This week's Red Sea bombing has left the Bedouin people of the Sinai feeling three times injured. Four of their children were seriously injured, their tourism-dependent livelihoods are threatened, and once again they think they will be blamed for the bombs.
After the attacks, tourists who wanted to leave Dahab found themselves stranded because Bedouin taxi drivers were scared to leave their homes for fear of arrest. Holidaymakers who stayed were unable to go on diving trips and desert safaris for the same reason.
Ziad Mazayana (25), who started working with camels for tourists and is now a dive master, said: 100% of existence is based on tourism, from camels to camping. We could never harm this place and we would be much better at protecting it than the government. Yet we are scared that once again because the government cannot find the real culprits we will be blamed.
Egypt has paid a heavy price for the attacks. Most of the dead and injured are Egyptian and tourism is a vital plank in the economy, contributing 11% of gross domestic product. However, it is the Bedouin who feel most aggrieved.
In October 2004, following the bombing of a hotel and a beach camp in the northern Sinai, about 3 000 Bedouin were arrested. According to Human Rights Watch, many were tortured. After the Sharm el-Sheik bombing in July 2005 there were further arrests.
In the village of Elassala next to Dahab, where the Bedouin who tend to the tourists live, camels and goats wander the unpaved streets and children run barefoot. The young men in djellabas and headscarves speak foreign languages and educate tourists in the ways of the desert and the sea.
Several of the children carry shrapnel wounds and wear bloody T-shirts.
One woman tells of Mohammad Ahmed (15), who was playing football with a group of Bedouin children by the Dahab seafront when the first bomb went off. Being deaf, he did not hear the explosion, but he saw the flames. By the time he started to run he was knocked over by the second explosion. His relatives still do not know how badly he is injured.
Abu Omar Mazatyana was standing nearby when the boy was injured and helped to get the wounded to hospital. The locals were much quicker to help the injured than the government agencies. We took them to the hospital in our cars.
He said he was sick of the government blaming the Bedouin for its failure to provide security for tourists. The government sit in Cairo in their offices surrounded with security and they have no idea what is going on here. They can only guess.
By the time we recovered from the Taba bombings, Sharm el-Sheik happened and just as we are recovering from that Dahab is bombed to bring us right back to zero.
He added: People will not leave their homes because they are scared of being arrested. If there was one Bedouin involved, it would not warrant the persecution that we get.
On Tuesday the Bedouin marched in protest at the bombings. Crowds of men, women and children walked around the small resort for three hours. Tribal elder Sheikh Tawala Salam said the Bedouin felt persecuted by the government and ruined by the bombers. Maybe we should just grow marijuana and that will make everyone happy, he said.
BISHKEK - Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev vowed on Wednesday to use force to prevent any attempt to unseat him, despite pressure from Washington to avoid fresh violence in his Central Asian state.
Most heads of state/government will use force to stop a coup attempt. Bakiyev apparently felt like he had to state the obvious. Wonder why?
Kyrgyzstans opposition is gearing up for a countrywide protest on Saturday against Bakiyev, who came to power in a revolution last year and who it accuses of backtracking on his promises to bring stability and democracy. If there is an attempt to seize the White House (seat of government) ... then it will be all the tougher for them, very tough, Bakiyev told reporters.
Law enforcers are capable of being severe. People run the risk of injury, of ending up in a wheelchair. ... But if the protest is peaceful and lawful, then no problem.
Until he decides it is.
Unlike peaceful demonstrations in Ukraine and Georgia, protests against a flawed election in Kyrgyzstan turned violent last year and led to long-serving leader Askar Akayev fleeing to Russia as a mob ransacked his office.
Since the overthrow, Kyrgyzstan has been plagued by crime and instability. Bakiyev, elected in July by a landslide, has been accused by opponents of doing too little to restore law and order. The new Kyrgyz opposition, spearheaded by Omurbek Tekebayev, a former speaker of parliament, says it will gather tens of thousands of people in the capital Bishkek and other big cities and set up tent cities to express their discontent.
The United States has called for restraint ahead of the rally, saying Kyrgyzstan should pursue peaceful methods to solve its problems. The US government shares the concern of many citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic about rumours of potential violence in connection with public demonstrations on April 29 in Kyrgyzstan, the US embassy said in a statement. The United States ... calls upon both pro-government and opposition groups to refrain from the threat or use of force during these demonstrations.
Peaceful restraint being an alien concept in this part of the world ...
Bakiyev has blamed certain foreign forces of stoking unrest in his impoverished country and threatened to shut down a US military base set up in 2001 during the war in Afghanistan.
Yup, always dem danged furriners causing trouble ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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The Prime Minister has denied claims by the mother of the Australian soldier killed in Iraq of a cover-up over her son's death.
Private Jake Kovco, 25, died in Baghdad on Friday. It had been thought he had accidentally shot himself while cleaning his weapon but Defence Minister Brendan Nelson now says Private Kovco was not handling the gun at the time.
Dr Nelson's comments have angered Private Kovco's mother, Judy and other members of his family. Private Kovco's stepbrother, Ben, says the family wants answers about the tragedy. "We feel like we have been lied to from the moment this started," he said. "We've been kept in the dark and that's the most insulting thing - we can handle the truth and it shouldn't be kept from us."
Prime Minister John Howard says there will be a full inquiry into the way the soldier died. He has urged the family to wait for the results. "I can give her an assurance there will be no cover-up," he said. "There's never been any intention on the part of anybody to cover anything up, that's why we're having a full and open inquiry.
"It will take time. You can't get to the bottom of something like this within 24 hours ... there does have to be a coronial investigation."
The family's grief has been compounded by a mistake that saw the wrong body flown back to Australia. The coffin that arrived in Melbourne from Kuwait yesterday contained another body.
Australia's ambassador to Kuwait, along with two Australian Defence Force soldiers, has now retrieved the correct body. The coffin was draped with an Australian flag and the maroon beret of Private Kovco's unit had been placed on top as it was taken to a military plane to be flown home.
The Government says it appears the mistake was made by the private company handling the repatriation, Kenyon International. That has raised questions about how the process is handled.
The former chief of the Defence Force, General Peter Cosgrove, has angrily denied accusations he obstructed an agreement to tighten procedures for the return of bodies of Australian soldiers. In April last year a draft document was circulated with new tough new rules regarding procedures for handling Australian military deaths. There have been reports that all state and territory coroners signed up but General Cosgrove did not and the agreement did not go into force.
But General Cosgrove denies that is the case. "We proposed it and basically the coroners could not agree to the protocols," he said.
NATO has launched a debate on forging formal partnerships with Pacific rim states such as Australia and New Zealand as it expands its role to fight threats around the globe.
Foreign ministers from the 26-member organisation have gathered for a two-day meeting in Bulgaria.
NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer says the alliance "has to spread its wings because it is increasingly being called upon".
The proposal to form privileged ties with Australia and New Zealand - and possibly South Korea and Japan as well - would reflect the active role those countries play in NATO missions.
The ties would fall short of full membership.
A NATO official says the idea is to bring into NATO's sphere of influence "like-minded, democratic nations that do have similar interests ... in global security".
NATO spokesman James Appathurai says the alliance has no intention to become "a global policeman" or shift its centre of gravity away from its Euro-Atlantic roots.
But he says today's "threats are global, or transnational at least, and we have to make sure that the team that addresses them is transnational".
Mr Appathurai says Australia and New Zealand are the top candidates for NATO partnerships "because they are already in the field with us, next to us, contributing to our operations".
US to benefit
For the US, a special NATO partnership with Australia, Japan and South Korea would reinforce military links to countries contributing to its ad hoc "coalition of the willing" in Iraq.
It would also boost its influence somewhat within NATO, which was riven along US-European lines over the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Mr De Hoop Scheffer stresses that "no decisions are anticipated" during the meeting.
Nevertheless, some overtures have already been made.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark both recently visited NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Australia and New Zealand have troops in the currently 9,000-strong NATO deployment in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/27/2006 20:42 Comments ||
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NATO has shown their fecklessness by their opposition to American initiatives designed to protect all of NATO
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2006 21:47 Comments ||
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Frank, the biggest problem with NATO is that we idiotically let France back in. Remember that France was an original member, left once the Cold War warmed up a little -- they knew if the US won, nothing would happen to them, but if the Russians won and they were on the wrong side... After the end of the Cold War, the French re-joined just in time to stab NATO in the back in Bosnia and then in re Turkey after 9/11.
