EFL.
Desmond T. Doss the only person to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for non-combat achievements in World War II and the first conscientious objector to receive the medal died Thursday. He was 87. Doss, a longtime resident of Walker County, was born Feb. 7, 1919, in Lynchburg, Va. Doss was serving as a medic in the Armys 77th Infantry Division on May 5, 1945, when he helped 75 wounded soldiers escape capture on the island of Okinawa under Japanese attack.
As a Seventh-day Adventist, Doss religious convictions required strict adherence to Gods law, particularly the Sixth Commandment, Thou shalt not kill. But despite his objection to killing and war, Doss was a patriotic American who wanted to serve his country.
In April 1942, the slight, 5-foot-6-inch, 23-year-old enlisted and was given the Armys 1-A-O conscientious objector status. He refused to carry a weapon and to perform duties on Saturday, when the Adventists celebrate the Sabbath.
For his bravery Doss received the militarys highest award from President Harry Truman on Oct. 12, 1945.
The Army had estimated the number of men Doss saved on that day in May at 100, though the humble Doss stated that it couldnt have been more than 50. The Army decided to split the difference and put 75 on his citation.
Jackson said that Doss was active with the JROTC program at LaFayette High School and spoke to the cadets on many occasions.
Doss was a Seventh-day Adventist member from childhood and Dr. Ed Wright, president of the Georgia-Cumberland Conference of the denomination, described him as a real inspiration to our church and specifically several generations of young people. He was a very humble man, deeply convicted as to not bearing arms.
A statement released by church officials said, Doss never liked being called a conscientious objector. He preferred the term conscientious cooperator. RIP, Mr. Doss. You'll have at least 75 references at the pearly gates.
Most modern "conscientious objectors" are simply cowards or not loyal to the US and the Constitution.
#1
An example the "Christians" for "peace" would do well to follow.
If they weren't on the other side.
Rest in peace, Mr. Doss. You were a great and good man, and this non-pacifist honors my fellow Virginian for a truly honorable life.
Don't worry - where you are now, you'll never have to cross the paths of those clowns nowadays who besmirch the name of true and honest pacifism and patriotism, even after they die.
But they'll be a whole lot warmer than you.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/24/2006 21:34
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From the US Military Medal of Honor site, about Mr. Doss:
He was a company aid man when the 1st Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet high As our troops gained the summit, a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar and machinegun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Pfc. Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying them 1 by 1 to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands. On 2 May, he exposed himself to heavy rifle and mortar fire in rescuing a wounded man 200 yards forward of the lines on the same escarpment; and 2 days later he treated 4 men who had been cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave, advancing through a shower of grenades to within 8 yards of enemy forces in a cave's mouth, where he dressed his comrades' wounds before making 4 separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety. On 5 May, he unhesitatingly braved enemy shelling and small arms fire to assist an artillery officer. He applied bandages, moved his patient to a spot that offered protection from small arms fire and, while artillery and mortar shells fell close by, painstakingly administered plasma. Later that day, when an American was severely wounded by fire from a cave, Pfc. Doss crawled to him where he had fallen 25 feet from the enemy position, rendered aid, and carried him 100 yards to safety while continually exposed to enemy fire. On 21 May, in a night attack on high ground near Shuri, he remained in exposed territory while the rest of his company took cover, fearlessly risking the chance that he would be mistaken for an infiltrating Japanese and giving aid to the injured until he was himself seriously wounded in the legs by the explosion of a grenade. Rather than call another aid man from cover, he cared for his own injuries and waited 5 hours before litter bearers reached him and started carrying him to cover. The trio was caught in an enemy tank attack and Pfc. Doss, seeing a more critically wounded man nearby, crawled off the litter; and directed the bearers to give their first attention to the other man. Awaiting the litter bearers' return, he was again struck, this time suffering a compound fracture of 1 arm. With magnificent fortitude he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a splint and then crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station.
SADDAM'S ULTRA-LOYAL Fedayeen martyrs were ordered to carry out bombings and assassinations in London, Iran, and "self ruled areas" of Iraq in May 1999, according to a newly released Iraqi intelligence document. One such operation, codenamed "Tamooz Mubarak" or "Blessed July," was apparently intended to hunt down Iraqi dissidents and bomb other unspecified locations.
Although a copy of the original document was not released, an English translation was published on the Foreign Military Studies Office's Joint Reserve Intelligence Center website yesterday. The site cautions, "the US Government has made no determination regarding the authenticity of the documents, validity or factual accuracy of the information contained therein, or the quality of any translations, when available." But, the document appears to be the same as one discussed by a team of military and defense analysts in Foreign Affairs magazine earlier this month.
The Fedayeen Saddam was established in the mid-1990s and its ranks were filled with recruits fanatically loyal to Saddam and his sons. Uday, Saddam's eldest son, was the group's commander throughout much of its existence. And according to the Foreign Affairs piece, it was Uday who issued the order for the "Blessed July" operations.
The document divides the "Blessed July" operations into two "branches," bombings and assassinations, and lays out specific steps for selecting and training 50 Fedayeen martyrs for these duties. The martyrs were to be admitted to a "seminar at the Intelligence School to prepare them for the required duties." Then, "after passing the final test," the
martyrs were to be divided into three teams of ten (it is not clear what happens to the other 20). The first ten recruits "will work in the European field (London)," while the "second ten will be working in the Iranian field" and "the third ten will be working in the Self ruled area." Martyrs are even reminded to use "death capsules" if "captured at the European fields"--an apparent order to commit suicide if caught.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/24/2006
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#1
hey! no terrorism connection!!! plz we've invested to much into surrendering.
#1
Times's got a timeline problem. Public opinion has changed quite a bit since they layed out tis storyboard. Events have happened and questioning of the bias of the press has appeared in the last few days. To late for this spin.. the mood has changed.
If the Moderators want to edit this I have no problem. It was mixed in two different articles with other topics.
It was posted by SpaceWar.com
Interview: Viktor Mikhailov Part 1 by Viktor Litovkin
UPI Outside View Commentator Moscow (UPI) Mar 23 -
Viktor Mikhailov is a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the director of the Institute of Strategic Stability of the Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, a chief expert of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center at the Research Institute of Experimental Physics, a holder of the Soviet and Russian Lenin and State awards, and was the nuclear minister from 1992-1998. He discussed his insight into Iran's nuclear capabilities and ambitions with Viktor Litovkin, military commentator for the RIA Novosti news agency. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti and is the first of two parts.
RIA NOVOSTI: What is your general assessment of Iran's nuclear capability now?
MIKHAILOV: Though I am hardly in a position to judge, I have seen and talked to talented young experts when visiting their nuclear centers. Many of those people had graduated from universities in Western Europe and the United States. Moreover, I just recently made a small inquiry to learn that around 10,000 young specialists are still being trained there. Russia has never trained Iranians, except for Bushehr power plant operators.
The West has helped greatly build Tehran's nuclear industry, a great embarrassment for the Americans nowadays. When they tell me they do not believe Iran really needs a national nuclear power industry, I just ask them: "OK, but were it not you who once said you were going to build 20 NPPs there? Could you then explain why we cannot do now what you thought was quite appropriate for yourselves?"
They won't answer, but the answer is simple enough. A country with a national nuclear power capability sits firmly on the cutting edge of global technology. This means that there will always be jobs at home, and young people will stay at home. A country has no future if its young generation is fleeing abroad.
My assessment of Iran's nuclear level would be straightforward: It is very high. I have seen people working with neutron generators there who could very ably handle the 3D neutron registration software, a very complicated package (they received it from France) which shows a very realistic pattern of neutron flows stemming from a nuclear fission reaction.
In the early 1990s, when I was in Iran for the first time, I saw there the magnificent American Sun 4 and Sun 5 computers, which the United States barred from selling to Russia but sold freely to Iran; and they were working there very effectively. It is true that Iranian girls wear black shawls to conceal their hair but the girls I saw -- who had also graduated from U.S. universities -- were very smart when it came to handling state-of-the-art computers. The Iranians just took the United States by surprise by toppling the shah and starting a new state that would not pander to Washington. In short, it was the United States who built Iran's nuclear work force.
Historically, Persian people have been very intellectual. Of course, Iran saw a major setback in the beginning of the 19th century when Europe took the lead. But they have sent their young people to learn from the West, many are trained in the West now, and, I think, their research capability is very good.
And it has, in fact, very little to do with oil and gas. What the Americans do not like is Iran's national status, its government, its independence, and its reluctance to take orders from U.S. diplomats. This is a separate issue and it has nothing to do with Iran's nuclear program.
Q. Do we need to worry about an Iranian nuclear bomb in the near future?
A. People often ask me this question, which sometimes is formulated somewhat differently: "Do you think they want it or think about it?" I answer, yes, I do; they definitely want it and they clearly think about it, as nuclear weapons have become a critical factor of independence and sovereignty. The U.S. policy is mainly about exporting democracy by making offers one cannot refuse. They are doing this to countries whose history dates back millennia and who have unthinkable contributions to mankind under their belt. What Americans do not know how to do is take into account others' national sensitivities, customs, and traditions. What they are doing is trying to inculcate those countries with American lifestyles -- something that is hardly possible.
Q. Back to Iran. Can it ultimately create a nuclear weapon?
A. Of course, it can. Any highly developed country can do this, it's available on the Internet, if you like. The truth is that one needs much money and time. In the case of Iran, I think, they will do it in five to 10 years. I mean, they will be able to build a basic nuclear weapon. This weapon will not be as modern as Russian or American, but it does not matter -- the Americans are afraid of any, even old, nukes. Washington understands, sure enough, that however hard they try to build a nuclear missile shield, you don't have to deliver a nuke through space where the entire world will see it. There are many other ways, and what they are ultimately afraid of is at least one blast inside the United States. Their people will bury any administration that allows it to happen.
Q. The West does not trust Tehran. Why is Russia selling its nuclear technology to Iran?
A. Russia has never sold any nuclear technology. To tell you more, Russia, since Soviet times, has been constantly on watch for nuclear proliferation.
Proliferation was something only the West, with its century-old free market economy, could engage in. This is just because a free market economy is profit-oriented. If some relevant materials or technologies appeared and was not included in prohibitive lists fast enough -- state authorities were rarely fast enough -- it was sold without ceremony.
Everything the Iranians have today has come from the West. Even our fuel for nuclear power plants will be withdrawn for reprocessing at home and replaced with fresh cells. What President (George W.) Bush is promoting now, as if it were his own brilliant idea, a nuclear fuel leasing system, when a country pays for fuel and we deliver on the conditions of removing fuel wastes. Some Russian experts and I proposed it more than a decade ago. But the Americans did not support us. Their millionaire Alex Copson was in this business then and he wanted to do this, but President Clinton did not allow him to.
Q. Was Copson working with the Department of Energy?
A. He wasn't. Our acquaintance was a coincidence, in fact; he came to me with a project to lease a Pacific atoll and to use it as nuclear dumpsite and production facility for nuclear fuel -- in order to have a dumpsite in a remote ....
Q. And well-guarded, I expect?
A. ... Absolutely -- remote, neutral territory. Well, the point is, we have never sold anything abroad because the Americans were there. They sold, I have already mentioned that, even plutonium, to say nothing of other things. Do you know how Israel and South Africa gained access to nuclear weapons? It's clear they did.
Q.: How?
A.: With help from the United States.
Q.: There is information that the British helped Israel ...
A.: They did, but they were far from alone there. Israelis got a great deal of help from Washington through a British-American company in South Africa.
In (South) Africa, isotopes were separated by filtering uranium hexafluoride through a convergent-divergent nozzle, rather than in a centrifuge or by diffusion. Israelis may have got one or two (nuclear) charges and even tested them.
Later, South Africa had to abandon all those activities. I have been there and I can say the facilities were working very effectively as long as the white minority was in charge. They are not working any longer, small bits may have gone to Israel. Interview : Part 2
Viktor Mikhailov is a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the director of the Institute of Strategic Stability of the Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, a chief expert of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center at the Research Institute of Experimental Physics, a holder of the Soviet and Russian Lenin and State awards, and was the nuclear minister from 1992-1998.
He discussed his insight into Iran's nuclear capabilities and ambitions with Viktor Litovkin, military commentator for the RIA Novosti news agency. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti and is the second of two parts.
RIA NOVOSTI: Why do you think Tehran has rejected the European pleas to leave the International Atomic Energy Agency's seals in place and keep from independent reactor research?
MIKHAILOV: That's because I think it will take Europeans very long before they regain Iran'strust. They had activities there, and one day they ran away, leaving everything behind. Siemens, a respected European, German, corporation, abandoned everything as [the] Americans pressed for it. Tehran, aware that this could happen again at any time, has clearly not treated its talks with the European Trio, or EU3, seriously enough.
Russia is different. They can see how we treat them; they can see that we support nuclear power industries and peaceful nuclear applications; we have proposed a joint venture that will bring profit to them as well as to us. What to us is going to be a good nuclear market, to them is going to be an opportunity to see what a [nuclear enrichment] facility is and how it works. To build all the centrifuges and everything for just one nuclear reactor would be ridiculous. Right now, to build all this would be a waste of money because the return on such investment will come in a hundred years, if ever.
We told the Iranians that enrichment would be on the table as soon as they had plans for at least a dozen nuclear power plants, or NPPs. They asked me whether we could build in Iran something like a facility we had built in China. But China is not Iran -- they have diffusion and other facilities, they really need such things.
Q. Why would Tehran agree to build such a facility together with Russia?
A. I don't think a joint venture is interesting to them commercially right now; it is probably just a way to alleviate nuclear tensions that have been rising around Iran exponentially and to deny the Americans an opportunity to justify a military solution.
You know, the Americans have deployed over 100,000 personnel in neighboring Iraq; they have armor and air support and they have done everything to cross the border if required. ... I think the Iranians understand they need to keep Washington from doing this, at least for this spring. The Americans will hardly go to war in the scorching Iranian summer.
Q. The Americans might well opt for a missile strike instead....
A. Their missiles will come home to roost if they do it. Their task force in Iraq is already struggling, and imagine how dangerous their position will be if the Iranian army also launches an offensive. Iran may receive massive support from the broader Muslim world as well.
A possible option would be to ask Israel to strike [Iran], but they will not achieve anything because they do not know the exact locations and levels of protection. The recent American interest in penetrator munitions that would go off at 100-meter depths is far from accidental. These munitions have yet to be built, though.
In short, a missile strike would do the United States more harm than good. This helps explain their tolerance to our talks with Iran. I think the Iranians will agree to our proposals though the talks will take months, through March and April, at least, to delay Americans beyond the period of [climatic] conditions appropriate for military action.
Any delay is good for Iran. What would also be good for them is an opportunity to see how such facilities work. They will get an insight into our production lines, though, importantly, not into our centrifuge know-how.
Q. What could be Russia's role in helping solve Iran's "nuclear problem?'
A. Primarily, Russia could do it through a joint venture with Iran, providing services to everyone interested in nuclear power development but not interested in handling isotope enrichment.
Another question here is, I think, much more important. Even if there is restraint on military action, Iran may be subject to the so-called economic sanctions. If this country joins in, we will have to withdraw all our workforce from Iran and abandon all we did there, like we did in North Korea in the early 1990s. By then, we had built a research reactor there, thoroughly explored the territory to select a place for a nuclear power plant, and developed a broad personnel training effort.
Just two years after we had abandoned all this, the Americans created the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization with the United States, Japan, South and North Korea -- not Russia, mind you, and said, OK, we are here to build a water-cooled reactor. Now Russia is in the dark as to what is going on there. In fact, we have been thrown out of that market, though no one was ever going to transfer nuclear weapons or technology to North Korea, and no one was going to defy the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
What worries me is that preconditions for the same mistake are building here, in Iran. However, only fools repeat such mistakes; clever people never do that.
Q. How is Russia going to get Iranian guarantees that it will not seek a nuclear weapon?
A. Russia does not want Iran to have nuclear weapons and thinks that Tehran's nuclear desire should be restrained. But the ball is on America's side now; They need to decide whether they like Iran or not, to realize that they are dealing with an ancient historic world power that will not accept pressure and threats. It might take time, but what is needed is negotiations, however lengthy.
Only the United States is in a position to alleviate this tension. Weapons are not going to provide a solution; with weapons, things will be even worse than the current appalling situation in Iraq or Afghanistan. What kind of democracy are you going to get if democracy is exported through use of force?
Q. What if the Iranians reject Russia's offer?
A. They won't. However, I fear the Americans will press for sanctions even if they don't.
Q. But they surely cannot make the entire world impose sanctions if Iran accepts our proposal?
A. I am afraid they could. Remember North Korea. Almost everyone pandered to Washington then, and we did, special thanks to [former Sovet President]Mikhail Gorbachev.
Q. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will not necessarily do what Mikhail [Gorbachev] broke his back on.
A. He hopefully won't. However, Putin is also in a tight corner, and so is entire Russia. So far we have been picking up great windfalls from high oil and gas prices but let's think what happens if windfalls cease. What we have we clearly will not have forever. I believe in reason. Reason dictates that to start a war now would be a disgrace.
#1
Article: In the early 1990s, when I was in Iran for the first time, I saw there the magnificent American Sun 4 and Sun 5 computers, which the United States barred from selling to Russia but sold freely to Iran; and they were working there very effectively. It is true that Iranian girls wear black shawls to conceal their hair but the girls I saw -- who had also graduated from U.S. universities -- were very smart when it came to handling state-of-the-art computers.
Actually, Iran has been under a comprehensive trade embargo since the Iranian Revolution. Iran might have acquired Suns via third parties. But what would you expect from a Russian apparatchik - the truth?
Article: The U.S. policy is mainly about exporting democracy by making offers one cannot refuse. They are doing this to countries whose history dates back millennia and who have unthinkable contributions to mankind under their belt. What Americans do not know how to do is take into account others' national sensitivities, customs, and traditions. What they are doing is trying to inculcate those countries with American lifestyles -- something that is hardly possible.
And the Russian tradition was to annex them to the Russian empire - vast chunks of the Chinese Far East used to be Chinese territory and the Central Asian civilizations, of course, predate Russia by millenia. There is no BS like Russian BS.
#2
I forgot to mention that Russia added some of stan's to its empire out of Persia's hide. The Russians certainly have an interesting way of showing respect for ancient civilizations - first they annex them, and then they ruthlessly suppress their religion, trying to inculcate them with Communist lifestyles.
#3
The Russians certainly have an interesting way of showing respect for ancient civilizations - first they annex them, and then they ruthlessly suppress their religion, trying to inculcate them with Communist lifestyles.
Right. Just ask the kulaks ... oh, wait, there aren't any more around to ask.
#4
The Shah of Iran never threatened anyone, not even Israel. As for "inculcating" nations with American lifestyles - compared to what, Commies working wid Muslims and Radicals which induced 9-11; or a WOT which is a PC war for control of the world and future OWG, where Socialism, Totalitarianism and OWG is forced upon America or America "volunteers" to submit, where the Left > America can fight and die for a global Empire that it must voluntarily = forcibly, give up = lose later on ergo vote for the Dems in 2006 and 2008. TONY BLAIR > WOT > NOT A WAR BETWEEN CIVILZATIONS SOMUCH AS ABOUT CIVILIZATION. For all of America's appeasin' and concedin', the reward for the American people is to still be gulagged andor genocided as anyone during WW2 except that we're all to sing KUMBAYA and WE ARE THE CHILDREN, etc. as we happily report to our local death camps.
Engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, using an emerging sensing technology, have developed a suite of sensors for national security applications that can quickly and effectively detect chemical, biological, nuclear and explosive materials.
[..]
The Argonne-developed technology was demonstrated in tests that accomplished three important goals:
Detected and measured poison gas precursors 60 meters away in the Nevada Test Site to an accuracy of 10 parts per million using active sensing. Identified chemicals related to defense applications, including nuclear weapons, from 600 meters away using passive sensing at the Nevada Test Site. Built a system to identify the spectral fingerprints of trace levels of explosives, including DNT, TNT, PETN, RDX and plastics explosives semtex and C-4. Current research involves collecting a database of explosive "fingerprints" and, working with partners Sarnoff Corp., Dartmouth College and Sandia National Laboratory, testing a mail- or cargo-screening system for trace explosives.
[..]
How it works The millimeter/terahertz technology detects the energy levels of a molecule as it rotates. The frequency distribution of this energy provides a unique and reproducible spectral pattern its "fingerprint" that identifies the material. The technology can also be used in its imaging modality ranging from concealed weapons to medical applications such as tumor detection.
...They looked at 2,169 distinct avian virus genes. There were two viruses that showed a protein tag at the end of one of the nonstructural genes that actually looks to help cause the cytokine storm that makes this a unique illness.* And guess which two viruses they were: 1918 H1N1, and the current H5N1...
*Cytokines are a class of proteins produced by white blood cells whenever the body finds itself responding to an infection. They vary in functionsome cytokines attack invading microbes directly, others relay chemical messages from cell to cell, still others bind with cells in the hypothalamus region of the brain to produce fevers. Cytokines are toxic not only to infectious agents in the body but to the body itself: Much of the pain and discomfort that accompany illnesses like the common flu, for example, are in effect hangover symptoms from the toxic effects of the body's own immune response. The term "cytokine storm" refers to the immune response that occurs when the body is confronted with an infectious agent that reproduces at great speed and in huge volume. This "viral storm" generates an equally huge immune responsethe cytokine stormthat can take such a toll on lung tissue (the main battleground where the virus and the immune system face off) that it deprives vital organs of enough oxygen to function, and sets off cascading organ failure.
...This virus is quite different from what we see with the standard annual flu, and what we saw in 1957 and 1968, because of the cytokine storm it causes. In 1918, the vast majority of the people who died were healthy young people, 20 to 40 years of age. And that was in large part because they had the strongest immune systems...
...If you put 1918 H1N1 into animal models at very, very low doses, it basically kills all of them in 24 hours. The lab science people had never seen that. At 16 to 24 hours, that virus was different from anything they'd ever seen in killing these animals. The only virus that was similar was H5N1, and it was fatal at much lower doses. H5N1 is the most powerful influenza virus we've seen in modern human history. What makes them so similar is that they both cause this cytokine storm phenomenon.
Which essentially results in a person's drowning in his or her own blood as it fills the lungs, right?
It's even worse than that. You get that kind of leakage, yes, but it also goes in and begins to shut down all your vital organs. It's a domino effect. Your kidneys go down, then your liver goes down, you have all this destruction through necrosis of your lungs and your internal organs. Everything goes.
...There are not a lot of mild, asymptomatic infections out there [with H5N1]. We're now aware of six studies involving over 5,000 close contacts of H5N1-infected people, in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, in which less than one person per thousand contacts had evidence of an H5N1 infection that was missedthat is, a mild infection.
This [virus] is not causing a lot of asymptomatic infections right now. Some people are saying there's a lot of mild [H5N1-related] illness all over out there, but it's just not true. That means we're not artificially inflating the mortality rate by missing a lot of infections. I'm actually pretty confident that the real mortality is almost that high.
So for that number to drop all the way down to a couple percent is a pretty big drop. Which says to me that when people talk about 1918 as a worst-case scenario, well, maybe that isn't the worst-case scenario. That's hard for people to hear, because then they think you're really trying to scare the hell out of people. But you know what? It's just the data.
If this virus were to ultimately go human-to-human, none of us know what the human mortality would be...
...Right now, given the amount of virus needed to make vaccines for H5N1it needs a lot more antigen [than typical flu strains] our total worldwide capacity right now, in one year's time, is only enough vaccine to protect 100-200 million people worldwide. That's in one year after a pandemic starts. And that's it. You can't make any more, given the limited capacity we have...
...Eighty percent of all the drugs we use in this countryall the childhood vaccines, everythingcome from offshore. Your cardio drugs, your cancer drugs, your diabetes drugs, 80 percent of the raw ingredients come from offshore. I could go through a whole laundry list of other critical and essential products and services that come from offshore. If the rest of the world experiences a pandemic, we're still screwed. That's what people don't understand. Somehow they have this attitude that we can wall ourselves off in the Eighth District of Minneapolis and be okay...
...With the H5N1 virus, the virus storm that precedes the cytokine storm is so remarkable in those first 24 hours that if you don't have the (antiviral) drug onboard in those first 24 hours, it may only have limited impact...
...We have anecdotal data on people who got the drug early and appeared to do better, but then, after the typical five-day course was stopped, they died on day ten...
...For example, I talked [in that article] about the 105,000 mechanical ventilators (in the United States)? On any given day, 70,000-80,000 of them are in use, and in a normal flu season we butt up against the 100,000 mark. We have no excess capacity there whatsoever...
...We'll run out of masks and respirators overnight, because it's a global just-in-time supply chain. There are two manufacturers who have the largest share of the market there, but with virtually no surge capacity. We'll run out of IV needles. We'll run out of IV bags. We'll run out of drugs very quickly...
...So the whole medical system will collapse, at a time when we still need drugs for heart attacks, cancer, and everything else. We'll be in freefall. That may sound scary, but it's a reality. And unlike Katrina, where the hurricane did some of the destruction and separated people from health care through evacuation or otherwise, the same thing's going to happen here in every city, town, and village in this country as well. We're all going to need things at the same time, and there won't be any products...
...Right after Katrina, when FEMA was trying to rescue itself, they put out a call for anyone who had a refrigerated truck unit to come and sit in one of several parking lots in the Gulf states down there, in case they had 10,000 bodies, etc. A contingent of them went. Not all of them, by any stretch of the imagination. Within 72 hours, major food manufacturers throughout the United States reported that they couldn't ship their goods. They had no trucks. We have a razor-thin capacity in this country right now on virtually everything. They had to get FEMA to release the trucks. Cities like Seattle have already come to the conclusion they won't be able to have refrigerated trucks, because of that issue. For their work with corpse management, for example, they've already mapped out where every one of the ice arenas in Seattle is...
#2
Color me blase. When this disease shows signs of being infectious, I'll start to get worried. Remember Ebola and the mad cow disease? Both are fatal. But neither showed signs of being very infectious. Ebola got its start in Africa, where hygiene is indifferent and presents an ideal environment for spreading disease. Same with bird flu and SARS. If they can't spread in China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia (where the natives use their left hands in place of toilet paper), all of which are hygienically-challenged, you're not going to see any serious problems in the West.
You have some good points, but, we just can't predict what happens when human to human.
The only thing on the good news front is the timeline. 24-48 hour kill rate is too fast for massive, massive destruction ... well, given today's populations. 1918, or before and global, problem of a different scope.
The problem is, and we can't stop it no matter what, the bugs will adapt. We adjust our health care and technology to a certain level, and they will out do us. It is pure math.
We divide once or twice every 50 years or so. They do it every 30 minutes or so.
We offset by technology, but there is the law of delimiting returns. It is an iteresting race. At some point we have to come up short, and massive corrections in population are the result.
#6
The only thing on the good news front is the timeline. 24-48 hour kill rate is too fast for massive, massive destruction.
Its well documented that in 1918 many people were killed in 24 hours or less, yet the flu spread just fine.
In fact, I would argue exactly the opposite. A person becomes highly infectious very quickly which makes containment a lot more difficult. Hence spread is much more rapid than 'normal' flu.
#7
I'd be interested in knowing how many human deaths there have been in Western countries.
Among people who are not from 3rd-world countries with 3rd-world ideas about sanitation.
Though I understand it's nothing to sneeze at, I suspect this flu (presuming it jumps to human-to-human transmission) is going to be less of a problem in Western cultures where there is at least a modicum of sanitation.
(I'd be concerned about nursing homes, though.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/24/2006 21:40
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#8
The big jump from bird to human B2H to H2H may not be as difficult as all that. Right now, it is believed that H2H hasn't erupted en masse solely because the virus only takes hold in cells deep in the alveoli of the lungs, unlike typical flu that enters in the cells of the sinuses, eyes and throat.
So, how different are the cells in the lungs from those higher up?
As far as mutation goes, it is much like a computational problem. Individual animals that do not immediately die from the disease, like swine, may have several mutations of the same disease in their bodies, in a darwinian race to establish supremacy and efficiency. In a herd, each animal is doing the same, but with different mutations.
The "winners" of the individual animal viruses are exchanged around the herd, in a "semi-finals", until the best mutation is the sole survivor.
Herd after herd and flock after flock produce increasingly efficient mutations, even though many good possibles are eliminated through death. But when you add up all of those individual and group efforts, an awful lot of possibilities are generated.
Now, consider human interaction at many stages of this process. Swine, in particular can catch both human and avian influenza, and within their bodies the two different types of viruses can and do exchange RNA.
This means that humans are not needed to produce a virus that will transmit easily H2H.
Remember that *most* typical flus are uptaken in the upper respiratory system. It is a common mutation that allows them to do this, so there is a very good chance that a common influenza will give that mutated gene to H5N1.
In addition to its virulence, H5N1 is also believed to have an optimal incubation period, anywhere from 10-17 days, with an extended period of communicability. This bastard seems to be tailor made to kill humans.
#9
CoasttoCoastAM had a recent episode where Noory's guest commented that what is being [wilfully] under-reported or nono-reported in the Medias is how stocks in poor countries are born, raised, eat, and processed in hyper-polluted, unsanitary industrial conditions, and that left alone, these viruses can easily mutate over time to threaten mankind. IOW, the world doesn't need exploding Commie Biowar factories or research complexes - all thats needed is for enviro wastelands/dumps to stay polluted AND HUMAN-OCCUPIED for periods of time.
A WOMAN charged with plotting to bomb a public place faces a Sydney court today.
The 26-year-old was arrested yesterday following a joint NSW and Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation.
A number of homes in Casula and Hoxton Park, in Sydney's south-west, were also searched in connection with the plot, the AFP said.
The woman has been charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosives to be placed in or near a public place.
Very terse report, which means the cops are keeping a lid on it. More arrests soon?
#2
Note, pointedly there's no name given.
I agree, they're keeping a lid on, probably until the can round up accomplices.
Does make me wonder a bit, since Islamics have used unknowing and unwitting "Suicide" bombers before whether the woman knew or didn't know there was a bomb in her car.
We shall see.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/24/2006 19:20
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Australian cops are a lot more miserly with information than in the US. If they ever say you are "assisting police with their inquiries", God help you.
#4
CONCERNS have between raised in a Sydney court about the mental health of a 26-year-old woman charged with conspiracy to murder over an alleged public bomb plot.
Jill Courtney, of Casula, was arrested yesterday following raids on a number of south-west Sydney homes by NSW and the Australian Federal Police.
She has been charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosives to be placed in or near a public place between July 1 2005 and 24 March this year.
Courtney did not appear in a brief hearing at Parramatta Bail Court today, but her lawyer Adam Houda asked the matter be adjourned until Monday.
Mr Houda also asked that his client be assessed by a psychiatrist before that time.
"There is a little concern about her mental health," Mr Houda told Registrar Rosemary Davidson.
Bail was not applied for and was formally refused by Ms Davidson, who adjourned the matter to Sydney's Central Local Court on Monday, March 27
If she is a lone crazy, why the conspiracy charges?
SOFIA, Bulgaria, March 24 (UPI) -- Bulgaria Friday confirmed that the United States will establish three military bases in the country as part of a new deployment strategy. Under the deal, 3,000 American soldiers will be based at the Novo Selo training base and at the Bezmer and Graf Ignatievo airbases.
The agreement will be signed by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she participates in a summit for NATO foreign ministers in Sofia next month. If the bases are to be used for military attacks, the Bulgarian parliament must give its approval.
Last December, a similar agreement was signed with Romania. The new deployments are part of plans announced by the Pentagon, to transfer troops from Germany and South Korea to new bases in Eastern Europe, where they are within close range of the Middle East. Bulgaria is one of Washington's staunchest allies in the region. Along with neighboring country Romania, it also tops the list of European states that are suspected of having hosted covert interrogation centers used by the CIA. The two Black Sea states have vehemently denied the allegations, which were published by human rights organizations in November.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
14:48 ||
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#1
...which were published by human rights organizations in November.
And have been shown to be complete fabrications as well.
Good. I would rather pump money and bases into countries that actually want to fight the war on terror rather than countries that take our money and then stab us in the back.
#4
I remember a "new" europe vs "old" europe proposed by Rummy....think Bulgaria's Sharia-bound? Me neither. They know the value of a ricin-tipped umbrella curly-toed slipper against the right Imam
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2006 18:44
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SOUTH EL MONTE, Calif. - A homemade bomb was found Friday on the back seat of a car stopped for a traffic violation, authorities said. The bomb was safely defused, but several industrial businesses were evacuated and a main boulevard was closed for about four hours. Authorities did not know the size or power of the explosive device or its intended use.
The driver, whose identity was not immediately released, was arrested for investigation of being under the influence of a narcotic and could face charges of possessing an explosive device and an altered firearm, authorities said.
The driver was pulled over about 5 a.m. in a red hatchback for speeding in El Monte, a suburb about 15 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, sheriff's Sgt. Paul Patterson said. Deputies "observed a package in the rear of the vehicle with wires coming out of it," sheriff's Sgt. Don Manumaleuna said. The sheriff's arson-explosives detail was called and determined that the package was an "improvised explosive device," Manumaleuna said.
The bomb squad contacted the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Manumaleuna said.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
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#7
A homemade bomb was found Friday on the back seat of a car stopped for a traffic violation ...
was arrested for investigation of being under the influence of a narcotic ...
The driver was pulled over about 5 a.m. in a red hatchback for speeding ...
They should tack on a public stupidity charge on general principal. Makes me wonder if the guy would have called the cops if someone stole it out of his car.
NEW DELHI: The government has received 'credible inputs of threats from certain terrorist organisations' to the proposed twin 'National Integration Yatra' by Leader of Opposition L K Advani and BJP president Rajnath Singh from April 6.
Following the receipt of specific intelligence, the Home Ministry has conveyed the threat perception to the party and asked it to ensure at the earliest 'proper bullet-proofing' of the raths (vehicles) proposed to be utilised for the yatra by both the leaders, sources said. This has been done as both the yatras 'would be an attractive target for militants/terrorist groups as well as would be passing through areas affected by naxalism', they said.
The Ministry has also asked Governments of the states through which the yatras would pass to make 'comprehensive security arrangements', they said.
Advani had announced the party's plans to undertake the twin yatra a day after the Varanasi bomb blasts with the objective of 'creating public awareness about the minority appeasement policies of the UPA government and the threat it posed to the nation's unity and integrity'. In a television interview last week, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan had said the Government had received specific intelligence about threats to Advani in Uttar Pradesh during his proposed rath yatra.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
14:36 ||
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Naxalism threatens Rath Yatra
Most obscure headline on Rantburg, EVER.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/24/2006 16:02
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Can one of our intelligence experts step in here to tell us what it all means? Because, from reading this, I have no friggin idea what it means...
#3
Naxalism - Naxals are marxist terrorists who run around certain Indian states bloewing up things.
Rath - chariot
Yatra - a pilgrimage or procession
LK Advani likes his processions where he stokes Hindu nationalism.
His last yatra was for the construction of a hindu temple at Ayodha. It ended up in the demolition of the unused mosque at the site (built over the site of a temple scared to Hindus), rioting, much death.
BTW, when he was deputy PM, he did nothing to have the temple built.
Advani's stocks are in the dump now. He went to Pakistan (he was born in Karachi, now in Pakistan) and praised MA Jinnah.
That did not go down too well with his supporters.
The recent bombings of Hindu temples and the dhimmitude of the current Indian government -reluctance to arrest minister who called for death of cartoonist, failed attempt at affirmative action for muslims in the army, ongoing attempts at affirmative action quotas for muslims in government jobs, pandering to muslim voters -
have resulted in a growing backlash among the majority population.
Advani sense this backlash and wishes to exploit it, - hence his yatra around India, to whip up support.
His last yatra saw him being the deputy PM. He hopes this one will see him elected as PM.
Posted by: john ||
03/24/2006 16:44
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btw, Advani is not the Hindu chavanist devil he is frequently portrayed as.
He was born in what is now Pakistan and pines for the old days when hindu and muslim lived togther in Karachi. He proposes a south asian union where the Indi-Pak border would be just a line on a map.
He is an old man.
The young Indians have no memory of life in pre-independence India and their only experience of Pakistan is as a terrorist state.
When they come to power, they will not be as Advani or PM MM Singh (also born in what is now Pakistan). They will not be moved by the fact that Pervez Musharraf was born in Delhi. He will not be a long lost brother to them (as Advani may think).
Posted by: john ||
03/24/2006 16:55
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Aw John, there you go screwing up a weird story with facts.
#6
And India is a very different place now.
Globalization has changed things forever.
Advani riding a chariot like some hindu god from the Mahabarat is more likely to attract eggs and assorted rotten produce then any loving devotion.
He is probbaly going to be very disppointed.
Posted by: john ||
03/24/2006 17:19
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#7
He may welcome an attack by marxists that may draw sympathy and media attention.
The alternative for him is far more terrible - apathy and disinterest that sends him (and a lot of the other geriatrics that rule India) where they belong - an old age home.
Posted by: john ||
03/24/2006 17:26
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Pakistan's military airdropped pamphlets this week over towns in restive tribal regions near the Afghan border urging tribesmen to shun foreign terrorists, saying they were part of a Hindu and Jewish plot.
Now that's the Pakistani military we've come to know and love.
The pamphlets were dropped over Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, and Miranshah in North Waziristan as part of a campaign to win support among tribesmen who have shown sympathy for both Taliban and remnants of al Qaeda living among them.
A Reuters reporter in Tank, a town close to the boundary with the semi-autonomous tribal agency of South Waziristan, obtained one of the pamphlets, bearing the sign-off Well Wishers, Pakistan's Armed Forces. Titled Warning, the pamphlets said the foreign militants were fighting against Pakistan in connivance with Jews and Hindus, a term that would play on traditional prejudices among the region's Muslim conservatives.
