South Sudanese officials said on Tuesday they were pulling out of talks between Sudan and the United States, saying the negotiations could have emboldened northern soldiers to attack a disputed oil town.
Tens of thousand of civilians fled the central town of Abyei last week during clashes between northern and southern troops, prompting fears of further conflict.
Yaser Arman, deputy secretary general of the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), said all southern ministers would withdraw from talks with the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Richard Williamson, due to start on Wednesday. "The SPLM has decided to suspend its participation in the Sudanese/American dialogue to normalise the relationship between Khartoum and Washington," Arman told Reuters. "This is as a result of the destruction of Abyei town and the displacement of 100,000 civilians."
The SPLM's secretary general Pagan Amum on Monday told Reuters Sudan was on the brink of a fresh civil war following the clashes. Northern and southern officials have blamed each other for starting the fighting that left more than 20 northern soldiers and an unknown number of southerners dead. Both the north and the south claim Abyei, which is close to oilfields that produce up to a half of Sudan's daily 500,000-barrel output. The boundaries of the region were left undecided in a 2005 peace deal that ended two decades of north-south civil war.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Just my personal thought, but what happened was that the DOS POS there said "Yeah, yeah, but we gotta keep talking!"
#2
#1: Just my personal thought, but what happened was that the DOS POS there said "Yeah, yeah, but we gotta keep talking!" Posted by: Ptah||[http://www.crusaderwarcollege.org]||
When talk is the only "weapon" you have, you have a tendency to believe it's the only "weapon" needed. This is the same false premis that Obama endorses. That's why State does so many stupid things - it's the only way they can feel relevant.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/28/2008 11:32 Comments ||
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Details of every phone call, e-mail and period of time spent on the Internet by the public would be held on a British government database under a plan to combat crime and terrorism.
Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecommunications companies would hand over the records to the Home Office, who would hold them for at least a year, The Times reported today.
Police and security services would be able to access the information with permission from the courts.
The proposal is part of a plan aimed at creating uniform record-keeping following the terrorist bombings on London's public transport system on 7 July, 2005.
Since last October, telecoms companies have been required to keep records of phone calls and text messages for 12 months and police and security services can access them with a warrant issued by the courts.
Under the new proposals, that requirement would extend to Internet, e-mail and VoIP use and the records would be held by the government, rather than individual companies.
Home Office officials have reportedly discussed the option of the national database with telecoms companies and ISPs in preparation for a data communications Bill to be included in the Queen's Speech in November.
But the plan has not been sent to ministers yet.
Assistant Information Commissioner Jonathan Bamford raised concerns over a centralised database.
"We are not aware of any justification for the State to hold every UK citizens' phone and internet records," he told The Times.
"Holding large collections of data is always risky — the more data that is collected and stored, the bigger the problem when the data is lost, traded or stolen."
A Home Office spokesman told the newspaper the Bill was needed to reflect changes in communication that would "increasingly undermine our current capabilities to obtain communications data and use it to protect the public".
Jannes Mulder, former internist and oncologist, writing in the Dutch medical journal Medisch Contact, says that girls are still being circumcises, even though the procedure is banned.
The Dutch Council for Public Health estimates that at least 50 girls are circumcised every year, mostly in the Somali community.
But instead of enforcing the law, the good doctor suggests --
In his article, 'A drop of blood', Mulder suggests that since banning the procedure doesn't work, a symbolic form of the practice - pricking the clitorial hood - should be allowed. This would prevent more serious forms of female genital mutilation, and allow medical oversight of the procedure.
His idea was immediately dismissed by Monica Van Berkum, head of Pharos, an information center about preventing and dealing with female circumcision. Van Berkum says that no compromise should be made regarding the integrity of a girl's body. Even a little prick give a completely wrong message, as if that's needed to make a girl fit.
Posted by: anonymous5089 ||
05/28/2008 06:31 ||
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#1
Stomp out the practice entirely, if it can even be done. It is barbaric. Probably related to arab pride and not wanting to touch his thingy to anything else that looks like another thingy. Guess who loses this one. Why don't they just cut the guys little head off instead? At least that kind of bleeding can be stopped if it gets out of hand.
#7
Look at the lack of quality in the argument: banning the procedure doesn't work - tossed out there as a statement of fact. If the punishment for doing it is severe enough, it will stop.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/28/2008 12:14 Comments ||
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#8
Oncologist believes cliterus is an abnormal growth.
#9
But then the State would be seen as punishing Somalis for their cultural practices, and the liberals would go absolutely stark raving mad. 5,000 word articles about kind uncles in prison who just wanted to save their nieces from a lifetime of slavery to sexual desire...we are the true barbarians here...blah blah I'm sure you can think of the rest.
#12
there lies the problem, there are too many "little pricks" deciding what's best for women. At my work I see many of these "circumcisions", since getting many patients from Africa as refugees, how tragically these women are maimed and mutilated. These little pricks or monsters need to be punished if caught doing this practice to young girls.
I wonder how many are killed by this practice being done in back rooms not in sterile conditions.
Posted by: Jan ||
05/28/2008 16:28 Comments ||
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President George Bush's hopes of sealing agreement to site parts of the Pentagon's missile shield in central Europe before he leaves office are fading fast, according to senior Polish officials who are reluctant to reach a deal with the United States before the end of the year.
The US has been negotiating with the Polish and Czech governments for the past five years over deploying missile interceptors in Poland and a radar-tracking station in the Czech Republic - the first elements of the American missile defence programme that would be stationed outside the US.
But while the Americans and the Czechs recently concluded their negotiations, the Polish government has balked at the US terms on offer, insisting on large-scale military aid from the US to modernise its armed forces in return for agreeing to host the silos for 10 interceptor rockets. "Bush promised us a package, but the US is not delivering," said a senior Polish official. "Bush is a lame duck and the Pentagon is now sabotaging him. Why should we do any favours for Bush?"
He indicated that Warsaw had decided to wait until a new US administration is installed in January in the hope that a change of leadership would produce a better deal for the Poles.
Oh sure, President Obama is clearly down with ballistic missile defense. And President McCain is very forgiving of people who double-cross us. You go ahead and wait ...
The missile shield installations in central Europe are ostensibly aimed at intercepting potential ballistic missile attacks from Iran, although Russia contests this argument and insists that the Polish and Czech deployments are ultimately aimed at the Kremlin's nuclear arsenal.
Poland is keen to host the interceptor rockets since it believes that having American troops and military sites on its territory reinforces its security against its traditional enemy, Russia. But unless it markedly improves its defences, the Polish government also believes hosting the shield will diminish, rather than enhance, national security in the face of a strengthening Russia.
They sure don't act like a country that wants us in and is afraid of the big, bad Rooskies ...
On Monday in Brussels, the Polish defence minister, Bogdan Klich, said Warsaw needed the kind of military aid from the US that Washington supplies to Pakistan or Egypt, indicating that the cost to America could run to billions.
Umm, no thanks ...
The Bush administration, meanwhile, could yet turn its back on Poland and shift to deploying the interceptor rockets either at sea or in Britain, say senior Nato officials in Brussels.
Or we could just say 'screw it' and keep the missiles on our side of the world. No shortage of threats to us, ya know. Good luck with those negotiations with the Iranians ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The interceptors over there would have a better chance of stopping the missiles from the MMs in the boost phase, if I am correct.
So this deal with Poland is more about how much they can shake us down. We want to help them modernize, but not get taken to the cleaners. If the Poles want to act like a bunch of Arab merchants, then they can find another sugar daddy someplace else, IMHO.
