(SomaliNet) Somalia Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi has attended an occasion of nominating court judges and commissioners of Banadir districts who were sworn at the regional headquarter in the capital Mogadishu.
Addressing the occasion, which was also participated by dignitaries and government officials, Mr. Gedi said the formation of the judiciary system would facilitate the services performed by the police forces. Fairly soon, the police stations in Mogadishu will be operational and justice will work properly as I am sure that people need judgment, Gedi said. If a suspect is arrested, the police will have the access to put the criminal on trial soon.
"After beating the snot out of him, he will be properly arraigned," Gedi added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Is Egypt declaring its intentions to develop nuclear weapons? Thus it appeared in a speech delivered by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Thursday on the occasion of meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Sharm e-Sheikh.
We dont want nuclear weapons, Mubarak stated, But since they appear highly present in the area, we must defend ourselves."
Recently Egypt announced that it was striving to attain nuclear capabilities. President Mubarak himself, as well as his son Jamal, were questioned on the issue and declared that their nation needed nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and Egypt's nuclear program would be aimed at overcoming the deficiency in fuel and natural gas reserves.
However, now it appears that if Iran develops nuclear power, Egypt will no longer be satisfied with devoting its nuclear resources to peaceful purposes alone.
Mubarak made the comments Thursday after being questioned by an Egyptian journalist on Olmerts recent slip of the tongue regarding Israels nuclear armament. The writer asked whether Olmerts peaceful declarations during their meeting contradicted his recent comments in Germany that Israel is stocked with nukes.
First we got the bomb and that was good,
'Cause we love peace and motherhood.
Then Russia got the bomb, but that's O.K.,
'Cause the balance of power's maintained that way!
Who's next?
France got the bomb, but don't you grieve,
'Cause they're on our side (I believe).
China got the bomb, but have no fears;
They can't wipe us out for at least five years!*
Who's next?
Then Indonesia claimed that they
Were gonna get one any day.
South Africa wants two, that's right:
One for the black and one for the white!**
Who's next?
Egypt's gonna get one, too,
Just to use on you know who.
So Israel's getting tense,
Wants one in self defense.
"The Lord's our shepherd," says the psalm,
But just in case, we better get a bomb!
Who's next?
Luxembourg is next to go
And, who knows, maybe Monaco.
We'll try to stay serene and calm
When Alabama gets the bomb!
Who's next, who's next, who's next?
Who's next?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/05/2007 20:30 Comments ||
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We need to make sure the price for nuclear power is painfully high.
On December 24, 2006 - Christmas Eve - the Algerian daily El-Shourouq El-Yawmi published an op-ed complaining that Santa Claus, in full holiday regalia, was on the move in the streets of Tizi Ouzo, in the Algerian Berber region of Kabylie. The article described what it called the "Christianization" of the region as "the death arriving from the West."
The article comes in the context of an ongoing polemic over the phenomenon of conversion to Christianity in the Kabylie region. In 2004, Minister of Religious Affairs Bouabdellah Ghlamallah denounced Christian proselytizing, warning that it could lead to bloodshed. Several weeks later, in an about-face, he said that proselytizing posed no danger, and that "everyone is free to convert to the religion he finds right for him." [1]
Nonetheless, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has recently made statements to the contrary. On April 17, 2006, the daily L'Expression reported that during a visit to the city of Constantine, Bouteflika had said: "We will not accept our children being turned away from their religion to Christianity under the pretext of democracy," and that "Algerians will not accept another religion aside from Islam." [2] Several months later, the country passed the "Regulation of Religious Practice" law, which stipulates a punishment of two to five years' imprisonment and heavy fines for anyone convicted of urging a Muslim to change his religion. [3]
#1
Kabyls aka Berbers are the opressed minority of Algeria. Their opressors are mostly arabified Berbers. A growing number of Berbers reject islam. Those who don't area alarmed by Algerian governemnt's policy of replacing Sunni imams by wahabi ones. Wahabists are not merely radicals, they are also Arab supremacists.
#3
Speak the Arabic language and you are an Arab; speak the English language and you are a__________?
Assyrians, Berbers, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Armareans, Chaldeans, Mesopotamians, Copts, Yamanis, Bedouins, etc. all better define speakers of Arabic. Until American University of Beirut promoted a common language, few of these savages could understand each other. And the better for us.
#4
"What adds to the impression this occasion leaves on people's souls is 'Santa Claus' coming in his legendary carriage, decorated in red, full of bells, and drawn by two goats - except that these goats come from the native mountains of Tizi-Ouzo, and not from the Alps in Europe
Hey Top Job, Santa rides in a SLED pulled by REINDEER...
The guy in the cart being pulled by goats is ... THOR.
Maybe you ought to ruminate on that one, que?
#5
AFAIK, Santa Clause isn't a religious thing. It's a commercial thing.
It's a mix. The name is a corruption/softening of Saint Nicholas, and the legend apparently ties into a Greek patriarch who was known for anonymously giving gifts.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/05/2007 7:42 Comments ||
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#6
"'Santa Claus' coming in his legendary carriage, decorated in red, full of bells, and drawn by two goats"
Dashing through the sand
In a two-goat open carriage
Santa Claus came down
Without asking permission
Infidels, infidels, invading our lands, Oh!
Bringing death from the West to Tizi Ouzo!
And presents in their hands, Oh!
#7
Different places, different details, Free Radical. Sinterklaas, the Dutch/Belgian version, is clad as a bishop, rides a horse, and is followed by his servant Black Pete on a donkey. It would be the Scandanavian version using reindeer, surely. Perhaps in the Alps the good saint does have a sled pulled by goats. Since Algeria is a former French colony, possibly they're following the French tradition in such things. Saint Nicholas was a Christian bishop, I b'lieve in Syria, I think 4th century AD, who is said to have tossed a purse of gold through the window of the cottage where three orphaned sisters lived, that they might have dowries with which to marry. A generous man.
While Christmas and St. Nick should be religious thingies, and still are to many, it's been picked up round the world along with other Western practices as part of modernization. I get the most beautiful Christmas cards every year from my Japanese friends, who really enjoy decorating the house and making their best attempt at a traditional Christmas dinner.
On the other hand, the complainers are right to see this as a threat to their thought control, one more seduction of the modern world away from all that is Right and Good (memorizing the Koran, a multiplicity of ever-pregnant wives, abusing the dhimmi...)
#8
These people are paranoid. Christmas as celebrated around the world has about as much to do with Christianity as McDonald's. It's just an occasion for department stores to play Bing Crosby and Andy Williams festive songs and to decorate department stores in red and green to stimulate consumer demand.
#9
I don't think they're paranoid; for them, religion still is a BIG thing, in fact, they think foremost in religious terms, seeing us still as Christians... even if our societies are in fact mostly secularized, or even dechristianized/post-christian.
Christmas may be what Zhang fei describes for *us*, but for the algerian brass, according to their mental OS, it still is that big CHRISTIAN holiday, and a threat to "their" arabo-muslim identity.
#11
Well commented TW. But my point still stands. If you asked "who rides in a little cart pulled by two goats?" I would answer THOR. Not Santa.
But then I was always into war-hammers and the like!