Get rid of France and NATO might be worth saving.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/27/2006 21:51 Comments ||
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SPACEWAR/DAILY.com, WORLDNEWS.com, and other websites are reporting that renowned SOviet dissident, commentator, and Nobel Prie winner Alexander Solzhenitsyen is criticizing America for surrounding Russia from both "East of Europe" and from the south of Russia, liely denoting US-Euro trade agreements with former SSR's + US bases in CENASIA + now ME. CHINA is already expressing displeasure at NATO's move, espec at NATO's invite of JAPAN to have "special ally" status alongst wid AUSTRALIA, NZ, SK, Philippines, and INDONESIA, etal. NORTH KOREA for its part is criticizing US military moves in Asia-Pacific, and accusing the USA of being the real military threat to regional peace and stability.
Missile deals with the 'axis of evil' are just the latest sign that Moscow is sick of kowtowing to the US and Europe, writes Tom Parfitt
Thursday April 27, 2006
Moscow could be on the verge of clinching an arms deal with Syria or Iran that would send the US and Israel into pop-eyed rage.
A few days ago a Russian arms manufacturer let slip at an arms fair in Kuala Lumpur that his state-run weapons design bureau was close to sealing a foreign sale of Iskander-E missiles. The destination of the hardware was secret, he said, but the most obvious market is clear: the Middle East.
Moscow dispatch
'Russia has left the western orbit'
Missile deals with the 'axis of evil' are just the latest sign that Moscow is sick of kowtowing to the US and Europe, writes Tom Parfitt
Thursday April 27, 2006
Moscow could be on the verge of clinching an arms deal with Syria or Iran that would send the US and Israel into pop-eyed rage.
A few days ago a Russian arms manufacturer let slip at an arms fair in Kuala Lumpur that his state-run weapons design bureau was close to sealing a foreign sale of Iskander-E missiles. The destination of the hardware was secret, he said, but the most obvious market is clear: the Middle East.
Article continues
Last year, Israel was furious when it emerged that Moscow was planning to sell the Iskander to Damascus. The Iskander is like the Scuds that Iraq used during the Gulf war but many times more accurate and better equipped to avoid defensive weapons such as the Patriot missile. Syria - part of George Bush's "axis of evil" - would love to be able to trundle some of these short-range ballistic missiles (range: 180 miles) down to its southern border to point at Israel in the event of a conflict.
No doubt the Iranian regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also itching to get its hands on some of these weapons - whose sale is not restricted by any treaty. Earlier this month Iran tested an underwater missile that looked suspiciously like a Russian Shkval.
President Vladimir Putin, under pressure from the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was forced to step in and reverse the Syrian missile deal. These days, one might surmise, he would not give a fig.
Everything about Russia's stance in the international arena suggests a new confidence that radiates "don't bully me". I is still possible the Iskanders will go to a less threatening client than the Middle Eastern bad boys - China, say, or India or Algeria. But the point is, they will go to whomever Moscow wants.
Russia has shown in recent months that western condemnation will not shake its resolve to play on the world stage as it likes.
Welcoming a Hamas delegation to Moscow last month - described by a minister in Jerusalem as "stabbing Israel in the back" - was one example. A second was the decision a few weeks later to give financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, against the wishes of the US and the EU.
In another robust move, the Russians have refused to back down on a recent $700m (£380m) deal to sell 29 Tor M1 mobile surface-to-air missile defence systems to Iran despite pressure from Washington.
"We hope and we trust that that deal will not go forward because this is not the time for business as usual with the Iranian government," grumbled the US undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns last week, as the UN geared up for its crucial report tomorrow on Iran's nuclear enrichment programme. But the complaint fell on deaf ears at the Kremlin.
While Russia's arms industry is growing fast, its new brassiness relies mostly on the billions of dollars it is raking in from hydrocarbon exports, on the back of high oil prices.
As an emerging energy superpower, Moscow is increasingly seeking to play off potential buyers of its oil and gas.
Last week Alexei Miller, the head of the Russian state gas monopoly, Gazprom, warned that attempts to limit his company's expansion in Europe would "not lead to good results". The company caused alarm at the British gas supplier Centrica when it emerged that the Russian firm saw it as a potential takeover target - Gazprom had turned off the taps to its neighbour Ukraine in January, in a politically charged dispute. Miller also said: "It should not be forgotten we are actively seeking new markets, such as North America and China."
President Vladimir Putin weighed in on the theme yesterday. "Despite the great demand for energy resources, any excuses are being used to limit us in the north, in the south, in the west," he said.
"We must look for markets, fit into the processes of global development. I have in mind the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, which are developing at great speed and need to cooperate with us."
Dmitry Trenin, an analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Centre, says Russia - fed up with pandering to the US and Europe - is undergoing a fundamental shift in foreign relations. Now it will focus on ties with countries, such as Brazil, India and China, that it sees as being on a similar path of development to itself.
"Russia has left the western orbit," Mr Trenin said. "It was circling it distantly for about a decade, Pluto-like. But now it's gone."
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2006 19:05 ||
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#1
first ten lines (duplicated) need trimming
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2006 19:08 Comments ||
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Guardian claptrap. Russia has never been, in any substantive way, in "the Western orbit". He and his backers have always been in business solely for themselves and any overlap was merely happenstance. Hand-wringing bullshit.
#5
PRAVDA > Russia and only Russia will decide whom is its equal - doesn't bode well for the future of Russo-Chinese relations, Eurasianism-Asianism-Orientalism, nor for inter-country relations vv the Shanghai Cooper (SCO).
#9
Remember that Russia is schizophrenic, with a European face and an Asiatic face. They are never comfortable too long with one or the other. On the plus side, when they wear their Asiatic face, they usually lie less than when pretending to be Europeans.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/27/2006 20:59 Comments ||
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Yeah, Russia never was in the west. Hell, I fulfilled my college's "non-Western Civilization" requirement with Russian History.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/27/2006 21:02 Comments ||
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Who else are they supposed to sell to their weapons to? By US thinking, they're supposed to sit on their hands and forego all that cash, and watch while others make billion dollar deals. It's like asking Donald Trump to build single family dwellings in the middle of Manhattan. Ain't gonna happen.
They are a former superpower. They have the capability to produce sophisticated weapons. This is simple supply and demand. Get over it.
Posted by: rafael ||
04/27/2006 21:51 Comments ||
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A British businessman was named in court in Germany yesterday as a key figure in what has been dubbed the world's worst nuclear proliferation racket, alleged to have helped Libyan attempts to build a nuclear bomb.
At the trial in Mannheim in south-west Germany of a businessman accused of nuclear trafficking, the state prosecutor, Peter Lintz, named Peter Griffin, a Briton, as one of a handful of international members of the nuclear network masterminded by the disgraced Pakistani metallurgist, Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Just over two years ago, Khan, hailed as the father of the Pakistani bomb, was pardoned by Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, after confessing to running a nuclear trafficking network that supplied crucial technology and, in at least one case, a nuclear bomb blueprint to Libya, Iran, and North Korea.
Gotthard Lerch, 63, a German engineer accused of being a central player in the Khan network, faces up to 15 years in jail if found guilty of breaking Germany's weapons and exports laws. He was extradited to Germany from Switzerland last July. He denies the charges. It is clear that his defence team will seek to prove Mr Lerch is the innocent victim of a western intelligence plot.
Reading the charges against Mr Lerch, Mr Lintz argued that the accused knowingly helped the Khan network to furnish Colonel Muammar Gadafy with a uranium enrichment plant that would have comprised more than 11,000 centrifuges manufacturing enough weapons-grade uranium "for several nuclear warheads a month".
Col Gadafy renounced his secret nuclear programme in 2003 and his officials have supplied copious information on the Khan network from which the Libyan leader was said to be buying a $100m (£52m) bomb-building kit.
"To produce and supply the goods needed by Libya, Khan used a circle of proven helpers who had already been of service to him for his own centrifuge programme," Mr Lintz said. He named these "helpers" as a Sri Lankan businessman who was Khan's main aide, a Swiss engineer also awaiting trial, Mr Lerch, and "the machine tool supplier Peter Griffin".
Mr Griffin, 70, is believed to be retired and living in the south of France after having been based in Dubai with his firm, Gulf Technical Industries (GTI).
German investigators preparing the case against Mr Lerch have questioned Mr Griffin in France and he is expected to be called as a witness. Mr Griffin has in the past stated that he has known Khan for years, but has strenuously denied knowingly having anything to do with a Libyan nuclear programme. He has never been charged with any offences in connection with the Khan network.
Prosecutor Lintz claimed that all of those named yesterday were tasked around 1999 with providing Libya with 10,000 advanced centrifuges for enriching uranium.
