The new Hamas cabinet is prepared to hold talks with representatives of the Quartet, which comprises the US, Russia, the EU and the UN, to discuss ways of ending the conflict with Israel, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh declared on Tuesday in a speech before the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Presenting his cabinet's political program and ministers, Haniyeh called on the EU to reassess its policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to exert pressure on Israel to end the "occupation of Palestinian territories." Haniyeh declared that his "government won't spare any effort to reach a just peace in the region. We're not warmongers and we don't call for terrorism and bloodshed."
"We saw a lot of creative wordplay, but not any sign of moderation," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. "We saw an attempt to smile toward the West, but did not see any real moderation. The sad fact is that, when Hamas speaks about a 'just peace' they are unfortunately talking about a peace without Israel."
Regev said he did not see in the speech any movement toward meeting the Quartet's benchmarks for gaining international legitimacy: recognition of Israel, renouncing terrorism, and acceptance of previous agreements. "Unless this new Hamas government accepts these benchmarks... the international community will not accept them as legitimate, and the PA government will become a pariah regime," Regev said. The US rejected Hamas's proposal to hold talks with the Quartet, saying Hamas must first meet the three conditions the international community had set.
"I was hoping that our meeting would be in Jerusalem, the capital of our independent Palestinian state," Haniyeh told the PLC. "But under the current circumstances, the homeland is divided in a clear sign of the harshness and oppression of the occupation. The occupation is waging a bitter war against our people and against our democratic choice." Haniyeh claimed that Israel, through its recent measures and policies, wanted to send a message to the Palestinians that they had made a mistake by electing Hamas and that they would therefore be punished.
Outlining his cabinet's main tasks, Haniyeh promised to work toward ending financial corruption and anarchy and establishing good relations with the international community. He said the cabinet would focus its efforts on defending the Palestinians in the face of occupation and removing the settlements and the security fence. He added that the cabinet would oppose partial agreements and attempts by Israel to create new facts on the ground, including the unilateral drawing of borders. He also stressed his commitment to the right of return and compensation for all refugees. Referring to agreements with Israel, Haniyeh only said that his cabinet would deal with them in "responsible" manner and in a way that served the interests and rights of the Palestinians.
Haniyeh criticized US threats to boycott the PA financially as unjustified, calling on the international community to respect the democratic choice of the Palestinians. "My government will establish good and strong relations with the world," he pledged. "We are interested in having solid relations with the European Union."
Fatah legislator Azzam al-Ahmed, commenting on Haniyeh's speech, said, "This program is obscure in the political, economic and social fields. This is an essay, not a political program." PA negotiator and legislator Saeb Erekat also criticized the speech.
"This program contained only slogans," he said. "It did not mention practical steps, such as ways of guaranteeing financial aid and removing the separation wall." He said all the Fatah legislators were planning to vote against the cabinet. The vote, which was originally scheduled for Monday, was postponed at the request of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas because of the elections in Israel, PA and Hamas officials told The Jerusalem Post.
The threat of bioterrorism is real and there is enough evidence to show that terrorists are interested in acquiring weapons of mass destruction (WMD), including bioweapons, Interpol Secretary General Ronald K Noble said.
"Some people still question whether the threat of bioterrorism is real, they question whether it is truly necessary to prepare for it. I have no doubt that the threat is real," he told senior Asian police officers at the Interpol Asian Bioterrorism Workshop on Preventing Bioterrorism here Monday.
He later told reporters that while there was no information available of an immediate bioattack plan, it was important that countries put in place sufficient measures to counter such threats.
"All too often history has shown us that the impossible can and does happen. If we have the chance to take measures to protect the citizens of our nations, to help reduce the chances of our countries becoming a target, then we have a duty to do so," said Noble. Among such measures was to put in place legislations to improve a nation's ability to deal with the threat. Other measures include the availability of training for police personnel and the sharing of information between the forces.
"The response we have already received to our ongoing bioterrorism programmes makes it clear that police around the world are now also beginning to recognise and respond to this threat," he said.
One of the peculiar things about bioterror attacks was its crime scene.
Unlike in an ordinary crime scene, the police would "run to it" to conduct investigation but in the event of a bioterror attack, "you might not want to run" to the crime scenes because of the danger it poses, he said.
As part of continued support for its 184 member countries in developing national bioterrorism prevention programmes, Interpol is also preparing a Biological Incident Response Guide -- a comprehensive, step by step manual for law enforcement in preparing for, and dealing with, a bio incident.
The Zimbabwe crisis does not need to be described, as it has become obvious to all. So, to attempt to redefine it would be a grave insult to the collective intelligence of the nation. I will, therefore, attempt to depict 10 possible scenarios, which may obtain from the current situation, which will enable Zimbabwe to pull herself from this quagmire. I will attempt to present a number of scenarios and critically evaluate their practicality, worth and effectiveness.
The first option, of course, is Organised Mass Action. This is the most talked about and least practiced option. It looks to me the one in March 2003 called for by the MDC was the only real success. Organised stay aways by the ZCTU and the National Constitutional Assembly have been massive flops largely due to poor organisation, ill-conceived timing, lack of consultation with relevant stakeholders, a culture of apathy and fear amongst the general masses of the population and the existence of oppressive laws such as the Public Order and Security Act and repressive State apparatus such as the quasi-military units in the form of Zanu PF militia as well as a ruthless police, intelligence and military system.The conditions are ripe for such an action, but the nation does not seem sufficiently motivated to resort to this option.
The second option is Spontaneous Mass Action - an option highly favoured by the MDC and many other Zimbabweans. It does not place responsibility for action squarely on the shoulders of an individual, party or institute, but relies on somebody, somewhere in some fuel or bread queue saying enough is enough. Spontaneous mass action has emerged as a favourite option for the following reasons: It cannot be easily contained by the brutal State security apparatus because it may start anywhere and spread anywhere. It is difficult to pinpoint leaders of such an action and to isolate or incarcerate them. It is a demonstration of people, which may appeal even to individuals in the State security apparatus as evidenced in Romania and the former Yugoslavia. The economic climate is ripe for such an action as evidenced by fuel queues and food shortages. Food shortages have always been a trigger for revolution.
The third option can be labelled the Palace Coup. This theory supports the implosion scenario whereby the President, who has emerged as the personification of the Zimbabwe crisis, is ousted by his own colleagues in the ruling party. This option seemed to be an unfolding reality when he was on holiday in Malaysia. This option can only work if the conspirators have the support of the military and, therefore, are limited to those who have a measure of influence in the military. This option appears to be quite appealing for the following reasons: Historically, even the most powerful of empire builders such as Julius Caesar and Tshaka the Great were eliminated by those closest to them and not by distant enemies. There is great pressure on sections of Zanu PF for the displacement of the old order.
The fourth option is a Military Takeover. But this is an unlikely and undesirable option as African history has proved that military takeovers have resulted in military dictatorships. The perceived "saviours of the people" may soon become ensconced in an eternal transition to civilian power, as was the case with Ibrahim Babangida in Nigeria and Ghana's Jerry Rawlings who later transformed himself into a civilian president albeit by democratic consent. Zimbabwe has suffered under a one-man one-party dictatorship and a military takeover may be suicidal and genocidal to the emergence of democracy in Zimbabwe. This option should not be encouraged, supported or celebrated by peace-loving Zimbabweans.
The fifth option is a rerun of the presidential election through the courts. As long as conditions for an election rerun remain the same, the ruling party will continue to use the uneven playing field to continuously win elections by dubious means. But that option should not be abandoned, as it will give the MDC the moral high ground to challenge the legitimacy of the Zanu PF government.
The sixth option is to allow things to disintegrate. There are many who argue that the current situation is not sustainable and the government will inevitably collapse. Whilst this is quite possible, probable and desirable, it may not be practical because it appears like the ruling party is willing to hang on to power even if it means ruling over skeletons. It may also be difficult to rebuild once the economic framework of the country collapses. The verdict is, whilst the current situation is not sustainable, the rulers of the land do not give a hoot and will hang on to power by hook, crook or book.
The seventh option is to wait for the next elections. The presidential election is only two years away. If the MDC chooses to quietly rebuild its effectiveness, credibility and image, it may succeed in winning the presidential election. Indicators, however, are that: Zanu PF will not sit idly and watch the MDC grow. More MDC leaders will be arrested, detained and tortured on trumped-up charges. Some could even be killed. The MDC and other alternative voices will be systematically silenced by current and prospective draconian laws which will further erode the democratic process.
But the most reasonable and practical route which is also the eighth option seems to be that of a negotiated settlement. In this regard previously stated strategies, such as mass action, could well be an effective means to gaining leverage to negotiate a workable settlement for Zimbabwe. A transitional authority would involve the setting up-of a transitional government of national unity composed of both Zanu PF and the MDC.
A constitutional conference of all stakeholders would then be convened to formulate a new democratic constitution, which would be the framework of democratic elections in which the parliamentary election would be held concurrently with the presidential election. Dissolution of all quasi-military units and institutions such as the militia, the national youth service and war vets and depoliticisation of food aid would also be imperative.
Ninth - A government of national unity is unlikely. Such a government would involve President Mugabe inviting the MDC to be a part of a government of national unity which Mugabe has vowed he would never do.
The last option is to do nothing and still expect something to happen. This is the option, which most Zimbabweans are practicing at the moment and nothing will happen as long as nothing is done.
From Jewish World Review online
By Jeff Jacoby
A Gallup Poll released last month puts American support for Israel at near-record levels. When asked for their views on the Middle East, 59 percent of Americans say they sympathize with the Israelis, while just 15 percent favor the Palestinians. Pro-Israel sentiment rises with increased knowledge 66 percent of those who follow international affairs ''very closely" support Israel, compared with 52 percent of those who don't pay close attention to foreign news.
Other findings are comparable. More than two-thirds of Americans say their overall view of Israel is favorable. Only 11 percent, by contrast, have a favorable opinion of the Palestinian Authority. While 22 percent of the public wants Washington to conduct diplomatic relations with the Hamas-controlled Palestinian government even if it refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist as a sovereign state, 44 percent say recognition of Israel must be a precondition to relations with the United States. Another 25 percent one American in four oppose any US dealings with Hamas at all.
Staunch American support for Israel is nothing new. In February 2005, Gallup reported similarly lopsided findings 69 percent of the public viewed Israel favorably, 25 percent unfavorably. In 2004, when Israel was being denounced in Europe and the United Nations for its assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the leader of Hamas, 61 percent of Americans said Israel was justified in killing him. In 2002, when a CBS News poll asked whether Israel's actions against Yasser Arafat and his forces were equivalent to US actions against Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, 59 percent agreed that they were.
In short, solidarity with Israel is an abiding feature of American public opinion. Because the American people are pro-Israel, the American government is pro-Israel. And because Americans so strongly support Israel in its conflict with the Arabs, American policy in the Middle East is committed to Israel's defense.
Only someone far outside the American mainstream, [like the MSM, heh.] then, would insist that ''Israel's past and present conduct offers no moral basis for privileging it over the Palestinians." Or that US policy is engineered through a Zionist ''stranglehold on Congress." Or that ''neither strategic nor moral arguments can account for America's support for Israel," leaving only one possible explanation: ''the unmatched power of the Israel Lobby." Ah, yes, the Sinister Israel Lobby
Those aren't the words of American neo-Nazi David Duke though Duke has ringingly endorsed them. They aren't the words of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the granddaddy of Islamist radicalism though a top Brotherhood official praises them. They aren't the words of the PLO though the PLO is actively distributing them.
The source of those words, and many more like them, is a bitter anti-Israel screed masquerading as academic scholarship. Co-authored by Stephen Walt, academic dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer, ''The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy" was released last week as a ''working paper" on the Kennedy School website. But so slipshod is the paper's research and so extreme its bias that within days the Harvard and Kennedy School logos were stripped from the title page. ''It clearly does not meet the academic standards of a Kennedy School research paper," said Marvin Kalb, one of the school's best-known scholars. "and give us back your cap, gown, and sash, too!
The idea that the American public and US policy makers dance to a tune played by an all-powerful ''Israel Lobby" is an old canard. Neo-Nazis like Duke have long described Capitol Hill as part of the ZOG, or Zionist Occupation Government. Right-wing nativist Pat Buchanan notoriously charged ''the Israeli defense ministry and its 'amen corner' in the United States" with ''beating the drums for war" in 1990. Kinda like a tribal lashkar?
If the truth be told, it isn't hard to understand why America's ardent support for Israel might strike some people as odd, or even suspicious. In so much of the world Europe, the Middle East, the UN General Assembly Israel is despised. Even if Americans don't share the anti-Semitism that is rife in other lands, wouldn't it be more practical for them to stop taking Israel's side? After all, there are 500 million Arabs in the world, and they control one-third of the world's oil supply. Why should Americans alienate them by continuing to support Israel, a country with no oil and just 6 million people?
As a matter of plain economic common sense, the United States has every reason to turn against the Jewish state. What accounts for its refusal to do so? If it isn't an ''Israel Lobby" pulling hidden strings, what on earth can it be?
Something more powerful than economics: the kinship of common values.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/27/2006
20:42 ||
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#1
In separate news, bears sh*t in the woods and the Pope is Catholic.
Posted by: Tibor ||
03/27/2006 23:10
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Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan called for "regime change" in the United States on Monday and denounced "wicked" U.S. policies for turning the world against America.
"We need a new government, we need regime change in America," he said at the end of a visit to Communist Cuba.
Farrakhan, who led the Million Man March on the Washington Mall in 1995 to promote black self-reliance, said the Bush administration's domestic policies were "sucking the blood of the poor and the weak."
The controversial African American leader defended Iran's right to develop a nuclear energy program to reduce dependence on oil and said Washington's opposition was a pretext for a war.
"The Muslim world should unite against America's desire for a preemptive strike against Iran and Syria," he said at a news conference.
Farrakhan said a similar pretext was used by Washington to invade Iraq "to rape the treasuries of the United States of hundreds of billions of dollars to be doled out to the friends of President Bush, Halliburton and Bechtel and associates."
Farrakhan visited Cuba for a week to learn about disaster management in the wake of the U.S. government's failure to cope with Hurricane Katrina last year in New Orleans, he said.
He thanked President Fidel Castro and blasted the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba as a "wicked blockade." The U.S. government has no moral grounds to criticize Cuba, where education and health care are free, he added.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/27/2006
18:21 ||
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That's a rap, flush the Louie crap.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/27/2006 18:25
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His dream will come true in 2008. That may be sooner than cuba.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/27/2006 18:38
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#4
Cuba's a great place for this dildo-brain. We don't really have to let him back into the country, do we? We do??????? Shit...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/27/2006 20:29
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#5
further defines his followers as enemies of America, the west, and freedom
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2006 20:30
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#6
Isn't he breaking the law just by being in Cuba?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/27/2006 21:19
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#7
A P. T. Barnum pic is too kind for this race-baiter, antisemite, racist cult leader. He is not a sideshow freak, he is a traitor and an ennemy, and I'm not even US.
This is the MNF press release of the raid that Sadr's minions are trying to twist into an atrocity.
Photos from the raid: Iraqi Special Operations Forces conduct operation in Baghdad
The Iraqi Special Forces are equipped like US forces, including armoured Humvees and M-4s.
Iraqi Counterterrorism Forces killed 16 insurgents and wounded three others while conducting a coordinated operation to capture and detain insurgents responsible for kidnapping and execution activities in northeast Baghdad Sunday.
Soldiers from the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 1st Iraqi Special Operations Forces Brigade, also detained 18 other individuals, discovered a significant weapons cache, and secured the release of an Iraqi being held hostage.
The discovered weapons cache included AK-47 assault rifles, grenades, RPGs, two RPG launchers, heavy machine guns, crush switch indicators used to make improvised explosive devices, and several rounds of ammunition. The cache was destroyed on the scene along with two vehicles that contained weapons and IED making material.
The hostage, a dental technician with the Ministry of Health, was kidnapped earlier Sunday as he was walking outside of his office. During the next 12 hours, his captors beat him and threatened to torture him.
After the ISOF soldiers rescued him, they took him to an undisclosed location where he received medical care from Iraqi doctors.
Military officials have issued two statements correct errors in the civilian media.
No mosques were entered or damaged during this operation," military officials said. "The building was not a party headquarters but a community meeting room, and there was substantial intelligence on this building showing that that was not, in fact, what it was used for.
U.S. Special Forces troops were on hand only as advisors.
In other news around Baghdad , a major step forward in helping to improve the quality of life in Iraq took place Sunday as the Baghdad Provincial Reconstruction Team officially stood up. The PRTs mission is to help the provincial government develop a transparent and sustained governing capability and to promote security, stability and rule of law through.
We are committed to helping Iraqis stand on their own feet again, and the improvement of local governance and communities is an integral part of this overall effort, said U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. Working together with the Iraqis and the international community we will succeed.
Provincial Reconstruction Teams are multi-agency civil-military initiatives led by the U.S. State Department and work directly with the Iraqi Provincial Governments. Personnel within a PRT come from the State Department, MNF-I, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Justice, and U.S. Agencey for International Development.
PRTs are an example of an Iraqi - Coalition partnership to rebuild Iraq 's physical and institutional structures, a critical step in establishing a stable and secure Iraq .
Three other teams have already been established in the provinces of Ninewa, Ta'mim and Babil.
One region of Iraq is taking steps toward a unity government. Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani announced Sunday he will form his cabinet within the next 30 days. Barzani said he would fill his cabinet with men and women who are capable, progressive and responsive to all the people of Kurdistan region.
Today is an important step in the Kurdistan region's march toward more peace, prosperity and progress, said the Prime Minister. I want to build a team that holds the values that the people of Kurdistan expect; integrity, leadership and vision.
In a brief statement the Prime Minister expressed his commitment to build a unified Government which will be a model for economic growth.
Our team will add to the progress the last government made in the redevelopment of the Kurdistan Region, said Barzani. We will use the resources of Kurdistan , based on constitutional rights, for the prosperity of all our people.
Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldiers discovered a large weapons cache while conducting a search Sunday. The cache contained nearly 200 mortar rounds six boxes of fuses.
Soldier from the 4th Infantry Division found a weapons cache Saturday while conducting a patrol southeast of Iskandariyah. The cache contained hand grenades and fuses, blasting caps, timer parts, artillery rounds, accelerant rods, bags of artillery propellant, propaganda rounds filled with leaflets and four ammo cans of unidentified content.
The day prior, MND-B Soldiers discovered two weapons caches while on a patrol in southern Baghdad . The caches consisted of mortar rounds of various sizes. An explosive ordnance disposal team destroyed the cache.
In a progress report released Sunday the Iraqi Ministry of Interior stated their forces along with Iraqi Ministry of Defense forces had defused five IED's in Ubaydi, Yarmouk, Salam and Biea'a areas within the last three days. They also reported killing eight terrorists during an attack on a security checkpoint, arrested six other terrorists after finding blood spots inside their car. The MOI report said three of the terrorists tested positive for explosive residue.
In Nineveh , Iraqi security forces captured 18 insurgents in Mousl. In Tal Afar, 16 terrorists and 70 mortar rounds were seized.
Posted by: ed ||
03/27/2006
17:50 ||
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From Puffington... In 1978 or so, Mstislav Rostropovich, the famed cellist who ultimately made the National Symphony Orchestra into a national treasure, arrived on our shores from Russia from which he had been exiled by Leonid Brezhnev. While a student at Georgetown University, I was honored to be present for his honorary degree ceremony there. Single-handedly? This will come as a rather large surprise to the rest of the orchestra...
He could not speak English well, so he instead played the cello as a response to his honor. Gaston Hall was silent, not only during his soul-stirring solo, but even after the thunderous applause, becauase [sic] neither ovation nor words expressed what we felt, what he had touched. Nope. Better not go there...
Al Gore spoke tonight at the Human Rights Campaign dinner here in Los Angeles, after many stirring talks by Al Franken, Torie Osborn and the Mayor, among others. Al's was the last speech of a late night and yet, as with Rostropovich, the enormous ballroom was silent during his talk. I found myself leaning forward, perched on the edge of my chair as he moved easily on stage, rarely looking at even a note. He stirred souls tonight. It wuz frickin' tenterhooks, I tells ya... And it's shaken, not stirred, d00d.
The former Vice President, the should-be president, spoke from his heart, his soul and his intellect about equality, about fear and about the future. The subject happened to be equality of gay people in this country. But it was really a call for America to stand as what we have been for more than 200 years, to be that porous bastion of hope and grace that has struggled at times with itself, but has always risen to greater heights. There's definitely some struggling goin' on, awrighty...
He reminded me and I dare say the fifteen hundred or so present tonight, of the power of democracy, well led. Sadly, he reminded us also of the ineloquence of George Bush at which we laugh, but which in fact represents a simplicity of the mind, a unidemensional view of life that Mr. Bush carries forth into the world that sews fear and destruction in its path. Al Gore called us to action. He also vivified Plato's ideal in The Republic, Madison's President in the Federalist Papers, Jefferson's expectation in the founding documents of this country. He spoke. You dared. I'm bored. Evoking the names of Great Men doesn't transfer anything to the Moonbat Prez in Loonyland Exile.
After he finished speaking, the standing ovation seemed almost an interruption of the soul. Just as Rostropovich played chords that defied description, Al Gore tonight hit commanding, courageous notes that are America. We'll make it through the current time of trouble, but only because we can rise above the small, insulated minds that would rather destroy our world than make it safely humane. How different our unstable world today would be had Mr. Gore been President. How hard we must work to assure that 2006 brings us the beginnings of balance, and 2008 the end of one of the most dangerous times in our history. Defying description, insulated, dangerous - wow, Jeffy, you're on roll! What would our world look like if alGore was Prez, Jeffy? Very stable, right, LOL.
We have all become cynical. We have seen what might have been and criticized how it was presented. But when I hear a graceful, truly stirring analysis of the humanity that is our nation, I know we can again find our way in this world and, if Bush et al have not by then encouraged too many of our neighbors to attack us, we can again lead. I'm pretty cynical about where the likes of alGore could possibly lead anyone. The attacks will come regardless, dimwit. It's not about Gore, moron, it's about Islam.
Thanks for speaking the truth, for the elegance of thoughtful words. Thanks, Al Gore. Indeed, keep talking - we appreciate it al baby.
#3
One more thing. Having played cello for 14 years, I reached the conclusion that there is no way to play it properly unless it causes pain in several parts of your body.
Al is like that, too. Everytime he opens his mouth, he says something that creates several intellectual ouchy places. For example:
"We're entering--have already entered--a new phase of human history. The fundamental relationship between our species and our home planet has been utterly transformed."
That sounds like something you would hear from a real fan at a Star Trek convention, whose boundless enthusiasm for a television show is such that he has decorated his bedroom with Star Trek paraphernalia, and every night looks himself in the mirror with Mr Spock ears and says "Live long and prosper" before bed.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2006 20:59
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As Marxism-Leninism/Communism teaches, the
"Socialist Revolution" will come from the Right, i.e. a mature Capitalist-Mercantilist, even Bourgeois, economy. The Failed Lefties problem is NOT alleged Fascist Amerika waging war vv 9-11/WOT, its Communist Amerika NOT being the outcome of the WOT. America [Free or Socialist]
"volunteering" to give up its sovereignty, Government, and endowments = America being militarily forced to. In CLINTONISM, Fascist Dubya is both Adolf Bushitler whom needs to be stopped or wiped out, as well as Stalin and Mao's HALF-A-COMMIE/SOCIALIST IDEO-BROTHER, an arrogant warmongering selfish greedy unruly Rightist Capitalist Imperialist little boy and Male Brute whom refuses to listen to his holocaust-happy, Utopian-/Perfectionism-minded, Commie Mother and pro-Mama older/better ideo-brothers.
Rhetorical question: Do you think CBC readers are getting enough information to have an informed opinion? What is Shariah?
The word Shariah means "the path to a watering hole." It denotes an Islamic way of life not just a system of criminal justice. It is a code of living that most Muslims adopt as part of their faith. Some countries formally institute it as the law of the land, enforced by the courts. However, the way Shariah law is applied from country to country can vary widely.
How did it originate?
According to Muslim scholars, the Prophet Muhammad laid down the laws. Some of the laws are said to be direct commands stated in the Qur'an. Other laws were based on rulings Muhammad is said to have given to cases that occurred during his lifetime. These secondary laws are based on what's called the Sunnah the Prophet's words, example and way of life. One of the major concerns of people critical of Shariah law is that it is subject to interpretation and evolution. There is virtually no formal certification process to designate someone as being qualified to interpret Islamic law.
As it stands today, almost anyone can make rulings as long as they have the appearance of piety and a group of followers.
Why have Shariah law in Canada?
Many Muslims believe that because Canada is a secular country, its secular legal system makes it difficult for them to govern themselves by the personal laws of their own religion. For instance, Canada's marriage and divorce laws differ from Muslim law. It can be important for a Muslim to be granted a divorce under Muslim law, especially if he or she intends to move to a Muslim country in the future and remarry. Another concern for some is that if a Muslim dies without a will in Ontario, the estate would be divided according to Ontario law as opposed to Muslim law.
How did Shariah come to be considered in Canadian jurisdictions?
In 1991, Ontario was looking for ways to ease the burdens of a backlogged court system. So the province changed its Arbitration Act to allow "faith-based arbitration" a system where Muslims, Jews, Catholics and members of other faiths could use the guiding principles of their religions to settle family disputes such as divorce, custody and inheritances outside the court system. It's voluntary both parties (a husband and wife) have to agree to go through the process. But once they do, the decisions rendered by the tribunal are binding.
The Ontario government has been reviewing its Arbitration Act and on Dec. 20, 2004, it released a report conducted by former attorney general Marion Boyd. Among her 46 recommendations was that:
The Arbitration Act should continue to allow disputes to be arbitrated using religious law, if the safeguards currently prescribed and recommended by this review are observed.
Earlier in the year, the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice said it wanted to set up its own faith-based arbitration panels under the Arbitration Act, based on Shariah law.
The proposal ran into opposition from women's groups, legal organizations and the Muslim Canadian Congress, which all warned that the 1,400-year-old Shariah law does not view women as equal to men.
In her report, Boyd noted that some "participants in the Review fear that the use of arbitration is the beginning of a process whose end goal is a separate political identity for Muslims in Canada, that has not been the experience of other groups who use arbitration."
In May 2005, the Quebec National Assembly unanimously supported a motion to block the use of Shariah law in Quebec courts.
What are the concerns about establishing Shariah law in a Canadian jurisdiction?
