The two-day Forum for the Future to promote US plans for ushering in democracy in the Middle East ended yesterday without adopting a final declaration. The second day of the forum also witnessed sharp US criticism of Syria and a Damascus rejoinder. Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara later left Manama without attending a group photo gathering for the participating foreign ministers.
A final declaration could not be adopted because Egypt tried to introduce language which the United States said would restrict aid groups. âObviously we are not pleased,â said a senior State Department official at the conclusion of the forum. The Egyptian delegation was not immediately available for comment but a Gulf diplomat said other Arab countries also had reservations about the document and Egypt was not alone.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Ooooooooooo...Another defeat for the President! How much lower can he go?
well, somebody was spinning it that way yersterday!
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/13/2005 14:52 Comments ||
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#2
Refusing to vote for the declaration was the only victory for the participants. First they had to actually participate in a forum on democracy in their region under the sharp eyes of United States Secretary of State Dr. Rice and Assistant Cheney. They had to sit still -- politely -- while Rice essentially lectured them, althought I'm sure it was courteously done. Then they had to sit still -- again politely -- and actually vote for that anathema of a declaration, and publically declare against the United States. Their nightmares must be getting worse and worse. (Not to mention, as was pointed out yesterday, Bush sent a Black, Christian woman, and a lesbian to the party! What a way to rub their noses in it!)
#3
The only thing missing was Bob Zimmerman singing
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
An informant who met Osama bin Laden in an Al-Qaida training camp gave critical help in the investigation of an alleged terrorist plot in Australia.
The Sydney Herald-Sun, citing intelligence sources, says the informant was a follower of Abdul Nacer Benbrika, who was one of 18 people arrested this week. He began cooperating with the Australian Federal Police after he returned from a stint in 2001 at Camp Faruq in Afghanistan.
The Herald-Sun said the man uses an alias and fears for his life.
Australian police say raids in Sydney and Melbourne brought in members of two connected terrorist cells. The raids were part of an investigation known as Operation Pandanus.
Investigators say they had other sources of information, including surveillance of the suspects and calls to security hotlines.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/13/2005 06:36 ||
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All successful CT opns should be credited to "sources." Keeps them guessing.
Pulling Australia's troops out of Iraq will do nothing to lessen the terrorist threat, Prime Minister John Howard says.
Mr Howard today said the threat from terrorism would not theoretically be diminished by removing Australia's troops from Iraq.
"We were a terrorist target long before Iraq," he told the Nine Network's Sixty Minutes program.
"The first time (al-Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden identified Australia in a hostile way was because of our intervention in East Timor.
"In my view ... it would not theoretically make any difference. We will stay the course in Iraq."
But he could not say when that commitment would end.
"I can't tell you that by month or by year or by week," he said.
"I can tell you it by event - when we are satisfied and our allies are satisfied that the Iraqis can provide their own security from their own resources, and until that occurs it would be self-defeating and counter-productive to leave."
In October, 450 Australian troops left for Iraq in what was expected to be the final rotation of the Al Muthanna task group in southern Iraq.
The last two weeks has seen the prime minister oversee the introduction of his government's tough and controversial new anti-terror laws and the arrest of 18 suspected terrorists during dramatic raids in Melbourne and Sydney.
Mr Howard played down concerns that the racially and socially motivated unrest ripping through France at the moment could happen here.
"Nobody should ever smugly assume that it can't happen here, but of course the situation in France is very different to the situation in Australia," he said.
"France is a far more class-riven society."
There have been calls in France for tougher immigration and deportation policies on the back of the violence.
Mr Howard said anyone who came to Australia should integrate into Australian society.
"I'm in favour of drawing people from everywhere, and when they come to this country I'm in favour of them becoming Australians, and it's our responsibility - we who are here now - to embrace them and to make them feel welcome," he said.
"It's their responsibility and the responsibility particularly of their leaders to encourage that process of integration and not to see action taken to support the law as in some way directed towards them."
Mr Howard said he did not support racial or ethnic stereotyping as a means of protecting Australia.
"You can protect it if you know that the people who are wanting to come are potential enemies of Australia, but you don't do that by racial stereotyping or ethnic stereotyping," he said.
"You do it by individual assessment."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/13/2005 06:23 ||
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#1
I beg to differ with Howard here.
"...it would not theoretically make any difference..."
Oh yes it would. It would lable you and Austrailia as a flock of sheeple worthy of even more attacks. You would be an even bigger target.
See OBLs talks about the US in Lebanon, Somalia, etc.
Ireland is putting itself at risk of an attack from Islamic militants by allowing Gulf-bound US military planes to refuel on the island, a leading radical British Muslim lawyer said on Friday. Anjem Choudary, who is being investigated by Irish police over comments made during a university debate on Thursday evening, said media reports that he believed Ireland was a âlegitimateâ target were incorrect, however.
âI am not threatening the Irish, nor am I giving any veiled threats, but it seems that when a Muslim warns of potential danger then they are seen as terrorists and extremists,â Choudary said by phone during a visit to Dublin. âWhen politicians say the same thing, then itâs considered to be political analysis and obviously itâs no problem whatsoever.â
According to Irelandâs transport ministry, over 900 aircraft carrying US military personnel or weapons landed in Ireland or used Irish airspace during the first nine months of this year. The decision to allow the flights has stirred fierce controversy in traditionally neutral Ireland. On Thursday five members of parliament called on the government to withdraw the services of Shannon airport as a pitstop for the US military.
Choudary, the former head of the now defunct radical Al-Muhajiroun group, said the policy made Ireland look like a supporter of the US-led war in Iraq. âYou donât need to be a rocket scientist to work out that if youâre allowing your soil to be used for sorties, bombings, then some Muslims are going to see you as collaborators. Itâs just one-plus-one really isnât it?â
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2005 00:00 ||
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"...when a Muslim warns of potential danger then they are seen as terrorists and extremists..."
If it walks like a duck, etc. etc. So, started those deportations yet, Tony?
Gonzalez, Zapata County's chief lawman and chairman of the Border Sheriff's Association, told a San Antonio conference yesterday it's not a matter of "if," but "when," a terrorist will enter the U.S. through Mexico with a dirty bomb or some other weapon of mass destruction. The fault, Gonzalez said, can be placed on the federal government for failing to protect its borders, San Antonio's WOAI radio reported. "We tried everything we know, with little success, to make the federal government aware of the problems we face and how they have affected us. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security has done nothing to help us," he told the Washington Times last month.
Gonzalez credits federal officials with warning him that al-Qaida terrorists are looking to use smugglers, including the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gang to bring terror operatives across the border. Additionally, the sheriff was told, terrorists-in-waiting have been going to Venezuela Central America to learn Spanish so they will not stand out from other aliens entering the United States. "If smugglers can bring a hundred people or 2,000 pounds of marijuana into the United States, how simple would it be to bring terrorists into this country, or a suitcase loaded with a dirty bomb?" Gonzalez told the Washington Times last month. "I am very surprised it hasn't already happened."
The current "catch and release" policy for illegals from countries other than Mexico is "ridiculous," Gonzalez said, noting that all the other 16 Texas-border sheriffs and Border Patrol agents in the field agreed with him. "Illegal aliens will come across, and once they come across they will even change into better clothing, come out of the brush, and simply surrender to the Border Patrol," he said. "They get processed and they get a certificate telling them to go to a hearing before an immigration judge, and then they let them go. Of course, they don't show up for the hearing."
Gonzalez's beat is made all the tougher by the fact Zapata County is only 50 miles south of Nuevo Laredo, the site of an ongoing war between Mexican drug cartels that has claimed 135 lives in 2005 and is being fought with the help of the Zetas, a gang of Mexican military deserters â heavily armed and trained in the U.S. â providing protection services.
Border sheriffs became so frustrated with the lack of assistance from Washington as well as policies like "catch and release" they formed the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition to speak with a "single voice" on border issues, particularly the need for funding as they commit more time and resources to border security. "Protecting the border is a national security issue, and it's always been our concern," Gonzalez said. "But each sheriff along the border thought it was just his problem to deal with. But our residents are living in fear. And it's not just happening to one sheriff, but to 16. We used to deal with it in silence. Now, we can speak together."
Gonzalez and most of the other border lawmen are supporting a proposal by Rep. John Culberson (R-Houston) to provide funds for border counties to deputize and train citizens as "reserve officers" to patrol the border, much as volunteers with the Minuteman organization have done.
