(KUNA) -- Minister of Public Safety Stokewell Day said Wednesday that an Afghan group would be added to the terrorist organizations' list due to its involvement in the killing of two Canadian soldiers. Canada has officially classified the Hezb-i-Islami party headed by former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as a terrorist organization and accused it of targeting civilians, NATO's Peace-keeping soldiers, as well as political figures in an attempt to bring back the former Taliban regime to power.
The party, which is an ally of Taliban and Al-Qaeda, launched a three-year campaign against Nato's forces in Kabul. It was responsible for the killing of two Canadian soldiers. Day said that the group was added to the terrorists organizations' list which consists of 40 groups and added that his government would take the proper measures against the Afghan party.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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Chancellor Angela Merkel promised tough action after German soldiers in Afghanistan were photographed playing and posing with a human skull. "The chancellor has made it clear that she finds these pictures shocking and disgusting," government spokesman Thomas Steg said, adding that Merkel wanted the troops responsible to face "strict measures."
Germany's top-selling newspaper Bild on Wednesday printed the photographs of four German soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force displaying a skull like scalp hunters. The defence ministry said it had launched an internal investigation and was questioning two men, while Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung threatened to throw the culprits out of the army.
In one of the pictures, a soldier mounts the skull on the cablecutter at the front of a patrol vehicle, which bears both the German flag and the acronym for the international force, ISAF. In another, a soldier in camouflage uniform and a bullet-proof vest poses with the skull next to his exposed penis. Bild said the photographs were taken in spring 2003.
The report said the soldiers found the skull in a gravel pit on the outskirts of Kabul while they were patrolling near the Afghan capital. But the defence ministry said in a statement that it was possible that the soldiers had taken it from a cemetery south of Kabul where it had been exposed by the weather. Jung told reporters: "These pictures revolt and mystify me."
Doesn't sound like Jung's ever been in the military. For that matter, it doesn't sound like he gets out much.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#3
This is what happens when soldiers get bored. If German pols want to avoid incidents like this, the best preventive measure is to send them to war. Near the border with Pakistan, instead of camping out near Kabul.
#9
From a Chancellor in whose own country in numerous churches are displayed the remains of the local 'saint' or martyr. If displaying human remains is so 'ickky' why not start at home and cut the tourist death cult tours out. Definitely a ‘one set of rules for you and a separate set of rules for us’ moment.
#11
Why did Germany even start reporting on this incident? Nobody fucking cares what our soldiers do for recreation in Afghanistan. Who is gaining from this "scandal"? Only a few Nestbeschmutzer and the Kameradenschwein who leaked the photos in the first place! This could have easily been covered up. It only helps fuelling the muslim extremists' recruting factories...
Leaders of around 150,000 Arabs in Niger say they will fight in court moves to expel them to Chad. They told reporters in Niamey they would defend themselves against attack.
Niger's government has ordered the Arabs, known as Mahamid, to leave the country accusing them of wrongdoing, including theft and rape. But they insist they are citizens of Niger and "have no other country to go to", after being given five days to leave the country.
The Mahamid also say they will take their case to the United Nations Security Council.
But the BBC's Idy Baraou says the decision to challenge the government's order through the courts may have come too late, as reports from the east of Niger confirm that the authorities had begun rounding Arabs up around Diffa, located some 1,500km from Niamey.
Many of the Arabs came to Niger from neighbouring Chad following the 1974 drought in Chad. Others who were fleeing fighting in Chad arrived in the 1980s. Many have since risen to senior positions in the military, local administration and in business.
The governor of Diffa State, where most of the Mahamid live, told them it was "high time" to pack and return to Chad. "We have decided, starting today, to expel these nomadic Arab 'Mohamides' to their home countries," Niger's Interior Minister Mounkaila Modi told national television. "These foreigners have shown no respect to the rights of the natives and they're putting pressure on pastures in this region. We can no longer accept seeing our ecosystem degraded by foreigners."
Mr Modi said the Mahamid possessed illegal firearms and were a serious threat to the security of local communities and that their camels were draining local oases, Reuters news agency reports.
Like the rest of the country, the east of Niger is extremely arid. It is populated by nomadic cattle herders, whilst the Arabs also own camels. Not surprisingly, one source of the tension between the communities is water. With the Sahara desert expanding quite quickly there are growing fears that the scarcity of water could spark future problems in many African countries in the region.
The BBC's West Africa correspondent Will Ross says that with the spread of Islam to Africa in the 7th and 8th centuries, Arabs greatly expanded their presence and influence and there are many examples of how the African and Arab cultures have mixed. For example, some 20% of East Africa's Swahili language comes from Arabic. Arab and non-Arab Africans both had the common goal of opposing European colonialists.
But there have also been areas where the cultures have clashed, one example being Sudan, which has been plagued by conflict between the Arab dominated government in the north and the black African south.
#2
20% of East Africa's Swahili language comes from Arabic
I'm probably wrong, but I had the definite impression swahili was the pidgin used by slave traders (said slaves being the black africans, of course, which would make the use of swahili by "afrocentric" black americans even more ironical).
#5
Since Swahili is east African, those slaves were sold into Arabia. It is ironic in the same sense some US blacks are turning to islam when it was the muslim Arab slave raiders who sold their ancestors to the white slave traders.
Posted by: ed ||
10/26/2006 7:50 Comments ||
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#6
Interesting approach. Ship out the trouble-makers. If we get rid of PC fuzzy headed liberal approaches, maybe progress can occur. Yeh, watch and learn.
#10
Today the leaders, tomorrow all other Arabs, the day after that, all muzzies. Great plan.
I hope they have enough rounds of bullet for this undertaking.
Check-in worker Nadia Eweida has been on unpaid leave for a month after the airline banned her from wearing her tiny cross on a necklace over her uniform.
“ Eweida can return to work wearing her cross - but only if she accepts a back room job. ”
BA added further insult to injury yesterday when it said she can return to work wearing her cross -but only if she accepts a back room job where she will not come into contact with the public.
“ Any request from stewardesses or other staff to wear a full-face niqab would be given 'serious consideration' ”
Hours later the airline's muddled thinking was confirmed when a spokesman said any request from stewardesses or other uniformed staff to wear a full-face niqab would be given serious consideration.
'The request would be subject to a rigorous review, taking into account practicality, health and safety and security regulations,' said the spokesman.
MPs described the latest developments as 'ludicrous', while Miss Eweida said the suggestion that she should take a back room job was 'morally degrading'. She demanded to know why she had to hide her faith from the public when Muslims and Sikhs can openly display theirs by wearing hijabs, turbans, and possibly a full-face veil.
BA says Miss Eweida's cross is a breach of its strict dress code.
“ It's as if the cross is taboo. ”
Miss Eweida said: 'This is unfair. They are telling me to be out of sight. Why should I be hiding away in a non-uniform position when my Muslim and Sikh colleagues can be seen by the public? It is as if the cross is taboo. Despite all the people who have backed me, BA are still anti-cross. What is wrong with a little cross?
"I don't see why I should be ostracised and hidden away. This is a threat for other people and their freedom to express their faith.
'If I go back to work I will be wearing my cross for everyone to see. I will not resign - they will have to sack me.'
The 55-year-old Heathrow check-in worker can return to her old job, in uniform, if she agrees to remove her cross, but has refused to do so as a matter of principle. The row has attracted international attention as it coincided with Jack Straw's call for Muslim women to remove their veils.
Miss Eweida's case has led to a welter of adverse publicity for British Airways, which appeared to have shot itself in the foot once again yesterday when Miss Eweida's boss wrote to her offering the back room job.
BA world cargo general manager Mark Gardiner said in the letter that the company needed more time to consider a complaint Miss Eweida had brought against the airline, and a final decision on whether she would be allowed to wear her cross would be made in three weeks' time.
Mr Gardiner wrote: 'You can return to work immediately provided you adhere to the current uniform standards. If you do return to work in the terminal you will not be given specific consent to display your cross in the workplace as this would breach the existing Uniform Code.'
But he added: 'I am prepared to offer you a temporary non-uniform position in the recruitment team at Cranebank [BA offices at Heathrow].
'This would enable you to return to work and receive salary. In this position you will also be allowed to display your cross, as you will not be required to wear a uniform.'
BA's uniform code bans jewellery from being worn over the top of clothing. But bangles can be worn if they are deemed to be an essential part of someone's religion.
British Airways said yesterday it could not discuss the matter because Miss Eweida's case is still being considered, but senior sources at the airline suggested it is unlikely to back down.
Chief executive Willie Walsh is understood to believe that if Miss Eweida is allowed to wear her cross, the airline will have to allow all staff to wear jewellery over their uniform - whether religious or not - leaving its uniform policy in tatters.
“ Turbans and hijabs are supplied to staff in BA colours as part of their uniform. ”
Sources also pointed out that turbans and hijabs are supplied to staff in BA colours as part of their uniform.
But critics have accused the airline of hypocrisy, not only because bangles, turbans and hijabs are allowed, but because the cross of St George is displayed as part of the Union Flag on the tailfin of all of its aircraft.
Miss Eweida, of Twickenham, south west London, has now launched a second complaint against the airline over its decision to suspend her from work without pay despite a senior executive being given paid gardening leave amid a criminal investigation into alleged price fixing.