The National Association of Women and the Law, the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, and the National Organization of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women of Canada argued that under Shariah law, men and women are not treated equally.
They argued that women fare far worse in divorce, child custody and inheritance matters under Shariah law. For instance, a woman can only inherit half as much as a man can. If a divorced woman remarries, custody of the children from her previous marriage may revert to the children's father.
How would Shariah law apply in Ontario?
First, it's not clear the term "Shariah law" would even be used. Several groups that appeared before Boyd's process of reviewing the Arbitration Act say it's not Shariah law they want to set up but a Muslim Personal/Family Law process which has its roots in Shariah.
The arbitration process as set out in the Arbitration Act is voluntary. Most of the concerns about the creation of "Shariah" tribunals have focused on the fear that Muslim women may feel they are being forced into taking part in a process of binding arbitration according to Muslim family law instead of resolving their disputes through the court system.
In her report, former Ontario attorney general Marion Boyd stressed that any faith-based system would have to conform to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
#2
Hello, I moved to your town recently. I find many of your laws inconvenient. I like driving fast, so the speed limits should not apply to me. Too much of my money goes to local and state taxes. I'd like to be exempted. Also, it's inconvenient parking far away from stores. I think I should be able to park in those handicapped spots. Preferably two of them so I can park my car sideways or diagonally. Please change the laws for me. And be quick about it, I'm not very patient. Thank you.
#3
of course DMFD! I wouldn't wanna be intolerant!
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2006 20:53
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#4
The Muslims are not interested in Euro-style autonomous or Federalist CANTONS, but a sovereign Nation within a larger sovereign Nation where the larger financially/economically supports the lessor, aka $$$, until such time the lessor replaces the larger, freely or forcibly. No different than what the US DemoLefties want for America andor any future "Empire" - we $$$ the Lefties and Commies while they work wid the Radical Muslims to destabilize and kill America.
You are of your father the Devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of liars. John 8:44
And Paul said:
Be angry and do not sin. Don't let the sun go down on your anger, and don't give the Devil an opportunity. Eph. 4:26-27
There was a reason why the Demon wanted her to stop praying.
This part of our CIC's speech in West Virginia, certainly has the media in a defensive mode. They have justification (excuses) everywhere.
Q -- can you use this, and it will just end up in a drawer, because it's good, it portrays the good. And if people could see that, if the American people could see it, there would never be another negative word about this conflict.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. (Applause.) No, it -- that's why I come out and speak. I spoke in Cleveland, gave a press conference yesterday -- spoke in Cleveland Monday, press conference, here today. I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing to try to make sure people can hear there's -- why I make decisions, and as best as I can, explain why I'm optimistic we can succeed.
One of the things that we've got to value is the fact that we do have a media, free media, that's able to do what they want to do. And I'm not going to -- you're asking me to say something in front of all the cameras here. (Laughter.) Help over there, will you? (Laughter.)
I just got to keep talking. And one of the -- there's word of mouth, there's blogs, there's Internet, there's all kinds of ways to communicate which is literally changing the way people are getting their information. And so if you're concerned, I would suggest that you reach out to some of the groups that are supporting the troops, that have got Internet sites, and just keep the word -- keep the word moving. And that's one way to deal with an issue without suppressing a free press. We will never do that in America. I mean, the minute we start trying to suppress our press, we look like the Taliban. The minute we start telling people how to worship, we look like the Taliban. And we're not interested in that in America. We're the opposite. We believe in freedom. And we believe in freedom in all its forms. And obviously, I know you're frustrated with what you're seeing, but there are ways in this new kind of age, being able to communicate, that you'll be able to spread the message that you want to spread. Now comes a long explanation from the Washington Post -- well worth the read. They still just don't get how to cover the military and a war. EFL
snip
Those complaints anger journalists who risked their lives to cover a war in which 67 of their colleagues have been killed and many others, including ABC-TV's Bob Woodruff, have been injured. There are other risks; Jill Carroll of the Christian Science Monitor is still held captive by terrorists.
After talking and corresponding with Post staffers and other journalists with Iraq experience and experts in and outside the military, I find no easy resolution to the complaints.
Here's why:
· The press corps is trained to see the story, and the war is the story. The Post has heavily covered the efforts to build a democracy, but the continuing insurgency and the lack of security for Iraqis are still the main news.
· Reporters are scrambling to keep up with daily events in an atmosphere so dangerous that Post reporters find it impossible to freely move and report.
· There is a built-in tension between the press, always skeptical of authority, and the military culture of respecting authority and keeping secrets. snip
#1
One reader wrote a Post reporter a few weeks ago: "Be nice to see your traitorous ass shot."
That's totally inappropriate. The reader should have said, "Be nice to see your traitorous ass tried and shot." This is a nation of laws, for gosh sakes.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/27/2006 16:39
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#2
"The press corps is trained to see the story,..."
Oh, bullshit. The press corp is trained to write propaganda for the Democratic Party, not to see or report the story.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/27/2006 18:09
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#3
It's not an agenda if you think everyone believes it. Shows again how arrogant and out-of-touch journos can be. Easiest major in college after PE
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2006 19:13
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#4
these two WAPO c*ck su*kers, Jonathan Finer and Doug Struck, tried to smear Bill Roggio with the "paid Mil blogger" lies.
The Pentagon also is reaching out to bloggers writing about the military. Pro-war blogger Bill Roggio was invited late last year to embed with the Marines, and a story in The Post quoting him brought about 100 critical e-mails generated off Roggio's blog, http://www.billroggio.com/ . Roggio was mentioned in the lead paragraph of a Dec. 26 story by Jonathan Finer and Doug Struck, then doing a rotation in Iraq, on the military's efforts to get its story told favorably. Finer and Struck also wrote about the military's controversial Information Operations program, where Iraqi news media are asked to do stories that focus on efforts to help Iraqis' quality of life and to counter insurgents' attempts to influence coverage. Those stories are often backed up by cash payments.
Roggio was furious that he was mentioned in the same story with journalists paid to write favorable pieces. He said it looked like "I must be part of a nefarious scheme by the military to influence the perceptions on Iraq. All they did was extend an invite that is no different than extending an invite to any reporter. I was invited on my merit. I felt I earned the right to be embedded. I took the risk of leaving my family and job and financing this with donations. Then to see it put in this light, I felt very wronged."
Finer and Hoffman said any close reading of the story would have told readers that Roggio was not paid by the military. That is correct, but a more expansive explanation of the difference between the two programs would have been helpful.
Roggio embedded under the a Pentagon public affairs program that deals with the news media and runs military Web sites. Information Operations, on the other hand, is basically meant to influence coverage. The issue of blurred lines between the two has been raised both by the military and the press.
Lapan arranged Roggio's embed near Fallujah. In Lapan's view: "We have invited bloggers . . . to embed in an effort to tell the story. Bloggers, in my mind, are just another means to communicate accurate, truthful information about what we do. These are not Information Operations any more than embedding a reporter from The Post or the New York Times is."
"The crux of the matter: Public affairs . . . is meant to inform the public. Information Operations is meant to influence our adversary and local populations. PA is primarily directed at American audiences. IO is primarily directed at enemy and supporting foreign publics. By law, IO is not to be directed at the American people. The purpose of IO is to influence; the purpose of PA is to inform," Lapan said.
Finer, in an e-mail, said: "The decision to embed Bill Roggio, a widely read military blogger whose views on the war are well known, came at a time when the military was increasingly expressing frustration with coverage they were receiving in the mainstream media. It also came amid the revelation of efforts to influence coverage in the Iraqi press by paying journalists to publish favorable stories. The story sought only to document what appeared to be a growing effort on the part of the military, and the insurgency, to control the dissemination of information from Iraq. Incidentally, the military, as well as independent analysts, seemed to agree the war over information was picking up on both sides and the Marines I spoke with did not object to the portrayal of Roggio as part of that effort."
#5
"There is a built-in tension between the press, always skeptical of authority, and the military culture of respecting authority and keeping secrets."
Allow me to suggest a press that is skeptical AND respectful. That would be a nice change. Allow me to also suggest that the secrets should not be the story -- the traitorous leakers who are pedaling them should be the story.
Actually, Frank, I suspect that journalism is an easier major than PE for those who enter college with basic writing skills. Every day I read news stories that my high school journalism teacher would have torn apart for shoddy content and poor organization -- and I'm talking about the bigtime MSM. And the editors just pass it along. Apparently an editor today is just a former journalist who operates a spell checker.
#6
The free press is an extension of freedom of speech. Since the MSM piss us off, I consider it my duty to smear them at every oportunity. I focus my freedom of speech directly against them, personally. If they don't like it, they can cry.
The MSM have caused massive problems in America for which they will never be forgiven.
for which they will never be forgiven
But since they never will be held accountable as well, to them it's no big deal... only answer is to stop believing them, and pay them no attention anymore past bare minimum keeping-in-touch with actuality and local news.
#8
Crap like this article is one of the prime reasons for declining circulation and influence by newspapers like the Post and the NYT. The report whatever they want and if they can't find what they want, they just make it up. Pompous, punctilious, supercilious, vacuous c*cks*ck*rs.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/27/2006 18:01
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#5
I won't forget the image of hundreds of unused buses that could have taken thousands out of the city. Incidently, the buses weren't trapped in flood water until the last levy broke.
#7
Don't forget, a female public employee alleged that almost all of the city's public-controlled buses, etal weren't working, or were in questionable working condition, anyways.
While most media accounts of the "cartoon jihad" focused on the publication of the cartoons, and on the ensuing violent reaction by some Muslims -- who were depicted by the much of the press as victims! -- few reporters have ventured to describe the increasingly hostile climate that Muslim extremists had succeeded in creating in Denmark before the publication. In fact, an examination of Jyllands-Posten's own pages reveals why its editors likely decided to publish the cartoons in the first place -- as well as why the obscurantist rioters were so confident that they would prevail.
In late 2004 -- a University of Copenhagen professor of Moroccan Jewish descent -- was kidnapped in broad daylight and brutally beaten by three Muslim youths for the "crime" of having read from the Quran during a lecture. A few months later, a Danish publisher used anonymous translators for an essay collection critical of Islam for fear that any named assistant would suffer a similar fate. And in an incident immediately preceding Jyllands-Posten's decision to run the cartoons as a test of self-censorship, Danish artists refused to illustrate a children's book about Muhammad.
These incidents, all disturbing, don't even scratch the surface of the appeasement Danes have made to accommodate the people who unleashed violence against them. In Copenhagen's public schools, the only food available to students -- regardless of their religious affiliation or lack thereof -- are Halal (prepared according to Islamic dietary requirements). In Denmark, a country which enjoys well-deserved praise for the courage with which citizens came together to save its small Jewish community during World War II, Danish Jewish students today cannot attend certain public schools because their very presence is viewed by administrators as "provocative" to radicalized Muslim peers. The country's only Jewish school, Copenhagen's 300-pupil Carolineskolen, founded in 1805, nowadays is constrained to operate behind a double ring of barbed wire.
Naser Khader, the Damascus-born son of a Palestinian father and Syrian mother who has served as a Danish parliamentarian from the Social Liberal Party since 1994, now lives under round-the-clock police protection because he committed the "crime" of giving his daughter a kafir ("infidel," read "Western") name. Compounding his "apostasy," he founded a moderate Muslim group with over 700 members, Democratic Muslims, after the outbreak of the "cartoon jihad" to campaign against Islamic establishmentarianism. Imam Ahmad Abu Laban -- the same character who instigated Middle Eastern anti-Danish riots with his portfolio of doctored cartoons -- then labeled Mr. Khader and his supporters "rats in a hole." One of the members of Khader's new group, Iranian refugee Kamran Tahmesabi, recently told a Belgian newspaper, "It is an irony that I am today living in a European democratic state and have to fight the same religious fanatics that I fled from in Iran many years ago."
After the "cartoon jihad" had seemingly run its course, this past February 12, the Danish chapter of the radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir availed itself of the Scandinavian country's "decadent" freedoms to hold a meeting in the Copenhagen neighborhood of Nørrebro, where it attempted to stoke the flames of hatred. The participants at this gathering minced no words about the "infidels" who populate their country. Leader Fadi Abdullatif (who had previously received a 60-day sentence for threatening to kill Jews) turned his wrath on Denmark's popular bicycle-riding sovereign, Queen Margarethe II, whom he accused of involvement in a "conspiracy" with Jyllands-Posten and Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to "harm Islam." The state prosecutor, under pressure from Muslim groups, declined to bring charges.
Historically, non-Muslim minorities (i.e., Jews and Christians) could escape the ravages of violent jihad only by surrendering to Islamic domination through a treaty of agreed-upon subjugation and oppression (dhimma) that turned them into "protected persons" (dhimmis) with second class status within the real of Islam. Today, it seems that even non-Muslim majorities are requested to descend into dhimmitude to avoid the wrath of some new immigrants. But, to paraphrase our own American Freedom Marchers, we are citizens, not dhimmis. Of course, once one has let oneself be treated like a dhimmi, it becomes hard to protest.
J. Peter Pham is director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University. Michael I. Krauss is professor of law at George Mason University School of Law. Both are academic fellows of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/27/2006
13:56 ||
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#1
Danish Jewish students today cannot attend certain public schools because their very presence is viewed by administrators as "provocative" to radicalized
Appears home-schooling may have yet another new field to harvest.
#2
I think a more accurate headline would be "Descent into Stupidity and Mass Cultural Suicide"
But that's just me....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/27/2006 14:50
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Danish Jewish students today cannot attend certain public schools because their very presence is viewed by administrators as "provocative" to radicalized
As evoked yesterday, this is true also in some areas in France, which are now forbidden to jewish kids.
I wonder if there is the same pressure (mentioned by the rapport which revealed this de facto muslim apartheid against jews in french schools) is applied toward professors regarding certain subjects?
For example, the holocaust cannot be teached anymore, as are the crusades, the history of the Middle East,... students petition for not having a "western-centered" view of History, biology cannot touch human reproduction, etc, etc... and the national education is complicit, since its policy is "low profile" and "submit" (many schools now not even bother to propose pork in their menus). It actually even sided with the pious muslim parents when an history teached was sued for having had the audacy to describe old Mo' as a thief and a jew-killer (affaire Chagon).
#4
The strength of the opposition to controlled immigration, was revealed yesterday. In Los Angeles alone, 500,000 protested proposed laws that would only effect law-breakers. Muslims are, unlike Hispanics, un-assimiliable. And they are anxious to hate the West from close range. Either we enforce our laws, or accept theirs.
Hispanics blame social residue from the feudal "latifunda" system of war lord economism, for their backwardness. According to the mythology, US backed strongmen in order to create dependencies. Reality dictates that the latifundistas were highly protective, and insisted on local control of foreign owned operations, thus, hindered profit taking and investment interest. But from whence did that system come? From the Iberian sultanate model.
Frankly, if the world's worst crybaby peoples - Muslims and Hispanics - get together, the sobfest could end badly.
#5
Muslims are, unlike Hispanics, un-assimiliable. And they are anxious to hate the West from close range.
I'd be interested to see sufficient evidence that this is true of the Muslims living in the U. S. Certainly there are some for whom it may be true. But there was a German-American Bund too.
And Mexico is a feudal country. The only reason it has not had a revolution is that illegal immigration provides a saftey valve. Build the fence and watch the fun begin.
#6
There was a German-American Bund too.
If that's your argument, YOU LOSE !
They still have Hungarian clubs too, but the people in them are not Hungarian. And they all speak English. Islam is the enemy. Wake up, please.
...Worship of the Flying Spaghetti Monster "Pastafarianism" as it is known to its adherents began as a whimsical side dish in last year's standoff between advocates of evolution and intelligent design. FSM, as it is known to its followers, took shape in a protest letter to Kansas officials who were embroiled in a controversy about how to teach students about the origins of life. The parody religion leapt from those pages to become an Internet phenomenon, finding fans among supporters of the theory of evolution and receiving e-mailed threats of bodily harm from evolution's opponents.
"I wrote the letter for my own amusement as much as anything. And it totally snowballed. Some people say I'm going to hell," says FSM's 25-year-old creator, Bobby Henderson, who recently moved from Oregon to Arizona, partly to escape the uproar. But his paperback testament, The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster ($13.95, Villard), which arrives Tuesday, reveals the tenets of the parody religion. A few of them:
A "Flying Spaghetti Monster" created the universe, Earth and its creatures, making a few mistakes on the way after drinking heavily from heaven's beer volcano.
The FSM hid dinosaur fossils underground to "dupe mankind" about Earth's true age and is the secret force behind gravity, pushing everything downward with its "noodly appendage."
The FSM wants everyone to talk and dress like pirates. Global warming is considered a punishment for the relative scarcity of pirates these days.
Every Friday is a sloth-filled holy day. Instead of "amen," devotees end missives with "R'amen," in honor of the college student's favorite noodle fare... Please note that, in defiance of scripture, I am not wearing a Pirate outfit as I am posting this. Nor am I dressed as a Ninja.
The Federal Election Commission decided Monday that the nation's new campaign finance law will not apply to most political activity on the Internet. In a 6-0 vote, the commission decided to regulate only paid political ads placed on another person's Web site.
The decision means that bloggers and online publications will not be covered by provisions of the new election law. Internet bloggers and individuals will therefore be able to use the Internet to attack or support federal candidates without running afoul of campaign spending and contribution limits. "It's a win, win, win," Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub said, adding that the rule would satisfy concerns of campaigns, individuals and the Internet community about whether the campaign finance law applies to Internet political activity.
The commission was forced to act after a federal court ruled that the FEC must extend some of the campaign financial and spending limits to political activity on the Internet. The 2002 law requires that campaign ads for federal candidates be paid for with money regulated by the law, which limits contributions by individuals to $2,000 and bans union and corporation donations. In its initial interpretation of the law in 2002, the FEC said no political activity on the Internet was covered. But a federal court judge ruled in 2004 that the commission had to craft a new rule that at the very least covered paid political advertising on the Internet.
The ruling, and the commission's decision not to appeal it, sparked fears among some Internet users that the panel might adopt broader restrictions. But FEC Chairman Michael E. Toner said the new rules give a "categorical and unqualified" exemption for all individual and group political activity on the Internet, except for paid advertising. "The law was never intended to regulate private citizen communication on the Internet," said Commission Vice Chairman Robert D. Lenhard. "I believe that we have achieved that goal today."
Commissioners said the new rule also specifically changes several other FEC regulations to make it clear that Internet activity, such as blogging, e-mail communications and online publications, is not covered by the campaign law.
For example, the rule says individuals can use union or corporate computers or other electronic devices for political activity, as long they do it on their own time and are not coerced to engage in such activity by the union or corporation. Bloggers would be entitled to the same exemption from the campaign finance law that newspapers and other traditional forms of media receive. "There will be no second class citizens among members of the media," Toner said.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/27/2006
13:27 ||
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ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testified Monday that he and would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid were supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House.
This is why lawyers don't like clients taking the stand.
Moussaoui's testimony on his own behalf stunned the courtroom as he disclosed details he had never revealed before. It was in stark contrast to Moussaoui's previous statements in which he said the White House attack was to come later if the United States refused to release a radical Egyptian sheik imprisoned on earlier terrorist convictions.
Moussaoui testified Monday he lied to investigators when arrested in August 2001 because he wanted to let the attacks of Sept. 11 go forward. ''Yes, you can say that,'' Moussaoui said when the prosecution asked if that was why he misled them. The statement was key to the government's case that the attacks might have been averted if Moussaoui had been more cooperative following his arrest.
He told the court he knew the attacks were coming some time after August 2001 and bought a radio so he could hear them unfold. Specifically, he said he knew the World Trade Center was going to be attacked, but asserted he was not part of the plot and didn't know the details.
Taking the stand in his own defense in his death-penalty trial, Moussaoui said he declined to become a suicide pilot in some future attack when asked by a senior al-Qaida official in 1999. Nineteen men pulled off the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York in Washington in the worst act of terrorism ever on U.S. soil.
''I had knowledge that the Twin Towers would be hit,'' Moussaoui said. ''I didn't know the details of this.'' Asked by his lawyer why he signed his guilty plea in April as ''the 20th hijacker,'' Moussaoui replied: ''Because everybody used to refer to me as the 20th hijacker and it was a bit of fun.'' Moussaoui testified calmly in his death penalty trial, but against his lawyers' wishes.
Before he took the stand, his lawyers made a last attempt to stop him from testifying, but failed. Defense attorney Gerald Zerkin argued that his client would not be a competent witness because he has contempt for the court, only recognizes Islamic law and therefore ''the affirmation he undertakes would be meaningless.'' Asked by Zerkin if he was supposed to be one of the men who would pilot a plane on 9/11, he said no, adding: ''I'm sorry, I don't know about the number of planes but I was not the fifth (pilot) hijacker.'' The 19 terrorists on Sept. 11 hijacked and crashed four airliners, killing nearly 3,000 people in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on the planes.
About his guilty plea, he said: ''I took a pen. I signed it.''
He said talked with an al-Qaida official in 1999 about why a 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center failed to bring the towers down. He said ''was asked in the same period for the first time if I want to be a suicide pilot and I declined.''
Yet, he said he was taking flight training for a separate attack on the White House, when he was arrested in August 2001 on immigration charges. He was vague on whether this attack was to have been after Sept. 11 or on it. ''I know it was something going on,'' he said in French-accented English. ''We don't do single operation. We do multiple strikes.'' He told the court it was ''difficult to say'' whether he was involved in the planning for 9/11. At some point, he said, he received training on what to do if at the controls of a hijacked plane if a fighter aircraft approached.
Just before Moussaoui took the stand, the court heard testimony that two months before the attacks that a CIA deputy chief waited in vain for permission to tell the FBI about a ''very high interest'' al-Qaida operative who became one of the hijackers. The official, a senior figure in the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit, said he sought authorization on July 13, 2001, to send information to the FBI but got no response for 10 days, then asked again. As it turned out, the information on Khalid al-Mihdhar did not reach the FBI until late August. At the time, CIA officers needed permission from a special unit before passing certain intelligence on to the FBI. The official was identified only as John. His written testimony was read into the record.
''John's'' testimony was part of the defense's case that federal authorities missed multiple opportunities to catch hijackers and perhaps thwart the 9/11 plot. His testimony included an e-mail sent by FBI supervisor Michael Maltbie discussing Moussaoui but playing down his terrorist connections. Maltbie's e-mail said ''there's no indication that (Moussaoui) had plans for any nefarious activity.'' He sent that e-mail to the CIA even after receiving a lengthy memo from the FBI agent who arrested Moussaoui and suspected him of being a terrorist with plans to hijack aircraft.
Former FBI agent Erik Rigler, the first defense witness, was questioned about a Justice Department report that he said criticized the CIA for keeping intelligence about two known al-Qaida terrorist operatives in the United States from the FBI for more than a year. Under cross-examination from the prosecution, he acknowledged the report did not link the pair specifically to a civil aviation plot. But he said the report's thrust was about their preparations for what turned out to be the 9/11 attacks, and their ability to elude federal agents. ''That's why they came here,'' he said. ''They didn't come for Disney.''
The two were among the 19 suicide hijackers on 9/11. The report said they had been placed on a watch list in Thailand in January 2000, but not on a U.S. list until August 2001. Prosecutors argue that Moussaoui, a French citizen, thwarted a prime opportunity to track down the 9/11 hijackers and possibly unravel the plot when he was arrested in August 2001 on immigration violations and lied to the FBI about his al-Qaida membership and plans to hijack a plane. Had Moussaoui confessed, the FBI could have pursued leads that would have led them to most of the hijackers, government witnesses have testified.
To win the death penalty, prosecutors must first prove that Moussaoui's actions -- specifically, his lies -- were directly responsible for at least one death on Sept. 11. If they fail, Moussaoui would get life in prison. Moussaoui pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al-Qaida to hijack planes and other crimes, but he has denied any role in 9/11. He says he was training for a possible future attack on the White House.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/27/2006
13:19 ||
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#1
This guy is begging for the death penalty. Watch our courts let him off with 20 to life. I hate to be the cynic but good lord? What next from this French radical??
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/27/2006 13:40
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#2
Are we surprised? No. This mofo is the one who should be given a mental evaluation, not the Afgani who converted.
#4
He's setting himself up to be a martyr after his execution. I'd say life without non-legal visitation or parole. Gag the lawyer who does visit him. One hour of exercise a day. The rest in solitary. I hope he lives longer than Hess did.
#5
If I rememeber correctly, there were two other middle eastern men rounded up in the days following 9/11. They were described as having their bodies clean shaven (but not their beards) and I think the were taken off a train somewhere. Does anyone know what happened to these two (if in fact they were associated with the attack)? Could these have been more muscle for a 5th hijack?
#6
Clearly he's setting himself up for martyrdom. I'm astonished anyone believes anything he says, without significant outside corroboration. He'd say that he, Robert Reid, Otto the Autopilot, and Rocky the Flying Squirrel planned to hijack a plane, if it would get him to Paradise.
Does anyone know what happened to these two...
They were Indian. Here's a story about how the two were brutally treated while in custody, poor lambs. It also gives the pertinent background on their arrest. One of them, at least, pleaded guilty to credit card fraud, on the advice of his attorney.
BAGHDAD, Iraq Coalition Forces, while conducting operations near Tarmiya, rescued two Iraqi men kidnapped during a carjacking March 25.
Coalition Forces witnessed a car stop a semi-truck along the highway. Four men got out of the car and pulled two men from the truck cab and threw them into the trunk of the car.
Two of the men drove off in the truck; the other two got back in the car and drove off with the hostages in the trunk. Coalition Forces interdicted the car and rescued the two hostages.
After the rescue, troops questioned the hostages about the incident; neither of the men knew their assailants.
The white semi-truck has not been recovered.
Sounds like an Iraqi mafia job; what happened to the two assailants in the car? Who got to do the interrogation?
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is cracking down on Iran's universities in an effort to crush a student pro-democracy movement and strengthen the hardliners' grip on power. Leading student activists have been jailed or expelled from their studies, and lecturers have been sacked, while the government has proposed subjecting academics to strict religious testing.
The authorities have also begun a programme of burying the bodies of unknown soldiers on campus grounds in what student leaders say is a thinly disguised attempt to bring religious extremists into the universities on the pretext of holding "martyrs' ceremonies". Students fear that such a presence will be used to violently suppress their activities. In one recent incident students at Tehran's Sharif University were attacked by plain-clothed Basij (religious volunteers) during an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the burial of three soldiers from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war inside the campus mosque. The incident was overseen by Mehrdad Bazrpash, a close aide to Mr Ahmadinejad and a former Basij leader.
