China plans to increase its refinery capacity by 31.6 percent and more than double its ethylene production by the year 2010, the state-run China Daily reported Friday. "We will build a crude oil processing base to refine imported oil, and another base for oil from the country's domestic fields," the country's top economic policy planner said, according to the daily. The two oil refining bases, both to be located in southern China, aim to address the country's imbalanced allocation of its oil processing facilities, which are too concentrated in the northeastern and northwestern regions, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said. By 2010, China plans to add new refining facilities of at least 90 million tons, and meanwhile, to close small and inefficient plants totalling about 20 million tons in capacity to enhance efficiency.
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has shared the writings of Deng Xiaoping with his intelligence services, intoned Duke Ellington to oil executives, astounded astronomers with Shakespeare and preached the Bible to legislators.
Presidential spokesman Murphy Morobe says, with understatement: He is extremely well read. But such lofty phrases may be lost on ordinary South Africans, 12% of whom cannot read or write.
The Hamas-run web site promoting suicide terrorism to children has been updated with a new illustrated story glorifying a young girlâs suicide attack against Zionists.
The story, entitled âA Palestinian Girl's Heroism,â describes how the young girl calmly progresses, step by step, though the planning and execution of the terror attack, in which she dies. In death she is said to be "smiling, lying on the grass, because she died as a Shahida, martyr for Allah, for Palestine."
âThe illustration with the story on the web shows a young smiling girl with four candles,â a report by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) points out. âThe image of a living, smiling child in a story about the death of a child appears to echo a familiar message in PA children's education, that those who die as Shahids (Martyrs for Allah) are not really dead.â
After PMW originally published a report on the Al-Fateh web site encouraging children to seek martyrdom, and after the Arutz-7 article on the report was featured on the Drudge Report, the Hamas siteâs Russian server (CORBINA TELECOM Network Operations) immediately closed down the website on March 9, 2006. The site reopened a couple of days later, however, and is now being hosted by a Malaysian web hoster (Eastgate;Telekom Multimedia of Telekom Malaysia Berhad;Telekom Exchange II, Jalan Lingkaran Fauna).
The following is a translation of the new short story on the Al-Fateh web site:
A Palestinian Girl's Heroism
"Suad, the bright Palestinian girl, remembered what the Zionist criminals did when they killed her father and mother.
"One day while Suad was walking, she heard a voice from the trees. She turned and saw three men planting land-mines on the road leading to the Zionist camp.
"Suad kept on walking. After a while, she saw a car with some Zionists and an idea popped into her mind. She walked to the officer who was in the car, and told him: âI'll lead you to Palestinian Fida'yon (literally: self sacrificing fighters) in return for food, because I am hungry.â
"The officer was afraid of the Fida'yon's reputation, and didn't believe what Suad told him.
"He then said to his soldiers: "Take her to the camp so we will clarify her story." In the camp, the soldiers brought food to Suad, so she would lead them to the Fida'yon. She told them: âBefore I taste any food, I must lead you to the Fida'yon.â
"The officer was very happy and told his soldiers: âLet's go fast.â
"On the way, Suad got ready to carry out her plan. She decided to cause the car to ride over the land-mines, so that all of the soldiers would die.
"Suad sat next to the driver, to direct him, and she led him to the land-mines. Then the [car] blew-up and all of the soldiers were killed. As for Suad, well she became a Shahida (Martyr for Allah) on the grass, while smiling, because she died as a Shahida for Palestine".
Minister of Labor and Social Inclusion Bjarne HÃ¥kon Hanssen said that controversial mullah Krekar can be on a plane back to Iraq within two months.
His assessment is that Krekar, former leader of Kurdish guerilla group Ansar-al-Islam, can be sent back as soon as a permanent government is in place in Iraq.
Iraq's national assembly meets on Thursday and will appoint a president and government within 60 days.
"We are approaching the point where the conditions are in place to begin negotiating the return of mullah Krekar with Iraq's government. This is the first priority for me," Hanssen told newspaper Dagbladet.
Hanssen sees no reason to wait for the Court of Appeals to handle Krekar's plea.
The minister did emphasize that he will need a guarantee from Iraq that Krekar will not face the death penalty before he will finally eject the controversial mullah.
Well, I guess it had to happen. Several weeks after writing my âQueer Muhammadâ column, I finally got a call from a Muslim extremist â one who mostly shouted at me over the phone in broken English. I have decided to reprint our conversation in todayâs column, hoping that it will shed some light on how to deal with the fundamentalist Muslim disdain for free speech, not to mention the fundamentalist Muslim disdain for satire.
As you read the conversation, please bear in mind that it was not tape recorded. Some high school kid in Colorado took my digital recorder to his geography class and forgot to bring it back. Therefore, I had to write this column from memory.
In the places where my memory is sketchy, I have simply supplemented the text in order to make myself sound smarter than I really am. Nonetheless, I hope you learn something from the following exchange:
Muslim Fundamentalist (hereafter MF): Mike Adams? May I speak to Mike Adams?
Methodist Editorialist (hereafter ME): Yes, this is Mike Adams. How can I help you?
MF: You are Mike Adams? You are Mike Adams?
ME: Yes, give me another sentence. I have to go to class in ten minutes. What can I do for you?
MF: You write the column on the âQueer Muhammad.â
ME: Yes, thatâs me. Did you enjoy the âQueer Muhammadâ?
MF: No. No. I did not enjoy it.
ME: Well, thatâs too bad. Did you read it on the internet?
MF: No. It was in the paper I read it. The Boston paper.
ME: I see. Theyâre running my column in Massachusetts. Now, thatâs progress. Maybe itâll run in Cuba before long.
MF: You are an educated man. Surely, you know Muhammad was not queer. How could a man with education write such a disgusting column? Disgusting! Muhammad is a great prophet. He has over billion followers around the world.
ME: Well, sir, did you actually read the column? I didnât say that Muhammad was a queer.
MF: Yes. I read it. I read it. Disgusting column!
ME: Well, first let me warn you that you are speaking to me on an American university telephone. If you keep yelling, someone might overhear you and charge you with a hate crime. Your suggestion that being a queer is disgusting is actually offensive to most American professors. How long have you been in the country?
MF: You call Muhammad queer. You have no right. YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!
ME: Well, no sir, I didnât say that. Could you please try to control your emotions? You arenât queer by any chance, are you?
MF: (YELLING INDISCERNABLY).
ME: I was only kidding, sir. What was your name, by the way?
MF: (STILL YELLING INDISCERNABLY).
ME: Listen, Iâm going to have to ask you to get off the phone and re-read my column once you have control over your anger. You donât impress me with your anger; you are only making an ass out of yourself, which is your right. But, please, go smoke a cigarette and settle down.
MF: (MORE YELLING).
ME: I was only kidding. But, as I said before, I did not call Muhammad a queer. But, remember that in this country I have every right to do so. But before I get ahead of myself, I want you to brush up on your reading skills. Thatâs important. Otherwise, youâll keep making an ass out of yourself in front of others. As an immigrant, your difficulties with English are understandable but you donât get a free pass forever.
Next, I am going to ask you to take some sort of course in basic American liberties. This will teach you that in America we have a thing called freedom of speech. That I disgust you with my speech doesnât mean you can simply demand that I cease to speak. You have to come up with better speech if you are going to get along in this country. We are pleased to host you in America, but only if you agree to live by our laws and principles.
Furthermore, your phone rage only serves to solidify stereotypes against Muslim males. If you understand what I am saying and will agree to re-read my article after mastering the English language â not to mention your unchecked emotions - feel free to call back. Otherwise, Iâm afraid I will have to invite you to kiss my (backside). Does this sound agreeable to you?
MF: (DIAL TONE).
This exchange provides an example of one of the three ways to deal with a Muslim extremist. The first is to point a gun in his face. But, of course, that is only legal when there is reasonable fear of an imminent and proportionate threat of violence. The second is to point a middle finger in his face.
But, since the middle finger is kind of crude, some will prefer to use the third method â the one that I just illustrated. It involves a verbally aggressive rebuttal laced with heavy doses of ridicule. In this case, it caused an angry telephone Jihadist to hang up in frustration in just enough time for me to make my afternoon class.
Contrast my method with that of the administrators in the UNC system. After 911, they dealt with Muslim extremism by requiring freshman students to read a Muslim prayer book called âApproaching the Koranâ â one that omits the references to killing Christians and Jews in favor of the more âapproachableâ verses. And, recently, a Muslim student returned the favor. He did it by driving his SUV into a student gathering in an attempt to kill nine innocent âinfidels.â
Perhaps that Muslim student needed a little straight talk from Dr. Adams, rather than a diversity program perpetuating the myth of the âreligion of peace.â Or perhaps we should end the ban on firearms on UNC campuses in order to prevent another terrorist attack.
I know it's Yahoo News, but this is just so much fun. Cartooooons will destroy the world. Or just out the cults
"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!" the "South Park" creators said in a statement Friday in Daily Variety. "Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies... You have obsructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail!"
Internet bloggers accused Cruise of threatening to not promote "Mission Impossible 3," a surefire summer blockbuster, if the offending episode ran. Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, as is Paramount, which is putting out "MI:3."
But Cruise's representative, Arnold Robinson, told The Associated Press Friday that the mega-star made no such demands.
"Not true," Robinson said. "I can tell you that he never said that." Oh I bet he did, silly.
A call by The Associated Press to a Paramount representative was not returned Friday.
The episode in question, "Trapped in the Closet," which first aired last November, shows Scientology leaders hailing Stan, one of the show's four devilish fourth graders, as a savior. A cartoon Cruise locks himself in a closet and won't come out. An animated John Travolta, another famous Scientologist, enters the closet to try to get him out.
In another dig at the famously secretive religion, the credits at show's end are filled with names like "John Smith" and "Jane Smith."
The battle began in earnest earlier this week when Isaac Hayes, another celebrity Scientologist and longtime show member voicing the ladies' man Chef quit the show, saying he could no longer tolerate its religious "intolerance and bigotry."
Stone and Parker didn't buy that either.
On Monday, Stone told The Associated Press, "This is 100 percent having to do with his faith in Scientology...He has no problem and he's cashed plenty of checks with our show making fun of Christians."
A Comedy Central spokesman said Friday that the network pulled the controversial episode to make room for two shows featuring Hayes.
"In light of the events of earlier this week, we wanted to give Chef an appropriate tribute by airing two episodes he is most known for," the spokesman said. And avoiding the one that made him hustle his offended butt out of there.
#1
Pulled it? It was on last night, according to the cable schedule.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/17/2006 19:15
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#2
I actually took my boyz (teenagers at the time) to see Battlefield Earth. I thought it was a piece of crap, but held my review until my youngest said: "well.....that sucked"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/17/2006 19:46
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#3
Frank, the book was great. The movie sucked.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/17/2006 19:54
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#4
Way cool additions, thanks!
I do wonder if general viewers are going to see the parallel with Mohammad (PHEW) cartoons. And the danger of any extreme religion that cannot stand self-examnination or withstand poking fun at self? Yeeesh, most other religions enjoy most those comedians who poke fun at their own characteristics and foibles.
Some make a fortune at this.
But Scientology and Islam; the commonality of inability to accept discussion in any form - humour, criticism, analysis, question or logic. Religions can examine and poke fun at themselves.
§ Answer : It is not permissible, because it is a means for Lahv (debauchery) and gambling. Many traditions have been reported from the Holy Prophet and the Imams (a.s.) that prohibit playing chess. Moreover, when we do not know the reason behind the forbiddenness of an act, we are bound to obey in absolute obedience. There is a reason for it, but we do not know it and when we do not know it, it does not mean that we should not abide by it.
Chess = debauchery and Gambling?
???
This is nekkid chess? Played with Salma Hayek?
WTF, Mohhamed was jealous of some 7th century nerds and now chess is haram for all time?
Posted by: john ||
03/17/2006 20:00
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#7
nekkid chess with Salma was forbidden to me. It was part of a bunch of unfair restrictions and reporting requirements in a so-called "restraining order" issued by a non-Islamic. If I buy a fatwah, is it OK then? Or only in France Santa Monica?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/17/2006 20:11
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#8
Question : Is it permissible to draw or produce a scene which shows the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.), one of the past prophets or the infallible Imams (a.s.), or other luminaries and show it in cinema, on television or theatre?
§ Answer : If due deference and respect is observed, and the scene does not contain anything that would detract from their holy pictures in the minds [of the viewers], there is no problem.
Posted by: john ||
03/17/2006 20:22
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#9
Chess? Come on now, even Saladin and Suleyman played chess.
In an interview for the reformist Iranian online daily Rooz (www.roozonline.com ), Hossein Mousavi-Tabrizi, secretary of the Qom Seminaries Association of Researchers and Instructors, criticized the nuclear and economic policies of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ayatollah Mousavi-Tabrizi called for Iran to talk, conduct open negotiations, and renew relations with the U.S.
The following are the highlights of his statements. [1] "The Way We're Going, We're Causing a World Consensus Against Us"
Rooz: "What do you think will be Iran's most important problems in the new year?" [2] Ayatollah Tabrizi: "The most important problem will be the nuclear energy issue. We ask God for our senior officials to act so that this problem will be solved at the lowest possible cost, and so that there will be no additional problems for the people...
"The second problem that seems very important is Iran's economic problems. In my opinion, planning must be such that no inflation or economic stagnation problem is created in the country..."
Rooz: "Does the political problem, which is the nuclear energy [issue], affect the economic problem?" Ayatollah Tabrizi: "Certainly, the influence is great. But in light of the planning that was done, I feel that the budget was prepared in such a way that it will cause inflation and a rise in prices."
Rooz: "Is there a way to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully?" Ayatollah Tabrizi: "In my opinion, there was and is a solution. But right now the situation is more difficult. These problems could have been solved in a better way. One of the best ways is for us to reduce the political tension in the world. We cannot solve our problem by creating additional tension; the way we're going, we are causing the creation of a world consensus against us.
"The most important task of the previous government [and the] previous Supreme National Security Council [as headed by Hassan Rohani] was to prevent the creation of a consensus against us, and they succeeded at this. But, most unfortunately, today America is advancing in the direction of creating a consensus against us..."
"The [Iranian] People Have Not Sworn to Cooperate [With the Regime] Forever"
Rooz: "Is it appropriate for us to talk with America too, under the present conditions?" Ayatollah Tabrizi: "Yes, indeed. What is the problem? Negotiations do not mean dependence. Are the other countries that are negotiating with America dependent upon it? First, negotiations do not mean relations. Second, relations do not mean dependence. Right now, we maintain that Syria is not dependent upon America, but at the same time, the two countries are conducting negotiations and contacts, and maintaining ambassadors and embassies. We too can conduct negotiations, even open [negotiations], and also have contacts [with the U.S.] - as happened many times [between the U.S. and Iran] in the matter of Afghanistan and Iraq. There was a need for them to sit and talk because there were issues that required discussion. [The countries] can talk now, too."
Rooz: "What does Iran stand to gain in conducting negotiations with America under the present conditions?" Ayatollah Tabrizi: "I don't know what the gain is, but I know that wherever they would have an effect, negotiations must be conducted with all the countries."
Rooz: "What do you think will be the reaction of the [Iranian] people, in light of the problems that they face, primarily in the economic sphere?" Ayatollah Tabrizi: "If the people see honesty and integrity on the part of those in charge [of the regime], and know that they are interested in their welfare, and that the enemy is the one who is creating the problems, they will bear the burden. But if, heaven forbid, the people feel that the senior officials are not honest and have no integrity, lied to them, or did not show a serious effort to solve the problems, of course problems will then be created. After all, the people have not sworn an oath to cooperate forever."
Now I ask myself if this is a light at the end of a tunnel? Or just an oncoming train?
### CNN News ###
### April 1, 2006 18:00 GMT ###
### Christiane Amapour reporting from Qom ###
"Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, Sala'am a likum. We would like you to characterize the current situation with the evil West. Would you please honor us with your views?"
"Of course, dog. Cover your face first - this is not a debased infidel fashion show."
"See how we make the Great Satan and the Little Satans jump through our bejeweled hoops of dhimmitude? Is it not fun to see?"
"We can turn this negotiation silliness into a switch of the light - turn it to ON to slow the infidels down, then to OFF again to bank the fires of jihad. It is no trouble to do this for us. We are the Masters of Foreign Policy and now the Masters of Diplomacy. Allahu ackbar."
"Watch, we will have our infidel Chinese friends play for us in the evil UNSC, insha'allah. What would you like to see? A month? This is no problem for us. Watch..."
"Yes, we have become the masters of infidel games. They dance as our puppets. Soon we shall rain fiery death upon them, each in their turn. First will be the evil Jooos, then the Western lackeys and some Little Satans who have not shown us proper respect, then we shall burn the Great Satan's eyes out with the magic of the glowing stones. We will..."
*tremendous sound of multiple peals of cracking thunder*
"What is that? What is happening? The Grand Moskkk is gone! The Bad-I-Sad-O-Bist-Roz* comes! It is impossible - it is too early! Why does it glow red? Allah save..."
*crackle*
### End Transmission ###
* - literally the wind of 120 days - often generating huge duststorms, begins in June in Iran
#1
LOL. I wish Terpsboy would run for public office so useless reporters would shove a microphone in his face - well, they'd probably only do it once, lol.
#3
But what would happen to all those bureaucrats who'd get laid off? They'd all go on welfare and food stamps (It's not THEIR fault!) and cause the worst depression since the Panic of'93! (that's 1893)
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/17/2006 22:39
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SOUTH BEND -- Republican 2nd District congressional candidate Tony Zirkle has proposed a four-stage approach to stopping sex- related crimes such as child pornography, rape, sexual slavery and human trafficking.
Stage 4 contemplates the reintroduction of the guillotine and lynch mob into the criminal justice process, although Zirkle said in an interview that he is taking that position "to stimulate debate."
He also said he is in favor of the death penalty.
"If I am elected to Congress, I will introduce a declaration of war against human traffickers, porn-pimps and child rapists," Zirkle said in a campaign release. "We must put fear back into the criminals who are preying on our children."
The first stage of the battle, as proposed by Zirkle, calls for suspension of the constitutional protections of property rights for "porn-pimps."
"Every adultery (sic) book store will be immediately seized and the property will be forfeited to the taxpayers without any process of law other than a hearing within 10 days of seizure to give the porn-pimps the opportunity (to) challenge the sufficiency of prostitution evidence."
Stage 2, Zirkle said, would involve "actual arrests" for those who did not learn from Stage 1. Stage 3, if necessary, calls for "super speedy public trials with severe punishment that is swiftly carried out after a rapid appeal."
Which leads to Stage 4. "If this stage is necessary, then I am willing to debate the idea of returning the guillotine and lynch mob for those who prey on children under the age of 12; however, no capital punishment will be extended without at least four witnesses."
Zirkle said he favors the death penalty but believes current law offers insufficient due process protections.
"One witness can send you to death now," he said.
According to Zirkle, debate could fuel discussion of his guillotine proposal but, so far, "no one will debate me."
Zirkle sought without success to debate Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Chris Chocola during the 2004 primary election, and he has actively been seeking a debate opponent during the current election.
There does not appear to be much chance of Zirkle debating any of the current crop of congressional candidates.
Chocola, through campaign spokesman Brooks Kochvar, declined to respond to Zirkle's statements.
Steve Francis, candidate for the 2nd District Democratic congressional nomination, said he would debate Zirkle after the primary, "when he wins it and I win and we face off for the general election."
Until the primary race is over, Francis said, it would not be appropriate for him to debate the candidate from the other party.
Joe Donnelly, the other Democratic contender, said that at this stage, Zirkle should be debating Chocola.
"I would be happy to debate Mr. Zirkle after he wins the Republican primary," Donnelly said.
During the interview, Zirkle equated human trafficking with "modern-day slavery" and said he believes Congress needs to take action against this growing world problem.
The Republican candidate, who served as a deputy under former county Prosecutor Chris Toth, said he has derived his proposals from his personal experience "that judges and liberal prosecutors have failed us."
#1
O'REILLY had the story about the Fed FCC applying $$$ penalties to the TV show WITHOUT A TRACE for shwoing a graphic teen orgy scene on national broadcast. OR's female guest was a mother whom proclaimed that it was up to Amer parents to decide what their kids watch - same old Lefty hyper-PC and BS mind games where GOP-Conservatives handle the economy and geopols while Hollyweird promotes extremist, anti-Conservative, Alternatist shows so that one day in the future Amerikkkan Socialist Super-Govt., or Hillary, can be "justified" in taking it away from the same alternatists in the name of anti-laissez faire/libertarian universal morals and decency.
Nearly 40 years after he deserted his military unit in California and fled to Canada in protest over the Vietnam War, Allen Abney is officially no longer a U.S. Marine.
The 56-year-old Kingsgate, B.C. resident was formally discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps Wednesday night, one week after he was arrested at a border crossing into Idaho and transferred to a military prison at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
U.S. military spokesman, Lieut. Lawton King, said the discharge was recommended by Col. Patrick O'Donogue, the current commander of Abney's original military unit, earlier this week after reviewing the facts of Abney's desertion in 1968 and interviewing Abney.
The deal was then sealed Wednesday night by Maj.-Gen. Michael Lehnert, Marine commander in the U.S. western region.
"What that means is that today, if he hasn't done so already, [Abney] has to finalize the discharge paperwork and then he'll be on his way," King said in an interview from Camp Pendleton Thursday.
King said Abney, a Canadian citizen since 1977, spent Wednesday night in a military barracks following his release from formal detention. He was transferred to San Diego Thursday afternoon, and was expected to be flown at military expense to Washington state, where he was to be reunited with his wife, Adrienne, three adult children and a seven-year-old grandson.
Earlier this week Abney's daughter Jessica told The Vancouver Sun the family was hopeful the U.S. military would free her father in time for him to attend his brother's funeral on Saturday. Gerry Abney, 55, died of cancer while his older brother was incarcerated in California.
King wouldn't comment on the exact nature of the discharge, citing privacy reasons. The military had the option of pursuing a court martial against Abney, who enlisted with the Marines in 1968 but deserted after five months in basic training. That option could have landed Abney in jail for up to five years.
After reviewing his file, however, O'Donogue opted for a discharge, King said.
"I want to emphasize that this decision was made by the Marine Corps because we feel that it is in the best interest of justice, the Marine Corps and Mr. Abney that he be [discharged] administratively," King said.
Neither Abney, nor his family in Kingsgate, was available to comment at press time Thursday.
Abney was arrested March 9 on a 1968 federal warrant.
Born in Kentucky but raised in Canada, Abney had passed through the border countless times since he deserted in 1968 in opposition to the war in Vietnam, Jessica Abney said in an interview last week. Last Thursday, however, he was detained by U.S. border guards after his name showed up on a federal database during a routine records check.
In 1977 -- the same year Abney became a Canadian citizen -- then-U.S. president Jimmy Carter signed a pardon for Vietnam draft dodgers and deserters, but the program required deserters to apply for the special discharge review program. Abney didn't apply so the arrest warrant remained active.
According to King, Abney is one of 125 men for whom arrest warrants were issued by U.S. Marines during the Vietnam era, from 1961 and 1979.
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
#3
Like some of the repatriated Lefties or Mil deserters on the MSM - no matter how bad they thought America was when they were young, they kiss America's soil, and thank God for America and her freedoms and opportunities everytime they come back.
A carwash wonk am I. Not only do I like driving a clean car, but there's always a story at the Elephant Car Wash.
Monday, on the one clear sunny day we had in months, dirty cars were lined up at the carwash like it was a border crossing. Doors and trunks were flung open, revealing the cargo truth of how much junk and trash most people carry in their car, regardless of make, model, or driver. While I waited in the delivery zone I tried to predict which car belonged to which driver.
So I'm standing out in the sunshine. Waiting. Watching. The wipe-down crew is mostly very black young men from Ghana, who sing-song to each other in their native language as they work. Standing beside me is a dapper young brown man reading a paperback book: "The Next Millionaire." No doubt the flashy new silver BMW sedan belongs to him.
"That would be you?" I asked, pointing at his book.
"That would be me," he replied.
"That would be you?" I asked, pointing at the BMW.
"No, that would be me," he said, pointing at the next car out of the washer.
An old Yellow Taxi in mint condition. "Thats my cab," said the dapper young man. "If I keep it sharp, I get more rides and better tips." He is, I learned, from Somalia. His first job in the States was in this very car wash. And now, three years later, he owns three Yellow Cabs. He brings them to the Elephant Car Wash to remind himself he is moving on up.
I pointed to his book, "The Next Millionaire," and asked if he expected to win the lottery.
He smiled, "Mister, if you are in America, you have won the lottery."
#1
Good luck and best wishes. And may you never run into jealous assholes like Just Curious, whose hate for you will rise in direct proportion to your wealth.
He's non-white! He must have been oppressed by the man! He must need welfare and affirmitive action and special schools and programs and studies and multi-cultural special feelings and chocolate cities and programs ...
... so that he is dependant on us (the DNC) and will vote DNC when he becomes a citizen.
#3
It's people like that who make this country great. So long as we continue to attract such, we'll never lose to the haters. Thanks for the post, Nimble Spemble.
IN MARCH 2003 Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, of the UN, secured a remarkable, last-minute deal that averted war and seemed to guarantee the disarmament of Iraq. Saddam Hussein has finally consented to eliminate all his weapons of mass destruction, they said, in a signing ceremony with the Iraqi leader.
Saddam, flanked by his two sons, Uday and Qusay, accepted the plaudits of the UN with pomp and grace. Beaming as he smiled at a hastily assembled crowd of French, German and Russian children, he said he had saved the world from the bloodlust of George Bush and Tony Blair with a magnanimous gesture of international friendship. There were approving murmurs of support in many Western capitals. In Oslo there was talk of a Nobel Peace prize.
#1
In other news, President Al Gore announced today that the House and Senate had unanimously agreed to sign the Kyoto Accords, binding the United States to worldwide agreements aimed at reducing global warming.
President Gore stated that "While the economic impact on the United States and our people may be severe, it is absolutely necessary to insure the survival of the Earth through these reductions."
Gasoline prices immediately soared on the news throughout the nation reaching a high of $7.99 in California. The stock market reacted negatively to the signing of the Accords tumbling nearly five thousand points before the markets could be shut down. World oil prices also skyrocketed with the price per barrel of oil shooting through the $100 mark for the first time in history. Market experts believe that the price will rise to at least $300 per barrel when the market reopens on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Israeli gvernment agreed to return to its pre-1967 borders and to allow more than 5 million Palestinians the right to return to their homes in occupied territory. Israel also agreed to turn over its nuclear weapons and facilities to United Nations peacekeeping forces and to return all of Jerusalem to Palestinian control.
Iranian diplomats greeted the Israeli move with open condemnation of the Jewish state and stated that they were moving ahead with plans to detonate their first nuclear bomb in a recently prepared underground test site as early as next week.
"Our nuclear weapons program is for purely defensive purposes," stated Iranian President Ahmadinejad. "The zionists and their ally the Great Satan have nthing to worry about although we are ready, if provoked, to rain fire down upon their heads and to close the Straits of Hormuz."
Oil prices spiked again to $150 per barrel on news of the Iranian planned atomic demonstration.
CHINESE ambassador Wang Guangya has said Beijing was prepared to give Iran "four weeks to six weeks" to comply with demands by the UN nuclear watchdog that it halt all uranium enrichment activities.
Speaking before a formal meeting of the UN Security Council on the crisis, the Chinese UN envoy said: "We must leave sufficient time for diplomacy and for the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to work ... at least four weeks to six weeks."
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/17/2006
16:37 ||
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#1
so we know how far away they are: 4-6 weeks
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/17/2006 16:41
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#2
Gee, and just yesterday, Khatami was saying that the US plans to attack in four weeks.
#5
We all know the Russians and Chicoms will never allow Iran or any "lessor/smaller" sttae(s) the ability to challenge their own plans for hegemony - as long as the USA is the focii, they may tolerate Iran having a minutae handful of nuke devices but not and never enough to challenge let alone defeat Russia andor China. As posted before, Dubya as I believe isn't the kind of moralist whom will let matters lie and instead choose to become a PC, wilful, national and geopol "failed" "lame duck" like the MSM, Hollywierd, and the Lefties want to portray him as, i.e. KISS singer Gene Simmon's anti-Rottweiler "Poodle" label ala POTUS Clinton. North Korea and Taiwan are still there - STAY ARMED AND READY.
#6
Frank - isn't that what Operation Swarmer is for? Get a lot of the terrs based in Iraq rounded up or killed off, discombobulated, and off our backs before the next step.
Anyway, I thought the "go" was in 2-3 weeks. Wonder what Karl Rove offered the ChiCom Ambass to get him to give out the wrong info to fool the fools MM?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/17/2006 21:36
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CHINESE ambassador Wang Guangya has said Beijing was prepared to give Iran "four weeks to six weeks" to comply with demands by the UN nuclear watchdog that it halt all uranium enrichment activities.
Speaking before a formal meeting of the UN Security Council on the crisis, the Chinese UN envoy said: "We must leave sufficient time for diplomacy and for the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to work ... at least four weeks to six eeks."
#1
Ha..yeah right. 4 to 6 weeks. Then another 4 to 6 weeks, then another because the Euro's will start to think compliance might happen.
It is now up to the Israeli's to decide whether a nuclear Iran will be tolerated, now that the UN circle-jerk is in full swing.
#2
This is pretty much what I tell my kids (and myself) every day. Look at the world. Now look at your own life. You won the life lottery.
Sometimes I wonder if I can opt out of that reincarnation thing, having no real complaints this time around.
Posted by: SLO Jim ||
03/17/2006 18:14
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#3
Did we win the lottery?
Or did we have parents, grandparents, greatgrandparents etc who made the hard decisions, took the hard track, who knew they weren't going to get the benefits then and now, but at least for their sacrifice, their posterity would be well positioned to reap the rewards?
It wasn't luck. It was an exercise in free will and making the better choice in what life has had to offer. Maybe the Chinese have it right in their respect of their ancestors.
Poor Casey sees his mother,
Being used but once again,
To mouth words of another,
Likes of who did him in.
Poor fool she is, and poorly used,
To claim the mothers place,
Of one who died and nows abused,
By his mother now disgraced.
Poor Casey fought to win his war,
He fought to do whats right;
His memorys now become a sore,
In his mothers fool cast light.
