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Area: WoT Operations    Non-WoT    Opinion    Local News       
Iran deigns to release kidnapped sailors
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Afghanistan
Canada to lease new tanks for Afghanistan
OTTAWA — The federal government is proceeding with the lease of some of the most modern Leopard tanks on the market as it boosts its equipment in Afghanistan. Defence sources told CanWest News Service that Ottawa will lease 20 A6M tanks from Germany. The tanks, which have improved protection against landmines and other enemy weapons, could be shipped to Afghanistan direct from Germany, sources said.

In addition, the new Leopards are air conditioned so they could operate in Afghanistan’s stifling summer heat. Canada’s older Leopard tanks now in Kandahar do not have air conditioning and there have been concerns the heat could limit their usefulness on the battlefield. Temperatures inside the vehicles could soar beyond 60 C. The lease was approved last week by the cabinet priorities and planning committee.

Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor wasn’t releasing details about the Leopard tank lease Tuesday, but he did say the tanks were a necessity for the Afghan mission. "Our experience in Afghanistan has proven we need main battle tanks," he said. "It’s really to offer security to our soldiers." O’Connor suggested the decrease in the number of Canadian casualties in the last six months was due to more use of heavier armoured vehicles, including the tanks.

Over the last year there has been a major about-face in the Canadian military’s view of the usefulness of tanks. The Leopards were originally scheduled to be destroyed or sold off, but the army put a halt to that program.
Gee, now what else changed in Canada in the last year?
It sent the Leopards to Afghanistan in the fall and began its search for newer tanks to purchase or lease.
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2007 10:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wonder what kind of charges there are for going over the mileage on a tank?
Posted by: IG-88 || 04/04/2007 10:39 Comments || Top||

#2  I have switched to Vancouver radio ( only becasue they play more music and less gab than Seattle) and this deal has been their 6 AM lead off for 2 days now. they have been discussing only the air conditioning option and not a weapons capability enhancement, however. But its a start.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 04/04/2007 14:18 Comments || Top||

#3  The Leopard 2 A6 is an improved Leopard 2 A5 through the addition of a L55 120mm smoothbore gun (55 calibers long). The new gun provides superior firepower enabling the Leopard 2 A6 to destroy tanks protected with improved heavy armor and to engage targets at longer ranges. The L55 gun will also be able to employ new ammunition and to penetrate heavier armors.

The Leopard 2 A6M, also known as Leo 2 A6M or MBT 122M in Sweden, is an improved of Leopard 2 A6 Main Battle Tank featuring additional mine protection for Leopard 2 crew against anti-tank mines. The first Leo 2 A6Ms are scheduled for delivery to the German and Swedish armies in July 2004.
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2007 15:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Plus it has air conditioning, and cupholders.
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/04/2007 16:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Yo Canucks!

Take the full insurance package!
Trust me! Been there, done that!

;)
Posted by: DanNY || 04/04/2007 17:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Geez, in that they got such a sweet deal in slightly used British submarines, I half expected that to read that "Canada is leasing new tanks *from* Afghanistan".

Slightly used Russian T-34s. And such a bargain! We will even throw in free Maple Leaf stencils!
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/04/2007 18:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Actually, considering the terrain and supply issues over there, the Canadians would be better off leasing the Israeli upgraded T-55/62 series of tanks. Those all sport AC and have modern 105mm main guns; plus the Israelis have enhanced the armor against RPGs and IEDs. Also, the silhouette of that series is well-known in Afghanistan and is the main series used by the Afghani Army and Northern Alliance.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 04/04/2007 20:39 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Somalia: Local doctors warn of diseases outbreak
(SomaliNet) Doctors in the Somalia capital Mogadishu Tuesday warned that the dead corpses laid on the streets of the city could cause health risks, following four days of the bloodiest fighting in 15 years between Ethiopian forces backed by tanks and helicopters and local bands of strong insurgents.

“We the doctors are advising the people in the capital to immediately bury the decayed corpses killed in the war otherwise infectious diseases will break out,” said vice president of Somali Doctors’ association Abdulahi Sheik Hussein.
Reeeeeeally? Rotting corpses in the street are not good for public health? Send that one to Lancet, they might publish it.
Not good for public health? I guess I should clean up outside. Is it okay to put them in the dumpster?
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My dad was a corpsman with the Marines in China after WWII. He said one thing that amazed him was seeing corpses in the streets - the locals didn't seem bothered: "nothing to see here, move along".
Posted by: Spot || 04/04/2007 8:28 Comments || Top||


Britain
UK 'Dirty bomb' plotter appeals 40 year term
The Muslim convert sentenced to serve at least 40 years in jail for plotting terrorist atrocities in Britain and America has appealed against his life sentence. Dhiren Barot, an al Qa’eda fanatic, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder after his plans to use explosive-packed limousines and a “dirty bomb” were foiled by police.

Barot was jailed by Mr Justice Butterfield at Woolwich Crown Court in London last November. The court heard that Barot had led a "sleeper cell" planning attacks in New York, Washington, London and across Britain. In an encrypted document called Radioactive Children inside a file called Brad Pitt, the Londoner outlined plans for a dirty bomb in the capital. Among the targets considered were the New York Stock Exchange, IMF and World Bank in Washington and the headquarters of Citigroup and Prudential. The judge described him as "determined, dedicated and highly dangerous" and said he would have to serve at least 40 years before being considered for parole. Defending the judge's sentencing principles today, Crown counsel Edmund Lawson QC said that even though Barot's plans had not been carried out, it would have been only a matter of time before they created "serious mayhem and injury and death to many thousands of people".

Lawyers for Barot, 34, argued today in London’s Court of Appeal that he should not be condemned to spend the rest of his life in prison on a charge that in other circumstances would have attracted a fixed term of 20 or 30 years. There was no indication that Barot had abandoned his Jihadist ideology, said Mr Lawson. Barot’s lawyer, Ian Macdonald QC, referred recent comments by Lord Phillips, the Lord Chief Justice, on the undesirability of detaining old men who had already spent most of their lives in prison when they posed no continuing public threat.
'Scuse me, he's 34. He is not a doddering old man. I propose you gaol him *until* he's an old man and *then* decide if he still poses a continuing public threat.
Lord Phillips, sitting with Lord Justice Latham and Mr Justice Treacy, reserved judgment to a later date. Short, quietly spoken and smartly dressed, Barot was born a Hindu and brought up in a north London suburb by middle-class parents before becoming one of the key figures in international Islamic terrorism.
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Britain
UK 'Dirty bomb' plotter appeals 40 year term

How bout an upgrade.

like the gallows, poison or a "hot" bullet @ 1000/ms to the skull.
Posted by: Red Dog || 04/04/2007 1:32 Comments || Top||

#2  I had long suspected Brad Pitt of harboring Radioactive Children.
Posted by: Excalibur || 04/04/2007 9:42 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Preparations underway in Chechnya for Kadyrov's inauguration
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Social Democrats Suggest Talking to the Taliban
Mouse over for NSFW reminder of who they want to chat with.
The leader of Germany's Social Democrats has proposed staging a new peace conference on Afghanistan that would include representatives of the Taliban. It's a controversial idea that has met a mixed reception so far. Kurt Beck made his surprising suggestion during his visit to Afghanistan at the weekend. He said there were new impulses to "sound out the possibility of holding another conference," which would possibly include members of the Islamist Taliban movement. The SPD leader suggested Germany as a possible venue for such a meeting and appeared confident that the United States would be prepared to take part.

There have been three international conferences in Germany on the future of Afghanistan over the last six years. The last one took place in Berlin in 2004. None have included representatives of the Taliban.

Beck's idea was backed by Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who on Tuesday for Berlin to host an Afghan peace conference where Taliban moderates could discuss terms with the Kabul authorities. SPD politician Rolf Mützenich also praised the idea, saying that a conference involving members of the Taliban was necessary to bring stability to the country. He also noted that Afghan president Hamid Karzai was in favor of a meeting of this kind.

But Eckart von Klaeden, foreign affairs expert for the conservative Union bloc, reacted sceptically. He told the German daily Berliner Zeitung that the idea was "not particularly well thought through." Von Klaeden also expressed concern that inviting the Taliban to take part in such a conference "would increase their international status and damage the authority of the elected government of Hamid Karzai."
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  FOX NEWS > HANNITY & COLMES > Canadian Ambassador Taylor [paraphrased] - what may appear to look like appeasement and concession, even agz Radical Islamists/Terrorists is "SENSIBLE DIPLOMACY". THE "REVOLUTION IN IRAN IS STILL ON-GOING", and D ***ng it RADICAL IRAN NEEDS HELP BECUZ IT IS AN EMERGING DEMOCRACY [under Moud-Mullahs]???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/04/2007 2:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Sure. Let's send someone over who speaks their language.

