The South Korean Presidential Office denied Friday news reports alleging that the government had paid a hefty ransom to Taliban in return for the recent release of South Korean hostages, Yonhap News Agency in Seoul said. "We didn't pay any ransom. There is no secret agreement with the Taliban other than the already announced conditions for the hostage release," Cheon Ho-seon, Preident Roh Moo-hyun's spokesman, told a media briefing. News media have raised speculation about a possible ransom trade between the South Korean government and Taliban, with some putting the figure at as much as GBP 20 million (USD 40.4 million).
#2
I like KUNA as a source, because yes, they are biased, but they often provide better straight reporting than most Western media.
I rarely have to cut out giant chunks of 'analysis' from a KUNA story, whereas AP and Rooters always tosses in clunky crap like this:
"In a move widely understood to represent the mewling death-throes of what some analysts say was the worst shoura council ever assembled in the history of the Ummah since the benevolent rule of the blessed Prophet (PBUH)..."
Plus they get good quotes from Newsmakers, again avoiding nonsense like:
"Sheikh Yerbouti, dressed in last season's thobe and with his eyes darting relentlessly around the room, stepped to the microphone and said..."
#4
In other Bizarro World news, the ROK acts like wussies when confonted by terrorists. Never thought that would happen based on what little I know of the Korean national character.
FEZ, Morocco (Reuters) - When asked who will get his vote in Morocco's parliamentary elections next month, 70-year-old Mohamed Mahbou looks up from his game of cards and anger flashes in his eyes. "In my life I voted many times. I no longer have confidence in any of the parties," he said.
Mahbou grew up in the labyrinthine medina of Fez where he had a small business selling fritters. When buildings in his neighborhood began to crumble, the council rehoused the inhabitants in a distant suburb. He says he now earns about 3-1/2 dirhams ($0.42) per day hawking cigarettes in the neighborhood of Hay A'ttaj, where poverty and unemployment are rife and mounds of rubbish lie uncollected in open spaces.
Embittered by unfulfilled promises, Mahbou has decided to vote in September 7 parliamentary elections for a party that has avoided grand promises -- the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD). "At least they are frank and realistic," he says. "They've made no promises but the only person who defends our cause, the miserable life we are leading, is (PJD deputy Lahcen) Daoudi."
Continued on Page 49
#2
#1 "I no longer have confidence in any of the parties"
Me neither.
Posted by: Glenmore 2007-09-01 08:46
I don't know, Glenmore, I have GREAT confidence in BOTH US major political parties. I'm 100% certain they're going to screw me, raise my taxes, try to take away even more "guaranteed" freedoms, and spend like drunken sailors on the last day of port call. If we had ten parties, I'd feel the same about all ten. Politicians are a pox upon civilization.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/01/2007 21:19 Comments ||
Top||
A jailed Egyptian Islamist who is third in command of the Muslim Brotherhood suffers from "serious health conditions" and urgently needs medical treatment, the human rights group Amnesty International read from the standard script said on Friday.
Khairat el-Shatir is standing trial in a military court along with 39 other members of the Brotherhood -- Egypt's strongest opposition force -- on charges including terrorism and money laundering. Amnesty said Shatir was reported to be suffering from a serious leg infection complicated by diabetes, and that the infection was "caused or exacerbated by overcrowding and poor prison conditions". "Amnesty International is urging the Egyptian authorities to ensure that he receives the medical care he urgently needs," the London-based group said in a statement that also criticised what it described as a continuing crackdown on the Brotherhood.
An Interior Ministry spokesman had no comment on the Amnesty statement.
He was laughing too hard.
The Brotherhood has reported on its website, www.ikhwanweb.com, that Shatir was suffering from a diabetic foot ulcer and had high blood pressure. Ikhwanweb quoted Shatir's daughter Zahraa as saying he had refused treatment at a prison hospital, fearing poor care. She said prison officials refused to allow him to leave jail for treatment at a government hospital in Cairo. An Egyptian newspaper, the Daily News, reported earlier this week that Shatir's family feared his leg may have to be amputated if the infection is left untreated.
Many analysts see the Brotherhood trial as an escalation of a government crackdown on the non-violent Islamist group, which won a fifth of the seats in parliament in 2005. They say authorities want to stop the Brotherhood from making more electoral gains that could help it mount a serious challenge to the government of President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's longest-serving leader since Albanian-born Mohamed Ali Pasha in the 19th century. Local and international rights groups, including Amnesty, have criticised the military proceedings as unfair, and Egypt has barred independent observers from attending the trial.
#4
he had refused treatment at a prison hospital, fearing poor care. She said prison officials refused to allow him to leave jail for treatment at a government hospital in Cairo.
F*ck him. AI and his spokeshole daughter deserve a smacking just for spouting this nonsense
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/01/2007 8:31 Comments ||
Top||
#5
"Refused Treatment"?
Fine, die in great pain.(Good riddance, your "Get out of Jail scheme didn't work)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/01/2007 14:13 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Shatir was reported to be suffering from a serious leg infection complicated by diabetes
Ooooh, sounds painful. Any way we can introduce some flesh-eating bacteria?
Equally likely if he's treated in that prison. Mubarak doesn't take kindly to the Brotherhood, for understandable reasons. And the money laundering charges might make it difficult for el-Shatir to offer sufficient bribes for good care -- assuming those particular prison guards are bribable.
LONDON (AFP) - The head of the British Army during the 2003 invasion of Iraq has launched a fierce attack on the United States over its running of the troubled country since, a newspaper reported Saturday. General Sir Mike Jackson branded US post-invasion policy "intellectually bankrupt" and said its then defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was "one of the most responsible for the current situation in Iraq." Old news.
Wrong news.
The retired chief of the general staff added that the US's wider approach to tackling global terrorism is "inadequate" because it places too much emphasis on military power at the expense of nation-building and diplomacy. More old news. Does this guy know Petreaus is in charge?
He doesn't care.
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Defence Secretary Des Browne wrote a joint article in the Washington Post Friday saying it was "time to set the record straight" after weeks of "misplaced criticism". "The question some people have asked is: have British forces failed in Basra? The answer is no," they added. "We believe we remain on track to complete the return of full sovereignty to the Iraqi people as planned. The United Kingdom is sticking to the mission we took on four years ago."
Like Miliband and Browne, Jackson defended the record of Britain's military in Basra, Iraq's second city, in comments published in the Daily Telegraph, which is about to serialise his forthcoming autobiography, "Soldier."
He rejected any suggestion that British forces in the south had failed. "I don't think that's a fair assessment at all," Jackson said. "What has happened in the south, as throughout the rest of Iraq, was that primary responsibility for security would be handed to the Iraqis once the Iraqi authorities and the coalition were satisfied that their state of training and development was appropriate.
"In the south we had responsibility for four provinces. Three of these have been handed over in accordance with that strategy. It remains just in Basra for that to happen."
Jackson attacked the decision to hand control of planning the post-invasion administration of Iraq to the Pentagon. All the planning carried out by the State Department had "gone to waste," he argued. Ohhhh...toooo bad!
