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Page 1: WoT Operations
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
New Job for Osama
The Guardian enlisted him as a commentator!
Did they pay royalties?
Check the main site where he is listed right under George Monbiot.
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/06/2004 9:08:43 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's a fairly appropriate juxtaposition, I'd say...
Posted by: Fred || 01/06/2004 21:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Just when you think Al Guardian has hit rock bottom - they got out the drilling rig.
Posted by: A Jackson || 01/06/2004 23:35 Comments || Top||


Pit Bull attacks 3, survives shot to the head
Authorities are searching for the owner of a pit bull terrier that attacked two women and a man in Orange County Sunday and survived being shot in the head, according to Local 6 News.
"Honey? Was this hole in Fluffy's head before she ran away?"
Three women were walking in a neighborhood on Lee Avenue off Orange Blossom Trail near Lake Holden when they saw a dog, according to the report. The women reportedly attempted to pet the dog and it attacked. "I felt like a 2-year-old helpless child," victim Jamie Garner said. "The only thing I could do was cry and ask somebody, please get the dog off me. But everybody was scared to come out of the house."
"Harwood! There's a dog eating a woman out in front of the house!"
"On our lawn?"
"Ummm... No. It's on the Jones' lawn."
"Hmmph. They should do something about it."
The dog stopped attacking one woman and attacked another’s leg. "Four bite holes and a big gash on this leg — you can see all the way to my bone," Sabrina Harris told Local 6 News. Neighbors hit the dog with a stick and even shot it in the head, but the pit bull survived. The dog ran by 10 people and found another victim. "After he jumped on her, they got him away from her," a victim said. "He (then) found me. Come looking for me. And he dragged me from one point of the street to the next." Orange County Animal Control workers later captured the dog still roaming in the neighborhood with a visible gunshot wound to the head.
"Here, doggy-doggy-doggy! HOLY JEEZIS CHRIST!"
All three victims were transported to a local hospital with injuries from the dog. Two of the victims were released Sunday night. The dog was being evaluated by a veterinarian and will be quarantined for 10 days. Animal Control officials put up this sign letting the dog’s owner know he or she has until Jan. 9 to claim the dog.
"Bob? Is that Fluffy in that picture?"
"No, no! Fluffy doesn't have a hole through his head!"
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 12:30:25 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I saw on CNN.com yesterday that there is a campaign to rename Pit Bulls "New Yorkies" in an effort to diminish the negative stigma associated with Pit Bulls.

Yeah, that's the ticket! It's just a sweet, innocent little "New Yorkie" that mauled three people!
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 01/06/2004 13:01 Comments || Top||

#2  I fear the gun-toting, SUV driving pit bull that is in the mood for a hate crime.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/06/2004 13:25 Comments || Top||

#3  "But everybody was scared to come out of the house."

"Hey Maude, lookee at that. That dog is using that lady as a chew-toy."
"Sakes, Harold, aren't you going to go out there and DO something?"
"And end up like her? Besides, I get enough of that here at home."
[whack!]
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 13:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Well? Is anyone else going to cite this as a reason to change back to the .45, or am I going to have to do it?
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 01/06/2004 14:09 Comments || Top||

#5  a 12 Ga to the base of the skull would be as helpfull
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 14:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Could the dog's name be "Tyson"? That's just a guess, but probably a good one.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 15:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Speaking of which... where's BullDawg?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 16:23 Comments || Top||

#8  Not surprised at that.

A friend of mine is policemen who related his own dog story a few years ago. He went to arrest a drug dealer at his house. As he was walking through the front gate, the dealer come out to the front step and set the dog on him, a huge pit bull. My friend pulled his revolver out and shot six times into the dog. The first time the bullet bounced off the skull (furrowing it). The dog shook it off and started coming again. 4 of the shots were in the body. He was already deciding what to do next after he ran out. Lucky for him, the dog stopped a few feet from him swayed and then keeled over.
Posted by: capt joe || 01/06/2004 16:33 Comments || Top||

#9  Personally, I think these two should be Darwin Award candidates. "Oh, Moonbeam, what a pretty Pit Bull, let's pet him!"
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/06/2004 17:05 Comments || Top||

#10  "Everyone knows" pit bulls are not to be trusted. In Colorado, if your dog attacks someone, YOU are liabel for all damages. At the same time, walking up to ANY strange dog, failing to take any precautions against the possibility of attack, and failing to take whatever steps you're capable of to defend yourself from an attack all qualify one for the dreaded "Darwin Award" nomination. These people have my sympathies for their pain, but only contempt for their failure to act in an intelligent manner.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/07/2004 1:10 Comments || Top||

#11  I have a few friends with Pits,as a rule they are gentil,faimly oriented dogs.If anybody is to blame it's the owners.
Posted by: raptor || 01/07/2004 7:33 Comments || Top||


Omar Sherif infuriates Muslims w/ freedom of religion comments
The latest remarks made by internationally well-known Egyptian actor Omar El Sherif during an interview to Times magazine has caused for the rise of a storm of anger among Arab Muslims.
Oh, hell. What are they seething about now?
Omar made his remarks during the middle of a nomination to the Oscars for his latest film "Mr. Abraham and the Jewels of the Holy Koran" by different international film committees. His film has been suggested to enter the race for best foreign film in addition to nominating him for an award for best actor. According to the London based Elaph, the remarks that caused the storm of anger were Omar’s revealing that he has two grandchildren, one Jewish and the other a Muslim.
Oh, horrors!
The actor had stressed that he does not interfere in religious matters and is giving his grandchildren the freedom of choosing which religion they want to follow. Omar added that he will not in any way try to influence them to both follow Islam even if his Muslim grandchild wanted to convert.
Well. Obviously he must be killed. Should be a contract out fatwah on him any time now...
Posted by: TS || 01/06/2004 8:52:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fatwa countdown begins......5...4....3....2...
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 9:00 Comments || Top||

#2  During the course of events in the film, the Jewish man eventually decides to convert to Islam due to its nature of forgiveness..

Ha...haahaa....hahahahaaa....HAAAHAHAHHAHAAA!!!!
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 11:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Did he learn how to seethe after his conversion? Bet he did when his bus blew up.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 12:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Omar Sharif is from a well-off family from Alexandria, Egypt. When young he married the actress who was called the "Shirley Temple" of Muslim cinema. He divorced her, indulged his passion for bridge, had numerous affairs, and generally thumbed his nose at Islamic wackos. At last report he did not feel comfortable during visits to Egypt. This one ought to send him off into exile for good.
Posted by: Tancred || 01/06/2004 13:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Note that the film's storyline is about a Jew who converts to Islam. Imagine the outrage if this had been a film about a Muslim converting to Judaism.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/06/2004 14:46 Comments || Top||

#6  Sharif is a Muslin? Damn I thought he was Greek Ortho. That explains the two wives, does Lara know?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 16:24 Comments || Top||


Police love rivals in shoot-out
Three Kenyan policemen have been arrested after their rivalry for the love of a barmaid led to a shoot-out. Two administration police officers were thrown out of the Unique Bar in Nairobi after a fist-fight with a policeman.
"Hey, Sam, git your paws off our girl!"
"She’s tired of you two, she’s my girl now!"

They collected their guns from their camp and returned to the bar determined to kill their love rival, reports the East Africa Standard.
"Strap on your shooting iron, Joe. We gonna track that sonabitch Sam down and plug him."
"Damm, straight, Bill. We’ll teach him to steal our woman."

He had returned to his police station, where they tracked him down and shot at him, before fleeing under fire.
"We got you cornered now, eat lead!"
"Hey, somebodies shooting at Sam, git em!"
"Oh, shit! Run, Bill, he’s got help!"

All three men are to be charged with misuse of firearms, the police told BBC News Online. The officer in charge of Kiambu police division, Athanasius Munyagia, said they are likely to be sacked if found guilty. He said the officers had endangered the lives of many people, including the bar patrons, passers-by and the policemen. Fortunately, it seems that no-one was injured in the shoot-out.
Cheez, more cops who can’t shoot straight.
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 8:00:22 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  how smart is the little hussy? Dating/flirting with three jealous men with guns that happen to know each other? lol
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 9:13 Comments || Top||

#2  My guess is that Nairobi is trying to attract European adventure tourists to their version of West World.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/06/2004 11:28 Comments || Top||

#3  She must be one hot little barmaid.
Posted by: Mike || 01/06/2004 13:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Not much upstairs, but from here on down.........gangbusters!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/06/2004 14:13 Comments || Top||

#5  The title of this article kicks ass... LOL! So many ways to take it.

The story is proof of the brain wiring on us XY mutts - Darwin 101. Too funny - and if she's as hot as all that (prolly pheromones), then predictable... but 3 cops? Awesome.
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 18:08 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
NATO TAKES OVER PROVINCIAL RECONSTRUCTION TEAM IN AFGHANISTAN
The Coalition-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) at Konduz transferred authority to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in a ceremony today at the PRT headquarters. The German-led PRT in Konduz is the first in Afghanistan to operate under NATO control, marking another milestone in a series of planned expansion of the PRT program over the next several months. PRTs are a critical element of the Coalition’s strategy of accelerating development and reconstruction, fostering long-term stability in Afghanistan. In attendance at the ceremony were German Army Lt. Gen. Gotz Gliemeroth, commander of the NATO mission to Afghanistan; Lt. Gen. David Barno, commander of Coalition military forces in Afghanistan; and Ali Ahmed Jalali, Afghanistan Minister of the Interior.

PRTs serve as a catalyst for stabilization, building relationships and enabling the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan. Beginning with its involvement at Konduz, NATO will be a key partner in the PRT program and the reconstruction effort. Coalition forces currently operate six other PRTs in Afghanistan, with an additional five scheduled to open within the next several months. Currently, the PRT in Parwan is operated by the United States and South Korea. New Zealand runs the Bamian PRT, and the British run the PRT in Mazar-e-Sharif. On its own, the U.S. operates PRTs in Kandahar, Gardez and Herat. Provincial Reconstruction Teams are on the cutting edge of stabilization and are improving both security and rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/06/2004 1:33:49 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Kandahar bike boom kills 13
A bomb attached to a bicycle killed at least 13 people, most of them children, on a road regularly used by U.S. troops in this southern city Tuesday, underlining the violence still plaguing Afghanistan two years after the fall of the Taliban.
And their concern for the populace...
More than 50 people were wounded in the blast, which officials said may have been targeting U.S. troops or the provincial governor, whose motorcade was about to pass that way. An Associated Press reporter saw wrecked bicycles, blood and shattered glass from a passing truck strewn across the street in the east of the city, which was quickly sealed off by dozens of Afghan and U.S. soldiers.
I wonder if a cell phone might have rung prematurely?
Eleven of the dead were children, aged 7-15, apparently among a crowd that gathered after another bomb went off at the same site a few minutes earlier. "I was playing football when I heard the first bomb, and a lot us rushed to see what happened. Then the second one went off," said Saami Khan, 15, who had been struck by shrapnel in the face and chest and was recuperating in a Kandahar hospital. Deputy Police Chief Salim Khan suggested the twin blasts may have been intended for soldiers from an Afghan military base just 100 yards away. "They were chasing a suspect when they second explosion occurred," he said.
I sure as hell hope they caught him...
But Deputy Interior Minister Hilalludin Hillal said the U.S. troops who regularly travel the road or Kandahar Governor Yusuf Pashtun were more likely targets of the attackers. "They don’t care so much about Afghan troops," he said.
They keep trying for us infidels...
A soldier, Amanullah Popolzai, said authorities arrested a man seen running from the scene shortly before the explosion. The man, who appeared to be an Afghan, was caught trying to hide in a nearby home. "This was the work of the Taliban. The man looked like he was a Talib fighter," Popolzai said.
What's he look like now? Pizza, I hope...
In the capital, Kabul, President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack as "barbarism."
Intentionally blowing up kiddies... Yeah. You'd probably want to take that one as "barbarism." Unless you went with "savagery." I lean more toward the latter, myself...
"These enemies of Afghanistan, who hide in the darkness to launch attacks on innocent civilians, must be eliminated, and they will be eliminated," said his spokesman, Jawid Luddin.
Does that mean you're going to start killing them, instead of giving them a good talking-to and then setting them free with 20 dollars and a gun?
Khan said the truck driver and a male passer-by were also killed by the bomb, which he said was attached to one of the bicycles. Khan put the number of wounded at 23, although Luddin put that total at more than 50. "Most of them were children who had just come out of school," Luddin told the AP. "It’s an act of barbarism."
That's what Karzai said...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 12:10:31 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "My #3 truncheon, please. We'll find out who sent this scum"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 13:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Nuns, children, teenage girls...

Those jihadis sure are brave!
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 13:32 Comments || Top||

#3  If US forces are using technology to trigger these explosive devices prematurely, then collateral damage can be anticipated.
Posted by: john || 01/06/2004 14:27 Comments || Top||

#4  John: huh? Where in this story is there the slightest contention that US forces used any technology to trigger the bombs? It's clear who did this.

Posted by: R. McLeod || 01/06/2004 15:55 Comments || Top||

#5  "I was playing football when I heard the first bomb, and a lot us rushed to see what happened. Then the second one went off," said Saami Khan

Smart kid, run TOWARDS the danger.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 18:13 Comments || Top||


Gunmen attack UN offices in Kandahar
Gunmen attacked the office of the United Nations refugee agency here Monday, throwing a grenade and firing shots but causing no injuries, on a violent day that also saw U.S. forces engage in a firefight and bombard a secret drug laboratory. The attack on the UN office shortly after 9 p.m., was just the latest in a series of assaults on the world body and other aid organizations that have made much of the south and east of the country a no-go area for development workers. "We were sitting outside the gate when the car pulled up," said Abdul Rehman, a security guard at the office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Kandahar, once the stronghold of the Taliban. "First they threw the grenade and then opened fire." The attackers, seated in a car, sped away when police and security staff who had been sitting in a nearby tent rushed to the scene and returned fire, Rehman said. Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a UN spokesman in Kabul, confirmed the guard’s account of the attack, though he said it was unclear if fire was returned. "There were no victims," he said. "There was no one in the office at the time."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 1:05:38 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We're already aware that throwing grenades is just beyond people in that part of the world... too much soccer, methinks. But it's also really quite fortunate that these 'tards couldn't hit the broad side of a barn - even with an assault rifle. IIRC, Afghanistan has been the scene of "gun battles" lasting hours with - no casualties, not even a stubbed toe. Since I was raised with guns I have a hard time picturing such obvious doltage but, hey, they didn't have my grandfather. Perhaps the AK-47 really is a worthless piece of shit on the level of the Katyushas, low jamming stats notwithstanding, beyond point-blank range except in the hands of an expert. And these guys seem to be fresh out of experts... probably the first to be aced by our professional forces. Amazing shit.
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 3:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Cut them some slack. 'Tis not easy being a jihadi nowadays.
Posted by: RW2004 || 01/06/2004 3:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Hmmmm. Does "Everybody's just looking for a little slack." ring any bells for you? If not, nevermind, Grid Willing - to mix metaphorical sources.

Re: jihadis - yeah, I guess kids fresh out of the madrassah who've done nothing but rock back and forth memorizing the Qu'uran for 15 yrs then given a 1 week crash course in a training camp = not easy. It equals morons with guns who can't hit shit except by accident. Recall the point-blank attack on Karzai's SUV several months ago? Watching the film proved my point cuz the assailant was less than 15 feet away and only one round even came close to Karzai. Life's a bitch. It's even bitchier if you're stupid - and these guys certainly qualify. Melikes the odds. ;-)
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 4:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Err, no the AK-47 isn't a piece of shit (but neither is it a miracle weapon) a buddy of mine who was a Marine in the 90's was stationed in the Middle East. He and some other Marines got a chance to shoot some Ak-47's with the locals that were using them. The locals were astounded at what the Marines could do with the AK-47's as far as accuracy, especially at long range (anything over 50 meters, eh) Apparently the training the locals had was to kinda point and align the barrel and front sight at the target and fire a burst at full auto. Some of the better local shots would aim low and left and walk the burst up into the target. The Marines just had better training and more experience,actually knew what the rear sight was for, but it was mostly the better training in my buddy's opinion.
Posted by: toad || 01/06/2004 9:14 Comments || Top||

#5  These are some pretty naive terrorists; I can't believe they would try to kill UN workers in an office at 9 PM. Even if they were attacking at 9 AM, the Talianis should stake out the cafeteria not the office. Sheesh, amatuers.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/06/2004 11:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Toad, what's the rear sight for? :-)
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 11:41 Comments || Top||

#7  Did the UN run away yet?
Posted by: JerseyMike || 01/06/2004 12:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Maybe they didn't really want to kill anybody, or were terrified of what it was they were told to do. Perhaps they are dupes that have had a family member kidnapped and are forced to do the job.

Sometimes, I think and not in this case, these tribal guys just want to blast away without really trying to kill but to look like a badass warrior. Scared that they may actually kill some other clan member and creating a death fued. I'm sure word gets around about how Ali el babi, killed Omar dodii, son of Fatima, daughter of Abu, who runs drugs for Kalli el Dondo. Who, as we all know, is not to be messed with.

"Oh Ali, do you know who you killed!?"

"Doah!"

"Ah, see'ya latter bro, take care."
Posted by: Lucky || 01/06/2004 14:21 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Haj Preparations Complete
Saudi Arabia has completed preparations for this year’s Haj. Some 2.5 million pilgrims from 160 countries are expected and Haj Minister Iyad Madani said regional problems had not affected the inflow of pilgrims from all over the world. The minister said a number of new projects had been implemented in Mina and Arafat to improve the pilgrims’ welfare and security. “We have also prepared a plan in cooperation with the Civil Defense Department to deal with flash floods and other dangers during Haj,” he said. Madani said the security and comfort of pilgrims were the main focus of the government and its agencies. “We have made all preparations as best we can in order to make this annual event a success,” the Makkah-based Al-Nadwah Arabic daily quoted the minister as saying.
Here it comes, the largest single gathering of muslims in one place at one time this year. Or should I say, targets? If you wanted to show that the Saudi royals couldn’t protect the Holy Mosques, this is the time and the place. Me, I’m making popcorn.
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 4:27:15 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I agree, Steve. The Saudis better contract out to the Paks or Syrians for backup. May I bring some beer sasparilla to the festivities to go with the popcorn?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/06/2004 16:35 Comments || Top||

#2  If we ask nicely, maybe Fred will let us watch the festivities from the ramparts of brooding Castle Rantburg. I've got some extra lawn chairs and a blanket or two.
Posted by: seafarious || 01/06/2004 16:39 Comments || Top||

#3  "H'okay, let's run the checklist..."

"A bazillion Qu'urans?"
Check.

"A million goats for slaughtering on the roadside?"
Check.

"A million long steely knives for the, um, goats?"
Check.

"A million body-bags?"
Check.

"We're ready. May our pilgrims find renewed faith in the Religion of Peace and praise Allah (pbuH). Remember, people, 5 laps and then the pitstop."
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 17:00 Comments || Top||

#4  This is the ultimate definition of a target-rich environment. You may fire when ready.
Posted by: BH || 01/06/2004 17:36 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm wondering how many people get trampled to death during the "stoning of the devil" portion of the proceedings. Is Vegas taking odds? I've got $5 to wager....
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 01/06/2004 18:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Tsk, tsk, Seafarious, Fred will be at the O-Club at Wheelus for this one.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 18:18 Comments || Top||

#7  "Eeeee-cellent, Smithers! Prepare the meteorite!"
Posted by: mojo || 01/06/2004 18:23 Comments || Top||

#8  will the Zionist Death Ray™ reach that far with the upgrades Wolfowitz and the neocons provided?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 19:54 Comments || Top||

#9  I'll take my Goat on a Large Glass Plate please..... Well Done that is...
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/06/2004 21:14 Comments || Top||

#10  2.5 million of them! All seething in one place? Hope their magic rock doesn't melt! That would be... just awful!
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 22:19 Comments || Top||


Three former Iraqi diplomats held for theft in Yemen
Three former Iraqi diplomats have been put in jail for allegedly stealing 650,000 dollars from their embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, their lawyer said. Lawyer Jamal Al-Jaabi said Hassan Hatem Taleb, Mohammad Abdullah Jassem and Karim Rabat Mezban were arrested on Sunday and put in an immigration department prison. It was the second time they had been detained after being released following similar accusations in June in the aftermath of the collapse of the Baath regime in Baghdad, the lawyer added.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/06/2004 00:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So they have the perps but not the cash...did it go to Damascus for safekeeping or did they spend it all on booze and wimmin?
Posted by: Seafarious || 01/06/2004 0:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Ah the good life, declined.
Posted by: Lucky || 01/06/2004 0:13 Comments || Top||


Europe
Father of Guantanamo Bay Suspect Detained in...France
Oaks and acorns...
An Islamic cleric whose son is being held at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay was among seven people detained by French security agents Tuesday as part of an investigation into suspected terror networks. The imam, Chellali Benchellali, was arrested at his home in the tough Minguettes high-rise neighborhood of Venissieux, a suburb of the southeastern city of Lyon, said a lawyer for the family. Attorney Jacques Debray said the imam’s wife and one of his sons, Hafid, also were detained in the sweep by the DST, France’s secretive counterterrorism and counterintelligence agency. Another of his sons, Mourad Benchellali, is among six French detainees suspected of ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network who are being held at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay.
I’m sure it was all some dreadful mistake. His daddy’s a preacher man!
French agents also arrested a pharmacist from Minguettes who works at a Lyon mosque and another man from the neighborhood, according to an association that supports prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Police confirmed that five people were detained in Venissieux and said another two were arrested elsewhere in the Lyon region. There were no immediate details about the last two. Some of those detained are believed to have provided logistical support, possibly including false papers, to suspected terrorists, police said, without providing further details.
I’ll scout around for more of those details.
The arrests were ordered by anti-terror magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere, who has been using his sweeping powers of detention and investigation to probe suspected links between Islamic militants in France and rebels in Russia’s breakaway, largely Muslim republic of Chechnya. Bruguiere has previously said that the volatile Caucasus region, including Chechnya and Georgia, has become a training ground for Islamic militants who return to Europe to conduct attacks after being taught how to use chemical weapons and other arms.
Now why would a good French Muslim need to go to Chechnya? They only have one kind of cheese and the nightlife is terrible.
A third son of the imam, Menad Benchellali, was picked up in the Paris region during a sweep a year ago that authorities said thwarted planned bomb or toxic gas attacks in France and Russia by a terror cell with ties to Chechen rebels and al-Qaida. The December 2002 raids in the Paris suburbs of Romainville and La Courneuve turned up diagrams of chemical formulas for explosives and a substance that could make toxic gas, judicial officials said at the time. Counterterrorism agents also found electronic components, a suit against chemical and biological attacks and radiation, two empty gas canisters and false identity papers. French authorities have said that Menad Benchellali trained with Chechen rebels and met high-level al-Qaida operatives in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which borders Chechnya.
Papa Imam must be proud. Mourad, currently in detention on suspicion of terrorism. Menad, currently in detention on suspicion of terrorism. Hafid, currently in detention on suspicion of terrorism. Sounds like a truly pious family, doing G-d’s work.
Posted by: seafarious || 01/06/2004 4:29:48 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yet another family affair, it seems ...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 16:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Spot-on gents. Good post, Thx!

Can you say "indoctrination"?

This should be a major Clue Bat™ - look very very hard at the entire (extended) family when one is snagged, bagged, or tagged. Only stupidity is thicker than blood, it seems, because of the opportunity to churn out jihadi replicants. This family just screams to be removed from the gene pool. Let's oblige them.
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 18:00 Comments || Top||

#3  seems like Lyon is a hotbed for these a-holes
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 19:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Despite of what I think of the French, from what I've read, the DST is NOT a bunch of folks you'd want on your case. His kid is probably better off at Gitmo.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 22:58 Comments || Top||


Cheese-eating surrender monkeys
Via Lucianne - I have to go, so no commentary:
I’m afraid that if you didn’t see the December 18, 2003, episode of Envoyé Spécial on France2, you won’t believe what follows. I saw it, and I’m not sure I believe it myself. The program was touted during prime-time news as the full story of the arrest of Saddam Hussein. Aha!, I thought. Let’s see how they are going to tell it, or spin it, or doctor it.

It was doctored all right. The original version of the special — announced in that week’s TV guides — was bumped. You can understand why: By December 18, this special on the difficulties (or, more accurately, the impossibility) of finding Saddam had a shelf life of minus four days. Yet with atmosphere shots of the Tigris at sunset — and an American colonel, with an Arab falcon on his wrist, standing in beautifully angled sunlight on the terrace of a fabulous palace — the special was just too good to be scrapped outright. And who could turn down its superb military analysis? Of course that colonel will never find his quarry: All those GIs in top-secret operations rooms staring into computer screens are no match for Saddam.

So the special was "updated."....
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/06/2004 12:49:43 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Are you sure this wasn't CNN or ABC News (US)?

Read the article. This is a good example on how the media can 'slant' a story using various tricks...

The villains[Bush, Blair, etc..] are photographed at their worst in dehumanizing close-ups. The finger-pointers, on the other hand, walk through tree-shaded gardens, enter their homes through beautiful glass doors, sit intelligently in front of double-barreled bookshelves and tell us how Bush lied, because Cheney lied, because Tenet lied, and told Powell to lie, and dragged America into this senseless war. Each in turn is filmed with hushed respect: Hans Blix, Greg Thielman, and Joe Wilson, among others, tell the truth about the liars. These charming scenes with truth-tellers are interspersed with crescendo passages of the liars. And, as in the hunting-for-Saddam film that preceded it, the WMD-lies-investigation special has been updated with a few words about the insignificant matter of Saddam's arrest. The splicing is so obvious, you can almost see the masking tape.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/06/2004 14:28 Comments || Top||

#2  National Review Online, click on Cheese-eating surrender monkey and it will link to the story.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/06/2004 15:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Now dear Rantburgers go to National review online and see what the French people have being fed for the last twenty years and wonder how such brainwashed people could not hate you.
Posted by: JFM || 01/06/2004 16:02 Comments || Top||

#4  JFM, it is a tribute to you that you have resisted the brainwashing.

Were you educated at an international school, spend time overseas, or whatever ? How does the average French person (especially the younger generations) rise above the hateful drivel peddled there ?

