HT to LGF and AOS Hq
A number of European states are refusing to allow El Al cargo planes carrying Israel Defense Forces equipment from stopover landings in their airports.
The refusal came from states considered friendly with Israel, including Britain, Germany and Italy, according to Captain Etai Regev, the chairman of El Al's pilots' union.
Regev sent a letter of complaint on the matter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and to the Defense Ministry, the Finance Ministry, and the Tourism Ministry.
According to Regev, El Al flights bearing heavy loads that arrive from U.S. bases "are not given approval by European states to make stopover landings for refueling, for political reasons.
"As a result, cargo planes are taking off from the U.S. with much lighter weight, and are reaching Israel with significantly fewer munitions than needed."
Regev called this "a substantial blow to state defense."
In his letter, Regev complained about the government's decision last month to allow Italy's flag carrier, Alitalia, to fly Israeli state employees abroad for the first time.
"Israel's response to this is the transfer of labor to Italian pilots at the cost of Israeli pilots," he wrote. Crater that f*cking Beirut runway now!
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2006 18:54 ||
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#1
states considered friendly with Israel
In Europe? I don't think so. Recall none would allow transshipment of supplies in 73. They're dhimmi.
#2
It's shocking, really. There was so much talk about how and if Europeans would revolt against the Muslims taking over their country. Would it be brutal? Would pogroms result?
Yet what we are seeing in Europe, once again is is a swift and brutal turn towards anti-semitism. It's mind boggling how quickly this is happening. But a look at the beginning of WWII shows that the grip of anti-semitism was likewise very swift.
But this time around it is so nonsensical. Tiny Israel is just trying to defend itself and the Muslims are proudly blowing up women and children to cause as much useless carnage as possible. The world is going mad.
A British tourist has been killed and six others wounded after a man opened fire on them in Amman. Witnesses said the man fired at least 12 bullets before he finished his ammunition and was overpowered by police and arrested. The attack took place on afternoon Monday in a crowded part of central Amman close to a Roman amphitheatre - an area popular with tourists. Two British people, a Dutch citizen, a New Zealander, a Dutchman and their Jordanian tour guide were wounded during the shooting, said Nasser Joudeh, the government spokesman. Jordanian officials said they were investigating whether the man acted on his own or belonged to a radical Islamist group.
The shooting is the first attack in the pro-western kingdom since scores of people died in triple suicide bombings against luxury hotels claimed by al Qaeda last November. During a visit to the hospital where the wounded were being treated, the Jordanian prime minister, Marouf al-Bakheet, said: "We will ascertain in the next period whether this was a sole act or whether this individual is a member of a terrorist cell."
The Jordanian interior minister, Eid al-Fayez, described the incident as a "cowardly terrorist attack, which we regret took place on Jordanian soil."
Muhammad Jawad Ali, an Iraqi man who witnessed the shooting, said: "I was walking when I saw someone pull out a pistol from his pocket and start shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) and fire repeatedly. "Then I saw one tourist who appeared to be dead and three who were injured. They were in a group of seven. A woman told me they were tourists from New Zealand and England."
The gunman has been identified as Nabil Ahmad, a Jordanian in his late thirties and a resident of the industrial town of Zarqa, on the eastern outskirts of the capital, Jordanian officials said. He is believed to have acted on his own.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2006 17:07 ||
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Acted on his own? We are to believe he just woke up one fine sunny morning and decided to take a gun and go shoot up some infidels? His mission in life came to him in a dream?
These 'loners' all happen to be called Muhammed, or Azziz. They go to bed as peaceful souls and awake with guns or SUVs and a desire to kill in the name of Allan. The whole damn religion appears to be one large terrorist cell.
Posted by: john ||
09/04/2006 18:14 Comments ||
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"I was walking when I saw someone pull out a pistol from his pocket and start shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) and fire repeatedly."
A British man was killed today when a lone gunman shouting "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is Great") started firing at a group of Western tourists in the Jordanian capital Amman. but of course it's not Islam
Five other tourists - two British women, one Australian woman, one New Zealand woman and a Dutch man - were injured in the attack as well as a Jordanian policeman.
The dead Briton was named by Jordanian officials tonight as Christopher Stokes, 30. His family in the UK are said to be "devastated" at the news and his mother had to be sedated.