#12
Thor, too. The elder gods do as they please, Free Radical. ;-) But a5089 is right -- the Muslim enforcers look to traditional threats, they have no knowledge of deep history or understanding of modern developments.
Libya will raise a statue of Saddam Hussein alongside that of a national hero hanged in 1931 for leading the Libyan resistance against Italian occupation, the government said on Thursday.
The revolutionary committees have decided to erect a statue of Saddam Hussein standing beside Omar Mukhtar on the gallows, it said in a statement. Libya declared three days of mourning after Saddams death and cancelled public celebrations around the Eid religious holiday. Flags on government buildings flew at half-mast. On the eve of Saddams hanging, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said the former Iraq leader was a prisoner of war who must be tried by Iraqs invaders, the United States and Britain.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
what a day for news....
every comment I feel I need to respond with unf***ingbelievable
Maybe more youth will hang themselves with seeing this statue
Posted by: Jan ||
01/05/2007 0:41 Comments ||
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#3
BigEds pix is begging for a roll over that makes dickhead's eyes go all squinty shut and his pointy little tongue pops out. Neck elongation and brains squirting out his ears would be a bonus. i don't know how do that sort of stuff, still have training wheels on my mouse, as it were....
SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) - A summit between the leaders of Israel and Egypt on Thursday fell short of its goal of igniting a new round of Mideast peace efforts, highlighting the significant disagreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Speaking at a news conference after the meeting, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak pushed Israel to hold talks with Syria and pursue peace with the Palestinians, despite the rise of the Islamic militant group Hamas. He also condemned an Israeli raid in the West Bank on Thursday that killed four Palestinian civilians and wounded 20 others.
Mubarak, a key mediator between the Palestinians and Israel, stressed that "Israel's and the region's security would be achieved only by serious endeavors toward peace."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert apologized for civilian casualties in the raid, which began when undercover troops seized four fugitive Palestinians in a Ramallah vegetable market, sparking a ferocious gunbattle with militants. "Things developed in a way that could not have been predicted in advance. If innocent people were hurt, this was not our intention," he said.
The summit came amid international calls for Israel and the Palestinians to make a renewed effort to end their dispute in the interest of stabilizing the Middle East, particularly Iraq. It also comes ahead of an expected Mideast visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this month.
Egypt is eager to broker peace between the Palestinians and Israel, and Mubarak on Thursday said he would welcome a meeting bringing together himself, Olmert, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II. "After the situation is crystalized, there is no objection for a quartet meeting," he said.
Mubarek says this knowing that there won't be a peace and that he can, therefore, continue to use the issue to keep the rubes in his country in line.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#4
Meanwhile the French navy, which will be far superior to the Royal Navy after the cuts, will announce before the April presidential elections that a new carrier will be built.
Don't sweat it. If it's anything like the last one, it'll take 'em 15 years to build and will probably sink when they flood the dock.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/05/2007 11:35 Comments ||
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#5
At some point the West to survive is going to have to handle the internal threat that is literally killing US. Liberalism, LLL peace-love-&-happiness mentality.
This current WOT is barely even tapping our full war potential yet becuase of this interanal Seditionist movement we are teatering on defeat. Economically, Financialy, and casualtie numbers the WOT is less than that of a peace time 80's military required yet somehow this has been turned into a defeat failure. WTF is their a historical comparison that has not been blown away by the current WOT, is there one that the current WOT is worse compared to? The war over there is for our survival to be able to fight the War right here that either now or later will have to be fought or our future is suicidal death by self hating LLL's.
#9
WTH? What did you do with JoeM you faker? There's NO way Joe's posting at 12:45 pm EST unless he's hit a blackhole somewheres.
Posted by: BA ||
01/05/2007 13:28 Comments ||
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#10
A Navy is not much use if you aren't going to use it. Allow me to play Devil's Advocate and ask what exactly Britain needs a navy for? It's not like they are going to fight the Spanish Armada again.
#11
This is the natural evolution of the EU experiment. Why should the British pay for (in capital, cash, and manpower) the bulk of the European navy when they will only have some say in it's use (and the most likely use is to let it rust as the Germans are unlikely to support force projection).
Better to save the money, IF*, the British intend to follow the EU course.
*Better yet they should dump the EU and join Nafta.
#12
It's a natural fallout of a conscious decision by the British to source their equipment from Europe. They Brits were never going to get 8 destroyers. The 6 they may get are near twice the cost of Aegis destroyers for less than half the capability. The Eurofighter is 3 times the price of F-16s and 25 years late. The brits are paying 4-5 times the price for Stormshadow as they could for JASSM. The list goes on in vehicles, electronics, munitions.
If they cancel their carriers, then they won't need any F-35B, but still get $10's of billions of production contracts for it. Sweet deal.
Anyway, I don't think the US and Britain will be going off together on any more adventures. At least until continental European countries begin to be overrun in 20 years. But by then, the US will most likely play the reticent coquette.
Posted by: ed ||
01/05/2007 15:39 Comments ||
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(KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun Thursday in an editorial calls for glorifying with proud victories and feats the significant year of 2007, in which the Korean people will commemorate the 95th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung and the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People's Army. Noting that the army and people of the DPRK are speeding up the grand march to glorify this auspicious year, full of great pride and self-confidence of being victors in warm response to the joint New Year editorial, Rodong Sinmun says:
It is necessary to bring about a revolutionary turn in the economic construction and the efforts to improve the standard of the people's living with the might of invincible Songun politics and single-minded unity of the whole Party, the entire army and all the people around the headquarters of the revolution this year.
The whole Party, the entire army and all the people should turn out in the drive to bring about a fresh revolutionary surge by the force of Songun and thus glorify the significant year of 2007 as a year of great prosperity unprecedented in the history of the Party and the country. This is the most important task devolved upon the Korean people at present.
... make another leap forward and innovation startling the world in the on-going worthwhile march to bring an era of prosperity to Songun Korea with the same persevering will with which we brought about the dawn of victory...
We should vigorously accelerate the general march for Songun revolution, holding aloft the slogan "Usher in a great heyday of Songun Korea full of confidence in victory!" We should accomplish the cause of building a powerful and prosperous country pioneered by the President, keeping deep in our minds that our leader, our ideology and our system are best.
We should fully demonstrate the political and ideological might of our revolutionary ranks in which all the army and people are single-mindedly united around the headquarters of the revolution.
We should more vigorously bring about a great Songun revolutionary upswing on all fronts for the building of an economic power.
We should make another leap forward and innovation startling the world in the on-going worthwhile march to bring an era of prosperity to Songun Korea with the same persevering will with which we brought about the dawn of victory, overcoming grave ordeals and difficulties.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
What? No "sea of fire".
It may be in there but after the third "take a flying leap forward" I quit reading.
#2
You can vigorously accelerate the general march for Songun revolution all you want, but I'll bet you still can't get the danged Taepodong to stay up long enough for the second stage to light.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/05/2007 10:06 Comments ||
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#3
An oldie but goodie:
Feats...don't fail me now.
North Korea appears to have made preparations for another nuclear test, according to U.S. defense officials. "We think they've put everything in place to conduct a test without any notice or warning," a senior U.S. defense official tells ABC News.