Posted by: gorb || 04/04/2007 4:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Pro-Khomeini imam to pray before Texas Senate
Hat Tip worldnetdaily.com

'Moderate' scheduled to deliver today's invocation participated in ayatollah tribute'

The Texas Senate will open today with its first Islamic prayer, offered by a Dallas imam who has been criticized for participating in a "tribute to the great Islamic visionary," Ayatollah Khomeini.

Imam Yusuf Kavakci of the Dallas Central Mosque is scheduled to be welcomed by Texas' Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Sen. Florence Shapiro, the Senate's senior Jewish member and sponsor of Kavakci's invocation.

According to an announcement by the Dallas-Forth Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the occasion will be broadcast live on the Texas Senate website and attended by a number of faith-based groups, including Texas Impact, Baptist General Convention of Texas' Christian Life Commission, Texas Conference of Churches and Texas Islamic Council.

"Don't miss the next milestone event for the Texas Muslim community!' DFW-CAIR's announcement read. "On April 4, 2007, the first Muslim imam will open the Texas Senate with an Islamic prayer."

Kavacki, who has served in Dallas area for nearly 20 years, has been seen as a moderate voice among U.S. Muslims, but he has not gone uncriticized for some of his activities.

WND reported in 2005 on the nonpartisan Freedom House report documenting Saudi-sponsored hate literature, originating with the government and Saudi-financed sources that reflected "extremist Wahhabi ideology," being disseminated through mosques in the U.S.

One of those mosques, according to a critical editorial in the Dallas Morning News, was Kavacki's:

"Unfortunately, this kind of thing is not altogether alien to this mosque," it read. "Last spring, it hosted a youth quiz competition, sponsored by two national organizations closely tied to the worldwide Islamist movement. Kids were tested on the work of premier jihad ideologist Sayyid Qutb.

"The mosque's imam, Dr. Yusuf Kavakci, has publicly praised two of the world's foremost radical Islamists, Yusuf Qaradawi and Hasan al-Turabi, as exemplary leaders. Dr. Kavakci also sits on the board of the Saudi-backed Islamic Society of North America, described in congressional testimony as a major conduit of Wahhabist teaching. Yet Dr. Kavakci tells The Dallas Morning News he rejects Wahhabist teaching. Something doesn't add up.

"Sayyid Qutb is the author of "Milestones," the Mein Kampf of the global jihad movement – and it's highly disturbing to learn that Muslim children are being indoctrinated with this foul work of fascist xenophobia, in the United States.

In 2004, Kavakci was a guest speaker at a seminar sponsored by Irving, Tex., Muslims paying "tribute to the great Islamic visionary," Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader if Iran's 1979 revolution.

Kavakci and others shared the roster with Mohammed Asi, a radical Washington imam whom, according to The Washington Post, U.S. officials suspect of being an Iranian agent.

Seminar organizer Imam Shamshad Haider told the Dallas Morning News Khomeini has been unjustly portrayed in the Western media. Earlier Haider had complained on television that Khomeini had been unfairly judged on only one aspect of his personality.

Kavakci declined two invitations from the Morning News to explain why he would attended such a conference.

WND reported in February that Democrat leaders attending their party's annual winter meeting had Husham Al-Husainy, imam of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center, a shiite mosque in Dearborn, Mich., deliver the invocation. According Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and author of "The Truth about Muhammad," the assembled Democrats were led in a prayer asking Allah to convert party members to Islam.
Posted by: Snairong Thrump2405 || 04/04/2007 12:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Don't they call something like this, "open season" in Texas?
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/04/2007 15:11 Comments || Top||

#2  So what's the bag limit?
Posted by: Excalibur || 04/04/2007 15:49 Comments || Top||

#3  "The mosque's imam, Dr. Yusuf Kavakci, has publicly praised two of the world's foremost radical Islamists, Yusuf Qaradawi and Hasan al-Turabi, as exemplary leaders.

Remember, Qaradawi is one of the major doctrinal authorities who declared suicide bombings to be halal. To openly admire Qaradawi is to support violent global jihad. Kavakci should be arrested as a supporter of violent jihad.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2007 17:00 Comments || Top||

#4  The Texas legislature only meets every two years, and no man and no property is safe during the legislative sessions.
Posted by: whatadeal || 04/04/2007 23:29 Comments || Top||


Dems Declare "No More GWOT"
The House Armed Services Committee is banishing the global war on terror from the 2008 defense budget. This is not because the war has been won, lost or even called off, but because the committee’s Democratic leadership doesn’t like the phrase. Newspeak - The official language of Oceania the Democratic Party. Newspeak is "politically correct" speech taken to its maximum extent. Newspeak is based on standard English, but all words describing "unorthodox" political ideas have been removed. In addition, there was an attempt to remove the overall number of words in general, to limit the range of ideas that could be expressed. The most important aim of newspeak was to provide a means of speaking that required no thought what-so-ever. A memo for the committee staff, circulated March 27, says the 2008 bill and its accompanying explanatory report that will set defense policy should be specific about military operations and “avoid using colloquialisms.”

The “global war on terror,” a phrase first used by President Bush shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., should not be used, according to the memo. Also banned is the phrase the “long war,” which military officials began using last year as a way of acknowledging that military operations against terrorist states and organizations would not be wrapped up in a few years.

Committee staff members are told in the memo to use specific references to specific operations instead of the Bush administration’s catch phrases. The memo, written by Staff Director Erin Conaton, provides examples of acceptable phrases, such as “the war in Iraq,” the “war in Afghanistan, “operations in the Horn of Africa” or “ongoing military operations throughout the world.”

“There was no political intent in doing this,” said a Democratic aide who asked not to be identified. “We were just trying to avoid catch phrases.” Josh Holly, a spokesman for Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, the committee’s former chairman and now its senior Republican, said Republicans “were not consulted” about the change.

Committee aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said dropping or reducing references to the global war on terror could have many purposes, including an effort to be more precise about military operations, but also has a political element involving a disagreement over whether the war in Iraq is part of the effort to combat terrorism or is actually a distraction from fighting terrorists.

House Democratic leaders who have been pushing for an Iraq withdrawal timetable have talked about the need to get combat troops out of Iraq so they can be deployed against terrorists in other parts of the world, while Republicans have said that Iraq is part of the front line in the war on terror. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the armed services committee chairman, has been among those who have complained that having the military tied up with Iraq operations has reduced its capacity to respond to more pressing problems, like tracking down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

“This is a philosophical and political question,” said a Republican aide. “Republicans generally believe that by fighting the war on terror in Iraq, we are preventing terrorists from spreading elsewhere and are keeping them engaged so they are not attacking us at home.”

However, U.S. intelligence officials have been telling Congress that most of the violence in Iraq is the result of sectarian strife and not directly linked to terrorists, although some foreign insurgents with ties to terrorist groups have been helping to fuel the fighting.

“You have to wonder if this means that we have to rename the GWOT,” said a Republican aide, referring to the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medals established in 2003 for service members involved, directly and indirectly, in military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world.

“If you are a reader of the Harry Potter books, you might describe this as the war that must not be named,” said another Republican aide. That is a reference to the fact that the villain in the Harry Potter series, Lord Voldemort, is often referred to as “he who must not be named” because of fears of his dark wizardry.
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2007 08:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “There was no political intent in doing this,” said a Democratic aide who asked not to be identified. “We were just trying to avoid catch phrases.”

Except, of course, for catch phrases like "George Bush's War", "No Blood For Oil", "Bush Lied, People Died", "Responsible Redeployment", "The Rush to War", and such.

There really is no hypocrisy too vile for a liberal, is there?

Posted by: Dave D. || 04/04/2007 8:53 Comments || Top||

#2  I agree, we should re-divert those funds for the newly coined "GWOD" (Global War On Dhimmitude).
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 04/04/2007 8:55 Comments || Top||

#3  oookay... How about GWONNT (Global war on not nice things) or GFANP (Global Fellowship against Nasty People) or GMFMU (Global Movement For Multicultural Unity)?
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/04/2007 9:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Alright then, Global War on Islam works for me.:P
Posted by: djohn66 || 04/04/2007 9:02 Comments || Top||

#5  I think the're pushing for 'Illegal war'....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/04/2007 9:04 Comments || Top||

#6  I really don't understand how nobody in Congress ever takes it outside. If I was in Congress, I would have definitely gotten in a scurmish over all this noodle spinery.
Posted by: Mike N. || 04/04/2007 9:26 Comments || Top||

#7  I am holding out for "Crusade". Call me old-fashioned.
Posted by: Excalibur || 04/04/2007 9:30 Comments || Top||

#8  If anyone wants to shout out for the troops and against dhimmitude come to the Rolling Thunder/Gathering of Eagles rally in DC on May 27th. We will be on the Mall by the Lincoln and Vietnam Memorials. Just follow the flags!
Posted by: DanNY || 04/04/2007 9:34 Comments || Top||

#9  Doesn't matter what you call it. We are not going to win the war against militant Islam until we win the war within.
Posted by: SR-71 || 04/04/2007 9:43 Comments || Top||

#10  Manifest Destiny works for me.
Posted by: ed || 04/04/2007 9:44 Comments || Top||

#11  There are no enemies, only friends we haven't met yet.