Commercial director Martin George was paid his £425,000-a-year salary for five months while on leave before he resigned earlier this month. He was also paid a notice period of 12 months salary despite admitting that 'inappropriate conversations' may have taken place in his department. Head of communications Iain Burns, who also resigned, was paid six months of his £150,000 salary when he left the firm over the row.
By contrast Miss Eweida, whose salary is thought to be under £30,000, has not received a penny since being sent home last month.
Miss Eweida's case - first revealed by the Daily Mail - has been backed by more than 300 fellow BA workers.
Her MP, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Vince Cable said: 'To suggest she could return to work but be out of sight is grossly humiliating. She is proud of her position and she will stick to her guns. This makes BA look terrible. It is deeply insulting for BA to suggest that she should hide away because she is wearing her cross. This just adds insult to injury.'
Conservative former minister Ann Widdecombe, who has cut up her BA executive card in disgust at the airline, said: 'This is ludicrous. Either someone can wear their cross to work or they cannot. We need to know once and for all.'
Yes it stinks, yes it's PC, yes it favours one side over all the others, but this is a business afterall, and it's the airline industry no less. BA's job is to fly as many people as possible. If they want to keep the planes full then they should do whatever it takes.
Otherwise Ms. Nadia could be looking for another line of work altogether. If she wants to stand her ground then let her do so in another industry.
Commercial airline industry is not open to easy competition. Landing rights are limited and controlled by the government. BA originally had government ownership IIRC and in any case is heavily entwined with government regulations.
If this were a truly competitive market with few barriers to entry, I'd agree. But given the status of the industry I'm with Eweida. YMMV of course.
#7
If they want to keep the planes full then they should do whatever it takes.
You mean like "more Arabs fly with BA, so no Jews allowed"?
Posted by: ed ||
10/26/2006 12:44 Comments ||
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#8
She's taking the wrong tatic. The rule forbids jewelery. She needs to get one of those flying nun hats - the pointy one - and demand she be allowed to wear it.
#10
What is clear to me is that BA needs to be boycotted until such time as a "tiny cross on a necklace" is treated the same as a turban or a bindi or a head scarf or a yarmulka or a priest's collar -- which is to say not treated as pertinent to flying at all.
#11
If this were a truly competitive market with few barriers to entry, I'd agree.
I think you're assuming that every other airline is already flying at full capacity. I'm arguing that if all Muslims suddenly refused to fly BA, then there's a good chance that Ms. Eweida's check-in counter (or someone else's) could be closed.
You mean like "more Arabs fly with BA, so no Jews allowed"?
That wouldn't make sense even if it was taken seriously.
Sounds to me like an employee (probably a loyal Rantburg reader) trying to be a hero. Fine, but not on your employer's time, lady.
#14
Contrarian, do you really believe BA would lose more business than it would gain (esp in the highly profitable ME routes) if it banned Jews and advertised a Judenfrei airline? Though it would lose some American business, I have no doubt the extra business from muslim and (sadly) European passengers would vault it into the world's most profitable airline.
Posted by: ed ||
10/26/2006 13:39 Comments ||
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#15
I think you're assuming that every other airline is already flying at full capacity
Nope.
Then I disagree with your reasoning.
do you really believe BA would lose more business
Yes in fact I do. No one would want to be associated with an airline like that, despite what you may think of European society.
It came to call, sporting a nym-warning to all,
It was not to be trifled with or ignored.
It blathered a bit, impressed with its own wit,
But left the Burg denizens yawning and bored
Frustrated, it upped the ante, wadded up its own panties
And delivered what it believed a devastating blow.
In one parenthetical fart, it confirmed what was known from the start,
It's just another hyper-inflated EUrEgo.
I offer advice simple: pop yourself, little pimple...
If you expect anyone to pay you serious mind.
Playing the fool, with such a tiny tiny tool
Will only earn you derision in kind.
#17
"No one would want to be associated with an airline like that, despite what you may think of European society".
Contrarian: "European Society". You don't even want to go there with the folk that hang out at RB. We're debating amongst ourselves whether it'll be worth the effort to bail Europe out of it's self-made problems "one mo' time" within the past 100 years. Convert, submit, or die Contrarian. Though I don't know you you sure as hell don't sound like someone ready to fight so I know you're not ready to die.
Stand your ground Mrs. Eweida. Rest assured you will be evacauted before the muslims consolidate their take over of the Island. Your name will be at the top of our list. We'll remember who you are.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
10/26/2006 14:51 Comments ||
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#18
Mark Z, I don't think there is much of a debate here at RB about going over a third time. If they won't fight for their own damn continent, why the hell should we send our sons and daughters to do it?
Look at another article posted here today called "The Rape of Europe". It states that the Dutch are moving out of the Netherlands, and the Muslims are moving in. Look at the French "response" to the riots in the banlieues. And look at this BS where they would potentially allow a stewardess on a BA flight with a niqab, even though it could be a potential safety hazard if her headcovering slips during an evacuation.
They know their culture and people better than I do, and in so many little ways, they have decided it's not worth it. Fair enough. It's not worth our blood and treasure then, either.
I'm saddened because I'm not that far removed from "Europe". My great grandfather came to the USA in the late 1890's. I'm just a third generation American. As much as I hate what the Europeans have become I believe there are still a bunch are worth saving. Some how. Some way. We need to get them out. We need to begin to discuss the best way to get them out if the USA will not go back to fight on their behalf. I'm not entirely sure the decision is final that we won't go back again.
Another thing: (if we don't go back) we've got all this "history" in Europe. For example, think of all the original, priceless historical books, manuscripts, and art work that the muzzies will destroy before the islamic transformation is completed. The architecture is gone, I understand that. But the knowledge that built it we can preserve. When do we begin to transfer that "stuff"?
Swampie...you think we might be having a discussion not unlike that of a Byzantine emperor may have had a 1000 years ago? You know, like another point in time when islam destroyed a civilization?
It just feels too strange to even talk about evacuating Europe at this time....I'm not ready for that conversation.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
10/26/2006 16:08 Comments ||
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#20
Game, set and match to .com ....
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/26/2006 17:41 Comments ||
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#21
What is clear to me is that BA needs to be boycotted...
I'd suggest that everyone let them know they will: http://www.britishairways.com/travel/askbainter/public/en_gb?source=TOP_contactus
#22
When the time comes, all we'll need do is let it be known that visas are available. They'll come. And I've no doubt that key historical bits and bobs will end up on this side of the pond on short- or long-term museum-to-museum loan. We won't get it all, either people or stuff, but it/they won't all go up in flames, either. My mother and her parents had to go into hiding in Holland because their own visa to the US came up for execution ten years later... and truly grateful they were that by the time the war'd ended so many positions were vacated that they were able to take ship in January, 1946. And my synagogue has several Torah scrolls sent over just in time, that survived even though their congregations perished.
My dear Contrarian, we read what your people say and write. No European or Brit would be associated with an airline that was so crass as to actually announce such a policy, but a wink is as good as a nod, as we all know. After all, how many companies accede even yet to the Arab boycott of those doing business with Israel?
#25
Another thing: (if we don't go back) we've got all this "history" in Europe. For example, think of all the original, priceless historical books, manuscripts, and art work that the muzzies will destroy before the islamic transformation is completed. The architecture is gone, I understand that. But the knowledge that built it we can preserve. When do we begin to transfer that "stuff"?
This is one of the main reasons we'll probably end up going back "over there" for a third time. Even without retrieving the wealth of historical artifacts, we'll need to fetch all of the nuclear bombs. I doubt we'd have the temerity to simply blast the entire continent for the sake of neutralizing its atomic weapons.
And my synagogue has several Torah scrolls sent over just in time, that survived even though their congregations perished.
Don't ask me why, but even this long after the fact, such a statement saddens me beyond belief. It also steels my resolve that if there is to be another holocaust, this one will be for the Muslims. NEVER FORGET. NEVER AGAIN.
China has put up a massive concrete and barbed wire fence along parts of its border with North Korea to block a possible influx of refugees as strong international sanctions are enacted in response to Pyongyang's program to develop nuclear weapons. Good fences make good comrades, I guess...
In addition, China's People's Liberation Army recently conducted military exercises and deployed additional troops near the North Korean border.
South Korean media reports quoted border residents who said the 20-kilometer-long fence was erected immediately after North Korea announced its nuclear test. China has also stepped up patrols and inspections along the border with the North, they said. The border fence, 2.5-meter-high T-shaped concrete poles strung with barbed wire, was constructed along the river with lower banks and narrower width, indicating that it is designed to stop North Koreans from crossing into China.
More than 300,000 North Koreans have fled to China where they hope to make their way to South Korea, according to human rights activists.
China has acknowledged it is building a barbed wire fence along its border with North Korea. China has also restricted exports of oil and other necessities to the North, according to Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper. China has provided up to 90 percent of its fuel and 80 percent of the consumer goods to the North, according to South Korean officials. So are the ChiComs putting the squeeze on NORK or are they just saying it for gullible foreign press external consumption?
"The aim of these facilities is to improve management and control conditions and ensure good order at the borders," China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. The move is not in response to the North's nuclear test on Oct. 9, he said.
