She was raised as a law-abiding Muslim girl in Sydney's multicultural western suburbs.
But a "clash of cultures" has been blamed for an otherwise model citizen making a series of bomb threats to a Sydney shopping centre.
Ferda Uysalsoy, 24, caused the evacuation of a Myer department store and sparked huge police operations on two occasions.
Yesterday, a reason for her costly prank calls was given to a Sydney court.
A forbidden romance with a non-Muslim man - and the strict observance of her religion by her devout Muslim mother - led Uysalsoy to suffer a "psychosocial stress" disorder, it was claimed in Ryde Local Court.
As the teenage daughter of Turkish immigrants, Uysalsoy was a popular high school prefect, house captain and athletics star.
But her unblemished life took an inexplicable turn last October when she made the telephone bomb threats to the Carlingford Court shopping centre, where she worked as a waitress.
On October 17, security staff received a phone call from a female who demanded the centre be evacuated.
A short time later, a woman phoned back and announced: "You were told to clear it, you've got 20 minutes."
Three weeks later, another hoax call was received, with the caller stating: "I don't care any more. This time there will be one (bomb) in the upstairs car park and one in the downstairs car park."
Police identified Uysalsoy from security footage, which showed her making the calls from public phones at a nearby shopping complex and the Carlingford railway station.
When interviewed, she claimed she made the threats to "get out of work".
But during a sentencing hearing yesterday, a deeper cause of her crimes was put forward. Forced to hide her four-year relationship with her non-Muslim boyfriend from her terminally ill mother, Uysalsoy cracked under the pressure.
In a tendered report, psychiatrist Russell White said Uysalsoy's behaviour stemmed from her mother being diagnosed with cancer "coupled with having to conceal from her, her love for her non-Muslim boyfriend".
Solicitor Jonathon Anton described the cause of his client's crimes as an "unfortunate clash of cultures".
Convicting Uysalsoy and placing her on a two-year good behaviour bond, magistrate Joanne Keogh said a message had to be sent to the wider community.
More controversially, the Pentagon hopes to exploit sharks' natural ability to glide quietly through the water, sense delicate electrical gradients and follow chemical trails. By remotely guiding the sharks' movements, they hope to transform the animals into stealth spies, perhaps capable of following vessels without being spotted. The project, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), based in Arlington, Virginia, was presented at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, last week.
Neural implants consist of a series of electrodes that are embedded into the animal's brain, which can then be used to stimulate various functional areas. Biologist Jelle Atema of Boston University and his students are using them to "steer" spiny dogfish in a tank via a phantom odour. As the dogfish swims about, the researchers beam a radio signal from a laptop to an antenna attached to the fish at one end and sticking up out of the water at the other. The electrodes then stimulate either the right or left of the olfactory centre, the area of the brain dedicated to smell. The fish flicks round to the corresponding side in response to the signal, as if it has caught a whiff of an interesting smell: the stronger the signal, the more sharply it turns.
#1
We used stinky bait to lure and catch big cats on the Wabash. It will work here too I tell you, we can train them, it will work, it will work!!!! DARPA sharks are my idea, my fish, my agency. Mine! Mine! Mine!
Worth remembering.
Though the violence continues to heat up over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, it is widely seen in Japan as just a fire on the other side of the river; but it has evoked some bitter memories about The Satanic Verses murder.
Hitoshi Igarashi, Tsukuba University assistant professor of literature and translator of the novel by Salman Rushdie, was found murdered on the morning of July 12, 1991 near his office on the university campus in Ibaraki prefecture, 69 kilometers north of Tokyo. He was stabbed in the abdomen and his neck was slashed. Police found only footprints and stains of type O blood, which they believe belonged to the attacker. He was 44-years-old when he was killed. The case remains unresolved.
The Satanic Verses was first published in 1988. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's political and spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, ruled that the book was blasphemous against Islam and issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling for the death of Rushdie and all those involved in the book's publication with knowledge of its content. The Japanese translation was published in 1990.
An Italian translator of the book also suffered injuries in an attack in Milan several days before Igarashi's murder. In 1993, a Norwegian publisher was shot and severely injured in an attack outside of his house in Oslo. In Turkey, 37 people died when their hotel in Sivas was burned down by Muslims protesting against Rushdie's Turkish translator.
Several days after Igarashi's murder, an anti-Tehran Islamic group issued a statement claiming the Iranian government had dispatched an assassination squad to kill him. The Iranian Embassy in Tokyo strongly denied the allegation. To the indignation of the Japanese public, some Muslims in Japan applauded the murder and declared that even if the murder was not committed by a Muslim, God made sure that Igarashi "got what he deserved."
In Japan, the Muhammad cartoon issue has attracted a lot of media and public attention, but not as much as most other countries. That is primarily because the country has a very tiny Muslim population.
Although there is no official data, one unofficial estimate puts the number at about 200,000, of which 50,000 are Japanese that have converted.
Japan's Foreign Ministry was also quick to take a precautionary measure. It has requested that the Japanese media refrain from reprinting the cartoons. The ministry's top spokesman issued a statement on Feb. 6 expressing concern about the "difficult situation" over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in newspapers and magazines published in Denmark and dozens of other countries around the world.
Arab envoys stationed in Tokyo have lauded the Japanese government's response to the cartoon dispute.
To be sure, the Muhammad cartoon wars have not sparked violence in Japan. But for many Japanese, violence and the freedom of speech-blasphemy debate in other parts of the world have served as a vivid reminder of the killing of Igarashi at a time when their memories of the case have been fading.
Coincidentally, in July this year, the statute of limitations on the case will expire. The victim's wife, Masako, is still calling for Japanese people to remember the case to put pressure on the police. She says she hopes that the case will not fade away.
The principal religions in Japan are Shinto, Buddhism and Christianity. Most Japanese are said to be exceptionally tolerant when it comes to religious beliefs. They do not think it strange to be involved in several religions simultaneously. The birth and marriage ceremonies of most Japanese are generally in the Shinto style, while funerals are usually in the Buddhist style.
A survey conducted last summer by the largest Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun showed that 75 percent of Japanese do not believe in any particular religion, and a majority, 60 percent, do not think religion is important.
For most Japanese, Islam has become a household name after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States and the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many books about Islam have sold well in recent years. But many Japanese still do not know little more than the typical stereotypes; and that Muslims pray five times a day, refrain from pork and fast during Ramadhan.
Indifference or ignorance sows the seeds of trouble. Just a few years ago, Ajinomoto, the Japanese food-seasoning giant, got burned when it drew the wrath of Muslims in Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, for allegedly using pig enzymes in its flavor enhancing products.
Some experts point out that Japanese people need to face up squarely to Islam as the nation's population has begun to shrink and the number of foreigners, including Muslims, living in Japan is expected to grow in a way that makes up for a decline in the number of Japanese
CBS is launching a new television series on Tuesday, March 7th at 2100 hrs ET. I have had the good fortune of previewing the pilot episode of this new show titled, The Unit.
It is fantastic! A must see and I predict will quickly become the hottest show on television. The show is based on the book Inside Delta Force, written by Command Sergeant Major Eric Haney, who I understand is also a consultant on the set.
The pilot episode was more than the just action packed adventures of special operators taking out the bad guys. It delves into the relationships members of the elite unit have with one another, and their families. It is exciting and heart wrenching at the same time. I highly, highly reccommend The Unit if your Tuesday nights are free. I have two more episodes to watch, Ill let you know how they are. Sgt Hook out.
KABUL, Afghanistan - In a surprise visit under extraordinary security, President Bush expressed unwavering confidence Wednesday that Osama Bin Laden will be captured despite years of fruitless manhunts for the elusive terrorist leader who ran training camps in Afghanistan and plotted the deadly attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Bush ordered Air Force One, on a flight to India, to make a secret detour to this war-scarred country to show U.S. support for the fledgling democracy led by President Hamid Karzai, whose authority has been weakened by suicide bombings and rising violence by insurgents.
There are more than 18,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and Bush said their mission was "to help this new democracy not only survive but to flourish."
The president, who once boasted bin Laden would be taken "dead or alive," said the fugitive terrorist would not elude the United States forever. Bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar were driven into hiding by the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11. They are believed to be in the rugged Pakistan-Afghan border region.
"It's not a matter of if they're captured and brought to justice," Bush said at a news conference with Karzai at the war-battered presidential palace. "It's when they're brought to justice."
Eight weeks in the planning, Bush's visit to Afghanistan was not announced in advance to reduce chances of an assassination attempt. Heavily armed combat assault teams shadowed Bush's moves. Door-gunners on at least two helicopters fired brief bursts of bullets down at the dusty flatlands not far from Bagram Air Base as they ferried the president's entourage into town.
A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, said the gunners on the choppers were test firing their weapons.
"It is standard operating procedure for the MH-47 helicopter to test-fire their mini-guns over East River Range every time they fly in mission," he said. "Neither President Bush nor any of the aircraft in the flight were ever in any danger."
Streets were locked down and there was a heavy show of security along Bush's brief motorcade route. There was no other traffic. At one intersection, pedestrians gawked from behind military and security forces.
It was Bush's second visit to a war front, after his secret 2003 trip to Iraq
to visit with U.S. troops at Thanksgiving.
Karzai said Afghanistan owes the United States "a great, great deal in this country's rebuilding peace, democracy, the strong steps toward the future."
Bush said Karzai's government, which has allowed young girls to attend school, is one that believes in hope "which is the exact opposite of the ideology of the bin Ladens of the world and the Taliban."
In Washington Wednesday, the State Department issued a report saying production and trafficking of opium, which accounts for one third of Afghanistan's economy, declined 10 percent last year.
The area under opium cultivation dropped 48 percent, the report said. Opium is the main ingredient of heroin.
The report, mandated annually by the Congress, is titled "International Narcotics Control Strategy Report" and is more than 900 pages. It examines production, trafficking, money laundering and financial crimes in all countries.
"Afghanistan's huge drug trade severely impacts efforts to rebuild the economy, develop a strong democratic government based on rule of law, and threatens regional stability," the report said.
Bush spent just four hours in Afghanistan, racing from meetings and lunch with Karzai, the news conference, a ceremonial ribbon-cutting at the new U.S. Embassy and a pep talk for 500-600 U.S. and foreign troops at Bagram Air Base.
From Afghanistan, Bush flew to India for two days of appointments that both sides hope will be capped by a landmark civilian nuclear agreement. Bush said it was a difficult issue for both countries, and one official suggested that if there were to be an agreement, it would come at the last moment.
The president is to fly to Pakistan on Friday evening and return to Washington late Saturday.
At the news conference, Bush and Karzai spoke of the steps Afghanistan has made toward rebuilding the nation, restoring peace and achieving democratic reform. Bush also acknowledged Afghanistan's complaints about violence emanating from neighboring Pakistan, and said he'd talk with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf about it when he sees him in Islamabad.
"I absolutely will bring up the cross-border infiltrations with President Musharraf," Bush said. "These infiltrations are causing harm to friend, allies and cause harm to U.S. troops."
Bush said he also would remind Musharraf about the need to capture bin Laden and Omar. "It's important that we bring these people to justice," Bush said. "He (Musharraf) understands that. After all, they've tried to kill him four times."
As Bush arrived in South Asia, Pakistani security forces struck a militant training camp near the Afghan border, killing three dozen fighters, including a Chechen commander linked to al-Qaida, an army official said. Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war against terror that has deployed thousands of troops to fight militants, has denied in the past that arrests of militants are timed to coincide with events.
Violence in Afghanistan increased 20 percent last year, the Defense Intelligence Agency said this week. About 1,600 people were killed in violence last year, including 91 U.S. troops. There have been 25 suicide bombings in the past four months.
It was Bush's first visit to Afghanistan although his wife, Laura, and Vice President Dick Cheney both have visited before. The first lady joined her husband. If there is one thing I want in this entire world its that son of a bitch dead. Thank God GEORGE W. BUSH IS PRESIDENT
#1
The increased violence in Afghanistan and in Iraq is headline-grabbing stuff by Al Q in just the same way that the NVA did during Tet in Viet Nam. They are shooting their wad. They are playing to the MSM because they cannot inspire the people, and they cannot win militarily against the US and the steadily more capable Iraqi army.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/01/2006 22:07
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Well said, AP.
War is always the most intrense just before it ends - I'm told. Think Battle of the Bulge..
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/01/2006 22:45
Comments ||
Top||
#3
"Bush: Bin Laden Will Be Captured or Killed"
I'll take Door Number 2, George. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/01/2006 23:08
Comments ||
Top||
BAGHDAD, Iraq Eight local nationals were killed and three were wounded Feb. 27 when two rockets impacted in northwest Baghdad at approximately 1:30 p.m.
The rockets impacted on a car and a curb next to a primary school.
Soldiers from Multi-National Division Baghdads 1st Battalion, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, responded to the scene to assist the wounded.
Elsewhere, Iraqi police discovered a roadside bomb with a cell phone initiator concealed in a food sack while on patrol in the vicinity of Al Iskandariyah at approximately 3 p.m.
According to local witnesses, a child was paid by terrorists to place the bomb along an Iraqi police foot patrol route.
An Explosive Ordnance Disposal team successfully recovered the bomb without any injury to personnel, equipment or infrastructure.
Both incidents are under investigation by Iraqi authorities.
#1
These terrorists are total animals, I dont even know how they can consider themselves religious. I guess morality and the laws of their religion just dont apply when it comes to fighting a sovereign Iraqi govt. and the U.S.
Just last summer, a Missoula radio station launched the towns first progressive talk radio program, throwing down the gauntlet to the conservative radio hosts already dominating the airwaves.
Now operators of KNS, 105.9 on the dial, plan to drop the progressive talk radio format this week, citing weak advertising sales. Update: Air America went off the air Tuesday afternoon...
Thank you to the staff, the listeners and the clients for all youve done in the past 17 months...
...I have talked to more BS artists and rich guys who pretend they want to get "involved" and "progressive" venture firms that live in the world of "new media" and think that good old terrestrial radio, the kind that everyone has access to and is free 24/7, is so "over"!
When I finally put together the right banker and the right investors, we were out of time! Im mad at myself for wasting time with the charlatans, the BS artists and the dreamers... Well, gee. What do you expect when your supporters are primarily losers, ne'er-do-wells, scoundrels and hypocrites?
#2
You know i will be sad when they are gone. I like the idea of "progressives" letting it all hang out for the world (and voters) to see. Every time one of their bonehead hosts pops off it marginalizes them just a little bit more. The best part is they think (and they are wrong) that most Americans agree with them. Kind of like the Dems saying "We just need to get our message out." Well guys you got your message out and everyone knows that you are friggin looney. Here in Sacramento Err Amerika has moved three times, each time they got thrown off for low rating and lack of advertising $$$ coming in. Someone needs to tell them that were are a CAPITALISTS society and your message is only as good as someone is willing to pay for it.
#3
Lol, CS. The stupid sheeple just don't get it, lol. It's not the message or the fact that they have no answers to anything (except via our wallets in their "vision" of a US Nanny State), it's just nuancing their vacuous BS correctly so the dummies finally "get it". Then they will win every election until the end of time... Which should be within about 3 years of Prez Billary taking office...
#7
would be nice if taxpayer funding were cut for NPR as well. Make em sink or swim based on the success of their audience sales/ads/support
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/01/2006 22:58
Comments ||
Top||
#8
NPR funding keeps getting cut, more every successive year since the Clinton days. They aren't getting much of their funding from the public sector any more. Unfortunately, Mrs. Kroc (wife of the founder of McDonald's restaurants) gave them a very large check a year or so ago, so they've been sheltered from the audience response to their efforts.
As the United States and Iraq approach the third anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, it might do all Americans well to take some time out and reflect on how we got where we are, as well as where we are going in Iraq and the Middle East as a whole.
Gone forever is any talk of song and flowers, economic recoveries paid for by Iraqi oil, or a blooming democracy in the cradle of civilization. The state of affairs between the Bush administration and the newly elected government of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari is strained, to say the least, with the United States threatening to cut off aid to Iraq, and Iraq telling the United States to "butt out."
Nearly three months have passed since the "historic" elections of December 2005, and the Iraqis have just now selected a prime minister (Jafari, a Shiite Islamic fundamentalist closely allied with Iran), and seemed hopelessly deadlocked on the issue of forming a government that will not promote an immediate outbreak of sectarian violence once formed.
The Sunni insurgency is stronger than ever, and Shiite death squads roam the street in the guise of government police and soldiers. Torture, rape and murder are rampant as official tools of government suppression. And American troops appear to be powerless to stop this mindless slide into the abyss, all the while being killed and maimed for a cause that has always been nebulous.
"Duty," "honor" and "country" mean little when the majority of the American citizens supposedly being served by the ongoing occupation of Iraq are more interested in "American Idol" than the process of bringing peace and stability to ancient Babylon, or when American politicians seem content to continue to allow the men and women who honor our nation through their service to die while those in power grasp for a politically face-saving way to "solve the Iraqi problem." And herein lies the problem: We continue to try to solve a problem we have yet to define, meaning we are seeking a solution to nothing.
America continues to pretend that we are building something of value in Iraq. And yet, common sense dictates that when one seeks to build on a corrupt foundation, whatever it is that is being constructed is doomed eventually to collapse. Our nation's involvement in Iraq is based on as corrupt a foundation as imaginable. We didn't go to war for sound national-security reasons (i.e., a threat that manifested itself in a form solvable only through military intervention), but rather for domestic political reasons based on ideology that exploited the fear and ignorance of the American people in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, world.
In the topsy-turvy world of domestic American politics, this reality continues to fail to resonate. Those who opposed the invasion of Iraq continue to be demonized and marginalized, while those who supported it are embraced and applauded.
This "through the looking glass" quality in the American body politic not only hamstrings the nation collectively on the issue of solving the Iraq problem, but also continues to distort reality when dealing with other emerging problems confronting our country and the world, such as the looming crisis with Iran over its nuclear programs.
Even as we fail to grasp the lessons of our unraveling failure in Iraq, we seem to be moving full steam ahead into a similar catastrophe in Iran, making the same mistakes by embracing a threat model (nuclear weapons) void of any hard evidence, and promoting a solution (democracy) that is undefined.
If the upcoming leather anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq tells us anything as a nation, it is that we are in desperate need of a national "time out" when it comes to the issue of Iraq, Iran and the global war on terror. We need to learn the lesson that every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine serving oversees knows only too well you don't reinforce failure.
If our politicians, Republican and Democrat alike, are unable or unwilling to engage in a rancor-free discussion about where we as a nation are heading when it comes to issues of war and peace, then perhaps we the people should engage in one of our own, and in the process establish agreed-upon principles and standards that not only would serve as a solid foundation upon which to build any future endeavors in the Middle East and elsewhere, but also set forward values and ideals that could be used to hold to account those whom we elect to represent us in higher office.
Scott Ritter is a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq (1991-1998) and Marine Corps intelligence officer. He is the author of "Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the U.N. and Overthrow Saddam Hussein," published by Nation Books.
#2
Scott Ritter is a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq (1991-1998) and Marine Corps intelligence officer. He is the author of "Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the U.N. and Overthrow Saddam Hussein," published by Nation Books.
They left out the movie he made with Saddam's money.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/01/2006 15:40
Comments ||
Top||
#3
I guess you either believe that freedom works, or you don't. It's interesting to see which side of the line some people fall into. Not that I ever had a doubt about this ass clown.
#4
and and I heard he was a spy for Israel and his wife was a KGB agent and doesnt he eerily resemble that person of interest in the anthrax investigation?
#5
Also the author of "Endgame, Solving the Iraq Problem," Simon & Schuster, which most thought went a little too far in revealing US intelligence sources and methods. Scottie is a klingon wannabee with an ego as big as Texas. I can only hope he is doing poorly.
President Bush, for the first time, is hailing the rise of the alternative media and the decline of the mainstream media, which he now says conspired to harm him with forged documents. I find it interesting that the old way of gathering the news is slowly but surely losing market share, Bush said in an exclusive interview for the new book Strategery. Its interesting to watch these media conglomerates try to deal with the realities of a new kind of world.
The only problem with that is that us new media depend on the old media to gather the actual raw news. I say good riddance to the pseudonews organs, but there are also real reporters out there, and they should be considered a precious resource.
For example, journalist Dan Rather was forced out of his anchor chair at CBS News after bloggers revealed he had used forged documents to criticize Bushs military record in September 2004. The forgeries, which Bush now calls a conspiracy, ended up helping his re-election campaign, he acknowledged in the Oval Office interview.
Bush is merely being accurate in his terminology. It's hard to accidentally forge documents. You can misinterpret, you can be wrong in your analysis, but when it comes to actually typing up what you want to report you're conspiring. By the way, whatever happened to Lucy Ramirez? I was so looking forward to hearing from her.
It looks like somebody conspired to float false documents, he said. And I was amazed about it.
"I couldn't believe they'd be that stoopid. Normally, when somebody's hatching that sort of a plot they preserve some sort of plausible deniability. Rather really led with his chin!"
"I just couldnt believe that would be happening [and] then it would become the basis of a fairly substantial series of news stories.
"I said, 'Rove, you're a friggin' genius!' Imagine my surprise when he told me they'd done it themselves, without his help!"
He added: Then there was a backlash to it. I mean, a lot of people were angry that this could have happened. A lot of Americans are fair people and they viewed this as patently unfair. So in a funny way, I guess it inured to our benefit, when it was all said and done.
"So all I have to say is, 'Thanks, Dan. You really hosed that one, didn't you?' Oh, and a big 'Thanks!' to Mary Mapes, too. Dan couldn't have done it without her help."
The episode, known as Memogate, inoculated Bush against further scrutiny of his National Guard record for the duration of the presidential campaign. It also, frankly, gave us an opportunity, frequently, when things came out in the media that we didnt believe or didnt like, to say, Its another CBS story, said Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, who was the presidents campaign manager. I mean, it gave us a serious response to bad news.
"Talk about political manna from heaven! We were rollin' in it!"
Memogate was initially expected to harm the president, but it ended up backfiring spectacularly on the press. The guy that it hurt most was Dan Rather and the executives at CBS, said White House strategist Karl Rove in an interview for Strategery.
"Nurse! Bring the oxygen tank! Karl's talking about Rather, and he's lost his breath laughing again!"
It further disgraced a network which is third in ratings and, if you look at the demographics of their consumers, its like 70 percent Democrat. Rove said Rathers eagerness to broadcast obviously forged documents proves he is no serious reporter. As for Rathers insistence, to this day, that the documents are real, Rove said: Thats really bias.
"Or maybe wishful thinking. Nobody takes him seriously anymore since he move to Lalaland."
Memogate has helped accelerate the decline of the mainstream media, generally defined as CBS, NBC,ABC, The New York Times and other establishment news outlets. There has been a corresponding rise in popularity of the alternative media, which includes free daily newspapers, the Fox News Channel, talk radio, the Drudge Report Web site and a host of Web logs, or blogs.
Keep in mind that with the partial exception of Fox News, all of those sources use raw news provided by AP, AFP, Rooters, and UPI. Even when we're mining the foreign press, much of what we bring back we could have taken from the day's wire service story. Asharq al-Aswat, KUNA, Beirut Daily Star, and Pak Daily Times actually carry news before it hits the wires, but if we didn't mine them most of what we carry would eventually end up there, if a bit garbled.
I think whats healthy is that theres no monopoly on the news, Bush said. Theres competition. Theres competition for the attention of, you know, 290 million people, or whatever it is. And the amazing thing about this world we live in is that theres a kind of free-flowing, kind of bulletin board of ideas and thoughts out there in the ether space, sometimes landing on somebodys desk and sometimes not, but always available. Its a very interesting period. Having long been pilloried by the mainstream media, Bush now finds the rise of the alternative media nothing less than revolutionary. Its the beginning of the 21st century; it also happens to be the beginning of or near the beginning of a revolution in newsgathering and dissemination, he said. Not
in newsmaking that tends to be pretty consistent.
Translating the hodge-podge of press releases that are the raw material of most news becomes the hard part. Even as a hardworking member of the alternative media, I don't have that much patience. I could maybe handle the part about hanging around the bar in a hotel in Baghdad drinking gin and tonic, and maybe the part about occasionally riding around with the infantry and taking notes, but not the press releases."
Rove considers Memogate a watershed in the rise of the alternative media.
"That was where an entire industry shot itself in the foot and then ignored the bleeding. It was wonderful!"
The whole incident in the fall of 2004 showed, really, the power of the blogosphere, he said in his West Wing office.
Charles Johnson, take a bow!
Because in essence, you had now an army of self-pointed experts looking over the shoulder of the mainstream media and bringing to bear enormously sophisticated skills. Still, Rove cautioned that the Internets political potential has a darker side. There is so much ugliness and viciousness and fundamental untruths that the blogosphere transmits, he lamented. It also is a vehicle for ugly rumors, for scurrilous personal attacks, an avenue for the creation of urban legends which are deeply corrosive of the political system and of peoples faith in it.
Simple solution: if they don't source their stuff, you can ignore them. There's no reason bloggers should be held to a lower standard than the mainstream press. A fair bloc of it holds to a rather higher standard, and hopefully will continue to do so. Given time, the sourced version like Rantburg, but also like LGF, Roger Simon, Donald Sensing, Belmont Club, Bill Quick, Kathy Kinsley, Glenn Reynolds, and hundreds of others, will stand in contrast to the fairy tale venom sites. Drudge takes a lot of heat for his occasional inaccuracies, but his stuff looks pretty good when compared to some of the corkers that have appeared in the MSM, quite aside from the obviously egregious Rathergate affair.
Rove said Rather and his producer, Mary Mapes, were gunning for the president and trying to help his challenger, Sen. John Kerry, by broadcasting the forged documents in the heat of the presidential campaign. From her body language and his body language, their enthusiasm for this story was in large measure fed by the belief that they were playing a constructive and perhaps determinative role in the presidential campaign, Rove said of Mapes and Rather. They made a decision in this instance I think quite prematurely and quite unfairly to pursue a story that attacked the president. And I thought it was, to me, one of the most incredible examples of how fundamentally unfair it was.
"Then it blew up in their faces. It wasn't one of those little blowups that you can explain away, a few bits of egg on your face but your dignity still intact. This was the big blowup, where the entire nation was watching while a handful of bloggers pulled their pants down and shoved them over in the schoolyard. Not only did they get dirt rubbed in their faced, but the bloggers made 'em cry. Kinda makes you just smack your lips and say "Yes! There is a God! And one of his commandments is not to bear false witness! And he does have a sense of humor!'
Rove expressed astonishment that CBS ignored the warnings of document experts hired by the network to authenticate the National Guard memos. It goes back to the failure of the mainstream media, in this instance, to honor their own experts, he said. Rove is not the only senior Bush adviser who considers the mainstream media biased against the conservative president. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was outraged that the TV networks refused to declare Bush the winner on Election Night, even after all the votes were counted in the pivotal state of Ohio and it became obvious Kerry could not win. Some of the talking heads, Card said, were rooting for a crisis in Ohio. It wasnt just that they were afraid to admit we had won. Card became particularly incensed when Bushs Ohio lead reached 120,000 votes, which was mathematically insurmountable. Nobody wanted to call it so that we had won, he said. It was like, cmon,are they just afraid to say it?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/01/2006
14:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Nurse! Bring the oxygen tank! Karl's talking about Rather, and he's lost his breath laughing again!"
ROFL, Fred! I read this story much earlier elsewhere, but your in-line comments are hysterical - and awesome, heh. *w00t!*
With the Cartoon Wars giving way to the ports imbroglio, Jim Geraghty, blogging from Turkey, wonders if we're seeing a tipping point in Western attitudes toward Islam. Geraghty collects a lot of quotes, and writes of "my sense that in recent weeks, a large chunk of Americans just decided that they no longer have any faith in the good sense or non-hostile nature of the Muslim world. If subsequent polls find similar results, the port deal is dead."
#1
Tipping Point? Yup, the undercurrent of popular US opinion is there. Now all it takes is some Islamist to walk into a mall and let loose with a machine gun to put the entire US war machine into high gear. I hear people toss off the "just nuke'em all" line far more often then I did even after 9/11. Liberal Muslims better wake up soon and start solving THEIR problem before they all wind up in concentration camps.
#2
Geraghty's point -- is that Democratic politicians who have generally opposed "racial profiling" are nonetheless opposing the ports deal because, basically, the company involved is an Arab company.
