EFL
Animal sex is not illegal in Sweden, and every year between 200 and 300 pets are injured because of sexual assaults.
"Sven! Did you doink the hamster again?"
The estimate was presented by Svenska VeterinÀrforbundet, the Swedish veterinary organization, and it is now trying to make the authorities and the public more aware of animalsâ suffering.
"Yust look at da vay da poor t'ing's walking!"
The injuries inflicted on animals after sexual assaults are of the same character of those children get. Beck-Friis said that the most common injuries are wounds on the sex organs and blisters. Sick. Simply sick.
"Sven! Slow down! You'll give Fluffy blisters again!"
No one knows for sure how many animals that are abused, but a British study from 2001 indicates that every 20th dog or cat that receives treatment at veterinaries, the injuries are not a result of a direct accident, but the animal has been inflicted the injury as a result of a sexual assault. According to the Swedish paper Expressen, if the same estimate can be used in Sweden that will indicate that 200 to 300 dogs and cats every year are injured as a result of sexual assaults. And pay close attention here...
In contrast with most other countries, animal sex is not illegal in Sweden. It was decriminalized in 1944 in connection with the decriminalization of homosexual sex. Emphasis, mine.
#3
Flaming Sword.
It is not in dispute that the same 1944 act decriminalized both form of behavior.
If anyone is implying equivalence it would be the framers of that act.
#5
" C'mere poochie, it's playtime! "
" PETA! Open the door with your hands on your OH DEAR GOD TWO HANDS PLEASE!"
Posted by: Charles ||
01/29/2004 19:02 Comments ||
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#6
Now if sheep were involved one could legitimately consider a connection between this phenomena and the changing demographics of a growing Scandanavian-Islamic population.....
#8
Horrified at the treatment of innocent, martyred Palestinians by the Jooooooooooooooos, the Swedes act out in this horrific fashion! The Joooooooooooooooooooos are to blame!
#12
Have I ever told you guys about my dog with the beautiful brown eyes and bushy tail?
Posted by: Sven ||
01/29/2004 20:56 Comments ||
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#13
Are you SERIOUSLY implying that sex with animals is the equivalent of homosexual sex?
What Lee said is that bestiality was decriminalized in 1944, the same time homosexuality was decriminalized.
However, according to the article, the head of Sweden's veterinary organization does say it's the equivalent of something else:
âWe have seen an increase since 1999 when child pornography became illegal,â said Johan Beck-Friis [of Svenska Veterinärforbundet]. âIt appears, in other words, as there are some people who have replaced children with animals. In both circumstances, it is sex with defenceless individuals.â
#15
Flaming sword, I don't think that anyone equates consentual activity between adults with victimization of defenseless children or violation of house pets. Everyone is just curious about what type of Swedish clowns in 1944 were lobbying for the right to obtain carnal knowledge of poultry. Now back to the fun.
Speaking of bizarre deviancies, I have always thought that Ted Danson's attaction to Whoppi Goldberg was one of the greatest sexual mysteries.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 21:51 Comments ||
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#16
"Carnal knowledge of poultry..."
"If the egg can get out, I can get in!"
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2004 22:14 Comments ||
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David Hasselhoff has complained to museum curators after finding his photo absent in a collection of memorabilia about the fall of the Berlin Wall. The actor and producer, who says he is working on a film version of TV series Knight Rider, claims he is partly responsible for the fall of the concrete divide. Speaking to German magazine TV Spielfilm, Hasselhoff said in 1989, the year the wall fell, he had helped reunite the country by singing his song âLooking for Freedomâ among millions of German fans at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. He said he felt he had moved people on both sides of the wall, although he admitted hardly any of the East Germans could speak English. He said: "I find it a bit sad that there is no photo of me hanging on the walls in the Berlin Museum at Check-Point Charlie. "After my appearance I hacked away at pieces of the wall that had the black, red and yellow colours of the German flag on it. I kept the big piece for myself and gave the smaller pieces to colleagues at Baywatch." Hasselhoff said he doesnât mind that Americans make fun of his popularity in Germany and says he feels it is his second homeland. What happens when your career is over in Hollywood? It dies and goes to Europe.
He said: "Many Americans joke about my popularity in Germany. But they have no idea how beautiful Europe is and how rich it is in culture and fun and warmth and children. He has peered into the minds of Americans and determined their contents, yet another example of the widespread belief in clairvoyance among the Hollywood pseudo-elite.
In Germany children have brought me thousands of flowers. Delusions of Grandeur, anyone? Unlike many Hollywoodists, Hasselhoff at least seems to think that the collapse of Communism was a good thing.
#5
I had another thought. How reponsible is Baywatch for the current view of America in the Muslim world? Half-naked women running in slow motion, no wonder the repressed Mullahs around the world can't stand the US. Hasselhoff may have ended the cold war and sewed the seeds of the current conflict.
#7
ruprecht, the pathetic male ego in shame/"honor" societies reflects their own sick weakness, and images or viewing of women is not the problem
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2004 17:43 Comments ||
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#8
It's like Norm MacDonald always said -- "The Germans love David Hasselhoff!"
Posted by: Tibor ||
01/29/2004 17:54 Comments ||
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#9
Speaking to German magazine TV Spielfilm, Hasselhoff said in 1989, the year the wall fell, he had helped reunite the country by singing his song âLooking for Freedomâ among millions of German fans at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
So, what happened? Hasselhof was on the East German side of the Brandenburg Gate when he started singing, and everyone was running away from him, screaming hysterically and overran Checkpoint Charlie?
#12
Here's a story for you. My wife used to bodyguard for the kids of a Middle Eastern ruler back in the eighties (don't ask who). One day they're in the Ritz Carlton in New York and she spotted two guys eyeballing her charges pretty good. So she grabs up the kids, heads for the first elevator that shows up, and who's on it? THE David Hasselhoff, who's chatting up two babes on the elevator and taking his sweet assed time getting off. She grabs him by the collar, yanks him out, throws the kids in and they're out of there. She says five more seconds and she would've pulled her gun and shot the bastard. Thank God she didn't because, after reading this, who knows how world history would've been changed. We'd probably still be in the midst of the Cold War. If only David knew how close he was....
The Foreign Office were yesterday trying to confirm reports that a suicide bombing in Afghanistan that killed a British soldier was the work of an Algerian-born British national. The soldier killed in the attack in Kabul was a 23-year-old member of a Territorial Army battalion, the Ministry of Defence said. Private Jonathan Kitulagoda, a student from Plymouth, was killed and four other British soldiers injured in the attack near a military base in the Afghan capital. A member of the Rifle Volunteers, Pte Kitulagoda was serving in Kabul with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. The attack, claimed by the Taliban, is thought to have been carried out by a bomber who drove a taxi carrying explosives up to the soldiersâ vehicle.
EFL and news - Hat tip to Drudge
The United States has ordered the expulsion of dozens of Saudi diplomats suspected of helping promulgate Al Qaida ideology, diplomatic sources said. The State Dept. has refused to either confirm or deny the action.. dozens is much more than weâd heard before? Did somebody get a spine transplant?
The State Department revoked the diplomatic credentials of the Saudi diplomats in Washington over the last month in an effort to crack down on Saudi efforts to promote Al Qaida interests in the United States. The diplomatic sources said about 70 diplomats and embassy staffers were expelled in late 2003 and dozens of others were ordered to leave the United States by mid-February. Many of those expelled were said to have worked in the office of the Saudi defense attache.
"Pack your shit and get the hell out! And take your briefcase full of Korans with you!"
In all, about 70 Saudi diplomats have left the United States since January, the sources said. They did not include Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the longest serving diplomat in the United States. soon Bandar should be expelled along with the Washington-Whore-lobbyist lawyers heâs hired
The State Department has refused to confirm the expulsion of the Saudi diplomats. "I canât confirm it at this point," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Wednesday. "Iâll see if thereâs anything I can say for you." "Iâm trying to keep my Saudi pension plan"
The Saudi diplomats, in a determination made by the FBI and Homeland Security Department, were said to have abused their diplomatic privileges in the United States. The sources said most of the diplomats were responsible for operations of the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America [IIASA] located in Fairfax, Va. which we heard about yesterday
IIASA, established in 1988, has provided free training for hundreds of Muslims in the United States in Wahhabi ideology, the basis for Al Qaida. The institute is one of six overseas branches of the main religious university in Saudi Arabia. shut the m-fâers down!
