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US and Pakistani agents interrogate Taliban leader
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Afghanistan
Spanta says Pakistan 'uses terror as foreign policy'
The Afghan foreign minister told members of parliament on Saturday that Pakistan “uses terror as its foreign policy”, and it once occupied almost 90 percent of Afghanistan, a reference to when the Taliban ruled the country.

Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said the international community was rewarding Pakistan with aid packages even though it “supports Taliban fighters”.

“Pakistan shouldn’t use terror as its foreign policy,” he said. “I wish that the international community wouldn’t give rewards to countries that are supporting the Taliban.”

Afghan officials frequently accuse Pakistani leaders of harbouring Taliban fighters and commanders, although the Pakistani government piously insists it does all it can to fight terrorism.
From what we've seen here, both statements are probably true. Pakland's denials that it harbors the Taliban becomes more laughable with each repetition, since repetitions usually come on the heels of a Pak operation in Afghanistan getting busted. And Perv probably is doing all he can to "fight terrorism," given the constraints of Pak foreign policy - which does rely on terrorism as a basic instrument, thereby requiring a convoluted definition of "terrorism" - and Pak internal politix, which after 60 years of Islamic independence have become so tainted with Islamism as to leave the state barely functional.
Spanta gave the frank assessment of Pakistan to members of the upper house’s foreign relations committee. At one point, Spanta said the conversation was “between you and me”, an indication he may have thought he was speaking off the record. However, several Afghan media members were recording the conversation and later broadcast the comments.

Dawood Muradian, a senior adviser to Spanta, said there was “nothing new” in Spanta’s comments. He said there were some “circles in Pakistan” that did not want to see Afghanistan and Pakistan coexist peacefully. “But we want a good relationship with all our neighbours, including Pakistan,” said Muradian. “We want Pakistan to recognise Afghanistan as an independent country.”

Spanta, who is an ethnic Tajik, said Pakistan once occupied “90 percent of our soil, but they were not satisfied”, a reference to when Taliban fighters, who are mostly ethnic Pashtun, ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996-2001.
This article starring:
Dawood Muradian, a senior adviser to Spanta
Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He said there were some “circles in Pakistan” that did not want to see Afghanistan and Pakistan coexist peacefully.

I dont see the logic in this as they dont like India either!!!!

Must be the Saudi influence of deep hatred of everyone different!!!
Posted by: Kojo Chomock4440 || 03/04/2007 14:19 Comments || Top||

#2  I saved the inline comment Fred, thanks..
Posted by: RD || 03/04/2007 22:15 Comments || Top||


Tribal leaders meet Afghan officials
About 60 Pashtun tribal elders from Pakistan’s tribal regions met Afghan authorities in Jalalabad on Tuesday to discuss how to bring security to the border region, according to the US-run and financed Radio Free Europe. Led by Abdul Sabor Afridi, the delegates suggested that President Hamid Karzai and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan had put too much trust in Pakistan. Afridi said Karzai and NATO officials should be talking one-to-one to Pashtun tribal leaders in Pakistan instead of relying on Islamabad. “People in the border areas have sent their proposals to President Karzai and other leaders several times in the past,” Afridi told Radio Free Europe. “We are saying that the policy of the foreigners - even the international alliance - is not right. This conflict cannot be resolved through military operations or by militants.”

Afridi said he is angered by reports suggesting that Pashtun tribes in Pakistan’s border areas have been sheltering Taliban and Qaeda fighters. “We are not giving safe haven to the enemies of Afghanistan or to the enemies of the international community,” Afridi said. “We have evidence of this.
"It is true that terrorists are active along the border and in the tribal regions. But they do not have links with local tribal men. They are either with the militant armed groups or with (ISI)."
It is clear. And we have evidence that these terrorists and militants are getting help from Pakistan’s military and intelligence services to create training centres. They protect them and give them safe haven. They are protecting them. It is true that terrorists are active along the border and in the tribal regions.
In the end, we will ask the international community to send NATO soldiers. The Pakistani soldiers are causing problems for us. They’ve destroyed our tribal systems. They’ve created armed groups among us.
But they do not have links with local tribal men. They are either with the militant armed groups or with (ISI).”

Afridi said, “We want the international community to come to us and protect us - send us soldiers - NATO soldiers. We are under tough pressure from Pakistani forces. In the end, we will ask the international community to send NATO soldiers. The Pakistani soldiers are causing problems for us. They’ve destroyed our tribal systems. They’ve created armed groups among us. Now we have blood in the Kyber Agency, an area that once was very safe. Muslims are being killed and hundreds of houses have been destroyed.”
This article starring:
Abdul Sabor Afridi
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like the Pashtuns would relish the dismemberment of Pakistan. We keep talking about the dismemberment of Iraq or Iran, but nobody is willing to dismember the most crazy patchwork state in all of South Asia - Pakistan.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/04/2007 15:44 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
UN official optimistic about Somalia
(SomaliNet) A senior U.N. official said that Somalia appears to have reached a "turning point" in emerging from chaos but needs a minimum of 8,000 foreign troops and aid to stave off further anarchy, Reuters reports on Friday. "I think Somalia is at a turning point and I think we need to convince people that things can change in Somalia," Eric Laroche, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator, told a new conference on Thursday.

Laroche, who spent much of the past year in Somalia, said there was no point in the Ethiopians withdrawing if not enough peacekeepers could be found. "If you have 4,000 troops, forget about it, it's not enough," he said. "I think 8,000 troops is probably the minimum we can get and therefore it raises the issue of political will -- are we willing to make a change in Somalia, are we willing to really provide troops, are we really willing to finance those troops?"

Laroche said Somalis were tired of so many years of warfare, especially in the capital, Mogadishu, and in many ways backed the new government, based on clans, rather than warlords. "It's a kind of representativeness, that was not the case with the previous warlords coming to Mogadishu," he said. "And when the Islamists came in they told me they don't have a clue (of how) to run a country." Laroche acknowledged that shellings were increasing "but that is not a good reason not to do anything."

"If you don't believe that the (new) institutions are the key solution, you admit that you want to go back into chaos for another 15 years," he said.

Security was paramount, including organizing a police force, demobilizing militia and helping the thousands of civilians who fled fighting return home. "Having forces is nothing unless we have demobilization and re-integration of all these fighters. There are so many fighters in Mogadishu," he said.

The northeast African nation has not had a functioning government since dictator Muhammad Siad Barre was toppled in 1991, and American and U.N. troops in subsequent years have failed to quell fighting warlords. The Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government routed the Islamic movement, known as the Union of the Islamic Courts, three months ago. The vanguard of an African peacekeeping force on Thursday landed in the government stronghold of Baidoa in the south.

The African Union hopes to send 8,000 troops but may not be able to raise that number. The U.N. Security Council has authorized the African force but has not made a decision on whether to supplement that operation with U.N. troops. The interim government, meanwhile, is still based in the Baidoa, even though the Islamists are out of Mogadishu. Laroche said more than 70 government buildings were in such disrepair there was no place for officials to work.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Managed to secure the Beluga for an after meeting dinner?
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/04/2007 3:27 Comments || Top||

#2  "are we willing to make a change in Somalia"

We? LOL. Typical. UN asstards go bonkers about the Ethiopians deciding to rid themselves of the Islamic Menace on their border - then effectively, albeit subtly, taking credit for the obviously positive result. I wonder what this UN doinker would have had to say if the Ethipians had just decided to mine the border a mile deep into Somalia and left the Islamic Courts in place.

Worthless pile of scam artists & PR wankers.
Posted by: Spats Thating3337 || 03/04/2007 15:41 Comments || Top||


Somalia president seeks Arab support
(SomaliNet) Somali’s interim president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed is now in Kuwait for three day visit seeking for for financial support to push the national reconciliation conference he had announced earlier to be held inside the country.

President Yusuf and his delegation have received a warm welcome from the Kuwaiti officials. On Thursday, speaking to the parliamentarians in Baidoa city, southwest Somalia, president Abdulahi Yusuf revealed the date for the national conference saying that the meeting will be held on 16 April for all parts of Somali society to end the conflict.

During his stay in Kuwait, Mr. Yusuf will be meeting with the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah other key officials over how Kuwait would play its role in funding the meeting aimed to pacify rival Somalis. President’s trip to Kuwait is meant to collect Arab support for his transitional government. The Kuwaiti government sees the visit by the Somalia president in its country as milestone and successful step to promote the mutual relations between Somalia and Kuwait.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Algeria says won't host US base Fort Algiers on its territory
Algeria said on Saturday its cooperation with Washington's war on terrorism was "profitable" but it would never agree to host a United States military base on its territory. The US has conducted joint training exercises in countries around the Sahel as part of the "Trans-Saharan Counter Terrorism Initiative" to counter militancy in the region.

And it has reinforced military cooperation and intelligence sharing with Algeria, an Opec member itself emerging from more than a decade of an Islamic uprising, igniting rumours in the Algerian media that Washington would like to set up a military base in the country.

"I can confirm that Algeria has a fruitful cooperation with the United States in the fight against terrorism. Both sides see it as profitable for the security of the two countries as well as for other countries," Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mohamed Bedjaoui told state radio. "The Algerian territory is absolutely not concerned by the implementation of the American African command ... To be clear, Algeria will never accept a foreign military base on its land."

Violence in Algeria broke out in 1992 after the then military-backed authorities, fearing an Iran-style revolution, scrapped a parliamentary election that an Islamist political party, the Islamic Salvation Front, was set to win. Up to 200 000 people were killed in the ensuing bloodshed. The violence has subsided sharply in recent years but al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, is still claiming responsibility for attacks. The country was hit by a chain of bombings in January and February.

The group changed its name in January after it said it received approval from Osama bin Laden. Analysts in the region say there are signs of increasing cooperation between Islamist militants groups across national borders.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/04/2007 06:26 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why would we ever be stupid enough to want to PUT a military base in Algeria? Leave it to the Frogs. If we're really in need of a military base in N. Africa, let's destabilize Libya, get Daffy the Muzzy Duck hung from a palm tree, and reopen Wheelus!
Posted by: mac || 03/04/2007 13:59 Comments || Top||

#2  IIRC Morocco has agreed to bases
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2007 15:21 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll bet this means whatever bases we open won't be in populated areas.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/04/2007 15:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Besides, we have bases in Djibouti, Iraq, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Morocco, Kuwait, Mali, and joint usage rights in a lot of other places in North Africa. Try looking up the "training facilities" listing for USSOCOM in North Africa sometime, we have bases or access to bases throughout the region now.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 03/04/2007 21:11 Comments || Top||


Libya unrewarded for ending nuclear plans: Gaddafi
Moamer Gaddafi has complained that Western countries have failed to properly compensate Libya for scrapping its nuclear arms programme, and said that as a result, countries like Iran and North Korea would not follow his lead.