He added that disbanding the Iraqi army and security forces after toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was "very short-sighted. "We should have kept the Iraqi security services in being and put them under the command of the coalition," he said. And that's the end of the 'story'. I only editied out some background.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/01/2007 07:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The British policy of defeat both in the south and in the Gulf speaks for itself. This man should not have retired, he should have been cashiered.
#3
I actually agree with his statement that US mistakes are in large part responsible for the situation, but "US approach places too much emphasis on military"
is the exact opposite of the reason. It was TOO LITTLE military emphasis at key times in Iraq, and too little military at all ('cuz we don't have enough) in other places.
His claim that a lack of diplomacy is responsible also has an element of truth - but again the opposite direction. If the rest of the West had been diplomatic enough to have presented a united front against the Islamofascists a lot of the fighting might have been unnecessary (including even the actual invasion of Iraq.) It's a diplomatic failure for Bush to disagree with him but not a diplomatic failure for him to disagree with Bush.
#4
"I don't think that's a fair assessment at all," Jackson said.
Heh.
Iâve read and I know of incidents that accumulate that tell me thereâs a significant different story going on. One case after another of American troops taking damage or giving that full measure of devotion in a fight along side or with their Iraqi counterparts. That there was no hesitation of taking care of his brother warrior regardless of nationality or, for that matter, rank. The Americans lack a class distinction that still haunts the Euros. You donât think that has an effect on the success of the job? You donât think that the Iraqi doesnât perceive the difference? Who do you think the Iraqi would simply play the game with in order to move the short term intruder along and the one the Iraqi would call brother? In a culture with strong tribal behaviors, which elicits more cooperation in the long run?
On the other hand, Yon had high regard for their soldiers, if not their Generals.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/01/2007 9:34 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I've been following events in Basra for several years, and many British soldiers' blogs have been warning that the UK Generals been whistling past the graveyard since 2004.
They've been claiming success for their "soft approach" when in fact they've been giving JAM a blank check.
The Americans have been using a "soft approach" during the surge too, but that's after the Sunnis and JAM have seen the results of America's "hard approach".
I detect more than a little jealousy towards "the colonials".
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/01/2007 11:18 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Personally I don't think Carthage ever fought back after the last punic war. Seems a decent strategy to follow regarding your enemies. Let those on the fence see and decide for themselves.
#8
That's like Ted Kennedy lecturing us on safe driving. Thank you, but no thanks. The criticism seems to be hitting home because the truth hurts. The Brit Pols and Generals have made bad policy, bad decisions, and wasted their troops' efforts and lives lost.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/01/2007 12:35 Comments ||
Top||
GENEVA (AP) - Consider the source, the Antiamerican Press
The campaign poster was blatant in its xenophobic symbolism: Three white sheep kicking out a black sheep over a caption that read "for more security." The message was not from a fringe force in Switzerland's political scene but from its largest party. The nationalist Swiss People's Party is proposing a deportation policy that anti-racism campaigners say evokes Nazi-era practices. Under the plan, entire families would be expelled if their children are convicted of a violent crime, drug offenses or benefits fraud. Now I know what country Rantburg is in.
The party is trying to collect the 100,000 signatures needed to force a referendum on the issue. If approved in a referendum, the law would be the only one of its kind in Europe. That shouldn't take long. But it may spur immigration from other EUropean ex-countries.
"We believe that parents are responsible for bringing up their children. If they can't do it properly, they will have to bear the consequences," Ueli Maurer, president of the People's Party, told The Antiamerican Associated Press. Personal responsibility? Whoa.
Ronnie Bernheim of the Swiss Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism said the proposal was similar to the Nazi practice of "Sippenhaft" - or kin liability - whereby relatives of criminals were held responsible for his or her crimes and punished equally. Nazis, the Swiss are all Nazis, like the Amerikkkans
Similar practices occurred during Stalin's purges in the early days of the Soviet Union and the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution in China, when millions were persecuted for their alleged ideological failings. This is serious, the AP is even bringing up Stalin in an unfavourable light. Next thing you know they'll be damning Fidel or Hugo with faint praise.
"As soon as the first 10 families and their children have been expelled from the country, then things will get better at a stroke," said Maurer, whose party controls the Justice Ministry and shares power in an unwieldy coalition that includes all major parties. Wow! Might the same thing be true for illegal immigrants to the US?
The party claims foreigners - who make up about 20 percent of the population - are four times more likely to commit crimes than Swiss nationals. But it's only an unsubstantiated claim from those well known prevaricators in Switzerland.
Commentators have expressed horror over the symbolism used by the People's Party to make its point. "This way of thinking shows an obvious blood-and-soil mentality," read one editorial in the Zurich daily Tages-Anzeiger, calling for a broader public reaction against the campaign. Ja, dees are Neo-Nazis or Neo-Soviets. Zey haf oferrun our beautiful Switzerland.
So far, however, there has been little popular backlash against the posters. "We haven't had any complaints," said Maurer. Sheeple
The city of Geneva - home to Switzerland's humanitarian traditions as well as the European headquarters of the United Nations and the U.N. Refugee Agency, or UNHCR - said the campaign was likely to stir up intolerance. The UNHCR said the law would run contrary to the U.N. refugee convention, of which Switzerland is a signatory. I suspect the Swill will take that under consideration for when they get to the BFC items on the agenda.
But observers say the People's Party's hardline stance on immigration could help it in the Oct. 21 national elections. Dja think?
In 2004, the party successfully campaigned for tighter immigration laws using the image of black hands reaching into a pot filled with Swiss passports. "It's certainly no coincidence that the People's Party launched this initiative before the elections," said Oliver Geden, a political scientist at the Berlin Institute for International and Security Affairs. "The symbol of the black sheep was clearly intended to have a double meaning. On the one hand there's the familiar idea of the black sheep, but a lot of voters are also going to associate it with the notion of dark-skinned drug dealers," said Geden. Sure have been a lot of lynchings and carbecues in Geneva lately.
The party also has put forward a proposal to ban the building of minaret towers alongside mosques. And one of its leading figures, Justice Minister Christoph Blocher, said he wants to soften anti-racism laws because they prevent freedom of speech. Brush up your German,
Start practicing now.
Brush up your German
If you won't kow-tow.
#1
IIRC there are four official languages in Switzerland*. German, French, Italian, and a languishing offshoot of old Roman holdouts. Very accommodating. Guess there's a limit and it appears they've reached that limit.
* Although I also recall that the federal office responsible for education said that the second language taught in every school was to be English, due to its predominance in business, technology, etc., much to the consternation of the French speakers. What do the Swiss know that American educators don't?
#2
makes sense to me - immigration is a privilege, not a right. If you break the laws, or don't assimilate, expect that privilege to be revoked. Since "family reunification" is such a big justification for immigrants' families being allowed to join them, expect it to be invoked when they ship Omar's criminal ass back to Shitholeistan
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/01/2007 11:32 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"The symbol of the black sheep was clearly intended to have a double meaning. On the one hand there's the familiar idea of the black sheep, but a lot of voters are also going to associate it with the notion of dark-skinned drug dealers," said Geden.