You cannot buy friends. Case in point, Egypt.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/28/2008 1:36 Comments ||
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#3
This is a Guardian article, you know, the newspaper that is slightly to the left of the World Workers Daily. Notice that there is no NAMED senior Polish official - in the Guardian that means that no one senior would talk to them, so they made it up.
#5
I think the terms in this article are overblown. However, the Poles are very nervous about having an Obama in office and no modern arms. Russia invaded them twice last century and they are hedging their bets against it happening again.
#6
They want a good deal now, and they want it in irrevocable terms, so Obama and the Dems can't welsh on the deal when they cancel all BMD efforts in order to pay kickback to teachers unions increase spending on education.
Malika El Aroud has become one of the most prominent Internet jihadists in Europe. In her living room, Ms. El Aroud, a 48-year-old Belgian, wears the ordinary look of middle age: a plain black T-shirt and pants and curly brown hair. The only adornment is a pair of powder-blue slippers monogrammed in gold with the letters SEXY. But it is on the Internet where Ms. El Aroud has distinguished herself. Writing in French under the name “Oum Obeyda,” she has transformed herself into one of the most prominent Internet jihadists in Europe.
She calls herself a female holy warrior for Al Qaeda. She insists that she does not disseminate instructions on bomb-making and has no intention of taking up arms herself. Rather, she browbeats Muslim men to go and fight and rallies women to join the cause. “It’s not my role to set off bombs — that’s ridiculous,” she said in a rare interview. “I have a weapon. It’s to write. It’s to speak out. That’s my jihad. You can do many things with words. Writing is also a bomb.”
Ms. El Aroud has not only made a name for herself among devotees of radical forums where she broadcasts her message of hatred toward the West. She also is well known to intelligence officials throughout Europe as simply “Malika” — an Islamist who is at the forefront of the movement by women to take a larger role in the male-dominated global jihad. The authorities have noted an increase in suicide bombings carried out by women — the American military reports that 18 women have conducted suicide missions in Iraq so far this year, compared with 8 all of last year — but they say there is also a less violent yet potentially more insidious army of women organizers, proselytizers, teachers, translators and fund-raisers, who either join their husbands in the fight or step into the breach as men are jailed or killed. “Women are coming of age in jihad and are entering a world once reserved for men,” said Claude Moniquet, president of the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center. “Malika is a role model, an icon who is bold enough to use her own name. She plays a very important strategic role as a source of inspiration. She’s very clever — and extremely dangerous.”
Ms. El Aroud began her rise to prominence because of a man in her life. Two days before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, her husband carried out a bombing in Afghanistan that killed the anti-Taliban resistance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud at the behest of Osama bin Laden. Her husband was killed, and she took to the Internet as the widow of a martyr.
She remarried, and she and her new husband were convicted in Switzerland for operating pro-Qaeda Web sites. Now, according to the Belgium authorities, she is a suspect in what the authorities say they believe is a plot to carry out attacks in Belgium. “Vietnam is nothing compared to what awaits you our lands,” she wrote to a supposed Western audience in March about wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Ask your mothers, your wives to order your coffins.” To her followers she added: “Victory is appearing on the horizon my brothers and sisters. Let’s intensify our prayers.”
Her prolific writing and presence in chat rooms, coupled with her background, makes her a magnet for praise and sympathy. “Sister Oum Obeyda is virtuous among the virtuous; her life is dedicated to the good on this earth,” a man named Juba wrote late last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
why not just have this POS disappear?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2008 9:18 Comments ||
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#2
Frank, I agree. I think she should just "disappear" - a piece at a time. Start with the head. Don't throw it in a river, though - it'd float.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/28/2008 11:43 Comments ||
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#3
Wonder what her taliban ex-husband would think about her spending her time typing on the computer all day long instead of doing the house duties. Her current husband should be ashamed she spends more time with strangers on the internet than truly honoring the taliban culture - no honor for him, shame!
WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department has begun to identify diplomats who could be forced to serve in Iraq next year unless enough volunteers come forward to fill about 300 positions, The Associated Press has learned.
A department-wide notice issued Tuesday says officials have looked through the files of all foreign service officers who will be applying or "bidding" for new jobs in 2009 and compiled a roster of candidates who are "particularly well-qualified" to work at the American Embassy in Baghdad and in outlying provinces.
Those on the list will be notified of their status this week and urged to volunteer, according to the internal notice, which was also sent by cable to all U.S. diplomatic missions abroad. If positions remain unfilled after the summer, they will become the core of a group of "prime candidates" who may be forced to go to Iraq, it says.
The announcements, accompanied by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's personal appeal for volunteers, were obtained by the AP.
"I am asking that you consider joining this highly motivated team of professionals as we look for volunteers for positions opening in Rice said. She recorded a video of the message, which also deals with jobs coming open next year in Afghanistan, that is to be shown on the State Department's internal television network.
"Our brave volunteers are doing a tough, but necessary, job far away from family and friends," she said. "Employees and families deserve the nation's gratitude. I can assure you that they have mine, and I encourage you to join our teams in Baghdad and Kabul."
The notices say the department hopes and expects that the call will be answered. But if not, they say the department will start selecting "prime candidates" for compulsory Iraq duty.
A similar move late last year for 48 vacant jobs in Iraq caused an uproar when some foreign service officers objected to forced tours in a war zone in what would have been the largest diplomatic call-up since the Vietnam War.
That furor over so-called "directed assignments" in October and November petered out when enough volunteers eventually stepped up, but not before it made national headlines and sparked harsh criticism from commentators. As a result, the department decided to begin the process of staffing Iraq earlier with a "targeted recruitment effort."
As part of that effort, State Department Director General Harry Thomas said in Tuesday's announcement that his office is now determining which diplomats are "particularly well-qualified to staff key positions in Iraq" that will come open in the summer of 2009.
"We will inform those individuals in the coming days that they are part of a pool of the best qualified potential bidders who will be the primary, but not exclusive, focus of recruitment efforts for Iraq," he said.
"In addition, should (I) determine that identification procedures need to be used ... to staff unfilled positions, these individuals will also comprise the primary pool for identification," Thomas said.
The notices did not say how many diplomats were on the "particularly well qualified" list or exactly when the department would decide if it has to move to directed assignments, which means ordering diplomats to work in certain locations under threat of dismissal unless they have a compelling reason, such as a health condition, not to go.
Since the U.S. reopened its embassies in Baghdad and Kabul, positions there have been filled entirely with volunteers who serve one-year tours and are offered numerous incentives including significant pay boosts, extra vacation time and choice of their next post. But there are serious concerns that the pool of diplomats to draw on is dwindling.
More than 20 percent of the nearly 7,000-strong foreign service have already worked in either Iraq or Afghanistan and a growing number have done tours in both.
And some diplomats have privately expressed unease about volunteering for Iraq amid uncertainty over how the administration following President Bush will deal with Iraq, and how that might affect security there or change Washington's focus on the country.
At least three foreign service personnel—two diplomatic security agents and one political officer—have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.
#1
AFAIK the lend lease agreement signed with the UK was for a hundred years. One of the former bases was in Trinidad, just 13 miles from the Venezuelan coast.