Speaking on the 30th anniversary of his declaration of Libya as a Jamahiriyah (state of the masses),
Gaddafi told the BBC in an interview broadcast late on Friday that the West had failed to help transform his nuclear weapons programme into nuclear power.
Gaddafi told the BBC in an interview broadcast late on Friday that the West had failed to help transform his nuclear weapons programme into nuclear power. “This should be a model to be followed, but Libya is disappointed because the promises given by America and Britain so that we could give up our capabilities were not fulfilled,” the BBC website quoted Gaddafi as saying. “And therefore those countries said ‘we are not going to follow Libya’s example because Libya abolished its programme without any compensation’,” he added.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, stop infecting your children with HIV, blaming foreign nurses, and threatening to execute them. Act civilized, and then people might treat you as civilized.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 03/04/2007 0:09 Comments || Top||

#2  How could we forget to send him some JDAMs?

Posted by: Danking70 || 03/04/2007 0:23 Comments || Top||

#3  You are breathing through an unstretched neck. You have been rewarded.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/04/2007 8:22 Comments || Top||

#4  I wonder if those shades would launch from his head and all those medals clatter a bit if that lovely swagger stick was implanted brass end first, full length into his old arss?
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/04/2007 12:15 Comments || Top||

#5  You have more than your fair share of sprockets, Colonel, especially that brass gear you stole from someone's clock on your green sash. Count your blessings and shut yer gob.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/04/2007 13:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Lessee, now:

1) He's still breathing.
2) There are no JDAMS falling, no ARCLIGHT strikes occurring.
3) He still has functioning ports, airports, rail and road systems, and water.

I think that's PLENTY of "reward" for kaDaffy.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/04/2007 15:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Libya's been rewarded. They've been taken off the State Dept's T6 List (list of terrorist sponsoring nations) so it's now the T5 List. That lifts a whole lot of sanctions against them economic as well as others. I do believe they're still listed as a "sensitive" nation, but so is Israel.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 03/04/2007 17:36 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Ahmedinejad: Iran, Saudi Arabia to fight against “conspiracies”
Hat tip to Jihad Watch.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that his first state visit to Saudi Arabia has been fruitful and the two Islamic states agreed to jointly fight what he called ”conspiracies” against the Islamic world.
Just when they were doing so well at fighting each other. Drat!
Talking to state-run Iranian TV on his return from Riyadh, he said the two states discussed the latest developments in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian areas and vowed to increase efforts for unity within the Islamic world and blocking discord among Islamic sects.
I think it's safe to remain confident that one little meeting isn't going to smooth over something in excess of a millennia's worth of sectarian slaughter.
Ahmadinejad has several times accused the West, chiefly the United States, of seeking to sow discord between Shia and Sunni Muslims in order to strengthen its own status and that of Israel in the Middle East.
More of the usual horseradish from Ahmadinejad. America didn't even exist when Islam's "discord" began. Perish the thought that they might need to look inward for the real cause of any "discord".
The Iranian president had visited Saudi Arabia on Saturday, holding his first meeting with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz in Riyadh. Afterwards, Ahmadinejad said that Iran and Saudi Arabia were obliged to help meet the needs of the Islamic world. “Iran and Saudi Arabia are two great and powerful Islamic countries and accordingly have numerous mutual obligations and responsibilities in the Islamic world and Middle East,” he said in a statement on the website of the Iranian presidential office.
When they say "great and powerful", what they're really saying is "wealthy enough to finance an endless campaign of international terrorism against the West". Great and powerful is when a single one of your submarines can vaporize both Iran and Saudi Arabia with a single launch.
The Iranian website quoted Abdullah as saying that Saudi Arabia is the “second home country for Iranians.” “Today, the Islamic world has many enemies who want to sow discord between the two countries, but our two nations are Muslims with a united belief and therefore enjoying good relations,” Abdullah said. Ahmadinejad was received by the Saudi monarch and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, secretary general of the National Security Council, who is known to be close to the Bush administration in Washington.
That "united belief" sure seems to be working wonders in Iraq.

"Ahmadinejad has several times accused the West, chiefly the United States, of seeking to sow discord between Shia and Sunni Muslims"

So, we are “seeking to sow discord” to the tune of nearly ONE TRILLION DOLLARS and thousands of American lives scattered into the Iraqi sands. This selfsame discord that has sounded like a sour note echoing throughout more than a thousand years of Islam’s bloody history. Where would Islam be if not for the Infidel’s incessant conspiracies, all fiendishly plotted against these oh-so innocent believers?

If Muslims simply cannot cease painting themselves as tragic victims of conniving external forces, then this may well be the time to make a reality out of their dreams. It all might be for the better if we follow their strategy for once and make them into genuine victims for a change. Give Islam an authentic taste of real persecution, continuous assault and endless siege. Beleaguer dar-al-Islam in the same way that they have sought to peck at the eyes of dar-al-Harb. If Islam insists that the West shall be the House of War, then we must make it so. Give Islam its most fervent wish and bring them Hell warmed over for breakfast.

If the only alternative to submission is war, then war it must be and the sooner it is begun the more quickly it will all be over with. Shall we further postpone the inevitable whilst our foes master the very darkest arts of battle? Must we let them continue to suckle upon the vitriolic teat of their foul creed only to bloat themselves with ever more bile? What reason is there to let them gain any greater strength when it most assuredly will be turned against us at some future point in time? We have been given their repeated promise of all this and manage to somehow ignore the message being sent. No longer can we afford to blinker ourselves to the implications of allowing Islam any better foothold in the West than it already has.

The "discord" they seek to smooth over is something that dearly needs to be highlighted for the global community. If the world can gain from Iraq a clear image of what awaits it once Islam manages to settle its internal differences, then this will all have been worth it. I am finally convinced that it is time to remove most of our troops from Iraq. Let them crank at their ghoulish meat grinder alone and feed it with their own flesh and blood. We have done all that is necessary or could be expected of us. Why seek to enforce peace upon those who absolutely will not have it?

As always, the "conspiracies" that Ahmadinejad blats on about have ever-so-little to do with the real threat faced by the MME (Muslim Middle East). The simple fact remains that Islam’s true battle for survival is with itself. Their true enemy resides in those whose ceaseless jihadist atrocities are steering the ummah towards oblivion’s precipice. Regardless of how Muslims perceive the West as dar-al-Harb, the only winnable war that confronts them is the one to recapture and then reform their faith. If that battle is not worth fighting or there is no interest in fighting it, then nothing can save Islam from itself. It will bring about its own doom by continuing to attack the West with arms wholly insufficient to the task.

The Infidel tiger continues to slumber, but it is not-at-all wounded or even mildly taxed by what has gone before. Once awakened, the ferocity with which it will finally lash out is something that Islam’s clergy stubbornly refuses to admit, even to each other. It is this willful ignorance, this abject and absolute refusal to confront reality that endangers Islam most of all. The Muslims’ penchant for conspiracy theories continues to distract their attention from the vital task of reformation. Their own leadership happily redirects any focus away from those gnawing internal issues that endanger Islam most of all. Instead, their warmongering clergy seeks to channel all attention towards combating a far less dangerous enemy than the one lurking within their midst. This intentional oversight will prove most fatal of all. As Islam hastens itself towards benighted delusions of victory, their ill shod boots clumsily tread upon the tiger’s tail.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/04/2007 17:37 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Islam’s true battle for survival is with itself. Their true enemy resides in those whose ceaseless jihadist atrocities are steering the ummah towards oblivion’s precipice. Regardless of how Muslims perceive the West as dar-al-Harb, the only winnable war that confronts them is the one to recapture and then reform their faith.
It seems to me that the Islamic faith is beyond reformation. They are getting more and more violent and want nuclear weapons so that they can hasten the retyrn of the 12th Imam. The 12th Imam is supposed to come at a time when Muslims are close to being anihilated. They know the West will never initiate an anihilation program so they will make us do it in retaliation for their more violent efforts to establish a World Wide Caliphate. To reform Islam would require educating the greater mass of Muslims to a degree the Imams will not let happen. An Educated populace is much harder to control and that's what it is really all about. Control. Look no further than the burnings of schools in Afghanistan and Southern Thailand for the recipe.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/04/2007 18:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Zenster, nice polemic there. Makes me wish I had said it.

We must become wolves!

If it is to be war or submission, let it be war for I, at least, will not submit.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 03/04/2007 18:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Deacon, you are correct, I believe.

The only way that the mullahs and Islam can flourish in a scientifically literate and educated society is through violence and by keeping those within it scientifically illiterate and uneducated.

Violent religions flourish by keeping the worshippers uneducated except via the pulpit (yes, Christianity has been guilty of this in the past). The long arm of the "preacher" and his moral authority must be maintained as absolute.

Actual educational schools and education are maintained as only secondarily or tertiarily important to religious schools and education and the individual's moral and religious "education" (which is actually indoctrination) in cult-like societies.

One's moral and religious "education" are paramount above all other things - in some cases including your own family and friends.

This is seen strongly in the madrassa system and the movement against western religiosity or freedom of expression in western societies.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 03/04/2007 19:00 Comments || Top||

#4  true all - the major support base of the MMs is the uneducated and hyper-religious
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2007 19:35 Comments || Top||

#5  I can see that Zenster has been practicing!
Posted by: Chiper Threreger8956 || 03/04/2007 19:50 Comments || Top||

#6  "I think it's safe to remain confident that one little meeting isn't going to smooth over something in excess of a millennia's worth of sectarian slaughter."

Yea, well, it's 1375 years ago since those pricks took over the actual line of succession to Muhammed.

Err, uh, but yea. Whose counting, right?
Posted by: garbagecowboy || 03/04/2007 19:57 Comments || Top||

#7  I understand the meeting went badly and Nutjob left in the middle of the night.
Posted by: Brett || 03/04/2007 21:21 Comments || Top||

#8  heard same .... sounds good
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2007 21:43 Comments || Top||

#9  See also IRAN NEWS/IRAN WS > IRAN'S SPECIAL OPERATIONS IN IRAQ - Nutshell, Iran is in Iraq for its own National-Regional Security + Geopoltical ambitions/interests. Plus, YNET > IRAN'S OBESSION TO DESTROY - Iran is NOT just threatening to destroy Israel + others but ISRAEL > IS DE FACTO PROMISING TO DO SO ONCE THEY ACQUIRE SUFFICIENT TECH = NUKE WEAPONS CAPABILITY(S). Israel > WAR NOW,; or world can engage in PC UNO Sanctions which in all likelihood WILL NOT STOP OR HINDER IRAN FROM NUKES, i.e. FIGHT IRAN LATER WHEN ITS MIL = NUKE ABILITIES ARE MUCH STRONGER. IOW, SAUDIS AREN'T SAFE - Iran Officios also refuse to confirm or deny Iranian support for a pan-Arab Accord recognizing Israel in exchange for Israel's withdrawal back to pre-1967 Six Day War borderlines.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2007 22:32 Comments || Top||


Britain
Muslims accused of rape, pressure, threats, blackmail to make student girls convert
Follow-up on a story already evoked here. Comments at link are interesting, if only becasue there's mention of copts in egypt, and the practise of "grooming" (sexual predation upon and/or forced prostitution of young non-muslim girls, sometimes as young as preteens) in the UK.
Nicola Woolcock
Radical Muslims are being accused of blackmailing young Hindu and Sikh women into changing religion in “groomed conversions” on campuses.

The men aggressively target vulnerable university students by using the fear of being dishonoured to force them to convert, community leaders have told The Times. Many befriend their victims, then threaten to tell their families that they are in a sexual relationship with a Muslim. Some teenagers are said to have been drugged and photographed in compromising positions.