While the Sri Lankan, BSA Tahir, coordinated the sub-contracting and supply work, the Swiss engineer, Friedrich Tinner, Mr Lerch and Mr Griffin supervised and facilitated the work, Mr Lintz said. The Libyan contracts were farmed out to firms in South Africa, Malaysia, Turkey and Switzerland for components manufacture, the prosecutor alleged.
While UN investigators at the International Atomic Energy Agency who have been trying to unravel the Khan network for three years say that all of the men named yesterday were central players, Mr Lerch denies the charges.
The prosecution suffered a severe setback yesterday when the defence questioned the legal grounds for his extradition from Switzerland. The presiding judge, Michael Seidling, ordered clarification from the Swiss authorities. The prosecutor conceded that the outcome could be that the Mannheim court is not competent to try the case.
The Mannheim trial is the first in connection with the Khan network. Further trials are expected in Switzerland and South Africa. Gerhard Wisser, a German resident in South Africa and colleague of Mr Lerch's, is awaiting trial on charges of plotting to send the equipment to Libya.
The German charges allege that Mr Lerch arranged the South African contracts and that Mr Lerch earned some 28m (£20m), half of it profit, from the alleged Libyan business.
Mr Lintz alleged that all of those named in Mannheim yesterday were aware that the machinery was being made for a uranium enrichment centrifuge system for Libya and sought to mask the real purpose by drawing up contracts for a water purification plant for Jordan.
In November 2000, alleged Mr Lintz, the accused commissioned Mr Griffin and GTI to purchase specialised lathes in Spain to be sent to the South African contacts to manufacture high-quality steel needed for centrifuge rotors.
#2
Kha is an Islamic hero, he won't have "heart problems" as long as he keeps his mouth shut.
There is a rumor going around that one of his relatives (son/daughter) is living in Europe and has a file documenting Pak government involvment in the "Bombs R'Us program ready to be released in the event of his death.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2006 11:16 Comments ||
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#3
His daughter told Pak newpapers that the info she holds would nail the Pak military if it came out.
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2006 18:29 Comments ||
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#4
"The Colonel" been very quiet lately - at last check, Libya was going ga-ga inviting the Euros to invest doemstically + acting as regional intermediary for the Russians and their new North African arms sales/weapons prolifer agenda.
[,,]
Veteran US journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in a much-discussed recent article in The New Yorker magazine that the administration of President George W Bush has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack as the crisis with Iran over its nuclear program escalates.
Hersh wrote that "teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups". The template seems identical to the period that preceded US air strikes against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan during which a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) campaign distributed millions of dollars to tribal allies.
"The Iranian accusations are true," said Richard Sale, intelligence correspondent for United Press International, referring to charges that the US is using the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) organization and other groups to carry out cross-border operations. "But it is being done on such a small scale - a series of pinpricks - it would seem to have no strategic value at all."
There has been a marked spike in unrest in Kurdistan, Khuzestan and Balochistan, three of Iran's provinces with a high concentration of ethnic Kurdish, Arab and Balochi minorities respectively. With the exception of the immediate post-revolutionary period, when the Kurds rebelled against the central government and were suppressed violently, ethnic minorities have received better treatment, more autonomy and less ethnic discrimination than under the shah.
"The president hasn't notified the Congress that American troops are operating inside Iran," said Sam Gardiner, a retired US Army colonel who specializes in war-game scenarios. "So it's a very serious question about the constitutional framework under which we are now conducting military operations in Iran."
Camp Warhorse is the major US military base in the strategic Iraqi province of Diyala that borders Iran. Last month, Asia Times Online asked the US official in charge of all overt and covert operations emanating from there whether the military and the MEK colluded on an operational level. He denied any such knowledge.
"They have a gated community up there," came the genial reply. "Not really guarded - it's more gated. They bake really good bread," he added, smiling.
But that is contrary to what Hersh was told by his sources, According to him, US combat troops are already inside Iran and, in the event of air strikes, would be in position to mark critical targets with laser beams to ensure bombing accuracy and excite sectarian tensions between the population and the central government. As of early winter, Hersh's source claims that the units were also working with minority groups in Iran, including the Azeris in the north, the Balochis in the southeast, and the Kurds in the northwest.
[..]
#3
Every major world power either does it, did it, andor would do it if they could. Dubya and espec Rummy would be held as irresponsible if they failed to use any and all INTEL collection abilities or resources at their disposal. How many times during the Cold War were US adminstrations heavily criticized domestically and internationally, by both allies and foes alike, for doing the same or mostly the same activities that they or the Commie Bloc was doing? Was it not the MSM whom reported from US agencies durng St. Bill's tenure that despite the fall of the USSR, that Russian intel acivities in Clinton-led America went up several fold!?
#4
Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio has written to Bush, noting, "The presence of US troops in Iran constitutes a hostile act against that country," and urged him to report immediately to Congress on all activities involving US forces in Iran.
What the bloody blue hell does Kucinich think Iran has been doing against the United States since the Tehran hostage crisis - holding a friggin' bake sale!
The embassy in Tehran was sovereign US territory according to every diplomatic note in the books! Invading it and holding the embassy personnel - US citizens - hostage for 444 days was an act of war!
Any other superpower on the planet would have blasted Tehran off the face of the map, occupied the country, salted the earth, and left behind nothing but smoking debris.
Since then Iran has, again and again provided adequate provocation against the US for the US to pound them into the Stone Age - they have provided cover and funds to avowed enemies, they have attacked our interests in this and other hemispheres, flagrantly violating the Monroe Doctrine again and again. They have attacked our allies, bombed their citizens, and provided aid and comfort to our and our allies enemies!
Acts of war have been repeatedly committed against the United States by Iran or its agents!
Kucinish needs to get a friggin' clue! The United States and the Democrats and our people/citizenry need to get its collective head out of its ass and knock Iran down about a century's worth of pegs already!
Anyway, the Italian story mentions Senator Jay Rockefeller and his unique efforts against the invasion of Iraq. Among them is mention of âthe relationship of the Senate American â. The story links the UN Oil For Food program and the Uranium trade (which I showed was possible in previous posts).
Then the story talks about a connection: âthe French of the Cogema are in transactions with the magnates of the oil, comprised the group Rockefeller American. â Wow. COGEMA is the French company (now Avera) that runs the Niger mines and monitors the uranium. Now I understand what Mac Ranger meant by this comment:
In the coming days you will see why Senator Rockefeller HAD to make such an emergency visit to Syria in 2002.
I had not made the connection until now that Wilson and Rockefeller both raced to the reqion in 2002! Maybe the heads up Rockefeller was giving Bathaast Bashir (and therefore Baathist Hussein) was not just about the pending war. The timing is right. Wilson went to Niger in February 2002, Rockefeller went to Syria in January 2002.
The article goes on to discuss the French Oil Company Elf, which is part or partner with oil giant Total, implicated in the Oil For Food scandal (see comments in this post and some here). I have long suspected Total could move OOF payments through Elf to COGEMA to pay for uranium shipments through another country like Libya. Proving it is well beyond my Google tools.
But then the articles mentions on Miranda Duncan, Grand Daughter of one David Rockefeller:
When David Rockefellerâs granddaughter, Miranda Duncan stepped down from Paul Volckerâs independent inquiry into the UN oil-for-food program it wasnât, as the mainline media hinted, because the inquiry was giving an easy ride to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Investigators Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan tendered their resignations to Volckerâs panel at the same time that allegations in oil-for-food were being ascribed to Canadian billionaire Maurice Strong, through his admitted association to media dubbed âKoreagate manâ, Tongsun Park.
According to the official UN read on the matter, Parton and Duncan resigned after making what was described as an unspecified âpersonal decisionâ.
The Italian article ends thusly:
But the tie between Irak, oil, uranio and war in these days is made tightened more and more..
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Holding up a scarred, mangled hand, an alleged al-Qaida explosives instructor told a U.S. military court Wednesday his transfer to a maximum security unit has made his life in the Guantanamo Bay prison more difficult.
Sufyian Barhoumi, who lost four fingers and damaged his thumb in a red-wire, green-wire incident land mine explosion in Afghanistan, said he struggles to use the sink and toilet in the prison's Camp Five. He also said air conditioning and the loss of outdoor recreation time has worsened the pain in his hand.
So, turn off the air conditioning.