The event took place against a backdrop of speeches by Mr Ahmadinejad, a former university lecturer, stressing the need for "martyrdom" in Iran's confrontation with the west over its nuclear programme.
Student leaders say the developments amount to a takeover of the universities by Mr Ahmadinejad's ultra-conservative forces. The campuses were hotbeds of pro-democratic protest during the presidency of the former, reformist leader, Mohammad Khatami. "They want to gain hegemonic control over the universities, which have always been important in influencing the social and political atmosphere and which normally support pro-democracy rather than authoritarian forces," said Abdollah Momeni, an activist appealing against a five-year sentence imposed for leading a student protest. "Through burying martyrs on campus they open the doors for the entry of armed militias and thus add the universities to their fiefdoms."
Other activists have had their studies terminated after the intervention of Iran's intelligence services. Students also say they have been denied permission for low-level political activities that were allowed during Mr Khatami's presidency. The purge has extended to academics and university administrators. One political science lecturer was dismissed for belonging to a human rights group.
The chancellor of Tehran's Science and Industry University resigned in protest at government interference. Mr Ahmadinejad has also been accused of overturning an established practice of appointing chancellors and faculty heads from academic staff in favour of trusted cronies. A radical cleric was recently appointed to head Tehran University.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/27/2006
09:15 ||
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#1
Outrage from their American accedemic colleagues:
Coming soon (____)
Developing (____)
Never happen (_X_)
#2
Of course not Besoeker,
The left must befriend any opponent of the U.S. no matter what their wicked agenda. Be they Iraqi insurgents, illegal aliens, the Gitmo assholes, communists or whatever, as long as they are anti-US, they're ok in the left's book.
March 27, 2006: The battle of Fallujah, in late 2004, is still being studied by U.S. Army and Marine historians and doctrine ("how to fight") experts. The Fallujah fighting was quite intense, even by historical standards, something that the media missed. What was noticed was how quickly the army and marine troops blitzed through the city, clearing out the 4,000 very determined defenders. The speed and efficiency of the American attack was the result of some unique, in the history of warfare, factors. But the principal reason for the success in Fallujah was the high degree of training the troops had. Many also had months of combat experience in Iraq. These factors (training and combat experience) have long been key factors in combat success. But the American troops in Fallujah had some relatively new advantages, that were used aggressively. These included massive amounts of information on the enemy, and robotic weapons. The standard gear of the 5,000 attacking troops was also exceptionally good by historical standards. Especially notable was the improved body armor and communications gear.
The end result of all this was a two week campaign that resulted in some 500 American and Iraqi casualties, but the obliteration of the defending force (1,200, 1,500 captured, the rest either got out, or were buried in bombed buildings). While the enemy were not, compared to the U.S. troops, well trained, they were motivated, and often refused to surrender. But the speed and violence of the American assault prevented any coordinated defense. The U.S. troops quickly cut the city into sectors, that were then methodically cleared out.
The terrorists that got out, later all repeated the same story. Once the Americans were on to you, it was like being stalked by a machine. The often petrified defender could only remember the footsteps of the approaching American troops inside a building, the gunfire and grenade blasts as rooms were cleared, and the shouted commands that accompanied it. If a building was so well defended that the American infantry could not get in, they would just obliterate it with a smart bomb. They used smaller weapons, like AT-4 rocket launchers, many of which fuel-air explosive (thermobaric) warheads. These would use an explosive mist to create a lethal blast, capable of clearing several rooms at once. The defenders could occasionally kill or wound the advancing Americans, but could not stop them. Nothing the defenders did worked, and the American tactics developers want to keep it that way.
The speed with which intelligence information (from troops, electronic intercepts, and constant live video via UAVs and gunships overhead) was processed enabled commanders to keep the battle going 24/7. The defenders were not ready to deal with this, and many of them died while groggy from lack of sleep. When in that condition, you are more prone to make mistakes, and the attackers were ready to take advantage. Compared to earlier wars, there has never been anything quite like Fallujah. The Pentagon is still sorting out what it all means for the future of warfare. What they do know is that future battles are likely to continue being different that anything in the past.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/27/2006
09:05 ||
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#1
No mention of one of our best tricks, how we first created killzones away from the residence areas, in the industrial district, then lured the more aggressive fighters into the KZ. This excised almost all of the "offense" fighters, leaving only "defense" fighters to systematically root out.
This meant that from that point on, we didn't have to keep our "gloves up" as much, spending much of our resources on defense, and to totally commit to offense.
#6
US Commanders treated Fallujah somewhat like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, prior to the spectacular VJ termination: militarized to the extent that they were not civil entities. That consideration enabled use of short range artillery/mortar cover for blitz movement by the infantry. In most cases, once an enemy perceives overwhelming force, they either surrender or retreat. Having secured both sniper positions and with ground controlled air support, retreating elements were cut down.
A factor in quick defeat is: captives blame leadership and turn against their commanders. Hence, there is ripe picking for intelligence. Information gathered led to quick attacks on command structures, which would have caused jihadis to believe that resistance was futile. The elements who chose to fight to the death did so in easily renderible pockets. The least publicized aspect of the Fallujah Operation was the fact that most arms caches were found in mosques.
Prior to the capture of Fallujah, jihadi websites spoke of the city's nominal invinciability. They wrote freely about the place of Medina, the last Muslim defensive battle (Batle of the Trench) led by Mohammad. The fact that it was crushed so quickly under conditions where morale collapsed,
would discredit the clerical class that is perpetuating terrorism. Perhaps, US Defense doesn't want to tempt further terror by treating the Fallujah Operation with triumphalism, but I think the value of exploding cleric bravado overweighs the decision not to tell the story. Heroes win wars because they inspire other heroes. What was achieved at Fallujah was more than a footnote in a history book.
#9
of course, the fiery clerics slinked off - too valuable to die for Allan. To incite fight another day
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2006 19:30
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#10
Listen to Dogs; where does your name originate? I'll tell you mine if you choose to tell us from whence you come. Not much of a trade, but something I can offer.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/27/2006 20:32
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#11
I'm a little ticked / non-plussed by this article since we are developing assault armor. I'd have killed for this stuff in RVN. Weight is one thing, absolute (ex-.50-.51 cal.) survivability is another.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/27/2006 20:58
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#12
Just thought of something; when tired, they make mistakes. Therefore, start probes days before the actual attack, moving from place to place with a lot of fanfare, armor, air cover, vehicles, but few troops. When the attack actually starts, the enemy is dog tired and prone to sit rather than respond to calls and shots, never being sure it's the real thing.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A series of blasts killed one person and injured several others in Addis Ababa on Monday, the first fatality in a string of mysterious explosions in the Ethiopian capital. One person was killed and three others injured when the first blast ripped through a minibus in the southern part of the city.
Over the next six hours in different parts of Addis Ababa, explosions went off in a small cafe, a guard shack and at an abattoir. An employee in the cafe said the explosion there injured 10 people and ambulances could be seen leaving for the hospital. Police who had cordoned off the area around the cafe, littered with broken glass, had no immediate comment. The fourth explosion, in the busy Mercato trading district, tore the tin roof off a guard shack near some warehouses. A sidewalk vendor was seriously injured, witnesses said.
A Reuters reporter at the scene of the bus explosion said the rear of the 11-seat vehicle was torn apart by the blast. The bus owner, Berhanu Gebremichael, told Reuters: "One person was killed in the explosion. Three others were injured slightly and they are in hospital for treatment."
It was the first death in a wave of attacks that began in January with minor blasts targeting public buildings and hotels. Although grenade attacks to settle scores are relatively common in Ethiopia, the unexplained blasts have boosted tension in Addis, which was shaken by two bouts of unrest in the wake of disputed parliamentary elections last May. At least 80 people were killed in clashes between police and opposition demonstrators in June and November. On March 7 this year, three separate explosions injured at least four people at a restaurant, a market and outside a school.
Ethiopia's government said the plastic explosives used in those blasts were smuggled from neighboring Eritrea and used by what it called Eritrean-backed "terrorists." Eritrea, which has been locked in a dispute with Ethiopia over their border since a 1998-2000 war that killed 70,000 people, ridiculed the charges. The Ethiopian government has also accused the chief opposition coalition of trying to plan such attacks, and has blamed explosions in the past on Oromo Liberation Forces rebels. The group has fought for the independence of the southern Oromo region since 1993.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/27/2006
09:02 ||
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#1
Round up the Bangladeshis usual suspects.
Posted by: ed ||
03/27/2006 11:23
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GERMANS are the most intelligent people in Europe, well ahead of the British and the French, according to a study.
Northern Ireland's University of Ulster found Germans have an average intelligence quotient of 107, a scintilla of brainpower above the Dutch who also scored 107, The Times reported today.
Poles were on 106, Swedes on 104 and Italians on 102.
The British rated eighth with an average IQ of 100.
The Spanish scored 98, Ireland 97, Russia 96 and the French 94.
Serbians languished at the bottom of the table on 89.
The head of the study, Professor Richard Lynn, caused controversy last year by claiming that men were more intelligent than women by about five IQ points on average.
He said of his latest findings that populations in the colder, more challenging environments of Northern Europe had developed larger brains than those in warmer climates further south.
The average brain size in Northern and Central Europe is 1,320cc and in south-east Europe it is 1,312cc, according to his studies.
He described it as "a hitherto unrecognised law of history" that "the side with the higher IQ normally wins, unless they are hugely outnumbered, as Germany was after 1942", The Times reported.
There were also differences in IQ levels within countries with higher scores found on average in big cities.
He said intelligence across Britain could be attributed to bright people moving to London over hundreds of years.
Adults in England and Wales have an IQ of 100, higher than Scotland with 97.
#7
I think problem is that IQ tests measure just one aspect of intelligence - the ability to do well on IQ tests. Most people aren't so much interested in how well you test as how much money you make.
#8
Obviously, there are gross errors in this study. How could Frogs be lowest on the totem pole ? Mebbe this explains why they let Muzzies pour in and take over ?
Testing adults usually is colored by their education and life experiences; testing young children is more likely to get an actualy IQ.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/27/2006 14:44
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#11
Actually, I thought the most intelligent were those like my ancestors who were smart enough to get the hell out of the place before the locals set fire to it in 1914.
#14
What fun! Unless the tests were done in the original full format (which tests several different kinds of intelligence, and takes all day) at best the results will be within a range of +-20 points of actual. Children's results do tend to be less skewed by environment and experience than do those of adults... for adults, as with most standard achievement tests, experience taking similar tests can increase an individual's test score 10-20 points. All of which places all the results quoted in the article within the variability of the test. Which makes the results meaningless, and demonstrates those who take such things seriously to be pseudointellectuals at best. (Sorry -- Mama spent the better part of my youth studying and applying this kind of stuff to the mentally retarded, multiply handicapped children and adults for whom she developed occupational therapy, work and education programs, which is why I've never been able to take my own test results quite seriously (but at least it seems sure that my own lacks are due to other causes).)
#18
Lets all watch PEPE LE PEU wear a Foreign Legion uniform like Beu Geste, and then take out a cigarrette to smoke wid attitude like a true soldat le'Francais.
Liberia wants former President Charles Taylor to be sent directly to Sierra Leone for trial for war crimes, rather than to Liberian territory, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said on Monday. Nigeria, where Taylor has lived in exile since 2003, said on Saturday Liberian authorities were free to take custody of Taylor, but Johnson-Sirleaf's statement, made to church representatives, indicated Liberia did not want to do this. "Taylor was indicted by a Sierra Leone Court. Taylor should rather go to Sierra Leone than come to Liberia because he was not indicted by a Liberian court," the Liberian president said in response to questions.
Her comments added to growing confusion over which government or authority would take responsibility for Taylor's expected transfer to a U.N.-backed special court in Sierra Leone, where he is charged on 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The charges relate to his alleged involvement in Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war. He is accused of having supported rebels notorious for their brutality in exchange for diamonds.
The whereabouts of Taylor, seen as the mastermind behind once intertwined civil wars in both Liberia and Sierra Leone, were unclear on Monday. Nigerian authorities and a spokesman for Taylor declined to say anything about the location of the former warlord.
Taylor's 2003 exile was part of a peace deal to end 14 years of war in Liberia which killed 250,000 people, spawned a generation of young gunmen and spread violence to nearby states. Johnson-Sirleaf's government has said it was not party to the 2003 deal but is willing to cooperate to bring Taylor's case to a conclusion for the good of Liberia.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/27/2006
08:33 ||
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I'd have first asked the US to submit an extradition request (he's wanted for escaping prison, unless there's a statute of limitations on that--might be a complication), then had us pick him up as soon as he touched down at Roberts Field. Then Sierra Leone could petition us to allow his trial to be held here (and ask for aid to pay for it, as transportation gets a bit pricey). I don't think he'd break prison this time, and his militia would be far away.
Posted by: James ||
03/27/2006 14:00
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#2
I'm available. Are they taking resumes? Would it be okay if he dies of natural causes before we get a verdict in, say, 7 or 8 years?
HUSAYBAH, Iraq (AP) -- Extra body armor -- the lack of which caused a political storm in the United States -- has flooded in to Iraq, but many Marines here promptly stuck it in lockers or under bunks. Too heavy and cumbersome, many say. Marines already carry loads as heavy as 70 pounds when they patrol the dangerous streets in towns and villages in restive Anbar province. The new armor plates, although only about 5 pounds per set, are not worth carrying for the additional safety they are said to provide, some say. "We have to climb over walls and go through windows," said Sgt. Justin Shank. "I understand the more armor, the safer you are. But it makes you slower. People don't understand that this is combat, and people are going to die."
Staff Sgt. Thomas Bain shared concerns about the extra pounds. "Before you know it, they're going to get us injured because we're hauling too much weight and don't have enough mobility to maneuver in a fight from house to house," said Staff Sgt. Bain, who is assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. "I think we're starting to go overboard on the armor."
Since the insurgency erupted in Iraq, the Pentagon has been criticized for supplying insufficient armor for Humvees and too few bulletproof vests. In one remarkable incident, soldiers publicly confronted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld about the problem on live television. Hometown groups across the United States have since raised money to send extra armor to troops, and the Pentagon, under congressional pressure, launched a program in October to reimburse troops who had purchased armor with their own money. Soldiers and their parents spent hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars on armor until the Pentagon began issuing the new protective gear.
In Staff Sgt. Bain's platoon of about 35 men, Marines said only three or four wore the plates after commanders distributed them last month and told them that use was optional. Top military officials, including Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey, acknowledge the concerns over weight and mobility but have urged that the new gear be mandatory. "That's going to add weight, of course," Mr. Harvey said. "You've read where certain soldiers aren't happy about that. But we think it's in their best interest to do this."
Marines have shown a special aversion to the new plates because they tend to patrol on foot, sometimes conducting two patrols each day that last several hours. They feel the extra weight. In Euphrates River cities from Ramadi and Romanna, lance corporals to captains have complained about the added weight and lack of mobility. But some commanders have refused to listen. In the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, for example, commanders require use of the plates. Last year, a study by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner said dozens of Marines killed by wounds to the torso might have survived had the larger plates been in use. "I'm sure people who ... lost kidneys would have loved to have had them on," said 2nd Lt. William Oren, who wears the plates. "More armor isn't the answer to all our problems. But I'll recommend them because it's more protection."
Some Marines have chosen to wear the plates, particularly those in more vulnerable jobs, such as Humvee turret gunners. But many think the politics of the issue eventually will make the plates mandatory. "The reason they issued [the plates], I think, is to make people back home feel better," said Lance Cpl. Philip Tootle. "I'm not wishing they wouldn't have issued them. I'm just wishing that they wouldn't make them mandatory."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/27/2006
08:03 ||
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In one remarkable incident, soldiers publicly confronted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld about the problem on live television.
Forgot to mention that was a setup by a scheming reporter and a planted army guy.
#2
This was an expensive CYA from DoD. The Marines made this point clear before the extra body armor was distributed.
It would be nice if the MSM didn't drive the DoD's decisions, and the Marines on the ground did.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/27/2006 9:37
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#3
They need to offload some of the other shit they are dragging around. If 5 lbs. saves you, you need that 5 lbs. I'm sure they are lugging other items they could do with out.
#5
They need to offload some of the other shit they are dragging around. If 5 lbs. saves you, you need that 5 lbs. I'm sure they are lugging other items they could do with out.
#6
Maybe water? That's a great headline - "Troops die of dehydration due to reduction of water bottle size".
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/27/2006 12:06
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#7
Well! The nerve of those soldiers and Marines! After all the trouble we went through to help! Just shows how ignorant those folks are, volunteering for war!
But choice is not an option for those that know more than the 'rest of us', so it prolly will be made mandatory, until we see the story about how a guy fell onto a land mine because he lost his balance; then the cry will be, "Too heavy!"
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/27/2006 12:09
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#8
This body armor controversy is a rerun of the combat helmet issue during the Vietnam War. David Hackworth, a battalion commander during the war, wrote about how many soldiers in Vietnam hated wearing their helmets because of the heat and because they got in the way, preferring bandannas. But he always made them wear their helmets, because they slowed down bullet and shell fragments in a way that bandannas wouldn't.
#9
Hackworth had a very personal reason for knowing that the helmets save lives. While he was serving in Korea, he got shot in the head. Luckily for him, the act of penetrating his helmet saved him by changing the angle of the bullet and it just sort of skimmed around his head and only damaged his hearing a little. So while yes, the helmet didn't stop the bullet, it kept his brains in his head. Read his book sometime and you'll learn that Hackworth was the cat with 9 lives. The poor guy nearly died and should have died so many times, it's not even funny.
#11
This is a major problem. It has nothing to do with armor but everything to do with who's in command. Patten should have shot the coward. Then, he should have shot the press. This crap is what gets people killed. If the press wants armor, then they can buy and wear their own.
#12
I'm speaking from experience. We rarely wore armor in Nam. But many of us wish we had. And wish we had the current ceramic plates that actually stop some of these rounds. Yeah, ammo is one of the heaviest items to lug around. these guys are basically on roads, unlike us. They can carry the ammo in an accompanying vehicle. I know how heavy these items get, but it's worth it. I know.
Nope. On patrol in cities. Foot patrols. and in a firefight you cannot depend on getting back tot he Stryker or LAV for a reload.
You go with what you have.
And its not always about weight. Its about tactical mobility: your ability to bend, twist move, sprint quickly from a stop, crawl, jump up, etc. Quickly.
Some of the body armor provides too much weight. Some of it too much rigidity.
Its each individual squad leader that shoudl be deciding this - based on his commander's intnet and the tactical situation.
If you're pulling airguard out the back hatch or a track, or the top of a Humvee, then you want the extra plate, etc.
If you're doing a tactical cordon and clear, going room to room, dealing with stairs, etc, you need more mobility.
So, providing this array of body armor is good, but mandating this stuff is stupid and wrong.
Funny that Congress, Dems and the Press seem to be playing the role of LBJ (meddling destructive micromanagement) in Vietnam here, and that the President is actually allowing the theater chain of command put responsibility at the echelon where it sits best - letting the professionals do what they have been trianed to do.
#15
Arac.
This helmet, I suppose,
Was meant to ward off blows,
It's very hot
And weighs a lot,
As many a guardsman knows,
As many a guardsman knows,
As many a guardsman knows,
As many a guardsman knows,
So off, so off that helmet goes.
(Giving their helmets to attendants.)
Chorus.
Yes, yes, yes,
So off that helmet goes!
Arac.
This tight-fitting cuirass
Is but a useless mass,
It's made of steel,
And weighs a deal,
This tight-fitting cuirass
Is but a useless mass,
A man is but an ass
Who fights in a cuirass,
So off, so off goes that cuirass.
(Removing cuirasses.)
Chorus.
Yes, yes, yes,
So off goes that cuirass!
These brassets, truth to tell,
May look uncommon well,
But in a fight
They're much too tight,
They're like a lobster shell,
They're like a lobster shell!
(Removing their brassets)
Chorus.
Yes, yes, yes,
They're like a lobster shell.
Arac.
These things I treat the same
(Indicating leg pieces.)
(I quite forget their name.)
They turn one's legs
To cribbage pegs
Their aid I thus disclaim,
Their aid I thus disclaim,
Though I forget their name,
Though I forget their name,
Their aid, their aid I thus disclaim!
All.
Yes, yes, yes,
Their aid I thus disclaim!
Posted by: bruce ||
03/27/2006 19:08
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Doha, 27 March (AKI) - Under Islam, apostasy - or renunciation of former religious beliefs - is not punishable by execution but "only in the afterlife," radical TV cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi has told the IsamOnline website. He was reacting to the case of the Afghan man, Abdul Rahman, whom an Afghan court earlier this month charged with rejecting Islam and has been facing possible execution unless he re-converts to Islam.
"Islam doesn't allow punishment for apostasy if the convert does not publicise their conversion and does not seek to proselytise. Punishment will be meted out on the day of judgement, should the convert die repudiating his orignal faith," said al-Qaradawi. Mohammed Salim al-Awwa, secretary general of the Union of Islamic Ulemas shared al-Qaradawi's view. As the imam of the Omara mosque in the Qatari capital, Doha, head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) and European Council for Fatwa and Research, al-Qaradawi is best-known for his appearances on the Al Jazeera satellite channel.
So he's the Pat Roberts of the turban set?
Rahman refuses to re-convert to the Muslim faith, and has said he is prepared to die for his religious beliefs. However, following intense international pressure on the Afghan government from many of its allies, including the United States and Germany, on Sunday, Afghanistan's Supreme Court announced it was dropping the case due to "gaps in the evidence" against Rahman.
The convert is expected to be freed while his case is being reviewed by the attorney-general, although details of his release are being kept secret as feelings amongst religious hardliners in the country are running high. More than a thousand protesters took to the streets on Monday in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, demanding Rahman's execution.
Observers say executing a converted Christian would be a significant precedent as a conservative interpretation of Sharia law in Afghanistan. Rahman's case is thought to be Afghanistan's first such trial, reflecting tensions between conservative clerics - who four years after the Taliban were overthrown still dominate the judiciary - and reformists.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/27/2006
07:59 ||
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Islam doesn't allow punishment for apostasy if the convert does not publicise their conversion...
In other words -- shut up, keep acting like a Muslim, and we won't kill you.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/27/2006 9:05
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#2
RC
Yes. That is an important point.
In the Rahman case, the judge asked him if he was an apostate and Rahman said, "no". Then Rahman went on to say he believed in Jesus.
Depending on how much he said about Jesus, he could be simply affirming the fact that Jesus (Isa) is a prophet of Islam or he might have said that Jesus is the son of God which would move to the publicizing side of the line.
#4
mhw: According to this piece by Wretchard, quoting a Wikipedia entry:
Though facing a possible death sentence, Rahman holds firm to his convictions: "They want to sentence me to death and I accept it I am a Christian, which means I believe in the Trinity I believe in Jesus Christ."
Sounds like straight Christianity to me, the Trinity reference being the clincher.
#5
"We might not kill him if he keeps quiet, but he will of course have to have his children taken from him, be forcibly divorced from his wife and lose his job. We may also jail him from time to time if he does not stay out of our way, but we probably won't execute him. We are very civilized here."
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
03/27/2006 14:30
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#6
Babu Tata, the man is apparently long since wifeless, and his parents have had custody of his children these sixteen years. That was the original issue, that he came back to Afghanistan to reclaim the children, and his parents used his apostasy to fight his claim. So he may yet live out his natural lifespan, but it won't be with his children. (And truth to tell, after having left them until so near adulthood, how much could he really add to their development?)
#7
The Maliki School of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) imposes capital punishment (Had) for apostasy, as does the hanafi madhab. Check out 37:19 from this 9th century malaki manual.
Rape is legal for Muslim males unless another male - or 2-4 women - witnesses the attack. Unprovable accusations of rape are punishable under Had extermination. Muslim women usually find it better to withold rape accusations. However, often males brag about the crime and the woman is slaughtered to preserve family "honor."
Maliki states: most of North Africa and the Persian Gulf states
Hanafi states: from the Saud to the Paki terrorist entities.
Barring a last-minute hitch Iran and the United States are expected to begin talks on what they have both called "measures to benefit the Iraqi people." The euphemism is unlikely to deceive anyone. What Tehran and Washington are really interested in is to find out each other's true intentions in Iraq.
There is no doubt that both Iran and the United States have benefited from the demise of the Baathist regime under Saddam Hussein. The US has eliminated an enemy that it had wounded but not killed in 1991, something that Machiavelli had warned against almost five centuries ago. With Iraq likely to have a pluralist regime in which Shiites are a majority, Iran may no longer face a coalition of Sunni Arab regimes determined to challenge it in the region.
But while US and Iranian interests in Iraq converge up to a point, the two powers have diametrically opposite visions when it comes to the future of Iraq, indeed of the entire Middle East.
The US wants a democratic and pro-West Iraq with a capitalist market-based economy, and open to the new globalization trends. In his better moments President George W. Bush has even spoken of turning Iraq into a model for the entire Arab world, indeed for all Muslim countries. And that, of course, is indirect competition with Iran that claims that its own system is the ideal one for all Muslims.
Iran wants an Iraqi regime that adopts at least some aspects of Khomeinism if only to prove that the Islamic republic in Tehran is not a historic anomaly. The Tehran leadership is also concerned that the emergence of a Shiite-dominated democracy next door may well inspire a democratic revolution in Iran as well. With he center of Shiite theological authority clearly shifting to Najaf, Iran's rulers may risk losing the religious card they have played for the past 27 years.
The crucial question in regional politics now is whether Iraq, and beyond it the Middle East, will be reshaped the way US wants it or remolded as Iran's Khomeinist leaders have dreamed of since 1979.
It is against that background that it is important to know what Iran would actually bring to the table when, and if, the promised talks materialize.
Iran has already scored a point simply by being invited by the US for talks. Although Iran did nothing to oust Saddam Hussein, this invitation bestows on it a stature that only a liberating power would normally have. For example, at the end of World War II no one invited Switzerland or Poland, as neighbors of Germany, to discuss its future.
Iran has scored yet another point by positioning itself as a power speaking for the Iraqi people. The leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), Abdul-Aziz Hakim has helped Iran's maneuver by issuing a verbal "invitation" to enter the talks almost as a protector of the people of Iraq. The fact that Hakim and his party have been supported by Iran for more than a quarter of a century does not diminish the importance of that move.
The Iranian strategy is clear from the outset. Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki has said that Iran's chief priority is to discuss the withdrawal of the US-led coalition forces from Iraq.