Many comply because they are so afraid of shaming their parents or being rejected by their communities.

Police are aware of the problem. Sir Ian Blair, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, recently attended a Hindu conference where the issue was raised. But police are powerless to act unless incidents are reported. This rarely happens because the stigma of a child converting to Islam often silences Sikh and Hindu parents.

Community elders say that the practice is widespread but their estimates vary from 100 annual incidents nationwide to 120 in the past few months in the South East alone.

Ranjeet Singh, of the British Organisation of Sikh Students, said: “There are cases of aggressive techniques, of drugging and of rape, of the man taking photos and blackmailing the girls into converting.

“They know that by dishonouring the girls, they will make their families disown them. In the past few months there have been about 120 cases in Luton and the South East. It’s a problem that has been going on for a while, but a lot of people are reluctant to come forward and there’s not much being done.

“It’s not the whole Muslim community, it’s extremist individuals. Some girls are very innocent and vulnerable when they go to university. Then they are befriended by these men. We know of some whose lives have been ruined.”

Some of the young women have suffered physical violence. Others have said that the men claimed to have been paid to convert their victims.

Ramesh Kallidai, secretary-general of the Hindu Forum of Britain, said: “The main problem is these girls feel very vulnerable and intimidated by these men. They talk about it to their friends, who tell us what is happening, but don’t want to speak to the police. Some families are completely broken apart by it. It becomes difficult to admit in public.

“One girl was beaten up when she refused to convert. She is petrified. She only spoke to one other girl about it, who contacted us.”

One Sikh organisation sets up telephone helplines and arranges visits to temples to raise awareness of the problem. Its leader, who wishes his identity and the group’s to remain anonymous, said: “This is very much taboo. These issues have been going on for many years and come to the boil at university.

“I deal with many very serious cases. There are horrific examples of abuse and blackmail, with men saying they’re going to tell the girl’s parents. Then they’re pretty much trapped. We call it groomed conversions. Some of the girls go through with it because they feel they have no choice.

“The men start a relationship with them, with the agenda of conversion down the line. Sometimes they take a picture of her in a compromising position. It’s so easy with camera phones. An 18-year-old girl ends up in a situation that she can’t control.”

He said that the extremists were exploiting the Sikh community’s tendency to treat conversion as a grave dishonour, adding: “That’s a cultural mindset we need to tackle. It’s the worst thing you could face — worse than bankruptcy or losing your job.”

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman confirmed that officers had attended a Hindu security conference last month. She said: “We are aware of it as an issue that concerns the Hindu community but are not aware, without further research, of any specific incidents reported to police. We would encourage anyone who has been targeted in this way to seek help.”
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 03/04/2007 07:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “They know that by dishonouring the girls, they will make their families disown them. ..."

For which I blame the Hindu and Sikh families. In its own way, this is just as bad as the castrati Swedes who do nothing while their daughters are gang-raped. If a young women was drugged, raped and photographed in New Jersey I would expect every man in the extended family to offer support and sympathy to her after permanently addressing the problem at the source.
Posted by: Excalibur || 03/04/2007 8:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Although he is not mentioned here, Mr Dinesh DSouza needs to read this article and recognize what one treacherous effect of his "align with traditional cultures" proposal is. Giving free rein to "traditional" cultures that shame women in order to wiggle out of confronting the dangers in Islam is going to sow misery among women and is not going to help our 21st century clash. The Muslims in this story are exploiting Sikh and Hindu cultural "traditions" re shaming women and are still forcing Islam on others, not smiling in accommodation of others' religion or "traditional" values.
Posted by: Jules || 03/04/2007 8:12 Comments || Top||

#3  The solution to much of this crapola is twofold. First, parents need to change their daughters' perceptions of the world, that it is not their fault if they are menaced, threatened or attacked.

Nor do they lose ANY honor by resisting.

Second, that small pocket knives become as common with girls as they used to be with Boy Scouts. And with the expectation that if they ever feel threatened, that they draw and use those pocket knives to protect themselves.

A 2" slash will stop most attackers, but is very hard to prove is life-threatening. Plus, it is usually obvious where and how the cut was made if it was offensively or defensively done.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2007 9:25 Comments || Top||

#4  When are we going to start reading about an epidemic of young Muzzy men found hanging by the neck from trees? Or of Muzzy mosques blown apart by car bombs? Or of Muzzies fleeing to avoid the justified outrage of non-Muzzy inhabitants seeking to repay some of the violence they've received at Muzzy hands? All this stuff is long overdue. I'm absolutely amazed there haven't been more Baruch Goldsteins yet. I suspect it won't be long before we see more of his ilk.
Posted by: mac || 03/04/2007 14:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Catch the young boys that are doing this. Break their hands across the knuckles, about halfway between knuckle and wrist, and at the wrist. Use something HARD AND HEAVY to do it. Drop them off on a dark, lonely back road. Their hands will be completely useless by the time they can get help. A handless man in a Muslim society is about as low as a person can get in that society. Let them live out THEIR lives feeling the same shame those girls they target feel.

It won't stop the behavior, but it will cause the Muslims to feel less threatening and more threatened - a position that will make a few of them leave to go back where they came from. It also reflects poorly on their family that they have someone who cannot do his own ablutions before prayer, can't follow Muslim "traditions", or the rules of the Koran.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/04/2007 17:49 Comments || Top||


Europe
Islam could become Europe's dominant religion
As the Anglican Communion continues to fight over homosexuality and as church attendance plummets, experts say that Islam is well on its way to becoming the most dominant religion in Europe, according to an article posted on CNSNews.com.

Meeting in London this week in their General Synod, leaders of the Church of England continued to debate the role of gay and lesbian priests. This follows another meeting in Tanzania in which Anglican bishops issued an official warning over the matter to the Episcopal Church – the American wing of the communion. Meanwhile, research studies show that church attendance in Britain is dropping precipitously, as well as across the whole of Western Europe. According to Christian Research, a British think tank, only 6.3 percent of the British population in 2005 attended Christian services on a weekly basis.

But while church attendance on the continent reportedly shows a similar decline, the Muslim population has exploded, said the CNSNews.com article. It quoted experts as saying that in recent years, young European Muslims had been returning to the faith which their parents observed only sporadically, becoming much more devout. Christian Research said that in 35 years, there would be twice as many Muslims in mosques on Friday as there are Christians in churches on Sunday. Europe has seen a wave of Muslim immigration over the last century, and some experts predict they will become the dominant population by the end of this century. In January, a British government-sponsored think tank projected that Muslims would be the majority population of Germany by 2046. Brent Nelson, an expert on European Islam, told the Cybercast News Service that it was hard to guess what a Europe with a large Muslim minority would look like. However, he said that unless Christians and Muslims as a whole learned to compromise and live together, there was a danger of a clash between the two cultures. A professor of religious studies at Glasgow University said she thought increasing numbers of Christians would convert to Islam in the coming years.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "a British government-sponsored think tank projected that Muslims would be the majority population of Germany by 2046."

Whaaa? I don't think so. Germany's population is 82 million, which includes 3 million Turks, by far its largest group of Muslims.

Besides, other studies have shown that a Muslim population of 10-15% is all it takes to fuel perpetual low-intensity jihad. And from the standpoint of pervading public consciousness and driving policy, Islam is already Europe's dominant religion.
Posted by: exJAG || 03/04/2007 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Ye, so?
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/04/2007 3:30 Comments || Top||

#3  There was an article or two here not long ago about the quietly explosive growth of American-style evangelical Christianity in Western Europe -- quite under the radar because Europeans count only their traditional churches in fading opposition to believing Muslims. I think the stories were about the situations in the Netherlands and England, where it's the young people who are turning away from the fancy church buildings and toward a living faith, choosing to spend their weekends praying together rather than getting drunk at clubs. A separate stream of Christian faith apparently is growing there with the increasing number of Christian refugees from Muslim oppression in Africa, the Middle East and key bits of Asia. (That traditional 20% of Palestinian Christians has fallen to something like 6% in a generation -- all those people had to go somewhere, ditto Lebanon, Iraq, Sudan, etc).
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2007 5:06 Comments || Top||

#4  nd from the standpoint of pervading public consciousness and driving policy, Islam is already Europe's dominant religion.

exJAG is exactly right.

trailing wife: I pray you are right too.
Posted by: Excalibur || 03/04/2007 8:07 Comments || Top||

#5  "...studies have shown that a Muslim population of 10-15% is all it takes to fuel perpetual low-intensity jihad."

exJAG, do you have links to any of these? I ask because I've been suspecting more and more that what we take to be so-called "moderate Muslims" are merely Muslims who are vastly outnumbered by the non-Muslims in the societies they live in (such as in the USA), and need to keep a low profile to avoid conflict; but once their numbers reach some critical mass, they quickly turn un-moderate.

Any sources would be appreciated.

Posted by: Dave D. || 03/04/2007 9:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Dave, I don't have the links offhand, but when I get a chance I'll dig 'em up.

I did some informal research myself, if you'd like to give it try. First, I looked up all 56 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the UN's jihad bloc. Then I looked up the religious distribution for each countries' population, using the CIA World Factbook. Then correlate it with what you know from Rantburg U. about a countries' "jihad index."

It's not a precise analysis, but I did a long blog post on my findings here, if you'd like to read more.
Posted by: exJAG || 03/04/2007 10:21 Comments || Top||

#7  most dominant?

Hard to take an article seriously if the author and editors are that ignorant.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/04/2007 10:31 Comments || Top||

#8  This is not a religious issue so much as a demographic one. One sentence from a very interesting article

The birthrate of Muslims being three to four times higher than that of non-Muslims, the proportion of children, teenagers, and young adults in urban France is not 5-11 percent but a very impressive 33 percent or so.


And if we see oil revenues start to decline, there could be lots more immigrants adding to the mix. I have no doubt there will be significant tribal violence in Europe at some point in the next two decades. Whether it results in Islamic dominance I doubt. But not because they won't try.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/04/2007 10:43 Comments || Top||

#9  Have more babies and have a backbone and you might win.
Posted by: Jesing Ebbease3087 || 03/04/2007 10:43 Comments || Top||

#10  Thanks exJAG, looks like good stuff. I'll check it out.
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/04/2007 11:32 Comments || Top||

#11  We have been discussion European demographics for some years now on the Burg. Most people think that Islam is a religion, but it is an ideology, using religion as a tool for the Just Plain Joes to get the ideology on.

Dave D. brings us to the heart of the matter: the issue of the existance of the Moderate Muslim™. If he/she exists, why don't they speak up? If it is intimidation, why is society allowing extremists to intimidate the Moderates?

Even the President believed or voiced the existance or the hope of the existance of the Moderate Muslim™.

By framing Islam in the cloak of a religion, decent folks are very reluctant to attack it, so terrorists can keep pushing and taking ground by waving the religious discrimination card.

Well, it's been 5 years+ since 9-11 and the Moderate Muslims™ are pretty quiet, so that says something there.

Based upon all this history since 9-11, I think that the existance of the Moderate Muslim™ is a myth, and is preventing society from dealing with the issues that are necessary for our survival.

ExJAG: thanks for the research.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/04/2007 13:57 Comments || Top||

#12  I always believed you should only have children if you can afford them.