The Washington-based Saudi Information Agency, operated by the Saudi opposition, identified the Saudi diplomats who work at the institute as Fuad Gunaim, Ibrahim Al Kulaib, Abdallah Al Saif, Saleh Al Sunae, Fahd Al Amer, Saab Al Saab, and Yousef Al Shubaily. no Al-Ghamdis??
The U.S. decision to expel the diplomats was said to have stemmed from a Houston, Texas conference in December 2003. The Saudi opposition agency said Saudi diplomats had planned to attend the conference with what it termed "known supporters of Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden. The Saudi embassy canceled its participation in the conference after the Washington Post reported the involvement of the diplomats. The conference was to have been addressed by a senior Saudi cleric Sheik Abdullah Bin Jebreen, who has publicly supported Bin Laden and his war against the United States, the agency said. Jebreen addressed the conference via video link from Riyadh.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2004 7:34:43 PM ||
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#1
'Hope we made them all swim home. With their luggage. 'But for oil, they would all be ......
#3
This makes you think for a minute. We might not be going North(Syria) or East(Iran) after we took out Iraq. We might actually be going South. Sure there's no evidence, but expelling diplomats en masse is the first step before war.
This doesn't have a chance of happening, does it?
Posted by: Charles ||
01/29/2004 21:50 Comments ||
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#4
Honestly, we probably should have killed a few dozen of them very quietly and very nastily. Deliver the remains back to them in zip-loc bags and see if the princes take the hint. If not, make sure they know the boomers are just tooling around the indian ocean, looking for honest work.
Suspected terrorists exchanged fire with Saudi security forces raiding a house in Riyadh on Thursday, killing several Saudi agents, an Interior Ministry official said. One suspect was arrested. Security forces had received a tip about the house in an eastern section of the Saudi capital and came under fire when they arrived, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Usual Saudi incompetence or a planned ambush?
He said one suspected terrorist was captured and an unspecified number of security agents were killed. The official gave no further details. It never ceases to amase me just how badly these Saudi security forces are doing their job.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/29/2004 12:00:59 PM ||
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#1
It never ceases to amase me just how badly these Saudi security forces are doing their job.
It's all about control - if these guys are good enough to get terrorists with minimal casualties, they're also good enough to overthrow the government. Considerations like this are why even the most prosperous empires have fallen to invaders from abroad. From an Arab ruler's perspective, the most dangerous threats are from within, not from without. This is also why the Arabs need us - they take care of internal threats while we take care of the guys from abroad.
#2
Update from Middle East Online: RIYADH - Five Saudi security men and the father of a wanted militant were killed during a raid in Riyadh on Thursday, while the militant and other suspects were arrested, the interior ministry announced.
"Based on information about the existence of weapons and explosives at the place of residence of a man wanted on security charges, a security unit went to the place accompanied by his father," said a ministry official quoted by the SPA news agency. "Two hand grenades, two machine-guns and five pistols were found. As the unit was completing its task, it came under heavy fire from unknown elements, which resulted in the deaths of five security men and the wanted man's father. "Two security men were also wounded," the official said.
The interior ministry official added that the wanted militant, as well as "a number of suspects," were arrested, and that "the incident is still being followed up." Residents said earlier that members of the Saudi "special forces" chased wanted militants hiding in a villa in the Fayhaa area of Al-Nassim district, they said. "The two sides are exchanging fire and ambulances have been evacuating casualties, but we don't known if these are dead or wounded," said one resident. Saudi security forces clashed with gunmen in the same Al-Nassim district on January 18, and the capital's police chief subsequently said "a number of suspects" had been arrested.
So, security forces took dad to his son's house. They found a bunch of guns and were loading them up when sonny and his buds came back and found them. Gunfight breaks out, dad gets popped along with 5 cops. Sonny and a few other "suspects" get jugged and some guys may have gotten away. That explains why all the cops got shot, they thought the house was empty and dropped their guard. Assuming the story is true, of course. Wonder who "sonny" is?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/29/2004 13:18 Comments ||
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#3
I'd go with the ambush theory. The suspects were most likely tipped off long before the security forces got in their vehicles.
This article speaks for itself. ....
A recent debate held in Abu Dhabi on the future challenges to the Gulf pointed up a striking divergence between the new European security thinking adopted in Brussels in December and the realities in the region. While the European Security Strategy, drawn up by the European Unionâs foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, makes much fuss over an engaged and active European role in the region, the strategic formulas actually discussed in the region almost exclusively hinged upon American security guarantees.
Why this discrepancy? Some of it probably has to do with the internal European debate, which is too bureaucratized and cluttered with interests that distort more than clarify the reality on the ground. To this effect, European efforts to put forth a common security and foreign policy has become an exercise in balancing interests of individual EU member states rather than a comprehensive debate on security challenges and needs. It is striking how force-averse the Solana security document is, when, in fact, the Gulf states are desperate to include military guarantees from allies (read America) into their security combinations. They realize that on their own they are defenseless against regional nuclear powers like India and Pakistan, notwithstanding increases in defense spending. Not to mention Iran. Tehranâs efforts to acquire nuclear weapons have sent shock waves through a region that traditionally mistrusts Iran. Undoubtedly, a nuclear Iran would disrupt the balance of power on the Gulf peninsula while posing a serious challenge to the security of the regionâs natural resources.
One possible response to this threat would be for Saudi Arabia to develop its own weapons of mass destruction. But this is a Pandoraâs box no Gulf state wants to open. Instead, the emphasis has been on getting American security guarantees. The leaders of the Gulf region want American troops to stay. Where is Europe in this picture? Not present, and for an obvious reason. As a community, it does not have the capacity or the will to deploy and sustain troops outside Europe for prolonged periods of time. At the same time, its political leverage - for all itâs worth - is a poor substitute for hard power.
The next obvious challenge to the security structure of the Gulf is the future of Iraq. Whether Iraq stays in one piece, disintegrates into three or is held together by a loose federal structure matters to the stability and territorial integrity of states like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, but also to the states of the lower Gulf. Here again, it is American power that is relevant, not European. In fact, the role of the latter - primarily because of French and German opposition prior to the war - has been totally marginalized in this debate.
Finally, Europeâs role as a security player in the Gulf region hinges on its ability to exert real influence over the Israel-Palestine conflict. Again, Europe is limited. While the Old Continent tends to cater to Palestinian interests, its ability to play a mover in the Middle East peace process is limited - mainly because Israel doesnât take Europe seriously. Leaders of the Gulf know this.
Limited and at times controversial engagement by the Bush administration aside, America is far better positioned to bring the conflict to a close. The problem is obvious: Europe is not serious about the use of force in an area where force is still necessary. As such, 21st century America is a much more credible and appropriate security partner to the Gulf region than 21st century Europe. If this reality also translates to other security theaters, Europe is obviously missing the point. Europeâs overwhelming commitment and emphasis on international laws and rules is noble, but unrealistic.
I'm not sure it's noble, either. It's often a way to duck responsibility or avoid taking any action at all...
If Europe is ever to translate its ambitions into real security projects, it needs to take its military development far more seriously. Without that, the Gulf officials will continue respectfully meeting their European counterparts - the way Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, Abu Dhabiâs crown prince and deputy supreme commander of United Arab Emirates, recently met the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin - but will always prefer to make their security deals with the Americans. Tell me again how weâve lost credibility in the world ....
Posted by: rkb ||
01/29/2004 10:55:30 AM ||
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#1
I think the topic should be 'Why the US looks towards the gulf'. Well GWB is a retard and ye all know it guys. Turn on Fox and listen to Kerry :-).
