BAGRAM - U.S. forces killed up to five opposing fighters in a firefight in southeastern Afghanistan on Wednesday night. A statement from the U.S. headquarters said U.S. special forces and a military reconstruction team came under fire from about 30 opposing fighters near Gardez. "They returned fire killing three enemy. Two additional enemy were suspected killed," the statement from spokesman Colonel Rodney Davis said, adding that there were no U.S. casualties. Difference between trained troops and guerillas? 5-0
Davis said a quick reaction force from the forward operating base at Gardez was called in as well as two A-10 and one AC-130 aircraft to provide close air support, but the planes did not open fire. David also said that a special forces soldier injured by an improvised explosive device near Gardez on Tuesday was cut in the neck but not seriously injured. He said the vehicle in which the soldier had been traveling was slightly damaged.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 09:11 am ||
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Did you know that the Afghan National Army now has seven light infantry battalions and one armored battalion?
JEDDAH â Sheikh Ibrahim ibn Abdullah Al-Ghaith, president of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has admitted that his officials may have made mistakes. At the same time, however, he said his organization had been the victim of false allegations. Al-Ghaith said the commission was making strenuous efforts to improve its image by providing training for its staff. He said the commissionâs headquarters as well as its 13 branches all over the country make great efforts to select the best qualified personnel to carry out its Islamic mission. âFor several years we have been appointing intelligent and knowledgeable university graduates,â he added. âThe commissionâs officials are human beings and may make mistakes in their judgments. But at the same time, the commission provides intensive courses so that its staff may improve their standards and performance,â he explained.
However, he pointed out that many accusations against the commission were untrue. He denied reports that the commission officials had beaten up individuals. âSome mistakes might have been made by our staff but many stories about us are false. We are human beings and so may make mistakes. At the same time we will not allow false accusations to be made against us,â he said. Al-Ghaith said the officials who made mistakes would be punished in accordance with civil service regulations.
"And no teevee for you for a week, young man!"
"I don't watch teevee. It's un-Islamic."
He said he always encouraged Islamic scholars to listen, open their hearts to young people and hold dialogues with them. âWe have conducted a number of summer courses for young people in Jeddah, Taif, Abha and other areas to engage them in constructive activities.â He said the commission officials had not put up any barriers between them and young people. âBut there are certain young people who are involved in immoral and illegal activities. They will not be happy with the commission when its officials arrest them in order to protect society from the consequences of their wicked actions,â he said. However, Al-Ghaith pointed out that some youths had in fact reacted positively to the commission after being released from jail. Referring to the flogging of young men arrested for flirting with girls, Al-Ghaith said such punishments were carried out with the permission of the governorates and authorities. âOur officials donât carry sticks to beat people. What we do is that we hand over people involved in immoral and illegal activities to the police. There are a lot of exaggerated reports about our organization in the press and on the Internet,â he said. Al-Ghaith said he had urged his men to deal politely with the public.
Prior to, or after flogging them?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 11:56 am ||
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Forcing the girls back into a burning building because they did not have proper face coverings is a mistake or a false accusation? There are mistakes and then there is murder.
#2
These guys are called "mutawa", and can be seen in groups of 4 or 5 with a bored looking cop hanging around. They walk around malls correcting women and young men on clothes, not praying, etc. One stopped my kids' school bus in Riyadh and all the moms had to cover up, shut up, and take verbal abuse from the guy. What jerks.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/22/2003 12:56 Comments ||
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I'd be real wary of any country that has something called the "Religious Police".
RIYADH â GCC leaders during a one-day summit here yesterday strongly condemned recent terror bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco and called for international efforts to root out terrorism. They described terrorism as âa global scourge and called for intensifying international efforts to combat and root out terrorism,â GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiya said. âSuch terrorist acts have nothing to do with Islam,â Al-Attiya said in a statement at the end of the biannual consultative summit.
"Only its practitioners do..."
The meeting was attended by Crown Prince Abdullah, King Hamad of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad of Qatar, Sheikh Khalifa ibn Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Fahd ibn Mahmoud Al-Saeed, the deputy prime minister of Oman, and Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad, Kuwaitâs first deputy premier and foreign minister. Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, was also present.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 11:50 am ||
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Now that the Battle of Iraq is drawing down maybe planning for the Battle of the Mad-drassas can begin.
Saudi Arabia has set up a special committee of experts to promote a moderate image of Islam, Crown Prince Abdullah announced yesterday. The move seeks to uproot extremism from the country. âWe have entrusted a committee of experienced and knowledgeable people to propagate the moderate views of Islam,â Prince Abdullah told Kuwaitâs Assiyassah newspaper.
Good idea. Form a committee. That always works...
He suggested there were possible terror cells in other Arab countries. âWhat we have in Saudi Arabia also exists in abundance in all other Arab countries in the form of sleeping cells,â he said. âSome of them have risen and some others are yet to rise. So we are very worried about these countries,â he said. He called for strong and frank inter-Arab relations.
"Yeah. It ain't just us. It's just us more'n anybody else..."
He said a number of committees had been set up to implement the ideas expressed in the keynote address of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd to the Shoura Council. The king had called for improvement in the performance of government agencies. In his address, King Fahd said the government would go ahead with its reform programs, broaden the scope of popular participation and widen the scope for working women.
An image of grandmaw laying bricks in an abaya on a hot day just popped to mind. Don't know why...
Highlighting the moderate views of Islam, Prince Abdullah said he had openly criticized those scholars who follow the extremist line while giving their edicts and opinions.
Perhaps you should kill them? That'll solve that little problem...
âIslam is a complete political, social and economic system,â the crown prince said and urged Muslims to act in accordance with the true spirit of their religion.
Sounds like it's part of a balanced breakfast.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 11:46 am ||
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Close the charities that promote hate based out of the different Saudi embassies and I'll start to believe them.
#2
We'll call the committee the COMINTERN. Yes...sounds good, Effendi!
Posted by: Brian ||
05/22/2003 12:51 Comments ||
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#3
Form a committee and promote "image". Just the type of concrete steps we need to root out the Wahibites. Abdullah had better put his foot down, or the Royals will be a mere footnote in history in 20 years.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/22/2003 13:00 Comments ||
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#4
Michael - can we hope for that footnote a little sooner? Maybe a year or two?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/22/2003 13:08 Comments ||
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#5
Does this mean we can look forward to some more "The Saudis Are Our Friends" commercials? I always got a kick out of those. The ad agency that did them must still be laughing all the way to the bank.
EFL
Saudi police have arrested four more suspects linked to al-Qaida as they crack down on extremists following the bombings in Riyadh, a Western diplomat said Thursday. It was the first report of the arrests, which the diplomat said were made Tuesday. He had no details on where or how the arrests were made. Rounded up the usual suspects
Saudi officials had announced Sunday that four suspects with apparent ties to al-Qaida were arrested last week for the May 12 attacks on foreign housing complexes in Riyadh. On Tuesday, Saudi security officials said three suspected al-Qaida militants had been arrested a day earlier in the western port city of Jiddah. Later reports — denied by the Saudi interior minister — linked those three to a possible hijacking plot. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. It's Pandemic in Soddy
"The Saudis are working very, very aggressively throughout the kingdom," the Western diplomat said, speaking on condition he not be identified. So as not to lose credibility when the show arrests end and support for Al Qaeda begins again
The diplomat said the latest arrests involved four men linked to, but not among, 19 suspects the Saudis have sought in connection with a weapons cache found in Riyadh on May 6. Interior Minister Prince Nayef has said investigators have identified three of the mangled bodies of the nine Saudi attackers as among the 19 suspects sought in the weapons cache discovery.
That would seem to leave 16 who're still ticklish...
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 07:22 am ||
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This whole thing reminds me of the end of the book GOOD FRIDAY where the Saudi's beheaded a bunch of bad guys and someone noticed that the people being beheaded were all missing hands (aka the Saudi's rounded up victims in the local prison) and the whole thing was done for foreign consumption.
Named as Godfather of world terrorism, Abu Qatada, a radical Islamic cleric granted asylum and getting for years £1000 per month benefit from the British government, was named on Tuesday of being directly involved in inspiring September 11 attacks in the US. It was also alleged that he has had direct links with Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations spread across the world.
Abu Qatada was Binny's "ambassador to Europe." He was a buddy of Zarqawi, back in Jordan...
Eighteen videos of his sermons at North Finsbury Park mosque, considered a hotbed of fundamentalist activities and raided by the police some time ago, were found in the flat in Hamburg where three of the September 11 hijackers had lived, including their leader Mohammad Atta. On trial now under the new anti-terror laws, Qatada, a Palestinian, (real name Omar Mahmood Abu Omar) also held meetings at a London youth club, attended even by Zacharias Moussaoui, the alleged intended 20th hijacker in the September 11 plot and by the shoe bomber Richard Reid. In the 127-page dossier on him, it is alleged that "Abu Qatada and to a lesser extent Abu Hamza (another preacher at the north Finsbury Park mosque) have acted as focal point for extreme Islamic groupings, network and individuals." Qatada has been described by the Spanish police as an ambassador of Osama bin Laden in Europe. Now declared Britain's public enemy number one, Qatada is seen as the most important of those being held in custody. His case also highlights the utter neglect by the government to control clerics like Qatada that led to Islamic radicals recruit and raise funds with impunity for terrorism abroad including in Kashmir.
We've previously wondered about that "utter neglect" in these pages. Unless the British government is totally incompetent, my guess has been that they've been tracking these guys' contacts and mapping the Islamist organizations. I sure hope I'm right...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 12:39 pm ||
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S#!t, that loser got almost as much as I earn - and I have to work 40 hours a week. (Except for the time I spend here are Rantburg, of course!) Man, can I get asylum in Britain and go on the dole? This American capitalism stuff is for the birds!
#3
Scooter McGruder
My condolances to you but I suspect that with all the good(?) work he did he may have had to work more than 40. But then time still wounds all heals!
BRUSSELS - Belgium opened the trial on Thursday of 23 suspected al Qaeda collaborators, including a professional footballer who has confessed to knowing Osama bin Laden and plotting to attack a Belgian air force base. Other accused in Europe's latest high-profile trial of suspected Islamic militants face charges linking them to the killing of an Afghan commander days before the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. One key suspect is Tunisian-born footballer Nizar ben Abdelaziz Trabelsi. In an interview aired on RTBF radio, Trabelsi, 32, confessed to planning a bomb attack on the Kleine Brogel air force base, which anti-nuclear activists say houses U.S. nuclear weapons. Trabelsi was arrested in Brussels with explosives and firearms two days after the September 11 attacks. The suspects face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty on charges ranging from fraud and possession of firearms to belonging to a criminal organisation and recruiting for a foreign armed force.
Sounds about right...
Most are suspected members of a little-known Muslim group with ties to al Qaeda.
That would probably be al-Tawhid, though Rooters doesn't get around to saying it...
Two suspects, Algerian-born Amor ben Mohamed Sliti and Tarek ben Habib Maaroufi of Tunisia, are charged with trafficking in false passports and other crimes connected with the murder of Ahmad Shah Masood, an Afghan commander who fought the ousted Taliban regime. Two stolen Belgian passports were found on the bodies of Masood's killers.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 11:18 am ||
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Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/22/2003 18:37 Comments ||
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Kleine Brogel used to be a major NATO exercise base for US aircraft in the UK. Complaints about noise, pollution, and nuclear weapons (which, to the best of my knowledge, are NOT based at Kleine Brogel - all US nukes are always in firm control of US forces) has forced the US to use other facilities. This made the Belgians unhappy, because the flow of money dried up (these people don't understand 'cause' and 'effect' either). Today, Kleine Brogel is best known for housing the Belgian Air Force's precision air team, the "Slivers". I'm all for even further withdrawing from Belgium, the tiny tot in the Axis of Weasels.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/22/2003 20:13 Comments ||
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Partners for Peace helped get some of Rachel Corrie's emails
into the Washington Post of Sunday, March 30, 2003. Rachel was killed on March 16 by an Israeli bulldozer. Its driver ran over her despite her visible nonviolent efforts to stop the attempted bulldozing of the home of a Palestinian doctor.
WASHINGTON POST
Last E-Mails From a Young Activist
Sunday, March 30, 2003; Page B03
Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old activist from Olympia, Wash., was
crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer on March 16 as
she tried to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian home in
Rafah, in the Gaza Strip. In detailed e-mails to her parents, which they provided through the organization for which she was a volunteer, she explained why the work was so important to her.
Excerpts:
FEB. 7, 2003 I have been in Palestine for two weeks and one
hour now, and I still have very few words to describe what I see. It is most difficult for me to think about what's going on here when I sit down to write back to the United States -- something about the virtual portal into luxury. I don't know if many of the children here have ever existed without tank-shell holes in their walls and the towers of an occupying army surveying them constantly from the near horizons. I think, although I'm not entirely sure, that even the smallest of these children understand that life is not like this everywhere. . . .
I am just beginning to learn, from what I expect to be a very
intense tutelage, about the ability of people to organize against
all odds, and to resist against all odds.
Rachel
FEB. 20 Mama,
. . . I am staying put in Rafah for now, no plans to head north. I
still feel like I'm relatively safe and think that my most likely risk
in case of a larger-scale incursion is arrest. . . .
Rachel
FEB. 27 Love you. Really miss you. I have bad nightmares about tanks and bulldozers outside our house and you and me inside. Sometimes the adrenaline acts as an anesthetic for weeks -- and then in the evening or at night it just hits me again -- a little bit of the reality of the situation. I am really scared for the people here.
. . . The count of homes destroyed in Rafah since the beginning of this intifada is up around six hundred, by and large people with no connection to the resistance but who happen to live along the border. Most of these are refugee homes . . .
If any of us had our lives and welfare completely strangled, lived with children in a shrinking place where we knew, because of previous experience, that soldiers and tanks and bulldozers could come for us at any moment -- which would perhaps be a somewhat less cruel death than starvation, chronic malnutrition, and nitrite poisoning (caused from increasing reliance on wells located at a distance from settlements, eastward, where the water quality is poor), with no means of economic survival and our houses destroyed -- if they came and destroyed all the greenhouses that we had been cultivating for however long, and did this while some of us were beaten and held captive with 149 other people for several hours -- do you think we might try to use somewhat violent means to protect the edge of the greenhouses, to protect whatever fragments remained?
. . . I think about this especially when I see orchards and
greenhouses and fruit trees destroyed -- just years of care and
cultivation. I think about you and how long it takes to make things grow and what a labor of love it is. I really think, in a similar situation, most people would defend themselves as best they could. I think Uncle Craig would. I think probably Grandma would. I think I would.
. . . I'm having a hard time right now. Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom. I know that from the United States, it all sounds like hyperbole. Honestly, a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence of the willful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me. I really can't believe that something like this can happen in the world without a bigger outcry about it. . . .
When I come back from Palestine, I probably will have
nightmares and constantly feel guilty for not being here, but I can channel that into more work. Coming here is one of the better things I've ever done. So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible.
I love you and Dad . . .
Rachel
FEB. 28 It really helps me to get word from you, and from other
people who care about me. . . .
You can always hear the tanks and bulldozers passing by, but all of these people [here] are genuinely cheerful with each other, and with me. . . . They are a good example of how to be in it for the long haul. . . . I wish you could meet these people. Maybe, hopefully, someday you will. I love you.