Beijing also closed three customs offices in northeastern China that had regulated cross-border trade between the two neighbors. Border exchanges are the key to the two-way trade between the two countries. Here is a pic of the fence installation:
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/26/2006 13:53 ||
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Five members of a family accused of scheming to send sensitive information about Navy warships to China were indicted Wednesday on new conspiracy charges, prosecutors said.
“ authorities recovered from the disk restricted documents on the DDX Destroyer, an advanced technology warship. They also allege that they found two tasking lists in Chinese asking Mak to get documents about weapons and defense technologies ”
The indictment, handed down by a federal grand jury, added counts of conspiracy to export U.S. defense articles to China, possession of property in aid of a foreign government and making false statements to federal investigators to existing charges.
Named in the supplemental indictment were Chi Mak, a U.S. citizen who worked for Anaheim defense contractor Power Paragon; his wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu; his brother, Tai Mak; Tai Mak's wife, Fuk Heung Li; and their son, Billy Yui Mak.
Li, 49, and her 26-year-old son were already facing charges of making false statements and acting as agents of a foreign government, namely China, without prior notification to the U.S. attorney general. Chi Mak, 66, Tai Wang Mak, 57, and Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, 62, were previously charged with one count of failing to register as a foreign agent.
The government claims that Chi Mak passed information about U.S. naval technology from his employer to his brother and that his nephew, Billy Mak, then helped encrypt the files onto CD-ROM computer disk. That disk was found hidden in the luggage of Tai Mak and his wife after they were arrested in October 2005 at Los Angeles International Airport as they prepared to travel to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China, authorities said.
The new indictment includes three counts of actual and attempted unlawful export of defense articles for Chi Mak; one count of possession of property in aid of a foreign government for Tai Mak; one count each against Chi Mak, Tai Mak and Rebecca Chiu for making false statements; and one count against all five family members for conspiracy to export defense articles.
Ronald Kaye, an attorney for Chi Mak, said he hadn't seen the indictment. He said his client worked with sensitive information as part of his job, but never misused it or stole intelligence.
"My client is involved in an area of technology that is not classified is not even prohibited from distribution," Kaye said. "It's a strong sign that they are desperately trying to find whatever counts can stick. They've overcharged this case consistently."
Stanley Greenberg, Rebecca Chiu's attorney, said his client was innocent. "The evidence will eventually show she's not guilty, because it all grows out of the same facts," he said.
John Early, an attorney for Tai Mak, said he had not seen the indictment and couldn't comment. Attorneys for the other defendants didn't immediately return calls left after business hours Wednesday.
According to the FBI, Chi Mak told investigators his brother was giving the information to a researcher at the a Chinese university center that conducts operations research for, and receives funding from, the People's Liberation Army.
Prosecutors have said previously that authorities recovered from the disk restricted documents on the DDX Destroyer, an advanced technology warship. They also allege that they found two tasking lists in Chinese asking Mak to get documents about weapons and defense technologies.
The FBI originally arrested Chi Mak and his wife for investigation of conspiracy to steal U.S. government documents, although they were never charged with the offense. None of the defendants has been charged with espionage.
Chi Mak is in custody pending a March 20 trial. The other four are scheduled for trial on May 15. Tai Mak and Billy Mak are in custody; Fuk Li and Rebecca Chiu are free on bail. A hearing on several defense motions is scheduled for Nov. 17.
The Japanese government is planning a trilateral meeting with the United States and South Korea as early as next month to solidify a common stance on the North Korean nuclear standoff, Kyodo News agency reported Thursday. The meeting will most likely occur in Seoul, the South Korean capital, Kyodo said citing unidentified government officials.
South Korea has differed with the United States and Japan over U.N. sanctions imposed against North Korea for its first-ever nuclear test this earlier this month, and the meeting is aimed at enhancing cooperation between the allies, the report said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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AUSTRALIA'S Mufti has sparked widespread outrage and calls for his sacking after comments blaming immodestly dressed women for sexual assault and likening them to abandoned "meat". Treasurer Peter Costello branded the comments "totally unacceptable" and wants Muslim leaders to condemn the comments by Sheik al-Taj al-Din al-Hilaly, disassociate themselves from them, and pull their leader into line.
Sheik Hilaly's comments were delivered in a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, The Australian newspaper reported. He blamed women who "sway suggestively" and who wore makeup and no hijab (Islamic scarf) for sexual attacks. "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat," he said. "The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hajib, no problem would have occurred."
“ It's time we stopped just saying he should apologise. It is time the Islamic community did more then say they were horrified. I think it is time he left. ”
Mr Costello said comparing women to uncovered meat invites people to treat them in a degrading and dehumanising way. He said the leaders of Catholic and the Anglican churches in Australia would never make such a comment. "This is totally unacceptable. This is comparing women to uncovered meat," Mr Costello said on Channel 7. "We really need political leaders to speak out against it.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Treasurer Peter Costello branded the comments "totally unacceptable" and wants Muslim leaders to condemn the comments by Sheik al-Taj al-Din al-Hilaly, disassociate themselves from them, and pull their leader into line.
What, they haven't done that on their own initiative by now? I'm shocked. Not. If they do denounce him, it will be half-heartedly and out of necessity.
Posted by: Joe Lieberman ||
10/26/2006 0:28 Comments ||
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#2
Whoops! I should have signed that last one gorb instead!
#13
Why is anybody surprised? He is just voicing what most muszzies really believe. Don't you know that it's the rapist that's the problem, not the victim. It's women's fault, not the man. It's America's fault and Israel's fault, not the muzzies themselves. Muzzi-ism is a religion of victimization.
“61 percent now believe Germany is a target for Islamic militants.
”
Early this month, Ibrahim R, an Iraqi who has lived in Germany since 1996, became the first person to be arrested for allegedly disseminating propaganda over the Internet for a foreign terrorist group.
The 36-year-old immigrant posted videos and tape recordings of Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri threatening the West in an online chat room. German officials have pledged to monitor more Islamic Web sites and make more arrests.
In years past, the harsh response by officials in Lower Saxony state might have spurred criticism of state violation of privacy laws. But many Germans no longer see the war on terror as a British-American problem over Iraq.
“many Germans no longer see the war on terror as a British-American problem over Iraq. ”
"The case of that Iraqi suspect just proves we are not living in a safe island anymore," said Heinz Bruckmoser, a retired mechanical engineer from Duesseldorf. "It ties in with that failed train attack."
In July, Islamic extremists tried but failed to blow up two trains in northern Germany. If successful, they could have killed hundreds of people. The plot not only triggered a heated debate on national security but also sparked an upsurge of fear in a nation with some 3.5 million Muslims residents.
"We are threatened by terrorism, and that threat has never been so close," Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said after the attempted train attacks. "This time we were lucky."
According to a survey this month by the Demoskopie Institute, the nation's leading pollster, 61 percent now believe Germany is a target for Islamic militants.
Such fears lay behind the Berlin Opera House's cancellation of Mozart's opera, "Idomeneo" after an anonymous threat over a scene that included the severed head of the prophet Muhammad. In less publicized, seemingly absurd reactions, a local school in the central German town of Dillenberg ordered a gymnasium to be darkened when Muslim girls work out there, while law enforcement officials in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia ordered a woman to change the name of her horse from "Muhammad" to "Momi."
False bomb alerts have become an almost daily routine at many train stations. Sprawling railroad terminals in major cities, including Hamburg, Bonn, Koblenz and Mannheim, have been temporarily sealed off.
"We keep getting calls from worried citizens about what they presume to be terrorist activities," said a Hamburg police official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in accordance with department policy.
Last month, a two-year dialogue program initiated by the interior minister to integrate German Muslims into mainstream society began between prominent Muslims and government officials
But anti-Muslim sentiment appears to be growing. "We are already beginning to knuckle under to Islam," said a recent headline in Bildzeitung, Germany's largest-circulation newspaper, protesting the number of mosques being built in the downtowns of German cities.
Two Lebanese students studying at German universities were identified in August as the main suspects in the failed train attacks. Yousef Mohammed El Hajdid, 21, was arrested in the northern town of Kiel, while 19-year-old Jihad Mamad was detained in Lebanon. Both were identified by video cameras installed at all train stations.
No formal charges have been filed, but investigators say both harbored deep hatred toward Israel, and the West.
And while authorities stress that the overwhelming majority of the Muslim population opposes violence, the domestic intelligence agency Verfassungsschutz, or Guardians of the Constitution, has classified 32,000 Muslims as "Islamic radicals," including 4,000 described as "violence prone."
Manfred Murck, a top official of the agency in Hamburg, recently said that 30 of Hamburg's 100 mosques are being monitored for "suspicious activity," including the Al-Khuds mosque where Mohammed Atta and his Hamburg cell met daily before the Sept. 11 attacks. These mosques serve as meeting places for "clandestine agencies for Islamic extremist networks," Murck said.
Elmer Thevessen, a senior editor at ZDF national television network who has worked on numerous documentaries on terrorism, says the most likely converts to radical Islam in Germany are, like elsewhere in Europe, young, second-generation Muslims.
"They often feel isolated, don't know where they really belong, and often feel contempt for their immigrant parents, accusing them of being interested only in earning a decent living and adapting to German life," Thevessen said.
