EFL & Buttloads of Fun!
Southern drawls have thwarted voice recognition equipment used by the Shreveport Police Department to route non-emergency calls. The voice-recognition system asked people to name the person or department they wanted. More often than not, the system just didnât understand, and they wound up at the wrong place, said Capt. John Dunn, who oversees police communications. "In Louisiana, we have a problem with Southern drawl and what I call lazy mouth. Because of that, the system often doesnât recognize what (callers) say," he said. When asked to comment on this problem lard ass troll Senator Ted Kennedy said: "Well, they are all a bunch Neanderthals". Julian Bond declined to comment.
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
11/17/2003 9:02:07 AM ||
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#1
Why don't they just bring someone with a Southern drawl in and record it, then enter the data in as part of the voice recognition system?
Posted by: Charles ||
11/17/2003 12:38 Comments ||
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#2
Because then the computer system would get shiftless and develop a taste for clay.
#3
In Louisiana there is not only the dread Southern drawl,but also a hybrid French-English-Spanish-Southern accent.Voice recognition systems have problems with most accents-including New England ones.The school solution is to speak slowly and clearly,often hard to do in an emergency.
Posted by: Stephen ||
11/17/2003 13:01 Comments ||
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#4
What's wrong with a selection system??
"Iffen y'all are havin' uh dumb-ess-tick prawblem, press wun."
"Iffen y'all are riportin' a ber-gler-ree, press two."
"Iffen y'all are riportin' a stow-lin vee-hickle, press three."
"Fer awl uther cawls, pleeze stay awn th' lahn, an' an aw-per-ray-ter will be awn th' lahn shawrtly tuh speak witchew."
#7
Let us be polite about Louisiana, or I'll have to get out the nukes again...
I spent the first seventeen years of my life there, still have too many relatives and friends that live in that state, to NOT take offence, even when it IS "Buttload funny".
Cajun is only one of a dozen problems in Louisiana that makes voice recognition a problem. The third-largest Vietnamese community in the United States is centered near Houma. Within thirty miles of where I grew up, just north of Alexandria, there's a large Czech community (towns named Kolin, etc.), a respectable German community (Jena, anyone?), and a fairly large Polish community (Pollock? - really a town name!). Throw that much into the voice recognition soup and you have an impossible situation. Made it fun in school, though...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/17/2003 14:07 Comments ||
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An idea would be to have a voice recognition system who would not recognize Yankee accent. :-)
#10
OP, don't forget about Des Allemands and Dry Prong.
Posted by: Matt ||
11/17/2003 15:31 Comments ||
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Matt - since I have a cousin who owns a pecan orchard in Dry Prong, and who sends me a couple of pounds every year, it's kinda hard to ignore the town... There are hundreds of weird names for towns in the state (Waterproof, on the banks of the Mississippi...) - I was trying to point out that the population is not all lazy whites or fast-talking Cajuns, but a very diverse group that makes stereotyping them rather difficult.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/17/2003 19:38 Comments ||
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Those who were hopeful the new Afghan government would be open, pluralistic and tolerant of other religions, extending rights to women and minority religions will be disappointed by the first draft of the constitution. It is a blueprint for a repressive state, what the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom calls "Taliban-lite."
We've rolled our eyes over it here, too. But, as I've said over and over again, it's their country. They're free to screw it up any way they want. Just don't expect us to pay for it. There's a reason the Afghans bitch about short-changed on all the money they need to rebuild their country.
While international press reports have focused on the mechanics of the government, the structure of a bicameral legislature with no prime minister, it also states clearly and ominously that "no law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam." Pakistan nearly collapsed after Ziaâs constitution required conformity of law to the "injunctions of Islam."
Contrary to reports in major news sources that the constitution makes no mention of shariah, the legal code based on the Quran, Article 130 says that, in the absence of an explicit statute or constitutional limit, the Supreme Court should decide "in accord with Hanafi jurisprudence" â one of the four main Sunni schools of sharia. "In accord with Hanafi jurisprudence" means: sharia.
Supreme Court justices will be required to have higher education "in law or Islamic jurisprudence" and, like the president and Cabinet members, must take an oath to "support justice and righteousness in accord with the provisions of the sacred religion of Islam." The draft outlaws any political party "contrary to the principles of the sacred religion of Islam." Is that what we got for all those smart-bombs?
The new constitution says men are still allowed to have four wives. And the ladies get the same. Not!
That's cultural, not religious. Or maybe a combination of the two.
The Afghan model is not promising for the new Iraqi government. Last week, President Bush called home for consultation his chief Iraqi administrator, Paul Bremer, and told him to speed up Iraqization. Iraq is well behind Afghanistan in drafting a constitution â a process that took two years in Kabul.
On the other hand, we've learned from the mistakes we made in Afghanistan. There's no Iraqi Karzai, and there's no Iraqi Loya Jirga.
Iraq has other problems. There is no Hamid Karzai.
I just said that. It's a feature, not a bug.
No leader has emerged who can bring together even a modest coalition of the diverse groups within the stratified nation held together for a generation by the brute force of Saddam Hussein.
Also a feature...
So slow is the progress in Iraq, in fact, there is talk in Washington about replacing Bremer. Iraqis have been unable to agree even on how to choose delegates to draft a constitution despite a Dec. 15 deadline to submit a timetable to the U.N. Security Council. As insurgents step up attacks on coalition forces, pressure is mounting to find some way to speed the transfer of power to the Iraqis. That suits many Iraqi leaders just fine. Council member Ahmed Chalabi has been insisting for months that the Americans hand over power quickly and give the Iraqis an expanded role in fighting the insurgents.
That's been a pretty fine balancing act from the start...
"What is needed now is that Iraqis should take more and more charge of the security situation," Chalabi told BBC radio Thursday. "There is a vigorous, committed and able and experienced political leadership in Iraq now in the presidency of the Governing Council who can take charge of this situation and produce results very quickly." However, Chalabi has close ties to the Pentagon but lacks broad support, even among fellow Shiites, in part because of his wheeler-dealer reputation. Selling Karzai to the Afghans as a national leader was simpler. A hereditary tribal chief, the urbane, multilingual Karzai enjoyed a reputation for integrity and was a member of Afghanistanâs largest ethnic community, the Pashtuns. The United States preferred a Pashtun leader to win support from an ethnic group that formed the core of the Taliban. Karzai worked for a US oil company, with Republican Party connections. Not exactly a man of the Afghanistan people.
Had it been me, I'd have taken the Northern Alliance government and reinstated it, with added Pashtun components. My way probably would have turned out slightly worse than what they actually did. Had it been me, I'd probably have had an "interim government" in my back pocket when we went into Iraq, ready to take office as soon as Sammy was gone. My way probably would have turned out significantly worse than what they actually did.
Karzai was acceptable to the countryâs second-largest group, the Tajiks, because they were given control of most levers of power, including the army. Karzai has struggled to extend his authority outside the Afghan capital because, though he has Western backing and a presidential title, his rivals have the guns. Whatâs in this for me?
Posted by: Anonon ||
11/17/2003 4:39:58 AM ||
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I was initially surprized by the ability of anti human rights Islam to hand on in a country oppressed by the Taliban. But, as explained in this article
#2
Well, anon...since we didn't get a perfect world...we should have just left the Taliban in place. Right? Boy were we stupid. Oh sure, we CRUSHED AQ, but instead of occupying their country, we gave them back the reigns of power to self-determine their governement based on their own culture and beliefs. Such a failure has never been seen.
#3
"in the absence of an explicit statute or constitutional limit, the Supreme Court should decide "in accord with Hanafi jurisprudence" â one of the four main Sunni schools of sharia."
key words - in the absence of an explicit statute" IOW theyre treating it as common law, the basis for judicial decisions when NOT overridden by explicit statute. Presumably explicit statute and constitutional limit will stop the objectionable aspects of sharia - whats left may be relatively innocous questions of civil procedure, etc. I know traditional jewish law is filled with such things, i presume muslim law is as well. Also note that theyre selection Hanafi jurisdiction - IIRC its the Hanbali school that is the one associated with Wahabis and other hardliners. Hanafi is more moderate.
I got to agree with B. We didnt go into Afghan to establish a secular liberal democracy - afghan is MUCH farther from the social conditions for that than Iraq. We went in to crush AQ - and while we're there to make things better than they were before we went in - which I believe we've done.
#4
I used to read WND fairly regularly, and usually agreed with most of what was said there. However, in the last two years, many of the comentators that contribute regularly there, including Farah, Buchanan, and others, have moved FAAAARRRRR Right - way beyond my inclusion zone. I still visit, I just pass everything I read through a bullshit filter before allowing it to penetrate.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/17/2003 14:17 Comments ||
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#5
I know, I know the Afghan constitution is bad, however don't judge it in US terms: this is not the US where people swear to defend the Constitution all of its ennemies, this is one of those countries where the Constitution is designed to be sit upon (that is why they tend to be 300 pages thick). Stalin's Soviet Union had an incredibly liberal constitution. On the opposite side Franco had saddled King Juan Carlos with a Constitution who didn't allow him to restore democracy, Juan Carlos swore fidelity to Franco's constitution... and had it undone in less than three years.
All it takes to unmade this constitution is a liberal ruler, or more exactly a liberal ruler and enough guns and money.
#6
Easy on Joe Farah. He is one of the most decent persons I have ever spoken to. I endorse the "Northern Alliance Solution," retroactively, as little as that is worth. It would have meant a scorched earth policy in the Pashtun areas, but it beats permanent war. Actual war conduct - smart-bomb intimidation, and negotiated armistices - was in large part, a status quo ante. Taliban/al-Qaedism underlies existing Pashtun social-political culture. The Northern Alliance should have been given a free hand in liquidating these elements. A future civil war is inevitable.
Also, Wilsonian' "self-determination" was not inclusive of aggressive and racist ideological movements. I respect the shura choice of Taliban Afghanis, about as much as I support the democratic choice of the citizens of the Weimar Republic who voted for Hitler in large enough numbers to eventually allow Nazi government. Again, the choice is for OUR security, even if it means suppressing THEIR freedom.
One of the terms specified in al-Qaedaâs communique calling for negotiations with the Yemeni government was a release of its members and an end to pursuing the free ones. Saleh could be trying to meet at least some of those demands. -Dan
Yemenâs government today freed 92 followers of the al-Qaeda terrorist network after they promised to behave. A further 1,500 other inmates were also released in a Ramadan amnesty, a Yemeni judge responsible for dialogue with suspected terrorists said. The judge, Hammoud al-Hitar, added that 65 detainees suspected of terror-related crimes, including suspects in the bombing of the USS Cole in October 2000, would be put on trial after the end of this month. Why bother? -Paul
Al-Hitar, who heads a committee that encourages terrorists to renounce violence, told The Associated Press that the 92 al-Qaeda suspects arrested since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, had repented and promised to obey Yemenâs constitution and laws. Iâll believe it when I see it. Right now this looks to a cynical observer like myself as at least in part a potential way to meet al-Qaedaâs demands without publicly acknowledging that one is doing so. -Dan
They declared they would respect "the rights of non-Muslims, their lives, money, and (promised) not to target embassies of friendly countries," al-Hitar said. The dialogue with the detained terror suspects began at the end of last year. At least 70 repentant militants have been released by Yemen in the last two years. Al-Hitar said his committee has had meetings with 246 terrorists. He told the AP that 65 terror suspects, including those arrested in the Cole bombing that killed 17 Americans, will be referred to trial after the three-day feast following Ramadan, which concludes near the end of this month. Al-Hitar did not specify a date.
Posted by: Paul Moloney & Dan Darling ||
11/17/2003 1:54:05 AM ||
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Blast you, Paul!
I was just posting the same thing :P
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/17/2003 1:57 Comments ||
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Ha!
Fred might as well delete mine, yours has more worthwhile comments
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
11/17/2003 1:59 Comments ||
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#3
Repentent? Maybe Charles Manson should try that scam.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
11/17/2003 3:27 Comments ||
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Hypocrisy! Yemen releases terrorists, but they still want Germany to deliver them a particularly vile one. If your credibility is in the crapper, don't expect to be trusted. This Islamonazis going to Gitmo.
Red Cross stores in Britain have been told not to display any "overtly religious" items in their stores during the Christmas season because the organization needs to appear neutral, reports the Evening Star. Workers at a store in Ipswich told the paper that they may sell Christmas cards and other holiday goods but none may contain traditional Christian images such as the Virgin Mary, the nativity scene or the city of Bethlehem. In leaflets made available at one store, the Red Cross says its "neutrality is as important on the U.K. high street as it is in a conflict zone. This is why, during Christmas and any other religious festivals, our volunteers are welcome to display and sell seasonal decorations and goods, including Christmas trees and cards, but not anything overtly religious." "Does the name of Jesus appear?"
"Yes, why?"
"Hit the road, loser." *boot*
I try to maintain my lack of neutrality by giving money to the Salvation Army, rather than to the Red Cross.
An effort by Billy Grahamâs Christian organization to collect Christmas goodies for children in war zones was described as racist and right wing by an English cleric, reports the Tameside Advertiser. WTF?
The Rev. Vernon Marshall, a Unitarian minister in England, said the effort has a hidden agenda. He said "poisonous literature" is inserted into the shoeboxes. "Leaflets are put in thrusting an intolerant and racist form of Christianity into the lives of poor Muslims who have been bombed out of their homes by the same people who then try to befriend them," Marshall said. Then his lips fell off, his nose grew, his legs shrank, he broke a harp string, and he turned into a pillar of salt.
Organizers of the drive said their Christian partners in some countries do offer a small booklet with each shoebox, but the youngsters are under no obligation to take it.
I've done many things in my life that I'm ashamed of. There are people I've loved that I've hurt by being selfish, there have been lapses of courage that I still don't like to think about. Part of the reason I'm agnostic probably has to do with being afraid of the thought of actually having to explain myself to the Lord. But I still haven't managed to develop the sense of self-loathing that seems to go with being a Unitarian cleric. Maybe it's something they teach in seminary.
#6
Wasn't there an article on Rantburg just a couple of days ago where the "nations that attack Jews find themselves in dire straits"? Wasn't Jesus a Jew? Don't these idiotarians know better?
One of these days, perhaps rather soon, there's going to be a time of reconing. When it comes, I'm sure there will be plenty of "wailing and gnashing of teeth". I have no sympathy. Being stupid has its own rewards, ones I'd rather not partake of.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/17/2003 14:14 Comments ||
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#7
Since the red cross on white beckground offends Muslims I they should try a red svastika on white backround.
#8
I guess Switzerland is up shits creek without a paddle.
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/17/2003 15:26 Comments ||
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The Red Thingy. I like that. It's in the style book now...
International Committee of the Red Thingy ... Heh heh heh ...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2003 16:17 Comments ||
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Maybe it's something they teach in seminary.
Unfortunately, yes -- it is. And not just for Unitarians ... my own divinity degree is from an Episcopal seminary. It's one reason I stopped pursuing ordination there.
Follow the link and check out the pictures of this "prison cell". Itâs a hell of a lot nicer than most apartments Iâve lived in. Bastards, EFL: Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was sentenced to life in 2001 for his horrific attack, which blew up a packed Pan Am airliner over a tiny Scottish town. But although caged in one of Britainâs toughest jails, our exclusive pictures show the 51-year-old monster occupies a suite with facilities to rival a four-star hotel. They include his own kitchen and shower-room, a sitting room, office, and bedroom with en-suite toilet. His rooms are kitted out with a colour television, video recorder, stereo and personal computer. Prison bosses have even piped Arabic TV station Al-Jazeeraâfamed as the mouthpiece of terror chief Osama bin Ladenâinto his cell. Meanwhile, unlike other prisoners forced to barter their precious phonecards, Al Megrahi is allowed unlimited access to the telephone. Our astonishing photos were smuggled out of Glasgowâs Barlinnie prison by an insider disgusted at facilities laid on for the bomber. They show how floral curtains soften the lines of Al Megrahiâs barred windowsâand framed art prints adorn the walls of his "cell". The sofa in his day room is big enough to seat three. His coffee table is littered with remote controls for his entertainment system. Fresh food and meat butchered in accordance with his Muslim faith is delivered for him to prepare himself. Other hot meals are delivered to his rooms. Intelligence officer Al Megrahi is also allowed to keep a private collection of videos, books and pictures. Visitors to his ground floor suite have included former South African president Nelson Mandela and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The statesmen visited to check the prisonerâs conditions and Mr Mandela discussed a campaign to move him to a prison in his own country. Beyond belief.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/17/2003 11:40:58 AM ||
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Needs a fireplace, Saudi-style
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/17/2003 11:45 Comments ||
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"Mr Mandela discussed a campaign to move him to a prison in his own country."
-makes sense to me. This p.o.s. is the most overated leader on that side of the planet. He makes Jesse Jackoff look like a cub scout....
#5
Send him to Turkey. They have nice 4x4x4 cells, complete with at grate in the floor for body wastes. Let him stay there, eating the rotten Turkish prison food for a few years, then ask him how he liked his British cell.
The Brits should know better.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/17/2003 14:32 Comments ||
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I'd appreciate it if someone would please provide other corroborating links for this outrage. News of the World has a less than sterling reputation for accurate reporting.
(2003-11-16) -- A new survey of Britons indicates that a majority believes that U.S. President George Bush is a "stupid evil genius."
"The results indicate that Brits donât think Bush is smart enough to put his right boot on his right foot," said a spokesman for the polling company. "And heâs so clever that he tricked the entire U.N. Security Council into thinking Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who sponsored terror. Heâs a stupid evil genius."
According to the poll, people in the United Kingdom now fear that "Mr. Bush will accidentally trick Prime Minister Tony Blair into doing something even more ingeniously moronic in Iraq."
Posted by: Atrus ||
11/17/2003 10:53:27 AM ||
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"There's a fine line between being clever and stupid."
Deported French terrorist suspect Willie Brigitte has been linked to the most senior echelons of al-Qaeda - one of his associates counted Osama bin Laden and September 11 attack mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed as confidants. News that Brigitte, 35, was in contact with top European al-Qaeda operatives underscores the gravity of the nationâs biggest terrorist scare. A former terrorism adviser to the French Government, Pierre Conesa, said yesterday that Brigitte had been targeted after his name featured on a list of people contacted by two men accused of plotting a fatal synagogue bombing in April 2002 in Tunisia.
One ping is no big deal. Two marks you for a bit more interest...
The men, Christian Ganczarski and Karim Mehdi, were arrested in Paris in June - a month after Brigitte arrived in Australia. Searches of the pairâs phone records, and subsequent interrogations by Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, the same man leading the Brigitte investigation, renewed interest in him.
"Brigitte... Brigitte... Now, where have I heard that name before? LeGume!"
"Yes, Inspector Camembert!"
"Bring me my saxophone!"
Brigitte is believed to have first featured in French intelligence reports in 1999, after he embraced radical Islamic beliefs. "Perhaps he could be very important, or perhaps he is the second-hand logistics guy who was just offering a home for the bigger player," said Mr Conesa. "The terrorist network drags as many as possible into it, so no one knows at the beginning who is in charge of what attack."
But just plotting the contacts on paper can tell you that...
The 2002 bombing of the El Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, killed 21 people. The explosion was triggered by a suicide bomber, Nizar Nawar, who was driving a truck laden with cooking gas canisters. Because French nationals were among the victims, and Nawar had grown up in France, Judge Bruguiere was assigned to the case. Investigators soon established that in the moments before the bombing Nawar phoned two contacts: Ganczarski, 36, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who officials say was the mastermind of the synagogue explosion. During the call to Ganczarski, reportedly intercepted by German intelligence, Nawar was asked by Ganczarski if he needed anything. He replied: "I only need the command!"
I wonder which of them issued the command...
The discovery that Brigitte was part of this network was made when Ganczarskiâs colleague, Karim Mehdi, 34, of Morocco, was arrested on June 1 at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. He confessed to authorities that he was on his way to the French territory of Reunion in the Indian Ocean - on a "reconnaissance mission" with the aim of staging a Bali-style nightclub attack using a booby-trapped vehicle. He named Ganczarski as the organiser of the planned attack. So much for the canard, that the US and its allies only have themselves to blame for the terrorist attacks. Why would they want to attack Reunion, which is under the control of the appeasing French, then?
Two days later, Ganczarski, a Polish convert to Islam from Germany, was arrested, also at Charles de Gaulle airport. He is a computer and telecommunications specialist. After the arrests, the French Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, said Ganczarski was "a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda, in contact with bin Laden himself". Intelligence networks have linked Ganczarski to the Hamburg chapter of al-Qaeda, which spawned Mohamed Atta, a leader of the September 11 hijackings. Mr Conesa said Ganczarskiâs network was investigated and "Brigitte was found to be part of that network". French officials alerted ASIO on September 22 that Brigitte was probably in Australia. At that stage Brigitte was treated as a routine inquiry. Then, on October 7, ASIO took further reports from France, stating Brigitte intended imminent harm and should be apprehended urgently. He was caught on October 9 and interrogated twice by ASIO, then deported on October 17. In the days after news broke of Brigitteâs deportation, and subsequent raids on seven properties and vehicles, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty agreed that Brigitte represented the most serious al-Qaeda link in Australia. "Well, from what we know so far that is true," Mr Keelty said. For the past week, a federal police team has been in Paris, making formal requests to interview Brigitte.
Posted by: tipper. ||
11/17/2003 10:28:41 AM ||
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I would question the level of trust that al-Qaeda would hold for a convert. Someone who changed belief structures once, could change again.
