this Crusader assault," al-Zawahiri said in September 2002. "The Mujahid youth had already sent messages to Germany and France. However, if these doses are not enough, we are prepared with the help of Allah to inject further does."
IN A LETTER WRITTEN to the al Qaeda leadership in early 2004, Abu Musab Zarqawi described the Iraqi Kurds in less than favorable terms. As far as Zarqawi was concerned, they were "a Trojan horse" who had opened their land to the Jews and established a society that served as the antithesis to his extremist conception of Islam. There are many reasons, however, to suspect that bin Laden differed with the man he would later name as his representative in Iraqi Kurdistan in this view.
While the puritanical strains of Islam favored by bin Laden and Zarqawi hold little popular appeal to most Iraqi Kurds, al Qaeda's interest in exploiting the region runs deep. According to a former Ansar al-Islam commander who was interviewed by the Christian Science Monitor under the pseudonym Rebwar Kadr Said, the links between Kurdistan's Islamist minority and what would later become al Qaeda run all the way back to the 1980s in Afghanistan, when bin Laden's mentor, Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, took aside two men (a Kurdish Islamist named Faraj Ahmad Najmuddin and a Palestinian) and told his followers to look after the two groups that both men represented, effectively placing the fate of the Kurds on par with that of Palestinians in the eyes of Azzam's followers.
Like far too many other groups of foreign veterans of Afghan War, the Kurdish Islamists returned home radicalized and--believing that Saddam secular Baathism could be overthrown just as easily as the Soviet communism--rallied for jihad against Baghdad during the late 1980s and early 1990s. During the uprising following the 1991 Gulf War, the Kurdish Islamists appear to have caught bin Laden's eye. The 9/11 Commission Report noted the al Qaeda leader's past sponsorship of Kurdish Islamists in the hopes of convincing them to join the nascent terrorist coalition that he was assembling in Sudan. Rohan Gunaratna, one of the world's leading experts on al Qaeda, identified two propaganda tapes, amidst the dozens of al Qaeda videos found in Afghanistan by CNN, as having been produced by the Kurdish Islamists. These tapes, among other things, identify Saddam Hussein as an enemy of Islam and call for jihad against the infidel Baath party.
WHILE MANY OBSERVERS and analysts have cited bin Laden's early support for the Kurdish Islamists--such as his early attempt to dissuade the Saudi leadership from accepting Western support following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait by offering to lead an army of mujahedeen against Saddam Hussein--as evidence of the ultimate incompatibility between the two men, they forget that as early as 1992 an internal Iraqi intelligence document lists bin Laden as an intelligence asset, suggesting that his prior willingness to field an army against the Baathists had given way to more pragmatic thinking.
Similarly, while bin Laden was more than willing to sponsor Kurdish Islamism against Saddam Hussein in the aftermath of the Gulf War, any eagerness to aid in the overthrow of Baathism in Iraq appears to have paled in comparison to his desire to accommodate Hassan Turabi, who was al Qaeda's primary host while the organization operated in Sudan. As noted in the 9/11 Commission Report, Turabi (who had previously backed Saddam during the Gulf War) brokered an agreement under which bin Laden would cease supporting anti-Saddam activities. And while the 9/11 Commission Report noted that bin Laden continued to support Kurdish Islamism even after this agreement, it failed to note that by 1993 the group had, by and large, ended its anti-Saddam activities and instead was focusing on creating a parallel Islamist Kurdish administration in contrast to the more secular authority of the leading Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). This move culminated in armed clashes with the PUK in December 1993.
From an Islamist perspective, this should be seen not only as a challenge against the major Kurdish authorities but also as a challenge to the establishment of anything resembling secular democratic society in the Middle East. As with their previous jihads against Saddam, the Kurdish Islamists were defeated and eventually splintered into a number of factions along the northern Iraqi border with Iran. At the time, most observers believed that the threat posed by Iraqi Islamism was at an end.
YET ONCE AGAIN, al Qaeda disagreed. In April 2003 the New York Times reported that in 2000 and 2001 bin Laden hosted the several Kurdish Islamist leaders in Afghanistan, urging them to put aside past differences and form a single organization in the region. Collin Powell's presentation before the U.N. Security Council added yet another detail to this picture, claiming that in 2000 an Iraqi intelligence agent had offered al Qaeda Saddam's blessing to establish a safehaven in northern Iraq, a view that appears to be supported by a comment in the 9/11 Commission Report: "There are indications that by then [2001] the Iraqi regime tolerated and may even have helped Ansar al-Islam against the common Kurdish enemy."
Yet with or without Iraqi assistance, one by one the Kurdish Islamist groups heeded bin Laden's call to unite. In July 2001, the Kurdish Hamas united with al-Tawhid, forming the Tawhid Islamic Front and sending several members to Afghanistan for training. Then in September 2001, Tawhid Islamic Front merged with the Second Soran
Unit to become Jund al-Islam, after which time the new organization launched a bloody campaign against the ruling Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Despite its small size, Jund al-Islam soon proved its worth in battle against the PUK, quickly gaining the support of another group of Kurdish Islamists led by Faraj Ahmad Najmuddin, now known as Mullah Krekar. By December 10, 2001 the two groups had merged together and Ansar al-Islam was born.
