U.S. Navy officials have told the Taiwanese government that European firms have been found who will collaborate with the U.S. to build eight diesel-electric submarines for Taiwan.
No European country was willing to build subs directly with Taiwan, for fear of offending China. But China is vulnerable right now, with the Olympics coming up next year in Beijing, and much international tumult because of bad manufacturing practices for Chinese exports.
The U.S. stopped building diesel-electric subs half a century ago, but American and Europeans sub builders know each other, and a sale is a sale, no matter how many middlemen it has to go through. I think it would be just peachy if the US was to buy or build two or three dozen advanced diesel boats, not to float, but to keep inland as a quickly deployable fleet. They would need to be somewhat modular, maybe not even completely assembled, so each year they could be upgraded and refitted with more advanced systems. The idea being that if needed, in a few months time, they could be finished and "sent down the river."
Try fuel cell. Try electric drive. Apply our nuc technology and quieting.
Tie all that together wiht solid crews and training, and that give you have something that gives the "water wing" types nightmares.
Basically, we can put together a conventional boat that would run the Collins types out of business, and if you don't know about those, read up about the Aussies using one to get close enough to put one up the poop chute of one of our carriers.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is launching a campaign to find the bumper sticker slogan that will carry us through the 2008 elections. It'll be on their website, on campaign literature and on the bumpers of jalopies coast to coast.
We need a turn of phrase that really jumps out and tells you right off the bat what this election is all about. In 1992, it was "It's the Economy, Stupid." In 2006, Democrats simply said "Had Enough?" It was the only question America needed to ask.
It has it has nice traditional 1960s flavor; Viet Nam, racism, quagmires and all that, but the Dem spin meisters may consider it too transparent and lacking nuance.
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian Defense Minister Norbert Darabos has called U.S. plans for a missile defense shield in eastern Europe a "provocation" reviving Cold War debates. "That the United States are installing a defense shield in eastern Europe is a provocation in my view," Darabos was quoted as saying in an interview with daily Die Presse on Thursday. "The U.S. has chosen the wrong path in my opinion. There is no point in building up a missile defense shield in Europe. That only unnecessarily rekindles old Cold War debates."
Thank you, Minister Pissant. Always helpful to hear what the Austro-Hungarian Empire has to say.
The remarks drew a swift reaction from Washington. "We view the Cold War as being over. Such comments are not helpful and we now face a new strategic environment that requires us to move beyond Cold War thinking," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said. "We've been open and transparent with all E.U. and NATO allies on this, and we'll continue to do so. We're discussing missile defense with the Russians," Gallegos said at a news briefing.
Darabos said he saw no danger from Iranian long range missiles and the United States should try for a different solution.
"We could always buy them off. It's worked for us Austrians in the past," he added.
A memo to our Y'urp-peon allies: we're doing this pretty much out of the goodness of our hearts. We're designing the system, and we'll pro'ly end up paying for about 90% of the development and installation. We think it's useful to let the Iranians know that they won't be able to rattle a nuclear sabre at your continent for a long, long time. We think there are certain advantages to that for you and us together, like, for example, survival. But if you disagree and don't want a missile defense system on your continent, we'll be happy to back down.
Understand however, that we won't leave our military in a Europe that is defenseless against a strike from a single (or a few) crude Iranian missiles. We can't justify that to our people, especially to our military people who run the risks so that we can be free. So if you won't want the missile defense system, we'll be happy to cancel the installation, and we'll be happy to pull out of NATO the very next day. We'll strike some side deals to keep access or facilities here and there where it meets our interests, but we'll no longer consider an attack on Berlin, Brussels -- or Vienna -- to be the same as an attack on New York. You'll then be free to handle European defense in whatever way you think best.
And if you manage to start yet another world war, we'll observe quietly from across the pond.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/23/2007
15:36 ||
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#1
U.S. missile shield is provocation: Austrian minister
Why, yes it is. How kind of him to notice. We are purposefully provoking other nations to defends themselves as well or better against missile attacks.
#2
We should leave EUrope unprotected now. It will become more and more problematic to do so as Europe becomes more and more Islamic. At 30% of the population, they'll have effective control of vote hungry governments that are unwilling to deal with the domestic unrest that comes with failure to submit. Do we really need to wait till Brussels or Amsterdam adopts sharia "democratically"?
#6
Europe needs to defend itself. They hate us when we stay. They hate us when we leave. They can take care of their own defense now, in their own green and Kyoto-like way. We need to stop our enabling behavior with these governments. Cause--->Effect. They are capable of learning, unlike many of their ME neighbors.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/23/2007 17:58
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#7
"U.S. missile shield is provocation: Austrian minister"
Fine. Then much as I'd hate to see the beautiful old buildings of Austria destroyed, we'll be glad to not shield YOU.
And by the way - notice how you don't have to speak Russian? You're welcome.
Idiot.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/23/2007 18:06
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#8
Read - USSR imploded once, Post-USSR Fascist-for-Communism RUSSIA can do it again. Strong military power must be backed up by strong economic power.
#9
I think it's time for someone to get on the European/Russian mediad with a series of charts showing that the Earth is a sphere and missiles coming from Iran would go right over Eastern Europe while missiles coming from Russia would go over the pole and avoid Europe altogether (unless aimed at Europe in which case the planned bases would not help).
So in general the hub-bub is because Russia wants to sell missiles to Iran and/or simply villify the west to help consolidate dictatorial powers and they are using morons such as Defence Minister Darabos along the way.
#10
The problem with letting Europe implode unimpeded is that they have nuclear weapons, courtesy of the NATO Multilateral Force decision taken years ago. This was prescient:
Sleep, baby, sleep, in peace may you slumber,
No danger lurks, your sleep to encumber.
We've got the missiles, peace to determine,
And one of the fingers on the button will be German.
Why shouldn't they have nuclear warheads?
England says no, but they all are soreheads.
I say a bygone should be a bygone,
Let's make peace the way we did in Stanleyville and Saigon.
Once all the Germans were warlike and mean,
But that couldn't happen again.
We taught them a lesson in 1918
And they've hardly bothered us since then.
So, sleep well, my darling, the sandman can linger.
We know our buddies won't give us the finger.
Heil - hail - the Wehrmacht, I mean the Bundeswehr,
Hail to our loyal ally!
M L F
Will scare Brezhnev.*
I hope he is half as scared as I!
Comments from 1964 on France and the MLF decision here.
#12
The only Europe I still recognize are East European countries, Poland, Czech... but the western part may well be inhabited by aliens from Omega Centauri. Not Alpha Centauri, mind you, they seem to be all omegas, in a gallop who gets the "peace of our times" bumazhka first.
#13
Putin has Europe by the energy balls (gas pipelines, mainly). So they have to say these things otherwise Putin will get upset. Ask Lithuania or Ukraine what happens when Putin gets upset.
BTW, I didn't know that Lithuania has a flat (income) tax system. Good for them!
Karl Marx took a dim view of India and its heritage.
Writing in the New York Tribune dated June 25, 1853 (quoted in Lewis S Feuer edited Marx and Engels Basic Writings, Anchor Books, NY 1959, pp. 474-481) he claimed that the Golden Age of India was all myth and India was always a poor starving country. He further went on to admire and appreciate the British for destroying the Indian village industry and economy so that India could modernise.
But to the Indian communists, the words of Marx are like commandments from God. Their devotion to the dead communism can be seen on the walls of Calcutta, possibly the only city in the world where you can find pictures of Marx, Lenin and Stalin displayed with pride.
Following the footsteps of Marx, the Indian communists have deep hatred of anything Indian and are opponents of any kind of pride in Indian heritage. The communists also hold that India is not one nation but a collection of nationalities.
Another major tenet of Indian Marxists orthodoxy is that for national reconstruction you have to first destroy the existing nation.
The communists have had many ideological splits. Communists in India are splintered into several groupings like the CPI, CPM, CPI (M-L), Maoists and the Peoples War Group. But despite several historical blunders that they keep committing with regularity, they have all remained steadfast to the twin agenda of weakening and destroying the existing Indian nation and obliterate the bourgeois notion of pride in Indias past.
Thus in 1942 the communists not just supported the British but also acted as their stool pigeons. Many underground revolutionaries were betrayed to the British secret police, who went on to hang them. George Orwell has written extensively on this subject and evidence of this is littered in declassified files of British India, now available at India Office Library and Records in London.
Subhas Chandra Bose, who fought for Indian freedom and was no Japanese stooge, was denounced as fascist and vilified by the Marxists. In todays communist-ruled Bengal, the towering contributions of Swami Vivekananda are a distant memory and sought to be pushed out of public memory. Neither is Aurobindo Ghosh remembered. All the three are inconvenient to Marxist ideology.
The communists began their offensive against India right from the time of Independence. The Telangana armed uprising was a direct challenge to the newly independent nation. Unfortunately for the Marxists, under the efficient and ruthless Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Indian police and armed forces crushed the rebellion with ease. The Naxalite uprising in 1970 met a similar fate. .
Most of the time, the communists mask their real agenda under a constant propaganda about their concern for poor. It is another matter that in their disclosure to the election commission most champions of poor Communists happen to be millionaires several times over. (The Statesman, April 22, 2004. Somnath Chatterjis declared assets exceed Rs 5 crore).
The Marxists participate in and use the democratic process but constantly deride Indian democracy vis a vis Chinese one party rule. Marxists wear a mask of nationalism but the mask sometimes slips, as in 1962 during the Chinese attack on India when the Marxists came out openly on the side of the Chinese.
On November 13, 1962 while replying to the discussions in the Rajya Sabha, Lal Bahadur Shastri pointed out that Jyoti Basu equated India with China during the war and called the Chinese aggression as provoked by Indian statements and across an imaginary line called MacMohan line. But the Marxists were not merely satisfied with words. Kalimpong town had become a den of Chinese spies. Every move of the Indian army was monitored and reported to the enemy. Like in 1942, the communists played a major role in helping the Chinese.
The long-time ideological opponents of Indian nationalism painted a frightening scenario when India tested nuclear weapons in 1998. They had greeted with a deafening silence each of the 45 declared nuclear tests carried out by China since 1964. How come that throughout this feverish pursuit by China of the means of nuclear deterrence, the Indian communists never showed the slightest anxiety about a possible outbreak of a nuclear war in Asia? The answer lies in their conviction that China's policy stemmed from genuine nationalism as distinguished from India's alleged pseudo-nationalism.
The Chinese ideologues, until now, did not manipulate their admirers in India. This was dictated by Chinese pessimism about the future of the communist movement in India. More relevantly, the Chinese communists did not fail to notice that the CPM and the CPI did not have 10 per cent of the seats in the Parliament in the 13 General Elections held so far. But after the last elections which left a trifurcated verdict, the Marxists have gained a whip hand at the centre.
While it is difficult to reverse the nuclearisation that has taken place in India, the Marxists have found a way out.
The Common Minimum Programme talks about changing the Indo-Israel relations. The allusion is directly to the defence relationship. It is through this that India had been promised the Falcon airborne system that would give India a decided advantage over China and Pakistan in air battles. China too wanted this system but the contract was cancelled under American pressure. Now by downgrading relations with US, the Marxists wish to cripple Indian defence and help China.
In all their plans of spreading communism in India, the Marxists believe that the strong Indian armed forces are the biggest obstacle. Their hatred of the armed forces is seen through many petty acts that the West Bengal government regularly inflicts on the armed forces personnel. Presently the Indian army seems to be getting an upper hand over the Pakistani sponsored terrorists thanks to the infantry equipment and training co-ordination with Israelis. The Marxists hope that severing this link will automatically weaken the armed forces, their biggest adversary.
The Cold War has been over for over a decade now. During that period, Indian and Soviet interests coincided and the two had a quasi-alliance for over 25 years. The Indo-Soviet Friendship treaty of 1971 stood the test of time.
In the new millennium India faces an unstable Pakistan to the west and a rising China that lays claims to the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh to the north and east. And while Chinese naval expansion proceeds at a hectic pace, Beijing does not miss any opportunity to check/thwart India at all international forums.
The US is concerned over the rise of China and its internal stability. It is interested in ensuring the rise of India to balance China in Asia. The US is also affected by Islamist terrorism and is fearful of Talibanisation of Pakistan.
These basic and fundamental national interests of US and India converge and are likely to remain for most of 21st century. The US-India strategic partnership was hamstrung by the domestic American legislation that denied technology to India due to her non-adherence to NPT. The present nuclear deal is an effort to overcome that hurdle and forge a strategic partnership between the two. Technical experts, scientists and bureaucrats have worked for over two years to hammer out a successful treaty.
The Indo-US nuclear deal is opposed by Pakistan, China and al Qaeda. It is indeed surprising that some Indian political parties with frozen mindsets, opportunism or ideological anti-national orientation are also opposing this deal. A canard is being spread that an economically powerful and nuclear weapons armed India is thus likely to be subservient to the US. India has withstood its ground in worse times. It appears that these political forces are more concerned about the interest of China rather than their own country.
It is time the Indian citizens raised their voice and nullified the evil designs of parties who had sided with the enemy when our jawans were dying on the Himalayan border in 1962.
Col. (retd) Anil A Athale is a Fellow at the Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research. A former Joint Director (History Division) and infantryman, he has been running an NGO, Peace and Disarmament, based in Pune for the past 10 years. As a military historian he specialises in insurgency and peace process.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/23/2007
14:55 ||
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...Obviously this is far too late, and at the end the NJAG still can't resist hinting that her cops might be used as BushHitlerChimpyMcHaliburton stooges - but we all pretty much knew that crimes of these magnitudes would be necessary before the idiots would ever start pulling the illegal amnesty laws - Mike
TRENTON, N.J. - After a review driven by three brutal slayings, the state attorney general on Wednesday ordered New Jersey law enforcers to notify federal immigration officials whenever someone arrested for an indictable offense or drunken driving is found to be an illegal immigrant.
Attorney General Anne Milgram reviewed the state's policy in light of the execution-style killings Aug. 4 of three Newark college students and the wounding of a fourth victim. One of the six suspects was an illegal immigrant who had been granted bail on child rape and aggravated assault charges without immigration officials being alerted to his existence.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/23/2007
14:50 ||
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#1
The directive, however, prohibits officers from checking the immigration status of crime victims, witnesses or people seeking police assistance.
How stupid is this. Let them do their job for cripes sake.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/23/2007 16:03
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#2
So how are the police supposed to check the immigration status of someone is arrested? Ask them? I don't carry my passport or birth certificate with me at all times to prove that I am a citizen.
#3
It was my understanding that a person is always supposed to have ID on them. Usually most carry a drivers license, and proof of insurance if driving. Most carry a wallet with their insurance card or other cash cards of some type of information.
Aren't Green cards supposed to be carried by immigrants?
If not driving, I often have my work pass ID slung around my neck to and from work. The only place that I don't have my ID with me is while I'm swimming, but then I have my keys on me and everything is in my shoe, car or locker.
I don't expect they would identify everyone, but it would be a start, and they would probably ID a good number I would bet.
Aren't there alot of abilities available with the computer trackers in the police cars? Man they have the ability to pull up a person's history for driving infractions way back, you'd think they would be able to get some info on folks. This I've learned from a friend of course ;)
I don't mean to put all of the responsibility on the policemen, but it's as though their hands are tied with the sanctuary policys of looking the other way. We're not talking about the homeless, most folks have a wallet on them with some form of ID.
I know a driver's license isn't the best ID, but it's a start. I don't agree that driver's licenses should be given to immigrants. When I went to Europe, I got an International drivers license and insurance too in order to drive in other countries.
Bottom line, if not on the street, citizenship most definitely should be checked in the court room.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/23/2007 16:48
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#4
#3: "It was my understanding that a person is always supposed to have ID on them."
Not for a American citizen, Jan - at least not yet. That was decided by a court case in California, of all places.
Foreigners are supposed to carry identification - some kind of proof they're here legally. This is a federal law, which our feckless federal gummint refuses to enforce.
As far as I am concerned, we need to ship as many illegals as possible out of the states and into D.C. Maybe if the congressassholes get inconvenienced enough, they'll insist the laws already on the books be enforced. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/23/2007 18:15
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I enjoy my freedoms, but I would be willing to carry ID in a public place, to show authorities. As I have nothing to hide and if it would catch a bad guy I'm all for it.
On my own property however, this is a different animal.
If the illegals didn't have ID would they say that they were citizens not needing ID's? Or would the Policemen be charged with profiling, Oh Brother.
It's kind of like our guys being charged with murder for war crimes against the Iraqi civilian, "Oh I'm not a terrorist".
We need to put all of the illegals caught in this jail: Joe Arpaio's jail
Posted by: Jan ||
08/23/2007 19:18
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#6
3 Felony murder counts, he's illegal, and only $1 million in bail is required? How about NO bail for illegals, who are committing a crime by their very presence
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/23/2007 21:18
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After a review driven by three brutal slayings, the state attorney general on Wednesday ordered New Jersey law enforcers to notify federal immigration officials whenever someone arrested for an indictable offense or drunken driving is found to be an illegal immigrant.
Jeebus, these guyz are gonna be busy with the phone calls. My County has a web-based system where you can be notified of anyone who's arrested from your zip code (they live in your zip code, not where the crime is committed). I get an e-mail probably 3x/week with 8-10 folks arrested, and I'd guess 75-80% of them are illegals, based upon appearances and their citations. LOTS of public drunkeness, driving w/o a license, driving w/o insurance, expired tag, hit and run, etc.
I'm in metro Atlanta (NE toward the "Poultry capital of the world"). Of course, it's a good money-making scheme for the County (tons of money from all the driving citations) and they're fairly easy to spot (just pull over any 1980s domestic van w/ 15 ladders on top and you've got 'em).
And, Rambler, our local police (Gwinnett County and Cobb County) just had a few of their officers "deputized" by ICE. They had to go through a few-day training w/ ICE, and then the County Police are allowed access to ICE's database in order to check their immigration status. I'd imagine ICE's database is not 100% accurate either, but it's a start. At the very least, it gives the locals "probable cause" to investigate their status further and call ICE in on the job. Of course, I'd rather have them sitting in the local jail based upon the original CRIME, instead of released into ICE's "Catch and Release" program. But, as more and more of these type VIOLENT crimes pop up, the politicos are really gonna have a hard time ignoring the "will of the people" on this issue.
Posted by: BA ||
08/23/2007 22:18
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Illegal aliens murder 12 Americans daily Twelve Americans are murdered every day by illegal aliens, according to statistics released by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. If those numbers are correct, it translates to 4,380 Americans murdered annually by illegal aliens. ...
While King reports 12 Americans are murdered daily by illegal aliens, he says 13 are killed by drunk illegal alien drivers for another annual death toll of 4,745.
That's over 9000 people each year.
Posted by: ed ||
08/23/2007 22:40
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A submarine-like vessel filled with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine was seized off the Guatemalan coast, U.S. officials said.
Four suspected smugglers were operating the self-propelled, semi-submersible vessel when it was located and seized on Sunday evening by officials from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard, the Border Patrol said in a news release Wednesday. When the suspects realized they had been spotted by drug-surveillance aircraft patrolling the eastern Pacific, they scuttled the vessel but were unable to escape.
Coast Guard officials, guided by the reconnaissance plane, intercepted the vessel and detained the reputed smugglers, who were transporting approximately 5.5 tons of cocaine worth $352 million, the Border Patrol said. That's a lot of coke
Several drug-carrying submarines operated by Colombian drug cartels have been discovered in recent years. For the kind of $ they apparently have, I'm surprised they haven't bought a used real sub somewhere.
Just ask the Norks, they'd do it for the right price.
#1
they shouda painted it to look like a whale.. The Greens woulda given it a guarded escort.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/23/2007 13:52
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#2
Can you imagine the number of these home made things that must have sunk in the last few years?
The Coast Guard catches what - 10 percent ?
I'm sure at least 80% of the "subs" go to the bottom
Posted by: john frum ||
08/23/2007 14:27
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#3
John, any vessel can be a submarine - once. The challenge is to resurface.
#5
From the archives of history, the Great Lakes shipping industry many years ago had a vessel called the 'Whale Back;' rode low in the water, and had ( supposedly) watertight hatches. the premise was that rather than fight the waves, they would just let the water roll over the ship. problem was the water tight hatches. often times they weren't. if the drug runners re-invented that concept they might be able to ship ( sink) more drugs at once, especially if they used the not-so-watertight-hatch-system.
#6
5 tons! It takes 2000 pounds of raw coca to make 1 pound of cocaine. And 1 coca plant will typically hold about 4 ounces of leaves. There is no way that all that product could be manufactured and shipped without bribery of government officials. I spent time in Columbia and the coca fields of Bolivia, thus, I ain't shocked.
Posted by: Large Ebbeager6136 ||
08/23/2007 16:44
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#2
May his memory be a comfort and an inspiration to all who knew him, Iraqi and American alike. And may the afterlife he went to so willingly be more than his fondest dreams.
#6
I actually saw most of this this past weekend, and it was VERY well done. Very SIMPLE scientific explanations to most of their arguments.
My favorite ones were about flight 93. The "mysterious" white plane that "trailed" the flight (History Channel found those aboard the corporate jet who were asked to look around for flight 93 in that area and interviewed them). Oh, and about the Pentagon and the only video released of the attack was from that automatic parking lot ticket puncher (near the Pentagon), which showed no video of the plane actually hitting the Pent, just a "before" and "after" pictures....well, it turned out the camera speed isn't up to snuff (7 frames/second or so), so physics tells ya when you have a jet colliding with a stone building at 500+ mph, you may miss the exact frame where the collision happens.
