A march in which protesters chanted violent anti-Western slogans such as "7/7 is on its way" should have been banned, a leading British Muslim said. Asghar Bukhari said the demonstration in London on Friday should have been stopped by police because the group had been advocating violence.
The chairman of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee said the protesters "did not represent British Muslims".
Not more than, oh, 1/3 or 2/5 of them anyway. Where were the Muslim counter-protesters advocating free speech?
Mr Bukhari told the BBC News website: "The placards and chants were disgraceful and disgusting, Muslims do not feel that way. I condemn them without reservation, these people are less representative of Muslims than the BNP are of the British people."
Oh, I wouldn't go THAT far
He said that Muslims were angry over satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published in European papers but it was "outrageous" for anyone to advocate extreme action or violence. "We believe it [the protest] should have been banned and the march stopped.
Or you could have, you know, called up other imams and their communities and cooled them down yourself. Although, I can understand wanting the authorities to do that for you.
"It's irrelevant whether it's Muslims causing hatred or anyone else - freedom of speech has to be responsible."
Police estimated Friday's crowd at between 500 and 700 and no arrests were made.
On Saturday more protesters, organised by the Hizb ut-Tahrir group, gathering outside the Danish embassy in London. It appeared that the rally was far more restrained than the one on Friday. Police later said two men had been arrested near the embassy during the protest. "They were arrested to prevent a breach of the peace, after a search by officers found leaflets including cartoons of the prophet Mohammed," a Met spokeswoman said.
The UN's Kofi Annan has urged Muslims to accept the apology from the paper where the cartoons first appeared.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has praised UK media for not publishing them. Mr Straw said the decision by some European newspapers to print the cartoons was "disrespectful" and he added that freedom of speech did not mean an "open season" on religious taboos.
Of course it does. People with good taste don't have to result to religious insults, but it's there if you want it. When someone in America is disrespectful of Christians, that person is held in contempt, not beheaded.
Flanked by a forest of messages such as, "'Freedom' to insult", a speaker at Saturday's rally told the crowd they were demanding an end to "vilification". "If you want to debate and criticise then we are ready and we have been waiting, but we are not going to accept these images," he said.
I mean, what kind of debate would it be if we didn't automatically win?
He called on "the governments of the Muslim world to completely sever all contact with European governments" until they had "controlled the media".
and then they should control the women and the jews and .....
Among the images which have sparked outcry is one of Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban on his head. Newspapers in Spain, Italy, Germany and France reprinted the material. They have sparked protests across the Middle East.
UK Muslims have denied that the reaction to the cartoons' reproduction has been a threat to freedom of speech.
"No, no, certainly not!"
Inayat Bunglawala, from the Muslim Council of Britain, told the BBC that any kind of cartoon that was derogatory to a race or group in a stereotypical way was "unacceptable".
Portraying people of African ancestry in bigoted terms has (thankfully) become unacceptable in the US, but we didn't behead anyone to stop it. Moral consciousness and strength of character did that.
"Of course Europe has the right to freedom of speech, and of course newspapers have the right to publish offensive cartoons. This was really a question about exercising good judgment," he said.
That's a different argument, and one that the Moose-limb rioters protesters aren't making.
"Knowing full well the nature of these cartoons, they were offensive, deeply offensive to millions of Muslims, these newspaper editors should have exercised better judgment.
Again, a different argument. Why don't you trying making that publicly?
#1
This tempest in a teapot actually goes to the heart of why Islam and the West are incompatible. "Any kind of cartoon that was derogatory to a race or group in a stereotypical way was 'unacceptable'." Even if the stereotype is a true one. The cartoons were originally published making fun of Muslims' penchant for collapsing into frothing rage at the tiniest incident. Here they are, in high dudgeon at a tiny incident.
Calling the publication of the cartoons "unacceptable" is -- dare I say it? -- unacceptable. You can't have free speech and a free press in all respects except for the ones somebody find "unacceptable." There's always someone willing to find something "unacceptable." Look the the assaults made on Mom, the Flag, and Apple Pie in recent years.
They're emphasizing the fact that one side can't coexist with the other. They're doing that because they think that their side is stronger than ours.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 17:47 Comments ||
Top||
#2
any kind of cartoon that was derogatory to a race or group in a stereotypical way was "unacceptable".
Does it apply to cartoons of jooos in the islamic press, Inayat Bunglawala?
Does or does not,
that is the question...
Until you answer in affirmative, you're just a hypocrite, penny a dozen.
US and South Korean forces could defeat North Koreas army, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Friday, but figuring out the secretive states military policy is a difficult challenge.
The United States has about 30,000 troops in South Korea working with about 690,000 South Korean troops. North Korea has most of its million-strong military positioned near the fortified Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that divides the peninsula.
We are fully capable today of defeating any North Korean aggression and we will maintain that capacity, General Peter Pace told reporters.
Pace said that, in defining a threat, the United States looked at the capability and capacity of a potential enemy as well as how they intended to use their military strength. Understanding the intent of the North Korean regime is very difficult, Pace said. Not knowing what their intent is, you need to be prepared to counter if their intent is ill.
Washington is reducing its troop numbers in South Korea, in part because of greater overall commitments elsewhere, such as Iraq, but both US and South Korean officials say the deterrent value of the US force on the peninsula remains crucial.
Pace said the United States was drawing down its troops in Iraq from the total of about 160,000 deployed there for last Decembers elections.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/04/2006 00:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'd like to change that headline by 2 letters and a comma.
#2
I suspect the only things keeping the South below the border are the thought of the cost of rebuilding the North and about 2 million Chinese. However, if we can show the S.Koreans that by us pulling out our military, they can get in good graces with Beijing, I also suspect that part of the equation will be removed.
#4
The Army and USDOD had plans to defeat the NorKors in as little as 60 days. Fat Kimmie does the threatin', the Chicoms PLAAF does the penetratin' and buzzin' ags Japanese airspace. NO MENTION OF TAIWAN!?
SIX teenagers, including a 17-year-old girl, were stabbed during a violent street brawl at Sydney's Bondi early yesterday.
More than 40 people were involved in the brawl, which began after a fight between two rival girl gangs. The injured, all men in their late teens and early 20s, had multiple wounds to the neck, legs, back and arms. Five were taken to the Prince of Wales Hospital and one to St Vincent's Hospital. Two were seriously injured, police said.
It was the first serious violent incident on Sydney's beaches since the December 11 Cronulla riot, prompting claims that police were not adequately resourced to deal with the threat.
The six were injured after one group, described as being of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean appearance and armed with knives and bottles, set upon the other near the Bondi Pavilion about midnight.
Eastern Suburbs local area commander Superintendent Mark Walton said a 12-detective strike force had been set up to investigate the assaults.
Despite concerns about violence on Sydney's beaches in the wake of the December racial unrest, police said yesterday it was unlikely the Bondi attack was racially motivated.
Waverley mayor Mora Main said she was deeply concerned about the attack. "We work co-operatively with the police all the time, and nothing like this has happened for a couple of years, so we are very concerned," Ms Main said.
Late yesterday, police were questioning two men over the incident. One of the teenage victims yesterday described how he was stabbed with scissors in his eyebrow and lips after trying to break up a fight between a group of girls.
"There were about 10 girls who started pushing one another around, punching and fighting," he said. "The next thing we knew, the guys just went for us and suddenly all these other guys jumped over the wall and joined in too."
The victim said one man had been stabbing at people indiscriminately.
Another victim underwent surgery yesterday at St Vincent's Hospital to treat the stab wounds in his leg and hands. He said he and his friends were having a night out drinking when the violence erupted.
"We were just hanging out at Bondi, having a few drinks and chatting," he said. "There were about 10 or 15 of them attacking us. In the end, I looked at my leg and my arm and there was blood coming down."
The fight lasted about 10 minutes, amid a confusion of noise and screams. A third victim was stabbed in his kidney and a fourth in the leg. Another victim was stabbed in his lower back and leg during the brawl. He was rushed to Prince of Wales Hospital and was yesterday recovering at home
#1
Despite concerns about violence on Sydney's beaches in the wake of the December racial unrest, police said yesterday it was unlikely the Bondi attack was racially motivated.
yeeaaaahriiiggghhht just like you said the last ones weren't 3 weeks later.
#2
Two nights ago, my next door neighbour had a car torched. It was parked on the grass verge in front of the house, a common practice here.
We have a fair amount of petty crime, including car break ins, but it's the first time I have heard of car being deliberately set on fire in the area. The incident didn't make the local news, so I have no idea whether this was an isolated case of random vandalism, or a part of a French type trend with similar political implications.
The French newspaper that set off Muslim riots this week by republishing Danish editorial cartoons implying a connection between Islams founder and modern acts of terror, announced today it had reached a negotiated settlement with a leading Islamic group to end the controversy which has sparked boycotts, violence, gunfire and hostage-takings.
We should not have portrayed this peaceful religion, or its Prophet (peace be upon him), as angry, violent, or reactionary, said an unnamed editor of the French daily from his bunker in an undisclosed location. Starting tomorrow, we will atone for our insults to Mohammed (peace be upon him), and demonstrate that we are fair and balanced.
