Three American civilian contractors freed with a dozen other hostages held by a revolutionary group in Colombia set foot on U.S. soil for the first time in more than five years late Wednesday.
Their Air Force C-17 cargo jet landed at Lackland AFB at 11:15 p.m. The men then flew to Brooke Army Medical Center aboard two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters flanked by medical teams assigned to care for each man.
Landing there about 11:40 p.m., they boarded a shuttle bus for a short drive from the BAMC landing pad to the hospital and were escorted into the brightly lighted emergency entrance as two dozen journalists armed with 12 video cameras on tripods recorded the end of their first day of freedom.
Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves along with former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and 11 other hostages were rescued by Colombian military troops.
The Americans, whose plane went down in Colombia's southern jungle Feb. 13, 2003, were taken captive by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
They were brought to BAMC for medical and psychological evaluations.
"They're going to get the full care the military can possibly give them," said Eric Atkisson, a spokesman for U.S. Army South.
Colombian army commandos captured rebels manning a security ring around the hostages, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told the Associated Press. The soldiers convinced the insurgents to persuade their comrades to hand over the captives, he said, adding that no one was killed.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice congratulated Colombia for rescuing the hostages. She asked the FARC to release other hostages it still holds in its bitter rebellion that began in the 1960s.
The rescue of the hostages prompted widespread reaction. A Web site devoted to the trio, www.marc-gonsalves.com, shows a color photo of the men, all wearing green jungle fatigues, sitting at a table during an interview.
Updated Wednesday, it declared, "Rescued!! Coming home!"
The three Americans still suffer wounds they received in the crash of their airplane, former Colombian Sen. Luis Eladio Perez told the AP after his release from captivity Feb. 27.
Perez, who last saw the men Feb. 4, said after his release that Howes, who will turn 55 on July 4, suffered a head blow during the crash "that gives him very strong recurring headaches. He's got a problem with high blood pressure with very little medical treatment, almost none, and it's very difficult to get drugs for high blood pressure."
Gonsalves, 36, and Stansell, 43, also have problems "resulting from the accident in the spine and knees," said Perez, who spent his last six months of jungle captivity with the trio.
He said they suffered "all kind of illnesses that we also got, like ... malaria," and that Gonsalves had contracted hepatitis.
At BAMC, the former hostages will be treated in much the same way as prisoners of war with their care modeled on lessons from Vietnam POWs.
They'll receive intensive medical tests and evaluations well before seeing their families, who are expected to arrive here this weekend.
The contractors also will meet with survival, escape, resistance and evasion psychologists trained to help those who've endured long periods of captivity.
"There were certain lessons learned about the mental and physical needs of these men," Army South's Atkisson said, noting the Pentagon's reintegration process has been in place for years. "If you've been in captivity for a long time, which for these men has been five years, you cannot just come back one day and go home the next day without experiencing some real difficulties."
Army South and BAMC have spent five years preparing for the release of the American hostages, all contractors for Northrop Grumman Corp. Army South, with headquarters in the revamped Depression-era BAMC building, was tapped to coordinate care for the men after their plane went down.
The command and BAMC actually rehearsed how they would handle their return, anticipating situations that included caring for battlefield wounds incurred during a rescue attempt. The rehearsals included Northrop Grumman and the men's families, he said.
"So far this seems to have turned out to be the best-case scenario that we have worked for, that they were released alive and without violence," Atkisson said.
Jeremy Thorpe, the former leader of the Liberal Party, has called for the assassination of Robert Mugabe. Speaking to the Journal of Liberal History, he was asked his views on the Zimbabwean leader. Thorpe, now 79, began tamely enough, saying: "I think he is a ghastly, wicked man", but when asked how he should be dealt with, he hardened his line: "He should be assassinated."
Of course, Thorpe knows a little of this sort of thing. In 1979, he was put on trial for conspiring to murder Norman Scott, a male model who claimed to be his lover. Although he was acquitted, he had to defend claims that he had incited David Holmes, the then deputy Treasurer of the Liberal Party, to have Scott bumped off, using a retired airline pilot as a hitman.