Muslims dont think in this way!!!!!

They are told by Imans in the west to populate fast so they can take over!!!!
Posted by: Kojo Chomock4440 || 03/04/2007 14:26 Comments || Top||

#13  Demographics aside, Islam is already the dominant religion in Europe, as far as influence over politics and culture go. All the other religions are milquetoast compared to Islam.
Posted by: xbalanke || 03/04/2007 14:54 Comments || Top||

#14  They are told by Imans in the west to populate fast so they can take over

This is common in religions. The Pope says the same thing, but most Christians are smart enough to ignore it. So do the Mormons, but fewer ignore it.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/04/2007 14:57 Comments || Top||

#15  You're absolutely wrong about the Mormons, NS.
Posted by: mac || 03/04/2007 16:27 Comments || Top||

#16  All the other religions are milquetoast compared to Islam.

I dunno. The Orthodox don't really strike me as milquetoast. Remember Bosnia, Kosovo, etc? You know - the wars we took the wrong side on?
Posted by: Secret Master || 03/04/2007 17:05 Comments || Top||

#17  Willy Clinton's a queer.
Posted by: wxjames || 03/04/2007 17:15 Comments || Top||

#18  You're absolutely wrong about the Mormons, NS.

Which part? Abstaining from contraception or ignoring rules?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/04/2007 17:31 Comments || Top||

#19  Secret Master: I dunno. The Orthodox don't really strike me as milquetoast. Remember Bosnia, Kosovo, etc? You know - the wars we took the wrong side on?

Point taken. I should have qualified that by limiting it to western Europe (you know: Old Europe). They, I believe, are all but cooked.
Posted by: xbalanke || 03/04/2007 18:29 Comments || Top||

#20  Nimble Spemble, you're wrong about the Pope, too. Not about accepting all the children God chooses to give one, but that the reason is to conquer the world by population pressure. Only the Muslims choose such a goal.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2007 20:34 Comments || Top||

#21  The Pope says the same thing, but most Christians are smart enough to ignore it.

And if any one knows ignorance, it's our own Nimble Spemble.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/04/2007 20:51 Comments || Top||

#22  It's also "kinda revelatory" how quickly you will lump all Rantburgers into a sweeping generalization. Back to your hole, troll.
Posted by: Darrell || 03/04/2007 21:34 Comments || Top||

#23  Darrell - good man :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2007 21:44 Comments || Top||

#24  Both parts, NS. Mormons are not prohibited by any tenet of the religion from using birth control. They are advised to have "as many children as they feel they can properly raise."
Posted by: mac || 03/04/2007 21:45 Comments || Top||

#25  Back to your hole, troll. short and sweet.. LOL!
Posted by: RD || 03/04/2007 22:16 Comments || Top||

#26  That America opposed and ended up stopping the Serb genocide of Bosnian Muslims is possibly one of the best things it has done in the last 50 or 60 years -- it's kinda revelatory that it's the one and only American intervention in living memory that Rantburgers oppose.

Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 03/04/2007 21:24 Comments || Top||


Islam Can't Be Reformed, Says Founder of Ex-Muslim Group
Mina Ahadi, founder of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims, spoke with DW-WORLD.DE about her organization's goals, Germany's approach to the Muslim community and the unreformability of Islam.

You founded the so-called Central Council of Ex-Muslims with 30 other people. How did this idea begin, and what are your goals?
Currently there are 150 of us. Just 20 days ago, there were only 30 of us. For about a year, we've been meeting with various human rights organizations, like the International League of Non-Religious and Atheists. We've always tried to maintain a unified voice when topics like honor killings, headscarves or religion classes come up in Germany. We've tried to present our position, but there've been very few opportunities to do so. The media hasn't taken us seriously. There's a stereotype that all people from Iran, Turkey and so on are all the same and are all Muslims. So we decided to find a way that is provocative and gets people's attention, because we don't agree with the policies of the German government or with those of the Muslim organizations.

So you have political goals?
We're waving a flag that says, "Stop! Not in our name." We don't believe that the Muslim organizations represent the people from Iran, Turkey, Iraq and so on. They themselves are the problem. They represent political Islam in Germany.

Secondly, we don't think that the German government should start anything with the Muslim organizations. If you look closely, you'll see that these organizations represent a policy of separation between natives and foreigners, Muslims and non-Muslims. They say that Muslims and Islam are unique. They represent shari'a law, a law that is hostile to women, children's headscarves, religions classes, and honor killings in Germany.

They cannot talk about integration. Integration means that people are people and should have an opportunity to stay and live here -- regardless of where they come from, which religion they belong to and what color skin they have. These people's main identity is a religious identity, and that's an entirely different direction than integration.

Is it necessary to turn away from Islam in order to support the struggle of your organization?
On the one hand, there is political Islam, which is why we have the political demand that the Muslim orgnizations not get involved in politics or everyday life.

Secondly, there is the religion itself. We believe that many people in European countries have managed to be critical and put religion back into the private sphere and not make it a political issue. I don't think that Germany is a purely secular state. Church and state are quite separate here, although I'm very critical of religion in Germany.

Our organization seeks to educate people that they don't need religion to be happy in this world, but that religion can theoretically be a restriction. We have turned away from religion and from Islam because Islam is very problematic and is a movement that meddles in our lives and in politics. That's why we've decided to take this path and be provocative, and we've been successful.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mina will find, like Hirsi Ali has found, that the feminist left has a particular hatred of woman who ask tough questions about Islam and who expose the conditions of the muslimah.
Posted by: mhw || 03/04/2007 0:26 Comments || Top||

#2  1. Water is wet.
2. Death is certain.
3. Aids in incurable.
4. The sun is hot.
5. There is no known cure for the common cold.
6. Islam cannot be reformed.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/04/2007 5:11 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't think that Germany is a purely secular state. Church and state are quite separate here, although I'm very critical of religion in Germany.

Religion is a branch of the German government, and has been since the 30 Years War (? is that the one I mean?) when by treaty each principality became exclusively the religion of the reigning prince. Catholic priests, Lutheran ministers, and Jewish rabbis are on the government payroll, and Church buildings and synagogues are maintained at government expense.. and the government informs them what may and may not be said. Registered members of those religions pay an extra tax for this, assessed on the income tax form. This is why the German government is so keen to train up its own mullahs, rather than allow outsiders from the Old Country to handle it. Presumably the situation is the same in France.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2007 5:28 Comments || Top||

#4  If the German government is smart, the ones they train up will be telling their Muzzy congregations that it really IS okay to convert to something else and that they'd be wise to do so before they get deported back to country of ethnic origin.
Posted by: mac || 03/04/2007 13:13 Comments || Top||

#5  All of the religious scholars who work out of the politically correct box, believe that the al-Qaeda ideology is identical to that of that proclaimed by the founder of the Muslim murder cult.
Posted by: Sneaze || 03/04/2007 14:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Because taqqiya so rightly condemns Islam to a complete lack of credibility, mere reformation will not be enough to salvage it. For the last few years I have maintained that only Radical Reformation can save Islam. If they wish to harbor even the least hope of survival, moderate Muslims must rise up and begin stacking dead jihadis behind their mosques like so much cordwood.

Anything less is highly unlikely to satisfy the West's suspicions. Islam's perfidy has so permeated its reputation that moderation no longer carries sufficient weight to convince an intelligent person of any genuine sincerity whatsoever. A Spanish journalist once said:

After a while, silence is no longer consent. To remain silent is to lie.

The deafening silence of moderate Muslims has forced upon themselves the obligation of pursuing Radical Reformation. That elements within Islam actually exhort or threaten moderates to remain silent only seals their fate. Silence merely allows the jihadis to play for time as they continue steering Islam towards its final destruction. The silence of moderate Muslims has become the lie of taqqiya and its only destination is the silence of the grave.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/04/2007 18:22 Comments || Top||

#7  Zenster:

If Muslims told the truth, they would admit massive support for al-Qaeda. Bin Laden is a clone of the phony "prophet" Mohammad and Muslims hide their belief in the authenticity of the al-Qaeda ideology.
Posted by: Sneaze || 03/04/2007 22:48 Comments || Top||

#8  moderate muslims aren't really silent

they cry out to the infidel that their coreligionists don't understand Islam.

Of course they don't dare speak out to these coreligionists because, guess what, jihadists kill people who criticize them
Posted by: mhw || 03/04/2007 22:59 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Was Lancet study fraudulent, or simply erroneous?
The statistics made headlines all over the world when they were published in the Lancet in October last year. More than 650,000 Iraqis – one in 40 of the population – had died as a result of the American-led invasion in 2003. The vast majority of these “excess” deaths (deaths over and above what would have been expected in the absence of the occupation) were violent. The victims, both civilians and combatants, had fallen prey to air-strikes, car bombs and gunfire. Body counts in conflict zones are assumed to be ballpark – hospitals, record offices and morgues rarely operate smoothly during a war – but this was ten times any other estimate. Iraq Body Count, an antiwar web-based charity that monitors news sources, put the civilian death toll for the same period at just under 50,000, broadly similar to that estimated by the United Nations Development Agency.

The implication of the Lancet study, which involved Iraqi doctors knocking on doors and asking residents about recent deaths in the household, was that Iraqis were being killed on an horrific scale. The controversy has deepened rather than evaporated. Several academics have tried to find out how the Lancet study was conducted; none regards their queries as having been addressed satisfactorily. Researchers contacted by The Times talk of unreturned e-mails or phone calls, or of being sent information that raises fresh doubts. Iraq Body Count says there is “considerable cause for scepticism” and has complained that its figures had been misleadingly cited in the Lancet as supporting evidence.

One critic is Professor Michael Spagat, a statistician from Royal Holloway College, University of London. He and colleagues at Oxford University point to the possibility of “main street bias” – that people living near major thoroughfares are more at risk from car bombs and other urban menaces. Thus, the figures arrived at were likely to exceed the true number. The Lancet study authors initially told The Times that “there was no main street bias” and later amended their reply to “no evidence of a main street bias”.

Professor Spagat says the Lancet paper contains misrepresentations of mortality figures suggested by other organisations, an inaccurate graph, the use of the word “casualties” to mean deaths rather than deaths plus injuries, and the perplexing finding that child deaths have fallen. Using the “three-to-one rule” – the idea that for every death, there are three injuries – there should should be close to two million Iraqis seeking hospital treatment, which does not tally with hospital reports. “The authors ignore contrary evidence, cherry-pick and manipulate supporting evidence and evade inconvenient questions,” contends Professor Spagat, who believes the paper was poorly reviewed. “They published a sampling methodology that can overestimate deaths by a wide margin but respond to criticism by claiming that they did not actually follow the procedures that they stated.” The paper had “no scientific standing”. Did he rule out the possibility of fraud? “No.”

If you factor in politics, the heat increases. One of the Lancet authors, Dr Les Roberts, campaigned for a Democrat seat in the US House of Representatives and has spoken out against the war. Dr Richard Horton, Editor of the Lancet is also antiwar. He says: “I believe this paper was very thoroughly reviewed. Every piece of work we publish is criticised – and quite rightly too. No research is perfect. The best we can do is make sure we have as open, transparent and honest a debate as we can. Then we'll get as close to the truth as possible. That is why I was so disappointed many politicians rejected the findings of this paper before really thinking through the issues.”