Six months in 'afgaynistayn' and he was kicking Osama's ass. Well, haven't found him yet. Then he was off to find the Weopons of Mass destruction in 'bag-dad' till Powell and Kay burst the WMD bubble saying they did not believe Iraq had them. That was last week. I would'nt be surprised if he gets his goons to stage a dirty bomb somewhere before the elections. GBW... the great American Moral standard...GWB style...
#2
Personally, the thought of Iran and Soddy having a nuclear war gets me hard. I mean, that is the definition of a win/win scenario. Problem is, neither one could resist taking shots at Israel.
You've opened my eyes to the moral decrepitude of my president, George W Bush. From now on I'm going to look to the Arab world for leaders of true quality and morality.
Hmmm... what about Saddam Hussein? No, the torture chambers, mass graves, and inscription on the back of his throne rule him out. Maybe Arafat? No, the evil campaign against Israel, and the turning of his own people's children into mindless, hate filled bomb-drones by the age of 6 rules him out. Maybe sheik Yassin? No, his urging of his young men to blow themselves up, and now the women as well, point to a lack of clear thinking. What about Bin Laden? He built hospitals and roads and helped drive back the soviets. sounds good except for his constant calls to destroy the western world, and the blood of thousands of innocent souls, all in the name of his religion.
Sorry Faisal. I'll have to rethink my first statement. For the moment, there are no leaders of the Arab world who stand out as an example to follow. For the time being, I think I'll stick by my president. He's guided by life affirming Judeo-Christian values, but doesn't hold up a bible as a replacement for the constitution. And, when the cretins gave us a bloody nose, he didn't run away to fire rubber bands back at them. He punched right back and hard - the proper response to rabid dogs. Is he perfect? Hardly, but I prefer him over any examples the Arab world has to offer, or has ever had to offer for that matter.
By the way, your unspeakably absurd suggestion that President Bush would detonate a dirty bomb to kill his own people just to win an election, very much speaks to what kind of leader you are used to, or perhaps prefer.
#7
Sgt.DT ... if someone disagrees with you so he's a diehard jihadi. Grow up man. Be a mature person. Ditto for hyper. I've noted that you guys babble too much. When someone says something that you do not want to hear so there's the easy way: Troll is around, troll is here, wear an explosive vest blah blah.
If you don't have an argument, so shut the f* up.
I agree with BH. If saudis and iranian had nukes u never know what they could do impulsively.
#8
The mullocracy in Iran have made threats against Israel about what they would do if they got nukes. The Iranians could just as well deal with others they did not like in the same way. Some of the gulf states get it. They have also seen what not dealing with Sammy got Kuwait, while all the "great powers" like Saudi stood by. Then in Gulf War I, the other Arab states would not finish Sammy off. I am encouraged by these Gulf states. Some of them want to live.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Teller, AK ||
01/29/2004 12:03 Comments ||
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#9
So Faisal, where do you think the WMD are?
I get a kick out of grown ups like you. "GWB is a retard."
Oh and where do you think bin laden is?
RwandaRefugee, State your case. spell it out, name names, call a spade a spade, spit it out.
#10
It's nice to see the trolls out. 'Means spring should be here soon.
What disturbs me about the article, however, is the mention of "21st century America" as being more credible and reliable than Europe. This outlook can change completely one year from today if, God forbid, we see Kerry or Dean giving his inaugural speech. I'm wary when I read sweeping statements like this because "21st century America" has the potential to change personality 25 times--it *will* change at least 12 times!
Posted by: Dar ||
01/29/2004 12:22 Comments ||
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#11
Lucky: Oh My God... you still don't know where the WMDs are?. We all saw it on TV. They were hidden under Saddam Hussein's Molar teeth. Didn't you see the footage of the doc checking Saddam?.
Osama is hidden my ass. I'm sure the yankees will get him out from somewhere like magic before the GWB the weasel gets re-elected (God forbid)
#12
RwandanRefugee, please keep spouting thoroughly debunked lies. That's what's called a 'self-defeating argument'. Are you really a refugee from Rwanda? I doubt it. If you are and you hate the West so much, then by all means go back to your genocidal brethren in Rwanda.
As for Faisal, try making an argument and many here will debunk your lies. Until then, FOAD.
#13
Hmm. Faisal, I didn't tell you not to rant, after all, this is RANTburg:)
As for not "having an arguement", I learned some tme ago that reasonable disourse and discussion of facts makes no difference to those with your political fantasy opinion. So rather than waste my time answering your pathetic conspiracy blather, I prefer simply mocking it.
#14
faisal - you are an idiot full of hot air.
1. OBL is in pakistan and the us had to give the paks a chance to handle it. They havn't and you will soon major american commitments along the afgan/pak borders.
1. If good ole saddam did not have wmd then he should of come clean and not keep up the pretense that he did. He played a game of strategic ambiguity in regards to wmd and lost. As long as his neigbors believed he had them he had the upper hand. I personally believe they where moved to syria (but that is my personal opinion).
Just because kay or whoever cannot find actual weapons meand didly. The nature of these weapons means they can be destroyed/hidden very easliy.
Saddam was an enemy of the US and could of eventually taken his wrath out. But my children will not have to worry about iraq's saddam. And we are in a good strategic position to carry on the War on Terror!
With all the enemies the US has in the middle east we had to take the initiative. And we did, we placed are troops right in the middle of these bastards and the tone emanating from iran/sryia had changed from this time last year.They know their under the american microscope.
To say that Bush is immoral is just you blowing smoke (probably out of your ass). Mr. Bush is doing what the american people want - they want their interests looked after (latest gallop shows 67% of american believe Bush is doing the right thing). The only problem here is that when America looks after her own some in the world get stomped on - oh well. If you play with fire expect fire in return.
Where you from? What moral leader do call yours?
I just thank god we have Bush and not a clinton crony.
Your an idiot - hope you vist Gitmo soon!
Posted by: Dan ||
01/29/2004 13:07 Comments ||
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RwandanRefugee - Saddam was not created by the US. He came to power through his own ruthlessness. Once he was in power and the bastards in Iran gave us a black eye he became a good tool for the US. It is very easy to sit back 25 years later and say it was a bad idea. No president (dem or rep) could of supported iran against iraq during the 80's.
Exlain to me how Bin Laden was created by the US? Yes we supported the mujadeen against the soviets..but we did not create obl. If you want to place blame then look to the Sods and Paks. And then good ole Clinton for ignoring this during the 90's.
Learn your history before making absurd statements - enough said.
Posted by: Dan ||
01/29/2004 13:12 Comments ||
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#16
--Finally, Europeâs role as a security player in the Gulf region hinges on its ability to exert real influence over the Israel-Palestine conflict. Again, Europe is limited. While the Old Continent tends to cater to Palestinian interests, its ability to play a mover in the Middle East peace process is limited - mainly because Israel doesnât take Europe seriously. Leaders of the Gulf know this.--
Europe could cut off the money, for starters. That would be a big help.
#17
I doubt Faisal is an Arab, in fact I doubt he can tell the Arabic words for 1, 2, 3. I think it is your average San Francisco gay hippie with too much time in his hands and too much money earned by daddy of course.
#21
JFM, LOL.
Shiver me timbers and batten down the hatches me laddies! This is some classic stuff. Trolls - they're not just for breakfast anymore ;)
Seriously, I'm not the biggest W fan, namely - immigration bill pissed me off, medicare bill (I get to pay more, yippee) pissed me off. I don't give a fuck about Mars, and re-newing that lie of an assault weapons ban also pisses me off. However, W was the right one for the job to deal w/assholes in the mid-east. Imagine if the gore-bot was calling the shots - nothing would have happened & every second rate jihadi would be trying to take a bite outta our ass. The far left (I'm a GDI BTW) can't seem to fathom cause/effect good/evil or any other perfectly simple concept. Get off the self-loathing we deserved it bandwagon pussies - that shit's wearing thin.