It's a very good show, and has a lot of the guys over at Popular Mechanics (who did their thorough cleansing of the conspiracy theorists back in 2005, I think) interviewed showing simple scientific reasons these theories are wrong (he really goes off on the Pentagon theory because there's not an exact 747 shaped hole in STONE (wings sheared off, plane actually hit ground just before building, etc.). Pretty good smackdown.
Posted by: BA ||
08/23/2007 15:58
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#7
Thruthers reject engineering and scientific analysis/proof. They are hopelessly conspiratorial. They are the same as the global warming religionists and the UFO types. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they aren't the grandson's of those aliens that landed in New Mexico back after WW2 (you know the ones I'm talking about).
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 17:12
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#8
The bizarre thing is that the fact that this program was produced will be "evidence" that there's a vast coverup for the truthers, with stuff like:
the Gov't/Jews/Masons/Scientologists/UN/Trilateral Commision/etc. must really want to cover this up to go to such lengths. That PROVES it.
If they're so sure they're right, why won't they let us do a rebuttal? What are they afraid of?
And so, they're convinced they're right more than ever. It's like one of those finger trap toys. The more you pull the tighter it gets around your fingers.
#9
At this point in time, Radical Islam is losing the WOT, so PCorrectness = Totalitarian Centrism is the Order of the Day for anti-Bush/USA Pols, Activists, and Hollyweird. POST-AMER HIROSHIMA/NEW 9-11's > change in another PC heartbeat.
CONSPIRACY BUFFS > Example - need to refocus on why post 9-11 footage-photos of aircraft tails/parts at the Pentagon are no longer shown either on the Net or on USG reports, for years now. 'TIS A VALID QUESTION + GAP WHICH THE HISTORY CHANNEL HAD FAILED TO ANSWER OR CLOSE [for yarns].
#1
In war our main objective is the opponents heart or soul, our main weapon of offence against this objective is the strength of our own souls, and to launch such an attack, we have to keep terror away from our own hearts Terror struck into the hearts of the enemies is not only a means, it is the end itself. Once a condition of terror into the opponents heart is obtained, hardly anything is left to be achieved. It is the point where the means and the end meet and merge. Terror is not a means of imposing decision on the enemy; it is the decision we wish to impose on him. (p. 59)
Posted by: john frum ||
08/23/2007 13:47
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#2
I write these few lines to commend Brigadier Malik's book on 'The Quranic Concept of War' to both soldier and civilian alike.
JEHAD FI-SABILILLAH is not the exclusive domain
of the professional soldier, nor is it restricted to the application of military force alone.
This book brings out with simplicity, clarity and precision, the Quranic philosophy on the application of military force, within the context of the totality that is JEHAD. The professional
soldier in a Muslim army, pursuing the goals of a Muslim state, CANNOT become 'professional' if in all his activities he does not take on 'the colour of Allah.' The non-military citizen of a Muslim state. must, likewise, be aware of the kind of soldier that his county must produce and the ONLY pattern of war that his country's armed forces may wage.
I have read this book with great interest and believe that it has a useful contribution to make towards this understanding that we jointly seek as citizens of an Islamic State, soldier or civilian. I pray and trust that this book will be read by many. For a task so sincerely undertaken and so devotedly executed, the author's reward is with his Lord.
GENERAL M. ZIA-UL-HAQ Chief of the Army Staff
Pakistan
Posted by: john frum ||
08/23/2007 13:57
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#1 The official motto of the Pakistan Army is Iman-Taqwa-Jihad fi sabilillah
Faith, Fear of Allah, Jihad in the way of Allah
Kinda makes sense that they won't hunt jihadis too hard.
Posted by john 2006-05-06 14:39|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top
1. Confess najis: Realize that your impure state obstructed your advance towards true Islamic purity.
2. Admit fitnah: Understand that your conduct was a form of disorder that did not help advance Islam or Islamic goals.
3. Perform taubah: Repent your wrongdoing and realign yourself to the superior ways of Islam.
4. Seek astaghfirullah: Ask forgiveness of Allah for your egregious tresspasses against the ummah.
5. Make dua: Perform a supplication to Allah that he might better guide you in your profound ignorance.
6. Deliver shahadah: Issue a profession of faith by declaring yourself cleansed of impure pursuits.
7. Commit to hanifiyyah: Devote oneself to Allah and his commandments to uphold the greater glory of Islam.
8. Renew ibahdaah: Rejuvenate the sense of worship for Allah's everlasting gift to all pious and worthy Muslims.
9. Declare taqwa: Rededicate oneself to piety and Islamic purity.
10. Remove shakk: Eliminate all doubt as to your goal of spiritual righteousness.
11. Display qasd: Be resolute in advancing the goals of jihad.
12. Avow yameen: Make an oath that your previously impure state was a form of disorder that caused unsuccessful deeds of wrongdoing and seek forgiveness by making supplications so that your new profession of faith will manifest in devotion to worshipping Allah along with Islamic purity by no longer doubting how resolute your striving must be in attaining far greater success at killing even more of the kuffar than your last miserable attempts to do so.
After valiant efforts by American opinion-makers to blame the bridge collapse on Bush, the war in Iraq and global warming, the truth may defy such glib pigeonholing:
Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed interstate bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: Birds, specifically pigeons.
Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago.
Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the Interstate 35W span's framework helped the steel beams rust faster.
We need to bring the troops back from Iraq to shoot all the birds.
#1
Try not to think about the effects of age and bird droppings on the bridges that many cities have that allow commercial aircaft to taxi over traffic.....for instance the A380 and LAX or O'Hare.......
#3
“But it's not against any religion/To want to dispose of a pigeon./All the world is in tune,/On a spring afternoon,/As we poison the pigeons in the park.”
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/23/2007 22:36
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#4
Pigeons, why do they hate us?
COME ON, SOMEONE HAD TO.
"To this world I contribute my smidgen,
I eat a squab lest it become a pigeon."
NEW DELHI: Ahead of the biggest naval wargame to be hosted by India in the Bay of Bengal, a top American military official on Thursday scotched China's fears that the exercise involving US, Australia and Japan was aimed at isolating the communist country.
US Navy's Pacific Commander Timothy J Keating observed that Indo-US military ties had become "more robust" but side stepped questions about opposition from the Left parties to the upcoming Malabar exercise, merely saying, "It is what democracy is all about."
The four-day Malabar exercise beginning on September 4, which will see the biggest congregation of warships in the Bay of Bengal since the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, is a reflection of the "shared interest" of India, US, Australia and Singapore, Keating told reporters.
At the same time, he said, "We want to minimise the potential areas of misunderstanding and confusion between all of us and China."
The manouvres are not aimed at forming a "quadilateral front" against China, said Keating, who is on a four-day visit here to discuss ties between the navies of India and the US.
"Let me emphasise, there is is no effort on our part or any of these other countries (participating in the exercises) to isolate China or put Beijing in a closet," Keating said.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/23/2007
12:31 ||
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#1
Australia - frigate Adelaide, tanker Sirius
Singapore - frigate Formidable
Japan - destroyers - Oonami and Udachi
USA - carriers - Nimitz and Kitty Hawk, cruisers - Princeton and Higgins, destroyers - Chaffe, Pickney, Curtis Wilbur, Mustin and John Paul Jones and tankers - Ericcson and Rainer
aircraft - F/A-18 and F-14, P3 AWACS, anti-submarine helicopters
India - carrier Viraat, destroyers - Ranvijay and Ranjit, frigates - Kurmak and Kuthar and tanker - Aditya.
aircraft - TU-142 ASW, maritime strike Jaguars, Sea Harriers, Sea King helicopters and Kamov AEW helicopters
Posted by: john frum ||
08/23/2007 13:01
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#2
Meanwhile in Ladakh, Kashmir (just across the border from China)...
Posted by: john frum ||
08/23/2007 13:27
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#3
Troops in the first photo are Ladakh Scouts, the 'Snow Warriors', a commando unit of the Indian army raised from Ladakh Buddhists and Tibetan refugees.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/23/2007 14:13
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#4
John: the Tomcats are all retired, but i wish they were still there. only offensive aircraft is the lawn dart; all the rest are support. defense.
#5
Missed that...
also submarines
India - Shishumar
US - Chicago and one other
Posted by: john frum ||
08/23/2007 14:40
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#6
NEWS > CHINA'S NAVY/PLAN BEGINS ITS LONG MARCH ["Blue-Water SSBN's + Carrier(s)?]. *OTOH, PACIFIC STARS-N-STRIPES > Departing Japanese ambassador argues for USA to close down MCAS FUTENMA ASAP. NOSI > In response to resumption of Cold War-style bomber flights by Russia, NATO is closely watching/reconnoitering movements of Russia's latest sub design [Amur-class].
#7
john frum---re#2 comment. The geologic layering looks interesting in the bottom pic. Wonder what the potential for minerals is up there.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/23/2007 21:18
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#8
Supposedly rich in copper, gold etc.
Area is high alitude and remote.
Ecologically sensitive as well... the Indian Supreme Court has fined companies that painted their logos on the sides of hills there and ordered them to pay for the restoration.
Also under Article 370 of the Indian constitution, no non-Kashmiri may purchase land in Kashmir state.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/23/2007 21:53
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August 23, 2007: Al Qaeda doesn't issue many press releases about its casualties, and for good reason. The Iraqi government recently announced that it had killed over half the civilian leadership of al Qaeda, and in the last few months, three senior al Qaeda military commanders have been killed. As a result of all this, al Qaeda tries to keep the identities of its senior military guys secret, as Iraqi and American intelligence is quick to track down any al Qaeda big shot that is identified.
But the most compelling bit of new on al Qaedas demise in Iraq is the changing composition of the hostiles there. At the beginning of the year, about 70 percent of terror attacks were by al Qaeda, and their Sunni Arab allies. Now, only about fifty percent of, a lower number of, those attacks are al Qaeda. The rest are Iranian supported Shia Arab groups, who are also trying to establish a religious dictatorship in Iraq (one run by Shias, not by Sunnis, as al Qaeda wants.) Al Qaeda is taking a major beating because so many Sunni Arab tribes have turned on it. Three years ago, al Qaeda formed a coalition with the Sunni Arab tribes, promising that al Qaeda terrorists would put Sunni Arabs back in charge of the country. Few Sunni Arabs still believe that, and consider al Qaeda a murderous nuisance.
Iran has backed Shia Arab militias even before the 2003 invasion. Iranian involvement goes back to the 1980s war with Iraq (and even earlier). One of the reasons for that war (which began with an Iraqi invasion of Iran), was Shia clerics taking over the government in Iran, and announcing their intention to take over the world. While the rest of the world was not too concerned, Saddam Hussein was. That's because most (well, 60 percent back then) of Iraqis are Shia Moslems, just like over 90 percent of Iranians. Iran wanted to influence Iraqi Shias, and convince them (through persuasion or intimidation) to support Iran. Once Saddam was out of the way, Iran went forward with its plan. Islamic radicals in the Iranian government are willing to start another civil war in Iraq to get their way. And that's what's happening now, as U.S. troops go after Iranian supported Iraqi Shias who have been attacking American troops.
A large western oil company has offered $700m for oil assets in Iraqi Kurdistan owned by DNO, the small Norwegian oil company. The offer signals that international oil companies are willing to put significant amounts of money into Iraq in spite of the security problems and lack of a legal framework.
DNO refused to name the company, but industry executives speculated that Royal Dutch Shell was a possible bidder. Shell on Wednesday refused to comment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/23/2007
12:10 ||
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KOMMERSANT/OTHER > IRAQ = 18.0Bilyuhn new barrels in new field.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Iraqi government will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months and its security forces have not improved enough to operate without outside help, intelligence analysts conclude in a new National Intelligence Estimate released Friday.
Despite uneven improvements, the analysts concluded that the level of overall violence is high, Iraq's sectarian groups remain unreconciled, and al-Qaida in Iraq is still able to conduct its highly visible attacks. "Iraqi political leaders remain unable to govern effectively," the 10- page document concludes. A copy was obtained by The Associated Press in advance of its release Thursday.
The report represents the collaborative judgments of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency and the intelligence organization of each military service. It comes at a time of renewed tensions between Washington and Baghdad.
The report says that Iraqi Security Forces, working alongside the United States, have performed "adequately." However, it says they haven't shown enough improvement to conduct operations without U.S. and coalition forces and are still reliant on others for key support.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/23/2007
12:06 ||
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A Milyuhn- and Zilyuhn-dollar report to sum up one sentence > USA NOT leaving ME until after Dubya leaves office in Jan 2009, or gets blown up trying - USA just waiting for US-Iran andor China-Taiwan-NK. *REAL REPORT > Alrighty now, who's gonna buy the pizzas, beers and hoagies today, D *** ng it, NSA NEA or Customs. Stripper Bachelor Party at Agent Smith - bring $$$ and nachos???
The CIA failed to tell the State Department to watch-list the two Al Qaeda men, and the inspector general could find no evidence that the agency ever told the FBI about their presence in the country. The report called this a potentially significant lapse, since an alert to the Bureau might have led to surveillance and ultimately vital information about the 9/11 plot itself. In the period January through March 2000, some 50 to 60 individuals read one or more of six Agency cables containing travel information related to these terrorists, the report stated. It concluded: That so many individuals failed to act in this case reflects a systemic breakdown within the CTC. (The report recommended that along with Tenet, two former CTC chiefs should also be reviewed by an accountability board.)
The report also criticized intelligence problems when Bill Clinton was president, detailing political and legal constraints agency officials felt in the late 1990s. In September 2006, during a famous encounter with Fox News anchor Wallace, Clinton erupted in anger and waived his finger when asked about whether his administration had done enough to get bin Laden. What did I do? What did I do? Clinton said at one point. I worked hard to try to kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since.
Clinton appeared to have been referring to a December 1999 Memorandum of Notification (MON) he signed that authorized the CIA to use lethal force to capture, not kill, bin Laden. But the inspector generals report made it clear that the agency never viewed the order as a license to kill bin Ladenone reason it never mounted more effective operations against him. The restrictions in the authorities given the CIA with respect to bin Laden, while arguably, although ambiguously, relaxed for a period of time in late 1998 and early 1999, limited the range of permissible operations, the report stated. (Scheuer agreed with the inspector generals findings on this issue, but said if anything the report was overly diplomatic. There was never any ambiguity, he said. None of those authorities ever allowed us to kill anyone. At least thats what the CIA lawyers told us. A spokesman for the former president had no immediate comment.) More at the link..
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/23/2007
11:54 ||
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#1
I wonder how many of these Al Qaeda men were cut from the due-diligence to-follow-list altogether due to Jamie Gorelick's WALL Program?
hummm...guessing..
Those lists were irretrievably lost from the National Archives after they were spirited out in Sandy Berger's Socks.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/23/2007 13:48
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#3
Guys, nothing in this report will soung all that unfamiliar to those who have heard me bitch loud and long (but in an unclassified manner) around here for the past few years.
The CIA is a fundamentally defective organization and needs to be ripped apart and restructured - and the eastern elites need to be forcefully removed.
In an echo of Hollywood blockbuster 'Saving Private Ryan', a California family's third son is to return home from Iraq after his two brothers were killed in action.
The Hubbard family lost its second son, Nathan Hubbard, 21, in Iraq on Wednesday - one of the 14 U.S. soldiers killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash. Nathan's older brother Jared Hubbard, a marine, died in a roadside bomb explosion in Ramadi in 2004.
Now their third son, Jason, is to return from Iraq to be with the family, in a striking similarity with events in Steven Spielberg's 1998 war film 'Saving Private Ryan.'
The family was said to be taking the death of their second son "very hard" according to a police spokesperson. The soldier's father, Jeff Hubbard, is a retired 30-year veteran of the police department.
The helicopter went down during a nighttime mission in the Tamim province that surrounds Kirkuk, an oil-rich city 180 miles north of Baghdad. Nathan Hubbard was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, where officials said 10 of the soldiers killed in the crash were based.
Keith Butterfield, a family friend, said the Hubbards were worried for their sons but proud because they knew they were committed to going on behalf of their fallen brother. "There is nothing anyone can say to make it better, but it's good to know that there are other families that can help you cope," said Butterfield, who became close to the Hubbards after his own son died in Iraq last year. "It's bringing up the feelings of everyone else's loss, but we will be there for them."
Nathan and Jason Hubbard joined the Army together in 2005, shortly after their brother was killed. Their mother, Peggy, told the Fresno Bee newspaper in a 2005 interview that she believed Jason joined in part to protect Nathan after not being there to help Jared.
The brothers said at the time that they didn't worry about dying in the war. "People are going to be hurt, and people are going to be killed," Nathan Hubbard told the Bee. "That is a reality you have to accept, but not dwell on."
Surrprise, surrrrprise, surprise...
American-run programs that train Fatah militias were instrumental in the "success" of the Palestinian intifada that began in 2000, a senior Fatah militant told The New York Sun.
"I do not think that the operations of the Palestinian resistance would have been so successful and would have killed more than one thousand Israelis since 2000 and defeated the Israelis in Gaza without these [American] trainings," a senior officer of President Abbas's Force 17 Presidential Guard unit, Abu Yousuf, said.
America has longstanding training programs at a base in the West Bank city of Jericho for members of Force 17, which serves as de facto police units in the West Bank, and for another major Fatah security force, the Preventative Security Services.
This weekend diplomatic security officials announced that the State Department will begin training Force 17 again this year in an effort to bolster Mr. Abbas against Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip in June when the terror group easily defeated American-backed Fatah forces in the territory.
Under an agreement signed this month by Secretary of State Rice and Palestinian Arab Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Force 17 officers are slated to take course work and conduct VIP protection exercises under the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. The new training program aims to help the Palestinian Authority "deliver security for the Palestinian people and fight terrorism, build confidence between the parties, and ultimately help to meet the security needs of Palestinians and Israelis alike," a State Department press release said.
The training program, which includes courses in the use of weapons, paid with $86.5 million in funding granted to the Palestinian Authority by Congress in April.
Many members of Force 17 and the Preventative Security Services also openly serve in Fatah's declared "military wing," Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which took credit along with the Islamic Jihad terror group for every suicide bombing in Israel between 2005 and 2006. The Brigades is responsible for more terrorism from the West Bank than any other Palestinian Arab organization.
Abu Yousuf, the Force 17 officer, received American training in Jericho in 1999 as a member of the Preventative Security Services. He is a chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Ramallah, where he is accused of participating in anti- Israel terrorism, including recent shootings, attacks against Israeli forces operating in the city, and a shooting attack in northern Samaria in December 2000 that killed the leader of the ultranationalist Kahane Chai organization, Benyamin Kahane.
After the Kahane murder, Mr. Yousuf was extended refuge by Yasser Arafat to live in the late Palestine Liberation Organization leader's Ramallah compound, widely known as the Muqata. Mr. Yousuf still lives in the compound. Prime Minister Olmert last month granted Mr. Yousuf amnesty along with 178 other Brigades leaders reportedly in a gesture to Mr. Abbas.
Speaking during an interview for the upcoming book "Schmoozing with Terrorists," Mr. Yousuf said his American trainings were instrumental in attacks on Israelis. "All the methods and techniques that we studied in these trainings, we applied them against the Israelis," he said. "We sniped at Israeli settlers and soldiers. We broke into settlements and Israeli army bases and posts. We collected information on the movements of soldiers and settlers. We collected information about the best timing to infiltrate our bombers inside Israel. We used weapons and we produced explosives, and of course the trainings we received from the Americans and the Europeans were a great help to the resistance."
Mr. Yousuf said the training included both intelligence and military tactics. "In the intelligence part, we learned collection of information regarding suspected persons, how to follow suspected guys, how to infiltrate organizations and penetrate cells of groups that we were working on and how to prevent attacks and to steal in places," he said.
"On the military level, we received trainings on the use of weapons, all kind of weapons and explosives. We received sniping trainings, work of special units especially as part as what they call the fight against terror. We learned how to put siege, how to break into places where our enemies closed themselves in, how to oppress protest movements, demonstrations, and other activities of opposition."
Mr. Yousuf seemed to anticipate criticism for speaking publicly about the training. He's not "talking about U.S. training in order to irritate the Americans or the Israelis and not in order to create provocations," he said. "I'm just telling you the truth."
#1
We should only be training people who are responsbile and respect human life.
Posted by: Boss Craising2882 ||
08/23/2007 12:07
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#2
Another screw-up that's going to have to be corrected. We shoud NEVER be training ANY Paleostains. The US is indirectly responsible for the deaths of 1000 Israelis. We need to redeem ourselves by ARCLIGHTing the entire Gaza strip for a week. Whatever scum wriggle out of the rubble can be handled by two Boy Scouts with dull pocket-knives.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/23/2007 13:02
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Following a successful high-volume run of its new breakthrough solar panels, International Automated Systems, Inc. IAUS has been conducting tests to identify the parameters of its new product. The new panels have delivered an exciting performance that is in line with preliminary expectations.
IAUS's unique thin-film solar panels have a solar insolence transmittance efficiency of nearly 92%- virtually the highest transmittance physically possible of any material. These breakthrough solar panels have shown a conversion of solar energy from the sun into temperatures of over 1,300 degrees F.
Initial IAUS data has demonstrated that IAUS's new solar panels focus as high as 30% more solar energy onto its receiver than traditional solar power trough systems typically achieve. Recent advancements will likely increase this number again to more than 50%. IAUS's solar panels have an estimated life-span of greater than fifty years when properly maintained, and are inexpensive to replace.
IAUS's unique thin-film solar panel can be produced at a fraction of the cost of today's traditional photovoltaic solar panels. IAUS believes its new product is the first solar power technology with legitimate potential to compete with gas and other fossil fuels. Low-cost energy produced by IAUS's new patented and patent-pending solar technology can be used to generate electricity or produce clean fuels such as hydrogen and green methanol (gasoline replacements) at a competitive price. Many experts had predicted that no solar power technology would likely accomplish this milestone before the year 2025.
