[knock] "Metropolitan Police!"
[silence]
"All right, Nigel. Break it down."
"Yes, sir. [smack] Ow! Ow! Ow! My foot."
"You're supposed to take your shoes off before we enter, but after you kick the door down."
POLICE have been told to take their shoes off and not use sniffer dogs when raiding Muslim homes.
~snip~
It then lists 18 points police officers should note.
These include:
⢠Rapid entry needs to be the last resort and raids into Muslim houses are discouraged for a number of religious dignity reasons.
⢠Police should seek to avoid looking at unclad Muslim women and allow them an opportunity to dress and cover their heads.
⢠For reasons of dignity officers should seek to avoid entering occupied bedrooms and bathrooms even before dawn.
⢠Use of police dogs will be considered serious desecration of the premises and may necessitate extensive cleaning of the house and disposal of household items.
⢠Advice should be sought before considering the use of cameras and camcorders due to the risk of capturing individuals, especially women, in inappropriate dress.
⢠Muslim prisoners should be allowed to take additional clothing to the station.
⢠If people are praying at home officers should stand aside and not disrupt the prayer. They should be allowed the opportunity to finish.
⢠Officers should not take shoes into the houses, especially in areas that might be kept pure for prayer purposes.
⢠In the current climate the justification for pre-dawn raids on Muslim houses needs to be clear and transparent.
⢠Non-Muslims are not allowed to touch holy books, Qurans or religious artefacts without permission. Where possible, Muslim officers in a state of 'Wudhu' (preparation before prayer) should be used for this purpose.
mebbe their beter cal ferst to maker shure teh ladees goten they burkas on
#7
They must have watched Die Hard. You know the part where he see's Bruce Willis is barefoot so he shoots at the glass.
This can't be taken seriously, can it?
Posted by: Jan ||
08/01/2005 22:18 Comments ||
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#8
thatn teh byooty of em innernet jan.
best theeng to hapen sence memorex. :)
we jus doent kno.
yoo knoew how manee timez zarkawi been killt on thes blog?
Osama bin Laden is still giving direct orders for al Qaeda attacks, Saudi Arabia's next ambassador to the United States said on Sunday.
Outgoing Saudi ambassador to Britain Prince Turki al-Faisal said some of the most recent attacks attributed to al Qaeda in the oil-rich kingdom had been directly ordered by the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
"Some of the events (attacks) that occurred in the kingdom over the past 2-1/2 years were under the immediate directions of the leadership of al Qaeda, particularly bin Laden," Turki said in comments broadcast by Reuters Television on Sunday.
There has been an ongoing debate over how much direct control bin Laden exercises over al Qaeda since a U.S.-led international effort to capture him and his top lieutenants began in 2001 after the attacks on the United States.
Turki said some al Qaeda groups operated autonomously because they were in places where it was difficult to communicate with al Qaeda's central command.
"In such cases, it is left to those in charge of those networks to decide when, how and where to take their measures," Turki said.
Turki's former role as Saudi foreign intelligence chief brought him into contact with bin Laden when both the United States and Saudi Arabia were supporting Arab mujahideen (freedom fighters) fighting Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan.
The prince later tried but failed to persuade Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to hand bin Laden back to Saudi Arabia, a failure diplomats believe led him to leave his job just 10 days before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Turki is due to take over as Saudi ambassador to the United States from Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who enjoyed unrivalled access to the very top of U.S. political power.
Bandar, who resigned in mid-July, is a friend of the Bush family and used his close White House contacts to weather the storm after the 2001 strikes on New York and Washington by mainly Saudi hijackers.
Saudi officials say Turki is no stranger to Washington, is equally influential back in Riyadh, and will follow the same agenda as Bandar -- with only minor differences.
Turki said bin Laden and his followers have violated the teachings of Islam, but that anger in the Muslim community over the war in Iraq and the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict made it easy for him to attract people to al Qaeda.
The Saudi prince said bin Laden deliberately chose 15 Saudis to take part in the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States in order to damage U.S.-Saudi ties.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2005 16:24 ||
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The connections between the four men in custody for their alleged involvement in the second London bomb plot became clearer over the weekend as details of the interrogation of Hussein Osman leaked out of Italy. The man police believe was responsible for the attempt to set off a bomb on a tube train at London's Oval station is said to have told his interrogators that he and his associates attended Finsbury Park mosque in north London. He also claimed that they were recruited while working out at the same west London gym.
Yesterday, the Sunday Times reported that Ramzi Muhammad, arrested in connection with Oval tube bomb attempt, had tried to have the imam at his local mosque sacked. It quoted the imam of the al-Manaar Cultural Heritage Centre in west London as saying that Muhammad and his brother Wahbi were known for their radicalism and that they had abused him and called him an "apostate" and "infidel". The Sunday Times quoted the imam, Ahmed Dahdouh, as saying: "Ramzi and his brother used to come here in the mosque. There were four or five of them in the group. They used to cause a lot of trouble. They used to pray on their own as they used to think we were not proper Muslims. "In one of my Friday sermons I said that Islam forbids terrorism. I recall Ramzi later came up to me and told me, 'Why did you say that? It's wrong.' He was angry with me. He tried to get me sacked because I disagreed with them."
The newspaper reported that the brothers had broken a glass display cabinet in the mosque and torn down a poster. Yesterday Mr Dahdouh could not be contacted but Abdul Karim Khalil, the centre's director, said he did not remember any glass being broken and suggested the imam's words had been taken out of context. "In one way we are very relieved, just like any person in London, that these individuals are in police custody," he said. "But we are saddened, shocked and appalled that some of them may have been praying here at the centre. "Some of these people may well have been praying here, we are the main centre in the west London area." He added: "There was never any glass broken as far as I am concerned. All this talk of people praying alone is nonsense."
Sounds like Abdul Khalil is a person to keep an eye on.
Newspaper reports also suggested the brothers had been members of the now disbanded radical Muslim group al-Muhajiroun. But the group's founder, Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, denied Ramzi Muhammad had been a member. He said: "I have never heard of this man. There has never been anyone called Ramzi involved in al-Muhajiroun, I can say this for sure.
"I know nothing! Tell them, Hogan."
"The police took away all the records of everyone in the group and there was never anyone with that name. Al-Muhajiroun was never connected with the Muslim Cultural Centre where he is said to have worshipped, we never visited that area."
"Lies, all lies!"
Posted by: Steve ||
08/01/2005 14:53 ||
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The two were acting like a couple of maniacs and it didn't occur to the imam to tell anyone? This is one of the fundamental problems of islam: the belief that no muslim could commit acts like this.
Finsbuy park keeps turning up in radical context. Curious.
#2
The two were acting like a couple of maniacs and it didn't occur to the imam to tell anyone?
Oh he likely told someone all right, probably a twin Turban or in street usage a Double AssHat. Like a Bishop, only wanted on 2 continents. A multi-moron, big iron, heavy hitter, higher up.
British Transport Police have been targeting specific ethnic groups for "intelligence-led" stop-and-searches as part of their heightened security measures.
BTP Chief Constable Ian Johnston said that his officers would not "waste time searching old white ladies".
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/01/2005 12:43 ||
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BTP Chief Constable Ian Johnston said that his officers would not "waste time searching old white ladies".
Michael Savage is often way over the top, but I would like to see his idea of hitting the ACLU with RICO statutes...
Then maybe we could get out of the PC mode if the ACLU were tied up, and do what we have to more efficiently...
Over the past fortnight Israeli intelligence agents have noticed something distinctly odd happening on the internet. One by one, Al-Qaedaâs affiliated websites have vanished until only a handful remain, write Uzi Mahnaimi and Alex Pell. Someone has cut the line of communication between the spiritual leaders of international terrorism and their supporters. Since 9/11 the websites have been the main links to disseminate propaganda and information. The Israelis detect the hand of British intelligence, determined to torpedo the websites after the London attacks of July 7.
The web has become the new battleground of terrorism, permitting a freedom of communication denied to such organisations as the IRA a couple of decades ago. One global jihad site terminated recently was an inflammatory Pakistani site, www.mojihedun.com, in which a section entitled How to Strike a European City gave full technical instructions. Tens of similar sites, some offering detailed information on how to build and use biological weapons, have also been shut down. However, Islamic sites believed to be âmoderateâ, remain. One belongs to the London-based Syrian cleric Abu Basir al-Tartusi, whose www.abubaseer.bizland.com remained operative after he condemned the London bombings.
However, the scales remain weighted in favour of global jihad, the first virtual terror organisation. For all the vaunted spying advances such as tracking mobile phones and isolating key phrases in telephone conversations, experts believe current technologies actually play into the hands of those who would harm us. âModern technology puts most of the advantages in the hands of the terrorists. That is the bottom line,â says Professor Michael Clarke, of Kingâs College London, who is director of the International Policy Institute.
Government-sponsored monitoring systems, such as Echelon, can track vast amounts of data but have so far proved of minimal benefit in preventing, or even warning, of attacks. And such systems are vulnerable to manipulation: low-ranking volunteers in terrorist organisations can create background chatter that ties up resources and maintains a threshold of anxiety. There are many tricks of the trade that give terrorists secure digital communication and leave no trace on the host computer. Ironically, the most readily available sources of accurate online information on bomb-making are the websites of the radical American militia. âI have not seen any Al-Qaeda manuals that look like genuine terrorist training,â claims Clarke. However, the sobering message of many security experts is that the terrorists are unlikely ever to lose a war waged with technology.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/01/2005 09:04 ||
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Even more fun would be to have the URLs hacked & hijacked so that they are redirected to some of the folloeing types of sites...
Pork Processors (Farnmer John, Oscar Mayer, Hormel, etc... - British companies more prominent)
Alcohol Drinks (Many wineries have websites)
Rock Music (Madonna would get more hits than she'd ever dream of - No not that kind of hit! - Geez RBer's sure have dirty minds)
Prosthetic limb sites ("Captain Hook" could check on the latest technology)
and of course, victoriassecret.com...
Also, mundane things the Talibanis hated -
Chess
Kites
Television
websites could also be redirect points....
Also the websites could have the text "altered" to say the truth...
"Idiot bastard Mohammed Sadique Khan thought more of carnal lust, than his wife and child, when we convinced the dupe to blow himself up to kill some innocent civilians. He thought he'd get 72 virgins. Boy was he surprised. Ha ha ha!"
For some reason I believe one more than the other
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Association UK has called for a "grass roots revolution" in mosques to combat violent fanatics. Group leaders expect 30,000 people to attend its annual convention in Aldershot, Hampshire, over the weekend, and want members to focus on peace. The meeting is among a series of events being held across the country by Muslim organisations to debate terrorism. Ahmadi Muslims, who originally hailed from the northern India area of Punjab, believe that Mohammed was not the final prophet sent to guide mankind. The majority of Muslims violently object to the community describing themselves as followers of Islam. Rafiq Hayat, national president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association UK, called on members to honour the "true meaning of Islam - peace, tolerance, respect and service to humanity". "We call for a grass roots revolution in mosques across the UK where ordinary people wish to make a future in the UK, for the sake of themselves and their children and for the sake of humanity, turn away from the harbingers of hate and root out fanaticism." A group spokesman urged anyone who may be able to help police trace terrorist cells to follow "common sense" and tell what they know.
Followers of the Salafi sect of Islam, a conservative or "pure" reading of the faith, are also organising lectures to speak against the attacks. Some western analysts have associated Salafist thinking with al-Qaeda because all some militant groups in the Middle East describe themselves by the same name. But British followers of the sect say the association is completely wrong because they themselves have been targeted by militants for speaking out. Scholars linked to Birmingham-based Salafi Publications will explain why they say Islam condemns suicide bombers as "perpetrators of evil". A debate was held on Friday in Bradford and will be followed by others at mosques in Birmingham and London throughout August.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/01/2005 04:13 ||
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I don't know what to make of the Ahamadis but since they are Takfir we can assume they are not thinking the same thing as the Salifi and truly just want to get along.
#2
Ahmadiyas pray facing Haifa not Mecca. They apparently don't spend their lives mechanically memorizing Coran as evidenced by the fact the only "Muslim" (sort of, see below) scientific Noabel Prize winner was an Ahmadiya.
And, but perhaps I confound them with teh Quadianites, they say there can be and in fact have been prophets after Muhammad. That makes them automoatically non-Muslims for main-line Muslims.
#5
1. Cause they are fans of the Technion?
2. Cause they are just love to ride the Carmelit?
3. Cause we're getting them confused with Bahais?
4. I have no idea, really
British Home Office on Sunday announced that it would hold meetings with Muslim minority leaders in the United Kingdom which aim at enhancing cooperation following the terrorist blasts that lately ripped off the British capital, London. Speaking at a news conference, a spokeswoman from the ministry indicated that eight meetings would take place in the ministry during this summer where Interior Secretary Charles Clarke would also present suggestions and future perspectives.