They (foreign militants) not only pose a danger to our sovereignty, but are also creating troubles for our people, read the pamphlet, which appeared in both Urdu and Pashto language versions. You should stay clear of these terrorists. Don't let them come close to your areas and houses and protect your land against them.
"They've got cooties!"
This war is against foreign terrorists and their harbourers who are fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with Jews and Hindus against the state of Pakistan, it added.
Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said he could not confirm that pamphlets were sponsored by the military, although residents say they saw military aircraft scattering the pamphlets over their neighbourhoods. The allusion to Hindus and Jews, otherwise, appears at odds with the trend in Pakistani foreign policy.
Not if you've been paying attention. Remember, watch the hands, not the mouth.
President Pervez Musharraf has been seeking peace with India for the past two years and last year opened diplomatic channels, though not full relations, with Israel.
Remnants of al Qaeda and the Taliban -- including Arabs, Central Asians, Chechens and Afghans -- settled in Waziristan and other border areas after being ousted from Afghanistan by U.S.-led forces in late 2001. Pakistan's army has deployed in South and North Waziristan since late 2003 in an effort to root out foreign militants, but ran into fierce resistance from tribesmen who resent the army's intrusion into their lands. Up to 20 militants were killed in clashes early on Friday in the North Waziristan tribal region after a rocket attack on a military post killed one soldier and wounded two others.
Earlier this month around 200 tribesmen were killed in clashes with the army in North Waziristan after a call to arms by militant clerics.
Pakistan has captured or killed hundreds of al Qaeda members since Musharraf joined a U.S.-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is widely believed to be hiding somewhere in Pakistan along with his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
14:27 ||
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A faxed copy of a pamphlet in the local Urdu language dropped by the Pakistani military aircraft in Wana, South Waziristan, and Miranshah, in North Waziristan bordering Pakistan, is shown in Islamabad March 24, 2006. Pakistan's military airdropped pamphlets this week over towns in restive tribal regions near the Afghan border urging tribesmen to shun 'foreign terrorists', saying they were part of a Hindu and Jewish plot. the pamphlets, bearing the sign-off 'Well Wishers, Pakistan's Armed Forces'. Titled 'Warning', the pamphlets said the foreign militants were fighting against Pakistan in connivance with 'Jews and Hindus', a term that would play on traditional prejudices among the region's Muslim conservatives. 'They (foreign militants) not only pose a danger to our sovereignty, but are also creating troubles for our people,' REUTERS/Mian Khursheed
Posted by: john ||
03/24/2006 14:49
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Well, everythings just fine then. Given the locals haven't seen a Hindu or a Jew in their life, everyone around is, well, "kosher" I guess.
No Jews here... and the dance goes on.
Maybe Perv should have added a cartoon to the leaflet.
#3
As a Jew, I feel proud to be linked with the noble Hindus. Long may our alliance prosper! I'll put my money on the Judeo-Christian-Hindu alliance vs. those Muslim-Marxist-Anarchists any day.
EFL'd from a very long piece which you should go and read in its entirety 'cause, like everything this man writes, it's incisive as all get out.
We judge figures by their actions under stress; note their choices; form some estimate of their capacity for truth; their ability to recognize quality even in their enemies. In the statement following their release Christian Peacemaker Teams have shown their quality by completely airbrushing out of the account of their rescue the fact it was performed by multinational forces. In terms of truthfulness, the statement of the CPT is in a class with that of Maurice Thorez, head of the French Communist Party, who described the Liberation of Paris without once naming LeClerc, Patton, Eisenhower or even de Gaulle. . . .
. . . Now I can see that the Christian Peacemaker Teams were right to admire such as those who even one of their own described as criminal gangs. For I would much rather throw in with ruffians who still had a perverse sense of criminal honor and were willing to come to the aid of their fellows than entrust myself to people paralyzed with their own sense of sanctity, full of their own sense of righteousness. They have forbidden any attempts to visit retribution and justice upon their captors. And if they know anything more about this criminal gang they are unlikely to share it with the Coalition. The Washington Post reported shortly after CPT hostage Tom Fox was killed:
Members of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting, a peace group in northern Virginia to which Fox belonged, read a statement he co-wrote in October 2004 in which he shunned violence, even to rescue him should he ever be kidnapped. Members of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting, a peace group in northern Virginia to which Fox belonged, read a statement he co-wrote in October 2004 in which he shunned violence, even to rescue him should he ever be kidnapped. "We reject violence to punish anyone who harms us," said Doug Smith, quoting Fox, in a statement read to reporters at the group's headquarters in McLean, Virginia.
If I have it aright, the CPT would not on principle -- if the word can be perverted thus -- have placed a call, if they could, to save Tom Fox as he was being tortured to death because it might bring Multinational Forces rushing to violent rescue, an act they would have no part of. Yet they saw no contradiction in precipitating this absurd situation by their intentional presence in Iraq and by trailing their coat in the most dangerous neighborhoods; nor did they think it ethically consistent to refrain from telling the Press of the kidnapping though they must have known efforts to rescue them would be made, despite their well-publicized refusals. There is nothing more suspicious than false modesty performed conspicuously upon a stage.
As for myself, the Christian Peacemaker Teams remind me of nothing so much as Fred Phelps. I think that if ever there were an instance of latter-day blasphemy it must be in the CPT's hideous claim that their "only protection was in the power of the love of God and of their Iraqi and international co-workers". Nothing seems further than the truth. They've endangered themselves, the lives of innocent Iraqis and those who hazarded themselves to find and rescue them for the sake of their own self-righteous theater. Vanity, not love is their watchword. Fortune and men's eyes and not God is who they worship.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/24/2006
13:43 ||
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#1
Fuck these idiots and those like them. The next time they get plucked off the streets by their Jihadi heroes, just send word on where their bodies will be dumped so we can bag em and tag em. There are more important things to spend time on over there then wasting time on bailing out the sanctimonius relics of the sixties and their wannabe desciples when their little Kumbaya games blow up in their faces.
#2
It's of little help at the moment, but I have no doubt all these clowns are going to be in for a VERY rude (and hot) awakening when they die.
(And I'm not even Christian.)
I'd prefer a reckoning for them in this life, but I'll take what I can get....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/24/2006 17:36
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#3
If I have it aright, the CPT would not on principle -- if the word can be perverted thus -- have placed a call, if they could, to save Tom Fox as he was being tortured to death because it might bring Multinational Forces rushing to violent rescue, an act they would have no part of.
That's one klaxon beginning to sound.
Yet they saw no contradiction in precipitating this absurd situation by their intentional presence in Iraq and by trailing their coat in the most dangerous neighborhoods;
That's two klaxons blaring away.
nor did they think it ethically consistent to refrain from telling the Press of the kidnapping though they must have known efforts to rescue them would be made, despite their well-publicized refusals.
They've endangered themselves, the lives of innocent Iraqis and those who hazarded themselves to find and rescue them for the sake of their own self-righteous theater.
You'll have to speak up, you see, there's all these klaxons going off.
This sort of vile sanctimonious holier-than-thou crap goes beyond evil. It is the very face of satan himself. Wretchard does well to summon up the name of Fred Phelps when discussing these twisted puppies.
I agree, tu3031, next time we don't lift a finger and just let these idiots make love to their captors. The Stokholm Syndrome looks rational by comparison.
#4
It was like this, as reported in the Telegraph:
A deal had been struck with a man detained the previous night who was one of the leaders of the kidnappers. He was allowed a telephone call to warn his henchmen to leave the kidnap house. When the troops moved in and found the prisoners alive, they also let him go as promised.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday it will use new unmanned drones to help provide security during a summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in July. RIA news agency quoted Deputy Interior Minister Mikhail Sukhodolsky as saying the ministry had already tried out the gadgets but said he gave few details about the drones. "The Russian Interior Ministry is having its first experience of using pilotless flying apparatus, the first models of which we have already put into action," Sukhodolsky said. "We plan to use such technology for the first time during the Group of Eight summit in St Petersburg," he said.
President Vladimir Putin will host U.S. President George W. Bush and other G8 leaders at a summit in his home town of St Petersburg to crown Russia's first presidency of the rich nations group.
Just a guess, but I'll wager we won't see large numbers of moonbat protestors at this G8 meeting
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi joked about declaring war on France on Friday and pretended to massage President Jacques Chirac, making light of a clash between their two countries over energy mergers.
Leaving for the second day of European Union summit, Berlusconi told reporters: "There is no news, unless you journalists want us to declare war on France."
Inside the conference room, the Italian leader walked up to the seated Chirac and put his hands on the French president's shoulders in what looked like a neck-rub, prompting a startled laugh.
Tension between France and Italy has risen since the Paris government engineered a hasty merger between state-owned Gaz de France and private French utility Suez to fend off a feared bid from Italy's Enel.
Diplomats had expected Berlusconi, trailing centre-left ex-European Commission President Romano Prodi in opinion polls ahead of an April 9-10 general election, to use the summit to attack the French action.
In the event, he focussed his public comments on attacks against Prodi and insisted that he would confound the polls and win re-election.
#4
A northern Italian had a great retort when someone impugnes the bravery of the Italian army.
In World War I, 300,000 Italians died in the twelve battles of the Isonzo, half of their total war casualties. They fought a heavily fortified enemy in mountains on the far side and overlooking a river, during heavy rains, an impossible mission.
Posted by: Nick ||
03/24/2006 20:05
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#6
ITS WAR - SEND IN THE FRENCH NAVY, assuming of course their props don't fall off. Kind of hard to fight decisive naval battle wid go-go modern warships that have to depend on wave/sea motion to get there. How can Radical Islam's Navy of mad Mad MAD M-A-D Camels/Camel-kazes lose???
Tehran, Iran, Mar. 24 Islamist militiamen affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps have launched military exercises near the Iraqi border to deal with possible unrest, Irans official news agency IRNA reported. Members of the paramilitary Bassij force staged military exercises in the western town of Dehloran. The paramilitary forces attacked dummy enemy sites during the operation.
The objective of the military exercises here is to raise the level of readiness of the Bassij forces, said Alireza Bazdar, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Dehloran. Our forces were able to capture the positions taken by the enemy and destroy the enemy forces. This will help us prepare ourselves to deal with possible outbreaks of unrest with force and determination, Bazdar said.
The Revolutionary Guards and the Bassij have been staging a series of military and security exercises in Tehran and its suburbs since February.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
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This photo is too amusing. Guys in turbans *and* shades.
Impressive exercise, they conquered the unrestful dummies.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/24/2006 14:01
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Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps - White turbans make for good targets. Hey maybe they have a secret formula to make cloth as strong as kevlar. I hope they get an opportunity to test it against a 5.56mm round.
#5
They "goosestep", just like their facist heroes of the past did. Saw one of their 'parades' on video once (looked like a very poor variation of one of the old Nazi or Soviet era 'celebrations').
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/24/2006 14:41
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Ya gotta admit, the Germans made it look cool. Everyone else makes it just look sad...
Baghdad, 24 March (AKI) - Three hundred Palestinian families living in the al-Hurriya and al-Doura areas of Baghdad are reportedly close to fleeing their homes following escalating death threats from armed Shiite militias. According to the Iraqi information website Haqq, the latest threat arrived at dawn on Friday when a pamphlet was distributed in the zone warning "Palestinian cowards who collaborate with the Wahhabis, the Takfir (those outside Islam - often a euphemism for terrorists) and ex-Baathists loyal to Saddam, especially those living in al-Doura." "We will eliminate them all unless they leave the area within ten days. This is the last warning," the leaflet reads.
"Have a nice day"
Signed by "The Day of Judgement Brigades" the documents were distributed in the al-Doura neighbourhood which has for decades been the home of many Palestinian refugees. The ultimatum from the group, apparently linked to the most extreme Shiite militias, follows an attempt to kill five Palestinians in the area on 8 March.
The daily threats confirm the predicament of Palestinian refugees in Iraq, some of whom have been there since 1948; they face ongoing threats from Shiites but despite the deteriorating security situation are unable to flee as no other Arab country is ready to accept them. Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has on various occasions intervened with the Iraqi president Jalal Talabani to protect the Palestinian community in the country.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
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lol - perfect picture there for this story. Seems palo's are none to popular these days,lol.
#2
Article: The daily threats confirm the predicament of Palestinian refugees in Iraq, some of whom have been there since 1948; they face ongoing threats from Shiites but despite the deteriorating security situation are unable to flee as no other Arab country is ready to accept them.
Funny how leftists like to criticize the reluctance of the 160 million-strong US and Canada to accept millions of Jews during WWII, but don't seem to have any problem with the billion-strong Muslim world not wanting to take in tens of thousands of Palestinians. A little consistency would be nice.
#7
"We will eliminate them all unless they leave the area within ten days. This is the last warning," the leaflet reads." But let us know when you get there, we will send you money for suicide bombers to kill infidel's. Since you are a infidel, we will be killing two birds with one stone.
If this is'nt proof that they are pawns, I don't know what is.
#10
The Palestinians were very well pampered pawns under Saddam Hussein's rule. They paid extra low rents for their housing, and had preference for certain jobs and education. As I recall, immediately following the invasion a great many landlords evicted their Palestinian tenants in order to be able to finally get market rates for their properties. For a while there were Palestinian families living in the football stadiums because they had nowhere else to go.
And of course, they still have nowhere to go. It's not like they can go back to the PA -- most of them have never been there, and given how tight the clan structure is, likely would not be welcomed. Perhaps they can join those camped in the no-man's land between Iraq and Jordan, assuming that border remains closed. >:-(
UN agency concerned over threats against Palestinians in Iraq
By The Associated Press [hat tip haaretz]
The United Nations refugee agency said Friday it was concerned about deteriorating conditions for Palestinians in Iraq, citing death threats against Palestinian families in one Baghdad neighborhood.
is this a micro violin or a nano violin song
The UN's High Commissioner for Refugees said it did not know who was behind the threats, but in the sectarian strife that has roiled Iraq, many Shiites and Kurds have come to view the Palestinians living in Iraq as sympathetic to the Sunni-dominated insurgency. There is also resentment over privileges they received under Saddam Hussein's rule.
#1
My new ACME Wide-Range Digital Sympathy Meter is registering about 3.42117 yoctogiveashits (that's 3.4 x 10-24 giveashits (divide by 7 to convert to giveafucks).
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/24/2006 13:16
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dang...that's even reading lower than my ACME Wide-Range Digital Sympathy Meter. You must have paid extra to get that sort of hypersensitivity near abosolute zero.
#3
This would carry a bit more wait if these arschlochs ever evinced the slightest concern for the Israeli families under constant attack by Palestinians.
#6
This just in: 10,000 crazy Paleos in Iraq decide to convert to Christianity and move to Afghanistan. Stating that Allah had instructed them to walk the fine line between notoriety and pointless foolishness, which would result in their being elected to various positions in the EU.
#7
Dave D---your meter must be cooled in liquid helium to get those kind of sensitivities! Mine only goes down to 10 to the minus 6 GAS'es. And it's digital. Fred's analog unit only goes down to milliGAS.
Getting back to the Paleos, they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. They also have a knack for picking losers to latch onto. They sh*t into their messkits---again---now they have to live with the consequences.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/24/2006 19:44
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Sorry if this was posted earlier but if not, I thought it was worthwhile reading. This guy pimp slaps the media by exposing every myth they perpetuate about Iraq for what it is: a myth. EFL
The debate about American policy and strategy in Iraq has veered off course. A number of myths have crept into the discussion over the past two years that distort understanding and confuse discussion. It is possible and appropriate to question the wisdom of any particular strategy proposed for Iraq, including the Bush administrations strategy, and there is reason to be both concerned and encouraged by recent events there. But constructive dialogue about how to choose the best way forward is hampered by the distortions caused by certain myths. Until these myths recede from discussions about Iraq strategy, progress in those discussions is extremely unlikely.
Myth 1: The Bush administration intends to keep substantial U.S. forces in Iraq for a long time and must be pressured to bring them home quickly.
This assertion is false. The American strategy in Iraq from the very beginning of hostilities in March 2003 has been to remove all U.S. forces from the country as rapidly as possible. That was the basis of the small footprint idea under which the military fought the war with too few troops to prevent the rise of the insurgency. As the insurgency began, the military consistently underreacted in the deployment of troops and pursued a series of strategies to avoid increasing the number of troops in the country. Since mid-2004, the administration has stuck to a single determined strategy to train a large Iraqi army to wage the counterinsurgency and to withdraw American forces as that army becomes able to take over responsibilities in Iraq.[2]
Myth 2: The presence of U.S. forces in Iraq is the major source of the conflict there. Peace will return to Iraq as Americans leave.
There is a certain amount of truth here, of course: a significant portion of the Sunni Arab insurgency is devoted to attacking Americans and driving them from Iraq, and a few elements of the Shiite community have joined in such attacks for their own reasons. The logical leap from that fact to the assertion that if only the Americans would leave, the insurgency would die down and peace would ensue, however, is baseless and indefensible.
The results of such a rapid withdrawal will be primarily negative. Insurgent groups may initially begin to struggle with one another, both arguing and fighting over their future visions of the country. All will almost certainly attack the Iraqi government and security forces with renewed vigor. The absence of coalition forces will embolden some to increase sectarian violence in the hope of igniting a civil war. The likely result will be either chaos or the further weeding-out and merging of insurgent groups into larger organizations capable of posing a significant challenge to a very weak central regime. The prospects for the success of that regime in such a scenario are very dim.
Myth 3: The war in Iraq is a distraction from the war on terrorism.
Claims of Saddams prewar involvement with al Qaeda certainly seem to have been exaggerated--although it is known that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi trained soldiers under the aegis of the Taliban alongside al Qaeda fighters and then moved into Iraq before the U.S. attack.[10] This question, however, is no longer relevant to the problem of determining U.S. strategy in the war on terror. Al Qaedas second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has repeatedly said that he now sees Iraq as the central front in the struggle with the West.[11] Zarqawi has linked his ideological program with that of Zawahiri and bin Laden to make plain that he has no intention of stopping with success in Iraq, should he attain it. Above all, the key question is: will chaos in Iraq help or hinder al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations in their struggle with the United States and the West? The answer is, of course, that it will help them.
Myth 4: The wisdom of invading Iraq in 2003 should be an important part of the discussion about what to do in Iraq today.
When John Kerry made criticism of Bushs decision to go to war--rather than of current administration strategy in Iraq--the centerpiece of his campaign, he helped ensure that future debates over policy there would be fruitless. From the standpoint of American policy today, it simply does not matter whether attacking Saddam in 2003 was the right decision or not. The question must be: where do we go from here?
From the standpoint of American domestic politics, criticizing the decision to go to war is, of course, perfectly valid and may even have been essential. The American public was certainly entitled to make up its mind whether or not Bush had made a mistake and to fire him if it felt that he had done so. The electorate chose not to do so, implicitly accepting either the administrations rationale for invading or the irrelevance of the discussion to the matter at hand. Either way, the wisdom of the invasion is now purely a matter for historians.
Myth 5: Most Iraqis want us out, and we have lost the battle for hearts and minds. Therefore, we cannot succeed.[12]
The real issue about the popularity of American forces is the degree to which their presence fuels the fighting or contains sectarian conflict. As we have already seen, the evidence that the U.S. presence is the key driving force in the insurgency is thin, and the evidence that that presence is an essential precondition for avoiding civil war is strong. Iraqi attitudes about that presence only really matter if they change this calculation in some important way. These attitudes are therefore worth monitoring, but should not be allowed to drive coalition strategy by themselves.
Above all, it is essential to keep in mind that it is not the United States that has the task of winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis, but the Iraqi government. The current Iraqi government has by no means yet succeeded in that task, and it may fail to do so. But we can judge the progress of the counterinsurgency only on the basis of the Iraqi governments success or failure in this regard, not our own.
Myth 6: Setting a timetable for withdrawal will incentivize the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own country.
Both of these assumptions are contradicted by the facts on the ground. The Iraqi government is demonstrably unable to control its state, and the Iraqi Security Forces and, still more, the Iraqi police are inadequate to fight the insurgency. Recent estimates suggest that as many as 60,000 Iraqi Security Forces troops may be fit to undertake operations entirely on their own.[14]Counter-insurgency operations to date have required between 130,000 and 160,000 American troops in addition to those 60,000 Iraqis to maintain the current unacceptably low level of security and stability in the country. Training soldiers takes time. Gaining experience in combat and in command takes time. However hard we push, the Iraqis can only go so fast. It is unlikely in the extreme that 2006 will see the deployment of enough Iraqi troops to relieve all of the coalition forces and maintain security even at the current level. The Iraqi police are, by all accounts, lagging even further behind.
It is sometimes convenient, for purposes of rhetorical effect, for national leaders to talk of a globe neatly divided into good and bad. It is quite another, however, to base the policies of the world's most powerful nation upon that fiction. The administration's penchant for painting its perceived adversaries with the same sweeping brush has led to a series of unintended consequences.
For years, the president has acted as if Al Qaeda, Saddam Hussein's followers and Iran's mullahs were parts of the same problem. Yet, in the 1980s, Hussein's Iraq and Iran fought a brutal war. In the 1990s, Al Qaeda's allies murdered a group of Iranian diplomats. For years, Osama bin Laden ridiculed Hussein, who persecuted Sunni and Shiite religious leaders alike. When Al Qaeda struck the U.S. on 9/11, Iran condemned the attacks and later participated constructively in talks on Afghanistan. The top leaders in the new Iraq chosen in elections that George W. Bush called "a magic moment in the history of liberty" are friends of Iran. When the U.S. invaded Iraq, Bush may have thought he was striking a blow for good over evil, but the forces unleashed were considerably more complex. And the Third Reich was never united, the SA vs the SS. The SS vs. the Wehrmacht, the Gestapo vs SD. Never a threat, never evil. And Gehlen never helped us.
The administration is now divided between those who understand this complexity and those who do not. On one side, there are ideologues, such as the vice president, who apparently see Iraq as a useful precedent for Iran. I doubt he wants to invade
Meanwhile, officials on the front lines in Iraq know they cannot succeed in assembling a workable government in that country without the tacit blessing of Iran; They do?
... hence, last week's long-overdue announcement of plans for a U.S.-Iranian dialogue on Iraq a dialogue that if properly executed might also lead to progress on other issues. And a chance for you Rice to dance with Imadinnerjacket? I don't think so.
Although this is not an administration known for taking advice from idiots, I offer three suggestions. The first is to understand that although we all want to "end tyranny in this world," that is a fantasy unless we begin to solve hard problems. Iraq is increasingly a gang war that can be solved in one of two ways: by one side imposing its will or by all the legitimate players having a piece of the power. fade in Kumbaya
The U.S. is no longer able to control events in Iraq, but it can be useful as a referee.
Second, the Bush administration should disavow any plan for regime change in Iran not because the regime should not be changed but because U.S. endorsement of that goal only makes it less likely. In today's warped political environment, nothing strengthens a radical government more than Washington's overt antagonism. It also is common sense to presume that Iran will be less willing to cooperate in Iraq and to compromise on nuclear issues if it is being threatened with destruction. At least that's what passed for common sense when I was in charge of State.
As for Iran's choleric and anti-Semitic new president, he will be swallowed up by internal rivals if he is not unwittingly propped up by external foes. That's what always happens to choleric anti-Semites. Look at Paleostine.
Third, the administration must stop playing solitaire while Middle East and Persian Gulf leaders play poker. Bush's "march of freedom" is not the big story in the Muslim world, where Shiite Muslims suddenly have more power than they have had in 1,000 years; it is not the big story in Lebanon, where Iran is filling the vacuum left by Syria; it is not the story among Palestinians, who voted in Western eyes freely, and wrongly; it is not even the big story in Iraq, where the top three factions in the recent elections were all supported by decidedly undemocratic militias.
In the long term, the future of the Middle East may well be determined by those in the region dedicated to the hard work of building democracy. I certainly hope so. But hope is not a policy. In the short term, we must recognize that the region will be shaped primarily by fairly ruthless power politics in which the clash between good and evil will be swamped by differences between Sunni and Shiite, Arab and Persian, Arab and Kurd, Kurd and Turk, Hashemite and Saudi, secular and religious and, of course, Arab and Jew. This is the world, the president pledges in his National Security Strategy, that "America must continue to lead." Actually, it is the world he must begin to address before it is too late. Did she work in the Carter administration also?
#2
God have mercy on us if we ever let these fucking idiots back in power.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/24/2006 12:19
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#3
And the Third Reich was never united, the SA vs the SS. The SS vs. the Wehrmacht, the Gestapo vs SD. Never a threat, never evil. And Gehlen never helped us.
A better counter to her argument: the Nazis and the Soviet Union fought each other tooth-and-nail, yet both were inarguably evil, and both had, up until Hitler decided to turn east, cooperated to the point they were each other's greatest trading partners.
I have to agree with Dave -- God help us if these morons are ever given power again.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 12:26
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#4
No real solutions, as usual.
...the future of the Middle East may well be determined by those in the region dedicated to the hard work of building democracy.
Queueing up for an all hail job.
"It is sometimes convenient, for purposes of rhetorical effect, for national leaders to talk of a globe neatly divided into good and bad. "
It is sometimes necessary, for purposes of proving they have measurable brain activity, for national leaders to acknowledge evil on the globe where it exists.
"...the Bush administration should disavow any plan for regime change in Iran not because the regime should not be changed but..."
This is the kind of Clintonesque word play that got us a nuclear-armed North Korea. She honestly believes that she can say one thing, mean quite another, and somehow triumph with a wink and a nod. Clinton "did not sex with that woman" and Bush "should not call for regime change with that Iran". Nonetheless, the blue dress is stained and the Iranian leadership is rightfully doomed.
Yes, indeed, God have mercy on us if we ever let these fucking idiots back in power.
#7
...we must recognize that the region will be shaped primarily by fairly ruthless power politics...
What a beacon of hope she is to women in the Muslim world! "You got gang-raped and now Daddy's going to shoot you for dishonoring the family? Tough shitski, hon. Guy threw acid on your face? That's the way power politics works, doll."
We may not always be able to stop it but God help us if we "recognize" it.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/24/2006 14:44
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#8
"Good versus evil isn't a strategy"
Especially when you don't believe in evil (except for your political opponents).
Good ol' Maddie "never-met-a-dictator-she-didn't-suck-up-to" Halfbright. In a way, it's comforting to know some things never change.
Sorta like a permanent rash.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/24/2006 17:41
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#9
NS - Thanks for not splashing halfbright's pic. Don't wanna get nightmares.
Reno, halfbright, etc. boy Billary sure could pick em.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/24/2006 18:33
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#10
Burgess Meredith in drag: "I indicate our diplomacy by the brooch I choose to wear that day"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2006 18:47
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#13
It also is common sense to presume that Iran will be less willing to cooperate in Iraq and to compromise on nuclear issues if it is being threatened with destruction.
KILLEEN, Texas (AP) -- A Fort Hood soldier and his wife have been accused of injury to a child for allegedly forcing their 3-year-old daughter to beat up an older boy as they videotaped it, Killeen police said.
Dennis Michael Bittinger, 22, was arrested Wednesday and his wife, Rhonda Nicole Bittinger, 23, was taken into custody Thursday, police said.
The fight allegedly occurred Saturday while the couple babysat for the 5-year-old son of a friend, police said. When the boy's mother arrived to pick him up, she turned on the couple's video camera, which had previously been used to tape the children playing.
Police said the tape shows the soldier commanding his daughter to knock the victim down, kick him and hit him in the face. The girl follows her father's instructions as the boy cries and pleads for her to stop, police said.
The tape also shows the man declaring his daughter the "winner," and he shoves the boy and demands to know why he didn't defend himself, police said.
The incident left the boy with bruises.
Bond has been set at $100,000 each for the husband and wife, who were being held in the Bell County Jail Thursday night. It wasn't immediately clear if they had a lawyer.
INDONESIA has recalled its ambassador to Australia in a fierce retaliation to the granting of asylum to 42 West Papuans - but now hundreds more plan to flee to Australia.
Angered by the protection visas given to the independence activists, Jakarta yesterday called into question future co-operation in the fight against people smuggling.
It said it "deeply deplored" Australia's stance, saying it was baseless, damaged attempts to resolve Papua's problems and justified claims that Australian "elements" supported independence for the province.
Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, said "inconsistency" by Australia on the issue of the West Papuans threatened to undermine bi-lateral discussions. "We are afraid this would weaken co-operation among the parties dealing with cases of illegal migrants," he said.
The Foreign Affairs Department said the recall of Hamzah Thayeb, described by Jakarta as a declaration of displeasure, was a "matter for Indonesia".
However, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, had earlier warned that any retaliation by Jakarta over the visa decision would be "self-defeating" given the two countries' co-operation in fighting people smuggling, illegal fishing and terrorism. "I hope they understand where we're coming from - we're certainly not in any way changing our position on the recognition of West Papua as part of the Republic of Indonesia," he said. He said he expected "protests of one kind or another" from Indonesia but believed bilateral relations would "settle down" after a short period of time.
However, the Herald has leaned that about another 500 Papuans are preparing to seek refuge in Australia.
The President of the West Papua National Authority, Edison Waromi, who organised the original exodus in January, said more Papuans wanted to seek asylum in Australia, more so in light of last week's violent protests over the Freeport gold mine.
"They are now waiting for the result," he told the Herald before the Immigration Department announced its decision this week. "If the request is granted, automatically the rest will go too."
Mr Waromi also revealed that his group had been planning the trip for two years as "a diplomatic strategy to explain to the international world of the problem that exists in Papua".
The Herald also learned that about 200 Papuans tried to join the original group, but could not fit in the outrigger canoe used.
The Papuan head of the Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission, Albert Rumbekwan, said: "The people who could not make it to Australia are now terrified because they believe the security forces already have their names."
Posted by: bk ||
03/24/2006 11:18
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#2
Let me guess -- the Papuans are Christians (possibly pagans with their pre-contact religion) and they're sick of being treated like scum by the Islamists?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 14:49
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Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for a treaty of peace and friendship with Pakistan. The overture aims at injecting fresh momentum into a flagging peace initiative between the two nuclear powers.
Just before a new bus service got under way between the Indian city of Amritsar and the Pakistani city of Nanakana Sahib, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid out his vision for future relations between the South Asian rivals.
He expressed the hope that the two countries will replace decades of animosity with a "treaty of peace, security and friendship". He also urged Islamabad to reciprocate, saying such a pact could give new substance to a common quest for progress.
The Indian leader reiterated New Delhi's firm commitment to the peace process that began between the neighbors more than two years ago. Tensions have eased since then, but Pakistan accuses India of dragging its feet in solving their core dispute over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, which both countries claim.
Responding to those accusations, Mr. Singh said he is "not afraid" of finding a practical, pragmatic solution to the Kashmir issue. He wants both countries to work toward making the disputed border "irrelevant - just lines on the map."
The Indian Prime Minister also urged Pakistan not to link normalization of relations on other fronts to the Kashmir issue.
Mr. Singh praised Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's efforts in fighting terror, saying there is a growing recognition in both countries that "terrorism is the enemy of civilized societies." But he urged the Pakistani leader to do even more to clamp down on violent extremism.
Relations between the neighbors have been embittered for years over New Delhi's accusations that Islamabad supports Islamic militant groups waging an insurgency in Indian Kashmir.
Pakistan welcomed the Indian leader's statement, saying it reflected many positive sentiments and underlined the need to solve the Kashmir dispute. A foreign ministry spokesman in Islamabad said both countries need to take "bold steps" to overcome the legacy of the past.
In New Delhi, analysts expressed hope that Mr. Singh's overtures will breathe new life into a peace process that many critics say has been flagging.
The two countries have opened new transport links to ease the situation for divided families in border regions, a ceasefire along the Kashmir border has been holding, and trade ties are improving. But thousands of troops continue to be massed along the frontier in Kashmir, the cause of two wars between the rival nations.
Posted by: john ||
03/24/2006 14:30
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#2
Is this Indian "nice, nice" going to help set up the unmasking of Perv's duplicity? I kind of like this - setting the stage for UN and western response when Perv screws up as always. India's covering her butt and something's a'brewing and Pakistan is going to be included. yippee!
THE Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been forced into an embarrassing change of heart over its refusal to press for the release of a British resident held at Guantanamo Bay after the High Court was told yesterday that he had links to MI5.
Bisher al-Rawi, 37, who has lived in Britain for more than 20 years, says that he was working for British Intelligence when he was picked up by the CIA during a trip to Africa. Lawyers for Mr al-Rawi and two other long-term British residents held at Guantanamo claim that they are all being tortured and want the High Court to order Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, to lobby the US authorities for their release.
The Government has said that as foreign nationals the men have no legal right to the assistance they are demanding. But the Foreign Office said yesterday that Mr al-Rawis case was now regarded as different. "The Foreign Secretary considered it appropriate to reconsider Mr al-Rawis request that he make representations to the US," it said.
Mr al-Rawi, an Iraqi national, and his Jordanian business partner, Jamil el-Banna, who was granted refugee status in 2000, were picked up in Gambia three years ago and accused of trying to set up an al-Qaeda terrorist training camp. Both men claim that they were asked by British Intelligence to infiltrate an organisation run by a London-based radical cleric, Abu Qatada.
Timothy Otty, who is appearing for the detainees, said that documents from a security service agent, "Witness A", established that there were "communications" relating to the two men before their arrest in November 2002, between the British and US security services.
The third man, Libyan-born Omar Deghayes, 36, had also been held at Guantanamo for three years and was now on a hunger strike, Mr Otty said.The hearing is expected to last for two more days.
#3
I would think this would be very easy to check, and also a very good way to ensure a bad apple is mistreated by Al Queda friends if/when he is released.
#5
Kinda makes me wonder why he didn't speak up earlier.
Bet he's a fake.
OOoooh, not good to try to fool the cops.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/24/2006 19:25
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#6
Mr al-Rawi, an Iraqi national, and his Jordanian business partner, Jamil el-Banna, who was granted refugee status in 2000, were picked up in Gambia three years ago and accused of trying to set up an al-Qaeda terrorist training camp. Both men claim that they were asked by British Intelligence to infiltrate an organisation run by a London-based radical cleric, Abu Qatada.
Three years, and not a peep about this until NOW? No mention of his handler's name?
Why exactly DO these guys make these wild-ass claims? Do they really believe we are that dumb? Do they believe the lefty propaganda that Americans are that dumb? Perhaps they think that Allah will intervene and make the kuffir believe the unbelievable? Is some Gitmo interrogator going stark raving mad from boredom deciding to liven things up by passing patently obvious bullshit to our British cousins?
Germany's intelligence chief said on Thursday that the success of Germany and other countries in hunting down terrorists has done little to reduce the threat "Islamic terrorism" poses to Europe and Israel.
In a rare public appearance, Ernst Uhrlau, head of Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency, said Europe had been transformed from an Islamist recruitment and financing centre into a target of Islamist extremism.
"In spite of numerous successful hunts for terrorists, the terrorist threat situation has eased only superficially. The bomb attacks in Madrid and London are clear evidence that Europe is no longer just a recruitment and financing area but has become a target of Islamic terrorism," Uhrlau told a conference on Islamic extremism organized by the American Jewish Congress.
"In the foreseeable future international terrorism will remain one of the most serious threats to our society. More than ever before Israel and Europe as a single risk area are caught in the crosshairs of international terrorism," he said.
Unlike the foreign-born members of al Qaeda seen responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, "the terrorists in Europe are homegrown and homemade," he added.
A Hamburg-based al-Qaeda cell has been blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks. Since then, Germany has cracked down on Muslim militants living in the country and has had a number of high-profile trials of radical Islamists.
Uhrlau also said that both Israel and Europe now faced less of a threat from non-religious militant organizations than from trans-national militant Islamist organizations.
"Terrorist groupings of a secular character and with only a regional sphere of activity have largely been pushed into the background," Uhrlau said. "Only a few of the secular groupings still pose a serious threat."
He did not name any of the groups. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has essentially disarmed and the Basque separatist group ETA declared a ceasefire earlier this week.
Uhrlau said the recent crisis sparked by a Danish newspaper's decision to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad showed there may be irreconcilable differences between Islamic and western cultures.
"The recent controversy over Muhammad cartoons has raised the question of compatibility in principle between basic elements of Western and Muslim standards of culture. In this case, freedom of the press versus religious values.
"The fact is that such antagonism may emerge time and again in sensitive areas of identity on either side," he said.
#2
cats out of the bag. I have nothing against Muslims. People are people and I think that Mulsims will be the ones who help us to win this war OF terror. But I do think there is the issue of whether or not we should allow immigrants who come here and refuse to acknowledge or obey our laws and intend to end ideals of religious freedom, tolerance for all individuals and who intend to use demographics and democracy to end the western belief of the separation of church and state.
#3
Even Blind Man Europe finally gets a BGO (Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious). Once again, good and great thanks to Denmark for publishing the cartoons. They were a much needed clarion call.
#4
Zen, I hope you are right, but I fear no. Given the history most of the continent would love to keep head in sand. I don't know, but I don't really think Europe has caught on. I fear in a year or so, cartoons will be forgotten and the big bad US will still be the hegmonic source of all problems. They can't shake it, it is how they are.
#5
I understand how you feel, bombay. I really do not want to be so cynical about it, however tempting it is. The cartoons have served a truly noble purpose and I'm hoping that Europe will keep its eyes open this time and not nod back off into complacency as it usually does.
I have a unique perspective on it being technically 1/2 American and 1/2 European, with much family there still ...
I say technically, as I will admit freely that I was born US, live in US, feel US and claim first and foremost that I am US - ALWAYS. My Euro counterparts hate me for it. Oh well, lol.
However, I have also lived in Europe and shortly in Asia, and with contacts I still maintain (having until recently worked for a European company) and have the family there, that they just don't get it.