The attack happened at around 10.30am (0730GMT), as the group was preparing to leave the Greco-Roman amphitheatre, a busy attraction in downtown Amman. Karen Sparke, one of the British women injured in the shooting said she had a "very lucky escape".
Speaking from her hospital bed, Ms Sparke told BBC News 24: "We were walking up some steps when we heard - well, I didnt realise it was a gunshot, I thought it was a firecracker - and we turned around and saw this man pointing a gun at us and I got shot."
She said she had looked over and seen her friends lying on the ground. "I went up the steps a bit further and stood round the corner, and I realised I was bleeding all over," she said. "We lost one of ours, and two of them have had operations."
She said everyone who had looked after them had been "marvellous". "The locals came and dragged us away to protect us and then they got the ambulance," she said. "Im just really tender. I had a very lucky escape. Its not real at the moment."
The gunman, in his 30s and named by officials as Nabeel Ahmed Issa Jaourah, was a Jordanian from the town of Zarqa, the birthplace of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the slain former al-Qaeda frontman. go figure? Shoulda bulldozed it and salted the earth
Mr Jaourah was arrested and officials are now investigating whether he was acting on his own or belonged to a radical Islamist group.
The attack is the first to hit Amman since November 9, when triple suicide bombings on three Amman hotels killed 60 people. Those attacks were claimed by the al-Qaeda in Iraq group then led by al-Zarqawi. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack.
Rana Sabbagh-Gargour, Times Correspondent in Amman, said that the attack came amid rising antagonism towards the West.
"There is mounting frustration on the streets of the Arab world with the West, especially with the United States and Europe, over its perceived bias on the Middle Eastern conflict, Iraq and Lebanon," she said. "It is putting pressure on moderate Arab governments to revisit their politics and limiting their ability to manoeuvre." the Arab Street is seething...except all the Jordanians who assisted them after they were shot
Although the Foreign Office has not changed the level of its advice, it does warn travellers of a high threat from terrorism.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2006 15:39 ||
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should ht'd Captain Ed on this one
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2006 15:54 Comments ||
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Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Sunday ruled out peace talks between Israel and Syria for now, saying that a "sequence" must be followed, with an end to Syrian support of Lebanese and Palestinian extremists coming first. Interviewed on Channel 10, Livni said that a move to open Israel-Syria peace talks now would disrupt efforts to stabilize Lebanon after the conflict between Israel and Hizbullah.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Israel has not ruled out the release of Samir Kuntar, the Lebanese terrorist whose freedom has long been sought by Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, in the framework of a deal to bring home captured IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Kuntar, the longest-serving confirmed Lebanese prisoner in jail in Israel, is serving multiple life terms for the killing of three members of the Haran family and that of policeman Eliyahu Shahar in a raid on Nahariya in 1979.
Last month, relatives of Kuntar, who comes from a Druse family outside Beirut, urged the Goldwasser and Regev families to press Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to agree to an exchange, and some relatives of the Israeli pair have called on the government to do "whatever it takes" to bring home the two soldiers.
A senior Israeli source said on Sunday that Israel intended to ensure the implementation "to the letter" of UN Resolution 1701, which includes, in its opening, non-binding paragraphs, unlinked references to "the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers" and to "settling the issue of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel."
Asked whether Israel might free Kuntar in an exchange deal, the senior source did not rule this out, but said Israel would have to ascertain exactly "what is being offered." He declined to elaborate, but it is possible that this may have been a reference to the possible inclusion in a deal of information on missing Israeli airman Ron Arad.
Israel has previously shown a readiness to free Kuntar in the context of a deal involving news about Arad. Indeed, it was reported that Kuntar would be released in the second phase of a German-mediated prisoner deal with Hizbullah in 2004, in exchange for information on Arad. That phase of the deal was not implemented.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2006 00:00 ||
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This one is tough. It's heartening to see a whiff of sanity like this 1:1 exchange ratio pervade a prisoner swap. That it involves child-killer, Samir Kuntar, (I'll let someone else intentionally truncate misspell his last name.), makes me less than happy. That Israel continues to detain some one third of the Hamas "politicians" is a good thing.
Just make sure that any prisoner exchange includes a personal and final appearance by Nasrallah.
#2
Perhaps ought to bring up explicitly what sort of trades Israel might expect if in the future some Paleostinians accidentally got "kidnapped" by Israeli "militants". Theoretically speaking, of course. Not to affect present negotiations, only future. Might give the stone-throwers a little pause for thought.