Posted by: john frum ||
05/28/2008 19:36 Comments ||
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#3
That particular part of the world is US Ocean. The Vz Navy is allowed to patrol outwards of 200 miles without being sunk on sight due to the generous spirit and sense of fairplay that permeates the most important of US Military Services.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
05/28/2008 20:06 Comments ||
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#4
t’s difficult to see how the revival of the Fourth Fleet is warranted at the present time. The move has only served to further antagonize Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, already rattled by a U.S. navy plane’s violation of Venezuelan airspace over the weekend. In the long-term, the Pentagon’s saber rattling may encourage South American militaries to assert great independence from Washington, a trend which is already well under way as I discuss in my new book, Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left (Palgrave-Macmillan).
uh huh. Antagonizing our avowed enemies (who are acquiring Russian subs IIRC?)is bad, how? FOAD would be the appropriate answer to this handwringing.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2008 20:18 Comments ||
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#5
"The move has only served to further antagonize Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, already rattled by a U.S. navy plane’s violation of Venezuelan airspace over the weekend."
Could be. But what's the downside?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/28/2008 20:53 Comments ||
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#6
ItÂ’s difficult to see how the revival of the Fourth Fleet is warranted at the present time.
I guess our esteemed 'author' hasn't figured out Central and South America have taken on a higher level of concern.
Effective July 1, the command will have operational responsibility for U.S. Navy assets assigned from east and west coast fleets to operate in the SOUTHCOM area. As a result, U.S. Fourth Fleet will not involve an increase in forces assigned in Mayport, Fla. These assets will conduct varying missions including a range of contingency operations, counter narcoterrorism, and theater security cooperation (TSC) activities. TSC includes military-to-military interaction and bilateral training opportunities as well as humanitarian assistance and in-country partnerships.
U.S. Fourth Fleet will retain responsibility as NAVSO, the Navy component command for SOUTHCOM. Its mission is to direct U.S. naval forces operating in the Caribbean, and Central and South American regions and interact with partner nation navies to shape the maritime environment.
And here's the kicker:
RADM Kernan [who has fleet experience] will be the first Navy SEAL to serve as a numbered fleet commander.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Excellent choice for Pic Fred.
You have to wonder why we're so prone to self-inflicted wounds.. It's that Damn suicide Gene that all press folks seem to be born with.
perhaps lotp can elucidate...
I can hear some say,
"go ahead we've bent over backward like what's her face in the pic, so what's to discover any more?"
HA!
"Or what can they do to us again?"
HA!
But in reality we're just giving them another fine opportunity to beat the living Crap out of us again....
#3
This goes back to a discussion yesterday about the intransigence of the embedded bureaucracy at the Puzzle Palace. They still haven't grasp and therefore acted upon the notion that the MSM is part of the enemy to be engaged not pandered to.
#4
"Our responsibility at the Defense Department here is to make sure we have sufficient U.S. and international media there to be able to report on the proceedings, to make it as transparent as possible," he said
If any of these jokers embellish or add commentary to this trial, they should be severely punished, banned from reporting news, and be fully warned ahead of time.
Posted by: Jan ||
05/28/2008 12:13 Comments ||
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The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government has sought three months from the Swat Taliban for the implementation of Shariah law in Malakand division, under the amended Shari Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 1999.
“The provincial government is amending the Shari Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 1999. It will take some time and thus the government has sought three months time from the Swat militants for implementing Shariah law in Malakand division, with an aim to end unrest there,” NWFP Senior Minister Rahimdad Khan told Daily Times on Tuesday.
In the recently agreed peace accord, the provincial government had committed to implementing Shariah law in Malakand within a month.
PeopleÂ’s demand: Rahimdad Khan, who was a member of the government committee that engaged the Taliban in peace talks, also said the government had agreed to implement Shariah in Malakand not only because the Taliban had demanded it, but also because it represented a demand from the people of the area.
The senior minister said the NWFP government would make about 30 changes to the Shari Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2008 draft, which was sent by the provincial caretaker government to the president for approval before the February 18 general elections.
He said that the provincial government had taken out the caretaker governmentÂ’s proposal of repealing the jurisdiction of superior courts (Supreme Court of Pakistan and Peshawar High Court) in the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA).
NWFP Law Minister Barrister Abdullah confirmed, during a press briefing at his office, that the NWFP government had not yet sent an amended Shari Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 1999 draft to the president for approval.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML) vowed on Tuesday to struggle for the complete freedom for Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of PakistanÂ’s nuclear program.
The party made this pledge while planning to commemorate Pakistan’s nuclear tests of May 28, 1998 that were conducted during its government, in reaction to the Indian nuclear tests. “Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has expressed goodwill for Nawaz Sharif and prayed he should succeed in his mission,” Sardar Abdul Rahim, additional information secretary of the PML-N disclosed to Daily Times.
He said he had conversed with Khan by phone on Tuesday evening, and that Khan would arrive in Karachi on Saturday to see his ailing brother. “He is our national hero and every Pakistani is proud to have a national asset such as Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan,” said Rahim.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Pakistan will continue in its efforts for a negotiated settlement in the Tribal Areas despite any ‘concerns’ expressed by the United States and the United Kingdom, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar said on Tuesday. “High-ranking officials and lawmakers of the US and UK have expressed concerns (over talks with the militants) during their recent visits, but we have to address our security concerns first,” he told Daily Times during an exclusive interview at the Ministry of Defence.
He said the threats of extremism and terrorism was decreasing and terrorists had conducted no major suicide attack since the new government came into power after February 18.
Successful: “This means that our policy of negotiation and talks with militants has been successful,” Mukhtar said, adding that Pakistan was involving local people to ensure that the agreements would be properly implemented. He said that current talks were being held with local Taliban and not ‘outsiders’ like Al Qaeda.
To questioning, he rejected the possible threat of coalition forces in Afghanistan taking unilateral action inside Pakistan. He said Pakistan would “not let militants cross into Afghanistan”. Mukhtar also rejected news reports that Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was hiding in the mountains of Pakistan bordering China.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
(AKI) – A top Taliban commander in Pakistan Baitullah Mehsud has rejected reports that al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, and other leaders are hiding in his region. "The al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, and the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, are not in our territory," he said in an interview broadcast by the Arabic satellite television network, Al Jazeera.
The pro-Taliban leader who is based in Pakistan's tribal area of South Waziristan denied hosting the Saudi leader in local villages, as US intelligence officials suspect. "Both are among the great figures of the Mujahadeen who fight for Allah and all Muslims love them for fighting against the Americans. We are proud of them and if they came to us to ask our help, we would be available but they are not here now."
Mehsud also rejected claims by the government in Islamabad that he was responsible for the assassination in December of Pakistan People's Party leader, Benazir Bhutto. "It wasn't us who killed Bhutto," he said. "If she had attacked us, we would have done it but that didn't happen."
The pro-Taliban leader confirmed that he was helping his Afghan colleagues and that a group of his men were fighting with them against NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
looking like he does... if he wandered into a bowery type area of a major city ... some drunks would try to get him to join them in buying a bottle of "rub".
An Afghan intelligence agency received information several months ago that Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden is hiding in Chitral, a top Afghan intelligence official said on Tuesday. The official, speaking on ondition of anonymity, told AFP that Bin Laden was said to be in a mountainous region in Chitral. Pakistani officials have in the past said that Osama was hiding in Kunar. "We've received new information that he is hiding in Chitral. We got the information about his presence in that area about four, five months ago," the Afghan intelligence official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Quick, Barack! Get in the airplane and go negotiate with them! And take Pelosi and Reid with you for good measure. Tear up this Holy Crayon and tape the pieces all over your clothes and you will have a stature with them like you just won't believe. Take your kids with you if you want because everyone loves kids.
Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia has provided services and protection to residents, but fighting in recent weeks has endangered their lives.