A young man felt the need to serve,
To meet his countrys need;
But mother felt the need for fame,
To salve her egos greed.
Poor Casey rests now sorely,
A boy stressed in his grave,
Served by his mother poorly,
A soulless left wing slave,
Who postures on the very ground,
That shelters Caseys soul,
A foolish, faithless media hound,
Who disgraced her brave son's role.
Ah, Cindy, Lass, you sold your soul, for fortunes fleeting fame,
To dance upon your sons grave and disgrace his warriors name.
May God sometime forgive you, but we warriors never will,
You sold your soul, sold out your son, someday youll pay the bill.
Russ Vaughn
Note: May God forgive Cindy Sheehan; I will not, ever. In the history of this country no mother has ever done so much to disgrace the memory of a fallen, warrior son. Cindy Sheehan has placed herself in the infamous ranks of Jane Fonda and John Kerry, all traitors to their country. All three are opportunistic, soulless cretins who sold their souls for fame and political fortune.
Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, head of al-Qaida in Iraq, is alienating the insurgency. Dr. Gilles Kepel of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris and a well-known Middle East expert said that al-Qaida's hope that Zarqawi would be the one to mobilize the Arab masses in Iraq may be fading. Zarqawi's bloody attacks on Shia Muslims have alienated support for al-Qaida in Iraq. In a letter released by the U.S. military in 2005, the deputy to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, criticized Zarqawi's attacks on the Shia and the beheadings he had broadcast.
"Nowhere ... not in Zawahiri's text nor in bin Laden's text is there any reference made to the Shias," Kepel said Thursday at the United States Institute of Peace. "And they are not interested in them, they are not part of (al-Qaida's goals). Whereas Zarqawi's texts are obsessed with Shias, with the fact that Shias are traitors; they're stooges of the Americans, friends of Jews, and that they should be killed first and foremost."
Kepel said that Zarqawi's joining al-Qaida forces with the Sunni insurgency in Iraq represented the "first opportunity for al-Qaida to be grounded on a turf." Zarqawi's terrorist operation is seen as the biggest obstacle to success of the United States and their allies in Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/17/2006
13:21 ||
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#1
The Duh graphic, definitely.
"well-known Middle East expert"
It's a buyer's market, Doc. Parsing for nuance in the alQaeda & Zarqawi msgs strikes me as an affectation which can wait - say in retrospect after they've all been killed and we need a fitting epitaph for the Caliphate That Wasn't.
Failed presidential candidate John Kerry offered a startling prediction Friday morning: If the U.S. doesn't change its global warming ways, New York City and Boston will be destroyed by flooding by 2036.
"And there goes our biggest block of voters!"
"I can say to an absolute certainty," Kerry told radio host Don Imus, "that if things stay exactly as they are today absent some unpredictable change in what's going on, within the next 30 years the Arctic ice sheet is gone. "Not maybe, not if - the Arctic ice sheet is gone," the Massachusetts Democrat insisted, before offering his hair-raising prediction.
"Already you have the Greenland ice sheet beginning to melt . . . If that melts, you have a level of sea level increase that wipes out Boston Harbor, New York Harbor - I mean, it's just stunning what we're looking at."
John's been in AlGore's stash again
Kerry blamed the Bush administration's environmental policies for the coming destruction of New York and Boston. "Europe and the other countries are responding," he told Imus. "The United States remains oblivious - at least the administration remains oblivious."
Despite the dire warning, Kerry hasn't done much to change his own global warming ways. At last report, he and his wife still owned several SUV's, a gas guzzling yacht, five BTU gobbling homes and a private jet. Like fellow environmentalist RFK, Jr., Kerry continues to withold his support for the proposed construction of a wind farm in the waters off Nantucket, where he and his wife own a mansion.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
13:21 ||
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#1
Got my lawn chair with pontoon feet and a inflatable floating igloo cooler all ready, Senator. Bring on the show!
#2
He will contract with the guy who built the wall around New Orleans. I smell cogressional pork projects here. Now the cry will be to build sea walls down the east coast.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/17/2006 13:55
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#3
A wall around New Orleans??? "Escape from New York" style? Makes sense, from what I've read.
#5
Didn't someone post here about the 2 poles and how one really won't affect ocean levels because the majority of ice is already underwater, taking up more room than the liquid form would? Sounds reasonable enough to me. Why all the gloom and doom, except to get more grant dollars? Somehow, methinks that if this were a true issue (which I don't believe it is; or even if it is, it's not all man-made, like the greens cry), I'd be willing to bet dollars to donuts that we could "save" NYC and Boston with some unbelievable engineering feats. They might be an island, but would still be habitable.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 14:19
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#6
Is that before or after the hurricane that the Discovery Channel says is going to hit NY??
#8
Didn't someone post here about the 2 poles and how one really won't affect ocean levels because the majority of ice is already underwater, taking up more room than the liquid form would?
The northern ice cap is floating. The Greenland sheet is on land, and theoretically would raise sea levels, but all the disaster theories are crap. The world has had warmer climates before -- much warmer than any of the predictions -- and oddly, humanity did just fine.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/17/2006 14:54
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#9
I'm going to enjoy my Virginia oranges.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/17/2006 15:13
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#10
Almost all ice near the South Pole is on top of land. Luckily it's very remote so it's unlikely all that new melted water would effect the North Atlantic.
#14
Considering the politicians that the Boston area has been fielding, I feel inclined to burn some extra fossil fuels up here on my 460-foot-elevation perch.
#19
Here's a question: a long time ago I read something to the effect that NYC has been severely undermined by the Atlantic, so much so that deep inland, some deep drill holes will give salt water. The speculation was that some part of the island could just spontaneously slip into the ocean.
#20
you're talking saltwater intrusion (a real problem in Gaza/So. Israel) - the freshwater water table is overpumped, and the soil is porous enough to allow saltwater intrusion to fill teh voids. Slippage? No. Typically it leads to brackish and salty water unusable as potable or irrigating crops.
(whew! Got my answer in before Alaska Paul kicked in with a helluva lot more knowledge on the subject)
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/17/2006 18:21
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#21
Well, I remember it suggesting that there was a huge undermine, basically a giant cave, under the island, possibly with its rubble being flushed into the Hudson Valley trench.
I gather that there is such an undermine in the Canary Islands, and if it collapsed, ironically, it could cause a super tidal wave to hit the US East coast, including NYC.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/17/2006 19:40
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#23
there would be constant infiltration, so, Discovery sweeps week hype aside, it should either have a gradual land/building settlement, or brackish water in the drinking water, either a heads-up they done pumped too much too fast...No drastic surprises in today's day/age. Such a cavern/aquifer would be thoroughly mapped via seismic (explosives) mapping
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/17/2006 19:45
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#24
There isssss no undermine in Manhattan, the Canary Islandsssss or Denver International. Move along. All is well.
#25
Sitting here in Colorado Springs at an elevation of 6124 feet above CURRENT sea level, I'm not much worried about global warming. If it actually happens (manmade or natural), it will reduce the UV effect at this altitude, and reduce the risk for skin cancer. So a bunch of idjits will have to move to the Adirondacks and to New Hampshire - it'll be GOOD for them to breate some REAL air for a change. Good riddance.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/17/2006 20:01
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#26
Meet you at the Golden Bee for a nice pint of Guinness Patriot.
#27
At the numbers we've seen in reality, this may happen, but something like in the year 203,600. I mean, even the UN papers supposedly say their projections are that it'll rise like an additional 1/2 inch over the next century if we keep at our current pace. That means even us here in Atlanta (elevation 780-something) are safe for something like another 18,720 freakin' CENTURIES (1,872,000 years). Not really close to 2036 in my mind.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 21:11
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#28
Oops, I think the UN's number is the ADDITIONAL rise in sea level just due to man's supposed influence. Even at 3-4 inches/century, we still have 300,000+ years!
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 21:12
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#29
When it starts up Jackson's horse's leg at Stone Mtn..... ya might wanna think about redeployment BA.
#30
Save us, John Kerry, save us!!! We repent for electing the destroyer of cities! We will cover ourselves in sackcloth and ashes, if only you will lead us away from the darkness!
I'm sure the Senator will call Henny Penny and Foxy Loxy before his committee as expert witnesses.
Anyone else old enough to remember back in the seventies when we were all supposed to perish in the coming ice age? By then, of course, the swine flu would have wiped half of us out anyway.
Mr. Senator, as we cannot get three meteorologists to agree what the weather will be during rush hour tomorrow, how can you sure what it will like in thirty years? Or are you perhaps desperately seeking attention by barking out of your nether regions? Honestly, Senator, at long last, have you no shame?
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
03/17/2006 21:31
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#31
I say, build New Orleans on a barge out in the mud flats. When global warming brings up the sea level, let her float around, and park it near high ground.
Start building barges in Boston and Martha's Vineyard and put Kerry's and Teddy's mansions on them and shove em out to sea.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/17/2006 21:49
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#32
Baba Tutu - no, he has no concept of the word "shame."
And yes, I remember the impending ice age in the 1970's.
Am I the only one who has noticed that "global warming" started about the same time the EPA came into being?
Just sayin', 's all.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/17/2006 21:52
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#33
He left out the part where afterwards it all freezes and then the wolves attack ...
#34
I scanned all 33 comments and you all missed it. If it DOES happen, he's a genius. (Yes, extremely unlikely, but you gotta cover all da bases!)
If it doesn't happen, Kerry and Gore SAVED us! Either way, he's a HERO!!!!
Is 2036 an election year?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/17/2006 22:27
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#35
According to Billy Joel, it's supposed to happen in 2017:
I've seen the lights go out on Broadway
I saw the mighty skyline fall
The boats were waiting at the battery
The union went on strike
They never sailed at all
They sent a carrier out from Norfolk
And picked the Yankees up for free
They said that Queens could stay
And blew the Bronx away
And sank Manhattan out at sea
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
03/17/2006 22:47
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#36
Baba Tutu --- sheezzzzz, I'd completely forgotten about the "swine flu." What scary day's those were. Someone else got some history of this? I remember the "scare" of the swine flu..... but forget the details....
Oh dear, and they say, "short term memory goes first" ... but swine flu is a long term memory!
#2
Yeah, I noticed those door knockers stop coming to my house after 2001. Guess we didn't pass on then either. Something in the book about thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not use thy Lord's name in vain. Who says the maker doesn't have a sense of humor. Oh you were expecting what? Surprise!
#3
Ng! That article doesn't explain *why* the professor thinks the popular interpretation of the Mayan calendar is bogus. I hate it when they do that.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/17/2006 14:43
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#4
Not only that, but he also mentioned that there is a more recent calendar that was being used at the time of the conquest. Now *that* calendar did have a day for the end of the world, which coincided with the arrival of the conquistadores. So if you took *it* and extrapolated the date for the next time the world was supposed to end, what is *its* magic date?
Of course, the whole thing gets really screwy when you figure that Spain was on the Julian calendar at the time of the Conquest.
#8
Anonymoose: that end-of-the-world day happened every 52 years (actually 365 * 52 days). To the Aztecs it wasn't necessarily the end of the world, just a time when it was a very real possibility. The dominoes just happened to line up in 1519.
Wikipedia has a good overview of the topic here, including why 2012 is not the end of the world - more like a super-duper Y2K (lots of zeros). The Maya loved those dates with lots of zeros.
In The Force of Reason, the controversial Italian journalist and novelist Oriana Fallaci illuminates one of the central enigmas of our time. How did Europe become home to an estimated 20 million Muslims in a mere three decades?
How did Islam go from being a virtual non-factor to a religion that threatens the preeminence of Christianity on the Continent? How could the most popular name for a baby boy in Brussels possibly be Mohammed? Can it really be true that Muslims plan to build a mosque in London that will hold 40,000 people? That Dutch cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam are close to having Muslim majorities? How was Europe, which was saved by the U.S. in world wars I and II, and whose Muslim Bosnians were rescued by the U.S. as recently as 1999, transformed into a place in which, as Fallaci puts it, if I hate Americans I go to Heaven and if I hate Muslims I go to Hell?
In attempting to answer these questions, the author, who is stricken with cancer and has been hounded by death threats and charges of Islamophobia (she is due to go on trial in France this June), has combined history with snatches of riveting firsthand reportage into a form that reads like a real-life conspiracy thriller.
If The Force of Reason sells a lot of copies, which it almost certainly will (800,000 were sold in Italy alone, and the book is in the top 100 on Amazon ), it will be not only because of the heat generated by her topic, but also because Fallaci speaks for the ordinary reader. There is no one she despises more than the intellectual cicadas, as she calls them You see them every day on television; you read them every day in the newspapers who deny they are in the midst of a cultural, political and existential war with Islam, of which terrorism is the flashiest, but ultimately least important component. Nonetheless, to give the reader a taste of what Muslim conquest can be like, in her first chapter, Fallaci provides a brief tour of the religions bloodiest imperial episodes and later does an amusing job of debunking some of its more exaggerated claims to cultural and scientific greatness.
The book is also animated by a world-class journalists dismay that she could have missed the story of her lifetime for as long as she did. In the 1960s and 70s, when she was a Vietnam War correspondent and a legendarily ferocious interviewer going mano a mano with the likes of Henry Kissinger and Yasser Arafat, Fallaci was simply too preoccupied with the events of the moment to notice that an entirely different narrative was rapidly taking shape namely, the transformation of the West. There were clues, certainly. As when, in 1972, she interviewed the Palestinian terrorist George Habash, who told her (while a bodyguard aimed a submachine gun at her head) that the Palestinian problem was about far more than Israel. The Arab goal, Habash declared, was to wage war against Europe and America and to ensure that henceforth there would be no peace for the West. The Arabs, he informed her, would advance step by step. Millimeter by millimeter. Year after year. Decade after decade. Determined, stubborn, patient. This is our strategy. A strategy that we shall expand throughout the whole planet.
Fallaci thought he was referring simply to terrorism. Only later did she realize that he also meant the cultural war, the demographic war, the religious war waged by stealing a country from its citizens In short, the war waged through immigration, fertility, presumed pluriculturalism. It is a low-level but deadly war that extends across the planet, as any newspaper reader can see.
Fallaci is not the first person to ponder the rapidity of the ongoing Muslim transformation of Europe. As the English travel writer Jonathan Raban wrote in Arabia: A Journey Through the Labyrinth (1979), in the mid-1970s Arabs seemed to arrive in London almost overnight. One day Arabs were a remote people camping out in tents with camels the next, they were neighbors. On the streets of West London appeared black-clad women adorned with beaked masks that made them look like hooded falcons. Dressed for the desert (and walking precisely four steps ahead of the women), Arab men bestrode the sidewalks like a crew of escaped film extras, their headdresses aswirl on the wind of exhaust fumes.
Writers far better acquainted with the Muslim world than Raban have been equally perplexed. In 1995, the late American novelist Paul Bowles, a longtime resident of Tangier, told me that he could not understand why the French had allowed millions of North African Muslims into their country. Bowles had chosen to live among Muslims for most of his life, yet he obviously considered it highly unlikely that so many of them could be successfully integrated into a modern, secular European state.
Perhaps Bowles would have been interested in this passage from Fallacis book: In 1974 [Algerian President] Boumedienne, the man who ousted Ben Bella three years after Algerian independence, spoke before the General Assembly of the United Nations. And without circumlocutions he said: One day millions of men will leave the southern hemisphere of this planet to burst into the northern one. But not as friends. Because they will burst in to conquer, and they will conquer by populating it with their children. Victory will come to us from the wombs of our women. More to the idea french Algeria war was the true start of this mess.
Such a bald statement of purpose by a nations president before an international forum seems incredible. Yet even in British journalist Adam LeBors A Heart Turned East (1997), a work of profound, almost supine sympathy for the plight of Muslim immigrants in the West, a London-based mullah is quoted as saying, We cannot conquer these people with tanks and troops, so we have got to overcome them by force of numbers. In fact, such remarks are commonplace. Just this week, Mullah Krekar, a Muslim supremacist living in Oslo, informed the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten that Muslims would change Norway, not the other way around. Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes, he said. By 2050, 30 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim.
In other words, Europe will be conquered by being turned into Eurabia, which is what Fallaci believes it is well on the way to becoming. Leaning heavily on the researches of Bat Yeor, author of Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, Fallaci recounts in fascinating detail the actual origin of the word Eurabia, which has now entered the popular lexicon. Its first known use, it turns out, was in the mid-1970s, when a journal of that name was printed in Paris (naturally), written in French (naturally), and edited by one Lucien Bitterlin, then president of the Association of Franco-Arab Solidarity and currently the Chairman of the French-Syrian Friendship Association. Eurabia (price, five francs) was jointly published by Middle East International (London), France-Pays Arabes (Paris), the Groupe dEtudes sur le Moyen-Orient (Geneva) and the European Coordinating Committee of the Associations for Friendship with the Arab World, which Fallaci describes as an arm of what was then the European Economic Community, now the European Union. These entities, Fallaci says, not mincing her words, were the official perpetrators of the biggest conspiracy that modern history has created, and Eurabia was their house organ.
Briefly put, the alleged plot was an arrangement between European and Arab governments according to which the Europeans, still reeling from the first acts of PLO terrorism and eager for precious Arabian oil made significantly more precious by the 1973 OPEC crisis, agreed to accept Arab manpower (i.e., immigrants) along with the oil. They also agreed to disseminate propaganda about the glories of Islamic civilization, provide Arab states with weaponry, side with them against Israel and generally toe the Arab line on all matters political and cultural. Hundreds of meetings and seminars were held as part of the Euro-Arab Dialogue, and all, according to the author, were marked by European acquiescence to Arab requests. Fallaci recounts a 1977 seminar in Venice, attended by delegates from 10 Arab nations and eight European ones, concluding with a unanimous resolution calling for the diffusion of the Arabic language and affirming the superiority of Arab culture.
While the Arabs demanded that Europeans respect the religious, political and human rights of Arabs in the West, not a peep came from the Europeans about the absence of freedom in the Arab world, not to mention the abhorrent treatment of women and other minorities in countries like Saudi Arabia. No demand was made that Muslims should learn about the glories of western civilization as Europeans were and are expected to learn about the greatness of Islamic civilization. In other words, according to Fallaci, a substantial portion of Europes cultural and political independence was sold off by a coalition of ex-communists and socialist politicians. Are we surprised? Fallaci isnt. In 1979, she notes, the Italian or rather European Left had fallen in love with Khomeini just as now it has fallen in love with Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and Arafat.
Considerably less intemperate than her last book on the topic of radical Islam, the volcanically angry The Rage and the Pride, The Force of Reason is despairing, but often surprisingly funny. (The rage and the pride have married and produced a sturdy son: the disdain, she writes with characteristic wit.) And, Fallaci being Fallaci, it is occasionally over the top and will no doubt be deeply offensive to many, particularly when, in a postscript the book might have been better off without, she claims that there is no such thing as moderate Islam. Nonetheless, the voice and warmth and humor of the author light up its pages, particularly when she takes a leaf out of Saul Bellows Herzog by firing off impassioned letters to the famous both living and dead. She is savage about the Left, the Peace movement (war is a fundamental, if regrettable, condition of life, she states), the Catholic Church, the media and, of course, Islam itself, which she considers theological totalitarianism and a deadly threat to the world. She is much more optimistic about America than Europe, citing the bravery of New Yorkers who celebrated New Years Eve in Times Square despite widely publicized terrorism threats, but here one feels that she is clutching at straws. Though Fallaci now lives in New York, little amity has been extended to her by her peers since the post-9/11 publication of The Rage and the Pride, and she remains almost as much of a media pariah here as she does in Europe. The major difference is that were not putting her on trial.
As that Norwegian Mullah told Aftenposten, Our way of thinking will prove more powerful than yours. One hopes hes wrong, but if he is, it will be ordinary Americans and Europeans, including courageous Arab-Americans like L.A. resident Wafa Sultan and the Somali-born Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali (two women openly challenging Islamist supremacism), who prove him so, and not our intellectual classes (artists, pundits, filmmakers, actors, writers ). Many of the latter, consumed by Bush-hatred and cultural self-loathing, are perilously close to becoming todays equivalent of the great Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun, who so hated the British Empire that he sided with the Nazis in World War II, to his everlasting shame. The Force of Reason, at the very least, is a welcome and necessary antidote to the prevailing intellectual atmosphere.
Staff writer Brendan Bernhard is the author of White Muslim: From L.A. to New York to Jihad, a study of converts to Islam in the West (Melville House).
#1
so the European peasant toils to support his country's conquest by Islam.
Want to end it? Stop the welfare and immigration. Make them go to work and they will soon want to get on with their own lives and problems.
What do they hope to do when they outbreed us? Once their numbers tip the balance, where do they think the taxes will come from to pay their welfare? From the rich Saudi princes? From the corrupt politicians like Chirac who line their pockets? If they get their way, they will collapse upon themselves.
The only way to stop it is to make sure that, while we can, we stop the welfare, export those that openly call for Jihad and make them go to work so they have better goals than to sit around and seethe.
#2
The other edge of democracy is that they can, and will, vote out of office anyone who dares to reduce the Nanny State. Once it begins, the slide is precipitous, the glee unbridled. Once in place, it's there to stay until revolution or implosion cometh.
This patch of quicksand beckons us, too, every election cycle. I'm very gratified to know that the steely-eyed Jacksonians reproduce faster than the muddle-headed Marxists hereabouts. Now if we can only get enough of us motivated to flush the education system of the detritus of the 60's we'll be fine.
WASHINGTON -- Former senator John Edwards got high marks from labor for a new effort to unionize hotel workers, and Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold's demand this week that President Bush be censured was music to the ears of activists on the left. Meanwhile, Mark Warner, former Virginia governor, recently hired one of the leftist blogosphere's biggest names to run his Internet outreach campaign, and Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana began a blog on the liberal Huffington Post, peddling his foreign policy views.
The next round of prospective Democratic presidential candidates, even those with centrist credentials, is actively courting the Democratic Party's left wing -- which speaks loudly through its blogs, enjoys rising fund-raising clout built on Howard Dean's 2004 campaign, and is imbued with a confidence that it can build on Republican disarray. The Democrats are rushing to fill a void left in the hearts and minds of many liberal activists by New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's efforts to move to the center, particularly on the Iraq war.
''It's very important for them to know we'll fight for their beliefs," Edwards, a former vice presidential candidate, said of the party's liberal activists. Having run in 2004 as a moderate who supported the Iraq war, Edwards is busy building a large base of support on the left.
Liberal Democrats have long played a powerful, though not always determinative, role in choosing the party's presidential nominee. And after Dean, a centrist as governor of Vermont, rose from obscurity by moving to the left and tapping into Internet-fueled anger at conservatives, candidates are scrambling to court a wing of the party that's even more organized and flush with cash than in 2004.
Recently released 2005 Federal Election Commission reports indicate that five of the top 10 richest tax-exempt 527 political issue groups were liberal. Of the top 10 political action committees, eight were liberal or affiliated with organized labor, with substantially more cash on hand than conservative groups such as the National Rifle Association or GOP-friendly corporate PACs such as the National Association of Realtors.
Democratic centrists who look at the voter math worry about candidates who court the left, fearing that their party will turn off too many swing voters to be able to beat Republicans in a general election. A nationwide survey by pollsters Penn, Schoen, and Berland -- who represent Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, among other clients -- found that self-described liberals make up only 16 percent of the population, compared with 36 percent who call themselves conservatives and 47 percent who say they are moderates. But liberals have disproportionate sway in the primary campaign, and they're already chiding Clinton for distancing herself from some of their causes.
Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, creator of the million-visitor-a-day DailyKos.com, calls Senator Clinton ''irrelevant," because she's not viable in the minds of progressives, while Anna Burger secretary-treasurer of the politically influential Service Employees International Union, contends that Clinton ''has serious problems. . . . Is she going to articulate a position on Iraq and for working families?"
Clinton's supporters, and others on the left, maintain that she still has plenty of credibility among liberals. But if, as expected, Clinton seeks her party's nod for president, she will face an increasingly crowded field of candidates who are already picking up support among the left-wing voters and activists whose voices dominate during primary season.
Jerome Armstrong, founder of the popular leftist blog MyDD.com, has joined Warner. Many of Armstrong's colleagues in the blogosphere support Feingold, a longtime hero on the left for his stance against the Iraq war and his lone vote against the USA Patriot Act in 2001. This week, Feingold called on the Senate to censure President Bush for approving domestic wiretaps on American citizens without a court order.
But at SEIU, which runs the nation's richest labor PAC and helped make Dean a household name in 2004, Edwards is the clear favorite. ''People were incredibly enthusiastic about everything he said; they really thought he cared about them," Burger said of the former North Carolina senator's four-city swing last month to organize hotel workers. Edwards emphasizes an antipoverty message that has generated a strong following among labor, which has great clout in the nominating process. SEIU spent $64 million in the 2004 presidential election and has the largest union in New Hampshire, a key primary state. But now it also operates a political alliance with other unions called Change to Win that represents a combined membership of six million.
The union leadership may be behind Edwards and other democrats, but the rank and file members may have different ideas
Three months ago, Edwards renounced his vote authorizing the president to invade Iraq, an act of contrition that is considered a requirement for support from the left. ''As long as they're suitably contrite and admit they made a mistake," Zuniga says of the blogosphere's willingness to support senators who cast that nettlesome 2002 vote.
"Bow down and worship before the Great God Kos!"
Likewise, Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts has renounced his own vote in favor of the Iraq war.
How many times does this make?
He has also proposed an exit strategy for Iraq. His troop withdrawal plan is ''among the most aggressive and progressive. Without a doubt, John Kerry has burnished his Iraq credentials for progressives," says Tom Mattzie, Washington director of MoveOn.org, which had the nation's fourth-richest PAC in 2005.
One of Kerry's major assets is his mostly liberal, activist-donor list of three million names. The 2004 Democratic nominee's last-ditch call for a filibuster against Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. may have failed, but for his fund-raising efforts it was a huge success: His campaign added nearly 80,000 names. Donor lists, PACs, and 527 groups aren't the only signs of the left's wealth. The newly launched Democracy Alliance has drawn together 85 well-heeled donors willing to commit $1 million each over five years to fund left-of-center think tanks, media operations, and other institutions designed to influence the national debate.
While their courting of the left hasn't been as vigorous, activists say, two other potential presidential candidates, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa have some appeal, especially on domestic issues. The antiwar stance of Wesley Clark, a retired general and former NATO supreme commander, has made him a popular pick among bloggers.
Bwahahahaha!
Warner has been able to largely avoid the fray about Iraq that haunts Clinton, Kerry, and Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware. But he's asking for support from the Web-based liberals known as ''netroots" voters that Dean first inspired, and has hired MyDD's Armstrong to build his Internet operation. Warner is perceived as a centrist who won the governorship in a conservative state. But Armstrong, who co-wrote a book with Zuniga that assails the Democratic Party establishment, says Warner is popular because of his potential to rout the Republicans from the Oval Office. ''Why does he do so well with the netroots?" said Armstrong. ''Because he wins."
The 2008 prospects appear especially eager to stay in the good graces of bloggers, who enjoy growing influence though only a small percentage of voters read or write them. Even a solid centrist like Bayh felt compelled to take his message for a ''tough and smart" foreign policy to the liberal Huffington Post, founded by commentator Arianna Huffington. And Bayh sought to win liberal credibility by voting against the confirmation of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. -- though Bayh introduced his fellow Hoosier to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Still, if recent history is a guide, the winner of the Democratic primary will be decided more on the power of the purse than the power of the left. ''It isn't just camps and ideas that get the competition," said Rob Stein, founder of Democracy Alliance. ''As we get closer to the primary season, it's who can raise the money." The hands-down winner on that score, even her critics concede, could well be Hillary Rodham Clinton.
She may have more money, but if you troll through the lefty blogs, you'll find utter hatred for her. And the grassroots activists are the ones who turn out for the primaries.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
11:17 ||
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If they'd renounce their paychecks for not showing up for work I might be willing to settle for lesser charges.
#2
I heard the sour comment from a democrat: "The question is who are we going to vote for, the democratic party candidate or the Hillary party candidate?"
#4
''As long as they're suitably contrite and admit they made a mistake," Zuniga says
Why, thank you, Commissar Koz. And if they don't, what, the reeducation camps?
So it looks like Kos and Ariana Huffington are among the Dems goto people for advice on how to get out of loser land?
Then they are well and truly screwed...
#5
Warner is perceived as a centrist who won the governorship in a conservative state. But Armstrong, who co-wrote a book with Zuniga that assails the Democratic Party establishment, says Warner is popular because of his potential to rout the Republicans from the Oval Office. ''Why does he do so well with the netroots?" said Armstrong. "Because he wins."
Well, he won't be doing much winning anymore if he embraces these Nutroots™ moonbats and gets slapped with the "Left Wing Lunatic" label.
I'd have thought that by now the Democrats would have realized these people are pure poison; but they seem to be locked in a death grip with them that grows tighter every day. It'll be an interesting election.
[Kerry] has also proposed an exit strategy for Iraq. His troop withdrawal plan is "among the most aggressive and progressive. Without a doubt, John Kerry has burnished his Iraq credentials for progressives," says Tom Mattzie, Washington director of MoveOn.org
The Most Aggressive And Progressive Troop Withdrawal Program. Ever!
Jesus weeps...
If the people of America don't have sense enough to reject this, we simply don't deserve to win this war.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/17/2006 18:31
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Democrat Centrists? Plural? LOL. Right.
There's only lonely Joe Lieberman. The rest are KIA.
#7
[Kerry] has also proposed an exit strategy for Iraq. His troop withdrawal plan is "among the most aggressive and progressive"
making Dunkirk look like last century. It will far outshine the Saigon rooftop helo evacs in the Kerry/Carter hall of shame fame
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/17/2006 18:44
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Yup. I shudder to think of the consequences of any such "aggressive and progressive troop withdrawal plan." It would be Mogadishu writ large-- irrefutable proof that OBL was absolutely right about us when he claimed we have no staying power, that if you bleed us enough we absolutely, positively WILL give up and go home sooner or later.
And the next round would begin, with Iranian nuclear weapons delivered by terrorists to American cities...
These Donk morons simply must be stopped. No matter what it takes.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/17/2006 19:03
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TS - Bill Richardson [D-NM] is working the Lieberman side of the party.
