BAJAUR AGENCY: The Afghan authorities on Wednesday handed over the local commander of Gulbuddin HekmatyarâsHizb-e-Islami outfit, Saleh Muhammad, to the Americans in Afghanistan to investigate charges against him of attacking the American interests in Kunar province. âThe Kunar governor has sent a delegation of local Jirga to Commander Saleh Muhammad, suggesting him to surrender himself before the authorities of the Afghan government for investigating the charges against him and if he is not found guilty he will be set free,â the NNI correspondent in Bajur Agency learnt. Saleh Muhammad surrendered before the Afghan authorities but was handed over to the Americans, violating the suggestions made through the Jirga.
Maybe they decided he's guilty?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 10:44 pm ||
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JPost - reg req'd
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin will meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on Monday at his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, the French Foreign Ministry announced Friday. Gee thanks, let's see if we can repay the favor? You've set back any roadmap by years now a-hole
De Villepin will meet with Arafat, PA Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Nabil Shaath, de Villepin's counterpart, a ministry official said. De Villepin will also meet with Palestinian officials in Jerusalem. Anybody else? Yassin? Hezbollah commanders? Al-Aqsa? jeebus
The meeting with Arafat was to come on the second day of a trip to the Middle East, that begins Sunday, when de Villepin is scheduled to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.
The purpose of the visit is to "deepen bilateral relations" with Israelis as the peace process moves forward and with Palestinians as a new government is put in place, the ministry said.
A good chance to screw Le Merkin's foreign policy before the G8 and play: "What? What!? What did we do? He's Le Presidente non?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2003 07:57 pm ||
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#1
I cannot believe de Villepin and Chiraq. Are they on a worldwide tour of dictators, criminals and despots? The French government is our enemy and they need the air valve pulled out of their inner tube. Dealing with them is like trying to squish roaches. Sheeesh!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/23/2003 22:20 Comments ||
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Why doesn't Bush just deck this Froggie asshole and get it over with...
President Chirac is preparing to embarrass President Bush at the forthcoming G8 summit in France by laying out an agenda heavy on environmental, development and economic issues and light on the fight against terrorism. The summit at Evian on June 2 and June 3 will be the first time M Chirac and Mr Bush have met since their diplomatic war preceding military action in Iraq. However, M Chirac, as the host, is arranging the meeting on his terms. Go ahead, Jake. Put the last nail in your coffin.
He made clear yesterday that, despite the debacle over Iraq, he is clinging to his vision of a global balance of powers, with France as an alternative to America. Now there's an alternative. Ask the countries who took it in 1939.
He said Evian's main goal would be "to build the institutions and rules of a global democracy, open and interconnected", a swipe at the American administration, which has little patience for such rhetoric. And, who'll make the rules, Jake? Nevermind. We already know. It's so simplisme!
The main themes of the summit would be reviving the world economy, solidarity with poor countries, responding to pandemics such as Aids, climate change and finally the fight against terrorism. Someday maybe an Air France Airbus through the Eiffel Tower might wise him up.
The White House would have preferred the fight against terrorism to head the list, but M Chirac is loath to let the summit become a victory lap for Mr Bush. He doesn't need a victory lap. He toasted this prick a long time ago.
M Chirac believes many countries are suspicious of America's leadership and prefer France's emphasis on international rules and institutions. Okay, world. Take your pick. But if you get in a jam and have to call France, I hope the phones are working. They all might be on strike or on vacation.
He added that the summit should offer a "message of confidence" in the world economy. It was important to reaffirm "the principles of the responsible market economy" after so many financial scandals in Europe and America and to complete the Doha round of world trade talks. That last ambition, coupled with M Chirac's talk of Third World development, will raise smirks in Whitehall, since it is his refusal to reform Europe's common agricultural policy to the detriment of French farmers which has crippled Third World agricultural exporters trying to crack the European market. Remember that folks when you're exploring your "alternatives".
Posted by: tu3031 ||
05/23/2003 11:37 am ||
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#1
"President Chirac is preparing to embarrass President Bush "
Chirac: Hey, Dominique! How about this? Hey Bush, your father was a hamster and your mother smelt of elderberries!
#2
George Bush: "The United States will return to the Gold Standard, effective January 1, 2004. We will allow six months for all dollars currently in circulation to be exchanged for new currency. After that, the old money will be demonetized and destroyed."
Chirac will crap his pants to the chin.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/23/2003 12:59 Comments ||
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#3
Chiraq just does not know when to realize when he lost, to regroup and face the new realities. Bush sees the big vision and the goal and his actions contribute to that goal. Chiraq is an obstructionist and does not build consensus. In very crude terms, Chiraq reminds me of a tapeworm out of the ass of one of my sled dogs. Break it in half and it keeps going! Needs good strong worm medicine to stop it. France needs a deworming regimen to prevent the worm from killing the host. I hope they act soon.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/23/2003 14:41 Comments ||
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#4
Big talk from Chirac, a man who won the presidency with the slogan "at least I'm not Hitler"
So did George Bush really, really mean it when he promised Jacques Chirac that he would never forgive or forget French perfidy and Franceâs machinations at the UN during the run-up to the war for regime change in Iraq? The short answer is âyesâ. True, Colin Powell is performing his role as good cop by touring Europe and making soothing noises to the French and Germans. After all, that is what diplomats do. True, too, that the Germans are trying to return to Americaâs good graces by offering more support for Taleban-clearing efforts in Afghanistan. Even the French, with the scent of new contracts in their nose, and urged on by a nervous foreign policy establishment, are suggesting that ... that practical men of affairs must put past treacheries behind them. So yesterday Chirac directed his representative to support an American resolution ending sanctions against Iraq â although his ever-unctuous Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, made it clear that such support should not âfor an instantâ be taken as âlegitimisingâ the coalitionâs war against the Iraqi regime.
All very interesting, and all completely irrelevant to the future course of US foreign policy. Call it unilateralist, call it Wilsonian, call it Rooseveltian (Theodore, not Franklin) in its robust willingness to use military power to defend what has come to be called the homeland, it boils down to one thing: an unwillingness ever again to cede the defence of Americaâs vital interests to any body in which the French â or anyone else, but especially the French â can interfere with that defence. American policy once favoured European integration. That was then and this is now. The emerging European superstate is seen by France as a rival to the US, not an ally. The euro is seen less as a facilitator of intra-EU trade than as a rival to the dollar. And the new European Defence Force is clearly aimed by France at becoming a substitute for, rather than the supplement to, Nato that Tony Blair hoped it would be.
Most important in the emerging American view is the fact that the multinational institutions at best no longer serve American interests, and at worst can be used by France to thwart Americaâs defence of its interests. The French veto on the UN Security Council is an anachronism. It could be tolerated so long as it was wielded with discretion, but Chirac overplayed his hand when he used it to harass and humiliate the United States. Even Colin Powell now feels that American policy must be put beyond the reach of a France determined to restore la gloire by tweaking Uncle Samâs nose.
This policy need not mean withdrawing from the UN. The UN can be treated with the benign neglect that will relegate it to a talking- shop-cum-emergency relief organisation, the President might just be able to muster enough Texan bonhomie to be cordial to Chirac and Gerhard Schröder at G8 meetings, and the Administration can leave French-bashing in the able hands of the American and British media. But the new policy will mean relying on ad hoc coalitions of nations that share American values, rather than on a UN in which France holds a veto and nations predominate that see Libya and Cuba as worthy members of its human rights commission. It will mean working with individual members of the EU who see America as a defender of freedom, rather than with the Franco-German axis that sees America as a rival âpoleâ. Powellâs spokesman says âthereâs all kinds of reasonsâ for yesterdayâs meeting between the Secretary of State in Paris and de Villepin and the other G8 foreign ministers. Permanent rapprochement with France is not one of them.
Posted by: Omer Ishmail ||
05/23/2003 04:47 am ||
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#1
"French noisily claim is the Administrationâs policy of leaking anti-French stories to the press."
Leaking not fabrications,must be something to the stories.
I would like to see an alliance of our real allies,set-up right next door to U.N.headquaters.Rub the U.N.s nose in it's perfidity.
#2
Shouldn't proper blog etiquette require that the poster provide attribution to the author of the article? It was Irwin Stelzer's OpEd piece in the Times of London today, in case anyone wants to know. Of course the real "revenge" by Bush has been the weakening of the dollar and doing nothing to stop it. Believe me, in a few months Europe will be worse than Japan economically while they snicker today they will be jumping off the Eiffel Tower in September.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/23/2003 7:14 Comments ||
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#3
What still has me scratching my head is, how did the French manage to misjudge our intentions so badly during the diplomatic wrangling that led up to the Iraq war?
What was it? Did they seriously believe their attempts at obstruction would not have any consequences? Did they really think we would be afraid to act without UN blessing? Bush certainly made his position clear when he went before the UN on September 12 of last year: the UN will either enforce its resolutions on Iraq, or the US will henceforth consider the UN to be irrelevant. Did the French think he was bluffing?
Whatever, one thing is certain: the notion that the French are "masters of diplomacy" is about as dead as the idea that Saddam's Republican Guard were "elite".
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/23/2003 7:25 Comments ||
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#4
The French haven't been the masters of diplomacy in at least a century.
I'm not completely sure what "mastery of diplomacy" would look like, but it seems to me that it doesn't look very much like having your capitol occupied by someone who surrendered to you just 22 years before.
#5
Jack - good question on whether to list the article's author or not. Sometimes I do, sometimes not, but it's always available by linking to the original article. Thoughts anyone?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2003 9:02 Comments ||
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#6
What still has me scratching my head is, how did the French manage to misjudge our intentions so badly during the diplomatic wrangling that led up to the Iraq war?