During its first high-volume run, nearly 1,000 Kilowatts of IAUS's solar panels were manufactured in a short 24-hour period. On a 24/7 operating schedule, an estimated 350 Megawatts of IAUS panels can be produced annually. In comparison, a traditional photovoltaic (PV) solar module manufacturing plant with a yearly capacity equal to IAUS would cost an estimated $840 Million to construct.
The world's energy market is a staggering $3 trillion per year. This is two times larger than the world's agricultural market. Less than 1% of this energy comes from solar power. Yet, every hour the sun radiates more free energy than the entire human population uses in a whole year. For real or fake? With a stock price of .74, it is a good question.
#1
In general, I expect there's a fair amount of 'hype' in any of these kinds of reports. However, there is usually also at least a kernal of substance.
Significantly, this is at least the third independent development of what appear to be 'significant' (not radical, earth-shattering, but meaningful) advances in solar power that I have seen in the past month or so. As one would expect, the large and sustained increase in oil prices has given a big boost to R&D in fields of alternative energy like solar. As solar energy efficiencies rise and costs decline, more and more 'fringe' applications will be economically favorable for solar: for years low load, geographically isolated locations have employed solar power; we will see application for ever higher loads and less isolated locations attracting it now. As the use increases we should see economies of scale build, further enhancing the economics of the market and fueling even more R&D and competitiveness.
While I might or might not buy THIS company's stock, I would certainly invest in a basket of companies with promising solar (and battery or other storage) technologies.
#2
Suppose they had the perfect solar panel. Right now about the only use I see would be to heat up the hot water or something! Practically speaking nobody is going to do the battery thing, it's too consuming and too expensive. Nobody's going to do the "thermal mass" thing, there are too many pre-existing houses out there. Can the power created by these panels be efficiently converted to something that can be pumped back out your power meter and thereby sold to your neighbor or to that power-hungry business down the street? That would be the killer app for these, I feel. That and running my A/C during the summer! :-)
And we'd still need some serious surge capacity for cloudy days, eclipses, or places that have more power consumption than production.
This would be great for reducing CO2. And there could be no issues with "waste heat" or whatever that the environmentalists would cook up next because all that energy produced from this technology would normally go into heating up my rooftop anyway, it's just that this way we take advantage of it along the way, much like water falling over a dam.
#3
As solar energy efficiencies rise and costs decline
That's MSM-worthy. Report that A (rising efficiency) is occuring. Imply a relationship with B (declining costs, which is what matters). Then continue as if you had shown B (declining costs) was occuring.
Sorry to pick on you, Glenmore, but this is just a press release feeding the general ignorance surrounding the subject. Wake me up when they produce a rooftile sized solar panel that costs just the same as a clay rooftile. Or even better a rooftile that absorbs sunlight below 20C and reflects it above 25C. That would produce huge savings in home heating and air conditioning costs and indeed change the world.
#4
I saw a study once that said that a 10% efficient panel that costs $4/watt to buy and install and has $0.01/watt/yr maintenance costs would be a super purchase (something like 1.3 NPV) by shopping mall owners in the SW of the US.
#5
SCIENCE > SUN SOUNDS/WAVES CAN CAUSE EARTHQUAKES, + HUGE HOLE FOUND IN UNIVERSE, SCIENTISTS PUZZLED.
*D ***nged CARS PLUS, D ***ng PRINCE, HIS PURPLENESS IS LEACHING AND STAINING THE PACIFIC AND OUTER SPACE. RUINING COMETS AND AN OTHERWISE PERFECTLY CLEAN, PAUL SIMON NECKTIE, MOUDIAN APOCALYPSE! Yet another Oliver Stone production of almost a Lindsay Lujan = Lohan film, NOT starring JLo or Carmen Electra??? Ya see what your McDonald's Double Big Macs did, Moriarty!?
...Since the late 1930s, the Court has generally taken a very expansive view of the extent of the powers delegated to the federal government, and accorded it great authority to legislate in areas traditionally considered the domain of the states. When the federal government acts, state policy must take a back seat to congressional prerogatives. In several recent cases, however, the Supreme Court has shown a willingness to reexamine, or at least
qualify, its pro-federal doctrine in this area... In short, Thomas has created the thesis that based on history, FDR's radical expansion of federal power with the Commerce Clause of the Constitution is unconstitutional. Perhaps 50% of the federal government is *based* on this radical expansion.
#1
By destroying the foundations of much of the federal government, Thomas may be setting up the SCOTUS to systematically disassemble much of the government.
It would have to be based on a State or States suing the federal government, as that is directly heard by the SCOTUS, and cannot be blocked by Congress, as can other appellate cases. The Supremes would then order the President to delete the unconstitutional government agency.
A similar order happened to Andrew Jackson, and he just refused to do so. However, this would give the Congress the opportunity to stop funding said agency (though it would probably continue to do so).
But the real zinger is that the SCOTUS, and subordinate federal courts, would no longer recognize *any* legal precedent in support of the prohibited agency. The agency would also have no standing in court, as such. And thus, anyone who sued the prohibited agency would win.
So the States could ignore said agency, and organizations and individuals could sue it to death.
#2
Yeah, those who support a 'living' [we make this up as we go along] Constitution seem rather blind to -
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
It's there for a reason.
Yes, it does lead to inefficiencies and some injustice. However, as history was understood by the writers, the consolidation of power is even a greater threat to liberty and justice in the end. The temper tantrums from the left since the gain of power by the Republicans is all about that someone else having control of the power they consolidated. That was the whole point of weakening the central authority. No matter who gets it, they can't do anything destructive with it. Its a feature, not a bug.
#3
I have been arguing for years that the states have no rights anymore and is allowing the US government to abuse its power. While, I am nervous about rolling back every federal program, I am happy to see that congress and its alphabet agencies might be told to take a freakin' hike and have the legal statues to back it up.
#4
If you think about it, the entire notion of a "living constitution" is at odds with a written constitution. What's the point of writing anything down if one party can change it on a whim by fiat? Imagine if your cell phone contract was like that.
#5
This is one of those debates that's been going on for years--it was a week-long topic in my Con Law I class 20 (gasp!) years ago. Justice Thomas isn't making a "new" argument, though he seems to be doing a better job of stating the case than most.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/23/2007 12:51
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#6
Cool your jets, Boys - this article is ten years old!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/23/2007 13:01
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#8
States Rights were gravely wounded in 1865 and essentially destroyed in 1913 with the 17th Amendment. FDR just recognized the opportunity and exploited it.
#9
#8 States Rights were gravely wounded in 1865 and essentially destroyed in 1913 with the 17th Amendment. FDR just recognized the opportunity and exploited it. Posted by: Glenmore 2007-08-23 13:20
Amen, Glenmore. The whole reason for appointing Senators was to have THEM represent the States, while the Congress represented the People. Today, both groups are wholly-owned subsidiaries of whoever buys them at the highest price. Rescinding the 17th Amendment would go a long way toward returning the government of the United States to what the Founding Fathers envisioned, and reducing the power of the federal government. LOTS of people would be put out of "work", but the nation as a whole would be greatly improved.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/23/2007 14:33
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#11
Unless my history classes were off, OP, the problem with the Senate is that it did represent the state government, which were largely wholly owned and operated by local political machines doing the bidding of individuals or groups, be it the Railroad or Oil Trusts or things like the KKK. It was a lot cheaper back then to 'own' the State legislatures which did exercise considerable amount of power. As it evolved, the levels of corruption just escalated and moved towards Washington with the 'reforms'. So instead of most of the states generally running corrupt governments, we now allow the power brokers to get a discount by moving the resources to one point instead of several.
#12
I see many good things with the Federal Government, very many. But it is the largest and most powerful government in all of history. It costs 3 Trillion a year to operate and employs 20 million people.
When one single political party has held it in lockstep for so long, 40 years or so, you lose it's ability to actually do it's job by Constitutional definition. This coupled with the fact that this particular political party wants to do nothing but expand it's power shows that there needs to be a limit.
I can drive to the state legislature, but it is far harder to drive to DC. Direct representation mattered at the state level at one time, but now, everyone treats the federal government as a city hall and so the people are no longer directly represented, rather lobbied into a mass of voters.
This could be a very hard subject for US, I know it is hard for me.
Thomas - A FINE Judge for sure. A Black Man saving America.
They could go off and do something productive for the economy for a change. Like folding paperclips or something. But wait a minute, if all these government bureacracies went away, there would be far less need for paperclips . . . .
As P.J. O'Rourke wrote:
"It takes hard work and carefull planning to waste that much money."
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/23/2007 16:45
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#15
Cool your jets, Boys - this article is ten years old!
I told you the debate had been going on for quite a while!
Posted by: Mike ||
08/23/2007 17:26
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#16
Lest we fergit, the infamous US NINTH declared the USA to be an ILLEGAL AND UN-CONSTITUTIONAL NATION, a decision TMK the Ninth has NOT revoked but has only un-enforced. Thus Dubya = USA has and had no standing/right vv the Ninth to invade Iraq or even go after the leadership of Radical islam, etal. OTH foreign policies as a consequence for 9-11. THE NINTH'S DECISION IS ONE OF THE MAJOR REASONS ANTi-US CONSPIRACY THEORISTS ARGUE THAT 9-11 WAS A US SET-UP, THAT THE USA FALSELY ATTACKED ITSELF ON 9-11 + KILLED 000's OF ITS OWN PEOPLE, + AQ IS A USG TERROR PROXY.
#17
Joseph, I believe I understand your point, but you are getting into the ranting bit a little much ;).
Anyone with a brain that works can completely ignore the Ninth Circus in the hope that they will keep the damage done isolated in the West. For as long as most Westerners will put up with it.
#18
The whole reason for appointing Senators was to have THEM represent the States, while the Congress represented the People.
Word, OP! Very good point. I can't believe how plainly our Founding Fathers wrote down the guiding principles and rules of our Federal (not National) gov't. And, yet, how it's all been twisted to further the power trip and money syphon that is D.C.
And, someone else has recently brought up the idea of making the Senate represent the States (not the people) again, and it was a Democrat. Of course, he campaigned and spoke for Dubya at the 2004 RNC Party...Zell Miller. As explained, the way Senators used to be chosen was by each State Legislature. That Senator was to represent the State (not the people by direct vote) in D.C. A fairly interesting concept, especially when you have 40+ year "sitting" Senators anyways....Byrd, Kennedy et al.
Posted by: BA ||
08/23/2007 22:03
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Elvira Arellano, now booted from her sanctuary in an LA Cathedral tells the Mexican Congress that the US broke the law first by allowing illegals to cross the border without documents and pay taxes.
Also note the headline on the linked page doesn't mention the cross the border without papers and just emphasizes the taxes.
It says a lot of about Mexico that she nobody laughed and mocked her.
Chapter III
Of Foreigners
Article 33 - Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualities determined in Article 30. They have the right to the guarantees of Chapter I of the first title of this Constitution, but the Executive of the Union has the exclusive right to expel from the national territory, immediately and without necessity of judicial proceedings, all foreigners whose stay it judges inconvenient. Foreigners may not, in any manner, involve themselves in the political affairs of the country.
#3
In Greenville at the BMW plant they caught several illegals using fake documents, they were arrested and now await deportation.
What is the big problem with other states just enforcing the law like the Judges do here in South Carolina?
No second or third chances; first offense and your gone.
#5
Exactly, tu. She paid somebody else's taxes and is upset about that (cuz she'll never collect) BUT can't, WON'T, see she has committed identity fraud, far worse than illegal entry.
Procopius-Thanks for posting that-it clearly shows the scale of the outrage.
She is no Rosa Parks-we're watchin'em play it that way, though.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on Wednesday for a "broader Asia" partnership of democracies that would include India, the United States and Australia, but omit the region's superpower, China.
Abe's comments came in an address to a joint session of India's parliament at the start of a visit that aims to boost trade between Asia's largest and third largest economies, and counter China's growing strength.
"This partnership is an association in which we share fundamental values such as freedom, democracy and respect for basic human rights as well as strategic interests," Abe said.
"By Japan and India coming together in this way, this 'broader Asia' will evolve into an immense network spanning the entirety of the Pacific Ocean, incorporating the United States of America and Australia."
His speech did not mention China in relation to the "broader Asia." While Abe has improved ties with Beijing, he has also stressed the need to forge closer links with democracies in what analysts have called a tacit criticism of Beijing.
Tokyo's navy is due to take part for the first time in U.S.-India exercises in the Bay of Bengal next month.
India also used the visit of Abe and 200 businessmen to woo investors for infrastructure projects ranging from transport to nuclear power.
New Delhi is aiming to seal an economic partnership agreement &0151; expected to include a free-trade accord &0151; by the end of this year, Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath said. Abe pledged to double bilateral trade to $20 billion by 2010.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is facing a political crisis because leftist allies are trying to block a civilian nuclear deal with the United States that the government says is crucial for India's economic development.
The communists say the government should not push ahead with the deal which will entail talks with the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) of which Japan is a member.
"My sincere hope is that when the matter comes forth to the Nuclear Suppliers Group that we will have the support of the Japanese government," Singh told a joint news conference.
The Japanese premier said he understood the plans of India &0151; armed with atomic weapons &0151; to use nuclear energy to cope with global warming and help meet its fast-growing economy's demand for power.
"But, at the same time, as the only nation to suffer an atomic bombing, we attach special importance to nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament," Abe said.
"From that perspective we have to carefully look at its effect on the nuclear non-proliferation framework."
India's poor transport network and frequent power shortages are the Achilles' heel of its economy, hindering its ability to compete with China.
Tokyo is considering offering low-interest loans to help build a high-speed freight rail link between New Delhi and Mumbai as well as funds for a $90 billion industrial corridor between the two cities, Japanese officials said.
"These projects are critical to India's aspirations of wresting the manufacturing space that at present is dominated by China," said a report prepared by KPMG consultancy group and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/23/2007
10:17 ||
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#1
the region's superpower, China.
There is nothing like a "regional superpower". This is plain nonsense.
There are superpowers, great powers and regional powers.
China is a regional power. It has decades to go before it has either the economic or military force projection capability to class itself as a great power.
Superpower is yet another leap.
The biggest dog in Asia, after the US, is Japan.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/23/2007 10:22
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#2
partnership of democracies that would include India, the United States and Australia, but omit... China
#9
It's extremely gratifying to see Japan make all the right moves as it trends back towards being a military power. Couching their diplospeak so as to purposefully exclude China and specifically include India is the sort of smackdown that China needs on a regular basis. Japan has everything to lose by not correctly identifying the Chinese threat. Far more than India does, in fact.
Aircraft assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 1, stationed aboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65), conducted multiple-strike missions, providing air support to Coalition ground forces.
Rear Adm. Daniel Holloway, Commander, Enterprise Strike Group, said the strike group is ready to do what it takes to accomplish the mission.
This is part of what we are out here to do, said Holloway. We are a nation at war and we will continue to do our part to stabilize the current situation in Iraq and eliminate terrorist threats.
CVW-1 is comprised of the Checkmates of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 211, flying the F/A-18 Super Hornet; the Knighthawks of VFA-136; the Sidewinders of VFA-86; the Thunderbolts of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 251, all flying the F/A-18 Hornet. Also joining CVW-1 are the Dragonslayers of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron (HS) 11 flying the SH-60 Seahawk; the Rooks of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 137, flying the EA-6B Prowler; the Screwtops of VAW-123, flying the E-2C Hawkeye; the Maulers of Sea Control Squadron (VS) 32, flying the S-3B Viking; and the Rawhides of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 40, flying the C-2A Greyhound.
Friends of mine out there in the "Snoops" (Navy folks will know who I am talking about)
Swing position is the north Arabian Sea area, - gives them leverage over Iran (and also out of the easy operating area for the Iranian subs and aircraft), and can do Afghan support - and Sudan support if needed (with aerial refuelling).
Geography, what an important thing. If more people would look at the geography of the middle east, they'd see ho important Iraq is. Hub of the wheel.
And with American bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran NEEDS to destabilize the countries to keep from being boxed in. Much like Syria too with Israel on one side and the US on the other.
#3
interesting hornet / super hornet mix; i would have thought there would have been 2 S/h sqdns. despite the press reports, there is very little commonality between the two airframes, and avionics are world's apart.
Prowlers from my neck of the woods, with the EA6B's getting old and experiencing the same wing fatigue / cracking that the Intruders had, they have to manage their assets very carefully, but beginning in 2010, there will be Growlers @ NASWI to help shoulder the load, and the Q's will be gone by 2013 (if current sked holds)
latest iteration of the Hummer is an awesome platform, new avionics, new engines, glass cockpit, but still ugly so you know it's Grumman.
#4
We been needing a 6B replacement for a while, and SH frame is a good one (plus it keeps up with the strike package), and it will strap up the AN/ALQ-99's, but...
How about workload in the Growler cockpit? That would be my worry. They gone to a 2-man crew like the old USAF Wild Weasel, and one of those is flying the AC. Thats short handed. And it means either more EW airframes needed or a lot more automation (which in EW, isn't always a good thing, past a given point).
Same issues hold with the F-35 when the Navy goes that way (And the USAF and F-22)
6B is the only proper crew-set EW strike AC left in US inventory. I'd rather we had something more akin to the old Ravens - them things got 'varks into places even God would have trouble going undetected.
IMHO:
EW aircraft are one of the few AC that need to be purpose built. Lash-ups just do not work as well as integral antennas, etc.
#5
OS, I agree, to a point; the Aardvarks were a maintenance headache and especially the escape capsule was a nightmare, but having said that, both that and the Prowler are about as stealthy as a freight train. And since stealth is sexy, the SH has it over both those platforms. while still AD, i got to do some low-observable work at NAS PAX on a variety of platforms and we were even able to make the Intruder 'Dim-out,' not invisible, but close. And the work we did on the Hornet and Tomcat would surprise a lot of folks.
all that aside, your next point about workload has me wondering also, especially since the Growler pods are based on the ALQ-99s, and I know that the 3 ECMOs in the Prowler can get a real workout. The 'G' is supposed to have the ability for the pilot to take some of that work, but he will need first of all to keep his eyes outside and the flying workload will be heaviest when they are also trying to manage multiple EW threats.
It will be real interesting when the Growlers get up and running and both the USN and USAF are hollering for assets how that gets handled.
your comment about 'lash-ups' is spot on: turning the lawn dart into an all purpose platform is just one of compromises. let me once again recommend the John Stephenson book: "Pentagon Paradox" for an expose' on the birth of the Lawn Dart. (out of print, but should be in most libraries).
#6
I hope HS-11 is successful in picking up Iranian diesel sub signatures drop a few sonar bouys and then plant a few cans on them for the fun of it. That'll keept the IRG in swimming lessons for a long time.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 16:41
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This time, Al Qaeda kidnaps the women and children. They really must be struggling to survive when they pick on the weak this way.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda fighters kidnapped 15 Iraqi women and children after rival Sunni Arab militants repelled their attack on two villages in a fierce battle on Thursday in which 32 people were killed, police said. This time it's Sunni-on-Sunni? Isn't that unusual or does the MSM just not report it because it doesn't fit the "civil war" meme?
The fighting, rare on such a large scale, underscored the growing split between Sunni Arab militant groups and al Qaeda that U.S. forces have sought to exploit as they try to quell sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands. Wait a New York Minute! I thought the MSM body count was up around 700,000 or so? What's up with this reporter?
U.S. President George W. Bush, under pressure to show progress in the war or start bringing troops home, on Wednesday compared Iraq to Vietnam in urging Americans to be patient. His administration had previously avoided such comparisons, saying there were few parallels. Except that the Donks wanna cut-n-run in both cases.
Many U.S. Democrats have likened Iraq to Vietnam, calling the war a quagmire that has exacted a toll in American lives and money without furthering U.S. interests. Yeah, losing only a few hundred more troops in 4 years of battle than how many civilians we lost in a few hours on 9/11 is very comparable to Vietnam, who was backed by the only other superpower in the world at the time.
About 200 al Qaeda fighters raided the villages of Sheikh Tamim and Ibrahim Yehia in restive Diyala province, north of Baghdad, in the early hours of Thursday after launching a mortar attack on the area, police said.
The attack came despite a U.S. offensive in Diyala targeting al Qaeda. U.S. troops launched an operation in June to oust fighters who had taken over large parts of the provincial capital, Baquba. Many escaped to fight on.
Brigadier-General Ali Delayan, the police chief of Baquba, told Reuters that 22 residents had been killed in the fighting along with 10 al Qaeda fighters.
Several wounded residents said villagers were loyal to the Sunni Arab insurgent group, the 1920 Revolution Brigade. So, does that make them terrorists, or just average Iraqis who have begun turning in all the AQ baddies left and right of recent?
Delayan said the attackers had escaped with eight women and seven children as hostages.
A mosque that served the two villages was destroyed in the fighting and its imam was among those killed, he added. And, those dastardly 'mericans didn't do it? Why is this even in a MSM report then?
Delayan said the al Qaeda attackers mortared the villages before storming into them. Rocket-propelled grenades were used in the fighting, in which three houses were destroyed.
He said the gun battle with fighters loyal to the 1920 Revolution Brigade, which has recently distanced itself from al Qaeda, was triggered by the execution of four men, including the mosque imam.
Police said they arrested 22 of the attackers. Out of 200 or so? While I applaud the police and citizens in this standing up to AQ, looks like they need a little more work on how to capture attackers. More hand-wringing over Maliki's gov't at link.