These days Thorpe lives a quiet life, having developed Parkinson's disease. However, he retains an acute interest in politics. Asked about the new Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, he said he was "doing well". Charles Kennedy, he believes, was "treated very badly". "Drunkenness," he said, "is not a permanent disability. It can be treated".
The European Union said on Wednesday that Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should serve as prime minister in any national unity government with President Robert Mugabe. EU spokesman John Clancy told reporters on Wednesday that the EU backs African Union efforts to push for the creation of a government of national unity between the two men. "Morgan Tsvangirai must be part of any transitional government and if we reflect the first round of the election where he won a majority of the vote with 47 percent then its clear that he should be a leading member of that government as it's potential prime minister or the head of government to ensure that certain reforms can take place," Clancy said to VOA.
The statement follows a similar call on Tuesday by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country has just taken over the EU's rotating presidency.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also echoed the EU position. Addressing parliament Wednesday, he said the only credible election was the March 29 poll won by Tsvangirai's MDC party. He described Friday's poll in which President Robert Mugabe was the only candidate as a travesty. "I am pleased that yesterday the African Union called for an end to violence, set up a system of mediation and we are talking about a transitional government in Zimbabwe," said Brown. "Having talked to the U.N. secretary general this morning, I think it's right that the U.N. send an envoy to Zimbabwe, in the absence of real change we will step up our sanctions and ask other countries to do so and we'll ask other countries to do so, we will press for tough action on Zimbabwe at the Security Council later today, we will do so at the G8 in coming days, there will not be support for reconstruction in Zimbabwe until democracy is restored," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2008 00:00 ||
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Zimbabwe's opposition leader on Wednesday rejected calls to form a national unity government, saying it would not solve the country's crisis after Robert Mugabe's widely condemned one-man election.
Speaking the day after an African Union summit called for a unity government, Morgan Tsvangirai said it would merely accommodate Mugabe after much of the world had labelled his regime illegitimate. "A government of national unity does not address the problems facing Zimbabwe or acknowledge the will of the Zimbabwean people," Tsvangirai told reporters. "The resolution does not recognise the illegitimacy of the June 27 election and the fact that most African leaders refused to recognise Mugabe as head of state."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2008 00:00 ||
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Zimbabwes President Robert Mugabe welcomes African Unions call for a unity government and is ready to talk to the opposition to end the countrys political crisis, said one of his ministers on Wednesday.
African leaders at a summit in Egypt on Tuesday urged Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to begin negotiations to end the crisis over Mugabes re-election in a widely criticised one-candidate poll from which Tsvangirai withdrew.
The AU resolution is in conformity to what President Mugabe said at his inauguration, when he said we are prepared to talk in order to resolve our problems, Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told reporters, adding, We are committed to talk, not just with Tsvangirai but to other parties as well.
Conditions not right for talks: Meanwhile, Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday spurned the call from African leaders for talks with President Robert Mugabe on forming a unity government, saying conditions were not yet right.
Tsvangirai, who boycotted a widely criticised June 27 election run-off, said Mugabe must first stop attacks on opposition supporters and demanded that negotiations take place on the basis of a March 29 first round vote, which he won. Significantly, the conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe are not conducive to negotiations. If dialogue is to be initiated, it is essential that the ZANU-PF stops the violence, halts the persecution of MDC leaders and supporters, he told a news conference in Harare.
Tsvangirai said his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which defeated Mugabes ZANU-PF in parliamentary election, should be recognised as Zimbabwes legitimate government. Mugabe, 84, was sworn in for a new five-year term on Sunday after election authorities announced he had won around 85 percent of the vote in a run-off, which was condemned by monitors and much of world opinion as violent and unfair.
