PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, February 9 (RIA Novosti) - The gas and ash trail of the Kluchevskoi volcano erupting in Kamchatka stretches for over a hundred kilometers. According to the Kamchatka experimental seismological center, the trail can be clearly seen in satellite shots provided by the Alaska volcano observatory.
Lava masses are flowing along the western slope of the volcano, its temperature reaching about 1,100 degrees Celsius. The sharply changing temperature added to the snow and ice causes powerful phreatic explosions discharging ash. Lava fountains and volcanic bomb blasts can be seen at the summit crater. According to experts, the lava flowing down the Kluchevskoi slopes will inevitably give way to powerful mudflows that are usually 500 meters wide at the front and are flowing east of the Klyuchi village 30 km away from the foot of the volcano. The mudflows carrying huge stones with a diameter of up to three meters and tree trunks pose a serious threat to people and equipment on their way. The Kluchevskoi volcano, the highest in Eurasia (4,822 meters high), began erupting on January 17. I have seen a marked increased in volcanic activity over the last couple of weeks. I have no idea what it mean and I pretty sure nobody else does. What I do know is that major volcanic eruptions occur quite frequently - every hundred years or so.
#5
Volcanoes cause climate cooling becuase of all the dust and debris they inject into the atmosphere. The effect is marked and rapid. A large volcanic eruption would cool the world's climate within a couple of weeks. The 'year without a summer' in the nineteenth century was caused by a volcanic eruption.
#7
A really big volcanic eruption like the one that happened 70,000 years ago would be unimaginably catastrophic. Much of the world would be made unsuitable for agriculture and drastically changed in the rest.
Human activities may have averted the next ice age. This conclusion from recent research is sure to make global warming alarmists cringe. Ongoing human activities during the past 8,000 years likely have served to prevent us from falling into an ice age, says William Ruddiman, former chairman of the University of Virginia environmental sciences department and his research team in Quaternary Research Reviews.. "Without any anthropogenic warming," they write, "earth's climate would no longer be in a full-interglacial state [warm period] but be well on its way toward the colder temperatures typical of glaciations." The article has a couple of interesting graphs that show how CO2 and methane levels diverged from long term trends 8,000 and 5,000 years ago respectively, which seems to correspond with the advent of agriculture and then animal husbandry.
#8
This has got to be wrong. No changes occurred until Bush assumed control of the world's climate in January 2001. It's been all downhill since then.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/10/2005 19:22
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#9
This reminds me of one Larry Niven's novels that is online in a downloadable form--Fallen Angels. Situated in near future, sci environuts get blamed for causing an ice age and unfortunately, public opinion has turned violently against scientists and science in all forms as a consequence.
#12
I can't recommend Fallen Angels. It struck me as pretty sloppy and self-indulgent and larded with "in-references". They had too much fun writing it--they've done much better. Nice description of the Greens, though.
Posted by: James ||
02/10/2005 19:50
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#13
Sobiesky - Re: Vegans... Require them to take Beano as a Federally Mandated Daily Supplement.
Secret Rove Memo:
Once we've got them eating Beano, we buy GSK via a front company and we begin adding Soma to the formula. Gradually, we ween them from CNN with the VR Moron News (indistinguishable from the original) and then give then a taste of wireheading. It won't be long until they're begging for a permanent connection... soon they're meat puppets who don't reproduce. Viola!
#15
It appears to me from looking at that map and chart that, if we cut back on global warming, a lot of those blue states will get covered in glaciers. It just might be worth it.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/10/2005 21:11
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A WELSH rugby fan cut off his own testicles to celebrate Wales beating England at rugby. Geoff Huish, 26, was so convinced England would win Saturday's match he told fellow drinkers at Leigh Social Club: "If Wales win, I'll cut my balls off." Ya gotta love those hardcore fans...
Friends at the club in Caerphilly, south Wales, thought he was joking. WRONG!
But after the game Mr Huish went home, severed his testicles with a knife, and walked 200 metres back to the bar with the testicles to show the shocked drinkers what he had done. Woah! Think I'll be passing on dinner tonight, Nigel...
Police said he had a history of mental problems. Mental problems, alcohol, knives and sporting events. A bad combination.
Wales's 11-9 victory at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff was their first home win in 12 years. Great! Maybe they'll send him a tshirt or... something.
The man was rushed to hospital after the incident.A local said the man was on medication and should not have been drinking. Investigative journalism at it's finest.
A Gwent Police spokeswoman said yesterday: "We received a call from the ambulance service at approximately 9pm on the 5th to inform us of a situation at the Leigh Social Club in which a man had indeed severed his own testicles." These are his, right? Nobody else is missing any? Just making sure...
She said the man was taken to Heath Hospital but could not confirm his condition. My bet? Not too good.
#4
Shouldn't he get a Darwin Award for this? I mean, ok, he's alive, but he ain't adding to the gene pool any time soon. He should at least get an honorable mention.
A woman who ripped off her ex-boyfriend's testicle with her bare hands has been sent to prison.
Strong little wench, ain't she?
Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage when Geoffrey Jones, 37, rejected her advances at the end of a house party, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
Hell hath no fury, etc...
She pulled off his left testicle and tried to swallow it, before spitting it out. A friend handed it back to Mr Jones saying: "That's yours."
"Thanks, I hate to break up the set...oh,wait.."
Monti admitted wounding and was jailed for two-and-a-half years. Sentencing Monti, Judge Charles James said it was "a very serious injury" and that Monti was not acting in self defence. The court heard that Mr Jones had ended his long-term but "open relationship" with Monti towards the end of May last year.
"open relationship", he was shagging everything in sight
The pair remained on good terms and on 30 May she picked him up from a party in Crosby and went back for drinks with friends at Mr Jones's house.
You knew alcohol was involved
An argument ensued and Mr Jones said there was a struggle between them. In his statement, Mr Jones said she grabbed his genitals and "pulled hard".
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
He added: "That caused my underpants to come off and I found I was completely naked and in excruciating pain." The court heard that a friend saw Monti put Mr Jones's testicle into her mouth and try to swallow it. She choked and spat it back into her hand before the friend grabbed it and gave it back to Mr Jones. Doctors were unable to re-attach the organ.
A moment of silence as we say goodbye to a fallen soldier
In a letter to the court, Monti said she was sorry for what she had done. She said: "It was never my intention to cause harm to Geoff and the fact that I have caused him injury will live with me forever. I am in no way a violent person."
Huuummmm, I believe Geoff would have something to say about that, when he stops screaming in pain.
The letter added: "I have challenged myself to explain what has happened but still I just cannot remember. This has caused much anguish to me and will do for the rest of my life."
Not as much as Geoff, but then again, he'll always remember you
Posted by: Steve ||
02/10/2005
4:27:20 PM ||
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#1
"I am in no way a violent person."
Shitty impulse control, though...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/10/2005 16:52
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#2
It's so hard to find a girlfriend that swallows.
Posted by: Geoffrey Jones ||
02/10/2005 16:59
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#3
Well, not sure you had this type of swallowing on mind.
#5
Maybe Scott Bobbit can be of assistance??!!**
Many advances are being made in the field of
neuro surgery, I'm sure the right doctor can work
a miracle*** (some have brains in their pants)
Check out Adam and Eve as a last resort***'
Andrea
Posted by: Andrea ||
02/10/2005 17:06
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#6
This is exactly why I always secure mine with duct tape.
Posted by: Dar ||
02/10/2005 17:06
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#7
He got lucky, he could be twofer--eunuch in body and spirit.
#13
Woman or not..... If someone did that to me, they'd have to scrape them off the floor with a squeegee. She would've found herself "instantly" beaten to death. Any woman who takes the, "men don't hit women" advantage thing this far,....has voided any moral contract between the sexes.
As for the dude......hell, he's half nuts!
Posted by: Tom Dooley ||
02/10/2005 22:48
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#14
When your ex rips one of your testicles off and you find yourself "completely naked and in excruciating pain", you might not be up to beating her to death. Hang down your head, Tom Dooley.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/10/2005 22:55
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Since this story requires registration, I am posting the entire news article referred in Mudville Gazette: Rescued Egyptian Hostages. The low-riding car, traveling through Baghdad, caught 1st Lt. David M. Lucas' attention. A car bomb, he thought.
It was about 4 p.m., almost time for his platoon to stop patrolling for the day, but Lucas, a Farragut High School graduate, asked the driver of his Humvee to cut off the suspicious vehicle. The three other Humvees in his platoon followed. When soldiers surrounded the car, two of the occupants ran away. The third stayed put, rifles pointing his way. After a quarter-mile chase on foot, the soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division, weighed down by some 100 pounds of gear, caught one of the men; the other escaped. Still, the threat of a car bomb remained. Lucas asked one of the captives to open the car's trunk, "so if it was a bomb we would not be caught in the blast."
There was no bomb. But there were two men "tied up and blindfolded." Lucas and his fellow soldiers didn't know it at the time, but they had rescued two of the four Egyptian technicians who had been kidnapped early Sunday in western Baghdad, according to the Associated Press. Intelligence obtained from that rescue led to the release of the two other Egyptians, Lucas said.
The lieutenant, who turned 27 last month, brought the story to Knoxville Monday afternoon, e-mailing his wife, Erica, his parents, John and Carol, and other close relatives and friends. His subject line was "good day," a little understated but characteristic of a man described by his family as modest and matter-of-fact. Most of Lucas' e-mails home, at least those to his wife, are short, a quick "I love you" or "I'll call you." He saves most of the details for handwritten letters or phone calls, she says. But this time, it seems, the news was too good to wait. In a 12-line e-mail, Lucas detailed the day he described as "interesting."
"[T]urns out that these guys are the egyptians that were kidnapped yesterday and we just made a headsup play," Lucas wrote. "[S]o we done good tonight and actually made a difference."
In a subsequent e-mail to the News Sentinel, Lucas provided additional details of the rescue, which he said involved 18 other soldiers and an interpreter, all on patrol. "Once the doors and trunk were open, we discovered the two men bound and gagged in the trunk," he wrote. "As you can imagine, the two men in the trunk were extremely happy to be rescued and very angry at their captures. We had not heard reports of kidnap victims yet, but we knew we had something. Needless to say, we were not too happy with the men once we found the men inside the trunk, but that all balanced out with the good feeling of helping two people who really needed it. So in the end it was a very good day."
A very good day, indeed. Lucas has had much worse. He and other soldiers spent Christmas Day recovering the bodies of seven family members killed when a truck, carrying butane gas, exploded near the Jordanian Embassy on Christmas Eve. Lucas told his father, John, a West Point graduate who fought in Vietnam, about that day, too. "He (David) said that the bomber specifically targeted the area to do the maximum damage to civilian residences," John Lucas, a Knoxville attorney, wrote in e-mail to family and friends. "Seeing things like this puts lost luggage and airline delays in a different perspective."
Although David Lucas hails from a military family - his two grandfathers served in World War II - his father never expected him to join. "When he was in high school, he had long hair down to his midback," he said. "It never occurred to me he would want to go in the United States Army."
But David Lucas did. He enlisted in the Army after graduating from Farragut in 1996. He completed his three years and then decided to go to college at Florida State University in Tallahassee. There, he enrolled in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). The once unlikely soldier now wanted to be an officer. In 2000, Lucas met Erica, who, like him, was majoring in international relations. Her father was in the Navy. "I was about to go into a party and I didn't even make it in. He pulled me aside," she recalls. "Then I found out he was Army, and it didn't deter me. It was kind of exciting." The two married in June 2002. She was 21. He was 24.
On June 17, 2004, David was deployed to Iraq from his station in upstate New York. The couple had just begun painting their house and tearing up the carpet when he got his orders. Today, Erica Lucas is substitute teaching in Knox County and is living with her in-laws. Checking e-mail is her lifeline. "It's literally the highlight of my day," she said. "I never used to be a big computer person."
Monday's e-mail was especially gratifying. "Like he said in his e-mail, it was a day he made a difference," John Lucas said. "These guys were scheduled to be beheaded, probably."
Later this month, the family will be reunited for the first time in eight months. Lucas is scheduled to return home on a two-week leave. "I am just looking forward to seeing my wife and family," Lucas wrote in an e-mail sent to the News Sentinel Monday night - 2 a.m. Tuesday in Baghdad, just two hours before he had another patrol duty. "All I want is two weeks of peace and quiet with the ones I love."
Posted by: ed ||
02/10/2005
4:26:00 PM ||
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#1
After a quarter-mile chase on foot, the soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division, weighed down by some 100 pounds of gear, caught one of the men;
It's like an episode of COPS, except of course, on COPS it's a 100 pounds of doughnuts.
What a great story. Too bad they didn't have an embedded.
According to CNN, all the embeds have been killed and eaten.
Seriously, this is a great story. I suspect there are many more like it. Nice that stuff like this is finally starting to slowly trickle in thru the quagmire-obsessed mainstream news.
PAUL LOCKYER: One of America's most outspoken critics of past Middle East peace deals is pessimistic about the ability of the Palestinian Authority to control violence in the wake of the proclaimed ceasefire. no! no! this time it's different because, um, I'll have to get back to you on that.
Dr Daniel Pipes is the director of the think tank the Middle East Forum and was nominated by President George W. Bush to the United States Institute of Peace in 2003.
Dr Pipes says the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas is playing for time by agreeing to the ceasefire because it hasn't given up the idea of destroying Israel.
Daniel Pipes is speaking to Hamish Fitzsimmons.
DANIEL PIPES: The new leadership on the Palestinian side is saying violence hasn't worked, terrorism has been counterproductive, we are going backwards rather than forwards as a result of it, so it's time to stop it. and yet he STILL needs to convince the palis of that
In other words it's a tactical decision, and it's a correct tactical decision, but it's merely a tactical decision, it's not saying that we accept Israel and we're going to live in harmony with Israel. It's saying violence at this time is counterproductive.
HAMISH FITZSIMMONS: But given the rapidity that this deal was reached after Mr Abbas gaining control over the Palestinian Authority, do you think that signals that he is serious about peace?
DANIEL PIPES: He is serious. He has been talking for two-and-a-half years about the need to end the violence, and so it's not surprising that he's made this his first priority. Whether he can actually clamp down on violence is one question, and then what his purposes are is another question. actually, there's no question about it. he CAN'T clamp down on violence
I believe his purpose is in order to get more benefits from the Israelis in order to be stronger to fight them later on. I mean, it's purely tactical. I've heard this argument before. But I'm not sure how they would ever expect to "fight the Israelis later on." With their own pali state, Israel would no longer be fighting terrorism - it would be fighting another nation, with the rules of war more clearly articulated. Bombing cities would be acceptable. And palis would never be able to build a fighting force like Israel has. Am I missing something?
HAMISH FITZSIMMONS: Is your sense of pessimism shared by many in the US, and particularly in the Bush administration?
DANIEL PIPES: No, there is a widespread feeling of elation that the logjam has broken, Arafat is out of the way, there's real progress.
In other words, the consensus approach is that the Palestinians have accepted Israel, and now it's just a matter of getting the circumstances correct, getting the mood right, getting the deals in place, and everything will follow.
And my conclusion from the Oslo round of diplomacy between 1993 and 2000 is that it's a more profound problem. In other words, the general view is that Oslo didn't work. Everyone agrees it didn't work. But the reasons are rather superficial — Arafat's personality, not paying enough attention to public opinion, Israelis increasing their presence on the West Bank.
But I don't see those as so important. I see what really is important is a reluctance on the Palestinian side to give up the long-held dream of destroying Israel. THAT is true, no matter what happens
PAUL LOCKYER: Middle East commentator Daniel Pipes speaking to Hamish Fitzsimmons.
#2
The Paleo government has to crackdown on and disarm the militants and I see no sign of that occuring. Unless and until that happens, this is going nowhere. Its just wishful thinking.
#3
PlanetDan, Abbas has long believed that the Palestinians can peacefully destroy Israel using two weapons:
1. Population: Palestinian wives used to produce 7-9 children each. The number has now dropped to about 2.5, or about the same as Israeli wives, but the Palestinians haven't acknowledged the drop. But with the previous high population growth, Abbas planned to simply crowd the Jews off the map.
2. International pressure: Much of the world automatically supports the Palestinians over Israel. Every time. Regardless of the issue. Abbas is counting on this world pressure to overcome U.S. support of Israel, and to force the Israelis to sign on to increasingly deleterious Accords and Processes and... until slice by slice like a salami (Arafat's image, actually) they allow themselves to be negotiated out of existence.
#5
Pipes sounds awfully pessimistic here, but I see where he's coming from. If Abbas is being as half-assed as Pipes thinks he is regarding a long-term peace with Israel, he might have a reason for it other than hoping to lay low until they can push Israel into the sea. It is also possible that Abbas didn't want to go too far in proposing long-term peace in order to save face within the larger Arab world.
That being said, my money is on Pipes anyway.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
02/10/2005 22:01
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#6
Am I missing something?
With their own state, the Palestinians also control their own trade, import/export, embassies, seat at the UN, etc.. Everything any other terrorist-state can do with little interference.
Tens of thousands of Iranians have braved blizzards to attend rallies marking the 1979 Islamic revolution. The government had urged people to turn out to show support for its nuclear programme amid pressure led by the US. President Mohammad Khatami told them Iran would become a "burning hell" for any country that invaded it.
Meanwhile, in Berlin, 1,000 or more Iranian exiles marched in protest, demanding democratic change in their home country. The rallies were held to mark the toppling in 1979 of the shah and the return of late leader Ayatollah Khomeini.
The biggest demonstration in Iran took place in the capital Tehran's snowy Azadi square, where tens of thousands gathered to hear an address by their president. Mr Khatami told them US "threats" of military action were "just part of the psychological war and the consequence of their failures". He said: "All the people of Iran are united against any attack and any threats. Any invader will find Iran to be a burning hell for them." The crowds turned out despite the city being virtually paralysed by heavy snowfalls in its worst winter for decades. The BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran says those in power want to show they have genuine popular support, and make it far more difficult for the Americans to topple the regime.
The counter-demonstration in Berlin went ahead despite originally being banned for alleged links with the exiled People's Mujahideen opposition, which is branded a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union. A German court overturned the ban. Demonstrators marched from western Berlin to the Brandenburg Gate, carrying signs in French and German calling for democracy in Iran and supporting the Mujahideen's exiled co-leader, Maryam Rajavi. Some of them said they wanted a peaceful revolution, but other marchers called for an invasion to remove the theocratic government from power.
US President George Bush has refused to rule out military action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons - though he also emphasised the role of diplomacy. Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. Mr Khatami said on Thursday: "We give our guarantee that we will not produce nuclear weapons because we are against them and do not believe they are a source of power." But he added: "We will not give up peaceful nuclear technology."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
3:54:43 PM ||
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#1
the 10s of thousands are the people on the mullah's payrolls
I do like the part about it being a heavy snowfall in the worst winter in decades. It reminds me of Al Gore giving a Jan 03 speech about global warming on the one of the coldest days to hit NYC in decades.
#2
Iranians in Tehran brave the worst winter weather in 34 years to hear Khatami promise that any invader will find Iran to be a burning hell. He's lucky they didn't start doing welcoming cheers for The Great Satan.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/10/2005 21:05
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A veteran civil rights lawyer was convicted Thursday of crossing the line by smuggling messages of violence from one of her jailed clients a radical Egyptian sheik to his terrorist disciples on the outside. The jury has been deliberating off-and-on over the past month in the case of Lynne Stewart, 65, a firebrand, left-wing activist known for representing radicals and revolutionaries in her 30 years on the New York legal scene. The jury deliberated 13 days in all. Stewart faces up to 20 years in prison on charges that included conspiracy, giving material support to terrorists and defrauding the U.S. government. Stewart sat stoically in a courtroom filled with her supporters, who gasped when the verdict was read. The trial focused attention on the line between zealous advocacy and criminal behavior by a lawyer. Some defense lawyers saw the case as a government warning to attorneys to tread carefully in terrorism cases.
The jury also convicted a U.S. postal worker, Ahmed Abdel Sattar, of plotting to "kill and kidnap persons in a foreign country" by publishing an edict urging the killing of Jews and their supporters. A third defendant, Arabic interpreter Mohamed Yousry, was convicted of providing material support to terrorists. Sattar could face life in prison and Yousry up to 20 years.
Stewart was the lawyer for Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind sheik sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for conspiring to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and destroy several New York landmarks, including the U.N. building and the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels. Stewart's co-defendants also had close ties to Abdel-Rahman. Prosecutors said Stewart and the others carried messages between the sheik and senior members of a Egyptian-based terrorist organization, helping spread Abdel-Rahman's venomous call to kill those who did not subscribe to his extremist interpretation of Islamic law. At the time, the sheik was in solitary confinement in Minnesota under special prison rules to keep him from communicating with anyone except his wife and his lawyers. Prosecutor Andrew Dember argued that Stewart and her co-defendants essentially "broke Abdel-Rahman out of jail, made him available to the worst kind of criminal we find in this world terrorists."
Stewart, who once represented Weather Underground radicals and mob turncoat Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, repeatedly declared her innocence, maintaining she was unfairly targeted by overzealous prosecutors. But she also testified that she believed violence was sometimes necessary to achieve justice: "To rid ourselves of the entrenched, voracious type of capitalism that is in this country that perpetuates sexism and racism, I don't think that can come nonviolently."
A major part of the prosecution's case was Stewart's 2000 release of a statement withdrawing the sheik's support for a cease-fire in Egypt by his militant followers. Prosecutors, though, could point to no violence that resulted from the statement. Videotape of prison conversations between Stewart and the sheik also were played for jurors recordings the defense denounced as an intrusion into attorney-client privilege.
A New York defense lawyer was convicted on Thursday of aiding terrorism by helping a client send violent messages to militant followers in a case that critics say could hinder the defense of future terrorism suspects.
Lynne Stewart, 65, a feisty defender of the poor and unpopular, was accused in the closely watched case of violating an agreement made with the U.S. Justice Department to limit contact between her client, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, and the outside world.
#8
In the spirit of what Mrs. D said, while Stewart is awaiting her appeal, would it be possible for her guards to place the warden's panties on her head? You know, that way she'll feel like part of the gang she likes to run with...
#9
A New York defense lawyer was convicted on Thursday of aiding terrorism by helping a client send violent messages to militant followers in a case that critics say could hinder the defense of future terrorism suspects
#10
badanov, I hope that you are wrong, but in the right direction.
I hope that it sinks all possiblity of cohesive defense of true terrorists. Leaving them without recourse to communicating messages to coordinate attacks from within prison or escapes.