Thevessen says they are influenced by radical ideas spread on the Internet and Arabic language satellite TV networks such as Al-Manar, operated in Lebanon by Hezbollah.
"Thanks to Al-Manar, we know all about the horrible crimes committed by Israeli soldiers in Lebanon -- the murders of small babies and old sick people -- and the massacres by American soldiers of pregnant woman in Iraq and Afghanistan," said a young man who gave his name only as Mustafa as he played soccer in a parking lot in Freilassing, a commercial center in southern Bavaria.
Norbert Schneider, head of the Broadcasting Regulation Authority in North Rhine-Westphalia state, said he finds Al-Manar's programs "sordid" and "very alarming." While Al-Manar is banned in the United States and from a French-based satellite distribution network, there is no legal basis to stop its programs being broadcast in Germany. "They operate in a lawless sphere, and there is nothing we can do about it," said Schneider.
#1
heh. I could have told them they were making a mistake to think the Germans would fold on them. More likely, if I were the Islamists, I'd be viewing the history books with a bit of concern as to what Germans can do when they want to purify their race.
#2
Riiight. Humiliated by their defeat in WWII, shamed by their war crimes, struggling to prop up a collapsing economy, and marginalized on the international stage, all Germany needs is a charismatic leader who promises to throw off the chains and make Germany great again. And a good slogan, like "Industrial genocide can work!"
#3
Last month, a two-year dialogue program initiated by the interior minister to integrate German Muslims into mainstream society began between prominent Muslims and government officials
You'd think that heading down to Lebanon and helping Hezbollah kill more Jews would be a big help.
"They often feel isolated, don't know where they really belong
Keep up with this shit and you'll belong in only one place, hell.
#4
And while authorities stress that the overwhelming majority of the Muslim population opposes violence...
What utter bullshit. They oppose violence for which they may be held accountable. If they can hold the violence at arm's length, they'll damned near worship the perpatrators.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
10/26/2006 18:04 Comments ||
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Posted by: Bobby ||
10/26/2006 8:24 Comments ||
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#4
youths
disavantaged
complaining of spot checks
the phrench have not a clue, and the media doesn't help. no mention of allah akbar; no mention of the one thing that binds all of these "youths" -- islam.
#6
Riots to protest the anniversary of the riots? Makes sense to me.
Msm have been covering this coming anniversary by focusing on the two Youths electrocuted/fried while trying to escape police... emphasis was on their family and relatives, how they had to cope with this Tragic Loss, with the obligatory rap artist and his song "dead for nothing", the investigation about the police's responsability in that, etc, etc... ad nauseam. Barf!
Of course, nothing about the 8 persons killed during the riots, nothing about Jean-Claude Irvoas, the family father beaten to death in front of his wife and daughter a couple of days before the riots started, because he snapped a picture in the 'hood, nothing about the fact one of therelatives (brother) of one of the electrocutees has been caught preparing an hold-up since, no mention on the fact that the rescaped third fried Youths has also been arrested since (for assaul),...
#12
Shine on, shine on Carbeque Moon up in the sky
I ainÂ’t had no jihad since January, February, June or July
Snow time ainÂ’t no time to get outdoors and boom
So, shine on, shine on Carbeque Moon for me and my pals.
Don't be silly, mksegeek1, it was just explained to us yesterday that Americans are monolingual. Why, next you'll try to get us to believe you have a passport, and it has stamps in it. And not the stickers that come in sugary cereal boxes, either!
The German author Henryk M. Broder recently told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (12 October) that young Europeans who love freedom, better emigrate. Europe as we know it will no longer exist 20 years from now. Whilst sitting on a terrace in Berlin, Broder pointed to the other customers and the passers-by and said melancholically: “We are watching the world of yesterday.”
Europe is turning Muslim. As Broder is sixty years old he is not going to emigrate himself. “I am too old,” he said. However, he urged young people to get out and “move to Australia or New Zealand. That is the only option they have if they want to avoid the plagues that will turn the old continent uninhabitable.”
Many Germans and Dutch, apparently, did not wait for BroderÂ’s advice. The number of emigrants leaving the Netherlands and Germany has already surpassed the number of immigrants moving in. One does not have to be prophetic to predict, like Henryk Broder, that Europe is becoming Islamic. Just consider the demographics. The number of Muslims in contemporary Europe is estimated to be 50 million. It is expected to double in twenty years. By 2025, one third of all European children will be born to Muslim families. Today Mohammed is already the most popular name for new-born boys in Brussels, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and other major European cities.
Broder is convinced that the Europeans are not willing to oppose islamization. “The dominant ethos,” he told De Volkskrant, “is perfectly voiced by the stupid blonde woman author with whom I recently debated. She said that it is sometimes better to let yourself be raped than to risk serious injuries while resisting. She said it is sometimes better to avoid fighting than run the risk of death.”
In a recent op-ed piece in the Brussels newspaper De Standaard (23 October) the Dutch (gay and self-declared “humanist”) author Oscar Van den Boogaard refers to Broder’s interview. Van den Boogaard says that to him coping with the islamization of Europe is like “a process of mourning.” He is overwhelmed by a “feeling of sadness.” “I am not a warrior,” he says, “but who is? I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it.”
As Tom Bethell wrote in this month’s American Spectator: “Just at the most basic level of demography the secular-humanist option is not working.” But there is more to it than the fact that non-religious people tend not to have as many children as religious people, because many of them prefer to “enjoy” freedom rather than renounce it for the sake of children. Secularists, it seems to me, are also less keen on fighting. Since they do not believe in an afterlife, this life is the only thing they have to lose. Hence they will rather accept submission than fight. Like the German feminist Broder referred to, they prefer to be raped than to resist.
“If faith collapses, civilization goes with it,” says Bethell. That is the real cause of the closing of civilization in Europe. Islamization is simply the consequence. The very word Islam means “submission” and the secularists have submitted already. Many Europeans have already become Muslims, though they do not realize it or do not want to admit it.
Some of the people I meet in the U.S. are particularly worried about the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. They are correct when they fear that anti-Semitism is also on the rise among non-immigrant Europeans. The latter hate people with a fighting spirit. Contemporary anti-Semitism in Europe (at least when coming from native Europeans) is related to anti-Americanism. People who are not prepared to resist and are eager to submit, hate others who do not want to submit and are prepared to fight. They hate them because they are afraid that the latter will endanger their lives as well. In their view everyone must submit.
This is why they have come to hate Israel and America so much, and the small band of European “islamophobes” who dare to talk about what they see happening around them. West Europeans have to choose between submission (islam) or death. I fear, like Broder, that they have chosen submission – just like in former days when they preferred to be red rather than dead.
#3
The German author Henryk M. Broder recently told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (12 October) that young Europeans who love freedom, better emigrate.
It is sad that one feels like they have to abandon their county. Where will they imigrate to? There must be better approaches than that--how about restricting immigration? How about requiring jobs of the immigrants instead of providing welfare? How about the muzzies getting rid of their separateness and move towards assimilation? Muzzies in these countries have too much free time on their hands. Witness the bombings in Britain, Spain, and the car burnings in France, etc. This is friggin blackmail by a minority group of the majority group. This is simply abdication of your country.
And so, not only do we see the death of liberty and tolerance, so too do we see the demise of European intellectualism, art, science and technology. In other words, in 25 years, European culture will be no more.
#6
Honestly though, their next step is to start getting into politics as their numbers grow. Then they can really fast-track the islamization of europe once they have access to lawmaking abilities.
First to Mexico till they can get a coyote to get them across the border, along with the other 10 million, just in time for George's amnesty program. Aught to fit right in the ethnic neighborhoods in Chicago, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Davenport, Minneapolis, etc. IÂ’d skip Kalifornia unless they come from Barcelona or really eastern Europe like Ulaanbaatar. :)
#12
Judeao-Christian faith and principles were the bulwark that preserved Europe from the Islamic flood for centuries. Broder is right. Without it, they are doomed.
#13
" Contemporary anti-Semitism in Europe (at least when coming from native Europeans) is related to anti-Americanism. People who are not prepared to resist and are eager to submit, hate others who do not want to submit and are prepared to fight. They hate them because they are afraid that the latter will endanger their lives as well. In their view everyone must submit".
This is a perfect summation of what Western European - EU "leadership" as wrought. For the moment I despise them even more then I do the muslims and that's saying a lot.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
10/26/2006 10:54 Comments ||
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#14
If the appeasers want to survive, they'll have to convert. Otherwise, just submitting won't guarantee survival. Anytime anyone wants to kill the infidel, it will be justified. If the "blond woman" wants to convert, she'd better get used to functioning in a bag.
#15
Whetehr you have concern for Europeans or not, the second shoe here is what will happen to those Europeans who having failed to do anything about their own plight decide it is easier to flee to Australia and other places only to expedite the fall of their new homes by bringing their cancer w/ them and duplicating the feat in their new homelands.
#16
I would suggest that having concern about Europe is in all of our best interests. Lest we forget, France and the UK are nuclear powers with intercontinental delivery mechanisms. If these countries go muzzie, then we are in that much more real danger.
When will the spasm occur? Better question, will the spasm occur? Or will the islamization process be so gradual that by the time the will for the spasm comes, it will be too late. Me thinks the latter possibility is most likely.