Under the terms of its agreement with the group, Bond of Muslim Brotherhood, the paper will run a series of cartoons portraying Jews as greedy deceivers who control the world from their headquarters in the territory they stole from the Palestinians.
A spokesman for the Islamic cleric group said, We welcome this anti-Semitic gesture as a reasonable first-step toward reconciliation that will allow us to protect the reputation of the Prophet (peace be upon him), as we gradually phase out some of our planned riots, bombings and beheadings.
note to submitters: please do not hilite the text of an article, only your additional quotes. The mods are pretty busy right now and don't have time to rework submissions - they will end up being deleted instead.
#2
UHmmm! Guys, actually, on this subject the US commentators should tone it down.
None of your major medium has published them;CNN is "blurring" .
I understand the many valid reasons behind it (you don't one to stirr things up un-necessarily, while thousands of your soldiers are in harm way), but give the french or the euros some slack.
We are slowly waking up to the threat, and believe me, i predict a major swing to nationalistic or "hard" right parties in coming elections, in EVERY european countries.
The multicultularism is now officialt DEAD in europe.
#3
We don't need it in our papers we are emailing the images around to each other.
You seem to think the press is not showing it because of our troops. The Press hates our troops and would do nothing to help them you see it's a"quagmire" and "failure". If it damaged Bush they would publish them in a heart beat. The reason you are not seening them yet is because of the presses multi-culturial obsession not because they support our country. Most of them don't.
#4
Moslem leaders should be both asking Euro governments what Moslems can do to integrate and be less offensive--and then preach this from their pulpits, or they do not deserve civilized treatment in a civilized society.
You cannot allow the barbarians to live among you and abuse you, any more than you can allow wild pack dogs to roam your streets. Ghettoization is not enough, they must conform to civility or be returned to barbarity.
#5
Ghettoization is not enough, they must conform to civility or be returned to barbarity.
wait til the water cannons turn to live fire and you'll know the endgames on
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/04/2006 15:34 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Nevertheless, I cautiously applaud any awakening on Europe's part.
Frenchfregoli, a lot of us are steaming mad at the nasty contemptuous language thrown our way since 9/11 (and in my experience, for a long longer than that). We believe we've been sacrificing lives, treasure and friendships on behalf of the whole civilized world, while western Europe both free-rides and kicks us in the teeth. It may take a little time for us to trust any growth of spine on Europe's part.
That said, I welcome any and all who rally together to defeat barbarous threats and actions.
#7
It's "nous NOUS rendons", dammit!
If you spoof, spoof correctly, at least, lol.
And it's not too far from the truth, "Le monde" aka "Al Jezeera sur Seine" (copyright MIF) didn't even bother to send its edition with the Plantu cartoon showing the face of old Mo made up of "I won't draw the prophet" lines to its usual overseas dsitributors in muslimland. No "L'immonde" for Tunisia, Morocco,...
The uoif (french muslim brotherhood) is asking for a blasphemy law, and I'm sure they'll get it somehow, the Shiraq regime already has established the Halde (high authority against discriminatiosn and foe egality) which, if the law is soon voted, will enable the islamoleftists (literally) and the PC political commissioners presiding it to fine and publicly shame anyone it might target, regardless of any due legal process. This is anticonstitutional, this is pure PC marshal law, this is a panicked reaction to the november ramadan riots, theses dudes will be able to get just anybody.
This is serious, too bad I can't get you any english language documentation about it.
The deathspiral of Europe has accelerated so quickly theses times it males my head spin.
#8
Couldn't disagree more with the conclusion, lotp.
When Europeans start talking about the hard right what springs into my mind is not Barry Goldwater saying extremeism is the defence of liberty is no vice. Instead I see racist xenophobes who will be happy to match the islamofascists' barbarous threats and actions with their own.
One thing Bush has done well is to avoid turning this into the explicit war of civilizations. As a result we have been able to retain a fair number of parties in theater on our side, at least to some extent. The Islamofascists have now found a way to get the Euros to turn it into a civilizational war. Let them have eachother and their war.
I suggest we don't yet have a dog in this fight. Yet. The Europeans have not been our allies, with the exception of the UK, New Europe and a few others. Let's sit it out until Europe has purged and cleansed itself, at a minimum. We can tsk tsk at Turtle Bay, just as Dominique did until we need to step in. Then we can come in and knock heads so that we get the settlement that works for us.
#9
The more cynical, and perhaps more realistic, alternative to my response.
I understand it - and like you I wonder whether Europe will ever manage a dynamic balance rather than swinging from one extreme to another. I'm cautious on that point.
And as I've commented here, the State Dept. comments that many at RB decry as not supporting the Danish cartoonists sufficiently were indeed intended to avoid destabilizing Karzai and the Iraqi government-in-formation IMO. Karzai's comments on the cartoon controversy deserve more airtime.
#11
I don't think it's just cynical, though I wouldn't deny any cynicism. But our ancestors, the ones from Europe, left there for good reasons. Many, like mine, were crooks who chose transportation to prison or worse. But many others were fed up with the way things were run in Europe. Together they built a society that, while deriviative of, is definitely not European in ourtlook or conduct. We sully our heritage when we pretend that there are no differences between us and those who chose to stay behind in the old country. We are different. We aren't allies, except of convenience. We owe them nothing. They owe us much, but never repay, except the Brits. The reason they are so good to the muzzies is because it is only in comparison to them that the Euros look good. They deserve eachother.
#12
all of our multi-culti HR training could've been boiled down to: get along with those who want to get along with you.
golden rule redux. I have no desire to cut off my muslim neighbor's head. yet.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/04/2006 16:34 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Frank G nails it. I am tolerant of those who tolerate me. Otherwise it's meet Mister Mossburg and and Mister STG58. Something that is simply impossible in most of Europe. A carbq is not possible in my neighborhood.
Pardon for giving you housing and help.
Pardon for giving you an education.
Pardon for helping you economically.
Pardon for letting you freely practice your belief in our christian country.
Pardon for sending help to your countries.
Pardon for not demanding blood revenge for the murders committed by moslems of our compatriots.
Pardon for not running around with dynamite on our bodies when we feel offended.
Pardon for not just doing what your belief dictates.
But there's one pardon you'll never get, and that is for us speaking freely in our country and according to our laws.
#5
The Muslims are asking--no, absolutely demanding--big-time trouble and I think they're going to get it. Wretchard's third conjecture comes closer with every incident. I have a feeling that the first nuclear weapon that goes off over a Muslim capital will be greeted with the same relief and approbation that the far too long delayed bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong received in 1972.
Posted by: mac ||
02/04/2006 10:53 Comments ||
Top||
#6
It is my humble opinion that this is the tipping point for lots of people, this shows the true face of Islam.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/04/2006 14:46 Comments ||
Top||
Belgium has decided against freezing humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territories after the election victory of militant group Hamas, Overseas Development Minister Armand De Decker said.
Tap...tap...nope.
Reports emerged in the Francophone media this week that De Decker had blocked two new aid projects for the Palestinian territories. However, politicians Marie Nagy (green Ecolo), Karine Lalieux (Socialist PS) and Geert Lambert (Socialist Spirit) said the decision was premature given the fact a new Palestinian government had not been formed.
Two commies and a Green. Quelle surprise.
... De Decker said the big question now is whether Hamas will distance itself from violence and officially recognise the state of Israel. But despite his response, politicians Nagy, Lalieux and Lambert remained critical of De Decker, claiming he prematurely punished the Palestinian Authority like a child who might secretly steal a cookie.
They'll steal everything and anything right out in the open.
And then blame you for not anticipating their wants and already giving it to them.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/04/2006 0:26 Comments ||
Top||
#2
But despite his response, politicians Nagy, Lalieux and Lambert remained critical of De Decker, claiming he prematurely punished the Palestinian Authority like a child who might secretly steal a cookie.
What makes these three stooges think that the Paleos wouldn't, if they had the chance?
Fred used the term "Waging law" yesterday. I believe this fits...
A leading French Muslim organisation is to file suit in the courts against newspapers that published disrespectful cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, its leader said Friday. "Writs will be filed this evening in Paris. We are going to register complaints against all the French media that carried the pictures," said Lhaj Thami Brez of the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF). "We want the justice system to protect us. This is an attack against a religion in a country where there is rule of law. The legal institutions will decide. The press is not above the law. Its powers are regulated. Freedom of expression is fine, but religions must be respected," he said. On Wednesday France Soir was the first newspaper outside Denmark and Norway to print all 12 of the controversial drawings, and on Friday the daily Liberation printed two. Le Monde on Thursday commissioned its own front-page drawing of the Prophet a bearded face made up entirely of the words "I must not draw Mohammed."
Good on Le Monde.
The UOIF, which is close to the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood, forms the largest component in the official Council for the Muslim Religion.
#3
Nope, Nimble, they will go back to burning cars and rioting because the "law is prejudiced" and they are "second class citizens". If they lose, more spittle, more rage... Business as usual.
The legal route will ultimately be a disappointment. The money might be good, but nothing beats a good beheading. The rewards won't be satisfying enough just "waging law". Not enough blood.
For those who truly care, the best place for all things Plame is Just One Minute.