That's exactly what I'd like to know. What the hell were they thinking?!?!
Posted by: g wiz ||
05/23/2003 9:04 Comments ||
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DD - either 1. They thought saddam would cooperate more than he did, which would have made it much more difficult for the US to act without the UN. When Saddam played differently (and less rationally) then they expected, it was too late to back down
2. They thought Blair was more vulnerable than he turned out to be 2b - they didnt expect Blair to get the support from the eastern europeans that he did. Again, once it became clear, it was too late to change.
3. They didnt expect the war to go as smoothly as it did - and expected the US to get bogged down - probably because they misjudged the iraqi regime and people, and the state of the "arab street"
4. They didnt care, they were playing domestic politics.
#9
LH: Those are all plausible and sound likely- taken together, they suggest that France is operating from some kind of "non-reality-based realpolitik". Kind of disturbing because it raises the question, what else could the French do that would be REALLY stupid?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/23/2003 10:18 Comments ||
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Liberalhawk: You stole my thunder, but let's do some probablity. I think #4 takes the cake. Leftists in France voted en masse (while holding their noses) for Chirac last year. Lesser of 2 evils to the max as they didn't want to have Le Pen in power. How to make them love him? Stand up to Oncle Sam, bien sur. Now the rats are scattering from the ship as seen in last week's public workers strikes over cuts in retirement benefits. Great planning Jacques!
Next has to be #2 as they figured Labor backbenchers would be able to force Tony to back off on his determination to take out Baathists. French strategists figured pressure from demos/Claire Short/Red Livingstone crowd would do job for them. WRONG!!!
As for #1 and #3, Chirac probably relies on his drinking pal, Hariri of Lebanon and also Assad Boy for advice in these domains. What advice! BTW, caught about 5 min. this morning of da vile pin's opening statement at G8 and French are definitely insecure and so willing to do anything to get back into good graces of Powell. You can be sure they're trying to butter up friends at State. So Colin: Remember what you've said re French on Charlie Rose. No going back. French must understand this is a different world now.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/23/2003 11:21 Comments ||
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Dan D: I think that you hit it on the nose about the non-reality based realpolitik. Someone wrote a good piece a few months ago analyzing French policy and strategy errors going back to the Maginot Line. I would go even further -- back to to the Panama Canal -- where the French killed off a generation of their best engineers and Plan 17, their disasterous operational plan for counterattacking a German invasion in 1914. The bottom line is that the French have not been conducting a realistic foreign/military/economic (fill in the blank) policy in many, many years -- perhaps in over a century. My personal belief is that the French inability to compete globally is due to the very authoritarian nature of their culture (see Geert Hofstede's writings, particularly his idea of power distance). The most obvious manifestation of this is the French cult of the Gran Ecoles. Only the graduates of these institutions are deemed qualified to be leaders in their field. Upward mobility is thus impossible. Dissent is effectively quashed.
#12
BTW, that should be Grand Ecoles... mixing my Spanish with French again.
Here is a good link about the Grand Ecoles from an Indian perspective. The author draws some very flawed conclusions, but his lack of Yankee revulsion at such a system brings out some perspectives that you would not find in the US press.
#13
In France, the left (socialists and communists), the right (Le Pen's supporters), the center (Gaulists), and the Muslim immigrants have only one thing in common: they all hate the US. Anti-Americanism is the glue that holds the country together.
#4
Do the anarchists need to apply for an air quality permit before they light off this lake of fire? Will they have to muck up all the trash and tidy up after they are done, or will they leave an eco-challenge for their host country?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/23/2003 15:34 Comments ||
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#5
Isn't Evian "naive" backwards?
No, it's "idiot" spelled any which way you want, particularly with Ch-Iraq there.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/23/2003 16:47 Comments ||
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#6
Anarchists are planning an "anti-capitalist, anti-war" village where they will snort white slag and drink orange juche while extolling the virtues of the Dear Leader...no...wait...wrong buncha idiots...
LAHORE: The Punjab University on Wednesday expelled two Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) members of the BSc Pharmacy (final year) programme for allegedly beating up fellow students with clubs. The departmental disciplinary committee, headed by Dr Jamshaid, who is thought to sympathise with the IJT, announced the decision after a meeting that began Wednesday morning and ended in the evening. However, no action was taken against the other IJT members reportedly involved in the attack. Dr Jamshaid is the warden of Khalid Bin Waleed Hostel, where many of the estimated 35 students involved in the attack live. He reportedly ordered the release of two IJT-students who other students said they caught in the brawl and then locked in a room. The disciplinary committee expelled Taimur Awan, the IJT nazim of the Pharmacy Department, and Akramullah Khan. The PU disciplinary committee, headed by Dr Shaukat of the Physics Department, also held a meeting on the issue. The IJT activists, eyewitnesses told Daily Times on Wednesday, were displeased when they saw a boy and girl sitting together in the department building and tried to force them to move. Other students stopped the IJT activists, but they later returned in a mob of around 35 people armed with clubs.
Gawd, I love civil, well-reasoned discourse...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 10:39 pm ||
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MULTAN: The Minister of State, Rais Munir Ahmed, and his father, Rais Bashir Ahmed, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when their supporters snatched a pistol from the ministerâs uncle, Rais Wazir Ahmed, following a land dispute in Rahim Yar Khan city on Tuesday. âRais Wazir Ahmed pulled out his pistol and he targeted his nephew, Munir Ahmed, when he was talking to his hometown people on Tuesday. However, some people overpowered him and snatched the pistol from him,â said DPO Sarmad Saeed. Although a case has been registered against the assailants, no arrest has been made.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 10:33 pm ||
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BAJAUR: A gun battle on Thursday between two groups of the Salarzai tribesmen left six persons dead and three others injured in Pushat in the Salarzai division of the Bajaur Agency. Attributing the ensuing gun battle to an old feud, local residents said that the firing started after members of the two groups came across each other in the agency's busy trading centre.
"Mahmoud! Ain't that Latuf Ullah an' his kinfolk, pickin' over the butter beans?"
"Dang, Ahmed! Where's my shootin' arn?"
They said that local law enforcement authorities had arrested nine persons belonging to both the groups after the incident. The three wounded men were later rushed to a local hospital. The Bajaur Levies later rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. The two groups are reportedly being led by Malik Gul Noor and Malik Shahbaz Khan.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 10:31 pm ||
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LARKANA: The chief of the Chandio tribe, Nawab Ali Nawaz Chandio, elder brother of former MNA, Nawab Shabbir Ahmed Chandio, along with his two armed guards were shot dead in an armed attack near Ghebidero. According to reports, Nawab Ali Nawaz Khan Chandio was on a hunting expedition near Sanch area of Village Rahoja when a group of armed men attacked them. According to reports reaching here, one of the attackers was also killed in the firing. The bodies of the Nawab and his guards were taken to Ghebidero where the news of his murder spread like wildfire. As soon as the news spread, hundreds of angry armed men of Chandio tribe reached Ghebidero. Heavy contingents of police and law enforcing agencies reached the area to control the law and order situation.
"Here, you people! Stop rolling your eyes and jumping up and down!"
A police official said Nawab Ali Nawaz Chandioâs murder has deep under currents as the entire locality was under the control of the Chandio chieftain. He said the police were looking at the murder from all angles and nothing could be ruled out or said at this juncture. He concluded by saying that as Nawab Ali Nawaz Chandio was a very important person, the local authorities were awaiting directives from the provincial and federal capitals, before starting their investigations.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 10:23 pm ||
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Mildly edited for technical terminology...
JAMMU: Four snuffies, including a 'district commander' of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) were waxed in Surankote area of Poonch. Acting on a tip-off, Indo forces launched an operation to flush the hard boyz out this morning. As the security force reached their target, Bad Guys opened fire upon them using automatic weapons. In the subsequent shootout, four snuffies were forcibly assisted from this vale of tears. Two of the no-longer ticklish have been identified as Osama Bin Zaid, 'District Commander' Poonch of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Mohammad Kazi, formerly a HM ultra, now a corpse. Identity of two other militants could not be ascertained.
Not enough pieces left...
The recoveries made from the carcasses included 3 AK rifles, 10 AK magazines, 217 rounds of AK, 10 hand grenades and one radio set. The gun battle was continuing when reports last came in.
Meaning there's more? Or are the cops just making sure they're thoroughly dead?
Meanwhile, security forces and Officer Friendly at Chakthroo village drained the gene pool of three Kalashnikoveros. Two charred carcasses of militants were recovered by troops yesterday evening while another roasty-toasty cannon fodder was recovered today from two gutted houses.
That doesn't read too well, does it? Sounds like the third corpse was a bit spread out...
The turbans had fired upon the search party, and Sathru head constable Safdar Shah was shot in the leg. The coppers and security forces gave chase, and the Bad Guys went inside two abandoned houses, spraying hot lead everywhere. The exchange of fire led to the houses catching fire. 6 AK rifles, 6 AK magazines and one wireless set were recovered from the possession of the defunct, who had no further need for them.
Terrible, the way they make those abandoned houses so flamable...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 03:37 pm ||
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SRINAGAR: Sheikh Jameel-ul-Rehman, the base camp chief of Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen and general secretary of United Jihad Council has expressed his dimay over the recent statement of "Azad Kashmir" prime minister Sardar Sikander Hayat Khan, in which the latter has supported the division of Jammu and Kashmir. In a statement, Jameel said the utterances of Khan were an attempt to give a communal colour to the ongoing movement. The militant leader said 90,000 Kashmiri and foreign militants offered their lives during last 13 years and made it absolutely clear that the ongoing movement will be taken to its logical conclusion.