Dan Darling is a counter-terrorism consultant for the Manhattan Institute's Center for Policing Terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/28/2005 10:20 ||
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Al Qaeda's killing of two Algerian diplomats in Iraq has thrown into doubt a government amnesty proposal and forced a rare debate on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's handling of Algeria's own Islamist threat.
Al Qaeda in Iraq said on Wednesday it had killed kidnapped envoys Ali Belaroussi and Azzedine Belkadi because of Algeria's support for Washington and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.
Algeria's principal outlawed Islamic movement, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), on Thursday congratulated al Qaeda for the deaths, according to an Internet statement. The GSPC had been due to benefit from an upcoming amnesty.
"Is it conceivable to want to reach out to individuals who coldly incite the assassination of our diplomats abroad?" asked influential newspaper El Watan said in an editorial.
"Not a single Algerian understands such a policy...It would be a grave error," the daily said in a rare comment.
A shaken Foreign Minister Mohamed Bedjaoui blamed the GSPC, North Africa's largest rebel movement and on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organisations, for the envoys' deaths.
Shocked Algerians poured into the streets across the country on Thursday in a nationwide minute of silence for the diplomats.
"Al Qaeda's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a bastard and a coward. You don't have the right to kill innocent people in the name of Islam," an angry Mohamed Aissani, 32, told Reuters in Algiers.
Earlier this month President Abdelaziz Bouteflika promised a national referendum would soon be held on a controversial amnesty to bring about a so-called national reconciliation, which he believes will bring peace.
A holy war or jihad, which at one point threatened the state's survival, was sparked when the powerful military cancelled elections a radical Islamic political party -- the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) -- was set to win in 1992.
Authorities feared a win could lead to an Iranian-style revolution.
As many as 200,000 were killed in the violence, but clashes and attacks have fallen sharply in recent years.
Bouteflika's peace plan was shaken further when a leader of the banned FIS praised on Al Jazeera television the insurgents in Iraq and said they had a right to kidnap the diplomats. Ali Belhadj has since been detained and is expected to be brought before a court in Algiers on Thursday.
"It's clear the political class, journalists and society in general realise that the language of dialogue with people who take up or promote such violence leads to nothing," said Mahmoud Belhimer, a university professor and a deputy editor of Algeria's largest daily El Khabar.
Belhimer said Algeria made a mistake with the first amnesty Bouteflika offered rebels in 1999 when thousands surrendered but mostly did not admit to the crimes they committed.
"The roots of terrorism have still not been addressed. Social problems must be fixed by the government and people must be taught that Islam does not promote violence," he said.
International human rights groups have criticised the amnesty plan, saying it would brush crimes under the carpet and would not necessarily bring peace to the oil-producing country.
Less than 1,000 rebels, most belonging to the GSPC, still fight. They pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network in 2003 and continue deadly attacks on Algeria's army.
Hundreds of militants are believed to want to surrender if an amnesty was offered, security sources and diplomats said.
While details of the proposal are yet to be revealed, it is expected to include security forces members suspected of extrajudicial killings during the 1990s.
"I'm not against an amnesty if it ends a decade of terrorism. But I will never forgive the crimes the terrorists committed in the name of Islam," Ali Khelaf, 42, told Reuters after he observed a minute of silence.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/28/2005 10:07 ||
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Al-Qaeda terrorists have a handbook on how to act and how to blend in with the community. But not all terrorists are imported from other countries. Some, like the London bombers were what is called âhome grownâ.
London police continued to make progress in their investigation this morning, arresting a man suspected of being one of the four bombers in the July 21st failed attacks. Nine people are now in custody in connection with that incident.
Officials are now looking for possible connections between the men they are still searching for and the bombers who died in the July 7th attack. And what they are finding so far is surprising.
Today the London police continued the manhunt for the suspects responsible for the July 21st attempted bombings. And are so far refusing to call the men who died in the July 7th terror attacks suicide bombers.
But it may be possible that the bombers had been duped. Officials say the men, thought to be home grown terrorists, may not have known they were committing suicide.
Speculation comes from an Al-Qaeda manual found in England in 2000 during an investigation into the bombings of two American embassies in East Africa. The manual states that terrorists have permission to dress in western wear and have clear instructions on how to behave and how to avoid calling attention to themselves by blending in with the community. The manual also says cells who carry out the attacks should not know each other, should not be told about the mission or even told if they will die in the attacks.
So who are the terrorists and how can law enforcement agents spot them? Issac Yeffet, a former Israeli intelligence officer believes the government needs to rethink its strategy.
âWe need a profiling system. When you know that you have fanatics, when you know you have people that are supporting the terrorists, why do you allow them to continue living in your country and you donât bring them to justice or deport them,â he said.
But what profile would include terrorists like shoe bomber Richard Reed, and American Taliban John Walker Lindh and Timothy McVeigh, who blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City? Terrorism expert Joe King says it will take more than profiling to weed out converts, sympathizers or malcontents.
âIntelligence is the way to do it.â
Law enforcement sources say intelligence gathering and sharing between federal, state and local agencies has improved since 9/11. Still, security experts say finding terrorists requires intelligence from the public.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/28/2005 10:04 ||
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July 28, 2005: Once more, the U.S. Army is adopting a successful combat practice from the U.S. Marine Corps. In this case, the army is training additional snipers, so that army units will have more than three times as many as they do now. Which is about the same number of snipers the marines have had for a long time. To do make this happen, the army is tripping the output of its sniper schools. The army has a five week sniper course, while the marines have a ten week course that is considered one of the best in the world. These schools turn out professional snipers who know how to operate independently in two man teams. Marine regiments (about the same size as army brigades) now have about three times as many snipers per battalion as do army units. Currently, army only has six or eight snipers per infantry battalion. In the future, there will be one sniper in each infantry squad. There are 27 squads in an infantry battalion.