A US judge has set a trial date of next January for a top White House aide who faces charges relating to the leaking of a CIA agent's identity to the press. Jury selection for the trial of Lewis Libby starts on 8 January 2007, pushing the case back beyond crucial mid-term elections in November. District Judge Reggie Walton said in Washington he had hoped to start the trial in September, but defence lawyer Theodore Wells was committed to another case. "I hate having the case linger for that long, but I guess there is no alternative," said Judge Walton. Mr Libby's only word in the 45-minute hearing was to say "yes" to agreeing to the trial date. The trial is expected to take about one month.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/04/2006 22:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
EFL from what we already know. This makes it a little more defensible, though I still don't see why State is getting involved in this to begin with.
The Muslim world erupted in anger on Friday over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in Europe while the Bush administration offered the protesters support, saying of the cartoons, "We find them offensive, and we certainly understand why Muslims would find these images offensive."
The State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, reading the government's statement on the controversy, said, "Anti-Muslim images are as unacceptable as anti-Semitic images," which are routinely published in the Arab press, "as anti-Christian images, or any other religious belief."
Still, the United States defended the right of the Danish and French newspapers to publish the cartoons. "We vigorously defend the right of individuals to express points of view," Mr. McCormack added.
At the United Nations, Secretary General Kofi Annan also criticized the publication of the cartoons, but urged Muslims to forgive the offense and "move on."
"I am distressed and concerned by this whole affair," he said. "I share the distress of the Muslim friends, who feel that the cartoon offends their religion. I also respect the right of freedom of speech. But of course freedom of speech is never absolute. It entails responsibility and judgment."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/04/2006 02:43 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I hope this runs and runs because most people will see this for what it is. A bunch of people with an agenda, manufacturing an issue. It has the added bonus that it presents a nice paradox for the Left to tie themselves in knots over.
#3
In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai said: "As much as we condemn this, we must have, as Muslims, the courage to forgive and to not make an issue of dispute between religions or cultures."
We've got a lot invested in Afghanistan and Iraq. While we may not be able to control events, I can understand a carefully balanced message that doesn't put Karzai and the Iraqi officials in an impossible situation with their citizens.
Two things jump out at me about this reaction to the State Dept saying anything: 1) it shouldn't create new problems for the few allies we have in this war -and- 2) the entire world expects a response from the US and the MSM won't let it go until they get one.
So it has to be a rational global response, not some knee-jerk foolishness.
Nearly a year and a half after a final report from American weapons inspectors concluded they could not uncover evidence of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has reopened the question, launching an inquiry and asking the director of national intelligence to re-examine the issue.
Chairman Peter Hoekstra, a Republican from Michigan, is said by his staff to believe that it is too soon to conclude that Saddam Hussein either destroyed or never had the stockpiles and programs to produce biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons that Western intelligence agencies insisted he had before the war.
President Bush and two inspectors he appointed to find the weapons have all said the evidence of the weapons has not turned up, and the president announced shortly after he won the 2004 elections that the search for Saddam's WMD was over. But at the same time, Mr. Hoekstra is not alone in his concerns about the whereabouts of Saddam's arsenal. Prime Minister Sharon and his Israel Defense Force chief of staff during the Iraq war, Moshe Yaalon, have said weapons were transferred from Iraq to Syria before the war, a view also promoted by a former Iraqi air force general, Georges Sada. Senator Clinton last week acknowledged that the possibility is still a live one, saying, "there were no weapons, or if there were, they certainly weren't used or they were in some way disposed of or taken out of the country."
In the weeks before and following the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, at least 10 facilities believed by American, European, and Israeli intelligence to be for the production and research of chemical and biological weapons were systematically looted by members of Iraq's Republican Guard, ordered by the regime's leadership to destroy and hide evidence of the programs, according to current and former intelligence officials from America, Britain and Israel. In interviews with the New York Sun, these officials reflect the position of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld in the months after the war: "The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence."
The chairman of the House intelligence committee apparently has a similar view. "The chairman very much believes the issue of weapons of mass destruction is not settled yet and there are sufficient questions of organized looting, transfer to another country or party or things that may have been missed by the survey group. There are enough questions that need to be answered before anyone can say definitively what happened," a spokesman for Mr. Hoekstra, Jamal Ware, said yesterday.
Mr. Ware yesterday said Mr. Hoekstra is worried that equipment or stocks of biological and chemical weapons could have been transferred to a third country or landed in the hands of terrorists.
The former undersecretary of defense for policy, Douglas Feith, said the question of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction is still open. "People talk about the former Soviet loose nukes problem. The question is whether this is a loose WMD problem," Mr. Feith said. Mr. Feith, who has been vilified for overseeing a tiny group special office in the Pentagon before the war that assembled intelligence on Iraq, said, "We have not found evidence of stockpiles. But there remains lots of open questions because we have not found evidence to confirm what he did with all the stockpiles he had."
Mr. Feith's view that questions remain about Iraq's weapons program is also held by the State Department's chief of Iraq intelligence between 2003 and 2005, Wayne White. In an interview this week, Mr. White, said, "Just as the pre-war WMD intelligence was largely wrong, the conclusion after the war that absolutely nothing was in Iraq could also be wrong."
If Mr. Hoekstra and Mr. Feith are correct that the weapons programs could have been disassembled and may be in enemy hands, the political and diplomatic implications for the Bush administration are complicated. In a sense, it validates one of Mr. Bush's key reasons for going to war. But if the weapons existed and were hidden or sent elsewhere, then the war partially justified to disarm a tyrant who may slip germs, chemicals or even nuclear materials to terrorists may have set off a chain of events that led to the very scenario Mr. Bush was trying to preempt.
This was one line of attack the president's critics took shortly after the war. Writing on May 21, 2003, in Canada's Globe and Mail, Susan Rice, a former assistant secretary of state under President Clinton who would go on to become a foreign policy adviser to Howard Dean during the 2004 election season, raised the prospect of Saddam's missing weapons in terms similar to Mr. Feith. "The richest treasure trove of dangerous WMD material since the collapse of the Soviet Union is on the loose and perhaps far easier for al-Qaeda and other terrorists to acquire than it was under the control of their ideological adversary, Saddam Hussein," she wrote.
Mr. White, who counts himself as a critic of the president's decision to go to war, is confident that organized looting from the regime occurred in the first weeks after the invasion. "Efforts were taken by remnants of the Iraqi intelligence services and Republican Guard to destroy portions of sites known to be associated with WMD," he said. "What does that tell you? If there was nothing to hide, why were these sites destroyed? Obviously there was something there. There is evidence to suggest there were files and perhaps even equipment that was destroyed aggressively in the months following the fall of Baghdad."
Mr. White says that in those months after the launch of the war he would often sit in weekly meetings to go over the Iraq intelligence, hear repeated reports of sites systematically looted or destroyed, and shake his head. "I was not making much of this at the time and it was pointless. In most cases I was turning to a person sitting next to me, thinking it was over. Game over. The main problem we had at the time was insurgency," he said.
While the view that in many cases Iraqis had gotten to the WMD facilities before the Americans may be surprising to many war critics, the final report from the last chief weapons inspector, Charles Duelfer concedes as much. In the preamble of his September 30, 2004 report, Mr. Duelfer writes that his Iraq Survey Group's "ability to gather information was in most ways more limited than was that of United Nations inspectors. First, many sites had been reduced to rubble either by the war or subsequent looting. The coalition did not have the manpower to secure the various sites thought to be associated with WMD. Hence, as a military unit moved through an area, possible WMD sites might have been examined, but they were left soon after. Looters often destroyed the sites once they were abandoned."
Mr. Duelfer writes that looting along with the "chaos of the war" contributed to "the loss of a great amount of potentially very valuable information and material for constructing a full picture of Iraqi WMD capabilities."
Mr. Duelfer's predecessor, in his October 2, 2003 testimony to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, David Kay said, "Deliberate dispersal and destruction of material and documentation related to weapons programs began pre-conflict and ran trans-to-post conflict."
A former colonel for Israeli military intelligence who worked on Iraqi issues, Miri Eisin, says of a transfer of weapons to Syria, "I don't know all of it, but some things went in that route. At the end of the day, it would be the type of things they could hide. This would strike out the biological type things, but they could get chemical weapons, possibly residual missile parts." Other Israeli and American officials say they doubt the weapons were moved to Syria and that intelligence did not confirm the initial reports that the weapons were moved.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/04/2006 01:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"This was one line of attack the president's critics took shortly after the war. Writing on May 21, 2003, in Canada's Globe and Mail, Susan Rice, a former assistant secretary of state under President Clinton who would go on to become a foreign policy adviser to Howard Dean during the 2004 election season, raised the prospect of Saddam's missing weapons in terms similar to Mr. Feith. "The richest treasure trove of dangerous WMD material since the collapse of the Soviet Union is on the loose and perhaps far easier for al-Qaeda and other terrorists to acquire than it was under the control of their ideological adversary, Saddam Hussein," she wrote."
Same old damned if you do, damned if you don't situation with the left. They were the ones clammoring for Bush to go to the UN, a process that took months and gave Saddam the time needed to sprit his WMD stocks to Syria. So, gee, what a surprise that we didn't find much of anything (and of course what we did find was dismissed out of hand).
But I do think that the argument is specious and will be seen that way if this invesitigation, hopefully based on some of the thousands of documents we've uncovered since the invasion, determines that the WMD's existed and were moved.