However, they appear to put some converts - like the "shoe bomber" - on the suicide front line.
As I was saying yesterday...
The names of the suicide bombers who carried out Saturday morning's terror attacks on two Istanbul synagogues that killed 24 people were revealed on Monday night, Israel Radio reported. At least one of the two men who carried out the dual bombings, Masoud Shabok and Azzad Akinji, had spent an extended period of time in Iran undergoing bomb training, a Turkish TV report claimed Monday.
Iran? Y'mean where Saif al-Adel and Sod bin Laden are hanging out? And where Mugniyeh hangs his turban? And Zarqawi?
Despite these press reports, the Turkish interior minister insisted final identification of the bomber's bodies was still incomplete.
"Nope. Nope. Let's not jump to conclusions!
"The identities of the bodies have not been determined yet," Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu told The Associated Press in a telephone
interview. "These investigations cannot be done publicly. They have to be done in great secrecy, otherwise no result will be achieved," he said.
Will you let us know when you've bumped off their controllers?
Aksu said an official announcement on the identities may be made Tuesday. Al Jazeera television news reported that Shabok and Akinji were associated with a small, Islamic extremist organization in Turkey called the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders Front (known by its Turkish acronym IBDA-C). Earlier, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said DNA tests on the suspected drivers, which could establish identities or at least nationalities, were expected to be ready on Tuesday. Earlier Turkish news reports said police had been questioning a Turk believed to be the brother of one of the drivers. The man questioned was brought to Istanbul from southeastern Turkey for questioning because one of the pickups had been purchased using documentation belonging to him. NTV said DNA testing on the suspected suicide driver's remains and on the brother indicated they were related, helping to identify the driver as a Turk. NTV, without citing sources, said the driver had traveled six times to Iran for bomb training. He was suspected, along with the other suicide driver, of having links with the al-Qaida terrorist network, NTV said. Earlier the same TV station had reported that police found pieces of a Turkish passport and a Pakistani passport that were believed to belong to the attackers. NTV did not explain why it said both drivers were Turks even though one of them purportedly had a Pakistani passport.
It's tradition. I think when you explode, they make you an honorary Pakistani. Kinda backs up my theory that the Great Eastern Raiders are subcontracting to al-Qaeda, doesn't it? Birds of a feather, and all. And I'll bet Zarqawi's the pivot guy.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/17/2003 17:26 ||
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"And I'll bet Zarqawi's the pivot guy."
Isn't he always these days? The man has more shadowy ties than SPECTRE and more sinister plans than Cobra Commander.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/17/2003 17:31 Comments ||
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#2
Could he actually be... Voldemort?
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2003 20:01 Comments ||
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French anti-terrorism police took 13 people into custody Monday in a sweep against Islamic militants in the Paris region, police said. The suspects were detained in several locations in and around Paris and several thousand dollars were seized, police said. For weeks, French police have been working to crack a counterfeiting network that uses its proceeds to finance the Islamic militant movement. The Monday raids were the result of an intelligence-sharing operation with Italian authorities. Itâs nice to share.
Investigators said the 13 people taken into custody were believed to be members of the Takfir movement, a Sunni sect of Egyptian origin that preaches a radical form of Islam. Who doesnât?
The movementâs main presence is in Algeria, Egypt and Lebanon. The suspects can be held for up to 96 hours without being placed under investigation, as provided under French anti-terrorism law. No further details were immediately available.
The Takfiri are the guys that tried to bump of bin Laden when he was in Sudan — for not being Islamic enough.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/17/2003 4:28:56 PM ||
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The suspects can be held for up to 96 hours without being placed under investigation
In other words, this is all window dressing so that it looks like they're 'doing something' about those synagogues that are bursting into flames.
#2
It is not window dressing, it is the law (one made dozens of years ago, well before Khomeini): people can be interrogated for 24 hours, after that they have to be released or the police has to present them to a judge. In drug and terrorism cases delay is longer: four days for terrorism, for drugs I don't remember if it is two days or four dayts.
#3
Takfir was not on my radar screen, but it was on Fred's. Here is an item from Fred's comments on the Rumsfeld memo from 10/22:
We also have to recognize the unity of terrorism, both as an Islamist phenomenon which include Chechnya and the Takfir wal-Hijra killers as well as Qaeda and the Palestinian structure that's fostered by Iran; and as a mindset that includes everything from the IRA to Colombian drug runners.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/17/2003 16:51 Comments ||
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Jpost; reg. reqâd
"When a Jew is aggressed, France altogether is aggressed," said Franceâs President Jacques Chirac. "For centuries and centuries, our Jewish co-citizens are here at home. I want to solemnly condemn in the name of the Nation all anti-Semitic action." Chirac added that anti-Semitism was not in accordance with the traditions of the Republic. Right before his lips fell off.
Two days after arsonists torched a Jewish secondary school near Paris, Jacques Chirac hurried to convene a special restrained cabinet meeting "to fight racism and anti-Semitism in France". "The President insisted upon chairing in person this meeting to remind that the Republicâs basic values cannot tolerate racism or anti-Semitism," said Franceâs Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Then his legs shrank.
Jacques Chirac asked his Prime minister to set up an interdepartmental commission that will convene on a monthly basis, "to take stock of the actions recognized as anti-Semitic actions throughout the country and of the necessary repression of this evil. We have mobilized means for the security of places of worship and of study. We will also act to reinforce the penal actions, to impose the heaviest sentences so that we can clamp down as is right and proper on all those who carry this evil: anti-Semitism or racism," said Raffarin. Then his nose grew.
A targeted action will be lead in the French state schools "to improve the understanding of living-together," added Raffarin. He was then distracted for a moment as his harp bent and a string broke.
Following the restrained cabinet meeting, President Chirac told a delegation of French Jewish leaders about the decisions taken to toughen the struggle against anti-Semitism. Then he turned into a pillar of salt and could say no more.
According to figures released by the French presidential palace, 2003 showed a marked decrease in the number of anti-Semitic acts (172 anti-Semitic acts from January to August 2002, 72 for the corresponding period in 2003; 647 anti-Semitic threats from January to August 2002 against 247 for this period in 2003). "These are encouraging figures which strengthen the determination of the French authorities in pursuing their policy of zero tolerance" according to the official document.
#3
Jacques Chirac asked his Prime minister to set up an interdepartmental commission that will convene on a monthly basis, "to take stock of the actions recognized as anti-Semitic actions throughout the country and of the necessary repression of this evil. We have mobilized means for the security of places of worship and of study. We will also act to reinforce the penal actions, to impose the heaviest sentences so that we can clamp down as is right and proper on all those who carry this evil: anti-Semitism or racism," said Raffarin.
#4
According to figures released by the French presidential palace, 2003 showed a marked decrease in the number of anti-Semitic acts (172 anti-Semitic acts from January to August 2002, 72 for the corresponding period in 2003; 647 anti-Semitic threats from January to August 2002 against 247 for this period in 2003). "These are encouraging figures which strengthen the determination of the French authorities in pursuing their policy of zero tolerance" according to the official document.
You would think that the degree of violence associated with each incident would make a difference to any moron not mezmorized by a graph.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/17/2003 17:00 Comments ||
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Link via Damian Penny. EFL George Galloway suffered a fresh blow yesterday when the Charity Commission announced it was extending its inquiry into his Mariam Appeal. Originally the commission was investigating how the appeal spent its money in the 12 months after it was launched in 1998. But now the inquiry will cover the spending of appeal funds over a five-year period, from 1998 until it was wound up this year. The Mariam Appeal was never a registered charity. But the commission has the power to investigate organisations which raise money on an apparently charitable basis. If it rules that "charitable" funds were misused, it could freeze bank accounts or go to court to recover funds. The commission, which started its inquiry into the Mariam Appeal following a complaint from Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, is not expected to complete its investigation until next year. Attention was focused on the Mariam Appeal after The Daily Telegraph carried reports in April based on documents found in the Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad purporting to show that Mr Galloway received money from Saddam Husseinâs regime. Mr Galloway, MP for Glasgow Kelvin, has denied being paid by Saddam and is suing The Daily Telegraph for libel. Follow the money.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
11/17/2003 11:52:56 AM ||
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Germany has extradited two Yemenis to the United States on charges that they supported the al-Qaeda network. The two men were handed over to the US authorities on Sunday and flown to New York, German prosecutors said. The move came after Germanyâs highest court ruled last week that the men could expect a fair trial in the US. A fair trial and no death penalty, I expect.
The US believes Yemeni cleric Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad and his alleged assistant, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, raised funds for al-Qaeda. However, Washington has not linked them directly with the 11 September 2001 attacks. Not every al-Q member was involved in 9-11, for Gods sake. They still need to be rolled up.
They were arrested in Germany in January following a request by the US. Thanks, weâll take good care of them.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/17/2003 9:40:46 AM ||
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These are some of the major headlines and their brief stories in Turkeyâs press on November 17, 2003. EFL: HERE ARE FIRST CLUES
Information regarding the bomb attacks on two synagogues of Istanbul started to become clear. Due to first clues, the assailants were from the Middle East and those who helped them were Turkish. The security camera of Neve Shalom synagogue showed the image of the terrorist who staged the suicide attack in a red lorry. The assailant who died in the bombing is believed to be an Arab. Police believe that those who helped the organization of the bomb attacks were Turkish. The two lorries were bought second handed and they were registered on Turkish citizens. This sounds about right, the boomers are imported islamic cannon fodder with local support. Sounds like they made the same mistake with the trucks as they did in Bali and other locations, locals bought them and thought they couldnât be traced when they blew up.
TURKEY IS OUR HOME, WE WILL NEVER LEAVE HERE
A Turkish citizen of Jewish origin gave the most meaningful response to terrorists who caused bloodshed in Istanbul by staging bomb attacks on two synagogues. Yusuf Habib Gerez, 77, said that ââI will not leave Turkey even if they launch bombings for million times. Here is our home and it will always be so.ââ The words of Gerez were covered by Los Angeles Times newspaper of the U.S.
ANTI-TERRORISM TEAM OF U.S. COMES TO ANKARA
A special team came from the U.S. to investigate the connections of terrorist organizations Al Qaeda and Hamas in Turkey. The U.S. delegationâs official agenda is to have contacts about ââfreezing of assets to prevent financing terrorism and black money laundering and meeting with prosecutors and judges who are specialized in such cases.ââ FBI or Treasury Department, paper trails our speciality.
TWO ACTIVISTS DETERMINED
Police determined two activists who participated in fight voluntarily in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Chechnya. Security forces detained relatives of those persons. It was thought that two suspects had connection with Islamic terrorist organizations. Police reached important evidences from licenses of two trucks which were used in bomb attacks on two synagogues in Sisli and Beyoglu. If they went to fight in Chechnya, they most likely had al-Qaeda travel agents. See what I meant about the trucks?
CHIEF RABBI IN TURKEY ASKS PRIME MINISTER ERDOGAN A SAFE PLACE FOR SYNAGOGUE
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Ishak Haleva, the Chief Rabbi in Turkey, and expressed condolences over people who died in bomb attacks on two synagogues in Istanbul. Haleva asked Erdogan a new synagogue to be built in a safer place. Erdogan welcomed the offer and Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu gave an instruction that necessary support would be made within the scope of the laws. Murat was correct, Rabbi Haleva wants a new synagogue that has better security. Need space around it for blast protection. Works for me, the US has built new embassies for the same reason.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/17/2003 9:22:50 AM ||
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Thank you Steve,
A must for Bulldog to read!
Posted by: Murat ||
11/17/2003 9:28 Comments ||
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#2
The words of Gerez were covered by Los Angeles Times newspaper of the U.S.
in all likelihood then, he never said anything of the sort
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/17/2003 10:02 Comments ||
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#3
The Rabbi asked for the new synagogue to be built in a safer place. Murat wants to raze the other 16 to make sure the Jews know their place are safe.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/17/2003 10:05 Comments ||
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#4
I watched a program on the news the other night about the Jewish Turks. Apparently out of the ME, the Jews in Turkey have the best relations w/Muslims inside their country. As Turkey is possibly the most secular of the ME countries & has the closest ties w/Israel out of any Muslim majority nation. I think if the Jewish leaders of Turkey want to move their Synagogues in order to 'harden' them up against terror attacks in order to protect their congregations and civilians in the area - then good. However, they should not be 'forced' to move. Time will tell.
#5
In Turkey Jews and Muslims go well and have very friendly relations, actually it is not because Turkey is secular but because Turkey is not Arab, Turks and Jews have never had quarrel. The first Jews who got sanctuary in Turkey, where in the inquisition times around 1600BC, when Jews fled the Christian inquisition in Spain. They got sanctuary and land from the Sultan who was also the Caliphe.
The second time was during WW2 when thousands of Jews fled Hitlers armies, I remember well while I was a little kid there where Jewish neighbourhoods in my town, later most of them moved to Israel and the US.
Posted by: Murat ||
11/17/2003 11:02 Comments ||
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#6
For a long time researchers in ancient Spanish went to... Turkey since Turkish Jews were the only people in world who spoke Spanish like in 1492.
But I heard of a Sultan who used to kill any Jew he met after sunset (he also did this to Christians so he was not anti-semitic :-).
I disagree with Murat about the lack of relationship between Turkey's lack of antisemitism and secularity: many of Mustafa Kemal's reforms reflect a will of reducing Arab influence in Turkey. I really think he was not fond of them. It was logical for his successors to adopt a policy of "the ennemy of my ennemy is my friend" and keep good relations, even military cooperation, with Israel.
Disclaimer: France is a shitty place to learn about Mustafa Kemal, specially if you don't speak a word of Turkish.
#7
Most places are.I think that's because we're always more interested in what's nearest. I know much more about American and English history than I do about French history, and I had lotsa trouble finding books on the Holy Roman Empire. Until I started studying Russian, I knew next to nothing about Russian history, and it's only through purposeful reading that I know anything about Arab, Persian, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Southeast Asian history.
I do know enough about Turkish history to recall that many of the sultans were pretty loopy. It probably came from growing up secluded, but with the knowledge that if you weren't the next sultan you were going to be culled when Pop died. They disposed of potential rivals by having them strangled.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2003 20:37 Comments ||
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Paging Murat ELF -
An obscure terrorist group we big men now linked to Al Qaeda took responsibility on Sunday for the twin truck bombings at two synagogues that killed 23 people and wounded more than 300 here on Saturday. Turkish officials said they had evidence that suicide drivers had carried out the blasts. The claim of responsibility was conveyed by Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor of Al-Quds al-Arabi, a London-based Arabic newspaper, in an interview with the Arabic satellite station Al Jazeera. Mr. Atwan said the terrorist group, known as the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, had made the claim by e-mail. The group has been linked with Al Qaeda in the past. While it was impossible Sunday night to confirm any role by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades in the synagogue attacks, the speedy claim of responsibility by a non-Turkish group supported the contention by Turkish officials that the bombings were the work of foreign terrorists, whoâd a thunk it?
possibly from Al Qaeda, rather than any homegrown organization.
Posted by: Spot ||
11/17/2003 9:21:26 AM ||
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Update: Neve Shalom's security cameras caught one of the attackers moments before the blast, he said. "He is in the footage, although it is not clear. We are trying to establish their identities... It is also not clear whether they were Turkish citizens or foreigners." The Turkish authorities have also said that closed-circuit television at each synagogue filmed the licence plates of both vehicles. Their owners have been traced and are being questioned, although they have denied any involvement in the attacks.
Better have filed that stolen vehicle report well before the blast, guys.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/17/2003 9:30 Comments ||
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#2
I am really surprised that this hasn't happened sooner. Turkey beside being part of NATO and (notwithstanding its new passive Islamist government)a stalwart military partner of US, is also Israel's best friend next to us. In Israel, the new terminal at Ben-Gurion was built
by a JV of Israeli-Turkish contractors. Since the Paleostinians are restricted from working freely in Israel since Infitada a lot of the skilled construction and other people are from Turkey. This could be another "backlash" episode for AQ. Like Texas, I wouldn't want to mess with Turkey!
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
11/17/2003 11:01 Comments ||
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EFL & Canadian Bias. [Gay] PARIS - French and Italian leaders are holding urgent meetings with members of the Jewish community Monday to discuss what many say is rising anti-Semitism in Europe. At least the Italians are there.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will discuss anti-Semitism in his three-day series of meetings with Italian leaders in Italy, including Silvio Berlusconi â the current president of the European Union. Berlusconi is one the few European leaders with any testosterone.
The meetings come in the wake of the truck bomb attacks on two Istanbul synagogues that murdered killed 23 innocent Jews people and injured more than 300 on Saturday. French Jewish schools, temples and cemeteries have been hit in a series of anti-Semitic attacks. Last year, a Marseille synagogue was burned to the ground. No one was injured in the recent attack against the Jewish boys school. Here is money quote:
Many all of the attacks have been blamed on radical extremists Muslim youth angry at the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Blamed? ...on angry Mulsim youth? Poor misguided children just acting out their frustrations? No bias here.
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
11/17/2003 8:16:50 AM ||
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poor, angry yoots. I guess this Canadian wants us to see that bombing synagogues is not all that different than cherry bombs in the mailbox. Just a greater scale to express their greater level of anger - right? Not to mention, of course, the greater level of international terrorist funding and organization. Other than that, it's all pretty much the same.
President Chirac has called an urgent meeting of senior ministers for today to discuss growing anti-Semitism in France after an arson attack against a Jewish school in a Paris suburb. Prosecutors in Gagny have launched a criminal investigation into the attack on an orthodox Jewish school in the early hours of Saturday. In a statement within hours, M Chirac said: "The French will not tolerate any acts of anti-Semitism and schools especially should be places of tolerance and respect." The fire in Gagny destroyed most of a private school for boys run by the orthodox Merkaz Hatorah association. It is the latest in a series of attacks on French Jews. In the first 10 months of last year there were 184 attacks against Jewish property and 685 against Jewish people in France. There was another brief upsurge in attacks during the invasion of Iraq. Previous French governments, however, have been loath to characterise attacks against Jews as anti-Semitic, preferring to bury them among the rest of the crime statistics. There was also doubt whether the perpetrators were fascists or Islamic extremists who are suspected in most of the recent attacks.
There's a difference? Oh. That's right. The turbans...
The present government, however, has belatedly adopted a new attitude, toughening sentences for hate crimes. Visiting Gagny on Saturday, Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister, said: "We must use the words anti-Semitism. Honesty is not denying the evidence. When people set fire to a Jewish school, itâs hard for me not to think that itâs an act of anti-Semitism."
Posted by: Bulldog ||
11/17/2003 5:02:22 AM ||
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Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister, said: "We must use the words anti-Semitism. Honesty is not denying the evidence. When people set fire to a Jewish school, itâs hard for me not to think that itâs an act of anti-Semitism."
Hmm. Isn't he one of the guys who was "denying the evidence" for the last couple of years?
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
11/17/2003 5:09 Comments ||
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well if he can change when the evidence is in his face, thats better than nothing.
"Hmm. Isn't he one of the guys who was "denying the evidence" for the last couple of years?"
The answer is No. Until May 2002 Sarkozi was in the opposition and even in the interior of opposition his status was shaky (in part for siding with Balladur in 1995, in part for having dumped Chirac's closest councellor: his daughter).
Sarkozi is son of a Hungarian who fled Hungary in 1956 and AFAIK believes in things like rule of law.
Beebs rehashes yesterday's al-Jizz report...
Turkish officials are investigating claims that the al-Qaeda network carried out Saturdayâs attacks against synagogues in Istanbul. On Sunday the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Quds said it had received a statement from al-Qaeda in an email. It said the group targeted the synagogues because Israeli agents were working there, Al-Quds Editor Abdel-Bari Atwan told the BBC. At least 23 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in the bombings. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to call a cabinet meeting on Monday to discuss the attacks. "Our security teams, our intelligence services have to work to determine the extent of truth of the claims," he said.
On Sunday Mr Atwan told the Arabic satellite TV channel al-Jazeera that the statement was from an al-Qaeda division called Brigades of the Martyr Abu Hafs al-Masri. That division had claimed responsibility for the attack on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad - which killed 23 people in August. Analysts say it may be impossible independently to confirm that the latest statement comes from al-Qaeda. An earlier claim to the attacks was made by a Turkish group called the Islamic Front of Raiders of the Great Orient. But the BBCâs Richard Galpin in Istanbul says Turkey was quick to point the finger at international radical groups. The level of sophistication required to carry out the attacks was beyond any local organisation, our correspondent says.
The bombs, which went off minutes apart outside synagogues in the districts of Beyoglu and Sisli, badly damaged both buildings and scattered wreckage over a wide area. According to Turkish media reports, the attacks were caused by suicide bombers driving two trucks, each loaded with 400 kilograms of explosives. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom visited the bombed synagogues, accompanied by the mayor of Istanbul and the cityâs chief rabbi. He laid wreaths at the sites as Turks threw down white carnations in a sign of condolence. Our correspondent says his visit was clearly intended to signal that Israel and Turkey would co-operate closely in the aftermath of the bombings. Most of those killed in the attacks were Muslim Turks, who lived, worked or were passing by the synagogues when the explosions occurred. Six Jews were also among the dead. Apart from the bombing and the blame on terror, it is time to question also the security measures that need to be tightened, take such precautions that suicide bombings on synagogues wonât be possible anymore. In Istanbul there are 17 synagogues, these synagogues should be closed and be replaced by 3 or 4 new bigger ones outside residential areas with a security wall around it. Itâs a shame that religious temples are still targets in the 21st century
Posted by: Murat ||
11/17/2003 3:21:34 AM ||
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Murat, how new of a phenomenon is car-bombing in Turkey? I've read of previous terrorist attacks, but I don't recall any of them involving this particular procedure.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
11/17/2003 3:29 Comments ||
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Well car bombing in this scale is new, two small trucks of the type Isuzu have been used each with an estimated 400Kg of explosives. Previous car bombs be it perpetrated by the mafia of terrorists where aimed to blow up and kill the driver. But suicide bombing is not new, in the nineties more than 20 suicide attacks have occurred, the PKK used women disguised as pregnant women wrapped with explosives.