What a bizarre association to make. Why would anyone think of drug-dealers having dark skin?
Terrorism is an almost exclusive feature of high context societies. Familial ties, personal connections, prestige within the community and persuasive ability are all hallmarks of any high context culture. Terrorism thrives in such societies because the secrecy and support of kinfolk make it possible to conceal individuals and their activities.
Try as they might to portray this move by the Swiss People's Party as Hitlerian or Stalinist, Islam has more in common with those two thugs than anything being protested by the Swiss Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism.
While there remain ideological similarities between Islam and Nazism, there really is no comparison. Islam represents a far more numerous and monolithic threat to Western civilization. The close kinship brought about by consanguinous marriage in Muslim cultures creates an overarching element of protection. Combined with religious fervor and the immense support network provided by so many houses of worship, Islam assumes an unprecedented threat level.
High context Muslim culture is so sensitive to shame and humiliation that it is nearly impossible for any disgraceful conduct to escape the notice of family members or relatives. This is why it makes so much sense to deport all kin of those who engage in terrorism or other anti-social behavior. They know damn well what is happening, so if damage to their host nation is not of concern then integration and assimilation are not happening.
Unwillingness to assimilate is the hallmark of fundamentalist Islam. Additionally, preservation of high context traditions or culture creates an enabling atmosphere for radical strangers and kinfolk alike. This intolerant mindset is so often accompanied by radicalism and terrorist activity thatonce an individual's activities attract legal attentionno fragment of those who abet or support such conduct must be allowed to remain. Attempts to tar this as "sippenhaft" ignore the wholly unjustified discrimination that was applied by the Nazis against Jews as opposed to the entirely warranted suspicion of terrorism within close-knit fundamentalist Muslim families.
America would be very wise to begin putting similar measures in place.
#5
There may be an angle around this. If a family has a member they deem "incorrigible", there is usually a legal remedy to expel them from the family, called "emancipation", available in many western countries.
That is, the rest of the family might be law abiding, but they have, usually a son, who is a repeat offender and who ignores his family discipline, often physically menacing them.
This allows them to kick him out, so that they no longer have any responsibility to him, and often goes hand in hand with a judge restraining him from going anywhere near his family.
The family of the Lockerbie bomber have moved out of their home in Scotland and may be preparing to leave the country, it was reported here Friday. The Daily Mail newspaper said that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi's wife and children, who live in a house on the outskirts of Glasgow, had their belongings loaded into a shipping container yesterday. The news has sparked renewed speculation that Al Megrahi may soon be transferred back to Libya.
In May this year, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair struck a deal in Tripoli, which could lead to the former Libyan official being transferred back to his homeland, the paper said. Al Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of the Lockerbie bombing, 13 years after it happened. But Al Megrahi was recently given a fresh chance to clear his name.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission ruled last June that he could take his case to appeal judges for a second time. The deal struck by Blair, which could lead to Al Megrahi's transfer, triggered the first major row between the government and the Scottish National Party administration in Scotland.
First Minister Alex Salmond said the deal covered "law, extradition and prisoner transfer," so could involve Al Megrahi. But he said neither the Scottish Parliament nor the Scottish Executive was consulted beforehand. It was claimed this ran counter to procedures which govern communications between London and devolved administrations, which require the government to involve the administrations as fully as possible.
All the gov't mumbo-jumbo doesn't change my disbelief that Scotland allowed his wife and kiddies to remain on Scottish soil, and prolly on the dole to boot.
Turkey's Chief of Staff General Yasar Buyukanit denied on Friday reports of tension between the military and newly-elected President Abdullah Gul, particularly because of his Islamic roots, appealing for the media to stop exaggerating thus destabilizing the country.
Buyukanit's comments were described by Turkish media as "military truce with Presidential Palace" following celebrations of Turkey's Victory Day at army headquarters where Abdullah Gul made his first public appearance as President.
The Turkish Armed forces Chief General stayed away from Gul's swearing-in ceremony in parliament on Tuesday, and on Wednesday he failed to greet the president according to protocol at military graduation ceremony.
However, NTV quoting Buyukanit as saying, "We have our principles, but the country will say they have had enough of this, so let's not talk about this anymore." The military, which sees itself as the ultimate defender of secularism, has forced four governments to step down since 1960.
The military and the secular elite, including judges and some opposition leaders, fear Gul's presidency will lead to a creeping subversion of the secular order. Gul denies this.
In response to accusations that the Turkish army was using chemical weapons against Kurdish rebels in south east Turkey, Buyukanit denied such claims adding that he was a military person and will not respond to claims by terrorists, in reference to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
LONDON Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto brought her partys leaders to London Friday for talks on whether to accept a power-sharing agreement with President Pervez Musharraf that could bring an end to military rule. The daylong session ended without a conclusion. More talks are set for Saturday.
Bhutto discussed a possible date for a return home with Pakistan Peoples Party members. She could return in early October, said Wajid Hasan, a party spokesman.
Gen. Musharraf and Bhutto have been wrangling for months over the terms of an agreement that would shore up his fraught re-election bid and allow her to return to contest parliamentary elections. However, she has yet to win a commitment from Musharraf on two critical points that he would step down as army chief and give up the power to dismiss the government and parliament.
We would like to know firmly whether the government agrees to our proposals for the transition to democracy or not, Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Bhuttos Pakistan Peoples Party in Pakistan, told The Associated Press. If we conclude that the talks are leading nowhere, we have a number of options, including breaking them off, Babar said.
The party was waiting for written answers to questions raised with Musharrafs officials, Hasan said.
Hundreds of students of Jamia Faridia on Friday gathered outside the Lal Masjid to protest the continued closure of the mosque.
They offered Friday prayer on a nearby ground. Maulana Naseeruddin Usmani led the prayer. The students were shouting slogans against the government demanding opening of the mosque and enforcement of Shariah in the country. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal MNA Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz addressing the gathering said despite killings of the innocent children in the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa operation the government failed to defeat the commitment of the Lal Masjid students for enforcement of Shariah. Meanwhile, Islamabad district administration has assured ulema that Lal Masjid would be opened for prayers before next Friday. Islamabad Deputy Commissioner has assured me that the administration would open the Lal Masjid for prayers before next Friday, said Maulana Aziz while talking to Daily Times.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
The magazine in hand looks empty, the one on the ground is also empty, a real OH-SHIT moment.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/01/2007 14:30 Comments ||
Top||
Two top British officials on Friday denied that their country's forces had failed in the mission to bring stability to southern Iraq. "Recent weeks have brought a lot of misplaced criticism of the United Kingdom's role in southern Iraq," said Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Defense Secretary Des Browne. "It is time to set the record straight."
Writing in The Washington Post newspaper, the two officials said British forces continue to provide overall security and maintain the capability to strike against militias in their area of operations. "We continue to play a key role in southern Iraq, contributing to securing supply routes to Baghdad, training and mentoring Iraqi security forces and building the capacity of the Iraqi border force," the officials said.