Yes, but this guy forgets that the dimocrats cant make a logical argument about anything. All they can seemingly do is take a diametrically opposed position to everything Bush does. They don't have any answers, ideas or willingness to work with the admin. on anything, but they are the first ones to bitch.
#3
Don't bet on it. As significant factions in the West DO begin to get fed up with islam, there will be an even greater concerted effort by others to push back and be our "conscience." For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is true in human endeavors as well.
The West is plagued by too much empathy. What these do-gooders don't realize, is that islam does not see the world as the west does. The most cited example is when westerners see a suicide bombing as a final, desperate act that only a person with no other choice could possibly consider and islam sees it as a statement of faith.
So our empathy is misguided and misplaced. And dead wrong.
#4
You may be correct PD, but the Hildabeest is trying to run to the right of GWB on the WoT. Politically, she can ignore the moonbats because she knows that they would NEVER vote for a Republican. I am concerned that she might be elected by conservatives annoyed with the course of the war.
She would kill a lot Muslims without second thoughts if she thought it would help her politically.
By Alan Oxley From Tech Central Station
Like Bono, Oxfam has discovered there is pop fame in the aid business. The political chic this gives Oxfam is invaluable. The G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland last year and the worldwide Live Aid concerts put Oxfam second only to Bono for global poverty cool. The timing was handy because it overshadows a significant, recent failure another less-publicized program (driven by politics) that would make many of Oxfam's mainstream backers uncomfortable if they knew the details. It's all about "feelings" don't ya know.
Oxfam's pop trick is "Cold Play", the only other British pop band since the Beatles to crash first releases onto the US Top Ten. Cold Play's lead singer, Chris Martin, is new generation pop glamour. He is married to Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow. He has marked himself as an anti-globalization rebel by attacking the shareholders in the recording company which made him very rich, calling them "greedy". Oxfam is his charity of choice. It gets plugs from the stage at Cold Play concerts worldwide and free entrée on global tours to sign up people to its anti-globalization "Make Trade Fair" campaign. Typical LLL disconnect---make your fortune from the very people you want to destroy later.
Oxfam has successfully parlayed its pop glam into political influence. It conscripted Tony Blair to endorse its campaign to shift the blame for economic disaster in many poor countries, particularly in Africa, from corruption and callous incompetence of its leaders, to the failure of rich countries to provide aid. Blair ran Oxfam's lines at the G8 Summit last year i.e. pressing for more aid, a soft line on free trade, and debt forgiveness. Last year Oxfam turned over around US $300 million, the biggest earner being its British parent. Bottom line: It's all about money. Follow the money trail.
Running alongside Oxfam's programs to reduce poverty, its soft side, there is a hard political side -- "advocacy" programs. This is NGO code for political activism. They are not commercially important to Oxfam's soft side programs, but motivate its more hard core workers and are evidence of a deep anti-private sector (even anti-growth) sentiment in the Organization.
The core of Oxfam's political platform is human rights. It aims to "empower" people in poor countries. This sounds good, but it is high risk. It requires Oxfam to take sides and can lead it into unacceptable company. When does today's union activist in Peru become tomorrow's Shining Path Maoist revolutionary? Or today's social worker in Palestine, tomorrow's supporter of terrorism? Careful aid agencies shirk these risks. Not Oxfam. It has been enmeshed and doesn't seem to mind. The Institute of Public Affairs in Australia has revealed that Oxfam has supported radical groups in both Palestine and Indonesia.
The global mining industry is a special target for Oxfam's advocacy program. Mining does not restrict human rights. But it is a good target for Oxfam's ideologues. They are big first world businesses in the third world. Mining has significant local impact and offers good opportunities to play up environmental effects and local discontent. Oxfam's pitch is that it does not oppose mining, just the effects of mining.
But it has no problem working with Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth who do oppose mining; the latter have a strong record of fomenting discontent in Third World countries. All collaborate in campaigns to block financing of mining projects in developing countries by the World Bank and other development finance institutions. Oxfam has created an additional niche for itself. It claims to be the world's global "Mining Ombudsman". There's gold in them thar hills, and with a mining boom comes the necessary ombudsman, i.e., the Jesse Jackson of the mining industry.
Oxfam in Australia provides the "Ombudsman" and presumably appropriated the concept from Australian practice where Ombudsmen are established in law to provide neutral hearings to any party aggrieved by government administration. No global government appointed Oxfam. There isn't one. That's pretty good. Appoint yourself ombudsman, pass out a fee schedule, or maybe just a bill from time to time.
Oxfam doesn't need that form of legitimacy, NGO political ideology is enough. It goes like this: in today's globalized world, multinational companies are unaccountable so it falls to NGOs like Oxfam, to keep them accountable. This nonsense is even taken seriously at the annual Davos big business talk-fests. The same thing goes for Oxfam. Who keeps them and other NGOs accountable? The UN? Heh.
Oxfam has a third string in its bow, not only activist and grievance board, it is also in the business of facilitation. It offers to help mining companies (to deal with local community groups) and community groups (to deal with mining companies). We're here to help you!
Get the picture? Oxfam promotes local "empowerment", (and works with others that encourage local communities to be dissident), offers a supposedly neutral corner to hear problems between international companies and local communities and offers to facilitate contact between the parties; on a good day, securing funding from the companies concerned (not the community groups, they usually don't have any) to fund this activity. It's all about money.
What a tangled web that is and sure enough Oxfam snared itself. It put its multi-functional capacity on show at the Tintaya copper mine, the third largest in Peru. Tintaya generates significant benefits to Peru. From the time it was developed by Magma, a US company, Oxfam US had hounded the company about the consequential environmental and social impact of its operations. BHP Billiton, one of the world's biggest mining companies, based in Australia, took over the mine when it purchased Magma.
Oxfam Australia offered itself to the company as the party able to manage and broker the complaints by local groups about the mine. It was after all the global "Mining Ombudsman". We can provide references, too!
An expensive (to the company) process of consultation was established. Commissions of enquiry into complaints about environmental damage, social impacts, sustainability and abuse of human rights were established. By Oxfam's own accounts, the complaints against the company (fostered by its US counterpart) were found baseless or insignificant. The complaints are baseless. Here is the bill for our findings.
But Oxfam were unable to deliver peace. Other local groups, not within Oxfam's range of influence), raised fresh complaints about the mine and sought unreasonable payments from the company (such a increasing the US$1.5 million dollar contribution to the local community to US$20 million). Oxfam peevishly grumbled in its reports that these groups were undermining the process of consultation it had established . Yer getting onto our turf, buddy.
Oxfam was not in a strong position to complain. You can't be both Ombudsman and activist. When entirely new complaints were produced by locals (not connected with the Oxfam process) about a new tailings dam, Oxfam gave them currency. The supporter of empowerment found itself in conflict with its commercial role as mediator and its self-appointed role as Ombudsman.
Oxfam got itself in this mess because of the political values that drive Oxfam's advocacy activities. They are antagonistic to the private sector, urge global regulation of trade in commodities, and oppose intellectual property rights. Consistent with the political methodology of the old European left from where these values come, the operating principle is that the ends justify the means. In other words, anything goes. Worked so far until we got our a$$es in a crack.
The best we can hope from this is that Oxfam's remarkable capacity to mobilize public opinion and money might come to be regarded by its managers and funders as more important than the political ideology which drives the organization's darker activities. And, with luck, they might even spare a thought for the development benefit to poor countries like Peru of big private sector projects like Tintaya.
But this will only occur when those who contribute to Oxfam are no longer dazzled by the glam or amused by the radical cool and hypocritical chic of Chris Martin's anti-business ranting. Hey Hey! Ho Ho! These NGOs have got to go! Oops, got carried away at the demonstration. My bad.
Needs a puppet ...
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/01/2006
13:07 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
They are antagonistic to the private sector, urge global regulation of trade in commodities, and oppose intellectual property rights.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/01/2006 12:59
Comments ||
Top||
#2
It is not a matter of whether or not Islam "can" (or will, or wants to, or whatever) reform itself. Either it reforms itself or Islam will be cauterized excised from our planet's culture like the cancer it is.
#4
Mansour's 3-point plan for reform was very weak and I think he realized it. The first point was to figure out how to defang the Koran (he doesn't even acknowledge the historical attempts at this). His second point was to modernize the defanged Koran. His third point was to get a lot of moderate muslims in high level administration positions (i.e., affirmative action).
Here was the guts of this 3rd point,
"..Raise the profiles of and give responsibility to American Muslims who seek reform within their religion. Give them positions of meaningful responsibility that enable them to be real messengers and agents for change, not by preaching but rather by the force of their examples in serving this great nation. If we had an American Muslim FBI director, or the deputy Defense secretary was a Muslim by faith, or one day we had an American Muslim secretary of State, these officeholders would do a world of good by setting an example of how secularism, tolerance and belief can coexist, much the same way Condi Rice and Colin Powell did for black people everywhere in diffusing race as a factor in service to our country. But we cannot have just one or two. Zalmay Khalilzad and Fareed Zakaria and Mansoor Ijaz are Uncles Abdullah, Asim, and Arif --the three stooges who don't represent Islam, but rather seek to ingratiate themselves with the vested interests who seek to destroy Islam. We are seen as apologists, not agents of change. We need hundreds, even thousands to rise into positions of real responsibility, to make this part of the strategy work.."
#6
yes, in order to move our society forward, we will take backward thinking people and elevate them to positions of power.
I'm all for giving a voice to Muslims who wish to defang the Koran and move forward into this century. But even the moderate Muslims are still centuries behind when it comes to ideals of freedom. Positions of power, I think not.
#7
If we had an American Muslim FBI director, or the deputy Defense secretary was a Muslim by faith, or one day we had an American Muslim secretary of State...
Mmmmm... am I the only one who remembers the Muslim FBI agent who refused to tape Sami al-Arian? Or the translators who were members of the very groups they were working on?
Sure, there are loyal and patriotic Muslims. But that's not the way to bet.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/01/2006 14:35
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Not to mention the muslim Marine who thoughtfully fragged his CO's tent.
With Secretary Rice pushing to bring Iran before the Security Council, is the United States also willing to impose sanctions on Dubai? The sanctions against South Africa to end apartheid were effective because the financial interests of white South Africa were brought to their knees.
Before the Bush administration hands over key port operations to Dubai Ports World, someone in the White House ought to vet the considerable ties between Dubai and Iran. If we "follow the money" to punish Iran for non-compliance with IAEA requirements, then the money trail is going to lead straight to Dubai.
The Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy reports that "Iran is one of Dubai's major trading partners, accounting for 20 to 30 percent of Dubai's business." The daily newspapers of the United Arab Emirates regularly encourage Iranians to travel and invest in Dubai. The UAE daily Al-Bayan writes:
Iranians can easily travel to Dubai. They can embark on a ship in one of the Iranian port cities and come to Dubai. They will arrive in Dubai within 45 minutes. The Iranian association in Dubai is larger than the associations of other countries. The Iranian association has a football field and traditional restaurants.
There are both public and private Iranian schools in Dubai where Iranian students can continue their studies at different levels. Iranian universities also have branches in Dubai. The Islamic Azad University's Dubai branch accepts students in various fields of study.
An Iranian Business Directory published in Dubai lists 7,073 Iranian companies operating in Dubai, in 31 different business categories ranging from banking and finance to oil and real estate. There is an Iranian Trade Center in Dubai that regularly holds international business shows and an Iranian Business Council operating in Dubai to promote Iranian investment in Dubai.
By the end of 2006, Dubai calculates that some $300 billion will have been moved from Iran to Dubai by over 400,000 Iranians. Hashami Rafsanjani the former prime minister of Iran who began his career as a pistachio farmer and itinerant preacher in the rural mosques is now a billionaire. In addition to stashing millions in bank accounts in Switzerland and Luxembourg, Rafsanjani reportedly owns whole vacation resorts on Dubai's world-class beaches.
Iran's ambassador to Dubai and the Sheikh Sultans who rule Dubai hold regular meetings discussing how Iran and Dubai can expand their trade relations, with Dubai holding an open door to the capital flight that has swept Iran since the ultra-conservative administration of President Ahmadinejad has taken over.
If the United States or Israel should get close to a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, we should not be surprised to see the wealthy mullahs and their cronies make their escape to their Dubai vacation homes. How possibly can we invite DPW to learn every intimate detail of U.S. port security when Dubai has such close economic ties to the top hierarchy in Iran?
In "Atomic Iran," I specifically chose the scenario that terror sleeper cells in America would seek to obtain an improvised nuclear device manufactured in Iran and shipped into the United States in a container delivered to a New York area port. This is a prediction I pray will never happen, but can the Bush administration assure America that terrorists supported by Iran will not penetrate DPW just to educate themselves on how porous our ports yet remain?
Let's return to the UAE daily Al-Bayan for more documentation of the Iran-Dubai nexus:
Since three years ago, when the purchase of houses was legalized for foreign nationals, Iranian investors have rushed to invest in housing construction. They even rushed to the stock exchange markets and bought major Emirati companies.
According to statistics, some 10 to 30 percent of real estate transactions are conducted by Iranians and even the tallest skyscrapers in the UAE belong to Iranians. Total real estate transactions with Iranians have increased 10 percent in comparison with last year.
So, the question to Secretary Rice is this: Are you going to sanction Iranian investments in Dubai, or not? Iran has nearly $200 million a day in windfall oil profits a number that will only escalate if the Iranian nuclear crisis causes oil prices to spike even more.
With the average Iranian still living on under $2,000 in annual income, President Ahmadinejad has failed to keep his campaign promise to redistribute Iran's oil wealth to Iran's struggling population. No wonder Iran feels no pain at the prospect of Security Council sanctions. Not only is Iran in the final stages of concluding a $100 billion oil deal with China, there is always Dubai, where the investment climate is favorable and the sun always shines.
---------------------------------------------
How possibly can we invite DPW to learn every intimate detail of U.S. port security when Dubai has such close economic ties to the top hierarchy in Iran?
[Foghorn Leghorn]
Is any of this penetrating that pretty little blue bonnet of yours?
[/Foghorn Leghorn]
Especially when a most likely scenario involving a terrorist nuclear attack on American soil includes the way that "terror sleeper cells in America would seek to obtain an improvised nuclear device manufactured in Iran and shipped into the United States in a container delivered to a New York area port".
The UAE are not our friends. They are facilitating the Iranian mullahs in outplacement of their corrupt wealth. Do we really need to find out that this Taleban supporting country where 18% of the people admire Osama bin Laden and over half consider themselves "Muslim first" is willing to export an Iranian nuclear to our shores? They will have access to containers being trans-shipped by friendly nations whose point of origin might not set off any alarms.
I repeat, this is a really, really bad idea. Do the supporters of this handoff still maintain that it is not fraught with loopholes and the potential for vital breaches in our nation's security?
#1
Do the supporters of this handoff still maintain that it is not fraught with loopholes and the potential for vital breaches in our nation's security?
Yes, mainly because it has not been demonstrated that there are any.
#3
Repeat after me: the Iranian people are largely pro-American, pro-Western. It's the moolahs that need a bitch slapping.
I suggest reading some of Michael Ledeen's written work, take a valium, and call your physican in the morning.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/01/2006 17:03
Comments ||
Top||
#4
the Iranian people are largely pro-American, pro-Western.
Oh my. Someone's still living in a bubble.
This "support Bush at all costs" is getting way out of hand. Are you still holding out hope that Bush will strike Iran, .com? Or has that hope dimmed a little?
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/01/2006 17:31
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Lol, Raphael. Take your meds Qanuck - and lay off the local Kool Aid. I'll take Bush's word over yours any day. Y'know, you've got that contrarian thingy down pat, now. Don't change. You 'n VBS are in competition for RB Jester.
#8
Rafael, excuse my ignorance - I don't have time to read every post. But from previous posts of yours that I have read, I take it that you are not from around here, are ya? If true, why the Bush Derangement Syndrome? Wouldn't you be better off focusing on your own government, where your opinion actually matters?
#9
Yes, mainly because it has not been demonstrated that there are any.
So, I take it you don't regard the UAE not being required to keep a complete set of books in the United States to be a loophole that you can drive a Mack truck through? I do.
I agree totally. I would prefer that the mullahs all be taking the dirt nap as we type. Unfortunately, it is also the mullahs who have all the big bucks, the intention of acquiring nuclear weapons, the desire to attack America with those nuclear weapons and the connections within the UAE to make it happen (if, indeed, it can happen).
Knowing what sort of irrational hatred the mullahs possess for America makes it just a little too close to home and I elect to err on the side of caution. If terrorism has taught us to do one thing, it is to err on the side of caution.
Why do you think you never see me whingeing about the Patriot Act or domestic spying? I'd rather internal enemies be pursued in some manner than to see them go unaddressed. This is the same policy I carry forward with respect to the ports.
#11
I take it that you are not from around here, are ya? If true, why the Bush Derangement Syndrome? Wouldn't you be better off focusing on your own government, where your opinion actually matters?
Hey, excellent questions. Here are my honest answers: You see, as a Canadian, my well being is tied to your well being, assuming you are an American, of course. This is something most Canadians don't realize (and most Americans don't care about, but that's how it goes). We do not live in a vacuum. Evidence of that is the morning of 9-11, when downtown Toronto emptied rather quickly and business quite literally, stopped.
I do not have Bush Derangement Syndrome. I supported and continue to support Bush on most everything. I still support Bush on the Iraq war, even after all this missing-WMD fiasco, bad intelligence, or whatever. I was ecstatic when Bush got elected over Gore in 2000. I was upset when Bush senior lost to Clinton. And you can trace this support all the way back to Reagan. The reasons for this are documented on Rantburg, going back to well before .com's days here.
There's one thing that I hold way above my support for Bush, however, and that's intellectual honesty. If something doesn't calculate, then I say it outright. Even if it's not popular with the Rantburg crowd.
I'm sorry but this just happens to be one of Bush's brain farts. Not long after he announces that America should strive for independence from middle eastern oil, he does this (the ports deal). Is he expected to be taken seriously?
Even if - ignoring the security aspects - there's nothing wrong with this, what is so wrong with wanting ports/energy companies/whatever to remain in American hands?
What if, after answering Bush's call to develop an alternate energy source, this technology is also bought up by foreigners. Is this okay too? Please. Everything has its limits.
.com and I haven't been able to connect on things right from the start. There's a history there. But so what. I don't like following crowds anyway.
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/01/2006 20:57
Comments ||
Top||
And btw, use your regular name, don't be a coward!
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/01/2006 21:38
Comments ||
Top||
#15
Now, now, now....
I assumed Howl at the Moon was related to
"Howl at the moon, Zenster."
and you did too.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/01/2006 21:46
Comments ||
Top||
#16
2b, if I recall correctly, Rafael was born in Czechoslovakia (which gave me a thrill -- the trailing daughters still sing "Kola, kola mlinsky" with a Brno accent), then at some point made his way west, after he'd lived there long enough to thoroughly loathe Communism. I do hope I haven't been thrilled in vain. ;-)
...Gateway Pundit points to a new ad campaign being undertaken in Poland by an organization called the "Foundation of St. Benedictus" which calls attention to ordinary men and women being killed for religious reasons all over the world by a militant Islam. They are plastering posters on Polish public transportation.
The Cartoon Wars are not dead; they are just mutating in form at an increasing rate.
#1
I'd like to see a poll asking the average joe american if they would vote for a moslem for president. I'd bet the yea votes would be darn close to zero.
#1
There are lots of people around the world almost in tears at the prospect of losing VOA shortwave. It was the one thing that helped thousands, even millions, keep their strength and sanity during endless years of communist oppression.
It is the death of hope. One less light in the world.
#5
I wonder if this is a response to the "oh my gawd the government is using propaganda" brouhaha of the last few years. Or maybe they feel other media are more effective now?
US President George W. Bush said Wednesday that if Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
On a surprise visit to Afghanistan, Bush said Iran should be allowed to have a civilian nuclear program, but that the "world is hiding behind speaking with one voice" in opposing Iranian development of a nuclear weapon.
"Iran must not have a nuclear weapon," Bush said during a news conference in the Afghan capital of Kabul. "The most destabilizing thing that can happen in this region and the world is for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon."
In Moscow, the chief Iranian nuclear negotiator said Wednesday that there was no need for Tehran to resume a moratorium on uranium enrichment activity, Russian news agencies reported.
"A moratorium is necessary when there is something dangerous. But all our activities are as transparent as our duplicity ," Ali Larijani said after arriving in Moscow for talks, according to the Interfax news agency.
Maintaining his poker face Larijani also said that Tehran agrees to all inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency if they are conducted in line with international law, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Russia's top diplomat reiterated Moscow's call for Iran to return to a moratorium on enriching uranium as a condition for taking part in a joint enrichment facility on Russian territory.
"I do believe that a compromise that would not allow any violations of the nonproliferation agreement is possible," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Budapest, where President Vladimir Putin is on a state visit. "What is necessary is for Iran to come back to the moratorium, to accept the joint venture proposal as a package that would be supported by the members of the governors' board of the IAEA. I'm not saying that this is already decided."
#1
The most amazing aspect of this whole war is that the Russians do not see the monster that they are creating will undoubtably turn on them and a vicious war against them.
Same mistake they made with Hitler. Must be some flaw in their society that they don't grasp the downside of feeding a lion and attempting to keep it as pet.
#5
Bush said Iran should be allowed to have a civilian nuclear program
And this is where Bush is totally off of the rails in appeasing Iran.
Until Iran stops funding international terrorism, withdraws its threats to "wipe Israel off of the map" and renounces its intentions to shut down the Straits of Hormuz, they should not be allowed to have even enough isotopes to power a hospital x-ray machine.
No nuclear power, no experimental equipment, no yellow cake, no uranium mines or purification facilities. NOTHING.
Iran is the biggest threat to world peace since Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. Why should they be appeased in any way shape or form? Bush is dead nuts wrong. I'd love to hear any arguements otherwise. Everyone here knows d@mn well that Iran will use whatever nuclear facilities it is allowed to retain for the purpose of building nuclear weapons. Their track record conclusively shows this and their rhetoric back this up. Any takers?
Zenster, your point would carry more weight if your whole world view wasn't based on blaming Bush. The fact that he's not God, and like any other war time president doesn't always peform immaculately, doesn't mean that he isn' doing a good job.
#9
2b - Zenster makes a lot of good points, but he hates GWB because he is a Christian. Just take that into account when he posts. Most people have blind spots of one type or another.
#10
Iran is a signee of the NPT. They are, indeed, entitled, due to this, to be "given" the info for peaceful nuke power technology. Fact.
Zenster knows this - or should if he's going to pretend to be informed enough to preach his screeds, he's just letting his inner BDS child run wild and practicing his demogoguery skills.
#12
Zenster, your point would carry more weight if your whole world view wasn't based on blaming Bush.
And what exactly do I blame Bush for? Please be more specific.
Zenster makes a lot of good points, but he hates GWB because he is a Christian.
How refreshing that, at least, you are more specific. Even if you are completely wrong. Please find a cite for this blatantly false statement or retract it immediately.
Iran is a signee of the NPT. They are, indeed, entitled, due to this, to be "given" the info for peaceful nuke power technology. Fact.
Fact, Iran has already stated its intent to violate the NPT (Muslim countries to be given nuclear technology, etc.) and thereby has forfeited its entitlement to possess nuclear technology. Threatening to wipe Israel off of the map sort of zooms them to the top of the denial list as well, or do you disagree? Finally, a consistent track record of obscuration, deceit, illegal acquisition and flat out lies makes Iran slightly less than worthy of possessing nuclear technology.
Finally, for some reason, many of you seem unable to comprehend my concern over how badly Bush has eroded the separation of church and state in America. His recent flirtation with Intelligent Design should serve as adequate example if not the Office of Faith Based Giving.
Do any of you recall me saying that "the best man won" the 2004 election? No? Go back and look in the archives, it's there. While I'll concede that some execution of foreign policy has been ham-fisted at best, I still remain staunchly behind most of how the global war on terror is being addressed.
For obvious reasons, I feel that Bush's religiosity has marred his perspective on things like the cartoon crisis and the responsibility Islam bears in cleaning its own house. I also think that this administration has so blatantly ignored not just conflict-of-interest, but also even the appearance of conflict of interest as to be ridiculous. It is irresponsible in the extreme for the executive branch to ignore public perception in this respect.
Question. Do any of you see me calling for Bush's resignation or impeachment? No you do not, because I do not feel there are any valid grounds for doing so.
As to me hating Bush because he is a Christian, this is pure horesh!t. Either find where I have said so and cite it or withdraw such a totally false allegation. I defend freedom of religion every bit as much as any other fundamental right and have said so repeatedly. Yes, I have strong issues with fundamentalism because I feel it is the root of most terrorism and represents an inappropriately hidebound attitude with respect to religious practice. That is my opinion and it will not be easily changed.
Nowhere do I expect Bush to be perfect. But he has also demonstrated a willful blindness towards his willing erosion of the separation of church and state which I view as largely treasonous. Personally, I think many of you seek some central point of disagreement so that you are not obliged to consider or think through my own points of view. So be it, it is a free country and thank goodness we can agree to disagree. Just don't look for a lot of respect out of me if you chose to disregard my positions because you elect to believe your own suppositions with respect to my stance.
#13
One of the hallmarks of demogoguery is to reframe the "debate", move it onto safer ground. Bonus points for recasting it in a moral or emotional light - much more gray area to maneuver. But Super-Duper bonus points if you can manage to exchange the incovenient terms for convenient ones. This you have done. You're a pro. You're an asshole for doing it, but plaudits for your BS skills.
You've attempted to:
1) substitute the nuke weapons programs for peaceful nuke technology
2) cast this as Bush appeasement - which is demonstrably false... no, make that total BDS Bullshit
3) recast the argument by appealing to emotion and moral outrage.
You have graduated to the New Aris.
"And this is where Bush is totally off of the rails in appeasing Iran."
This is what prompted the BDS response. He is not appeasing anyone - and you're a BDS-addled asshole.
1) substitute the nuke weapons programs for peaceful nuke technology
Let's get this straight. You do not think that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons?
If you do think so, how can you approve any concessions of nuclear technology to Iran in light of that? Iran's bellicose rhetoric alone disqualifies it from possession of nuclear technology.
If you don't think so, you're your own worst enemy, but that's more of a your-own-problem thingy.
2) cast this as Bush appeasement
I firmly believe that Bush is intelligent enough to know that Iran flat-out seeks nuclear weapons. Given this, the only appropriate stance is one that denies Iran all access to nuclear technology. Eff knows they've disqualified themselves on so many other levels that it is ridiculous. To permit Iran any retention of nuclear technology is to facilitate their continued clandestine pursuit of acquiring nuclear weapons. What part of this is unclear?
no, make that total BDS Bullshit
So, how do you reconcile your accusations of BDS with the complete absence upon my part of any calls for Bush to resign, be impeached or face charges for war crimes? Aren't those the hallmarks of such behavior? Or are you willing to just tar away with total disregard? I do not tar Bush with a broad brush, unlike so many of his detractors. I have very specific issues that I'm willing to address without all the hysteria and outright irrationality that liberals exhibit.
3) recast the argument by appealing to emotion and moral outrage.
What part of seeking simple self-preservation and antagonism to Islamist atrocities qualifies as "appealing to emotion and moral outrage"?
You have graduated to the New Aris.
I'm confident that Aris and I disagree on enough topics where he might resent that. As for myself, I can only say that you've reduced yourself to name-calling which is something I generally eschew hereabouts.
.com, you're working overtime to offend someone who actually agrees with a lot of what you say, even some of the more extreme atitudes that draw flack around here. No, you do not ask for any support from me. No, I don't seek to be your cheerleader. I just happen to think that identifying common ground is one hell of a lot more productive pursuit than the baseless vilification that's going on here.
Personally, I feel that I have been more than clear about my positions to the point where accusations of sophistry are nothing short of hilarious.
#15
More disinformation. I know the MM's are after nuke weapons. Duh. Your post, despite the wowser length, is still the same manuevering I pointed out.
Please, RBers - tell us what you think. Am I wrong that Zen trotted out his BDS here and has played the demogogue?
If they say so, then I'll leave the 'Burg.
Raphael's voice doesn't count, lol. He's got the same sort of truthy problem you do, Zen.
#16
I'll put it this way, .com. I'd rather that you continue to (wrongly) think I blindly hate Bush, than for you to leave Rantburg. Your input has been of extreme value to me in overcoming horsesh!t spewed by the mainstream media. Likewise, your tracing of exactly how radical Muslims come from moderate Muslims is pure gold.