The meetings are expected to tackle burdens of Muslim minorities, as well as concerns of the British government, the spokeswoman said. Officials of the ministry will visit cities and villages that have a Muslim majority to discuss various issues concerning their stability and the overall security in the kingdom, she said. Minorities of other religions and origin will be also included during the ministry's visits. The main issues, the spokeswoman said, will be societal problems for the youth, combating radicals and extremists, Muslim women, mosques and their role in building healthy youth, along with other security issues.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
enhancing cooperation following the terrorist blasts
#2
How about we sit down and tell them how it's going to be in the UK for a change - mentioning the possibility of mass repatriation should do the trick.. Bleat bleat bleat...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
08/01/2005 4:18 Comments ||
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What really will happen. A bunch of lefty laborites will be told how they must be more sensitive to allenists (be Dhimmi) They will report agreement and progress from the meetings. QED
Spain's intelligence chief said in an interview published Sunday that this month's terrorist attacks in London differed from last year's Madrid train bombings in their apparent coordination. Alberto Saiz, the director of the National Intelligence Center, told the daily El Pais that similarities between the attacks were limited to "their outward appearance" and targeting of transport networks. "At that point, the differences start," Saiz was quoted as saying. The July 7 group of London bombers was "small, just four people — less visible than the Madrid one."
Two cells so far, with a third supposed to be in the works. That makes nine and probably another five or six if the current report is accurate. Besides the cannon fodder, there's going to be a support network, and we've seen that the lines extend back to Pakistan for the training and probably the logistics. And Osman made a call to Soddy Arabia just before the operation. So, yeah, there are differences, but I think they're going to turn out to be superficial.
"Two weeks later, they try a second episode of the same attack — obviously, the perpetrators are not the same," Saiz said.
The perpetrators in the first attack were burned — they couldn't be used again. The interesting part will come when they trace the support network. Since the explosives were the same flavor, I'm guessing it's the same support network...
"In contrast to Madrid, this gives us the feeling that they are coordinated with other groups or have direction from above — and that there is a plan," he added. "This is not an isolated group that decides to act on its own account — the decision comes from above."
And that didn't apply to Madrid? What'd I miss there?
The March, 2004 bombings of commuter trains in Madrid killed 191 people and injured more than 1,500. The July 7 suicide bombings in London killed 52 people on three subway trains and a bus; the botched bombing attempts on similar targets July 21 rattled Londoners' nerves but took no lives. The Madrid attacks "surprised us all in terms of their form," Saiz told El Pais. The people behind them "formed a local group, with no apparent connection to the leadership of al-Qaida, at least no direct connection."
Control and support came from Morocco, rather than from Pakistan.
"There was, as far as we know, no chief of operations who said to a terrorist: `come to Madrid and carry out an attack.'"
Somebody said "We're here in Madrid and we're ready. Got any good ideas?"
Saiz said Spanish authorities have had a "constant exchange of information" with their British counterparts over recent weeks. "A number of lines of investigation have been opened and closed in Spain, always at British request," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2005 00:00 ||
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In fact whne you look carefully at it there were some surprising "mistakes" made by the Spanish bombers. They abandon a van with some explosives under the siege near one of the railway stations and they forget a Kuranic K7 in it. So when the cops search the van, it nearly screams "I was used by the bad guys and there are Islamists".
Then one of the bombs fails to explode or more exactly, was found unconnected and the mobile phone had his card on it (unneeded for triggering the explosion) and this card leds the cops to the shop and to first arrests well before elections.
But the natural hypothesis after the bombings was that it was ETA (who has made sweveral attempts at mass-terrorism in the last years), so natural that even the pro-ETA types thought it was ETA. And if people had continued thinking it was ETA it would have led to a massive victory for Rajoy (Aznar's designated successor). It was thus essential for the plan that, eithr with theior consent or sacrified by the mastermind, the bombers were discovered and arrested, and this, before the elections.
When leaving isolation, one of the arrested bombers first question was "Who has won the elections"
Colombia's Marxist rebels continue to pile the pressure on the armed forces. In a change of tactics, the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) have paralysed the southern province of Putumayo. They have cut off electricity to parts of the province and blockaded roads, forcing the government to airlift in basic supplies and food. Earlier this year the army insisted it had the guerrillas on the run and that the civil conflict was about to end. Such boasting has not been heard since February, when the guerrillas launched a counter-offensive that found the armed forces scrambling to respond.
Just as soon as the army has contained one rebel action, another appears in a different part of the country. But for over a week the guerrillas have been tightening their grip on the southern province of Putumayo. The civil population is terrified and the transport companies refuse to operate as the guerrillas have promised to burn any buses or trucks that move. Nobody believes the government assurances of protection. The Farc tactics may be changing but the aim remains the same - to discredit the US-backed government of President Alvaro Uribe, to ensure he is not re-elected next year. The guerrillas want a president not quite so cosy with the White House and more amenable to negotiate on rebel terms.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/01/2005 08:51 ||
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North Korea's demands for what it should receive in exchange for abandoning its nuclear weapons program snarled talks Sunday, but the U.S. envoy maintained that "things are moving," with more negotiations planned Monday. The negotiations ended their sixth day without an agreement on a Chinese-drafted proposal, and South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said talks Sunday focused on "what corresponding measures other parties will take" in return for an agreement by the North to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
The North has demanded concessions such as security guarantees and aid from Washington before it eliminates its weapons program, while the United States wants to see the arms destroyed first. The North has also insisted that it be allowed to run a peaceful nuclear power program, something Washington objects to out of proliferation concerns.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2005 00:00 ||
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As per thestar.com, whom reports that NK may not have any nukes, guess their article means the nuke-affirming Norkies can't obey any anti-nuke protocols cuz it allegedly has no nukes - jus another pre-invasion Americanski/Dubya Intel "error"!?
One attack was deadly, the other was not. But taken together, the two terrorist strikes that hit London in July highlight a new, more ominous face of terrorism in Europe.
It transcends ethnic lines and national causes, blends ideological fervor with common criminality and is rooted to a large extent inside the target country. Shifting assumptions about the nature of the terrorist threat, it also complicates efforts to devise strategies to combat it.
Although some senior intelligence and law enforcement officials said they began to recognize the mutating threat at the time of the train bombings in Madrid in March 2004, the London bombings have reinforced the lesson that, by all accounts, the centrally controlled Al Qaeda of 9/11 is no more.
"We are seeing a terrorist threat that keeps changing," said Pierre de Bousquet, the director of France's domestic intelligence service, known as the D.S.T., in an interview in Paris. "Often the groups are not homogeneous, but a variety of blends."
"Hard-core Islamists are mixing with petty criminals," he added. "People of different backgrounds and nationalities are working together. Some are European-born or have dual nationalities that make it easier for them to travel. The networks are much less structured than we used to believe. Maybe it's the mosque that brings them together, maybe it's prison, maybe it's the neighborhood. And that makes it much more difficult to identify them and uproot them."
In the case of the London attacks of July 7 that left 56 people dead, including the four bombers, three of the attackers were ethnic Pakistanis born in Britain, the fourth a British citizen and convert to Islam born in Jamaica.
The strike that followed two weeks later, in which the four bombs did not explode, was carried out by an intriguing crew that the police say included a British resident born in Somalia, an Ethiopian who apparently posed as a Somali refugee to gain legal residency in Britain and a British citizen born in Eritrea who acquaintances say was radicalized in prison. The nationality and legal status of the fourth would-be bomber has not been disclosed.
The police still say they have not found conclusive evidence linking the two attacks, although the explosives used in both cases, as well as other elements of the episodes, appear to be similar.
None of those identified so far as being involved in the two attacks are believed to have been a battle-hardened veteran of Chechnya or Iraq, and most of them are too young to have been trained in Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, which were destroyed in 2001. They may have learned their bomb-making techniques and terrorist strategies at home, investigators and intelligence officials say, although the officials caution that they do not yet know the extent of the support network behind the attacks or whether either involved a foreign mastermind.
Britain's most senior counterterrorism official himself anticipated what was happening over a year ago. In a little-noticed speech to a conference in Florence in June 2004, Peter Clarke, the counterterrorism chief of Britain's police force, pointed out "the complete change, the recalibration" that Britain was making in investigating the new threat.
The shifting nature of the threat was made apparent early last year with Operation Crevice, one of Britain's largest counterterrorism operations ever, Mr. Clarke said. Seven hundred officers thwarted what they believed was a plot to construct a large bomb intended for a site somewhere in London. In more than two dozen police raids, more than half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which can be used in making bombs, was seized and eight ethnic Pakistani British citizens were arrested.
"Before this there was the perception that the international terrorist threat was something that came from abroad," Mr. Clarke said in the speech. "It came from the Maghreb. It came from the Middle East. It came from Chechnya. It came from Afghanistan. These individuals, however, were all British citizens."
"The parameters," he said, "have changed completely."
"If we take one or two leaders away," he added, "very quickly they are replaced and the network is reformed."
He called the homegrown trend "deeply worrying." Equally worrying, he added, was that the "key conspirator" in the plot revealed by Operation Crevice was only 22 years old, and that others were 18 and 19.
A confidential British government assessment of the emerging threat from young British Muslim radicals, prepared last year for Prime Minister Tony Blair, concludes that poverty is not an indication of radicalism, that students and young professionals from working- and middle-class backgrounds "have also become involved in extremist politics and even terrorism." Those recruits, the report warns, "may have the capability for wider and more complex proselytizing."
Extremist organizations have set up outlets on university campuses and, if banned, simply open up again under different names, said the document, whose contents were first disclosed in The Sunday Times. The document divides young extremists into two broad categories. The first category is "well-educated undergraduates" and those "with degrees and technical professional qualifications in engineering" or information technology. The second is "underachievers with few or no qualifications, and often a criminal background."
In particular, the report said, "Muslims are more likely than other faith groups to have no qualifications (over two-fifths have none) and to be unemployed and economically inactive, and are over-represented in deprived areas."
The idea that the terrorist threat is increasingly homegrown and transcends both ethnicity and direct links to a global Qaeda conspiracy is welcomed by Pakistan, which has been accused of not doing enough to root out the remnants of Al Qaeda. Three of the four bombers in the first London attack were of Pakistani descent and at least two had spent time in Pakistan.
"When the first bombing happened and everyone focused on Pakistan, we said, 'You may be making a mistake if you have a unifocal view,' " said Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan's ambassador to Britain, in an interview. "It's much more mixed up than people think. What you're seeing is something very lethal and it has nothing to do with ethnicity."
"We are seeing a lot of local groups that seem to have a random pattern, no operational linkage or even inspirational linkage," she said. "Some may claim to be Al Qaeda, some not, and that is foxing everybody."
Earlier attacks reflected some of the same elements found in the London bombings. First came Casablanca, then Madrid.
In May 2003, a dozen young, poor, undereducated men, all born and reared in the same slum in Casablanca, Morocco, attacked five sites there, four apparently chosen for their Jewish connections. Forty-two people died, including the attackers.
"It was local guys thinking global," said Olivier Roy, author of the book "Globalized Islam."
"They didn't target a symbol of the Moroccan government," he added. "They inscribed their actions in a global perspective. I'm not sure the ethnic Pakistanis involved in the first London attacks have anything to do with Pakistan."
The train attacks in Madrid in March last year represented more of a blend. While most of those involved were Moroccan, some were from other countries. Some of the attackers were radicalized Muslims, others common criminals.
The most senior member of the team, and the suspected local leader of the cell, was a Tunisian who aspired to be a fashion model but became a successful real estate agent before turning radical.
The Madrid plotters included native Spaniards, who had no connection to global jihad, including a former miner who was arrested on charges that he stole and handled the explosives used in the operation and a 16-year-old nicknamed "The Gypsy" who was given a six-year youth detention sentence last November after pleading guilty to transporting explosives. In searching for the mastermind of the Madrid attacks, the Spanish authorities have focused on a number of foreign-based suspects, including an Egyptian and a Syrian.
In London, investigators are trying to determine whether the cells involved in the attacks were homegrown or had any operational link to a wider network.
Investigators say that while they see the terrorism threat in Europe as more homegrown, the inspiration is increasingly Iraq. In the past several months, a number of European countries have uncovered cells of native-born men poised to travel to Iraq to fight alongside the insurgency.
In an interview published in Le Parisien on Friday, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy of France said at least seven Frenchmen had been killed while fighting with the insurgency in Iraq.
The ever-shifting nature of the threat has made it increasingly challenging, in Britain and elsewhere, to come up with a strategy to combat it. Police and intelligence officials acknowledge that they are still too focused on threats linked to clearly identifiable ethnic radical groups, both domestic and international, and not enough on homegrown blends.
In a cover letter to the 2004 British report on counter-terrorism, Sir Andrew Turnbull, the cabinet secretary and one of Mr. Blair's closest aides, said the goal of Britain's strategy was "to prevent terrorism by tackling its underlying causes, to work together to resolve regional conflicts to support moderate Islam and reform and to diminish support for terrorists by influencing relevant social and economic issues."