What hasn't dawned on the party apparatchik is that in the end Hitler had to turn on his Brown Shirts to attain power and Mao had to turn on his Red Guard to retain power. Both figured out the rads were more a threat to their own future than anything in opposition posed.
Is that Bill "I was an All-Star SS for the Yankees!" Richardson?
The Clinton Amb at Large that helped Maddie Halfbright negotiate with Li'l Kimmie?
No offence intended, but he doesn't generate a single particle of interest for me. Lieberman is an honorable man, not a liar. AFAIK, he just sucks as a TV personage. Otherwise, I could get half interested in him. None of the others has a scintilla of honor that I can detect. Just my two cents.
#11
Makes me wish that Zell Miller would run again. Now, there's a Demo even I can vote for. Ultimately, as much as I hate to say it, *cough*, this is bad for our Republic. If the Demos go completely nuts and overboard, we're left with a 1 party system. I'm 110% behind Bush in this war (THE #1 issue, no matter what Prince Chuckie says), but the domestic issues are killing me (spending, immigration, his first veto threat over the ports deal - even though I was o.k. with it in the end, and on and on). Not having competition can spell long term bad news for this country, seeing as how the current Repubs are not true conservatives in many areas. Of course, *snicker*, I do love watching the Dems go over the cliff personally (great graphic BTW).
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 21:25
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawyers for two airlines being sued for damages by 9/11 victims prompted a federal lawyer to coach witnesses in the trial of al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui so the government's death penalty case would not undercut their defense, victims' lawyers allege.
A light dawns. It's all about the money, stupid
The victims' lawyers, Robert Clifford and Gregory Joseph, claim that one of the airline lawyers forwarded a transcript from the first day of the Moussaoui trial to Transportation Security Administration lawyer Carla J. Martin. In violation of an order by Moussaoui trial judge Leonie Brinkema, Martin forwarded that day's transcript to seven federal aviation officials scheduled to testify later in the sentencing trial of the 37-year-old Frenchman. Martin's e-mailing of the transcript and her efforts to shape their testimony prompted Brinkema to toss out half the government's case against Moussaoui as contaminated beyond repair.
The contacts between lawyers for United and American Airlines and Martin were detailed in a legal brief filed on Moussaoui's behalf Thursday. That brief contained a March 15 letter from Clifford and Joseph complaining about Martin's actions to U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who is presiding over the civil damage case in New York. They wrote Hellerstein that the government's opening statement in the Moussaoui case "took the position that the hijackings were completely preventable and that gate security measures could have been implemented to prevent the 9/11 hijackers from boarding the planes had security been on the look out for short-bladed knives and boxcutters." "This stands in stark contrast to the position that has been repeatedly articulated by counsel to the aviation defendants in the September 11 actions."
Because that government position could have "devastating" impact on the airlines' defense in the civil suit, American Airlines' lawyer forwarded the transcript to a United Airlines lawyer who forwarded it to Martin, Clifford and Joseph wrote. As proof, they cited March 7 e-mails that they provided to Hellerstein but which were not immediately available here. "The TSA lawyer then forwarded the transcripts and sent multiple e-mails to government witnesses in a clear effort to shape their testimony in a manner that would be beneficial to the aviation defendants" in the civil suit, they wrote.
They then quoted a March 8 e-mail Martin sent to one of the government's Moussaoui witnesses that said:
"My friends Jeff Ellis and Chris Christenson, NY lawyers rep. UAL and AAL respectively in the 9/11 civil litigation, all of us aviation lawyers, were stunned by the opening. The opening has created a credibility gap that the defense can drive a truck through. There is no way anyone could say that the carriers could have prevented all short-bladed knives from going through. (Prosecutor) Dave (Novak) MUST elicit that from you and the airline witnesses on direct"
Carla J. Martin is a former flight attendant whose legal career has been devoted to defending aviation security secrets for the FAA, which has been in bed with the airline industry for years.
Clifford and Joseph said the developments represent "far more than appearance of impropriety" and asked Hellerstein to investigate "the mutual back-scratching relationship that appears to exist between the (airline) defendants and the TSA."
TSA = former FAA flunkys
Asked about the allegations by Clifford and Joseph, United Airlines spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said, "Our actions have been entirely appropriate as have those of our outside counsel." American Airlines did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
Contacted after midnight, Martin's attorney, Roscoe Howard, said he not heard of the New York lawsuit or the letter from Clifford and Joseph. "I'll have to ask her about it," he said, declining to comment further. TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said she was unfamiliar with the allegations made by Clifford and Joseph. Earlier Thursday, Clark confirmed that TSA had put Martin on administrative leave.
In court on Tuesday, Brinkema said that Martin violated federal witness rules when she sent trial transcripts to seven aviation witnesses, coached them on how to deflect defense attacks and lied to defense lawyers to prevent them from interviewing witnesses they wanted to call. Brinkema warned her that she could face civil or criminal charges and that she appeared to have violated rules of legal ethics.
Martin was assigned to be a government lawyer for the aviation witnesses called by both sides and to be a liaison between prosecutors and defense attorneys. Beyond that, she co-signed one government brief submitted in the case, attended closed hearings on classified documents and worked closely with prosecutors on preparing their exhibits. Efforts to reach her for comment were unsuccessful, but her attorney, Roscoe Howard, said she was preparing a response. "Only her accusers' stories have been told, and those stories have been accepted as the whole truth," Howard said Thursday. "They are not."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
11:00 ||
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What this says is American and United conspired with Martin to tank the US case for the death penalty for Moussaoui!
If this is true, it should push the victims' families suit over the top.
And this from two airlines that have been scrounging off the taxpayaers and hiding behind bankruptcy for years. They should be liquidated.
#4
Wrong, Zenster. The government never made that case against Stewart because they could not make it stick. They convicted her for lying to the sleaze from the FBI.
#5
Funny how Stewart took her lumps. Had she been entirely innocent, it would stand to reason that she would have marshalled her considerable resources to fight all charges tooth and nail. She didn't do that. This is a tacit admission of guilt.
And please don't hand me that, "she just wanted to get it over with baloney." Stewart's name is a brand in and of itself. She, of all people, would know its worth and vigorously fight to defend any tarnishing of it if she were fully convinced of her own innocence. I certainly would have done so were it my name involved and similar firepower were within my grasp.
NS, the comments made in your first post remain the most salient. If Martin was a stooge for the airlines, then these industrial parasites need a major spanking. The way large corporations have abandoned their employee benefit programs so they become a taxpayer burden is simply criminal outrageous.
#7
Actually, Carla Martin has not gone that far beyond normal witness preparation. What she did wrong was:
- brief witnesses in each other's presence
- send witnesses testimony previously given in court.
- violate a specific court order and,
- used email that was archived and was retrieved
Carla will be facing civil proceedings and maybe even criminal proceedings.
#9
Irrespective of the liability of airlines and airports with repect to potential damages, what does that have to do with Moussaoui's guilt or innocence.
A bank robber cannot be held liable for robbing the bank because the bank had poor security? If I am smart enough to get behind Fred's firewall, it is his problem? Right!
Posted by: john ||
03/17/2006 13:52
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It has nothing to do with his guilt or innocence. He pled guilty. The trial is to determine whether he should get life or be executed.
The problem is the government is talking out of both sides of its mouth in two distinct cases
In the Moussaoui case the government says, If only Moose had told us about the plot we could have saved all those people. So he is as culpable as the 19 who actually killed everybody on 9/11 and should be executed.
In the airline case, the government says, Oh, there's no way we could have detcted the box knives even if we'd known about the plot, so there's no way the airlines can be held liable.
In order to assure that the airlines, for whom Martin no doubt hopes to work after securing her Federal pension, are not held liable, Martin tries to shape the testimony in the Moussaoui trial to protect the airlines contention that nothing could be done. In the process she taints the testimony and jeopardizes the governments chances of executing Moussaoui in order to protect the airlines.
I hope the families take her and the Feds to the cleaners.
#12
All Federal Funds, at one time came from us. so we are going to pay, but i second the motion to have Martin and the airlines' laywers up on charges. Now if it can be shown that they acted without direction from the Feds, then the moneies involved should be from their own pockets and not the fed.
A terrorist's joy ride through the U.S. legal system.
The Zacarias Moussaoui legal circus may finally soon leave town, though not without teaching everyone a few lessons about terrorists and civilian courts. In the more than four years since he was charged with six counts of conspiracy related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the "20th hijacker" has mocked the U.S. criminal justice system.
He finally pleaded guilty last year, and this week at his sentencing trial the al Qaeda operative got some help from an unexpected quarter--the U.S. government. A lawyer working for the prosecution was found to have improperly coached several key government witnesses, leading Judge Leonie Brinkema to bar their testimony. As a result, Moussaoui may be spared the death penalty and instead spend the rest of his life in prison.
The witness coaching was a prosecutorial blunder, which is a shame, but that is not the main issue here. A bigger mistake was President Bush's decision nearly four and a half years ago to assign Moussaoui to trial in a civilian criminal court. As we know from captured al Qaeda training manuals, recruits are instructed in how to exploit the West's legal system if they are caught. The lesson of the Moussaoui trial is that the regular criminal justice system isn't up to the job of trying most terrorists.
Moussaoui would have been the ideal defendant to inaugurate the President's then newly announced--and subsequently much maligned--military commissions. Much of the evidence against him was unclassified and could have been produced in open court. If he had demanded access to classified information--as he did during his criminal trial--it would have been an easy matter to seal the courtroom and show it to his lawyers, all of whom would have had security clearances. The criminal prosecution was a missed opportunity to show the world how trial by military tribunal would work.
Which brings us to Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which the U.S. Supreme Court will hear later this month. The case challenges the constitutionality of the military commissions announced by Mr. Bush on November 13, 2001, to try suspected terrorists. It further argues that the tribunals are unlawful under the Geneva Convention. A lower court ruled in 2004 that military commissions violated international law, a decision overturned last year by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The case was brought by Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who was Osama bin Laden's driver and is being held at Guantanamo.
There's a twist, though, that raises another legal point. Since the lower-court rulings in Hamdan, Congress passed and the President signed the Detainee Treatment Act--also known as the Graham Amendment. The law narrows the right of Gitmo detainees to bring suit in federal court; thus if the Supreme Court decides that Graham is constitutional, the High Court will lack jurisdiction to proceed in Hamdan. (Under Graham, detainees can still challenge either their designation as an enemy combatant or their conviction in a tribunal to a single court, the D.C. Court of Appeals.)
And if that happens, the military commissions may at last proceed. Oral argument in Hamdan is set for March 28. Meanwhile, as the Administration decides whether to proceed with the death-penalty trial against Moussaoui, there's a certain moral irony in a confessed terrorist being saved by the very legal system that he spent three years railing against.
Senators John McCain (Rino.-Ariz.) and Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.), the current frontrunners for their parties 2008 presidential nominations, joined Senators Teddy Kennedy (D.-Mass.) and Charles Schumer (D.-N.Y,) in rallying a group of illegal aliens who came to Washington, D.C., on March 8 as part of a lobbying effort funded by a foreign government to push for amnesty for illegal aliens.
And no, this isn't the government you're thinking of
McCain and Clinton both effusively greeted the illegal-alien lobbyists as if they had come to champion some great moral and constitutional cause. It is so heartening to see you here, said Clinton. You are really here on behalf of what America means, Americas values, Americas hopes. You are doing what democracy is supposed to be all about, petitioning the government to right a wrong, said McCain.
The lobbyists, part of an effort organized by the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR), were not petitioning their own government, of course. They were petitioning our government, using Irish government money to do it.
What is the ILIR? The purpose of the new organization is to lobby for immigration reform at a local level, with a particular emphasis on the legislation proposed by Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy (the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act), says a January 23 press release put out by Irelands Department of Foreign Affairs. This will include lobbying congressmen and senators in a bipartisan manner.The Irish government has launched an all-out effort for the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill because it would grant amnesty to illegal aliens in the U.S. by converting them into legal guest workers. Funding ILIR is part of Irelands pro-McCain-Kennedy campaign.
The ILIR has been established at a particularly critical time in the U.S. as the legislative debate on this issue enters an important phase, Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said in the January 23 release. The ILIR is throwing its weight behind the McCain/Kennedy immigration reform bill. The positive initiative taken by Senators McCain and Kennedy in the U.S. Senate, mirrored by Representatives [Jim] Kolbe [R.-Ariz.], [Jeff] Flake [R.-Ariz.], and [Luis] Gutierrez [D.-Ill.] in the House of Representatives would enable undocumented Irish people to participate in the life of their adopted country, free from fear and uncertainty.
In debates on the floor of the Irish legislature, the Irish government has made clear that this amnesty provision is why they especially like McCain-Kennedy. We believe this [McCain-Kennedy] remains the most attractive approach for the undocumented Irish, as it includes provisions which would allow undocumented people to apply initially for Temporary Residence Status, but with a route to Permanent Residency, Noel Treacy, Irelands minister of European Affairs said in Irelands legislature on February 15. We know that Senators Kennedy and McCain and other like-minded senators remain convinced that proposals that require undocumented people to return home before applying for re-entry to the U.S. are not practical and will not encourage the undocumented to come out of the shadows.
In a February 22 debate in the Irish legislature, Foreign Minister Ahern said he had encouraged the creation of the illegal-alien lobbying organization in the U.S. Deputies can be assured that in all my meetings with U.S. contacts, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and key congressional figures, I made known the support of the government for the approach favoured by Senators Kennedy and McCain, said Ahern. Their bill has also been strongly endorsed by the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, a group established in December to mobilize grassroots support within the Irish community in the U.S. for immigration reform. I welcome the establishment of this organization. I encouraged the formation of such an organization and recently approved a grant of 30,000 towards its operational expenses.
The Irish Times, published in Dublin, trumpeted the fact that illegals had rallied on Capitol Hill with McCain, Clinton, Kennedy and Schumer. One Times story on March 9 was headlined: Illegals lobby for right to stay in U.S.
Capitol Hill became a sea of green and white yesterday as thousands of undocumented Irish immigrants came out of the shadows for immigration reform, said the Times. They were rewarded with appearances from some of the most influential figures in Congress, including the two front-runners to succeed President BushSenators John McCain and Hillary Clinton.
Another item in the Irish Times, with the headline Irish rally to press for legal status in America, said: More than 2,400 undocumented Irish immigrants and their supporters rallied in Washington yesterday in support of an immigration reform bill that would allow them to remain in the U.S. legally. This report further noted that Senators Kennedy, John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer addressed the demonstrators, who wore white T-shirts with the slogan Legalize the Irish.
There has never been a presence like weve had today, Clinton told the crowd of illegal aliens, according to the Irish Times.
This kind of reception is enough to make a guy want to run for President of the United States, said McCain, after the illegal aliens gave him a standing ovation.
Memo to self: Save this for the 2008 primarys
Clinton and McCain may think their pandering will appeal to Irish-American voters. But when they run in the United States of America in 2008, they just might find that their fawning words for a foreign-government-funded lobby that flouts U.S. immigration law sounded more like fighting words to many plain, old-fashioned, red-blooded voterseven if they happen to be proud, law-abiding Irish-Americans.
Count on it
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
10:21 ||
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This kind of report is depressing. In the greatest country in the world with 300 million people these are the best either party sees fit to put forth for the office.
If they knew these were a group of illegals why weren't they pick up and drop them off at the border?
Isn't knowingly associating with illegals illegal?
March 17, 2006: The Indian army has received the first PJ-10 BrahMos missile. This is the land attack version, launched from a truck. The four ton missile has a range of 300 kilometers and a 550 pound warhead. Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the BrahMos is its high speed, literally faster (at up to 3,000 feet per second) than a rifle bullet.
India and Russia also offer the PJ-10 BrahMos cruise missile for export sale. The weapon was a joint development project that entered service this year. The first versions of the PJ-10 were fired from the air, from ships or submarines. The maximum speed of 3,000 kilometers an hour makes it harder to intercept, and means it takes five minutes or less to reach its target. The air launched version weighs 2.5 tons, the others, three tons or more. The 29 foot long, 700mm diameter missile is an upgraded version of the Russian SS-NX-26 (Yakhont) missile, which was in development when the Cold War ended in 1991. Lacking money to finish development and begin production, the Russian manufacturer made a deal with India to finish the job. India put up most of the $240 million needed to finally complete two decades of development. The PJ-10 is being built in Russia, with India as the initial customer. China and Iran have also expressed interest in the weapon. Each PJ-10 costs about $2.3 million.
Note that SS-NX-26 (Yakhont)/ BrahMos was developed as an aircraft carrier killer. That's why it has the high speed and elaborate guidance system. And that's why it's so expensive. A similar American weapon, the ATACMS rocket, also has a range of 300 kilometers, uses GPS guidance, and has a 500 pound warhead. ATACMS costs a million dollars each. The land version of BrahMos would be an effective coast defense weapon. For example, if the Iranians got several dozen land launched BrahMos missiles, they could pose a real threat to any ships using the Straits of Hormuz. In other words, the BrahMos missile could close those straits, through which most of the worlds oil supplies pass. Russia would benefit from that, because the price of their oil exports would climb. India would not like it, as they import oil from the Persian Gulf. India is supposed to have a veto over who can buy BrahMos.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
10:10 ||
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A similar American weapon, the ATACMS rocket
?
Nothing similar about it. This sounds like a waste of money, or some sort of deception.
The prison at Guantanamo Bay was designed to interrogate terrorists and jihadists swept up from the battlefield: the idea was to keep them as prisoners of war in a war that was undeclared, and as enemy combatants without uniforms or officers. It had a no-win mandate, and will probably close soon due to international outcries about its supposed barbarity. Yet, for all the fury about its existence, not a single detainee has died there in over four years of operation.
In contrast, the European Milosevic just dropped dead while under custody of the U.N. at the postmodern tribunal at The Hague. This follows the recent suicide of Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic, likewise an inmate in a European detention center.
Few in Europe said much about the deaths of such high-profile prisoners, whose barbarity differed from that of many of the killers in Guantanamo mostly in order of magnitude. If American Rambos can keep alive Muslim jihadists, with their radically different customs, religion, languages, and diets, why cannot the more sensitive Europeans ensure that fellow Europeans don't drop dead in their jails?
We often hear about how incompetent the Iraqis, under American tutelage, have been in trying Saddam Hussein. After all, his trial is only in its initial stages, two years after he was captured. But compared to the more illustrious court of The Hague, Saddam's trial is racing along at a rapid clip. Before his sudden death, Milosevic had been in court for four years without a verdict. In terms of utopian international jurisprudence, the reprobate Milosevic died a free man, at his last breath still innocent until proven guilty.
The public wonders why the incompetent Americans can't catch Osama bin Laden, or at least Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Few note that it has been over six years since the collapse of the Serbian rogue regime, and still no one seems to know where either Radovan Karadzic, or his military commander, Ratko Mladic, is hiding inside Europe not exactly the Sunni Triangle or the borderlands of the Hindu Kush.
Might a circumspect European ever acknowledge to us, "We know how hard it is to catch a Zarqawi since we can't get Karadzic or Mladic," or "It's tough trying war criminals like Saddam look at our dilemma with Milosevic"? If a French bestseller insisted that 9/11 was staged by the U.S., will the next conspiracy thriller allege that Milosevic was poisoned by a European cabal fearful that the killer of Muslims might beat the rap at The Hague and cause a backlash from radical Islam?
Europe cringed at George Bush's use of cowboyisms, like "smoke 'em out" and "dead-or-alive" hardly the parlance of sober and sophisticated statesmen, who should hint at, rather than brag of, their substantial military power. But once again, contrast Bush's words with Jacques Chirac's recent boastful threat that France would consider a nuclear response to any country sponsoring a terror attack against it. Had Bush said anything close to that, the Europeans would be trying to indict him in Brussels for war thought-crimes.
These contrasts in perception and reality between Europe and the United States could be expanded whether we look at the maligned Patriot Act and the new anti-terrorism legislation being enacted across the Atlantic, or the manner in which Arab immigrants live in Dearborn versus Marseilles, or the infringements abroad on free speech.
The more interesting task is not listing such hypocrisies, but explaining them. Some of the exegeses are now well known since September 11: Europe is weak and America far stronger, so the latter is held to a higher standard, as the former suffers from loud envy and public resentment.
The powerful don't care as much to dress up their omnipotence with utopian affectations; the weaker, in lieu of military strength, have only such pretensions. And note how America's forging of closer ties with Japan, Australia, and India somehow does not meet European requisites of "multilateralism" a neologism for deference to Europe.
There is also a more disturbing element at play. Europe triangulates with the non-West against the United States, both to corral American influence and to seek economic advantage by offering a more sensitive Western commercial alternative. That means, in the case of the Middle East, a desire to reveal European empathy to the Islamic world. So there is a blanket condemnation of much of what the United States does, without any acknowledgement that detaining killers, trying former heads of state, and hunting down populist terrorists are not easy even for the European Union.
When Westerners die in Afghanistan, it is back-page news; but in Iraq, the deaths make the front page. Why? Because the "bad" war in Iraq was supposedly "unilateral," while the "good" war to dethrone the Taliban is now a multilateral enterprise. Yet to the jihadists, there is little difference between the two: a German soldier in Kabul looks every bit the crusader that the American in the Sunni Triangle does. We in the West make the distinction between the wars; the radical Islamists don't.
Are there consequences to this double standard? For a growing number of Americans, who were nursed on affection for things European, there grows now a weariness with the Europeans. We don't listen much to what they say; and we assume that their pot will always call our kettle black.
Now things are starting to come to a crisis, and the Europeans are learning belatedly after the French riots, the bombings in Madrid and London, the murders in the Netherlands, and the craziness over the Danish cartoons that their appeasement failed and the radical Islamists hate them even more than they hate us.
China and Russia are no help with Iran. They value Iranian oil more than European friendship, and assume that Persian terrorists and nukes will always point west rather than eastward. Hamas shows no gratitude for huge past European grants to the Palestinians only resentment that the checks are late for such newly elected terrorists.
As is always the way of the pack, there is a tired conventional wisdom circulating among pundits that the days of American activism are over, and a new, more realistic and multilateral approach read Euro-like must correct the neoconservative excesses of the past.
But I wonder: Are we going to look to the European practice of trying war criminals? Should Saddam be transferred to Milosevic's now empty cell? Is the model coalition in Afghanistan all that much more loved or effective than the one in Iraq? Should we shut down Guantanamo and outsource its inmates to The Hague? Have the European police done so much better in hunting down a Mladic or Karadzic than our soldiers have in their more muscular hunt for Osama? And will the United Nations, the EU3, the Russians, and the Chinese, in multilateral fashion, really stop the Iranian nuclear program or simply stall meaningful action until they can collectively shrug, and sigh, "Oh, well, just another Pakistan, after all"?
Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is the author, most recently, of A War Like No Other. How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
10:01 ||
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#1
What VDH doesn't say, and what sickens me, is that one the Euros come to their senses, even if it's too late, we'll welcome them with open arms and be true allies. We should tell them to FOAD and offer green cards to any european with an IQ over 100 and a college degree.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
10:00 ||
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#1
I also heard he opened a new clinic.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/17/2006 10:15
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#2
I was hoping for a Hillaryburger
Posted by: Gir ||
03/17/2006 10:22
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Clinton jokes aside, Heifer International is a good thing. In our family, for the last couple years, we have been giving charitable donations of livestock as presents instead of buying more consumer crap for each other.
#5
I worked with a program like this a couple years ago. It was called a buffalo bank, water buffalo. The animal was given to the farmer with all the required grear and his only payback was the first two offspring went back to the program. Out of the hundreds of head of livestock given only one farmer defaulted on the promise.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/17/2006 14:00
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Rep. Curt Weldon, who broke the Able Danger story last year revealing that military intelligence had identified lead hijacker Mohammed Atta as a terrorist threat before the 9/11 attacks, now says that Osama bin Laden has died.
Weldon made the stunning claim during an interview Wednesday with the Philadelphia Inquirer, which reported: "Weldon is making explosive new allegations. He says a high-level source has told him that terrorist leader Osama bin Laden has died in Iran, where he has been in hiding." Weldon cited as his source an Iranian exile code-named Ali, telling the paper: "Ali's told me that Osama bin Laden is dead. He died in Iran." Weldon said he last spoke to Ali three weeks ago. The Iranian exile was a prominent source for his 2005 book, "Countdown to Terror." The book also contained the first mention of the Able Danger data mining operation.
The Pennsylvania Republican has long alleged that bin Laden has been using Iran for sanctuary. In June last year, Weldon said in a TV interview: "I'm confident that I know for sure that [bin Laden] has been in and out of Iran ... Two years ago, he was in the southern town of Ladis, 10 kilometers inside the Pakistan border. I also know that earlier this year, he had a meeting with al-Zarqawi in Tehran ...
Well, if they needed to meet, Tehran would be a logical place
"If you look at the recent comments coming out of both the CIA and some of our military generals in theater, they're now acknowledging the same thing that I've been saying - that in fact, he's been in and out of Iran. "[But] no one can prove it exactly until we capture him."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
09:52 ||
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#1
So how are his clones doing. I am sure that a man of his wealth had more than a nose run over by a steamrollers to provide tissue for clones of the master caliph!
#2
True or not, I have always felt it would be strategically advantagous to make him prove he was alive at least once a quarter...
"But I'm not dead yet..."
#3
i wish we would play on the fact that binny has been running and scared since 9/11, can we not somehow highlight the fact to the 'muslim world' just how weak and pityfull this strategy of binnys is. We need to explain to them that great heros and fighters dont hide like frightened little wimps from those they choose to pick a fight with. In many respects that is what should dominate in the argument with muslims, do they really want their great hero being remembered as a running scared coward?
#5
i wish we would play on the fact that binny has been running and scared since 9/11, can we not somehow highlight the fact to the 'muslim world' just how weak and pityfull this strategy of binnys is.
Actually, we have. To Bush's immense credit, he has had the courage to tour in hostile territory like Pakistan and do so openly. This is one he|| of a lot more than bin Laden has done since Clinton tried to nail his @ss in Khost.
#6
Michael Ledeen has said the same ... And, according to Iranians I trust, Osama bin Laden finally departed this world in mid-December. The al Qaeda leader died of kidney failure and was buried in Iran, where he had spent most of his time since the destruction of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Iranians who reported this note that this year's message in conjunction with the Muslim Haj came from his number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, for the first time.
#7
...I have said this befor and I will say it again - the smartest thing we could ever do is to NEVER admit Bin Laden is dead. If this is true - and I'm sorry, I don't think it is - the screaming for us to get out of Afghanistan and Iraq will be deafening from both sides of the aisle.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/17/2006 11:35
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Using an Islamitard as a source? I don't know. Who knows, maybe Bin Laden had to much of the Meccan Allah Approved "Swine Sperm Beer" and it did in what remained of his kidneys. We can only hope.
#13
What nitwits, Binny should have had one of his boys turn him in just proir to death so the $25 mil would go to fund fighting for another year or month or whatever.
These guys need some imagination.
#18
LODI now LADIS - in any case, find the body and publicly prove it in front of America and the world. Iran is an oil nation so any health probs Osama had can easily be treated iff not resolved by his Iranian, etal, supporters, and wid out a verifiable body young, dumb, and full of 72 raisins-happy, suicide-happy impressionable Muslim youths have no one to call a Hero, Saladin, or a Mahdi.
#19
Happy St Patty's Day and Top of the Morning to All of You:
I like those in the good fight against Islamo-Fascism, but I do not like to have my hopes lifted by false prophets. Am I going too far to suggest that Rep. Weldon just might be a ... crank?
(CNSNews.com) - The New Black Panther Party is coming to New Orleans on Friday to represent the black "masses" who have been "displaced, murdered and abandoned" by a negligent government at war with its people, the group said in a press release. The leader of the New Black Panther Party, attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz, said his group will launch a "weekend of mobilization that will give rise to a never-before-seen stage in the Afrikan Liberation Movement." The press release describes the event as a self-help program for black people in the city where "the plot to destroy the Black civilization has continued in such a blatant and arrogant manner." The group said its main mission is to restore the economic, educational, social and political freedom and independence of black people, and to prevent the "white takeover" of New Orleans.
Mayor Nagin call in a "favor"?
"The New Black Panther Party leadership, membership and supporters have not and will not sit idly by, while our people continue to have a list of inadequately met needs," the press release said. It also accuses the government of spreading masses of black people across the nation to unfamiliar places -- a strategy intended to prevent the "aggrieved from creating coalitions and creating progressive change."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
09:46 ||
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In other words, WHAA, WHAAA, WHAAA, GIMMEE GIMMEEE, WHAAA.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/17/2006 10:04
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Good grief, I'm almost ready to just write off NO. Let 'em sink. Let's sell LA as a whole back to the French.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 10:07
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With the oil, the oil port and the refineries BA?
#4
Somebody needs to tell the Black Panthers they may be facing the Brown Puma, not the White Pussy Cat. This could turn out to be a real cat fight for the Candy City (Chocolate or Caramel?).
#8
The Black Pander Party is showing up on queue to collect from sympathetic idiots in the name of diversity. LLL feel good when they give to groups like this one. Cant one of these politician grow a set and tell Malik Zulu Shabazz that I dont care how messed up things are we dont need the New Black Pander Party around. If Malik Zulu Shabazz really wanted to help they would help cleaned up instead of staging marches and claiming vitimization. I am still waiting for Malik Zulu Shabazz to show the the world his "proof" that the levies protecting the 9th ward were "bombed". (not holding my breath)
#9
Wonder if these dumbf*cks will have their welfare checks forwarded to NO for the festivities. I am occasionally compassionate, but think that on the whole, the elimination of welfare in all its forms would do wonders for this country. Then people like this would have to get jobs to support the children they father and foist off on the taxpayers. Cut off welfare and these guys might find their women just a bit more discriminating in their selection of sex partners.
Posted by: Dar ||
03/17/2006 12:50
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Hey 6: We'd keep those things. Just sell the land outside of those. Ya know, like mineral rights or something like that.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 14:06
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Indeedy BA, we have to keep control of the Strategic Tabasco Sauce Refinery & Reserve. I don't like to scare people, but there's only a 19 day supply of Tobasco Sauce until Avery Island gets back to 100% production. Even then some folks in the know say we may have already passed peak pepper.
#16
there's only a 19 day supply of Tobasco Sauce until Avery Island gets back to 100% production.