These are not compliments, they are facts. Your leaving Rantburg will only help our mutual enemies and hurt what Rantburg has to offer our friends.
US President George W. Bush said Wednesday that if Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
On a surprise visit to Afghanistan, Bush said Iran should be allowed to have a civilian nuclear program, but that the "world is hiding behind speaking with one voice" in opposing Iranian development of a nuclear weapon.
"Iran must not have a nuclear weapon," Bush said during a news conference in the Afghan capital of Kabul. "The most destabilizing thing that can happen in this region and the world is for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon."
In Moscow, the chief Iranian nuclear negotiator said Wednesday that there was no need for Tehran to resume a moratorium on uranium enrichment activity, Russian news agencies reported.
"A moratorium is necessary when there is something dangerous. But all our activities are as transparent as our duplicity ," Ali Larijani said after arriving in Moscow for talks, according to the Interfax news agency.
Maintaining his poker face Larijani also said that Tehran agrees to all inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency if they are conducted in line with international law, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Russia's top diplomat reiterated Moscow's call for Iran to return to a moratorium on enriching uranium as a condition for taking part in a joint enrichment facility on Russian territory.
"I do believe that a compromise that would not allow any violations of the nonproliferation agreement is possible," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Budapest, where President Vladimir Putin is on a state visit. "What is necessary is for Iran to come back to the moratorium, to accept the joint venture proposal as a package that would be supported by the members of the governors' board of the IAEA. I'm not saying that this is already decided."
Rafael and Zen are right. Bush is an appeaser, a liar, a wimp who won't lift a finger to stop the MM's from acquiring Muzzy Viagra. He'll prolly secretly cheer when they vaporize a few square miles of tiny Israel. Might even help 'em. Fucking Jooos.
#2
"The most destabilizing thing that can happen in this region and the world is for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon."
If Bush knows this and understands that Iran has consistently sought to illegally acquire, clandestinely operate and belligerently utilize nuclear weapons, how can he justify leaving even the most rudimentary tools to facilitate such aspirations in Iranian hands?
Iran must be made to back down from their belicose stance and sponsorship of international terrorism. Anything less makes their continuing possession of even the most basic nuclear technology a mortal danger to America, Israel and many other countries.
#11
"Pussycat" is not the word the first word that comes to mind, .com. But you always put on your most charming manners when you come in for tea. It's good for a man to be multilingual in that way. ;-)
#15
I am not convinced the Mullahs or MadMoud truly care about ISRAEL per se - the LT "Big Picture" is IRAN-CENTRIC, RADICAL ISLAM DOMINATED, REGIONAL [LATER GLOBAL?] FAITH-BASED TOTALITARIAN NUCLEARIZED EMPIRE WHICH ONLY THE HYPERPOWER+ USA AND ALLIED WESTERN DEMOCRACIES CAN PRECLUDE. The WOT > about what Nation(s) and -Ism(s) get to CONTROL THE WORLD, AND BY EXTENS FUTURE OWG - the USA keeps getting bigger vv enemies whom want what the USA-Allies have but are unwilling to reform or power-share", i.e. "liberalize" even for their own benefit/advantage. NO MATTER HOW MANY MILFOR CASUALTIES THE USA SUFFERS OVERSEAS, IRAN = NORKIES, ETAL. ARE JUST BLOODY, PC SIDESHOWS FOR THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA AND WASHINGTON. And remember, the Left's own scheme for the Battle for America INCLUDES ANTI-US "BRINKMANSHIP", "AMER HIROSHIMA(S), and MUTUALLY DESTRUCTIVE GLOBAL NUKE WAR BY OR SHORTLY AFTER 2020. AMERICA'S ENEMIES EITHER GET THEIR WAY, OR THEY'LL TAKE THE WHOLE WORLD WITH THEM TO HELL - you know, why the Left is no threat to America or anything; and why Left-beloved MULTIPOLAR/MULTIPLE CENTRES OF POWER = OWG = ONE SYSTEM FOR EVERYONE = AMERICA CANNOT BE GOVERNED/RULED BY AMERICANS, BY AND FOR AMERICANS = WHY RUSSIA-CHINA/COMMIE ASIA MUST DOMINATE AMERICA + WEST + THE WORLD!? Its NOT Socialism or Communism, its ANTI-FASCISM???
Iran Focus has obtained exclusive information from a reliable source in Iran throwing light on sleaze at the senior echelons of officialdom in the Islamic Republic.
The source has provided Iran Focus with a list of senior officials of the clerical regime and the personal fortune each one has amassed. Most of these officials have risen from lower middle class backgrounds to fabulous wealth gathered through corruption and embezzlement.
At eighth place is Ali Jannati, son of powerful cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati and a senior official in Irans Interior Ministry. The Jannati familys private wealth is estimated at two trillion Rials, the equivenlt of $220 million. Senior cleric Ahmad Jannati is the head of the powerful Guardians Council and a close advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
At seventh place is Ayatollah Abolghassem Khazali, former member of the Guardians Council. The powerful council whose members are handpicked by the Supreme Leader is comprised of six clerics and six senior judges and has the power to veto any Majlis legislation. Khazalis estimated wealth is 2.5 trillion Rials, the equivalent of $275 million, coming mostly from sea trading, paper imports, and book sales.
At sixth place is Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, Irans former Judiciary Chief and another member of the Guardians Council. The senior clerics estimated wealth stands at three trillion Rials, the equivalent of $330 million.
At fifth place is Iraqi-born Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Taskhiri, who for years headed the Islamic Culture and Communications Organisation (ICCO). Since 1995, the ICCO has been active in exporting fundamentalism and propaganda directed against Iranian dissidents outside of Iran. Khamenei himself is in charge of the organisations policymaking council and its meetings are held at his residence. Adding up the lands in his name and his cash flow, Taskhiris personal wealth is above three trillion Rials, the equivalent of $330 million.
Number four in Irans rich list is Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, Speaker of the Assembly of Experts, the exclusively clerical body that designates the countrys Supreme Leader. In a country where many of the theocracys ruling elite are in-laws, Meshkini is father in law to Mohammad Reyshahri, the Islamic Republics first Minister of Intelligence and Security. Meshkinis personal wealth, coming in from mostly sugar trade and the industrial-scale printers, is well above three trillion Rials, the equivalent of $330 million.
Well ahead at third place is the former Commandant of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Mohsen Rezai. Rezai, a close aide to former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has amassed a personal wealth of six trillion Rials, or $660 million. While at the top of the IRGC, Rezai was known by many titles ranging from Major General to darsadgir General (literally, the general that takes commissions).
Number two on the list of officials who have become notoriously rich is Ayatollah Vaez Tabasi, known widely as the Sultan of Khorassan. Vaez Tabasi and his children have amassed an estimated fortune of seven trillion Rials, or $770 million. Their income primarily comes from sugar trade and the sale of real estate in Irans central Qods province.
At the top slot comes, unsurprisingly to Iran observers, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, whose family rules over a vast financial and business empire. From the pistachio farms of his hometown Rafsanjan to huge oil trading companies, the ruling theocracys former president has used his power and influence to expand his wealth. Conservative estimates put his fortune at well beyond the 10 trillion Rial mark, the equivalent of $1.1 billion.
Most of the powerful clerics enormous wealth is vested in the hands of his sons and daughters, as well as other close relatives such as his brothers, nephews, and bother-in-laws, and son-in-laws. One of his villas was sold in 2004 for roughly 29 billion Rials. His brother, Mohammad Hashemi, the former chief of the state broadcasting corporation, owns the company Taha, which imports industrial-scale printers.
The image of rich ayatollahs driving around in bullet-proof Mercedes has become the butt of many jokes and the cause of much resentment in a country where, according to World Bank figures, the per capital income has fallen to a fifth of its 1970s value. Despite Irans huge export revenues and unexpected surpluses from the giant oil market jumps in recent months and years, the countrys budget is constantly in a state of flux showing no signs that it will sustain any time soon, inflation is at 16 percent and rising, and the economic growth rate is projected to fall throughout 2006.
American Pride: In January, spokesman Nick Inskip of the trade association of Australia's legalized brothels and strip clubs praised the American sailors who that week began several days' shore leave in Brisbane. "[T]he fellows are fantastic customers," he said. "They are so well-mannered... They're very aware that they're representing their country, and that's why they behave so well."
I used to know a man whose family were German aristocracy prior to World War Two. They owned a number of large industries and estates. I asked him how many German people were true Nazis, and the answer he gave has stuck with me and guided my attitude toward fanaticism ever since.
"Very few people were true Nazis" he said, "but, many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories."
We are told again and again by "experts" and "talking heads" that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace.
Although this unquantified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is, that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars world wide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is, that the "peaceful majority" is the "silent majority" and it is cowed and extraneous. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
03/01/2006
10:27 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Good. Superfluous to most here---or so I believe---but good.
#3
I would agree with this, but add two points. The first is that radical minorities are most susceptible to argument by members of the reasonable majority. That is why radicals hate moderates more than their official "enemy"; even respecting their radical enemy more than their moderate allies. They know where their radical brethren are coming from.
The reason for this is that moderates and radicals compete to sway the majority to their way of thinking. Radicals must maintain a monopoly of speech, must stop the moderate voice, or they lose the popular opinion.
The second point is that the radicals must always use the majority as "shields" when fighting their enemy. Because there are so few real radicals, the loss of even a few is devastating to their radical cause. But they can lose countless numbers of the majority and not be bothered.
So a good strategy, when fighting a majority led by a radical minority, is to come up with some way of bringing the true radicals to the front lines and exterminating them. Far sooner than if you had to fight your way through the majority, the loss of their radical minority will cause their resistance to collapse.
For example, in the WoT, the US has gone to lengths to attract radicals willing to fight, to pitched battles with our soldiers. This both takes them away from the majority they could radicalize, and has them concentrated for easy killing, *and* has them fighting our soldiers rather than our civilians. We win three ways.
#4
That sounds really good, Moose. It just isn't working out that way because you ignore The Rule: Muzzy First.
This Rule overrides all other considerations in Islam. Siding with the infidels against the pious?
Nope. Not happening. The evidence proves it.
The "moderates" are, indeed, utterly irrelevant in defeating the "radicals". Change the verbiage to be "active" and "passive" and it reflects the reality far better.
Just my long-considered opinion.
I won't ask you to bring me evidence of a moderating influence effectively turning the borderline Muzzy away from active status - that would be unfair. But I can say that until I see "moderates" actually fighting, not writing English language coffee table books which merely flirt with the idea of Islam being hi-jacked, but actually fighting the jihadists, then it's just wanking, at best, and taqiya, at worst.
#5
M³= Mythical Muslim Majority. The M³ are totally dominated by the islamofascists
The only thing that will counter it is a vice like grip on the islamofascists balls (yes that means killing them too) where ever they are. Plus more steady presure like this other anti-totalitarian political and social pressure on the M³. That might get us through this without having to wipe everyone holding their religious philosophy out. Time is running out and the hour is getting late. Other pressures are building that may just make option #9 the only one.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/01/2006 17:37
Comments ||
Top||
#6
History bears me out. In Islam, every now and then, some small group of fanatics goes on a tear. They may go it alone, or they may inspire the majority for a while; but in the long run, either the fanatics get killed, or the whole thing just runs out of steam. It just doesn't have "legs".
So then what happens? is the big question right now. Typically in history, they just settle down for a generation, then start cutting up rough again. And since we don't want to have to repeat ourselves, our big alternative is getting them on the secular democracy bandwagon.
Secular democracy is the damndest thing, as relates to people. We will not live long enough to know if it re-writes the whole Moslem world paradigm. But I hold high hopes.
Much of why their religion is obnoxious is the pre-governmental systems in it. Tribal laws, Sharia and other crap like that *was*, way back when, better than chaos. But right now, in Iraq, even tribal leaders are seeing that democracy is light years ahead as a better mousetrap, and even they hope that Iraq evolves democratic government instead of the old ways.
The Moslem world is both terribly stagnant and building up intolerable pressure for change. If they can get that change in a good way, most of their impulses for obnoxiousness will disappear.
#7
Moose - Anything since the rise of weapon lethality to planetary scale or the astronomical increase in wealth among the worst of the worst of Islam in Saudi Arabia and Iran?
Your editor has just returned from another month in Iraqmy fourth extended tour in the last two and a half years. During November and December I joined numerous American combat operations, including the largest air assault since the beginning of the war, walked miles of streets and roads, entered scores of homes, listened to hundreds of Iraqis, observed voting at a dozen different polling sites, and endured my third roadside ambush. With this latest firsthand experience, here are answers to some common queries about how the war is faring. Quite long, see at link.
#1
Although this is written in a dreadfully low-key tone, it nails the issues surrounding Iraq to the barn door and ever-so-quietly proves MSM reportage to be little more than the partisan sham we lament here at the 'Burg.
I guess it would be a very effective piece for those who perceive themselves as intellectuals or academics (who haven't succumbed to BDS - are there any left?). Please, pass the link along to those who might fit that category.
Thx, a5089 - a very thoughtful piece, if a bit phlegmatic to my ear, lol. ;-)
#2
phlegmatic. There's a word I haven't heard since doing vocabulary-builders for the SATs. I'll be you know what laconic means, too. You really are the Dean of Rantburg U, .com.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has been making noises about running the Dutch out of nearby Caribbean islands, areas that the Netherlands have owned for centuries. In response, the Dutch are trying to orchestrate a suitable, and scary, message for Chavez. The Dutch are trying to get the United States to make a port call with an aircraft carrier, and its accompanying warships, at one of their Caribbean islands. This would be part of a series of "messages" that they're sending to Venezuela. An additional "message" is an invitation to the Venezuelans to take part in a navy/marine exercise that the Dutch are going to run in the Caribbean later this year. This will have U.S., British, French, and even Swedish participation, primarily as a way of demonstrating that if Chavez pulls something against the Dutch-owned islands, he may get a bloody nose. Even without the port call, it's unlikely that the United States would just stand by if Venezuela made a move on Dutch Caribbean islands.
Posted by: ed ||
03/01/2006
09:24 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Depending on how much US taxes the Dutch are willing to pay, I'm all for this.
Posted by: Phil ||
03/01/2006 9:31
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The Dutch should also do something multi-lateral at the UN. Oh, and get ofe of the EU carriers to stop by, too.
#3
The Dutch are trying to get the United States to make a port call with an aircraft carrier, and its accompanying warships, at one of their Caribbean islands.
Oh, I get it now. Military action by the US is permissible in defense of Dutch interests. Makes so much sense now!
#4
The Dutch have been mostly helpful and the native Dutch are undergoing a huge attitude adjustment w.r.t muslims. Hopefully some of that new insight will also transfer to leftist dictators. The Dutch also contributing 600 troops to Afghanistan peacekeeping and are sending 1400 more.
Too bad the US mothballed all the battleships. A 9 gun 16" broadside at the 12 mile limit is an attention getter.
Posted by: ed ||
03/01/2006 9:49
Comments ||
Top||
#5
BH - The Netherlands supported OIF, and had a contingent in Iraq (I think theyve withdrawn by now, but im not sure) So im not sure what youre talking about.
In any case, dispute over preemptive action hardly means one shouldnt support defense of an allys territory.
But I dont think Chavez is stupid enough to hand us the opportunity to toss him out like that. "Making noises" is what he does best.
#6
Hell, sell a BB to the Dutch. They can run it as a part time theme cruise line for wannabes and then when it suits them, do a shake down cruise off of Venezula. Iiiii, thar be Maracaibo. Time to hoist the jolly roger and lift an ale in salute to o'Henry Morgan!
#8
If you can't tell the Netherlands (which has shut down nearly all immigration, told imams to learn Dutch within a year and sent troops to Iraq) from Belgium, you might want to think a bit before tossing out comments like "Eurotrash", BH.
#11
..Hell, the Dutch used to HAVE a carrier..long long ago. And if Chavez hasn't figured out yet that we'd be right behind the Dutch in any fight like that (wonders where he was during the Falklands War), then dear Lord, let's put him outta our misery.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/01/2006 12:28
Comments ||
Top||
#12
We weren't precisely behind the English during the Falklands War, Mike. Considerably less hands-on than say, the US in 1940. We weren't neutral, but we didn't do much beyond some supply & support. Check out this telephone transcript, for instance. If the Falklands had been Dutch then, they'd still be Argentine now.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/01/2006 16:39
Comments ||
Top||
#13
I don't know Mitch. I don't think Maggie formally requested. What would have happened if the Dutch invoked the NATO treaty clause? Unlike the Euros today, back then we'd probably have done the deed.
#14
I believe we gave the Brits a lot of Intel (Satellite, NRO, etc) but we were pretty neutral officially. Hard to stick up for the colonizing imperialists, even after 220 years. I think our obligation to provide any assistance through NATO is limited to an attack on the homeland. e. g. I suspect we'd sit out a seizure of Gibraltar by Spain.
#15
D *** It, haven't the Marines invaded and saved the beach babes in Aruba yet; or Haiti?, or Cuba? or ...etc!? Iff this was the turn of the centiry, or even the 1920's, these places would already had been conquered by CHESTY PULLER, ETAL.. or at least PAPPY BOYINGTON, while Congress was still debating the merits iff it was.
The chief Iranian nuclear negotiator said Wednesday there was no need for Tehran to resume a moratorium on uranium enrichment activity, setting the stage for tough negotiations with a Russian delegation at a central Moscow hotel.
The two sides met at the Golden Ring Hotel in Moscow for a third round of talks and to exchange cash filled luggage on a Kremlin proposal to enrich uranium for
Iran on Russian territory.
Moscow's offer to host Iran's uranium enrichment program has been backed by the United States and the European Union as a way to provide more assurances that Tehran's atomic program could not be diverted to build weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is only to generate power, but many in the West fear Iran is aiming to develop atomic bombs.
Posted by: ed ||
03/01/2006
09:12 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
People who followed Middle East news in 2000 cannot forget the image of Muhamed al Durah, gunned down in a hail of Israeli bullets at the very beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada. The impact of this dramatic footage on global culture is close to incalculable. Its prominence goes far beyond any other image from this terrible conflict and its impact goes far beyond any of its other images, one of the most powerful images of the past 50 years, one of the shaping images of this young 21st century. One extreme claims that it reveals Israeli malevolence and wanton violence, deliberately targeting a defenseless child and killing him in cold blood. In killing this boy the Israelis killed every child in the world (Osama bin Laden). The other side claims that it was either staged or a snuff film that reveals the ruthless and paranoid nature of PA media culture the first blood libel of the 21st century. Even-handedness Who knows who did it? Its a tragedy doesnt work here. If we hope to learn anything from this terrible event, it will come from examination. We put the evidence before you and the five possible scenarios with arguments for and against. Judge for yourself.
Movies links at sidebar. See also main page, for some interesting material on "Pallywood".
Very recommanded, as the Netzarim crossroad shooting was/is the iconic symbol of the "al aqsa intifada"(tm), and a powerful propaganda coup for the jihadi mvt.
THE would-be ruler of an oil-rich Arab state is planning a policy reform that includes allowing girls to go to school and signing an oil contract with China. But days before he takes over, he is assassinated when a remote-controlled bomb destroys his bulletproof limousine in the middle of the desert. Who would want such an enlightened prince out of the way?
The answer given in "Syriana," the Hollywood blockbuster starring George Clooney, is simple: The murder was planned and carried out by the CIA, the dirty-tricks arm of the United States of America.
But why would the Americans want an enlightened Arab leader murdered at a time that President Bush is publicly calling for such leaders to emerge in the Arab world?
Again, the scriptwriters' answer is straightforward: the U.S. government is controlled by Texas oil interests that cannot allow any Arab state to sign an oil contract with China.
I saw the film in New York last month and did not expect a pirated videocassette version to be already available throughout the Arab world. Yet, in the past week or so, I have received more than a dozen e-mails from Arab friends throughout the Middle East citing the film as (in the words of one) another "sure proof" that the United States will never tolerate democratic leaders in that neck of the wood.
THE old saying tells us that one can never convince anyone who doesn't wish to be convinced. The makers of "Syriana" are preaching to the converted, if only because an extraordinarily large number of Arabs are comfortable in the certainty of their victimhood. Long before "Syriana" hit the screen, those Arabs were convinced that whatever misfortune has befallen them is due to some conspiracy by a perfidious Western power.
In North Africa, where France ruled for more than a century, every shortcoming, and every major crime, is blamed on the French. From Egypt to the Indian Ocean, all was the fault of the British . . . until the Americans emerged as a more convincing protagonist in the fantasyland of conspiracy theories. In Libya, where Italy ruled for a while last century, even the fact that the telephones don't work in 2006 is blamed on the Italians.
Would it change anything if one were to remind the conspiracy theorists that none of the two dozen or so high-profile political murders in the Arab world over the past century had anything to do with the United States or any other foreign power?
Start with the murder last February of Rafik Hariri, Lebanon's former prime minister. Was he killed by the CIA or as Abdul-Halim Khaddam, Syria's former vice president, now asserts by a criminal coterie in Damascus?
The list of Arab leaders murdered since 1900 is a long one. It includes six prime ministers, three kings, an Imam (of Yemen), seven presidents of the republic and dozens of ministers, parliamentarians and senior military officials. Every single one of them was killed either by Islamist militants (often from the Muslim Brotherhood) or by pan-Arab nationalists.
THAT many Arabs should welcome the suggestion that their tragedies are due to evil doings by foreigners may be understandable. It is less understandable when so many Americans come together to make a film to portray their nation as evil incarnate.
"Syriana" is not only about a single political murder. It also depicts the United States as the power behind much of the terrorism coming from the Middle East. The film shows U.S. oil companies as employers of Asian slave labor, while the CIA is the key source of supply for bombs used by terrorists.
Why would any self-respecting American want to write or direct or play in "Syriana"? If the United States is as evil as they suggest, should they not be ashamed of themselves? And if the oil companies control the U.S. government, presumably including Congress, should we conclude that Hollywood is the last bastion of American freedom?
One answer to why anyone might want to make such a film is, of course, the very American desire to make money. As things stand today, there is a large market for dissent in the United States. In a recent trip there, I noticed that unless you took a dig at the Americans no one would even listen to you. In one session, when I politely suggested that George W. Bush might be a better choice than either Mullah Omar or Saddam Hussein, I was nearly booed by my American interlocutors.
The truth is that there is a market for self-loathing in America today and many, including the producers of "Syriana," are determined to cash in on it.
Here is how the incomparable Evelyn Waugh described the present American situation when the makers of "Syriana" were still nothing but glimmers in their daddies' eyes: "There is no more agreeable position than that of dissident from a stable democratic society."
The reason is simple: In a stable democratic society in which you are protected by the law you can lie, cheat and mislead, all in the name of political dissent, and be rewarded with fame and fortune.
The fact that the CIA is little more than a costly leaking device used by rival groups within the U.S. establishment to launch accusations and counter-accusations at each other need not bother the makers of "Syriana." The CIA's masters, for their part, would be pleased with "Syriana" if only because it claims that they can do anything at all.
AS for the American self- loathing party, its members would do well to ponder the second part of that quotation from Waugh: "The more elaborate the society, the more vulnerable it is to attack, and the more complete its collapse in case of defeat."
The self-loathing party in the United States, which includes a disturbingly large part of the elite, is doing three things.
First, it says that America, being the evil power it is, is a legitimate target for revenge attacks by Arab radicals and others.
Second, it tells the American people that all this talk about democracy is nonsense, if only because major decisions are ultimately taken by a cabal of businessmen, and politicians and lawyers in their pay.
Lastly, and perhaps without realizing it, the self-loathing Americans reduce the Arabs to the level of mere objects in their history. In the "Syriana" view, it is the almighty America that decides every single detail of Arab life with the Arabs as, at best, onlookers and, at worst, victims of American violence. The Arabs are even denied the dignity of their own terrorist acts as "Syriana" shows that it is not they but the CIA that decides who kills whom and where.
Pretending to be sympathetic to the "Arab victims of American Imperialism," the film is, in fact, an example of ethno-centrism gone wild. Its message is: The Arabs are nothing, not even self-motivated terrorists, but mere puppets manipulated by us in the United States.
By suggesting that America has stolen Arabs' oil and their decision-making process, the filmmakers are, in fact, trying to rob the Arabs of something more important: their history.
The amazing thing is that so many Arabs appear to be ready to help the thief.
OR perhaps it is not so amazing after all.
Adversaries in history often end up resembling each other. So it need not be surprising that the Arabs are learning the art of victimhood from the Americans, while the Americans develop a taste for Arab-style conspiracy theories.
Iranian author Amir Taheri is a member of Benador Associates.
#1
"Would it change anything if one were to remind the conspiracy theorists that none of the two dozen or so high-profile political murders in the Arab world over the past century had anything to do with the United States or any other foreign power?"
Except Syria...
"The truth is that there is a market for self-loathing in America today and many, including the producers of "Syriana," are determined to cash in on it."
Bingo. Equal benny: serving the interests of anti-Americans everywhere. They're not just craven in their greed, but in their self-hatred and hatred of the very freedom which allows them to produce such Stalinist drivel.
That they are "racist" in patronizing the "little brown people" is a consistent standard of the LLL.
Victimhood is the operative behavioral mode of the Blame Society - most common in Arab culture, but a learned taqiya skill across all of Islam.
Serial rapists envy United Nations peacekeepers. And who could blame them? Most rapists do not get to police their own crime scenes, food to trade for sex, diplomatic immunity and indifference from the people supervising them.
Sexual abuse charges against U.N. peacekeepers remain high due to the organization's "culture of dismissiveness," according to Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, Jordan's U.N, ambassador. He thinks it could take three to four more years for a reform program to take hold. Potential rape victims in the world's hot spots will have to be patient.
There have been allegations against 295 troops, police and other U.N. staff. So far, 170 have been sent home or dismissed: 17 civilians, 16 police officers and 137 military personnel (six of them commanders).
U.N. peacekeepers and staff in West Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, have been accused of rape, pedophilia and enticing hungry children with food or money in exchange for sex.
Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. peacekeeping chief, said that "We are making headway in laying the foundation for the prevention of the problem in the long term."
In plain English, everyone will have to be very, very patient. If the U.N is incapable of stopping its own personnel from abusing the people they are there to protect, what is it capable of doing?
A program to assist the victims soon will be proposed, Mr. Guehenno said. Knowing that something soon will be in the U.N. pipeline to help them should be great comfort to the victims regardless of the decade in which the abuse happened.
Yes, decade.
This had been one of the U.N.'s dirty little secrets for decades until news reports two years ago about the disgraceful behavior of the peacekeepers forced the U.N. to act -- or more accurately, to act as if something actually is being done about sexual abuse other than having U.N. bureaucrats study the problem into perpetuity.
Legal experts still are not quite sure how to deal with rapists who have a U.N. license to rape ("diplomatic immunity"), or which entity -- the U.N., the countries where the abuse occurred, or the governments providing the troops -- has the right to prosecute.
Hussein admits that it is hard to change the U.N.'s culture of dismissiveness that has "long developed within ourselves, in our countries and in the mission areas."
The U.N. has 18 peacekeeping missions and more than 85,000 people on staff from more than 100 countries. How many have been victimized by U.N. personnel while you have been reading this is anyone's guess. How many of its victims' accusations will be dismissed by the U.N. also is anyone's guess.
To put this monstrous criminal enterprise in perspective, let's pretend the United States was responsible for this madness instead of the United Nations. Instead of the crime scenes being (among other places) in West Africa or the Congo, let's say they were at Abu Ghraib prison or the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay. And let's say it lasted days instead of decades.
How many of the U.N.'s 191 member nations would have been horrified and outraged? How many would have demanded that the abuses end instantly, that the criminals be punished and that victims get compensation?
Why does the United States remain in the United Nations?
If this was the only aspect of the UN which deserves our spurning them and withdrawing, it would be enough.
I guess the problem is that, when there are sooo many aspects of it which are dumbfoundingly corrupt, broken, dysfunctional, pointless, anti-Freedom, duplicitous, and grossly ineffective - it's just too much for many people to believe.
The UN has evolved into the most fucked thing ever invented by man.
Posted by: ed ||
03/01/2006
09:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I really think we should play this stuff up way more than we do. Bin laden and his cohorts always talk about how brave and supported they are, but they never go anywhere. Bush, Rumsfield, Rice, many Senators and Congressman, have been to Afghanastan, Irag, Pakistan.