Group hug!
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/04/2007 10:10 Comments || Top||

#12  Though they did it for petty partisan reasons, they have inadvertently done the White House a really big favor in doing this.

First of all, the War on Terror was never very appropriate because of its Orwellian connotations.
Second of all, it was bound to "burn out" over time, like the 38-year-old War on Drugs.

It has irritated the public that the administration has continued to label it "the 'war' in Iraq", though the war ended in 2003, and thus hurt itself by turning a "police occupation" into something that is *beyond* military solution--that must be solved politically, eventually. How can the military "win" something like that? When can we declare victory? When the crime rate drops? Another election?

The WoT is has been hurt by association, even though it is technically more correct as a continuing war. As a slogan it has achieved its goal of convincing everyone that actions against Islamic terrorism are worldwide, crosses national boundaries easily, and must be met with the full force of both military and civil actions.

So the purpose of the label has been accomplished. Now we need a new label, to describe ongoing operations around the world. Since WoT is associated with George W. Bush, we have to move beyond it, if we have any hope of the democrats doing *anything* against terrorists if they ever get a President elected.

Oh, great. Now we just need to teach the democrats what "foreign policy" is--certainly not just agreeing with whatever the French feel like doing.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/04/2007 10:18 Comments || Top||

#13  Lol. The BlogAd at the bottom of the page is for custom magnet ribbons: "Your Truth Here"

Posted by: Seafarious || 04/04/2007 10:23 Comments || Top||

#14  Excerpt from
"The Principles of Newspeak"
An appendix to 1984
Written by : George Orwell in 1948


Newspeak was the official language of Oceania, and had been devised to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc, or English Socialism. In the year 1984 there was not as yet anyone who used Newspeak as his sole means of communication, either in speech or writing. The leading articles of the Times were written in it, but this was a tour de force which could only be carried out by a specialist, It was expected that Newspeak would have finally superseded Oldspeak (or standard English, as we should call it) by about the year 2050. Meanwhile, it gained ground steadily, all party members tending to use Newspeak words and grammatical constructions more and more in their everyday speech. The version in 1984, and embodied in the Ninth and Tenth Editions of Newspeak dictionary, was a provisional one, and contained many superfluous words and archaic formations which were due to be suppressed later. It is with the final, perfected version, as embodied in the Eleventh Edition of the dictionary, that we are concerned here.

The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought -- that is, a thought diverging from the principles of IngSoc -- should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meaning and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meaning whatever.
Posted by: SwissTex || 04/04/2007 10:28 Comments || Top||

#15  “…although some foreign insurgents with ties to terrorist groups have been helping to fuel the fighting.”

Here’s a suggestion on how to “avoid using colloquialisms.” People who intentionally slaughter innocent people as a means for political, economic, or social extortion are called “Terrorists”. Not “Insurgents”, "Freedom Fighters" or “Resistance groups” they’re called “Terrorists”. It's really not that difficult.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 04/04/2007 10:34 Comments || Top||

#16  Their intent here is to split all of the operations into bits, rather than parts of a connected whole. It's as if the Congress in 1943 had started allocating funds specifically for areas of operations -- $X for North Africa, $Y for the Mediterranean, $Z for the Aleutians, etc.

The goal is to allow them to choke off funds for areas of operation they don't like. Parallel to, say, cutting the funds for operations in the Aleutians to zero.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 04/04/2007 10:41 Comments || Top||

#17  From a related posting by Michael Goldfarb

Indeed the disturbing thing about this fascination with rebranding the war on terror is that it, if we may say, came at a time when a resurgent Taliban is stepping up its activities in Afghanistan, al Qaeda bombers are running amok in London, and tourist hotels are being blown up in Egypt. This is self-evidently not a great time to shift from a "Global War on Terror" to a "Long Struggle to Portray Americans as Good People Who Don't Hate Muslims and Respect Religions All Over the World Even as We Try to Dismantle the Networks of Ideological Extremists Who at the Very Least Disagree With Us and May Want to Do Us Harm." Or whatever.

Works for me.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/04/2007 10:44 Comments || Top||

#18  the semi-legitimate criticism of the phrase, GWOT, was that it implied we would go everywhere there was terror, including, say, Sri Lanka to fight the Tamil Tigers, and that is was like the war on drugs. As opposed to, say, the war on the Cali Cartel. It should have been called the war on Al Qaeeda, or the war on Al Qaeeda and its allies (to avoid quibbles about JI, etc, etc) The counter was that this excluded Hamas and Hebollah, which are terrorists, are our adversaries, and are arguably to some degree ideologically linked to the Salafist groups, though not completely. To the extent this became about Hamas, however, it became about Israel, and few mainstream Dems are interested in disagreeing with the position that Hamas is a terrorist group we should oppose.

The next objection was that it was used to justify the war in IRaq, cause of Saddams money for Pal terror bombers. But in reality that was a small part of the justification, and is pretty far in the past.

The real problem, is that the current operations in Iraq are part of the WOT. Now to the Dems this obscures the to them politically significant issue that Iraq had no demonstrable operational ties to AQ, and that going in was questionable as a strategy against AQ. The problem with THAT dem argument, as Krauthammer has stated to eloquently, is that however we got there, NOW Iraq is very much part of the WOT, and arguably the central front - certainly MORE so than Afghanistan.

Posted by: liberalhawk || 04/04/2007 10:47 Comments || Top||

#19  committee’s Democratic leadership doesn’t like the phrase.

They probably wouldn't like the phrase "blow me" either, but that's all I'd tell 'em.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2007 11:08 Comments || Top||

#20  Zen, I wouldn't go that far. They are Dems afterall.
Posted by: RWV || 04/04/2007 11:28 Comments || Top||

#21  What we are witnessing is the feminization of the donk party. Is there a pair amongst them or even a single testicle?
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/04/2007 11:33 Comments || Top||

#22  "the Democrats are even afraid of the word 'terror' so how can they be taken seriously to fight our enemies"

It practically writes itself. Can't wait for the election season.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/04/2007 11:49 Comments || Top||

#23  Zen, I wouldn't go that far. They are Dems afterall.

Fine, I'll wear some protection. How is it that these bastards can openly promote such blatant Newspeak? This is one step shy of thought crime.

Is there a pair amongst them or even a single testicle?

Probably Rosie.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2007 12:03 Comments || Top||

#24  How about PorKanimals Disposal Project?

The whole thing reminds me of an old Saturday Night Live new age social club chant. Bill Murrry leading. "Come on folks join me in the club rouser. It's true if you believe it, it's true if you believe it."
Posted by: Icerigger || 04/04/2007 12:21 Comments || Top||

#25  Liberalhawk has hit upon it:"GWOT, was that it implied we would go everywhere there was terror, including, say, Sri Lanka to fight the Tamil Tigers, and that is was like the war on drugs."

The Dems want to restrict the language to Iraq to justify their demand for troop withdrawal and the liberal armchair generals on the Hill really want to undermine both President Bush's policies and military strategy. They're fishing again to see if what they suspect is true--if we really are taking it to terrorists wherever they may be found. They are actively working to make sure Bush fails, Iraq is served on a platter to the terrorists, and America is hit again.
Posted by: Danielle || 04/04/2007 17:29 Comments || Top||

#26  GWOT > renamed/re-labeled as THE GREAT GLOBAL SOCIALIST WAR FOR ANTI-COMMUNIST FASCISM-FOR-COMMUNISM???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/04/2007 20:05 Comments || Top||

#27  The DemoLeft in general. like Moud-Mullahs, must have seen the Net maps showing US-Allied flgas popping up all over the place under Dubya's tenure. DIPLOMACY-NEGOTIATIONS, i.e. "Talking to America's enemies", sub-i.e. Radical Iran + Radical Islam: + "ENDING US-LED ACTIVE COMBAT/GROUND OPERATIONS IN IRAQ-ME", ala Juan Williams, Alan Colmes, and other pro-DemoLeft Perts on TV-Radio recently, IS NOT "TROOP WITHDRAWAL", "PULLOUT", "BRINGING THE BOYS
HOME", or even "REDEPLOYMENT" as the Dems-MSM want mainstream America to believe. Williams, Colmes, etal. comments have shown, SSSSHHHHHHHH AGAIN, THAT THE DEMS = DEMLEFT ARE NOT SERIOUS ABOUT GETTING THE USA OUT OF EITHER ORAQ OR THE ME PER SE. Undoubtedly, many of the DemoLeft are trying to PC win 2008 by reliving the Clinton 1990's, where the successes of Reagan, Bush 1, + GOP-Right will NOT be acknowledged within the US NPE until a Democrat-Lefty is in the White House, where credit and glory will go NOT to the GOP-Right AGAIN - YOU KNOW, SECULAR ETHICS, not Not NOT N-O-T NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOTTTTT, D *** You, PC + POLITIX OF POLISCHTICK. Unfortunately, since the WOT > WAR FOR THE WORLD + WAR FOR ANTI-US OWG-SWO/CWO = GLOBAL WAR AGAINST AMERICA + AMER-LED/CENTRIC OWG, etal. DUBYA-USA-GOP IS ALSO INTENDED TO TAKE THE BLAME FOR ANY NEW 9-11's = AMER HIROSHIMA(S) + ANY REGIONAL-GLOBAL WAR(s)/WW3 or 4. Anti-Amer agendists-globalists, including but not limited to anti-Amer Americans, WANT THE USA UNDER PC/DENIABLE
"JUSTIFIED" OWG + PC/DENIABLE "JUSTIFIED"
COMMUNIST-SOCIALIST WORLD ORDER, EVEN IFF IT MEANS CASUALTY-INTENSIVE AMER HIROSHIMA(S) AS POLITICAL CONTINGENCY - YOU KNOW, PATRIOTISM + ETHICS.