Posted by: Murat ||
11/17/2003 3:56 Comments ||
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#3
In Istanbul there are 17 synagogues, these synagogues should be closed and be replaced by 3 or 4 new bigger ones outside residential areas with a security wall around it.
Nope. You think Istanbul's (and presumably also Ankara's, Izmir's, Adana's... ) population should have their lives dictated by terrorists, Murat? That kind of pre-emptive surrender is precicely what encourages further acts of terror. I hope your answer to the problem isn't a generally held one in Turkey, that the Jews should be sent outside the city walls, because this is appeasement if ever I heard it.
#4
population should have their lives dictated by terrorists. I hope your answer to the problem isn't a generally held one in Turkey, that the Jews should be sent outside the city walls,
No Bulldog thatâs not what I meant, banning Jews outside the city walls. But something should be done to the safety, most of the Synagogues in Istanbul are very old and in the middle of what has become residential area. There are a lot of squares in the middle of the Istanbul, which is twice or triple the size of London where better security measures can be taken. Also the buildings could be build stronger, I donât see that as a surrender to terror.
Posted by: Murat ||
11/17/2003 4:53 Comments ||
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It is. You are proposing doing the terrorists' work for them - reducing the Jewish presence in Turkey. The next logical step would appear to me to be ghettoization: what happens if (and it's a dodgy if - I think isolated fortress synagogues would be an invitation to al Qaeda as much as a challenge) the next targets are Jewish residences, shops or businesses in Istanbul?
The answer is not to effectively punish the targets for having been targetted, but to chase after those murderers who set out to kill them. You've got it all back-to-front, Murat, and what you want to see is at best a lazy short-term solution to the problem, but effectively a concession that the Turkish authorities are unable or unwilling to defend Jewish Turkish citizens from attack. Shake off that bunker mentality.
What the heck are you talking about, the Jewish population are living 500 years with us and that wonât change they are as Turkish as I am. Fighting terror is not done only by chasing the terrorist but also by preventive measures. Do you fight fire only when it occurs or do you take all the necessary precautions? Fighting fire is not just only done by fire fighters but also a fire secure building etc.etc. The same counts for synagogues, at least in Istanbul, these need much more secure locations than the current ones. Not only for the Jewish community but also for every citizen of Istanbul.
Posted by: Murat ||
11/17/2003 6:26 Comments ||
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What you're advocating is demolishing all synagogues in residential areas, and reconstructing a handful in isolated area away from the general poopulation. If that's not a "reduction in Jewish presence", I don't know what is. Would you object to all mosques in residential areas being demolished and a far smaller nukber built in isolated areas to replace them, if some minority group decided to bomb them? Turkey ought to be proud of its Jewish community, but if you're really prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with them, you shouldn't be trying to push them away.
Do you fight fire only when it occurs or do you take all the necessary precautions?
Another misplaced fire analogy?! This is more like "arson" than "fire", in that it's a human activity not a force of nature. If your house is at risk of arson, you take sensible precautions, but you only move out if you think your precautions are wasted because the authorities and your neighbours are not going to help protect you.
Not only for the Jewish community but also for every citizen of Istanbul.
Particularly because the majority of victims were in fact Muslims, right? I suspect you'd be less vocal in your enthusiam for tearing down the local synagogues had the victims exclusively been Jews. Am I right?
#8
No you are wrong in you misplaced perception of Turkish Jews. : "A million bombs cannot drive us Jews out of here," said Josef Habib Gerez, a 77-year-old painter in Istanbul's Galata neighborhood, home to Neve Shalom, the city's largest synagogue.
"This is our home and so it shall remain," he said, shaking his fist in anger.
Jewish religious leaders were said to have been so impressed by their reception that, according to historical accounts, one rabbi, Yitzhak Sarfati, wrote back to his congregation: "If you listen to me, the road to Turkey is the road of life. Do not dally, but come to this place of comfort. Here everyone lives happily and peacefully in the shade of his own vine and fig tree."
I am advocating more security, it is a crime to humanity to target temples but it is a shameful fact, synagogues nowadays need more protection and security, and rebuilding them at more secure locations with security walls in its perimeter is better than ignoring the facts. If mosques in Britain where threatened I would advocate the same, security and human lives come first. By the way what makes you believe I am very religious, I believe in God/Allah just enought not to be an atheist, but for the rest I am not a practicing muslim FYI, Jew vs Muslim has nothing to do with my views here.
Posted by: Murat ||
11/17/2003 7:05 Comments ||
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#9
I didn't assume you were very religious, Murat. You wouldn't have to be very religious to realise that as a non-Jew, you're unlikely to be intentionally targetted by bombers who are (presently) after Jews. I'd expect some of the Muslims, Christians, atheists, agnositics, White Wizards and Moon-worshipers of Istanbul to argue that Jewish terror targets be moved as far away from them as possible in these circumstances. You can call it being a NIMBY if you like.
#10
...as a non-Jew, you're unlikely to be intentionally targetted by bombers...
Although I'd add these bombers were well aware that non-Jews would be killed. I think they wanted to divide Turkish society just as much as they wanted to kill Jews, and an attitude like yours is helping them do just that.
#11
Moving Jewish targets as far as possible is not the case here Bulldog, but moving them out of dense shopping and living residences should be. The Neve Shalom blast caused 24 death and 303 injured because in 5 streets both sides of the blast buildings where damaged, windows shattered and the glass raining down on the passing pedestrians, newer modern and more beautiful Synagogues could be build in less dense parts of the city where you can create also better parking facilities, thatâs not something negative, by the way it is also the wish of the chief Rabbi who asked the help of the city council and prime minister Erdogan for that.
Posted by: Murat ||
11/17/2003 8:17 Comments ||
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#12
Sure, Murat -- the Jews in Turkey are just as much Turks as you are. That's why you want to destroy all of their existing synagogues and force them to places where future antisemitic attacks won't kill as many Muslims.
No, you couldn't advocate doing something useful, like, say, digging out the fanatics who did this, or discrediting the Islamist movement in Turkey. Nope; the problem is that the Jews are in the wrong place.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/17/2003 9:03 Comments ||
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#13
Of all the responses to this article, my suprise meter doesn't budge that he says 'Move the Jews' as opposed to 'stop the Islamic hate'. Whatever. Murat's never had any credibility anyways.
First I don't see this as an attack on Jews, but as an attack on Turkey and be sure that everything is done to catch the bastards who have done this. Years ago a lunatic made also a housemade bomb which ripped down halve of a building killing 80 people in the USA if I remember well, does anybody know what kind of bomb that was. The bombs used in Istanbul seem to be an housemade mixture too.
Posted by: Murat ||
11/17/2003 9:20 Comments ||
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#15
And Swiggles,
Who says Islamists have bombed Istanbul, as far as it is known investigations still continue, you are making assumptions. Some terror groups have claimed the bombings but no firm clues have be materialized yet.
Posted by: Murat ||
11/17/2003 9:25 Comments ||
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#16
Murat, if you don't see it "as an attack on Jews", why have you put forward moving them as your solution? What about dealing with the terrorists?! Why do you accept that Jews are going to be attacked?
BTW -- the 1993 WTC bomb was "homemade". Those involved were definitely Islamists, possibly connected to al'Qaeda and/or Iraq. The type of explosive means nothing.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/17/2003 10:03 Comments ||
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#17
Who says Islamists have bombed Istanbul
You're right; there's a good chance it was a Unitarian splinter group. Or maybe a radical group of urban planners.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/17/2003 10:16 Comments ||
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#18
"newer modern and more beautiful Synagogues could be build in less dense parts of the city where you can create also better parking facilities, thatâs not something nega"
IIUC all of Istanbuls synagogues are at least nominally Orthodox. They have to at least theoritically be within walking distance of the centers of the communities they serve, since Orthodox Judaism bans driving on the Sabbath.
I dont know, but it may the case that the several synagogues serve different community traditions (IIRC Istanbul Jews include communities tracing their roots to various parts of the Balkans, among other distinctions) So consolidating would be a difficult thing.
Better security is a good thing, and certainly necessary, but if it involves large scale consolidation and movement that may bring into question whether Istanbul is genuinely a safe place for Jews. Elderly Jews like the one quoted may stay, but you dont renew a community with the elderly alone. Im not saying not to improve security, but if you really want to preserve Turkeys historic Jewish community, elimination the terrorists is a better course by far.
In any case, as Murat says, this is an attack on TURKEY. If, as is likely the case, it was AQ, it was probably motivated largely by the nature of Turkish society, which is a threat and an insult to the Jihadists. (not to mention continuing resentment over the abolition of the caliphate) You cant move all vulnerable TURKISH targets out to safer locations - what you have to do is fight the perpetrators.
Good luck to Turkey in doing so. Methings AQ has picked the wrong people to mess with this time.
#22
Murat, I get the reference to the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, OK? I was point out that, yes, Islamists use homebrew explosives.
The odds that this wasn't done by Islamists is virtually nil; any reasonable evaluation of the events comes to that conclusion.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/17/2003 10:54 Comments ||
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#23
I have a feeling this was AQ lashing out. Unfortunately for them, Turkey is probably wrong target to f*ck with. From what I've gathered, as the Turks are not Arabs and are much more secular then the other ME countries. Couple that w/having good relations to the Israelis & Jewish Turks, this is indeed an attack on all Turkish citizens in their view. The aim was causing disension between the Jews and Muslims but I believe from what I've read that this will back fire on the terrorists. The Turks don't want some outside foreign jihadi assholes telling them how to run their country.
My condolences to all victims & their families. I pray the cowards responsible are dealt with in a most servere and inhumane manner.
#24
Fortunately, I think most Turks have more backbone than Murat. Rather than allow the terrorists to push them around and dictate who they can and can not safely associate with...or where they can place buildings deemed unfit...they will stand up and fight back. Murat's suggestion to move the synagogues proves he is a wussy.
Posted by: B ||
11/17/2003 12:08 Comments ||
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#25
Islamic murderers targeted the synagogues for a specific reason. To make people uncomfortable with Jews in their neighborhoods. Murat is falling for it. Of course, like it's only natural, the Jews need to be treated differently. They bring the rath of allah. Man, Islam is sick.
#26
Exactly, Oklahoma city, OK I am not saying it is not done by radical terrorists of Islamic faith (although these people cannot have any fate), it is not a fact yet, all possibilities have to be checked.
Murat, you're hearing thundering hooves and expecting zebras.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/17/2003 13:29 Comments ||
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#27
Bulldog and others:
Please, cut Murat some slack: he is a reflexive antiamerican (probably contaminated by too much leftist propaganda, very common even in right wing people). However he sounds like a nationalistic Turk not an islamist: he speaks positively of Ataturk who dissolved Caliphate, secularized Turkey and is hated by people who have sympathies for Al Quaida.
#28
You know, some days people here are reasonable people, but other days, I end up getting rather annoyed at people jumping down others' throats. Whether or not you agree with everything someone (in this case Murat) says, the points you disagree with could surely be debated without rudeness and namecalling. Of course, this was a much better bunch of arguments than some others I have seen here. There are times for namecalling of course, IMHO, such as obvious trolls who don't want to discuss anything reasonably and don't provide accurate facts, but with most others, I think we could all use just a little more levelheadedness in responses. And possibly, (I may be stretching it here) not as much stereotyping of Murat et al.'s views given that we only see some of what they believe, and we tend to see only what we want to see at that time.
Posted by: S ||
11/17/2003 22:43 Comments ||
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Law-enforcement agencies were on high alert to counter any militant backlash on Sunday after launching a nationwide crackdown on three militant outfits the previous night to stop them from resuming their activities under new names. Though offices of the Tehrik-e-Islami Pakistan (TIP), Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan (MIP), and Khuddam-ul-Islam (KI) were sealed across the country, no prominent leader of the three banned organisations was arrested. How oddly convenient, I predict that the Jihadi leaders will stay in ISI safehouses underground for a while, before reemerging after some of the international heat has died down. They will probably announce the creation of new Jihadi outfits, but it wonât be carried by anyone other than the Pak press.
Dozens of offices of the three organisations were sealed in Sialkot, Daska, Mundeyki, Goraya, Bhopalwala, Sambrial, Uggoki, Pasrur, Chawinda, Badiana, Shakargarh, Zafarwal, Baddomalhi, Narowal and during the crackdown. PPI quoted sources as saying that several activists of the outlawed organisations were arrested. Meanwhile, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa Pakistan has closed down its camps in Sialkot and Narowal districts opened to collect zakat for the heirs of deceased militants. Workers of the banned outfits have gone into hiding fearing arrest, Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil told AFP. I wonder if this was the result of the Jihadis openly holding conferences in order to attract donations as reported a couple weeks ago? It wouldnât be the first time that the Pak government has had to move quickly after the local press has reported on an âunpleasantâ story. The last time I remember was when The Herald reported that Dawood Ibrahim was living safely in a posh residence in Karachi, after that he had to be moved to a different safehouse.
âThey (militants) are on the run fearing arrests, but some of them can retaliate and we are alert for any such situation,â Jamil said. âSo far there is no order to arrest them unless they try to resume their activities.â Karachi police sealed 15 offices of the three organisations and put Jamaat-ud-Dawa on a watch list under the Anti Terrorist Act, Jamil said. Offices of the three organisations were also shut down in Nawab Shah, Larkana and Naushehro Feroz districts. Jamaat-ud-Dawa is the new name of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, declared a terrorist outfit by the US gov 2 years ago. More
Four more militant groups including two Muslim charities are likely to be banned soon, Daily Times learnt on Sunday. The groups facing a ban are Jamaatul Furqan (JF), a breakaway faction of the Tehrik-e-Kuddamul Islam (TKI), Jamaatul Ansar (JA), the new name of Harkatul Mujahideen, Al Rasheed Trust and Al Akhtar Trust. Sources said these groups are working openly in Pakistan. âMost of their publications were banned in March 2002, but they resurfaced with new names, whereas others did not follow the instructions and continued publication,â he said.
A little trouble with followup?
The JF came into existence on September 25 and is led by Commander Abdul Jabbar, Maulana Abdullah Shah Mazhar and Commander Umer Farooq. The JFâs Chief Commander Jabbar is facing charges for an attack on churches and Christian missionaries in Pakistan. The JF has been actively engaged in raising funds during the last two months and in establishing new offices in Pakistan. The only reason beyond itâs split from the Jaish seems to be a dispute over funds.
The JA was not banned by the government but it was the first Pakistani jihadi outfit which the US declared a terrorist organisation in October 2001 and the Government of Pakistan froze its assets in November 2001. Sources said despite pressure from the US the Pakistan government refused to ban Hizbul Mujahideen, Al Badr Mujahideen and Jamaatul Mujahideen. JA aka Harkat ul Mujahideen used to be the biggest Pak Jihadi outfit, and was extremely close to al Qaeda and the Taliban, but after it was connected to the kidnapping and murder of 5 western tourists in Kashmir, the Jaish-e-Mohammad was âengineeredâ, taking with it around 75% of the Harkatâs membership.
Sources said the publications to be banned include TKIâs fortnightly Shamsheer (Hyderabad), monthly Banat-e-Aisha (Karachi), JDâs weekly Ghazwa Times, Majalla Al Daawa, Voice of Islam (English), Al Rihat (Arabic), Zerb-e-Taiba (Lahore), Al Badrâs Al Babar (Karachi), Jamaitul Mujahideenâs Al Masood (Muzaffarabad/ Karachi), Jamaitul Ansarâs Al Hilal (Islamabad/ Karachi), Tehrikul Mujahideenâs Shahadat(Srinagar/Muzaffarabad/Islamabad), Hizbul Mujahideenâs Jihad-e-Kashmir (Muzaffarabad), Al Rasheed Trustâs Zerb-e-Momin (Karachi), Islami Akhbar and JFâs Tadbeer-e-Nao (Lahore). The Jihadi press in Pakistan has a readership approximately equal to the mainstream Urdu press, and more than ten times the local English press. It also is full of insane fantasies and represents a view of the world than no one else would recognise.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
11/17/2003 1:46:55 AM ||
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The Ummah is in trouble because it lacks a unifying head, or caliph, according to speakers at a Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) seminar on âWalayia Khilafahâ held here on Sunday. The seminar was part of a series being held all over the world to raise awareness about the caliphate system. In Lahore, the seminar heard a tape of HT chief Ata Abu Rushdaâs speech, in which he urged Muslims to fight for the establishment of a caliphate. âIn Kashmir, Chechnya, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world Muslims are going through a painful period. It could end if they establish their own caliphate which would protect their rights,â he said. Hizb ut Tahrir has never been to popular in Pakistan, there are plenty of other larger, older, and more impressive Islamist outfits in the country; and the organisation generally does best in places where Muslims have little knowledge of their own religion, such as Europe and Central Asia, because HT has some unorthodox ideas. In some ways it seems Communist influenced, and it doesnât show much respect for Mullahs, so it gets little respect in return from the major Islamist Mullahs of the world.
Dr Abdul Qayum said a caliphate is the only alternative to the âbrutal system of imperialismâ. âUnder a caliphate, feudalism in Pakistan would be abolished because no one can hold land for more than three year without cropping it according to Islamic laws,â he said. âThere is no concept of taxes in Islam, so the state would have to provide free utilities.â Brilliant, why hasnât anyone else thought of that?
Ummm... Or they wouldn't provide any utilities at all and people would have to provide them for themselves...
Official HT spokesman for Pakistan Naveed Butt said the caliphate would also be for non-Muslims, because people all over the world are unhappy with the current âimperialist systemâ. Although if you read the HTâs constitution, itâs pretty obvious that the Caliphate system is the ultimate imperialist state.
Do you ever wonder who they intend to install as the caliph? I'd guess they're thinking in terms of, oh... I dunno. Some holy man, like... like... well, like Ata Abu Rushda. But when it comes to being caliph, don't you have to show credentials? Like being descended from the Prophet (ptui)? So that would kind of limit the choices to Mohammad V of Morocco, or Abdullah II of Jordan, or one of their kin. The Soddies are out because they're not Prophet family. Kind of ironic, isn't it, that the two contenders would be the two most enlightened monarchs in the Muslim world?
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
11/17/2003 1:33:09 AM ||
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#1
HT chief Ata Abu Rushdaâs speech, in which he urged Muslims to fight for the establishment of a caliphate.
Gosh...choosing who will get to be the Caliphate will be difficult..being the ultimate leader and all. No doubt he graciously nominated himself for the position.
Posted by: B ||
11/17/2003 11:44 Comments ||
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#2
Well, the Ummah is in trouble. Kinda lost it's way.
EFL:
U.S. forces attacked dozens of suspected guerrilla hideouts in Saddam Husseinâs hometown, killing six alleged insurgents as they pressed their search Monday for a former Saddam deputy believed to be orchestrating attacks on Americans. Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the U.S.-led coalition was intensifying its search for Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, No. 6 on the most-wanted list of 55 Iraqis and former vice chairman of Saddamâs Revolutionary Command Council. Heâs one of the few left.
"We are getting intelligence now that he is directly involved in the killing of coalition soldiers," Kimmitt said. He said coalition forces had captured 99 suspected insurgents, including a former general in Saddamâs elite Republican Guard, during 1,729 patrols and 25 raids conducted over the past 24 hours. Theyâve been busy.
Last month, a senior U.S. defense official said al-Douri was believed to be helping coordinate attacks on American forces with members of Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group in the north. The information about al-Douriâs role came from two captured members of Ansar al-Islam, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. It would be nice to catch him and pump his brain dry.
It would be nice to catch him and drill him a new anus in the middle of his forehead.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/17/2003 4:38:25 PM ||
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#1
then use his empty skull as a bed pan
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/17/2003 16:43 Comments ||
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#2
99 captured and who knows how many killed. In addition I've read in other sources that they captured some senior terrorist organizers. All in 24 hours. Hell of a good day for the good guys. We need to keep the pressure up, give them no time to regroup.
Todayâs Sunday Times from London contains an article entitled Spies close in on Saddamâs ailing terror mastermind. The article mainly concerns the hunt for General Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddamâs former deputy. But, suddenly, half way down, the article drops this bombshell:
Two top Iraqi scientists, codenamed Charlie and Alpha, are helping the coalition to learn more about Iraqâs anthrax programme, Kay said. The Iraqis had made shocking innovations in the milling and drying processes needed to weaponise anthrax. Almost every week there is a new discovery that boggles your mind, Kay said. The thick plottens.
#1
This is why we gave the inspectors 8-9 months more time. Let them collect all the information, connect it all together properly, and then present it the us.
Posted by: Charles ||
11/17/2003 13:10 Comments ||
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#2
What? Iraq had an active anthrax weaponization program?
Huh. Whooda thunk it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/17/2003 13:31 Comments ||
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#3
Calling Dr. Hatfill!
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/17/2003 13:50 Comments ||
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#4
But, but...
The FBI said that there was absolutely no foreign connection...