I really, really, really want to avoid the thoughts I have, but, I just can't ... it is as if I know them too well or something.
The cartoon issue was 'well, america does have a point' but the average Euro still say 'but still, they are that hegmonic evil, so even though what they are saying looks true from example, it is still the yanks and it doesn't matter, peace in our time!'
As in, better fun to hate on us and not deal with the mess than it is to really look at the problem and deal with ... wow, a common problem I have found at EVERY European entity (i.e. company / government) I have had the pleasure of working with.
#7
Thank you for the insights. I, too, am half European (my mother was born in Copenhagen, Denmark). The Danes tend to have much more sympathetic feelings for the Americans due to our role in WWII, than many other Europeans, so that odd amalgam of resentful ingratitude just didn't show up in family relations.
Woe on Europe and Muslim alike should the continent drowse off once again into its usual inattentive slumber. The "last resort" school of conflict resolution so popular in Europe more often resembles a charnel house than anything else.
#9
Zen, awesome, then you probably feel what I do ... this almost dread of knowing what is coming and trying to tell them, but they just don't care or think that we (US) are just so childish as not to listen. It is just amazing.
I hope beyone hope that your are correct in this, that they have woken up ... I just have this nagging voice / feeling from knowing them so well that it can't be true ... please I am wrong!
#10
to deny there's a special relationship is ridiculous. Rocky, sometimes, but the US will not let Israel be devoured by autocratic enemies of Jews, western values, and democracy in general. W said so just the other day...people really oughtta learn that he believes exactly what he says.
Lucky it's not up to King Frank: I'm up for a selected assassination program just for the desecration of the Church of the Nativity by Paleo scumbags. Then, the princelings....
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2006 19:15
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#11
Jutland it where the Angles, Saxons and Jutes came from. I think this may have something to do with their affinity for America and the way we do things.
#15
My grandparents were all Europians. I think they have a kind of group penis envy. We have the 'land of plenty' and they have a serious bug up their ass over it. It's like when your best friend borrows money from you, and then he stops coming around. Weeks become months, and he is nowhere in site. Like, I owe you, so you are making me feel beneath you, subservient, unworthy.
Then there's always the possibility that they don't feel patriotic, because they consider their countries weak and insignificant.
Whatever, get over it.
Italy is on a state of high alert for possible terrorist attacks during the final phase of the elections campaign. Voting is scheduled to take place on April 9 and 10, and it is feared that Islamic militants may strike immediately before voting to maximize its political impact. To compound the sense of anxiety, the Bush administration has just warned that Italy should expect terrorist attacks (similar to the ones that devastated Madrid two years ago) near the elections.
This follows a warning by the Italian vice president of the European Commission, Franco Frattini, calling on the EU to "increase anti-terrorism intelligence operations," as "the recent al-Qaeda threats [referring to the March 5 Ayman al-Zawahiri video] are to be taken very seriously." Frattini further warned that "al-Qaeda is ready to strike and Italy is at risk because of its solid alliance with the U.S." aka; The Great Satan
Referring to the imminent terrorist threat, Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino told the press on March 20 that "there is a risk of terrorist attacks as the election day approaches." Martino claimed that "what happened in Spain in 2004 suggests the risk exists." He then added that "if such an attack took place, no Italian citizen would ever ask for our troops to be immediately withdrawn from Iraq". This is a thinly veiled reference to Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's decision to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq following the March 2004 terrorist attacks in Madrid. Rock Solid Antonio!
The same day, daily newspapers reported that Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi had issued a new warning to Italy: "Fresh riots like those which rocked Benghazi are to be expected." Qadhafi added that "terrorist attacks could be launched on Italian soil because Rome has not yet admitted its responsibility as a former colonial power and Libyans are furious over the cartoons issue". While Libyan state-sponsored terrorism is no longer a credible threat, Qadhafi's statement highlights the very real threat posed by Libyan Islamic militants both to targets within Italy and Italian interests abroad. Is Mo still pissed about the Punic Wars in the third century BC?
Cartoons and Terrorism
The row over the cartoons ridiculing Prophet Muhammad reached a climax in late February with the assault on the Italian Consulate in Benghazi, which claimed at least nine lives. The Libyan protesters targeted the Italian Consulate for two reasons: first, Italian politicians (in particular Roberto Calderoli of the separatist Northern League) had been making inflammatory remarks in support of the Danish cartoons; second, as a former colonial power, Italy is held in suspicion by Libyan nationalists and Islamists alike.
The inflammatory remarks of Italian politicians You know, All that freedom of speech stuff. followed by Qadhafi's "warning" to Italy, which culminated in the bloody incident in Benghazi, sparked a diplomatic crisis between the two countries, diminishing bilateral relations to its lowest level in years. While this does not entail a direct terrorist threat, it does worsen Italy's already negative image to Islamic militants.
Moreover, in a videotape shown by al-Jazeera on March 5, Ayman al-Zawahiri made an explicit threat against Italy, while directly addressing the inflammatory remarks of Roberto Calderoli of the Northern League. "We renew our warning to Rome and Berlusconi: If Italy won't withdraw its troops from Iraq, it will dig its own grave there," al-Zawahiri threatened. Additionally, al-Zawahiri referred to the Madrid and London attacks as the template for any terrorist assault on Italy.
Furthermore, Noman Benotman, a former Libyan jihadist with extensive experience in Afghanistan and Sudan, gave an interview to Corriere della Sera on February 23, claiming that the "rage against Italy" is rising. "If Italy won't officially apologize and concretely help Libyan people socially and economically, it will be at risk of terrorist attacks, even in the long-term," Benotman warned. You can take the boy out of the Jihad but you cant take the Jihad out of the boy.
#1
Italy is not at risk because of it's alliance with us, they are at risk because they are not a bunch of sub-human animals that want to establish sharia law across the world. What would an attack accomplish? It would only provoke the populus into a more anti- islamic mode. Muslims in europe are already on the outs with most europeans, I don't understand what an attack at this stage would hope to accomplish.
#2
In other words, "Behave like proper dhimmis by debasing yourselves and paying the jizya tax, or you will pay the price." So much for the good Colonel having seen the light when he turned over his nuclear toys.
#1
Rome has been waiting for this one for a millennium. You see the muzzies eliminated all the other of the competing Bishops [Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, etc]. The last competitor was Byzantium at Constantinople. There has always been a historical rivalry of who is in charge. When the muzzie took Constantinople, the authority of the Eastern Church was claimed by Greek and Russian Orthodox leftovers. Now if the Vatican can get Istanbul/Constantinople, theyd have claim to the sole lineage from the early church [disregarding the Protestant view of matters]. Like theyve been working this angle for centuries. The muzzies are going to make it happen for Rome by keeping up the self destructive behavior.
#2
The article contains a detailed denunciation of the lack of religious freedom that afflicts the Christian minorities living in Turkey today. And before that is a recollection of the massacre of the Armenians and the expulsion of the Greek Orthodox: the two terrible acts of cleansing of the non-Turkish and non-Muslim element from which contemporary Turkey was born.
This is a fair assessment as far at the Armenians are concerned. They got screwed. However, as is later indicated in the article, this is NOT in fact a fair or accurate representation of what happened to the Greek Orthodox.
After the end of the war between Greece and Turkey, in 1922, the Turkish government, having won the conflict, established within the peace treaties with the agreement of the Western powers that an exchange of populations take place. In this way, most of the Greek Orthodox had to leave Turkey, which they considered their land, and to move to Greek territory, where they did not even speak the language. It has been determined that 1,344,000 Greek Orthodox Christians were deported to Greek territory, and that 464,000 Greek Muslims were transferred to Turkey.
....and the result of this agreement, which was known as the Treaty of Lausanne, was that about 2 million people didnt suffer the usual Balkan fate of genocidal annihilation at the hands of their ethnic cousins. Additionally, some 250,000 Bulgarians were peacefully shifted from Greece and Turkey to Bulgaria. In one of its few acts of utter competency, the League of Nations supervised the entire exchange to the overall satisfaction of the parties involved.
Was it ethnic cleansing? Yes. Was it genocide? No. Did is save untold lives and prevent a second Balkan War? Yes. Is there something to be learned from the Treaty of Lausanne? Yes. Sometimes it is better for everyone if you separate, take a breather, and dont try a brave multicultural experiment.
#4
Well, Ive heard a lot of allegations over this issue and, being that we are talking about the Turks here, Im fairly certain that most of them are true. With that said, there has been an attempt by academia in recent years to spin the Treaty of Lausanne as a tool of genocide, when in fact it largely prevented genocide from occurring. Mark my words: if it hadnt been for that treaty, the Bosnian Genocide would have occurred over a much, much larger area and included far more countries than Yugoslavia.
Bay County sheriff's deputies made their first lewd and lascivious arrests of spring break.
A Dread Spring Offensive we can all look forward to.
It started with a wet t-shirt contest that took place Tuesday night at Hammerhead Fred's bar on Thomas Drive.
"Come to Hammerhead Fred's and git hammered!"
Investigators say the male DJs and customers used alcohol to help encourage the female participants to remove the t-shirts, expose themselves, and allow the audience to fondle them and bite their breasts.
Cuz us guys are like that
Capt. Rickie Ramie of the BCSO Special Investigations Unit explained, They had taken a contest and basically there were females up there performing oral sex on one another, that was the original complaint. And we sent in a couple of investigators in at the time to see what was taking place. Inside they saw, certainly things that would be classified as violations of the law."
Just who do you have to bribe to get on this undercover detail?
Sounds like BCSO needs to have a force reduction: if they have time to bust nymphettes in wet T's, there must be no real crime about.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
09:16 ||
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#1
"And we sent in a couple of investigators in at the time to see what was taking place. Inside they saw, certainly things that would be classified as violations of the law."
It only took 4 to 5 hours of close investigative work to make that determination!
Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 ||
03/24/2006 10:11
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#2
What is wrong with the cops this week. First the Texas cops are arresting folks for being drunk in a bar, now they are going after wet-t-shirt competitions?
Glad the border is sealed, murderers all caught and crime is down to zero. Damn, learn priorities folks.
#5
Another 'consenting adults' issue for the federal judiciary. They asked for it when they pandered to one group, now its time to start dealing with all those 'worms' they've let loose.
The president of a Cedar Rapids-based Muslim group proposing to build a youth camp here said he hopes to start initial work, including land surveys, early next month. "We hope to start initial work sometime within a few weeks," said Manzoor Ali, president of Muslim Youth Camps of America, or MYCA. "I will be back the first or second week of April to start developing the project plan," Ali said during a telephone interview Thursday.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved and signed a lease of up to 25 years with MYCA. Under the agreement, the Corps can terminate the lease at the end of the five-year period if it determines MYCA has not finished a sufficient level of building or planning by that point. Otherwise, the lease can be renewed for 20 more years.
The camp would host up to 60 campers, about half as many as initially first proposed by MYCA in 1999. "Obviously, we are very happy about that and we appreciate (the) cooperation of the Corps of Engineers," Ali said. "For the last eight years, we've been working together. ... We will follow the lease according to the plan." Ali said he did not know when the camp would open but said he hoped to release more details after the MYCA board meeting in early April. Construction is expected to take place during a five-year period.
MYCA's original proposal called for a 17,500-square-foot lodge, 12 tent camping platforms, 10 cabins and a 75-foot-tall prayer tower. Those plans have since been cut in half and the $934,000 camp would now include a 2,400-square-foot central lodge, five cabins, five tent pads, a central bathroom facility and a trail system. The camp would occupy the former Girl Scout Camp Daybreak on more than 100 acres of land two miles northeast of North Liberty adjacent to Coralville Lake. The Girl Scouts used the area until a 1990 fire destroyed their lodge. The land has remained in federal custody under the U.S. Corps of Engineers.
An Army Corps of Engineers spokesman has said the MYCA has the right to start camping on the site immediately but must receive local, county or state permits before it can build. Although MYCA is a Muslim-based organization, the camp would be open to children of all faiths, representatives from the group have said. Under the lease, non-profit groups can use the federal land intermittently during the non-camping season, with a total of about 1,500 people a year.
Terese Lisenbee, who lives near the proposed camp along Cumberland Ridge Road, said she does not have any problems with the camp as long as it adheres to the size set out in the lease. "The only concern that I think my husband and I have had is once they lease the land ... they'll try to expand it to a larger campus than what the specs were supposed to be," Lisenbee said. "We wanted to keep it more like a camp setting similar to what the (Girl Scout) kids were in."
Questions about sewage and infrastructure improvements on the site remain. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is responsible for issuing a wastewater permit to MYCA. Chuck Corell of the DNR's water quality bureau was out of the office Thursday and unavailable for comment. Johnson County planning and zoning administrator Rick Dvorak also was out of the office Thursday, but assistant administrator RJ Moore said MYCA seems to be meeting prior concerns expressed by the county. "I think Rick feels that they're moving in a direction that the county can feel comfortable with," Moore said.
Huh. Why are all the gov't folks unavailable for comment? I thought they'd be pretty excited about their multiculturalism...
MYCA's proposal attracted national media attention after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Lisenbee said there was some concern initially after she heard the group considered to provide camping for people who came from outside the country. "Well, I can't say that it doesn't enter your mind. That wouldn't be truthful to say," she said. "But somewhat, it's still in the back of your mind." Rick Hollis, who also lives near the proposed camp, said the camp would fit in the neighborhood as long as it stays small. "I don't think it's a good piece of property for a camp, but the Corps should have recognized that a long time ago," Hollis said. "As long as it stays the size they say it will or the Corps says they want them to be, it's something that the neighborhood will live with." Front Page Magazine took a look at some of the fine folks involved with this project: Camp Terror
#3
Ya'll see, these phucktards don't yet know who the enemy is. This calls for some serious lead poisoning finger pointing in Iowa to put an end to this crap.
#5
Ahem, let's not go making threats about bodily harm to folks in the U.S. That could (conceivably) get the 'Burg (and Fred) into some trouble, and we don't want that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/24/2006 10:46
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Although MYCA is a Muslim-based organization, the camp would be open to children of all faiths, representatives from the group have said.
Sure, how else will the campers earn their raping and beheading badges?
#7
Besides which, we aren't going to get rid of every Muslim in the world, we're only going to defang the dangerous ones. We need to be prepared to live with those who survive in a civilized fashion. We should be constantly sending the message, living in peace can be good, living at war will be hell.
#10
This camp is also not far from the nuclear plant in the outskirts of Cedar Rapids and about 3 1/2 hours from Chicago. A starving student document forger was arrested in CR after having shared an apartment with a 9-1-1 hijacker in Chicago previously, but he apparently chirped. Is there any connection to the group scouting out sites for camps in Oregon?
Hello mullah, hello muttawa
Here I am at, Camp Jihada
Camp is pious, Im just saying
And they say well have some fun once were done praying
I went biking with Ali Balbeks
And his backpack was full of Semtex
You remember Hakeem Heyder
He got lashes for not eating all his dinner
All the Shiites hate the Sunnis
And they both think, the Kurds are loonies
The mullah wants no, Omar Khyams
So he reads to us from something called the Koran
Now I dont want, this should scare ya
But the imams are preaching terror
You remember Jibril Wazi
Now he wants to go and be a kamikaze
Take me home, oh Madaar Pedar
Take me home, I hate Jihada
Dont leave me out in, Sadr City
Where I might get blown to pieces, itty bitty
Take me home, I promise I will be holy
Thinking pure thoughts, only them solely
The imam forbids me to say
Ive been here one whole day
Dearest Pedar, darling Madaar
Hows my precious baraadar?
Let me come home, if you miss me
I would even let Aunt Sophie hug and kiss me
Wait a minute, theyve stopped praying
Try this vest on, the mullahs saying
Seventy virgins, gee thats better
Madaar Pedar, kindly disregard this letter.
#12
Iowa has been hosed up for some time. This is just one more folly in a long line of politically correct abominations. To whit, the current governor, Tom Vilsack, has been actively recruiting illegal Mexican labor for the meat packing plants (they also vote Democrat whether they know it or not) and has signed a deal with Illinois to settle parolees from Joliet in the suburbs of Iowa City. The folks in Iowa City are not too happy about the results of either initiative. My brother, who lives in North Liberty, has been talking about this for some time. While no one (outside of the University) thinks it is a good idea, the politically correct power structure can't bring itself to say no.
My guess is that the camp will experience a series of accidents and fires during the construction phase. Would be jihadis should be aware that most Iowans outside of the PC bastions around the university are armed and can return fire quickly and accurately.
#15
Clever, Zenster. RWV, my experience with Iowa City folks (factory, not university) was that they were very independent yeoman farmer types, exceedingly pro-active, and very clear in their minds what needs to be done and when/how to accomplish it. Whatever tests I needed done on my experimental products during test runs were done and the results handed to me by the time I'd got myself organized to initiate things. A pleasure to work with, once I figured out they meant Hawks, not hawgs. (I still don't know who they are, but it became clear we weren't discussing livestock.) ;-)
#19
If they teach the Koran, it's a madrassa. And if children of other religions are allowed, it's for conversion. I'm sure little Johnny will be REQUIRED to pray 5 times a day and learn the texts, not just encouraged. I'd look into the camp rules before I extended that lease. Dhimmies.
RAIPUR, India - Maoist rebels slit the throats of four members of an anti-Maoist group and shot dead two policemen in separate attacks in two Indian states, police said on Friday, in rising violence by the leftist radicals. In the central Chhattisgarh state, Maoists rebels attacked tribal members of the Salwa Judum (March for Peace), a government-backed anti-rebel group.
This triggered panic among the local tribal population in the area, S.K. Paswan, a senior police officer, said. The killings took place overnight in the Bastar region of the state, more than 300 km (200 miles) south of Raipur, the state capital.
Maoist rebels, who claim to fight for Indias landless labourers and poor peasants including impoverished tribes, have been striking frequently in the past year, killing government sympathisers as well as policemen. Over 50 members of Salwa Judum were killed when rebels set off a landmine under a truck in Chhattisgarh on Feb. 28.
In the neighbouring state of Orissa on Friday, dozens of Maoist rebels stormed a police station and a bank, killing two policemen after a brief firefight and kidnapping two others, as well as a revenue official. The group also broke into the local jail in R. Udayagiri town, 250 km (150 miles) south of Bhubaneswar, the state capital, and released 40 prisoners including three rebels. Police say there are more than 20,000 armed Maoists backed by hundreds of thousands of supporters, operating in 15 out of Indias 29 states. Maoist violence claimed nearly 1,000 lives last year.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
09:13 ||
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#1
It's been a long time since the Thugee cult had a revival in India. They are past due.
For years, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has claimed to be protecting his people from the corrupt and greedy Venezuelan elite class, represented by the Venezuelan political opposition. Now he is protecting them from an external foe, the US, which he has accused of intending to invade Venezuela. Riding on the rhetoric of an eventual US invasion, Chavez is building up a massive civilian militia answerable directly, and only, to him. That militia, however, is more likely intended to deter a military coup than a US invasion.
After the 2002 attempt to overthrow his government, Chavez changed tactics, taking on a larger role as protector of his people from the US. As such, he must continue to claim that the US will someday invade Venezuela and that they only thing that will keep the Yankees at bay is two million trained civilians.
The formation of a civilian militia gives physical presence and weight to Chavez's rhetoric that the US will one day invade. Considering the many rumors of a palace coup and the shuffling of military commanders in Chavezs top brass, however, the formation of a civilian militia looks more like another bulwark intended to protect himself against a military-led coup detat.
The only conventional army likely to threaten Chavez is Venezuelas own military forces, the FAN. In the event of a successful FAN-orchestrated coup, two million hardcore supporters with military training could be ordered to drag the country into a civil war. Given the worlds dependence on Venezuelan oil, such a possibility would have serious international repercussions.
The first week of March saw the beginning of a two million-strong reservists program, which Chavez has been talking about for years and officially announced on 14 April last year.
Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Benavides is in charge of training the instructors, who will in turn train the reservists. He has emphasized the art of guerrilla warfare. In an interview with the BBC, Benavides lined up a group of civilians to demonstrate the art of surprise in guerrilla warfare. On the surface they look like ordinary people on the street. But if you look underneath their jackets, you will see they are hiding knives, catapults, and pistols, the BBC quoted him as saying to an audience at the training grounds.
Taking lessons from the Viet Cong and the Cuban Revolution, Benavides will train officers to teach a volunteer militia how to conduct urban guerrilla warfare. The civilian militia adheres to the doctrine of asymmetrical warfare.
Harnessing a large force of militarily trained civilians to a doctrine of guerrilla warfare has many of Venezuelas older generals confused because it is a doctrine not espoused by the FAN, nor is it a doctrine Chavez himself was trained when rising through the ranks of the Venezuelan military.
In training and military doctrine, the civilian militia will be completely separate from Venezuelas traditional military rank and file. Additionally, the militia is not part of the traditional chain of command. Its leaders report directly to Chavez and no one else. Since Chavez has made public his plans for a civilian militia that he controls, some of his loyalists in the military have expressed concern at this circumvention of the traditional chain of command. Perhaps knowing that his civilian militia announcement would provoke ire, Chavez made some command structure changes to protect his back with hardcore supporters.
Colonel Cliver Antonio Alcala Cordones, for one, would not hesitate to carry out presidential orders to use lethal force against military rebels or civilian dissidents, argue analysts with the US-based private intelligence company StratFor. Alcala is currently the commander of the elite presidential honor guard, tasked with protecting Chavezs life.
Another hardcore Chavez supporter, Major General Ali de Jesus Uzcategui Duque, has been given command over the countrys internal defense strategy, called Plan Republica, according to StratFor. This plan has a Caracas metropolitan area element called Plan Avila. In the event of a military rebellion or civilian uprising, Plan Avila would be initiated to protect the palace, prominent public services buildings, and the oil infrastructure. General Uzcategui also has the authority to impede any military orders or actions the president finds disagreeable. Analysts argue that by placing these men in their current positions, Chavez is working to defend himself from the possibility of an assassination attempt by a close personal aide or a military rebellion led by an officer in command of the countrys best-trained soldiers.
When Chavez talks about territorial invasion, he implies that an outside aggressor would invade Venezuela to capture control of the countrys energy assets. Since the coup in 2002, Chavez has focused his rhetoric on the eventual invasion of US military forces. He has repeated his belief that the US would invade so often that US ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, said in April last year that the United States has never invaded, is not invading at this moment, and will never invade Venezuela. But Chavez doubts the sincerity.
A string of events that points to plans to overthrow Chavez contribute his paranoia. When Chavez announced in April last year that the planned civilian militia force would be under his direct control, reports at the time indicated that FAN ranking commander General Raul Baudel strongly objected to the unilateral decision to control what would become a considerable force of trained and armed Chavez supporters. Chavez made his announcement during a ceremony to commemorate the second anniversary of a failed attempt to overthrow his government. The message to his enemies was quite clear.
Almost two months after the announcement, Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel announced that the government suspected the political opposition was planning a military coup. Two days prior to that announcement, Venezuelan Defense Minister General Jorge Garcia Carneiro said that pamphlets urging a military revolt against Chavez had been circulated in various military installations around the country.
Not a month later, opposition leader Andres Velasquez, announced that Chavez had decided to postpone a military parade because he believed it would be the stage for an attempt on his life. FAN Commander General Baudel said there was no intelligence to back up such claims. However, Chavez claimed he had intelligence that pointed to an assassination attempt on 24 June, the day of the parade. The day before the parade, General Melvin Lopez Hidalgo, a member of Venezuelas National Defense Council, confirmed that an officer had been arrested at Fort Tiuna at the FANs Third Army Division base in Caracas. It remains unclear if the arrested officer was connected to the alleged assassination attempts or the anonymous pamphlets.
Audio tapes that allegedly contained details of a planned military coup surfaced in early December. Nicolas Maduro, chairman of Venezuelas National Assembly and member of the Fifth Republic Movement party, presented the tapes to the National Assembly on 8 December. They allegedly contain a conversation among retired army officers, who were plotting to overthrow Chavezs government by blowing up oil infrastructure before taking over military headquarters.
What military analysts call asymmetrical warfare, also referred to as fourth-generation warfare, is characterized by war between a nation-state and a non-state actor. Latin Americas history is riddled with examples of how asymmetrical warfare has been used to overthrow a government, such as the Cuban Revolution, or used to prolong a struggle, such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
In some cases, these non-state actors have been integrated into politics, such as the FLMN in El Salvador. Chavez is in a position to take advantage of this history to promote his ideology of a region-wide resistance against US imperialism. It is convenient rhetoric that veils what many believe are his intentions to deter a military coup. By the end of 2007, it is quite possible that a total of two million Chavez supporters will have been trained and reinserted back into their normal lives, ready to resist at a moments notice. It is highly unlikely that this militia will be called to protect Venezuela from an outside invader.
Rather, they could be called on to protect Chavezs regime from a cadre of military officers and others who want to remove him from office. If Chavez manages to survive such a coup attempt, he may go quietly or he may seek to embody the spirit of Cubas Fidel Castro and regional revolutionary hero Ernesto Che Guevarra by leading his faithful into a civil war. The FAN is believed to have at least 80,000 professional soldiers, who could be forced to face two-million urban guerrillas.
A civil war in Venezuela would be intense, extremely destructive, and spell doom for the future of Venezuelas economy, society, and oil output. Due to the nature of asymmetrical warfare, it would be nearly impossible to completely eradicate a group of dedicated and trained Chavez supporters.
Wonder how dedicated they'd be supporting a dead man, cuz this stratgy depends on Chavez being alive to direct his guerrilla army. Which means Hugo is the first to go.
Sam Logan is an investigative journalist who has studied security, energy, politics, economics, organized crime, terrorism, and black markets in Latin America since 1999.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
09:02 ||
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#2
Given the worlds dependence on Venezuelan oil, such a possibility would have serious international repercussions.
Another bit player. Now if he'd fork over 2 or 3 billion in ready American we might, just might stage a small fleet exercise to fire up his supporters.
#4
Article: The FAN is believed to have at least 80,000 professional soldiers, who could be forced to face two-million urban guerrillas.
Easier said than done. Every family in Iraq had firearms prior to the invasion. Did that make them able to resist Saddam's secret police, let alone his army divisions? No.
#5
Sounds like a tailor-made program for country-wide chaos the moment that Chavez loses control of his minions. Just what a Latin American country needs - the society-wide dissemination of subversive & guerilla training & equipment. He's going to make that country more ungovernable than Colombia if he goes through with it.
On the plus side, oil wealth is much less localized than cocaine wealth. Venezuela doesn't have that grass-roots drug-money ready & waiting to finance each town's own set of mutually antagonistic gangs & thugs. Well, less so than the Andean states.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/24/2006 14:27
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#6
I wonder if or when Venezuela will get into the cocaine business? Given that Hugo has put them on the highway to hell, it would complete the picture.
#7
sounds like a couple stealth bomber - full throttle passes over the capital and Hugo will wet himself into exile
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2006 20:20
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#8
Chavez is going to find out that the classic counter to cult of personality is the removal of the Dear Leader. It only takes one very unhappy soldier with an AR-50 to put an end to President Huff n Puff.
Sgt. Amanda Pinson was killed, with a fellow soldier, by a mortar attack on March 16, 2006. An all-American girl who gave her life in defense of freedom.
#3
Whenever I read one of these stories, apart from the obvious sadness and sympathy for the families, I'm reminded that I, as an individual, am simply not worthy of such costly sacrifice. But I'm also convinced that we, as a nation, are. And I hope and pray thay we will continue to be despite the best efforts of our internal enemies.
#5
Thanks, Amanda. I hope your heaven exceeds all expectations and rewards you with the peace for which you fought. May your contibution help bring that same peace to us; those who thank you.
An Ottawa man was making remote controlled detonators for British terrorism suspects, one of whom discussed obtaining a radioactive bomb, a court has heard.
A police search of Momin Khawaja's Ontario home found "home-made radio transmitter and receiver boards" devices that allow bombs "to be detonated from a safe distance," Crown prosecutor David Waters alleged yesterday.
Khawaja, who is to stand trial in Canada in January on terrorism-related charges, has been described by Waters as "the Canadian end of the conspiracy" to kill British citizens. Khawaja played a "vital role" in the plot, Waters has said, but he's not among the seven men charged with terrorism in London, including one who allegedly said he was working for a top Al Qaeda member.
Potential bomb targets identified by the accused included synagogues, pubs, trains, shopping centres and Britain's high voltage electricity and high pressure gas pipeline systems, Waters said.
When Canadian police raided Khawaja's home on March 29, 2004, they also found a commercial "jamming device" which, once modified, "could be carried by the bomber," Waters said. It's used to prevent "an inadvertent activation of the bomb," he added.
Khawaja, 25, wrote several emails to one of the accused describing the progress of his detonators, Waters said. In November 2003, Khawaja explained that a signal could be sent to the receiver from up to two kilometres away, "and then we get fireworks. We pray to the most high we can do this in December," said the email read by Waters.
By then, some of the accused had bought 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate fertilizer enough to fertilize five soccer fields and stored it at a West London depot, Waters said. Months earlier, they had used ammonium nitrate as an ingredient to make bombs at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan, the jury heard.
Police listening devices placed in two homes in southeast England later caught one of the accused, Jawad Akbar, discussing possible bomb targets, including a nightclub, Waters said.
"The biggest nightclub in central London, no one can put their hands up and say they are innocent those slags dancing around," Waters quoted Akbar as saying.
Akbar, 22, referred to non-believers as "Kufs," Waters added. "When we kill the Kuf this is because we know Allah hates the Kufs," Waters quoted Akbar as saying.
While training in Pakistan, another of the accused, Salahuddin Amin, was asked to contact a man named Abu Annis with regards to a "radio-isotope bomb," Waters said. "Amin did so via the Internet and Abu Annis said they had made contact with the Russian mafia in Belgium and from the mafia they were trying to buy this bomb," Waters told the jury.
Nothing apparently came of this attempt to buy what is commonly known as a "dirty bomb," made up of radioactive materials.
Amin later told British police he didn't think it was likely that, in his words, "you can go and pick an atomic bomb up and use it," Waters said.
Iran's nuclear program has it in the headlines, and for good reason. The country's leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has made numerous comments that indicate he might not be entirely rational (such as denying the Holocaust). The thought of someone like that having the most powerful weapons in human history rightfully worries people. What gets less attention, but is also worthy of note are Iran's other WMD programs.
First, a look at Iran's nuclear program is in order. The Iranian nuclear weapons effort is moving forward, with major research centers in Bushehr, Estegahl, Isfahan, Tehran, Karaj, and Saghand. These centers are protected by the Iranians. Three of these centers (Bushehr, Tehran, and Isfahan) are near airbases that have at least one squadron of fighters. The air base at Bushehr hosts two squadrons of F-4s and a detachment of F-14s. Tehran's air base has a squadron of MiG-29 Fulcrums. Isfahan's air base has a squadron of F-14s and a squadron of F-5s. Estegahl is near Bushehr, and can be protected by the two F-4 squadrons there. Karaj, which is roughly 50 kilometers away from Tehran, can easily be protected by the squadron of Fulcrums at Tehran, while Saghand is in Yazd province (the middle of Iran), and any strike aimed there has to get through Iranian defenses.
However, what has been lost in the shuffle is the fact that Iran is already producing chemical and biological weapons. These are weapons of mass destruction and American policy is very clear: If attacked by chemical or biological weapons, the United States will respond with nuclear weapons. Iran's major chemical weapons production facility is based at Damghan, about 300 kilometers east of Iran. American intelligence agencies estimate that Iran is producing 1,000 tons of chemical weapons a year, including mustard gas, phosgene, and various cyanide agents. These agents are older technology than the sarin nerve gas used in the 1995 Tokyo subway attack, but they can still kill.
Iran is also working on biological weapons as well. Intelligence agencies suspect Iran is working on smallpox, which officially has been eradicated save for samples being kept in the United States and Russia. Smallpox incubates for about 12 days, is highly contagious, and kills anywhere from 20 to 40 percent of its victims. Survivors are often left blind in at least one eye. Its nastiness is compounded by the fact that the last known case was in 1978, and there are very few, if any, physicians who have experience treating the disease.
Iran's other projects in the biological realm are biotoxins. Unlike biological weapons, they do not rely on having the initial victims infect more people. They are more accurately described as delayed-action chemical weapons. Iran is reportedly working on two types of biotoxins: Mycotoxins (fungi) and ricin. The mycotoxins would likely be used against food supplies often to cause economic disruption and liver cancer. Ricin, which was used to lace a letter sent to Senator Bill Frist's office in 2004, is intended to kill victims directly its most famous use being the assassination of Gregory Markov in London in 1978.
Iran's WMD programs are rightly viewed with concern given the theocratic regime's support for terrorists. Earlier this month, improved IEDs en route to insurgents in Iraq were captured at the Iranian border. Iran has also been a sponsor of terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, PFLC-GC, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. This is a combination that is extremely dangerous, and this suspected combination was enough to topple Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003. Unlike Saddam Hussein's regime, Iran is open about its desire to acquire weapons of mass destruction and its support for terrorism is also undisputed.
Posted by: ed ||
03/24/2006
08:44 ||
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#1
Title should be: StrategyPage Iran: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons
Posted by: ed ||
03/24/2006 8:49
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These are weapons of mass destruction and American policy is very clear: If attacked by chemical or biological weapons, the United States will respond with nuclear weapons.
Sadly, we demonstrated this is a toothless threat in 2001.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 9:03
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Yep.
Posted by: ed ||
03/24/2006 9:21
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The real problem [and threat] is not the government. It is the fact that not only can Iranian, etc governments develop these things, but free agents can as well. There's enough knowledge and ability in the American community, that if provoked, could deliver such a weapon to those who theaten us without government action/inaction. You don't think a random 9/11 act could motivate someone who's lost a loved one, to apply his knowledge to payback in millions for that loss?
#5
Knowledge and ability are one thing. Equipment, especially to grow the biologicals, or to produce large quatities of the chemicals, is something else.
#6
Good point TW, but it is becoming less and less true each passing day. In my early years of BioChem we were taught enough and had enough access to labs to create some really nasty, nasty things (in the earliest years, even freshman).
Back then, it was true, you needed the labs to do anything real and the equipment was expensive beyond expensive.
Back then, the PCR manchines were big, booked solid and had waiting lists of weeks/months.
The supplies were very expensive, the gels, the samples, the radioactive markers, etc, etc ...
I've recently seen in a magazine a 'toy' which allows one (this being for children around 8 or so) to do all the steps to sequence DNA, in a easy toy format. Grind, Isolate, Centrifuge, Elctroporesis, sampling, etc ... all in toy format with a few pushes and heavy automation. Now it is very basic, but wow!
Now the PCR machines are smaller than laptops and portable. Kids can sequence DNA at home, etc. Gels and other disposables cost nothing.
The point is, just as miniturization and cost advances in Computer Technology has driven use to the masses the same will be true in Bio / Chem arena. I already see it these days as although in Aerospace / Technology I stay up on the biochem world - and often think of returning becase it is now much easier (for those in CS, it is analogous to having to do things in assembler w/ your own memory management vs. an OO language or higher level IDE dev environment).
Honestly, it is just a matter of time before someone with a bit / enough knowledge finds access to the the right equipment. Seriously, with home sequencing kits now available as toys, well, can't be that long off.
#7
Oh it does take that much to grow the little devils -
Bon Vivant Vichyssoise June/July 1971, New York area
1 dead, 2 criticaly incapacitated, by Type A botulism
involved 6,444 tainted cans (Lots #V-141/USA-71, V-110-USA-71 & 072-V-USA-67)
The Bon Vivant Soup Company was located at 166 Abington Ave in Newark, New Jersey
* Samuel Cochran Jr. victim
* Grace Wallace Cochran victim
* Paul McDonald victim
The real question with Botulism is an effective delivery system.
#8
Part of the problem is too, that the masses are afraid of things they know about or already know to be dangerous. The REAL problem is not delivery mechanisms, or Botulinum, Ricin, etc ... it is the everyday common bug.
For me, the real fear, is the creation of a super-common that is resistance to first-round and last-round treatments and/or resistances to muti prong attacks (such as resistance to division-blocker, wall lysis, growth inhibitors, etc ... as an example (not to give anyone ideas, as this would be hard) but an E-coli with resistance to amoxicillin/penicillin, erythromycin, plus resistance to some of the newer antis would be dangerous ... esp. in a warmer climate in the food chain.
Anyway, it seems a lot of the focus from the Lay side of things is on a specifc bug, Antrhax, SmallPox, etc -- personally, the real risk is from something that has been overclocked so to speak ... something that we are exposed to everyday. Maybe H1N5 kicked up a notch, but to be honest, messing with virus vectors and whatnot is still a lot harder than bacterial.
Watch the news from some nasty new common bug making the killer rounds ... then we are in trouble.
The reason it is so risky is typical human complacency a la the 'oh, that is normal fauna, it is probably something else' time goes by, and too late.
Anyway, I think we are fearing the big bad bugs and ignoring the little ones we think we've conquered already. Big mistake.
#9
I yield me to your expertise, bombay. I am merely the child of a biochemist, and the wife of a (non-practicing) chemical engineer, so my knowledge of such things is, um, atmospheric rather than factual. It sounds like your education was much like that of current computer programming students, who are taught to write viruses senior year so they don't do it accidentally. And admittedly I was thrilled to produce chlorine gas when I poured bleach over the kitty urine... But I never was able to produce enough to be harmful. ;-)
#10
Oh, no, not arguing with you TW, just pointing out that just as in the 60/70s you had to know what you were doing (inside and out, the true depth of knowledge) to build and program a computer ... the same is true for Biochemical 'problems' ... I'd say we are in the waning 70s of computers vs. Biochem.
Soon there will be home kits to test your kids for genetic problems (already are actually).
The technology is advancing and it is only a matter of time before there are the hardware and software knowledge en masse to cause a problem.