BAGHDAD -- Four summers ago, when militiamen loyal to hard-line Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr were battling U.S. forces in the holy city of Najaf, Mohammed Lami was among them.
"I had faith. I believed in something," Lami said of his days hoisting a gun for Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. "Now, I will never fight with them."
Lami is no fan of U.S. troops, but after fleeing Baghdad's Sadr City district with his family last month, when militiamen arrived on his street to plant a bomb, he is no fan of the Mahdi Army either. Nor are many others living in Sadr City, the 32-year-old said. Weeks of fighting between militiamen and Iraqi and U.S. forces, with residents caught in the middle, has chipped away at the Sadr movement's grass-roots popularity, Lami said.
More than 1,000 people have died in Sadr City since fighting erupted in late March, and hospital and police officials say most have been civilians. As the violence continues, public tolerance for the Mahdi Army, and by association the Sadr movement, seems to be shifting toward the same sort of resentment once reserved for U.S. and Iraqi forces.
"People are fed up with them because of their extremism and the problems they are causing," said Rafid Majid, a merchant in central Baghdad. Like many others interviewed across the capital, he said the good deeds the group performs no longer were enough to make up for the hardships endured by ordinary Iraqis who just want to go to work and keep their families safe.
With provincial elections scheduled for October, a public perception that Sadr loyalists were to blame for the violence could hinder the cleric's hopes of broadening his power and influence in the oil-rich south. It also could extend the violent power struggle between the Mahdi Army and the rival Badr Organization tied to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki -- a conflict that has played out from the southern city of Basra to Baghdad's Shiite neighborhoods.
Lawmakers from Sadr's movement blame the United States and Iraqi forces for the bloodshed that began after the government launched an offensive against Shiite militias in Basra. Sadr representatives insist that, if anything, support has soared as people come to sympathize with the Sadr loyalists. "Even some Iraqi people who were not sympathizing with us before have now started to feel and identify with the oppression on the Sadr people. It has become clear to them that we are being targeted," said Liqa Yaseen, a parliament member representing the Sadr movement.
But interviews with dozens of Iraqis living in Sadr City and other Shiite militia strongholds in Baghdad suggest otherwise. So do anecdotes from U.S. troops who have met with Sadr City residents and local leaders and who say there has been a shift in the things they hear. "After March 25 was the first time I had anyone tell us, 'Go in and wipe them out,' " said Sgt. Erik Olson, who spends most of his time visiting residents of Sadr City's Jamila neighborhood gathering "atmospherics," the military's word for figuring out what locals are thinking.
It isn't surprising that people on the front lines of the standoff would lose patience with the warring sides. Their homes and streets have become battlegrounds, making it impossible at times to go to the market, the hospital or work. Military and militia snipers fire from rooftops. Militiamen launch mortar shells and rockets from residential streets. U.S. aircraft respond with devastating airstrikes that often cause casualties and damage beyond their targets.
It's a public relations problem that even some Mahdi Army members acknowledge, and a fragile truce reached by Sadr and the Iraqi government this month, which allowed Iraqi troops to deploy into Sadr City, suggested that at least privately, Sadr's political wing recognized the need to back down from the fighting.
Thousands of Iraqi security forces took up positions in Sadr City starting May 20 and faced no resistance from militiamen.
Ahmed, a 29-year-old Mahdi Army member who did not want his full name used for fear of being arrested or attacked, said the group was the only "honorable resistance" to the U.S. presence. He said people in poor neighborhoods depended on it for handouts of fuel, help with funeral costs, and food distribution. But he acknowledged that as fighting continued, support dwindled. "Of course some people are expressing their resentment and anger against the Mahdi Army, thinking that without them, they would not be targeted and their lives would not be badly affected," he said.
Another Mahdi Army member expressed anger after Sadr in late April warned of "open war" against U.S. forces if operations targeting Sadr strongholds did not stop. "Did he mention that the 'open war' . . . will be among the houses or residential areas?" said the man, a Mahdi Army street leader who feared having his name published. "Fight? . . . I will not join the fight."
Some members blame the violence on rogue elements who have ignored truces called by Sadr, but they acknowledge that regardless of whoever is behind the fighting, the mainstream Sadr movement is viewed as the violator. "It takes all the blame for the fight because it started it," said Abu Ali, a Sadr City resident who said he had left the Mahdi Army after becoming disillusioned with its tactics fighting U.S. forces in crowded urban areas. "We should fight them outside the cities, not among the families," Abu Ali said.
For years, Sadr's militia has been welcomed by many people in exchange for the services the cleric provides. Most important has been the security his fighters offer: Even people who don't relish having masked gunmen on their streets have accepted them in exchange for safety.
But with the recent fighting, that security is gone.
"I don't support them now, but in the past I did," Mohammed Mousawi, a 23-year-old civil servant, said of the Mahdi Army. "They served people a lot and solved problems in the area, but now things are different." Mousawi said he had to pay 24,000 Iraqi dinars [about $20] a month to the militia to protect a small shop he runs and his home in Hurriya, a Baghdad neighborhood known for its militia presence. When the streets were quiet, he was willing to do so. Now, he resents it.
Hassan abu Mohammed, who has an appliance repair shop in Jamila, said the violence forced him to close his business for nearly two months. Abu Mohammed estimated that he was losing $1,200 a month but said it was worth it if the militiamen could be driven out. "They used to come and take money on a monthly basis from us," he said, speaking for himself and other local merchants. He said the militiamen would demand to know the details of their businesses, whether their customers were Sunnis, Shiites or Americans, and whom they employed.
Shopkeepers, teachers and homemakers interviewed across Baghdad told similar stories and indicated that goodwill toward the militia was evaporating. "The people do not support [them] anymore because they are responsible for barricading some areas and preventing people from going on with their lives and jobs," said Ibrahim Ghanim, a merchant in central Baghdad.
Allegations of extortion and abductions are not new, but U.S. military officials say such complaints have picked up. They say Sadr's truce with U.S. forces in August has led to splintering in the organization. Questions about which way Sadr will go, toward sustaining the truce or halting it, have fueled more Mafia-like behavior among his followers as they jockey for power and resources in the face of an uncertain future.
"Everyone is trying to claw their way to the top," said Olson, comparing it to Robin Hood turning into Tony Soprano.
Regardless of whether the Sadr movement agrees that it may have lost some support recently, it clearly was trying to curry favor with the public as the Iraqi army moved into Sadr City.
"There's no problem with the Iraqi forces' operations today," spokesman Saleh Obeidi said, "as long as these forces are taking care of the civilians' rights there."
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
05/28/2008 13:08 ||
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#1
"It wudn't me..."
"I liked the sugar, but when they blew up my mum's house..."
"I trusted them..."
Idiots all.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/28/2008 15:38 Comments ||
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#2
The only support which matters is what he gets from Iran, and the only reason Iran would pull the plug is if they found someone better at the job.
(AKI) - Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani says his administration will adopt more measures to stop the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK from using bases in northern Iraq to attack Turkey.
Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, told Turkish reporters in Washington that his administration was determined to prevent the region from being used for attacks against Turkey. According to the Turkish daily, The New Anatolian, he said Iraqi Kurdish leaders attached great importance to their recent meeting with Turkish officials and expressed hope that contact would continue. "Turkey's demand --asking our territory not to be used against Turkey-- is a just and righteous one," Barzani told reporters.