Which is another 90,000 dead guys...
"During the period hundreds of Hindu militants also offered sacrifices. Even the security agencies massacred them as they were well wishers of the movement", he said.
"Yeah. Them Hindoos love us!"
According to him Khan's demand to hand over Hindu dominated areas to India and Muslim majority areas to Pakistan was a reflection of the demand of Hindu fundamentalist organisations like RSS, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and others. The chief added that the ongoing movement has not been launched for division of state but for freedom.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 03:14 pm ||
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As for Saddam, he is also alive and in a Baghdad suburb but in a questionable mental health, the person familiar with Uday's surrender discussions told the Journal citing information from a Saddam relative.
His wrappings weren't too tight before he was tossed. What must they be like now?
The U.S. administration has asked intermediaries for help in finding him or negotiating a surrender, but this person knows of no progress, Dow Jones Business News reported. On Wednesday, April 9, Shiite opposition sources told IslamOnlin.net that Saddam and his top aides had taken shelter in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, Saddamâs birthplace, just 48 hours after U.S. troops had poured into Baghdad.
We kinda expected that. But now he's back in the Baghdad burbs, playing with his lips and waiting for Iraqis to arise in their wrath and restore him, moving imaginary divisions to imaginary victories?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 12:43 pm ||
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#1
Sounds alot like Adolph during his last days. Hopefully we can get him before he takes the .45 caliber pain reliever.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
05/23/2003 13:26 Comments ||
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#2
I've got a better idea. Find out where he is and tell the Iraqis. And conveniently forget to pick up their guns.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/23/2003 16:44 Comments ||
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Via Instapundit. EFL.
Throughout the 13 years of UN sanctions, Iraqi doctors told the world that the sanctions were the sole cause for the rocketing mortality rate among Iraqi children. "It is one of the results of the embargo," Dr. Ghassam Rashid Al-Baya told Newsday on May 9, 2001, just after a dehydrated baby named Ali Hussein died on his treatment table. "This is a crime on Iraq." It was a scene repeated in hundreds of newspaper articles by reporters required to be escorted by minders from Saddam Hussein's Ministry of Information. You mean the journalists simply repeated what Saddam told them to? We all know CNN would never do that!
Now free to speak, the doctors, including Ibn Al-Baladi, tell a very different story. Along with parents of dead children, they said in interviews this week that Hussein turned the children's deaths into propaganda, notably by forcing hospitals to save babies' corpses to have them publicly paraded. Reason #127 why removing Saddam was right.
But Not in Our Name...
All the evidence indicates that the spike in children's deaths was tragically real - roughly, a doubling of the mortality rate during the 1990s. But the reason has been fiercely argued, and the new accounts by Iraqi doctors and parents will alter the debate. I wonder if the good leftie blogs will even notice.
Under the sanctions regime, "We had the ability to get all the drugs we needed," said Ibn Al-Baladi's chief resident, Dr. Hussein Shihab. "Instead of that, Saddam Hussein spent all the money on his military force and put all the fault on the USA. Yes, of course the sanctions hurt - but not too much, because we are a rich country and we have the ability to get everything we can by money. But instead, he spent it on his palaces." Palaces instead of drugs for children.
The U.S. government and others long have blamed Hussein's spending habits for the poor health of Iraqis and their children. For years, the Iraqi government, some Western officials and a vocal anti-sanctions movement said UN restrictions on Iraqi imports and exports were at fault. "Saddam Hussein, he's the murderer, not the UN," said Dr. Azhar Abdul Khadem, a resident at the Al-Alwiya maternity hospital in Baghdad. Doctors said they were forced to refrigerate dead babies in hospital morgues until authorities were ready to gather the little corpses for monthly parades in coffins on the roofs of taxis for the benefit of Iraqi state television and visiting journalists. The parents were ordered to wail with grief — no matter how many weeks had passed since their babies had died — and to shout to the cameras that the sanctions had killed their children. Afterward, the parents would be rewarded with food or money. Of course, if they didn't ...
The propaganda campaign was organized by the ministries of health and information and by the Iraqi Intelligence Service. "The mukhabarat would go all over Iraq gathering the dead bodies, put them in coffins, make a whole line, put them on top of taxis and make big propaganda out of it," said a former agent. We knew this months ago, I'm sure Sean Penn said something about this after his visit to Baghdad. Didn't he?
"They would bring the women from the Baath Party and make them stand in the street and start screaming and yelling... The truth is that there are people suffering and dying from the embargo, but the mukhabarat were taking advantage of it and making a bigger story out of it." The government minders who accompanied the journalists and translated for them were employed by the mukhabarat. Their presence at interviews added to the intimidation of already terrified doctors. "I am one of the doctors who was forced to tell something wrong — that these children died from the fault of the UN," Shihab said. As recently as just before the start of the war, he said, he had told visiting journalists and peace activists that the sanctions were to blame for the high death rate among infants at his hospital. "But I am afraid if I tell the true thing ..." Shihab paused and laughed with a mixture of relief and shame. Using the present tense in English to describe the pre-war past, he continued: "They will kill me. Me and my family and my uncle and my aunt - everyone." An honest man, allowed to be honest at last.
Before Shihab came to Ibn Al-Baladi 10 months ago, he worked at the Al-Alwiya hospital, where he went through the refrigeration ritual. Recounting the story, he alternated between nervousness and resignation in a way that suggested he was caught between impulses to tell the truth and to avoid admitting conduct unbecoming a doctor. "We gave the families food and milk so that we can make them do this — the movies with them crying, making it the fault of the UN for the dying of their babies." The last baby parade involving Ibn Al-Baladi was in 2001, said Kamal Khadoum, an administrator at the hospital. He said he did not know why the practice was stopped. The authorities would take 20 to 30 babies from the hospital each time, he said, adding that he did not know how many in total would be gathered for what he and the others usually referred to as "the taxi parade." "I felt I was doing wrong, but I was so afraid not to follow orders," Khadoum said. You and about 20 million others.
The refrigerators have been replaced by a more modern morgue. Khadoum opened the old ones on Wednesday afternoon and stared at them quietly. What troubles him most, he said, was not being allowed to release the children's bodies to Muslim parents who wanted to follow the Islamic practice of burying the dead as soon as possible. In the hospital's neighborhood, a religiously observant, Shia Muslim district long called Saddam City, bereaved parents took the policy hard. "Some of the families tried to take their children by force, so sometimes we needed to call the police to persuade them to keep them here for the parade," Khadoum said. "They went crazy." Remind me what a devout Muslim Saddam was.
Now that Iraqi health-care workers can speak openly about Hussein's exploitation of their youngest patients, the courageous words of one doctor, who took his life in his hands to speak in hushed English out of the hearing of the government minder in another Baghdad hospital in May 2001, can be seen as a majority viewpoint. "The people can't say what they really feel," the doctor mumbled two years ago. "It's the political regime that's the problem. Of course they blame the government." Wonder if he's still alive.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2003 12:13 pm ||
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#1
Ack: I munged the following paragraph in the upper 1/3 of the article, and it's important:
The U.S. government and others long have blamed Hussein's spending habits for the poor health of Iraqis and their children. For years, the Iraqi government, some Western officials and a vocal anti-sanctions movement said UN restrictions on Iraqi imports and exports were at fault.
"Saddam Hussein, he's the murderer, not the UN," said Dr. Azhar Abdul Khadem, a resident at the Al-Alwiya maternity hospital in Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2003 12:31 Comments ||
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#2
It was pointed out by many that the UN 'Oil for Food' program should have been called 'Oil for Palaces'.
#3
Where oh where is the cabal of Hollywood leftists now? Sean, Susan, Danny, Ed, Jaenene ... I beseech thee to come forth. I want to hear some apologies, and pretty damn soon.
I am unfamiliar with the etymology and usage of "munge". Please edify.
#4
CC, it's "geek speak". A good definition is here. Steve's using sense 1, "to imperfectly transform information." (OT, you might poke around on that site. You'll find explanations for many of the strange terms seen on the net.)
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
05/23/2003 18:27 Comments ||
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#5
Colorado Conservative,
Who gives a f*ck where they (Hollywood communists) are as long as they aren't on my TV? ;o)
American soldiers stopped a Mercedes truck near the Syrian border earlier today. They searched the truck and found 2,000 40-pound bars of gold, worth up to $500 million. The two men driving the truck said they thought the bars were bronze, (of course, isn't this how bronze is usually melted down?)
and they had been paid to deliver the truck and its contents to someone in Qaim.
If our guys were Colombians, that story would read a little differently...
Posted by: ColoradoConservative ||
05/23/2003 11:43 am ||
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#1
These bars are about 50% bigger than the ones in Fort Knox. If it's bronze, I'm not sure what one would do with 40 tons of it in Iraq.
#4
Err, I was thinking of brass, not bronze. But the point still stands - gold is yellow, bronze is... well, bronze. Here's a picture of some nice shiny bronze:
#5
If it was bronze, it was probably destined for a big assed statue of Sammy, ante bellum. Since Iraq is now out of the Sammy casting business, maybe they were driving it to the nearest scrap metal dealer that is still operating. If it was gold, then:
YeeeeeeeeHawwwww!!!!!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/23/2003 15:51 Comments ||
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(edited for brevity)
Saddam Hussein's son Uday is considering surrendering to U.S. forces, but so far has been reluctant to do so because of a tough negotiating posture by the U.S. government, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Uday Hussein, who is hiding in a Baghdad suburb, wants to know what the charges against him will be and the process for interrogation and custody.