Basically, things are becoming automated and easy enough such that someone who knows that a super-bug is x,y,z dangerous or this/that protein will really mess things up, can DO something about it.
Times were that you had to know it was bad and HOW to make it bad or execute to really count ... now you may just have to know it is bad and get a hold the equivalent of a best buy commodity computer to DO something about it.
And yes, it is somewhat like computer viruses ... they taught us how and rely on our ethics to ensure that we don't ... but just look at the modern world, aside from the rarity who has ethics anymore?
What you wrote is conventional wisdom (still) amongst the biochem world. It is partly denial of risk, but also, hey I went through years of this schooling to know this, how could some kid ...
Well, just like viruses now, there are manufacture kits and the script kiddies don't really know how or why stuff works, it just does. Soon the technology will be such that you really don't need to understand protein folding, stoichometric chemistry, enzymatic reatction rates, etc -- just that you mix A, with B and press the button and wham ... jihadi paradise. Most of my peers in Biochem are in complete denail of this.
#12
Yeah, no worries, and you see where I am comming from. It really isn't us Biochem freaks or Chemistry nuts you have to worry about ... it is the meeting of technology with ease of biochem manipulation.
The Jihadis that know so-and-so bug is bad don't give a crap about the implications, much like the MSM ... if they can just release one super-bug and bring Bush down the whole world would be fine ... except of course for all the minor details, but that is for the infidel to deal with, isn't it, because everyone knows biologicals don't attack Muslims!
#14
I have used many a tool like linked ... although to be fair to 3dc, I did not go through it all.
There is good stuff here ...
I will say, for those with a passing interest in Biochem ... don't listen to the media/hype these days. It has nothing to do with the genetic (DNA) code/sequence ... EVERYTHING, and I mean everyting boi-active has to do with 3D shaping / stoichiomestry (the shape of molecules).
Biochem has 'wasted' decades on gene sequence only to find the shape of the resultant protein has if not as much, but MORE to do with boichemical reactivity as DNA code.
Recent science I've read shows that the interface between interstitial activities ... basically cell wall to cell wall is possibly domintated by dendriet/axion type interaction of proteins which may or may not span the entire wall complex.
Think of it, basics of brain activity occur at the most simple level between cell and cell. WOW.
CALHOUN, Ga. -- Desmond T. Doss Sr., a conscientious objector whose achievements as a noncombatant earned him a Medal of Honor in World War II, died Thursday. He was 87. His death was announced by Seventh-day Adventist Church officials in Calhoun, near where he lived for many years. Doss died Thursday in Piedmont, Ala., where he and his wife had been staying with her family, said Pastor John Swafford. Doss, who refused to carry a weapon during his wartime service as a medic, was the subject of a book, "The Unlikeliest Hero," and a 2004 documentary, "The Conscientious Objector." He was invited to the White House in October 1945 to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, from President Truman for his bravery in April and May that year.
On the island of Okinawa, he carried 75 wounded soldiers through a fire-swept area to the edge of a 400-foot cliff and lowered them to safety, according to his citation. Later, the medic braved enemy shelling to treat an artillery officer. He also crawled to a wounded soldier who had fallen 25 feet from the enemy's position, rendered aid and carried the man 100 yards to safety while exposed to shooting.
During a night attack, he was seriously wounded in the legs by a grenade, his citation said. Five hours later, others began carrying him to safety, but he saw a more critically injured man and crawled off his stretcher, directing the medics to aid the other wounded man. While awaiting their return, he was struck again. He bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a splint and crawled 300 yards to an aid station, the citation said.
Doss "voluntarily joined the Army as a conscientious objector," church officials said in a statement. "He was harassed and ridiculed for his beliefs, yet he served with distinction. "Doss never liked being called a conscientious objector," the statement said. "He preferred the term conscientious cooperator."
Now this is a real hero who stood by his beliefs and still served his country and his fellow soldiers. Thank you sir and God be with you.
A statue of Doss was placed on July 4, 2004, in the National Museum of Patriotism in Atlanta.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
08:30 ||
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Now this is a real hero who stood by his beliefs and still served his country and his fellow soldiers.
Very true. This guy proved you can stand up for your beliefs, help out your fellow man and be patriotic at the same time. Rest in peace. We need more people like that.
Citation: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Medical Detachment, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division. He was a company aid man when the lst Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet high. As our troops gained the summit, a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar and machinegun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Pfc. Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying them 1 by 1 to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands. On 2 May, he exposed himself to heavy rifle and mortar fire in rescuing a wounded man 200 yards forward of the lines on the same escarpment; and 2 days later he treated 4 men who had been cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave, advancing through a shower of grenades to within 8 yards of enemy forces in a cave's mouth, where he dressed his comrades' wounds before making 4 separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety. On 5 May, he unhesitatingly braved enemy shelling and small arms fire to assist an artillery officer. He applied bandages, moved his patient to a spot that offered protection from small arms fire and, while artillery and mortar shells fell close by, painstakingly administered plasma. Later that day, when an American was severely wounded by fire from a cave, Pfc. Doss crawled to him where he had fallen 25 feet from the enemy position, rendered aid, and carried him 100 yards to safety while continually exposed to enemy fire. On 21 May, in a night attack on high ground near Shuri, he remained in exposed territory while the rest of his company took cover, fearlessly risking the chance that he would be mistaken for an infiltrating Japanese and giving aid to the injured until he was himself seriously wounded in the legs by the explosion of a grenade. Rather than call another aid man from cover, he cared for his own injuries and waited 5 hours before litter bearers reached him and started carrying him to cover. The trio was caught in an enemy tank attack and Pfc. Doss, seeing a more critically wounded man nearby, crawled off the litter; and directed the bearers to give their first attention to the other man. Awaiting the litter bearers' return, he was again struck, this time suffering a compound fracture of 1 arm. With magnificent fortitude he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a splint and then crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station. Through his outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of desperately dangerous conditions Pfc. Doss saved the lives of many soldiers. His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
03/24/2006 9:28
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The 77th also fought on Guam, and helped liberate camps set up by the Japanese to hold local Chamorros-Guamanians - according to the local beliefs of many elderly survivors, the Japanese ultimately intended to kill all of those held in these camps. Several groups were misled by the Japanese to travel to selected areas around Guam for work detail or other where they ended up being abused and later massacred.
#9
I lived in that area of Georgia for several years and met Mr. Doss in Church several times.
Like Mr. Doss, I was born and raised a Seventh Day Adventist. I was a teenager during the Vietnam war, and the Church gave us the following counsel:
1. Do not volunteer: you will be obligated to carry arms by doing so, and the Church cannot help you in any way.
2. When Drafted, apply for 1AO, not 1O status. 1AO allows you to support direct military operations, such a a front-line medic, as was Mr. Doss. 1O status means you object to even indirect support of the war effort. A 1O says, "I won't have anything to do with this dirty war," while a 1A0 says, "There are some things I cannot do in good conscience, but there are things I can, and will, do that will help the war effort." Almost all became medics, like Mr. Doss, and the Church actually cooperated with the Pentagon in setting up pre-draft boot-camps so that the option of making an Adventist a medic was more attractive to the Pentagon.
3. If there is a situation where you decide, despite your intentions, that you must pick up a weapon and shoot the enemy, the Church WILL NOT SECOND GUESS YOU. In times like that, they realize that you cannot be accoutable to anyone else but God and your guts, and so refuse to be a judge in that matter.
I eventually left for doctrinal reasons, and in retrospect, I do not think I would have grown spritually if I had remained. But they laid a good foundation, and there should be no doubt that they are patriots.
Rest in peace, Mr. Doss. However, if he DOES show up at the pearly gates, given the beliefs Adventists teach, he's bound to be more than a little put out. ;)
#10
reasonable reservations - committment made and, should we say, overachieved a little? What a hero and stud - an admirable character regardless of your position on the violence. Right hand of God/Jesus in my view of heaven.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2006 23:13
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A 37-old Russian woman was brutally killed by her friend after she lied that she had fought on the separatists side in Chechnya as a sniper, the Ekspress-Gazeta daily reports. The woman, Yelena Skoryatina went missing after a party with colleagues at a furniture factory where she worked. Police started investigating the incident and soon began to suspect that the woman had been murdered they found blood spots on the floor of the room where the party took place. Investigators suspected two men who left the room last on the day when the victim was last seen. Soon, one of them, Denis Saunin, confessed to murder, but said that the victim deserved it.
Investigators established that Skoryatinas story was nothing but drunken bravado. She had been short-sighted from early childhood and had never left her native town of Ulyanovsk for more than a week.
Saunin, who is a veteran of the Chechen war told investigators that on the day when the murder took place he had been telling his colleagues about the atrocities committed by Chechen terrorists. The victim started arguing with him and said that Chechens were fighting for their freedom.
She said that [Chechen warlords] Maskhadov and Basayev were good people and at the end said that she had been a sniper with Chechen troops and taken out our boys, Saunin told the investigators. The light dimmed in my eyes as she said this and I thought I must avenge them. I thought Skoryatina is not leaving this party alive, he added.
After everybody had left, Saunin, a guard at a factory, battered the woman and then put out her right eye, because it is used in shooting and cut off the index finger on her right hand the finger used to pull the trigger, as well as the middle finger on her left hand as it is used in an obscene gesture after a good shot. She cried and begged for mercy but I could not stop the faces of our boys killed by Chechen snipers stood before my eyes, the killer said.
He did not stop at that. The veteran then stripped the woman, shoved the fingers hed cut off into her vagina and slit the victims throat.
Upon finishing the brutal murder, Saunin called his brother, they put the body into a bag with sawdust and buried it in the nearby garage block. Both brothers have been arrested and charged with murder. Saunin will undergo a psychiatric examination to test his sanity, investigators told the newspaper.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
08:20 ||
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She said that [Chechen warlords] Maskhadov and Basayev were good people and at the end said that she had been a sniper with Chechen troops and taken out our boys...
Call me a heartless bastard, but given that Basayev was behind the Nord-Ost and Beslan massacres, I'm not sure I can blame the guy. It's really hard to come up with a more solid case of "she was asking for it". The brutality of the torture and murder argues against that, but, damn, I'm finding it hard to feel any pity for her.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 8:37
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My sympathy meter seems to be broken.... some "jokes" just ain't funny.
#3
Maybe it would have helped if she had claimed her son was a Russian soldier who had been killed in the war, so everybody had to be sympathetic to her and listen to what she said. Like, "It's all Putin's fault!"
#4
The veteran then stripped the woman, shoved the fingers hed cut off into her vagina and slit the victims throat.
Come on RC, that's not like you. While I agree that supporting the murderers of Beslan make her an unsympathetic victim, this is murder, plain and simple.
#6
There is a low threshold for this kind of "humor" in Russia. My wife is from there, and mother-in-law lives there. You won't believe the kinds of stuff we don't hear about that goes on with the Chechen rabble. I am with RC.
Petka wakes up in the morning all black and blue. He can't understand what has happened. He asks Vasily Ivanovich what's the matter with him. Why he is all over in shiners.
Vasily Ivanovich:
-You drunk yesterday?
-Drunk.
-I was silent when you insulted me, but then you shitted in the corner, put some matches in this heap and said: "This hedgehog will live with us!" I couldn't stand any longer!!!
#9
Come on RC, that's not like you. While I agree that supporting the murderers of Beslan make her an unsympathetic victim, this is murder, plain and simple.
Certainly. But I can't bring myself to care. Doesn't mean Saunin shouldn't face justice; he should.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 14:59
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But I can't bring myself to care.
can't argue with that. Too many truly sad stories in this world for hers to make the list.
#11
She was basically begging to get whacked for being a complete dumbass, true.....but no one deserves to get mutilated like that. Even my Russian sweetie agrees.
#12
Taking credit for anything remotely associated with Beslan should show up in the dictionary next to the first entry for "stupid." Did she die a brutal death? Yes. Should her murder be prosecuted? Yes. Was she incredibly stupid? Yes. Life is hard. It's even harder when you're stupid.
A huge explosion has ripped through a chemistry institute in Mulhouse, eastern France, seriously injuring at least one woman, firefighters say. A fire was raging after the blast at 1225 (1125 GMT) and thick smoke billowed over the scene, the French news agency AFP reported. It is not yet clear how the explosion happened.
Could be a gas leak. Could have been a homework assignment gone bad. We'll have to wait and see.
The institute is part of a 25-hectare campus near the city centre and 8,000 students are enrolled there. The surrounding area was evacuated and teachers were doing a head count of students, French radio reported. The explosion is reported to have been heard two kilometres away and it broke the windows of nearby buildings.
Additional: MULHOUSE, France, March 24 (Reuters) - A huge explosion destroyed a research building at a French university in the eastern city of Mulhouse on Friday, injuring a large number of people, the emergency services said. Rescue workers faced thick smoke when they arrived at the institute of chemistry on the university campus, a Reuters witness said. The reason for the blast, which was heard across much of the city, was not immediately known. "There are a large number of victims," one rescuer told Reuters.
French television said at least one person was seriously hurt and witness Cedric Ridepi told the LCI TV station that he had seen "the inside (of the building) devastated. There were several seats of fire. "There were screams from inside. I saw one wounded person," he added. A student in a nearby building, who gave her name only as Aude, said there "was a huge explosion and all the windows were shattered".
The UNEF student union said the complex was not occupied by students as part of protests against a youth jobs law that have hit universities around France.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
08:13 ||
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The UNEF student union said the complex was not occupied by students as part of protests against a youth jobs law that have hit universities around France
I know we need to wait.... but... my, my, isn't that a coincidence?
#4
DarthVader - That is true, but even if the French police come back and say it's a gas leak should we believe them? The claimed the rioting last year was no big deal, and there was that explosion/fire in a factory (?) in Marseille soon after 9/11 that had the earmarks of a bomb, but it got called an accidental fire.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
03/24/2006 9:33
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Occam's razor. Modern chemistry buildings are constructed with "blow away" features, like vents under the eaves and things like that, on the assumption that sooner or later there will be an oops.
Having worked with "things that make you go 'boom'", I can say that there are a LOT of materials out there can that give you really sweet contained explosions. On top of that you have the benzene ring fairies and gas gremlins conspiring against you.
#7
This is less than 80 miles from a Chemistry department I know where twice in last twenty years the staff have deliberately burned it to the ground in order to get a better building. No-one could prove it was anything other than an accident and they are happy now in new state-of-the-art laboratories.
#8
I assume the French also add odorants to piped-in gas, so if it were a gas leak, wouldn't it have been noticeable? PARTICULARLY by a building filled with chemistry students and teachers? I'd guess they'd be as jumpy about gas as my EE profs were about high voltage.
Not saying it wasn't, it just seems odd.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 9:53
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what Laurence of the Rats said, but even if the French police come back and say it's a gas leak should we believe them?
the Frogs have a long cooking thingy.
/bon appetite
#13
Research chemist Derek Long, on his In the Pipeline blog, has been wondering about the cause too; he doesn't know either. However, if you look at his "How Not to Do It" series, you'll see all sorts of bad mistakes one can make in a chemistry lab. The March 8, 2006 entry about an exploding liquid nitrogen tank at Texas A&M was quite striking.
And then there are the situations you can get into with improperly stored ethers. Ether and oxygen gives organic peroxides, which blow up real good. Acetone peroxide is favored by terrorists, yes, but most any organic peroxide can wipe out a building. He has one particularly harrowing case.
When I was a student at Brooklyn College in the 1970s, they had to evacuate Ingersoll Hall because somene found an old half-empty container of an ether that had not been correctly sealed.
Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
03/24/2006 22:52
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Canberra, 24 March (AKI) - Indonesia has recalled its ambassador to Australia in response to the steps taken by Canberra to grant temporary visas to 42 people from the Indonesian province of Papua. The Indonesian authorities said that they "regretted" the move by Canberra and according to a report on Australia's ABC News Online, the Indonesian foreign minister, Hassan Wirajuda said that Jakarta was "afraid this would weaken cooperation" between the two countries.
The decision to recall the Indonesian ambassador to Australia Mohammad Hamzah Thayeb was announced less than 24 hours after Australia's ambassador in Jakarta Bill Farmer was summoned to Jakarta's foreign ministry for a formal diplomatic protest. Australia has tried to play down the dispute by saying that they did not support the aspirations of the separatists in the Papua province. Reports say that among the 42 Papuan refugees are some pro-independence activists.
Indonesia has been accused of human rights violations in the low-level insurgent movement that has been going on in Papua for decades. Papua was granted self-rule by its Dutch colonists in 1961, but was then annexed by Indonesia, which did not honour that agreement. Some newspapers in Jakarta accused the government of Australian prime minister John Howard of supporting separatism in Papua.
Jakarta has said that the refugees have nothing to fear and that warned Australia that granting the Papuan's asylum would only further strain relations between the two countries.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006
08:07 ||
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Gang Rampage Mars Rally Against Job Law; Pressure Builds on Chirac
It was just the scene the French government had been dreading: burning cars seven blocks from the Eiffel Tower, shop windows smashed along one of the capital's toniest streets, and columns of helmeted riot police advancing across the greensward of a prominent tourist venue.
Antoil Ethuin, 48, stood outside the shattered windows of his Bike n' Roll rental shop Thursday, stunned by the destruction of the worst violence in two weeks of student protests in Paris and other French cities.
"My country is broken," said Ethuin, gazing at the smoldering automobile carcasses a few yards away and the carpet of glass shards, broken dishes and computer pieces covering the sidewalk in the heart of one of the city's most affluent neighborhoods. "I never imagined I would ever see this in Paris."
Thursday's violence came at the end of a demonstration by tens of thousands of high school and college students protesting a new job law. The unrest intensified a political crisis that now threatens to unravel President Jacques Chirac's government -- much the way previous French governments have been felled by strikes and street protests when they attempted even modest reforms of the country's costly welfare state.
The demonstrations have underscored the widening divide between the French government and its people at a time when France is losing both economic and political clout on the global stage. Street protests and general strikes, often occurring in the spring, have long been an accepted political ritual in France, and they now have become a symbol of the country's inability to reform a stagnant economy hobbled by inflexible labor laws, high taxes and a corpulent welfare system.
It is a crisis also facing other countries across Europe as governments of the left and the right have similarly attempted to alter their costly systems of generous health, unemployment and welfare benefits; most, like that of former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, have failed in the face of widespread resistance to change.
On Thursday afternoon, as a crowd of as many as 140,000 young people and others prepared to end their march in the large park fronting the gold-domed Hotel des Invalides housing Napoleon's tomb, gangs of hooded and masked youths darted out of side streets, setting cars ablaze, flipping others upside down, breaking store windows and throwing rocks and stones at police and firefighters, according to witnesses.
Riot police broke up the groups of rampaging youths with tear gas as acrid, black smoke filled narrow streets and billowed above the city skyline.
Police said 60 people were injured in the clashes, including 27 police officers, and 141 people were arrested.
The shellshocked owner of the Shanghai Restaurant overlooking the Esplanade des Invalides stood outside the jagged glass of his doorway, dejected and slump-shouldered. Broken dishes and pots of white and purple flowers littered the street. Inside, splintered chairs and table settings covered the restaurant floor.
Nearly a dozen stores, restaurants and apartment buildings were attacked and damaged. Firefighters struggled to extinguish the flames of three burned-out cars. Four other vehicles had been overturned or severely battered.
In the park across the street, hundreds of riot police clad in black uniforms and carrying shields advanced toward groups of suspected troublemakers against the backdrop of the Hotel des Invalides, the low-slung Foreign Ministry building and the golden statues standing sentry at the Invalides Bridge traversing the Seine River.
The attacks at the corner of Rue Saint Dominique and Rue Fabert, just a short walk from the Eiffel Tower in Paris's affluent and touristy 7th arrondissement, followed a pattern that has emerged in the last few days of marches.
While the demonstrations have been orderly and peaceful, groups of 200 to 300 youths who police say do not appear to be participating in the organized marches have appeared suddenly during concluding rallies, taunting police and creating havoc.
Police have speculated that the gangs may be from the poor suburban areas that erupted in riots last fall. In those disturbances, youths across France -- many of them immigrants or French-born children of immigrants -- burned thousands of cars and hundreds of public buildings and private businesses to protest government indifference to the joblessness and lack of social services in their communities. Little of that violence spilled over into Paris or other urban centers.
Both the suburban riots and the ongoing student demonstrations have been devastating to Chirac's government and could destroy the presidential aspirations of his party's two leading candidates -- Villepin and his rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
... Even as Ethuin, the bike rental shop owner, surveyed the damage along his block Thursday afternoon, he couldn't bring himself to criticize the young people whose demonstration brought the violence to his doorstep.
"They have no jobs," he said. "It's not their fault."
France is a nation afraid. As students and trade unionists take to the streets in defence of the past, the elites look on with a weary fatalism. What you must understand, I heard a member of Dominique de Villepins government lament the other day, is that people are fearful of everything.
I thought it strange that a minister would speak in those terms about his own country, even though the comments were not for attribution. Here was a seeming admission of the failure of political leadership alongside a transparently lame explanation for the governments retreat into protectionism. But France has been that sort of place since the voters rejection last year of the European constitutional treaty. Talk to the alumni of the nations grandes écoles and one has a sense of a collective nervous breakdown.
Divisions between insiders and outsiders are growing wider. They were visible at the extreme during last autumns violent rioting by young, jobless immigrants in the banlieus. But there are other ruptures. One lies between the postwar baby boomers who grew prosperous in security and a new generation of young people taking to the streets to demand the same protection. Another is found between those cosseted in the service of the state and those employed in businesses exposed to the harsh forces of global competition....
I sense a dawning realisation among Europes young people that they will not enjoy the assured prosperity and security of their parents. Yet, if the young are expected to eschew jobs for life, they must pay for the generous pension entitlements their parents have granted to themselves. There is something wrong with that bargain.
#1
"They have no jobs," he said. "It's not their fault."
Because unemployment means you can't be expected to refrain from violence.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 8:45
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As massively broken as the French system may be, it is EXACTLY what the Democrats here wish to re-create (for our own good, of course).
Behold the joys of near-universal union membership, job and trade protectionism, and a cradle-to-grave socialist welfare nanny state in which we are ALL perpetually discontented supplicants.
Behold our future.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/24/2006 9:16
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They were visible at the extreme during last autumns violent rioting by young, jobless immigrants in the banlieus
I'm sorry to possibly ask a possibly obvious question, but I don't trust the way the French press portrays anything - their "spin" is far worse than ours could hope to be - so even though they say, "As students and trade unionists take to the streets , these riots seem to be organized in a manner intended to spark a bit more violence than just your average trade or student union would organize.
Are these French youths? or French "youths" realizing that they may not be able to rely upon the dole for life.
Posted by: bk ||
03/24/2006 11:32
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Basically, the leftist demonstrators were overhelmed by the "youths" who came from the 'hoods.
Important thing is all this happened in the center of Paris, near the power's centers. According to actual witnesses, adjacent buildings of the parliament were threatened, with police having to evacuate MP's offices and secure the employees on the roof, with armed republican guards on alert ; an old lady's apartment was devasted and sprayed with tags; about 200 cars were destroyed, and firefighters were attacked on arrival.
Also, a revival of the antiwhite rampage of march 2005, with students being assaulted and racketed in mass, complete with racist assaults, and "youths" parading with banners sporting the islamic crescent.
Funny and heartwarming note : the CNT (anarchist federation) order service members had their *sses handed to them by the bad boyz from the projects, lol.
Now the leftists ask for police (which was pretty much unable to cope anyway, and under orders by Sarko to be "supple"... to disrupt the mvt/weaken his archrival Galouzeau "De Villepin"???) to protect the demonstration, you can't make this up.
This is one further symptom of the greatly advanced state of decay of the Vth... remember, anyway, this whole CPE thingie is NOT a free-market inspired measure, it is A REACTION TO THE NOVEMBER RAMADAN RIOT, passed in the law for the "equality of chances"; target population are the "youths", so they can be employed more easily, since the diagnosis of theses riots was it was all due to the "racism" of french people and their social backwardness.
So, all in all, the gvt passes a law in reaction to the "youths" riots, the left stir up the process to regain the advantage, the "shock troops" of the left demonstrate, and they got their head busted by the ones who were at th eorigin of this (and for whoses interests supposedly the leftists are in the street)... lol lol lol lol!!!
Wall Street Journal EFL'd.
A statement from Yale University, defending its decision to admit former Taliban spokesman Ramatullah Hashemi, explained that he had "escaped the wreckage of Afghanistan." To anyone who is aware of the Taliban's barbaric treatment of the Afghan people, such words are offensive--as if Mr. Hashemi were not himself part of the wrecking crew. It is even more disturbing to learn that, while Mr. Hashemi sailed through Yale's admissions process, the school turned down the opportunity to enroll women who really did escape the wreckage of Afghanistan.
In 2002, Yale received a letter from Paula Nirschel, the founder of the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women. The purpose of the organization, begun in that year, was to match young women in post-Taliban Afghanistan to U.S. colleges, where they could pursue a degree. Ms. Nirschel asked Yale if it wanted to award a spot in its next entering class to an Afghan woman. Yale declined.
Yale was not alone. Of the more than 2,000 schools contacted by Mrs. Nirschel, only three signed up right away: Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, Notre Dame College in New Hampshire and the University of Montana, Missoula. Four years later, the program enrolls 20 students at 10 universities . . . .
Mrs. Nirschel, it should be noted, had an "in" at Roger Williams. Her husband, Roy, is the president. Mr. Nirschel recalls that after 9/11 his wife mourned not only for the American victims but for the people of Afghanistan, whose brutal regime had helped to sponsor al Qaeda. Mr. Nirschel admits that his first reaction, upon hearing his wife's concern, was to say that they should just give to a charity. But Mrs. Nirschel asked whether he, as university president, could give a scholarship to an Afghan woman instead. He was doubtful at first about the practicality of the idea but eventually agreed. "My wife can be very persuasive," he told us.
Mrs. Nirschel, who has been a homemaker for most of the past three decades, set up the program to find suitable college-ready candidates and pay their travel expenses to the U.S. But the colleges themselves were asked to cover tuition, room and board. Mrs. Nirschel did not want the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women to be treated as a chance to "escape." The program requires that its students return to Afghanistan each summer to work for an organization involved in rebuilding the country. And they must go home at the end of their four years in the U.S. . . .
In contrast to Ramatullah Hashemi, These women require no remedial classes, by the way. They come prepared, many having huddled in basements secretly imbibing what information they could from male relatives or having lived in Pakistani refugee camps to gain access to schools. Not one of them has a GPA below 3.5. . . . .
Rantburgers of a charitable bent should consider hitting the link and making a donation to IEAW.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/24/2006
06:49 ||
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#1
The disgraceful thing is that only ten universities are taking part in the program. So, I just sent my alma mater a challenge: if they take on one of these students, I'm going to donate more money than I can really afford, each year for the next ten years.
If they nix the idea, I'll give some to IEAW instead.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 7:57
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Un-be-fricking-lievable.
My alma mater, which had Internet addresses for every fricking student, faculty, and staff member in 1990, has an invalid email address on its website, and that address is the one for giving to the university. The address for alumni contacts seems to have gone through, though.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 8:11
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CALLING ON ALL UK RANTBURGERS...
Whether you be members of the Judaean Peoples Front (ptui - splitters) or the Peoples Front of Judaea (ptui - splitters), now is the time for ACTION - yes, its actually happening, Reg!!!
We've had demonstrations almost every week with the "freedom go to hill" crowd, then the Ayatollahs anti (Joooo) terrorism march.
This Saturday, is THE MARCH FOR FREE EXPRESSION
....yeah right. Sean Gabb of the Libertarian Alliance, Maryam Namazie, Sayyida Rend Shakir al-Hadithi, Peter Tatchell, national secular society, the freedom association, etc, etc. Well I have been to every stinking one of these Hate-fests - Didnt see too much opposition back then.
I'm hoping to be proved wrong, but I'm worried that this will be more of a march for freedom to self-censor, or that it will be hijacked by Allans "Dont worry about Fundamentalists - leave them to us, and by the way, dont be criticizin no koran" Troop. Our friend at muttawablogspot - "The Religious Policeman" has said he will be attending (incognito, obviously)
Come on you UK Bloggers, Blurkers, Trolls, Whatever - its time for some "Civil, Well Reasoned Discourse".
Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar ||
03/24/2006
04:23 ||
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Admiral, don't forget to play nicely with your little friends, and report back to us afterwards. Thanks!
American Muslims gaining a foothold in politics
By Jill Lawrence,
USA TODAY
3/23/2006 Moderators: Is this a "Culture War" or Real War issue?
...The 9/11 attacks have had a curious double-edged impact on the political emergence of American Muslims. They are up against more stereotyping and backlash, which they perceived recently in the furor over a Dubai company's thwarted plan to take over port operations in several U.S. cities. First: they are humble immigrants; then their big families and prohibitions against working women place strains on our social services; then their lawyers force expensive civil rights protections; then they infiltrate political parties; then these use high office in hated dar-Harb to spy for their beloved homelands; then they use Free World wealth to finance overseas terror; then they accept huge donations from Saudi and Iranian dawah (indoctrination) agencies; then they force giant mosques on cities; then they seek Shariah in the guise of Muslim Family Law; then terror incitement issues from some mosques, but is secretly seconded by all; then they force Islam friendly indoctrination disquised as public education; then their PACs condemn only "stereotyping" but not terror; then their violent protests cause our spineless leaders to give them effective veto power over foreign policy; then they demand jihad-base subsidies for their homeland cesspools, in the name of nation-building; then members of Muslim terrorist organizations receive refugee status, while they continue to promote terror; then they begin pushing non-Muslims out of dar-Islam enclaves; then they get prayer rooms in every school, government office and private industrial plant; then non-garbed Muslim women, Jews, Christians, gays, etc begin to live in fear; then they refuse obedience to loyalty oaths; then they get State subsidized Hajj trips to Mecca; then they force Islamic censorship on our media; then they force open-door immigration for Muslims; then they order jury nullification where a Muslim is affected; then they force de facto legalization of jihad Murder, Kidnapping, Torture, Hostage Taking, Bomb Making, etc; then we suffer the high unemployment and stagnation inherent to Muslim economies; then they force jizya on non-Muslims, while exterminating anyone who in Muhammad's words, "lives as a kaffir"; then they adopt either a Sunni or Shiite identity, and make war against the alleged "apostate"; then sacred Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Shinto, Spiritualist, etc texts are banned as products of Satanic influence; then thieves are de-limbed, rape victims charged for false testimony, blasphemers are burned alive, spousal and child abandonment after easy male divorce(talaq, talaq, talaq) is legalized, marital-rape and wife-beating are compulsory, adulters are stoned to death, abandoners of Islam are beheaded, terror tax (zakat) is imposed on all, etc; then the Organization of the Islamic Conference occupies the UN building; then we all bow to Mecca five times a day after carrying out innocuous cleansing rituals. And we remember that our leaders said that "Islam is a religion of peace," and that indulging political Islam was an "advancement of freedom."
At the same time, the 9/11 attacks jolted Muslims into realizing that they needed to make themselves known to their neighbors and heard by their government. They are voting, running for office and getting more involved in civic and political life at every level, from PTAs and school boards to town councils and state legislatures. At least two Texas Republicans Amir Omar and Ahmad Hassan are running for U.S. Congress.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which promotes Muslim political activity, has opened 23 of its 31 U.S. chapters since 9/11. In the 2004 election, two studies found, one in five Muslim voters were first-time voters. What if Hitler demanded Nazi Party centers on Allied soil, during WW2?
"There was a silver lining. We became more public," says Aref Assaf, president of the New Jersey-based American Arab Forum.
This large-scale entry of Muslims into public life is not only testing the courage of Muslim candidates and the tolerance of voters. It's also prompting politicians to take notice of a community that has growing clout and is open to appeals from both parties... Immigrants from 100% of non-Muslim classes can be loyal to a non-Muslim State. 0% of Muslims can under post-ummah conditions, where Muslim indoctrination and law is either influential or powerful. Ergo: treat them differently, keep them out and repress those who are here.
Alex Alexiev, adviser on national Security with the Pentagon and the CIA, and a Vice President for Research with the Center for Security Policy and leads the program on Islamic Radicalism And International Terrorism, said in an interview for FOCUS News Agency that the strong presence of Wahabi groups in Bulgaria and the attempts to islamize Turkey are worrying for the countrys future.
"So far in much better shape, but lately there are some very disturbing trends noticeable. First, I have to say that the Bulgarian Muslims, like those of the rest of the Balkans and Russia are syncretic and of Sufi origin and have always been very moderate. Recently however there are two trends that give me reason to be very concerned. First, there is the increasing presence in Bulgaria of radical Wahhabi groups like Al-Waqf al-Islami and many others which have lots of money to buy mosques and imams or build new ones for the express purpose of preaching hatred.
Secondly, and much more importantly right now, is the disturbing trend of the rapid Islamization of Turkey under the government of Erdogan. I dont have the time in this interview to go into any detail, but what we have in Turkey today is a wholesale assault by Erdogans regime on the secular traditions of Turkish society as established by Mustafa Kemal. In virtually all areas of society, be it education, the judiciary system, financial institutions, culture and last but most, the military, Turkish secularism is presently seriously threatened. If Turkey. God forbids succumbs to Islamism, our national security will be seriously challenged.", Mr. Alexiev said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
03:26 ||
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#1
Years ago, I was given a Wahabi Koran from WAMY propagandists. There is no quid pro quo because Christian outreach is outlawed in the Saud terrorist entity.
#2
What language was the Koran in, Listen to Dogs? If Arabic, do you read the language? (Mr. Wife learnt some when he was doing plant start-ups in that part of the world, but I don't think he ever reached the level of being able to read such a thing.)
Iraqi security forces captured an aide to al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a raid Thursday in eastern Iraq, a top security official said. Minister of State for National Security Abdul Karim al-Inazi identified the captive as Fares Kadhim Lafi, a Iraqi who was snared Diyala province. "He carried out 27 operations including an attack on a minibus that left nine civilians dead," al-Inazi told The Associated Press. He said security forces had received a tip on Lafi's whereabouts. It is not uncommon for Iraqi authorities and US military to say they have captured aides to al-Zarqawi without giving further information.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
03:25 ||
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#4
As frustrating as I get about not nailing Zark, when we nail the key staff guys of his we disrupt his operations, delay his ability to act, and cause him to replace a trusted staff guy with someone new that is not trusted. All this reduces his ability to be effective, and destroys his credibility in AQ. Good job on a good hit.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/24/2006 10:34
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#5
Another "Top Lt." - rolls eyes
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/24/2006 10:59
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#7
Zarqawi may actually be responsible for fewer deaths this month than tater.
However, probably at least half of the people being killed by tater's tots are ex-baathists who either have blood on their hand or worked as Saddam's agents.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated pursuant to Executive Order 13224 al Manar, a satellite television operation owned or controlled by the Iran-funded Hizballah terrorist network. Additionally designated today were al Nour Radio and the Lebanese Media Group, the parent company to both al Manar and al Nour Radio.
Al Manar and al Nour
Al Manar and al Nour are the media arms of the Hizballah terrorist network and have facilitated Hizballah's activities.
"Any entity maintained by a terrorist group whether masquerading as a charity, a business, or a media outlet is as culpable as the terrorist group itself," said Stuart Levey, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
Al Manar has employed multiple Hizballah members. One al Manar employee engaged in pre-operational surveillance for Hizballah operations under cover of employment by al Manar.
Al Manar and al Nour have supported fundraising and recruitment efforts by Hizballah. Al Manar raised funds for Hizballah through advertisements broadcast on the network and an accompanying website that requested donations for the terrorist organization. As recently as late 2005, Hizballah-affiliated charities aired commercials on al Manar, providing contact information and bank account numbers for donations. Moreover, Hizballah Secretary General Nasrallah publicized an invitation for all Lebanese citizens to volunteer for Hizballah military training on al Manar and al Nour.
In addition to supporting Hizballah, al Manar has also provided support to other designated Palestinian terrorist organizations, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, notably transferring tens of thousands of dollars for a PIJ-controlled charity. PIJ is listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. Government, and is also named on the European Union's list of terrorist entities.
Hizballah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah, along with Hizballah's Executive Council, managed and oversaw the budgets of al Manar and al Nour.
The Lebanese Media Group
The Lebanese Media Group is the parent company of both al Manar and al Nour. Prominent Hizballah members have been major shareholders of the Lebanese Media Group.
Background on Hizballah
Hizballah is a Lebanon-based terrorist group. Until September 11, 2001, Hizballah was responsible for more American deaths than any other terrorist organization. Hizballah is known or suspected to have been involved in numerous terrorist attacks throughout the world, including the suicide truck bombings of the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut in September 1984. Hizballah also executed the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome and assumed responsibility for the suicide bombing of the Israeli embassy in Argentina in 1992. It also attacked the Israeli cultural center in Buenos Aires in 1994.
On January 25, 1995, the Annex to Executive Order 12947 listed Hizballah as a Specially Designated Terrorist. The Department of State designated Hizballah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997. Additionally, on October 31, 2001, Hizballah was designated as a Specially Designated Global terrorist under Executive Order 13224.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
03:24 ||
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An Arab influence continues to transform secessionist efforts in Chechnya into a drive for an Islamic state. Islam, long part of the regions identity, however, was not the impetus for nationalistic movement to separate from Russia, underway since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Al Qaeda has funded Chechen rebels and also trained many in Afghanistan, and the Russian government has taken advantage of such connections, labeling all major opposition movements as an Islamic threat. Yet Russia has 20 million Muslims. So Russian President Vladimir Putin has also tried to mend estranged relations with the government of Saudi Arabia, relying on such diplomacy to combat any notion that his government has an anti-Islamic agenda. Author and researcher Faryal Leghari urges the international community to expect Russia to fulfill its political commitment of extending power to the Chechens. Delaying fair elections or the withdrawal of Russian troops could give Islamic extremists more momentum in a volatile part of the world.