The official cautions that the intelligence is inconclusive on whether North Korea will actually go ahead with another test, but said the preparations are similar to steps taken by Pyongyang before it shocked the world by conducting its first nuclear test on Oct. 9.
Two other senior defense officials confirm that recent intelligence suggests the North Koreans appears to be ready to test a nuclear weapon again, but the intelligence community is divided about whether another test is likely. "That would surprise me," a senior intelligence official said when asked if North Korea is likely to soon conduct another test.
"Hell, we don't know," he added honestly.
Another official had a different view, predicting North Korea would conduct a test sometime over the next two or three months.
In the weeks before the test on Oct. 9, U.S. spy satellites witnessed the unloading of large cables at a suspected test site in a northeastern North Korea named P'onggye. The more recent activity has been observed in the same area as where the test was conducted on Oct. 9.
#1
MOSNEWS/OTHER > US DEMANDS NK LIQUIDATE NUKE PROG IN 2 MONTHS. Also, NORTH KOREAN NUKES SEEN A EFFECTIVE DETRRENT - agz you-know-whom. Looks like February 2007 is the month for Moud + Kimmie???
#3
We need a big meteor to fall of little kimmie's head. That would create a REAL "sea of fire", and maybe put an end to all this nonsense. The resulting earthquakes would shake up Seoul, but that's a feature, not a bug.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/05/2007 18:43 Comments ||
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(AKI) - The European Union has placed the Dutch ' Hofstad Group ' and its nine members on the bloc's terrorism black list meaning all their financial assets are frozen and the group can no longer gain access to bank accounts or insurance in EU countries, Radio Netherlands reported on Friday. The move follows a request by the Dutch finance minister Gerrit Zalm.
The groups financial assets were frozen in the Netherlands earlier this year when its nine members were finally jailed on terrorism charges. Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch Moroccan considered to be the Hofstadt group's leader, is serving a life-sentence for the November 2004 murder of Dutch film director Theo Van Gogh, who offended many Muslims with a short film that suggested Islam condoned violence against women. The EU's list includes another Dutch organisation, the al-Aqsa Foundation, which is suspected of channelling money to terrorist groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
Sorry, I just don't see these guys as a "Dutch" terrorist group. Now "Freisans for Freedom" with guys named Piet or Hans- that would be a Dutch group
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday that he believes top officials in the Bush administration have privately concluded they have lost Iraq and are simply trying to postpone disaster so the next president will "be the guy landing helicopters inside the Green Zone, taking people off the roof," in a chaotic withdrawal reminiscent of Vietnam.
"I have reached the tentative conclusion that a significant portion of this administration, maybe even including the vice president, believes Iraq is lost," Biden said. "They have no answer to deal with how badly they have screwed it up. I am not being facetious now. Therefore, the best thing to do is keep it from totally collapsing on your watch and hand it off to the next guy -- literally, not figuratively."
Biden gave the comments in an interview as he outlined an ambitious agenda for the committee, including holding four weeks of hearings focused on every aspect of U.S. policy in Iraq. The hearings will call top political, economic and intelligence experts; foreign diplomats; and former and current senior U.S. officials to examine the situation in Iraq and possible plans for dealing with it. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will probably testify next Thursday to defend the president's new plan, but at least eight other plans will be examined over several sessions of the committee.
Other witnesses invited for at least 10 days of hearings include former national security advisers and secretaries of state, including Brent Scowcroft, Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry A. Kissinger, Madeleine K. Albright and George P. Shultz.
Biden expressed opposition to the president's plan for a "surge" of additional U.S. troops and said he has grave doubts about whether the Iraqi government has the will or the capacity to help implement a new approach. He said he hopes to use the hearings to "illuminate the alternatives available to this president" and to provide a platform for influencing Americans, especially Republican lawmakers.
"There is nothing a United States Senate can do to stop a president from conducting his war," Biden said. "The only thing that is going to change the president's mind, if he continues on a course that is counterproductive, is having his party walk away from his position."
Biden said that Vice President Cheney and former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld "are really smart guys who made a very, very, very, very bad bet, and it blew up in their faces. Now, what do they do with it? I think they have concluded they can't fix it, so how do you keep it stitched together without it completely unraveling?"
#6
The list of witlessnesses wouldn't be complete without a guest appearance by C. Sheehan. At least the 10 days of hearings/babblings for Biden will cement his reputation as non-presidential.
#8
So why don't we send 50,000, 70,000, 100,000 more troops and win this damned thing? Squash the trouble makers into the ground and quit screwing around with the 20,000 more troop maybe bullshit.
#11
Is there any Democrat with the will to lead the USA to victory? Except for Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman, I can't think of one off hand. The Republicans are not much better, I know.
Speaking as someone born in 1953, I'm part of the Baby Boomer Generation (BBG).
We (the BBG) have failed our country. We have provied little or no leadership. We're a disgrace to all that came before us.
Sadly it's my children and grandchildren and great grandchildren that will have to "pay the check".
We need a Churchill. Instead we get the likes of Joe Biden.
God help us because we sure as hell need Him now.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
01/05/2007 15:09 Comments ||
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#12
Sadly it's my children and grandchildren and great grandchildren that will have to "pay the check".
There won't be anything for them to pay the check with.
Posted by: Chuck Darwin ||
01/05/2007 15:38 Comments ||
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#13
I blame Mark Z
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2007 16:32 Comments ||
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#15
"I have reached the tentative conclusion that a significant portion of this administration, maybe even including the vice president, believes Iraq is lost," Biden said. "They have no answer to deal with how badly they have screwed it up..."
Joe Biden is either stupid, or a liar, or insane. Probably all three.
Whatever mistakes the Bush administration has made in Iraq, the effects of those mistakes pale beside the enormous damage to our war effort that has been inflicted-- knowingly, cynically and with malicious intent-- by the Democratic Party and its paid propagandists in the media.
This war is not a contest of arms; it is a contest of wills.
Are we going to stay in Iraq and do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to prevail against the forces of radical Islam? Or is the enemy going to succeed in wearing us down and eventually forcing us to give up, pack up, and go home with our tails between our legs? Since Day One of the Iraq war, the Democratic Party has done everything imaginable, everything humanly possible, to convince the enemy that, once again, it will be the latter.
They have worked tirelessly to convince the world that Osama bin Laden was absolutely right about us: that Americans lack staying power, and just as in Vietnam, and later in Lebanon, and yet again in Mogadishu, if you bleed the Americans long enough-- even if only a little-- eventually they *WILL* give up and go home.
Everything the Democrats have done, every word they've uttered, throughout the entire war, has been focussed on driving home one consistent message to enemies and allies alike: "We're tired. We're frightened. This is too hard. It's too messy. It's costing too much. It's taking too long. There's no guarantee of success. We want to go home now. We'd rather watch sitcoms on TV and surf the net for pictures of Britney's snatch. We're afraid others won't like us anymore because we're being too rough with the enemy. We want to go home now. And we're especially afraid Muslims won't like us anymore, and people will call us racists. We want to go home now. And we're soooooooo ashamed of Abu Ghraib. And Haditha. We're such bad people. We want to go home now. We want to talk about IMPORTANT stuff like gender equity and racial diversity and civil rights and universal health care and free college tuition and those eeeeeevil corporations and the poor helpless undocumented immigrants and how the government should make everything fair for everybody (except those nasty evil rich people) in every way all the time, not this silly war. We want to go home now." And on, and on, and on.