Posted by: BA ||
08/23/2007
07:53 ||
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#1
There is another comparison with Vietnam and that is the use of stringers by reporters. Halberstam, Sheehan and the boys used an NVA propagandist as their source just like our AP, Rooters and the BBC use propagandist today to make the "news" comply with the agenda of the Cronkites and Brokaws.
#2
I would have thought that Bush's Vietnam reference would have been to highlight that what happened in Vietnam will occur in Iraq if we pull out and leave the Iraqis to unnecessary slaughter.
Second, in the fact that this article is outright propaganda, it is instructive in showing exactly what the new Democratic strategy will be, and here it is right here:
The attack came despite a U.S. offensive in Diyala targeting al Qaeda. U.S. troops launched an operation in June to oust fighters who had taken over large parts of the provincial capital, Baquba. Many escaped to fight on.
While the above statement is true - I suspect the focus until the election will be the futility of fighting because the Iraqis will never be able to form a functioning government. You have lost the war, go home.
The Democrats are busy right now sending out flyers to their constituents on how they SUPPORT THE SURGE! With no mention of how they wanted to withdraw or don't support the war. That's why they are suddenly on board. There is an election coming up and they support the surge - until they are elected of course- then once elected, they will have four years to undermine the war effort. Gotta get elected and those pesky Americans are sick of politicians who undermined the troops.
#3
Bush's reference to Vietnam was exactly about the consequences (deaths, deaths and more deaths) of our precipitous withdrawal from the region. Of course the assholes who write this article won't mention that. Fucking traitors.
#4
He (W) spent as much time talking about Japan, Germany and South Korea as he did Vietnam. But the MSM are fixated (like their party machine the Dems) on Vietnam. They successfully led to our retreat there and this is their territory of delight not W's. He has done a Clinton and coop their issue and argument by giving the horrific not the defeat.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 16:45
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#5
It doesn't matter what the Bush admin says or does. If he said, "It is a beautiful day.", they would spin him as being oblivious to global warming and write an article on how he and Cheney are responsible for the melting ice caps.
The MSM is a function of the last century and it seems to me that they are doing all that they can to hasten their demise by making the American people despise them more and more every day.
Take this article for example. Is it me, or does it seem to others that around the same time the Democrats were forced to acknowledge that the surge was working, that the intensity of the terrorist atrocities in Iraq increased as well.
Suddenly we get stories about 5 year olds lit on fire, and other vicious crimes against women and children. It is difficult to know if the MSM has decided to shift their focus to these crimes or if to get more attention, of if AQ Inc. has actually made a decision to attack children to stay in the headlines. Lord knows the MSM was never around to report the rapes and mass atrocities during Sadaam's, or any other despot's reign.
But this is exactly what makes me despise the media. The terrorists know they will do their bidding. And when the MSM stops doing their bidding and stops writing about the day to day bombings in Iraq, the terrorists simply commit such horrific crimes that the MSM once again complies. If the staff at Reuters and other media outlets had any soul - they would realize that it is they, the men and women in the mirror who are encouraging these attacks against women and children by providing the fire that fuels the only tool the terrorists have in their hope of winning the war - negative publicity.
"A-10, the cursed gunship of the Zionists, may peace be upon the martyrs Shaykh Yassin and Shaykh Rantissi, A-10."
Police broke up a Hamas bingo night fundraising meeting in Jerusalem attended by Israeli-Arab Islamist leader Sheikh Raed Salah, who says he was wounded in the process.
Good. Hope it leaves him with a limp and blurred vision.
Pray for sepsis.
The meeting, which included dozens of Islamic leaders associated with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror gangs, was held illegally at Jerusalems Commodore Hotel.
"D-9, my brothers in Allah, the evil dozers of doom, D-9"
The stated purpose of the meeting was to raise charity for Muslims in need, but the guests of honor were Sheikh Salah and Muhammed Hussein, who serves as the Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority.
"Infidel-72, I-72. And I see we have two learned elders standing near the back of the room, bismillah."
Police arrived at the meeting and forcibly shut it down, though did not arrest any of those involved.
"Brothers, we must flee. Please bring your cards and markers with you!"
The meeting then continued on the roof of the private home of a Hamas supporter in one of the capitals Arab neighborhoods.
"Are we all back? Very well. The next number is H-8, H-8."
Police arrived at the home and dispersed the crowd by force, firing stun grenades onto the roof.
"JIHAD! I got JIHA...ow ow ow feets don't fail me now!!!!!"
Sheikh Raed Salah, who heads the radical Israeli-Arab Islamic Movements northern branch and has called for an Israeli-Arab Intifada said he felt sick following the raid and checked himself into an eastern Jerusalem hospital.
Salah is facing an indictment for incitement to violence based on statements he made at riots against Israels repairs of the ramp leading to the Temple Mount from the Western Wall Plaza.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
08/23/2007 14:46
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#2
I'm laughing so hard about the in-line commentary, Seafarious (I think that's who corresponds to light blue). It put me right back in a good mood after a not-so-wonderful day at work. Thanks!
Saudi Arabian Airlines declares on its English-language Web site that the kingdom bans "Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings, items with religious symbols such as the Star of David." Until the Saudi government changes this detestable policy, I say its airline should be barred from flying into Western airports.
Michael Freund focused attention to this regulation in a recent Jerusalem Post article, "Saudis might take Bibles from tourists," in which he pointed out that a section on the SAA Web site, "Customs Regulations," lists the disapproved articles above under the rubric "Items and articles belonging to religions other than Islam."
Freund followed up by calling the SAA office in New York, where "Gladys" confirmed that this rule really is applied. "Yes, sir, that is what we have heard, that it is a problem to bring these things into Saudi Arabia, so you cannot do it." An unnamed official at the Saudi consulate in New York further confirmed the regulation. "You are not allowed to bring that stuff into the kingdom. If you do, they will take it away. If it is really important to you, then you can try to bring it and just see what happens, but I don't recommend that you do so."
Responding to the Saudi ban on churches and Bibles and Stars of David, some would ban mosques, Korans and crescent moons in the West, but that is clearly untenable and unenforceable, given the freedoms of speech and worship. The Koran, for example, is not a Saudi artifact and cannot be held hostage to Saudi policies. However closely it identifies with Islam, the Saudi government does not own the religion. Further, as Stephen Schwartz of the Center for Islamic Pluralism points out, signs in Saudi airports warn Muslim travelers that the airport's mutawwa'in (religious police) confiscate Korans, other Islamic literature and Muslim objects of non-Saudi origin.
While discriminating specifically against Shi'ites and Ahmadis, this policy manifests a broader insistence on Wahhabi supremacism. More broadly, the Saudi leadership runs a country that the US government has repeatedly condemned as having "no religious freedom" and being among the most religiously repressive in the world.
SAA, the state-owned national carrier and its portal to the world, offers a pressure point for change. To take advantage of this vulnerability, Western governments should demand that unless the Saudi government at least permits "that stuff" to come in, SAA faces exclusion from the 18 airports it presently services in Europe, North America and Japan.
Were those routes shut down, Riyadh would face a tough choice:
Ignore this action. Allowing Western airlines to service Saudi Arabia without reciprocity would presumably be too great a humiliation for the monarchy to abide.
Cut off the Western airlines in return. Cutting off the Western airlines would unacceptably isolate Saudis from major markets and premier destinations.
Permit non-Wahhabi religious items. That would leave the Saudis with no choice but to accept the import of "Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings, items with religious symbols such as the Star of David." Further, once these materials are allowed, other benefits would likely follow, such as permitting non-Islamic religious buildings and services in Saudi Arabia for the millions of non-Muslims resident there. Muslims who reject the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam would also eventually benefit from this loosening.
Such joint action would also send a long-overdue signal to the despots of Riyadh - that Westerners have thrown off their servile obeisance to their writ.
Who will be first to act? Which national government or municipality will arise from the customary dhimmi posture and ban SAA (slogan: "We aim to please you") from its runways, thereby compelling the kingdom to permit infidel religious items, monotheistic and polytheistic alike, into its territory Where are you Athens, Frankfurt, Geneva, Houston, London, Madrid, Málaga, Manchester, Milan, Munich, New York, Nice, Osaka, Paris, Prague, Rome, Vienna and Washington, DC?
If no government acts, what about a delegation of Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and others boarding an SAA flight with much publicity, openly displaying their religious artifacts, daring the airline to confiscate them? Or which public service law firm in those 11 countries will bring local human rights suits against SAA as an arm of the Saudi government?
This issue provides an opportunity for left and right to unite against radical Islam. Who will take the lead to confront Saudi discrimination, arrogance and repression?
#4
But they can build mosques throughout the West????
Look at this site for more info re our so called allies-
http://www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com/
Posted by: Paul ||
08/23/2007 9:23
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#5
The best response is to nuke Riyadh when all the princes and princesses are there, take over and rule the place by a consortium of Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Brazil and the US, outlaw Wahabbism (but NOT Islam - at least, not yet), and give Kuwait or Oman the concession to operate the Haj. It'll take longer, but eventually the entire MME would change. You'd also break the back of OPEC - an agency that supports more than a few despots.
ANY problem can be solved, if you're willing to do what's necessary. Unfortunately, most of the West wants to shove the problems under the rug, rather than do the hard work of solving them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/23/2007 14:57
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#6
OP. Better yet return to its rightful owner - the hashemite kingdom of Jordan. You can drink in Jordan. The are educated and pro-western. Plus they don't tolerate the Paleos.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 17:08
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#7
The west is incapable of a proper boycott. The French or Russians would continue flights into Saudi Arabia (with some nice oil deals to boot) and nothing would change.
#1
Quick! Spend it before someone gets the idea to return it to those who earned it.
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
08/23/2007 8:53
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#2
But they can't afford more 'lift' for their troops in Afghanistan. It's the mentality you get when you live for 60 years on military welfare paid for by the American people.
Rome, 23 August (AKI) - Two sit-ins are planned in Rome later Thursday, one in solidarity with a Christian convert in Egypt, and the other against a proposed mosque.
Both gatherings are organised by a rightwing group, La Destra, which has called on people to protest outside the Egyptian embassy and near the site of the proposed mosque, next to a Christian church in Rome's multi-ethnic Esqulino district.
Italy's foreign ministry says it is monitoring the case involving Mohammed Hegazy a Muslim whose conversion to Christianity Egyptian authorities refuse to recognise and who has been threatend by Islamists who brand him an apostate.
La Destra representatives have said the protests aime to highlight what they say is religious intolerance in Islamic nations as demonstrated in Hegazy's case, while at the same time the acts of provocation by Muslims living in the West, as exemplified by the plan to build a mosque next to a church.
On Tuesday municpal police halted construction work at the Esquilino mosque because of irregularities with building laws.
However, a top municipal official said work would be allowed to resume once the necessary corrections to the construction work are made.
The mosque aims to serve Rome's Bangladeshi community many of whose members live and work in the Esquilino which is home to several places of worship including Christian churches of different denominations, a Buddhist temple and a synagogue.
Rome, the centre of the Roman Catholic world also hosts the largest Muslim place of worship in Europe, the grand mosque which was inaugurated in 1995.
#1
Why isn't the Vatican issuing a formal declaration of solidarity with this protest? Benedict had the courage to question Islam's lack of religious freedom or reciprocity. Where has all that moxie gone? I refuse to believe that this man is cowering in Castel Gandolfo. Get off of the pot, Benedict!
#1
Thanks, TW. An interesting lesson in history, indeed!
The radio, of course, reduced the 45-minute speech to two headlines: "Bush compares Iraq to Vietnam" (gotta have the reference to Vietnam!) and "Bush Supports Maliki, As Opposed to Yesterday" (O.K., so that's a paraphrase).
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/23/2007 6:31
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#2
As soon as W emphasized the Killing Fields, the MSM began to back away from its chants of Vietnam. The abandonment of South Vietnam was not the US' finest hour. Adrian Cronauer(Yes, THAT Adrian Cronauer) wears a patch which reads, "When I left Vietnam, we were winning."
#5
WaPo Bush Compares Iraq to Vietnam
He Says Pullout Would Be Disastrous KANSAS CITY, Mo., Aug. 22 -- President Bush defended his ongoing military commitment in Iraq by linking the conflict there to the Vietnam War, arguing Wednesday that withdrawing U.S. troops would lead to widespread death and suffering as it did in Southeast Asia three decades ago.
"One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 'reeducation camps' and 'killing fields,' " Bush told a receptive audience at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention.
At least the first two paragraphs are more honest than the headline.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/23/2007 12:33
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#6
Dubya's recent speeches, etc. have made it = should had made it crystal clear to everyone that the USA is NOT leaving the ME + is quietly entrenching and strengthening its position both Regionally and Globally. And, that Radical Islam-Terrorism must and will be defeated as long as he as POTUS has anything to say about it.
* "RISING POWERS HAVE THE UNITED STATES IN THEIR SIGHTS" and similar artiiikles > Lest we fergit, amongst other premises and agendas, WOT > WAR BTWN GLOBAL FEDERALISM VZ GLOBAL CENTRALISM, + INDIVIDUALISM VZ GOVERNMENTISM. WIthin this and other scopes, WOT > TRULY AN "APOCALYPSE" OF SORTS.
A friend mentioned today that the prisoners on the "Thriller" video were actually forced to perform by the dude that runs the prison. I went to look for some links, and found this great photo essay comparing life in two different Pinoy prisons.
Be sure to read all the way through the comments; if I read them correctly, the prison director himself was trolling:
Subject: a WRITER must deliver a CORRECT informa
Date: Jul 31 2007 04:38:56 AM
Author: Adam Jasper
Awesome. I pissed off Byron Garcia so much he put ten angry comments on this page in one day. This is like school, but better.
One caveat, this site has lots of ads for adult-themed enterprises, some of which display minor nudidity. Prolly (possibly?) SFW, but I thought I'd warn you. And Rantburg, its directors, employees, and affiliates are not liable for the contents of any of the links on the other guy's site.
#1
I like the Phillipines, but I find it a weird hybrid of SE Asia and America. I love both places, but somehow the combination in the Phillipines jars. It's like at any moment you are never sure if you are going to get an Asian response or an American response. I never get this feeling in other parts of SE Asia. Well, except for the Muslims bits where I expect a, you are an infidel so I don't give a shit, response.
Thanks to Sea and RB for bringing us perspectives that the MSM doesn't.
A New South Wales Senate candidate for the Christian Democratic Party has compared controlling Muslim immigration in Australia to stopping the spread of bird flu.
The Christian Democrats are pushing for a halt to Muslim immigration because there has been no serious study of the effects of Muslims on Australia. They say the temporary measure would give some breathing space to assess the situation.
The party today officially introduced pastor Paul Green as its number-one candidate for the Senate at a media conference in Sydney. Mr Green says he believes Australian people are very concerned about Muslim immigration and would support an immediate moratorium.
"If there was bird flu coming from a people's groups across the nation, would we not stop to assess the risk management of what it means to Australia and then assess the factors, and say, 'Is it safe to continue that or withhold it until it is dealt with?'" he said. "We are saying there's cracks in the foundation. We need to address them. We need not rush it because we could be making a bad decision."
#1
This is exactly right (if only a first, halting step toward dealing with the situation). islam is a memetic plague transmitted by forced conversion, slave-taking, rape, multiple wives and children and death for apostasy. Simple biology dictates an epidemic of this sort will burn out as it ravages its host. The question is whether there is anything left but a desert in the Dark Age to follow.
Jihad armed group has suddenly gone berserk killing recently two Tamils in the East.
On the last 20 August, according to reports, Jihad armed men have killed, Jeyaraj, (29 years), a three-wheeler driver, at Jinna Nagar, a suburb located at the Third Mile Post, three km north of Trincomalee Town. Also on the same day, Jihad gunmen killed Thiyagachandran (54 Years) at Valaichchenai, who is the brother of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa parliamentarian S. Jeyananthamoorthy.
In a statement, Eelam Revolutionary Organization (EROS) revealed that they have lost one of its members known within EROS as "Gerald" otherwise known as Jeyaraj, who EROS claims was shot and killed on the evening of 20 August at Jinna Nagar in Trincomalee by a man identified as "Nizam" who is affiliated to a group calling themselves the Jihad a armed group mainly of the Muslims in the Eastern Province.
The Jihad armed group have been in existence since 1985 and known to have targeted political opponents and civilians in the past, however this is the first time the Jihad group who are based in parts of Trincomalee, Amparai and Batticaloa have begun to Targets Tamils from the East. Sources in the East told the Asian Tribune that since of late, Jiahd claiming themselves as holy warriors of Islam, has started functioning in the East and are involved in resettling Muslims in Oddamavadi and in the adjacent villages.
Sources told Asian Tribune that Jihad armed group works very closely with some Muslim Government Ministers from the East. Also it was revealed that Jihad and some Muslim Ministers have taken steps to bring in Muslim internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and making arrangements to settle them from Welikantha to Oddamavadi with the view to carve out that region as a separate Muslim district.
#2
Still a 2 way, the Muslims regard themselves as a separate community, while the Tigers regard them as Muslim Tamils. As such the Sri Lankan Muslim are on the governments side in the civil war.
Also called a motorized Rickshaw, think Cushman three-wheeled motor scooter, used as a taxi
(One of the Bond Films had him riding around in a souped-up version)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/23/2007 17:19
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So then, logically, could Philippine surrender spark a narrower war?
As Philippine Armed Forces (AFP) - advised by US military personnel - move against insurgents in the southern Philippines, there is the danger that the clashes could ignite more violence in the restive region. However the offensive could lead to large-scale fighting, as two larger militia groups opposed to the government have exchanged fire with the army in recent weeks.
Good backgrounder on operations in the Philippines, but the "fears" are tedious.
#5
Such one sided bull. Ya had to know it was not good when the map had Viet-Nam centered on the map. The Basilan model worked, when the Marines pushed onto Jolo they did not stop the ASG from moving to Basilan and the ASG regrouped there back under the watchfull eye of Wahib Akbar.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/23/2007 16:42
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#1
These kids understand EXACTLY how Islam should be treated in free countries. Make fun of its silly aspects. Sort of like Monty Python did with Christianity in the Holy Grail.
#2
Thank God (I mean Allah, sorry) that this was in Cornwall and not central London. They would have been stoned and beaten (by the police) and ostracized by Red Ken, Hugo Chavez O.B.E., Gordonian Knot Brown and Jon Snow.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 10:23
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(Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, that his country will not give up its right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful uses, according to reports reaching here. "We think that all peoples should develop nuclear technologies for peaceful purposes within (the framework of) the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)," Ahmadinejad told reporters on the sidelines of his two-day visit to the neighboring Caspian country. He slammed the U.S.-led drive to constrain Iran's nuclear program, saying those forces "have achieved nothing."
"They come against this under various pretexts and want to deprive our people of this right. They're using any means - economic, psychological and military pressure," Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.
On Tuesday, Iran and the IAEA agreed on a working plan to clarify outstanding ambiguities over Tehran's nuclear program. Iran has blocked inspections from the IAEA to its nuclear sites since January this year after the UN Security Council imposed sanctions over the country's controversial nuclear program.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
You have a right by me to make energy with it. But if you are making bombs, which you are, it is far beyond your paygrade to determine your rights.
#3
3dc - nukes are really, REALLY difficult to build, requiring almost foolproof, nanosecond technology. Chemicals are easier, and don't kill you slowly unless you cover yourself in lead. Besides, you can store chemicals separately, and they're relatively harmless. You can't handle nukes like that.
I'm beginning to believe this virus I've had for the last three weeks is indestructable also. If I could find a way to weaponize it, the US could make Iran harmless with one overall spraying.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/23/2007 14:04
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#4
Blah, blah, blah! Like a goddamned broken record.
The chief judge dismissed two former Saddam Hussein aides from the courtroom for unruly behaviour on Wednesday on the second day of a trial over the brutal crushing of a 1991 rebellion by Shiite Muslims.
The order came as a 76-year-old former Shiite lawmaker testified that he was falsely imprisoned for months in the aftermath of the uprising and described fellow inmates being carried back to jail in blankets after hours of torture rendered them unable to walk. I was later released because of the presidential pardon, but my life was already destroyed. I was dismissed from the parliament. My cotton was destroyed by the army shelling and my house was damaged, Kamil Kanoun Abu al-Heil recalled. Al-Heil denied that he was part of the uprising, pointing out that he was a member of Saddams rubber-stamp parliament. I was part of the regime. No way I could have participated in the uprising, he said.
In the middle of Wednesdays session, chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa ordered former Republican Guards commander Maj Gen. Iyad Fathi al-Rawi - who led the 1988 offensives at the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war - to leave the courtroom for not sticking to the rules of the court.
This article starring:
IYAD FATHI AL RAWI
Iraqi Baath Party
judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa
Kamil Kanoun Abu al-Heil
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
This would be the third of six cases on which the US was assisting the tribunal. For obvious reasons it is one with high political profile. The other cases are the marshes case, the Kuwait invasion case, and the special ("revolutionary") courts case (though the top dog of that case, I think, met his end already in the opening Dujayl case). The Iraqis always claimed to be investigating additional cases without our help -but we usually were skeptical about this (and hoped it wasn't true, given our expectations of the work that would be done, uh, "independently").
Bejaia court accusation division referred a printing office-owner and one of his employed to the criminal court for charges of terrorist-acts apology and support to armed terrorist groups. The two men have recognized that they have made seals for Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb while threatened to death.
Actually, in 12/6/2006, a terrorist group required from the owner of a printing office, located in Sidi-Aich municipality, to manufacture 12 different-shapes of seals bearing different symbols to be used by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb organization. Two days later, the same group came back and delivered him a letter signed by the emir of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, urging him to deliver as soon as possible the seals; otherwise the terrorists would murder him and make his family homeless, as to be an example for anyone who challenges the emir of al Qaeda, as mentioned in the letter. Felt threaten, the printing-owner decided to inform safety services who opened an investigation on this case, unveiling, thus, that the employee and some of his employed are involved in.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
#1
You might say that by their threatening behavior they "sealed their fate".