Busha was right about WMD's, he was delayed by the left and the Euro's (yeah, yeah, same thing) and they are sitting Syria.
#6
There are only so many places to hide them now that they are in Syria. Jordan? Not a chance. Turkey? Ditto. Iraq again? Nope, too many 'merkans. Israel? Oh, that would be fun.
Lebanon? Maybe before but I doubt it now.
So Pencilneck has a real problem with hiding the stuff (if he has it, of course). He might try destroying it, but that requires some technology and expertise. Are the Syrians up to that? Maybe. Maybe not.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/04/2006 18:06 Comments ||
Top||
#7
What's Khaddam saying? He's been awful quiet as of late from his perch in France.
Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas sharply attacked critics of President Bush in a speech Friday and questioned the nations resolve as it wages the war against terrorism.
Speaking before members of the Kansas City Kansas Area Chamber of Commerce, Roberts strongly defended Bushs domestic spying program, which has come under a torrent of criticism from Democrats and some Republicans.
Some critics have even accused Bush of breaking the law by tracking down terrorists with a secret program that intercepts phone calls between the United States and overseas.
But Roberts, the Republican chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, vigorously defended the practice, saying that in a time of war and probable attack, the existing law ties the presidents hands.
Much of the war against al-Qaida is being fought overseas, he said at the Jack Reardon Convention Center. But the war against terrorism is not confined to foreign lands. The war against terrorism is being fought every day in our own back yard. America is a battlefield.
Noting that The New York Times revealed the existence of the spying program, Roberts said he had no doubt that Americas enemies appreciated having another leak peek at the nations security strategies.
Roberts also vigorously defended Bushs domestic spying program on a second front Friday.
With the Senate Judiciary Committee set to hold a hearing on the program Monday, he sent a 19-page endorsement to Sens. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, and Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, the committees chairman and ranking minority member, respectively. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will testify at the hearing.
I am confident the president retains the constitutional authority to conduct warrantless electronic surveillance within the United States, Roberts wrote.
He said that Congress had been fully informed about the program, as required by law, though some critics have complained that only eight legislators had been told.
The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said recently that the program undercut what Congress intended when it passed a 1978 law governing domestic spying.
Roberts, however, did not allude to that report Friday. Instead, he focused on how the debate over national security in Washington had reached a level where partisans risked undermining troop morale and emboldening terrorists.
I fully understand the need and value for debate in a free society, Roberts said. But we should do so with the understanding that words have consequences and their effect not only influences the intended audience, a partisan base or otherwise, but they also affect the morale of our troops in the midst of war and the terrorists who question our resolve.
Roberts did not name any of the administrations critics in the speech, the first half of which focused on the economic successes in Kansas City, Kan.
But in a written statement issued at about the time he was addressing the chamber, Roberts admonished Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean for comparing the Bush administrations domestic wiretapping without warrants to the dark days of President Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew.
Roberts called the remark ludicrous, and said that Nixon had singled out American citizens engaged in activities protected by the First Amendment, not enemies that had attacked the United Stated states and killed thousands of Americans.
He continued: Every American should understand, our terrorist adversaries think of us as dust. Think about that. In their extremist absolutism, our lives, and lives of those we hold dear, have no value. The irony of it is that, in their minds, we are evil, which in turn justifies their acts of evil.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/04/2006 00:44 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee on Friday endorsed President George W. Bush's domestic surveillance program and said the White House was right to inform only a handful of lawmakers about its existence.
In a letter to the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas expressed "strong support" for a program that has raised an outcry from Democrats and some Republicans who believe Bush may have overstepped his authority. The panel is to hear testimony Monday from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the issue.
Roberts said he believes Bush's use of warrantless surveillance is legal, necessary, reasonable and within the president's powers.
"I am confident the president retains the constitutional authority to conduct 'warrantless' electronic surveillance," he said in the 19-page letter addressed to the judiciary panel's Republican chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and its senior Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
The administration, which refers to the eavesdropping as a limited "terrorist surveillance program," says it is justified by Bush's constitutional authority as commander in chief and by the authorization of military force that Congress granted the president after the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Democrats and other critics say the NSA program could violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches, as well as the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the government to seek wiretap warrants from a secret court even during times of war.
Roberts' office released the letter a day after Democrats on his committee aired concerns that the oversight panel and the intelligence community had become part of a White House public relations campaign to defend the NSA program.
"The question I am wrestling with is whether the very independence of the U.S. intelligence committee has been co-opted to be quite honest about it by the strong, controlling hand of the White House," Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia, the committee's ranking Democrat, said at Thursday's hearing.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/04/2006 00:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
An Ohio truck driver who pleaded guilty in a terrorist plot to attack Washington and New York yesterday urged a judge to throw out his plea, in part because he was spied on through President Bush's controversial warrantless eavesdropping program.
Iyman Faris argued that the surveillance violated his rights because it was illegal and that the government therefore could not use it to build a case against him. Faris pleaded guilty in 2003 to plotting with al Qaeda to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge and launch a simultaneous attack in Washington.
A number of terrorism defendants have filed legal challenges to the National Security Agency program in recent weeks, including Ali Al-Timimi, a prominent Muslim spiritual leader convicted of inciting his Northern Virginia followers to train for violent jihad. But Faris is unique because Bush administration officials have acknowledged that he was spied on -- and credited the program with helping to uncover Faris's plot. "We don't have any hard evidence as to what happened with the NSA and Mr. Faris. All we know is what we read in the papers," Faris's attorney, David B. Smith, said in an interview yesterday. "But assuming he was subject to the NSA program, the whole case could be tainted if the original information that led them to Faris was tainted."
Kenneth E. Melson, first assistant U.S. attorney in Alexandria, where Faris was prosecuted, would not comment on Faris's motion.
Stephen A. Saltzburg, a George Washington University law professor, said the acknowledgment that Faris was spied on might make a judge more likely to hold a hearing to examine the allegations. But he said Faris will have a difficult time getting his plea overturned because defendants give up many of their rights to challenge the evidence against them when they plead guilty. "The problem is that he's [pleaded guilty] and accepted responsibility," Saltzburg said.
"Case closed. Next!"
Faris's criticism of the NSA program came as part of a motion in which he argued that his plea should be vacated because his previous attorney gave him ineffective counsel. That attorney, J. Frederick Sinclair, "never asked the government whether Faris had been subjected to any form of electronic surveillance," the motion says.
In a filing that accompanied the motion, Faris accuses Sinclair of pressuring him into pleading guilty and failing to investigate his case. He denied that he targeted the Brooklyn Bridge and said he told the FBI that he had because "they were pressuring me and I felt I had to tell them what they wanted to hear. "
Sinclair said yesterday that Faris's allegations are "without merit." He said he could not have known to ask prosecutors about the NSA program because "it's a top-secret thing. Of course, if anybody knew about it or even smelled it, I would have asked for any information that may have resulted in an illegal wiretapping."
Faris, a Kashmiri-born naturalized U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to providing material support to al Qaeda. Federal officials said he appeared to be a hardworking truck driver but had a secret "double life" that included carrying cash for al Qaeda, providing Osama bin Laden with information about ultralight aircraft and scouting equipment for sabotaging railroad tracks and bridge cables.
Send him back to Kashmir. With an electronic chip. And give the Indians the code.
Officials said Faris was an al Qaeda scout who had planned with top al Qaeda operative Khalid Sheik Mohammed to sever the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge and to derail trains in or near Washington. Court papers say Faris scouted the Brooklyn Bridge and, after concluding that the plot would fail because of the bridge's security and structure, sent a coded message to al Qaeda that "the weather is too hot."
When he was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison, Faris tried to withdraw his guilty plea, saying he had been trying to fool the FBI because he wanted to gather material for a book.
So was he being pressured or was he writing a book? Golly gee, the story changed again.
But U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema rejected the attempt, saying Faris could not admit crimes and then "walk back into this court and say it was all a bunch of lies."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/04/2006 00:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
USN in the Pacific, which is prob why the Spetzies are making trouble in NATO's northern flank, where the USN is NOT. Will say again Dubya & Co. need to be ready to militarily handle Iran, NorKor and TAIWAN simultaneously. Bring back the Draft, or else go back to Cold War manpower levels/spending and 2-1/2+ GLOBAL WARFIGHTING STRATEGY -BETTR SAFE THAN SORRY, BETTER TO HAVE HAVE TOO MUCH THAT GOES UNUSED, THAN TOO LITLE AND SCRAMBLING FOR PARTS AND RESOURCES.
#4
The Lefties will blame Dubya and America anyways for both having the draft as well as not having the draft - NEVER MIND THE DEMS AS VICTORY IS VICTORY.
#5
They haven't made the hard choices, said Lawrence Korb, a Reagan administration defense official who is now a senior fellow with the left-leaning Center for American Progress. You can't fund all of these weapons systems. Korb's think-tank has come up with a proposal radically different from the Pentagon's. Its plan would scrap missile defense, the F/A-22 fighter, the DD(X) destroyer, the Virginia-class submarines and the Marine's trouble-plagued V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. Meanwhile, it would add 86,000 Army soldiers.