Mottaki knows that the US and its allies are in Iraq under a United Nations' mandate that will run out in December. He also knows that that mandate cannot be renewed without the consent of the newly elected Iraqi Parliament and government. Finally, he also knows that President George W. Bush is under pressure from both Democrats and Republicans to bring the Iraqi episode to an end. So, when the Americans and their allies start to leave, as they are certain to do later this year, Iran would be able to pretend that it was its efforts that ended the "occupation".
Iran, however, has more important ambitions in Iraq. Strategically, it sees post-Saddam Iraq as a corridor through which it can communicate with Syria and Lebanon that it considers as part of its broader glacis. In fact, once Tehran's influence is established in Iraq as it is in Syria and Lebanon, Iran would be able to project power in the Levant for the first time since the early 7th century when the Persian Empire under Khosrow Parviz drove the Byzantines out of Mesopotamia and what is now Syria.
It is no accident that scholars in Tehran have just rediscovered the set of agreements that Iran had signed with the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. Known as the Erzerum treaties, these documents give Iran a droit de regard (the right of oversight) over Iraq's principal Shiite centers of Najaf, Kerbala and Kazemayn (now a suburb of Baghdad).
The agreements also enable Iran to take "appropriate action", a code word for military intervention, if it felt that its security, or the access of Iranian pilgrims to "holy places", was being threatened by the presence of foreign hostile forces in southern Iraq.
If implemented those agreements could lead to the emergence of an Iranian administration in the "holy cities" and an Iranian veto on key aspects of Iraq's foreign policy.
Iran has already used those agreements to persuade the new Iraqi government to sign an agreement under which more than 600,000 Iranian pilgrims would be able to visit Iraq each year with little control from the Iraqi authorities.
The second set of documents that Tehran is now dusting up is known as the Algiers Accords, negotiated and signed in Algiers, Geneva, Tehran and Baghdad between 1975 and 1976. These give Iran and Iraq shared sovereignty over the Shatt Al-Arab estuary that constitutes Iraq's principal outlet to the open seas. The agreements, signed by Saddam Hussein as a tactical ploy to end Iranian support for the Kurds in the 1970s, would, if fully implemented, give Iran a chokehold on Iraq's foreign trade, including oil exports.
Iran does not want the US to fail in Iraq. It wants the US to succeed in eliminating all possibility of a new Sunni-dominated regime being installed in Baghdad. But Iran wants the US to succeed at the highest possible cost, both in blood and treasure.
It is a mystery why Washington wants to give Tehran a place at the high table in Iraq. It is certain that the Islamic republic will continue doing whatever it can to make life difficult for the US-led coalition. The supply of new and more lethal explosives, smuggled into Iraq from Iran, partly via Syria is unlikely to dry up. Nor is Tehran likely to end the training programs launched by its Lebanese Hezbollah clients for Iraqi militants.
The decision to involve Iran in Iraqi affairs is likely to anger the United States regional allies who have never discounted the possibility of an Irano-American deal that might leave them in the lurch. The Arab states will also be concerned about the possibility of Iraq's Arab identity being diluted as a result of Iranian intervention.
The US may have made this strange move because of the experiment in Afghanistan where talks with Iran did help speed up the defeat of the Taleban and the creation of a new regime in Kabul.
But Iraq is not Afghanistan if only because it offers far more scope for Iranian mischief making. The invitation to Iraq is also likely to encourage Iran in its defiance of the United Nations on the nuclear issue. After all if Iran is treated as a major power in one domain it cannot be "bullied" as a weakling in another.
Has the Bush administration made its first major mistake with regard to Iraq? It is too early to tell. But this decision may be even worse than a mistake; it may be unnecessary. And, as Talleyrand noted almost 200 years ago, in politics doing something that is not necessary is worse than making a mistake.
#2
MadMoud and the Mullahs want revived Regional and Global Empire - the world must acknowledge and verify their "Great Nation/Power" status however undeserved, or its death to the world. As the Mullahs have no scruples inducing super-power confrontation to achieve its agenda, Iran may end up being the post-modern version of pre-WW2 POLAND and the NAZI-SOVIET NON-AGRESSION PACT, except that where power-manic, pro-OWG/Anti-sovereignty Anti-American Americans are specifically concerned, "NAZIS" are both THE HATED ENEMY + PSEUDO-ALLIED PRO-STALIN LIMITED COMMUNISTS/SOVIETS!?
A suicide bomber attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi military base in northern Iraq in Monday, killing at least 15 people and wounding as many as 30, the Iraqi military said.
The nationalities of the victims were not immediately known.
The attack was reported shortly after noon at an Iraqi army recruiting center in front of the base, which is about 18 miles east of Tal Afar, the ancient city that President Bush singled out in a recent speech as a success story for American and Iraqi forces in the drive to quell the insurgency.
Iraqi army Lt. Akram Eid told The Associated Press that many of the injured were taken to the Sykes U.S. Army base on the outskirts of Tal Afar, which is about 40 miles west of Mosul, Iraq's third largest city.
The U.S. military in Baghdad said it was checking the report.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
05:44 ||
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From AP: Monday's bomber struck an army recruiting center, which is in front of a joint U.S.-Iraqi military base between Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and the ancient city of Tal Afar. The attack shortly after noon killed 40 people and wounded 30 others civilians and military personnel who had gathered among a crowd of recruits for the Iraqi army, the Defense Ministry said.
The U.S. military said no American troops were hurt in the bombing and reported only 30 dead. Iraqi army Lt. Akram Eid told The Associated Press that many of the injured were taken to the Sykes U.S. Army base on the outskirts of Tal Afar, about 40 miles west of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city. The involvement of U.S. troops was limited to helping secure the area after the attack, said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman.
Posted by: ed ||
03/27/2006 11:21
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Bush uses Tal Afar as an example of good, and they get a sucicide bombing.
Has he told anyone lately about the about the good we've done in Tehran and Damascus?
Saddam Hussein's chief deputy, who has eluded capture since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq three years ago, purportedly called for Arab leaders to back Iraq's Sunni-backed insurgency, in an audiotape broadcast Monday.
The tape, which Al-Jazeera television said was made by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, appeared to be an address to the Arab League summit in Khartoum, Sudan, this week.
The voice on the tape said Iraq's Sunni-led insurgency was "the sole legitimate representative of the Iraqi people." It was impossible to determine the tape's authenticity.
Al-Douri was sixth on the U.S. deck of cards that enumerated the most-wanted members of Saddam's regime. He had been Revolutionary Command Council vice chairman and a longtime Saddam confidant.
The voice also said Arab leaders should "boycott the regime of mercenaries and treason and besiege it by taking the necessary decision to support the people of Iraq, its courageous, national resistance and its jihad until liberation."
The tape also sought to distance the insurgency from attacks on civilians and religious targets, calling them "the pinnacle of lowliness, vileness and criminality. Our people and your resistance will take revenge from the culprits sooner or later."
Al-Douri, who is at least 62, was among Saddam's oldest and closest associates.
It was unclear whether al-Douri, who had been in poor health for years, still had a direct role in leading the insurgency. In June, the Iraqi government said he was losing influence among the pro-Saddam wing of the rebellion.
Various reports of his death and capture have proven incorrect in the past.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
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wow, i'd be suprised if this was for real though, surly he's snuffed it now due to that illness of his. If he is alive hes probably sat in Syria under the protection of Assad i'd imagine.
#2
Claiming asylum and housing benefit in Tower Hamlets more like it, Shep.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/27/2006 8:11
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"The voice also said Arab leaders should "boycott the regime of mercenaries and treason and besiege it by taking the necessary decision to support the people of Iraq, its courageous, national resistance and its jihad until liberation."
In other words, we were headed in the right direction before, down (but with weapons we can't
afford, and Castles to big to clean).
Dream talaq turns nightmare
The Pioneer, India
March 27, 2006
Siliguri
A Muslim couple in Jalpaiguri district have been ordered by local religious leaders to separate as the husband allegedly uttered talaq three times in his sleep. Those who trust Muslims need to ask if it is wise to tolerate a group whose legal system even controls sleep-talking. After Partition, India included sharia powers for Muslims, in its Constitution. Pakistan gave nothing similar to the 20% of its population that were Hindu (reduced to 1% by jihad-intimidation and murder).
While the couple, who have three children, refused to obey the order since there was no discord between them, the community leaders are adamant that they must separate or face a "social boycott". A Muslim man need only say talaq (Arabic for "I divorce") 3 times to effect a split. For women it requires 2 years of legal proceedings, and abandonment of parental privilege. Of course, the men usually saddle the mother with the children, and omit support.
Aftab Ansari and Sohela have been married for the past 11 years. However, on the night of December 20 last year, Aftab allegedly uttered talaq three times in his sleep after a tiff with his wife.
The matter came to light when Sohela discussed it with her close friends and soon it reached the ears of the Muslim leaders.
The leaders, quoting the shari'ah, ruled that the talaq has to be implemented and if it is not acceptable, the only alternative was temporary separation for 100 days during which the wife will live at her father's house and spend a night with another man.
She can remarry her husband only after the man has given her talaq. As the couple were unwilling to accept the verdict, the matter went to the family counselling centre at Falakata police station... In France, the jury trial system has been almost abandoned in face of nullification of law and fact, by the sharia polluted invaders. A single Muslim on a Philadelphia jury, means: automatic exhoneration of anyone from the dawah (recruitment and indoctrination) target group. Shariah: soon to be in your neighborhood.
Posted by: Listen to Dogs ||
03/27/2006
04:39 ||
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It took one phone call to demonstrate the limits of British power in Basra.
Men from Zulu Company of the First Fusiliers were visiting a police station as part of their ambition to foster a professional police force to provide security once they have gone.
They wanted to discuss equipment levels as well as the success of efforts to cleanse the force of barbaric militias.
Instead, a captain told them politely, but firmly, that they had to leave.
The reason: a phone call from his superiors making clear that he risked losing his job if he allowed the British soldiers to step inside.
This is the reality in Basra after the governing council severed ties with the British five weeks ago. The boycott covers almost all government work.
Reform of the police has been paramount since the full extent of the assassinations and torture being conducted by elements in it emerged last September, when a police station had to be raided after two SAS officers investigating police death squads were held captive inside.
The British estimate that some 10 per cent of the police are actively working against them and the first loyalty of the majority is to a Shia Muslim militia or to their tribe.
The close personal relationships the British had developed with some officers meant that in around a third of police stations clandestine meetings still go ahead.
But when the boycott's enforcers learn of the visit through their network of spies, that is when the phone rings and whatever the local commander's personal preference he has to tell them to go.
To refuse the order means not only risking losing their job but also, the military says, the possibility that they or their family may be subject to harassment or worse.
The official reasons for the boycott are outrage over a British operation in January to arrest more "bad apples" in the force, the release by the News of the World last month of a video showing troops beating Iraqis and the publication of Danish cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammad.
But few in the British military believe that is the whole story. Instead they suspect that people close to the governing council are linked to criminal gangs whose activities the police crack-down impinged on, while the governor, Mohammed al-Wa'eli, is concerned primarily with preserving his power base.
"I am not fighting terrorists, but I am fighting criminals who want to keep their patches," said Major Jon Stott, commander of Zulu Company. "There are many good men in the police but they are scared."
The question now taxing them is how to respond. Action cannot be taking against the criminally-linked politicians believed to be behind it as they remain the people's democratically elected representatives. Moving against them would only fuel the populist rhetoric against the "imperialist invaders".
For Lt Col James Hopkinson, the British military commander in Basra city, the solution has been to demonstrate his troops are not willing to "fiddle while Rome burns".
With units largely freed from their civic rebuilding obligations and no longer having to walk a political tightrope, patrols and operations have been stepped up.
But any long term answer relies on the governor relenting and accepting full co-operation.
That would most likely require pressure from the national government - an impossibility while politicians continue to argue about its composition - or his defeat in the next provincial elections. But these are not expected to be held until the autumn.
Meanwhile, Iraqis say crime has risen by 15 per cent and in February alone Basra saw 60 murders. Attacks on British troops are also increasing. Zulu Company has been targeted 37 times since the start of December.
The number of roadside bombs tripled in January from the previous two months.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
03:33 ||
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"Lt Col James Hopkinson, the British military commander in Basra city"
Is this the arrogant big mouth clown who trashed the US military recently for being cowboyish?
How's that "soft-power" idiotic bullshit working out for you, eh?
Everyone, right across the board, knows Sadr's at the core... Of most Shiite death squads, of the corruption and thuggery, of using the pilgrim game to infiltrate everything from phoney ballots to cash to Iranian agents to shaped charges and everything else needed, of undermining the entire south plus Baghdad and Najaf. The works.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the countrys largest Muslim separatist rebel group negotiating peace with Manila, is likely to share sovereign powers with the Arroyo government in Mindanao, the MILF spokesman has said.
Talks are under way to put up the so-called Bangsamoro government in the South, Eid Kabalu said Saturday.
Kabalu said negotiators were discussing how the Muslims will run the proposed new government, but he was quick to say that both sides are seriously studying new formulas based on model countries such as Sudan, Palestine, East Timor, Northern Ireland and Bougainville.
Talks are going on about the proposal for a shared government and shared sovereignty between the Bangsamoro people and the Philippine government.
The results of this proposal will depend entirely on the outcome of the peace negotiations. Once the new Bangsamoro government is finally set up, then the five-province Muslim autonomous region will be dissolved, Kabalu told The Manila Times by telephone from his base in Maguindanao.
He said the MILF was also proposing to government negotiators that the Muslims be given an option to choose in a referendum whether they wanted Mindanao to be an independent state or not.
Peace negotiators last week discussed in Malaysia the scope of the territories of the Muslim ancestral domain, but the talks ended without any solid agreement, although they agreed to talk again next month.
Malaysia, a member of the Organization of Islamic Conference, is brokering the peace process.
Ancestral domain refers to the MILF demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland. In September government and rebel peace negotiators signed several agreements centered on ancestral domainits concept, territories and resources, and how the MILF shall govern these areas.
Kabalu said both peace panels are expecting to sign a formal agreement on ancestral domain once they finally thresh out contentious issues on territories. After the agreement is signed, Kabalu said, the MILF and government negotiators will negotiate to find a political solution to the Muslim secessionist problems in Mindanao.
The MILF is fighting the past three decades for a separate Islamic state in the troubled, but mineral-rich region, home to about 4 million Muslims and more than 9 million Christians and ethnic and indigenous tribes.
Ghazali Jaafar, MILF deputy vice-chairman for political affairs, said the Muslims in Mindanao are ready to govern their own homeland.
We are empowering our people so that they are more prepared to assume the reins of governance. This is our main thrust today in our current consultations, seminars and trainings with our regional and local officials and members, Jaafar, former MILF chief peace negotiator, said in report posted on the MILF website.
The report also quoted Silvestre C. Afable, government chief negotiator, as saying during last years MILF plenum in Maguindanao province that the Arroyo administration is ready to give the Muslims their homeland.
The MILF said both peace panels have already signed at least 30 consensus points on ancestral domain, which included the recognition of the Bangsamoro as a nationality designation for both the Islamized and non-Muslim indigenous tribes in the southern Philippines.
Peace negotiators reached an agreement in February on ancestral domain and the rebel group said it is near to signing a deal that will finally settle the Muslim secessionist problems.
The MILF said government and rebel peace negotiators have already agreed on several crucial issues, including the coverage of ancestral domain in the five Muslim autonomous provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao.
The agreement also covered other areas in Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes.
Many local Muslims said they were supporting the MILF and the proposal to put up the Bangsamoro government, but majority of them wanted an independent Islamic state, similar to Iran.
Thats good if the MILF can put up this Bangsamoro government in areas where there are large Muslim communities, like Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi and Central Mindanao. But if would be much better if we have our own government, a Muslim state, like Iran and run our government according to the teachings of Islam, said Abdullah bin Rashid.
Ustadz Shariff Julabbi, a former guerrilla leader and MILF spokesman, said Filipino Muslims would welcome an Islamic government in Mindanao.
This is the clamor of the millions of Filipino Muslims not only in Mindanao but all across the Philippines, to have their own government. The aspiration and determination of the Bangsamoro people is very strong and we are all supporting this proposal to put up a Muslim government in the southern region.
This land traditionally belongs to the Muslims, and the Philippines is originally Islam, part of the vast kingdom of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo. This land is ours, said Julabbi, now leader of the Muslim separatist group called the Bangsamoro Mujahideen Alliance, which has a large following in the islands of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and some areas in the Zamboanga Peninsula in western Mindanao.
But the former Muslim separatist rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which originally fought for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao, has distanced itself with the proposed Bangsamoro government, claiming Manila failed to honor the September 1996 peace agreement.
The MNLF under Nur Misuari signed a peace deal with then-President Fidel Ramos ending more than three decades of bloody fighting in the South, and accepted limited autonomy over four Muslim provinces that were later expanded into five provinces.
Misuari became governor or the Muslim autonomous region, but later accused the government of failing to honor the peace agreement. His forces attacked major military bases and held civilians hostage in Jolo and Zamboanga City. He fled to Malaysia, but was arrested there and sent back to Manila where he is facing rebellion charges.
Muslim Sema, the MNLF secretary-general and also the mayor of Cotabato City in Maguindanao, said the government failed to honor the September 1996 peace agreement and that his group will not interfere with the peace talks between the MILF and the Arroyo government.
In a separate interview, Sema said it was too early to anticipate the outcome of the peace talks.
He said the MNLF is consulting thousands of its members about the failure of the 1996 agreement.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
03:19 ||
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based on model countries such as Sudan, Palestine, East Timor, Northern Ireland and Bougainville.
Wow! Now that's picking winner role model countries, but wait, there's more. Let's look like Iran, now there's a winner. What Lipless Eid really did here was name the names of all the countries that have been supporting them and their terrorist actions. Good job, not!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/27/2006 7:47
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Don't forget the latest MILF deal: one year access for $89.95!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/27/2006 7:57
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He said the MILF was also proposing to government negotiators that the Muslims be given an option to choose in a referendum whether they wanted Mindanao to be an independent state or not.
Only the (4 million according to this article) Muslims get to decide eh? I guess (the 9 million) non-muslims are Shit-outta-luck and should prepare for Dhimmitude...
Don't you just love the way Arroyo sold them out?
And I hope she doesn't think that this would mean peace - my guess is that the MILF is already preparing to 'splinter' another group to continue the fight.
#4
CF, your spot on. Back in the 70's Marcos moved Chrisdtians into Mindanao to "water down" the muslim influence. Another example of failed land reform. Next step for the MILF will be to kick the Christians out and take back their land. The New Peoples Army, NPA, own and run the Christian lands through direction of the Comunist Peoples Party, CPP. Right now they, NPA and MILF, have signed a non agression pact. Once the MILF get autonamy they will begin the war with the NPA for the rest. Arroya has completely sold out her country. In ten years that country will be in full blown civil war pitting the OIC sponsored muslims against the Communist Chinese sponsored Christians.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/27/2006 9:19
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WASHINTON TIMES has an article inferring that China's role in the Sudan may, or may not. include assisting in Muslim-controlled genocidal efforts againt Christians and non-Muslims. The Philippines is one China's so-called "first tier" islands/"String of Pearls" to effectively confront US interests in East Asia and PACOA/OCEANIA - "first tier" is just Chicom PC-speak for future Chinese Territories. China at last report is still heavily engaged in the repression of mainland Chinese Muslims, so the MILF'setal. turn will inevitably come.
Suspected rebel tribesmen attacked a mountaintop military post Sunday on a route in southwestern Pakistan being used by hundreds of refugees returning home, triggering a gunbattle that left two attackers and a soldier dead, officials said.
Another attacker was killed in a land mine explosion as he tried to escape after the shootout near Sui, a tribal town in southwestern Baluchistan province, local government official Abdul Samad Lasi said. Two soldiers were reported injured in the gun fight.
The roadside post was attacked before 1,500 former refugees traveled through the area as part of a government-sponsored program to move them back to the ancestral region they left more than a decade ago because of tribal feuding.
Hundreds of heavily armed troops accompanied by helicopter gunships guarded the refugees on the journey from Kashmor, a town in neighboring southern Sindh province. When they reached Dera Bugti in Baluchistan on Sunday afternoon, about 300 town residents lined a street to welcome them, many cheering and clapping their hands.
Colorful buntings and signs were put up at a school building where they were served food. One sign read: "Congratulations on the dismantling of Akbar Bugti's self-created state."
Nawab Akbar Bugti, a rebel tribal chief who is accused of leading recent attacks against government installations in Dera Bugti, allegedly forced the people to leave their homes in 1993. His rival clan has also accused him of killing dozens of their members.
Bugti, who is in hiding, is accused by authorities of using royalties for resources extracted from his area to strengthen his own power rather than to help develop the province. Armed tribesmen loyal to Bugti have been accused of attacking military bases and gas fields near the town.
A spokesman for Bugti denied his men had carried out the killing of rivals.
"They are saying what the government tells them to say," spokesman Amanullah Kanrani said from Quetta, referring to the allegations by the rival clan.
He said the refugees were taken to the area to dilute Bugti's influence and it would incite tribal fighting.
A senior army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with policy, told reporters at an army garrison in Kashmor that the repatriation of the tribesmen was an effort by the government to peacefully settle the conflict in Dera Bugti.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who was on a visit to Quetta on Sunday, held talks with senior provincial government officials on the situation in Baluchistan. At a press conference afterward, Aziz said the government will use all its resources against those who challenge government authority and restore peace.
On Saturday, an official said 57 tribesmen have been arrested in recent days in connection with a string of bomb and rocket attacks in Baluchistan which have left more than 250 people in just over a year.
Most of the people were Bugti and Marri tribesmen, Mujeebur Rahman, a senior police official, said Saturday in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan. Marri tribesmen have also been blamed for attacks against the government.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
03:18 ||
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Wadeng Puteh, a 90-year-old Muslim farmer, vividly remembers trudging home from the fields, water buffalo in tow, and bumping into the king of Thailand. From that encounter many evenings ago, a friendship followed.
I worry about the king's health. I miss him every day, Wadeng says, his wizened face sparkling with smiles as he relates how he once traveled 650 miles from his village of Balot to Bangkok to visit King Bhumibol Adulyadej when he was hospitalized.
In a region where Muslim insurgents wage a bloody struggle for autonomy and even moderates are sharply critical of the government in Bangkok, such sentiments are surprisingly common.
The monarch and his family have earned the hard way and over decades the trust of many Muslims in the country's three southernmost provinces, where more than 1,300 people have been slain over the past two years.
Wadeng feels the royal effect every day in the improved crops he grows, thanks to the king's projects to reduce soil acidity and improve irrigation.
Significantly, among the almost daily shootings, bombings and arson which routinely target government institutions, the rebels have left the numerous royal projects largely untouched.
Bhumibol's conciliatory style is also welcome here. He has warned that Thailand could fall into ruin if the violence festers, and has urged Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to take a gentle approach.
Thaksin is accused of escalating the bloodshed with heavy-handed tactics. In 2004 security forces stormed a mosque, killing 107 lightly armed militants, and later that year 85 suspected rebels died, most of them of suffocation, after being stuffed into army trucks. Both incidents were condemned by Muslims worldwide.
The Crown has made the south one of its top priorities, says Zachary Abuza, who teaches at Simmons College in Boston and is an expert on the region's Islamic insurgencies. The royal family did a lot in stemming past rebellions and they see themselves as having a role now.
At 78, Bhumibol has been on the throne for 60 years, making him the world's longest-reigning monarch. He's too old to make trips to the south, but his advisers are here often. His wife, Queen Sirikit, spent 45 days here last year and has made an emotional appeal to the rebels: You don't have to shoot anyone, but show the (government) that you are dissatisfied, that there is harassment of the people who are poor...
Little is likely to change, experts say, in part because Thaksin is preoccupied with allegations of corruption and abuse of power that have provoked almost daily demonstrations in the capital demanding his ouster.
That leaves the king as the essential pillar, says Nidir Waba, deputy head of the south's Islamic Council.
Many Thai Buddhists say that we Muslims are not real Thais, but the king has been able to gather up Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus under one umbrella, he says.
The king, a Buddhist like most in Thailand, seems himself as constitutionally the protector of all religions. He has few real powers, and instead has gathered moral standing by initiating hundreds of anti-poverty projects.
Driving his own vehicle, sometimes on foot, and armed with nitty-gritty knowledge of development work, Bhumibol would travel deep into the countryside, leaving behind a fish pond here, a cow herd there, a fertile patch of farmland in a previously parched area.
On such trips, taken year after year starting in the 1970s, he forged face-to-face bonds with thousands of southerners, and an older generation still cherishes such memories.
But younger Muslims are rather indifferent to our projects no matter how poor they are, the queen's military aide, Gen. Napol Boonthap, told reporters recently.
Simmons College's Abuza says that the hard-core insurgents, imbued with radical Islamic ideology, are unlikely to lay down their arms before a Buddhist king, but that the royals can do much to alleviate grievances.
I feel that the queen is like my second mother, says Asi Phandao, a Muslim widow with five children, whose policeman husband was gunned down by rebels. The 45-year-old woman is among 150 Buddhist and Muslim families, all victims of the violence, who were compensated by the queen with free land, houses, fields and vocational training.
Here we call him 'Rajo Kito' Our King, said Je Ma Uma, 65. Bhumibol has met all nine of his children since first coming to donate a substantial sum and two palace carpets to renovate the mosque at Khao Tanjong village in the province of Narathiwat.
The royals have also started a ceramics factory, woodcarving and batik-making, provided free medical care, paid for the education of poor children and joined up with a Japanese firm to build a dam to stop seawater from encroaching on village fields.
Almost every year, one of the king's daughters, Princess Sirindhorn, comes for a feast, sitting on the meeting hall floor to pray, chat and eat with villagers.
Klom Theprom, a 55-year-old Buddhist farmer, recalls how the king came in the 1970s to tackle the problem of acidic soil, after which he could grow coconuts, lemons and rice.
I think the king can solve the problem in the south far better than the government, Klom said. He has the knowledge and wisdom to do it.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
03:17 ||
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Some 300 armed Islamic militiamen seized a key port and airstrip on the northeastern outskirts of Somalia's capital on Saturday adding to some of the heaviest of four days of bloodshed between the rival factions, which has killed at least 73 people. Militia commanders have said that the fighters who are loyal to a group of radical Islamic clerics attacked a rival militia force in control of the main road leading to El Maan port and the Issaley airstrip.