Murder, rape, robbery, looting, maiming, and mopery with intent to skulk. Interrogation will be nothing like what Uday would have administered to anyone who had info he wanted. Custody will include long-term storage...
U.S. officials don't seem especially interested in cutting a deal, because they assume Uday will be caught sooner or later. Uday, Saddam's eldest son, was commander of Iraq's paramilitary unit, known as the Saddam Fedayeen, and he was also chairman of the Iraqi Olympic Committee. He is No. 3 on the coalition's most-wanted list, after his father and his brother, Qusay. Uday fears that Iraqi citizens will kill him if they find him, and may instead choose the safety of a U.S. prison, the source said, adding that Uday frequently changes his mind about surrendering. "He doesn't have good choices," the person said.
Posted by: Secret Master ||
05/23/2003 11:04 am ||
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#1
Two opposing thoughts: Find out if he can tell us what happened to the WMD and strike a deal before he is killed. Or let him twist in the wind and avoid the incredibly negative p.r. of coddling this monster.
#2
"He doesn't have good choices," the person said.
We should narrow those choices.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2003 12:11 Comments ||
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#3
There are a couple of islands in the southern Indian Ocean that would be ideal. The only current inhabitants are a few million terns, loons, gulls, and cormorants. I think it would be ideal for Saddam, Uday, and Ousay. However, a few simple rules: they can eat anything they catch. Anything they catch, they HAVE to eat. They're not allowed to have anything metal: no knives, no fishhooks, not even a metal belt buckle.
Oh, and one other thing: there's nothing growing on the island larger than a few species of grass and some flowering plants, and it gets COLD in the winter.
Enjoy!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/23/2003 13:23 Comments ||
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#4
Is St. Helena vacant?
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2003 22:55 Comments ||
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Iraq's armed forces and the security organizations that supported Saddam Hussein's regime have been dissolved, and a new defense force will be set up to replace them, the country's U.S.-led administration announced Friday. "The Coalition Provisional Authority plans to create, in the near future, a New Iraqi Corps. This is the first step in forming a national self-defense capability for a free Iraq," said a written statement released by the administration. "Under civilian control, that corps will be professional, non-political, militarily effective, and representative of all Iraqis," it said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2003 02:00 am ||
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EFL.
With the U.N. Security Council decision to end 13 years of sanctions, Iraq could begin to export oil on its own terms in as little as two to three weeks. But it could take two years for the mighty oil exporter to reach the prewar capacity of only a few months ago.
If you don't start, you never get there, do you?
The U.S. adviser to Iraq's oil ministry, Philip J. Carroll, said in an interview last weekend that the government's oil marketing agency would be able to solicit contracts immediately after the U.N. restrictions are discontinued. The oil could be flowing within three weeks, he said, to buyers who are willing to provide their own tankers. Gee, an old oil man who knows his job. He can't possibly work for the UN. Mohammed al-Juburi, the new director of SOMO, said Iraq has 8 million to 9 million barrels in storage in Ceyhan, Turkey, ready to be sold immediately. Mr. Carroll indicated last week that Iraq might choose not to rejoin the OPEC cartel if membership hobbles the country's ability to export as much oil as it can produce. Darn!
But Iraqi oil ministry officials have since said they are committed to taking their place in the organization they helped found. It is not clear whether Iraq will send representatives to the cartel's next meeting, to be held in Qatar in June. Memo to Mr. al-Juburi: please see Mr. Carroll in his office. Immediately.
Mr. Carroll, a former head of the U.S. subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, said it would take as long as two years for Iraq to reach its prewar pumping capacity of roughly 2 million barrels per day. The country's oil infrastructure has suffered from a decade of poor maintenance and underinvestment, compounded by a month of increasingly sophisticated looting, he said. In the weeks since the war, well-organized thieves have tried to sabotage some wells and steal sophisticated equipment from refineries and pumping stations. "They were stealing cranes and trucks, and using that to literally steal other valuable equipment like engines and gauges," Mr. Carroll said. Iraq, which is believed to have the second-largest oil reserves on earth, has been paralyzed since the war's end by an acute shortage of fuel and liquefied natural gas.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2003 01:40 am ||
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#1
Let's start pumping the oil. Okay, I'll admit it - one of the war's outcomes is to put more oil on the market, drive the price down and hopefully help the western economies. Was that the primary reason for the war? No. But it is one of the benefits.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
05/23/2003 6:52 Comments ||
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#2
The port of Umm Qasr, a primary port of entry and export, will open for commercial traffic today, which will significantly increase the future capabilities of the port to accept humanitarian assistance deliveries.
#3
Saudi is going down. Al and the Quedas want to destroy the oil gathering, production, and distribution infrastructure. Saudi does not have its collective sh-t together to really resist and eliminate the threat. The world needs Iraq up and running to balance out Saudi going down.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/23/2003 15:57 Comments ||
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#4
Pipe and valves are cheap. Let'um go we'll fix it in the field. At least that's how The Great Bechtel has done it in the past.
The top American administrator in Iraq visited a mass grave Thursday believed to contain the remains of thousands of Saddam Hussein's victims and said those responsible for the killings would be hunted down. The grave near Mahaweel, 60 miles south of Baghdad, is the largest discovered since U.S. forces overthrew Saddam's Baath Party government last month. Rights groups expect many more to be found in coming months.
But Not in Our Name...
``There is no question that this (was) a regime that deserved to be changed, and I'm glad we changed it,'' L. Paul Bremer said after touring the site. Local officials say the remains of at least 3,000 people have been uncovered from the grave. Most appear to have been killed after a 1991 Shiite revolt against Saddam. Dr. Rafid al-Husseini, a volunteer who was helping to unearth the remains, said up to 15,000 Iraqis had been reported missing in the region south of Baghdad. The ground at the site was pockmarked with holes, next to which shrunken, tagged bundles of remains were wrapped in white sheets or tied up in plastic bags. Bremer said said a coalition forensics team had arrived to help collect evidence.
Across Iraq, families are excavating sites they couldn't even approach while Saddam was in power. New York-based Human Rights Watch has said a secret cemetery containing graves of more than 1,000 prisoners had been located 25 miles north of Baghdad, in the village of Muhammad Sakran. And the remains of about 150 Shiites killed after a 1999 rebellion were discovered near the southern city of Basra. Good move by Bremer to get out there and look, and tell the Iraqis that justice will be done.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2003 01:29 am ||
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#1
Followup at the Washington Times: seems that the landowner who allowed the bodies to be buried there also sorta helped out with the killing, and he was arrested right after Bremer left.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2003 1:49 Comments ||
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Three persons who disappeared from Ambon last February who are alleged to be leading figures in the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist movement have been found buried, apparently murdered.
Ain't that interesting? Wonder who dunnit, and why?
Ambon newspapers say the bodies of Tengku Fauzi Hasbi, alias Abu Jihad, together with those of his two comrades, Edy Saputra and Ahmad Syuridup, were discovered in a grave near the STAIN Islamic Academy of Religion at Kebun Cengkeh, on the outskirts of the city of Ambon.
Out back of the Islamic Academy of Religion, huh? Might be a clue there, one way or the other. Personally, anytime somebody alias "Abu Jihad" gets waxed, I'm all in favor of it. I hope his exit from this vale of tears was very painful...
The three disappeared mysteriously from the Nisma hotel in the neighborhood of Waihaong on February 22. Local sources said the three were 'notorious activists' promoting Negara Islam Indonesia (NII â Islamic State of Indonesia). Police said seven people have been detained in connection with the case and two more are being sought. One of those detained, Herumanto alias Yanto, has confessed to involvement in the murder of the three men, but said he did so only because he was paid to assist in thre crime. He said he drew Rp48 million from Edy Saputraâs bank account after having obtained the victimâs ATM PIN number before murdering him. Police were able to trace the murderers, and the bodies of the victims, through the withdrawal.
This guys doesn't seem to be whatcha might call a pro. And what kind of alias is "Yanto"? Whatever happened to "Butch" or "Spike"?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 12:53 pm ||
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#2
Murdered for the equivalent of five grand? It couldn't have happened to a nicer group of people.
I had thought that the Indonesian military's death squads were back in action. In some ways, that would have been preferable, indicating the Indonesian govt's commitment to squashing Islamic extremists. It would have opened up a whole other can of worms, but given that Indonesia faces an existential crisis just about every other week, extreme measures are understandable.
Under the former dictator Suharto, where Christians frequently filled high-ranking positions in the security apparatus, Islamists were targeted relentlessly; many sought refuge overseas. (Benny Murdani, the chief of intelligence (i.e. secret police) then, was Catholic). Indonesian democracy has brought about the return of Islamic extremists. Successive elected governments have tolerated these movements; the result has been the slaughter of Christians on Ambon and the Moluccas by Islamic infiltrators and the recent terrorist attack in Bali. I've not followed the recent promotions and retirements of the Indonesian security establishment, but I suspect that Christians are no longer in high-ranking positions.
Police have arrested a member of regional terrorism group Jemaah Islamiyah wanted in connection with the Bali nightclub bombings and a church bombing in Sumatra. Colonel Zaenuri Lubis on Thursday (22/5/03) said Jufri Yus bin Yunus (52) was arrested on May 9 in Kalimalang, East Jakarta. Police have accused Yunus of harboring one of the suspects in the October 12, 2002, Bali bombings that killed 202 people. "He confessed to have known about plans for the Bali attack," Lubis said. Yunus is also suspected of involvement in a Christmas Eve 2000 church bombing in Riau provinceâs capital city Pekanbaru. Lubis said Yunus, who is currently being detained in Pekanbaru, knew about the church bombing and helped to store the explosives.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 12:47 pm ||
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An Indonesian judge says the trial of a second key suspect in the Bali bombings, Imam Samudra, will open on June 2 on the resort island. Police say Samudra was the field coordinator of the October blasts which killed 202 people from 21 countries, including 88 Australians. They say he is a leading member of the Jemaah Islamiah terror group blamed for the blasts. Samudra will be tried in the Nari Graha building which is being used for the trial of his alleged fellow bomber, Amrozi. He is accused of buying a tonne of explosive material to make the bomb which blasted the Sari club.