Dear god, nooooooooo! Quick, where are my keys. I've got to go stock up!
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006 16:18
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It used to be people were researching the possibilities of growing their own peppers, but every time anyone got too close The Big Condiment Conglomerates would have them bumped off.
#18
Yes, yes. I heard they were having some success with the Ethanero, but Big Condiment intervened and started a whispering campaign thru the Tides Foundation.
#19
The Tobasco shortage doesn't affect me, I have a year's supply of Satan's Toejam.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/17/2006 19:49
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You shouldn't have said anything Deacon. Now the BCC knows you know. I'd advise hiding the this year's supply of DTJ at your nearest GrayHound Station, Locker 19666.
#21
lol, all! Hey, has anyone more in the know (ya know, like a doctor or something) thought about these peppers and how they could help protect us from bird flu. Seriously, yesterday's story gave me hope (about killing cancer cells) that maybe I'm not popping jalapenos like candy and ruining my intestinal tract w/o a reason. My line of thinking is something like Tabasco hand sanitizer... ya know, when all the suckers wait until the last minute, the bird flu hits (we're all gonna....), then they raid the stores of all the alcohol based hand sanitizers, maybe tabasco can substitute. Leads to separating out the future Darwin Award nominees to boot!
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 21:00
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No Tabasco > Of course you know this means War!?
US and Iraqi forces began a major helicopter and ground attack yesterday on an insurgent stronghold near Samarra, a city dominated by Sunni Arabs, where the bombing last month of a Shi'ite shrine led to sectarian bloodshed.
The assault took place 80 miles north of Baghdad as the parliament, elected three months ago, held its inaugural session in the capital. The meeting was adjourned so that political leaders could resume US-guided talks on the makeup of a new government's leadership.
The joint military operation and the new parliament are elements of a US strategy to start bringing home troops, who arrived almost three years ago to topple President Saddam Hussein. Iraq's military has been taking a bigger role in attacks on a Sunni Arab-led insurgency made up in part of Hussein supporters.
And under US pressure, leaders of all parliamentary factions are trying to avert full-scale sectarian conflict by holding talks aimed at bringing Sunni representatives into a broad coalition.
Adnan Pachachi, at 83 the oldest member of the new parliament, underscored the urgency of the task in unusually blunt remarks to his colleagues after he had been appointed temporary speaker.
''The country is going through dangerous times . . . and the perils come from every direction," he said at the nationally televised session. ''We have to prove to the world that there will not be civil war among our people. The danger is still there, and our enemies are ready for us."
''We're still at the beginning of the road to democracy," he added, ''and we're stumbling."
In announcing the counter-insurgency assault, called Operation Swarmer, US officials emphasized the involvement of Iraqi's army, which provided 800 of the 1,500 troops involved.
That is fewer total troops than have taken part in assaults to drive insurgents from Fallujah, Ramadi and other cities. But more than 50 aircraft, mainly helicopters, helped transport the troops, making it the largest airborne attack in Iraq since April 2003, military officials said.
A statement by the US command said that the raids by the 101st Airborne Division and Iraq's First Brigade would continue, and that a number of insurgent weapons caches, containing artillery shells, explosives, army uniforms, and materials for making car bombs, had been discovered.
Lieutenant Colonel Edward S. Loomis, a US military spokesman, said 40 people were detained. There were no reports of resistance or casualties.
Residents of the area, northeast of Samarra, said they had heard explosions after troops swooped in after 7 a.m.
They said the operation was concentrated around four villages that have harbored followers of a Jordanian, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose Al Qaeda in Iraq organization has been accused of the mosque bombing on Feb. 22.
Repeated sweeps by US soldiers have failed to secure the Samarra area. US and Iraqi officials said the timing of the latest raid was unrelated to the mosque bombing or the third anniversary next week of the US-led invasion.
Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's interim foreign minister, told CNN that the attack was aimed at preventing insurgents from creating a stronghold. Zebari referred to insurgent centers such as the ones they had set up in Fallujah for much of 2004, and later along the Euphrates River in western Iraq.
''After Fallujah and some of the operations carried out successfully in the Euphrates and Syrian border, many of the insurgents moved to areas nearer to Baghdad," Zebari said. ''They have to be pulled out by the roots."
In Baghdad, Iraqi officials imposed a daylong vehicle ban in an effort to help protect the newly elected legislators.
The members of the new legislature gathered inside the fortified Green Zone, protected by barriers and concertina wire.
Two mortars fired from outside the Green Zone fell harmlessly near the convention center after the legislators had left.
The 275-member Council of Representatives is Iraq's first democratically chosen parliament in half a century.
But with no agreement yet among political factions over the makeup of the country's leadership, the new parliament cannot elect its own officials or conduct substantive business.
In other developments, at least 20 people were killed or found dead yesterday.
Three of them were shot to death in the usually quiet Kurdish region in the north during clashes between police and an angry crowd protesting shortages of electricity and water.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/17/2006
09:44 ||
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#1
Stronghold. A pointlessly glorified way of saying they get the shit kicked out of them everywhere they're confronted and run like rats from a sinking ship to the safest place they can find.
#2
True, Glirong Whong8693. But the word only has two syllables, and brevity occasionally can be useful (never when I'm involved, mind you, but I have so heard). ;-)
Iraq's new parliament met for the first time yesterday under extraordinary security after a delay of three months caused by political haggling over the formation of a government.
Fearing that the first meeting of the Council of Representatives could be a catalyst or target for violence, the interim government declared a holiday and imposed a day-long ban on vehicles in the capital. The driving curfew, from 8 p.m. Wednesday to 4 p.m. yesterday, has been used before - on national election days and more recently during a surge in sectarian violence - to discourage car bombings and similar attacks against markets, mosques, and other places where people gather.
Police reported no major outbreaks of violence in Baghdad as the parliament convened and was officially sworn-in for its four-year term in the so-called Green Zone - the heavily fortified, 16-square-mile area that is the headquarters of the American occupation and the Iraqi government.
But an Interior Ministry spokesman, Major Mohammed Sultan, said that police had discovered 25 bodies in the previous 24 hours, continuing an apparent cycle of sectarian killings that has gripped Iraq for three weeks.
Following Iraqi custom, parliament's oldest member, Adnan Pachachi, opened yesterday's meeting, which lasted about 40 minutes.
"The country is going through very difficult times," Mr. Pachachi told the assembly. "Sectarian tension has increased and it threatens national disaster."
Although the session was largely ceremonial, the long-awaited opening of parliament is significant because it begins a 60-day period during which the legislature must elect a new president and approve a prime minister and a cabinet, adding additional pressure to the country's political leadership to stop squabbling and get on with the nation's business.
The meeting was also important symbolically. The 275-member national assembly is Iraq's first permanent, democratically elected parliament since the 2003 American invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. A temporary legislature sat for most of last year, charged with crafting a new constitution and laying the ground for the December 15 elections that brought the current parliament to power.
Yesterday's opening session was delayed by intense wrangling over the formation of a national unity government that would include the main political factions: Shiite Muslims, who have the largest block of seats with 130; Kurds, who have 58 seats; Sunni Arabs, who have 55 seats, and secularists, who control 29 seats.
Negotiations over a new government are continuing and could last for weeks or even months, leaders say.
Acknowledging that the country's political chaos is contributing to its worsening security situation, particularly a rise in sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis, top political leaders from all the factions began marathon meetings this week to bridge their differences.
It remains unclear whether a broad coalition that includes all the main parties can be achieved. American and Iraqi officials hope that Sunni Arabs, in particular, can be persuaded to join the government, believing that their participation in the political leadership of the country will help defuse a deadly Sunni-led insurgency, spearheaded by Al Qaeda in Iraq, that has targeted coalition troops and Iraqi civilians alike.
Increasingly, political leaders also argue that Sunni participation is equally important to help prevent a slow descent into civil war, accentuated by the February 22 bombing of a revered Shiite Mosque in Samarra and the hundreds of deaths in sectarian attacks that followed. More than 1,000 people were killed in the days after the bombing, underscoring the dangerous divide that is growing between Iraq's Shiites, who make up about 60% of the country's 28 million people, and its Sunnis, who account for about 20%.
Forming a new government had been delayed by intense disagreement from Sunni Arabs and Kurds over the Shiite's nominee for prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jafari, who has served as interim prime minister for about a year. Sunnis and Kurds complain that Mr. Jafari has not done enough to control Iraq's spiraling violence or spur its reconstruction.
Those will be key challenges for the members of the new legislature as America and other coalition forces begin what many see as their inevitable withdrawal, and as reconstruction funds start to run out and Iraq begins having to do more for itself.
One of the most immediate challenges will be efforts to craft amendments to Iraq's new constitution. Sunnis are concerned that the constitution approved in a nationwide referendum last fall allows Shiites and Kurds to form resource-rich autonomous regions in the north and south of the county that would consign the Sunnis to the poor, largely desert areas in central Iraq. Sunni political parties agreed to participate in the December elections only if the next parliament would be empowered to amend the constitution.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/17/2006
09:41 ||
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Thus stated Mustafa Badi Abu Ibrahim Al-Lujri leader of a mujahideen military camp in Afghanistan during the conflict with the Soviet Union. He was also the private bodyguard for Al-Zindani following the war in 1994. The newspaper Al-Wasat Al-Ahli clarified the relationship between the mujahideen movement and Yemen. It also stated that the future of the mujahideen is secure thanks to this good relation and Yemens ability to maintain it.
Al-Lujri related his break with Al-Zindani following his return from Afghanistan fighting the communists and the beginning of the war on communism in Yemen. Al-Zindani was a self-proclaimed leader for the Muslim Brotherhood. However his agenda did not find favor with the organization, which included the setting up of an Islamic state.
He denies that Al-Zindani adopted them but did say he used them. This does not mean however that he was subject to Al-Zindanis agenda. He went on to say that Al-Zindani gave orders and he executed them because he was on the payroll. He says he did have a relationship with the organization, but only for a defined period of time and since then it has become frozen.
Al-Lujri denied the existence of a relationship between Abu Al-Hasan Al-Muhdar and jihad in the 1994 war. He state that Ayman Al-Zawhiri had no role during the Aghan jihad against the Russians and became noticed after the liquidation of many while Osama bin Laden was protected by the Saudi intelligence unit.
Mustafa Badi confirmed that the organization of mujahideen are still ready and does not need a headquarters or address. He stated that their next jihad will not be in Yemen but will occur somewhere with a specific mandate like Palestine or Iraq or Afghanistan.
Al-Lujri does not believe in the existence of an organization known as Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is nothing more than a title under which many operations are performed. He wants to combat the idea that if you combat America then you are a terrorist.
He clarified that America is still the number one enemy. He is not interested in attacking Americas interests in Yemen such as the embassy, but is more concerned with operations in places like Iraq because in his estimation such fighting falls within the limits of sharia. I consider killing Americans or the embassy as treason to God and the Prophet regardless of whether or not we agree with President Salih or not. However, jihad in Iraq is a responsibility.
He stated that he was close to the army of Aden and other jihadi organizations meaning close to Abi Al-Hasan and far from his ideas. I had advised him before the killing of tourists occurred. He wanted to kidnap them to draw attention to the issues. He denied any relation to the organization of mujahideen that assassinated the assistant secretary general of the YSP.
He confessed to looting some official institutions in the eastern and western provinces during the war of 1994. He stated that the war of separation was among the cleanest wars, agree with me or dont, but I lived during all the battles in Amran. I swear that Ali Muhsin ordered us to not kill any captives or disturb any civilians. It truly was a battle that followed the precepts of sharia.
Al-Zindani left the Muslim Brotherhood due to differences in opinion. He believed the group exaggerated the understanding of reality and its policies at the expense of other issues (i.e. religion).
This does not mean we take a hostile position against them. The best evidence of that is that we havent clashed with them at all.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/17/2006
09:39 ||
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Heliborne U.S. and Iraqi troops pressed their sweep through a 100-square-mile swath of central Iraq on Friday in a bid to break up a center of insurgent resistance, the U.S. military said. No resistance or casualties were reported.
"We believe we achieved tactical surprise," Lt. Col. Edward Loomis, spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division, said of the day-old Operation Swarmer, the biggest air assault here in three years. He said about 40 suspects were detained, 10 of whom were later released.
In tense Baghdad, meanwhile, drive-by gunmen targeting streams of Shiite Muslim pilgrims killed three people and wounded five in Sunni areas of the city, police reported.
Devout Shiites headed south to the holy city of Karbala for a religious holiday, a pilgrimage that authorities feared would present "soft" targets in the continuing Sunni-Shiite violence roiling Iraq.
At least seven people were reported killed in scattered violence in and near Baghdad.
A standoff between the Shiite majority and Sunni minority underlies the political impasse blocking formation of a new government of national unity here. An all-party meeting was scheduled for later Friday to try to move those negotiations forward.
The joint U.S.-Iraqi air assault Thursday focused on a 10-by-10-mile area some 60 miles north of Baghdad and northeast of the city of Samarra, where an insurgent bombing on Feb. 22 badly damaged a major Shiite shrine, an attack that ignited days of sectarian bloodshed across Iraq in which more than 500 people died.
Fifty U.S. transport and attack helicopters ferried in and gave cover to some 1,500 U.S. and Iraqi troops taking part in Operation Swarmer units of the 101st Airborne Division and the Iraqi 4th Division.
On Friday morning, Loomis said, the forces "continue to move" through the area. "Approximately 40 suspected insurgents were detained without resistance," he said. "Tactical interviews began immediately, and 10 detainees have been released."
The sweep also uncovered six weapons caches, the U.S. military spokesman said.
The operation was aimed at disrupting "terrorist activity in and around Samarra, Adwar and Salahuddin province," he said, an area that was a stronghold of Sunni support for Saddam Hussein's ousted Baathist party regime.
Saddam's former No. 2, Izzat Ibrahim, who was deputy chairman of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council, was from the city of Adwar and is still at large at times thought to remain in that area.
The deputy governor of Salahuddin province, Abdullah Hussein, told reporters Friday that 48 alleged insurgents had been detained, men accused of bombings and kidnappings.
He said intelligence indicated about 200 insurgents were in the area, including people linked to the Baathist group Jaish Muhammad Muhammad's Army and to the al-Qaida in Iraq terror group, led by Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
The sweep was aimed particularly at capturing two local leaders of the Zarqawi group, said a police official. He said they had not yet been located.
Iraqi officials said Salahuddin province became more important as an insurgent center after the U.S. offensive that seized the resistance stronghold of Fallujah in late 2004, and subsequent U.S.-Iraqi offensives in other western areas close to the Syrian border.
Friday's Baghdad bloodshed began as groups of Shiite faithful, many parents with children in tow, trekked down city streets in the morning, headed for the southbound highway and Karbala, a shrine city 50 miles south of here.
At about 7:30 a.m., a BMW sedan driving alongside pilgrims in the western district of Adil opened fire, killing three and wounding two, said police Lt. Thair Mahmoud. Police later reported a second incident, also in western Baghdad, in which armed men riding in a car fired on pilgrims near Um al-Tuboul Square, wounding three.
Such attacks were feared this pilgrimage weekend as Sunni-Shiite tensions heighten across the strife-torn country. To help guard against violence in Shiite holy cities, the U.S. military dispatched a fresh battalion of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, about 700 troops, to Iraq from its base in Kuwait to provide extra security.
Tens of thousands of devout Shiites are converging on Karbala for Monday's celebration of Arbaeen, marking the end of the 40-day mourning period after the date of the death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, killed in Karbala in 680 A.D.
A bomb left on a minibus exploded at midday Friday and killed two passengers and wounded four in a Shiite district of Baghdad, police reported.
Police in a Shiite area of east Baghdad late Thursday found the bodies of four Sunni men who had been seized from a taxi by masked gunmen the day before in western Baghdad.
Six mortar rounds landed on six houses Friday in a mixed Sunni-Shiite area of Khan Bani Saad, 10 miles north of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding three, police reported.
Iraq's new Parliament held its first session on Thursday, as the first permanent elected legislature since the U.S. invasion, which began three years ago this coming Monday.
The lawmakers immediately adjourned, however, after taking their oaths of office, since the deep-seated sectarian disputes have all but paralyzed efforts to name a prime minister and Cabinet. The U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been trying to broker talks to establish a government embracing major factions in a way acceptable to Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs in Parliament.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/17/2006
09:37 ||
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#1
"We believe we achieved tactical surprise," Lt. Col. Edward Loomis, spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division
I listened to the veteran journalist Wolf Blister ponder aloud yesterday why there were no imbedded journalists or advance signal to the media. He waxed philosophically that perhaps the 101st Airborne was purposely secretive in order to avoid horrendous footage of collateral damage. His alternative theory was maybe the military was controlling the information so as not to cause further US embarrassment that the operation was primarily an American operation with very little involvement of the inadequate Iraqi troops. Of course it was impossible to verify either claim but chances are a tactical surprise angle didnt segue smoothly into the next report on Bushs negative poll numbers.
#3
*CNN Speculation Update*
[que the ominous music]
Its now reported that "Operation Swarmer" is being conducted by Iraqi troops taking the lead and the MNF forces are acting primarily as support. Thus far there has been relatively low resistance with no civilian carnage. Never mind seizing arms caches and insurgent arrests, the new theory CNN is floating is now that were nearing the anniversary of the invasion it must be all a political ploy to portray progress of Iraqi troops training. Golly Im like a schoolgirl all a twitter in anticipation of CNNs Question of the Day.
#5
Maybe the *real* reason for no embedded reporters or advanced media notification is that the 101st simply decided to hold one kick-ass party out in the desert. Sorta like the Burning Man festival but with guns and everyone wearing camo. Blitzer and his crowd didn't get an invite because they're all party poops.
Australian strippers have won the right to take time off after taking their clothes off. The country's Industrial Relations Commission on Friday approved new workplace rules for members of the strippers' union, the Striptease Artists Australia.
We don't make this stuff up. Honest
'We've got rights to have public holiday pay now, which we've never had in our career before,' said a union spokeswoman called Mystical Melody. 'We've got rosters and set hours. We can't work more than 10 hours a shift.' The award also entitles unionized strippers to overtime, rest periods, meal breaks and maternity leave, she added.
'The majority of workers in the industry are women,' Melody said, 'so it's probably a really great thing for them to be able to feel confident of having a job after they've had their babies.'
Industrial relations commissioner Bill Mansfield said the award set out minimum working conditions but did not set out pay rates. It was not immediately clear how many members the union has. Its members are believed to work mainly in strip bars and as erotic dancers.
Well, duh!
In the past, other strippers have criticized the union, saying its demands for better pay and conditions could lead to job losses.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
09:35 ||
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#1
Striptease Artists Australia today unveiled a plan to establish a bare minimum of workplace protection for its members. "We've got our members covered," said spokestripper Mystical Melody. "I think support for the union will take off from here."
Posted by: Mike ||
03/17/2006 11:42
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#2
No eating at the "Y"
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/17/2006 15:54
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#3
The award also entitles unionized strippers to overtime, rest periods, meal breaks and maternity leave, she added.
Seems like a fairly predictable sequence to me. Spend an extended period of time removing your clothes, lay down on your back, cram something into your mouth and, presto!, it's about time to have a baby.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Friday that discussions were underway about when he would meet with Iranian officials about Iraq and that the talks should be held in Baghdad.
In an interview with The Associated Press, the Afghan-born Khalilzad also said the international community, particularly Arab states in the Persian Gulf, should help fund the rebuilding of the war-shattered country because they have "a lot at stake."
Khalilzad, who has played a major role in forcing Iraqi politicians to begin serious negotiations on forming a new government, suggested that Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was not the unifying figure Iraq needed as the next head of government.
On Wednesday, Shiite political heavyweight Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who spent years in self-exile in Iran during Saddam Hussein's regime, called for Tehran to open talks with the United States about Iraq.
A day later, Iran said it was willing to hold such talks, but both sides said the discussions would be limited to efforts to stabilize Iraq.
The Bush administration said it would discuss the insurgency with the Islamic republic, but not Tehran's suspect nuclear program.
The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, who is also Iran's top nuclear negotiator, said Khalilzad repeatedly had invited Iran for talks on Iraq.
Khalilzad said he had never written to or spoken with Iranian officials about the talks but agreed they should be limited to Iranian policy regarding Iraq.
The U.S. envoy said a decision on when the talks would occur was "still being discussed. But I think we would assume since these discussions are with regard to our concern with Iranian policies in Iraq that it should be in Baghdad. That would be our approach."
In addition to the Washington's claims that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon, the United States has accused Iran of meddling in Iraq as it struggles to overcome a brutal insurgency and an al-Qaeda terror campaign. President Bush has said some components in roadside bombs contained Iranian components.
With much of the $20 billion the Congress approved for Iraqi reconstruction already spent or earmarked and with only $1.6 billion in the next supplemental appropriation, Khalilzad said the United States was looking to the international community for help, especially from Iraq's fellow Arab countries in the Persian Gulf.
"The Gulf states have a lot at stake here. They're doing very well financially thanks to the high price of oil. We're looking to them to help the national unity government," he said.
Formation of such a government is far from a reality even though Iraq's new parliament met in its first session Thursday. The lawmakers gathered for 40 minutes to take the oath of office then adjourned because they had not agreed on a speaker to preside over their sessions, let alone a new president, prime minister or Cabinet.
Khalilzad has pushed political leaders into a series of meetings in the past several days to hammer out a compromise on the deadlock over the nomination of al-Jaafari to serve a second term.
"There is a lot of disagreement about the prime minister. There are forces inside the United Iraqi Alliance (which nominated al-Jaafari by one vote) that want him to be the next prime minister, and there are forces both inside and outside the alliance that do not," Khalilzad said.
"The important thing from our point of view is the prime minister should be one who can unify Iraq, the various ethnic and sectarian groups."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/17/2006
09:34 ||
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Before cops threw the book at him, Jakub Fik threw something unusual at them -- his penis.
Now there's something you don't see every day
Fik, 33, cut off his own penis during a Northwest Side rampage Wednesday morning. When confronted by police, Fik hurled several knives and his severed organ at the officers, police said. Officers stunned him with a Taser and took him into custody. "We took him out without any serious injury, with the exception of his own," said Chicago Police Sgt. Edward Dolan of the 16th District.
I'd say that one was injury enough...
Doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital reattached Fik's penis Wednesday, sources said.
your tax dollars at work, I suspect. oh well, it was good practice for some surgery resident.
"Now, leave it on this time! I don't want to have to do this every week!"
He was listed in good condition Thursday, according to hospital spokesman Andrew Buchanan, who declined to comment further.
"I'm not going to touch this, er, comment."
Fik, who lives in the 5400 block of W. Berenice, is charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of assault with a dead weapon
assault with a deadly appendage
criminal damage to property, said Officer Laura Kubiak. He told paramedics he was distraught over problems with his girlfriend in Poland, Dolan said.
He thought he had problems with her before he cut off his doinker!
Police arrived on Fik's block at 8:20 a.m. Wednesday after receiving reports he was smashing car windows, Dolan said. Fik then broke into a house down the block. A group of six or seven officers assembled in front of the house, Dolan said. The occupants were not home, he added.
"Hey, Bob! You'll never guess what happened to your house while you were out!"
Fik was bleeding when the officers arrived and may have already cut off his organ, Dolan said. "At that point, this guy came running out, naked, with a handful of knives
and that's when we thought that maybe there was a problem here
. . . and started throwing knives at the police officers that were 10, 20, 30 feet away," Dolan said. Fik threw his penis during the confrontation, too, Dolan said.
"Toody! Duck! [SPLAT!]"
He then went back into the house and re-emerged with "another handful of knives," Dolan said. Dolan sneaked to the side of the bungalow's front steps and stunned Fik with the Taser.
[BZAAAAAP!]
Fik fought back when officers went to restrain him, Dolan said. "About 10 feet from the front porch, right on the sidewalk, was his penis," Dolan said.
"Muldoon! Don't step on [SQUISH!] that!"
"Get the tongs"
Dr. Greg Bales, associate professor of urology at the University of Chicago, said severed penises are uncommon but surgery usually works.
"At least they don't fall off again and you can run water through them. As for the rest..."
"As long as the penis is placed on ice and reattached within a few hours, the success is usually pretty good," Bales said.
but we don't recommend you try this at home ....
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
09:25 ||
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#1
good job this wasnt in Ramadi or the local kids would be waving the guys chopper around for some terrorist video
Talk about a wild night near Seguin. A cow came flying out of its trailer, sent DPS and police scrambling, and left two police cars going up in flames.
"It was almost hard to believe," said Detective Sergeant Maureen Watson. She has been in law enforcement for 15 years, and says she "never had a day like this. I mean the best way to characterize this it, is it's bizarre. It's really really strange."
Which is why we love it
It's strange because it started out with a truck towing cattle, and ended in fire. Watson told News 4 WOAI, "We believe the gate of the cattle trailer came open, and the cow, for lack of a better phrase, spilled out onto the Interstate. It was pretty chaotic for a while." Several cars hit some of the cows. One cow died. DPS troopers called for backup.
"Request backup, we're up to our armpits in hamburger"
"10-9?"
That's when one officer was nearly run down by a speeding truck, carrying two illegal immigrants inside. Seguin Police were out looking for those illegal immigrants. They parked their cars in the hot grass, burning two of them including that brand new 2006 Crown Victoria.
Catalytic convertor, meet bone dry high grass.
Watson said, "Well, all of a sudden, another officer who'd arrived on the scene, alerted the sergeant that there was a fire."
"Sniff, sniff, uh oh"
Everything inside was destroyed, including tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment designed for the patrol cars.
"You start off with kind of a bizarre accident with these cows spilling onto the interstate. That leads to other accidents, that leads to a car chase, that leads to a foot chase," Watson recalls.
Producers from "COPS" are weeping that they didn't have a camera crew riding along
The two mexican immigrants, ages 21 and 23, are in custody for illegally entering the country and evading arrest. Watson says they have replacement cars for now, but hope the city council will vote to get new cars soon.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
08:58 ||
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#1
We will run free like the Buffalo
and hold our large heads high!
#5
Something's up here. What are local cops doing chasing down 2 illegals? The story reads that they're now being held for illegal entry and evading arrest, but what were they searching for them for in the first place? Or, have our locals finally decided to go after those that are here illegally, just because they are here illegally? If so, I applaud them. If not, I still applaud them, but wish that locals, who know the area way better than Feds, would do more in the illegal immigration fight.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 13:59
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The Chief of Police sheriff of my county is not only arresting illegals for being here, but he's been billing the Feds for the cost of jailing them until they can be returned whence they came. (No checks received yet, darn it! And my taxes just went up.) He's been blogging about it. (Yeah, we be pretty kewl an' stuff here in the outer suburbs of the American Midwest!)
TEHERAN - Iran reiterated Friday that its nuclear program is not up for negotiation, despite possible calls by the UN Security Council for it to accede to demands by the UN nuclear watchdog and immediately halt all nuclear enrichment activities.
We have said it many times, our nuclear program is a peaceful one. The right of the Iranian people of having it is not negotiable, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told Tehran worshippers in speech before the sermon. The right of the Iranian nation is stated in the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the right was not bestowed to us by other countries, he said, as worshippers chanted nuclear energy is our undeniable right.
The International Atomic Energy Agencys reporting Irans nuclear case to the United Nations Security Council is a politicized move, Mottaki added. Meanwhile, the head of Irans body Guardian Council vetting body, Ayatollah Ali Janati said: They have taken us to the Security Council; they can do what ever they want to do. However, he added we will resist and we are ready to pay the price. Leading the Friday prayer sermon, Janati said we have to stand firm since the glory of Islam and Muslims depends on things like this.
The full council is set to meet Friday to consider a Franco-British statement calling on Iran to accede to all demands made by the IAEA and immediately halt all nuclear enrichment activities. The text urges Iran to resume implementation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treatys Additional Protocol, which allows for wider inspections of a countrys nuclear facilities. It also requests IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei to report on Iranian compliance within 14 days.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
08:55 ||
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And they're right! No part of Iran having the least access to nuclear technology right down to a friggin' broken Geiger counter should be negotiable until the genocidal mullahs are all taking the dirt nap together.
I really wish that Bush would stop sipping at the Kool-Aid of moral relativism and get over the notion of Iran, in its current configuration, having even peaceful nuclear technology. There needs to be a general concensus that any nation which talks about wiping another country off of the map really, really shouldn't have nuclear access of any sort.
Iran has repeatedly threatened the United States with dire harm. Isn't it about time we take them seriously? Conceding the least shred of this issue to Iran sends the entirely wrong message to each and every other rogue state and North Korean wannabe standing in line behind Iran to take its place on our dance card.
#7
We should "leak" the current US negotiations on Iran - which targets to hit, with what kind of weapon. The "leak" doesn't have to have a word of truth to it, just get it out there. Make the MMs sweat blood and run around like headless chickens. Also "leak" that we're going to give Kurdistan its independence, transfer the Shiite areas to Iraq, the Baluchi areas to an independent Baluchistan, and "divide the rest in four quarters, one for the Jews, one for the Catholics, one for the Protestants, and the rest for the Hindus". The State department has absolutely no immagination and little understanding of psychological warfare.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/17/2006 17:50
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A bomb went off on a railroad near the town of Karabulak in Ingushetia, a Caucasus republic bordering the breakaway Chechnya early on Friday. Soon it was followed by an explosion ripped through a cell phone base transmitter in Ingushetias Nazran district, local media reported. No one was injured in the attacks.
The first blast occurred as a locomotive pulling five-oil tank cars was moving on the railroad not far from an oil base. The railway track was damaged. Investigators are working at the blast scene. People linked to the explosion are being searched for.
Later in early morning unknown people blew up a mobile phone base station located in the yard of the local administrations building in the village of Ekazhevo in the Nazran district of Ingushetia. The facility was heavily damaged in the incident. The blast also set fire to a low-pressure pipeline supplying the village with gas.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
08:45 ||
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Three leading Maoist rebels in the Indian state of West Bengal have been found guilty of waging war against the Indian state. Police say the three are responsible for rising violence in West Bengal. Santosh Debnath and Patit Paban Haldar were sentenced to life in prison. Sushil Roy was sentenced to only five years due to poor health.