Rachel
You know, she doesn't sound full of hate to me. Contrary to what I hear ABOUT her.
I guess being a long-term conservative makes you addicted to underdogs. And you learn that usually the more shrill the rhetoric, the more you need to look behind you.
Posted by: Scott ||
05/22/2003 01:31 pm ||
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Once again, here is the Angel of Peace(tm) teaching Paleo schoolchildren how to properly burn an American flag.
#2
"do you think we might try to use somewhat violent means to protect the edge of the greenhouses, to protect whatever fragments remained? "
so basically shes jsutifying the murder of innocents by terrorists. Many Palestinians, including Abu Mazen, seem to be realizing that its the terrorism that CAUSES the occupation. Doesnt sound like this lady was encouraging them in that path.
#3
"if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible. "
The only genocide is the policy of terror to murder Jews. Its very sad indeed how the people of Gaza live, and how many have died - but its not due to any Israeli genocide. To blame the victims of terror for genocide is yes, to be filled with hate.
#4
I am staying put in Rafah for now, no plans to head north. I still feel like I'm relatively safe and think that my most likely risk in case of a larger-scale incursion is arrest.
#5
Scott, you could take selected comments from me and actually portray me in a false light: as a caring moderate over what happened to Ms. Pancake. She tried to help the Paleos protect an import point for weapons to kill innocent Israelis - She got what she wanted blessed martyrdom and 72 raisins. Compassion for useful idiots is not my style, sorry
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 14:05 Comments ||
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"Contrary to what I hear ABOUT her.
I guess being a long-term conservative makes you addicted to underdogs"
I guess being a long term liberal makes me distrust people who justify terrorism because PROPERTY (eg greenhouses,etc have been destroyed)
and it makes me sympathetic to people like the IDF who override property rights for a valid public purpose (like depriving terrorists of places to hide)
oh, and it also makes me prefer law and reason and to distrust passion in politics - which distinguishes me from a radical like this, as well as from some on the far right (some on the near right would qualify as liberals in this sense - broad classical sense)
#7
"if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people"
Or maybe the israeli military is not racist, and actually conducts its attacks for bona fide security reasons. Maybe the Israeli army has lots of soldiers who are a lot darker than this white girl. Maybe she should have gotten to know something about Israeli society. Maybe she should have considered becoming a human shield in a disco in Tel Aviv.
Or maybe she didnt become anti-US because of the side she took in the Israel - Pal dispute. Maybe she took the side she did because she's anti-US?
#9
After Vietnam, Watergate, Carter's 'malaise', Iran-contra, Reno's FBI (several instances), Hillary's use of FBI files, Bill's perjury and yes, even Cheney's Halliburton connection, I don't trust half of what comes out of OUR government. So I'm dang sure not gonna take at face value what Israel's Likud gov't says. I believe that Israel is systematically displacing palestinians and THAT is a major cause for palestinian terrorism. Most of those being displaced are not terrorists. I just wish the activists had the courage to do it nonviolently.
Seems to me, after all the bombings, nonviolent protest would be encouraged, even welcomed. If there is a cause for which people feel strong enough to put their life on the line, don't you want them to do it without violence?
Posted by: Scott ||
05/22/2003 14:42 Comments ||
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#10
systematically displacing is incorrect - no area of Pal population has had its population removed during the current intifada. Isreali settlement activity, whether you consider it legal or illegal, is on vacant land. The terrorism started well before any Likud govt, and the current intifada started before the current Likud govt, and in fact was largely responsible for the Likud victory.
Non-violent protest would be nice, but this lady was justifying terrorism.
#11
If you begin an inquiry with false assumptions you are going to keep getting to false conclusions. RCorrie's assumptions going in were that Israel actually wants to invade Gaza and arbitrarily does so (not her only false assumptions). These are truly bizarre assumptions that can not be made without a bizarre world view or a desire to avoid seeing facts as they are. Notwithstanding this, many, many people have essentially the same mind set.
#14
Am I the only one skeptical about these e-mails? Have they been verified? Reminds me of Stern and the Hitler Diaries.
If these e-mails are legitimate, then they should be entitled "The Last E-Mails of a Misled Activist". Corrie seems oblivious to the history and context of the Mideast and instead the focus is myopic, self-centered and pollyanish.
#15
As I have said in this space, I believe Israel has God-given, UN mandated and Balfour-declared right to a homeland. My only beef is how they deal with the inhabitants. They HAVE displaced innocent paleos, and use every act of aggression against them as justification to displace more. If you can't see the immorality of it, then how about the stupidity of it. It's costing them (and us) many times more in $ and blood NOT to buy those people out.
Posted by: Scott ||
05/22/2003 15:09 Comments ||
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#16
"racist tendencies not to injure white people." What a perfect example of the leftist tendency to reduce everything to race. Muslims, they want us to believe, are "brown," whereas Jews are "white." Utter rot. Even in the most racist days of America, when non-whites were largely excluded from immigrating to the US, people from the Middle East were allowed in because they were classified as Caucasians. In terms of skin color, Palestinians range from medium brown to quite light. Israeli Jews cover a broader spectrum; some of European backround are quite fair, whereas the Falashas, Jews from Ethiopia, are actually the darkest group around.
#17
If there is a cause for which people feel strong enough to put their life on the line, don't you want them to do it without violence?
I think the last thing she expected to do was put her "life on the line". The only person more surprised then her to get run over by a bulldozer was probably the guy driving it.
#18
Favorite Quote: "So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible."
Oh, the irony of the phrase "I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting."
And, ColoradoConservative, I believe Klein quoted form another e-mail in her March column, and it has the same myopic, self-centered and pollyanish tone as these letters. If they are fakes, they are spot on since they highlight precisely the psychological qualities of passionate, committed protestors too immature to grant that maybe, just maybe, homicide bombing on Jews is a bad thing. (My sarcasm is not directed towards you.)
Second favorite quote: "if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people. . ."
To which I cite, again: "Thirty-two Americans, many with dual citizenship, have been killed by Palestinian suicide bombers, and 50 have been injured, since the second Palestinian uprising began in September 2000. www.guerrillanews.com/human_rights/doc1176.html]"
#21
Corrie was arrogant and stupid - a deadly combination. Stupidity kills, arrogance only ensures it happens sooner, rather than later.
The war in Israel has been going on for over 100 years, ever since Jews began returning to the area during the later days of the Ottoman Empire. The first Kubbutz was established in something like 1894, and suffered pogroms until independence in 1948. There is no such thing as a Palestinian people - there are only Arabs who happen to live in what they call Palestine - the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. Read some of the writings of the Mufti of Jerusalem, and you'll see that Israel is under a curse of death. The only safety that Israel has is a strong military, and the ability to marginalize the terrorism within its borders. Frankly, after Hitler, after Stalin, after the Polish and Russian pogroms, and all the anti-Semitism in western Europe, I think the Jews have been too damned nice.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/22/2003 20:26 Comments ||
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All we need is violins in the background. Get out your tissues. The lefty deification of Saint Rachel continues...
The Israeli army got away with murder - and now all activists are at risk So tell them to take the friggin' hint...
By Naomi Klein Jessica Lynch and Rachel Corrie could have passed for sisters. Two all-American blondes, two destinies for ever changed in a Middle East war zone. Private Jessica Lynch, the soldier, was born in Palestine, West Virginia. Rachel Corrie, the activist, died in Israeli-occupied Palestine. Corrie was four years older than 19-year-old Lynch. Her body was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza seven days before Lynch was taken into Iraqi custody on March 23. Before she went to Iraq, Lynch organised a pen-pal programme with a local kindergarten. Before Corrie left for Gaza, she organised a pen-pal programme between kids in her hometown of Olympia, Washington, and children in Rafah. Maybe the kids in Olympia sent flags to the kids in Rafah and Rachel taught them how to burn them...
Lynch went to Iraq as a soldier loyal to her government. Corrie went to Gaza to oppose the actions of her government. As a US citizen, she believed she had a special responsibility to defend Palestinians against US-built weapons, purchased with US aid to Israel. In letters home, she described how fresh water was being diverted from Gaza to Israeli settlements, how death was more normal than life. "This is what we pay for here," she wrote. Unlike Lynch, Corrie did not go to Gaza to engage in combat: she went to try to thwart it. Along with her fellow members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), she believed that the Israeli military's incursions could be slowed by the presence of highly visible "internationals". The killing of Palestinian civilians may have become commonplace, the thinking went, but Israel doesn't want the diplomatic or media scandals that would come if it killed a US student. In retrospect, I would say... she was... WRONG!
In a way, Corrie was harnessing the very thing that she disliked most about her country: the belief that American lives are worth more than any others — and trying to use it to save a few Palestinian homes from demolition. Believing her fluorescent orange jacket would serve as armour, Corrie stood in front of bulldozers, slept beside wells and escorted children to school. If suicide bombers turn their bodies into weapons of death, Corrie turned hers into the opposite — a weapon of life, a "human shield". Oh... please... my tissues... where are my tissues...
When that Israeli bulldozer driver looked at Corrie's orange jacket and pressed the accelerator, her strategy failed. OOOOOOPS!
It turns out that the lives of some US citizens — even beautiful, young, white women — are valued more than others. And nothing demonstrates this more starkly than the opposing responses to Rachel Corrie and Pte Jessica Lynch. When the Pentagon announced Lynch's successful rescue, she became a hero, complete with "America loves Jessica" fridge magnets, stickers, T-shirts, mugs, country songs and an NBC made-for-TV movie. According to White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, President George Bush was "full of joy for Jessica Lynch". Her rescue, we were told, was a testament to a core American value: as West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller said to the Senate: "We take care of our people."
Do they? Corrie's death, which made the papers for two days and then virtually disappeared, has met with almost total official silence, despite the fact that eyewitnesses claim it was a deliberate act. President Bush has said nothing about a US citizen killed by a US-made bulldozer bought with US tax dollars. A US congressional resolution demanding an independent inquiry has been buried in committee, leaving the Israeli military's investigation — which cleared itself of any wrongdoing — as the only official investigation. And you know why, Naomi? Because she was some lunatic leftwing whack job who put herself in the position of getting run over by a bulldozer. She wanted to be a human shield? She GOT to be a human shield! Bigtime!
The ISM says that this non-response has sent a clear, and dangerous, signal. According to Olivia Jackson, a 25-year-old British citizen in Rafah: "After Rachel was killed, [the Israeli military] waited for the response from the American government and the response was pathetic. They know they can get away with it, and it has encouraged them to keep on going." Yeah, it was all part of that evil Zionist plan.
First there was Brian Avery, a 24-year-old US citizen shot in the face on April 5. Then Tom Hurndall, a British ISM activist shot in the head and left brain dead on April 11. Next was James Miller, the British cameraman shot dead while wearing a vest that said "TV". In all of these cases, eyewitnesses say the shooters were Israeli soldiers. Remember, folks. It's "Human SHIELD", not "Human Dilletante". And your opponent plays for keeps.And uses real bullets.
There is something else that Jessica Lynch and Rachel Corrie have in common: both of their stories have been distorted by the military for its own purposes. According to the official story, Lynch was captured in a bloody gun battle, mistreated by sadistic Iraqi doctors, then rescued in another storm of bullets by heroic Navy Seals. In the past weeks, another version has emerged. The doctors who treated Lynch found no evidence of battle wounds, and donated their own blood to save her life. Most embarrassing of all, witnesses have told the BBC that those daring Navy Seals already knew there were no Iraqi fighters left in the area when they stormed the hospital. Naomi might want to do a little more research on this story. The BBC has been ripped to shreds on it.
But while Lynch's story has been distorted to make its protagonists appear more heroic, Corrie's story has been posthumously twisted to make her, and her fellow ISM activists, appear sinister. For months, the Israeli military had been looking for an excuse to get rid of the ISM "troublemakers". It found it in Assif Mohammed Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif, the two British suicide bombers. It turns out that they had attended a memorial service for Corrie in Rafah, a fact the Israeli military has seized on to link the ISM to terrorism. Members of ISM point out that the event was open to the public, and that they knew nothing of the British visitors' intentions. We know nothing! NOTHING!!Who? Assif? Omar? Who? Bombing? What? Doesn't anybody realize we've been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize?
In the past two weeks, half a dozen ISM activists have been arrested, several deported, and the organisation's offices raided. The crackdown is spreading to all "internationals", meaning there are fewer people in the occupied territories to either witness the abuses or assist the victims. On Monday, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process told the security council that dozens of UN aid workers had been prevented from getting in and out of Gaza, calling it a violation of "Israel's international humanitarian law obligations". The UN comes down on Israel. That's original.
On June 5 there will be a international day of action for Palestinian rights. I'll mark it down on my calendar.
One of the demands is for the UN to send a monitoring force into the occupied territories. Until that happens, many are determined to continue Corrie's work. More than 40 students at her former college, Evergreen State, Olympia, have signed up to go to Gaza with the ISM this summer. Evergreen State? What kinda crap is the faculty peddling there?
So who is a hero? During the attack on Iraq, some of Corrie's friends emailed her picture to MSNBC asking that it be included on the station's "wall of heroes", along with Jessica Lynch. Words fail me here...
The network didn't comply, but Corrie is being honoured in other ways. Her family has received more than 10,000 letters of support, communities across the country have organised memorial services, and children from the occupied territories are being named Rachel. It's not a made-for-TV kind of tribute, but maybe that's for the best. Yep, cry me a river, Naomi. Poor dumb, deluded, dead Rachel.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
05/22/2003 10:18 am ||
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on LGF - they've been referring to the Amerika-hating snarling she-bitch as "Saint Pancake" lol
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 11:12 Comments ||
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Rachel Corrie died defending the rights of gun smugglers, drug dealers, and pimps. Wow! Now that's something to be proud of.
#5
Hey ru, Frank G, Chuck, Scooter, just a question. If you were conscious, who were you rooting for back in Tiananmen, the tanks or protesters? I don't agree with Corrie's stand or her methods. But I damn sure don't agree with soul-less idiots who rejoice over someone being run over by a bulldozer.
Posted by: Scott ||
05/22/2003 11:57 Comments ||
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Rachel lied down in front of an armored bulldozer (which all acknowledge couldn't see her through the tiny windows)to protect a house with a Paleo terrorist arms-smuggling tunnel access in it. I think she's better dead, and if you think that equates to smashing democracy activists in China, you need to get your moral equivalence meter adjusted Scott.
CC: LGF is Little Green Footballs, another excellent weblog
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 12:04 Comments ||
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CoCon: LGF = Little Green Footballs. A fine site up there with Rantburg, InstaPundit, etc.
Scott: I don't rejoice, but I don't shed any tears over this moron. Count me among the soulless idiots if the shoe fits.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/22/2003 12:06 Comments ||
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SCOTT:
I do not speak for the others but to me the question seems to be this: the left has given birth to a monster, a culture in which the word responsibility is unknown and forgotten. To go in-between two parts at war means you do risk your life, and it is in itself a stupid thing. They try to make an hero of a person that does stupid things.
Then there is the problem of values: being killed in defending the paleostinian terrorists is not exactly the same than fighting in TienAnMen square against one of the bigger dictatorships in the world.