Heavily armed fighters with rocket launchers, anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and trucks mounted with heavy weapons participated in Saturdays battle .At least 300 Islamic militiamen were involved in the assault, witnesses said. There were reports of deaths, but an exact toll was unknown because intense fighting was continuing.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
03:16 ||
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mine the port and carpet the runway with cluster bombs. nice victory, asshats
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2006 8:55
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The Norwegian Defence Central Command has for the first time confirmed that Norwegian special forces have several times been directly engeged in heavy fighting against the Taliban and Al Qaida in Afghanistan. The Norwegian unit recently ended its mission in Afghanistan.
The Norwegian special forces unit consists of only a few hundred soldiers.
The special force is used in dangerous, controversial and secret missions outside Norway, and it was engaged in Afghanistan only a few weeks ago.
Only a few persons are informed about the identity of the soldiers, and what they do.
Chief of Joint Operations, Jan Reksten, says the Norwegians have been engaged in very difficult situations, but will not comment on the question of whether or not lives may have been lost.
He admits that the special force has needed air support in order to get out of tight situations, including the dropping of bombs.
The Norwegian special force has over the past few years carried out several secret missions abroad, acording to public broadcaster NRK.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
03:14 ||
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Beautifully written... just enough tease to give them that whiff of elan, but not so much detail to lower them to level of the evil Americans.
I'm glad they've given their best to the fight, but the rest of Norway is still a tumor in the war on Islamic cancer.
SADDAM'S ULTRA-LOYAL Fedayeen martyrs were ordered to carry out bombings and assassinations in London, Iran, and "self ruled areas" of Iraq in May 1999, according to a newly released Iraqi intelligence document. One such operation, codenamed "Tamooz Mubarak" or "Blessed July," was apparently intended to hunt down Iraqi dissidents and bomb other unspecified locations.
Although a copy of the original document was not released, an English translation was published on the Foreign Military Studies Office's Joint Reserve Intelligence Center website yesterday. The site cautions, "the US Government has made no determination regarding the authenticity of the documents, validity or factual accuracy of the information contained therein, or the quality of any translations, when available." But, the document appears to be the same as one discussed by a team of military and defense analysts in Foreign Affairs magazine earlier this month.
The Fedayeen Saddam was established in the mid-1990s and its ranks were filled with recruits fanatically loyal to Saddam and his sons. Uday, Saddam's eldest son, was the group's commander throughout much of its existence. And according to the Foreign Affairs piece, it was Uday who issued the order for the "Blessed July" operations.
The document divides the "Blessed July" operations into two "branches," bombings and assassinations, and lays out specific steps for selecting and training 50 Fedayeen martyrs for these duties. The martyrs were to be admitted to a "seminar at the Intelligence School to prepare them for the required duties." Then, "after passing the final test," the
martyrs were to be divided into three teams of ten (it is not clear what happens to the other 20). The first ten recruits "will work in the European field (London)," while the "second ten will be working in the Iranian field" and "the third ten will be working in the Self ruled area." Martyrs are even reminded to use "death capsules" if "captured at the European fields"--an apparent order to commit suicide if caught.
What targets did the martyrs plan on bombing? Did the Fedayeen Saddam carry out any of these operations? If so, when and where?
The document does not say. But, interestingly, the "Blessed July" operation appears to have been conceived within a broader mandate for future attacks. The translated document refers to "your Excellency's orders" (probably a reference to Uday) in May 1999 "to start planning from now on to perform special operations (assassinations/bombings) for the centers and the traitor symbols in the fields of (London/Iran/Self ruled areas)."
The Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) was ordered to provide logistical support for these missions, including selecting targets to attack. After completing the regime's training program, the document reads, "the fedayeens will be sent as undercover passengers, each one according to his work site, for the purpose of preparations and to acquire from and coordinate with the Intelligence Apparatus." Fedayeen Saddam was also ordered to coordinate "with the Intelligence service to secure deliveries, accommodations, and target guidance."
While the document does not say what came of Uday's order, it does raise a number of additional questions concerning the IIS's and Fedayeen Saddam's activities.
What were Saddam's henchmen doing prior to the war, exactly?
With each additional release of the Iraqi intelligence documents we learn more.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
03:12 ||
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ACCORDING TO A NEWLY-RELEASED DOCUMENT from the former Iraqi regime, during a February 1995 meeting with members of Iraqi intelligence in Sudan, one of bin Laden's first requests was for "the broadcasting of Sheikh Salman al-Ouda [who has influence both in Saudi Arabia and outside as a religious personality] and dedicate a program for them through the station directed inside the country." While bin Laden's desire to see a radical Saudi cleric broadcast on Iraqi TV has been known since the New York Times first reported on the existence of this document in the summer of 2004, the identity of that cleric has not been revealed until now.
Salman al-Ouda, like his better-known colleague Sheikh Safar al-Hawali, has long been known as a leading figure in the world of Islamic extremism. During the Gulf War, the two men were jailed in Saudi Arabia for criticizing the government and calling for an end to the U.S. military presence in the Kingdom. They were released after five years and today, their worldviews seem largely unchanged. In the case of al-Ouda, a growing pattern of evidence seems to indicate that he has continued to support violence against the United States and its allies since his release.
While al-Ouda has long been characterized as a "friend" of Osama bin Laden, federal investigators told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in March 2003 that he and al-Hawali "have direct contact" with Osama bin Laden. In a number of al Qaeda propaganda videos, bin Laden has praised al-Ouda for "enlightening" the Muslim youth as well as for his support of jihadi causes.
In April 2003 following the invasion of Iraq, al-Ouda joined a group of 225 Islamist clerics, scholars, and businessmen--led by al-Hawali--in establishing a new organization that respected Israeli academic Dr. Reuven Paz described as nothing less than "the Supreme Council of Global Jihad."
(It is perhaps worth noting that one of the members of this Supreme Council was Ahmad Abu Laban, one of the chief architects in internationalizing the controversy over the Danish Mohammad cartoons. Other members of the Supreme Council included several Iraq Shiite clerics, defying the conventional wisdom about non-cooperation between Shiites and Sunnis. Paz also noted that two Arab Americans were members: "Dr. Ahmad Sharbinia lecturer in the American Open University in Colorado, of Egyptian origin, and Sheikh Walid Manisi, the Imam of the mosque in that university.")
There is evidence connecting al-Ouda to one of the suspected masterminds of the 2004 Madrid train bombings. In September 2004, El Mundo and Corriere della Sera reported that Rabei Osman Ahmed, a former Egyptian army explosives expert and one of the purported masterminds of the bombings, was quoted in conversations wiretapped by Italian authorities as saying that al-Ouda was "Everything, everything" to him and that "I worked for him [al-Ouda] in Spain. I did really well in that period, in which I earned 2,000 euros ($2,400) a month. There were days I earned 1,000 euros ($1,200)." While whether or not any of the money that al-Ouda sent Ahmed was used to underwrite the Madrid bombings appears unclear at this point, it would seem worthy of further investigation given his other activities.
While al-Ouda joined other Saudi Islamist clerics in condemning attacks in Saudi Arabia in June 2004 (under pressure for the Saudi authorities), such condemnations did not extend to terrorist attacks in Iraq. In November 2004, al-Ouda and 25 other Saudi Islamist scholars called on Iraqis to support the insurgency, issuing a letter which stated "Fighting the occupiers is a duty for all those who are able. It is a jihad to push back the assailants . . . A Muslim must not inflict harm on any resistance man or inform about them. Instead, they should be supported and protected."
Interestingly, in March 2005 al-Ouda's lawyer filed a defamation suit against the Saudi newspaper al-Watan, which had reported that al-Ouda's son, Muaz, had planned to travel to Iraq to fight the United States, but that his father, fearing he would be killed, contacted Assistant Interior Minister for Security Affairs Muhammad ibn Naif and arranged for him to be captured on the Saudi-Iraqi border.
This thumbnail sketch makes it clear that Sheikh Salman al-Ouda is not simply a cleric, but a key part of the Islamist brain trust. Discussions of his sermons being broadcast on Iraqi state TV should be viewed within that context.
Dan Darling is counterterrorism consultant for a Manhattan Institute Center for Policing Terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
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Paz also noted that two Arab Americans were members: "Dr. Ahmad Sharbinia lecturer in the American Open University in Colorado, of Egyptian origin, and Sheikh Walid Manisi, the Imam of the mosque in that university."
Colorado has a huge immigrant problem, connected with MS-13 and other gangs as a sanctuary city. Seems like Denver may have a terrorist problem, as this Saudi grad student from the University of Colorado has drawn previous attention:
RB 2005-10-25
A Saudi indicted by the US authorities for enslaving and sexually assaulting an Indonesian maid was under investigation on Friday for possible links to terrorism. Homaidan al Turki and his wife Sarah Khonaizan were accused of abusing their maid and keeping her hostage at their Aurora , Colorado home in June 2005.
These newly released documents are all very interesting....thanks for all the great postings, Dan.
SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE on Sunday contradicted claims from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that documents captured in postwar Iraq and now being posted on the Internet will not contain anything new or significant.
"We're going to find some important and surprising things in these documents," Rice said in an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press.
Rice also addressed revelations, important but not surprising, that former Russian ambassador to Iraq, Vladimir Teterenko, passed the U.S. war plan to Iraq shortly before the war began. The charges, based largely on two Iraqi documents captured in postwar Iraq, came in a report issued by the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia, and released by the Pentagon late last week. Rice said she is not in a position to confirm or deny the claims but vowed to take "a hard look at the reports" of Russian betrayal.
The revelations about the Russians will be the subject of discussions this week between Bush administration officials and their Russian counterparts. "We will certainly raise it with the Russians," Rice said.
The Russian government has already denied the charges. "Similar, baseless accusations concerning Russia's intelligence have been made more than once," Russian Foreign Intelligence Service spokesman Boris Labusov said. "We don't consider it necessary to comment on such fabrications."
But Labusov has not always found such allegations baseless. In 2003 Labusov confirmed reports, based on captured Iraqi documents, that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service was training Iraqi Intelligence operatives as late as September 2002. This is how the San Francisco Chronicle, which broke the story on April 13, 2003, reported the findings:
A Moscow-based organization was training Iraqi intelligence agents as recently as last September--at the same time Russia was resisting the Bush administration's push for a tough stand against Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraqi documents discovered by The Chronicle show.
The documents found Thursday and Friday in a Baghdad office of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi secret police, indicate that at least five agents graduated Sept. 15 from a two-week course in surveillance and eavesdropping techniques, according to certificates issued to the Iraqi agents by the "Special Training Center" in Moscow.
The "Moscow-based organization," it turns out, was the SVR, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service:
Russian intelligence officials have confirmed that Iraqi spies received training in specialized counterintelligence techniques in Moscow last fall--training that appears to violate the United Nations resolution barring military and security assistance to Iraq.
A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Boris Labusov, acknowledged that Iraqi secret police agents had been trained by his agency but said the training was for nonmilitary purposes, such as fighting crime and terrorism.
Said Labusov: "The SVR does not refuse cooperation with secret services of different countries in the areas of counter-terrorism and war, fighting drug traffic and investigating the illegal trade of weapons."
The Chronicle article continues:
However, it seems likely that the Iraqi agents who were trained at the Moscow center were using their skills for other purposes. Found in the same Mukhabarat office with their personnel files and graduation certificates were a host of other documents, including orders for wiretaps and for break-ins at such sites as the Iranian Embassy, the five-star al-Mansour Hotel and private doctors' offices.
Rice on Sunday missed an opportunity to highlight two other significant revelations from captured Iraqi documents. The "Iraqi Perspectives Project" study, which ignited the public discussion of Russia and Iraq, also reveals that beginning in 1998 Saddam Hussein's intelligence services began training "non-Iraqi Arab volunteers" at camps in Iraq.
Another captured document details the plan of the Iraqi Intelligence Service to invigorate its relations with Saudi opposition groups, including one headed by Osama bin Laden. According to that document, which a Pentagon task force determined "appears authentic," bin Laden requested assistance from the Iraqi regime on its anti-Saudi propaganda efforts and with attacks on U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. The documents indicate that Iraq agreed to rebroadcast al Qaeda propaganda and left open the possibility of working with al Qaeda on attacks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
03:09 ||
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In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.
But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.
"Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning," David Manning, Mr. Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time, wrote in the memo that summarized the discussion between Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and six of their top aides.
"The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March," Mr. Manning wrote, paraphrasing the president. "This was when the bombing would begin."
The timetable came at an important diplomatic moment. Five days after the Bush-Blair meeting, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was scheduled to appear before the United Nations to present the American evidence that Iraq posed a threat to world security by hiding unconventional weapons.
Although the United States and Britain aggressively sought a second United Nations resolution against Iraq which they failed to obtain the president said repeatedly that he did not believe he needed it for an invasion.
Stamped "extremely sensitive," the five-page memorandum, which was circulated among a handful of Mr. Blair's most senior aides, had not been made public. Several highlights were first published in January in the book "Lawless World," which was written by a British lawyer and international law professor, Philippe Sands. In early February, Channel 4 in London first broadcast several excerpts from the memo.
Since then, The New York Times has reviewed the five-page memo in its entirety. While the president's sentiments about invading Iraq were known at the time, the previously unreported material offers an unfiltered view of two leaders on the brink of war, yet supremely confident.
The memo indicates the two leaders envisioned a quick victory and a transition to a new Iraqi government that would be complicated, but manageable. Mr. Bush predicted that it was "unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups." Mr. Blair agreed with that assessment.
The memo also shows that the president and the prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq. Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the planned invasion, Mr. Bush talked about several ways to provoke a confrontation, including a proposal to paint a United States surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating Mr. Hussein.
Those proposals were first reported last month in the British press, but the memo does not make clear whether they reflected Mr. Bush's extemporaneous suggestions, or were elements of the government's plan.
Two senior British officials confirmed the authenticity of the memo, but declined to talk further about it, citing Britain's Official Secrets Act, which made it illegal to divulge classified information. But one of them said, "In all of this discussion during the run-up to the Iraq war, it is obvious that viewing a snapshot at a certain point in time gives only a partial view of the decision-making process."
On Sunday, Frederick Jones, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said the president's public comments were consistent with his private remarks made to Mr. Blair. "While the use of force was a last option, we recognized that it might be necessary and were planning accordingly," Mr. Jones said.
"The public record at the time, including numerous statements by the President, makes clear that the administration was continuing to pursue a diplomatic solution into 2003," he said. "Saddam Hussein was given every opportunity to comply, but he chose continued defiance, even after being given one final opportunity to comply or face serious consequences. Our public and private comments are fully consistent."
The January 2003 memo is the latest in a series of secret memos produced by top aides to Mr. Blair that summarize private discussions between the president and the prime minister. Another group of British memos, including the so-called Downing Street memo written in July 2002, showed that some senior British officials had been concerned that the United States was determined to invade Iraq, and that the "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" by the Bush administration to fit its desire to go to war.
The latest memo is striking in its characterization of frank, almost casual, conversation by Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair about the most serious subjects. At one point, the leaders swapped ideas for a postwar Iraqi government. "As for the future government of Iraq, people would find it very odd if we handed it over to another dictator," the prime minister is quoted as saying.
"Bush agreed," Mr. Manning wrote. This exchange, like most of the quotations in this article, have not been previously reported.
Mr. Bush was accompanied at the meeting by Condoleezza Rice, who was then the national security adviser; Dan Fried, a senior aide to Ms. Rice; and Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff. Along with Mr. Manning, Mr. Blair was joined by two other senior aides: Jonathan Powell, his chief of staff, and Matthew Rycroft, a foreign policy aide and the author of the Downing Street memo.
By late January 2003, United Nations inspectors had spent six weeks in Iraq hunting for weapons under the auspices of Security Council Resolution 1441, which authorized "serious consequences" if Iraq voluntarily failed to disarm. Led by Hans Blix, the inspectors had reported little cooperation from Mr. Hussein, and no success finding any unconventional weapons.
At their meeting, Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair candidly expressed their doubts that chemical, biological or nuclear weapons would be found in Iraq in the coming weeks, the memo said. The president spoke as if an invasion was unavoidable. The two leaders discussed a timetable for the war, details of the military campaign and plans for the aftermath of the war.
Without much elaboration, the memo also says the president raised three possible ways of provoking a confrontation. Since they were first reported last month, neither the White House nor the British government has discussed them.
"The U.S. was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in U.N. colours," the memo says, attributing the idea to Mr. Bush. "If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach."
It also described the president as saying, "The U.S. might be able to bring out a defector who could give a public presentation about Saddam's W.M.D," referring to weapons of mass destruction.
A brief clause in the memo refers to a third possibility, mentioned by Mr. Bush, a proposal to assassinate Saddam Hussein. The memo does not indicate how Mr. Blair responded to the idea.
Mr. Sands first reported the proposals in his book, although he did not use any direct quotations from the memo. He is a professor of international law at University College of London and the founding member of the Matrix law office in London, where the prime minister's wife, Cherie Blair, is a partner.
Mr. Jones, the National Security Council spokesman, declined to discuss the proposals, saying, "We are not going to get into discussing private discussions of the two leaders."
At several points during the meeting between Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair, there was palpable tension over finding a legitimate legal trigger for going to war that would be acceptable to other nations, the memo said. The prime minister was quoted as saying it was essential for both countries to lobby for a second United Nations resolution against Iraq, because it would serve as "an insurance policy against the unexpected."
The memo said Mr. Blair told Mr. Bush, "If anything went wrong with the military campaign, or if Saddam increased the stakes by burning the oil wells, killing children or fomenting internal divisions within Iraq, a second resolution would give us international cover, especially with the Arabs."
Mr. Bush agreed that the two countries should attempt to get a second resolution, but he added that time was running out. "The U.S. would put its full weight behind efforts to get another resolution and would twist arms and even threaten," Mr. Bush was paraphrased in the memo as saying.
The document added, "But he had to say that if we ultimately failed, military action would follow anyway."
The leaders agreed that three weeks remained to obtain a second United Nations Security Council resolution before military commanders would need to begin preparing for an invasion.
Summarizing statements by the president, the memo says: "The air campaign would probably last four days, during which some 1,500 targets would be hit. Great care would be taken to avoid hitting innocent civilians. Bush thought the impact of the air onslaught would ensure the early collapse of Saddam's regime. Given this military timetable, we needed to go for a second resolution as soon as possible. This probably meant after Blix's next report to the Security Council in mid-February."
Mr. Blair was described as responding that both countries would make clear that a second resolution amounted to "Saddam's final opportunity." The memo described Mr. Blair as saying: "We had been very patient. Now we should be saying that the crisis must be resolved in weeks, not months."
It reported: "Bush agreed. He commented that he was not itching to go to war, but we could not allow Saddam to go on playing with us. At some point, probably when we had passed the second resolutions assuming we did we should warn Saddam that he had a week to leave. We should notify the media too. We would then have a clear field if Saddam refused to go."
Mr. Bush devoted much of the meeting to outlining the military strategy. The president, the memo says, said the planned air campaign "would destroy Saddam's command and control quickly." It also said that he expected Iraq's army to "fold very quickly." He also is reported as telling the prime minister that the Republican Guard would be "decimated by the bombing."
Despite his optimism, Mr. Bush said he was aware that "there were uncertainties and risks," the memo says, and it goes on, "As far as destroying the oil wells were concerned, the U.S. was well equipped to repair them quickly, although this would be easier in the south of Iraq than in the north."
The two men briefly discussed plans for a post-Hussein Iraqi government. "The prime minister asked about aftermath planning," the memo says. "Condi Rice said that a great deal of work was now in hand.
Referring to the Defense Department, it said: "A planning cell in D.O.D. was looking at all aspects and would deploy to Iraq to direct operations as soon as the military action was over. Bush said that a great deal of detailed planning had been done on supplying the Iraqi people with food and medicine."
The leaders then looked beyond the war, imagining the transition from Mr. Hussein's rule to a new government. Immediately after the war, a military occupation would be put in place for an unknown period of time, the president was described as saying. He spoke of the "dilemma of managing the transition to the civil administration," the memo says.
The document concludes with Mr. Manning still holding out a last-minute hope of inspectors finding weapons in Iraq, or even Mr. Hussein voluntarily leaving Iraq. But Mr. Manning wrote that he was concerned this could not be accomplished by Mr. Bush's timeline for war.
"This makes the timing very tight," he wrote. "We therefore need to stay closely alongside Blix, do all we can to help the inspectors make a significant find, and work hard on the other members of the Security Council to accept the noncooperation case so that we can secure the minimum nine votes when we need them, probably the end of February."
At a White House news conference following the closed-door session, Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair said "the crisis" had to be resolved in a timely manner. "Saddam Hussein is not disarming," the president told reporters. "He is a danger to the world. He must disarm. And that's why I have constantly said and the prime minister has constantly said this issue will come to a head in a matter of weeks, not months."
Despite intense lobbying by the United States and Britain, a second United Nations resolution was not obtained. The American-led military coalition invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003, nine days after the target date set by the president on that late January day at the White House.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
03:05 ||
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This is the same MSM meme recycled every six months or so.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/27/2006 9:48
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This is a counter-offensive to the release of the Saddam tapes.
An explosion at a grocery store on a violent southern island where U.S. troops recently conducted joint counterterrorism exercises killed at least nine people Monday, police said.
The explosion, which left about a dozen people injured, took place in downtown Jolo on Jolo island, about 590 miles southeast of Manila, said police Senior Superintendent Ahirun Ajirim.
He said it was not immediately clear what caused the explosion on the island, a stronghold of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels. Initial reports indicated the explosive device was stashed in a bag that was left by someone at a ground-floor baggage counter, he said.
Philippine police and U.S. troops who took part in recent counterterrorism exercises arrived in the area shortly after the explosion.
In February, when the exercises began, a bombing at a karaoke bar killed one person and wounded 28 near Jolo's army headquarters. The incident was blamed on Abu Sayyaf.
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Radical Islamic militiamen and rivals buried their dead Sunday and brought in more fighters during a lull after four days of combat on the outskirts of Mogadishu, witnesses said. So far, at least 93 people have died and nearly 200 have been wounded in the violence. A prominent moderate Islamic scholar appealed to the warring sides not to restart the fighting, which ranks among the deadliest in recent years in the nominal capital of this Horn of Africa country. "I offer the warring sides a venue for them to talk to resolve their differences," Sharif Sheik Muhidin said.
Only junior commanders in the Islamic militia responded positively to Muhidin's call. Key leaders in the group remained silent, and the rival warlords and businessmen were wary of the offer. The two sides have been fighting for supremacy in the city's northern and northeastern outskirts since Wednesday.
On Saturday, 300 Islamic militiamen staged a pre-dawn attack to capture the area's only working port, El Maan, and an airstrip on Mogadishu's northeastern outskirts. At least 20 people were killed in the fighting, but the attackers failed to reach the port and airstrip. With the lull Sunday, combatants buried dead comrades and repaired their vehicles while the groups sent in more fighters with weapons and ammunition, witnesses said.
Somalia has had no effective government since 1991, when warlords ousted a dictatorship and then turned on each other, carving the nation of 8.5 million people into a patchwork of fiefdoms. The International Crisis Group, a nonprofit organization that tracks conflicts, said al-Qaeda contributed to attacks on U.S. and U.N. peacekeepers in Somalia in the early 1990s. The group also said al-Qaeda used the country as a transit zone for terrorist attacks in neighboring Kenya and as a hiding place for some leading members.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
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The International Crisis Group, a nonprofit organization that tracks conflicts, said al-Qaeda contributed to attacks on U.S. and U.N. peacekeepers in Somalia in the early 1990s.
That's news to me. How trustworthy is the ICG's assessment that Al Qaeda's war against the US started that early?
The group also said al-Qaeda used the country as a transit zone for terrorist attacks in neighboring Kenya and as a hiding place for some leading members. As has been said elsewhere before, about just about all of Africa. Which is why Special Forces are expanding, and why a unit of Marines just went off to Chad. (No link -- AP blurb in the local paper the other day.)
Nine months after the election of hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president, Iranian politics has shifted so sharply to the right that some traditional conservatives are warning of the dangers of radicalism.
With reformists sidelined and Ahmadinejad setting a strident new tone on the global stage, figures from the extreme right of Iran's political spectrum are defining the terms of political debate in the country. In remarks that set off a domestic firestorm, a senior cleric close to the new president suggested in January that Iranian voters were largely irrelevant because the government requires only the approval of God.
The remarks by Ayatollah Taqi Mesbah, and similar comments by an aide, were roundly criticized, even on the editorial page of Kayhan, a traditional showcase for hard-line thinking. Iranian political insiders said the flap offered a window on intense infighting at the highest reaches of Iran's theocracy just as world attention focused on the government's determination to proceed with a nuclear program that skeptics call a cover for atomic weapons.
"Ayatollah Mesbah is an extremist," said one Iranian official close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the soft-spoken cleric who has been Iran's supreme leader since the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.
"Ayatollah Khomeini warned the people lots of times not to allow these people, the Shia Talibans, to come to power in Iran and have space," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noting that Khamenei has judged it prudent to accommodate even extremists within the system and accord them respect. "Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei feel these people can do a lot of damage. They can damage Iran. They can damage Islam. They are like the Taliban. They are like al-Qaeda. They say they know what Allah expects from us -- that we should do what he wants from us without paying attention to the consequences.
"And it's a very dangerous belief."
The tension makes clear significant divisions within Iran's conservative camp, often viewed from outside the country as a turbaned monolith. In reality, 27 years after the 1979 revolution that brought Shiite clerics to power, Iranian politics is a nuanced landscape defined largely by the lessons taken from the previous quarter-century.
Traditional conservatives describe themselves as firm but flexible. While remaining committed to the precept that clerics should hold ultimate authority, they were chastened in the 1990s when reformists -- determined to lessen the intrusion of the state into private lives and show greater tolerance for dissent -- won landslide electoral victories.
Other conservatives, who proudly call themselves fundamentalists, argue that reformists were hollowing out the Islamic Republic from within. Equating dissent with treason, they demanded a hard-line defense of the revolution's tenets, including strident opposition to the United States and Israel.
In recent years the two camps united at election time, making common cause against reformists. But after the votes were counted, moderate conservatives were unfulfilled.
"There was a problem in our structure, our conservative political structure," said Amir Mohebian, a leader in a conservative faction that absorbed some reformist inclinations, including cautious engagement with the West. "We start very well, but the result was not under our control."
Mohebian said the outcomes of 2003 elections for local councils, the 2004 contest for parliament, "and now the presidency," were "not our result." Each succeeding contest tightened the right's grip.
One reason was the hard-line orientation of the Guardian Council, a screening panel that barred reformist candidates, producing a ballot skewed to the right.