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 9:17
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Soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division, with U.S. Special Forces as advisers, conducted an intelligence driven raid, detaining one individual who is suspected of money laundering Aug. 20 in Bayji.
During the operation, Iraqi Army Scouts simultaneously raided multiple buildings, detaining their primary target. The suspected terrorist is believed to be responsible for smuggling money in exchange for weapons, explosives and men, which are then used by the al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist network for attacks against innocent civilians and Coalition Forces. Ledgers, a large sum of Iraqi and U.S. money, money counting machines, a9mm pistol and various ammunition were confiscated for further analysis. No Iraqi or U.S. Special Forces were injured during the raid.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
EGGCELLENT!.....~:)
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/23/2007 3:17
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#2
Something to note is that we are training Iraqi SF's and they are now getting deployed and getting results. Just like we need more SFO's so do the IA and the sooner the better.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 9:21
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#3
One thing that worries me about our training of Iraqi forces is that we may end up having to fight against them sometime soon. Sort of like the Israelis are dealing with regarding the Paleos we trained.
Dorian Paskowitz, a retired doctor who has been surfing for 75 years, donated 12 surfboards to Gaza's small surfing community on Tuesday in a novel gesture to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians. "God will surf with the devil if the waves are good," Paskowitz said. "When a surfer sees another surfer with a board, he can't help but say something that brings them together."
Here's something the surfers can say to each other: "Didja ever see Mo on a surfboard?"
Tanned and shirtless, Paskowitz emerged grinning at the Israel-Gaza border crossing after handing over the dozen boards to Palestinian surfers waiting on the other side. He said he was inspired after reading a story about two Gaza surfers who could not enjoy the wild waves off the coastal strip because they had only one board to share between them. "So I said to my son 'come, we'll go to Israel and get them some boards,'" Paskowitz told AP Television News. He described his mission as a "mitzvah," Hebrew for a "good deed."
During his visit, Paskowitz said he wanted to "do something spectacular, like getting all the surfers and paddling around into the waters of Gaza." But those plans were scuttled because of security concerns. Arthur Rashkovan, a 28-year-old surfer from Tel Aviv, said Paskowitz's project was part of a larger effort called "Surfing for Peace," aimed at bringing Middle Eastern surfers closer together. He said eight-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater, who is of Syrian descent, is expected to arrive in Israel in October to take part in the drive. "We want Palestinians to enjoy the surfing experience until a fatwa outlaws it. We believe it brings people together," Rashkovan said. "The idea is for people to forget about the violence and follow the journey to peace on the waves."
Paskowitz is venerated by Israeli surfers as the man who brought the sport to the Jewish state five decades ago. Rashkovan called him a "guru" to Israeli surfers. Paskowitz said he first arrived in Israel in 1956 during a war between Israel and Egypt. He tried to join the Israeli military but was turned down. So he surfed off the coast of Tel Aviv instead, he recounted, and was mobbed by Israelis charmed by the strange sight of a man riding the waves standing upright on a board.
The father of nine served in the Navy during World War II, practiced family medicine for more than half a century and has published books on surfing and health. He said he has surfed for 75 years all over the world, and he ranks the waves off the Israeli and Gaza coasts as among the world's best. "I'm 86 years old. I can't stand up very well, I have a piece of titanium in my hip. But I still love it," he said.
The man is trying to use the tools he has for peace. It won't work, but I respect his accomplishments and WWII service. Good luck, and may the "surfing lessons" not end up providing cover for Syrian frogmen attaching mines to things.
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
08/23/2007
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#1
Surfing is fun. That pretty much makes it un-Islamic as far as I can tell.
#2
Wasn't Patrick Swayze in a movie where they attacked on surf boards? I was reminded of this, with a fun visual ;) although I don't remember the name of the movie.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/23/2007 1:16
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#3
That explains the Lebanese bikini babes on DRUDGE.
#5
Patrick Swayze Movie---Point Break, 1991. They also don Nixon and Reagan masks to rob the bank. I can picture it redone with a terrorism plot. Might be on next summer's list.
Posted by: NOLA ||
08/23/2007 4:18
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#6
Thanks, NOLA. Patrick Swayze's childhood dance classes have paid off for him in a number of interesting ways.
Separately, what's the over/under betting on how long will the Gazan surfers (and I'm sure there are more than the two in the story who would like to try this) be able to use the boards peacefully before the newly constituted Hamasistan Shore Police stop the fun?
Actually, there is a good surfing spot in Hazuk near the Gaza - Israeli border. There are even "kosher" surfing lessons and boards "shaped" in Israel. I believe there is a number of Paleo surfers. The ultimate "your so radical, dude".
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 9:32
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#13
I was in Israel in 1984 and saw a lot of surfers off Tel Aviv. And a lot of hot Israeli surfer girls. Surf was about 5 feet that day.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/23/2007 9:52
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As a longtime surfer, I believe this could be some of the best news to come out of the Middle East in a long, long time. If a guy gets stoked from riding waves (I said stoked, not stoned) it will give him something to live for so he won't want to die making jihad. After several hours in the water he will be too tired to be bothered with jihad. Yes, the clerics are certain to be unhappy with it because it is fun and it might make them forget about one or more of their five daily prayers. But then, the clerics should be shot for perpetuating superstition.
The Gaza strip with its Mediterranean climate and nice beaches could be one of the nicest places on the planet. Much of the disrespect I have for Palestinians is they don't understand what they have or what they could be doing with it. They should be surfing. They should be building resort hotels to generate some revenue and jobs. Then if you were a young Palestinian you could get a job as a waiter working the lunch shift from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. That would give you time in the morning for surf. After your shift is over you go home for something to eat and a nap. Then you could go back into the water for the evening glass off (wind goes down and the waves get smooth and glassy). Later on you go to the nightclub for some dancing with the local hotties. There you have perfection.
That's what the Lebanese do (or at least it's what the Lebanese do when they're not fighting knucklehead Palestinian refugees or Hezbollah idiots).
But, no, they want to make jihad. They want to kill the Jews who could be the best friends they ever had...the Jews who want to give them surfboards because it's a mitzvah.
Of course the Jews surf. Jews are civilized and surfing is one of the most civilized things you can do.
Take this surfboard, my brother. May it serve you well.
#16
Don't do Portugal for surfing. The best surfing in Europe is Lahinch, Co. Clare, Ireland. No kidding. In fact, the Euro championships are held there regularly. You can play golf in the morning on the most funky links golf in the world and then go down to O'Looney's and watch the riders come in on big long sets in Liscanoor Bay. Nothing better than Guinness, Galway Bay Oysters and watching the sun set over Liscanoor Bay with the surfer babes all lathered up.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 17:06
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Gunmen hunted down and killed five farmers in a Colombian region plagued by violence and drug trafficking in an attack authorities blamed on the nation's largest rebel group.
Community leader Carlos Beer said at least 70 gunmen went house-to-house in the village of Currulao with a list of names late Tuesday, killing three women and two men with shots to the head. Eleven othes were injured in the attack, which took place near the port of Turbo, 470 kilometers northwest of the capital, Bogota. "There is a strong FARC (guerrilla) presence in the region," said Beer. "The guerrilla group gave the community a warning when they murdered a farmer on the outskirts of Currulao a week ago."
In an interview with Caracol radio on Wednesday, Mayor William Palacio blamed the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, for the killings. He said the victims were deserters from the leftist insurgency and ex-members of far-right paramilitaries.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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The leader of Iraq's banned Baath party, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has decided to join efforts by the Iraqi authorities to fight al-Qaeda, one of the party's former top officials, Abu Wisam al-Jashaami, told pan-Arab daily Al Hayat.
Al-Douri has decided to deal directly with US forces in Iraq. He has asked for guarantees over his men's safety and for an end to Iraqi army attacks on his militias.
"Al-Douri has decided to sever ties with al-Qaeda and sign up to the programme of the national resistance, which includes routing Islamist terrorists and opening up dialogue with the Baghdad government and foreign forces," al-Jashaami said. Al-Douri has decided to deal directly with US forces in Iraq, according to al-Jashaami. He figures in the 55-card deck of "most wanted" officials from the former Iraqi regime issued by the US government. In return, for cooperating in the fight against al-Qaeda, al-Douri has asked for guarantees over his men's safety and for an end to Iraqi army attacks on his militias.
We might have to go along with this, but that doesn't mean we have to like it ...
Recent weeks have seen a first step in this direction, when Baathist fighters cooperated with Iraqi government forces in hunting down al-Qaeda operatives in the volatile Diyala province and in several districts of the capital, Baghadad. Although the Baath party was officially banned after US-led forces in 2003 toppled the regime of Iraq's late president Saddam Hussein, its members have fought in the insurgency. Until just a few months ago, former Baath party members were helping Islamists carry out terrorist attacks against US forces in Iraq.
If this report is true, and the terms of the agreement as laid out, this could be the turning point in the war. The Baath party is outlawed, but a simple name change can deal with that. It can bring a secular Sunni-based party to the political stage to counterbalance the Shiite-heavy arrangement in the parliament. Dealing directly with the U.S. military, Izzy could become the agent of an actual reconciliation, negotiating terms of surrender - not that it would ever be called that - and reconstruction.
#1
Hmmm. Aside from all the predictable sources of unease on this, I'm not so sure the redhead can deliver "the Sunnis". But who knows - maybe a portion.
If there is anything to this - and that's a big "if" - I'd advise driving an extremely hard bargain. So hard that it isn't distinguishable from surrender. Refusing to crush Sunni resistance was one of the Three Actual Mistakes, and while it can't be made good completely at this point, some aggressive deal-making that brings Sunni bad guys into the fold only on condition of their de facto surrender would help.
I'm astounded to hear from a friend still back having fun over there that these Sunni "insurgents" we are now so happily befriending are in fact being input into the theater biometric database (BATS). I'm skeptical that even these dimwits are so dim as to allow this, but if true it's something positive. A truly useful moment all around would be for a falling out with one of these gangs, settled by a US round-up and general whomping of their behinds, aided of course by the knowledge of exactly who they are (uh, not that that would require much genius in most cases even without the wondrous reconciliation with the infidel occupier, but let's leave that whining point aside).
#2
I'll bite, Verlaine: what were the other two actual mistakes?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/23/2007 1:46
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#3
Izzy al-Douri to throw in towel
I'll take another line here Verlaine,
this is part of a big win for us,
In the short term Petraeus wins next month.
I think Izzy al-Douri's hand was forced by the the USA/Special Forces Marines and the Sunni Anbar Tribes. He can and should be used up like an old lawn mower for us.
I hope we keep "interfering" and out manuvering the Iraqi political parties, more proactively now because the next move after the Sunni areas will have to be Sadr City and the South, Najaf [Tater], Karballah [Tater/Badr], Basra [Tater/Badr] and by extension Iran.
my 2¢
~:)
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/23/2007 4:05
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#5
Last of the Red Hot ...Mamas? Anybody know where he was in "The Deck of Cards" and who's left?
News is getting better; the MSM - quieter.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/23/2007 6:51
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#6
King of Clubs as I recall. And holder of all the pass codes to the secret bank accounts and locations of cash.
If true, this would be as big a victory as Sherman's at Atlanta, both militarily and politically. The donks will have screwed themselves by putting Petraeus down. He would make a great candidate in '12 for whomever is out of office.
Also has to make Maliki think twice about being such a toady to Tater. The Kurds don't always have to side with the Shia.
A surrender is a surrender; we don't need bragging rights, too. Distasteful as it may be in the moment, we shouldn't hold out for the last nickel on the table if it means a chance we lose the deal. This would start paying immediate dividends. Carefully consider Grant's example.
#8
Guys, this one was the smartest of the bunch. If he is coming in, and getting a deal, you can bet your ass that he is bringing something of value. Unlike most of the other Baathists, this guy had options (money and access) to be somewhere else, far far away - and be fairly safe.
#9
I don't know, my guess is that the secret bank accounts are starting to run dry, and al-Douri isn't sanguine about refilling them from al-Queda or Iranian backers any more.
I've never been exactly clear on just how instrumental al-Douri has been in the Baath insurgency, and how much he's been the figurehead. Are we sure he's the guy with Saddam's ATM PIN codes?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/23/2007 9:53
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#10
I wonder what the Syrian-Jordanian angle is? That is, this cur and his cabal are based in Damascus, with some of them in Jordan. So several things come into play, which may or may not be related to this.
1) The money is running out.
2) The Syrians or Jordanians are leaning on them.
3) Just a day or two ago, Saddam's daughter, also a big player in this, was told she wouldn't be extradited.
#11
All of these guys are opportunists; they hold their finger up and see which way the wind is blowing. Way back when, Saddam was the gravy train, but now it's the Coalition. [Shrugs] They're thugs, but they're the thugs we have to deal with, so we hold our nose and let them belly up to the trough. If we can get them to turn on al Qaeda and the Iranian clients, it will be worth it.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
08/23/2007 11:31
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#12
I, for one, welcome our new Baathist overlords.
/sarcasm
Seriously, we need the Sunnis on board, and to make that happen we need to deal with dirt bags like this.
Posted by: Lord Of Monkey's ||
08/23/2007 12:36
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#14
OldSpook, I'm with you on this one. Probably plenty of $$$ still, but no real future. Sees an opportunity to move NOW, get a choice spot. Probably doesn't like his options if Dems force a withdrawal either, so timing is in support of Gen. Petreaus's report. Timing is everything. Probably still sees Shi'ites as main enemy, gets to put a stick in their eye at the same time. Take him.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/23/2007 21:31
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US Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday the Iraqi Parliament should replace embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with a "less divisive and more unifying figure" to reconcile political and religious factions.
Must be channeling her inner JFK. You'd think the crowd that compares Iraq to Vietnam would remember that removing Diem didn't turn out so well.
Clinton, the 2008 Democratic US presidential front-runner, made her comments the same day President George W. Bush reaffirmed his support for al-Maliki. In a statement released by her Senate office, Clinton echoed a call by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin for Iraq's Parliament to oust al-Maliki in favor of a leader who could restore order to Iraq's unity government.
It's not our business to tell the Iraqi parliament who their prime minister should be.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
I question the timing.
It is intresting that Maliki has been lately rather succesful in bringing different segments together. Maybe that's the problem--an end of quagmire in sight. For Dhimmicrats, that is rather a hot potato.
#2
Overt US comments on Iraqi leadership - stupid. US-set "benchmarks" for Iraqi govt. to meet - stupid. Whole concept of "forcing" Iraqis to magically settle the whole mess in a timeframe never seen in all of human history for such things - incredibly stupid. Whole concept that legislative acts in B'dad will have one iota of impact on enemies of order in Iraq, who commit their mayhem for myriad bad reasons - beyond incredibly stupid.
#6
Whole concept of "forcing" Iraqis to magically settle the whole mess in a timeframe never seen in all of human history for such things - incredibly stupid.
And deeply uninformed about Arab and Kurd cultures.
#9
The arrogance and hypocrisy of this statement is staggering. Breath-taking. So now American Presidents are meant to remove foreign leaders by fiat but only provided the suggestion is a bone thrown to the mouth-breathers of the Democratic party funding base. Arguably stupider than Obama's land invasion of Pakistan and making a great deal less sense.
#12
The Dummycritter Party has gone out of its way to prove they have no clue how to conduct foreign policy. Between Hitlery's stupid statement that "the US should replace Iraqi Prime Minister" (we called for democratic elections, now we want to renege?), to Artless Airhea Obama calling for a ground invasion of Pakistan (why telegraph our moves in advance?) to ending the "blockade" of Cuba, the donkey party has proven to the American people what most only suspected - they're clueless. They're not much better on domestic policy - raising taxes, reinstating the draft, amnesty to illegal aliens, etc. The whole group should be airlifted to Darfur, dropped from 25,000 feet without parachutes, with spork and cooking instructions attached. That way they can at least contribute to the "health and well-being" of the region.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/23/2007 13:39
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Police in Pierce County said two pit bull terriers broke into a woman's home through a pet door and attacked her in her bed. "Grrrr. Is this the Vick residence?"
The victim, identified as Sue Ann Gorman, was able to grab a gun and shoot at the dogs as she got away and locked herself in her car, where she called 911. Responding firefighters locked the pit bulls in the house until deputies arrived. Officers had to use pepper spray and fight the dogs to get them into custody.
The pit bulls also killed a neighbor's Jack Russell terrier who entered through the pet door after hearing noises in the home, police said. The little boy who owned the Jack Russell terrier that was killed told KING-TV he was sad but he felt that his dog, Romeo, "died as a hero." [damn] He's over the Rainbow Bridge, eating treats and chasing balls. He'll wait for you, kid.
Animal control officers said Gorman, who was hospitalized in serious condition, was covered in blood after the attack. The officers described it as the worst mauling they've ever seen, according to KING-TV in Seattle. Officers said Gorman, 59, was sound asleep at the time of the bloody attack. "Tears into her hands and arms and into her breast and face," said Gorman's friend Carol Southworth. "Pretty much from head-to-toe, she was covered in blood," said Pierce County Animal Control officer Brian Bowman.
"I can just say I'm sorry because I I'm terrified I'm gonna get my ass sued off can't take it back," Zack Martin, one of the dogs' owners Imams, told KING-TV. He said one of dogs was his and the other belonged to a friend. KING-TV reported that Martin said one of the dogs chewed on a rope holding up the fence to his madrassa backyard, and that's how the dogs escaped. "I would never think my dog would do something like that," said Martin. When interviewed by K9-TV, the dogs said "It was the wrong house. But, anyway. Allahu Akhbar!"
Neighbors told KING-TV that they have had problems in the past with the two pit bulls running wild. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to file charges against the dogs' owners. Animal control officers said they would recommend at least gross misdemeanor charges, according to KING-TV. Why do they hate us?
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
08/23/2007
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#1
Neighbors told KING-TV that they have had problems in the past with the two pit bulls running wild.
And that right there is the lawsuit done and dusted.
Germany's grand coalition government has agreed to extend the Bundeswehr's peacekeeping mission in Lebanon until September of next year.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
Read - the Russians [Navy] might be comin'. CHURCHILL WW2 > no matter the costs in men, ships, and planes, no matter what decision or plan of action you take, you must SINK THE BISMARCK = GORSHKOV.
(Xinhua) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's would-be assassin, a female member of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), has been captured in the southern province of Caqueta, the military announced on Tuesday.
Smith Duarte, a 30-year-old woman, was arrested on charges of rebellion and terrorism. The woman, also known as Aura Maria Morales, is accused of attempting to kill Uribe on April 21, 2005, when the president was touring the city of Neiva, capital of Huila province in southwestern Colombia. Duarte and two other suspects fired a rocket at Uribe's plane on landing at Neiva airport, but failed to hit the target. The would-be assassins immediately fled the scene after the attack. Military police later searched a house close to the airport and found a U.S.-made M72 rocket.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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(Xinhuanet) -- Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said in an op-ed piece Tuesday in the Miami Herald that he thinks the United States should ease restrictions for Cuban-Americans who want to visit the island or send money home. "Senator Obama feels that the Bush administration has made a humanitarian and a strategic blunder," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday in an e-mail. "His concern is that this has had a profoundly negative impact on the Cuban people, making them more dependent on the Castro regime, thus isolating them from the transformative message carried by Cuban-Americans."
While the U.S. embargo has limited who can travel to Cuba and what can be sent there since the early 1960s, restrictions added by the Bush administration in 2004 made visiting and shipping gifts to Cuba more difficult. Most Cubans in the U.S. can only visit the island once every three years and can only send quarterly remittances of up to 300 U.S. dollars per household to immediate family members. Previously, they could visit once a year and send up to 3,000 dollars. The U.S. also tightened restrictions on travel for educational and religious groups.
The Miami-Dade Democratic Party is in favor of lifting the restrictions last week. Obama will speak at a fund-raiser for the chapter Saturday at the Miami-Dade Auditorium, the same Little Havana site where Ronald Reagan won over many in the Cuban community more than 20 years ago. Joe Garcia, the group's chairman, praised Obama's proposal. "It shows courage, and it shows commitment to move beyond the status-quo politics of rhetoric, which is all the Cuban-American community has received from any party for the last half century," said Garcia, a former head of the Cuban-American Foundation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
Effing brilliant. Prop up the Western hemispere's last Cold War communist regime just as it enters its death throes. Is this man a total flaming genius or what?
#2
The honourable senator appeared on Comedy Central's The Daily Show last night. Mr. Wife commented it confirmed his decision not to vote for the gentleman.
#8
As dictatorships go, Cuba's is not all that bad (before y'all jump down my throat on that, compare statistics like political imprisonments and executions per capita, or ratio of dicator's wealth to average person's wealth with wonderlands like Iran or ZimBobWay.) Unilateral sanctions have not done anything to damage Castro (he's been in power 57 years or so), just the regular folks. This issue isn't a big deal in the real world, except for Miami. In fact, since 57 years of sanctions haven't gotten us anywhere, maybe we ought to try something else - like buying the whole place. How much could it cost?
#11
I think a lifting of the sanctions is a good thing. for the week or two it would take to buy and ship all the 55-57 Fords and Chevvies and other potential refugee boat conversion donors(think back to the 59 buickboat last year) back to the US.
Afghan police shot dead a Pakistani rickshaw driver on Wednesday when he was returning to Pakistan after dropping off commuters in Afghan territory. Chaman police said they were trying to ascertain whether the driver was killed in Afghan territory or inside the Pakistani border. Driver Azizullah had been hired by Afghan nationals to transport them to Killi Murad in Afghanistan, they added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
Just like Coconut Grove in Miami. I was dropped off last night at Mr. Frogs and the next thing I know I'm hearing gunfire......