I think we'll all be watching these trials, to see how they come out.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 12:21 pm ||
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Indonesia said on Friday 58 separatist rebels in Aceh province have been killed and 23,000 civilians have fled their homes since the military began its biggest offensive in years. Aceh deputy governor Aswar Abubakar said that since Monday when the campaign began thousands of civilians had fled their homes in Indonesia's westernmost province. "There have been 23,000 refugees. Some of them are in North Aceh, Bireun, West Aceh and a few in other places. They won't be evacuated to Banda Aceh," Mr Abubakar said. Aceh's military commander visited an island off the north Aceh coast on Friday to deliver humanitarian aid to an isolated community that has seen several clashes in recent days with entrenched Free Aceh Movement (GAM) forces. The military has pounded the island, a half-hour by boat from the provincial capital Banda Aceh, with rocket fire from helicopters and machine-gun and cannon fire from patrol boats. "We are trying to eliminate the rebels from the air, land and sea. We are trying to prevent them from escaping," Major General Endang Suwarya said.
Apparently they were watching Afghanistan and Iraq, and they're trying to do the "shock and awe" thing. I have many doubts they give a poop about about whether any civilians are in the area, though.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 12:16 pm ||
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No Glory for CorrieBy James Taranto of WSJ.com Opinion Journal
The Israeli Defense Forces have seized [yet]another boat carrying weapons intended for Palestinian Arab terrorists. The New York Times reports Israeli officials believe the boat, which carried Hezbollah "explosives expert" Hamad Abu Amar, was bound for Egypt. " Whence did they come? France?
From there, Mr. Abu Amar could have tried to infiltrate the Gaza Strip through one of the tunnels the Palestinians have dug under the border, to smuggle weapons and other contraband from Egypt into southern Gaza."
As we noted in March, Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old terror advocate from Olympia, Wash., was trying to protect such tunnels when she caused her own death in an unsuccessful attempt to obstruct an Israeli bulldozer. (emphasis added)This recitation of the incident is spot on!
Corrie's outfit, the International Solidarity Movement, is seeking new recruits: "We particularly invite Jewish people to join the movement," says an announcement on the Palestine Monitor Web site. "Already, about 25% of our activists come from Jewish backgrounds. It is much more easy for Jewish people to enter Israel and more embarrassing for the Israeli government to deport Jews, making our Jewish contingent extremely valuable to the movement." Jews for genocide?
#2
embarrasingly, there is no lack of want of my fellow jews when it comes to the types of recruits these groups are looking for....
Posted by: oy vey.... ||
05/23/2003 15:52 Comments ||
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#3
The spin on the Corrie story from the anti-Israeli crowd is blatant mendacity. When will these impressionable kids realize that they are public relations pawns for terrorists? Eventually, some of the "human shields" came to their senses in Baghdad after their justifications ceased to lack any semblance of rationality.
#4
the spin cycle's ending for St. Pancake and co. Israel' gotten smarter about excluding these fools from entering or requiring signed releases that they understand there's no "redo" when you get a Cat D8 on your chest
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2003 16:42 Comments ||
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#5
Who in their right mind would fight for someone who will only kill him upon winning?
Israeli Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom has called for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to be expelled from the Palestinian territories. The minister made his call during a meeting of the Parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee. There has been growing pressure from members of the Sharon Government to hold Yasser Arafat personally responsible for violence against Israel, including five suicide bombings in 48 hours earlier this week. Army radio reported on Tuesday that the Foreign Ministry was working on a plan to declare Mr Arafat persona non-grata and to eject him from his battered fortress in Ramallah, to seek political asylum somewhere in Europe.
Somewhere like Paris...
Mr Arafat has remained in self-imposed isolation in the fortress for more than a year now, fearing that any move to leave would see the building stormed by Israel.
Any move to leave will see the door locked behind him.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 12:38 pm ||
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It's not charitable to put it this way, but if they're going to evict Arafat, he should be served with a 5.56mm full-jacketed eviction notice.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/23/2003 13:36 Comments ||
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#2
The IDF should gas the place with nitrous oxide and carry away Arafat and Co. giggling their asses off. Video the whole thing.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/23/2003 16:06 Comments ||
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Paul, Lol!
That's the best idea I've heard in a LONG time!
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin says the latest version of a United Nations Security Council resolution on Iraq shows that the world body "is back".
Back where?
"We can consider that the UN is back, and at bottom that is now the key issue: to make sure that the UN can resume its place" in the handling of the Iraq crisis, he said. "We are convinced that the UN alone is capable of bringing its legitimacy, experience and effectiveness on the ground."
Like in the Congo...
He cited the nomination of a UN "special representative", which is stipulated in the resolution, as a sign of the UN's increased role. "At the start there was only talk of a 'co-ordinator', of someone whose job was just to watch developments from the sidelines. But now there's a political role, an independent role," he said on French state-run radio.
Ummm... A "special representative" would seem to have a somewhat less active role than a "coordinator." If you're the guy who does the coordinating, that kind of implies you have some sort of executive power. A special representative goes to meetings and looks distinguished, but all he does is wiggle his lips and try to present his owner's position for consideration. Or did I miss something?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 12:35 pm ||
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#1
Fred, De-vile-one is spinning, as usual. The UN has a "role" in Iraq now, which is what they wanted. It's kind of like the camel's nose in the tent. Unfortunately for the french, there's a big, bad watchdog with 4-inch fangs just inside that tent, waiting to make a meal of camel nose. Neither devillepan nor chirac are going to get what they want, and as long as chirac keeps tweaking the tiger's tail, they'll be treated as the nasty kiddies they are. I do believe that chirac watched too many katzenjammer kids videos, and believes he can act with impunity. The US will eventually have to do something nasty to chirac, directly, to get his attention. Cutting all foreign trade, any government-to-government exchange programs, and such, would be a good start. Also see my note about the Gold standard - chirac is making a lot of noise about Europe being on a gold standard, while all the rest of the world is using "fiat" money. If the US returned to the Gold standard, nobody would ever think of buying a fiat, renault, or pugeot.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/23/2003 13:08 Comments ||
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#2
It's been a long time since I took a class in macroeconomics, but isn't the US money supply way to large to be on a gold standard? I believe there isn't that much gold in the entire world! Are there any knowledgeable Keynesian economists out there who can clarify?
#3
Hey, France went from 0 to 0.01 in Iraq (via the UN) so their increase was:
Limit of(0.1-0)/0 or a big assed increase...ahem...hrem..uhmm. Let them bask in their glory. It is their special day. (dumb bunnies........)
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/23/2003 15:45 Comments ||
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#4
Might I suggest their errors in puctuation meant a totally different statement:
"We can consider that the UN is back (and) at bottom, that is now the key issue: to make sure that the UN can resume its place (at bottom)"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2003 18:07 Comments ||
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#5
Problem with a gold standard is a nations economy is subject to fluctuations of the gold market.
Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen has failed to convince the leading Islamic militant group Hamas to call a halt to attacks on Israel. Abu Mazen, under pressure from Israel and the United States to bring an end to the 32-month-long Palestinian uprising, met with senior Hamas leader Abdul Aziz Rantissi and two other top figures, Ismail Abou Shanab and Ismail Haniya. He was accompanied by his minister of state for security, Mohammed Dahlan.
Rantissi and Shanab are both politburo members. Haniya's a Gaza bigshot. Dahlan's not dead yet. I doubt the fundos will try to kill him — too public a figure. I think they'll try and disgrace him and drive him out of town...
After the meeting, Mr Haniya said Hamas would only end its suicide attacks in Israel if the Israeli army put an end to its policy of targeted killings of key militants, stopped its incursions into Palestinian territory and released Palestinian prisoners. However, he said the battle against the Israeli military and against Jewish settlers would continue. Characterising the meeting with Abu Mazen as "important and positive," Mr Haniya said he had reiterated Hamas' views on the "right of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation".
"Without boomers, we ain't squat. So we'll keep right on boomin', whether it accomplishes anything or not..."
For his part, Palestinian information minister Nabil Amr, who also attended the meeting, described it as a "serious point of departure for a national dialogue that will strengthen the ranks of Palestinians". Meanwhile, a leader of Hamas' smaller rival, Islamic Jihad, Mohammed al-Hindi, said he had been called on to meet with Abu Mazen, but that no date had been set.
IJ won't stop booming, either.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 12:30 pm ||
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Psalm 122:6-8 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.
For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.
#3
booming accomplishes plenty from point of view of hamas (and, probably, Arafat) Booming makes it very hard for Sharon to make any concessions, political or on the ground to Mazen. Mazen in turn, without getting concessions from Sharon, has nothing to offer the Pal street, and gathers no support. Makes it that much harder for him to put his people in and take arafats people out. also makes him more vulnerable to being pushed out by arafat. And makes it even harder for sharon to make concessions to him(mazen). Altogher a lovely little downward spiral from hamas viewpoint.
This doesnt answer whether or not abu mazen really has the will for a crackdown, or whether an upward spiral is really sustainable. I dont think Hamas is interested in taking a chance though.
#4
I've long felt that the only way Hamas (and Is Jihad, etc.) will be brought to a stop is if Egyptian security forces go into Gaza in large numbers and Jordanian forces in Nablas, etc.