Barzani said they expected the Kirkuk issue to be resolved in line with the related article of the Iraqi constitution on the referendum and for the United Nations to make new suggestions on the issue. The referendum on Kirkuk which was opposed by Turkey and scheduled to take place on December 2007 according to the Iraqi constitution, was postponed for six months with a proposal by the UN.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for a mass protest on Friday against negotiations between Washington and Baghdad on keeping U.S. troops in the country beyond 2008. "We invite Iraqis to join us for a mass demonstration after Friday prayers unless the government cancels this agreement," Sadr said in a statement issued by his office in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf on Tuesday.
He said the protests would continue nationwide until the government agreed to hold a referendum on the continued U.S. presence. Sadr pulled his bloc out of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government last year in protest at his refusal to negotiate a timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal. Sadr called for a million-strong march against the U.S. presence in April but later called it off for security reasons.
The United States is negotiating with Iraq on a Status of Forces Agreement aimed at giving a legal basis to U.S. troops after December 31, when their United Nations mandate expires. Maliki met his top officials on Tuesday to discuss the negotiations.
Democrat lawmakers in the United States fear the new agreement will commit the U.S. military to a long-term presence in Iraq, while Iraqis such as Sadr's followers see it as a surrender of Iraq's sovereignty to an occupying force. "We will collect a petition with signatures of the Iraqi people, who are against this deal," Sadr said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
should be interesting to see how much support the Iranian Tool gets
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2008 9:21 Comments ||
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#2
Having lost the battles for Basra and Sadr city, he is now calling for "protests"? He's taking a big risk here. If nobody shows up it will show just how badly neutered he is.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/28/2008 12:17 Comments ||
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#3
Watch the MSM count the handful of losers who show up into a "million mook march." Bah...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/28/2008 12:20 Comments ||
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#4
Is he back in town or protesting from his Iranian safe haven?
In a surprise move, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met late Monday night with a senior Hamas delegation in his office in Ramallah. The unexpected meeting came amid reports about an impending prisoner exchange between Hizbullah and Israel.
The meeting focused on the reported deal and efforts to achieve a cease-fire between the Palestinians and Israel.
PA and Hamas officials expressed hope that the prisoner exchange would pave the way for a similar deal between Israel and Hamas. However, they refused to say whether the meeting between Abbas and the Hamas delegation was linked to the deal between Israel and Hizbullah. "We welcome the news about a breakthrough in the talks between Israel and Hizbullah, especially with regards to the release of [Lebanese prisoner] Samir Kuntar," said a senior PA official in Abbas's office. "We hope that this would lead to the release of [kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl.] Gilad Schalit and Palestinian prisoners."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- Israel is on a collision course with Palestinian Islamic Hamas Movement, and should the ceasefire continue to remain elusive, the collision could come any time in the next few days, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday.
Barak made the remarks at a Labor faction meeting, implying that a confrontation with Hamas was inevitable. Without a ceasefire, he said that it could happen in days or weeks; with a ceasefire, he predicted it would happen within months.
"Fighting is taking place daily, without cessation, in the Gaza Strip," local media quoted Barak as saying. "I don't know if we will have a ceasefire first, or a confrontation, but to those who want to hurry up and launch a wide-scale operation: wouldn't it first be worthwhile to exhaust negotiations?"
However, the defense minister went on to emphasize that Israel currently was not talking with Hamas.
"The Egyptians are not acting as mediators on order of the United Nations, they also have an interest in the matter," Barak said. "If we want to create the reality of a ceasefire, we need to test its character. Our demands are clear: an end to rocket fire from Gaza, and that Hamas cease strengthening itself in Gaza."
On Sunday, Amos Gilad, head of the Political-Military Bureau of the Israeli Defense Ministry, wrapped up a several-hour visit to Egypt for talks with Egyptian mediators on a possible ceasefire deal between Israel and various Palestinian groups, including Hamas.
Gilad held talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who has been engaged in mediating between Israel and the Palestinian groups on the ceasefire talks.
During the meeting, they discussed "means to eliminate obstacles hindering reaching a truce between the Palestinians and Israelis," the official Egyptian MENA news agency quoted a well-informed Egyptian official as saying on condition of anonymity.
Suleiman is "exerting tireless efforts to bring closer Israeli and Palestinian views on reaching a ceasefire as soon as possible," said the official, urging the two sides to show necessary flexibility to reach the deal.
Egypt has been trying to broker a truce between the Palestinian groups and Israel to end their conflicts that may wreck U.S.-backed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority, but no tangible results have been reached up to now.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Paleo police officers in riot gear trained under the desert sun Tuesday as part of a European Union-sponsored public order course begun after a deadly clash between police and demonstrators last fall. In November, Palestinian police confronting banned protests against a Mideast peace summit being held in the United States shot one man dead in the West Bank city of Hebron and wounded 26 others.
(Today) Palestinian instructors barked commands at a squad of men who stamped their boots and rapped their clubs on their shields as they advanced on an imaginary demonstration — a tactic designed to intimidate without bloodshed.
Next week, the 64 graduates of the 12-day course will report for duty in their hometown of Jenin, an unruly hotbed of militants and heavily armed gangs.
The focus of the training in Jericho is to prepare them to handle mass protests without firearms, said a French police captain, Rudolphe Mauget. "In terms of crowd control capacity, a weapon is the worst possible tool you can use," he said.
Have they had any courses for the *protestors*?
The head of the EU police mission to the Palestinians, Colin Smith of Britain, said the training in crowd control procedures was requested by Palestinian authorities. They recognized intense media scrutiny of protests makes it even more important for police to show discipline, he said.
"Please, guys, ixnay on the asualtiescay. Pretty please? Folks are starting to notice!"
The EU mission was set up in 2006 to reform the Palestinian police force. It has held courses in policing and criminal justice and trained the Palestinian instructors who now run the public order program.
By July, all 878 members of the West Bank public order unit are expected to have completed training at Jericho.
The course does not benefit Gaza, where the Islamic movement Hamas seized control last June and is boycotted by the West. Gaza police loyal to the Western-backed government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are on indefinite leave, and Hamas fighters patrol the streets.
Members of Iran's parliament have made a formal complaint to the intelligence minister over remarks made by former President Mohammad Khatami. On Friday Mr Khatami said the Islamic republic's founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, had not wanted to export the revolution by armed force.
The MPs accuse him of jeopardising national security and want to know if he had clearance to make the remarks. They say his comments implicate Iran in events it has had no role in.
Mr Khatami's remarks have been interpreted as suggesting that Iran supports insurgents in other countries. Gee, it hadn't really occured to me until now.
"What did the Imam [Khomenei] mean by exporting the revolution?" he asked in a speech on Friday to university students. "Did he mean that we take up arms, that we blow up places in other nations and we create groups to carry out sabotage in other countries? The Imam was vehemently against this and was confronting it," he said. Right. And is Morgan Fairchild your wife?
His remarks have been condemned in Iran's conservative media as an attack on the country's Islamist system of government.
Mr Khatami has said his words were not directed at Iranian policy. Just a few individual criminals. Comprising the government.
The United States accuses Iran of training, arming and supporting Shia militias in Iraq, and of destabilising Lebanon through the militant group Hezbollah. Tehran denies the charges, saying it is interference from other countries that is causing trouble in Iraq and Lebanon.
#1
Iranians discovered in Iran, Lebanon, and Afghanistan ... all of them associated with the Revolutionary Guards Quds ... ya think someone higher up might be aware of that expenditure of Iranian tax money?
What do you mean "may limit"? Doesn't that imply that they've been cooperating all along?
Iran's new parliament speaker warned Wednesday that Tehran could impose new limits on its cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog after a critical report from the agency.