In particular, they said, British forces have trained an Iraqi army division of more than 13,000 men "that is increasingly capable and has this year made an important contribution to the drive to improve security."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
A bit of overlap with the story I just posted (Brit General Blasts...), but the AP version was longer.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/01/2007 7:28 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The British troops haven't failed. Their political leadership may have failed, but not the troops.
Representatives from feuding Sunni and Shiite groups were meeting at a secret location in Finland to discuss ways of ending the bloodshed in Iraq, officials said.
But don't tell nobody, okay? It's a secret.
The Crisis Management Initiative, a conflict-prevention group headed by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, said it was hosting a seminar, expected to last two days, to examine how lessons learned from peace processes in South Africa and Northern Ireland could be applied to Iraq.
Have they thought about taking a tour of Helsinki and giving some thought as to why it's a nice city?
Finnish broadcaster YLE said representatives of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the leader of the largest Sunni Arab political group, Adnan al-Dulaimi, were attending the seminar, which began Friday. Humam Hammoudi, the Shiite chairman of the Iraqi Parliament's foreign affairs committee, also was in Finland, YLE said. However, seminar organizers would not say who was attending, except to confirm that both "Sunni and Shiite groups" had arrived. Ahtisaari himself was in Denmark and was not attending the meetings.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
The sheets of paper seemed to be everywhere the lawmakers went in the Green Zone, distributed to Iraqi officials, U.S. officials and uniformed military of no particular rank. So when Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) asked a soldier last weekend just what he was holding, the congressman was taken aback to find out.
In the soldier's hand was a thumbnail biography, distributed before each of the congressmen's meetings in Baghdad, which let meeting participants such as that soldier know where each of the lawmakers stands on the war. "Moran on Iraq policy," read one section, going on to cite some the congressman's most incendiary statements, such as, "This has been the worst foreign policy fiasco in American history."
The bio of Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) -- "TAU (rhymes with 'now')-sher," the bio helpfully relates -- was no less pointed, even if she once supported the war and has taken heat from liberal Bay Area constituents who remain wary of her position. "Our forces are caught in the middle of an escalating sectarian conflict in Iraq , with no end in sight," the bio quotes.
"This is beyond parsing. This is being slimed in the Green Zone," Tauscher said of her bio.
More than two dozen House members and senators have used the August recess to travel to Iraq in the hope of getting a firsthand view of the war ahead of commanding Gen. David H. Petraeus's progress report in two weeks on Capitol Hill. But it appears that the trips have been as much about Iraqi and U.S. officials sizing up Congress as the members of Congress sizing up the war.
Brief, choreographed and carefully controlled, the codels (short for congressional delegations) often have showed only what the Pentagon and the Bush administration have wanted the lawmakers to see. At one point, as Moran, Tauscher and Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) were heading to lunch in the fortified Green Zone, an American urgently tried to get their attention, apparently to voice concerns about the war effort, the participants said. Security whisked the man away before he could make his point.
Tauscher called it "the Green Zone fog."
" Spin City ," Moran grumbled. "The Iraqis and the Americans were all singing from the same song sheet, and it was deliberately manipulated."
But even such tight control could not always filter out the bizarre world inside the barricades. At one point, the three were trying to discuss the state of Iraqi security forces with Iraq 's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, but the large, flat-panel television set facing the official proved to be a distraction. Rubaie was watching children's cartoons.
When Moran asked him to turn it off, Rubaie protested with a laugh and said, "But this is my favorite television show," Moran recalled.
Porter confirmed the incident, although he tried to paint the scene in the best light, noting that at least they had electricity.
"I don't disagree it was an odd moment, but I did take a deep breath and say, 'Wait a minute, at least they are using the latest technology, and they are monitoring the world,' " Porter said. "But, yes, it was pretty annoying."
It was the bio sheets that seemed to annoy the members of Congress the most. Just who assembled them is not clear. E-mails to U.S. Central Command's public affairs office in Baghdad this week went unanswered.
"I had never seen that in the past. That's new," said Porter, who was on his fourth trip to Iraq . "Now I want to see what they're saying about me," he added, when he learned of the contents of his travel companions' rap sheets.
For one, the quotations appeared to be selected to divide the visitors into those who are with the war effort and those who are against. For another, they were not exactly accurate. Under "latest Iraq vote," Tauscher's bio noted that she had voted in favor of legislation requiring the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within 120 days of the bill's enactment.
She did vote that way -- in May. On Aug. 2, Tauscher voted in favor of her own bill, which mandates that troops be granted a leave from combat at least as long as their last combat deployment before being shipped back to Iraq. That vote might have been a little too popular with the soldiers she was meeting, Tauscher said.
Still, Porter was quick to add, for all the drawbacks, the trip was worth it. "No doubt you will have people speak the company talking points," Porter said. "But I spent time with people who were not officers, four of them from Nevada, two who were very blunt" about their support for the war and their anger over partisan fighting in Washington. I tend to lean with the rank-and-file members of military who have nothing to gain," he added. "They want to go home as soon as possible."
#4
They don't like information about themselves? What, it should be secret? They should be proud the military cared enough to inform the troops how important they are.
But another complaint was there wasn't enough information (Tauscher's more recent vote) to be fair and balanced. Where's the femtoviolin? This is the WaPo.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/01/2007 7:35 Comments ||
Top||
#5
"I'm being slimed with my own bio and comments. It's so unfair!" Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) sobbed....
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/01/2007 8:39 Comments ||
Top||
#6
This is, what, the fourth time lefties have declared having their own words come back at them is being "slimed"? It's as if they're afraid of what they say, or as if they're not used to being called on the crap that spews from their mouths.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/01/2007 10:36 Comments ||
Top||
#7
What has them realy bothered is that the soldiers in question were not the passive props for photo ops that they wanted. They turned out to be intersted, active participants. Armed, angry active participants who were calling them on their lies.
Having reality intrude into your cocoon is traumatic if that reality calls into question your narcicism(sp?). This sort of intrusion needs to happen a lot more.
The only alternative that will punch thru their delusions is to have these fools throats slit by jihadis. Nobody deserves that (not even these loons!), and dead people cannot be re-educated.
Posted by: N Guard ||
09/01/2007 10:39 Comments ||
Top||
#8
"Now I want to see what they're saying about me," he added, when he learned of the contents of his travel companions' rap sheets
Go to Rantburg.com, or virtualy any mil-blogger site in his home state. Beware what you wish for. Heh.
Posted by: N Guard ||
09/01/2007 10:43 Comments ||
Top||
#9
IIRC Porter is an OK Rep. There's generally one per trip to give cover to the Morons Morans of the delegation
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/01/2007 11:19 Comments ||
Top||
#10
The problem, of course, is that they aren't just troops over there, obeying orders, but voters. Informed voters who almost all of whom vote, as opposed to the lazies back home.
not if AlGore and the DNC had their way....remember Florida and military absentee ballots?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/01/2007 11:23 Comments ||
Top||
#12
In the soldier's hand was a thumbnail biography, distributed before each of the congressmen's meetings in Baghdad, which let meeting participants such as that soldier know where each of the lawmakers stands on the war.