You simply did not take it far enough, badanov.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/10/2005 16:12
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# 13 Mojo you are right- a lawyer has no privilage to break the law. It is said
"a lawyer can be the biggest law breaker of them all". which is why so many do not like to hire a lawyer or recommend one! Who was Ms. Stewart defense counsel? I doubt she will win an appeal
or new trial etc. I hope that she was NOT WRONGFULLY CONVICTED or simply painted a criminal at her trial- which happens to so many defendants. Our prisons are filled with innocent citizens.***
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea ||
02/10/2005 17:13
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#16
# 13 Mojo you are right- a lawyer has no privilage to break the law. It is said
"a lawyer can be the biggest law breaker of them all". which is why so many do not like to hire a lawyer or recommend one! Who was Ms. Stewart defense counsel? I doubt she will win an appeal
or new trial etc. I hope that she was NOT WRONGFULLY CONVICTED or simply painted a criminal at her trial- which happens to so many defendants. Our prisons are filled with innocent citizens.***
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea ||
02/10/2005 17:18
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#17
Our prisons are filled with innocent citizens
I call bullshit on that one, Andrea. Prove it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005 17:18
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#18
"To rid ourselves of the entrenched, voracious type of capitalism that is in this country that perpetuates sexism and racism, I don't think that can come nonviolently."
Sorry. Go to Jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.00.
#23
That bovine bolshevik got what was comin'. She can rot.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/10/2005 18:05
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#24
I have been waiting a long time for this. There are a few choice words that I would like to use to describe her, but as a Christian, I will refrain. The best I can come up with is, EVIL DOESN'T COME ANY UGLIER!!!
Stewart, at a young age lamented the untimely death of her mentor due to a bucket of water. She vowed never to suffer such a fate herself. Now, in the twilight of her career, she has succumbed to a far more painful end...
#30
It isn't just the stringy, unwashed hair that does it for me... it's the charming facial expression.
BOY I'D LIKE TA...
Posted by: Jim Shorts ||
02/10/2005 19:23
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#31
it's the hairy mole....
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005 19:25
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#32
I almost lost it when Dan Blather said, "Lynne Stewart, a respected criminal lawyer, was convicted today". I watch CBS occasionally for comic relief but this just blew me out of the water.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/10/2005 20:27
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#33
Deacon....did Danny Boy say respected by whom? Respected by the good folks at the KSA embassy? CAIR perhaps? I trust the F**kin' traitor rots in her cell.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
02/10/2005 21:04
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#34
No she IS respected by the MSM and the LLL. She got what she has coming. I expect appeal after appeal however. It's only natural she is a lawyer after all.
Palestinian gunmen, some of them disguised as police officers, broke into Gaza City's central prison Thursday, exchanged fire with guards and killed three prisoners as part of long-running family feuds, police said. The attackers took one of the three alive, drove him to a nearby refugee camp and executed him in the streets, witnesses said. The gunmen then dumped the body into their car and drove around the camp, firing in the air from the car windows.
The shootout raised new questions about the ability of Palestinian security forces to restore order in the volatile Gaza Strip, as Israel and the Palestinians try to cement a fragile cease-fire. The three inmates killed Thursday had been awaiting trial for their involvement in two separate shooting deaths in the Bureij refugee camp. Thursday's attackers were members of the families of the two victims, police said. Early Thursday, the gunmen broke into the central jail, firing at the guards. Sounds of heavy shooting could be heard in downtown Gaza for about two hours, witnesses said. Police said that some of the gunmen were wearing police uniforms when they entered the jail, although they were not actual officers. An investigation was continuing Thursday morning.
The prison attack is the most severe challenge to Palestinian security forces since Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas took office a month ago, with a promise of restoring law and order. Abbas has deployed thousands of security forces throughout Gaza, to prevent attacks on Israeli targets and to ensure calm in Palestinian communities.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
3:39:47 PM ||
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#1
How dare you be caught. You must plead your case with Allah. {KBLAM!}
#6
I find the phrase "restore order" to be highly ironic, given that the only time there's been peace and order in the Territories was when the Israelis ruled there directly.
Palestinians from the radical group Hamas fired dozens of mortar shells and rockets at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, less than two days after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared a cease-fire against Israelis everywhere.
Abbas, known popularly as Abu Mazen, moved swiftly to assert his authority late Thursday, firing 10 Palestinian security officials in Gaza, including three of the highest ranking officers in the strip: Abdul Razzeq Majaidah, the director of the Palestinian National Forces; Saib Ajez, the chief of the Palestinian police; and Maj. Gen. Omar, the top military coordination officer in Gaza. "And tomorrow, Abu Mazen is going to Gaza in order to begin taking steps on the ground. Rule of law and cessation of violence -- this is the key," Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said.
No one was injured and damage was minor in the early morning mortar barrages directed at several Jewish settlements in the area of Gush Katif in the southern Gaza Strip, according to an Israeli military spokeswoman. Twenty-two mortar shells and one homemade Qassam rocket landed in and around the settlements during the attacks, which were followed by an attack on Morag settlement later in the day, she said. Israeli army troops "returned fire toward the sources of the launches but did not identify a hit," the spokeswoman said.
A statement by Hamas said 35 shells and 18 Qassam rockets were fired in the attacks, which the group said were in retaliation for the deaths of two Palestinians in Gaza: Fathi Abu Jazar, 22, who died early Thursday after reportedly being shot Wednesday by Israeli fire in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, and Hassan Alami, who died Wednesday, apparently when an explosive device he was working with blew up.
The Israeli army spokeswoman said that Israeli troops fired "warning shots" Wednesday when they saw four "suspicious" men about 50 yards outside the security fence surrounding the Gush Katif settlement block, and that the men were seen running away. She said she did not know if the incident was connected to the death of Abu Jazar.
In an unrelated incident in the center of Gaza City, gunmen reputedly aligned with a senior official in Abbas' Fatah political movement broke into Gaza's main prison and killed two men in retaliation for slaying the official's brother a month ago, Palestinian security sources said.
The incidents highlighted the difficulties that Abbas faces in bringing law and order to the Gaza Strip, not only by restraining Palestinian militant groups and enforcing the cease-fire against Israelis, but also by taming elements of his own political party.
Although Abbas declared a cease-fire against Israel at a summit meeting Tuesday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, powerful Palestinian groups -- most notably Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which is officially known as the Islamic Resistance Movement -- have not agreed to stop attacking Israeli targets.
It is not clear whether Abbas and Palestinian Authority security forces have the power to impose a cease-fire on the groups, or whether Abbas will even try. Fearing intra-Palestinian clashes, he has said that he wants to negotiate a cease-fire among the various factions. "We have said that he does not have time, that he has to move beyond a cease-fire and the deployment of Palestinian security forces and take real steps" to disarm the groups and disband them, said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In the meantime, Gissin said, Israel would restrain its own response.
"We are not taking any steps, we are waiting for them to initiate efforts, but we made it very clear that they need to take action immediately because time is running out on them, not on us," he said. "This is a very fragile situation, and he has to act."
Gissin said that Israel expressed its concern about the situation Thursday to senior officials of the United States and Egypt, which have been encouraging a warming trend in Israeli-Palestinian relations. He accused Iran and the radical Lebanese group Hezbollah of trying to destabilize Abbas's government and scuttle the new leader's attempts to end the Palestinians' four-year-old uprising against Israel, in which more than 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians have been killed.
This article starring:
ABDUL RAZZEQ MAJAIDAH
Palestinian Authority
ABU MAZEN
Palestinian Authority
FATHI ABU JAZAR
Hamas
HASAN ALAMI
Hamas
MAHMUD ABAS
Palestinian Authority
MAJ. GEN. OMAR
Palestinian Authority
SAEB EREKAT
Palestinian Authority
SAIB AJEZ
Palestinian Authority
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
3:38:42 PM ||
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And tomorrow, Abu Mazen is going to Gaza in order to begin taking steps on the ground. Rule of law and cessation of violence -- this is the key
he can definitely talk the talk. This LOOKS like walking the walk, but I will wait for Israeli reaction as to whether he really fired the right people, and what the successors do.
The second-term Bush administration's intention to antagonize the DPRK and isolate and stifle it at any cost has become quite clear. As we have clarified more than once, we justly urged the US to renounce its hostile policy toward the DPRK whose aim was to seek the latter's "regime change" and switch its policy to that of peaceful co-existence between the two countries. We have closely followed with patience what policy the second-term Bush regime would shape after clarifying the stand that in that case it would be possible to solve the nuclear issue, too.
However, the administration turned down our just request and adopted it as its policy not to co-exist with the DPRK through the president's inaugural address and the state of the union address and the speech made by the secretary of State at the Congress hearing to get its approval, etc.
The remarks made by senior officials of the administration clarifying the official political stance of the US contained no word showing any willingness to co-exist with the DPRK or make a switchover in its policy toward it.
On the contrary, they have declared it as their final goal to terminate the tyranny, defined the DPRK, too, as an "outpost of tyranny" and blustered that they would not rule out the use of force when necessary.
And they pledged to build a world based on the US view on value through the "spread of American style liberty and democracy."
The true intention of the second-term Bush administration is not only to further its policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK pursued by the first-term office but to escalate it. As seen above, the US has declared a new ideological stand-off aimed at a "regime change" in the DPRK while talking much about "peaceful and diplomatic solution" to the nuclear issue and the "resumption of the six-party talks" in a bid to mislead the world public opinion.
This is nothing but a far-fetched logic of gangsters as it is a good example fully revealing the wicked nature and brazen-faced double-dealing tactics of the U.S. as a master hand at plot-breeding and deception.
The DPRK has clarified its stand that it would not pursue anti-Americanism and treat the US as a friendly nation if it neither slanders the political system in the DPRK nor interferes in its internal affairs. It has since made every possible effort to settle the nuclear issue and improve the bilateral relations.
However, the US interpreted this as a sign of weakness, defiled the dignified political system in the DPRK chosen by its people and wantonly interfered in its internal affairs. The US, turning down the DPRK's request to roll back its anti-DPRK hostile policy, a major stumbling block in the way of settling the nuclear issue, treated it as an enemy and, not content with this, totally rejected it, terming it "tyranny." This deprived the DPRK of any justification to negotiate with the U.S. and participate in the six-party talks.
Is it not self-contradictory and unreasonable for the US to urge the DPRK to come out to the talks while negating its dialogue partner? This is the height of impudence.
The US now foolishly claims to stand by the people in the DPRK while negating the government chosen by the people themselves. We advise the US to negotiate with dealers in peasant markets it claims they are to its liking or with representatives of "the organization of north Korean defectors" on its payroll if it wishes to hold talks.
Japan is now persistently pursuing its hostile policy toward the DPRK, toeing the US line.
Moreover, it fabricated the issue of false remains over the "abduction issue" that had already been settled in a bid to nullify the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration and stop any process to normalize diplomatic relations with the DPRK. How can we sit at the negotiating table with such a party?
It is the trend of the new century and wish of humankind to go in for peace, co-existence and prosperity irrespective of differing ideology, system and religious belief.
It is by no means fortuitous that the world people raise their voices cursing and censuring the Bush administration as a group pursuing tyranny prompted by its extreme misanthropy, swimming against such trend of the world.
We have shown utmost magnanimity and patience for the past four years since the first Bush administration swore in.
We can not spend another four years as we did in the past four years and there is no need for us to repeat what we did in those years.
The DPRK Foreign Ministry clarifies as following to cope with the grave situation created by the US hostile policy toward the DPRK:
First. We have wanted the six-party talks but we are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period till we have recognized that there is justification for us to attend the talks and there are ample conditions and atmosphere to expect positive results from the talks.
The present deadlock of the six-party talks is attributable to the US hostile policy toward the DPRK.
There is no justification for us to participate in the six-party talks again given that the Bush administration termed the DPRK, a dialogue partner, an "outpost of tyranny", putting into the shade the hostile policy, and totally negated it.
Second. The US disclosed its attempt to topple the political system in the DPRK at any cost, threatening it with a nuclear stick. This compels us to take a measure to bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal in order to protect the ideology, system, freedom and democracy chosen by its people.
It is the spirit of the Korean people true to the Songun politics to respond to good faith and the use of force in kind.
We had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the NPT and have manufactured nukes for self-defence to cope with the Bush administration's evermore undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK.
Its nuclear weapons will remain nuclear deterrent for self-defence under any circumstances.
The present reality proves that only powerful strength can protect justice and truth.
The US evermore reckless moves and attempt to attack the DPRK only reinforce its pride of having already consolidated the single-minded unity of the army and people and increased the capability for self-defence under the uplifted banner of Songun. The DPRK's principled stand to solve the issue through dialogue and negotiations and its ultimate goal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula remain unchanged.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
3:35:11 PM ||
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I'll give it a 5. It would have been a 4, but the "This is the height of impudence." made me imagine a high-pitched French voice, so I'll give it an extra point for arrogance. Not enough Songun for my taste.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/10/2005 15:58
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I'd give them an extra 1/2 point for getting "toeing the US line" correct. So many non-native English speakers use the homonym "towing" instead. But no juche or Army first. How disappointing!
The Bush administration, chafing under North Korea (news - web sites)'s retreat from multilateral talks on nuclear disarmament, sought Thursday to push Pyongyang back to the bargaining table and warned that it faces increasing international isolation.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) had to confront the issue head-on as the North Koreans announced their renunciation of six-party talks as she was wrapping up her first international trip as the top U.S. diplomat. At a meeting of European Union (news - web sites) leaders in Luxembourg, she said the world community had given North Korea "a way out" and said its leaders should take it.
President Bush (news - web sites)'s press secretary, Scott McClellan, talked similarly back in the United States, telling reporters traveling with Bush that the United States still wants six-party talks.
"We remain committed to a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the nuclear issue with regards to North Korea," McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to a presidential appearance in Fargo, N.D. "It's time to talk about how to move forward."
Both Rice and McClellan played down any significance of North Korea's dramatic public announcement Thursday that it has nuclear weapons. "We've heard this kind of rhetoric from North Korea before," McClellan said.
U.S. officials believe North Korea may have anywhere from four to two dozen nuclear devices, depending on the assumptions used about the bombs' designs.
The United States, South Korea (news - web sites), China, Japan and Russia have struggled to arrange a fourth round of talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs. The last round was held last June.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said the Bush administration has failed to sufficiently pressure China to use its leverage with the North Koreans and said the administration also should consider direct, two-party talks with North Korea.
"This administration has not paid enough attention to the situation in North Korea," Pelosi said. "The North Koreans know that we are otherwise occupied in military actions in other parts of the world and they have taken the liberty to be brazen."
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he did not know whether North Korea had the weapons it claimed, but "one has to be concerned about it from a proliferation standpoint."
"One has to worry about weapons of that power in leadership of that nature," he added. "I don't think anyone would characterize the leadership in that country as being restrained."
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, noted that the North Korean government had been laying the groundwork for the announcement for some time, with less public statements aimed at revealing a nuclear deterrent.
For example, the regime privately told Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly in 2002 that it had a secret uranium-enrichment program that violated its 1994 agreement.
North Korea's announcement Thursday came one week after anonymous Bush administration officials said there was strong evidence that North Korea sold processed uranium to Libya.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
3:33:56 PM ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005 16:14
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Real good, Nancy. Think you might give Bubba, Jimmah, and that Notbright woman a call and maybe ask them what the fuck happened to that deal they cut with them? Nah...
An audiotape purportedly of Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri hit out at the US concept of freedom, saying it was a cloak for spreading corruption and injustice in the Islamic world.
Liberty as construed by the Americans was based on "usurious banks, giant companies, misleading media outlets and the destruction of others for material gain," charged the voice in the recording aired by Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera.
Real freedom was "not the liberty of homosexual marriages and the abuse of women as a commodity to gain clients, win deals or attract tourists," said the voice.
"It is not the freedom of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib," it said, referring to US-run prisons in Cuba and Iraq where serious allegations of torture have been levelled.
"Our freedom ... and the reform that we are seeking depends on three concepts -- the rule of sharia (Islamic law) ... freeing Islam from any aggressor ... and liberating the human being."
In the Islamic world, the people had the "right to choose its leader, hold him to account, criticise him and isolate him," said the audiotape, in a clear response to US calls for democratic reforms in the Arab and Muslim worlds.
"I do not think that we can achieve reform while we are under American and Jewish occupation."
In his State of the Union address earlier this month, President George W. Bush stepped up US calls for change, urging even traditional US allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia to move towards democracy.
But the new Al-Qaeda tape argued that US allies in the region were the problem not the solution.
"The nation has to confront repression, theft, forgery, corruption and the legacy of the rule which our rulers are exercising with America's blessing and backing," said the tape, whose authenticity could not immediately be verified.
The new message made reference to subsequent events, including a December 16 agreement between Egypt and Israel, and historic January 30 elections in Iraq.
"We cannot achieve reform when our leaders are seeking normalisation with Israel and destroying our economies for their own personal gains, like the QIZ (Qualified Industrial Zones) agreement signed by the Egyptian regime with Israel," the voice said.
Reform cannot be achieved "under governments installed by the occupation with forged elections," it said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
3:30:52 PM ||
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An Iraqi politician whose two sons were gunned down Tuesday blasted the attackers and the group that may be behind the killings. Mithal al-Alusi, a moderate Sunni Muslim, isn't the only one speaking out against terrorists lately. Following an estimated voter turnout of more than 50 percent in the Jan. 30 election for a new 275-member assembly, many are starting to feel more courageous. On Thursday Al-Alusi attacked the Association of Muslim Scholars, accusing them of siding with terrorists. Many Iraq politicians have said privately for more than a year that the largest Sunni Muslim political group is the political arm of insurgents in Iraq, who are believed to be a mix of former Saddam loyalists and foreign fighters.
Comes as a surprise, huh? Who'da ever thunkit?
"The Committee of Muslim Scholars is a political party. I warn them, and I mean it, to stop siding with terrorism," al-Alusi told media gathered at his house while he waited for the bodies of his sons to arrive home. "They will be punished by the criminal law."
I think it'd be a better idea to shoot them all, myself...
In Tuesday morning's attack, the leader of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation decided unexpectedly not to go with his sons, Ayman, 22, and Jamal, 30, just before their car was shot up by gunmen about 200 yards from the house in Baghdad. A bodyguard was also killed. Sheikhs of the group associated with former president Saddam Hussein called for a boycott of the Jan. 30 elections. Some other Sunni groups that boycotted, including the Iraq Islamic Party, now are asking for a seat at the table in writing a new constitution.
"We wuz just kiddin'. We'll take charge now..."
While al-Alusi stopped short of blaming the Association of Muslim Scholars for masterminding the killing of his sons, others have been outspoken recently about past assassinations. Former intelligence officials are still free who were ordered by then deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz to kill his father-in-law in 1994 in Beirut, minister of human rights Baktiar Amin said Tuesday. Assassins were paid for the job with 7 million barrels of oil that should have been monitored by the United Nations under the former oil-for-food humanitarian program, Amin said bitterly. It was impossible to verify his claim. "Tariq Aziz was a Christian puppet," Amin said. "This is an example of how oil-for-food was used for international terrorism."
And of how very useful the UN actually is...
But the Sunni Muslim Iraq Islamic Party has sounded a more conciliatory note recently. Even if it doesn't accept the new elected government as legitimate, the group wants to be involved in writing a new constitution, spokesman Tarek al-Hashimi said. "All of the sides want to keep this dialogue going," al-Hashimi said. "What we want to do is write a draft constitution." Officials from the Association of Muslim Scholars say they will not be involved until a timetable for U.S. withdrawal is agreed. Phone calls to several leaders of the group went unanswered Thursday afternoon.
And now the good part...
At the same time, Iraq police have changed their tactics in an attempt to put fear into terrorists, said Sabah Kadim, an Interior Ministry spokesman. Pick-up trucks bristling with men holding machine guns, their faces covered by ski masks, are now roaring around the streets of Baghdad, sometimes in packs. The patrols are similar to those under the former Saddam Hussein regime. "If they can't overpower these people, the situation will continue. What good are they?" Kadim said. As attackers started showing up with two or three cars packed with men and machine guns, the police decided to fight fire with fire, Kadim said. "With eight to 16 people with machine guns, (insurgents) could overwhelm one car or an officer directing traffic," Kadim said. "The police need some power."
Posted by: Steve ||
02/10/2005
3:18:56 PM ||
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John Lucas of Knoxville Tn., emails to clarify events surrounding the resue of Egyptian hostages by US soldiers. I've added links to the text below, otherwise, since Mr Lucas' son was one of those soldiers involved in the rescue, we'll let him take it from here:
The Reuthers report that you posted on the kidnapped Egyptians who supposedly escaped on their own from the trunk of a car is not accurate. I know, because my son and his platoon freed them and captured two (not one per the Reuthers report) of their kidnappers. The Egyptians may be slow to give credit to the U. S. Military for rescuing its citizens. The truth is that a hostage was not freed by the kidnappers. An article describing it appears in today's Knoxville News Sentinel.
It began when my son, leading a patrol, saw a suspicious car. They pulled it over, captured two of the three kidnappers and found two Egyptians bound and gagged in the trunk. Interrogation of the two prisoners let to intel re the location of the other two hostages and another US unit raided that location and freed them.
There is much more to this story, but I wanted you to know that they were not "released" but were rescued as a result of a heads-up effort by U.S. soldiers.
Here is what went unreported. I asked my son why they had not just shot the two who ran away (one of whom was chased down and captured). I thought that perhaps the Rules of Engagement prevented them from shooting them, since they had not been shot at first. He told me, however, that the ROE did permit them to shoot, but he never gave them a "fire" command because the street was too crowded and he was worried that they might hit civilians. So, instead, they chased them down. As a result of that decision, civilian lives were spared and all 4 hostages were rescued. It's a great example of good decision-making, good fire discipline, and concern for the people. But, not the sort of thing the media seems to want to report.
John Lucas
Knoxville, TN
And a bit more at the link
Posted by: ed ||
02/10/2005
2:38:40 PM ||
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HoooAhhh!!!
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/10/2005 16:08
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Whoopsie - Reuters must've sent their non-US version of the report to us by mistake...
MANILA - The Philippine military said up to 20 rebels were killed at a fortified jungle hideout on Thursday, the fourth day of fierce fighting and bombing raids on the southwestern island of Jolo. The military said it suffered no casualties on Thursday. On Wednesday, it said 20 soldiers and nearly 40 rebels had been killed in the clashes since Monday.
Nearly 4,000 troops have been battling about 800 fighters from the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebel group and renegade members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) since the militants ambushed a convoy of soldiers in Patikul town. "There's still heavy fighting in the mountains of Panamao," Lieutenant-General Alberto Braganza, chief of the military's Southern Command, told reporters. "Our troops have encountered strong resistance from the rebels."
Braganza said soldiers recovered several bodies from the rebel hideout, adding up to 20 militants may have been killed in air strikes and artillery bombardments.