But, he added, "without being clear about the nature of the problem, one can only tentatively identify possible responses in general terms."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2005 16:36 ||
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"It transcends ethnic lines and national causes..."
Sorry, could smell tranzi pap at that point. Couldn't bear to read on.
#2
The Times leads the MSM in being a one note wonder. The tune goes like this. It's Iraq, it's Palestine, it's the mythical "thousands of women and children (all muslim) America killsâ daily just for kicks.
The article was marginally informative up until it added the totally discredited "the inspiration is increasingly Iraq." The facts are that Iraq is just another excuse. The MSM is good with inventing excuses just like their allies AQ. The cause is the political and Spiritual goals of AQ, their supporters and fellow travelers and nothing else. Apparently it's true you can't teach the NYT a new trick like telling the truth.
#3
SPoD, expect to see more of the "Terorists from Iraq" meme in the MSM because it is going to be true. Al-Q has figured out that the targets in Europe are softer. The Iraqi security forces are starting to have an impact, and the targeting of civilians is drying up support from civilians, so Al-Q is redirecting forces away from Iraq to Europe.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/01/2005 19:53 Comments ||
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#4
Terrorists from Iraq is something entirely different that terrorism caused by Iraq. I was muddled in my exposition I fear, (again) sorry.
Terrorists from Iraq are nothing new. We will perhaps just see more as they fail to achieve their goals in Iraq they will naturally seek softer targets. The MSM is again using the same circular claims as el Qaeda. As to the root causes we all know that claims don't match the factual reality. The claims are mostly pulled out of thin air, whole cloth, and of only marginal reality.
The United States on Monday froze the assets of three North African men who are suspected of operating a militant cell in Italy with links to al Qaeda and Moroccan extremists.
The U.S. Treasury Department said it had blocked the assets of Moroccan Ahmed El Bouhali, Tunisian Faycal Boughanemi and Moroccan Abdelkader Laagoub for providing financial and/or material support to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which the U.S. government says is affiliated with al Qaeda.
The Treasury Department did not give any information on assets the three men hold in the united States.
Boughanemi and Laagoub are already in Italian custody, but Bouhali is not. No additional information on his status was immediately available. Italy has already frozen the assets of the three men, and has asked the United Nations to require all its member states do the same.
"Today's action targets individuals operating an al Qaeda-linked terrorist cell in Italy that recruited combatants, raised funds for terrorist activities and even planned terrorist attacks," Stuart Levey, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
The Treasury said the three men were members of an Islamic militant group set up in Cremona, Italy, in 1998 with the aim of committing attacks in Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and other countries.
It said investigations by Italian authorities produced evidence that the group recruited volunteers for paramilitary training, collected funds for terrorism and planned attacks.
Some experts and officials say designations such as these may only have a limited impact and by themselves are only likely to weed out the most obvious terrorist funding transactions.
But they say the public naming is helpful as part of a larger strategy that must also include behind-the-scenes intelligence gathering, a crackdown on unlicensed money transfer services and close monitoring of suspected terrorist financiers, deep-pocket donors, bulk cash couriers and other suspicious financial flows.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2005 16:19 ||
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#4
Nah. When you wack a singleton - a Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Richard Speck - they die alone, and everyone is better off.
If you wack a 'Lion of Islam', you only increase seething, which leads to more mahem. Let them all know - all those in the UK also - death is too easy. You're gonna spend almost an eternity in a dark corner with infidel pigs. But I agree with the author - he shouldn't have a 'voice' to the outside. He should just disappear, except once a year be trotted out to show we haven't descended to 'their' level of murder and mahem. Yet.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/01/2005 12:31 Comments ||
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#5
It wouldn't be if slow-roasting was brought back as an execution technique.
These meetings are all the rage recently:
Prime Minister Paul Martin has praised Canada's Muslim leaders for taking a strong stand against violence and extremism. Martin met with 19 imams at a downtown Toronto hotel on Thursday night. The Prime Minister said they discussed the strong condemnation of global violence, which the imams had made in a statement issued a week ago.
In that statement, the imams said they were "united" in their efforts to confront religious extremism. On Thursday, the Prime Minister said it would have been a mistake not to recognize the importance of what they did. Except that they didn't say much...
"It is very important that the government respond, to show the importance of that statement and that we recognize the truth of their statement so we can build on that statement," Martin said. Martin also said he hopes the meeting will lead to more dialogue in the Muslim community about global violence and extremism. "We want to work on this together," he said.
On July 21, a day after four failed bombings on the London transit system, 120 imams and other Muslim leaders from across the country gathered in Toronto and released a statement. "Terrorism has been increasing and it is our religious duty to confront this evil," Ahmad Kutty, a Toronto imam, said. "We must do so unitedly, as imams and religious leaders," he said. So when's the next anti-American protest, imam?
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2005 01:00 ||
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#1
come ON! What the hell else does anyone EXPECT these a-holes to say? Of course they'll express their concern, their sadness at the loss of innocents, their condemnation in the strongest terms. blah blah blah.
It's societal pressure. nothing more. no real deep outrage. if it were, they would have hit the streets long ago.
"Terrorism has been increasing and it is our religious duty to confront this evil," Ahmad Kutty, a Toronto imam, said.
BFD. Such a POWERFUL statement, it's gonna make all terrorists think twice. yeah, right.
And when you pin them down, they qualify their statements:
Sure it's terrible when innocents are killed, but you have to understand their reasons. And Israeli civilians are not innocent. And this is not islam. And America is perpetrating terror in Iraq. And many of these attacks are perpetrated by zionists who want muslims to be blamed. and on and on and on and I'm sick of them.
if they truly are outraged, then they should preach outrage to their people. say "we're not going to sit idly by" and hit the streets in visible demonstrations. Use the "not in our name" slogan.
but they don't. because they are secretly proud of how islam has become a world issue.
But they'll never admit that. in public. instead, they sign proclamations. and praise allan.
#1
Not being from anywhere near Nebraska, I have to ask: do Nebraskans really like his Hamlet act? Do they love the fact that their Senator, ostensibly a Republican, was used by MoveOn.org advertising?
Will this supplant the CIA or the terror arm of the FBI? Posse comitatus issues discussed below as well. Lightly edited.
The Department of Defense has developed a new strategy in counterterrorism that would increase military activities on American soil, particularly in the area of intelligence gathering.
In an argument that eerily foreshadowed the July London terror attacks, the Pentagon in late June announced its "Strategy for Homeland Defense and Support," which would expand its reach domestically to prevent "enemy attacks aimed at Americans here at home."
The strategy, approved by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England on June 24, argues that the government needs a multi-layered, preventive approach to national defense in order to combat an unconventional enemy that will attack from anywhere, anytime and by any conceivable means.
"Transnational terrorist groups view the world as an integrated, global battlespace in which to exploit perceived U.S vulnerabilities, wherever they may be," reads the 40-page document that outlines the new plans. "Terrorists seek to attack the United States and its centers of gravity at home and abroad and will use asymmetric means to achieve their ends, such as simultaneous mass casualty attacks."
Critics say the fears raised by the Pentagon are being used as a justification for the military to conduct wider, more intrusive surveillance on American citizens.
"Do we want, as a free people, with the notion of privacy enshrined in the Constitution and based on the very clear limits and defined role of government, to be in a society where not just the police, but the military are on the street corners gathering intelligence on citizens, sharing that data, manipulating that data?" asked former Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., a constitutional law expert and civil libertarian. "This document provides a blueprint for doing just that."
Barr said the new strategy is a back-door means of following through with a 2002 plan to create a massive, centralized information database using public and private records of individuals, called "Total Information Awareness." Congress killed TIA in 2003 because of civil liberties and privacy concerns.
Critics say they believe much of TIA lives on in some form through smaller, undisclosed military contracts. This latest plan, they say, is one way of jump-starting TIA's initial goals. "This is TIA back with a vengeance," said Barr. "What they have come up with here is a much vaguer and much broader concept that sounds more innocuous. [The Pentagon] is getting much smarter in how to sell these things."
The Defense Department report says its increased surveillance capabilities at home will adhere to constitutional and privacy protections, even though it emphasizes enhancing current "data mining" capabilities.
"Specifically, the department will⊠develop automated tools to improve data fusion, analysis, and management, to track systematically large amounts of data and to detect, fuse and analyze aberrant patterns of activity, consistent with U.S. privacy protections," the report reads.
It will also develop "a cadre of specialized terrorism intelligence analysts within the defense intelligence community and deploy a number of these analysts to interagency centers for homeland defense and counter-terrorism analysis and operations," states the report.
Some national security experts agree that emboldened surveillance on domestic soil is necessary in the global War on Terror, and that such intelligence could prevent the kind of attacks perpetuated by homegrown terrorists in England on July 7 and 21.
"The Defense Department has always done intelligence operations in the United States. They have the legal right to do that. There is nothing new here," James Carafano, a homeland security analyst with The Heritage Foundation, told FOXNews.com. "There are no new threats to privacy or constitutionality. I just think it's about doing [intelligence] more efficiently and effectively."
But John Pike, founder of GlobalSecurity.org , a clearinghouse of available intelligence and national security information, says it's not so clear how much data the Pentagon will be collecting on citizens and whether it will be retaining, sharing and building individual dossiers. So far, the lack of detail leaves as many question as answers, he said. "The bad news is there is certainly the possibility of a return to the sort of domestic surveillance that we saw in the 1950s and 1960s."
A Defense Department spokesman said the military's domestic role in homeland security will remain a supportive one, and the Pentagon will only provide resources when local, state and federal resources and capabilities "have been exceeded or do not exist."
"We have expanded activities in order to better execute support missions, but we are extremely sensitive to the historically restricted, limited role of the Defense Department," the spokesman told FOXNews.com in an e-mailed response to questions.
The Pentagon's new strategy appears to dovetail with a recent report by The New York Times, that said the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review, which outlines the future vision of the military and is due to Congress in February, will reflect a new approach in which the Defense Department will prepare to fight in one war theater at a time while putting the bulk of its resources into homeland defense.
The strategy approved by military officials in June also increases joint training exercises with first responders and other agencies as well as the creation of National Guard-staffed teams in case of a catastrophic attack.
The president would have to authorize the actual use of troops on military soil in order to adhere to the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits military involvement in domestic law enforcement. Pentagon officials say the new strategy won't require that authorization.
But the strategy does includes more collaboration with law enforcement in "support" roles on all levels of counter-terrorism efforts as well as the monitoring of terrorist threats along the borders, in the air and on water.
"If they find information in the course of their business that might help other agencies, then they can share it. If other agencies in their own intelligence gathering find information that can help the Defense Department, they can share that," said Carafano. "I really donât see any legal or constitutional issues here."
Our advantage in the WOT: info tech. Robots, UAVs, what the spooks at NSA do, satellites. All info tech.
How do you catch the bad guys when there isn't any national leader to hold responsible? Finding a needle in a haystack - you need a way to use computers to get that done.
Sensors to collect the data. Software to sift it for potentially useful patterns.
Scary in the hands of tyrants. But powerful for free societies too if we can figure out how to keep the authorities on a leash when using it.
We've got lots of non-spanish speaking people coming across our southern border with passports from the likes of Mexico and Venezuela. Cops ain't gonna do this without military expertise.
We've got guys with RPGs doing recon on the air base where B2s come for maintenance. here in the US of A. Don't know the right answer, but the war is coming home folks and it's not a police kind of thing to stop it.
Posted by: leader of the pack ||
08/01/2005 19:50 Comments ||
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#6
I can find a couple of turreted M-113 mods, but neither quite matches the pic in the article. The TS-90 looks almost like a Sherman Firefly turret. The RO120 has a 120mm mortar tube, but no muzzle brake.
I think the editors were looking for a pic to make this article "scary" instead of showing the typical run-of-the-mill M-113, whether through bias or merely ignorance.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2005 14:43 Comments ||
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#7
used by the Agressor Force at Ft. Irwin to simulate a Roosky tank.
TU, I think you're correct. Right behind the rearmost guys head is what looks like a big red light. That would be the one that starts flashing when the "tank" is knocked out by the MILES system.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/01/2005 14:53 Comments ||
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Dar, my guess is ignorant bias.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/01/2005 14:53 Comments ||
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Ofercryinoutloud! That is a M-113 mocked up as a BMP-2 in Ft. Irwin for NTC (U.S. Army's National Training Center). Any armor that the police bought would not have any guns or cannons. Stupid Denver Post is such a liberal, slanted piece of crap.
#10
I dunno. Mebbe they feel they need the gun. Them pit bulls are so very scary.
Posted by: slo jim ||
08/01/2005 15:18 Comments ||
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#11
I live south of Denver and I know I'll sleep better at night knowing they have a gun on it like that... never know when the People's Republic of Boulder will try anything.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
08/01/2005 15:34 Comments ||
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#12
They could use it at CU games to shoot t-shirts into the crowd.
#13
Unless the Polizei bolt on some extra armor on the sides, I'd skip the M113. The side armor is for deflecting fragmentation from artillery, not for resisting penetration from something heavy and man-portable along the lines of large calibre rifle. And the boys back in Nam would put sandbags on the floor and ride on top cause they were a little light on bottom armor as well.