New Mexico's Rep. Steve Pearce told members the Border Patrol has captured two illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, two from Indonesia, nine from Iran and one from Syria in his district over the past two years. That's the kind of information Sheriff Gonzalez says keeps him awake at night. Me too.
#1
I keep saying that the illegal problem needs to be subdivided into hispanics and others. Different problems need different solutions. If you want the border sealed airtight, and quickly, to "others", it is possible: offer bounties to Mexicans for non-Mexicans!
With a $500-$15,000 bounty, no non-Mexican could get within 50 miles of *anywhere* on the border without a dozen phone calls coming in. South of the border, that modest sum is a fortune. We should even pay in cash, so the local police don't steal the money from the tipster.
This could be done NOW with a tiny investment, and even with private money.
The only snag in it is the "catch-and-release" program for foreigners. Unless the federals agree to KEEP any non-Mexican they catch, anything anybody does is meaningless.
As far as stopping Mexicans goes, we have been working on that problem since the 1920s, and I doubt that it will be solved any time soon.
So the best bet is to focus on the non-Mexicans. The bounty program could be up and running with $2M and two weeks, to get the word out.
#2
If you close the border with fencing, Moose, you've effectively stopped the flood the OTM's hide in. I'm sick of all the apologists and their reasons why this can't be done. It will be done. I'd prefer it before a lot of dead Americans happen.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2005 15:55 Comments ||
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Frank G: The complete fence is a ruse used by those who want *no* border controls. They couch it in terms of an "all or nothing" solution. Even if forced to build the fence, they will turn it into a boondoggle to rival the Big Dig--and showing less results. That being said, the best bet is to go for the "most bang for your buck" arguments.
I've written before how you might be able to shut down 80% or more of the illegals by just putting fencing on 15% of the border area--the major corridors. Beyond that, you get into some serious "law of diminishing returns" with your fencing. My guess is that fencing peaks out at about 20% of the border area (and 90% of the illegals). Beyond that is a waste of money.
Remember that much of the border is impassable because it is nothing but rocky desert on both sides, no roads even. Very, very few are going to hike 50 miles across the Sonora even in winter. Putting fence up there might stop literally a half dozen a year. The pro-illegal immigration types would *start* by building the fence there, rather than on the corridors, wasting years and billions of dollars while allowing most illegals to still cross.
At the same time, the US will have to do some major restructuring of our economy to make up for those hundreds of thousands of labor intensive jobs for which there will no longer be workers. Everything from produce and meat to housing costs will about double in price.
There will almost have to be a guest worker program to keep parts of our economy from serious inflation.
On top of everything else, Fox in Mexico has come up with the most amazing development plans for his country that you can imagine. Called the PPP, he plans to turn southern Mexico into an immense transshipment region for the Americas, with two superhighways going up the coasts like larger versions of the Pan-Am Highway from Canada to Chile, seaports, airports, railroads, etc.
The trouble is, that the land is currently occupied. So he is running the peasants off their land, and telling them to head North to either work in the border factories, or better yet go to the US and make their dreams come true.
This explains much of the recent surge in illegals coming here. Ironically, though Fox will soon leave office, he has spent much effort convincing the ruling parties to keep his plan going. And, if he's right, it should be a major lasting boost to the Mexican economy, which will reduce the number of illegals.
This is the reason that Fox is the #1 advocate of the FTAA. Even if it is only involves most of the Americas, Mexico will still make a ton of money.
#4
a fense of rocky impassable mountains is still a fence. I agree that there are priority areas where th emost bang for teh buck works. The message to Mexico's gov't has to be "get your house in order - the pressure relief valve's closing". Plenty of places to make income. For instance, Mexico's baja coasts would be a riviera if tehy allowed Americans to buy without games where some ejido claims the land after you build your retirement home on it....
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2005 17:48 Comments ||
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A fence and scatterable mines would be a good place to start. Lots and lots of mine signage, in English and Spanish also. Maybe a CD's or leaflet drops, get the word out.
#6
As much as I would like to see the border closed, and believe me I do;
I cringe with the thought of using mines. Let's try to find another solution here.
Maybe have the illegals on the work detail building the fences? Catch, work then release return to Mexico.
Posted by: Jan ||
11/13/2005 19:16 Comments ||
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Frank G: What you suggest makes great sense, except in Mexican politics. Foreigners owning coastal property is as sensitive an issue there as Social Security is up here.
The biggest, most important, make or break issue in the presidential elections is, and has been for years: keeping the price of tortillas and beans low. Crazy. Second is the preservation of PEMEX as a national monopoly.
Talk about bizarre priorities, but that is as they are. Credit where credit is due, Fox is treading very dangerous ground as it is. Only Porfirio Diaz and Carlos Salinas tried to modernize the country, and both of them were punished for it.
Otherwise, Mexico is stuck in low gear when trying to get ahead. Their worst enemy is demographics, but it's not their only one.
#8
then quit treating them as equals. It's a kleptocracy, full of xenophobics and pseudo-socialists, promising crap they never intend to deliver. The last time I was in Mexico City, I was warned not to leave th eAirport, due to robbery and kidnapping prevalence. Call it like it is: a 3rd world shithole that refuses to change - albeit with nice people (off the border region) and beautiful lands. To do less is to accept their infection, or hide your head til the revolution hits. Make them CHANGE!
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2005 21:56 Comments ||
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#10
I expect only 0.1% doesn't want change - the gov't/elites who run the place. The country has so many natural resources, available labor coming out the ears, yet they refuse to educate the populace, for reasons of cheap labor - hell, they know those who come north will be cash cows
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2005 22:44 Comments ||
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Follow Control the money.
A U.S.-backed summit meant to promote political freedom and economic change in the Middle East ended Saturday without agreement, a blow to President Bush's goals for the troubled region. A draft declaration on democratic and economic principle was shelved after Egypt insisted on language that would have given Arab governments greater control over which democracy groups receive money from a new fund.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also used the conference to send a message to Syrians chafing under authoritarian rule, saying Washington backs their 'aspirations for liberty, democracy and justice under the rule of law.'
Bush hosted a coming-out party for the Forum for the Future last year at Sea Island, Ga., and the U.S. is putting up half of the $100 million in a venture capital fund for economic development launched at this year's gathering. The White House had hoped the conference would showcase political progress in a part of the world long dominated by monarchies and single-party rule, and spread goodwill for the U.S.
American officials seemed startled that an ally, Egypt, threw up a roadblock.
Egypt receives nearly $2 billion annually in U.S. aid, second only to Israel. The country held its first multiparty elections this year, but remains under the firm control of President Hosni Mubarak. ...more...
#1
They just don't get it. Giving any Arab group preferential treatment over others is affiemative action. They believe one is superior over another so we must make up the difference to be fair. They do not understand equality and equal opportunity are because we consider one another as created equally in God's eyes and freedom our God-given birthright as humans because they use the sliding scale of their own opinions and prejudices. There will be no justice until they accept new ideas, as they want their own people to accept enslavement to whomever happens to be in power. Even the Euros should educate themselves on American principles that set us apart before multiculturalism and hypocrisy rain back on their own heads.
The T-72 main battle tanks donated to the Iraq Army could be impounded before they reach Baghdad. A U.S. company has sued the Iraqi Defense Ministry in a Kuwaiti court for lack of payment in a contract to refurbish the T-72s. The company, Defense Solutions LLC, has sought to impound the tanks when they arrive in Kuwait. Last week, the Iraq Army accepted delivery of the first T-72s. The T-72s have been donated by Hungary and shipped by NATO for the new Iraq Army Ninth Division, meant to be a motorized armor unit. Defense Solutions had been contracted by the Iraqi Defense Ministry to refurbish the T-72s before delivery. But executives said the ministry has not fully paid the U.S. company.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2005 22:39 ||
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Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said he is less worried that U.S. policies in Iraq will bring on a civil war there, and pledged anew to contribute $1 billion for rebuilding that war-ravaged country's shattered Wahabbi mosques and madrassas infrastructure. "My fears are much more eased," Prince Saud al-Faisal said Sunday following meetings with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Before Iraqi voters passed a new constitution last month, Saud had told U.S. reporters he worried that sectarian disputes financed by his country complicated by the U.S. presence in Iraq were pulling the country toward civil war.