A defiant Sushil Roy said after the verdict: "The whole country will go up in flames on this verdict. Our boys will not take it lying down." The three men also issued a statement calling for a boycott of the state assembly elections. A fourth man, Zakir Hussain, was found not guilty. Sushil Roy, 72, is the nephew of the legendary Bengali revolutionary Dinesh Gupta.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
08:42 ||
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At least 21 people have been killed by gunmen near Iran's border with Afghanistan on Thursday night, the official IRNA news agency has reported.
Iranian Police Commander Gen Esmail Ahmadi-Moqaddam said the gunmen posed as police and closed the Zabol-Zahedan road in Sistan-Baluchistan Province. Gen Ahmadi-Moqaddam said US and British intelligence were behind the attack.
Correspondents say the Iran-Afghanistan border area is notorious for drug trafficking and kidnappings.
Speaking to reporters shortly after landing at Zahedan's airport on Friday morning, Gen Ahmadi-Moqaddam said the gunmen had closed the Zabol-Zahedan road at around 2100 (1730 GMT) on Thursday night. "People thought they were Iranian police," he said. After killing the civilians the attacks had fled across the border to Afghanistan, he added.
Gen Ahmadi-Moqaddam said he had information indicating that US and UK intelligence services had held meetings with the gunmen. "The said intelligence services had instructed the local bandits on ways of undermining security in the region," he said. "It seems that they are pursuing the same policy that they did in the Iraqi town of Samarra, that is, to provoke fighting between Shias and Sunnis." The US and UK have troops stationed in southern Afghanistan as part of a Nato peacekeeping force.
Additional: Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Mar. 17 Twenty-two Iranian government and provincial officials were killed in an ambush in the south-eastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan in the early hours of Friday morning, the government-owned news agency Fars reported. The incident occurred at 1:20 am as a convoy packed with officials was returning from a gathering in Zabol to the city of Zahedan.
Unidentified gunmen opened fire on the convoy close to Shileh Bridge killing 22 and injuring seven officials, the report said. Among those injured in the attack was believed to be the governor of Zahedan, Hossein-Ali Nouri. The report said that he was shot five times and is in critical condition. The head of security of the Zahedan governorate also died in the attack. The report quoted an informed source in a hospital in Zabol as saying that 50 individuals were killed or injured in the attack.
I thought the "21 civilians killed" part sounded fishy
Sistan-va-Baluchistan Province is home to Baluchis, a predominantly Sunni Muslim ethnic minority. Iran has witnessed escalating unrest in recent months in areas populated by Baluchis, who complain of discriminatory and repressive policies by the Shiite clerics who rule the country.
Additional: Middle East Online
By Farhad Pouladi - TEHRAN
Afghan bandits with links to US and British security services have killed 22 people in Iran and seized an unknown number of others in an ambush that also left a senior official critically wounded, officials said Friday. Police said "a group of armed bandits who crossed the Afghanistan border killed 21 people and injured another seven innocent people driving in their vehicles" between the border city of Zabol and Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchistan.
The southeastern province's deputy governor general for security, Mohsen Sadeghi, later raised the death toll to 22 and said that, "according to the reports we got, one of the seven injured people is in a critical condition."
A source in the interior ministry said: "Hossein Ali Nouri, the governor of Zahedan and his deputy have been critically wounded and both are in intensive care in hospital." According to some Iranian news agencies, Nouri and his deputy were shot several times in the chest and abdomen.
Looks like Iran Focus got it right
The interior ministry source, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that "apparently a number of people have been taken hostage. "Iran is seriously pursuing the case, and that's why the head of police is here to command the search for the bandits," he added.
The officials were returning to Zahedan after attending a ceremony of war commanders in Zabol, the reports added. "A number of victim's families have told us that their relatives have been taken hostage, but we cannot confirm it yet," he added.
Iran's police commander, Brigadier General Esmail Ahmadi-Moqaddam, told state television "we have information that the bandits in Sistan-Baluchistan area had some meetings with the British and the American security services. "These services have dictated plans to the bandits on how to destabilise the area. They are trying to spread disputes between Shiites and Sunnis. This is a terrorist action against innocent civilians," he told reporters upon arriving at Zahedan's airport.
Ahmadi-Moqaddam said the bandits had killed Shiites, who were stopped at a mock checkpoint. "There is the possibility that the bandits have escaped to Afghanistan since the area is close to the border," he added.
Sistan-Baluchistan, a mostly Sunni Muslim province in predominantly Shiite Iran, is notoriously lawless and is a key transit route for opium and other drugs from Afghanistan and Pakistan headed for Europe and the Gulf. Some three month ago, a group of Iranian soldiers was kidnapped near the border with Pakistan by a hardline Sunni Muslim group operating in the unruly border area. They were later released. Iranian officials and media had initially said the kidnappers were bandits, drug traffickers or dissident tribesmen.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
08:37 ||
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#1
Not the revolution starting, more like Baluchis making mischief like their coethnics(?) on the other side of the border. Still, a sign of the troubles in keeping the lid on.
#7
Obviously, one must question whether this happend at all.
I just got back from a year in Afghanistan and although the Afghan Army has some very tough fighters, they would never go into Iran.
More likely it is drug runners like the article said happend in the past. Some Iranian border guards actually try to stop the drug flow and lots have died. Others are just on the payroll.
#11
The RAB has a swell patch...but reworking the 'civil and well reasoned discourse' logo would work just fine. Certainly need something stronger than 'Remands R Us' :)~
#13
Very astute, TW! We need some photo shopping guru to put it together! And a cup of tea and plate of cookies in the corner, would set the tone...knives, bombs, hangmans noose, to set the rest of the tone. :)
A move to honour actress Jane Fonda for her US charity work has been defeated because of her infamous opposition to the Vietnam war in the 1970s. Senators in Fonda's home state of Georgia voted 38-1 against a resolution praising Fonda for charity donations and work to combat teenage pregnancy. Many in the US still see her as a traitor after a trip to the North Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, in 1972. She has since apologised for visiting a gun site used to shoot down US planes.
Republican Senator John Douglas said Fonda, who picked up the nickname "Hanoi Jane", was "guilty of treason". She has admitted her visit to the Hanoi gun site was a "betrayal". "I can think of no living American who is less worthy of this honour," he said. The resolution was sponsored by Senator Steen Miles, who said her charity work should make up for past mistakes.
Let me think, um, NO!
But even she voted against the motion after Fonda herself tried to have it withdrawn to avoid controversy. A Republican leader forced the vote to go ahead, saying members of his party wanted to go on record against it.
Some dead horses should be dug up every few years and beaten.
Fonda, who lives in Atlanta, recently acknowledged her visit to the Hanoi gun site was a "betrayal" of the US military. It was the "largest lapse of judgement that I can even imagine", she said. But she said she did not regret meeting American prisoners of war in North Vietnam or making broadcasts on Radio Hanoi.
The actress is founder of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations and has made donations to universities and charities. She has starred in films including Barbarella, Nine to Five, On Golden Pond and Monster-in-Law. She won Oscars for her roles in Klute and Coming Home in the 1970s and has been nominated on five other occasions.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
08:28 ||
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But even she voted against the motion after Fonda herself tried to have it withdrawn to avoid controversy. A Republican leader forced the vote to go ahead, saying members of his party wanted to go on record against it.
Had a "Murtha moment," did she? LOL! I heard Sen. Douglas on local radio (I live in ATL too) and he was hot! In between this, her ties to the UN, and heck, her ties to Ted Turner, I'm soooo glad that common sense reigned in this matter. What a smackdown of a vote, too! Why must everyone think it's o.k. to forgive over idiots like this during Vietnam? There's no SOL (Statute of Limitations) on treason in my book. Funny that this, and the recent arrest of a Vietnam marine deserter in Idaho (he volunteered, then skipped the country to Canada, of course, and was recently arrested re-entering the US in Idaho, taken to Camp Pendleton, but no charges are forthcoming) hit at the same time. The marine deserter was discussed last night on O'Reilly, and Col. Hunt was fuming mad and pissed at the Canuk "immigration attorney" who was trying to say that it makes no sense to charge him 35+ years later with this. Col. Hunt smacked that atty down and hard! I loved it, and O'Reilly lit into him too!
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 9:38
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Now we need a Feingold moment. These libs need to be held up to ridicule. It is the best way to get them to realize they are the minority and they need to be careful about running their mouths now.
#5
The only yes vote was from JONES, Democrat, 10TH District. Jones
He should be removed from his committee position of Veterans and Military Affairs. It's outrageous that he's allowed to sit there!
#6
I'm sure Jones is now cast out and will silently end his tour and go back to the farm he came from. Jane does not concider what she does a betrayal to America, watch the interviews. She feels she crossed the "military", not America. She still does not get it! I say hi to her, her decal anyway, every morning when I get rid of my morning coffee!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/17/2006 13:23
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#7
Nope, not likely to be going back to the farm. His district is the middle of the LLL/moonbat central here in "the ATL." Same area that's home to Cynthia McKinney (D-Looneyville) unfortunately. However, I would note that the area is changing (has been large majority black there for some time) for the better. One of the up and coming (middle class) areas for blacks around the ATL. Just that some will never vote for a "R" no matter what their moonbat Rep/Senator says or does.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 13:53
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#8
To bad for Atlanta there BA. It's a nice town. I can only hope the rest of the politico's in power drown out his stupidity.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/17/2006 14:04
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#9
Pretty much, outside of that district (DeKalb County, if you're familiar with this area), the rest of Georgia (and even Atlanta) is as red as can be, with the exception of a few smaller, urban areas, like Macon, Albany, Valdosta, etc.
I'd note that down south of Atlanta in Fayette County, you have one of the wealthiest, majority black suburban areas in the country. In fact, Fayette County had a higher median income than any other county in GA, and at one time (may still be too), Fayette was the richest, majority black county in the country. And, it is a VERY conservative area. The ATL area is interesting...lots of blacks here that are movin' on up to the middle class, and many speculate that their politics will change very soon. A win/win in my book.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 14:11
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#10
The demographics of Fayette County, Fayetteville, Peachtree City and surrounding area are indeed changing, but it is not yet predominately minority. Peachtree City is a planned community which began in the late 1960's, but really did not take off until the late 1970's and early 80's. It is similar to Reston, VA. It was built around golf courses and lakes and is connected via cart paths. Fayette County is populated by farmers, Delta employees and retirees who are commonly referred to by the natives as "Delta Yankees." Fayette County is also home to many military retirees, and folks who used to live closer to Atlanta, but moved southward to avoid crime, poor schools, and declining housing markets. In Peachtree City and Fayette County the demographics are indeed chaning. Crime is on the increase and graffiti and trash are now found on the cart paths. Things be a changin.
#12
Ahl-been-EEE may be red, 6, I'm not sure. I just know that there are some very ROUGH parts to those towns I listed...typical Demo/LLL strongholds.
And, EG1382, thanks for that correction. I thought about that after I posted, and I shouldn't have insinuated it was Majority-minority without facts. However, it is changing, and according to friends who live in P'tree City, and study this type stuff, it is supposedly one of the highest income (close to majority) minority areas in the country.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 20:53
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#13
No problem. It is indeed true that wealthy minorities are moving there which will eventually impact the local politic. They are moving south for the same reason everyone else moved south and away from Fulton County years ago.
A global black market for nuclear weapons, a shadowy network of masterminds and middlemen spanning continents and dictators ready to pay billions to get the bomb -- It may sound like the plot for a racy thriller. However, it's the very real backdrop to a trial opening Friday in Mannheim, where a German engineer and businessman has been charged with violating Germany's War Weapons Control Act and Foreign Trade Act. The defendant, Gotthard Lerch, 63, is the first alleged member of the global nuclear mafia led by discredited Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan to go on trial.
The case relates to Lerch's role in 2000 in supplying Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi with centrifuges, manuals and control systems to construct a nuclear weapon. According to the Mannheim district attorney's office, Lerch received 55 million marks (28 million euros or $34 million) for his services for a total profit of some 25 million marks.
The information first came to light when a German ship was intercepted in October 2003 carrying a cargo of containers filled with nuclear weapons technology headed for Libya. The seizure prompted a nervous Gadhafi to disclose the names of all those who had supplied Tripoli with material and expertise for its nuclear program. That in turn led to the unraveling of Khan's elaborately-built global arms-dealer bazaar and to the emergence of details of how it peddled nuclear technology to regimes in Iran, North Korea and Libya. Khan, also known as the "father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb," had to publicly apologize to the Pakistani people in early 2004 and has been placed under house arrest. Ever since, probes and arrests in several countries in Asia, South Africa and Europe have brought authorities closer to understanding what Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, has called "a veritable Wal-Mart of black-market proliferation."
Though Germany remains the first place in which proceedings have been formally opened to call the Khan nuclear network to account, there's no denying that the trial once again shines an unwelcome spotlight on the country's role at the center of an illegal nuclear smuggling case. Along with middlemen and firms in several European countries, German companies and individuals have fed equipment, materials and knowledge to nuclear programs in Pakistan, North Korea and other aspiring nuclear nations since the 1980s.
Gotthard Lerch, who goes on trial on Friday, was investigated extensively by German authorities in the 1980s for the misappropriation of blueprints at a joint British, German and Dutch uranium enrichment facility in the Netherlands. That was apparently also when he came into contact with Abdul Qadeer Khan. Lerch, however, was never convicted.
Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, a writer and expert on intelligence agencies said there were two primary reasons for Germany to be involved. "Firstly, Germany is a country of hi-tech and cutting-edge technology of the kind that's required for uranium enrichment and the like and, secondly, it's an export-oriented country," Schmidt-Eenboom said. "Add that up and it's not surprising to find firms involved in illegal nuclear exports," he said, adding: "There are always going to be black sheep who are only interested in making hefty profits."
At the same time some believe that the current problem of illegal weapons exports in Germany isn't a question of weak export control laws but rather one of resources.
Mark Hibbs, Europe and Asia editor of Nucleonics Week journal said one tactic used by European firms wanting to illegally export nuclear technology in the past was to use the widely differing EU jurisdictions to disguise the origin of equipment. "But in the late 1980s, the German government took a leading role in making major advances in export control laws and coordinating and harmonizing its rules with EU laws," Hibbs said. "Today the problem is that export control authorities don't have sufficient resources -- and that includes logistics, money, personnell -- to detect smuggling operations. That's taken advantage of by countries wanting to import technology for their nuclear programs, who try to outwit the system."
Despite the uncomfortable attention that the case draws to Germany, experts agree that the significance of Friday's trial can hardly be overstated. "The trial is hugely important in strengthening international attention on the problem of illegal proliferation," said Götz Neuneck of the Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg.
He added that the timing of the trial took on added significance in light of the international community's ongoing conflict with Iran over its nuclear program. "There are lots of unanswered questions in IAEA reports on Iran," said Neuneck, adding that it was well known that the Khan network had supplied Teheran with bits of nuclear technology in the 1980s, including high-tech centrifuges. "It would be very good for international non-proliferation if the trial were to provide more details and shine more light on dark corners."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
08:11 ||
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Sunlight is a wonderful cleanser, true. But I do wish Germany would use this learning to help fix the problem her people helped cause -- and not by more pointless negotiations, darn it!
Liberia has formally asked Nigeria to extradite former Liberia President Charles Taylor, Nigeria says.
"Bring us the head of Chucky Taylor!"
A spokeswoman for Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said he would put the request to other African leaders.
A UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone wants to put Mr Taylor on trial for backing Sierra Leone rebels. He stood down as Liberian leader and went into exile in Nigeria in 2003 under an international deal to end a 14-year civil war. Mr Obasanjo has always refused to send Mr Taylor to Sierra Leone, saying he would only extradite him following a request from an elected Liberian leader.
Which he never expected to receive
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf took power in Liberia in January after winning last year's elections and visited Nigeria earlier this month.
Mr Taylor is accused of selling diamonds and buying weapons for Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front rebels, who were notorious for hacking off the hands and legs of civilians during a 10-year war.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
08:07 ||
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#1
Mr Obasanjo has always refused to send Mr Taylor to Sierra Leone, saying he would only extradite him following a request from an elected Liberian leader.
Didn't Liberia just inaugurate a new lady president?
#2
Now I expect to be getting emails from Chuck's relatives.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/17/2006 8:54
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I can only make sense of this in one of three ways:
1) Ellen has reason to believe that Taylor is about to start something unpleasant, and wants to head it off.
2) Ellen thinks that Taylor's supporters are off-balance and won't be able to retaliate effectively. (Or maybe Taylor's party has a strong new leader and they won't care? It'd be news to me.)
3) Somebody is putting huge pressure on her and she doesn't think she has any choice.
If I were in her shoes I'd be really leary of having Taylor in the public eye again.
Posted by: James ||
03/17/2006 9:48
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"Chucky" is still trying to manage some affairs there.
Pakistani authorities have banned two private Afghan TV channels on charges that they spread anti-Pakistan propaganda. The two channels, Tolo TV and Ariana TV, which are widely watched on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, had accused Pakistani security forces of being behind last week's suicide attack aimed at Afghan Senate leader and former president Sibghatullah Mujaddedi. Mujaddedi had blamed the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, for the attack saying that he had information from various sources that they had planned to kill him because of his efforts to engage the Taliban in the peace process. Pakistan denied any involvement in the attack.
Reports say that an official with the Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), Abdul Jalal Khan, accused the two TV stations of being involved in baseless propaganda against Pakistan. Another PEMRA official said that the two channels did not have any telecast rights in Pakistan. Reports in the Indian media say that PEMRA has already banned Indian channels in Pakistan on the grounds that they carry propaganda against Pakistan and that they are a threat to local TV channels.
"They's poaching on our market share!"
The two channels are popular among Afghan refugees and Pashtun people in the Baluchistan province and the North West Frontier Province.
Tonights line-up on Tolo TV; "Jihad Idol", "Survivor - Waziristan" and "Law and Order - Sharia Victims Unit".
This latest measure by the Pakistani authorities comes just as tensions have increased between the two neighbours over who is responsible for Islamic militants operating in the volatile border region between the two countries.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006
07:53 ||
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#1
Drink the Cool-aide, watch the Coolsat.
Posted by: john ||
03/17/2006 13:56
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A panel of international jurists has raised concerns about Australia's counter-terrorism laws.
The Eminent Jurists Panel on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights was set up by the International Commission of Jurists.
It has been holding a two-day inquiry into Australia's counter-terrorism policies as part of a global examination of the impact of the fight against terrorism on human rights.
Spokeswoman Hina Jilani says there are concerns about the power the Australian laws give intelligence agencies.
"We express serious concerns with regard to the ASIO powers to detain non-suspects, to limit the right of legal representation and the possible negative impact on confidentiality of communications between lawyer and client," she said.
The panel has been briefed by the Federal Government.
It will hold similar hearings in Britain and the United States before handing down its report next year.
#1
Of course, the impact of terrorist activities on basic human rights (ie. the right to take a bus in London without fear of getting blown up, the right for a woman to walk around with her head uncovered while eating a BBQ pork sandwich, etc.) will not be addressed by the "Eminent Jurists".
#2
After these self important assholes finish with Venezuela, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Nigeria,Saudi Arabia, China, Burma, and North Korea, I might be interested in what they have to say about Oz. Until then, STFU.
ASIO should arrest them and lock them up on what ever charge seems appropriate.
#3
NS, you forgot Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan and others, lol! And, it's gonna take them another year to interview the US and Britain before they issue their report? Sheesh, what I wouldn't give to have that job.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 10:23
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The idea of a Jury is to be tried by your peers.
The idea of an international set of jurists is an oxymoronic abomination.
#6
"The Eminent Jurists Panel on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights was set up by the International Commission of Jurists."
So, a commissions of self-righteous EU assholes set up by another bunch of self-righteous EU assholes. Pontificating from their ivory towers protected by the peasants people they disdain.
And anyone with half an ounce of brains is supposed to care about their pronouncements - or their very existence - why, exactly....?
Let me join the Aussies is telling these clueless jackasses to fuck off.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/17/2006 15:25
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So, a commissions of self-righteous EU assholes set up by another bunch of self-righteous EU assholes. Pontificating from their ivory towers protected by the peasants people they disdain.
POLICE have shot dead four suspected Islamic militants believed to be plotting attacks and recruiting fighters for a campaign against Indian rule in Kashmir, officials said. The men, including two Pakistanis, were killed in a shoot-out during a raid at a home on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in western Gujarat state, officers said. Three officers were slightly hurt in the gun-battle. The four dead men were suspected of being from Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistan-based militant Islamic group. "These people had come here to get new recruits among local youngsters and also to organise terrorist strikes which could include blasts or killings of VIPs," said senior police official P.P. Pandey.
Police found four handguns, ammunition, money and a bag marked "Mission Kashmir" believed to contain about one kilogramme of explosives in the two-bedroom house. Officials said there was no apparent link between the shootings and the blast earlier this month that killed 23 people in Varanasi, Hinduism's holiest city, blamed on militants fighting New Delhi's rule in Indian Kashmir.
The Prince of Wales has urged small UK firms to reed korr'ann become greener and suggested climate change was the world's greatest threat ahead of terrorism. He asked 60 Confederation of British Industry members to be more energy efficient and reed korr'ann so as to boost profits and protect their grandchildren's future. By using energy wisely and reeding korr'ann harnessing technology, firms could cut emissions and stay competitive, he insisted. "We need to address these issues now. It is already late," said the prince.
He quoted risk management expert John Coomber who said climate change was the number one risk in the world, ahead of terrorism and demographic change.That "demographic change" being of course the vitally urgent replacement of unruly, free thinking, democratically obsessed infidels with more obedient subjects who better understand the concept of a divinely guided monarch
"I think he has got a point," Prince Charles told the meeting at the CBI's London headquarters. Mr Coomber is a professor of ecology director of reinsurance firm Swiss Re, which assesses SIGINT, HUMINT, TECHINT, IMINT financial risk and looks at his navel lint to the future.
The prince noted that the European Environmental Protection Agency reported in 2005 that £1.8bn could be saved by industry through energy efficiency and korr'ann "It does seem to me, and quite a lot of other people, that unless we reed korr'ann really address this energy issue as the first step we will not really get anywhere with this challenge," he said.
Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar ||
03/17/2006
05:15 ||
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#1
Hopefully, QEII can live as long as the Queen Mum and bury this boy so that her grandson can have a good chance at the crown without any silliness on the throne.
#3
Princess Diana appeared to be the only Royal of her generation to have any grasp of the needs of real people. With her gone, the royal family isn't even good for decoration anymore.
Listening to Prince Charles's arrant foolishness, I have more reason to celebrate the Fourth of July.
#6
OFF TOPIC: The above initial post is a sterling example of Fred's bandwidth being squandered. It is physically painful to see that much whitespace used for so little text.
As to Charles' thoughts, they are of even less significance than the above off topic comments.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has thanked a small contingent of Australian troops who have returned from Iraq, Afghanistan and Sumatra at a gathering in Melbourne.
Dr Rice had said she wanted to personally address the 26 military personnel from the Navy, Army and Air Force at the Victoria Barracks as part of her three-day visit to Australia.
She says whether the troops are liberating Afghanistan or Iraq or helping the people affected by the tsunami, the US Government is proud of them.
"We know that the men and women of Australia and the men and women of the United States in uniform stand for the very best of our countries," she said.
"You represent us so well.
"We're so proud and so grateful for your service.
"I come to thank Australia from President Bush, from the American people, from your compatriots, the American men and women in uniform."
#1
Gotta wonder aloud...when's the last time you've heard of a Sec. of State visiting a foreign nation's military, at their military compound to THANK them? Also, was she wearing her black boots?
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 10:20
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The Ozzies have been one of our greatest friends in this war. Quietly, all over the world they are helping, they deserve our thanks.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/17/2006 13:13
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Superb gesture on her part. I know the Diggers appreciated it.
Death Squads Terrorize Baghdad
Der Spiegel, Germany
By Erwin Decker in Baghdad
Shiite death squads are spreading fear in Baghdad's Sunni neighborhoods. Meanwhile, politicians and police are growing powerless as the outbreak of a civil war becomes ever more likely in Iraq. Name names!!! The "men in black" are the al-Sadrite Shiites from the al-Sadr suburb of Baghdad.
Death squads are stalking Sunnis in Shiite-dominated Baghdad neighborhoods. When the men in black drive down his street, Ali Hasan al-Mahawish calls out to his playing children to come into the house immediately. He bolts the door, scared. This time it might be his family's turn. The men drive past at walking speed, clutching their guns. It's obvious they know exactly which houses the Sunnis live in. Mahawish is an engineer and a Sunni -- a potential victim of the death squads. And Western coverage of over 1500 murders since Feb. 22, has been crappy.
Death squads are becoming part of everyday life in Baghdad's Sunni neighborhoods. Sunnis living in the Khadamiya neighborhood are terrorized daily. Sometimes the men in black shoot randomly into their houses and backyards. Sometimes they give the residents five minutes to leave, then set fire to the house. Those Sunni's who aren't simply executed by their neighbors are being systematically driven out of the city's Shiite neighborhoods.
"Ethnic cleansing" in Baghdad? Well, Shiites in the Sunni Triangle aren't doing much better.
According to a recent United Nations report, this type of "ethnic cleansing" has spread dramatically in Baghdad, a city of 6 million. And no one can stop the death squads, least of all the police. Six neighborhoods have already fallen prey to organized terror. Weeks have passed since the police was last seen in these neighborhoods, and Sunnis are now more afraid of the men in black than of the daily air raids... From a counter-terror point of view, the polarization will likely create a much larger centrist group that will seek US support against the two enemies: al-Qaeda in Iraq and Black February.
Posted by: Listen To Dogs ||
03/17/2006
00:49 ||
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#1
My guess is that as we speak, Iraqi forces under American management are planning a cleansing of their own. Tune in next week for more of As The Tater Turns.
#2
And no one can stop the death squads, least of all the police.
Wouldnt it be more accurate to say Up to this point no one has been able to stop the death squads? Seems to me there are a number of ways to reduce if not eliminate the majority of the death squads. Some ways are more diplomatic in nature and other ways are much more harsh.
#5
Still not hearing anything from the grieving mother/wife/children/orphan baby ducks. Just who is actually killing who?
Posted by: john ||
03/17/2006 14:03
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Nothing a few well-placed sniper teams couldn't cure. Black clad hard boyz cruising at a walking pace down city streets stand out pretty well. An RPG or some nicely orchestrated fire would torque their turbans to spec. Might even begin to win the hearts and minds of Sunni locals.
#7
It's time to send a dozen or so US Apache pilots to Israel for advanced helizapper training, then turn them loose against Tater's tots. I'm sure zapping a dozen or so vehicles full of black-clad troops would put an end to the whole "adventure". Of course, the real solution is to get rid of Tater AND his "tots". We need to have the Iraqis crush him decisively, but that may be beyond current expectations. Regardless of how it happens, Tater and his "militia" have got to go.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/17/2006 17:14
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It's time to send a dozen or so US Apache pilots to Israel for advanced helizapper training,
?
The mother of a secular Muslim girl murdered in the Jihad riots in France, has reported that French prosecutors ordered her to coverup the fact that the killing was by stoning.
France Echos : (of the reasons why the young Muslims were charged) You say that Ghofrane (daughter of Monia) was stoned?
Monia Haddaoui: "No, no, not stoned, it is Voluntary Manslaughter (proffered by French prosecutors)"
France Echos : Who prohibited you from saying (the murder) was anything but a stoning?
Monia Haddaoui: "Initially, mosques."
F.E. : Which mosques ?
Monia Haddaoui: "All mosques, there in the First (District).
France Echos : And why are the mosques interested?
Monia Haddaoui: "Because they are saying: 'They will blame Muslims for stoning a girl. One should not speak about stoning.' Afterwards, I received mail in my letter-box, in a threatening vein: 'Do not speak of the incident'...'Don't speak only of your daughter's death, but of thousands (who) were killed' (meaning by the enemies of Muslims), etc; (suggesting that) it is necessary that I keep quiet, that I don't say another word."
Even the prosecutor said to me : 'It was not a stoning. Nothing proves that it was (murder by) stoning'...
I do not criticize Islam. I am myself Moslem of origin."
(French phrases anglicized in this translation) At the time of the incident, French media would only allow Monia's robed fundamentalist daughter to speak of the murder, which she linked to Israeli treatment of Muslims.
Posted by: Listen To Dogs ||
03/17/2006
00:42 ||
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@ Listen To Dogs : this crime was not committed during the ramadan riots (there were others, attempted or not), but in 2004 IIRC; the victim was indeed stoned, in a real ambush (the mother and family claim several people were involved, including a girl to lure her at the spot, and forensics seem to agree, though so far only two perps are prosecuted, including a gypsy, btw). There was also two other girls killed for similar motives, but torched alive.
FENI, Mar 16: President of Feni district Human Rights Review SocietyMizanur Rahman Mister and his three accomplices were arrested by RAB on Wednesday night on charge of extortion, reorts UNB. Handed over to the police Mizanur was today produced before the court that rejected his bail petition and sent to the prison. RAB said substantial documents including obscene photographs of men and women were seized from the house of Mizanur Rahman. Those were believed used to blackmail and extortion. Besides, allegations of extortion and harassment of people identifying himself as Human Rights leader and journalist were received against Mizanur, RAB added.
Khonkar Shamsul Huda of Sonagazi had accused Mizanur, also JASAS president of Sonagazi upazila and chairman of Palli Daridra Unyan Sangstha, a local NGO, of taking Tk 3.12 lakh from him on December 2, 2004. When asked for return of the money Mizanur, Khurshid Alam, Maksud and Jahangir forcibly took him to a residential hotel. They got his signature on plain revenue papers at gunpoint.
Some residents however told a different story. Requesting anonymity they said complainant Shamsul Huda knew the art of calling genie. Many senior officials of RAB are connected with Huda for his genie power and were influenced by him to take action against Mizanur Rahman.
All hail the Rapid Action Batallion, now with 80% more Genie Power!
The government has constituted a three-member probe committee for investigating JMB militant financing asking the body to submit report on the findings to the home ministry within seven days. The committee consists of representatives from Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Special Branch (SB) of police and Bangladesh Bank (BB).