#17
"She said that it is sometimes better to let yourself be raped than to risk serious injuries while resisting. She said it is sometimes better to avoid fighting than run the risk of death.”
"Better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees."
#19
There's a big problem being overlooked here, somebody has to work, or there's no taxes to pay that welfare.
I suspect this is a self-curing problem, as more Muslime cone in, and more citizens depart, a point is reached where welfare simply cannot be paid.
Then promptly we have another Zimbobwe, inflation at several thousand percent as the Government tries the printing-press solution (Print more and more money) to pay the "Voters" (welfare recipients) that keep the Politicians in Office.
This leads to starvation, and suddenly the population is smaller, both from people getting fed up and moving to another "Welfare State" and folks simply ceasing to live, (Crime is rampant)
Wash, rinse, repeat.
I think we'd better keep a firm eye on Zim-Bob to see exactly how Europe will play out post-horrendous inflation.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/26/2006 19:55 Comments ||
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#20
As those who stay become older and rely on the welfare state to survive, the muzzies expected to keep the economy going will be ducking real work as they do so well, and removing old Europeans from the competing welfare rolls.
To stay is to die by starvation. It's fight now or flee or die at the hand of master Islam.
A group of youths, some wearing hoods, forced passengers off of a public bus in a western Paris suburb on Wednesday night and then set it alight, authorities said. No one was hurt in the incident, the second bus attack this week.
Police said that about a dozen youths were involved in the assault. No arrests have yet been made.
The attack in the suburb of Nanterre came as France prepares to mark on Friday the one-year anniversary of riots last year by suburban youth, and raised the specter of a repeat of the three weeks of violence. "A certain number of hooded individuals got on" the bus around 10:00 p.m. local time and "threw a bottle of flammable liquid," the Hauts-de-Seine region said. "Luckily, there were fewer than ten people on the bus," and "the people had the time to get off" the burning bus.
Police said that about a dozen youths were involved in the assault. No arrests have yet been made. In a similar incident last Sunday, a band of youths forced passengers out of a bus in a southern Paris suburb in broad daylight, set it afire, then stoned firefighters who came to the rescue.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#2
If you want to know of what police are doing about this crap, be aware that they are being held back. Eurabia means: turning Europe into a jihad play pen.
A ground-to-air missile was fired at a French reconnaissance plane in eastern Chad Monday but missed its target, French military sources said Tuesday. "An aircraft's sensors detected a missile being fired on Monday morning," said Major Cristophe Prazuck, of the armed forces chief of staff in Paris. Although the French plane, a Breguet Atlantique 2, was not endangered by the missile shot, the army is treating it as hostile fire since no other aircraft was in the sector at the time, the spokesman said. The army did not detect the exact missile type but believes it may have been a shoulder-fired SAM-7, based on the weaponry being used in the Chadian conflict, he said.
“No specific retaliatory measures have been taken following the incident.”
No specific retaliatory measures have been taken following the incident.
Numerous rebels hostile to French-backed President Idriss Deby Itno are operating in eastern Chad. After a period of hudna relative calm attributed to the rainy season, violence between the rebels and the army resumed last month.
#3
"No specific retaliatory measures have been taken following the incident." Obviously the the Phrench army has been trained by the Paris Poo-leece farce in such measures (too early according to the calendar for a plane-B-Q)
Mohammed Farooq, a driver in the Pakistani High Commission in India, who was declared persona non grata by New Delhi for his alleged involvement in espionage, will leave for Islamabad Friday, Pakistan's Deputy High Commissioner Afrasiab said Wednesday. Talking to news agency Indo-Asian News Agency at Delhi, Afrasiab protested India's charge that Farooq was found indulging in activities "incompatible" with his status. "The Pakistani official was only distributing sweets to friends of Pakistan on the eve of Diwali last Friday when he was detained and mistreated by the Delhi police," he said.
But the Delhi Police claimed that they had detained Farooq when he was taking classified defence documents from an Indian soldiers last Friday. Farooq was later relased and handed back to the Pakistan High Commission at Delhi. India Tuesday declared Farooq persona non grata and asked him to leave the country by this Friday.
From South Asia Analysis Group, an article by B. Raman, Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai.
In an interview ... on October 22,2006, Shri M. K. Narayanan, the National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, tackled some of the questions ... regarding the advisability and the feasibility of the idea of an Indo-Pakistan joint anti-terrorism mechanism agreed to by the Indian Prime Minister and President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan during their meeting on the margins of the non-aligned summit at Havana last month. ...
In his interview, Shri Narayanan has sought to remove any impression that there has been any U-turn in the Prime Minister's policy. He attributed the Prime Minister's silence on this subject to his desire not to get involved in a slanging match with Musharraf. Shri Narayanan himself did not mince his words while talking of the continued involvement of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in acts of terrorism in Indian territory. He did not hesitate to name the ISI and Pakistan directly instead of indulging in euphemisms.
Continued on Page 49
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lashed out at the United States Wednesday, saying his popularly elected government would not bend to U.S.-imposed benchmarks and timelines and criticizing a U.S. and Iraqi military operation in a Shiite slum of Baghdad that left at least five people dead and 20 wounded.
Maliki's comments came a day after U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the prime minister had agreed to timelines for accomplishing several critical goals, including developing plans to deal with militias, amend the constitution and equitably distribute Iraq's oil revenues.
"The Americans have the right to review their policies, but we do not believe in a timetables."
"I affirm that this government represents the will of the people and no one has the right to impose a timetable on it," Maliki said Wednesday at a nationally televised news conference. "The Americans have the right to review their policies, but we do not believe in a timetables."
With less than two weeks to go before critical midterm elections in the United States, Maliki accused U.S. officials of election-year grandstanding, saying that deadlines were not logical and were "the result of elections taking place right now that do not involve us." Maliki's comments followed a deadly, early morning military raid in Sadr City, a teeming Shiite slum in eastern Baghdad with 2.5 million residents loyal to the charismatic, anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The aim of the operation was to capture the leader of a Shiite death squad, according to a U.S. military statement. It was unclear whether the target was among the casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I do not believe in timetables either. But I do believe in solid footing and leadership, which you can provide Maliki. It is not like we do not know what will fail. We do know what MAY work, and if you latch onto it, You will be a great founding father.
In the wake of the controversy surrounding reports of IAF fighter jets firing on a German warship, IDF sources on Wednesday denied that any shots were fired but admitted that on
A German helicopter took off from a warship off the Lebanese coast in an area where it was required to declare the flight to the IAF. The IAF scrambled its fighter jets towards the area but the problem was solved without confrontation and without any shots being fired.
Tuesday morning there had been an incident in which a German helicopter took off from a warship off the Lebanese coast in an area where, according to agreements, it was required to declare the flight to the IAF. Since the helicopter failed to follow this procedure, the IAF scrambled its fighter jets towards the area but the problem was solved without confrontation and without any shots being fired, the IDF reported.
Earlier, Defense Minister Amir Peretz spoke to his German counterpart Franz Josef Jung and vehemently denied reports that the IAF had shot on a German naval vessel off the Lebanese coast. The IDF Spokesperson's Office released a statement stating unequivocally that "contrary to reports, the IDF did not fire at a German warship."
"The defense minister clarified to his German counterpart that Israel did not fire any shots on German planes or ships," said a Defense Ministry statement. "The defense minister declared that Israel had no intention whatsoever to carry out attacks against German forces," continued the statement, adding that Peretz had stressed to Jung the need to "increase cooperation both directly and in the framework of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force."
A German naval task force led by the frigate Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is off the coast of Lebanon seeking to prevent weapons smuggling as part of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force set up to secure a UN-brokered cease-fire that ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Lebanon-based Hizbullah guerrillas in southern Lebanon on August 14. Peretz and Jung are scheduled to meet in Israel next week.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The Dimona mushroom growers association is a great comfort to me.
#6
Israel did not fire any shots on German planes or ships
Possibility here. Germans launch a helo they didn't provide notice for. IAF drops a couple of flares and fires a round or two away from the boats to remind the krauts of the rules. Notice the statement didn't say they didn't fire, only that they didn't fire at the Germans.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority are attempting to finalize an agreement to secure the release of captured IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit, which would consist of a hudna and freeing Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, Channel 2 reported on Wednesday. Reportedly, a summit has been planned for Damascus, which would involve representatives of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas, in order to reach a deal for the establishment of a PA national unity government and for Shalit's release.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#2
Many on the Net have opined that he's dead, Jim, already, + that Israel will be demanded to release prisoners out first before it is accused of breaking/circumventing the negotiations for release, ergo no Shalit anyways. WE'LL SEE.
#5
JPost says its rumored that Abbas will launch a coup against Hamas on Saturday, when unpaid, Fatah loyal police are planning a protest. Hamas is tightening security around government ministers.
Hamas managed this week to bring into the Gaza Strip millions of dollars in cash that will be used to pay salaries to thousands of Palestinian policemen, senior Palestinian Authority officials revealed on Wednesday.
Interior Minister Said Siam of Hamas brought with him "suitcases stashed with lots of cash." One official estimated that the suitcases contained at least three to five million dollars, while another put the figure at about $10m.
