Iâm watching Howard Deanâs "concesion speech" in New Hampshire, and it is just too funny.... No, not the speech itself, but what MSNBC viewers saw. You see, at the beginning of the speech, just before angry angry Howard showed up, a Dean supporter got a sign up, which said something like this:
"Howard Dean will win [...] ask the 9/11 masterminds.... if Bin Laden did it."
Thatâs right, the sign most visible at the beginning of Howard the Cowardâs speech was a not-so-veiled attempt to give Bin Laden the benefit of the doubt. We will see whether the so-called Democratic so-called Party fully becomes the Party of Treason in the years to come.
#3
I was in a room full of people, most of whom, like myself, really hadnât seen much of Dean. I could see people being turned on by the rhetorical flourishes of...âAnd we will,â speech. Like him or loath him, I thought it a pretty impressive performance. Interestingly ,someone commented, âHeâs a natural born showman, he likes the crowd and the crowd likes him.â This struck me as true about Dean and that is was not necessarily a bad thing in a politician. I thought that he did a pretty good job all things considered.
However, I might add that while âThe Party of Treason,â has a better ring to it than, âHonorable Opposition,â, I still feel that the former phrase is a little over the top, and maybe even vaguely un-American.
A dead sperm whale being transported through Tainan City on its way to a research station suddenly exploded yesterday, splattering cars and shops with blood and guts.
Certified by authorities as the largest beached whale on record in Taiwan, the 17-meter 50-ton carcass was being transported by a flat-bed trailer-truck to a special research location after National Cheng Kung University officials and security guards refused to allow the whale on campus.
The whale was to be preserved and an autopsy performed at the "Shi-Tsao Natural Preserve" in Tainan County by a team of marine biologists and taxidermists.
National Cheng Kung University marine biologist, professor Wang Chien-ping, was on the scene and said he had he instructed the truck driver to move the carcass so the whale could be used for educational purposes and an autopsy could be done.
The beached whale was found on along a stretch of coast in Yunlin County on Saturday.
"The animal was close to death when someone found it beached on shore on Saturday... Because of the natural decomposing process, a lot of gases accumulated, and when the pressure buildup was too great, the whaleâs belly just exploded and spilled blood and the innards on the street," Wang said.
Despite the explosion, enough of the whale remained intact that it will still be transported to the âShi-Tsao Natural Preserveâ for a scientific examination, Wang added.
Local news reports showed a number of people who had gathered to take photographs of the whale before it exploded in Tainan City, as well as residents and shop owners following the explosion. Many were wearing gauze-masks and trying to clean up the spilled blood and the entrails with brushes and brooms.
"What a stinking mess! This blood and other stuff that blew out on the road is disgusting, and the smell is really awful," said one resident.
The news also showed one section of the street along with several parked automobiles and pedestrian walkways covered in red with copious amounts of splattered whale blood. The rest of the story gets even grimmer.
#1
Now, was this a Hamas whale, or a Hezbollah whale? Or is Greenpeace funnelling donations towards those terrorist training camps I keep hearing rumors about in the Bering sea?
Jack Paar died today. He was 85. Paar had the Tonight Show before Johnny Carson, for the young 'uns out there. Johnny Carson had the Tonight Show before Jay Leno, for the even younger.
Jack Paar — dead. I kid you not.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/27/2004 17:42 ||
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#2
Thanks for the post Fred. Jack gave us a lot of pleasure, and a tear or two, while he was host. In addition to those mentioned were Steve Allen who started the "Tonight Show" and Ernie Kovacs who was a part-time host during its early days.
#3
Paar was a little before my time, but I've heard nothing but good about him, just like Bob Hope. I expect the same will be said for Johnny Carson, when the ineveitable happens.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/27/2004 18:38 Comments ||
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Channel 5 has learned that a Northwest Airlines passenger was taken off a plane headed to Philadelphia. Another passenger on that flight tells Channel 5 the man appeared drunk and unruly and refused to comply with the flight crew. Sounds like a Philly native to me.
The flight was delayed while airport police escorted the passenger and his bag away from the plane. "The captain brought the plane back into the gate and the man was removed from the plane with his baggage and the captain announced over intercom they donât tolerate that type of behavior," said passenger Kevin Wollin. "Who does he think he is, the pilot?"
The Transportation Safety Administration confirmed the incident and says the passenger is on his way to detox.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 2:59:23 PM ||
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#1
The only thing worse than the Eagles (and the Flyers) are their fans.
#2
Sad to say I can identify with this poor soul. I never sit in a window seat because from there I can see bolts.... and things moving.... I don't like that. Bolts can't fly.
From New York Magazineâs celebrity gossip column, so itâs got to be true.
It appears that man of the people Michael Moore has gone completely J.Lo on event organizers with pre-event demands. Before heâd agree to present an award for the best 30-second anti-Bush ad at a Manhattan MoveOn.org benefit earlier this month, Mooreâs handlers insisted that he have a supply of Evian backstage. âEven Poland Spring wasnât good enough,â says our inside source. âThey called up to make sure he would have Evian.â "Oui! I must âave ze French stuff!"
If he starts demanding orange-blossom- scented candles next, weâre going to call for an intervention. You canât make this stuff up.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/27/2004 6:21:56 AM ||
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#1
I'm suprised that fat bastard drinks water at all, I thought he only drank milkshakes.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 11:55 Comments ||
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#12
I'd always suspected he's simply a populist for the primary motive of gaining celebrity. After all, his arguments are simplistic and he "conveniently" seems to leave out facts that don't support his position. He doesn't want people to think about the issues, he wants people to think he's the hero of the underclass. There was a time I had some respect for him, but that was a long time ago, for a very short amount of time.
#13
seems to leave out facts that don't support his position
He likes to rearrange them chronologically too. The Splice King himself.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/27/2004 13:00 Comments ||
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#14
nice Steve - Zel!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/27/2004 18:23 Comments ||
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#15
Interesting post. Moore appears as those he nevers consumes anything containing less than 6 million calories. That slob is giving us fat people a bad name.
Scrappleface: U.S. to Fill Saddam Spider Hole with U.N. Resolutions
(2004-01-23) -- The U.S. military announced today that it will fill Saddam Husseinâs spider hole with reams of paper printed with 12 years of United Nations Security Council resolutions and transcripts from U.N. meetings on what to do about Mr. Husseinâs regime. Soldiers from the U.S. 4th Infantry Division pulled the former dictator from the grave-like pit near Tikrit, Iraq, on December 13, definitively ending Mr. Husseinâs 25-year reign of terror. "Itâs a symbolic location," said an unnamed spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division. "We wanted to recognize the contribution of the United Nations and find some practical use for all of those discussions and resolutions." U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan welcomed the action, saying, "The United Nations has always filled the void in geostrategic diplomacy left by empire-building unilateralists."
Posted by: tipper ||
01/27/2004 12:28:05 AM ||
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#4
What if we filled it with starving weasles and then started inserting members of the deck of cards one-by-one (with a couple of days delay in between grizzly executions feedings to restore the weasle hunger)? We could let a shiite and a Khurd take turns standing on the styrafoam trapdoor.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 11:28 Comments ||
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The Taliban allegedly retook several districts in Zabul awhile back, not sure if they were dislodged or not, but my guess would be that that is what this is from ...
Aljazeera has received a copy of a video showing Taliban fighters destroying a government building in eastern Afghanistan close to the Pakistani border. The video, broadcast on Tuesday, showed the Taliban moving freely on the main roads of the area despite the constant US-led search operations to hunt them down. The undated video, with blurred images, also showed the fighters communicating with each other via wireless phones and implanting mines on roads frequently used by US troops. After finishing their operation, the fighters collected what they called "battle trophies" while one of them called for prayers. The Taliban members also vowed to continue fighting, referring to Usama Bin Ladinâs call to challenge the US forces.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 10:13:46 AM ||
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#1
At a certain point it would be very helpful to install satellite capable webcam on remote government buildings and schools.
Another technique would be to leave a cell phone with a stoolie in each village for distress calls.
You could then deploy a ready force in choppers. Eventually this would lead to ambushes, but even ambushed we could still gain quite a few "battle trophies" of our own.
I'm sure that Breaker Morant could provide better advice on dealing with insurgents, but I try to adhere, however loosely, to the rules of armed conflict.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 11:08 Comments ||
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#2
Video probably shot in NWF Pakistan.
Posted by: john ||
01/27/2004 12:33 Comments ||
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A suicide bomber struck a convoy of the NATO-led security force in the capital Tuesday, killing a Canadian soldier and an Afghan civilian. The attack also wounded three Canadian troops and eight civilians, officials said. The bomber struck the three-vehicle convoy about 8:30 a.m. in western Kabul. "There was a bump in the road, and when they slowed down to pass over it, a terrorist jumped on one of the vehicles and blew himself up," said Ali Jan Askaryar, head of police in the western district of the capital.
The security force confirmed the death of a Canadian soldier, but did not release his name. "It may have been a suicide bomber that caused the explosion," a statement said. International troops and local police cordoned off the site of the attack, about 1 1/4 miles from the main Canadian base in Kabul and close to the ruins of a former royal palace. An open-backed military jeep - badly burned with its windows blown out - sat on a patch of blackened road, a white sheet lying next to it. A small Canadian flag hung from its antenna. Fazel Karim Sayedi, director of the hospital that treated most of the injured, said the 20-year-old civilian died of severe abdominal injuries. Two other patients were in serious condition. The three injured Canadians were in stable condition, said spokesman Lt. Col. Joerg Langer. Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, blaming it on "terrorist elements intent on disrupting the peace and security of our people." Khalil Amin Zada, Kabulâs deputy police chief, said investigators were trying to identify the attacker. "Itâs difficult to tell if heâs an Afghan or not," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 9:52:24 AM ||
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#1
"Itâs difficult to tell if heâs an Afghan or not,"
Bet he wasn't, Afghan fighters tend to leave that sort of thing to the imported cannon fodder.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 10:14 Comments ||
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#2
Channel News Asia quotes a Taliban flunky as saying that the bomber was a Chechen.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 10:19 Comments ||
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#3
I hope the Canadians don't take heavy casualties. Their soldiers are excellent, but their population strikes me a very risk adverse.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 11:10 Comments ||
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Given the size of the Canadian armed forces, the idiot who did the blue-on-blue incident a while back inflicted "heavy casualties".
They may be the Few and the Proud, but they definitely are few...
Slovakian troops received the best wishes of their countrymen Jan. 23, as the countryâs prime minister and defense minister visited to offer them encouragement in their mission for freedom. Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda walked steadily in front of a formation of troops who greeted their countryâs leader with a proud, solid salute as he began to cross their path. He took his place in front of the formation, facing his troops as the Slovakian national anthem played loud and clear throughout the compound. When the last note was played, Dzurinda addressed his troops, commenting on the hard work they have put into extending the Bagram Air Base flightline and on their success as a component of the coalition forces in Afghanistan. Dzurinda thanked Slovakian troops for their dedication to Operation Enduring Freedom, adding that the gratitude he expressed was not only for the role Slovakia plays in coalition support, but also for the help the countryâs soldiers are providing for the people of Afghanistan. "The only way to fight terrorism is to fight on their ground," said Dzurinda. The prime minister added that he is "proud that two years ago we made the right choice to support coalition forces."
Defense Minister Juraj LÃÅ¡ka wished his countryâs troops health in all that they are doing, and stressed the importance of their mission in support of Enduring Freedom. LÃÅ¡ka told troops that since Slovakia plans on joining NATO in May, "this is one of the biggest tests for Slovak soldiers before they enter into NATO." "This is the greatest honor," said Slovak 2nd Lt. Fejercak Lubumir, operational officer. "We have not yet gotten situated here, and we are just technicians, so we appreciate that our prime minister came to visit us," he said with excitement in his voice and a smile on his face.
#1
The Slovaks were also with us in Kuwait before and after OIF, NBC Troops. I don't know if they went up with us, but after talking to them, the Germans, the Czechs, and the Romanians, most of them wanted to participate in the ground war. All the foreign troops I served with before, during, and after were true Warriors, and they have my personal hear-felt gratitude.
When Saudi Arabiaâs top religious authority ruled this month that Islam forbids men and women to mix in public, he reset the boundaries for reformists pushing for womenâs rights in the ultra-conservative kingdom. No one, not even the royal family, which derives legitimacy from the clerical establishment, could challenge his verdict. Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikhâs ruling opened a debate on whether Saudi Arabiaâs absolute monarchy is capable of carrying out reforms and moving the country into the modern age with a powerful clerical establishment stuck in an 18th century mind-set.
Ummm... I'd say no.
"The mixing between men and women is totally forbidden under sharia (Islamic law) and highly punishable. It is...the root of every evil and catastrophe," said the mufti, a descendant of Mohammed Abdel Wahhab, the religious leader who with the ruling House of Saud founded Saudi Arabia. The ruling came after Saudi Arabiaâs leading businesswoman Lubna Olaya appealed at an economic forum in Jeddah for gender equality in Saudi Arabia. Pictures of her veil slipping from her head onto her shoulders — powerful symbolism which echoed her words — enraged the mufti who said this violated Islamic teaching.
Gave him a great Islamic woody, by Gawd!
Although men and women at the meeting were segregated by a screen, women were able to cross into the menâs section and mingle, much to the fury of conservatives. Greater rights for Saudi women, who are banned from driving or travelling without a male guardian, is only one of the demands by liberals who also want fair distribution of wealth, elections, human rights and transparency. Women are strictly separated from men in all areas of Saudi life — school, university, work, in hospitals and public buildings. In restaurants they have their own sections and even amusement centres and parks have special days for men and others for women. "The mind-set of the clerical establishment is pre-historic, hindering all kinds of reform," said academic Raed Qusti. "The ultra conservatives in this country have their hands on everything and they are fighting reform with all the power they have. To them any change is a threat, be it social, political or economic."
"Saudi Arabia is a country founded on religion. It is a tool for anyone who is controlling Saudi Arabia, without it it would be fragmented into tribal society," said Islamist lawyer Mohsen Awaji, jailed for four years in 1994 for demanding reforms.
Analysts say the House of Saud has for years turned a blind eye to Wahhabi teachings which are now blamed for breeding militancy, but cannot repudiate them without harming its own legitimacy. "The men of religion and politics traded many benefits over the years. The rulers gave the clergy influence to implement its ideology and the clergy protected them with edicts (supporting their rule)," said Saudi analyst Khaled al-Fadely. "The religious leaders helped for a long time in safeguarding thrones, whether in Saudi or elsewhere."
Most citizens of Saudi Arabia have been brought up under this strict code of religious conformity which is intolerant of other forms of Islam and other faiths. Some analysts and academics say the country was not always so restrictive, pointing to a period of liberalism in the 1960s when Saudi Arabia had a Shura (advisory) council, municipal elections and women could work and mix with men. They attribute the change to the 1979 takeover of the Grand mosque in Mecca, Islamâs holiest city, by a group of Sunni fanatics who opposed modernisation in the birthplace of Islam. A disconcerted royal family empowered the clergy to bolster the validity of its rule; the House of Saud bases its legitimacy on safeguarding the holy mosques in Mecca and Medina. Wahhabi clerics then waged a campaign against art and other pleasures of life. Music was banned from public places and the few cinemas closed. Religion hijacked most of the school curriculum with students having less time for other topics.
No one expects sudden change in a country where religious diktat intervenes in every detail of life. But some officials now acknowledge that religious dogma, which instills bigotry and hatred of the West, has helped create a militancy which led to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Reformists say those attacks, carried out by mainly Saudi followers of Saudi-born al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and the overthrow of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, has put Saudi Arabia and its religious establishment under pressure to reform. The royal family, not likely to change the order on its own, is now being pressed by its ally Washington to take bold steps to check the rising influence of al Qaeda and prevent the worldâs leading oil exporter from sliding into turmoil. "Our country is being forced to reform. If it is left for their choice they would not move," Awaji said.
No significant changes in the kingdom, from the introduction of telephones and television to the start of education for girls have ever gone ahead without fierce resistance from the clerics. This time, reformers say, the royal family has to decide whether it wants to face that challenge. "Since 1990 weâve been saying the same thing — that reform is essential but that we are not ready. When are we going to be ready then?" asked Qusti. Crown Prince Abdullah has pledged to press ahead with reform but said change would be gradual and in harmony with Islam. "This country is either Muslim or nothing at all," he said.
Many analysts doubt that determination at the top will be enough this time. Some believe the monarchy could exert pressure on the clerics by curtailing their lucrative benefits. The government, however, remains cautious about the pace of reform, anxious to minimise any backlash. As one official told Reuters: "Change does not come in a day or a night. We have to start and keep the momentum and we have to prepare the mind-set of people for change to accept it. You cannot ram reform down their throats just like that."
"It was the mistake of the government to allow them (the clerics) to expand their influence," said al-Fadely. "The state gave them power and the magic turned against the magician."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 12:04:56 AM ||
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Posted by: Miguel ||
01/27/2004 4:48 Comments ||
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#3
"The mixing between men and women is totally forbidden under sharia (Islamic law) and highly punishable. It is...the root of every evil and catastrophe," said the mufti,
As far as I know, these evil muftis never ever criticize Moslem men who travel abroad and mix with women there or who import prostitutes for orgies.
These evil muftis never ever criticize the Saudi male aristocracy that has earned a reputation as the world's most profligate patrons of prostitution throughout the world.
Not one such word of criticism ever from these evil muftis! All their preaching and suppression are aimed at the females who were unfortunate to be born into Moslem societies, into the mean and brutal control of these evil muftis.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/27/2004 7:26 Comments ||
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#4
Limit on reforms - like an alcoholic swearing off wine coolers.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 7:27 Comments ||
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#5
Crown Prince Abdullah has pledged to press ahead with reform but said change would be gradual and in harmony with Islam. "This country is either Muslim or nothing at all," he said.
I do not have a problem with that statement. Where is that 40km strip exactly?
Posted by: john ||
01/27/2004 9:54 Comments ||
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#6
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikhâs ruling opened a debate on whether Saudi Arabiaâs absolute monarchy is capable of carrying out reforms and moving the country into the modern age with a powerful clerical establishment stuck in an 18th century mind-set.
I think that was a typo and should have read 8th century mind-set. 18th century would be quite a leap for these people.
#8
8th century is the time when islam spread across the mideast and north africa. 18thc is the time when wahabism was born and became allied to the House of Saud.