Certain dramatic developments in Chechnya have given rise to a perception that radical Islamist organisations have steered the secessionist movement toward creating an Islamic imamat in North Eastern Caucasus, similar to the Taleban regime in Afghanistan. Chechnya today stands at the intersection of radicalism and nationalism. Al Qaeda has funded the effort and also trained several hundred Chechens in Afghanistan
Islam has always been an integral part of its national identity but was not the impetus behind the nationalist movement that started after the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. The politicisation and radicalisation of Islam was a complex process that opened a Pandora's box with serious threats of the conflict morphing into an ethno religious war conflagrating the entire region. An obdurate refusal to change the policies by the Russian leadership has led to the current quagmire. The political stalemate remains with militant Islam threatening any chance of autonomy that the movement may try to achieve.
In this backdrop, it is crucial to understand the nature of the Arab involvement in the Chechen movement as it was alleged to have contributed significantly to changing the resistance from a nationalist movement into one characterised by religious radicalism.
Beslan, the theatre siege in Moscow, plane hijackings and various incidents of suicide bombings are a chilling reminder of the festering conflict in Chechnya which confirm two things: first, Moscow's ineptitude in winning the war against Chechen secessionism; and second, the acerbic reaction of the Chechens to the use of force by the Russians. Russian President Vladimir Putin's declaration to "bang the hell out of these bandits" has led to a worsening of the situation. However, the conflict in Chechnya is not one to be crushed militarily. According to General Aleksander Lebed, Russia is not "fighting terrorists and bandits, but a people".
In 2003, the US State Department designated three Chechen groups affiliated with Shamil Basaev as terrorists, and alleged that they had received millions of dollars from Al Qaeda. Thus, the Chechen resistance movement became forcefully identified with terrorism. The change in the nature of the conflict during the period between the two Chechen wars was a result of deepening religious awareness, reaction to Moscow's harsh policies and atrocities committed by Russian forces, as well as infiltration of foreign radical Islamic militants and their influence on the Chechen command.
Following the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a number of people rallied to defend their fellow Muslims. Later, following the call of Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, transnational Islamic brigades were set up to defend frontline Muslim communities around the world. The International Islamic brigade, which took part in the first Chechen war in 1994, was set up by Habib Abdur Rehman Khattab, a Saudi by birth. As a teenager, Khattab had fought in Afghanistan alongside Osama bin Laden. Fighting in Tajikistan, Khattab gained a reputation for being a brilliant commander before moving to Chechnya as the head of the mujahideen where he was appointed commander of the operations under Basaev. Bin Laden maintained a close ideological, technological and financial relationship with Khattab. Later, Khattab married a Dagestani woman and lived in Chechnya till his death at the hands of the Russian intelligence in 2002.
Several hundred Chechens were trained in Al Qaeda's Afghan camps and provided with weapons. The Al Qaeda-influenced Al-Ansar mujahideen were considered the fiercest and most organised of the three major groups fighting the Russians in Chechnya. Most of the Chechen suicide attacks an unknown tactic in this part of the world were initiated by them.
Ultimately, Khattab's influence with Basaev extended to creating divisions among the top Chechen command that led President Maskhadov to implement an Islamic government and set up Sharia courts. Maskhadov's failure to create law and order, curb high crime rate and control radical commanders, however, led to a loss of credibility in Moscow. His assassination in March 2005 at the hands of the Russian secret service was hailed as a victory by the federal government, who lost a chance to pursue a political process in Chechnya with a key Chechen leader who enjoyed considerable influence amongst the people.
The exact number of foreign mercenaries fighting in Chechnya is unknown, but up to 300 Arabs reportedly took part in the war, according to Russian intelligence sources. The growth of this group's power in Chechnya played a key part in precipitating the second war by an armed incursion into Dagestan in 1999. In their isolated position, the Chechens chose to tap into the resources offered by the Islamic organisations and networks in the Middle East and Asia. The Arab involvement played right into the hands of the Russian leadership. Moscow interpreted all major opposition movements as an Islamic threat and found it useful to implicate external sources for indigenous problems.
In this context, Russia's recent attempts at being considered part of the Muslim world through membership to the OIC is part of a strategy to mend estranged relations with Saudi Arabia. With 20 million Muslims in Russia, Putin attempted to play the Islamic card when he addressed the OIC summit in Kuala Lumpur in Oct 2003. Moscow also sought to reverse perception amongst the Islamic world that it was pursuing anti-Islamic policies especially in North Caucasus. Russia's repeated accusations about Saudi Arabia funding militants and terrorist groups operating in Chechnya, saw a sudden change following Crown Prince Abdullah's visit to Russia in Sept 2003, with Putin lauding Saudi Arabia's role in the war against terrorism and contending that both countries shared similar concerns on terrorism.
Adding to the tension was the assassination of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Doha in Feb 2004, which strained Qatar-Russia relations. Doha had repeatedly turned down Moscow's requests to extradite Yandarbiyev on Al Qaeda links. Besides being implicated in the Moscow theatre crisis, he was more importantly the link for sourcing finance to Chechen militants in the Gulf. Following the assassination, the Russian first secretary in Qatar was evicted and two Russian intelligence agents linked to the assassination were put on trial. The issue was put to rest only after an understanding was reached between the Russian and Qatari leaders, whereby the accused were returned to Moscow.
In light of the current stalemate following a majority of Chechens rejecting the outcome of "pre-determined" elections held in November 2005, the international community has a responsibility of addressing the crisis. Moscow must be pressured to fulfill its political commitment of giving power to Chechens through a complete withdrawal of its troops and fair elections. Isolating Chechnya and relegating the responsibility to Russia to deal as it deems fit is tantamount to a crime against humanity.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
03:23 ||
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A government expert's description of a terrorist camp in remote northern Pakistan had several similarities with one a Lodi man told FBI agents he attended in 2003 and 2004.
Muslim extremists operated the camp, which is hidden from plain view by mountains, Harvard scholar Hassan Abbas testified Thursday during the federal trial for Hamid Hayat, 23, and his father, Umer Hayat, 48, on terrorism-related charges.
Hamid Hayat described to agents a long bus ride, being dropped off in a field and then hiking about three miles through forested mountains to the camp. He now contends he made up the story to end agents' questioning.
Abbas, a former Pakistani police chief, testified the camp near the city of Balakot is well-known in Pakistan. While he said he has not talked to anyone who trained at the camp, he has read roughly two-dozen accounts of training by participants.
In another potential link to the younger Hayat's confession, Abbas said many recruits are attracted by the speeches and writings of Masood Azhar, leader of a banned extremist group that founded the camp in 2000 or 2001.
"They saw his speeches, read his material and met someone close to Masood Azhar," Abbas said of recruits one day after a juror dismissed from the case said she would vote to acquit the younger Hayat.
"Through that communication or conviction, they were motivated to go and join him," Abbas said.
Two hefty books found in Hayat's Lodi home were written by Azhar, and a scrapbook found there by federal agents on June 7 included newspaper stories about Azhar's group, Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Several of Abbas' answers during cross-examination backfired against defense attorney Wazhma Mojaddidi, who is representing the 23-year-old man charged with supporting terrorism and lying to the FBI about his alleged attendance at terrorist camps in Pakistan.
Where Abbas gave few details about the Balakot camp during questioning by federal prosecutor Robert Tice-Raskin, Mojaddidi pressed for more.
When the defense attorney asked if the rail-thin younger Hayat had any value to terrorist leaders, Abbas said jihadists - Muslim warriors - didn't worry about trainees' fitness.
"They're so much focused on recruiting people, anybody who has an interest, they will take him," Abbas told Mojaddidi. "Irrespective of a person's physique, they will provide the training. That's the purpose of a training camp."
Abbas also intimated there could be a job as a food preparer in such a camp. Hayat told the FBI he didn't participate in weapons training but simply washed vegetables.
"It's kind of a community they're trying to develop," Abbas said.
"They eat together, they sleep together and they move together, because they are building a community. They would be involved in all kinds of things."
Abbas also testified that contrary to efforts by Pakistan's government to eliminate terrorist training camps with the United States' assistance after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, many camps still trained Muslim extremists.
News reports of the October 2005 earthquake centered near Balakot stated many al-Qaida trainees had been killed by crumbling buildings.
Abbas spent most of the day on the witness stand, with his testimony concluding the government's case against Umer Hayat, a 48-year-old Lodi ice cream vendor and father of the co-defendant.
Paid FBI informant Naseem Khan briefly reappeared to answer more questions about his initial contacts with the FBI in Bend, Ore., in the fall of 2001, but with only Hamid Hayat's jury present.
Prosecutor Laura Ferris said the government has only one witness remaining - an expert on satellite imagery who is expected to testify Tuesday about pictures taken of a suspected terrorist camp in Pakistan.
Then, it's the defense's turn to present evidence.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
03:18 ||
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"Yaasss, I was but a humble washer of vegetables."
Iraq has determined that the Al Qaida presence has decreased.
Officials said Iraqi intelligence has assessed that the number of Al Qaida operatives in the country decreased significantly over the last year. They said many of the operatives were either killed, captured or returned to their native countries.
"We have information that many members of Al Qaida have returned to their countries," Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said.
Officials said no more than several hundred Al Qaida operatives were believed to be in Iraq. They said more than 2,000 Al Qaida fighters had been operating in the country until 2005.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
03:17 ||
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Terrorism tourists? Let them carry home the message that Allah doesn't support them in this effort.
Even as military planners look to withdraw significant numbers of American troops from Iraq in the coming year, the Bush administration continues to request hundreds of millions of dollars for large bases there, raising concerns over whether they are intended as permanent sites for U.S. forces.
Questions on Capitol Hill about the future of the bases have been prompted by the new emergency spending bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives last week with $67.6 billion in funding for the war effort, including the base money.
Although the House approved the measure, lawmakers are demanding that the Pentagon explain its plans for the bases, and they unanimously passed a provision blocking the use of funds for base agreements with the Iraqi government.
"It's the kind of thing that incites terrorism," Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said of long-term or permanent U.S. bases in countries such as Iraq.
Paul, a critic of the war, is co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill that would make it official policy not to maintain such bases in Iraq. He noted that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden cited U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia as grounds for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The debate in Congress comes as concerns grow over how long the U.S. intends to keep forces in Iraq, a worry amplified when President Bush earlier this week said that a complete withdrawal of troops from Iraq would not occur during his term.
Long-term U.S. bases in Iraq would also be problematic in the Middle East, where they could lend credence to charges that the U.S. motive for the invasion was to seize land and oil. And they could also feed debate about the appropriate U.S. relationship with Iraq after Baghdad's new government fully assumes control.
State Department and Pentagon officials have insisted that the bases being constructed in Iraq will eventually be handed over to the Iraqi government.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to Baghdad, said on Iraqi television last week that the U.S. had "no goal of establishing permanent bases in Iraq."
And Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Barry Venable said, "We're building permanent bases in Iraq for Iraqis."
But the seemingly definitive administration statements mask a semantic distinction: Although officials say they are not building permanent U.S. bases, they decline to say whether they will seek a deal with the new Iraqi government to allow long-term troop deployments.
Asked at a congressional hearing last week whether he could "make an unequivocal commitment" that the U.S. officials would not seek to establish permanent bases in Iraq, Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the commander in charge of all U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, replied, "The policy on long-term presence in Iraq hasn't been formulated." Venable, the Pentagon spokesman, said it was "premature and speculative" to discuss long-term base agreements before the permanent Iraqi government had been put in place.
All told, the United States has set up 110 forward operating bases in Iraq, and the Pentagon says about 34 of them already have been turned over to the Iraqi government, part of an ongoing effort to gradually strengthen Iraqi security forces.
Bush is under political pressure to reduce the number of U.S. troops before midterm congressional elections, and the Pentagon is expected to decide soon whether the next major deployment will reflect a significant reduction in forces.
But despite the potential force reductions and the base handovers, the spending has continued.
Dov Zakheim, who oversaw the Pentagon's emergency spending requests as the department's budget chief until 2004, said critics might be reading too much into the costly emergency spending, needed to protect U.S. forces from insurgent attacks and provide better conditions for deployed troops.
The spending "doesn't necessarily connote permanence," Zakheim said. "God knows it's a tough enough environment anyway."
The bulk of the Pentagon's emergency spending for military construction over the last three years in Iraq has focused on three or four large-scale air and logistics bases that dot the center of the country.
The administration is seeking $348 million for base construction as part of its 2006 emergency war funding bill. The Senate has not yet acted on the request.
By far the most funding has gone to a mammoth facility north of Baghdad in Balad, which includes an air base and a logistics center. The U.S. Central Command said it intended to use the base as the military's primary hub in the region as it gradually hands off Baghdad airport to civilian authorities.
Through the end last year, the administration spent about $230 million in emergency funds on the Balad base, and its new request includes $17.8 million for new roads that can accommodate hulking military vehicles and a 12.4-mile-long, 13-foot-high security fence.
The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service noted in a report last year that many of the funds already spent, including for the facilities at Balad, suggested a longer-term U.S. presence.
Projects at the base include an $18-million aircraft parking ramp and a $15-million airfield lighting system that has allowed commanders to make Balad a strategic air center for the region; a $2.9-million Special Operations compound, isolated from the rest of the base and complete with landing pads for helicopters and airplanes, where classified payloads can be delivered; and a $7-million mail distribution building.
Other bases also are being developed in ways that could lend them to permanent use.
This year's request also includes $110 million for Tallil air base outside the southeastern city of Nasiriya, a sprawling facility in the shadow of the ruins of the biblical city of Ur. Only $11 million has been spent so far, but the administration's new request appears to envision Tallil as another major transportation hub, with new roads, a new dining hall for 6,000 troops about two Army brigades and a new center to organize and support large supply convoys.
The administration also has spent $50 million for Camp Taji, an Army base north of Baghdad, and $46.3 million on Al Asad air base in the western desert.
These large bases are being built at the same time that hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on separate bases for the growing Iraqi military. According to the U.S. Central Command and data obtained from the Army Corps of Engineers, for example, about $165 million has been spent to build an Iraqi base near the southern town of Numaniya and more than $150 million for a northern base at the old Iraqi army's Al Kasik facility.
The big numbers have begun to cause consternation in congressional appropriations committees, which are demanding more accountability from Pentagon officials on military construction in the region.
The House Appropriations Committee approved the president's newest funding bill this month with a strongly worded warning. In a report accompanying the legislation, the committee noted that it had already approved about $1.3 billion in emergency spending for war-related construction, but that the recently declared "long war" on terrorism should allow more oversight of plans for bases in the region.
It "has become clear in recent years that these expeditionary operations can result in substantial military construction expenditures of a magnitude normally associated with permanent bases," the committee reported.
Rep. James T. Walsh (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees military construction, said his panel was concerned that money the Pentagon was ostensibly seeking for short-term emergency needs actually was going to projects that were not urgent but long-term in nature.
Walsh pointed to a $167-million request to build a series of roads in Iraq that bypass major cities, a proposal the administration said was needed to decrease the convoys' exposure to roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Walsh's subcommittee cut the budget for the project to $60 million. He said the project sounded "more like road construction" than it did a strategy to protect troops from IEDs.
The Appropriations Committee also inserted a ban on spending any of the new money on facilities in Iraq until the U.S. Central Command submitted a master plan for bases in the region. Abizaid, in congressional testimony last week, said such a plan was in the process of getting final Pentagon approval for release to the committee. But he noted: "The master plan is fairly clear on everything except for Iraq and Afghanistan, which I don't have policy guidance for long term."
Without such detail, it might prove impossible for congressional appropriators to get a firm idea of how the administration views the future of the U.S. presence on big bases in Iraq.
In any event, said Zakheim, the former Pentagon budget officer, projects that expand bases' ability to handle American cargo and warplanes will eventually be of use to the Iraqi government.
"Just because the Iraqis don't have an air force now doesn't mean they won't have it several years down the road," he said.
But critics said it was all the more reason for the administration to stop being vague about the future.
"The Iraqis believe we came for their oil and we're going to put bases on top of their oil," said Rep. Tom Allen (D-Maine), a critic of the administration's approach. "As long as the vast majority of Iraqis believe we want to be there indefinitely, those who are opposed to us are going to fight harder and those who are with us are going to be less enthusiastic."
Here are four of the bases in Iraq for which the Bush administration has planned upgrades. Money spent through 2005 was granted through emergency spending bills since 2003:
1. Al Asad air base
By some accounts the second largest military air center in Iraq and the main supply base for troops in Al Anbar Province, which includes the insurgent strongholds of Fallouja and Ramadi. It houses about 17,000 troops, including a large contingent of Marines.
Spending: Unknown*
Bush 2006 request: $46.3 million
2. Balad air base
The U.S. military's main air transportation and supply hub in Iraq, with two giant runways. Also known as Camp Anaconda, it is the largest support base in the country, with about 22,500 troops and several thousand contractors.
Spending: $228.7 million*
Bush 2006 request: $17.8 million.
3. Camp Taji
One of the largest facilities for U.S. ground forces in Iraq, the base also serves as home to about 15,000 Iraqi security forces. It has the largest military shopping center (PX) in the country.
Spending: $49.6 million*
Bush 2006 request: None
4. Tallil air base
An increasingly important air and transportation hub, with a growing population of coalition troops and contractors. It has become a key stopping point for supply convoys moving north from Kuwait and is close to one of the Iraqi army's main training facilities.
Spending: $10.8 million*
Bush 2006 request: $110.3 million
*Through 2005
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
03:14 ||
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There are times when we display such utter stupidity that I wonder whether we even deserve to win this war, and this is one of them. It's also proof positive that flatheaded, drooling idiocy is not confined completely to the Democratic Party.
U.S. military bases in Iraq are absolutely critical in the event we have to deal forcibly with Iran, Syria, or Saudi Arabia. We now have them-- a vital strategic asset fought for and hard-won. In my view, gaining a ground base from which we could project military power against these loci of Islamist evil was the single biggest reason for invading Iraq in the first place.
And these fuckheads in Congress want to just throw all that away and bug out, because they're afraid our presence will make Islamist fanatics mad at us????????
Fuck it.
Our worthless elected "leaders" aren't up to the task of fighting this war, because the politicians of both parties are too damned eager to go back to 9/10 and just wish it all away; back to the Congressional "business as usual" of passing porkbarrel spending bills to buy the votes of their constituents; back to that endless political game of convincing the next batch of lazy parasites that they're "poor helpless victims" and showering them with "help" from the Federal Government in exchange for votes.
Fuck it. This war is going to have to be fought all over again, from scratch, by another generation of Americans. Because this one doesn't have what it takes.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/24/2006 7:09
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Nothing new here.
Still had troops in 'temporary' Quonset Huts in Korea in 1988. Feet dragging by pork barrel politicians who'd rather buy votes at home with earmarks that contributors want [not necessarily the voters] rather than doing existing jobs right.
#4
I'll listen to politicians whining about bases in Iraq when we've removed all our troops from Germany, Korea, and the Balkans. Hell, when we went into the Balkans, the president was telling us the troops would be home by Christmas -- though he didn't say WHICH Christmas...
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 9:06
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DD: There are times when we display such utter stupidity that I wonder whether we even deserve to win this war, and this is one of them. It's also proof positive that flatheaded, drooling idiocy is not confined completely to the Democratic Party.
Among the Republicans quoted, Ron Paul is a longtime isolationist who thinks that we shouldn't have troops overseas, let alone alliances, and James Walsh is a blue stater (although a pretty conservative one).
#6
2015: President Ron Paul closed the last of the US military bases today as he appologized to the assembled UN ambassadors. "We won't be any further problem for you." the president said as he appeared to bend over to tie his shoes.
A former Democratic senator and 9/11 commissioner says a recently declassified Iraqi account of a 1995 meeting between Osama bin Laden and a senior Iraqi envoy presents a "significant set of facts," and shows a more detailed collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
In an interview yesterday, the current president of the New School University, Bob Kerrey, was careful to say that new documents translated last night by ABC News did not prove Saddam Hussein played a role in any way in plotting the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Nonetheless, the former senator from Nebraska said that the new document shows that "Saddam was a significant enemy of the United States." Mr. Kerrey said he believed America's understanding of the deposed tyrant's relationship with Al Qaeda would become much deeper as more captured Iraqi documents and audiotapes are disclosed.
Last night ABC News reported on five recently declassified documents captured in Iraq. One of these was a handwritten account of a February 19, 1995, meeting between an official representative of Iraq and Mr. bin Laden himself, where Mr. bin Laden broached the idea of "carrying out joint operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia. The document, which has no official stamps or markers, reports that when Saddam was informed of the meeting on March 4, 1995 he agreed to broadcast sermons of a radical imam, Suleiman al Ouda, requested by Mr. bin Laden.
The question of future cooperation is left an open question. According to the ABC News translation, the captured document says, "development of the relationship and cooperation between the two parties to be left according to what's open [in the future] based on dialogue and agreement on other ways of cooperation." ABC notes in their report that terrorists, believed to be Al Qaeda, attacked the Saudi National Guard headquarters on November 13, 1995.
The new documents suggest that the 9/11 commission's final conclusion in 2004, that there were no "operational" ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda, may need to be reexamined in light of the recently captured documents.
While the commission detailed some contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda in the 1990s, in Sudan and Afghanistan, the newly declassified Iraqi documents provide more detail than the commission disclosed in its final conclusions. For example, the fact that Saddam broadcast the sermons of al-Ouda at bin Laden's request was previously unknown, as was a conversation about possible collaboration on attacks against Saudi Arabia.
"This is a very significant set of facts," former 9/11 commissioner, Mr. Kerry said yesterday. "I personally and strongly believe you don't have to prove that Iraq was collaborating against Osama bin Laden on the September 11 attacks to prove he was an enemy and that he would collaborate with people who would do our country harm. This presents facts should not be used to tie Saddam to attacks on September 11. It does tie him into a circle that meant to damage the United States."
Mr. Kerry also answered affirmatively when asked whether or not the release of more of the documents captured in Iraq could possibly shed further light on Iraq's relationship with al Qaeda. The former senator was one of the staunchest supporters of the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act, which made the policy of regime change U.S. law.
However, Mr. Kerry has also been a critic of how the administration has waged the campaign in Baghdad, which he calls the "third Iraq war," meaning that the period between the invasions of 1991 and 2003 was a prolonged military engagement.
The directorate of national intelligence with the U.S. Army foreign military studies office has begun to make over 50,000 boxes of documents and some 3,000 hours of audio tape captured in Iraq available on the Web at http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm. The release of these files comes after the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Republican from Michigan, threatened to introduce legislation that would force the federal government to make the new information available.
A reporter for the Weekly Standard, Steven Hayes, yesterday said he thought the memorandum of the 1995 meeting demolishes the view of some terrorism experts that bin Laden and Saddam were incapable of cooperating for ideological and doctrinal reasons.
"Clearly from this document bin Laden was willing to work with Saddam to achieve his ends, and clearly from this document Saddam did not immediately reject the idea of working with bin Laden," Mr. Hayes said. "It is possible that documents will emerge later that suggest skepticism on the part of Iraqis to working with bin Laden, but this makes clear that there was a relationship."
Mr. Hayes's story this week makes the case that the Iraqi embassy in Manila was funding and keeping close tabs on the Al Qaeda affiliate in the Philippines, Abu Sayyaf.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
03:12 ||
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#1
There is also photo where is Dick Ch. shaking his hand with Saddam H. Is this also a evidence?
#3
Saddam couldnt possibly have been cooperating with Binnie, could he? He was a staunch secularist, after all. Osama never would have stood for all those boozy shag parties and pork pies, either.
Bird flu has arrived in the Gaza Strip. While it is impossible to know whether or how the virus is going to mutate, it has a much better chance of becoming dangerous in Gaza.
Quite a good article that highlights an issue that is widely ignored in our PC times. Namely, the pandemic is much more likely to start in some places than in others. It doesn't go to the next step, which is some places will do much better at containing its spread (once it does start) than others. Think of the dire warnings of 15 years ago that we were all at risk of catching AIDS.
No one has really considered the geopolitical consequences of a pandemic that runs unchecked through some regions, but is contained in others leaving some populations immune and others not. It would divide the world into two in terms of travel and communication.
#2
While I think I understand why Gaza has a high potential for multiple fatalies from bird to human transmission (lack of automation, lack of sanitation), I don't understand why a mutation to a human to human virus is any higher in Gaza then anywhere else.
#3
mhw: Right now, it is believed that H2H is less common because the virus enters the body through cells deep in the lungs. Typically, flus enter through sinus and throat cells, and the eyes, so infection is much easier. So, the virus might just need to "learn" to attack cells higher up to spread easily via H2H.
The easiest way for avian flu to "learn" *might* be in an area where B2H infections are more likely.
Gaza is just one such place, however, and better off than most, as Israel has made it abundantly clear that they will provide some of the best medical resources in the world *instantly* when there is any sign of the disease in the Paleo areas.
Vast areas of Asia, Africa and Oceania do not have anything approaching this level of assistance so are far more troubling.
#4
Here in Guam, iff someone uses the term BIRD FLU, many old-timers would not know what was being described or referred to - iff, however, one uses the alternate term BLUE-COLORED/HEADED CHICKEN, then they'll know what is meant. The head is cut off and thrown away, and the remainder is boiled, broiled, or barbecued at high heat. The top layers of broth or excess, dripping fats are often skimmmed - to my memory, no one I know has ever gotten sick, not even those whom still chose to cook a chicken + head with some blue discoloration. Here in Guam most farm animals are kept separate from primary domiciles and in clean environments - its a matter of [male] pride for one to know how to raise a healthy animal, be it for agricultural production or for cockfighting, as well as to prep/cook one for large groups of people. BIRD FLU, etal. will truly be life-threatening iff, e.g. like ROE V. WADE and Govt. subsidized Universal Abortion-on-Demand, and women on perm welfare, the Gummermint starts telling economy-based/dependent men Govt., etal. will unilater 150% take care of everything and anything from now on without need of anything from men. Don't need our money, don't need our romance, don't need our sex, don't need women of any age, don't need God, Govt. and Third Parties will take care of any kids, etc. .............. @so why do men need to cook!? IS WHY, WESTERN OR ASIAN, POPULATIONS IN SOCIALIST STATES ARE DYING ERGO AMERICA NEEDS TO BE LIKE THEM!?
More than a dozen women in black cloaks, some with colorful head scarves, others with only their eyes visible through slits in black veils, filed into the dining room after sunset prayers. They sat around a long table set up with paper, pencils and thermoses of Arabic coffee, across from a small group of men, including that evening's guest, Sadeg al-Malki.
The women -- homemakers, physicians and college students -- had sought out Malki, a consultant at the Islamic Education Foundation, because they wanted help on a project they were embarking on: how to talk to non-Muslim co-workers and acquaintances about Islam and the prophet Muhammad.
The women, who have since taken several mini-courses with Malki on discussing their religion with non-Muslims, are part of a loosely knit grass-roots movement that has sprung up across the kingdom since January, when anger over cartoons of Muhammad sparked riots in Europe and several Muslim countries. The movement is made up of a diverse cross section of women, students, businessmen, lawyers and clerics, all campaigning under the banner of Nusrat al-Rasool, or Victory for the Prophet.
The activists' campaign includes a continuing economic boycott of Denmark, where the cartoons were first published, and a project to produce television ads about the prophet for broadcast in Europe. College students are attempting to collect 1 million signatures to present to the Danish Embassy, and lawyers are studying ways to make insulting Islam and its prophet illegal. A number of businessmen have launched competitions with prize money of more than $50,000 for the best essays on Muhammad. This month, several clerics and heads of local committees will travel to neighboring Kuwait and Bahrain to brainstorm with Islamic activists there.
Though in its early stages, the grass-roots movement is a demonstration of how, in this region, activism within a religious context is capable of motivating and energizing a wide swath of society in a way that politics cannot. It is also a study of the ways in which deeply felt religious disputes, when not handled by governments, cut their own path, pushing people to take matters into their hands.
Muhammad Kawther, a young activist who heads Youth Together for an Islamic Renaissance, believes the cartoon controversy was a godsend for his group. The activists were just starting out, putting together their first project -- CDs urging young people to perform their five daily prayers -- when anger over the cartoons erupted. Dropping everything else, they decided on a campaign to collect 1 million signatures in support of the prophet.
Inexperienced and a little apprehensive at first, they approached several malls for permission to set up booths there. Sensing the public mood, mall owners not only agreed but gave them free access and advertising. They also allowed them to bring in chanters to sing the praises of the prophet, the first open public performances in this conservative country.
Three weeks into the campaign, Together had gathered 70,000 signatures, dozens of new supporters and, most valuable of all, a ton of practical experience.
"I learned how to deal with the public, with people of different ages and from different social levels," said Rayan al-Khilewi, who emceed the group's children's competition on facts about the prophet. "I learned how to deal with the media, and I actually did a live television feed."
Khilewi, a 20-year-old marketing student and taekwondo aficionado, had been strolling the mall with his family when he heard something he'd never heard at a shopping center before: Islamic songs being broadcast through a loudspeaker. Drawn by the a cappella chants, Khilewi, a religious Muslim, hurriedly followed the tune, which led him to the group's booth. He joined on the spot.
"For years I had been looking for a way to be active, to do something meaningful, and this was the first time I had found it," he said. "I have Denmark to thank for that."
Many who have become involved in activism since the cartoon crisis have echoed Khilewi's sentiment, saying the cartoons have shown them how much they love the prophet and forced them to do something about it.
Malki, the Islamic Education Authority consultant and also co-founder of the Faith in Diversity Institute, based in Owings Mills, Md., says the cartoons have created a new kind of activism. "People don't just want to talk, they want to do something," Malki said. "No state can stop, or think to stop, this activism. It's widespread, it's strong, and because of the love people feel for the prophet, it's also very emotional."
The two-hour lecture Malki gave in a noisy dining room packed mainly with women was winding down when he told the group he wanted to read them something from the Bible. He picked up his leather-bound King James version, well-thumbed with yellow bits of paper sticking out, leafed through it and started to read from the Book of Isaiah: "And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned."
There was stunned silence in the room, a palpable astonishment as the listeners understood the passage to foreshadow Muhammad, who was illiterate before he became a prophet. A few whispered, "God is great," and several young men and women wiped tears from their eyes.
Sulaiman al-Buthi, a Riyadh-based spokesman for the International Committee for the Defense of the Final Prophet, says this religious but peaceful activism could put an end to violence and drive groups like al-Qaeda out of business. Analysts have long said that a lack of democracy and civic institutions in the Middle East is part of the appeal of extremist groups, which offer one of the only options for disaffected youth.
But Buthi said he was "very optimistic about this movement, this cartoon intifada. It has given people opportunities to take matters into their own hands and do something positive for their religion. It's generating a very potent feeling, and it's capable of destroying the pull and influence of groups like al-Qaeda."
On the other hand, lawyer and writer Bassem Alem says he believes that the cartoons were only a trigger within the context of an already burgeoning region-wide Islamic resurgence. People "look around and they see Islamists winning in Egypt and Palestine and Morocco," he said, referring to elections in those places. "They feel empowered, and this is just one more manifestation of that."
Alem says that people took matters into their own hands because their governments were not doing enough to assuage their anger. He also contends these ad hoc committees will supplant Western-style civic institutions. "The methodologies for setting up civic institutions here failed because they were a Western model," he said. "These indigenous movements will take root because they are based on our beliefs and real needs."
Kawther, back at his father's office, which serves as Together's headquarters, was more reflective. "Islam has gone through many phases, up and down," said the stocky young man with a dark patch on his forehead that comes from regular prayers. "For it to be strong again, for a new Islamic renaissance, the youth have to be involved, and that's why we're doing this."
At the Seirafi mega-mall, where Together had set up signing booths and several computers and helped passersby send more than 5,000 e-mails to Denmark, two 12-year-old boys were handing out brochures that explained the campaign and urged people to follow the example of the prophet by becoming more devout. One of the group's members, law student Abdul-Ilah Bawazir, picked up the microphone to address the hundreds of shoppers, men to one side, veiled women to the other, who had stopped to watch that evening's performance of the Heraa group of Islamic chanters.
"We are all here for one reason," he said to the crowd. "To show solidarity with the prophet. Now that you've enjoyed the show, please take a minute and sign your name in support of the finest of messengers, prophet Muhammad. We want the world to know how much we love our prophet and how much we're willing to sacrifice for him."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
03:10 ||
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#1
If young people were allowed to do anything else in Saudi Arabia, I doubt we would see much of this junk. Reading this, you truly understand how brittle this belief system is and why it reacts so violently to outside ideas.
#2
The two-hour lecture Malki gave in a noisy dining room packed mainly with women was winding down when he told the group he wanted to read them something from the Bible. He picked up his leather-bound King James version, well-thumbed with yellow bits of paper sticking out, leafed through it and started to read from the Book of Isaiah: "And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned."
Thus encouraged, some of the group will find a Bible, expecting to find other passages that confirm their faith. And once they start reading, some of them will start thinking about what they read. At which point the road to Perdition will be well and truly greased.
He also contends these ad hoc committees will supplant Western-style civic institutions. "The methodologies for setting up civic institutions here failed because they were a Western model," he said. "These indigenous movements will take root because they are based on our beliefs and real needs."
Such a parochial view of American communitarianism! Still, this is a lovely threat to the Powers That Be -- poeple who organize themselves, peacefully, over one issue, can more easily do so the next time over something else, and suddenly they don't need their natural overlords to tell them what to do and how to think.
lawyer and writer Bassem Alem says he believes that the cartoons were only a trigger within the context of an already burgeoning region-wide Islamic resurgence. People "look around and they see Islamists winning in Egypt and Palestine and Morocco," he said, referring to elections in those places. "They feel empowered, and this is just one more manifestation of that."
The only thing wrong with this picture is that what they see is the false dawn of the prematurely triumphalist -- because soon to be defeated -- expansionist Islamism. How much greater their let-down when all their mainifestations fall on their faces.
#4
"To show solidarity with the prophet. Now that you've enjoyed the show, please take a minute and sign your name in support of the finest of messengers, prophet Muhammad. We want the world to know how much we love our prophet and how much we're willing to sacrifice for him."
As in how many Saudi youth are willing to go KABOOM in Iraq?
Bad news if true, since this indicates that JI, far from having schismed as was believed to be the case post-Bali, was actually just working parallel lines with Azahari and Top running the actual terror operations and Abu Dujana, Zulkarnaean, and Co being hard at work maintaining the organization and strengthening their hold over MILF in Mindanao. Throw that together with the involvement of Binny and KSM's financing operations and it looks like the Bad Guys are making a long-term investment in Mindanao into a kind of Afghanistan East, which is more valuable to them in the long run than any bombings they manage to carry out in Indonesia. One of the most frustrating setbacks for the war on terrorism has been the ability of the Bad Guys to successfully establish rear bases (Waziristan, Mindanao, and until the fall of Shevardnadze parts of Georgia as well) from which to regroup and reorganize.
Regional terrorism network Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for a series of deadly bombings in Indonesia, has for the past three years been led by a militant named Abu Dujana, according to a senior police officer.
Senior Commissioner Petrus Reinhard Golose, deputy commander of Indonesia's counter-terrorism task force, on Wednesday (22/3/06) said Dujana has been at the helm of the group since April 2003, when he replaced Abu Rusdan.
Rusdan was allegedly appointed caretaker leader of Jemaah Islamiyah in October 2002, replacing militant cleric Abu Bakar Baasyir, who co-founded the group with Abdullah Sungkar in Malaysia in 1993. Baasyir was said to have assumed the leadership after Sungkar died in 1999.
Both Rusdan and Baasyir have strongly denied any involvement in terrorism and insisted that Jemaah Islamiyah does not exist.
Golose said Dujana has strong leadership qualities, close links to al Qaeda, speaks Arabic fluently, and received weapons training in Afghanistan, where he met Osama bin Laden.
Dujana was reportedly born in West Java, grew up in Central Java and fled to Malaysia in the 1980s to escape a crackdown on Islamic militants by then president Suharto.
After teaching at the Lukmanul Hakiem Islamic School set up by Jemaah Islamiyahs leadership in Johor Baru, Dujana went to Afghanistan to join the war against the Soviets. He graduated from the Mujahideen Military Academy in 1991 and is said to have studied bomb-making there alongside Jemaah Islamiyahs former operations commander Hambali, who also reputedly headed al Qaedas Southeast Asian wing until his arrest in Thailand in 2003. Hambali is now being held by the US, which has so far refused to hand him over to Indonesia for trial.
Golose said that whenever he had mentioned Dujana's name to Australian authorities they said the militant was too young to be head of Jemaah Islamiyah. Dujanas age has been put at between 34 and 37.
According to Golose, senior Jemaah Islamiyah figures Azahari Husin and Noordin M. Top had reported to Dujana following the August 2003 suicide bombing that killed 12 people at Jakartas JW Marriott Hotel. Azahari was shot dead in November 2005 during a police raid on his East Java hideout, while Noordin remains at large.
Golose said Dujana is a skilled bomber, "more dangerous than Noordin and Azahari and maintains good relations with al Qaeda.
More than 270 people have been arrested in Indonesia on suspicion of involvement in terrorism since 2000. But several key figures have evaded arrest. In addition to Noordin and Dujana, Indonesias most wanted terror suspects include Dulmatin, Umar Patek and Zulkarnaen. All three are accused of involvement in the Bali bombings. Zulkarnaen is believed to have replaced Hambali as Jemaah Islamiyahs operations chief. Dulmatin, an explosives expert, is believed to be in the southern Philippines.
Golose said the arrest of Noordin or one or two other senior radicals would not reduce the threat of terrorism in Indonesia, as Jemaah Islamiyah has trained several new bomb-makers.