Earlier on Thursday, he brushed aside calls for a ceasefire from local Muslim leaders worried about losing their shirts along with their heads villagers caught up in the fighting. About 5,000 residents have been evacuated. "To me, it's surrender or nothing," Braganza said.
Abdurahman Jamasali, a former MNLF member, was sent by House of Representatives Speaker Jose de Venecia to talk to the rebels about a ceasefire. But Jamasali said intermittent skirmishes prevented him and Sulu provincial governor Benjamin Loong from seeking out rebel leaders because the military could not ensure their safety. "We were advised not to enter the rebels' positions," Jamasali told reporters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2005
2:30:35 PM ||
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KARLSRUHE, Germany - German federal prosecutors will be taking no action against US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over alleged war crimes, chief prosecutor Kay Nehm said Thursday. The prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe had been asked by a US organization to indict Rumsfeld for war crimes and torture in connection with detainee abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. However Nehm said the complaint would not be pursued. Any criminal investigations were a matter for judicial authorities in the United States as Rumsfeld was a US citizen.
Because the German authorities aren't nutters.
There was also no indication that any German nationals were involved in the activities, which were the subject of the complaint, he said. The New York-based Center for So-Called Constitutional Rights had filed an action in December alleging violations of German legislation which outlaws war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide independent of the place of crime or origin of the accused. It remains unclear whether Rumsfeld will attend a major security conference in Munich this weekend. The defence chief had made it know immediately after the emergence of the indictment probe that he would not attend unless the effort was quashed by German authorities. Rumsfeld last Thursday said he wasn't sure if he would attend the International Conference on Security Policy, adding that the possibility of German criminal action against him was "something that we have to take into consideration".
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2005
2:27:19 PM ||
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Good - Rummy's doing a surprise visit to the troops in Iraq, he's kinda busy right now, but applause to the German adults for taking charge....now, we need to take a look at the "Center"'s membership rolls and backing
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005 23:34
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India's air force said on Thursday it plans to sign a deal worth up to 900 million dollars with state-owned aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics to buy as many as 40 supersonic fighter jets. The planes will use GE-404F engines made by US-based General Electric after Kaveri engines developed by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation suffered development problems, Air Chief Marshal S.P.Tyagi said. The deal would involve a commitment to buy 20 Light Combat Aircraft and an option to purchase an additional 20. "The cost of each aircraft is around one billion rupees (22.9 million dollars)," Tyagi said. He gave no time for the deal to be concluded but said it would be soon. The planes are intended to replace India's ageing mainstay MiG fighter fleet and will take to the skies after 2008, Tyagi told reporters at Aero India 2005, a five-day international aerospace and defence show.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2005
2:25:09 PM ||
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The LCA was originally meant to use modified GE-404's, and they've had a lot of problems from trying to switch to use something else after the US embargoed them after their nuclear tests.
Has the US had a change in policy?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/10/2005 17:25
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Yes, I think the ban was lifted a couple of years ago. Some more details:
[India News]: Bangalore, Feb 10 : The Indian Air Force (IAF) will acquire at least 20 indigenously-built Light Combat Aircraft (LCAs) soon, Air Chief SP Tyagi said today.
The Air Force will ink the 914 million-dollar deal for "Tejas", a multi-role fighter plane, with the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), he said. The contract allows the force to acquire another 20 aircraft at a later stage.
"We will sign a contract for 20 LCAs, and with an option of getting 20 more I would say that up to 40 aeroplanes. The contract will come up very, very quickly," Tyagi told reporters at an international Aero show ongoing in Bangalore.
The single-engine supersonic fighter is expected to replace the IAF's aging fleet from 2010 but Tyagi assured the latest induction will in no way interfere with other acquisitions of the Air Force.
"All air forces in the world need big aircraft like SU-30, there is a place for more. I don't think we should mix the 126 aircrafts with the requirement of the LCA," he said.
The world's lightest combat aircraft, the eight-tonne "Tejas" has been designed by the government's Aeronautical Development Agency and built by the HAL. India tested its first LCA in 2001 and another version last year, and has used software-driven "fly-by-wire" technologies and advanced lightweight composite materials to build the aircraft that can be used for attack, defence and spying. (ANI)
AMMAN - Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Mulki said preparations were underway for a five-way meeting of Israel's neighbours in Damascus to revive an Arab peace plan, as he started Thursday a one-day visit to Syria. Mulki, in statements to Al Rai and Al Dustour dailies, said the meeting would bring together Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and the Palestinians in a bid to revive the Arab initiative for peace with Israel that was launched at a summit in Lebanon in 2002.
He said that he would discuss the meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara during his visit, as well as briefing officials on the outcome of Tuesday's landmark summit in Egypt between Israel and the Palestinians. The five-way meeting would be aimed at "coordinating Arab positions concerning the peace process and the developments surrounding it," Mulki said. He did not indicate when it would be held.
It's the Arab version of cat herding.
In the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas declared a mutual ceasefire in the presence of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II. In remarks at the summit, host Mubarak expressed hopes for a resumption of the Syrian and Lebanese peace tracks with Israel which have also been frozen for several years.
Mulki's spokesman Rajab Sukayri meanwhile told Petra newspaper that the Syrian and Jordanian foreign ministers will seek to fine-tune the Arab peace initiative which could be submitted to a summit of Arab leaders in Algiers in March. Mulki is also expected to start a two-day visit to Oman on Saturday and travels Monday to Kuwait to prepare for the Arab summit scheduled to take place March 22-23, which he said should "deal seriously" with Iraq and the Palestinian issue.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2005
2:22:28 PM ||
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Notorious Terrorist Ringleader killed in 'crossfire
This reporter is wasting his talents writing for the newspaper, he needs to be writing screenplays
One of the city's most notorious terrorists and also ringleader of the ZIA (Zia International Airport) based crime syndicate was killed in 'crossfire" during the shootout between police and the terrorists at the city's Nikunja area in the small hours of Wednesday.
Gee, that's never happened...oh,wait...
The listed terrorists Abdul Quadir Mithu alias Kala Mithu (28), son of Mohammad Hossain, resident of Ka 95/2 Khilkhet at Uttarpara Member Bari, Badda was reportedly killed on the spot during a fierce gun battle between the police personnel and terrorists at Nikunja -1 under the same police station at about 3:15 am. Exploding bombs and firing shots at the police personnel, other terrorists, most of them were the accomplices of Kala Mithu, managed to escape the scene.
"Kala's been killed! Damm them coppers, toss another bomb, Abu. I'll cover you while you run to the getaway car!"
According to the police, Kala Mithu was accused in several cases including Anwar, Kobzar and Islam murder cases had been absconding for years.
Cue Linda Ronstadt, singing "Desperado"...
A special team of Badda police station led by Officer-in-Chrage Abdul Malik arrested him from Sonagazi area in Noakhali district on February 1. He was immediately produced before the court and the court sent him on a two-day remand following the prayer of Badda police. Again he was taken on a two-day remand on Februray 6 when the Badda police again prayed for further remand to the court.
I'm thinking "prayer" = "appealed".
Sources said during the interrogation, Kala Mithu confessed his involvement in various crimes including the participation with a crime syndicate active at ZIA and its surrounding areas. He also informed the police about possessing a huge quantity of illegal arms and ammunition kept under the supervision of his accomplices Lenom Hira, Zakir, Kayes and others.
Ratted out his boys, did he?
Acting on his information, a team of Badda police station at first conducted an operation at Nikunja-2 area on Tuesday late night. But failed to recover the arms-ammunition and also trace the hideout of the criminals.
Ah, gave da coppers false info. He shouldn't have done that
Later, based on his information a special team of police led by the OC along with Kala Mithu went to Nikunja-1 for conducting another operation to recover arms-ammunition possessed by the accomplices of Mithu.
"Come on, Kala. You're gonna show us where the stash is, or it's curtains for you."
But, a gang of 10/12 terrorists equipped with firearms started spraying bullets on the police personnel, when the team reached near Nikunja-1 at about 3:15 am.
Bangla Night Shift motto - We always get our man, in the dark, in the back
Police also replied with the gunshots, which erupted a deadly gun battle between the police personnel and the terrorists. Kala Mithu received severe bullet injuries and died on the spot when he tried to flee away from the police custody.
"Ahhhhhhh...rosebud!
Police also recovered a pipe gun, some bullets and a chopper from the spot but failed to nab anybody.
It's like they were never even there.
The body was sent to the DMCH morgue for autopsy.
"Hell, not another one! Sam, put him in the corner with the other stiffs. It's not like he's going anywhere."
RAB arrest Sarbahara leader, drug lord
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in separate operations arrested a Sarbahara leader, a drug lord and recovered arm-ammunitions in Barisal district. RAB and Police sources said RAB arrested Razzak Sikder, 45, a prominent leader of outlawed Sarbahara-Kamrul group from the house of Dulal Sikder, another Sarbahara cadre, at Brahmmandia village of Agorpur union under Sabahara-prone Babuganj upazila of Barisal district in early Wednesday February 9. One gun with two rounds ammunitions was recovered from the possession of the arrestee.
After primary interrogation and lodging a case, RAB handed over the arrestee to Babuganj police station in Wednesday morning. Police claimed Razzak is a top terror of the area and accused in different cases of murder, terrorism, extortion, and toll collection.
In another operation RAB arrested Md. Azim alias Fensi-Azim, 40, an infamous drug lord, from the Bogura Road area of the city in early Wednesday. He was handed over to Barisal Kotwali police station after primary interrogation and sent to jail under section 54 of criminal procedure code. Azim in presence of police openly threatened the working photojournalists while they tried to take his picture in the Barisal court compound.
We'll be waiting to see if they happen to come down with a sudden case of lead poisoning.
Young lady doctor found dead
Tonight on CSI - Bangladesh!
A young lady doctor, a divorcee, was found dead at her Malibagh residence in the city yesterday morning. Police recovered the body of the dentist, Dr Akhter Jahan Mirza alias Dipu, in her early forties and the ex-wife of Dr ASM Badruduzza, from her residence. Relatives of the victim suspected that Dipu was gradually poisoned to death by her former husband, chairman of City Dental College. Dipu, also a director of the dental college and daughter of late Mirza Morsal Hossain of 93/A, New Circular Road, was residing at 62/1, West Malibagh. According to the victim's relatives, Dipu got married to Dr Badruzduza in 1993. After their marriage, they went to work in Iran and returned to Dhaka after nine years. Two years back they got divorced and started to live separately, as Dipu, also a director of the College, was reportedly tortured both mentally and physically by her husband regularly, according to the victim's relatives. Dr Badruzduza phoned the sister-in-law (wife of the elder brother) of the victim early yesterday morning and informed that Dipu had died at her residence due to heart failure. On information, Ramna police rushed to the house and recovered the body yesterday morning. An unnatural death (UD) case was filed by Mirza Masood Hossain, the elder brother of the victim, with Ramna police in this connection. Dipu was buried at the Banani graveyard after post mortem examination yesterday evening.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/10/2005
2:14:39 PM ||
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#1
Hey - why is this posted every day? I don't get it.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
02/10/2005 15:09
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#2
Banga poison intrigue and lead poisoning. What a delight.
#4
I tried asking earlier if Bangladesh is getting worse, but got no reply.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/10/2005 17:29
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Did you ever notice that the Police/RAB never seem to recover anything more than a pipe gun and two bullets. I can't quite figure out where the great fusilade of bullets comes from out of the orchard at oh dark thirty. Now if they got three AKs, two hundred rounds and a couple of RPGs, that might impress me.
Posted by: Old Fogey ||
02/10/2005 21:49
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MOSCOW - The Russian atomic energy agency said on Thursday it would sign a key agreement with Iran on the return of nuclear fuel later this month that would complete Moscow's construction of the Islamic state's first nuclear power plant.
The ITAR-TASS news agency quoted the agency's spokesman Nikolai Shingaryov as saying that the elusive agreement, which has been delayed for over a year, would be signed during atomic energy chief Alexander Rumyantsev visit's to Iran scheduled for February 25-27. "We plan to sign, in Tehran, an additional protocol on the return of spent nuclear fuel to Russia," the spokesman was quoted as saying.
Oh yeah, I'm sure it'll all be accounted for in the end.
The fuel's return has remained the key impediment to the 800 million dollar Bushehr project. Russia and the West both fear that Iran could reprocess the spent fuel delivered from Russia by upgrading it through centrifuges to either make a weak "dirty bomb" or an actual nuclear weapon.
Russia fears this? News to me.
Tehran has in the past used various arguments to avoid signing the agreement. It has said the material was too volatile and dangerous to transport back to Russia and also that Moscow was charging too much for the fuel itself.
The United States and Israel had jointly launched an international campaign against Russia's Bushehr project but Moscow has countered that it would make sure the plant remained harmless to protect its own security interests.
And if you can't trust Vladimir Putin, who can you trust?
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2005
2:13:18 PM ||
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Maybe someone more knowledgable about power reactors can answer this. What's to stop Iran from replacing the outer ring of Russian produced fuel rods with locally produced un-enriched uranium, irradiating those rods, and then extracting plutonium from them?
Posted by: ed ||
02/10/2005 14:52
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#2
Ahm... LOL.. that was the funnied question today! Bhwahahahahaha... ROFL
I don't want to get too technical, let's explain briefly... no, let's just summarize it: It won't work. All you'd get is un-enriched uranium irradiated rods.
Care to expand on your answer? I am no NucE. My limited understanding is that U-238 neutron capture results in Pu-239, which is highly fissile. Additional neutron capture results in less fissile isotopes. So for best performance, isotope separation is desired, but not neccessary for a crude bomb.
A quick google:
Plutonium is a by-product of the fission process in nuclear reactors, due to neutron capture by uranium-238 in particular. When operating, a typical nuclear reactor contains within its uranium fuel load about 325 kilograms of plutonium, with plutonium-239 being the most common isotope. Pu-239 is fissile, yielding much the same energy as the fission of a U-235 atom, and complementing it.
Well over half of the plutonium created in the reactor core is "burned" in situ and is responsible for about one third of the total heat output. Of the rest, one sixth through neutron capture becomes Pu-240 (and Pu-241), the balance emerges as Pu-239 in the spent fuel.
An ordinary large nuclear power reactor (1000 MWe LWR) gives rise to about 25 tonnes of spent fuel a year, containing up to 290 kilograms of plutonium. Plutonium, like uranium, is an immense energy source. The plutonium extracted from used reactor fuel can be used as a direct substitute for U-235 in the usual fuel, the Pu-239 being the main fissile part but Pu-241 also contributing.
Posted by: ed ||
02/10/2005 15:13
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#4
i think the issue is that those rods aint pure enough, you still got to concentrate the stuff.
#5
A sticking point in your scenario might be: The un-enriched rods would not produce as much power. The other rods would make up the difference, thus depleting faster requiring more frequent re-fueling. That surely would be detected even by the IAEA. Also, the in-core shift in power distribution to the U-235 enriched rods may produce undesired boiling, then melting then... Somebody call Jane Fonda.
#6
It's not a matter of concentration. Plutonium separation is just a matter of chemical separation, a fairly simple process. Weapons grade plutionium is made by irraditing U-238 for a few months (short time = mostly Pu-239, less other Pu isotopes). The US and other declared nuke powers use dedicated reactors for this. But what's to stop a regime like Iran from serrupticiously using a commercial reactor to do the same thing?
Posted by: ed ||
02/10/2005 15:39
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Thanks Zpaz. But the reactor might be run at less than designed power and musical fuel rods can be played when the U-238->Pu239 rods are exchanged every few months. So what kind of monitoring will there be? Will there be an outside monitor watching the reactor ops?
Posted by: ed ||
02/10/2005 15:49
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Ed,
Your explanation in #3 is accurate. There is nothing to stop a state from Iran from diverting plutonium.
Zpaz's description of what occurs inside the reactor is incorrect.
Also, so what if someone's monitoring it? Does anyone think the UN has the balls to do anything about it?
#9
Your welcome Ed. I had the same thought. Run at a lower power. That sounds feasible. Hopefully a spy on the ground can point out they are not running at full power or you can detect it from the amount of rejected heat. All power processes reject about 2/3 of the heat produced in the reactor. Where you reject to is typically a river, lake or atmosphere via cooling towers. You would be able to estimate power levels from the reject heat plumes. Some conventional plants use waste heat to heat buildings at which point it would be harder to detect.
Also, re-fueling is a major operation that is detectable from satellite because with the reactor shutdown your waste heat plumes go away. Everyone will be watching for those indications. More frequent shutdowns should raise eyebrows, but knowing the bureaucrats, they might write shutdowns off to poor maintenance forcing the shutdowns.
#10
Thanks Dreadnought. I am hoping monitoring may cause the Iranians to fear a US attack, not that I think the US would attack an operating reactor, but attack the regime itself.
Posted by: ed ||
02/10/2005 16:04
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How so Dreadnought? The overall reactivity in your core is less with the U-238 heavy rods installed. That means more frequent refueling regardless of how you might try to shift power distribution in the core.
#12
Ed, you are confusing FBR (fast breeder-unmoderated) reactor type with the standard type of reactor. FBR design allows for surrounding the core with U-238 tubes that get bombarded with neutrons and part gets converted to Pu-239. You need high grade fuel for this type of generation of fissile material (usually 20% of PU-239 and highly enriched uranium oxide--don't remember from the top of my head what the degree of enhancement is necessary). You need also a good metallic coolant, mercury, lead or NaK. Water won't work, will simply boil off in no time.
In the case of standard reactor, what would happen is that the outer ring of the U-238 rods would function as inhibitor on the reaction of the next ring, which would again influnce the next ring--an uneven distribution of fission process, with the temperature gradient towards central segment. As Zpaz points out, this may produce undesired effects like structural problems, namely bent rods that may lock the system. If caught in time, this may not result in meltdown. So, in the end you may get a miniscule amount of Pu-239 in the outer ring U-238 rods, but your reactor may be going into a scrap.
Whole story at the link, apparently MANY people were heading to the house but the eyesore was already gone. I heard the police are looking for possible suspects, but are not confident they will ever find the perps. I know the 1st amendment purists are against me on this but I am very proud of my fellow Californians.
I heard the neighbor across the street started out being the good neighbor (took Mr. Idiot to a Kings Game!). But the love was not returned to his Jewish neighbor as the idiot started flying the Palestinian flag in his front yard! Yup they are hard-core lefties! I hear that a TP posse is forming on Friday night! Yippe Ki YAY!
#1
Nah, it's in a trunk in their attic. These knuckleheads are lying to gin up sympathy and support in their resistance to oppression in Ashkkkroft Gonzales's regime.
#2
The camouflage fatigues, noose and U.S. flag that was bundled as a head were partially ripped down by someone who fell off the facade of the house in doing so, according to neighbors. The rest was taken by someone on a motorcycle, they said.
"We think it's patriotic what we're doing," said Stephen Pearcy, 44, who lives mostly in Berkeley. Virginia Pearcy, 27, presides occasionally as a pro tem judge for the Small Claims Court of Sacramento
very nice. Assholes. Their definition of patriotic doesn't match mine. Apparently they thought being attorneys would protect them? I'd raise the premium on their insurance if I was their agent
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005 16:05
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Funny thing is the about the ONLY politician to take their side was Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo. The local radio and TV shows (except Err Amerika) were all over this. Funny with all that coverage nobody saw the perps take down the effigy. I am waiting for it to show up on some website as being held hostage. Both Pearcys are a couple of tools and actually live in Berkley. I guess they keep the Land Park home in case they need to rest after demonstrating at the Capital. I hope they go on National TV and spout some more crap. Like Ward Churchill the aint helping the left recruit anybody from the right or from the south.
Posted by: Kim Jong Il ||
02/10/2005 16:29
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#4
Wonder if they hung an effigy of a Black person and flew a White Power flag, how long the media, local governmental authorties, and academica would be there defending their 1st Admendment Rights?
Posted by: Just Thinking ||
02/10/2005 17:17
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#5
They're lucky. Somebody could've taken it down with a flamethrower...
#6
Of course, unlike California, flamethrowers ARE legal in our wonderful state of Tennessee. However, I am still unable to locate one to purchase for home defense at this time. I wonder if I can import one?
#7
We can just think of tearing the thing down as a valid act of civil obedience; the kind of thing that is enshrined in lefty dogma. That would be their defense if local left thugs had torn down a similar effigy of, say, a commie scumbag lawyer.
North Korea publicly admitted Thursday for the first time that it has nuclear weapons, and said it wouldn't return to six-nation talks aimed at getting it to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Diplomats have said that North Korea has acknowledged having nuclear arms in private talks, but this is the first time the communist government has said so directly to the public.
"We had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) and have manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration's ever-more undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK," the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
DPRK refers to the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korea's "nuclear weapons will remain (a) nuclear deterrent for self-defense under any circumstances," the ministry said. "The present reality proves that only powerful strength can protect justice and truth."
Since 2003, the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia have held three rounds of talks in Beijing aimed at persuading the North to abandon nuclear weapons development in return for economic and diplomatic rewards. But no significant progress has been made.
A fourth round scheduled for September was canceled when North Korea refused to attend, citing what it called a "hostile" U.S. policy.
Thursday's statement came after President Bush started his second term last month by refraining from direct criticism of North Korea — raising hopes that the North would return to the stalled nuclear talks. But North Korea said it had little hope for improved ties during Bush's second term office.
"We have wanted the six-party talks but we are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period till we have recognized that there is justification for us to attend the talks," the North said Thursday.
North Korea said it came to its decision because "the U.S. disclosed its attempt to topple the political system in the DPRK at any cost, threatening it with a nuclear stick."
Still, North Korea said it retained its "principled stand to solve the issue through dialogue and negotiations and its ultimate goal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula remain unchanged."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
2:00:14 AM ||
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#1
Haven't they been saying this for years? What's new about this? Where's the Kimmy graphic?
#4
Sounds like the other four have a bigger problem than we do.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/10/2005 13:42
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It is all up to the ChiComs now. If they want to keep this little mad dog alive, then they just have to keep subsidizing his economy. Cut off the aid and the Norks sink in a month or 2. Enabling behavior will bite the Chicoms in the ass. How bout a nuclear armed Japan, eh? Keep it up, Chicoms.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/10/2005 13:44
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Maybe Bush should start saying publically that Taiwan should look to "advanced, alternative weapons" to defend themselves.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
02/10/2005 13:52
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before they said it private, never announced in public
either 1. Theyre trying to get more concessions
2. Theyre afraid were getting close to action
or
3. It has something do with their internal politics, where SOMETHING seems to be happening.
#10
I had this little daydream early this am when this news appeared at the BBC web site.
In other news today an emergency secret meeting of top Japanese political and military decided that Japan needs a viable nuclear deterrent. The participants decided that 200 warheads and the missiles to deliver them would be produced.