I don't think that on this forum anyone really rejoices about the death of any human being (even if, me the first, sometimes someone is really angry about the attacks against America from inside America), but it is really time to reset the values and call stupid a stupid, terrorist helper a terrorist helper.
#11
Alright. The name calling was juvenile. I apologize. But certainly no more juvenile than what prompted it. If my name calling was ad hominem, and it certainly was, then trashing a dead protester is epitome of ad hominem. Why can't people just speak to her stance? At least she took one.
A terrorist, Poitiers? Would to God all terrorists spoke in her fashion, eh?
Posted by: Scott ||
05/22/2003 12:20 Comments ||
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1) soldiers driving an armored bulldozer have limited visibility because of the narrow window.
2) One of the ISM founders admits the protesters might not have been as disciplined in their protest as they should have been.
Most media reports failed to mention that the IDF bulldozer was looking for smuggling tunnels. Instead, reports described the house sympathetically as "the home of a Gazan doctor."
#13
Scott,
There was absolutely nothing in my post celebrating Corries death. And Poiters wrote "terrorist helper", not "terrorist". Please learn to read. And learning to think might be a good idea too.
"The true faces of modern activism belong to people like the late Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American "human shield" whose young body was crushed by a bulldozer in Gaza last month. Corrie wasn't in the occupied territories to give comfort to suicide bombers; she was standing with the nonviolent International Solidarity Movement trying to keep a Palestinian family home from being demolished."
Sorry, Namoi. That hair just won't split.
And from the Guerilla News Network:
"ISM members say they won't give up their operations in Rafah.
"We are going to continue," ISM activist Joe told GNN. "Now they know we are hardcore, and we won't move. It [Rachel's death] will either make the Israelis more careful, or they will continue to injure and kill more activists, and we will be useless as human shields."
You said it, Joe! But I don't suspect we'll see you putting your life on the line any time soon.
"Thirty-two Americans, many with dual citizenship, have been killed by Palestinian suicide bombers, and 50 have been injured, since the second Palestinian uprising began in September 2000."
A remarkable confession.
[www.guerrillanews.com/human_rights/doc1176.html]
Fuck you, Klein.
[from www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15737]
The skewed vision of the left is a wonder to encounter.
#17
Scott,
Screw her. She went over there to play some leftist kumbaya game and got between people who DON'T play games. She probably thought she was immune to any possible consequences. She was wrong. DEAD wrong. For being naive and stupid, she paid with her life.
Do I "rejoice" in that? No. But I don't lose any sleep over it either. If that makes me a "soul-less idiot", so be it.
#19
Scott, she got EXACTLY what a thinking-person would expect to get were they to venture into a war-torn area between the combatants. She was aiding and abetting a point used to smuggle arms and terrorist militants. Combine those actions with her Anti-American rhetoric and you end up with a less-than-sympathetic character.
#20
Note how Corrie "slept beside wells". Of course. Right out of the Protocols of Zion. Jews poison water supplies. Naomi Klein, I've only heard of self-hating Jews. I guess I've just read the works of one. How sad.
Posted by: michael ||
05/22/2003 15:49 Comments ||
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Rachel Corrie was ignorant, naive and stupid. The worst thing we can do is read any significance into her death.
My reaction is to nominate her for a Darwin Award. http://www.darwinawards.com/
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/22/2003 19:18 Comments ||
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It was here I read someone ask did Corrie get 72 buff dudes for her jihadi death.
THE CMA 411 [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
The wonderful Melissa Moskal from the Young America's Foundation e-mails me on how it went down at the Country Music Awards last night:
"The important thing to note about last night's ACMs CMAs wasn't covered in the wire reports... (I am shocked, aren't you? You would think the NYT would have been all over this.)
The Chicks were nominated for several awards. When their names were announced for nominations pre-performance, the audience clapped for them. It was only AFTER the performance, when whatsherface wore the "F*** You Toby Keith" shirt, and their name was read for "Entertainer of the Year," that the audience booed. And, poetically, Toby Keith beat them out for that award. Hah!
People might have started to forgive them for the anti-Bush remarks. But picking a fight with reigning country badass Toby Keith has just gotten them totally ostracized from the country community.
___________________________________________
Another take from Fox underscores the deep and simmering resentment among CM fans toward the Chicks: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,87503,00.html
LAS VEGAS â Many country music fans aren't ready to forgive the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines for comments critical of President Bush: Voters rejected the group's nominations for three Academy of Country Music Awards and the audience booed the mention of their name. The problem is that I truly think the Chicks' music is awesome and probably deserving of an award based on merit. Just can't stand their politics.
Presenter Vince Gill urged the audience at Wednesday night's show to "Stop it, stop it." He added: "You know who gets blessed when you forgive â you."
The Dixie Chicks were a late addition, performing by satellite from their hometown of Austin, Texas. Maines sat silently (sullenly?) as Emily Robison briefly introduced the song. The boos erupted when Gill named the Dixie Chicks among nominees for entertainer of the year. Gill said afterward that the reaction was more subdued than at last month's Flameworthy Awards. "It was a pretty volatile crowd that time. This one wasn't so bad," he said.
It didn't seem that way to host Reba McEntire. "It was a pretty big negative response. I don't think it's over," she said after the program.
"Everybody here loves to gamble," she said during an opening monologue. "They're backstage right now checking the latest odds on the Dixie Chicks playing the Bush family reunion."
Posted by: ColoradoConservative ||
05/22/2003 09:46 am ||
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Postscript (also from The Corner):
"Cowardly Chicks"
"One last note on the Dixie Chicks: They actually didn't even show to the CMA event: They performed via satellite, from their hometown, in front of their own, presumably friendly, audience. The booing was in Las Vegas, where the award ceremony was actually held.
#2
I think their music sucks, fake twangy crap, and could care less about their politics. But from what I can tell, they favor peace, justice and whatever is cool. And were they really to Dixie chicken to go to the awards show?
#3
I'm glad the audience had the opportunity to exercise their freedom of speech. Many fans of CW music have exercised their freedom of speech by selecting music from those who have not made politically motivated statements overseas like Natalie Maines.
The Dixie Chicks have made several bad decisions since that night in London. One of their worst decisions was to sit for an interview with Dianne Sawyer. Natalie Maines came off very poorly with a stupid laugh after almost every sentence she uttered. It is clear when it comes to foreign policy and national security, she doesn't have a clue. I could understand her cluelessnes if she read the New York Times or Los Angeles Times every morning, but I don't even think she would put out that much effort.
What has yet to seen is if other CW artists are equally ignorant and motivated to make statements at concerts.
#4
The "Hate America" crowd is crowing that the ruckus hasn't hurt their career or sales. My conclusion is different. Americans care so little what entertainers like Maines say that it just doesn't matter. In other words, her statements and t shirts have less than no effect. If an entertainer says something stupid in the forest, and no one cares, did they say anything?
#5
Did anyone see anything about the show's ratings? I wonder if it was down from the year before. I thought that highlighting the Dixie Chicks' performance in the commercials was either a very stupid or very smart move (stupid in that you turn off potential viewers from the start, smart in that people would tune in to see any controversy....)
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
05/22/2003 11:25 Comments ||
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One must remember, Maines said that she "wuz uh-shaimd that President bush wuz from Texis". Well, I'm from Texas and I'm more than ashamed of the cowardly Democrats who went AWOL on the constitutionally mandated redisticting vote. Democrats have been jerrymandering redistricting votes for decades in formerly Dim-dominated Texas, and no one ever walked out on a redistricting vote that favored them to win. Dims have chosen anarchy in this latest state level temper tantrum. Some 200 bills will have to be submitted for vote again. Thanks commies, you stinking criminals belong in prison; if you spent some time there you might actually aquire that which you have none, namely, Character. see:Charles Colson
A Moroccan suspected of belonging to the al-Qaeda network was arrested in Montreal yesterday as intelligence agencies warned that Osama bin Laden's followers are preparing to strike again. Few details were available on the arrest, initiated when two federal Cabinet ministers signed a security certificate declaring the man a threat to Canada because of his membership in the terrorist group. Citizenship and Immigration Canada officers arrested the suspect at about 4 p.m. with the assistance of a police tactical squad. "The RCMP did provide help for the arrest," a spokesman for the police force confirmed.
That's not the most detailed report I've ever seen... Hopefully, there'll be more information forthcoming.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 11:29 am ||
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Wonder if that's that Concordia punk who caused the trouble when Netanyahu wanted to speak at Concordia University. If not, I wonder how far down he is on the list.
Who would notice if Chretien got Mad Cow Disease?
Another health scare, another lunch in front of the cameras.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien tucked into a prime Alberta steak in a downtown Ottawa restaurant on Wednesday in a bid to allay public fears over mad cow disease. Yeah, that oughta solve the problem. He gets a free steak dinner and the crisis is over.
Chretien, who critics said had not done enough to reassure Canadians during the height of a recent SARS crisis, grabbed the bull by the horns after one case of mad cow disease was confirmed in the western province of Alberta on Tuesday. First the Liberal prime minister appeared before reporters early on Wednesday morning to say he expected the cow in question was an isolated case and to announce he would be eating steak that day. Then he made good on his word, turning up with senior aides at an outdoor restaurant for a meal of Alberta sirloin steak under a cluster of boom microphones. "I'll have mine medium, like a Liberal," he said in comments loud enough to be heard by the waiting media. That probably also means, "No tip for the waitress, like a Liberal."
Later he went over to shake the hands of a group of excited schoolchildren and told them: "You should have a steak today." ...and make it medium, like a Liberal!
Last month Chretien had lunch in Toronto's Chinatown district as he sought to persuade Canadians that it was safe to eat in Chinese restaurants despite the spread of SARS, which originated in China. Another free meal, another crisis solved. Well,...maybe not.
Shortly afterward he went to the Dominican Republic for an official visit and a 10-day vacation, prompting critics to say he should have been more involved in tackling the SARS crisis. Not my job, man. Hey, he didn't get SARS down there.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
05/22/2003 09:03 am ||
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He has no fear of Mad Cow, it attacks the brain - he has so little brain tissue as to be immune by lack of infectable material.
#2
Saw a funny thing on TV the other day: it seems the US has a disease similar to SARS, it kills thousands of people every year, kills on contact, they won't let you on a plane with it, it's called G-U-N-S.
I'm not a gun-hater but I must admit this was funny. I live in Toronto and can say the SARS thing was way overblown. Thanks to the WHO we all feel like lepers. Even the CDC in Atlanta stayed cool about the whole thing.
The mad-cow thing is a different story. The latest is that the cow came from Saskatchewan. One farm has been quarantined.
As for Chretien, he is Canada's worst Prime Minister ever. 'Nuff said.
#4
Mad cow disease (BSE): three or four tests that reportedly are 100% error free, the longest taking two days. All tests require killing the animal.
The cause of BSE is unknown. There are two, unproven theories.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is the human equivalent. Nearly all cases are genetic in origin. In England, there have been about 121 deaths in the last decade laid to CJDv, a variant that does not seem to be genetic, though sufferers have a genetic makeup that is similar and unique.
An unproven assumption has been made that these cases were caused by exposure to BSE, an exposure occurring 5-15 years prior. Over 100,000 cattle have been slaughtered. The latest reports suggest the potential for another 40 deaths before this situation ends in England.
It is proven that BSE cannot be transmitted in meat or milk. It is believed that any transmission occurs via the other organs, especially brain tissue (google kuru for fun facts on a related disease).
CJDv has no proven cause. There is no treatment and it is 100% fatal. A significant majority of the population appears to lack the genetic makeup found in sufferers of this disease, rendering them automaticly immune.
This is merely a media circus waiting to happen, and an economic disaster for farmers caught up in the frenzy.
#5
There are many more cases of vCJD in which the origin or cause of the disease is suspected to be Lyodura, a medical implant used in surgeries in the '80s. It is made of processed dura mater from cadavers. Read about it here.
#6
Saw a funny thing on TV the other day too, RW!:
Seems that Canada has spent about a billion dollars trying to keep track of all thier nasty dirty lethal G-U-N-S. It also seems that the project is $900M over budget and the software doesn't even work!
Saw something else funny, too! Seems that even though the US had almost as many cases of S-A-R-S as Canada, but no-one died! (Unlike the socialized medicine paradise to our north!)
SRINAGAR - Indian soldiers killed 12 snuffies rebels Thursday as they tried to slip into Indian Kashmir from Pakistan, an army spokesman said, in the biggest clash since India and Pakistan announced moves to improve ties last month. The action took place near Tutmar Gali, in north Kashmir on the Line of Control.
Talk is great, but it's better if the swarming stops. Which it won't...
Separately, soldiers and policemen shot dead five other militants in gunbattles across the region in the past 24 hours, police said. Police said a large quantity of arms and ammunition, including 43 bombs, was recovered from a militant hide-out near the Pakistan border southwest of Srinagar.
Just another day's Kashmire Korpse Kount...
A teacher was killed and another wounded in a grenade attack in south Kashmir, they said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 03:06 pm ||
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India seems to be staffed up for the intrusions - good! send these f*&kers to their martyrdom early
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 20:49 Comments ||
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ISLAMABAD: Interior secretary Tasneem Noorani on Wednesday said there was no ban on the movement of Hizbul Mujahideen leaders and activists but they could not carry out organizational activities in the country. Talking to Dawn, he said the FIR had been registered against a guard of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Syed Salahuddin for brandishing a prohibited weapon at a Rawalpindi Press Club function on Sunday. The interior secretary said display of arms was banned in the country and nobody was above the law. "Anybody who breaks the law of the land will be dealt with accordingly, no matter which party he belongs to," he said.
"Yar! We be jihadis!"
"Yer under arrest, Mahmoud! Mortars greater than 120 mm are prohibited in public!"
A couple of days back, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat had told Dawn that the government had imposed a ban on the organizational activities of Hizbul Mujahideen, but there was no ban on the movement of its leaders and activists. The interior secretary said the United Nations sent lists of various organizations to Pakistan every year, seeking ban on them. Pakistan, he pointed out, could not ban all such organizations. "We can only ban those organizations which are based in Pakistan."
"And since it's based in Pak Kashmir, well, that takes it right out of our jurisdiction, doesn't it?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 12:03 pm ||
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Answering yesterday the questions of the Turkish NTVMSNBC journalist, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Jalal Talabani, said that the US was determined to rid Iraq of terrorist organisations and within this frame the PKK/KADEK would also be ousted from the area. Claiming that Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK), formerly known as Kurdistan Worker`s Party (PKK), had around 5000 guerrillas, Talabani said that they were hoping for a general amnesty for these people and that the problems surrounding the presence of PKK/KADEK in south Kurdistan would solve itself in this way.
Regarding PUKâs relationship with Turkey, Talabani told the NTV channel that they had very positive meetings with the Turkish delegation in Iraq adding that they wanted to reinforce the relations with Turkey.
On the reports that the number of Kurds in Kirkuk had increased, Talabani said that these reports were false. "These kinds of reports are propaganda. The documents in question are documents prepared by the Iraqi dictatorship and cannot be trusted. These have been produced to lower the numbers of Kurds and Turkmens," Talabani said. Talabani also added that a peaceful life had started in Kirkuk and that a committee where Kurds, Arabs, Turkmens and Assyrians were represented had already been set up. Talabani said that their aim was to stop the process of Arabisation in Kirkuk by enabling the return of displaced Kurds and Turkmens. Saying that they wanted a democratic and federal Iraq, Talabani said that they did not have any demands regarding the creation of an independent Kurdish state.