"It deteriorated a lot," Barhoumi, speaking through an interpreter, said of his physical condition after being moved on March 30 from Camp Four, a section of the prison where detainees live communally and are allowed more outdoor recreation and other privileges. To emphasize his point, the detainee removed a gauze wrap from his damaged left hand, keeping it uncovered for most of the 50 minutes he spent testifying from the witness stand.
"My bones, they hurt every time I use the button (to operate the toilet)," he said. "It causes me a lot of pain."
Your bombs caused a lot of pain, too, as I recall.
Barhoumi, a burly man with a thick beard who was dressed in a striped, short-sleeved shirt, wore headphones to listen to an Arabic translation of the proceedings. He is the first of the 10 Guantanamo detainees charged with crimes to testify in a pretrial hearing before their military trials begin. He testified at the request of his defense attorney, Army Capt. Wade Faulkner, who asked the court to move him back to Camp Four.
Faulkner said Barhoumi, who is accused of conspiring with other suspected members of al-Qaida to attack U.S. troops, argued the transfer undermined his ability to defend his client, who viewed the move as punishment. Barhoumi is charged with conspiracy and faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Camp Five prisoners are kept in one-man cells with solid walls and a small slot in the door through which they receive food and can shout to other detainees and guards. They are allowed outside for only two hours a day for recreation. In Camp Four, small groups of detainees live in dormitory-type rooms surrounding a common area where they can play sports. The section is reserved for the most compliant of the prison's detainees or those who are soon to be released.
If he wants to live in Camp Four, he should start talking.
Faulkner said Monday that his client threatened to boycott the proceeding to protest his transfer to the maximum security unit. Barhoumi, 32, told the court he changed his mind just before the hearing began Wednesday, hoping his lawyer could persuade the judge to ease his confinement.
The judge, Navy Capt. Daniel O'Toole, rejected the defense request. He said the military had a "reasonable" objective in preserving order and security at the prison by transferring prisoners facing trial to Camp Five.
"Two chances, Mr. Barhoumi, slim and none."
A Guantanamo prison official, who must be identified as "Colonel B" under military rules, testified that men facing military tribunals were moved to Camp Five to protect them from attacks by other detainees and to guard against them hurting themselves or trying to escape. "I have to take care of him and I have to ensure his safety," the officer told the court. "I take that task seriously." The colonel also said they had adjusted the sink in Barhoumi's cell so the water would stay on longer to accommodate his wounded hand.
Barhoumi was arrested with senior al-Qaida lieutenant Abu Zubayda and other alleged militants on March 28, 2002, in Faisalabad, Pakistan. The Defense Department says that, among other things, he helped prepare explosives for use against U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Shark food.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/27/2006 16:23 Comments ||
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#2
Let him use the other hand to flush the toilet.
WASHINGTON - The US Army plans to charge a high ranking officer in connection with the abuse of prisoners at Baghdads Abu Ghraib prison, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported on Wednesday, quoting his lawyer.
The papers said in their online editions that Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, the former head of the interrogation unit at the jail, was expected to be charged on Friday with dereliction of duty, lying to investigators and conduct unbecoming an officer. He would be the highest-ranking officer at Abu Ghraib to face criminal charges in connection with the abuse of inmates at the prison. So far 10 low-ranking officers have been convicted and Jordan was the last major figure whose status remained unresolved after other more senior officers have been reprimanded, fined and relived of command, The New York Times said.
Were thankful that decision has finally been made, and we look forward to finally reviewing the evidence and making some decisions, Samuel Spitzberg, Jordans lawyer, was quoted as telling the Post.
The Times quoted Spitzberg as saying Jordan, a reservist who has remained on active duty for three years, was currently stationed in the Washington area. The paper added that if Jordan was charged, the next step would be the military equivalent of a grand-jury investigation to determine whether he would face court-martial, administrative punishment or no penalty.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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A leading nuclear expert told the Senate this week that Pakistan was a closer ally of the United States than India, and yet it was Pakistan which had been discriminated against and even humiliated.
In his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, said, Under any calculation of Americas strategic relations, Pakistan ranks higher than India. Pakistan is essential to our ongoing military and political efforts in Afghanistan. Pakistan is also essential to our campaign against Al Qaeda. Without the aid of General Musharraf, we would have a much harder time accomplishing our goals in either of these endeavours. Pakistan is also a leading power in the Muslim world, a world with which the United States needs better relations. Yet, our deal with India is a blow to General Musharrafs prestige at best, and at worst a public humiliation. We should not give General Musharraf more trouble than he already has. Israel, of course, has always been a close US ally, and will continue to be. Israel would like to have US nuclear cooperation. In addition, Israel is located in a part of the world that is of the highest importance to US foreign policy interests. In any competition for strategic favour from the United States, India finishes a distant third.
He said the United States acted unilaterally when it made its deal with India, as there was no reported notification or coordination with the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) or Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) before the deal was concluded. He told the committee during a hearing on the Indo-US nuclear deal that by violating the consensus norm of these regimes, the United States has invited other members to act the same way.
If they do, they may make unilateral deals with Iran or Pakistan without informing the United States. This risk has been created by our own action, and certainly does not make us safer. The regimes also require enforcement. The member countries are required to investigate and shut down unauthorised exports by their own companies. Since the attacks on 9/11, we have been asking the other countries to do more of this. But can we really ask them to crack down on companies that are exporting the same kind of goods to Pakistan or Iran that we are exporting to India? he asked
He said, Even if we can convince the other supplier countries to give lip service to an exception for India, it is unrealistic to expect them to follow through with enforcement against their own companies. Once we start tinkering with the regimes, they could unravel quickly. As one expert in the Pentagon told me, they are like a spring-loaded box. If you raise the lid, you may never get it closed again. What he meant was that the United States has always set the standard for export controls, and other countries have often taken a long time to follow the US lead in strengthening them. But if the United States decides to loosen controls, it will take only an instant for other countries to follow. The lid will fly off, and we may never be able to get it back on.
Milhollin said on a recent trip to Jordan, he was asked why the United States had decided to make nuclear exports to India, a question, he added, neither he nor any other American can answer. India, Pakistan and Iran all decided to develop nuclear weapons under the guise of peaceful nuclear cooperation. From this standpoint, they are indistinguishable. Why punish Pakistan and Iran but not India? They are all guilty. There is no persuasive reason for treating them differently. India is no different today than it was in 1998, when it tested a nuclear weapon.
He wondered what the grounds for this discrimination was. None of us wants to think of the word religion, but it is a word that is in the mind of Muslim countries. If the United States is only against proliferation by countries it does not like, which now appears to be the case after the deal with India, why does it like some countries but not others? he asked.
Milhollin told the committee that Congress should look deeply into these questions before approving the legislation. So far, he noted, it does not appear that this has been done, including by the administration. The administrations plan was arrived at hastily, with no consultation with other regime members, and virtually none with Congress. There was even little consultation with arms control experts within the administration itself. The proponents of the deal have presented it as if it were simply a matter of trade and diplomacy. Congress should insist upon a full review of the strategic impact, he urged. From a strategic viewpoint, it should be asked why the US is helping India. Of the three countries that have refused to sign the NPT, India is the least important strategically. He wondered if India was considered important because it was to become a counterweight to China? However, the notion that India might assist the United States diplomatically or militarily in some future conflict was pure speculation. Indias long history as the leader of the non-aligned movement points in the opposite direction. India will follow its own interests as it always has. India shares a border with China, he pointed out, and is keen to have good relations with China, and does have good relations with China. It will not sour such relations simply from a vague desire to please the United States.
The nuclear expert asked why in that case had India been chosen for preferential treatment. He was of the view that India was being favoured because it is the biggest market.
It was India as a defence market that was really motivating the deal, he said. India is shopping for billions of dollars worth of military aircraft, and the administration is hoping it will buy both the F-16 and the F-18 Officials in the defence industry and the Pentagon are saying that the main effect of the nuclear deal will be to remove India from the ranks of violators of international norms. And once this change in Indias status occurs, there will be no impediment to arms exports Boiled down to the essentials, the message is clear: export controls are less important to the United States than money. They are a messy hindrance, ready to be swept aside for trade. But, a decision to put money above export controls is precisely what we dont want China and Russia to do when they sell to Iran If they see that we are willing to put money above security, and willing to take the risk that dangerous exports wont come back to bite us, they will do the same. Everyones security will diminish as a result. Thus, this legislation has clear costs to our security.
Milhollin said the principal benefit cited by the administration is that India will place 14 of its 22 power reactors under inspection, but that leaves a great number of reactors off-limits. In fact, the reactors that are off-limits will be sufficient to produce enough plutonium for dozens of nuclear weapons per year. This is more than India will ever need. India is not restricting its nuclear weapon production in any way. Therefore, there is no non-proliferation benefit from such a step, he told the committee.