*O' REILLY this AM [PARAPHRASED] > "TEACHER-STUDENT SEX" incidents + "INTER-STUDENT OPEN SEX IN OPEN CLASSROOM" > NO ONE IN ADULT, LOCAL OR OTHER PUBLIC AUTHORITY IS STOPPING IT NOR WANTS TO STOP IT. THE RADICAL LEFT-PROGRESSIVES IN AMER HAS SUCCESSFULLY, WILFULLY DESTROYED OR ERODED MUCH OF THE USA's MORAL ORDER/CENTER, and CONTINUES TO DO SO, EVEN IN TIME OF WAR WHERE THE VERY EXISTENCE OF THE ENTIRE COUNTRY IS AT STAKE, IN ORDER TO EMPOWER AND ENTRENCH THEIR SECULAR/SOCIALIST PROGRESSIVE AGENDA, ESPEC UNIVERSAL/BIG GUBMINT.

All together, now, wid feeling > "THE WOT IS ABOUT THE THREAT FROM RADICAL ISLAM AND ONLY RADICAL ISLAM. THE COMMIES + LEFTIES ARE SUPPORTING RADICAL ISLAM-TERROR BECUZ THEY WANNA BE FRIENDS + PARTY DOWN".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/04/2007 20:56 Comments || Top||

#28  You tell 'em Joe! Say, how's the weather in Guam?
Posted by: Secret Master || 04/04/2007 21:01 Comments || Top||

#29  GWOI-WI

Global
War
On
Idiots
Wherever
They
May
Be
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/04/2007 22:41 Comments || Top||

#30  I'm obliged to ask if it sometimes isn't almost surreal how the Democrats can so thoroughly engage in Newspeak without realizing what they're doing. I know this beggars the question of them knowingly doing this — as in Political Correctness — but it just strikes me as exceptionally odd that the championing of such a common enemy to all people as Newspeak could go on without even the most rabid Democrat pausing to reconsider.

Worst of all: If it's unintentional, they're blind as cave fish and if it's intentional, they represent one of the most significant evils of this new century. I suppose there's even the most revolting answer of all: All of the above.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2007 23:31 Comments || Top||

#31  Rowlings, whose books I have assiduously avoided, sometimes pisses me off.

"He Who Must Not Be Named" is an oblique, and unrecognized/uncited, reference to the character Hastur depicted in the Cthulhu Mythos. First referenced by Ambrose Bierce, Robert W Chambers later referenced the character and he/its residence in the star system of Aldebaran.

H.P. Lovecraft (may he inspire forever) only referenced Hastur once in "The Whisperer In Darkness".

Other authors have also referenced He Who Is Not To Be Named, and I've even used him in my online email game "Fire On The Suns" during a long and well-remembered campaign of hte forces of light versus the Unspeakable Ones and what they were attempting to liberate "He Who Is Not To Be Named" in the star system of Aldebaran.

The fact that Rowlings gets away with blatant rip offs of this sort without being called to task on it makes me angry (and disappoints me at the same time).

Not even Wikipedia recognizes the connection.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 04/04/2007 23:58 Comments || Top||


Bush sez Dems Are Irresponsible; Nancy, too.
President Bush denounced "irresponsible" Democrats on Tuesday for going on spring break without approving money for the Iraq war with no strings. He condemned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record)'s trip to Syria, too, accusing her of encouraging a terrorism sponsor.

With Congress out of town, Bush tried to take the upper hand over Democrats who are making increasing forays into foreign policy as his term dwindles and his approval ratings remain low.
He's doomed. Doomed, I tellya!

Democrats, buoyed by recent Republican defections from Bush on Iraq, shot back that they are the ones pursuing effective solutions overseas in response to a national desire for change from his approach.
Running away is always an effective solution. For a little while.

We are not going to allow the president to continue a failed policy in Iraq. We represent the American people's vision on this failed war," Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said at a ceremony for a new Nevada National Guard armory near Las Vegas. "We have said time and time again the troops will have everything they need."
Even if you have to cut off the funds to give them what they need, Harry? Isn't that what you said yesterday? .
Posted by: Bobby || 04/04/2007 05:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You can e-mail Harry here. That's my next task for today.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/04/2007 5:40 Comments || Top||

#2  For Ms. Pelosi, however -

Again, I am forced to write you a letter, knowing it will take about three weeks to reach your office, because you will not accept e-mails from people who are not your “constituents”. While you are in Syria, Madam Speaker, are you speaking only for the members of the 8th Congressional District in California? Or do you give the appearance of speaking for the majority of the Country? I’ll wager you relish the power of the position of Speaker of the House, yet you do not wish the responsibility of listening to opinions other than those with the narrow viewpoint of your home district.

I then copied portions of Thomas Sowell's editorial from yesterday.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/04/2007 6:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Chris Muir's cartoon today is on this very topic; it is a gem!
http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2007/04/04/#a004077
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/04/2007 7:25 Comments || Top||

#4  I think Bush should, with much media fanfare, present Nancy Pelosi with a head scarf upon her return.
Posted by: ed || 04/04/2007 7:57 Comments || Top||

#5  She should wear a full burka. All the time. For the good of us all. Hillary should too.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/04/2007 8:08 Comments || Top||

#6  congressional approval ratings are 10-15% below the POTUS's ...
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2007 8:21 Comments || Top||

#7  The got negative ratings? I don't think that's possible.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/04/2007 8:40 Comments || Top||

#8  They aren't irresponsible. They are selling their country downriver for temporary power.

Or traitors. Both work for me.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/04/2007 9:19 Comments || Top||

#9  The dems are not about responsibility. They want to win power for their party--no matter what. If this means defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan they would be a party to that.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/04/2007 11:39 Comments || Top||

#10  Nancy Pelosi in Syria has demonstrated why she is the leader of the Dhimmicrats.
Posted by: RWV || 04/04/2007 14:21 Comments || Top||

#11  I'm not sure we should expect anything else if the responsible few in government won't shame them with rhettoric.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/04/2007 15:32 Comments || Top||

#12  shame them with rhettoric.

"Frankly, Nancy, I don't give a rip. You're damned."
Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2007 23:53 Comments || Top||


Bush Renews Veto Threat on Iraq Bills
President Bush on Tuesday called Democrats in Congress irresponsible for approving war bills that order U.S. troops to leave Iraq by certain dates. He said such efforts will backfire, keeping some troops in battle even longer. "In a time of war, it's irresponsible for the Democratic leadership in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds," Bush said in a Rose Garden news conference. "The bottom line is this: Congress' failure to fund our troops on the front lines will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines," Bush said. "Others could see their loved ones heading back to the war sooner than they need to."

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, Bush and Congress have about three months to resolve their standoff before a lack of funds would begin to adversely affect operations in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OK George: To paraphrase a former President: Speak softly and carry a big pen.

Ten bucks sez he'll fold.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 04/04/2007 14:35 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Qazi pledges to continue protests
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Govt encouraging Talibanisation: WAF
The Women’s Action Forum (WAF) has accused the government of playing an “overt and covert role in creating and encouraging the Talibanisation of Pakistan”, and plans public rallies to protest in the near future. “The latest manifestation of Talibanisation in Pakistan is the brazen and illegal occupation of the Children’s Library in Islamabad by Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Faridia, followed by the forced abduction, humiliation and torture of three women and an infant,” WAF said in a statement on Monday.

“This has shocked every citizen with a conscience and shaken the foundations of our society. The complicity of the state in both cases reinforces the Talibanisation process and gives a lie to the farce of General Musharaf’s ‘enlightened moderation’,” said WAF. “Even as lawyers and members of civil society are battling for the people’s constitutional rights, religious extremists are taking violent action to undermine and negate those very rights. This is a dangerous phenomenon as it attacks the very rights on which a humane society is based. The terror unleashed by the burqa-clad, baton-wielding cohorts of Jamia Hafsa on a rampage in Islamabad has challenged the writ of the state. While the government is quick to respond violently against peaceful and unarmed protest, this violent mob was allowed to kidnap women from their homes and policemen on duty,” said WAF.