Answering live the questions of the Turkish NTV journalist Isin Elcin, Talabani touched upon the issue of Turkish oil firms, saying that they had given assurances to the Turkish delegation that the agreements with the Turkish companies would be valid when an Iraqi government comes to power.
During the interview the PUK leader also said that he would support the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Massoud Barzani in case he became a candidate for the Iraqi presidency, adding that he was not a candidate for such a position. Talabani also emphasised that he did not have any disagreements with Barzani.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 09:10 pm ||
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Interesting: he supports Barzani for pres, and in return Talabani gets to be governor of the Kurdish state (in the federal sense). Each has his hand in the pie, each controls enough to be happy, and each can keep watch on the other.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2003 1:16 Comments ||
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BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said on Thursday that its forces had captured a former regional commander in Saddam Hussein's Baath Party who is on Washington's list of most-wanted Iraqis. The U.S. Central Command said in a statement that Aziz Salih Numan was a Baath Party regional command chairman responsible for west Baghdad. He was also a former governor of the southern cities of Karbala and Najaf. The statement said he was number eight on the wanted list. It said Numan was "now in custody of Coalition Forces" and that he was captured on Wednesday near Baghdad. Numan's capture brings to 25 the number of the 55 wanted fugitives now in U.S. custody.
We're edging up toward having half of them now...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 02:59 pm ||
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So that's where Numan went after he left Seinfeld.
The UN security council today overwhelmingly approved a resolution that lifts stringent sanctions against Iraq and confers legitimacy on the US and British led occupation. Yes-s-s-s-s-h!
The 14-0 vote saw Germany, France and Russia - the security council members most vehemently opposed to the war - line up behind resolution 1483, which provides a limited role for the UN in Iraq's post-war reconstruction. The vote handed control of Iraq's oil resources to the occupying powers. Sounds like we got what we wanted.
Only Syria refused to endorse the resolution, its seat at the council table in New York remaining resolutely empty during the vote. Can we hide their chair?
The final resolution represents a compromise, but leaves the underlying goal of the US and its allies intact: Washington and London, as occupying powers, remain firmly in control of Iraq and its oil wealth "until an internationally recognised, representative government is established".
The British ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, said he hoped the near-unanimous support for the resolution would "mark a return to sustained consensus" in the council. The UN was deeply divided after the US and Britain pressed ahead with an attack on Iraq without UN approval.
The resolution draws to a close nearly 13 years of severe sanctions, including aviation restrictions, devised to cripple Saddam Hussein's regime. However it continues to bar the trade in arms and related materials. "The lifting of sanctions marks a momentous event for the people of Iraq," said the US ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte. "The liberation of Iraq has cleared a path for today's action."
Nearly half the seven-page resolution deals with arrangements to phase out the UN oil-for-food humanitarian programme over the next six months. The US and Britain will then control Iraq's oil revenue instead of the UN. During the phase-out period, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will go through US$10bn worth of contracts approved and funded under the programme and decide whether they are needed by the Iraqi people. Many of these contracts are with Russian companies. Here's your chance, Kofi, and we'll be watching. I don't think we need any spare parts for the palaces.
Mr Negroponte also announced the creation of an Iraqi development fund in the country's central bank. The fund will have an international advisory and monitoring board intended to provide transparency. The US and Britain have repeatedly stated that the country's oil wealth will be used for the benefit of the Iraqi people.
The resolution grants immunity from lawsuits involving oil and natural gas until an internationally recognised government is in place, and Iraq's $400bn debt is restructured. This keeps the Russian and French oil companies from suing over the broken contracts. S-wwweeeet!
With the immediate lifting of sanctions, Pakistan's UN ambassador Munir Akram and other council diplomats said they expect Iraqi oil exports to resume quickly. Some 8m barrels of Iraqi oil in storage at the Turkish port of Ceyhan, one of Iraq's two export terminals, can be sold immediately, diplomats said.
The resolution gives the UN a stronger role in establishing a democratic government than initially envisioned, and the stature of a UN special representative in Iraq is increased. Mr Annan has promised a quick appointment, and speculation centred on the UN high commissioner for human rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who has Washington's support. Sergio can arrange the placemats and the pencils for the meetings.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/22/2003 01:26 pm ||
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Heh... I wonder what we did to bring this about: was it more carrot than stick, or more stick than carrot? No way to tell, but I have a hunch it's the latter; maybe even a threat to abandon the UN Security Council once and for all if it failed, yet again, to do the obviously right thing with respect to the Iraq sanctions.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/22/2003 13:57 Comments ||
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my sense is we got the Germans early. That softened the non-permanent members. Russia came over, especially after concessions on extending the oil for food programme, to protect some of their contracts. France wasnt willing to stand alone, not even to abstain. They're desperately trying to keep the Axis of weasels alive, which is hard when the US isnt actually about to attack somebody, since pacifism apart, Germany still tends to lean toward the US
BASRA â Finding criminals is not a problem for the joint British and Iraqi police patrols trying to keep order in the Basra slum district of Hayaniya â the problem is that there are more lawbreakers than they can cope with. The warren of streets on the western fringe of Basra is littered with looted scrap metal, as well as piles of rotting garbage where bony dogs scavenge and grimy children play. Raw sewage flows through the gutters, stinking in the fierce heat. Crime is a way of life here for the impoverished residents who have lived through decades of war, dictatorship and sanctions.
The British troops in control of Basra are trying to rebuild an Iraqi police force to restore a semblance of order. Aid agencies are clamoring for improved security. Residents are demanding restoration of law and order. The British say they are working on it — but it will not be achieved overnight. âThe best people to police Iraq are the Iraqis, but we have to restore the local police force gradually and with a lot of supervision,â said Lt. Col. Eddie Forster-Knight, commanding officer of the British military police in Basra. Around 1,000 policemen of the cityâs former force of 6,000 have returned to work. The British say they cannot be too choosy about employing police who served during Saddam Husseinâs rule security needs to be restored as fast as possible and there is not enough time to train a new force entirely from scratch. âWhat we canât do is go back to year zero. We have to deal with the reality of policing a city of 1.5 million people,â Forster-Knight said. âLike in any big city, every crime imaginable is being committed here.â
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 01:11 pm ||
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Chuck's got a good post on his blog listing the actual stats that the Iraqi police and our own MPs are compiling over there.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/22/2003 13:22 Comments ||
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A senior Iraqi politician Wednesday criticized the United States for planning to purge thousands of top Baathists from office, warning the policy would force some to go underground and wage a terrorist fightback. Iyad Allawi said heavily armed Baathists were already forming clandestine groups, having prepared for the post-Saddam Hussein era six months before the war.
And that means we should leave them in their jobs? Does that make sense to anyone else? (I thought not...)
Allawi, leader of the Iraqi National Accord (INA) who returned from long exile after Saddam was toppled in April, said the US-led administration should go after the criminal elements in the Baath but spare the innocent majority. Bremer's staff plan to vet some 15,000-30,000 people from the top four ranks of Saddam's former ruling Baath Party, out of a total membership of up to 700,000.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 11:03 am ||
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#1
INA is CIA backed organization - CIA likes the ex-Baathists, many of whom theyve been cultivating over the years. INC otoh has been pushing to get rid of the Baathists. Bremer is responding to Iraqi complaints (not just INC) about Baathists hanging around.
See Jim Hoagland in this AM's WaPo. Especially his quote of a woman from the state department calling Bremers new policy "fascistic". As Hoagland says, people like this woman dont belong in the occupation.
None of this makes sense as long as you take for granted that the administration is united. Once you drop that assumption, much more makes sense.
#2
today in fake news SecDef Donald Rumsfeld was asked if the Pentagon was prepared to beat 2 enemies at one time. "no prob" the secdef said, "we'd hold against Foggy Bottom, while launching our principle attack against the CIA, then redeploy for an attack on Foggy Bottom."
Four witnesses to the April 7 US bombing in Baghdad's Mansour district, as well as a former bodyguard of the family of Saddam Hussein, have told the Los Angeles Times that Qusai Hussein survived the blast, and that his father and older brother most likely did as well. About an hour after the bombing, which targeted Saddam Hussein and his sons, Ali Kashif Ghata, a dentist and resident of Mansour, told the Times he saw a white Peugeot race down the block with Qusai in the front passenger seat with his tail a machine gun between his legs. US officials told the Times that they still have conflicting reports about whether the three Husseins survived the bombing. The Saddam family bodyguard, who declined to be identified, told the Times that Saddam and his sons were at a meeting in Mansour that day, as US intelligence suggested, but the bodyguard was told by colleagues at the scene that all three men left the gathering just before the US military dropped four 2,000-pound bombs on the street, and that Saddam and his older son, Uday, parted company then with Qusai.
That would indicate that all three are alive. I was sure Uday was dead, though...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 10:59 am ||
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#1
A couple of points:
Salam Pax commented early in the war about how normal Baghdad was despite the bombing, citing as an example that the Al Saa restaurant remained open. This is the restaurant in the Mansour disctrict where Sammy and Sons were supposed to have been targeted (follow the link in Fred's post to see the Al Saa reference). This is proof to me that he is a child of considerable privilege and has strong Baath connections even if he was not exactly pro-Saddam.
Second, the Batchelor & Alexander radio show on WABC Radio in NYC at 10 p.m. Eastern (WABCRadio.com) has a regular guest (at 10:35 every evening) named John Loftus (john-loftus.com), a former intelligence officer and Nazi- and Sami Al-Arian-hunting lawyer, who has been reporting since March 20th that his intellignce contacts told him that we got Sammy & Sons in the initial decapitation strike. He tells the story in amazing detail, and has lots of other interesting, Debka-style information about shenanigans involving S. Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Russia, N. Korea, France, Libya, China and Iran. It's worth listening, because if half of what Loftus says is true, there's a lot of things that are not being reported in the mainstream media.
Posted by: Tibor ||
05/22/2003 11:31 Comments ||
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#2
Salam also reported this bombing occurred "the next street over" from his house.
#3
Didn't the New Yorker article covering the 7th also say that it wasn't the restaurant that was hit but several houses near there? I think I have read that two places but I can't remember where. Does that mean we didn't hit the target (whether or not they were there)? Also, Tibor, thanks for the info.
#4
Didn't the New Yorker article covering the 7th also say that it wasn't the restaurant that was hit but several houses near there?
The BBC ran a report the day after with the correspondent standing outside the intact Al Saa restaurant.
I have not seen a satisfactory explaination of what happened. Did the bombs hit the wrong place or was the wrong restuarant named?
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/22/2003 19:53 Comments ||
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#5
There was an Australian journalist that went to the location that found the hotel pretty much undamaged, but a couple houses next to it had been destroyed. So the bombs probably missed
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/22/2003 21:09 Comments ||
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The Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) said Wednesday it had information on 150 mass graves throughout Iraq. "SAIRI has lists showing the presence of 150 mass graves in various Iraqi towns, but which have not yet been discovered," Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, number two of the Shiite Muslim opposition movement, told the Iraqi newspaper, Al-Zaman. "We decided to delay announcing the discovery of these graves to protect them until the re-establishment of a government in Iraq and an appeal to international organisations to identify the bodies."
"We don't want no Merkins messin' around with them..."
Hakim said those responsible for the graves "must be judged" either before a national or international court depending on the seriousness of their crimes. The Pentagon-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC) said Tuesday that 14 more mass graves have been discovered in post-Saddam Iraq since last week. The group said last week that a grave in the town of Habbaniyah outside Baghdad was believed to have contained at least some of the roughly 600 Kuwaitis missing since the 1991 Gulf War. Kuwaiti forensic teams are investigating the claim.
That's why Sammy didn't manage to repatriate them in ten or 12 years...
The INC has set up a committee to list the Iraqis reported missing under Saddam Hussein's rule. Human rights groups have said as many as 300,000 people may have been executed by his regime. A British forensic team will head for Iraq on Wednesday to help with investigations into graves which could hold the bodies of countless victims, government officials said on Tuesday. A Foreign Office spokesman said the nine-strong team included a forensic photographer, a scene-of-crime expert and two anthropologists.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 10:54 am ||
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#1
Anybody keeping track of the number of mass graves they're finding over there? Human Rights Watch, Amnesia International, Not In Our Name?
#3
Human Rights Watch is, I believe, but only to complain that the locals are digging them up to give their relatives a proper burial. HRW wants us to guard them all pending a proper criminal investigation.
Underscoring the struggle facing Baghdad's Anglo-American administration to stabilize postwar Iraq, gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades at a U.S. armored vehicle in the town of Falluja late on Wednesday. U.S. troops, responding to the fire, killed two Iraqis. The incident inflamed tensions in Falluja, where U.S. troops and local demonstrators clashed after the fall of Saddam Hussein last month and at least 15 Iraqis were killed. Sounds like Falluja needs cause/effect lesson
Many Iraqis are impatient for the swift handover of power to a fully fledged Iraqi government, arguing that the power vacuum has delayed the rebuilding of infrastructure and contributed to the lawlessness that has terrorised residents. No, the infrastructure can't be rebuilt without a stable society, even if it has to come at the point of an M-16
On Wednesday the United States delayed steps toward choosing an interim Iraqi government, pushing back at least until mid-July a national conference to create a U.S.-supervised transitional authority.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 09:28 am ||
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LGF has an earlier version of the story, also from Reuters, that shows their bias:
U.S. Troops on Shooting Spree After Attack in Iraq
By Khaled Yaqoub Oweis
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen fired anti-tank rockets at a U.S. armored vehicle in the tense Iraqi town of Falluja, sending U.S. troops into a shooting spree that killed two Iraqis, residents said on Thursday
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 9:44 Comments ||
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I'm very disappointed. I had thought the lethality of our modern weapons would have bagged more than 2 Iraqis if our men went on a "shooting spree". We're definitely not getting our tax dollars worth here! [/sarcasm]
Posted by: Dar ||
05/22/2003 9:50 Comments ||
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The incident inflamed tensions in Falluja
So first they were firing RPG's in a business-like manner, but when the ami's returned fire, they bacame inflamed?