Ali Larijani, formerly the country's top nuclear negotiator, was overwhelmingly elected as parliament speaker Wednesday. Moments later, he told parliament that a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency was "deplorable." You mean it doesn't align with your propaganda? I'll bet you're all just pi$$ed off that you can't get your hands around their throat.
The unusually strongly worded report issued Monday said Iran may be withholding information needed to establish whether it tried to make nuclear weapons.
"We recommend them not to clandestinely keep passing Iran's nuclear dossier between the IAEA and 5-plus-1 group. This parliament won't allow such deception," Larijani told an open session of parliament broadcast live on state-run radio.
He was referring to IAEA reports and permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany. The council has imposed three sets of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to halt enriching uranium — a process that can be used to generate electricity or nuclear arms.
"Should this behavior continue, the parliament ... will set new limits on cooperation with the IAEA," Larijani said.
His comments drew chants of "God is great" and "Death to America" from the chamber. Uh huh. Death back at ya.
The tone of the IAEA report suggesting Tehran continues to stonewall the U.N. nuclear monitor revealed a glimpse of the frustration felt by agency investigators stymied in their attempts to gain full answers to suspicious aspects of Iran's past nuclear activities.
Iran has previously described its cooperation with the agency's probe as positive, suggesting it was providing information requested by agency officials.
In the past, Iran had extensive voluntary cooperation with the IAEA beyond its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, including allowing IAEA inspectors to visit its military sites as a goodwill gesture to build trust.
But Tehran ended all voluntary cooperation with the IAEA, including allowing snap inspections of its nuclear facilities, in February 2006 after being reported to the U.N. Security Council.
Ever since, Iran has limited its cooperation to only its obligations under the NPT. The treaty does not require Iran to allow short notice intrusive inspections of its facilities.
Larijani didn't specify what measures the parliament would take, but it could include further scaling back cooperation by not responding to questions originating from Western intelligence agencies. Just gotta hang in there a couple more years against the weak-willed infidel committes and we'll be home-free!
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has asked for an audience next week with Pope Benedict which would be the first meeting between the two leaders, a diplomatic source said on Tuesday. Probably just wants to see him in person one last time.
Wantst to convert him.
Ahmadinejad is among the heads of state expected to visit Rome to attend a June 3-5 United Nations summit on global food security, hosted by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Vatican sources said earlier this week that it was not yet clear if the pope would meet individual heads of state attending the U.N. event or hold a collective audience for them in order to save time.
The Vatican has criticized Ahmadinejad for calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. The Holy See has diplomatic ties with Iran and Pope Benedict has met Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. The pontiff has repeatedly encouraged dialogue to resolve differences over Iran's disputed nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at making nuclear bombs. Italy's foreign ministry has already ruled out the possibility that conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will hold bilateral talks with the Iranian leader, saying there will not be enough time.
Silvio's washing his hair that week.
Posted by: gorb ||
05/28/2008 05:36 ||
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#3
As long as the Vatican can get the Inquisiton up and running again in a week, so that the Holy Father can hand amadinutbag over to them upon his arrival, I see no problem at all...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/28/2008 12:17 Comments ||
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#4
I would love to see the conversation between Benedict and Nutjob. I have a feeling that God's Rotweiler would demolish the little twerp if he felt like it.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
05/28/2008 12:53 Comments ||
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#5
He definitely wouldn't expect THAT, MM.
Posted by: Grenter Protector of the Geats4975 ||
05/28/2008 13:26 Comments ||
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#6
Rambler: I think Papa Ratzi could take the midget if it came down to it. He's old, but he looks sturdy.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/28/2008 14:03 Comments ||
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#7
I'd make sure Short Round was strip-searched before he got into the meeting room. Full cavity check, too. None of his guards in the room, either. Plenty of the Pope's, though.
I don't trust this nutball any further than I can throw his country.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
05/28/2008 18:15 Comments ||
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#8
"The Vatican has criticized Ahmadinejad for calling for Israel to be wiped off the map."
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday told the visiting political supremo of Hamas to keep up the resistance against Israel, warning that abandoning the struggle would lead to disgrace.
The meeting between Khamanei and Khaled Meshaal came a week after Syria and Israel announced they had resumed indirect peace negotiations through Turkish mediators, after an eight-year freeze. "It is evident today that the Zionist regime is at its lowest ebb and is unable to resist the patient Palestinian people," Khamenei was quoted by state radio as telling the Syria-based Meshaal. "Thank God the Palestinian people have stood like a mountain despite the disaster. The only way to the liberation of Palestine is to resist faithfully. The ones who choose a path that is not one of resistance will pay a price and be disgraced in the eyes of God," he added.
Iran, which does not recognise Israel, is one of the militant Palestinian group's main cheerleaders in the region. However Tehran denies it provides Hamas with arms or military training. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that he remained confident that Syria -- Iran's closest regional ally -- will keep up the struggle against Israel despite its announcement of renewed peace negotiations.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm sure a very large nuke on Qom will "enlighten" Khamenei on whose side God is really on. Either that or a very large rock from the Asteroid Belt smack 'em. THAT they couldn't deny was a "message from Allah".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/28/2008 12:00 Comments ||
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#2
Hey send in Obama to negotiate
yeah right
Posted by: Jan ||
05/28/2008 12:07 Comments ||
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#3
Iran seems ready to fight to the last Palestinian
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's claim that his group does not want to control Lebanon may reveal how self-defeating its recent armed offensive in Beirut was, a senior US official said Tuesday. "I think their actions belie the statements," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters when asked to comment on Nasrallah's speech to his supporters in Lebanon on Monday. "They (Hezbollah) showed a willingness to use arms to kill their fellow citizens. Perhaps these words are a recognition of the real political damage done to Hezbollah," he said. "Any pretense of it as a liberation organization, or an organization designed to protect Lebanese from outsiders has really been torn away," McCormack added.
The Hezbollah-led opposition, which won admiration in the past for fighting Lebanon's southern neighbor Israel, staged a spectacular armed takeover of large swathes of mainly Sunni west Beirut earlier this month. The assault angered many Lebanese but led to negotiations to end an 18-month political feud between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the Western-backed ruling majority that left the nation without a head of state for six months.
As part of a deal brokered in Qatar last week by the Arab League, General Michel Sleiman was elected by parliament Sunday in a first step towards national reconciliation. The following day, in a speech marking the eighth anniversary of Israel's pullout from south Lebanon after a two-decade occupation, Nasrallah pledged that his Shiite Muslim group would not use its weapons for political gains. "Hezbollah does not want power over Lebanon, nor does it want to control Lebanon or govern the country," Nasrallah said. But he also warned that the new government should not try to use the army to tackle the weapons of Hezbollah or any of its political allies.
Analysts give some credence to US State Department arguments that Hezbollah has lost popular support by turning its guns on fellow Lebanese rather than its traditional enemy Israel. But analysts said that, at least in the short term, it was the US-backed government of Fuad Siniora that suffered the political setback, not Hezbollah, which they said achieved political gain through force of arms.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
anytime they want to use their weapons Hezbollah will claim a pretext
somebody declared war against them or insulted them or made their pita bread stale
(Xinhua) -- Iranian Ambassador to IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh said here Tuesday the report of the IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei approved that all atomic programs of Iran are for peaceful use and no nuclear-related military programs were found.
He reaffirmed that Iran had clarified all unresolved problems, saying that "we have made necessary explanations" to all questions and Iran would continue "cooperating with IAEA."