Mugabe has branded the MDC a puppet of former colonial power Britain and the United States and vowed to never let it rule Zimbabwe. Western countries are discussing whether to toughen sanctions on Zimbabwes leaders.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2008 00:00 ||
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JEDDAH - Saudi Arabia is the number one abuser of stimulants in the region despite the warning on Saudi Customs forms that drug traffickers are given the death penalty, according to a new report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Based on a ruling by the Supreme Ulema, drug smugglers and those who receive and distribute drugs from abroad, if caught, would receive the death penalty.
The UNODC report, which uses words like unprecedented and dramatic increase to describe the abuse of stimulants in the Kingdom, said stimulants from Bulgaria and Turkey are being trucked through Syria and Jordan and distributed throughout the Gulf region. More illegal amphetamines are being seized in the Gulf than in the United States, China and Britain combined, says the 303-page report released last week. It adds that Captagon pills - a mixture of the stimulants fenethylline and caffeine - are available for only a few riyals on the streets of Jeddah, Manama and Doha.
The UNODC report documents how Captagon seizures mushroomed from 291 kgs in 2000 to 12.3 tons in 2006, and reveals how young Saudis and Arabs fall prey to drugs and addiction.
That's 12.3 metric tons for a population of 28 million people.
Captagon was originally prescribed for treating severe conditions such as depression and narcolepsy. The 30mg tablets have become a craze among the Gulfs sizeable population of teenagers and adults aged 20-25, offering users a sensation of self-confidence that eventually leads to addiction and paranoia. Boys tend to take the drug for its stimulating effect while girls are using it as a combination stimulant/weight loss supplement. Both sexes use the drug to stay awake as they study for final exams or for recreation at social gatherings.
Omani officials have also confiscated two tons of illegal stimulants recently, while smaller shipments were seized in Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
What this shows is the utter futility of the war on drugs. If we can't keep them out of the prisons, if the Sauds cant keep them out of their prison, you aren't going to stop it. It should be legalized, regulated and taxed. Resale to minors should be made a three strikes capital offence for any age, down to 12; first strike, probation/counseling; second strike, hard time; third strike, enough drugs to last the rest of your brief life. Quit wasting money on Prohibition.
We all know what was seized is only a small percentage of what is coming into the country.
This really, once you think about it, comes as no surprise.
Posted by: James Carville ||
07/03/2008 10:10 Comments ||
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#4
The 30mg tablets have become a craze among the Gulfs sizeable population of teenagers and adults aged 20-25, offering users a sensation of self-confidence that eventually leads to addiction and paranoia.
I think they are giving the drug WAY too much credit.
#5
The 30mg tablets have become a craze among the Gulfs sizeable population of teenagers and adults aged 20-25, offering users a sensation of self-confidence that eventually leads to addiction and paranoia.
Given their state ideology and oil tick livelihood, how would anyone know the difference?
#6
How about tampering with a shipment or two? Sterilization drug to just a heart stopper - come to think of it, that's not a bad idea for our own consumers.
#7
IIUC, heroin abuse is widespread (way more than in the decadent West, proportionally speaking, just as iran or pakistan, though those two are nearer to the production areas), and alcohol is also used, and not only in expatriate gated communities/ghettoes.
#8
Btw, no way this whole traffik isn't managed by at least part of the saudi elites, which means of course the princes and the Holy Men; also, saudis are propbably involved in the transnational drug trade at a high level, there was a book published by a french journalist about a very troubling case that was basically covered by french "top secret" (secret-defense) gag-order, of a columbian cocaine drug bust that led to a private jet being seized on a french airport with a VERY large quantity of cocaine (in the 100s of kilograms), and it turned out the plane was the property of a saudi prince. Since the french defense industry is so dependent on Gulf contracts, there was pressure to keep it quiet, and so it was done. The thesis of the writer, based on his investigation, was IIRC that it was not a private venture by a lone royal, but that the saudis were using drug money to finance Jihad/Dawa/intelligence in the West. Sounds credible, despite the flopws of petro$.