#4
Fajulla may be the best place for a new object lesson - total shutdown, similar to what Israel does to the West Bank and Gaza once in a while. Maybe they should learn that they won't be treated nicely unless they play nicely. Let them know, obliquely, that if that doesn't work, the US always has the option to expel them to Iran or Pakistan.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/22/2003 10:54 Comments ||
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#5
I agree, OP. One thing they understand and respect is strength. A demonstration of such seems sorely needed here.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/22/2003 12:14 Comments ||
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KIRKUK - U.S. military forces in Kirkuk have detained two Arab candidates for the provincial council days ahead of elections to the body. Lawyer Mijbil al-Sheikh Isa is being held following allegations he was from the upper echelons of Saddam Hussein's once all-powerful Baath Party. The second of the six Arab candidates, Burhan Muzher al-Asi, was detained after U.S. forces received intelligence which alleged he was involved in supplying weapons ahead of a fierce clash between U.S. troops and Arab gunmen on Sunday. He was later released without charge. But they've kept their eye on him since
"Colonel (William) Mayville had a squad of troops take them away yesterday after a meeting of the Arab delegation. It was quiet and orderly," spokeswoman Major Josslyn Aberle said. Neither of the two will take part in Saturday's election in which 300 delegates will chose 24 council members for an interim local government. There will be six representatives each from Kirkuk's diverse mix of Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens and Assyrians. It was still unclear who would replace the two candidates. The U.S. military will choose six further "independent" council members. Al-Asi belongs to the Obeid tribe which lives in the Hawija region, southwest of Kirkuk, where the firefight between Arab gunmen and U.S. troops took place. Al-Asi's elder brother, Sheikh Ghassan, is head of the tribe and has stayed away from Kirkuk ahead of the ballot to show his dissatisfaction with the political process. "If I had to choose now between the occupying American forces and Saddam Hussein, I would choose Saddam. Even though I hate him," the sheikh told Reuters this week
"'Course, I hate him a lot more now than I did 60 days ago..."
U.S. officials say they sent forces to the Hawija region after reports that pro-Saddam elements were in the area and had been involved in weekend clashes between Arabs and Kurds. Arab villagers in the area who fought the Americans said they believed they were being attacked by Kurds.
"Yeah. The Merkins wear those baggy combat fatigues. They look a lot like those funny pants the Kurds wear. And they don't speak Arabic, either. How were we to know?"
The latest clash in Hawija has added to broad unease in Kirkuk where simmering tensions have plagued the city since troops loyal to Saddam fled six weeks ago. Many Arabs say U.S. forces are biased in favor of the city's Kurds and other groups have made similar complaints but U.S. officials insist they do not favor one group over another. But we do know the Kurds haven't been sniping our troops and the Arabs didn't help overthrow Saddam, so maybe we do favor them
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 09:05 am ||
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Edited for brevity.
The Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which spearheaded the invasion of Baghdad, is getting ready to go home and handing over responsibility for security in the Iraqi capital to the 1st Armored Division. The only armored division still in active service in the U.S. Army, the 1st is also the division with the most experience in peacekeeping operations, having performed similar missions in Bosnia and Kosovo. The primary difference between an armored division and a mechanized infantry division is one battalion. An armored division has five tank battalions and four mech infantry battalions. A mech infantry division has four tank battalions and five infantry battalions. The handover is accomplished by what are called "right seat, left seat" rides. First, the 3rd Infantry soldiers drive through their areas of operations with 1st Armored Division members as passengers. They show what they have been doing and why, and introduce the 1st Armored soldiers to Iraqi contacts. The next day, the 1st Armored soldiers conduct the patrols, with 3rd Infantry soldiers riding along to see that they are doing it right.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/22/2003 08:13 am ||
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Business as usual
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
05/22/2003 10:22 Comments ||
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Yes, but very nice to see the brave souls of the 3ID get home after a job well done. Heaven knows they deserve a break and a big welcome home.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/22/2003 12:12 Comments ||
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Just a small point/correction to this story. The 1st Cavalry Division is an armored division, it has its name simply to continue the heritage of the old cavalry units (not that this is actually told very often to soldiers to build any historical pride in their unit of course). And when the 2nd Armored Division was "reflagged" as the 4th Infantry (the guys over there now, including an old comrade from Europe) I don't remember them giving up any of their tanks, but I should double check that. The re-naming was due to the 4th Infantry ("Ivy" Div.) having more "history" than the 2nd Armored ("Hell on Wheels"). After the Army lost all those divisions in the 1990s drawdown there was a whole lot of discussion at HQ levels about which unit names were to be kept active and which to retire. So the names of Army divisions can be more "historic" in nature than descriptive of the unit's composition. Of course, if things get out of control in the next 10-20 years like some of us commenters at Rantburg and LGF suspect/fear those retired division flags may fly again, "Revolution in Military Affairs" or not.
#5
Thank you 3ID. You deserve a month's worth of sleep and beer. Your emblem will be recognized all over the world. If post-war leadership here in the US is as effective as you were over there, Iraq will be a model for the region.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/22/2003 20:27 Comments ||
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ILIGAN, Philippines - Nearly 100 members of the Philippines' largest Muslim rebel group have surrendered to the military following fierce air and ground assaults on their hideouts. The 97 rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, including six ground commanders, were presented to Vice President Teofisto Guingona and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes in the southern city of Iligan on Thursday. High-powered firearms, including a 50 caliber machinegun, two 40 caliber machineguns and one-rocket propelled grenade launcher, were displayed by the military on a table as the rebels pledged to follow the Philippine Constitution. "They were forced to surrender because of the ongoing offensive, and they also want to have a new lease on life," Press Undersecretary Rocky Nazareno told reporters.
It's always pleasant to see some MILF gunnies hang it up. I doubt the campaign against them will always go quite so smoothly, though...
But MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu told Reuters by phone:."They are fictitious MILF members."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 03:21 pm ||
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May 22â It started as a low, largely unnoticed rumble of accusations in some Washington circles, but when suicide bombers fatally struck Western targets in Saudi Arabia last week, the official grumblings began to pick up volume and pitch.
More than a year ago, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complained that Iran â a member of Washington's "axis of evil" and an officially condemned "supporter of terrorists" â was not doing enough to crack down on al Qaeda operatives fleeing from neighboring Afghanistan.
"It certainly would be helpful if they were more cooperative, and they have not been, particularly," Rumsfeld told reporters in Washington on April 2, 2002, in a second straight day of accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
But in the months that followed, international attention shifted from Tehran's alleged links to al Qaeda to the hunt for evidence of Saddam Hussein's touted ties with the terrorist network as the Bush administration sought to bolster its case for a war against Iraq.
Days after President Bush declared that the military phase of the battle to topple Saddam's regime was "one victory in a war on terror" however, terrorists struck again. This time, it was a spate of suicide attacks in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, which claimed 34 lives, including eight Americans and nine attackers.
A reconfigured al Qaeda, revamped under the pressure of the U.S. war on terror, was quickly identified as the mastermind and perpetrator of the crime.
And slowly, the accusations of the Iranian government's links with al Qaeda began to mount as the terror alert in the United States was raised to orange or "high" following an FBI warning about imminent attacks.
"There's no question, but that there have been and are today, senior al Qaeda leaders in Iran, and they are busy," Rumsfeld told reporters on Wednesday.
But if the accusations were strong on frequency, they were noticeably weak on details, with senior U.S. officials declining to go on record with concrete proof of the Iranian government's supposed support for the shadowy terrorist network.
Former Colonel Becomes 'Military Chief'
But although U.S. officials have declined to go on record with concrete evidence of the Iranian government's complicity in al Qaeda's recent operations, terror experts and intelligence sources have attempted to fill in the gaps in the latest accusations.
And at the heart of the claims, it slowly became clear, was a handsome young former colonel in the Egyptian Army, Saif Al-Adel, who experts claim has risen from the ranks of one of Osama bin Laden's personal guards to al Qaeda's new military chief and the third-most powerful man in the terrorist network's ranks. He is on the U.S. list of 22 most-wanted terrorists.
"Saif Al-Adel is the newly appointed military chief of al Qaeda who took over as military chief when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured [in Pakistan earlier this year]," said Rohan Gunaratna, a former investigator at the U.N. Terrorism Prevention Branch, and author of Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror.
"He is operating near the Afghan-Iran border and he is responsible for the attacks in Saudi Arabia," he said.
U.S. intelligence officials and some terror experts say Saif Al-Adel has been living in the eastern border regions of Iran under the protection of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, or Pasdaran, an elite military force under the direct control of the Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
And it was from the Iran-Afghan border region, according to intelligence sources, that Al-Adel oversaw the attacks in Riyadh.
Along with Al-Adel, terror experts say several senior al Qaeda figures â including bin Laden's son, Saad bin Laden â are currently stationed on the Iranian side of the border.
In a report in the Arabic daily Asharq al Awsat today however, the respected London-based quoted an unnamed source close to the Revolutionary Guards as saying al Adel and Saad bin Laden, along with 17 of their men, had left Iran last week for the Baluch areas where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet.
But according to Vince Cannistraro, an ABCNEWS consultant and a former CIA counterterrorism chief, the report appeared to be "Iranian disinformation to deflect diplomatic pressure, where they can say, yes they were here, but they have been kicked out."
Snip
In a report published earlier this month, the Philadelphia Inquirer, quoting unnamed U.S. officials, said a subordinate of Al-Adel, Abu Bakr â whose real name is Ali Abd al Rahman al Faqasi al Ghamdi â may have been turned over to the Saudi government by the Iranians after he escaped the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001.
In a massive embarrassment for the Saudi authorities, however, U.S. officials told the paper that al Ghamdi may have been released in Saudi Arabia.
If accurate, it was a slipup that has come to haunt the Saudi authorities in recent days. According to U.S. intelligence officials, it was al Ghamdi, a Saudi native, who received Al-Adel's directive to go ahead with the Riyadh attack.
Somehow I think that this was a little more than an embarrassment ...
Sorry if this is a little long, Fred, but I mainly posted it to offer an alternative interpretation to the MEMRI story as well as disclosing yet another likely example of Saudi collusion with al-Qaeda. Assuming this was the rule, it may explain why there haven't been tons of prosecutions of al-Qaeda operatives sent home from Iran - they were all turned over to elements of the local security services so as to ensure that they received the revolving door jail treatment. What do you figure that this Abu Bakr character is one and the same as the guy who spoke with the Saudi press under the nom de guerre of Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/22/2003 09:53 pm ||
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In an article in today's Saudi-owned London Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, correspondent 'Ali Nouri Zadeh quoted an Iranian source who said that contrary to Iran's denials, some Al-Qaeda officials had been staying in Iran and had left after the Riyadh bombings. The following are excerpts from the article:
The Exodus of Al-Qa'ida Leaders from Iran
"An Iranian source close to the [Revolutionary] Guards leadership revealed the collective exodus of some heads of the Al-Qa'ida organization, following last week's bombings in Riyadh. The source clarified that senior Guards officials had been fired from their sensitive posts after it became clear that they had protected Al-Qa'ida members."
It's that two-government thing again. The official government plays one way, the ayatollahs play another way...
"Al-Sharq Al-Awsat was told that Seif Al-Adel, who by some reports was military commander of Al-Qa'ida, Saad bin Laden, and a senior Al-Qa'ida official named Abu Khaled left Iran on Wednesday, May 14, 2003, together with their men, and it is expected that more Al-Qa'ida and Ansar Al-Islam members will depart in the coming days for Afghanistan, at the triple convergence of the borders of Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan."
The Iranian Denial
"Senior American officials said that the orders to carry out the recent terror attacks in Riyadh came from Seif Al-Adel. However, Iran stressed yesterday [May 20, 2003] that it was determined to fight terrorism, particularly Al-Qa'ida. Iranian Foreign Ministry speaker Hamid Reza Asefi told a press conference that there is no harmony between Iran and Al-Qa'ida, and denied the American charges that Al-Qa'ida members were in Iran. According to him, Iran was acting in accordance with its obligations under U.N. resolutions in the event that it encountered Al-Qa'ida members... "
Khatami, for all his faults, seems to be trying to play this game straight, with the exception of Iran's support to Hezbollah. That's been an on-going thing, and it's not to be expected that the Medes and Persians are going to reverse on it quickly. The al-Qaeda links fall into a different category, and his end of the government and the RG/Guardians' Council seem to be working at antagonistic purposes. The RG is making omelettes and not caring about the eggs, while Khatami is bright enough to see that not only is working with Qaeda going to tar Iran with the extreme Islamist brush, but if they should end up winning the Salafists will regard the Shia heresy as its next target.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 10:45 am ||
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Maybe that British guy was right...
LONDON, England -- Filming of Leonardo DiCaprio's latest movie "Alexander The Great" has been pulled out of Morocco over fears of terrorist attacks. The move follows a string of suicide bombings in Casablanca last week which left 41 people dead.
Producer Dino De Laurentiis said: "Unless the situation changes in five or six months, any important American actor could be a target. That's a risk I cannot take." Aw, c'mon. Where's your sense of adventure?I can think of lots of American actors I'd love to see in Morrocco...
The studio, built south of the city of Marrakech, will be abandoned and production will be moved to Australia. The film, directed by Baz Luhrman, is the latest Hollywood movie to have been relocated from Morocco over fears of a terrorist attack.
Last month director Wolfgang Peterson moved filming to Malta, Mexico and London for Brad Pitt's new movie, "Troy."
Producers for a rival biopic film of Alexander currently being filmed -- starring Colin Farrell and directed by Oliver Stone --have been looking at alternative locations to the north African country. Oliver! They won't hurt you, man! You're one of their buddies! BTW, will Ollie be exploring the "second archer" theory in this Alexander flick?
Morocco has long been a favored Hollywood location because crews and extras are cheaper. The dramatic landscape of Morocco has been the back drop for Hollywood blockbusters including "Gladiator" and "Black Hawk Down."
Producers of the new Indiana Jones movie and the next film in the "Star Wars" trilogy had considered Morocco as a location for filming. Observers say the attacks in Casablanca mean they are likely to choose alternatives.
The outcome of the latest fighting in Ein el-Hilweh reflected the failure of more moderate factions to overpower Islamic fundamentalist rivals opposed to any resumption the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. The pro-peace sections, supported by the Palestinian Authority, failed to gain the upper hand over the various Islamic groups, which managed to overcome their differences in a bid to take over impose themselves as a driving force both inside and outside the camp.
And all this while, we thought it was a shootout among Krazed Killers. I'll bet it was all the Jews' fault...
A number of elements make the Ein el-Hilweh camp a difficult place to handle. As a high-ranking Lebanese official familiar with the latest events put it, Ein el-Hilweh is a stench and a pestilence âmajor lawless areaâ for all those wanted by the Lebanese authorities and not only a camp for the Palestinian refugees. There are dozens of men wanted by the authorities who are currently hiding in the camp, such as Abu Mehjan, the leader of Usbat al-Ansar, who has been sentenced in absentia to death by a Lebanese court, and his brother, Abu Tarek. Lebanese security officials asserted that the army was always ready to arrest any of the wanted men, but only if they leave the camp, as the military neither enters the camp nor requests any assistance from the Palestinian factions.
The army's scared to go in there after them...
The camp has its own âfinanciers,â who provide the necessary means for the rather costly battles. One of the campâs main financiers is Bilal Khazaal, a Lebanese living in Australia, who reportedly offers money to all factions, including antagonists.
He's got lots of the color green, and he's found of the color red. He's not particular about who wins, as long as somebody loses...
Security officials consider that the latest fighting was launched by the Fatah section, in line with a decision by the Palestinian Authority, in an attempt to take control of the camp. Fatahâs initial plan was to attack and eliminate the Usbat al-Nur faction, a fundamentalist group which split from the Usbat al-Ansar. Attacking the relatively small Usbat al-Nur faction and its leader, Abdullah Shreidi, seemed a relatively easy course of action for Fatah, but they did not take into consideration the possibility of al-Nur joining forces with the al-Ansar faction. The battle was intended to make the Palestinian Authority impress and appeal to international opinion, in particular the United States, which would undoubtedly like to see all fundamentalist factions eliminated.