The high percentage of UK military personnel who smoke warrants urgent action, concludes a new study, which shows that the smoking rates increased even further while troops were deployed in Iraq. The study, which was based on a survey of some 600 army staff working in a field hospital in Iraq and is reported in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, found that some 34% of "regulars" smoked. This percentage considerably exceeds the governmentâs target to reduce the percentage of the whole population that smokes to 26% by 2005. The study shows that the percentage of smokers increased to 42% after the unit was deployed to Iraq and that only around one in three staff could remember having been given any health education about smoking during their military service. Nanny alert! Snipped here.
#2
Well, it's quite obvious. Wars lead to smoking. Therefore to cut smoking the UK will now outlaw War.
Posted by: Daniel King ||
01/27/2004 17:22 Comments ||
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#3
Hitler was ready to ban smoking in the armed forces when the war intervened....and for sake of morale the crusade was delayed...
_________________________________borgboy
#4
I go both ways on this. If the "health Nazis" are true when they speak of the effects on the body, there's no question -- the soldier must remain fit at all times, due to the nature of his mission, and anything that impairs it (especially his respiratory functions) ...
Of course, they could find something else to help with the stress ...
Posted by: Lu Baihu ||
01/27/2004 19:51 Comments ||
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#5
How nice- give somebody an automatic weapon, then take away his cigarettes. Way to go!
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/27/2004 20:03 Comments ||
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#7
Actually, the plastic pack wrappers are a critical element for the treatment of a "sucking chect wound," which is common in combat. Many will die now.
Shipman, I actually wanted to make a comment about the changing definition of a sucking chest wound with respect to the women an combat atricle, but I was too afraid. Have I lost the edge?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 21:23 Comments ||
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EFL:
A special commission upheld the British governmentâs decision to keep a terror suspect jailed without charge or trial, and said Tuesday it also would back the government in the case of radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatadah. The cleric and another suspect, identified only as "M" because of a reporting restriction order, were being held under controversial British anti-terror laws passed after the Sept. 11 attacks. The suspects had appealed their detention before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, whose president, Justice Sir Andrew Collins, announced the rejections, according to the Department for Constitutional Affairs. The government claims Abu Qutadah, a Jordanian of Palestinian descent, had "extensive contacts with senior terrorists worldwide." Friend of the turbaned automatic weapons crowd.
The department said Abu Qutadahâs appeal was heard in December and a formal decision will be handed down at an unspecified later date. And when the Brits say formal, they mean wigs and black robes formal.
Earlier, Home Secretary David Blunkett welcomed the commissionâs ruling upholding his decision to detain "M" under the controversial Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act. "These powers are used extremely sparingly and only in the most serious circumstances in order to protect the public from the activities of foreign nationals we believe to be international terrorists, but who we cannot deport for a variety of reasons," Blunkett said. And those reasons are?
The powers apply only to terror suspects who are not British citizens and whose lives would be endangered if they were deported. The government only has to prove it has "reasonable grounds to suspect" the detainees have links to terrorism - a far lower requirement than the standard of proof required to convict them in a criminal court. At least somebody else sees the difference
The detainees under the British internment rules have the option to leave Britain if they are willing to return to their home countries or can find a third country prepared to take them in. Sixteen people - all men - have been detained under the act as suspected international terrorists. Two of them have left Britain. Just read that again. They can get out of internment if they can go back home or find anyone willing to take them in. And fourteen out of sixteen canât. That says something right there, doesnât it?
The Department for Constitutional Affairs refused to say on what grounds "M" and Abu Qutadah appealed against their detention or how long they had been detained. "Her Majestyâs government can say no more"
Abu Qutadah was convicted in absentia in Jordan on charges of conspiring to attack American and Israeli interests and in 1993 began living in Britain, where he was granted refugee status. He reportedly slipped past heavy surveillance and disappeared in late 2001, but was arrested in October 2002. Abu Qutadah has been in investigatorsâ sights for years. He was named in a Spanish indictment as "supreme leader at the European level of the mujahedeen," or Islamic fighters. Spanish anti-terrorism Judge Baltasar Garzon reportedly called him Osama bin Ladenâs "ambassador in Europe." A really big fish, interesting he canât find anyone to take him in. Or he doesnât want to be taken in.
Blunkett said "Mâ"s case would be reviewed in six months and every three months thereafter. Overall, this is good news for Tony and us.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 3:30:46 PM ||
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#1
Maybe "M" can get some special goodies from "Q"...
Teenage Muslim girls in the United Kingdom are being abducted in droves from their homes and sent to Pakistan for forced marriages, a left wing member of parliament has alleged. "Iâve been told 300 girls disappear every year from schools in the Bradford district. They are pressured by their parents to marry in Pakistan. They donât really have a choice. They often fear defying their families and dare not say no," says Labour MP Ann Cryer, who represents the Keighley constituency. She wants the practice to be stopped immediately. Bradford is home to thousands of families who trace their origins to Bangladesh and the Mirpur district of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Some parents reportedly sent their daughters to Pakistan at a young age to âprotectâ them from the corrupting influences of Western culture. In such cases, the girls stay with relatives until they are married off and return home to the UK, usually at the age of 18, with dimmed possibilities of completing their education. They seek out unskilled jobs paying around £400-450 per month and sponsor visa applications for their newly married husbands to join them in the UK. At the same time, she claims, it is a lucrative business with some families receiving as much as £10,000 in exchange for each daughter that is married off.
Recently back from a trip to Pakistan along with fellow MP Terry Rooney, who represents the Bradford North constituency, she has disclosed her findings in letters to UK Home Secretary David Blunkett, Solicitor General Harriet Harman and Childrenâs Minister Margaret Hodge. On an average, they claim, at least two girls contact them every week expressing fears about being taken out of the UK to be forcibly married. They cite the case of a girl who was sent to Bangladesh at the age of 12 and was married off at the age of 14. She returned to the UK at the age of 16 with a kid in tow. "More and more girls born in Bradford are reaching the age when they are seen as a highly-prized commodity. It is a scandal. Part of the tragedy is that it is self-defeating for the Asian community. If you look at it simply from the point of view of social and economic achievement, this practice is holding them back. By abandoning their daughtersâ education, they are destroying the chance of young Asian girls going to college and university and getting good jobs where they can make a difference," says Cryer.
Existing legislation against false imprisonment, threats, harassment or assault can be used to prevent forced marriages, but Cryer thinks new laws are needed. "A new law may not stop the problem but it is worth trying," she says. "Parents will also realise what they are doing is not only un-Islamic but against the law of the country." She is supported by the president of the Bradford Council of Mosques, Sher Azam, who says forced marriages are illegal in India and Pakistan. "Choosing who you marry is a basic human right of an individual, male or female. Children should be allowed to enjoy their childhood. If there are so many leaving their schools it is very sad and Mrs Cryer is doing the right thing. No faith or religion condones it and it must be stopped." In London, Home Office officials say they are trying to raise awareness about forced marriages with better use of existing laws to stop the practice. "We are determined to put an end to it," one official said.
#1
Some parents reportedly sent their daughters to Pakistan at a young age to âprotectâ them from the corrupting influences of Western culture.
By Allah, that'll learn em!
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi(JC) ||
01/27/2004 13:27 Comments ||
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#2
My daughter knew an American girl of Pakistani descent who was in this situation. The girl ran away from home, was caught, ran away again and again several times. We later learned that her brother was beaten when he didn't learn his Koran lessons. I thought it was just a strange family but now, I think they may have been typical of Pakistani American families.
#3
In London, Home Office officials say they are trying to raise awareness about forced marriages with better use of existing laws to stop the practice. "We are determined to put an end to it," one official said.
Treat it like the slavery it is; I bet Britain still has some nasty laws to deal with slavers.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/27/2004 13:40 Comments ||
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#4
Neat scam. It keeps the girls down, and at the same time buys the marrying family a fast track to UK citizenship...
I'd suggest that a powerful disincentive to this practice would be to flatly deny citizenship to people marrying UK teens in this set-up. It removes the money incentive and places the burden on the UK family, if they *really* want to blow their cash sending their female children half way around the world to spend formative years.
#5
I had trouble linking to the original article so I don't know how the original headline read.
But try this: UK: Teen Girls Kidnapped to be Sold Abroard
It is not a scandal; it's crime. Parents with complicity in this activity should, at the very least, be immediately deported .
#6
Any guesses on how much this is practiced in the United States?
And of course once the husband is here he then can sponser his family. I've seen this happen.
If they are so afraid of 'the evil influence of western culture' then they should move back to where they come from.
I agree that parents who do this (particulary against their children's will) be deported. But then what kid would go to the authorities knowing that, if they report it they and their whole family will be deported and they will be forced to marry anyway?
#7
The girl ran away from home, was caught, ran away again and again several times. We later learned that her brother was beaten when he didn't learn his Koran lessons.
And what became of this? Where's those Family Services people when ya need 'em?
#8
CrazyFool -- the solution is to deport the family and give the kids asylum in the US. Yes, it's "breaking up families", but it's also a strike against barbarism.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/27/2004 18:44 Comments ||
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#9
Sounds like a cultural thing, and who are we to profile these activities?
sarcasm
Posted by: john ||
01/27/2004 19:47 Comments ||
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The trial of a teacher who was accused of pulling a scarf from the head of a Muslim pupil has collapsed. Hazel Dick, 43, denied religiously aggravated assault after she was accused of tugging a hijab off a 16-year-old pupil and causing a safety pin to scratch her neck. A jury at Peterborough Crown Court starting hearing evidence in the case on Monday. But on Tuesday, the case against the head of science at Bretton Woods Community School, Peterborough, collapsed. Judge Nicholas Coleman halted the trial and discharged the jury following a series of legal discussions between lawyers. The incident is alleged to have happened in March last year. A new trial has been ordered for 8 March 2004.
#1
jeesh...and how much does it cost the taxpayers that she "scratched her neck with a saftey pin"? Sounds like the teacher deserved a reprimand - but it shows how good the Muslims have become at working the system at the expense of their taxpaying hosts.
Posted by: B ||
01/27/2004 13:38 Comments ||
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#2
Velcro - do we have to teach them everything?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 20:41 Comments ||
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#3
Sounds like the old hockey fight move. Pull it over her head and start flying with the uppercuts.
EFL Global warming will plunge Britain into new ice age âwithin decadesâ
Britain is likely to be plunged into an ice age within our lifetime by global warming, new research suggests.
Oh, hold me, Ethel! And bring my sweater, wouldja?"
A study, which is being taken seriously by top government scientists, has uncovered a change "of remarkable amplitude" in the circulation of the waters of the North Atlantic. Similar events in pre-history are known to have caused sudden "flips" of the climate, bringing ice ages to northern Europe within a few decades. The development - described as "the largest and most dramatic oceanic change ever measured in the era of modern instruments", by the US Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, which led the research - threatens to turn off the Gulf Stream, which keeps Europeâs weather mild. If that happens, Britain and northern Europe are expected to switch abruptly to the climate of Labrador - which is on the same latitude - bringing a nightmare scenario where farmland turns to tundra and winter temperatures drop below -20C. The much-heralded cold snap predicted for the coming week would seem balmy by comparison.
Yasss... We'll prob'ly see the return of the Neanderthals, as soon as the mastodons show up...
A report by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme in Sweden - launched by Nobel prize-winner Professor Paul Crutzen and other top scientists - warned last week that pollution threatened to "trigger changes with catastrophic consequences" like these.
Maybe that's what happened in Bam?
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
01/27/2004 12:56:29 PM ||
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THE SKY IS FALLING!!!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/27/2004 12:58 Comments ||
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#2
Looks like another export market for our farmers is about to open up.
Posted by: Daniel King ||
01/27/2004 13:06 Comments ||
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#3
Are these the same climate researchers that consider the Medieval Climate Optimum to have been a purely local phenomena, despite world-wide evidence to the contrary?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/27/2004 13:09 Comments ||
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#4
If that happens, Britain and northern Europe are expected to switch abruptly to the climate of Labrador - which is on the same latitude - bringing a nightmare scenario where farmland turns to tundra and winter temperatures drop below -20C.
They better get that EU thing organized and other member states' farms all set up and ready to go. Somebody's gonna have to feed them if they can't produce their own food.
#5
We are due to slowly cycle into another ice age (in about 5000 years) and this has been known since the 1950's. What it has to do with global warming is beyond me.
Posted by: Jim ||
01/27/2004 13:12 Comments ||
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#6
Chicken Little, line one. Henny Penny, Line two.
Posted by: B ||
01/27/2004 13:20 Comments ||
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#7
I still don't understand how global warming brings colder temperatures.
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi(JC) ||
01/27/2004 13:23 Comments ||
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#8
What it has to do with global warming is beyond me
In theory (not mine) the melting of the Greenland ice shield will cause a dilution in the salt content of the Atlantic... which will lessen the heat carrying capacity of the Gulf Stream. So one of the first indications of global warming will be the return of the glaciers to Scotland.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 13:36 Comments ||
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#10
Oh. Thanks for clarifying that for me shipman. I had never heard that before.
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi(JC) ||
01/27/2004 13:41 Comments ||
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#11
Bush lied, Britain fried (oops, that's for conventional global warming, I need a 'cold' word that rhymes with 'lied' - Mike Moore call your office).
3. Name dropping. The inference is that everything about the story must be true because a Nobel prize winner is involved. In fact, Paul Crutzen won the Nobel in 1995 for work done in 1970 showing that nitrogen oxides react with ozone. He retired in 2000 and is not even one of the authors of the book -- just a panelist at the book launch.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/27/2004 13:48 Comments ||
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#13
I wonder if French retirees have heat.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/27/2004 13:49 Comments ||
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#14
Add to this: the dilution of the saline content causes the cold Labrador current to reach farther down the US coast than it currently does (approx. Cape Hatteras right now). It also travels closer to the surface, being lighter. This diverts the warmer Gulf Stream so that it makes its turn to the open Atlantic (normally up towards Ireland, etc) at a more southery latitude.
Air blowing across the Atlantic currrently is warmed by the Gulf Stream and carries that warming effect to northern Europe. If the Labrador Current predominates, the air going over the north Atlanticf is chilled, not warmed. Ergo Britain, Ireland, etc. become iceboxes.
So global warming CAN cause northern Europe to become colder.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/27/2004 14:16 Comments ||
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#15
Shipman, In a self brain-storming session I have held over the last fifteen minutes, I have come up with some alternate theories that seem equally valid to me. Here is a short list:
1. We can counteract this effect with an immediate large thermonuclear detonation somewhere in Pakistan.
2. After the polar ice caps melt causing the world to become very cold, the cold weather will create large ice caps at either pole.
3. The melting icecaps will dilute the oceans causing halibut to taste less fishy.
4. Kim II is leaving all the windows open throughout NK to try to improve make improve the yield of his new fast-growing Bermuda strain.
5. We ask the Lucky Eight-ball for an answer based on solid science.
6. If we feed every killer whale in the world seven bags of Lays potato chips (I understand that it is impossible for a killer whale to eat just one bag) that ocean salinity will return to balance.
7. If we outfit 11 deep-sea drilling rigs with large aluminum spoons, the turbulence created will stir up enough salt from the ocean floor to repair the delicate salty buffer of primordial liquid to ..ZZ..zz..zz
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 14:54 Comments ||
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#16
3. The melting icecaps will dilute the oceans causing halibut to taste less fishy.
This is the key. The stranded Brits will be able to eat fish and not worry about their blood pressure leading to an explosive revivial of Just Put On A Decent Sweater you'll be alright. Thence the surprise decent on Britany.
#18
Disaster! I was a major supporter of global warming - a tropical island climate with palm trees sounded good to me. Now we're going to become Siberia instead.
Perhaps Hadrian's Wall can be rebuilt to keep out the glaciers.
Posted by: A ||
01/27/2004 18:02 Comments ||
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#19
So what effect will this EU iceage have on the demographics of Islamic jihadis and groupies into the UK, Frawnce, Italy, and Germany? Is the population increase proportional to temperature, like..............[better not go there]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/27/2004 18:42 Comments ||
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#20
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
Hey, N. Euros- QUIT STEALIN' MY WARM GULF STREAM! :mad:
EFL, from an article about the World Economic Forum
If the issue is the sluggishness of the European economy, the problem may be that not everyone is doing their best, analysts said after taking in the thousands of words spoken at the Davos meetings by policy makers, economists and others. As the forum drew to a close over the weekend, several euro-zone policy makers tried to distance themselves from responsibility for the regionâs doldrums. Growth has not recovered more strongly, they said, in part because the United States is letting the dollar weaken, making European exports less competitive globally. In effect, said the French finance minister, Francis Mer, Washington has been telling Europeans, "My currency is your problem." Mer added, "We need responsible behavior from everyone."
During a discussion on the global economy, the German economy minister, Wolfgang Clement, seemed to suggest that euro-zone policy makers were powerless to take any steps that might result in the euroâs swinging lower against the dollar. "The currency problem is on the table," Clement said, "and the United States must solve it." Nope. good luck - hope you figure out how markets work, soon .....
Analysts agree that the Bush administration has been tacitly allowing the dollar to weaken, not by actively talking it down but by pursuing policies that have swelled the U.S. trade deficit and the governmentâs budget deficit. But many also expressed disappointment at what they saw as an abdication of responsibility by European officials, who they say are doing nothing about a problem that is hurting the regionâs economy. Instead of blaming Washington for sluggish growth, said Jacob Frenkel, chairman of Merrill Lynch International, euro-zone policy makers should "ask themselves why, even before the dollar fell, they were growing more slowly than the U.S. economy." The reasons, Frenkel said in an interview, are that the euro-zone economy remains far less flexible than Americaâs. Yup.
Read the rest ....
Posted by: rkb ||
01/27/2004 11:11:56 AM ||
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What, they couldn't find some way to blame their mess on the JOOOOOS?! Bunch of tossers just aren't trying.
#3
In other news, the EU declared that economic principles, Newton's second principle and general laws of gravity were abolished in the European Union
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/27/2004 12:27 Comments ||
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#4
Translation: why has McDonald's fries and cable television forced me to become a seditary couch potato that is two jelly donuts away from 3 bills?
Recommendation: More work and fewer strikes.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 12:47 Comments ||
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#5
4IV - LOL!
United States is letting the dollar weaken, making European exports less competitive globally.
but..but...how can it be "globally" when you are only talking about the problems in the USA?? It's a big world...can't you rely on your own Empire Commonwealth, or Canada or ...or..[pick economy of your choice]???
If evil US capitalism (v/s brilliant EU socialism) isn't to blame, then shouldn't you finally be in a position to stick it to us?
If not now...when????
Posted by: B ||
01/27/2004 13:58 Comments ||
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#6
This is what happens when one side in a conflict has a realistic understanding of economic principles while the other lives in a socialist dream land. Sorry Europe, you're on your own on this one.