#15
I think the editors were looking for a pic to make this article "scary" instead of showing the typical run-of-the-mill M-113, whether through bias or merely ignorance.
Not 'scary'. Try 'sexy'. A box-on-treads is nowhere near as eyecatching as a tank with a biiiig gun.
More on the allegations against the SAFA group here
A collection of Islamic-American businesses and non-profit entities have been under federal investigation for allegedly bankrolling terrorist organizations.
But more than three years later, no charges have been filed. The group of organizations â which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials call the "Safa Group" â has been under investigation since at least March 2002, when federal agents raided their Herndon offices at 555 Grove St. and eight homes in Herndon and Loudoun County. The groups are being scrutinized for allegedly funding Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to court documents. Through their attorney, members of the Safa Group denied any connection to terrorist groups. None of them have been charged with any illegal activity.
Over the last four years, the Safa Group entities have contributed nearly $63,000 to candidates for the General Assembly. But the Safa Group's campaign contributions have nothing to do with the federal investigation. Instead, the contributions are intended to back candidates who reflect a traditionally conservative political ideology â specifically those who oppose same-sex marriage, vote to further restrict abortion, according to their attorney and three General Assembly candidates who have enjoyed their support. The biggest recipient of the Safa Group's political contributions was Del. Dick Black (R-32), who has received a total of $33,270. Of that amount, at least $13,500 was received over the last year for Black's campaign to be re-elected on Nov. 8. "Many of the folks in the Muslim community have very strong conservative values on issues such as homosexuality, abortion and pornography," said Black, a Loudoun County attorney who is known as one of the General Assembly's most vociferous opponents of abortion and same sex marriage. "Not one of these American citizens have been charged. And, frankly, I'm not going to discriminate based on race, religion or skin color."
NO CHARGES HAVE BEEN FILED in direct connection to the 2002 searches of eight homes or Herndon offices. However, two convictions â of Falls Church resident Abdurahman Alamoudi and of Egyptian Soliman Biheiri â were aided by information gleaned from the Herndon raids, according to court documents provided by Boyd. Alamoudi, a Muslim activist, is currently serving a 23-year sentence for violating international sanctions against travel and financial dealings with Libya. Biheiri, currently serving a 13-month prison sentence, was found guilty of making false statement to federal agents about a $1 million business deal with a top Hamas leader, according to documents filed with the U.S. District Court in Alexandria. An unsealed 2002 affidavit filed to seek a search warrant claims that the Safa Group sent more than $26 million in untraceable funds overseas and its leaders conspired to provide material support to terrorist organizations. But no charges have materialized from the claims, authored by Homeland Security agent David Kane.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/01/2005 03:35 ||
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A renegade band of Mexican military deserters, offering $50,000 bounties for the assassination of U.S. law-enforcement officers, has expanded its base of operations into the United States to protect loads of cocaine and marijuana being brought into America by Mexican smugglers, authorities said.
The deserters, known as the "Zetas," trained in the United States as an elite force of anti-drug commandos, but have since signed on as mercenaries for Mexican narcotics traffickers and have recruited an army of followers, many of whom are believed to be operating in Texas, Arizona, California and Florida.
Working mainly for the Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico's most dangerous drug-trafficking organizations, as many as 200 Zeta members are thought to be involved, including former Mexican federal, state and local police. They are suspected in more than 90 deaths of rival gang members and others, including police officers, in the past two years in a violent drug war to control U.S. smuggling routes.
The organization's hub, law-enforcement authorities said, is Nuevo Laredo, a border city of 300,000 across from Laredo, Texas. It is the most active port-of-entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, with more than 6,000 trucks crossing daily into Texas, carrying about 40 percent of Mexico's total exports.
Authorities said the Zetas control the city despite efforts by Mexican President Vicente Fox to restore order. He sent hundreds of Mexican troops and federal agents to the city in March to set up highway checkpoints and conduct raids on suspected Zeta locations.
Despite the presence of law enforcement, more than 100 killings have occurred in the city since Jan. 1, including that of former Police Chief Alejandro Dominguez, 52, gunned down June 8, just seven hours after he was sworn in. The city's new chief, Omar Pimentel, 37, escaped death during a drive-by shooting on his first day, although one of his bodyguards was killed.
Authorities said the Zetas operate over a wide area of the U.S.-Mexico border and are suspected in at least three drug-related slayings in the Dallas area. They said as many as 10 Zeta members are operating inside Texas as Gulf Cartel assassins, seeking to protect nearly $10 million in daily drug transactions.
In March, the Justice Department said the Zetas were involved "in multiple assaults and are believed to have hired criminal gangs" in the Dallas area for contract killings. The department said the organization was spreading from Texas to California and Florida and was establishing drug-trafficking routes it was willing to protect "at any cost."
Just last month, the department issued a new warning to law-enforcement authorities in Arizona and California, urging them to be on the lookout for Zeta members. An intelligence bulletin said a search for new drug-smuggling routes in the two states by the organization could bring new violence to the areas.
The number of assaults on U.S. Border Patrol agents along the 260 miles of U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona known as the Tucson sector has increased dramatically this year, including a May 30 shooting near Nogales, Ariz., in which two agents were seriously wounded during an ambush a mile north of the border.
Their assailants were dressed in black commando-type clothing, used high-powered weapons and hand-held radios to point out the agents' location, and withdrew from the area using military-style cover and concealment tactics to escape back into Mexico.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada in Nogales said his investigators found commando clothing, food, water and other "sophisticated equipment" at the ambush site.
Since Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year, there have been 196 assaults on Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector, including 24 shootings. During the same period last year, 92 assaults were reported, with five shootings. The sector is the busiest alien- and drug-trafficking corridor in the country.
U.S. intelligence officials have described the Zetas as an expanding gang of mercenaries with intimate knowledge of Mexican drug-trafficking methods and routes. Strategic Forecasting Inc., a security consulting firm that often works with the State and Defense departments, said in a recent report the Zetas had maintained "connections to the Mexican law-enforcement establishment" to gain unfettered access throughout the southern border.
Many of the Zeta leaders belonged to an elite anti-drug paratroop and intelligence battalion known as the Special Air Mobile Force Group, who deserted in 1991 and aligned themselves with drug traffickers.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/01/2005 00:33 ||
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#1
Opps, forgot to recategorize.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/01/2005 0:38 Comments ||
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#2
It is in light of this sort of development that "Posse Comitatus" rules need to be revised. If a foreign mercenary army is effectively fighting on US soil, then the US military's gloves should come off. A few Apache attack helicopters should accelerate the Zetas early retirements.
Hat-tip to Charles Darwin, who wrote: "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
#3
I think this is a situation that Delta Force was designed to handle since this is an attack on us from another nation. Regarding the "Posse Comitatus" act you will find it doesn't apply to the USMC or the Navy I believe.
#4
Actually, SPOD, the Navy and Marine Corps are included not within the Act itself (which mentions only the Army and Air Force by name, AFAIK) but by DOD regulation.
But this is real bad ...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
08/01/2005 2:25 Comments ||
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#5
further legal loopholes...while the Navy and USMC are included in PC, only those who employ the Army [or its off shoot the Air Force] are subject to penalties. Someone will have to get a court injunction to halt the use of the Navy/USMC, and then act upon the failure to comply with the court order rather than the actual punitive section of PC.
#7
Congress needs to repeal it's ban on the Admin releasing a fungus and virus that would kill all cocaine.
It's essentially an EPA ruling as stupid as the no freon in Shuttle tank foam one.
Lots of species become extinct. What's wrong with coca plants doing so? It would deprive these hoods of most of their money.
Kirk Zachek's chili pepper and wheat farm is in the middle of nowhere. To the north is a winding two-lane, bumpy strip of asphalt known as state Highway 9. To the south is Mexico and the vast expanse of the Chihuahua Desert.
Nearly every day, Zachek spots illegal immigrants crossing his fields on their way north. But calling a law enforcement agency to report them isn't an option, he said. Cell phones don't work in this remote stretch of desert. The nearest land line can be almost an hour away when Zachek is working on his 5,000-acre spread, and even then it might be a long-distance call to reach anyone... Even when he does get someone, the closest officer is rarely near his property, Zachek said.
Recognizing ranchers' frustration, state and federal officials are now giving two-way, police-style radios to border residents. The direct connection to police dispatchers in three of New Mexico's seven border counties will allow residents to get emergency help or to more easily report illegal activity...
If ranchers and farmers feel comfortable reporting crimes, the radio program could also make volunteer border patrol groups such as the Minutemen unnecessary, Boatright said...
"If you liken this to a neighborhood watch program, people watch their own neighborhood," Boatright said. "People don't come (from other states) to watch your neighborhood."
The radio program, made possible with $200,000 in federal funds, was born in discussions at the Southwest New Mexico Border Security Task Force three years ago... Local law enforcement officials said they don't expect ranchers and farmers to become a direct arm of the law, but any help is welcome.
But Bill Johnson, whose family owns more than 100,000 acres land along the border, said the radio program is an unwanted waste of money, and no one should expect help from his family. It's too dangerous, he says, because human smugglers and drug traffickers would want to know who is talking to law enforcement about their activities.
James Johnson, who works alongside his father on the family onion farm, said his family used to use CB radios to call authorities when they saw something suspicious on their land. But then federal authorities told them that criminals in Mexico were watching them.
"I feel kind of guilty that we're not able to do anything about it, but our priority is our family," James Johnson said.
Brenda Mares, a spokeswoman for New Mexico's Homeland Security office, said the radios will be digitally encrypted. Law enforcement officials, including Luna County Undersheriff George Cabos, say that means it will be tough for traffickers to eavesdrop. Scanners are sold publicly for the type of radio New Mexico authorities plan to issue later this year - according to Internet listings they sell for about $500 - but Cabos said they will be useless without the proper frequencies, which federal, state and local authorities don't plan to release.
The Johnsons' concerns are understandable, Boatright said, but he points out that they don't have to volunteer.
For his part, Zachek, whose Rancho La Frontera abuts the Johnson property, said the radio program can't come fast enough. Recently he discovered an older man, wearing a jacket and carrying water, who looked like he needed help. Zachek said he tried several times to reach authorities, even making long-distance calls to Deming, before giving up.
Then there's the more sinister elements...
"About the worst is when you have one of these drug smugglers crossing the farm ... and the police at 50 miles away," Zachek said.
#4
"He should be bringing people together, not dividing them,"
And calling for his removal is a great first step in bringing people together. Yup.
no sarcasm tags required
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2005 0:52 Comments ||
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#5
"Some at the rally worry that Tancredo's remarks will cause people to be hostile towards Muslims and encourage prejudice."
Where were these Moslems in the days after 9/11?
They should worry that Islam's taqiya, jihad and sharia will cause people to be wary of Moslems and encourage a strong, principled self-defense in a war Moslems themselves have declared.
If there were "moderate" Moslems, they would praise Tancredo and state that they'd rather see Mecca nuked than Islam used for mass-murder. Big IF.
#7
Muslims out. All of them. Now. They are all traitors, aiders and abettors of the killing of innocent Americans. Let them take their murderous ideology back to the hellhole it originated in and cease to be an infection in the American body politic. I'm sure the Saudis will be glad to have them back.
Posted by: mac ||
08/01/2005 5:43 Comments ||
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#8
I'm not of the "Muslim's Out" mindset, but I do think they are making a big mistake taking on Tancredo. Inshallah
#10
I want to preempt a confusion that might happen on this thread in our anger.
The confusion between Muslim and Arabs in the U.S. Statistics show that 77% of Arabs in the U.S. are Christians. Although I am a "Rightwing Bible Thumping Christian", I don't want to get rid of all Muslims. I want deep and very agressive penetration inside the mosque's, by the Homeland Security, FBI, etc. and systematically get RID of all the instigators.
BTW, we are already making excellent strides in this approach and the chances of being struck in the U.S. is being reduced. But, this is no time to go to sleep.
#11
Isn't the prophecy of Mohammed a big lie to the Muslim Nation if there is no more Mecca?
No. that's a dangerous fantasy. Nuking Mecca and Medina will not cause Muslims - especially extremists - to convert to Christianity or to consumerism either.
Posted by: leader of the pack ||
08/01/2005 12:17 Comments ||
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#12
Let's paraphrase: Nuking Hiroshima or Nagasaki will not cause the Japanese to abandon their supremacist dreams for freedom or for consumerism.
#13
Kalle, the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, yet Judaism is as strong as ever.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/01/2005 12:34 Comments ||
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#14
What *evidence* do you have, lop?
None I can publish here. But I've interacted with some of these people.
Japan was conquering territory but didn't expect they were fighting the end of the world battle with God on their side. So a major military setback got the result you figure it would.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that these people react the way you would - they don't.