Posted by: Carl in N.H. || 01/06/2004 17:18 Comments || Top||

#5  JFM, just curious, ignore if the questions are too personal....
Posted by: Carl in N.H. || 01/06/2004 17:18 Comments || Top||

#6  I stopped caring what the French government thought about anything around the time of C. DeGaulle.
Posted by: mojo || 01/06/2004 18:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Only 10 people in the entire world give a rats ass about what the French think. The nine Democratic candidates and French Foreign Ministers Dominique De Villipian (who is a man, I think). Fcuk the French! I sleep very well at night knowing the French are TOTALLY irrelevant in the world today and so should all Americans.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/06/2004 18:51 Comments || Top||

#8  N. H.

I am a Pied Noir, ie a French born in Algeria before the independence. That is already a big difference. My father was spanish, my mother was french (Pied Noir too) but if you go two or three genrations up all her ancestors were spanish.

From, 4 to 18 I lived in Spain, studying in a french institution. However Spain was a dictatorship so I learned to question what the papers and TV were saying.

I had my phase of antiamericanism. But one day two Khmer Rouges handled me a leaflet and a couple months later when I learned of their crimes I became angry about the people who allowed Khmer Rouges walking unchallenged in French university (people from the American embassy handling leaflets would have been lynched on the spot), who led youngesters to accept leaflets of that kind of thugs and who were unrepentent about it. That is when, little by little I began moving right wing and rejecting the reflexive anti-americanism of the French (who was not nearly as bad as now).

In 1992, tehre was the referendum over Maastricht and while France was split in half (the "Yes" won by a hair) the press was 100% for it and used every trick to convince people Maastricht would lead us to Nirvana. That is why I began questionning why unelected and not specially intellectually gifted (journalists, at least in comparison with engineers or scientists) would hold the power to mold public through the ability they have to voice their ideas (instead of mereley informing) and through distortion of news.

Finally around 1994 I noticed I was seeing some politicians not as they were but as portrayed by their muppets in a popular satirical TV show. This show played a big role in Chirac's victory in 1995 (the people of the show hated him but they hated his rival still more).

This was was the final shot I needed to make me wary of any attempt of manipulation and to build a deep distrust toward the chattering classes. (1)
Now you know all


(1) In addition in France the chattering classes have similar opinions in most subjects ("Pensee unique", unique thinking), those there is no balance from other sources. Those opinions are far from reflecting those of the normal people. But on international matters the people has no direct contact with reality so they believe our so impartial and truthful media.
Posted by: JFM || 01/06/2004 19:24 Comments || Top||

#9  JFM - pretty impressive to have made the transition you did, especially in the environment you were in. I applaud you, and welcome your comments
Frank
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 20:09 Comments || Top||

#10  Interesting background, thanks JFM.

I remember those Khmer Rouge dudes back when I was in Tokyo, I forgot all about it until now...

I second Frank's comments also.
Posted by: Carl in NH || 01/06/2004 20:21 Comments || Top||

#11  JFM, very cool. I think most Rantburgers "wont be fooled again, no, no". Not here!
Posted by: Lucky || 01/07/2004 0:29 Comments || Top||


France arrests 5 Chechen hard boyz
French counter-intelligence agents detained five people Tuesday on suspicion of providing logistical support to Islamic militants with links to Chechen rebels, police said. The suspects were taken into custody in Venissieux, a suburb of the central city Lyon, authorities said. They are being questioned for allegedly providing false passports to militants. Prominent anti-terror judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere ordered the arrests, police said. The suspects’ identities were not released. About 10 suspects from France’s so-called "Chechen networks" have been in prison since a year ago, when officials uncovered a group allegedly planning chemical-weapon attacks on Russian targets. December 2002 raids in the Paris suburbs Romainville and La Courneuve turned up diagrams of chemical formulas for explosives and a substance that, when subjected to heat or put in contact with water, would release a highly toxic gas, judicial officials said at the time. Counter-terrorism agents also found electronic components, a motorcycle battery, a suit to protect against chemical and biological attacks and radiation, two empty gas canisters, false identity papers and electronic equipment.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 12:06:32 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The "reworked" heated motorcycle jacket was missing? Hello, Delta 043.
Posted by: john || 01/06/2004 15:04 Comments || Top||

#2  And now, today's episode of "Family Affair", or in this case, "My Three Sons:

An Islamic cleric whose son is being held at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was among seven people detained by French security agents Tuesday as part of an investigation into suspected terror networks. The imam, Chellali Benchellali, was arrested at his home in the tough Minguettes high-rise neighborhood of Venissieux, a suburb of the southeastern city of Lyon, said a lawyer for the family.
Attorney Jacques Debray said the imam's wife and one of his sons, Hafid, also were detained in the sweep by the DST, France's secretive counterterrorism and counterintelligence agency.
Another of his sons, Mourad Benchellali, is among six French detainees suspected of ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network who are being held at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. French agents also arrested a pharmacist from Minguettes who works at a Lyon mosque and another man from the neighborhood, according to an association that supports prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
A third son of the imam, Menad Benchellali, was picked up in the Paris region during a sweep a year ago that authorities said thwarted planned bomb or toxic gas attacks in France and Russia by a terror cell with ties to Chechen rebels and al-Qaida. French authorities have said that Menad Benchellali trained with Chechen rebels and met high-level al-Qaida operatives in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which borders Chechnya.
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 15:53 Comments || Top||


US to set up anti-terrorism base in Bulgaria
The United States will build a "Balkan anti-terrorism center" in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, the Bulgarian newspaper "24 hours" reported on Monday.
Send me! Send me!
The center, planned by US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is scheduled to be completed and operational in the summer of 2004. It will focus on monitoring and detecting terrorist activities and provide information on terrorist threats to the United States and Balkan countries. The center will be equipped with "the most advanced monitoring equipment" and will be run by "the most experienced intelligence agent". Bulgarian media reported that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also plans to set up an office in Bulgaria working with the center. US intelligence experts believe Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network has a training base in the Balkans.
Y'mean, like in Bosnia and/or Kosovo?
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 12:53:49 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hook up w/Sofia Sideshow - He's feeling at home there, now.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/06/2004 12:48 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Ken O’Keefe to Burn Passport
Nut job alert!
Ken O’Keefe raves on Indymedia...
I state loud and clear, I am not anti-American, I am a true American and I call on all genuine American patriots to reject the orders of the Vietnam War deserter and Constitutional traitor George W. Bush and to remove this traitor from his undemocratic de facto post; impeach him at the least for his criminal negligence on September 11, 2001. As a former United States Marine and Gulf War veteran I call on my American brothers and sisters to put down their weapons and refuse service in Iraq. And lastly I state my love of the American people whether friend or foe and I call on them to support their troops for real; BRING AMERICA’S SONS AND DAUGHTERS HOME NOW!
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/06/2004 4:36:21 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ken? Need a match?
Posted by: Gasse Katze || 01/06/2004 16:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Amen, GK.

Yo, Ken, FOAD 'tard.
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 16:48 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll believe him when an official statement from the INS states that Ken is no longer a US national. Until then, he's just a poseur. I wish more liberals would actually take this route instead of actually saying they will.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/06/2004 16:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Think that Semper Fi doesn't apply to you anymore. There is such a thing as an ex-Marine.
Posted by: Highlander || 01/06/2004 17:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Oh, fergodsake...

Let's put him and Ollie North in a ring somewhere, and see which shoulda-been-branded ex-marine comes out with more teeth.

I got $5 on Ollie....
Posted by: mojo || 01/06/2004 17:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Let's see... he thinks bush is evil if 9/11 happens, and evil if he tries to do things to deal with the situation?
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 01/06/2004 17:35 Comments || Top||

#7  Stay there in Iraq Kenny-Boy, and don't come back.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 17:47 Comments || Top||

#8  Ah, here we go again. Phase 2 of the loony left "dissent" machine: former servicemembers declaring they're no longer Americans. In thirty years, this guy will be running for the Democrat presidential nomination, constantly reminding people he was a Marine and sponging off his millionaire heiress wife.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 17:50 Comments || Top||

#9  Ummm... who's Ken O'Keefe?
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 01/06/2004 18:01 Comments || Top||

#10  Scooter, he's one of the nutters who traveled to Iraq right berfore the war to be a human shield.

And here's another part of his manifesto:

"The burning of my passport is an exercise in the inherent human right of self determination in accordance with international law after having my U.S. passport returned to me twice by the U.S. Department of State. My personal act affirms once and for all the lawful and undeniable completion of my renunciation of U.S. citizenship that began on March 1, 2001. I AM NOT A UNITED STATES CITIZEN! I am a lawfully registered World citizen in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) with ultimate allegiance to my entire human family and to planet Earth.

To which I can say only, bon voyage, asshat. Good luck wherever you land and don't ever come back.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 18:09 Comments || Top||

#11  No offense to the Corps, but why's it the ex-Marines who have the notable screwups? This includes Stephen Funk (the coward who went AWOL, then "came out", to get himself out of reservist's duty) and Scott Ritter (who amazingly was a Marine -- once upon a time) ...
Posted by: Lu Baihu || 01/06/2004 18:16 Comments || Top||

#12  Ken, no matter where you are? we all hope you'll find time to go fuck yourself.
Posted by: dan truly || 01/06/2004 18:39 Comments || Top||

#13  ...and also that guy who ran Somalia a while ago Hussein Mohammed Aideed, (not to be confused with Mohammed Farah Aideed). Went awol, last reporting for duty in July 1995.
Posted by: RW2004 || 01/06/2004 18:39 Comments || Top||

#14  "Human Shield Iraq Founder".... now who proposed the Human Shields for the Idiotarian Award 2004?

Anyway I suppose the Saudis can help out with a passport?
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/06/2004 18:48 Comments || Top||

#15  I hope more of the human shields follow his actions and move to Iraq. Now that Ken has left America for good, are we safer now Dr. Dean? Check your new testament in the book of Job. Please, PLEASE more of you follow his example and LEAVE THE COUNTRY!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/06/2004 18:59 Comments || Top||

#16  P.S. you have to read the comments after the statement ;-)
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/06/2004 19:01 Comments || Top||

#17  wasn't Ken the goof with the wacky website (lives in Britain BTW) and traveled to Iraq with his mommy to be a shield? Bugged out once the cameras were off them?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 19:23 Comments || Top||

#18  A cigar for Frank G. That's your boy.
When they gotta state "loud and clear" that they're not anti American, that should be your first clue that they... ummmmmmmmm... are.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 21:56 Comments || Top||

#19  Hmmm,Ken claims to be a true American but not a US citizen.Are we sure this isn't a clever ploy to avoid paying income tax?
Posted by: Stephen || 01/06/2004 23:35 Comments || Top||

#20  How much Keefe does he have?

(All together now!)

MILES O'Keefe!

^_^
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 01/06/2004 23:44 Comments || Top||

#21  Well , Ken boy, there is an old southern expression that fit's just perfectly.

"Don't let the screen door hit you in the ass on
your way out"

Posted by: CujoQuarrel || 01/07/2004 0:05 Comments || Top||

#22  But, oh, the passion!
Posted by: Lucky || 01/07/2004 0:55 Comments || Top||

#23  But, oh, the passion!
Yep, that's usually the fallback position when you don't have more than two active brain cells.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/07/2004 1:21 Comments || Top||


Ted Rall goes back to the future
Ted Rall is at his fatalistic best in his latest column, predicting the doom of 2004.

Should the Republicans and Bush prevail, the radical reforms enacted under his first term--a shift of power away from Congress toward an increasingly imperious presidency, the transition from European-influenced secular democracy to Third World-style theocratic police state, perpetual war--will take on an air of institutional permanence.
It almost sounds like 1984. However, France is curtailing religious freedom and dictators are peacefully capitulating.

Engineering a withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, two pointless and unaffordable wars, would suck up time and money. Terrorists might mistake reasonableness for weakness and strike more aggressively at American targets.(emphasis mine)
Afghanistan just got a constitution, and Iraq is chugging along towards self-government, but I suppose that’s not enough. Al Qaeda is on the run, its supply lines are heavily depleted, and it has taken to attacking its own old benefactor. There too, innocent people have been its victims. Three years have passed without a major attack on US soil, and barring the Bali attack, any major incidents elsewhere. Al Qaeda’s effect on the outside world is currently reduced to issuing PR announcements through their good friends Al-Jazeera.

Indeed, pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan would be a colossal mistake, and nothing could embolden the terrorists more. But to Rall, a few attacks on American targets seems to be worth getting rid of Dubya’s Evil Empire. The tone of the article implies that Rall wants things to get worse just so that Bush looks bad and the Democrats look good.

He has a long list of predictions tacked on — and some are rather specific. I’ll be keeping a checklist. Not that its going to matter if Rall’s blinkers are still on.
Posted by: Vivek || 01/06/2004 3:34:39 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rall has risen to bear the mantle of current Ultimate Chicken Little Bush Hater. The fact that he has no shame and doesn't acknowledge when he wrong is the hallmark of an LLL leader. And there is no doubt he is from that gutless stripe of asshat who would gladly sacrifice American soldiers' lives so he could crow quagmire or gleefully cheer another 9/11 (though he actually predicts there won't be one in 2004; hmmm, wonder why?) so he could claim the Arab Street has awakened to jihad - and it would all be Bush's fault, of course. What he misses is what the entire LLL misses:

Those who hate the freedom of the West would've volunteered for jihad anyway, and with many fewer obstacles and thus many more successes, without the WoT as it's being waged - by Bush.

Taking the war to them, knocking down Saddam and the Taliban and cutting off the money is working. More of the same will work even better. Rall has reached the Top Level of the Bottom Feeders in his upside down world.
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 4:41 Comments || Top||

#2  If Bush=Hitler, why isn't Rall a wafting cloud of ash by now?
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 01/06/2004 4:56 Comments || Top||

#3  A list of other things that should be around if Bush==Hitler. I don't usually go postal, but I was VERY P*ssed.
Posted by: Ptah || 01/06/2004 7:56 Comments || Top||

#4  The Bush==Hitler stuff doesnt wind me up at all, because its obvious it really means the Left == stupid.

God I love the internet! There is no where to hide. Express any opinion and you will get the spotlight of critical analysis shining on you from someone.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2004 8:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Ted Rall doesn't set me off either - he's so whacked from exposure to Assholium that his ravings aren't taken seriously by even the LLL
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 9:15 Comments || Top||

#6  "radical reforms... shift of power away from Congress... increasingly imperious presidency... theocratic police state..."

Huh? WTF?

I'm beginning to wonder if the essence of Leftism is some mental incapacity that causes a person to actually think in terms of straw man arguments. Unable to find very much to complain about in the real world, they invent a fantasy world to rail against.

Or "rall" against.
Posted by: Dave D. || 01/06/2004 9:23 Comments || Top||

#7  I like the Bush=Hitler comments. If Bush were Hitler, the left would either be dead, rotting in concentration camps, or too scared to say boo. As they feel "brave" enough to say that Bush = Hitler, they disprove their own statement. The very act of making it, refutes it.
Posted by: Ben || 01/06/2004 10:20 Comments || Top||

#8  From the standpoint of the PETA chicken holocaust advertisements, wouldn't GW have to be a poultry farmer to qualify for fuher status?
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/06/2004 11:30 Comments || Top||

#9  Rall sure does talk pretty. For being a bed wetting, polysyllabic, moronic, paranoid, MoonBat snot weasel!
Posted by: Jack Deth || 01/06/2004 13:00 Comments || Top||

#10  …the transition from European-influenced secular democracy to Third World-style theocratic police state, perpetual war…

Oh yeah, tell me when he rounded up Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, etc. Tell me how, if we are theocratic, how StageQ can put on a play that blasphemes Jesus.

You're Rall wet, Teddy.
Posted by: Korora || 01/06/2004 14:15 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan Angrily Denies Nuclear Report
Pakistan on Tuesday strongly denied a newspaper report that its scientists were the source of high-tech centrifuge design technology to Libya, the latest in a series of allegations linking this U.S. ally’s nuclear program to Washington’s bitterest enemies.
Also the latest in a long series of bald-faced denials of easily-verifiable facts. They shoulda stuck with the "rogue scientist" line and claimed the scientists were the ones who had the brochures printed when Perv's back was turned...
"This is total madness. The report is absolutely false, and there is no truth in it," an ashen-faced, panic-stricken Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press, in reference to a front-page article in Wednesday’s New York Times newspaper datelined out of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
"Lies! Mad lies! Mad false lies!"
The newspaper said the technology transfer to Libya took place after a pledge by Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks that he would rein in his nuclear scientists in an effort to keep their nuclear-know how from falling into the hands of rogue regimes or terrorists. A senior official at Pakistan’s Atomic Energy Commission, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity, also denied any government involvement in any nuclear transfer, but he stopped short of rejecting the charge outright. "The government of Pakistan was not behind any move aimed at transferring nuclear knowledge or technology or any other thing to any other country," he said. But "Pakistan should not be blamed for any individual’s wrongful act."
"Well, ok, maybe one of our most respected scientists sold them the plans, and a few old centrifuges, but you can’t blame us for that!"
"We do not know who has been helping Iran, North Korea or Libya," he said.
"It wasn’t us!"
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't us. Musta been... ummm... somebody else..."
The newspaper said there was no evidence the Pakistani government knew that its scientists were selling the information, but that the transfer raised doubts about Musharraf’s dictatorial competence ability to make good on his promise to keep a lid on the sensitive technology. The latest allegations follow an embarrassing admission in December by Pakistan’s government that it was questioning a number of its nuclear scientists on suspicion that "ambition and greed" may have led them to sell their knowledge to Iran. Islamabad vehemently denied government involvement in the plot, and said any leaks were limited to Iran.
"Iran is the only country that they helped."
The Iran link was only disclosed after Tehran admitted the Pakistan link after agreeing to come clean about its nuclear program. Libya agreed in December to scrap its nuclear program and open itself to full inspections.
"Iran is the only country that they helped, besides Libya. Iran and Libya are the two countries that they helped."
A diplomat with knowledge of the Iran investigation recently told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that U.S. intelligence also had "pretty convincing" evidence of a link between Pakistan and North Korea’s weapons program, something Islamabad denies.
"Iran and Libya are the two countries that they helped, besides North Korea. Iran and Libya and maybe North Korea are the three countries that they helped."
Ahmed, the information minister, hinted the allegations were part of a smear campaign against his country, the only Islamic nation that possesses nuclear capability. "Pakistan’s program is under tight control and in safe hands," he said. "People keep publishing this kind of trash. Let me again say that Pakistan is a responsible state and Pakistan has never proliferated."
"Besides Iran, Libya, North Korea.........."
"And Syria. And Egypt. And Algeria. And Luxembourg. And Paraguay. And Samoa. And those eight guys with the hats in Yellow Knife. And the Boise Rotary Club. And that guy named Bob..."
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 8:27:04 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More details: Pakistan was the source of the centrifuge design technology that made it possible for Libya to make big strides in the past two years in enriching uranium for use in nuclear weapons, US Government officials have said. Many of the centrifuge parts bound for Libya, which were intercepted by Italy in October, were manufactured in Malaysia, experts said.

Malaysia makes centrifuges? I guess that clears up that "un-named Asian country" question.
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 9:50 Comments || Top||

#2  What? Nothing about any South American nations? Or African nations?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 10:26 Comments || Top||

#3  As the spotlight turns, one can feel the heat as it builds.....
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 11:31 Comments || Top||


Lashkar recruiting from Indian diaspora
Even as the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba has come under pressure to de-escalate its jihad in Jammu and Kashmir, the organisation has unleashed its formidable capabilities to inflict a far more painful all-India war. Lashkar cells operating from Dubai, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have succeeded in drawing a new wave of recruits from among Indian expatriates abroad, many of whom were incensed by the massive communal pogrom in Gujarat. While the carnage in Gujarat has drawn recruits to the Lashkar, its infrastructure in West Asia long predates the communal violence. From the late-1990s onwards, Lashkar activists began distributing copies of their house journal, Majallah al-Dawa, at the Ahl-e-Hadis sect’s mosque in Salmiya, Kuwait. The Lashkar’s top ideologue, Abdul Rahman Makki, began visiting the city-state soon afterwards, often preaching to audiences of Indian and Pakistani origin on the need for armed jihad to protect Muslims against the Indian state.

Among Makki’s audience was Farhan Ahmad Ali, whose family had moved from Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, to Kuwait in 1974. An 11th-grade school dropout, Mr. Ali worked as a sales representative for a firm dealing in business directories. His introduction to the Lashkar came through Fahim Ahmad, a Pakistani national with whom he had studied in school. Mr. Ahmad had taken charge of the Lashkar’s Salmiya unit, and persuaded Ali to come on board. In February 1998, Mr. Ali flew to Pakistan for weapons training. Mr. Ali told Indian police officials that he had stayed at a Lashkar guesthouse in Islamabad, along with some 70 other new recruits, before being moved to another facility at the Yateemkhana Chowk in Lahore. There were, Mr. Ali claimed, at least eight Arab recruits, five from Saudi Arabia, and one each from Egypt, Yemen and Morocco. Soon after, the group was despatched to the al-Aqsa training camp near Muzaffarabad, an exclusive facility for residents of Arab countries. According to Ali, some 1000 Arabs, along with four British converts to Islam and one Romanian, were in training at the camp. Training at al-Aqsa lasted just a week, during which Mr. Ali learned how to use a variety of automatic weapons, lob hand-grenades and fabricate explosives.

Gulf states, increasingly concerned about Islamist activities, are less tolerant of terrorist groups like the Lashkar operating from their soil — a fact underlined by the rapid deportation of several key accused in the Mumbai bombings. Nonetheless, the evidence is that the Lashkar continues to be active, fishing in waters warmed by communal forces in India.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 01/06/2004 12:58:04 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  hello,

An interesting article, but it would be more authentic if the source of the article is also mentioned. Most of the articles in this site do not carry the source.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/17/2004 6:49 Comments || Top||


Two arrested for passport fraud
A Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team on Monday raided a travelling agency in Dabgari Garden and arrested two people after confiscating Pakistani, British and Afghani passports. Peshawar Passport Circle FIA Deputy Director Shaukat Hayat Khan told Daily Times that the team raided Al-Khaleej Travelers Agency after receiving a tip.
"Hey! This passport's printed on a brown paper bag! I'm callin' the cops!"
Mr Khan said the agency was involved in providing fake passports and national identity cards. He said 29 Pakistani, four British and two Afghan fake passports and 13 national identity cards and dozens of air tickets were confiscated. He added that the two accused, Qadoos and Hameedullah, were arrested on the spot and a case was registered against them.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/06/2004 00:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  fake passports in Pakland? Is that a crime or societal institution?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 0:09 Comments || Top||

#2  It's a commodity. You can also find them in select boxes of Rice Crispies (Halal).
Posted by: RW2004 || 01/06/2004 0:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Possession of one(1)fake passport is a misdemeanor. Possession of two or more is a felony with intention to traffic. Having to live with the name Qadoos is grounds for a plea bargin on grounds of a human rights abuse:
With a name like Qadoos, you wonder why my other passport says Steve?
Posted by: john || 01/06/2004 10:07 Comments || Top||

#4  OK, John, that was good!
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 12:04 Comments || Top||


Teen is 2004’s first ‘honour’ victim
"We have a winnnnner!"
The first incident of honour killing in the new year took place on Monday in the Burki police jurisdiction, where a teenager stabbed his elder sister.
The brazen hussy! What was she doing?
A duty officer said Muhammad Imran, a resident of Moza Check Tera, suspected his elder sister Shabana, 17, was having an affair with a neighbour. He asked his sister if this was true, but the discussion turned into an argument and Mr Imran, in a fit of rage, stabbed his sister to death. The police sent the body for an autopsy after registering a case on the complaint of Shabana’s father Bashir Ahmad.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/06/2004 00:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Muhammad's in for it now. Dad can't marry Shabana off to his cousin!
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Killed his own sister!? Well what now?
Posted by: Lucky || 01/06/2004 0:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Well what now?

Muhammad now becomes a man (immediately following his acquital of course).
Posted by: RW2004 || 01/06/2004 0:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Dad's mad cuz he wanted to throw acid in her face. That's what a real man would do.
Posted by: ScottAK || 01/06/2004 9:34 Comments || Top||

#5  "Dad?"

"Yes, Muhammad?"

"Is it too soon to ask if I can have Shabana's room?"
Posted by: BH || 01/06/2004 10:25 Comments || Top||

#6  "Shabana, if you sing 'At the Hop' one more time, I'm gonna..."
Posted by: snellenr || 01/06/2004 11:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Welcome to 714 A.D. folks........
Posted by: Jarhead || 01/06/2004 15:39 Comments || Top||


SAARC a ‘failed’ organisation: Hizb
Syed Salahuddin, the head of Hizb-ul Mujahedeen, said the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) had “assumed the shape of a failed organisation” because it failed to deal with Kashmir’s reality. “The reason for this failure is that the SAARC wants to create an unrealistically optimistic environment by pushing the realities of history and those on the ground into the background,” said Mr Salahuddin in a written statement from Muzaffarabad. The Hizb-ul Mujahedeen is the largest of about a dozen Islamic militant groups in Kashmir. The summit has brought together Pakistani and Indian leaders and raised hopes for peace on both sides of the divided Kashmir region, a Himalayan region that has been the source of two of the three wars between the two countries.
And it's raised feelings of dismay among the jihadis...
“President Pervez Musharraf and Indian PM Atal Behari Vajpayee met on Monday and discussed all issues,” said Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. The meeting between Musharraf and Mr Vajpayee was the first since their talks in India in 2001.
And they were none too comfortable...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/06/2004 00:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “assumed the shape of a failed organisation”
A Möbius Strip perhaps?
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 2:53 Comments || Top||

#2  “assumed the shape of a failed organisation”

A pile of donkey dung?
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/06/2004 13:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Nat. Lamp used to occasionally run a Mobius Comic Strip... way funny and kinda weird, ya had to cut it out to make it work naturally. It was easier to understand once you drank about a quart from your Klein Keg.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 13:59 Comments || Top||


Religious parties unhappy at sidelined Kashmir
Religious parties on Monday rejected breakthrough talks between Pakistan and India, accusing both of sidelining the central 56-year-old dispute over Kashmir. “Both Indian and Pakistani leaders have tried to sideline the Kashmir issue, but the Pakistani people will not allow this,” said Qazi Hussain Ahmed of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal. “We are not against dialogue with India, but if they called Kashmir an integral part of India, there is no room left for talks,” he said. Mr Ahmed demanded parliament be consulted on the latest moves to resume dialogue with India, stalled since July 2001. “We will raise a stink this issue in parliament and it is the responsibility of the prime minister to take the nation into confidence,” he said. “They are talking about trade, sports, people-to-people contacts, but not on the core dispute. This is nothing but a move to ignore or sideline the main dispute.”
"Where's the part about Armed Struggle™? The Legitimate Aspirations of the Kashmiri People™? Riddle me that, eh?"
President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee held a groundbreaking meeting yesterday on the sidelines of a seven-nation South Asia summit, forging an historic peace bid. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam spokesman Mufti Mohammad Jameel dismissed the historic Musharraf-Vajpayee talks as little more than a handshake and photo opportunity.
"We'll make sure nothing comes of that, by Gawd!"
“They have only tried to play with the media. We are for the talks, but with an open mind and on disputes,” he added. Gen Musharraf made key concessions on Kashmir in the lead-up to the summit, offering to back down on Pakistan’s decades-old demand for a referendum to allow Kashmiris to choose rule by Pakistan or India.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/06/2004 00:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


5 more arrested for attempt on Musharraf’s life
Law-enforcement agencies arrested five more people late on Sunday night in connection with the assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf on December 25. Six were arrested for planning to kill the president two days ago in Lahore.
That's a little confusing... Were they arrested two days ago or were they planning to kill him two days ago?
“The investigation team that is probing the case has shifted five people to an unidentified place where they are being interrogated,” sources told Daily Times. The suspects were arrested from the outskirts of the city during police raids. Four of them are identified as Muhammad Gulfam, Akhtar Shah, Muhammad Younas and Javed Iqbal while the name of the fifth person could not be ascertained. The suspects were arrested in line with the evidence gleaned from the explosion site. Ali Akbar, the father to the three of the five suspects, tried to lodge a report to the area police station but he was not accommodated, sources said.
Another family affair, was it?
Industrial Area Police Station House Officer Mussarat Ali Khan told Daily Times that the suspects were picked up by law-enforcement agencies, so Mr Akbar’s application could not be accommodated. Margalla and Tarnol police reportedly booked them on the charges of involvement in sectarian violence. Meanwhile, eight police teams were sent to different cities to arrest the suspects having possible links with the terrorists.
Good idea. Round the bastards up.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/06/2004 00:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
More Terrs Killed
From Indymedia. Consider the source, but if they think this is winning...
Sunday, 4 January 2004.
An armed battle between Iraqi Resistance fighters in Tikrit on Sunday left one American aggressor wounded and three Iraqi Resistance fighters martyred. A spokesman for the American occupation forces said that the battle erupted between Iraqi Resistance fighters and the American invaders after the Resistance fighters set up an ambush for the US aggressor troops.