#11
I think Secretary Rice needs to admit that we have nuclear weapons and provide a nuclear warhead count on our submarine-launched cruise missiles that could be within short range of North Korea at any given time. Then she should advise the Chinese that we refuse to take part in any talks regarding additional arming of Japan and South Korea. Then the USS Pueblo should mysteriously explode.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/10/2005 14:10
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BigEd - love the map!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/10/2005 14:19
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I hope the US is longer sending NK any aid.
Posted by: ed ||
02/10/2005 14:42
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#14
And a big tip of the hat goes to Jimmuh Carter here.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/10/2005 14:58
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#15
Again?
Maybe it's just me, but I could have sworn they admitted this months ago. Maybe it's some kind of Juche ritual?
Posted by: The Doctor ||
02/10/2005 15:06
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ed---The US has stopped, fortunately. The US was the biggest contributor of aid to the Norks until we cut off fuel oil a few years ago. We may still have some foodstuffs coming, but it is nominal. The Heritage foundation, I believe, had a white paper on why the USSR fell, but the Norks didn't. All the aid kept the Norks going and they got their foreign exchange by selling weapons to others.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/10/2005 15:47
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#17
This should not be news at all.
We have known this was inevitable for the last few years, and it was believed for quite awhile they actually had one built. No one should be shocked or suprised.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/10/2005 17:37
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From Paek-du mountains, 1000km long beautiful realm
All look up to the General and cheer him.
He is the people's leader to inherit the great work of the Sun.
Long live, long live, General Kim Jeong-Il !
Millions of flowers on the earth tell us his love.
Blue waves of the ocean sing of his work.
He is the creator of happiness to grow the garden of Ju-che.
Long live, long live, General Kim Jeong-Il !
He protects socialism with his courage like steel.
He makes our country famous in the world.
He is the defender of justice with a flag of autonomy.
Long live, long live, General Kim Jeong-Il !
Revised
From the slave rice patties, starving where food is so close...
All praise Kim Jung-Il They do so lest they die
As he leads, his people, way, way down the drain--
When will, someone wise up and take Kimmie out?
Millions of bodies left in shallow graves me boys
Are evidence of all of his "hard work"
He is the creator of this mess, along with his dad.
When will, someone wise up and take Kimmie out?
He protects his French Cognac with nerves of steel, he does
And satisfies imported round-eye hookers in a great way
He lives, his life, unaware of whats around..
When will, someone wise up and take Kimmie out?
#22
In other news, the Pope acknowledges he is Catholic.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
02/10/2005 22:12
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#23
Did anyone watch ABC News tonight? Peter Jennings started the broadcast saying that it was 'all the fault of the Bush Administration' and that North Korea manufactured nukes because it needed them to defend itself against the Bush Administration.
Not a peep of Clinton or Madam Halfbright selling us up the river.
#26
Jennings doesn't count for anything. Clinton is to blame if any US person is. The Norks got what they wanted anyhow. Of course if they use any or sell any the result will be the end of them. If you want to see some real stupidiy on this check this out.
#27
sorry for the "Whash Sneth3118" some garbage in my browser...
Just yesterday Japan was discussing changing the Constitution so that that Military would be a real Military and not a Self Defense force.
Also, remember when Japan was going to do Pu breader reactors and bought tons and tons of Pu. Then after one little "flash" accident stopped the whole thing? Well didn't hear a thing about them reselling/returning any Pu. They have enough for about 50,000 bombs. 50K Something for little kimmy and China to ponder. Want to bet how quick they could be built? Perhaps a number and date should be added to the Prediction Market at StrategyPage.com...
#2
I wasn't familiar with Kate Peyton, but I know the BBC Africa reporters have guts. When Liberia blew up in 1990, we listened to BBC on shortwave for the Africa report, since my husband's parents and a lot of people he grew up with were over there. Elizabeth Blunt delivered her reports from Monrovia and other places in a voice that suggested she was serving tea; we could hear the bullets singing in the background.
They are friendly with GOP frontrunner Mark Kennedy, an accountant. Money quote: "Which raises the possibility that if Franken gets the nomination, Mark may run against the only man in America who is NOT funnier than he is."
Hizbollah guerrillas are trying to recruit Palestinian militants for attacks on Israelis in order to sabotage Middle East peace efforts, senior Palestinian officials said on Wednesday. The accusations, a day after Israel and the Palestinians announced a cease-fire, echoed charges from the Jewish state. The officials declined to be identified.
Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, said in a statement no such contacts had taken place, and a senior Palestinian security adviser said he had received assurances that Hizbollah would abide by the truce.
A top Palestinian official said security services were investigating Hizbollah funding for militants in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Another said links were spotted via intercepted communications. "We know that Hizbollah has been trying to recruit suicide bombers in the name of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to wage attacks that would sabotage the truce," an official said about an armed group of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction.
Another official said intercepted e-mail communications and bank transactions suggested Hizbollah had raised its cash offers to militants, but it was unclear if this reflected a heightened desire to see violence flare up or a dearth of recruits. "Now they are willing to pay $100,000 for a whole operation (suicide bombing) whereas in the past they paid $20,000, then raised it to $50,000," the second official told Reuters.
Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced a cease-fire at a summit in Egypt on Tuesday to end four years of bloodshed and prepare the ground for peacemaking. Militants have said they are not bound by the truce, but will maintain a recent calm at the request of Abbas.
Israel has long accused Hizbollah, whose attacks helped end its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in 2000, of bankrolling a Palestinian revolt that erupted later that year. Hizbollah has acknowledged some support for Palestinian militant groups. Palestinian officials blamed a recent attack in the West Bank city of Nablus on the guerrilla group. Officials accused Hizbollah of sending money to the West Bank and Gaza via relatives among the 400,000-strong Palestinian refugee community in Lebanon.
Many refugees who fled the 1948 war of Israel's creation fear that Abbas will abandon demands for a "right to return" to lands inside Israel, though he has said he would not.
Senior Palestinian security adviser Jibril al-Rajoub said Lebanese officials had told him during talks in Beirut that Hizbollah would not sabotage efforts at calm. "Hizbollah will respect the decision of the leadership of the Palestinian people of their commitment to the cease-fire."
Representatives of al-Aqsa Brigades, a disparate coalition of gunmen, denied getting help from the Shi'ite guerrillas. "We respect Hizbollah but Palestinian resistance is capable of leading its struggle alone and is able to support itself by itself," said Abu Qusai, Gaza spokesman for the faction.
A Lebanese-born Palestinian with Danish citizenship awaits trial in Tel Aviv, accused of spying and trying to recruit Israeli Arabs for Hizbollah missions. He denies the charges.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
12:43:25 AM ||
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#4
Iran, Syria, Syria, Iran. Follow the money and ideology it leads back to Iran with Syria's assent.
Europe needs to wake up and start piling on the pressure. If they want a stable ME and a solution to the Palestinian problem Syria and Iran and their support for terrorist acts have to be dealt with.
U.S. intelligence is unlikely to know much about Iran's contentious nuclear program and could be vulnerable to manipulation for political ends, former intelligence officers and other experts say. Amid an escalating war of words between Washington and Tehran, the experts say they doubt the CIA has been able to recruit agents with access to the small circle of clerics who control the Islamic Republic's national security policy.
Serious doubts also surround the effectiveness of an expanded intelligence role for the Pentagon, which former intelligence officials say is preparing covert military forays to look for evidence near suspected weapons facilities. "I will be highly remarkably surprised if the United States has (intelligence) assets in the organs of power," said Ray Takeyh, an Iran expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"They don't even know who the second-tier Revolutionary Guards are," he added.
Doubts about U.S. intelligence on Iran have arisen amid talk of possible military strikes by the United States or Israel against suspected nuclear weapons facilities. Former chief weapons inspector David Kay, the first to declare U.S. intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq a failure, warned that the Bush administration is again relying on evidence from dissidents, as it did in prewar Iraq. "The tendency is to force the intelligence to support the political argument," Kay said in a CNN interview on Wednesday.
He added that the CIA has yet to give U.S. policymakers an up-to-date comprehensive intelligence assessment on Iran. "We're talking about military action against Iran and we don't have a national intelligence estimate that shows what we do know, what we don't know and the basis for what we think we know," Kay said.
Problems arose for U.S. intelligence in Iran a quarter of a century ago after the Islamic revolution, when Washington cut diplomatic ties following the seizure of the American embassy by student radicals.
Richard Perle, the influential neoconservative thinker who was a driving force behind the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, said intelligence suffered a major setback in Iran with the arrest of about 40 agents in the mid-1990s. "As I understand it, virtually our entire network in Iran was wiped out," Perle recently told the House of Representatives intelligence committee. "I think we're in very bad shape in Iran," he said.
Some intelligence analysts argue a preemptive strike is the only way to delay Iranian nuclear-weapons production, despite the Bush administration's public emphasis on diplomacy.
U.S. intelligence has had a huge credibility problem over reports that prewar Iraq possessed large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and was pursuing nuclear arms. The assertions were one of several a main justification for the 2003 U.S. invasion, but no such weapons have been found. "If U.S. intelligence was bad in Iraq, and it was atrocious, it's probably going to be worse vis-a-vis Iran," said Richard Russell, a former CIA analyst who teaches at the National Defense University.
The task of recruiting useful agents in Iran faces immense hurdles posed by a secretive decision-making hierarchy and widespread mistrust of the U.S. government, experts said. "People have worked their whole lives on the 'Iran problem' and they'll finish their lives with a huge 'A' for effort and probably a 'C' in terms of recruited human sources," said a former senior intelligence official who asked not to be named.
Not even covert forays into Iran by U.S. military units would likely bear much fruit, the former official added. "They're never going to find anything out of substance except that there's some mysterious place in the desert with barbed wire and mines around it," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
12:31:38 AM ||
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#1
No, David, the tendency is to make prudent decisions where the burden falls on the proven reckless genocidal WMD-building rogue state up to its neck in ties to terrorism including the new global nasty variety, when the question is mass-casualty attacks on the US and its allies. Sheesh. If US intel had "huge credibility problems" then why is the world seized with the problems of nukes in NoKo and Iran? The huge credibility problem is with David Kay and like-minded folks who can't think straight or keep their facts straight or exhibit much common sense.
#3
Verlaine, interesting take. However, from what I interpret your post to mean, is David Kay speaking of "credibility intelligence"? (ie info to validate the argument about Iranian WMDs)
I'm more concerned about tactical/strategic intelligence such as "where as the bombs" ...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
02/10/2005 2:36
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US lacking HUMINT on Iran
Well, DUH. And on a lot of other countries, too.
For that you can thank Frank Church - may he rot in hell - and successor weasels. (May they rot there, too.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/10/2005 15:06
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#5
Amen, Barbara. Few have done more to harm the US than the Church Commission.
Iraqi security forces arrested several assistants to Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawi after storming hideouts in Al-Ramadi, said the Iraqi government in a statement Tuesday. The statement said the Iraqi forces arrested in Al-Ramadi a group of terrorists including Adnaan Al-Delimi, 34, who is also known as Abu Abdulrahman.
It added, forces arrested another assistant to Al-Zarqawi in the city named Abbas Al-Obaidi, 39, who is also known as Abu Ali. They also detained Adnan Al-Saadawi, 38, known as Abu Ahmad, who is a suspect of planning and financing several terrorist attacks within Al-Zarqawi network. The Iraqi government also announced the arrest of Abu Waleed, the military advisor of Al-Zarqawi, also known as Enaad Al-Qaisi. A statement issued by the Iraqi cabinet said, Abu Waleed, a 41 years old Jordanian, "provided facilities for Al-Zarqawi network which is tied to Al-Qaida terrorist network".
Spokesman for Iraqi Premier Thaaer Al-Naqeeb said in a statement that the Iraqi security arrested Basheer Al-Takriti near Mousel. He said, the detained is relative of the defunct Iraqi regime leader and suspected for supplying terrorists with weapons and money.
The Iraqi cabinet allocated today one million dollar for anyone who provides the authorities with information that lead to arrest of Muhammad Yunus Al-Ahmad who is suspected for supporting terrorist attacks against the Iraqi people and authorities. The cabinet added in a statement that officials of the Iraqi government expect Al-Ahmad to be in Syria.
This article starring:
ABAS AL OBAIDI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU ABDULRAHMAN
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU AHMED
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU ALI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU MUSAAB AL ZARQAWI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU WALID
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ADNAAN AL DELIMI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ADNAN AL SAADAWI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
BASHIR AL TAKRITI
Iraqi Insurgency
ENAAD AL QAISI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
MUHAMAD YUNUS AL AHMED
Iraqi Insurgency
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
12:26:00 AM ||
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#1
The takedowns continue...and appear to be accelerating.
#2
Security forces just happen to capture aide after aide after aide?
Zarqawi is in a very remote room with car battery cables on his nuts and several pairs of pliers, dental drills, and other persausive devices at hand. He's singing like a freaking canary.
#5
The Iraqi cabinet allocated today one million dollar for anyone who provides the authorities with information that lead to arrest of Muhammad Yunus Al-Ahmad who is suspected for supporting terrorist attacks against the Iraqi people and authorities.
The cabinet added in a statement that officials of the Iraqi government expect Al-Ahmad to be in Syria.
This is probably the most important part of the story. The Iraqi govt, after the election, is now insisting it legitimately speaks for Iraq and her people. And that means Syria is On the Other Side, so long as it keeps enabling the terror / insurgent network.
Try though they may to avoid it, the Gulf states are going to have to accept actions by the government of Iraq to protect the country and her people. Notice has been given and the Iraqi government has the help of the Coalition behind it, if it should ask for that help.
As, no doubt, it will.
I really, really hope it's the Iraqis that bring Zarqawi in rather than US troops. Or better yet, a combined op.
Posted by: too true ||
02/10/2005 13:39
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#6
I wonder if the Iraqis will have Z-man make a tape after the interrogations are completed. Sort of a Lessons Learned for future terrs.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/10/2005 13:46
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#7
Man, this cat has more aides than San Francisco. Catch the barstard already!
TONY Blair yesterday moved towards the hawkish United States position on Iran, jangling nerves among Labour MPs and peace campaigners fearful of fresh conflict in the Middle East. Appearing before a committee of senior MPs in London, the Prime Minister said there was "no doubt" that the Iranian government backed international terrorism and warned the regime in Tehran not to stand in the way of a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. Anti-war activists and some European diplomats fear that the US, following the re-election of George Bush as president, is gearing up for a confrontation with Iran over its embryonic nuclear programme. Reports earlier this year suggested US special forces had already been in Iran to identify possible targets for US or Israeli air strikes.
Although Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said last week in London that an attack on Iran was "not on the agenda", there is no doubt that Washington is increasingly focusing its attentions on the theocratic government in Tehran. Mr Bush last month pledged in his inauguration speech to spread the "fire of freedom" around the world, seen by many as a warning to the Iranian hard-liners to permit more political freedoms and end human-rights abuses. Last week, the US president said Iran was "the world's primary state sponsor of terror", an assessment Mr Blair enthusiastically supported yesterday. "It certainly does sponsor terrorism, there's no doubt about that at all," the Prime Minister said.
The US State Department says elements in the Iranian regime provide military and financial support to groups such as Hezbollah that carry out attacks against Israeli interests. Mr Blair suggested that support must end. He said: "I hope very much that if we can make progress in the Middle East, Iran realises it's got an obligation to help that, not hinder it." Raising Iran's profile in the context of international terrorism is a broadening of the case against Tehran. In recent years, European diplomacy has concentrated on persuading Iran to give up any attempt to create weapons-grade uranium.
As Mr Blair spoke, Iranian diplomats indicated their patience was running out with lengthy but so-far fruitless talks with Britain, France and Germany. Talks between the two sides resumed in Geneva yesterday and began with a warning from Hossein Mousavian, the senior Iranian negotiator. "If we see tangible, objective progress, we will continue negotiations," he said. "If we think the Europeans are killing time, we will definitely [change our position]." Mr Blair insisted that Iran's possible military ambitions must be dealt with: "I don't think it's disputed that there is an issue to do with Iran and nuclear weapons capability."
Meanwhile, Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights worker who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, became the latest campaigner to warn against any armed strike against the regime in Tehran. "For the human rights defenders in Iran, the possibility of a foreign military attack on their country represents an utter disaster for their cause," Ms Ebadi, the founder of the Centre for Defence of Human Rights in Tehran, wrote in the New York Times yesterday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
12:24:37 AM ||
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#1
Thanks, Tony. I don't sweat the things like Kyoto if you are with us on the big stuff.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has said Tehran will never give up nuclear technology, as international pressure on his government continues to mount. He warned of "massive" consequences if Iran was treated unfairly.
Mr Khatami said again that the nuclear programme was peaceful and needed to produce power, rejecting US suspicions that it is a cover for weapons. EU powers want Tehran to end uranium enrichment - a key part of nuclear arms production - permanently. "We give our guarantee that we will not produce nuclear weapons because we're against them and do not believe they are a source of power," Mr Khatami told foreign ambassadors in Tehran. "But we will not give up peaceful nuclear technology," he added.
In Washington, President George W Bush said a nuclear-armed Iran would be "a very destabilising force in the world" and urged the West to work together to stop such an outcome. The message was reinforced by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a tour of Europe this week. She said Washington had no deadline to refer the issue to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions, adding that diplomacy had to be given every chance to work.
While talks with Germany, France and Britain continue in Geneva, Iran has suspended uranium enrichment, which can be used to make weapons-grade fuel. But in his speech Mr Khatami said that enrichment was "our clear right" and that Iran had suspended it only "to show our goodwill". He added: "If we feel others are not meeting their promises, under no circumstances would we be committed to continue fulfilling ours.
"And we will adopt a new policy, the consequences of which are massive and would be the responsibility of those who broke their commitments."
He doesn't even have a nuclear saber yet, and he's already rattling it.
The European countries would like to use a package of incentives to induce Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions, but Tehran has said it is disappointed with what is on offer so far. It says it can only continue talks for a matter of months, not years.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
12:23:20 AM ||
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But in his speech Mr Khatami said that enrichment was "our clear right" and that Iran had suspended it only "to show our goodwill".
Khatami added...
The Great Satan sends that troublesome infidel women to Europe to stir things up....@#$@%$^%(%(&%*$*&^%.
#2
"And we will adopt a new policy, the consequences of which are massive and would be the responsibility of those who broke their commitments."
Can't argue with that. 5, 4, 3, 2...
Posted by: Tom ||
02/10/2005 14:16
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Adel Abdul Mahdi, one of the leading candidates to become the new Iraqi prime minister, recalled the day last year when he and other Iraqi leaders were summoned to the holy city of Najaf by the country's senior Shiite clerics.
The topic was the role of Islam in the new Iraqi state. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most powerful Shiite leader, questioned whether Mr. Mahdi and the others, members of the American-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, had the legitimacy to draft an interim constitution.
"You were not elected," Ayatollah Sistani told the group.
Mr. Mahdi says he did not hesitate to answer.
"You were not elected," he told the ayatollah.
With that, Mr. Mahdi and the others returned to the capital and drafted an interim constitution intended to govern Iraqi for the next year, naming Islam as a source, but not the only source, of legislation. The language bridged one of the most divisive issues in forming the new government, whether it should be secular or religious.
Mr. Mahdi, one of the leaders of the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite coalition on the verge of capturing a majority of seats in the national assembly, recalled the moment to illustrate the limitations of the Shiite clerics in political affairs here.
"Victory is the most dangerous moment," Mr. Mahdi, 63, said in an interview at his home in Baghdad this week. "There will be some people trying to push for extreme measures. If we start with such behavior, we will lose the country."
Mr. Mahdi, a witty, affable, French-trained economist who serves as the finance minister in the current government, personifies a strong secular current that runs through the alliance. That strand is likely to resist demands for an Iranian-style Islamic state, where ultimate power resides with clerics, political rights are limited and women face harsh restrictions.
The question for Iraqis, as well as the Bush administration, is whether Mr. Mahdi's secular vision extends to the rest of the Shiite alliance, or whether it is being used as cover for a more ambitious religious agenda.
The leaders of the Shiite alliance have said the new Iraqi government, if they end up with enough votes to form it, will be headed by a secular figure. Fewer than a half dozen of the alliance's 228 candidates are clerics. And a likely alliance with the Kurdish parties, which are secular, could blunt the Islamists.
Still, many Iraqis say Mr. Mahdi, secular-minded though he is, would be under fierce pressure from Iraq's clerical establishment to accord Islam an expansive role in the permanent Iraqi constitution the national assembly is to write this year.
He is thought to be an attractive candidate to the Americans. He has worked closely with the Bush administration, and helped renegotiate Iraq's foreign debt. Like many Iraqi leaders, including even many of the clerics themselves, he takes a cold-eyed view of the need for American troops to stay in the country until Iraqi security forces are strong enough to defeat the guerrilla insurgency on their own.
Mr. Mahdi's conversion from young Baath Party member to Maoist cadre to pro-American Islamic moderate is emblematic of the journey taken by many intellectuals who came of age in the 1960's, swept up in the left-wing currents of the time, only turn back to the faith into which they were born.
Yet in all of his transformations, there is, to his rivals, the whiff of the opportunist. Far from being devoutly religious himself, they say, Mr. Mahdi is a secular man who attached himself to a largely Islamist group to get closer to power, and by so doing made that group more acceptable to the outside word.
Within the wider world of Iraqi Shiites, a struggle for influence in the new government has already begun. Earlier this week, Ayatollah Muhammad Eshaq al-Faeath, one of five ayatollahs who make up the senior Shiite religious leadership here, publicly demanded that Islam be named as the "only" source of legislation, a feature that would probably render Iraq an Islamic state. Others are demanding that family and personal relations be regulated by Koranic law.
"He will be under pressure on the power of religion in the state," said Adnan Pachachi, a secular Sunni leader, referring to Mr. Mahdi. "But if he gets the job, it will actually help him resist the pressure."
Even those Iraqis, like Mr. Pachachi, who are convinced of Mr. Mahdi's relatively secular mind-set say they are concerned that he could end up becoming a pawn of Abdul Aziz Hakim, the leader of his party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as Sciri.
The steely-eyed Mr. Hakim, the former leader of the party's military wing who is believed to have close connections to Iranian intelligence agencies, is the scion of one of the most prominent Shiite religious families in Iraq. He is said to favor a broader role for Islam in the new constitution.
"Hakim has decided that he can realize his ambitions through Adel Abdul Mahdi," said Adnan Ali, a senior leader in the Dawa Party, a member of the Shiite alliance, which supports a different candidate for prime minister.
Who will become prime minister is expected to be one of the most hard-fought battles after election results are in, and with the vote-counting nearing completion, the political deal making has already begun.