“The sight of political Islam hiding behind black shrouds is the stuff of nightmare and a frightening preview of a dark and savage future for Pakistan. Have we forgotten the Quaid’s clear declaration that ‘religion is not the business of the state’?

“WAF has always stood for the separation of religion from the state, for any single interpretation of religion is bound to pit religion against religion, sect against sect and people against people. WAF calls upon the people of Pakistan to realise the danger posed to each one of us, in every sphere of our lives, especially women, by Talibanisation. “WAF came into being resisting the rise of political Islam in Pakistan and will continue to fight the Talibanisation of society. Peoples’ power alone can push back the forces of darkness. Each one of us must take a stand. WAF will announce a public action rally in the near future and asks all concerned to join the protest.”
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


No deadline for action against Jamia Hafsa
The Islamabad district administration on Monday met with Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah to draw a strategy for the much-awaited crackdown on the administration and students of Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia but no date was set for the action.
That means it'll never happen.
Inspector General of Islamabad Police Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmad, Chief Commissioner Khalid Pervez, Deputy Commissioner Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, SSP (Operations) Zafar Iqbal and Assistant Inspector General of Special Branch)
In view of unconfirmed reports about the presence of a large cache of arms in Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid the interior secretary asked the Islamabad administration to find out how many boys of Jamia Fareedia were present in Lal Masjid.
Rao Mohammad Iqbal attended the meeting. Officials said the interior secretary asked the city administration to force the Jamia Hafsa girls out of the children’s library, which they have occupied since January 27. He also sought the arrest of students of both Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia for creating a law and order situation in the capital. But officials said that in view of unconfirmed reports about the presence of a large cache of arms in Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid the interior secretary also asked the Islamabad administration to find out how many boys of Jamia Fareedia were present in Lal Masjid. The secretary also directed that the Rangers and Punjab Police personnel who have came to Islamabad for the crackdown some two months ago be put on high alert.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Another Jimmy Hoffa sighting?
Posted by: john || 04/04/2007 20:03 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Breaking News: Palestinians' Feelings Hurt by German Chancellor
Palestinian Authority officials have accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of "offending the Palestinians' feelings" during her visit earlier this week to Ramallah, where she met with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
I expect a UN resolution condemning her actions momentarily
The accusations, the first of their kind against a European leader, were made by top PA officials only hours after Merkel and her entourage left Ramallah on Monday.

"She did everything to provoke the Palestinians during her visit," said one official. "She showed no understanding for the plight of our people. On the other hand, she appeared to be very biased toward Israel."
Newspeak: accurate portrayal of the facts is called "very biased"
The official claimed that while Merkel refused to meet with families of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, she focused during her talks with Abbas on the need to release kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Schalit, who has been held in the Gaza Strip since last June. In addition, he noted, Merkel met with the families of missing IDF soldiers during her visit to Jerusalem.
Palestinian prisoners: criminals
Schlalit: hostage

At the joint press conference with Abbas, Merkel refused to answer a question about the Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the official added. "She appeared to be obsessed with the case of Gilad Schalit," he said. "But she refused to even acknowledge the fact that we have more than 10,000 prisoners in Israel."

Another PA official described Merkel's visit to Ramallah as "extremely negative and a total disappointment." He revealed that Abbas had originally requested that the meeting take place in Bethlehem, where Christians are celebrating Holy Week.

"We were hoping to show her the wall that Israel built around Bethlehem, but she refused to go there," he said. "President Abbas was hoping to draw parallels between Israel's wall and the Berlin Wall. He wanted to remind Merkel of the days when she lived in East Berlin."
If anything, Israel would be West Berlin in that scenario
Merkel, according to the official, also turned down a request to meet with church leaders and representatives of Palestinian civil societies. "Almost all the European leaders meet with Christian leaders and representatives of civil societies," he pointed out. "But Merkel refused to do so. She did not offer any explanation and that's why we are very disappointed with her and the German government. This behavior is completely unacceptable."

The Palestinians are also angry with Merkel for visiting the Hebrew University, where she received an honorary doctorate on Sunday, while refusing to tour the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

PA officials were hoping to escort Merkel on a tour of the Arab neighborhoods to show her how Israel was "changing the Arab and Muslim character" of the city.
and this is a bad thing? "changing the Arab and Muslim character" would mean: end to ignorance, contributing to the welfare of society, rational debate, shunning violence as the answer to perceived slights, etc.
"This woman is trying to be more Israeli than the Israelis," the official said. "During her talks with President Abbas, she totally ignored major issues related to the peace process and chose to focus on the case of Gilad Schalit.

"Germany will not be able to play any role in the peace process because of the chancellor's bias to Israel. Our people are obviously paying the price for the crimes that were perpetrated against the Jews during World War Two."
would those be the same crimes they claim didn't happen?
In an attempt to avoid a diplomatic crisis between the Palestinians and Germany, a senior official in Abbas's office said the allegations did not represent the official PA line.
so they can say anything they want as long as they end it by saying it's not the official line.
"We categorically reject the derogatory remarks made against the German chancellor," said Nimer Hamad, political adviser to Abbas. "We appreciate the ongoing support of Germany to the Palestinians and its efforts to reactivate the role of the Quartet and support for the Arab peace plan that was re-endorsed in Riyadh last week."
Posted by: PlanetDan || 04/04/2007 09:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "President Abbas was hoping to draw parallels between Israel's wall and the Berlin Wall.”

The only “parallel” is that they are both considered barriers. A simple photograph should demonstrate that point. Perhaps they don’t think people recognize the distinction between keeping people within a barrier and keeping people outside of a barrier. Then again, logic ain’t their strong suit.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 04/04/2007 13:13 Comments || Top||


Paleos get arms from Jordan and Egypt
But it's okay, because it's all approved, you see.
Haaretz has learned that four months ago Jordan transferred to the Palestinian security forces - units answerable to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas - a total of 3,000 M-16 rifles. The weapons were transferred through the Sheikh Hussein crossing in the Beit Shean area.

At the same time, Egypt delivered 2,500 AK-47 rifles to Abbas loyalists through the Rafah crossing. In total, Egypt and Jordan also delivered more than 3 million bullets for the rifles.
Most of which will be shot off in gun sex celebrations, but that's still a lot of bullets.
Recently, Abbas asked the Israelis and Americans to agree to the transfer of more weapons from Arab countries to his forces, both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. However, Israel and the U.S. rejected the request.
"Ummm, you want us to arm you Paleos."
"Yup, dat's right."
"Ummm, no."
Before the establishment of the Palestinian unity government, the Palestinians procured ceramic bullet-proof vests, communications equipment and various vehicles for security forces affiliated with Fatah. These items were transferred to them in coordination with Israeli authorities. The Fatah security groups, including the Presidential Guard (Force 17), recently received heavy machine guns, but it is unclear how they were delivered.
Wonder if they allow got the firing pins with the micro-fractures?
The equipping of the Fatah-affiliated security groups is being done in view of the growing strength of Hamas, mostly in the Gaza Strip, but also in the West Bank.

In spite of the establishment of the unity government, the Mecca agreement under which Fatah and Hamas formed the shared cabinet does not address the issue of the Hamas paramilitary organization, the Executive Force. The force, comprising some 5,000 members, operates in the Gaza Strip and Hamas has plans to double it.

Egypt and Jordan agreed to provide Fatah security organizations with weapons, instead of Israel, to avoid the impression that the Palestinians affiliated with Abbas are collaborating with the IDF.
There's a rumor I'd be spreading around.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  3 million bullets?

What about the cartridges?
Posted by: mojo || 04/04/2007 16:16 Comments || Top||


Egypt may try to stem arms flow into Gaza Strip
Or they may not.
Egypt is considering intensifying its cooperation with Israel in countering the smuggling of arms from Sinai to the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources told Haaretz on Tuesday.
Any day now, you can count on it ...
The Egyptians will also cooperate on intelligence in tracking down Palestinian fugitives who reach the Sinai side of the Rafah crossing.
Oh yeah, they'll rat out their religious brothers too, check's in the mail ...
During the weekend, senior delegations from Israel, Egypt, the United States and the Palestinian Authority met at a posh hotel in Cairo. The meeting was chaired by U.S. Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, the security coordinator between Israel and the Palestinians.

Representing Israel at the meeting was Amos Gilad, the head of the political-defense department at the Ministry of Defense. The Palestinians were represented by the head of Internal Security, Rashid Abu Shbach. Egypt's chief of intelligence, Omar Suleiman, did not attend, but his aides were present.
Which tells you everything you need to know about what the Egyptians are going to do.
A similar meeting was held about a month ago in Jerusalem.
And look how the Egyptians cracked down on arms smuggling after that meeting, by golly ...
The sources said the meeting was positive, but that criticism was directed at the level of Egyptian involvement to date. Special focus was given to Egypt's unsatisfactory activities in countering the smuggling of arms to the Gaza Strip through tunnels running under the border area with Sinai.