In Balad, 75km north of Baghdad, US aggressor troops reportedly opened fire on two Iraqi Resistance fighters who had shot at the occupation troops. According to the American occupation account, the Resistance fighters died as martyrs. Eleven persons were detained and 30 AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles were seized in the course of that battle, the American sources claimed.

In Mistal, 30km east of Tikrit, one Iraqi was killed by the American occupation forces, who suspected him of supplying Resistance fighters with weapons. The Iraqi patriot approached the American aggressors carrying a Kalashnikov, and the Americans shot him dead on the spot, according to the invader statement. Five other individuals were captured in the operation.

A former colonel in the Iraqi army who had been pursued by the American occupation forces was captured in Kirkuk on Saturday, according to an American aggressor statement.

In Mosul, northern Iraq, two Iraqis died, apparently as martyrs, and a Jordanian was injured on Saturday in a roadside bombing, according to a report by the Iraqi puppet police. Puppet police Lieutenant Samir Najm al-’Azzawi told Agence France Presse (AFP) that the two Iraqis died and the 25-year-old Jordanian, whose name was ’Izz ad-Din Ibrahim, was wounded in a blast in their Brazilian-made, German label car - a type of car used as taxi cabs. The explosion occurred in al-Ansar neighborhood in the east of the city. Al-’Azzawi said that the occupation authorities were interrogating the injured Jordanian, who had been taken to hospital, to learn more of the details of the case. The puppet police spokesman indicated that he believed that the explosion was the result of the detonation of materials being carried inside the car.

I count eight dead terrs on Sunday, according to their own news report. Not a bad haul.

It's like reading Quan Doi Nhan Zan, only in English, kinda...
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/06/2004 4:46:02 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gee, CENTCOM's reporting methods must have changed recently. I don't remember them accounting for the number of EP's that the Coalition aggressor forces have martyred in the past. Times change, I guess.
Posted by: seafarious || 01/06/2004 16:53 Comments || Top||

#2  An armed battle between Iraqi Resistance fighters in Tikrit on Sunday left one American aggressor wounded..

"American aggressor"??? Haaahahahaha.....funny, but not original.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 17:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Ah, the old exploding VW trick. A classic.
Posted by: mojo || 01/06/2004 18:37 Comments || Top||

#4  The puppet police spokesman...

AHAH!

We found Bert!
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 19:03 Comments || Top||

#5  Tonight on "Cops: For Kids", we ride with the Puppet Police of Iraq. Next week: Mime Cops of the Sudan...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 22:48 Comments || Top||


More Women in Combat
Selected cuts from an article I just found and blogged
When quick action is required in an emergency situation, a soldier often doesn’t have time to think. The soldier’s training and instincts take over. Pfc. Jessica Lynn Nicholson, 21, a 1st Armored Division soldier with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 40th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade, Division Engineers, found out how true that adage is recently when she was working at a security checkpoint in Baghdad. The reason she, a tracked-vehicle mechanic, was assigned to the checkpoint was to search women. “But, that day (about 9 a.m. on June 7) there were a lot of people gathering at this checkpoint and it was very busy. So, I was asked to search some men, too,” said Nicholson.

During the second search, the soldier spotted a grenade hidden behind the visor on the driver’s side. The soldier shouted, “Grenade!”

“I immediately got man down on the ground, face down, and I remember pressing his face into a sandbag,” Nicholson said. She continued to hold him down until other soldiers came over and zip-cuffed the man.

Asked if she had grown up as a tomboy, Nicholson said, “No, I was even a cheerleader for a little while. I guess I kind of grew up out in the middle of nowhere,” she said, “and I just always had to do whatever needed to be done.” She grew up in Silverton, Idaho, and, when she was 15, her family moved to Winnemucca, Nev. She said she has also boxed with some of the men in her company. Asked if she wore boxing gloves, she replied, “Oh yes, of course, we had boxing gloves. I wouldn’t want to hurt them.”

Nicholson’s weapon is an M-249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon), which she carries with her everywhere she goes. She has nicknamed her SAW, “Camille.” “It’s my baby,” she said.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/06/2004 3:19:30 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nicholson, 5’6” and 120 pounds, said she had wrestled against boys in high school, because the boys and girls were not separated for wrestling, so, throwing a man down was nothing new to her.

There's a picture of her at the link, I think I'm in love.

She has nicknamed her SAW, “Camille.”

"Say hello to my leetle friend!"
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 16:09 Comments || Top||

#2  This individual seems to have spent virtually all of her time in boondock places. Winnemucca? Beatty? Good heavens. :)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 18:00 Comments || Top||

#3  "She said the man then started crying and someone said he might have been embarrassed because it was a shame for a man in Iraq to get beat up by a woman." - I think he will have to leave the country.

Posted by: remote man || 01/06/2004 18:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Ooh, the picture at the link is of Pfc. Nicholson and Camille. Even better.
Posted by: Well-Armed Lamb || 01/06/2004 18:53 Comments || Top||

#5  When I blogged the article, I posted the photo, too. I don't know who's prettier, Pfc. Nicholson or Camille. Told the lovely wife about this girl. Her first words (from an old N Dakota farm girl) were "Farm girl, huh?"
Posted by: Chuck || 01/06/2004 20:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Chuck: I could venture an opinion on who's prettier, but I'd have to see 'em field-stripped first. Ar ar ar...


(Doubt the Pfc. would go for it, but I bet she'd introduce me to Camille.)

Posted by: Well-Armed Lamb || 01/06/2004 23:03 Comments || Top||


A Little Post-Holiday Cheer
i got this in my in-box before the holidays from my step-brother, whose sister-in-law had freshly penned it upon watching the joyful tidings on the news. Don’t know how far around the ’net it has gotten, or if this merry carol has been sung on Rantburg yet, but if not, here goes...

to be sung to "Away in a Manger":
Away In A Hole

Away in a hole, no bed made of gold
The crazy Saddam crouched inside so cold
The soldiers of freedom looked down where he hid
The sick-o Saddam was no more so big

The soldiers are calling, the poor sick-o wakes
No shots are fired as Saddam they take
Hooray for our fighters, as risks will run high
But stand by their orders until day is nigh

Goodbye to Saddam, we see you now scared
Your reign of terror has now run you bare
You’ll cry and beg, though we’ll treat you well
The world resting better as you rot in hell!

Marissa Maciel © 2003
Happy New Year, Iraq!
Posted by: Querent || 01/06/2004 1:00:17 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Saddam undergoes intense investigations in jail
A source from the Iraqi National Accord (INA) party conveyed to the Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper details about Saddam Hussein’s daily routine in jail. According to the source, the ousted Iraqi leader undergoes 12-hour investigations a day, by US officials, in his prison cell at the Radwaniyyah camp, located near the capital of Baghdad. The source added that the investigations aren’t carried out in an orderly manner. From time to time, the US investigators call Saddam and ask him questions about Iraq’s alleged "weapons of mass destruction and other issues".
Come and go at random times, keep him off balance. No set schedule, screw with his internal clock.
During the remaining part of his day, according to the source, who requested anonymity, the former leader sleeps and cleans his cell. The source was quoted as saying, "Saddam cleans his cell on his own...and no one serves him".
And here’s my favorite.
The source further said that on the wall in Hussein’s cell are pictures of his sons Udai and Qusai, alongside pictures of US President George W. Bush.
That’s cold, baby. Ice cold. Bwahahaha!
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 9:07:16 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ah, but WHICH pictures of his kids are in there? The most recent?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 9:30 Comments || Top||

#2  RC: Be nice if they use the "tech", used in many toys, that shows either of two pictures (before & after "capture") depending on the viewing angle. You could judge his mood from where he stands when he looks at them.
Posted by: snellenr || 01/06/2004 9:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Nice. Now add a tape loop of selected highlights of GWB's speeches.
Posted by: BH || 01/06/2004 10:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Or they could randomly switch them, so he's never sure what he's going to see next time he looks up.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 10:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Their source in the INA is a dangerous, talkative fool. Time to move Sammy, if he is in that camp. And time to squash that leak like a bug.
Posted by: mojo || 01/06/2004 10:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Think Uday and Qusay's eyes follow him around the room like all those Jesus pictures my mother used to have? Think it creeps him out?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 15:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Tu LOL! Who knows perhaps there's artifical thunderstorms and electrical outages to go with the pictures.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 17:25 Comments || Top||


Iraqi insurgent tactics learned from al-Qaeda, Chechens, and the Taliban
IRAQI guerillas blasting US military convoys with improvised bombs hidden at roadsides might have learned tactics by talking to Chechen rebels and Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, a US Army intelligence officer told The Associated Press. Iraqi rebels have been communicating with such outsiders through e-mail, telephone and personal visits, said Major Thomas Sirois, chief intelligence officer of the US Army’s 3rd Corps Support Command, north of Baghdad. He would not identify the types of communication US intelligence officers had intercepted. "I think they share information," Sirois said. "Individuals here who are fighting against us I’m sure are reaching out to see what has been successful in other locations, and probably trying to adapt those procedures here."

Some ambush techniques observed in Chechnya against the Russians and in Afghanistan against US forces by al-Qaeda and former Taliban militants "we’ve seen employed here" in Iraq, Sirois said. As in Iraq, recent conflicts in Chechnya and Afghanistan have involved Islamic guerillas hiding at roadsides to ambush military convoys with booby-trapped bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. One Middle East military analyst said information being shared from Afghan and Chechen sources was probably technical assistance with fuses, remote-control detonators – such as cell phones – and assembling the complex daisy-chained bombs that began appearing in Iraq in the late northern summer.

Since the beginning of military operations in Iraq, with the March invasion, 483 US troops have died, according to the Defence Department. Of those, 330 died as a result of hostile action. The British military has reported 52 deaths; Italy, 17; Spain, eight; Bulgaria, five; Thailand, two; Denmark, Ukraine and Poland have reported one each. Suicide bombings blamed on Chechen separatists have killed more than 275 people in and around Chechnya and in Moscow in the past year. Russian troops in Chechnya suffer daily losses in rebel attacks and land-mine explosions. "There will be people out there with the expertise who will be very happy to share it, because they want to see the US project in Iraq fail," Jeremy Binnie, with Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessments in London, said. "With the technical things, there is some level of co-operation because they can get quite sophisticated."

Sirois monitors intelligence on Iraq’s roads for the Army’s 16,000-member 3rd Coscom, which operates the thousands of truck convoys travelling across Iraq each day, supplying US military with fuel, food, water and other supplies. Attacks on the convoys grew more complex in the late summer and autumn, with the number of attacks rising each month from May to November. The number of highway ambushes – usually involving roadside bombs – began dropping in late November and through December, Sirois said. Still, yesterday, three US soldiers were wounded when a bomb exploded as their convoy passed near a town north of Baghdad.

US military and intelligence officials have long said they believe members of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network have migrated to Iraq, but little evidence has been released to support their assertions. Sirois said he and other intelligence officers believe al-Qaeda members were in Iraq but had seen no signs of Chechens or Afghans launching attacks alongside Iraqi guerillas. Some tactics used to attack US convoys were home grown as well, Sirois said, noting there was plenty of expertise among disaffected members of the disbanded Iraqi army.

The effectiveness of the roadside bombs, which the US military calls IEDs or "improvised explosive devices", depends on them being carefully hidden on the edges of the convoy routes and detonated when an unsuspecting convoy passes. The US Army has found bombs disguised as curbs. Others have been hidden in lampposts, animal carcasses and the US Army’s ubiquitous brown plastic ration bags. "We’ve seen some pretty ingenious disguises," Sirois told AP last week. "You name it, they hide IEDs in just about anything – tyres at the sides of roads, trash piles."

At the same time, Sirois said the ambushers’ influence on US convoys was slipping, with 250 attacks in November and 200 in December. Perhaps more significantly, the rebels’ bombs had grown smaller, less complex and less deadly, he said. At the height of their attacks – from late August to early November – rebels were able to interconnect 15 or more large artillery shells into a single bomb that might have been assembled and buried at the side of a highway over a period of several nights or a week, he said. Some bombs used plastic explosives as well as artillery or mortar shells. But for the past six weeks, most bombs had been smaller, sometimes a single, converted artillery or mortar round. "Where in the past we’ve seen casualties and significant damage to our vehicles, lately the IEDs have been single rounds and they’ve done minimal damage to our vehicles," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 12:52:03 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nice summary. I don't know about anybody else, but I have found myself unexpectedly fascinated by the countermeasures/countertactics employed against these bombs and the people placing them.

One of my favorites is the story LtCol Steve Russell told about his guys, who got a stash of some doorbell buzzers used in remotely detonating bombs and taped some of them to their vehicles. Smart, simple, and effective, what's not to like ?
Posted by: Carl in NH || 01/06/2004 6:02 Comments || Top||

#2  These tactics might have been effective against sheeple, but those Iraqi terrorists don't seem to understand that the people being targeted are members of the U.S. Armed Forces who will fight back, with deadly efficiency.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 17:10 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
More on Thai blasts
Two bombs have exploded in southern Thailand’s Pattani province, killing two policemen and injuring others. The policemen died when a bomb they were trying to defuse, which had been placed on a motorcycle, went off. The incident came as martial law was declared in Pattani and two other provinces following weekend raids blamed on separatists turned bandits.

Gunmen killed four soldiers during a pre-dawn raid on an army weapons depot on Sunday, stealing more than 100 guns. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said weekend arson attacks on 21 schools were designed to distract the authorities. The BBC’s Kylie Morris in Bangkok says the latest attacks are a further set-back to the government, which is already defending itself against criticism that it has under-estimated the problems in the country’s predominantly Muslim south. Mr Thaksin blamed Sunday’s attacks on a Muslim group called the Mujahideen, known to operate from southern Thailand and Malaysia.
My guess would be that this is the KMM, as at least the profile seems to fit.
He suggested they would sell the weapons to allied groups, including separatists in the Indonesian province of Aceh. Martial law has been imposed on Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala as authorities search the Thai-Malaysian border for suspects and weapons. Mr Thaksin blamed a lack of co-ordination between the police and the army for the weapons raid. "The security forces, with more than 2,000 soldiers in the camp, they knew about the bandits looking for a big lot of weapons. But still they were negligent. They deserved to die," he said.
Which is a gratuitously harsh statement...
There has been sporadic violence in Thailand’s five southernmost provinces - Songkhla, Satun, Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani - which has been attributed to Muslim separatists. But analysts say the violence has recently eased after relatively successful government policies aimed at integrating Thai Muslims into the country’s predominantly Buddhist society.
But there's a set of international Islamists that's determined that sort of thing won't stick. Thaksin's going to find that this sort of thing is being financed from abroad — the usual kingdom's oil money being frittered away on it — and that there are the usual beturbanned International Men of Mystery™ holding meetings in the dead of night in heavily-guarded mosques. The only way to clean it up is to take it seriously: get your intel going, and use it to drive the soldiers and the police to those dead-of-night meetings. Bust through the doors, kill everybody in sight. Repeat as necessary.
Thai security officials say most of the separatists in the area are now bandits who run rackets along the Thai-Malaysian border.
Just make them dead bandits who used to run rackets. Kill two birds with one stone...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 1:29:46 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If I had to hazard a guess as to the mood of the Thai Army after their PM's remark:

"The security forces, with more than 2,000 soldiers in the camp, they knew about the bandits looking for a big lot of weapons. But still they were negligent. They deserved to die," he said.

It would be that when next those troops go to rifle practice, their targets will bear the likeness of Mr. Thaksin.

I spent a good bit of time flying out of Thailand during the war in 'Nam, and I always thought it to be an interesting and even advanced place.

Don't forget that when every other nation in SEA fought encroaching Japanese hegemony before WW2, Thailand actually invited them to invade.

After further review, it seems to have been the birthplace of political correctness, and given all the negatives about the country (exporting crime, AIDS and drugs), it hardly seems to be worth our renewed support.
Posted by: Rivrdog || 01/06/2004 7:49 Comments || Top||

#2  the babes are cute..reason enuf?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 9:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Riverdog - hold on here! Thaksin is very popular in Thailand. He is a modernizer while trying to preserve the best of the past. He is exactly the kind of developing world leader we should support. He is also serious about controlling drugs. Thailand is THE big sucess story in controlling AIDS- its been declining for about 10 years. The birthplace of political correctness I don't understand. And finally I'll leave the Japanese reference alone cos WWII was the great tradegy of the 20th century which we are only now starting to deal with the consequences of.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2004 10:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Here's some backround from Asia Times. EFL:
In May, the illegal Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO) boasted that Thai security forces were "falling like leaves" because Muslims were fighting to free southern Thailand from Bangkok's rule.
"On the one hand, Thaksin admitted ... there are still a handful of uprisings in the form of liberation movements [in southern Thailand], but said that they are not powerful enough to be considered as a threat to his territorial ambitions," wrote PULO deputy president Lukman B Lima in a rare dispatch from exile in Sweden. "If his conglomerates and himself are so powerful in practicing 'might is right' - which is the law of the jungle - then why are his serving security men falling like leaves?" Lukman said in remarks published in The Nation in May. Bangkok "illegally incorporated" the far south into Thailand 100 years ago and now rules it with "colonial" repression while "committing crimes against humanity in the area", Lukman said. Bangkok denies all allegations of intentional mistreatment of Thailand's Muslims and insists that separatist guerrillas are "bandits" enriching themselves while spewing religious and political rhetoric. About 90 percent of Thailand's 63 million citizens are Buddhist. Most of Thailand's 4 percent Muslim population live in the south, in and around Pattani province.
About 80 percent of these Muslims are of ethnic Malay descent, inspiring PULO to demand a so-called Malay Kingdom of Pattani, or Greater Pattani. It would include the southern Thai provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani, Satun and part of Songkhla - a region Thailand annexed in 1902.

For more than 500 years, Muslim ethnic Malays have battled Thai security forces in hit-and-run skirmishes to end what they perceive as Thailand's "racist" Buddhist domination. Thai Buddhists crushed southern Muslim uprisings in 1564 and 1776, but the area remains relatively poor, alienated and misunderstood by Bangkok's government and military officials. Today, PULO is believed to possess a couple of hundred fighters scattered on both sides of the Thai-Malaysian border.


Great, another 500 year old holy war, no wonder JI leaders made so many trips to Thailand.
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 13:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Thaksin is very popular in Thailand. He is a modernizer while trying to preserve the best of the past.

Thaksin's see-no-evil approach is what has brought martial law to the southern provinces. He did nothing even as Muslim terrorists plotted.

As to his accomplishments, Thaksin is no prize. His use of death squads to take out alleged drug dealers is dangerous and unnecessary. Other countries in the region have put drug dealers to death without using secret police tactics that can be used as cover for settling private disputes. As to his economic accomplishments, Thaksin's reckless expansion of credit (via forcing banks to lend) which has fueled Thailand's recent boom, is going to bring the Thai economy down in flames when the debts need to be repaid.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/06/2004 17:42 Comments || Top||

#6  ZF - I tend to agree with Thaksin that these are more bandits than ideologically driven terrorists. Its primarily a law and order problem, and that is why Thaksin went after the army and police.

Otherwise, the average budhist Thai aint crazy about moslems, and it would be easy for Thaksin to play the religion card, which to his credit he hasn't.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2004 19:07 Comments || Top||


Home Front
New Jihadi Seething Provocation©: Israeli Flag planted on Mars
via LGF and Josh Harvey’s Middle East, noted that the latest US probe to land on Mars has a memorial plaque commemorating the shuttle disaster, which, as most know, carried an Israeli astronaut. Included on the plaque is an Israeli flag.

As the poster at LGF says: "Jihadis, this is your cue to go nuts"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 10:57:13 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Free Mars from Zionist Occupation!
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/06/2004 23:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Mars: now 233,456th Holiest Place in Islam...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/07/2004 0:00 Comments || Top||


Mr. Dept. of Peace Shows A Pie Chart On NPR
Damn, is this guy stoopid or what?
Federal spending was the topic and Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich came prepared with a pie chart to argue his point about a bloated Pentagon budget.
Mmmmm! I like pie!
But although many listened to Tuesday’s presidential debate, few could see the Ohio congressman’s prop.
It’s a wonder anyone saw it. It’s freakin’ radio!!!
The debate was broadcast only on National Public Radio.
NPR and Kucinich. A fit like O.J and his glove, them two...
As Kucinich challenged Democratic front-runner Howard Dean for refusing to acknowledge that the Pentagon budget needs to be cut, debate moderator Neal Conan of NPR interrupted. "Congressman Kucinich is holding up a pie chart, which is not truly effective on radio," Conan told his listeners.
"If we're on the damn radio, why'm I wearing a tie?"
Kucinich was not deterred. "Well, it’s effective if Howard can see it," he replied.
You’re just a blip for now on the screen, pal, get over yourself.
Posted by: Raj || 01/06/2004 10:07:27 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ah, yes. In the midst of a war, and Kucinich wants to cut the military budget.

Of course, he doesn't really think it's a war, does he? The 3,000 dead don't really register with his type, do they?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 22:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Did they put a "Kucinich 2004" bumper sticker on the Mars rover? Might appeal to the Martian- American voter, although I think he already has that vote wrapped up.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 22:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe next time he can use a Powerpoint presentation. It might be more effective on the radio than that pie chart.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/06/2004 22:30 Comments || Top||

#4  damn - I was gonna post this then I find I'm not only NOT the first, I'm 4th in comments!....getting slow in my middle age
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 22:35 Comments || Top||

#5  BTW - "Denny the K" has a face made for radio
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 22:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Frank G: you can't beat the RAF - Raj Air Force...
Posted by: Raj || 01/06/2004 23:13 Comments || Top||

#7  I never doubted you LOL
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 23:23 Comments || Top||


Columbia crew to be memorialized on Mars
NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe today announced plans to name the landing site of the Mars Spirit Rover in honor of the astronauts who died in the tragic accident of the Space Shuttle Columbia in February. The area in the vast flatland of the Gusev Crater where Spirit landed this weekend will be called the Columbia Memorial Station.

Since its historic landing, Spirit has been sending extraordinary images of its new surroundings on the red planet over the past few days. Among them, an image of a memorial plaque placed on the spacecraft to Columbia’s astronauts and the STS-107 mission. The plaque is mounted on the back of Spirit’s high-gain antenna, a disc-shaped tool used for communicating directly with Earth. The plaque is aluminum and approximately six inches in diameter. The memorial plaque was attached March 28, 2003, at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

Chris Voorhees and Peter Illsley, Mars Exploration Rover engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., designed the plaque. "During this time of great joy for NASA, the Mars Exploration Rover team and the entire NASA family paused to remember our lost colleagues from the Columbia mission. To venture into space, into the unknown, is a calling heard by the bravest, most dedicated individuals," said NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe. "As team members gazed at Mars through Spirit’s eyes, the Columbia memorial appeared in images returned to Earth, a fitting tribute to their own spirit and dedication. Spirit carries the dream of exploration the brave astronauts of Columbia held in their hearts."

Spirit successfully landed on Mars Jan. 3. It will spend the next three months exploring the barren landscape to determine if Mars was ever watery and suitable to sustain life. Spirit’s twin, Opportunity, will reach Mars on Jan. 25 to begin a similar examination of a site on the opposite side of the planet.
Posted by: Korora || 01/06/2004 3:50:45 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  See, see, see the high rez color shot.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 16:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Aw hell, it's holding me captive, screwed up again, I'll be sitting with Murat.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 16:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe they find a place nearby called "Jihadi's Rest"?

Sure looks like the Saudi Empty Corner to me, they should feel at home. (Virgins not supplied).
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/06/2004 20:23 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Kaddafi say Wha???
From Debka’s Headlines:
Libya’s leader, Muammar Qaddafi, offers to open Libyan prisons to human-rights inspectors and compensate Libyan Jews for confiscated property.
Kaddafi must really want to piss off the whole Middle East. But on a more serious note, I wonder what game he’s playing?
Posted by: Daniel King || 01/06/2004 3:01:19 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tis logical:

1. He wants to get in good with the Americans.
2. The Americans are controlled by the Zionist entity, which is the sole reason why Iraq was invaded and Israel is supported.
3. Maybe, if we start making nice to the Jews, the Zionist entity Controlling America will see we're serious???