THAT is the message this country's Liberal Establishment has been sending since the very beginning of this conflict. Is it any wonder the enemy keeps fighting???? They've got to be convinced, beyond any doubt, that we're on the verge of quitting any minute now; they'd be stupid not to be.
Frankly, I've given up all hope. We have precisely ZERO chance of prevailing in Iraq or anywhere else, and convincing the Islamic world to quit fucking with us, so long as people like Joe Biden are allowed to continue doing their dirty work.
In exactly 746 days, when the next President takes the oath of office, the Bush Doctrine will breathe its last. The troops will come home, and we will leave Iraq the same way we left Vietnam.
And then the REAL nightmare will begin.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/05/2007 18:40 Comments ||
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#16
keep your power dry Dave, our enemies will blunder while we prepare. Even though it looks a little shaky now keep gathering intel, because we know the stakes, keep the faith spread the word.
#18
"I have reached the tentative conclusion that a significant portion of this administration, maybe even including the vice president, believes Iraq is lost," Biden said.
I have reached the rock-solid conclusion that Joe Biden is a two-bit wannabe with delusions of international expertise. About the only things he says that are worth listening to are plagiarised.
#19
If Iraq is part of the war against radical Islam, then it's already won. It just remains to be seen whether mostly radical Sunni Islamicists and their Baathist and other allies get killed, or there is a wholesale slaughter of Sunnis in general. The Americans are trying to restrict the conflict to the former, without them we will have the later.
I'd prefer the latter, because it is the faster route to stage II of ME transformation involving Iran (and a few other things beside).
#20
I prefer decemation.
Line the sunnis up and take out 10 percent.
Tell them it's necessary for world peace.
If things don't improve, well, everything is worth a second chance.
#21
You think that Iraqi insurgents (or Iranian infiltrators) are deciding to kill Americans or other Iraqis because of what they hear Democrats talk about in American media?
Why YES Aris, I do. Worked in Vietnam, Mogadisu, and Beirut, and the Islamists positivelty REJOICED when the democrats took House and Senate.
I find it interesting that you leave out the role of the Left-leaning media.
#23
Whatever mistakes the Bush administration has made in Iraq, the effects of those mistakes pale beside the enormous damage to our war effort that has been inflicted-- knowingly, cynically and with malicious intent-- by the Democratic Party and its paid propagandists in the media.
You think that Iraqi insurgents (or Iranian infiltrators) are deciding to kill Americans or other Iraqis because of what they hear Democrats talk about in American media?
That's certainly indicative of the levels of delusional scapegoating that Rantburg has sunk to. With Republican complete control of both the executive and legislative branch, it's still the Democrats to blame for your having lost your war in Iraq.
Ah, Republicans. The party of *personal responsibility*.
If we leave before the mission is done, we will lose.
Before the mission is done? And what mission is that?
Because it seems to me that your mission has changed from "finding WMDs and establishing democracy in Iraq" to "trying to prop up the death-squads of a murderous Shiite government obedient to Tehran, against the death-squads of Sunni insurrectionists"
So, I'd say that *even* if you succeed in your current mission, you'll still have lost the war. The goalposts having moved so far from what they once were, that they're now where *Iran* is shooting for, as well.
Or do you think there's any scenario in which you're victorious against Sadr or the SCIRI agents of Iran? Are you even *fighting* Sadr or Iran's agents right now? Ofcourse you're not.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman on Thursday dismissed the chief of the country's nuclear weapons program because of security breakdowns at the Los Alamos, N.M., laboratory and other facilities.
Linton Brooks said he would leave in two weeks to three weeks as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, a post he held since May 2003.
Bodman said the nuclear agency under Brooks, a former ambassador and arms control negotiator, had not adequately fixed security problems. "I have decided it is time for new leadership at the NNSA," Bodman said. Brooks told agency workers in a statement, "This is not a decision that I would have preferred ... (but) I accept the decision and you need to do likewise."
He characterized the demand for his resignation as "based on the principle of accountability that should govern all public service."
A principle uncommonly applied at higher levels, I might add ...
Brooks was reprimanded in June for failing to report to Bodman a security breach of computers at an agency facility in Albuquerque, N.M., that resulted in the theft of files containing Social Security numbers and other personal data for 1,500 workers. The theft did not become generally known, nor was Bodman made aware of it, for eight months.
Last fall, security at Los Alamos came into question anew. During a drug raid, authorities found classified nuclear-related documents at the home of a woman with top secret clearance who worked at the lab. That security breach was especially troubling, the department's internal watchdog said, because tens of millions of dollars had been spent to upgrade computer security at Los Alamos. The lab is part of the nuclear weapons complex that Brooks' agency oversees.
"These management and security issues can have serious implications for the security of the United States," Bodman in a statement announcing Brooks' departure. While the agency's management "has done its best to address these concerns, I do not believe that progress in correcting these issues has been adequate," Bodman said.
"Therefore, and after careful consideration, I have decided that it is time for new leadership at the NNSA," said Bodman. Bodman said an acting head of the agency will be named soon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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ABC News has learned that President Bush will nominate Zalmay Khalilzad to be the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Khalilzad is currently the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. The announcement may come as soon as tomorrow. Khalilzad's departure from Baghdad will happen as soon as he is confirmed as U.N. ambassador.
Ryan Crocker, currently the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, will be nominated to replace Khalilzad in Baghdad. Khalilzad has been U.S. ambassador to Iraq since June 2005. He is the highest ranking Muslim in the U.S. government and one of the few officials at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad fluent in Arabic.
A consummate dealmaker, Khalilzad played an active role trying to push the Iraqi government toward political reconciliation. Khalilzad's efforts aliented some in the Shia-dominated Iraqi government who complained that Khalilzad was biased in favor of Iraq's Sunnis. Khalilzad is a Sunni Muslim. Before becoming U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Khalilzad served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. Prior to that, he served as a Special Presidential Envoy and Ambassador at Large for the Free Iraqis.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Can't wait for seething the first time an ethnic arab (sunni muslim) vetos an anti Israel resolution.
#3
Some even believe that some ethnic Afghans of the Pashtun persuasion are some of the long Lost 10 Tribes deported from Israel in about 722 BC, potentially making this a very ironic nomination!
#4
Is it possible that Bush is just throwing a candidate at the U.N. becuase he doesn't really care what happens there anymore? I wonder if this isn't just a nice way of replacing him in Iraq.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/05/2007 13:42 Comments ||
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Retired Vice Adm. Mike McConnell, a veteran of more than 25 years in the intelligence field, will be named by President Bush to succeed John Negroponte as national intelligence director, a senior administration official said Thursday. Negroponte will move to the State Department to become the No. 2 to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Our enemies have declared war on us, and their hatred cannot be sated. We will either defeat them, or they will come after us with the unsheathed sword, says the White House.
In a long, rambling essay, startling for some of its neoconservative jargon, Peter Wehner of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives, declares that the war against global jihadism will be long, with success and setbacks along the way, but the West must not grow impatient, nor withdraw from the fight. The enemy is not Islam per se but a global network of extremists driven by a twisted vision of Islam. These jihadists are certainly a minority within Islam - but they exist, they are dangerous and resolute, in some places they are ascendant, and they need to be confronted and defeated, he writes.