#7
Blah , Blah , Blah -- the eurotrash needs to get into the real world. The cold war is over and the United States isn't going for the status quo anymore.
It is time that the Euro's put their money where their mouth is. Trying to be a pole in the world has consequences. They are big boys now - have the strong euro. This is basic macro economics - when your currency is strong your exports cost more and imports cost less.
The US needs to refocus on where the growth is in the 21st - the Pacific.
Posted by: Dan ||
01/27/2004 14:15 Comments ||
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#8
#7 Blah , Blah , Blah -- the eurotrash needs to get into the real world.
You mean bastards, I'm going to my room and cry under a pillow and think orrible thoughts about Mike Moore.
#9
I like this site.
.................
Me: But Dad, I want a car.
Dad: You can't have a car.
Me: But X has a car, and I'm doing better than him at school.
Dad: The reason you're doing better is that you don't have a car.
Parental Logic. But right. To the E.U.: wan't to be the reserve currency?
OK. You got it. Now you have to grow up.
------------------
On another note, hope you guys wiegh in on the attempted political assasination of Tony Blair over the whole "pay for" edumacation thing. They tried to get him on privatizing healthcare thing. But this week, they've had a willing accomplise in CNNi. With guest star Robin Oakley. Fascinating.
#10
....at what they saw as an abdication of responsibility by European officials
What? Eeewe officials derelict in their duties?
It's America's job to do eeewe's job doncha know?
I just hope George Soreass loses his ass on his dollar speculation.
EFL - Iâve commented before on Franceâs turn to China both to try to keep the French defense mfg base alive but also as a way to oppose US strength
France is pushing the European Union to lift a 14-year-old ban on weapons sales to China and has succeeded in putting the issue on the organizationâs agenda for the spring. "The hope is that it will happen in April," a French diplomatic official said Monday after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. He noted, however, that several crucial European countries favored maintaining the ban. The embargo was imposed in response to the Chinese militaryâs killing of pro-democracy demonstrators near Tiananmen Square in 1989. The United States imposed a similar embargo.
But now those guys aren't dead anymore...
But France and Germany have both argued that China has made sufficient strides since then in reforming its government and economy to warrant the resumption of weapons sales. "When you look at the countries subject to similar EU sanctions, the question is whether China should be in the same company," the French official said. Besides China, the EU maintains weapons embargoes against Myanmar, Sudan and Zimbabwe. But Franceâs effort, coming as the country received the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, with a lavish ceremony, was derided by some officials, who argue that Chinaâs human rights abuses remain too glaring to overlook. "A desire to curry favor with the Chinese president during his state visit to France is no excuse for rethinking a longstanding European policy rooted in principle," Graham Watson, head of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament, said in a statement.
Everyone had a good laugh, the conversation turned to sports, and they sent out for pizza...
In fact, France stands to benefit handsomely if it succeeds in ending the arms embargo.
Do tell? Whoever would have expected that?
China, the worldâs fastest-growing major economy, has one of the largest defense budgets in the world and is spending heavily to modernize its armed forces. Because of the Western arms embargoes, the country has been largely restricted to buying Russian military hardware in recent years. But Beijing has a long list of items it would like to buy from Europe, particularly French Mirage fighter jets and German stealth submarines. Read the rest. Last Dec. Israel admitted that technologies from the cancelled LAVI fighter were sold to China. The LAVI was based on the F-16.
Posted by: rkb ||
01/27/2004 11:04:47 AM ||
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But France and Germany have both argued that China has made sufficient strides since then in reforming its government and economy to warrant the resumption of weapons sales.
I'd like to see "sufficient strides" defined.
In fact, France stands to benefit handsomely if it succeeds in ending the arms embargo. China, the worldâs fastest-growing major economy, has one of the largest defense budgets in the world and is spending heavily to modernize its armed forces.
#5
Israel admitted that technologies from the cancelled LAVI fighter were sold to China. The LAVI was based on the F-16.
With Bill Clinton's permission - as with all Israeli weapons sales to China during Clinton's administration. This is why - flawed as Bush is on immigration and domestic spending - we need to remind ourselves that a Democratic alternative would be far worse.
EFL
Long-running attempts to clean up the European parliamentâs notorious "gravy train" image were scuppered yesterday when EU governments blocked a new pay and perks package for MEPs. Germany, the EUâs increasingly reluctant paymaster, refused to fund standardised salaries which were due to be introduced before 12 new countries - and their Euro-MPs - join the club in May. Denis MacShane, Britainâs Europe minister, criticised "outrageous" lobbying against the proposed changes by conservative German MEPs. Euro-MPs have argued for five years over lavish no-questions-asked expenses which have left them open to charges of feathering their nests at taxpayersâ expense. They finally struck a compromise deal last month. "The turkeys," one triumphant campaigner said at the time, "have voted for Christmas."
But the last word rested with member statesâ foreign ministers, who balked at picking up the tab for salary reforms, thus blocking moves to crack down on expenses abuse. Yesterdayâs failure leaves the parliament, the EUâs only directly elected body, likely to face even greater apathy in Juneâs European elections. Last time round, in 1999, only 24% of Britons bothered to vote. France, Sweden and Austria backed Germany, citing added costs at a time of economic belt-tightening. The outcome means that the 626 MEPs - rising to 732 in June - will continue to be paid under the old system, with MEPs earning the same as their counterparts in national parliaments. At present the 87 Italian members are the best paid, at â¬12,000 (£8,280) a month, against â¬2,600 for their Spanish counterparts. Germany protested that the plan, which would have paid a monthly salary of â¬8,600 to each MEP, would cost German taxpayers up to â¬100m a year.
Opponents also argued that the proposal would have created an unacceptably large earnings gap between MEPs and their counterparts in most national parliaments, especially in the eight former communist ones joining the EU in May. In Hungary, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovakia and Estonia, national MPs earn between â¬800 and â¬1,500 a month. The pay reform was linked to ending a system under which MEPs can claim unmonitored expenses. Typically, this involves charging for a full fare on a flight to parliament sessions in Strasbourg or Brussels, flying on a budget airline, and pocketing the difference, which can add up to â¬15,000 a year. The reform would also have allowed governments to apply national income taxes on top of a low EU tax rate.
Mr MacShane said parliament had a final chance to reform the system before enlargement went ahead on May 1. "It must move decisively now to implement a regulation that stops the abuse of travel expenses that allow MEPs to claim huge amounts of cash for travel without producing receipts for their airline tickets," he said. "I urge MEPs to send out a clear signal to voters that the European parliament is the cleanest parliament in the world and to end their unacceptable and indefensible abuse of travel expenses." I hear a sucking sound.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 8:11:55 AM ||
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Scupper, drainage opening in a deck or flat roof.
#4
Shipman, no matter what you do the minature chuck wagon will still make it into the cupboard under the sink before the dog catches it. If I've watched it once, I've watched it 100 times.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 22:01 Comments ||
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A chief witness will be Chief of Consular Affairs Maura Harty, the woman in charge of the State Departmentâs processing of visas. Sheâll undoubtedly be grilled on how several hijackers got visas despite plainly dubious applications. And she may have to explain the program "Visa Express," which let all Saudi residents apply for visas at private Saudi travel agencies - until Congress made State stop it, 10 months after 9/11. But will panel members ask about her plan to once again loosen rules for Saudi visas? Harty only became consular chief in late 2002, but as No. 2 helped devise the policy of giving Saudis preferred visa treatment. And what she has brewing suggests sheâs still eager to please the nation that sent us 15 of the 19 hijackers. Even though the Department of Homeland Security - by Congressâ orders - has final say, State still hopes to lower the bar for approving Saudi visa applicants. If nothing else, the older agency may well outmaneuver the overstretched, infant one. State was always a favorite spot of the old Soviet spies as well. Some things never change.
Iâve acquired an internal State Department document that one State official calls a "preview of the case State is making in the near future, to re-open the floodgates for Saudis." Itâs a five-page cable sent in November from the U.S. embassy in Riyadh. Headed "Losses to U.S. Economy from Fewer Saudi Visitors," it makes an impassioned pitch for increasing Saudi travel here. I get the uncomfortable feeling the Soddys have been doing this all along, albeit sans visas.
According to my sources at Consular Affairs, the cable was written in large part to reflect the sentiments of Harty and her deputies - who naturally agreed with what they got. The documentâs opening sentence sets the tone: "According to conservative Embassy estimates, the U.S. economy has lost over $2.7 billion since Sept. 11, 2001, as a result of reduced Saudi expenditures on U.S. goods and services." Howâd they get that number? " âBack of the envelopeâ calculations," the cable admits, along with "anecdotal evidence" from such authoritative sources as "one former Commerce department official" and "one tourism industry representative from the Orlando area." I hope their security practices arenât as abysmal as their statistics.
With language that the Saudi princesâ PR firms would love, the cable consistently - and solely - emphasizes the economic harm to America. Another State official calls the economic arguments "mere pretext" for making the Saudi royal family happier. Several State officials report discussions to "ease the process" for visas. Our enemies are relentless in their drive to wreck this country, and State seems to have signed off on a process that speeds it up.
The cable cites $500 million lost because fewer Saudi students are attending school in America. It makes no mention of the much more than $500 million in damages caused by Saudis who already attended school - flight school, to be exact - here. Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed reportedly told U.S. authorities that they chose Saudi operatives because they had the easiest access to visas. (Of course, it surely helped that the kingdom is a breeding ground for radical Islam.) ...try universal center for radical Islam exceedly only by the Iranians.
But the greatest concern regarding Saudi visa policy cited in the State cable is the "damage" to the "relationship": "The real damage is not the billions of dollars in lost revenue, but the long-term chilling effect on the U.S.-Saudi relationship that will result from less contact and exchanges." I can live with a chill.
The 9/11 Commission needs to ask Harty: What would be so wrong with that?
I think I'll pop out and buy a new sweater.
Posted by: badanov ||
01/27/2004 12:10:56 AM ||
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It makes no mention of the much more than $500 million in damages caused by Saudis who already attended school - flight school, to be exact - here.
Nice one.
Might be time to fire off a letter to my friendly US Rep and both Senators. The soddis would love to be able to keep sending their problems here instead of keeping them in riyadh.
#2
All I have to say about Ms. Harty and her continued antics is @#^&@#%!!
Here's a question for the lawyers in the audience - can a private citizen initiate a Justice Department treason investigation against a government official?
Posted by: Jeff ||
01/27/2004 0:24 Comments ||
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#3
Maura's clearly afraid of losing her Saudi "pension".
#9
Even with civil service protections Powell could do something about the problem. He could transfer troublemakers to be part of the Canadian Bureau. It's not as if we demand visas from there anyway. Eventually when we might get one State Department flunky for each Canadian citizens. Perhaps they might quit out of boredom, or out of required inspections of the Nanuvit territory during the winter. Even if we're still paying their salaries at least they won't be actively damaging national security.
#10
Here's a question for the lawyers in the audience - can a private citizen initiate a Justice Department treason investigation against a government official?
Jeff, the answer is (as always) âit depends.â Two main factors would have to be dealt with: 1) standing, and 2) private right of action. The âstandingâ question would be handled by showing that some transaction, occurrence or event related to the target (i.e., the person sought to be sued) resulted in distinct harm to you or your interests. âPrivate right of actionâ is a bit trickier. While any violation of law conceivably supports an action brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the courts have reined that statue in somewhat (when the violation is based on law and not on a constitutional right) by requiring a âclear statementâ from the legislature authorizing a suit. So . . . either find a constitutional right that has been violated, or a law that clearly states that the legislature intends for suit to be brought if the law is broken.
My guess is that whatever suit might be brought would be dismissed because you would not be able to show that your private rights were more greatly harmed than the public rights in general (e.g., taxpayer lawsuits). In other words, the remedy needs to be to put pressure on the respective governmental bodies to get rid of the bad actor. Anyone can file a suit, not many prevail . . .
#11
Cingold, if the answer is maybe, I'm sure we'll Judicial Watch file soon enough.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 12:51 Comments ||
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If the Saudis are unhappy with our "chilly" relationship, they should consider what would happen if we should decide to "heat" things up by about 4000 degrees.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 15:45 Comments ||
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...Powell could do something about the problem.
He did, ruprecht. He gave her a performance bonus of $10,000 -$15,000 and promoted her to Mary Ryan's position in Consular Affairs . Mary Ryan was the originator of the Visa Express program and Harty's mentor. Joel Mowbray's, October 22, 2002, Perverse Incentive article here.
But I don't think that what you had in mind.
A Canadian radio station was reprimanded on Tuesday for saying Muslims only traveled to the holy city of Mecca because they wanted to fund suicide attacks such as the one that hit New York on Sept. 11, 2001.
Of course that's not true. They go for the night life...
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council said the item on Calgaryâs CJAY-FM had been "singularly unacceptable" and ordered the station to make a public apology.
"... they like to disco..."
As part of a spoof quiz, the station asked listeners why Muslims were going to Mecca. One of the possible answers was that it was "just a way to build up some frequent flyer miles so you donât have to pay the next time you want to ram an airplane in the stronghold of the Western civilization".
"... they like to boogey, oh-woe, oh-woe!"
When a listener chose this answer, the two presenters replied "Absolutely right there" and "You nailed that one." The standards council said it was wrong to link all Muslims with the Sept. 11 attacks. "The implication that all Muslims...might travel to their holiest city in order to fund terrorist activities is outrageous," it said in its ruling. The radio station admitted the segment was "over the top" but stressed it was supposed to be funny.
With the general elections round the corner, Left wing Extremists - popularly termed Naxalites - of the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML), Peopleâs War Group (PWG), and the Maoist Communist Center (MCC) have begun efforts to resolve their differences and work towards an organizational merger, potentially creating a grave threat to the electioneering process in the areas they dominate. In keeping with their ideological opposition to Parliamentary democracy in India, they have already called for a boycott of the election process, and large-scale preparations are said to be underway to ensure the success of the boycott. Vigorous efforts are in evidence for the organisation of training camps, procurement of illegal firearms, fund-raising, as well as outreach and propaganda activities to gain public sympathy.
Available reports suggest that the PWG and the MCC would merge under a new identity: the All India Maoist Communist Center (AIMCC), and would acquire a more militant âavatarâ. Intelligence sources indicate that the MCC is currently holding talks with the PWG and a few other like-minded organisations in India, as well as with Nepalâs Maoist insurgents. Leaders of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) are believed to be acting as mediators to strengthen the extreme Left in the region. Given the significant increase in Naxalite activities in Central India after the August 11, 1998, merger of the PWG with Party Unity, another revolutionary group operating in Bihar, the possible union of the MCC and the PWG creates probabilities of a substantial force multiplier for Left Wing insurgencies over a vast landscape.
The MCCâs philosophy revolves around two premises. The first is that, within the country, a revolutionary mass struggle existed and the people were fully conscious and even prepared to take part in revolution immediately. The second was that militant struggles must be carried on, not for land, crops, or other immediate goals, but for the seizure of power. These assumptions are reflected in all their views, whether on organization, on strategy or on tactics. As a result, participation in elections, propaganda, meetings, demonstrations, education of people through papers and pamphlets, are all viewed as being totally unnecessary, and all efforts and attention is firmly focused on revolutionary activities to undermine the state and seize power.
Though the PWG also held a similar view till the early 1980s, it has since shifted stance and established several political front organisations. The PWG gradually discarded its initial assessment of the peopleâs level of preparedness for an armed struggle, and consequently revised its strategy of immediate seizure of power. Despite these differences, both the organizations share their belief in the âannihilation of class enemiesâ and in extreme violence as a means to achieve the organisationâs goals. The PWG and the MCC have been responsible for the maximum number of violent attacks and fatalities in Naxalite-related violence in the nine states that are significantly affected by Left wing extremism. Despite a decline in the number of incidents and marginal decline in total fatalities over the past year (2003 witnessed 546 incidents and 509 deaths whereas 2002 had seen 1465 incidents and 482 deaths), Left wing extremist violence spread into new areas through 2003.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/27/2004 5:14:35 AM ||
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A barrage of U.S. cruise missiles several years ago didnât sap Fazlur Rehman Khalilâs devotion to holy war, and two subsequent bans issued by Pakistanâs government havenât silenced his invective against Jews and Americans. But Khalil, who co-signed Osama bin Ladenâs 1998 edict that declared it a Muslimâs duty to kill Americans and Jews, is not leading his holy warriors from inside a secret mountain cave. He lives comfortably with his family in this city adjacent to Pakistanâs capital, Islamabad, next to his harem Koranic girlsâ school and bookshop, just down the street from a police checkpoint. And he still is urging his followers to fight the United States. Rather than do it himself, of course
President Pervez Musharraf has been promising to dismantle militant groups since early 2002, shortly after he allied Pakistan with President Bushâs campaign against Bin Ladenâs Al Qaeda and other terrorist networks. Bin Laden is presumed to be hiding along the mountainous Afghan border, but several militant groups remain active in Pakistan. None of their leaders has been prosecuted, and some may be under the protection of senior government officials.
Comes as a surprise, doesn't it? I know. Floored me, too...
Afrasiab Khattak, former head of Pakistanâs human rights commission, said he believed Musharraf was more determined to fight militants after surviving two assassination attempts in December. But the general faces opposition in his own government. It seems like Musharaff is more determined to fight the âbad militantsâ, like al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, but he continues to allow âgood militants like Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed to recruit private armies for Jihad
When Al Qaeda bombed two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, killing 224 people, the United States retaliated by firing cruise missiles at two terrorist training camps run by Khalil in Afghanistan. Khalil vowed dire revenge. After the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, he re-established himself in Pakistan. Islamabad has banned his militant groups twice in the last three years, but it left him free to regroup. He renamed his organization and continued to preach hatred. Khalil and his organizationâs latest incarnation, Jamiat ul Ansar, or Group of Helpers, openly defy the most recent ban, imposed in November.
Perv is afraid of them. He has no support from the secular parties (such as they are) because they oppose the military grabbing the power â and more important, the boodle â from them. Splitting with the fundos would leave him with no support except the military, which has historically allied itself with the turbans.
One of the platforms for his message is a stridently anti-American monthly magazine, Al Hilal, which identifies Khalil as its "chief patron." Khalil uses it to raise funds, notify supporters of meetings and activities and urge volunteers to fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. The back cover of Novemberâs issue was an ad for the "All-Pakistan Training Convention of Jamiat ul Ansar Activists" at Khalilâs headquarters, the Jamia Khalid bin Waleed Mosque, across from an army base on the edge of Islamabad. Last monthâs cover showed a giant fist holding a sword, rising from flames in the desert to slash the U.S. flag. The issue features a call to arms in which Khalil says Muslims should be united into one nation, or caliphate, that would replicate the Khilafat-i-Rashida, the model governance of the four caliphs who ruled immediately after Muhammad â an often-stated goal of Bin Laden.