Elementary, no?
Posted by: Ptah || 01/06/2004 15:09 Comments || Top||

#2  What's the over/under before the Arab Street© starts cooking up nutball conspiracy theories to explain this behaviour? I'm betting on "Colonel Qaddafi replaced by Mossad lookalike" under 3 days.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/06/2004 15:11 Comments || Top||

#3  He's actively trying to distance himself from his terrorist past. He can see the hammer coming down, and has no desire to be one of the squashees.

Nobody ever said he was dumb, just crazy.
Posted by: mojo || 01/06/2004 15:14 Comments || Top||

#4  More destabilization of the Mideast.

(thank you Mr. Bush)
Posted by: Mark || 01/06/2004 15:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Q's running out of time and he wants to get to heaven.....

I got a Jefferson that sez Q. converts this calendar year.
Convert to what I don't have a clue.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 17:28 Comments || Top||

#6  What I find so wonderful is his Libyian Monkey Wrench thrown so gracefully into the arguments of those who pursue a Palestinian Right of Return.

This is the first time that I remember a Middle Eastern Leader has admitted what happened to Jews throughout the Middle East before/during/after the re-creation of Israel.

Expect Big Media to ignore it.
Posted by: Daniel King || 01/06/2004 18:16 Comments || Top||

#7  What I find so wonderful is his Libyian Monkey Wrench thrown so gracefully into the arguments of those who pursue a Palestinian Right of Return.

This is the first time that I remember a Middle Eastern Leader has admitted what happened to Jews throughout the Middle East before/during/after the re-creation of Israel.

Expect Big Media to ignore it.
Posted by: Daniel King || 01/06/2004 18:26 Comments || Top||

#8  Well, this is Debka, but usually the simplist explanation for behavior is correct.

Like Sammy, Kadaffy has delusions of grandeur. He wanted to be seen as a great Arab leader and leave a legacy for his sons. However, after seeing Sammy, Uday and Qusay, he figured his last best hope for achieving this goal was to cooperate with, rather than defy, Western counterproliferation efforts. As the first rogue to make the switch, he figures (probably correctly) that he'll disproportionately benefit.

To Col. K's credit, he has in recent years expressed frustration with the Arab world and seemed to be experimenting with an African vs. Arab identity so his recent pronouncement can be seen as part of a somewhat gradual process. Of course it could also mean he'll flake out again.
Posted by: JAB || 01/06/2004 21:58 Comments || Top||

#9  You've got it all wrong. He's planning to give up the despot gig, and instead he's going to make a series of music videos with his (all female) bodyguards based on some old Robert Palmer tunes.
Posted by: A Jackson || 01/06/2004 23:46 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Nuke flap dogs Dean
EFL - Hat tip to drudge - read it all
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says former Gov. Howard Dean and other Vermont officials violated federal law by releasing secret protection plans for its nuclear power plant in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The NRC’s charge had Vermont officials scrambling to impoundtop-secret nuclear documents the Democratic presidential front-runner wrongly made public. Some of the documents regarding the Vermont Yankee nuke plant include so-called ``safeguards information,’’ which is to be released under ``need to know requirements and . . . not publicly releasable,’’ said NRC spokesman Scott Burnell.

The documents are included in files Dean made public - even as he opposes the release of other records on the grounds that they may include similar security or personal information. ``They have been made aware that these documents aren’t supposed to be publicly available,’’ said Burnell. ``They have assured us that steps are being taken to remove the documents from public availability.’’ Burnell said visible warnings on the records weren’t heeded by Dean’s office, the Vermont secretary of state and the state archivist - making civil or criminal charges a possibility. ``If warranted, there is going to be an investigation,’’ Burnell said.

Dean has come under steady fire for refusing to release many of the files from his 11 years as Vermont governor until 2013. The front-running Democrat has said he doesn’t want his gubernatorial records released for political reasons but said he also worries that security data and things like constituent medical information could accidentally be released if all his documents were made public.

The NRC review follows a Herald report last month that documents containing security and personal medical information were tucked in Dean’s public files. The documents undercut Dean’s argument that files should remain private and have been used by his competitors, most recently by U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman during a debate in Iowa Sunday. Dean has also been criticized for reports of lax security at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 2:24:46 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hey chief of the Nine! Éowyn's here!
Posted by: Korora || 01/06/2004 14:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Dipshit. I scrounged around on the net and found this.

Seems that safeguards information is treated as if it was Confidential information. Interesting. I'll have to ask around, since there's a nuke plant south of Vidalia, and a lot of employees work there.
Posted by: Ptah || 01/06/2004 15:13 Comments || Top||

#3  So does this mean Dean=Mussolini? I mean, what the hell, right? Give him a taste. Deanolini? I like it.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 15:23 Comments || Top||

#4  my ex used make a pasta dish - I think it was called Deanolini...noodle base, a bitter (some would say angry) sauce, bad aftertaste, and the recipe changed all the time
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 15:59 Comments || Top||

#5  You just know the jihadi's want the sweet radioactive soil of Vidalia to grow the onions of hate.

Vidalia is the 3rd holiest site in Southron cooking.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 16:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Typical - Dean will release those records, but not his own from his time as Governor of the Hippie State.

The 'ol surprise meter didn't budge at all...
Posted by: Raj || 01/06/2004 17:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Folks, this looney is getting tons of media goodwill ("front-runner"; "best showing against Bush in election poll"; etc.) -- we need get serious about him, no matter how duplicitous or moronic he may be.

Make this election the one where you rouse everyone you know who has something other than shit for brains to get out there and vote. This election is 100x more serious than any other in my lifetime and, given the free pass and adulation of all media outlets I have access to, Dean is being made to look oh so reasonable and responsible and centrist and electable - and it's a looong time until November. We gotta make sure it's a Bush landslide. Complacency and over-confidence is as much our enemy as this twit.

Atomic Conspiracy - got any tips on how we can maximize turnout for Dubya?
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 18:26 Comments || Top||

#8  Got that right, Shipman! And don't y'all forget it!
Posted by: Ptah || 01/06/2004 22:15 Comments || Top||


Truth Is, Rantburgers ain’t very bright- Socialists prepare to drop the ’Stupid’ bomb
credit to The Daily Dish for this tidbit, and EFL to get to the juicy parts
By NEAL STARKMAN, GUEST COLUMNIST, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Millions of words have been written as to the motivations of voters. Particularly in close elections, as in the 2000 presidential contest, pundits and laypeople alike have speculated on why people voted for whom. The exit poll has been a major tool in this speculation. But the speculation misses the mark by far. It's increasingly obvious, for example, that none of the so-called theories can explain President Bush's popularity, such as it is. Even at this date in his presidency, after all that has happened, the president's popularity hovers at around 50 percent — an astonishingly high figure, I believe, given the state of people's lives now as opposed to four years ago...

It’s the "Stupid factor," the S factor: Some people — sometimes through no fault of their own — are just not very bright.
you mean democrats?
Duhhh... Who youse talkin' about?
It’s not merely that some people are insufficiently intelligent to grasp the nuances of foreign policy, of constitutional law, of macroeconomics or of the variegated interplay of humans and the environment.
yup, gotta be talking about janeane gorillafalo and mike moore
Oh, good. It ain't me. Huh huh!
These aren’t the people I’m referring to. The people I’m referring to cannot understand the phenomenon of cause and effect. They’re perplexed by issues comprising more than two sides. They don’t have the wherewithal to expand the sources of their information. And above all — far above all — they don’t think.
Tarnation Ma! he’s talkin ’bout us REE-publikans! git ma shotgun, i’m goin ta Seeatul!
You know these people; they’re all around you (they’re not you, else you would not be reading this article this far). They’re the ones who keep the puerile shows on TV,
(oh, that evil evil foxnews; i’ve never seen a roomful of liberals watching ’Survivor’; oh, waitaminnit)
who appear as regular recipients of the Darwin Awards, who raise our insurance rates by doing dumb things, who generally make life much more miserable for all of us than it ought to be. Sad to say, they comprise a substantial minority — perhaps even a majority — of the populace.
the worst part about being a neoconservative mouth-breather is the chapped lips

Yes please, make sure your man doctor dean uses this a platform in his candidacy - "You people are so stupid that you need ME and my socialist government to protect you from yourselves!"
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/06/2004 2:22:03 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't have a solution to this problem. To claim I did would belie my previous arguments. But I do have some modest suggestions that might provide a start for discussion: an intelligence test to earn the right to vote; a three-significantly-stupid-behaviors-and-you're-out law; fines for politicians who pander to the lowest common denominator and deportation of media representatives who perpetuate such actions.

It's well past time that people confront this issue


No what this guy is proposing is that we have an 'test' to earn the right to vote. Obviously (according to his previous comments) if you don't think Bush is an complete imbicle and/or that the war in Iraq is based on lies and is a quagmire you would be too stupid to be allowed to vote according to his definition of 'stupidity'.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/06/2004 14:40 Comments || Top||

#2  An intelligence test eh? Why I seem to remember another society type that those showed up in. Anyone else remember the ol "Jim Crow" laws? :P
Posted by: Val || 01/06/2004 14:47 Comments || Top||

#3  It nice to know that there are still people who are able to think great thoughts. So that I may follow. As I'm easily lead.
Posted by: Lucky || 01/06/2004 14:49 Comments || Top||

#4  As I blogged about this guy yesterday.
Lefty loons like this guy want to take your God-given free will away. They want you to understand that you are too stupid to make good choices, so they will make them for you. Dictatorship by any other name is still dictatorship. They want you to know that life is so complex that most of you cannot grasp how it works. Neal will be glad to tell you what you should think and how you should act. He's educated, you know, smart, knows all those big words. Little words, like liberty, freedom, life, God, are just too stupid for him. I'm stupid. You're stupid. We're all stupid, except Neal. He's obviously an educator, so should recognize STUPID when he sees it. In the mirror every morning, for example.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/06/2004 14:50 Comments || Top||

#5  "regular recipients of the Darwin Awards" is good. Stupid, but good.

Anybody have more than one?
Posted by: mojo || 01/06/2004 15:04 Comments || Top||

#6  sounds like he's auditioning for a highly-placed spot in the EU bureaucracy
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 15:15 Comments || Top||

#7  Hmm, a capital idea!

But why a written test, on which anyone, including the test givers, could cheat? Remember the Literacy tests in the Old South? Do we want to turn back the clock THAT far?

We MUST be more practical, no?

Sooooo...

Why not establish that anyone capable of holding down a job, earning cash, paying taxes, and being able to barely survive on what's left after paying the taxes liberal mooks like this demand that we pay, and avoids bankruptcy after suffering all this cr*p, is clearly intelligent enough to survive in a modern society, and so should vote for leaders of that same modern society?

Kick everybody off the voting records who's been on welfare within, ohhh (checks the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act), 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election!

What? You welfare mamas wanna vote?

WORK, OR GO ON A LOOONG DIET!
Posted by: Ptah || 01/06/2004 15:24 Comments || Top||

#8  The "Stupid Minds" line from Ed Wood Jr's classic piece of schlock "Plan 9 From Outer Space"

http://www.torget.se/users/m/mwrang/stupid2.wav
Posted by: mojo || 01/06/2004 15:26 Comments || Top||

#9  Ptah, Ever see that [gawd awful] movie 'Starship Troopers'? One interesting facet of that movie is that people had to 'earn' citizenship (or was it the right to vote??) - it was not automatically given. By joining the armed forces or performing some communinty service you 'earn' the right to vote.

Sometimes I think this is a good idea. If you have a JOB (or unemployment), pay for housing (i.e. rent or own a home w/o housing assistance) and PAY TAXES you get the right to vote - if you are on welfare or the (unearned) government dole you do not get the right to vote.

Can you imagine the Donks having a seazure over this type of proposal. Might be fun to watch!

Plan 9 from Outer Space - I have this on tape. Funny because it is so bad.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/06/2004 15:50 Comments || Top||

#10  "(i.e. rent or own a home w/o housing assistance) " said Ptah...

uh oh... does that mean that accepting that HFA loan in order to buy my condo would have cost me my voting rights?

B )
Posted by: Querent || 01/06/2004 16:05 Comments || Top||

#11  Querent, No I was referring to Section 8 and/or HUD (where the person pays a small fraction of the rent). Sorry for not making that clear. And I said that not Ptah :).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/06/2004 16:12 Comments || Top||

#12  Section 8, Plan 9 hmmmm... that equals 17 add the two different national champions USC & LSU and it equals 19. See?

Always buy beef kosher and in units of 19, this will protect you from Dengue Fever.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 16:54 Comments || Top||

#13  Can you imagine the Donks having a seazure over this type of proposal. Might be fun to watch!

Not really, at least anymore. Remember, for the last few years they've been saying that only those who have served in the military are allowed to comment on defense issues. Then you had them calling for a reinstatement of the draft...

Given how reactionary they've been lately, I don't think they'd have any problem with literacy tests.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 17:40 Comments || Top||

#14  the worst part about being a neoconservative mouth-breather is the chapped lips...

Funny, I thought it was the scraped knuckles from all that draggin'.
Posted by: Raj || 01/06/2004 17:43 Comments || Top||

#15  So, Neal, you think voters need to pass an intelligence test in order to vote? May I suggest that we use the butterfly ballot? I'ts already been tested and proven that stoopid people (Dimocrats) can't figure it out.

BTW, will we have to pay a poll tax too? My, don't you just love these progressives?
Posted by: Gasse Katze || 01/06/2004 17:56 Comments || Top||

#16  I find it amusing that he criticizes people who cannot trace "cause and effect". Ye he supports policies that are based on completely ignoring cause and effect, as in choice and responsiblity: i.e. you are responsbile for the consequences (effect) of your actions (cause).

IF there is anything liberls liek him do its abdicate responsiublity, and deny effects even when the cause is plain.

A few examples: 8 years of ineffectual actions in the face of terrorism -> 9/11, lower taxes -> more people have more of their own money -> better economy, less government regulation -> more innovation (c.f. internet).

Got to love stupid pseudo-intellectuals like the moron who wrote the original article, who blow themselves up with their own words. Almost as good as the Paleo boomers who cook themselves in their own garage bomb making facility.

Hoist by their own petard, indeed.
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/06/2004 20:19 Comments || Top||

#17  I served briefly in the military (1972-73) and I have a four year degree. I am told I am very intelligent, but I walked away from the insanity of the left. Did I lose my intelligence?

The problem is leftists like the columnist are filtering their views through their own prejudices, a perfectly valid thing to do in writing opinion. But to call roughly half the population that did vote for Bush (and may well do so again this year) too stupid to make a decision like a correct vote, seems to me to be in itself a stupid view, if you want to woo voters and people to your views.

But of course, taking my views, this guy has got to be stumping for the right, that is, iffin' he takes the concept of cause and effect into consideration.

Well, he didn't. And because he is himself too stupid realize it, he gets to watch the glorious smashing of the left (hopefully for good) in 2004 at the hands of voters.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2004 21:53 Comments || Top||

#18  ...I'm Neal Starkman, Intellectual Giant. Back to you, Fred.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 22:31 Comments || Top||

#19  Found this on Bros. Judd:

"He was on a local Seattle radio show yesterday trying to defend his thesis. I only caught bits and pieces but it seemed that he seemed awfully testy and defensive and the leftists who called in to support him came off as 34 watt bulbs in a 100 watt lamp.


Posted by Raoul Ortega at January 6, 2004 08:01 PM"
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/06/2004 22:37 Comments || Top||


Terror suspect on Paris-Cincinnati flight? Fighter escorts up
Breaking News: Delta flight scheduled to arrive at 3:20 PM EST being escorted by fighter jets. Suspect on board
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 2:15:20 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  more:
CINCINNATI -- There are reports that fighter jets are escorting a jet into the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport.
The plane is Delta flight 043. It left Paris at 11:20 a.m. and is scheduled to land at 3:20 p.m.

The flight is said to be of interest because of a potential terrorism suspect on board, according to WLWT.

According to reports, a woman was removed from the flight before it took off from Paris because she had an electronic device that was causing some suspicion.

Passengers will be re-screened as a precaution when the plane lands in Cincinnati.

NBC news is reporting that officials want to speak with 14 people on board.

Additional details are forthcoming.
Stay tuned to WLWT Eyewitness News 5 and refresh this ChannelCincinnati.com page for updates as soon as information comes into the newsroom.
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 14:18 Comments || Top||

#2  False alarm again?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 14:25 Comments || Top||

#3  False alarm. No escorts, no suspects on board. Woman was pulled off in Paris because of wires coming out of her jacket. Turns out to be an electrically heated motorcycle jacket, plugs into the bike and keeps rider warm.
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 14:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Aargh. Just found out my radio's batteries are dead. D-E-D, dead.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 14:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Steve, that's not what the local stories are saying. They're still escorting the plane in, and plan to move it to an isolated terminal and screen everyone individually.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 14:55 Comments || Top||

#6  RC, I'm afraid Steve's right, according to Fox- fooled again by the major media! Damn! Why do I listen to them??
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 15:13 Comments || Top||

#7  All is well, the N. Kentucky stills are all safe, go on about your business.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/06/2004 15:18 Comments || Top||

#8  Local report says the plane WAS escorted until the woman was cleared, and that it was met by "heavy security" here. Of course, "heavy security" to a reporter could mean Barney Fife.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 15:58 Comments || Top||

#9  Did anyone tell the Jidahis that we've already blown up Riverfront?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 16:57 Comments || Top||

#10  The one thing the Islamofascists don't want to do is to anger the Kentucky moonshiners. They think the 82nd is tough!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/06/2004 18:00 Comments || Top||

#11  I'm going to Vegas in February. A fighter escort would be really cool. Maybe I can talk my wife into doing something stupid...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 22:35 Comments || Top||

#12  As if getting her to accompany you to Vegas didn't use up your ration of getting her to do something stupid...
Posted by: triticale || 01/07/2004 1:11 Comments || Top||


They have found the homeless and they are Vets!
EFL
The daily news headlines paint a grim picture of the kinds of situations American servicemen and servicewomen are dealing with in Iraq. Yet while the media, politicians and analysts talk much about the peril facing American soldiers abroad, very few seem to give much thought to what will happen once these soldiers have done their duty and returned home. Tragically, many of those who are able to return home will come back not only with mental and physical problems but to lost job opportunities and broken families.
(Many? How many?)
A case in point is the number of veterans of past wars found among the nation’s homeless. America’s homeless veterans have served in most of the major wars, including World War II, Korea, the Cold War, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Gulf Storm, Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as police operations such as the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in Latin American countries. And 67 percent have served our country for at least three years, with 33 percent having been stationed in a war zone. In fact, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, one out of every four homeless males who is sleeping in a doorway, alley or box in our cities and rural communities has at some time put on a uniform and served our country. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that roughly 300,000 veterans are homeless on any given night.
(This figure may be inflated because of the way they collect data. Basically they ask the homeless person: “Have you ever served?” I hate to say it but sometimes homeless people lie.)
What can be done? First, the Bush administration, in cooperation with Congress, should make our returning veterans a top priority by drastically expanding available services for them. It is not enough to make speeches and build monuments in their honor. If we’re really serious, then we must dedicate some of our tax dollars to creating programs whose focus is rehabilitation and sustenance — specifically, so that veterans can find adequate housing and reach a point where they can obtain and sustain employment.
(Yes the answer is to blame President Bush for the Homeless Veterans. They didn’t exist under the Clinton Administration.)

This is a subject near and dear to my heart for two reasons: I am a vet and I work with/for Veterans organizations for the State of California. Yes there are Veterans who are homeless, but they are not without avenues to get out of the situation. In Sacramento (my home town) there are three Veteran shelters that they can go to for help. They CAN get Medical assistance, drug counseling, clothes, place to sleep, food, and job training/referral/placement. Guess what? Some of these Veterans don’t want help or drop out of the program after a week or so. Yes they are veterans, yes they are homeless, and YES they have MENTAL Problems. But it’s not for lack of trying that these people CHOOSE to be on the street rather than seek help from veterans groups. And believe me they AGGRESSIVELY seek out homeless vets for their programs because they are the ones that need the most help. So I don’t think the answer is more money towards these programs. Also if ANY veteran wants to go to a VA hospital then can get FREE care for illness or injury.

First, the Bush administration... should make our returning veterans a top priority by drastically expanding available services for them... If we’re really serious, then we must dedicate some of our tax dollars to creating programs whose focus is rehabilitation and sustenance — specifically, so that veterans can find adequate housing and reach a point where they can obtain and sustain employment.
That proposed solution looks like an off-the-top-of-the-head pronouncement by Jesse Jackson. No specific services are mentioned, just the expenditure of more dough. 300,000 sounds like a big number, but 300,000 out of a vets' population of approximately 25 million comes out to about 1.2 percent, assuming my calculator's calibrated correctly. With a "failure rate" a tad over one percent, I'd say we're well into the territory of diminishing returns. VA isn't perfect, but I'd say there's no evidence they're neglecting their duties, nor is there an obligation for them to get out and chase down their "charges." In fact, there's probably less requirement for them to do so, since the people who join the volunteer military are demonstrably more self-reliant as a group than a similar random slice of the populace. No news here. It's just typing.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/06/2004 12:45:32 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Guess they all spent the Clinton years on vacation? Did hear about them much back then. They must've been in Aruba or someplace...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 12:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Cyber Sarge:

I am always weary of these articles. While there is no doubt that many vetrans of war face difficulty upon returning home, little is ever written about those who go on to be successful sound citizens.

What is your opinion of Stolen Valor? I found it to be a compelling book.
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 01/06/2004 13:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Speaking as a disabled vet, there are things this administration could do to make the lives of veterans better. The entire "military veterans" issue needs to be re-thought from top to bottom - something neither Congress or the chowderheads who are getting a free ride at the VA or the Pentagon are willing to do. These are not things that "just popped up" - they've been around since at least the late 1960's, if my research is any indication. One of the reasons most homeless vets are that way is because they've come "home" to a place that's no longer home. They've changed, and to an even greater extent, society has changed. Most homeless vets will admit, if approached with the right attitude - with the respect and dignity they feel is their due, that they don't feel comfortable in our society any more.

Some adjust, over time. Some never do. I have a friend - a fellow disabled veteran - that lives a few hundred feet west of I-25 between Pueblo and Walsenburg. He has about 200 former vets that 'visit' him every year, moving north in the spring and south in the fall. He tried to build a shelter for them, but they refused to use it. They pitch a small tent (frequently home-made), build a small fire, and stay a day or two, then head out again. He doesn't shoot at them, he doesn't call the sheriff, and they don't trash his property. It frustrates him he can't do more, but these people treat him with a great deal of respect - he honors their wishes and desires, and doesn't hassle them. He's NEVER had a problem with any of the people that stay on his property. Some of these people have been visiting him regularly since 1973, shortly after he moved there.

The answer to the problem definitely isn't more money for programs, or even new programs. The issue is too complex for easy answers, and apparently too complex for the sponge-head writing this article to understand.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/06/2004 13:33 Comments || Top||

#4  I am pretty sick of the same old slandering leftist BS where they purport to care for "the veterans" but are in fact making them just another client supplicant for their groupthink. I went to the original article to write to the author of this garbage, and found the following:

"Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org,. Information about the Institute is available at www.rutherford.org".

I can't seem to make the link to his org work. Funny, that. I'll try a few more times.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 01/06/2004 13:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Whiskey Mike: This worked for me.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/06/2004 13:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Dragonfly, I haven’t read this book, but I remember seeing articles about these ‘veterans.’ Like I said, people lie (for whatever reason). I am sure this book only scratched the surface of the many charades being played on the public. Thank God for the Internet, because now we can expose and depose these stories a lot easier. FYI I did not serve in Vietnam, but my Father did (He is not homeless and raised three boys with varying success).
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/06/2004 14:01 Comments || Top||

#7  Just got through going to the source, and reading the article there. Sounds like John Whitehead is an ok guy, and the Rutherford Institute is actually a Townhall member - not some left-wing slush tank. I just think the guy got a bunch of bull from the "establishment" - both government and NGO - about homeless vets, and didn't do any field research. There are a lot of homeless "vets" in the Washington, D.C., area, but I wouldn't trust much of what they say. Visit some of them that camp out in Texas through Arizona during the winter, and all over during the summer, and you'll get a different view.

I've been fighting the military and the VA for 20 years about a disabling backache that's constantly causing me problems. It's taken that long to get the government medical people (both military and VA) to do what was necessary to get a diagnosis: I have three herniated disks in my lower back, spinal stenosis from T3 up through C2, and scoliosis between T2 and L3. I had a two-level cervical fusion at C4-5 and C5-6 in 1990, after complaining about numbness and pain in my arms for fifteen years. I have another surgery at C7-T1 to look forward to soon. I'm sure Doc Steve can verify those can be very painful problems. Why did it take until 2001 to get even the glimmer of a full diagnosis? The problems began in 1964.

The military medical people have one job: to get the servicemember well and back on the job as soon as possible. I think in their haste to do that the frequently overlook (or ignore) long-term problems, since there's nothing they can really "do" about them to satisfy THEIR mission. The vet pays, later. I'm sure I'm not the only veteran with these types of experiences.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/06/2004 14:15 Comments || Top||

#8  credibility-wise: I've read/heard items from Whitehead and Rutherford for years, and he does seem to be an OK guy with principled agenda that I like...
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 14:30 Comments || Top||

#9  Wish I could find the cite (maybe there was reference to it on NRO?), but actual research shows that basically all the bums claiming to be veterans are lying.
Posted by: someone || 01/06/2004 14:37 Comments || Top||

#10  For the right money, I can be anyone you want me to be.
Posted by: john || 01/06/2004 14:47 Comments || Top||

#11  DF, I read parts of that book in passing at a B&N. Webb wrote it if I'm not mistaken. Really liked what I read. He also wrote "fields of fire", one of my favorite 'Nam era reads.
Posted by: Jarhead || 01/06/2004 15:34 Comments || Top||

#12  James Webb didn't write Stolen Valor, but it was a good book. Lots of people out there claim PTSD and related problems. I knew a guy in Orange County California, who was getting help from the V.A. because of war related PTSD. I asked him where he was in Viet Nam, he replied that he had been in the Air Force in Germany, but had become very, very nervous because he might have to go. He said he has never been the same since. These idiots get help from the V.A. while people with service related problems don't. Go figure.
Posted by: Sgt.DT || 01/06/2004 16:48 Comments || Top||

#13  "one out of every four homeless males who is sleeping in a doorway, alley or box in our cities and rural communities has at some time put on a uniform and served our country"

Not to deny there are problems, but what's the ratio of those who have served among non-homeless males of the same age? Seems like it would be pretty high, especially for non-homeless males over the age of 50 (who were subject to the draft).
Posted by: Tom || 01/06/2004 19:43 Comments || Top||

#14  I knew a guy in San Francisco, real lefty, who was a Vietnam veteran (not homeless). He claimed to be suffering from PTSD, but he was an airforce groundcrew guy. Can people in that job get PTSD?
Posted by: buwaya || 01/06/2004 19:59 Comments || Top||

#15  Buwaya,
There was a crash of an Italian Air Force acrobatic team at Ramstein AB in the 1980's. Several of my friends were there at the air show, and have PTSD problems. We had a shrink come in and test the guys in our unit (photo intelligence) who had to work the Afghan and Iran/Iraq war - observers, not actual combattants. He diagnosed twenty-two percent of the guys as having mild to moderate PTSD. It's not the job, it's the STRESS. If you lose two or three birds you've worked on, and their pilots, that could accumulate a ton of "post-traumatic stress". I'm sure there are millions of Americans who experience at least mild post-traumatic stress after 9/11. All that considered, I still think many of the people who claim to have post-traumatic stress disorder find it a "convenient" diagnosis, and a way to get some goodies from Uncle Sam. There are also literally millions of people who have the strength of character to work out the problem for themselves, and never show more than mild symptoms, even when faced with significantly more stress than many of the guys complaining about PTSD.