Obviously Abu M doesn't have the force to do it themselves.
#5
I have a new policy for Sharon and Israel: Every time the Paleos blow up something, or stage a suicide attack, or kill an Israeli, they lose one square mile of "palestine". Once all the land within Israel's borders are secure, and the Gaza and Left Bank are occupied, start on Lebanon and Syria. Sooner or later someone's going to get smart, but I don't expect it very soon...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/23/2003 14:55 Comments ||
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#6
Looks like it's time to load up the Hellfires and go a-hunting full-time for Hamas members.
"...Mr Haniya said Hamas would only end its suicide attacks in Israel if the Israeli army put an end to its policy of targeted killings of key militants, stopped its incursions into Palestinian territory and released Palestinian prisoners."
Looks to me like they're worried about
1) not gettin' greased personally
2) not gettin' greased institutionally
3) gettin' their buds outa stir
in that order...
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and US President George W Bush meet on Friday in Texas for talks on how to respond to the North Korean nuclear crisis. Mr Koizumi spent Thursday night at Mr Bush's "Prairie Chapel" ranch.
Next time he sees Jacques, he can tell him what it was like...
Their talks on Friday morning were expected to touch on post-war Iraq and economic issues in both their nations. But the North Korean nuclear crisis is expected to top the agenda, with Mr Koizumi's visit coming just one week after South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun met Mr Bush in Washington.
Maybe Koizumi can tell Roh what the ranch was like, too...
Mr Roh and Mr Bush agreed to work to eliminate Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme "through peaceful means", but they warned in a post-summit statement that increased threats would merit "consideration of further steps".
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/23/2003 12:19 pm ||
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The Japanese cannot ask openly for nukes, nor will they ever admit to having them - unless they're forced to use them. Then katie-bar-the door...
EFL
The Bush administration has imposed stiff economic sanctions on one of China's largest state-run manufacturers for selling missile-related goods to Iran. The two-year sanctions will, for the first time, bar any exports to the United States from North China Industries Corp., which manufactures an array of military and civilian products. Norinco sells a lot of knock-off arms copies similar to AK47 in looks
Bush administration officials said conservative official estimates are that the sanctions will cost Beijing "hundreds of millions" of dollars annually in lost sales in the United States. Sanctions also were imposed on an Iranian government missile producer, the Shehid Hemmat Industrial Group, which has been involved in Iran's short- and medium-range missile program since the mid-1990s. The sanctions were imposed May 9 under two presidential executive orders aimed at curbing arms transfers.
The U.S. sanctions shouldn't have any effect on the Iranian firm, I'd think...
Norinco was caught providing Iran with specialty steel used in all its missile programs in October 2002 â two months after Beijing announced new export regulations aimed at curbing missile-technology sales. China's government was informed about the sanctions and denied that the company transferred the specialty steel involved. Were they moving their lips? Uh-huh? then they're lying
The latest sanctions require the Treasury Department to "prohibit the importation into the United States of any goods, technology, or services produced or provided by these entities." Norinco is China's third-largest manufacturer, and the sanctions could cost the company up to $100 million in lost business in the United States, through such retailers as Wal-Mart and Kmart. Norinco makes some 4,000 products ranging from toys to short-range ballistic missiles.
I just had a vision of a rain of short-range ballistic Beanie Babies turning San Francisco into a sea of fire and beans...
Since it was formed in 1980, Norinco has had about $25 billion of import and export business. As for businesses that will complain of the inconvenience of not being able to purchase inexpensive Norinco products, the official said, "It's also inconvenient to have an Iranian missile come down on you."
He's been hanging around with Rumsfeld, I can tell...
A congressional official close to the issue said the sanctions were imposed after a huge political battle in the Bush administration between pro-Chinese officials opposed to the sanctions and national security officials. The official said the sanctions on Norinco were overdue and described the company as a "serial proliferator" of missiles and goods related to weapons of mass destruction.
"Yar! We be merchants! Aaarrrr!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2003 10:04 am ||
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oops Fred - should be only one post
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2003 10:08 Comments ||
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As for businesses that will complain of the inconvenience of not being able to purchase inexpensive Norinco products, the official said, "It's also inconvenient to have an Iranian missile come down on you."
It is an inconvenient world. Ain't that too bad.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
05/23/2003 11:05 Comments ||
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But the Chinese have denied the company has transfered any technology. Company my ass.
Elite Colombian troops eager to pocket $US14 million in rebel cash threatened to kill reluctant comrades before plunging into an orgy involving prostitutes, whisky and luxury goods. Party Time!
147 soldiers stumbled on the cash buried in plastic containers in a jungle minefield on Good Friday. Sergeants pressured officers to divide the booty instead of reporting it. Conspirators threatened to kill hesitant comrades if they ever opened their mouths. "They had to take a share under threat," said Colonel Ramiro Gaitan, commander of the crack 6th Mobile Brigade, to which the renegades belonged. Most are on the run, but about 40 have been rounded up.
Prostitutes in the southern city of Popayan told how they got several times the going rate for their services as troops, who earn an average $US175 a month, ran riot. "They gave the enlisted men $60,000 each," Colonel Gaitan said, adding that officers and non-commissioned officers got more. "They lined up the platoons and dished it out." Some bought expensive sunglasses and clothes and went on trips to restaurants and brothels, drinking and showering prostitutes with dollar bills. "We began to hear rumours of soldiers present in houses of ill repute, in discotheques," Colonel Gaitan said.
Damn! That's never happened before, has it? Why, back in my day... Never mind.
Authorities believe the money was hidden by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish initials FARC. The soldiers' theft is embarrassing for President Alvaro Uribe, a dour lawyer who uses deeply moral language in his requests for more US military aid. But Jorge Quinones, a lawyer acting for several of the soldiers, told Caracol television: "Hey, there was no robbery. They didn't take money from anyone. They just found it."
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/23/2003 02:05 am ||
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Free Money!!! Wooo-hoooo!!! Jackpot!
Uggghh. These guys are our allies against Marxist Terrorists. No wonder we never get anywhere in that area of the world. At least the money is not going to finance bombs, firearms, and know-how exchanges with other international terror organizations. Except that a good chunk of it that went to drugs and prostitutes will eventually wind up back in the terrorists' hands. Ugghhhh.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro ||
05/23/2003 2:56 Comments ||
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#2
Anyone expecting fidelity in Colombia has been using the whacky white powder. On a good day the government might control 55% of its territory. This is a mess that only be solved be decoupling the linkage between the roving private armies and the cocaine money.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
05/23/2003 6:48 Comments ||
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#3
The Captain of the company was later heard to explain:
"Mas tequila! Y putas por mis hombres!"
Pygmy activists from Congo have demanded the United Nations set up a tribunal to try government and rebel fighters accused of slaughtering and eating Pygmies who are caught in the country's civil war. Army, rebel and tribal fighters - some believing the Pygmies are less than human or that eating the flesh would give them magic power - have been pursuing the Pygmies in the dense jungles, killing them and eating their flesh, the activists said at a news conference yesterday. There have been reports of markets for Pygmy flesh, the representatives alleged. "In living memory, we have seen cruelty, massacres, genocide, but we have never seen human beings hunted and eaten literally as though they were game animals, as has recently happened," said Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of the Mbuti Pygmies in Congo.
"Pygmies are being pursued in the forests ... people have been eaten," said Makelo, a delegate to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which is meeting at UN headquarters. "This is nothing more, nothing less than a crime against humanity," he declared. "This is a certain kind of genocide." Njuma Ekundanayo, an expert member of the Permanent Forum, said attacks against the Pygmies "are not only coming from the army but also from other groups". We don't understand why the military practises cannibalism against the Pygmies," she said. The fighters also rape and sexually assault Pygmy women, and sexually transmitted diseases are spreading in Pygmy communities, the activists said.
About 600,000 Pygmies are believed to live in Congo, which is in the midst of a five-year-old civil war fuelled by deep-seated ethnic and tribal hatreds. Original inhabitants of Congo, the Pygmies continue to live deep in the forests, eking out an existence by hunting and gathering food from small, nomadic base camps. Earlier this year, human rights activists and UN investigators confirmed that rebels cooked and ate at least a dozen Pygmies and an undetermined number of people from other tribes during fighting with rival insurgents. There have been no reports of Congolese Army soldiers engaging in similar activity.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/23/2003 02:02 am ||
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#1
Obviously, the pygmies don't get Fox news or they wouldn't be asking the UN to save them from the cannibals. Rather they would be asking cannibals to save them from the UN.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/23/2003 7:07 Comments ||
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Pygmies are wretchedly primitive but a facsinating race, and scientifically significant to understanding human history and development. This IS genocide and a tragedy of the greatest magnitude. I pray for them.
EFL.
Syria said Thursday it instructed its delegate at the U.N. Security Council to record a "yes" vote for the resolution to end sanctions in Iraq, several hours after the 15-member panel unanimously endorsed the coalition-sponsored motion without the Arab state. In a statement, Syria's Foreign Ministry said could not take part in the initial voting at the Security Council because "consultations over the content of the draft resolution were not completed." "Hey Bashir!"
"Yes, Abdullah?"
"Notice the breeze coming through here?"
"Why yes, I did notice which way the wind was blowing."
"Straight from the west!"
"Mighty chilly, too!"