For Mr. Mahdi to arrive at the spot where he is now is perhaps not as surprising as the path that he took to get there. He comes from a family active in politics; his father, Abdul Mahdi Shobar, was a guerrilla leader against the British in 1920 and later became a minister of education during the monarchy of King Faisal. He is a boyhood playmate of Ahmad Chalabi, a rival for the job of prime minister, and Ayad Allawi, who now holds the post.
Mr. Mahdi said he joined the Baath Party when it was largely a youth movement, and was even an acquaintance of the future leader, Saddam Hussein, who at the time, he said, worked in the party's Peasant Division.
Mr. Mahdi said he had joined out of a romantic attraction to the ideals of Arab nationalism and socialist economics, but quit the party in the 1960's, after it came to power and when, he said, its leaders began killing and imprisoning political opponents.
"When we saw the experience of blood, torture, executions, killings, we were shocked," he said, then turning to an Arab proverb to describe the party: "The fish was rotten from the head."
After the ouster of the Baath Party from its first stint in power in 1963, Mr. Mahdi was arrested, jailed and tortured; his jailers, he said, used pliers to pull chunks of flesh from his thighs. Five years later, as the Baath Party prepared to return to power and begin its 34-year reign of terror, he fled the country, tipped off that he was a target for execution.
Ending up in France, where he earned master's degrees in political science and economics, he said he embraced Marxism, and especially the brand espoused by Mao, which Mr. Mahdi said he found appealing for its emphasis on popular participation.
Yet even in his years as a follower of Mao, he said he never abandoned his Islamic faith.
"We weren't of those people who were trying to defy religion, trying to defy their family," he said of his youthful philosophical detours.
Like many Iraqis, Mr. Mahdi was inspired by the Iranian revolution of 1979, which appeared as a model for Iraq's long-suppressed Shiite majority and a real-life example of an Islamic-guided government. He and many other Iraqi Shiites in exile, including Mr. Hakim, began using Iran as a base to organize against Mr. Hussein's government. The two men were both founders of Sciri in the 1980's.
American officials say Sciri continues to receive support from the Iranian government, and the party's relationship to Iran has given rise to concerns, in the United States and in Iraq, about the movement's independence.
As the Iranian revolution transformed into a theocracy, it alienated many Iraqi Shiites, some of whom rejected it as a model for Iraq. Mr. Mahdi is tempered in his criticism of the Iranian government
"They have to be more open," he said. But he professes a vision of political Islam that is substantially more mild than the Iranian variety.
To Mr. Mahdi, the Shiite religious hierarchy has an important role in leading the country, but he says the religious leadership has to make way for democratic politics, in contrast to the Iranian model.
"We accept the role of the religious leadership," he said. "They are part of society. People respect them. They have a natural part. But this natural part should not stop the nation from practicing its rights. The nation should elect its representatives. Because the nation is not just the religious people but all the citizens."
Mr. Mahdi said he believed that the dangers of a full-blown Islamic theocracy coming to Iraq were minimal. Ayatollah Sistani, he said, has ruled out the use of Koranic law in governing family law.
But in saying so, Mr. Mahdi makes it clear that moderates like himself need all the help they can get.
"They have the right to be worried," he said of the Iraqi people. "I hope they would stay worried. All the people should be cautious. They should keep criticizing. I am not asking people to stop criticizing, to trust blindly."
As to the charge that he is a political opportunist, Mr. Mahdi confesses that he is a practical politician, but one who has stayed true to his principles.
"Why are you married?" he asked. "If they need me and I need them, then this is a very solid relationship."
Likewise, he makes no apologies for his intellectual evolution.
"It took 50 years to have such development," he said of his political journey. "With major events in the region going on, countries changed, their ideologies changed. It didn't take two days."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
12:20:55 AM ||
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#1
He is a boyhood playmate of Ahmad Chalabi, a rival for the job of prime minister, and Ayad Allawi, who now holds the post.
Mr. Mahdi said he joined the Baath Party when it was largely a youth movement, and was even an acquaintance of the future leader, Saddam Hussein, who at the time, he said, worked in the partyâs Peasant Division.
an interesting point, on how small and interconnected the elite is in Iraq, as in many other 3rd world countries. All these guys know each other fairly intimately. (well other than the Kurds, I suppose) 6 degrees of seperation, folks?
During a meeting to plan the recent Saudi conference on counter-terrorism the Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia claimed that arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden was "sent by the Jews." The Defense Minister, Prince Sultan Feted read a poem with the following verse:
"Long live security - may its men hold their heads high on every corner. [Bin Laden], whose ideology is sick, who was sent by the Jews, who is the architect of theft, was treacherous and sent us the criminals. This traitor of the nation tried to harm us, but his efforts boomeranged back upon him."
A clip of the prince reading the poem can be viewed on the MEMRI web-site. Though the Saudi conference was attended by leading counterterrorism experts from over 50 different countries, Israel was excluded. "We have invited all countries that have suffered from terrorism to the conference, and all have agreed to take part," said Prince Turki ibn Muhammad, assistant undersecretary for political affairs at the Saudi Foreign Ministry told WorldNetDaily.
This article starring:
Prince Sultan
Prince Turki ibn Muhammad
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
12:17:44 AM ||
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#1
ya can't make this stuff up.
sent by the Joooos, yet celebrated. and they have no problem with the logic.
#7
This sort of thing doesn't surprise me. When Sadr killed the rival Mullah a couple of years back the"Muslims in the Know" said "Sadr didn't do it. The mullah was killed by the jews". Everything bad that happens is attributed to "The Jews" or The U.S. or is just Allah's Will. NOTHING is ever the fault of the Arabs or Muslims. This is why they will never progress any further than they are now. They blindly follow a religion that tells them they have NO choices, they can't change anything because EVERYTHING is Allah's will so what's the point in even trying. It's easier to go with the flow than buck the current.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/10/2005 15:42
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#8
How about a Golden Oldie - to keep perspective on Arab-Think, lol!
#9
Sadr is the most transparent cretin I have ever seen. He is everywhere there is trouble, but is never the blame... It must be nice to have a lot of power, and "correct" any assumptions that wander into the gray areas...
#10
What is really disturbing is that this nutjob is next in line for the job of Crown Prince. If Fahd (82) dies, Abdullah (81) takes the the Soddy throne, but how long can he last? BTW - isn't it funny how all these 70 and 80 year old princes have jet black goatees? Must be hard to keep boot polish in the stores, it's just flying off the shelfs.
#12
When in doubt, blame the Jews. Or Bush. But definitely one of the two.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
02/10/2005 22:22
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#13
The thing to remember is, any enemy of the House of Saud is a 'Jew' or a "tool of Jews", regardless of what the actual ethnicty or religion is. Doesn't excuse the derogation, but pretty much shows their mindset.
Glad you're online again, What 'appened? Hax0rs? Hardware? Sys crash? Your uplink?
The server crashed at around 3 a.m. I'm home with a cold today, and slept until 8 a.m. I called it in as soon as I got up, and the system somehow lost it. It took me three trouble calls to get us restarted, at around 1.25 p.m. Sorry for the inconvenience.
#7
Get Well Fred! Stay away from that ole' pipe for awhile! If your cold is like the one runnin' around the Baltimore/Washington Area, Hold On it's a rough one!
#9
Fred--I can't recommend Zicam enough for knocking a cold down and getting over it faster. There's no cure for a cold, but the zinc-based solution Zicam provides keeps the cold virus from replicating so it lessens both the duration and severity of the cold. I've been using it for 2+ years (well before Rush started using it and recommending it) and haven't had a "real" cold since. It comes in several variations (nasal swabs, nasal spray, oral spray, lozenges, and a kind of taffy chewy thing) but they all accomplish the same thing.
It's best to start taking it as soon as you feel the cold coming on, but it will still help knock down a full-blown cold somewhat as well.
Posted by: Dar ||
02/10/2005 16:54
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#10
I agree with Dar, although my doctor recommended plain zinc pills. Also warm salt water gargles and -- for a stuffy nose -- saline nose spray. And always, chicken soup.
Get well soon, Fred... Hope you feel the many good wishes from all here wafting toward you through the ether!
#12
trailing wife: A formula for you
1 pint of distilled water
1 teaspoon of Kosher or Canning Salt (no preservative to cause further problems)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
4 mins nuking in a microwave
cover with fresh lid and let cool
Use to irrigate or mist the nose
The solutions kill virus, some bacteria and some fungus....
#13
Do not mess around with the cold. Try everything - stop at nothing. I am still recovering from pneumonia that started off with "a little cold". 'course, flying four times a week didn't help at all either. Steroids finally cleared my ears. Thanks Dr! - better living through chemistry.
It has been a month since the Feb. 10 bloody attack by renegade Moro guerrillas on a roadside Army detachment here and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's ceasefire committee still has not provided the police and the military with any word on the whereabouts of the perpetrators. Seven soldiers were killed and two others where wounded in the attack by some 200 guerrillas led by Ustadz Wahid, now the subject of an extensive police and military hunt.
Maj. Gen. Raul Relano, commander of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said the military will continue to go after Tundok and at least three other commanders who plotted the attack. Relano said Wahid and his men have lately been seen mingling with Abu Sayyaf and suspected Jemaah Islamiyah elements in secluded spots at the Liguasan Marsh, a 220,000 hectare delta at the boundary of Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato. "Our informants, some of them Maguindanaon religious leaders, have also informed us that Wahid was also seen in the Butilen area (in Datu Piang, Maguindanao) which we bombarded last month due to the convergence there of Abu Sayyaf and suspected JI operatives," he said.
Relano said he is convinced that renegade MILF commanders known for their hardline position on the ongoing government-MILF peace talks, have "personal" links with foreign terrorists. "The MILF leadership has stated repeatedly that it did not order Wahid and his men to attack the detachment in Mamasapano and even emphasized that Wahid did it on his own. We in the military are quite apprehensive that, without the knowledge of the MILF, radical commanders like Wahid may have long been liaising with foreign terrorist organizations," he said.
Relano said the 6th ID's main concern now is to prevent renegade commanders like Wahid and an equally radical preacher, Amiril Kato Ombra, from embarking on attacks to derail the ongoing peace talks and to embarrass the leadership of their moderate chieftain, Al-Haj Murad.
Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan said President Arroyo and the Department of National Defense should look seriously into reports that renegade rebel groups have been coddling key leaders of the Abu Sofia, a local kidnap-for-ransom gang, and the equally notorious Abu Sayyaf. "This is a very serious concern. We need to pool our efforts in addressing this security problem," Ampatuan told The STAR in the Maguindanao dialect.
Relano said they remain optimistic that they can neutralize Wahid and other renegade commanders whom the MILF has disowned due to their activities that have unduly affected the supposedly stable implementation of the ceasefire. "What gives us hope now that we will succeed is the outpouring of support for our efforts from Muslim political and religious leaders in a manner never before recorded in the history of Central Mindanao," he said.
This article starring:
AL HAJ MURAD
Moro Islamic Liberation Front
AMIRIL KATO OMBRA
Moro Islamic Liberation Front
Maj. Gen. Raul Relano
USTADZ WAHID
Moro Islamic Liberation Front
Abu Sayyaf
Abu Sofia
Jemaah Islamiyah
Moro Islamic Liberation Front
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
12:15:59 AM ||
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Chechen separatist leader Shamil Basayev has denied reports of his own death which appeared last week in the Russian press, saying he is alive and well and even stabbing his artificial limb to prove it. Basayev, whose leg was amputated in 2000, appeared in a video reportedly recorded on Sunday. In the four-minute video, which was obtained by the separatist news site Kavkazcenter.com, he said that he is feeling well, that he is not suffering from kidney problems. His wooden leg is also fine, Basayev said in the video. But Basayev dismissed reports that the cease-fire was ordered by Maskhadov in response to the arrest of his relatives, and calling the reports Russian lies and propaganda. Basayev added that reports of the death of another field commander, Doku Umarov, were disinformation. Basayev reiterated his demands for full sovereignty and independence for Chechnya, saying that the war would continue until then.
This article starring:
DOKU OMAROV
Chechnya
SHAMIL BASAIEV
Chechnya
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
12:14:18 AM ||
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The question is whether chips flew off and he got splinters...
Armed bands are continuing fire attacks on federal forces and terrorist acts against civilians in Chechnya, the republic's military commandant Lieutenant-General Grigory Fomenko told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. "The statement of the ringleader of extremists Aslan Maskhadov about a stop to combat actions in Chechnya is an empty sound for militants," he said. This prompts only one conclusion - Maskhadov does not control the situation in the republic and most of bands are not subordinate to him anymore, he said.
He hasn't noticed that up until now?
"Maskhadov should have long since understood that his time in Chechnya has passed and he does not belong to himself. He is fully dependant on international terrorism." Fomenko said federal forces were continuing operations to spot and destroy gunmen and landmines planted by them.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
12:11:58 AM ||
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The U.S. military is updating its war plan for Iran, a senior officer said yesterday, but he called the planning routine and said pressure on Tehran to curb a nuclear weapons program remains a diplomatic rather than military effort.
"We are in that process, that normal process, of updating our war plans," said Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for U.S. forces across the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of North Africa. "We try to keep them current, particularly if . . . our region is active," he said in response to reporters' questions at a Pentagon news conference.
Smith indicated the Iran contingency planning grew out of a broad, long-range effort to freshen routine plans for countries in the region and was not the product of a specific or urgent request.
"I haven't been called into any late-night meetings at, you know, 8 o'clock at night, saying, 'Holy cow, we got to sit down and go plan for Iran,' " he said. "I'm not spending any of my time worrying about the nuclear proliferation in Iran," he said, adding that at this stage diplomatic efforts by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are "adequate for our needs."
Smith's comments came after a week in which the Bush administration repeatedly warned Iran to give up what Washington contends is an effort to gain nuclear weapons.
Earlier yesterday, Rice told reporters in Brussels that the United States and its European allies have made their nonproliferation demands clear but have set "no deadline" for action by Tehran. "The Iranians know what they need to do. They shouldn't be permitted, under cover of civilian nuclear power . . . to try to build a nuclear weapon," she said.
At the White House, President Bush emphasized that the United States and Europe will "speak with one voice" in pressuring Iran. "The Iranians just need to know that the free world is working together to send a very clear message: . . . Don't develop a nuclear weapon," he said yesterday at an Oval Office appearance with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. Bush said he was "pleased" with the responses European leaders gave Rice in discussions on Iran.
Day to day, Smith said, the U.S. military is focused less on the long-range threat of a nuclear Iran than on Tehran's immediate efforts to gain political influence in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the cross-border flow of fighters from Iran that feed Iraq's insurgency.
Iran backed certain Iraqi candidates for the new National Assembly to try to gain sway over a future Iraqi government, he said. Tehran is also lending some support for the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose militia staged two bloody uprisings against the U.S.-led occupation in several Iraqi cities last year, he said.
"We have always been concerned about Iran's intentions in Iraq, and we have also had some difficulty following them," he said.
A man sought by the United States as a top leader of the Iraq insurgency, former Iraqi vice president Izzat Ibrahim Douri, could be traveling back and forth to Iraq from Iran or from Syria, Smith said. Douri is No. 6 on the U.S. most-wanted list of former Iraqi leaders.
Smith also said he thinks fighters tied to the Lebanese Shiite political group Hezbollah, whose military wing is funded by Iran, have been apprehended in Iraq. He could not confirm reports this week in the Arab news media that cited Iraq's interior minister as saying 18 members of Hezbollah had been detained in Iraq on terrorism charges. "I personally do not believe that Hezbollah has suddenly become a bigger threat than al Qaeda or former regime elements" in Iraq, he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
12:07:45 AM ||
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#1
I wish President Reagan was still alert and around for this one.
#2
Smith to Hezbollah guy: It seems you have been leading two lives. In one you are on a trek to an Iraqi holy site, and the other you are a terrorist for the Mad Mullahs. Only one of these has a future.
The Philippine armed forces has demanded Muslim rebels in the southern island of Jolo surrender or suffer heavy casualties, as fighting enters its fourth day. More than 100 soldiers and supporters of jailed former Muslim separatist leader, Nur Misuari, have either been killed or wounded in some of the most intense fighting seen in the region for years. Chief of the military's southern command, Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza, says reinforcements dispatched to the area are enough to crush the rebels.
Clashes erupted on Jolo island on Monday following attacks by Mr Misuari's men against troops in several towns. They had joined forces with the Abu Sayyaf, who were fighting the troops. The area is a known stronghold of armed Muslim militants and the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels. The AFP news agency quotes officials as saying that his followers are demanding his detention be transferred to Jolo.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
12:06:05 AM ||
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The Melbourne Magistrates Court has heard a 31-year-old Victorian man facing terrorism charges was approached by an Al Qaeda member on behalf of Osama Bin Laden to act as a sleeper in Australia. Lawyers for Joseph "Jack" Thomas have today made a third application for his release on bail. Thomas is charged with three offences including receiving money from, and providing support to Al Qaeda when he was living in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003.
He was arrested last November and is being held in Victoria's Barwon prison. The court heard that Thomas was trained at a camp in Pakistan, where he met Osama Bin Laden on more than one occasion, and continued to associate with people linked to Al Qaeda after the September 11 attacks. It is alleged Thomas was approached by an Al Qaeda member on behalf of Osama Bin Laden, who asked him to act as a sleeper cell in Australia. Ian Thomas also told the court that his son expressed horror and dismay over the September 11 attacks during a phone call within days of the strikes. His father also told the court his son's spirits are low and he desperately misses his family. Chief Magistrate Ian Gray is now considering the bail application.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005
12:04:41 AM ||
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The House voted Thursday to make states verify that they're not giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and to grant judges broader power to deport political asylum seekers they suspect may be terrorists.
The legislation, passed by a 261-161 vote, also would allow the completion of a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border south of San Diego by waiving environmental hurdles. About friggin time - an alliance among illegals-supporters and enviros abused the enviro laws - this overrode them!
States would have three years to comply with the new federal standards dictating what features driver's licenses must have. They could still issue special driving permits to illegal aliens, but those permits would not be recognized as identities for boarding airlines or allowing entry to federal buildings. a big "ILLEGAL" required on it....kinda kills the need, huh?
Republicans said the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers had multiple driver's licenses that enabled them to slip through security and board the planes they flew into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and that crashed into the ground in Pennsylvania.
"There was a time when identification fraud was a matter of concern, principally, to bouncers and bartenders. But that was before Sept. 11, 2001," said Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
Ten states now don't require license applicants to prove they are citizens or legal residents: Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin and Utah. Tennessee issues driving certificates to people who cannot prove they are legal residents.
"Today there are over 350 valid driver's license designs issued by the 50 states," said the bill's author, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. "We all know it's very difficult for security officials at airports to tell the real ID cards from the counterfeit ones."
Governors, state legislatures and motor vehicle departments protested the bill, calling it a costly mandate that forces states to take on the role of immigration officers. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cost local, state and tribal governments $120 million over the next five years.
"The federal government can't seem to track the people it lets in the country, so it wants to put that burden off onto the states," said Cheye Calvo, a policy analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
A similar measure was rejected by Congress and the White House in December when it was part of a bill reorganizing intelligence agencies. It won the Bush administration's support this week but still faces stiff opposition in the Senate.
The bill is drawing criticism from Mexico as well, particularly its call to complete the building of a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border south of San Diego. "Can't hear you, maybe if you STFU, I could"
"We oppose those measures and that our migrants be denied driver's licenses," said Interior Secretary Santiago Creel. "We're against building any wall between our two countries because they are walls that increase our differences." riiigghhhtt
Democrats tried but failed to strip the bill of provisions that would let judges deport asylum seekers if they find inconsistencies in their claims rather than let them remain in the country until appeals are exhausted.
"We might as well say, 'If you are being persecuted or you are being abused as a woman or raped as a child, don't come to America.' They are raising the bar beyond the abilities of the individuals that are fleeing persecution," said Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005
11:20:24 PM ||
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#1
attaboy to Sensebrenner and "shame shame" on CA, AZ, NM, TX members for not pushing this first
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005 23:35
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One recent Saturday night, Sarinah Majid, a 23-year-old accountant, was dancing the night away with her Chinese boyfriend at Zouks nightclub - the most happening night spot here in Malaysia's capital city. Then suddenly the world as she knew it collapsed dramatically around her.
"The music suddenly stopped, the lights came on and dozens of uniformed and plainclothes Islamic police were crowding the dance floor, shouting, gesticulating and ordering," said Sarinah, using a pseudonym to avoid legal complications.
"What happened that night in January was humiliating, inhuman and thoroughly disgusting ... I felt ashamed to be a Muslim," Sarinah told Inter Press Service, relating to the shame and agony she and about 100 other Muslim youths suffered that night.
Police from the Federal Territory's Islamic Department separated Muslims from non-Muslims. While non-Muslims were told to party on, Muslims were herded into trucks and taken to the department's head office, where the youths' particulars were taken. They were held overnight and released the next day.
They were then ordered to return for counseling sessions with Islamic clerics to learn the "true" Islam. Some will be prosecuted under Shariah (Islamic) laws for "indecent behavior".
"They leered, jeered and ogled at us, took photographs of us and thoroughly humiliated us ... one of us even urinated in her pants out of shock and fright," Sarinah said.
"That night I became a criminal ... the Islamic police told me I had committed heinous sins forbidden by Islam," said Sarinah, who studied at top schools here and in Australia. "I have to appear before a Shariah court next month and be charged for indecent behavior and punished accordingly.
"I don't know what crime I had committed," she said, spitting out the words with bitterness. "I feel helpless and completely violated."
Many moderate Muslims in Malaysia are showing the same shock and anger felt by Sarinah. The incident has sparked a fiery debate focusing on morality, tolerance and compulsion in Islam and the clash between a secular constitution that guarantees fundamental rights and freedom of choice and Islamic Sharia laws that prescribe what a Muslim can and cannot wear and with whom he or she keeps company and where, and many other things.
The raid at Zouks has shaken moderate Muslims - and their fear and anger are palpable.
Moderate Muslims had felt comfortable and safe with the election of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and the elevation of his Islam Hadhari, or moderate Islam, to official status. They felt that the fundamentalist wave that had gripped the country with the ascendancy of the opposition Parti Islam seMalaysia (PAS) was defeated and over.
"We were naive to think fundamentalism was done away with when PAS was defeated at the polls last year and Abdullah announced his Islam Hadhari," said a prominent Muslim political analyst who declined to be named for fear of persecution by fundamentalist opponents.
Last March, in his first election since taking over as prime minister, Abdullah swept through parliament, with his coalition winning 198 out of the 219 parliamentary seats. The opposition only secured 20 seats, with PAS seeing its number of seats decline from 27 in 1999 to just seven.