Bin Laden bragged about being in the "belly of the beast." But where has he been seen? Seems like Bush is the one who goes to the belly of the beast. He's not afraid of them. If they are so loved, why are they afraid?
#3
Your right JAB. Blair, some of his secratary's. I believe the Poles have been there, and other's as well.
But the only place you see Binny, is weeks after the fact posing in front of a black sheet. And I thought he could trust his people.
#4
This is big. Prez Bush did the turkey trot in Iraq, but Afganistan has been the orphan.
The images of the smiling faces on the soldiers serving in Afganistan is priceless.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/01/2006 16:59
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Where are the pix you're referring to, CA - I didn't see 'em.
Since it's CNN - the pix I saw, other than Bush and Karzai, in their cute little picture flipper in the right-hand column are of shithead protesters. CNN sucks beyond belief.
Why it's almost like the Pakistani's were expecting an important visitor.
Pakistan's army killed around 40 Al-Qaeda suspects in a ground and air strike in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan. One soldier also died and 15 were wounded.
The raid came as US President George Bush, on his surprise first trip to Kabul, said he would discuss cross-border infiltration by militants when he meets President Pervez Musharraf during his visit to Pakistan starting Friday.
Pakistan army spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said the raid on a sprawling hideout at Saidgai village in North Waziristan tribal region followed intelligence that there was a big gathering of foreign militants.
Helicopter gunships pounded the militant complex, which housed eight residential quarters, before ground troops moved in for a search operation, prompting a fierce gunbattle.
Local administration official Zaheerul Islam said the militants were targeted following information that they were carrying out attacks across the Afghan border.
"We have reports up to 40 militants, mainly foreigners, were killed in the raid on the compound where there was a big gathering of foreign militants," a security official in the region told AFP.
Another 20 were wounded. Sultan said foreign militants and their local supporters were killed in the operation but he did not have the exact death toll or the nationalities of those involved.
A local official said among those killed was an Al-Qaeda Chechen commander who was targeted when he tried to escape the raid. He was identified as Imam.
The Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the raid was conducted on specific information that Al-Qaeda was using the compound as a base to launch attacks across the border. "It was an Al-Qaeda camp and a training center," the official said.
Sultan said militants had stored a big cache of ammunition in the compound which caught fire after the air strike. Explosions were heard an hour after the raid.
Kabul has frequently said Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters were using Pakistani border areas to launch attacks inside Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai, when he visited Islamabad last month, handed over a list of around 40 Taliban rebels said to be in Pakistan.
Bush told reporters in Kabul after talks with Karzai that the cross-border attacks were harming US troops, some 20,000 of whom are deployed in Afghanistan -- mainly along the border with Pakistan. "I will bring up the cross-border infiltrations with President Musharraf," Bush told reporters. "These infiltrations are causing harm to friends, allies and cause harm to US troops. And that will be a topic of conversation."
NORTH WAZOO (Rantburg News Service): With President George W. Bush on the way for a visit, Pakistani forces staged a rare demonstration of initiative by attacking a nest of terrorists in North Waziristan. 40 turbans were reported killed in a ground and air strike on a tribal region bordering Afghanistan. One soldier was killed and 15 were reported wounded.
The raid, the first in over a year, was designed to avert a stern talking-to by Mr. Bush to President-General Pervez Musharraf. Mr. Bush is currently in Kabul on a surprise visit, and Musharraf is unable to point to significant results along the Afghan border in the past year, despite having been provided by Afghan President Hamid Karzai with names, addresses, phone numbers, girlfriends' names, and shoe sizes of known Taliban, al-Qaeda, and Murder, Incorporated figures infesting the region.
Pak army spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan, the very model of a modern major general, said the raid on the sprawling hideout at Saidgai village, which had somehow been overlooked for years, followed intelligence reports of a large gathering of foreign terrorists. Such gatherings have been happening weekly since late 2001.
Helicopter gunships, usually unavailable for such actions without a U.S. president on the way for a visit, pounded the terrorist manor house, which consisted of eight barracks blocks, a parade ground, firing range, ammunition dump, and dungeon. Ground troops moved in for a search operation, prompting a serious gunbattle.
Local administration official Zaheerul Islam, a devout fellow with a long beard and a large turban, said the terrorists were targeted following information that they were carrying out attacks across the Afghan border for the past five years. "No one noticed during that time, but as soon as we did, we got right on it, by golly," he said. "So Perv can just tell Mr. Bush that there's no truth to the story that we haven't been doing anything out here in the sticks. He doesn't have to send in B52s or anything, because we're on top of it. Really. We are."
"We have reports up to 40 militants, mainly foreigners certainly nobody from around here were killed in the raid on the compound where there was a big gathering of foreign militants," a security official in the region told AFP. "It's terrible, the way those foreigners came in and mucked up our peaceful corner of North Waziristan. It's shameful. We're glad they're dead. I'm sure all the bodies will be recovered soon, unless their compatriots dragged them off like they usually do. You can tell Mr. Bush they're all dead. They won't bother him again."
Another 20 terrorists were reported wounded, none seriously. Sultan said foreign militants and their local supporters were killed in the operation but he did not have the exact death toll or the nationalities of those involved. "I'm sure there were a lot of them," he said. "You shoulda seen it! Helicopters zooming in! Guns being fired! People screaming! Oh, yes! I'm very sure there are lots of dead terrorists. Mr. Bush should be very well pleased!"
A local official said among those killed was an Al-Qaeda Chechen commander. "A very bad man," the local official described him, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead despite the brutal Waziristan winter. "Everyone was afraid of him. He showed up uninvited. Many people here, simple people who know no better, owed him money. Sometimes he would kick puppies or kittens for no reason. I think his name was Imam, or Abdul or something like that. He was targeted when he tried to run away. All us simple local people are very glad he's gone. You'll tell that to Mr. Bush, right?"
The Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity so that his comments could not come back to haunt him, said the raid was conducted on specific information that Al-Qaeda was using the compound as a base to launch attacks across the border. "It was an Al-Qaeda camp and a training center," the official said. "That was why they had the barracks and the parade ground and the firing range. We never noticed them before, of course. These miscreants, they're very clever at hiding that sort of thing. The local people never catch on. They think they're just another farm or a miniature golf course or something."
Sultan said terrorists, in an effort to blend in with the local people, had stored a large cache of ammunition in the compound which caught fire after the air strike. Explosions were heard an hour after the raid. "Lots of people keep arms, ammunition, explosives, and sometimes nerve gas in their homes," the local official explained. "No one really noticed anything out of the ordinary, because according to our quaint local customs those are used to celebrate weddings, engagements, and public holidays. I am sure the residents of Crawford, Texas, have similar customs."
Kabul has frequently said Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters were using Pakistani border areas to launch attacks inside Afghanistan. Pakistan has just as frequently denied they are. President Hamid Karzai, when he visited Islamabad last month, handed over a list of around 40 Taliban rebels said to be in Pakistan. By coincidence, this raid netted 40 dead terrorists.
Bush told reporters in Kabul after talks with Karzai that the cross-border attacks were harming US troops, some 20,000 of whom are deployed in Afghanistan -- mainly along the border with Pakistan since they are not needed along any other border, to include Iran's. "I will bring up the cross-border infiltrations with President Musharraf," Bush told reporters, an ominous frown crossing his face. "These infiltrations are causing harm to friends, allies and cause harm to US troops. And that will be a topic of conversation. Loud conversation on my end."
Posted by: ed ||
03/01/2006
09:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[20 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
it's a start - now do 10 times more
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/01/2006 9:20
Comments ||
Top||
#2
So, I assume new intel will be available presently, as these boyz are tortured questioned.
#6
Imam is Daniar, the Chechen al-Qaeda leader who commanded their forces in their largely successful victory against the Pakistani military back in 2004.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/01/2006 10:49
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Let's see if we can clear Dubya's schedule for a monthly visit to PakiWakiLand. Perv's list is gonna need some updatin'
This "reporter" for this alleged "news service" failed to account for the wimminz, chilluns, minorities and fluffy baby chipmunks that were undoubtedly affected the worst by this oppressive action by an illegitimate colonialist regime trying to curry favor with the evil overlord, Chimpy W. McHitlerburton.
In addition, this "reporter" also failed to mention the gruesome images from Abu Ghraib, the impending civil war in Iraq, or the fact that it didn't snow again today in Washington DC on account of Monkeyboy not signing Kyoto.
I intend to complain most vigorously to the Newspaper Guild, just as soon as they call off their strike.
#12
No, no, Em. No baby ducks are hurt when the Pakistani army attacks a village using their patented "spray and pray" firing technique. Baby ducks are only hurt when the ChimpyMcBush's military attacks, using weapons so precise that the pilot has to toggle the "Men's Room or Ladies' Room" selector switch. Haven't you been paying attention to Human Rights Watch?
Posted by: Matt ||
03/01/2006 12:56
Comments ||
Top||
#13
Ahem, that toggle switch is labeled "Men's Room or Wimmin's Room".
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2006 14:02
Comments ||
Top||
#14
We Demand A Switch of Our Own!
Down with discrimination ....
League of transvestites, transexuals and transgendered persons
#15
Pakistan has done 1/1000th of 1/100th of 1% of the actual effort required. Much more is required to stablize the region. Draining the pool of more lamers that will continue to destabilize the region and try to continue to live as if they are in the middle ages with modern weapons is required. Zero effort or political will has been applied by Pakistan.
I give GWB a F on his actual results in regards to getting Pakistan to act. Try harder.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/01/2006 14:28
Comments ||
Top||
#16
I'm not sure we can force anything in Pakistan, except the disintegration of Musharraf's government and in the installation of open Islamacists in his place.
What we need at the moment is for Afghanistan to continue to progress and for our relationship with India to solidify and deepen. Then when Pakistan falls apart the shrapnel will be contained mostly within its own borders.
#21
Great countercommnetary Fred, but I'd like to see some of those terms and phrases we get in the local reports that get edited out in by the big news agencies.
A couple of examples picked at random from a PakTribune article on the same event;
He said that gunship helicopters are being used in the operation
whereas a security forces person also embraced Shahdat.
Posted by: ed ||
03/01/2006
08:51 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This piece really needs to be quoted at length. VDH is absolutely brilliant:
Last week the golden dome of the Askariya shrine in Samarra was blown apart. Sectarian riots followed, and reprisals and deaths ensued. Thugs and criminals came out of the woodwork to foment further violence. But instead of the apocalypse of an ensuing civil war, a curfew was enforced. Iraqi security forces stepped in with some success. Shaken Sunni and Shiite leaders appeared on television to urge restraint, and there appeared at least the semblance of reconciliation that may soon presage a viable coalition government.
But here at home you would have thought that our own capitol dome had exploded. Indeed, Americans more than the Iraqis needed such advice for calm to quiet our own frenzy. Almost before the golden shards of the mosque hit the pavement, pundits wrote off the war as lost--as we heard the tired metaphors of "final straw" and "camel's back" mindlessly repeated. The long-anticipated civil strife among Shiites and Sunnis, we were assured, was not merely imminent, but already well upon us. Then the great civil war sort of fizzled out; our own frenzy subsided; and now exhausted we await next week's new prescription of doom--apparently the hyped-up story of Arabs at our ports. . . .
If many are determined to see the Iraqi war as lost without a plan, it hardly seems so to 130,000 U.S. soldiers still over there. They explain to visitors that they have always had a design: defeat the Islamic terrorists; train a competent Iraqi military; and provide requisite time for a democratic Iraqi government to garner public support away from the Islamists.
We point fingers at each other; soldiers under fire point to their achievements: Largely because they fight jihadists over there, there has not been another 9/11 here. Because Saddam is gone, reform is not just confined to Iraq, but taking hold in Lebanon, Egypt and the Gulf. We hear the military is nearly ruined after conducting two wars and staying on to birth two democracies; its soldiers feel that they are more experienced and lethal, and on the verge of pulling off the nearly impossible: offering a people terrorized from nightmarish oppression something other than the false choice of dictatorship or theocracy--and making the U.S. safer for the effort. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
03/01/2006 10:28
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Chris Matthews should be forced to read this on the next "Softball."
Israel launched an airstrike on a car in Gaza City on Wednesday, killing the top commander of the Islamic Jihad militant group, Palestinian police said. Khaled Dahdouh, 39, was targeted in the attack, police said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. Abu Dajana, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad's military wing, vowed revenge. "Our retaliation and our reprisal will reach into the depths of the Zionist entity," Abu Dajana said. "The Zionists will swallow the same bitter drink that each Palestinian family has drunk from."
The car, hit as it traveled over a speed bump, was incinerated. Hospital officials said two other people were wounded. The explosion took place on a busy street in a residential area near the Finance Ministry compound in Gaza City. It knocked out electricity in the area and damaged several cars parked nearby. Israel last targeted militants in early February airstrikes, killing leading members of Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a violent offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
03/01/2006
06:36 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"The Zionists will swallow the same bitter drink that each Palestinian family has drunk from."
By blowing up a bus full of women/old people/kids.. what a bunch of pussies. Good shooting IAF.. more please.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/01/2006 9:52
Comments ||
Top||
#2
For what it's worth, Israel continues to deny any involvement.
#7
When the sign says "Slow: Bump" they really mean it in Gaza.
Posted by: ed ||
03/01/2006 10:41
Comments ||
Top||
#8
I agree, how are we to know that he just didnt martyr himself? Maybe he decided that he wanted to know what the suicide bombers felt like. With the many suicide bombers in Gaza, it is easy to conclude he put on the wrong vest after planning against the Jews. He could also been wondering what that shiny red button on the dash board does.
#10
I love how the AP simply trusts the Paleos on the airstrike angle.
It knocked out electricity in the area and damaged several cars parked nearby. ...
"The explosion shattered all the windows of my apartment and some of the flying shrapnel from the windows hit me in the face,"
This level of damage would seem to point away from an airstrike. IDF airstrikes seem much more pinpoint - which is why too many of the targets of past strikes are still drawing breath.
#11
is nobody concerned that extrajudicial killings are taking place at all? Dont judge the terrorist until you have walked in his shoes. for the most part palestinians are incredibly and unbelievably patient, good natured and peaceful. but when your wife is 7 months pregnant and bleeding internally and the IDF hold you at a checkpoint for 5 hours while you go into premature labour and watch your baby die... then maybe, just maybe you understand the level of frustration and hate that can build up in the mind of a young palestinian.
#12
It's a tough call, CO. I rather think that if the Palestinians hadn't made a regular practice of smuggling suicide bombers into Israel (and terror cell members out) VIA AMBULANCE that the current Israeli policies wouldn't have evolved.
#14
Chans Omeating5673, please. You can't be that naive or that willfully ignorant. The truth is the Palestinians have made the bed they are laying in. Palestinians invented what we refer to as modern terrorism. Israel didn't just impose the current conditions on Palestine. Cause and effect control conditions in the real world. Unlike how your fantasy world must operate.
It appears that Israel is not involved in this dillhole's demise.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/01/2006 14:54
Comments ||
Top||
#15
half-day at the Jr High, CO?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/01/2006 15:07
Comments ||
Top||
#17
Gee, now why would a Paleo need to go to Israel for medical care, since Yassir Arafat spent billions of dollars that were given to Palestine building hospitals, clinics, medical schools, and all the other infrastructure his people needed?
What? He just squirreled it away in his personal bank accounts in Paris? Now, why would he do that when his people are in such need that they have to beg Jewish charity so that their children don't die?
What kind of horrible monster would do that to his own people?
#18
If you look at the picture, the trunk is blown out. I'm willing to bet it is an internal explosion. The fact that the bump triggered the bomb leads one to believe it is a work accident.
The IJ must be facing a personnel shortage when the head cheese has to schlep bombs.
#19
is nobody concerned that extrajudicial killings are taking place at all?
I'm extremely concerned. Extremely concerned that they are not happening fast enough. Unless the Muslim ummah is relieved of its violence-prone puritanical imams and general leadership, all Islam will probably be consumed by nuclear fire.
CO, notice how everyday Palestinian citizens are not the target of these extrajudicial killings? The point of them is to eliminate amoral psychotic genocidal thugs that have led the Palestinian people into a blind alley of poverty and mayhem.
As to that pregnant mother, why don't you ask yourself why Suha Arafat went to Paris to have her baby in a $10,000 a day clinic while her countrywomen are deprived of ambulance service because her husband is too busy abusing them for the smuggling of weapons and terrorists.
You really need to get some balanced information before asking such incredibly naive questions. Stick around here and keep your head down for a while, and you will have an opportunity to gather a much more sane world view.
Palestinians invented what we refer to as modern terrorism
I think it's sad that most of the world forgets this very fact. When we have to leave for the airport 2 hours earlier and line up to be searched and anally probed just to board an airplane, thank the paleos for mastering the art of leveraging innocent lives to make their case. And thank them for the extra taxes we pay just to keep planes and trains from blowing up.
Why do they still do it? Because when you find something that works, you stick with it. So thank the west, predominantly euro-petrowhores for sympathizing with their "plight." That's where CO is coming from.
The Glittering Eye blogger has parsed a discussion on Iran and Nukes at the Eu Tribune. Quite interesting.
* Is Iran looking to build a nuke?
o Why?
+ Deterrence
# See North Korea
+ Offensive action
+ Another possible motivation is to gain prestige and influence in the region and within Islam as a whole.
o Dangerous?
+ Terrorists
The instability of the regime is of significant concern in this context.
+ Unreasonable action
# Fear that theocracy acts irrationally
o Is a civilian programme believable?
+ Peak oil
# Iran needs power in the future
This is not a credible explanation: the power that could be generated by utilizing the natural gas vented from its wellheads exceeds the power that could be generated by the nuclear reactor under construction over its lifetime.
# Strategic interest
* control of fuel cycle
This is also not credible: Iran does not have sufficient domestic uranium resources to achieve this objective.
# Would make Russian proposals or external control unpalatable
o Evidence of military intent
+ IAEA
# Casting of uranium
# Blueprints
* allegedly sold by CIA
# Secret facilities
+ Gas centrifuges
* Scale of problem
o Adds one more nuclear power to the region
+ Not very friendly to the west.
+ Widely seen as irrational players
o Would take at least five years, probably rather more
This is an incorrect reading of openly available intelligence. What the intelligence reports suggest is a timeframe of 3 years ± 2 years. Thatâs a significantly more urgent problem.
* Players
o Iran
+ Clergy
# Has authority over military
# Has issued fatwa against use or ownership of nuclear weapons
# How much of a challenge to the theocratic rule would developing weapons be in the light of that?
# Hard to say how much weight to attach to it.
+ President
# Acts crazy
# May be able to hold act against clerical power if he can hold popular opinion
# Wasnât first choice of the clergy
# Has had trouble getting appointees through parliament
+ Popular Opinion
# Nukes seen a sign of strength in some quarters
o US
+ Administration
# Want to invade Iran
Is there actual evidence of this?
* Same pattern as in Iraq
o Part of PNAC programme
o Control over oil bearing area
o Good for associated companies
* Hide disaster there
* Help in October elections
Our elections are in November.
# Honestly consider Iran an imminent threat
* No evidence why they would
How about the repeated statements of several different members of the Iranian regime?
+ Cui bono
# Many interests
o EU
+ What are our interests?
Perhaps it bears mentioning here that Britain and France have made statements rejecting the credibility of Iranâs statements about its nuclear development program.
And his captors want his head. This may shed some light on the lack of heavy artillery at the prison site.
An American journalist inmate at an Afghan jail block seized by prisoners said Taliban militants held there threatened on Tuesday to behead him and told him he would die if an attempt were made to end the siege by force. Emmy award-winning documentary maker Edward Caraballo, 44, from New York, was one of three Americans jailed in 2004 after being convicted of running a private jail and illegally detaining and torturing men in a freelance war on terror.
Speaking by mobile phone from Pul-i-Charkhi jail on the outskirts of Kabul, Caraballo told Reuters he was barricaded in his room in block one of the prison, parts of which were overrun by inmates on Saturday night. He said some prisoners in the block were protecting him but others, who said they were Taliban militants, had threatened to kill him if their demands were not met.
"I'm not letting anyone in, and I am not going out," said Caraballo who sounded frightened. "I have told the U.S. embassy that they want to speak to the ambassador and President Karzai on the phone to tell them their demands. I was told that if they don't do that and they don't want to talk to these people, then they will cut my head off. Right after I spoke to the embassy, four of them walked into my room and very calmly, very matter-of-factly, said this is not anything personal against you, but we have grievances that we want to get across to somebody in charge."
The men who threatened him said they were Taliban, not al Qaeda militants, he said. They had said authorities should not attempt to storm the jail.
"They said there would be a lot of bloodshed and I would be one of the first to go," he said. Caraballo said his two-year sentence expired in four months and all he wanted to do was to return home and see his daughter.
"PLEASE, PLEASE, DO NOT STORM"
"My recommendation to the U.S. government and Afghan police force is please, please, do not storm at this time; just keep the negotiations going and please do not attack us," he said. Caraballo was contacted in the prison on a mobile phone number that a diplomat confirmed belonged to the prisoner. He said he had spoken to the U.S. embassy and asked for assistance, but had been told: "They cannot extract me, it is not their business, and it's in the Afghan's hands."
Caraballo said he had been nicked in the side by a bullet or a piece of shrapnel when police opened fire in the prison at the start of the siege, when he had been trying to run back to his cell. He said he was not badly hurt. "It's a nick; it's really nothing," he said. "It was not intentional. The police have been very good in trying to protect me -- it was just friendly fire."
He said he was now feeling unwell and had been vomiting frequently and questioned whether his food had been poisoned. Caraballo said that since the siege began he had been treading a thin line between being one of the protesting prisoners and "being a hostage, because the first thing they said was 'Get the American and get his phone.'"
He said there were about five different factions among the prisoners, one of which was trying to protect him. Caraballo said one of the men who had threatened him had said their only demand was not to be prosecuted for the uprising because the police had started it and killed their comrades. Four prisoners were killed in attempts to subdue the riot.
The two Americans jailed with Caraballo -- Former U.S. Green Beret Jonathan "Jack" Idema and another ex-serviceman, Brent Bennett -- are in the same prison but in a separate block, where they were not thought to be in danger.
Oh my. What a dreadful situation. I presume they planned this uprising with his cellphone in mind.
#3
"Nothing personal, but we may have to cut your head off."
"That's not personal?"
"No, no, of course not. It's just a negotiating tactic."
"Yeah, it's good to have an infidel or two around when there are talks."
"Yep. Just don't take it personal, mmmkay?"
#4
This guy is an idiot. He's one of those tools who thinks that he's special forces, or something, and sniffs around until where he shouldn't be until he gets into real trouble.
#5
I had to bang my sympathy meter a few times to see if the needle was stuck. It's not so I must have no sympathy.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/01/2006 3:29
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Agreed, this guy and his pal Idema are there because they are shisters and wanna be's. Hope they are having fun. Sleep with rats you will get fleas!!!!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/01/2006 4:16
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Try stuporpatriots.blogspot.com For more on our hero's Ha
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/01/2006 4:30
Comments ||
Top||
#8
I'm puzzled by the fact that Caraballo has a working cell phone in his cell.
Can't decide whether to file this under "couldn't happen to a more deserving clown" or "who gives a shit?"
Guess I'll wait for my sympathy meter to come back from its annual cleaning before making a final decision.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/01/2006 19:31
Comments ||
Top||
#14
I read this clown had the AQ guys take him to see the other clown, Idema, and then decided he wanted to be kept seperate, guess the AQ treated him better. They took him back to his cell. This is a case of Bevis and Butt head visit Afghanistan. Barb, keep your meeter clear of this on or it might break trying to find a neg reading!!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/01/2006 19:50
Comments ||
Top||
UN envoy Jan Pronk cast doubt on prospects for a robust UN force in Sudan's troubled Darfur province as he warned of growing anti-UN sentiment in Khartoum fueled by fears of a "conspiracy against the Arab-Islamic world". Pronk, the UN special representative in Sudan, also cautioned that sending a NATO-led force to protect beleaguered civilians in the western Sudanese province would be "a recipe for disaster". He spoke of rising anti-UN feelings in Khartoum as authorities there fiercely oppose plans to replace an ineffective African Union force in Darfur by a mobile, more robust UN contingent.
Pronk told reporters that while Khartoum did not oppose the use of NATO logistical capabilities to support a Darfur operation, it was dead against deploying a NATO-led force on its soil. A NATO-led force "would be a recipe for disaster... People would really start a Jihad (holy war) against it," he said.
"And somebody might get hurt!"
"The (Khartoum) government is taking a very strong position against the transition (to the UN) and that is new," he noted. "There is fear in Khartoum that the transition will be a conspiracy, which will bring Sudan in same situation as Iraq."
Personally, I prefer a climate of fear in Khartoum.
"The climate in Khartoum against the UN is heating up very strongly. There are threats, warnings," Pronk said. "They speak of recolonization, invasion, imperialism, (a) conspiracy against the Arab-Islamic world."
The dhimmis must be getting uppity again.
Pronk said there was "genuine concern" in Sudan about perceived ulterior motives behind a planned Darfur operation although he conceded that this concern could be "manipulated".
I submit that it's outcomes, not motives, that are causing all this concern.
He cited warnings he received from members of the Sudanese government and intelligence reports about threats from the Al-Qaeda terror network that prompted him to make security arrangements for his staff.
His aides (and families and goats) have all moved into the guest houses of the local holy men. For the, um...security arrangements.
Pronk also cautioned that the African Union Peace and Security Council might be reconsidering its January decision in principle to replace the African Union force known as AMIS by a robust UN force as demanded by UN chief Kofi Annan. The 7,000-strong AMIS, which was deployed in 2004, has been suffering from poor funding and inadequate resources to escalate contain the escalating bloodshed in Sudan's western region. "We do not know whether the African Union will reconfirm its decision (at its March 10 meeting). That is not certain any more," Pronk said.
Meanwhile two key members of the African Union, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, Tuesday also rejected replacing the AU force in Darfur with UN peackeepers. The two leaders "stressed the importance of the African force's presence in Darfur without any outside intervention," the Egyptian ambassador to Libya Mohammad Rafaat al-Tahtawi told reporters after talks in the Libyan town of Misrata.
The UN on Tuesday became the latest international agency to caution that Israel and the West stand to unleash a crisis in Palestinian territories by withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and tax transfers. The flow of money has been jeopardised by the Islamic Hamas group's landslide victory in January 25 Palestinian elections. The group has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, and has refused since its election victory to abandon its calls for Israel's destruction.
In a report released Tuesday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs cautioned that non-payment of the tax and customs transfers would bring the Palestinian government to the brink of collapse by limiting its ability to provide basic services such as health, education, utilities, sanitation and policing. The transfers pay a large proportion of the salaries the Palestinian Authority pays to the 150,000 people on its payroll, the agency said, citing figures that are slightly higher than official numbers. Failure to pay salaries would strip an estimated 25 per cent of the total Palestinian population of their livelihood, because the salaries support extended families, the report said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Tough shit. You makes your choices and you takes your chances.
Bad choices should bring pain. This is when people learn - when they are in pain. As a rule, at no other time does the human actually learn anything.
The UN and EU should fuck the fuck off. Let the Paleos feel the pain and learn. If they cry out and call for another election, lol, then we'll talk. Otherwise, fuck no. Let 'em learn.
#5
...to caution that Israel and the West stand to unleash a crisis in Palestinian territories by withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and tax transfers.
The crisis is a government that supports terrorism, not the refusal to spend my tax dollars to support such a government.
#6
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of turds. Enjoy your terrorist government, @ssholes. Prepare to become the largest collective bunch of cannon fodder ever assembled. Never has a more vicious bunch of unproductive bullies been of less use to this world. Suck hind t!t and like it, you wankers!
A small group of Israelis and Palestinians, including senior and retired security officials, academics and political activists, were invited by IPCRI, the Israel Palestinian Center for Research and Information, to discuss the status of the two states for two peoples idea following Hamas' victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections.
Dr. Riad Malki, the head of the Panorama Research Institute in Ramallah, surveyed the political situation in the territories and presented the new reality materializing there. Without anyone realizing it, the West Bank and Gaza Strip are being transformed into two separate entities.
"Israel's decision not to allow passage of Hamas ministers between Gaza and the West Bank has far-reaching ramifications," Malki pointed out. "The significance is that prime minister designate Ismail Haniyeh and most of his ministers will be Gazans, and the Gaza Strip will be transformed into the Palestinian Authority's main headquarters. The important decisions will be made there and most PA activities will take place there. The government offices, located in Ramallah, will be run by deputy ministers."