Figures. Troops are a relatively inexpensive, fungible asset; they can be RIF'd without a screech from the politicos. Weapons on the other hand...
A man named only as "Ayers" of Arivaca, AZ, is interviewed. He witnessed a Huey type helicopter landing on the Tres Bellotas Ranch 11 miles north of the border on 22 April 2005. Another witness was the driver of a fuel truck on the site to make a delivery.
Ayers, who speaks limited Spanish, said he stood between the truck and the helicopter.
"When I approached them, I saw on their sleeves it said, 'Mexico.' There were five of them. They were fully clad, with masks over their faces. They had helmets on and body armor and were all carrying rifles," he said. "I told them they were in the United States and they had no business here and to go back home."
Ayers said the men held him at gunpoint as the leader kept asking about the truck and finally ordered everyone back into the helicopter and flew away.
Ayers said the men's uniforms said "AFI" on the back in big letters, but he thought they could also be drug smugglers...After the men in the helicopter took off, Ayers tried to call for help with his cellphone but could not get a signal. The Tres Bellotas Ranch has no telephone lines. The tanker driver was able to call authorities from a nearby ranch. Ayers said he waited several hours and then, when no one came, he headed home... Gus Soto, a Border Patrol Agent and spokesman, confirmed there was an investigation into the suspected incursion but said there were "conflicting reports" about what happened from the witnesses.
The tanker driver, contacted by The Republic, declined to be interviewed for this story. The FBI declined to comment...
#1
Will border crossings by Mexican military types be the next UFo craze?
"I saw them land in the helo, They were wearing black suits and sombreros. I went to question them as to their intent, and they rudely anally probed me."
I left a post about this a few days ago, here's more info.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory plans to install high-powered machine guns over the next few months capable of hitting land vehicles or aircraft almost a mile away in the event of a terrorist attack
Should do wonders for real estate values within a few miles of the lab... I know little about weaponry, but I much doubt these would be of use against air attack.
"A lot of people are willing to die if they can kill lots of Americans ... You want to make clear that when they come here to die (by attacking the lab), they die for a failure," the blunt-speaking Brooks said at a press conference at Livermore on Thursday, where he unveiled one of the guns.
He said the guns will be operational later this year after the lab's guards are trained and the weapons and related equipment are purchased. Brooks insisted the Gatling gun purchase is unrelated to a recent announcement that the lab might double its supply of plutonium...the lab's security force [is] employed by Lawrence Livermore and UC [University of California], which runs the lab under contract with the Energy Department.... lab officials want to ensure that in [the event of a "military-style" terrorist attack either from a ground vehicle or an aircraft]..., lab security guards can quell the invasion immediately without any Livermore staff losses.
In November [2005], the Energy Department authorized the lab to increase its amount of stored plutonium to an amount exceeding 3,000 pounds -- enough for as many as about 300 nuclear bombs...The authorization [for the new defensive measures] came three months after an advisory panel to the department urged the lab to ship almost all of its nuclear bomb materials -- estimated to be as much as 1,540 pounds worth -- to a remote, safer site because of the growing suburbanization of the Livermore area to prevent a potential terrorist attack.
2004 Security Failure Exposed
In February 2004, an intruder managed to drive a truck inside the Livermore site security perimeter. During the incident guards failed to activate recently installed pop-up barriers, according to a report six months later by the Energy Department's inspector general.
I'm not an anti-nuclear activist, but I think these facilities should be located in the middle of nowhere. I'm sure the scientists & techs at the lab like living in the Bay Area, but it's just asking for trouble.
#3
To anyone who lives in the Bay Area, Livermore is in the middle of nowhere.
Not in recent years. The exorbitantly high price of housing here in the South Bay has driven many people further eastward, Livermore among those destinations. If you're ever in the area, take a drive on Vasco Rd. south from I-580; after about a half a mile LLNL (that's what it's called on signage in the area) will be visible on the left. But to the right is the eastern edge of a tract of homes built within the last ten or fifteen years.
As for the machine guns, here's a video of a news clip on this from a local TV news prog. (click on the link labeled: "Lawrence Livermore Adds Big Gun")
#5
Just because people move to Livermore doesn't matter. It's still nowhere.
Even when Livermore was less populated, it was never really considered to be a nowhere sort of place, because its proximity to the Bay Area is well within what would be considered a reasonable drive distance.
Looking for a perfect example of Nowheresville? I have just the place: Hawthorne, NV.
The U.S. government claims alleged terror operative Jose Padilla admitted attending an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan and acknowledged plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" inside the United States or destroy apartment buildings with natural gas explosions in major U.S. cities.
But none of that evidence, contained in Defense and Justice Department documents, is likely to be heard by a Miami jury when Padilla goes on trial in September on far less serious charges of conspiracy and providing material support to a terrorist organization.
Padilla made those admissions to U.S. interrogators during the 3 1/2 years he was in military custody as an "enemy combatant," according to the government. Because he had no lawyer present and was afforded no constitutional rights during the questioning, most of what he said can't be used in civilian court and none of it is mentioned in a criminal indictment against him.
"It's like the government is playing games," said Scott Silliman, a Duke University law professor who specializes in national security issues. "The defense could raise these issues. The government is going to have to explain why they aren't going after much stronger charges."
Padilla, 35, is a former Chicago gang member and Muslim convert with a lengthy criminal record who was arrested May 8, 2002 at O'Hare International Airport on a material witness warrant. A month later, President Bush designated him an "enemy combatant" who was described as plotting to use a "dirty bomb" in a major U.S. city.
Padilla, a U.S. citizen, became the focal point of a fierce debate over the limits of presidential powers during wartime, focusing on how long the government could hold an American without bringing criminal charges.
"It was a tactic to avoid the rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution," said Jeffrey Harris, a Fort Lauderdale attorney who is president-elect of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "The government has been trying to avoid scrutiny of the facts."
The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to accept Padilla's case, which could produce a landmark ruling on that issue. If the high court does take the case, that could result in a delay of the Miami criminal trial, some legal experts say.
Amid that debate, the Bush administration decided in November to drop the "combatant" designation and give Padilla what he sought for years: a chance to answer criminal charges in court. He is accused along with four others of taking part in a North American terror support cell that provided money, supplies and recruits for violent Islamic jihad worldwide.
Charges of material support have been among the U.S. government's favorite legal weapons in the war on terror since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Prosecutors have won major convictions and guilty pleas - "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh and cells in Oregon, New York and Virginia among them - but also have lost some cases, including that of former Tampa college professor and alleged Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami al-Arian.
The material support law, first passed by Congress in 1996, was strengthened in 2001 by the Patriot Act. But winning convictions often depends on whether the person being accused of helping terrorists can be tied directly to any violent acts, legal experts and defense attorneys say.
"If the government does not so tie him, this may weaken the case in the jury's eyes," said Carl Tobias, law professor at the University of Richmond.
Evidence disclosed so far against Padilla includes a mujahideen application he allegedly filled out to attend the al-Qaida training camp and a series of telephone intercepts, most of them in Arabic, in which he and others are described as discussing jihad and how to travel to global hot spots.
There is an oblique reference to Osama bin Laden in one telephone conversation and another making reference to Omar ibn al-Khattab, a now-dead leader of Islamic militants in Chechnya.
Stephanie Pell, a Justice Department counterterrorism prosecutor, said in a recent court hearing that those snippets of conversation link Padilla to the violent acts allegedly committed by both of these terrorist leaders.
"He was recruited to travel overseas to engage in jihad or armed confrontation," Pell said.
Padilla's lawyers described the evidence as shaky at best and have questioned the accuracy of the Arabic translations of an estimated 50,000 telephone conversations. They also said there is no hard evidence that Padilla actually filled out the al-Qaida form and no statements attributed to him suggesting any terror plots.
"The government is attempting to build a circumstantial case against this man after holding him for 3 1/2 years," said Michael Caruso, one of Padilla's attorneys.
Alicia Valle, a spokeswoman for the U.S Attorney's Office in Miami, said "the evidence will come out at trial." She declined futher comment.
Another issue that could disrupt the case against Padilla is the ongoing controversy over a secret National Security Agency program to monitor without court order the international communications of people inside the United States believed to have links to al-Qaida.
Andrew Patel, another of Padilla's attorneys, said so far it appears that most of the intercepts in the Florida case were authorized by a court under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. But if evidence surfaces that the NSA program was involved, lawyers could ask U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke to throw it out.
Another challenge for federal prosecutors will be selecting a jury that can try the case fairly given the intense publicity that has surrounded Padilla, which included his arrival in Miami under heavy security that was covered on live television.
"You're going to be hard pressed to find somebody who hasn't heard the name Padilla and read somewhere that he was the supposed dirty bomber," Silliman said. "Padilla is the government's worst nightmare as far as litigation."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/04/2006 00:41 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The man should have stood trial for treason during time of war. This is Taliban Johnny crap part II. You enforce the laws to insure others obey and think twice before acting in this manner. Why did the founding fathers put 'Treason' in the Constitution if they didn't think it was a crime?
LONDON: U.S. President George W. Bush so desperately wanted to attack Iraq on any pretext that he even contemplated `luring'' Saddam Hussein into a war by sending a spy plane, painted in U.N. colours, over Iraq hoping that Baghdad would fire at it provoking a conflict, according to a new book by a leading human rights lawyer.