Many of the homeless vets I've talked to (several dozen, over the last 20 years or so) have a strong PTSD problem. Their way of dealing with it is to keep moving.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/06/2004 23:46 Comments || Top||


Iran
Egypt-Iran ties could yield al-Qaeda suspects
A thaw between Iran and Egypt could help pave the way for a breakthrough on an important issue dividing Tehran from Washington — accusations that Iran has sheltered senior al Qaeda militants.
Like Binny and Ayman, or just Saad, Saif, and Sully?
A senior Iranian official said on Tuesday that Tehran and Cairo had agreed to restore diplomatic ties broken 25 years ago, although Egypt said a final decision had yet to be taken.
And therein lies the actual news in this article ...
"This move is certainly a breakthrough between the two countries and it could well pave the way for the handover of al Qaeda suspects," said Kevin Rosser, Middle East expert at Control Risks Group security consultancy. Washington has said al Qaeda militants based in Iran plotted suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia last May, and has demanded Iran help bring them to book. Iran denies al Qaeda operated from its territory but says it is holding unnamed militants in custody. It has held talks with other countries, including Egypt, to extradite suspects. Shiite Muslim Iran says it is ideologically opposed to Sunni-dominated al Qaeda and has arrested and deported hundreds of its militants since the war in Afghanistan.
They were saying they'd turned over names of Bad Guys they'd repatriated a couple months ago. Wonder whatever came of that?
The most important figure Western intelligence agencies say may be in Iran is an Egyptian — Saif al-Adel, al Qaeda’s security chief. Iran’s lack of ties with Egypt, which is a strong U.S. ally in the Middle East, was seen as one of the hurdles blocking his extradition. "If it is true that they are holding Saif al-Adel, and if it is true that he helped to orchestrate the terror attacks in Riyadh in May, then his handover to a friendly government would be an important step," said Rosser.
Y'might say that. There are also those rumors that Binny and Ayman are tooling around the country, thinly disguised as ayatollahs...
After allowing al Qaeda militants to enter Iran in the wake of the Afghanistan war, Iran’s leaders seem to have concluded they want nothing to do with the militants, said Dr Gary Sick, Middle East scholar at Columbia University in New York.
I don’t tend to share his optimism ...
I wonder what leads him to that opinion, if anything?
"They are no longer tempted to do a deal with al Qaeda. The folks that may have been prepared to do a deal with al Qaeda have been told that is not in the cards," he said.
Somebody better tell that to Ahmed Vahidi, the ex-Qods Force commander who’s now the deputy defense minister, as he’s said to be the one giving them shelter along with VEVAK. The reports that Saif has moved his address from eastern Iran to just north of Tehran would also tend to implicate the higher-ups, those "unelected hardliners" we keep hearing about.
"That may be part of what produced this opening between Egypt and Iran: the fact that Iran was taking a much more clear-cut view as far as al Qaeda is concerned could have simplified the discussions between (Presidents Hosni) Mubarak and (Mohammad) Khatami." Negotiations to turn over senior al Qaeda figures have so far been conducted mostly in secret. Among the problems for Iran would be explaining what militants were doing on its territory in the first place.
"Ummm... They ain't with us. Somebody left 'em here..."
"This is a murky area," said Sick. "Iran doesn’t admit that any of its people provided shelter in the first place, so the fact that this has changed is not something that they will want to publicize."
This man sounds like he’s extremely naive to me, unless he knows something we don’t.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 12:36:16 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It is possible that the Black Turbans would like to unload Al-Qaida leadership, as their continuing presence in Iran threatens American intervention. The Shiite Iranians cannot manage the Sunni Bin Ladens as well as they do Hezbollah. The Saudia financed Al-Qaida is therefore a loose cannon that would invite a direct and strong American response against Teheran in the event of another 9/11 attack.
Posted by: john || 01/06/2004 14:59 Comments || Top||

#2  That's their biggest danger. Binny's promised to stage a big 'un this month or early next. If he (or his ghost) is successful, that leaves the Medes and the Persians in precisely the position the Talibs were in October 7th, 2001.
Posted by: Fred || 01/06/2004 22:24 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Democrats Defend Bush-Hitler Ad
You just can’t make this stuff up:
A Web site founded by former members of the Clinton administration is defending a presidential campaign ad created for Moveon.org that shows images of President Bush morphing into Adolf Hitler. "Once again, the comparison of Bush with Hitler strikes terror in the hearts of Republicans - because they know how close it cuts to the truth," the Web site Democrats.com said in a report posted near the top of its political news roundup on Monday.
If you have any slight belief in that statement, read my discussion of fascism from last night (comment #32)...
News that Moveon.org had already yanked the Hitler ad was "one more victory for GOP censorship, bringing us ever closer to a Nazi dictatorship," the Web site complained.
Snicker, Moveon.org pulled the ad as soon as the heat was turned on and denied they had ever planned to run it:
Wes Boyd, a MoveOn.org founder, fired back, saying Republicans were "deliberately and maliciously" misleading the public by asserting that MoveOn.org had sponsored the advertisements. "None of these was our ad," Mr. Boyd said in a statement. "Nor did their appearance constitute endorsement or sponsorship by MoveOn.org Voter Fund."
Then these bozos, who are the ultimate democrat insiders, are still supporting Moveon’s running the ad.

On Monday, MoveOn.org said more than 100,000 visitors to the site had selected 15 finalists, none of them the Hitler advertisements. A panel of celebrities and political experts has been asked to pick a winner, which will be televised.
The winning entry will be selected by a panel of judges, including:
• Margaret Cho, comedian.
• Al Franken, comedian and author of "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" and "Lies and the Lying Liars Who tell Them."
• Beelzebub James Carville, former political adviser to President Clinton.
• Jessica Lange, actress.
• Michael Stipe and Eddie Vedder, singers in the rock groups R.E.M. and Pearl Jam, respectively.
The winner will be announced Monday in New York during an awards show hosted by actress Janeane Garofalo. Others on the bill include Cho, musical artist Moby, rapper Chuck D and filmmaker John Sayles.

Democrats.com cofounder David Lytel was President Clinton’s personal webmaster, the Web site boasts, saying he helped to develop and edit the White House Web site. Lytel has since left Democrats.com and launched the Committee to Re-Defeat President Bush. Former Clinton pollster Stanley Greenberg sits on Democrats.com’s advisory board, along with Dick Bell, formerly the head of the Interactive Media Department at the Democratic National Committee. Jock Gill, another advisory board member, was Director of Special Projects in the Office of Media Affairs in the Clinton White House. He also helped develop the White House’s Web site. Democrats.com advisory board member Greg Simon was the chief domestic policy adviser to Vice President Al Gore.
No bias there, nope.
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 12:17:44 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I downloaded both of the videos from their website before they got yanked. Funny, one for sure has the "moveon.org" logo on it at various points. Sure seems like these beauzeaus sponsored them.

I suspect this was planned -- put them out there and if the heat gets too high, pull them. The loyal faithful will still eat it up, and their pals in the media will dampen the fire.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 12:26 Comments || Top||

#2  ...and the Evil Karl Rove leaned back in his chair, put his feet on his desk, and chuckled his sinister chuckle.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 12:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Margaret Cho,Al Franken, James Carville, Jessica Lange, and Michael Stipe = combined IQ of toe jam.

Posted by: Dragon Fly || 01/06/2004 13:27 Comments || Top||

#4  unfortunately too many contemporary mainstream dems dont remember the lessons of the '30's and '40's. The hard left tends to set up front groups, and grab mainstream names for respectability - when they proceed with their agenda, the names get tarred with it, and the rads use the names for cover. Moveon.org is yanking Dem.com's chain, and dem.com in turn is basically some of the youngest and least wise Clintonites (just the kind to be most easily manipulated by moveon.org) but all dems end up looking bad, and like Tu3031 says, Karl chuckles.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 01/06/2004 13:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Studying the advertising already out there, listening to the words of the ninecompoops, hearing those that "defend" these ignoramuses, and reading some of the "commentary" about them and the Democratic party, I've come to one conclusion: the Democrats don't have a clue. They don't have any idea how to successfully run a government under the threat of terrorism, they don't have a clue how to encourage growth and business and to improve the environment at the same time, they don't understand the military or see the need for one, they don't understand the Internet and how it works, they don't have a clue in the world about economics, and their understanding of "cause and effect" is less than most Arab nations. Their entire political motivation is defeating Bush, without any thought of what they'd have to do if they actually succeeded. That is their ONLY goal.


The rest of the country has grown up. The average citizen understands we are under attack by a radical regime that wants to destroy Western civilization itself, not just the United States. The average person saw a tax cut take effect and the economy rebound. The average person saw an attempt to loosen hidebound rules about the environment get frozen in litigation, while California burned. The California recall wasn't a fluke: the people of this nation have quit believing the lies they've had pumped into their brain 24/7 by a complicit media co-conspirator.

This November is going to be a nasty surprise to many people. The major problem is going to be living through the sleeze of the next 11 months in order to get there.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/06/2004 13:47 Comments || Top||

#6  MoveOn is sounding more and more like Nazi rhetoric.
Posted by: Dishman || 01/06/2004 14:30 Comments || Top||

#7  For further study of this name-calling look at today's Day by Day and then go back to yesterday's.
Posted by: Korora || 01/06/2004 14:30 Comments || Top||

#8  *hits self* I THOUGHT it was Godwin's law!
Posted by: Ptah || 01/06/2004 15:32 Comments || Top||

#9  Fred, I clipped and saved your comment #32 from yesterday. Pithy and to the point. Well done.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 18:28 Comments || Top||

#10  Margaret Cho and Al Frankin are COMEDIANS??? Who knew?
Posted by: Darth VAda || 01/06/2004 20:37 Comments || Top||


International
Lottery officials: Valid ticket turned in for $162M jackpot
Meki says
CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) Someone turned in a valid ticket for the $162 million Mega Millions multistate lottery jackpot, the Ohio Lottery said Tuesday, a day after a woman claimed she lost the winning ticket outside the convenience store where it was sold. Ohio Lottery spokeswoman Mardele Cohen said the winner would be revealed at an 11:30 a.m. EST press conference. Cohen would not comment on whether the winner was Elecia Battle, the woman who filed a police report saying she lost the ticket last week. Battle told police she dropped her purse as she left the Quick Shop Food Mart last week after buying the ticket. She said she realized after the drawing last Tuesday that the ticket was missing. The Ohio Lottery said the winning ticket was sold at the store, about 15 miles east of Cleveland. About 30 people with flashlights searched for the ticket Monday night outside the store after a police report Battle filed became public.
Meki Algemeen Website
Posted by: Meki || 01/06/2004 10:47:20 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lawsuit time!!!!
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 11:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Unless poor Miss Battle wrote her name, etc, on the back of the ticket, I believe that possession is 10/10's of the law in this case...
Posted by: snellenr || 01/06/2004 11:36 Comments || Top||

#3  snellenr - correct! a lotto ticket is considered a bearer note, just like cash. Writing your name on it would help you in a civil case against someone absconding with the ticket, but they would be the one noted as WINNER! Ms. Battle should consider not buying tix if she handles them that carelessly. Remember, your odds of winning are only slightly increased by buying a ticket ;-)
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 11:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Boy, talk about fate taking a big ol' steaming crap all over you... I feel for Ms. Battle.

Come to think of it, I wouldn't want to be the fellow who found the ticket, I bet it's only a matter of time before he bumps into Ms. Battle and her .45 on some dark night. Payback is a bitch. And $162 million payback is a real bitch!
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 01/06/2004 12:10 Comments || Top||

#5  I bet it's only a matter of time before he bumps into Ms. Battle and her .45 on some dark night..

Whether that happens or not isn't important. Lottery tix have blank fields that are to be filled out to establish ownership. She has only herself to blame for her misfortune, and taking out the finder of her supposed winning ticket is nothing more than denial in another form.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 12:26 Comments || Top||

#6  A guy in Massachusetts pulled this stunt a few years back. He made himself such a pain in the ass, holding up the disbursement of the winnings in court to the actual holder of the ticket, that she tossed him a big chunk of change to make him go away. Looks like maybe Elecia has heard the story too. Don't think some lawyer hasn't, and I got a feeling he'll be contacting her soon.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 12:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Bet she's had a few slip and falls in the past.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 14:02 Comments || Top||

#8  TSG has a copy of the police report filed by Battle. She claims it fell out of her purse when she dropped it coming out of the store where she bought the ticket.

She picked the numbers based on family ages, birthdays,etc and did not hesitate when asked to write down how she selected the numbers. Could get interesting.
Posted by: Gasse Katze || 01/06/2004 15:36 Comments || Top||

#9  UPDATE

EFL

CLEVELAND - A woman turned in the winning $162 million Mega Millions lottery ticket Tuesday, saying she came forward sooner than planned because she was angered by another woman's claim that she bought the ticket and lost it.

Rebecca Jemison, a hospital worker from South Euclid, turned in the ticket for the 11-state jackpot at Ohio Lottery headquarters, officials said. The lottery validated it Tuesday morning as the sole winning ticket for the Dec. 30 drawing.

"I think I checked it about five or six times to make sure to see was it real," Jemison said at a news conference at lottery headquarters.

She said she told her mother even before telling her husband. "Being a mama's girl I wanted to share the news with my mama first," she said.

She also talked to an attorney and an accountant before turning in the ticket.

Jemison took the immediate cash payment option, which is $94 million before taxes. After taxes, the lump sum payment is an estimated $67.2 million. She and her husband said their only definite plan is to relocate.

Jemison said she was not worried about Battle's claim because she knew she had a valid ticket.

"First of all I want to clear up a few things that have come out in the press. One of them is that I've been playing these numbers for about two years," she said.

Ohio Lottery Director Dennis Kennedy said officials were sure that Jemison is the rightful owner of the ticket, saying she provided a receipt from the convenience store marking the time the ticket was sold.

Kennedy said he would let police handle Battle's claim.

Jemison said Battle's story motivated her to turn in the ticket.

"I was angry at first but not worried at all," Jemison said. "I knew what I possessed."

Battle's lawyer, Sheldon Starke, did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the lottery's announcement. He had said Battle intended to make a case that the winning ticket was lost property.

. . .

He said that if it was later determined there was a lack of truthfulness, police could consider criminal charges. The charge could be filing a false police report, a misdemeanor punishable by 30 days to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, he said.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/06/2004 16:10 Comments || Top||

#10  No! Wait! I think it's mine! I bought that ticket, but it fell out of my pocket...
Posted by: Fred || 01/06/2004 17:04 Comments || Top||

#11  " Battle's story motivated her [Jemison] to turn in the ticket" - right, the $162 million had nothing to do with her motivation. Why on earth did Jemison wait so long? The Cleveland news mentioned that Jemison intends to return to her usual job. If I won that kind of money, I would immediately move to Cheney's undisclosed location and hire someone to make my inane remarks for me. Elicia Battle is beyond belief. She waited 3 days to report her "loss" to the police, and then the report stated she "did not hesitate while writing it out." Right...
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/06/2004 19:04 Comments || Top||

#12  Anon,
I think she was asking around for advice and hiring a fianical adviser and good lawyer before coming public with the winning ticket. Once she 'goes public' she will probably get drowned in 'advice' from every Tom, Dick, and Harriet out there.

Not to mention the hundres of 'long lost relatives' who will come out of the wordwork. And all the people who will sue her to get a 'piece of the action'.

Strange how Battle did not report her 'loss' until after the winning numbers (and location of the ticket purchase) were published.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/06/2004 19:20 Comments || Top||

#13  Not so fast! It seems Mrs Battle has an EXTENSIVE rap sheet and a history of fraud:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/elecialotto1.html
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/06/2004 19:38 Comments || Top||

#14  great....she's a pharmacy worker too...anyone done an inventory check lately?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 20:14 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon
WMD stashed in Syria?
This is a follow-up to yesterday’s question about who Nizar Najoef is. Looks to me like he’s pretty credible.
"Nizar Najoef" is more commonly spelled Nizar Nayyouf, and he is a remarkable man. He was a journalist and an activist for liberal reform under Hafez Assad, and as a result spent nine years in prison. In his first prison, Nayyouf tried to organize a prisoners’ rebellion; he was soon transferred to another prison where he promptly began a hunger strike. Finally, he was sent to a military prison where he was subjected to appalling torture, and is apparently partially paralyzed as a result. Nevertheless, Nayyouf somehow managed to smuggle out information about the torture of his fellow prisoners. Numerous human-rights groups and reporters’ organizations tried to intervene in his case; he was finally released in 2001 following a plea from the Vatican. Nayyouf now lives in Europe.

Where does Nayyouf say the WMD is (or was) hidden? In tunnels beneath the town of al-Baida; near the village of Tal Snan; and in "Sjinsjar" (Dutch spelling), a city east of the highway between Hama and Damascus. Nayyouf says he received the information through connections in Syrian intelligence. He believes the U.S. knows all of this, but is biding its time for political reasons. It will act on the information, he told the newspaper, "when the U.S. thinks it’s time to see Assad go."

Is there anything to this? Who knows. What’s impressive is that, despite paralysis, blindness, and illness due to torture, Nayyouf is still battling the Syrian Baathists. Not long ago he participated in a press conference accusing the regime of still imprisoning a Lebanese man who disappeared 12 years earlier. He’s probably right about that. Nayyouf even beat a libel suit brought against him by Syria’s former vice president (another Assad), after Nayyouf revealed that he’d ordered the murder of political prisoners. He’s irrepressible.
Posted by: growler || 01/06/2004 10:29:14 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Anyone want to guess as to how the left will try to discredit this guy?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 10:33 Comments || Top||

#2  The left won't bother. They'll just ignore him. Look at how much coverage he's gotten already from the main media -- crickets.
Posted by: rabidfox || 01/06/2004 10:48 Comments || Top||

#3  I'd have guessed the Bekaa Valley. Or are these towns in or near it?
Posted by: eLarson || 01/06/2004 16:24 Comments || Top||

#4  They are near the Lebanese border, in the north, but not in the Bekaa valley. The Bekaa valley occupies almost half of Lebanon, btw, so thats not too significant I think.
Posted by: buwaya || 01/06/2004 20:02 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Saudi charged with carrying pyrotechnics on flight
EFL:
A Saudi Arabian man was charged yesterday with carrying three small firecracker-type pyrotechnics on a flight from Frankfurt to Boston over the weekend, then allegedly lying about the explosive nature of the devices when inspectors discovered them in his backpack after his arrival at Logan International Airport.
A Saudi lying about pyrotechnics? I’m shocked, shocked!
Essam Mohammed Almohandis, 33, of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, appeared briefly in federal court in Boston yesterday and was ordered held without bail by US Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings until a hearing Thursday to determine whether he should remain jailed until trial. The pyrotechnics — yellow, cylindrical, paper-covered objects which each measured 1 1/2 inches — throw off a shower of sparks when ignited and would not be capable of destroying a plane if used alone, according to US officials.
Ignitor for use with, something?
But they are classified as explosive or incendiary devices under federal law and are prohibited on aircraft, according to a court affidavit.
"I didn’t know, er, somebody said they were ok, er, everyone back home has them, er, Profiling, Oppression, yeah, that’s it!"
Officials said the devices should be picked up through routine screening of carry-on baggage, but it was unclear why they were not detected at airports overseas.
Somebody slipped up.
US Attorney Michael Sullivan issued a statement yesterday saying, "There is no evidence at this time that suggests there is a terrorism connection in this case." However, he added, "as evidenced by the detection of these items and this arrest, law enforcement continues to be vigilant in ensuring that prohibited items are identified, confiscated, and, as appropriate, passengers are charged."
In this case, with being stupid.
Almohandis, a married father of two who works as a biomedical engineer at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in Riyadh, told inspectors he was traveling alone on business when he arrived at Logan Airport on Saturday afternoon on Lufthansa Flight 422. After inspectors discovered the devices in an outer pocket of his backpack, Almohandis initially said they were "artist’s crayons," according to an affidavit by Wayne Day, a special agent with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"It’s a crayon."
"What’s the fuse for?"
"Er, drawing in the dark?"

Massachusetts trooper Timothy R. Murray, a bomb technician, was called to the scene and determined the devices were pyrotechnics. He lit a match to one of the devices, which set off a shower of sparks, according to the affidavit.
Real smart move, hope you used a long match.
When questioned again, Almohandis told inspectors that his wife had packed his backpack and he didn’t know where the devices had come from or who put them in his bag, according to the affidavit.
Then why did you say it was a crayon, instead of "What the hell is that?"
Attorney Miriam Conrad, who works for the federal public defender’s office and is representing Almohandis, refused to discuss details of the case, but said, "I anticipate that the evidence will show that Mr. Almohandis was coming to Boston to attend a professional training program related to his employment at a hospital in Saudi Arabia."
Uh huh.
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 10:27:19 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Massachusetts trooper Timothy R. Murray, a bomb technician, was called to the scene and determined the devices were pyrotechnics. He lit a match to one of the devices, which set off a shower of sparks, according to the affidavit.

Sounds like a 4th of July sparkler to me. Murray must've been laughing his balls off...
Posted by: Raj || 01/06/2004 11:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like someone is testing the efficiency of the bomb sniffers and security.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/06/2004 12:11 Comments || Top||

#3  He cleared security in Riyadh and was placed in transit through Frankfurt? I suspect that loophole will be closed promtly.
Posted by: john || 01/06/2004 15:13 Comments || Top||

#4  This transocean security thing is working like a funnel. Everyone enters at the big mouth top and exits at the narrow outlet of the funnel at US customs. I would sure like to see other airports across the pond tighten things up. We need to put the heat on these other countries. Of course we first need to develop trust.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/06/2004 17:10 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Israeli delegation to visit Libya
That's gonna tighten the Lebanese turbans...
An Israeli delegation is expected to visit Libya with the aim of reaching a mutual understanding on the signing of a peace agreement, according to the Kuwaiti Al-Seyassa newspaper Tuesday. European diplomatic sources said Monday that senior Libyan and Israeli officials met in Vienna last Friday in the presence of an American diplomat from the Vienna embassy, and agreed that a joint Israeli delegation consisting of officials from the foreign ministry, defense department and Mossad will pay a visit to Tripoli in the second half of this month, with the goal of discussing the end of relations of hostility between the Libyans and Israelis and building normal ties between both countries.
Damm, that meter does work!
Moreover, the sources told the newspaper that Kadhafi’s son, Saif al Islam and the head of intelligence, Moussa Kousa have met Israeli officials more than once in Geneva and London during August and November this year with the help of Qatar’s mediation.
Working on those Paleo camps in Libya, perhaps?
Meanwhile, in comments published Tuesday, Libyan leader Muammar Kadhafi is quoted as saying he is ready to compensate Libyan Jews whose properties were confiscated. He also said he is prepared to allow Libyans to travel to Israel, according to Arab press reports. Speaking to members of the Popular Committe for Public Security and Justice, Kadhafi denied the existence of political prisoners in Libyan jails. He offered any international body for human rights access to Libyan prisons in order to verify this issue. "There is no opposition in Libya... if a citizen has an opposed opinion, he can express it freely via popular conferences," the Libyan ruler was quoted as saying.
He had his lips welded on years ago. I’m sure there are no political prisoners in jail, they have lots of empty desert and plenty of shovels.
In addition, Kadhafi stressed that Tripoli’s doors are open to everyone who wants to travel or emigrate to other countries, even to Israel. He called to compensate those that lost their assets and money during the early stages of the revolution. He said the state must try those who gained control of other people’s properties in the name of the revolution.
He’s gonna try himself and then his son will pardon him.

I can see the possibility of a step in this intricate diplomatic polonnaise where Libya actually recognizes Israel, joining the club that's made up so far only of Egypt and Jordan. You heard read it here first...
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 8:56:19 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  head of intelligence, Moussa Kousa?

If a moussa could, would a kousa mess with me?
Posted by: john || 01/06/2004 9:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Musa Kusa first achieved prominence as Director of Qaddafi's International Center for Revolution. As such he was responsible for the world-wide distribution of Qaddafi's "Green Book", for propaganda, and for enlisting Muslims in Qaddafi's Islamic Legion. The Legion was created to take the casualties during Q's effort to assimilate Chad. In the late nineteen eighties Kusa worked out of Sudan's Darfur and was in charge of Libyan efforts to overthrow Hissene Habre and his government in Chad. He is, no matter what cloak he wears today, a nasty character.
Posted by: Tancred || 01/06/2004 10:58 Comments || Top||

#3  I thought the colonel ejected all his refugess in the 80's to create more forlorn urchins for Arafat's propoganda machine.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/06/2004 11:41 Comments || Top||

#4  I think Q must be seriously cramming for his finals.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 13:37 Comments || Top||

#5  More destabilization of the Mideast.

(thank you Mr. Bush)
Posted by: Mark || 01/06/2004 15:27 Comments || Top||

#6  Mark
Just for the record, if you look directly above the article you may see a blue rectangle. See it? Good. Now, if you read it, it says Africa: North. Now, if you want to make useless comments, please at least get your geography correct. Thank you.
Posted by: S || 01/06/2004 23:27 Comments || Top||


Iran
Iran and Sudan to expand scientific cooperation
Goof warning! Site links to Indymedia and Counter Punch...
The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Sudan Islamist Dictatorship signed a "memorandum of understanding" (MOU) to expand scientific cooperation on Saturday. Signing the MOU, Iran’s Minister of Science, Research and Technology Jafar Tofiqi and his counterpart from the Islamist dictatorship of Sudan, Mubarak Magzoub, expressed satisfaction over the MOU and called for speedy implementation of it. According to the MOU, the two sides stressed making use of scientific experiences of universities and other educational institutions, encouraging scientific visits of researchers, professors and students as well as exchange of educational sources. Tofiqi, heading a scientific and educational delegation, is in north Sudan on a five-day visit. He will not visit the South, East and West of Africa’s largest state, where pro-democracy rebellions have been raging for years in resistance to the northern-based Islamist Arab regime.
But north Sudan is okay. For now...
Posted by: TS || 01/06/2004 8:33:38 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Check out the source. Seriously loony left + islamofacist phantasy site.