The Egyptians were also asked to broaden their efforts in countering cells of extremist Islamic groups that have set up bases there.

All sides asked Egypt to stop, on the Egyptian side of the border, Palestinian and other terrorists who attempt to enter the Gaza Strip through Sinai. These include militants that Israel may not be aware of and are not on its stop-lists.
Please?
The Palestinian sources said the results of the first meeting were positive, but insufficient. The results of the Cairo meeting will be clear in the near future, they said.
Of course they Paleos thought it was positive. Nothing happened, and nothing's going to happen.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


AL says Israeli invitation "not serious"
Arab League chief Amr Moussa has rejected an Israeli call to participate in a regional summit to re-activate the peace process, describing it as "not serious." "The letter wasn't serious and offered nothing new," the secretary general said during a press conference in Cairo with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere. "It's only goal was to get normalization for free."

Moussa added that the invitation came in the form of a letter from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to participate in a meeting of Israelis, Palestinians and "moderate" Arab nations. He said the rejected the offer because the Israelis wanted to modify the Arab peace initiative and were describing the return of Palestinian refugees as a "red line".

Olmert, who has long rejected peace plans, said on Sunday that he was ready to attend a summit with Arab leaders to discuss a Saudi-drafted peace initiative and called on Arab nations to convene such a meeting. At their summit in Riyadh last week, Arab leaders revived the five-year-old plan that calls on Israel to withdraw from all land seized in 1967 and allow the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes.

Israel rejected the plan when it was first adopted in 2002, but now says it could serve as a basis for talks provided there were changes on the refugee issue, something the Arab heads of state rejected in Riyadh.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel is accused of blocking peace plan
From the Torygraph. For the record, this is the picture illustrating the story:
An unnamed Syrian official Nancy Pelosi told the Saudi Arabian newspaper al Watan that Mr Olmert was stalling for time by being selective about the Arab nations he would sit down with. Mohammed al-Madhoun, senior adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister in the Palestinian Authority, criticised Israel's refusal to discuss the return of Palestinian refugees to land now claimed by Israel.
Criticized by Syria and Hamas. The sun rose in the east today, you know.
Diplomats had sensed the possibility of progress in the Middle East peace process, centred around the Arab Peace Plan which was first mooted five years ago.
They just got their stripey pants back from the scuttled Tehran offensive...what a waste of good dry cleaning.
The plan, which promises normal Arab relations with Israel in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from land occupied in 1967, was re-energised when it was endorsed unanimously at last week's Arab League summit in Riyadh. It was in response to this that Mr Olmert spoke of a willingness to meet with erstwhile Arab enemies. He said: "If the Saudi King will initiate a meeting of the moderate Arab states, and invite me and the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, and present us the Saudi ideas, we will come to hear them and be happy to articulate our ideas as well."

A major problem is that Mr Olmert rules out meeting the Palestinian government led by Hamas, the militant movement that does not recognise Israel's right to exist. Other Arab nations regard the Hamas government as a legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
And sadly, the sun will set in the west again this very night.
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No wonder they aren't very effective -- they can't possibly see where they're going, let alone what they're shooting at. No doubt half-semi-cousins of JUSTICE: I MUST RETURN.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/04/2007 12:56 Comments || Top||

#2  the Arab Peace Plan which was first mooted five years ago.

When something is "Moot", it means no longer viable, "Mooted 5 years ago, means it was useless/worthless 5 years ago.

Bad choice of words.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/04/2007 22:18 Comments || Top||


Sri Lanka
Tamil Tigers used truce to rearm, says former commander
The Tamil Tiger guerrillas used peace talks as a cover to rearm and prepare for a return to war in Sri Lanka, according to the group's former military commander Colonel Karuna. In an interview the ex-rebel fighter, who broke with the Tigers in 2004, said he was told by the guerrillas' supreme leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, to "drag these talks out for about five years, somehow let the time pass by. Meanwhile I will purchase arms and we will be ready for the next stage of fighting."

The former Tamil Tiger, who was a member of the peace talks team, told the BBC the rebels never had any commitment to ending the war. Col Karuna left the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) saying his troops were being used as cannon fodder for the northern leadership. He now wants to enter politics and has formed the TMVP or the Tamil People's Liberation Party. In Batticaloa, a palm-fringed coastal town that is now home to more than 150,000 refugees fleeing from a full-scale war between the Tigers and the Sri Lankan military, Col Karuna's "boys" openly carry weapons and man checkposts.

These fighters spar for control of the town with the LTTE, say locals, using blackmail, kidnappings and murders. Human rights groups say the Tigers and the Karuna "faction" have been forcibly recruiting child soldiers into their ranks.
One family, speaking on condition of anonymity, said their eldest son, aged 18, had been kidnapped last November by two armed men from the Karuna group. Their youngest son was 15 when the LTTE bundled him into a fishing boat in December 2005. Both have been given guns and trained to fight.

"What can we do?" a tearful mother said. "I have begged both sides to release my children but they say no. My sons may die fighting each other but we have two more boys and we have to stay alive to provide for them."

Col Karuna, whose real name is Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, told the Guardian there were "shortcomings" among his men but blamed the "gun culture" on the ingrained militarism of the LTTE, from which they came. His cadres would lay down their weapons "the day the LTTE is defeated". "I am in the process of changing my cadres who were engaged in a long war and trying to change them to bring them into mainstream politics. This killing culture, this 'Prabhakaran' gun culture should come to a stop."

The LTTE has been fighting for a separate homeland for the island's 3 million-strong Tamil minority for more than two decades, saying that they had been discriminated against by the majority Buddhist Sinhalese. Today, Sri Lanka's air force pounded a Tamil Tigers naval base, destroying fuel reserves.

Col Karuna said he now believed that the Tamils' best chances were with the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapakse, who is widely seen as a Sinhalese hardliner. "The president is a progressive leader. He always says that the Tamils should live with freedom and dignity. We cannot stick with the problems that we had in the past. Whenever the elections are going to be held in the east we are certainly going to contest. The LTTE is now very weak and running short of men and material."
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2007 10:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shade of Muhammad's flight to Medina.
Posted by: Icerigger || 04/04/2007 11:44 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
" No World Authority Stands against Bullying Powers " Sez Ahmadinejad
Fars News Agency, the ayatollahs' mouthpiece, offers The Midget's opinion on the British hostage incident. In his shining moment, what object is the focus of the Persian government's gaze? Answer: The UN Security Council.
Ahmadinejad said while western powers enjoy nuclear technology, they strive to block Iran's use of nuclear energy, adding, "The decisions of the UN Security Council regarding Iran's nuclear case show how much they (the Council members) adhere to the rules and laws they themselves have compiled."

"When we object to some UNSC member states, they say that they are under the United States' pressure, but the question is how long they want to go on with adopting decisions under pressures," he continued. "Which government has practiced its veto-wielding right more than others," the president asked. "And in which cases have they exercised their veto right?"

"Have they used it for condemning Iraq's invasion of Iran, or in supporting Iran's nuclear rights, or in support of the rights of the Palestinian and Lebanese nations," Ahmadinejad questioned. "Hasn't the proper time arrived for revising the structure of the UN Security Council so that the Council adopts its decisions on the basis of right and justice?"
Iran's immediate goal is to dissolve alliances and organizations that threaten Persia's imperialist expansion, which will occur under the cover of a nuclear umbrella. The immediate target is the UN, particularly the Anglosphere's contingent. More:
"Hasn't the proper time arrived for revising the structure of the UN Security Council so that the Council adopts its decisions on the basis of right and justice?"

The president reminded that the structure of the UN Security Council was determined after the World War II, "and it was determined in such a way that the US and Britain enjoy full immunity."

"Can any of the UN member states be hopeful about lodging a complaint against the US and Britain at the UN Security Council?

"In the meantime, if these powers have any problems with other countries they raise the issue at the Security Council and condemn such states.

"Today, honor and value of human being are ignored, people's rights are trampled, their lands are usurped and their progress is impeded while there exists no world authority to stand up to the bullying states and defend the rights of the oppressed," he continued.