He said it was difficult to pinpoint exactly who is in charge of Jemaah Islamiyah because its individual cells operate secretively and often independently of one another, while the group has also been divided by ideological and tactical splits. For example, Noordin has reportedly declared himself leader of Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad (Jihad Basis Organization), which is viewed as a renegade offshoot of Jemaah Islamiyah.
Golose said Noordin, who has also proclaimed himself to be al Qaeda's Southeast Asian representative, is only a member of Asykari (Jemaah Islamiyahs militant wing or special force) and not part of Markazi (Jemaah Islamiyahs central organization).
The US Federal Bureau of Investigations Rewards for Justice program is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to Dulmatin. The FBI is also offering a $1 million reward for Patek. Indonesias National Police headquarters is offering a Rp1 billion reward for Noordin. Neither the US nor Indonesia are offering a reward for Dujana, who is thought to be in Indonesia. Golose said arresting Dujana is a priority.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
02:58 ||
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Hundreds of people have been fleeing the northern suburbs of Mogadishu after two days of heavy fighting in the Somali capital.
Mogadishu has suburbs?
Doctors say at least 60 people have been killed and that the hospitals are full of injured civilians.
Residents say mortars are being used in the battle between an Islamic militia and warlords. The warlords have accused the Islamists of sheltering foreign fighters and assassinating moderate Muslims.
The United Nations' Irin news agency quotes a doctor saying many more than 60 people may have been killed "because a lot of people are being buried where they died". The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan says hundreds of residents have been forced to leave after their homes were hit by anti-tank shells and mortar rounds. He says more than 100 armed vehicles have been deployed and more than 100 militiamen are fighting. "Really the situation is very horrific there, many people could be seen fleeing from the area with their children on their backs and what you can see on the ground is only militiamen carrying guns from the line of fighting," he said.
In February, the clan-based warlords formed an alliance to challenge the Islamic militia which is loyal to a system of Sharia courts. The Islamic militia says it is trying to establish law and order but the warlords accuse the courts of terrorising the people of Somalia. The dispute started near the port area, which is currently controlled by powerful businessmen. Much of the fighting has been in residential areas and the latest clashes are reportedly closer to the city centre.
Four days of fighting last month between the two sides was some of the heaviest seen in the Somali capital for several years. There are fears that with such a strong ideological divide between the two sides, it may prove difficult to negotiate an end to the fighting. Somalia has been without an effective central government for recorded history 15 years and has been carved up by rival militias.
A transitional parliament met recently for the first time on home soil since it was formed in Kenya more than a year ago as part of attempts to restore peace and stability. At least five warlords-cum-ministers in the transitional government are behind the new Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, opposed to the Islamic courts' militia. The courts have set up Mogadishu's only judicial system in parts of the capital but have been accused of links to al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
02:55 ||
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#1
Da ta da ta da da da
listening to Gershon Kingsley popcorn
Afghan army units destroyed a suspected command cell of the Taliban militia in an operation in the central province of Uruzgan, carried out with the support of coalition forces, the U.S. military command said.
Six fighters were killed in the incident yesterday in an area where Taliban operatives have bases, the Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan said on its Web site. Afghan soldiers recovered materials ``intended for the manufacture of improvised explosive devices,'' the command said.
Sebghatullah Mojadeddi, the leader of the Afghan upper house of parliament known as the Meshrano Jirga, escaped an attempt by suicide bombers on March 12 to kill him in the capital, Kabul. He later accused Pakistan of being behind the incident, a charge Pakistan's government on March 13 described as ``absurd and highly irresponsible,'' AFP reported at the time.
Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban's fugitive leader, in a purported statement issued March 16 said fighters will intensify suicide attacks to make the country like a ``flaming oven,'' AFP reported at the time. Young people have ``filled lists'' volunteering for such attacks, he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
02:54 ||
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Well done, Afghan army! As for the Taliban, they are certainly working hard to reduce their excess population problem, so at least they can be considered effective by that -- unintentional -- metric. ;-)
Police handed over Thursday a fourth suspect in last year's Bali bombings to the provincial prosecutor's office, which will now prepare the indictment against the accused, an officer said.
The attacks on Oct. 1, 2005, in Jimbaran and Kuta killed 23, including three suicide bombers.
Dwi Widiyanto, alias Wiwid, 34, could face the death penalty if convicted of helping to organize the bombings. The suspect, who was arrested Nov. 30, and his case file were handed over to Agoes Djaja, an official at the prosecutor's office.
Agoes said police also turned over several pieces of evidence, including a motorcycle allegedly used by the suspect and a video camera and computer that Wiwid reportedly used to transfer a video recording by fugitive Malaysian terror suspect Noordin M. Top and the video confessions of the three suicide bombers.
Three other suspects in the bombings -- Abdul Azis, 30, Anif Solchanuddin, 24, and Muhammad Cholili, 28 -- were handed over to prosecutors March 15.
The three suspects turned over earlier in the month told reporters they were prepared to be executed. When reporters attempted to question Wiwid, the suspect remained silent.
"The bombing has already taken place. So, what else?" Wiwid said as quoted by Agoes. "I don't know whether Wiwid's statement constitutes an apology of not," he said.
Wiwid also reportedly told Agoes he was frightened when police began hunting down members of the terrorist network involved in the Kuta and Jimbaran bombings.
Police have said that in addition to sheltering the suspected mastermind behind the bombings, Noordin, Wiwid is also thought to have taken part in meetings to plan the attacks.
Prosecutors now have up to 60 days to complete the indictment against Wiwid.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
02:53 ||
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have teamed up with law-enforcement authorities in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay to combat money laundering and other financial crimes in a remote and lawless region known as the "Tri-Border Area."
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers, who heads ICE, said multigovernment "trade transparency units" will investigate and prosecute crimes including money laundering, terrorist financing, contraband smuggling and tax evasion.
The United States has determined that the Tri-Border Area is a source of fundraising for radical Islamic groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and al Qaeda, and the U.S. government has worked cooperatively with governments in the region to disrupt fundraising activity.
U.S. law-enforcement authorities describe the Tri-Border Area as South America's busiest contraband and smuggling center, where billions of dollars annually are generated from arms trafficking, drug smuggling, counterfeiting and other crimes.
"The new units will not only help authorities in these nations combat domestic financial crimes, but will also enhance the ability of the United States to target money-laundering rings that operate both in South America and the United States," Mrs. Myers said.
The Tri-Border Area is flanked by the freewheeling cities of Puerto Iguazu in Argentina, Foz do Iguazu in Brazil and Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, where drug dealers and terrorists reportedly meet and where counterterrorism investigators worldwide have intensified their focus since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States because of the growing presence of Islamic radicals.
Argentina's Secretariat of State Intelligence first reported in 1999 that members of the al Qaeda terrorist network were in the region to coordinate terrorism training and to plan attacks with Hezbollah against U.S. targets.
U.S. intelligence officials have been concerned that an alliance with Hezbollah would give al Qaeda a new base close to the United States for attacks.
The Treasury Department has described the Tri-Border Area as a "clear example" of where Islamic groups gather to "finance terrorist activities."
The department has said members of al Qaeda, Egypt's Al-Gamaa Islamiya, the Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah have drawn some of their funding from activities in the area.
The FBI sent agents to the region in 2002 after a poster of Iguazu Falls, the area's major tourist attraction, was found inside an al Qaeda bunker in Afghanistan.
Mrs. Myers said earlier efforts by the agency and other foreign governments to combat trade-based money laundering have yielded successful results, including an investigation into a $20 million gold export subsidy scheme in 2004 that led to the prosecution of 20 New York jewelers for money laundering.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
02:51 ||
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A British terrorist cell with alleged links to Al-Qaeda discussed bombing revellers at a large central London nightclub as well as targeting several synagogues in London and one in Manchester, a prosecutor said Wednesday. One of the defendants, Salahuddin Amin, even discussed trying to buy a radio-isotope "dirty bomb" from the Russian mafia, but nothing appeared to have come from his enquiries, prosecutor David Waters told a London jury.
On the second day of the trial at the Central Criminal Court, Waters also said Amin, 31, and co-accused Omar Khyam, 24, received instruction in Pakistan about how to make the poison ricin while there for explosives training. The group, which allegedly had help in its preparations in Pakistan and Canada, discussed potential targets at the home of Jawad Akbar, 22, on February 22, 2004, he said.
But the talks were overheard by the British security services and anti-terrorism police, who had bugged the house, he added. "Jawad Akbar referred to attacks upon the utilities, gas, water or electrical supplies. Alternatively, a big nightclub in central London might be a target," Waters said. The plot involved detonating a bomb made with ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder and using encrypted radio transmissions, he added.
Waters also suggested that several synagogues in London and one in Manchester, northwest England, that appeared on a list found at the house of two of the defendants, could also have been potential targets. Group members are alleged to have trained in explosives at a camp in Pakistan and obtained 600 kilogrammes (1,322 pounds) of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for use in Britain.
Arrests were made on March 30, 2004, when plans were moving towards a "final phase", although Amin was picked up on February 8 last year after arriving from Islamabad, Waters said. Before that, Khyam, who was allegedly "at the centre of operations", was said to have discussed, both by e-mail and in person, making remote detonators with Canadian Mohammed Momin Khawaja.
Khawaja is awaiting trial there in connection with the alleged plot after being arrested in Toronto a week after his return from meeting Khyam and Shuja Mahmood, 19, his brother and co-defendant.
The others -- one of whom worked for a contractor to British utility National Grid Transco -- were heard discussing bombs, praising the Madrid train bombings and raising the possibility of carrying out a "little explosion" at a British shopping centre. One, 23-year-old Anthony Garcia, also known as Rahman Adam, wrote a farewell letter to his younger brother that was found at his girlfriends house, the court heard.
Waters said Amin had made enquiries about acquiring a radio-isotope bomb after going to Pakistan, although his search was apparently fruitless. Amin himself later told police he did not believe the offer of atomic material for a "dirty bomb" -- where radioactive material is spread over a large area by a conventional explosive -- was genuine. But the lawyer stressed that whether the possibility of acquiring and using a "dirty bomb" was realistic or not, Amin had made a "fundamental and a concrete and immensely important contribution" to the conspiracy.
Waters said Tuesday that Waheed Mahmood, 34, was a supporter of Al-Qaeda, and that he, Khyam and his brother worked for a man called Abdul Hadi, whom Khyam reportedly described as Al-Qaedas number three.
All six men as well as Nabeel Hussain, 20, deny conspiracy to cause explosions with Khawaja and unknown others plus separate counts of possessing articles for terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
02:50 ||
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Islamist militants killed a Pakistani trooper and wounded two others in a rocket attack on their post in a troubled tribal region near the Afghan border on Friday, officials said.
The attack occurred early in the morning near Datta Kheil village in North Waziristan, the scene of fierce battles between security forces and militants in recent weeks.
Around 200 tribesmen were killed in clashes with the army after answering a call to arms by militant Muslim clerics following an attack on an al Qaeda camp by security forces.
Syed Zaheer-ul-Islam, the top government administrator in North Waziristan, said security forces returned fire after the rocket attack on the post but there was no word on militant casualties.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
02:49 ||
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Pakistani forces using helicopter gunships killed around 20 pro-Taliban militants near the Afghan border after an attack on a security post left one soldier dead, an official said.
The fighting in the restive district of North Waziristan came a day after President Pervez Musharraf ordered foreign Al-Qaeda militants to quit Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan or be killed.
"Around 20 militants, including some foreigners, were killed when security forces struck their hideout with gunship helicopters and artillery after the attack on a security post, which killed one soldier and injured two others," a military official said on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
02:48 ||
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The Al Qaeda terror cell is trying to recruit Azeri girls to carry out suicide attacks, the National Security Minister Eldar Mahmudov has said. The persons supposedly being drawn to join such extremist groups include believers from low-income families, religious students or the unemployed aged between 20 and 25, Mahmudov told Russian Interfax news agency. "The secret service bodies have been frequently encountering the activity of extremist groups aiming to disrupt the secular and democratic state-building in Azerbaijan and prompt the country to back off from the international anti-terror coalition. Such groups target strategic sites, embassies, the offices of foreign companies and areas densely populated by foreigners." The minister said that although the country has extensive experience in fighting extremism, the data suggesting that young women are being recruited by the Al Qaeda Caucasus cell "was the worst discovery for us over the past years".
Mahmudov said combat against religious extremists is one of the priorities for the secret service. Azerbaijan is actively cooperating with other countries, including the Commonwealth of Independent States, in fighting terror, Mahmudov said. "The terror acts committed recently in Europe and Asia once again showed that not a single state can counter terrorism on its own and deem itself fully protected from it."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
02:47 ||
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fits right in with the "throw acid in the faces of little girls" crowd.
President Bush says frequently "we are fighting them over there so they won't come over here." "Them" are transnational terrorists and "over there" is Iraq.
The insurgency in Iraq has much to do with al Qaeda's plans for a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) act of terrorism in the United States, but not the way the White House believes. Assuming the Bush administration is successful in midwifing democracy out of a near-civil war situation in Iraq, the WMD threat level will remain unchanged. High, that is.
Paradoxical though this may seem to Washington's armchair strategists, the defeat of the al Qaeda-Sunni insurgency in Iraq would actually heighten, not lessen, the danger of a September 11 CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) attack. Defeated by the U.S. in Afghanistan and again in Iraq, al Qaeda would have to conclude its strategy of forcing the U.S. into a humiliating, Vietnamlike retreat has failed.
Arabic-speaker Professor Gilles Kepel, one of France's leading experts on al Qaeda, published last week "Al Qaeda dans le Texte," an analysis of the public and (intercepted) private utterances of the two Z's -- Ayman al-Zawahri (Osama bin Laden's No. 2) and Abu Musab Zarqawi, al Qaeda's insurgency honcho in Iraq. Stripped if its complexities, al Qaeda's strategy, Mr. Kepel explains, is to defeat the U.S. in Iraq, use this victory to roll over traditional oil-rich regimes in the Gulf that are security wards of the U.S., and then focus on Israel. But there is now an obstacle even greater than the U.S. -- Iran. Tehran, as seen through Zawahri's geopolitical viewfinder, is already calling the shots in large parts of Iraq. Whether the U.S. stays or leaves Iraq, concludes Zawahri, it's still Iran's ballgame. Which brings al Qaeda back to its WMD-in-America strategy.
"The Race Between Cooperation and Catastrophe," or why "the [nuclear] threat is outrunning our response" is how Sam Nunn, the former senator and co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, describes an overarching terrorist construct. The starter's gun for this new race went off at the end of the Cold War. Congress has appropriated almost $12 billion under Nunn-Lugar legislation designed to enhance security in scores of former Soviet and now Russian nuclear weapons and nuclear materials storage sites. Another $20 billion was pledged for the same purpose at a G-8 summit of the major industrialized nations in Canada three years ago -- $1 billion by the U.S. and $1 billion by the other seven per year for 10 years.
There has been no cooperation from India in the nuclear security field, says Matthew Bunn, director of the Atom Project at Harvard. "China," he adds, "has secured one civilian facility."
With more than $30 billion in the button-down-the-nukes kitty, more than half the security work remains to be done. There are 43 countries with more than 100 research reactors or related facilities that store enough highly enriched uranium nuclear materials to make several bombs. Only 20 percent of these sites are properly secured, says Mr. Nunn, and less than a handful meet U.S. Energy Department security standards, says Mr. Bunn. Most countries consider the Energy Department security criteria too demanding.
Rather than try to steal or buy one of thousands of Russian tactical nukes, or nerve gas artillery shells, a WMD terrorist is far more likely to knock off the night watchman, lower the chain-link fence somewhere in Switzerland or Italy and drive off with sufficient materials for a nuclear device. Actually making a nuclear bomb after that is the easy part; the recipe is on the Internet.
Mr. Nunn, chairman of the board of trustees at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says we appear to have forgotten the "devastating, world-changing impact of a nuclear [terrorist] attack. "If a 10-kiloton nuclear device goes off in Midtown Manhattan on a typical work day, it could kill more than half a million people," he explains. Ten kiloton is a plausible yield "for a crude terrorist bomb," according to Mr. Nunn.
Hauling that volume of explosives would require a freight train 100 cars long. As a nuclear bomb, it could easily fit on the back of a pickup truck.
Another Nunn scenario has a terrorist group with insider help acquiring a radiological source from an industrial or medical facility; say cesium-137 in the form of powdered cesium chloride. Conventional explosives are used to incorporate cesium into a "dirty bomb," then detonated in New York's financial district. A 60-square block area has to be evacuated. Millions flee the city in panic. Only two dozen are killed but billions of dollars of real estate is declared uninhabitable. Cleanup will take years -- and many more billions.
What interests bin Laden and Zawahri beyond casualty lists is collateral damage to civil liberties, privacy and the world economy. America, as they see it, would be knocked off its pinnacle. This would be the shot heard around the world and hundreds of millions of either frightened or jubilant Muslims would flock to the Muslim world's black Jolly Roger of white skull and crossbones.
In a routine exchange of information, Russia's chief intelligence officer in Washington notified his CIA liaison officer that al Qaeda operatives had been scouting nuclear storage sites in Russia. It would be a miracle if nothing had been stolen from Russia's long ill-guarded nuclear weapons storage depots during the collapse of the Soviet Union when anything and everything was for sale. We also know from sketches found in al Qaeda's safe houses in Kabul and Kandahar that bin Laden was interested in nuclear bomb design. Two Pakistani nuclear scientists from A.Q. Khan's stable were in Kandahar when this reporter was there three months before September 11, 2001.
The distance remaining to near-perfect security can be measured by how Mr. Nunn describes the adequacy of the U.S.-Russian response to the terrorist nuclear threat.
On a scale of 1 to 10," says Mr. Nunn, "I would give us about a 3, with the last summit between Presidents Bush and Putin moving us closer to a 4."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
02:45 ||
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I remember big discussions about terrorist nukes some time back, here at Rantburg. As I recall, the consensus was that there is serious equipment needed to construct a real nuclear bomb from scratch (or even just to assemble one from components), and even more serious training and tools for the technicians doing the frequently required maintenance until the thing is used, without which the bomb would become a really pretty paperweight. And, that a more realistic concern would be about the deployment of a dirty nuke/conventional bomb in the center of a major city. But, that the concern was more about the fears of the residents, as the radioactivity shed by such a thing would break down to a reasonable level pretty quickly.
#2
a WMD terrorist is far more likely to knock off the night watchman, lower the chain-link fence somewhere in Switzerland or Italy and drive off with sufficient materials for a nuclear device. Actually making a nuclear bomb after that is the easy part; the recipe is on the Internet.
What rubbish.
Recipe on the internet?
Making an A bomb is not like mixing a cake.
The actual Physics and Engineering required is non trivial and is not available on the net.
Any fool who lowers a chain link fence and tries to load a spent reactor rod from a cooling pool into his truck will die in minutes from radiation poisoning.
Posted by: john ||
03/24/2006 17:03
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We must remember that countries have failed to get the bomb.
Some tried for decades and gave up.
Governments can buy things that terrorits cannot.
They have vast amounts of money, intelligence operatives that can steal things, ships and plnaes to transport things, they can hire expertise, thye have access to the top scientists at their universities.
Yet countries like Iraq did not find bomb making to be trivial.
Exploding a single atomic bomb could have deterred action during the first gulf war.
How come Iraqi secret service did not pull down a chain link fence, steal the material for a bomb and have their scientists (or maybe street urchins in Baghdad) use the internet recipe to build a few bombs?
Posted by: john ||
03/24/2006 17:08
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Which is why a single nuclear terrorist attack on American soil should get the terror sponsors glassed over in less than 24 hours.
#5
Actually, tw, besides the high-precision shaping of critical mass sub-segments (so that they implode/compress into a very uniform solid) and the almost instantaneous triggering of all the explosive charges that compress them (two incredibly difficult achievements), there is also the "one point safe" level of fusing and triggering a nuclear device.
This requires (as with American nuclear weapons) that there is only a one-in-a-million chance of accidental detonation. Few rough-shod developmental laboratories are able to devise such safe and reliable actuation systems. Lack of that sort of control makes a crude nuclear weapon an equal threat to both attacker and target alike.
Given the propensity that terrorists have for "work related" accidents, some of their first attempts at fabricating nuclear weapons will probably do them more harm than us. All of this points back to how critical it is to contain and secure existing weapons stocks in Russia and elsewhere.
#6
Yet countries like Iraq did not find bomb making to be trivial.
Few rough-shod developmental laboratories are able to devise such safe and reliable actuation systems.
Interesting. I was just reading recently (I can't remember where - here, maybe?) that some scientific types were convinced that Pak and the NKors couldn't have done what they did without significant Chinese help. Here's an article along those same lines.
AN AMERICAN terrorist-turned-supergrass who conspired with Islamist extremists to blow up British targets was a follower of Abu Hamza alMasri, the jailed cleric, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.
Muhammad Babar, who has admitted having links to al-Qaeda, was taken to court by armed police amid maximum security to give evidence against his former accomplices.
He allegedly left America days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to fight in Pakistan, even though his mother, who worked in the World Trade Centre, had narrowly escaped death when the aircraft hit.
Babar, 31, told the court that he met Omar Bakri Muhammad, the exiled leader of alMuhajiroun, a radical Islamist group, during a visit to Britain. He was later in contact with Abu Hamza and spent time in Pakistan preparing for jihad (holy war) with 15 to 20 brothers, mostly from Britain.
The prosecution claims that these men included six of the seven defendants standing trial for conspiring to cause an explosion in Britain. Targets that they discussed included Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, a Central London nightclub, a train or power supplies.
Babar has pleaded guilty in New York to terrorist-related offences, including what the American authorities described as the British bomb plot. He is the first supergrass linked to al-Qaeda to give evidence in a Western court and has been given immunity from prosecution in relation to his evidence.
Armed anti-terrorism police wearing flak jackets stood guard outside the court, which was cleared of media and members of the public while the former pharmacy student was brought in by US marshals.
He was taken to the Old Bailey amid tight security in a convoy of vehicles with a helicopter overhead. Roads were sealed off as, escorted by police cars, the unmarked prison van crossed Central London. It arrived at the back of the Old Bailey and Babar was taken through a rear entrance while a cordon of armed officers excluded any other vehicles.
One of the charges that Babar admitted was conspiring to promote material support. This relates to the acquisition of ammonium nitrate fertiliser and aluminium powder, which the prosecution alleges were components for explosives to be used in attacks in Britain. Babar said that he became a member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun while at university, when he became angered by the Gulf War.
Speaking in an American accent, without looking at the defendants in the dock, he said that he became radicalised during the Gulf War.
He joined various Islamic groups at university in New York, concentrating on those that shared his belief that Muslims should unite and fight back as a unit.
Babar cited his influences as Abu Hamza and Bakri Muhammad. He followed Abu Hamzas website proclamations on Sharia and met Bakri Muhammad in person, later communicating with him by e-mail and telephone. The British brothers, with him in Pakistan for jihad, were mostly from London and Crawley, West Sussex, he said. The names he listed were, the prosecution says, those used by the defendants while in Pakistan.
Asked what he meant by brothers, Babar said: Most of the time it just means your Muslim brothers, but it could mean Arabs or members of al-Qaeda.
Babar was born in Pakistan but moved to America as a child, occasionally visiting his home country. He moved back to Pakistan between 2001 and 2004, setting up an al- Muhajiroun office in Peshawar.
He said that, for a while, he had wanted to fight in Palestine or Chechnya, but the opportunity never presented itself. When the September 11 attacks happened, which his mother survived, he realised that the US would invade Afghanistan and decided it was the best time to go and fight.
It took him a week to get a visa and he flew to Pakistan, via a visit to Britain, arranged by an al-Muhajiroun contact living in Britain.
After praying at a mosque in Southall, West London, and attending a demonstration at the Pakistan High Commission, Babar went to the London al-Muhajiroun office and met Bakri Muhammad. While in Britain he told his al-Muhajiroun contact that he wanted to travel to Pakistan but had no savings. He was given £300 with the promise of more money when he reached there.
The jury was told earlier in the trial that Babars contact with the defendants related mainly to developing expertise in explosives and acquiring bomb parts. This training was initially directed towards fighting in Afghanistan and only later focused on British targets.
Salahuddin Amin, 31, of Luton; Shujah Mahmood, 18, Waheed Mahmood, 34, Omar Khyam, 24, and Jawad Akbar, 22, all from Crawley, West Sussex; Anthony Garcia, 24, of Ilford, East London; and Nabeel Hussain, 20, from Horley, Surrey, all deny conspiring to cause an explosion likely to endanger life between October 2003 and March 2004.
Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain also deny possessing 600kg (1,300lb) of fertiliser for the purposes of terrorism. Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood deny possessing aluminium powder, also for the purposes of terrorism.
The trial continues.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2006
02:39 ||
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He joined various Islamic groups at university in New York, concentrating on those that shared his belief that Muslims should unite and fight back as a unit.
After this trial is over, he'd better go on to grassing on his university brothers, too.
Swedish foreign minister Laila Freivalds resigned on Tuesday (21 March) following a row connected to the infamous Mohammed cartoons. Ms Freivalds had faced fierce criticism after the Swedish foreign ministry allegedly ordered the website of a far-right party, Sweden Democrats, which had threatened to publish the cartoons, to be shut down. The website was closed when a foreign ministry official contacted the firm Levonline that hosted the website.
In response to allegations that the move violated Swedish freedom of speech laws, Ms Freivalds claimed the official had merely pointed out that the website was endangering the lives of Swedes. Ms Freivalds also said she had no knowledge of her ministry's contact with the website hosts.
Swedish prime minister Goran Persson also accused the ministry official of acting unconstitutionally by letting his own opinion in the matter guide his acts instead of Swedish law. Earlier this week, the official himself told the Swedish attorney-general investigating the closure that he had deliberated with Ms Freivalds prior to contacting Levonline, and that the minister had claimed the move was vital to "protect Swedish interests." The incident has been seen as embarrassing the prime minister.The shutting down of the website is currently being investigated by the Swedish parliamenta constitutional committee and the office of the chancellor of justice, and opposition leaders on Wednesday hinted that a possible vote of no confidence against the prime minister may be initiated.
Cartoons legacy hangs over Denmark
Meanwhile across the Oresund strait, Denmark has reacted with anger to a UN campaign poster marking the World Day against racism, picturing a jigsaw puzzle and a piece of Lego - one of Denmark's best export products and almost a national symbol. "Racism takes many shapes" says the poster, which has also been printed in Arabic. Danish human rights activists call the poster "tactless and stupid" and the "deeply surprised" Lego firm has contacted the UN for an explanation, the Nordic press writes. After an official request by Danish foreign minister Per Stig Moller, UN spokesperson Jose Luis Diaz said the poster designer was "probably not aware of the Lego piece origin", and that the poster would be withdrawn.
#4
"...UN spokesperson Jose Luis Diaz said the poster designer was "probably not aware of the Lego piece origin..."
...Rendering the UN stupid instead of libelous. I'd love to hear old Jose Luis Diaz explain to us the meaning of a child's block toy of "unknown origin" in a poster against racism. OH, modern art, I get it, it's not supposed to MEAN anything. Makes sense then that it came from the UN.
#6
The UN and racism.....my ass.
Every country in the UN is up to their ears in racism, except the US and maybe a few others. These people have more balls than brains to address racism. In anothre of today's articles, Paleos aren't accepted into Iraqi society. They're the same race for pit's sake. The Basques hate the Spanish, most young French are second class citizens, the Turks in Germany live in separate areas, and on and on.
Racism is the biggest joke on the planet.
Left-handed snails are better than righties at defending against predators, according to a new study that suggests lefties have the same competitive advantage in nature that they enjoy on the baseball diamond or in the boxing ring. The study, published in this month's Royal Society Biology Letters, suggests that snails whose shells coil toward the left were more likely to survive crab attacks than those whose shells coil toward the right.
"It's just a frequency issue," said Yale geologist Gregory P. Dietl, one of the study's authors. "As long as you're rare, you're going to have an advantage."
The researchers studied about 1,800 snail fossils, looking for scarring evidence of a predator attack. Scarring was found more frequently on right-handed snails, the study said. Researchers offered two explanations for the advantage. Because most crabs are right-handed, they said, cracking into a shell that opens on the opposite side might be more difficult. Alternatively, researchers said crabs might simply not be used to attacking lefties, just as baseball pitchers face fewer left-handed batters.
"It's the same thing here in nature," Dietl said. "These snails that are left-handed, they have an advantage. It doesn't become an advantage if lefties are just as common as righties."
#2
Now I have a comeback when somebody makes fun of the way I hold a pencil and always write uphill........("Stand back yuo North-paw slime, lest ye be smiten by my mighty left hand")
parlé ummah?
MONTREALThe Quebec Human Rights Commission says a university-affiliated institution should try to find reasonable accommodation where its Muslim students can pray. Some students at the Ecole de Technologie Supérieure, affiliated with the Université du Québec, complained they had to pray in the stairwell. The students want the school to build a separate prayer room because they are tired of kneeling on prayer mats. awwwww, cabeza pounding on concrete builds character
A commission spokesman says the college has a responsibility to offer reasonable prayer accommodation to the Muslim students but is not obliged to offer space that is exclusive to them. up ur upzilla
Marc-André Dowd, the commission's interim president, said a multi-faith chapel or classrooms are possibilities. The school's "secular format doesn't exempt it from its obligation to reasonably accommodate its Muslim students," he told a news conference. The complaint was launched on behalf of 113 students.
The commission also ruled that pictograph signs prohibiting the washing of feet in the school's sinks wasn't discriminatory against Muslims, who must perform the ritual. Witnesses testified that it's acceptable for a person to simply pass his wet hands over his feet.
#1
Unless we stop this piecemeal Shariazation, this crap will come to your plant, your office, your school, etc It won't come to your liquor store, because these won't exist in the near future.
#4
Why? All the other religious groups manage to pay their own damned way, why can't Muslims?
I suspect that this university already does provide space for Catholic students. If it does then other religious groups have a valid point in demanding some sort of suitable space.
Keep in mind that Canada has two educational systems at the elementary and secondary level: the Catholic school board, and the public school board. Both are publicly funded. The Catholic school board hasn't yet seen this sort of controversy because obviously not many Muslims go to Catholic schools.
At the college level, however, it is possible to see Muslim students at publicly funded, traditionally Catholic institutions. So the college system will always be at the front lines of these type of cultural clashes. In the interest of fairness, equality and what have you, colleges and universities will usually bend over backwards to accomodate students of various religions.
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/24/2006 14:14
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MM: At the recent Extraordinary Islamic Summet Conference in Makkah the Saudis have announced a Ten Year (Joint Islamic) Plan of Action to establish the Muslim Ummah and assured Muslims that "He (Allah) will surely empower them in the earth as He did with their predecessors and that He will surely establish for them (therein) their religion".
Now that's a term that has never occurred to me in connection with Islam.
10 yrs... I guess I should hold off on the vacation property, then?
Posted by: Jans Snomble4884 ||
03/24/2006 1:54
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#2
Reality Dictates: from neo-Talibanis in advance in Afghanistan and Shariah campaigners in the West and genocidal in power in the West Bank (and surging everywhere) and Muslim Students Association jihadis on US campuses, to ascendant Iran, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic States, aggressive Islam is advancing, while the West retreats abroad and is polluted within by the mortal enemy of all humanity.
Thanks to George Kennan, et al, Soviet nuclear weapons put us in a position where we had to contain Communist aggression. And, generally, Communists were not in our neighborhoods and producing twice the number of children as non-Communists, as are our Muslim subversives. Currently, the Islamofascists are in no position to force containment surrender. The fact that we indulge them to the point of denying their genocidal belligerence, and even invite them to subvert democratic process, while nation building Muslim tyrannies, is evidence of our lack of will to destroy the worst threat that Western Civilization has ever faced. It is: us versus them; now not later; and kill or be killed.
Content-wise, we know. We've known for a long long time hereabouts. Fine phrasing in the post, however, except for that lack of will bit - the jury's still out on that, wouldn't you agree? Otherwise, it's excellent "We're Doomed!" stuff.
Posted by: Jans Snomble4884 ||
03/24/2006 2:50
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#4
Guess, just a few days ago, the Army Engeeners have leased 140 acers of Coralville Dam area, Iowa, for 25 years to Muslim Students Association for making islamic camps there.
#6
Indeed, the Islamic civilization is an integral part of human civilization, based on the ideals of dialogue, moderation, justice, righteousness, and tolerance as noble human values that counteract bigotry, isolationism, tyranny, and exclusion. It is therefore of paramount importance to celebrate and consecrate these magnanimous values in our Muslim discourse inside and outside our societies
I know this is one of those Parallel Universe things like on Star Trek, right?
As a deviant, I cannot control myself when it comes to women. I have a thing about women's hair, so all heads must be covered. Any woman wearing makeup is considered a prostitute, and must be disfigured. Excuse me just talking about this gets me "excited". In fact all women have to be covered in ugly black tents. Oh no not again. Now we can ban, kites, chess, televisions, all music, -- anything that gives pleasure in life is banned. Oh no not a third time. I am hurting. Then all non-Muslims are to be beheaded. Oh my there I go again. And... Aaaaaaargh.. Then we will all be at peace... I can now await the 72 virgins. Yes! the blessed 72!
al-Sadisti al-Perverti, Grand Muff-Tea and Head Stoner of Harlot Women
Chair, Extraordinary Islamic Summit Conference in Mecca
PS Feed that idolotor of Christ in Afghanistan to rabid dogs. Yes! feed him to dogs!
#8
6: Containment or strategic acceptance of existence of unfriendly States because there can be no unilateral benefit in making war on same, became the cornerstone of US foreign policy when elites convinced President Truman to retract US nuclear diplomacy, during the nuke-monopoly period. When the monopoly ended, a rough strategic balance led to a terror-doctrine, Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), which institutionalized containment. When President Reagan posed assured-survival - the Strategic Defense Intiative (space-based anti-missile shields) - as the background to the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START), the Soviets eventually caved in and ideological confrontation ended. Reagan's "Evil Empire" characterization of the Soviet side, should have been adapted to the current counter-terror war against aggressive Islam. Instead, Islamofascists are only allowed to be evil if they do not participate in Islamic style "democratic" elections, which to Muslims - and not our leaders - are not exercises in freedom of conscience, but are collective searches for the Muslim deity's (Allah) guidance. What if Muslim majorities use in current elections and will use in all future elections, vote power and Western indulgence, as a means to advance global-genocidal Islam? Well...we spin our wheels, so far...http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/histryotln/postwar.htm
By the way, Truman is long dead and we have a nuke-monopoly over Iran, whose leaders incite "Death to America" shrieks at every opportunity, and practise nuclear proliferation.
#15
Mohammed screwed up. He should have promised virgins to loyal party members of the Jihad Party. Maybe one a year or something like that would assure a unified Islamic front. These dufusses are waring in all directions keeping popcorn prices high.
"U.S. War Plan Leaked to Iraqis by Russian Ambassador"
Documents dated March 5-8, 2003
Two Iraqi documents dated in March 2003 on the eve of the U.S.-led invasion and addressed to the secretary of Saddam Hussein, describe details of a U.S. plan for war. According to the documents, the plan was disclosed to the Iraqis by the Russian ambassador.
The first document (CMPC-2003-001950) is a handwritten account of a meeting with the Russian ambassador that details his description of the composition, size, location and type of U.S. military forces arrayed in the Gulf and Jordan. The document includes the exact numbers of tanks, armored vehicles, different types of aircraft, missiles, helicopters, aircraft carriers, and other forces, and also includes their exact locations. The ambassador also described the positions of two Special Forces units.
The second document (CMPC-2004-001117) is a typed account, signed by Deputy Foreign Minister Hammam Abdel Khaleq, that states that the Russian ambassador has told the Iraqis that the United States was planning to deploy its force into Iraq from Basra in the South and up the Euphrates, and would avoid entering major cities on the way to Baghdad, which is, in fact what happened. The documents also state "Americans are also planning on taking control of the oil fields in Kirkuk." The information was obtained by the Russians from "sources at U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar," according to the document.
This document also includes an account of an amusing incident in which several Iraqi Army officers (presumably seeking further elaboration of the U.S. war plans) contacted the Russian Embassy in Baghdad and stated that the ambassador was their source. Needless to say, this caused great embarrassment to the ambassador, and the officers were instructed "not to mention the ambassador again in that context."
(Editor's Note: The Russian ambassador in March 2003 was Vladimir Teterenko. Teterenko appears in documents released by the Volker Commission, which investigated the Oil for Food scandal, as receiving allocations of 3 million barrels of oil worth roughly $1.5 million. )
"Osama bin Laden Contact With Iraq"
A newly released prewar Iraqi document indicates that an official representative of Saddam Hussein's government met with Osama bin Laden in Sudan on February 19, 1995, after receiving approval from Saddam Hussein. Bin Laden asked that Iraq broadcast the lectures of Suleiman al Ouda, a radical Saudi preacher, and suggested "carrying out joint operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia. According to the document, Saddam's presidency was informed of the details of the meeting on March 4, 1995, and Saddam agreed to dedicate a program for them on the radio. The document states that further "development of the relationship and cooperation between the two parties to be left according to what's open [in the future] based on dialogue and agreement on other ways of cooperation." The Sudanese were informed about the agreement to dedicate the program on the radio.
The report then states that "Saudi opposition figure" bin Laden had to leave Sudan in July 1996 after it was accused of harboring terrorists. It says information indicated he was in Afghanistan. "The relationship with him is still through the Sudanese. We're currently working on activating this relationship through a new channel in light of his current location," it states.
(Editor's Note: This document is handwritten and has no official seal. Although contacts between bin Laden and the Iraqis have been reported in the 9/11 Commission report and elsewhere (e.g., the 9/11 report states "Bin Ladn himself met with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer in Khartoum in late 1994 or early 1995) this document indicates the contacts were approved personally by Saddam Hussein.