The vote ended 13 years of sanctions, allowing for the immediate resumption of oil sales to finance rebuilding of the country and giving the United Nations a strong role in the process. It was delayed about 45 minutes however to await the arrival of a representative from Syria, the only Arab state on the 15-member panel. None showed up so the official vote was recorded as 14-0. Syria's Deputy Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad said the Damascus government was meeting at the time of the council session and had requested additional time to reach a position. Syria similarly sat out a vote on a Middle East resolution March 30 of last year. Then from Damascus came the later statement: "Syria instructed its permanent delegate to record Syria's voting inside the Security Council." Fail to vote in public to please the Arab street, record the vote later so as not to upset Uncle Sam.
The Foreign Ministry said Syria decided to vote in favor of the new resolution out of "eagerness to improve the conditions of the Iraqi people" and "despite its conviction that it (the resolution) was not up to the ambitions of the Iraqi people so that their country becomes free, sovereign and united as well enjoys its natural wealth." "Which is completely unlike how we do things here in Syria!"
Despite its joining the ranks of support for the resolution, Syria emphasized its vote did not mean it changed its position on either the "illegitimate" war on Iraq nor its "foreign occupation" now. WhatEVER.
Syria also noted it "tried along other country-members in the Security Council to introduce vital amendments on the draft resolution with the aim of giving the U.N. a central role, guaranteeing that (Iraq's) wealth return to its people and ending the occupation as quickly as possible." "Which isn't how we do things in Lebanon, but never mind that!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2003 01:53 am ||
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And the Congo is a great example of what a damn fine job the U.N. can do.
EFL.
The Army is investigating the Iraqi ambush of a maintenance company that resulted in nine dead soldiers and six prisoners of war, including the capture of Pfc. Jessica Lynch. Brig. Gen. Howard Bromberg, who commands the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command at Fort Bliss, Texas, ordered the probe by a team of officers. Col. Joe Curtin said the "extremely complex" investigation should be completed soon. One question the team is addressing is the plight of 19-year-old Pfc. Lynch, whose capture by Iraqis and subsequent rescue by an allied special-operations team propelled her to folk-hero status across America.
The Washington Post reported that she staged a fierce fight before capture, emptying a gun and killing Iraqi attackers before being stabbed and shot herself. But two Pentagon officials in interviews cast doubt on that report. The officials said all evidence suggests that Pfc. Lynch's truck crashed in the chaos of the ambush in the central Iraqi town of Nasiriyah. She suffered several bone fractures and was in no position to put up a fight, the officials said. But a final determination will await the commander's inquiry. "Part of it will look at what happened to each of the soldiers," Col. Curtin said. Her unit, the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Co., was moving from Kuwait that day in support of Patriot antimissile batteries being positioned farther north inside Iraq. U.S. Central Command officials have said the company got lost and drove into Nasiriyah by mistake and was unprotected by combat units. A band of paramilitary Iraqis attacked the truck convoy from all sides. One survivor said the unit immediately descended into chaos and that some of the soldiers' guns jammed. I'm not mil/ex-mil. But I don't think that's supposed to happen. Any comments?
The commander's inquiry will look into all issues concerning the incident, including leadership, training, any mechanical failures and tactics. "The goal is lessons learned. Corrective action," Col. Curtin said. Sounds like the right approach.
In a parallel investigation, the Army's Criminal Investigation Command is investigating the ambush to determine whether Iraqis committed war crimes. It is against international law to execute POWs. Nine 507th soldiers died in the ambush or afterward and were found in shallow graves. Video images of some on Iraqi television appeared to show bullet wounds to the forehead. The Iraqis who did this have to be hunted down.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2003 01:34 am ||
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The m-16 is one of the best combat weapons in the world,it's biggest flaw is it has to be meticulosly cleaned and maintained.
#2
An HTML version of Army Regulation 15-6 Procedure for Investigating Officers and Boards of Officers.
Posted by: Don ||
05/23/2003 9:15 Comments ||
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"I'm not mil/ex-mil. But I don't think that's supposed to happen. Any comments?"
It's an institutional problem in the Army which like the elephant in the living room, no one wants to talk about. The Combat Support [CS] and Service Support [CSS] units do not receive adequate sustained military operations training, to include basic stuff. 1 - they are too engaged in the day to day sustainment of combat maneuver elements to take off line an spend serious time doing combat ops training [like parameter defense, combat convoy, etc.]. If you do take them off line then things don't get done for the maneuver units and their readiness drops which is potential career ender for the commanders. So that is a no-no. 2 - Training takes money. The commanders prefer to spend their training monies on the maneuver units [for obvious reasons] than support elements. In the last decade, I don't recall tons of money following into training above that level traditionally spent. The Infantry, Armor, and Artillery guys [who are the commanders] haven't been keen on transfering monies to upgrade the combat abilities of the CS and CSS units. 3 - That which isn't inspected, doesn't get fixed. Common combat field craft/practices are not in the minds of senior NCOs and Junior Officers in the support elements. A simple thing, like putting up with the gripping of the troops, but forcing them to clean their weapons every day and wrapping the receiver group to keep dust out was obviously not done. Do you think the OIC or NCOIC checked their weapons before the convoy started that day?
When you look at the Army as a whole, the solution is $$$$$ expensive to get all the CS and CSS units up to decent levels. It's not going to happen because the dollars are not there and the combat branch commanders will not permit the dollars to go there. The dollars will go to their priorities. The cheaper band aid approach will be to push mapping integrated with GPS further down the organizational structure. It'll help prevent getting lost in the first place, but it will not stop ambushes happening on a mobile battlefield.
Posted by: Don ||
05/23/2003 9:42 Comments ||
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The M-16 is a great weapon as long as you can keep it firing. But the AK-47 is a legend of battlefield reliability and durability; they virtually never jam. I've read that early on in Viet Nam, US soldiers who were frustrated by the unreliability of their M-16's would scavange AK-47's off dead Viet Cong whenever they had a chance, and throw away the M-16s....
#5
Scooter: I've only heard one first hand verbal testimony of US soldiers carrying AK-47's in Vietnam. Since they were not standard issue, no one was carrying enough ammunition. When the unit got pinned down in a fire fight, they rapidly ran out of ammo, could not cross level in the platoon (some were carrying M-16's and M-3, 45 cal "grease guns" also), and were overrun. When reconstituted, they started carrying M-16's only.
#6
As a retired Navy Chief Hospital Corpsman, I've done time with the US Marines and they fully train their CS and CSS units. I was stationed with 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which was there in Iraq for this latest operation btw, and we trained for 6 months to achieve "Special Operations Capable" status needed to deploy for the missions asssigned to Marine units of this type. I don't know what the Army does but we can see it might have had some relation to what happened to those soldiers. It's a real shame. Rumsfeld is busy ramming some changes through that might help the Army. We will see.
ALSO: The M-16's and related arms do jam when you are in the field with sand and mud but they are also easy to clear and return to full operation, killing whatever is in your way - if you are trained properly. As a medic, I didn't carry one, but I sure could operate one if I needed to. I could operate any of the weapons systems we deployed with. We had to learn and I wanted to.
Posted by: John F. ||
05/23/2003 11:04 Comments ||
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Although I don't buy into the claptrap of the BBC, Scheer of the LA times or the execrable Naomi Klein, I have wondered why the rescue was videotaped. Also, who did the videotaping - the special forces or an embedded reporter? If the former, wouldn't this compromise that man's ability to perform while he was holding a video camera rather than a weapon?
#8
Don and John F., thank you, that is enlightening. I wonder if some modest improvement in training CS and CSS units -- a monthly reintroduction to the M-16 with emphasis on handling common problems like jams, etc. -- would help, or whether that would be seen as taking time away from support readiness.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2003 12:09 Comments ||
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#9
"US soldiers who were frustrated by the unreliability of their M-16's would scavange AK-47's off dead Viet Cong whenever they had a chance, and throw away the M-16s."
I'm sure you read that, but there is some urban myth here, too.
You don't "throw away" your issue rifle.
M16 had some awful startup problems, and lots of guys went to alternative weaponry, but it has long since become a very good combat weapon.
Lastly, Nam was a war of noises (jungle combat) and the last thing you wanted was an AK. It has a distinctly different sound than American weapons and was a magnet for suppressive fire, grenades, willie pete, and all manner of hostile ordnance. It would take a pretty green soldier to want to tote a commie noisemaker. In WWII, guys who picked up "Schmeissers" learned the same hard lesson.
I have had trouble with the "Audie" Lynch story all along. Nothing against her and she seems to have handled things well, but "emptying her weapon" and killing 4-5 Iraqi soldiers (as initially reported) sounds more like the usual media feminist pre-deification. Since then the story has been a long, quiet backpedal... at least until the made for TV movie rights are negotiated.
Posted by: Mark IV ||
05/23/2003 12:28 Comments ||
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I'm retired Air Force, worked in a very highly classified career field, and got about as close to "front line activity" as maybe 150 miles - 99% of my time with the military. BUT, because of my career field, and my knowledge of the "bad guys", I sought out and got as much training as possible in small-unit operations, military ordinance, and combat and combat support actions. The one time I was in a combat situation was BEFORE I had that training, and it scared me sh$$$$$$. Add to that the fact that only 16 of us were given M2 carbines (the Army wasn't going to "waste" a perfectly good M-16 to a bunch of 'flyboys'). Luckily, we WERE given a full ruck of ammo - about 700 rounds. I think I ended the two weeks with three clips left.
Military action is changing. There is no longer any such thing as a "FEBA", or a "forward area". Combat can occur anywhere - in the theater of operation, in the rear support areas, even in the stateside deployment areas and main bases. It's time the entire MILITARY, not just the Army or the Marines, recognizes this fact, and starts training its people properly.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/23/2003 12:54 Comments ||
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ColoradoConservative,
"...wouldn't this compromise that man's ability to perform while he was holding a video camera rather than a weapon?"