The officials told The Jerusalem Post that Interior Minister Said Siam of Hamas, who returned to the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday, brought with him "suitcases stashed with lots of cash." One official estimated that the suitcases contained at least three to five million dollars, while another put the figure at about $10m.
Siam, who is formally in charge of the PA security forces, visited Egypt, Iran and Syria, where he managed to raise millions of dollars in donations, the officials added, citing "well-informed Arab intelligence sources."
This is not the first time that Hamas leaders have brought millions of dollars in cash through the Rafah border crossing, bypassing international sanctions imposed on the Hamas government. In recent months, two other senior
Siam announced that his ministry had decided to give a grant of $50 to each policeman on the occasion of the Muslim feast of Id al-Fitr.
Hamas representatives, spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri and Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, also returned from a tour of Arab and Islamic countries with suitcases containing large amounts of money. Upon his return to the Gaza Strip, Siam announced that his ministry had decided to give a grant of $50 to each policeman on the occasion of the Muslim feast of Id al-Fitr.
Khaled Abu Hilal, spokesman for the PA Interior Ministry, said
The grants would be paid next week to more than 20,000 members of the police force.
the grants would be paid next week to more than 20,000 members of the police force. Hamas is believed to have collected at least $50 million in donations from various Arab and Islamic countries over the past eight months. However, the Islamic movement is facing difficulties in transferring the money into the Gaza Strip because Arab banks are under pressure from the US not to deal with the Hamas government.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"One for you, one for me. One for you, two for me. One for you, three for me..."
#2
Khaled Abu Hilal, spokesman for the PA Interior Ministry, said The grants would be paid next week to more than 20,000 members of the police force. Hamas is believed to have collected at least $50 million in donations from various Arab and Islamic countries
Vice Premier Shimon Peres said that if he becomes president he will authorize the release of Palestinian prisoners, including jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, Channel 2 reported on Wednesday. Peres met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday evening at the Prime Minster's Office in Jerusalem. The two discussed issues relating to Peres's ministry as well as the vice premier's candidacy for the Presidency.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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Hmmm...Jpost regurgetating another Channel 2 unconfirmed report on a private high-level discussion. Outstanding journalism boys! Whatcha got for the evening edition?
#7
theres been speculation that Barghouti was jailed precisely to give him cred in the territories, and that hes really a closet moderate, an Israeli plant. OTOH, THAT could be disinfo spread to ruin his cred. If hes released, it could be like the Germans sending Lenin to Russia - or, if that gets about, it could be his death sentence.
Ahmed Youssef, political adviser to PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, said Wednesday that Israel had expressed its willingness to accept the demands of the kidnappers of captured IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit, Israel Radio reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Arabs think it's a weakness---never figured out why their societies don't function.
"The IDF will expand its operations in the Gaza Strip if necessary, not to conquer the territory but to "prevent the Lebanonization of the Strip," Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Wednesday at a ceremony for fallen IDF sailors in Ashdod. Peretz stressed that warnings of terror and rocket attacks had not subsided since the current extensive operation had commenced. Also at the ceremony, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz said that the navy's failure to prevent a missile attack that killed four sailors aboard the INS Hanit in the first week of the war in Lebanon along with other failures in the conflict with Hizbullah were ongoing but that, nevertheless, "one must remember, the army is continuing to operate simultaneously."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, embarked on a six-day mission to the Middle East Wednesday, aiming to breathe new life into the stalled peace effort. Following talks with Premier Ehud Olmert, Solana said he got assurances from the Israeli leader there would be "no changes in his policy" upon the entry of the hawkish Avigdor Lieberman into the coalition. But Solana said he had some doubts whether Lieberman's extreme views would fit in with Olmert's moderate policies. "I don't know how they are going to make it compatible," he said.
Solana said Olmert remained open to a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an effort to try to revive peace talks. But EU officials remained pessimistic that the meeting would take place any time soon. Solana is scheduled to meet Abbas, before heading to Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon.
Earlier,
Solana had a tense exchange with Lieberman, saying he was meeting a man "I have disagreed with my entire life."
Solana had a tense exchange with Lieberman, saying he was meeting a man "I have disagreed with my entire life. Now that he is a member of the government, I would like to see the position he has." Lieberman urged the European envoy to give him a chance. "I will try to explain our approach, our plan." But after the meeting, Solana said: "I told him that I disagree basically with everything he says, but we have to talk to everybody."
It was Solana's first visit to the region since the full deployment of an expanded UN force in Southern Lebanon. Solana wants to make clear to regional leaders that the 25-nation EU remains committed to promoting peace in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is decidedly lacking in manners.
#2
Javier Solana has more than one brain cell. Javier Solana is intelligent, sophisticated, and deeply insightful. Javier Solana should not retire tomorrow. Javier Solana should not punch himself in the face 10 times every hour on the hour.
Posted by: Joe Lieberman ||
10/26/2006 0:25 Comments ||
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#3
Or, he's a lot of brain cells---it's whatever makes people human (call it soul) that he lacks.
#12
heck -Seeing as how this will probably help his reelection bid, Liberman should send him a check and a thank you card. Reminds me of the help the Guardian provided GW n the Ohio race.
A Danish court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by seven Muslim organizations against a newspaper that published contentious cartoons of the prophet Muhammad last year. The City Court in Aarhus said it could not be ruled out that some Muslims had been offended by the 12 drawings printed in Jyllands-Posten, but said there was no reason to assume that the cartoons were meant to "be diminutive toward Muslims."
Posted by: ed ||
10/26/2006 07:12 ||
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TW2412---they are waiting for the printer to finish up the latest batch of angry picket signs. Hand drawn and written signs are so.....amateurish and unrefined, ya know.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/26/2006 11:33 Comments ||
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#5
The lawsuit said the cartoons depict Muhammad "as belligerent, oppressing women, criminal, crazy and unintelligent, and a connection is made between the Prophet and war and terror."
#6
At least the judiciary in Denmark still functions, unlike in US. The way to deal with these idiotic lawsuits, is to throw them out as soon as they appear on the docket, along with some belittling language as to the assinine petitions wasting the valuable time of the court.
#8
"The lawsuit said the cartoons depict Muhammad "as belligerent, oppressing women, criminal, crazy and unintelligent, and a connection is made between the Prophet and war and terror."
Let's see, he was a violent, womanizing, women-abusing, incoherent, lying, polygamous, child-abusing, murdering psychopath that started a religion that glorifies and justifies violence, lying, women-abuse, child-abuse, and murder.
Hmmm. I guess I can't see the connection between the Profit, and war and terror, either.
Compact laser weapons powerful enough to perform many basic military missions are getting closer to accompanying U.S. troops wherever they go due to rapid advancements Northrop Grumman is making in high-energy, solid-state lasers, exemplified by a company-funded laser weapon named Vesta announced today.
Expected to greatly shorten the timeline for lasers to go from the laboratory onto the battlefield, Vesta's critical features are high power, excellent beam quality, and long run time -- all packaged into a compact laser device that represents significant reductions in size and in the weight of the laser from previous systems.
Beam quality refers to how well the beam can be focused, ultimately defining how much of the beam can be projected onto a target. Since it offers a groundbreaking combination of excellent beam quality and high power, Vesta can place an unprecedented level of power onto a targeted spot.
"With such superb beam quality, Vesta can be effective at a lower power level than what would otherwise be required for many major military missions," said Alexis Livanos, president of Northrop Grumman Space Technology. "This new advancement in solid-state laser technology will serve as the building block for many future military systems."
Potential uses include force protection of fixed-site critical assets, ground maneuver forces, ships and aircraft as well as precision strike by manned and unmanned aircraft.
Detailing the technical advancements that have been built into Vesta, the company said the new laser weapon:
- Demonstrated a "beam quality" or brightness of less than 1.3 times the theoretical diffraction limit. By comparison, a typical industrial laser for welding would have a beam quality exceeding 20. Weapon system applications typically seek beam qualities of 1.5 to 2. Beam qualities less than 1.5 for high-power lasers are considered outstanding.
- Operated at a power of 15 kilowatts continuous run time
- Is designed to operate at this power and beam quality level indefinitely -- even demonstrating more than 20 minutes of continuous operation with no degradation.
"For lasers to have military utility, they must not only have the required power, but they must also have excellent beam quality to allow the beam to be focused on targets at a distance," said Mike McVey, president of Directed Energy Systems business area. "To achieve this milestone, substantial progress was made in the key element of the laser -- the gain module."
McVey noted that Vesta's key building block, known as a gain module, is easily assembled and has reproducible performance of greater than 4 kW. The Vesta laser uses these gain modules to produce 15 kW. The combination of gain modules forms what the company calls amplifier chains, which are in turn building blocks for higher power lasers.
According to McVey, Vesta further serves to reduce risk for the company's work under the Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) Phase 3 program, which is funded by the Army, High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office, Air Force and Navy. JHPSSL 3 has a goal of developing a solid-state laser system to reach the 100 kW power level and will use eight of these amplifier chains. The chain construct also facilitates providing various power levels for different applications, and high reliability through a graceful degradation design.
Northrop Grumman Space Technology has been developing and demonstrating high-energy laser weapon systems for more than 30 years, paving the way for the U.S. to incorporate them across all services, including ships, manned and unmanned aircraft, and ground vehicles...