Knocking on doors in a war zone can be a deadly thing to do. But active surveillance – going out and measuring something – is regarded as a necessary corrective to passive surveillance, which relies on reports of deaths (and, therefore, usually produces an underestimate).

Iraq Body Count relies on passive surveillance, counting civilian deaths from at least two independent reports from recognised newsgathering agencies and major English-language newspapers (The Times is included). So Professor Gilbert Burnham, Dr Les Roberts and Dr Shannon Doocy at the Centre for International Emergency, Disaster and Refugee Studies, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Maryland, decided to work through Iraqi doctors, who speak the language and know the territory.

They drafted in Professor Riyadh Lafta, at Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, as a co-author of the Lancet paper. Professor Lafta supervised eight doctors in 47 different towns across the country. In each town, says the paper, a main street was randomly selected, and a residential street crossing that main street was picked at random.

The doctors knocked on doors and asked residents how many people in that household had died. A person needed to have been living at that address for three months prior to a death for it to be included. It was deemed too risky to ask if the dead person was a combatant or civilian, but they did ask to see death certificates. More than nine out of ten interviewees, the Lancet paper claims, were able to produce death certificates. Out of 1,849 households contacted, only 15 refused to participate. From this survey, the epidemiologists estimated the number of Iraqis who died after the invasion as somewhere between 393,000 and 943,000. The headline figure became 650,000, of which 601,000 were violent deaths. Even the lowest figure would have raised eyebrows.

Dr Richard Garfield, an American academic who had collaborated with the authors on an earlier study declined to join this one because he did not think that the risk to the interviewers was justifiable. Together with Professor Hans Rosling and Dr Johan Von Schreeb at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Dr Garfield wrote to the Lancet to insist there must be a “substantial reporting error” because Burnham et al suggest that child deaths had dropped by two thirds since the invasion. The idea that war prevents children dying , Dr Garfield implies, points to something seriously amiss.

Professor Burnham told The Times in an e-mail that he had “full confidence in Professor Lafta and full faith in his interviewers”, although he did not directly address the drop in child mortality.

Dr Garfield also queries the high availability of death certificates. Why, he asks, did the team not simply approach whoever was issuing them to estimate mortality, instead of sending interviewers into a war zone?

Professor Rosling told The Times that interviewees may have reported family members as dead to conceal the fact that relatives were in hiding, had fled the country, or had joined the police or militia. Young men can also be associated with several households (as a son, a husband or brother), so the same death might have been reported several times.

Professor Rosling says that, despite e-mails, “the authors haven’t provided us with the information needed to validate what they did”. He would like to see a live blog set up for the authors and their critics so that the matter can be clarified.

Another critic is Dr Madelyn Hsaio-Rei Hicks, of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, who specialises in surveying communities in conflict. In her letter to the Lancet, she pointed out that it was unfeasible for the Iraqi interviewing team to have covered 40 households in a day, as claimed. She wrote: “Assuming continuous interviewing for ten hours despite 55C heat, this allows 15 minutes per interview, including walking between households, obtaining informed consent and death certificates.”

Does she think the interviews were done at all? Dr Hicks responds: “I’m sure some interviews have been done but until they can prove it, I don’t see how they could have done the study in the way they describe.”

Professor Burnham says the doctors worked in pairs and that interviews “took about 20 minutes”. The journal Nature, however, alleged last week that one of the Iraqi interviewers contradicts this. Dr Hicks says: : “I have started to suspect that they [the American researchers] don’t actually know what the interviewing team did. The fact that they can’t rattle off basic information suggests they either don’t know or they don’t care.”

And the corpses? Professor Burnham says that, according to reports, mortuaries and cemeteries have run out of space. He says the Iraqi team has asked for data to remain confidential because of “possible risks” to both interviewers and interviewees.
Posted by: Jackal || 03/04/2007 19:50 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fraud. These people are professionals, they know how to conduct a proper survey. For that matter, I could lay out a survey plan reasonably likely to produce fairly realistic results, and I'm only a little suburban housewife without an impressive list of letters after my name... nor before it either. The only other possibility is such gross incompetence that they should never be permitted to work in anything more taxing than private practice.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2007 20:53 Comments || Top||

#2  #1:" "they should never be permitted to work in anything more taxing than private practice cleaning public toilets"

There - fixed that for ya', tw.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/04/2007 21:47 Comments || Top||

#3  It is long past the time when the data should be questioned: it is obviously and patently false.

The questions that should be raised are, "Should these people be facing inquiry for scientific fraud?", and "If evidence of fraud is determined, what civil or criminal sanctions are appropriate?"
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2007 23:02 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Clinton donor wanted by FBI in scheme to funnel money
A Pakistani immigrant who hosted fundraisers in Southern California for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is being sought by the FBI on charges that he funneled illegal contributions to Clinton's political action committee and Sen. Barbara Boxer's 2004 reelection campaign. Authorities say Northridge businessman Abdul Rehman Jinnah, 56, fled the country after an indictment accused him of engineering more than $50,000 in illegal donations to the Democratic committees. A business associate charged as a co-conspirator has entered a guilty plea and is scheduled to be sentenced in Los Angeles next week.

A federal law enforcement source said prosecutors had not dealt with the political committees in conducting their investigation and had no evidence that the committees knew the contributions were illegal. Officials for both committees said they were unaware of the investigation or indictments until they were contacted by The Times, and said they would not keep the donations.

The case has transformed Jinnah from a political point man on Pakistani issues, a man often photographed next to foreign dignitaries and U.S. leaders, into a fugitive with his mug shot on the FBI's "featured fugitives" wanted list. Jinnah's profile peaked in 2004 and 2005 as he wooed members of Congress to join a caucus advancing Pakistani concerns and brought Clinton to speak to prominent Pakistani Americans, lauding their homeland's contributions to the war on terrorism and calling relations with Pakistan beneficial to U.S. interests.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
Abdul Rehman Jinnah
Sen. Barbara Boxer
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Deja vu, anyone?
(Except last time it was China)
Posted by: DMFD || 03/04/2007 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  What? No cattle futures?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/04/2007 9:36 Comments || Top||

#3  I'd look for Abdul in Fort Marcy Park--maybe up along the Pakiwaki border or where Rich went in Europe to escape prosecution.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/04/2007 10:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Southern California? He might be in Mexico. More likely, he's drifting with the current along Baja, down an old mine shaft in the Mojave, or in a shallow grave in some ravine. Take your pick.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/04/2007 14:59 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Soros Buys Halliburton Stock
George Soros has purchased recently two million shares of Halliburton. “The Halliburton shares reportedly went for an average purchase price of $31.30 a share. That puts Soros' total investment in Halliburton at around $62.6 million, or about 2 percent of his total portfolio.” Now, what's interesting is that Soros is out there, $24 million in the last presidential cycle to fund all these 527s and to heap all kinds of criticism on Halliburton. Cheney used to run Halliburton. Soros supported campaign finance reform for years, only to then say that defeating Bush was the central focus of his life, and that's when he sunk the $24 million of his own soft money into the campaign.

You have to wonder what the little nerds at MoveOn.org and the Center for American Progress and John Podesta's group, what are they doing today? They're going to have to manufacture stories that Soros is taking over Halliburton to make sure that it doesn't do what it was doing when Cheney ran the joint. They've gotta be beside themselves. Halliburton has become a buzzword for corruption and lying and deceit as far as the left is concerned, and here's their guru now buying two million shares of Halliburton. It just doesn't get any better than this.
Posted by: Hupack Elmereter5635 || 03/04/2007 18:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Hicks trial 'could be derailed'
DAVID Hicks's trial could be derailed, and possibly prompt his return to Australia, if his lawyer Major Michael Mori is charged with a US military discipline offence.

Maj Mori could be removed from the case after threats from the chief US prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, to charge him under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Fairfax newspapers report.

It would take months for a new lawyer to get to grips with the case and the new military commission process.

Prime Minister John Howard has told the US any action leading to further delays would be unacceptable and would prompt him to demand the return of Hicks, 31, after five years in Guantanamo Bay.

Fairfax reports that the chief US prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, has accused Major Mori of breaching Article 88 of the US military code.

It relates to using contemptuous language towards the president, vice-president, and secretary of defence. Penalties for breaching the code include jail and the loss of employment and entitlements.

Major Mori denied he had done anything improper but said the accusations left him with an inherent conflict of interest.

“It can't help but raise an issue of whether any further representation of David and his wellbeing could be tainted by a concern for my own legal wellbeing,” Major Mori told Fairfax. “David Hicks needs counsel who is not tainted by these allegations.”

Major Mori, who has been to Australia seven times, will seek legal advice. The issue will also have to be raised with Hicks when his legal team next sees him, Fairfax reports.

Colonel Davis said Major Mori was not playing by the rules and criticised his regular trips to Australia. He said he would not tolerate such behaviour from his own prosecutors.

“Certainly, in the US it would not be tolerated having a US marine in uniform actively inserting himself into the political process. It is very disappointing,” he told Fairfax. “He doesn't seem to be held to the same standards as his brother officers.”
Posted by: tipper || 03/04/2007 10:09 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  bout time Mori was called to account. Strip him. I don't worry much about Hicks under Howard's control
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2007 14:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmmmm...shoot Hicks AND the lawyer? Is there a downside?
Posted by: Silentbrick || 03/04/2007 15:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Yes, about freakin time. However, it's not for the prosecutor to threaten disciplinary action; that job belongs to the command. Mori's superiors have been asleep at the wheel.

Mori's state bar should also discipline him, seeing as he created this conflict of interest himself, a easily foreseen possibility.
Posted by: exJAG || 03/04/2007 17:22 Comments || Top||


Expert on Russian Intelligence Shot Outside Home
ADELPHI, Md. - Police are investigating a shooting that wounded a prominent intelligence expert. Fifty-three-year-old Paul Joyal was shot Thursday night outside his house in the 2300 block of Lackawanna Street in Adelphi. Joyal is known for his expertise on intelligence and terrorism and his contacts in the former Soviet Union. He has also been a long-time critic of the the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The shooting came four days after he told "Dateline NBC" that he believes the Russian government was involved in the fatal poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tap tap. Oh good, looks like the surprise meter is working fine. For a second there I thought I saw it move.
Posted by: Mike N. || 03/04/2007 1:59 Comments || Top||

#2  From Fox News:

The shooting appeared to be a random robbery and street shooting, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case told The Associated Press. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person did not have authority to comment on the case.
Posted by: SwissTex || 03/04/2007 11:12 Comments || Top||

#3  That convinces me. No doubt they'll pick up the Takoma Park lacrosse player responsible tomorrow.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/04/2007 11:53 Comments || Top||

#4  I would put nothing past the Russians or any communist for that matter. It took them years to get COL Nick Rowe, but they did. The operative werd here however is "wounded."
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/04/2007 12:03 Comments || Top||

#5  Nick Rowe, his loss was particularly heartbreaking...
Posted by: RD || 03/04/2007 17:46 Comments || Top||


Anti-war demonstration at CMU facility ends in 14 arrests
An anti-war demonstration that resembled a small street circus, complete with a band and trapeze artist, resulted in 14 arrests outside Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center in Lawrenceville yesterday.