As I recall the Special Forces had very small IR or nightvision cameras strapped to their vests or helmets - no one had to carry one and they do not get in the way. They were beaming the images back in real time - also not hard to do. In fact, all that technology is common over-the-counter stuff nowadays.
Probably as skewed (in the other direction, knowing the Beeb) as the original story, but this story has smelled like a rat since the get-go.
Posted by: Mark IV ||
05/23/2003 16:12 Comments ||
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#13
As a career REMF (Rear Echelon Mother F*****) I can say the we (Air Force) never trained in small squad tactics. Other than some trips out to the range and maybe some NCO courses, REMFs don't get a lot of combat training. The Security Police (USAF) take care of the perimeter and sometime we augment them. This does not apply to the Marines, where EVERYONE is an rifleman first and everything else second. I would look to the Army leaning more towards the Marine mind set after this. This group was heading for trouble: 1) Took a wrong turn and 2) Did bot have armed escort on a non-secure road. Notice after this the convoys had armed escort and air support. I wonder how a convoy got lost when everyone has a GPS these days?
Title really says it all. EFL.
Dead bodies litter Bunia's empty streets. From some the blood still drips from machete slashes, spear thrusts and bullet wounds. Others are two weeks old and stinking, half-eaten by the packs of dogs flopping lazily about the once-prosperous north-eastern capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are women's bodies scattered in Bunia's main mar ket place; a baby's body on its main road; two priests' bodies inside one church. Last week, a burning corpse was tossed on to the main UN compound's lawn, to show 700 Uruguayan peacekeepers what they were missing while they cowered under fire behind its razor-wire perimeter, unauthorised to intervene in the latest massacre of Congolese civilians. Good ole' UN peacekeepers.
As the two-week fight for Bunia between rival ethnic militias cooled this week, Albert Asumani slipped back to the ransacked suburb of Nyambe where he lives. "Why? Why are we killing our brothers? When will it end?" he said, stripping off a pair of yellow rubber gloves he had donned to toss two dead neighbours into a pit-latrine. Not even a proper burial.
This week, for perhaps the first time, western countries appear to be asking the same question about Congo's four-and-a-half-year war, which at one time involved nine national armies and a confusion of local militias, and which has already claimed an estimated 4.7 million lives. On Tuesday France sent military observers to Bunia; it is now considering sending troops with orders to shoot to kill. Britain may send a small force in support. This flicker of attention to the world's biggest war comes after the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, called for a "coalition of the willing" to police Bunia and the surrounding hills of Ituri province. Carla del Ponte, the UN war crimes prosecutor, has suggested that the mass killings by the local Hema and Lendu tribes "could be genocide". "It could be genocide, then maybe not. Were US troops within a thousand miles? That would definitely make it a genocide. After all, we're the UN; we have lots of experience with genocide!"
In fact, the war in Ituri is not a genocide, a word which describes a systematic programme of annihilation. It is too chaotic, with random atrocities perpetrated by Hema and Lendu militias. Nor is the killing of 300 people in Bunia particularly extreme by Ituri's recent standards. Last September in nearby Nyakunde village, 1,200 Hema civilians were killed. In all, Ituri's war - which began after Uganda armed Hemas and Lendus in a bid to control Ituri - has claimed an estimated 50,000 lives. "No one was bothered about Nyakunde or took much notice of Ituri before," said Anneke Van Woudenberg of Human Rights Watch. "But now you have a few UN peacekeepers getting shot at and suddenly everyone's interested in Congo." You prefer the other way, Anneke? No wonder HRW is becoming useless.
The battle for Bunia began on March 6, as Ugandan troops withdrew from the town in line with a recent peace accord. With the UN mission in Congo unable to fill the vacuum - having only 4,000 troops to police an area two-thirds the size of western Europe - a massacre in Bunia had been widely predicted. "Does the world care what happens to Congo? No," said Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Vollot, the French commander of UN forces in Ituri. "We've been sending messages every day to [the UN headquarters in] New York [saying] this was going to happen, that we need more troops. Nothing was done." Danno, the usual UN way -- if they had sent you the troops -- would have been to tell you not to shoot.
The Lendus took the town, and began looting and killing Hema civilians, putting 250,000 people to flight. Among the 12,000 that remained, crammed against the razor-wire of the UN compound, was Safi Sabina, 32. "People were screaming, we were running from the machetes," she said, bowing her head to the baby in her lap as she began to cry. Her father, mother, two aunts and three young brothers and sisters were all murdered by the militiamen. Days later, the main Hema militia, the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), rearmed by Uganda, took the town. During the UPC's previous seven-month rule in Ituri, its fighters massacred an estimated 10,000 Lendus. Now, in power again, it is killing less selectively. Tit for tat.
The UPC chased the Lendus through the suburb, and then returned to murder its residents and loot their homes, he said. Most of their victims were not even Lendu, but members of Ituri's other small tribes, murdered for their few cooking pots and clothes. With Bunia thoroughly looted this week, the contents of its every house spilled into the dirt outside, Lendu and Hema fighters mixed cheerfully across the frontline. "We don't have a problem anymore, we're Congolese brothers," declared one such group within metres of Nyambe's decaying bodies. The killing and looting, they explained, was the "inevitable" consequence of war. At least it was over, they said. Until next time.
In the green hills outside Bunia, however, the killing continued. "Bunia's calm again, but in the bush we hear of the same atrocities that have been going on for three years," said Michel Kassa, the head of the UN coordination agency, OCHA, after overflying Ituri's razed villages. "We know there are people there in terrible need, but we won't be able to reach them unless an international force comes to put an end to this orgy of violence." Perfect job for the French. They want to have influence in Africa -- here ya go, Jacques. Put in a few thousand good troops and a couple squadrons of helos, and maybe a couple gunships for backup. Then let the vaunted UN start doing the relief job they should do. How about it?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2003 01:18 am ||
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"Why? Why are we killing our brothers? When will it end?" he said, pissing on his dead neighbor's corpse. He then picked up his machete and slaughtered two people standing nearby.
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Vollot, the French commander of UN forces in Ituri also said "I've personally approached rebel leaders three times and attempted to surrender, but they laughed in my face and sent me back."
Lendu and Hema fighters mixed cheerfully across the frontline. "We don't have a problem anymore, we're Congolese brothers," declared one such group within metres of Nyambe's decaying bodies.
"We all like to kill defenseless civilians, it's easier than fighting among ourselves!"
#2
Israel/Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan I don't have a problem with. But when I tried reading about all the different factions involved in the DRC was all I got was a splitting headache and a deeply pesimistic feeling about things improving there anytime soon.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/23/2003 2:10 Comments ||
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#3
, Kofi Annan, called for a "coalition of the willing" to police Bunia and the surrounding hills of Ituri province.
Is Annan slyly poking the U.S. for involvement in Iraq, but not in Congo?
#4
Yep, CC. Noticed that too. You can be sure it's intentional. Either for mocking purposes (big mistake) or because he thinks that this phrasing will get US on board. No, Kofi, we'll just scorn you more, if that's the case. I used to think the guy was talented and good for UN.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/23/2003 11:35 Comments ||
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#5
I suggest, for the sake of the Congo, that we move the entire UN staff to Bunia - the folks in New York, Geneva, Vienna, Paris, and wherever else the UN has office space. That way, they can be intimately involved with trying to secure this "vital area". Kofi Annan should lead the way. They may have to live in tents, eat MRE's and do business in quonset huts for a few months, but that's just the price you have to pay for being "on top of things" in the Congo.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/23/2003 11:58 Comments ||
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#6
"Coalition of the willing"? Sorry, Kofi. We'd like to help but we're kinda busy ACCCOMPLISHING something right now. Wish we had time to bail your sorry ass out, but...we don't. Besides, I thought you didn't want the US to be the big, bad world policeman. Thought that was a bad thing! I might suggest you call up that EU Rapid Response Force but...oh, yeah...sorry.
Here's a quick question, while we've got you. When's the Golden Jubilee of those Pali "refugee camps" that the UN has done such a great job running? We'd like to send a cake or something.
#7
I could be wrong, but arent all these countries now run by the blacks that didnt like the way the whites were doing things...??
Let them all rot....good riddance.
Posted by: Fed UP ||
05/23/2003 13:26 Comments ||
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#8
Fed UP,
That is SO rascist and bigoted! (But there's no denying your observation totally on target.) I suspect that someday those colonial times will be looked back on as a Golden Age.
Heart of Darkness? Joseph Conrad, you ain't seen nothing yet!
#9
Well, Kofi, we agree that things in the Congo are not conducive to human health. We will consider your request. Here is what we need from you:
1. Basic statement of the problem, laying out the different factions involved. You know, the givens.
2. Also include any assumptions that you make.
3. State your short term and long term goals and objectives. Be concise but very clear as to where you want to be in the short term and the long term. Do not omit or be fuzzy on these points!
We will then take up your request, study it, and tell you what can be done, how it can be done, and will tell you what resources you will need. Then you can start finding resources to do the job. Once that is done, we will talk about implementing it, and Voila! Your problem is solved. RSVP.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/23/2003 15:08 Comments ||
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#10
Scooter--
If the truth is racist and bigoted, does that make it any less truthful? I think not....the facts are the facts...the way things are going over there does indeed make this the Golden age..now, if we could just get some of our locals to go over there and "help"...that would be Golden.
Posted by: Fed UP ||
05/23/2003 17:09 Comments ||
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#11
Considering Euorpe's track record in Africa I am suprised if any African government would welcome Euorpean involvement.
While(on the surface)Fed up's coment does sound bigoted,it is no more bigotted than saying Crypts/Bloods are primarily African American gangs.
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.