Meanwhile, depositors in large number rushed to Saver branch of Islami Bank to withdraw their money on Thursday as the news of Islami Bank's involvement in militant money transfer spread. But, local sources said, the branch management did not allow any customer to withdraw amount exceeding Tk 10, 000 from his account. On Thursday, five Islami Bank officials including three managers were suspended and 15 others show caused for their involvement in suspected transactions. The Bangladesh Bank investigation into the much-talked-about militant fund transfer found that eight TTs (telegraphic transfers) were sent to the Islami Bank's Savar and Gazipur branches using a fake account number, 4255, in the name of one Javad Ahmed. The eight transactions made in the last two months amounted to about Tk 4.50 lakh. BB sources said the central bank is further investigating the matter about the fake account. Islami Bank suspended four officials of its branches in Sylhet, Savar and Gazipur and charged 12 others for their negligence in performing duties, a senior IBBL official said, refusing to disclose their names and other details of the persons.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank (BB) submitted a report on abnormal transactions by several banks to the Ministry of Home Affairs requesting actions against those involved in the transactions. The central bank has also asked Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd to show cause by March 23 why actions should not be taken against it for some suspicious transactions defying banking norms. The show-cause notice was served under section 19 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act on the basis of the prove teams. The three branches of Islami bank violated some of the regulations specified the section called Know Your Customer (KYC).
Earlier, five BB teams probed five militancy-linked accounts maintained with three banks- Islami bank Bangladesh, Rupali Bank and Janata Bank.
A "Sea Skua" guided missile misfired Thursday, in the first test conducted in Southeast Asia, in the waters off Kuala Beruas near Pantai Remis in Perak, Chief of Navy Admiral Datuk Ilyas Din said. Matra BAE Dynamics of the United Kingdom, which conducted the test for the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN), identified a technical problem as the cause of the failure, he added.
The missile, fired at 11 am from a Super Lynx 300 attack helicopter at a wreckage of a ship eight nautical miles away, failed to hit its target and fell into the sea without exploding.
The company would carry out an investigation to determine the cause of the problem in two or three days, well before the second test that is scheduled a week from now, Ilyas told reporters on board the RMN vessel, KD Mahawangsa, here.
Thursday's Sea Skua missile test was the first conducted in Southeast Asia because Malaysia is the only country in the region to purchase the missiles, the complete package of which cost 16 million pounds sterling (about RM103 million). The agreement to purchase was made in 2001 and the supply of the missiles to the RMN began last year.
#7
Oops, I note that now. And my previous post should be "sneaky Brits...."
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 13:49
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It just goes to show that modern weapons systems aren't turnkey systems. This is why military recruitment standards stateside have skyrocketed. Expensive and state-of-the-art systems require smarter and better-trained personnel to operate them effectively.
SANTA CLARA, Cuba -- Three years after the harshest crackdown on dissent in decades, human-rights conditions in Cuba have deteriorated as authorities intensify a campaign to disrupt and intimidate the island's small opposition movement, according to dissidents, diplomats and political analysts.
Elizardo Sanchez, an opposition activist who heads the Havana-based Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said the number of political prisoners in Cuba increased from 306 in early 2005 to 333 in early 2006.
Sanchez said that about 100 pro-government crowd actions, known in Cuba as "acts of repudiation," and other attacks have occurred against opposition figures since July 2005. "The situation with civil and political rights has worsened in the past three years," said Sanchez. "And what's most worrying for us is that it seems the situation is going to get even worse."
Last week, a U.S. State Department report and UN expert Christine Chanet each criticized the human-rights situation in Cuba. Chanet also said tightened U.S. sanctions have created "extreme tension" between the two nations "which is far from conducive to the development of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly."
Much more at the link.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/17/2006
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Humans have no rights in Castroland.
Hollyweird leftist liars "stars," on the other hand.....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/17/2006 0:23
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I'm sure that Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte will be all over this too.
The government yesterday filed a sedition case for the first time against all seven members of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)'s Majlish-e-Shura, the highest decision-making body. Officer-in-Charge of Muktagachha Police Station in Mymensingh Police Inspector Sheikh Mahbubur Rahman filed the case with Mymensingh Cognisance Court yesterday afternoon on orders of the home ministry Wednesday. The court ordered Muktagachha police to investigate the case.
The much-anticipated case was filed in Mymensingh as the law enforcers learnt that the decision to carry out blasts across the country on August 17 last year was taken at a meeting there between June and August. The militants decided to go for such a huge scale terrorist act mainly 'to get the message about their strength over to the government'. Those who have been charged with sedition include JMB chief Abdur Rahman ibne Abdullah alias Ehsan, Siddiqul Islam alias Azizur Rahman alias Azizul Islam Litu alias Omar alias Bangla Bhai, Rahman's brother Ataur Rahman Sunny alias Sajid, Rahman's son-in-law Abdul Awal Sarker alias Adil alias Asif alias Arafat, Salahuddin alias Salehin, Mahmud alias Hafez Mahmud alias Rakib Hasan alias Russell and Khaled Saifullah alias Amjad alias Faruk Hossain.
The accused were involved in an ill attempt to unseat the government and establish Shariah rule by force, says the first information report (FIR). "Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh is determined to oust the government and establish Shariah law by force. To attain the goals, they have been stockpiling firearms and ammunition, staging blasts, killing and injuring the common people, and damaging public property. They have been engaged in conspiracy to dislodge the government and destroy the state structure by creating public hatred towards the existing laws and the government through leaflets and other means," reads the FIR.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2006
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Iran said it was prepared to talk directly with the United States about Iraq, a shift for a country that has long avoided negotiations with what it calls the "Great Satan". Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told reporters on Thursday that any talks between the United States and Iran would be limited to Iraqi issues.
Larijani, who is also Iran's top nuclear negotiator, said Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Baghdad, had repeatedly invited Iran for talks on Iraq. In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Khalilzad was authorised to talk to the Iranians about Iraq just as the United States had talked to Iran about Afghanistan. "This is a very narrow mandate dealing specifically with issues relating to Iraq," McClellan said, adding that it did not include US concerns about Iran's nuclear programme.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2006
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#1
Sure, we'll talk to Iran about Iraq.
Butt out, assholes.
And the next time we catch you sending arms and terrorists across the border, we'll bring them back to you. Via the 3rd ID Express.
Have a rotten nice day.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/17/2006 0:19
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I'm prepared to become independently wealthy, too.
#3
We need to get someone with the caliber of John Bolton to talk to whomever the Iranian M² rep is and lay down the law. And some real fear. And show him the LatLong coords of his home, and some other key figures, and tell him that they are already targeted.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/17/2006 21:02
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Tear gas used against French students protesting work laws French police have used tear gas and water cannons on students as protests against new youth employment laws gain momentum. Stone-throwing protesters clashed with police outside the Sorbonne university in Paris. A kiosk was set ablaze and several shop windows were smashed. The protests were organised in anger at the proposed First Employment Contract (CPE), a contested youth jobs measure.
The new laws remove unfair dismissal provisions from employment contracts for anyone under the age of 26. Unions, student groups and the political left say the CPE, which can be broken off without explanation in the first two years, is a licence to hire and fire at will, and are demanding its withdrawal. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who championed the scheme as a key tool in fighting youth unemployment, faces the most serious test of his premiership as the wave of protests paralyses dozens of French universities.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2006
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CHAD government forces have quashed an attempted military coup, the communications minister said yesterday. The plotters fled after being repulsed by loyal soldiers on Tuesday night, said Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor. The president, Idriss Deby, was out of the country at the time.
A coup that happens while the Boss is away? I think there are a few details missing from this story.
Old news, we ran this on Wed. Da Boss was out of country on business, junior officers tried to grab the throne, loyal troops put it down, plotters are running for their lives. It's right out of "African Coups For Dummies", chapters 5 - 7.
Security forces arrested three suspected militants and seized assault rifles and grenades at a roadblock near Wana, an intelligence official told agencies on Thursday. The men were arrested late on Wednesday as they drove a pickup truck on a road near the South Waziristan headquarters, the official said. Army troops manning a check point in Inzar Cheena, an area north of Wana, stopped the truck and found three AK-47 assault rifles and eight hand grenades, he said. The men were arrested and taken to a military base in Wana for further investigation, he said.
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Militants blew up two electricity pylons overnight, disrupting supplies to thousands of households in Quetta, officials said on Thursday. The attack occurred at Mutch, provincial government spokesman Raziq Bugti said. He said "miscreants who wants to destablise the region" used explosives to destroy the pylons, cutting electricity supplies for around an hour.
Meanwhile some unknown saboteurs blew up an electricity tower on Sibbi Quetta transmission line near Bibi Nami area early on Thursday. A press release by QESCO said that the blast resultantly cut short 300 megawatts electricity that would affect 20 grid stations in the province.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Post a notice at the base of the tower.
"This will not be repaired untill the bombers are caught and delivered to the Police"
When the residents want power restored, and deliver the perps names and addresses, this shit will stop.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/17/2006 8:18
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An Israeli soldier has been killed in a fierce gun battle that erupted after troops surrounded two houses in the West Bank. The shooting took place after Israeli troops took over homes in the town of Jenin where a group of gunmen was hiding, taking up position and fighting them. Palestinian witnesses said the soldiers had usef loudspeakers to call to the armed group to surrender. The Israeli army said an exchange of fire ensued, in which the soldier was killed. One Palestinian came running out early on in the gun battle, and four others surrendered later, it said.
Palestinian gunmen took to the streets immediately after the houses were surrounded, exchanging fire with troops. Palestinian students threw stones at Israeli soldiers, and an army bulldozer tried to disperse the crowd. The five men were said to belong to Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group with ties to the Fatah movement.
Earlier on Thursday, Palestinian gunmen shot and wounded two Israeli motorists near a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank. The Israelis were taken to hospital with light to moderate wounds, the army said. The Jenin operation comes two days after the army conducted a prison raid in the West Bank town of Jericho, spiriting away six prisoners, including Ahmed Saadat, a leader of the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
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POLICE have arrested two soldiers caught smuggling 64kg of heroin in an army ambulance in Afghanistan. The Afghan army officer and his driver were caught going from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar.
A 37-year-old Pakistani man has been found guilty by a Perth jury of involvement in an international people smuggling operation. It took the jury more than four hours to convict Masood Ahmed Chaudhry of two charges relating to the interception of a 20-metre-long Indonesian fishing boat carrying more than 200 people near Christmas Island in April 2001. The District Court was told Chaudhry demanded thousands of dollars and arranged fake passports for two Afghani men to travel from Pakistan to Indonesia, where they boarded the boat. He was remanded in custody until he is sentenced next month.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2006
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#1
Ok, I have to know. Where did you get that picture?
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006 7:39
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I believe it's from the beginning of the first "Men in Black" movie.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/17/2006 9:32
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Yes! Thanks, Dan
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006 9:45
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RIP... I suppose it's too late to ensure that with an ash stake through his black heart?
Ohh, was that cruel, disrespectful and anti-Serbian of me? Adjust, people. Life is just full of these little tragedies.
Police arrested a South Korean women on suspicion of burning down several buildings at a U.S. Army base in Seoul on Thursday because she was angry at what she saw as "U.S. terrorism." Three South Korean civilian employees were injured in the fire that started at a public works building at the base that serves as the headquarters for U.S. troops in South Korea. The fire spread to four other buildings, police said.
Police said they apprehended a 57-year-old woman who they suspect sneaked into the base and set fire to one building with a cigarette lighter. "She at one point said it was punishment for U.S. terrorism," a police officer said by telephone. Police said the woman apparently had a history of mental illness. There are about 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea to support some 690,00 South Korean troops in defense of the peninsula. Protests against the U.S. military presence in South Korea are a regular occurrence in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Protests against the U.S. military presence in South Korea are a regular occurrence in the country.
Remember, we can't leave even after reunification, however....
#2
Police said the woman apparently had a history of mental illness.
In the US we have the same situation. Feed daily by the overflowing cesspools of BDS in the MSM. Its not going to take much to push that one person over the edge. Flash point in 10, 9, 8.....
Gunmen have attacked a compound of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in southern Sudan, killing one person and critically wounding two others. One of the gunmen was killed and the other was captured in the Wednesday night raid in the town of Yei, the UNHCR said on Thursday. The gunmen, who broke into the compound, killed one of its Sudanese guards. They also shot a foreigner working for the UNHCR in the stomach and a second local guard in the leg, the statement said.
The staffer and the guards, who were flown to Juba, the main city in southern Sudan, early on Thursday are in critical condition in the local hospital. The agency plans to fly the wounded to Nairobi, Kenya, for further medical treatment.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Yeesh, I tried to tell you yellow-bellied Repubs. If only we had a Special Envoy on site. Now, the UN is gonna have to cut and run! (/sarcasm off/)
Posted by: San Fran Nan ||
03/17/2006 10:29
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Riot police last night fired rubber pellets and tear gas at students who pelted them with petrol bombs and stones as protests at new labour laws boiled over in the heart of Paris. Police fought running battles with the rioters, who set cars alight and smashed shop windows near the Sorbonne on the Left Bank. Many of the youths threw paving stones, metal street barriers and tables and chairs ripped from nearby cafes as they taunted police with cries of "CRS equals SS", comparing France's riot squads to Hitler's forces.
The CRS responded with a water cannon, tear gas, baton charges and rubber pellets to disperse the rioters, who formed a very small minority of the demonstrators. Police said they arrested 150 people, and that 35 officers suffered injuries.
Ah, a baton charge, if only they'd try that in Berkeley ...
It followed a day of peaceful protests across France in which almost 250,000 people took to the streets in nearly 200 marches. Police estimated that around 33,000 people marched in Paris, although the main student union said the figure was nearly four times higher. Another protest is planned for tomorrow, when students and union members will march together in an attempt to get the laws repealed.
The protests were against the first employment contract (CPE), a reform championed by the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin who is a man, which will allow employers to dismiss workers under 26 within their first two years in a job, without giving a reason. One in four young people in France is unemployed, but the figure rises to 50% in the poor suburbs chock full of seething Moose-limbs, the scene of weeks of rioting last autumn. The job contract was one of the government's responses to that violence, but students fear it will erode labour protection and leave the young by the wayside. The protests could hurt Mr de Villepin's hopes of running for president in 2007.
Which may well be an empty title by then.
By late last night, the rioters had been dispersed from the capital's Boulevard Saint-Michel. The shouts of "Villepin, you're toast - the students are in the streets!" had died out and calm had returned to the glass-strewn and marijuana-scented boulevard.
Students also disrupted rail services in about a dozen towns and cities across the country, the state rail operator said. Youths threw stones at police and vandalised cars in the eastern city of Nancy, while Toulouse University closed after clashes between students who wanted it shut in protest and those who wanted it kept open. Riot police dislodged about 100 students who occupied the city hall at Rennes in north-western France.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/17/2006
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Hhhhhhmmmmmm, iff I'm reading this correctly, the students, etal want top-notch job security and salaries when France as recent as last year was reportedly having $$$ difficulties burying the dead, or getting rid of aborted fetuses, etc in the name of normal/ordinary sanitation.
#2
"Villepin, you're toast - the students are in the streets!"
The same curious refrain: students possess the wisdom of the ages; students should decide the destiny of the country.
I wonder why that meme shows up so frequently. Probably some grad student can get a thesis out of the answer, but I don't know if it would be in sociology or abnormal psychology.
Posted by: James ||
03/17/2006 9:38
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Many of the youths threw paving stones
By now you'da figure the authorities might have changed paving methods.
Mauritania has appealed for international help to stem the flow of African migrants trying to leave the country for Europe. "We cannot control the land and sea borders, which are very wide - we can't withstand this growing pressure. We need help," said Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar, the Mauritanian prime minister, in an interview published in Spain's El Pais newspaper.
Traffic on the established migration route between Mauritania and Spain's Canary Islands has grown in recent weeks, with scores of young Africans leaving the Mauritanian coast every night in rickety fishing boats, hoping to find work in Spain.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Distribute navigation charts with the edge not far offshore, and labeled 'here there be monsters.' Some can probably be found in Spain's archives.
Ironic that those charts were only disproved with the aid of navigation techniques provided by Arabs.
(2006-03-16) In response to a Bush administration restatement today of the U.S. strategy for fighting the so-called war on terror, leading Congressional Democrats released a report reaffirming their partys approach to dealing with the causes of the hatred and intolerance that lead to acts of terrorism.
In a 48-page draft of the new National Security Strategy of the United States, the White House remains committed to fostering democracy by opening more McDonalds restaurants on the Arab Street and persuading Al Jazeera to carry the primetime lineup from Nick at Nite. While committed to global diplomacy first, President George Bush reserves the right to preemptively and repeatedly mispronounce the name of a foreign dictator until it causes regime change.
Meanwhile, Senators John Kerry and Harry Reid, along with Representatives Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha, said their commitment to the Democrat anti-terror strategy remains rock solid.
The first 1,474 pages of the alternative Democrat report focus on how the Bush administration has bungled the war on terror in everything from eavesdropping on innocent Americans to failing to catch the tallest man in Afghanistan.
The final page lays out the consistent, unwavering strategy that Democrats have endorsed since the days when presidential candidate John F. Kerry first said, I have a plan.
Above all, were determined to discover why terrorists hate us, according to the report which will have a catchy title within the next few months. If we can pinpoint the cause of their hatred, we can pass laws to become less threatening to them.
The report concludes that No one is better equipped to reveal whats wrong with America than the modern Democrat party.
#1
ANN COULTER > Dems > US-led War is justified only after one or more American cities have been attacked and destroyed, assuming of course the Dems are of a mindset to actually retaliate instead of saying said attacks were a reaction to America not obeying laws or the world community.
Likening the war on terror to the Cold War, George Shultz '42 said in a lecture yesterday that economic and political sustainability, coupled with military preparedness, is the only method to combat terrorism. "The world has never been in a situation of better promise than now," Shultz, who served as secretary of state for seven years under President Ronald Reagan, said. "The terrorists must not be allowed to abort this opportunity. We win the war against them by positive action and helping people see these improvements." This is the great optomism of Reagan shining through.
The lecture, sponsored by the Wilson School, was held in McCosh 50 in front of a half-capacity audience of faculty, community members and a few students. This is an absolute disgrace. I believe Schultz is bested only by George Catlett Marshall as most unappreciated American of the 20th Century.
To win the war on terror, Shultz said the United States should focus on education and communication within the Islamic world, while also cutting off funds to terrorists and controlling nuclear proliferation.
"Strength and diplomacy are complements rather than alternatives," he said. Addressing the recent controversy over domestic wiretapping, Shultz said he supported the administration's policy despite widespread public criticism. "I believe the program is important," he said. "It's too bad it's had all this publicity, because it has diminished our ability to use the program."
Shultz, who traced the war on terror back to the 1970s, divided the struggle into three stages. The first period, which lasted until Sept. 11, 2001, was marked by U.S. passivity and inaction toward terrorist attacks. Even in the 1990s, the U.S. government was aware of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda but failed to check their growth, much like American inaction during Hitler's rise to power, Shultz said. "The terrorists had completely free rein," he said.
September 11 set off the second, active military phase of the war against radical Islam, Shultz said. Americans were now aware that terrorist groups could target not just sovereign states, but also world finance, tourism and even air travel. At present, with the war in its third stage, Shultz said that economic and military sustainability are vital for America to prevail. And in Iraq, he said, Americans must remain dedicated to the cause. "We took far too long to put an Iraqi face on what we are doing in that country, but Iraqis now have responsibility," he said. I'm hoping the second stage isn't quite over.
#1
Rightists and Conservatives wanna see the promise fulfilled - the Lefties just want more failed and failing Socialism, Regulation, and really Really REALLY BIG GOVT, to make sure LeftSocialism's failures and defects goes Global and into Deep Space, unto the face of God aka the Great He-She-It Who Must Not Be Named/Exist!?
#2
I have to invoke the great Senator Joe McCarthy's bequest ("America's Retreat from Victory: The Story of George Catlett Marshall") to address the above praise of General Marshall. Said Joe: "If Marshall were merely stupid, the laws of probability would have dictated that at least some of his decisions would have served this country's interests...We have declined so precipitiously in relation to the Soviet Union in the past 6 years, how much swifter may be our fall into disaster with Marshall's policies continuing to guide us?..This is not a rhetorical question; ours is not a rhetorical danger...What is the objective of the conspiracy? I think it is clear from what has occurred and is now occurring: to diminish the United States in world affairs, to weaken us militarily, to confuse our spirit with talk of surrender in the Far East and to impair our will to resist evil. To what end?...There have been many examples in history of rich and powerful states which have been corrupted from within, enfeebled and deceived until they were unable to resist aggression."
A Palestinian leader seized by Israel in a raid on a West Bank jail denied any responsibility for his group's 2001 assassination of an Israeli Cabinet Minister, his lawyer said yesterday. "I reject the accusations," Ahmed Saadat was quoted as saying by his attorney, who met the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) chief at an Israeli detention center in Jerusalem.
"Wudn't me."
Israel has said Saadat, taken into custody during a raid on a Jericho prison on Tuesday, gave the orders for the killing of Cabinet Minister Rehavam Zeevi. The PFLP said it shot Zeevi to avenge Israel's killing of one of its leaders. Four members of a PFLP cell convicted by a Palestinian court in 2002 of carrying out the assassination were also seized by Israeli troops at the jail after a daylong siege. Saadat was jailed by the Palestinians in connection with the assassination but was never convicted of the charge.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A spokesman for the NWFP Governor's Federally Administered Tribal Areas Secretariat denied on Thursday that local Taliban had been allowed to open offices in Wana to enforce Islamic law in South Waziristan. "No office has been opened or is in the process of opening in Wana under the auspices of seminary students or so-called Taliban," he said. "Some newspapers in their reports and editorial comments have painted a very grim picture of the situation in South Waziristan," the spokesman said. "This is completely baseless."
"Nope. Nope. Never happened. Nope."
Then his lips fell off.
Posted by: Fred ||
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HALABJA, Iraq, March 16 For nearly two decades, Kurds have gathered peacefully in this mountainous corner of northern Iraq to commemorate one of the blackest days in their history. It was here that Saddam Hussein's government launched a poison gas attack that killed more than 5,000 people on March 16, 1988.
So it came as a shock when hundreds of stone-throwing protesters took to the streets here Thursday on the anniversary, beating back government guards to storm and destroy a museum dedicated to the memory of the Halabja attack.
The violence, pitting furious local residents against a much smaller force of armed security men, was the most serious popular challenge to the political parties that have ruled Iraqi Kurdistan for the past 15 years. Occurring on the day the new Iraqi Parliament met for the first time, the episode was a reminder that the issues facing Iraq go well beyond fighting Sunni Arab insurgents and agreeing on cabinet ministers in Baghdad.
Although Kurdistan remains a relative oasis of stability in a country increasingly threatened by sectarian violence, the protests here which left the renowned Halabja Monument a charred, smoking ruin starkly illustrated those challenges even in Iraq's most peaceful region.
Many Kurds have grown angry at what they view as the corruption and tyranny of the two dominant political parties here. They accuse their regional government of stealing donations gathered to help survivors of the poison gas attack. The town's residents chose Thursday to close off the town's main road and rally against government corruption. When government guards fired weapons over the protesters' heads, the crowd went wild and attacked the monument.
The sudden and deliberate destruction of such a well-known symbol of Kurdish suffering clearly stunned officials with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which governs the eastern part of the Kurdish region. But many local people, including survivors of the 1988 attack said the Patriotic Union was to blame, having transformed the monument into an emblem of its own tyranny and greed. "All the money given by foreign countries has been stolen," said Sarwat Aziz, 24, as he marched to the museum in a crowd of furious, chanting young men. "After 18 years, Halabja is still full of debris from the war, we don't even have decent roads."
Several protests have occurred in recent months against the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which runs western Kurdistan and is led by Massoud Barzani. But nothing has come close to the violence that erupted Thursday in Halabja.
Apparently unnerved by the prospect of publicity, party militia members tried twice to confiscate the cameras of a photographer for The New York Times who was leaving Halabja by car Thursday evening, and only stopped after an appeal to high-ranking party officials.
At a hastily arranged news conference in Halabja, Emad Ahmad, the acting regional prime minister and a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan official, said the party would "try to address any defects and corruption that exist within the administration." He said the demonstration had started peacefully only to be overtaken by outsiders, and he hinted that Islamic radicals might be to blame. "There is a hand behind this, and we must cut off the hand," Mr. Ahmad said.
For once the NYT might have it right: the locals are mad because of the thievery.
An Islamic opposition movement operates in Halabja, though there were no signs that it had a role in organizing the demonstration.
By all appearances, the attack on the Halabja Monument was an authentic expression of popular rage. The crowd contained young and old, men and women. Most seemed to view the museum which was inaugurated in September 2003 at a ceremony attended by Colin L. Powell, then the secretary of state as the prop of an unjust government. "That monument over there has become the main problem for Halabja," said Bakhtiar Ahmad, nodding at the museum, with its distinctive yellow crown-shaped roof. "All the foreign guests are taken there, not to the city."
Nearby, Tara Rahim, a quiet 19-year-old dressed in a neat black cloak and head scarf, said she had come to honor her sister Zara, killed in the 1988 attack, and to stop the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan from taking advantage of the anniversary. "Kurdish officials used Halabja to gather money," she said, standing with a group of eight other identically dressed young women. "Millions of dollars has been spent, but nothing has reached us."
The protest began about 9 a.m., when local residents poured onto Halabja's main road and ignited tires. As the crowd grew, protesters moved toward the monument and hurled stones at a sign outside that read, in Kurdish, "No Baathists Allowed Here." It collapsed in pieces.
About 40 Patriotic Union of Kurdistan guards, gathered around the monument, began firing long machine-gun bursts into the air. The sound echoed like thunderclaps against the towering wall of snow-capped mountains that forms the Iranian border, a few miles away. The shooting only enraged the crowd, and as the guards retreated in a panic, the protesters reached the monument and began smashing its windows and glass display cases with stones. Inside, protesters poured propane from a can and set fire to it. Within minutes, flames were licking from the windows and a thick column of black smoke was twisting into the bright blue sky.
The security guards moved back toward the monument, and some began firing weapons into the retreating crowd. One bullet sliced through the chest of Kurdistan Ahmed, a 17-year-old high school student, and he collapsed onto the grass, dying.
By noon, it was over. One protester was dead, six were wounded, and most of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan guards had retreated to their compound on the edge of town, leaving the monument a blackened hulk of broken glass and shattered tiles.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Reading the Kurdish Media reports, this is what it appears to be. A spontaneous protest against corruption and (clan based) favoritism.
Another example of clueless journalists and editors at the NYT. Propane is a gas at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, and hence cannot be poured.
#3
Huh. I had been under the impression that Kurds might be a shining example of how not all Muslims are inherently violent self-destructive sub-human savages. Seems I may have been wrong.
#4
this is the first genuinly disturbing story to come out about the Kurds since the war started i think. This is indeed a dark event for Iraqs future unlike so many other bad events which are hyped by the media as 'the start or civil war' but alot of incidents like this could well upset the apple cart. A quick question- just how intergrated is the kurdish region with the rest of Iraq, is it getting more distant and seperate or is it just the media loathe to mention the success story that has been the Kurdish area.
#5
There has been very little decent reporting in the mainstream press about the internals of Kurdistan. Almost everything I've seen has been about the insurgency, the elections, the parliamentary wrangling, the "civil war". We don't know what led to this except in the broadest brush sense. Now that it has boiled over we'll probably get some of it, but not all.
After over a decade of involvement with Iraq now, these are definitely the good guys of the lot. I don't doubt for a minute they had their reasons, either, as intelligent people don't face down machine guns over trivia, and the Kurds have shown they're very intelligent. Fighting political machines and their inherent corruption is a time-honored American tradition, assuming the Times got that much right, at least.
Thank you, phil_b, for the link. That's an even better place to start. Just as with everything else, including here at home, I'll have dig and educate myself.
#7
I'm not sure this is a bad thing, aside, obviously, from the loss of life. Given enough time in office, all politicians become corrupt. Perhaps they'll follow this up with effective campaigning and action at the ballot box. At least they don't have to be worried about being gassed.
#8
problem was, back when Saddam was in power, and liberated Kurdistan was under the protection of the no fly zones, the KDP and PUK, managed a peace by dividing the land into two subregions. KDP and PUK were former rebel groups, and this may have been a necessary step in their transition to political parties. As has been widely noted, their administration was orderly, stable, secular, and more or less open - no political prisoners, torture, etc. OTOH it wasnt really democratic, each party controlling its own zone, and I presume there was at least some corruption, if not out of the ballpark by third world standards.
Well, while supporting democratic politics nationally, the KDP and the PUK continue to exercise firm dominance in Kurdistan. And Kurdistan, much more so than the rest of Iraq, is prospering - which means more temptations for officials to extract corruption.
Hopefully the PUK and KDP will take this seriously.
#10
their administration was orderly, stable, secular, and more or less open - no political prisoners, torture, etc. OTOH it wasnt really democratic, each party controlling its own zone
Yes it does sound like New York.
#11
Many Kurds have grown angry at what they view as the corruption and tyranny of the two dominant political parties here. They accuse their regional government of stealing donations gathered to help survivors of the poison gas attack.
The memorial's burning by the Kurds reminds me very little of the Amish who, when angered, burn down their own barns. Goodness knows that the Halabja memorial was probably built with diverted aid money so it did not have to come out of official pockets.
I doubt many of us, including myself, can truly imagine the staggering level of corruption in the region, much less the profound impact it has on daily lives. Graft and bribery literally keep these people suspended in the stone age. It warms the cockles of my heart to think that Iraqi sunnis are finding the shoe on the other foot.
#12
Many Kurds have grown angry at what they view as the corruption and tyranny of the two dominant political parties here. They accuse their regional government of stealing donations gathered to help survivors of the poison gas attack. The town's residents chose Thursday to close off the town's main road and rally against government corruption. When government guards fired weapons over the protesters' heads, the crowd went wild and attacked the monument.
gromgoru, think of the old saying, "you screw your friends because your enemies won't let you get close enough." Now, apply that same modus operendi to the shrine, merely a proximity factor at work.
Plus, if you think about it, here's this expensive building that essentially rubs their nose in commemorates a ghastly episode which left many still living in worse structures than that of the shrine. Sort of like the old t-shirts that say, "my folks got gassed went to Hawaii, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."
#14
I didnt' know that about the Amish, Zenster. That does show an admirable understanding of the difference between mine and thine, although burning down the barn is one heckuva temper tantrum.
I am confused, though: where did the Sunnis come from in the final paragraph?