If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.
If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
It's good that the troops understand that the war is being waged on two fronts and knows those who seek his defeat in both.
AMMAN - A leading US human rights group said on Friday beatings of inmates in Jordanian jails were rampant and many of the countrys top Islamist detainees were denied justice.
Christoph Wilcke, Human Rights Watchs (HRW) Jordan specialist, speaking after a two-week tour of jails across the country, said detainees had cited serious abuses and beatings and told the group two prisoners died under torture since May. He said the HRW mission marked the first time Jordan had opened its five main prisons, including the intelligence headquarters main detention centre, to the scrutiny of a foreign human rights group. There is a systematic policy of corporal punishment which is widespread and systematic, and under some directors in some prisons some of those beatings amount to torture, he said.
Officials deny any systematic violation of prisoners rights. But Wilcke said guards act with impunity. Methods include beatings with electric cables and truncheons and hanging inmates in cuffs for long periods, he said.
HRW carried out interviews with more than 100 detainees. Wilcke said around 350 inmates in the high security Swaqa jail, which holds several al Qaeda militants convicted over foiled plots to attack US and Israeli targets, caused serious self mutilation during a prison visit last Sunday. When they saw us walk with the director through the corridors they feared they could not tell us their complaints so they then expressed themselves by slashing themselves, he said.
Drat. Who stopped them?
Wilcke said they had wanted to protest an incident several days before when around 2,000 inmates, among them Islamists, had been beaten and humiliated for eight hours after the HRW team visited them and prisoners spoke of widespread abuse. Everybodys head and beard was shaved. For the religious prisoners this was to humiliate and degrade them, not for any legitimate penal reason. Every prisoner was beaten and people had not recalled this happened before, Wilcke said.
Sucks to be a prisoner in an Arab state. No one's ever known that before.
Nineteen security detainees held in solitary confinement in the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) detention centre did not complain of physical abuse but said they were being held illegally.
Security sources in Jordan say the rise in militancy is tied to growing anti-American sentiment since the invasion of Iraq.
Wilcke cited the case of a top security inmate, Jordanian Sheikh Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi, 48, a leading Al Qaeda thinker, whom the group met and has been held in solitary confinement for over two and a half years without trial. He ... has gone on hunger strikes to protest his detention and cannot choose his own lawyer to defend him, Wilcke said.
He's an al-Q honcho, and somehow I just can't work up any sympathy for him.
Like Maqdisi, scores of militants arrested on charges of plotting attacks on Americans and Westerners are held for years without trial, Wilcke said.
#1
HRW only surveys countries where they have relatively unrestricted travel. And they overvalue opposition reports. And the opposition in the ME is mostly islamofascist.
Thousands of Palestinians defied the radical Islamist movement Hamas that controls the Gaza Strip to pray outside on Friday in a public protest called by opposition parties. Surrounded by hundreds of members of a Hamas paramilitary, the protestors gathered in a large square holding up Palestinian flags, an AFP reporter said.
Dozens of young people shouted Shiites, Shiites in a well-known insult against Hamas, which is seen as close to Iran, a majority Shiite country, and called for Palestinian national unity. The Fatah party chaired by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas led calls for outside prayers on the main Muslim day of rest on Friday after accusing Hamas of exploiting mosques to enflame tensions and provocations between factions. Other movements belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organisation - to which Hamas does not belong - issued the same call.
Dozens of Palestinians in Gaza received text messages warning them not to attend outdoor prayers with Fatah loyalists. Attending prayers with Fatah will cause you a lot of problems and we advise you to pray elsewhere. You dont deserve to be hit, arrested or killed for a corrupt gang that you know well, said the SMS.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
Any chatter about a Jordanian-Palestinian federation or confederation before the birth of a bona-fide Palestinian state is pure bunk, said King Abdullah II in an interview with state-run TV.
He asked "a confederation with whom exactly, with the PLO, or with some other Palestinian entity? And what would it be based on? And why is it that every time Israel feels the heat from the international community pressing it to become serious about the establishment of a Palestinian state? this question on the federation or confederation crops up." He noted that Jordan had addressed this topic before and decried its reemergence at the prodding of those with, in his opinion, ill intentions.
"Those people are stone-cold nutz. Don't make me go there!"
On the Mideast peace process, he urged the Palestinians to take full advantage of the upcoming international peace conference, saying however that "it is unacceptable for Gaza to remain cut off from the West Bank. "No one accepted that situation," he said. "When we talk about a Palestinian state we mean a state stretching over Gaza and the West Bank. ... We therefore invite the Palestinians to abide by reason and logic and get their act together without undue intra-strife so that to build on a fruitful peace process," the King told the TV station.
He affirmed that US president George Bush's invitation for an international Mideast peace conference next Fall was in part due to the efforts of Jordan "along with Arab and friendly states" which boosted these efforts right after the end of the Arab summit meeting in Riyadh.
The King gave his full support to the conference, saying that it was a propitious step toward a firm and longlasting Mideast peace.
To the notion that extreme elements on both Arab and Israeli sides sought to scuttle peace efforts in the region, King Abdullah said "we are aware of that and bemoan attempts at keeping the region off-balanced and unstable." He explained that there have always been forces in the Middle East that did not want to respond in any positive measure to peace overtures with Israel no matter what the circumstance were. So much so that these forces rejected the 1947 UN partition which guaranteed the birth of a new Palestinian state.
Time has come, he mused, that all efforts for a peace accord be translated into facts on the ground, and it is high time for Israel to recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. He said if Israel really sought recognition of Arab and Islamic states, it behooved it to work assiduously toward the actual establishment of a free-standing Palestinian state.
As for local parliamentary elections in Jordan, due in November, he said people deserved fair and comprehensive elections in which all strata of the society would take part.
He said his country was working hard on improving the economy but that such improvement required patience on the part of the public. He emphasized that the government was doing its best to come up with a viable social security net for those citizens facing socio-economic constraints.
Despite the rising cost of oil for Jordan, it has been able to keep the economy on keel, achieving a modicum of growth rate and of creating new jobs, he said.
#1
Can't happen; most Arabs support the Paleo cause while wanting to have little to do with them. And Hashemites claim an identity separate from the Paleo Arabs, most of whose ancestors came to the area during the Arab conquests. As for the King, he is so Westernized that he appeared on Star Trek. Youtube posts his appearance.
If Iran fails to resolve its nuclear dispute by the end of the year, it may be passing by its last chance to do so, the UN atomic energy agency head said in an interview due out Monday.
"By November, or December at the latest, we should be able to state whether the Iranians are keeping their promises. If they don't keep them, Tehran will have passed by an important chance, perhaps the last," Mohamed ElBaradei, the International Atomic Energy Agency head, told weekly Der Spiegel.