"Fundamentalism and intolerance run very deep in Malay-Muslim society," the political analyst told IPS. "It is everywhere in the schools, academia, media, politics and everyday life.
"Muslims have few choices ... our life is regulated and regimented," he said.
The country's constitution guarantees fundamental freedom for all citizens, including Muslims. Nonetheless, Muslims are further governed by Sharia laws that each of the country's 13 states have enacted in the last decade. Within the capital, the applicable law is the Syariah (Sharia) Criminal Offenses (Federal Territories) Act of 1997.
Section 19(1) prohibits Muslims from imbibing any intoxicating drink and Section 19(2) refers generally to the selling of alcohol.
Section 29 is the catch-all killer. It states, "Any person who, contrary to Islamic Law, acts or behaves in an indecent manner in any public place shall be guilty of an offense." Under this vague section, Muslims are regularly arrested for "indecent" attire or behavior such as holding hands with someone from the opposite sex, an act that is common among non-Muslims.
Muslims charged under Section 29 usually plead guilty and quietly pay a fine, typically less than RM1,000 (roughly US$263).
But the raid as Zouks was different. This time it took place at a top nightclub frequented by Muslim youths from influential upper-class families with connections to powerful politicians. This time it was the cream of Malay society that was belittled and humiliated by the Islamic police.
Moreover, the law does not specify what constitutes "indecency", which, in light of the recent raid at Zouks, raises the question: is it an act of indecency to wear tight jeans or tank tops or dance at a nightclub where alcohol is served?
Human-rights activist Elizabeth Wong points out that there is nothing in Sharia law that says a Muslim can't be in a club, cafe, bar, restaurant or venue that serves alcohol.
"There is nothing that says one can't dance or listen to very loud mind-numbing music," said Wong, a lawyer and director of HAKAM, a human-rights organization. "The mere presence of Muslims in the nightclub does not constitute a criminal offense," she told IPS. "What constitutes indecent behavior is also highly subjective.
"The problem is not whether the religious authorities did their job in accordance with procedure. It's the existence of such laws that 'govern' moral behavior, which violates fundamental liberties," said Wong. "These laws should never exist in the first place."
(Inter Press Service)
Posted by: tipper ||
02/10/2005
1:05:02 AM ||
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#2
"Mind numbing" BS. If a law is wtrong you resist it. Problem is muslims are told they must submit. If you want freedom you have to move to a non muslim society and stay away from Islam.
#5
Welcome... to the real Islam Sarinah. Dont you love it? Didn't you realize that 'Islam' does not mean 'Peace' as they would like you to think but 'Submission'!
Unfortunately conversion (from Islam) can mean a death sentence. Resistance often means beatings, rape, and disfigurement.
#6
CF, EUrope looks almost like you just can stick a fork in it. Canada goose is getting cooked too, but not there yet. I suppose before well done, it would split apart, the western wing still able to fly.
#9
"I donât know what crime I had committed," she said, spitting out the words with bitterness. "I feel helpless and completely violated."
I believe that, under Islam, the crime you committed is called "being born female".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/10/2005 14:47
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#10
CrazyFool: Welcome... to the real Islam Sarinah. Dont you love it? Didn't you realize that 'Islam' does not mean 'Peace' as they would like you to think but 'Submission'!
Unfortunately conversion (from Islam) can mean a death sentence. Resistance often means beatings, rape, and disfigurement.
Not in Malaysia. I've never read about anyone being killed for apostasy in Malaysia. Jailed, yes. But not killed. As far as reactions from family members go, I have read that the common reaction is shunning.
Malaysia is pretty Islamic, though - I saw a lot of head-coverings there during my last swing through Southeast Asia. I would venture to say that they're pretty religious, but don't get murderous about it. In terms of religious freedom, Malaysia appears to be a pretty relaxed place - un-Islamic items like alcoholic beverages and pork products are readily available. Also, despite Islam's prohibition on gambling, Genting Highlands, Southeast Asia's version of Atlantic City, happens to be located within a short bus ride of the Malaysian capital. Malaysia may actually represent the Sin Capital of the Muslim world.
#6
in 20 years theyll be complaining about the whites coming back in and displacing the poor.
And gentrification. I see a lot of those Stop Gentrification stickers as I hike around D.C. I guess I translate that internally to "Keep Our Neighborhood Crappy".
#8
in 20 years theyll be complaining about the whites coming back in and displacing the poor.
Heh.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/10/2005 14:45
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#9
This process is happening all across Western Europe....It's so wonderfull how European goverments are creating a Europe that will implode like Yugoslavia imploded after Tito died in about 10 to 15 years.....
#11
An interesting axiom about government: when leftists are in charge of a city, the streets and other infrastructure are in disrepair, but there are plenty of "social services" that sustain themselves on an ever-growing pool of the poor. When conservatives are in charge, the infrastructure is kept in good repair, and there are minimal "social services", the poor being strongly encouraged not to need them. This applies just as much to Little Rock, AR, as it does to London. It is also interesting to note that "white flight" is strongly happening in Little Rock, too. If London gets a conservative government, that starts to systematically 'gentrify' the run-down areas of the city, like Giuliani did to Times Square, the trend will reverse, and "whites" will come back in droves.
#2
Time to have a series of meetings, expense account lunches and dinners, and order to discuss the importance of rewarding a $5 million dollar contract, to a crony organization, to study the use of child soldiers and conclude that the use of child soldiers is bad. Then another set of lunches to draft the resolution condemning use of child soldiers.
As for the punishment - it will be a "strongly worded" condemnation of those who employ the children.
#8
I should think a resolution condeming Israel should be sufficient to close out this item.
What's next on the agenda?
Posted by: Michael ||
02/10/2005 15:32
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#9
I'm certain we can count on the UN organizing a week long conference on this issue at a five star hotel in Europe. From that will emerge an important white paper and perhaps a permanent standing committee. The committee will consist of dedicated UN staff who will meet annually at a five star European hotel to report on the status of the issue.
#1
I dunno. For evangelicals to take an interest in this sort of theology demands that that take more interest in theology in general. This runs contrary to recent trends. See this about Wolfe's book or the Internet Monk.
Posted by: James ||
02/10/2005 15:34
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#2
The thrust of his argument strengthens my often-stated view that the United States represents a radical discontinuity with Western civilization - that is, with the blend of Greek philosophy and Hebrew ethics created by the Catholic Church - but rather represents a Hebraic throwback. (Which Spengler for some reason refers to as the Judaizing heresy.)snip
Conclusion: No one is more astonished at the mass of political analysis devoted to them than US evangelicals themselves, who busy themselves with school board elections, recovery from substance abuse, supporting troubled families, and other worthy ventures. Evangelical Christianity is not a political movement, quite unlike the 17th-century Protestant Separatism that set out to found a New Israel. The present "Great Awakening" cares about pornographic fare on cable television, not elections in Afghanistan.
Not since Abraham Lincoln has the United States felt itself to be a "nearly chosen" people, with a religious mission like that of ancient Israel. The US may stand at the threshold of a religious self-awareness in Lincoln's mold. I have read Wyschogrod's new book with astonishment, and espy a chance that the US might return to the world view of its founders: that of a Chosen People in a Promised Land. If that occurs, the world will be a different place.
I think the U.S. is the first Western country to incorporate its morality, as opposed to its religion, consistently as a motivator in national policy. Theology is not the issue, right v. wrong is. Other than that, Spengler often gets America very wrong, in very annoying ways. This might be one of those stopped clock/twice a day things...
#1
This doesn't jive with what I heard yesterday on Fox. They said that he might be revealed now that he is DEAD. I think that was from Woodward's mouth - but I didn't really see the whole segment.
This is probably just red meat thrown to the occupy the dimmy crowd before the real name comes out.
#1
Indeed, they advocate a return to the preâColumbian Inca state, with the European cultural and ethnic (i.e. âwhiteâ) additions removedâby force.
I understand that the "white additions" in questions has been very vocal on the "rights" of Palestinians. Gloat, gloat.
#2
I find it amusing that the descendants of European immigrants in Latin America are extremely anti-American, but may yet need Uncle Sam's help in hauling their ashes out of the fire at some future date.
#3
Do you think that the Native Latin Americans are any less anti-American?
I think you are deluding yourselves if you think that an Native American-fascist resurgence will be any better in regards to how it treats Israel.
In the "anti-colonialist" rhetoric, where white "Westerners" are seen as imperialist overlords, where democracy itself is seen as an imperialist intrusion of the West to native traditions, in their contempt for democracy as compared to their ideals of historical-racial-tribal purity...
...it's itself the Arab rhetoric against the very existence of the state of Israel.
How long do you think before the Indio-fascists (I am using the term used in the article) redefine their ideology to say that instead of four there exist "five races", one of them being the Arabs, and reapply their calls for the expulsion to whites from South America to also cover the expulsion of Jews from the Middle-East?
Presenting itself as "anti-colonialism", treating democracy as if it's nothing but an element of western cultural imperialism; this is the new face of global fascism. You can also see clearly it in the black racism of Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa.
And, though more subtly in Ukraine, you could see it in all the claims by mostly far-left fascists that such democratic revolutions were "imported" from the West, aka imperialism (instead of what it really was: namely the opposite of imperialism, the right of self-determination), while supposedly Russia had a "historical" right to intervene because of the racial-tribal-historical connections.
Once again: this is the face of a new-rising global fascism that sees the racial-ethnic connections as superior in priority to democracy or individual freedoms, those supposedly both western instead of pan-human ideas. In the Middle-east it shows itself as hatred of the Jews. In Native America and Subsaharan Africa as hatred of white people.
This is Huntington's world, except that instead of being merely *descriptive*, these fascists want it to be a *prescriptive* vision.
#4
If its ashes they are, hauling out of the fire won't interest them much anymore ;-) As for the Inca thing, didn't they indulge in massive human sacrifices to their gods? How then do these people expect to get support from their neighbors long -- or even medium -- term?
#5
Last time I was there (1999), this stuff was just getting started. Graffitti about indianismo, road blocks exhorting money from criollos (natives of European descent) and turistas, demonstrations, etc. The same kind of movement is growing in the Mayan highlands and lowlands in Guatemala and Yucatan. It's hard to say how serious it is. There were outbursts of this movement in the 1800s, which never came to anything. They certainly have some real greivances. Latin racism, while largely hidden, is pretty bad. They've been under the thumb of the criollos for 500 years.
This is part of the "blowback" from globalization. TV, remittances from abroad, increased education and the Internet empower people who haven't had power in half a millenium. The same sort of thing is happening with the Kurds and Shiites in Iraq and has already happened with the Shiites in Lebanon (Hezbollah).
So we have a positive model of how this might turn out (Kurds) and a negative model (Lebanese Shiites). Both are very weak analogies and don't provide a lot of insight into the Andean and Mayan problems. The role of Evangelical Christianity complicates things immensely in Latin America, too. Despite keeping an eye on this area for the last half a decade, I don't have a clue how it will turn out. But it bears watching.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/10/2005 22:59
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#9
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore
and then run?....
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load,
OR DOES IT EXPLODE?
Langston Hughes
In studying History with my daughter, we keep running into times--the Reformation, the French Revolution, Ireland after the Famine--in which the combination of ignorance and gross repression explodes into the kind of madness the article describes. It's what led to the Peasants' War in the German territories, with thousands killed; it's what led to the French Revolutionary judge chopping Lavoisier's head off, saying "The Revolution doesn't need scientists." Hate plus ignorance plus suffering equals hell.
In Bolivia, only a few families have any power. Anyone without the select surnames is nobody. A Bolivian lady of my acquaintance was shaking her head about the Bolivians who have settled in the US that bring those mindsets into the US. They are nobody. They have the wrong surname. Or if they have the right one they think they can lord it over the others in the same way they did back home.
Bolivia's natives have nothing to hope for, so they will follow these demons, as the German population followed Hitler and the Russians followed Lenin and Stalin. First they think these leaders offer them some hope; then they find they've been lied to but the leaders are in place and they have the guns.
#1
But Hanna saved his most extreme rhetoric for his sermon of January 19, 2003 -- the Orthodox Epiphany:
"Palestine is from the (Mediterranean) sea to the (Jordan) river. We emphatically refuse any concession on (even) a grain of the land of our precious homeland. Just as Ramallah, Gaza, Nablus, and Jenin are Palestinian cities, so are Haifa, Nazareth, Jaffa, Ramle, Lod, Beersheba, Safed, and others Palestinian cities.
"The Zionist Jews are foreigners in this land. They have no right to live or settle in it. They should go somewhere else in the world to establish their state and their false entity."
These citations only enforce my suspicion that literal religionists are dangerous to this world. These folks are so obsessed with maps of centuries ago, that if their theory were carried out, few countries today would have recognizable borders--bringing anarchy to the world. A call for anarchy is a call for murder and untimely death-this, from a man of God. And with this numbskull's statements, we can see it's not just the Islamicists doing it. Hanna wants to punish the grandchildren of people 80 generations back for Jesus' death. This "sins of the father shall be visited upon the sons..." crap has got to end in our time.
Can't people be religious and live in the now at the same time?
#2
the greek orthodox in Palestine have traditionally been friendly to secular arab nationalism, as those in Syria and Lebanon have been friendly to Greater Syrian nationalism, and hostile to Maronite aspirations to an independent Lebanon. This has something to do with the way the Greek Orthodox are spread geographically, if I remember my Daniel Pipes (Greater Syria, The History of an Ambition) rightly. Probably has very little to do with the substance of Orthodox Christianity.
#3
There's the conspiracist theory I've heard, which says that some are intentionally pushing forward an alliance between Arabs and Orthodox against all Western elements.
Then there's *my* theory, which says that the Greek Orthodox Church and most of its bishops are simply corrupt and villainous to the bone and would ally themselves with any fascist, any racist, any tyrant as long as it gives them the tiniest of advantages. There's never been a dictator they've not liked.
#5
Aris, are there any examples that you are aware of regarding your theory? Don't get me wrong, I agree with you, just ... it would be nice to have some data. (GOC behavior in WWII may provide some background, perhaps).
#7
I figured that you had different points of view in at least one regard (religion in general), but I was thanking you both mostly because your background in the history of the area is far better than mine, I think.
#8
Aris, are there any examples that you are aware of regarding your theory? Don't get me wrong, I agree with you, just ... it would be nice to have some data. (GOC behavior in WWII may provide some background, perhaps).
I'm not familiar with what the Greek Orthodox Church did back then. Moreover the situation then is not so clear-cut, because the Greek government of the time (even if fighting on the side of the Allies) was also ruled by a dictator, Metaxas.
But as just a hint of the stench of corruption that exists atleast now, here's some (relatively recent) accusations for assasination plots in the Jerusalem Patriarchate:
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100010_06/05/2003_29291/
Whether this is assassination, or merely slander of assassination, you can see what atleast one of two top bishops there is willing to do to the other.
Even more recently, this past weeks, the scandals of corruption enfolding the church: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100004_05/02/2005_52630
I had made a brief reference to the situation recently in my livejournal.
For my claims regarding their support of dictators, I'd have to dig back far further and pick you phrases of bishops exonerating various tyrants' supposedly patriotic virtues, and the more general support for all sort of nationalistic/imperialistic causes. That'd be a rather more time-consuming task and I don't have the time now.
#9
Aris:
I am certain you know a lot more about this sort of thing than I do, but aren't you painting the Greek Orthodox church with a rather wide brush? Surely there are "good" and "bad" high ranking church officials.
#10
Aris, thanks. No rush on the "phrases of bishops exonerating various tyrants' supposedly patriotic virtues" and such. Just when you stumble across it, I am sure it may be an interestng theme for a post here.
#1
Be aware. When I posted an article on the issue yesterday, a couple of no-nothing human doormats made snide remarks. You would be better to avoid dialoguing with those termites in human form.
#2
Incredibly, Khan remains in the Bush Administration as General Counsel to the Federal Highway Administration, where heâs informed of all transports of military and nuclear weapons and hazardous material on federal highways.)
#3
Yes, indeed. The Voice Of Truth demands no dialoguing with no-nothing snide human doormats. Better yourself and avoid termites in human form, um, too. Villians. Be Aware.
"We have no need to buy nukes. We can lease them a very reasonable rates."
Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Ali Awaad Aseeri on Monday denied a report by Time magazine that the Kingdom was trying to buy nuclear weapons through AQ Khan's network. "The basic objective of this report is to tarnish the Kingdom's image and frustrate its efforts at making the region free of weapons of mass destruction," the ambassador told Okaz in a telephone interview. Aseeri said the Kingdom had been in the forefront of countries seeking to make the Mideast a nuclear arms-free region. "Why would the Kingdom try to get this kind of weapon when it openly opposes the principle of possessing, manufacturing or proliferating weapons of mass destruction at the regional and international levels," he asked. "The Kingdom has always been seeking world domination peace and security," he added.
Meanwhile, Pakistan said on Wednesday that the case of nuclear scientist AQ Khan was still open, but it has received no new evidence to suggest that his black market network had sold technology to more countries than earlier thought. Last February, President Gen Pervez Musharraf pardoned AQ Khan after he confessed to supplying sensitive technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. But this week Time magazine reported that US officials were also investigating whether the scientist's network might have supplied Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, such as Egypt. On Wednesday, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said AQ Khan's "case is still open".
"We will quiz any of our scientists if somebody comes up with evidence to prove his links with the proliferators of nuclear technology," the spokesman said. But he said the government had "received no new evidence from any country, individual or organisation, including the IAEA" — referring to the UN nuclear watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. AQ Khan, who was once regarded as a national hero for his role in making Pakistan a nuclear power, has lived under virtual house arrest in Islamabad for the past year. On Monday, Pakistan denied that AQ Khan's network was still operating.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
The Sauds financed the Paki intelligence theft from the Atomic Energy Commission of Canada, that led to the develop of the "Islamic Bomb." The principle of quid pro quo dictates that the Sauds got something for their money.
#3
IToldYouSo, dear, please spend some time reading the Rantburg archives. Of course you know a great deal, but you do want to make certain, with a nym like that, that you are actually telling us things we don't already know.
#6
Hey Fred, the ad hominem spewers aren't balancing same with informative posts. Isn't that chippy "troll" conduct?
As a retired intelligence professional, you would be well aware that the Iraqi-Shiites-hate-Persian-Shiites line is pure spin. The cultural inter-change at the Ashoura blood fests attests to the budding unity, cum alliance, at the expense of American taxpayers. Al-Sistani is Persian; born and raised. Islamofascist tyranny has never been stronger, since the State Department sandbagged secularism in Iraq. Come on! Don't let Rantburgers rest in the transient comfort of pure illusion.
#7
Lol! Sigh. Where would us poor stupid toad Rantburgers be without you, IToldYouSo?
Pray, tell more! Explain why this isn't merely your Western brain-fart version and reflects Arab - Persian sentiments beneath the circle-jerk level of Ayatollahs. Obviously, Arab-Persian relations began when you began thinking about it. All those centuries of rivalry, hate, and conflict - not to mention that pesky little war don't count. Of course not.
Your bona-fides, please...
Please, tell us more about yourself - I find your idea fascinating - and convenient as hell - it's so Western and, therefore, so easy to follow... to think I discarded it back in 1980 during the Iran-Iraq War... all that effort of putting on Arab and Persian slippers avoided! Whew! Great!
So, let 'er rip! It's GREAT to have an expert show up who can make it all clear and easy to grasp! Speak! Speak!
All deluded Rantgurgers hate the transient comfort of illusion! Help Us!
BTW, you sound a lot like a guy who showed up here several months back and started out by posting this same Western Conventional Wisdom of a Qom-dominated Iraq. He also stated that Shi'a were the majority in the GCC, etc. He was a jackass, wrong from start to finish. You're not him, back with a new nym and riding the MSM skeer stories of Shi'a shenanigans, are you?
Naw, of course not.
Enlighten us with the facts, not mere speculative observations, that underpin your earth-shattering insights.
Syria backs the Palestinian president's bid to improve relations with Israel and hopes developments there may lead to peace in the Middle East, Syria's ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday. But
There's always a "but," isn't there?
Ambassador Imad Moustapha said relations between his country and the United States were much rockier than in the past and that he was "shocked" when US President George W Bush called Syria an obstacle to peace in his state of the union address last week.
"I was shocked! Shocked!"
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared a cease-fire on Tuesday at a summit in Egypt aimed at ending four years of bloodshed and reviving peace talks. "We are very supportive of what he is trying to do," Moustapha said of Abbas in a seminar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. "We are hopeful that what is happening right now in the Middle East might evolve into a comprehensive and fair Middle East peace. So we are watchful and crossing our fingers," Moustapha said.
Are you rounding up Hezbollah members and shooting them on the spot? No? Then you're not serious.
He said Syria was stunned when Bush singled the country out for criticism in his speech because Syria has tried without success to initiate peace talks with Israel during the past 18 months. The president accused Syria of allowing what he described as terrorists to use Syrian and Lebanese territory to "destroy every chance of peace" in the Middle East. "I cannot deny that on a personal level I was shocked when I was attending the speech and President Bush said Syria is an obstacle to peace in the Middle East," Moustapha said. "US-Syrian relations are going through a very difficult phase. We've always had disagreements with United States policies toward the Middle East, but we never had such similar difficulties. Sometimes we think we are being treated unfairly. We are, like, being blamed for their own failures."
More like being blamed for your own failures.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Assad: "Hey Abbas, I'll pretend to help you out, if put in a good word for me, next time you see Bush."
Isn't it about time? I started mine years ago. And there haven't been four assassination attempts against me...
The government has started compiling lists of militants and extremists, which will contain information about the individual and his/her organisation, sources told Daily Times on Wednesday.
Of course, it being Pakland, they're gonna have to have the census bureau do it...
"The government has asked all security agencies of the country to start preparing the lists," sources added. "The government made the decision to keep a complete profile of militants working for different militant organisations including those that are part and parcel of the United Jihad Council," they said.
To include Lashkar e-Taiba? Want to bet they're not on the list, even though they're part of the UJC?
The lists' purpose was for the government to keep track of militants across the country and to pre-empt terrorist activities in Pakistan, they added. "Another reason for the collection of the data was that the government wanted to maintain lists of militants who had left their parent militant organisations and had formed small militant groups," sources said. Militants who had formed their own small militant groups were more active in terrorist activities, sources said, claiming that such militants were behind terrorist activities within the country including the suicide attacks on President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
And they're just now getting around to it? Well, I guess they can get a head start on the list by using the payroll list...
Sources said this was the second time that the government had started such an exercise after the 9/11 incident.
I guess the magnitude of the task was pretty daunting, wasn't it?
Sounds like the counterattack to the crackdown is forming up...