Also an oft-stated goal of Hezb ut-Tahrir in particular and most other Islamo-nut groups in general...
A headline says that "moujahedeen attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan have bankrupted America politically, economically and mentally," and adds: "Due to the blessings of jihad, Americaâs countdown has begun. It will declare defeat soon."
Yup. I can feel it coming, any minute now...
"Eagles of Jamiat ul Ansar: Our motto is to impose Khilafat-i-Rashida on the whole world to get rid of the cruel and powerful," Khalil writes. "This is your moral and religious obligation â to help financially those few people who are sacrificing their lives so that they can concentrate on their battlefront and ultimately de- feat non-Muslims." Khalilâs magazine lists his address and the phone number of his militant groupâs office. Yet Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat, who controls civilian security forces, says he doesnât know where Khalil is and doesnât consider him a threat. "We havenât heard of [Khalil] doing anything significant â even, I would say, half-significant," Hayat said last week. "I can assure you," he said, "there are many more people who pose greater threats than this gentleman. He would be very small fry if you compare him to the others against whom we have directed our security apparatus to keep a strict watch on."
That could actually be a true statement. We don't hear about many operations by Jamiat ul Ansar, and we look for them daily. Either they're buried in other operations that're attributed to Jaish and Lashkar-e-Taiba, or the whole thing's a scam that keeps Fazl Khalil living high on the donations of the faithful without actually having to do much in return except rant and fulminate on paper...
In Washington, a senior State Department official said that despite some problems, the U.S. did not see "cause or justification to doubt the sincerity of President Musharrafâs commitment to fight terror, root and branch." Back in the mid 90âs, Khalilâs group, then known as Harkat ul Ansar, was the largest Deobandi Jihadi group in Pakistan. It also had a presence in Burma, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Chechnya and the Phillipines; by their own admission. But after Khalil openly signed Bin Ladinâs declaration of war, and some of his training camps in Afghanistan were bombed by Clinton, it was decided that Khalil had gotten to big for his own good. So the international component of his group split off into the Harkatul Jihad Islami, while the ISI allegedly organised a plane hijacking to bust out Massod Azhar from an Indian prison. Azhar then used his popularity among the Jihadis to take away about 75% of Khalilâs Jihadis. Khalilâs group never recovered, and he was reduced to being a minor player in Jihad. Times reporters visited the mosque listed in Khalilâs magazines as his headquarters to request an interview. Men who identified themselves as senior teachers from an adjacent Koranic school detained them and roughed them up, releasing them only after Information Minister Sheik Rashid Ahmed intervened. State-run print and broadcast media, which answer to the information minister, then launched a campaign in defense of Khalilâs headquarters, portraying it as nothing more than a school for children with no links to any militant organization.
Still more indication the fix is in...
Another of Pakistanâs radical Muslim clerics, Maulana Masood Azhar, has an alliance with Bin Laden dating to the 1993 attacks on U.S.-led forces in Somalia. Musharraf banned Azharâs Jaish-e-Mohammed, or Army of Mohammed, in early 2002, and ordered his detention after an attack on Indiaâs Parliament that left 14 people dead, including the five attackers. In October, Azhar went on a fundraising tour for his militant army, renamed Khuddamul Islam, or Servants of Islam. Traveling from one mosque to another, he preached holy war at widely publicized "jihad conferences." Local reports said he collected sacks full of cash. Less than two months later â and two years to the day after Azharâs arrest â two suicide bombers tried to kill Musharraf by ramming minivans packed with explosives into the generalâs motorcade. Investigators say one of the attackers belonged to Azharâs banned militant group. Pakistani police said they went looking for Azhar and [Hafiz] Saeed after their renamed militant groups were outlawed in November, but couldnât find them.
"Yeah. We knocked, but they wudn't there..."
Last week, the interior minister said he didnât know where either man was. Police have questioned and released dozens of suspected militants, including Azhar supporters, in recent days. A government document viewed by The Times leaves little doubt that Pakistani intelligence agencies have tracked Azharâs organization for a long time. The intelligence report is dated Sept. 15, 2002, more than eight months after Azharâs group was first banned. It lists 21 district offices, including several mosques, in the eastern city of Lahore alone. Among five requirements for recruits, it listed: "Willingness to sacrifice (even suicide bombings/attacks)." The three-page brief also gives details of the groupâs membership form, the name of its weekly newspaper, and the names and phone numbers of its chief financiers.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/27/2004 1:11:18 AM ||
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The US Government ought to expose this guy and his organization relentlessly. Keep a big, bright spotlight focused on them all the time. There ought to be an office in the State Department dedicated to distributing information about them.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/27/2004 8:36 Comments ||
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#2
Has anyone got an ice-pick handy?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 12:57 Comments ||
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Among the quoted countries appear inter alia: South Africa, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Bahreïn, Bielorussia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Spain, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, the Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, Yemen and Yugoslavia. Canada? Turkey? Spain?
These disclosures caused in the close countries, either of the made indignant reactions, the ones calling upon slandering or the political plot, or of the justifications according to which they were legal businesses carried out in due form. As far as the knowledge can, the selected people received attributions for a certain volume of barrels which were then resold at companies. The interested parties touched in the passing a commission of which the percentage is not known.
With the seat of the newspaper, Abdul Zahra Zeki, deputy manager of the drafting, confirm the authenticity of the documents and affirm that those relate to only the year 1999 and that others exist for the later years. How did they arrive in possession of the newspaper? No the answer.
It was the door open to the abuses. "Saddam Hussein transformed our country into a copier counts open on which all the obeying and servile servants were useful themselves" , written Al-Mada . Whatever that means, it canât be good!
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/27/2004 7:09:30 PM ||
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Canada? Turkey? Spain?
Canada = connections to ELF.
Turkey = proximity to Iraq (perhaps why Murat hasn't been heard from :) ...).
Spain = don't know. All the other nations make sense tho, from an influence-buying standpoint.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/27/2004 19:44 Comments ||
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However, the money that was supposed to go to these traitors may have been stolen by other more clever traitors or by Baathists. This will get very complicated.
#4
Did Spain recently have a seat on some influential UN council? Perhaps one of the floating UNSC seats?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/27/2004 20:19 Comments ||
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just curious, given the (reasonably) strict oil export rules for Iraq (admittedly stuff go through to Syria/Jordan), allocations of 79.2mln barrels (for that russian bloke) seem awfully high, this is a shitload of tankers we are talking about. How exactly would you be able to deliver this stuff?
#6
The Russian oil companies were the largest buyers of Iraqi crude, who then turned around and sold it on the world market. It didn't require they load any crude on there own tankers.
Posted by: ed ||
01/27/2004 20:30 Comments ||
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#7
This could be fun. Who has the popcorn?
What would be even more interesting would be a table correlating this list with a list of the nations and individuals who objected to intervention in Iraq to depose Saddam.
Wonder if there is a provision for a member reclusing itself from the UNSC decisions when conflict of interest occurs? :)
#8
Igs, according to the article the oil was sold (I'm betting "for food and medicine") and the assorted slimebags received a commission on the sale. What percentage? The documents don't say, according to the story, but I'll wager the cut varied depending on how useful the scumbag proved to be. Saddam would just wire the money to a scumbag's numbered Swiss/Caymans/whatever account without having to actually smuggle oil.
Just imagine. If you sell 79.2 million barrels of oil at 15 bucks a barrel and take just a 1% commission, that'd get you $11.88 million. Any bets on whether Saddam was more generous than that?
The roadside bomb near the main American military base here killed one woman soldier, made another a hero, and turned attention to the new role American women are playing in the war in Iraq. The nature of the conflict, with U.S. soldiers facing guerrillas, not conventional troops, has blurred military traditions, and put usually rear echelon troops such as the military police â with their large contingent of women â under direct enemy fire, along with the infantry, special forces and other front line troops. Although women are barred from front line units, more than 10 American women soldiers have died in Iraq since U.S.-led troops invaded in March. Many others have been wounded.
On Oct. 1, the dangers to women soldiers in Iraq struck home for the U.S. Armyâs 4th Infantry Division when Pfc. Analaura Esparza Gutierrez, 21, of Houston, was killed as a roadside bomb struck her Humvee near Tikrit, ousted dictator Saddam Husseinâs hometown and a center of resistance to U.S. forces. She was the first women from the division to die in Iraq. At the same time, the quick thinking and bravery shown by Gutierrezâs friend and fellow support soldier, Spc. Karen Guckert, saved two troops injured in the blast and won her a U.S. Army Commendation Medal for Valor. "We were deeply moved when we lost Analaura Esparza," Lt. Col. Steve Russell, commander of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division, said. "This is not to say we are not moved when we lose a male soldier, but her loss deeply affected us in additional ways."
But Guckert and some other women serving in Iraq have different feelings about the dangers facing women soldiers. "Infantrymen say to me they couldnât handle seeing a female getting hurt because it would remind them of their sister, aunt or wife," said Guckert, 24, of Yakima, Wash. "I understand their point, but at the same time we are all soldiers and we can all die for our country. So we canât we fight for our country?" Many female soldiers like Guckert acknowledge that the physical stresses of combat, which include carrying packs close to their own weight for long distances or lifting men wounded in action, might prove too tough for some women. But most women, particularly military police soldiers who have been trudging Iraqi streets and conducting house raids for months, say this conflict has provided them with the same tasks as any infantryman. "Any soldier out here is at risk, whether they are male or female or infantry, military police or anything else," said Lt. Amanda Lee Dorsey, a 25-year-old military police officer from Hickory Hills, Ill.
On Nov. 30 â a day that has gone down in recent army folklore as "Bloody Sunday" â military police, joined by infantry, armored and engineer forces, waged a half-hour gunbattle in Samarra with 60 Iraqis firing rockets and machine guns. The insurgents were trying to ambush Iraqi security trucks transporting money to Iraqi banks. U.S. officials say 54 Iraqis died, including 36 killed by American military police. One woman soldier was credited with killing three of them. No U.S. soldiers died in the clash, but six were injured, including a woman. "When it came down to it, my female and male soldiers of the military police were all fierce and killed many," said Lt. Col. David Poirier, commander of the 720th Military Police Battalion. Sgt. Maj. Angela Wilson, 49, the senior ranking enlisted military police soldier in Iraq, has witnessed great attitude shifts in the military during her 29 years of service. "I remember when it was optional for women to fire an M-16 rifle during basic training," she said. "We also had to learn how to wear makeup properly in the field." Yup, we used to worry about stuff like that. No more.
"Now basic training is the same for all people, male and female. I am waiting for the day when they say women can enter the special forces. It doesnât mean everyone can do it, but it means that people should be given the opportunity to be assessed on their own merits." As long as every one pulls their own weight, I agree.
Poirier said the female soldiers have been invaluable during house raids â a staple task of the military police â in which they have calmed Iraqi women in targeted homes and searched their belongings without causing offense. Iraqis find it highly objectionable for male soldiers to deal with women. They also arenât crazy about having a female US soldier kick their sorry ass. Could give their women ideas.
Lt. Alexis Marks, a platoon leader, said when she was going through West Point, she was constantly being told that the military police was the "chickâs infantry." "But in the MPs, nobody sees a gender difference," said the 24-year-old from Melbourne, Fla. One of her soldiers, 23-year-old team leader Cpl. Casey Williams, said she is unfazed by risks faced during her patrols. "I think itâs cool to be in a dangerous position. Itâs kind of fun," Williams, from Algiers, La., told the AP while driving to Samarra. "In the MPs, it is the closest women can get to combat." Well done, ladies.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 10:11:13 AM ||
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We also had to learn how to wear makeup properly in the field.
In the late Fifties the writer Florence King joined the Marines for a summer. She received lectures on hairstyles, lipstick, and nail polish. Everyone had to wear the same shade of lipstick, to match the red trim on the uniforms. Nail polish had to match that.
King figured it was because they didn't want anyone to get the idea that women Marines were lesbians. Lesbians, as we all know, never wear makeup.
#2
When I enlisted in the Air Force in 1977, we had these cute, impractical lady-like "utility" uniforms (navy skirt, blue blouse with short sleeves)and a lecture on proper make-up, instead of M-16 training. Thank god some good sense kicked in shortly thereafter, and women trainees got the same issued fatigues and weapons training as the men.
TIKRIT, Iraq - During the evening of Jan. 25, four individuals in an automobile attempted to breach a barrier wall outside of the Rasheed Bank in Kirkuk. One of the people in the vehicle fired an automatic weapon at the building. Bank security guards returned fire and killed one of the attackers in the automobile and wounded two others. The fourth person fled the scene on foot carrying an AK-47. Iraqi Police and bank security searched the area for the attacker but were unable to find him. The wounded were taken to the hospital in Kirkuk for treatment.
Soldiers from B Company, 299th Engineer Battalion raided a house in Mukayshifa at approximately 1 a.m. Jan. 25 looking for the owner of a nearby farmhouse where soldiers had previously confiscated 191 MK-1 hand grenades. The soldiers captured the targeted individual along with his son, who was also suspected.
While on patrol 5 km east of Dibs during the afternoon of Jan. 25, soldiers from 1st Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment discovered a weapons cache consisting of 300 120 mm mortar rounds. The rounds are believed to have been in place before Operation Iraqi Freedom began and there was no indication that anyone had used the cache recently. Combat engineers destroyed the mortars in place after determining that the munitions were unstable.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Last week, soldiers from the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment medical team shared their knowledge and expertise with their Iraqi colleagues. Lt. Col. Kelly Murray, the 2ACR Regimental Surgeon and Capt. Evelyn Rodriguez, the 2nd Squadron Medical Officer, guided a group of Iraqi instructors through the Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO) course. The study covered methods of dealing with difficult or abnormal situations while delivering babies.
The Iraqi instructors were picked from a group of 40 individuals who attended an earlier ALSO class given by the regiment last October. The students picked to teach ALSO were the best all-around students in the first class. They were selected based upon test scores, hands-on training and articulation. Murray and her group of doctors taught the initial ALSO course. The second course featured Iraqis teaching Iraqis with the soldiers acting as mentors and evaluators.
Blocks of instruction taught in ALSO include dealing with shoulder dystocia â an abnormally difficult childbirth -- and mal-presentation of the baby as it is being born. Dr. Eman Mahammed was one of the students selected to teach a class during ALSO. âWe have a good relationship with the medical personnel in the coalition,â she said. âEven though most of the problems we are dealing with in this class are not new, we are getting to see and learn new, more modern techniques for these problems.â
Murray said she would like to see ALSO taught in all major cities throughout Iraq. She has requested a grant that would finance this operation. She also has plans for teaching and facilitating the Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP), as a logical follow-up to ALSO. Neonatal Resuscitation involves the immediate medical intervention techniques used on newborns.
Other projects the regimental surgeonâs office has been involved in include the creation of the Iraqi Family Physicians Society to promote primary care in Iraq and the Physicians Leadership course (PLC) to teach hospital administrative skills to physicians. Much of the material used for the course was donated by the American Academy of Family Physicians, which has been supporting ALSO instruction with physicians throughout Iraq.
The desired end result of ALSO and other related classes is to reduce the infant mortality rate by 50 percent throughout Iraq.
U.S. soldiers killed three members of a suspected guerrilla cell linked to the former Baathist regime during raids Tuesday in a central Iraqi town, the Army said. Master Sgt. Robert Cargie, spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, said the men, all Iraqis, belonged to an organization called Muhammadâs Army and were killed in Beiji, a town north of Saddam Husseinâs hometown of Tikrit. Soldiers from the U.S. 3rd Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment were conducting simultaneous raids on four Beiji locations when a firefight erupted at one site, Cargie said. There were no U.S. casualties. Among the Iraqis killed was one man the soldiers had specifically targeted, Cargie said, adding that another five people â including three other targets â were captured during the raids. Excellent!
Muhammadâs Army appears to be an umbrella group for former Iraqi intelligence agents, army and security officials, and Baath Party members, U.S. officials say. It has been linked to several attacks against coalition forces. U.S. forces arrested three men believed Muhammadâs Army leaders in December. Muhammadâs Army goes down before the might of The Army Of Bob!
Meanwhile, Cargie said U.S. soldiers on Monday captured an Iraqi man suspected of storing weapons, including the homemade bomb that detonated Saturday outside the Samarra city council, north of Baghdad, killing four Iraqi civilians and wounding about 40 people. Among the wounded were seven American soldiers who suffered minor injuries caused by flying glass. Later Monday, American troops arrested nine suspected members of Saddamâs Fedayeen without incident during raids on 12 locations in Abu Ajeel, a town 12 kilometers (eight miles) southeast of Baqouba. Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldiers conducted their own raid Monday on a home east of Beiji and arrested an Iraqi man suspected of involvement in anti-coalition activities. The ICDC forces also confiscated seven AK-47 automatic weapons and mortar rounds.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 9:55:23 AM ||
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nice read that,ICDC seems to be doing well to which i think is arguably more important then US or Brit troop performance
Iraq plans to investigate allegations that dozens of officials and businessmen worldwide illegally received oil in exchange for supporting former leader Saddam Hussein, officials said Tuesday. Their statements came after al-Mada, an independent Baghdad newspaper, published a list it said was based on oil ministry documents showing 46 individuals, companies and organizations from inside and outside Iraq who were given millions of barrels of oil. "I think the list is true. I will demand an investigation. These people must be prosecuted," Naseer Chaderji, a Governing Council member, told Reuters. Sounds like fun, Iâll make popcorn.
The list includes members of Arab ruling families, religious organizations, politicians and political parties from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Sudan, China, Austria, France and other countries. Organizations named include the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Communist Party, Indiaâs Congress Party and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Assem Jihad, an oil ministry spokesman, said thousands of documents which were looted from the State Oil Marketing Organization after Baghdad fell to U.S. forces on April 9 may prove that Saddam used bribery to gain support. Guess they forgot to torch that building.
Oil ministry officials say they have stopped selling oil to companies that may have acted as fronts to supporters of the toppled leader. Entifadh Qnbar, a spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress, a secular party headed by former exile Ahmad Chalabi, said even Arab oligarchs from oil producing countries received oil from Saddam. Well, you can never have too much oil.
"These people took bribes. Sadly, the Iraqi people paid the price," Anbar said. Despite U.N. sanctions, Iraq was allowed to sell oil from 1996-2003 under an agreement with the United Nations stipulating that proceeds from the oil sales be used to buy food, medicine and basic supplies. That worked well, didnât it?