That amplified another factor: turnout. The Basij civilian militia, and in last June's presidential contest the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, showed most reliably at the polls, doing their duty as the core constituency Khamenei set out to create after succeeding Khomeini.
"The Basij is mainly a creation of Mr. Khamenei," said one Iranian analyst, who declined to be quoted by name. "They spent a huge amount of money to reinforce these military groups. Basiji people and even the Revolutionary Guard people are really an artificial social class, like an artificial island."
Ahmadinejad spent most of his career in both groups, and he wrote huge increases for each into his first budget as president. He commanded a Revolutionary Guard engineering unit during the 1980s war with Iraq, the defining experience for many hard-liners holding fast to the slogans of a then-young revolution, and he was a leader in the Basij.
"He's a true believer in the revolutionary values, which we believe in, too," said Mohammad Ali Tai, 61, as he squatted on a curb at Tehran University, where Friday prayers are held in the capital. Usually, a few thousand people attend. Most are veterans like Tai, who returned home to lives that failed to improve materially while the governing elites grew wealthy.
"I am a barber myself. I talk to many people," Tai said. "They are only tolerating this hardship because they believe in Islam. Some people who were in charge did not believe in these values, and this inequality is because of them."
Each week, Tai attends a Basij meeting, and well as a gathering of his hayat, a community group that mounts celebrations for religious holidays. When Ahmadinejad was mayor of Tehran, he provided the groups rice at discount prices.
"Everything we do is actually a matter of keeping alive the revolutionary spirit," said Tai, who said he voted in the previous two presidential contests for Mohammad Khatami, a reformist. "But this time the Basij told us: Only vote for Ahmadinejad, and don't vote for anybody else."
If such groups were key to Ahmadinejad's electoral success, the cocooning cycle of their meetings -- offering mutual reinforcement and fealty to a shared vision -- provides insight into the staying power of his rigid outlook. Friends say he held to it stubbornly when others adjusted their views to the post-revolution realities that spawned Iran's reform movement.
"He always thought that was a deviation from the true path of the revolution," said Nasser Hadian-Jazy, who has known Ahmadinejad since grade school. "Equality, justice, humility, being simple, supporting Muslims, opposing global arrogance -- he was never ashamed of these principles. Never."
Hadian-Jazy, himself a revolutionary who evolved into a reformist, said he marveled at seeing his old friend wearing a checkered headdress around his shoulders on a university campus in 1998, a deeply unfashionable gesture at the height of the reform movement. "His sense of overconfidence, to me, that's not a positive point. But that's the way he is," said Hadian-Jazy, now a political scientist at Tehran University. "He's naive. The black and white area of his mind is a lot bigger than the gray area."
Insiders say these are the qualities that keep Iran's hard-liners in the extremes.
"Because of their religious beliefs, these people are inflexible," said a former senior official in Khatami's government, who declined to be identified further. "Although their number might be few, the certainty of their belief lets them resist a larger population. The supporters of civil society and reformists are less hard, less ready to be damaged because of their belief."
"Whenever someone is fixed in his thinking, we call them hard-liners," said Mehdi Karrubi, a moderate cleric who lost narrowly to Ahmadinejad in the first round of last year's presidential balloting. "A group of people just come together. They talk to each other and say: This is what the society thinks!"
Mesbah, the cleric whose speech touched off the current conflict in the conservative camp, is praised even by critics for his intellect. He leads a well-funded seminary in the holy city of Qom and has forged a reputation for steeling the resolve of Iran's harshest conservatives, famously declaring: "If someone tells you he has a new interpretation of Islam, sock him in the mouth!"
A cartoonist dubbed him "Ayatollah Crocodile" for encouraging suppression of the press. One follower, now Ahmadinejad's intelligence minister, once bit a journalist on the shoulder. Another, now Ahmadinejad's interior minister, oversaw the execution of thousands of prisoners in the late 1980s.
Many of Mesbah's former students hold places in the Revolutionary Guards' ideological and political section. He encourages students to study in Canada and the United States, which critics say does little to soften their views. Most eventually return to Qom.
Mesbah's followers have now set their sights, Hadian-Jazy said, on gaining control of the panel of clerics that is empowered to name Iran's supreme leader -- an open-ended appointment that has been assumed to run a lifetime. Called the Assembly of Experts, the 86-member body will be elected in nationwide balloting set for October.
Mesbah is expected to field a slate of graduates from his seminary, and in the preelection positioning now underway, some see preparations for a kind of coup. But the boldness hard-liners have shown since Ahmadinejad's surprise win -- on a populist platform that emphasized quality of life -- has unsettled many here.
"I believe the traditional right wing is worried," said Saeed Laylaz, a respected analyst who served in the first reformist administration of Khatami. "Until now they used each other as a horse to ride from one place to the other, and each thought the other was the rider."
Ahmadinejad's triumph, he said, clarified the driving force.
"When you create radicals, they don't stop when you want them to," Laylaz said. "The leader can order when they leave the barracks, but they decide when to go back. This is the dangerous position of the supreme leader and the right wing right now."
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03/27/2006
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#1
figures from the extreme right of Iran's political spectrum
These people should be described as being on the extreme left. Not least they conciously model their system on the old Soviet Union.
#2
I tend to think that "right" and "left" break down when taken outside the context of the Western political system. Ahmadinejad's ideas on economics have more in common with Chavez's than the latter's admirers would ever like to admit, but he also exhibits a great deal of the traditional fascist regalia right down to the SS-style paramilitary squads in the Basiji.
Look for the "we need to engage the Iranian traditionalists" narrative to appear now that the reformists are gone among the regime's Western fan club.
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03/27/2006 3:33
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#3
Sorry if posting this long article breaks rules, but it reveals the self-interest of Iran's parasitic mullah class of sweetheart contractors, strike-breakers and wage-squeezers:
Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 03 Iran Focus has obtained exclusive information from a reliable source in Iran throwing light on sleaze at the senior echelons of officialdom in the Islamic Republic.
The source has provided Iran Focus with a list of senior officials of the clerical regime and the personal fortune each one has amassed. Most of these officials have risen from lower middle class backgrounds to fabulous wealth gathered through corruption and embezzlement.
At eighth place is Ali Jannati, son of powerful cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati and a senior official in Irans Interior Ministry. The Jannati familys private wealth is estimated at two trillion Rials, the equivenlt of $220 million. Senior cleric Ahmad Jannati is the head of the powerful Guardians Council and a close advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
At seventh place is Ayatollah Abolghassem Khazali, former member of the Guardians Council. The powerful council whose members are handpicked by the Supreme Leader is comprised of six clerics and six senior judges and has the power to veto any Majlis legislation. Khazalis estimated wealth is 2.5 trillion Rials, the equivalent of $275 million, coming mostly from sea trading, paper imports, and book sales.
At sixth place is Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, Irans former Judiciary Chief and another member of the Guardians Council. The senior clerics estimated wealth stands at three trillion Rials, the equivalent of $330 million.
At fifth place is Iraqi-born Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Taskhiri, who for years headed the Islamic Culture and Communications Organisation (ICCO). Since 1995, the ICCO has been active in exporting fundamentalism and propaganda directed against Iranian dissidents outside of Iran. Khamenei himself is in charge of the organisations policymaking council and its meetings are held at his residence. Adding up the lands in his name and his cash flow, Taskhiris personal wealth is above three trillion Rials, the equivalent of $330 million.
Number four in Irans rich list is Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, Speaker of the Assembly of Experts, the exclusively clerical body that designates the countrys Supreme Leader. In a country where many of the theocracys ruling elite are in-laws, Meshkini is father in law to Mohammad Reyshahri, the Islamic Republics first Minister of Intelligence and Security. Meshkinis personal wealth, coming in from mostly sugar trade and the industrial-scale printers, is well above three trillion Rials, the equivalent of $330 million.
Well ahead at third place is the former Commandant of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Mohsen Rezai. Rezai, a close aide to former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has amassed a personal wealth of six trillion Rials, or $660 million. While at the top of the IRGC, Rezai was known by many titles ranging from Major General to darsadgir General (literally, the general that takes commissions).
Number two on the list of officials who have become notoriously rich is Ayatollah Vaez Tabasi, known widely as the Sultan of Khorassan. Vaez Tabasi and his children have amassed an estimated fortune of seven trillion Rials, or $770 million. Their income primarily comes from sugar trade and the sale of real estate in Irans central Qods province.
At the top slot comes, unsurprisingly to Iran observers, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, whose family rules over a vast financial and business empire. From the pistachio farms of his hometown Rafsanjan to huge oil trading companies, the ruling theocracys former president has used his power and influence to expand his wealth. Conservative estimates put his fortune at well beyond the 10 trillion Rial mark, the equivalent of $1.1 billion.
Most of the powerful clerics enormous wealth is vested in the hands of his sons and daughters, as well as other close relatives such as his brothers, nephews, and bother-in-laws, and son-in-laws. One of his villas was sold in 2004 for roughly 29 billion Rials. His brother, Mohammad Hashemi, the former chief of the state broadcasting corporation, owns the company Taha, which imports industrial-scale printers.
The image of rich ayatollahs driving around in bullet-proof Mercedes has become the butt of many jokes and the cause of much resentment in a country where, according to World Bank figures, the per capital income has fallen to a fifth of its 1970s value. Despite Irans huge export revenues and unexpected surpluses from the giant oil market jumps in recent months and years, the countrys budget is constantly in a state of flux showing no signs that it will sustain any time soon, inflation is at 16 percent and rising, and the economic growth rate is projected to fall throughout 2006.
#6
Listen to dogs's article pegs the currency exchange at about 10,000 rial to the dollar
that tells you they have been suffering severe inflation for a lot of years... so in order to preserve the fortune you made by stealing you have to keep stealing
Police found 30 more victims of the sectarian slaughter ravaging
Iraq most of them beheaded dumped on a village road north of Baghdad on Sunday. At least 16 other Iraqis were killed in a U.S.-backed raid in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital.
Accounts of the evening raid in Baghdad varied. Aides to the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi police both said it took place at a mosque, with police claiming 22 bystanders died and al-Sadr's aides saying 18 innocent men were killed.
The Americans said Iraqi special forces backed by U.S. troops killed 16 insurgents in a raid on a community meeting hall after gunmen opened fire on approaching troops.
"No mosques were entered or damaged during this operation," the military said. It said a non-Western hostage was freed, but no name or nationality was provided.
Associated Press videotape showed a tangle of dead male bodies with gunshot wounds on the floor of what was said by the cameraman to be the imam's living quarters, attached to mosque itself.
The tape showed 5.56 mm shell casings scattered about the floor. U.S. forces use that caliber ammunition. A grieving man in white Arab robes stepped among the bodies strewn across the blood-smeared floor.
Separately, 12 more bodies were found near Baghdad nine handcuffed and blindfolded, with rope around their necks and three shot in the head, police said Monday.
The latest deaths brought to at least 81 the number of people reported killed Sunday and Monday in one of the bloodiest days in weeks. Most of the dead appeared to be victims the shadowy Sunni-Shiite score-settling that has torn at the fabric of Iraq since Feb. 22 when a Shiite shrine was blown apart in Samarra, north of Baghdad.
Much of the recent killing is seen as the work of Shiite militias or death squads that have infiltrated or are tolerated by Iraqi police under the control of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry.
Many of the victims have been found dumped, mainly in Baghdad, with their hands tied, showing signs of torture and shot in the head.
In an apparent effort to clamp down on police wrongdoing, American troops raided an Interior Ministry building and briefly detained about 10 Iraqi policemen after discovering 17 Sudanese prisoners in the facility, Iraqi authorities reported.
The report was reminiscent of a similar U.S. raid last November that found detainees apparently tortured. That discovery set off a round of international demands for investigations and reform of Iraqi police practices to ensure observance of human rights.
In this case the Americans quickly determined the Sudanese were held legitimately and had not been abused, said Maj. Gen. Ali Ghalib, a deputy interior minister.
The U.S. military command here had no immediate comment.
The raid in Baghdad came a day after U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad spoke out on the need to cap the sectarian, militia-inspired killing, saying "More Iraqis are dying today from the militia violence than from the terrorists." He did not say which militias he meant nor did he define who the terrorists were.
The two major militia forces in the country are Shiite organizations the Mahdi Army of al-Sadr and the Badr Brigades, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Both have ties with
Iran.
Hours before the raid in Baghdad near Sadr City, al-Sadr personally was the apparent target of a mortar attack at his home in the holy city of Najaf, 90 miles south of Baghdad.
At least one mortar round struck within yards of al-Sadr's home, wounding a guard and a passing child, said Sheik Sahib al-Amiri, an aide to the cleric.
Shortly after the attack, al-Sadr issued a statement calling for calm.
"I call upon all brothers to stay calm and I call upon the Iraqi army to protect the pilgrims as the Nawasib (militants) are aiming to attack Shiites every day," he said, referring to Wednesday's commemoration marking the death of the Prophet Muhammad.
Following the raid, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, expressed concern and telephoned Iraqi military leaders and U.S. Gen. George Casey to "discuss the situation," said spokesman Abdul Rezzaq Al-Kadhimi.
He said the prime minister promised government compensation for families of those killed in the raid and called for Iraqis to be patient until an investigation was completed.
Police Lt. Hassan Hmoud, who put the death toll at 22, said some of the casualties were at the Islamic Dawa Party-Iraq Organization office near the mosque. The incident started when U.S. forces came under fire from the direction of the mosque and the party office, he said. The party is a separate organization from the one headed by al-Jaafari.
Shiite legislator and party spokesman, Khudayer al-Khuzai, said 15 members of the party were holding a "cultural meeting" in an office near the Shiite mosque. "They have nothing to do with the acts of violence," he said.
Al-Khuzai claimed that after coming under attack, U.S. forces raided the party office, "tortured" the men, dragged them out and "executed" them. He said it was not clear who attacked the U.S. troops.
The main Shiite political bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, would demand a quick investigation "because the Iraqi blood is not cheap," al-Khuzai said.
Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman, denied that the troops targeted a party office.
"The building was not a party headquarters but a community meeting room, and there was substantial intelligence on this building showing that that was not, in fact, what it was used for," he said.
In the north of the country, meanwhile, the Kurdish writer Kamal Karim was handed an 18-month sentence for articles on a Kurdish Web site that accused Masoud Barazani, one of the region's top leaders, of corruption.
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Politicians from Iraq's Shi'ite majority accused U.S. troops of massacring 20 worshippers at a Baghdad mosque on Sunday but police and residents said many died in clashes between Shi'ite militia fighters and Americans.
U.S. military spokesmen declined comment on the accusations but issued a statement describing a raid by Iraqi special forces, with U.S. advisers, on a building that was not a mosque in roughly the same area. It said 16 insurgents were killed.
Police said U.S. forces clashed with the Mehdi Army militia of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, killing 20 fighters.
With Baghdad under night curfew it was impossible to pin down what happened. But unusually strident anti-U.S. coverage on government-run state television showed a fierce confrontation between the ruling Shi'ite Islamists and the U.S. administration.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said the premier was "deeply concerned" and had called the U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, who said there would be a full inquiry.
Also on Sunday, U.S. forces arrested 41 officials from the Shi'ite-controlled Interior Ministry and freed 17 foreigners from a secret jail, government, political and U.S. sources said.
Northeast of Baghdad, Iraqi troops found 30 bodies, many of them beheaded, on a village street. And in the same area around Baquba, police arrested one of their own majors, the brother of the regional police chief, over Shi'ite death squad killings.
The events came as Washington raises pressure on the Shi'ites to bring minority Sunnis into government -- it is even planning landmark talks with hostile Shi'ite Iran to break the impasse. Many fear a failure of the plan could plunge Iraq into civil war.
Iraqiya state television carried lengthy footage of the bloodied corpses of men in civilian clothes, in a room where no weapons were visible, calling them victims of U.S. gunfire.
"American forces raid and burn Mustafa mosque. A number of citizens martyred inside," it said in an on-screen headline.
One dead man had a membership card from Jaafari's Dawa party. Jaafari ally Jawad al-Maliki condemned a U.S. "policy of aggression". Leading aides to Sadr denounced the U.S. troops.
Sadr aide Hazim al-Araji later said: "We are calling for calm ... "We do not want to be dragged to a third war."
Though supposedly disbanded in 2004 after two uprisings were crushed by U.S. forces, the Mehdi Army remains a significant force, along with other pro-government militias which Sunnis accuse of running death squads against them.
Since 2004, Sadr, with apparent Iranian backing has become a virtual kingmaker within the dominant Shi'ite Alliance bloc -- he crucially is backing Jaafari to remain prime minister despite opposition from Sunnis, Kurds and some Alliance rivals.
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, at the heart of urgent U.S. efforts to forge a unity government, said on Saturday the militias must be brought to heel and accused them of killing more people over the last few weeks than Sunni rebel bombings.
Reprisal attacks after the destruction of a Shi'ite shrine a month ago killed hundreds, though Sadr and other Shi'ite leaders called publicly for restraint among their armed followers.
Residents in the Shaab district of northeastern Baghdad said they saw and heard heavy clashes between U.S. troops and gunmen they believed were from the Mehdi Army, close to the Sadr-linked Mustafa mosque. U.S. helicopters were overhead they said.
Police sources said they understood that U.S. troops had raided an area around the mosque and got into a gun battle with the Mehdi Army that left about 20 militiamen dead.
Sadr aides said troops killed unarmed people: "The American forces went into Mustafa mosque at prayers and killed more than 20 worshippers," Araji said. "They tied them up and shot them."
Transport Minister Salem al-Maliki, from Sadr's group, said: "This was part of an escalation programme to drag Sadr's group into another battle or to obstruct the political process."
After declining requests to respond to the allegations, the U.S. military issued a statement saying Iraqi special forces, along with U.S. advisers, killed 16 "insurgents" in Aadhamiya, next to Shaab, and detained 15. The statement denied any mosque was entered and said a foreign, non-Western hostage was freed.
After the statement was issued, U.S. spokesmen declined to elaborate or say if the raid was close to the Mustafa mosque.
There was also mystery over the details of the raid on the Interior Ministry facility, which one political source described as an Education Ministry warehouse in central Baghdad.
A U.S. source confirmed American and Iraqi forces seized 41 Interior Ministry personnel and free 17 foreigners at a secret jail complex. There was no detail on their identities. Many foreign Muslims are accused of being Sunni al Qaeda sympathisers.
Nor were the identities of those arrested clear. Shi'ite militias are accused of infiltrating the Interior Ministry.
In November, U.S. troops freed 173 prisoners, some of them tortured, from a secret Interior Ministry facility in Baghdad.
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03/27/2006
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#1
A Sadr hit and they get their BS version on the air in record time. This Iranian plan actually worked... so far.
Jaafari is complicit - he knows US troops don't enter mosques, tie people up and execute them. Puppet Prick.
And, of course, so is Iraqiya state television.
All f..king Iranian puppets.
We've wasted so much hoping these morons will rise above sectarian hate. The only thing they hate worse than each other is everyone else.
#2
Reuters, always first with the (non) news, so long as its import is anti-US.
MNC-I will be doing a briefing later today on the incident. Of course it's 100% nonsense (the Sadr claim). But some have urged our spokesmen to start going way beyond mere factual correction and refutation, and start slamming the Iraqis for their slanders and the media (both flavors) for their parroting of same.
BTW, apparently the 30 "beheaded" bodies may well also be a complete fabrication. So far the Coalition has not been able to confirm the IA report.
#3
Hi Verlaine! It sounds like they are keeping you busy. :-) Please do use the opportunity to say more than just the facts -- openly correct errors, too. Secretary Rumsfeld gets a lot of mileage when he sets his questioners straight. And the Iraqis need to understand we are not there as their Janissaries, and we will not put up with abuse.
#6
There's this from.. http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/
American forces clashed with Mahdi army militiamen at the Ur district (Hayy Ur), west of Sadr city in Baghdad. It seems an American force attempted to raid a husseiniya in the area and was resisted by militiamen inside.
Between 18 and 21 militiamen have been killed, and the Al-Mustafa Husseiniya was reported to be badly damaged in the ensuing firefight.
I was on the phone with a colleague who lived there and he described it as a battlefield. Apache helicopters and jet fighters are still circling the area.
Al-Iraqiya TV just aired some images from the husseiniya. 17 'guards' were killed. One of the corpses carried a Da'wa party (Iraq organisation) ID, and another carried an ID issued by the Islamic Conference of Iraqi Tribes.
Someone in the background was asking the cameraman to film grenades lying around the corpses, to which the cameraman responded: "I can't show our guys' grenades."
"No, these are American grenades," the man in the background explained.
"Oh, okay I'll film them."
Al-Iraqiya TV was very critical of the attack, and is describing those killed as martyrs.
#7
What has become very telling in this backdrop of violence is the lack of refugees. If this were a true civil war wouldnt thousands of Iraqis fleeing the violence for safer countries? I am no expert, but I suspect we are seeing more tit-for-tat revenge killings and the run-of-the-mill Iraqi knows they are not a target and doesnt feel threatened by the killings. Now if somebody can point me to the reports of roaming bands of Sunnia/Shia/Kurds that are grab random people off the streets for execution I will consider my hypothesis null and void. Given the violence of the past it is surprising that more revenge killings are not being carried out.
#8
cyber sarge - they dont have to flee to safer countries, because the "civil warrish" stuff is confined to a few areas of Iraq. Heard a story about a refugee camp being set up in Najaf for Shiite refugees from the "triangle of death" south of Baghdad, and from Baghdad itself. Yet another glass half full glass half empty story - Najaf is safe, the "triangel of death" is one of the most ethnically polarized places in the country (its an area where Saddam had been bringing in Sunni "settlers" to a Shiite area) OTOH there DO seem to be internal refugees.
#9
This looks like it might be the CentCom press release for the same incident more generally being portrayed as a US execution of worshipers.
BAGHDAD, Iraq Soldiers from the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 1st Iraqi Special Operations Forces Brigade, conducted a coordinated operation in northeast Baghdad March 26 to capture and detain insurgents responsible for kidnapping and execution activities.
Iraqi Commandos and Soldiers from the Iraqi Counterterrorism Force killed 16 insurgents and wounded three others during a house-to-house search on an objective with multiple structures. They also detained 18 other individuals, discovered a significant weapons cache and secured the release of an Iraqi being held hostage.
The security force of ISOF Soldiers received fire almost immediately from several buildings near the target area. They maintained the outer perimeter that enabled an assault force to move quickly to clear and secure the objective, a compound of several buildings in the Adhamiyah neighborhood in northeast Baghdad.
The weapons cache discovered on the objective included 32 AK-47 assault rifles, five grenades, four rocket-propelled grenades, two RPG launchers, two RPK heavy machine guns, 12 crush switch indicators used to make improvised explosive devices and several rounds of ammunition. The cache was destroyed on the scene along with two vehicles that contained weapons and IED making material.
The hostage, a dental technician with the Ministry of Health, was kidnapped earlier March 26 as he was walking outside of his office. During the next 12 hours, his captors beat him and threatened to torture him. After ISOF Soldiers rescued him, they took him to an undisclosed location where he received medical care from Iraqi doctors. No further information on his condition is available at this time.
#10
More from Bill Roggio Powerplay
....
The political maneuvering has begun in the aftermath of the raid on the Mahdi Army headquarters in the Hayy Ur neighborhood. Jawad al-Maliki, an ally of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and spokesman for the United Iraqi Alliance, has called "for a rapid restoration of (control of) security matters to the Iraqi government," according to Reuters. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reports "Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr today described the killing as 'unjustified.' Baghdad provincial Governor Husayn al-Tahan said he has suspended cooperation with U.S. forces until an independent investigation can be carried out."
.....
It should be noted that the Iraqi politicians condemning the raid in Hayy Ur are allies of Jaafari and Muqtada al-Sadr, and the various other political groups (the Kurdish alliance, the Sunni groups, Allawi's secular party and even SCIRI) have remained silent on this issue.
#11
Sectarian troops would have to be able to concentrate, in order to carry out a civil war. This operation has shown that small concentrations can be crushed on short notice.
Atrocity propaganda should not issue from Iraq media. Collateral damage is regretable but: blame those who hide behind civilians. A lying press is not a free press.
Two people were killed and seven injured on Monday when a crude bomb exploded at a small retail store in a suspected Muslim extremist attack in the southern Philippines, an army spokesman said.
Major Gamal Hayudini said no group had claimed responsibility for the attack on the island of Jolo, but local police suspected that the al Qaeda-linked militant group Abu Sayyaf was behind it.
"We're still investigating to determine the type of bomb," Hayudini told reporters, adding that troops in the area had gone on alert to ease tension and prevent an escalation of violence.
Last month, a crude bomb ripped through a row of night clubs outside an army base on Jolo, killing a man and wounding 13 people, days before 250 U.S. troops were due to conduct humanitarian missions on the island.
Hayudini said there were still teams of U.S. soldiers on Jolo to complete several construction projects, such as roads, potable water wells and school buildings as part of annual exercises with the Philippine military.
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Six children were wounded when their school minibus hit a land mine in a troubled Pakistani tribal area on Monday, officials in the area said.
Local government officials suspected the mine could have been planted by tribal militants supporting al Qaeda and Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas.
Two of the children were in a critical condition, said one official, who requested anonymity.
The children were on their way to school at Shakai, 47 miles northwest of Tank town, in the South Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
Last week, the Pakistani military reported that troops were believed to have killed up to 20 militants in clashes in neighboring North Waziristan.
Around 200 tribesmen were killed in fighting with the army in North Waziristan earlier this month after they answered a call to arms by militant Muslim clerics following a special forces assault on an al Qaeda camp.
On Thursday President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, warned foreign militants hiding in the tribal region to leave Pakistan or face annihilation.
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Not so long ago, when a bomb went off in London, you could be sure it was the Irish Republican Army. If the target was Madrid, that meant the Basque separatist group ETA.
But al Qaeda has shattered the old certainties -- and accelerated the decline of European paramilitary groups that peg their survival to a bedrock of public support. The continent's two most entrenched bands of outlaws, the IRA and ETA, have taken their biggest peacemaking steps in the shadow of al Qaeda carnage.
"The old terrorist groups, at leadership level, would not want to be linked in the public mind with this new type of terror. They wouldn't want to be seen to be competing for attention with it," said Christopher Langton, an analyst at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London.
"With the IRA and ETA and others, they call cease-fires and want to be negotiated with," said Langton, a retired British army colonel. But with al Qaeda, he said, "there's nobody to negotiate with."