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 9:15
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MINGORA: Swat District Coordination Officer Syed Mohammad Javed has stopped NGOs from working in the district after they received threatening letters from suspected militants. Two NGOs SPEED and PLAIN which had set up offices near the office of the Swat DCO were sealed by the DCO. Militants have also sent threatening letters to Swat Serena Hotel and Mary Stopes, an NGO. Sources said the letters asked women performing in CD-dramas or working at beauty parlours to stop their immoral activities. Earlier, medical reps in Swat were asked to stop wearing paint/jeans and shirts as they are un-Islamic dresses.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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There used to be certain laws about mortgages, wisdom slowly acquired through past boom and bust cycles of American history. You got a fixed, usually 30-year mortgage. You paid 20% down. And you bought a house whose debt payments did not eat up more than 30-40% of your monthly income.
Tales of wild real estate riches and speculative profits, even if true, meant little, since a home was more than just an investment. Somehow all that was forgotten with no or little down payment loans, adjustable-rate or interest only schedules, and excess purchased square footage.
Apparently the idea was either to appreciate yourself into 2nd and 3rd mortgage equity, or to expect interest rates magically to go down and thus lower payments, or to buy and sell/buy and sell yourself into a mansion. So the house of straw is now tragically collapsing, and the old wisdom of the past being relearned.
Ditto the Chinese serial fiascos. In the 19th century, the muckrakers, crusaders, and populists all lectured us that most industrialists were good, but a small minority that wasnt could do great damage through the mass sale of toxic products. Thus arose the alphabet soup of regulatory agencies and the consumer movement.
But then the new wisdom ignored that and we were told that out-sourcing was a win/win situation, as cheap goods flooded into the US, keeping inflation low, expanding our purchasing power, freeing us up from the drudgery of rote labor, while moderating the Chinese.
Few asked whether there were comparable regulatory institutions in China. And there werent. And now we have everything from toxic pet food to tainted toysexactly in the manner of our own spoiled canned meat and drug-laced soft-drinks of generations past. Again we forget our ancestors past wisdom about human nature.
Ditto again open borders. Our illiberal ancestors worried about letting in too many groups in too quickly a time under less than legal auspices, lest the heralded melting pot stagnate and solidify.
We in our infinite wisdom laughed at all that as protectionist, illiberal, nativist, even racist. And so like the laxity of the Chinese manufacturing sector, for 30 years the U.S. functioned without the rule of law. Now the result is that Los Angeles is the second largest city of Mexican nationals in the world, the legal system has become a mockery, and the bankrupt idea of a salad bowl of unmixed and competing tribes has replaced the melting pot. Apartheid communities in the United Statestry visiting Parlier or Orange Cove, California are somehow models of diversity, not to be lamented for their poverty, racial and linguistic uniformity, and entitlement-dependent and often exploited illegal aliens.
How odd that liberalism is giving us a model right out of the Old Confederacy or South Africa, a nation in the American Southwest of two different societies. The old truism holds true: each time a Mexican national enters the US legally, knows English, and has graduated from high school, an employer loses a potential bargain hire and the Chicano Studies industry an exploited victim in need of its crusading zeal.
So once more we are turning back to the mundane: nations must have borders; a citizenry should have a single uniform official language; assimilation and integration must be encouraged, and separatism and tribalism shunned.
The one common thread is again short-term bounty and convenience at the expense of long-term disaster. An odd thought: I wish I could say that had we more farmers in this society, who are born, live, and die in the same place, and depend on what works over decades rather than what seems to work over a few years, we wouldnt be in such dilemmas.
I say I wish because agriculture for years depended on illegal immigration, failing to realize that scarce labor would make prices rise and mechanization quickenand that the doom of farmers was always overproduction and surfeit never shortages of product.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/23/2007
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#2
Nations must have borders; a citizenry should have a single uniform official language; assimilation and integration must be encouraged, and separatism and tribalism shunned.
Thats all I want. But none of the current candidates is standing strong for that, except possibly a couple of the Republicans (but about half the Repubs in Congress aren't strong on the above either).
Looks to me that it all boils down to the fact that the Love of Money is the root of all kinds of evil, and apparently the root of the evils recounted here.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, secretary general of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and head of his own Jamiat Ulema Islam faction (JUI-Fazl), has said he will fully resist any attempt by President General Pervez Musharraf to get re-elected in uniform from the current assemblies.
Maulana Fazl also scoffed at reports painting a formal meeting of his with Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as a step towards a possible deal between the government and JUI-F on the presidential election, saying it was virtually impossible to hold talks with unconstitutional and undemocratic elements. Addressing a press conference after an MMA Supreme Council meeting in Quetta, he said he would take full part in forthcoming general elections. He said the names of MMA candidates would be announced on September 10, and these would be sent to the alliances provincial and parliamentary boards.
This article starring:
MAULANA FAZLUR REHMAN
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain
Jamiat Ulema Islam
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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As the west African country of Niger prepares for the uranium mineral-rush its leaders hope will lift the nation out of dire poverty, Tuareg-led rebels are waging a guerrilla war to demand a larger share of reserves, believed to be the among the largest in the world.
In the latest round of fighting, the rebel group this week killed 17 government soldiers in the remote north, where uranium is mined. It has killed at least 44 troops since February.
The Niger Movement for Justice launched its uprising in the desert wastes of the Sahara, which stretches across northern Niger, to demand a better deal for the Tuareg nomads.
The majority of Niger's 12 million people are black African Hausas, who dominate the economy and politics and live in the south, near the Niger River, away from the uranium riches. The people of landlocked Niger are, despite the uranium reserves, among the poorest on earth: Niger is bottom of the United Nations Human Development Index. The light-skinned Tuaregs number about two million. Historically, they raided the south and captured Hausas as slaves.
In 1998, the Tuareg were promised greater autonomy by the Niamey-based government in southern Niger, but all promises have since been broken, fuelling Tuareg anger as the south has profited from the uranium mines. Uranium comprises more than 70 per cent of the country's exports.
The government of the former French colony has awarded prospecting permits to companies from the UK, China, India, Canada, Russia, Australia, South Africa and France, and has repeatedly claimed it is in control of the region.
To date a total of 89 uranium licences have been handed out by President Mamadou Tandja's government since it started to open up the reserves to foreign competition. Mining had been dominated by French nuclear reactor maker and utility Areva, but the government has diversified prospecting permits in an attempt to break France's semi-colonial control of the trade.
The rebel MNJ said a large convoy of military vehicles had advanced towards the town of Iferouane on Monday, prompting Tuesday's encounter.
"There was a clash, and 17 of them were killed and six vehicles destroyed," the rebels said in a statement. Government officials in Niamey admitted one soldier was killed in a four-hour battle.
Iferouane is a small oasis town of about 5,000 people more than 620 miles north of Niamey. But Tuareg grazing grounds around it have been disturbed by modern roads driven through to get at the uranium reserves.
President Mamadou's government dismisses the group as bandits and drug traffickers and has accused Libya and Areva of backing the revolt. Areva has since increased the royalties it pays to Niamey for the uranium it mines in the north.
The government last weekend accused unidentified "rich foreign powers" of paying mercenaries to lay mines in the region. A mine explosion killed four military police officers and seriously wounded three more on Monday near the ancient Saharan trading town of Agadez, the government said.
(SomaliNet)An Ethiopian convoy has gone under attack in north of the Somalia capital Mogadishu on Wednesday as the insurgent groups continue targeting the government interests with bombing and killing. Witnesses told Somalinet that local militants threw grenade bombs at the convoy that passing Suuqa Xoolaha village in Huriwa district where the Ethiopians responded with the gunshots. Two civilians were confirmed dead and four others were wounded in bomb explosions but it is not yet clear the exact casualty on the Ethiopian soldiers. Three of the wounded were women. The Ethiopian troops sealed off the area and began searching for suspects but no one was arrested so far.
In another incident, the house of Wadajir district commissioner, Ahmed Daaci was attacked last night by unknown gunmen. Daaci told the local media that a grenade was hurled at his home on Tuesday evening. He said no one was hurt. Witnesses said his bodyguards opened fire at every direction after the incident.
Meanwhile, local medical sources say that 32 civilians were wounded in the violence in Mogadishu since last week, eight of them died of the wounds.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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Iran is not Al Qaeda. We need to isolate the ruling elite and radical clerics by reaching out to the Iranian people directly.
By Marc Gopin and Gregory Meeks
Washington - There have been persistent rumors in Washington that President Bush does not want to leave office without "doing something" about Iran. Even more alarming, there have been rumors that Mr. Bush has solicited a green light from Russian President Vladimir Putin for Israel to "do something" about Iran.
Russia once again plays all sides at once.
One of the central problems with the Bush administration is that it thinks military first and sometimes military only with disastrous results for America. Though military action is an option, the consequences of the United States or Israel attacking Iran would be catastrophic.
If it's catastrophic then it's not an option, is it? And if it's an option, one could perhaps consider situations where the use of military force would not be catastrophic.
Fortunately, the American people do not want this to happen. Only 10 percent approve of a military confrontation with Iran, according to a CBS/New York Times poll in March, and most worry about America's troubled relationship with the Muslim world. A large majority are concerned that the Iraq war is destroying America's international reputation. They do not want to make matters worse.
Fewer than 10 percent of Americans have a clear understanding of what Iran is doing to destabilize Iraq, promote terrrorism, undermine Lebanon, sponsor Hamas and Hezbollah, prop up Syria, and in general make an all-round nuisance of itself. Educate the American people and then re-ask the question.
Even fewer know or care about the Iranian chicanery in Central and South America.
Iran is not Al Qaeda. It is a complex society that combines clerical rule, populism, and a series of power groups. The most dangerous are the Revolutionary Guard, composed of a powerful and wealthy military elite, whose influence can only continue if the world isolates Iran.
This is the usual argument from the Cold War: if only we 'opened up' to the Communists we could end the isolation of their countries. This usually meant our making concession after concession without extracting anything of use from the Russkies. I think this style of foreign policy was called, 'realism'.
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also depends on the populist appeal of confrontation with the West bolstered recently by the Bush administration's labeling of the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. The Achilles' heel is that Mr. Ahmadinejad's popular appeal only works when the West is unpopular, and nothing could be more unpopular to Iranians than a US-inspired attack. An external attack often shifts public opinion to the hard right.
Often but not always. Context is everything. Much of the Iranian people profess admiration for us despite -- or because of -- what's happened so far. A military intervention that (for example) knocked the Mad Mullahs out of the way and let the Iranian people choose a government might not harm popular opinion of us at all.
The Revolutionary Guard's new terrorist label, which fetters more than frees US diplomacy efforts, should not offer a convenient excuse for further disengagement.
How exactly does it fetter us? Instead it provides us with a valuable diplomatic and suasive tool: it's called, 'clarity'. When Ronald Reagan labeled the Soviet Union an 'evil empire', it didn't bind him in the least, rather it allowed him to make clear and succient what the nature of the problem was. The Soviets were indeed an evil empire. The Revolutionary Guards are indeed a terrorist organization. Make that clear and you've gone a fair ways to understanding both the nature of the problem and the solution that is required.
Rather, the perfect way to isolate the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian president, and the radical clerics, is to invite the Iranian people into an ever more hopeful relationship with the West.
Which we've been doing, though the authors have failed to notice because we haven't been blowing our trumpets about it. We've been quietly undermining the Mad Mullahs by helping the Iranian people get to western culture. They love it and they want more of it. We don't need to proselytize; we can let our culture speak for us.
The time for doing this is perfect. President Ahmadinejad has failed to deliver on his campaign promises of better consumer prices. Iranians are also distressed by unprecedented oil rationing.
The authors missed how the Bush administration has been working quietly behind the scenes to help this along, tightening financial screws and making business more difficult for the Mullahs. It's not perfect but there has indeed been a strategy in place.
Some in Washington might say that this is attributable to US-led sanctions, though it is worth noting that America's allies are resisting and perhaps with good reason.
Because they want the money.
Unilateral sanctions have not proved to be an effective way to change a country's behavior.
That didn't stop the Left from advocating sanctions against South Africa back in the day, and doesn't stop the Looney Left from advocating sanctions against Israel today. I'd like to see the authors take a stand against those, just for intellectual consistency.
First, according to a recent study by David Lektzian of Texas Tech University and Christopher Sprecher of Texas A&M University, sanctions actually make it far more likely that two states will meet on the battlefield. Out of 200 cases studied, military conflicts were six times more likely to occur when sanctions were in place.
Just like South Africa.
Second, as in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the weight of sanctions would burden the Iranian regime less than it would the Iranian people.
George Bush had a solution for that. He agreed that the sanctions weren't containing Saddam and were only hurting the decent Iraqi people. You may wish to note how he responded.
In a recent poll by Terror Free Tomorrow, a nonprofit research group that develops strategies to counter terrorism,
... and a group comprised of the usual sorts of 'realists' who were too happy to accomodate the Soviets because we didn't want to anger them ...
70 percent of Iranians thought that normal relations with the West should be a high priority, but only 29 percent thought nuclear energy should be, and an astonishing 61 percent disapproved of Ahmadinejad's government.
Those numbers should tell us something: we need to apply more pressure on the Mad Mullahs, not less. They're in a weak position and could easily collapse. Instead, the authors advocate snatching defeat from victory.
The internal vulnerabilities of Iran's ruling circles make this a perfect time to extend an olive branch to the people of Iran with a diplomatic initiative that involves economic incentives and development opportunities for the poor, the middle class, and the reformers.
Absolutely wrong, and wrong for a simple reason: there's no way to reach 'the people' with any of those incentives and opportunities.
The authors may not realize this (pro'ly not given what they've written), but you see, Iran is a 'dictatorship': a government controlled and run by a group of clerical thugs for their own, personal benefit. The usual way 'incentives' and 'opportunities' work in a dictatorship is that they're all channeled to the thugs, their families and toadies. The poor working stiffs see nothing. And just try to audit them, let alone call them on their thievery and thuggery. The authors would brandish a carrot -- the Mullahs will eat the carrot and demand another one. Then another one. This will keep going, and if you dare suggest that we perhaps shouldn't offer any more carrots, you'll be accused of 'taking a step backwards'.
Multilateralism is a must if we want this to happen, because Europe, Russia, Japan, and others maintain good relations with Iran's business sector,
... so as to grab a few table scraps ...
the kind necessary in order to provide socioeconomic development assistance. If the Revolutionary Guard and the president block these gestures then "it is on their heads," and we will likely see them increasingly marginalized.
They'll be increasingly marginalized by ensuring that we don't do stupid things that keep them in power, like giving them an unlimited supply of carrots.
Admittedly, much of what we're prescribing dovetails with the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group. We thought it appropriate to offer a reminder. The American people must tell their leaders to lead with a big stick, but peacefully, and with respect for a great civilization.
It's precisely because we respect the great civilization of Medes and Persians that we need to remove the Mad Mullahs.
Marc Gopin is the James Laue Professor at George Mason University's Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and the director of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution. Gregory Meeks is a Democrat who represents the Sixth District of New York in the House of Representatives and serves on the foreign affairs committee.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/23/2007
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#1
Looks like that "News organization" does not understand the nuance of what this really is. Ever heard of GOG or MAGOG?
But thanks for the suggestion. It is in the box.
P.S. Natural allies means with the people, not that mullahcracy.
#3
Nice job, Steve. You've more patience than I. What nonsense - and how typical - we're awash in this sophomoric crap. "Conflict resolution" was how WWII was ended.
One of the central problems with the Bush administration is that it thinks military first and sometimes military only with disastrous results for America.
WTF? What hallucinogenic make-believe world do these idiots inhabit? Yes - the one created by the pathetic, tendentious media that misinforms and energetically constructs vast edifices of distortion and fabrication.
Name a single time the Bush admin. has thought "military first, military only" - a single time. Or any time there have been "disastrous consequences for America". Any.
Don't forget, this childish garbage is exactly the sort of crap that is pushed on college and even some high school students. Many, to their credit, resist (a friend teaches the most popular classes at a state college, as a guest lecturer, and many students confide in him that they get only crap like this in their other courses). But that this sort of junk can even be published demonstrates an appalling level of ignorance and delusion among "educated" folks.
#5
Iran is not Al Qaeda. We need to isolate the ruling elite and radical clerics by reaching out to the Iranian people directly.
I think we were trying that and Iran found out and tossed all the operatives in jail.
Although it's not clear that they were there specifically to foment insurrection, and even if they were, it's not clear they were working at the behest of the US govt or Sorostan.
#6
How to challenge Iran's militancy without using arms
What, you mean kick them to death? That doesn't use any arms.
As the massive amount of justified inline indicates, this entire article is one gigantic rectal fetch. The authors are not just clueless, they are dangerously clueless.
#7
An external attack often shifts public opinion to the hard right.
Which laughably absurd statement puts the writers neatly into their conceptual box, nails the lid down firmly, and buries it six feet under the ground.
#8
This is an ongoing debate here at Rantburg U. My idea is that the time to deal diplomatically with the Mad Mullahs passed some 25 years ago, and the best at this point we can hope for is airstrikes to degrade Iran's ability to wage nuclear war.
This is not the first option: it is the only option. Some here argue that a softer approach may tip the Mullahs over and my response is: after 2 severe oil price breaks and a bloody war in 28 years, what makes you think that a pinprick here or sabotage there will do anyhing but provide dinner conversation for Iranian Islamists?
And a leftist presidency in 2008 would be a nightmare for America, for as badly as Iran has been handled to date, none of us want to see the left in this country maintain their crowning diplomatic ahievement in the latter half of the 20th Century, Islamic Iran.
Please, Iranians don't do diplomacy. But I wonder how long it will before this lesson sinks in and will it sink in before the first Iranian nuke flies.
#9
It's not a question of means. It's a question of will and the perception that we have that will. Given mealy mouth hand wringing approaches attempted time and time again in the past with the ineffectual results, why should the adversary ever be concerned?
#11
The authors may not realize this (pro'ly not given what they've written), but you see, Iran is a 'dictatorship': a government controlled and run by a group of clerical thugs for their own, personal benefit.
More of a kleptocracy, but that's quibbling. And it's not just the clerics on the take. The IRGC seized a major portion of the economy recently. There are some estimates that their wealth and economic power is higher than the mullahs.
Then again, anyone with experience with Iranians knows they are quick to sense an ethically questionable opportunity, and make the most of it.
my response is: after 2 severe oil price breaks and a bloody war in 28 years, what makes you think that a pinprick here or sabotage there will do anyhing but provide dinner conversation for Iranian Islamists?
We've gone through this before. My response is (again): 28 years. Twenty eight years. A lot changes in 28 years. Iran back then is not the same Iran now.
All that said, Gopin is an idiot. Meeks... well, let's just say he fits his name.
#12
More of a kleptocracy, but that's quibbling. And it's not just the clerics on the take. The IRGC seized a major portion of the economy recently. There are some estimates that their wealth and economic power is higher than the mullahs.
I agree and could have (and should have) used 'kleptocracy' to describe the Mad Mullahs and their IRGC dogs. I didn't want to use polysyllabic words with Messrs. Gopin and Meeks ;-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/23/2007 10:43
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#13
A totalitarian kleptocracy. Entirely too many syllables for such brilliant (for a given definition of brilliant, anyway) conflict analysts to grasp comfortably.
#14
This is not the first option: it is the only option.
Word, badanov. We cannot rely upon a subsequent administrationbe it democrat or republicanto take the needed measures against Iran. All other options slid over the event horizon long, long ago. Catastrophic dismantling of Iran's nuclear R7D even outweighs decapitating their government, although I certainly wouldn't object to a two-fer.
Iraqi Security Forces, with U.S. Special Forces as advisers, detained a high-level terrorist during an intelligence-driven operation in Mosul on Aug. 20.
Intelligence indicates the targeted individual is believed to be in charge of security for Mosul-based ISI, an organization established as a front for al-Qaeda in Iraq and uses kidnapping and executions to enforce his security actions. He also reportedly interrogates kidnapping victims for extortion, information collection and executes them. One other suspicious individual was also detained during the operation. The forces also seized a variety of military equipment and documents at the targeted residence. No Iraqi or U.S. Special Forces coalition forces were injured during this raid.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
Intelligence indicates the targeted individual is believed to be in charge of security for Mosul-based ISI, an organization established as a front for al-Qaeda in Iraq and uses kidnapping and executions to enforce his security actions. He also reportedly interrogates kidnapping victims for extortion, information collection and executes them.
most of these A-Q types squeal like little piglets when caught, but a few of these "big shots" need some prep work...
Commercial Spin Dryer with locking Door, Check
Hand Cuffs & Leg Irons, check
Begin with Heat Set to hummmm.... 125f, check
Slo cycle, check
Add a few 10 Lb Rocks, check
Tenderize al-Qaeda types one at a time, while the next "riders" watch and listen.
In the meantime begin drawing up a preliminary list of questions to ask. lets see....
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/23/2007 3:11
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#2
Geeze, how many more of these "high-level" guys are there?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/23/2007 6:40
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#3
I believe "high level" is everything better than cannon fodder.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007 8:26
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#4
"High-Level" is anyone left that's 22 years or older.
Posted by: Captain Lewis ||
08/23/2007 8:52
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#5
"High Level" is a reference to their IQ. It is somewhere between 50 and 60.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 9:20
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#6
I suspect that we also use "pink champagne on ice", one shot of which makes you not only our bestest friend in the whole world, but makes your terribly chatty about every little thing.