It also indicates the discussions were substantive, in particular that bin Laden was proposing an operational relationship, and that the Iraqis were, at a minimum, interested in exploring a potential relationship and prepared to show good faith by broadcasting the speeches of al Ouda, the radical cleric who was also a bin Laden mentor.
The document does not establish that the two parties did in fact enter into an operational relationship. Given that the document claims bin Laden was proposing to the Iraqis that they conduct "joint operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia, it is worth noting that eight months after the meeting on November 13, 1995 terrorists attacked Saudi National Guard Headquarters in Riyadh, killing 5 U.S. military advisers. The militants later confessed on Saudi TV to having been trained by Osama bin Laden.)
"Osama bin Laden and the Taliban"
Document dated Sept. 15, 2001
An Iraqi intelligence service document saying that their Afghan informant, who's only identified by a number, told them that the Afghan consul Ahmed Dahastani claimed the following in front of him:
That OBL and the Taliban are in contact with Iraq and that a group of Taliban and bin Laden group members visited Iraq
That the U.S. has proof the Iraqi government and "bin Laden's group" agreed to cooperate to attack targets inside America.
That in case the Taliban and bin Laden's group turn out to be involved in "these destructive operations," the U.S. may strike Iraq and Afghanistan.
That the Afghan consul heard about the issue of Iraq's relationship with "bin Laden's group" while he was in Iran.
At the end, the writer recommends informing "the committee of intentions" about the above-mentioned items. The signature on the document is unclear.
(ABC News bullshit Editor's Note: The controversial claim that Osama bin Laden was cooperating with Saddam Hussein is an ongoing matter of intense debate. While the assertions contained in this document clearly support the claim, the sourcing is questionable i.e., an unnamed Afghan "informant" reporting on a conversation with another Afghan "consul." The date of the document four days after 9/11 is worth noting but without further corroboration, this document is of limited evidentiary value.)
More
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/24/2006
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#1
BUGS BUNNY > "Of course you know this means war", i.e. no glazed Chicken or Christina videos, etc. for our always loyal friend for democracy the Russian Ambassador.
#3
How good of a pre-brief did the Ruskis get? Did he just give them the Official Ruski brief? Did he make 1.5 million off of Putin's brief? He may not be worried about Western opinion at this point.
Also, I would be very interested in his positioning information. Depending on how he presented it, it will help find the source.
And doesn't this make Saddam out to be one fucking horrendous general? But just like getting the test answers before the midterm, if the topic is way above your head, it really doesn't matter, your still going to fail miserably.
Maybe he got the plan of the 4th ID coming out of Turkey and he couldn't adjust.
At this point in the game, even if you had pictures of Osama doing a Monica Lewinsky on Saddam it wouldn't change anyone's opinion on Al Qaeda and Saddam. It's a waste of time to even try.
Now there's some absolutely undeniable treason to snoop out. Our Mystery Guest and Rocky and Pinky and the Gang can all share a cell block. I'd love to see the Tsar's face about now. I guess this means the Russkies can expect to be left sniffing fumes on Iran and everything thing else we ever do again until Hell Freezes Solid. Good. Always hated those bastards.
"Smoking Guns! Get yer Smoking Guns here!"
Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of As The Worm Turns...
Posted by: Jans Snomble4884 ||
03/24/2006 1:43
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#5
Given that the document claims bin Laden was proposing to the Iraqis that they conduct "joint operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia, it is worth noting that eight months after the meeting on November 13, 1995 terrorists attacked Saudi National Guard Headquarters in Riyadh
And one month after that meeting was the Oklahoma City Bombing.
#6
So, some major spies were reporting from CentCom.
UK, US, combo or what?
Press?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 7:39
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#7
I suspect that the longer our Iran "diplomacy" at the U.N. drags on, the more juicy tidbits about the Russian's role in Iraq will be released. Think of it as an incentive plan.
#10
I wouldn't guess espionage. CENTCOM probably officially gave this info to the Russians for several reasons, under the heading of "confidence building", to avoid any misunderstandings; knowing full well that their own satellites would confirm most of it.
They also carefully calculated out that any information provided isn't "operational that cannot be obtained through other means". This means we *assume* that the Russians, and the Chinese, and the French, et al, are ALL going to sell us out.
By giving this information to the villains, with slight differences in content depending on the receipient, we can also determine *who* is selling us out. And it is always better to know for sure that someone is selling you out, rather than to just assume they will sell you out.
This is because that if you *know* somebody is selling you out, at a critical moment you can give them majorly wrong information and know that your enemy will get it, and probably trust it.
This not only can cost your enemy dearly, but might even ruin their relationship with the fink country.
The chess-like complexity of treachery is truly a wonder to behold.
#11
If you read up on Operation Mincemeat ("The Man Who Never Was") and similar classic feats of operational deception, one of the things that strikes you is how much true information has to be mixed in with the deception in order to make the whole thing credible. Without access to CENTCOM's official documents, it might be hard for us amatuers to tell if this was a real leak, or a deception with elements of truth mixed in for verisimilitude.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/24/2006 10:51
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#12
Keep in mind, folks, the Russians did us the favor of selling the Iraqis those targeting beacons GPS jammers.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 10:57
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#13
Do the Ruskies have Satellites? Do the Rusikes have COMINT? It doesn't have to be a spy or a leak. Maybe they got a galley draft of Newsweek.
#14
I'll go with the others here who are citing this release as just another button on the coat we are fitting Russia for in advance of pull-starting the Iranian turbans.
#16
I'm pretty sure we suspected the Ruskies would inform the Iraqis of the 'plan.' I recall that, in his book, Gen Franks said he had reason to believe the 4th ID through Turkey bluff was working. Perhaps this is part of why.
#20
JAB, et al--Do you have a source for this 4ID-through-Turkey bluff claim?
Posted by: Dar ||
03/24/2006 17:40
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#21
Uh, no, that cannot be accurately stated.
We shipped and off-loaded several large cargo carriers full of 4th ID gear onto Turkish docks - effectively taking it out of the fight for 4+ months for a bluff?
We were offering BILLIONS in aid pkgs to Turkey for a bluff?
US-Turkish relations hit the basement floor with a thud for a bluff?
The vote was a mere handful short of approving (less than 10 - out of about 400 - can't remember exact numbers) and it was a bluff?
No, this isn't correct. I saw 50+ articles on the negotiations with Turkey - and it was clearly expected to happen at the beginning and everything deteriorated dramatically toward the end when they voted against allowing passage rights. Even if we knew it would fail before it actually did - the news stories were incessant and virtually all were pestimistic.
No, it simply does not fit with the facts.
Posted by: Jans Snomble4884 ||
03/24/2006 18:14
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#22
I am always impressed by the quality of an organization that can go after Lt. George Bush with blatant forgeries but immediately introduce weasel words when faced with real Iraqi documents. Fake but accurate immediately becomes accurate but fake.
Posted by: john ||
03/24/2006 20:46
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#23
Sorry. I used a poor word. Early on it was our intention to move through Turkey. But, it became clear that Turkey would not play ball. From that point forward, it was a diversion. Certainly this was true in Mar-03. Franks stated in his book that the Iraqis believed it until very late in the war.
United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland said that he strongly urges all those engaged in negotiations with non-state armed groups to consult the manual in order to prepare and conduct the dialogue with these groups carefully.
Every day, aid workers in the field are faced with situations that require some form of negotiations. These can include seeking agreements to access people in need, reaching an understanding on how to protect civilians or requesting safe passage and/or security guarantees for humanitarian operations. For humanitarian workers, therefore, negotiating successfully with all actors in situations of crisis or conflict is essential to be able to provide effective and timely humanitarian assistance and protection.
To facilitate a structured approach to humanitarian negotiations, OCHA initiated, with the support of the Swiss Government, a project to develop a practical and user-friendly guide on negotiations with non-state armed groups for humanitarian, development and human rights workers. After research, extensive consultations with members of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and several field visits, OCHA has been able to produce both the manual and a companion set of field guidelines. "We envision that the manual and the companion set of guidelines will become essential guides for humanitarian practitioners in the field," said Egeland.
#4
Step 1. Call for millions in aid money.
Step 2. Move negotiations from fly specked, cholera infested armed group stronghold to neutral venue. Like Paris...or Rome...or Vienna...or Geneva...or...
Step 3. Call caterers.
Step 4. Conferences, conferences, conferences.
Step 5. Condemnation.
Step 6. Condemnation "in no uncertain terms".
Step 7. Deadline.
Step 8. Extend deadline.
Step 9. Extend extended deadline.
Step 10. Strongly worded note.
Step 11. Working Group formed.
Step 12. Working Group forms Study Committee.
Step 13. Study Committee forms Conference Committee.
Step 14. Extend extended extended deadline.
Step 15. Conference Committee forms Study Committee to form Summit Committee.
Step 16. Summit Committee hires Kojo as "consultant".
Step 17. Extend extended extended extended deadline.
Step 18. Call for billions in aid money.
Step 19. Repeat steps 2-18.
Aggressive promotion of international law may generally not be as successful as expected. Many armed groups have not been sensitized to agree with these laws;
LAHORE: President General Pervez Musharraf has warned terrorists and extremists in Pakistan that they will be eliminated.
"Yeah! You're gonna get it! Any time now..."
I warn those foreign terrorists in Waziristan to leave otherwise well finish them off, he said in a speech to a large crowd at Minar-e-Pakistan on the occasion of Pakistan Day. I also warn those religious extremists who burnt down The Mall on February 14 to refrain from such activities in future as destruction and arson will not be tolerated anymore.
"No more burning down malls, you guys! I mean it this time!"
The president also appealed to the people of NWFP to support the operation against the terrorists. If people stand by the Pakistan Army in Waziristan, I assure them that law and order will be restored in the area, he said. Gen Musharraf also took the opportunity to slam the politicians sitting in London, referring to former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. I know these people traded congrats when The Mall was looted. These people cannot be friends of Pakistan. I urge you people never allow them to return to the country. Reject them and get them out of politics, he said. The president was confident the troubles in Balochistan would be resolved soon. These two or three Sardars who are fighting against their own people will be sorted out very soon. They are already on the run as they know they have lost support among their own people, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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#1
These two or three Sardars who are fighting against their own people will be sorted out very soon. They are already on the run as they know they have lost support among their own people, he said.
Weren't those the badguy stormtroopers from Dune ?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/24/2006 12:39
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#2
Weren't those the badguy stormtroopers from Dune ?
You're thinking of the Sardaukar. Frank Herbert used a lot of Arab and Islamic symbolism in Dune, modified to fit. I always thought of the Fremen as based on Bedouin tribesmen.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006 13:59
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#3
Ah yes, Doom, the Dessert Planet, home of the Phoney Maroney.
JERUSALEM - Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in comments published on Thursday that political rivals must agree to a plan to withdraw from large parts of the West Bank if they want to join a government led by his Kadima party -- widely expected to win elections next week.
Olmerts comments gave the clearest signal yet of how the next Israeli government will look if Kadima wins on Tuesdays vote. Kadima holds a wide lead in opinion polls, but will need help from smaller parties to form a majority coalition government in parliament. The tough conditions he laid out in the Yediot Ahronot daily signaled that Olmert would like to join forces with the dovish Labor and Meretz parties, while he has apparently ruled out an alliance with the hawkish Likud Party.
Olmert also appeared to be sending a tough message to Avigdor Lieberman, leader of an increasingly powerful Russian immigrant party. Lieberman, a hard-line Jewish settler, has not ruled out joining an Olmert-led government.
New polls published Thursday showed Kadima still holds a commanding lead over Labor and Likud, though the centrist party slid slightly in the surveys. Olmert inherited the Kadima leadership after party founder Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke in January.
A central part of Olmerts platform is drawing Israels final borders within four years, if necessary through unilateral West Bank withdrawals. Olmert has said Israels West Bank separation barrier, built to prevent suicide bombers from entering the country, will serve as the basis of the border. He wants to dismantle all settlements on the eastern side of the border, uprooting thousands of Jewish settlers from their homes. I want to emphasize, so that no one doubts it: I intend to implement this plan. Anyone who is not interested in seeing this plan implemented -- will not be in my coalition. I do not intend to compromise on the details of the plan. This is the plan and there is no other, Olmert told Yediot.
Painful for the settlers but necessary for the Israelis to have any viable state.
Veteran politician Shimon Peres, who is running as a Kadima candidate, said Thursday that the party would prefer to reach a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians, but this appears impossible with Hamas in charge. Unilateralism is not our ideology or our first priority, Peres told reporters.
Especially not yours.
Olmert has indicated he will hand over parts of Jerusalem under a final peace deal. In an interview, Kadima candidate Otniel Schneller gave new details about the partys intentions. Schneller listed a number of Arab neighborhoods Kadima is prepared to hand over to the Palestinians. These are villages that were not and never will be part of Jerusalem, he said. He stressed that Israel will not relinquish control of the Old City, home to Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/24/2006
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PARIS: Around 420 people were arrested on Thursday during protests across France against a youth jobs programme, mainly for violence, vandalism and attacks on security forces, police said. In the central Paris area of Invalides, police said that 140 people were arrested after violent incidents and clashes with security forces. A total of 18 officers were slightly injured in clashes around the country, they said.
Rampaging French youths set fire to cars and looted shops, marring protests the law, which Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin had agreed to discuss with unions. Aides said that Villepin would meet senior trade union officials on Friday to try to defuse a crisis that has triggered a national strike threat and drawn hundreds of thousands of protesters on to French streets. In Paris, riot police fired teargas in clashes with youths, dubbed "casseurs" by the French, in the Invalides areas near the Foreign Ministry, witnesses said.
Youths threw stones at police and set fire to the door of an apartment building in running battles at the end of a largely peaceful rally by thousands of students and workers against the CPE First Job Contract. "This time, there are lots of young criminals on the march who are there to steal and smash. This discredits the movement," said Charlie Herblin, a 22-year-old worker on the Paris march
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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#1
Put them to work making little rocks from big rocks.
Posted by: ed ||
03/24/2006 1:23
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#2
Oooo! Oooo! A French General Strike! How progressive and romantic. It's May 1968 all over again. This time I can enjoy and take notes.
#4
Notice here they call them "students and "workers";the end of a largely peaceful rally by thousands of students and workers against the CPE First Job Contract. "This time, there are lots of young criminals on the march who are there to steal and smash. This discredits the movement," said Charlie Herblin, a 22-year-old worker on the Paris march
Yet, it is Rampaging French youths who set fire to cars and looted. I'd like to see the names of those arrested.
A US Army dog handler was sentenced to six months in prison for tormenting detainees at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib jail with his unmuzzled Belgian shepherd, an Army spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Sgt Michael Smith, 24, faced up to 8 1/2 years in prison after he was found guilty on six of 13 counts brought against him. He will also have his rank reduced to private and must pay a total of $2,250 in fines for harassing and threatening inmates in 2003 and 2004, Army spokeswoman Shaunteh Kelly said.
After he serves his 179-day sentence, he will be released from the military with a bad conduct discharge, Kelly said. That is one step above a dishonorable discharge. Photos of inmates being intimidated by dogs and sexually humiliated were broadcast around the world after the abuses became public in 2004, undermining Washington's efforts to win support for its war in Iraq. Several of these photos were introduced as evidence in Smith's trial. Prosecutors said during the trial that Smith took pleasure in forcing detainees to do what he called "the doggie dance" as they squirmed in terror.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday appointed former culture minister Najah al-Attar as a second vice president, the official news agency SANA reported. Attar is the first woman to hold such a high position in Syria. By appointing her, Assad completes filling the country's two mostly ceremonial posts, which became vacant last year. Assad last month appointed former foreign minister Farouq al-Shara as vice president, replacing Abdel-Halim Khaddam who resigned last year and later defected to France.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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#1
Oh, okay. All is forgiven.
Posted by: Jans Snomble4884 ||
03/24/2006 1:57
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NAIROBI - Drought stricken Eritrea has expelled a number of international non-governmental organisations working in the country, adding to a long list of expulsions of foreign aid agencies. We received a letter to cease operations saying that (aid organization) Concern did not meet operational requirements, said Austin Kennen, Eritrean desk officer for Concern speaking from Dublin on Thursday.
The Irish organization is one of an unknown number of aid agencies that received letters informing them that their operating permits had been terminated without any elaboration. Concern assists some 100,000 people in Eritrea in fighting soil erosion and also offers water and sanitation services. It was not immediately clear what would become of the organizations 100 local and three foreign staff members.
Last year Eritrea expelled United States government aid agency USAID and also threw out 180 Western peacekeepers from the United Nations Mission in Eritrea that polices a buffer zone along Eritreas disputed border with Ethiopia. Eritrea is believed to be furious with the UNs inability to force Ethiopia to respect a boundary commission ruling that awarded an Ethiopian-administered border town to Eritrea.
Asmaras increasingly tough stance with foreign aid agencies, however, belies the countrys increasing need for drought relief aid. A recent WFP report says food has become more expensive and shortages more likely since the government slashed free foreign food from 1.3 million people last August to only 72,000.
They want to be stoopid, it's going to be hard to stop them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/24/2006
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The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah Movement, claimed responsibility on Thursday for a four-missile attack on the southern Israeli town of Majdal. The group said in statement the four locally-made missiles Shehab 3 were fired late last night.
Earlier, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement claimed responsibility for killing an Israeli solider in southern Gaza. Earlier this morning, Palestinians fired a mortar shell on an Israeli military patrol's car in southern Gaza. An Israeli military spokesman said no casulaties were reported. On another front, Palestinian sources said an Israeli military tank fired several shots on Palestinian areas in central Gaza. The Israeli operation followed the killing of two members of the Islamic Jihad Movement in an Israeli air raid .
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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#1
Have the Islamists ever inflated inflicted Israeli injuries and deaths before? IIRC, they did not.
QUETTA: A bomb blast in a PCO killed one and injured at least 13 people including two paramilitary personnel on Thursday in Kohlu. The bomb was placed inside the PCO. Kohlu District Mayor Ali Gul Mari said that it was an act of terrorism that targetted innocent people.
Ali Gul Mari was out of Kohlu for two months supporting the Mari tribesmen against security forces. He said the district government in Kohlu had started functioning and a session of the district assembly would be convened soon. Mari and Bugti tribesmen have claimed that more then 200 people have been killed ina three-month long military action, but officials could not confirm the figures. Two government officials belonging to Punjab province were shot dead and another injured a few days ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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Bulgarians have been warned by a self-styled Lunar Embassy to hurry to buy real estate on the moon as only a limited number of properties were left for sale. "We have already had over 30 orders since we opened the embassy two days ago," 'coordinator' Denislav Stoichev said. "A one-acre property on the moon will cost you 40 leva ($A34.60)," although plots on Mars and Jupiter's moon Io were also available, he added.
The Plovdiv lunar embassy is the first in Bulgaria but one of dozens around the world, licensed by the Galactic Government's CEO - in this case celestial executive officer - US entrepreneur Dennis Hope. In 1980, Mr Hope proclaimed himself the owner of the moon and all planets and satellites in the solar system (except for the Earth), by exploiting a loophole in the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty, which states space property "is not subject to national appropriation" but says nothing about private or corporate owners.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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#2
Sure, speculate in lunar realty if you want, but it's risky. What if the market craters?
Posted by: Mike ||
03/24/2006 6:59
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#3
I demand the Lunar government install infrastructure improvements before I even consider this. For example, they might wanna fill in all those holes...
#7
Ah, but you are still subject to the Galaxians with Disabilities Act. You'd best start installing those tentacle faciltators tout suite or the fines will be staggering.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 18:03
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#13
Bah! All of you back off! I claim personal and direct ownership of every other planet in the universe not thus far claimed (ie youse who have claims in already will have those claims validated by my personal authority)!
Anyone else who files a claim has to make it through me and has to file all the valid paperwork and pay the proper fees forthithy before you receive a properly imprinted and signed authentic document describing your claim.
Thanks,
FOTSGreg (aka Fire On The Suns Greg - www.fire-on-the-suns.com)
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has assured Canada that a man facing possible execution for converting to Christianity will not be put to death, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday.
Harper called Karzai on Wednesday to express his concern over the case of Abdur Rahman, who an Afghan judge said had been jailed for converting from Islam to Christianity and could face death if he refused to become a Muslim again. "He (Karzai) certainly conveyed to me that we don't have to worry about any such eventual outcome. An Afghan judge dealing with the case said on Thursday that the judiciary would not bow to outside pressure over the eventual fate of Rahman, who has not yet been charged.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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#1
Not good enough Karzai! Wearing a larger blanket won't work.
#2
Per the ABC story I posted last night, it doesn't matter what the Afghan government does; "moderate" Afghan imams have threatened to whip up a mob to tear Abdur Rahman to pieces.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 9:24
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#3
Here's an interesting experiment for Afghanistan:
1. Publically convert to Christianity and get short-listed for a visa to the U.S. (and enrolled in protective custody)
2. Time exactly how long it takes for the country to empty out as the populace flees its beloved Islam
#4
This is exxcellent - the first public declaration that islam is neither peaceful nor tolerant.
Karzai says so. It is the proof and public statement that islam is incompatible with human rights and freedoms. Afghanistan's constitution is supposed to enshrine human freedoms. And they will choose to prove that sharia wins over freedom, peace and human dignity.
Heck of a martyr. but the lying face of islam is now ripped off and all the world can no longer deny the threat this death cult holds for real human beings.
#6
Even if "pardoned" (or whatever) for being "crazy" (or whatever) he's a dead man if he stays. Perhaps even if he leaves - imagine the fatwas and price that will be put on his head.
Posted by: Jans Snomble4884 ||
03/24/2006 18:23
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a veiled warning Thursday to holdouts in a diplomatic impasse at the United Nations over Iran's disputed nuclear program.
"There can't be any stalling," Rice said in response to a question about U.S. efforts to get Russia and China to sign on to a strongly worded rebuke to Tehran.
Russia and China have refused to back a U.N. Security Council statement proposed by Britain, France and the United States demanding Iran suspend uranium enrichment.
Talks among the permanent members of the Security Council have bogged down over the statement, which traditional Iranian allies or trade partners see as a prelude to sanctions they do not support.
Rice planned to call her Russian counterpart Friday to try to break the deadlock.
The Security Council statement was intended to be an opening move in what could be lengthy talks at the powerful U.N. body over how to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb.
The statement was also meant to be an easier pill to swallow for Russia and China than would another option: A tough Security Council resolution.
A presidential statement requires consensus from the body's 15 members. A resolution would be put to an up-or-down vote, meaning Russia and China would have to approve, abstain or veto action against Iran.
Rice indicated that the United States will not wait long before taking another tack.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/24/2006
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#1
The bell of the future resurgent NUCLEARIZED Persian/Ottoman Empire(s) tolls for thee, Russia-China, not just the USA-West.
#5
This is fun to watch! I've hedged bets around the table, that Israel won't wait, as her 'neck hairs' stand to attention! No sweat on waiting for Iran to build the bomb, terrified however of the knowledge to do so!
#6
... People. Think about it.
1. It is absoluteny not sure, that Iran want to build A-Bomb. There were Comisars for x years and found nothing. Also Baradei told to press that it can be misused but there is no evidence till yet. There are nuclear plants in Mid Europe, IndonesiaAfrica and nobody cares... Why Iran and why now?
2. Do you realy want a WAR! Probably you know war just from games and CNN report videos. But war is something commpletely different. Remember Katrina? War is 10000 time worser...
Please think before you pull the trigger. You are not only one who owe weapon.
#7
Bordza, please. Many RB'ers are veterans of our armed services who have seen combat. I've never met any combat vets who relished actual fighting.
As for that "Iran doesn't want an A-Bomb" statement....then explain why Ahmadinejad practically has wet dreams over the thought of wiping Israel off the map with nukes, or likes to threaten that Iranian missiles could reach Europe.
Have you been listening to what he says at all? Apparently not.
#10
Brodza,
As a veteran, I do not relish war, but do realize it is usually the best and cleanest means to handle terrorists and fascist scum like the leaders of Iran. Better billions spent and thousands dead rather than the other way around.
The problem with your moronic point about nuke plants is the fact that the countries that have them have never wanted a nuclear weapon and don't daily spew forth that they want Israel and the west buried in a sea of fire. Here is a free hint from the last 100 years of history. When a leader publicly states they want to kill you, they mean it. Iran has stated publicly, over and over, that nuclear weapons are their aim and they want to use them.
I tend to take them on their word.
#11
"So who wants diplomacy to succeed here? I sure don't."
It depends on what "succeed" means. If it just kicks the can down the road a few months, than no i dont want it to succeed. If it actually results in Iran, out of fear of sanctions, giving up on enrichment and their entire nuclear weapons program then I do want it to succeed. Much as I have many other problems with the islamofascists in Teheran, from their internal suppression of dissent, to their support of Hezbollah in Lebanon and of Hamas and IJ against Israel - this is NOT the optimal time for a war against Iran, in terms of US force availability, the US diplomatic position worldwide, or the US position in the Islamic world. War MAY be necessary to stop Iranian nukes, but if there is another way, I want to pursue it.
Then there is yet another definition of diplomacy "succeeding" Our diplomacy with Russia and China could succeed in getting sanctions, and yet the islamofascists could refuse to give in, and the sanctions could lead to the downfall of their regime. That would be a very desirable outcome, IMHO.
#12
Since Imadinnerjacket has become president of Iran, let's review what has happened in his part of the world. Israel pulled out of Gaza. Iraq has had elections. Hamas has been offered control of the Paleos. Iranian influence in Iraq has contributed to civil unrest and delayed the formation of effective government there. Rumors about interrupting the flow of oil from the gulf.
Good things from our side matched by terrorism and disorder from the other side. And from Iran, border fights, crackdowns, threats against Israel, rumors about AQ in Iran, and blatant refusal to include the atomic watchdogs in their nuke development.
Iran is the source of so much trouble, both at home and in other sensitive areas, that something has to be done with them. Add to that the possibility of them developing nuclear weapons, and clearly, immediate action is required.
The only option about it is, do it now there or do it later here.
#13
I recall a tounge-in-cheek analysis done for attacking Iran in 1979 by a few guys from Brunswick.
It went something like this:
H-Bombs over large areas of the desert
followed by C-5As spraying hydrofloric acid to dope the amorphous new desert glass
followed by C-5As spraying aluminum conductors
Resulting in the worlds largests solarcells.
Diplomatic cover was let the USSR have the power in return for looking the other way.
#14
The big picture is that Iran is inherently a threat.
First of all, the development of nuclear weapons has become a national prerogative--publicly popular--a dangerous symbol of pride and virility that is felt will give them all that they desire.
Second, the Persians, like the Japanese prior to World War II, crave their "place in the sun" as a world economic, military and religious power. They think posession of nuclear weapons will give them all of this, which they have been unfairly denied by external forces.
Third, I do mean the "Persians", as in their heterogeneous society, Persians are everything and the minority Kurds, Arabs, Baluchs, and Tajiks are nothing, except hated peoples, some in resource-rich lands. And yet the Persians by dint of these lands are far more powerful then they would be otherwise.
So, all of this being said, Iran must be partitioned. If Iran's nuclear capability is destroyed, it just delays the inevitable; but if they are deprived of the means to pay for rebuilding, Persia will be denied for several generations at least.
Not only will Iran, or Persia, cease to be a threat, but a greater balance will be achieved with Kurdistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Iraq, the most likely beneficiaries of what had been Iranian territories.
For its part, Persia will not suffer overmuch, as it still has its people and its own resources. It will have the possibility to be a prosperous and successful nation, yet will no longer threaten the region, spread terrorism, or abuse those who are not Persian.
#15
Iran does not need to be partitioned, necessarily. But it does need to be Shermanized. Just like Japan. This means the people must suffer sufficiently that they no longer wish to be a threat. Jusat like the Japanese.
Rice indicated that the United States will not wait long before taking another tack.
A little more like it. It's time to fight or f&ck fish or cut bait.
followed by C-5As spraying hydrofloric acid to dope the amorphous new desert glass
While certainly entertaining in principle, hydrofluoric acid is used as an etchant for silicon dioxide and polysilicon layers. Dopants, which affect conductivity of otherwise insulating materials, must be diffused into the bulk carrier via ion implantation or thermal diffusion. Mebbe a germanium device shroud could provide the doping as there would certainly be a sufficient thermal quotient (so to speak) to mobilize the dopant's diffusion.
#17
I would like to see a GPS coordinates sending device embedded on each of the Moolahs's heads and their goofy president's. Talk about pinhead, pin point bombing.
Seems like prez goofy gives numerous speeches. Timing?
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/24/2006 11:50
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#18
Poor Bordza , get educated , or you will always sound like a fool.
#19
What's sadder - that people think a "strongly worded letter" or "sanctions with more holes than a colander" actually mean something -- or that we waste time on the UN to have these pointless exercises?
Posted by: Jans Snomble4884 ||
03/24/2006 18:19
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DAMASCUS - Syrian security forces on Thursday arrested dissident writer Ali Abdullah after at least four other people including his son were detained for speaking out against the regime, rights activists said. Both the Syrian Human Rights Organization and prominent human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni said Abdullah, who spent five months behind bars last year had been arrested at his home for unknown reasons.
The pursuit of this campaign of political arrests will cause more suffering, the group said, calling on the government to free all political detainees.
Abdullah was last arrested in May 2005 for reading a message by a Muslim Brotherhood leader during a political discussion at the Atassi salon, a venue devoted to reform in Syria. He was released in November along with 190 political prisoners as part of overall reforms in Syria, official media reported at the time.
Abdullahs son, Omar, was arrested at the weekend along with a second student, Diab Seerieh, for wanting to form a democratic gathering of youths to discuss young peoples problems, Bunni said.
The rights group also said that Mohammed Najati Tayyara, vice president of the Human Rights Association in Syria (HRAS), was arrested Wednesday for unknown reasons. Bunni added that Tayyara had attended last month a meeting of Syrian opposition members held in the United States.
HRAS said Mohammed Walid al-Kabir al-Hosni, a 65-year-old father of four, had also been arrested Tuesday after he had been sought by security forces for several months. He was arrested probably for having spoken his political opinions in public places, the group said.
Bunni also called on authorities to end this campaign aiming to terrorize activists because it only increases the list of human rights violations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/24/2006
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The State Security Court president has given Jordanian fugitive Abu Mussab Zarqawi 10 days to surrender and face trial in connection with hotel bombings late last year. "I give you 10 days from the date of publication of this notice to surrender to the judicial authorities to face trial," said a statement published in the press on Wednesday and signed by the head of the tribunal. "If you do not surrender during that time you will be considered fugitive," it said.
Yep. That oughta do it.
The surrender notice was also addressed to five Iraqis and a Jordanian indicted along with Zarqawi last week for the Nov. 9 triple hotel bombings in Amman that killed 60 people. But according to court papers obtained by AFP, Iraqi woman would-be suicide bomber Sajida Rishawi will be the only suspect to stand trial for the hotel bombings, which were claimed by Zarqawi's Al Qaeda group in Iraq. Rishawi was arrested four days after the bombings and later shown confessing on state television how she tried but failed to activate an explosives belt at the Radisson SAS Hotel where a wedding party was in full swing.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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#1
Would this be one of those RFSP moments?
Posted by: Jans Snomble4884 ||
03/24/2006 1:50
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#4
Someday, the French are going to wake up, realize that "my little cabbage" is a term of endearment in their language, and switch to speaking anything else.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 8:43
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Danish holy men imams will not call for Muslims to end a boycott of their country's goods until Danes apologise for cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, an imam said on Thursday. The announcement belied reports in Danish media suggesting that a delegation of imams to an Islamic conference in Bahrain would call for an end to the boycott.
Raed Hlayhel, who is leading a delegation of Danish imams to the International Conference for Supporting the Prophet, said that the delegation had not asked for the boycott to be lifted, but rather that it should not be expanded. "Danish people must send a reassuring message to Muslims that they do not agree with what was printed in the newspaper and that they respect Muslims," Hlayhel said. "The ball is in their court... They have to help us to end this boycott."
Posted by: Fred ||
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"Respect" - what it means here: Danish people must accept hegemony!
There are 4,680 Madrassas in NWFP out of which only 1,077 have registered. Of the rest, 3,031 have refused to register and. 572 have not responded to the government, the NWFP government executive summary report said.
"But, really, they don't present a real problem..."
The executive summary on NWFP madrassas by the School and Literacy Department stated that 22 percent of religious institutions are registered, 65 per cent are not registered and 12 percent have not even responded to government notices asking them to register.
"Your Corpulence, it's another demand from the gummint that we register!"
"Why tell me about it? Is the trash full?"
The province has 885 Madrassahs for female students as well. There are 183,140 full time enrolled students in these institutions, irrespective of their age group out of which 153,226 are boys and 29,914 girls, the report said. There are 312,794 part time enrolled students in NWFP madrassas including 52,197 girl students. The number of teachers in these schools is 14,486 including 2,697 female teachers. Approximately 71 per cent of madrassas have a boundary wall and proper sanitation facilities and 81 percent have electricity.
Posted by: Fred ||
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100% have mad Mullahs spewing hatred and violence.
The intended interior minister in Hamas's government has said he will not order the arrest of fighters carrying out attacks against Israel.
"Feh! What's it to me?"
Saeed Seyam, who was chosen by Hamas to oversee three security services, told Reuters on Thursday that "the file of political detention must be closed".
"We don't believe in punishing people for murder."
"The day will never come when any Palestinian would be arrested because of his political affiliation or because of resisting the occupation ... But the right to defend our people and to confront the aggression is granted and is legitimate."
"And keep in mind, we're the ones defining 'legitimate' here. Accept no substitutes!"
Seyam said he had begun talks with Palestinian security chiefs in the hope of averting fighting within the security services. Most of the 20,000-plus security personnel, who will answer to Seyam, are Fatah members. There were several hundred murders in Gaza and the West Bank last year, according to human rights groups. Seyam said his ministry would continue to co-ordinate day-to-day security issues, such as the number of permits given to Palestinian workers, with Israeli authorities. But Seyam said he did not plan to meet Israelis himself.
"Who? Me? Eeeww! Ucky! No way!"
"Saeed Seyam did not come to the government to revive any security co-operation or to protect the occupation and their settlers," he said. "I came to protect our people and their fighters, to protect their trees, their properties and their capabilities."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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They really have no idea what they're up against when they form agovernment. Declarations of war, violations of all sorts of crap they must pay attention to now.
From East Asia Intel, subscription.
A senior member of the Liberal Democratic Party, in Japans ruling coalition, has called for legislation to invoke sanctions against North Korea if it does not move on the issue of kidnapped Japanese citizens.
Public pressure has mounted on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who has made repeated attempts to regularize relations with North Korea and enthusiastically participated in the six-power talks on nuclear disarmament. The sooner the Nork govt falls, the better off everyone will be.
Shinzo Abe, a candidate to succeed Koizumi who has announced he will step down this year, supported the measure in a recent TV interview. Abe said North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il should take a leaf from Libyas Moammar Khaddafys book to avoid being deposed by dismantling North Koreas nuclear weapons program and allow UN, U.S. and British inspectors to visit the facilities.
The current foreign exchange law prevents Japan from halting cash remittances to North Korea without a multinational agreement or a United Nations resolution. The revised law the LDP proposes would allow Japan to unilaterally imposed sanctions if the government deems them necessary to maintain peace and security. The LDP wants the bill enacted during the parliamentary session ending on June 18. I would hate to be beholden to the UN for my country's security.
Although North Korea has admitted abducting 13 people, it claims eight are dead. The other five were repatriated in 2002. But the issue has become a hot button for Japanese voters who watched heart-rending television of reunions, some of them showing adults abducted as children returning after decades but leaving families behind in North Korea. There is a widely held suspicion in Japan that there may be more unaccounted abductees.
Tokyo has been slowly tightening the economic noose on once-powerful North Korean financial front operations among the estimated 1 million Japanese Korean ethnics, many second and third generation Japan-born. Estimates of North Korean remittances to their kinfolk in North Korea had been as much as half a billion annually. More recently Japanese authorities have seen a sharp increase in the number of postal remittances to North Korea as the squeeze has been put on the North Korean-operated fronts. Mail remittances from Japan to North Korea are legal problems as insured mail under the Universal Postal Union treaty.
Through Pyongyang-dominated organizations and clandestine activities with the Japanese underworld, including drug trafficking, money laundering and using the presence of relatives in North Korea for extortion, Japan has been one of the principal sources of foreign exchange for the Pyongyang regime. As Pyongyangs economic crisis has deepened with the diversion of its meager resources to one of the worlds largest armies, conventional armaments and weapons of mass destruction, its Japan activities have become even more critical. But the Japanese government with the agreement of American policymakers has moved slowly on the issue, hoping to use North Korean economic dependence on Japan as leverage in the overall efforts to halt the nuclear buildup. Use every non-military tool in the box to bring down the Norks. That is the only way to be sure that the Norks have no Nukes. They are liars, drug dealers, counterfitters, murderers, and kidnappers, ya know. You cannot negotiate with the likes of these.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/24/2006
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#1
Give them their Money, Nukes, Empire, and International Recognition-Credibility, JAPAN - D*** YOU, dem dar law-abiding Norkies only abducted a mere 13 people without their consent.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/24/2006 8:06
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#4
I want a solution for the Social Security shortfall. Following that, I'd like to meet a 28 year old Swedish nymphomaniac who has recently won the Virginia lottery.
#5
Following that, I'd like to meet a 28 year old Swedish nymphomaniac who has recently won the Virginia lottery.
Ooohhhh... that's poor planning. You want to win the lottery YOURSELF, find a great attorney, THEN meet the 28-year-old-Swedish-nymphomaniac.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/24/2006 8:42
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#6
It's good to see that I am not the only person who includes "winning the lottery" as part of their retirement plan.