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2006 21:09 ||
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Of the three countries that have refused to sign the NPT, India is the least important strategically
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2006 21:25 Comments ||
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Senators criticised the US administration for not being transparent with lawmakers on a controversial civilian nuclear deal with India.
Legislators were particularly interested in an agreement being negotiated with New Delhi detailing the landmark deal clinched on March 2 by President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The deal would allow India, which is not a signatory of the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), access to long-denied civilian nuclear technology in return for placing a majority of its atomic reactors under international safeguards.
Speaking at a hearing on the deal, Democratic Senator Joseph Biden charged that the administration had "reneged" on a promise to share drafts of the bilateral nuclear agreement.
The United States had sought a provision in the agreement that nuclear cooperation would be discontinued if India conducts a nuclear test, but New Delhi has flatly rejected the suggestion, officials have said.
Biden said the administration also had yet to answer a deluge of questions posed by lawmakers, or share with them the full list of India's civil nuclear facilities -- "even in classified form".
He wanted the administration's "negotiating record" on the question of international safeguards that Indian nuclear reactors would be subject to.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN global nuclear watchdog, is still negotiating with India on the safeguards.
"All parties involved in the negotiations, including the Bush administration, should facilitate the maximum amount of transparency possible, so that Congress is better equipped to make informed judgments," said Republican Senator Dick Lugar, who heads the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee which held a hearing Wednesday.
Lugar said he had himself submitted to the administration 90 questions -- aside from 82 questions that have already been answered -- following extensive April 5 congressional testimony on the deal by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"We appreciate the administration's attention to these questions as the committee carefully works through the intricacies of the nuclear agreement," he said.
For it to be effective, the nuclear agreement has to be approved by Congress. Until the administration answers lawmakers' questions and provides them details on the deal, "we simply should not act on its proposed legislation," Biden said.
Several American weapons experts have warned that forging a civilian nuclear agreement with non-NPT member India would not only make it harder to enforce rules against nuclear renegades
Iran and North Korea, but also set a dangerous precedent to other countries with nuclear ambitions.
"If we do this deal, ask how we will avoid offering a similar one to Brazil or Argentina if they decide on nuclear weapons acquisition, or our treaty ally South Korea," Robert Gallucci of Georgetown University told the hearing.
"The deal would set a dangerous precedent," he said. "If we do this, we will put at risk a world of a very few nuclear weapons states, and open the door to the true proliferation of nuclear weapons in the years ahead," he said.
The Bush administration says the deal offers a crucial energy alternative to rapidly-growing India and would elevate relations between the world's largest and oldest democracies to a new strategic height.
Ashley Tellis from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think tank, said a strong American partnership with India was essential if the United States wanted a "stable geopolitical order in Asia".
He said the partnership "represents a considered effort at 'shaping' the emerging Asian environment to suit American interests in the 21st century".
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2006 20:00 ||
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What does being in the Senate do to ones brain.
Should it be added as a disease in the DSM V
#2
3dc, if you go back to before the Civil War a Senator had more real power than the President. I think they want to regain that power.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/27/2006 20:19 Comments ||
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They don't like it, they don't have to ratify it.
Personally, I'd rather forge closer ties with a modernizing, growing, nation that's on the same side of the jihadi war than with a primitivizing and impoverishing nation that's bluntly on the other side.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/27/2006 21:44 Comments ||
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Slow Joe Biden has no power, plagiarist and liar
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2006 21:48 Comments ||
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QUETTA: There are foreign hands sending weapons and terrorists to Pakistan that have disrupted the law and order situation in Balochistan, said Shoaib Nosherwani, the provincial home and tribal affairs minister on Wednesday.
Some tribal sardars are also involved in creating the security disturbance in Balochistan, Nosherwani told a press conference here. He said that an Afghan, Muhammad Saeed from Zabul province, had planned to plant a bomb in Quetta, but the bomb went off accidentally near the old bus terminal last Sunday. Important revelations from the accused are expected, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Police have registered cases against the editor and publisher of a Danish newspaper and several other European dailies over their publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), under a blasphemy law that carries the death penalty, an officer said.
Internet giants Yahoo, Hotmail, and the search engine Google were also named in the cases for allowing access to the drawings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) that were considered sacrilegious by Muslims. A lawyer who runs a citizens rights group submitted the cases.
The drawings were first published by Denmarks daily Jyllands-Posten in September. Newspapers in several other European countries later reproduced the caricatures, triggering violent protests across the Muslim world. At least five people died in the unrest in Pakistan.
Islamic tradition bars any of drawings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), favourable or otherwise, in a policy to discourage idolatry. Lawyer Iqbal Haider, who runs Awami Himayat Tehrik or Peoples Support Movement, had petitioned the Supreme Court against the publication of the cartoons under a blasphemy law that allows the death penalty for anyone guilty of insulting the Holy Prophet (PBUH) or the holy Quran.
Cases were registered on Tuesday against Jyllands-Posten, its editor, publisher, a cartoonist, and newspapers in France, Italy, Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands at a police station in Karachi on the courts orders, said Tariq Malik, an official at the station.
It is now the governments job to contact the Interpol and bring the offenders to a court of law in Pakistan, Haider said on Wednesday.
It was not clear immediately whether or when the government would approach the Interpol but a senior Karachi police officer said that the case would be further probed.
At this stage we cant say whether or not Interpol will be contacted in this matter, said Mushtaq Shah, chief of Karachi police operations.
We will first investigate and file our report to the government, he said, adding, This is for the higher authorities to decide what to do next.
A government prosecutor, who opposed the petition, says Pakistans courts have no jurisdiction over a crime committed abroad.
The courts in Pakistan ... have jurisdiction to try a person for an offence within their territorial jurisdiction in Pakistan, prosecutor Makhdoom Ali Khan said in a written statement to the Supreme Court on April 7.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Yeah, that'll happen real soon, Tariq. Why don't you hold your breath?
#2
Who's fooling who? Just the sex ads in those European newspapers are enough to fatwah all of them to next Tuesday. This is just more spittle ejection for the masses. How sad the world missed such a golden opportunity to tell Islam, as a whole, to stick it where the sun don't shine. Muslims did all of us infidels a huge favor by drawing a line in the sand and all we do is concede everything to them. Revolting.
The Majlis-e-Shura of the NWFP Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has suspended five of its members, including the son of its Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Geo Television reported. A meeting of the party's NWFP Majlis-e-Shura on Wednesday, chaired by its provincial President Sirajul Haq, took action against Haji Dost Muhammad (Peshawar), Khalid Gul Muhammad (Peshawar), Shamsur Rehman (Peshawar) and JI's Nowshera Naib Ameer and Qazi Hussain Ahmad's son Asif Luqman Qazi, for violating party discipline during the last local government elections, the channel said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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The army could be pulled out of the tribal areas if tribal chiefs guarantee permanent peace in the troubled Waziristan region near the Afghan border, President General Pervez Musharraf told a tribal jirga here at Governors House on Wednesday. You people will have to first expel all foreign terrorists and secondly stop tribal militancy before we pull out the army, Musharraf said. If the tribesmen tighten the noose around the terrorists and put an end to Talibanisation on their own then the troops will be withdrawn from the tribal areas, he said
A tribal elder suggested that the terrorism problem could best be tackled through the tribal system, or jirgas. Our tribal system is so strong that it can handle the problem if we give it a chance, tribal chieftain Malik Khan Zeb from North Waziristan told the president. His suggestion won NWFP Governor Khalilur Rehmans approval. The governor supported the proposal of Zeb, an official communiqué read.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Like they have listened and respected him in the past .... pathetic bit of political jousting
April 27, 2006: So far in 2006, suicide bomber attacks in Iraq are down fifty percent, as is the use of IEDs. The reduction in suicide bomber attacks is largely due to the reduction in the number foreign terrorists getting into the country. This is the result of several factors. First, there are fewer foreigners trying to get it. The rest of the Arab world has found out about how unpopular Islamic terrorists are inside Iraq. It's hard to justify "dying for the Iraqi people," if the Iraqi people really want you to go kill yourself somewhere else. Then there is border security, which is a lot tighter. The towns on the Syrian border, which used to be controlled by terrorist groups, are now either controlled by the government, or being contested by American or Iraqi troops. In either case, the Islamic terrorists can no longer use these towns as way stations for the trip to Baghdad. In addition, the Iraqi border guards are more numerous and in control of more of the border. The border guards of neighboring countries are also more cooperative, either blocking Islamic terrorists, or not assisting them. Going cross country to cross the border is less of an option, with more American UAVs in action to spot people moving about where they shouldn't be.