#15
I am confused, though: where did the Sunnis come from in the final paragraph?
It's about the Kurds protesting corruption and how the minority Sunnis who have caused so much grief and were responsible for so much of the official corruption are now on the receiving end from Shiites and Kurds alike. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.
Now, as to that "mad as a hatter" bit of diatribe dialogue in yesterday's "Life Was Better" thread (http://rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=145635&D=2006-03-16&HC=1), please retrieve it from the Rantburg Archives and then Google on these two words:
Dead + Parrot
[Big Grin]
Have a good weekend, trailing wife. I hope this leaves you with a smile.
#16
I've poured propane out of a vessel, but it was 50 below zero (C or F, it doesn't matter). Then light it and stand back! Once it gets some heat, it starts vaporizing and BOOSH! You have one hell of a fire!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/17/2006 21:44
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Alaska Paul, this is why we keep you engineers isolated from the rest of humanity. ;-)
Aaaah, Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch. Got it, Zenster. Thanks!
The government has formally started its work to ferret out the godfathers of the two top-most leaders of JMB Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai and its sources of funds at home and abroad with a view to rooting out militancy from the country.
Unfortunately, they keep speaking of Bhai in the present tense.
A high-powered three-member probe committee headed by a Special Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Special Branch (SB) has been formed to look into the matter of locating JMBs sources of funds. A high official at Bangladesh Bank (BB) and a RAB official are also in the committee. The committee will also investigate the persons patronising the organisation by providing financial assistance. It will try to know why the so-called patrons have financed the organisation.
To cause terror, you twits.
Talking to newsmen Lutfozzaman Babar, State Minister for Home Affairs, said, "A three-member probe committee was formed to detect the sources of funds, the financiers and the cause of providing money to the militants." Expressing his deep concern over the matter, he said the militancy will not stop until we can find out the sources of funds and arrest the financiers, who have provided the money. "The committee has been asked to submit the report within seven days," he added.
The government is preparing a list of the financiers who provided money to the Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) cadres to run the activities of the organisation in the country in a bid to establish what they call the rule of Allah.
Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies are closely watching the movement of some 25 influential persons as they got their names by tapping phone calls. Requesting anonymity, a highly placed source having connection with intelligence agencies said there were some high-profile politicians and businessmen in the list adding that the big fishes were under strict intelligence watch and would be arrested after getting green signal from the government.
In the first phase of remand, Shaikh Abdur Rahman told the Task Force Intelligence (TFI) personnel that JMB collected 10,000 pounds sterling in bribes from two Bangladeshi-born British citizens and the rest of the funds from bank robbery, looting of NGO office, Jakat fund and other sources.
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The government lawyer who improperly contacted witnesses, dealing a blow to the US case against September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, has been put on administrative leave. Officials from the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security said Carla Martin, 51, was placed on paid administrative leave on Wednesday. They did not say what disciplinary measures, if any, might be taken. The move was taken after the discovery that Ms Martin, a TSA lawyer who served as the liaison with federal prosecutors and the Federal Aviation Administration for the Moussaoui trial, had violated a court order and damaged the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2006
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#1
On leave?
Why isn't she (1) fired and (2)in jail for contempt? Or at least for terminal stupidity incompetence. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/17/2006 0:21
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Not only did she damage the case, more like single handedly destroyed it, she imbarased the United States judicial system. She should be disbarred, for stupidity, charged with tampering with a federal trial, and completely investigated by the IRS and FBI to see if she did this on purpose for money or for iealogical reasons.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/17/2006 7:45
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#3
My public edication is showing again. I meant to say "Ideological"
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/17/2006 7:47
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Barbara, remember, she works for the TSA. If anything, she'll probably get promoted for this.
#5
LOL, DB. Funny thing is, the way it's described, this kind of "coaching" goes on all the stinkin' time in Federal cases. Almost has to, in order to ensure your witnesses are tough enough to stand up to cross-examinations. However, when the judge said "Don't do this", you shouldn't do it. She should be held in contempt and placed on leave w/o pay, in my mind.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 9:41
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Give her home address to the 9-11 victim families. [/sarcasm]
#7
What DB siad: in a former life I was reduced to working for the TSA (only because all the Greyhound bus terminal urinal cleaner positions were taken) and I witnessed numerous instances of turds flosting to the top. Remember the Sea-Tac Airport TSA management shake up?
Oxfam Australia says Australians who gave money after the Asian tsunami can be assured their donations are being closely monitored. Oxfam has suspended some of its operations in the Indonesian province of Aceh after discovering the possible theft of thousands of dollars of aid. Emergency work, including the delivery of water and rubbish removal will continue, but operations including house building and livelihood support have been suspended.
The executive director of Oxfam Australia, Andrew Hewitt, says a full investigation into the financial irregularities is under way. "We believe its our responsibility to inform donors about what's happening with their money," he said. Where there have been irregularities we believe it's important to inform donors of those. We want to make sure that they're kept fully in the picture. It's been the result of our thorough monitoring that we've been able to uncover these instances."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2006
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#1
Oxfam Australia says Australians who gave money after the Asian tsunami can be assured their donations are being closely monitored.
Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Australia. We monitored that money as it went into the waiter's pocket for his tip and that lap dancer for her tip as well.
Exiled Syrian opposition leaders have met in Brussels in an attempt to form a united front aimed at toppling Bashar al-Assad. A former Syrian vice-president and the head of the Muslim Brotherhood attended the gathering on Thursday Abdel-Halim Khaddam, the former vice-president who broke with Assad, the Syrian president, last year after serving under his late father Hafez al-Assad, was involved in the talks with nationalists, liberals, Islamists, Kurds and communists, participants said. Husam al-Dairi, Washington-based leader of the Syrian Liberal National Democratic Party said "This is the first time in history that all the opposition movements inside and outside Syria have sat down at one table and agreed on a common plan".
He said the coalition of 25 opposition individuals and movements, including the London-based Muslim Brotherhood secretary-general, Ali Saad-al-din Bayanouni, would elect a leader at the Brussels meeting and announce its programme on Friday. Khaddam, who lives in France, chose to stage the meeting in Belgium because he is bound by French law to refrain from political activities under the terms of his political asylum, his son Jihad Khaddam said. "The Syrian people can no longer stand the pressure of the regime and is going to revolt," Jihad Khaddam said, adding that his father had vowed to return home to Damascus after a revolution before the end of this summer. "The coalition is open to everyone. Of course we cannot name the supporters inside for their own safety," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2006
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Pakistan is holding a Syrian-born man with suspected terrorism links, a government official said on Thursday. The official gave no further details, including when or where the man was detained.Pakistani authorities said in November that they were trying to determine whether a man detained during a police raid in Quetta was Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, the Al Qaeda leader believed to have been the mastermind of the Madrid bombings in March 2004 and also linked to the July 7 suicide bombings in London. The train bombings in Madrid killed 192 people and the attacks in London left 56 dead.
Forty-seven-year-old Nasar, who holds Spanish citizenship, has a $5 million reward on his head and has been described by the US Justice Department as a former trainer at Osama Bin Ladens camps in Afghanistan who helped teach the use of poisons and chemicals. US authorities have said that he is likely to be in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Jose-Maria Robels, Spains ambassador to Pakistan, said on Thursday that he had no information about any such arrest. Spain sought official confirmation from Pakistan after Nasars arrest was reported by the media in November, but has yet to receive a reply, he said. In September 2003, Nasar was among 35 people named in an indictment handed down by a Spanish magistrate for terrorist activities connected to Al Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2006
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#1
Um... the timing of this is not good. Why are the Pakis choosing now to "confirm" this? Is he being held in the same sort of rigorous captivity as Omar Sayeed Sheikh? Are a couple trains in Milan going to go boom tomorrow? I don't like this.
KOLKATA - India will soon start a major expansion of its military presence in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a year after the Asian tsunami wrecked defence bases there, a top commander said on Thursday. The plans include construction of three new air bases to add to the one existing base, increasing coast guard troop levels and strengthening infrastructure at old facilities in the strategically vital archipelago in the Bay of Bengal.
Our expansion plans are totally transparent and the defensive measures are being taken to ensure the safety and security of the islands only, said Vice-Admiral Arun Kumar Singh, commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command.
And the surrounding area, which is strategically important to lots of us. And it's just a coincidence that this is announced just after GWB visits.
We have found an unused 3,000-feet (900-metre) World War Two runway in very good condition in Kamorta (island), which we are planning to develop soon, Singh told Reuters by phone from Port Blair, capital of the island group, referring to one of the three new air bases planned. Two other air bases would be built in Diglipur and Campbell Bay after small airstrips there are lengthened to handle large transport and fighter aircraft, he said.
The Andaman and Nicobar islands are located about 1,200 km (750 miles) east of the Indian mainland, close to the Malacca Strait, the main sea lane between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea leading to the Pacific. India has an air and naval bases and listening posts across the archipelago as it considers the sea routes vital to its security and to guard against what some defence experts say is Chinas increasing interest in the region.
Sea routes in the region are known to be used to ship weapons destined for rebels in northeastern India, Myanmar or Bangladesh and drug smuggling. They are also prone to smuggling, piracy, poaching and illegal immigration.
The Great Nicobar island lies just 65 miles (100 km) from Sumatra and was considered vulnerable when Indonesian President Sukarno offered to take the islands to help Pakistan during its 1965 war with India.
Vice-Admiral Singh said that the runway in Campbell Bay would also be elevated to keep the sea away and sea walls built to protect personnel and the local population.
The Andamans were badly hit by the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami, with more than 3,500 people killed and nearly 40,000 displaced. But the facility was quickly repaired and the Indian Air Force even conducted exercises involving Sukhois and Jaguar fighters in what was seen as a signal to the world that New Delhis defence installations were back in good shape.
Many Indian defence experts believe that China has military or intelligence facilities on Myanmars Coco Islands, a few miles away from Indias Diglipur, 185 km (115 miles) north of Port Blair.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/17/2006
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A good bit of construction in the most geologically unsound area in the world , looks like a sure-fire , well planned investment to me ... bound to succeed , i guess the running costs will be a little high though .
Saying that though , a large base is needed in that particular region for the reasons set out in the articale , even if its just 'cosmetic'
Also , hope the natives have calmed down on their cannabilistic ways !!
A Dutch multicultural group is organizing a soccer tournament between gays and Muslims, hoping to counter what a study published on Thursday said was a rising tide of fear among gays. What about cartoonists?
A nationwide survey by the Police Research Academy said that most gays questioned feel unsafe and reported experiencing verbal attacks in the last year. Of the 776 homosexuals who responded to an internet questionnaire, 80 percent said they believed their safety was threatened at some time during the year, said academy director Frits Vlek, who commissioned the research. Only 3 percent said they were physically assaulted, Vlek said in an interview, but some 40 percent claimed they had been insulted or verbally abused.
Youths from Moroccan and Turkish backgrounds often were blamed for the incidents, Vlek said, since homosexuality is not widely accepted in many Muslim cultures. "Parts of the Muslim community still resist homosexuality and receive little education about it," he said.
Muslim-gay tension is the theme of the soccer tournament organized by the Institute of Multicultural Development, to be held next week. An organizer of the group, Suzanne Ijsselmuiden, said she hoped the competition will "help ease these tensions so that people can openly talk about homosexuality." Gay Muslims can take their choice of teams, she said. "People can have many identities."
A Latin team along with a team of all-women players has also been assembled for the government-sponsored competition.
#2
" Gay Muslims can take their choice of teams," she said
Because members of a culture that at best harasses those openly homosexual are going to parade that aspect of themselves in front of the entire world? Some people are so clever that if they were a knife they'd cut themselves.
#3
Listen to Dogs, you are bringing your cultural judgements to bear here. To them, only the one at the receiving end is homosexual -- the other guy is just doing what guys do when they find an available orifice. Do stop being so judgemental. ;-)
#5
trailing wife:
I have been to their countries. If they prolong a handshake for over 10 seconds, then you know they are gay. And I remember a lot of long and unwelcome handshakes.
#9
Only 3 percent said they were physically assaulted, Vlek said in an interview, but some 40 percent claimed they had been insulted or verbally abused.
Wonder if this counts insults or abuse from their "partners"? Although, this ought to be a hoot to watch. And, I've gotta wonder, if the gays play the girls, will they both have pink uniforms?
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 9:53
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Everyone is happy! Losers will be sodomized then beheaded.
#18
And I remember a lot of long and unwelcome handshakes.
Listen to Dogs, I only meant to tease you a little. I've had my hand kissed a few times, but nothing like that kind of handshake. Of course, I'm oblivious enough that I've several times had to be informed afterwards that someone tried to pick me up. It's prob'ly just as well it was you in that part of the world, and not I. On the other hand, I weigh considerably less than the Egyptian ideal of 100kg and have only borne daughters, so no doubt you are much more attractive anyway. ;-)
A demonstrator charged with soliciting murder following angry protests in London against the publication of the Prophet Muhammad [PTUI PBUH] cartoons was due before a court on Thursday. Uman Javed, 26, of Birmingham, who was scheduled to appear at Bow Street Magistrates' Court, faces a second count of using words likely to stir up racial hatred. Placards seen at the protest carried slogans including "Europe your 9/11 will come", "behead the one who insults the Prophet Muhammad [PTUI PBUH]", "be prepared for the real Holocaust" and "massacre those who insult Islam".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2006
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#1
Is it likely than anything will come of these charges?
#5
"be prepared for the real Holocaust" and "massacre those who insult Islam".
They just don't get it, do they? Constantly threatening a much larger world full of non-Muslims with "holocaust" and "massacre" is going to result in only one thing, a Muslim holocaust. I'm beginning to think that it will be the only way to fix the problem.
#8
that's because it's all you ever think about, Zenster.
If you actually paid close attention, you'd realize that I would prefer it immensely if there was some way to avert the huge loss of life such a lamentable event would incur.
This is why I advocate a temporary ban on Islam in nations with freedom of religion until Islamic dominated countries institute similar religious freedoms in theirs. Otherwise, Islam identifies itself as a political ideology and it no longer qualifies as a religion.
This is why I have advocated seeking measures like taking the shrines at Medina and Mecca hostage until there is a cessation of terrorist atrocities. Not that my suggestion is a perfectly workable solution but that it is important for the world to begin examining alternatives that do not involve extermination.
As Wretchard at Belmont Club noted in his superb treatment of the potential for a Muslim nuclear holocaust, "The Three Conjectures" (have you even bothered to read it?), this is the "golden hour" for Islam. Much like the brief 60 minutes a battlefield surgeon has to save the life of a seriously wounded soldier, Islam, knowingly or not, is pushing itself towards the edge of extinction. We are not the ones hurrying them towards such a catastrophe. One terrorist group delivering one single terrorist nuclear attack in America could trigger such a holocaust.
I am concerned about answers, be they peaceful or not is largely up to the Muslims themselves. If they will not or cannot find a path towards peaceful resolution then I shall not waste my time upon seeking one either. That is why you may perceive intolerance upon my part or the "kill 'em all" attitude that I am constantly accused of despite a total lack of evidence to support such a false accusation.
#12
" ..the real holocaust" ?
Hey, wait just a minute. Everybody knows the Mossad did it. The joooos always do things like that. Stop trying to steal their glory!
Posted by: D Harris ||
03/17/2006 23:44
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TOKYO, March 16, 2006 (AFP) - Japan's top oil company is slashing crude imports from Iran as a precaution given the risk to supply from the Islamic republic in the deepening crisis over its nuclear programme, analysts said Thursday.
While privately run Nippon Oil is unlikely to have any political agenda, its move is bound to attract the attention of Iranian leaders who count on Japan as their biggest oil customer, they added. Nippon Oil said its imports from Iran will be cut 15 percent this year due to a change in brokers and in part due to the international standoff over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Japan, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, as a result becomes the first country to reduce its exposure to Iran since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in August, upping confrontation with the West. "Japan is one of the most conservative countries in the world when it comes to the supply of oil for the refineries," said Tony Nunan, manager for energy risk management at Mitsubishi Corp. "With Iran, there's concern that if there are any sanctions, either imposed by the UN -- which we don't expect -- or retaliation by Iran against other sanctions, there could be problems with supply," he said.
"It could have been that (the contracts were) up for term renewals and Nippon Oil decided to simply reduce its volume at an appropriate time."
Japan is Iran's biggest oil customer, taking around a quarter of its exports, although it buys more in total from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Other major Japanese refineries contacted by AFP said they had no plans to reduce imports from Iran.
Nippon Oil itself played down its decision, saying it would not reduce direct imports, only those done through brokers. "Trade between Iran and our company will never decrease. It could increase in the future," Nippon Oil president Fumiaki Watari said, as quoted by a company spokesman.
"From a business standpoint, the announcement will have no effect on either Japan and Iran. Iran has many options to sell its oil," Sato said. "But how they take the message is another thing," he said.
Sato also noted that Ahmadinejad is surrounded by officials sympathetic to China, which has been increasingly competing with Japan for desperately needed energy resources in the East China Sea and Siberia. "Even if Japan reduces Iranian oil imports, Iran knows China would buy as much oil as it produces," he said.
Japan is better placed to withstand an oil shock than it was during previous crises in 1973 and 1979, said Akio Shibata, deputy director at the research arm of trading house Marubeni. "The impact on the Japanese economy is still limited as the energy efficiency of the Japanese economy has increased significantly from two decades ago," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/17/2006
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#1
The important statistic is: Iran is a net importer of refined petroleum. We don't have to bomb them back to the Stone Age. A little blockade action and they will be riding stage coaches.
#2
Take note diplomatic weenies around the word. Thats how you send a message. Leave the bluster and saber rattling to the big boys. Justify your decision simply as a straightforward pragmatic move to better position yourself in the event of another world oil shock. Theres nothing like a little economic hit to accelerate reflection on the principles of Geo-political cause and effect.
#4
At the macro level, probably, Perfesser. Then again, maybe not...
Someone please correct me, in lay language, where I'm wrong:
This will reduce their need to go to the spot market and pay the astronomical premiums which will result from, IIRC, 15% of the world's oil supply dropping out of the market. Everybody with solid contracts elsewhere will be shielded for the duration, except for possible pricing clauses which may allow for increases.
Everyone dependent upon Iranian crude will be in the spot market and it will be rather "exciting". You know what a bunch of panty-waists those oil traders are...
I expect China to suffer most - stuck with the spot market because they're rather jaded and believe they can head off the Iranian crisis to their own benefit, followed by Japan - to the extent they can't get reasonable replacement contracts, then Europe.
Tehran, Iran, Mar. 16 Irans paramilitary police arrested 1,000 individuals in the Iranian capital during Tuesday nights annual fire festival, Tehrans deputy chief prosecutor announced on Thursday. On the night leading to the [Persian calendar] years final Wednesday, 1,000 individuals who were creating disorder and disruption were arrested across Tehran, Mahmoud Salarkia announced. His comments were carried by the state-run news agency ISNA.
The figure was considerably higher than the one announced earlier by Greater Tehrans chief of police. Brigadier General Morteza Talai said on Wednesday that the security forces had arrested 174 people in Tehran during the festival which dissidents turned into widespread anti-government protests.
Salalrkia said that individuals sent to prison for their actions late Tuesday would remain behind bars over the Persian New Year period, adding that a number of detained individuals who repented in writing had been released. Talai had said that some 729 motorcyclists who broke the ban on motorbike riding during the day were detained.
Wonder if we can send the Hell's Angels to Iran. Just for a while?
Despite a massive crackdown to prevent this years fire festival from turning into scenes of anti-governments protests, young people took to the streets across Iran to defy the government ban and celebrate the last Tuesday of the Persian year with a big bang. In Tehran and several other cities effigies of Irans theocratic rulers, including those of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were set on fire. Posters of Iranian officials hung on lampposts in Tehran as well as in other towns and cities were also burnt by disillusioned youths.
From the Sorbonne to the streets of Tehran ...
Irans State Security Forces (SSF) had also stepped up arrests of people for distribution of fireworks in the past several days. The festival is barely tolerated by the authorities in the Islamic Republic, who object to it on the grounds that it is un-Islamic.
Most everything that is fun is somehow un-Islamic.
The Tehran Public Prosecution Office had issued a statement, announcing that individuals caught creating disruption in public order will receive jail sentences of between three months to one year and up to 74 lashes on their backs in accordance with Irans Islamic laws. Individuals caught distributing fireworks will receive between three and ten years in prison, the statement said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/17/2006
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#1
Sounds like just another excuse to jail dissenters and imprison them for a long time in hopes they will die.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/17/2006 2:22
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#2
At least the street dogs wont be cowering ...
Im an animal lover dont 'cha know ?!
Any pressure internally on Irans regime is good news for me
#3
Posters of Iranian officials hung on lampposts in Tehran
Almost got it, I'm hoping for Iranian officials hung on lampposts in Tehran
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006 7:45
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#4
I imagine that the festival is also the Zoroastrians way of letting the Mullahs know they are still present and voting. And that if they had their druthers, the Mullahs heads would be gracing pikes.
#7
The Tehran Public Prosecution Office had issued a statement, announcing that individuals caught creating disruption in public order will receive jail sentences of between three months to one year and up to 74 lashes on their backs in accordance with Irans Islamic laws. Individuals caught distributing fireworks will receive between three and ten years in prison, the statement said.
Yeesh! Must be the Islamic Logic decoder is off. You tellin' me that those who protested the MMs got shorter jail sentences (by 3-10 times) than those distributing fireworks? Must make sense in the Mullah's minds. I see a new bumper sticker:
"P!ss off a mullah
Buy Black Cats!"
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 10:37
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#8
I have a BETTER idea!!!!
This ought to lather up a lot of Mullah Beards!
Boo!
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg assailed the court's congressional critics in a recent speech overseas, saying their efforts "fuel" an "irrational fringe" that threatened her life and that of a colleague, former justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Addressing an audience at the Constitutional Court of South Africa on Feb. 7, the 73-year-old justice, known as one of the court's more liberal members, criticized various Republican-proposed House and Senate measures that either decry or would bar the citation of foreign law in the Supreme Court's constitutional rulings. Conservatives often see the citing of foreign laws in court rulings as an affront to American sovereignty, adding to a list of grievances they have against judges that include rulings supporting abortion rights or gay rights.
Though the proposals do not seem headed for passage, Ginsburg said, "it is disquieting that they have attracted sizeable support. And one not-so-small concern -- they fuel the irrational fringe."
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/17/2006
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#3
Arrogant warmongering trouble-making Male Brute GOP-Conservative Fascists = Half-A-Commie(s) trying to escape the glutches of their Commie Mothers again - look, Ruthie, bring it up again when Russia-China, etal. dev a history of using American laws in own jurisprudence systems: DON'T ARGUE GLOBAL/INTERNAT EQUALISM, BILATERALISM, or MUTI-LATERALISM WHEN YOU REALLY MEAN "AMERICA-ONLY"!? No law(s) in America stops the US DemoLeft from making the same public or private demands on other world states which the US DemoLeft demands from America.
#6
Why this sudden need to go abroad to criticize? Is she not capable of saying such things at home, where something might be done about it... if there is something that needs to be done? Was it perhaps a mild senility that led to her retirement?
#8
Well, I for one am beside myself with joy that she is going on a fact finding trip of international courts to bolster her fine arguments for inspired decisions like Kelo.
I mean, US Constitutional law is sooooo restrictive on what an unelected judge can do....
#12
When will they get it through their thick skulls that the large majority of America has begun to see them as the lunatic fringe and shoving their morals down our throats? 33 years later, Roe v Wade (no matter your feelings on the matter) is still un-settled law, in that it's still very much debated publicly, and not accepted by many in the US. Even without that, though their march to protect it all the way to 9 months (and sometimes beyond) after conception disgusts a huge majority of Americans. Many show that even those who agree with RvW may not agree with it all the way to term (e.g. the courts' smack down of the Partial birth Abortion Ban, smack downs of State parental notification laws, etc.). But add all the other rulings more recently (gay "rights", Kelo (eminent domain), the ACLUs march to ban any single crucifix in the nation, etc.) decided by them and you see why Jefferson called them "the despotic branch." Even if Roe v Wade gets overturned (a BIG if), it still basically goes back to the way it was pre-Roe...to the States. You can't tell me that blue states will "ban" abortion too (like California, NY, pretty much the entire NE, etc.).
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 10:16
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#13
that should be "Many polls show..."
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 10:16
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#14
Sorry, that was me ranting....Anyways, I meant to add that we have enough issues here just following our own Constitution. Throw in other nation's laws/mores, and besides being un-Constitutional itself, you're asking for a disaster.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 10:18
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#15
Bros. Judd posted an article yesterday(?) that Germany has a more restrictive abortion policy than we do, yet our jet-setting international law-loving judges don't want to apply that particular law.....
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#24
I find it very interesting that she traveled to South Africa and sited some web site that allegedly addressed "Commando" threats to her life. The word "kommando" is an Afriaans invention dating back to the early Boer Wars. Boer cavalary elements were so named. One must wonder if it's use in her speech was intentional.
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#26
Clearly paranoid, Bystander. Have you taken your meds today? Did you support "poor Harriet Miers"?
For many of us, one of our reasons for voting for Bush was to get judges like Roberts and Alito. Are ANY of my fellow Bush-supporters here disappointed with Roberts and Alito?
Oh, by the way, Bystander, we love John Bolton too. Try not to soil your pants at the thought.
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#32
Clearly paranoid, Bystander. Have you taken your meds today? Did you support "poor Harriet Miers"?
Whah, whah, whah! Poor Harriet Miers. Good grief, you think that bistander had forgotten how the Dems treated Robert Bork and Justice (my, how I love the sound of that) Clarence Thomas? Now, THAT was brutal! And, somehow, just because lil' old Ruth Bader Ginsburg said it was the VRWC boogie men attacking her doesn't make it so, Bi! Whoops, almost forgot to add your signature ROFLMAO!
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 18:10
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#33
Whoops, cut and pasted wrong quote. Meant to cut/paste this one at top of my previous rant (sorry Darrell). And, none of us really think the libs used their nominees to "take over the USSC and enforce it's agenda thru pressuring President Bush and the Republican Congress into nominating only persons pre-approved by them" do we Rantburgers?
"Whats really interesting is the rise of the Conservative movements influence in trying to take over the USSC and enforce it's agenda thru pressuring President Bush and the Republican Congress into nominating only persons pre-approved by them. What they did to poor Harriet
Miers was particularly brutal."
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 18:13
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#34
D@mn strikethrough button and Mozilla! Anyone have a fix?
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 18:14
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#35
anonymous2u, Germany's abortion law is indeed much more restrictive than America's. Or at least was so a decade ago. In an attempt to make up for Nazi atrocities (or so I was told), no woman can get an abortion unless a) she pursuades her doctor that having the baby will cause severe mental distress or physical disability, and b) she obtains a signed letter from the doctor that she persists in her conviction despite having received counselling. Without that letter, no abortion. As most of the doctors don't believe in abortions under any circumstances, it isn't easy to get that letter.
However, I b'lieve the laws are less draconian in Holland, and that isn't so far away.
#36
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has acknowledged a specific death threat against her and her retired colleague Sandra Day O'Connor, blaming lawmakers for fueling "the irrational fringe."
The odd thing is that I have seen these exact type of death threats against U.S. government
officials posted here in Rantburg, often without
dedaction from the "moderators" here. Is it because they support assasination of these officials because they dont expouse the agenda of the right wing fringe?
#39
Whats really interesting is the rise of the Conservative movements influence in trying to take over the USSC and enforce it's agenda thru pressuring President Bush and the Republican Congress into nominating only persons pre-approved by them. What they did to poor Harriet
Miers was particularly brutal.
One has to wonder, with the rise in death threats against the USSC judges, by the right wings "irrational fringe", what would happen
to recent USSC appointees Alito and Roberts if they DONT get the rulings, vote & pull the court in the direction, that the far right conservative movement is expecting in return for appointments to the USSC. Assasination targets?
Acording to O'Connor and Ginsberg many conservative republicans arent pleased
with the USSC, which has resulted in
death threats against them. (Do you guys
actually READ the articles these threads are
based on?)
You maybe pleased with Alito and Roberts now,
but as I questioned before, Suppose they DONT
vote as conservatives hope they will? Will THEY
become the target of death threats? That is the question.
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is calling for the appointment of a U.S. special envoy to Sudan, where a three-year rebellion in the Darfur region has left an estimated 180,000 people dead and displaced 2 million more. ``This special envoy would signal that bringing peace and stability to Sudan is a priority for the United States,'' Pelosi, D-Calif., said in prepared text of a speech to be delivered Friday at the Center for National Policy.
``To do this we must stop the violence, bring the parties to the negotiating table and get humanitarian relief to the people who need it.''
Or we could help the refugees defend themselves and whack the Janjaweed til the latter decide to take motel management courses.
Pelosi led a delegation of lawmakers to Sudan last month, and some of them met with President Bush on Thursday and endorsed creating a special envoy post, she said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said the United States would consider taking that step. A White House spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/17/2006
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#1
I suggest she move there.
Permanently.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/17/2006 0:16
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Posted by: john ||
03/17/2006 14:38
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#8
Nancy, have ya noticed that the gub'mint of Sudan doesn't want any stinking infidels in their land. Not the ones they are exterminating now with the Janjaweed. Not the fetid infidels of the UN or Allan forbid, the Satans infidels.
Nancy, the goal here is to keep all infidels out of Sudan and kill all the ones within it. Clearly stated by Sudan.
And you want to send an envoy? You wanna send some pretty flowers for the dead too? Twit!
Hamas put an end to coalition talks after failing to reach agreement with other parties and said it would form a government by itself, a move likely to deepen the international isolation of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas said it planned to present its cabinet to the Palestinian parliament for approval on Monday. However, it first needs approval from the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who will meet Hamas leaders over the weekend.
Abbas is expected to ask Hamas to rework its government programme, an official close to Abbas said on condition of anonymity, because he is not authorised to reveal the content of the negotiations. The official also said Abbas would tell Hamas its hardline platform was too vague and thus unacceptable.
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Pakistan has refused to handover a Belgian citizen arrested in Lahore to his country until the completion of an investigation. Interior Ministry sources said on Thursday that security agencies were interrogating the Belgian citizen, Michael, and had unearthed "important information" during their investigation. "These revelations are very important to Pakistan," the sources said, but refused to disclose the information.