I know we haven't found Bin Laden or WMDs. Who fucking cares (most of us in the mil don't). Two assholes are outta commission, the world's better off and in the big picture, the region will be better off. BTW - I don't really give a shit about the Israeli/Palestinian problem either. Call me insensitive but I have no irons in that fire, (not Jewish or Arab) I just don't want to have to go there or send my boy there to put their house in order. I do feel horrible whenever children (from either side) get hurt or murdered, because no one's looking out for them and they deserve better. Oh and on more thing while I'm ranting on my favorite site - fuck the UN.
#22
Note, actually I meant 4 assholes are outta commission - I forgot to include Hussein's putred spawn Uday & Qusay. Yes, I'm glad they're dead & no I don't feel the least bit bad. 500 rounds of 5.56mm ball ammo can't be wrong - the ugly American rears his ugly head again :)
#23
Fred, at the end of a troll-infested can you declare a kill on each trollish miscreant. The award can be for whomever gets the best headshot in against the targetted asswipe. If I win, I plan to put stickers on the wall of my cubicle in a tribute to fighter pilots of the past.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 13:51 Comments ||
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#24
I just noticed Faisal is back. Someone at his Junior High School must have left the computer lab unlocked. But Rantburghers, it really is unfair to debate with Faisal because in a battle of wits the poor dolt is completely unarmed.
#28
Frodo destroyed the ring but the Trolls escaped Mordor.
I also think Faisel is pretending to be Arabic. He probably hoped someone would make some racist slur because anyone that doesn't think lock-step as he does must be racist. From the Gates of Mordor everything is black and white isn't it Faisel.
#29
since no one bothered to shoot the arming comment down..
saddam was armed primarily by russia, the amount of arms support from the usa was less than 15%, look it up for once, use that neat brand new tool called google...
how can you even feel comfy making your claim when the iraqis fought american soldiers primarily with *gasp* russian equiptment ? seriously.. are you just making shit up?
The last member of a group of Yemeni-American men from western New York sought by U.S. authorities for attending an al-Qaeda training camp has been taken into custody in Yemen, according to a newspaper report. Jaber Elbaneh was being held by Yemeni authorities, and negotiations are under way for extradition, The New York Times reported in a story for Thursday editions. Oops, itâs a NYT story. Weâll have to wait for a real newspaper for confirmation, Iâll check the National Enquirer.
Six men from Lackawanna pleaded guilty last year to aiding a terrorist organization by attending the camp in Afghanistan in 2001. In December, 31-year-old Sahim Alwan was the final member of the âLackawanna Sixâ sentenced to prison, a term of 9 1/2 years. Alwan, along with Faysal Galab, Mukhtar al-Bakri, Yasein Taher, Yahya Goba and Shafal Mosed, accepted plea bargains which compelled them to cooperate in government terrorism investigations. Authorities said there was no evidence the Lackawanna group was involved in planning or participated in any terrorist act. But the investigation into the recruiters, financiers and others who may have traveled with the group continues. Those are the important players.
In their pleas, all six described weapons and explosives training and a bin Laden speech to trainees about men on a mission to attack America. A $5 million reward was offered for Elbaneh. Unlike the others, he never returned to Lackawanna after his training in the spring and summer of 2001, investigators said. Which makes him a "person of interest".
Lawyers for the Lackawanna Six have said the men were victims of high-pressure recruiters who appealed to their sense of religious duty in convincing them to seek military-style jihad training. Guess you figured that wouldnât fly with a jury, hence the guilty pleas.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/29/2004 9:21:51 AM ||
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#1
Additional from Newsday: Unidentified officials told The New York Times that Elbaneh was being held by Yemeni authorities, and negotiations are under way for extradition. FBI officials in Buffalo, however, said Thursday they had not been told of Elbaneh's capture. "He is still treated as a fugitive by the FBI," spokesman Paul Moskal said. "People who are in custody are removed from fugitive status." Unconfirmed reports of Elbaneh's arrest have circulated since early December. Family members said they have been calling friends and family in Yemen trying to learn the truth. "It's tough on the families," said Mohamed Albanna, an uncle who lives in Lackawanna. Albanna said some relatives believe Elbaneh has turned himself in to Yemeni authorities. "That's the murky information we can get," he said. "But we're waiting to hear from our local officials whether it's true or not."
I guess we need to mark his reported capture as "questionable".
Posted by: Steve ||
01/29/2004 12:29 Comments ||
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#2
So, if he turns himself in, his family gets the money?
Sweet deal. You go to prison, it's the best for the family.
#5
Lawyers for the Lackawanna Six have said the men were victims of high-pressure recruiters who appealed to their sense of religious duty in convincing them to seek military-style jihad training.
Is this the Jihadi version of "Be All That You Can Be"?
This is the guy whoâs been calling the American press lapdogs of the government for merely slanting coverage against the Iraqi campaign instead of outright lying about the issue, like the BBC.
The editor-in-chief of the British Broadcasting Corp. resigned Thursday, the second top official to step down after a judicial inquiry harshly criticized the broadcasterâs journalistic standards. Greg Dykeâs resignation means the top two BBC officials have stepped down in the wake of the inquiry.
G'bye, Greg. I hear Blimpy's is hiring...
On Wednesday, Judge Lord Hutton criticized the 81-year-old BBC for an "unfounded" report it broadcast last year accusing the government of "sexing up" a prewar dossier about Iraqâs weapons of mass destruction with information it knew was wrong. Gavyn Davies, the chairman of the BBCâs board of governors, resigned hours after Huttonâs decision -- the first time the top executive at the broadcaster has left in a dispute over reporting. The resignation of Dyke, who as BBCâs director general oversaw the entire organization, came after the networkâs Board of Governors conducted crisis talks Thursday about the findings of the Hutton inquiry. "I hope that a line can now be drawn under this whole episode," Dyke said outside BBCâs central broadcasting house in London after resigning. "Throughout this whole affair my sole aim as director general of the BBC has been to defend our right to lie about the War on Terror editorial independence."
#5
DPA -- unlikely. They'll just dig in their heels and keep fighting. We are talking about liberal reporters here; they have two strikes against their grasp of reality already.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2004 12:41 Comments ||
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#6
The sad, sad fact is that the beeb will consider this an isolated event and will not examine their systematic bias as a newsgathering agency. I have a feeling they're gonna circle the wagons though, and won't accept feedback meant in good faith.
Instead, they need a wholesale reexamination of their assumptions and biases -- there's a whole lotta "groupthink" going on there.
If this is the television license fee, I gotta admit, this suprised the hell out of me when I first heard about it. I was also dumbfounded when I first heard that officials actually run around with devices that detect the oscillator circuits of operating TVs.
#10
I think they need an omsbudsman person. Whatever happened to th nice little channel that brought us Benny Hill? what a shame they had to try their hand at covering news.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 13:13 Comments ||
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#11
Did anyone see the Beeb's on-line coverage of the Hutton Report? If so, you know that any hopes for a change in reporting policy (like maybe reporting what actually happened), is a forlorn one.
The first few bullet points in their report where basically:
(1) "Kelly killed himself,
(2) no one could have known that making up stories about him would result in such illiberal behavior,
(3) and anyway he was an annoying fuck that no one could have helped anyway"
Way down about number 20 or so on the list was the aside that "oh, by the way, the report may have been a tad inaccurate."
#12
Bomb-a-rama, would you familiar, by chance, with the Monty Python skit about the "pet license?"
As in the pet license "for my little chum, Erik the half-bee...,""Ministry of Housign," "Our vans can pinpoint a purr...", etc.,etc.
I think that was a send-up of the British TV license detector in action.
#13
It was the "Ministry of Housinge", I believe, pronounced "How-singe".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2004 16:22 Comments ||
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#14
LOL! Every time I start to worry about the 7th Century activists using 20th century explosives I gain strength knowing they have little chance with a civilization which laughs as much as ours.