He and Jonathan Stevenson, an anti-terrorism specialist at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, agree that the al Qaeda threat has greatly increased Western governments' willingness to share intelligence, toughen anti-terrorism laws, and tolerate repressive measures. Previously, Britain and Spain faced international criticism when they cracked down on the IRA and ETA, whose members were easier to identify and arrest.
"September 11 and the rise of the new terrorism hardened governments against dealing with groups that commit terrorist violence," said Stevenson, an expert on conflicts from Northern Ireland to Somalia.
He said al Qaeda's "mass-casualty agenda" meant that the violence committed by the IRA and ETA no longer had "stun value."
In its peace declaration this week, ETA -- which killed about 800 people from 1968 to 2003 in hope of pressuring Spain into granting independence to the Basque region -- pledged its cease-fire would be permanent and demanded only admission to negotiations in return, a remarkable climbdown. The group hadn't killed anybody since March 11, 2004, when Moroccan radicals killed 191 people with blasts on Madrid commuter trains, an atrocity that the Spanish government of the day tried to pin on ETA.
The IRA, which killed 1,775 people during a failed 27-year campaign to wrest Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, began disarming just six weeks after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. And just a few weeks after suicide bombers killed 56 people in London, the IRA formally instructed its members to renounce violence for political purposes and to dump their weapons for collection by disarmament officials.
The IRA had ruled out both moves for a decade. Analysts and IRA members alike say that growing international impatience, particularly in the United States after September 11, helped make the unthinkable inevitable.
"Al Qaeda did change things for us," said an IRA veteran, speaking on condition of anonymity because IRA membership remains an imprisonable crime in both Britain and Ireland.
He told The Associated Press that the September 11 attacks made it politically impossible for the IRA to break its 1997 cease-fire. He contrasted that with the fate of the IRA's previous 1994 truce, which ended with a two-ton truck bomb on the City of London, Britain's financial district, that caused vast economic damage and killed two men. The low death toll reflected the IRA policy of phoned warnings and followed two similarly massive strikes on the City of London in 1992 and 1993.
"Up to then, we could expect a certain level of sympathy internationally when we bombed the City of London. Those operations used to be, far and away, the most effective thing we did, the thing that really hit the Brits in their wallets," he said. "I wouldn't expect too many Irish-Americans in New York to cheer us if we did that today -- not after what happened to the twin towers."
Most of Europe's terror-practicing groups rose amid the radical chic and student protests of the late 1960s, when the continent was divided by the Cold War. Germany's Red Army Faction, Italy's Red Brigades and Greece's November 17 kidnapped, assassinated and bombed as they dreamed of Marxist revolution and the collapse of NATO.
Because they lacked any popular base, these small groups proved vulnerable to leaders' arrests. Once the Warsaw Pact collapsed, they disintegrated or lost their direction.
Fred Halliday, a human rights professor at the London School of Economics, said the end of the Cold War undermined virtually all of Europe's paramilitary movements; the IRA, for instance, received Warsaw Pact weaponry through Libya and claimed to be fighting to create a socialist republic.
Halliday cited several factors that drove the IRA, then ETA, toward peace long before al Qaeda appeared. He said the IRA's Sinn Fein party was deeply influenced by the African National Congress' renunciation of "armed struggle" in the early 1990s. Then Sinn Fein jumped at the chance, in 1994, to enter mainstream politics with crucial encouragement from former U.S. President Bill Clinton. ETA, in turn, sought to emulate Sinn Fein's truce-for-talks strategy.
But he said the IRA's and ETA's long road to peace illustrated how long it would take to come to terms with al Qaeda as well as Hamas, the militant Palestinian movement. He said it was inevitable that, someday, the West would end up negotiating with the political descendants of both forces.
"The IRA and ETA must have realized 10, 20 years before their cease-fires that their war wasn't going anywhere. It took their leaders that long to shift their movement towards reality," Halliday said. "How long will it take al Qaeda and Hamas to travel the same journey? It's depressing."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
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#1
"How long will it take al Qaeda and Hamas to travel the same journey?"
#2
Article: Fred Halliday, a human rights professor at the London School of Economics, said the end of the Cold War undermined virtually all of Europe's paramilitary movements; the IRA, for instance, received Warsaw Pact weaponry through Libya and claimed to be fighting to create a socialist republic. ... He said it was inevitable that, someday, the West would end up negotiating with the political descendants of both forces.
This is the kind of thing I would expect to hear from a professor at the London School of Marxist Economics. Doesn't seem to have occurred to him that al Qaeda's mass murder of more people in one day than the IRA killed in 27 years might be a barrier to negotiation. This is the kind of thing you would expect from a Communist; paraphrasing Stalin, a single death is a tragedy, but 3,000 deaths merely a statistic.
Egypt on Sunday for the first time blamed an Islamist movement that has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda for a string of deadly bomb attacks in Sinai resorts. State security court prosecutor Hisham Badawi said a group calling itself Al-Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) was behind the attacks in the Red Sea resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh in July last year and Taba in October 2004 which together killed about 100 people.
Tawhid is Zark's old group, active in Europe and dedicated originally to bringing down the Jordanian monarchy. I think of it as al-Qaeda's Takfir Corps...
A group with that name pledging allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri had previously claimed responsibility for the attacks, which dealt a new blow to Egypt's vital tourism industry. Badawi made his statement at the resumption of the trial of suspects over the bombings in Taba and nearby resorts in 2004 which killed 34 people including several Israelis. Previously, Egyptian officials have blamed local Bedouin with links to Islamist groups for the bombings and insisted they were not working with international terror groups.
Badawi presented before the high court 13 new accused, in addition to the two already on trial since July 2005 for the Taba attack in a process whose hearings have been regularly adjourned. "During the interrogations in progress for the Sharm el-Sheikh attacks, the accused have acknowledged having carried out similar attacks in Taba," he told the court.
Badawi said Khalid Moussaid Salem, who was killed during a clash with police in the Sinai in September 2005, was the ringleader of the group who obtained the explosives used in the car bombings.
The new accused pleaded innocent and claimed to have been tortured to obtain their confession for participating in the attacks. The next hearing was fixed for May 27. Four groups had claimed the Sharm el-Sheikh bombing, including Al-Tawhid wal Jihad, which said that the attacks were revenge for the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and out of allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2006
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Politicians from Iraq's Shi'ite majority accused U.S. troops of massacring 20 worshippers at a Baghdad mosque on Sunday but police and residents said many died in clashes between Shi'ite militia fighters and Americans.
U.S. military spokesmen declined comment on the accusations but issued a statement describing a raid by Iraqi special forces, with U.S. advisers, on a building that was not a mosque in roughly the same area. It said 16 insurgents were killed.
Police said U.S. forces clashed with the Mehdi Army militia of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, killing 20 fighters.
With Baghdad under night curfew it was impossible to pin down what happened. But unusually strident anti-U.S. coverage on government-run state television showed a fierce confrontation between the ruling Shi'ite Islamists and the U.S. administration.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said the premier was "deeply concerned" and had called the U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, who said there would be a full inquiry.
[snip]
Iraqiya state television carried lengthy footage of the bloodied corpses of men in civilian clothes, in a room where no weapons were visible, calling them victims of U.S. gunfire.
"American forces raid and burn Mustafa mosque. A number of citizens martyred inside," it said in an on-screen headline.
JAAFARI ALLY
One dead man had a membership card from Jaafari's Dawa party. Jaafari ally Jawad al-Maliki condemned a U.S. "policy of aggression." Leading aides to Sadr denounced the U.S. troops.
Sadr aide Hazim al-Araji later said: "We are calling for calm ... "We do not want to be dragged to a third war."
Though supposedly disbanded in 2004 after two uprisings were crushed by U.S. forces, the Mehdi Army remains a significant force, along with other pro-government militias which Sunnis accuse of running death squads against them.
Since 2004, Sadr, with apparent Iranian backing has become a virtual kingmaker within the dominant Shi'ite Alliance bloc -- he crucially is backing Jaafari to remain prime minister despite opposition from Sunnis, Kurds and some Alliance rivals.
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, at the heart of urgent U.S. efforts to forge a unity government, said on Saturday the militias must be brought to heel and accused them of killing more people over the last few weeks than Sunni rebel bombings.
Reprisal attacks after the destruction of a Shi'ite shrine a month ago killed hundreds, though Sadr and other Shi'ite leaders called publicly for restraint among their armed followers.
CONFUSED ACCOUNTS Residents in the Shaab district of northeastern Baghdad said they saw and heard heavy clashes between U.S. troops and gunmen they believed were from the Mehdi Army, close to the Sadr-linked Mustafa mosque. U.S. helicopters were overhead they said.
Police sources said they understood that U.S. troops had raided an area around the mosque and got into a gun battle with the Mehdi Army that left about 20 militiamen dead.
Sadr aides said troops killed unarmed people: "The American forces went into Mustafa mosque at prayers and killed more than 20 worshippers," Araji said. "They tied them up and shot them."
Transport Minister Salem al-Maliki, from Sadr's group, said: "This was part of an escalation programme to drag Sadr's group into another battle or to obstruct the political process."
After declining requests to respond to the allegations, the U.S. military issued a statement saying Iraqi special forces, along with U.S. advisers, killed 16 "insurgents" in Aadhamiya, next to Shaab, and detained 15. The statement denied any mosque was entered and said a foreign, non-Western hostage was freed.
After the statement was issued, U.S. spokesmen declined to elaborate or say if the raid was close to the Mustafa mosque.
#1
Sounds like the one man one vote one time Shiite Islamists are making their move, with the Prime Minister in the lead. And we will have to crush his private army, if democracy is to succeed in Iraq. We don't need a Shiite Saddam ruling the country.
#2
I think it is the other way around. The non-islamists in the Iraqi government and the US will attack the Sadrists. While useful in putting down any Sunni pretentions after the Samara mosque bombing, the Sadrists have gone way over the line with the continued massacres and have to be put down. Raids such as this one are useful for labeling them as criminals and destroying them piecemeal vs. the full scale urban destruction that killed thousands of Sadr's boyz in 2004.
Posted by: ed ||
03/27/2006 13:10
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The US needs to hammer Sadr's Tots especially hard, to send a clear message to Iran when the US meets with them next month. We need to emphasize that when we say "end all assistance to agents in Iraq", we meen Sadr and al-Jafari, as well.
In a republican form of government, there can only be one military, one civil government, and one source of power - the people AS A WHOLE. Certain groups in Iraq believe they can set up their own agencies and get away with it. That needs to end, like yesterday.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/27/2006 14:02
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Suspected nationalist militants Sunday clashed with security forces in Southwestern Baluchistan province at a time when thousands of tribal people were starting to return to their tribe after fleeing it for about a decade, said officials. Nationalist militants attacked security forces with rockets and missiles in gas-rich Sui area, about 300 kilometers Southeast of Quetta, the provincial capital, District Coordinating Officer (DPO), Abdul Samad Lasi, told KUNA. He said the attack killed one soldier and wounded five others. He added that following attack security forces opened retaliatory fire that wounded over 10 militants. However, he said, there were no arrests.
The latest incident came amid thousands of tribal people, who had fled their tribe owing to the rivalry with Nawab Akbar Bugti, the main hand behind Baluch nationalist movement, started returning back to their homes after a period of almost 12 years under a government-sponsored program.
Meanwhile, a homemade bomb went off in Khuzdar area near an abandoned mud-house. Police said there were no casualties but the explosion damaged the house. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz addressing a press conference in Quetta said peace will be maintained in Baluchistan at any cost. He said all problems and disputes will be resolved through negotiations. However, he added, if somebody will resort to terrorist activities then the government will use all means to stop them.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2006
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Normally, we think of raiders riding into town on horses or at least camels, waving swords or guns, and actually attacking something. Blowing a rocket or two in the general direction of somewhere isn't what you'd call a raid.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad Movement on Sunday claimed responsibility for two (Quds 3) missiles, which were fired against the occupied city of Al-Majdal, according to a statement by the group. It said that Zionist sources acknowledged the missile attack against the targeted areas.
Furthermore, Palestinian resistance fighters launched on Sunday three missiles from north Gaza which exploded in the area of Al-Naqb in south Israel. An Israeli army spokesman said that one of the rockets exploded in the town of Yad Mordekhai in south Israel while the second one fell in the agricultural area of Kermia. The third missile exploded in the sea. The spokesman claimed there were no casualties nor damage.
On the other hand, Israeli security authorities said today that they have detained a Palestinian man from Gaza who was intending to carry out a suicidal operation inside Israel. The Israeli daily Haaretz quoted the authorities as saying that the internal security body had detained a youth called Sameh Haddad at the Eretz crossing after finding forged medical documents in his possession. It said that Haddad has been accused of planning to carry out a suicidal operation in one of the Israeli towns.
In Cairo, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his full objection to the Israeli unilateral measures, pointing out that there was a Palestinian partner ready to sit down and negotiate all issues. He said in statements following his meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that the Israeli unilateral security measures were not acceptable because they conflicted with the Quartet-backed Road Map and with UN resolutions. He said that any Israeli government "should deal with us and not ignore the Palestinian partner and the UN, which was considered the main link between us and them."
"We're relevant, I tell you! Both of us. Really! C'mon, quit laughing...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2006
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#1
pointing out that there was a Palestinian partner ready to sit down and negotiate all issues
Negotiate yes. Actually resolve, not a chance. Keep building the wall, Israel.
Sudans brutal Islamist President Omar al-Bashir and Chinese President Hu Jintao have become fast friends as of late, forging a Sino-Sudanese alliance that has serious implications for the Sudanese people and the future stability of the African continent. China has burst on the African scene with a presence that has been frightening to many people who hadnt realized how wide its reach is, U.S. Representative Randy Forbes (R-VA), chairman of the new House China Caucus, noted in January...
#2
Article: China has burst on the African scene with a presence that has been frightening to many people who hadnt realized how wide its reach is, U.S. Representative Randy Forbes (R-VA), chairman of the new House China Caucus, noted in January.
China just wants to buy oil from Sudan. In return, Sudan wants shipments of cheap Chinese weapons of the kind needed to put down internal revolts. Why is China protecting the existing government from UN sanctions? Because its state-owned oil companies got a sweet deal from the existing Sudanese government that may not be honored if it is overthrown. China is in the Sudan for the same reason that South Korea was in Libya when Europe and the US had trade embargoes on for Libya's terrorist activities. It's nice to have a captive market.
Afghanistan's prosecution of a man who converted from Islam to Christianity shows how a fledgling democracy struggles to recognize individual rights, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.
... and how the resident holy men do their best to ignore them.
Afghanistan is "going through one of the most difficult debates that any society goes through, and that is the proper role of religion in the politics of the state," she said.
I don't think they're having a debate about it. I think they've said that anybody who converts from Islam to anything else has to be killed but that their sources of aid and support are bound up with people who have those funny ideas about individual liberty.
Officials in Afghanistan said Abdul Rahman, who faced a possible death sentence for converting from Islam to Christianity, was to be freed after a court on Sunday dismissed the case against him, citing a lack of evidence.
... and not citing his freedom to believe what he damned well pleases.
Rice said she had no independent confirmation, but said that development "would be a very good step forward" if true. "This is an evolutionary process," Rice said on Fox News. "It's a young democracy."
They've made it up to about 714 A.D., but they've still got a long way to go. The question is whether they really want to make the trip...
Afghanistan's U.S.-backed president, Hamid Karzai, has faced mounting foreign pressure to free Rahman. Muslim clerics have called for Rahman to be killed.
That's because they're holy men. It's holy to want to have people killed when they deviate from your straight-and-narrow. They have a blood fetish.
"We, as Americans, know that in democracy, as it evolves, there are difficult issues about state and church, or in this case, state and mosque. But there are difficult issues about the rights of the individual," Rice told CNN's "Late Edition."
... or, in Islamic countries, the lack thereof...
"We're going to stand firm for the principle that religious freedom and freedom of religious conscience need to be upheld, and we are hoping for a favorable resolution in this case," Rice said. Very good. But, Muslim clerics will always rail against democracy - except where they control a majority vote - because it implies popular sovereignty, while they recognize only their concocted deity ("allah") as sovereign. There was a brief period of Secularism in post colonial Arab speaking entities, but that has washed away.
Rahman was being prosecuted under Afghanistan's Islamic laws for converting 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Rahman's case represents a "crossroads for their judicial system," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. "Let's hope they make the right decision," he told CNN's "Late Edition." "If they don't, I think there are going to be a great many problems."
I don't think the holy men intend taking any of the roads available to them. They intend to stay precisely where they are. That's because none of the roads available present the option of holy men running the country.
Rice was asked if Christian missionaries from the United States should be encouraged to go to Afghanistan. "I think that Afghans are pleased to get the help that they can get," she told NBC's "Meet the Press."
And I'd guess the holy men would be whipping up the rubes to kill them within hours of their arrival.
Stephen Hadley, President Bush's national security adviser, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that Afghanistan is "trying to reconcile a religious background of their country with a commitment they made in their own constitution to the universal declaration of human rights." A National Security adviser who is unaware that Islam is a total integration of church and state, is in the wrong line of work. Forget Hadley, it's like this Condi: Muslim = abd-allah = slave-of-allah. Toss away your Karen Armstrong/John Esposito ink-abusers and read Robert Spencer.
I think they both know the issues here. Hadley has it right IMO: the Afghans generally aspire to democracy, which is a new thing for them. Now they have to think through what that means in practice and whether it's really compatible with Islamacism. The death penalty for apostates arguably isn't in the Q'uran, by the way - it's in the interpretations that have been added. A lot of Islamic countries don't have it in their legal code. There are Islamic precedents the Afghans could follow other than the Taliban's.
Posted by: Listen to Dogs ||
03/27/2006
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Condi's getting Polly Annish
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/27/2006 0:32
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My take, as long as the Afghanistan constitution is based on Sharia, the mad clerics run the store. The K government is limited in geography and the tribal leaders must be forced to comply or go bye-bye.
Much unfinished work in Afghanistan, as in Iraq.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/27/2006 0:37
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Dr Dogs - I think Dr Rice is aware of far more than you credit her with, and in far greater detail. She has the most thankless job in the Federal Government - especially within the Bush Administration.
The job entails making nice with evil, insane, lying, back-stabbing thieves - conveniently shortened to "diplomats." Nicely telling them, in an escalating sequence:
"How do you see the situation?"
"That's not how we see it."
"This is how we see it."
"No, that isn't an acceptable outcome."
"Do you have any relatives left in-country?"
"That's a shame."
She's doing her job. I saw her interview today, and I think she's doing it very well.
#4
Unless the man in the Afghan street interviews that I saw were non-representative, the fact that 100% vehemently supported execution of the convert - pre-trial - suggests sharia has a total hold over Afghanis.
Mohammad's extermination edict is in the Hadith, which is second to the Koran in authority. Bukhari's version reads, "If anyone (Muslim) abandons Islam, then kill them." In the absence of growing and subversive Muslim immigrant communities in the West, and aid from the productive States, Muslims would enforce the extermination edict. The cartoon-jihad is evidence of their intent to enforce extra-territorial application of sharia blasphemy laws.
Western leaders should be doing everything in their power to rollback aggressive Islam. The SUV incident, after which the perpetrator used Koran sanction to attempt justification, reveals our vulnerability. During Taliban/al-Qaeda rule, at least 50,000 Muslims - many on jihad vacations from the West - took training in the production and use of poisons, to inflict mass casualties against their enemy.
Islam cannot reform. A Muslim who is fully aware of his Koranic ("jihad is prescribed to you") obligations, will wage jihad terror when they have the means and opportunity to do same. The motive is in the death warrant for billions of disbelievers: the Koran.
#8
But there are difficult issues about the rights of the individual...
No, there are not!
There's nothing "difficult" here. They want to kill Rahman for something that's none of their goddamned business.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/27/2006 7:19
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Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom (1786)
"Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind;"
A document so important that Thomas Jefferson's gravestone notes that he is author of this measure and NOT that he was president.
We are so stuck on the fetish of "voting" that we have forgotten what is truly required for a free, tolerant society. As long as we allow these so-called "fledgling" democracies to use sharia as the basis of their legal system, we will not make one inch of progress.
#12
Well, I, for one, am not real. I'm just a flickering impression of something that never really was. I'm 100% b*llshit, but I'm kinda at peace with it.
#14
"As long as we allow these so-called "fledgling" democracies to use sharia as the basis of their legal system, we will not make one inch of progress."
These ideas that you cannot let these Muslim democracies use sharia, or if they use sharia then no progress has been made, or the talk about over emphasis on voters all come up short. Progress has to begin somewhere. You cannot go in and tell these folks their whole way of life and their religion sucks - adopt ours now. Since that would not be calculated to work, then you have to be satisifed with a little slower progress. We accepted a little evil (slavery) while establishing a goverment that protected minority rights and insured basic freedoms. The evil was eliminated later. Had the drafters of the Declaration of Independence insisted on taking on the slavery issue at that time, then we'd still be sippin tea in the afternoon.
Iraqi Ministry of State for National Security on Sunday warned of touching explosive-packed candy bars found on Baghdad streets. The ministry said that unknown gunmen threw candy bars that contain explosive materials nearby schools and residential areas in Yarmouk Neighborhood. It cautioned citizens against touching these candy bars, asserting that the first layer of which contained cocoa, while the second layer contained explosives.
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The courts in Khanpur are to soon decide the case of Aisha Parveen, 20, and the decision could mean life or death for her, reports the New York Times. Ms Parveen ... is steeling herself for a state-administered horror. Just two months after she escaped from the brothel in which she was tortured and imprisoned for six years, the courts are poised to hand her back to the brothel owner, writes Nicholas D Kristof.
Pakland is crawling with holy men, who're against sin and obscenity in every form. Yet somehow the country seems to have enough whorehouses per capita that the macs have to go out conking young girls on the head to drag them back to their genuine dens of iniquity.
Parveen says she was 14 when she was hit on the head while walking to school in NWFP. She awoke to find herself imprisoned in a whorehouse brothel hundreds of miles away, in the town of Khanpur. Parveen fought back and refused to sleep with customers, but she says the brothel owner - Mian Sher - beat and sexually tortured her, and regularly drugged her so she would fall unconscious and customers could do with her as they liked.
Doesn't everybody like to doink women when they're comatose? Only thing better is when they've been dead more than 24 hours and the rigor mortis has worn off...
This went on for six years, during which she says she was beaten every day. The girls in the brothel were forced to sleep naked at night, so that they would be too embarrassed to try to escape. Parveen says she believes that two of them, Malo Jan and Suwa Tai, were killed after they repeatedly refused to sleep with customers. In any case condoms were never available, so all the girls may eventually die of AIDS.
They're not human, of course. They're just flesh, receptacles for male bodily fluids, kind of like a public toilet with feet.
Kristof says of his meeting with Mian Sher, He denied kidnapping Parveen, saying that he had married her six years earlier. He also denied that he pimped the girls - a claim undermined by a customer who was walking out of his brothel as I arrived. Others working in the area said that Mian Sher unquestionably ran a brothel. In January, Parveen got a break. A metalworker, Mohamed Akram, had been doing work in the brothel, and he fell in love with her. On January 5, Parveen escaped with Akram and they married the next day.
And now Mian Sher's got her in court, trying to get his property back.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2006
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#1
Pakistan also allows workers to be indentured, or enslaved until debts are paid off. However, the racist Punjabi majority will not tolerate minority indenture of the master race. Read this article on modern-slavery in the terrorist entity of Pakistan.
http://ipoaa.com/pakistan_slave_trade.htm
Israeli occupying forces stormed into areas in Jenin early Sunday, opening fire towards homes which led to the injury of one Palestinian. Palestinian sources said that Israeli forces stormed into the area, and stationed over the roofs of several homes, transforming them into military stations. On the other hand, five Palestinians were injured when Israeli settlers opened fire towards them in Hebron city. Settlers attacked the city earlier today.
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PESHAWAR: Mutthida Majlis-e-Amal President Qazi Hussain Ahmed, said on Sunday that the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) would start a final round in Islamabad to overthrow the Musharrafs government. Addressing the last day of the three-day Ijtema-e-Aam, Ahmed said that this time, the ARD and the masses would render their full support to remove Musharraf. He said that this time their campaign would continue till they rid the country of all undemocratic elements.
The Masses™ are always waiting for a man on horseback to lead them to the promised land, especially one with a Chia Hat...
All political and religious parties have agreed on a four points agenda that include resignation of General Musharraf, formation of an interim government, restoration of the constitution to what it was before October 12, 1999 and appointment of an independent and acceptable to all parties election commissioner, he said. He accused General Musharraf of playing the role of an American agent whose policies had all proved fruitless. 64 percent of the countrys budget is being spent on the army but instead of defending the country, they are killing their own people, said Ahmed. He condemned the armys operation in the tribal areas and said that the operation in Waziristan was being conducted on the directives of America.
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The Israeli army will end all coordination with local representatives of the Palestinian Authority once a Hamas-dominated government is sworn in on Wednesday, an officer told AFP on Sunday. Once the Hamas government is sworn in, we will have no one to talk to on the Palestinian side, said Shlomo Dror, a spokesman for the governments district coordination offices (DCO) in the occupied West Bank. We will not talk to Hamas. The DCO is an army body in charge of coordinating day-to-day issues with the Palestinians at municipal level. Many town councils in the West Bank are controlled by Hamas after local elections last year.
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Three foreign oil workers, two Americans and a Briton, were freed on Monday after being held hostage by militants in Nigeria for five weeks, a U.S. diplomatic source said. The three, employees of U.S. oil services company Willbros, were seized from a barge in the southern Niger Delta on February 18 during a wave of attacks in the world's eighth largest oil exporting country that has cut shipments by a quarter.
"They are all in good health," the source told Reuters, asking not to be named.
The rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta had demanded a greater share of the delta's oil wealth, the release of two jailed leaders from the region and compensation for oil pollution as conditions for freeing the hostages.
It was not immediately clear what produced the breakthrough in talks with the kidnappers, but President Olusegun Obasanjo is due to fly to Washington on Tuesday and pressure had been building up for an end to the standoff over the hostages.
MIANWALI: A marriage party returned without brides, as the cleric refused to sermonise nikah of two former vani women despite their khula from the Family Court.
Got all that? The nikah's the marriage ceremony. Vani is where young women or girls are given in marriage as boot to seal a deal, usually unsavory. Khula is a civil or judicial (vice religious) divorce. And now for the background...
In April 1985, Daudkhel police registered a case against Amanullah Khan, son of Sher Muhammad Khan, for killing Attaullah Khan, the son of Alam Khan, over a land dispute.