I especially liked this article - Russia Ready to Vaporize the Jewish State And then kick America out of the Eastern Hemisphere’s oilfields
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2004 9:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, I noticed it was a whacked out site, but it was posted on faithfreedom.org's news, so I thought this may be a legit news story.
??
Posted by: TS || 01/06/2004 9:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Ok, here is a better source for this story, lol
Iranian news site...well, a little better anyway
http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=195905
Posted by: TS || 01/06/2004 9:34 Comments || Top||

#4  How is the joint Iranian-Sudanese Mars Probe doing? Yeah.
Posted by: john || 01/06/2004 10:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Couple of scientific juggernauts there. Perhaps they can invite Georgia and Dagestan in. Too bad the Pakiwakis have the scientific race to discover the jinn all locked up.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 12:22 Comments || Top||

#6  Maybe they can hook up with North Korea and help develop the new class of super duper rocks?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 12:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Will the Sudan now begin to commission the new extra large dhows with added main deck storage of trash bags of hasheesh?
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/06/2004 13:39 Comments || Top||

#8  tu3031 LOL.
I hear that serious investigations are underway investigating the long sought after Rock - Dirt relationship.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 14:34 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon
We won’t scrap WMD stockpile unless Israel does, says Assad
EFL and registration required
Syria is entitled to defend itself by acquiring its own chemical and biological deterrent, President Bashar Assad said last night as he rejected American and British demands for concessions on weapons of mass destruction.
Sounds like he might have a stash from... ummm... somewhere.
In his first major statement since Libya’s decision last month to scrap its nuclear and chemical programmes, he came closer than ever before to admitting that his country possessed stockpiles of WMD. Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Assad said that any deal to destroy Syria’s chemical and biological capability would come about only if Israel agreed to abandon its undeclared nuclear arsenal.
You're assuming you stay in charge.
Since the capture of Saddam Hussein and Col Muammar Gaddafi’s decision to dismantle his WMD programme, Mr Assad has risen towards the top of America’s poop target list.
Doncha love it when people get to the top based on merit.
The White House and Downing Street have been waiting for his response to Col Gaddafi’s appeal for other Arab leaders to follow his example or risk inflicting a "tragedy" on their people. Asked about American and British claims that Syria had a WMD capability, he stopped short of the categorical denial that has been his government’s stock response until now.
Hasn't had any until now, has he?
Instead, he pointed to the Israelis’ recent attack on alleged Palestinian bases in Syria and the occupation of the Golan Heights as evidence that Syria needed a deterrent. "We are a country which is [partly] occupied and from time to time we are exposed to Israeli aggression," he said. "It is natural for us to look for means to defend ourselves. It is not difficult to get most of these weapons anywhere in the world and they can be obtained at any time."
"All y'gotta do is call a Pak. The secret password is 'Koran.'..."
It is the worst kept secret in the Middle East that Damascus has one of the largest stockpiles of chemical agents in the region. The latest CIA report on weapons of mass destruction says: "Syria continued to seek CW-related expertise from foreign sources [this year]. Damascus already held a stockpile of the nerve agent sarin but apparently tried to develop more toxic and persistent nerve agents. It is highly probable that Syria also continued to develop an offensive BW [biological weapon] capability." Mr Assad tempered his refusal to compromise on WMD by holding out the prospect of joint patrols with America along the Syria-Iraq border to prevent the passage of arms and fighters.
That's a pretty daggone wilted-looking carrot. Kinda pale, too. Y'sure it didn't used to be an underfed turnip?
Acknowledging pressure from the US and Britain to crack down on Palestinian extremists based in Syria, he claimed that their offices had been closed and their activities curtailed. The groups could no longer "do anything military from these places. They are closed".
All you need is a telephone to issue orders. All you need is a bank account to fund...
But he risked infuriating the West by stepping up his defence of Palestinian suicide bombers. He said the attacks had become "a reality we cannot control" and blamed them on "the Israeli killings, the Israeli occupations". Despite his passionate advocacy of the Palestinian cause and his use in the past of inflammatory language about Israel and Jews, he denied hating them. "If you hate, you cannot talk about peace," he said.
Actually, you can talk about it all you want, 'til your lips go numb and eventually fall off. If you hate, you cannot actually make peace. Can you, you hateful bastard?
Tony Blair, speaking on a flight back from Iraq before news emerged of the Assad interview, repeated his hope that Syria would follow Libya’s example. He said: "We offer Syria the possibility of a partnership for the future. But it is important that they realise that the terms are very clear and have been set out by ourselves and the Americans many times. You can see very clearly with what happened just before Christmas in respect of Libya that it is important to say to countries that may have engaged in such programmes: ’Look, there is a different way of dealing with this.’ It can be dealt with diplomatically if people are prepared to do so, but it does have to be dealt with."
Sounds like a classic good cop warning to me. I wonder if Blair and Bush practice the routine when they get together :-)
I don’t rate Assad's chances of lasting out the year. Also check out a terrific editorial and also an article on Assad’s attitude to paleo boomers in the same edition of the Telegraph.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2004 5:59:18 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  phil_b:

Blair sez: "It can be dealt with diplomatically if people are prepared to do so, but it does have to be dealt with."

Yep, that's Chapter 2, page 47 of the Good Cop/Bad Cop Manual (2001 edition): "Look, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way, see ?"

Posted by: Carl in NH || 01/06/2004 6:14 Comments || Top||

#2  OK, get out the cluebat, I need some help. In past references to suicide bombers, the nationality was referred to as "Pali", and now it's "Paleo". Is this change an attempt to mix the study of fossils and the study of this particular military-political weapon? I could understand if the reference "Paleo" was used in regard to Mr. Arafat, since that leader is fossilized in both time and ideology, but the current crop of boomers seems to be getting more and more Jihadist than anti-zionist, and if so, that would indicate Arafat's influence is lessening whilst the fundie mullahs' increases.
Posted by: Rivrdog || 01/06/2004 7:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Riverdog - Paleo kind of rolls off the tongue and has a nice connatation of being fossilized and dead. Somebody else referred to 'paleo boomers' and I just picked up the expression.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2004 8:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Rivrdog, to clarify, "Paleo" implies a certain primitiveness....
Posted by: Carl in N.H. || 01/06/2004 9:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Rivrdog: We call them Paleos because Troglodyte is just too hard to spell.
Posted by: BH || 01/06/2004 10:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Did I read that wrong or did Assad just admit having WMD and say he wouldn't get rid of them.

Tactically that's not really a bright thing to be saying rigth now.
Posted by: ruprecht || 01/06/2004 11:56 Comments || Top||

#7  It is the worst kept secret in the Middle East that Damascus has one of the largest stockpiles of chemical agents in the region.

Rather settles the question of where all the Iraqi WMD went.

If Blair is going to be effective as the good cop, we as the bad cop have to keep up with the menacing words and poses. "Tony, go get a doughnut, I'll get this mutt to confess!"
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 13:34 Comments || Top||

#8  Paleo you mean Balestintians?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 14:43 Comments || Top||

#9  ruprecht, I am asking the same question. This line worked real well for Saddam.

Hey Assad, that sign on your back says (in English): KICK ME!
Posted by: john || 01/06/2004 15:21 Comments || Top||

#10  If all things were on the up and up, I wouldn't see anything wrong with Assad's position. Would we give up ours? Would Israel give up theirs?

He has at least two divisions of what he believes (possibly correctly) to be a mercenary force two days away and certainly believes that they were going to eliminate him next, with or without WMD's.(or was it Iran 1st, Syria 2nd?)

Syria's WMD's are Israel's problem, not ours. Why should any of our young people die for Israel's security?
Posted by: Scott || 01/06/2004 15:53 Comments || Top||

#11  BusHitler was selected not elected, by
Dick Cheney and Haliburton, to start a war
in Iraq to steal the oil.
Bush lied... thousand died.
Mars is made of Jello.

BOOGER, BOOGER, BOOGER, BOOGER
Posted by: J. Fever M.D. || 01/06/2004 17:37 Comments || Top||

#12  Syria's WMD might easily find their way into the hands of terrorists. They are a regime that has supported terrorists and continues to support terrorists. They are everyones problem. Problems should be solved, and if that means invasion so be it. Although he's not as bad as Saddam by a longshot, or his father, Assad Jr. is still a first class bastard and if he doesn't see the writing on the wall and pull a Quadaffi I won't weep.
Posted by: ruprecht || 01/06/2004 18:55 Comments || Top||

#13  Scott - In a nutshell for the last 50 years or so, the international order has been based on you can do whatever nasty things you like to your own citizens, as long as you don't cross any borders.

That has now changed and doing nasty things to your own citizens is prima facia evidence you are capable of doing nasty things to us or supporting people who would. Quaddafi grasped this, and realized the world has changed. Assad doesn't seem to have grasped the point and is stuck in the old mindset.

My prediction for 2004 is we will get solid proof that Iraqi WMDs went to Syria and issue an ultimatum to Assad along the lines of 'There will be verfied disposal one way or another, you have x days to choose.' Blair has basically said this already.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2004 19:32 Comments || Top||

#14  phil b - you gave Scott too much credit - he refers to our military as "mercenary forces" ...i.e.: it's all about the oooiiilllll
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 20:27 Comments || Top||

#15  No, Frank, I think he's blaming the Jooooooossssss!!!
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 20:51 Comments || Top||

#16  A Syrian defector and regime critic just published a story in Western Europe saying that Saddam's WMD are in three places in Syria.

And Scott, you're a weenie. Any country's WMD are our business because we're the great Satan.
Posted by: Tibor || 01/06/2004 22:39 Comments || Top||

#17 
#2
"Paleos" are natives of Paleostine, a primitive area adjacent to Israel.

Paleostinians are also known as Pals, Palis, Philistines, and Lemmings.
Posted by: Fred || 01/06/2004 22:40 Comments || Top||

#18  Paleostinians are also known as Pals, Palis, Philistines, and Lemmings.
Fred, you forgot to mention that 100% of them are Lebanese, Jordanian, Syrian, Saudi, Egyptian, or Lilliputian Arabs from somewhere else other than Palestine, which only existed in the minds of the citizens of these other countries. The biggest argument against "redrawing" the borders of Israel is that both Egypt and Jordan issued "occupation" stamps for the areas of Israel under their control, and labelled them "Palestine". The entire "Palestine" question could be settled by assigning a trillion-dollar indemnity to the "Palestinian people" for crimes against Israel and Israeli citizens. See how fast all those "Palestinians" suddenly reverted to their original nationality.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/07/2004 0:55 Comments || Top||

#19  O.K.
phil - If say, Syria were to submit their Chem stockpile to int'l inspection to prevent terrorist use, then Israel should have to also. I don't have any love for Assad or Syria. I just don't trust all that Israeli money flowing around D.C.

Frank - As to our forces being used as a mercenary blocking force for Israel - you might be surprised how many in our military think so. Anyway, the whole ME knows that. Oil? No, I said, "Israel's security".

Robert - Blaming the Jews? Not as a whole. Some of them?
Absolutely.

Tibor - If Saddam's WMD's are in Syria, then we demand that they hand them over. If not, then we go in and get them. And we'd better have better intel than in Iraq. Oh yeah, weenie, do you have any kin in harm's way? If not, you're a hypocrite.

OP - not a bad idea, as long as the compensation runs both ways. Make sure you go back to the Stern gang.

Oh, and Fred - they're just people. Unsophisticated and dispossessed. Believing bad lies, and unlucky as to their homeland. So maybe they should be exterminated, huh? It seems like a lot of people around here think so. Was fostering that idea your intention?
Posted by: Scott || 01/07/2004 3:18 Comments || Top||


East Asia
Japan mulls 30% cut in number of tanks, artillery
The Japanese government is considering a cut of about 30 per cent in the number of tanks and artillery, while boosting ground forces personnel by more than 5,000, a news report said on Tuesday.
No mention of special forces, but that would be nice.
In the new framework of the National Defence Programme Outline, the government is also considering dispensing with the guideline under which Japan possesses the minimum necessary defence capability, Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said, citing a government source. Japan currently has about 1,480,000 ground troops, and "we are trying to adjust the number so that we can effectively deal with new types of security concerns," an army spokesman said, without commenting directly on the Yomiuri report. Since its establishment in 1954, the military has been organised and equipped primarily to counter the threat of Soviet invasion. The official said the Ground Self Defence Force, as the army is officially termed, has about 1,080 tanks along with 900 artillery pieces. Under the new defence framework, those would be cut to about 600 to 650 each, the Yomiuri said. International co-operative tasks, such as UN peacekeeping operations,
This is AFP, so I guess they inserted the UN bit
will be promoted from incidental duties of Japanese soldiers to their primary duties under the new framework, the Yomiuri said.
Makes sense! Japan is hardly ideal tank country.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2004 5:35:06 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yep, guess they accepted the fact that tanks and artillery are not much good against incoming missiles. Practical lot, those Japanese...
Posted by: Carl in NH || 01/06/2004 5:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Sorry Fred, I seem to have mixed up Source with Posted By. My apologies!
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2004 6:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Yep, guess they accepted the fact that tanks and artillery are not much good against incoming missiles. Practical lot, those Japanese...

Additional infantry aren't much good against missiles either. This is a really bad move. It sounds like the defense budget is running short of cash, and officials had to choose between men and equipment. The problem with this approach is that infantry don't have much killing power - they serve mainly to direct artillery fire, less of which will be available because of this downsizing.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/06/2004 11:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Zhang, are you sure that this is not a transition to create more heads for overseas deployment?
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/06/2004 11:49 Comments || Top||

#5  If I ran a govt. in Asia I would get a little nervous if the Japanese started to deploy peacekeepers in the South East Asian Coprosperity Sphere.Backed up by aircraft carriers-er,"really large destroyers".
Posted by: Stephen || 01/06/2004 14:19 Comments || Top||

#6  Those would be "through-deck frigates", I believe.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 14:42 Comments || Top||

#7  But they still have Godzilla in storage somewhere, right?
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 01/06/2004 16:11 Comments || Top||

#8  They may have Godzilla in storage but we've triple cloned Raymond Burr.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 16:44 Comments || Top||

#9  Yes, I see.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 01/06/2004 21:43 Comments || Top||

#10  If I ran a govt. in Asia I would get a little nervous if the Japanese started to deploy peacekeepers in the South East Asian Coprosperity Sphere.Backed up by aircraft carriers-er,"really large destroyers".

These aircraft carriers have displacements of 20,000 tons and can carry a few helicopters at most. WWII Japanese carriers displaced 70,000 tons and carried 100 warplanes. Worry isn't the first thought that comes to mind when one thinks of these upsized destroyers. More like a belly-laugh. It would be nice if Japan started putting together British-sized carriers, though - they could help in any scrap over Taiwan. (For some perspective, modern-era Nimitz-class carriers have displacements of 100,000 tons and carry 90 planes).
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/06/2004 23:11 Comments || Top||

#11  Zhang Fei,the Japaneses designed and ordered these ships a few years ago when there was supposed to be a true VTOL version of the F-35.I remember reading a couple of years ago that Britain,Spain and Japan were interested in buying the VTOL version,and wondering why the Japanese were interested.Now that the F-35 has become an over-priced runway hog,the Japaneses are stuck w/helos.But you have to start somewhere,and I fearlessly predict the Japanese will have 1-2 full-fledged aircraft carriers by the end of the decade.Won't faze China,but,Thailand,Malaysia,et al might get nervous.
Posted by: Stephen || 01/07/2004 0:02 Comments || Top||

#12  You'd think those Super-Saiyens and Gundams would be sufficient defense. :-) Seriously, sounds like they're starting to switch over from a 'cold war' military, to one that can deploy rapidly. Could be handy if Kim Sung Il has a particularly bad hair day.
Posted by: A Jackson || 01/07/2004 0:07 Comments || Top||


Home Front
U.S. starts fingerprint program
Say cheese! (no wait, don’t! screws up the face recognition software) EFL
Up to 28 million visitors to the United States now have to stop for photographs and fingerprinting under a new government program launched Monday and intended to make it harder for terrorists to enter the country. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the new US-VISIT program applies to any visitors who must have a visa to enter the United States. Citizens from more than two dozen countries, mostly in Europe, aren’t required to carry a visa if their visit is less than 90 days. Visitors from those countries are exempt. Visitors from exempt countries who are working in the United States, however, require a work visa, and therefore must leave their fingerprints and photographs with U.S. authorities. "We want visitors from abroad to continue to come to the United States, but we also want to secure our borders," Ridge said. Ridge acknowledged that US-VISIT — United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology — will only cover a small fraction of the estimated 500 million annual visitors to the United States, but he said the program was but the "first significant step in a series of steps" the government plans to take in the coming months and years.
And my prediction is that this will be one of the most successful programs in the WoT, and in general.
Outside of Europe, the exempt countries include Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Brunei. Citizens of Canada generally do not need a visa to enter the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says the goal of the US-VISIT program is to track the millions of people who come to the United States every year on business, student and tourist visas — and to use the information as a tool against terrorists. Critics say the broad-reaching program will cause unnecessary travel delays and may never prove to be effective.
A 5 minute delay at the most. Big deal. And ’unnecessary’ is such a relative term.
"There’s so much information in such volumes that there’s a limit to what any analyst can absorb," said Larry Johnson, an aviation security consultant.
Uh, that’s what computers are for. And databases. And hard drives are cheap nowadays.
Faiz Rehman, president of the National Council of Pakistani-Americans, points to the disruption in travel. "Without proper training, there will be long lines, there will be missed flights, there will be people who would be wrongly stopped," Rehman said.
"The sky is falling!" (Consider also the punks who will decide to stay home because they’re afraid of being fingerprinted. That should shorten those long lines, eh Mr. Rehman?)
Outside the United States, there has been a backlash as well. In reaction to the U.S. policy, Brazil last week began fingerprinting and photographing American visitors arriving at Sao Paulo’s airport. Brazil’s Foreign Ministry has also requested that Brazilians be removed from the U.S. list. Ridge said that "if the Brazilian government thinks it’s in their interests (to fingerprint and photograph Americans), so be it."
Ha! The comeback of the year.
"It’s not two standards, one for the United States and one for the rest of the world," he said. The U.S. program, which has a budget of $380 million, will require an estimated 24 million visitors to submit two finger scans and have a photograph taken upon entering any of 115 airports or 14 seaports. Homeland Security spokesman Bill Strassberger said once screeners become proficient, the extra security will take only 10 to 15 seconds per person, The Associated Press reported.
Oh those long lines!!!
Inkless fingerprints will be taken and checked instantly against a digital database for criminal backgrounds and any terrorist lists. The process will be repeated when visitors leave the United States as an extra security measure and to ensure they complied with visa limitations.
The horror!!! Bwahahahaha!
Good work. You’ll see the benefits of this program pile up in no time.
Posted by: RW2004 || 01/06/2004 3:32:14 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Brunei

Brunei ? WTF ?

And, why is Papua New Zealand exempt ? They've been quiet recently, too quiet, I don't trust 'em...
Posted by: Carl in NH || 01/06/2004 5:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah - if the subsequent steps include adding in the currently exempt 29 countries, then fine. 29? you ask? Yeah - Americans who travel need to be clean, too. I'd be very happy to spend the time to prove I'm clean - and I mean multiple bio-metrics, which is what we should be doing now. It's our call, not theirs.

Heh - Lula, the Looney Leftist Brazillian Prez who has recently been seen visiting Kadaffy and the Muslim League and putting a liplock on the privates of anyone he perceives has spare change, WOULD be the designated cry-baby. Stay home if you don't like it, Brazil.

With the UK's coddling of jihadis and Phrawnce's fast-growing tumor, they should definitely be on the list, not exempted. And Carl's right: Papua has been waay too quiet... Same for the beautiful and far-flung Isles of Langerhans... entirely too cooperative.

Canada and Mexico should be handled in a 2-stage operation:

1. Build the northern Freedom Fence and the southern Amigo Fence.

2. Repeal NAFTA.

About the only country I'd feel comfortable exempting would be Japan - and only then if we could profile the hell out of everyone... If they didn't look Japanese enough and say "Ohiogozymas" way better than me, it'd be rubber glove deep probe time. Call in Nurse Diesel!
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 6:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Isles of Langerhans Way too obscure reference, and BTW, if recall my physiology classes it is the Islets of Langerhans.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2004 9:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Far be it for me to think that I can tell Americans what is the right thing for them to do. (If Canada and Mexico cannot control their own citizens and landed immigrants then they should go on the fingerprint list as well.)

But long term, the US may have a more comprehensive data base on foreign visitors than most countries have on their own citizens. Picture Canadian law enforcement running a US-VISIT fingerprint search for a domestic crime?
Posted by: john || 01/06/2004 9:42 Comments || Top||

#5  It seems that the "comprehensive" US data base on foriegn nationals will consist of digital fingerprints and photos - real threat to privacy. Right. That other countries will "retaliate" by demanding our photos and fingerprints bothers me not at all. Any country has the right to control who enters it - not just the US -- and the gods know that we have our own kooks. The only problem I have with this is that the nations that are currently exempt are generally wide-open entry ports for the rest of the world, including that part of the world that provides most of the terrorists.
Posted by: rabidfox || 01/06/2004 10:57 Comments || Top||

#6  The only problem I have with this is that the nations that are currently exempt are generally wide-open entry ports for the rest of the world, including that part of the world that provides most of the terrorists.

Not to worry - we'll start fingerprinting visitors from the rest of the world - after a few thousand Americans are killed in another terror attack. The politically-correct get their pound of flesh and we get to bury our dead.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/06/2004 11:29 Comments || Top||

#7  And hard drives are cheap nowadays.

Only those stupid ATA drives. The U-160 SCSIs are still expensive. ;)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 16:41 Comments || Top||

#8  phil_b - This comes from the Firesign Theatre's class, where I first came across this physiological geographical reference... hence, the far-flung modifier / clue. ;-)
Posted by: .com (Pres for Life, Isles of Langerhans) || 01/06/2004 17:25 Comments || Top||

#9  Brunei is full of nothing but Moslems.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 01/06/2004 22:27 Comments || Top||


Military split on use of special forces
With Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld pressuring the Pentagon to take a more aggressive role in tracking down terrorists, military and intelligence officials are engaged in a fierce debate over when and how elite military units should be deployed for maximum effectiveness. Under Rumsfeld’s direction, secret commando units known as hunter-killer teams have been ordered to "kick down the doors," as the generals put it, all over the world in search of al Qaeda members and their sympathizers.
Yes! Yes! Ye-e-e-essss!
The approach has succeeded in recent months in Iraq, as Special Operations forces have helped capture Saddam Hussein and other Baathist loyalists. But in other parts of the world, particularly Afghanistan, these soldiers and their civilian advocates have complained to superiors that the Pentagon’s counterterrorism policy is too inflexible in the use of Special Forces overall and about what units are allowed to chase down suspected terrorists, according to former commandos and a Defense Department official. In fact, these advocates said the U.S. military may have missed chances to capture two of its most-wanted fugitives — Mohammad Omar, the Taliban leader, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy to Osama bin Laden — during the past two years because of restrictions on Green Berets in favor of two other components of the Special Operations Command, the Delta Force and SEAL Team Six. They said several credible sightings by CIA and military informants of Omar entering a mosque this spring in Kandahar, Afghanistan, were relayed to U.S. forces at nearby Firebase Gecko, where a Green Beret team was ready to deploy. But rather than send in the Green Berets, who were just minutes from the mosque, commanders followed strict military doctrine and called on the Delta Force, the team of commandos whose primary mission is to kill and capture targets such as Hussein. In the several hours it took the Delta unit, based hundreds of miles away near Kabul, to review the information and prepare for the raid, Omar vanished, said the sources, all of whom advise Rumsfeld’s senior aides.

Other informants reported spotting Zawahiri in a medical clinic in Gardez, Afghanistan, in the spring of 2002. Green Berets five minutes away were ordered to stand down so SEAL Team Six, another of the hunter-killer teams, could storm the clinic and capture or kill Zawahiri, according to the sources. But too much time elapsed during preparations, and Zawahiri escaped. The Special Operations Command declined to comment on the reports.

Both incidents spotlight the ongoing debate over how best to employ Special Operations forces in the global war against terrorism. Special Operations forces refer to a range of soldiers from the Army, Navy and Air Force who are specially trained for sensitive missions, typically secret in nature and frequently involving rescues or assaults on high-value enemy targets. The military’s policy, in practice, mandates using only "Special Mission Units," such as Delta Force and SEAL Team Six, to apprehend or assassinate specially targeted individuals. It precludes other Special Forces such as Green Berets — who are trained primarily to work with indigenous fighters — from pursuing the most sought-after targets when opportunities arise. Some experts on counterterrorism contend that it takes the Special Mission Units too long to deploy for unanticipated raids. Some believe equal, if not more, emphasis should be placed on Special Operations forces to develop relationships with local villagers who supply the bulk of valuable information, which is known as counterinsurgency work. In the past year, poor intelligence has often led to the wrong targets being killed or captured. "For all of the Special Mission Units’ efforts, how many high-value targets did they get in Afghanistan?" asked one adviser, a civilian advocate of aggressive unconventional warfare with the Special Operations Command. "None."

Supporters say units such as Delta are the only ones trained specifically to carry out the apprehension or assassination of high-value targets. "By doctrine and training, targets like that belong to the Special Mission Units," said Richard H. Shultz Jr., a scholar at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a Pentagon consultant. "That’s what they are for."
In that case, change the doctrine and training. High value targets should be grabbed by whatever resource is closest, whether it's specifically a hunter-killer team or Private Shlabotnik down at the motor pool. Flexibility can't be sacrificed out of concern for who's got the appropriate Dewey button...
The Pentagon’s official position is that there is no conflict between the two approaches.
Nor should there be...
Marshall Billingslea, formerly the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, said both approaches are being followed and both are vital to achieving success against terrorist organizations. "The hearts and minds element is essential," Billingslea said. But according to a classified Defense Department policy briefing on the war against the al Qaeda terrorist network and Baathist insurgents in Iraq, the Bush administration is moving away from work with insurgents and favoring more direct-action strikes.
Which should also be developing their own super-dooper-secret intel, bumping off specific targets in the dead of night or arranging Unfortunate Accidents™ to unobtrusively remove them from the scene...
Rumsfeld has long been enamored of the idea of expanding the role of Special Operations forces in fighting terrorists. He has dramatically boosted the budget of the forces and last year ordered the Special Operations Command to draft a strategy to send hunter-killer teams after terrorist cells.
Yo! Over here! Y'want me to write something up?
He is considering expanding their role even more. Among proposals under review is to send the Special Mission Units into areas such as Somalia and Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, where little government authority exists and terrorists congregate, seemingly safe from the long arm of the United States, said officials who are reviewing the plan or have been briefed on it. "There have been briefings about various operations against various targets," a State Department official said. "We’re prepared to go into these areas," he said, but in a careful way.