Even though PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas can access both regions - unlike Haniyeh, who is not permitted to enter the West Bank - Fatah is likely to lose what little remaining influence it has in Gaza. In Malki's forecast, when Gaza is transformed into Hamastan, the West Bank will be transformed into Fatahland. Over five years of assassinations and arrests have diluted the Hamas leadership in the West Bank and swung the balance of internal power within the organization in favor of the Gaza Strip. The institution of the presidency is now essentially being transformed into a source of power, a mini-state, a counterweight against the government, says the Palestinian researcher, a man with access to the political corridors of power. Therefore, he is willing to bet that Fatah will not be tempted by Hamas' offer to join its government. At most, a few party activists will join the Haniyeh government under the guise of being "independents."
According to Malki, associates of Abu Mazen are now working on entrenching his status through legislative and practical means, such as command of the security apparatuses and the administrative offices, as well as control of ties with the international community, the Arab world and Israel. Hamas' refusal to recognize the state of Israel will turn Abu Mazen's office into the only address for foreign leaders coming to visit the territories. Every photo of a meeting between Abu Mazen and a foreign dignitary will further highlight Haniyeh's isolation.
More at the link.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Per capita, at least, they appear to have as many Wank-o-Matic Research Institutes as we do. Just as useful, too.
#3
Eventually, I expect that despite their not wanting to do it, most likely the Gaza Strip will return to being a protectorate of Egypt. There will be some harumphing about self-autonomy, but for all intents and purposes, Gaza will have to be controlled.
For this to happen, there will need to be some catastrophic happening, but what and how much would be needed for the Egyptians to send in their army is anyone's guess. It would also have to be closely coordinated with Israel.
#4
Two thousand years of persecution is very damaging to People's psyche---Israel, probably, has the highest incidence of hard core, education-proof idiotarianism in the World.
#5
Two thousand years of persecution is very damaging to People's psyche---Israel, probably, has the highest incidence of hard core, education-proof idiotarianism in the World.
@ gromgoru : check this article I've posted a while back, interesting stuff...
The Kremlin-backed prime minister of war-battered Chechnya said Tuesday he was stepping down to give way to the widely feared head of a shadowy security service, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. The news confirmed perceptions that deputy prime minister and local strongman Ramzan Kadyrov was consolidating power ahead of an expected move into the presidency.
Outgoing prime minister Sergei Abramov and Chechnya's president offered conflicting explanations for Abramov's stepping down, raising questions about a possible power struggle within the Moscow-backed administration of Chechyna, where separatist rebels have fought Russian troops for most of the past dozen years. Chechen President Alu Alkhanov said Tuesday that the prime minister was stepping down for health reasons. But hours later, Abramov said he was stepping down to give way to Kadyrov, the son of a Chechen president who was assassinated after winning a Kremlin-approved election that was widely regarded as fraudulent.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The elections in Chechyna were so completley fake. The Chechen rebels may be terrorists, but so are the Russians. The difference between the U.S.'s Iraq war and the Russian war in Chechnya is that our goal is to make Iraq a free democracy, while Russia wants to make Chechnya a permenant Russian state.
DOHA - German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble warned on Tuesday that Gulf countries have become a route for drug trafficking from Afghanistan, which he said produces some 90 percent of world opium. This problem (of opium production in Afghanistan) affects regional security, making Gulf countries first to suffer the consequences. Gulf countries have become a passage for drug trafficking, he said at a conference on border security in Afghanistan held in Doha. Statistics show also that the people of these countries are being harmed by the spread of drugs coming from Afghanistan, he said, adding that 90 percent of opium world produce comes from Afghanistan.
The Afghan government and the international donors on which it depends are determined to do away with the countrys opium crop, which is the main source of income for nearly nine percent of the population. One source of funding for the ousted Taleban militia has been protection money paid by opium poppy farmers, according to experts. In May, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said that drugs produced in Afghanistan were being smuggled through war-torn Iraq and Jordan en route to final destinations in eastern and Western Europe.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Saddam Hussein returned to court yesterday but his trial was quickly thrown into fresh disarray by his top defense lawyers who walked out after their pleas for an adjournment and the removal of the judge were rejected. Chief defense attorney Khalil Al-Dulaimi and his deputy Khamis Al-Obeidi staged another walkout after their attempts to win an adjournment and the expulsion of the Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman on grounds of bias were turned down. Their latest protest came minutes after they lifted a boycott and returned to the chamber. After three hours of proceedings the trial was adjourned until today.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I can't stand the suspense of not knowing if he is guilty or not.
The Association of Pakistani Professionals has called on Pakistanis to choose a more "civilised" way of protesting against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (may his alibi check out)(pbuh). Association President Syed Asif Alam said that one way of a civilised protest was to boycott Danish products. He said that every product in the market contains a code that identifies the country from where it originated. The code for Denmark, he said, is 867-5309 570-579, which should be checked before purchase. The boycott of Danish products in a number of Arab countries has resulted in losses for certain Danish exports.
Danish
Not Danish
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Pay close attention, folks. That green label Tuborg pilsner is simply some of the finest suds a body can pour down their neck. Look for these fine foods and other manufactured goods:
Beverages:
Tuborg Beer
Carlsberg Beer
Aalborg Aquavit (snaps)
Danish Distillers (Swedish Company some products produced in Denmark)
[Neptune - Beer & soft drinks]
Medicine:
Novo
Audio Equipment/Home Theater (Theatre for those across the Pond):
Audio Vector
B&O (Bang & Olufsen) [Some of the world's very finest audio gear]
Cilo
Dali
DynAudio
Eltax
Jamo
Tangent
Vifa
Cigarettes:
Prince (Do not start smoking because of this fire!)
Clothing:
H2O
Hummel
Per Reumert
Munthe plus Simonsen
Bruuns Bazaar
IC Companies
In Wear
Matinique
Noa Noa
Sand
Other:
Danish Yarn
Nexo Fireplaces
Nilfisk Vacuum Cleaners (USA site since I do not speak Danish)
Watco Danish Furniture Oil
Leitech (USA Site) Special "thread gage" used in quality control in the following areas of manufacturing; automotive, aerospace, medical, hydraulics, small and large engine manufacture.
Leitech (Danish Site)
Grund Foss ( Pump solution maker)
Dan Foss ( Valve manufacture )
GN ( Hearing aid, headsets and mobil headsets )
X-Yachts
[Wind power turbine generators]
From the Buy Danish site: [my additions in brackets]
Someone I know just bought 2 pairs of ECCO shoes and he says they're the best he's ever had--look great, and able to stand up to the demands of trial work. Expensive, but worth it.
QUETTA: Suspected tribal militants fired rockets at a security forces' checkpoint and a telecommunications building in separate attacks on Tuesday, officials said. No one was reported injured. Three rockets landed in a field near a paramilitary post in Dera Bugti, said District Coordination Officer Abdul Samad Lasi.
In a separate attack, assailants fired two rockets at a telecommunications tower in Bolan, southeast of Quetta, police official Ilahi Bakhsh said. The rockets missed the tower but landed nearby, shattering windows in a building at the tower's base, Bakhsh said. On Monday, gunmen fired assault rifles at a passenger train shortly before it was derailed by a bomb explosion. No one was reported injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaits supreme court on Tuesday upheld 10-year jail terms against three Iraqi nationals, two of whom were sentenced in absentia, for spying for the former regime of Saddam Hussein before the US-led invasion, a legal source said.
In May 2004, the appeals court passed the verdict on the three men -- Zuhair Fakira, Nazem Jawad and Mustafa Khalil -- two months after the lower court acquitted them of the charges. Jawad and Khalil, who worked as intelligence officers at the Iraqi embassy in Bahrain, were handed the terms in absentia. Fakira was accused of passing on information to the former Iraqi regime through the two Bahrain-based intelligence agents.
The appeals court also fined each of them around 18,000 dinars (60,000 dollars) for stealing a car and selling it in Iraq. But it refrained from issuing any sentence on a fourth accomplice -- a Saudi national -- because he only took part in transferring the stolen car to Iraq.
Fakira was arrested in Kuwait in February 2003, one month before US and British forces invaded Iraq from the emirate to topple Saddam Hussein. The two other Iraqis remain at large.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
The fastest way to start a war with the US: block our shipping. Ask, well, dozens of countries.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards are making preparations for a massive assault on U.S. naval forces and international shipping in the Persian Gulf, according to a former Iranian intelligence officer who defected to the West in 2001. The plans, which include the use of bottom-tethered mines potentially capable of destroying U.S. aircraft carriers, were designed to counter a U.S. land invasion and to close the Strait of Hormuz, the defector said in a phone interview from his home in Europe. They would also be triggered if the United States or Israel launched a pre-emptive strike on Iran to knock out nuclear and missile facilities.
"The plan is to stop trade," the source said. Between 15 and 16.5 million barrels of oil transit the Strait of Hormuz each day, roughly 20 percent of the world's daily oil production, according to the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration.
The source provided NewsMax parts of a more than 30-page contingency plan, which bears the stamp of the Strategic Studies Center of the Iranian Navy, NDAJA. The document appears to have been drafted in September or October of 2005. The NDAJA document was just one part of a larger strike plan to be coordinated by a single operational headquarters that would integrate Revolutionary Guards missile units, strike aircraft, surface and underwater naval vessels, Chinese-supplied C-801 and C-802 anti-shipping missiles, mines, coastal artillery, as well as chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The overall plans are being coordinated by the intelligence office of the Ministry of Defense, known as HFADA.
Revolutionary Guards missile units have identified "more than 100 targets, including Saudi oil production and oil export centers," the defector said. "They have more than 45 to 50 Shahab-3 and Shahab-4 missiles ready for shooting" against those targets and against Israel, he added.
The defector, Hamid Reza Zakeri, warned the CIA in July 2001 that Iran was preparing a massive attack on America using Arab terrorists flying airplanes, which he said was planned for Sept. 11, 2001. The CIA dismissed his claims and called him a fabricator. The source also identified a previously unknown nuclear weapons site last year to this writer, which was independently confirmed by three separate intelligence agencies.
NewsMax showed the defector's documents to two native Persian-speakers who each have more than 20 years of experience analyzing intelligence documents from the Islamic Republic regime. They believed the documents were authentic. A U.S. military intelligence official, while unable to authenticate the documents without seeing them, recognized the Strategic Studies Center and noted that the individual whose name appears as the author of the plan, Abbas Motaj, was head of the Iranian navy until late 2005. A former Revolutionary Guards officer, contacted by NewsMax in Europe, immediately recognized the Naval Strategic Studies institute from its Persian-language acronym, NDAJA. He provided independent information on recent deployments of Shahab-3 missiles that coincided with information contained in the NDAJA plan.
The Iranian contingency plan is summarized in an "Order of Battle" map, which schematically lays out Iran's military and strategic assets and how they will be used against U.S. military forces from the Strait of Hormuz up to Busheir. The map identifies three major areas of operations, called "mass kill zones," where Iranian strategists believe they can decimate a U.S.-led invasion force before it actually enters the Persian Gulf. The kill zones run from the low-lying coast just to the east of Bandar Abbas, Iran's main port that sits in the bottleneck of the Strait of Hormuz, to the ports of Jask and Shah Bahar on the Indian Ocean, beyond the Strait.
Behind the kill zones are strategic missile launchers labeled as "area of chemical operations," "area of biological warfare operations," and "area where nuclear operations start." Iran's overall battle management will be handled through C4I and surveillance satellites. It is unclear in the documents shared with NewsMax whether this refers to commercial satellites or satellite intelligence obtained from allies, such as Russia or China. Iran has satellite cooperation programs with both nations. The map is labeled "the current status of military forces in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, 1384." 1384 is the Iranian year that ends on March 20, 2006.
Iran plans to begin offensive operations by launching successive waves of explosives-packed boats against U.S. warships in the Gulf, piloted by "Ashura" or suicide bombers. The first wave can draw on more than 1,000 small fast-attack boats operated by the Revolutionary Guards navy, equipped with rocket launchers, heavy machine-guns and possibly Sagger anti-tank missiles.
In recent years, the Iranians have used these small boats to practice "swarming" raids on commercial vessels and U.S. warships patrolling the Persian Gulf. The White House listed two such attacks in the list of 10 foiled al-Qaida terrorist attacks it released on Feb. 10. The attacks were identified as a "plot by al-Qaida operatives to attack ships in the [Persian] Gulf" in early 2003, and a separate plot to "attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz."
A second wave of suicide attacks would be carried out by "suicide submarines" and semi-submersible boats, before Iran deploys its Russian-built Kilo-class submarines and Chinese-built Huodong missile boats to attack U.S. warships, the source said. The 114-foot Chinese boats are equipped with advanced radar-guided C-802s, a sea-skimming cruise-missile with a 60-mile range against which many U.S. naval analysts believe there is no effective defense.
When Iran first tested the sea-launched C-802s a decade ago, Vice Admiral Scott Redd, then commander of U.S. naval forces in the Gulf, called them "a new dimension ... of the Iranian threat to shipping." Admiral Redd was appointed to head the National Counterterrorism Center last year.
Iran's naval strategists believe the U.S. will attempt to land ground forces to the east of Bandar Abbas. Their plans call for extensive use of ground-launched tactical missiles, coastal artillery, as swell as strategic missiles aimed at Saudi Arabia and Israel tipped with chemical, biological and possibly nuclear warheads.
The Iranians also plan to lay huge minefields across the Persian Gulf inside the Strait of Hormuz, effectively trapping ships that manage to cross the Strait before they can enter the Gulf, where they can be destroyed by coastal artillery and land-based "Silkworm" missile batteries. Today, Iran has sophisticated EM-53 bottom-tethered mines, which it purchased from China in the 1990s. The EM-53 presents a serious threat to major U.S. surface vessels, since its rocket-propelled charge is capable of hitting the hull of its target at speeds in excess of 70 miles per hour. Some analysts believe it can knock out a U.S. aircraft carrier. When Iran last mined the Gulf, in 1987-1988, several U.S. ships and reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers were hit, even though the mines they used were similar to those used in the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915, Tenaglia said. The biggest challenge facing Iran today would be to actually lay the mines without getting caught. "If they are successful in getting mines into the water, it's going to take us months to get them out," Tenaglia said.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff has been warning about Iran's growing naval buildup in the Persian Gulf for over a decade, and in a draft presidential finding submitted to President Clinton in late February 1995, concluded that Iran already had the capability to close the Strait of Hormuz. "I think it would be problematic for any navy to face a combination of mines, small boats, anti-ship cruise missiles, torpedoes, coastal artillery, and Silkworms," said retired Navy Commander Joseph Tenaglia, CEO of Tactical Defense Concepts, a maritime security company. "This is a credible threat." In Tenaglia's view, "the major problem will be the mines. Naval minefields are hard to locate and to sweep," and the United States has few minesweepers. "It's going to be like running the gauntlet getting through there," he said.
#1
Heh. Mullah plans be one thing - we got some of those plan thingys, too. Executing them be a whole 'nuther thang. Plans usually don't survive contact - but that old saw is very dependent upon how realistic they are - a function of experience and savvy.
And another tiny detail looms rather large: Who pulls the trigger first?
I'm thinking that just may be a key question, but not necessarily a show-stopper. In fact, if they do so, and the target is a US asset, Bush's legal issues with the gutless US Senate become moot. Perhaps that is one possible strategery...
#3
Saber-rattling. I'm sure they have contingency plans in case of war. It's just a pity that the USN's anti-mine warfare units are so low on the priority list. Nobody gets promoted for commanding a minesweeper.
#4
China might get upset if it can't get it's oil or there is even a hint of it not getting it's oil. The leadership of China likes living as it does. If the oil stoped flowing it would upset that order. Iran had better look at the Dragon not the Eagle.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/01/2006 2:36
Comments ||
Top||
#5
It is my belief that US aid to anti-Mullah forces is being directed to the Azeris and Kurds. Even a low grade guerrilla campaign would tie up Iranian forces. I doubt that Iran transport workers would take CIA money - as they did to a small degree in Chile - but Euro money is already in their hands. A coalition of anti government forces should be in place by April. The Mullahs will be tempted to cancel May Day, and that is when their support collapses. Student groups would like nothing better than to have a go at the Basijis.
#7
BTW, For the Transport guys to go out and get their heads busted, now, with no coordinated effort or plan, is dumb. Really dumb. Only possible upside is to generate more sympathy and be examples. But what a loss - and they appear to be the sort of people who would, if this was done right, be gutsy enough to help carry off an overthrow.
And what about the nuke program. Is it as popular as I've read? Do these people expect to have nukes after the Mullahs are gone?
#11
Excuse my skepticism on this one. Hamid Reza Zakeri was the "surprise witness" at the Mzoudi trial in Hamburg. He claimed that Iranian Intelligence service was really behind the 9/11 attacks and that the U.S. embassy in Azerbaijan had advance warning of the operation. However, these claims were quickly discounted. German intelligence were quoted he presents himself as a witness on any theme which can bring him benefit. Hes defected in 2001 but half a decade later he has presented NewsMax, no less, with a "contingency plan" should there be a pre-emptive strike to knock out Irans nuclear facilities.
#12
This is far more interesting for what it doesn't say. For instance, from the Iranian point of view, they *don't* want an immediate, high-intensity war, they want a gradual slippage into hostility, which gives duplicity and treachery its best advantage. They want to be able to attack at the same time as claiming they are being victimized. They want to avoid clarity and clear alliances, and to keep dangling prospects for favorable deals with greedy bastards like Russia, China and France.
For example, the best way to close the Strait would be to scuttle a commercial ship or three, which is easy to do, hard to prevent, effective and has plausible deniability. Since the Strait is heavily trafficked, who knows which ship or ships will be the ones? "Just bad luck", that will take months to clear, and the Iranians could even claim that by international law that those scuttled ships have to be salvaged by an Iranian company.
Second, teathered sea mines are far more effective against commercial shipping than they are military ships. What if they start laying mines as "defensive" mines very close to their shores, then loudly announce their presence? This allows them to channel both commercial and military shipping into tighter and easier-to-attack sea lanes.
They have also been bullying the UAE for a year or two over disputed islands, and could easily grab them and mine them.
Commercial shipping companies are cowardly, and very prone to bullying. So without declaring war or major hostilities, the Iranians could really stop commercial shipping overnight.
But, in the final analysis, as long as there is a US carrier fleet in the vicintity, the Iranians can't do everything they want to, at least from their point of view. So their strategy will probably be one of gradual aggression, hoping to goad the US until the Iranians can attack with maximum effect and minimum response, and then to try and snivel their way out of it with diplomacy and seeming cooperation, etc.
There are many, many avenues open to those who prefer cunning, treachery, deceit, duplicity, lies, greed, and feigned victimization to anything approaching a fair fight.
#15
There are many, many avenues open to those who prefer cunning, treachery, deceit, duplicity, lies, greed, and feigned victimization to anything approaching a fair fight.
Well said, 'moose. Sort of sums up all Islamist terrorism in a single sentence. It's time for our military thinkers to realize that the above is a perfect description of terrorism's order of battle.
We need to begin thinking outside of national boundaries and start targeting single locations which attempt to pose threats, regardless of whether they are in Pakistan (a putative ally), or in Iran. Our cruise missiles have almost ridiculous accuracy and can be used to take out a barking dog, if needed.
Just as with wetwork teams against individual advocates of jihad, we need to begin a campaign of eliminating hot-spots like Khar and their anti-cartoon fatwa driven suicide squads, Tehran's entire government and nuclear structure, Khartoum's government house and so forth.
We no longer have the luxury of genteel border and boundary driven wars to fight. Our targets use every possible pretense and deceit to conceal themselves and invite escalation. America's technology now allows it unprecidented selectivity in who, what where and when we track, whack, smack and thwack. Time to get down to it.
#16
This is the same game plan they had back in '96 when I was a young ensign ASWO.
This scenario has been practiced against since then.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/01/2006 12:51
Comments ||
Top||
#17
The Straits of Hormuz is an international waterway. Shutting it is an act of war not only against the nations with legitimate access, but with any nation using it to transport goods and materials. The Iranians have been planning to shut these straits since at least 1981, when they began buying Chinese Silkworm anti-ship missiles and mounting them on the cliffs overlooking the straits and the rest of the Persian Gulf. Control of the Straits of Hormuz would give the Iranians control not only of oil, but even the very basics needed by Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Gulf Emirates (all imported through the Persian Gulf), and seriously degrade Saudi Arabia's economy.
The Iranians think they can determine and control the battlefield. They didn't learn ANYTHING from the US attack against Iraq. Sinking a Nimits-class carrier would dramatically raise the stakes - possibly to the nuke-response level. The Mullahs are either very, very stupid, or totally insane. The latter seems more reasonable.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/01/2006 13:29
Comments ||
Top||
#18
It's time for our military thinkers to realize that the above is a perfect description of terrorism's order of battle.
What makes you think that they don't realize that, Zenster? I think you give them far less credit than they deserve.
We need to begin thinking outside of national boundaries and start targeting single locations which attempt to pose threats,
The decision to ignore national boundaries is a national policy issue that is determined outside the military.
Just to repeat, in case anyone else is confused: national policy is set OUTSIDE the military. The military leadership sets strategy, plans and acts in accordance with the national policy. And that strategic planning starts with defining the nature of the enemy:
The nature of free and open societies enables terrorist networks to take advantage of freedom of movement, communications, financial systems, and logistical support. Extremist networks are able to operate in and exploit seams between states, between military and police forces, and between international and local
laws ...
There is a direct relationship between the enemies motivations and the willingness to use terror tactics. The enemies of the United States and its partners are motivated by extremist ideologies antagonistic to freedom, tolerance, and moderation. These ideologies have given rise to an enemy
network of extremist organizations and their state sponsors and non-state supporters.
Extremists use terrorism -- the purposeful targeting of ordinary people -- to produce fear to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of political, religious, or ideological goals. Extremists use terrorism to impede and undermine political progress, economic prosperity, the security and stability of the international state system, and the future of civil society....
Lots more at in the National Military Strategic Plan for the War on Terror, linked above.
#21
What makes you think that they don't realize that, Zenster? I think you give them far less credit than they deserve.
Nowhere have I ever said our military is incompetent or dull-witted. I have given over half of my life towards contributing to technology and processes that have placed our armed forces at the pinnacle of world power. I am deeply proud of that fact and look to them to make best use of such work.
To see Bush willingly appease the Iranians by saying that they are justified in retaining nuclear technology for power generation is a slap in the face for all of us who have sought to pursue security through superior firepower. I believe in America's military and am profoundly grateful for their endless sacrifice in the name of my safety. I just hope that they will not be hobbled by shortsightedness or lack of executive vision when crucial pivot points arise during the global war on terrorism.
#23
Read the outline of the NPT, Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, you flaming nitwit. They ARE entitled, as a signee to the treaty, to peaceful nuclear tech.
When you have done so, come back here and apologize. Dickhead.
#25
Signatories of NPT are entitled to peaceful nuclear energy. It is the clandestine behaviors and motives behind the Moolahs that is in play.
Back to the topic at hand, there is little question that closing the Straits is objective #1 come our kicking the door down (right after the mid-term elections in November).
The mad men want this to be a overtly regional war (as it is covertly now) once stompin' time arrives. They also should know, based on the Iraq invasion, that we safeguard all contingencies.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/01/2006 16:55
Comments ||
Top||
#26
Since the straits are such a problem area, then Iran will definitely sink ships there if and when war breaks out. That will cause supply problems for us, and help them operate in the gulf area somewhat unchecked. That should be relatively unchecked. Relative to what ?
#29
It is the clandestine behaviors and motives behind the Moolahs that is in play.
That and threats to wipe Israel off of the map plus the position that all Muslim countries should have "nuclear technology." Iran is so far outside of the NPT as to be laughable.
#30
Visitor: BDS = Bush Derangement Syndrome
A disease usually of the left.
See: Left Coast Pols and an ex-Vermont gov. as common victims of the syndrome. Most of the EU elites also suffer with this horrible disease.
Please, help find a cure to BDS. Future generations depend on your donations.
I don't thing this a Rantburg neologism. I've seen it elsewhere, usually in comments on the nonsensical rantings of those who can't get past the fact that the peepul were so stupid as to elect George W. Bush president twice (!!!), or perhaps somehow that obviously stupid, evil man managed to game a system set up by others vastly more intelligent than himself. And besides, every time he says, "nucular," the Europeans snigger.
#33
There are a great many BDS sufferers on the right, as well. Mostly paleocons and Libertarians, but also everyone who allows the Best to be the enemy of the Good. .com isn't fond of that last group, and tends to point out their stupidity when riled.... often in creative terms.
#37
The ultimate utility of the US DemoLeft is to PC induce DemoCapitalist = Socialism/Communism, Federalist = Socialist/Centralist, Cop/Judge = Mafia-Crook, .............@ CLintonian Washington NPE to take over everything and anything domestically while simul restraining America's mil response overseas. Iran = North Korea = NK-Taiwan, etal > PC bloody diversions for the real Battlefield that is Washington and control of the NPE. TO PARAPHRASE FNC THIS AM, ee.g. BILL CLINTON WANTS TO GIVE THE AMERICA PEOPLE THE STRAIGHT ARROW/GIST OF THINGS BY BEING UNDENIABLY AND UNCONDITIONALLY ON BOTH, ANY EACH ALL AND EVERY SIDE OF THE PORTS ISSUE, AND OF COURSE ON NO ONE'S SIDE(S) OF SAME. * "America is a Socialist nation moving towards National and Global Communism and, God help us all, the Left doesn't know how to stop it" - THE SOCIALISTS, COMMIES, AND LEFTIES DON'T KNOW HOW TO SAVE AMERICA FROM DUBYA AND HIS SAME. THE HORROR, THE HORROR, THE HORROR.
#40
It's ok, Thraimble G. Our JosephMendiola alternates between the most poetical all-caps rants, and surprisingly concise and informative commentary on things military. There's a movement here to get him nominated to replace Mr. Annan when the post of Secretary General of the U.N. falls open -- between the rants and the deep knowledge base, they won't have a chance!
#42
Of course I didn't think of that, Remoteman. Is that what it looks like? I haven't actually managed to get drunk yet, y'see, and the effect of such stronger stuff is beyond my comprehension. As for the nomination, I think Seafarious started it. I'm just an innocent by-sitter.
Iraqs President Jalal Talabani yesterday criticized interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari for making a solo visit to Turkey without consulting other members of the government. Talabani, who is a Kurd from the north, presides over Iraqs fractious political system, which includes a Parliament riven by religious and ethnic divisions. The Iraqi government is not committed to any agreement which may be reached between the prime minister and the Turkish government, Talabani said in a statement. Talabani said he deeply regretted Jaafaris unilateral decision to make the trip without consultation. We express our deep regret with this decision which does not meet with Jaafaris assurance that he will commit to group work, Talabani said a strongly worded statement.
In Ankara, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on world leaders to help defuse sectarian violence in Iraq, saying the crisis there could spread beyond Iraq. Erdogan, speaking in Parliament hours before a meeting with Jaafari, also called on Iraqi leaders to avoid provocations and work together to form a broad-based government that would avoid the supremacy of one group over others. We want all international actors ... to help the people of Iraq and the government of Iraq, Erdogan said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Jafaari's a total partisan and pluperfect nitwit.
And Talabani's often a wet noodle, though this certainly indicates he has some spine, at least.
Howard Dean(!) castigating the GOP for being weak on defense.
"Karl Rove says that the Republicans are going to win on the issue of defense. I submit to you that if the issue is defense, the Republicans will lose because this is the weakest Administration on defense that we've seen in many, many years. What I mean is this. For five years this President has been in the White House. For five years North Korea continues to possess nuclear weapons.
You want to start a war in North Korea? Ask Jimmuah first if it's okay, 'k?
For five years this Administration has been in the White House, Iran moves closer every day to producing nuclear weapons.
Which they started on Bill Clinton's watch -- heck maybe on Reagan's watch. You want us to nuke them?
For four years, Osama Bin Laden has been decomposing on the loose and remains so. And today we see the specter, as reported in the Jerusalem Post- of a company that is about to take over American ports, which actively continues today to boycott Israel.
"The Democrats have a better idea. First we will conclude the negotiations with the Chinese and the North Koreans to disarm North Korea.
Uh-huh. Care to share how?