He said Saudi Arabia is working to distribute the reconstruction money promised earlier this year, but gave no date for it. The United States has chided Arab states for not doing enough to support post-Saddam Iraq and for being reluctant to open embassies there.
Rice said Saudi Arabia can do more to root out the sources of terror financing, but said the two countries were working together well. "The reason that countries or leaders are fighting terrorism is not to please us, not to please the United States," Rice said. "It's because their own people are dying ... because their own region is suffering a sense of instability."
Saudi Arabia has been working to rebuild a network of agents political and economic contacts with the United States. President Bush has reached back, inviting Saudi King Abdullah to his Crawford, Texas, ranch for a chummy visit last spring.
The two leaders agreed then to set up a high-level committee, headed by Rice and Saud, to deal with strategic issues. The two inaugurated that initiative during Rice's visit.
Relations between Riyadh and Washington suffered after the Sept. 11, attacks masterminded by the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, and anyone with two eyes some U.S. officials blamed the kingdom's austere branch of Islam, known as Wahhabism, for encouraging hatred of the West, Christians and Jews.
Saudi Arabia believed it was being unjustly blamed for the actions of bin Laden, who seeks to topple the Al Saud monarchy. Last month, Abdullah called Islamic terrorism "the work of the devil," and said Saudi Arabia will fight it "until we eliminate this scourge." Want your lips back?
#2
They probably imagine Iraq as a three-legged stool, with the Sunnis being the shortest leg of the three. And by pouring money into the Sunni areas, they will again ascend to lord it over the Kurds and Shiites.
As a diplomatic event, the funeral of Saudi King Fahd this summer was a command performance for dozens of countries around the globe.
Although most nations sent high-level delegations, Iraq outdid them all. It sent three â one each for the country's Sunni Arab, Shiite and Kurdish communities. They even took separate planes.
Aside from raising eyebrows, the episode served as a public example of how Iraq's ethnic and sectarian divisions complicate the country's efforts to build ties with the Arab world.
The divisions even encompass the Foreign Ministry, where Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis have vied for control of Iraq's foreign policy. Some external affairs officials have questioned their colleagues' loyalty, accusing one another of being agents of Iran or Baathist sympathizers from Saddam Hussein's regime.
With many of Iraq's neighbors angry about the U.S.-led war in the country and uneasy about the democratic experiment unfolding in their midst, a U.S. diplomatic push now underway to win greater support for Iraq from countries in the region is a formidable task, those following the effort say.
"It's a crucial part of our overall strategy," said James Jeffrey, senior advisor on Iraq to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and part of the current diplomatic effort. Iraq's Arab neighbors "are the key to stabilization, first for Iraq and then for the region," Jeffrey said.
The U.S. campaign is focused on persuading Iraq's mostly Sunni Arab neighbors to nudge their Iraqi brethren to join the political process, yet also to reach out to Iraq's Shiite Muslims and Kurds, who are politically dominant in the new Iraq after decades of subjugation under Hussein, a Sunni.
These Sunni-ruled nations, already suspicious of Shiite Iran, find the emergence of a second Shiite-dominated government in the region deeply unsettling.
U.S. officials say the administration's message to these worried neighbors has been simple: If they don't reach out to Iraq's Kurds and Shiites, the only alternative for those Iraqis would be Iran. Tehran already has strong links to major Iraqi Shiite political parties and is believed to supply arms and money to Shiite militias in the southern part of the country.
"I'm not sure we're convincing them, but they understand we're serious," said a senior administration official who declined to be identified because of the subject's sensitivity. "It's a question of getting them off the fence."
Rice is continuing the push this week with stops in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Rice said that during her stop in Jidda, she would press the Saudis to do more to encourage Iraqi Sunnis to join the political process and vote in the December election.
"It's very high on my agenda," she told reporters accompanying her on the trip. "Obviously, we want as much Sunni participation as possible in the next election, and the Saudis have a lot of contacts â tribal and other contacts â that I'd hope they'd use and would press the Sunnis to be involved and be involved in a constructive way."
At a news conference in Baghdad on Friday, she urged Arab countries to establish diplomatic relations here. "There are many embassies and ambassadors here, but not a lot from the Arab world," she noted.
Rice's meetings follow recent visits by other senior U.S. officials to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to encourage greater political and economic support for Iraq's beleaguered new government. During Senate testimony last month, Rice said the administration was also considering trying to open direct ties with Iran via the two countries' embassies in Baghdad.
U.S. and Iraqi officials suspect that many insurgent groups draw financial and logistical support from groups in neighboring countries, including Syria and Saudi Arabia. Iraqi and U.S. officials have complained that those governments are doing too little to crack down on insurgent elements within their borders.
The U.S. is also trying to pry loose billions of dollars for Iraq's reconstruction that Arab countries pledged more than two years ago at a donor's conference in Madrid. U.S. officials complain that of about $1.8 billion offered by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, only $75 million â from Kuwait â has so far arrived.
Achieving greater cooperation between Iraq and its neighbors is complicated by a series of factors, including a dearth of routine diplomatic contacts.
Many Arab nations have withheld full diplomatic ties as a sign of their displeasure with the U.S.-led military presence, and Iraq has ambassadors in only a few of the 23 nations that make up the Arab world. Only Jordan has fully staffed its embassy in Baghdad, Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Labeed Abbawi said.
Part of the problem is security in Baghdad. Earlier this year, Al Qaeda militants kidnapped and executed an Egyptian envoy. The Jordanian Embassy was bombed in August 2003, and an Arab League delegation preparing for the visit last month of the group's secretary-general, Amr Mousa, was ambushed on the capital's outskirts. Three security guards were slain.
The divisions within Iraq's Foreign Ministry merely add to the difficulties of creating meaningful ties. Iraqi diplomats acknowledged that the nation's foreign policy is still being contested internally.
"One of the main obstacles keeping us from reestablishing relationships with other Arab countries is the Foreign Ministry itself," acknowledged Safia Taleb Souhail, Iraq's outspoken ambassador to Egypt. "Some of our diplomats are Saddamists, others just want to have a job and then there are a few who really believe in the new Iraq."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/13/2005 06:29 ||
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"Iraqi diplomats acknowledged that the nation's foreign policy is still being contested internally."
We understand perfectly. At least Condi and the new hand-picked people are pulling their weight and plugging away. Certainly a thankless task most of the time. Thanks, Condi, Bolton, et al. Regards the careerist moonbats, kill yourselves.
In this rundown industrial town where the al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was born, residents expressed anger, skepticism and dismay Saturday that one of their own could be behind Amman's triple bombings that killed 57 people, mostly Arabs and Muslims.
"If there were still any people with any sympathy left for al-Zarqawi, it's gone now. It has backfired on him," said Zuheir Najjar, 45. "What does an attack on a wedding with women and children have to do with fighting the Americans?"
Al-Zarqawi's group, al-Qaeda in Iraq, sought in a Web statement to justify the attacks, accusing Jordan's government of launching a war on Islam and supporting the U.S. presence in Iraq.
But in the desert town of Zarqa, 15 miles northeast of the capital Amman, many regarded Wednesday's bloody attacks as a barbaric act that had nothing to do with Islam.
"Any person who would do such an act must be considered a heretic," said Abu Ibrahim, a 56-year-old merchant standing outside his shop, several hundred yards from al-Zarqawi's high-walled house, where his relatives still live.
A small light was on at al-Zarqawi's two-story family home and shoes were seen at the doorstep, but nobody answered reporters who came knocking on their door Saturday.
Close by, neighbors sat warming themselves around a metal bin filled with flaming coals, drinking tea and coffee and discussing politics.
Some voiced anger of al-Zarqawi's attack on fellow Jordanians, but others were unsure that he was involved at all, saying it could have been a bogus claim.
Others blamed Israel, which despite its 1994 peace treaty with Jordan is still seen as a pariah by many here, who trace their roots back to the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
"I don't even know if the man is still alive or not," Abed el-Momany said of al-Zarqawi. "I would not discount the Israeli Mossad. Israel is the worm in the Arab world," he added.
Ayman Tawalby, sitting cross legged on the ground and stroking his Osama bin Laden-style beard, said he opposed any terrorist attacks inside Jordan.
"I support the resistance against the Americans in Iraq and against the Israelis everywhere," said the unemployed 47-year-old. "Those are our enemies. But I don't support bombing innocent civilians."