Got all that? Daudkhels are a Pashtun subtribe, which explains why Amanullah's violent instincts overtook him and he bumped off Attaullah, who's now been moulderin' in the grave for 21 years...
Amanullah absconded court for four years before being arrested.
That's 17 years ago...
Mianwali sessions court judge sentenced him to death.
"It's the high jump for you, Attaullah!"
"I'm Amanullah, yer honor! Attaullah's the dead guy!"
"Kinda like what you're gonna be?"
Before his execution, elders and friends persuaded the aggrieved family to accept Rs 250,000 dyat
... that'd be wehrgeld, or blood money...
and two vani girls for marrying the sons of the deceased.
... that'd be the underage nooky, to seal the deal.
Elders sermonised their nikah of Kalsoom Bibi with Ikramullah Khan and Nusrat Bibi, 8, with Shafaullah, 12, in 1990, after which the convict, Amanullah, was freed.
So now we're up to 16 years ago, and Kalsoom and Nusrat, probably both in the full bloom of pre-pubescent tribal womanhood at age 8, are married to two likely young relatives of Ataullah, neither of whom had anything to do with murder most foul.
The girls stayed at their parents house, as they were young at that time.
Too young to actually get into...
By the time, the girls graduated from the local college, while the grooms never went to school.
Spent their time down at the mosque, talking about jihad and showing off their guns and such, I guess...
After the girls graduated, grooms family asked the girls parents to fulfill their promise, but the girls refused to marry illiterate men.
Wanted the manage the girlies' careers for 'em...
The girls went to police to save themselves from becoming the victim of vani.
"We're gonna be stuck with those losers?"
The girls said they went to police to seek protection, as the grooms had threatened to kidnap them.
"Yaaarrrr! We're claimin' our property!"
The grooms filed suits in the Family Court, which dismissed the suit and freed the girls under khula.
"Right. Them. With you. Bailiff! Throw the losers out!"
Elders again intervened to resolve the problem, as the grooms family demanded Rs 700,000 diyat to free the girls.
"We can't have 'em? Well, we can still manage their money. Give it to us."
The grooms family said they would avenge the death of Attaullah if they were not compensated.
"Pay up, or we bump somebody off!"
The girls parents after khula from the court arranged their marriage with other people, but at the time of nikah, the cleric refused to sermonise the nikah, saying that the girls could not have another nikah. He did not accept khula orders, saying the Family Court was not Qazi courts.
"Nope. You gotta have a turban to divorce people. Everybody knows that."
People say the incident should be a revelation for human right activist, who should act against vani to prevent such incidents from happening in the future. People demanded the National Assembly enact laws against such customs.
Right. That fundos are gonna let that happen.
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As Iraq's political leaders remain deadlocked over a new government, the violence continues with 30 decapitated bodies found near Baquba. The bodies were found on a highway near the restive Iraqi city 65km northeast of Baghdad. The police said the bodies, which have not been identified, were tossed out on the side of the road near the village of Mullah Eid, about 30km southwest of the Baquba, notorious for its sectarian killings. Since the dynamiting of a Shia shrine in Samarra on 22 February, large numbers of corpses have been found in Baghdad and surrounding provinces.
Posted by: Fred ||
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It was the second high-level US delegation in less than a week delivering the same message as the Bush administration strives to overcome the political impasse that threatens the start of a possible American troop pullout this summer.
So if the pullout is going to begin this summer, the insurgents only need to hold out a few more weeks ... then start the civil war.
If they believed Bush, they'd lie low until the US was gone. If they believe the MSM/quagmire meme, they'd be ramping up the violence.
So the real winner is the media, with still more shocking, horrifying news every day.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/27/2006 8:31
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Just noting that Verlaine in Iraq sez (in a comment in another thread today) that Coalition authorities are trying to authenticate this story and so far they've found no proof that this actually happened.
PESHAWAR: Three members of the NWFP Assembly who were expelled from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) for violating party discipline during the Senate elections have claimed that the resignations that the speaker approved were faked by the party. Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Maulana Dildar, Rukhsana Naz and Gor Saran Lal said that they were still members of the NWFP Assembly and that they will move court today (Monday) against their expulsion from the party. They said their votes were in line with the party directives and that they did not violate the party discipline, adding that there was no truth in the accusation that they had sold their votes.
They said the committee which recommended action against them and presented the fake resignations to the speaker did this only to please Akram Khan Durrani, the NWFP chief minister. They said that they had recorded their statements before the committee honestly and the committee had been satisfied with their statements but it was strange that such an extreme step was taken against them.
Talking to Daily Times, Rukhsana Raz said that her resignation was bogus since she had not resigned. I do not even know whether the resignation letter was in Urdu, Pushto, or Arabic, she said. Raz denied that she voted for the opposition member, saying that she was expelled from the party because she was vocal in criticising the party. My fault is that I have been vocal and criticised the governments flawed policies. The NWFP chief minister has taken revenge, she said. The MPA, who was elected to a seat reserved for women from Shabqadar Matta, criticised Akram Khan Durrani, the NWFP chief minister, for his policies. He (Durrani) and his party call President Musharraf a dictator but he is himself a dictator running all the affairs of the government single-handedly. He has held the entire party (JUI-F) hostage, said Raz.
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The leading opposition party in Ukraine has alleged that the general elections have been marred by irregularities and poor organisation as the first exit polls came in. The first exit poll published after voting ended on Sunday showed a lead for the Russian-backed opposition led by Viktor Yanukovich, the former prime minister.
But the Party of the Regions says a lack of polling stations and polling booths prohibited many voters from casting their ballot. Vasili Dzarty a spokesman for the Party of the Regions, said: "It is obvious that the people in power are trying to do everything to make sure that people do not vote." Our Ukraine party is the ruling party. "They are scared of losing," he said.
The opposition Timoshenko bloc has also cited irregularities. Aleksander Turchino, the spokesman for the Timoshenko Bloc, said: "In some places too there weren't enough ballot boxes either and they have already all been filled."
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Three Iraqi officials survived assassination attempts in Baghdad, Baaquba and Kirkuk on Sunday, Iraqi security sources told KUNA. Gunmen opened fire at the car of Mohammed Amin Mohammed, judge of Al-Karkh Criminal Court, in Al-Horria area in the capital Baghdad, the sources said on condition of anonymity. The judge was seriously wounded and he was rushed to Al-Kathimiya Hospital for treatment.
In northeastern Baaquba, head of Al-Wajihiya District Ismail Elwan survived an attmpt on his life when an improvised explosive device targeting his motorcade blew up wounding three of his bodyguards. In the same district, gunmen killed an Iraqi policeman and his relative.
Meanwhile in Kirkuk, northern Baghdad, an improvised explosive device planted in front of the house of Al-Muqdad police chief, Adel Zain Al-Abdeen, blew up as the chief was leaving his house and heading to work. Only material damage was sustained.
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A big factory producing explosives was raided by an Iraqi army unit on Saturday, reported the Interior Ministry. It said in a statement that the raid was based on intelligence reports from the Interior Ministry. The army also found two booby-trapped cars and missiles.
The statement said that the Interior Ministry has provided significant information to the Defence Ministry about the existence of explosives in a home in Baghdad. The raided home belongs to a high-ranking member of an Iraqi party, Abu Rami. He in turn leased the home to a terrorist cell, which was discovered. The home, which was located 100 meters from the Yarmouk Center, was seized.
The government called on all Iraqis to check the identity of those leasing homes and properties before renting the properties. The weapons and ammunitions seized included a Katyusha rocket, six 60 millimeter mortar rounds, equipment for booby trapping of cars, a large quantity of red TNT powder and two booby-trapped cars, one a Dodge and another a Opel.
Posted by: Fred ||
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"The government called on all Iraqis to check the identity of those leasing homes and properties before renting the properties."
This has quite an aroma. As if Abu (WTF?) Rami didn't know who they were. Check. What's with the pseudonym instead of his real name? Isn't it odd that they don't mention which party? I'm sure one of the Iraqi bloggers will do proper justice to the story, unlike the KUNA floggers. Must be a Sunni.
#2
I suspect that they are treating him with kid gloves because he narked the factory out in the first place. While this doesn't exonerate him, it places him out of the limelight for the time being.
VATICAN CITY: In its search for better relations with the Islamic world, the Roman Catholic Church is turning a spotlight on the role that culture can play in fostering understanding between peoples of different faiths.
Ummm... Yeah. Civilization versus Arabian death cult...
Pope Benedict, launching a streamlining of the Vatican bureaucracy earlier this month, has given his culture minister, Cardinal Paul Poupard, the additional responsibility of heading the department for dialogue with non-Christian religions. The move is more than a simple reshuffling of portfolios. A leading theologian before becoming Pope last April, Benedict has long thought contact with non-Christians should not focus only on religion, where agreement can be difficult if not impossible. Culture - not just art but the sum of a society's values, thoughts and behaviours - provides a rich field for people of different backgrounds to learn to understand each other. "Culture plays a fundamental role for relations between Christians and Muslims," said Poupard, 75, who now heads the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue in addition to the Pontifical Council for Culture, which he has led since 1988.
Culture forms the way you look at life. Those of us who've grown to adultery in Judaeo-Christian civilization have imbibed the ideas of chivalry the strong protecting the weak and romantic love with mother's milk. Islam's roots are in Arabian civilization, where princes and holy men have oppressed the common folk for the past 5000 years and where women are breeding stock. We have more in common with the Japanese, who've explored various forms of oppression since Amaterasu, but still managed to retain a fondness for a pretty face and a comely bosom. We have more in common with the Chinese, who've evolved a 5000-year-old civilization of their own with various levels of oppression of the common folk, but with a likewise an appreciation of a lady's pretty face and graceful figure. That suggests to me that the absolute root of the Clash of Civilizations isn't so much the princes and holy men, who're after all susceptible to being hung by their own turbans, but that elemental fear and loathing of women in a monosexual society. If we paid attention to them, we'd probably have more in common with the Hottentots or Jivaro headhunters, neither of whom is scared of women. I'm just not positive the Catholic church is the mechanism for bridging that particular gap, though they're welcome to try, in their own monosexual way.
"When he put me in charge of both departments, Benedict XVI clearly told me we had to develop the dialogue of men of culture with representatives of non-Christian religions," the French cardinal said in written response to questions from Reuters. He recalled that the Pope told Muslim leaders in Germany last August that Christian-Muslim dialogue was "a vital necessity on which in large measure our future depends".
I think I'd concentrate on getting them used to the sight of titties. And derrieres. And comely thighs. And pretty faces, fergawdsake.
Senior Catholic officials have spoken in recent years with growing frankness of their concern about Islam, which immigrants have made the second-largest faith in many European states and radicals invoke to justify suicide bombings and other violence. Cardinals at the Vatican for last Friday's consistory to elevate 15 more men to their exclusive group discussed the issue at a closed-door session on Thursday. Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard of France, home to Europe's largest Muslim minority, said they talked about values they shared with Muslims but also "human rights, the situation for Christians in those countries and the worrying sides of Islam". Dialogue with Muslims can be complicated because Islam has no central authority and feels it has superseded Christianity.
Posted by: Fred ||
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I think I'd concentrate on getting them used to the sight of titties. And derrieres. And comely thighs. And pretty faces, fergawdsake.
Christian Science,
so many heavenly bodies to visit study so little time...
#2
Fred, your commentary is so spot on. We have never had any common interests with these camel f**king desert nomads. And we never will. It is not generational as so many idiots keep spouting. It is a cult brainwashing that begins with the teaching of language to the new born. Once this is instilled in childhood, it is rare that any recover. The few who do, like this Rahman, Rushdie, et al. are murdered quickly so that this is not repeated. The only real way to deal with a cult like this is very determined extreme measures. Most in Western culture find this hard to accept. Unfortunately, it is true.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad here Sunday said enemies intend to get concessions from the Islamic Iran by launching psychological warfare and misinformation.
"It is high time they would be accountable for their crimes," said the president addressing people of various walks of life on his first day of visit to this southwestern province. Enemies are against our progress and development and are unhappy with our acquiring nuclear energy. Through these acts of misinformation, they want to get concessions from us," he said.
Stressing that enemies will not be able to prevent Iran's progress, he said, "Our nation will respond the enemies and the mischievous ones resolutely.
"They should apologize to Iran for their insults. They accuse the Iranian nation of war-mongering and this is the biggest insult." The Iranian nation following the path of Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) is after establishing peace and tranquility in the world, said the President.
"It is high time, the world would be void of threat and that world people live in peace and calm,'' said the president. The undesirable condition the superpowers have created in the world should end, he stressed.
He added the Islamic Iran will continue with resolution and strength the path it has chosen and will not retreat from its inalienable right. Enemies should know the Iranian nation will ask for reparation for 2.5 years of delay in carrying out its peaceful nuclear activities.
Ahmadinejad stressed the Iranian nation will not retreat in defending its rights especially in acquiring peaceful nuclear energy.
Turning to the designation of the current Iranian year after the Prophet (PBUH), he said, "Today, following his path, we want peace and tranquility in the world and will not give in to force." Stressing that the Iranian nation will stand against injustice, he said the Iranian people will fight against bullying and will defend the oppressed in the world.
"Today, a number of powerful countries have filled their arsenals with various kinds of weapons, imposing an atmosphere of intimidation on the world. However, we say it is high time the world would be cleaned up of nuclear weapons and peace would prevail over the world."
#1
Guess this means the reason why ole Zark is no longer in charge of AL QAEDA IN IRAQ is becuz he went back to his old shirt-and-tie-and-shave teaching job at Penn State - sigh, so many Penn Staters, so many AL QAEDA!?
Suspected rebels hurled grenades and fired on an army convoy on a key highway in Kashmir on Sunday, provoking a gunfight in which the attacker was killed, an army spokesman said.
"Vijay! Those guys're hurling grenades and firing on our convoy!"
"Damn, Mukkerjee! I suspect they may be rebels!"
Three soldiers were also wounded in the attack at Drangbal, 25 kilometres south of Srinagar, said army spokesman N Jamwal. The convoy was driving on a highway that connects Kashmir to the rest of India when it came under attack. The Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in a call to the local Central News Service in Srinagar.
"We dunnit and we're glad!"
Posted by: Fred ||
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Ah, Springtime, when a young man's thoughts lightly turn to love...of blood and death and exploding infidel body parts. Insh'allah!
BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair used a speech to Federal Parliament today to urge global unity in the fight against terrorism and warn against the "madness" of growing anti-Americanism worldwide.
Mr Blair said war against terror was as much a battle about values as it was about arms, and that those values were the universal property of humanity.
"(It is also) a struggle about values and about modernity, whether to be at ease with it or enraged at it," said Mr Blair, the fifth world leader to address Federal Parliament.
And to win this struggle we have to win the battle of values as much as arms.
MPs and senators crowded into the House of Representatives to hear Mr Blair say that the struggle facing the world today was not just about security.
He delivered a candid assessment of his country's alliance with the US, but warned against leaving America out of the fight against terrorism.
"I do not always agree with the United States. Sometimes they can be difficult friends to have," Mr Blair said.
"But the strain of frankly anti-American feeling in parts of European and world politics is madness when set against the long-term interests of the world we believe in.
"The danger with America is not that they are too much involved. The danger is that they decide to pull up the drawbridge and disengage," Mr Blair said.
"The reality is that none of the problems that press in on us can be resolved or even contemplated without them."
Britain, along with the US and Australia, has been one of the prime forces in the war against terrorism.
Mr Blair said the key to winning the battle against extremist elements was to show it was not a fight of the West against Islam, but about the ownership of common values.
We have to show that these are not Western ... American or Anglo-Saxon values, but values in the common ownership of humanity, universal values that should be the right of the global citizen, he said.
This is the challenge I believe we face and ranged against us are of course the people who hate us, but beyond them are many more who don't hate us but question our motives, our good faith, our even-handedness, who could support our values but believe we support them selectively.
These were people that countries such as Britain had to persuade, Mr Blair said.
They have to know this struggle is about justice and tolerance as well as security and prosperity, he said.
And in truth today there is no prosperity without security and no security without justice.
Mr Blair said nations such as Britain and Australia had to construct a global alliance to secure their way of life in the face of a continuing terrorist threat.
The roots of terrorism ran deep, he said, and exploited a sense of alienation in the Arab and Muslim world which had to be overcome.
"We will not defeat this terrorism until we face up to the fact that its roots are deep, that it is not a passing spasm of anger, but a global ideology at war with us and our way of life," Mr Blair said.
"Their case is that democracy is a western concept we are forcing on an unwilling culture of Islam.
"The problem we have is that a part of opinion in our own countries agrees with them.
"We are in danger of completely misunderstanding the importance of what is happening as we speak in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Each of those nations was engaged in a "titanic struggle" to be free of oppression and servitude, and Iraqis and Afghans had seized democracy.
Mr Blair acknowledged that the Iraq war had "split this nation as it did mine", but said it was not the time to walk away from the fight against terrorism.
"This is a time for the courage to see it through," he said.
#4
Hmmm. The reference to "Anti-amerianism is madness" was deleted from the linked article. I think it was too much for somebody, but tipper got to the full quote before it was edited.
#6
--"The danger with America is not that they are too much involved. The danger is that they decide to pull up the drawbridge and disengage," Mr Blair said.--
Jim Hoagland of the WaPo? wrote the same after 9/11 - they'll help US not because they like US, but because it's over if we isolate ourselves.
A permanent solution to the longstanding Kashmir conflict can only be achieved if the people of the disputed valley are equally engaged in the peace process as the leadership of Pakistan and India, senior Kashmiri leaders said on Sunday.
Yasin Malik, chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), gave his idea of how to determine the true leadership of Kashmir. I suggest holding a referendum of both parts of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan and India and the party or group which gets a mandate from the people should be given representation in the tripartite dialogue to resolve this dispute once and for all, Malik said at a high-profile conference held on the third day of the World Social Forum in Karachi. A full scale and fair referendum would finally bring the true leadership of the Kashmiris who will be accepted by the rest to represent our people in the dialogue, he said. If the Indians are engaged in talks with a single party of Nagaland then why it this not the case for Kashmir? He declared that 85 percent of the people of the valley wanted total freedom while only 15 percent of them wanted to be part of Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Referendum in the Pakistani side of Kashmir?
Yasin better prepare his burial shroud, ISI will deal with him promptly...
Posted by: john ||
03/27/2006 15:39
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The United Nations has said it did not expect Lebanon to disarm Hizbollah fighters by force but hoped they would join the Lebanese army.
Oh, yeah. That's zachary what Leb needs...
Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN's Middle East envoy, speaking at a news conference on Sunday, said: "We don't believe that it is indeed possible to go down south or into the Bekaa Valley and take away the weapons of Hizbollah.
Roed-Larsen will present a report in April on progress in the implementation of the Security Council Resolution 1559, which demands that foreign troops should leave Lebanon and militias there disarm. His comments came at the end of a 20-day tour that took the Norwegian diplomat around Arab capitals as well as to Paris, Washington, London, Moscow and Beijing to discuss Hizbollah's weapons and the armed Palestinian factions based in Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
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PC-speak for the UNO wants Iran to get its nukes and Empire Incarnate.
#4
He can write anything he pleases in his report. It's just a pile of paper and he's just an employee. The media, in this case al Jazeerah (LOL), can characterize it any way they like. It has even less import than the pile of paper.
After Iran, Hizbollah will be looking for a new sugar-daddy.
DERA BUGTI: Suspected tribesmen set off two bombs near the home of the chief minister of Balochistan on Sunday, but there were no casualties. The bombs shattered windows and damaged a perimeter wall at Chief Minister Jam Muhammad Yousafs home in Lasbela, about 450 kilometres southeast of Quetta, local police official Mohammed Afzal said. Yousaf was not at home when the explosion occurred, Afzal said. Suspected tribal militants also attacked a mountaintop military post, triggering a gun battle that left two attackers and a soldier dead, officials said. Another attacker was killed when his motorcycle hit a landmine as he tried to escape after the shootout near Sui, Dera Bugti District Coordination Officer Abdul Samad Lasi said. Two soldiers were reported injured in the gunfight.
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An Iraqi chief of police survived assassination on Sunday in the city of Kirkuk, northern Iraq. Police sources told reporters that an explosive device targeted the convoy of Chief of Meqdad Police Center, Brigadier Adel Zein Al-Abedin while on his way to work, noting that the blast caused property damages. Meanwhile, Iraqi Army Commander Air Vice Marshal Anwar Amin said the Multi-National Force on Sunday executed a burst and search operation in Safra village, and detained five terrorists involved in armed attacks against the Iraqi security forces.
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The Multi-National Force and the Iraqi Army on Sunday detained 52 gunmen and seized weapon caches in Operation Scorpion nearby Hawijah, northern Iraq. An MNF press release said the cordon and search operation covered eight villages around the town of Hawijah, noting that 24 out of the 52 detainees were part of a list of wanted persons created based upon intelligence, while the remaining detainees were taken for investigative purposes. The force said in a press release that the performance of the Iraqi forces participating in the operation had dramatically improved as the forces were capable of executing complicated operations in Hawijah without losses.
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 new Hamas cabinet is prepared to hold talks with representatives of the Quartet, which comprises the US, Russia, the EU and the UN, to discuss ways of ending the conflict with Israel, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh declared on Tuesday in a speech before the Palestinian Legislative Council. 
The threat of bioterrorism is real and there is enough evidence to show that terrorists are interested in acquiring weapons of mass destruction (WMD), including bioweapons, Interpol Secretary General Ronald K Noble said.
In 1978 or so, Mstislav Rostropovich, the famed cellist who ultimately made the National Symphony Orchestra into a national treasure, arrived on our shores from Russia from which he had been exiled by Leonid Brezhnev. While a student at Georgetown University, I was honored to be present for his honorary degree ceremony there.
Egypt on Sunday for the first time blamed an Islamist movement that has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda for a string of deadly bomb attacks in Sinai resorts. State security court prosecutor Hisham Badawi said a group calling itself 
Politicians from Iraq's Shi'ite majority accused U.S. troops of massacring 20 worshippers at a Baghdad mosque on Sunday but police and residents said many died in clashes between Shi'ite militia fighters and Americans.
Suspected nationalist militants Sunday clashed with security forces in Southwestern 
The 
Afghanistan's prosecution of a man who converted from Islam to Christianity shows how a fledgling democracy struggles to recognize individual rights, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.
Iraqi Ministry of State for National Security on Sunday warned of touching explosive-packed candy bars found on Baghdad streets. The ministry said that unknown gunmen threw candy bars that contain explosive materials nearby schools and residential areas in Yarmouk Neighborhood. It cautioned citizens against touching these candy bars, asserting that the first layer of which contained cocoa, while the second layer contained explosives.
The courts in Khanpur are to soon decide the case of Aisha Parveen, 20, and the decision could mean life or death for her, reports the New York Times. Ms Parveen ... is steeling herself for a state-administered horror. Just two months after she escaped from the brothel in which she was tortured and imprisoned for six years, the courts are poised to hand her back to the brothel owner, writes Nicholas D Kristof.
Israeli occupying forces stormed into areas in Jenin early Sunday, opening fire towards homes which led to the injury of one Palestinian. Palestinian sources said that Israeli forces stormed into the area, and stationed over the roofs of several homes, transforming them into military stations. On the other hand, five Palestinians were injured when Israeli settlers opened fire towards them in Hebron city. Settlers attacked the city earlier today.
PESHAWAR: 
MIANWALI: A marriage party returned without brides, as the cleric refused to sermonise nikah of two former vani women despite their khula from the Family Court.
As Iraq's political leaders remain deadlocked over a new government, the violence continues with 30 decapitated bodies found near Baquba. The bodies were found on a highway near the restive Iraqi city 65km northeast of Baghdad. The police said the bodies, which have not been identified, were tossed out on the side of the road near the village of Mullah Eid, about 30km southwest of the Baquba, notorious for its sectarian killings. Since the dynamiting of a Shia shrine in Samarra on 22 February, large numbers of corpses have been found in Baghdad and surrounding provinces.
PESHAWAR: Three members of the NWFP Assembly who were expelled from the 
The leading opposition party in Ukraine has alleged that the general elections have been marred by irregularities and poor organisation as the first exit polls came in. The first exit poll published after voting ended on Sunday showed a lead for the Russian-backed opposition led by Viktor Yanukovich, the former prime minister.
Three Iraqi officials survived assassination attempts in Baghdad, Baaquba and Kirkuk on Sunday, Iraqi security sources told KUNA. Gunmen opened fire at the car of Mohammed Amin Mohammed, judge of Al-Karkh Criminal Court, in Al-Horria area in the capital Baghdad, the sources said on condition of anonymity. The judge was seriously wounded and he was rushed to Al-Kathimiya Hospital for treatment.
A big factory producing explosives was raided by an Iraqi army unit on Saturday, reported the Interior Ministry. It said in a statement that the raid was based on intelligence reports from the Interior Ministry. The army also found two booby-trapped cars and missiles.
VATICAN CITY: In its search for better relations with the Islamic world, the Roman Catholic Church is turning a spotlight on the role that culture can play in fostering understanding between peoples of different faiths.
here Sunday said enemies intend to get concessions from the Islamic Iran by launching psychological warfare and misinformation.
Suspected rebels hurled grenades and fired on an army convoy on a key highway in Kashmir on Sunday, provoking a gunfight in which the attacker was killed, an army spokesman said.
A permanent solution to the longstanding Kashmir conflict can only be achieved if the people of the disputed valley are equally engaged in the peace process as the leadership of Pakistan and India, senior Kashmiri leaders said on Sunday. 
The United Nations has said it did not expect Lebanon to disarm Hizbollah fighters by force but hoped they would join the Lebanese army. 
DERA BUGTI: Suspected tribesmen set off two bombs near the home of the chief minister of Balochistan on Sunday, but there were no casualties. The bombs shattered windows and damaged a perimeter wall at Chief Minister 
An Iraqi chief of police survived assassination on Sunday in the city of Kirkuk, northern Iraq. Police sources told reporters that an explosive device targeted the convoy of Chief of Meqdad Police Center, Brigadier 
The Multi-National Force and the Iraqi Army on Sunday detained 52 gunmen and seized weapon caches in Operation Scorpion nearby Hawijah, northern Iraq. An MNF press release said the cordon and search operation covered eight villages around the town of Hawijah, noting that 24 out of the 52 detainees were part of a list of wanted persons created based upon intelligence, while the remaining detainees were taken for investigative purposes. The force said in a press release that the performance of the Iraqi forces participating in the operation had dramatically improved as the forces were capable of executing complicated operations in Hawijah without losses.