However, some media pointed out that ElBaradei's latest report, which was circulated Monday evening to the UN Security Council and the IAEA Board of Governors still showed serious concern on the nuclear programs of Iran.
Therefore, the agency would require "substantive explanations" from Iran to support its statements on the alleged studies and other information with a possible military dimension.
Some media even said the report mentioned Iran's uranium enrichment facilities were still on increase.
So far the report has not been published. However, according to media in Vienna, this draft report was a development on the report which was published on Feb. 22 and said Iran did not offer enough explanation on some problems, especially those ranged over high explosives testing and the missile re-entry vehicle project as well as uranium-related components.
Meanwhile, some media said Iran had so far 3,500 uranium enrichment centrifuges installed at its Natanz nuclear facility and this number would increase to about 6,000 by the end of this summer.
On the other hand, Iran emphasized repeatedly that its nuclear researches were only for peaceful purpose. However, western countries especially the U.S insisted suspecting on Iran's nuclear-related programs.
The UN Security Council has imposed three times tough sanctions on Iran for its on-going uranium enrichment programs.
This draft report from ElBaradei will be discussed on the IAEA Board of Governors Meeting, which would be held in Vienna from June 2 to June 6.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
ElBaradei gives cover to the mullahs. In other news, water is wet.
(AKI ) - By Hamza Boccolini - A new video called "Nuclear Terrorism" has been posted on the worldwide web calling for jihadists to use nuclear or chemical weapons to strike the west.
A simple jihadi propaganda video or a dangerous message to a sleeper cell in the west? That is the question raised by the video and no-one has yet claimed responsibility for it. "Strike civilians in the west without mercy using weapons of mass destruction" is one of the calls made in the 39-minute video.
The question now being asked is whether the video is presenting a coded message or signalling an imminent terrorist attack. Before the video was posted on the Arab internet forum Ekhlas a banner headline appeared on the website that said: "Pray, pray, Allah is great. America is destroyed by a fatal jihadist nuclear strike."
Clicking on the banner gives the viewer access to a documentary which shows diverse images - from al-Qaeda speeches to western documentaries and other Islamist videos. The objective appears to be to incite followers of al-Qaeda to use weapons of mass destruction to strike the west, but there may be more to it. The video opens with two verses of the Koran that emphasise "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". It then says "Fight them until there is no more persecution and Allah is the only object of worship. If they desist, there will be no hostility, except against those who are dishonest. Attack those who attack you. Fear Allah and know that Allah is with those who fear Him."
The documentary, filmed in Arabic, begins with images of a documentary distributed in November 2004 by the Italian news network, Rai News 24 entitled, The Hidden Massacre, in which US soldiers allegedly used chemical weapons against Iraqis in the city of Falluja. It also includes the voice of an Arab jihadist who appears to be giving a lesson to a group of people on the need to conduct attacks against the US and Europe. "This is called terrorism, but we cannot stop aggression against our countries if we do not use these arms, as Russia and the US did when they were conducting their arms race. If you have them, we must also have them."
Then a voice off camera invites mujahadeen or Muslim fighters to learn how to obtain these weapons of mass destruction and shows a document on the "rules for using weapons of mass destruction against the unbelievers" written by Saudi scholar Naser Bin Hamed al-Fahd. The document dated 21 May 2003 was written by one of the Saudi ulema or religious leaders close to the Salafite movement and to movements opposed to the Saudi royal family that support al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. "They kill our people and for this reason we should also strike them with weapons of mass destruction - doing so forms part of our response to their attacks. In Jihad we cannot do to them everything they do to us, for example rape our women. But we can respond to weapons of mass destruction.
"There are quantities of uranium on sale, and since the fall of the Soviet Union their nuclear weapons are available on the market. The second point is in respect of chemical weapons. They can be used in one of the villages of European countries. This is called terrorism but all this cannot end if we don't conduct such an operation against them. We cannot stop the operations against our civilians conducted by Jews and Christians in our countries if we don't do the same thing. The problem is nuclear arms are very expensive, while chemical weapons are cheap.
"The best weapons to use are bacteriological ones. This type of barbarous weapon is used by the international community. Why shouldn't we use them if the crusaders consider them effective weapons?"
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
This is called terrorism but all this cannot end if we don't conduct such an operation against them.
Oh "all of this" will certainly end when the jihadis begin utilizing NBC weapons. Particularly I think if they employ them in Europe; despite their thin veil of civility and tolerance I suspect that violent genocidal Europe still lurks not far beneath the surface.
#2
In Eastern Europe, yes I would agree. In Western Europe, no they are good little dhimmis and would immediately surrender. Madrid proved that, as has the English continuing caving-in.
#6
The calls for jihadis to use NBC weapons on the West where they live are not new. We've been expecting such since the 1990s. So either we've been catching them before they execute their attack, or they aren't capable of it. Which could change, of course, but in the meantime this strikes me as a sign of Al Qaeda's weakness; they've clearly lost on their main battlefield in Iraq, they're losing in Afghanistan... the only ones who are winning are the invading Muslim hordes in Europe and England, whose jihadism is entirely opportunistic and who are certainly not Al Qaeda minions.
#8
Stop and think for a minute about what would follow a WMD attack in the West.
If it occurs anywhere in the West, especially if it occurs in the United States....what will happen to the American psyche?
What if someone kills your child and you see them do it? What are you going to do? Are you going to talk about it first? Are you going to do whatever it takes and do it anyway you can? Will you stop to consider the "consequences"?
If we get hit the United States will go genocidally Homicidal. We wont care how, we wont care when, we wont care if there are innocent bystanders.
We will begin killing and we will use ANYTHING to kill as many as we can as fast as we can.
And WHo will we kill.? Whole countrys in a series of flashes. And we wont care if the whole world screams or not. We wont stop until the meat is done to a dusty turn.
And we might do it to anybody who even suggests we stop doing it. What if 48 million Moslems died in a single week? And then the radiation started killing an additional 12 million a year every years after that?
the thing about killing on that scale is that you cant cry because there arent any tears, and its too big even to regret.
Moslems are too stupid to realize what the disparity is between what we can do and what they can do. "Tooth for Tooth?" They dont want to go there. The only thing that saves them now is our restraint, not our ability.
#9
They'll be lucky if it's in 8 digits. 9 much more likely. I wonder how many of them have considered this. We should send out some ambassadors from the Sioux nation to explain to them what happens.
#10
Getting through only once means we can never give them the benefit of doubt and must plan for the worst case scenario. Nutjob is getting desperate, has diplomatic immunity, is meeting with the UN in Rome, and has enriched uranium. Our biggest ports aren't secure, and the small ones have no sophisticated scanners. The larger regular importers, such as JC Penney's and Walmart, get a pass much like the cross border NAFTA trucks just by registering, and avoid scrutiny. I recently checked labels while shopping and the items I checked were made in Jordan, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh, and Viet Nam. Besides the point of origin, they may have port of calls in between, shipped under a flag of convenience, or have crew with a large family to care for when food is escalating worldwide. Plenty of people to turn a blind eye to pick up a little extra dough along the way, too. Not claiming responsibility for the video, especially when Bin Laden has made the same threats, is out of self interest because they know they would be obliterated first and we'd sort out the facts later. I sure as heck hope "tough diplomacy" isn't the only response that is proposed!!!
#11
Angleton, As horrible the wish is you are wishful thinking. The US would NEVER commit wholesale retribution. Not even if multiple US cities were nuked. We aren't that craven. And if wholesale retribution ever really becomes necessary the government hasn't the courage. Citizens, yes. Leadership no.