According to Wehner, Al Qaeda and its terrorist allies are waging their war on several continents and will try to overthrow governments and seize power where they can. Where they cannot, they will attempt to inflict fear and destruction by disrupting settled ways of life. They will employ every weapon they can: assassinations, car bombs, airplanes, and, if they can secure them, biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, he warns. He maintains that Iran is controlled by Shia extremists and today Iran is the most active state sponsor of terrorism in the world.
He writes, It is the fate of the West, and in particular the United States, to have to deal with the combined threat of Shia and Sunni extremists. And for all the differences that exist between them - and they are significant - they share some common features. Their brand of radicalism is theocratic, totalitarian, illiberal, expansionist, violent, and deeply anti-Semitic and anti-American ... All of us would prefer years of repose to years of conflict. But history will not allow it. And so it once again rests with this remarkable republic to do what we have done in the past: our duty.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Implement Pax Americana and the war is over in a week.
#2
The enemy is not Islam per se but a global network of extremists driven by a twisted vision of Islam.
A "twisted vision of Islam" firmly grounded in their "holy" books, the example of their "perfect man", and supported by the majority of the world's Muslims.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/05/2007 7:44 Comments ||
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It gives me glee when a speech writer with the last name of Wehner (Weiner?) even talks tougher than the Donks in Congress. Of course, their (Donks) quest for power may very well sink this nation once and for all.
Remember Sun Tzu's first ultimatum in war is "Know thine enemy". The President finally called it for what it is "Islamofascism", and this guy calls them "jihadis."
Posted by: BA ||
01/05/2007 10:40 Comments ||
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declares that the war against global jihadism will be long, with success and setbacks along the way,
No shit, and the war will be shorter if we start fighting it soon. But if we drag our feet, I'm sure we can extend this conflict another 2 or 3 decades.
A two-hour discussion between Afghan and Pakistani leaders, which was focused on fencing and mining their shared border, ended without result in Kabul Thursday.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had arrived on a one-day visit to discuss many issues with Afghan officials, including the mining and fencing off of the 2,430-kilometre border, a proposal announced by Pakistan last month and aimed at stopping the infiltration by militants into Afghanistan. 'We are exploring many options including fencing and mining selectively to discourage people from going across the border, people who are not welcomed on the other side,' Aziz told reporters in a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. 'We believe the selective mining and fencing will achieve this objective,' Aziz said, adding that it was one of several options that his government was exploring.
Karzai reiterated his previous stance that the mining and fencing of the border could not stop terrorism, rather it would separate villages and people, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Fencing???? I look forward to watching both olympic teams in 2008!
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad has said he wants to relinquish his position as president of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Geo television reported on Thursday. The channel said that Ahmad told a press conference in Nowshera that he would formally ask the MMA Supreme Council to relieve him of the post at a meeting scheduled for January 11. Ahmad told reporters that the MMA Supreme Council meeting would discuss the upcoming general elections and resignations from parliament.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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The leader of a top militant group said in interview aired on Thursday that Kashmiri guerrillas will keep fighting India until it ends its rule over the disputed Himalayan territory.
Syed Salahuddin, chief of Hezbul Mujahedeen, the largest Muslim rebel group fighting against Indian rule over part of Kashmir, also said in the interview with Pakistans Geo TV that he was sure Pakistan will never hand him over to India.
Come what may, whatever the successes may be, until our right is acknowledged and a practical mechanism comes for giving us our right, our armed struggle will continue, Salahuddin said in the interview conducted in a remote area in the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir.
Salahuddin demanded that India recognise Kashmiris as a party to the dispute and settle it with sincerity and seriousness.
Come what may, whatever the successes may be, until our right is acknowledged and a practical mechanism comes for giving us our right, our armed struggle will continue, God willing, Salahuddin said in the interview. Geo said that the interview was conducted in a remote area in the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir.
Salahuddin accused Indian security forces in Kashmir of involvement in human rights violations such as raping women, and abducting and killing children and Kashmiri intellectuals. He warned that India should stop, or militants would launch attacks inside other parts of India. We will hit any soft target in any part of India. But we do not want (to do this), he said. Our purpose is not to interfere with the people of India. We are fighting against Indian imperialism that has enslaved us through its 750,000 army, he said.
Asked whether he had ever had any concerns that Pakistan might, under pressure, hand him over to India, Salahuddin said he never for a moment feared it. I am fully confident that the leadership of Pakistan and the people of Pakistan will not hand me over to India, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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How many times has this guy washed in his life?
Seventy-nine Indian Maoist rebels have surrendered to authorities in the insurgency-racked central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, police said Thursday.
The Maoists laid down their arms at a ceremony at police headquarters in Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh, one of the Indian states worst hit by the leftist insurgency and home to many of Indias indigenous people, or Adivasis.
Chief Minister Raman Singh said the surrender late Wednesday was part of a new state government surrender policy aimed at bringing Maoists back into the political mainstream, and called it a major success in tackling the insurgency.
Some 356 people - security personnel, civilians and Maoists - died in 2006 in insurgency-related violence in mineral-rich Chhattisgarh, one of 15 out of Indias 29 states where the rebels are active, according to official figures. The rebels exert varying degrees of influence in around 165 of the countrys more than 600 administrative districts, according to intelligence estimates.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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A lawyer representing former Iraqi foreign minister and deputy-prime minister, Tariq Aziz, has slammed the execution of his client's former boss, Saddam Hussein. "The death sentence and execution of Saddam Hussein is illegal, and the signing of the decree [that permitted the carrying out of the sentence] by Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki is not his (al-Maliki's) prerogative," the lawyer, Badi Arif told Adnkronos International (AKI) in an interview.
According to Arif, Saddam's hanging on December 30, violated Iraq's penal code which states that a death sentence can only be carried out at least 30 days after its approval and "not after 48 hours as in this case." The lawyer accused al-Maliki of pressing ahead with the hanging by exploiting the absence of scores of Iraqi parliamentarians "on pilgrimage to Mecca" for the Haj. The Iraqi premier did this to "circumvent parliamentary approval of the execution."
"In any case the decree authorising the execution should be the prerogative of the office of the president [Jalal Talabani]" and not the prime minister, Arif argued. The lawyer said Iraq's Shiite politicians pushed ahead with the execution despite appeals by the country's Kurdish leaders as well as Washington to postpone it until the completion of the trial on Saddam's 1986-89 anti-Kurdish campaign, the so-called al-Anfal campaign.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Whatever. I'll bet Tariq feels the artillery is getting uncomfortably close more than anything else.
BAGHDAD - Iraq postponed hanging two of Saddam Husseins henchmen on Thursday amid international pressure following the ousted dictators bungled and much criticised hanging.
Barzan Ibrahim Al Tikriti, Saddams half brother and former intelligence chief and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, the head of the revolutionary court, were to have been hanged on Thursday. A senior official from Prime Minister Nuri Al Malikis office, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the execution was postponed due to international pressure.