Philippe Sands in his book Lawless World, an account by golly of the behind-the-scenes developments in the run-up to the invasion, claims that Mr. Bush shared his plan with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a meeting in the White House on January 31, 2003, nearly six weeks before the attack. "The U.S. was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in U.N. colours. If Saddam fired on them he would be in breach [of U.N. resolutions],'' the book claims.
Why would the UN care if someone shot at one of 'its' planes?
Mr. Sands also claims that Mr. Blair assured Mr. Bush that he was "solidly'' behind the U.S. plans to invade Iraq and "ready to do whatever it took to disarm Saddam.'' Mr. Bush reportedly told Mr. Blair that the "diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning.'' The disclosure suggests that the two leaders had made up their mind to invade Iraq irrespective of whether they were able to get authorisation from the U.N. in the form of a second resolution.
Downing Street said it did not comment on discussions that "may or may not have happened.''
"You expect to commentt on each and every raving looney?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/04/2006 00:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...I got news for this idiot - not only was it contemplated, it was done. My brother in law was deployed out to Al-Kharj during one of the last crises, and has pics of the U-2 with a 'UN' tail code - it was intended to show Saddam that there was unity on our side, and to prove that he WOULDN'T shoot.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/04/2006 6:21 Comments ||
Top||
#2
And they made American soldiers wear light blue identifying headgear and annotated UN armband on peacekeeping duty too. When they're directed as UN assets they're so marked. Big deal. Another jerky whine from the left, made by someone who does't know how the system works, or even cares to know other than that they can twist it into some cheap propanganda moment.
#4
Bush, when he flew the "No Fly Zone" would stick his tongue out at Saddam and go ...na..na..nana...na.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/04/2006 21:09 Comments ||
Top||
#5
So the beef is that Bush tried to get Saddam to make one more violation of the Gulf War cease-fire. A cease-fire that had been violated hundreds of times before.
Yawn. What a pack of idiots. Why are these loons given the time of day?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/04/2006 21:49 Comments ||
Top||
The Bush administration has quietly determined that the government in Baghdad poses a significant obstacle to any U.S. withdrawal plan. Administration officials acknowledged that nepotism, corruption and ethnic loyalties have hampered the emergence of an effective central government in Iraq. They said that despite more than two years of U.S. training, many Iraqi officials remain committed to militias and tribes rather than a post-Saddam Hussein democracy. As a result, officials said, Iraqi military and police forces remain without proper equipment and authority required to assume security responsibility from the U.S. military. They acknowledge that the choice of officers in the military and police has been based on cronyism as well as ethnic and tribal affiliations. "The soldiers in the field are doing a very good job at the tactical level," Gen. John Vines, the outgoing commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, said. "But tactical success can't be translated into operational strategic success until we have ministries and contingents sustained in the longer term."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
One of the dirty little secrets about suppressing insurgencies is that the almost cost-free (to friendlies) way to do this is to kill large numbers of the male population from which the insurgents could possibly come. This was how the Soviets and the Chinese did not encounter significant resistance to their rule after their communist "liberations". They summarily executed millions of males who were associated with capitalist activity. The Kurds and the Arab Shiites could do this to the Arab Sunnis in Iraq. But only if Uncle Sam leaves. And this is why it may be a good idea for the US to stay a little longer - to avoid a Rwanda-type situation in the Middle East.
#2
"nepotism, corruption and ethnic loyalties" are probably also related to the notorious "catch and release" policies of the new Baghdad government, which are constantly resupplying terrorist forces almost as fast as they are being depleted by arrests and detentions. Notice that the Baghdad government is even more lackadaisacal about enforcing the border security of Iraq than the US government is with respect to US borders.
There were several times in US history when the killing of large numbers of potential male insurgents was done, (1) during the Indian wars and (2) during the Civil War 1861-1865. Even though most these of deaths were in legitimate combat, the price the US paid in both cases was horrific. Spengler's comment on the Civil War
America fought the bloodiest war in its history (and a bloodier war than any in Western Europe since 1648) in order to prevent an imperialist war, that is, out of fanatical religious principle. Americans find it too painful to think about; should they by some means re-establish the frame of mind of 1860, may God help their enemies.
The US is a long way from that point of bloody-mindedness.
For nearly two decades, Hamas fought Israel inside the Palestinian territories and inside Israel with suicide bombings and rockets, while outside, its overseas arm raised money and launched political campaigns. Major decisions were made collectively by its leaders, inside and out. But with its stunning election victory, Hamas must now dive into the day-to-day business of governing - and that has raised new questions about who actually runs the group the United States calls terrorist.
People who boom buses are terrorists. There isn't any other word that covers it.
Some foresee future conflict in an organisation previously known for its high discipline and cohesion: Hamas officials newly elected in Gaza and the West Bank to the Palestinian legislature will have to deal with Israel in future, even if indirectly. But the groups main political leadership in Syria may prove more hardline.
Syria maintains that the Damascus offices were mere press offices. They ignored Meshaal and his boyz, who spent lots of their time in Beirut. But Damascus is the hub of this particular flavor of terrorism.
The question has come to the fore as Western and Arab countries pressure Hamas to recognise Israel and renounce violence. Newly elected Hamas leaders from Palestinian areas and those in Syria will negotiate jointly with the current Palestinian leader to try to create a government.
This'll be interesting. Unworkable, but interesting. Either the Damascus boyz become a useless appendage or the Paleos within Paleostine become mere mouthpieces. Power doesn't divide.
Hamas officials are quick to say the group is bound by one decision, made collectively.
That would make them pretty much unique. There are always grounds for differences of opinion.
No one takes a unilateral decision, Moussa Abu Marzouk, the right-hand man to the groups supreme leader said Wednesday in Damascus, in an interview with The Associated Press. There are no hard-line policies and moderate policies. The decision is discussed by the leaders and afterwards a decision is made and everyone abides by it.
Another Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Hamas members in Syria will act like a governing party pushing a political program while Hamas members inside the Palestinian government will execute that policy and run the day-to-day government.
Yet many experts believe the inside arm may eventually have the most influence, just as earlier, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafats presence on the ground eventually gave him an edge over rivals outside.
In years gone by ... the ones outside were more extreme .... because the ones inside have to face reality, said Efraim Halevy, chief of Israels Mossad from 1998-2002.
The people inside are the more powerful now because they won the elections, and they had to confront Israel over the years, Halevy said. He stressed, however, that Hamas does not a strict, pyramid-shaped hierarchy but more of an amoebic structure.
Nevertheless, its highest leader is thought to be Khaled Mashaal, a former physics teacher who lives in Syria and who heads the groups political bureau, which has between seven and nine members.
Mashaal is thought to have final control over both the outside political wing and the various political wings of Hamas in Gaza and West Bank, plus a separate political wing dealing with prisoners. Inside the Palestinian areas, Hamas West Bank branch tends to be more moderate than its Gaza branch.
The political wings are thought to set Hamas general policy on suicide and other attacks, but not carry them out day-to-day.
Despite Mashaals role as top political leader, key policy decisions are usually made by the secretive Shura Council, whose estimated 50 members live both inside and outside Palestinian areas. The council had the final say on the list of Hamas candidates for the Jan 25 elections, for example.
Any move to change policy toward Israel would almost certainly have to win its approval.
In practice, not all Shura Council members can meet in one place because of security worries and travel restrictions. The three political decision centers - in Gaza, West Bank and Syria - thus communicate in other ways, said the Hamas official who requested anonymity.
Those are thought to include e-mail, text message and mobile phones.
Mashaals political arm, based in Syria, gets much of its power from its role as fund-raiser. Hamas officials say the group receives money from individual Palestinians and Islamic charities, as well as from the zakkat, or Muslim alms. Because the United States calls Hamas a terror group, it can not get money openly from Arab governments. One other important - and notorious - wing of Hamas is the military arm that carries out attacks on Israel. Hamas political leaders insist they dont give instructions to those who carry out attacks. However, the political leadership is believed to provide broad guidelines to the military wing, such as approving suicide bombings, according to both western diplomats and others familiar with the group.
Local commanders in Gaza and West Bank then have the authority to decide when and how to launch attacks, under the guidance of one military chief for both areas. That reduces the chances of a security leak, which would enable the Israelis to stop an operation.
There is not a direct line that divides the two, said Halevy, the former Israeli intelligence official. Speaking of one Gaza leader, Ismail Haniyeh, he said, Certainly now, he would make decisions like one made a year ago to make a kind of cease-fire.
The subdivisions of power spring from the groups founding in 1987, just after the Palestinians first uprising. The group then was essentially an offshoot of the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood, handling mostly charitable work, and it has retained its charities and clinics.
But after the uprising, Hamas began launching attacks, essentially putting its foreign relations and money-raising arms outside Palestinian areas, and its operations arm inside the West Bank and Gaza. It has since managed to stay cohesive even after Israels assassination of its founder, the elderly Sheik Ahmed Yassin, killed by an Israeli helicopter missile in 2004 while in his wheelchair on a Gaza street.
For example, once Hamas decided to run for elections, there was no public opposition afterward. But things could get more difficult now. They are still grappling with new realities, Halevy said. They are not sure how they want to govern.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 22:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
The victory of Hamas in the Palestinian election has removed ambiguity from the politics of the Palestinian people.