Those arrested had blocked 43rd Street near a back door of the center. Police took hours to remove them because they had chained their arms to each other inside PVC pipes.

Six others chained to the front gate were left alone because it was private property and CMU did not ask for them to be removed, police said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's a pity that vomit gas is no longer commonly available. It would be hilarious to see a bunch of chained up protesters throwing up all over each other.

Maybe give them a bunch of vegetarian coffee sweetened with ipecac.

Oh, and try the organic Ex-Lax brownies.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2007 9:31 Comments || Top||

#2  A volunteer arrived with vegan coffee

Whahahahahahahaaaaa.... the picture that comes to mind here... gasp.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/04/2007 9:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Use a taser on one, see if the chain conducts to others next to him, repeat until they WANT to gse out of those chains, bet there's an easy way inside those PVC Pipes.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/04/2007 9:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Given the weather conditions, the authorities should have just hosed them down with water and let hypothermia set in. Then taken their time unhooking the miscreants.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/04/2007 9:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Excellent suggestion, I'm where the air is usualy warm, I forgot about freezing the bastards.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/04/2007 10:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Six others chained to the front gate were left alone because it was private property and CMU did not ask for them to be removed, police said.

LOL! Give that CMU administrator a ceegar! They'll be begging their buds for the keys when Nature calls...
Posted by: PBMcL || 03/04/2007 15:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Typical leftist behavior - irritate the he$$ out of people not involved, do absolutely no good, and yet get that great "feel-good" feeling from "sticking it to the Man", even though all they did was cause a few cops to work overtime.

I've got a bad knee from doing something stupid when I was a teen. It hurts like he$$ quite frequently now. Use an axehandle on their kneecaps, and see how often they participate in these "protests" in the future.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/04/2007 18:11 Comments || Top||


'Millennium bomber' review sought
U.S. federal prosecutors want another chance to seek a stiffer prison term for a man convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport at the turn of the millennium. In a Friday filing, interim U.S. attorney Jeffrey Sullivan of Seattle asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the case of Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian whose 22-year prison sentence was thrown out in January. Ressam was arrested near the U.S.-Canadian border in December 1999 after customs agents found explosives in the trunk of his car as he disembarked from a ferry at Port Angeles, Wash.

Prosecutors said he was intent on bombing the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium. The arrest raised fears of terrorism attacks and prompted the cancellation of New Year's celebrations at Seattle's Space Needle. Ressam was sentenced to 22 years in prison after being convicted of all nine charges. Federal prosecutors, who were seeking a longer sentence, appealed to the 9th Circuit.

But in January, a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based appeals court reversed Ressam's conviction on one of the charges and sent the case back to a lower court to issue a new sentence. The panel also asked the lower court to explain the rationale behind the 22-year term.

The U.S. attorney's office is now seeking a new hearing on the sentence, in front of 15 of the 9th Circuit judges. If the court agrees to take up the case, the government could renew its arguments for a longer sentence, U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Emily Langlie said Friday. "It's always been the government's intention that at any resentencing, we would ask for 35 years," Langlie said.

Defence lawyer Thomas Hillier did not immediately return a phone message left at his office Friday evening. After January's ruling, he said the decision could help combat the government's argument that the original sentence was too lenient. In overturning the single conviction in January, two of the three appellate judges said Ressam was improperly convicted of carrying an explosive while committing a felony: lying on a customs form. The government failed to show the "explosives somehow aided or emboldened" him to provide a false name at the border because he had not intended to detonate explosives at the border when he was arrested weeks before Jan. 1, 2000, Judge Pamela Rymer wrote for the majority.

After his conviction in 2001, Ressam began co-operating with authorities in hopes of winning a reduced sentence. He faced a maximum of 65 years in prison. But Ressam's co-operation came to a halt by early 2003, resulting in charges being dropped against two other alleged co-conspirators.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Pakistan not 'doing enough' to deal with radical Islamists
“Pakistan is not doing enough to secure its borders, and the border regions are a safe haven for radical Islamists whether aligned with Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime or Al Qaeda and its affiliates,” Kathy Gannon, a veteran Islamabad-based Associated Press correspondent, told a discussion forum run by the Council on Foreign Relations.

She wrote, “What’s the answer? Roaring in with all guns blazing, killing lots of people in the hopes that you get a few of the leaders? That hasn’t worked in Afghanistan and it won’t work in the tribal regions. It will make hundreds, maybe thousands more enemies. The problem is that the US put all its eggs in the one basket: the Pakistani military. Why are things so bad? It’s not because the military made an agreement in Waziristanin in 2006. It’s because the military gave a toehold in Pakistan back in 2002 to the very people who are at the root of the Islamic jihadist movement.”

Gannon said that every single party that formed MMA was part of the coalition in Balochistan, as well as the official opposition in the federal government, had a “jihadist wing”. A key component of the ruling religious alliance in the NWFP government, the Jamaat-e-Islami, has sent its followers to Chechnya, Bosnia and northwestern China. Several Al Qaeda men were arrested at the homes of its party workers. In President Pervez Musharraf’s eight years in power, he has not found new civilian partners to replace the radical religious right. “They remain the military’s only partner working to quiet the Pashtun belt of Pakistan,” she added.

The AP bureau chief in Islamabad said the US made allies with the wrong people. She said, “Think back to what happened the last time the US made allies of the Pakistan military. It got September 11. And on the Afghan side, the US has made allies with the mujahideen leaders whose radical Islamic vision is no different than Al Qaeda’s and who have links to Al Qaeda and its affiliates, including the likes of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. These groups were based in northwestern Afghanistan in the early 1990s by the mujahideen government, which offered safe haven when the US was pushing Pakistan to shut down its Kashmiri militant training camps. It just moved them next door to Afghanistan with the support of the mujahideen government there and the same people are back in power today.”

According to Gannon, the situation in deteriorating because of the “political room to manoeuvre given by the Pakistani military when it turned (as it always does) to the religious extremists and sidelined mainline political parties. She said that the solution had to be a political one that put an end to the tribal regions having separate administrations from the state. The tribal area is Pakistani territory and should be subject to Pakistani law.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Council on Foreign Relations

Discussants: Bill Roggio and Kathy Gannon

This link is worth the read if you already haven't. Most of us Rantburgers know of Bill R. and respect his good works and great service. I confess I had only heard of Kathy Gannon a time or two before I read her bit here. [so solly, not very impressed]

Of one fact I am certain:
While multi-tasking in his sleep Fred could put the entire ISI Perv-aeous, One-eye-jacked up Wazoo Talibandit Tribals and Deoband Pashtun Dadullah farking Hek and al-Q Soddy Foggy Bottom Mess STRAIGHT in a paragraph or two.
Posted by: RD || 03/04/2007 1:32 Comments || Top||


'Certain madrassas training militants'
President General Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday that certain madrassas were involved in training militants and would have to be stopped, since they were bringing the name of the region into disrepute. Addressing a gathering at Public Accounts Committee Chairman Malik Allah Yar Khan’s residence in Khunda, Pindi Gheb, Musharraf said, “We (will) have to check this menace through internal unity”, while warning all foreigners in FATA to leave Pakistan. He said there was no place for extremism, terrorism and sectarianism in Pakistan, and the country faced no external danger. He said the government was following a comprehensive strategy to transfer the benefits of economic development to the masses, alleviate poverty, check inflation and provide employment opportunities.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who anyone apart from Saudi miss Pakistan??????
Posted by: Kojo Chomock4440 || 03/04/2007 14:21 Comments || Top||

#2  This problem is easy to fix - A US declaration that an education free of religious / political indoctrination is a human right - oh, wait - most American schools would be in violation too...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/04/2007 15:52 Comments || Top||


Pakistan braces for Taliban backlash after arrest
Pakistan braced for reprisals on Saturday, with police on alert for suicide attacks in the city where a senior Taliban leader was captured this week. The arrest of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, a member of Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammad Omar's inner circle, was disclosed to Reuters by several security officials, though it has not been confirmed by Pakistani authorities.

Extra security forces were deployed at government buildings and public places in Quetta, the southwest city where Akhund was caught on Monday. Police there announced on Saturday the arrest of an Afghan involved in a suicide attack on a courtroom that killed 16 people, including a judge, on February 17. "He told us that there are more suicide bombers in the city who can carry out attacks," Senior Superintendent Police Qazi Abdul Wahid told a news conference in the provincial capital of Baluchistan, where some 600,000 Afghans are living.

Pakistan has been in the grip of a security scare, as jihadi groups sympathetic to al Qaeda and the Taliban have carried out a series of suicide and bomb attacks in cities around the country following an air strike against compounds used by militants in the Waziristan tribal area on the Afghan border.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
MULLAH OBAIDULLAH AKHUNDTaliban
Senior Superintendent Police Qazi Abdul Wahid
Vice President Dick Cheney
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pakistan has certainly pissed off its "base".
Posted by: Excalibur || 03/04/2007 8:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Just ask George for help, Perv. I'm sure he's willing to bomb half your "people" back to the early stone age, if you ask for it. We can do that without missing a beat anywhere else. I'm sure that within 24 hours of giving the US the go-ahead,

50 Taliban training camps in the Tribal Areas will be bombed to extinction.

Every "fundamentalist" muzzy madrassah has received a JDAM greeting,

Quetta becomes uninhabitable by anything, even cockroaches.

The Afghan border will be clearly demarcated by a blue glow that can be discerned even in the daytime.

All you've got to do is ask...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/04/2007 18:19 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Religious Sabian Mandaeans Face Oppression From Muslims In Iraq
The Sabian Mandaeans - one of the oldest religious groups in the world - are facing extinction, according to its leaders.
They claim that Islamic extremists in Iraq are trying to wipe them out through forced conversions, rape and murder.

The Mandaeans are pacifists, followers of Adam, Noah and John the Baptist. They have lived in what is now Iraq since before Islam and Christianity.

More than 80% have been forced to flee the country and now live as refugees in Syria and Jordan. Even there they do not feel safe - but they say western governments are unwilling to take them in.

There are thought to be fewer than 70,000 of the Sabian Mandaeans spread across the world - only 5,000 are left in Iraq.

Mazen's legs are peppered with machine gun wounds
Nine-year-old Selwan likes watching cartoons and playing football. But he is too scared to leave his flat. The other children tease him. He has burns all down the side of his face and on 20% of his body.

He was kidnapped by Islamic militants who forced him to jump into a bonfire - because he is Mandaean.

Now his family lives in a tiny flat in a slum in Damascus.
I meet Luay. He is too scared to be identified and does not want to use his full name.

He was dragged off the street by armed men and forcibly circumcised - a practice not allowed in the Mandaean religion.
He is 19 and is now unlikely ever to find a bride from his own faith.

Worse, he was forcibly converted. That means in the eyes of those same extremists if he now declares himself Mandaean he is apostate.

That makes him a traitor to Islam, who may be murdered. He says he will not be safe in any Muslim country.

Then there is Enhar, raped by a gang of masked men in front of her husband - because she would not wear a veil.

Mazen used to be a prosperous jeweller. Now he lives in a cramped flat, with his wife and children. Water drips through the ceiling.

His legs are peppered with machine-gun wounds, he can barely walk.