However, the IAEA chief urged international players to "encourage" Iran to cooperate.
"Beside sanctions, there must also be encouragement," he said, underlining that "sanctions alone will not bring any durable solution."
But he added that there were "concrete grounds to suspect" Iran of developing a nuclear bomb.
Asked about the possible use of force against Tehran, ElBaradei said that might destroy a large part of Iran's nuclear installations, but warned of the danger of an explosion of violence in the whole region.
"The already very deep oppositions between the Islamic world and the West would explode," he said.
He added that such a move would also certainly reinforce support for an Iranian nuclear bomb.
Iran and the UN atomic energy agency on August 21 agreed on a timetable for Tehran to clarify outstanding concerns about its contested nuclear programme, amid Western threats of further UN sanctions.
The IAEA said Thursday that Iran's decision to answer key questions about the programme was "a significant step forward," in a development expected to help Tehran avoid new sanctions.
But the United States reiterated its insistence on Iran suspending uranium enrichment to win international confidence, and downplayed the IAEA claim of progress. They never listen. Oh well.
#2
Asked about the possible use of force against Tehran, ElBaradei said that might destroy a large part of Iran's nuclear installations, but warned of the danger of an explosion of violence in the whole region.
"The already very deep oppositions between the Islamic world and the West would explode," he said.
He added that such a move would also certainly reinforce support for an Iranian nuclear bomb.
One word: Diploshit.
a move [use of force] = support for an Iranian nuclear bomb?
#3
Didn't Dr. El Baradei used to head Egypt's nuclear project, before he joined the IAEA? Of course he wouldn't want to upset the current balance of power in the region!
Iran's highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Saturday replaced the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, a force U.S. officials have said Washington may label a terrorist group.
Guards commander-in-chief Yahya Rahim Safavi was replaced by Mohammad Ali Jafari, who has been a commander in the Guards, Khamenei said in an order reported by state television. No reason was given for the move.
"Regarding your valuable experience and shining background at different times, and varied responsibilities in the Guards, I appoint you (Jafari) ... as the commander-in-chief of this revolutionary service organization," Khamenei said.
Khamenei said Safavi, who commanded the Guards for 10 years, would become his senior adviser on armed forces affairs.
The Guards are an ideologically driven force set up shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution to act as guardians of the Islamic Republic. The force has a separate command structure from the regular military and answers directly to Khamenei.
#1
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Major shakeup in elite Revolutionary Guards executed by supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Sept 1 takes Iran a step closer to war
September 1, 2007, 11:32 PM (GMT+02:00)
Supreme ruler Ali Khamenei and new Revolutionary Guards chief Gen. Jaafari review IRGC Shihab missiles
In a special decree, Khamenei suddenly sacked Gen. Rahim Safavi and appointed Gen. Mohammad-Ali (Aziz) Jaafari, commander of missile forces, in his place as Revolutionary Guards chief.
Safavi was kicked upstairs as special security adviser to supreme ruler.
DEBKAfiles Iranian sources disclose: Two years ago, Khamenei entrusted Jaafari, then commander of the corps ground forces, with charting a war strategy for the IRGC, the bulwark of the regime, to meet a foreign attack on Iran. His formal task was to set up the corps center for strategy, which would be given unlimited national resources in case of a foreign military confrontation.
The new center was mandated to draw up the new strategy and the necessary changes to ensure rapid an efficient transformation of the countrys civilian infrastructure and resources to military footing under the control of the IRGC.
Our sources that Khamenei has now assigned his most trusted adviser in the elite corps with taking supreme command of the IRGC and carrying out the strategy he developed. This appointment takes Iran a step closer to armed conflict.
DEBKAfiles sources note that the Revolutionary Guards bear responsibility for Irans national nuclear and missile programs. Last month, Washington indicated its intention to designate the IRGC as a global terrorist organization.
The grandson of the former president that invited the Syrian army to come to Lebanon in 1976 accused the prime minister and the minister of communications of plotting to kill the Hezbollah leader. Suleiman Franjieh, the grandson of former president Suleiman Franjieh made the accusation Thursday during an interview on Kalam el Nas talk show program on LBC TV.
Franjieh defended the Hezbullah phone networks which recently caused a stir in Lebanon. He said the government is aiming at "isolating Sayyed Nasrallah or assassinating him". The network was called by the government of Lebanon's prime minister Fouad Siniora as another proof that Hezbollah is acting "as a state within a state" . Hamadeh called it a " state violation that went beyond logic.""
Telecommunications minister Marwan Hemade swiftly responded saying "Franjieh's words reveal sectarianism. It's not worth responding to such language." He later told the daily An Nahar that a copy of Franjieh's interview would be "immediately" submitted to the international investigation committee headed by Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz "as evidence that could one day hold Franjieh responsible for taking part in crimes and assassinations organized by the Syrian Regime in Lebanon."
Franjieh, staunch ally of the Syrian regime revealed during the interview that he visits Syria regularly and meets with its president on regular basis. He further revealed that during their meetings president Bashar el Assad praised Army General Michel Suleiman, former minister Fares Buais and retired General Michel Aoun.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Is that supposed to bother me, cuz it doesn't...
Lebanon's parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced Friday that the Hezbollah-led opposition is ready to give up its demand for the formation of a new government with veto powers in return for consensus on a new president. Berri made the offer in a mass rally at the Bekaa valley town of Baalbek marking the 29th anniversary of the disappearance of Shiite religious leader Mousa al-Sadr during a visit to Libya. "Let us all agree on electing a president on the base of consensus and a two-third quorum for the Parliamentary session that would elect the head of state," Berri said.
In return for that, he declared, "The opposition would not want the formation of (a new government) or the expansion of the present government prior to the Presidential elections." After agreeing on the "principle" of his proposal, Berri said he would be committed to "launching consultations with all the sides to agree on the name of the forthcoming president."
"The more we speed up the consensus approach the better. The sooner the better to end the sit-in (In Riyadh Solh Square), keep the turmoil away and avoid evil that hangs over the last 10 days" of the constitutional schedule to elect a new head of state," Berri said. "I am confident that we will reach consensus during the constitutional schedule on a president," Berri added.
Berri, addressing a packed rally, warned that "many (factions) are re-training (militias) and sharpening the knives."
"Everybody awaits a solution and the solution lies in the election of a president. It is an exit," he added. Berri stressed that a two-third quorum is a must for the parliamentary session to elect a new head of state to succeed President Emile Lahoud during the two-month constitutional scheduled that ends on Nov. 14.
Despite the concession he made in giving up the opposition's standing condition of assuming veto powers in the government, Berri attacked Premier Fouad Siniora's government as a "cabinet of ghosts for failing to invest the victory achieved in last summer's war" between Hizbullah and Israel. "Was it not for the resistance, Lebanon would have been on the World map as it is now," Berri said. He said that in all previous Arab-Israel wars, the Arabs lost and claimed to be victorious "In this (last summer's) war we emerged victorious and we say we've lost."