Abu Dhabi is to develop nearly 30,000 hectares of farmland in Sudan in the first step towards ensuring food security in the emirate. The move follows similar projects by Middle Eastern countries locking up land from Brazil to Pakistan and Thailand to guarantee supplies of cereals, meat and vegetables at a reasonable cost. Although the region is rich in oil, lack of rain makes large-scale food imports a necessity, and it has been hit by the global food shortage, with prices and inflation rising sharply.
Watered by the Nile, Sudan has great agricultural potential, and it is reported to have offered Abu Dhabi free use of the land, hoping to benefit from the business links and technical know-how.
Mohammed al-Suwaidi, the director general of the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, which will run the farms, said yesterday that food security was a priority for his government, and that the Sudan deal "will not be the last project".
Abu Dhabi is the largest of the seven emirates that form the United Arab Emirates, with a population of 4 million and only 1% of its land arable. "The recent oil price boom had a major effect on the price of raw commodities," Suwaidi told Reuters. "Global warming has an effect on commodities. The time may come when, even if you have the money, acquiring some commodities will not be easy."
Crops will include corn, alfalfa, and possibly wheat, potatoes and beans. Everything will be exported to the UAE. Projects in Uzbekistan and Senegal are also being considered. China has been leasing farmland in Asia and Africa for more than a decade. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have also expressed interest in developing projects in Sudan, where production has been hindered by decades of conflict and misrule. Up to 80% of arable farmland is not used.
The Gulf states, which on average import 60% of their food, can cut the cost by a quarter by controlling the supply. Reduction in prices is seen as crucial in placating people whose living standards have been eroded by increases of up to 40% in food prices over the past year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, sure, it's the government's job to protect you. Sure 'nuf. This iws London, not someplace in the wild west, like Washington, D.C.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/03/2008 9:16 Comments ||
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#2
The first and foremost function of government is to provide security for you, your family, and your property. A government that is unable or unwilling to do that, to paraphrase Jefferson, should be altered or abolished. There is no legitimacy to the government other than another form of mafia that extorts resources and offers 'services' in return. It is also the crack in which vigilantism and other forms of self security take root. People will 'clan' for self protection and rough justice to ward off the predatory.
#3
The governments job is to make sure that crime is not financially viable.
The job of Government(force) is to oppose extortion. This is why the current state roles in edumakation, medicine, benefits and pensions is causing so many problems.
As long as you appear spineless, bullies will take advantage of you. Why does Chicago and DC have high crime rates where areas with concealed weapon permits and castle (no retreat) laws have such lower rates of crime? Hmmmmm?
#7
A couple years ago British Police advised to cooperate with burglars so they don't get upset. Not merely to not oppose resistance but to cooperate. Telling them where is the safe and opening it. Annd if the burglwrs want to have some fun with your wife or daughter I construe you are also supposed to help them.
God Bless the authors of second amendment who ensured their compatriots would not fall this low.
#10
A while ago there was a story about an American convicted in Britain for defending himself from attack "too vigourously". No weapon, just fisticuffs....
Kabuki is now officially an Olympics discipline, and just in time, too!
Du Qinglin, head of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met with private representatives of the 14th Dalai Lama in Beijing recently, the department said Thursday.
Du, also vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), told the two representatives Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen at the meeting that the central government's policy towards the Dalai Lama is consistent and explicit and the door of dialogue is always open, according to a statement issued by the department.
The Dalai Lama should openly and explicitly promise and prove it in his action not to support activity to disturb the Beijing Olympic Games, not to support plot to fan violent criminal activities, not to support and concretely curb the violent terrorist activities of the 'Tibetan Youth Congress'' and not to support any argument and activity to seek 'Tibet independence' and split the region from the country, he said.
(AKI) - The Turkish army has appealed for calm after the arrest on Tuesday of two retired army generals suspected of a coup plot against the government. 'Turkey is passing through difficult days. We all have to be acting with more common sense, more carefully and more responsibly,' said Gen. Ilker Basbug, the second most powerful general in the Turkish armed forces.