Baha Al Araji, an influential Shiite lawmaker from radical cleric Moqtada Al Sadrs parliamentary bloc, said: I am sure it will be done on Sunday.
Another Shiite deputy, Sami Al Askari, said the executions will be carried out after state holidays for the Eid Al Adha festival end on Saturday. He did not give a date. The executions will be after the holidays, said Askari, who was present at Saddams hanging on Saturday as Malikis representative.
Askari said there was also a view among some members of the government that the two former regime officials be hanged after the appeals court decides on a prosecution request to send another Saddam aide to the gallows. The prosecution has requested that Taha Yassin Ramadan, former vice president, also be hanged. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but the prosecution has suggested that this was insufficient.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#3
"I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."
Now THAT's a taunt!
To paraphrase - "Now die or I shall taunt you a second time."
#4
With this delay, assuming the convicted were aware of the original date, could start hollering about how the 'noose on, noose off' delaying is creating extreme mental anguish and is therefore cruel and unusual, blah blah blah...
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has decided to remove his defense minister, Amir Peretz, two Israeli TV stations reported Thursday. Citing sources in Olmert's office, Israel TV and Channel 2 said Peretz would be asked to resign and take another Cabinet position, and if he refused, he would be fired. Olmert's office issued a denial of the reports.
Peretz, leader of the dovish Labor Party, took the post of defense minister when Olmert, leader of the centrist Kadima Party, formed his government in May. Peretz, who has a limited security background and ran his campaign on social issues, has come under fire, along with Olmert, because of the inconclusive results of last summer's war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Labor is Kadima's main coalition partner. If Olmert dismisses Peretz, it could provoke a political crisis leading to new elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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lol
They are both gutless toadys!
Posted by: Jim ||
01/05/2007 11:08 Comments ||
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When it takes 5 months to make changes due to lack of effective performance, you are either on the space station, or in the Israeli cabinet.
But, why act in haste ?
A year after Ariel Sharon's stroke abruptly propelled him into the prime minister's seat, Ehud Olmert finds himself badly out of favour and under a darkening cloud of scandal. On Thursday, the one-year anniversary of his unexpected rise to power, the Dahaf Research Institute released a poll showing that 77% of the country thinks Olmert is not functioning well.
Comes as a surprise, huh? And all this while I thought he was doing such a bang-up job.
Technically, it was Hamas doing most of the banging.
Olmert long coveted the prime minister's seat. But the 61-year-old lawyer, with his acerbic tongue, was not popular with ordinary Israelis, or his political associates.
In the course of a fairly long and occasionally productive life, I've discovered that if nobody likes you it's generally your fault. I dunno why that is...
Sharon's incapacitating January 4 stroke suddenly spun Olmert's political fortunes around. It landed Olmert, then vice-prime minister, at Israel's helm, where he successfully won an election less than three months later. The job, however, has brought him more grief than glory.
Some people call them challenges, some people call them opportunities. Other people try and blame them on still other people.
The Hamas-led Palestinian cabinet that took power shortly before he did oppose Israel's very existence and refuses to disarm. The Palestinians' moderate president, Mahmoud Abbas, hasn't been able to dominate his Hamas rivals.
A brilliant strategist may have actually done much as Olmert has done: stand back and not interrupt the "moderate" Abbas and his Hamas rivals as they tear each other to pieces. I'm not at all sure Olmert's inaction has been the result of brilliance, though.
Continued militant attacks from Gaza, the seizure of three Israeli soldiers by Palestinian and Lebanese militants, and the inconclusive outcome of Israel's summer war in Lebanon have damaged his leadership credentials.
The war with Hezbollah was Olmert's opportunity to join the likes of Golda Meier and Ariel Sharon as national heroes. It revealed him instead to be paralyzed by his indecisiveness.
Instead, they've forced Olmert to abandon his main diplomatic agenda, a unilateral withdrawal from large swaths of the West Bank.
Sharon took a chance withdrawing from Gaza. Had he retained his faculties he could have either managed the Gaza crisis or cut his losses and gone back in. Probably he'd have done one or the other. Olmert's done neither.
Growing allegations of corruption, which have swirled around him for years, only made things worse.
From my location, I have no idea whether there's any fire where the smoke's coming from.
In the poll published on Thursday, 50% of Israelis blamed events of the past year for Olmert's woes, while 31% blamed Olmert's personality. About 60% questioned Olmert's integrity, the survey showed. The poll, conducted for Knesset TV, questioned 420 people and had a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.
Political allies, critics and commentators agree that Olmert had a terrible year - but were divided over the cause. Avraham Diskin, a professor in political science at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said circumstances were largely to blame for Olmert's "clearly unsuccessful" first year. But despite all the pressure, he did not crack, and that in itself is noteworthy, he said. "Here's a guy who lost altitude and popularity in an unprecedented fashion, in large part a matter of circumstances and because of his image as a person who is not the straightest," he said. "I hope he didn't commit crimes, both for his sake and for Israel's."
I hope he didn't commit crimes, too, but I also note that he's still got Peretz and - worse - Halutz. Both should go. Labor should have anything but the defense portfolio. And Halutz is the wrong man for the wrong job. Period.
An associate of Olmert's, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of their work, described the prime minister as troubled by the problems, but able to soldier on despite them. "It's very challenging - there's no question," the associate said. "But it's not a sense of doomsday in any way whatsoever. ... I'm not saying he has thick skin. But I think what he has is a purpose. And he has motivation."
Olmert's latest challenge is a new bribery and fraud scandal entangling his longtime office manager and the highest levels of the Israeli Tax Authority, whose chief he appointed. Although police insist there is no direct link to Olmert himself, the affair hasn't helped dispel the whiff of corruption that has stuck to him for years, despite the fact that he has never been convicted of a crime.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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China on Friday urged Iran to give a "serious response" to a U.N. Security Council resolution that imposed sanctions on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.
Iran's top nuclear envoy, however, warned that Tehran's commitment to the peaceful use of nuclear technology will change if the country is threatened. The negotiator, Ali Larijani, was in Beijing for a two-day visit and gave Chinese President Hu Jintao a letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Larijani and Hu discussed the U.N. sanctions, which bar all countries from selling materials and technology to Iran that could contribute to its nuclear and missile programs. The sanctions reflect "the shared concerns of the international community over the Iranian nuclear issue, and we hope Iran could make a serious response to the resolution," Hu told Larijani, according to China's official Xinhua news agency.
Hu added that "China continues to believe the Iranian nuclear issue should be resolved through diplomatic negotiation."
In Tehran, Ahmadinejad said Friday that sanctions won't stop Iran from enriching uranium, state-run television reported. "Iran will stand up to coercion. ... All Iranians stand united to defend their nuclear rights," state-run TV quoted him as saying. "Enemies have assumed that they can prevent the progress of the Iranian nation through psychological war and issuing resolutions, but they will be defeated," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying on state-run TV.
While the United States has led the drive to stop Iran from enriching uranium _ a process that produces the material for either nuclear reactors or weapons _ it compromised on the sanctions to win the support of China and Russia, both veto-wielding members of the Security Council who have strong trade ties with Tehran.
Larijani indicated that China's decision to support the resolution has not hurt ties between the two sides, calling them "long-term and long-lasting." "Countries who have strategic long-term relationships will not change their strategic relationships because of tactical issues," he said at a news conference.