EFL:
In a show of force backed by tanks and mortars, U.S. forces assaulted dozens of suspected guerrilla positions in Saddam Husseinâs hometown before dawn Monday, killing six alleged insurgents and capturing others, officials said. U.S. forces fired a satellite-guided missile carrying a 500-pound warhead at a suspected insurgent sanctuary 10 miles south of Tikrit - the second use in as many days of the powerful weapon amid a U.S. drive to intimidate the resistance. 500-pound JDAM, thatâs the baby version.
In Baghdad, troops mounted their biggest-ever hunt for weapons and explosives in a middle-class Baghdad area, angering residents who said their small arms were needed to protect themselves in the crime-plagued capital. The military also announced that soldiers in the city of Ramadi west of Baghdad arrested an organizer of the Fedayeen guerrillas responsible for bomb attacks and ambushes on U.S. forces. The suspect, Kazim Mohammed Faris, was a "high value target," a military statement said. "Barkeep, a glass of your best giggle juice for Mr. Faris!"
In Tikrit, U.S. forces carried out more than 38 attacks from Sunday night to early Monday, destroying 15 suspected safehouses, three training camps and 14 mortar firing points, said Lt. Col. William MacDonald, a spokesman of the 4th Infantry Division. Six suspected Saddam loyalists were killed and 21 arrested, he said.
In Samara, three Iraqis who fired on American soldiers were killed in an ensuing clash Sunday night. In Muqdadiyah, two Iraqis fired a rocket-propelled grenade on U.S. soldiers on combat patrol aboard a Bradley fighting vehicle. The soldiers returned fire and killed the two, Macdonald said. The policy of reporting enemy dead continues, excellent!
While troops have been targeting suspected insurgent targets, U.S. forces have also carried out dozens of raids aimed at apprehending suspects and seizing weapons and bomb-making materials. One such "cordon-and-search" raid early Monday in Baghdadâs middle-class Azamiyah district netted 21 suspects along with 30 Kalashnikov AK-47 automatic rifles, about a dozen shotguns and 10 handguns. Most suspects had violated a coalition rule allowing only one weapon - a single AK-47 - per house.
Some 2,000 troops of the 1st Armored Division - backed by tanks, armored vehicles and low-flying helicopters took part in the nighttime raid, sealing off a 20-block area and searching every single building inside it. No more Mister Nice Guy.
In Tikrit, hundreds of U.S. troops in tanks and assault vehicles marched through the crowded downtown area Monday in a show of force intended to deliver a stern warning. "They need to understand that itâs more than just Humvees that will be used against the resistance and we will crush the resistance," said Lt. Col. Steven Russell, a battalion commander in the 4th Infantry Division. Itâs our boy Lt. Col. Steve again. No one can stop the Army of Steveâs! Bwahahaha!
Posted by: Steve ||
11/17/2003 10:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Just remember that Wes Clark liked to talk to the press a lot, too. I always suspect an officer who gets his name in the paper a whole lot. Custer was another.
That may be totally unfail to Lt. Col Russell, but he may be the most quoted officer in Iraq. And that's... thought provoking.
#2
U.S. forces fired a satellite-guided missile carrying a 500-pound warhead at a suspected insurgent sanctuary 10 miles south of Tikrit - the second use in as many days of the powerful weapon amid a U.S. drive to intimidate the resistance.
Was this a fast reaction to some intel? Or did we just want to show off the swoooooooosh.
#3
Now that the nights are cooler in Iraq, the infrared vision equipment works better. I've always hoped we could pick up our activity during the cooler months.
#4
Oops, I was wrong, it wasn't a 500-lb JDAM: Marking the launch of Operation Ivy Cyclone II, U.S. occupation forces used for the first time since the end of "major combat" in Iraq a satellite-guided missile at a site of suspected resistance fighters in north-central Iraq, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP). "An Army Tactical Missile System (ATACS) ... was fired at noon today at a former regime training area," 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Kirkuk, said Lieutenant Colonel Bill MacDonald, adding: "We are getting more aggressive." "It is the first time since the end of major combat that munition of this type has been utilized," said MacDonald.
He said the weapon hit the target, but it was not immediately clear whether there were casualties.
"It was a pretty substantial training facility, there was former regime leadership in there, probably mid-level people, some involved in financing anti-coalition attacks," he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/17/2003 10:23 Comments ||
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#5
Good job, LTC Steve. Sit on their chests and punch 'em in the face a few times to get their attention.
#6
Chuck, sorry, but the only Custer quote that I know about is
"Where did all those f**king Indians come from ?"
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
11/17/2003 12:07 Comments ||
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#7
In Tikrit, hundreds of U.S. troops in tanks and assault vehicles marched through the crowded downtown area Monday in a show of force intended to deliver a stern warning.
I love this! Ram it right down their throats. Cause And Effect asshats. Learn it...Live it....or get THUMPED!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
11/17/2003 12:43 Comments ||
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speaking of LTC Steve, WaPo this AM had interesting article on the cordoning off of Saddams hometown "auja". Apparently was Col. Steve initiative, at first his superiors thought he was crazy then they like it. Auja locals arent happy, but Iraqis from outside Auja (including Mayor of Tikrit) think its a great idea.
Interesting in that it shows you can get tough on selected locales (within reason) and not alienate the rest of the country.
Never forget Custer's famous last words: "Gosh, I wish I'd studied harder at West Point!"
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2003 14:04 Comments ||
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#10
U.S. Raids Saddamâs Hometown, Kills 6
Six? Is that all? Damn, guys, you've got to aim better!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/17/2003 17:08 Comments ||
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#11
"Some 2,000 troops of the 1st Armored Division - backed by tanks, armored vehicles and low-flying helicopters took part in the nighttime raid, sealing off a 20-block area and searching every single building inside it."
-Exactly right. Seal off city blocks at a time. Make note of assholes & houses that carry arms beyond the one AK rule.
The Iraqi scientist who headed Saddam Husseinâs long-range missile program has fled to neighboring Iran, a country identified as a state sponsor of terrorism with a successful missile program and nuclear ambitions, U.S. officers involved in the weapons hunt told The Associated Press. Dr. Modher Sadeq-Saba al-Tamimiâs departure comes as top weapons makers from Saddamâs deposed regime find themselves eight months out of work but with skills that could be lucrative to militaries or terrorist organizations in neighboring countries. U.S. officials have said some are already in Syria and Jordan. Surprise meter reads "0.000".
Experts long feared the collapse of Saddamâs rule could lead to the kind of scientific brain-drain the United States tried to prevent as the former Soviet Union collapsed. But the Bush administration had no plan for Iraqi scientists and instead officials suggested they could be tried for war crimes. For various reasons that the AP reporter never quite gets around to explaining.
``There are a couple hundred Iraqis who are really good scientists, particularly in the missile area,ââ said Jonathan Tucker, a former U.N. inspector now with the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute in California. ``In the chemical and biological areas, their work wasnât state of the art but it was good enough to be of interest to other countries.ââ When youâre fourth-rate, third-rate looks pretty good.
Two members of the Pentagonâs Defense Intelligence Agency involved in questioning scientists in custody told AP the Iraqis continue to deny the existence of illicit weapons programs in Iraq. Dozens of Iraqi scientists have been questioned and less than 30 remain in custody. All of them, including senior members of Saddamâs regime, have been subjected to lie-detector tests, which have come up clean on weapons questioning, the DIA officers said. U.N. inspectors spoke with Dr. Modher in Baghdad a week before the U.S.-led war began on March 20. Two U.S. weapons investigators say they believe he crossed the Iraq-Iran border on foot at least two months after U.S. forces took Baghdad. His activities in Iran are unclear and may explain why his disappearance hasnât been publicly disclosed. The CIA declined to discuss its efforts with Iraqi scientists or identify individuals. "We will say no more!"
Thought to be in his mid-50âs, the Czech-educated scientist specialized in missile engines. He met numerous times with U.N. inspectors during the 1990s and earlier this year when he argued that the Al-Samoud missile system under his command wasnât in violation of a U.N. range limit. The inspectors determined otherwise when tests showed it could fly more than 93 miles. They quickly began destroying the Iraqi stock, much to his frustration. "Themâs my babies!"
``Dr. Modher was declared by Iraq to have been one of the principal figures in their missile programs,ââ said Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for the U.N. inspectors. In the late 1980s, Modher headed up the Iraqi militaryâs Project 1728, part of an effort to produce engines for longer-range missiles. He was the protege and favored colleague of Iraqi Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel, Saddamâs right-hand man and son-in-law who briefly defected to Jordan in 1995. There, Kamel told U.N. inspectors during interrogations about his work and Dr. Modherâs efforts to build a missile powerful enough to strike most major European cities. Europe? Those are your friends, Modher!
According to the interrogation transcripts, Kamel said Modher and a nuclear physicist named Mahdi Obeidi both took work and documents from their offices. U.N. inspectors investigated the claim but found nothing. In July of this year, Obeidi gave the CIA a stack of papers and a piece of equipment that had been buried in his backyard for 12 years. In return, he has become the only Iraqi scientist allowed to move to the United States since the beginning of the U.S. occupation. Must have been a good stack of papers.
Other than Obeidi, who is living along the East Coast with his family, another scientist known to have left the country is Jaffar al-Jaffer who founded Iraqâs nuclear program in the 1980s. Heâs in the United Arab Emirates, where U.S. troops are stationed, and has been questioned by U.S. and British intelligence officials. But Jaffar, like a handful of senior scientists being held by U.S. forces in Iraq, hasnât provided any information on the whereabouts of suspected chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. While President Bush said he launched the war to disarm Iraq of its deadly arsenal, such weapons remain elusive.
That's merely a slight misstatement...
David Kay, the chief weapons hunter, has said his teams so far have found new information on Iraqi missile systems. But a conversation with Modher could have cleared up unanswered questions about Iraqâs true capabilities for delivering weapons of mass destruction. Modher traveled to Germany in 1987 to buy high-tech equipment through H & H Metalform, a company whose senior officers were later tried in Germany and found guilty of violating the countryâs export control laws. The equipment enabled Iraq to make components for Scud missiles similar to the ones they later fired at Israel and Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Gulf War. Four years later, Modher was caught by U.N. inspectors when he inquired about Russian-made gyroscopes from a Palestinian middleman. At the time, Tariq Aziz, then Iraqâs deputy prime minister, told U.N. inspectors Modher had acted on his own and would be punished for breaking sanctions. He allegedly spent 2 years in one of Saddamâs palaces jail. Busy little beaver, isnât he?
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/17/2003 12:53:10 AM ||
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No, NO, NO!
The United States accepts that to avoid humiliating failure in Iraq it needs to bring its forces quickly under international control and speed the handover of power, Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, has said. Decisions along these lines will be made in the "coming days", Mr Solana told The Independent. Javier not too infrequently talks out of his ass.
The comments, signalling a major policy shift by the US, precede President George Bushâs state visit this week to London, during which he and Tony Blair will discuss an exit strategy for forces in Iraq. Mr Solana underlined the change of mood in Washington, saying: "Everybody has moved, including the United States, because the United States has a real problem and when you have a real problem you need help." There is a "growing consensus" that the transfer of power has to be accelerated, he said. "How fast can it be done? I would say the faster the better." But not til the Iraqis are ready!
He added: "The more the international community™ is incorporated under the international organisations [the better]. That is the lesson I think everyone is learning. Our American friends are learning that. We will see in the coming days decisions along these lines." Criminy, whatâs next -- Kyoto?
The Bush administration spelt out over the weekend its new plans for the faster transfer of power from Americans to the Iraqis, with a transitional government now scheduled to take over from the end of June. Before, US officials had said that Iraqi leaders should write a constitution first, then hold elections. As the EUâs foreign policy representative, Mr Solana has been playing a significant, behind-the-scenes role. Until now, the US had resisted putting the allied forces under international auspices, although there is growing support in Washington for a Nato role. Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, arrives in Brussels tonight for talks with EU ministers, which he will combine with a meeting with the retiring Nato secretary general, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen. Diplomats say that Mr Powell is expected to "test the water" about the involvement of the transatlantic alliance in Iraq. The litany of setbacks, growing US casualties and the recent killing of 18 Italian servicemen has brought intense domestic and international pressure on the Bush administration to give the occupying force more legitimacy. If true thatâs idiotic. Itâs only illegitimate in the minds of the lefties who want us to fail.
[Bush] insisted yesterday that the US would not "cut and run". In an interview with Breakfast with Frost on BBC1, the President said the United States would not spend "years and years" in Iraq. But he rejected as "not a fair comment" claims that the US was unprepared for winning peace. Mounting violence in Iraq was "nothing more than a power grab". He added: "There are some foreign fighters, mujahedin types or al-Qaâida, or al-Qaâida affiliates involved, as well." Thatâs good so far, Dubya.
Americaâs chief post-war administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, also suggested that US-led forces would remain on a different basis. "Our presence here will change from an occupation to an invited presence," he said. "Iâm sure the Iraqi government is going to want to have coalition forces here for its own security for some time. If weâre just changing the hats we wear, fine — "Military Assistance Command" in Iraq works for me.
There have been no specifics yet about how the international community would control the mainly American and British forces in Iraq. Nato remains the only strong possibility because it would provide international credibility while leaving control with a military organisation which Washington dominates. Nato has already proved its willingness to act outside its traditional sphere of operations by taking a role in Afghanistan. But to allow it to deploy in Iraq would mean getting the approval of all 19 Nato allies including France, Germany and Belgium, all staunch opponents of the war. And who wouldnât have forces to commit even if they did support us.
They would need to be satisfied that the UN had been given a sufficient role in the political control of Iraq. Diplomats say that the US and Britain will need to be certain that no one will block an Iraq mission before they make a request. Given the UN record in other places lately this would be a disaster.
With the US-led occupation likely to be declared over the next year, Mr Bremer said that work would start on a constitutional settlement. "Weâll have a bill of rights. Weâll recognise equality for all citizens. Weâll recognise an independent judiciary. Weâll talk about a federal government," he said. Mr Bremer explained that the Americans would work with the Iraqi Governing Council in writing the interim constitution. There would also be a side agreement dealing with security and the presence of American and coalition forces in Iraq, he said. We should agree to stay til the jobâs done.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/17/2003 12:41:57 AM ||
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#1
I am very confident that this article is complete bs and we are under no circumstances turning over authority of american forces to international control. All this is, is Javier's wet dream. The independent is pathetic for printing this article as news and not an editorial.
#2
This sounds like Solana is trying to push Dubya into a corner by dictating what he will do and when he will do it. He should talk to his eurocommie circlejerk buddy Jack Chirac about how well THAT works out.
I wouldn't be surprised if Solano's 'meeting' with Bush gets delayed because of schedule conflicts. I think the admin recognizes the 'eee-yu' is already a non-starter.
#3
He added: "The more the international community is incorporated under the international organisations [the better]. That is the lesson I think everyone is learning. Our American friends are learning that. We will see in the coming days decisions along these lines."
Uh, the United Nations is an international organization. 12 years, 17 resolutions, 1441, serious consequences, 15-0. Does any of that stuff ring a bell you dipshit?
Posted by: g wiz ||
11/17/2003 1:23 Comments ||
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Chill out, guys. The plan seems to be to declare anything that goes wrong in Iraq to be a catastrophe and that everything the US does to be a failure. It makes the Lefties, Euros, and UN types feel good about themselves.
I've assumed from day one that it was our intention to hand over control to the sane Iraqis when neccesary. The only question was when. Apparently the decision is the "when" is pretty soon. That's no big deal.
And as for Solano -- hey, when he starts offering real troops for stabilizing Iraq, then he'll have a damn say in what is happening there. The dumbest notion I've heard over the last few months is that there's some magic diplomatic formula that will somehow get significant (not just a brigade or two) French and/or German forces to Iraq -- that was never going to happen. They can't get there, and they couldn't be supported if they did get there.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
11/17/2003 3:23 Comments ||
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#6
This report is bullshit, and I'd love to know what Solano and the writer of this piece are smoking.
Not only are we not going to be pulling our troops out of Iraq anytime soon, they're going to be there for as long as they damn well need to be to prosecute the WoT to its conclusion: in other words, once we're done as occupiers we'll be there as guests, with permanent basing rights. That's one of the reasons WHY we're in Iraq to begin with.
International control of American troops? Oh yeah, as soon as pigs start flying backwards...
This report is either the product of some seriously delusional thinking in Europe, or it's an attempt at mischief-making. Either way, it's crap.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
11/17/2003 6:04 Comments ||
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#7
If this were Clinton, I would belive it. This may be an attempt to distract Bush during his visit to London. In a way, it is an attempt to shift, in the short term, the historical narrative.
#8
Let me make something clear, something which makes it clear that this article is a pure lie. It is ILLEGAL for US troops to be under foreign control. Let's repeat that, it is against US law for US troops to be under a foreign commander. It has never happened. Even if we operate under the auspices of NATO, it is always with a US commander. In Afghanistan for instance, our troops operate independently of the international troops. Pretty simple really. So Solana can just shut his pie-hole.
#10
"It has never happened. Even if we operate under the auspices of NATO, it is always with a US commander. "
And that was precisely the way it worked in Kosovo - a Nato operation, but under US SACEUR (whose name I wont mention) Now to get that we had to armtwist the French, ,and we had some operational difficulties - getting a Nato commitee to approve operational decisions, IIRC. Both would be problems in Iraq. And its not clear that it matters much - the Iraqis are more interested in an elected IRAQI role to increase legitimacy, not an international one (much less NATO) Might help Dubya domestically, though.
There are several examples of US troops being under foreign command in WWII: e.g. the "ABDA" naval task force under Admiral Doorman, US divisions controlled by the British 2d Army (my dad's old Ike jacket has a 2d Army shoulder patch). 'Course, that's all something of a special case.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/17/2003 10:28 Comments ||
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#13
The United States accepts that to avoid humiliating failure in Iraq it needs to bring its forces quickly under international control...
Translation: We cannot accept a US success in Iraq - therefore, let us in on it ASAP, while we can still spin it as failure, so that we can take the credit for the inevitable success.
#14
I've heard of this issue being raised. NATO could come in possibly. I'm not opposed to the idea on purely pragmatic reasons. It may bring more domestic legitimacy. International legitimacy still more suspect, but I'd imagine it may help our standing w/EU countries (not that I personally care). Yes, there would be a U.S. OIC (officer in charge). Therefore, if they bring NATO in -fine by me. However, don't see the vote getting passed the French or Belgians.
#15
Consider the source - The Independent! It is a left-wing cousin of the Guardian and when it does try to center it is usually in the area of wishful thinking and getting someone like Solano to provide enough doubtful substance to agree with its supposition.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
11/17/2003 11:14 Comments ||
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#16
Shipman- I was sarcastic (of course!). Even if the "international control" were to take over the overwhelming presence would be the US. The reason so few countries have come so far is that the bullets are still flying. Hell, the UN has cut and run already. Others are rethinking after the Italian bombing. The only way anything positive will get done is is the US does it.
#18
Guess I was confused. I agree it's less fun without the .ster. BTW, I did steal the font size bit from him - an "homage' as our Frog friends would say (snort).
#19
In other news, Osama Bin Laden has overthrown the Chinese government and declared himself the Emperor of China. India has welcomed the change in rule, declareing it's full loyalty and support to Emperor Bin Laden. Pakistan has yet to comment, most likely because of the Jihadi's setting off Pakistans nuclear arsonal when a pig converted to Islam.
Posted by: Charles ||
11/17/2003 13:21 Comments ||
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#20
Boy was that a smooothly written artical. Silky. Bulldog, is that Eaton? What?
#21
The United States accepts that to avoid humiliating failure in Iraq it needs to bring its forces quickly under international control and speed the handover of power, Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, has said. Decisions along these lines will be made in the "coming days", Mr Solana told The Independent.
Mr. Solana would get better results if he donned ruby red slippers, said that while spinning three times on his tippy toes, then clicks his heels together.
He's trying to set the terms of the debate ahead of time, hoping that his belief that Bush is a stupid fool proves true. It won't, and his next interview will be a scathing attack on Bush's unilateralism and disregard for world opinion.
The National Democratic Front (NDF) in Northern Mindanao has denied accusations they are recruiting members to join the Jemaa Islamiah, a suspected international terrorist group said to be operating in central Mindanao. "Lies! All lies!"
George Madlos alias Ka Oris, spokesman of NDF-Northern Mindanao, said the Communist Party of the Philippines, âas a revolutionary organization, could not in any way work with a terrorist group like the JI.â No, of course not. Why, itâs as incomprehensible as a right-wing Texas Republican president working with a left-wing Labour prime minister! Canât ya all see our ideologies are incompatible?
Madlos was one of the speakers, through a phone patch, in a forum dubbed âUncovering the Truth: Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao,â held here Friday at the Estosan Garden Hotel.
Madlos said the âstrategies and principles of the CPP-NDF-NPA in their struggle for freedom and democracy do not conform with that of JIâs.â NPA is the New Peopleâs Army, which has itâs own version of Armed Struggle(TM) going on mainly in the northern Philippines. They have contacts both with MILF and North Korea, which is reason enough to keep an eye on them.
âThis is one of the many propaganda the government and its ally, the United States, is spreading in the country to discredit the peopleâs revolution and give them reasons to attack the group,â he stressed. Iâd say the NPAâs antics are reason enough in of themselves ...
Reports said at least 10 top NPA leaders in southern Philippines are undergoing training and recruiting members for the JI.
Meantime, Madlos admitted the NDF has strengthened its tactical alliance with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in their fight for the recognition of the Bangsamoroâs right to self-determination And MILF has ties to JI and gets cash from Hanbali, therefore what can we conclude ...