In the town's center, Nabil Daoud said he supported bin Laden when he fought the Soviets and, later, the Americans in Afghanistan, just like he backed al-Zarqawi's insurgency against the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq.
"But when they started targeting Muslims, I stopped sympathizing with them," said Daoud, who is in his early 20s. "I don't understand it anymore."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/13/2005 06:24 ||
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The leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, dispatched three men, and possibly a woman as well, from Iraq to carry out the suicide bombing attacks here on Wednesday night, Jordanian security officials said Saturday.
Jordanian security, they said, has foiled some 150 attempted attacks by Mr. Zarqawi's group since April 2004 - and another 10 this year alone. The officials spoke on the condition that they not be identified because their work is covert.
They described Mr. Zarqawi as increasingly frustrated at not being able to export his brand of terrorism - indiscriminate and aimed at civilians - out of Iraq.
While the investigation into the bombings, which hit three major hotels and left 57 people dead, is still in its early stages, the security officials said they had begun to sketch the architecture of the attacks and had concluded that they represented a significant shift in tactics from Mr. Zarqawi's many previous efforts here. This time, they said, Mr. Zarqawi appears to have purchased and assembled all of his materials - including the suicide belts - outside of Jordan, and relied on non-Jordanians to carry out the strikes. The agents said the other attempts were aimed at embassies and government offices, which are generally well-protected. Wednesday's attack involved so-called soft targets.
"Anybody can go to a hotel with a pistol and kill people," one security official said. "You don't have to be Zarqawi to do that."
Three days after the attacks on three downtown hotels, officials have begun to release details of the investigation. Investigators said they had 14 suspects in custody and had located at least one safe house that was used by a cell that carried out the attack.
They said the bombers came from Iraq, crossing into Jordan with the tools of terrorism on Nov. 7. King Abdullah said in interviews with CNN and the state-run news agency that there were four suicide bombers, including a woman, and that they were all members of Mr. Zarqawi's group. The officials said they had identified the three men and would name them at a news conference on Sunday.
"I think that to walk into the lobby of a hotel to see a wedding procession and to take your wife or your spouse with you into that wedding and to blow yourself up, these people are insane," King Abdullah said in an interview on CNN.
The hardware of the attack has so far been easiest to determine. The security officials said the bombers wore suicide belts packed with RDX, a military explosive. The detonators, they said, were, in a novel move, taken from grenades. The hand grenades and explosives were made in Yugoslavia, the officials said.
Hand-grenade detonators would be safer to carry over long distances, they said, because a pin must be pulled to set them off.
The possible role of a woman has stymied the investigators. In the many years of investigating Al Qaeda-related activities, they said, never before had they found a woman involved in such work in Jordan.
Security officials said they believed that the bomber who walked into the Radisson SAS Hotel and blew himself up in the middle of a wedding party was accompanied by his wife, perhaps to make him appear less suspicious. That would seem to confirm a claim attributed to Mr. Zarqawi saying that one attack was the work of a husband and wife. The investigators said they did not know whether the woman also blew herself up, or whether she survived.
A large portion of the investigation, until this point, has involved forensic examination of body parts. The investigators said they had a piece of brain matter that a DNA test had shown to be from a woman, but it had not yet been matched to any of the known victims. Investigators said that they had already disinterred one female victim to check the DNA, but that it was not a match.
Jordan and Mr. Zarqawi have been waging war against each other for more than a decade. Mr. Zarqawi was sentenced to life in prison in Jordan in the early 1990's, after returning from Afghanistan, where he had been immersed - from the sidelines - in the world of the mujahedeen fighting the Soviet Union. He was released from prison in 1999 during a general amnesty, and ever since he has been trying to launch attacks in Jordan, the officials said.
"This is personal," said one. "It is a war, a long war."
With his role in the insurgency in Iraq drawing support from many Arabs, Mr. Zarqawi has transformed himself from what Jordanian officials described as a thug and street criminal into a terrorist with money and resources at his disposal. The security officials said Mr. Zarqawi had two wives and that one of them, Intisar, was living with him in Iraq. They also said they had information saying that Mr. Zarqawi now wore an explosive belt at all times, and that he had worked to change his appearance, removing a tattoo from his arm and putting on weight.
One security official, who said he had questioned Mr. Zarqawi on several occasions, described him as vengeful, and recalled that he would insult his interrogators as apostates, or infidels.
"He is a very mean person who holds a grudge," the official said. "He will never forget a bad word said about him He is very vindictive and always looks for revenge."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/13/2005 06:14 ||
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A 174-member unofficial Pakistani delegation has reached Israel; BBC Radio quoted Al Jazeera Television as saying on Saturday. The objective of the Pakistani delegationâs visit was not known, BBC said. The delegation consists of religious leaders, businessmen and academics, the radio reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Getting jumpy about the military tech India is getting from Israel.
Malaysia's Islamic opposition party on Sunday asked Indonesia to provide evidence that terror suspect Azahari bin Hussein was the mastermind of several terrorist attacks in that country.
Abdul Hadi Awang, president of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), said his party was against all acts of terrorism but not fully convinced that Azahari -- shot dead by Indonesian police last week -- had masterminded the attacks.
"I fear that the allegations against Azahari could be like the allegations made against Iraq (possessing weapons of mass destruction)," Abdul Hadi told reporters.
"Until today, there is no proof (of Azahari's involvement). We want a fair investigation into the allegations," he said.
Azahari, a former university lecturer and alleged explosives expert, was accused of helping coordinate four deadly strikes by the al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia since 2002, including last month's Bali bombings.
He has spent the last three years on the run.
Abdul Hadi said there has not been sufficient proof to back the accusation, which he claimed was made based on media reports and allegations by the United States.
"We should not bow down to the United States' imperialist agenda," he said.
Abdul Hadi stressed, however, that his party supported the efforts taken by the Malaysian government to fight terrorism, and has been telling its members that killing civilians was wrong.
"In principle, we condemn all acts of terrorism," he said. "If any of our members are found to be involved in terrorist activities, we will sack them."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/13/2005 06:25 ||
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Syrian Information Minister said that more than 300 foreign journalists from different parts in the globe came to Syria to cover the collapse of the "regime" in the wake of the Syrian army's withdrawal from Lebanon last April. Dakhlala pointed out that when those reporters arrived in Damascus they had pre-conceptions and illusions that they will experience up-normal moments as regards the collapse in Syria during and after the pull out of the Syrian army from Lebanon.
In a meeting transmitted by the state ârun TV yesterday, Dakhlala indicated that those foreign journalists took to Damascus streets during the withdrawal of the Syrian army only to be surprised that there is no signs that denoted to the withdrawal. Furthermore, scored of them filmed and recorded these moments. They were definitely shocked and frustrated because they did not see what they expected ---the collapse of the regime! Dakhlala made it clear that the Ministry of Information has invited them to come to Syria. Later on, approximately 1200 journalists from all over the world came to Syria to voice their solidarity and reporting precise data regarding the Syrian policy to wide sectors of the world public opinion. Dakhlala affirmed that the speech of President Bashar Al-Assad will urge the Syrian media to adopt transparency and speed in conveying the right information to citizens as part of combating the smear media campaign against Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Pretty bland. Needed way more juche. I give it a 2.8.
This would be the Conspiracy Theory of the Week, of course.
Syrian media and political sources have accorded much attention as regards the of the Statement of the Turkish lawyer Othman Karhan to Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel the day before that his Syrian client Louai Saqa, detained in one of the Istanbul jails, has informed him that he received an offer from unknown people, who visited him in the prison, to make a false testimony against Syria regarding the assassination of Hariri only to take a great deal of money (US 10 millions Dollars).
Louie would thereby be able to keep himself in beer and cigarettes while he's doing his 25 or so years in a Turkish prison.
Karhan said that his client refused the offer and denied accusations of his meeting with a senior security officer in Damascus and outside Syria with the aim of preparing and planning for an operation to kill ex-Lebanese Premier Rafik Al-Hariri. The said sources indicated that this attempt ensures the accuracy and credibility of what President Bashar Al-Assad cited in his speech as regards that they are seeking to find false witness and not a true one .This is crystal evidence that Syria is acquittal.
Quite a coincident, ain't it?
Sources expressed their anxious over the integrity of the Syrian detainee Louai Saqa. calling for the Turkish authorities to take precautions in order to keep his life and ensuring his safety .