The Kuwaiti society should stand against all forms of violence and terrorism, say MPs Dr Faisal Al-Muslem, Jassem Al-Kandari, and Abdullah Akash. "The current security circumstances in the country should not be exploited for settling personal disputes," they add. Speaking at a symposium held by the Nation Bloc at the Diwaniya of Hayef Al-Mutairi the MPs condemned the behavior of a "misguided minority," saying "Islam has nothing to do with terrorism or extremism." They expressed their surprise for dragging mosques and educational curricula into the recent terrorist incidents, adding "we faced similar security situations in the sixties and mid-eighties. Nobody leveled such accusations at that time."
Al-Muslem said teachers and Imams should fight misleading ideologies and extremism by urging believers and youth to follow in the footsteps of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his companions. The government should seek the help of prominent Kuwaiti clerics and scientists in the fight against terrorism, he added. "Although we support the government in its fight against misguided groups we urge it not to launch any knee-jerk reactions, especially when a section of the society is keen to exploit the current emergency circumstances to settle old some old scores," the MP continued.
Meanwhile, MP Jassem Al-Kandari said despite the fact Islam has nothing to do with terrorism, the Western society continues to accuse our religion. The international community has signed some 12 treaties on terrorism where we have 19 different definitions for terrorism, he added. What have terrorists gained except killing and blood by launching attacks on the World Trade Centre and Kuwait? he asked. He stressed no religion accepts terrorism, adding "those who sacrificed their lives in defending Kuwait should be honored and their families should be adequately compensated." Although Muslims have been victims of terrorism, as in Sarajevo and other countries, the behavior of some Muslims has led to the loss of international support for a number of Arab and Muslim issues, Al-Kandari continued.
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The Court of Cassation Tuesday set March 15, 2005 to issue a verdict in the petition filed by the Public Prosecution against four Islamists - Mohsen Fadel Ayed Al-Fadhli, Maqboul Fahad Fahhad Al-Maqboul, Mohamed Jomaan Safaq Al-Mutairi and Adel Yousef Ibrahim Bu Haimed - in the so-called 'al-Qaeda organization' case. The men are charged with working for a foreign country, Afghanistan, in a manner which could harm the political position of the state of Kuwait. Only one of the four men, Bu Haimed, attended the session. However lawyer for Fadhli, Mutairi and Bu Haimed, attorney Fahhad Nasser Al-Ajmi, said the Kuwaiti judiciary has nothing to do with this case because no crime had been committed inside Kuwait.
On Feb 3, 2003, the Criminal Court found the four men guilty for joining the military forces of a foreign country and sentenced them to five years in jail. Al-Mutairi was fined KD 50 for leaving the country illegally from an unofficial border point. On Dec 2, 2003, the Court of Appeals ordered to return the case file to the Public Prosecution to complete investigations. On Jan 2, 2004, the prosecution returned the case file to the court again. On April 28, 2004, the four men were acquitted by the Appeals Court after the court decided the Kuwaiti judiciary has no right to look into the case. The court has also ordered to lift the travel ban which had been slapped against the four men. The lawyer pointed out the prosecution warrant for search and arrest was illegal because the investigations conducted by the State Security officer were not serious. He added the case papers did not contain any evidence showing the officer had conducted investigations on the suspects before their arrest.
This article starring:
ADEL YUSEF IBRAHIM BU HAIMED
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
MAQBUL FAHAD FAHAD AL MAQBUL
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
MOHAMED JOMAAN SAFAQ AL MUTAIRI
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
MOHSEN FADEL AIED AL FADHLI
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
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Tribal militant Abdullah Mehsud on Wednesday played down Monday's peace deal between the government and fellow militant Baitullah Mehsud, saying he would continue jihad in South Waziristan Agency. He called the peace deal Baitullah's "personal thinking" and said he (Abdullah) had "nothing to do with the deal" nor would he abide by it. "I am not involved in this deal and will continue struggling against the government," Abdullah told a local journalist working for a foreign radio. Abdullah was not being given amnesty by the government because of his involvement in the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers and the killing of one in October last year. "The fight will continue and my struggle won't be affected by the deal between Baitullah and the government," he said by phone from an undisclosed location.
I guess they don't have caller ID in Pakland...
Abdullah said he did not commit any crime by kidnapping the two Chinese engineers and called it a part of his struggle. "Our jihad is as international as US terrorism," he added.
"Therefore it's not a crime, even though they're dead. It's... ummm... something else."
Condemning the people trying to get him pardoned from the Chinese government, Abdullah said, "I will not beg for forgiveness. I prefer martyrdom over being pardoned."
Sounds pretty good.
He also denied involvement in the killing of two tribal journalists in Wana on Monday evening. He alleged that the government was behind the incident and was blaming him. "Whatever I do, I admit to it," he added.
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The leader of an armed group in Somalia has urged followers to attack foreign peacekeeping troops being sent to support the fledgling government in Mogadishu. The call by Osman Ali Ato, a government minister, for Somalis to attack troops from historic foe Ethiopia revealed fresh signs of division in the new government under President Abb Allahi Yusuf Ahmad — elected at the peace talks in Kenya. Diplomats said the remarks by Mogadishu militia baron Ato boded ill for a peace mission agreed to this week by the 53-nation African Union (AU), which plans to send troops shortly from five countries - including Ethiopia - to shore up the new government.
The government, which has remained in Kenya's relative safety since its formation, plans to return to Somalia on 21 February. Ato, who is housing minister in the government, said in a radio interview broadcast on Tuesday evening and again on Wednesday that Ahmad's new government did not need AU help to stabilise Somalia, which plunged into chaos with the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. He accused Ahmad of stirring divisions between Somalia and Ethiopia in a plot to further Ethiopia's alleged ambitions to control Somalia, echoing a widespread view of Ahmad and his closest colleagues as northerners manipulated by Addis Ababa. "I urge all Somali people to prepare to fight against our enemies, be they Ethiopians or Somalis," Ato told Radio Shabelle from Kenya, where he and most of his colleagues are still based. "President Abd Allahi Yusuf [Ahmad] is the first person who wants clashes between Ethiopians and Somalis."
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Sheikh Ibrahim ibn Abdullah Al-Ghaith said suicide terror attacks carried out by militants were "unacceptable by religion, reason and tradition." Although Islam deems suicide a sin, militants have been justifying suicide bombings targeting government infrastructure or police, seen as government agents, as "martyrdom operations." In a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency, Sheikh Al-Ghaith, however, reminded that such attacks were tantamount to suicide and fell under the warning in the Qur'an: "Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves, for verily God hath been to you most Merciful." The verse adds that suicide is considered an "injustice" punishable by hell.
Sheikh Al-Ghaith did not address suicide operations by Palestinians and Iraqis. Many Islamic scholars in the Arab world see attacks on occupiers as justifiable. On Sunday, Islamic Affairs Minister Saleh Al-Sheikh told reporters on the sidelines of the Counterterrorism International Conference in Riyadh that his ministry had issued an edict condemning suicide bombings as an act of terror. He added, however, that those fighting occupation are not terrorists. Sheikh Al-Ghaith said denouncing terrorism is a "duty" and accepting it is "treason." The government has been struggling to contain militants who have attacked the government and Westerners in a series of deadly attacks, which have included suicide bombings, since May 2003.
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So the future holds rule by gerontocracy. The House of Sod is going to be in a similar position to the Soviets under Andropov.
Rumours about the health of Saudi Arabia's ailing King Fahd frequently prompt uncertainty and speculation, but diplomats expect a smooth succession that will not challenge stability in the world's leading oil exporter. The script calls for Crown Prince Abdullah, King Fahd's half-brother and a cautious reformist, to ascend the throne, and for Prince Sultan, currently the defence minister, to become crown prince in his stead. "The succession will be smooth, easy and simple," one Saudi official told Reuters. "There won't be a great deal of change."
But while most diplomats predict a smooth transition in the immediate future, they believe the kingdom may face difficulties once a younger generation of princes vies for power. They say there is no clear successor from the younger generation. Since the forming of the modern Saudi state in 1932, the king and the royal family have named succeeding monarchs on the principle of "an heir and a spare". Saudi kings assume the throne after oaths of allegiance by a family council of 18 princes, a custom in the kingdom whose constitution is the Quran and the traditions of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
The bai'ah (oath of allegiance) process could be completed in a day but in line with custom an appointed council of ulemas (Muslim scholars) must declare the transfer of power legitimate. Abdullah, 81, has been managing the daily affairs of the kingdom since the king was incapacitated by a stroke 10 years ago. Although he has sometimes been seen as more pan-Arab nationalist and less open to the West than his stricken brother, sources say this is more a difference of style than substance. He is a known quantity expected to solidify Saudi Arabia's strong relationship with Western allies, principally the United States, Britain and France. At the same time, he has forged strong ties in the Arab world where he commands wide respect. "Once king, the crown prince won't change the policies of the kingdom. He would not rock the boat," one Western diplomat said. "King Fahd and the crown prince have different personalities but not different policies."
Abdullah is one of 44 sons fathered by the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, King Abdul-Aziz al-Saud - Ibn Saud - who reigned from 1932 until his death in 1953. Unlike King Fahd, Abdullah is not a member of the powerful Sudairi Seven - the seven sons of Ibn Saud's favourite wife Hassa al-Sudairi. His powerbase is the 57,000-strong US-trained National Guard and the backing of the influential tribes. His daunting task has been to salvage a US alliance damaged by the Sept 11, 2001, attacks carried out mainly by Saudi hijackers loyal to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. At home, his biggest challenge came from militants waging deadly attacks to oust the House of Saud and force the kingdom, the cradle of Islam, to sever links with the "infidel" West.
As with many of the Arab world's elderly rulers, concerns over King Fahd's health surface occasionally, most recently last month. According to diplomats the origin of the rumour was that the 82-year king, who only appears in public on doctor's advice, was not seen at last month's official haj rituals. Diplomats say despite fresh rumours there is no evidence suggesting an aggravation of King Fahd's health. Under the informal rules of succession, the new king will also choose a third brother in line. The choice, diplomats say, would likely be between Prince Nayef, 72 and current interior minister and Prince Salman, 69, who is governor of Riyadh. "All indications point to Salman but politics does not always work on a rational basis," one diplomat said. "Salman is more popular than Nayef and could be third in the troika. He has charisma and a statesman's style. Nayef is structurally more powerful since he is the interior minister but is regarded as more of a hardliner," he added. Reformists, analysts and diplomats play down hopes that once on the throne Abdullah will push through bold reforms that he has not pursued as de facto leader. "Prince Abdullah is popular but it will be a troika rule ... King or no king his policy will be the same - slow and steady and no great deal of change," one diplomat said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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q: "What was Leonid Brezhnev's last words?"
a: "Andropov my coat at the cleaners."
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/10/2005 1:22
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Not many realize, but Yuri's middle name was "Shrevelup".
KARACHI: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) in Sindh has excluded the names of three people accused in the kidnapping and beheading of the US Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl from the "2nd Red Book". The new list of wanted terrorists, called the "2nd Red Book" published at the end of 2004, contains the names of a total of 106 extremists from both Sunni and Shiite groups.
The names of accused Attaur Rehman alias Naeem Bukhari alias Ahmed and Faisal Bhatti alias Zubair Chisti who were listed as activists of the banned sectarian outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and involved in many cases of terrorism including the kidnapping and murder of Pearl, have been omitted. Sources added that the CID has also deleted the name of another alleged culprit, Imtiaz Siddiqui, from the new edition of the said book. According to the first Red Book, a reward of Rs.5 million has also been announced for the arrest of Siddiqui.
This article starring:
ATTAUR REHMAN
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Daniel Pearl
FAISAL BHATTI
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
IMTIAZ SIDIQUI
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
NAIM BUKHARI
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
ZUBAIR CHISTI
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Posted by: Fred ||
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After all, if they haven't terrorized anyone since Pearl was killed, they can't possibly be called terrorists.
Egyptian security services have arrested an opposition figure shortly after he flew in from a trip to Britain, airport officials said. They said Musa Mustafa Musa, deputy head of the newly founded al-Ghad party, was detained on Wednesday on a warrant issued by the attorney-general in connection with an investigation of the party's leader, Ayman al-Nur. An Egyptian state security judge on January 31 ordered the detention of Nur for 45 days pending a fraud investigation. Aljazeera reports that the arrest was ostensibly related to a case of forgery of which the detained al-Nur was a beneficiary.
This article starring:
al-Ghad party
Ayman al-Nur
Musa Mustafa Musa
Posted by: Fred ||
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The UAE will take delivery of a first batch of the latest American-made F-16 fighter jets in May this year, UAE Air Force Commander has disclosed. "The UAE will start receiving the first batch of the 80 fighters in May," Major-General Khaled Mubarak Al Bu Ainan, Commander of the UAE Air Forces, said in an interview to Al Jundi magazine on the occasion of IDEX 2005, which will kick off on Saturday.
80 fighters? That does seem to be quite a few for the UAE.
The aircraft will be exported to the UAE under the terms of contractual agreements signed in March 2000 with the US aerospace company Lockheed Martin. First announced in May 1998, the estimated $6.4 billion deal calls for delivery of 80 F-16C/D aircraft to the UAE starting from the end of 2004 through 2007. "The highly sophisticated multi-role "Block 60" fighters purchased from the US Lockheed Martin will be a valuable addition to our air force capabilities," he added. He said the F-16 fighter deal was an important step towards boosting defence capabilities of the UAE and building an affective defence system based on a conventional deference force. Maj-Gen Al Bu Ainan said there were ambitious plans to modernise the air force and defence force to keep abreast with requirements of the third millennium. The $8.6 billion package, which involves the purchase of 80 F-16s, includes delivery, training, construction of air bases and other related facilities, spare parts and maintenance. Tailored to the UAE specifications, the Block 60 platform, according to industry sources, will include additional fuel tanks for extended range, a new electronic warfare system, a new mission computer, new cockpit displays, a new internal sensor suite, and a new Agile Beam Radar for improved tracking of multiple targets at longer ranges.
Mighty attractive package. Wonder who's got them worried?
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Now all they've to do is to get 80 qualified F-16 pilots.
#4
includes delivery, training, construction of air bases and other related facilities, spare parts and maintenance
Could this mean USAF and retired USAF? Just a thought. Sounds like a lot of Americans involved in this. So, just another way of getting 80 planes in this region?
#8
The UAE is almost "normal", as far as the M.E. goes, anyway.
First time I went to Abu Dhabi My friend and I got out of the taxi at the hotel and went around to the trunk to wait for the driver to open it up so we could grab our luggage. There was this strange thumping sound coming from the hotel. My friend and I looked at each other - neither of us knew what it was. Then someone came out of the hotel front door - and we realized it was the disco club. After 6 months in Saudi, we had fogotten what disco mega-bass felt like, lol!
Bikinis on the beach, bangers for breakfast, and an amazing 6 ft blonde BA Stew I met in the bar helped me rediscover all sorts of real world, um, stuff, lol!
#9
And if our Air Force guys are included in the package, it would be easy peasy in case of emergency to call them up on that 8-year recall thingy that had some Reservists up in arms last week. I realize that fancy airplanes without pilots or mechanics are very pretty hunks of metal, but during a shooting war thems the breaks.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) chief called Tuesday for reforming religious education in the six-nation bloc hit by a wave of terror, to spread a "moderate and tolerant culture."
Starting to catch on, are they?
"It's time to develop the syllabus of Islamic education. This must be carried out by specialists among clerics, scholars and experts. I insist they must be moderates," Abdulrahman al-Attiyah told reporters here.
I'd keep the holy men out of it completely, myself...
He was speaking after opening a GCC education ministers meeting focussed on plans to reform education, which has been criticised for promoting extremism following the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, in which 15 of the 19 suicide bombers were Saudi. "Reform is an urgent matter in all fields and reforming Islamic education is a prerequisite for developing education as a whole," Attiyah said. "From my viewpoint, Islamic education should be limited to teaching religious duties." The GCC is working to spread a "culture of tolerance and respect for others ... as part of its effort to contain terrorism," he said. Also addressing the press, Saudi Education Minister Mohammad al-Rasheed said ministers adopted a resolution to "develop methods of teaching Islamic education" at schools, stressing that textbooks his country do not incite hatred.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
Posted by: Fred ||
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They might issue a FATWA against me for saying this, but....
It would also be rather forward-looking to mandate the women be taught to read and write.
#3
They are now in self-preservation mode. They figured that if the Islamofascism is on the rise, a clash of biblical proportions is inevitable (they have no illusions about the winner) and there may not be any Islam to speak of afterwards.
Q: Why do you think there aren't any muslims in Star Trek?
Terrorists including those belonging to Al Qaeda have reportedly threatened the Libyan Embassy and its staff in Islamabad, sources told Daily Times on Wednesday.
They're gonna cut their heads off unless Libya restarts its nuke program...
The Libyan Security Forces Department briefed Libyan diplomats in Pakistan of possible terrorist threats including bombings, sources added. The department said it had received information that Al Qaeda, Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan resented Libya's restoration of diplomatic ties with the US and Britain after the Libyan government handed over two men responsible for blowing up an American Airlines plane with 300 passengers on board, sources said. Libyan diplomats informed the Pakistani Foreign Office of the development and requested protection, they added. The Foreign Office asked the Interior Ministry to take appropriate security measures.
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Khadaffy-you-dog! you submitted to Inifel Boosh!
You gave up holy uranium yellowcake. You will pay!
GENEVA — A UN human rights investigator on Tuesday criticised Iran over "arbitrary arrests, torture and ill-treatment" of women and called on the Teheran authorities to abolish the death penalty. Yakin Erturk, a Turkish law professor, also urged Teheran to adopt a national action plan to promote and protect human rights which would emphasise the elimination of violence against women.
Although they had seen some advances, Iranian women still face violence in and outside the home and are blocked from defending their rights by discriminatory laws and an unfair justice system, Erturk said. "Discriminatory laws and malfunction in the administration of justice result in impunity for perpetrators and perpetuate discrimination and violence against women," she said.
Like for example, hanging handicapped young girls for 'sex crimes'.
Erturk issued her criticism in a preliminary report for the world body's Human Rights Commission — which holds its annual six-week session in Geneva in March and April — following a government-approved visit to the country.
She said she was "troubled by the widespread practice of arrest for political opinion, including of female human rights defenders, and for 'moral offences'," and by the failure of the judicial system to enforce safeguards ensuring fair trials.
Don't worry, the UNHRC will vote this down and silence her.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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I'm sure the Saudis (they're on the HRC, right? Correct me if I'm wrong...) will be right up there championing the women of Iran! Yah, you betcha.
Balochistan Governor Owais Ghani has claimed that a foreign country is involved in unrest in the province, but would not say which country.
Samoa? Finland? Mauritania?
Elbonia?
Talking to Geo TV, he said modern weapons worth Rs500 million had been smuggled into Balochistan for 'terrorism'. "We have informed the Afghan government and the US about the arms smuggling," he said. Responding to a question, Ghani said the name of the country allegedly involved in fanning trouble in Balochistan would be disclosed at an appropriate time.
"When I say so!"
He rejected claims by tribal chiefs that they were being forced to negotiate at gunpoint. "Rather it is the government that is being forced to negotiate at gunpoint," he said. Meanwhile chief of Bugti tribe, Nawab Akbar Bugti said he was not averse to dialogue with the government. But he made it clear it would not be possible until the government arrested persons responsible for rape of lady doctor Shazia Khalid. Bugti claimed that the army captain accused of the rape was being protected as he had influential relatives.
Plus, he's a man.
Speaking to journalists at home town Dera Bugti, Akbar Bugti said tribesmen were being threatened with military action if they did not give up their protests. "But this is not possible," he added. Akbar Bugti said the female doctor was not a 'kari' (consensual) but victim of a heinous crime. He said the tribesmen consider her to be "pure and innocent" adding that "the captain is the sinner."
This article starring:
Akbar Bugti
Owais Ghani
Shazia Khalid
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Akbar Bugti said the female doctor was not a âkariâ (consensual) but victim of a heinous crime. He said the tribesmen consider her to be âpure and innocentâ adding that âthe captain is the sinner."
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is ready to meet Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, an aide to Sharon said on Wednesday. The comment followed a landmark summit in Egypt on Tuesday where the two leaders agreed to a ceasefire to end more than four years of bloodshed in the Middle East. In Sharm, Sharon's spokesman said the premier had invited Abbas to his farm in Israel's southern Negev desert and held out the possibility of a meeting in Ramallah, the political capital of the Palestinian Authority.
Meanwhile, Israeli ministers will discuss on Sunday who will make up the first batch of 500 Palestinian detainees to be freed by Israel following a landmark Middle East summit, an official source said on Tuesday. "The inter-ministerial committee on prisoners is due to meet just before the next weekly cabinet meeting to discuss the 500 prisoners Israel is committed to releasing," said a statement from the Sharon's office.
Posted by: Fred ||
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how would you like to be responsible for security fo Sharon's visit?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005 15:50
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How would you like to be in Paleoland the day he gets hit?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/10/2005 15:59
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Israel has proposed extending its ties with NATO to include cooperation in areas such as fighting terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction, its envoy in discussions with the alliance said. The proposals do not include talk of Israeli membership of NATO or any role for the alliance in solving the Middle East conflict. But they are seen as a big step for a country which in the past has been wary of ties to multilateral institutions. "What Israel wants to see is to what extent NATO can give us a positive response," Oded Eran, the Israeli envoy to the European Union in Brussels, told Reuters late on Tuesday. "We want to see progress across a broad front," he said in an interview of proposals he presented recently to NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Posted by: Fred ||
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RIYADH - Saudi men vote on Thursday in the country's first ever elections, a municipal vote barred to women that represents a cautious initial step towards reform for the ultra-conservative kingdom. Only around 148,000 men, representing 37 percent of an estimated 400,000 eligible voters in the capital and its surroundings, have registered to cast their ballots, with many Saudi men expressing apathy over the vote.
Although the voting regulations made no specific reference to women, who make up more than half of the population, Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz ruled out their participation.
A reported 140 polling centres in the capital Riyadh and 67 others in its surrounding areas will open between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm (0500 and 1400 GMT) to receive male voters, who will be exercising their right to vote for the first time.
Elections are a foreign concept in the absolute monarchy, where public offices have always been filled by nepotism and inbreeding appointment. More than 1,800 candidates are running in the first round, with 646 in Riyadh proper to fill just half of its 14-seat council.
Voting in the second round, which covers the eastern and southwestern regions, will take place on March 3. Voters in the western regions of Mecca and Medina, as well as the northern regions, will not be going to the polls until April 21.
The ballot is part of a drive to introduce limited reforms, which Riyadh insists must be tailored to Saudi specifications and not necessarily follow a Western pattern. The landmark vote represents a cautious initial step towards reform in the loopy ultra-conservative kingdom which has been battling a deadly wave of hand biting its masters terror since May 2003.