Madlos has accused the government of insincerity and delaying the peace talks with the MILF. âWhile talks are ongoing, the Armed Forces of the Philippines continues to strike areas believed to be MILF territories,â he said. I think the military just figured that whatâs good for the goose is good for the gander. If MILF doesnât want the government coming down on their heads, their new supremo Murad could always rein in the krazed killers.
Madlos has warned the MILF it may âfall into a trapâ as it talks peace with the government. "Cause itâs all a Conspiracy(TM), donât ya see?"
âThe autonomy in Mindanao has not, in any way, changed the lives of many poor Muslims. It has even worsened the situation,â he explained. Perhaps due to the fact that the "change" that MILF wants to implement is the installation of the Wahhabi shaâriah and the reduction of half the population to the status of breeding stock.
The communist leader urged former fighters of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which forged a peace settlement with government in 1996, who were deprived of benefits brought about by the agreement to arm themselves and continue fighting for the Moro peopleâs struggle for self determination. "You heard it boys, go join the Armed Struggle(TM)!"
Madlos said they sympathize with what happened to former MNLF chair Nur Misuari, who is now in jail in a heavy guarded prison facility in Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna because of the rebellion charges hurled against him. "I mean, it couldâve been me ..."
âThe NPA is one in the struggle of the Bangsamoro people in achieving their long desired right to self determination,â he said. For Madlos, the supposed autonomy is nothing if offensives against âour Muslim brothersâ continue. Itâs one big happy incestuous Peopleâs War(R) after all ...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/17/2003 2:30:59 PM ||
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The commies are just doing it for the cashflow. Marxists have become the hobos of the new world order.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/17/2003 17:17 Comments ||
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In other news, dog bites man ...
A regional terrorist network linked to al Qaeda has continued to train its militants in the southern Philippines, aided by local Muslim separatists, police and intelligence sources said. Tap, tap, there goes my surprise meter.
The militants, all Indonesians, are training at a camp established three years ago and now operating under the protection of rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, according to intelligence sources and a summary of the interrogation of Taufiq Rifqi, an Indonesian militant who was captured here last month. I actually suspect that there may be more than one of these camps given how much al-Qaeda/JI (the difference between which is a matter of semantics) infrastructure there seems to be in Mindanao. Better give Rifqi some more giggle juice and see what he says.
Rifqiâs testimony startled Philippine officials, who assumed they had deprived al Qaedaâs Southeast Asian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiah, of its primary training ground three years ago when government soldiers overran its base. It also raises the stakes for peace talks aimed at ending the 31-year insurgency on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Diplomatic and security sources said a peace deal could close Mindanao as a vital center for the training and transit of foreign terrorists — what a Western official in Manila called "a kind of Afghanistan east." Thatâs a pretty apt description. MILF is an al-Qaeda/Saudi project that the Filippino government takes way too seriously for fear of being perceived as acting against the interests of its Moro citizens. Autonomy is one thing, but allowing roving bands of krazed killers like the Pentagon Gang and Abu Sayyaf (which seem to be MILF hard boyz with false moustachios by all accounts) kidnapping or killing people is another. Of course, given the coup attempt back in July and rumors of another one in the air, the government probably figures that theyâve got bigger fish to fry, at least for awhile.
Within three weeks of Rifqiâs arrest, police backed by military forces raided two safe houses that contained handwritten notes in Indonesian on making biological weapons, diagrams of amateur rockets, components for jury-rigging explosives and other documents and bomb-making materials. Thereby placing him above the rank of cannon fodder well into the area of capo. My guess would be that JI has already done at least some work in the chemical or bio weapons area, given that when Yunos got picked up the Filippino intel said that he was the man to talk to within MILF about anthrax.
The capture of Rifqi, who security officials said was Jemaah Islamiahâs treasurer and logistics chief in the Philippines and arrived in Mindanao in 1998, was a wake-up call for the government, which had been "in denial about the existence of Jemaah Islamiah in Mindanao," a Philippine intelligence official said. So when are they gonna, yâknow, do something about the place?
"We are open in saying that the Jemaah Islamiah is a major threat," Defense Secretary Eduardo R. Ermita said in an interview. "We know the Philippines is a good target for their activities." They also appear to be a major shareholder of sorts with the local Wahhabi insurgency and so long as they can use it to train new krazed killers Southeast Asia is going to remain a terrorist target.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Asian and Western intelligence officials have unearthed extensive details about the operations of al Qaedaâs Southeast Asian affiliate. Under interrogation, suspects have described a geographic division of labor in which Indonesia serves as the primary theater for attacks — two nightclubs on the resort island of Bali were bombed a year ago and the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, the capital, was hit in August. The Philippines was designated as the main training ground. Not that anyone has actually decided to do anything about it. Does the US even consider MILF a terrorist organization?
Until 1995, Southeast Asian terrorists were training in Muslim mujaheddin camps in Afghanistan, but Jemaah Islamiahâs leaders decided to seek a location closer to home. Hundreds of militants, mainly Indonesians, slipped into the Philippines by fishing boat and other vessels through unregulated borders and trained at the main Moro Islamic Liberation Front camp. That site was destroyed by government troops during an offensive in mid-2000. That would be Camp Abubakar, IIRC.
What officials did not know was that a new camp — Jabal Qubah — was set up almost immediately. Rifqi told interrogators that groups of 15 to 20 Indonesians have been attending 18-month training courses at the new site on the forested slopes of Mount Cararao in Maguindanao province, according to the interrogation summary and intelligence officials. There, in a few huts, Indonesian instructors have been teaching Indonesian recruits how to build bombs, fire weapons and read maps. Physical training and religious studies are part of the program. NYT also said that larger numbers of the JI flunkies are training at regular MILF camps back in May. My guess would be that those are the cannon fodder and that those who are sent to Jabal Qubah are officer corps material. No doubt Eid Kabalu will be along any minute now to issue pious denials.
The camp, several hoursâ walking distance from a Philippine rebel base, has operated under the protection of a rebel commander, identified by an intelligence official as Gordon Syaifullah. The training weapons were provided by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front forces, according to the interrogation. Jemaah Islamiah members in Indonesia financed the camp by transferring money through ATMs. Including the instructors, about 30 militants — all Indonesians — have been training at the site, Rifqi told investigators. "Our intelligence tells us because they know the military is on their trail, some may have left," said Ermita, the defense secretary. He added that about 20 Indonesian militants from several locations had fled the country in recent weeks, leaving about 30. Indonesian police agree that militants who trained in the Philippines have been returning to Indonesia.
"Too late, LeGume. The bird has fled."
Although security officials said they had learned of no specific attack planned for the Philippines, they were worried about the prospect of a bombing in the period from the current month of Ramadan through Christmas and New Yearâs. In December 2000, 22 people died in Manila in a series of blasts that police later attributed to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Jemaah Islamiah. Rifqi coordinated logistics for those attacks, a senior police official said. Military commanders in Mindanao are planning a strike against the camp, security officials said. But senior Philippine officials, concerned that this could disrupt a four-month-old cease-fire with the rebels and undermine peace talks, have yet to approve the operation.
Makes you wonder if that's the reason MILF's so interested in peace talks at the moment, doesn't it. And they don't seem to be going anywhere...
Any offensive "should be surgical and not shotgun. Thereâs something very important to protect here. Thatâs the peace process," said a Philippine military official. And now that this has been published in a major Western newspaper, my guess is that Cararao will already be cleaned out by the time that the military gets there and JI will just set up shop somewhere else.
Rebel leaders piously deny that their forces are providing sanctuary to Jemaah Islamiah militants... More to the point, Philippine and Western officials say, is that the Frontâs leadership cannot control all its local commanders, some of whom maintain ties with Indonesian militants. The Frontâs chairman, Al Haj Murad, is struggling to consolidate his authority after replacing Hashim Salamat, who died after a heart attack in July, Philippine and Western officials said. Uh-huh. Murad has this huge militia force reckoned in the low thousands, does he not? Why does he allow this kind of insubordination when there is a very good chance that these type of antics could bring the US down on his head before ever gets to make himself king of Mindanao?
In fact, Murad had ordered his followers to evict all Jemaah Islamiah militants from the training camp, a Philippine intelligence official said. But Murad lacks the organizational and religious standing of Salamat, who was an Islamic scholar trained in Egypt, officials said. Um, Salamat was the one who set up the ties with international terrorist groups to begin with ...
Ermita, the defense secretary, said of the report that the rebels had disassociated themselves from the terrorists: "We take that with a grain of salt. It seems the local commander doesnât believe in negotiations and doesnât necessarily follow orders from Haji Murad." Or it could be that Murad and Kabalu are lying, a feat of diplomatic subtlety that appears unfathomable to the Manila elites.
Security officials point to mixed signals being sent by the rebels. They said a commander in Lanao del Sur province in Mindanao gave sanctuary to the fugitive Jemaah Islamiah bomb-making expert Fathur Rahman Ghozi after he escaped from a Manila prison in July. But security officials said that rebel sources also provided information to the government about Ghoziâs whereabouts before he was tracked down and shot dead by security forces in Mindanao last month. The bounty might have had something to do that. Most of these commanders are generally bandits in Abu Sayyaf or the Pentagon Gang when they arenât in the jihad business, so itâs not like they wouldnât sell out one of their own for profit. Nobody ever said there was honor among these thieves ...
A Philippine intelligence official also confirmed that Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali, Jemaah Islamiahâs operations chief arrested in Thailand in August, told his U.S. interrogators that he had sent money to a Moro Islamic Liberation Front contact a month earlier for an attack in the Philippines. But the intelligence official warned that Hambali might have been lying. But there is far more of a likelihood that he was telling the truth ...
Ermita said the Philippine government was preparing to provide rebel leaders with a list of criminals and Indonesian terrorists believed to be in areas under their control. Under an agreement last year, the Front is required to "neutralize, interdict and isolate" so-called lawless elements And theyâve done such a good job at it, too.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/17/2003 1:51:32 AM ||
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Someone needs to take off their 'Rose Colored' glasses.
If you're looking for the article on the memo, it's here.
Tech note: If you link to an article, please use the Link or Browse link below the article. Clicking on the headline takes you to an anchor on the page, which won't be there when we start a new day. LINK gives you a full-page link, BROWSE gives you the single article page.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/17/2003 23:55 ||
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How do you like that? Not Nation of Islam member, not fanatic muslim convert, but "ex-soldier" convicted as Washington Sniper.
Yup. That's prob'ly why he dunnit...
One of the men accused of the Washington sniper killings has been found guilty of murder, terrorism, conspiracy and a firearms charge. John Allen Muhammad, 42, now may face the death penalty. He was convicted of shooting dead Dean Meyers at a petrol station in Manassas, Virginia, on 9 October 2002, and murdering "at least one other person". He may also face other charges relating to the killings, which left 10 dead and three wounded. Along with his alleged accomplice, 18-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo, he is also accused of three murders and three counts of wounding across the United States. Mr Malvo is on trial separately.
Posted by: g wiz ||
11/17/2003 5:30:23 PM ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
11/17/2003 18:29 Comments ||
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#3
You won't hear a word about his being a muslim. His service over a decade ago is what made him want to drive around D.C. and shoot people. NOT the more recent conversion to radical islam, where the 'good books' and 'learned holy men' tell you to go wage jihad against civilians.
#4
Just when I think the Baghdad Broadcasting Company can't get any lower, they bring in the backhoe.
Disgusting.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/17/2003 18:53 Comments ||
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#5
I think he is first a CRIMINAL, then an ISAMLISTS, then a distant third he is EX-Army. Not sure but I think I remember they booted this guy. Line up against the wall and let em fly.
#6
There must be some way we can hurt the BBC when they pull crap like this. They don't have any sponsors, so we can't boycott the sponsors. Britain is our staunchest ally in Iraq, so we can't whack Britain (lots of other good reasons why not, but that will do). Most people outside Britain aren't required to support this fecal matter, so it's hard to bring any pressure to bear. A letter-writing campaign doesn't do any good, because these idiots are too dense to connect the dots. Other than kidnapping and torturing the reporters themselves, I see no way to make these people understand their stupidity has reached the point where there's a increasingly-militant backlash.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/17/2003 19:56 Comments ||
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#7
Look on the bright side. The BBC is treating Bush better than it treated Winston Churchill ("Who?")
Posted by: Matt ||
11/17/2003 20:50 Comments ||
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#8
when the Brit leftists sneer that Bush is stupid as so is the American public that supports him, we can say back: at least we aren't taxed by the telly set to pay for BBC tripe....oh, wait, I forgot about CPBS....damn
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/17/2003 22:51 Comments ||
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Why the antiwar left must confront terrorism The director of Amnesty International USA warns that the left must confront terror with the same zeal that it battles Bush -- or risk irrelevance. Hell froze over!
By Mark Follman
More than two years into the Bush administrationâs lurching war on terror, William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, is aiming some of his sharpest criticism not at the White House, but at the American political left. His message: Take on the terror threat, or risk irrelevance. War protesters of various stripes, alongside anti-globalization and human rights activists, have staged several large rallies nationwide this year, channeling their anger at the Bush administration through slogans like "No blood for oil," "End the imperialist occupation" and "Regime change begins at home." But in an interview with Salon, Schulz said that the political left has thus far botched a key mission. "Thereâs been a failure to give the necessary attention, analysis and strategizing to the effort to counter terrorism and protect our fundamental right to security," he said. "Itâs a serious problem."
Not as serious to the lefties as getting rid of Bush. Of course, if they should be unlucky enough to succeed, their troubles would only be beginning...
#1
He was surely misquoted. The usual criticism is that those on the left must pay lip service to national defense, so as to placate those mouth-breathers who vote based on fear of the "other".
Surely he didn't commit the blasphemy of saying they should actually do something to defend Amerika?
#2
Maybe they can start sending lots of postcards to islamofacists and fundamentalist madrassas telling them how Amnesty International and its legion of sweater-wearing, bad-smelling, vegan activists really don't think trying to kill everyone is the right thing to do. Then the world would surely be a safer place.
Posted by: joe ||
11/17/2003 22:23 Comments ||
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A U.S. government plan to create a market in which traders could bet on the likelihood of certain events in the Middle East has been revived and is scheduled to start trading next spring. The market, called the Policy Analysis Market (PAM), will allow traders to buy and sell contracts on specific events, including terrorist attacks, assassinations and overthrows of regimes... Heated public criticism forced the Pentagon to end its association with the project, but its Web site, which was idle for several months, now has an announcement saying it will be open for business in March 2004. The Pentagonâs partners in the venture would have been San Diego-based market technology firm Net Exchange and the Economist Intelligence Unit, publisher of the Economist. The EIU is no longer involved, and Net Exchange is alone in pursuing the venture, according to its president, Charles Polk... Polk said Net Exchange would initially limit the amount of money traders could invest in the market, so that people wonât be profiting from violence or upheaval in the region. Whatâs more, the futures contracts would be based on general questions, such as the likelihood that the King of Jordan will be overthrown at some point during a the second quarter of 2004, for example, rather than on specific acts or events, which could lend themselves to manipulation by terrorists. "There are no financial incentives for nefarious activities," Polk said...
I'd better not find any of my source code in there...
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/17/2003 4:13:31 PM ||
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Poindexter has the last laugh. I hope the info will be available to the CIA.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/17/2003 16:27 Comments ||
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Not that abortionâs any better, butâŠ
ABU QASH, West Bank - Rofayda Qaoud - raped by her brothers and impregnated - refused to commit suicide, her mother recalls, even after she bought the unwed teenager a razor with which to slit her wrists. So Amira Abu Hanhan Qaoud says she did what she believes any good Palestinian parent would: restored her familyâs "honor" through murder.
Armed with a plastic bag, razor and wooden stick, Qaoud entered her sleeping daughterâs room last Jan. 27. "Tonight you die, Rofayda," she told the girl, before wrapping the bag tightly around her head. Next, Qaoud sliced Rofaydaâs wrists, ignoring her muffled pleas of "No, mother, no!" After her daughter went limp, Qaoud struck her in the head with the stick.
Killing her sixth-born child took 20 minutes, Qaoud tells a visitor through a stream of tears and cigarettes that she smokes in rapid succession. "She killed me before I killed her," says the 43-year-old mother of nine. "I had to protect my children. This is the only way I could protect my familyâs honor."
The guilty brothers are in jail.
Qaoudâs confessed crime, for which she must appear before a three-judge panel on Dec. 3, is one repeated almost weekly among Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel. Female virtue and virginity define a familyâs reputation in Arab cultures, so itâs women who are punished if that reputation is perceived as sullied.
Victimsâ rights groups say the number of "honor crimes" appears to be climbing, but at the same time, getting little attention. Israelis and Palestinians are too busy with political and military issues to notice what they dismiss as domestic disputes, says Suad Abu-Dayyeh, who works for the Womenâs Center for Legal Aid and Counseling in East Jerusalem.
Poverty and war have exacerbated the problem, says Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a social work and criminology professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and an expert on violence against women.
"Men do not have any power except over women," she says.
Police in Israel investigated at least 18 honor killings in the past three years.
Palestinian police reported 31 cases in 2002 - up from five during the first half of 1999 - the last time such incidents were counted before the current Palestinian uprising began, according to the centerâs study.
But the number of killings is likely higher, given that Palestinian police investigate only crimes that have been reported, said Yousef Tarifi, the Ramallah prosecutor assigned to Qaoudâs case. Shalhoub-Kevorkian says her past research showed the likely number to be 15 times higher than the number of reported cases.
Legal authority on the West Bank has been weakened by Israelâs military crackdown, and the growing influence of militant Islamic factions has led clans to dole out their own justice. "In this chaotic situation, every man who thinks he knows a little bit of the Quran thinks honor issues are supposed to be resolved by killing," says Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who adds that leading Muslim clerics in Jerusalem and Jordan have denounced such killings.
Qaoud says her husband, Abdul Rahim, 52, told her the Quran forbade such killings. But neither his pleas nor those of Palestinian crisis counselors swayed her. "Why did she accept what happened to her?" Qaoud asks. "Even a wife can tell her husband âno.â "
According to court records, Rofayda was raped by her brothers, Fahdi, 22, and Ali, 20, in a bedroom they shared in the familyâs three-room house. On Nov. 26, 2002, doctors at a nearby hospital who were treating Rofayda for an injured leg discovered she was eight months pregnant.
Palestinian authorities whisked her off to a womenâs shelter in Bethlehem, where she gave birth to a healthy boy on Dec. 23. He has since been adopted by another Palestinian family, court records show.
Rofayda, meanwhile, wanted to return to her parents in the Ramallah suburb of Abu Qash. Ramallah Gov. Mustafa Isa called a meeting with the family and village elders, demanding they pledge in writing not to harm the girl. "He asked me if everyone in the family and the village would promise not to bother this girl, but I told him I couldnât give him a guarantee," Abu Qash Mayor Faik Shalout says.
Rofayda returned home in late January without notifying the authorities.
The shame was unbearable, Qaoud said. Relatives and friends refused to speak to her family. Her elder daughtersâ husbands wouldnât allow them to visit because Rofayda had returned home.
On Jan. 27, Rofayda sent word that she was in danger to crisis counselors at Abu-Dayyehâs center in East Jerusalem. They, in turn, called Palestinian police in Ramallah, who have jurisdiction over Abu Qash. The police said they couldnât get to the Qaoud home because of Israeli checkpoints.
Qaoud, meanwhile, sent her husband, who suffers from heart disease, to a doctor in the nearby village of Bir Zeit. Her three youngest children went to a cousinâs house.
At 11:30 p.m. she killed Rofayda, court records show. Tarifi says heâs convinced Qaoud had an accomplice, but Qaoud insists she acted alone.
Qaoud turned herself in and, after four months in jail, was released pending the resolution of her case.
While honor killings committed in the heat of the moment - for example, by a husband who catches his wife in bed with another man - generally carry a six-month to one-year jail term, Qaoud will likely be sentenced to three to five years in prison, Tarifi says. The fact she is a mother who was trying to protect her familyâs honor mitigates the crime of premeditated murder, which is punishable by death under Palestinian law, he adds.
The brothers are serving minimum 10-year sentences in a Palestinian jail in the West Bank city of Jericho for statutory rape of a relative, Tarifi says.
No trace of Rofayda or her brothers remains in the family home. Qaoud says she ripped up all of their photographs and burned their clothes. The bedroom in which she killed her daughter is now a storeroom.
Erasing the memories is harder, she admits. She eases her pain by doting on her three children still living at home, especially the youngest, Fatima, 9, whom she lavishes with kisses. The children say theyâve forgiven Qaoud and return her affection.
"My mother did this because she does not want us to be punished by people," Fatima explains with a shy smile. Leaning into Qaoudâs arms, the little girl adds: "I love my mother much more now than before." Hat tip LGF
This is the culture that bred those who attack us. This is the culture that taught the terrorists "right and wrong." It will, indeed, be a long, hard slog.
#2
Amazing story. Clearly women are inhuman chattle in their society, otherwise someone might have realized the rapist boys stained the family honor, not the girl.
#3
sick f&*kers....how can this be called a civilization is beyond me
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/17/2003 16:54 Comments ||
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#4
One day I hope to play on the floor with my grand children. Looks like her ambitions are a little different than mine.
There ought to be an Underground Railroad out of Pakistan for the sane people.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/17/2003 16:56 Comments ||
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#5
I know... let's sign treaties with people like this. They've obviously proven that honor is a very high priority, so we can be sure that they would honor their side of any agreement they'd sign.