#16
The first few bullet points in their report where basically:
(1) "Kelly killed himself,
(2) no one could have known that making up stories about him would result in such illiberal behavior,
(3) and anyway he was an annoying fuck that no one could have helped anyway"
Umm, I think those were Lord Hutton's conclusions actually. Slightly surprised that he managed to be spot on about the beeb's failings, less so about the govt's. I do wonder what the MoD did to Dr Kelly cos AFAIK he was a pretty tough character, his wife claimed he'd faced down gun-totting ba'athi thugs while he was an inspector in Iraq so he doesn't sound like the sort of person who'd crack easily under pressure. Also since AFAIK Dr Kelly was on record as saying a war was the only way to get rid of Saddam, since he believed Iraq had plenty of WMD & had seen Saddam's Iraq close up one does wonder why he was complaining to Gilligan & Susan Watts in the first place?
Posted by: Dave ||
01/29/2004 18:07 Comments ||
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#17
is it true that all the 'journalists' are going to quit if Gilligan loses his job? Can we get the liberal press in the U.S. to join in solidarity? A day without liberalism? What a wonderful world that would be!
#18
Believe it or not, on the morning of 1/30 NPR had a short interview with a British journalist about the resignations, and the journalist was very pithy in summarizing the essence of the issue, which was not that the initial BBC report was slanted, but that the BBC higher-ups blew off the negative feedback received from those complaining about he slant, and the higher-ups refused to do anything about it, even so much as admit there might have been a problem. For that the top echelon either deserved to be fired, or should have resigned. I wish that standard were applied to the US intelligence and law-enforcement agencies over 9/11.
Muslim activists picket a school in Luton as the dispute over the hijab arrives in Britain. A bitter theological debate which has split schools across Europe is now threatening to engulf a small secondary school in Bedfordshire, north of London. At Icknield High, a school on the fringes of Luton, pupils were running a gauntlet of Muslim activists, who thrust leaflets into their hands condemning their teachers as heretics. The row stems from the headmasterâs decision to ban hijabs, headscarves worn by Muslim women. Icknield High is the only school in the country to have banned them.
Keith Ford made the ruling when the parents of a prospective pupil asked whether their daughter could attend school wearing one. The issue had never arisen before: though about one-third of the schoolâs pupils are Muslim, the overwhelming majority of them are male and the handful of girls had never broached the matter. News of Fordâs decision, which is rooted in the schoolâs strict âno hatsâ uniform policy, quickly reached the local branch of al-Muhajiroun, a radical Muslim group. Within days, community activists had condemned the school as racist and the local Labour MP was urging a rethink. On Tuesday, as the schoolâs governors held a meeting to discuss the issue, Muslim parents were threatening to take their children away from the school, while non-Muslims were urging the governors to resist the pressure.
Geoff Lambert, chairman of the governors, said that the school was keen to resolve the issue, one way or the other. âWe just want to get it sorted,â he said. âWe donât want it dragging on. The problem is that, if we decide to change our policy on uniforms â which is effectively what we are being asked to do âthen we need to do so to cover all such eventualities. For that, we need good advice from the Commission for Racial Equality.â
The school serves an area containing one of Britainâs largest Muslim communities. Political activists claim that the proportion of local Muslim girls wearing hijabs has risen sharply over the past decade, from 2 or 3 per cent to nearer 50 per cent. Sayful Islam (24), who has led al-Muhajirounâs picket of the school, said that the rise was due to Muslims becoming better informed about the key tenets of Islam. His campaign, which he has entitled âSending Your Children To The Slaughterhouseâ, urges Muslim parents to spurn the values of secular schools â the âslaughterhousesâ â and instead induct their children in Islamic institutions. He said the debate, which is raging in France sparked by legislation outlawing religious clothing in schools, is likely to spread across Britain. âThe only difference is that France is blatant about its secularism, whereas Britain is more discreet,â he said. âPrince Charles would be stoned for adultery in a purely Islamic state, yet here he is head of the Church. The two values systems can never co-exist.â
Actually, it would be Camilla who'd be stoned for adultery...
Zanaba Khan (19) said that schools had no excuse for sticking rigidly to uniform policies. âThey change the policies all the time. There used to be a skirts-only rule in schools but they changed that to trousers when Muslims objected,â she said. âWe are much more knowledgeable and aware of the Koran than we used to be and will assert our rights.â Her friend, Aiysha Siddiqa (24), added: âWe are slaves to Allah, not to man, and we are not fashion victims. If there is a conflict between our creator and man, we will always follow Him.â
[Yawn!] They're pushing it for all it's worth. It's just so... so... predictable.
However, many parents of non-Muslim pupils appear to resent the pressure being placed on Icknield High. Raymond McColl, the father of an 11-year-old pupil, said: âThe school is right to set its standards. When parents come to the school they know what the expectations are.â
Abdul Mahim Malik, chairman of the Luton Race Advisory Forum, said that he opposed the ban but objected to the way that Muslim activists had exploited it. âIt is bad for racial harmony, it is against the UN Charter and it helps extremists by exposing rifts in the community,â he said. Margaret Moran, the Labour MP for Luton South, urged the school governors to lift the ban to calm local tensions. âThis seems to have got out of hand,â she said. âAl-Muhajiroun are only interested in creating divisions in Lutonâs community.â
"Give them what they want. Maybe they'll leave us alone."
British schools have traditionally adopted a tolerant attitude towards religious dress. Head teachers have been advised not to issue bans on religious headwear, particularly in areas with high concentrations of Muslim pupils, to avoid inflaming sensitivities. Ford said he was bemused by the fuss and would accept whatever decision was reached by the governors.
Posted by: TS ||
01/29/2004 11:33:43 AM ||
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#1
âPrince Charles would be stoned for adultery in a purely Islamic state, yet here he is head of the Church. The two values systems can never co-exist.â THEN GO HOME ***HOLE!!!
Posted by: remote man ||
01/29/2004 11:53 Comments ||
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#2
hmmm.... whats the talmudic punishment for adultery??? stoning eh
#4
Actually Faisal, no stonings are allowed without a meeting of the full Sanhedrin (LH correct me if I'm wrong). The sages have held that the death sentences in the Torah and Talmud are invalid until the restoration of the Temple and reconvening of the Sanhedrin. Therefore, the death penalty has been effectively abolished under Jewish law.
#5
People like Faisal are blight upon humanity. If these f*cking muslims don't like OUR f*cking rules, then please, leave our f*cking countries. Go back to the ass-backwards, 4th century, third world shit-holes that you came from! Just because you've got little dicks and have to abuse your women in the name of your pedophile, moon-god worshiping false prophet doesn't mean that we, as CIVILIZED people, have to put up with your barbarity.
#6
News of Fordâs decision, which is rooted in the schoolâs strict âno hatsâ uniform policy
Sounds like he, unlike the French, has a sound reason for making the decision. You may disagree with having a "no hats" policy, but there it is.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2004 12:40 Comments ||
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#7
So let me get this straight.....
The entirety of Faisal's response to this article is "oh yeah? what about the Jews?"
I got news for ya, Faisie.... when in Rome, do as the Romans do. That, or go back 2000 miles and 1300 years to any one of a number of morally, socially, intellectually and culturally bankrupt arab countries in the Middle East.
#8
Above and beyond the issues discussed in the previous comments there is also the issue of whether the families of the muslim girls want them to wear the habib. If the school changes their policy and allowes habibs, then the girls will probably be FORCED to wear the damn thing by the extremist in the community. Now they have a valid excuse to go unswathed.
#10
these people need to get with the program. you cannot emigrate to non-muslim country and expect thier adopted country to follow that book of lies - the koran. muslims should just stay in their own shit holes if they want to live in islamic country.
if the school had a ban on hats it applies to all - regardless. don't like it go home or send your brats to an islamic school. fucking idiots...
ok i got that out...can go back to work....
Posted by: Dan ||
01/29/2004 13:24 Comments ||
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#11
--âWe are much more knowledgeable and aware of the Koran than we used to be and will assert our rights.â--
If you're so much more knowledgeable, Zanaba, then show us where the Koran and/or Hadiths specify headgear.