Posted by: leader of the pack ||
08/01/2005 12:49 Comments ||
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#15
More MSM stuff at work. First, note the "rally" had only around 200 some people show up. They quote only 1 Nation of Islam (to me, a more racial than religious group) and 1 guy in the crowd. That being said, I agree w/ 2b...they don't wanna tangle w/ Tancredo in my mind.
Posted by: BA ||
08/01/2005 15:02 Comments ||
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#16
RC, Jews didn't have a supremacist ambition then, nor do they now.
The only valid comparison would be with a culture, cult or country that saw its core city destroyed because they kept attacking other societies.
The only such group that has survived this long is Islam, and Moslems are a big problem now because in the 20th century the West decided to go to war against itself during two world wars instead of continuing to push the barbarians back. Islam was retreating until the early 20th century.
#18
RC has a point, Kalle. At the time, a great many Jews believed in the imminent arrival of the messiah, a lineal descendent of King David who would take the throne and rule the world from his capitol in Jerusalem, at God's behest. That is the reason why the Romans were so upset about the claim that Jesus was "King of the Jews." Such a person was a direct threat to their hegemony, and indeed the next claimant to be King of the Jews, Bar Kochba, led a revolt in the early part of the 2nd century A.D. that Rome only ended when they destroyed Jerusalem and decimated the Jewish population of the region; the crucifixes, each with a Jew upon it, lined the road almost all the way to Rome itself, I've been told.
#19
"The U.S. Rep. told a Muslim group Wednesday he was sorry if anyone was offended by what he said, but he stands by his comments, his spokesman Will Adams said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Republican Party said Friday the party backs Rep. Tom Tancredo, despite rifts the Colorado congressman has created with some Hispanic groups over his outspoken opposition to illegal immigration."
DMFD, great comment.
CAIR has been promoting violence for a very long time, but after this whole business of Tancredo, they have come out against violence and extremist muslims.
Thanks TT.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/01/2005 22:47 Comments ||
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After the announcement, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the manner in which Bolton was given the post will not affect their working relationship.
"It is the president's prerogative and the president has decided to appoint him through this process for him to come and represent him. And from where I stand, we will work with him as the ambassador and representative of the president and the government," Annan said in a morning press conference. Ah! This is the big one! Elizabeth. I'm coming to join you, honey!
"We look forward to working with him, as I do with the other 190 ambassadors, and we will welcome him at a time when we are in the midst of major reform," Annan said.
#2
...we will welcome him at a time when we are in the midst of major reform.
Translation, we are already fixing the problem. Really. Please go away and don't make waves, since it causes all the shit at the bottom to float to the surface.
Or I'll huff and I'll puff...
VIENNA (AFP) - UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei urged Iran to desist from unilaterally moving ahead on sensitive nuclear activities, which he said could undermine its talks with the European Union. The EU and the UN teaming up to save the world. God help us all...
"I call on Iran to continue the negotiation process" with the European Union, ElBaradei said after Iran asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to remove seals on crucial machinery so that it can resume uranium ore conversion. The EU is on Sunday to propose trade, security and technology benefits to Iran in return for guarantees that Tehran is not trying to make nuclear weapons. ElBaradei urged Iran, in a statement released to the press, "not to take any action that might prejudice the process at this critical stage when the (European Union is) ... expected to deliver a package addressing security and political, economic and nuclear issues." They'll pay you lots of blackmail, in return for you not really letting them know what's going on.
The IAEA said in a note to Iran on Monday that it would install "additional surveillance equipment" at Iran's conversion facility in Isfahan but could not do so before next week, according to an information circular released to the press. I'm warning ya's! Really! I am! Could you please stop laughing? It's demeaning.
The IAEA said it was "essential that Iran refrain from removing the agency's seals and from moving any nuclear material at UCF (uranium conversion facility) until such time as the surveillance equipment is installed and the agency has verified the material." Or we'll...we'll...we'll...pretty please?
ElBaradei said: "I also call on Iran not to take any unilateral action that could undermine the agency inspection process at a time when the agency is making steady progress in resolving outstanding issues" with Tehran. What a useless little man...
By TERENCE HUNT
The Associated Press
Monday, August 1, 2005; 9:50 AM
WASHINGTON -- Frustrated by Democrats, President Bush will circumvent the Senate on Monday and install embattled nominee John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations, the White House said.
Bush has the power to fill vacancies without Senate approval while Congress is in recess. Under the Constitution, a recess appointment during the lawmakers' August break would last until the next session of Congress, which begins in January 2007.
In advance of Bush's announcement, Democrats said Bolton would start his new job on the wrong foot in a recess appointment.
"He's damaged goods. This is a person who lacks credibility," Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, a senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and backer of America's enemies since the 1980s, said on "Fox News Sunday." Bush, he said, should think again before using a recess appointment to place Bolton at the United Nations while the Senate is on its traditional August break.
But Republicans appearing on Sunday's news shows said Bolton is the man the White House wants and he's the right person to represent the United States at the world body.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan brushed off Democrats' objections and accused them of using stalling tactics. He said Bolton has the complete confidence of the president and that the United States needs an ambassador at the UN at a critical time when the war on terror is ongoing.
McClellan said Bush believes strongly that Bolton "is the right person for the job."
Bolton's appointment ends a five-month impasse between the administration and Senate Democrats.
The battle grabbed headlines last spring amid accusations that Bolton abused subordinates and twisted intelligence to shape his conservative ideology, and as White House and GOP leadership efforts to ram the nomination through the Senate fell short.
In recent weeks, it faded into the background as the Senate prepared to begin a nomination battle over John Roberts, the federal appeals judge that Bush chose to replace the retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor at the Supreme Court.
At Bolton's April confirmation hearing, Democrats raised additional questions about his demeanor and attitude toward lower-level government officials. Those questions came to dominate Bolton's confirmation battle, growing into numerous allegations that he had abused underlings or tried to browbeat intelligence analysts whose views differed from his own.
Despite lengthy investigations, it was never clear that Bolton did anything improper. Witnesses told the committee that Bolton lost his temper, tried to engineer the ouster of at least two intelligence analysts and otherwise threw his weight around. But Democrats were never able to establish that his actions crossed the line to out-and-out harassment or improper intimidation.
Separately, Democrats and the White House deadlocked over Bolton's acknowledged request for names of U.S officials whose communications were secretly picked up by the National Security Agency. Democrats said the material might show that Bolton conducted a witch hunt for analysts or others who disagreed with him.
The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee received a limited briefing on the contents of the messages Bolton saw, but were not told the names.
Democrats said that was not good enough, but later offered a compromise. After much back and forth, with the White House claiming Democrats had moved the goal posts, no other senator saw any of the material.
Last week, the administration telegraphed Bush's intention to put Bolton on the job.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the vacancy needed to be filled before the U.N. General Assembly's annual meeting in mid-September. Former Sen. John Danforth left the post in January.
In the face of objections from most Democrats and at least one Republican, Bush has steadfastly refused to withdraw Bolton's nomination _ even after the Foreign Relations Committee sent it to the full Senate without the customary recommendation to approve it.
Though the debate over Bolton had largely faded from the headlines, critics raised fresh concerns this week when it surfaced that Bolton had neglected to tell Congress that he had been interviewed in 2003 in a government investigation into faulty prewar intelligence on Iraq.
In a letter released Friday, 35 Democratic senators and one independent, Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont, urged Bush not to give Bolton a recess appointment.
#1
"He's damaged goods." LOL No my friend the Donks in the Senate are damaged goods. They have proven that they have no clear vision or idea and offer nothing but obstruction. That's ok if you want to vote on the platform "We aren't Republicans." It's about fucking time and would like to see more of these with respect to judicial appointments. I can see the steam coming out of Teddy's ears this morning.
#2
Classic, just classic. I still want to see Bolton have, "an aggressive stance" when he puts his hands on his hips and yells at the UN. It will make all those buerowinnies crying.
#4
According to the Terrorist Times, Sen. "Happy Hour" Kennedy states concerning Pres. Bush:
"It's a devious maneuver that evades the constitutional requirement of Senate consent and only further darkens the cloud over Mr. Bolton's credibility at the U.N."
What Sen. Happy Hour is forgetting, among other things in his "devious" life, is that former -President DNA Stain- made 140 recess appointments during his two terms. Most important of all the treasonous act of trying making the U.S. under the control of the ICC while Congress was on vacation.
#6
I think it would be awfully funny if some of the shifting funds; "Oil-for-Food" and otherwise ended up in the hands of some smartass Donkistan Senator or organization like moveon. Ol' Bolton is likely to have a crack staff to do some serious rooting around in the swamps....
#8
I hope his first day at the UN he hands most of the delegations (the UK, Oz and a few others excepted) a rope and tells them they know what they can do with it. I believe we need an organization like the UN. Just not this UN. An international forum based more on just how important the member states are. The idea the some third world shithole that can't get its act together in any sort of way has the same voting power in the General Assembly as the US, Japan, India or even god forbid France is ludicrous. Plus the voting or appointing of states that are dictatorships to organizations like the UN Human Rights Commision is a sick joke. Plus they can pay their freaking parking tickets.
#12
I just found out that the Democrats can stop this recess appointment by giving Bolton a vote when they come back. So when they gnash and whine take that into account. Because they know the outcome it will probably not happen but I want just one reporter to float that past the loonier of the Senators that decry "Abuse of power."
The odd commune in Indonesia has been torn down after Indonesia's imams declared there can be no liberal Islam. Hat tip Dhimmi Watch
JERTEH: The giant teapot and other key structures at the Sky Kingdom commune came tumbling down yesterday after the Besut District Council sent in it's demolition squad.
More than 30 followers of the sect, who watched the demolition, did not resist or challenge the authorities.
Several children of sect leader Ariffin Mohamad, known as Ayah Pin to his followers, were among those who watched the Sky Kingdom symbols crashing to earth...
The followers were taken by surprise when the 40 council workers entered the commune with four excavators and five lorries at 2.30pm. About 50 policemen and officers from the state Islamic Affairs department accompanied them.
Sky Kingdom follower Sulaiman Takrib, 56, said the perimeter wall was the first to go, followed by the assembly hall, the boat, the Dewan Bulat, the Dewan Nasyid, the teapot and other structures...
The Terengganu Islamic affairs department had put them on the wanted list for being involved in teachings deviant to Islamic beliefs.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/01/2005 15:53 ||
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Sorry about the dupe. Delete the other one.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/01/2005 15:56 Comments ||
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#2
They worship "Sky King"?
Did they think Penny was hot too?
#5
Well, since the only thing radical imams respect is threats to their own sweet selves, I suggest that these cultists start discreetly killing them. I think they would appreciate liberalism a heck of a lot more if the alternative is personal risk.
In what was widely seen as an apparent campaign against freedom of thought and religion, the state-sanctioned Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued on Thursday a fatwa outlawing liberal Islamic thoughts.
Apart from liberalism, the council also declared secularism and pluralism forbidden under Islam, through one of the 11 decrees it issued during its four-day national congress that will officially end on Friday.
With such an unpopular fatwa, the MUI could be headed for a showdown with progressive Islamic movements that have been growing in the predominantly Muslim nation.
Fatwa Commission chairman Ma'ruf Amin said that although the edict did not specify any organization by name, it was issued apparently in reaction to the activities of two progressive groups -- the Liberal Islam Network (JIL) and the Muhammadiyah Youth Intellectuals Network (JIMM).
"All of their teachings are deviant ... No one should adhere to their beliefs," Ma'ruf told The Jakarta Post. "Their principles are dangerous and misleading, because they believe in only what they think is right and use pure rationale as justification."
Proponents of liberal Islam use rational interpretations of Islamic texts as opposed to literal meanings, view religious truth as a relative concept and believe in the separation of religion and state.
MUI deputy chairman Umar Shihab said that in the council's view, both the Western-influenced JIL and JIMM have strayed from the Indonesian brand of Islam.
"The views that are developing in Europe and America are heretical and not allowed here," he said. "However, we must not counter them with violence, but with logical arguments."
The fatwa, which was read out on the third day of the congress without any resistance from over 300 participants, stated that Islamic interpretations based on liberalism, secularism and pluralism "contradict Islamic teachings".
The fatwa defines liberal Islam as interpreting Islamic texts using pure rationale to selectively accept only certain religious doctrines.
"For example, they (liberals) say that a man cannot have more than one wife because it is gender bias, when in fact polygamy is allowed by Islam, as long as the husband can be fair," said Ma'ruf.
Secularism by definition, according to the edict, is the belief that the role of religion should be limited to an individual's relationship with God and that society should be guided by social conventions.
The fatwa outlaws pluralism that views all religions as being equally valid and having relative truths.
"Pluralism in that sense is haram (forbidden under Islamic law), because it justifies other religions," Maruf said, adding that people should be allowed to claim that their religion is the true one and that other faiths are wrong.
However, he stressed that the council accepted the fact that Indonesia was home to different religions and that their followers could live side by side.
"Plurality in the sense that people believe in different religions is allowed," Ma'ruf explained. "As such, we have to respect each other and coexist peacefully."