Police detained over 20 people on Tuesday as part of a nationwide investigation into an an alleged network of hardline nationalists supposedly plotting to to overthrow the government. Hundreds of people were reported to have gathered in front of secular daily Cumhuriyet's offices in Istanbul on Tuesday to protest against the detentions. The paper's bureau chief Mustafa Balbay was among those held in the probe.
The high-profile detentions of known government critics come as the Turkey's ruling Islamist-rooted AKP party fights for its survival in court. On Tuesday, Turkey's chief prosecutor appeared before the country's Constitutional Court asking for the AKP to be disbanded.
AKP critics accuse the government of undermining Turkey's officially secular state by easing a ban on the wearing of the Islamic headscarf. The case is due to continue on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2008 00:00 ||
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U.S. Republican presidential contender John McCain shook up his team Wednesday, in the wake of growing Republican concern about its ability to compete against Democratic rival Barack Obama. McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis told reporters that Steve Schmidt will take over day-to-day operations of the campaign.
Schmidt, a veteran of the 2004 presidential campaign of President George W. Bush, will be in charge of everything from messaging and communications to the political structure, organization and scheduling. His top priority will be to stop 'unforced errors in the campaign.'
Schmidt will be assisted by Mike McDonald, a fellow veteran of the Bush campaign.
Mike DuHaime, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's former campaign manager and another longtime associate of Schmidt, will also take on more responsibility.
McCain advisers reportedly said that the shakeup is a direct response to the missteps in previous messaging and scheduling that didn't give McCain a good platform, and a political structure that many thought was misguided.
John McCain has insisted that his trip through Mexico and Colombia was not supposed to be campaign-related. But there have been plenty of political overtones throughout. The Republican presidential hopeful planned an early morning visit Thursday to Mexico City's famed Basilica de Guadalupe before meeting with President Felipe Calderon as he concluded a three-day Latin American visit aimed at promoting free trade in the Western Hemisphere.
The Basilica de Guadalupe is Mexico's holiest site for Roman Catholics, and Catholic and Hispanic voters are expected to be key swing voters in the November election. McCain's Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, has worked to woo Catholics and Hispanics as well after those groups voted heavily for Hillary Rodham Clinton during the primary season.
McCain has said he planned to seek Calderon's help in addressing illegal immigration, a key issue for Hispanic and many conservative voters. The Arizona senator has called for increased security along the U.S.-Mexico border.
He also has spoken out in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the proposed Colombia Free Trade deal currently stalled in Congress. On Wednesday he said as president he might pursue a possible free trade agreement that would cover the entire Western Hemisphere.
Obama has spoken out against NAFTA and the Colombian free trade pact, both of which have been unpopular in important general election swing states like Ohio. McCain wants to help workers displaced by free trade agreements to receive job training and other benefits.
#1
Why can't McCain's handlers keep him away from the fucking Mexicans? They *have* to know by now that the amnesty/open borders thing is a lose/lose proposition for him. Everytime anyone gets any sort of momentum behind a base rally for McCain, the damnable amnesty thing gets pulled back into view, and everybody goes home mad.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/03/2008 10:10 Comments ||
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#2
Mexicans are fine, we have a LOT of work to do that requires their cooperation.
He could stay away from La Raza though.
#3
Mexicans ARE fine. No need to use the F-word on them. Their government is NOT fine and neither is ours. McCain, in particular, has turned a deaf ear to those of use who live in border states and have watched illegal immigration turn everything upside down. It's a sell out. Everybody knows it but nobody will say it. It could very well cost him the election.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/03/2008 11:33 Comments ||
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#4
I've got nothing for or against Mexicans, en masse or individually. I've got everything against McCain putting his dumb ass into Mexican-themed photo opportunities. Unlike a lot of base and movement conservatives, I could give a shit about immigration - in my part of Pennsylvania, we don't get illegals, we get Amish.