By the way, considering the nature of his conception, are any human rights groups checking into the welfare of the poor kid, or is he okay since after all, he's a male.
#6
I don't want to share a planet with people like this.
Absolutely sickening.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
11/17/2003 18:32 Comments ||
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#7
Clearly women are inhuman chattle in their society
Their women are still regarded higher than infidels and kaffirs. Wouldn't you just LOVE to see sharia enforced in the States?
In their dubious campaign against Dr. Steven Hatfill in the anthrax case, news organizations have cited a return address on one of the anthrax letters, a "Greendale School," and reported that Hatfill once lived near a place called Greendale. But an Internet website devoted to the case has discovered another more interesting piece of information that links the attacks to the 9/11 Muslim hijackers. You can find it at: anthrax2001.blogspot.com. Not only has the Bureau relentlessly pursued Hatfill, without any hard evidence, but it has been ignoring the significance of two letters that were received at the headquarters of AMI in Florida, the publisher of the National Enquirer and other tabloids. These are the tabloids that made themselves potential targets of al Qaeda by having interviewed an alleged concubine of Osama bin Laden, who complained of his sexual inadequacy. The letters to AMI were addressed care of Jennifer Lopez, the actress and singer. One letter was described as having a white powder and a Star of David pendant. It was handled by AMI employee Bob Stevens, who died from an anthrax infection.
The FBIâs "Amerithrax" investigation focuses only on the anthrax letters sent from New Jersey to Senators Daschle and Leahy, Tom Brokaw and the New York Post. Those letters included praise for Allah and the phrases, "Death to Israel. Death to America." But the FBI believes that this information was intended to divert attention from the domestic right-winger who really carried out the attacks. The FBI may dismiss the Lopez letters, but a report from the Centers for Disease Control describes how Stevens had examined and was observed handling one of the letters with "a fine-white-talc-like powder." The CDC links his death to the letter. Why would the perpetrators use the name of Jennifer Lopez? Using that name would almost certainly get the letter noticed and opened. But CBS News reports that Mohammed Atta, one of the hijackers, lived near the AMI headquarters in the weeks leading up to 9/11, and that he was communicating by code with a terrorist contact in Germany that he called "Jenny." There may be nothing to this, but if the media and the FBI are going to examine the significance of "Greendale," they should also take the "Jenny" connection seriously.
Another reason to take it seriously is that we already know that Atta had showed up at a pharmacy in Florida to get medicine for a red rash on his arm. The pharmacist reported this to the FBI and suspected that the rash had been caused by bleach used to decontaminate the scene of an anthrax accident. Another 9/11 hijacker, Ahmed Ibrahim al-Haznawi, went to a hospital to get treated for a black sore on his leg that was later determined by the doctor to be anthrax-related. Was al Qaeda behind the Jennifer Lopez anthrax letter? The use of the name "Jenny" may be an indication that Atta and/or his fellow conspirators were behind it. Two years into the anthrax probe, it doesnât make sense for the Bureau to continue to ignore the evidence implicating the 9/11 hijackers in the attacks.
Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at aimeditor@yahoo.com
Posted by: Ernst ||
11/17/2003 3:27:59 PM ||
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#1
They could also be Falco fans.
(Just a joke; I think the FBI has done a HORRIBLE job on the anthrax investigation.)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/17/2003 15:42 Comments ||
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#3
Hatfill is certainly a kook, but the Atta connection is quite interesting. This is the first I have heard about OBL's concubine and his need for the blue diamond. This leads me to believe that there was no strong link between AQ and Sadaam or surely his sons would have forwarded a healthy supply of Viagra to the good shiek.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/17/2003 16:34 Comments ||
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#4
I remember reading(sorry,don't remember where),a
claim that Saddam's Iraq was behind the anthrax attacks as a test,and tried to leave evidence it was al-Qaida's fault.The Iraqis were alledgedly totally baffled when FBI blamed domestic terrorists.At the time I thought it was another one of those "blame Saddam for everything"conspiracy theories.Now with post today of Saddam's anthrax program,and leaked CIA memo showing very close ties to Saddam and the big Q,I guess I have to keep an open mind.
Posted by: Stephen ||
11/17/2003 16:43 Comments ||
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#5
Uh,there's no evidence that the J-Lo letter ever contained anthrax.It didn't mention anthrax.No trace of the bacteria or equipment was left behind by the hijackers.
Besides,Atta & Co were D-E-A-D when the rest of the letters were mailed.The letters which for some reason warned the recipients of the contents inside.As for al-Haznawi's sore,Dr. Tsonas didn't "determine" that it was anthrax-related,he speculated that it might have been.Or not.
In any case,al-Haznawi died on September 11th. "He must have had an accomplice",you may say.
That's speculation,not evidence.Nothing connects the hijackers to the anthrax letters.
More at Anthraxinvestigation.com
Posted by: El Id ||
11/17/2003 16:50 Comments ||
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#6
Super Hose,
"Sexual inadequacy" doesn't neccessarily mean he needed Viagra.Osama may just be bad in bed compared to other men she's known.
(Play violins here)It is also possible Osama's medical problems prevents him from taking Viagra.
Posted by: Stephen ||
11/17/2003 16:50 Comments ||
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#7
Stephen, you misunderstand my intention. I have no intention whatsoever of treating OBL fairly with respect to gossip. Sexual dysfunction of any sort is not funny or a weakness for a Western male, but OBL is not a Western male. If it is possible that his minnions attacked a tabloid for printing a story questioning his manhood, I read that attack as a sign of weakness that should be exploited. If a flacid willy would be a cause for derision in Pakistan - where they have still have honor killings - then by all means leak the story to the Urdu Press.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/17/2003 17:10 Comments ||
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#8
I went to the AIM site.They've now also proved that Vince Foster was murdered - and that Ken Starr helped cover it up!Live and learn.
Posted by: El Id ||
11/17/2003 17:34 Comments ||
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#9
Did the AIM site have anything on the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa?
#10
"Uh,there's no evidence that the J-Lo letter ever contained anthrax."
What on earth are you talking about? There is plenty of evidence that the J-Lo letter conatained anthrax. Several staff members at AMI witnessed Bob Stevens holding the J-Lo letter close to his face - it contained a powder! The OFFICIAL conclusion of the CDC in a peer-reviewed publication is that Bob Stevens contracted anthrax from that letter! Why are you lying?
"But itâs not Bush, some argue. Itâs his policies. But, again, the early objections now seem somewhat misplaced. Yes, he opted out of Kyoto. But Clinton never opted in. And the Senate under Clinton had voted 95 - 0 not to consider it. So why isnât Clinton tarred with the anti-Kyoto brush? The ABM treaty? Even the Russians went along in the end. Israel? Again, Bush inherited a collapsed policy, after Arafat walked away from Barakâs historically generous offer at Camp David. And Bush tried hard to force the road-map last year. But Arafat again balked and the Palestinians wonât or canât replace him with anyone else. Trade? There the critics are on firm ground. The steel tariffs are indefensible. Bush is worse than Clinton in this respect. But have you checked up on the Democrats lately? The protectionism Bushâs opponents are supporting make this president look good.
Afghanistan? We have just seen a new constitution unveiled which both embraces Islam and protects religious minorities and women. If it werenât for Bush, the Taliban would still be in power. Iraq? One of the worst tyrants in history has been toppled, 300,000 mass graves discovered, the marshlands of Southern Iraq are coming back to life, the Kurds and Shia can plan democratic futures, and Bushâs policy is still declared a disaster because a few thousand remnants of the old regime, combined with other regional terrorists, are still fighting! The notion that this policy has already failed relies on so raising the bar of success that only a miracle would pass muster. Come back in five years - the only reasonable time period by which to judge Iraqâs reconstruction - and weâll talk. Meanwhile, some $20 billion of aid money is coming from American pockets to rebuild a country devastated by totalitarianism. And the architect of this astonishing act of humanitarianism is compared to Hitler in the streets of London. It makes no sense. None."
#1
If you do the world a great service that is unappreciated, you have done the world a great service none the less. Pass the aclaim and golden trophies to Michael Moore and his ilk.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/17/2003 17:14 Comments ||
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#2
Andrew Sullivan seems to be one of those holding the odd, touching belief that having his picture taken with Queen Elizabeth is somehow going to help Bush get re-elected. Is there some powerful monarchist constituency of which I was previously unaware?
#5
We hate dick, We love bush, and all from a guy wearing a beard. It just works on so many levels.
file this under: "you cant make this stuff up"
Posted by: frank martin ||
11/17/2003 16:10 Comments ||
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#6
The transgendered I don't mind. It's the muttwits...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2003 16:13 Comments ||
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#7
I have a friend who owns an adult store and he sells a goodly number of d****s to his lesbian customers.My worthless tidbit of day.(Censored for any of you young ones reading.)
Posted by: Stephen ||
11/17/2003 16:58 Comments ||
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#8
He just really... really... really... wants pity sex from some man-haters...
This shows what a bunch of really despicable bastards South Koreans are
The Chinese police have arrested a North Korean couple that was attempted to escape to a third country from China. Jeon Yong-il, 72, a South Korean soldier captured by the North during the Korean War, and his wife Choi Eun-hee, 68, are currently being held in custody by the Chinese police, said Kim Mi-hwa, a relative of Jeon who defected to South Korea. Kim said Monday that Jeon and his wife escaped from North Hamgyeong Province in North Korea last June and had been hiding in China. The couple sought refugee at the South Korean Embassy in Beijing on September 15, but were rejected. âThe embassy official told them that heâd see them in two weeks, but when they returned after two weeks he refused to meet them,â Kim said. The couple was arrested during their attempt to flee with the help of local residents to another country. According to Kim, Jeon enlisted in June 1951, during the Korean War, and was taken prisoner in July 1953 by North Korea while serving in the South Korean army. Jeonâs four brothers still live in Yeongcheon-gun, North Gyeongsang Province, thinking until recently that they had lost their brother during the war. The Ministry of National Defense announced that Jeonâs name was missing from the list of 1,186 South Korean soldiers who were verified to have been abducted during the war. A member of the National Memorial Board said that Jeon was included in the list of the deceased for September 1951, and his rank was private first class.
Posted by: Michael ||
11/17/2003 1:33:05 PM ||
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Jeon Yong-il, 72, a South Korean soldier captured by the North during the Korean War, and his wife Choi Eun-hee, 68, are currently being held in custody by the Chinese police, said Kim Mi-hwa, a relative of Jeon who defected to South Korea.
These people aren't kids anymore. Who knows how much longer they have to live? For heaven's sake, give them some dignity and allow them to go home.
#2
Jeeeez. I may have to change my name to China Sucks.
Posted by: ISLAM SUCKS ||
11/17/2003 15:08 Comments ||
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#3
Please, allow me:
WHERE'S THE LIBERAL OUTRAGE ABOUT THAT "WORKER'S PARADISE" CHINA SCREWING THESE PEOPLE OVER?!
Where's Michael Moore or Babs? Why aren't they sounding off about how oppressive and 'Big Brother' the Red Chinese are being? Nothing but hypocrites and liars.
#5
While Japan is confronting the NK about kidnapped citizens, the South Koreans are humming a different tune. Can you imagine what would have happened in this country if Capt Spyker escaped to Lebanon before the war and the governemt let him be taken back to Iraq?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/17/2003 17:22 Comments ||
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Nice to know the South Koreans have a State Department just as screwed up as the U.S.'s...
Ralph Peterâs latest strategy think piece in Parameters. Itâs been Peterâs thesis that we should deal with the Arab Middle East through containment and strong punitive raids (on an operational level, or strategic if need be) to prevent acquisition of nukes, etc. The goal of his strategy is to let the Arab "polity" rot from within, only engaging when they finally awaken from their murderous mass psychosis. In his previous article in Parameters, he had advised engaging with the non-Arab muslim states as a bridgehead into Dar al Islam and to further isolate the Arabs. He now seems to have abandoned that illusion.
Throughout the previous decade, strategists and statesmen asserted that we were about to enter the âPacific Century.â Global power and wealth would shift to East Asia. American interests, power, and investments would follow. The Atlantic would become a dead sea strategically, its littoral states and their continents declining to marginal status. Economic opportunities, crucial alliances, and the gravest threats would rise in the east, as surely as the morning sun.
An alternative view of the evidence suggests that the experts were wrong. Although the United States will remain engaged in the Far Eastâas well as in the Middle East, Europe, and nearly everywhere elseâthe great unexplored opportunities for human advancement, fruitful alliances, strategic cooperation, and creating an innovative, just, and mutually beneficial international order still lie on the shores of the Atlantic. The difference is that the potential for future development lies not across the North Atlantic in âOld Europe,â but on both sides of the South Atlantic, in Africa and Latin America.
Especially since 9/11, the deteriorating civilization of the Middle East has demanded our attention. But we must avoid a self-defeating strategic fixation on the Arab Muslim world and self-destructive states nearby. Any signs of progress in the Middle East will be welcome, but the region overall is fated to remain an inexhaustible source of disappointments. While Africa suffers from an undeserved reputation for hopelessness (often a matter of racism couched in diplomatic language) and Latin America is dismissed as a backwater, the aggressive realms of failure in the Middle East always get the benefit of the doubt. When the United States places a higher priority on relations with Egypt than on those with Mexico or Brazil, and when Jordan attracts more of our attention than does South Africa, our foreign policy lacks common sense as much as it does foresight.
Our obsession with the Middle East is not just about oil. Itâs about intellectual habit. We assign unparalleled strategic importance to the survival of the repugnant Saudi regime because thatâs the way weâve been doing things for half a century, despite the complete absence of political, cultural, or elementary human progress on the Arabian Peninsula. EFL. Read the rest.
#1
I think the West should forget about political correctness (unfortunately the PC left is a BIG anchor here) and break the cohesion of the Muslim world, or more exactly refresh memories about contradictions, betrayals and manipulations.
It is the Blacks who have to be reminded of what the Arabs are doing in South Sudan, it is the Algerians who should be reminded they have suffered far more at the hands of Islamists than the Palestinians, it is the Berbers who conquered Spain (97.5% of the Army was Berber) and whose reward was to man the fortresses in the brutal Castilian winter ( minus fifteen centigrade degrees is not uncommon) while the Arabian big cheese kept warm in their Andalusian harems and palaces (NONE of the rulers of Al Andalus was Berber), it is the people of very poor countries like Afghanistan or Bangla Desh who should be reminded that the Coran doesn't say the Saudis have the right to keep the money made on the pilgrimage business. Unmask the nature of Islam and specially wahabi Islam: an instrument for Arabian domination
#2
I read it and I'm not sure where the comment on the very top comes in. He spends very little time talking about the Middle East. This seems more of a plea to get in early regarding Africa and Latin America.
A jury convicted John Allen Muhammad of capital murder Monday, concluding he used a rifle, a beat-up car and a teenager who idolized him to kill randomly and terrorize the Washington area during last yearâs sniper spree. Jurors will now decide whether the Army veteran should be sentenced to death or life in prison. The panel deliberated for about 6 1/2 hours. Muhammad was convicted of two counts of capital murder. One accused him of taking part in multiple murders, the other — the result of a post-Sept. 11 terrorism law — alleged the killings were designed to terrorize the population. Muhammad is the first person tried under the law. Muhammad, 42, was found guilty of killing Dean Harold Meyers, a Vietnam veteran who was cut down by a single bullet that hit him in the head as he filled his tank at a Manassas gas station. Fellow suspect Lee Boyd Malvo, 18, is on trial separately in nearby Chesapeake for the killing of Linda Franklin at a Home Depot in Falls Church. He also could get the death penalty. One down, one to go.
I'll be outside ululating for the rest of the day. Where's my AK?
Posted by: Steve ||
11/17/2003 12:10:49 PM ||
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Think JAM will become the new darling of the Hollywood Left? They've gotta be pretty tired of chanting the same old "Free Mumia!" crap by now.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
11/17/2003 12:38 Comments ||
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Anyone ever doubt that they would be convicted? Didn't think so. The bias towards them is so great that they couldn't get a fair trial anywhere in Virginia or Maryland. Although the bias is because he is obviously guilty, it's grounds for an appeal. And possibly even a mis-trial.
Remember I said that he couldn't get a fair trial in Virginia or Maryland? That's because if this was in California I would have my doubts. Especially with the Ninth Circuit. I don't know about the Appeals court in over by DC, but I hope they have more sense than the Ninth.
So, it's really "One starting to go down, one other to begin."
Posted by: Charles ||
11/17/2003 12:47 Comments ||
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#3
"Guilty" is a good headline. I hope they follow it up with "Extra Crispy".
Posted by: Dar ||
11/17/2003 13:32 Comments ||
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#4
Firing squad is usually considered a honorable death for political opponents. He doesn't deserve it. Better have him executed him as a common criminal.
#5
Disembowelment, while hanging from the thumbs. And don't forget to pour pigs blood on the mook first (amazing how the media continues to ignore that he is another peace-loving muslim).
EFL & Effect Ye olâ hat tip to InstaPundit
On Saturday morning, Washington Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Stroup kissed his kids goodbye, told his wife "I love you," and reported to the Puyallup armory of Troop E of the 81st Infantry Brigadeâs 303rd Cavalry Regiment. God bless him and his family.
Saturday, as men like Stroup packed duffel bags with clothes and gear, some 4,000 supporters stood on freeway bridges spanning Interstate 5 from Fort Lewis to McChord Air Force Base. And God bless them. This is a nice touch.
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
11/17/2003 11:17:53 AM ||
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Color me SHOCKED! (Not!)
THE SCENARIO, as sketched by this hard-boiled insider, calls for Clinton to make an entrance as healer and unifier at the end of the primary season in May or June in the unlikelyâbut not impossibleâevent that none of the existing contenders has amassed a majority of the convention delegates. âYouâd have to have Howard Dean not wrapping it up, and being an angry, wounded front runner,â this adviser said. âYouâd have to have two of the other challengers tearing each other apart in primary after primary. Then Hillary could come in, well in advance of the convention, and say, âLook, somebody has to save the partyâ.â
Posted by: mojo ||
11/17/2003 11:06:21 AM ||
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Not going to happen. George W. Bush will trample all over any of the Democrats right now, including Hillary. Hillary can see this and will wait until 2008 when the War On Terror will be over (in most people's minds at least) and she can go against Cheney (whos healthy, lack of public appearances, and Haliburtan connections make far more vunerable).
I think the suggestions that the Clinton's are sabotaging the Democrats is more likely, ensuring that they get trounced makes her riding in on a white horse in 2008 that much more likely.
#2
Via Drudge: Wes has "character and integrity issues" -
When at a forum in September, retired Gen. Hugh Shelton was asked if he would support retired Gen. Wesley Clark for president, Shelton, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, quickly took a drink of water. "That question makes me wish it were vodka," Shelton said. "I've known Wes for a long time. I will tell you the reason he came out of Europe early had to do with integrity and character issues, things that are very near and dear to my heart. I'm not going to say whether I'm a Republican or a Democrat. I'll just say Wes won't get my vote."
Which was bad enough, but on November 6, retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf appeared on CNBC's Capital Report, hosted by Gloria Borger and Alan Murray, who asked him what he thought of Clark. "I think the greatest condemnation against him . . . came from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when he was a NATO commander. I mean, he was fired as a NATO commander," Schwarzkopf replied, "and when Hugh Shelton said he was fired because of matters of character and integrity, that is a very, very damning statement, which says, `If that's the case, he's not the right man for president,' as far as I'm concerned."
Shelton has refused to expand on his remarks, and Schwarzkopf isn't providing details, either. So Clark was understandably miffed when he responded on the campaign trail the next day: "I haven't talked to General Schwarzkopf since 1991, when I interviewed him in his headquarters about what he liked and didn't like about the Army. He left the Army shortly after that; haven't seen him in 12 years. He didn't ask me anything about it. So he's certainly entitled to his opinion, but I think America should hold people to a high standard."
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/17/2003 11:44 Comments ||
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#3
I don't see Cheney running in 2008, barring some weird set of circumstances (Bush dies/is assassinated, so Cheney is in the Oval office already going into the 2008 elections). His health issues would dominate if he were to run for Pres in 2008 (coming off a 2-term Bush presidency). I don't think the Repubs would be that stupid...
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
11/17/2003 11:59 Comments ||
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#5
I predicted Hillary would run for the Presidency in the "futures". I guess I should have put down 9 months instead of 3.
Anyway, enough of my ego. This could be bad if it happens for two reasons. First, Hillary will get the women's vote simply because she is one. Second, every Democrat will rally behind her, praying for the 'good ol days.' Despite the Democratic party falling apart, they still have the ability to win in 2004 with the right campaigning.
Posted by: Charles ||
11/17/2003 13:00 Comments ||
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#6
Charles, I would crawl across broken glass to vote against Evita.
#7
It's HILLARY! Charles, your damn right. And it scares the hell out of me. I'm tell'n you Dem canidates. Attack HILLARY! Do that and your relevant. Don't do that and your a puddle of piss.
#8
Hillary has the highest "disapproval" rating of any US politician. She needs to sit aside for another 4 years and let people forget a bit.
I agree with JP a Bush/Rice ticket would be perfect for 2004. Removes the Cheney health issue and sets Rice up to be the candidate in 2008. Then you have woman vs woman (Rice vs Hillary) going into 2004 and I personally think Rice would clean Hillary's clock in any debates.
#9
Hillary Clinton is a cold-blooded political animal. (Is that redundant?) The only reason she hasn't pole vaulted the current crop of Democrat candidates is that she sees a very real possibility of a Bush landslide in '04.