The MUI also renewed its 1980 fatwa against Ahmadiyah, an Islamic group that does not share the mainstream Muslim belief that Muhammad was the last prophet.
The new fatwa contained stronger language than the previous one, calling for the government to ban and dismantle the organization as well as freeze all of its activities.
The council also issued a fatwa, reaffirming its 1980 ban on marriages between people of different faiths.
The MUI also banned interfaith prayers, unless they are led by a Muslim. Other edicts issued included those forbidding women from leading prayers when men are in attendance.
Commenting on the fatwas, particularly the one against liberal Islam, prominent Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra dismissed it as "ineffective and even counterproductive".
"I don't agree with such a fatwa. The state cannot enforce it for Muslims as it's not legally binding. Muslims can or will ignore it."
He said the ban on liberal thoughts reflected the intolerance being promoted by the MUI and indicated that it was trying to curb freedom of thought.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/01/2005 15:46 Comments ||
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#3
"The views that are developing in Europe and America are heretical and not allowed here," he said. "However, we must not counter them with violence, but with logical arguments."
"Logical arguments"? From this crew? I, for one, can hardly wait...
Both the meetings, which condemned terrorists' attacks, especially the recent bombings in London and Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, also reiterated the need to address the root causes of terrorism.
Asean comprising Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam fears over such generalisation since the region also has the world's most populous Muslim nation, and the citizens of the region have lots of similarities, including physical features. Therefore, the move to generalise acts of terror to specific ethnic group, religion or nationality would be a disadvantage not only to the Muslims but also to citizens of the region.
This concern has been expressed by Malaysia at the meeting, stating that the increased western profiling of Muslims as terrorists and targeting them in investigations on any terrorist incident was a disadvantage to Muslims.
Syed Hamid, who has been vocal on this issue at the AMM and the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) said there was a need to change the mindset on terrorists. He stated that "a terrorist must be referred to as a terrorist without any adjective to qualify the word" and this has been supported by his Asean counterparts, especially during ARF, the multilateral political and security dialogues of the Asia-Pacific region...
The dialogue partners of ARF comprises Asean plus China, Japan and South Korea, Australia, Canada, the European Union, India, New Zealand, Mongolia, North Korea, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Timor Leste and the United States.
#2
This concern has been expressed by Malaysia at the meeting, stating that the increased western profiling of Muslims as terrorists and targeting them in investigations on any terrorist incident was a disadvantage to Muslims.
Sorry, bubs, but ya gotta go where the money is...
#3
Article: Both the meetings, which condemned terrorists' attacks, especially the recent bombings in London and Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, also reiterated the need to address the root causes of terrorism.
And the root cause of Islamic terrorism is the idea among Muslim governments that it is acceptable to sponsor terrorist movements that deliberately slaughter civilians en masse in order to restore to Islam the full extent of the Muslim empires at the height of their powers.
#4
"...reject any attempt to associate terrorism with any race, region and nationality or ethnic group..."
Naturally this will apply to whatever Israel has to do to defend itself. Odd, though, how trouble seems to pop up whenever Islam contacts other cultures.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
08/01/2005 9:49 Comments ||
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#5
Hey! Are thee talking to me!
Posted by: Amish Guy ||
08/01/2005 16:02 Comments ||
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#6
Now we see what it takes to get the "moderate" muslims to come out of the wooodwork.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/01/2005 16:11 Comments ||
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian technicians will break U.N. seals on the Isfahan nuclear plant on Monday, allowing uranium processing to resume, a spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council said. Officials from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency will supervise the removal of the seals, the first step toward restarting central Iran's Isfahan Nuclear Conversion Facility, said Ali Agha Mohammadi, spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, according to a report from the official IRNA news agency.
"And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him."
Posted by: Steve ||
08/01/2005 9:26 Comments ||
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#3
"Officials from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency will supervise the removal of the seals..."
Well, then, it must be legitimate -- because my tax dollars are being used to supervise it.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
08/01/2005 9:43 Comments ||
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#4
They're gonna break UN seals? Where's PETA when you need them?
#5
Iran threatened to reopen its nuclear processing plant here Monday but later agreed to a two-day delay after receiving a request from the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency. Ali Agha Mohammadi, spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told The Associated Press that International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei asked Tehran for a "maximum of two days" to send its inspectors to Iran's nuclear facility where they can oversee the dismantling of U.N. seals.
But the IAEA denied setting a two-day deadline, saying more time is needed to oversee the plant's resumption of uranium processing, agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/01/2005 16:09 Comments ||
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They're gonna break UN seals? Where's PETA when you need them?
Syria and Lebanon pledged Sunday to repair the damage to their relations caused by Syria's forced military withdrawal, but they gave little indication of how they would accomplish their goal. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in the first visit to Damascus by a senior Lebanese official since Syria pulled its troops from Lebanon in April, ending 29 years of military dominance. At a press conference with Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Otari, Saniora said both countries would adopt measures aimed at "bolstering the relationship between the two countries based on equality." But, in a sign of changing times, Saniora said the two sides had agreed to re-evaluate past agreements owing to "changes that sometimes require a reconsideration."
Otari said bilateral agreements would be re-evaluated in accordance with the national interests of each country. Saniora said Syria has promised to clear the backlog of hundreds of Lebanese freight trucks that have been stranded for weeks at Syrian border crossings. Many Lebanese have accused Syria of delaying the vehicles as punishment for its humiliating military withdrawal, but Syria has insisted the measures were applied to catch saboteurs and militants. Otari promised a solution "in the very near future." Tension between the two countries has been high since Syria was forced to pull its troops from Lebanon after mass protests and U.S.-led international pressure in the wake of the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2005 00:00 ||
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EFL
The Israeli military said it is changing riot control methods, replacing its sometimes-lethal rubber-coated steel pellets with compressed sand bullets. The sand bullet, said to be extremely painful but less dangerous because it does not penetrate the skin, was developed and first used by Israelâs Prisons Authority. The rubber bullets will be phased out.
Rubber bullets have killed dozens of Palestinians in the past two decades. The new sand bullets were originally developed for close-quarter hostage rescue situations. At least 60 Palestinians were killed by rubber bullets between 1987 and 1993, in the first Palestinian uprising, according to Bâtselem. Since the eruption of the latest round of fighting in 2000, 15 Palestinians have been killed. The new round, in which the head of the bullet is made from compressed sand and can be fired from a regular rifle, has already been used in the West Bank against Palestinians protesting against the separation barrier Israel is building, the army said.
The army also routinely uses tear gas and stun grenades against protesters and recently unveiled a machine called âThe Scream,â a device that emits penetrating bursts of sound that leaves targets reeling with dizziness and nausea. Prisons Authority spokesman Ofer Lefler said the bullet was developed in consultations with armies around the world. He declined to give further details on the development process or the contents of the sand bullet.
I'm glad that Chrenkoff posted his biweekly round-up today. Happy reading!
Available at these sites:
Wall Street Journal's Opinionjournal.com (free, but registration required)
Chrenkoff's own blog -- just keep scrolling down, as I recall it's a link on the right side of the page.
And the warblog Winds of Change also carries Chrenkoff's round-ups religiously, as well as their own, very interesting commentary on what's happening out there.
August 1, 2005: The U.S. Air Force warplane fleet has been shrinking for sixty years. At the end of World War II, the air force had 63,000 fighters (plus nearly as many bombers of various sizes). Currently, the fighter force stands at about 3,400, and is headed for 2,000 in the next decade. There are only a few hundred bombers (most of them A-10s.) This trend has been noted over the years, with one wag predicting that, sometime early in the 21st century, the U.S. Air Force would possess but one, very expensive, and very capable, fighter aircraft. The new F-22, for example, costing over $200 million each, has put a real squeeze on how many fighters the air force can afford.
The dramatic reduction in the number of fighters has been made possible by the greater capabilities of the newer, and more expensive, aircraft. This has made it necessary to provide more training (as in more time in the air) for the pilots of these more expensive aircraft. But thatâs where the U.S. Air Force has an enormous advantage. While potential foes of the U.S. strain to buy modern aircraft, they find they cannot afford to let their pilots fly them. This makes their fighters expensive targets, in wartime, if they have to go up against American fighters. This is the dilemma facing China. The Chinese have lots of proven, even inexpensive, fighters. And plenty of eager pilots. But they cannot afford to let these guys spend enough time in the air to become really good, or even effective. Not when oil is costing over $50 a barrel. Itâs costing China big bucks just to let the pilots of its few hundred most modern (Su-27 class) fighters fly. The situation in Iran and North Korea is even worse, because Iran has no modern fighters, although they do produce their own oil. But a two decade long arms embargo prevents Iran from getting spare parts for its largely American made fighter fleet. North Korea has a few modern fighters, but no money to buy fuel for its poorly trained pilots.
While the problems of potential foes gives U.S. Air Force generals some relief, the big problem, of growing aircraft cost, remains. The generals are wondering how they will maintain their reputation with fewer aircraft. The American fighter force has been so formidable, for example, that U.S. troops on the ground have not been attacked from the air in over half a century. New smart bomb developments have made it possible for anything that can fly to develop highly accurate attacks from the air. A few dozen, four decade old, B-52s are sufficient to carry all the smart bombs needed for most operations.
But itâs not just the bombs that have gotten a lot smarter. Several decades of developing software to run aircraft has made it possible to send off a fully robotic bomber, or even fighter, on many types of missions. Air forces have resisted this sort of thing for over thirty years, although cruise missiles, which are one way bombers, are regularly used. But now, all those nations that see no way of competing with the F-22, do see it as possible to build a large fleet of robotic fighter aircraft. China has a lot more software engineers than it does highly experienced fighter pilots. American air force generals fear that the Chinese are moving slowly to expand their fleet of modern fighters because everyone believes that the next generation of fighters will be robotic, and a lot cheaper than F-22s.
This is one of those rare turning points in weapons design. Similar to when the modern battleship (the British Dreadnaught being the first), made all existing battleships obsolete. A similar thing happened when jet fighters appeared in the mid 1940s. Nearly all those 63,000 American fighter aircraft in 1945 were prop-driven, and all those pilots knew that in the next few years, jet fighters would make all those prop fighters obsolete. Now the robotic fighters are about to make manned fighters obsolete, just like GPS guided bombs (JDAM) made dumb bombs dropped by a low flying fighter-bomber obsolete.
Yeah, when a totally self-contained robot fighter beats a human in air-to-air combat at Red Flag, I'll believe it.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/01/2005 09:44 ||
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#1
I've talked with people in the industry and they claim that the JSF will be the last maned combat aircraft produced by the US. Also, a directed energy weapon would replace the traditional on board gun aramanents.
#2
Robotics are getting better all the time and someday may outperform manned aircraft. Someday isn't today, though.
Some of our missiles should be renamed "hittles," because we finally have certain weapons that will hit more often than they miss. In another 20 years, who knows?
I'm skeptical about the beam weapon thing, though. As Einstein showed, mass is a lot easier to handle than equivalent energy. Very large platforms may indeed be able to take advantage of beam weapons (their speed is very nice), but I can't see smaller UAVs and such ever having them. I don't work in that area, though, so all I know what I read on Rantburg.
#4
Beating a human in air-to-air could happen - the robot can pull way more gees, and so can do sharper turns. But us humans is notoriously tricksy, so it probably wouldn't be as straight forward as some might imagine.
#5
The problem I see w/robotic a/c is still there,no matter how many advances in technology there are. Who flies it? Does anyone thing we will have computers advanced enough to "see" and "think" like human pilots anytime soon? If not,that means a ground controller and that means communication could be jammed and then what do you have? So far,all UAV flights have been in a relatively friendly enviroment. What happens when the UAVs are called upon to fly over a country that has hundreds,if not thousands,of automatic jammers running,that uses missiles that home on electronic emissions? I have this nasty suspicion that depending completely on ground-controlled UAVs is all too reminiscent of Donitz trying to control his U-Boats by radio.
Posted by: Stephen ||
08/01/2005 15:22 Comments ||
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#6
I can see a day when semi robotic airplanes that are capable of flying complete missions without supervision come to be included in the invertory but at the same time I can see that future air superiority fighters just might be remotely controlled by a human sitting in a van someplace. This would free the airframe of the maximum gee loads the pilot could withstand and still function while still retaining the combat initiative a human pilot would have. But I think before an airframe could be fielded the concept of virtual reality will have to be improve furthur. Also I think the concept of humans being taken further out of the loop will resisted strongly by the military and some in political circles. JMO
#7
Yeah, when a totally self-contained robot fighter beats a human in air-to-air combat at Red Flag, I'll believe it.
The problem is, it won't necessarily be a one-on-one dogfight. If robotic (or remote-human-controlled) aircraft become cheap and effective enough, they could overwhelm our highly capable but relatively few piloted aircraft.