I'd be just as happy to just forget the whole damned subject for the next four years. Let the INS do its collective job for a change, whatever. There's a war to be won, and it isn't against the ghost of Pancho Villa.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/03/2008 12:28 Comments ||
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Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.
The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a 'super super jumbo.' Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates. Compared with the average terms offered at the time in Chicago, Obama's rate could have saved him more than $300 per month. Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said the rate was adjusted to account for a competing offer from another lender and other factors.
'The Obamas have since had as much as $3 million invested through Northern Trust,' he said in a statement. Modest adjustments in mortgage rates are common among financial institutions as they compete for business or develop relationships with wealthy families. But amid a national housing crisis, news of discounts offered to Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the banking committee, and Kent Conrad (D-N.D) by another lender, Countrywide Financial, has brought new scrutiny to the practice and has resulted in a preliminary Senate ethics committee inquiry into the Dodd and Conrad loans.
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NEW DELHI - There is a strong sense among the nuclear superpowers that the Indo-US nuclear deal may not go through. This is because the US Congress will have no time for its ratification. This is when the deal gets a safe passage at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) with India finally making up its mind.
The political parties that have turned the tables on the UPA government and made it a potent national issue could get a shocker if the US Congress states that it is too late for them to endorse the agreement. Top US official told Khaleej Times that the political parties within the ruling coalition are seriously assuming that the deal is going through. But they are not even thinking whether the government is too late in approaching the IAEA and NSG. What is being ignored is the time factor that does not appear to be on their side, said the official.
For India, precious time has gone in settling and convincing those who were unhappy with the deal. Finally, when they seem to have made up their mind, it appears that they are pretty late, said an official.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Only Nixon could have opened China, and only George W. Bush had the wisdom to embrace India, a concept alien to Washington, D.C., and still beyond the minds of most of them.
International Criminal Court judges ordered the release of their first suspect, a Congolese militia leader, on Wednesday because prosecutors are withholding evidence but said he should remain in custody pending an appeal.
Judges halted proceedings against Thomas Lubanga last month due to concerns he could be denied a fair trial as his defence cannot view some prosecution evidence. Accused of enlisting child soldiers, he has been in custody in The Hague since 2006. 'In the absence of the prospect of a trial, the accused cannot be held in custody,' judges said in their ruling. 'The only correct course is to order the release of the accused because ... a fair trial of the accused is impossible.'
But the judges added Lubanga should not leave detention until the court has dealt with a prosecution appeal. The judges said they had given full consideration to the fears of Lubanga's alleged victims in deciding to release him. Victims have warned that freeing the former warlord could ignite a 'fire ball' in Congo's volatile Ituri region.
Lubanga is accused of recruiting child soldiers in Ituri, long riven by conflict over its rich natural resources including gold, diamonds and oil and where conflict has raged well after a peace accord officially ended Congo's 1998-2003 war. Experts estimate that a decade of violence in Congo has killed 5.4 million people, mainly through hunger and disease. Lubanga's trial had been due to start last week. The halt to proceedings is a major setback for the court set up in 2002, which now has 106 member states and is also investigating crimes in Sudan, Uganda and the Central African Republic.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2008 00:00 ||
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Western governments should engage those Muslims who matter, instead of simply pretending that no differences exist between Muslims and others, according to Islamic scholar Genieve Abdo.
She criticises those in the West, especially the growing number of scholars and politicians engaged in interfaith dialogue, who rather than deal with extremism, avoid the discomforting work of addressing global conflict that in hindsight makes the Cold War look like a small ethnic squabble. Those who emphasise the commonalities between Islamic and Western societies and among the three Abrahamic faiths, downplay or avoid completely the very real differences as if they dont exist and make Westerners feel comfortable by convincing them that extremism is a temporary phenomenon that exists only on the fringes of Islamic societies.