But both the army and the marines are taking advantage of the greater number of veteran troops in their combat units, and the fact that just about every soldier has a rifle with a scope, and has a lot of target practice behind them. In the past, infantry commanders were encouraged to find and designate about ten percent of their men as sharpshooters (sort of sniper lite) and make use of these guys to take out enemy troops at a distance, and with single shots. This is a trend that has been growing for over a decade, but has now become a major feature of American infantry tactics. These sharpshooters, especially the ones with combat experience, are the prime candidates for sniper school. The trained snipers, however, also have the special skills required to find the best shooting position, and how to stay hidden, and get out of harms way if discovered. Trained snipers have proved to be a powerful weapon in the kinds of battles encountered in Afghanistan and Iraq. The enemy fighters greatly fear the snipers, and the presence of snipers restricts the mobility of enemy gunmen.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 09:36 ||
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#1
Can you imagine the fear that goes through Mohamed's mind when him and Adul are standing around"smokin and jokin"and all of a sudden Abdul's head explodes.Then Mo hears the crack of the round.
While watching the first episode of"Over there"last night,there was one troop that was very adept at"one shot,one kill".Did anybody else watch it,what did you think?
I liked it,no sugar coating there.
#2
One of the high points of my sons's time over there last winter was hanging around with a tank crew guarding a bridge in Anbar. They were frequently getting a few motar rounds in before counterbattery radar could find 'em.
So this tank is just looking around thru their scope and sees a truck pull up two miles away. They watch for a minute, and when a motar tube slides off the back of the truck, they take it out. They were also gone before they heard the shot!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2005 12:44 Comments ||
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just finished reading "Shooter" about the top USMC sniper in Iraq - good tale, glad he's on our side, and his proposed mobile sniper teams at frontlines sound like they're working
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/28/2005 23:13 Comments ||
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July 28, 2005: Recent media reports on American troops morale have painted a misleading picture â making things look worse than they are. For instance, AP reports have focused on the fact that a majority of soldiers have said unit morale is low. While factually correct, it did not tell the whole story.
First, some background on these surveys. The Defense Department started surveying soldiers to get an idea of their behavioral and mental health (this included questions about morale) in the wake of a surge in the number of suicides in July, 2003. In 2003, there were 24 suicides by American soldiers in Iraq. The number dropped to nine in 2004 â a 62.5 percent reduction. The rate of suicides is also worth noting: In 2003, the suicide rate among soldiers involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom was 18 per 100,000 soldiers. In 2004, the rate was 8.5 per 100,000 soldiers. This is a 52.8 percent reduction.
Now, letâs look at the morale figures, and get to the real story. The 2003 survey indicated that 72 percent of soldiers considered unit morale to be low compared to the 54 percent in the most recent study. In other words, 25 percent fewer troops consider morale in their units to be low.
What was also ignored was that when asked about their own morale, the numbers shifted. In 2004, only 36 percent considered their morale to be low, compared to 52 percent in 2003. This is a reduction of 30.8 percent. In other words, while there was a problem, and the situation had been difficult in 2003, in a yearâs time, things had improved significantly. Of course, events like the Presidentâs visit on Thanksgiving Day, 2003, the capture of Saddam Hussein the next month, and the transfer of sovereignty in June, 2004 also helped. The first was a unique case, but the other two were major signs of progress in the mission that the soldiers had been given â and ones not ignored by the media (As many smaller signs of progress have been). The addition of more comforts (like air-conditioned sleeping quarters, better food, and an easier time communicating with those at home), better training and support (particularly access to mental health services), and combat becoming less intense and less frequent have also helped improve morale.
In both cases (suicides and morale), there was marked improvement from 2003 to 2004. However, reading the AP versions of this story would leave a much different impression. In many cases, this is a case of the media going for the worst-case scenario or an âif it bleeds, it leadsâ approach (car bombings tend to draw more interest than efforts to teach Iraqi kids how to play baseball). In a pattern that has characterized the press coverage of Iraq, the media is often ignoring or downplaying the facts that show the situation is improving.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 09:22 ||
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#1
The MSM misleading us? I'm shocked, shocked to discover this!
#2
In a pattern that has characterized the press coverage of Iraq, the media is often ignoring or downplaying the facts that show the situation is improving.
Nooooo! Say it isn't so! How long has that been going on? {sarcasm off}
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2005 9:46 Comments ||
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"Misleading picture" from the press? Has this ever happened before? Maybe we need to monitor the news more closely.
/sarcasm
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 10:46 Comments ||
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Huh, the MSM saying something new? Not gonna happen until they are so far gone that they can't pay the CEO's wage. THEN they might do something different.
The poor people dressed in Islamic garb or in dirty blue trousers and T-shirts sitting in 118-degree heat in the hall of the Sharm el-Sheik Hospital were either the brothers, the cousins, or the friends of the people wounded in the terrorist attack of the day before. Just plenty of desperate young people.