#9
One reason why the cost keeps increasing so radically is the number procured keeps diminishing. Per Unit Cost usually includes amortization of R&D costs. This means that whenever the fixed costs have to amortized across ever decreasing numbers of airframes, the cost soars. From 1947 to 1965, the USAF bought more than 4,000 bombers. From 1965 through 2005, the USAF has purchased 123 bombers (3 B-70s, 100 B-1s and 20 B-2s). Original planning called for 132 B-2's.
#10
Domingo says:
"I've talked with people in the industry and they claim that the JSF will be the last maned combat aircraft produced by the US."
That is eerily reminiscent of the British Defence Ministry's infamous 1957 White Paper, which predicted that guided missiles would make manned combat aircraft obsolete within a few years. This resulted in the wholesale cancellation of several promising military aircraft projects, a debacle from which the British aero industry never recovered.
The idea that missiles had already reached this level in 1957 would be comical had the consequences not been so serious. As we know, no such thing has happened even to this day, almost 50 years later. (In fact, British aviation policy was so badly managed during the two decades after WW2 that some excitable types have suggested concious treason among Ministry bureaucrats as the cause. I doubt that, but it couldn't have been much worse if it were true.)
Duplicating the functions of a human fighter pilot, and doing so for the entire duration of a counter-air mission, is much farther beyond the state of the art than this article and many casual observers apparently assume.
The software for this is difficult enough, but it is not really software but sensors that provide the limit. For example, a truly robotic fighter would need not just an advanced AI system but 360 degree radar and a range of optical sensors that would match the acuity, breadth of field, and flexibility of a pilot's eyes.
Beyond that, the control system must be able to deal with spoofing and countermeasures directed at all these sensors. This is a very tall order, since these countermeasures can (and should) be deployed simultaneously and often involve entirely unrelated technologies. Lasers and
flares can confuse various optical systems, jamming can defeat radar, and there is no human brain to instantly assess the overall situation and decide on alternate courses.
As of today, no fighter even has 360 degree radar. It presents a very difficult packaging problem for high-performance aircraft and putting it into a UAV with autonomous control and ECCM is at least an order of magnitude more difficult.
#11
I'm skeptical about the beam weapon thing, though. As Einstein showed, mass is a lot easier to handle than equivalent energy. Very large platforms may indeed be able to take advantage of beam weapons (their speed is very nice), but I can't see smaller UAVs and such ever having them. I don't work in that area, though, so all I know what I read on Rantburg.
Sure Einstein was right, but thats on stuff like lasers and particle beam weapons (NPBs). However the kind of beam weapons they're talking about currently are HPMs (High Powered Microwaves), and guess what an AESA radar set can be configured to emit that. So dont be surprised at hearing that our jets in 2010 are already fitted out with energy weapons, they're just going a bit different than the pulse laser systems that the DoD is still fielding research on.
#12
I believe the Israelis have a long range largely autonomous bomber flying today.
You have to realize that autonomous weapons are disposable. Therefore it doesn't matter how good they are. What matters is how many you have. Do you have enough to overwhelm the enemy's defences?
#13
There's autonomous, and then there's autonomous.
Our UAVs in operational use are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (or Ground Vehicles) but not Autonomous. (They're teleoperated by pilots.)
There's been a lot of progress towards robotic capabilities such as machine vision, but it's still a huge challenge to make an autonomous vehicle for ground movement - i.e. one that can maneuver through a terrain on its own.
Air vehicles are easier, since they generally don't need to deal with obstacles once they reach a certain height in the air. But it's still not exactly an easy task and our software isn't really up to it yet.
Posted by: HAL ||
08/01/2005 18:51 Comments ||
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Having spent a career in the general vicinity of this topic, I agree completely with Atomic Conspiracy.
Posted by: jolly roger ||
08/01/2005 18:54 Comments ||
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Atomic Conspiracy -
I agree that "robotic" pilots are pretty far away from reality -- but I'd be interested in your view on fighters that are remotely controlled by human pilots.
The problem with the remote control fighter is the amount of data that would have to be transmitted to give the remote pilot a really good view of the overall situation. This would include inputs from radar and multiple visual sensors as well as the usual flight data transmitted from more traditional drones. This means a lot of outgoing bandwidth and there is really no good alternative to this other than the fully autonomous robot. The more bandwidth you have going out, the more likely it is to be jammed and the more serious the consequences of the jamming. It also serves as a beacon announcing the drone fighter's approach and location.
This might be an ideal time to share this amazing picture from the Vietnam era, supposedly a real-time monitor view of a MiG-21 caught by the tv camera on board a Firebee reconnaisance drone:
"This unique photograph is showing the control console aboard one of the specially-equipped C-130s, used to control AQM-34-operations over North Vietnam - just in the moment as a North Vietnamese MiG-21 was buzzing the drone! Parts of MiG's fuselage and wings - together with the SRVAF markings - can be clearly seen on the display of the main camera of the drone, which was used as navigation-aid. Sadly, the exact date of this incident, which occurred sometimes in 1970, remains unknown. (Tom Cooper collection)"
I believe that this is actually a film still in a viewer on the ground, rather than a tv frame from the DC-130 controller aircraft. Note the absence of video controls and of typical crt lines on the image. In either case it is an amazing image. Check out as well what the link says about MiGs being lost attempting to intercept the drones; from collision, fuel starvation, fratricide, and simply hitting the ground. Note that five of these can be credited to the same drone, making it a robot ace.
#20
AC/JR Without disagreeing with what you have said, would either of you dispute that the F-22/F-35 will be the last generation of manned fighter delivered?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/01/2005 21:12 Comments ||
Top||
#21
I know you didn't ask Me, Mrs. D, but I'll reply anyway. I think the F-22 and F-35 will be the last manned fighters I will see during My lifetime.
#22
Mrs. D
I really don't think they will be, though as Jackal says, they might well be the last within my lifetime.
I have a copy on hand of William Green's 1958 classic Air Forces of the World. In the section on Great Britain, Green confidently states that the English Electric P-1B (later the Lightning) would the last manned combat aircraft ordered for the RAF.
Here we are 47 years later, and the Lightning has been followed by three generations of successors; the Phantom, the Tornado, and the new Typhoon. What might lie 50 or 100 years in the future is beyond my powers of prediction.
#24
I am inclined to think that they will because of the length of time before the next one will be built. The F-15 took 10 years to first delivery. The F-2 took 25 years. I hate to think how long it will take to develop the next.
In addition, the economics of the next plane will be prohibitive as Norm Augustine demonstrated.
So it seems to me unlikely that the AF will be able to get the bucks for development absent a cold war with the chinese that isn't in the cards for many decades.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/01/2005 22:14 Comments ||
Top||
#25
I don't think that technology alone will ever defeat technology+human brain.
In separating the latter from the vehicle, a remote-control fighter, we come up against some fundamental physical limits, the nature of the electro-magnetic spectrum itself.
If you can detect an electro-magnetic signal, the link to a UAV for example, the enemy can as well. What can be detected can be interfered with. Technology itself makes this easier in the form of computerized scanners and jammers as well as several more esoteric technologies and methods.
The problems of surface-to-air missile (SAMs) operations are a close analog to those of remotely piloted, as opposed to autonomous, UAVs. New technologies have been incorporated into SAMs too, but these are probably more susceptible to interference today than they were 30 years ago, to say nothing of the much greater capability of anti-radiation missiles. The latter are based on the principle that if a radar can guide a missile to a target aircraft, it can also guide a missile from the aircraft back to the radar itself. The obvious solution, to switch the radar off, has worked many times in practice but it doesn't work anymore, for reasons that I really can't go into here.
In fact, SAMs probably reached the zenith of their effectiveness during the 1973 Yom Kippur war and have been declining relative to the threat ever since. Over Yugoslavia and Iraq, it was child's play for American aircraft to evade modernized versions of the same missiles that decimated the IAF in 1973 and the difference was not in the aircraft themselves. Russian and other sources claim that their newer SAMs would do much better, but this sounds like little boys whistling past the graveyard. These, and our own Patriot, have the same fundamental flaws as the old SA-6 and Nike Hercules, dependence on a broadcast em link.
#26
Incidentally, I am a missileer rather than a fighter jock, so my position on this is contrary to what my parochial interest would be. I have taken a different position on unmanned recce vehicles, for example.
In particular, I castigated the "silk-scarf lobby" for shutting down the fantastically successful Firebee drone program at the end of the Vietnam War.
I think that autonomous bombers are within reach. Remote-controlled ones are already here in the form of the armed Predator and it is only the beginning. Incidentally, successful weapons carrying trials were conducted with recoverable Firebees as long ago as 1968. Laser guided bombs and Maverick missiles were among the weapons released from the drones, which is quite sophisticated for that time and beyond anything that is operational today.
August 1, 2005: There are six major terrorist training areas in the world. These are places where terrorist recruits can be shown how to use various weapons, including bombs. Such practice is essential, as it is usually fatal to learn this stuff on the job. Three of these training areas are under constant attack by counter-terrorism forces. These include Iraq, the Palestinian territories, and Pakistan. The others, southern Lebanon, Syria and Iran, are free from any military pressure, although Israel hits the south Lebanon locations with an occasional air strike or artillery fire.
Iraq has hosted terrorist training camps for decades. All those camps were shut down over two years ago. The new ones are improvised affairs, and are being hunted down and destroyed as they become known. A similar situation exists in the Palestinian Territories, especially Gaza. But because of truces, or simply the reluctance of the Israelis to risk high civilian casualties, the Palestinian terrorists have lots of room to carry out training and practice in Gaza.
Iran, which provides money, weapons and advisors to the Hizbollah terrorists of southern Lebanon, has trained many terrorists, but has been reluctant to use them internationally. This is because, while the Iranian terrorist training facilities are not attacked, the entire nation of Iran would be held responsible if terrorist attacks were traced back to Iran. This could result in major military retaliation, the destruction of Iranâs oil export capability and hits on many military targets in the country. The Islamic conservatives just barely hold onto control of the country, with the majority of people openly antagonistic to the clerics. Inviting an retaliation attack from the United States, or even some of their Persian Gulf neighbors, could push the anti-clerical majority in Iran into open rebellion.
A similar situation exists in southern Lebanon. Hizbollah is a Shia Islamic terrorist organization, which got its start during the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war. The Shia in Lebanon are about 35 percent of the population, and the poorest 35 percent at that. Hizbollah was founded, with Iranian help, to assist the Shia in defending themselves during the civil war. When that conflict ended in 1990, Hizbollah did not stop fighting, but carried out attacks against Israel. Iran had been sponsoring terrorism since the early 1980s, and has loudly declared that Israel and the United States must be destroyed. But Hizbollah, like Iran, has not exported its terrorism any farther, for the same reasons as Iran. Hizbollah does not want the United States, or anyone else, to have a reason to come after them. Aside from the obvious reasons, the Lebanese civil war still goes on at a very low level. The non-Shia Lebanese (Sunni Moslems and various Christian sects) are hostile to Hizbollah and the private army the Shia have maintained in the south. Moreover, the Shia were close allies of the Syrians, who just recently withdrew from Lebanon after two decades of occupation, and much hostility from Christian and Sunni Moslem Lebanese. The Lebanese Shia got on with the Syrians because Syria and Iran were allies (mostly because of their mutual hatred of Saddam Hussein).
Pakistan is a rather more complex case. Al Qaeda training camps were shut down, and most al Qaeda leaders killed or arrested, because al Qaeda declared war on Pakistan for siding with the United States after September 11, 2001. But there are several more respectable, at least in Pakistan, Islamic terrorist groups, that are still tolerated. These outfits, who are dedicated to attacks on India, have been persecuted and criticized by the government, but not shut down. Many of these terrorists share many goals with al Qaeda, but have not turned on their own government. Not yet.
There are several other areas (Africa, Southeast Asia) where Islamic terrorists are tolerated, or at least not actively pursued. Here, discreet terrorists can maintain themselves. These are also areas where the United States is sending in Special Forces troops to train local counter-terrorism forces. New weapons and equipment is being offered as well, and these nations accept all this as an opportunity to upgrade their armed forces.
While there are many places an international terrorist can go for training, none of them are without a great deal of risk. Because of local politics, some of these areas will not be clear of terrorist training camps until the local governments are convinced that this is a good thing to do. It will take years of military and diplomatic pressure to keep the terrorists from establishing a safe have anywhere.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/01/2005 09:42 ||
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#1
what about Mindanao?
Posted by: bk ||
08/01/2005 10:17 Comments ||
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#2
Mindanao is another one of thsoe places where they get lots of US support $$$ in training and equipment and have dragged there feet in capturing any of the key ASG leaders. They continually bring in drivers and aids to KJ but just can't or don't want to bring this to an end.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/01/2005 17:48 Comments ||
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#3
Mindanao is the MILF who are currently in 'peace talks' with the Philippine Governmment (sponsored by Malaysia - see Southern Thailand) while the MILF re-arms and regroups.
Once that is done I expect the MILF to trigger some 'incident' so that they can break off the talks.
No article link has site does not archive.