So, you see, it's really all our fault. Oh, damn us! How could we?
However, the outcome was rather different, with Fatah deciding to stop all battles in the camp after underestimating the strength of the Islamist factions, and the conflict showing that Fatah does not possess the military capabilities to neutralize the fundamentalist sections if they were to unite. According to details made available to The Daily Star, the weekend battles were triggered by the assassination of Fatah member Ibrahim Shreidi by the head of Usbat al-Nur, Abdullah Shreidi, who is also the nephew of Ibrahim Shreidiâs wife.
I'm still convinced that if these people weren't so inbred, they'd maybe be normal...
But a series of previous incidents had paved the way for this killing, starting last February when a series of assassinations and shootings occurred between the two sides. These events prompted the secretary-general of the Fatah section in Lebanon, Sultan Abul-Ainain, to issue a decision calling for the assassination of Abdullah Shreidi, âwhatever the price would be.â
That could be because Abdullah's a homicidal maniac and the Lebanese army is scared to go into the camp to extricate him...
Accordingly, a number of armed men affiliated with Fatah opened fire during Ibrahim Shreidiâs funeral last Sunday on a car carrying Abdullah Shreidi, his two uncles and a fourth man, Fouad Farhoud.
Shoulda used heavier weaponry. If you're gonna do a job, do it right...
Yehia Shreidi and Farhoud were killed on the spot, while the two others were wounded. Abdullah Shreidi was transported to Al-Nidaa al-Insani Hospital near the camp, where the facility rapidly turned into a battle ground as Fatah men tried to kill Abdullah Shreidi.
I think "Al-Nidaa al-Insani" is the Arabic translation of "Our Lady of the Insane"...
Sweet Cheezix! George Habash is still around? Was he actually in the Hellhole? Or did he phone in from Damascus? (For those who've forgotten, George is the founder of the PFLP)...
Abdullah Shreidi was taken early Monday morning to an Usbat al-Ansar clinic, the two Islamic factions providing assistance for one another, and as his condition deteriorated, so did the situation in the camp. Early on Monday, ferocious erupted between Fatah and Usbat al-Ansar and Usbat al-Nur. On Monday night, a meeting was held at the Usbat al-Nur mosque to reach a cease-fire, which gathered Maher Hammoud, Ali Sheikh Ammar, Jamal Khattab and Sharif Aql on the Islamic factionsâ side and Mounir Maqdah and Khaled Shayeb on the Fatah side. An agreement was reached to stop all fighting, remove armed men from the streets, and bury the victims. Usbat al-Ansar had constantly called for jihad during the fighting, and for the killing of âArafatâs treacherous faction under the direction of Sultan Abul-Ainain.â All Islamic and opposition groups, including Ansar Allah, presided over by Jamal Suleiman, supported Usbat al-Ansarâs side.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 02:12 pm ||
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#1
US to fatah = we want a pal civil war where you go after Hamas.
Fatah - cant go after them, too dangerous. (Abu mazen - if i go after them, they and Arafat will get rid of me. Arafat - cant go after them, theyre my pals against Abu Mazen.
Fatah - hey we could go after this tiny Al-ansar splinter,up in Lebanon, maybe that will earn brownie points with the americans. They;ll think we're just like the kurds.
But then it turns out the AQ type pals arent so splintered afterall.
Hamas and IJ sitting it out I guess. I suppose theyer not that strong in Eil-el hilweh.
Leading Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah on Friday held the United States to blame for the spread of terrorism across the Arab and Islamic worlds. He said the Americans had nurtured the terrorism phenomenon right from the start through their âblind support for Israel.â He urged all those who want to launch suicide attacks to do so in the West Bank and Gaza, where suicide operations are legitimate because they are launched against an enemy that is occupying Arab land.
"Just not here, okay? I mean, we don't need that kind of stuff here..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 01:57 pm ||
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Big article at the (sometimes believable) NYT, registration required. Just the highlights here.
The odds of breezing through McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas could soon become worse than those of hitting the jackpot at the Bellagio, if airport officials are to be believed.
With 983 federal security screeners assigned to the airport, travelers still have to wait at checkpoints for up to an hour during crunch times. So things can only get worse, airport officials argue, when the Transportation Security Administration, under budgetary pressure, carries out its plans starting this month to cut 15 percent of the screening work force.
As the summer travel season approaches, the Transportation Security Administration is planning to cut 6,000 of the 55,600 full-time screeners. The agency, created by Congress after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, intends to make half its cuts by the end of this month and the rest by the end of September, said Brian Turmail, an agency spokesman. Some smaller airports, meanwhile, will get extra screeners as jobs are shifted from city to city.
The agency said it was winnowing its work force to meet a hiring cap set by Congress. Some lawmakers and security experts support the move, arguing that taxpayer money could be better spent protecting other potential targets. The fact that terrorists hijacked planes on Sept. 11, the critics say, does not mean that that is now the most likely avenue of attack. You can read the rest; the usual pious moaning from various "experts" and all.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/22/2003 01:33 pm ||
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We have to work smarter, especially when it comes to developing and implimenting security systems and proceedures. We have to get inside the terrorists heads (that is a scary thought!) in order to be at least several steps ahead of them. We have to think like them. Throwing money at the problem will not solve it. They are like scurrying cockroaches, so we had better be fast and flexible.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/22/2003 18:29 Comments ||
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The answer to this is the dreaded P-word: Profiling. Focus efforts on those most likely to commit a terrorist act, namely, Middle Eastern males. Conduct a thorough interview using known criteria, which Israel would probably be very willing to supply, as they have to deal with this sort of crap on a daily basis and are known to be very good at it.
Lightly EFL.
It is remarkable for Britain to be visited by a saint. But that was surely our good fortune last week, when Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Bulawayo, passed through London. In a country where churchmen have kept quiet, Ncube has consistently spoken out with extraordinary courage and firmness against the near-genocide that Robert Mugabe is visiting upon the Zimbabwean people. I'm surprised he is still alive, since Bob has the morals of a Salvadoran paramilitary rightist thug.
Week after week, from the pulpit of Bulawayo Cathedral, Ncube uses his sermons to make a Christian protest against the torture, intimidation, rape, murders and forced starvation that are part of the daily rigours of Robert Mugabeâs Zanu-PF regime. The response from Mugabe has been predictable. Ncube has been subject to death threats, abuse and threatening visits from the authorities. His phone is tapped, and he is followed everywhere by secret police. He is painted as an ogre figure in the government-controlled press. Every action he takes is wilfully misinterpreted. When he made a pastoral visit to Khami Prison in his diocese, the Bulawayo Chronicle claimed that afterwards there was a âsurprising increase in homosexual pornographyâ at the penitentiary. Any smear will do, eh Bob?
His stand is made more extraordinary by the contrast with the inertia of most Zimbabwean churchmen. Both the Anglican and the Roman Catholic churches have preferred either to remain silent or to work within the Zanu-PF framework. Indeed, some of the most prominent churchmen are active cheerleaders of Robert Mugabe. "We are only following orders!"
One notable case in point is Nolbert Kunonga, the Anglican Bishop of Harare. It is not simply that Kunonga has refused to condemn the outrages of Zanu-PF Zimbabwe. He uses his pulpit to kiss Bob on the mouth praise Mugabe. In January last year, Kunonga took over a prayer meeting in Harare and used it as a forum to promote Mugabeâs land-reform policy. On another notorious occasion, the bishop made the astounding and impious assertion that Mugabe was more godly than he was. Actually, I might be able to believe that.
He endorsed Mugabe ahead of the presidential election in March last year. Then, once the election was won, he attended Mugabeâs inauguration ceremony. There he informed guests that the election result represented Satan's Godâs will. He dismissed Mugabeâs critics as âlittle voices being trampled by a shouting at a passing elephantâ. Yes, a godly man.
Kunongaâs sycophancy towards the Zimbabwean despot affronted several of his fellow clergy. He recently secured a court order banning more than a dozen churchwardens and members of the congregation from worshipping at the cathedral after they complained noisily about his pro-Mugabe sermons. Last April the United States added Kunonga to the list of corrupt public officials and villainous policemen who are banned from travelling to the United States. He can still shop in Paris, though.
It is one thing to remain quiet about Kunonga in Harare, where it takes real courage to speak out against the Zanu-PF regime. The bigger mystery is the silence from Lambeth Palace. In the wake of the US ban, George Carey wrote a private letter to Bishop Nolbert in which he declared, âI am more than a little concerned of [sic] how less than circumspect you have been about your affiliation with the regime you appear so keen to support.â But neither George Carey nor his successor Rowan Williams have publicly condemned the Harare prelate. Piers McGrandle of the Tablet asked Lambeth Palace back in February whether it planned to distance itself from the Bishop of Harare. He was informed that âthere are no plans to issue a statement for the time beingâ. The private excuse from Lambeth Palace seems to be that work is being done behind closed doors to bring the wretched Kunonga into line. The Carey letter was written more than a year ago, and it is plain that his policy of private persuasion has failed to work. Taking the side of the brutalized just might lift the moral spirit of Anglicans in Zim-Bob-We.
Sadly, the Roman Catholic Church is just as timorous as the Anglican. Robert Mugabeâs second marriage to his wife Gracie was officiated by Archbishop Patrick Chakaipa, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Zimbabwe. Chakaipaâs attendance caused offence in some strait-laced Zimbabwean circles, since the President had enjoyed an adulterous relationship with Gracie before the death of his first wife, and two children were born out of wedlock. He's like an 11th Century Pope!
When the archbishop died three weeks ago, the President sought to declare him a ânational heroâ. Pius Ncube spoke out against this move, declaring that ânational hero status is political and the archbishop was not a politicianâ. Robert Mugabe gave an oration at the funeral. Pius Ncube approached him during the Peace and shook his hand âjust to show that I have nothing personal against himâ. "Michael, it's business."
Ncube is an astonishing man, fighting a private battle against despotism and murder. Ncube is estranged not just from the ruling regime but from much of the Church that he serves, since its leading members have preferred to collaborate with the regime. When the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust, the US-based group which fights for freedom and human rights in Zimbabwe, proposed that Pius Ncube should visit London, the news was greeted with dismay. The Catholic bishops did not show delight and gratification at the chance to give moral support to a fellow Christian in his lonely battle against terror. Incredibly, it seems that Ncube was asked to reconsider his plan. At the time of the Bishopsâ Conference, the Catholic establishment looked set to block the visit. It is still unclear why Westminster Cathedral felt so uneasy about Ncube, though sources say that David Konstant, the Bishop of Leeds who has responsibility for international affairs, came under pressure from the Roman Catholic Church in Zimbabwe. There are also intriguing suggestions that No. 10 Downing Street was putting steady pressure on the Catholic Church to play down the event. This would be a knock against Blair if true.
Moves to block the visit altogether were stymied at a party given by the Bishopsâ Conference on 29 April, when the shadow foreign secretary, Michael Ancram, a prominent Catholic, made it known that he would cause a public fuss if Ncube was stopped. In the end, a deal of sorts was hammered out. Ncube would come to Britain, but a publicity ban would be put on the visit. In the end, the Catholic Church, rather than celebrating their remarkable guest, hustled him through Britain as if he were an escaped convict. The British government treated him with equal distance. Attempts for a meeting with Tony Blair â normally ready to join forces with any transient pop-star or footballer â were rebuffed. This week Ncube travelled to Washington, where he has been granted a series of high-profile meetings with senior administration officials, including the secretary of state Colin Powell. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-OâConnor, Archbishop of Westminster and Primate of All England, has got off to a shaky start. But the Ncube episode will put a permanent stain on his term of office. He has just one comfort. His Church of England counterpart, Rowan Williams, has behaved just as shamefully by allowing the Anglican Bishop of Harare to rant unchecked on behalf of Robert Mugabe. The behaviour of both archbishops, and both churches, is incomprehensible. They are sanctifying evil. That's about right.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/22/2003 01:11 pm ||
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I wish I could say that I'm shocked by the way my church (Catholic) behaved. Unfortunately, this just seems all too typical lately.
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
05/22/2003 14:48 Comments ||
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Yet another reason to justify my movement away from the church of my birth and upbringing.
#4
"Organized Religion" has been on a roll lately... Unfortunately, most of it's been downhill through a well-used cowpasture, with the expected outcome. It's about time for another Paul - bad news is, I don't see one emerging at the moment.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/22/2003 19:22 Comments ||
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KANO, Nigeria â Islamic scholars yesterday rejected the re-election of Nigeriaâs President Olusegun Obasanjo as fraudulent, raising fears that religious divisions could fuel the countryâs political crisis. Obasanjo is due to be sworn in next week for his second term, and was in confident mood as he dissolved his current Cabinet, but his victory in last monthâs elections has been marred by allegations of ballot rigging. The Council of Ulema in Kano State, mainly-Muslim northern Nigeriaâs populous region, joined the chorus of protests, calling for the April 19 presidential vote to be annulled and rerun across much of the country. The Ulema are hugely influential among Nigeriaâs Muslims, who make up around half of the countryâs 120-million-strong population, and their intervention will fuel opposition to the presidentâs disputed victory. Obasanjoâs chief political adviser hit back at the criticism and warned that interventions by religious leaders could stir dangerous passions. Obasanjo is a Christian and a former military ruler. His ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dominated last monthâs state, presidential and parliamentary polls, the first since the end of military rule. But his main opponent, a Muslim and former ruler Muhammadu Buhari, has refused to accept defeat and has challenged the election results in court.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 01:17 pm ||
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Yeah...if Nigeria elects a Christian president, how are we gonna institute nationwide sharia?
"The Council of Ulema...call(ed) for the April 19 presidential vote to be annulled and rerun across much of the country"...and rerun and rerun and rerun until their candidate wins.
Just two weeks before, France had been informed that the Defense Department would limit its participation in next month's Paris Air Show. No generals would attend, and there would be none of the U.S. aircraft demonstrations for which the show is famous. All planes flown over from the United States would stay on the ground during the exhibition.
Months after France said it would veto a U.N. resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq, forcing the United States to withdraw the measure and go to war without it, realpolitik has overcome resentment in most of the Bush administration. Although there is little desire to cuddle up with Paris, officials at the White House and the State Department say they are willing to work with the French on issues where views coincide, and work around or oppose them when they disagree.
But the Pentagon apparently is not ready to move on. A defense spokesman said yesterday that slots for foreigners in Red Flag, an exercise held with a rotating group of allies several times a year, in which France has participated annually since the 1980s, "are going to be reserved for those with whom we will likely be participating in operations in the future."
The defense spokesman also said that the Pentagon was still "in the gathering stage and the intelligence phase" of investigating a media report that France had provided French passports and visas for fleeing Iraqis from Saddam Hussein's government. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld noted in a briefing for reporters earlier this month that "France has historically had a very close relationship with Iraq . . . that continued right up until the outbreak of the war. What took place thereafter," Rumsfeld said, "we'll find out."
But a spokesman for Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), who had asked the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the passport report, said yesterday the department had determined there was no truth to it. "They said that as far as they were concerned, the investigation was concluded," spokesman Raj Bharwani said. Sensenbrenner, he said, was satisfied and considered the matter closed.