No women were there, no mothers, or sisters, or wives. Egyptian women almost don't live in Sharm. The family and children of the workers are in the villages near Cairo, and their beloved men come to visit for one week once a month. Sharm is inhabited by a couple of thousand military people and public officials that President Mubarak, just like President Sadat, keeps as a defense vanguard near his own villa; or by poor workers, waiters, drivers, plumbers, and cooks - lots of day laborers that serve the enormous tourism business. Only a large group of very poor workers, the other face of the holiday town of Sharm el-Sheik, have been the killed and the wounded here.
You understand many things about terrorism when you speak to them; and you understand also, unfortunately, why we will never be able to count on what we call "the moderate Muslims" for the war against terrorism.
So, let's test this thesis and ask: "Do they hate terrorists?" The answer is "Yes, very much so," and they really do, - they close their fists and watch in rage and repeat to me that they deeply hope that Mr. Mubarak will catch them all, will put them in prison, will kill them. Are they ready to fight them? Yes, at every level, with their hands, if requested, and with demonstrations that actually, while I'm in Sharm, suddenly appear in the hot streets and just in front of the cameras of the international press: "Down with terrorism," "We are against terrorism"...
But then, if it's so, why can the great moderate Muslim world not really fight their own enemy? They themselves give me the answers: "Bin Laden? The Muslim Brotherhood? Certainly the terrorist attacks are not their work, no! This is a lie. A Muslim could never do this. And if they say they do it in the name of Islam, they are not Islamic; or, most likely, this shows, like the television says, that someone uses the name of Islam just to hide the real perpetrators."
So while the most common victims of Islamists are Muslims, many Muslims don't seem to be able to make that connection. Or, rather, just aren't willing to.
And, of course, their preferred scapegoats are... well, I don't think you need to read the article to guess, but do it anyway.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2005 07:34 ||
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#1
Holding two equally stupid concepts at once. The hallmark of a made muzzieman.
#2
Being moderate means you don't pick sides. Being moderate means you shut up and watch who's going to come out on top. Being moderate means you think its safer to keep a low profile. Being moderate means you accomodate whomever you belive is the greater threat to your existance at the moment. Being moderate means you'll move on if things get too sticky where you're at. The Jews practiced this in Europe for hundreds of years, until the environment changed in the 1930s. And they didn't have agents acting in their name in general society out killing citizens of every country.
#3
"And if they say they do it in the name of Islam, they are not Islamic; or, most likely, this shows, like the television says, that someone uses the name of Islam just to hide the real perpetrators."
In other words, it's the jooooooos.
I don't believe there is a "moderate" muslim group. I think all those "quiet" muslims aren't quiet and angry with the terrorists. They are quiet and secretly proud of the fact that muslims (finally) are shaking up the world.
The very notion of a "moderate" muslim community is a fabrication of the west, based on our values, norms and worldviews. In other words, we're projecting ourselves onto muslims...what WE would do in such instances. The west did it for years with palis. We've heard people say "Why else would someone blow themself up, unless their condition was intolerable!" But this argument falls way short when you look at the 9/11 3/11 7/7 etc bombers. They weren't "desparate" with "no more options."
So, I am coming to the conclusion that such a group -- moderate muslims -- does not, in reality, exist.
I think there is an ANGRY muslim group, though. These are people affected by terror, directly, as those in sharm, etc. But they don't blame their religion for it. They deflect, rationalize...anything but self-reflect.
#4
Holding two wildly divergent, simultaneous thoughts on the same subject is a hallmark of the Arab mind.
I once had a well-off (had to be in order to escape to Oman) and quite intelligent Kuwaiti refugee tell me the Palestinians in Kuwait were collaborating with the Iraqi invaders, but were getting paid by the Zionists.
#5
Look at it this way, the terrorists are raising the level of the gene pool by killing their fellow muslims. Would that they could kill them all and make our targeting so much easier.
Workers at Iraq's South Oil Company are holding a one-day strike to demand a bigger share of the country's oil revenues for the region. Provincial governor Mohammad al-Waili, who called the strike, has called for the province to be allowed to keep more of the oil revenues.
But the oil firm said there would be minimal disruption to supply. "This will be a peaceful protest, and will not lead to a halt in exports," one oil official told the Reuters news agency.
Oil production, on the other hand, stopped at most installations in the province as some 15,000 workers downed tools, Reuters said.
Earlier, agencies said exports could be halted by the strike. Iraq currently exports about 1.4 million barrels of crude oil a day. Of that, more than 80% comes through the south of the country, with the remainder flowing out through a pipeline into Turkey to the north. The export income amounts to some $17bn a year.
Too little of that makes its way back to the south, the provincial governor's party says, leaving the province short of money to improve living standards.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/28/2005 00:00 ||
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It sounds like a reasonable response to legitimate concerns. But, is that possible in that part of the world?
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
07/28/2005 1:11 Comments ||
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I'm thinking PATCO strike here folks, bring on the scabs.
Iraqis are waiting days in line for gas.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2005 6:09 Comments ||
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Welcome to democracy where people peaceful demonstrate (including withdrawal of labour) to highlight their concerns and issues.
#4
As soon as I read the headline, I had phil_b's thought. Great minds run in the same channel, eh?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2005 8:28 Comments ||
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If you read Indymedia, you'll see that the unions of southern Iraq are often featured. It is possible to conclude that a portion of the owrkers in the oil industry in the Basra region are unionized, by very leftist style unions.