Shoaki wears a Manchester United hat and shows me the scars where a gang beat and cut him with a knife - he watched his brother murdered in front of him.

Mandaean elders use words like annihilation and genocide - they believe Islamic militants, both Sunni and Shia, offer them two choices - convert or die.

"Some will not consider us people of the book... they see us as unbelievers, as a result our killing is allowed," says Kanzfra Sattar, one of only five Mandaean bishops left worldwide.

He believes they are a litmus test for modern Iraq - in a secular state these doctors, engineers and jewellers would thrive.

Kanzfra Sattar is one of only five Mandaean bishops left
In the country as it is without law and in the grip of religious extremism, he fears they will be destroyed.

"We are small in numbers, we ask all the governments of the world to extend a hand of help," Kanzfra Sattar says.

He says he wants the West to accept his people as refugees.
I ask him what will happen if they do not - he replies simply: "Our ethnic minority and our ancient religion will die off."
The UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, says there may be as many as a million Iraqis who have fled to Syria.

"The numbers that will be resettled are tiny compared to the very large numbers that are here," says Laurens Jolles, the head of a UNHCR team. He acknowledges that the Mandaeans will just have to "wait in line", with other vulnerable groups.

Roughly two million Iraqis have fled to Syria, Jordan and Turkey. But there are no plans to welcome large numbers to the West.

The US has offered places to 7,000, while Britain says it will consider every case "on its merits".

So the Mandaeans wait in line.

Shoaki puts it more simply: "Here, we live in despair."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2007 20:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Fate Of Kirkuk To Be Decided
The security situation in Iraq's northern oil rich-city Kirkuk has deteriorated over the past few weeks as a constitutional deadline approaches to determine the fate of the city.

The city is home to a mix of Kurds, Turkomens and Arabs, with the population of each hotly disputed.

Bombings on Feb. 3, 6 and 16, and three more Feb. 21 rocked the disputed city. The bombings coincided with a move by an Iraqi government committee to implement Article 140 of Iraq's constitution that seeks to reverse demographic changes brought about in Kirkuk by the regime of former president Saddam Hussein.

Under Saddam, tens of thousands of Kurds and Turkomens were deported from Kirkuk and were replaced by Arab settlers from the south to tighten the regime's control over the northern oil fields of the country.

That move eroded the traditional dominance of Kurds. But the new move to reverse the changes threatens also the Turkomens, a local people of Turkish origin.

"Without doubt the situation is very bad, and it has been become worse recently," Nazhat Abdulghani, a senior official of the Iraqi Turkomen Front (ITF) told IPS.

Iraq's new constitution sets out a three-phase plan to "normalise" the situation in Kirkuk.

In the first phase, Kurdish and Turkomen refugees will return to Kirkuk, and Arab settlers will be given financial incentives to return to their areas of origin. The Iraqi government is offering each of these Arab families 15,000 dollars and a piece of land. The returning settlers can transfer jobs to the areas they return to.

Also, in this first phase, predominantly Kurdish districts that were cut off from Kirkuk, like Kalar, Chamchamal and Kifri east of Kirkuk, will be re-attached to Kirkuk province. This phase is due to be completed by April this year.

Those settlers who do not want to leave will not be forced to, but will lose the right to vote, and denied other forms of participation in official decision-making.

The second phase provides for a census. That will then be followed in the third and last phase by an official referendum by the end of this year in which the population will vote on the destiny of the province.

Officials told IPS that the questions to be raised in the referendum have not been agreed yet. Some speak of a choice whether Kirkuk should be a part of the northern autonomous Kurdistan region or under the central government. Others say there must be a third choice whether Kirkuk should stand as a separate federal region similar to Baghdad.

The International Crisis Group, an international organisation that works on conflict resolution, recommended in a report released last summer that Kirkuk must stand "as a stand-alone federal region falling neither under the Kurdish federal region nor directly under the federal government for an interim period."

Based on Article 53 of Iraq's post-war interim constitution, many Turkomens and Arabs also demand the status of an independent federal region for Kirkuk. But that is strongly opposed by Kurds.

The debate on Kirkuk's fate has gone beyond Iraq's borders. Turkey, that has a sizeable Kurdish population, vehemently opposes Kurdish control of Kirkuk, fearing it would embolden its own Kurds.

At a meeting with Iraq's Shia vice-president Adel Abdul-Mahdi, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Teyyip Erdogan called for postponing the referendum on Kirkuk. "The conditions for holding the referendum in Kirkuk have not materialised yet," Erdogan told Abdul-Mahdi.

With outside and inside pressures increasing, some Kurdish circles now speak of a compromise to appease the city's Turkomens, who would be the second major ethnic group after Kurds if and when Article 140 is implemented.

"We are ready for dialogue with the ITF or any Turkomen party on Kirkuk," Arez Abdullah, member of the Kurdistan regional parliament in Arbil told IPS.

A Kurdish compromise with Turkomens could be in the form of some power-sharing formula and "safeguarding their national and cultural rights," Abdullah said.

"For example, they can run the administration in the areas where they constitute the majority of the population...and can have more effective participation in Kurdistan government institutions and parliament."

Kurdistan parliament speaker Adnan Mufti said last year that Turkomens should be given autonomy in areas where they make up most of the population. That statement was intended to encourage Turkomens to vote for bringing Kirkuk within the Kurdistan region.

With ethnic tensions rising, and given the short period of time left and the security problems on the ground, many doubt the Iraqi government's ability to implement Article 140.

"From a practical point of view, implementing Article 140 is impossible; there are many technical problems on the ground which have to be worked out," said Abdulghani.

He said his party is working "first for annulling, second postponing and third modifying" the constitutional article.

Many Iraqis see Kirkuk as a time bomb that might go off at any moment and drag Iraq into a real civil war. Several urge a delay in implementing Article 140. Kurds see it differently. "The real bomb will explode if Article 140 is not executed," said Abdullah.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2007 20:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Kurdish control of Kirkuk is a done deal. Nothing short of an invasion will take it away from them, despite what the media may think.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/04/2007 21:42 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Nearly 90% of Palestinian youth deny Israel's right to exist
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 03/04/2007 11:38 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I tapped the meter, no movement. Anti Jewish rhetoric, hatred and indoctrination begins before they are weened. By the time they are three years of age they are chanting Jewish hatred memory verses that would make Hitler blush.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/04/2007 12:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, these people are as predictable as winter snow in Colorado. I used to sail with a guy who was quite well informed and had his entire lifetime supply of tact still untouched since he'd never used any of it. He was fond of commenting that "ragheads are the lowest form of human life." After seeing decade upon decade of their continuing and unabated idiocy I've got to agree with him. The world would be a better place without them, or at least without them infected with that murderous moon god death cult they use for a religion.
Posted by: mac || 03/04/2007 13:07 Comments || Top||

#3  It's what feed them in school from their indoctrinators teachers. Same thing going on in our schools these days when dealing with the environment, capitalism, or evil white boys Republicans.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/04/2007 13:33 Comments || Top||

#4  The headline had me thinking, how many Isreali's deny Palestines right to exist?
Posted by: Charles || 03/04/2007 13:39 Comments || Top||

#5  One of the lessons this morning at church:
"The Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates....'" Genesis 15, v. 18.
Abraham's descendants include both the Jews and the Arabs, as I understand. Seems like somebody in Probate screwed up the heirship determinations along the way - it's pretty clear the Jews get at least part of a sizeable chunk of land between Egypt and Iraq.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/04/2007 13:46 Comments || Top||

#6  MAC - your friend got it right. Regardless of indoctrination, the paleos have to be stupid as the shadow at the bottom of a fence post hole to fail to recognize that the Israelis are living (right next to them) in relative peace and prosperity while allen is doing nothing nada zip for the islamofascist crowd. They've been sold - and willingly bought - a horrendous bill of goods...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/04/2007 14:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Nice that Hillary got her comments in. I seem to recall her sucking face with Suha before. Oh, that's right! She's running for election, and temporarily needs the Joooos
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2007 14:44 Comments || Top||

#8  #4 You'd be surprised, Charles.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/04/2007 15:32 Comments || Top||

#9 
Reply to #4. If Israel denied the Palestinians' right to exist, this would be over in ten minutes.
Posted by: Master of Obvious || 03/04/2007 15:55 Comments || Top||

#10  er... I don't think Israel is legit

I mean how many 'dual citizens' are there in US, Canada, and Europe?!
Posted by: Bruce from MS || 03/04/2007 18:23 Comments || Top||

#11  why am I not surprised, Bruce from MS?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2007 18:25 Comments || Top||

#12  You're showing your ignorance again, Bruce dear.

The UN voted to make Israel a country in May, 1948, balanced by the Palestinian country then know as Transjordan, but now known simply as Jordan. This compares to most of the other countries in the Middle East, whose borders were written on a couple of napkins by the colonial powers of Great Britain and France, with no consultation of the people residing there. Hence the stupidity of a country like Iraq locking together three major and mutually hating religious/ethnic groups, plus the various minorities for all three to persecute.

You would earn more respect if you actually learnt even a little about the subject before giving vent to an opionion to an audience that actually knows quite a bit.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2007 19:21 Comments || Top||

#13  what the hell...

Bruce what the hell does the topic of dual citizenship have to do with the paleo retards who reject the real world and the certain sovereignty of Israel?

You've already proven that you aren't ready to tackle more than one topic at a time. If you can do a little one first [single topic] without floundering.

/Bruce from the planet of MS
..Malignantly Stupid
Posted by: RD || 03/04/2007 19:55 Comments || Top||


Israeli PM faces tough rebuke on Lebanon war
A stinging report on the government’s handling of the Hezbollah rocket barrage against northern Israel during last summer’s war in Lebanon is due next week, public radio reported on Saturday. State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss will submit an “extremely severe” report to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday after a lengthy investigation into the government’s handling of the north’s rocket-battered residents both before and during the 34-day war, the radio reported. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who saw his approval ratings plummet in the war’s aftermath, refused to be interviewed for the report and declined even to answer written questions submitted by Lindenstrauss, the radio report said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Olmert should step down for the sake of Israeli national security.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 03/04/2007 3:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who saw his approval ratings plummet in the war’s aftermath, refused to be interviewed for the report and declined even to answer written questions submitted by Lindenstrauss, the radio report said.

Stonewalling arrogance - get him outta there
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2007 7:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Olmert's a worthless, gutless jerk who is undoubtedly the worst PM Israel has ever had. If the Israelis are going to deal with the problems they face now in a way that leaves their ship of state any hope of survival, Olmert should be the first piece of detritus jettisoned.
Posted by: mac || 03/04/2007 14:01 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
Iraq's Mandaeans 'face extinction'
By Angus Crawford BBC News, Damascus

The Sabian Mandaeans - one of the oldest religious groups in the world - are facing extinction, according to its leaders.
They claim that Islamic extremists in Iraq are trying to wipe them out through forced conversions, rape and murder.

The Mandaeans are pacifists, followers of Adam, Noah and John the Baptist.

They have lived in what is now Iraq since before Islam and Christianity.

More than 80% have been forced to flee the country and now live as refugees in Syria and Jordan.

Even there they do not feel safe - but they say western governments are unwilling to take them in.

Victim voices

There are thought to be fewer than 70,000 of the Sabian Mandaeans spread across the world - only 5,000 are left in Iraq.