Happier narratives about Muslims help large institutions as well as smaller organisations that focus on the benign and irrelevant exercise of interfaith dialogue raise millions of dollars from US foundations and governments in the Persian Gulf. The Saudi royal family has a great interest in downplaying the divide between Muslim and Western societies. Merely embracing Muslims who are already converted to a Western school of thought while shunning and alienating those who have influence over the very extremists who challenge the Wests vision of the world is not only misguided, it is dangerous. By avoiding the fact that there are profound differences between Muslims in the East and non-Muslims in the West, we are hindering solutions that could prevent the next terror attack in London, Madrid or Washington, Abdo argues.
Mythical idea: Abdo who worked on a report for the United Nations for the Alliance of Civilisations, also faults Muslim-American activists who try to tell Muslims in the Islamic world that their grievances against America are misplaced. When addressing American audiences, they promote the mythical idea that Muslims from Egypt to Pakistan actually have favourable notions of the United States. By deceiving the American public into believing that the threat is exaggerated, this Muslim-American lobby hopes to create more favourable views of Muslims in the eyes of Americans. She also calls interfaith dialogue another culprit, pointing out that a few dozen professors have signed letters to the Pope in an attempt to show that the Pontiffs derogatory remarks about Islam have all been forgiven, when that is not true on the Muslim street.
Abdo is of the view that interfaith discussion distracts from uncomfortable but necessary questions and should be considered a hindrance to concrete and effective foreign policy approaches to counter extremism.
A far more effective effort would be to appeal to the disaffected youth in Europe and the Muslim world who loathe the US and much of what it represents. Official negotiations should also be begun, she recommends, with groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood, since they are the future leaders in the Middle East, who must not be ignored. Despite the overwhelming evidence of a decline in the Wests relationship with the Islamic world, it still has no effective foreign policy strategy for engaging Islamist leaders and Muslim societies in a meaningful way, Abdo maintains.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I communicate with members of the terror cult, all the time. I tell them to disregard that vulgar murder manual, the Koran. And I say that their so-called "prophet" was a pedophile and a fraud.
Reminder: the phony "prophet" was a sex-toy to an heiress to a wealthy trade family. When she turned 55 - Muhammad was 40 - he was so depressed at his lack of young booty that he went on a cave retreat. When he returned home he claimed that an angel began passing "revelations" to him. He had no success in recruiting people until he organized a robber gang. Happy with the "division of the spoils" (Anfal; a chapter of the Koran), the con-man promised his pigeons heavenly rewards if they fought to the death. Of course, the "angel" assigned him 20% (khums tax) of the booty, and allowed him unlimited wives (he took 13; one at 6 years of age). His lies have resulted in the mass murder of at least one half billion people, and the extinction of ancient cultures.
Anyone who believes the Koran fiction, is the human equivalent of a mad dog. Respecting a Muslim is to debase yourself to their wretched level. So here's my communication to cultists: GET CIVILIZED! There are no CLASH deniers at Rantburg.
#3
"it still has no effective foreign policy strategy for engaging Islamist leaders and Muslim societies in a meaningful way
Oh, I'm not so sure. I find the thousands of dead jihadis in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Algeria, Somalia, Sudan, Uzbekistan, and the Philippines a very meaningful, and decisive, sort of engagement.
"Islamic World Slammed Over Barbarism, Injustice, Insane Violence, Hatred, Bigotry, Ignorance, Generally Being a Blight on Humanity and an Embarrassment to the Species" sounds more like a reasonable headline to me.
#5
She thinks the Western government are intending to communicate with Muslims. Instead, what they are doing, intentionally or not, is educating their own western populaces about Muslims. They started out with the ROP crap which more and more westerners now see as ROPMA.
It is necessary for western governments to educate their people about Muslims, because, they need the support of the people to open the really big cans of Whupp-Ass. Whether or not this happens is ultimately up to the Muslims because what they do is what gets on the news, sooner or later.
The real failure to communicate is with the Muslims. They don't understand that they have failed to make the exit to the 16th century and that without oil they would merely be whagt they will be in a century, Zimbobwayans with a melanin deficiency.