Another major factor in the reduction in bomb attacks, can be attributed to the tactic of looking for the bomb makers, and killing of capturing them. Last year, 115 bomb makers were put out of action that way. In the first three months of this year, another 25 bomb makers have been taken down. Along with this, dozens of other bombing specialists have been nailed. These include the financiers (usually former officials in the Saddam government) and team leaders (for scouting and selecting bomb locations, placing the bombs, and detonating the bombs and carrying out any accompanying ambush.)
There are still thousands of potential bomb makers out there, primarily former members of Saddam's special forces and military engineers. Most of these guys have stayed away, noting how dangerous a job it is, and are currently more willing to make peace with the new government. The Sunni Arab community uses these potential bomb makers as a bargaining chip with the government. If the Sunni Arabs don't get a deal they can live with, including government jobs and a cut of the oil money, they will keep building bombs. A lot of the bombing that is still going on is more a bargaining ploy, than any serious attempt to put a Sunni Arab dictator back in charge of the country.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2006 10:41 ||
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I'm a hopeful that adulterants added to explosives to identify batches are helping track down the supply chain.
On April 25, 2006, the Islamist web forum www.alsaha.com posted a video by Al-Qaeda Commander in Iraq Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi. The video culminates in footage of Al-Zarqawi with masked fighters, firing an automatic weapon, and the firing of what the leader of the fighters claims are new missiles developed by "the brothers." The following is the translation of this clip:
"We are Fighting in Iraq, but Our Eyes are Set Upon Jerusalem"
[Graphic of hands holding up a black banner.]
Screen: "The Shura Council of the Mujahideen in Iraq"
Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi: "When the Crusader enemy entered Iraq, it intended to gain control over the [Islamic] nation, and to strengthen the state of the sons of Zion, from the Nile to the Euphrates. But Allah has given the mujahideen sons [of the nation] the strength to face the cruelest Crusader campaign, invading the lands of the Muslims. They have withstood this invasion for more than three years."
[...]
"My dear nation, we in Iraq are but a stone's throw away from the place of the Prophet's ascension. We are fighting in Iraq, but our eyes are set upon Jerusalem, which will only be restored to us through the guidance of the Koran and the support of the sword. Allah's guidance and support suffice."
[ ]
"As for the American administration, headed by the bearer of the banner of the cross, Bush - we say to him and to his followers - the Jews, the Crusaders, the Rafidite Shi'ites, the apostates, and others: You will not rest peacefully in the lands of Islam. By Allah, your life will be unbearable as long as blood flows in our veins and our eyes can see. You were offered by our emir and leader Sheikh Osama, may Allah protect him, a long-term truce. It would have been better for you and for those at your side if you had accepted the offer then. But your arrogance and conceit prevented you from doing so. And today, with the grace of Allah, you seek the help of East and West, confused, exhausted, and broken, like someone whom 'Satan has prostrated with his touch.'"
"Why Don't You Reveal the Truth About Your Soldiers, and the Collapse of Their Motivation to Fight?"
Al-Zarqawi: "You have become an utter liar. You deceive your people and supporters. Whenever the mujahidun increase their blows, you increase your lies and falsehoods, claiming that the situation is under control. But then it becomes clear to all that what you say is a lie, and so on. You are like someone who tries to cure his drunkenness with alcohol. You have not been honest with yourself or your people for a single moment, even though your forefathers had an integrity you lack. Why don't you reveal the truth about your soldiers, and the collapse of their motivation to fight, so that your people will know the truth about the war? Why don't you tell them about the continuing suicides among your soldiers? Why don't you tell them that none of your soldiers go to sleep unless they take sleeping pills and hallucinatory drugs, which make them lose their minds, and they become like dumb beasts, led by the pro-Zionist and Evangelist generals of your war to the slaughterhouses of perdition? Why don't you tell them about your soldiers' collective fleeing, and about the growing rebelliousness among their ranks?"
"We Confront Your Dreams With Our Blood and Body Parts - and What is Still to Come is Even More Terrible and Bitter, Allah Willing"
Al-Zarqawi: "You should know, oh arrogant liar, that we confront your dreams with our blood and our body parts, and what is still to come is even more terrible and bitter, Allah willing. The charade of the rotten democracy, which you brought to the Land of the Two Rivers, after bestowing upon the people material and spiritual freedom, happiness, and stability - all this has been dispersed, never to return, by Allah's grace.
"Today you are using any ploy or method to bring together the rivals, your companions and partners, the apostate lackeys, in order to create a deformed government, in the hope that it will rescue you from the severe and embarrassing crisis you face with your people and your supporters. We, in turn, believe that any government established in Iraq today, whoever its leaders may be - the hatred-filled Rafidite Shi'ites, the secular pro-Zionist Kurds, or the collaborators who are falsely considered to be Sunnis - will be a collaborating government supporting the Crusaders, which was established to serve as a poisoned dagger in the heart of the Islamic nation.
"America has realized today that its tanks, its planes, its army corps, and its collaborators in the army of the hatred-filled Rafidite Shi'ites will be unable, by Allah's decree, to determine the war with the mujahideen. That is why it has designed a cunning plan, by means of which it plans to attack the jihad and the mujahideen through its collaborators who are considered to be Sunnis, who agreed to serve as a noose around the necks of the Sunnis to rescue the Americans from the swamp of their failure and perdition in Iraq. They used those who have taken the slogans of Islam as a mask, concealing their shameful deeds. In the service of their masters, they have begun to spread propaganda about the need to establish army and police forces."
[...] "Most [Iraqi] MPs are Shi'ites, or Kurds and Sunnis Who are Secular"
Al-Zarqawi: "Once again, we warn those who strive to establish and deploy the army and police, which were set up in order to carry out the schemes of the occupiers, and to implement a law different than the one brought down by the Lord. We should beware of whoever joins these collaborating apparatuses. By Allah, the only thing they will get from us is a slashing sword. We will have further battles with them, the horror of which will turn even children's hair white."
[...]
"Despite the searing failure of the enemy and its methods, it is trying to draw two types of people into the charade of the false parliaments, in order to reap the fruits of the mujahideen, who toil hard to make the word of Allah supreme.
"The first type consists of people who try to stick to the mujahideen and flatter them, although they themselves have not borne the burden of jihad during the occupation of Iraq.
"The second type consists of people who participated in the fighting against the Crusaders in the beginning - but actions are measured by the way they end. These people's actions are not good by religious law, unless they work to make the word of Allah supreme by means that are permitted by the shari'a, and not through tyrannical, polytheist parliaments from which the word of Allah has been torn out, or else it is integrated with man-made laws. In this case, the end does not justify the means.
"Even if both these types of people and their supporters claim that they wish to implement the shari'a through these parliaments, reality and history contradict and refute this claim. Whoever follows the political map in Iraq knows that most of the parliament members are Shi'ites, or Kurds and Sunnis who are secular."
[...]
"By Allah, These are the Final Moments Before the Servants of the Cross Declare Their Defeat in the Land of the Two Rivers"
Al-Zarqawi: "Continue your jihad, intensify your operations, and multiply your blows. By Allah, these are the victories of Islam. By Allah, these are the final moments before the servants of the cross declare their defeat in the Land of the Two Rivers. The collapse of the motivation to fight has become the most prominent characteristic of the armies of the Crusaders."
[...]
"Where are the lions of the Al-Anbar province? Where are the lions of the Salah Al-Din province? Where are the men of Baghdad? Where are the knights of Nineveh and the heroes of Al-Diyala? Where are the heroes of Kurdistan? Where are you, lions of monotheism, oh descendents of Khaled and Al-Muthana, of Sa'd, Al-Miqdad, and Salah Al-Din? Where are the muhajarun? Where are the ansar? Where are the people of surat Al-Tuba and surat Al-Anfal, of the Koranic chapters of conquest and fighting? Oh, vanguard of the nation - who will help the bereaved mothers? Who will help the free women in the prisons of the Crusaders? Who will help the pure women in the prisons of the hatred-filled Rafidite Shi'ites? By Allah, there is no life except the life of the world to come."
[...]
"Beware the highway robbers who, in collaboration with the Crusaders, are trying to attack your jihad. Beware not to lay down your weapons, for your lot will be sorrow, regret, shame, and humiliation in this world and in the world to come. You used to pray day and night for Allah to open before you the path of jihad for the sake of Allah in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and elsewhere. Then Allah made ready for you the jihad deal in your own land. He opened the gates of Paradise for you, and wanted your own good - beware, oh muhahidun, not to close these gates by your sins. 'Be not like a woman who unravels the thread after she has fastened it.'"