Ahmadinejad said that the world nations today expect that right and justice form the basis of the UN Security Council decisions. He mentioned, "If the present structure of the Security Council is not revised, then all the UN member states should wait to see their rights being trampled upon."
In other words, the United Nations Security Council as it is now constituted is an illegitimate, repressive organ dominated by the Great and Little Satans. The British sailors and Royal Marines were seized because they were operating under a UN Security Council mandate. Like the tyrants of the 20th century before them, the ayatollahs first attack the sinews that bind the democratic powers. Then the dictators feast upon their helpless neighbors.
Posted by: mrp || 04/04/2007 12:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  For a minute, from reading the headline, I thought he was bragging that no world authority will stop him.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/04/2007 15:30 Comments || Top||

#2  My thought exactly. It looks as though nobody is prepared to stand up to the bullies. It really is the 1930s again except our enemies are nuclear-armed Dark Ages morons. The Nazis were evil but at least they were a credible enemy. This must be how the Romans felt as they watched a thousand years of accomplishment thrown on the fire.
Posted by: Excalibur || 04/04/2007 15:48 Comments || Top||

#3  So MOUD is making the argument that instead of co-equal Federalism, or already established UNO-specific Confederatism, Moud wants to see more GLOBAL CENTRALIST INTEGRATION/INTEGRATED ORG WHERE THE INFLUENCE AND AGENDA OF THE USA [and only the USA?][But NOT other Large Nation-States?]IS LIMITED OR CONTROLLED??? Moud is complaining about BRITAIN > still considered post-USSR as the symbol + leader of non-US democratic Europe = NATO.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/04/2007 22:06 Comments || Top||


Military 'expert': Brits were spying on Iran
The British navy personnel detained by Iran were most probably gathering information and spying on Iran, a Lebanese military expert has said. Speaking to IRNA news agency on Tuesday, Walid Sakariya said it was the second time the Britons had been detained for their illegal entry into Iranian territory since 2004 and Iran had the right to defend its sovereignty by arresting them. Sakariya stressed that all international laws and norms clearly say the sovereignty of countries and their territorial borders must be respected.

He criticized the West for pressuring Iran over what the country is legally entitled to and said, "Iran will definitely defend its sovereignty against any threats by U.S. and British military in the region. There are many U.S. and British military bases in the Persian Gulf states and Iraq has been occupied by these two countries. Besides, they carry out war games which threaten stability in the region and Muslim countries," he added.

"Given the Britons' admission of incursion into Iran's waters in the Persian Gulf, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has tried to complicate the incident in collaboration with U.S. President George W. Bush, should resolve the issue through legal, friendly, and diplomatic procedures. The UK must avoid misusing the UN Security Council, which is in fact a tool in hands of Washington," said Walid Sakariya.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let's spy with our rubber dingy in the middle of nowhere while checking out an indian cargo vessel. Gee...I don't see any iranians!! oh wait we're surrounded!
Posted by: Jesing Ebbease3087 || 04/04/2007 2:01 Comments || Top||

#2  OMFG this proves Rosie was right!!

/various 'tards
Posted by: Excalibur || 04/04/2007 9:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Besides, they carry out war games which threaten stability in the region and Muslim countries

But bombs made in Iran and shipped to jihadis in Iraq? They don't threaten the region or Muslims.

Cash, training, and arms sent to the jihadis in Lebanon and Israel? No threats to the region or Muslims from those, either.

Mines dropped in the Persian Gulf? Nope, no destabilization or threat from that.

Threatening to close the Straits of Hormuz? Again, nothing destabilizing or threatening about that.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 04/04/2007 10:26 Comments || Top||

#4  I would invite the Iranians to just try this little stunt again. Better still attempt to detain a U.S. crew.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 04/04/2007 11:26 Comments || Top||

#5  I got as far as Lebanese military expert and wonderd how anyone could take this seriously.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/04/2007 11:46 Comments || Top||


Ex-FBI man in Iran not "missing" at all
Informed sources have told PRESS TV that the story of an American businessman and retired FBI agent gone missing from Iran's Kish Island is somewhat misleading. The truth of the matter is he has been in the hands of Iranian security forces since the early hours of March 9, and his inability to communicate with his family or his company, has raised the alarm about his health, safety and whereabouts. Speaking to PRESS TV on condition of anonymity the sources made clear that aside from the obvious inconvenience, the person is being well looked after.

The sources also said that the matter, though routine, has been complicated by the mounting tensions stemming from repeated American threats against Iran, actual ongoing covert actions within Iran run by the Americans and the particulars of the man's background with the FBI. Not a happy configuration under the circumstances. Nevertheless the authorities are well on the way to finishing the procedural arrangements that could see him freed in a matter of days.

It has been established that his retirement from federal law enforcement took place nearly a decade ago, his area of expertise was organized crime not intelligence and his trip to Kish was purely that of a private businessman looking to make contact with persons who could help him make representations to official Iranian bodies responsible for suppressing trade in pirated products which is a major concern of his company. The outstanding reason for making such a connection is the man has no prior experience in this part of the world.

The enterprise he works for deals in low technology high visibility brand name products sold worldwide and the Persian Gulf has been proving to be a major problem area for illegal production and marketing of these products. Iran is not the origin of this activity but is the largest market by far on the waterway and thus a primary target area for the pirated goods.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When no one knows where he is for a month, the State Dept. makes a release and "his inability to communicate with his family or his company, has raised the alarm about his health, safety and whereabouts" but I am sure he is in safe hands and will be boarding a plane home soon.
Posted by: Flolumble Elmuling1667 || 04/04/2007 2:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Now is the time for some retractions about the unique spinelessness of the British. The West as a whole has lost its nerve.
Posted by: Excalibur || 04/04/2007 9:32 Comments || Top||

#3  the mounting tensions stemming from repeated American threats against Iran, actual ongoing covert actions within Iran run by the Americans

Repeated American threats against Iran?! Iran's parliament closes with chants of "Death to America"! Covert actions in Iran?! What about the covert actions against the US, around the world, run by Iran?!

Why the hell are Western nations attacked for our response to Third-World nations' threats against us?!

God, I am sick of this crap.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 04/04/2007 10:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Now is the time for some retractions about the unique spinelessness of the British.

I, for one, have always maintained that this sort of spinelessness is endemic to the West as a whole. Britain's idiotic concept of "Soft Power" is just a wee bit more emblematic of it.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2007 20:31 Comments || Top||

#5  Why the hell are Western nations attacked for our response to Third-World nations' threats against us?!

It's called "Blame the victim".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/04/2007 22:38 Comments || Top||


Blair's stance 'unacceptable, illogical': MP
Head of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee labels as "unacceptable and illogical" the political stance of British Prime Minister over the detention of UK soldiers in the Persian Gulf. In an interview with Iran's FARS news agency published on Tuesday, Ala'eddin Borujerdi said Tony Blair's attitude toward the incident would not be helpful and this was obvious from the very beginning of his adopting such hostile, baseless position.

"The question 'why the detainees illegally entered Iranian waters' is not the case. The problem is that the incursion into the Islamic Republic of Iran's territorial waters, for any purpose or reason, is considered as a violation of Iran's sovereignty according to all international laws and conventions," he noted. "Therefore, the measure taken by Iran in the face of such a violation is absolutely legal both according to Iran's law and international rules and regulations," he added.

Describing Blair's rhetoric over the issue as "unacceptable and illogical," Borujerdi said, "After a while, the illegal moves by Britain's allies, including the U.S., Canada, and the European Union, as well as London's abuse of the UN Security Council as a tool for pressuring Iran proved ineffective."

The MP further advised the British government to send a delegation or special envoy to Tehran for talks with Iranian officials and to explain why the incursion happened for the second time since 2004.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In an interview with Iran's FARS news agency published on Tuesday, Ala'eddin Borujerdi said Tony Blair's attitude toward the incident would not be helpful and this was obvious from the very beginning of his adopting such hostile, baseless position.

A thoroughly reconsidered stance was made available from Ala'eddin Borujerdi's office after a British Trident submarine surfaced offshore from Iran's territorial waters.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2007 0:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Zenster: Let us focus our combined psychic powers and obtain the launch codes. Failing that, we could elect a vertebrate as Prime Minister.
Posted by: Excalibur || 04/04/2007 9:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Failing that, we could elect a vertebrate as Prime Minister.

Now that's gonna take some huntin'! Churchy's been dead for some time now.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2007 11:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Judging from the news, it appears Tony the Tiger may have the last laugh. Mullahs may have blinked.
Posted by: doc || 04/04/2007 11:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Judging from the news, it appears Tony the Tiger may have the last laugh. Mullahs may have blinked.

Not to be too cynical, but let's all wait and see just what sort of ransom or "prisoner exchange" promted this unexpected turn of events. The West has been far too spineless of late for me to believe otherwise.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2007 12:17 Comments || Top||


ABC News Exclusive: The Secret War Against Iran
Hat tip Instapundit. I don't know for sure if we'd believe this, but we do know the Baluchis have it in for both the Punjabs and the Persians. It's very possible that a Baluchi group is whacking Iranian military officials (go Team Baluchi!) but US involvement and funding, no matter how tenuous? Why, that would smack of Bill Casey hisself, and I don't think we have a CIA like that anymore.
A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News.

A senior U.S. government official said groups such as Jundullah have been helpful in tracking al Qaeda figures and that it was appropriate for the U.S. to deal with such groups in that context.
The group, called Jundullah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran. It has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials.