#9
The Pope has communicated with the dirty dogs. They just don't like and refuse to consider what he has told them. I suggest that the talking is over. Next action should be bright light from the skies.
The Iranian parliament is set to debate a draft bill that could see the death penalty used for those deemed to promote corruption, prostitution and apostasy on the Internet.
MPs voted yesterday to discuss as a priority the bill that seeks to "toughen punishment for harming mental security in society."
In addition to such crimes as rape and armed robbery, for which the death penalty is already applicable, it includes "establishing Weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy."
Under Iranian law, the standard punishments for these crimes are "hanging, amputation of the right hand and then the left foot as well as exile."
The Internet is widely used, despite restrictions on access and the blocking of thousands of Web sites.
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- The federal government is again accepting applications to build new solar power plants on public land, reversing a previous moratorium on new projects, a key agency said Wednesday. The Bureau of Land Management said it will keep its doors open for new proposals while it studies how large solar plants might affect the environment of undeveloped areas of California and the Southwest. The agency had said last week it would put a hold on new applications pending its environmental review.
"By continuing to accept and process new applications for solar energy projects, we will aggressively help meet growing interest in renewable energy sources, while ensuring environmental protections," James Caswell, the agency's director, said in a statement.
In the last three years, solar companies have filed 125 proposals with the agency to lease public land for solar projects. The projects would cover almost a million acres and could power as many as 20 million homes, according to the bureau. Plants have been proposed using two different technologies: concentrating collectors and tilted photovoltaic panels.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
If you are an animal or plant that lives in that desert, those solar panels will provide areas of permanent shade and completely change the environment. You are going to see the growth of non-native grasses, for example, living on the shade the panels provide and the water that is going to be used to wash the dust off of them.
It will absolutely destroy the natural desert environment under those panels. But destruction of environment is good if it is solar. An oil well pumping quietly away in the desert would not change the environment any more than a Joshua tree would.
What a bunch of morons. And by the time you get that power delivered someplace where it can be used from out there in the desert, you have lost a good bit of it in transmission losses. Expensive, inefficient, environmentally destructive to place and destructive to manufacture.
Put a fast neutron reactor out there that doesn't use water for coolant and get a gigawatt of power 24x7x365.
#3
actually both proposed methods (the tilting plates and the collectors) have design templates that shade less than 50% of the surface; thus the ecological effects will be much less than a total shading
however, given the relatively small physical footprint of a nuclear reactor, it is logical that nukes be preferred on an ecological basis (of course a lot of enviros oppose nukes but that's because of other things)
#4
The desert ecosystem is easily harmed. Because it has the outward appearance of lifelessness, people think it is impervious to any disruption. This is total numbskullery, why do you need a million acres worth of solar panels? If you want solar energy, spend $20,000 and convert your house. These guys want to spend $200million to make a peaking station.
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.
Jeremy Thorpe, the former leader of the Liberal Party, has called for the assassination of Robert Mugabe. Speaking to the Journal of Liberal History, he was asked his views on the Zimbabwean leader. Thorpe, now 79, began tamely enough, saying: "I think he is a ghastly, wicked man", but when asked how he should be dealt with, he hardened his line: "He should be assassinated."
JEDDAH - Saudi Arabia is the number one abuser of stimulants in the region despite the warning on Saudi Customs forms that drug traffickers are given the death penalty, according to a new report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Based on a ruling by the Supreme Ulema, drug smugglers and those who receive and distribute drugs from abroad, if caught, would receive the death penalty.
U.S. Republican presidential contender John McCain shook up his team Wednesday, in the wake of growing Republican concern about its ability to compete against Democratic rival Barack Obama. McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis told reporters that Steve Schmidt will take over day-to-day operations of the campaign. 
Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois. 
NEW DELHI - There is a strong sense among the nuclear superpowers that the Indo-US nuclear deal may not go through. This is because the US Congress will have no time for its ratification. This is when the deal gets a safe passage at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) with India finally making up its mind.