It also clarifies greatly the predominant political sentiment in much of the Arab-Muslim world in relation to Israel and the West. There is a virtue in clarity. It is something to be sought in politics, as in life, and appreciated when found or delivered.
In giving Hamas overwhelming support in a fair election, Palestinians have done themselves and the world much good.
Palestinians have freely expressed -- and democracy makes this possible -- that they seek the realization, through whatever means possible, of the goal set by Hamas of liberating Palestine from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, which requires the elimination of Israel.
For the longest while, Palestinian leadership surrounding the deceased Yasser Arafat and his successors have worn a mask to the world, hiding their anti-Semitism behind a diplomatic engagement with the Israeli leadership that won approval from western democracies.
Even as Palestinian society descended into a hell of its making -- embracing the cult of death and celebrating suicide bombings as an exercise in martyrdom - western democracies, including Canada, invested in the charade that the Palestinian Authority, established as a result of the 1993 Oslo Agreement, remained committed to a two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that resulted from the 1947 United Nations decision to partition historic Palestine, until then under British mandate.
In giving Hamas a landslide victory in the Legislative Council election of the Palestinian Authority, Palestinians removed the mask from their politics and made it clear to western democracies they are committed to a Palestine free of Jews as occupiers.
Apologists for Palestinian politics in the West, and their friends, predictably will strive to shade the meaning of the Hamas win and deceive public opinion in western democracies in order to maintain the charade practised by the discredited leadership of the PLO and its various factions.
If they succeed, western governments will pathetically end up in subsidizing a political party and a movement with links to the wider Arab-Muslim world that finds its identity and purpose in opposing all the West holds dear as a civilization.
The politics of Hamas -- as those of the clerical leadership in Iran or the Saudi monarchy with its phalanx of Wahhabi preachers -- is a closed ideology of resentment and violence that has acquired demagogic legitimacy by subverting Islam's message of peace and submission to a merciful God.
It is the democratic right of Palestinians to elect Hamas. It is equally the right of western democracies, while defending the Palestinians' exercise of their rights, to sever relations with the Palestinian Authority and end the subsidizing of a society that cherishes the loathsome politics of Hamas.
Democracy must combine freedom with responsibility. Palestinians have acquired the semblance of freedom, and have received goodwill and support from western democracies. But Palestinians must also demonstrate responsibility and an understanding that political choices have consequences.
They will learn responsibility hopefully only if they are taught about consequences by western democracies refusing to engage with Hamas, and withholding financial support to the Palestine Authority.
If Hamas wants to be engaged with western democracies it knows what the requirement is -- an unconditional recognition of Israel.
Until such recognition is forthcoming, western democracies should leave Palestinians alone to reflect on the nature of their politics.
#1
Surprising because it's Toronto, I assume? Not surprising that it's The Sun. We do have one Conservative newspaper - one that's quite a supporter of the US (and ye, even Bush).
Salim is a regular columnist and a breathe of fresh air. Worth checking his back columns.
While we may have AQ cells up and running that we ignore or don't know about, Toronto's relations with it's muslim population is not bad. No demonstrations here - no rage, indeed no interest, it seems.
"Whatever", says the 24 year -old Jordanian I work with. "Grow up, I'm going clubbing."
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -Israelis and Palestinians must rapidly return to the negotiating table to bring about a two-state solution, Jordans King Abdullah II said Friday during a tour of the United States. Both peoples, Palestinian and Israeli, are fed up with violence, Abdullah said.
That's half-correct.
They want and deserve a future of hope. So it is now vital for the parties to return rapidly to the negotiation table -- and equally vital for the international community to continue their support.
Abdullah called the Palestinian elections last week an important step in the history of the Palestinian people and said we have to respect their choice. Abdullah reiterated his support for the roadkillmap in prepared remarks at the University of Mississippi. Establishing a viable, sovereign Palestinian state, alongside a secure Israel, is the only way to put an end to violence and extremism, he said. The next two years are critical. Peace needs our full efforts.
Abdullah also discussed the need to restore stability and security to Iraq. In Iraq, there is a huge responsibility also on the international community to support the Iraqi people as they rebuild their country and restore stability and security, he said.
Abdullah praised the courage of Iraqis who voted in the December election amidst threats from insurgents and said he hopes a coalition government will be formed, moving the country toward a more inclusive polity. As progress continues, as Iraqi security forces are strengthened, it is vital to maintain the security and stability needed for success, he said.
Abdullah also discussed the broader needs of global security and the struggle for tolerance and dialogue. He renounced the talk of a clash of civilizations and said there are powerful bonds among Islam, Christianity, and Judaism before quoting the Prophet Mohammed, the Torah and Jesus Christ. My religion, Islam, is why traditional Muslims decisively reject extremist violence and hatred, Abdullah said, citing the Amman Message which opposes false teachings of Islam and invalidates extremist fatwas that violate Islamic precepts and justify violence.
Wonder what he says in Arabic?
Zero tolerance toward those who promote extremism: This is the view and the voice of traditional Muslims around the world, he said. We will not allow extremists to close the doors to the future for our youth. We will not let them block our path to global peace and progress.
Abdullah said Jordan is committed to its reform program and will not be deterred by security threats and extremist acts like the bombing in Amman last November.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/04/2006 00:03 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Israelis and Palestinians must rapidly return to the negotiating table to bring about a two-state solution, Jordans King Abdullah II said Friday during a tour of the United States.
What I'd like to know is, what exactly is the point in resuming a futile exercise?
Defying international pressure, the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said yesterday it would never recognize Israel but might be willing to negotiate terms for a temporary truce with the Jewish state. Khaled Meshaal, the top leader of Hamas which won last week's Palestinian parliamentary election by a landslide, made the offer to Israel ahead of negotiations between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over the shape of the next government.
Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, said he and other Hamas officials expected to meet Abbas in Gaza today to begin to "consult over the nature of the coming government" and to try to set a date for the first meeting of the Palestinian Parliament. The United States and European Union have demanded that Hamas renounce violence, disarm and change its charter calling for the destruction of the Jewish state or risk losing foreign aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
The continued closure of Gaza's commercial lifeline is causing a humanitarian and economic crisis in the Gaza Strip, UN, Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations say.
My heart bleeds... No. Wait. Never mind. Just the chili again...
The crossing, known as Karni or al-Muntar, is Gaza's only commercial outlet to the outside world. Israeli forces unilaterally shut down the crossing on 14 January based on "intelligence alerts of impending attacks", according to the Israeli Army. The closure comes despite an agreement brokered by Condoleeza Rice, the US Secretary of State, late last year that said the passage would operate continuously, especially during the harvest season.
Wasn't there something in the agreement about the Paleos not attacking the crossing?
According to the UN Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the closure is costing Palestinians up to $500,000 a day. Dairy products, baby formula, sugar, rice are amongst items dwindling on the supermarket shelves in Gaza. In addition, 90 containers of humanitarian supplies, including food and aid, belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), are stuck at Israeli ports, says the group.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
a feature, not a bug
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/04/2006 0:12 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Cause, meet EFFECT.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/04/2006 0:30 Comments ||
Top||
#3
My heart bleeds... No. Wait. Never mind. Just the chili again...
#4
The continued closure of Gaza's commercial lifeline is causing a humanitarian and economic crisis in the Gaza Strip, UN, Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations say.
#7
There is another crossing into Egypt. Let them use that one. Probably significantly more skim at the Egypt crossing, but that is the price the Paleos will have to pay.
#10
See the positive side, at least if paleos are preventing from going into Egypt, they won't board any kind of ship, and they won't drown in mass like it's all the rage there.
Sixty-six people were killed and many more injured when a stampede broke out at a stadium in the Philippine capital, local radio quoted unnamed officials at the scene as saying. Metro Manila authority executive director Lito Vergel De Dios said in a radio interview that a crowd had been gathering around the ULTRA stadium since Wednesday to get into the taping of a popular television variety show. He was earlier quoted as saying 54 people had been killed. Officials contacted by AFP said they were still trying to compile a total from all the hospitals in the area.
Mr De Dios said someone in the crowd was believed to have shouted "bomb," sparking a panic that caused people to trample one another. Dead bodies, most of them women, were taken out of the stadium on stretchers and laid down on a dirty street, covered with newspapers, plastic bags and discarded cloth.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
ran rejected a Russian compromise deal aimed at resolving the crisis over its suspect nuclear programme yesterday, dashing hopes for a face-saving outcome to its confrontation with the west.
As the UN nuclear watchdog finalised a decision to report Iran to the UN security council last night, Javad Vaeedi, the deputy head of Iran's national security council, said the US and European countries were making a "historic mistake".
An emergency meeting of the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to adopt a resolution reporting Iran to the security council this morning. The decision marks a watershed in the three-year dispute.
The Iranians were scheduled to go to Moscow in two weeks to discuss a proposal for Russian manufacture and guaranteed supplies of nuclear fuel for Iran. "If they adopt this resolution, it means to kill the Russian proposal," said Mr Vaeedi.
The decision to take the dispute to New York raises the stakes in the long-running row and heightens the sense of escalating confrontation between a hardline regime in Tehran and the international community united for the first time about how to channel its anxiety over Iran's nuclear programmes.