Prove it and you've got a case. Some whacko issuing a fatwa in '81 because women's hair emits seduction rays doesn't cover it.
#12
the girls will probably be FORCED to wear the damn thing by the extremist in the community.
All the French & Chiraq bashing aside, I hope he, and Europe in general, stick to their guns and NOT give in on this hijab issue. Here's why: In a society or country or civilisation where freedom and equality and human rights are exalted above everything else, pressuring someone to wear certain clothing or adhere to certain customs effectively negates the aforementioned qualities. In effect, this creates another class of people, living in the same society, but under different rules where freedom, human rights, and certainly equality do not necessarily apply, right from the start. This brings up the question, and I suspect this is what the French are concerned about: should religion be above the state, or the state above religion? It seems to me, if we are to protect the rights of everybody, including the right for a Muslim to choose not to wear the hijab, every religion must conform to the (secular) law of the land.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/29/2004 13:47 Comments ||
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#13
What surprised me most about this story is that the school let these radical islamists harrass the kids as they were trying to leave school.
I'm sure the police know all about this group, they are the one who wanted to have the "Glorious 19 celebration" on sept 11 last year to honor the 9/11 hijackers.
Restraining order time!
#14
And if they are allowed to wear the scarf, how long until the muslim guys use this as an excuse to commit rape against non-muslims to 'teach them hussies a lesson'....
Not quite sure about the need to have a full sanhedrin. I do know there is a famous saying that a (national) court that delivers more than one death sentence in a generation is a "bloody court". To which another rabbi responded that if the court followed that advice, murder would spread. Clearly the rabbis of the Talmud would be considered "moderates" on the death penalty, seeing at as useful for deterence, but disliking vengeance, and wanting it to be used more or less sparingly. Certainly at that point it was applied ONLY for murder, and not for all murders. Retaining Adultery (and idolatry for that matter) as theoretically capital crimes has other implications in Jewish law however - for example you can break any jewish ritual law in order to save an innocent life, BUT NOT a law that is a capital crime. Thus you could violate the shabbas to save a life, or steal, but you could not murder, commit adultery, or idolatry.
#16
Nimrod? Napoleon? Zoprg? Murat? Damn, them little guys are fast, but luckily stupid. Remind them that we are going to the pool tomorrow and they will need clean towels.
#17
Do these girls wear their headscarves during physical education?
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/29/2004 17:57 Comments ||
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#18
I don't understand this focus on headscarves. Why is wearing a headscarf a problem. It seems peripheral to the real issue--which is that Muslims should not arrested and prosecuted when they break the law. If they intimidate students--that's disorderly conduct--haul their butts to jai. If they rape--arrest and prosecute them. If they intimidate and threaten other Muslims to force them into sharia--arrest and jail them.
If they try to take over the ghettos where they live and force sharia on everyone--roll the tanks in and declare martial law.
But stop piddling with girl's scarves.
Does this "no hats" policy mean that orthodox jewish students can't wear their little hats?
Posted by: Sue Bob ||
01/29/2004 21:33 Comments ||
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#19
"which is that Muslims should not arrested and prosecuted when they break the law"
Whoops, I meant that they SHOULD be arrested.
Posted by: Sue Bob ||
01/29/2004 21:39 Comments ||
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#20
Sue Bob- I'm not sure about England, but at my school students can't wear any sort of scarf (including headscarves) and no, Orthodox Jews cannot wear their Yarmulkes.(sp?)
Posted by: S ||
01/29/2004 22:30 Comments ||
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First woman takes charge of a Navy warship
A female officer has made Royal Navy history by becoming the first woman to command an operational British warship. Lt Charlotte "Charlie" Atkinson, 32, has taken charge of Brecon, a 200ft, 750 tonne Hunt class mine counter measures vessel, 14 years after the Navy admitted female officers on equal terms with their male counterparts. The 5ft 2in officer from Dorset, whose father also served in the Royal Navy, is the only woman among the 35-strong crew and is responsible for the vesselâs "safe and effective operation". She has already completed her first duty as commanding officer - preventing the smuggling of explosives during a three-week patrol of waters around Northern Ireland - and was yesterday in Faslane, Helensburgh, preparing for another patrol.
Born on Oct 21 or Trafalgar Day - which commemorates Lord Nelsonâs victory in 1805 - Lt Atkinson was only 11 when she decided she wanted to join the Royal Navy. She enrolled in 1994 after graduating from the University of Swansea and has since used her skills aboard Dumbarton Castle in the Falklands and Endurance in the Antarctic. It was last year during a two-year exchange with the Royal New Zealand Navy that she was offered the position of commander of Brecon. Speaking aboard the Brecon yesterday Lt Atkinson said: "To be in charge of a warship is the most challenging and exciting job I think there is to officers in the Navy and to get it at this stage in my career is tremendous."
She said she was not intimidated by becoming the first woman to command an operational British warship because she was supported "100 per cent" by her crew. "When you are at work, you do your job and Iâve got an excellent team on board and I enjoy working with them," she said. Lt Atkinson added: "I hope this will send out a signal to other women in the Navy that they can go up the ranks." Of the prospects of one day going to war, she said: "We have the confidence in knowing that everyone has been extremely well trained for the job."
Her appointment is widely regarded as a significant milestone for the progress of women in the Services. Until now, only eight women, including Lt Atkinson, have taken charge of command vessels attached to university Royal Navy units used for training student recruits. But they are much smaller ships with an average crew of five. Women account for nine per cent of the 41,348 personnel in the Royal Navy with 1,145 serving at sea. There are only 635 female officers, eight per cent of the officer corps. But the crew aboard Brecon said they were happy working under the command of a female officer. "This is the first vessel Iâve been in where a woman has been in charge. I donât mind it at all," said Brian Cashman, 24, an operator mechanic. "If anything, Lt Atkinson seems a bit more chilled out than previous captains I have worked with, which is a good thing."
Posted by: tipper ||
01/29/2004 8:25:53 AM ||
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#1
My concerns with women in the military have always been confined to the question of whether the woman meets the strength and size requirements of the job to which she is assigned.
THIS is the sort of assignment were strength and size are meaningless, and where leadership and decision making skills come to the forefront. Some may complain about the delay in making this particular event happen, but since there is no indication that any political pressure was applied, it seems to me that the Royal Navy decided that Lt. Atkinson was the best person for this job on her merits alone. No patronising tokenism here, IMHO.
Kudos to the Royal Navy for not only doing the right thing, but doing it the right way, and congratulations to Lt. Atkinson on her new assignment.
#5
Worked for a woman XO on Yellowstone; she was the best executive officer that I saw in my service time. I am for women being incorporated into the military with the only condition that they be placed appropriately in assignments that make sense for each individual.
For example, I think there was a woman Tomcat pilot that got pushed through training to satisfy somebody's moronic agenda. She received passing grades for performance that would have lead to disqualification had she been male. As I remeber, she crashed her plane fatally, a victim of some politicals clowns agenda. Other more capable women have earned their wings appropriately since then.
Note - I understand that John McCain was passed through flight school for political reasons as well with simular but non-fatal results.
I guess we live and fail to learn.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 11:55 Comments ||
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#6
Here is a question. How has military terminology changed since women have been encorporated into the service? A "sucking chest" wound now means a hickie.
Sorry, I didn't have the guts to post that yesterday, the joke haunted me throughout the night like the ghost of Xmas past.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 11:58 Comments ||
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#7
Actually, rkb, the response very well good be something like,
"Right ! a) put the shirt in question on b) lie down in front of my vessel. That will flatten out the wrinkles !
(bloody cheeky yanks....)"
Posted by: Carl in N.H ||
01/29/2004 12:00 Comments ||
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#8
I'm sorry, are you all part of the Taliban? What a pathetic display of misogyny. Iron you shirt? Sheesh, what's next? Stadium executions? Seems like the average comment posters on this site are troglodytes.