And, as always, one must remember that provincial governors like having increased funds in their region. It boosts their 401-k accounts.
Flagship piece for the September issue of The Atlantic. Very long, so only the first few paragraphs here. Worth a read.
The war for Jerusalem that began after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's failed peace offer at Camp David in the summer of 2000 has become the subject of legends and fables, each one of which is colored in the distinctive shades of the political spectrum from which it emerged: Yasir Arafat tried to control the violence. Arafat was behind the violence. Arafat was the target of the violence, which he deflected onto the Israelis. Depending on which day of the week it was, any combination of these statements might have been true.
In his patchwork uniform, which combined a military tunic with a traditional kaffiya, the Old Man, as those who had known Yasir Arafat the longest called him, was a strange and defiantly contradictory person. He was the father of the Palestinian nation, and the successor to the Muslim conquerors of Jerusalem, Omar Ibn al-Khattab and Saladin. His official title was rais of the Palestinian Authority, a title that is ambiguously translated as "chairman" or "president." Arafat was also the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the head of Fatah, the PLO's central faction, which he founded in Kuwait in the late 1950s. The title that came first on his personal stationery was head of Fatah, which means "conquest"âa backward acronym for Harakat al-Tahrir al-Falistiniya, the Palestinian Liberation Movement. Spelled forward the acronym yields "Hataf," which means "death."
Arafat's failure to conquer Jerusalem did not shatter his conviction that history was moving in his favor: under pressure from within and without, isolated in the world, the State of Israel would eventually crack apart and dissolve, to be replaced by Arab Palestine. "We will continue our struggle until a Palestinian boy or a Palestinian girl waves our flag on the walls, mosques, and churches of Jerusalem, the capital of our independent state, whether some people are happy about it or not," he promised. "He who doesn't like it may drink the water of the Dead Sea." Arafat understood his actions as part of an unfolding within the long duration of historical time rather than as disembodied headlines on CNN. The inability of his diplomatic interlocutors to understand what he was driving at exposed the fatal limits of the Western conception of politics as a way to find a happy medium between competing interests.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/28/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder why *anyone* thinks Arafat ever gave a rat's patootie for Paleostine, or Paleostinians. No decision he ever took ever caused anything but pain and despair for his people.
Cool info about the origin of the word Fatah though.
#2
He, and palis, were (and are) SOOO consumed with destroying Israel, they never seriously considered living with it. And Israel disappointed them by not going away.
And today, they still can't get their head around the possibility of anything but destroying Israel -- even if it causes them misery.
#3
Arafat was the Jim Jones of the Paleos, absent the kool aid. The fact is that he never was fully in charge of his government. The inmates ran the asylum.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2005 5:45 Comments ||
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Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged Iraqi political leaders Wednesday to settle their differences and agree on a new constitution quickly, and to exert more influence on Syria and Iran to force them to end support for the insurgency here. Speaking to reporters en route to an unannounced visit here, Rumsfeld laid out a remarkably blunt prescription for what Iraqi leaders must do in the coming weeks and months to ensure that a stable, secure and popularly elected government survives, and to allow American troops to begin to withdraw. Rumsfeld declined to say when conditions would permit that drawdown to start. But the top American commander here, General George Casey Jr., reaffirmed to reporters his statement in March that the Pentagon would be able to make "some fairly substantial reductions" in troops by next spring if the political process remained on track and Iraqi forces assumed more responsibility for securing their country.
After meeting with Rumsfeld, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said there was no firm timetable for any American withdrawal, but he noted that Iraqis "desire speed in that regard." He said that as Iraqi forces improved, they would replace American troops around the country. Security was just one of the broad themes that Rumsfeld outlined first to reporters traveling with him and then to Jaafari and other top Iraqi officials, said a senior Pentagon aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the meeting with the Iraqis was private.
First and foremost, Rumsfeld told reporters, was the need to stick to a political timetable that calls for Iraqi officials to write a constitution by Aug. 15. "We don't want any delays," Rumsfeld said. "They're simply going to have to make the compromises necessary and get on with it." He added, "That's what politics is about." Any delay in the process would be "very harmful to the momentum that's necessary," he said. "We have troops on the ground. People get killed."
Rumsfeld renewed his criticism that Syria and Iran are harboring financiers and organizers of the insurgency, or are failing to clamp down on fighters infiltrating into Iraq from their territory. But he also urged Iraqi leaders to be more aggressive to stop what he called "harmful" behavior by Iraq's two neighboring rivals. "They need to demonstrate that they're a big country, they're a wealthy country, that they'll be around a long time, and they don't really like it," said Rumsfeld, adding that he would leave specific actions up to the Iraqis.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Good tactic for two reasons: (1) instill a sense of urgency and (2) the inevitable political back slide in US, fostered by MSM.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2005 0:14 Comments ||
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As comments in RB said earlier this week, the USA sacrificing to create conditions where Iraq might be able to develop some form of representative government was a tremendously generous act. I think it was a noble experiment, but the next military action outside Iraq should be solely for the purposes of breaking things and killing asshats. My patience is almost exhausted. A lot of people here feel the same.
#4
What SR-71 said. I think we had to perform that experiment, at least so we could say honestly, "We tried. We really, REALLY tried."
I don't think we'll give up on Iraq, or Afghanistan; I hope we stay the course there, rather than giving up, packing up and going home in disgust; because if we were to do that, it would be interpreted by the Islamoloonies as a victory as well as a vindication of bin Laden's "Mogadishu Principle."