He added in reference to Washington: "We know who is really responsible, who is really behind the sanctions and nobody else can be blamed for this."
Iran has denied that it seeks to build atomic weapons, saying its nuclear program is limited to the generation of electricity, a stance Larijani reiterated. "We oppose obtaining nuclear weapons and we will peacefully use nuclear technology under the framework of the Nonproliferation Treaty," he said. "But," he warned, "if we are threatened, the situation may change."
In another show of defiance, Iranian Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who also heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, announced that Tehran has produced and stored 250 tons of uranium hexaflouride gas, the feedstock for enrichment, state-run TV reported. The hexaflouride gas, or UF-6, is being stored in underground tunnels at a nuclear facility in Isfahan to protect it from any possible attack. "Today, we have produced more than 250 tons of UF-6. Should you visit Isfahan, you will see we have constructed tunnels that are almost unique in the world," state-run TV quoted Aghazadeh as saying.
The central Iranian cities of Isfahan and Natanz house the heart of the country's nuclear program. In Isfahan, a conversion facility reprocesses raw uranium, known as yellowcake, into uranium hexaflouride gas. The gas is then taken to Natanz and fed into the centrifuges for enrichment.
Iran has said it is moving toward large-scale uranium enrichment involving 3,000 centrifuges and plans to later expand this to 54,000 centrifuges. Centrifuges spin uranium gas into enriched material, which at low levels is used to produce nuclear fuel to generate electricity. But further enrichment makes it suitable for use in building nuclear weapons.
Iran has claimed to enrich small amounts of uranium at the low percentages needed for fuel-grade uranium, as opposed to weapons-grade enriched uranium, which must be enriched at levels above 90 percent. U.S. intelligence agencies have estimated that Iran might be able to develop a nuclear weapon in four to 10 years.
Which is a lot longer than it took us in the Manhattan Project, when we didn't know quite what we were doing. The Iranians have the basic theoretical knowledge and they can always import more unemployed Russian scientists. They have the money and they're gaining the infrastructure. It's just a matter of engineering.
Aghazadeh confirmed in April 2006 that Iran has produced 110 tons of uranium hexaflouride gas. Experts say that amount would be enough to produce up to 20 nuclear bombs if Iran was to divert its civilian nuclear program into making weapons.
Washington, 5 Jan. (AKI) - The US ambassador to Baghdad Zalmai Khalilzad is the White House candidate to replace John Bolton as Washington's representative at the United Nations. The presence of Khalilzad, a 55-year-old native of Afghanistan, in Iraq has reportedly contributed to raise tensions with Iran, which opposed the presence of an American ambassador who speaks Farsi and is a Sunni Muslim. Relations between the diplomat and the mainly Shiite Islamic Republic are in fact radioactive not good. "If Khalilzad will sit on Bolton's chair at the United Nations the clash on the nuclear issue will go critical worsen," an Iranian diplomat told Adnkronos International (AKI).
The Mad Mullahs are unhappy with Khalilzad's nomination? Me like. Me like more.
The diplomat, who asked that his name be withheld, said that "at that point Europe will have to choose wether to support the hard stance of the Americans or dialogue with the Islamic Republic." Whoa - so the mere existence of Western Civilization depends upon Khalilzad's Senate confirmation? Joe Biden will never shut up. Thanks a lot, unknown Lion of Persia.
The UN Security Council unanimously approved a first resolution imposing sanctions against Iran on 23 December over its nuclear programme which the international community fears is aimed at building nuclear programme. The US is a staunch supporter of harsh punitive measures against Tehran over its atomic ambitions.
Khalilzad, a former US ambassador to Afghanistan, has served in his current position since June 2005 and reportedly played a key role in negotiations over the new Iraqi constitution and the formation of Iraq's government coalition. He is likely to be replaced by Ryan Ckrocker, the current ambassador to Pakistan.
#4
Will the Senate confirm Khalilzad? I kind of doubt it. They can tar him with Iraq war brush and make the confirmation hearings all about the Bush administration and the war. It would be the beginning of the 2008 Democratic campaign.
#5
The Senate will probably wait for the list of acceptable candidates for the UN ambassador from the Iranians. Then they will quickly pick one of the acceptable candidates. /snark
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/05/2007 22:51 Comments ||
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AP - and then run the list past Al-Q for their approval and then let Syria narrow it down even further....
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that the Iranian nation is the flag-bearer of justice and monotheism in the world. He made the remarks at a mass public gathering in Ramshir.
The message of the Iranian nation is monotheism, justice, being useful to humanity and rescuing mankind from darkness and neo-slavery, he said. Confrontation between the right and wrong is unavoidable, he underlined. Wrong would be diminished while right will remain for ever and ever, he said. He labeled the leaders of US and Britain as 'vanguards of wrongdoers' adding, "Criminal and corrupt regimes such as those in the US and UK have confronted us in the past 27 years but thanks God they have always being defeated."
These so-called superpowers brought nothing for humanity except discrimination, backwardness, poverty and corruption, he said.
Given the atrocities of the fake Zionist regime in Palestine and Lebanon along with the crimes committed by the US and Britain in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said their presence in those region is the source of crimes, insecurity and bloodshed. These powers have plundered the wealth of African continent and have brought them poverty and backwardness, he underlined.
"Iranian nation has for many times given a slap on the faces of its enemies," he said adding, "But they have not taken lessons from these slaps and are out to hinder our scientific, industrial and economic development on the pretext of nuclear weapons. Our nations response to them would be another slap on their faces."
Addressing the ill-wishers of Iranian nation, he said you should be aware of the fact that the united Iranians are determined to defend their legitimate rights. "We have found access to nuclear fuel cycle and are to defend our rights with tight fists," he underlined.
Did they hire a Nork or two as writers?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Tuesday that fate of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was a lesson for all dictators of the world.
#2
REGNUM.RU > Iranian General says, with proper progressive technologies, IRAN WILL BECOME MAJOR POWER IN REGION [SSSSSHHHHHHH, iff not World]. Once again, the burden is on the USA and ONLY THE USA to save and empower every Failed and Failing -Ism /ideo in the world, JUST BEFORE WE VOLUNTARILY = FORCIBLY SURRENDER TO SAME, OR ARE DESTROYED BY SAME.
WORLDNEWS.com > DUBYA > World will NOT have peace iff Iran develops nuclear weapons. Many articles today on WN + Net - hardly know where to begin first.
#3
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that the Iranian nation is the flag-bearer of justice and monotheism in the world.
This is part and parcel of the Islamic total misunderstand of the Western church. According to them, we worship 3 separate Gods- The Father, The Son, and The Virgin Mary. (??????????)
So much of what ails Islam is a mule-like anti-intellectualism: a pathetic unwillingness to study other people. A lot of posters here at the 'Burg know more about Islam than this clown knows about Christianity. Which is pretty sad, given that he gets Mafia-like payoffs, and the rest of us chumps have to actually work for a living.
#4
I think the specific inclusion of monotheism was a challage to the Sunnis. Some of their clerical types have written opinions charging the Shia with being polytheists.