#3
I really want to know: is there something that lasers would do better than what we have now?
1.) A laser doesn't jam or need oiling and cleaning (as much).
2.) A laser doesn't need its clip reloaded after a few seconds on full-auto.
3.) A laser does more damage more quickly to a larger variety of materials (and organs).
4.) A laser can be coordinated with other target acquisition systems.
5.) A laser doesn't have problems with drop or windage (i.e., it's point & shoot).
6.) A laser makes no firing noise for the enemy to audio-locate upon.
7.) An IR laser would have no muzzle flash (article does not spec wavelength).
8.) A laser has continuous output, not individual rounds.
9.) Laser weapons can all share identical battery packs without any ammunition caliber mismatch issues.
10.) Laser batteries are less dangerous to carry and transport than ammunition.
11.) Laser batteries can be recharged using solar cells or other simple power sources unlike reloading rounds of ammunition.
12.) Laser weapons will blind or kill our enemies in ways that will inspire complete and total terror. Quite possibly to the point where they fear even taking the field against us. The psychological advantage of this single feature cannot be overstated. If our foes dread even the thought of trying to engage us, we will win battles without firing a single shot
Long ago, the U.S. Army developed C-CLAW (Close Combat Laser Assault Weapon), and it was instantly denounced by human rights types as being inhuman because of its ability to almost instantaneously blind large gatherings of people.
Back then, I immediately arrived at the conclusion that America should make weapons of such a ferocious and savage nature that our enemies would shit their pants just knowing that we were coming after them. This new generation of comabt laser weapons promises exactly that. Me like.
- Operated at a power of 15 kilowatts continuous run time
- Is designed to operate at this power and beam quality level indefinitely -- even demonstrating more than 20 minutes of continuous operation with no degradation.
That is enough time to, most likely, saw a car in half or achieve all sorts of other dainty mission objectives.
13.) Lasers have inherent auto-ranging capability to provide targeting for other combat support weaponry.
14.) Lasers can rapidly paint or acquire pre-painted targets with ease.
15.) Lasers can pierce armor, even reactive armor.
16.) Lasers readily acquire and impact extremely fast moving targets.
17.) Lasers are electronically keyed to individual operators with ease.
18.) Using galvanometric or acousto-optic (Bragg cell) output deflection, a laser weapon could sweep large areas to provide denial of incoming projectiles (per Leigh's mention of mortar and artillery supression).
I'll also add; Imagine the morale boost our soldiers will get from packing Star Wars heat against stone age armed opponents.
#6
I'll also add; Imagine the morale boost our soldiers will get from packing Star Wars heat against stone age armed opponents.
Technology can be overrated, especially if your batteries die. Think about the Ewoks. Those little fellas did some serious damage and they just had rocks and spears.
#8
Technology can be overrated, especially if your batteries die. Think about the Ewoks. Those little fellas did some serious damage and they just had rocks and spears.
They had a [hack] screenwriter on their side.
Lasers aren't perfect weapon, and individual arms will be slugthrowers for a long time, but lasers have a buttload of capabilities nothing else can match.
Imagine being about to shoot down RPG rounds.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
10/26/2006 18:01 Comments ||
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#10
Technology can be overrated, especially if your batteries die.
A gun that's out of ammunition is just as useless. Access to electrical power is often a lot easier than finding more bullets. This is also why I mentioned carrying a .45 as backup.
Think about the Ewoks. Those little fellas did some serious damage and they just had rocks and spears.
The Ewoks' survival depended entirely upon the fact that the director created them especially for his little grandaughter. A Death Star* makes short work of Ewoks (when it isn't being blown up by a bunch of teenagers).
* WARNING: Clicking link may lead to wetting pants due to hysterical laughter.
Argentine prosecutors on Wednesday asked an Argetinian federal judge to issue an arrest warrant against former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven others for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center that killed scores of people.
Prosecutor Alberto Nisman told a news conference that the decision to attack the center "was undertaken in 1993 by the highest authorities of the then-government of Iran."
Federal Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral had no public comments following the news conference by Nisman and fellow prosecutor Marcelo Martinez Burgo. The judge, under Argentine law, is allowed an indefinite amount of time to accept or reject the recommendations.
The two prosecutors urged the judge to seek international and national arrest orders for Rafsanjani, who was Iran's president between 1989 and 1997.
They also asked the judge to detain several other former Iranian officials, including a former intelligence chief, Ali Fallahijan, and former Foreign Minister Ali Ar Velayati.
Israeli intelligence uncovered most of the details of Iran's involvement in the July 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that left some 100 people dead and 250 wounded. The details include an account of a meeting of the Iranian Supreme Council for National Security at which the decision to go ahead with the bombing was made. Israel also has the name of the bomber, Ibrahim Hasin Baro, a Hezbollah man, as well as the transcript of his farewell phone call to Lebanon.
The decision in principle to strike at the Jewish community center was made in August 1993 at a meeting chaired by Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Other participants included President Rafsanjani, Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, Khamenei's intelligence and security adviser, Muhamed Hijazi, and the country's foreign minister at the time, Velayati.
The meeting was convened because it was to be the second major explosion in the Argentine capital after the embassy bombing 18 months earlier. Israeli intelligence believes the reason Buenos Aires was chosen a second time was because of a deterioration in relations between the two countries at the time.
Intelligence Minister Fallahian was given responsibility for the job. To back up the mission, Khamenei issued a fatwa instructing him to undertake the mission. Fallahian ordered the mission be given to the Overseas Operations Unit of the Hezbollah, headed by Amad Amiad Maghnieh, with Iranian intelligence providing full aid and cooperation. That Hezbollah unit was also responsible for the embassy bombing. The Hezbollah found the suicide bomber, Baro, a Hezbollah man, who arrived a few days before the bombing. A few hours before the bombing, Baro called his family in Lebanon, telling them he was going to be unified with his brother, who was killed in a car bombing attack on Israeli soldiers in Lebanon in 1989.
The Iranian foreign service provided much of the diplomatic cover for the operation. There was an unusual number of Iranian couriers coming in and out of the country before the bombing, with some staying longer than usual in Argentina, and there was a dramatic increase in telephone traffic between various Iranian elements in Argentina and Iran in the days leading up to the bombing.
The Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry representative in Argentina, Mahsan Rabani, was also involved. In 1993, he began inquiring about renting a commercial van in Buenos Aires, asking specifically for a Renault Traffic, the type of van used by the bomber
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10/26/2006 08:53 ||
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#1
ooh, won't that give Good Neighbor Chavez a wedgie?
#2
the decision to attack the center "was undertaken in 1993 by the highest authorities of the then-government of Iran."
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but in the old days wouldn't we have called this a "declaration of war"? And the response, admirable as Argentina simply responding at all, is a "prosecution"?
We need to develop an alternative designation for areas which really don't deserve to be considered a "nation", if the phrase "state of war" is to retain any meaning.
Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned ambassadors of Belgium and Finland here on Wednesday to hand the former a protest against the invitation by Belgian Senate to leader of Iranian opposition organization Mujahideen Khalq. Director General of European Affairs Department of Iranian Foreign Ministry Ibrahim Rohaym-Bor summoned the Belgian ambassador and expressed to him Iran's dismay at the invitation. Rohaym-Bor lashed out at Belgium double standards in dealing with international terrorism, warning against the negative impacts of such an invitation on the Iranian-Belgian ties. The Iranian official protested the move also to Finnish ambassador, whose country is the current president of the European Union. He underlined the necessity of compliance by all EU members with the agree-upon anti-terrorism accords.
Johannesburg (AND) As UN sanctions loom, Iran stayed defiant, confirming it had expanded its uranium enrichment program.
Iran is said to be planning to inject gas into a second cascade of centrifuges. The process yields either nuclear fuel or material for a warhead.
The US meanwhile has softened its stance towards the regime, preparing a U.N. resolution to impose limited sanctions only. Iran is said to be planning to inject gas into a second cascade of centrifuges. The process yields either nuclear fuel or material for a warhead. However, Iran has said its process is all about peaceful nuclear power. The United States and others suspect it is a cover for building atomic weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency has banned Iran from enrichment-related activity, though the UN treaty allows for nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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Re-read DEFENSETECH.org article on how North Korea may had used PLUTONIUM FUEL to conduct its recent alleged first nuke test. Still comes down to Newton's laws > i.e. Iran = North Korea will keep pushing unless stopped by an outside force.
Iran = North Korea > like TWO 1960's CUBAS threatening both the USA + Commies, wid the world waiting to see who will blink first before either doing nothing , or else using unilater? mil force to stop the two Castros. OWG > PRAVDA.ru article = [US-caused] NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION AND NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
The Syrian Defense Minister raised his army's alert level following IDF training exercises on the Golan Heights the past two days, Qatari newspaper Al-Watan reported on Wednesday. According to the report, Syrian army chief Hasan Turkmani upped the alert level in order to defend against possible Israeli aggression. Similar alerts were issued during the war against Hizbullah this summer. A Syrian military source told Al-Watan that the move was prompted by IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz's surprise visit to the area and "unusual mobilizations" of Israeli troops in the Golan Heights on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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The Syrian military has raised its alert from from "stupified" to "befuddled".