#7
The box remains on the organization chart even after the occupant has moved on, and must be filled. The original plan was to promote from within, but for quite some time the need for promotions has cycled more quickly than the training period needed to produced quality managers. Technicians, too, but there the training needed takes considerably longer, and in the fields required is quite risky for semi-trained personnel.
On August 14, the anniversary of the end of last summer's Lebanon war, Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel of a "big surprise" if it initiated a new conflict in the South. Analysts immediately began speculating over the nature of the promised surprise. But what is most important to note is that Hezbollah, a year after its last war, is making serious preparations for the next one.
The Litani Line
The most significant development in southern Lebanon since the end of the 2006 war is Hezbollah's construction of a defensive line north of the Litani River. Whereas all territory south of the Litani falls under the jurisdiction of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), territory north of the river is off-limits to UNIFIL.
As soon as the war with Israel ended, wealthy Hezbollah sympathizers began buying up land north of the Litani -- in historically Christian and Druze areas -- at prices well above the market rate. Much of the Christian village of Chbail, for example, has been bought by the Shiite businessman Ali Tajeddine and repopulated with poor Shiites from the south. Another village just south of the Litani has been built entirely from scratch. Such developments have alarmed other Lebanese communities for purely sectarian reasons. But the construction and repopulation of these villages is almost certainly intended to link the traditionally Shiite villages of the western Bekaa Valley with those of southern Lebanon.
Most of this construction is along a new, Iranian-funded road being built along the Litani's northern edge. Constructed by the "Iranian Organization for Sharing in the Building of Lebanon," the road is as large as any in southern Lebanon and features signs every few hundred meters with slogans such as "In the service of the people of Lebanon."
To be sure, there is nothing implicitly wrong with either the resettlement of impoverished Shiites or the development of large public works projects. But these moves mask a static defensive line that Hezbollah intends to use in what it sees as the inevitable sequel to last summer's fight against Israel. Using friendly Shiite-dominated villages as fighting bases was key to Hezbollah's successes last summer. The Litani River valley offers Hezbollah an opportunity to link these villages with other Shiite villages in the Bekaa Valley.
Why the Litani?
From the perspective of a Hezbollah military planner, it is difficult to surmise what strategic objectives Israel might seek to accomplish in the event of another war. Hezbollah is left in the awkward position of trying to answer the question of how Israel might fight without knowing why it would fight.
At the moment, the group seems to think that despite Israel's heavy reliance on airpower in the last war -- with ground forces deployed in only a limited fashion -- the next war would begin with a much larger Israeli ground assault. Any attempt to defend the area south of the Litani would therefore be suicidal. Moreover, the deployment of 12,000 UN peacekeepers and several thousand Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) personnel has made the construction of static defensive lines in southern Lebanon much more difficult than it was before summer 2006. Accordingly, even as Hezbollah continues to train village units south of the Litani in the hope that they could slow an Israeli ground invasion, the group has constructed its main defensive positions to the north, where the terrain favors the defender and where Hezbollah could deny Israeli armor columns easy access to the Bekaa Valley.
Although Hezbollah had ample time to prepare for the last war -- which the group initiated with its decision to kidnap two Israeli soldiers on July 12, 2006 -- the next clash could result from either a wider regional conflict or an Israeli decision to finish the job begun in 2006. Whether or not there is a real danger of a war initiated by either Israel or Syria matters little for the purpose of understanding Hezbollah's strategy -- at the moment, the group seems convinced that another war is likely.
Another good reason for Hezbollah to build positions north of the Litani is that this approach allows for entrenched positions that can house medium- and long-range missiles. Hezbollah successfully launched large numbers of short-range and largely ineffective katyusha rockets into Israel in 2006, but the Israeli air force had knocked out its longer-range and more potent arsenal just a few days into the fighting.
Israeli planners, for their part, have never understood why Hezbollah felt the need to launch rockets from such advanced positions in the first place. Launching them from the other side of the Litani -- over the heads of UNIFIL and the LAF -- has the advantage of leaving Hezbollah positions unharassed by the initial stages of an Israeli ground invasion. From positions north of the Litani, Hezbollah katyushas could comfortably reach major Israeli population centers vulnerable from firing positions along the border (e.g., the 16,000 people in the town of Kiryat Shimona), while its longer-range missiles could reach more distant potential targets such as Haifa and even Tel Aviv.
All along the Iranian-built route north of the Litani, new roads and trails are springing up where once there were only trees and rocks. Where do these roads go, and what is taking place there? It is difficult to tell because many of them have been designated closed "military areas," patrolled by Hezbollah gunmen. To longtime Lebanon observers, these areas evoke memories of border zones similarly off-limits between 2000 and 2006, used to great effect by Hezbollah as reinforced fighting positions during the summer war.
Nasrallah's Surprise?
Although Hezbollah positions north of the Litani might be the "big surprise" Hassan Nasrallah referred to in his August 14 speech, that hardly seems likely. Observers have been taken aback by how overt much of the construction has been -- very unlike Hezbollah, an organization famous for its secrecy. Perhaps these positions are being constructed as decoys in the same way that others were constructed for this purpose between 2000 and 2006. Or, as some have argued, maybe these construction projects are just a way to keep Hezbollah's gunmen busy while the real fight -- the political one -- takes place to the north, in Beirut. Most likely, though, Hezbollah -- which remains a disciplined fighting force -- is motivated by a genuine sense of urgency, unsure when the next round of fighting will begin and concerned that its pre-2006 defenses would be insufficient against a massed Israeli ground invasion (and too difficult to reconstruct with UNIFIL in the way).
There is speculation that Nasrallah's "surprise" would be the inclusion of antiaircraft capabilities in the next round of fighting, a move Hezbollah hopes would break Israel's air superiority and enable it to fight on a more fluid battlefield. For U.S. observers, however, the source of continued fascination remains Hezbollah's transformation from the world's finest guerrilla army into a force that, in 2006 and today, seems quite comfortable in conventional fighting as well.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
Must be more since various Net sites have reported on the Hezzies'. etal. new toys = weapons for a while now, so Israeli INTEL shouldn't be caught off guard. IMO, the "big surprise" is likely more related to Israel's enemies having indigenous LR IRBMS wid WMD warheads, and Russ lifting of its own Cold War sanctions agz giving nuclear mortars and tacnuke tech for the Hezzies' rockets.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
08/23/2007 5:54
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#3
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah
woof! Grrr. BoW Wow
SloberSneezeShakesHead!
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/23/2007 6:49
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#4
Russ lifting of its own Cold War sanctions agz giving nuclear mortars and tacnuke tech for the Hezzies' rockets.
Joe, they are bastids, but not insane. It would bite them back into ass in a big way.
OTOH, I don't exclude a posiblity of a black market. However, this would be likely "I have a bridge to sell" scenario, i.e. degraded, non-working nuke ammo. For instance, Russkis left about 1200 tacnukes in Bulgaria, manufactured in early 80's, not bothering to take them back with them when they withdrew their brotherly forces in 1989. One local dude was selling them recently for about $750 a piece, from a wire-fenced site with a padlock on the main gate. He is probably in a slammer at this moment, or should be, but he did sell at last a dozen.
#5
Nasrallah's "Big Surprise" is premised that the idea that the Israeli won't use maneuver and because of that omission, which was glaring in the 2006 war, that Hezbollah will have unimpeded resupply routes for men and materiel, and that artillery displacement routines will actually work as well as they did in 2006.
I think next round Nasrallah's surpise will be the effectiveness of Israeli counterbattery fire. Why risk a multi-million dollar airplane for a few well placed DPICM rounds?
#6
The Israelis should have cleared to the Litani the last time. They made a huge mistake of not doing so - coastal thrust, the up the Litani and across for the Golan, they would have bagged the entire Hezzie army and defeated it in detail. But they went with piecemeal uncoordinated pinpricks.
If Israel is that stupid again, they deserve defeat.
#7
Israel shouldn't play their games. If war happens they should head North to Damascus (and set up a puppet, perhaps Kurd government) and then out of Syria into the Ba'ka valley and deal with the Litani line from the North.
#8
Israel should wipe the entire Litani "line" out with nukes, from the Med to the Bekaa. Then they would have a PERMANENT (at least 3-5000 years), glass-lined border. Annex the southern bank, if possible, after clearing the Lebanese and UNIFIL. Lebanon will be smaller, but the percentage of non-Shi'ites would be considerably larger. Win-win.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/23/2007 15:57
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BANNU: Four Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel and three militants were killed in two separate attacks when militants attacked a checkpost jointly manned by police and FC personnel in the Miran police precincts in Bannu as well as a checkpost in Tiarza on Wednesday.
Miran police station duty officer Qudratullah told Daily Times by phone that unidentified militants attacked the Norar checkpost, 12 kilometres from Bannu, at around 2:45am on Wednesday. He said that three FC men died in the attack, while three attackers were killed and two injured in retaliatory firing.
However, the attackers managed to take their injured accomplices with them. Qudratullah said the militants attacked the checkpost from two sides and used rockets and other weapons. He said there were 10 FC personnel and seven policemen present at the checkpost at the time of the attack. The dead officials are havaldar Saeed Amin, lance naik Ishaq Ali and sepoy Bedar Bakht. In another incident in South Waziristan Agency, militants fired rockets at the Tiarza checkpost, injuring six soldiers, military spokesman Maj Gen Wahid Arshad told Daily Times.
However, sources in Wana told Daily Times that one soldier was killed when militants fired at a military transport helicopter that was landing at the Tiarza helipad. Maj Gen Arshad rejected the report, saying that the militants attacked the security checkpost and not the helicopter.
He told AFP that the soldier later died of injuries sustained during the battle. Meanwhile, MNA Maulana Mirajuddin of the MMA has reached an undisclosed area in South Waziristan to hold talks with militants who recently kidnapped 15 FC soldiers.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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A special court for dealing with graft cases yesterday sentenced Mahbuba Sultana, wife of political secretary to former prime minister Khaleda Zia, to eight years' imprisonment for committing two offences including evasion of taxes.
Mahbuba was awarded five years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) under section 166 of the Income Tax Ordinance 1984 for evading tax. She was also fined Tk 1 crore 58 lakh in default of which she has to suffer one more year of RI. The court sentenced her to three years' simple jail under section 165 of the same ordinance for providing false information about her wealth and concealing information on property.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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Two unidentified men hurled a hand grenade in a barbershop, resulting in six injuries, including a minor boy, here on Wednesday, police said. The perpetrators fled the scene on a motorcycle and the injured were shifted to Civil Hospital Quetta. Hospital sources said the injured were out of critical condition. Industrial Police Station has registered a case against unknown miscreants. Investigation is in progress.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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TIKRIT, Iraq - A suicide bomber killed at least 20 people and wounded 80 on Wednesday when he slammed his explosives-laden truck into a police station in the northern town of Baiji, medics and police said.
Doctor Saad Jasim from Baiji General Hospital confirmed the attack and said his medical facility had received 20 bodies of people killed in the blast. Eighty more wounded had also been admitted. The toll is expected to rise as many people are trapped in the debris of the police station. The majority of the victims are civilians, he told AFP, adding that the dead included five police officers.
Baiji police Captain Saad Noori said the targeted police station was in the centre of a market in the town, 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Baghdad. A big part of the police station has collapsed and lots of shops are damaged, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/23/2007
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President Bouteflika has addressed a letter to console Mustapha Kartali after being seriously injured in a murder attempt last week, former Islamic Salvation Army, AIS, former chief, who escaped hardly death, revealed.
Former AIS heads are to issue Friday a communiqué to phrase a stand as far as the operation that targeted the so-called pacifists head in Larbaâ locality. Former emir of Katibat Errahman God Squad has been addressed a letter from President Bouteflika said to be conveyed by Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem in his visit to the hospital Tuesday after the terrorist attack that could took Kartali life. We are for the reconciliation project, whether al Qaeda claims the murder attempt or whoever else we wont give it up, as such replied Kartali on al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb alleged claim of the deadly attempt.
As for former AIS chief Madani Mezrag position, the latter stated Al Qaeda executed the attempt and claimed it but it is not the beneficiary. All cataclysms in Algeria are serving other parties who enjoy swimming in bloodshed and crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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A Palestinian cleric trying to negotiate a ceasefire to allow the families of Islamist militants to leave a besieged camp in northern Lebanon said on Wednesday phone contact with the Fatah al-Islam extremists had been lost. "We were awaiting a response about the number of people to be evacuated and the time, in order to secure a corridor," Mohammed Hajj, spokesman for the Ulemas or clerics, told reporters. "We were surprised because they are no longer answering their phone."
Lebanese army helicopters launched six raids on Fatah al-Islam positions inside the Nahr al-Bared camp overnight. Intermittent artillery and tank fire continued to target militants inside the camp on Wednesday. Hajj had said on Tuesday that a representative of Fatah al-Islam contacted the clerics overnight on Monday, seeking a way out for the women and children who are said to number less than 100. The army said it had agreed and was ready for a truce that would allow the families safe passage out of the devastated Palestinian refugee camp. "We gave our agreement on Tuesday but have heard nothing since," an army spokesman said.
He also said the army had detained a Fatah al-Islam fighter three kilometres (two miles) north of Nahr al-Bared on Wednesday. The man, a Palestinian, was captured by an army patrol on the coast after he had fled the camp by sea, the spokesman said.
According to a source close to the negotiations, the clerics have drawn up a list of 50 women and 20 children, including the wife of Fatah al-Islam chief Shaker al-Abssi and the widow of his number two, Abu Hureira, who was killed at the beginning of August. Previous mediation attempts over the past three months by the Palestinian clerics aimed at securing the militants' surrender or the safe conduct of their families have failed.
On July 11 the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) tried in vain to evacuate 45 women and 20 children, all related to Islamist fighters inside Nahr al-Bared. The remaining militants, thought to number about 70, have been holed up inside the camp since May 20. At least 200 people, including 141 soldiers, have been killed in the deadliest internal unrest in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Update
According to Mohammed Hajj, their contact is Abi Salim Taha. Taha's cellular phone was not operational but service has since been resumed and he should now be in a position to receive and make calls. Hajj also stated that he sensed more flexibility on the issue of the surrender of the fighters of Fatah al Islam, when he last talked to Taha. According to army sources the logistics for evacuating the women and children have been completed. Women army soldiers will handle the evacuation with the help of the Red Cross.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
I suspect he might have had a problem getting around to paying his phone bill. Could have happened to any of us (involved in a months long armed siege).
TEHERAN - Iran has developed a 2,000-pound (900-kg) smart bomb, official media quoted a Defence Ministry statement as saying on Wednesday, in the latest announcement from Teheran about progress regarding military hardware. The guided bomb, named Qased (Messenger), was developed by specialists within the ministry and is now operational, IRNA news agency said, adding it could be dropped from F-4 and F-5 jets.
Good luck getting those through a modern US anti-arm system.
Iran often lies says it has built new arms or upgraded weapons but rarely gives enough details for analysts to determine their capabilities. Although much of Irans weaponry is outmoded, analysts say Iran has become proficient at modifying such arms.
Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said last year Iran had designed the Qased bomb but that it had yet to be tested. He said only a limited number of countries possessed the technology of smart and guided weaponry.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/23/2007
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#1
Is it like those smart bombs Japan used in 1945 - the ones called kamikaze? Except these aren't powered, just stearable?
#7
Don't worry about it, it's a one-off prototype. Ahmanutjob's ego will not stand for the "smart bombs" to be any smarter than he is. Nor any taller.
Gorb! LOL!
Iran wants a US Carrier in the worst way, or so bad they can taste it, the problem with Defense and Defense only is that you have to be perfect all of the time.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/23/2007 4:14
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#8
adding it could be dropped from F-4 and F-5 jets.
These would be some of the Iranian airplanes that keep falling out of the sky? Snark aside, how many seconds would the jets last following take-off in an actual shooting war?
#10
So are they steered by the pilot? Or do they have a "manned" remote system? And how many of the Iranian jets would survive to get through the US CAP and anti-air defense?
#12
Perhaps the Qasad is simply a regular 2000 # bomb with a print out from Google.earth taped on the pointy end and a prayer to Allah taped on the blunt end.
#13
Actually lotp, assuming that at least one of the CVs has a Hummer in the air, the radar will paint the aircraft as soon as it is out of ground clutter (if not sooner) and the operator can vector in a go-faster to get an id on it and then shoot it down. although in this tight airspace, the ROE may be to assume its a bad guy and forget the 'id' step.
CHAMAN: Unknown gunmen here killed one Mullah Abdul Waris, identified as a former Taliban commander, SHO police Lateef told APP on Wednesday. Mullah Waris was sitting with his friends in a shop at western bypass when unknown motorcyclists pelted him with bullets, killing him on the spot. Police officials said they were investigating the case.
Bomb injures 8 children: Eight children were injured when they were trying to manufacture a homemade bottle bomb in Jahanian. The children were experimenting with an indigenously prepared bottle bomb by stuffing pebbles and gunpowder in empty bottles before setting fire to it. The explosion, besides injuring the children, also created a panic in the area near Wording School. Police immediately shifted the injured children to a nearby private clinic. Eyewitnesses said the injured children had been playing with fireworks.
This article starring:
MULLAH ABDUL WARIS
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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(Xinhua) &0151; Six persons were killed and 12 others injured in a bloody shoot-out between two groups at a peace jirga in the North West Frontier Province on Wednesday evening, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.
Okay. I'm savoring the content of that sentence:
Six deaders.
12 wounded.
Bloody shootout.
At a peace jirga.
Hararararararar!
[Snorks.]
[Gasps.]
[Wheezes.]
[Wipes real tears.]
[Blows nose.]
[Attempts to catch breath]...
The incident occurred in a remote and mountainous village named Zargari in Hangu district of the province, APP said, quoting district coordination officer Fakhar-e-Alam. The shoot-out, which lasted for about half an hour, erupted when one gangster, Gul Muheed, became infuriated and started shooting at jirga members trying to settle a dispute between two groups, APP reported. Muheed, his three sons, and two members of the peace committee were killed while 12 others received bullet wounds. The injured were whisked to a local hospital and some were listed as in critical condition.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
erupted when one gangster, Gul Muheed, became infuriated and started shooting at jirga members trying to settle a dispute between two groups, APP reported. Muheed, his three sons, and two members of the peace committee were killed
Well, Gul, looks like they figured out how to solve your problem....
People who bought "Conflict Resolution for Dummies" also bought "Mahmoud alias Achmed's Field Guide to Red Wires and Green Wires" and "Better Hutments and Minefields"
A political TV advert that accuses a Catholic candidate of calling Protestants "scandalous, depraved, selfish and heretical" has provoked fury in the US state of Louisiana.
The man at the centre of the storm is Bobby Jindal, a Catholic and the Republican candidate in the race to be state governor.
Democrats say the 30-second ad - running in heavily Protestant areas - simply explains Mr Jindal's beliefs with his own words. But Mr Jindal says his views have been distorted, and a letter has been sent to nine TV stations saying the advert is defamatory and asking them to stop showing it. Fellow Republicans say it is a smear campaign.
The advert features an actress saying Mr Jindal does not respect other people's religions and directs viewers to a website with links to several articles Mr Jindal wrote on Catholicism. In one, Mr Jindal talks of the Catholic religion as the true Christian faith and refers to a "scandalous series of divisions and new denominations" of religions since the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
But he also wrote that the Catholic Church must incorporate the "spirit-led movements" of other Christian faiths.
#9
ha! I'm surprised that the Dems would want to call attention to this fact as it will help him get elected in LA. It just shows how little they understand the Christians they fail to represent.
Iraqi Army Scouts, with U.S. Special Operations Forces as advisers, conducted an intelligence-driven helicopter assault in western Iraq Aug. 21, resulting in the elimination of a suspected weapons cache and the destruction of an insurgent safe house.
Forces conducted a targeted raid at a residence in the vicinity of Karmah suspected of being used by foreign fighters and al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists. While clearing the building, the assault team noticed that the floor in the main room of the structure had recently been dug up and fresh cement covered the floor with wire leading out of the house.
Further investigation revealed the presence of a command detonation wire and the area was immediately evacuated. After ensuring full accountability of all forces on target, close air support was called in to destroy the target and multiple secondary explosions were observed by the assault force.
Although no insurgents were on target at the time of the raid, intelligence sources reported that the former safe house was being occupied by foreign and Iraqi-born al Qaeda members. It was also a suspected storage location for weapons caches and believed to be the point of origin for launching mortars at the Iraqi Police Station in Karmah. No civilians, Iraqi Scouts or U.S. Forces were injured during this operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
why not wait until the buzzards come home to roost and then try out that red wire / green wire thingy????
A top Taliban commander has said Al Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden is alive and well, according to US-based analysts monitoring extremist publications. All praise be to Allah, he is extremely healthy and active, the commander Mansour Dadullah said in a video interview released Tuesday by analyst IntelCenter.
"I'm okay, too! They missed me! That was another Mullah Deadullah they got!"
Dadullah said Bin Laden, the man blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, had contacted him. I received a message from him in which he advised me to follow Mullah Dadullah and continue the same activities so that the mujahedeen may not weaken, he said, according to the transcript.
The video is dated June 15, 2007, IntelCenter added. Bin Laden, who has a $50 million US bounty on his head, has appeared in a series of video and audio clips since the 9/11 attacks but has not been heard from since May 2006, when the CIA authenticated a voice recording on the Internet as his. In the recording, which was accompanied by an online text, the terror network chief said Zacarias Moussaoui, a 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan origin and the only man convicted in the 9/11 attacks, had nothing to do with the operation.
This article starring:
MANSUR DADULLAH
al-Qaeda
ZACARIAS MUSAUI
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
Nice, but NOT good enuff - the average fighter out in the field will inevitably wanna see his leader(s). Combat warriors are not stupid, and not even Radical Islam/Terror orgs should underestimate or ignore the ethos-pathos of their own men.