Irans top nuclear official said on Thursday that UN sanctions would not restrict its atomic programme, and that it was continuing to amass the raw material for uranium enrichment.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously on December 23 to impose sanctions on Irans trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology in an attempt to stop enrichment work that could produce the material for nuclear explosives. They (the West) should accept that this (nuclear work) is our national right and is irreversible, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of Irans Atomic Energy Organisation, was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA. This technology is Iranian-made and cannot be limited by sanctions.
Analysts say that to achieve its goal of industrial-scale enrichment with 54,000 centrifuge enrichment machines - only around 350 are known to be operating experimentally so far - Iran may still need to acquire equipment abroad. Aghazadeh said Iran had now stockpiled 250 tonnes of uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6), the feedstock that is injected into centrifuges for enrichment into fuel. Today we have produced more than 250 tonnes of UF6, kept in tunnels that are almost unique in the world, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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"... kept in tunnels that are almost unique in the world"
It doesn't really matter where the UF6 is kept. It matters where the huge fricken' power plants to run the centrifuges are...
#3
I don't know that the centrifuges require huge amounts of electrical power. I thought that was a feature of the Calutron (electromagnetic) isotope separation process.
I know this will be hard for regular Rantburgers to believe and accept...but AP has been caught in another lie.
January 5, 2007: The Associated Press has again put out an Iraq story detailing events that did not happen. This time, it involves an airstrike that," killed a family of four during a firefight." However, according to the press desk of Multi-National Forces-Iraq, no air strike happened during that firefight, and MNF-I also reported that which six insurgents were killed by American troops in Baghdad on January 1. This is the second time in roughly six weeks that the AP has been caught fabricating events. Tap. Tap. Tap. Dang Surprise Meter must not be working!
In November, the AP's report of six people being burned by in an attack on a mosque, cited a Captain Jemil Hussein of the Iraqi police. This report was challenged by Central Command and the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior, who pointed out that they had no record of a Jemil Hussein in their initial searches. The AP has stood by the story, yet this questionable Iraqi police official has not been quoted once since the story was questioned despite being used in dozens of stories prior to the controversy. After several weeks of investigating, several blogs, including Flopping Aces, found very little evidence that Captain Hussein existed until the AP reported that an arrest warrant was issued by the Ministry of the Interior for Hussein, whose phone has conveniently been turned off. No, no, no! Can't be. That would mean that another AP reporter was an active participant in what would been called treason during WWII.
This is the latest media scandal involving phony news. In August, Reuters had to pull photographs that had been doctored to create the appearance that Israeli air strikes in Lebanon were doing more damage. Other photos taken during the summer fighting were discovered to have been staged by Hezbollah. In 2005, media reports that guards at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a Koran turned out to have no basis in fact (the actual flushing was done by detainees). Roto-reuters, AP: Only the names and faces are different.
This pattern of misreporting is being noticed by blogs, most notably Flopping Aces (www.floppingaces.net). One of the Iraqi reporters for the AP, Quais Abdul Raazzaq was recently interviewed, and made statements that appeared to be biased. Other blogs have been digging deeper into some of the reporting. And the skepticism about media reporting about Iraq seems to be increasing. In December, the Gallup Poll reported that 56 percent of Americans believe the mainstream media's reporting of the situation in Iraq is inaccurate. Nah...that would mean the "free press" has an agenda...and we all know the press has no agenda...other than to report the news.
The continued stonewalling by the Associated Press is only going to make matters worse for them. Not only are bloggers sniffing around and posting their findings, but the call for an investigation is growing louder. With the AP now making up an air strike, it seems the case of Jemil Hussein was not isolated, but instead part of a pattern of misreporting and a focus on milestone casualties (the United States recently suffered its 3000th casualty) rather than signs of progress. Reports from the AP regarding Iraq clearly cannot not be trusted. For accurate information, people can turn to the newsrooms of Multi-National Force-Iraq (www.mnf-iraq.com) and Central Command (www.centcom.mil). Harold C. Hutchison (haroldc.hutchison@gmail.com) If the WH had any b*lls...they would publicly humiliate AP for this. Hey maybe our newest House Speaker will put this on the "first 100 hours" fast track?
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.
On December 24, 2006 - Christmas Eve - the Algerian daily El-Shourouq El-Yawmi published an op-ed complaining that Santa Claus, in full holiday regalia, was on the move in the streets of Tizi Ouzo, in the Algerian Berber region of Kabylie. The article described what it called the "Christianization" of the region as "the death arriving from the West." 
Libya will raise a statue of Saddam Hussein alongside that of a national hero hanged in 1931 for leading the Libyan resistance against Italian occupation, the government said on Thursday. 
(KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun Thursday in an editorial calls for glorifying with proud victories and feats the significant year of 2007, in which the Korean people will commemorate the 95th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung and the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People's Army. Noting that the army and people of the DPRK are speeding up the grand march to glorify this auspicious year, full of great pride and self-confidence of being victors in warm response to the joint New Year editorial, Rodong Sinmun says:
North Korea appears to have made preparations for another nuclear test, according to U.S. defense officials. "We think they've put everything in place to conduct a test without any notice or warning," a senior U.S. defense official tells ABC News.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Energy Secretary 
ABC News has learned that President Bush will nominate 
In a long, rambling essay, startling for some of its neoconservative jargon, Peter Wehner of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives, declares that the war against global jihadism will be long, with success and setbacks along the way, but the West must not grow impatient, nor withdraw from the fight. The enemy is not Islam per se but a global network of extremists driven by a twisted vision of Islam. These jihadists are certainly a minority within Islam - but they exist, they are dangerous and resolute, in some places they are ascendant, and they need to be confronted and defeated, he writes.
A two-hour discussion between Afghan and Pakistani leaders, which was focused on fencing and mining their shared border, ended without result in Kabul Thursday. 
The leader of a top militant group said in interview aired on Thursday that Kashmiri guerrillas will keep fighting India until it ends its rule over the disputed Himalayan territory.
Seventy-nine Indian Maoist rebels have surrendered to authorities in the insurgency-racked central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, police said Thursday.
A lawyer representing former Iraqi foreign minister and deputy-prime minister, Tariq Aziz, has slammed the execution of his client's former boss, Saddam Hussein. "The death sentence and execution of Saddam Hussein is illegal, and the signing of the decree [that permitted the carrying out of the sentence] by Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki is not his (al-Maliki's) prerogative," the lawyer, Badi Arif told Adnkronos International (AKI) in an interview. 
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has decided to remove his defense minister, Amir Peretz, two Israeli TV stations reported Thursday. Citing sources in Olmert's office, Israel TV and Channel 2 said Peretz would be asked to resign and take another Cabinet position, and if he refused, he would be fired. Olmert's office issued a denial of the reports.
A year after Ariel Sharon's stroke abruptly propelled him into the prime minister's seat, Ehud Olmert finds himself badly out of favour and under a darkening cloud of scandal. On Thursday, the one-year anniversary of his unexpected rise to power, the Dahaf Research Institute released a poll showing that 77% of the country thinks Olmert is not functioning well. 
China on Friday urged Iran to give a "serious response" to a U.N. Security Council resolution that imposed sanctions on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that the Iranian nation is the flag-bearer of justice and monotheism in the world. He made the remarks at a mass public gathering in Ramshir. 