But bankers say some international companies selling goods to Iraq may have paid commissions to Iraqi officials that were deposited in Arab banks in exchange for winning contracts under the oil for food deal. Which is why they didnât want the sanctions lifted.
Oil traders say Iraq also smuggled oil through southern ports not monitored by the United Nations and through a pipeline running to Syria. Damascus says the pipeline was only operating for testing purposes. Testing how much they could get away with.
"Saddam had no problem giving oil to whoever he wanted," said one Iraqi trader who did business with the former government. We noticed.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 9:42:56 AM ||
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Saddam's version of mutilateralism. Only Germany seems to be missing from the list of the major obstructionist to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
#7
...thousands of documents which were looted from the State Oil Marketing Organization after Baghdad fell to U.S. forces on April 9...
What? But...I thought we had MARINES protecting the Oil Ministry, while the Iraqi National Museum of Worthless Old Babylonian Trash was being looted...
Over 2,000 members of the former Baath party turned out at the Mosul Public Safety Academy to renounce their membership in the party, to denounce violence and to pledge support to a new, free and democratic Iraq. The ceremony is the largest held in the Nineveh province to date. Former officers in the Iraqi Army who were also Baath party members filed into the academy and signed an agreement that disavowed their party affiliation and pledged to cooperate fully with the Coalition Provisional Authority in serving the people of Iraq.
Major Gen. David H. Petraeus, commanding general, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), spoke to the gathered former soldiers and praised them for stepping forward to forge a united Iraq. Retired Brigadier Gen. Safawi Mumtiz of the former Iraqi Army, one of the events organizers said those in attendance want to reject violence and terrorism and work toward the future of Iraq. âWe hope that this will be a good reflection to other Baathists to participate in the process,â said Mumtiz. Mumtiz said the only difficulty in organizing the event was in finding a facility big enough for their projected attendance.
Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division worked to gain the trust of retired officers who reside in and around Mosul to show their willingness to form a new Iraq that provides opportunities to everyone, according to 1st Lt. Strauss Scantlin, 431st Civil Affairs Battalion. The 101st facilitated the events to support reconciliation by former regime elements in order to ensure the democratic process includes all Iraqis who are willing to support a free, safe and democratic environment. The ceremony is the first of two to be held in Mosul. Tomorrow, former noncommissioned officers in the Iraqi Army will come to the academy to renounce their membership and show their support for a new Iraq.
By Jack Fairweather in Baghdad Hat tip: Tim Blair
No one messed with Saddam Hussein Karim. Being named after the Iraqi president meant respect and power, but that was before the dictator was overthrown and pulled out of a spider hole. Now the nationâs thousands of Saddams are queuing up to change their once illustrious moniker to something more in tune with the times. More than 300 are in the process of changing their names, and each day several forlorn-looking Saddams visit Baghdadâs directorate of citizenship, where deed polls are granted. Many more are too scared to own up in public and have quietly adopted a new identity. "Itâs the most depressing thing in the world to be called Saddam Hussein," said Saddam Hussein Karim as he completed the final paperwork for his name change.
"I think I'll just change my name to 'Bob.' Nobody has trouble with people named Bob. Whaddya think: 'Robert Mugabe Karim.' Has a ring to it, doesn't it?"
Parents used to be given $200 if they used the name for their sons, now it brings discrimination and humiliation and fear of arrest or attack. Saddam Hadi said: "My parents thought if I was called Saddam I would get a head start in life. Instead theyâve given me a curse." Well, at least she didnât name you "Dennis Kucinich."
Posted by: Mike ||
01/27/2004 6:29:54 AM ||
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Parents used to be given $200 if they used the name for their sons, now it brings discrimination and humiliation and fear of arrest or attack.
What a despostim those Iraqis lived in a few months ago! Now already, though, they are giving the United States lessons in democracy.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/27/2004 8:41 Comments ||
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may i suggest 'george patton' hussein? we can pass the hat for the 200 bucks...
Philippine troops have killed a commander of the Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebel group in an operation on a southern island, a military spokesman said Monday. Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Lucero said Almujahid Susukan was killed last Friday when troops shelled an Abu Sayyaf encampment in Maimbung town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila. Lucero said the shelling was conducted after villagers tipped off the military about the existence of an Abu Sayyaf lair in the area. Almujahid Susukan was an elder brother of key Abu Sayyaf leader Mujib Susukan, who was killed last year in a clash with government troops on Jolo.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 10:10:18 AM ||
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I'm sure both Susukans will be missed by somebody...er..their mom, maybe
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/27/2004 12:02 Comments ||
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RIH
Posted by: B ||
01/27/2004 13:59 Comments ||
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#3
Bon voyage. May you have a pleasant one way journey across the river Styx.
EFL
An Iranian asylum seeker set himself on fire Tuesday in an apparent suicide attempt outside the Malaysian headquarters of the U.N. refugee agency. He was rushed to a hospital with critical burns to most of his body. The man came near the entrance of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' office in Kuala Lumpur shortly before lunchtime, doused himself with petrol and lit his clothes with a cigarette lighter. The UNHCR identified him as Gulam Hassan Anwari, an Iranian living illegally in Malaysia who applied for asylum in November 2001. The UNHCR rejected his claim and a subsequent appeal in late 2002.
Doctors at Kuala Lumpur's main government-run hospital said he sustained severe burns, including internal ones, and were ``not optimistic about his chances for survival.'' Anwari arrived in a taxi with his Malaysian girlfriend outside the UNHCR office, where several Malaysian journalists were waiting for him, Ashton said. He had earlier faxed a note to local newspapers saying he would kill himself, but did not alert the UNHCR. Anwari, who is about 50 years old, set himself ablaze in front of the stunned journalists, and a UNHCR official ran up to him to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher, Ashton said. In a letter that he laid on the ground before torching himself, Anwari claimed he was from Baluchistan province on Iranâs border with Pakistan. Anwari alleged in the letter that Malaysian businessmen had recently cheated him of about $200,000. "If I died, I died ... I wish (a) good life for everyone," Anwari wrote in the five-page letter. Ashton said the UNHCR could not reveal Anwariâs specific reasons for wanting refugee status, but most asylum seekers feared persecution if they returned to their countries. The UNHCR turned down his petition because "there were no grounds for the claim," Ashton said. The man claimed he was from Baluchistan province on Iranâs border with Pakistan. What more grounds do you want?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 8:06:15 AM ||
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Hundreds of families from coastal villages in North Upi, Maguindanao have fled to safer grounds to avoid being caught in the crossfire when clashes between government forces and alleged members of the Abu Sayyaf erupted since last week. North Upi Mayor Ramon Piang Sr. said the evacuees have sought temporary shelter in barangays Sudan, Sinifak, Miti and Nalkan in Cotabato City and in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat town when Army soldiers intensified their manhunt against alleged Abu Sayyaf members believed hiding in the coastal areas. The hunt was so intense that Army used aerial and ground bombardment that caused panic among residents of barangay Laguitan, a coastal village in North Upi.
Piang, however, did not categorically say that the Abu Sayyaf has âinvadedâ his town. He said that the lawless elements now causing fear among residents in coastal villages are members of another group, the Abu Sofia, led by Commanders Minalang and Binago who allegedly masterminded the kidnapping of Korean national Jae Kwon Yoon in Palembang, Sultan Kudarat province in 2001. Minalang, said to be a top leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), is a resident of Barangay Laguitan, North Upi.
The fighting started on Jan. 20 following reports that Abu Sayyaf members were sighted massing in troops in Barangay Laguitan. The Jan. 20 firefight resulted to the death of two Abu Sayyaf members and the wounding of seven others, reports said. Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala, commander of the Armyâs 301st Infantry Brigade, said suspected ASG members landed in Barangay Laguitan on board pump boats from Malabang, a coastal town in Lanao del Sur. As soon as the Army confirmed the presence of the Abu Sayyaf in the area, Dema-ala ordered the realignment of government troops. The Armyâs 7th Infantry Battalion was redeployed in coastal North Upi, the same unit that pounded ASGâs alleged hideouts in coastal towns of Lebak and Palembang in Sultan Kudarat province.
The Abu Sofia, said the Armyâs 6th Infantry Division, has links with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the ASG, a report earlier denied by the MILF. âThat is their justification so they could use the military to attack (us),â said MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu.
Seems a sensible thing to do, to me...
The Jan. 20 incident in North Upi, residents in the area said, was a result of a âridoâ or clan wars between two feuding families — that of Minalangâs family and Ustadz Usop Amirulâs. Kabalu admitted that Minalang is among the top MILF leaders in Barangay Laguitan, a former member of the mainstream Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) under Ustadz Amirul. The feud between Minalang and Amirul started when the former joined MILF in late 1990s.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 12:25:35 AM ||
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Looks like the MILF has splintered off another 'seperate group' to give them legitimacy while they are negociating with the government.
Good that the people left. Abu Sayyaf is good at hiding behind 'human shields' of women and children.
An al-Qaida program to develop chemical and biological weapons was in the early "conceptual stages" when it was cut short by the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, U.S. and Malaysian security officials told the Associated Press. The information on the state of Osama bin Ladenâs weapons plan came from interrogations of terrorist suspects captured in Southeast Asia and from clues gathered in the Afghan battlefield. The project was being developed in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. Officials believe the program was being run by Yazid Sufaat, a former Malaysian army captain and U.S.-trained biochemist, under the direction of Riduan Isamuddin, or Hambali, an Indonesian accused of heading al-Qaidaâs operations in Southeast Asia. Both men are suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist group.
Yazid was arrested in December 2001 as he returned to Malaysia from Afghanistan. Hambali was arrested last August in Thailand and is in U.S. custody at an undisclosed location. While clues that al-Qaida was trying to develop chemical and biological weapons were found in Afghanistan after the U.S. military victory in 2001, Hambaliâs arrest opened a new vein of intelligence. Interrogators have been trying to match up details of the project gleaned separately from Yazid and Hambali. As the investigation continues, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is considering whether to renew an order keeping Yazid in prison. The order expires Friday.
I think that'd be a pretty good idea...
Yazid graduated from the University of California, Sacramento, in 1987. But after returning to Malaysia, he began attending religious classes run by Hambali, a charismatic preacher, and became one of scores of Malaysians and Indonesians recruited to his radical form of Islam in the mid-1990s. Yazid, now 40, spent time in an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan and became a key Jemaah Islamiyah member in Malaysia. He is accused of allowing top al-Qaida operatives - including two eventual Sept. 11 hijackers - to use an apartment he owned for meetings in Malaysia in January 2000, and gave Sept. 11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui a letter of employment that helped him enter the United States. In October 2000, Yazid allegedly bought four tons of ammonium nitrate to be used to make bombs. At the time, Jemaah Islamiyah was plotting to blow up the U.S. Embassy and other Western targets in neighboring Singapore, officials say.
By mid-2001, Yazid was in Kandahar, and working on a program "to equip al-Qaida with the capability to launch a chemical attack," a Malaysian official said. Yazid - who police say is trained in counterinterrogation techniques and is "cooperative only in areas that he chooses to" - has been evasive about chemical or biological weapons he was working on. The Pentagon said in early 2002 that U.S. forces had found traces of anthrax at a suspected al-Qaida biological weapons site in Kandahar, along with some equipment needed to convert the bacteria into a weapon. Other samples found at the site tested positive for the poison ricin. Yazid has told Malaysian authorities the program was in its "conceptual stages" when it was abandoned when the U.S.-led attack on the Taliban started in October 2001, an official said. Hambali has given U.S. interrogators some information on the weapons program but not much detail, and Yazid is believed to know more specifics. This has led to new U.S. interest in Yazid. In the past, Malaysia has refused to consider extraditing Yazid to the United States. But FBI agents were allowed to question Yazid in November 2002, nearly a year before Hambaliâs arrest.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 12:09:46 AM ||
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"Hambaliâs arrest opened a new vein of intelligence"
bleeding them dry, so to speak?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/27/2004 12:20 Comments ||
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The online magazine âThe Voice of Jihad,â which is published by Al-Qaâida members in Saudi Arabia and describes itself as a "biweekly dealing with Jihad and the Mujahideen in the Arabian Peninsula," devoted its ninth issue to two main subjects: Osama bin Ladenâs most recent speech, excerpts of which were broadcast on Al-Jazeera television, and the ongoing debate in Al-Qaâida over attacks in Saudi Arabia. The following are excerpts from this issue:
Excerpts from Osama bin Ladenâs most recent speech are posted, followed by commentary by one of the leading ideologues of Al-Qaâida in Saudi Arabia, "Louis Attiya Allah" (an alias), who stated: "... In my opinion, this is in fact a futuristic speech, and it contains important signs and clues that are perhaps not understood by all commentators and news editors and that can only be understood by those with the same ideology and the same mentality as Sheikh Osama. ... I sense that the Sheikh wishes to make us understand that what he is warning us of are actually events that he sees in his mindâs eye which will take place in the near future. Therefore, the Sheikh presented, for the first time in all his speeches, two issues: the issue of a Majlis Al-Hal wa Al-Aqd [Authoritative Council] and the issue of the Imam. I can almost swear that the Sheikh presented these two issues only because he anticipates the total collapse of the situation and the fall of regimes in the region as a result of some future events in which he and Al-Qaâida will play a role...
"The Sheikh expects that the U.S. will directly attack the oil sources and will declare their occupation. This situation will lead to a total collapse of the regimes in the region... Anyone interested in correcting the situation of the [Muslim] nation must be prepared for this situation by establishing a council of clerics and preachers that will deal with the anticipated total collapse. In order to avoid anyone claiming that the Mujahideen are acting without taking into account the situation of the [Muslim] nation and without warning it, the Sheikh conveyed a hidden message, in which he told these preachers and clerics: You need to realize that these rulers are too contemptible to defend land, honor, and religion.
"We continue on our path and in our Jihad against America. We continue to strike at America and we expect that our next blow will cause the collapse of the situation [in Saudi Arabia] due to the vengeful response, the first result of which will be the direct occupation of the oil sources and Americaâs entrance [into Saudi Arabia] with the aim of changing the situation from its foundations. Therefore, you must prepare and anticipate this scenario. The responsibility and the mighty obligation expressed by establishing the Authoritative Council that will crown an Imam from among the Muslims who will manage the affairs of the direct confrontation with the Crusaders is incumbent upon you...
"It is clear that the Sheikh is not so naïve as to call people to convene and to establish an Authoritative Council under conditions like our present conditions, in which two men known [to the authorities] cannot meet without the intelligence apparatuses following them... There is no alternative but to conclude that the Sheikh spoke of a scenario in which America will enter the Arabian Peninsula... It should be assumed that America will prefer direct occupation only in two scenarios:
"1. The collapse of these regimes, and primarily the regime of the House of Salul [Saud]. Then America will enter in order to secure what it thinks are its direct interests.
"2. America will take a mighty blow, will go berserk, and will decide to punish the extremists deep in the Arabian Peninsula, by means of direct occupation. This is like the Zionists, who were not satisfied with all the treacherous deeds of the Palestinian Authority and with the repression of the Palestinian Mujahideen by Yasser Arafat and his [Palestinian] Authority in the days of the implementation of the Oslo Accords. The Jews were led by the repeated operations to bypass the collaborator [i.e. Arafat], and occupy the territories in order to punish the [Palestinian] Mujahideen by themselves...
"[With regard to the coming attack], the correct answer is found in the hands of the Mujahideen [in Saudi Arabia], even though there are powerful signs for each of these two options... A long time ago, I directed a simple but specific and clear question to some of those who are connected to Al-Qaâida. I asked them whether another great blow was expected. From the answers, I sketched out some salient characteristics regarding the next blow: It will be a surprising blow, that is, one that is completely unexpected. They cannot conceive or imagine the way in which it will be carried out... It is a great blow. That is, the losses that will be caused to America and the Western world in its wake will be very great. Due to its magnitude, the blow will change the international balances of powers..."
Also appearing in this issue is part one of an article by the Voice of Jihad editorial board, dealing with "questions regarding the Jihad against the Crusaders in the Arabian Peninsula." The article states: "Questions from some lovers of Jihad and the Mujahideen, loyal and credible people, have proliferated [recently] regarding the interest in waging Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula. The reason for these questions is that there are several opponents who raised doubts in this matter... For each issue, we will present one of the questions and the answer to it.
"The first question is, âDonât these operations [adversely] affect the accomplishments in preaching Islam (Daâwa), in the land of the two holy places [Saudi Arabia]?â
"... Those who present this question think that in this country, despite the spreading of corruption among the government and the rulers, and despite the tyranny of the despots and their arrogance regarding the rulings of Allah, there still remain in the country a vestige of good and some benefits in the field of preaching that the tyrants cannot eliminate in ordinary times. In contrast, waging Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula neutralizes these benefits and gives the enemies of the religion an excuse to eliminate them.
"The answer to this doubt is completely clear. Allah commanded fighting so that there will be no Fitna [internal strife] and so that the religion will be all for Allah. It is forbidden for a Muslim to agree to concessions and to evade the obligation incumbent upon him [in exchange for] a pinch of religion, a pinch of Shariâa law, and a pinch of religious ritual. On the contrary: The obligation according to the Shariâa as it is written in the Qurâan is that the religion will be all for Allah, and it is not possible to stop the fighting if part of the religion is for Allah and another part is for someone else. Relinquishing the Shariâa obligation for some [religious] accomplishments is a situation that can happen in other countries too, and not only in the land of the two holy places [Saudi Arabia]. It can even happen in countries in which there is no dispute about the [obligation] to fight. In Palestine, for example, the Muslims have had accomplishments even under the Zionist occupation. They can preach to Allah, conduct their religious rituals, open schools, and conduct lessons in memorizing the Qurâan - while bearing the suffering of the loss of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
"In all the countries, except for rare cases, there are accomplishments in the area of preaching and Shariâa interests. Even in America, the head of unbelief and the greatest enemy of Islam and the Muslims, the centers of preaching are still open. But just because they exist does not mean that it is permitted to halt the Jihad against America while it kills the Muslims and occupies their lands, defends Israel, and preserves it [Israel] from its enemies... My Muslim and Mujahid brothers, donât you see the Muslims being killed in Afghanistan and in Iraq?! Donât you see, on the television screens, the bereaved women crying out for the Muslimsâ help?! Donât you see the torn body parts of children, and their skulls and brains scattered...? Is it conceivable to agree to such a price for those [religious] accomplishments that you demand to preserve? Havenât you seen that the [American] military headquarters in the war were located in the Arabian Peninsula, and that its logistical support was located in this country - which the Prophet ordered cleansed of the polytheists?..."