Sometimes people post things here for reasons of "smartassery," and not as debate-class propositions. I understood immediately that Carl was joking. I suspect most other people did, too.
Relax.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/29/2004 12:23 Comments ||
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#10
Seems like the average comment posters on this site are troglodytes.
Dear Disgusted:
Donât forget that the human race has two sexes, male and female, and for centuries (if not millennia) that was a good enough reason to not mix sexes in the close quarters of military units -- unless you are thinking about bands of prostitutes that used to âserviceâ the troops. Is it wrong to exercise our free speech to explore the various levels of discomfort, concern, or simple bewilderment about what these changes in society mean? If the last several thousand years of military science are built on the examination and study of 100% male fighting units, what is wrong with sorting out misconceptions or simply voicing unease about the change to mixed sex units? Surely, you canât deny that there are at least a few physical differences between the sexes, can you? Perhaps this stage of maintaining peak military readiness, as femalesâ roles in the military increase, is not that unlike how blacks and other races became integrated into military units that historically were purely white.
#11
"Disgusted" is no doubt also known as "Faisal", which is simply amazing when you consider that the "Faisal" persona would have this captain stoned to death for not being adequately covered while commanding her ship.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2004 12:44 Comments ||
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#12
...preventing the smuggling of explosives during a three-week patrol of waters around Northern Ireland
#13
SH brings up a good point. I've seen one passed through the Harrier program that should never have been. If she had to spring the ejection seat, the weight of her body could not handle the force exerted from the ejection itself, thus probably compacting her spine to the point of severe injury. She gave every effort to put on weight but just couldn't maintain the 135 or so lbs to be cleared. This was a case of non-gender neutrality in the cockpit. This was after the military politicos had her almost all the way threw the pipeline and boasting about the Corps' first female attack pilot. The tax payer's spent about a couple million dollars on her for the Harrier training. She now flys KC-130s. I don't hold her guilty of anything, she just wanted to fly and the Corps wanted a female fighter pilot to keep up w/the USAF & Navy. Politics and training don't mix. Put them in gender neutral jobs where they can succeed. Not in the grunts, or the artillery. I don't buy off on the race is the same as sex preference/sex equality debate. Being black, hispanic, or white is not a behavior. Just my $.02
#14
Jarhead, I think individual capabilities is the way to go.
In the Navy an Operations Specialist does quite a bit of radar watching and problem solving along with be responsible for monitoring a radio frequency in either ear. Because multi-tasking is involved, the majority of women would perform better in this rating than the majority of men (applause and knowing laughter from women.)
That doesn't mean that the rating should be populated exclusively with women. The key is to make all recruits take ASVAB tests that qualify them for certain ratings. Having realistic physical requirements for each job is necessary as well. I've seen women lifters on ESPN that could certainly carry a full load of combat gear.
Unfortunately bozo's that want to be promoted tend to circumvent necessary requirements. That's what gets us linguists that can't read and other minions of the Island of Broken Toys. It's great when someone incapable of performing a necessary function of a rating progresses up the ranks on shore duty.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 13:47 Comments ||
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#15
"I've seen women lifters on ESPN that could certainly carry a full load of combat gear."
Heck, recruit'em. However, I've seen a full combat load break a female officer candidate's pelvis during a hike (not the only incident either). One of the reason they reduced the pack weight at OCS/Recruit training. Fleet Marine Force has different standards (heavier) as there are no women in the grunts, recon or in line artillery. That's my point. I'm w/individual capabilities angle, if it makes good common sense then I'm w/it. But, I've been around too long and seen too much political stupidity in putting well meaning, hard working, proud females in positions they could not succeed in due to physical limitations. Again, I'm not pissed at them, they just want to serve and do their best like anyone else. The system is not set up for them in some instances. Hard fact but true.
#17
This is S. I'm just seeing if I can change my name while posting from the same computer...(to see if trolls can)
And for the record, being female, I will simply say that lowering standards to admit women is a very bad idea. It does nothing to improve our military and creates the oppurtunity for problems that would not have occured had standards been followed.
#18
Yup. I have completed my own personal experiment that I'm sure has been checked before but oh well. Yes, it is definately possible to simply change one's name.
Posted by: S ||
01/29/2004 22:42 Comments ||
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From JihadWatch Franceâs Nouvel Observateur (thanks to Joyce) is reporting that controversial European Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadanâs move to the United States may be related to talks between Washington and the Muslim Brotherhood. Here is my rough-and-ready translation of the French article:
Surprise: Tariq Ramadan, part-time lecturer at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland, is on his way to the United States. Next September, he will be named a professor at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. This arrangement comes after multiple offers made to him by many American universities for several months, in particular the University of Chicago. In April, he will also direct several conferences in California, and according to him, will be invited to the U.S. State Department, which seems interested in him more and more.
This information was also confirmed Wednesday by the Genevan daily newspaper Le Temps, which confirms, quoting a spokesman of Tariq Ramadan, that "he will give courses beginning next fall on the relationship between religion, conflict and the promotion of peace." However, according to the paper, the visa application filed by the intellectual is likely to take time, "because there are people who have questions about it."
His departure from Europe is even more surprising since the Genevan theologian (of Egyptian origin) is actively involved in France in the debate over the veil and secularism. Tariq Ramadan is considered, by many European intelligence services, to be one of the clandestine leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that supports the Palestinian kamikazes of Hamas. Is his departure for the United States a sign, as DST [Territorial Surveillance Directorate, Franceâs domestic intelligence service] officials believe, of an accord between Washington and the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood?
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/29/2004 1:19:57 AM ||
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American dominance over Europe is complete. With the emerging popularity of Michael Moore in Europe, Americans are now set to dominate Europe's vast market for America-bashing punditry. We are now even moving in on their stronghold in the field of Terrorist Apology. In addition to top professionals, experts researchers, students and professors; U.S. companies and Universities have the cash and the the status to lure Europe's leading Islamic nut-case experts - like Ramadan - away from Europe.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro ||
01/29/2004 3:41 Comments ||
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#2
This just sucks!
Are the feds climbing to bed with the Brotherhood?
Hopefully this is a sting to get him in our reach.
#4
Is it better to have this guy close where he can be watched and his communications to underlings monitored? Might be some method to this madness.
Posted by: remote man ||
01/29/2004 11:45 Comments ||
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#5
Ok, Ramadan is quite a public figure around here, a real media darling, mostly because he's contreversial, and speak very well, though his stardom seems to have waned a little bit. Hey, I've just finished a book that was written especially against him!
The new 'Le point' weekly, I think, investigated about him, and found some interesting stuff (hadn't bought it yet), but here are some already known factors :
He's the grand son of Hassan al Bana, the founder of the muslim brother, the son of a quasi-pakistani minister and a MB bigshot; he seems to be at least the mouthpiece of the brotherhood in Europa (he denies it, but apparently, according to 'Le point', he's one of its strategists, bought to Geneva to 'islamize Europa'); he's quite fundamentalist, but also a specialist of the double speech; he's VERY popular among the european muslims, and says 'Europa is the future of islam'; his brother, Hani, is even more contreversial, as he's linked to Ahmed Huber, a swiss nazi converted to islam that animates the 'third way', an ideological mvt aiming at bringing the far right and islamists together, and who also headed the Al Taqwa Management society which has been tied to AQ (Hani has been linked to AQ also, and the spanish judge Garzon was interested in Tarik's link with an AQ figure in Spain); the two brothers were persona non grata in France until 2001, as they were seen as potentially dangerous for the state (the fact that this was reversed points the appeasement policy of Chirac & co).
He's an islamic heavyweight, he may be not a terrorist, but he's traveling along the same road; he's very bad news for you (but good riddance for us).