Despite the low voter registration, the election campaign has been a crash course in democracy for Riyadh residents. Posters of aspiring council members were have been splashed across the capital while campaigning centres were set up in every neighbourhood. Local newspapers were festooned with candidates' pictures and their extensive manifestos, while tents have been set up along main roads to receive voters and hold press conferences.
"Vote for Mahmoud, he'll get this country back to work supervising worthless infidels who do the real labor!"
Some Saudis have said the low proportion registering was mainly due to the fact that authorities failed to provide proper explanations for the polls in a kingdom traditionally ruled by fiat tribal structures.
The elections come a week after US President George W. Bush issued a rare rebuke to Saudi Arabia, urging the kingdom to "demonstrate its leadership in the region by expanding the role of its people in determining their future".
Felt that, did they?
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Candidate Debate for Mayor of Riyad...
Swords and Pistols encouraged...
NICE, France - NATO Defence chiefs gathered in Nice on Thursday for talks set to focus on boosting training for Iraqi security forces and expanding a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, key fronts in the US war on terror. Meeting his NATO counterparts on the French riviera, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was notably expected to press them to commit to helping the Iraq mission either with staff or funds despite their divisions over the war there.
Rumsfeld signalled progress even before the informal talks started over dinner Wednesday night, voicing hope that elections in Iraq last month had opened the way for European nations to set aside their differences. "I think people will increasingly want to be a part of that," said Rumsfeld.
And a senior US official accompanying Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, also in Europe ahead of a summit trip by President George W. Bush later this month, said six or seven NATO countries had already offered to provide help. Another half a dozen nations were said to be considering making a contribution, either of training staff inside or outside Iraq or through a special trust fund set up to fund such projects. "I think there was a kind of coming together (on) the common purpose that the Iraqi people have given us to support their historic turn for the better," Rice told a news conference in Brussels.
The US push comes ahead of President Bush's February 22 summit visit to Brussels, where he will meet NATO and EU counterparts in what Washington hopes will be a symbolic closing of the Iraq war chapter.
While both sides seem keen to bury the hatchet, both Rice's and Rumsfeld's trips have been clouded notably by strains over Iran, as well as EU plans to lift an arms embargo on China, fiercely opposed by Washington. But one front certain to see good news this month is Afghanistan: NATO Defence ministers were expected to trumpet a decision to expand the 8,300-member NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). European NATO allies Spain, Italy and Lithuania are expected to offer to lead two more provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs), opening the way for ISAF's expanding into remote areas of western Afghanistan.
So long as they actually follow-through.
The Nice talks are likely to discuss plans, again driven by the United States, for an increasing integration of the NATO-led ISAF force with the US Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). While no concrete decisions are expected, diplomats said that resistance in Europe to the integration plan, and even an eventual merger of the two Afghan forces, appears to be diminishing.
The Nice talks are the first such meeting in France for some four decades, in what some see as symbolizing an easing of French strains with the NATO alliance. Those tensions date from long before the Iraq crisis, starting even before General Charles de Gaulle pulled France out of NATO's integrated military command in 1966. "It is an interesting signal that they are no longer hung up about it," commented one diplomat.
Maybe they figured out how irrelevant they are by themselves?
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Iraqi officials said Wednesday they must recount votes from about 300 ballot boxes because of various discrepancies, delaying final results from the landmark national elections. Hundreds - perhaps thousands - of other ballots were declared invalid because of alleged tampering.
Officials had promised final results from the elections by Thursday, the end of the Iraqi work week. On Wednesday, however, election commission spokesman Farid Ayar said the deadline would not be met because of the recount. ``We don't know when this will finish,'' he said. ``This will lead to a little postponement in announcing the results.''
No partial tallies have been released since Monday in the contests for the 275-member National Assembly, 18 provincial councils and a regional parliament for the Kurdish self-governing region in the north. The most recent figures showed a coalition of Kurdish parties in second place behind a Shiite-dominated ticket endorsed by Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The ticket of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, was a distant third.
Allegations of voting irregularities, especially around the tense northern city of Mosul, have complicated the count. Some leading Sunni Arab and Christian politicians alleged that thousands of their supporters were denied the right to vote. Election officials blamed the problems in the Mosul area on security, which prevented fewer than a third of the planned 330 polling centers from opening. Gunmen seized some ballot boxes, officials said.
The commission would not say how many ballots had been declared invalid and whether they had come from the Mosul area, which has a mostly Sunni Arab population. Many Sunnis are believed to have stayed home on election day, either because they feared insurgent reprisals or opposed a ballot as long as U.S. and other foreign troops were on Iraqi soil.
Commission official Adel al-Lami said the ballots in 40 boxes and 250 bags would not be counted because they appeared to have been stuffed inside them or, in some cases, improperly folded. Some of the boxes were not those approved by the commission, and others were improperly sealed, he said.
Before the election, commission officials estimated each box should contain about 500 ballots. It was unclear whether the bags contained roughly the same number of ballots. A total of 90,000 ballot boxes were used in the election.
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Allegations of voting irregularities, especially around the tense northern city of Mosul...
A Palestinian man has died after being shot by Israeli troops, the first casualty following a truce announced in Sharm al-Shaikh, Egypt. A Palestinian man died late on Wednesday hours after he was wounded by gunfire from a Gaza Jewish settlement. This marks the first conflict-related fatality since Israel and the Palestinians declared a truce a day ago, medics said. The 20-year-old from a Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza was shot from the nearby illegal settlement of Atzmona, which has an Israeli army garrison. An Israeli military source said troops had fired warning shots, suspecting an infiltration attempt.
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Of course, nobody ever listens to Khatami anymore...
President Mohammad Khatami warned European countries on Wednesday that Tehran could reverse commitments made on its nuclear programme, saying Iran was faced with "psychological warfare".
"If you feel that we are not respecting your engagements then we will adopt a different policy and the heavy consequences of this policy will burden those who have not respected their engagements," he said in a speech to foreign diplomats, state television reported.
Did that make any sense? Anyone? Bueller?
His comments came as the European Union pressed on with talks in Geneva to persuade Iran to give guarantees it is not developing nuclear weapons. Iran has suspended its controversial uranium enrichment work while the talks continue."Those who have being thumping the drums of war and have launched psychological warfare against Iran must know that the Iranian people will not allow the aggressors to put one foot on Iranian soil," he said in a reference to the United States. "But if this ever arrives the aggressors will be burned in the hell of the storm of the people's anger," Khatami added.
I can feel my stomach roasting in hell right now... (I gotta stop eating chili.)
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âIf you feel that we are not respecting your engagements then we will adopt a different policy and the heavy consequences of this policy will burden those who have not respected their engagements,â Did that make any sense? Anyone?
If we translate "not respecting your engagement" as "cheating on your fiance", then this is a quite wise warning that if you cheat on your girlfriend she may then "adopt a different policy" where you will return to your apartment to find your cd collection missing and your computer soaking in the bathtub. In the best of scenarios.
#2
Darn, Aris, that must have sucked! I feel with you, man! :-)
I can supply plethora of similar experiences, based on lesser sins than cheating (which is not in my behavioral patterns at all). I am not sure why wymon have this windictive streak, cuz I don't.
#7
Simple summary - If the US comes in militarily, I, Khatami, will be trusted by no one, either the mullahs on the one hand, or the dissidents on the other. I might as well write my will now.The best I can hope for is that the current situation keeps muddling by, unlikely though that is. Therefore I will call for compromise of some kind, though in increasingly incoherent terms.
UNITED NATIONS - UN peacekeepers have been banned from having sex with the local population in Congo following allegations of widespread abuse of women and girls, the United Nations said on Wednesday. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan disclosed the new "non-fraternisation" regulations in a letter to the Security Council in which he called for 100 extra police and French-speaking investigators to "root out" the abuse and prevent further sexual exploitation.
French-speakers to root out sex crimes? The mind boggles.
Over the past year the United Nations has probed 150 allegations against some 50 soldiers of sexual exploitation of women and girls, including gang rapes. Children as young as 12 or 13 were bribed with eggs, milk or a few dollars in exchange for sex, UN reports said.
The new measures were put into place last week by U.S. diplomat William Swing, head of the UN Mission in Democratic Republic of the Congo, known by its French acronym of MONUC, which has some 13,000 military and civilian staff. The new rules would apply only to Congo, which has the largest of the 16 UN peacekeeping missions around the world, UN spokesman Ari Gaitanis said.
Yeah, no fair making UN soldiers elsewhere put up with these rules, eh?
UN regulations for soldiers usually forbid sex with anyone under 18 years of age and forced prostitution. But often officials found there was a fine line between forced and willing sex.
No, there really isn't.
Annan listed the new measures as "establishment of a non-fraternization policy, installation of a curfew for military contingents" as well as specialized training and recreation facilities "to alleviate the concentrated stress present in field missions."Â Gaitanis said the "non-fraternization" policy applied only to the military but "there is a possibility it may be extended to civilian personnel as well."
Cheez, first they cut the per-diem, then they send the guy to the Congo, and now he can't force the native girls to have sex with him. What's a young Euro-staffer to do in the UN service?
UN officials acknowledged that enforcement would be difficult but said they believed the strict policy would eliminate many abuses.
In the grand European tradition of talking about a problem rather than doing something about it.
Annan vowed that the "entire chain of command" would be held accountable for enforcing a "zero-tolerance" standard.
The United Nations has little recourse against sent as peacekeepers by individual nations except to send them home and insist their country of origin take action. Annan said some 20 cases against military personnel been substantiated. So far the only known prosecution has been by South Africa against two of its soldiers. Among civilians, France jailed a UN staff member on charges of rape and making pornographic videos of children. Allegations have also been made against soldiers from Uruguay, Morocco, Tunisia and Nepal.
No! Not the mighty Uruguayans!
In his six-page letter to the council, Annan recalled that he had expressed "my personal outrage." "I reiterate my stance—one which I know the members of the council share—that we cannot tolerate even one instance of a United Nations peacekeeper victimising the most vulnerable among us," he said.
"Not when there's money to be made!" he added.
Annan noted that the United Nations had sent Angela Kane, an assistant secretary-general, for further investigations and to develop a "sustainable response." Her efforts in the short term would result in a likely increase rather than a decrease in the allegations, he said.
Despite the probes and programs, the UN watchdog agency reported last month that the abuse was continuing. The report in January on the peacekeepers came from the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services and concentrated on Bunia, in the eastern part of the vast central African nation where fighting was intense last year.
Charges of abuses among peacekeepers are not new. Canada and Italy, for example, disclosed more than a decade ago that their soldiers had tortured Somalis. But media reports, especially during the Bosnian war in the 1990s on sex abuse, have multiplied and now UN officials speak about them openly.Â
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What about Bosnia? Wasn't this also true of the UN Peacekeepers there? (or was it somewhere else... Its getting hard to track all these UN scandals nowdays).
#4
In the former Yugoslavia, UN and NATO peacekeepers fueled the prostitution racket and the attendent sex slave trafficking of several thousand local, Moldovan, Russian, Romanian, and Ukrainian women.
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02/10/2005 15:02
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Identification of culprits should be fairly straightforward: just look for genetically identical venereal disease organisms. In fact, the list of potential culprits would automatically be reduced by those whose disease profiles don't intersect with that of the particular complainant.
Police on Wednesday registered an FIR against Saifur Rehman, chief of the defunct Ehtesab Bureau, former Sindh inspector general of police (IGP) Rana Maqbool and other police officials for torturing him. Police said registration of the case was ordered by the Karachi South District and Sessions Judge Sher Bano Karim on Zardari's complaint. Others who were booked are former Karachi deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Farooq Amin Qureshi, former superintendent of Karachi Central Jail Najaf Mirza and Mujeebur Rehman, the brother of Saifur Rehman.
The FIR has been registered under sections 323, 109, 120 and 34. Police said they would arrest them if court issued warrants. Zardari on Wednesday accused them of torturing him while he was in custody six years ago, Zardari's lawyer Shahadat Awan said.In an application submitted to police, Zardari alleged that these "people tortured me and tried to kill me at the behest of the government," according to the lawyer. Zardari said that in 1999 he was taken to an interrogation centre from jail and was tortured in custody with the intention to kill him, Awan said. During the process his tongue was cut, Zardari alleged.
Ugh! Pakman speak with forked tongue!
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Good! I don't think the Saudis know what a Pandora's box of corruption, demagoguery, and skullduggery they're unleashing, but just maybe a couple decades hence they'll be thankful for that ignorance. They'll have learned firsthand Sir Winston's dictum that "democracy is the worst system - except for all the others", and maybe they'll actually be our friends, the Saudis.
Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Muhammad Yousaf ordered security agencies to take action against tribesmen who attack state infrastructure in the province, Geo News reported on Wednesday. According to the report, Yousaf said the government would ensure the safety of gas installations at any cost. He was chairing a meeting to discuss the safety of state assets in Balochistan. Yousaf directed law enforcement agencies to arrest "miscreants" and present them in court with enough evidence to convict them. He also ordered that all vacant posts in the Levies be filled and that security at gas installations be increased.
This article starring:
Jam Muhammad Yousaf
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Indian police on Wednesday denied any involvement in the near-fatal shooting of a Muslim professor freed after being sentenced to death over an attack on India's parliament that almost triggered a war with Pakistan. The Supreme Court called the attack on Delhi University lecturer Abdul Rehman Geelani "disturbing" and ordered the police to report to the court on their investigation within a week, the Press Trust of India reported.
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Without endorsing the ceasefire declared at the landmark Middle East summit, Palestinian resistance groups have said they will hold off on attacking Israel for now. Two major groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, reacted on Wednesday to pledges by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to end violence at the Sharm al-Shaikh summit. Both resistance groups said they were not bound by the truce. But the two did not seem ready to alienate Abbas when they reiterated their readiness to observe a one-month "period of calm" as agreed with the Palestinian leader in late January. "Hamas endorsed (the need for) calm and will respect that to allow Abbas to ease into his job and exert pressure on the enemy," a spokesman said.
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Some lying low - between 20-30 mortar round were fired by Hamas in Gaza strip on Thursday morning.
Perhaps they were celebrating the cease fire?
#3
But... but.... but... its the religious obligation of all muslims to kill jews and christians! So its not breaking the ceasefire to follow one's religious obligations....
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Lol! Ah, Arab Times logic. Unidentified "US experts" say it's hard and bad and, um, did we mention bad? How about hard? And now Blair has been ensnared just like the evil Bush by the nefarious Jooo neocons in his administration and the reasonable Iranian Mullahs are stymied by the intransigent US Terrorists and the sky is falling and life as we know it - a stable Middle East (lol!) - is imperiled!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A WELSH rugby fan cut off his own testicles to celebrate Wales beating England at rugby. Geoff Huish, 26, was so convinced England would win Saturday's match he told fellow drinkers at Leigh Social Club: "If Wales win, I'll cut my balls off." 
A woman who ripped off her ex-boyfriend's testicle with her bare hands has been sent to prison. 
The low-riding car, traveling through Baghdad, caught 1st Lt. David M. Lucas' attention. A car bomb, he thought.
Tens of thousands of Iranians have braved blizzards to attend rallies marking the 1979 Islamic revolution. The government had urged people to turn out to show support for its nuclear programme amid pressure led by the US. President Mohammad Khatami told them Iran would become a "burning hell" for any country that invaded it.
A veteran civil rights lawyer was convicted Thursday of crossing the line by smuggling messages of violence from one of her jailed clients a radical Egyptian sheik to his terrorist disciples on the outside. The jury has been deliberating off-and-on over the past month in the case of 
Palestinian gunmen, some of them disguised as police officers, broke into Gaza City's central prison Thursday, exchanged fire with guards and killed three prisoners as part of long-running family feuds, police said. The attackers took one of the three alive, drove him to a nearby refugee camp and executed him in the streets, witnesses said. The gunmen then dumped the body into their car and drove around the camp, firing in the air from the car windows.
The second-term Bush administration's intention to antagonize the DPRK and isolate and stifle it at any cost has become quite clear. As we have clarified more than once, we justly urged the US to renounce its hostile policy toward the DPRK whose aim was to seek the latter's "regime change" and switch its policy to that of peaceful co-existence between the two countries. We have closely followed with patience what policy the second-term Bush regime would shape after clarifying the stand that in that case it would be possible to solve the nuclear issue, too.
The Bush administration, chafing under North Korea (news - web sites)'s retreat from multilateral talks on nuclear disarmament, sought Thursday to push Pyongyang back to the bargaining table and warned that it faces increasing international isolation.
An audiotape purportedly of Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri hit out at the US concept of freedom, saying it was a cloak for spreading corruption and injustice in the Islamic world.
An Iraqi politician whose two sons were gunned down Tuesday blasted the attackers and the group that may be behind the killings. 
MANILA - The Philippine military said up to 20 rebels were killed at a fortified jungle hideout on Thursday, the fourth day of fierce fighting and bombing raids on the southwestern island of Jolo. The military said it suffered no casualties on Thursday. On Wednesday, it said 20 soldiers and nearly 40 rebels had been killed in the clashes since Monday.
AMMAN - Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Mulki said preparations were underway for a five-way meeting of Israel's neighbours in Damascus to revive an Arab peace plan, as he started Thursday a one-day visit to Syria. Mulki, in statements to Al Rai and Al Dustour dailies, said the meeting would bring together Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and the Palestinians in a bid to revive the Arab initiative for peace with Israel that was launched at a summit in Lebanon in 2002.
One of the city's most notorious terrorists and also ringleader of the ZIA (Zia International Airport) based crime syndicate was killed in 'crossfire" during the shootout between police and the terrorists at the city's Nikunja area in the small hours of Wednesday. 
North Korea publicly admitted Thursday for the first time that it has nuclear weapons, and said it wouldn't return to six-nation talks aimed at getting it to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Hizbollah guerrillas are trying to recruit Palestinian militants for attacks on Israelis in order to sabotage Middle East peace efforts, senior Palestinian officials said on Wednesday. The accusations, a day after Israel and the Palestinians announced a cease-fire, echoed charges from the Jewish state. The officials declined to be identified.
Iraqi security forces arrested several assistants to 
TONY Blair yesterday moved towards the hawkish United States position on Iran, jangling nerves among Labour MPs and peace campaigners fearful of fresh conflict in the Middle East. Appearing before a committee of senior MPs in London, the Prime Minister said there was "no doubt" that the Iranian government backed international terrorism and warned the regime in Tehran not to stand in the way of a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. Anti-war activists and some European diplomats fear that the US, following the re-election of George Bush as president, is gearing up for a confrontation with Iran over its embryonic nuclear programme. Reports earlier this year suggested US special forces had already been in Iran to identify possible targets for US or Israeli air strikes.
During a meeting to plan the recent Saudi conference on counter-terrorism the Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia claimed that arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden was "sent by the Jews." The Defense Minister, 
Chechen separatist leader 
Armed bands are continuing fire attacks on federal forces and terrorist acts against civilians in Chechnya, the republic's military commandant Lieutenant-General Grigory Fomenko told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. "The statement of the ringleader of extremists Aslan Maskhadov about a stop to combat actions in Chechnya is an empty sound for militants," he said. This prompts only one conclusion - Maskhadov does not control the situation in the republic and most of bands are not subordinate to him anymore, he said.
The Philippine armed forces has demanded Muslim rebels in the southern island of Jolo surrender or suffer heavy casualties, as fighting enters its fourth day. More than 100 soldiers and supporters of jailed former Muslim separatist leader, Nur Misuari, have either been killed or wounded in some of the most intense fighting seen in the region for years. Chief of the military's southern command, Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza, says reinforcements dispatched to the area are enough to crush the rebels.
One recent Saturday night, Sarinah Majid, a 23-year-old accountant, was dancing the night away with her Chinese boyfriend at Zouks nightclub - the most happening night spot here in Malaysia's capital city. Then suddenly the world as she knew it collapsed dramatically around her.
Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan 
The government has started compiling lists of militants and extremists, which will contain information about the individual and his/her organisation, sources told Daily Times on Wednesday.
The Court of Cassation Tuesday set March 15, 2005 to issue a verdict in the petition filed by the Public Prosecution against four Islamists - 
Tribal militant 
The head of the 
Rumours about the health of Saudi Arabia's ailing 
Egyptian security services have arrested an opposition figure shortly after he flew in from a trip to Britain, airport officials said. They said 
The 
Balochistan Governor 
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is ready to meet Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, an aide to Sharon said on Wednesday. The comment followed a landmark summit in Egypt on Tuesday where the two leaders agreed to a ceasefire to end more than four years of bloodshed in the Middle East. In Sharm, Sharon's spokesman said the premier had invited Abbas to his farm in Israel's southern Negev desert and held out the possibility of a meeting in Ramallah, the political capital of the Palestinian Authority.
Iraqi officials said Wednesday they must recount votes from about 300 ballot boxes because of various discrepancies, delaying final results from the landmark national elections. Hundreds - perhaps thousands - of other ballots were declared invalid because of alleged tampering.
A Palestinian man has died after being shot by Israeli troops, the first casualty following a truce announced in Sharm al-Shaikh, Egypt. A Palestinian man died late on Wednesday hours after he was wounded by gunfire from a Gaza Jewish settlement. This marks the first conflict-related fatality since Israel and the Palestinians declared a truce a day ago, medics said. The 20-year-old from a Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza was shot from the nearby illegal settlement of Atzmona, which has an Israeli army garrison. An Israeli military source said troops had fired warning shots, suspecting an infiltration attempt.
President 
Police on Wednesday registered an FIR against Saifur Rehman, chief of the defunct Ehtesab Bureau, former Sindh inspector general of police (IGP) Rana Maqbool and other police officials for torturing him. Police said registration of the case was ordered by the Karachi South District and Sessions Judge Sher Bano Karim on Zardari's complaint. Others who were booked are former Karachi deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Farooq Amin Qureshi, former superintendent of Karachi Central Jail Najaf Mirza and Mujeebur Rehman, the brother of Saifur Rehman. 
Balochistan Chief Minister 
Indian police on Wednesday denied any involvement in the near-fatal shooting of a Muslim professor freed after being sentenced to death over an attack on India's parliament that almost triggered a war with Pakistan. The Supreme Court called the attack on Delhi University lecturer 
Without endorsing the ceasefire declared at the landmark Middle East summit, Palestinian resistance groups have said they will hold off on attacking Israel for now. Two major groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, reacted on Wednesday to pledges by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to end violence at the Sharm al-Shaikh summit. Both resistance groups said they were not bound by the truce. But the two did not seem ready to alienate Abbas when they reiterated their readiness to observe a one-month "period of calm" as agreed with the Palestinian leader in late January. "Hamas endorsed (the need for) calm and will respect that to allow Abbas to ease into his job and exert pressure on the enemy," a spokesman said.