The issue also includes a âstudyâ written by Yahyah bin Ali Al-Ghamdi, titled "The Years of Deception." In it, he writes: "[Some claim] that the blessed operations carried out by the Islamic youth against America and its helpers, such as the Bali operation and the blessed Tuesday operation in Riyadh, are not useful at all! They argue that these operations have not removed the enemy from the Arabian Peninsula and have not deterred America from continuing its aggression and oppression of the Muslims. All these operations have done is to distort the image of Islam and the Muslims and present them in the eyes of the West as people from the Stone Age, who apply makeup [made of] blood and perfume themselves with body parts!...
"Donât you know that the clerics have stated that Jihad becomes a personal duty if the enemy raids the land of the Muslims...? According to those [who disagree with this], a new formula should be put forth ... that Jihad will become the personal duty when the enemy attacks the land of the Muslims - only if the enemy can be repelled and vanquished, and only if the [Muslim] nation is completely prepared, and only if the ruler - and we do not know who this ruler is - will permit it... Do you want us to be like the people of Baghdad who were slaughtered like goats by the Mongols but remained silent, and were paralyzed by fear, and none waved a stick before the Mongols? The truth is that we must forgive the people of Baghdad because by waving the stick they would not have gained anything because the Mongols were not about to leave their country!... Every day we grow weaker and weaker. Every day America attacks us in another country, so what is preferable? That we act now while our veins still pulse, or that we wait until we see an American solder arranging the worshipersâ entrance into the mosque in Mecca...?"
,LI>In his article "The Experience of Jihad and the Dead End," Abu Abdallah Al-Sadi answers those who argue that the Jihad movement has failed: "... It is completely forbidden from a religious perspective to use the defeat of the Muslims in this or that battle as an excuse to prevent voluntary Jihad and to refrain from joining the obligatory Jihad... Is it fitting that Allahâs commandment to wage Jihad will be conditioned upon the success of [previous] attempts...?
"Covert and open Islamic groups have been trying for decades to establish the Islamic state, and so far they have made no progress, not even a single step, in this area. [This], while Jihad for the sake of Allah has managed to establish blessed states and entities that defended the Muslims and succeeded in applying Islamic Shariâa law for certain periods. The state of Sheikh Muhammad bin Abd Al-Wahhab [Saudi Arabia] arose only by Jihad. The state of the Taliban in Afghanistan arose only by Jihad. The Islamic state in Chechnya arose only by Jihad. It is true that these attempts were not perfect and did not fill the full role required, but incremental progress is a known universal principle. Yesterday, we did not dream of a state; today we established states and they fall. Tomorrow, Allah willing, a state will arise and will not fall..."
The Voice of Jihad also reported on a new film by the Sahab company, which produces Al-Qaâidaâs films. The film, Badr Al-Riyadh, depicts the attack on "the Al-Muhayya Crusader settlements" during Ramadan of 2003, in November. The report claims that the Voice of Jihad obtained a copy of the film, which includes excerpts from the "wills" of the perpetrators of the attack, interviews with them, footage of them assembling the car bomb, ideological discussions regarding the religious legitimacy of carrying out attacks in Saudi Arabia, footage of the Al-Qaâida members in camps in Saudi Arabia and of their training exercises, and an "audio-video" recording of the attack.
On the last page of the issue, the editorial board appeals to readers preparing to carry out the commandment of Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca: "... If you intend to make the pilgrimage, or know someone who is planning to do so, take with you issues of The Voice of Jihad, printed out on sheets of paper or copied onto CD, to distribute to all the Arab pilgrims and primarily to the people of the Gulf, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt..."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 12:02:24 AM ||
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HAAAAAAAA!!!!! And some people say there is no war between the 8th and the 21st Centuries going on!!!!
Posted by: Miguel ||
01/27/2004 5:08 Comments ||
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"In all the countries, except for rare cases, there are accomplishments in the area of preaching and Shariâa interests. Even in America, the head of unbelief and the greatest enemy of Islam and the Muslims, the centers of preaching are still open.
That's because we're civilized, unlike some who deny all other religions their freedom. Yeah, I'm lookin' at YOU, Mr. Saud.
#6
Every day we grow weaker and weaker. Every day America attacks us in another country, so what is preferable? That we act now while our veins still pulse, or that we wait until we see an American solder arranging the worshipersâ entrance into the mosque in Mecca...?"
Assumes two things here; 1) that there will still be mosques and 2) that there will still be a Mecca.
The way these guys are going on, that likelihood decreases every day. One more successful big attack means all bets are off. The latest Belmont club missive implies that the Jihadis are almost at the point where they can build nuclear weapons at will. The terrible logic of The Three Conjectures (at the Belmont club) then crystallizes.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
01/27/2004 18:51 Comments ||
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"The Sheikh expects that the U.S. will directly attack the oil sources and will declare their occupation..."
Hey, .com! Looks like OBL has been reading your posts.
#8
--America will take a mighty blow, will go berserk, and will decide to punish the extremists deep in the Arabian Peninsula, by means of direct occupation.--
Or just a few big boomers to get our point across. But not where they think.
#9
As far as I'm concerned, we can re-target our nukes right now. It won't take many. Perhaps they'll respect us more if their entire "civilization" is just an hour away from martyrdom on our terms. Target the weapons facilities, target the "holy" cities, target the centers of government, target the tribal regions. Tell the House of Saud to clean up its vermin or risk vaporization.
EFL
The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal have just published their 2004 Index of Economic Freedom. This index ranks countries on the basis of how open their economies are. The 10 categories the index measure are: trade policy, fiscal burden of government, government intervention in the economy, monetary policy, foreign investment, banking, wages and prices, property rights, black markets, property rights. Those countries with a higher ranking in this index also show higher per capita incomes and a higher standard of living. There is a close correlation between this index and the Human Development Index generated by the United Nations. There is also a close correlation between these economic and social indexes and the type of political regime the countries have. Dictatorships, repressive governments, in general, countries in the hands of primitive bullies, such as Zimbabwe, Libya and North Korea, have very impoverished and ignorant societies.
This index subdivides the 155 countries analyzed in four groups of economies: Free, Mostly Free, Mostly Unfree and Repressed. While Hong Kong, Singapore, United Kingdom and the United States have free economies, countries like Nigeria and Haiti are examples of mostly unfree economies. Further down the ladder, Cuba, Iran, Zimbabwe, Libya, North Korea and Venezuela are examples of repressed economies. In a regional basis most of Latin America countries lowered their scores, Venezuela becoming the worst country in the hemisphere, below Haiti and Cuba. Our country [Venezuela] deserved the position 147 in the group of 155 countries, only marginally better than Iran, Burma, Laos, Zimbabwe, North Korea and Libya.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 9:40:26 PM ||
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Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, following up a promise to end his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, has shipped some 55,000 pounds of nuclear and missile components to the United States in a bid to break out of diplomatic isolation. An American transport plane carrying the components arrived Tuesday at McGhee Tyson airport outside Knoxville, Tenn., with the equipment. It included stock to enrich uranium, centrifuge parts and guidance sets for long-range missiles, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. The equipment probably will be evaluated at the Oak Ridge nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee, the major storehouse in the United States for bomb-grade uranium. There uranium can be converted into fuel for nuclear reactors. The "most sensitive documentation" associated with Libyaâs nuclear program arrived by plane last week, McClellan said.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/27/2004 7:24:36 PM ||
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The new Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, says his country is ready to discuss joint patrols with Russian guards along the border with Chechnya. He told Itar-Tass his predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze, had allowed Chechen rebels to cross into Georgia - and said he would reverse the policy. Now, he said, any gunmen found crossing the border would be extradited. After Russia sent troops into Chechnya in 1999, thousands of refugees fled into Georgia, followed by some rebels. "Eduard Shevardnadze had a very dangerous approach to this issue which had consequences for Georgia and Russia," Mr Saakashvili said. "After 11 September, when the Chechen rebels stopped getting financing from abroad, they started to export drugs to Georgia and kidnap people in border areas, creating many problems for Georgia," he added. "From now on, all armed people who try to get into Georgia will be arrested and handed over to the authorities of the country they are citizens of."
#1
"From now on, all armed people who try to get into Georgia will be arrested and handed over to the authorities of the country they are citizens of."
Not such a good idea when it comes to Pakistanis, Saudis, Iranians, etc. The home country will just recycle them. They need to be taken out of circulation, or the gene pool, which ever comes first.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/27/2004 16:49 Comments ||
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Panski Gorge here we come.
Posted by: Daniel King ||
01/27/2004 17:12 Comments ||
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Russian doctors saved the life of a wounded Chechen militant, a RIA Novosti correspondent was told at the regional operations headquarters of an antiterrorist operations department in the North Caucasus on Monday. "Rizvan Yelkhoyev, a man from the gang of terrorists that operated in the Shatoi district surrendered, as it was his only chance to survive," a headquarters spokesman said. According to him, three weeks ago the federal forces dealt a blow at a place in a forest where the group was staying. "Yelkhoyev was wounded in the hip by a shell-fragment but received no medical aid in due time and a surgical operation became necessary," the spokesman said. The militant decided to go out of the forest and surrender to law enforcement bodies. He was operated on and now his life is safe, the spokesman said. He cited Yelkhoyev as saying the following: "When I was wounded, I thought there was nothing serious in it and that I would be helped. All that time the wound was bandaged several times, and the emir said medicines would soon be delivered and I would be taken abroad for treatment." But the militants left him alone in the forest. "As I regained consciousness in the morning, there was nobody around, but they didnât forget to take my arms. Donât believe anybody. All treatment and evacuation of the wounded is for Arabs and emirs, and we are just cannon fodder for them," Yelkhoyev said.
#1
Well, this is good. A rise in conciousness. Now we have to get the word out somehow to the other fodder, which I doubt will happen.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/27/2004 16:44 Comments ||
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"As I regained consciousness in the morning, there was nobody around, but they didnât forget to take my arms. Donât believe anybody. All treatment and evacuation of the wounded is for Arabs and emirs, and we are just cannon fodder for them," Yelkhoyev said.
And another jihadi is hit with the cold, hard truth of reality.
EFL:
An Iranian defector, preparing to testify in Germanyâs second major Sept. 11 trial, said on Tuesday that a son of Osama bin Laden had personally told Iranian leaders of the planned attacks on U.S. cities in 2001. The defector, who goes by the cover name Hamid Reza Zakeri, told Reuters in a telephone interview that al Qaeda had forewarned Tehran of the attacks because it wanted Iranâs help in sheltering its leaders afterwards. "Iâm not saying that Iran had a hand in it (Sept. 11). Iâm saying that Iran knew about it," Zakeri said. Thatâs less involvement than first reported, and more believable.
"Iran would be the safest place for al Qaeda because it wasnât a country where the U.S. could directly or indirectly intervene" to seize al Qaeda leaders on the run after the planned attacks, he added. Iâm sure thatâs what they thought before Afghanistan and Iraq.
Zakeri says he is a former intelligence official who defected in July 2001 and tried to warn the United States, through its embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan, that a major attack would take place on or about Sept. 10. The more we learn about the CIA, the more this seems likely.
The Iranian foreign minister, asked about the defectorâs assertions, told a news conference on Tuesday: "This is untrue. He has made up this information... he has made it up for fraudulent purposes. He wants to make money and his views are of no value." "Lies, all lies!"
Western intelligence sources have privately voiced skepticism about Zakeriâs accusations, but German prosecutors have taken them seriously enough to call him as a key trial witness. Thatâs interesting in itself.
Speaking by mobile phone from an undisclosed location, Zakeri said he had handled security arrangements in January 2001 for a visit of about 30 al Qaeda members to Iran, led by Osama bin Ladenâs deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Zakeri said he had previously seen Zawahiri several times since 1996 at camps used by the militant group Hizbollah in Iran. The talks took place southeast of Tehran, lasted four days and were headed on the Iranian side by a representative of Iranâs Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he said. Four months later, in May 2001, Zakeri said he had been ordered to collect a VIP delegation arriving by army helicopter at a special base east of the Iranian capital. This time the guest was Osamaâs son Saad bin Laden, accompanied by three bodyguards. Zakeri said the visit lasted three days and included late-night talks with Khamenei, ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and three other top leaders. If we have any kind of intel capability in Iran, we should at least have a rumor of some kind of meeting in this time frame.
Zakeri said he was not part of the discussions and not privy to details of the Sept. 11 plot or the targets, but added: "I knew in general that there was an operation being prepared against Israel and the United States for September 10." He said he passed a warning to a CIA official in Baku, but "they didnât take me seriously." A good CIA agent would have made a report on the fact that some one had passed on a warning even if the source was discounted. Of course, a really good agent will have shredded the report by now and denied it ever happened. Doesnât look good on the old resume, donât you know.
Zakeri said he had not wanted to testify in the Mzoudi case, but had been drawn in after telling German investigators he had received information by email from someone else relating to al Qaeda activity in Germany. He said he was under close German police protection after contacts in Iran had warned him his life was in danger. "They said: âThey sent the people already, and they are very close to the door.â I know what that means. It means they are very close to kill me. But already I informed the German authorities and the German police... Iâm all right, hopefully Iâm safe," he said. I hope so too. This guy needs to be debriefed and his story checked by someone other than the CIA.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 2:27:52 PM ||
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I would publicly warn Iran that a hit on the man is an act of war since they are deliberately undermining our War on Terror.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/27/2004 17:36 Comments ||
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#2
Very cool post. You and DD kick ass! Well writen in that I'm thinking this has merit. I was leaning until the "at the door" thing. Hang tight and yes this guy needs top level attention. If he does have an anuorisom lets do some assuming!
New website with John Kerry photos Iâll bet you wonât see on the evening news. Ainât documented history a bitch, John?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 11:51:52 AM ||
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#1
This is worth checking out.
As you all know I'm easily lead and also easily conflicted. Especially about VN. It's damned if you do and damned if you don't. In '74 I was completely sure that the VN war was wrong. That we went in wrong, fought wrong (we didn't fight to win) and got out wrong. But as I look back I can't be so cock sure anymore, commie murderers vs right wing cleptos. Kerry is of the silver spoon crowed but he was doing what was becoming the popular thing when he did it. BTW when I see a vet mis-wearing fatigues with all the ribbons in front of congress, well that pisses me off. The uniform is to be worn properly. It's the least thing you can do. Kerry owes every soldier who has paid the price an appology.
#4
I didn't know this much about his background either, but I have a few observations.
I have spoken to people who did service on those boats, including one guy who went back 2X and it was some pretty dangerous duty that combined alot of firepower, high visibility, limited defense posture in a moving target, and relatively low "accountability" for incidents that happened along the way. Lots of boredom interspersed by moments of terror.
I also would connect the dots that drug use was more the norm in the post war circles he was running in, and I wonder how long it will be before we get the "...but I didn't inhale" spin.
The third dot I will connect is that the negative research files on him are pretty thick and the only question is when they will come forward,not if.
Probably not until after Rove and team are convinced he is going to be the guy on the ticket.
#6
I can't be the only one who thinks of Aaron Burr every time I learn more about Kerry. A murderously cold-blooded, ex-military "patriot"- turned-traitor for political gain... poor, yet handsome and titled enough to woo and marry rich in order futher his unquenchable ambitions and delusions of grandeur.
He's like slime that oozed up from a crack out of hell. eeech! Just looking at him makes you want a shower.
Posted by: B ||
01/27/2004 13:31 Comments ||
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#7
Kerry has a star but CDR Butcher has bubkus. Here is a sample of why I think that the captain of the Pueblo deserves one:
The North Koreans worked on CDR Bucher separately to try to get the ship's commanding officer to sign a confession and read a pre-written apology. In an attempt to make him admit to wrongdoing, a gun was held to Bucher's head and dry-fired but he did not give in.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 14:16 Comments ||
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#8
Searched the website for the Naval Institute to see if they listed any references for naval heroism Vietnam. The search turned up these books:
BROWN WATER, BLACK BERETS
Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam - Thomas Cutler
THE COAST GUARD AT WAR - by Alex Larzelere
COUNTERPART A South Vietnamese Naval Officer's War - by Capt. Kiem Do, deputy chief of staff for operations in the South Vietnamese Navy
(Kerry's book was not listed. Nothing on McCain either so the institute must be non-partisan.)
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 14:24 Comments ||
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#9
SH, at the time of the Pueblo's capture, I was serving with an AF Chief Master Sergeant who had been a classmate of CDR Butcher while at Father Flanagan's Boys' Home. He always spoke well of Butcher and expected him to perservere the ordeal. I'm sure the chief would wholeheartly agree with you about overdue recognition.
#10
He always spoke well of Butcher and expected him to perservere the ordeal. I'm sure the chief would wholeheartly agree with you about overdue recognition.
Yes. And if the Pueblo still floats it's time to do a Philadelphia on it.
#12
It was not pleasant coming home to resume college studies in 1969 as a veteran unless you joined the "Ho Ho Ho, Ho Chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh is gonna win!" crowd. Kerry joined and look at him today. While my friends were dying in the A Shau, Kerry was weaseling into politics. He may have a lot of veteran support according to the media, but he will never get my vote.
#14
Ship, as far as I know, international law hase no prohibition against destroying your own property ... in spectacular fashion.
GK, sorry about my spelling mishap. I watched an Ollie North episode of War Stories that featured Cdr Bucher and the story of the Pueblo. Had to take stroll through the neighborhood to calm the rage afterwards.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 21:08 Comments ||
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JPost Reg reqâd - EF New stuff
Gloating Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah will likely chalk up more headlines and anger more Israelis, particularly the families of the POWs and MIAs, before the week is through. But the demagogic leader of the Iran-backed, Syria-supported Lebanese terrorist group is actually in distress without room for maneuver. JPost is normally the more conservative Israeli paper (especially compared to Haaretz) - I donât know if this is face-saving spin for Sharon or not, but I still think the swap was a bad idea
Ironically, by going ahead with the prisoner exchange, Hizbullah is disarming itself of its main raison dâ etre, further diminishing its legitimacy to remain Lebanonâs sole terrorist organization. well, I wouldnât discount the nutcases in the Paleo camps like Ein-el-hellhole, either
"Just carrying out the deal is a great concession for Nasrallah. He climbed down a lot of trees on the way to this arrangement," said Prof. Eyal Zisser of Tel Aviv Universityâs Dayan Center. Nasrallah originally demanded the 1,500 Palestinians which they chose be freed. The agreed upon deal calls for 400 of Israelâs choice. He also conceded on demands to release terrorists with blood on their hands, such as infiltrator Samir Kuntar who killed four Israelis in a 1979 raid on Nahariya. asked for too much, settled for less
Hizbullah collapsed in the talks because it is under pressure. The pressure is coming from inside Lebanon where more and more voices question Hizbullahâs reasons for existence and blame it for bringing misfortune to Lebanonâs stunted development. Walid Jumblattâs and Emile Lahoudeâs comments this past week havenât helped either, and theyâre homegrown idiots
"In light of this, it was important for Nasrallah to close the deal, present its prizes, and to strengthen Hizbullahâs position inside Lebanon," Zisser said, adding that it would be fleeting. "While the prisoner deal will be a feather in his cap, in the end Hizbullah has a problem. It actually pulls the rug out from under them and the reason for the organizationâs existence. Until now, he could say he exists because of the Lebanese prisoners. What is Nasrallah going to say now to those who say the time has come to put an end to it all?" "weâre for the rest of the prisoners left behind"?