Sources made it clear that this scandal is added to the scandal of the false witness Mohammad Sidiq, who is currently arrested in France, and this is clear evidence that Syria is not involved in the crime.
Meaning, I believe, that Louie contradicts Mohammad, so therefore "yez got nuttin', coppers!"
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2005 00:00 ||
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Syrian official sources said that Damascus has refused the hearing of the six Syrian officials in Lebanon. The sources said that the Syrian Foreign Ministry sent messages to member states in the UN Security Council affirming Syria's keen to cooperate with the International Investigation Committee but within a framework to be agreed upon specially as regards the place of inquiry. The sources added that the Syrian message explains Damascus's stance regarding cooperation .But after discussing the appropriate mechanisms including the place of interrogation. It has been said that amongst suggested places, instead of Beirut, there are Arab and world capitals such as Cairo, Geneva and Vienna.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Dang...surprise meter must be busted. It's stuck on Zero!?!?
Iran insisted yesterday it would carry out all nuclear fuel work at home, rejecting a proposal to outsource sensitive production abroad that aimed to avert an escalation of tensions on Tehranâs atomic program. Igor Ivanov, head of Russiaâs Security Council, was in Tehran with what was thought to be an offer under which Russia might conduct sensitive nuclear fuel work on Iranâs behalf. âIranian nuclear fuel will be produced in Iran itself,â Iranâs Atomic Energy Organization head Gholamreza Aghazadeh said after a meeting with Ivanov. âWhat is important is that the enrichment (of uranium) takes place in Iran,â he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Can we bomb them yet - or do we have to wait for 194 UN resolutions?
#2
This time it's probably going to take a mushroom cloud outside Iran's borders along with a simultaneous telecast claiming credit and a letter to the UNSC signed by every "elected" official in Iran stating same.
#3
Iran insisted yesterday it would carry out all nuclear fuel work at home,
This is really a smart move, it prevents any sabotage by "Foreign Made" components being just "Slightly" off specs, or contaminated.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/13/2005 10:02 Comments ||
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#4
All of you "NUKE THEM" people, take a deep breath and face the real world, they will NOT be "Nuked" not now, not ever, the backlash would be fatal.
They WILL be stopped, but not nuked.
Likewise, they are not going to "Nuke Israel" the jews that do not live in Israel vastly outnumber those that live there, killing a small percentage of your enemy (Jews) in a spectacurlar manner while making the rest (as well as the rest of the whole world) mad as hell is suicide.
AND THEY KNOW IT.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/13/2005 10:11 Comments ||
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#5
RJ,you are thinking like someone with common sense.The MM,like religious fanatics everywhere,lack common sense.If they nuke Israel and die themselves because of massive nuke retaliation,it's all good.Ya see they will then be in heaven with thier 72 virgins.
#6
Problem is there are two different things going on, and folks tend to lump them together.
First group is the scientists, they build the nuke plants and are NOT fanatics (Prevented by the scientific method, no religion can stand up to an analysis)
Second group is the bunch collectively refereed to as the "Mad Mullahs" who are NOT in the scientific community, and cannot be due to their rabid beliefs, this group has NO access to Atomics except by theft.
And "Nere the Twain shall meet," the two are entirely incompatible, "membership" in either one precludes membership (Except cursory) in the other.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/13/2005 11:19 Comments ||
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#7
FDR and Truman weren't scientists either. What's your point?
#8
The point is that the "Mad Mullahs" do not control the atomic weapons.
They want the world to think they have control, but untill a "Mad Mullah" is actualy in charge of the weapons it's all bluster.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/13/2005 13:03 Comments ||
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#9
RNJ - that is pure unadulterated bullshit. The MM control the gov't which controls your first group. A scientist in Iran working on a gov't project is autonomous from teh people who pay their salary, support the facilities, buy the materials, pay the soldiers guarding the facility, build the roads to ....
what are you selling? Or smoking? Jeebus
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2005 13:30 Comments ||
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#10
#4 All of you "NUKE THEM" people, take a deep breath and face the real world, they will NOT be "Nuked" not now, not ever, the backlash would be fatal.
They WILL be stopped, but not nuked.
How refreshing to see someone else here finally recognize the importance of avoiding first use of nuclear weapons, even against terrorism sponsors.
Likewise, they are not going to "Nuke Israel" the jews that do not live in Israel vastly outnumber those that live there, killing a small percentage of your enemy (Jews) in a spectacurlar manner while making the rest (as well as the rest of the whole world) mad as hell is suicide.
AND THEY KNOW IT.
Dang nabbit, for a minute you were doing so well there, RJ
Have you been reading the newspapers lately? Did you manage to catch that little bit about "WIPING ISRAEL OFF OF THE MAP"?
Yes, Iran would much rather kill all of the Jews in one fell swoop. No way that's going to happen.
WATCH MY LIPS MOVE: IRAN HAS ALREADY DECLARED THAT THE ELIMINATION OF ISRAEL, EVEN IF IT SHOULD BRING ABOUT THE COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF IRAN IN TURN, REPRESENTS A WORTHWHILE GOAL.
Having a militarily potent and undefeatable Jewish nation smack dab in the middle of so many Arab countries is nothing more than an endless stinging, nancy-boy sort of humiliation for the world's Islamists.
Iran has inasmuch stated that they will turn their entire country into one vast homicide bomber in the cause of obliterating Israel. The Mullahs already have their finger on the launch button despite it not having been wired up just yet. These maroons control every single aspect of Iranian life, right down to who works on what project, especially the nuclear ones. Why do you think I continue to advocate the immediate decapping of Iran's government?
#11
First group is the scientists, they build the nuke plants and are NOT fanatics (Prevented by the scientific method, no religion can stand up to an analysis)
Err.. there are Pakistani nuclear scientists who are extremely religious, why would Iranians be different?
One pak nuke reactor physicist wrote a paper on extracting energy from Jinns. Another wrote a paper on the "angle of god". Yet another calculated the "speed at which heaven was receeeding from earth".
Then we have the two physicists from the pak bomb programme who journeyed to Afghanistan to meet Osama Bin laden and advise him about bomb technology.
Posted by: john ||
11/13/2005 14:55 Comments ||
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#12
One pak nuke reactor physicist wrote a paper on extracting energy from Jinns.
#13
By combustion.
He hypothesized that since Jinn were not associated with smoke (there are no smoking Jinn in the Koran) then they must have high methane content. One just needed to extract this latent Jinn energy to fuel Pakistan's energy needs.
Posted by: john ||
11/13/2005 15:14 Comments ||
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#14
high methane content
However confused this guy is about the actual source, he's certainly got a nose for analysis.
#15
If Iran is doing U235 concentration underground, it will need electric power and lots of it. If the power plants are underground, they will still be thermal units, meaning that they will need combustion air and a way to reject heat. All these interfaces with the surface will produce visible light (images) and infrared signatures, which can be detected by remote sensors. So the issue is to indentify and catalogue those sites and openings and seal them up like tombs. The question is what effort will it take and when does it need to be done before significant U235 is produced and relocated for weaponizing? Also, Bushehr, the potential source for Pu239 needs to be evaluated. That will have to be neutralized before it is fueled. Time waits for no man.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/13/2005 17:37 Comments ||
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#16
Ditto #1, bomb the mofos into the stone age.
Posted by: Captain America ||
11/13/2005 18:05 Comments ||
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#17
Unfinished business from the Peanut Farmer's tenure. Suspect it will all depend upon who Iran buddies up with on the technology and fusion support and assistance front. I wouldn't rule anything out.
#18
I've done Rantburg a disservice. I'm reading more and seeing that there are actually civil and well reasoned discourses going on. I apologize.
I agree with RJ and those who think Iran, despite a clerical structure, is ultimately pragmatic. There will be no irrational bombing forays. After all it would be suicide for Iran. I don't buy the madmen fear mongering.
To push the logic here a bit is it possible that an Iranian nuclear capability might actually play a stabilizing role in the region providing the U.S. and Israel are not hellbent on doing anything to stop it? (If this strikes you all as crazy talk all I can say to explain is that this is how unconcerned I am about Iran being the source of a nuclear threat. I just don't buy the fear mongering even after Ahmadinejad's comments). I think the U.S. and Israel hellbent on Iran is more likely to lead to instability in the region than anything.