Hezbollah declared " divine victory " after the war ended, even though 1280 Lebanese were killed versus 160 Israelis, the infrastructure of Lebanon was left in ruins and 110,000 homes of Lebanese citizens were destroyed. The damage to Lebanon's economy was estimated at $15 billion by the UN
Berri warned against an alleged new plot to nationalize Palestinian refugees and said that combating this scheme requires collective Arab efforts. Such an alleged plot, Berri said, would be implemented during the conference that U.S. President George Bush called for to discuss Middle East peace next fall. Berri predicted that the Bush-proposed Middle East peace conference "would not achieve the required results by avoiding Syria and over passing half of Palestine." He was referring to the Hamas movement.
Israel, he said, is working on "absorbing the Arab Peace initiative, and instead of heading to peace it is preparing for war against Syria and the resistance in Lebanon." He said efforts were being made to "change the nature of conflict from an Arab-Israeli conflict to an Arab-Persian (Iranian) conflict to unleash a Sunni-Shiite turmoil. I warn against the dimensions of this plot and its repercussions on the Arab World, the Palestinian cause and Lebanon."
He said Israel would "demand compensations for Jews who had left Arab countries" to settle in the Jewish state that was created in Palestine in 1948. Berri also warned against any attack on Iran, stressing that such "a strike would put the whole region (Middle East) on fire."
Syria worried
According to local analysts Berri's offer to forgo the demand for a government of national unity ( in which the opposition wants a veto) in return for consensus on a new president is a clear indication that Syria is worried about the election of a March 14 president. "As far as the Syrians are concerned governments in Lebanon come and go but the president will remain for a minimum period of 6 years" , Ahmed Yasseen a local analyst told Ya libnan. "This is why president Assad ordered its allies in Lebanon to focus on the presidency and offer concessions on the government "Yasseen added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza on Thursday ordered police to launch an investigation into a video game about the storming of Premier Fouad Siniora's government compound , killing him and of all the cabinet ministers. The state-run National News Agency, which distributed the judicial report, did not disclose any other details. The pro-opposition newspaper as-Safir carried an exclusive report on the game Wednesday noting that it was designed in France by a Lebanese citizen who was identified by the code name of Ziad al-Hajj.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
Top Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad's accusation on Thursday that Russia was partly responsible for recent tensions between Syria and Israel could undermine Israeli-Russian relations, a senior Russian diplomat in Tel Aviv told The Jerusalem Post.
Andrey Demidov, the No. 2 official at the Russian Embassy, said he was "disappointed" and "regretted" reports published Thursday that Russia was largely behind tensions between Syria and Israel, in an effort to increase arms sales to Damascus. "And I regret the statement made by Amos Gilad, because it can only undermine our relations," Demidov said.
Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Military Bureau, said in an Army Radio interview, "At a certain time, the Russians caused the Syrians to believe that Israel was preparing for war. "I think that they have stopped this," Gilad added. "Syria is not planning on attacking Israel, and Israel is definitely not planning on attacking Syria."
Demidov said he had no intention of meeting with Gilad or speaking with him to get clarification of his comments. "Yesterday he said one thing, tomorrow he will say another thing. I only regret it," Demidov said. The Defense Ministry refused to respond to the diplomat's comments.
Moscow "very, very much values the present state of relations between Russia and Israel, and won't do anything to undermine it, Demidov said. "How can we be hostile to a country where more than one million of our compatriots live," he said. "We need Israel for economic and scientific cooperation. For example, we can enrich ourselves through scientific and economic knowledge here more than in Syria. Our cooperation can be more efficient here than in Syria. I believe that we have more interests here than in Damascus."
Demidov said, however, that comments such as Gilad's and press reports like those saying Russia was banging the drums of war in Syria only made building ties more difficult. For instance, he said, these types of reports made planning for the visit of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, scheduled for October, more difficult.
Western sources said recently that Syria was told that the US would attack Iran by the end of the year and that Israel would use the opportunity to strike at Syria. As a result, President Bashar Assad set off on a massive military buildup that included training his forces, reinforcing positions along the Golan Heights and purchasing large amounts of weaponry from Russia. Demidov said he had not "seen reports of the kind." He added that Russia was "not happy about military preparations on both sides, and it is not our aim to instigate one party or another." Demidov also said he knew nothing of claims made by defense officials Thursday that more than 1,000 Russian military advisers were currently stationed in Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
09/01/2007 13:23 Comments ||
Top||
#5
This has nothing to do with the RNC. Critical Mass has been riding here in nyc for years. It's an anti car protest. Here the cops have cruisers in front of them stopping traffic.
Also, the leaders of nyc critical mass have been doing a lot more to work with the police instead of against them- leading to their vilification by the you-know-whos.
#6
FR, if you read the article and associated links, you'll see that 'outside agitators' are being infiltrated into Minneapolis to get the locals riled up and to provoke the cops to over-react. This has everything to do with RNC; they are working to establish 'cops as oppressors' theme early on so they won't be blamed for 'defending themselves' and Resistance 'round convention time.
and a big FU to those groups who use Enviro suits for political purposes
The U.S. Navy can use high-power sonar during exercises off the Southern California coast, despite the technology's threat to whales and other marine mammals, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
National security interests outweigh the possible harm to marine life, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined in overturning a judge's order banning the practice. The public does indeed have a very considerable interest in preserving our natural environment and especially relatively scarce whales, Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote for the majority. But it also has an interest in national defense. We are currently engaged in war, in two countries.
Judge Milan Smith Jr. disagreed, saying he would have kept the ban in place in part because the Natural Resources Defense Council is likely to win its lawsuit to stop the use of sonar.
How, exactly?
The ruling allows the Navy to use the high-power sonar in 11 planned training exercises.
Cara Horowitz, an attorney for the Santa Monica-based resources defense council, said she was somewhat disappointed by the ruling Friday, but remained confident the lawsuit would quickly succeed in shutting down the sonar program off the Southern California coast.
The appeals court said in its Friday ruling that it wanted to resolve the lawsuit quickly and Horowitz was hopeful that the Navy will be able to undertake most of the 11 planned exercises. She said the next planned exercise is in September.
The council's lawsuit alleges that the Navy's sonar causes whales to beach themselves among other environmental harms. The Navy maintains it already minimizes risks to marine life. It has monitored the ocean off Southern California for the 40 years it has employed sonar without seeing any whale injuries.
But a forty-year track record doesn't mean anything, of course ...
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/01/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The 9th ruled this way on this? Here or in Bizarro World?
#3
Cut to the chase - bring back whale oil lamps...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/01/2007 1:09 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Japanese eat whales, more power to them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/01/2007 14:25 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Just so that you're aware; The near extinction of whales had a tremendously negative impact upon the marine biosphere. Unhealthy juveniles and baby calf whales represent a critical component in the diet of orcas, or killer whales.
During most of the 20th century, America's Pacific coast cetacean herds were so depleted that orcas turned elsewhere for sustenance. Sea lions and seals took a massive hit and the repercussions traveled down the entire food chain to include otter populations and the like. Otters control sea urchin numbers who otherwise strip out the kelp forests rather quickly.