Zisser said that there is a rising number of Lebanese who are questioning Hizbullahâs necessity. Newspaper editorials are saying that there are other, more important matters than the Shebaa farms, like the economy. Furthermore, the flowering of southern Lebanon has also restrained Hizbullah from heating up the border, where even the slightest action draws the IDFâs wrath. slightest = firing an anti-tank missile or capturing/killing three IDF soldiers while dressed as UN protection forces?
Officers said that last weekâs retaliatory air raid for the deadly anti-tank missile attack on a bulldozer wiped out two bases and caused casualties. The group did not risk further Israeli retaliation since that would destroy their accomplishments in the south. But, one cautioned, "donât eulogize Hizbullah yet." Officers said that Iran and Syria are not yet ready to see the demise of their proxy for striking at Israel. They also predicted Hizbullah pushing its jihadist philosophy in the Palestinian front, where it has already made inroads in funding and directing terrorist attacks. I remain skeptical, and would rather see Nasrallah in the video playback of a hellfire attack
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/27/2004 11:38:44 AM ||
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The pressure is coming from inside Lebanon where more and more voices question Hizbullahâs reasons for existence and blame it for bringing misfortune to Lebanonâs stunted development.
[...]
Zisser said that there is a rising number of Lebanese who are questioning Hizbullahâs necessity. Newspaper editorials are saying that there are other, more important matters than the Shaba farms, like the economy.
#2
Israel is also probably releasing anti PA people as well as a few who ultimately will be intell assets. There may have also been a deal with Syria that certain of their favorite people get released in exchange for something. All these, however are 'maybes'.
#4
Until now, he could say he exists because of the Lebanese prisoners
So that's why Israel did it. Hmmm...dangerous game as it gives him credibility. I guess ultimately it will depend on whether it lets the air out of his balloon or not. Only time will tell.
Posted by: B ||
01/27/2004 13:43 Comments ||
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Wise-cracking funnyman Al Franken yesterday body-slammed a demonstrator to the ground after the man tried to shout down Gov. Howard Dean. (Take that you naysayer!)
The tussle left Frankenâs trademark thick-rim glasses broken, but he said he was not injured. (Darn I was hoping.)
Franken - who seemed in a state of shock and out of breath after the incident - was helped back to his feet by several people who watched the tussle. Police arrived soon after. "I got down low and took his legs out," said Franken afterwards. (Like any good liberal he hits low.)
Franken said heâs not backing Dean but merely wanted to protect the right of people to speak freely. "I would have done it if he was a Dean supporter at a Kerry rally," he said. (Question: would he have done this at a Bush rally?)
"Iâm neutral in this race but Iâm for freedom of speech, which means people should be able to assemble and speak without being shouted down." (Amen brother! But I doubt you support that for conservatives.)
The trouble started when several supporters of fringe presidential candidate Lyndon Larouche began shouting accusations at Dean. (LOL wasnât even a NeoCon that caused the problem, it was one of their own fringe!)
Franken emerged from the crowd and charged one male protester, grabbing him with a bear hug from behind and slamming him onto the floor. "I was a wrestler so I used a wrestling move," Franken said. Al Franken is a BIG FAT LIAR and now it seems he has joined the legion of Dean storm troopers. He could care less about anyoneâs âfreedom of speech.â If this had been a NeoCon that âbody-slammedâ a liberal demonstrator, the press would go NUTS! Al âBIG FAT LIARâ Franken should be charged with assault. Yes I would feel the same about some protestor at a Bush rally. I have been to NeoCon rallies and you can ALWAYS count on some left-wing nut job showing up and spouting âRepublicans are Nazisâ or something to that affect. Never has anyone ever punch, kicked, spindled, or mutilated these idiots (no matter how deserving). Funny since we were being called Nazis we didnât act like ones? But then the Liberals say they arenât and well this tells you the real story.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) ||
01/27/2004 11:20:03 AM ||
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#8
Al must not have wanted to hear Dean sing the national anthem again.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 12:39 Comments ||
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#9
Al's been trying to goad one of the National Review guys into a fistfight. Now he's tackling people. Its all part of his attempt to prove that liberals aren't wimps.
I can't help but wonder how big this heckler was. I imagine he looked something like Saved By the Bell's Screech or Al wouldn't have risked mixing it up.
#10
time for a personal injury lawsuit - maybe Edwards would be willing to take the case.
Posted by: B ||
01/27/2004 13:16 Comments ||
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#11
Maybe he's just been working out with Joe Piscapo and was overcome with roid-rage.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 13:32 Comments ||
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#12
WTF is a "neocon rally"?
Anytime a Conservative group/people gets together. Examples: Recall Davis Rally, President Bush Fundraiser, Gov. Schwarzenegger Rally, Two Conservatives talking at Starbucks, etc.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/27/2004 13:55 Comments ||
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#14
Um, that was a Lyndon LaRouche flack. Anyone who hasn't been tempted to knock one of them down probably is one too.
Does anyone remember Robert Stack walking through the airport in Airplane? Yes, that's how I feel too. Okay, Franken shouldn't have done it, but it is an understandable impulse.
Posted by: Eric ||
01/27/2004 15:57 Comments ||
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#15
Sounds like he's trying to get some free publicity for his upcoming radio show.
#17
RC-"So I guess Franken will help keep the nutcases away from the President the next time he makes a public appearence?"
Only if he doesn't go....
Posted by: S ||
01/27/2004 19:23 Comments ||
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#18
Unconfirmed Rumor: just heard on the Hugh Hewitt radio program (reported by a caller) that the guy tackled from behind by Franken was 63 (!!!) years old. Hewitt speculates the only reason Franken isn't under arrest is because he is Al Franken.
Posted by: Mark ||
01/27/2004 19:39 Comments ||
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#19
According to Rich Lowry (NR editor), he was trying to goad Al Franken into a fight while Franken simultaneously sent "I'll macho-man you out" and "don't hurt me" signals, citing age and a poor back. It may have been Lowry's own machismo, but he spent a disproportionate amount of the article on that, if not making it the whole point ...
Posted by: Lu Baihu ||
01/27/2004 19:56 Comments ||
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A UPDF major and two of his escorts were killed in an ambush by suspected Lordâs Resistance Army rebels on Sunday. Maj. George Kayarwa and the two escorts, whose names we could not readily establish, were part of the armyâs 5 Division pay team. Both escorts were at the rank of private. The ambush took place at about midday in Labuje village, Lukole sub-county in Agago, some 15kms east of Pader town. The team was travelling from Pader town to Kalongo township, towards the border with Kotido district in the east. The team was going to pay salaries of the UPDF 1Battalion under the 301 Brigade. Military sources told The Monitor yesterday that the rebels fired a rocket-propelled grenade at Kayarwaâs vehicle, which had a drum full of fuel. The vehicle reportedly burst into flames killing the three soldiers instantly. Two other soldiers survived with injuries and were admitted at Kalongo hospital. Three soldiers in the leading escort car, which was carrying cash, survived the ambush. Lt. Col. Charles Otema is the northern region intelligence co-ordinator. He refused to talk about the matter. The overall army spokesman, Maj. Shaban Bantariza, too declined to comment. However, the military intelligence chief, Col. Noble Mayombo, confirmed the ambush. "The ambush was carried out by some remnant groups of the LRA," Mayombo said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 10:27:02 AM ||
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I guess they ambushed the right convoy. Either luck, a double-cross or idiots that follow the same route at a predictable time for disbursements.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 11:16 Comments ||
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One hundred kilograms of hexogen were discovered in the Achkhoi-Martan district of Chechnya. "The cache was found on the shore of the Shalazha river on the outskirts of the Shaami-Yurt area of Achkhoi-Martan District during a special operation," a spokesman for the regional operational counter-terrorist HQ for the North Caucasus reported. According to him, more than 100 kg of hexogen, five homemade explosive devices, a grenade launcher with 19 rounds, a machine gun, 2 Kalashnikov submachine guns, a mine, 8 grenades, 800 kg of TNT, and 843 cartridges of various calibre were confiscated from the cache.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 10:16:11 AM ||
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#1
That could just be left over from the Y2K scare. You know - be prepared and all that.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 11:30 Comments ||
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#3
Hexogen = Russian RDX: High-explosive material called RDX (Hexogen - made by the action of nitric acid on hexamethylene-tetramine, a product of formaldehyde and ammonia, a.k.a. cyclonite or cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine) used in rocket propellants, bombs, detonators and fuses. Hexogen can be mixed with TNT to create a Composition B explosive more powerful than TNT. Composition B is commonly used in artillery shells. Hexogen is also used to create Composition A (rockets, land mines), C (demolition, shaped-charge), HBX (missile and torpedo warheads), H-6 (bursting charge for general purpose bombs), and Cyclotol (shaped-charge, fragmentation bombs and grenades) explosives.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 13:47 Comments ||
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#4
thx Steve - I googled for it but got a bunch of bad references to russian magazines
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he will submit to a referendum on his rule if election authorities call one. After talks with former US President Jimmy Carter, Mr Chavez also said he would allow foreign observers to check every detail of the voting process. Observers from Cuba, Zim-Bob-We, N. Korea, etc.
"Let them [the opposition] review everything," Mr Chavez said after Mondayâs talks in the capital Caracas. Mr Carter urged Venezuelans to trust election officials who are to announce next month whether to call a vote. And Jimmy has such a good track record on these things.
"I repeated to President Carter... that whatever the National Electoral Council decides, my government will accept it," Mr Chavez told reporters. "If the Council says there will be a referendum against Chavez, then weâll go to the referendum, Iâve got no problem with that." OK, the fix is in.
Mr Carter has expressed support for the Council, which has been attacked by both sides. "The political future of Venezuela rests on their shoulders... They have given us assurances that their decision will be open and transparent," the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner said after meeting the Councilâs directors. I rest my case..
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 9:11:41 AM ||
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He worked a deal with Jimmah? Oh, this is as good as done....
A policeman and a suspect have died during a Moroccan police raid on Islamic militants. Sorry to hear about the cop. Also sorry only one suspect died.
Four police officers were injured when police moved into two villages near the town of Meknes in an operation which resulted in the arrest of 35 people. The Moroccan authorities have been on the hunt for Islamic fundamentalists since five bomb blasts killed 45 people last May in Casablanca. The raid is reported to have uncovered explosives and forgery equipment. Canât be a islamo fundi without explosives and phoney papers.
Security forces raided what they believed was a cell of Salafiya Jihadia - the Islamic extremist group accused of carrying out the Casablanca attacks. Meknes, some 100 kilometres from the capital, Rabat, is known to be the home of several radical Islamic groups. The BBCâs Pascale Harter in Morocco says the government is pursuing a two-pronged approach to rid the country of the terror threat. On the one hand they are cracking down on Islamic fundamentalists and on the other they are building housing to replace the shanty towns that plague Moroccan cities and are viewed as the breeding ground of suicide bombers. I guess urban renewal is good, but I havenât seen any proof that a nice house keeps you from blowing people up.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 9:05:22 AM ||
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The raid is reported to have uncovered explosives and forgery equipment.
In Islamic utopia, all documents will be forged all the time.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/27/2004 9:13 Comments ||
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#2
It says somethng that they producers of Blackhawk Down searched all over Africa and Southern Spain for a place that strongly resembled Mogadieshu. They settled on Morocco and said that it perfectly fit their needs.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 9:20 Comments ||
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#3
"a nice house keeps you from blowing people up. "
well it doesnt if you live in Saudi and are exposed to the most intense terror incitement in the world, and it doesnt if you live in Europe and feel humiliated by the weakness of the muslim world. This doesnt rule out that in some specific locales poverty, unemployment and living conditions play a role. Evidently the Moroccans think it does play a role there. They are not relying ONLY on that however, but seem to be vigourously arresting people. Lets hope the 35 mentioned above arent going to be released anytime soon, and WILL be pressed for all possible intell.
#4
possibly they also figured out that in a shanty town, it's difficult to know who's who and where they live. In a developed area of residences, all owners are known, all people start to have a stake in owning property, and strikes against the gov't that helped them get that residence will be frowned upon
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/27/2004 18:10 Comments ||
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EFL
Chinaâs state-run Xinhua news agency reported that the factory had been unearthed in the southern province of Sichuan, with a sign on the gate reading: "Number 1 Block of the Xinkang Prison of Sichuan Province". Officials from Xinkang Prison denied any part in the deception, according to Xinhua. Xinhua said over 500 cartons of cigarettes and 117 tons of cut tobacco were found at the premises. Four suspects and two lorries were captured during the police raid. In keeping with the sign on the gate, workers had been treated like prisoners and had not been not allowed to leave the premises, Xinhua said. Police said the underground factory manufactured about $30,000 worth of cigarettes in over 20 fake brands. A police investigation has been launched. Totally ubiquitous in the Chinese setting. Brilliant move; no wonder Asian SAT scores or so high.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 8:18:35 AM ||
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Officials from Xinkang Prison denied any part in the deception, according to Xinhua.
Yeahhhh, It was a FAKEgulag slave-labor prison! That's the ticket. It was all fake, those guards and soldiers are in costume. Nothing at all to do with the REAL Xinkang Prison. Yeah. Mobsters running a fake 'prison camp'. That's it.
#2
Wait until the Chinese trial lawyers get wind. I smell a hefty tobacco settlement on the way.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 12:43 Comments ||
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#3
Okay, let me get this straight... it was a real prison run by the PLA posing as a fake prison run by the PLA but really run by the Chineee mob, using US tobacco brands to elude Chineese taxes on interior goods to subtervine the US brands because Winston Tastes Good Like A Cigarette Should.
#4
No, it was US tobacco sold to the UK tobacco cabol, seconded to the FSU chechen mobocracy. Financed by a constoritum of our German scientists using their German banks in an effort to ensure that the Raleigh Coupon treasure trove is never found. The mere existence of the RCTT is egg in the face of the Federal Reserve Board.
I can say no more.
Summary - they want more US taxpayer money for a new forum whose purpose is to bust our chops and condemn every action that Israel takes.
Warning massacres like those carried out in Rwanda and Bosnia could happen again, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday proposed an international committee to help prevent genocide. Maybe the commission will discover a solution to genocide during a brain-storming session of a cross-functional team.
Annan made the proposal at the opening of a three-day conference in Stockholm on preventing genocide. More than a half a million people were slaughtered during the 1994 war in Rwanda.
... while the UN stood by and watched, drinking tea...
A year later in Bosnia, some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred in Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia, during the Balkan wars.
... while the UN stood by and watched, drinking tea...
"I long for the day when we can say with confidence that, confronted with a new Rwanda or new Srebrenica, the world would respond effectively, and in good time," Annan said. "But let us not delude ourselves. That day has yet to come." and the French would block any action regardless of what was proposed.
Annan suggested forming a U.N. committee on preventing genocide and having a "special rapporteur" who would report directly to the Security Council to monitor "massive and systematic violations of human rights and threats to international peace and security." Can we free up Ambassador Bolton to fill the slot?
Several delegates welcomed the idea, including Swedenâs Prime Minister Goeran Persson and Latviaâs President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, who said "there have been many failures when it comes to preventing genocide during the last years."
Hmmm... Yasss... I'd call that a statement of the obvious...
The event is the first major intergovernmental conference on the issue since the United Nations adopted its Convention against Genocide in 1948. Security was tight, with 1,500 police officers patrolling the area. Maybe if we had more armed people out preventing the actual genocides we would do better.
The conference is the final one in a series of annual conventions called the Stockholm International Forum, which began with a conference on the Holocaust in 2000. Organizers said they hoped delegates would sign a declaration with commitments from 60 countries to improve efforts to prevent genocide. Participants include the European Unionâs foreign policy chief Javier Solana; former chief U.N. weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Rolf Ekeus; International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, and Nobel Peace Prize winners Bernard Kouchner and Elie Wiesel. Israel downgraded its representation after a Stockholm museum refused to remove a display showing a picture of an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber from an exhibit linked to the conference. Israel said the piece glorified suicide bombers. The Israeli-born artist who created the installation, Dror Feiler, was among hundreds who protested Monday against Israelâs presence at the event. And the bus drove into the ditch.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 7:56:31 AM ||
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There is a snake in the bathroom. What shall we do?
U.S.: Kill the Snake
France: Run away! Run Away!
U.N.: Lets form a comission on reptiles and hope that, someday, we will be able to deal with snakes.
#2
A f***ing committee? A f***ing committee?? Mr. Secretary-General?
Yes?
There's genocide going on in (insert sh**hole country here)!
Why thank you, Mr. Special Rapporteur! We'll get right on it.
I am stunned by the dream-world these idiots are living in.
#4
CF, let me add (Commission - demand that Irsael return the temple mount to alligators displaced by volcanic activity.)
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 9:35 Comments ||
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#5
During his tenure Annan has done nothing to halt the continuing genocide in the Sudan. Despite the death of more than two million southern Sudanese over a prolonged period of time the UN has turned a blind eye to the tragedy. It has been satisfied to feed the millions of refugees generated by the Islamist government in Khartoum. Why? Because it gives lots of work to UN bureaucrats.
Lackey: Mr Secretary-General? Kofi: Yes? Lackey:There's a genocide going on in (insert sh**hole country here)! Kofi: Why thank you, Mr. Special Rapporteur, can we blame the Americans? Lackey:Well sir they had nothing to do with the country but so far they have failed to stop the conflict. Kofi: Excellent, I'll expect a presentation by midweek.
#8
Ruprecht (the crown prince?)-
Actually the true bureaucratic response would be to form a subcommittee to study the situation: "We'll get back to you on that!"
#10
MY point is that the goal of the UN is not to stop genocide, but to pin blame. It often takes very little research to lay blame, often even bureacrats have the gut instinct knee-jerk blame America (or Israel) response. The committes will just confirm this later with an official UN report nobody will read.
#11
Judith: "Reg, Reg!, Brians been taken prisoner!!. We've got to *do* something!"