With Pakistan, India, China, Russian and, of course, Israel having nukes, if I were Iranian I'd think it an absolutely neccesity in the interest of the preservation of the state.
#19
I don't have an unalterable opinion about the Iranian government's pragmatism. But I was around when colleagues of my husband, i.e. others in uniform, died attempting to rescue hostages taken by the current Iranian leader.
It does not incline me to TRUST they will be pragmatic once they have nuclear weapons in deliverable form. I tend to take them at their word - reiterated for 30 years - that they desire the destruction of Israel and the US and will do so until the evidence suggests strongly otherwise.
Civil discourse in this case means agreement with the LLL. A rational, pragmatic Asshat government!? Show me the evidence. Technocrats independent of the Asshat government!? Show me the evidence.
Where Iran is concerned, we must evaluate and make decisions based on capabilities. The Asshats have made their intentions perfectly clear.
#22
#19: I don't have an unalterable opinion about the Iranian government's pragmatism. But I was around when colleagues of my husband, i.e. others in uniform, died attempting to rescue hostages taken by the current Iranian leader.
The D1 event falls squarely on the stooping shoulders of a gutless peanut farmer, the president who.... won't go away.
#23
Listen to me! I am a moral authority. I read Ecce Homo in college and got an A on my term paper on Derrida. Bow before my superior intellect, you red state plebians and thank me that I've blessed your website with my pithy comments and near omniscient insight on matters great and small.
#24
Thanks for the name calling and condescending lectures. Know what? Maybe I deserved it. I'll take it as such. That's fine. Besides enough of you seem to enjoy the name calling most of all. All the power to you. Even you name callers have to admit there are more than just a few name callers here and nothing more. You've read the responses.
Take a threat seriously, sure. Iran, however, has reasons to fear the madmen in the west who orchestrate justifications for bombing, destruction and dispossession. They have good reason to fear the violence surrounding them will become violence against them. I can understand how they might view a nuclear capability as a means to preventing: an attack, a destruction of their culture artifacts, a regime change and a control of their oil supply.
#25
useful tool, more likely - apologist for the basij who beat the women for showing ankles. Apologist for mullahs who hang girls from cranes. Name calling? I say "disgusting" fits nicely
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2005 20:34 Comments ||
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#26
"Iran, however, has reasons to fear the madmen in the west who orchestrate justifications for bombing, destruction and dispossession."
There is, in that one demonstrably pretentious disingenuous Kool Aid addled sentence, the reason you will not be taken seriously. Flush the faux reasonable discourse gambit. You're either a toolfool or a troll. It doesn't matter.
#28
"Iran, however, has reasons to fear the madmen in the west who orchestrate justifications for bombing, destruction and dispossession."
It should stand out. It is true. It is true their fear is justified. It is true that the bombing of countries often involves orchestrated justifications. This is not even a controversial point. It is just true.
Further, it isn't about my being taken seriously (by .com or whomever). You'll take seriously whatever fits within your perspective. That's your issue.
In my contribution, it is about me being serious irrespective of how you take me. Iran has more to fear from the U.S. (Israel) then the U.S. (Israel) have to fear from Iran. It is just true whether you take it seriously or not.
#36
(Sigh) Okay, a bit of rebuttal; the claim is that the "Mad Mullahs" control the Government by controlling the people,
By the way, the bit about generating power from Djinns was hilarious, and I bet was intended to be humor, scientists have a funny bone too.
Does anyone recall the bit about generating rotating force by tying a buttered bread slice to a cat's back, since buttered bread always lands butter down, and since a cat always lands on it's feet, the combination will simply hover in air spinning madly, just hook up to a generator for free endless power.
Follow the reasoning a bit deeper and you'll find a serious flaw.
Example,
Pat Robertson is a "Highly respected Religious Leader" (Just ask him) and has millions of followers, who work in all phases of society, including the Government, and the Atomic Industries, therefore Pat Robertson controls the Government and the Nuclear weapons.
Snickering yet?
Pat Robertson can call for a Nuclear Strike until hell freezes over, but it won't happen on HIS say so.
'Course if one does occur, he'll claim it's his influence with God that made it happen. (Yeah, Sure)
See the flaw in this argument that the "Mad Mullahs" control the nukes?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/13/2005 22:38 Comments ||
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#37
nope. Robertson controls no phase of gov't nor does he have theocratic authority over this nation.... not even his own church if he keeps up his sh*t. Nice try
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2005 22:46 Comments ||
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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Syria for the âarbitrary detention of human rights activists.â
âWe would like to see an end to the arbitrary detentions of democratic and human rights activists,â she said adding that the US continues to support the Syrian peopleâs aspirations for liberty, democracy and justice under the rule of law. She was earlier quoted telling reporters traveling with her that the Syrians should stop trying to negotiate and cooperate with the UN commission investigating the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara, who held meetings with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa on the sidelines of the forum, shot back, saying her country was unable to understand the relationship between Syria and Lebanon. âWe are for dialogue,â he said.
At a news conference at the conclusion of the forum, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned that it would be a grave mistake for countries in the Middle East to resist reforms because of the assumption that these were American ideas. âAmerica is a great country, but democracy began in Greece just across the Mediterranean,â Straw pointed out.
Sigh!
Democracy was invented in Greece 2500 years ago. It flourished briefly, then was replaced by a succession of authoritarian systems. The Byzantine Empire had much more in common with its neighboring oriental potentates than with the Athenian demos.
Historically, democracy's been a fairly fragile flower, susceptible to blight from oligarchies. The concept of individual freedom, on the other hand, has been evolving over the course of centuries, with the Magna Carta being merely the codification of the rights the English barons had carved out for themselves. The story of the extension of those rights is long and intricate, exclusively Western, and almost exclusively British and American.
We're trying to export democracy and hoping the that result will be the same kind of sloppy hodge-podge of democracy and (small r) republicanism we've evolved into. Chances are that's not going to happen, or if it does, that it'll be a brief experience. Social democracy and its attendant statism is always waiting to impose themselves. They seem to make ever so much more sense that having a bunch of people arguing with each other and cutting deals and generally chasing after their own interestes, and there's lots of money to be made in managing an economy.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
But I give George Bush and Condelezza Rice credit for recognizing that the survival of France and Europe depends upon changing the value system of that septic swamp called the Middle East.
Posted by: john ||
11/13/2005 8:32 Comments ||
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#2
Social democracy ensures there will be a dictator and his cronies in charge while true constitutional republicanism lets the people have self-determination, putting them out of power and without a cash cow for self-appointed benefactors. Dangerous ideas, whether in the Middle East or in Europe.
#3
An accountable representative republic, not a democracy. When it's the topic of conversation we should be more precise. Democracy petered out in Greece for a reason. It doesn't work too well.
Can you imagine Colin Powell having to do this? And outside of DC, at that.
Pressure on Lebanese President Emile Lahoud to resign has been rapidly mounting after UN investigators questioned him concerning the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Lahoud was interviewed as a witness by two UN investigators at the presidential palace late on Friday, a statement from his office said.
Lahoud has been under the spotlight since last August when Lebanese authorities arrested three former security chiefs and the current head of the republican guards Mustapha Hamdan. Pressure on the president to step down intensified following last month's UN report, which stated that Lahoud received phone calls from a suspect shortly before the massive bombing that killed al-Hariri. "The president told (investigators) the true and accurate information concerning what has been reported about phone calls to the presidential palace before and after the deplorable crime," said the presidential office in a statement.
Keep an eye on this. I think that when Emile finally goes, it's going to be a sign that Baby Assad isn't far behind.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2005 00:00 ||
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#4
Ja, one of the most severe cases of BDS I have seen in my many years of practice. I recommend at least a month of hospitalization under heavy sedation, preferably what he used in college, followed by 12 step group therapy with John Kerry, Tom Daschle and Howard Dean.
JKLF has claimed that some criminals and Pak army men were taking away the vital organs from those killed in the killer quake in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) to make a quick buck. Besides this, criminals were taking away children and women for selling, JKLF's Diplomatic Committee Chairman Shabir Choudhry said in a statement. "While the earthquake has brought untold miseries and suffering to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan, some selfish and criminal minded people have made business from plight of these unfortunate victims," he said.