U.S. officials say the U.S. relationship with Jundullah is arranged so that the U.S. provides no funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or "finding" as well as congressional oversight.
You're going to look far and wide for a named U.S. source in this story.
Tribal sources tell ABC News that money for Jundullah is funneled to its youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi, through Iranian exiles who have connections with European and Gulf states.

Jundullah has produced its own videos showing Iranian soldiers and border guards it says it has captured and brought back to Pakistan.
Some of which appear on YouTube.
The leader, Regi, claims to have personally executed some of the Iranians. "He used to fight with the Taliban. He's part drug smuggler, part Taliban, part Sunni activist," said Alexis Debat, a senior fellow on counterterrorism at the Nixon Center and an ABC News consultant who recently met with Pakistani officials and tribal members. "Regi is essentially commanding a force of several hundred guerrilla fighters that stage attacks across the border into Iran on Iranian military officers, Iranian intelligence officers, kidnapping them, executing them on camera," Debat said.
Sounds like a bad boy -- in other words, typical for the region.
Most recently, Jundullah took credit for an attack in February that killed at least 11 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard riding on a bus in the Iranian city of Zahedan.

Last month, Iranian state television broadcast what it said were confessions by those responsible for the bus attack. They reportedly admitted to being members of Jundullah and said they had been trained for the mission at a secret location in Pakistan. The Iranian TV broadcast is interspersed with the logo of the CIA, which the broadcast blamed for the plot.

A CIA spokesperson said "the account of alleged CIA action is false" and reiterated that the U.S. provides no funding of the Jundullah group.
"Never hoid of 'em!"
Pakistani government sources say the secret campaign against Iran by Jundullah was on the agenda when Vice President Dick Cheney met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in February.

A senior U.S. government official said groups such as Jundullah have been helpful in tracking al Qaeda figures and that it was appropriate for the U.S. to deal with such groups in that context.
If indeed they were helping us hunt down al-Q hard boyz, I'd pay them upfront and in the open, and I'd have even more suitcases of money waiting at the back door. We want tribal groups thinking that their interests and ours are the same.
Some former CIA officers say the arrangement is reminiscent of how the U.S. government used proxy armies, funded by other countries including Saudi Arabia, to destabilize the government of Nicaragua in the 1980s.
And that worked too, remember? The Sandies are in the ashbin of history.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I call bullshit. This would mean someone gave the CIA their balls back and talking to ABC would put an instant stop any funding.
Posted by: Mike N. || 04/04/2007 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Could it be that, now that the ISI stooges are being pushed out of Kashmir, they've turned their attention to Iran?
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/04/2007 13:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Negroponte may have some expertise in old tricks from the good old Iran/Contra days, too.
Posted by: Danielle || 04/04/2007 17:49 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Yale trio charged in city flag burning incident
h/t The Corner
NEW HAVEN — Three Yale University students are charged with burning an American flag hanging from the porch of a Chapel Street home early Tuesday in the Wooster Square neighborhood. When detained by police a few blocks away, they allegedly acknowledged it was a "dumb thing to do," according to a police report on the incident.

Hyder Akbar Said, 23, Nikolaos Angelopoulos, 19, and Farhad Anklesaria, also 19, were arrested on a range of charges including two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment, third-degree criminal mischief, second-degree arson, breach of peace, and conspiracy to commit second-degree arson.
So their names weren't Tom, Dick and Harry?
Police listed Hyder’s last name as Akbar Said, while Yale has him listed as just Hyder Akbar.

The three students spent the night in jail and appeared dazed at their arraignment Tuesday morning when they entered Superior Court in leg irons and handcuffs. Bail was kept at $25,000 for Angelopoulos and Akbar, but was reduced to $15,000 for Anklesaria. They remained jailed Tuesday night.

Superior Court Judge William Holden rebuffed requests by Deputy Assistant Public Defender Sanford O. Bruce III that the three men be released on a written promise to appear, since none of them had previous arrests. "Is there probable cause to believe a crime was committed? Yes. Is the (alleged) crime of a serious nature? Yes," Holden said in maintaining the higher bail.

In Angelopoulos’ case, Assistant State’s Attorney Karen Roberg said, "He had a lighter on his person."
Of course he does, after all, he's an arsonist.
Roberg added the arson charges to the initial police charges, substituting it for reckless burning. She refused to explain why, when asked by a reporter.
Because it's obviously arson?
The two freshmen, Anklesaria and Angelopoulos are foreign students: Anklesaria is British and Angelopoulos is Greek. Akbar, a senior, was born in Pakistan, according to police, but is a U.S. citizen. Both Anklesaria and Angelopoulos had to turn over their passports.
So a couple of American-hating Greek students and a Pak-born fellow who didn't quite absorb the civics lessons on our country.
Marc Suraci, 37, owner of the two-story house on Chapel Street where the flag was burned, was upset when informed of the incident by the Register. He said he always puts flags out front of his rental properties. "It makes me sick to my stomach to think that someone would burn the American flag," said Suraci, who described himself as "very, very patriotic."

Suraci said several of his relatives fought in American wars to defend the constitutional right to burn the flag as a protest. "But, it gets to another level when it is somebody else’s flag on their own personal property," Suraci said. He feels flag burning should be illegal.

According to the police report, the students had two encounters with officers. Officers Stephanija Van Wilgen and Diane Gonzalez were responding to an unrelated call in Fair Haven at about 3 a.m., when they saw the three young men walking on Chapel Street on the bridge into Fair Haven.

They flagged the officers down, said they had been at a friend’s house and asked how to get to back to Elm and High streets downtown, police said. The officers gave directions and continued to the call.

A short time later, the two officers returned to Chapel Street to see if the students had found their way home. "As they approached 512 Chapel, there was a glow in front of the house which they identified as a flag mounted on a pole to the house and it was engulfed in flames," said police spokeswoman Bonnie Posick. They noticed the three students were a few blocks away.

Van Wilgen pulled down the burning flag to prevent the fire from spreading and Gonzalez tracked down the three men. The three students admitted igniting the flag, according to the police report, which doesn’t indicate if they gave any reason.

Akbar was wearing a hooded sweatshirt that read in bold letters, "I am Famous in Afghanistan," according to police. The political science major was quoted in a Yale Daily News story last year that he was a native of Afghanistan.
Puffed himself up for the chic radical student newsrag, did he?
Thomas Conroy, spokesman for the university, said Yale was aware of the incident and officials either had been or would be in contact with the students.

Friends of the two freshmen were shocked when told of the arrests and found the situation totally out of character. Neither was seen as particularly political. "It would never have occurred to me about either Nick or Farhad. We have political discussions all the time and he is definitely a moderate," said freshman Matthew Smith of Angelopoulos. "Wow. That’s a night that went wrong," Jason Gilliland said.
Actually, I could believe that he is indeed a 'moderate'. By Yale standards.
Posted by: mrp || 04/04/2007 07:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The two freshmen, Anklesaria and Angelopoulos are foreign students: Anklesaria is British and Angelopoulos is Greek. Akbar, a senior, was born in Pakistan, according to police, but is a U.S. citizen.

First the lash. Then transportation.
Posted by: Excalibur || 04/04/2007 9:29 Comments || Top||

#2  And I here I thought all the Yale boys were named Biffington or Prescott. Perhaps these scholarships could go to a more deserving trio.
Posted by: ed || 04/04/2007 9:35 Comments || Top||

#3  A rather convoluted path to prosecution, since the burning of the US Flag is a protected act under the First Amendment, no matter how repulsive is is. Not to say I am against it; i appauld these very resouceful individuals. I am concerned however about the alleged charge of carrying a 'concealed lighter' w/out a permit. when is that a crime?
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 04/04/2007 14:28 Comments || Top||

#4  I agree about flag-burning being protected speech, but that's only when you own the flag. Setting fire to someone else's property is arson and vandalism.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/04/2007 14:38 Comments || Top||

#5  But it's NOT OK to burn an arab flag.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 04/04/2007 15:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Tom, Dick, and Larry.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/04/2007 18:10 Comments || Top||



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Wed 2007-04-04
  Iran deigns to release kidnapped sailors
Tue 2007-04-03
  All British sailors confess to illegal trespassing
Mon 2007-04-02
  Democrats To Widen Conflict With Bush
Sun 2007-04-01
  Wazoo tribesmen attack Qaeda bunkers
Sat 2007-03-31
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Fri 2007-03-30
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Thu 2007-03-29
  Arab League unanimously approves Saudi peace plan
Wed 2007-03-28
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Tue 2007-03-27
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Mon 2007-03-26
  Release Sufi Muhammad in 72 hours or Else: TNSM
Sun 2007-03-25
  UNSC approves new sanctions on Iran
Sat 2007-03-24
  Iran kidnaps Brit sailors, marines
Fri 2007-03-23
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Thu 2007-03-22
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