Reg: "Wot!, this calls for immediate discussion!!"
ad nauseum...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
01/27/2004 16:50 Comments ||
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#12
MY point is that the goal of the UN is not to stop genocide, but to pin blame
Bzzzt! Wrong answer.
The goal of the UN is the same as every leftinger and leftwing organization: deprecate and bring down the defenses of America so it can be destroyed.
I am, howver, willing to make an in-kind contribution to the UN: A week of my time and my pickup truck. I will help pack you communistic f*ckers to the piers of New York so we can ship your socialist asses to Eurostan.
The president of Zimbabwe, Robert G. Mugabe, suddenly flew to South Africa on Saturday, according to news reports on Sunday. The Sunday Telegraph of London reported that the 79-year-old authoritarian leader was flown by military aircraft for medical treatment after he collapsed early on Saturday at his state residence in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare. The newspaper said Mr. Mugabe had apparently suffered a violent fit of vomiting on Friday night, then collapsed trying to get out of bed on Saturday morning.
Hmmm... That's a good sign. Wracked by vomiting, was he? That can be very painful. I like it.
Reached by telephone on Sunday, Zimbabwean officials insisted that they had heard nothing to indicate either that Mr. Mugabe was ill or that he had left the country.
"We know no-thing! No-thing! Tell them, Hogan!"
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/27/2004 5:34:51 AM ||
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Are they sure that it's his vomit? I mean you can't dust for vomit.
David StHubbens
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 7:25 Comments ||
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#4
Who says God doesn't answer prayers? Now He needs to finish the job, and give Bob his well-earned, red-hot reward.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/27/2004 10:36 Comments ||
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#5
Sorry, guys: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says he visited neighbouring South Africa at the weekend for a family function and not to get medical treatment as reported by media there.
The Zimbabwean government has denied reports by South African newspapers quoting unnamed sources saying the veteran leader, who turns 80 next month, had been to South Africa for medical treatment. In remarks broadcast on Zimbabwean state television on Tuesday, a jovial Mugabe said he had gone to participate in a traditional marriage ceremony for his nephew, whose family settled in South Africa decades ago.
"I am very strong, very fit and I thank God. I have my own doctors here in Zimbabwe that I move with, but South Africa -- I have never been there (for treatment)," he said on Tuesday.
You're gonna have to drive a stake through what passes for his heart. Then burn the body.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 10:47 Comments ||
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#7
It would be fun to paint my face wit photoluminscent paint, donn a black hooded robe, and show up at rallies or along parade routes where Bob might happen by.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 11:20 Comments ||
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#8
This is like waiting for Deng Xiaoping to pass on to the great commune in the fire pits a couple of years ago.
#9
Anyone want to lay odds that Bob's eventual and welcome death will be hidden for a week or so? Just enough time for his family and lackeys to get access to the overseas bank accounts...
#10
Let's hope he gets a hard time in hell soon, and then when I get there, he's going to have an even harder time.
For more on Zim daily, try: http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/
(Cut and paste, perhaps).
#12
So who will take them? ChiComs are nowadays forgiving African debt, but saying, No more aid. Anyway, a black man/mfazi will stand out like a dog's ball over there. Zimbos will have to learn to forget, again, but Rhodies don't forgive or forget. I have my own Youth Brigade, in fact two of them....
Wherever they've already bought property and influence. Off-hand, I'd say France, South Africa, or a half-dozen other sub-equatorial African nations...
A Wahhabite who gave shelter to a suspect in the terrorist act carried out in Kaspiisk, Dagestan, on May 9, 2002 has been convicted in Astrakhan. "The Astrakhan Sovetsky Courtâs sentence on Dagestani native M. Abdurazakov, pronounced in late December 2003, has entered into force. Abdurazakov headed the Wahhabite community of Astrakhan," a representative of the Federal Security Serviceâs public relations center said. He said Abdurazakov was convicted of illegal possession of arms and would spend one and a half years in a penal colony. A. Abdulkarimov, a suspect in the terrorist act carried out in Kaspiisk, Dagestan, on May 9, 2002 was detained in a joint operation conducted by the Astrakhan and Dagestani Departments of the Federal Security Service, the Astrakhan regional police department and the Dagestani Interior Ministry on June 10, 2003. The suspect, who was on the federal wanted list, was hiding out in Abdurazakovâs house. The search of the house yielded a Kalashnikov assault rifle with cartridges, two radio sets and video material containing Wahhabite propaganda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 12:30:29 AM ||
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the russian press tends to particularly focus on the word wahabite. Unlike our leadership, they seem more willing to acknowledge a religious element to the war, but even they dont want to indicate that this is a war against all muslims, so they focus on Wahabism - also many muslims in Russia and elsewhere in the FSU are sufists, whose traditions are heretical to the wahabites.
Attackers hurled a grenade at a Synagogue in the city of Derbent on the Caspian Sea on Sunday. A Jewish Agency representative in the Caucasus region told Yediot Ahronotâs website (Ynet) that the incident occurred late Sunday, and that there were no casualties. Only light damage was caused to the buildingâs structure. Derbent police have started an investigation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 12:28:28 AM ||
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Wherever people are killing each other, they always find time to enjoy a Snickers lobbing a gernade at a synagogue.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 11:24 Comments ||
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I'm surprised there are still Jews hanging around in Dagestan. Kind of like I was surprised when the WaPo ran the story about the last two Jews in Afghanistan shortly after the Talibs left Kabul. Figured everyone would have bugged out to Israel by now.
#4
But the Two Jews From Kabul just kept calling the Talibs and accusing the other guy of being a Mossad agent. They apparently were fueding over an old copy of the Torah. Hmmm, maybe that's the guidebook for the conspiracy.....
I love these stories
When 79-year-old Hank Arend, a decorated veteran, tossed aside his heavy mess kit during one of the deadliest battles in World War II, he thought little of it. But 60 years later, as Arendâs grandson surfed a computer Web site, he stumbled across a posting by a collector with a photograph of the modest aluminum pot. Arend contacted the Belgian collector, who agreed to send the pot - replete with Arendâs name and serial number, 36738409, scratched into the bottom. Somewhat unexpectedly, the potâs arrival last week in the mail has unleashed a host of memories for the Novato resident. "I thought, âJust get rid of it. Itâs too much to haul around,â" Arend said. "The fighting was so intense that we very rarely got a warm meal, so what was the use of that mess kit? We ate rations instead."
Arend is one of seven people in the F Company 291st, 75th Infantry, who survived the Battle of the Bulge from 1944 through 1945 in the Ardennes Forest on the border between Germany and Belgium. Posted on the front line, Arend, then 18, had little time to stop and eat and, hence, little need for a cooking pot. "You are laying on the ground as much as you are standing up, so you donât want to be dragging all this stuff behind you," he continued. "Every movement we made, we would lose most of the men."
The mess kit consists of an oval-shaped aluminum pot with a lid that is roughly 7 inches tall and 8 inches long. On the bottom, Arendâs name and serial number are distinct. "I recognize my own writing. I had scratched it in," Arend said. The potâs odyssey came to an end in December, when Jesse Babbitz, 33, of Los Altos, said he was looking for his grandfatherâs e-mail address on a computer and discovered Arendâs mess kit instead. "It accentuates how powerful the Internet has become for connecting people through space and time throughout the world," Babbitz said. "The fact that this mess kit that he left 60 years ago could be identified is awe-inspiring."
Arend contacted Pierre Godeau, the collector who lives in Belgium. Godeau said he got the mess kit from a collector but that he then lost the collectorâs information, Arend said. But Godeau agreed to send the package to Arend as a Christmas present. "I told him I threw it away 60 years ago. Now what would I want with it now?" Arend joked.
The mess kit discovery has allowed Arend and his grandson an opportunity to connect, Babbitz said. "I think it has opened up a chance for him to reflect on his life," Babbitz said. "It has allowed me to connect with him and his past - it has prompted more dialogue about his past and my past."
Posted by: tipper ||
01/27/2004 12:19:03 AM ||
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Arend is one of seven people in the F Company 291st, 75th Infantry, who survived the Battle of the Bulge from 1944 through 1945 in the Ardennes Forest on the border between Germany and Belgium. Does this statement mean only seven men remain alive today or only seven survived the Battle of the Bulge?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 10:54 Comments ||
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I read it as seven people in F Company who survived the Bulge.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/27/2004 11:12 Comments ||
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Those aren't very good odds. You would have expected more to survive due to non-mortal but disabling wounds (blindness, lost a leg ect.)
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 11:36 Comments ||
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Federals destroyed an armed gang, led by Abuvalid Astamirov, numbering 15, including the ringleader, in the Urus-Martan district. The gang, using forged documents of police, security officers of the Chechen president and servicemen of the United Army Group, was engaged in abducting people, Tass learnt on Tuesday from spokesman of the regional headquarters on the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus Ilya Shabalkin. Astamirov, a trigger-happy terrorist, was personally involved in 35 murders and committing several terrorist acts. According to Shabalkin, federal troops also wiped out the gangâs base, situated near the village of Tangi. They found, at the base, a list of 21 local residents whom bandits intended to kill. According to the spokesman, the list included staff members of local bodies of self-government, officers of police and other law enforcement bodies.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 12:19:22 AM ||
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Kidnapping has been a major occupation of Chechnyans for decades. The Soviet Union's mafia was dominated by Chechnyans, similar to how our Mafia was dominated by Sicilians. The Chechnyan mafia's attitude toward Islam is similar to the Sicilian Mafia's attitude toward Roman Catholicism.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/27/2004 7:31 Comments ||
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Nineteen-year-old Shebzukhova from the Chechen village of Shelkovskaya, widow of a killed Chechen bandit, was arrested in the Dagestan town of Kizlyar during a special operation, launched by the Provisional Operations Group (POG) of the Russian Interior Ministry. Officials of the POG Press Centre told Itar-Tass on Monday that this specially trained kamikaze woman was about to commit a terrorist act. Detectives are now looking for those who had trained the terrorist.
POG men arrested in the Urus-Martan District of Chechnya an active member of an illegal armed gang, who, together with other bandits, attacked a group of policemen on the Goiskoye-Urus-Martan motor road. His case is now being investigated. It was already proved that an earlier arrested resident of Grozny took part in the attempt on the life of the chief of the Oktyabrsky District Police Department of the Chechen capital last November.
The police found a camouflaged barrel in the Achkoi-Martan district centre, containing 30 kilograms of hexogen mixed with bolts and nuts. Sixty kilograms of hexogen and aluminium powder, containing metal scraps, were found next to the gate of the âKrasny Molotâ plant in Grozny. The bandits, who arranged those booby-traps, are now being sought.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 12:18:02 AM ||
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The United States urged last Thursday that the Kenyan branch of a Saudi charity be added to an international list of groups said to finance terrorism. Acting in conjunction with the government of Saudi Arabia, the US Treasury Department targeted branches of the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation in Tanzania, Indonesia and Pakistan as well as in Kenya. "These branches have provided financial, material and logistical support to the Al Qaeda network and other terrorist organisations," the United States said. US Treasury Secretary John Snow added, "The branches of Al Haramain that we have singled out today not only assist in the pursuit of death and destruction; they deceive countless people around the world who believe that they have helped spread good will and good works."
In support of its charges, the Treasury Department revealed that an unnamed Al Haramain employee indicated a full year in advance that the US embassy in Nairobi would be attacked by a suicide bomber crashing a vehicle into the embassyâs gate. That was exactly the method used in August 1998 when Al Qaeda operatives destroyed the embassy, killing 200 Kenyans and 12 Americans. A simultaneous attack on the US embassy in Tanzania killed 12 Africans. One year prior to the attacks, Kenyan authorities arrested and deported an unspecified number of individuals associated with Al Haramain, the US says. The action came, according to US officials, after the United States learned that the Kenyan branch of the charity was plotting attacks against Americans.
The US further charges that the former director of Tanzaniaâs Al Haramain branch assisted the advance party that planned the bombings in both Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. It also states that a wealthy Al Haramain official outside East Africa agreed to finance the embassy attacks. More recently, individuals associated with Al Haramain in Tanzania discussed plans early last year for attacks against several hotels in Zanzibar, the US Treasury Department says. "The scheduled attacks did not take place due to increased security by local authorities, but planning for the attacks remained active", the department adds.
Al Haramain has denied involvement in terrorism and claimed that it closed its branches in Kenya Tanzania, Indonesia and Pakistan after the Saudi government ordered it to take such action in 2003. The Treasury Department says, however, that "continued monitoring by the United States and Saudi Arabia indicates that these offices and/or former officials associated with these branches are either continuing to operate or have other plans to avoid these measures". The US and Saudi Arabia urged the United Nations on Thursday to order its member states to freeze the assets of the four targeted branches of Al Haramain. The United States also said it was adding Al Haramain to its own list of groups suspected of supporting terrorism. As a result, any financial assets in the United States belonging to the four branches must be frozen. Some individuals believed linked to Al Haramain were arrested by Kenyan authorities in the weeks following the 1998 embassy attacks. The Kenyan government also revoked the registration of Al Haramain and four other Islamic groups, but Kenyaâs High Court later blocked the deregistration.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 12:13:22 AM ||
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a Saudi charity? Surely they're mistaken
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/27/2004 11:21 Comments ||
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Are they moving to Detroit?
Jordanâs king told the archdruidarchbishop of Canterbury Monday that Israelâs presence in Jerusalem has prompted many Christian Arabs to leave the city and move to the suburbs. "Christian Arab existence in Jerusalem is being threatened because its Arab population is emigrating in view of the Israeli occupation of the holy city," said Abdullah II, according to the official Petra news agency. Abdullah is making a play here.
Petra said Rowan Williams, world archdruid leader of the Anglican Church, listened to Abdullahâs views on the issue during a meeting at a royal palace in Amman. Williams, who arrived in Jordan late Sunday, is on a regional tour which will take him to Israel and the Palestinian territories. In a sermon Monday, Williams urged his Anglican congregation at Ammanâs Episcopal Church to follow the example of Jesus Christ in "building bridges into the suffering of another" and in living at peace with themselves and others in their community. "We are able at last to recognize that evil is not somewhere out there in the stranger, the enemy, but in our own hearts," he said at the Mass attended by royal family members and leaders of other Christian communities. He seems to have uttered a vaguely Christian thought. Didnât know he had it in him anymore.
Christians make up 6 percent of Jordanâs 5.1 million population, with the rest of the population Muslim.
I think His Excellency the Archdruid is hiding in the bushes of the individual sinners to avoid seeing the greater institutional evil around him. The institutionalized corruption, cruelty, and organized murder that characterizes Paleostine and those who make it go makes individual shortcomings look pretty small potatoes. In this case, the evil that's out there in the stranger is much more horrifying than what's found in individual hearts...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/27/2004 12:08:01 AM ||
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Will they mention the Christian Arabs who've had to move out of West Bank because of Islamist/PA intimidation?Don't hold your breath.
Posted by: El Id ||
01/27/2004 0:20 Comments ||
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A smart Christian would leave East Jerusalem before it becomes part of a Paleostinian thugocracy. Actually, a number of moslems are also trying to leave for the same reason.
#3
A smart Christian would leave East Jerusalem before it becomes part of a Paleostinian thugocracy. Actually, a number of moslems are also trying to leave for the same reason.
#4
Unfortunately, this theory falls appart when you consider that Arab Christians are also vacating Bethlehem at a rate that is very alarming to Arafat. Economics is the biggest factor. Living becomes very expensive when everybody is sploding. Few can make money in that type of enviroment - Arafat excepted, of course.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 11:46 Comments ||
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Not exactly news, unless it pertains strictly to Jerusalem. Christian Arabs have been leaving the area for years. Those leading the Christian religious communities in the region (the Roman Catholic bishop, for example)have been pro-Palestinian. It would follows then, that the remaining communities themselves would harbor such attitudes as well.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind behind the September 11 plot, was granted a visa to enter the US just six weeks before the terrorist attacks in Washington and New York, according to new revelations from the federal commission studying the attacks. Mr Mohammed, who had previously been indicted in the US for his alleged role in an earlier terrorist plot, was granted a visa through a US consulate in Saudi Arabia after applying under a false Saudi passport using the alias Abdulrahman al Ghamdi, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States said on Monday.
Takes your breath away, doesn't it?
Mr Mohammed, who was captured in Pakistan last April, did not appear to have used the visa to enter the US, the commission said. The revelations will raise new questions about lapses in US border controls that may have contributed to the September 11 attacks. While the US has taken numerous steps to tighten its scrutiny of travellers, the administration is still facing criticism from Democrats that border security remains too lax. In its most pointed conclusions to date, the commission, headed by Thomas Kean, a former New Jersey governor, said its investigation had revealed that many of the hijackers had violated US immigration laws, lied on visa applications and showed other suspicious behaviours that could have been detected. Three of the 19 hijackers, for instance, made false statements in their visa applications that could have been detected, according to the commission, which is preparing to submit a final report to President George W. Bush and Congress in late May. Two of four hijackersâ passports recovered from the crashes had been doctored in a way that hinted at their association with al-Qaeda. Two others had "suspicious indicators" on their passports. "These circumstances offered opportunities to intelligence and law enforcement officials," said the commission, "but our government did not fully exploit al-Qaedaâs travel vulnerabilities."
The conclusions may re-open the question of whether intelligence and law enforcement officials could have done more to stop the plot, in spite of previous claims that most of the hijackers had no record of association with terrorists and thus were unlikely to be identified. "The director of Central Intelligence described 17 of the 19 hijackers as âcleanâ. We believe the information we have provided today gives the commission the opportunity to re-evaluate those statements," the commissionâs staff said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/27/2004 12:07:13 AM ||
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alias Abdulrahman al Ghamdi
That's interesting.
Posted by: Pete Stanley ||
01/27/2004 0:24 Comments ||
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does maura harty like hairy 'rabs?
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
01/27/2004 0:54 Comments ||
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The director of Central Intelligence described 17 of the 19 hijackers as âcleanâ.
I would like to know their stated purposes for visiting the United States. To visit friends or relatives? Tourism? No stated purpose at all?
Can Americans obtain visas to visit Saudi Arabia just as easily? I don't think so.
We need to introduce the principle of reciprocity into our visa relationship with Saudi Arabia.
I also think we ought to introduce a male-female quota system. The number of visas that we issue to Saudi males ought to be kept in proportion to the number of visas that we issue to Saudi females.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/27/2004 8:31 Comments ||
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When he got jugged, does that automatically open up a slot for another jihadi? Isn't there some woman in the State Department that specializes in Visas for the criminally insane Saudis that I could ask?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2004 11:39 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