But, yes, our patience is damn near exhausted, and I doubt we'll ever try this experiment again anywhere else.
One lesson any future American president is going to take from the events of the last four years is that because of the antiwar Left and its unceasing propaganda, the American people aren't going to support any more "long, hard slogs" (Rumsfeld's phrase). Therefore, for political reasons, the president would feel compelled to respond to any future terrorist attacks on American soil with measures that produce a decisive result in a matter of days or even hours, not years.
By its opposition to Bush's efforts to reform the Islamic world, the Left has made a future war of annihilation much more likely.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/28/2005 6:22 Comments ||
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the next military action outside Iraq should be solely for the purposes of breaking things and killing asshats
#6
I disagree totally I believe the major reason why the LLL's have been able to shift public opinion in a war that by history comparison is a amazing all round sucess by both results time frame and especailly casualties. Back to point the reason is Bush it is simply his way of looking at how the gov works he is a politician 1st born bread Reagan saw the people as the gov were Bush sees it opposite. Reagan would talk directly to the people regulary to keep the majority involved and on the right page. Bush sees it backwards spent his time enforcing the politician side of things and allowing the LLL's media to run free. We see the result of this action you have the public opinion believing the media propoganda not the reality. Bush should have at the begining had a general coming on every week or day (like Swartzkolf did ) laying out that weeks good bad and whats next while at the same time the media should have been censored the whole time Iraq should have been under battle field limitations reporter wise until we pulled out that way the weekly briefing would have been forced to be carried by the media and at least some of the good would be known like we opened 3 schools this week the terrorist blew one up ect.. Bush should regularly come on TV and keep the people rallied up and fired up give some freekin examples of the past like how many soldgiers died say on D-day or any of the many island battles in the pacific were more died taking X little crapo island than has died in the whole war on terror. Bush has the right plan the right people to execute the plan but he is a weak leader not in will but in ability to talk to the american people. The LLL's should have been publicly humiliated for standing with our enemies by Bush but now the memory of 9-11 has faded 24-7 media dooom gloom and the LLL are more and more coming out getting louder and louder. It was Bush's job to keep people rallied up and the LLL's quiet. Hell I want a pres that when they talk about torture he just says straight up the prisoners are dead men are only alive becuase we think they have info valuable once they give that up we will finish the sentece period. F the UN and the geneva only applies to nations soldgeirs that follow the rules of war not blow up civilians with bombs and cell phones.
Stunned by terror attacks in a Red Sea resort, Egyptians are in a remarkably frank debate about whether mosques and schools â and the government itself â should be blamed for promoting Islamic extremism.
Why, yes. Why do you ask? Surely you're not thinking of doing anything about it?... Didn't think so.
Even pro-government media say authorities have created a climate where young people are turning into radicals and suicide bombers. In a country more used to hearing general condemnations of terrorism, critics on Wednesday were angry â and specific â hammering at instances where they say the government let state media and mosque preachers, including many appointed by the government, to promote intolerance.
Y'see, when the corpses are in Israel, or in Iraq, or in India or Chechnya or on some island in the Philippines where the monkeys are reputed to have no tails, then you can parse words and slice hairs and argue about how many houris can dance on the head of a pin and exactly what the definition of "terrorism" should be. When the deaders are in your own country it's terrorism. You can recognize it right away.
At one mosque in Cairo, some worshippers objected to prayers for the dead and missing after Saturday's bombings in Sharm el-Sheik because some victims were likely non-Muslims, said the editor of the government weekly Al-Musawwar.
On the other hand, or the Third Hand, as Kathy would describe it, piles of body parts does make your society choose up sides pretty quick...
Another columnist pointed to a weekly column in the government Al-Ahram daily by a religious scholar, Zaghloul al-Naggar, who explains science by using the Quran. After December's tsunami in the Indian Ocean, he went on Arab television and called the devastation God's revenge on Westerners engaged in vice.
... and the ignorant will be among us even longer than the poor.
The debate since Sharm has been a deepening of the soul-searching that has gone on across the Arab world in recent years over whether religious interpretations need reform in the face of terror attacks by Muslim radicals. The debate began, hesitantly, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. And the voices have grown with each act of terrorism â particularly ones in the Middle East. A series of attacks in Saudi Arabia in 2003 forced that country to begin taking action against extremist thought.
Yet Sheikh Hawali's still doing business at the same old stand, doesn't even have to offer discounts, and not a single holy man's head has been chopped off. As far as I know, not a single snuffy's head has been chopped off, for that matter.
The 2004 Madrid bombings increased calls for change among Muslims in Europe and the Mideast. After the July 7 suicide bombings in London, Britain's largest Sunni group issued a binding religious edict, known as a fatwa, condemning the attack.
... and we can all see how much good that's done. Talk about quick results!
Egypt has been hit this month by a double blow: the kidnapping and slaying of its top envoy in Iraq by Islamic militants and the bomb blasts that ripped through Sharm, killing as many as 88 people â the vast majority of them Egyptians.