[...]
"To conclude, we bring good tidings to the nation: The establishment of the Shura Council of Mujahideen in Iraq, which, Allah willing, will be the nucleus for the establishment of an Islamic state in which the word of Allah will reign supreme."
[...]
"Allah willing, this council will serve as an umbrella for every loyal mujahid. I have the honor to be one of the members of this blessed council which has a blessed leadership. At the same time, I am the emir of Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers, the servant of jihad and the mujihadeen, who derives his strength from Allah.
"Your brother Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, Friday, 23 Rabi' Al-Awal, 1427 AH, 21 April, 2006. Allah be praised."
Footage of Al-Zarqawi, Fighters, and New Missiles
[Cut to scene of Al-Zarqawi leading masked fighters walking in dunes; cut to scene of Al-Zarqawi sitting in circle with masked fighters, around a map. Voice-over singing.]
[...] Field commander in Al-Anbar province: "May Allah bless you, our good sheikh. From the land of Al-Anbar, the land of jihad and the front line, we pray to Allah that it will be a constant thorn in the sides of the infidels. Beloved sheikh, I hereby inform you that an extensive high-quality operation was carried out recently in Ramadi."
[...]
"The muhahideen have succeeded, praise Allah, in killing many soldiers and in controlling the city for hours. The Americans were unable to reach the corpses for four days, praise Allah. This operation was a clear response to the visit of the two ambassadors of heresy, Condoleezza Rice and Jack Straw."
[...]
"In the field of production and development, the brothers - particularly in the Al-Anbar province - have managed to develop two missiles, which will be produced and used in the near future, praise Allah. These two missiles have great capabilities. One of them is used for crushing the enemy posts, and it is called Al-Qaeda 1. It has a range of 40 km, and can carry a warhead of 50 kg. This is a video of it."
[Laptop shows video of missile firing.]
Voice-over, chanting: "Prepare all the power and horses you can in order to strike terror in the hearts of the enemies of Allah and your enemies, in order to strike terror in the hearts of the enemies of Allah and your enemies, and others whom you do not know but Allah does."
Field commander: "The second missile, called Al-Quds 1, is a shoulder-launched missile, and it has a range of one kilometer. It has a hollow charge capable of penetrating armored vehicles."
[...] [Laptop shows video of missile firing.]
[Cut to scene of Al-Zarqawi walking in dunes and then firing very long bursts from an automatic weapon into the distance.]
Al-Zarqawi: "By Allah, America is certain to be defeated in Iraq, Allah willing. It is certain to leave the Land of the Two Rivers defeated, humiliated, exhausted, and contemptible, Allah willing."
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2006 10:12 ||
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Ah, now Zarq's a "blessed leader". Has he been talking to Kimmy? As long as the jihadis know they are supporting Zarq's new kingdom and megalomaniac desires. Zarq's got the count of "pious" muslims left in the world down to a handful now.
Al Qaida and Hamas have launched cooperation in the Islamic war against Israel. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs said that over the past year Al Qaida and Hamas have been cooperating on strategic and tactical issues. The center said in a report that Al Qaida has ensured funding to Hamas despite threats of a Western aid cutoff to the Palestinian Authority.
"The Palestinian Authority under Hamas rule is becoming a safe haven for Islamic terror organizations, first and foremost Al Qaida," the report, authored by [Res.] Col. Jonathan Halevy, said. "Hamas' ideological closeness to Al Qaida and its branches throughout the world -- including Yemen and Pakistan -- also creates a basis for practical cooperation, including sharing of knowledge, as well as in joint training, financial assistance, recruitment of operatives, and terror attacks."
Over the last few weeks, the PA has acknowledged the growing presence of Al Qaida in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On March 2, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said he received information of an Al Qaida presence. Two days earlier, Israel had announced the arrest of two Al Qaida operatives in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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There is very little difference between any of the militant groups. It's best to file them all under the heading of "Ralph"
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/27/2006 0:25 Comments ||
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REGIMECHANGEIRAN quoteds an article from MEMRI TV that HAMAS [as ne wleader of the PA] and other ME terror orgs are in support of a nuclearized Iran. IOW, Israel is de facto up against terror proxies of Iran in a fight/war to the death for regional Iranian empire. ISRAEL, like AMERICA vv GLOBAL SECULAR SOCIALISM + OWG, EITHER WINS, OR IT DIES.
Iran lacks the capability to block the world's leading shipping route for crude oil exports. The Center for Strategic and International Studies said the Iranian Navy, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has failed to procure the platforms or weapons required to block the Straits of Hormuz, the passage for 60 percent of the world's oil trade. In a report, the Washington-based center said the United States could block any Iranian attempt to attack Gulf shipping, particularly from the sea.
"Iran could not close the Strait of Hormuz, or halt tanker traffic, and its submarines and much of its IRGC forces would probably be destroyed in a matter of days if they become operational," the report said. The assertion undermined an Iranian warning to threaten the global oil trade if attacked by the United States. The warning was issued during the Holy Prophet exercise in the Gulf, which took place from March 31 to April 6.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Iran is unable, but the panic on the oil future market would be far greater damage than any Iran could inflict.
#2
Didn't stop Reagan then, and won't stop Dubya now. Wid US-Allied milfors all around it, the Mullahs only strategic line of retreat/withdrawal is thru Central Asia where US-Allied forces are again. Since the WOT = forcing SOcilaism and OWG on America, plus given the general decline of Muslim + Socialist worlds, the question then becomes - are the Mullahs, and MadMoud of the Apocalypse, as leaders of one of the Failed/ANgry Left's cannon fodder, "line(s) in the sand", expendable nations for the PC destabilization and defeat of America, willing to detonate one or more nuke devices on their own soil, against their own people and cities for the sake of destabilizing America and empowering PC Internat hatred against America???
#3
With the US navy short on minesweepers it would only take a couple of commercial ships sunk by cheap mines & the resultant international furore to seriously erode the political will neccessary for continuing a naval blockade of Iran.
#4
I personally don't think George Bush gives a tinker's damn about what people think of him. He's in the last act of his political career, his family has more than enough money, and he sees the MMs for what they are: a bunch of homicidal maniacs just waiting for the opportunity to commit mass murder. I think he's going to take them out and I think he's going to do it quickly and with a very large loss of Iranian life. I think they've screwed with the wrong man and, if he kills millions of them, all I can say is "they begged for it and he gave them what they asked for."
Posted by: mac ||
04/27/2006 9:11 Comments ||
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#5
Iran is quite capable of blocking the Strait without doing anything other than threaten. Commercial shipping is very risk-averse--they won't do anything not approved by their insurance underwriters.
That is why if the US wants to keep the traffic flowing, they would have to promise not only to underwrite insurance on all ships, but to also pay for any other financial losses accrued during the "blockade", including replacement ships, and heavy bonuses to ship crews for sailing in a war zone.
Ironically, this money would not only go to the shipping companies, but to the markets supporting their product *and* quite possibly to their oil customers--mostly China.
#6
Mines are not going to block the shipping traffic. The Iranians are being watched extremely carefully now and have the disadvantage of not knowing when the strike will come. Once it comes, they won't be allowed out of port alive, let alone anywhere near the shipping lanes.
#7
I suspect Bush would not delay in instituting convoys for Gulf traffic as was done last time this was an issue. The markets will charge for the additional risk, but it won't be exorbatant, especially given what has already happened to oil prices.
#8
The first world simply can't do without that oil. There is no blocking the straits. Any amount of force would be approved by the world community to keep the oil comming.
#9
What about nuclear mines or some kind of chemical mixture that poisons the water? I thought nuclear mines were a concern at one time in Iraq. Any attack of that magnitude would be enough to choke the global economy if 60% of the oil is shipped through there. They are suicidal and willing to kill their own people if it will usher in the Mahdi, so if they claim to have nukes, we'd better believe their bluster. Bin Laden promised he will not die humiliated, so he might personally go out in a blaze of martyrdom, so we shouldn't give them another breath and pre-emptively eliminate the threat, with extreme prejudice.
#10
You all got it wrong, the US will not allow Iran to 'direct funnel' it's oil to other communist and Arab nations as a 100% stoppage to the west is inacted by the mullahs! My hunch is that Iran's capacity will by 'capped' until the dust clears and the resistance gauged!