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
10/26/2006 18:06 Comments ||
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Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday Germany and its partners were left with "no choice," but to pursue sanctions against Iran at the UN Security Council after Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment. "It is regrettable that Iran has not yet responded to any of the demands of the international community," Merkel said during a speech in Berlin. "For that reason, we had no choice but to pursue sanctions in the UN Security Council."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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ooooh. Sanctions. The mullahs are so skeeered. Casper The Friendly Ghost is going to get you! Boo!
Lebanese Parliament Speaker and Amal leader Nabih Berri on Wednesday invited Lebanon's bickering political leaders to meet for talks to prevent political tension from degenerating into street clashes between rival camps. Berri presented his proposal as a "gift" to the nation on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim feast that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Berri said the talks, which he set to begin on Oct. 30, would last no longer than two weeks and focus on the issues of forming a national unity government, drafting a new elections law and devising a plan to pay off the country's mounting national debt.
"Unfortunately, we are aware of the existing vertical and horizontal, not to mention sectarian and factional, splits in the country," he said at a news conference Wednesday. Berri said he hoped the 14 leaders, pro- and anti-Syrian, Christian and Muslim, who had been engaged in a "national dialogue" since March would accept his invitation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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REUTERS/Other > GERMANY = Iran may get nuclear
[thermonuke, not merely 'atomic'/uranium] bomb by Year 2015. Year 2015 falls within rough 3-10 year timeline accepted by 'Perts.
The vice president of the Higher Shiite Council urged an expansion of the government on Tuesday to include "all of Lebanon's political parties." "Our country should be governed through cooperation between all political parties," Sheikh Abdel-Amir Qabalan said during his Eid al-Fitr sermon. There is a "dire need" for true national unity and "entrenched coexistence," he added.
Praising Speaker Nabih Berri's "strenuous" efforts to resolve a mounting political crisis, Qabalan called on politicians to "put their personal interests aside" and put an end to inflammatory speeches. "We want our politicians to deliver wise speeches free from humiliation and challenges," he said.
When they're looking for a government that represents "all parties," they're either looking for a government that represents only their own party or they want a government that's incapable of making any decisions.
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10/26/2006 00:00 ||
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Tucson Citizen Tucson is one of the few major cities where holstered revolvers can be carried openly by citizens. One would think that the rule of law would be respected there. Think again. One reviewer treats wishful thinking of treasonous murder, as "fair."
Rating: unrated Length: 93 minutes Grade: A
While it looks amazingly real, this British faux documentary is actually science-fiction. The film imagines what would happen if the president of the United States, George W. Bush, was assassinated on Oct. 19, 2007, during a political visit to Chicago. The finger of blame isn't pointed directly at any of the likely suspects - wild-eyed liberals, Third World fanatics or Middle Eastern Muslim fundamentalists. There is an African-American who is wrongfully incarcerated, then released, and an American-born Muslim who is left a prisoner in limbo. As this morbid fiction is the product of the Director's warped mind, I have to say: he did it!
All of it sounds, and looks, likely enough. Of course such an incendiary subject carries a lot of implied political baggage. Most significant is how the assassination is politicized to get congressional passage of "Patriot Act III" so it becomes the permanent law of the land. Also emphasized is how the government rounded up hundreds of suspects, many of them American citizens, and spirited them off to foreign prisons for interrogation.
This assumption of a rigid police state might be considered inflammatory, but our own real-life history provides plenty of precedent. In truth, given the opportunities for heavy-handed bias, "Death of a President" is remarkably fair. And its authenticity feels quite convincing. Lots of "precedent," like that pre-911 Bruce Willis movie on martial law in NYC and Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator." No wonder that no respectable Cinema chain is associated with this video-game for sickos. This isn't coming to my town; yours?
#1
I received the 700+MB flic in an email, Gawd bless unlimited attachments, from a friend outside the US - and the first 25 minutes make sense, actually - right up to the point that Bush is shot. Then it goes LLL haywire and sucks the big one. Evil US Govt stuff. I could lay it out, spoiling this sure-fire Academy Award Winner for everyone - or not. Doesn't matter to me. I almost flushed it without watching.
#2
This assumption of a rigid police state might be considered inflammatory, but our own real-life history provides plenty of precedent.
Yes, just look into the history of suspension of civil liberties during wartime by Woodrow Wilson (D) and Franklin Roosevelt (D). Notice something consistent here? Can we say Freudian projection here?
#4
I have thought about penning the screenplay for an unauthorized sequel to this, entitled Media Beast: the Aftermath. This follows loyalist vigilantes as they take revenge on various left-wing media culture elements for inciting the assassination.
Since GWB, Cheney, et al, are real people and could really be killed; and the media monsters claim artistic license for this; I think it is only fair for me to have the same licence to use the names of real media swine in the sequel.
Typical scene: Several dozen BBC employees have gathered in an auditorium for their NUJ sponsored Minute of Hate. Cheney's picture flashes on the screen. Catcalls and chanting erupt from the crowd. At that moment, two men enter at the back. One of them has a backpack flamethrower.
"Hot damn, Jim Bob, a whole room full o' commie moonbats. Light 'em up!"
#6
Many thanks, .com. It is a joy to be back, free (for now) to exercise my First Amendment rights just as Moonbats do, and hold their feet to the fire in terms of consistency.
#7
Did I leave out that the Permian Roughneck Ass Kicker is the local awl cumpny's CEO, worth more than Gawd, sounds suspiciously like T. Boone, and has a double doctorate in Philsophy and Military Science? My bad, lol. Waay good idea in #4...
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.
(KUNA) -- Minister of Public Safety Stokewell Day said Wednesday that an Afghan group would be added to the terrorist organizations' list due to its involvement in the killing of two Canadian soldiers. Canada has officially classified the Hezb-i-Islami party headed by former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as a terrorist organization and accused it of targeting civilians, NATO's Peace-keeping soldiers, as well as political figures in an attempt to bring back the former Taliban regime to power.
Chancellor Angela Merkel promised tough action after German soldiers in Afghanistan were photographed playing and posing with a human skull. "The chancellor has made it clear that she finds these pictures shocking and disgusting," government spokesman Thomas Steg said, adding that Merkel wanted the troops responsible to face "strict measures."
The Japanese government is planning a trilateral meeting with the United States and South Korea as early as next month to solidify a common stance on the North Korean nuclear standoff, Kyodo News agency reported Thursday. The meeting will most likely occur in Seoul, the South Korean capital, Kyodo said citing unidentified government officials. 
AUSTRALIA'S Mufti has sparked widespread outrage and calls for his sacking after comments blaming immodestly dressed women for sexual assault and likening them to abandoned "meat". Treasurer Peter Costello branded the comments "totally unacceptable" and wants Muslim leaders to condemn the comments by 
A group of youths, some wearing hoods, forced passengers off of a public bus in a western Paris suburb on Wednesday night and then set it alight, authorities said. No one was hurt in the incident, the second bus attack this week. 
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lashed out at the United States Wednesday, saying his popularly elected government would not bend to U.S.-imposed benchmarks and timelines and criticizing a U.S. and Iraqi military operation in a Shiite slum of Baghdad that left at least five people dead and 20 wounded.
In the wake of the controversy surrounding reports of IAF fighter jets firing on a German warship, IDF sources on Wednesday denied that any shots were fired but admitted that on 
Hamas managed this week to bring into the Gaza Strip millions of dollars in cash that will be used to pay salaries to thousands of Palestinian policemen, senior Palestinian Authority officials revealed on Wednesday. 
The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, embarked on a six-day mission to the Middle East Wednesday, aiming to breathe new life into the stalled peace effort. Following talks with Premier Ehud Olmert, Solana said he got assurances from the Israeli leader there would be "no changes in his policy" upon the entry of the hawkish Avigdor Lieberman into the coalition. But Solana said he had some doubts whether Lieberman's extreme views would fit in with Olmert's moderate policies. "I don't know how they are going to make it compatible," he said.
The Syrian Defense Minister raised his army's alert level following IDF training exercises on the Golan Heights the past two days, Qatari newspaper Al-Watan reported on Wednesday. According to the report, Syrian army chief Hasan Turkmani upped the alert level in order to defend against possible Israeli aggression. Similar alerts were issued during the war against Hizbullah this summer. A Syrian military source told Al-Watan that the move was prompted by IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz's surprise visit to the area and "unusual mobilizations" of Israeli troops in the Golan Heights on Monday.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday Germany and its partners were left with "no choice," but to pursue sanctions against Iran at the UN Security Council after Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment. "It is regrettable that Iran has not yet responded to any of the demands of the international community," Merkel said during a speech in Berlin. "For that reason, we had no choice but to pursue sanctions in the UN Security Council."
Lebanese Parliament Speaker and Amal leader Nabih Berri on Wednesday invited Lebanon's bickering political leaders to meet for talks to prevent political tension from degenerating into street clashes between rival camps. Berri presented his proposal as a "gift" to the nation on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim feast that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Berri said the talks, which he set to begin on Oct. 30, would last no longer than two weeks and focus on the issues of forming a national unity government, drafting a new elections law and devising a plan to pay off the country's mounting national debt. 