Egypt's reaction to the murder of its diplomats was to withdraw the remainder of its staff from Iraq, tail between legs. As far as I know, there haven't been any Egyptian hunter-killer teams dispatched to extract the precious Arab Dire Revenge⢠for murder most foul. In a much more primitive age than ours, if, say, the Hittites had bumped off the Egyptian ambassador â and they did exchange diplomatic missions â if would have been cause for bloody war. Today's Egyptians, for all their propensity for occasionally making faces, slaughtering their Christian minority, and blessing krazed killers, don't have the testicular capacity their (Coptic) ancestors had.
What was unusual about the self-criticism after Sharm was that it came from government media â and even from within the Islamic clerical hierarchy picked by the government. "There is no use denying. ... We incited the crime of Sharm el-Sheik," ran a bold red headline of a lead editorial Wednesday by Al-Musawwar's editor in chief, Abdel-Qader Shohaib. The bombers "didn't just conjure up in our midst suddenly, they are a product of a society that produces extremist fossilized minds that are easy to be controlled," Shohaib wrote. "They became extremists through continuous incitement for extremism which we have allowed to exist in our societies. Regrettably, the incitement is coming from mosque pulpits, newspapers, and TV screens, and radio microphones," which are all state-run, Shohaib said.
There's a bit more left in the article, though it doesn't add much. Read it if you want.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2005 00:00 ||
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I would take Nasser' secularism over Islamic fascism, any day.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
07/28/2005 1:07 Comments ||
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I would take Nasser' secularism over Islamic fascism, any day.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
07/28/2005 1:07 Comments ||
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#3
I would take Nasser' secularism over Islamic fascism, any day.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
07/28/2005 1:08 Comments ||
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#4
Egyptians are in a remarkably frank debate about whether mosques and schools â and the government itself â should be blamed for promoting Islamic extremism.
And after this "remarkably frank debate" they'll conclude they shouldn't be blamed. And pat themselves on the back for their ability to approach this openly and honestly.
And then they'll point to all the external reasons for extremism, most notably Jews, Israel, Zionism ...oh, and America.
#8
At one mosque in Cairo, some worshippers objected to prayers for the dead and missing after Saturday's bombings in Sharm el-Sheik because some victims were likely non-Muslims
Question: Anyone remember objections to prayers for terror victims in churches or synagogues because some of the victims might have not had the right religion?
I sure as hell don't.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2005 9:43 Comments ||
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#9
I sure don't either, RC! But, whadda I know, I'm just a dumb red-stater Christian...not a member of the RoP(tm).
Posted by: BA ||
07/28/2005 10:25 Comments ||
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#12
The mental block on mourning non-allan dead just underscores the fact that good arab muslims don't play well with their own let alone others. Arab secular nationalism has born small, disfigured and bitter fruit because of congenital cultural malformations of which islamic fundamentalism is not the only one. There will never be a frank debate when some topics are never brought to the table or even considered outside the minds of individuals.
#13
Ralph Peters suggested some time ago that the West should concentrate our psy ops in Indonesia, Iran and Egypt, three areas with strong cultures prior to the Islamic/Arab conquest that forced such cultures underground or ground them into the ground.
Maybe someone in the government read Peters article.
oh baby baby itz the time
voting for pleasure surely fine
baby baby lieber mine
Posted by: abu Shawn ||
07/28/2005 7:55 Comments ||
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#9
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has confirmed that he will stand in the presidential election on 7 September. It will be the first time the presidential poll has been open to more than one candidate. Mr Mubarak also invited Arab leaders to attend a summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh on 3 August.
He said there were worrying developments in the Arab world, including the situation in Iraq and with the Palestinians. Mr Mubarak said a shared Arab position on these needed to be developed.
Correspondents said the venue for the summit was apparently chosen to try to show government resolve following the bombings in Sharm al-Sheikh last week which killed 88 people.
Run, Hosni, run!
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 8:52 Comments ||
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#10
Let me know what kind of bounce he gets coming out of the convention...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2005 00:00 ||
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This is bizarre. The reporter supposedly doing the interview is Ali - the MP is Sabahi... a sample exchange:
Sabahi: "When the conflict is directed against the Americans, it is good. Any weapon that kills an American is good. Any gun aiming at the Marines is good. Any kidnapping or slaughtering of an American in Iraq is good."
Abd Al-Rahim Ali: "In Iraq, there are a million Western and international intelligence agencies, which help Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi to disintegrate this country, and to keep the Americans there for another million years."
Sabahi: "Are you saying America is behind Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi?"
Ali: "Of course. There is no doubt. I want to tell you something."
Sabahi: "You mean that America is responsible for the killing of our ambassador?"
Ali: "Of course it is. The American occupation and the campaign in Baghdad between Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi and the Americans is the cause.
WTF? This isn't an interview, it's just a hatefest - led, as much as not, by the so-called reporter. RTWT - it's surreal.
#2
Surreal? Of course it is: the whole damned Islamic world is surreal. Islam itself is surreal: a psychotic, medieval murder cult whose goal is to force the entire world into submission.
I'm convinced: it's either them, or us.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/28/2005 5:58 Comments ||
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#3
Egyptian Parliament Member Praises Killing Americans
I am shocked. Shocked, I say.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 10:51 Comments ||
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#4
Looks like he's caught a couple strains of the Root Cause thingy. Another muslim political leader, public figure, and complete nutter.
#7
The Egyptians build things like M1A1s that work for about a week after they come off the assembly line, just long enough to be laagered somewhere. Keeps Detroit green.
Baitullah Mehsud, the militant leader who signed a âpeace dealâ with the government early this year, has warned the military of a âbloody warâ if the âhumiliating behaviourâ of security forces towards his comrades did not stop immediately.