JKLF is extremely concerned about looting and kidnapping of Kashmiri children and women by organised groups who came from various parts of Pakistan and did not hesitate in taking out body organs of victims and selling them, he said. "What hurts us that apart from some criminal minded civilians, some army men were also involved in selling items designated for the earthquake victims," the statement added.
He said the authorities in PoK and Pakistan have exposed themselves that they have no civil defence system and are incapable of dealing with any disaster, natural or otherwise. Kashmiri leaders, including Yasin Malik, by offering relief money are not helping victims but are supporting corrupt leaders in PoK as their record shows that money might not get to the affected people, he said.
Posted by: john ||
11/13/2005 06:37 ||
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#1
Bullshit, there's no way to preserve any organs from anyone deceased, you have to get them from the still living or they're useless.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/13/2005 9:54 Comments ||
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#2
This is the JKLF - premier seperatist bullshit organization in Kashmir. Lies are normal for them.
What I find interesting is that they are attacking their Pak army sponsors...
Posted by: john ||
11/13/2005 10:08 Comments ||
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In Washington, D.C., last week, intelligence officials at a brainstorming session debated whether Al Qaeda's top commander had gotten his hands on nuclear materials. In Dublin, U.S. investigators met with counterparts to look into a financier allegedly funneling money to the Qaeda boss. In Amman, Jordan, as three American-owned hotels mopped blood off their floors and hospitals tallied 57 dead from the country's worst terrorist outrage, no one doubted who was to blame: the same Qaeda bigwig. It wasn't Osama bin Laden who had everyone's attention. It was the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
Afghanistan used to be the place to go for terrorist training, funding and real-world experience in battle. Not anymore. Iraq has become, in President George W. Bush's words, "the central front" in the war on terror. And compared with distant Afghanistan, Iraq has more fighting, more people, more money and a far better strategic position in the heart of the Middle East. If Afghanistan under the Taliban was a backwoods school for terrorism, Iraq is an urban university. "Bin Laden and Zawahiri remain in the leadership's safe haven in Afghanistan," says a senior Taliban official who uses the nom de guerre Abu Zabihullah. "But Iraq is where the fierce encounters take place, where we recruit and dispatch fighters and where jihad's spirit thrives."
The suicide bombers Zarqawi sent to slaughter hotel guests and wedding parties in Amman on Nov. 9 (a date that in Jordan would be written "9/11") were all Iraqis, according to a Web site used for Qaeda pronouncements. But Zarqawi is also suspected by European officials of running or inspiring cells in Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands, as well as an underground railroad for terrorists between Iraq and Italy. American intelligence officials believe his network is trying to recruit in the United States.
U.S. officials are also increasingly worried that a global underground of financiers that once served Al Qaeda in Afghanistan is now aiding the Iraqi insurgency. Treasury officials have specifically designated a Libyan in Dublin, Islamic journalist Ibrahim Buisir, as a terrorist financier. "Especially given the merger between Al Qaeda and Zarqawi's group," a U.S. official says on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, "we are concerned that Buisir may be helping to finance the [Iraqi] insurgency." (Buisir denies the charge, telling NEWSWEEK, "I'm not involved in anything... your country has gone crazy.") French investigators worry that 10 of their fellow citizens killed or captured while fighting in Iraq may be just the beginning of a wave. "Iraq is a great black hole that is sucking up all the [radical] elements in Europe," French antiterrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere told BBC Radio recently, worried that such radicals already are returning home with more knowledge and training.
Sitting there in the middle of that hole is Zarqawi, a Jordanian who until the Iraq war was a relative nobody as terrorists go. "He was a small man, with a small group, in a small jail," says Jordanian journalist Abdallah Aburomman, who spent three months in the same prison with Zarqawi in 1996. Zarqawi's jihadist views were even more extreme than bin Laden's at the time, says Aburomman, who was jailed on political charges. "The Taliban were trying to win Afghanistan's seat in the United Nations, and he said, 'Why do they want to belong to an infidel organization?' "
As Zarqawi became increasingly successful in Iraq, through a combination of brazen suicide attacks and gruesome propaganda videos, he publicly appealed to bin Laden for support and pledged to follow his lead. Bin Laden responded by anointing him "emir" of Al Qaeda in Iraq, and lavishly praising his newfound protege. Zarqawi gained recruits, and made common cause with Saddam's Baathist followers, whom he had long bitterly denounced. Even in Jordan, where he was widely despised before the Iraq war, a semiofficial poll in August (quickly suppressed) suggested that 70 percent of Jordanians approved of Zarqawi's actions in Iraq.
That popularity is unlikely to survive last week's outrages. The suicide bombers targeted weddings and a family gathering entirely of Arabs, mostly Jordanians. The only Americans killed were Syrian-born filmmaker Moustapha Akkadâwho produced the "Halloween" series, and directed such movies as "The Message" and "Lion of the Desert"âand his daughter Rima, who had come from Los Angeles to attend a friend's wedding. Jordanians protested in the streets for the next two days, denouncing Zarqawi as a coward and cheering Jordanian King Abdullah II. In the wake of that public rebuke, Zarqawi put a statement on the Web attempting to justify his targets as "centers of unbelief and prostitution."
Jordan's powerful intelligence agency, the General Intelligence Department, had foiled several of Zarqawi's plots when he operated in Jordan many years ago. His only successful attack there until this year was the 2002 assassination of an unprotected American official, USAID director Lawrence Foleyâand even then, the perpetrators were quickly apprehended. But last August, Zarqawi's outfit managed to smuggle missile launchers from Iraq to Aqaba, Jordan's port near the Egyptian and Israeli borders. Attackers fired a rocket at a U.S. warship, missing it but killing one person.
Many Jordanians blame the hotel bombings on the presence of huge numbers of Iraqis who have fled to Jordan since the war. The exiles number half a million or moreâin a country with only 5 million people. Jordanian intelligence has a hard time keeping tabs on them. "This was a big operation," says retired Jordanian general Ali Shukri, an analyst and former adviser to the royal palace. "They needed three controllers, three safe houses, someone to case the targets, someone to give them the kit. That's a lot of local help." Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba doesn't doubt that his country is exporting terrorists. "This disease is growing in Iraq and unless we put an end to it, it will spread to the rest of the area. Some Arabs who sympathize with [the jihadists] will see consequences of that when this disease reaches them."
Zarqawi has known contacts in Europe. Early this month, British authorities arrested two 22-year-old men and an 18-year-old on terrorism offenses. The two older men had DVDs with suicide-bomb instructions and supposed surveillance photographs of the White House and the Capitol. U.S. counter-terrorism officials, who did not want to be named because their investigations are ongoing, tell NEWSWEEK that one or more of the suspects also had alleged contacts with an online recruiter for Zarqawi, operating under the pseudonym "Maximus." U.S. officials believe Maximus, a purveyor of war-zone "carnage porn" and sappers' manuals, is really a Bosnian from Sweden named Mishad Becktasivic. He was arrested with a Turk from Denmark in an apartment in Sarajevo. Among the furnishings: bomb-making materials and suicide vests.
So far Zarqawi's forays into Europe have been as unsuccessful as his early operations in Jordan. The greater concern is what happens after the war. "Those who don't die... will be the future chiefs of Al Qaeda or Zarqawi in Europe," says the French terrorism expert Roland Jacquard. The war against the Soviets in Afghanistan spawned a generation of jihadists, many of whom returned to their own countries to form new radical groups like Al Qaeda. Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert at RAND Corp., says Iraq has been a "net importer" of terrorists but may be on its way to becoming a "net exporter," one that spawns "knowledge, veterans and operations."
Last May, CIA analysts produced an assessment of how the Iraq war would affect global terrorism; the report was so secret, its very title is classified. A counterterrorism official, who did not want to be named because he was discussing classified matters, says the report's conclusion is that defeat of the insurgency in Iraq would unleash experienced, capable and vengeful terrorists on the rest of the world, and particularly the United States. It's a kind of terrorist Darwinism. Those terrorists who survive, as Jenkins puts it, will be the fittest and the smartestâand they'll be looking for new battlegrounds.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/13/2005 06:32 ||
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#1
This is MSM, inside the beltway crap. Before you can have survival of the fittest, you first have to survive. Most of the outsiders are dead within a few weeks, and it takes a while (like months) to learn enough to be a veteran. Those who survive are returning disillusioned with the Jihad - especially the killing of Iraqi civilians.