Secondly, under no circumstances will a Democratic Administration ever allow Iran to become a nuclear power.
Which is what Dubya said, but good, we agree on this, and that means we can quote you when Dubya takes action.
Three, we will kill or capture Osama bin Laden ...
Oh, so you're going to invade Waziristan? Capture Lahore? March on Islamabad. I knew you were nuts, Howie, but I didn't think you had those kind of stones ...
... and four, the authority and the control of the ports of the United States must be retained by American companies.
As opposed to British companies.
"We are not simply speaking about the United Arab Emirates -- we are also speaking about the western ports which are controlled by companies controlled by the Chinese government. Foreign governments of any kind ought not to be controlling American ports, especially when the Coast Guard already recommended that they could not guarantee the security of the ports.
#1
Wait a second here. I thought George W. McChimplerBurton and his shotgun-brandishing sidekick Chainey were unrepentant warmongers. Now you're bashing them for not bringing the hammer down on the North Koreans? Y'all need to get your story straight.
#2
Lawzy that is one dumb as dirt and dee-ranged induhvidual. How the fuck did he ever become a no-shit elected Governor?
I'll assume, for the sake of argument, that he was once sane, possessed some intelligence, and had rational mental processes. So what happened? *slaps forehead* Duh...
#3
This is their party ledearship on BDS PB. I saw Harry Reid on TV today. He was saying teh same pure B.S. just in a different way. The problem is there are people who believe this and the MSM is pushing it.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/01/2006 1:09
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Umm yeah whatever happened to dean's presidential bid??? ohhh yeah I remember...
#6
This is simply the re-emergence of a time-honored Democrat party theme. Last time you saw this was at the Demo convention when Kerry got the nod. The theme is: "WE are NOT a bunch of PUSSIES!"
#7
"We haven't seen an administration this weak since the Clinton years!"
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/01/2006 9:06
Comments ||
Top||
#8
And we're going to do all this without killing anyone except maybe Osama. Harsh language will be more than sufficient for our purposes.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/01/2006 9:13
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Say what you want about Dean, but the fact remains that President Bush's poll numbers are in a free fall on job approval and support for the Iraq War. Even Congression Republicans are challenging and criticizing Bush on his recent performance.
The notion that republicans are "stronger on national security" is and continues to be a "myth".
Posted by: Common Sense ||
03/01/2006 9:23
Comments ||
Top||
#10
This is the same old shit. They bitch and cry, but never once have I heard them say what they would do.
What's their plan???? It isn't enough to just say "we think you are a bunch of idiots", you have to have an alternate plan of attack.
#11
Oh, so you're going to invade Waziristan? Capture Lahore? March on Islamabad. I knew you were nuts, Howie, but I didn't think you had those kind of stones ...
"We're not just going to march into Waziristan. We're going to Lahore and Islamabad and Karachi . . . and Kashmir and Kathmandu, . . . and we're going to Bandar Abbas and Qom and Esfahan and Tehran! . . . And we're going to Panmunjom and Sarfwon and Taeondon and Pyongyang. And then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! Yeeeeaaaaagggggghhhhh!!!"
Posted by: Mike ||
03/01/2006 10:01
Comments ||
Top||
#12
"The Democrats have a better idea."
Heh!...Some people actually believe that load.
(#9: case in point)
#13
CS, the ONLY poll numbers I believe are those coming from actual votes. Is Bush a polarizing President? Yes, but so was Bill Clinton and Clinton NEVER broke the 50% popular vote. I suspect that if a election were held today, Bush would still best Hillary, Kerry, Gore, or Dean with better than 50% of the popular vote and the electoral college. Hell right after the election Zogby had a poll that said Most Americans feel the nation is heading in the wrong direction. If that poll were a true reflection of the Presidents job approval, President Kerry would be in office. Getting back on topic, I couldnt think of five people I served with that enjoyed having Clinton as the CINC. He didnt promote any great project except the dont ask/dont tell policy. If there is something I missed please tell me.
#14
The notion that republicans are "stronger on national security" is and continues to be a "myth".
It's a "myth" in that Democrats believe it is mythical, but it in fact true.
I'm 35 years old. There was one day in my life when I could say Democrat politicians stood behind the defense of the United States. Then, on 9/12/2001, they went back to planning how they could screw the country to their advantage.
Vietnam? Hell no. Democrats cut off an ally and caused the murders of millions.
Islamic terrorism? Good lord, no. Carter was faced with a casus belli and he blinked. He and a Democrat Congress had so crippled the US military (out of revenge for not losing Vietnam sooner) he couldn't even pull off a raid.
Cold War? Hell no. Most Democrats were accomodationists, and a high percentage -- many still holding office -- believing the Soviets were the future.
Afghanistan? Hell no. The whole campaign was marked by Democrats declaring defeat on every stubbed toe.
Iraq? No. Do I need to explain this one?
The US in general? Hell no. Democrats routinely spit on this country, its people, and its traditions. Their strategy for my entire life has been to tell Americans how horrible things are, and how other Americans are trying to stab them in the back, to divide the country against itself and to make it clear to the rest of the world that America doesn't even like itself.
In 2004, the Democrats nominated for president a man who falsely accused the US of committing war crimes, who, bluntly, committed treason.
Democrats are the party of people who like the UN more than the US.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/01/2006 10:28
Comments ||
Top||
#15
Ah, our CS is back again. Hi, CS.
I'm disappointed in the leadership of the party with which I'm still registered, tho. Hey, Mr. Dean - you forgot to mention the ponies you will be giving out.
Can't have a defense platform without promising ponies too ....
#16
Getting back on topic, I couldnt think of five people I served with that enjoyed having Clinton as the CINC. He didnt promote any great project except the dont ask/dont tell policy. If there is something I missed please tell me.
Does "Visa Express" count?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/01/2006 10:30
Comments ||
Top||
#17
Continuous Bull Shit TV's latest poll has Bush's approval rating at 34%. what they don't tell you is of the 300 people they polled, 2/3 were Democrats yet they claim this is a fair assesment of the American people's views. Howard has nothing to add to the National debate.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/01/2006 10:48
Comments ||
Top||
#18
To the fellow with the moniker 'Common Sense': just to add to other comments, a couple of points for you to ponder.
In 1983, a couple of leading academics and politicans, most of them Democrats, wrote a public letter to Pres. Reagan. In that letter they pointed out that the Soviet Union was a fact of life, that we needed to accommodate ourselves to that, and that in some ways the USSR was actually superior to us. It was therefore wrong for Reagan to refer to them as an 'Evil Empire.'
Seven years later the USSR was gone. And the people of Eastern Europe speak of Reagan as a savior.
In 1987 another group of academics and experts, this time within the CIA, issued a report about East Germny -- remember them, the 'Democratic' Republic of Germany (GDR)? In the white paper, they noted that the GDR had the 9th largest economy in the world, a content population and a stable political structure. They too urged Reagan to accommodate himself to this.
Twenty-two months after the report was issued, the GDR was gone. Gone.
Good thing Reagan listened to the experts, eh?
A third point to ponder: throughout the 1960s and 70s, and really well into the 80s, Democrats, liberals and academics stated, repeatedly, that Latin and South America wasn't ever going to be ready for democracy. There were all sorts of cultural, ethnic and economic issues that would prevent democracy from taking root there, and the best we could hope for would be some sort of socialist strongman, some socialist system that would 'redistribute' the wealth in a 'sustainable' way.
Today Latin and South American countries are, with a single exception, democratic and free.
Now the Democrats today are pushing the same, tired baloney in the Middle East and Africa. They aren't ready and won't ever be ready for democracy, for free markets, for personal liberty. Funny, Afghanistan and Iraq are already proving them wrong.
So given the miserable track record of Democrats on simple stuff like freedom, personal liberty and democracy, why should we trust you on defense?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2006 11:15
Comments ||
Top||
#19
Bravo Steve! A great short history of liberal politics. You left out that many of the Academics saw nothing wrong with South East Asian country embracing Maxists policies. Of course we all can learn from the Combodian/Loas/Vietnam models. I think they had to stop counting after 1 million or so bodies. Also, I don't think any of them will have a good or sustainable economy ikn the near future.
#22
"In 1983, a couple of leading academics and politicans, most of them Democrats, wrote a public letter to Pres. Reagan. In that letter they pointed out that the Soviet Union was a fact of life, that we needed to accommodate ourselves to that, and that in some ways the USSR was actually superior to us. It was therefore wrong for Reagan to refer to them as an 'Evil Empire.'"
The most important policy in taking the USSR down was the aid to the Afghan rebels, initiated by Jimmy Carter. And the US recognition of China, also initiated by Jimmy Carter. The USSR was also brought down by its own failure, and the need to change to match the rapid growth of Japan(!). Most controversial Reagan policies, like in central america, had little to do with bringing down the USSR. The only one which may well have, was the ballistic missile defense program, and theres controversy among historians about how central a role that played.
Its nice that Eastern Europeans appreciate how Reagans rhetoric gave them hope. For the most part he was right to do so. Of course some Dems were quite talking about standing up to the USSR - Gary Hart for example.
"Seven years later the USSR was gone. And the people of Eastern Europe speak of Reagan as a savior.
In 1987 another group of academics and experts, this time within the CIA, issued a report about East Germny -- remember them, the 'Democratic' Republic of Germany (GDR)? In the white paper, they noted that the GDR had the 9th largest economy in the world, a content population and a stable political structure. They too urged Reagan to accommodate himself to this.
Twenty-two months after the report was issued, the GDR was gone. Gone.
Good thing Reagan listened to the experts, eh?"
Ya know, I seem to recall that it was the RIGHT that was mainly talking about how strong the Soviet military was. And using that as the basis for a huge and expensive military buildup. Turned out the Soviet military was a paper tiger, as much so as the rest of the Soviet state. As strong a patriot as Daniel P Moynihan pointed this out.
"A third point to ponder: throughout the 1960s and 70s, and really well into the 80s, Democrats, liberals and academics stated, repeatedly, that Latin and South America wasn't ever going to be ready for democracy. There were all sorts of cultural, ethnic and economic issues that would prevent democracy from taking root there, and the best we could hope for would be some sort of socialist strongman, some socialist system that would 'redistribute' the wealth in a 'sustainable' way."
Good thing Jimmy Carter didnt beleive them, and pushed for human rights and democracy in Latin America. It seems to me it was conservatives, notably Jeane Kirkpatrick, who said that authoritarianism was the only real alternative for Latin America, at least in the short to medium run.
"Today Latin and South American countries are, with a single exception, democratic and free."
"Now the Democrats today are pushing the same, tired baloney in the Middle East and Africa. They aren't ready and won't ever be ready for democracy, for free markets, for personal liberty. Funny, Afghanistan and Iraq are already proving them wrong."
Actually I see plenty of paleocons saying this, and few prominent Dems. And now even some not so paleocons are sliding over into the "If Iraq goes to hell its the IRaqis damned fault" camp. Hell you can see that here, stated by some of RBs most prolific posters.
"So given the miserable track record of Democrats on simple stuff like freedom, personal liberty and democracy, why should we trust you on defense"
Because skepticism about the spread of democracy is and has been widespread among paleocons, GOP "realists", burkeans like George Will, and "Jacksonians", while SOME democrats, true to their Wilsonian heritage, have been more strongly pro-democratization for a long time (and i include here both iraq war hawks, and a few Iraq war doves)
#23
It's all ancient history liberalhawk. The bottom line is that today your party is a hollow shell that lives by the polls and elevates idiots like Howard Dean to positions of prominence. As this article illustrates, their only "plan" to win the war on terror is to say that that they could do it better than the Republicans - but they refuse to tell us how.
Today's liberal party is a joke. And not a funny one at that. Other than support of the environment, I can think of no liberal policy that has not resulted in making the problems worse, rather than better, because they demand unachievable, immaculate perfection that prevents people from making difficult leadership decisions to move toward a common good....except perhaps decisons on the environment.
The Democratic party is a corrupt arm of organized crime. Peace Activists are appeasement of ruthless dictator activists.
#26
Good thing Jimmy Carter didnt beleive them, and pushed for human rights and democracy in Latin America.
You're really going to cite Jimmy "Dances with Dictators" Carter for a human rights record? The man who certified the fraud election in Venezuela? The man who thinks we should pump cash into Hamas?
Jesus, that's desperate.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/01/2006 13:01
Comments ||
Top||
#27
"It's all ancient history liberalhawk."
You will note it wasnt me who began the discussion of history. I was responding to such a discussion.
I certainly think it was a mistake to give Dean the DNC chair. The DNC chair is elected by the reps of state parties, who believed that Dean could do magic with fundraising, which was more important than anything stupid he said on policy. In fact, IIUC, he hasnt been such a good fundraiser. Those State party reps deserve a good kick in the pants. And the many folks in the Dem party who opposed Dean for party chair deserve an apology.
Fortunately Hillary will kick him out after she becomes POTUS :)
#30
I wasn't aware that Buckley was an elected politician.
Besides, pointing fingers of blame at the republicans does little to change the fact that liberal policies and liberal politics have failed. I won't cite them ALL, takes too long, but I will note that the rise of Islam and its "tolerance" will be its legacy.
Today's true liberals (not just the appeasing tools raging against the machine) are like that activist who was killed by the grizzly - they want it to be so - and would rather die than acknowledge the fact that it simply is not.
#31
It is impossible to imagine how the Democrats could further marginalize themselves. Perhaps they could form a caucus with al Qaeda, Hamas and the Iranian mullahs.
Back in WWII, much of the Democrats' behavior would have been seen as nothing short of treason. How they can suppose it is anything less right now is a measure of their collective cognitive dissonance, overall anti-Americanism and general self-loathing.
#32
Besides, I find it funny that you look to Hillary as your savior. A woman who is nothing but raw ambition, and used every tactic that is a complete invalidation of everything you believe in; private investigators, background investigations, using the IRS to intimidate citizens, firing Billy Dale; promoting lying under oath for the cause of her husband providing postions in exchange for sexual favors (what about the woman who didn't get Monica's job because she didn't peform sex). And remind what her plan is for the war. Is she for it or against it today.
And now you are mocking George Bush's desire to promote democracy. You need a mirror.
A Marine squad was marching north of Basra when they came upon an Iraqi terrorist, badly injured and unconscious.
On the opposite side of the road was an American Marine in a similar but less serious state. The Marine was conscious and alert and as first aid was given to both men, the squad leader asked the injured Marine what had happened.
The Marine reported, "I was heavily armed and moving north along the highway here, and coming south was a heavily armed insurgent. We saw each other and both took cover in the ditches along the road.
I yelled to him that Saddam Hussein is a miserable, lowlife scumbag, and he yelled back that Senator Ted Kennedy is a good-for-nothing, fat, left-wing liberal drunk.
So I said that Osama Bin Laden dresses and acts like a frigid, mean spirited woman!" He retaliated by yelling, "Oh yeah? Well so does Hillary Clinton!"
And there we were, standing in the middle of the road, shaking hands, when a truck hit us.
#35
Yes TW Nixon DID go to China. The whole thing was termed "Ping Pong" diplomacy cause we played Ping Pong with them (I think it's their national sport).
The whole point was that ONLY Nixon (aka a conservative anti-communist) could open that door because any Democrat doing it would have been seen (correctly?) as treasonous.
#37
Of course Nixon went to China. And Carter was utterly surprised when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, something that occurred in December of 1979. The majority of the US-funded/supplied counter-offensive against the them occurred long after Carter was out of office. We did not supply Stingers to the Muj until 1986. So crediting Carter with the fall of the Soviet Union is a complete belly laugh.
You make a lot of good points LH. This is not one of them.
#38
This war would have been over long ago if it weren't for the belief by terrorists that they can wait out George Bush get us to withdraw. Every made for television bombing that costs someone their precious life, for no reason, is due to that fact. If we were united in strength, then the war probably would not have lasted this long. But every day, Howard Dean and the liberal legacy of appeasement give the terrorists hope that we are weak and time is on their side.
The sad thing is they are wrong. Despite the voices from the left, the American people are not weak. We will not settle for Sharia or speech codes. The end result of not uniting behind George Bush and the war is that it will escalate and many will die.
#39
"I wasn't aware that Buckley was an elected politician."
So what? Most (not all) of the dems calling for withdrawl arent elected politicians either.
"Besides, pointing fingers of blame at the republicans does little to change the fact that liberal policies and liberal politics have failed. I won't cite them ALL, takes too long, but I will note that the rise of Islam and its "tolerance" will be its legacy."
The rise of Islam took place in the 7 and 8 centuries, long before any kind of liberalism existed. What we're saying today is the turmoils of a civ thats anyting but on the rise.
#41
"Of course Nixon went to China. And Carter was utterly surprised when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, something that occurred in December of 1979. The majority of the US-funded/supplied counter-offensive against the them occurred long after Carter was out of office. We did not supply Stingers to the Muj until 1986. So crediting Carter with the fall of the Soviet Union is a complete belly laugh.
You make a lot of good points LH. This is not one of them."
Nixon went to China, but we did not grant them diplo recognition till Carter. That was a deliberate attempt to balance against the USSR.
And yes, more money flowed after Carter left office, cause there were more years after Carter left office. The policy however had been established by Carter, and in particular by Brezinski. Of course the policy continued to have bipartisan support through the '80s.
I am not crediting Carter with the fall of the USSR. Carter deserves SOME credit, as does Reagan. But most of the credit goes to the internal weaknesses of the Soviet economy, at the time that east asia was on the rise.
#42
"And now you are mocking George Bush's desire to promote democracy. You need a mirror."
When exactly did i do that?
I question the desire to promote democracy on the part of some folks who say that whatever happens in Iraq, its the IRaqis fault. Thats not Bushs position, AFAIK.
#43
whatever happens in Iraq, its the IRaqis faultand who said that? One poster? Funny, I've not found that to be the prevailing wisdom at rantburg.
And now you are mocking George Bush's desire to promote democracy
It is not fair for me to lump you in with the prevailing wisdom of your party and those who profess to be liberals. You can see that work needs to be done and as such you have supported the effort. I take it back.
Revising history, are we? Carter did NOT fund the Afghan rebels. He weakly allowed the CIA to "give them some minimal assistance", which was greatly expanded under Ronald Reagan. Carter also did NOT open relations with China - it was Richard Nixon in 1973. Carter was the weakest, most arrogant, most insufferable idiot to ever be president of the United States. He caused more harm to the United States and world politics in four years than any president in US history. A friend of mine was appointed as one of Carter's military aides. He resigned from the Air Force in 1978 after 13 months in the job - he couldn't stand being in the same room with his "boss". Carter was a catastrophe, and we're still trying to recover (I.E., Iran).
Many things caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. The most important one was that the Russian people gave up on communism. Reagan's military buildup put the screws to the Russian equivalent of "guns and butter", and drove them to bankruptcy, but the death spiral had already begun - probably as early as the mid-1970's. Reagan's push kicked the final props out from under the dying regime.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/01/2006 14:21
Comments ||
Top||
#45
"Fortunately Hillary will kick him out after she becomes POTUS :)"
I, for one, appreciate the fact that we are given this heads-up with sufficient frequency to place the mountains of carfeully nuanced verbiage posted in proper perspective.
Thanks, lh. You're the most honest Moonbat I "know", heh. :-)
#46
Many things caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. The most important one was that the Russian people gave up on communism.
I would argue that this is not the most important reason. There is still significant support for communism in Russia, mainly due to nostalgia, and the simple truth that most people indeed had it better under communism.
There are two important reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union, besides the obvious pressure from the US: collapse of communist regimes in the soviet satellite states, and Mikhail Gorbachev. It is Gorbachev who started the ball rolling with his perestroika (sp?)which set the mood for the events to come. If it wasn't for Gorbachev, it is very possible that the Soviet Union might still exist today. Anyone else would have sent tanks in to crush the revolts in eastern Europe.
A third, private reason of mine, for the collapse of the Soviets is the realization of some big shots in Moscow that they could have it better if they just let communism collapse. Indeed, there are now 32 billionaires living in Moscow alone. This would not have been possible under communism of course. Sure, ideology can be so romantic, but nothing beats cold, hard, green cash.
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/01/2006 16:08
Comments ||
Top||
#47
It is Gorbachev who started the ball rolling with his perestroika (sp?)which set the mood for the events to come.
Oops. I forgot about Glasnost c. 1985. Perestroika came later. Nonetheless, both were iniated by Gorbachev.
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/01/2006 16:16
Comments ||
Top||
#48
initiated
Posted by: Rafael ||
03/01/2006 16:17
Comments ||
Top||
#49
Just to throw my 2 cents in, the following is taken from a recent political discussion involving my father. Speaking to his sister, he said:
Well, Pete [his brother] and I aren't that conservative. I would say we were pragmatists. I think we both believe that you are your brother's keeper, and that those of us who have been more fortunate owe something back to the world and our fellow man. We just disagree on how to do that-at least with the "liberal" establishment. Having watched the Democratic party shift from ensuring a fair shake for the working class, protection from cartels and collusive business practices, and equal opportunity-not equal outcomes-to a bunch of nut cases screeming and shouting that everyone who disagrees with them is mean spirited and cruel, I am afraid that the only future for the Democrats is sequential self immolation, which they have done a pretty good job of. I don't think this is good for the country and I wish we had an effective opposition party. We don't.
Since Brown vs. Board of Education through the Great Society of LBJ, I have watched forty years of ineffective, socially destructive, socialist policies which have done far more to hurt those they were supposed to help, and little to "get" the villains "responsible" for these inequities. At a minimum, I would say that subsidized housing programs create slums, rent control destroys cities, educational reform has turned public schools-- in my mother's day the finest in the world-- into academic cesspools, equal opportunity advantages some while discriminating against others, and the ones being hurt are not the ones who discriminated against the ancestors of the ones being helped, medicare has dehumanized health care, and the last thing we need is more of the same. I also think there are some things worth going to war over, easy for me to say since I didn't have to--but Pete did. Moreover, having spent my life in the investment field I know that social welfare economies are bad for everyone, and more so for the ones at the bottom than the ones at the top of the economic food chain. High, redistributive tax policies have never worked, anywhere, and if you want to see the practical response of people who lived under a socialist regime, look at the tax policies in Eastern Europe, Russia, and China. None of them have income tax rates over 20%. I am not plumping for that to come true in the US, but I think the Democrats just keep beating on the gong of "the rich paying their fair share", which is fine as a truism, but who defines fair share? This constant demagoguing of one economic class against another is wrong headed, if not a purely cynical political ploy-which I think it largely is.
It is a fact that it costs more to do anything through the government than the private sector, the service is worse, and the alternatives nonexistant. It is a fact that third party payment systems don't work, and inevitably lead to rationing, whether it be housing, education, health care, or whatever. I do beleive that working class and middle class people are taxed too heavily, and the democrats have succeeded in ensnaring the broad middle class with it's attempts at engineering the tax code to punish the wealthy-- which, via the AMT, they are now doing to what used to be their voters. I am pretty laissez faire about matters of personal conduct which do not harm others, and should not be the subject of civil legislation. And I do believe that laws should be enacted by elected officials, not judges, government agencies, and bureacrats.
As to the matters you raised, I can't do much better than Pete did. I have no qualms over the Dubai ports company managing Ports Newark and Elizabeth, as very few harbors are managed by governments anywhere in the world, which is also true of many airports. And I am annoyed-- but not surprised-- at the irresponsible way the press has played this, since the Dubai ports company was thoroughly vetted, and only manages the business end of the ports, not security. It's sad to see the NY Times, which was once a fine-- if dull-- newspaper of record descend into a partisan rag for liberal political interests-- which the major networks have also done. Really, there is no fair and balanced newspaper of record anymore, anywhere in the world. And while you may not like Bush, how can you treat him as a fool? After all, he got better grades at Yale than Kerry did. So, if I were you I wouldn't move to another country-- the US is the worst, except for all the others. So Stay. We'd miss you if you left! Love to all...
I have to say, I think the man wraps it all up quite nicely.
#53
The title of this piece reminds me of a used car salesman telling us that they don't make cars like this anymore. This will be a classic.
Push an absurd falsehood as if it was the hidden truth and let the suckers customers in on the secret. And fro an extra 50 dollars, we can make you a patron. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
P.S. Bring on Hillary......please.
#57
Are Communist-controlled/domin "Fascists", Nationalists, Rightists, and Conservatives, etc. in Russia STILL FASCISTS? STILL COMMUNISTS? CLINTONISM > BOTH? Rightist-in-Name = Communist-in-Name??? THE MOTHER SHOULD KNOW WHOM THE FATHER OF HER CHILDREN ARE!?
After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.
We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.
The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.
Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.
We reject « cultural relativism », which consists in accepting that men and women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers.
We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.
We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.
12 signatures
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq
You can add my name to the list. Others are doing the same.
#4
Btw, I believe (given the presence of the obnoxious Philippe Val) that this is actually the same anti-totalitarian manifesto published today by the hard-biting french satirical leftist weekly "Charlie Hebdo", which had already republished the old mo' cartoons and a few of its own... so, this would be a french leftist initiative? Dang, my cognition, it's so dissonant...
Note I'm conflicted about this, seeing Ibn Warraq or Ayaan Hirsi Ali along with Bernard Henri Lévy (über pompous liberal jewish intellectual poser) or Antoine Sfeir (lebanese christian analyst having a remarkable grasp of the ME politics, but with a strong dhimmi streak) makes me feel all confused...
#5
Another brave person...
VIDEO:
This woman is standing up alone on TV.
I admire her guts!!
Its a MUST SEE video!!
Watch nr 1050:
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S6#
- Arab-American Psychologist Wafa Sultan: There Is No Clash of Civilizations but a Clash between the Mentality of the Middle Ages and That of the 21st Century
MC
http://ghomepages.googlepages.com/muhammedandcartoons
muhammedandcartoons@gmail.com
Posted by: MC ||
03/01/2006 13:34
Comments ||
Top||
#6
hmph. I comment at my website, but the curious omission of communism as a totalitarian ideology, and the typical lefty mantra of "fears and frustrations" as the purported root cause of Islam's behavior, made me suspicious.
BH's comment is not that far off the mark, since the use of the term "manifesto" is a take off on "manifest": "our position is so obviously logical and manifest that only the perverse could oppose it". One thing then leads to another.
#7
MC - extremely compelling video of Wafa Sultan standing up to clerical fascists on their own turf! She is a shining example, not just for the Arab world, but for the West as well.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq Mulay Achmed Mohammed el-Raisuli the Magnificent
#9
Yes, world class lefties, add to your manifesto how wrong you were about the right wing, and how sorry you are to have insulted such wisdom as the right posesses. Further kiss our arses with great sucking sounds repeatedly. When we OD on your ass kissing feeding frenzy, we'll allow you to join us in the great War on Terror.
capicce ?
Two separate courts in Bangladesh are reported to have sentenced 22 Islamic militants to death for carrying out bomb attacks across the country last year.
Are they dead yet?
A court in the western city of Jhenidah condemned 21 militants in connection with serial bomb explosions on 17 August, the private ATN Bangla television network reported. Eighteen of the defendants were in court when the sentence was read, while another two remain fugitives.
Kinda hard to hang 'em when you haven't caught 'em, isn't it?
Lawyers said they planned to appeal the sentences.
Oh. Wotta surprise.
In a separate case, a court in northeastern Sylhet city sentenced a man to death for hurling a homemade bomb outside the house of a judge, slightly injuring him, on 18 October.
Dumbass. Who'd you think you were gonna be sentenced by in court? A plumber?
The militants were sentenced for their part in a deadly wave of blasts that saw more than 400 bombs explode almost simultaneously across Bangladesh last year, officials said. The bombings, claimed by an outlawed Islamic militant group, killed three people and rocked a nation which had previously denied having a serious problem with extremism.
400 bombs, three people dead. What's wrong with that picture?
Went to the Hek School of Grenade Throwing, did they?
Amirul Islam, administrative officer at the court said the accused were all members of the militant group Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Babul Ansari, one of the condemned men, was employed as a security guard at the Bangladesh parliament at the time of the attacks, Motaleb Hossain, the court's prosecutor told AFP. Hossain said the case was the first successful prosecution in connection with the attacks in which small explosive devices were detonated in almost every town and city in the country. JMB leaflets were found at the blast sites calling for the imposition of strict Islamic law.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of more than 70 million Anglicans worldwide, urged Sudan to be more tolerant towards religious minorities in the mainly Muslim country and return confiscated church property. On his first visit to Sudan, the Archbishop of Canterbury will travel to both sides of a bitter north-south civil war to encourage progress in implementing a peace deal signed last year to end the bloodshed which claimed some two million lives.