The passport report sparked a letter last week to Congress and the administration from France's U.S. ambassador, Jean-David Levitte, saying that France was the victim of a disinformation campaign in the United States. The letter cited critical recent news reports sourced to anonymous administration officials. Although the letter did not say so, French officials have made no secret of their belief that the articles emanated from the Pentagon.
"It does look like the Pentagon is on its own private vendetta against France," said Michael O'Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution, who said it was "not helpful to U.S. foreign policy. It's not smart. Military-to-military cooperation was not the problem here, and the French Ministry of Defense was not the problem," O'Hanlon said. "We need the French Ministry of Defense to help in the stabilization of Iraq. This just smacks of vengeance for pettiness' sake."
Asked last week about the disinformation charge, Rumsfeld said, "There's no such campaign out of this building." But, he explained in response to questions about the Paris Air Show, slots in military exercises would logically go to countries "that have been, for example, helpful in Iraq or helpful in Afghanistan."
O'Hanlon and other experts pointed out that French-U.S. military cooperation has continued at high levels in Afghanistan, where the two are training a new Afghan army. French soldiers participate in the international security force in Afghanistan and provide transport for U.S. forces there. French and U.S. ships jointly patrol drug-smuggling routes in the Caribbean, and France is part of a European maritime task force patrolling the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden in international counterterrorism operations.
Embassy spokeswoman Nathalie Loiseau said France has concluded that measures such as the Red Flag cancellation were "more cosmetic" than substantive, and designed to "show that you're not happy with someone."
France had been schedule to participate in a Red Flag air combat exercise at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in March, but the war game was canceled because of the Iraq war. The next Red Flag exercise will take place in August, but France is not involved, a senior defense official said. Its next scheduled participation would have been in spring 2004. The exercise is the most extensive and sophisticated air-to-air war game in the world, involving dozens of fighter aircraft in addition to specialized planes such as the AWACS command and control jet and the JSTARS ground attack radar plane.
An Air Force spokesman said yesterday that "due to the quality of the training at Red Flag, the U.S. Air Force continually has more requests for participation than it can accommodate."
The White House and the State Department, while not going out of their way to mend broken fences, have restored high-level contacts with France. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has spoken twice this week by telephone with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin and will hold a bilateral meeting with him Friday in Paris at a preparatory session for the upcoming Group of Eight summit. President Bush will attend the summit, hosted in the French Alps by President Jacques Chirac.
Sensitivities remain high across a wide spectrum, however. When six French journalists, arriving at Los Angeles International Airport this month to cover a video game trade show, were detained and expelled for not having visas, the embassy determined that no discrimination had occurred. But Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based international organization that monitors freedom of the media, protested in a letter to Howard Leach, the U.S. ambassador to France, that the journalists were "treated like criminals -- subjected to several body searches, handcuffed, locked up and fingerprinted."
A Homeland Security spokesman said yesterday that U.S. visa waivers applying to tourists and business travelers from 27 countries, including France, specifically exempt working foreign journalists, who must have visas. The spokesman said that handcuffing the expelled travelers during transport to a detention facility until they can be put on the next flight home was standard operating procedure.
Similar incidents took place long before the current bilateral difficulties, Loiseau said. Although temporary arrangements have sometimes been made for visa-less travelers at other U.S. entry points, she said, Los Angeles has always been "particularly difficult."
Heh heh - Like we need French participation in military ops? Just don't let them behind you
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 11:56 am ||
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Or in front of you. You'll get stomped in the stampede when they bugout.
#2
Poland should take their place--not just because of their support in Iraq, but they're also buying F-16s from us and would integrate well. I do think, however, we should allow the French to participate--as the enemy.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/22/2003 12:28 Comments ||
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Dar, you're using the term 'buying' very loosely. The F-16 deal included a lot of reciprocal contracts, plus cash for future armament, which made it an incredibly sweet deal. I'd call it a wise investment on the part of the US.
I would be careful about praising Poland though. They've been rowing their boat toward the US, and suddenly realized they're in the middle of the Atlantic. Which direction they'll go is an interesting guess. On a side note, Polish Americans, being heavy investors in Poland, have warned Poland against joining the EU. There are unfounded rumours flying that the Polish gov't will screw dual-citizenship Poles by demanding income tax for income earned abroad. What is certain however, is that once they join the EU, the question of what to do about the dual-citizens will come up because every passport will have to be changed. If they decide somehow to screw dual citizenship Poles, look for a swift change in sentiment against Poland.
#4
We may work together with the French on some military matters such as existing arrangements in Afghanistan, but the clear fact is that the French govt is our enemy. Not a shootin' enemy but they have demonstrated that they are sympathetic to our enemies. We need to cease military cooperation with the french because their govt could use it against us at any time. It is more than a pissing contest. France has demonstrated that they are an enemy and as such, joint exercises with them are NOT in our national interest. They trivialize our differences. We do not trivialize national defense and survival issues. If they are going to flush themselves down the toilet, we are not going along with them for the ride.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/22/2003 15:52 Comments ||
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Khartoum - Ugandan authorities have arrested 14 Sudanese nationals in connection with terrorist activities in east Africa. The Sudanese were arrested on Sunday "as part of measures being carried out by Uganda to fight terrorist activties in east Africa", Sudanese ambassador Siraj Eddin Hamid was quoted by Al Rai Al Aam daily as saying. Hamid, interviewed by telephone, said his embassy was following their cases and had asked the Ugandan foreign ministry for details of the precise charges against the suspects. He urged the Ugandan authorities to set them free if there were no specific charges against them or to deport them to Sudan if they proved to be staying illegally in Uganda.
How about if they're guilty of terrorist activities? Can they hang them?
Ugandan police spokesperson Asuman Mugenyi said on Wednesday that 86 foreigners were in custody after being rounded up in the past few days in a security operation around Kampala, aimed at determining their status and whether any might be a terrorist threat. Mainly Indians and Pakistanis, they also included Ethiopian, Nigerian, Senegalese, Sierra Leonean and Sudanese nationals. Ugandan Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi confirmed last weekend that Kampala had credible information that the country was being targeted by terrorists. He said security measures had been put in place to stop any attack.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 11:10 am ||
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Are any of these suspects associated with a certain religion. I hope it's not Islam because that would look bad, ya know, with all the recent stuff hapn'n.
Didn't know whether to post in Syria-Lebanon or M.E.; small version of the Karine-A, glad to see Abbas has the roadmap well in hand, except he's reading it upside down
Israel's navy seized a fishing boat loaded with arms being smuggled by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas off northern Israel and towed it to the port of Haifa, security sources said Thursday. An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that a vessel had been captured near Haifa, about 21 miles south of the border with Lebanon, and linked it to "recent terrorist activity." He did not mention that there were any arms on board. There was no immediate word on the vessel's point of origin or destination, but the sources said the boat, intercepted on Wednesday, had a weapons cache only a fraction the size of the 50 tons seized on a freighter in the Red Sea in January 2002. The Dubai-based satellite television station al-Arabiya reported that the weapons were bound for Palestinians. It said Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz would give details of the incident later Thursday. If the arms were bound for Palestinian areas, as was last year's shipment, it would deal another blow to a new U.S.-backed peace plan already battered by violence. Which "the Palestinians have accepted, but Sharon hasn't" of course
The United States has asked Syria to rein in Damascus-based Palestinian militant groups and Hezbollah. The security sources said Israeli naval commandos captured at least two members of Hezbollah when they boarded the rickety, 23-foot-long boat. Asked about the reported seizure of the boat, a Lebanese security official said: "We know nothing about the subject."
"We know no-thing! NO-THING! Tell them, Hogan!"
"Don't know much biology...."
Word of the seizure was kept under military censorship overnight while authorities interrogated their prisoners.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 09:13 am ||
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JPost update:
A Palestinian Authority official is among those captured on board the boat. He was identified as Adel Almairibi, who is charge of weapons smuggling for the PA
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 12:08 Comments ||
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Well, I guess you won't mind if we sink it, then...
#3
A Palestinian Authority official is among those captured on board the boat. He was identified as Adel Almairibi, who is charge of weapons smuggling for the PA
...would that be an officially listed cabinet position, by any chance?
Edited for brevity.
Washington has lifted all its objections to Israel's selling a Phalcon airborne radar system to India and has given the Defense Ministry a green light for the $1 billion deal, without any conditions or limitations. A year-and-a-half ago, Israel and India agreed to the deal, and the Americans gave their approval in principle. But in early 2002, the U.S. asked Israel to postpone the sale because of rising tension between India and Pakistan. It has since been frozen, waiting for U.S. approval. Why the phunny spelling for "Phalcon"?
The Phalcon is a long-range Israeli-made radar mounted on a Russian-built cargo plane. The radar will extend the range of the Indian air force, enabling very long-range identification of targets and control over the weapons aimed at them. There is no American equipment on the plane, but Israel coordinates its defense sales with Washington since it vetoed a similar sale to China three years ago, sparking a diplomatic crisis with Beijing. The White House is also considering lifting limits on Israel exporting defense systems against ballistic missiles. If those restrictions are lifted, India will be able to purchase Arrow missile systems, which were developed with American financing and therefore require American approval for sales.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/22/2003 08:33 am ||
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because $1 Billion worth of Ford "Falcons" would be a bad mililtary investment? This way the politicians know what they're getting
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 9:05 Comments ||
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Good point, Frank. Maybe we should have tried selling them some Novas, too, since they don't speak Spanish!
Posted by: Dar ||
05/22/2003 9:25 Comments ||
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There's something phalic about Phalcon. From what I can tell its has a sort of circumsized helmeted nose.
The FBI arrested a New York cab driver after he allegedly tried to buy enough explosives "to blow up a mountain," scoped out bridges in Miami and lied to agents about his activities. Sayed Abdul Malike, 43, was ordered held without bail Wednesday at an arraignment in federal court. Malike was arrested Tuesday following an investigation by a terrorism task force. He was charged with making false statements and drug possession, and could face up to six years in prison if convicted. His defense attorney Heidi Cesare declined to comment. That'll hold him so they can start leaning on him.
The investigation of Malike, a legal U.S. resident from Afghanistan, began in March when a store owner in Queens reported that the defendant was seeking information on how to make a bomb. Don't they have a chapter on that in the Koran?
Later that month, Malike traveled to Miami, where he took a sightseeing trip around the port, according to court documents. A tourist boat captain later reported that the defendant, while shooting video, asked about "the infrastructure of bridges ... and about how close the boat could get to the bridges and cruise ships." An Arab guy asking about stuff like that? No, that won't attract attention. Real bright boy, Sayed is.
Malike was later lured into a series of meetings with an undercover agent posing as an illegal explosives supplier. The defendant was "evasive about his plans," the complaint said. But when asked how much explosives he needed, he replied "that he was looking for enough to blow up a mountain," the complaint said. The agent offered Malike a supply of C-4 explosives for $10,000. But the defendant said "he hadn't yet obtained the finances, and that he could not store them in his apartment," the complaint said. Oh-oh. Sounds like a wannabe.
Malike also allegedly wanted to buy bulletproof vests, night vision goggles and Valium. Authorities said he was arrested after buying 100 Valium pills for $150. He could say he needed all this because he's a New York cabbie. And he may have a point.
During questioning, Malike "repeatedly lied" about his trip to Florida, and denied ever trying to obtain explosives, the complaint said.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
05/22/2003 07:54 am ||
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Why did I just know, after reading the title, that this cabbie would have a Muslim name? God forbid, I'm guilty of profiling!
Posted by: Dar ||
05/22/2003 8:12 Comments ||
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The drugs are the key, I think. Another wacko, though even the wackos all seem to be Islamic lately. Including the Case-Western shooter.
#3
I would tend to suspect that the undercover agent and the store owner also had Muslim names. I believe there are a significant number of Muslims in America who are on our side. Not all Muslims are the enemy, although a significant number may be, at least verbally. (Of course, the number of rappers talking trash about killing cops outnumbers the actual cops killed by orders of magnitude). The problem we have is in trying to sort out the patriots from the traitors. But we must make this distinction if we are to fight Islamic terrorism in this country.
The alternative, which remains a last resort in the event of catastrophic nuclear attacks on American cities, is the mass detention and deportation of Muslims in the country and the closure of mosques. Although it remains an option in dire circumstances, I hope it doesn't come to that. Existential threats require drastic responses. But I would argue that we're not yet at that point.
#4
Fei--I'm not saying that all Muslims are suspect. As far as the WoT is concerned, however, so far all suspects have been Muslims. P may not imply Q, but Q implies P.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/22/2003 9:05 Comments ||
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Zhang Fei
I've noticed your analyses and generally agree with them. Do you have a blog or homepage? You can email me.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/22/2003 9:22 Comments ||
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Afghani? Not Arab or Pakistani? That's a little disturbing to me. Wait. Let me guess. He's Pashto, right? Why do the news reports never report this stuff. His ethnicity and religion might be relevant and it might not. Most likely yes. The public needs to know these guys' backgrounds and their profiles. Is he representative of the average Muslim opinion or is he one of those crazy Pashtuns, a guy from Mullah Omar's hometown. Did he study at some Saudi Madrassah in some Afghan refugee camp in Peshwar? A former Mujahedeen?
Posted by: Tokyo Taro ||
05/22/2003 9:25 Comments ||
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Z,if American Muslems do not actively,loudly,and publically condemn terrorist,if they do not dig out the rot among thier own people(i.e.snitch the bastards off),wich they don't BTW.Then they support terrorist and should be treated accordinglly.
#9
There's one thing that's beginning to bother me a lot. Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world. It also, according to most of what I've read, requires certain things, including religious intolerance. Quite a number of those requirements are directly opposite to rights guaranteed under our Constitution. Is it possible for a Muslim to both be true to his religion and also swear to "support and defend" the Constitution, including its guarantees of free speech, freedom of religion, etc.???
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/22/2003 10:41 Comments ||
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Old Patriot -- I'd say that defending the US constitution would be a challenge for an orthodox Muslim. Islam is much more than a religion: it is also a political blueprint and a legal system. For the truly orthodox, these features are inseparable. There are, however, many forms of heterodox islam. The Alevis of Turkey (who number 10-15 million) take all of the "pillars of the faith" metaphorically. Thus, for example, the have no problem even with drinking wine (my kind of Muslims!).
The problem, however, is that orthodoxy is triumphing almost eveywhere in the Muslim world. Javanese Islam used to be very lax (influenced by Hinduism and animism), but that is changing fast. In the Caucasus, the tolerant Sufi tradition is giving way to Wahabbism. Same story everywhere, thanks in part to Saudi funding.
My biggest fears are long-term and demographic. But keeping women in subjugation, orthodox Islam insures that birthrates remain very high. In oil-rich Oman, the averge woman has 6.1 children. Everywhere, Muslims out-breed non-Muslims.
#12
CC, if Lieberman were so rigidly orthodox that he, say, refused to take a critical phone call or travel to essential meetings on the Sabbath that would certainly be a problem. But the Torah clearly excuses any breech of orthodoxy if following the rules would negatively impact the health or well-being of oneself or others. So the answer to your question is, I believe, no.
Greatly edited.