Point #1 - You haven't seen 'negative turnout' until there is a Hillary candidacy. (See Anon's comment above.)
Point #2 regarding attacking her. HRC's approval numbers go up when she plays victim. Not sure how a staunch feminist can live with that kind of thing... but then I'm of the opinion that the Left either thrives on Cognitive Dissonance, or are just wired so differently that they don't even experience it when holding contradictory thoughts at the same time.
#10
J.P. I would definately vote for a Bush / Rice ticket. Like I said before she has balls of steel. If you dont see Rice as VP then she may be State.
On the other hand I would not underestimate Billary. I kind of laughed when she ran for Senator thinking NY would never vote for an outsider who would so obviously pursue her own agenda rather then the voters.
Okinawa has asked the US to reduce or relocate American military bases on the island and to remove large numbers of US Marines, which its Governor says would lower the crime rate. It would also remove the major source of income.
Keiichi Inamine made the plea to the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, who visited Japan and South Korea to discuss bilateral security and Pentagon plans to realign the postwar US military global "footprint". In an unusual act of public diplomacy, the Okinawa Government decided that news organisations would be present at Sundayâs meeting between Mr Rumsfeld and Mr Inamine, ensuring that the Governorâs request would receive a wide airing. Wants his face on TV.
Mr Rumsfeld listened to the Governorâs list of complaints, challenging some of them including noise pollution, the level of military training conducted in Okinawa and the Navyâs effect on marine wildlife. After nearly 40 minutes, Mr Rumsfeld said it was time to end the discussion. "Weâve listened," he said politely but firmly. Iâd say thats a "No".
Posted by: Steve ||
11/17/2003 10:35:35 AM ||
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The Marines cause trouble wherever they go, thank God.
Posted by: Matt ||
11/17/2003 10:51 Comments ||
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I agree, there is no place like home away from the Rock. Geez, I only wish Rummy could have been me in the 60's and experienced that god-forsaken hell hole that will always smell of rotten fish.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
11/17/2003 10:54 Comments ||
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#3
They should be pulled out, moved to Guam instead. Either that or seal the base so that the Marines can't get out to cause trouble, or spend their paychecks. I think the Okinawa citizens would have a change of heart then.
#4
They can keep that place. Fine by me. Turn it into Japanese resorts - Oriental key f*ckin' west. Send us to Australia or back to the good ole' USA. Jack's right - The whole trip up from Kadena AB to where I stayed on Camp Schwab smelled like someone blew chili out their ass. Always made me enjoy the day after a hard night of Habu Saki & "buy-me drinkie" girls in Naha. God, I loved how much that place sucked.
#7
More rapes than would seem likely. I think a few of them might be morning regrets rather than rapes but everytime it happens everyone gets in an uproar and logic goes out the window.
#8
This may also be tied to al-Qaeda's threat to Japan if it helps us in Iraq.
All of Japan, including Okinawa, is probably pretty worried, given both the NorKs and al-Q affiliates in south east Asia. My guess is that they don't want to be collateral damage in an attack on the US presence there.
Of course, all the behavior that comes when troops have been stationed in a foreign place without the threat of immediate combat ... well, that hasn't helped either.
#10
I think a few of them might be morning regrets rather than rapes but everytime it happens everyone gets in an uproar and logic goes out the window.
That's the rub - is rape being defined the way it is here in the U.S.? If it is, I haven't heard it mentioned here in the news. After all, rape is a serious matter, and given that U.S. service personnel are involved, could potentially be a big deal. But there's nary a peep about it, on broadcast news or in the newspaper.
#11
BEING STATIONED IN OKINAWA I HAVE SEEN IT ALL, THE OKINAWINS NEEDS US THERE, THE PLACE IS A DUMP,WE HAVE HELP THEM REBUILD, IN MY OPINION, WE SHOULD HAVE NEVER GIVEN THE ISLAND BACK, THEY ARE LUCKY WE EVEN DID. BEGGERS CAN NOT BE CHOOSEY.
A trapped bluebottle circled the conference room, flying lazily towards the tall windows through which New Yorkâs East River could be seen. It flew over the chair where the representative for the International Organisation for Migration sat fiddling with his UN, Japanese-made, ergonomically designed earpiece, passed over the African Union and Commonwealth Secretariat and settled somewhere by the Holy Seeâs seat. Thereâs a bug! A bug!
Outside, it was a cold New York day. Inside, where these members of the UNâs Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural matters) gathered, the room was bathed in a comfy buzz of wellbeing, engendered when like-minded people gather together. The topic last week in Conference Room 1 of the UN was human rights in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo - a part of the world where human rights are fulfilled by simply waking up alive and where democratic republics are anything but. The UN Special Rapporteur found no improvement in Burundi. Children were still being recruited as soliders; mass rape had increased and now was aimed at young boys as well as girls. The latter was "a new phenomenon", said Rapporteur Ms Keita-Bocoum. In neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, where three million people have died in the past five years of fighting, another UN Special Rapporteur described it as the "worst human rights situation in the world". She footnoted a special concern for the unlucky children named as "sorcerers", who were maimed or killed for their witchcraft. It was business as usual. Before the early break for Ramadan, Burkina Faso, the Congo and Zimbabwe co-sponsored human rights resolutions. Sudan introduced one. The atmosphere remained clubby and cordial as the Ambassador of Israel came to the microphone to present a resolution on behalf of Israeli children. "Treat us like you would treat anyone else in such a bind!"
Ambassadors donât normally present resolutions at committee level, but since Israel had not presented one since 1978 (and that was withdrawn after the Syrians tied its future to negotiations with the PLO), it was a bit of a first. The Israeli resolution was a mirror copy of one sponsored by Egypt and passed (88-4, 58 abstentions) in the General Assembly three weeks earlier, underlining the need to protect the rights of Palestinian children. That resolution was a bit of a first, too: no other group of children had been singled out for protection by the UN - not the child soldiers in Burundi, not the raped and mutilated girls and boys of the Congo, nor children in any other of the worldâs impoverished or warring nations. By tacit agreement, children have always been considered universally at the UN.
They're also considered in the abstract, not as human beings. The Masses⢠do have it tough: no faces, no real lives, just concepts floating like little disembodied spirits around the chandelier of a conference room...
The delegates were polite as Ambassador Dan Gillerman spoke. He asked for security for Israeli, Palestinian and all children of the world. He spoke of a "false reality" that pretends one side has a monopoly on victim status. He wished, he said, to prevent the blatant exercise of a double-standard in the UN. He mentioned the deliberate bombing of discos, pizza parlours and school buses, almost exclusively used by children. When he finished, the session chairman did not ask the names of co-sponsors for the Israeli resolution. Because there were none.
Naturally...
A discussion followed. The Syrian delegate strenuously opposed assistance of Israeli children and said the resolution was procedurally wrong. The Palestinian Authorityâs lady complained that the Israelis had "copied" their resolution. The situation of Palestinian children was "unique" she said â which it may well be, since most children of the world are not used as human shields for terrorist camps or encouraged to be suicide bombers so their pictures can be put up in grocery stores as "martyrs". "And everyone knows Jews are spawn of Iblis."
It is as if British children in the Second World War had not been evacuated to the countryside but rather placed around the War Office and anti-aircraft embankments. Afterwards, the PA lady conferenced earnestly for 20 minutes with a French delegate over procedurally thwarting the Israeli resolution so it would not come to a vote. The bluebottle returned to the most heated part of the committee room.
Now, what was it that draws flies? I forget...
The session ended with a report by the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, John Dugard, on "human rights in the Palestinian territories since 1967". Mr Dugard, who had been a courageous campaigner against apartheid, missed out when jobs were given away in the new South Africa and lost election to the International Criminal Court. Without apartheid to fight, he has demonised Israel to fill the gap. This transference of all ills to Israelâs doorstep is a psychiatric condition common in, though not confined to, members of the UN.
That's because they deal in concepts...
Down the hall, in Conference Room 2, the Second Committee (Economics and Finance) was discussing "the permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people over their natural resources", or how to stop thuggish Israel looting them. The Fourth Committee (special Political and Decolonisation committee) regularly considers the atrocities of Israelis in their role as imperialist running dogs. Unesco, Unicef and UNRWA spend much of their time visiting Israel and condemning it. The General Assembly, unable to pass a single resolution condemning Palestinian terrorism, routinely condemns Israel and calls emergency sessions especially for the purpose. "Heil Haman!"
The reality of the Middle East is that the very right of the Jews to not be considered trash existence of Israel is considered a nakba â a catastrophe. This being so, the Israeli Ambassador could present a resolution recommending all people be encouraged to breathe â and it would be unacceptable to that part of the world. Does the UN matter? Only insofar as the record matters. Certain things must be done not because they will make a difference but to set the record straight. This week, Third Committee delegates will consider deleting anti-Semitism from the new UNHCR resolution on racial and religious intolerance, thus giving new life to old canards.
Consider the bell curve. While half of everything is below average, by definition, empirically 80 percent of everything fits into the middle of the curve, with ten percent being at the very low end and ten percent being at the very high end. When applied to the UN, that means that 90 percent of everything ranges from middlin' to downright evil...
The UN is not furnished luxuriously, but it is a congenial place. Sitting in one of its lounges, sipping an iced chai latte, one could see the irony of the situation. If the Arab world has any legitimate case against Israel, it is not the occupied territories, which are in Israeli hands only because of wars the Arabs launched. It is what they see as the initial injustice behind the Jewish stateâs founding. The worldâs response to the Nazi holocaust and centuries of European persecution of Jews â including Tsarist-inspired pogroms and, indeed, French anti-Semitism, whose Dreyfus Affair inspired Theodor Herzlâs Zionism â was to give away a slice of Arab Muslim land to the Jews. While one fully appreciates the Jewsâ historical and religious connection to the land of Zion, it must be said that insofar as the Arab case has any persuasive merit, it is on this initial point. But the Arabs have had a great revenge. They have taken over the very body that was responsible for this â the United Nations â with the hope that the organisation that created the injustice may well be the instrument of its undoing. And that, as the bluebottle on the wall could tell you, is a story that has not unfolded yet.
And, yes. I've recalled what it is that draws flies.
Posted by: Atrus ||
11/17/2003 9:21:05 AM ||
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Another example of why the UN is in-effective. It's been over-run with Arabs wanting to destroy everything non-muslim. Great article Atrus, thanks.
Posted by: Charles ||
11/17/2003 12:53 Comments ||
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...considers the atrocities of Israelis in their role as imperialist running dogs.
Did the North Korean delegate speak out of turn or something?
#3
I disagree. I read this whole article amazed that it would actually be positive towards Israel because it has all the earmarks of typical NPR and BBC propaganda. The bottle fly, the lazy afternoon..etc. In fact, this exact same writing style of anti-US/Israel propaganda is so damn common it makes me wonder if there isn't just one writer who churns this stuff out from 8-5 M-F.
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's just good writing..NOT! My suspicions are vindicated at the end.
The purpose of this article is to not to be fair to Israel, but to get us to relax..enjoy the image...say something nice we can all agree on. But somewhere they always slip in something that is just patently false and expect we will be relaxed enough to accept the lie.
Here is the lie:
"While one fully appreciates the Jewsâ historical and religious connection to the land of Zion, it must be said that insofar as the Arab case has any persuasive meritit is on this initial point. "
UM.....Excuse me? I don't think so!.
And here the writer can barely contain his glee at what he sees as the future for Israel
"But the Arabs have had a great revenge. They have taken over the very body that was responsible for this - the United Nations - with the hope that the organisation that created the injustice may well be the instrument of its undoing. And that, as the bluebottle on the wall could tell you, is a story that has not unfolded yet. "
This is not a nice thought. This is glee in the "great revenge". The discredited UN gaveth and (isn't it just such sweet irony) that the discredited UN will taketh away.
The premise of this piece of propaganda is to push the lie that the Arab's beef with Israel's existence has "actual merit" and that it's fitting that the UN will be the ones to eventually take it away from them. All the rest of the adjectives and true statements are just BS to get you to be in an agreeable mood when the lie is presented.
Posted by: B ||
11/17/2003 13:54 Comments ||
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B your good. Israel, the fly in the ointment. Arabs have taken their death oath about Israel and with their wealth are pedaling it worldwide.
EFL & Sh*ts and Giggles!
Retired general Wesley Clark warned Sunday that the failure to capture Saddam Hussein was likely to undermine any new Iraqi government. And he said it was important to capture Saddam alive so he could be tried for war crimes. This guy is brilliant! General Obvious Clark was later overheard declaring that the: âInternet would soon revolutionize the information ageâ. He continued, "I hear this email thing is really cool!"
Clark said he hadnât seen the evidence of Saddamâs war crimes, a comment that prompted adviser Chris Lehane to slip him a folded note. "You should make clear that Saddam is a bad guy," the note read. Clark glanced at the note but didnât return to the topic. Lahane was heard whispering: "Psst...Weasley, Stop! You are making a fool of yourself!" To which the little General responded: "No really, email is cool."
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
11/17/2003 8:48:41 AM ||
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Clark said he hadnât seen the evidence of Saddamâs war crimes
300,000 in mass graves?
Use of gas against Kurds and Iran?
Perfidy in the Gulf War and in this war?
All the weapons stored in hospitals?
Clark wants to be president, and he's THAT poorly informed? Or doesn't he consider any of that "war crimes"? Either way...
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/17/2003 9:10 Comments ||
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I've said it before but I like it so much I'll say it again.
Ensign Wesley Crusher is smarter, a better leader, more visionary and has better experience than General Wesley Clark.
#4
Clark said he hadnât seen the evidence of Saddamâs war crimes
..and what pray tell did he see of "evidence" of Milosevic's ethnic cleansing before Nato went into Kosovo? Was it much more conclusive, clearer and objective than what we have been seeing, hearing, finding since 1991 in Iraq and Kuwait?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
11/17/2003 11:06 Comments ||
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I thought this guy was a Rhodes Scholar? Or is that a ROADS SCHOLAR - Retired On Active Duty Service.......bwhahahahaha
#6
They are trying to do the same thing with Iraq that they are with the War on Terror. Ever notice the longer we go without a terrorist attack in the US the more they LLL's scream about not catching OBL? They are trying to turn the WoT into the WoOBL. As Iraq becomes more stable the screams for Saddam will become shriller as they attempt to turn the War on Iraq into the Hunt for Saddam. Predictable.
#8
They are trying to turn the WoT into the WoOBL.
Yep; they've been trying to make the scope of the war as small as possible since the first US bomb fell in Afghanistan. The smaller it is, the less the threat; the less the threat, the less need for it to be a national priority.
Unfortunately, the more we act like it's a small problem, the less likely we are to succeed.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/17/2003 12:54 Comments ||
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Weasley's right, and I think it's high time he acted like the decisive leader he claims to be. He should take his campaign staff to Iraq and personally hunt down Saddam Hussein.
#10
I watched his interview with Chris Mathews this weekend. He changed his story so many times I had trouble figuring out what side he was on. Near as I can tell he is against the war unless we have every from the Pope to Kim Jong Il sign off on it. And then only after we are sure that the other side will give up without a fight.
President Bushâs reversal from unilateralism to multilateralism was entirely predictable. He is merely following the internationalist principles that guide his administration. This article makes me very uneasy. What do others think?
ââUnilateralism!" "Cowboy diplomacy!" Clintonites and other denizens of the one-world Left had been using such expressions to vent their outrage over President George W. Bushâs foreign policy long before he launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the March 19 invasion of Iraq started a new round of hyperventilating by the fervid internationalist choir. The president was undoing the multilateralist world order set up after World War II, they wailed. He was scorning and undermining the United Nations, they declaimed.
I believe the phrase was "get on board or get out of the way"...
Many American patriots, on the other hand, were elated. Finally an American president was standing up to the UN and putting Americaâs security and well-being first. Shame on the UN! Shame on the Frenchies, Germans, Russians and other fair-weather friends who opposed our retribution on Saddam for the 9-11 terror atrocities! The radio waves crackled with jubilant hurrahs from the Rush Limbaugh-Sean Hannity-Ollie North end of the broadcast dial. Rush-bots and Bush-bots exulted: Hurray for President Bush and America First, go-it-alone unilateralism!
And some of us think Bush is simply doing the right thing, no suspension of disbelief required. So what's yer point?
On March 7, just a couple weeks before our troops entered Iraq, I received a telephone call from one of these newly elated patriots. An old friend and a longtime subscriber to THE NEW AMERICAN, "Joe" was calling to see if I was aware of the good news. "Did you hear Bush last night?" he asked excitedly, referring to the presidentâs March 6 press conference. "Boy, wasnât that fantastic?" Joe continued along these lines. (Iâm recounting this conversation from notes, not precise quotes from tapes.) "He really blasted the UN, didnât he?" enthused Joe. "Did you hear the thunderous applause he got from that? Now, is THE NEW AMERICAN going to be willing to admit it was wrong about Bush being a pro-UN internationalist?"
Or even worse, a pragmatist?
I assured Joe that we would be supremely delighted to find ourselves wrong in this case. Unfortunately, the presidentâs rhetoric notwithstanding, we had found no reason to issue mea culpas yet. Joe was dumbstruck. "What? You canât be serious!" he exclaimed. According to Joe, George Bush had just dealt the UN its death blow. Bush had completely exposed and discredited the world body. This is the first time, said Joe, that he could recall hearing people on the street, in the office, and on talk radio all saying we ought to get out of the UN. "Thatâs what you guys have been calling for for years," Joe exclaimed. "Iâd think youâd be ecstatic."
Or not. Sometimes people travel in the same direction without being headed for the same place...
There will be ecstasy aplenty, I explained, once President Bush signs legislation ending our participation in, and cutting off funding for, the UN and all of its subversive agencies and activities. But I cautioned him not to hold his breath while waiting for that glorious day to come. Far from leading a U.S. withdrawal from the UN, Bush has repeatedly praised the UN and restated his support for it. "Of course! He has to say things like that to show he is for the things the UN claims to be for â like peace," Joe, the elated patriot, explained. "But he has made it clear to the UN and the âinternational communityâ that we donât need their permission to defend ourselves."
We've been occasionally profuse with our praise of Pakland, too. I don't think anyone doubts that Bush realizes the truth about it. Some of the UN's functions are valid and legitimate. Some aren't. I don't think Bush believes in a "world government," but neither does he believe in an inalienable right of nations to do terrible things to each other without some sort of accounting...
The president had indeed sounded a welcome note of sovereign defiance. His biggest applause line on March 6 was his declaration that "when it comes to our security, if we need to act, we will act. And we really donât need United Nations approval to do so." Bravo! Well said! This was followed a few seconds later with a bold reiteration proclaiming that "when it comes to our security, we really donât need anybodyâs permission." More rapturous applause. "You should be rejoicing," my friend continued. As he saw it, it was goodbye Clinton UN multilateralism and hello Bush America-First unilateralism.
Except that Bush's "unilaterialism" isn't the same thing as the Birchies' idea of "unilaterism."
"I think you are going to be very disappointed," I told Joe. Despite President Bushâs go-it-alone bluster, I explained, the president had shown repeatedly, by deed as well as word, that he is a solid UN multilateralist, an inveterate internationalist. That he is actually leading the effort to strengthen the UN.
I think he's leading the effort to make the UN do what it was set up to do, which wasn't to set up a "world government," but also equally not to be an international debating society noted for its inefficiency, nepotism, and graft...
I pointed out that sandwiched in between the presidentâs March 6 remarks about not needing UN approval or permission was this statement by Bush: "I want the United Nations to be effective. Itâs important for it to be a robust, capable body." This was a repeat of similar statements heâd made dozens of times in various speeches, such as:
⢠"The conduct of the Iraqi regime is a threat to the authority of the United Nations...."
⢠"Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast aside without consequence?"
⢠"We want the resolutions of the worldâs most important multilateral body to be enforced."
⢠"I want the United Nations to be effective.... It makes sense for there to be an international body that has got the backbone and the capacity to help keep the peace."
⢠"The message to the world is that we want the U.N. to succeed."
⢠"America will be making only one determination: is Iraq meeting the terms of the Security Council resolution or not?... If Iraq fails to fully comply, the United States and other nations will disarm Saddam Hussein."
⢠"Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?"
President Bush wants the UN to be relevant! Over and over again, he has called for the UN to exercise authority that conservatives in the past always have argued the UN should never have. He has taken a very revolutionary stand that argues for vastly empowering the UN Security Council. He has time after time criticized the UN for being too weak and has called â implicitly and explicitly â for making it stronger. But by making it appear that this is serving Americaâs national interest, he has disarmed those who normally would oppose such a radical shift in U.S. policy.
Paleoconservatives see the UN as a bogeyman, to be feared for itself, because it threatens American sovreignty. Another end of the political spectrum sees the UN as an end in itself, its very existence a good and civilizing influence on the world, regardless of whether it ever does anything of substance. Bush and Rice and Powell, I believe, see the UN as a tool, not as an end. It's a method for sovreign nations to work out their differences and deal with problems without resorting to war. It's been a much more effective tool than its predecessor League of Nations was, but it's not a powerful tool â that's a feature, not a bug. If it was a powerful tool, then it would be a "world government," and despite the movement toward multilateralism in the past 100 years the world's not ready for that, and may never be. It's dependant on the cooperation of its member states to resolve those problems it's supposed to deal with. If they don't cooperate, as Iraq didn't, as NKor and Iran aren't, then it's forced to do something. If the Security Council â designed to be a check on the General Assembly â can't agree because of the clash of spheres of influence, then the body itself is rendered ineffective. Even if it can agree, the tools available to the UN are also by design limited. Other than Korea, made possible by the walkout of the Soviet UNSC member, I can't think of another war that's actually been sanctioned by the UN.