I totally refuse to believe that this rutbag media whore is still alive. Even Osama knows just how much his credibility relies upon making pronouncements that reflect current events and thereby provide some sort of timestamp. How many years has it been since that happened?
#7
I've always believed he reached 2000+ degrees at Tora Bora. Maybe if they'd been quick with the sponges, they could have gotten some of him off the rocks and filled a thimble.
But I doubt even the worms and bugs and found much to eat.
(Xinhua) -- Two Afghan soldiers were killed and 11 soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were injured when Taliban militants attacked an ISAF base in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, an ISAF statement said. Some Taliban militants, wearing Afghan army uniforms, approached and attacked an ISAF base in Nuristan province at around 5:00 a.m. (0030 GMT), the statement said. Two Afghan soldiers were killed in the attack, it added.
Direct attacks on foreign military bases in Afghanistan have not been frequently launched by Taliban rebels, who, due to inferiority in military strength, are used to ambushing or launching bombing attacks against foreign soldiers. About 37,000 ISAF soldiers are being deployed in Afghanistan to fight militants and keep security. Due to rising Taliban violence, over 3,900 persons have been killed in Afghanistan this year.
Most of them Taliban.
Most of the rest camp-followers.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan came under fire on Wednesday for calling on Turks who refused to accept Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as their next president to leave Turkey.
Turkey, a Muslim country with a strictly secular constitution, is polarised over whether or not Gul, a respected diplomat with a past in political Islam, should become the next head of state. Top-selling Turkish newspapers, non-governmental organisations and opposition parties described as undemocratic Erdogans attack on Hurriyet newspaper columnist Bekir Coskun. The people who say that Gul is not my president, must renounce their citizenship, Erdogan said on television late on Monday, according to Hurriyet, the countrys largest daily. Youre this countrys citizen, the president is your president, the prime minister is your prime minister. From now on no one can speak of a secular state ... political Islam has taken another step forward, Coskun had written in a column on Aug. 15.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#6
I hope the paleos won't see that pic, or they'll seethe (I mean, they'll be seething like they always do, but for a time, they'll be focusing on that).
(Xinhua) -- Another three conspirators allegedly involved in two suicide attacks in the capital in July were arrested on Wednesday, Islamabad Police Chief Iftikhar Ahmed Chaudhry said. Talking to reporters at a news briefing, Chaudhry said that the three were arrested from an area in Islamabad called Bhara Kahu on Wednesday. Chaudhry said that two suicide jackets, some hand grenades and pistols were also recovered from them.
The Pakistani authorities confirmed Tuesday that the law enforcing agencies had arrested two terrorists who were directly involved in the Islamabad suicide bombing attacks in July. "I can say that the operating network has been busted and the immediate threat is at least reduced. There are five more people of this network who are still wanted by the police," Chaudhry said.
A suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of policemen during clashes at the Lal Masjid, or the Red Mosque, in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, killing at least 15 people and wounding scores of people on July 27. In another suicide bombing attack in Islamabad on July 17, at least 13 people were killed and more than 30 injured near the venue of convention of lawyers to celebrate the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Chaudhry said that precautionary measures would continue in future as threat had not completely ended.
More, from Pak Daily Times ISLAMABAD: The capital city police on Wednesday arrested three people allegedly involved in last months suicide attacks on a lawyers convention in Islamabad and on the Police Training School in Sargodha, in which 44 people were killed.
Islamabad Police Inspector General (IGP) Iftikhar Ahmad Chaudhry said at a press conference that Fasiullah and brothers Faisal Mushtaq and Qasim Mushtaq were arrested in the limits of Bhara Kahu Police Station. Two suicide jackets were seized from them, he said. The IGP said Fasiullah, believed to have links with Waziristan suicide attackers, could be the ringleader. He said the two Mushtaq brothers might have associations with Lal Masjid.
Fasiullah is from DI Khan and the two brothers from Alipur Frash, a village on the outskirts of Islamabad, he added. Earlier, on August 20, the police arrested Imdad Hussain and Nasir Mehmood for their alleged connections with terrorist activities. Chaudhry said two hand grenades and two pistols were recovered from them.
The IGP said police had busted a terrorist network in the city, but five members of the network were still at large. I can say that the operating network has been busted and the immediate threat has at least been reduced. There are five more people of this network who are still wanted by the police.
This article starring:
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry
FAISAL MUSHTAQ
Taliban
FASIULLAH
Taliban
IMDAD HUSEIN
Taliban
Islamabad Police Chief Iftikhar Ahmed Chaudhry
NASIR MEHMUD
Taliban
QASIM MUSHTAQ
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
This is richif convictedwill these suspects be placed in the cell with that revolving door? After decades of sponsoring terrorism, it will be more than a little amusing to see how Pakistan's government manages to justify actual prosecution of these perps.
EIGHTEEN sailors from a beached Indonesian Navy training vessel have been found beside the road near Rainbow Beach north of the Sunshine Coast after their vessel was driven aground. The vessel is understood to have been in Australian waters on route to APEC in Sydney.
The sailors, wearing life jackets and speaking little English, sparked concerns they were illegal immigrants from a fishing boat but the men were later discovered to have been from the tall ship Arung Samudera, which beached in bad weather on Inskip Point. Inskip Point is just north of Rainbow Beach, about 210km north of Brisbane.
The crew walked into Rainbow Beach police station at 3am today.
ABC radio said the men were found this morning on Rainbow Beach near Gympie by local man Bob Elmer. Mr Elmer said he found the men on a road behind the beach wet and shivering but looking relaxed. The men told him they were Indonesian and were travelling on a boat from Cairns to Brisbane when their boat broke down.
"There were about a dozen people standing on the road and from what I could understand - and I'm not real good at listening to Indonesians talk - they said they were coming from Cairns to Brisbane and broke down and washed up on the beach," Mr Elmer said. "We've just been trying to organise the police and the SES to help."
The southern area of the Queensland is being lashed by huge seas and high winds whipped up from a low moving slowly north.
Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman said it was understood the 12 men were Indonesian naval officers on the 40m sail training vessel Arung Samudera. "We believe they were travelling to Brisbane," she said.
#1
So, these assclowns managed to run this three-masted yawl rigged beauty aground? Indonesia couldn't even bother to man the vessel with crew that spoke a smidgen of English? Afraid they'd all jump ship in Oz?
#2
Hey, Zenster. How much Bahasa Indonesian do you speak? Take it easy on these kids. They are cadets in the Indonesian Naval Academy. Looks like some did speak English unless ole Bob Elmer knows more than "terima kasih".
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/23/2007 10:26
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#3
How much Bahasa Indonesian do you speak? Take it easy on these kids.
Jack, re-read my post. I ran down Indonesia's government for not manning the ship with people who had some command of English. After all, they were being sent to an English-speaking nation so it would only make sense to include one or two fluent people. Likewise a competent captain and first mate, but we won't go there. Besides, Indonesian isn't this world's de facto second language.
#4
Indonesia and Australia are very close geographically. But, I would guess there are a lot less Australians who speak Indonesian than Indonesians who speak English -- even though Indonesia is the fifth most populous country in the world, and its language is an official language of Singapore and Malaysia, and also is not infrequently spoken in the Netherlands.
English and Indonesian come from very different language group families. Knowing one language really will not help you to learn the other. And, a lack of practice of disparate languages really makes one rusty -- which is probably the case with the Indonesian naval cadets -- since English is commonly learned at the higher educational levels in Indonesia. For example, saying something like
Can you help me? I am a naval cadet and my ship just got grounded in a storm. Boy, I wish I had more training on sail powered ships, or was on a ship that had a motor!
Would look something like this in Indonesian:
Bisa kamu menolong saya? Saya seorang kadet militer angkatan laut dan kapal saya hanya kandas di angin topan. Ya, saya menginginkan saya sudah belajar lebih banyak di kapal layar, atau kami akan pakai kapal yang mempunyai mesin!
Visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki rejected on Wednesday U.S. criticism of his government, saying no one has the responsibility to set a timetable for the Iraqi administration.
Maliki made the remarks at a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Mohammad Naji Ottri at the end of his three-day official visit. "The Iraqi government was elected by the Iraqi people. No one has the right to set a timetable for it," he said, referring to U.S. demand for the Iraqi government to achieve political reconciliation among Iraqi factions.
"Maybe those people who made such statements were disturbed by our visit to Syria. These statements do not concern us much. We care for our people and our constitution and can find friends elsewhere," he said. U.S. President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that he noticed "a certain level of frustration with the leadership in general" in Iraq and said Iraqi voters could decide to replace him.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
Taher wrote an editorial in Arabic saying that he used to meet Maliki at the local library in Syria, where he would be doing research for his master's degree in Arabic literature, pointing out: "I do not claim that we were friends." Taher said Maliki had "modest general knowledge ... he will be a puppet in the hands of Jaafari, Hakim, the Kurds and Sunnis". He added that Maliki "does not believe in democracy because of his ideological commitments" in al-Da'wa Party, claiming that political Islam and democracy do not meet for someone like Maliki.
In a private discussion held when both men were in Syria, Maliki told Taher: "We declare our acceptance of democracy, but in reality, we are tricking them [the Americans] in order to topple Saddam and come to power." Taher writes: "I swear to God that this is exactly what he said!"
Taher adds that Maliki does not believe in the equality of women and will refuse to give any cabinet posts to Iraqi women, unless those imposed by the Kurds. He wraps up by saying that Maliki is anti-American, and has expressed his anti-American views to friends and in private discourse. He predicts that if Maliki succeeds in creating a cabinet, "it will not last long and will collapse after a few months".
The Iraqi prime minister will have a difficult time indeed warding off the accusations of someone like Khudayr Taher, pleasing the Americans while courting the Iranians, and winning the confidence of the Sunnis.
For now, he is on good terms with Washington, but if he is unable to break with Muqtada, the Americans will quickly abandon him. His remarks about disarming the militias, which unless specified also include Sadr's Mehdi Army, mean that he is not too keen about maintaining his friendship with Muqtada. If he loses it, however, how strong will his influence remain within the leading Shi'ite bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA)? EMPHASIS ADDED
Maliki is the usual taqiyya spewing traitorous Islamic rectal cavity. He is responsible for the death of many American troops and continues to court the support of Iranian sock puppet Moqtada Sadr.
what do you want to do about it?
Maliki should be removed from office and replaced with either a newly elected Prime Minister or an American military overseer. The Iraqi constitution needs to be declared null and void due to its adherence to shari'a law and much of the current Iraqi government needs to be given the bum's rush.
We have squandered thousands of precious lives and billions of dollars to prop up a new Islamic tyranny. If we are truly intent upon liberating people, we'd damn well make sure that the installation of more shari'a scumbag theocracy does not follow in our wake.
Bitter rivalry between Lebanon's political camps and between their respective foreign backers could torpedo next month's presidential election, threatening a new constitutional crisis, instability and economic paralysis. The poll is the next battle in a struggle that pits the ruling coalition backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia against a Shi'ite-Christian opposition including the powerful Hezbollah group, which enjoys Syrian and Iranian support.
According to the constitution, parliament should meet on September 25 to elect a successor to President Emile Lahoud, a close Syrian ally whose term ends at midnight on November 23. But the vote is unlikely to happen then or before the end of Lahoud's term without a settlement of the political standoff which has paralyzed Lebanon since November and triggered outbreaks of strife reminiscent of the 1975-1990 civil war. "Everybody is awaiting the positions of the Americans and the influential regional states," a senior Lebanese politician said. "All the talk on the local level is just to pass time."
Syria's insistence on extending Lahoud's term in 2004 raised tension in Lebanon and provoked U.S.-led pressure on Damascus. Replacing Lahoud with someone independent of Syrian tutelage has been a priority for supporters of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government since Syrian troops left Lebanon in 2005, amid an outcry over the killing of ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri. Hezbollah is equally determined to stop the presidency falling into the hands of political adversaries it says are controlled by Washington.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
Well, I know you do not want hezbollah running your country, do you? Or are you that dumb? This is a sanctuary city aforementioned. Do you want to throw that away to sheite heads? Heads or tails? It is your damn country. Question is, will I ever get to visit it again?
A senior Hamas official in Lebanon on Wednesday accused Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of launching a full-out war against his Hamas in the West Bank. Osama Hamdan, who is Hamas's representative in Lebanon, told reporters that Abbas is trying to transform his Fatah-run West Bank into a "lawless area controlled by the heads of security agencies."
Hamdan added that such measures by the Fatah leader would not "make Hamas abandon its method of resistance and the rights of our people."
Hamas came to power in the West Bank and Gaza in March 2006, but after months of bloody Palestinian infighting which culminated with Hamas's overrunning Gaza by force in June, Abbas set up his West Bank government and fired Hamas officials. Since then, Israel and the international community have embraced Abbas in an attempt to prevent further gains by the Islamic militants. Hamas has remained largely isolated in Gaza.
Hamas officials have been complaining for weeks about crackdowns against them in the West Bank by Abbas's Fatah group. On Wednesday, Hamas officials in the Palestinian territories said that nine members including a mosque preacher were detained in the West Bank. "What is happening in the West Bank is a full-out war against Hamas," Hamdan said. "We would like to remind those who imagine otherwise, that Hamas faced a wild campaign by the enemy (Israel) in the past years and offered hundreds of martyrs and thousands of detainees and the people did not abandon it."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
"What is happening in the West Bank is a full-out war against Hamas,"
#2
"What is happening in the West Bank is a full-out war against Hamas," Hamdan said. "We would like to remind those who imagine otherwise, that Hamas faced a wild campaign by the enemy (Israel) in the past years and offered hundreds of martyrs and thousands of detainees and the people did not abandon it."
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda
The co-founder of a defunct Islamic charity has links to Islamic radicals and should be held in jail pending trial on tax fraud and conspiracy charges, US prosecutors argued Wednesday, a week after the former fugitive voluntarily returned to the United States.
Pirouz Sedaghaty, a native of Iran and a US citizen, left the country in 2003 during an investigation against him. Assistant US Attorney Chris Cardani told a judge Sedaghaty could flee or spread radical views while awaiting trial. Sedaghaty co-founded the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation in 1997 with Soliman al-Buthi, a Saudi government official who has been designated a terrorist.
This article starring:
PIRUZ SEDAGHATY
Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation
SOLIMAN AL BUTHI
Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation
Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
Vermont's clothing-optional capital is stripping off its temporary ban on public nudity.
"Hello, world! These are our... ummm... publics."
A month after passing the temporary ban after an elderly tourist strolled naked through the centre of town,
"Aaaiiieee! My eyes!"
"Ewwwwwwww!"
"Ban him!"
"I never want to see nekkid again!"
Brattleboro city board members voted 3-2 on Tuesday to reject a proposed ordinance that would have made it permanent.
"Now, looky here, you guys! We ban nekkid because of old Harv, we're also banning the nekkid 18-year-old babez, right? So y'gotta sacrifice if yer gonna have the rewards, right?"
"I dunno, Bob. Old Harv was... [shudder!]"
When the emergency temporary ordinance expires next month, public nudity will no longer be illegal. It is all about tolerance, one board member said.
"We're trying to come up with something that lets everybody take their clothes off but Harv."
"We in this country are going down a slippery slope these days," said Dora Bouboulis, noting a national newspaper recently published an article about the emergency ordinance under the headline "Tolerant town gets intolerant". She said it is not up to the town to restrict anyone's right to dress or undress.
"Yeah. Who put them in charge, huh?"
Before the vote, residents weighed in on both sides of the debate. Michael Gauthier gave the board a petition with signatures of 967 people who support a nudity ban. "What is the point, other than shock and awe, that the nudists are trying to make?" he asked.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2007
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#1
Tell them to feel free to run naked in Brattleboro from November to February...
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.
August 23, 2007: Al Qaeda doesn't issue many press releases about its casualties, and for good reason. The Iraqi government recently announced that it had killed over half the civilian leadership of al Qaeda, and in the last few months, three senior al Qaeda military commanders have been killed. As a result of all this, al Qaeda tries to keep the identities of its senior military guys secret, as Iraqi and American intelligence is quick to track down any al Qaeda big shot that is identified. 
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Iraqi government will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months and its security forces have not improved enough to operate without outside help, intelligence analysts conclude in a new National Intelligence Estimate released Friday.
In an echo of Hollywood blockbuster 'Saving Private Ryan', a California family's third son is to return home from Iraq after his two brothers were killed in action. 
(Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, that his country will not give up its right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful uses, according to reports reaching here. "We think that all peoples should develop nuclear technologies for peaceful purposes within (the framework of) the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)," Ahmadinejad told reporters on the sidelines of his two-day visit to the neighboring Caspian country. He slammed the U.S.-led drive to constrain Iran's nuclear program, saying those forces "have achieved nothing." 
The chief judge dismissed two former Saddam Hussein aides from the courtroom for unruly behaviour on Wednesday on the second day of a trial over the brutal crushing of a 1991 rebellion by Shiite Muslims. 
US Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday the Iraqi Parliament should replace embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with a "less divisive and more unifying figure" to reconcile political and religious factions. 
Police in Pierce County said two pit bull terriers broke into a woman's home through a pet door and attacked her in her bed. 
(Xinhuanet) -- Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said in an op-ed piece Tuesday in the Miami Herald that he thinks the United States should ease restrictions for Cuban-Americans who want to visit the island or send money home. "Senator Obama feels that the Bush administration has made a humanitarian and a strategic blunder," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday in an e-mail. "His concern is that this has had a profoundly negative impact on the Cuban people, making them more dependent on the Castro regime, thus isolating them from the transformative message carried by Cuban-Americans." 
Afghan police shot dead a Pakistani rickshaw driver on Wednesday when he was returning to Pakistan after dropping off commuters in Afghan territory. Chaman police said they were trying to ascertain whether the driver was killed in Afghan territory or inside the Pakistani border. Driver Azizullah had been hired by Afghan nationals to transport them to Killi Murad in Afghanistan, they added.
On August 14, the anniversary of the end of last summer's Lebanon war, Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel of a "big surprise" if it initiated a new conflict in the South. Analysts immediately began speculating over the nature of the promised surprise. But what is most important to note is that Hezbollah, a year after its last war, is making serious preparations for the next one.
BANNU: Four Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel and three militants were killed in two separate attacks when militants attacked a checkpost jointly manned by police and FC personnel in the Miran police precincts in Bannu as well as a checkpost in Tiarza on Wednesday.
Two unidentified men hurled a hand grenade in a barbershop, resulting in six injuries, including a minor boy, here on Wednesday, police said. The perpetrators fled the scene on a motorcycle and the injured were shifted to Civil Hospital Quetta. Hospital sources said the injured were out of critical condition. Industrial Police Station has registered a case against unknown miscreants. Investigation is in progress.
TIKRIT, Iraq - A suicide bomber killed at least 20 people and wounded 80 on Wednesday when he slammed his explosives-laden truck into a police station in the northern town of Baiji, medics and police said.
President Bouteflika has addressed a letter to console Mustapha Kartali after being seriously injured in a murder attempt last week, former Islamic Salvation Army, AIS, former chief, who escaped hardly death, revealed. 
A Palestinian cleric trying to negotiate a ceasefire to allow the families of Islamist militants to leave a besieged camp in northern Lebanon said on Wednesday phone contact with the Fatah al-Islam extremists had been lost. "We were awaiting a response about the number of people to be evacuated and the time, in order to secure a corridor," Mohammed Hajj, spokesman for the Ulemas or clerics, told reporters. "We were surprised because they are no longer answering their phone."
TEHERAN - Iran has developed a 2,000-pound (900-kg) smart bomb, official media quoted a Defence Ministry statement as saying on Wednesday, in the latest announcement from Teheran about progress regarding military hardware. The guided bomb, named Qased (Messenger), was developed by specialists within the ministry and is now operational, IRNA news agency said, adding it could be dropped from F-4 and F-5 jets.
CHAMAN: Unknown gunmen here killed one 
(Xinhua) &0151; Six persons were killed and 12 others injured in a bloody shoot-out between two groups at a peace jirga in the North West Frontier Province on Wednesday evening, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported. 
Iraqi Army Scouts, with U.S. Special Operations Forces as advisers, conducted an intelligence-driven helicopter assault in western Iraq Aug. 21, resulting in the elimination of a suspected weapons cache and the destruction of an insurgent safe house.
A top Taliban commander has said Al Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden is alive and well, according to US-based analysts monitoring extremist publications. All praise be to Allah, he is extremely healthy and active, the commander 
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan came under fire on Wednesday for calling on Turks who refused to accept Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as their next president to leave Turkey. 
(Xinhua) -- Another three conspirators allegedly involved in two suicide attacks in the capital in July were arrested on Wednesday, 
ISLAMABAD: The capital city police on Wednesday arrested three people allegedly involved in last months suicide attacks on a lawyers convention in Islamabad and on the Police Training School in Sargodha, in which 44 people were killed. 
Bitter rivalry between Lebanon's political camps and between their respective foreign backers could torpedo next month's presidential election, threatening a new constitutional crisis, instability and economic paralysis. The poll is the next battle in a struggle that pits the ruling coalition backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia against a Shi'ite-Christian opposition including the powerful Hezbollah group, which enjoys Syrian and Iranian support.
A senior Hamas official in Lebanon on Wednesday accused Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of launching a full-out war against his Hamas in the West Bank. Osama Hamdan, who is Hamas's representative in Lebanon, told reporters that Abbas is trying to transform his Fatah-run West Bank into a "lawless area controlled by the heads of security agencies." 
Vermont's clothing-optional capital is stripping off its temporary ban on public nudity.