Over the years, such proposals have faced roadblocks, including a shortage of resources, legal questions on Capitol Hill about assassinations, intelligence shortcomings and worries about the political willpower of some officials at the State Department and Pentagon. According to four officials who have seen it, a top-secret report by Shultz, the Pentagon consultant, contends that despite reliable intelligence on those responsible for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, Special Mission Units were never sent to kill or capture the terrorists responsible.
There’s a lot more at the link, but I thought that some of this information would be quite interesting for Rantburgers.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 1:22:53 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Although there might, indeed, be some dumbass doctrine (the Pentagon has hordes who codify brainfarts in triplicate) that specifies certain forces in certain situation, this sounds like inter-service rivalry, sour grapes, and gamesmanship.

Does anyone here think, in the circumstances cited above for the Omar sighting in Kandahar, that going ahead and capturing the shithead would have been met with some kind of punishment or reprimand? Not a chance - a success like this makes a mighty fine insurance policy, not to mention casting the desired doubt on the stupidity of inflexibility. Failure, on the other hand, could be due to poor / garbled communications or other vagaries encountered by field locations. Been there, done that, myownself. Anyone here with field time who hasn't improvised when faced with stupid and self-defeating orders? I should exempt the Navy guys, cuz it's pretty hard to commandeer a seagoing vessel for private missions... But a fire-team and a chopper? Hey, that's a snap when the Top Dog wants to hunt.

It's almost always easier to get forgiveness than permission. I know there are exceptions, but hours versus minutes made all the difference - and that was more than obvious to the commander on the scene. I think this instance was the Firebase Gecko Commander's way of saying "Fuck You and your policy, gentlemen." - and if that message and the ramifications didn't get all the way to the top, then there are some seriously gutless turds in that chain of command. I detect a distinct lack of Colonel Wests...
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 3:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Somehow I think if they had captured Omar or Zawahiri, all would have been forgiven.
Posted by: eyeyeye || 01/06/2004 9:53 Comments || Top||

#3  .com, I agree. There are tons of Pentacrats that don't like to share glory or missions. Osama may be accross the street from an HQ but they need to call in the 'special squad' to take him down. It's all about rice bowls with these idiots. Stay in yours you can't have any of mine. The Pentacrats in charge of the ground troops don't help matters either. Can you imagine a battallion CO in WWII calling in for permission to capture Hitler? That is what this sounds like they have now.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/06/2004 10:18 Comments || Top||

#4  .COM, if the Green Berets went in anyway and things went badly (like Mogadishu) there would have been all sorts of hell to pay. I'm not saying the Green Berets shouldn't have been given the assignment, but jumping ahead and doing it despite orders would be Hollywood stupid.
Posted by: ruprecht || 01/06/2004 11:35 Comments || Top||

#5  This is more pentagon deskbound idiots who want to "use the right tool for the job". Its a case of "The best is the enemy of the good". They want to use "The Best" when "Good enough" would get the job done.

There is no doubt that Rangers or SF units could have done the job in as well as Delta or ST6 ops. could, if you only consider the final objective (kill or capture the target).

The difference would have been casualties and "splash" (publicity, collateral damage, public knowledge).

Delta/ST6 would have sustained and inflicted minimal casualties, and been in and out of there before much of a reaction was raised, and with little collateral damage. SF/Rangers would have had some killed, and likely killed a ton at the target, plus would have damaged a lot more, and taken a while to clear out (which woudl have possibly allowed some more locals to get themselves into the fight - and get killed).

Also the nature of the 2 groups is different: SF/Rangers are combat units. ST6/Delta are "raid" units. The former can move on a lot less notice, the latter require planning and rehearsal. The former tend to be a bit more blunt, the latter more "surgical". The former will leave very solid evidence of their presence and will take longer to extract, the latter can whisper in and out if they have time for proper plan and execution.

These decisions were purely political. In my opinion some of the generals at the pentagon have lost their balls - under clinton they developed the habit of not leaving footprints, or causing casualties (on either side), or making any political waves. During those 8 years, those who have risen General and Colonel rank prior to 2000, were politicians and better off covering their asses than charging hard.

Whats needed now is hard chargers, not deskbound paperpushers who err on the side of caution. This is a war. We need more Leaders and less Followers.

What happened is some command element decided "Lets play it safe - Delta/ST6 can do this with a lot less noise and casualties, and besides thats what the book says to do, so my ass is covered by bouncing this one to somone else - the important thing is to follow the book"

A hard charger would have said "SF and the Rangers can do this - Delta is too far off and doesnt have the intel yet or time to prep. Send in the SF unit - casualties will be higher and we will have a harder time extracting them, so have the Rangers ready to extract them and get some heavy air support on call too - the important thing is to get these bastards. Let the higher ups know that there's going to be a ruckus in Haji-ville when we kick the door in on this mosque, and likely a lot of dead Mahmoods."

There's the difference. Its a shame that the higher ups are more concerned with method than results in cases like this.
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/06/2004 11:52 Comments || Top||

#6  I think the Rumsfeld memo was an example of a good leader recognizing this type of problem and working to fix it.

Good officers do what's right and worry about their career once they retire. If they buck authority along the way, they get a better book deal and improved speaking fees.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/06/2004 11:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Ridiculous. Where do people think Delta comes from? SPECIAL FORCES. And when their hitch in Delta is over, where to they go? SPECIAL FORCES! So it's pretty disingenous (not to mention moronic) to suggest that the skillset isn't there.

This sounds like some command (SOCOM?) doesn't want any of the juicy, headline grabbing missions being grabbed by someone else. How do you justify that next star, not to mention the big budget, if the damn Special Forces are out there nabbing the Bad Guys?! In other words, your classic intra-service turfwar pissing contest.

SF trains for a multiple of missions, including working with indigenous forces, unconventional war (guerrilla/counterinsurgency), reconnaissance, and DIRECT ACTION. If they get sniffs of the Bad Guys sitting close, it's criminal that they aren't allowed to move in and take them down. After all, it wasn't Delta or ST6 that nabbed saddam, it was regular old infantry.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/06/2004 12:10 Comments || Top||

#8  At least when I was in, there were "door kicker" SF teams that trained for snatch type missions. BTW, the soldiers used in the Entebbe raid were all line paratroopers and infantry: The units should be drawn from Yoni Netanyahu’s paratroops, another paratroop unit and the Golani Infantry Brigade. Golani had endured a long tradition of being the unit to which all rejects from other IDF echelons had been sent. In the years preceding the Yom Kippur War, the brigade had demonstrated a remarkable ability to “pull itself up by its own bootstraps” and was now recognized as an elite unit. The choice for the Entebbe operation was yet another recognition of its new status in the IDF. (from the IDF official history) Finally, the German unit that pulled off the raid that utterly destroyed the SAS BULLBASKET mission in WWII was composed of a bunch of landser invalided off the Russian front. It's all leadership and METT-TW.
Posted by: 11A5S || 01/06/2004 12:46 Comments || Top||

#9  GB's and Rangers could have handled the job just fine.Some paper-pusher or someone trying to feather his nest screwed the pooch,and should be court-martialed.
Posted by: raptor || 01/06/2004 12:50 Comments || Top||

#10  Grab a handful of your AK-47 buddies and go kill'm. Oldspook, you should be writing screenplays in Hollywood, Your poetry!
Posted by: Lucky || 01/06/2004 13:30 Comments || Top||

#11  The problem is in command structure. SOCOM is a separate entity in the armed forces. The problem arises with our cold ware era command structure in the sense that we have theater commands, eg. CentCom for Middle Eastern areas and Central Asia/Africa. SOCOM doesn't necessarily fall under these guys command structures so the regular brass is loathe to use them more agressively. And when they DO use them you got to keep a relatively good logistics tail on them at all times to provide them with everything from food, intel, firepower as needed or even extraction resources. Basically the only way to get around these problems is to rearrange the command structure to take advantage of SOCOM but this probably wont happen for another 10 years at our rates :(
Posted by: Val || 01/06/2004 15:10 Comments || Top||


Africa: East
Thousands flee attacks in Western Darfur
In the last ten days an estimated 3,000 families have fled to the town of Junaynah from militia attacks in Western Darfur, according to local sources. Over the weekend between 3,000 and 4,000 people had streamed into the town after their villages were burned and looted, and were continuing to arrive on Monday. Many of the displaced are reportedly sleeping in the open without shelter, while some have been taken in by local people. Since the breakdown of peace talks on 15 December between the government and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebel group, fighting and militia attacks in all three Darfur states have escalated. In December alone, about 30,000 people fled from militia attacks across the border to neighbouring Chad, bringing the number of refugees there - mostly women and children - to 95,000.

An SLA spokesman, Dahar Ibrahim, told IRIN that on 2 January about 225 men, women and children had been killed by Arab militias mounted on horses and camels in the village of Sorrah, about 15 km outside of Zalingei, Western Darfur. Describing the attack as "ethnic cleansing", he said the inhabitants of the town were mainly from the Fur ethnic group. Meanwhile, rebels reportedly attacked the village of Sharaya in Southern Darfur on 2 January, killing between four and six policemen and soldiers, and looting a local market. The Sudanese government has vowed to crush the Darfur rebellion, which it views as a security threat, using any available means. "We will use the army, the police, the mujahidin, the horsemen to get rid of the rebellion," President Omar al-Bashir was quoted as saying on state-run Sudanese television. But regional analysts say a political solution, based around devolution of power and equitable sharing of resources, is necessary to resolve Darfur’s decades of economic and political neglect.
Not when you've got camel-riding Arabs with guns available, it seems...
December peace talks with the SLA fell apart after Chadian mediators accused the rebels of upping their demands to include the creation of an autonomous state in Darfur and a percentage of oil revenues. The SLA has denied the charge. The SLA spokesman, Dahar Ibrahim, told IRIN that a delegation sent to the Chadian capital, Ndjamena, had neither met the government delegation nor disclosed any of its demands to the Chadian negotiators, whom it views as being too friendly with Khartoum. Following preliminary and informal talks, Dahar said the mediators had told the SLA to go home. "They said they believed we could not reach an agreement, so we were told to go back to Darfur. We were surprised," said Dahar. "How did they come to this conclusion?"
Obviously because they didn't want to come to an agreement. Without a "crisis," who have a dictator? It's job security for Omar...
Regional analysts believe the talks may have collapsed due to a lack of willingness on the part of the Sudanese government to "internationalise" them, by allowing international monitors to take part. The SLA has repeatedly demanded the presence of international observers during peace talks; the protection of civilians and the guaranteed safe passage of humanitarian relief; and international observers to monitor a future ceasefire. In a statement released after the breakdown of the talks, it also proposed including the negotiations in the peace process being sponsored by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement - expected to reach an agreement this month - and called on the UN to form a committee to investigate massacres in Darfur.
Yep. Forming a committee oughta do it...
Neither Darfur’s second rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, nor the militias have been included in peace talks to date. Regional analysts accuse militias of perpetrating gross human rights abuses including the killing of several thousand people and displacing hundreds of thousands of others. It remains unclear to what extent either the government or local Arab tribal leaders exercise control over them.
Or want to. To me, it also remains unclear where they get their money...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 1:17:12 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  God bless CNN and the broadcast networks for their nightly in-depth coverage of this festering atrocity. Thanks to Aaron Brown and Dan Rather, every American is familiar with this and similar Arab/black schisms in other south Saharan states (Mauritania, Mali, etc.), and the ongoing Ethiopian/Eritrean debacle, and the shariah wackos in northern Nigeria, and the Lord's Resistance Army, and...

"Dan... Dan, wake up, you're having that dream again."

"Aunt Em! Uncle Henry! Toto! I was in this wonderful place..."
Posted by: Dan (not Darling) || 01/06/2004 2:30 Comments || Top||

#2  I've long considered Rantburg far superior to any network news in terms of both information and analysis. Rather sad when a few dozen folks on the internet can do a better job reporting than enormous network news services ...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 2:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Big time. While waiting for the Mars probe to land the other night, I watched several minutes of CNN for the first time since Brent Sadler's pistol-packing car chase in Tikrit last spring. It was almost painful. Can't say Fox or MSNBC are much better. Debka on its worst day is better than any of them.
Posted by: Dan (not Darling) || 01/06/2004 3:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Dan D: I've been a news junkie all my life and now Rantburg is my primary source of news. Not only do those nice Rantburg folks edit out the column inch filling junk and leave the meat of the article, they also provide interesting and amusing commentary.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2004 5:20 Comments || Top||

#5  They've been too busy chasing Pete Rose to give a rat's ass about massacres.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 8:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Yes and Britney got married (and divorced) too.
Posted by: RW2004 || 01/06/2004 9:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Phil_B: I've found that I usually skim the comments before I read the article. Most of the time Rantburger's pick out important points (like connections to previous stories) that I might otherwise miss.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 01/06/2004 9:14 Comments || Top||

#8  The Khartoum regime has begun the roundup of village chiefs and mullahs living west of Nyala in southwestern and western Darfur. The roundup began with leaders living in Khartoum itself. The government is presently contemplating the re-arrest of Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi, leader of the National Islamic Front, and friend of Osama Bin Ladin and the Al Qaida leaders, for his involvement in the Darfur region.
Posted by: Tancred || 01/06/2004 10:48 Comments || Top||

#9  You forgot about Larry King and his hard-hitting, prime time investigative reporting of the Petersen case (ad nauseum), and Michael Jackson.
Posted by: ScottAK || 01/06/2004 11:12 Comments || Top||

#10  A globe comes in really handy while one attends Rantburg. Tancred, is that a round-up and set them free thing or is Khartoum really taking sides.

BTW Dan Darling. Your sites interchange with the Belmont Club really helped when Rantburg went down.
Posted by: Lucky || 01/06/2004 14:42 Comments || Top||

#11  Lucky: Khartoum has aleady taken sides, and the Bashir government has done so since taking power in July 1989. It backs the Arab abbala (camel) and baqqara (cattle) nomads of the Darfur region who have tried over the last two decades to invade and occupy from land occupied by the African Muslim tribes (Fur, Berti, Messalit, Zaghawa, Toubou, etc.). The issue has now become very complicated with Turabi lending a hand to exacerbate the chaos. Regarding the funding of rebels, there are some elements in London who have been collecting money for years; there is also the fact that there is just a massive amount of arms to be found in Sudan, and the southern Sudanese (including John Garang's SPLA) have had good reason to arm the rebels. The old enemy of my enemy philosophy. Over the last two months the warfare (indiscriminate government bombing and strafing) has become very vicious. The west has food available to ship into Darfur but now the Khartoum government won't allow it. It doesn't want information to leak out about the atrocities occurring there.
Posted by: Tancred || 01/06/2004 16:00 Comments || Top||

#12  Tancred, tribal not religious? Is it to the death?
Posted by: Lucky || 01/07/2004 0:41 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Russian prosecutors not confirming Gelayev’s death
Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky did not confirm media reports about the death of Chechen field commander Ruslan Gelayev in the Dagestani mountains. "There is no information about the death of Ruslan Gelayev in criminal case materials or the testimony of detained rebels," Fridinsky said on Monday. The media has published reports that Gelayev was killed in a counter-rebel operation in the Dagestani highlands.
Probably too good to be true, but we'll continue to hope. Then, even if they eventually confirm, we'll have to assume it's his twin brother and that Ruslan will reappear sometime next year, magically restored...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 1:12:07 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Toe tag for Ruslan Gelayev?
It’s Pravda, so it must be true ...
A leader of one of the largest criminal organizations Ruslan Gelaev is presumed to be dead. Gelaev has been presumably killed somewhere in Dagestan mountains in the course of a special military operation aimed at destroying various criminal organizations in the region. The operation took place in Tsuntinsky region on December 15th, 2003. This information has been reported by chief of investigations department of Republic of Dagestan Mirsabala Mirzabalaev in his interview to ITAR-TASS. According to Mirzabalaev, five arrested militants from Dagestan’s criminal organizations provided information about Gelaev’s death. Based on the same sources, the criminal organization itself has been led by Ruslan Gelaev himself. Nine people died as a result of a collision between militants and frontier guards.
"Brake, Ruslan! Break! It's frontier guards!... Gaaaaaaah!"
Today, all of the five militants (whose names are not to be revealed for the entire course of investigation) are all in jail in Makhachkalinsk region. The only available information about the captives is that they are of Chechen and Dagestan nationalities. Their testimonies reveal that their criminal organization consisted of 40 militants. Six of them were caught in a snow slip and three of the militants fell from a cliff while being chased by frontier guards.
"Yee-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoooooo... [splat!]"
No less than 20 militants were destroyed as a result of missile attacks. At night on December 15th a group of militants appeared in Tsuntinsky region of Dagestan. Having reached Shauli village, they have seized local public hospital. Russian frontier guards, who followed the militants all the way to Shauli, have been trapped and killed. Nine military men including chief of frontier guards have all been murdered. According to the militants’ testimonials, their group consisting of several dozens men attempted to reach Georgia though Chechnya. After encountering resistance from the frontier guards, the bandits divided into small groups and tried to hide in the mountains. Soon, they were all blocked by federal forces. Three Russian soldiers died while pursuing some of the militants. On December 30th, 2003, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov informed Russian President Vladimir Putin of the fact that the liquidation of a criminal organization in Dagestan is finally over. According to Ivanov, the organization consisted of 36 people, including some Arab militants.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 1:10:23 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


US privatizes military aid to Georgia
The Pentagon is to privatise its military presence in Georgia by contracting a team of retired US military officers to equip and advise the former Soviet republic’s crumbling military, embellishing an eastward expansion that has enraged Moscow. After a Georgian appeal for support to the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, during a visit last month, a team of 20-30 private defence consultants are already in Tbilisi. Their employer, a Washington security firm, Cubic, has a three-year $15m contract with the Pentagon to support all aspects of the Georgian ministry of defence. A senior western diplomat said: "One of the goals is to make the army units capable of seizing and defending a given objective. The consultants will work with US defence liaisons in the US Tbilisi embassy and the European command in Stuttgart." He said the programme could continue for much longer than three years.

About 60 US military trainers arrived in Georgia in the summer of 2002 to help the dilapidated military deal with the perceived threat of terrorists linked to al-Qaida hiding in the Pankisi gorge, on the border with Russian Chechnya. The "train and equip" programme, which left the Kremlin silently fuming at a Pentagon presence on its southern border, was supposed to end this year. Georgia has long sought a US base on its soil. "Our desire was to continue the train and equip programme, and [Mr Rumsfeld’s response to our request] was this idea," Tedo Japaridze, the foreign minister, told the Guardian. A Georgian security official said the Cubic team would also improve protection of the pipeline that will take Caspian oil from Baku to Turkey through Georgia. Georgia has already expressed its gratitude by agreeing to send 500 troops to Iraq. The western diplomat said the US was also considering creating in Georgia a "forward operational area", where equipment and fuel could be stored, similar to support structures in the Gulf.

The two moves would combine to give Washington a "virtual base" - stored equipment and a loyal Georgian military - without the diplomatic inconvenience of setting up a permanent base in a country where Moscow already has two controversial bases. Under an international agreement, the Russian facilities should be dismantled within three years. But Mr Japaridze said: "We have been having that discussion for five years, so it is quite surreal." The Kremlin has said it will withdraw by 2011. The diplomat said there remained 80-100 Chechen militants in the Pankisi gorge. He said "a handful" of them were international terrorists linked to al-Qaida, and that they could move across the borders, particularly into Azerbaijan. Georgian officials have long insisted that the gorge is no longer a problem.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 1:07:35 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wonder how much this "private" company contributed to the GOP or which admin official is/was on their board?...This administration would make Don Corleone blush
Posted by: NotMike Moore || 01/06/2004 1:36 Comments || Top||

#2  If you recall, it was just such a "private" mission that trained and equipped the Croat army to go on the offensive in 1995, which crushed the Bosnian Serbs, leading to the current Bosnian peace.

NotMikeMoore, read some history.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/06/2004 2:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Since one of NaziMediaMike's heroes, George Soros, bought an insurrection leading to Shevardnadze's resignation, perhaps HE can pick up the tab. HIS corporate influence is GOOD cuz he's an Eeeewwww weenie, right Mikey? Repeat after me: Eeeewwww Good, America Bad. Eeeewwww Good, America Bad. Eeeewwww Good, America Bad. Eeeewwww Good, America Bad. Eeeewwww Good, America Bad.
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 3:24 Comments || Top||

#4  ...embellishing an eastward expansion that has enraged Moscow

Cheez, for an authoritarian state with nukes and a history of antagonism toward America, they sure have a subtle way of showing their rage...
Posted by: Carl in NH || 01/06/2004 5:39 Comments || Top||

#5  NMM - I was under the impression Don Corleone was a fictional character. It is really difficult to engage in any meaningful debate with the Left when they cannot separate fact from fiction.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2004 7:27 Comments || Top||

#6  NotMikeMoore, read some history.

If he did that, he wouldn't be able to be a lefty anymore.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 8:11 Comments || Top||


Korea
North Korea offers to refrain from producing nuclear weapons
[snipped... duplicate post]
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 12:55:54 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Latin America
Passengers on Air Europa Flight Detained
Two Canadian men were detained for suspected links to terrorism after acting strangely aboard a flight from France to the Dominican Republic, authorities said Monday. The two were detained after Air Europa Flight 89 landed in Santo Domingo Sunday night, said Gen. Fernando Cruz Mendez, director of national Investigations. They have not been charged and authorities did not find any weapons, Cruz said. "They acted very nervous on board," he said. "They went in and out of the bathrooms, including a few times together."
Fernando, I don’t quite know how to explain this, but ...
He did not say why Dominican authorities suspected the men had possible links to terrorist activities. The flight’s crew reported the behavior to Dominican authorities who were waiting for the plane when it landed at Las Americas International Airport in the capital. The men will be detained until authorities complete their investigation, Cruz said. Air Europe’s manager in Santo Domingo, Margarita Falla, declined comment on the incident. The two had never been to the Dominican Republic before and were carrying small carry-on bags, authorities said.
Just a T-shirt and a coupla fur-lined swim briefs.
Santo Domingo was their final destination, Cruz said.
Perhaps a honeymoon hotel in Santo Domingo?
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 12:38:45 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "including a few times together."

"Not that there's anything wrong with that."
Posted by: Jerry Seinfeld || 01/06/2004 7:46 Comments || Top||

#2  makes that body-cavity search a little easier though
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 9:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Carry-on bags contained rum, lipstick and Astroglide.
Posted by: eyeyeye || 01/06/2004 9:59 Comments || Top||

#4  makes that body-cavity search a little easier though

"Yes, please!"
Posted by: Better off anonymous... || 01/06/2004 10:08 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Paleo NGO’s wail and gnash teeth over aid conditions
Followup, some fun quotes here. EFL.
Palestinian aid groups have refused to accept money from the U.S. government because of a requirement they sign a pledge the money would not be used for terrorism, organizers said Monday.
More on yesterday's report form WND...
The U.S. Agency for International Development has given Palestinian groups $1.3 billion too much in the past decade and is a key source of funding for the cash-strapped organizations. But USAID enacted the anti-terrorism pledge requirement at the end of 2002 for new grants given worldwide. The Non-Governmental Organization Network, an umbrella group that includes 89 Palestinian aid and terrorist groups, is leading the effort against signing the document. Many Palestinian aid groups have refused to sign, arguing it allows the United States to determine what is a terrorist organization. They also fear that they might unwittingly fund projects of some of the 25 groups that the USAID identifies as terrorists like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Paleos may do any number of unwitting things, but handling money ain’t one of them.
"Identifying most of the Palestinian factions as terrorist groups is unacceptable," said Siam Rashid of the NGO network. "The other issue is that any activity could be identified as a terrorist activity."
Splodydopes? Yep, that’s one of ’em. We got more.
The Palestinian Red Crescent, which used to receive about $300,000 a year in aid, refused to sign and gave up its funding, said deputy director Faiq Hussein. "We would like to take funds from them, but without any conditions," Hussein said.
This guy could work for the U.N.!
On Monday, the NGO network held meetings in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to urge members to continue the protest and to inform them about alternative funding - such as through Europe and Japan, which don’t require similar pledges.
Eunuchs are a lost cause on this one, but perhaps GWB could have a talk with Koizumi?
A few Palestinian towns and aid groups, desperate for funds, have signed the USAID document, but they have done so quietly for fear of negative reaction.
Think "collaborator" might be a word they’ll use on you?
USAID spokeswoman Monica Pataki said the organization has not decided how to deal with the Palestinian refusal.
Take your time, Monica, let’s settle North Korea first.
And take care of that rain forest thing. And we need peace and stability in the Congo...
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 12:26:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  note to Paleo NGO's: you aren't dealing from a position of strength. STFU, and don't take the money, or learn the Golden Rule (He who has the gold makes da rules)
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 0:33 Comments || Top||

#2  LOL! Spot-on, Frank! Y'know, this could be fun to watch! Hey. Monica, roll it in commercial paper while you're waiting... remember, it's not your money.
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 4:47 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm with Steve. Addressing the Paleos' concerns will distract valuable time and resources from settling the North Korea issue. Or World Hunger. Or that damn blinking 12:00:00 on my VCR....
Posted by: Carl in NH || 01/06/2004 6:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Monica,it's not rocket science!
No pledge,no money.If funds find thier way into terrorists pockets,no more funds.

I ain't too bright,but even I can figure this one out.
Posted by: raptor || 01/06/2004 7:46 Comments || Top||

#5  C'mon, guys, be nice. Monica's just the mouthpiece for this organization...
Posted by: snellenr || 01/06/2004 10:13 Comments || Top||

#6  Why are they seething about this? What happened to the time-honored Islamic tradition of signing an agreement with the infidel and then breaking your word at the earliest possible convenience?
Posted by: BH || 01/06/2004 10:31 Comments || Top||

#7  Maybe Suha will step forward from Paris and nobly accept this money. In the name of the Palestinian people OF COURSE!
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 11:47 Comments || Top||

#8  The Palestinian Red Crescent, which used to receive about $300,000 a year in aid, refused to sign and gave up its funding, said deputy director Faiq Hussein. "We would like to take funds from them, but without any conditions," Hussein said.