Nine-year-old Selwan likes watching cartoons and playing football.

But he is too scared to leave his flat. The other children tease him.

He has burns all down the side of his face and on 20% of his body.

He was kidnapped by Islamic militants who forced him to jump into a bonfire - because he is Mandaean.

Now his family lives in a tiny flat in a slum in Damascus.

I meet Luay. He is too scared to be identified and does not want to use his full name.

He was dragged off the street by armed men and forcibly circumcised - a practice not allowed in the Mandaean religion.

He is 19 and is now unlikely ever to find a bride from his own faith.

Worse, he was forcibly converted. That means in the eyes of those same extremists if he now declares himself Mandaean he is apostate.

That makes him a traitor to Islam, who may be murdered. He says he will not be safe in any Muslim country.

'Convert or die'

Then there is Enhar, raped by a gang of masked men in front of her husband - because she would not wear a veil.

Our ethnic minority and out ancient religion will die off
Kanzfra Sattar, Mandaean bishop

Mazen used to be a prosperous jeweller. Now he lives in a cramped flat, with his wife and children. Water drips through the ceiling.

His legs are peppered with machine-gun wounds, he can barely walk.

Shoaki wears a Manchester United hat and shows me the scars where a gang beat and cut him with a knife - he watched his brother murdered in front of him.

Mandaean elders use words like annihilation and genocide - they believe Islamic militants, both Sunni and Shia, offer them two choices - convert or die.

"Some will not consider us people of the book... they see us as unbelievers, as a result our killing is allowed," says Kanzfra Sattar, one of only five Mandaean bishops left worldwide.

'Wait in line'

He believes they are a litmus test for modern Iraq - in a secular state these doctors, engineers and jewellers would thrive.

Kanzfra Sattar is one of only five Mandaean bishops left

In the country as it is without law and in the grip of religious extremism, he fears they will be destroyed.

"We are small in numbers, we ask all the governments of the world to extend a hand of help," Kanzfra Sattar says.

He says he wants the West to accept his people as refugees.

I ask him what will happen if they do not - he replies simply: "Our ethnic minority and our ancient religion will die off."

The UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, says there may be as many as a million Iraqis who have fled to Syria.

"The numbers that will be resettled are tiny compared to the very large numbers that are here," says Laurens Jolles, the head of a UNHCR team.

He acknowledges that the Mandaeans will just have to "wait in line", with other vulnerable groups.

Roughly two million Iraqis have fled to Syria, Jordan and Turkey. But there are no plans to welcome large numbers to the West.

The US has offered places to 7,000, while Britain says it will consider every case "on its merits".

So the Mandaeans wait in line.

Shoaki puts it more simply: "Here, we live in despair."
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 03/04/2007 09:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Arm yourselves, if the police/authorities won't protect you, you MUST protect yourself. Do not hesitate to kill, your attackers don't.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/04/2007 10:26 Comments || Top||

#2  muslimes, the cancer on humanity.
Posted by: RD || 03/04/2007 18:02 Comments || Top||

#3  But.. but... but....

Christian Radicals are just as BAD!

Posted by: Rosie O Piehole || 03/04/2007 18:14 Comments || Top||

#4  This is one of those times I've repeatedly mentioned when "good men fail to act".

If we fail to act here to help these people "evil will prosper".

Damnit! When will we wake the friggin' hell up and start acting like the force for good we should be!




Posted by: FOTSGreg || 03/04/2007 19:14 Comments || Top||

#5  I believe it was WINSTON CHURCHILL whom was quoted as saying, "Nations or Peoples that choose to fight to the last shall rise again, those that prefer to die tamely/quietly shall not", or words to that effect. LIVE AS A SLAVE, DIE AS A SLAVE, BE REBORN AS A SLAVE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2007 20:48 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran touts nuclear prowess with new banknote
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 03/04/2007 09:50 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder how much a 50,000 rial note will be worth AFTER the reactor and Nation cease to exist? Buck? maybe two?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/04/2007 10:31 Comments || Top||

#2  as a curiousity and explanation why the Persians perished? Priceless
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2007 15:49 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder how much a 50,000 rial note will be worth AFTER the reactor and Nation cease to exist? Buck? maybe two?

Several hundred on eBay, since there won't be many of them left after the country itself is broken into pieces. Iran doesn't have much time left to get its sh$$ straight, before "someone" decides to do it for them - much more brutally. I'm all for destroying anything and everything that keeps the mullahs in power.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/04/2007 18:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Yeah, and I'd bet their also trying to figure out how to print the $20 bill.
Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 || 03/04/2007 18:35 Comments || Top||

#5  SPIEGEL > iff I'm reading correctly, warns that the new banknotes may be tied to Iran's new diplo-economic ventures in LATIN/SOUTH AMERICA. See also IRAN.WS > IRAN'S DEEPENING PRESENCE IN THE AMERICAS. Iran, despite its histoire as a sponsor of Islamist terror, is starting up new embassies in Latin/South Americas - is differens from RUSSIA-CHINA whom merely copperate or collude on regional organized crime. IRAN TERROR vz COMMIE ORGANIZED CRIME/MAFIAS > CAN'T YOU JUST FEEL THE SAFETY, AMERIKA???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2007 22:21 Comments || Top||


Nations fail to agree on Iran sanctions
Diplomats from the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany failed on Saturday to settle all their differences over a second UN sanctions resolution against Iran for its failure to halt its nuclear program, Army Radio reported on Saturday night.

The failure came after diplomats from the six powerful countries had hammered out language for the new sanctions on Teheran after it refused to suspend its uranium enrichment program. Speaking in Washington on Friday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United Nations Security Council would likely use the draft language to begin work on a new resolution this week.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good old trusty Surprise Meter.
Posted by: Danking70 || 03/04/2007 0:24 Comments || Top||

#2  This would be a great intro story for a spy movie.
Posted by: Jesing Ebbease3087 || 03/04/2007 10:37 Comments || Top||


Ahmadinejad: Iran, Saudis provide for Muslim world's needs
In his first meeting Saturday with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz in Riyadh, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran and Saudi Arabia are obliged to help meet the needs of the Islamic world. 'Iran and Saudi Arabia are two great and powerful Islamic countries and accordingly have numerous mutual obligations and responsibilities in the Islamic world and Middle East,' Ahmadinejad said in a statement on the website of the Iranian presidential office. 'The eyes of hope of Islamic nations are focused on these two countries, expecting from us to settle their problems and cover their needs, and therefore bilateral ties should be far beyond relations by just two neighbouring countries.'

Ahmadinejad further said that in the current critical juncture, 'coordination between Iran and Saudi Arabia could strengthen identity and greatness of the Islamic world.' The Iranian president thanked the Saudis for their efforts during pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina, attended every year by millions of Muslims worldwide including more than 80,000 Iranians. He called for expansion of ties in the fields of business, energy, culture and theology.

The Iranian website quoted Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz as saying that Saudi Arabia is the 'second home country for Iranians.'

'Today, the Islamic world has many enemies who want to sow discord between the two countries, but our two nations are Muslims with a united belief and therefore enjoying good relations,' Abdullah said. 'We have the duty to confront the enemies with wisdom and reason and not allow them to realize their aims of sowing discord.'

Abdullah regretted the short duration of Ahmadinejad's visit and said that there had been 'numerous issues' that the two states needed to discuss. According to the report, the two officials continued their talks behind closed doors.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  RIAN/OTHER > IRAN-NORTH KOREA WILL NOT DISARM UNLESS ARE COMPENSATED. Okay, so Iran, etc may NOT disarm nor reform, WHICH IFF TRUE + DUBYA-USA ALSO DOES NOT CONCEDE = WAR/AMER HISROSHIMA(S) IS INEVITABLE = Behooves Iran /Radical Islam to attack [Washington + US NPE] first, ala RADIO ISRAEL.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2007 3:31 Comments || Top||

#2  IRAN-NORTH KOREA WILL NOT DISARM UNLESS ARE COMPENSATED

Fine by me, let's "Compensate" them with an equal quantity of High Explosive, equal to or greater than any nucler weapon can generate.
We'll also be sure to distribute the explosives areund equally so nobody feels cheated.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/04/2007 9:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran and Saudi Arabia are obliged to help meet the needs of the Islamic world.

Let's see, those "Needs" would be?
1.A Kalishnikof and 1000 rounds of ammo for each man
2.Every third man gets an RPG.
3 Every woman gets a 6 inch razor sharp Dagger,
4.Every town gets a Backhoe and 10 Coffin makers.
5.Food is not needed, water either
6.A huge loudspeaker system for each Mosque (Awards for whichever claims the most burst eardrums)
7.No medical supplies, (They're anti-islamic-product of the hated west and JOOOOS)
8. Cat D-9s to build a berm around each town and city, (This keeps them Holy, No possible contact with "Infidels")
ome back in 3 years to colonize the empty spaces after all "Holy Followers"
Have ascended to "Paradise.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/04/2007 10:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Supplies world terrorism? Pretty much.
Posted by: Jesing Ebbease3087 || 03/04/2007 10:46 Comments || Top||

#5  A pact to collaborate on arms and terrorist supply lines? Ring ring-Palestine calling. Don't forget the money.
Posted by: Jules || 03/04/2007 11:39 Comments || Top||

#6  The Iranian president thanked the Saudis for their efforts during pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina... and begged them in the holy name of the prophet, NOT to authorize landing and overflight rights for the inevitable allied bombing campaign.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/04/2007 11:59 Comments || Top||

#7  Both Saudi and Iran fund terriorism worldwide so they have that in common at least!!!!
Posted by: Kojo Chomock4440 || 03/04/2007 14:31 Comments || Top||

#8  I think we should help by providing Iran and Saudi Arabia with nukes. Only, I get to pick the delivery method. I choose dropping them, fully armed, from 40,000 feet from the belly of a B-52, B-1, or B-2. I suppose 250 would be enough...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/04/2007 18:37 Comments || Top||

#9  The Sauds and Ayatollahs do provide most Muslim needs. Of course, these are: terror financing and conspiracy theory making.
Posted by: Sneaze || 03/04/2007 19:18 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2007-03-04
  US and Pakistani agents interrogate Taliban leader
Sat 2007-03-03
  Chechen parliament approves Kadyrov as president
Fri 2007-03-02
  Dozens of al-Qaeda killed in Anbar
Thu 2007-03-01
  Judge rules Padilla competent for trial
Wed 2007-02-28
  Somali police arrest four ship hijackers
Tue 2007-02-27
  Taliboomer tries for Cheney
Mon 2007-02-26
  3 French nationals murdered in Soddy ministry
Sun 2007-02-25
  Boomer tries for Abdul Aziz al-Hakim
Sat 2007-02-24
  3 Pak bad boyz dead when their package blows up
Fri 2007-02-23
  U.S. bangs five bad boyz in Iraq gunfight
Thu 2007-02-22
  Another poison gas attack in Iraq
Wed 2007-02-21
  Brits to begin withdrawing troops
Tue 2007-02-20
  USS Stennis Now On Station
Mon 2007-02-19
  64 killed in Delhi-Lahore train boom
Sun 2007-02-18
  Iraqi, Coalition forces detain 21 suspected terrs


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