In the tragic years that have gone by Sudan has been known for conflict and for poverty, he told reporters at a news conference in Khartoum, where Islamic Sharia Law is in force. The question is how will the government ... of this country in the years ahead make sure that Sudan is known for creative, democratic, tolerant policies that will work for the good of an entire population, he added.
Religion and the imposition of Sharia on the mainly Christian and animist south was a major catalyst for the outbreak of the civil war which forced more than four million people to flee their homes. Many of them sought refuge in slum camps around Khartoum, the base of the Islamist government which pursued a policy of Islamisation of the population. Despite the peace deal, Sharia is still in force in the national capital, where Sudanese of many religions live. A commission to protect the rights of non-Muslims in Khartoum, as specified by the peace deal, has yet to be formed more than year after it was signed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Urgent consultations in European and Arab capitals and Jerusalem are reported by DEBKAfiles counter-terror sources over the threatened targets published by Al Qaedas Gaza cell the Army of Jihad - dated Feb. 16. Not only must "non-Muslim foreigners of all nationalities" leave, but "foreign embassies and consulates must be evacuated and their staff leave within one month of this warning."
Our sources report that the al Qaeda communiqué was urgently translated by foreign embassies in Tel Aviv and transmitted to their governments. They concluded that the document was put together by Abu Musab al-Zarqawis subordinates posted in the Gaza Strip and contains a direct threat to unleash Iraq-style terror in the Palestinian territory against the targets listed below.
Therefore, diplomatic, security and international aid staff can expect to be pulled out of the Gaza Strip without delay.
DEBKAfiles sources stress that the meaning for the Palestinian Authority, Israel and even Hamas, is the launch of an al Qaeda offensive to transform the Gaza Strip into a radical Islamic entity as set out by the statement issued by the Army of Jihad: "...we address all believers of our people and all those who sacrificed their blood and property to defend Islam and Muslims against the Zionist occupation.
Allah ordered us to fight to combat atheism. With Allahs support we defeated our enemy and obliged Israel to withdraw in humiliation from the Gaza Strip. One thing remaining to be done is to implement Sharia laws."
These are the targets listed in the al Qaeda statement:
*Corrupt elements inside and outside the Palestinian Authority
*Traders, dealers and salesmen of drugs, wines and cigarettes
*Owners of ill-mannered houses and hotels where our sons and girls are degraded and spoiled
*Internet coffee shops that allow youth to search licentious and immoral websites
*Coffee shops where immoral youth gather to smoke...and where meetings between young men and girls take place
*Any girl who goes out wearing trousers without a veil to cover her hair
*All non-Muslim foreigners of all different nationalities are warned to leave
*Collaborators with Israel are warned "we will never relax in targeting them."
*All foreign embassies and consulates must be evacuated and their staff leave within one month of this date
*All auditoriums holding wedding ceremonies that are "rakish and uninhibited"
*Policemen who impede us and protect corrupt men
*All corrupt leaders, even if they are influential and powerful in the Authority and organizations, are our first target.
Monday, Feb. 27, Israels acting prime minister Ehud Olmert said he does not see Hamas as being a strategic security threat to the country. This is seen by DEBKAfiles political sources as an effort to soothe concerns and divert attention from the menace building up in the Gaza Strip.
"*Any girl who goes out wearing trousers without a veil to cover her hair..."
Do most women in Gaza wear trousers? Do most women in Gaza who DO normally wear trousers normally wear a veil? If a woman is wearing a skirt or dress, does she need to wear a veil?
#4
Any girl who goes out wearing trousers without a veil to cover her hair
Anyone else see the loop-hole here?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/01/2006 9:42
Comments ||
Top||
#5
No coffee, cigs, booze, computers or whorehouses. Gee, sounds like a paradise. I bet the people can't wait. What am I saying, they probably would like to live like that. Ick!
#8
Remember folks, this is DEBKA and saline additives are the rule.
Nonetheless, what a wonderful stroke of luck for the Palestinians. They may finally have a chance to enjoy the true fruits of their anti-Semitic labors. Not just the usual froth and spittle, but real down-home honest-to-gosh grindingly dull sharia brand Islamism. Remember, Osama considers iced soft drinks to be a manifestation of western decadence.
For all their spewing, the Palestinians are actually a somewhat diverse people with Copts, Druze and Christian elements in the general population. Al Qaeda coming in and enforcing strict sharia law is going to rub a lot of people the exact wrong way. Not that they couldn't have seen this coming after so many decades of Jew hating.
Corrupt elements inside and outside the Palestinian Authority
Well, that leaves, what? Five or ten percent of the population unscathed? The Traparancy International Corruption Perception Index:
rates the Palestinian Authority at #111 out of 146 different national governments. It shares company with such illustrious company as Libya, Equador and Yemen. (America rates as #19, Denmark #3 and Finland #1).
I could not wish a more polarizing or zero-fun sort of puritanical astringent bunch of thugs as al Qaeda upon the Palestinians. Let them get a taste of what the Arab world envisions as model Jew haters so they can see just how wide of the mark they've been. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of turds.
UNRWA Commissioner General Karen AbuZayd on Tuesday said the humanitarian agency was not worried about the possibility of donor countries cutting off aid after a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government takes over office. We are not scared. Donor countries have not in any way said they will stop their aid to UNRWA. On the contrary, we were approached by many of these countries, even Israel, asking us to continue our services to Palestinian refugees and perhaps even extend these services to do things we haven't done before, AbuZayd told a press conference yesterday.
There has been growing concern over a possible suspension of international aid to the Palestinians following Hamas' victory in the Jan. 25 general elections. Hamas, which has already control of the Palestinian parliament and named its leader Ismail Haniyeh as prime minister-designate, is considered by the US and the European Union as a terrorist organisation. Both the EU and the US have ruled out assistance to a Hamas-led government, which will succeed the interim government under Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
But the EU backed down agreed on Monday to grant 120 million euros ($143 million) in urgent aid to the Palestinians, in a move widely seen as aiming to prevent the possible financial collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
If true, then it's truly stupid.
The other day there was a lie, er, a story which said the US wasn't pulling its aid - that was a Saab Erakat lie, nothing more. A simple-minded tactic he (and his pals) thought would put pressure on Washington. It was refuted the next day, but many missed that fact - or ignore it in deference to their BDS.
If UNRWA bails out the Paleos we should pull the plug on the UN across the board so they can't shift funds around to advance their agenda with our money. Were it left up to the US House, we'd be there. Again, the problem is that bunch of pud-pullers called the US Senate. Someday, someday soon, the US will finally pull the plug on this disaster. It won't come a moment too soon.
My preferred solution to many problems the US faces, beginning with flushing the US Senate, would get me sink-trapped, lol.
Police in Indian-administered Kashmir fired tear gas yesterday to disperse hundreds of Muslims protesting the magazine publication of a picture of a playing card showing an image of Kaabah, police and witnesses said. They said at least 10 protesters were detained.
"Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!"
More than 400 Muslim youths gathered near Lal Chowk, in the heart of Srinagar, shouting La Ilaha Illallah (Obla dee obla dah there is no god but Allah) ... down with India Today. In its latest issue, the weekly published pictures of playing cards, one showing an image of Kaabah. The protesters are angry because gambling is forbidden by Islam.
Can't show an image of Mohammad (may his drip clear up), and you can't show a picture of the rock. If it ain't in the book, you can't do it.
The administration in Kashmir has ordered the seizure of all the copies of the magazine. The administration is fully seized of the matter. The government is exploring the possibilities of legal action against the magazine. We have seized copies of the controversial issue of the magazine in the valley, said a state officer here.
So you've trampled all over the idea of freedom of the press, and what'd it get you?
Youths pelted police with stones and set fire to copies of the magazine, witnesses said.
Hint: They'd be doing the same thing if you'd told 'em to piss off.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
A photo of the Kabah on a playing card causes riots, yet Saudi Arabia has issued hundreds of stamps showing the same scene. Postage stamps get sent to infidels, get slurped all over and stuck to grubby envelopes by grubby paws of grubby, unemployed muzzies, they get stepped on, stuck in dirty mailbags, and flown halfway around the world - yet that's ok. I can't figure these mush-headed fools out.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/01/2006 13:06
Comments ||
Top||
#3
It's the exact parallel, I think, to homies demanding respect on the streets of some cities here.
An Anti-Terrorism Court has reissued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of Sardar Brahamdagh Khan, grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti, in the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) bombing case. Brahamdagh Khan and an alleged accomplice, Abdul Hameed, have already been declared absconders by the court. On Tuesday, the case investigation officer submitted a report before the court stating that the warrants could not be executed as the men were missing.
The court reissued the warrants and adjourned until March 6. In normal practice, trial courts declare absconders as proclaimed offenders after issuing the warrants twice or thrice. In case the court decides to try the absconders in absentia, it appoints a lawyer to defend them. The men are wanted in connection with the November 15 bombing of the PIDC complex in Karachi, which killed four people. According to the police indictment, two other men Aziz Khan and Mangla Khan arrested within 24 hours of the blast have confessed to carrying out the bombing before a judicial magistrate. The men have testified that Brahamdagh Bugti ordered them to bomb the office of the Pakistan Petroleum Limited in the PIDC complex, the police told the court.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
The chief prosecutor in Saddam Hussein's trial read out documents in court on Tuesday which he said established that the former Iraqi leader signed a death warrant for 148 people. Jaafar al-Moussawi said the document was dated 14 June, 1984 and signed by Awad al-Bandar, chief of the Revolutionary Court and his co-accused, and approved by the former president. "This document condemns the 148 victims to hanging until death," Moussawi told the court.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I can harldy contain my suspense! Is he guilty? We must wait and see.
#4
Naah, as ugly as Saddam is, he HAS to be guilty! Law of nature.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/01/2006 21:35
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Judge Ito: It depends on whether Dennis Fung sealed the bindles before or after writing the specific blood droplet locations and whether the swabs were used...
kill Saddam. now
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/01/2006 22:22
Comments ||
Top||
The European Union has agreed to grant $143 million in urgent aid for the Palestinian Authority before a government led by Hamas - which the Europeans consider a terrorist outfit - takes office. However, the EU kept silent on what it would do once the militant organisation assumes power.
My guess is that they'll continue shelling out. That way the puppies and kittens and baby ducks can be fed, and the Paleos can use all the money they get from Iran and Soddy Arabia to buy explosives...
Announcing the grant, Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French foreign minister, said the aid funds were required to avoid "economic chaos".
... which would complement all the other types of chaos they've got...
The European Commission has urged donor countries, which suspended Palestinian aid after Hamas's election victory last month, to follow suit.
"Yes! You should shuck your spines, too! Evil is a relative thing, y'know."
Earlier, James Wolfensohn , international envoy, warned that the Palestinian Authority faced financial collapse within two weeks because Israel has stopped reimbursing millions of dollars in customs duties. He said a financial crisis could lead to violence and chaos and urged the main international powers to develop an urgent strategy to address the Palestinian administration's plight.
Doesn't everything lead to violence and chaos there?
Wolfensohn, a former president of the World Bank, and appointed special envoy for Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip, made the charge in a letter to the so-called quartet, of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And in the meantime the victims of arabo-islamist imperialism in Sudan are starving. Stop help to Palestine NOW
Either Carlos the Jackal or George Galloway. I'm not sure which.
The convicted terrorist Carlos the Jackal was back in court Tuesday for allegedly saying in a TV interview that victims of terrorism are never innocent. The 56-year-old Venezuelan, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, is charged with defending terrorism, which is against the law in France.
They don't have laws against being grossly stoopid, so they had to go with that...
Prosecutor Laurent Zuchowicz asked that the court fine Ramirez $24,000 for his stance in favor of terrorism in the March 2004 interview carried on the M6 TV station. The French Justice Ministry had pressed the complaint against Ramirez for a portion of the interview in which Ramirez said there were no innocent victims of terrorism. He expressed pleasure that "the Great Satan" was hit in the al-Qaida attacks, allegedly suggesting the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States were deserved.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Terrorist. In prison. Allowed to give TV interviews.
#3
They're putting him on national television instead of leaving him in a jail cell for life, facing a maximum fine that he would never have to pay anyway.
Why do I suspect that somebody want to give him a free stage?
#4
In 1997 he convert to islam in prison. I wonder what is his muslim name? Abdullah al-Jackali? Osama bin Lenin?
Posted by: ed ||
03/01/2006 10:07
Comments ||
Top||
#5
He's also written a book on revolutionnary islam while in prison, claiming it will be the force that will ultimately defeat the West and capitalism.
For thoses who speak french (pity them!), article here.
Oh, and he married his ultraleftist lawyer, who also wrote a book about him. Busy little critter.
An earthquake of magnitude 5.9 jolted southern Iran on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The temblor struck at 11:01 local time and was centered in an area about 600 miles southeast of the capital Tehran, the USGS said on its Web site. Theepicenter was about 80 miles from the nearest sizable city Bandar-e Abbas, on Iran's coast. In unrelated news, the government is paying 95% of Halliburton's expense claims.
The earthquake was classified as moderate unlike the people who live there, but such quakes have killed thousands of people in the past in the Iranian countryside where houses are often built of bricks. The head of the Tehran Seismology Center, Mahdi Rezapour, put the magnitude at 5.8.
State television said it was felt in the southern towns of Orzoueih, Kerman, Jiroft, Kahnooj and Baft. The governor of Baft province told state radio the quake caused walls to crack in villages. "No deaths have yet been reported, but the quake has caused cracks in many buildings. The region hit by the quake is where the houses are made of mud brick," said the governor, identified only as Amini.
In February 2005, a 6.4-magnitude temblor rocked the town of Zarand in southern Iran, killing 612 people and injuring more than 1,400. A magnitude-6.6 quake flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam in the same region in December 2003, killing 26,000 people. Cheney Allah is pissed.
The suprise that India and Pakistan pulled off was readying the tests. We knew damn well what they were when we heard the boom. And we knew what that wild scampering sound was that came afterwards- a bunch of CIA analysts explaining why they were asleep on the job. Again.
Wonder when the MadMullahs™ are going to pick up on it?
Or maybe they haven't noticed the hints from their "god" because they really worship themselves.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/01/2006 19:24
Comments ||
Top||
#6
You know, of course, that the uranium bomb dropped in 1945 was so simple it was not even tested? Just drive the two sub-critical masses together and ...
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/01/2006 22:04
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Thanks, Chinter Flarong9283 -- it's always good to hear from an expert.
SYLHET, Bangladesh - Bangladeshi security forces laid siege overnight to a house in a northeastern town, where the leader of a militant Islamist group was believed to be hiding up, officials and witnesses said on Wednesday.
Some 500 members of an elite police force had surrounded the two-storeyed lair house in Sylhet town where Shayek Abdur Rahman, supreme leader of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen group, and his henchmen associates were believed to be holed up. Shayeks group and another radical Islamist organisation, the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, have been blamed for a wave of bombings in the impoverished nation since August that have killed 30 people and wounded 150.
Police said security forces might eventually storm the house, in the towns Tilagarh area, some 400 km (240 miles) from the capital Dhaka, if the militants did not give themselves up. We are trying to persuade them to come out. But they seem adamant, said an officer of the Rapid Action Battalion force. A Reuters reporter at the scene said the police had made repeated announcements over a loudspeaker, urging the militants to surrender.
"Hokay, come out witcher mitts in da air!"
"You won't hurt us, will you?"
"Pshaw! We'll just go for a midnight stroll. Say, you boys have a shutter gun?"
"Nutz to dat, coppers!"
Hundreds of people believed to be members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh have been detained since the bombings, but Shayek and Jagrata Janata chief Bangla Bhai remain at large. The two groups are fighting for introduction of Islamic sharia law in Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy.
Identify the joke in that last sentence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The joke is that theyre a particularly illiberal democracy
"Bangladeshis can change their government through elections. A referendum held in 1991 transformed the powerful presidency into a largely ceremonial head-of-state position in a parliamentary system. Elections to the 300-member unicameral parliament are held in single-member districts under a simple-plurality rule. The 1996 vote was the first under a constitutional amendment requiring a caretaker government to conduct elections. The most recent national elections, held in October 2001, were described as generally free and fair despite concerns over polling irregularities, intimidation, and violence. More than 140 people were killed throughout the campaign period in what was Bangladesh's most violent election to date. In July, European Union (EU) representatives as well as local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) raised concerns about the validity of a by-election held in the Dhaka-10 constituency that was marred by fraud and intimidation.
Both major parties have undermined the legislative process through lengthy parliamentary boycotts while in opposition. In recent years, political violence during demonstrations and general strikes has killed hundreds of people in major cities and injured thousands, and police often use excessive force against opposition protesters. Party leaders are also targeted, and several died during the year after being attacked. Odhikar, a local NGO, claimed that during the first half of 2004, there were 287 people killed in political violence. Student wings of political parties continue to be embroiled in violent campus conflicts.
Analysts blame endemic corruption, a weak rule of law, limited bureaucratic transparency, and political polarization for undermining government accountability. In October, Transparency International again listed Bangladesh at the bottom of a 146-country list on its 2004 Corruption Perceptions Index and noted that corruption was perceived to be "acute." An Anti-Corruption Commission, which is authorized to conduct investigations and try corruption cases in special courts, was launched in November. However, critics remain concerned that the new body will not be truly independent either politically or financially.
#2
The other joke is that if the near term end state in Iraq is a system much like that in Bangladesh, most folks here will call it a grand victory, and a vindication of Bush.
And you know what, I'll be one of them. They'll be right.
Of course Bangladesh has had more years to build than Iraq post Saddam. OTOH Bangladesh is much poorer, less literate, less urban, etc than Iraq.
Id say Banglas about as democratic as id expect given all the strikes against it. You dont need Islam to explain the illiberalism of Bangladeshi democracy.
President George Bush left on Tuesday for India and Pakistan, a trip designed to cement two crucial US alliances and possibly hammer out a landmark agreement to share civilian nuclear technology with India. Bush kicks off his five-day visit to the region in India, where he will be greeted by business and government officials eager to boost trade and military ties - and by crowds of protesters, 1000 of whom gathered on Tuesday in Bombay, waving signs that read "Devil Bush Go Back."
Where does Bush go that the dirtbags don't coming crawling out from under their rocks?
The trip also comes amid political turmoil for Bush in Washington. He has been roundly criticized for his response to Hurricane Katrina and for a surge in bloodshed in Iraq. Most recently, members of the president's own Republican Party have revolted over a decision to allow a Dubai-based company to manage six major US ports.
That little tempest appears to be blowing itself out within the teapot...
This week's visit allows Bush to show India and Pakistan that the United States values relations with each, despite complaints about closer ties in all three countries. Pakistan is a key US ally, but many in Washington want to see Islamabad make stronger efforts to dismantle terrorist training camps.
Islamabad is an ally of convenience. They were necessary to get to Afghanistan, but once Iran falls they won't be needed anymore.
Bush has indicated he wants to make sure Pakistan elections scheduled for next year are free and fair.
Right. That'll be a first.
Critics say General Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistan president, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, has refused to allow true democracy.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Debka is reporting Bush stoped in Afghanistan.
Bush: We shall not let Iran have the means, the knowledge to make nuclear weapon. This would destabilize the world
March 1, 2006, 2:32 PM (GMT+02:00)
US President George W. Bush spoke on this issue with unprecedented clarity when he made an unannounced first visit to Afghanistan Wed. March 1.
Tight security surrounded his five-hour visit to Kabul and the US base at Bagram, and his talks with President Hamid Karzai. Bush was also due to open the new US Embassy before flying off to India and Pakistan.
Tuesday, US Lt.-Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the US Senate in Washington that insurgents represent a greater threat to Afghan government authority across the country today than at any point since the Taliban government's overthrow in Oct. 2001. He predicted an upsurge of Taliban operations in the spring after a fourfold increase of suicide attacks in 2005 compared with 2004.
The Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union (AIPU) ended its 12th biannual conference on Tuesday with a joint statement calling on the United Nations to issue a resolution prohibiting the vilification of all religions.
What's that word I'm looking for... Oh, yes. "No."
During the past two days, Arab delegates have been discussing ways to lobby the international community on this issue. Vilifying religions has become one of the plagues hitting the modern world, exactly like terrorism, Deputy Mamdouh Abbadi (Amman Third District) told delegates at the conference.
No, it's not exactly like terrorism. Any corpses that result from a cartoon are self-inflicted.
Abbadi said the UN must take a firm stand against this practice, which is being committed under the pretext of freedom of expression.
It's not a pretext. It's an exercise.
He called on the Arab parliamentarians to lobby the International Parliamentary Union to support the move. Kuwaiti Parliament Speaker Jasem Khurafi said on Monday that he hoped the international community would respond positively to the Arab initiative.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
LOL. I call for a chicken in every pot. And ponies, yay!
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush on Tuesday extended by one year a series of sanctions against Zimbabwe officials, including President Robert Mugabe, deemed to be destroying his country and people undermining democracy.
The decision renews Bushs executive orders of March 2003 and November 2005 freezing the assets of more than 100 people and 30 entities considered to be opposing reforms in Zimbabwe. The crisis constituted by the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwes democratic processes or institutions has not been resolved, Bush said in a statement.
These actions and policies pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States. For these reasons, I have determined that it is necessary to continue this national emergency and to maintain in force the sanctions to respond to this threat, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- A senior Zimbabwean official condemned on Saturday a U.S. decision to impose sanctions on the leadership as part of a "white racist" attack on a government he said was fighting for the interests of its black majority.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/03/08/zimbabwe.sanctions.reut/index.html
The official Zim response no matter the issue, will always headlined by "white racist" this or that. There is no win for the west in Africa. At this point, it should just be ignored and left to it's own outcome.
Lebanons political factions yesterday launched the most high-profile talks since the end of the civil war, but hopes are slim that they can find a way out of the countrys worst political crisis in the last 15 years. The talks are expected to tackle contentious issues that have threatened to paralyze the government and block much-needed reforms for the past year, including the fate of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud and that of Hezbollah guerrillas arms.
Both issues have come to the fore since last years killing of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which led to Syrian forces leaving Lebanon after three decades and an anti-Syrian coalition sweeping to victory in general elections. Most Lebanese leaders Christian and Muslim, pro- and anti-Syrian are to attend seven to 10 days of talks, the most high-profile meeting since the end of 1975-1990 civil war. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri says national dialogue was the only way out of the deadlock, but diplomats and analysts say wide differences among the parties may hamper its success. The talks can succeed only when each party realizes that it cannot settle the situation to its favor without offering compromises, one Arab diplomat told Reuters. Until now it does not seem that they have come to this conclusion.
The left-wing daily As-Safir was more negative. The question we should be asking is: What will be the likely scenario after the dialogues failure? asked Joseph Samaha, the newspapers editor. Seven or eight days of talks could end by reaching a calm or a truce, but saying it will offer cures to Lebanons problems is an illusion.
The anti-Syrian coalition raised the stakes this month when it launched a campaign to remove Lahoud who, backed by Syria, has vowed to stay in office till his terms ends in 2007. Analysts say a key reason for pessimism over the talks is that Lebanon has become a front in the ongoing dispute between Western powers on the one hand and Syria and Iran on the other. The United States and France co-sponsored a 2004 UN Security Council resolution which demanded the disarmament of militias, including Hezbollah which is backed by Syria and Iran. Syria still wields strong influence in Lebanon. Washington also accuses Syria and Iran of interfering in Iraq and backing Palestinian militants against Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
WASHINGTON - A coalition of US Muslim organizations on Tuesday requested a meeting with Treasury Secretary John Snow to discuss concerns that Muslim charities are targeted in the governments counter-terrorism efforts. In a letter to Snow, the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT) said government closures of Islamic charities have hindered American Muslims ability to carry out their religious obligation to help the needy.
The coalition of 10 organizations referred to action this month against Kindhearts, a Toledo, Ohio-based Islamic nonprofit group, whose assets were blocked pending an investigation. The Treasury Department said Kindhearts had links to the Palestinian group Hamas, which Washington considers a terrorist organization.
Generously providing alms for Paleo bunnies.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, the government has designated three major US Muslim charities as suspected sponsors of terrorism and frozen their assets.
It's a start, but I wonder if they're similar to the mythical Hydra ...
Muslim charitable giving has been in the spotlight since authorities discovered al Qaeda and other militants had established abused charities to fund attacks.
In the letter to Snow, AMT said most of KindHearts frozen assets were earmarked for earthquake relief in Pakistan and for a new division of terrorists in South Asia. Although we understand the political climate of our country and support our governments efforts to thwart terrorist financing; we find it unfair that our government has yet made another extrajudicial decision to effectively wipe-out more than five years of humanitarian assistance to the worlds needy by the mere stroke of a pen, the letter said.
Then his lips fell off.
Molly Millerwise, a Treasury spokeswoman declined to comment on future engagements for Snow, but denied that Treasury was targeting Muslim charities. The charge that theyve made is completely untrue. Weve worked very closely with the charitable sector and specifically with the Muslim American charitable sector to safeguard charitable giving against terrorist financing, she said.
The Treasury has issued voluntary guidelines to strengthen transparency to help ensure money intended for charitable activities does not fall into the hands of terrorists, Millerwise added.
The problem is that you're being reasonable in an unreasonable world ...
Many Muslim charities and organizations in the United States say they feel like targets of a government witch hunt since Sept. 11. Required by their faith to pay zakat, or alms for the needy, Muslims say the US government crackdown is intimidating donors.
Good. Give it to the Boy Scouts. The public library. The local senior citizens' council. The Katrina relief fund. Lots o' ways to be charitable in the U.S.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Go ahead - prove you actually care about people and want your donations to do some good, give to the Salvation Army.
#6
In my mind it's a charitable act to choke off all overseas funding of Islamic charities so the day doesn't come when we finally deport all Muslims for their insistence upon promoting jihad though those agencies. These perfidious morons care not one whit if the money winds up being spent on Semtex or sesame oil. Otherwise, long ago they would have set up charities that were scrupulously supervised for transparancy and traced point of funding destination for all contributions. Do we hear of any such constructs? He|| no, that would be a productive measure and represent a single peep to interrupt the thundering silence of the Muslim world when it comes to abating international terrorism. Full transparency or the spigot is twisted (and welded) shut. Choose.
A Danish initiative to promote democracy and dialogue in Arab countries will continue in spite of Muslim anger over the Prophet Muhammad (may his jock itch recede peace be upon him) cartoons that first appeared in Denmark, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said yesterday.
"Ja, sure! Those sückers obviously need to wörk on their understanding of demöcracy!"
The government intends to pursue dialogue with Arab countries within the framework of the Arab Initiative, Rasmussen told reporters, referring to a program launched by his right-leaning coalition government in 2003 in an attempt to promote democracy and reforms in Arab countries. He added, however, that the dialogue obviously needs to be seen in the light of what has happened in a global row over 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI peace be upon him).
"Since they've demonstråted that they're nüts. When yøu're talking to a lunatic yøu have to watch whåt yøu say for fear of setting him øff..."
The drawings, considered by many Muslims to be blasphemous, have sparked violent protests and scores of deaths in Muslim countries since they were first published by the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September. Earlier this month, observers said negative Muslim sentiments toward Denmark could bring the Arab Initiative to a halt, but yesterday Rasmussen insisted that Danish foreign policy remains unchanged, including its policy of international aid. Denmark has said it will spend about 0.8 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006 on development aid.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Vee vill geeve them one mure chance to zee the error of theeer ways and theen geet Viking all oveer them."
The recent violence surrounding the publication in the West of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed illustrate the danger of Islamic "totalitarianism," Salman Rushdie and a group of other writers have said in a statement.
Rushdie, French philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy and exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen were among those putting their names to the statement, to be published on Wednesday in the French weekly Charlie Hebdo, one of several French newspapers which reprinted the controversial cartoons.
"After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new global threat: Islamism," they wrote. "We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all." They added that the clashes over the caricatures "revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. The struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. "It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The celebrity of these talented people can help gather support against Islamic totalitarianism from heretofore unlikely circles (intellectual Westophobics). Well done.
#4
Note that this bunch of losers can't bring themselves to call the third scourge by its right name. They call it "Stalinism" instead. How about Maoism and Brezhnevism etc. were they okay?