Translation: "We still want to hide and transport arms, explosives, and terrorists in Red Crescent ambulances".
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 17:13 Comments || Top||


Innocent Palestinian™ (firebomb thrower) killed by IDF in Nablus
JPost Reg Req’d
A Palestinian teenager was killed and another wounded by IDF gunfire in Nablus on Monday evening. The IDF Spokesman said soldiers shot a Palestinian who threw a firebomb at troops deployed in the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp in the city.
an innocent teen struck down in the prime of life... nahhhhhh
Earlier in the day shots were fired at IDF soldiers deployed near Bir Zeit north of Ramallah. In the early morning, security forces arrested six Palestinian fugitives, four affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and one with the Tanzim in raids in Kalkilya, Abu Dis and Dura south of Hebron.
let’s see, 6 plus four plus....carry the one....11? nice haul
Binyamin regional police also arrested a Palestinian policeman from Budrus who allegedly hosted left-wing activists at his home and helped plan demonstrations near the security fence over the past week. He is suspected of throwing rocks at security forces.
ISM enabler, huh?
Palestinians detonated a mine nearby a border police patrol in the Samarian village of Sallem Monday evening. No casualties or damage were reported. Near Kerem Shalom in the south Gaza Strip not far from the Palestinian Dahaniya airport, security forces blew up one of two tunnels discovered on Sunday. Soldiers and Border Police placed charges in the six meter deep tunnel shaft, the entrance to the tunnel was discovered inside an abandonned building. Equipment found in the tunnel included electronic devices, an intercom and spades. The second tunnel, nine meters deep was located underneath a road used by soldiers in the area and where officials believe terrorists planned to pack it with explosives and detonate them underneath a convoy of IDF vehicles.
27’ deep? They’d need a boatload of ’splosives to cause any damage...sounds like Wile E Coyote planning dept
So far this year security forces have uncovered 40 tunnels in the Gaza Strip located mainly in the Rafah area. Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, shots were fired a number of times at an IDF post on the Karni Netzarim road. An anti tank rocket and shots were fired at an IDF post near Rafah. A mortar shell was fired at an Israeli community in the north Gaza Strip. In all incidents no one was wounded and no damage reported.
Typical Paleo shoot and run..
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 12:25:54 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A mother could only be so proud!

"Father, I have done what you wished, come with me?

I would if I could son, but the cars on the fritz and I smell bacon.
Posted by: Lucky || 01/06/2004 0:54 Comments || Top||

#2  regional police also arrested a Palestinian policeman from Budrus who allegedly hosted left-wing activists at his home
GOD IF ONLY IT COULD BE THAT EASY HERE. WE COULD RID OURSELVES OF THAT moveon.org BUNCH OF COMMIE, TERRORIST SYMPATHISERS
Posted by: Ron in Colorado || 01/06/2004 1:16 Comments || Top||

#3  No, you don't understand, the kid was just helping with his sister's wedding celebration. People who use AKs as fireworks would naturally use a molotov cocktail to start the goat roast.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 01/06/2004 2:18 Comments || Top||

#4  So far this year security forces have uncovered 40 tunnels in the Gaza Strip located mainly in the Rafah area.

Maybe the IDF should drop some runway bombs along the route of suspected tunneling activity.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 17:32 Comments || Top||

#5  People who use AKs as fireworks would naturally use a molotov cocktail to start the goat roast.

In some small way ya gotta like that... :) Trust me, LOX is so damn hard to buy now.

Posted by: Shipman || 01/06/2004 17:32 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Bush to Propose Immigration Law Changes
EFL
President Bush will propose immigration law changes to allow workers from Mexico to enter the United States if they have jobs waiting for them, officials said Monday in previewing an election-year measure intended to bolster support among Hispanic voters.
-- Whining from advocacy group about not being consulted snipped ---
Karl Rove, with Bush at a campaign fund-raiser in St. Louis, deflected questions about Bush’s proposal. "Stay tuned," he told a reporter. Bush’s planned announcement comes five days before he meets in Mexico with President Vicente Fox on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas, a meeting of the hemisphere’s leaders.
Bargaining position
Mexico is seeking a measure of legality for the approximately 4 million illegal undocumented Mexicans living in the United States
In direct violation of federal law
and wants a legal way for others to work in the country in the future.
Note how the existing illegal aliens and the future ’workers’ are seperated. He wants us to reward the current illegal aliens as well as allow more aliens in. Do you think he would support this for non-Mexicans? Didn’t think so.
Immigration talks between the United States and Mexico stalled when the Sept. 11 terror attacks prompted the United States to tighten border restrictions a tiny-weany-bit, and were set back further by Mexico’s refusal to support the Iraq war. Tensions also arose over Bush’s refusal to stop the execution of a Mexican national in Texas.
Cause, meet Effect. Effect, Cause.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, at a town hall meeting in Miami last month, hinted at a change of policy when he said the United States needs to "come to grips" with an estimated 8 million to 12 million illegal immigrants and "determine how you can legalize their presence."
And piss on all the decent law-abiding people who have been waiting years to come here legally..
He also said that the immigrants should not be rewarded citizenship just before he proposed they be given green cards. Bush, at a year-end news conference in January, said he was preparing to send Congress ideas about an "immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any willing employee." He said he is "firmly against blanket amnesty," or a mass legalization.
Being firmly against blanket amnesty is good (since the vast majority of citizens are against it as well.
Two guest-worker bills have been proposed in Congress: One from Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and two of McCain’s Republican House colleagues, Jim Kolbe and Jeff Flake; and a second from Sen. John Cornyn. Cornyn, a Texas Republican, has proposed that illegal immigrants could volunteer to work for up to three years if a job exists for them. When they’ve worked three years, they could apply for legal permanent residence, but must return to their country of origin to do so.
Will they have to wait in line like all the law abiding people do?
Workers illegally in the United States would have 12 months to apply to the program and after that would no longer be eligible. Those accepted would be given a "blue card," allowing them to travel outside the United States.
Would those who refuse be deported? Otherwise this is meaningless.
The Cornyn proposal would give guest workers the same rights granted Americans under Labor Department laws and would set up accounts for workers in which employers would deposit money drawn from workers’ wages in lieu of withdrawing the money for Social Security or Medicare.
An incentive to return to their country of origin. Good idea.
The money would be held by the Treasury and would be refunded to the worker when the worker returns to his or her home country.
I think the Cornyn plan has merit as long as there are safeguards and background, medical checks such as they have now for legal immigrants. And that it is applied not only to Mexicans but other immigrants as well (otherwise it would be racial... that does not bother the left but it does me...). Combine this with a serious crackdown (on employers, politicians who dont report illegal aliens, illegal aliens, etc...) it might work otherwise there will be no incentive for someone to choose this over simply crossing the border. Also that these ’blue card’ holders are not eligible for green cards without going thru the same process (and wait) as legal aliens. I like the idea of having an incentive to return (perhaps give them their money in return for the ’blue card’).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/06/2004 12:22:11 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It has long been my contention that the USA and the UK need to strictly control illegal migration (and mostly bogus refugee seekers). You should check out what John Howard has done in Australia. He has taken a very hard line which has been very popular. The left wing opposition Labour party is running seriously scared on the subject.
I would go further and say if you want migrant workers then copy the Singapore system and sell permits to employers and strictly police the system. Throw people in jail if they hire or rent to illegals, as well as the illegals themselves as Singapore does. It may sound harsh but it works. Speaking as someone who has been both a migrant worker (they have different classifications :-))and an employer of migrant workers in Singapore I can say the system works. Migrant worker employment permits are also a major source of revenue for the government, as I recall in excess of 10% of total government revenues.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2004 7:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Hey, I could get behind a Cornyn/Flake bill... See if the Milk lobby is on board...
Posted by: mojo || 01/06/2004 10:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah, the Cornyn/Flake bill sounds good. Personally, I'm opposing anything coming out of McCain. Since that election "reform" fiasco that directly attacks my 1st Amendment rights I tend to think that there's more than one agenda in anything he supports.
Posted by: rabidfox || 01/06/2004 11:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Throw people in jail if they hire or rent to illegals, as well as the illegals themselves as Singapore does.

I'm all for that. The manager at my apartment complex (since booted) granted tenancy willy-nilly to whomever, and the bulk of the new tenants are Latino immigrants (most likely illegal aliens). The result is an increase in garbage strewn about the property, junk cars that sit in unmarked general parking stalls, increased police presence (due to more calls), and a sharp increase in abandoned shopping carts in and around the complex. It had been cleaned up rather nicely and now everything took one huge step backward.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 12:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Bomb, dont forget the pee in the elevators. That adds that special 'essence' from their home.....

My brother used to rent an apartment in a complex which rented also like this. Place went downhill face.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/06/2004 13:31 Comments || Top||

#6  ....that is downhill FAST. (Geeze.... it isn't even monday...).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/06/2004 13:32 Comments || Top||

#7  The unions are going to crap themselves. They've been against any kind of guest worker program since the demise of the Bracero program. The Democrats will no doubt come out against this one. NOTE: The article I linked to is typical tranzi, far left BS. There are several bracero articles available on the web and they all seem to crib off this one and the same interview with the same disgruntled ex-bracero. Not a lot of original work being done in the ethnic studies world, I guess.
Posted by: 11A5S || 01/06/2004 15:31 Comments || Top||

#8  Phil, right on. Plus, how many more people we need in this country anyhow? I'd put a 5 yr moratorium on all immigration. Let's figure out whose here and who needs to leave. If they want to start a guest worker program w/strict guidelines, criteria and controls I'd be for it, but no more of this blanket amnesty talk - b.s. political pandering. As far as McCain goes, I respect his mil record but his stance on immigration sucks. I've even been upset w/Bush being too lenient on Mexico. Heck, for every illegal they send us, we send them five convicts in exchange.....
Posted by: Jarhead || 01/06/2004 16:00 Comments || Top||

#9  ..dont forget the pee in the elevators.

Out here, that would be the area where the garbage bin sits. One time, I saw one of those Latino tenants urinating in the parking lot by the tire of his pickup. He then picks up something out of the pickup's cab and then heads on over to the unit where he lives. I mean, couldn't the jerk have waited just a minute longer to do his business in his own bathroom? Brainless idiot.

As far as McCain goes, I respect his mil record but his stance on immigration sucks.

Probably because the guy represents Arizona, a border state. Gotta please all them Latinos whose first allegiance is to race, ya know.....
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 16:56 Comments || Top||

#10  Jeebus, a few more bills like this and they're going to start referring to Bush as the leading Democratic candidate.
Posted by: BH || 01/06/2004 17:40 Comments || Top||

#11  I fear that GWB doesn't appreciate how many angry Californians there will be with more concessions to illegal immigration. Remember the amnesty program in the past. Did nothing. Things got worse.
Posted by: Sgt.DT || 01/06/2004 18:54 Comments || Top||

#12  For more information on this subject, read Victor Davis Hanson's book "Mexifornia".
Posted by: Les Nessman || 01/06/2004 22:02 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Red Sea Crash Black Box May Be Found
EFL, just the new stuff
Searchers hunting for the wreckage of an airliner zeroed in on a signal late Monday that could be the black box - holding clues to the cause of the Red Sea crash that killed all 148 people aboard. The U.S. State Department, meanwhile, said four people with dual U.S.-Egyptian citizenship were among the dead, the first word that Americans were on the Flash Airlines flight, which was bound for Paris via Cairo. Most of the passengers were French tourists. The plane - an 11-year-old Boeing 737 operated by the private Cairo-based carrier - crashed shortly after takeoff Saturday from this popular Red Sea resort. The crash coincided with heightened concern about terrorism in the skies, but Egypt quickly ruled out the possibility of an attack, saying the crash was an accident caused by a mechanical failure.
Very quickly, in fact...
At the same time Egyptian officials said they did not yet know the nature of the mechanical problem, adding that jet checked out fine before the flight.
"But we’re sure of it, really we are!"
A signal that could be the plane’s black box was detected late Monday by radar on a robotic arm used by searchers at the crash scene, a French Embassy official said. The official, who declined to be named, called the signal a positive development and said the search would resume Tuesday morning. As the country where the plane was made, the United States was sending a team of investigators to the scene, including experts from Boeing. France has sent in advanced military equipment to help find wreckage and remains, as well as forensics experts to identify body parts through DNA testing. A French military plane equipped with radar took its first surveillance flight over the area Monday, and a team of 16 French military divers was to begin work on Tuesday.
Bet it’s mechanical. Rest of the story suggests that Flash Airlines could give the Ukrainians lessons.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 12:16:18 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Don't jump to the mechanical conclusion just yet. First find the pilot and co-pilot's bodies and check the dead faces for the 72-virgin smile. Might also listen carefully to the last transmissions and see if there isn't an "Allah Ahkbar" in the background noise.
Posted by: Rivrdog || 01/06/2004 1:05 Comments || Top||

#2  "Allah Ahkbar" is item #15 on the pre-flight checklist.
Posted by: RW2004 || 01/06/2004 9:11 Comments || Top||

#3  they need both the flight data and cockpit voice data plus a forensics check of the plane

this isn't going to happen fast
Posted by: mhw || 01/06/2004 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Who is this Allan Ahkbar everyone keeps talking about?:)
Posted by: whitecollar redneck || 01/06/2004 10:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Oh, Never mind.
Posted by: whitecollar redneck || 01/06/2004 10:44 Comments || Top||

#6  "This isn't going to happen fast..." Well, it only took them two hours or so from the initial crash to declare they were sure it wasn't terrorism. And now they're saying they don't think it's mechanical either? What options are left after that, microbursts and russian gremlins from the old bugs bunny cartoon?
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 01/06/2004 11:34 Comments || Top||

#7  If this was a terrorist attack, who will the French shakedown on behalf of the familes of dead passengers?
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/06/2004 11:44 Comments || Top||

#8  I have no comment!
Posted by: flash91 || 01/06/2004 11:46 Comments || Top||

#9  What options are left after that?

It was shot down by the US Navy with a stealth SAM from the stealth destroyer, the same one that brought down TWA flight 800. Why? Payback by that nazi Bush because the french stood up against his plans to take the Iraqi peoples oil don't you understand ITS ALL ABOUT THE OIL!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Steve || 01/06/2004 11:52 Comments || Top||

#10  Steve,

It's really funny that you would call Bush a Nazi. If it were true (or if this were an Islamic "Republic"), the brown shirts would be already have the blog log. They would pull your IP address, hunt you down, cut your balls off, shove them up your butt and out your mouth, hunt down your family members, etc., etc..
Posted by: alaskasoldier || 01/06/2004 17:02 Comments || Top||

#11  AlaskaSoldier, that was sarcasm on Steve's part. No member of the Army of Steve™ would ever call Bush a Nazi.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 18:16 Comments || Top||

#12  Rantburg newbies :) heh
Posted by: RW2004 || 01/06/2004 18:22 Comments || Top||

#13  My most humble apologies!!



Posted by: alaskasoldier || 01/06/2004 19:33 Comments || Top||

#14  We all speak fluent asshat here. Sometimes, too fluent.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 22:15 Comments || Top||


Christian Community in Egypt Attacked Again - Attack Ignored Again
EFL
The Patmos Christian Centre has been attacked for the ninth time. In the fracas one of the employees was killed. Today beginning at 11.30am local time the Egyptian army subjected the Patmos Christian Centre to an hour long attack. Five hundred soldiers descended upon the centre, 30km to the east of Cairo, accompanied by two bulldozers. They blocked the entrance to the compound with a large pile of stones and rubble and then they destroyed seven metres of adjoining wall. Those working at the centre rushed out en masse to prevent the army from coming onto their property. Soldiers threw stones and bottles at the protestors. In the mêlée a bus ploughed into a crowd who were surrounding Bishop Botros who heads the centre. The Bishop was not among those injured, but one staff member, Kirilos Daoud, was killed. Seven people are currently in hospital, one in a critical condition. The police have tried to find the bus driver, but the army appear to have taken him away. Also injured was a nun who was beaten by soldiers. This is the ninth attack on the centre in the past six and a half years.
(actually the 1st attack was in 96, the next in 97 then there were multiple attacks in 2001 and 2002)
Soldiers from the local army unit are seeking to destroy the wall supposedly in order to conform to a new law passed on 25 January 2003 which requires all buildings to be at least 100 metres from the Cairo-Suez road. The wall stands 50 metres from the road and was built ten years ago in full accordance with the law at the time. Workers at the centre point out that the local army barracks’ own walls also stand 50 metres from the road and no attempt has been made to demolish these. Similarly many other buildings in the area are much closer to the road, including some 15 mosques which stand only 5 – 10 metres from the road. Likewise no attempts have been made to demolish any of these buildings...
and the reaction of the UN, the world council of Churches was... nothing - is anybody surprised
Posted by: mhw || 01/06/2004 12:14:32 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think a docking of, say, $10 million each time this occurs should be the State Dept order of the day under the new foreign aid plan....head's up, Hosni!
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Unto Ceasor?
Posted by: Lucky || 01/06/2004 0:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Also injured was a nun who was beaten by soldiers.

What? Weren't their any toddlers around for them to attack?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/06/2004 8:06 Comments || Top||

#4  It was all a mistake. He was very short...
Posted by: Fred || 01/06/2004 21:44 Comments || Top||


Korea
N. Korea Offers to Halt Nuke Facilities
Again? Follow-up and EFL.
North Korea offered Tuesday to refrain from producing nuclear weapons as a ``bold concession’’ to rekindle talks over its arms programs.
Oh. It must be Tuesday...
The move comes as the United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas amble scramble to arrange a new round of negotiations, with South Korea and Russian saying they are unlikely this month. North Korea has said before it is willing to freeze its ``nuclear activities’’ in exchange for U.S. aid and being taken off Washington’s roster of terrorism sponsoring nations. On Tuesday it specified it was ``set to refrain from testing and production of nuclear weapons and stop even operating (its) nuclear power industry for a peaceful purpose.’’
Must be time for some long-overdue maintenance.
In a commentary carried by the official KCNA news agency, North Korea called the offer ``one more bold concession.’’
What, no juche?
I wonder what Muammar's reform had to do with this...
The United States has said it wants North Korea to verifiably begin dismantling its nuclear weapons programs before it delivers any concessions.
We can wait. You guys ever consider trying the Atkins Diet?
In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov blamed the delay Monday on disagreements over the wording of a final document for the talks. He said efforts to set up more talks were ``very difficult’’ and that a final document could not be forged because of ``mistrust and increased demands on each other’’ by the United States and North Korea, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.
"could not be forged", heh, our friend Mahmoud can forge anything.
On Tuesday, North Korea said its first-step proposal should be the focus of preparations for new talks. ``If the United States keeps ignoring our efforts and continues to pressurize the DPRK to scrap its nuclear weapons program first while shelving the issue of making a switchover in its policy toward the DPRK, the basis of dialogue will be pretty much as it was in 1994 demolished and a shadow will be cast over lunch the prospects of talks,’’ the North’s official news agency KCNA said in a commentary. KCNA was frisked monitored by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
We’ll think about it over dinner. We’re grilling a few steaks. Each.
With pie for dessert... Mmmmm! Pie!
Posted by: Steve White || 01/06/2004 12:07:45 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd like mine Medium Well, with a big frigging baked potato, butter and sour cream and chives...and you? Try some of the Merlot, it's to die for
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 0:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Blast! Thwarted by the Army of Steve yet again ;)
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/06/2004 1:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Thanks Steve, I'll take mine medium rare, covered in mushrooms, and another baked with sour cream etc. Nice Merlot Frank, I'll have a glass after I finish this great beer.

So, Kimmie, how's the grass crop this year ?

Posted by: Carl in NH || 01/06/2004 6:35 Comments || Top||

#4  I'll have mine with a grain of salt. Kim Jong Ill curtail the Nuke program!? Uh-huh. And I'm Frodo Baggins.
Posted by: Korora || 01/06/2004 14:41 Comments || Top||

#5  I'll have a barnyard grass sandwich, with tree bark bread, a side of White Slag, and an enriched uranium shake. To go.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/06/2004 15:15 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
US renews sanctions on Libya
The United States has renewed its sanctions on Libya, insisting Tripoli must follow new policies on unconventional weapons with 'concrete steps'.
Carrot, meet stick...
President George Bush said in a statement on Monday that the "crisis" between the two countries which led to the declaration of a national emergency on 7 January 1986 had not been fully resolved. The statement did not specify the duration of the renewal, but such sanctions - which include a freeze on assets in the United States - have been renewed annually since they were first imposed in 1986. Although Bush praised the north African country's December announcement to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programmes and allow international inspections of its nuclear facilities, he said action must follow words. "Libya's agreement marks the beginning of a process of rejoining the community of nations, but its declaration 
 must be followed by verification of concrete steps. As Libya takes tangible steps to address those concerns, the United States will in turn take reciprocal tangible steps to recognize Libya's progress."
Who were those guys who were saying he's stoopid?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/06/2004 00:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  gee, he's not following the exquisitely refined smart diplomacy of Warren Christopher or Madeleine "Mad Cow" Albright.....what a unilateral cowboy
Posted by: Frank G || 01/06/2004 0:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe MoMar has a few issues he needs to take of first? But the guys a stud punk!
Posted by: Lucky || 01/06/2004 0:11 Comments || Top||

#3  LOL! Mad Cow Albright and stud punk. Heh - you guys draw some awesome word pix!
Posted by: .com || 01/06/2004 4:23 Comments || Top||


Africa: East
Agreement reached on splitting the swag
Sudan's government and the main southern rebel group have agreed on how to share the oil-producing country's wealth when the 20-year-old civil war ends. Both sides endorsed a joint statement after conducting peace talks in the Kenyan town of Naivasha on Monday. "We are glad to inform our people all over the Sudan and the international community that we have reached an agreement on wealth sharing," the statement said. "This covers the division of oil and non-oil revenue, the management of the oil sector, and the monetary authority in the country."
Ho hum. It's all about oil. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Sudanese Vice President Usman Ali Taha and the leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), John Garang, are expected to sign the document on Wednesday. SPLA spokesman Yasir Arman told journalists he had also finalised an agreement of 50-50 sharing of non-oil revenue such as taxes and other government income, he added.
Ahhh! Prosperity on the backs of the populace!
The bulk of this deal was settled late last month, when it was agreed that the SPLA and the government would receive equal shares of revenue from the country's oil output of 300,000 barrels a day. The Sudanese civil war has killed two million people and displaced a further four million. The war pitted the government in Khartoum against rebel forces with grievances that have included regional investment and increased autonomy. The war also fractured ethnic and religious divisions. However, Monday's accord leaves two other topics to be settled before the combatants can reach a final comprehensive peace - how to share power and the status of three contested areas.
Still some stuff left to shoot each other up over, is there?
The two sides have agreed on sharing oil revenue during a six-year interim period, splitting state and religion, forming a post-war army and letting the south hold a referendum on independence after the interim period. The latest round of peace talks between the government and the SPLA began in early 2002, but does not cover a separate rebellion taking place in Darfur, western Sudan.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/06/2004 00:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


East Asia
‘Taiwan has been targeted by Al Qaeda network’
Pick a spot, they're trying to target it...
A top Taiwanese intelligence official confirmed for the first time on Monday that the island had been targeted by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network and had beefed up security. “Through international information co-operative channels, the National Security Bureau has four times received warnings saying Taiwan’s airports could come under attack by the Al Qaeda network,” the bureau’s deputy chief, Huang Lei, told the parliament. The cabinet’s ad hoc anti-terrorism group had heightened its state of alert, he said. The National Police Administration (NPA) recently increased surveillance of airports, seaports, foreign embassies and representative offices, an NPA official who declined to be identified told AFP last week. The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) also planned to deploy air marshals on passenger and cargo flights as part of its security plans, a CAA official said, declining to elaborate due to the sensitivity of the issue. The Taipei-based China Times daily, citing unidentified NPA officials, had said Al Qaeda operatives could hijack Taiwanese planes to attack the United States and its close allies. It added that the NPA had demanded heightened security around power plants, reservoirs, railways, bridges, tunnels and other major infrastructures to thwart any possible attacks.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/06/2004 00:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sez here in my "Dummies Guide to Jihad" that Taipei is the 12,737th Holiest Place in Islam (TM).
Posted by: Carl in NH || 01/06/2004 5:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Since when are the Butchers of Bejing contracting Al-Quaida to do their dirty work? The enemy of my enemy...
Posted by: john || 01/06/2004 9:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Al-Q found another sugar daddy in Beijing?
Posted by: BH || 01/06/2004 10:23 Comments || Top||

#4  sounds more like bejing would like to have something in common with taiwan - shooting muslims.
Posted by: flash91 || 01/06/2004 11:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Instead of identifying nations that are being targeted by Al Qaeda, wouldn't it be easier to list the nations that aren't being targeted?

It seems Al Qaeda is waging holy war on the 21st Century, if anything.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/06/2004 12:44 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm with flash91 on this one.
China would love a chance to kick some ass on behalf of its estranged province.
Posted by: Dishman || 01/06/2004 14:01 Comments || Top||

#7  If the Chicoms can keep their western provence from blowing up and spreading, the West's battles with Al and the Qaedas would serve to weaken the West, which would help the Chicom's global position. Al Q is a self-funding unit, so they won't draw on the Chicom's resources. However, the Chicoms better start studying the physics of boomerangs, just in case.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/06/2004 14:19 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2004-01-06
  Toe tag for Gelaev?
Mon 2004-01-05
  Unknown group claims "attack" on Egyptian charter plane
Sun 2004-01-04
  Navy nabs another $11m hash boat
Sat 2004-01-03
  Pakistan arrests six for Perv attacks
Fri 2004-01-02
  Mullah Krekar arrested in Norway. Again.
Thu 2004-01-01
  At least five killed in Baghdad explosion
Wed 2003-12-31
  Islamist group claims Riyadh bomb attack
Tue 2003-12-30
  Bush to visit Libya
Mon 2003-12-29
  Five Afghans held in Perv attack
Sun 2003-12-28
  Saudis Foil Attack on British Air Jet
Sat 2003-12-27
  Berlusconi Reports Vatican Terror Threat
Fri 2003-12-26
  Up to 20,000 dead in Iran quake
Thu 2003-12-25
  Another boom attack on Perv
Wed 2003-12-24
  Air France cancels U.S. bound flights
Tue 2003-12-23
  Libya invites US oil companies back

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