General Pervez Musharraf may have ordered all foreign students of madarsas to leave Pakistan following the London and Sharm-el Sheikh bombings but, ironically, the Government of India continues to ignore a reality that Pakistan has finally come to accept - that many of these theological schools of Islamic learning are nurseries that breed Islamic extremism. This, despite reams of documentary evidence that Indian madarsas, too, have been preaching exclusivism and fundamentalism.
Foreign students from countries witnessing a spurt in Islamist extremism, including Bangladesh and Sudan, are being routinely admitted for theological studies in leading Islamic studies centres like Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband and Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow. Clerics, posing as qaaris, from Saudi Arabia, Gulf countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal routinely visit seminaries in India. The ISI has made ample use of these visits and funding routed through third countries and sham charities to set up an elaborate network of "friendly" seminaries in Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Assam. An Intelligence report says that "the ISI has staffed mosques and madarsas in these States with its agents disguised as mullahs." The report refers to the construction of 450 new madarsas and mosques along Nepal's border with UP, 675 madarsas and mosques in Bihar, nearly 800 of them in Rajasthan and Gujarat along the Pakistan border, and 50 in West Bengal along the State's border with Bangladesh in the past couple of years.
According to another Intelligence report, Maulana Abdul Rauf Rahmani of Nepal controls a large number of madarsas in UP and Bihar. Rauf is believed to be an active member of the Mecca-based Rabita-al-Alam-ul-Islami [World Muslim League], a Wahabi organisation that propagates virulent Islamism. The input suggests that some madarsas in UP receive funds routed through the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah. Funds from "Arab charities", many of which have been black-listed across the world, continue to flow into madarsas in Bihar along the India-Nepal border. With funds aplenty, madarsas continue to mushroom at an average rate of 20 seminaries being set up each year.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/01/2005 03:49 ||
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#2
Most amusing to see all those comments on the BBC site, talking about how the madrassahs provide "an essential source of education and training". Then you see a clip showing a nightmare scene of people rocking backwards and forwards while they memorise the Koran. Yeah, that'll help them in the dog-eat-dog world of 21st century capitalism.
A top Iraqi official said on Sunday the idea of reducing the number of the 100,000 plus US troops deployed in Iraq would be possible by next year. Muwaffaq Rubaie, the Iraq national security advisor, told the CNN in an interview that Iraqi Security Forces are on the right track to take over security responsibility from the multinational forces. But he declined to say how many troops will be withdrawn from Iraq to keep insurgents in Iraq puzzling. "We hope by the end of the year probably more than a third of this security force, Iraqi security force, are going to be able to operate independently.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2005 00:00 ||
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The government has decided to amend the Society Act 1860, which relates to the registration and regulation of religious seminaries. Under the amendments, seminaries will have to provide information on their financial resources and will have to audit their accounts on an annual basis.
Oh, that's gonna go over well. Piggy squeals in 5-4-3-2...
âA recent meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz asked Religious Affairs Secretary Vakil Ahmed Khan to start work on amending the act,â sources told Daily Times on Sunday. With the help of the Education, Interior and Law and Justice Ministries, the secretary had started working on proposing amendments to the act, sources added. The government also decided to go back on its decision to form the Madrassa Reforms Board headed by Lt Gen (r) Javed Ashraf Qazi, sources said.
Oh, how the spittle will fly!... On the other hand, the whole thing will have blown over in three months, but it does provide an opportunity for the fundos to rave...
Sources said another amendment being considered was for seminaries to give an undertaking to audit their accounts annually. Similarly, seminaries would also have to provide information on their students, teachers and syllabi related to religion, sources said, adding that another amendment being considered would bound seminaries to provide information on the number of conventional subjects being taught along with religious subjects.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2005 00:00 ||
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A senior anchorman at a private TV channel in Kabul said Sunday he had been confined to home for a month and a half as a result of threats received from unidentified callers. Sayed Sulaiman Ashna alleged he received the threats after inviting Maulvi Arsala Rahmani, a former Taliban official, to the programme. Ashna has interviewed a number of high-profile people including former US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and then Taliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil. âAs soon as Arsala Rahmaniâs interview was broadcast on May 5, somebody called me from a number that couldnât be recognized. He threatened and abused me in a distinct Kandahari accent before putting down the receiver,â Ashna recalled. âAfter the first call, he telephoned again to brand me as an American stooge for describing mujahideen and Taliban as warlords. The man accused me anti-Pashtun bias and trying to torpedo their election bids,â he revealed. The producer added the caller continued to intimate him, striking fear into the TV presenterâs heart. The bully warned he would neither let Ashna live in his Makroryan residence nor allow his children a safe school journey. Insisting the lives of his spouse and children were in danger, Ashna went on to demand of the government to send his family abroad. âI have returned to Afghanistan but many of my relatives are still living in Europe,â Ashna said to reject the impression that he sought to settle abroad. Ashna continued he had informed Interior Ministry officials, journalists and human rights watchdogs of the threats being hurled at him all too frequently. However, he would not say who specifically was threatening him.
He also disclosed one day four strange men followed him from his house to the office but they fled away after he called a nearby police checkpoint. He complained neither the government nor the television channel he worked for had paid any heed to, much less mitigate, his plight. Concerned at the threats, he has stopped his children going to school besides convincing his wife to reduce her presence at the BBC office here.
HOPES that political momentum would help defeat the Iraqi insurgency suffered a potential setback yesterday when the committee writing the new constitution decided to ask parliament for a 30-day extension to finish the draft. The decision to ask for an extension was taken after a number of members said it was clear that major issues stood in the way of an agreement on the language of the charter. Among the key disputes are federalism, dual nationality and the role of Islam. The committee chairman Humam Hammoudi's recommendation of a 30-day extension was accepted, one of the members, Bahaa al-Araji, said. He explained that the Kurdish delegates had wanted a six-month delay, but the Shiites and Sunni Arabs decided to ask for an extra 30 days. The formal request for a delay will be submitted to parliament today, according to committee members. Following the decision, Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, held a meeting with , Zalmay Khalilad, the United States ambassador. Mr Talabani later insisted that the 15 August deadline for parliamentary approval of the constitution would be met, and he began urgent consultations with parliamentary leaders in an attempt to head off any delay. UPDATE: A few details about the differences:
Kurdish legislator Hussein Mohammed Taha, detailing the disputed issues, said Kurds and Shiites agree that Iraq should become a federal state while Sunni Arabs object, fearing it could lead to the division of the country.
"There is a group that wants Iraq to be called `The Iraqi Islamic Federal Republic,' while the other wants it called the `Iraqi Federal Republic' and another group rejects both names," Taha said.
Another problem is whether the official language of Iraq should be Arabic alone or Arabic and Kurdish, he added.
There are even differences over whether Iraq should be formally declared part of the Arab and Islamic nation, or whether the document should state that the Iraqi people are parts of those nations, he said.
A serious point of disagreement appears to be the role of Islam in the state. Shiites, who make up about 60 percent of Iraq's estimated 27 million people, want Islam to be the main source of legislation, while the Kurds want it to be one of the sources â as it is in the interim constitution approved before the Americans restored Iraqi sovereignty in June 2004.
"The Americans and the British are demanding that the constitution be done on time and we are asking the Americans and British to put pressure on the Kurds," said Jawad al-Maliki, a member of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's Dawa party.
But Kurdish committee member Mahmoud Othman criticized U.S. officials for pressuring the Kurds and other framers to meet the deadline.
"If they want to interfere they should do it openly inside the committee. The American ambassador should ... come speak during our meetings. He should not speak to members on the side," Othman said. "It is a shame for a superpower to behave like this."
#1
Translation: We're chickening out from Sunni pressure
Posted by: Charles ||
08/01/2005 3:43 Comments ||
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#2
I think the Islamic and Sharia bits are the sticking points. The Kurds are going to have none of that. They want a Federation, none of this "islamic nation" salafist/wahabi/muslim brotherhood jingoistic clap trap. The Kurds know Sharia is a moving target that means whatever some old Sunni or Sheite Imam says it means. Without a Federal Republic they (the Kurds) will end up being screwed. Both appear to be true to me. Thje Sunni will hold out forever in hopes they can end up on top again.
MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmad has termed government decision on expulsion of foreign students from religious seminaries extremely unwise fearing it will affect Pakistani students studying in foreign particularly Muslim countries. He was talking to the journalists here Sunday. He held that imprudent policies being pursued by the government was leading to tarnish image of the country all over the world. Wherever in the world terror acts or suicide attacks take place, the world community sets their eyes on Pakistan, he regretted. This is all due to directionless foreign policy of the government, he alleged.
"Certainly not through any fault of our own. Hmph."
Defending Hasba bill he said passage of bill in NWFP assembly is a significant movement forward towards practical enforcement of Shariat in the country.
Oboy. More sharia in PakiLand. Just what the doctor ordered.
The entire NWFP assembly deserves for congratulations for it, he maintained. President Musharraf should not be fearful of Hasba bill as this act is aimed to establish society based on justice wherein the Jooos tyrants are punished and justice is dispensed to the tyrannized. He informed that MMA would soon convene country wide convention of deeni Madrissahs against the clamp down by the government on seminaries besides discussing the prevailing situation. He accused the ruling party of pursuing rigging plan to secure win for their favourites in the upcoming local government polls. Chief election commissioner should take prompt notice of this situation, he demanded.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
POLICE have been told they must show respect by taking their SHOES OFF before raiding the homes of Muslim terror suspects. 
British Home Office on Sunday announced that it would hold meetings with Muslim minority leaders in the United Kingdom which aim at enhancing cooperation following the terrorist blasts that lately ripped off the British capital, London. Speaking at a news conference, a spokeswoman from the ministry indicated that eight meetings would take place in the ministry during this summer where Interior Secretary Charles Clarke would also present suggestions and future perspectives.
North Korea's demands for what it should receive in exchange for abandoning its nuclear weapons program snarled talks Sunday, but the U.S. envoy maintained that "things are moving," with more negotiations planned Monday. The negotiations ended their sixth day without an agreement on a Chinese-drafted proposal, and South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said talks Sunday focused on "what corresponding measures other parties will take" in return for an agreement by the North to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
Syria and Lebanon pledged Sunday to repair the damage to their relations caused by Syria's forced military withdrawal, but they gave little indication of how they would accomplish their goal. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in the first visit to Damascus by a senior Lebanese official since Syria pulled its troops from Lebanon in April, ending 29 years of military dominance. At a press conference with Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Otari, Saniora said both countries would adopt measures aimed at "bolstering the relationship between the two countries based on equality." But, in a sign of changing times, Saniora said the two sides had agreed to re-evaluate past agreements owing to "changes that sometimes require a reconsideration."
The government has decided to amend the Society Act 1860, which relates to the registration and regulation of religious seminaries. Under the amendments, seminaries will have to provide information on their financial resources and will have to audit their accounts on an annual basis.
A senior anchorman at a private TV channel in Kabul said Sunday he had been confined to home for a month and a half as a result of threats received from unidentified callers. Sayed Sulaiman Ashna alleged he received the threats after inviting Maulvi Arsala Rahmani, a former Taliban official, to the programme. Ashna has interviewed a number of high-profile people including former US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and then Taliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil. âAs soon as Arsala Rahmaniâs interview was broadcast on May 5, somebody called me from a number that couldnât be recognized. He threatened and abused me in a distinct Kandahari accent before putting down the receiver,â Ashna recalled. âAfter the first call, he telephoned again to brand me as an American stooge for describing mujahideen and Taliban as warlords. The man accused me anti-Pashtun bias and trying to torpedo their election bids,â he revealed. The producer added the caller continued to intimate him, striking fear into the TV presenterâs heart. The bully warned he would neither let Ashna live in his Makroryan residence nor allow his children a safe school journey. Insisting the lives of his spouse and children were in danger, Ashna went on to demand of the government to send his family abroad. âI have returned to Afghanistan but many of my relatives are still living in Europe,â Ashna said to reject the impression that he sought to settle abroad. Ashna continued he had informed Interior Ministry officials, journalists and human rights watchdogs of the threats being hurled at him all too frequently. However, he would not say who specifically was threatening him.
HOPES that political momentum would help defeat the Iraqi insurgency suffered a potential setback yesterday when the committee writing the new constitution decided to ask parliament for a 30-day extension to finish the draft. The decision to ask for an extension was taken after a number of members said it was clear that major issues stood in the way of an agreement on the language of the charter. Among the key disputes are federalism, dual nationality and the role of Islam. The committee chairman Humam Hammoudi's recommendation of a 30-day extension was accepted, one of the members, Bahaa al-Araji, said. He explained that the Kurdish delegates had wanted a six-month delay, but the Shiites and Sunni Arabs decided to ask for an extra 30 days. The formal request for a delay will be submitted to parliament today, according to committee members. Following the decision, Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, held a meeting with , Zalmay Khalilad, the United States ambassador. Mr Talabani later insisted that the 15 August deadline for parliamentary approval of the constitution would be met, and he began urgent consultations with parliamentary leaders in an attempt to head off any delay. 