"Arrr! Yer gonna get it! We got our dignutty, you know!"
The militant telephoned media offices in Peshawar on Wednesday to express his displeasure over the Peshawar corps commanderâs âcold shoulderâ to his complaints, saying he would soon announce his course of action if the situation did not improve. âI will fight such a war against the government that it canât fathom,â Baitullah said via satellite phone from an undisclosed location. The warning came when he was asked what he would do if the government did not respond positively to his concerns. âWe will teach the government the real meaning of extremism and terrorism that it uses against us,â Baitullah added.
"Hrraaaarrr! Youse guyz know how ferocious we are!"
This was the first contact between the militant and media since the peace deal on February 7, 2004, in South Waziristan Agencyâs Sararogha area. The situation in Mehsud areas stabilised after the Sararogha deal and the military then concentrated on North Waziristan Agency, where the army believes about 100 terrorists still hide. Baitullah was a member of the Abdullah Mehsud-led militant outfit, but Abdullah opted to stay away from the peace deal after the government declined to offer him amnesty following the kidnapping of Chinese engineers in October 2004.
He was eventually potted and most everyone's forgotten about him by now...
Baitullahâs anger towards the government was apparently sparked by the âinsulting behaviourâ of security forces. He said, âThere is no difference between a corps commander and a soldier. The corps commander says we will be treated with respect while the soldiers treat us like slaves.â Baitullah said security personnel had âinsultedâ him and his comrades âat checkpointsâ. âThe solders think that we have surrendered to the government under the Sararogha deal, which is not the case. We are proud and free tribesmen. We fought the British for freedom,â he added.
"I have the death penalty on 12 worlds!"
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2005 00:00 ||
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"I have the death penalty on 12 worlds!"
Lol! Um, weren't those his last words?
Tribalism. Ethnic BS. The pointless insanity that paralyzes the backward areas of the world. And in PakiWakiLand - Cesspool Central - a zoo of tribal fiefdoms.
Is there anything to save, any fact-based hope it will ever evolve out of the stone age? It's had a full century of watching the West rocket ahead - and there it sits, a bulwark of backward barbarian brutality - and proud of it, too. I know Islam is part and parcel to the madness, but it's truly hopeless if in tandem with tribalism. Where they both exist and dominate, there lie doomed people.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2005 00:00 ||
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Saw the headline, laughed, clicked, saw the inline comments, laughed much harder - so I'm not alone in not having a clue WTF this is about...
Reading the article, well, if the US Institute of Peace (a Federal entity, believe it or not) is to be believed, the piece was written by an ex-PakiWaki diplodink - now a Sr Fellow, heh - and I have incredibly serious doubts, all the US can do is be vewy vewy gentle and make kissy-kissy nummy-nummy sounds to PakiWakiLand. Nothing else will do. *eye roll*
Example: Hussain maintains that US policy choices towards Pakistan are âcomplex and imperfect.â Though Pakistan is not a failed state nor a failing or a rogue state, it has had to varying degrees tendencies of all three. On top of that, it is a nuclear power. Pakistan is now not only a challenge but also a crucial partner in the war on terrorism. The United States faces a great balancing act in its relations with Pakistan. âIt must work with President Pervez Musharraf but not identify with his personal ambitions, nudge him to democratise but not discourage his strong hand, and advance US nonproliferation objectives but not lose Pakistanâs support in the war on terrorism,â he suggests. He sees new threats and opportunities for US foreign policy in South Asia.
He describes an utterly dysfunctional morass in PakiWakiLand, puts everything on Musharraf, then sort of washes his hands of the whole lot. The last 4 paragraphs are what passes for "meat" - and have to rank among the least useful examples of uber-ass-coverage hand-wringing I've see in some time. There is a distinct dearth of solutions, and the few that are offhandedly put forward are couched in typical vague diplo BS - i.e. nothing conclusive or actionable. Worthless drivel. Boy, I sure am glad I'm picking up the tab for this Wank-o-tute.
Why, after reading the piece and the background on USIP, do I get the very distinct impression the USIP is likely the alternative to the Saudi Retirement Program for State Dept fuckups and half-wits - and "specially invited" washouts like Hussain?
Pfeh. I got yer nummy-nummy's right here, Hussain.
#2
Pfeh. I got yer nummy-nummy's right here, Hussain
Just be sure to rinse your mouth and wash your hands afterwards, .com.
Posted by: too true ||
07/28/2005 9:58 Comments ||
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#3
Though Pakistan is not a failed state
I think we can argue that. At least half of their territory is NOT subject to government control, and the government doesn't even claim to have a monopoly on the use of force eminating from their territory.
They're very, very close to being a failed state.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2005 10:09 Comments ||
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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
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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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.
Iran's outgoing reformist President Mohammad Khatami criticised the "obstinacy" of dissident jailed journalist Akbar Ganji in continuing a one-and-a-half month hunger strike. 
Stunned by terror attacks in a Red Sea resort, Egyptians are in a remarkably frank debate about whether mosques and schools â and the government itself â should be blamed for promoting Islamic extremism.
Baitullah Mehsud, the militant leader who signed a âpeace dealâ with the government early this year, has warned the military of a âbloody warâ if the âhumiliating behaviourâ of security forces towards his comrades did not stop immediately.