The Belgian ambassador to Pakistan had recently called on Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao and demanded that the Belgian be released soon. He said that the man had been arrested by Pakistan on the Belgian government's request and so should be handed over. Pakistan and Belgium do not have an extradition treaty.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2006
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Let me see, Belgium has a law that lets them try anybody in the World
Abdelhak Layada, one of the founding leaders of Algeria's Islamic Armed Group (GIA), was released from prison on Monday. Also known as Abu Adlane, he signaled his readiness to act as a mediator between the government and armed Islamic militants hiding in the mountains to convince them to join the reconciliation project.
Algerians overwhelmingly voted last year to support President Bouteflika's Charter for National Reconciliation which would see more than 2000 people freed and a pardon extended to militants on the run if they surrender during the next six months, as long they are not responsible for massacres, rapes or bombings of public places. The amnesty is the second since Bouteflika took office seven years ago. He says it will help heal Algeria 's wounds after years of a brutal and bloody conflict. Layada was sentenced to death in connection with his role in the civil war, in which more than 150,000 people died. He was arrested in Morocco in 1993.
He's looking pretty hale, for being dead.
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They were former members of the Moro National Liberation Front, and not the MILF. There is no reason for MILF members to surrender because the MILF is a revolutionary organization fighting for self-determination, Kabalu said in an interview. The surrender of the group of Ampatuan and Pagiloyen, held at a Philippine Army camp in Carmen town, North Cotabato, coincided with the MILFs announcement that it will resume peace talks with government negotiators next week.
Maj. Gamal Hayudini, a spokesman for the militarys Southern Command, said the rebels voluntarily surrendered. The rebels have finally returned to the folds of the law after long years of being with the MILF. They have pledged their allegiance to the government and we will help them start a new life and transform them into productive and responsible citizens, Hayudini told Arab News.
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03/17/2006
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"Nope, Not ours, Nope Nope Nope!" Lipless eddie Just does not know when to stop. I swear he must have been seperated at birth from Bagdad Bob!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/17/2006 7:40
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We'll go quietly as long as you stop calling us MILF. Call us STUD or REX or BABE or something.
Mar 16: A middle age housewife received acid burn injuries when some miscreants threw acid on her at Charsindur village in Polash upazila of the district on March 4. The victim was identified as Runu Begum 42, wife of Safijuddin of Charsindur village.
According to witnesses, police and hospital sources, terrorist Emran, son of Hafijuddin of Alinagar village in same upazila, and his two associates threw acid when she was minding her own business going to tube-well. Her right hand and some parts of her body were burnt.
At the shouts of the victim the local people and her family members rushed to the spot and sent her to sadar hospital. Now she is fighting for life at Sadar Hospital. Police and local people said due to previous enmity terrorist Emran and his associates threw acid on her.
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03/17/2006
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Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari says he is willing to withdraw his nomination for a second term if asked to step aside. "If my people ask me to step aside I will do this," Mr Jaafari said after Iraq's first parliamentary session was convened. Mr Jaafari is under increasing pressure from Sunnis, Kurds and secular leaders to allow for another candidate. He is also coming under mounting pressure from some of his partners in the ruling Shiite Alliance, the largest block in Parliament, which nominated him in an internal ballot.
Mr Jaafari says it will be finally up to Parliament to make a decision. "I didn't get here as part of a deal. So I can't be pushed aside as part of a deal. It is my people who have chosen me. It will be up to Parliament to decide," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2006
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#1
This could be a promising development, depending upon the follow-through and the proffered replacement of course. Jaafari has an altogether too generous view of himself.
#2
I'll second that flirt. While myself was less hard on Jaafari than some here a few months ago, the continued evidence of his close ties to Sadr, and his poor handling of the mosque crisis, have led me to believe that a coalition of SCIRI with the Kurds and Sunnis, headed by SCIRI pol Al Mahdi (unfortunate name, I know) would be more promising than anything headed by Jaafari. More importantly, it would show the way to Shiite-Sunni cooperation.
CAIRO - Arab leaders are widely expected to approve Amr Mussas bid for a second five-year term as Arab League chief when they gather in Sudan later this month, a senior official said on Thursday. Arab League assistant secretary general for political affairs Ahmed bin Hili told reporters that the veteran Egyptian diplomat had the support of much of the Arab world and his candidacy will almost certainly be approved.
Arab leaders are due to meet in the Sudanese captial Khartoum on March 28 and 29 for their annual summit to discuss developments in the region and to decide whether to elect a new secretary general or extend Mussas mandate. The issue of renewing the mandate of Amr Mussa will be on the agenda and he has enormous Arab support, bin Hili said.
Mussas term in office runs out at the end of May and Egypt has nominated him for another term.The 73-year-old former Egyptian foreign minister was first elected in 2001 and charged with restructuring and revitalising the 22-member pan-Arab organisation and turning it into the proactive body it never was.
And isn't now. And won't be.
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Raymond Martinot and his wife were the toast of the world cryonics movement. For years they were France's best preserved corpses, lying in a freezer in a chateau in the Loire valley, in the hope that modern science could one day bring them back to life. But the French couple's journey into the future ended prematurely when, 22 years after his mother's body was put into cold storage, their son discovered the freezer unit had broken down and they had started to thaw.
"Ewwwww .. what's that smell? Egad, it's Mum!"
Yesterday Rémy Martinot said he had no choice but to cremate his parents' bodies after the technical fault had seen their temperatures rise above the constant level required of -65C. "I realised in February that after a technical incident their temperature had risen to -20C probably for several days. The alert system [on the freezer] had not worked and I decided at that point that it was not reasonable to continue," he told Agence France Presse.
Freezers fail. Compressors have a definite life. To get to -65C you need at least two and maybe three. One goes out, stuff gets warm.
"I don't feel any more bereaved today than I did when my parents died, I had already done my grieving. But I feel bitter that I could not respect my father's last wishes. Maybe the future would have shown that my father was right and that he was a pioneer."
Or a total whacko.
Raymond Martinot, a doctor who once taught medicine in Paris, spent decades preparing for his demise in the belief that if he was frozen and preserved scientists would be able to bring him back to life by 2050. In the 1970s he bought a chateau near Samur in the Loire valley and began preparing a freezer unit for himself. But his wife, Monique Leroy, died first, of ovarian cancer, in 1984, and was the first to enter the intricate stainless steel freezer unit in the chateau's vaulted cellars.
"In ya go, sweetie!"
In 2002 Dr Martinot died of a stroke, aged 84, and his son followed his orders to inject him with the same anti-coagulants and store him alongside.
Next to his wife goes Pop .. sicle.
David Pegg, who runs the medical cryobiology unit at the University of York, said a temperature rise to -20C would have been "disastrous" for the Martinots' corpses. "I would say even -65C was far too high," he added.
Remember folks, liquid nitrogen, when it absolutely, positively has to stay doorknocker dead frozen.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Once we came back from a six week summer vacation- temperatures at home of 100 degrees or more- to find a freezer full of meat had failed. I stood outside the house, upwind, for about ten minutes and hyperventilated, then went in, got it on the sack truck, through the house, out the back door and fifty yards away all on one breath.
From then on we emptied the freezer before every vacation. Never had another freezer fail. Thanks for the memory.
#7
LOL 'Mooseman! The only reason I'd consider burial is so I might have the opportunity to be interred with a 1 Gig USB memory thingy, a 12 transistor radio, a 1908 IndianHed Penny and a Clovis point.
#8
the opportunity to be interred with a 1 Gig USB memory thingy, a 12 transistor radio, a 1908 IndianHed Penny and a Clovis point.
Add a viking helmet, chain mail waistcoat over kevlar vest, broadsword, Colt .45 Peacemaker and a cell phone. 2000 years from now you'll drive scientists crazy.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/17/2006 14:13
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Lol. Hell, you'd have your own Antiquities Dept at the Sorbonne or your own Research Institute.
JALALABAD: Afghan police said they arrested two suspected Taliban insurgents on Thursday carrying letters from the movement's fugitive leader and Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri. The Afghan nationals were arrested separately close to the border with Pakistan in Nangarhar province, said Mohammad Ibrar, border security forces provincial deputy chief. "One of them was carrying letters from Mullah Omar and Ayman al-Zawahiri," said Ibrar. The man had served as a district chief in Nangarhar during the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, he said. The second man was arrested with some 500 'night' letters which asked people not to cooperate with the 'illegitimate government' and to obey orders of Mulla Omar and Ayman al-Zawahiri, he added. Night letters are anonymous leaflets which are occasionally distributed in Afghan towns and villages by militant groups. Ibrar said the men, whom he did not identify, did not appear to be linked but were carrying documents that could help to point to enemy networks in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
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How are you? I am fine. Well, if you don't count being hunted like an animal day and night and living in cold, filthy caves and dodging hellfire missles just to get from point A to point B. But otherwise, I am fine.
Hugs and kisses to Zarqawi.
Love, Sammie.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
03/17/2006 9:43
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#6
Sounds like a candidate for Yale.
Jeebus, don't joke like that. I imagine that application deadlines are coming near. Who knows...maybe with an endorsement from Zawahri and Omar, they can meet the 4th grade high requirements for entry, lol.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 10:32
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#7
A man of letters, impressive. And the addresses were.....?
#8
The courier may not even know who the letters are from and to whom they are addressed. Don't shoot the messenger.
Posted by: john ||
03/17/2006 13:40
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Yup, john, if these maroons have any of their juvenile waterfowl aligned, these letters were blind dropped at a site that cannot be backchained to the letterwriter's actual point of origin.
Still, it might be rather satisfying to put the carrier's feet to the fire for just a little while.
HARARE - Sweden on Thursday urged President Robert Mugabes government to mend fences with the West as it joined a UN humanitarian drive to help Zimbabweans.
Yeah, that'll happen.
The Swedish donation of five million dollars (4.1 million euros) followed a United Nations appeal last year for humanitarian assistance to millions of Zimbabweans reeling from poverty, food shortages and galloping inflation. The Zimbabwean government has the ultimate responsibility for the humanitarian situation and long-term developments in Zimbabwe, Swedish ambassador Sten Rylander told journalists.
Nice of you to notice, now could you stop giving money to the crooks there?
The government needs to start building bridges and regain the confidence and trust of the international community, he said. Much more could be done to bring the country back to normal and pursue development policies that benefit the entire Zimbabwean population, he said.
A firing squad would work wonders.
UN resident co-ordinator Agostinho Zacarias said the donation from Sweden would be disbursed through UN agencies and aid groups to projects to feed the poor, pay school fees for AIDS orphans and launch self-help projects for jobless urban dwellers. He said the United Nations had so far raised 20 percent of the intended 277 million dollars for humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe.
The scale of humanitarian needs in Zimbabwe is considerable and growing, the Swedish envoy said. The food security situation, the general decline in social services and the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic are major causes of concern.
Remind us all why this is?
Posted by: Steve White ||
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"Sweden urges Zim-Bob-we to mend ties with West"
Start by killing Bob.
(And his kleptocratic relatives, minions and cohorts.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/17/2006 0:27
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The Swedish donation of five million dollars (4.1 million euros)
Dear, it's time for another shopping trip to Europe!
#3
Why must all countries rush to out-do each other in UN "aid" to countries such as this? Yeesh, I truly wonder how peaceful this sphere would be if we just quit propping up 2-bit gangstas like Bob and let the peeps in that country take care of him.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 9:29
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#4
Because nothing says "We care, in a safely remote sort of way" like throwing cash at a problem.
#5
As Absolute Ruler of the Republic of Irrelevance, I demand that Zim-bob-we change its name to Zim-george-we, and arrest everyone named "Bob".
Seriously, we need to decapitate Zimbabwe and give it a chance to have a future other than mass graves. Start now.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/17/2006 19:39
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#6
It is too late to save Zimland --- it is well and truly screwed. Remember its beginnings : Bob brought in NorKor Special Forces to put down his tribal and political enemies within the first 5 years of his regime. I am beginning to wonder if Nkomo and ZAPU would not have been the better choice for that blighted land.
And for those who think the West can do anything to resolve this -- dream on! Political correctness will trump any moves to punish Bob, and the only effective method of removing a dictatorship, military strikes or covert aid to counter-revolutionaries, would lead to bloody screams of indignation and calls for war-crimes tribunals.
President Emile Lahoud said Thursday he would remain adamant about the Lebanese identity of the Shebaa Farms, stressing that official maps corroborating this fact are in the possession of the UN. He reiterated that when the UN drew the Blue Line in 2000, Lebanon did not approve of this border "as a permanent and definite one." He said that "at the time the international delegation had asked who determined this border," to which Lahoud had replied: "Lebanon and Syria"; an answer that was welcomed by Syria.
Speaking during the Cabinet session, which was held in the Economic and Social Council in Downtown, Lahoud proposed to prepare a draft law that adds to Article one of the Constitution a paragraph specifying that the Shebaa Farms are located inside the internationally recognized border in South Lebanon.
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Followed a day later by Mexico reclaiming Arizona, California, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Texas. RESISTENCIA!
#2
Followed a day later by Mexico reclaiming Arizona, California, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Texas.
Followed immediately by Mexico getting its ass wiped by the armed residents of Arizona, California, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Texas.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/17/2006 19:19
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Oh, dear. I almost fell off my chair, gentlemen. :-D
Two Pakistani engineers have been kidnapped from Bannu, 50 kilometres east of Miranshah, Radio Tehran said. Engineers Hamidullah and Surat Khan were on their way to work when unidentified men abducted them and their driver near Jamil Khel. Meanwhile, a security forces post was damaged in a bomb blast near Razmak, bringing the number of blasts at militia posts to 12 in 10 days
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The United States, which has long provided Iceland with its only military forces, has decided to withdraw most of its service members and all of its fighter jets and helicopters from the country later this year, the U.S. ambassador said Thursday. Iceland's government, which recently had offered to take over some of the cost of its defense from the United States to keep U.S. forces here, said it regretted the decision.
In an interview with The Associated Press, U.S. Ambassador Carol van Voorst said she and Nicholas Burns, the U.S. under secretary of state, had informed Iceland's Prime Minister Haldor Asgrimsson and Foreign Minister Geir H. Haarde of the unilateral decision on Wednesday. But Washington also said it would continue to honor its 1951 agreement with Iceland requiring the United States, under the auspices of NATO, to provide this country's defense. U.S. and Icelandic officials were to hold talks about how that will be done, Van Voorst said.
#3
Too bad - however, with Canada re-exerting itself over the Artic, and given US-NATO's domination in GPS-SPAWAR and anti-sub tech, the USA doesn't need Iceland anymore except as a NORATLANT fallback base, in case the [French]props keep falling off the new Franco-Brit CVF. Iceland should prob make some type of major diplo-econ rapproachement/rapport wid Greenland and the Canucks, like the Aussies and New Zealanders.
Roosevelt invaded occupied Iceland in July 1941. [Insert traditional Lefty rant here]Acting under the guise of a puppet government held by the British, the Americans sent Naval and Marine forces to replace the occupation by British imperalists.[end rant here :)]
#8
PJ, probably most of us here know about that, but the mental image of jihadis invading ICEland, when they're used to 110 degrees in the shade, makes me ROFLMAO (to quote the great, mighty Just Curious/Gentle/troll).
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 9:31
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#9
Another victory by the resistance over the zionist entity's Big Satan. After Shebaa falls, a transfer of the mujahadeen - replete with wool turbins - to Iceland will occur. Insh'allah!
#12
Good comments all. Points well taken, especially about the muslims in the Hindu Kush. Of course, I gotta wonder when that mountain range will be renamed...Muslim Kush has a nice ring to it, lol.
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 10:04
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#13
Mr. Skagfields gonna be unhappy. He runs the Icelandic Counselar office in TLH, when he's not busy moving superior drapery. Nope, not kidding.
#16
...A slightly dissenting viewpoint - the Icelanders were never really all that happy about us being there. They were always polite, without question, and they welcomed the money that our presence brought. But IIRC there has for many years now been a curfew for Americans only. Nothing much ever gets said because Iceland was so crucial during the Cold War, but I suspect there will be few tears among the populace at large...until, of course, the taxes start going up.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/17/2006 11:47
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#17
I, for one, am glad that the incompetent and dithering Bush Administration finally discovered a workable exit strategy from the quagmire that was Iceland. I mean, geez, how long were we there? 65 years! Enough's enough!
#18
lol, Dread. I thought the same thing immediately (IAQ - It's a Quagmire) when I read the headline. Of course, I don't see it as an occupation, more like a lil' help between friends, but hey, who am I to judge. Of course, there's gotta be a way to pin it to Bush and Halliburton....do they have a melting ice/drinking water plant there (Halliburton that is)?
Posted by: BA ||
03/17/2006 13:47
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#19
Icelandic Civil War Watch in þrír...tveir...einn
#21
You know, the last time Iceland was invaded by hostile forces *was* by Muslims, Barbary pirates raided Reykjavik for slaves in 1627. So you never can tell with those jihadis.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/17/2006 14:54
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Iraqi police found 25 bodies discarded in various parts of Baghdad overnight, the Interior Ministry said Thursday, part of a wave of apparent sectarian killing. The victims, all men who had been shot, were discovered between 7 p.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday in both Shiite and Sunni Muslim neighborhoods, said Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi, an official with the ministry that oversees police. The men were in civilian clothes and many had their hands bound.
The capital, where Sunnis and Shiites live side-by-side, has suffered a surge of sectarian killing since bombers destroyed an important Shiite shrine in Samarra on Feb. 22 and ripped apart markets in a Baghdad Shiite slum on Sunday. U.S. and Iraqi officials blamed insurgents bent on fomenting civil war for both attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
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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 battle began in earnest earlier this week when Isaac Hayes, another celebrity Scientologist and longtime show member voicing the ladies' man Chef quit the show, saying he could no longer tolerate its religious "intolerance and bigotry."
Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, head of al-Qaida in Iraq, is alienating the insurgency. Dr. Gilles Kepel of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris and a well-known Middle East expert said that al-Qaida's hope that Zarqawi would be the one to mobilize the Arab masses in Iraq may be fading. Zarqawi's bloody attacks on Shia Muslims have alienated support for al-Qaida in Iraq. In a letter released by the U.S. military in 2005, the deputy to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, criticized Zarqawi's attacks on the Shia and the beheadings he had broadcast. 
Failed presidential candidate John Kerry offered a startling prediction Friday morning: If the U.S. doesn't change its global warming ways, New York City and Boston will be destroyed by flooding by 2036. 
Rep. Curt Weldon, who broke the Able Danger story last year revealing that military intelligence had identified lead hijacker Mohammed Atta as a terrorist threat before the 9/11 attacks, now says that Osama bin Laden has died.
Australian strippers have won the right to take time off after taking their clothes off. The country's Industrial Relations Commission on Friday approved new workplace rules for members of the strippers' union, the Striptease Artists Australia. 
Before cops threw the book at him, Jakub Fik threw something unusual at them -- his penis. 
Talk about a wild night near Seguin. A cow came flying out of its trailer, sent DPS and police scrambling, and left two police cars going up in flames. 
leading Maoist rebels in the Indian state of West Bengal have been found guilty of waging war against the Indian state. Police say the three are responsible for rising violence in West Bengal. Santosh Debnath and Patit Paban Haldar were sentenced to life in prison. Sushil Roy was sentenced to only five years due to poor health. 
Pakistani authorities have banned two private Afghan TV channels on charges that they spread anti-Pakistan propaganda. The two channels, Tolo TV and Ariana TV, which are widely watched on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, had accused Pakistani security forces of being behind last week's suicide attack aimed at Afghan Senate leader and former president Sibghatullah Mujaddedi. Mujaddedi had blamed the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, for the attack saying that he had information from various sources that they had planned to kill him because of his efforts to engage the Taliban in the peace process. Pakistan denied any involvement in the attack. 
POLICE have shot dead four suspected Islamic militants believed to be plotting attacks and recruiting fighters for a campaign against Indian rule in Kashmir, officials said. The men, including two Pakistanis, were killed in a shoot-out during a raid at a home on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in western Gujarat state, officers said. Three officers were slightly hurt in the gun-battle. The four dead men were suspected of being from Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistan-based militant Islamic group. "These people had come here to get new recruits among local youngsters and also to organise terrorist strikes which could include blasts or killings of VIPs," said senior police official P.P. Pandey.
The Prince of Wales has urged small UK firms to 
The government has constituted a three-member probe committee for investigating JMB militant financing asking the body to submit report on the findings to the home ministry within seven days. The committee consists of representatives from Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Special Branch (SB) of police and Bangladesh Bank (BB). 
SANTA CLARA, Cuba -- Three years after the harshest crackdown on dissent in decades, human-rights conditions in Cuba have deteriorated as authorities intensify a campaign to disrupt and intimidate the island's small opposition movement, according to dissidents, diplomats and political analysts.
The government yesterday filed a sedition case for the first time against all seven members of 
Iran said it was prepared to talk directly with the United States about Iraq, a shift for a country that has long avoided negotiations with what it calls the "Great Satan". 
Tear gas used against French students protesting work laws French police have used tear gas and water cannons on students as protests against new youth employment laws gain momentum. Stone-throwing protesters clashed with police outside the Sorbonne university in Paris. A kiosk was set ablaze and several shop windows were smashed. The protests were organised in anger at the proposed First Employment Contract (CPE), a contested youth jobs measure. 
Security forces arrested three suspected militants and seized assault rifles and grenades at a roadblock near Wana, an intelligence official told agencies on Thursday. The men were arrested late on Wednesday as they drove a pickup truck on a road near the South Waziristan headquarters, the official said. Army troops manning a check point in Inzar Cheena, an area north of Wana, stopped the truck and found three AK-47 assault rifles and eight hand grenades, he said. The men were arrested and taken to a military base in Wana for further investigation, he said.
Militants blew up two electricity pylons overnight, disrupting supplies to thousands of households in Quetta, officials said on Thursday. The attack occurred at Mutch, provincial government spokesman Raziq Bugti said. He said "miscreants who wants to destablise the region" used explosives to destroy the pylons, cutting electricity supplies for around an hour. 
An Israeli soldier has been killed in a fierce gun battle that erupted after troops surrounded two houses in the West Bank. The shooting took place after Israeli troops took over homes in the town of Jenin where a group of gunmen was hiding, taking up position and fighting them. Palestinian witnesses said the soldiers had usef loudspeakers to call to the armed group to surrender. The Israeli army said an exchange of fire ensued, in which the soldier was killed. One Palestinian came running out early on in the gun battle, and four others surrendered later, it said.
POLICE have arrested two soldiers caught smuggling 64kg of heroin in an army ambulance in Afghanistan. The Afghan army officer and his driver were caught going from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar.
A 37-year-old Pakistani man has been found guilty by a Perth jury of involvement in an international people smuggling operation. It took the jury more than four hours to convict Masood Ahmed Chaudhry of two charges relating to the interception of a 20-metre-long Indonesian fishing boat carrying more than 200 people near Christmas Island in April 2001. The District Court was told Chaudhry demanded thousands of dollars and arranged fake passports for two Afghani men to travel from Pakistan to Indonesia, where they boarded the boat. He was remanded in custody until he is sentenced next month.
Police arrested a South Korean women on suspicion of burning down several buildings at a U.S. Army base in Seoul on Thursday because she was angry at what she saw as "U.S. terrorism." Three South Korean civilian employees were injured in the fire that started at a public works building at the base that serves as the headquarters for U.S. troops in South Korea. The fire spread to four other buildings, police said.
Gunmen have attacked a compound of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in southern Sudan, killing one person and critically wounding two others. One of the gunmen was killed and the other was captured in the Wednesday night raid in the town of Yei, the UNHCR said on Thursday. The gunmen, who broke into the compound, killed one of its Sudanese guards. They also shot a foreigner working for the UNHCR in the stomach and a second local guard in the leg, the statement said.
Mauritania has appealed for international help to stem the flow of African migrants trying to leave the country for Europe. "We cannot control the land and sea borders, which are very wide - we can't withstand this growing pressure. We need help," said Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar, the Mauritanian prime minister, in an interview published in Spain's El Pais newspaper. 
A Palestinian leader seized by Israel in a raid on a West Bank jail denied any responsibility for his group's 2001 assassination of an Israeli Cabinet Minister, his lawyer said yesterday. "I reject the accusations," Ahmed Saadat was quoted as saying by his attorney, who met the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) chief at an Israeli detention center in Jerusalem.
A spokesman for the NWFP Governor's Federally Administered Tribal Areas Secretariat denied on Thursday that local Taliban had been allowed to open offices in Wana to enforce Islamic law in South Waziristan. "No office has been opened or is in the process of opening in Wana under the auspices of seminary students or so-called Taliban," he said. "Some newspapers in their reports and editorial comments have painted a very grim picture of the situation in South Waziristan," the spokesman said. "This is completely baseless."
The government has formally started its work to ferret out the godfathers of the two top-most leaders of 
The government lawyer who improperly contacted witnesses, dealing a blow to the US case against September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, has been put on administrative leave. Officials from the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security said Carla Martin, 51, was placed on paid administrative leave on Wednesday. They did not say what disciplinary measures, if any, might be taken. The move was taken after the discovery that Ms Martin, a TSA lawyer who served as the liaison with federal prosecutors and the Federal Aviation Administration for the Moussaoui trial, had violated a court order and damaged the case.
Oxfam Australia says Australians who gave money after the Asian tsunami can be assured their donations are being closely monitored. Oxfam has suspended some of its operations in the Indonesian province of Aceh after discovering the possible theft of thousands of dollars of aid. Emergency work, including the delivery of water and rubbish removal will continue, but operations including house building and livelihood support have been suspended.
Exiled Syrian opposition leaders have met in Brussels in an attempt to form a united front aimed at toppling Bashar al-Assad. A former Syrian vice-president and the head of the 
Pakistan is holding a Syrian-born man with suspected terrorism links, a government official said on Thursday. The official gave no further details, including when or where the man was detained.Pakistani authorities said in November that they were trying to determine whether a man detained during a police raid in Quetta was 
A demonstrator charged with soliciting murder following angry protests in London against the publication of the Prophet Muhammad [
TOKYO, March 16, 2006 (AFP) - Japan's top oil company is slashing crude imports from Iran as a precaution given the risk to supply from the Islamic republic in the deepening crisis over its nuclear programme, analysts said Thursday. 
Tehran, Iran, Mar. 16 Irans paramilitary police arrested 1,000 individuals in the Iranian capital during Tuesday nights annual fire festival, Tehrans deputy chief prosecutor announced on Thursday. On the night leading to the [Persian calendar] years final Wednesday, 1,000 individuals who were creating disorder and disruption were arrested across Tehran, Mahmoud Salarkia announced. His comments were carried by the state-run news agency ISNA.
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Minority Leader 
Hamas put an end to coalition talks after failing to reach agreement with other parties and said it would form a government by itself, a move likely to deepen the international isolation of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas said it planned to present its cabinet to the Palestinian parliament for approval on Monday. However, it first needs approval from the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who will meet Hamas leaders over the weekend.
Pakistan has refused to handover a Belgian citizen arrested in Lahore to his country until the completion of an investigation. Interior Ministry sources said on Thursday that security agencies were interrogating the Belgian citizen, Michael, and had unearthed "important information" during their investigation. "These revelations are very important to Pakistan," the sources said, but refused to disclose the information. 
An official of the 
Mar 16: A middle age housewife received acid burn injuries when some miscreants threw acid on her at Charsindur village in Polash upazila of the district on March 4. The victim was identified as Runu Begum 42, wife of Safijuddin of Charsindur village.
Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari says he is willing to withdraw his nomination for a second term if asked to step aside. "If my people ask me to step aside I will do this," Mr Jaafari said after Iraq's first parliamentary session was convened. Mr Jaafari is under increasing pressure from Sunnis, Kurds and secular leaders to allow for another candidate. He is also coming under mounting pressure from some of his partners in the ruling Shiite Alliance, the largest block in Parliament, which nominated him in an internal ballot. 
CAIRO - Arab leaders are widely expected to approve Amr Mussas bid for a second five-year term as Arab League chief when they gather in Sudan later this month, a senior official said on Thursday. Arab League assistant secretary general for political affairs Ahmed bin Hili told reporters that the veteran Egyptian diplomat had the support of much of the Arab world and his candidacy will almost certainly be approved.
Raymond Martinot and his wife were the toast of the world cryonics movement. For years they were France's best preserved corpses, lying in a freezer in a chateau in the Loire valley, in the hope that modern science could one day bring them back to life. But the French couple's journey into the future ended prematurely when, 22 years after his mother's body was put into cold storage, their son discovered the freezer unit had broken down and they had started to thaw.
JALALABAD: Afghan police said they arrested two suspected Taliban insurgents on Thursday carrying letters from the movement's fugitive leader and Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri. The Afghan nationals were arrested separately close to the border with Pakistan in Nangarhar province, said Mohammad Ibrar, border security forces provincial deputy chief. "One of them was carrying letters from Mullah Omar and Ayman al-Zawahiri," said Ibrar. The man had served as a district chief in Nangarhar during the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, he said. The second man was arrested with some 500 'night' letters which asked people not to cooperate with the 'illegitimate government' and to obey orders of Mulla Omar and Ayman al-Zawahiri, he added. Night letters are anonymous leaflets which are occasionally distributed in Afghan towns and villages by militant groups. Ibrar said the men, whom he did not identify, did not appear to be linked but were carrying documents that could help to point to enemy networks in the country.
HARARE - Sweden on Thursday urged President Robert Mugabes government to mend fences with the West as it joined a UN humanitarian drive to help Zimbabweans.
President 
Two Pakistani engineers have been kidnapped from Bannu, 50 kilometres east of Miranshah, Radio Tehran said. Engineers Hamidullah and Surat Khan were on their way to work when unidentified men abducted them and their driver near Jamil Khel. Meanwhile, a security forces post was damaged in a bomb blast near Razmak, bringing the number of blasts at militia posts to 12 in 10 days
Iraqi police found 25 bodies discarded in various parts of Baghdad overnight, the Interior Ministry said Thursday, part of a wave of apparent sectarian killing. The victims, all men who had been shot, were discovered between 7 p.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday in both Shiite and Sunni Muslim neighborhoods, said Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi, an official with the ministry that oversees police. The men were in civilian clothes and many had their hands bound. 