No, this is just a bunch of Socialist/communist loving simps that finally caught on that the head choppers don't like THEM either. Rushdie must be pretty thick not to have figured that out before now. They even throw in some of the mandatory leftist buzz words like "egalitarian".
Glad for any help this may bring with the problem. But, while I'd let a mangy, flee ridden hound help drive off the bad guys; I wouldn't want him in the house.
NWFP police confirmed on Tuesday that a suicide bomber had blown himself up at the Ashura procession in Hangu killing 39 people on February 9.
It took them three weeks to figure that out?
Images of the suspect were captured by a video camera filming the procession and later released to the media inviting the general public to provide information on the suspect. In a press release, the police department held that the team investigating the incident had concluded that it was a suicide attack and that findings of the bomb disposal squad, Forensic Science Laboratory and other experts reaffirmed it. They said that despite giving out the images of the suspect in the media, no information about him had emerged, strengthening the view that he was indeed the suicide bomber.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Off topic comment...the other day i watch the original Pink Panther movie. Two things struck me. One, Henry mancini's music was just terrific. And two, that was a *very* naughty movie. I didn't think you could say those things in the movies in 1964.
Violence has flared again at Afghanistan's main jail, ending a brief period of calm after two days of rioting which killed four inmates.
Dead inmates? Oh, my heart bleeds!... No. Wait. Brussels sprouts again. Never mind.
Police have blamed the deaths on al-Qaida and Taliban inmates held at the grim 1970s-era Pul-e-Charkhi jail on the outskirts of Kabul.
Have you considered artillery?
On Tuesday gunfire was again heard from inside the prison as officials said some of the 1300 prisoners were once more smashing windows and beds as they had done when the first revolt erupted last Saturday. Authorities had been hopeful that earlier talks would end the standoff and had been preparing to move the prisoners to new facilities after their own were damaged in the rioting.
Why move them after they've fouled their nests? Why not leave them there to enjoy it?
"It seems that they don't respect what they had agreed during negotiations," Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai, Deputy Justice Minister, told AFP. "They've started to break windows and beds and even walls."
They don't respect their agreements? Wow. That's never happened before, has it?
He said it appeared some inmates were receiving orders from outside the jail through their mobile phones. Authorities were trying their best to calm the situation, he said as extra police arrived and a spy drone flew overhead. A prisoner who asked not to be named told AFP by mobile phone that police opened fire late on Tuesday after inmates refused to move to another building.
Sounds good. Lots of casualties, I hope?
The man, who said he was being held on criminal charges, said Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners started the revolt and other inmates joined them. "We're together now and resisting together," the prisoner said. "Unless our demands are met we will not surrender to police."
If Dostum was in charge he'd be giving them the old "surrender or die" choice. If he gave them a choice...
He added: "The police tried to enter the block but were forced out. We've blocked the gates and windows with beds, chairs and desks."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Um, just yesterday KhaleejTimes said the riot had been going on for four days.
Her we hav al Jizz saying it lasted only two and resulted in 4 dead alQ & Tallyweenie inmates.
Figure out a way to seal the thing up and leave 'em in the rubble they created. And let Amnesia Int'l feed & water 'em.
DEBKAfileâs counter-terror sources report: coordinated riots by erupted Wed. March 1, in a wing of Jwaida jail in Amman, as well as Swaqa and Qafgafa prisons, which hold more than 150 detainees. Hundreds of Jordanian special forces troops fought to put down the riots. Casualties are reported on both sides.
The outbreak began at Swaqa prison when la heavy Jordanian contingent came to transfer to another facility the two al Qaeda terrorists who assassinated USAID diplomat Laurence Foley in Oct. 2002: Salkim bin Suwaid, a Libyan, and Yasser Freihat, a Jordanian. Both are under sentence of death. Several prisoners attacked the troops claiming the pair was being taken out for execution. Swaqa cells also hold Azmi Jayusi, a Zarqawi aide who was sentenced to death this month for leading a chemical attack plot in April 2004.
In no time, the violence spread to the Juwaida and Qalqafa jails.
DEBKAfileâs sources add: Jordanian prisons holding al Qaeda terrorists are equipped with exceptionally tough security measures. The outbreak of a riot in three of these facilities bares an intelligence lapse four months after al Qaeda bombers caught Jordanian security unawares by hitting a string of Amman hotels and killing 57 people.
The three outbreaks Wednesday indicate that their inmates were connected by an external communications system missed by the authorities.
Jordan has denied it was on the list of foreign facilities holding some of the CIAâs al Qaeda suspects for interrogation. However, DEBKAfileâs counter-terror sources have confirmed these allegations â in particular in the case of Jordan. It is not clear if these detainees took part in the riot although it occurred on the fifth day of a jail riot in Kabulâs central prison in Afghanistan, with not sign of Afghan special forces breaking through to the wings barricaded by the prisoners. Weapons were smuggled into the facility by an unknown route. Heavy American forces surround the prison to prevent escapes.
#4
Fred, I dont know whats got you on this Dostum kick. Hes a snake, at various times he supported the Communists, I think at one point he may have supported Hekmatyar, just generally the classic example of a warlord who changes sides at a moments notice, and who mistreats the peons. The kinda guy who made so many afghans nervous abotu the northern alliance. Sure hes impious, and hes tough, and I could see why that would appeal in this instance, but still, lets not think hes the direction we want the Afghan state to go in.
#5
Use the right tool for the job. Dostum's men handled Qala-i-Jangi quite nicely, except for leaving Johnny Jihad alive.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006 10:53
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Curious that they didn't use tear gas. The old debate about listing it as a chemical agent in warfare? (The US doesn't, a lot of others do.) This is arguably a law enforcement situation anyway ....
#7
I thought US armed forces were forbidden to use teargas and similar irritants? I remember reading an article ("Where has the teargas gone?" IIRC) on this subject from an "anti-tofflerian" website many moons ago, deploring the lack of this in US arsenal.
#8
We don't - in combat - but we haven't officially agreed that it is covered by the Geneva Convention on chemical warfare IIRC.
The riot at the prison is an interesting test case, tho, as it isn't a battlefield venue (arguably). On the other hand, we don't want to label the prison a law enforcement situation on, either, I would imagine.
I had a talk with a JAG type about this once, but it's been a while....
The post-1991 dismantling of Indias nationally regulated economy has been accompanied by a rapid growth of social inequality and economic insecurity, according to an analysis published by the World Socialist Website (WSWS).
Right. We expect unbiased and objective analysis from the World Socialist Website.
writes that in democratic India, hundreds of millions of people must struggle to survive on less than a $1 per day.
They had to do the same thing under India's nationally regulated economy, too. The only difference is that then there were more of them eking out a living and the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty was living large.
Education and healthcare for all intents and purposes have been privatized, with only the poorest of the poor using the dilapidated public education and health systems, he wrote.
It's only by coincidence that we could stop sending CARE packages to the starving children in India about the time the managed economy was dumped.
He said that a more important objective of Bushs trip is to harness India through increased military, civilian nuclear, and geopolitical collaboration to Washingtons drive for global supremacy.
India, of course, gets nothing out of the deal...
In short, the US wants to transform a rising India into an economic, military and geopolitical counterweight to China.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Former Singapore PM Lee Kwan Yew had an interesting comment on the fabian socialist programs in India.
He said that he admired the intent, but he recognized that to share a cake, one first has to bake it, something Indian politicians did not. They were busy redistributing poverty.
So now, there is a large middle class but that is bad because there are poor people, as if these people were not there before.
Posted by: john ||
03/01/2006 15:55
Comments ||
Top||
DUBAI The strongest earthquake possible on the Zagros fault in Iran will have no significant impact on the UAE, an international expert on earthquakes told Khaleej Times yesterday.
Professor Dr Azm Al Homoud, Middle East Representative of the World Agency of Planetary Monitoring and Earthquake Risk Reduction (WAPMERR), said that the distance between the epicentre of earthquakes in Iran, as well as the focal depth of these earthquakes, dissipates a considerable amount of the actual energy before it reaches the UAE.
Crank that sucker up!
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday he would personally meet Hamas leaders when they visit Moscow on Friday a higher level reception for the Palestinian group than many observers expected. Talks with the Hamas delegation will take place in Moscow, and I will receive them, he was quoted by Russian news agencies as telling reporters in Budapest of talks set for Friday.
Despite Washingtons nervous reaction to the Hamas visit, successful mediation in the Middle East could boost the international prestige of President Vladimir Putin, who made the surprise invitation earlier this month. Lavrov has said Russia at the talks will tell Hamas that it must commit to seeking peace with Israel to win international acceptance the joint position of the quartet of Middle East mediators, which also includes the United Nations, the European Union and Washington.
Israel yesterday softened criticism of the visit, which it had previously likened to stabbing Israel in the back, with acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert saying he believed Putin was a friend of Israel. Hamas won a surprise victory in Palestinian elections on Jan. 25. Olmert met top officials to review policy toward Russia. Russias move challenged Israels US-backed efforts to isolate Hamas unless it recognizes the Jewish state, but Olmert toned down Israels earlier criticism of Moscow over the talks. He said in a statement after his policy review discussions that Israels ties with Russia are important and ways must be found to improve them and tighten the understanding. Putin was a friend of Israel and would not act against Israels interests, Olmert added in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Perfect pic. Molotov & Uncle Joe. A real pair of charmers, they were.
#3
Prolly so. The BS mask of there being a difference between the the "Paleo Auth" and the terrorists who live to die killing Jooos has gone *poof* - so the next attack of substance and most every move they make is now, finally, viewed as an action of the "Paleo State".
If it's an act of war, then war it should be.
I firmly believe that there will never be a solution (i.e. peace) in this amazingly tiny little shitfest until one side is utterly and completely wiped out. Everything short of this is treading water.
The "election" of Hamas could be the first step toward finally popping this zit on the tip of the tail of the dog - which has wagged the Arabs and the First World for almost 60 yrs.
A series of attacks targeting Iraq's Shia majority have killed 58 people and wounded 180 as fears grow that a new wave of sectarian violence may be unleashed across the country. In one of the biggest attacks, a car bomb exploded on Tuesday evening outside a Shia mosque in Baghdad's northeastern al-Hurriya neighbourhood, killing 21 people and injuring 43 according to a local security official. The explosion came soon after three bombs went off in quick succession in Shia areas of the capital, leaving 30 people dead and 130 wounded.
Responding to the continuing violence, George Bush, the US president, said that Iraq must choose between "chaos and unity".
The blasts came as the trial of Saddam Hussein resumed after a two-week suspension of his trial. Hours before Saddam returned to court bombs wrecked the tomb of his father, Hussein al-Majid in Tikrit.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sunni offensive? I'd say that goes without saying. Seriously stuck on stupid and getting all the help they can ask for from the alQ types.
Sigh.
Chaos. Unity. Yup, Dubya's called it. We shall see. Is the sum IQ sufficient to the task of choosing, rather than just reacting to the opponent's provocations.
A comment on the unconscious Western POV: the numbers of Shi'a dead are, actually, not terribly different from other time periods of the asshat destabilization campaign -- but it appears the symbols, the moskkks and shrines and such, are far more important to the Shi'a than the people.
I hope the Kurds in the military stay safe - they're gonna be needed to man the borders of The Republic of Kurdistan if the Shi'a join the Sunnis in wholesale Arab dementia.
#3
A comment on the unconscious Western POV: the numbers of Shi'a dead are, actually, not terribly different from other time periods of the asshat destabilization campaign -- but it appears the symbols, the moskkks and shrines and such, are far more important to the Shi'a than the people.
My thoughts exactly, .com. In some people's minds symbols count more than the thousands of innocent people blown up to date. Of course, that doesn't preclude having "terror masters" pushing just the right buttons behind the scenes this go 'round.
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 28 Close to a hundred bus drivers and conductors, who have been released recently from Evin Prison after being locked up for taking part in union protests, gathered on Monday outside the Tehran Bus Company headquarters to protest against the governments handling of their case.
Iranian authorities launched a heavy crackdown on the transit workers late last month, arresting large numbers of bus drivers who had decided to go on strike. Earlier this month, a dissident worker told Iran Focus that agents of Irans Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), the countrys secret police, had been conducting night raids into the homes of striking bus drivers and workers in Tehran, arresting more than a thousand people on political charges.
During Mondays protest by the recently released bus drivers, they demanded that the government clarify their position and reinstate them to their previous posts. Many of the unions members are believed to still be behind bars. Four union activists had to appear in court on Monday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hmmm. These guys have some serious brass... Are there more like them, who haven't bubbled to the surface of our awareness? Interesting.
#2
I thought so too. We just don't know enough about Iran. I've been surfing some of the Iranian ex-pat websites, but they're mostly clipping services. And I can't read Farsi. I do have a friend, lovely woman who's Persian, but I dunno if I can get her to translate on a regular basis.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2006 0:33
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Organized labor in Iran is strong enough to put hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in the streets on May Day, and they hate the Mullahs. Check out one conservative and one leftist site on the strike issue:
Send your solidarity protests to the top:
Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadjinejad,
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
Fax: + 98-21-6648. 06. 65 or: + 98 21 649 5880 &
Ambassador Mohammad Reza Alborzi, Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Institutions in Geneva, Chemin du Petit-Saconnex 28, 1209 Geneva, Switzerland, Fax: +41 22 733 02 03, E-mail: mission.iran@ties.itu.int
#5
Listen To Dogs (interesting nym) - I hope there's more than petition-signing going on under the surface. The list is long...
Making contact with the US Govt - yes, the CIA
Providing intel on the targets that need to be neutralized
Cooperation and collaboration in developing real action plans
Recruitment - with all the risks that entails
Arming the cells, once organized
Coordinating actions to be effective, not pointless bloodbaths
Focus - on regime change and on removal of nuke threat
Ditching the Pollyanna and romantic BS - this will be real war
If the people you've pointed to are serious, and not just Cause of the Day types or childish dreamers, then there are many things which they can be doing to make the overthrow of the Mad Mullah and the entire despotic Mullahcracy a reality. If they are few in number and / or unwilling to pay the price, then they are wasting their, and our, time and efforts.
The regime will fall - we can't allow them to survive to restart their games and force us to do it all over again another day. They will have to be eliminated.
The nuke program (which I've read is very popular, unlike the Mullahs) will have to be destroyed. Period. End of fucking story. If you think we'll sacrifice lives and treasure to remove the Mullahs but preserve your Shi'a Muzzy Viagra, you're wasting your time. Not. Happening. Get over it, if that offends you. We will help you regain control of your country, but you have to pull your weight and recognize our interests, too. We are going to remove the threat and your agenda had better include that item. Otherwise, wank away with the website shit and keep dreaming. Shit's coming down and it will happen with or without you.
The petition games can be your front, but it achieves nothing, nada, zilch. The Mullahs are laughing at you. Get bizzy helping our intel people and organizing yourselves to make this your victory, independence from insanity - not just our campaign to remove a major threat.
#6
That's about 4 cents.
Shouldn't we be smuggling cell phones into Iran ?
Shouldn't we also pay a bunch of them to attack one of our ships so we can get this war reved up ?
#7
Shouldn't we also pay a bunch of them to attack one of our ships so we can get this war reved up ?
Umm ..... no.
That's precisely the sort of sh!t that generates; "America flew their own planes into those skyscrapers so that they could start a war on Islam." sort of crap.
wxjames, leave it to the Mullahs to do something just crazy enough (as if virtually declaring war on the United States, threatening to nuke Israel and meddling in Iraq weren't sufficient), that will get this whole ball of camel dung rolling.
It does once the dung beatles (a.k.a. scarabs, if I recall correctly) are done with it. I always wondered why the Egyptians were so keen on such creatures...
A SMALL but vocal group of protesters has gathered outside Federal Treasurer Peter Costello's East Melbourne electorate office denouncing his recent comments on multiculturalism. The protesters, who held signs including Muslims are Welcome and Islamophobia is Racism were outnumbered by police 11 to nine.
And this is a news story?
Protest spokesman Jonathon Collerson, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of JudaeaSocialist Worker Students Club, said despite the small numbers (of protesters) there was widespread opposition to Mr Costello's comments. "We think widespread in the community there is opposition to what Peter Costello is saying, we think there is opposition to Islamophobia in Australia.
Sounds like Collerson might be brain damaged. Some kind of Socialist Work Accident?
"Essentially, what Peter Costello said was that Muslims who are not prepared to compromise their religious beliefs should be stripped of their citizenship."
Sure. If their religious beliefs included cannibalism they wouldn't be allowed to eat people, either.
Mr Costello's controversial comments came during a speech to the Sydney Institute last Thursday when he said anyone wanting to live under Islamic sharia law should move to a country where they would feel "more at ease". He also referred to a "mushy multiculturalism" in Australia.
That caused the mushy multiculturalists to howl at his violation of political correctitude. All nine of them.
#2
"Sounds like Collerson might be brain damaged."
Well, he is a member of the Socialist Worker Students Club - is that classic CogDis or what? Lol. I certainly hope Mr Costello needs oxygen to get over the fits of laughter. He's doing Good Work, lol.
#3
"Being a Socialist Worker is like a full time job, man. All those protests and pickets and meetings to attend. Then there are the workshops. Got one this afternoon on heckling. Can't be a proper Socialist Worker if you don't know how to heckle, can you?
"What's that you said, about having to work in order to meet the strict definition of a Worker? That's bourgeois analytical thinking. Anyone can be a Socialist Worker. You just need commitment to the cause, man.
What do you mean and a loblottery? Is that one of those new ScratchnWin tickets. You think we should give them to new members, then?
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 28 A senior Iranian cleric has approved attacks on foreign embassies in Tehran over the publication of insulting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in European dailies, a website belonging to the office of hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reported. Muslims must take the most ferocious stance against insults to Islamic sanctities, the senior cleric told Ayatollah Dorri Najaf-Abadi, the countrys Chief State Prosecutor, according to the Persian-language website Khedmat.
If setting fire to embassies of countries that insult the Prophet aims to show that these countries no longer have any place in Islamic countries then this act is permissible, the senior ayatollah was quoted as saying. Anyone who dies in this path [of protests against the insults] is a martyr, he said.
Khedmat did not name the senior Shiite religious leader, but Najaf-Abadi met and held talks separately with five senior ayatollahs in Qom on February 20. The ayatollahs, Moussavi Ardebili, Makarem Shirazi, Fazel Lankarani, Safi Golpayegani and Nouri Hamedani, unanimously condemned the cartoons depicting Islams Prophet Mohammad and described it as a Zionist and Western conspiracy against Islam.
The support shown for the [cartoons] by the European Union and some European governments showed that this was not just an issue of journalism. But Muslims reaction was beyond expectation and it showed that Muslims have woken up and this is a great asset, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi told the prosecutor, according to the government-owned ISNA news agency.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Well sure it is! Geez, wotta dumb question. Anything, anything at all, that advances the interests of mullahs and imams is specifically and automatically okey-dokey. Just ask 'em and they'll tell you. Why, they'll even dig up some Sura or something and "interpret" it for ya. Silly fucking infidels.
#2
If all countries having embassies in Tehran closed them for a week in protest of this outrageous pronouncement, do you think they might change their minds. Probably not. You have to possess one before it can be altered.
#4
Well we don't have to worry about that. I think any Zeropian nation that keeps an Embassy open in Iran is stone cold stupid. Iran has a habit of grabbing up people and holding them hostage. I Thinbk the Zeropians forgot that. I hope they burn a few and take some hostages. It will force things.
It's better sooner than later.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/01/2006 1:06
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Attacks on embassies may and are normally considered de facto ACTS OF WAR, espec iff done with host nation/Govt approval. Iran, etal. can not give State andor Ideo-Faith-specific sanction to PC/PDeniable, individual acts of terror but then claim the State-Faith is NOT per se responsible. THE CLERIC > EITHER KILL US OR WE WILL KILL YOU, SURRENDER/CONCEDE AND WE MIGHT DECIDE TO SPARE YOU, .......ETC. AFTER ALL, CLINTONISM > FASCIST = LIMITED COMMIE LEFT/COMMIE-MAJORITY MAINSTREAM AMERIKANS WANT TO BE RULED BY ANYONE EXCEPT AN AMERICA, CORRECT!? MOTHERLY RADICAL ISLAM, ETAL. IS MERELY DOING WHAT AMERIKANS WANT ANYWAYS AND HELPING YOU DESTROY YOURSELVES AND YOUR COUNTRY FOR THE GOOD OF EVERYONE.
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.
The guy that it hurt most was Dan Rather and the executives at CBS, said White House strategist 
There has been a corresponding rise in popularity of the alternative media, which includes free daily newspapers, the Fox News Channel, talk radio, the Drudge Report Web site and a host of Web logs, or blogs. 
I think whats healthy is that theres no monopoly on the news, Bush said. Theres competition. Theres competition for the attention of, you know, 290 million people, or whatever it is. And the amazing thing about this world we live in is that theres a kind of free-flowing, kind of bulletin board of ideas and thoughts out there in the ether space, sometimes landing on somebodys desk and sometimes not, but always available. Its a very interesting period. Having long been pilloried by the mainstream media, Bush now finds the rise of the alternative media nothing less than revolutionary. Its the beginning of the 21st century; it also happens to be the beginning of or near the beginning of a revolution in newsgathering and dissemination, he said. Not
Rove said Rather and his producer, Mary Mapes, were gunning for the president and trying to help his challenger, Sen. 
American Pride: In January, spokesman Nick Inskip of the trade association of Australia's legalized brothels and strip clubs praised the American sailors who that week began several days' shore leave in Brisbane. "[T]he fellows are fantastic customers," he said. "They are so well-mannered... They're very aware that they're representing their country, and that's why they behave so well."
Serial rapists envy United Nations peacekeepers. And who could blame them? Most rapists do not get to police their own crime scenes, food to trade for sex, diplomatic immunity and indifference from the people supervising them.
Israel launched an airstrike on a car in Gaza City on Wednesday, killing the top commander of the 
The UN on Tuesday became the latest international agency to caution that Israel and the West stand to unleash a crisis in Palestinian territories by withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and tax transfers. The flow of money has been jeopardised by the Islamic Hamas group's landslide victory in January 25 Palestinian elections. The group has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, and has refused since its election victory to abandon its calls for Israel's destruction. 
By Akiva Eldar
DOHA - German Interior Minister 
Saddam Hussein returned to court yesterday but his trial was quickly thrown into fresh disarray by his top defense lawyers who walked out after their pleas for an adjournment and the removal of the judge were rejected. Chief defense attorney Khalil Al-Dulaimi and his deputy Khamis Al-Obeidi staged another walkout after their attempts to win an adjournment and the expulsion of the Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman on grounds of bias were turned down. Their latest protest came minutes after they lifted a boycott and returned to the chamber. After three hours of proceedings the trial was adjourned until today.
QUETTA: Suspected tribal militants fired rockets at a security forces' checkpoint and a telecommunications building in separate attacks on Tuesday, officials said. No one was reported injured. Three rockets landed in a field near a paramilitary post in Dera Bugti, said District Coordination Officer Abdul Samad Lasi.
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaits supreme court on Tuesday upheld 10-year jail terms against three Iraqi nationals, two of whom were sentenced in absentia, for spying for the former regime of Saddam Hussein before the US-led invasion, a legal source said.
Iraqs President Jalal Talabani yesterday criticized interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari for making a solo visit to Turkey without consulting other members of the government. Talabani, who is a Kurd from the north, presides over Iraqs fractious political system, which includes a Parliament riven by religious and ethnic divisions. The Iraqi government is not committed to any agreement which may be reached between the prime minister and the Turkish government, Talabani said in a statement. Talabani said he deeply regretted Jaafaris unilateral decision to make the trip without consultation. We express our deep regret with this decision which does not meet with Jaafaris assurance that he will commit to group work, Talabani said a strongly worded statement. 
"The Democrats have a better idea. First we will conclude the negotiations with the Chinese and the North Koreans to disarm North Korea. 
After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.
Two separate courts in Bangladesh are reported to have sentenced 22 Islamic militants to death for carrying out bomb attacks across the country last year.
Urgent consultations in European and Arab capitals and Jerusalem are reported by DEBKAfiles counter-terror sources over the threatened targets published by Al Qaedas Gaza cell the Army of Jihad - dated Feb. 16. Not only must "non-Muslim foreigners of all nationalities" leave, but "foreign embassies and consulates must be evacuated and their staff leave within one month of this warning."
UNRWA Commissioner General Karen AbuZayd on Tuesday said the humanitarian agency was not worried about the possibility of donor countries cutting off aid after a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government takes over office. We are not scared. Donor countries have not in any way said they will stop their aid to UNRWA. On the contrary, we were approached by many of these countries, even Israel, asking us to continue our services to Palestinian refugees and perhaps even extend these services to do things we haven't done before, AbuZayd told a press conference yesterday. 
Police in Indian-administered Kashmir fired tear gas yesterday to disperse hundreds of Muslims protesting the magazine publication of a picture of a playing card showing an image of Kaabah, police and witnesses said. They said at least 10 protesters were detained.
An Anti-Terrorism Court has reissued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of 
The chief prosecutor in Saddam Hussein's trial read out documents in court on Tuesday which he said established that the former Iraqi leader signed a death warrant for 148 people. Jaafar al-Moussawi said the document was dated 14 June, 1984 and signed by Awad al-Bandar, chief of the Revolutionary Court and his co-accused, and approved by the former president. "This document condemns the 148 victims to hanging until death," Moussawi told the court.
The European Union has agreed to grant $143 million in urgent aid for the Palestinian Authority before a government led by Hamas - which the Europeans consider a terrorist outfit - takes office. However, the EU kept silent on what it would do once the militant organisation assumes power. 
SYLHET, Bangladesh - Bangladeshi security forces laid siege overnight to a house in a northeastern town, where the leader of a militant Islamist group was believed to be hiding up, officials and witnesses said on Wednesday.
President George Bush left on Tuesday for India and Pakistan, a trip designed to cement two crucial US alliances and possibly hammer out a landmark agreement to share civilian nuclear technology with India. Bush kicks off his five-day visit to the region in India, where he will be greeted by business and government officials eager to boost trade and military ties - and by crowds of protesters, 1000 of whom gathered on Tuesday in Bombay, waving signs that read "Devil Bush Go Back." 
The Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union (AIPU) ended its 12th biannual conference on Tuesday with a joint statement calling on the United Nations to issue a resolution prohibiting the vilification of all religions. 
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush on Tuesday extended by one year a series of sanctions against Zimbabwe officials, including President Robert Mugabe, deemed to be 
Lebanons political factions yesterday launched the most high-profile talks since the end of the civil war, but hopes are slim that they can find a way out of the countrys worst political crisis in the last 15 years. The talks are expected to tackle contentious issues that have threatened to paralyze the government and block much-needed reforms for the past year, including the fate of pro-Syrian President 
WASHINGTON - A coalition of US Muslim organizations on Tuesday requested a meeting with Treasury Secretary John Snow to discuss concerns that Muslim charities are targeted in the governments counter-terrorism efforts. In a letter to Snow, the 
A Danish initiative to promote democracy and dialogue in Arab countries will continue in spite of Muslim anger over the Prophet Muhammad (
The recent violence surrounding the publication in the West of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed illustrate the danger of Islamic "totalitarianism," 
NWFP police confirmed on Tuesday that a suicide bomber had blown himself up at the Ashura procession in Hangu killing 39 people on February 9.
Violence has flared again at Afghanistan's main jail, ending a brief period of calm after two days of rioting which killed four inmates.
The post-1991 dismantling of Indias nationally regulated economy has been accompanied by a rapid growth of social inequality and economic insecurity, according to an analysis published by the 
Russian Foreign Minister 
A series of attacks targeting Iraq's Shia majority have killed 58 people and wounded 180 as fears grow that a new wave of sectarian violence may be unleashed across the country. In one of the biggest attacks, a car bomb exploded on Tuesday evening outside a Shia mosque in Baghdad's northeastern al-Hurriya neighbourhood, killing 21 people and injuring 43 according to a local security official. The explosion came soon after three bombs went off in quick succession in Shia areas of the capital, leaving 30 people dead and 130 wounded.
A SMALL but vocal group of protesters has gathered outside Federal Treasurer Peter Costello's East Melbourne electorate office denouncing his recent comments on multiculturalism. The protesters, who held signs including Muslims are Welcome and Islamophobia is Racism were outnumbered by police 11 to nine.
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 28 A senior Iranian cleric has approved attacks on foreign embassies in Tehran over the publication of insulting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in European dailies, a website belonging to the office of hard-line Iranian President 