The real people to fear are the Iranians, who are keeping their contributions in the shadows.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/13/2005 16:28 Comments ||
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Triple suicide bombings in Jordan this week marked a breakthrough for Islamic guerrilla leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in his efforts to expand the Iraqi insurgency into a regional conflict and demonstrated his growing independence from the founders of al Qaeda, according to Arab and European intelligence officials.
Zarqawi, 39, has sought for years to overthrow the monarchy in his native Jordan. But since he emerged over the past two years as the best-known leader of the insurgency in Iraq, his success in rallying Islamic extremists from other countries to fight U.S. forces there has enabled him to extend his reach and influence, officials and analysts say. His guerrilla network, they say, has established roots in Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
"This is really alarming, if Zarqawi is able to carry out these kind of attacks in Jordan and if Iraq is able to become the headquarters for terror attacks in the region," said Mustafa Alani, senior policy analyst for the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. "We're talking about the emergence of another Afghanistan."
Some terrorism analysts and officials say Zarqawi has already eclipsed al Qaeda's founder, Osama bin Laden, in terms of prominence and appeal to Islamic radicals worldwide. Both want to establish a new Islamic caliphate in the Middle East but have clashed over tactics, such as whether it is advisable to avoid targeting Muslims.
While bin Laden has been on the run for the past four years, largely cut off from the outside world, Zarqawi has attracted hundreds if not thousands of fighters to Iraq and has avoided capture despite the presence of as many as 150,000 U.S. troops. He also has raised his profile by embracing merciless tactics, including videotaped beheadings and suicide attacks on civilian targets, such as the bombings in Amman that killed nearly 60 people at three hotels Wednesday night.
Jordanian officials said Saturday that Zarqawi's group had carried out the attacks, employing three suicide bombers from outside Jordan. A day earlier, the group asserted in an Internet statement that the bombers were four Iraqis -- three men and a woman.
"He's fashioned himself as the most important competitive force to al Qaedism," said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert and director of the Washington office of the Rand Corp., a California-based research group. "For Zarqawi, Iraq is a means to an end, rather than an end to a means. His road runs through Baghdad, but it doesn't stop there. It goes on to Amman, Tel Aviv, Riyadh and perhaps even Western Europe."
Although he has formed an alliance with al Qaeda, Zarqawi has always worked as an independent operator. He met bin Laden in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1999 and received some financial support from al Qaeda, but established a separate Afghan training camp for Jordanian fighters.
Last year, in a letter to bin Laden that was intercepted by the U.S. military, Zarqawi pledged his loyalty and changed the name of his Iraq-based Monotheism and Jihad network to al Qaeda in Iraq. But he also has squabbled with other al Qaeda leaders over tactics, strategy and fundraising.
In July, al Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman Zawahiri, wrote a 16-page letter to Zarqawi that gently scolded him for kidnapping Arabs, killing rivals and sponsoring indiscriminate attacks that resulted in the deaths of innocent Muslims.
"The strongest weapon that the holy warriors enjoy is popular support from the Muslim masses," Zawahiri wrote. "In the absence of this popular support, the Islamic warrior movement would be crushed in the shadows, far from the masses who are distracted and fearful."
The U.S. government and several European intelligence agencies have concluded that the letter is genuine, although some independent researchers have expressed doubts about its authenticity.
Other erstwhile allies of Zarqawi have expressed similar misgivings about his approach. Abu Mohammed Maqdisi, a radical Jordanian cleric who became Zarqawi's mentor when both were imprisoned in the late 1990s, said in August that Zarqawi was hurting their shared cause by launching suicide attacks that often killed Muslim women and children "but barely one or two occupier Americans."
Maqdisi, also known as Isam Mohammad Taher Barqawi, said Zarqawi was making a serious tactical mistake by targeting Shiite Muslims. Shiites make up a majority of the population in Iraq, but Zarqawi, a Sunni, regularly denounces them as apostates.
"I am not ashamed or embarrassed at all to say that I do not sanction it, support it or approve it," Maqdisi told al-Jazeera television in July. "You blow up a Shiite mosque and the Shiites blow up a Sunni mosque and the circle of conflict shifts from fighting the occupier enemy. It becomes communal fighting between two factions who should be in one camp against the occupier."
Zarqawi has ignored the advice and has continued to target Muslims suspected of helping U.S. forces, the Iraqi government and other foes. On Friday, his network posted an Internet statement asserting that it had executed six North African contractors in Iraq accused of "supporting the infidels."
The same day, after thousands of Jordanians took to the streets to protest the Amman bombings and to denounce Zarqawi, his organization posted another statement. It said the Amman hotels were chosen as targets because they were known gathering places for intelligence agents from the United States, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
But the statement also rebuked the protesters, calling them hypocrites for remaining silent about Muslims killed or wounded by U.S. forces in Iraq. "By God, we did not see from them at any time sadness about Muslim spilled blood every day" in Iraq, it read.
Despite their differences, Zarqawi and the founders of al Qaeda share an overarching goal: to unify all Muslim lands under a caliphate, or a single theocratic state.
Since the late 1990s, bin Laden and al Qaeda strategists have sought to accomplish that primarily by attacking what they refer to as "the far enemy" -- the United States, Europe and other nations that have forged alliances with the secular states of the Middle East. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, the train bombings in Madrid in March 2004 and the subway bombings in London last July all were designed to press Western powers to withdraw military forces from the Middle East and cease their support for countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Zarqawi has carved his own path, however, by taking a more direct approach and fighting closer to home, both in Jordan and in Iraq. In contrast with al Qaeda's penchant for airplane hijackings and other catastrophic plots, Zarqawi operates more as a guerrilla fighter, relying on roadside bombs, kidnappings and suicide attacks.
The Amman bombings were not the first time Zarqawi had launched an attack on Jordan from his base in Iraq. In August, his followers fired Katyusha rockets at U.S. ships in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, but missed.
In April 2004, the Jordanian government said it had disrupted a Zarqawi plot to blow up the headquarters of the Jordanian intelligence service. It said the plot involved truckloads of chemical-laced explosives that could have created a gas cloud with the potential to kill 80,000 people.
Unlike bin Laden, Zarqawi has also placed a high priority on fighting Israel and has tried -- unsuccessfully -- to organize bombings and suicide attacks there, according to Arab intelligence sources.
Wednesday's attacks in Amman were intended to be an indirect strike against Israel, analysts and counterterrorism officials said. In a statement asserting responsibility for the bombings, Zarqawi's network called the hotels "playgrounds for Jewish terrorists" and said they were frequented by Israeli intelligence agents.
One reason Zarqawi has pledged to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy is that it signed a peace treaty with Israel. In his bid to destabilize Jordan and pressure U.S. forces to leave Iraq, Zarqawi hopes to weaken Israel as well, counterterrorism officials and analysts said.
"The real goal of Zarqawi is to banish Israel from the region, or even annihilate Israel," Ernst Uhrlau, intelligence coordinator for German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, said at a security conference in Berlin on Thursday. Uhrlau characterized the Amman attacks as an attempt by Zarqawi "to demonstrate the ability to act against Israel from inside Jordan."
European security officials have become increasingly worried that, given his increased stature in the Middle East, Zarqawi might begin to shift his focus to the so-called far enemy as well.
Last month, four Zarqawi acolytes were convicted in Duesseldorf of plotting attacks against Jewish targets in Germany in 2002. Testimony showed that some of them were in regular phone contact with Zarqawi and raised money on his behalf.
The presiding judge, Ottmar Breidling, said there was no doubt who was behind the plots. "Abu Musab Zarqawi should also be sitting on the defendants' bench," he said in court.
Zarqawi has been sentenced in absentia to death for other terrorism plots in Jordan.
Some European intelligence officials said they fear that Zarqawi is becoming a galvanizing figure for Islamic radicals and could eventually take the place of bin Laden as the symbolic head of the movement.
August Hanning, president of Germany's foreign intelligence service, said there were signs of increased numbers of Islamic extremists going to Iraq from Europe to fight for Zarqawi, not because his network had recruited them directly, but merely because his success inspired them to join.
"He functions as a role model. There are groups that believe it is a great honor to be able to carry out attacks in his name," Hanning said at the Berlin conference Thursday. "We have seen how numerous groups, who -- on their own initiative -- have tried to make contact with Zarqawi to work together."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/13/2005 06:27 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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