Absence of the orcas' preferred nutrition source may yet cause some serious collapses in the marine food chain. To wit(the article is from 2001, but you can be sure things have only gotten worse):
Throughout the Gulf of Alaska and probably the Bering Sea, too, the balance of prey and predator has been upended, a transformation so extreme that it's being called a "regime shift." Waters once brimming with seals, otters and king crab are now dominated by sharks, pollock and urchins. Virtually no creature remains untouched.
Piece by piece, over the last three years, scientists have started to solve the puzzle. Clues point toward something - almost imperceptible - that happened in the ocean in 1977. But the answers are more disturbing than satisfying, more elusive than conclusive. It seems the ocean's chain of life is actually a fragile, silken web. If just one strand is removed, the whole thing unravels. And it may never be whole again.
In the 1980s, as many as 100,000 otters inhabited the islands. Today, only about 6,000 remain, according to aerial surveys. Between 1992 and 2000, the population dropped by 70 percent, a rate of decline that researchers say is unprecedented for any mammal population in the world.
In 1995, when they began to notice the signs of a population decline, marine biologist Tim Tinker and Estes, who specialize in otter behavior and population biology, at first looked for signs of disease, famine or reproductive troubles. They found none.
For a couple of years, as the decline steepened, they were baffled. If thousands of otters had died, where were the bodies?
Then it dawned on Tinker: Perhaps the animals were being eaten.
By killer whales.
Otters are so small and killer whales so voracious that four whales could have eaten 40,000 otters in five years.
Only time will tell if recovering whale populations can help reverse this massive collapse. It has taken almost 25 yearsone quarter of a centuryfor the Monterey Bay otter population to climb from 1,000 to 3,000 individuals. Imagine how long it will take for some 90,000 otters to repopulate in the Aelutians. Meanwhile, the vital kelp forests are being clear cut by over-populating sea urchins. I doubt all the sushi bars can keep up with such an over-supply.
#6
the whales in question, Zen, would likely be California Gray Whales, which are at their natural population. This is an example of opponents of the Naval military force using environmental suits to achieve a political effect. They also want to be reimbursed at a 3:1 ratio for their legal costs. To the first, I say "no", to the second, I say "FUCK NO". A couple losses at great internal legal cost, will stop this shit. These are your nutroots, operating at a legal level above their head. Ultimately, national security trumps all, til the Donks can get a majority of their useful idiots on the SCOTUS
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/01/2007 19:04 Comments ||
Top||
#7
If I could do just one great thing with my life, it would be to find a cheap an efficient way to drill oil offshore which also kills whales.
And Sea Otters, mustn't forget them.
Posted by: Natural Law ||
09/01/2007 19:46 Comments ||
Top||
#8
I have certainly no ill will to the marine life - hell, I live in San Diego, and our economy depends on:
a) tourists
b) the military
c) other
it's just that I've dealt with similar (smaller-scale) assholes. They have an agenda (usually anti-American/Anti-development/Anti-something) and they use environmental regulations to create opposition and achieve delays. They lie about issues, always with the goal (stopping the Mil/Industrial/Developer complex) justifying the means. To date, there is a overgrowth of Pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, et al) on the California Coast. There is stability of the California Grey Whale. These facts are not disputed. There have been no major beaching of animals in So Cal, so the lawsuit is BUNK. If you fight these assholes and refuse to pay their legal costs (the usual extortion) a couple times, they will find no lawyers willing to take their cases. Go to the mat and F*CK em. It's in the nation's and societies' interests
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/01/2007 19:59 Comments ||
Top||
#9
This is an example of opponents of the Naval military force using environmental suits to achieve a political effect. They also want to be reimbursed at a 3:1 ratio for their legal costs. To the first, I say "no", to the second, I say "FUCK NO". A couple losses at great internal legal cost, will stop this shit.
Frank, I was already aware of most all of the above save the bullshit 3:1 reimbursement demand. I'm also aware that there is no conclusive evidence that the massive sonar blasts actually disorient or damage marine wildlife sensoria. My only wish was to respond to those who wrote off the importance of our cetacean creatures. Mammalian deep-diving is an ability we are only now beginning to understand. Comprehending it could play a pivotal role in suspended animation for interstellar travel or long-term cryogenic suspension to preserve near-extinct lifeforms.
Any of us who watched the "How Modern Liberals Think" video posted yesterday knows damn well that the liberals refused to be confused by facts. My only point was to interject some points of interest for those who are concerned about documented environmental impact.
#12
I'm in the middle of creating a single crust pie some 9" diameter with an underlayer of peeled nectarine plus slices of peach and suspended in a fresh raspberry, blood orange juice and spice slanted preserve just for jollies before I then apply the brown-sugar, butter, vanilla crumb betty that covers the inner half of this she-devil pie-pan lovechild.
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.
LONDON Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto brought her partys leaders to London Friday for talks on whether to accept a power-sharing agreement with President Pervez Musharraf that could bring an end to military rule. The daylong session ended without a conclusion. More talks are set for Saturday.
Hundreds of students of Jamia Faridia on Friday gathered outside the Lal Masjid to protest the continued closure of the mosque. 
AMMAN - A leading US human rights group said on Friday beatings of inmates in Jordanian jails were rampant and many of the countrys top Islamist detainees were denied justice.
Wilcke said they had wanted to protest an incident several days before when around 2,000 inmates, among them Islamists, had been beaten and humiliated for eight hours after the HRW team visited them and prisoners spoke of widespread abuse. Everybodys head and beard was shaved. For the religious prisoners this was to humiliate and degrade them, not for any legitimate penal reason. Every prisoner was beaten and people had not recalled this happened before, Wilcke said.
Any chatter about a Jordanian-Palestinian federation or confederation before the birth of a bona-fide Palestinian state is pure bunk, said King Abdullah II in an interview with state-run TV.
Lebanon's parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced Friday that the Hezbollah-led opposition is ready to give up its demand for the formation of a new government with veto powers in return for consensus on a new president. Berri made the offer in a mass rally at the Bekaa valley town of Baalbek marking the 29th anniversary of the disappearance of Shiite religious leader Mousa al-Sadr during a visit to Libya. "Let us all agree on electing a president on the base of consensus and a two-third quorum for the Parliamentary session that would elect the head of state," Berri said.
"Everybody awaits a solution and the solution lies in the election of a president. It is an exit," he added. Berri stressed that a two-third quorum is a must for the parliamentary session to elect a new head of state to succeed President Emile Lahoud during the two-month constitutional scheduled that ends on Nov. 14.
Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza on Thursday ordered police to launch an investigation into a video game about the storming of Premier Fouad Siniora's government compound , killing him and of all the cabinet ministers. The state-run National News Agency, which distributed the judicial report, did not disclose any other details. The pro-opposition newspaper as-Safir carried an exclusive report on the game Wednesday noting that it was designed in France by a Lebanese citizen who was identified by the code name of Ziad al-Hajj.