#12
A nuclear strike against the muddled east would NOT be genocide. Religion is not the same as ethnicity. Nor would all the targets be in the muddled east. There are 296 primary targets in 17 different nations, including several non-Arab nations. Not all of those targets are cities, but the sum total would be the destruction of the capability of islamic terrorists to inflict major damage against the West. The entire sequence could be achieved in less than five minutes, and far more than 48 million would be affected.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/28/2008 12:20 Comments ||
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#13
Moslems are too stupid to realize what the disparity is between what we can do and what they can do.
In this case, and with this group, they are all too aware. In fact, that's what they desire.
#14
There are a whole lot of other ways that we can respond besides nukes, and we would use those rather than affecting the rest of the world, including us, with the lingering effects of multiple nuclear blasts. Particularly if a single city is hit. We can and I think would get Old Patriot's heart cockles very warm by doing multiple arc light-style strikes on the offending nations. Heavy, heavy bombing, but everything short of nukes and chem weapons.
#16
oldspook beat me to it.
I've always liked Tancredo's threat to bomb Mecca as a deterent if we are ever attacked.
It boggles the mind how MSM has labeled Tancredo as crazy, he has been the only one that speaks truthfully.
Posted by: Jan ||
05/28/2008 16:13 Comments ||
Top||
#17
And if wholesale retribution ever really becomes necessary the government hasn't the courage. Citizens, yes. Leadership no.
"Leaders" can be changed in a heartbeat.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/28/2008 16:42 Comments ||
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#18
If they nuke an American city, the only living Moslems in America within 24 hours will be those who have fled to police stations and thrown themselves into protective custody. There won't be anything but rubble where their armories mosques used to stand. The mythical "moderate Muslim" has yet to learn the lesson that you can't refuse to disown the cult without suffering the cult's fate when they incur the vengeful wrath of those the cult has murdered. Muslims would be wise to be leaving the U.S. now while they still can.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
05/28/2008 18:08 Comments ||
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#19
I think you guys misunderstand me.
I've seen the kind of destruction that conventional war inflicts. Up close and personal. Even tinpot dictators can cause immense misery that I've see first hand.
I regret that one day it may be necessary to incinerate those places and people.
I'll not be celebrating. Likely I'll be reduced to tears, and praying for the dead. Ours and theirs.
Like having to put your own horse or dog down, it may be whats needed but that doesn't reduce the sadness of it much, if at all.
#20
OS, I always respect your comments because you've been there up close. I have not and am humbled by those that have. Our response would be terrible. I'm just not sure it would be nuclear. We need the rods from God.
#22
since the fall of the Soviet Union their nuclear weapons are available on the market.
Bullshit.
Both Saddam and Gadaffi had treasuries with billions of dollars. Neither was able to buy a weapon. If they are so easy to get, why hasn't Iran bought one yet?
If Saddam could have bought a few nukes, would he be lying in his grave now?
Posted by: john frum ||
05/28/2008 19:41 Comments ||
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#23
Video is likely bluff. Dirty bomb and chem/bio is more likely. A few infected suicide jihadis snuck over the border and dispersed to various major US cities is all it takes.
Or various medical radioactive waste form the third world, gathered in Venezueal and put on a train north then smuggled over the sotuer border. Lace it into a tone or so of ANFO atop a good sized building (or a small cargo plane), and detonate to contamine a large portion of a city.
Or the above except with chemicals/toxins (antrhax).
#24
I agree that a general nuclear strike against the Middle East would be unwarranted and therefore wanton. If the perpetrators can be located, however, then by all means fry them up.
Beyond that, a jihadi nuclear strike would remove all moral compunction about our own use of unconventional methods. (There are already no legal restrictions, since terror gangs are not signatories to international agreements.)
Among other things, I would authorize the use of flamethrowers, poison gas, and (if necessary and feasible) tactical nuclear weapons against jihad targets, not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but anywhere in the world.
Secondly, I would take the war to the real instigators through something along the line of Operation Gideon or maybe even Operation Phoenix.
None other than arch-liberal journalist Bob Simon of CBS has proposed this more than once: A terrorist banker falls down the stairs in Rome, an America-bashing British journalist's Bentley inexplicably crashes into a motorway abutment at 180 kph; a terrorist safe-house burns down, with several "peace activists" unable to escape; a Gulfstream V vanishes over the Indian Ocean taking a wealthy oil prince with it; that sort of thing.
Simon has pointed out one very great but often overlooked advantage of this approach: Nobody even claims that it is legal. It therefore requires no statutory or constitutional meddling that could come back to bite us later.
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President George Bush's hopes of sealing agreement to site parts of the Pentagon's missile shield in central Europe before he leaves office are fading fast, according to senior Polish officials who are reluctant to reach a deal with the United States before the end of the year.
Malika El Aroud has become one of the most prominent Internet jihadists in Europe. In her living room, Ms. El Aroud, a 48-year-old Belgian, wears the ordinary look of middle age: a plain black T-shirt and pants and curly brown hair. The only adornment is a pair of powder-blue slippers monogrammed in gold with the letters SEXY. But it is on the Internet where Ms. El Aroud has distinguished herself. Writing in French under the name “Oum Obeyda,” she has transformed herself into one of the most prominent Internet jihadists in Europe.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML) vowed on Tuesday to struggle for the complete freedom for Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of PakistanÂ’s nuclear program.
(AKI) – A top Taliban commander in Pakistan Baitullah Mehsud has rejected reports that al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, and other leaders are hiding in his region. "The al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, and the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, are not in our territory," he said in an interview broadcast by the Arabic satellite television network, Al Jazeera.
An Afghan intelligence agency received information several months ago that Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden is hiding in Chitral, a top Afghan intelligence official said on Tuesday. The official, speaking on ondition of anonymity, told AFP that Bin Laden was said to be in a mountainous region in Chitral. Pakistani officials have in the past said that Osama was hiding in Kunar. "We've received new information that he is hiding in Chitral. We got the information about his presence in that area about four, five months ago," the Afghan intelligence official said.
BAGHDAD -- Four summers ago, when militiamen loyal to hard-line Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr were battling U.S. forces in the holy city of Najaf, Mohammed Lami was among them. 
It isn't surprising that people on the front lines of the standoff would lose patience with the warring sides. Their homes and streets have become battlegrounds, making it impossible at times to go to the market, the hospital or work. Military and militia snipers fire from rooftops. Militiamen launch mortar shells and rockets from residential streets. U.S. aircraft respond with devastating airstrikes that often cause casualties and damage beyond their targets. 
Anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for a mass protest on Friday against negotiations between Washington and Baghdad on keeping U.S. troops in the country beyond 2008. "We invite Iraqis to join us for a mass demonstration after Friday prayers unless the government cancels this agreement," Sadr said in a statement issued by his office in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf on Tuesday.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has asked for an audience next week with Pope Benedict which would be the first meeting between the two leaders, a diplomatic source said on Tuesday.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's claim that his group does not want to control Lebanon may reveal how self-defeating its recent armed offensive in Beirut was, a senior US official said Tuesday. "I think their actions belie the statements," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters when asked to comment on Nasrallah's speech to his supporters in Lebanon on Monday. "They (Hezbollah) showed a willingness to use arms to kill their fellow citizens. Perhaps these words are a recognition of the real political damage done to Hezbollah," he said. "Any pretense of it as a liberation organization, or an organization designed to protect Lebanese from outsiders has really been torn away," McCormack added.