I am planning on this happening about the same time Pakistan becomes a modern, democratic nation...
The Chinese Government is imposing new or higher taxes on a range of goods and fuels as part of its efforts to control energy consumption and protect the environment. Car taxes will go up, while disposable chopsticks will be subject to a new tax. The tax on chopsticks may seem a curious way for the Chinese leadership to demonstrate its new found commitment to the environment. But from next month, a 5 per cent tax will be levied on every pair of disposable, wooden chopsticks. China gets through about 10 billion boxes a year.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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#7
gromky: I always thought that most disposable chopsticks were made of bamboo. I guess I thought wrong.
The non-disposable ones are made of bamboo. They have tensile strength. The disposable ones feel like pine - flex them and they break. Plus they're real soft, like pine, and unlike bamboo.
#8
Bamboo, pine - pfui. My chopsticks (a Christmas gift) are jade.
Wonder what the ChiComs would tax me for that?
If they could, of course. ;p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/24/2006 14:29
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#9
Found myself a pair of those jade chopsticks in the thrift shop, Barbara. Paid all of a whopping $5.00 for them. The jade flute I got in Taiwan cost a few more frogskins.
#11
BS: Bamboo, pine - pfui. My chopsticks (a Christmas gift) are jade.
Disposable ones are used at restaurants. Hygiene standards at restaurants in China aren't exactly tip-top. Customers feel a little more secure using disposable flatware.
#15
Zheng Fei - It was my understanding that Asian people often brought their own chopsticks, and it wasn't considered insulting to do so. Is that incorrect?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/24/2006 21:43
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#16
BS: Zheng Fei - It was my understanding that Asian people often brought their own chopsticks, and it wasn't considered insulting to do so. Is that incorrect?
I've never personally encountered the practice - and I've dined in a variety of restaurants throughout Southeast (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia) and Northeast Asia (Hong Kong, China, Korea, Taiwan).
#17
BS: Zheng Fei - It was my understanding that Asian people often brought their own chopsticks, and it wasn't considered insulting to do so. Is that incorrect?
What I have seen is this - in some regions, (1) the first pot of steaming hot tea is poured into a teacup, (2) the chopsticks (if not disposable) are rinsed in the tea, (3) the cup of tea is poured into a bowl, (4) the cup is rinsed in the bowl, (5) the tea is poured out of the bowl into a large communal bowl meant for that express purpose and (6) the bowl of water is taken away. Dishes are served banquet style.
Iraqi interior ministry announced on Thursday the killing of eight insurgents and the arrest of ten others in an operations carried out by Iraqi security forces. A statement by the ministry said seven of these men were arrested and seven others were arrested when its forces stormed their hideout in the city of Samarra. The statement said three other insurgents were arrested in Baghdad. TNT explosives were find in their car, it added. "Security forces were able to kill eight terrorists who opened fire at their checkpoint in the Al-Latifiyah." The statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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#1
(sarcasm)Another misquote in the conservatively biased MSM: It was actually a family of men on their way to a wedding banquet and their car backfired. The TNT was actually firecrackers to celebrate.(/sarcasm off)
#5
But, my scorecards are such a mess. I was once prized for orderly score keeping. Now, I barely recognize my own work. This thing about no uniforms is the real problem. I knew no good would come from it.
A district police chief was killed by his own bodyguard in Afghanistan's troubled southern parts on Thursday. Other bodyguards of the slain instantly opened fire at their colleague killing him on the spot. Chief of the Moosa Qala district of Afghanistan's southern Helmand province was shot dead in the morning by his bodyguards. However the attacker was killed by his colleagues burying the chance to know what was the cause behind the killing of the chief. A senior district official Wali Alizai said the real cause behind the killing of Abdul Mannan could not be immediately ascertained because the bodyguards had killed the attacker.
Meanwhile, coalition forces claimed killing six Taliban during a joint operation with Afghan soldiers in the neighbouring Uruzgan province. A statement released here on Thursday said the operation was carried out on Tuesday in the area believed to be a hideout of the insurgents from where they manage to attack the Afghan and coalition forces. A day earlier, Afghan forces claimed they had killed 15 Taliban in an overnight clash in the border areas of the Kandahar province. However, locals later revealed the slain were ordinary citizens and not Taliban. On the other hand, the incident further intensified the tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan as the former said the people killed by Afghan forces were citizens of Pakistan. Tribes living along the rugged border between the two countries claim citizenship of both the countries and they frequently cross the border to meet their relatives and friends living on the other side, or look after their businesses.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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At least 56 Iraqis died in violence on Thursday, including a car bombing that killed 25 people in the third major attack on a police lockup in three days. A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance to the Interior Ministry Major Crimes unit in Baghdads central Karradah district, killing 10 civilians and 15 policemen employed there, authorities said.
Guess that gave them a major crime to investigate...
A second car bomb hit a market area outside a Shia Muslim mosque in the mostly mixed Shia-Sunni neighbourhood of Shurta in southwest Baghdad. At least six people were killed and more than 20 wounded, many of them children, police said. Roadside bombs targeting police patrols killed four others two policemen and two bystanders in Baghdad and at least one policeman in Iskandariyah. Police said dozens were wounded. Another two policemen were killed and two were wounded when gunmen ambushed their convoy in north Baghdad, an attack that police said was an aborted attempt to free detainees who were being transferred to the northern city of Mosul.
Elsewhere throughout the capital, two police were killed in gun battles with insurgents and two civilians a private contractor and power plant employee were gunned down in drive-by shootings. Fourteen more bodies were found in the continuing string of shadowy sectarian killings: six in the capital and eight brought in by US forces to a hospital in Fallujah, 65 kilometres west of Baghdad, police said. Back in the capital, a mortar round fell on a house wounding three civilians, police Lt Ziad Hassan said. Another civilian was seriously wounded by an Iraqi army patrol that was shooting in the air to clear traffic in the western neighbourhood of Yarmouk, police said.
In a lightning operation, US and British forces on Thursday rescued three Western hostages held captive in Iraq for almost four months. The three aid workers from the Christian Peacemaker Teams Canadians Harmeet Sooden, 32, and Jim Loney, 41, and Briton Norman Kember, 74 were found together in a house in western Baghdad. They were bound, but the house was otherwise empty and not a shot was fired. The raid was put together in just three hours after US forces obtained information from a detainee about the location of the hostages, US-led coalition spokesman Major General Rick Lynch told reporters. Their US colleague Tom Fox, seized with them in Baghdad on November 26, was slain two weeks ago and his body found dumped in the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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#1
The raid was put together in just three hours after US forces obtained information from a detainee about the location of the hostages
I know they do a lot of raids these days, but that seems impressive to me, nonetheless.
A deal had been struck with a man detained the previous night who was one of the leaders of the kidnappers. He was allowed a telephone call to warn his henchmen to leave the kidnap house. When the troops moved in and found the prisoners alive, they also let him go as promised.
KATHMANDU - Nepals royalist government put a key opposition leader under police detention on Thursday, after confining him for more than two months in his house, an official said. Madhav Kumar Nepal, general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal-UML, was taken from his home in a Kathmandu suburb to a police base at Kakani, about 30 kms (20 miles) outside the city. He was under house arrest. Now he has been detained at a security base, a top government official, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters. Nepal had been detained under the Public Security Act, he added.
With any luck, soon he'll be dead.
The CPN-UML is restive Nepals second-biggest party and a key constituent of the seven-party alliance, which is planning a series of anti-king protests next month. There is no rule of law, Amrit Kumar Bohara, a top UML leader, said reacting to the move.
Yup, that's what happens in a civil war, espeically when one side is a bunch of Maoist thugs. At some point the other side has to doff the gloves.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/24/2006
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MINSK: Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko won last Sunday's presidential election with 83 percent of the vote, the country's central elections commission said Thursday after all ballots were counted. The runners-up were Alexander Milinkevich with 6.1 percent, Sergei Gaidukevich with 3.5 percent and Alexander Kozulin with 2.2 percent, Nikolai Lozovik, the commission's secretary, told reporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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#1
Only 83%?
Slacker. They'll probably cancel his Tool of the Tsar membership.
Posted by: Jans Snomble4884 ||
03/24/2006 1:31
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You mean Jimmy Carter hasn't certified the results yet?
YAOUNDE: Some 127 people were feared drowned after a boat carrying 150 passengers sank off the port of Kribi on Cameroon's Atlantic coast, state radio said on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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In the aftermath of the Dubai ports dispute, the Bush administration is hiring a Hong Kong conglomerate to help detect nuclear materials inside cargo passing through the Bahamas to the United States and elsewhere.
The administration acknowledges the no-bid contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. represents the first time a foreign company will be involved in running a sophisticated U.S. radiation detector at an overseas port without American customs agents present. Apparently al-Qaeda couldn't guarantee the bid specifications in time.
#1
Some parts of the Federal bureaucracy appear to be operating with a September 10 mindset. The fact that their jobs are protected by union rules probably contributes to that mindset. If another September 11-type incident occurs, some of these people need to be given life sentences for negligent homicide.
#2
After seeing this story, my first thought was, for poetic justice, why did our government go with a Taiwanese company? This would have shaken things up a bit. I suspect that a Taiwanese firm would have been less of a threat for present and future. Don't get me wrong, native people from Hong Kong are great, especially those who were not thrilled about having their country managed from Beijing, but I am more worried about the staff imports from China; their allegiance is more worthy of concern.
The U.S. may be a Diplomatic and Business player with China, but China military is a potential threat to the U.S. mainland either themselves or via a proxy 3rd party country that shares the same land mass as the U.S.
#3
D: Don't get me wrong, native people from Hong Kong are great, especially those who were not thrilled about having their country managed from Beijing, but I am more worried about the staff imports from China; their allegiance is more worthy of concern.
Li Ka-shing was born in Shanghai. The vast majority of his extensive business interests are in China. I wouldn't trust any Taiwanese company either, because the same applies to many Taiwanese companies. The fact is that we need Americans vetting these installations.
Supervised by Bahamian customs officials, Hutchison employees will drive the towering, truck-like radiation scanner that moves slowly over large cargo containers and scans them for radiation that might be emitted by plutonium or a radiological weapon. Any positive reading would set off alarms monitored simultaneously by Bahamian customs inspectors at Freeport and by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials working at an anti-terrorism center 800 miles away in northern Virginia. Any alarm would prompt a closer inspection of the cargo, and there are multiple layers of security to prevent tampering, officials said.
"The equipment operates itself," said Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency negotiating the contract. "It's not going to be someone standing at the controls pressing buttons and flipping switches."
There are no U.S. customs agents checking any cargo containers at the Hutchison port in Freeport. Under the contract, no U.S. officials would be stationed permanently in the Bahamas with the radiation scanner.
Hutchison operates the sprawling Freeport Container Port on Grand Bahama Island. Its subsidiary, Hutchison Port Holdings, has operations in more than 20 countries but none in the United States. Contract documents obtained by AP indicate Hutchison will be paid roughly $6 million. The contract is for one year with options for three years.
The National Nuclear Security Administration, which is an Energy Department agency tasked with strengthening nuclear security worldwide, is negotiating the Bahamas contract under a $121 million program it calls the "second line of defense." Wilkes, the NNSA spokesman, said the Bahamian government dictated that the U.S. give the contract to Hutchison.
"It's their country, their port. The driver of the mobile carrier is the contractor selected by their government. We had no say or no choice," he said. "We are fortunate to have allies who are signing these agreements with us."
In a nutshell, it's a Bahamian port operated by a chinese firm. Bahamian government insisted the port operator do the scanning. I'll wager there was a "take it or leave it" implied.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2006 13:34
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#5
You didn't think all that pretty posing was going to be free did 'ya? We got the proofs, the negatives are going to be pricey.
#6
Article: "It's their country, their port. The driver of the mobile carrier is the contractor selected by their government. We had no say or no choice," he said.
And they're our imports. If the Bahamian government doesn't feel like having US customs select the contractor (thanks to pay-offs from Hutchison Whampoa for a no-bid contract) or having US customs agents (who are less susceptible to bribery than their Bahamian counterparts) look over the whole process, Uncle Sam can ban cargo coming through the Bahamas. I guess that would make their port facilities useless, wouldn't it?
I'd want redundant systems, redundant redundant systems and redundant backup systems aplenty, what good is a system if the signal doesn't get through.
Six or so lines which also carry a carrier wave system so any interruptions are instantly noticed should be considered an absolute minimum.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/24/2006 20:27
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#8
maybe Bahamas should take a year off from US tourism/shipping? Letting the bitch know who calls the shots is worthwhile sometimes
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2006 21:48
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SEOUL: North Korea appears to be signalling a desire to return to stalled six-country talks on its nuclear programmemes and to be interested in breaking the deadlock, South Korea's foreign minister said on Thursday. Ban Ki-moon - a candidate for the post of UN secretary-general - also told Reuters a visit next month by Chinese President Hu Jintao to the United States could help create the right atmosphere for the nuclear talks to resume.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Hao Wu (surname Wu) may be the first blogger in China to get nabbed by its secret police. He has a lot video material they could use. Too bad his sources trusted him. He has American papers - they don't.
Chinese authorities are holding a documentary film-maker who was researching the countrys underground churches, while a social activist best known for his work with rural communities infected with HIV/AIDS has been missing for more than a month and is presumed detained.
Wu Hao, a documentary filmmaker who lived in the United States from 1992-2004, was detained by the Beijing division of Chinas State Security Bureau on the afternoon of Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006, according to a statement on the Harvard-backed Global Voices Online Weblog, for which Wu was a part-time editor.
On that afternoon, Wu had met in Beijing with a congregation of a Christian church not recognized by the Chinese government, as part of the filming of his next documentary, Global Voices said.
The Public Security Bureau has confirmed that [Wu] Hao was in fact detained, Rebecca MacKinnon, Global Voices founder and research fellow at Harvard Law Schools Berkman Center for Internet and Society told RFAs Cantonese service.
Filming with human rights lawyer
But they have no information about any charges, or how long until his release, she said.
An official on duty at the Beijing Public Security bureau promised to call back, but no such call was received. I cant call out on this phone. If you leave your details, I can call you back with the information, the official said.
Hao had also been working with Gao Zhisheng, a lawyer specializing in human rights cases.
He came and did a couple of shoots with me, on the subject of my daily life and my work, before the lunar new year, Gao told RFAs Mandarin service.
The next day [Feb. 22], he had arranged to come again, but that was the day that he went missing. I called some friends in America to let them know, Gao told RFA reporter Ding Xiao.
Police removed editing equipment and several videotapes from Wus apartment on Feb. 24, and Wu later called home but was unable to speak freely.
One of Haos friends has been interrogated twice since his detention, Global Voices said in its online statement.
AIDS activist believed detained
The reason for Haos detention is unknown. One of the possibilities is that the authorities who detained Hao want to use him and his video footage to prosecute members of Chinas underground Churches, it said.
We are very concerned about his mental and physical well-being. Wu was Northeast Asia Editor for Global Voices, but his personal blog, Beijing or Bust, was not that of a rights activist and contained little criticism of the Chinese government.
#1
No surprise here, as many Chinese choose God or Buddha over Marx and Mao. As for the HIV/Aids, various unconformed reports on the Web had reported as recently as January 2006 that HIV/Aids is spreading far faster in the rural countryside than Beijing's ability to stop or contain the same. Doubts also exist with Beijing's ability vv BIRD FLU, MAD COW, INFLUENZA or TUBERCOLOSIS.
The visitors of Pravda.Ru website have been deprived of a possibility to access the website and its materials today. The main Russian version of the Pravda.Ru portal has been closed today...
...Chairman of Pravda.Ru Board of Directors, Vadim Gorshenin, said that the office of Pravda.Ru received an email from masterhost Internet provider on Thursday morning. The company particularly informed Pravda.Ru about a letter which they had received from the Federal Security Service of Russia. The letter said that the provider should take measures to remove several materials from the Pravda.Ru website, particularly those stirring up religious strife...
...Vadim Gorshenin, the chairman of Pravda.Ru Board of Directors, said that the website had never published the notorious cartoons...
LAHORE - President Pervez Musharraf Thursday warned foreign Al Qaeda militants to quit Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan otherwise his forces would kill them. We will never tolerate foreign terrorists and extremists hiding in the tribal region, Musharraf told a rally in the eastern city of Lahore.
These foreign militants are indulging in acts of terrorism not only in Pakistan but elsewhere in the world also, he said. I warn them to leave Pakistan, failing which we will eliminate them, he said.
Proof's in the pudding, Perv.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/24/2006
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And in Arabic, Perv reconfirmed his ongoing support and protection to Al Q.
The United Nations has called on Iraqi authorities to rein in alleged death squads operating within the security forces. The UN human rights office in Iraq said in a report on Thursday that it had received serious allegations about elements in the police and special forces and "their apparent collusion with militias in carrying out human rights violations". Allegations that death squads operate in the country had grown stronger after the discovery by US-led forces and the Iraqi security forces in January of a suspicious group operating within the Iraqi interior ministry, it said. Twenty-two men, dressed as special police commandos, were caught when driving with a man who was allegedly about to be executed, it said. "This reaffirms the urgent need for the government to assert control over the security forces and all armed groups," the UN report said.
I'm against murder and mayhem as much as the next guy, and I'm probably against anarchy more than most. But I'm also not in the least impressed with the UN calling for the Iraqi cops to rein in their kill squads when bombs and massacres are in the news every day. To me, kill squads are an appropriate response to terrorism: find out who the bad guyz are, hunt them down, and kill them without mercy. Talking to them obviously isn't doing any good, and the UN sure as hell isn't sending any trained pacifiers to make things all better. Not responding to terrorism amounts to giving it free reign.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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And when did the UN urge Saddam to rein in 'death squads'?
Nigeria's first census in 15 years is under increasing attack from separatist groups who have attacked officials in the south of the country with acid and machetes in order to disrupt the headcount. Members of the Movement for the Actualisation of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) attacked at least seven officials in the market town of Onitsha in Anambra state on Wednesday, the second day of the census in Africa's most populous country. Uzor A Uzor, of the human rights group the Civil Liberties Organisation, said: "I counted at least seven enumerators who came to report at the police station yesterday that they were attacked with acid."
One of the victims, Felicia Nwachukwu, said three MASSOB members on a motorbike sprayed acid on her back and attacked a colleague with machetes before speeding off. "We were numbering houses when they came and poured acid on me and slashed my colleague's hand," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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The Civil Liberties Organization then added:
We blame Bush.
The Interior Ministry has advised President Pervez Musharraf to deploy army troops against foreign militants hiding in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) only as a last resort and rely on paramilitary forces instead.
Tribal lashkars work so well, after all...
A senior Interior Ministry official told Daily Times that during meetings with the president on FATA, the ministry opposed frequent army operations against militants in the tribal areas. The president was advised that the Frontier Constabulary and Levies should be made responsible for taking action against militants in Waziristan and other troubled tribal areas.
They haven't been tearin' 'em up to date, but I'm sure they will soon.
The ministry called for continuing the dialogue process to find out a political solution to the conflict. It proposed that pro-government tribal elders be encouraged to gain support for the government from tribal people. Sources said the ministry was of the view that there was still room for talks with tribal elders to ask them to expel foreign militants. It said that the process of dialogue through the office of the NWFP governor must be strengthened and leaders of the ruling and opposition parties help overcome the crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Speakers at Shaan-e-Mustafa conference on Thursday pledged that religious parties would continue their protest movement against President General Pervez Musharraf and the publication of blasphemous cartoons. Rallies and sit-ins would be staged in Islamabad in this regard, they said. We would oust General Musharraf before the next general elections and our protest movement would continue and the final encounter in this regard would be held in the federal capital, said Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the president of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, while speaking at the conference held under the auspices of the National Consultative Council.
Qazi said that general elections held under General Musharraf would be a farce, therefore the opposition parties would oust Musharraf from both offices before the polls. He said the date for a protest march against General Musharraf would be decided in the MMAs supreme council meeting and other opposition parties would also be consulted.
Dispelling reports of MMAs break-up before the general elections, the MMA president said all efforts of General Musharraf and the government to weaken the six-party religious alliance would be foiled. We will keep the MMA united and would contest general elections from this platform, he maintained. He said that General Musharraf was carrying out military operation in Waziristan on the directives of the US. Anyone who is a friend of Musharraf is also a friend of the US, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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That is not my headline. If you survive assassination you haven't been assassinated.
Iraq's Army second brigade Major Anwar Hama Ameen survived Thursday a bomb blast in southern Kirkuk, said a security source The source told KUNA that a bomb exploded while the Major's military convoy was passing by the Al-Riyadh-Al- Huwajah road adding that one of the cars in the convoy was damaged due to the blast. Meanwhile, another blast damaged cars on the road between Kirkuk- Al-Huwajah resulting in the injury of two citizens.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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#1
How do we know it wasn't Bush or Cheney who put that IED there ?
Posted by: Charlie Sheeen ||
03/24/2006 10:25
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#2
sheer Genius
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2006 18:40
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The US treasury has frozen the assets of the Lebanese satellite channel al-Manar. The treasury also blocked any US assets of al-Nour Radio and Lebanese Media Group, which it said was the parent company of al-Manar and al-Nour. It said both media outlets had facilitated the activities of Hizbollah, the Lebanese resistance group which the US brands a terrorist organisation, including giving support by fundraising and recruitment.
The treasury's action prohibits transactions between Americans and the companies in addition to freezing any assets they may have under US jurisdiction. Stuart Levey, under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the treasury, said: "Any entity maintained by a terrorist group - whether masquerading as a charity, a business, or a media outlet - is as culpable as the terrorist group itself." A treasury statement said al-Manar had also provided support to Palestinian groups defined as terrorist by the US government, including by transfer of tens of millions of dollars to a charity linked to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2006
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CALCUTTA, India -- Adwaitya the tortoise, once owned by the man whose British East India Company helped colonize India in the 18th century, has died at the age of 255. Adwaitya, or "The only one," was one of four giant Aldabra tortoises given to Robert Clive by British seamen who caught them in the Seychelles Islands, reports The Times of London. The other three died soon after they arrived in India.
In recent years, Adwaitya had numerous illnesses. "Our records show the tortoise was born in 1750, but some have claimed he was born in 1705," said the Calcutta zoo's director.
"Adwaitya, who delighted the zoo visitors for 131 years, died (Wednesday) morning. His shell will be preserved in the zoo."
Clive, who became known as the "Conqueror of India," arrived in South Asia 1743 as a clerk in the East India Company. But it was his military skill that helped him lay the foundation for eventual British rule of India. Clive died in 1774. "It appears I am destined for something; I will live." -- Robert Clive
#6
AS 6196:
God did not see fit to give reptiles a burning curiosity. They are content with a good meal and sunshine when they want it. Our turtle, Leon, is quite content in a small horse trough, with clean water flowing at a gentle current, a sun lamp, and Reptomin Turtle Food. He will patiently sit for hours in the corner where the current slows, waiting for the turtle food to float into easy reach.
I think God invented turtles to give us a good laugh. Leon is good for my morale; he's got a ridiculous perpetual frown and his little legs paddle wildly when he jumps off his sunning platform into the water.
I'm going off topic for a minute to remind everybody that, if you see somebody selling turtles smaller than four inches long, they don't know diddly about turtles and they're breaking the law. Don't buy a cute little turtle who's undersized for any reason, and don't buy any reptile unless you're ready for a long term investment, including making room for it as it grows. Leon will grow to the size of a dinner plate and can live for 30 years.
Some morons have let their oversized pythons loose in the southern US, where they pose a threat to livestock, small children, and the endangered species in the Everglades.
From East Asia Intel, subscription.
Even with the UN Security Council tied up in the knots over how to move toward halting Teherans nuclear armaments project, Japanese oil refiners were getting skittish about their heavy dependence on Iranian crude. Nippon Oil, Japans No. 1 refiner, announced it would cut back on Iran crude by 15 percent this year. Oil is a fungible commodity, but this does send a message. Probably the Chicoms will pick up the slack with the M²s.
Whatever other considerations in the decision, Fumiaki Watari, Nippons chairman, told the Financial Times: We have started reducing the percentage of Iranian crude and [are] shifting to other grades. Risks related to the country are getting higher.
Iran supplies 14 percent of Japans total oil supply, the third-largest supplier after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Nippons decision would mean reducing Irans shipments to Japan by 4 percent. Nippon said it would substitute oil from its major suppliers Kuwait, Russia and Indonesia to make up the shortfall. Some Teheran spokesmen had already threatened to use the oil weapon if the Security Council moved ahead with efforts to halt Irans flouting of the International Atomic Energy Agencys efforts to halt its uranium enrichment program. Teheran says it is for peaceful uses but Washington and its Western allies suspect it is a means of moving to nuclear weapons production.
Japanese policymakers have been torn between their traditional opposition to nuclear proliferation and their heavy dependence on imported fossil fuel. Earlier the U.S. and Japan were publicly at odds over Tokyo's proposed investment in a major new Iranian oilfield as the nuclear weapons crisis developed.
Washington is said to be trying to counter Irans threat to use its oil as a counter weapon to possible UN sanctions to force an end to its nuclear program.
European and Asian oil companies, including Royal Dutch Shell, Frances Total and Japans Inpex, have contracts in Iran. Iran is increasing its shipment as the largest supplier for China, which is also the worlds second-largest consumer. China and Russia, with their veto of any Security Council action, have said they oppose sanctions and could block any U.S. attempt to impose UN economic sanctions on Iran. Iraq UN redux. This sh*t is getting old.
But Irans economy, depending on oil and gas for 80 percent of its exports, and importing refined product from Kuwait to keep its own automobiles going, could be highly vulnerable even to limited sanctions, even were they were applied unilaterally by only some of the major oil importers. The U.S. already has sanctions in place, which have partially impacted Irans oil industry.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/24/2006
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Fungible yes, but if an individual user/refinery can avoid risk by paying a higher price to another provider that puts price pressure on the supplier in question. Saddam had to sell a lot of oil at way below market. Risky supplies degrade price.
#2
It's actualy a very smart move things are going to go Boom in Iran shortly and having another source beforehand makes the pain go away.
Pity those who believe there's no problem, they're the ones who will hurt the most when Iranian oil is disrupted, scrambling for the dregts not already contracted for years in advance means you pay the high dollar for the second and third grade crude stocks, and they're in short supply too.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/24/2006 20:18
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(2006-03-22) Justice Department officials said today they have a new plan to get the so-called 20th hijacker executed, despite a TSA attorneys bungling that may have allowed Zacarias Moussaoui to escape the death penalty under U.S. law.
The novel prosecution approach calls for getting Mr. Moussaoui converted to Christianity, then shipping him to Afghanistan with a Bible verse tattooed on his forehead.
The latest rendition of the death penalty strategy, which lawyers acknowledge faces some significant obstacles, was sparked by news that an Afghani man, Abdul Rahman, faces execution under Muslim Sharia law for becoming a Christian and carrying a Bible.
In the U.S., we cant get a confessed terrorist executed after five years of trying, said an unnamed Justice Department attorney, But when Moussaoui lands in Kabul, hell be lucky to make it through baggage retrieval alive.
A spokesman for Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, said the government has asked him to come to Mr. Moussaouis prison cell to lead him in a 40 Days of Purpose course in hopes that hell hear, and believe, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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.
Tehran, Iran, Mar. 24 Islamist militiamen affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps have launched military exercises near the Iraqi border to deal with possible unrest, Irans official news agency IRNA reported. Members of the paramilitary Bassij force staged military exercises in the western town of Dehloran. The paramilitary forces attacked dummy enemy sites during the operation.
Baghdad, 24 March (AKI) - Three hundred Palestinian families living in the al-Hurriya and al-Doura areas of Baghdad are reportedly close to fleeing their homes following escalating death threats from armed Shiite militias. According to the Iraqi information website Haqq, the latest threat arrived at dawn on Friday when a pamphlet was distributed in the zone warning "Palestinian cowards who collaborate with the Wahhabis, the Takfir (those outside Islam - often a euphemism for terrorists) and ex-Baathists loyal to Saddam, especially those living in al-Doura." "We will eliminate them all unless they leave the area within ten days. This is the last warning," the leaflet reads. 
THE Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been forced into an embarrassing change of heart over its refusal to press for the release of a British resident held at Guantanamo Bay after the High Court was told yesterday that he had links to MI5.
Germany's intelligence chief said on Thursday that the success of Germany and other countries in hunting down terrorists has done little to reduce the threat "Islamic terrorism" poses to Europe and Israel. 
Italy is on a state of high alert for possible terrorist attacks during the final phase of the elections campaign. Voting is scheduled to take place on April 9 and 10, and it is feared that Islamic militants may strike immediately before voting to maximize its political impact. To compound the sense of anxiety, the Bush administration has just warned that Italy should expect terrorist attacks (similar to the ones that devastated Madrid two years ago) near the elections.
Bay County sheriff's deputies made their first lewd and lascivious arrests of spring break. 
For years, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has claimed to be protecting his people from the corrupt and greedy Venezuelan elite class, represented by the Venezuelan political opposition. Now he is protecting them from an external foe, the US, which he has accused of intending to invade Venezuela. Riding on the rhetoric of an eventual US invasion, Chavez is building up a massive civilian militia answerable directly, and only, to him. That militia, however, is more likely intended to deter a military coup than a US invasion.
An Ottawa man was making remote controlled detonators for British terrorism suspects, one of whom discussed obtaining a radioactive bomb, a court has heard.
CALHOUN, Ga. -- Desmond T. Doss Sr., a conscientious objector whose achievements as a noncombatant earned him a Medal of Honor in World War II, died Thursday. He was 87. His death was announced by Seventh-day Adventist Church officials in Calhoun, near where he lived for many years. Doss died Thursday in Piedmont, Ala., where he and his wife had been staying with her family, said Pastor John Swafford. Doss, who refused to carry a weapon during his wartime service as a medic, was the subject of a book, "The Unlikeliest Hero," and a 2004 documentary, "The Conscientious Objector." He was invited to the White House in October 1945 to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, from President Truman for his bravery in April and May that year.
Gang Rampage Mars Rally Against Job Law; Pressure Builds on Chirac
CALLING ON ALL UK RANTBURGERS...
Iraqi security forces captured an aide to al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a raid Thursday in eastern Iraq, a top security official said. Minister of State for National Security Abdul Karim al-Inazi identified the captive as Fares Kadhim Lafi, a Iraqi who was snared Diyala province. "He carried out 27 operations including an attack on a minibus that left nine civilians dead," al-Inazi told The Associated Press. He said security forces had received a tip on Lafi's whereabouts. It is not uncommon for Iraqi authorities and US military to say they have captured aides to al-Zarqawi without giving further information.
Hundreds of people have been fleeing the northern suburbs of Mogadishu after two days of heavy fighting in the Somali capital. 
A British terrorist cell with alleged links to Al-Qaeda discussed bombing revellers at a large central London nightclub as well as targeting several synagogues in London and one in Manchester, a prosecutor said Wednesday. One of the defendants, 
Cartoons legacy hangs over Denmark
LAHORE: President General Pervez Musharraf has warned terrorists and extremists in Pakistan that they will be eliminated.
JERUSALEM - Acting Israeli Prime Minister 
PARIS: Around 420 people were arrested on Thursday during protests across France against a youth jobs programme, mainly for violence, vandalism and attacks on security forces, police said. In the central Paris area of Invalides, police said that 140 people were arrested after violent incidents and clashes with security forces. A total of 18 officers were slightly injured in clashes around the country, they said.
DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday appointed former culture minister Najah al-Attar as a second vice president, the official news agency SANA reported. Attar is the first woman to hold such a high position in Syria. By appointing her, Assad completes filling the country's two mostly ceremonial posts, which became vacant last year. Assad last month appointed former foreign minister Farouq al-Shara as vice president, replacing Abdel-Halim Khaddam who resigned last year and later defected to France.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah Movement, claimed responsibility on Thursday for a four-missile attack on the southern Israeli town of Majdal. The group said in statement the four locally-made missiles Shehab 3 were fired late last night. 
QUETTA: A bomb blast in a PCO killed one and injured at least 13 people including two paramilitary personnel on Thursday in Kohlu. The bomb was placed inside the PCO. Kohlu District Mayor Ali Gul Mari said that it was an act of terrorism that targetted innocent people.
Bulgarians have been warned by a self-styled Lunar Embassy to hurry to buy real estate on the moon as only a limited number of properties were left for sale. "We have already had over 30 orders since we opened the embassy two days ago," 'coordinator' Denislav Stoichev said. "A one-acre property on the moon will cost you 40 leva ($A34.60)," although plots on Mars and Jupiter's moon Io were also available, he added.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has assured Canada that a man facing possible execution for converting to Christianity will not be put to death, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday. 
DAMASCUS - Syrian security forces on Thursday arrested dissident writer 
The State Security Court president has given Jordanian fugitive Abu Mussab Zarqawi 10 days to surrender and face trial in connection with hotel bombings late last year. "I give you 10 days from the date of publication of this notice to surrender to the judicial authorities to face trial," said a statement published in the press on Wednesday and signed by the head of the tribunal. "If you do not surrender during that time you will be considered fugitive," it said. 
Danish 
There are 4,680 Madrassas in NWFP out of which only 1,077 have registered. Of the rest, 3,031 have refused to register and. 572 have not responded to the government, the NWFP government executive summary report said.
The intended interior minister in Hamas's government has said he will not order the arrest of fighters carrying out attacks against Israel.
The Chinese Government is imposing new or higher taxes on a range of goods and fuels as part of its efforts to control energy consumption and protect the environment. Car taxes will go up, while disposable chopsticks will be subject to a new tax. The tax on chopsticks may seem a curious way for the Chinese leadership to demonstrate its new found commitment to the environment. But from next month, a 5 per cent tax will be levied on every pair of disposable, wooden chopsticks. China gets through about 10 billion boxes a year.
Iraqi interior ministry announced on Thursday the killing of eight insurgents and the arrest of ten others in an operations carried out by Iraqi security forces. A statement by the ministry said seven of these men were arrested and seven others were arrested when its forces stormed their hideout in the city of Samarra. The statement said three other insurgents were arrested in Baghdad. TNT explosives were find in their car, it added. "Security forces were able to kill eight terrorists who opened fire at their checkpoint in the Al-Latifiyah." The statement said.
A district police chief was killed by his own bodyguard in Afghanistan's troubled southern parts on Thursday. Other bodyguards of the slain instantly opened fire at their colleague killing him on the spot. Chief of the Moosa Qala district of Afghanistan's southern 
A second car bomb hit a market area outside a Shia Muslim mosque in the mostly mixed Shia-Sunni neighbourhood of Shurta in southwest Baghdad. At least six people were killed and more than 20 wounded, many of them children, police said. Roadside bombs targeting police patrols killed four others two policemen and two bystanders in Baghdad and at least one policeman in Iskandariyah. Police said dozens were wounded. Another two policemen were killed and two were wounded when gunmen ambushed their convoy in north Baghdad, an attack that police said was an aborted attempt to free detainees who were being transferred to the northern city of Mosul.
MINSK: Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko won last Sunday's presidential election with 83 percent of the vote, the country's central elections commission said Thursday after all ballots were counted. The runners-up were Alexander Milinkevich with 6.1 percent, Sergei Gaidukevich with 3.5 percent and Alexander Kozulin with 2.2 percent, Nikolai Lozovik, the commission's secretary, told reporters.
SEOUL: North Korea appears to be signalling a desire to return to stalled six-country talks on its nuclear programmemes and to be interested in breaking the deadlock, South Korea's foreign minister said on Thursday. Ban Ki-moon - a candidate for the post of UN secretary-general - also told Reuters a visit next month by Chinese President Hu Jintao to the United States could help create the right atmosphere for the nuclear talks to resume.
The visitors of Pravda.Ru website have been deprived of a possibility to access the website and its materials today. The main Russian version of the Pravda.Ru portal has been closed today...
LAHORE - President Pervez Musharraf Thursday warned foreign Al Qaeda militants to quit Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan otherwise his forces would kill them. We will never tolerate foreign terrorists and extremists hiding in the tribal region, Musharraf told a rally in the eastern city of Lahore.
Nigeria's first census in 15 years is under increasing attack from separatist groups who have attacked officials in the south of the country with acid and machetes in order to disrupt the headcount. Members of the Movement for the Actualisation of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) attacked at least seven officials in the market town of Onitsha in Anambra state on Wednesday, the second day of the census in Africa's most populous country. Uzor A Uzor, of the human rights group the Civil Liberties Organisation, said: "I counted at least seven enumerators who came to report at the police station yesterday that they were attacked with acid."
The Interior Ministry has advised President Pervez Musharraf to deploy army troops against foreign militants hiding in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) only as a last resort and rely on paramilitary forces instead.
Speakers at Shaan-e-Mustafa conference on Thursday pledged that religious parties would continue their protest movement against President General Pervez Musharraf and the publication of blasphemous cartoons. Rallies and sit-ins would be staged in Islamabad in this regard, they said. We would oust General Musharraf before the next general elections and our protest movement would continue and the final encounter in this regard would be held in the federal capital, said 
The US treasury has frozen the assets of the Lebanese satellite channel al-Manar. The treasury also blocked any US assets of al-Nour Radio and Lebanese Media Group, which it said was the parent company of al-Manar and al-Nour. It said both media outlets had facilitated the activities of Hizbollah, the Lebanese resistance group which the US brands a terrorist organisation, including giving support by fundraising and recruitment.
CALCUTTA, India -- Adwaitya the tortoise, once owned by the man whose British East India Company helped colonize India in the 18th century, has died at the age of 255. Adwaitya, or "The only one," was one of four giant Aldabra tortoises given to Robert Clive by British seamen who caught them in the Seychelles Islands, reports The Times of London. The other three died soon after they arrived in India.