An indication of how radical the Bush position on the UN is can be seen from the alarming compliments the president has gotten from the likes of Robert Wright. Professor Wright, an avowed advocate of world government, notes that Bush has given the UN "a prominence it has rarely enjoyed in its 57-year history." "In fact," said Wright in a New York Times piece earlier this year, "there remains a slim chance that the president could, however paradoxically, emerge as a historic figure in the United Nationsâ own evolution toward enduring significance." Wright noted that "if Nixon could go to China, President Bush can go through New York." The Bush administrationâs pressure on the UN to enforce its resolutions is making it easier for the UN to claim the authority to do so, and to call on the U.S. to provide it with the military muscle to do just that. By leading the charge on this issue, Bush is making it more difficult for fellow Republicans to oppose UN empowerment â just as, decades earlier, Nixonâs trip to Beijing made it more difficult for fellow Republicans to oppose opening U.S. relations with Communist China.
Bush's castigation of the UN for being ineffectual also points out the weaknesses in the body. If he desired, he could make it totally irrelevant. My personal opinion is that it's time for it to be replaced by an ever-so-slightly more effective body, but his could be different â the UN has its uses, and he sees a bigger picture than I do, or than the writer does. But the body as constituted could be more effective than it is, and I think Bush's words were a wakeup call to Kofi and Co. I also don't think they listened.
George W. Bush has implemented many other concrete steps to expand the UNâs power and influence. In launching Operation Iraqi Freedom he did not seek a congressional declaration of war, as the Constitution requires; like his father in Desert Storm, he has cited UN resolutions for his authority. It is George W. Bush â not Clinton â who has pressured Congress into paying the UN back dues. It is Mr. Bush who has gotten Congress to pony up billions of dollars more for the UNâs AIDS program and other UN programs like the UN Millennium Challenge Account, the World Bank, etc. It is President Bush who has taken us back into UNESCO, one of the worst UN agencies, after weâd been out of it for 20 years and three administrations. "Mark my words," I told Joe, "you will witness a great reversal in Iraq." I predicted that after "unilateralist" President Bush had sent several hundred thousand U.S. troops into Iraq in another undeclared war, and after the cost of occupation began to mount â in lives and tens of billions of dollars â we would then see "multilateralist" Bush going hat in hand to seek help from the UN and all its anti-American critics. The Iraq venture would end up humiliating the United States, elevating the UN and convincing millions more Americans that independence in security and foreign policy is no longer tenable. It would mark a great advance for "collective security" under the UN.
This is something of an oversimplification, seen through ideological blinders, if the diplomacy that's been going on since last April. Bush is doing the pragmatist thing with the UN, with the International Communityâ¢, and one-on-one with our allies and adversaries. In many respects it is a multilateralist world, as we're discovering as we're forced to pay through the nose to rebuild Iraq. If the UN was an effective organization it would be be safe to turn the rebuilding process over to it. France-Germany-Russia prefer the body to remain the way it is, so everything has to be done one-on-one in the end.
"Not possible," said Joe, still emotionally high from the effects of the presidentâs speech. Bush, he insisted, had caused too great a rupture in UN-U.S. relations, and in our relations with France, Germany and other false allies. "The problem with you," my friend declared, "is that youâve been against everything for so long you canât believe it when things start going right. Mark my words, the UN is toast!"
I think I used those words myself a few months ago â with the caveat that it was toast if Bush wanted it to be.
Not long ago a decidedly unelated Joe called to unbosom himself of a growing unease over President Bushâs new multilateralism. He had read the transcript of President Bushâs September 23 address to the UN General Assembly. Particularly galling was the presidentâs statement that "America is working with friends and allies on a new Security Council resolution, which will expand the U.N.âs role in Iraq." The UN, said Bush, "should assist in developing a constitution, in training civil servants, and conducting free and fair elections." Could the president really be serious, Joe wondered? "Where has the UN ever conducted free and fair elections or developed a constitution worth a d***?" he asked. Unfortunately, the president is serious indeed. And if more Americans do not prevail on their congressmen to halt his reborn multilateralism, we will be skidding downhill fast.
Bush was being conciliatory, handing the UN some fairly innocuous tasks â the sort of tasks the body was envisioned as handling. No, they don't do them very well. But try and think of something else for them to do. International politics is a game of give and take â he had to give something, and what he gave was probably as little as he could get away with...
Paul Robinson, assistant director for the Centre for Security Studies at the University of Hull in England, offered a very sobering analysis of the Bush-Iraq venture in the October 18 issue of the London Spectator. "[T]he United Nations, far from being humiliated by recent events, could well emerge invigorated," wrote Robinson shortly after the Bush administration appealed to the Security Council for material and military aid in Iraq. "The more America has to backtrack and summon help from the UN, the more it will be the latter which will be seen as the winner in the power struggle between the two.... The Americans have had to go back to the UN this week to get a resolution to bail them out in Iraq. Having declared the UN âirrelevant,â they have now discovered that they cannot manage without it."
It's so tiresome. The one crows from one side, the other crows from the other. It's not that the truth lies somewhere in the middle â it's that the truth is more complicated and more intricate than either of them acknowledges.
In sum, the results of the war in Iraq will probably be the very opposite of those for which it was launched. The fires of terrorism will be fuelled, not quenched; Iraq will not be a beacon of Western liberalism transforming the Middle East but a bankrupt maelstrom of discontent; efforts to create a new power bloc to counter America will not fade away but redouble; the legitimacy of the United Nations will not be weakened but strengthened; and the constraints on American power will be tightened, not removed.
That's right. Nothing but woe and misery in our future. Better to have stayed home, poring over our geneaologies and recounting the glories of our ancestors. How can so many people, all of them putatively intelligent, make the assumpting that Bush is fighting the war without a strategy? How can they assume that the achievement of the goals set up along the way is going to lead to peaches and creme and the huzzahs of a grateful populace? Each and every time we achieve one of our goals the Bad Guys are going to attempt to counterattack and throw us back. They're going to try and take the bones out of our mouths before we get the chance to gnaw them. The diplomatic and political wars are being just as hard-fought as the military war.
Robinsonâs analysis is fairly accurate, except for his assumption that the negative results are the opposite of those intended by the Bush administrationâs internationalists. My colleague, William Norman Grigg, writing months before Robinson, called it more accurately, I believe. In "Same Ends, Different Means" (published in the March 24 issue of this magazine shortly before the beginning of the most recent war with Iraq), Grigg observed: "The president and his subordinates have made their intent transparently clear: The impending war on, or occupation of, Iraq is intended to carry out the UN Security Councilâs mandates, not to protect our nation or to punish those responsible for the September 11th attack. The war would uphold the UNâs supposed authority and vindicate its role as a de facto world government." In a subsequent article ("Baghdad Bait-and-Switch," June 30), Grigg warned that the protracted occupation of Iraq would result in "a steady and worsening hemorrhage of national power, wealth, and prestige," leading to a situation in which "American servicemen and their families, weary of the burden of empire, would eagerly embrace transferring that burden to the UN" â a radically empowered UN boasting its own standing military.
That's one possible outcome. I wouldn't put it into the "most probable" category, though.
In pursuing this course, George W. Bush is following the internationalist inclinations that guide him and his coterie of advisers and handlers. As the presidential election of 2000 was entering its climactic weeks, the September/October 2000 issue of Foreign Affairs clued in its multilateralist reading audience not to take George Bushâs unilateralist utterances too seriously. James M. Lindsay of the left-wing, one-world Brookings Institution noted in that issue that "both Al Gore and George W. Bush are internationalists by inclination...." Foreign Affairs is the weighty journal of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the group that has been in the forefront of promoting UN one-worldism and world government for the past 80-plus years.
Them and the Illuminati and the Learned Elders of Zion. And the Masons...
I'm not too sure how Scowcroft and Kissinger got on the list â neither is part of the administration. Nor is Schultz. Zakheim is CFO of DoD, so I don't know what the beef is with him.
They knew for certain that the new Bush administration would end up taking a pro-UN, multilateralist course â even if it had to march under a false America First, unilateralist banner, in order to get patriots like Joe onto the one-world bandwagon. Unfortunately, too many Joes still donât realize theyâre being taken for a ride.
When Walt Kelly parodied the John Birch Society in Pogo, he named them the Jack Acid Society. Gosh, I miss Pogo.
Posted by: tipper. ||
11/17/2003 8:02:14 AM ||
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#1
This article makes me very uneasy.
This magazine and its origins make me uneasy. Nothing good can come from the John Birch Society.
#2
What I think is that this is utter nonsense, published by people who have a long history of seeing vast, anti-American global conspiracies everywhere they look. All you're going to achieve by continuing to listen to these idiots is to get yourself completely, thoroughly confused.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
11/17/2003 8:29 Comments ||
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TV or Not TV? Not!
TV programming is designed to shepherd viewers into compromising their values. To preserve freedom, Americans should severely limit or entirely eliminate their TV viewing.
#4
Joe stupid thought he was a patriot. But is he really???? Even though it "appears", on the surface, that Bush has taken appropriate unilateral actions - it's all just a evil ruse designed to fool the Joe-stupid's of the world. Underneath the happy surface lurks a dark and sinister plot. BWwahhhahhahha.
This is your basic enlightenment of "Joe" stupid. The only thing missing are the sounds clips of Joe-stupid driving a pickup truck, opening a beer can and the babies cooing/crying in the background as he speaks.
#5
Brought to you by the people who still think President Eisenhower was a Communist.Rantburg shouldn't be a dumping ground for the mentally deranged,whether it's the DU or the black-helicopter squad.
Posted by: El Id ||
11/17/2003 9:40 Comments ||
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#6
Opppps, John Birch Society!
Didn't realise
Us Aussies are shielded too much out here.
By way of extenuating circumstances, I got the link from LGF
#8
I thought it was interesting. I hardly even realized the Jack Acid Society was still around.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2003 12:03 Comments ||
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#9
I got to reading the site for 'New American' when I was getting into Conservatism.After a while,I realised they were just a bunch of bitter,paranoid kooks.Look closely,Ted Rall and Michael Moore,for this your future.
Posted by: El Id ||
11/17/2003 12:18 Comments ||
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#10
oops...just reread my post and think it sounds like I was insulting tipper. I didn't mean to imply tipper was being enlightened...just pointing out the propaganda technique of using a ficticious straw man who sees the light.
As in all propaganda pieces, they are most effective when they contain a kernel of truth..as this one does. I too feel uncomfortable with the money we give to an organization that constantly undermines us. So, I think Tipper's worry is valid. But it's a difficult political line that Bush has to walk on the UN issue and this piece is just an attempt to hurt him politically by making the "newly elated patriots" believe that perhaps his motives are far more sinister and evil than they appear on the surface.
Posted by: B ||
11/17/2003 12:40 Comments ||
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#11
I hardly even realized the Jack Acid Society was still around.
And so is Lyndon LaRouche, the Left's answer to John Birch. Got accosted by one of his minions last month doing a 'survey' of some sort. He got pretty ticked off when I asked him if L.L. would be out of prison by the time the Democratic convention. End of that survey.
#14
liberalhawk, I'm pretty sure he got the link from a COMMENT, not from one of Charle's posts.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/17/2003 13:26 Comments ||
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#15
I know a guy who reads the New American religiously.
He also owns 100 guns, lives in a barricaded compound complete with bunkers and slit trenches, and refuses to get on the 'net for fear of gummint-spying.
Slightly EFL
A Palestinian terrorist leader yesterday called on fellow Islamic extremists to attack only Israel and American targets, and stay out of internal Arab politics. In rare public criticism of other militants, Khaled Mashaal, the head of the Hamas political office in Damascus, echoed popular anger in the Arab world at the suicide bombers who killed 17 people, mostly Muslim Arabs, in an attack on a residential compound in Riyadh earlier this month. "Whoever wants to fight, there are two arenas — they can choose one of them," said Mashaal during a speech in Beirut, referring to Iraq and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. "These are the arenas for legitimate violence . . . [or] resistance against invaders and occupiers. We should not occupy ourselves with side battles, no matter what the motives and intentions are." Attacks on Saudi targets amounted to Islamist "tampering with our checkbook internal peace and security", he said. "This is not the arena for military confrontation." Mashaalâs comments reveal the unseen tensions within the Islamist movement. Whereas Palestinian militants seek the help of Arab regimes to help them to attack Israeli targets, groups affiliated to al-Qaâeda seek to attack America and its Arab allies. Mashaal offered firm backing for those attacking American troops in Iraq and mocked President George W Bush. The American leader had "thought Iraq was a bite that would be easy to swallow, to be followed by Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt," he said. "But the Iraqi bite proved to be a tough one to swallow and America choked on it."
Posted by: Bulldog ||
11/17/2003 5:36:23 AM ||
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#1
he needs a lead headache....target of opportunity
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/17/2003 10:00 Comments ||
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"Attacks on Saudi targets amounted to Islamist "tampering with our internal peace and security", he said. "This is not the arena for military confrontation.""
Hamas discouraging attacks on Soddy. Surprise meter at zero.
More than 18 people were killed and 25 wounded in fighting between rival clans in central Somalia on Friday, residents said on Saturday.
"Yeeeee-haw!"
The fighting pitted fighters of the Dir clan against varmints from enemies in the Marehan clan at Xeraale village in Galgudud region 500 km north of the capital Mogadishu. Mohamed Osman Awad, a Dir elder, told Reuters the fighting stemmed from disputes over land and unspecified acts of dire revenge™. Residents reported sporadic gunfire in the area on Saturday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/17/2003 2:02:59 AM ||
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#1
Maybe yes, maye no. I expect a lot of people got swept up in the round up who's only connection to al-Qaida was the Bin Laden trading cards in their wallet.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/17/2003 10:08 Comments ||
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That party sounds like a real wicked pissa.....good to know their revenge killings are only benefitting the gene pool ;)
The leader of the Chechen extremists, Aslan Maskhadov, whose bandit groups are not in a position to offer serious resistance to the federal forces, has declared his intention to create a so-called "Independent Highland Ichkeria", ITAR-TASS was told today by telephone by the spokesman for the regional operational headquarters of the counterterrorist operation in the North Caucasus, Col Ilya Shabalkin. "This idea of Maskhadovâs is being promoted at the moment by his representatives abroad, who include the former warlord Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev. On each convenient occasion he appears at different human rights meetings with a new idea to propagate," Shabalkin said. It is with this in mind, said the head of the press service of the Combined Force in the North Caucasus, Vasiliy Panchenkov, that the rebels are organizing bases and arsenals in the foothills and mountains of Chechnya. In the last two days alone, Panchenkov said, Combined Force sub-units have located and destroyed in this area around 10 rebel caches and bases. "The largest of these were discovered near the settlements of Komsomolskoye, Mayrtup, Shatoy, Vedeno and Benoy," Panchenkov explained. As Col Shabalkin noted, the rebels are pursuing the creation of an "Independent Highland Ichkeria" through their customary methods — by robbing and plundering the local population from whom they take foodstuffs and warm clothing in order to get them through the winter in the highland districts of Chechnya. "Yesterday in the village of Tazbichi in Itum-Kalinskiy District supporters of Maskhadov carried out robberies on local people, taking food and warm clothing," Shabalkin said. ITAR-TASS is state-run, IIRC. Whoâd have thought it?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/17/2003 2:01:08 AM ||
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Chechen rebel president Aslan Maskhadov is planning to set up an independent entity in the republicâs southern mountains while giving up the plains, a senior Russian military official in the region said on Sunday.
Maskhadov, who was elected president in Russiaâs turbulent southern republic in January 1997, "is ready to give up the flatlands to the federal authorities and have the mountains for himself," Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for Russian armed forces in the Northern Caucasus, told the Interfax news agency. The rebel leader is seeking in this way "to save his post as president of the non-existent Ichkeria (the Chechen name for the southern republic) in the eyes of the world community," Shabalkin said.
I believe this is what used to be known as a bandit's moutain fastness. We're talking robber barons and impregnable fortresses here...
Maskhadovâs mandate â initially recognised by Moscow but later contested â expired in January 2002, and last month Moscow organised a controversial presidential election in Chechnya in which the chief pro-Russian administrator, Akhmad Kadyrov, became president under a new constitution. The poll was widely perceived as rigged. Some 30,000 Russian troops permanently stationed in Chechnya since Moscow intervened militarily four years ago were allowed to vote on the same footing as local residents. Maskhadovâs plan has no future, Shabalkin said. The rebel leader "is also ready to accept Ichkeriaâs membership in the Russian Federation as an autonomous entity.
Sounds like the Bandido-Kabardino Autonomous Region...
"The federal authorities will not even discuss this plan, let alone accept it."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/17/2003 1:59:03 AM ||
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AFP is hoping itâs true, too.
The al-Qaeda terrorist network said it will carry out an attack in Tokyo if Japan sends troops to join the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, Agence France-Presse said, citing a statement sent to an Arabic-language magazine. al-Q operatives might find it a bit hard to operate in downtown Tokyo.
``Our strikes will reach the heart of Tokyo,ââ AFP said, citing an e-mailed statement sent by Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj to the London-based weekly terrorist front magazine al-Majallah.
Aren't all those turbans going to stick out in downtown Tokyo? And Japanese normally don't roll their eyes. It's a cultural thing...
``If they want to destroy their economic power and be trampled under the feet of the combatants of Allah, let them come to Iraq.ââ Al-Ablaj was identified as an al-Qaeda operative who is in regular contact with the magazine, AFP said. What -- no sea of fire?
Japan is considering sending 550 members of its Self-Defense Force to Iraq. The government said it may delay the deployment until next year after increasing attacks in Iraq, including last weekâs bombing at an Italian military base in the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah. Now is when we need you.
Al-Qaeda was responsible for the attack in Nasiriyah, al-Ablaj said in his statement to the magazine, according to AFP. The terrorist network said it was behind attacks on Saturday at two synagogues in Turkey that killed at least 23 people, AFP said, citing a statement sent to the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi. Sure would be nice if the rest of the Western world would wake up.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/17/2003 12:35:03 AM ||
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/be trampled under the feet of the combatants of Allah
ROTFLMAO!
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/17/2003 1:00 Comments ||
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I thought Japan either busted a cell or is keeping careful watch.
#3
Uh-oh. They're coming to my neighborhood. I think they'll have a hard time smuggling explosives or weapons into Tokyo without some local connection - I doubt the Yakuza would work with them knowingly. I don't doubt that they could (or already do) have a cell with operatives here. There are a lot of South Asians (mostly Indians) in my neighborhood. Plenty of Turks and a smattering of Iranians elsewhere. Pakistani or Arab terrorists would have an easy time avoiding detection in Tokyo. The U.S. embassy is near my office and under tight security as are other U.S. interests. But there are plenty of other soft targets. The problem is I know that a large percentage of the Japanese population will be greatly intimidated by al-Qaida threats. I think their mentality is changing after growing weary of N. Korean threats. But they still have a long way to go and most people know nothing of Islamic Terrorism and don't want to court its wrath.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro ||
11/17/2003 1:35 Comments ||
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I lived in Japan for three years and I think al-Q is under estimating the capability of the Japanese to go medieval on them. A attack by a external enemy would unite them as nothing else. There would be a roundup of islamic immigrants with the full approval of the population and mass expulsions. They wouldn't be able to disappear into the masses like the domestic terrorists do.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/17/2003 8:39 Comments ||
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be trampled under the feet of the combatants of Allah
So, the Japanese are going to circle behind them? Dangerous place to be as the "combatants of Allah" run from battle so they can get back to their preferred killing of women and children.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/17/2003 8:47 Comments ||
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RC, you beat me to it. I was going to make a witty remark about how it's never a good idea to stand behind an Arab. Damn you, Mr Crawford, damn you.
TT, I hope the people of Japan, never have to learn first hand about Islamic Terror.
#8
I am sure that a great majority of Al-Q's statements are BS and are used to intimidate. They are going for soft targets now (e.g. Turkey and some in Saudi Arabia) to keep in the slimelight and not to appear to lose their relevance. The more terrorism that they do around the world, besides in the US, the more the world will eventually be mobilized to stomp them out. Responsible governments in the world must keep up the pressure. It is a shame that we cannot shut down Saudi Arabia right now, because the majority of Al Q related funding must come from there.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/17/2003 9:29 Comments ||
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Pissing off the Sons of the Heavenly Chrysanthemum is probably not a real bright move. They have this whole "honor" thing of their own, y'see, and tend to "kill and walk away"...
#10
The mutts from al qaeda don't want to fuck with business in Japan. Doing that means pissing off the yakuza, and they would have NO problem dismembering any and all muslims and serving them as sushimi.
The leader of a rebel group that includes fighters who participated in Rwandaâs 1994 genocide has surrendered to Rwandan government forces. Maj. Gen. Paul Rwarakabije, commander of the rebel Army for the Liberation of Rwanda, and 103 of his fighters surrendered to Rwandan government forces on Friday. ``We see clearly that the use of a gun is not the best solution,ââ Rwarakabije said after arriving in Kigali on Saturday aboard a Rwandan army helicopter. ``We have now decided that we can use peaceful means to solve any outstanding issues.ââ "Such as your extermination"
The surrender followed secret negotiations between the Rwandan army and the Congo-based rebel group, which includes ethnic Hutu fighters called the Interahamwe. Those fighters have been implicated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed more than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
11/17/2003 12:34:59 AM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
And I was drinking coffee, too. 