#11
Wonder how long the west could cover Iranian exports? Ummmm..... the US could do it for a year from the SPR. That's assuming no Persian leaks. LOL!
This is a conclusion based on relative strengths of US and Iranian military forces, and the fact that the US would stop such an attempt cold through whetever means necessary, including occupation of Iranian territory. It does not mean that they lack the men and materiel to do such a thing.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
04/27/2006 18:04 Comments ||
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Iran needs the Persian Gulf, too, for its oil exports and the Mad Mullah Moolah. Kharg Island terminal and all. Any existing pipelines through Pakland, Turkmenistan (?) would be destroyed, so Iran would have no foreign exchange AND no 36 cent/gallon gasoline for their masses. Iran has seriously miscalculated their position by making threats against shipping in the Straits of Hormuz. The only thing stopping the rest of the world the will to wack the MMs back. Cut off Persian Gulf oil and the Iranian MMs will get wacked---big time.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/27/2006 18:09 Comments ||
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#14
What AP sed. A mullah gotta know it's limitations.
#3
Interesting, and at roughly the same time China reportedly orders up to 15 BE amphibian planes from the Russians, equipped wid side ASW radars-sonars, and along wid up to 60 KAMOV armed helos. Speculation on mil messageboards is that China will use the KAMOVS on board its newest surface warfare destroyers or frigate types, or else on the VARYAG after refit is complete. While some believe the BE's will replace China's aging SH-4 amphib planes, others speculate the BE's will be used as a protoype and test bed for a larger, follow-on armed amphib to be used for RR [Rapid Reaction/quickstrike]littoral defense.
George Bush has authorised the freezing of assets of anyone involved in the 2005 assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq al-Hariri, while the US ambassador to the UN has called for a new security council resolution on Syria. The move by the US president reinforced suspicions about Syrian involvement in the Beirut truck bombing that killed al-Hariri and 20 others on 14 February, 2005.
In an executive order, Bush authorised the secretary of the treasury to freeze assets of people who are determined to have been involved in al-Hariri's death or to have obstructed the work of UN investigators.
A UN commission has linked Syrian and Lebanese intelligence agents to al-Hariri's death. Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, has denied the accusations.
The order also targets anyone involved in an assassination or bombing in Lebanon since October 1, 2004, related to al-Hariri's killing or implicating the Syrian government, an administration official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Posted by: ed ||
04/27/2006 09:31 ||
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#1
I don't think they are quite to the admiting stage yet. But, they are being seen more and more as loosers, and that is good for us in the Arab world.
#2
If the CIA/VOA/USIS et al were doing their jobs, this spin would be getting a lot more play over there. Pushing this kind of thing and mockery/satire is just as important to the war effort as establishing democracy. This is a contact sport. Winning is beating the other guy, not just finishing first.
#3
Al Q hasn't driven the Americans out of Iraq and set up their caliphate.
However, Al Q is very much winning the propaganda war. This is mostly because their allies include a huge part of the Moslem population of every country and they have the sympathy of almost all the socialist and nativist nut cases in the West.
#4
Maybe we should start releasing video of inmates at Gitmo getting haircuts, eating meals and whining at their hearings about how they've changed their ways. Bet that video would go over well in the ME!
#5
Al-Qaeda's strategy seems to be clear: it is the realization that they cannot operate to any degree in a region or country with any semblance of order, so since they have proven incapable of tearing down order anywhere, they must flee towards chaos and attack order from there.
This goes back to a very old argument I made, that this is a contest between civilization and barbarity, or more properly, vandalism.
Primitism has Darwinistically fallen before civilization, to the point where the two can no longer co-exist, there is no place left for the primitives to live that is beyond the reach of civilization. They can no longer ignore civilization, yet they cannot become part of it.
Their path is to extinction.
Their only alternative is to destroy civilization utterly. But this is a futile path, as the reason civilization overwhelms them in the first place is because it is superior to them in every way. If there is any freedom of choice, or even exposure to the better way by the vast majority, it will always be chosen.
That is why, in truth, this war reaches well beyond al-Qaeda, or even Islam. In a sense, all people on Earth who *cannot* evolve to modernity, who *cannot* integrate and abandon their primitive culture or religion, are allies to al-Qaeda. They too are on the chopping block of evolution.
And they, too, will either evolve or perish.
But, for now, al-Qaeda flees to Sudan and Gaza/Sinai, as islands of chaos. But the best they can ever hope for is just to sustain what little they have left, for their fuel is running low.
LINCOLN PARK, Mich. A chain of fitness centers has provided more privacy for women while they work out after some Muslim members complained that men could watch them, violating Islam's standards of modesty.
Some Muslim members of the gym said they joined Fitness USA because it had single-sex workout rooms.
But the gym recently opened a new area open to both sexes, and from there, men were able to see into the women's section, said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Fitness USA said Wednesday that it agreed to the changes at its Lincoln Park gym after meeting with the council and a concerned Muslim member of the gym.
Last week, Fitness USA installed some panels and frosted glass that completely block off the women's area from the coed room, said Jodi Berry, administrative director for the chain, based in Oakland County's West Bloomfield Township.
#1
". . . violating Islam's standards of modesty."
It's one thing when women don't want men to see them at their worst, sans makeup, all flabby and sweaty and nasty. It's another when women don't want men to see them because their abusive alcoholic sex-obsessed, jealousy-crazed, medieval slave-masters might gang-rape or honor-kill them. I do wish this distinction would recieve a tad more emphasis.
Oh, but that would be racist. Because Islam is a race. Right.
#2
The private company should serve its market. It sounds like it is reacting to one customer and a pressure group. Now it will find out how many other customers think it a wise decision.
#3
This is the sort of stupidity being practiced in France. Look where it has taken them. Exactly why should a few dumb ass Mooselimbs dictate societal norms for all of us ? Very dangerous. Kick their ass out of the gym. Let them organize their own gym. If I was a member there, I would quit posthaste.
#4
Actually, I think NS is on to something. Everyone else should quit the gym (and force Muslim ownership), but seeing as how (I assume) this is near Detroit, it's not very surprising.
Posted by: BA ||
04/27/2006 11:36 Comments ||
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#5
Another vote for letting the free market work. I know of a Jewish cook who patronizes Islamic-kosher vendors in Charlotte, NC (!) because they offer a wider variety of spices and other foods. Let the free market reign!
#6
I'm with Perfesser: They joined based on what Fitness USA was like at the time. The gym expanded, and the patronesses objected to a change that was part of a deciding factor for them in choosing it. Either the old ones leave if they don't change, or the ogler newcomers leave if they do. If the gym was committed to creating a specific atmosphere, and the change violated it, then informing them was the right thing to do.
Here's what would interest ME: Did the original patronesses complain privately to the owners, or did they go out and pull in CAIR right from the get go? Did CAIR threaten to sue from the start, or this was just a cordial tete-a-tete? From their past, we wouldn't think so.
I think CAIR was pulled in from the get-go, but only because the Muslim wimmenfolk are so intimidated at home that they don't even feel they can protest themselves, but need a man to do it.
So, did they wear the hijab when they went to see Dawud Walid?
#8
with the exception of getting CAIR involved, I think they did the right thing. If you would like to have something changed, say something about it. I suspect most of the mebers there joined because of the women only deal, and disliked the new set up as much as the Mooslime. I still would have told CAIR and the Moos to take a hike, but only because they tried a power play.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/27/2006 16:59 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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.
BISHKEK - Kyrgyz President 
The Prime Minister has denied claims by the mother of the Australian soldier killed in Iraq of a cover-up over her son's death. 
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Holding up a scarred, mangled hand, an alleged al-Qaida explosives instructor told a U.S. military court Wednesday his transfer to a maximum security unit has made his life in the Guantanamo Bay prison more difficult.
QUETTA: There are foreign hands sending weapons and terrorists to Pakistan that have disrupted the law and order situation in Balochistan, said Shoaib Nosherwani, the provincial home and tribal affairs minister on Wednesday.
Police have registered cases against the editor and publisher of a Danish newspaper and several other European dailies over their publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), under a blasphemy law that carries the death penalty, an officer said. 
The army could be pulled out of the tribal areas if tribal chiefs guarantee permanent peace in the troubled Waziristan region near the Afghan border, President General Pervez Musharraf told a tribal jirga here at Governors House on Wednesday. You people will have to first expel all foreign terrorists and secondly stop tribal militancy before we pull out the army, Musharraf said. If the tribesmen tighten the noose around the terrorists and put an end to Talibanisation on their own then the troops will be withdrawn from the tribal areas, he said