"With an eye on the economy and looming budget deficits, House Republicans today are launching what could prove to be a controversial effort to trim waste, fraud and abuse from government programs. To the use the words of the Senate Minority Leader, I am greatly troubled to see the GOP cast away its fiscal conservativism in favor of budget deficits. Although this is a good step it may not be a politically prudent one. DeLay and company are gift-wrapping a hot campaign device for the Democrats by only going after social welfare programs. Once again, the Republicans will be perceived as the class bullys.
With the support of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) has asked House committees to come up with a one-percent cut in social programs such as Medicare, Social Security and welfare." Liberal groups are wary of such crusades. Richard Kogan of the Center On Budget and Policy Priorities says it's not easy to squeeze a substantial amount of waste and fraud out of any program, regardless of how well intended the effort may be.
"Nope. Nope. Can't do it. Nope."
As a former small business owner, I would tend to disagree strongly with that. If I can cut costs in a small business then surely the fat can be trimmed in the government. What isn't "easy" is the squealing voices of thousands of government-dependent constituents.
"The best thing you can do if you're concerned about areas of fraud, like Medicare over-billing, is not only put more people to work ... double checking the claims and modernizing your computer system," but also to step up enforcement, such as increasing penalties on people trying to bilk the system. Good point, especially considering the stories out this week on the IRS' inability to collect from tax scofflaws.
But, Kogan cautioned, recreating a Grace Commission would be the wrong way to go.
Yeah. Better to do, ummm... something else. Or nothing. That always works.
Posted by: ColoradoConservative ||
05/22/2003 07:54 am ||
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#1
Seems a good start would be cutting"Pork barrel politics".
#2
I'm sure Citizens Against Government Waste could give Congress a hand. They've identified $22.5 Billion in this year's "Pig Book". Guess who has a prominent share of that? Did you say our wonderful D-KKK??? Right on! Problem is, he's not alone. Very, very few of our elected "servants" escape unscathed.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/22/2003 9:26 Comments ||
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#3
Pork barrel politics will stop when politicians think they need to hide the roads and government contracts they bring into their districts instead of bragging about them. How many people really vote against a politician because of spending in their district? How many of the US folks on Rantburg do?
That said, if you can't find at least 1% waste in any operation (public or private), you're not really looking. If I thought this was on the level, I'd be all for it.
A long article, but I thought too interesting to edit, Fred...
The visiting delegation from the European Union was startled this week when Israel Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said his government was weighing an application to join the EU. I would have loved to have seen the faces.
"It doesn't mean he is preparing the dossier for applying tomorrow," an Israeli spokesman said. "In principle, the minister thinks a possibility exists for Israel to join the EU, since Israel and Europe share similar economies and democratic values." Maybe once that was true, now you're just putting yourselves down.
Shalom broached the subject Tuesday, but there is no immediate prospect of this happening, since under EU rules, new members must have no outstanding border disagreements with their neighbors. The incoming new members from Eastern Europe, particularly Hungary and Romania, had to resolve long-standing disputes to clear their path for entry. Oooh, bit of a stumbling block for a state whose neigbours deny its very existence. But hang on, what about Britain vs Spain over Gibraltar, Britain vs Argentina over the Falklands, Britain vs half of Europe over Rockall... Don't kick us out, please! Please? Oh, go on...
But if and when Israel does achieve a peace settlement with Syria and Lebanon and the Palestinians (it already has peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan), Israeli membership could make a great deal of sense for Israel and the EU alike. The EU is already deeply, indeed inextricably involved in the Middle East, and not just as a member of "the Quartet" of the United States, EU, Russia and the United Nations that have jointly drawn up the "road map" to a peace agreement. The EU is one of the main customers for Middle Eastern energy exports, and under the Barcelona Agreement, has forged a series of trade and cooperation agreements with the countries that border the Mediterranean Sea. Turkey, a strategic Middle East player and an [oxmoron alert!] Islamic though legally secular country, has been formally accepted as an EU candidate member. North African Arabs now account for 10 percent of France's population, and the French and British colonial heritage in the Middle East gives them strong links to the region.
Not to pick nits or anything, but if it's a "European Union" why include Asian countries? Or is Europe growing?
For Israel, EU membership would mean an end to the regional isolation it suffers, and a strong security guarantee, along with all the economic advantages of the vast EU market. Joining the EU would presumably mean joining the euro, shielding Israel from the kinds of currency crises that have hit the shekel since the intifada battered its important tourism industry. For the EU, Israel's impressive high-tech industry could be useful, but any economic advantages to Israeli membership would have to be balanced against the wider political costs to the EU, unless the Jewish state's relationship with its Arab neighbors is transformed. Even then, those European countries like France that already sneer at Britain as "America's Trojan horse" (and the German media that sneers at Poland as "America's Trojan donkey") might hesitate before admitting another such pro-American member. It wouldn't be surprising if the US was at least partly responsible for this Israeli initiative - further dilution of France's insane influence in the EU. Who could imagine Chiraq telling Sharon to shut up?!
There are voices in the EU that support the idea, including one member of the EU Parliament delegation that was told of Israel's deliberations Tuesday evening. Marco Pannella, an Italian member of the European Parliament and president of the Transnational Radical Party, is promoting the initiative. He told reporters in Israel that while support was growing in the European Parliament for Israel to join the EU it could take "up to a decade" to complete the process. The EU and Israel already have a formal Cooperation Agreement, ratified by the Knesset, Israel's parliament, three years ago. Its provisions include regular political dialogue, liberalization of trade in goods and services, the free movement of capital and competition rules, the strengthening of economic cooperation on the widest possible basis and cooperation on social and cultural matters. (Israel has long taken part, for example, in the annual Eurovision Song Contest.)
One possible motive for the Israeli foreign minister's announcement is to repair the difficult relations with the EU, repeatedly accused by Israeli officials and ministers of being partial toward the Palestinians. Israeli diplomats also noted that the initiative shows Israel's commitment to peace. The Israeli foreign minister's statement also coincided with a report by the Washington-based Cato Institute think tank, which suggested an important geopolitical aspect to Israeli membership. "Signaling to the Israelis and the Palestinians that a peaceful resolution to their conflict could be a ticket for admission into the EU, would be more than just enticing them with economic rewards," the Cato report said. "Conditioning Israel's entry into the EU on its agreement to withdraw from the occupied territories and dismantle the Jewish settlements there, would strengthen the hands of those Israelis who envision their state not as a militarized Jewish ghetto but as a Westernized liberal community." That would be all of them then.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
05/22/2003 07:41 am ||
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#1
Hmmm,nothing about Paleo Suicide boomers,I'd say that bias is still there.
#2
I hear a lot of talk about dismantling Jewish settlements. But what about dismantling the UN's "refugee camps" and evacuating all Arab towns that exist within the pre-1967 borders. Why should the West Bank and Gaza be Judenrein (the German term for "free of Jews")? If this type of "ethnic cleansing" is good for Jews it should be good for Muslims too.
#3
For Israel, EU membership would mean an end to the regional isolation it suffers, and a strong security guarantee, along with all the economic advantages of the vast EU market.
Given the present European attitude toward Israel and the EU as it exists today, a security guarantee from the EU is worth about as much as Chamberlain's Munich Agreement with Chancellor Hitler. The EU is going to have to change before Israel puts her very existence in the hands of someone else. Also, nothing is going to change until the Arabs rearrange their furniture upstairs, and we KNOW that will not happen without some well placed external ass kicks.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/22/2003 19:06 Comments ||
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EFL and for new news
GAZA CITY â The Palestinian prime minister has arranged a meeting with Hamas, his first since taking office a month ago, to beg persuade the Islamic militant group to stop attacks on Israelis. Mahmoud Abbas, is also weighing a U.S. proposal that he meet with President Bush in Qatar. U.S. administration officials have said Bush might visit the Mideast at the end of a European trip next month, with possible stops in the Gulf states of Kuwait or Qatar, countries that supported the United States during the Iraq war. Nice poke at Arafat - Bush won't even talk to him
In new violence, six Palestinian children, ranging in age from 9 to 14, were wounded by army fire after throwing stones at Israeli tanks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian doctors said. A 14-year-old boy was in critical condition. future snuffies, lesson applied here - will they learn?
Abbas plans to meet with Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip, according to Ismail Hanieh, a spokesman of the group. The meeting was to take place later Thursday or Friday. Abbas has held talks with Hamas leaders in the past, but this would be the first meeting since he took office April 30.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 07:40 am ||
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Latest on the de-weaseling
UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations looked set to end 13 years of crippling sanctions on Iraq on Thursday after Europe's anti-war camp, keen to patch up a rift with Washington, said they would support the U.S.-backed measure. "Of course, we have said all along...."
France, Germany and Russia opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, forcing Washington to go to war without U.N. backing. On Wednesday they stressed the importance of unity now that they stand to lose big
and said they would support the draft U.S. resolution on ending sanctions that is key to reconstructing Iraq's devastated economy. Washington said Secretary of State Colin Powell would attend a meeting of G8 foreign ministers in Paris on Thursday that may demonstrate to what extent it can now work with anti-war opponents like France. Oh geat, Foggy Bottom will "heal the rift" - wonder what they'll give up to get "unity"
"We'll see how much they want to cooperate and move forward," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. France has appeared keen to repair damaged ties. "The war has taken place. Now it's time to restore the unity of the international community," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told France Inter radio on Thursday. STFU asshat
"Even if this text does not go as far as would like, we have decided to vote for this resolution," he told a joint news conference with his German and Russian counterparts on Wednesday night. Even if this text does not go as far as would like?? who would like? we? them? nice grammar diplospeak
The three countries would have preferred a greater role for the United Nations in rebuilding Iraq and had wanted a timetable for setting up a legitimate domestic administration. They viewed Washington's latest draft â its third â as an improvement because it allowed for a possible return of U.N. arms inspectors and included U.N. representatives on an international board monitoring Iraqi oil revenues. That's what our State Dept gave up....F&*k
I hope that's all they gave up. The UN arms inspectors are a non-issue, merely more bodies in place. If our guys find something and they don't, it's their ineptitude. If they can find something before our guys do, guess we shoulda worked harder â but our guys will be trying not to let that happen. And the representatives on the monitoring board will be auditing the oil revenues. They idea's to keep the people involved honest, which'll be a start contrast to the Oil for Palaces program...
With the so-called "non-nein-nyet" trio throwing its weight behind the U.S. draft, the measure was expected to win swift approval in a Security Council vote after 10 a.m. EDT. The resolution, which would end U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, also gives the United States and Britain broad powers to run Iraq and sell its oil to fund reconstruction until a new government is set up.
FOLLOWUP: From Islam OnLine...
The Security Council voted 14-0 Thursday, May 22, to immediately lift the 13-year-old U.N. sanctions clamped on Iraq in the wake of its invasion of Kuwait and put its economy under the broad control of the U.S.-led occupying forces. Syria, the only Arab member on the council, boycotted the vote, taken in the presence of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The council adopted Resolution 1483, asking the U.S. and British forces to help form an Iraqi-led interim administration "until an internationally recognized, representative government is established by the Iraqi people." The resolution set up a new Development Fund for Iraq under the central bank, supervised by the Anglo-American forces. Iraq's oil revenues will be deposited in the fund and disbursed at the direction of the occupying powers in consultation with the interim administration. It also asked Annan to appoint a special representative for Iraq, to contribute to setting up the interim authority and to take part in an advisory board auditing the Development Fund.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 07:31 am ||
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#1
"The war has taken place. Now it's time to restore the unity of the international community," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told France Inter radio on Thursday.
Villepinhead states the obvious in the first sentence and is arrogantly presumptious in the second. This guy makes de Gaulle look downright humble.
#6
Fox sez the vote passed 14-0. Syria did not vote.
I forgot that, although on the Security Council, Syria is not a permanent member and does not have veto power, so it didn't matter much what their input would have been.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/22/2003 9:23 Comments ||
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#7
It wasn't a war. It was a battle. Things are not back to normal. This war is still in its early stages.
#9
Calling it a battle (as Bush did) is silly. There were many battles in Iraq. The conflict should properly be called the Iraqi theater of operations in the War on Terror.
#10
The council adopted Resolution 1483, asking the U.S. and British forces to help form an Iraqi-led interim administration "until an internationally recognized, representative government is established by the Iraqi people."
I think that I am too much on edge, or maybe I am extentially paraniod, but that "internationally recognized, representative government" phrase may be used as a wedgie later by France and anyone seeking recovery of their ill gotten contracts. I just do not trust the bastards. Negotiation requires good will and trust that both sides will honor an agreement. I just do not feel good about a bunch of these nations.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/22/2003 19:13 Comments ||
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#11
Alaska Paul,
"Serious consequences"
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
05/22/2003 20:43 Comments ||
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#12
Yank, we can get silly all we want. The theater of operation in this war is global. This is a world war on terror. Those battles in Iraq can be called firefights as far as I'm concerned. The North African campagin of WWII wasn't a war. The Afgan campaign wasn't a war. But I get your point about the actuall theater of operation. But that was 'a' battle in the War on Terror.
Yale Daily News -- Edited for length A bomb exploded on the first floor of the Sterling Law Buildings Wednesday afternoon, injuring no one but causing significant structural damage to two law school rooms, University administrators said. The explosion came at 4:40 p.m., less than 24 hours after officials at the Department of Homeland Security raised the nation's terror alert status to orange, the second highest level. A spokeswoman for the FBI in New Haven said members of the agency's Joint Terrorism Task Force had been dispatched to the scene. New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said at a press conference Wednesday evening that there was no evidence that the explosion was an act of terrorism. I think the Mayor meant to say that there was no evidence (yet) of Middle Eastern terrorism. How can a bomb not be terrorism?
Though access to Law School classrooms is officially limited to those with University key cards, Lorimer said the building was open all day and anyone could have walked in. Police have not announced any suspects and are investigating the incident. Lorimer said the Law School will be closed for the rest of the week. Law School exams, which began this Monday, will continue as scheduled, but will be moved to Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall. Good news is, no loss of life.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/22/2003 05:28 am ||
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#1
Methinks it was a disgruntled student succumbing to the pressures of "finals week".
#3
Isn't there an enormous amount of premeditation and preparation that would be required for an explosion that big? I think it's too extreme to be a disgruntled student.
#4
This is either an isolated incident more in line with a prank, or a deliberate event. The best way to determine which category it falls into would be to look at what else is going on at Yale at this time. The fact that the bomb exploded in an EMPTY building gives credence to the bomb not being of MidEastern origin - Al Qaeda & co. WANT civilian casualties. That doesn't mean it wasn't a terrorist act. We have a large group of home-grown terrorists, including PETA, ELF & the ALF that could be ultimately responsible for this explosion. Usually, however, those groups are eager to claim credit, even when they don't have a hand in the action.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/22/2003 9:18 Comments ||
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#5
Will be tough to blame Hatfield for this one, since he's been a bit off his stride lately. heh heh.
#7
Union action? Hmmmmm... Yale has been in the forefront of denying their minimum wage help the same rights and privileges that its professors have. Wouldn't surprise me but I still lean towards one of those wacky, zany students.
#9
Maybe it was Al Gore. Wasn't he a Kaczynski fan? You could barely tell the difference between their writing. Maybe ol Al is still smarting over the fact that they denied him a position, worthy of his greatness, and he was angry that no one seemed to notice or care.
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.