#4
you don't have to trade ALL of him at once. Maybe a couple limbs or organs first, as an ice-breaking gesture?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2006 18:13 Comments ||
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It says a lot that the terrorists Hezb'Allah want this lowlife scum back and the Israelis want their soldiers back. I'm sure they need him back to help with their fluffy bunny orphanage. If I were in charge of PR, I'd be asking the terroristsHezb'Allah the Lebanese "government" this one question in a very pointed manner.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday said he had appealed to his Lebanese counterpart Fouad Siniora through various sources to establish peaceful ties between the two countries.
"How natural, how understandable it would be for the Prime Minister of Lebanon to respond to the many calls I have made toward him and say, `Come on, let`s sit, shake hands, make peace and end once and for all the hostility, the jealousy, the hatred that some of my people have toward you,'" Olmert said during a visit to a school in Northen Israel.
"I hope this day comes soon. I yearn for it. I am sure that you yearn for it. I`m sure all of Israel yearns for it. But until then, we will do everything, thoughtfully, responsibly to handle everything needed to be ready for every opportunity," the Prime Minister said.
Last week, responding to Olmert`s optimism that the deployment of international peacekeepers in southern Lebanon will pave the way for a "new reality" in the region and possible cooperation between Lebanon and Israel, Siniora had said that his country "would be the last Arab country that could sign a peace agreement with Israel."
Olmert once again asserted his intention to invest resources in the north areas battered by Hezbollah rockets so that it will be a "flourishing paradise."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2006 00:00 ||
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I am so disgusted by Olmert that I don't want to comment this last delirium.
A Hamas minister submitted his resignation to Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday amid reports that President Mahmoud Abbas is considering calling early elections for the parliament and the presidency to resolve the ongoing crisis in the PA territories.
The resignation of Jamal Khudari, minister of communications and technology, is the first of its kind since Hamas took power last March. Earlier this year, PA Tourism Minister Judeh Murqus resigned after receiving threats from Fatah gunmen in Bethlehem. He withdrew his resignation after receiving assurances that he would not be harmed.
In a letter to Haniyeh, Khudari hinted that his decision to quit was related to the failure of Hamas and Abbas's Fatah party to reach an agreement on the formation of a national-unity government. Abbas and Haniyeh held five meetings in Gaza City over the past few days to discuss the national-unity government, but failed to reach an agreement.
"It is our wish, and that of all Palestinians, to see a national-unity government," Khudari wrote. "To support this effort, which undoubtedly requires that some ministers leave their posts, I place at your disposal the portfolio of Communications and Technology with the hope that you would succeed in uniting our people."
The resignation is seen as a serious embarrassment for Hamas and the Haniyeh government. PA officials in Ramallah said they saw the resignation as marking the beginning of the end of the Hamas-controlled government.
"Let's hope they will all resign and return to their homes," said a senior official in Abbas's office. "This government is a catastrophe and it is responsible for the economic and political deterioration in the Palestinian territories."
Another PA official said he expected more ministers to submit their resignations soon. "This proves that there are people in Hamas who don't support its agenda," he said. "Hamas must start listening to these voices that are coming from within its own camp."
The resignation comes one day after PA civil servants declared an open-ended strike in all government institutions, including schools and universities. The strike was organized by several Fatah-run unions, a fact that prompted Hamas leaders to talk about a "conspiracy" by Fatah and Abbas to bring down Haniyeh's government.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Skipping town just ahead of the sheriff IDF, eh?
"President Mahmoud Abbas is considering calling early elections"
He might as well - most of this "parliament" is in Israeli jails. Where they belong.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/04/2006 0:26 Comments ||
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Don't leave now. You're next on the list.Har Har Har.
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.
A British tourist has been killed and six others wounded after a man opened fire on them in Amman. Witnesses said the man fired at least 12 bullets before he finished his ammunition and was overpowered by police and arrested. The attack took place on afternoon Monday in a crowded part of central Amman close to a Roman amphitheatre - an area popular with tourists. Two British people, a Dutch citizen, a New Zealander, a Dutchman and their Jordanian tour guide were wounded during the shooting, said Nasser Joudeh, the government spokesman. Jordanian officials said they were investigating whether the man acted on his own or belonged to a radical Islamist group.
A British man was killed today when a lone gunman shouting "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is Great") started firing at a group of Western tourists in the Jordanian capital Amman. 