Reacting furiously, the Iranians also announced they would be restricting UN inspection rights of their nuclear programme and restarting enrichment of uranium at their complex at Natanz.
Senior IAEA officials said Tehran had already told the Russians they were calling off the talks with Moscow.
The Russian proposal was the best hope of defusing the worsening crisis but appeared dead last night, with the war of words raging between Iran and the west extending to involve bad-tempered exchanges between Tehran and Moscow.
The president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, accused Russia of patronising Iran and treating it like a "medieval country". The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Iran should not insult Russia's attempts to perform as an honest broker.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/04/2006 00:51 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
We'll write the history on this one, Mullahmooks.
#3
I am pretty sure when and if the Russian's make a real "Medieval" offer to the MM's they will have no problems understanding it and will not go "public" about it either.
The UN nuclear watchdog deferred until today a vote to report Iran to the UN Security Council over fears it is seeking atomic bombs, as the European Union lobbied developing nations to back the measure. Diplomats said a clear majority on the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board favored notifying the council on Iran, but EU diplomats needed more time to persuade as many developing states as possible to vote yes rather than abstain.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
The war of words contins to deteriorate - Iran is making it more than it clear that it will proceed wid nuclear devprogs no matter what anyone or the UNO says. Anti-US "Brinkmanship", and Hyper-correct "threat of [limited] nuke war" is all the DemoLefties and Commie Clintons have - its already a given that once any shootin' and nukin' starts, the DemoLefties will attempt to limit the Amer response be it conventional andor nuclearized. IRANIAN SUMMER, CHICOM WINTER.
UN Chief Investigator Serge Brammertz visited two ministers on Friday and said he was "content" with the steps taken by the Lebanese authorities to facilitate the mission of the UN probe investigating the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri, according to a source from the Interior Ministry. Brammertz met with Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa, and then with Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamade but didn't talk with reporters after either meeting.
According to the source, "Brammertz told Sabaa that he was content with the interior ministry's procedures to facilitate the mission as well as its security apparatus." Brammertz said that the security and judiciary "complement one another" and that the coordination between both apparatuses "is necessary for any mission to succeed."
"The meeting with Sabaa was merely a protocol visit to get to know him," said the source. Sabaa, who came back to Beirut late Wednesday from Tunis, had not previously met with Brammertz, who arrived in Beirut on January 19. Ever since Brammertz was assigned to lead the UN probe, leaks about the UN probe's work have decreased and so did the rumors. On his arrival in Beirut, Brammertz had told reporters that his priority "will remain to assist the Lebanese authorities in their investigation," and to work "with independence and impartiality and in compliance with Security Council resolutions."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
iyad Brothers Importing, one of the largest distributors of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food products, announced today it SUSPENDED all business with Denmark-based Arla Foods.
Nemer Ziyad, vice president of Ziyad Brothers Importing, said the decision is in response to the insulting and offensive caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed published by Denmark's leading newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, and the growing controversy.
"I am furious with what the newspaper did. I am disappointed with the hesitation of the Government of Denmark to speak out against this. I support free speech, but I believe that we must speak out when free speech crosses the line and incites hatred, as the publication of these extremely offensive cartoons have done," Ziyad said.
"We have enjoyed a relationship with Arla Foods, acting as the exclusive distributor of three of its most popular products here in the United States. We are encouraged that this issue may be resolved, but until it is properly resolved, we must take this action"
Ziyad Brothers Importing is the exclusive American distributor for two of Arla's most popular products, Puck Cheese and Puck Cream, and Lurpak Butter. Ziyad said the three food items are very popular with customers. Ziyad said the decision to suspend the product line will have a significant impact on Ziyad Brothers Importing revenues, but added, "We will always stand by and support our community."
Ziyad said, "This isn't just about being Muslim or Arab. What Jyllands-Posten did crossed the line. It is wrong. I would do the same thing in any other similar circumstance involving any other religion. All people have a responsibility to speak out whenever an act of hateful incitement occurs and touches on the community."
#1
Well Ziyad, let's hear you speak out responsibly about hateful incitement. What cha got to say about 9/11, 7/7, "Kill the non-believers", etc., etc., etc.?
Any of that "cross the line"? Well, Ziyad, we're waiting.
#2
The way I see it is that this provides a great business opportunity for someone else. Some other international distributor is pinching himself this morning.
#3
NO, Ziyad, it is about being Muslim. You didn't say a word , I'll wager, when the Bin Laden Jesus painting came out. You and your death cult can't seem to find it in your hearts to see anyone elses religion as legitimate. Burn churches and bibles at will, kill chrisitians and Jews for fun, but don't you dare insult the prophet. I say from my heart, "Fuck all Muslims".
#4
Well my, my Elm. Certainly not The Religious Policeman (who is up with new posts) or my muslim friends at work and the pub. The drooling, ranting rabble, maybe...
#9
Well there goes my "Puck Cream and Cheese dip, with a hint of Lurpak Butter" I was serving tomorrow for my SuperBowl potluck.
This will be the WORST SUPERBOWL SUNDAY ever!
#11
I just called the Danish embassy in Washington to express my support and to ask if there was a way to get another distributor signed up quickly. He wasn't aware of Ziyad's announcement, but said he'd pass it along to those who might be able to facilitate other distribution channels for Arla's products into the US.
Capsu78, if you haven't baked with Danish butter, or eaten products made with it, you've missed out on a wonderful experience. ;-)
#14
A question:
Isn't a boycott like this illegal under Interstate Laws of Commerce?
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/04/2006 19:37 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Simple enough: make sure all of Ziyad's customers know.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2006 20:21 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Ziyad is a distributor of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food products. Most of the customers probably support this nonsense. And the Danish products probably aren't a major product line for them.
http://www.ziyad.com/index.htm
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.
The French newspaper that set off Muslim riots this week by republishing Danish editorial cartoons implying a connection between Islams founder and modern acts of terror, announced today it had reached a negotiated settlement with a leading Islamic group to end the controversy which has sparked boycotts, violence, gunfire and hostage-takings.
Pardon, pardon
Belgium has decided against freezing humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territories after the election victory of militant group Hamas, Overseas Development Minister Armand De Decker said.
A leading French Muslim organisation is to file suit in the courts against newspapers that published disrespectful cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, its leader said Friday. "Writs will be filed this evening in Paris. We are going to register complaints against all the French media that carried the pictures," said Lhaj Thami Brez of the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF). "We want the justice system to protect us. This is an attack against a religion in a country where there is rule of law. The legal institutions will decide. The press is not above the law. Its powers are regulated. Freedom of expression is fine, but religions must be respected," he said. On Wednesday France Soir was the first newspaper outside Denmark and Norway to print all 12 of the controversial drawings, and on Friday the daily Liberation printed two. Le Monde on Thursday commissioned its own front-page drawing of the Prophet a bearded face made up entirely of the words "I must not draw Mohammed." 
An Ohio truck driver who pleaded guilty in a terrorist plot to attack Washington and New York yesterday urged a judge to throw out his plea, in part because he was spied on through President Bush's controversial warrantless eavesdropping program.
LONDON: U.S. President George W. Bush so desperately wanted to attack Iraq on any pretext that he even contemplated `luring'' Saddam Hussein into a war by sending a spy plane, painted in U.N. colours, over Iraq hoping that Baghdad would fire at it provoking a conflict, according to a new book by a leading human rights lawyer.
For nearly two decades, Hamas fought Israel inside the Palestinian territories and inside Israel with suicide bombings and rockets, while outside, its overseas arm raised money and launched political campaigns. Major decisions were made collectively by its leaders, inside and out. But with its stunning election victory, Hamas must now dive into the day-to-day business of governing - and that has raised new questions about who actually runs the group the United States calls terrorist. 
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -Israelis and Palestinians must rapidly return to the negotiating table to bring about a two-state solution, Jordans King Abdullah II said Friday during a tour of the United States. Both peoples, Palestinian and Israeli, are fed up with violence, Abdullah said. 
Defying international pressure, the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said yesterday it would never recognize Israel but might be willing to negotiate terms for a temporary truce with the Jewish state. Khaled Meshaal, the top leader of Hamas which won last week's Palestinian parliamentary election by a landslide, made the offer to Israel ahead of negotiations between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over the shape of the next government.
The continued closure of Gaza's commercial lifeline is causing a humanitarian and economic crisis in the Gaza Strip, UN, Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations say. 
Sixty-six people were killed and many more injured when a stampede broke out at a stadium in the Philippine capital, local radio quoted unnamed officials at the scene as saying. Metro Manila authority executive director Lito Vergel De Dios said in a radio interview that a crowd had been gathering around the ULTRA stadium since Wednesday to get into the taping of a popular television variety show. He was earlier quoted as saying 54 people had been killed. Officials contacted by AFP said they were still trying to compile a total from all the hospitals in the area.
The UN nuclear watchdog deferred until today a vote to report Iran to the UN Security Council over fears it is seeking atomic bombs, as the European Union lobbied developing nations to back the measure. Diplomats said a clear majority on the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board favored notifying the council on Iran, but EU diplomats needed more time to persuade as many developing states as possible to vote yes rather than abstain.
UN Chief Investigator 