At least four rockets landed near an air force base in southwestern Pakistan, an official said on today. No injuries or serious damage were reported. The "four or five" rockets exploded near the base in Kohat, a military official said on condition of anonymity. It was unclear who fired the rockets, or if the air base was the intended target. A spokesman for Pakistanâs Air Force denied local newspaper reports that the rockets hit the base. Civilian authorities are investigating the attack, spokesman Air Commodore Sarfaraz Khan said. Interesting, is Kohat a base used by U.S. forces?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/29/2004 9:29:22 AM ||
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It was unclear who fired the rockets, or if the air base was the intended target.
Yeah, when you miss the base completely, how can you tell?
Banned jihadi group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has formed a squad of militants to avenge the murder of Maulana Azam Tariq, police sources told Daily Times on Tuesday. Maulana Tariq, chief of the defunct Sipah-e-Sahaba, was gunned down on his way to Islamabad last October. The Millat-e-Islamia, the name the Sipah-e-Sahaba adopted after it was banned, named several Shia leaders in the first information report of his murder. The Sipah-e-Sahaba was accused of responsibility for several sectarian incidents in Pakistan. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was believed to be its militant wing, though this was denied by both groups. The sources said the new squad, named the Al-Badr Squad, also had members from other banned groups, the Tehrik-e-Khuddam-ul-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Furqan. The sources said the Al-Badr squad was currently limited to Jhang district, the stronghold of the Sipah-e-Sahaba.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/29/2004 1:49:47 AM ||
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The United Statesâs patience could finally be running out with Pakistan and its nuclear program, even though Islamabad is scrambling to reassure Washington that any proliferation in the past was an aberration on the part of rogue individuals. Disclosure by Iran to the United Nationsâ International Atomic Energy Agency of the names of people who provided Tehran with nuclear technology - including Pakistani scientists - has clearly alarmed Washington, even though these events took place some years ago. All of Pakistanâs scientists are also now under heavy surveillance to track their every move, and the government has issued a circular stating that Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, a long-time celebrity in Pakistan, is not to be invited to any ceremonies or official functions, or in any way treated as a VIP.
Slapping his ego around isn't the same thing as putting him in jug — or stretching his neck...
Parallel to this Pakistani investigation, though, the US has launched its own independent probe into Pakistanâs links to the nuclear programs of Iran, Libya and North Korea, and, depending on the results, according to insiders in the Pakistani administration, Washington could lean on Islamabad to completely abandon its program.
They'd do that kicking and screaming, and the fundos would explode. Much of the national ego is tied to the Islamic bomb...
Such action would conform with the USâs broader agenda to defuse tension on the sub-continent. Already the US has forced India and Pakistan, not quite kicking and screaming, to the peace negotiating table, and for this peace process to last, Pakistan, a perennial meddler in Afghanistan and Kashmir in particular, would need to be tamed. That would be something very difficult to pull off, I shudder to think how Musharaffâs fellow Generals would react. Besides which, Washington would probably have to put pressure on India to disarm in order to pacify the Pakistanis, and it has much less leverage over New Delhi than Islamabad.
US attention is also focussed clearly on Dr Khan. US and UK investigators have already made known evidence of him traveling on a personal rather than a diplomatic passport to Iran, North Korea, the United Arab Emirates and the UK. The UK government unofficially informed Islamabad several times of the visits, but received no response, leading investigators to conclude that he was, in fact, on official business. Tehran authorities have also released information concerning a property near the port of Bandar Abbas, officially given to Dr Khan by the government of Iran. A Pakistan scientist who was affiliated with Pakistanâs nuclear program spoke to Asia Times Online about the countryâs nuclear program. The program was the brain child of former premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was a champion of Third World countries and their rights. "If India develops nuclear weapons, Pakistan will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry" in order to develop a program of its own, he said at the time. But somehow I doubt Bhutto missed many meals..
Pakistan became the main supply line of arms (mostly from the US) to Afghan mujahideen rallying to fight the Soviets, who had invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. In 1981, because of its importance in the Afghan puzzle, the US Congress granted Pakistan a six-year exemption from the Symington Amendment, which prohibited aid to any non-nuclear country engaged in illegal procurement of equipment for a nuclear weapons program. Pakistan also accepted a US$3.2 billion, six-year aid package from the US that included the sale of F-16 planes. Free from the threat of sanctions, in 1982, there was a cold test at a small-scale reprocessing plant in Pakistan. Another case of blowback from the Afghan Jihad..
Around this time, Allama Ariful Hussaini, the chief of the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Fiqa-i-Jaferia Pakistan, the largest Shiâite organization in Pakistan, emerged as a go-between for Tehran and Pakistan, first for arms, and ultimately in the transfer of nuclear technology. Hussaini was shot dead in Peshawar in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) a few days before General Ziaâs death in a plane accident in August 1988. Hussainiâs party blamed then corps commander and governor of NWFP, Lieutenant-General Fazal-i-Haq, who was Ziaâs right-hand man. Haq himself was later murdered by a Shiâite assassin. Wheels within wheels
By the late 1980s, then, the US was aware that Pakistanâs nuclear program was well advanced, and knew that Pakistan and Iran were cooperating in weapons transfers - most likely including nuclear technology. In mid-1988, a US oil tanker was fired on and it emerged that US missiles that had been given to Pakistan as supplies for Afghan mujahideen had been used in the attack.
As I've said before, perfidy wears a turban...
The US was outraged, and proposed an audit at a large ammunition dump at Ojri in Pakistan. Mysteriously, on August 17, 1988, the dump went up in a huge blast that killed about 100 people and injured thousands. An inquiry did find, however, evidence that the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence was involved in selling Stinger missiles and other American arms on the black market. The Former director of the ISI, Javid Nassir, openly admitted to smuggling Stinger Missiles to Chechnya and Bosnia. His forceable retirement was on of the conditions Clinton gave Pakistan to get them off the State Sponsorship of Terrorism list back in 1993. And that ammunition dump explosion isnât the only time convenient fires have destroyed incriminating evidence in Pakistan.
Since Pakistan was still a trusted ally in the Cold War, the US did not take any action. In June 1989, then prime minister Benazir Bhutto visited Washington DC. Before Bhuttoâs trip, though, production of highly-enriched uranium was stopped, a step that was verified by the US. It is believed that production was re-started after heightening tensions with India over Kashmir in 1990. During these years, the deep seeds of suspicion over Pakistanâs trustworthiness were planted, and they are now bearing the fruit that could poison Pakistanâs nuclear program, with the countryâs scientists already feeling the ill effects.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/29/2004 12:03:53 AM ||
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Paks won't give up their nuke program -- simply won't happen. Generals will whack Perv themselves if he tries it. Best we can hope for is a complete accounting of what happened and some sort of monitoring system to keep the government-approved "rogue" scientists from doing it again.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2004 0:11 Comments ||
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#2
Steve, my comment yesterday (on the Pak nuke program) was to the effect of; if GWB is re-elected, then the gloves come off and the Paks may have to hand over their nukes - because the Ohio class submarine in the Indian Ocean will have quite a few warheads pointed their way.
If there is any evidence that these weapons are finding their way into terrorist hands, then the terrible logic of The Three Conjectures comes into play and all bets are off.
Perhaps someone has told Perv this?
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
01/29/2004 2:42 Comments ||
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#3
Oops! Tony - you used the "L" word: Logic. As a Westerner, your logic is unassailable.
But... There is none in Islam - and Pakiwakiland is even a special case of Illogical Islam. Perv may "get it" - but Steve's right about this: there's no way the rest will. They have attached just about everything regards their self-image and worth, not to mention the size of their Pakiwaki dicks, to being the proud thieves of nuke technology to threaten India... and wobble and bluster on the World Stage as if they aren't the bottom of the barrel. Khan & Co have taken the fatal step in peddling it to other insane regimes, as recent evidence proves.
An aside: Given the way Prez Putty has been acting for the last year or so, I'd say that he would've done it if they hadn't - and that's a damning comment regards the pathetic / faltering Russian economy and half-assed efforts at capitalism while working overtime on gangsterism. The disaster of Russia's condition is the incredible stupidity it took to choose not to work on closer US ties and, instead, take their current course of selling off Soviet tech to the highest bidder, while their infrastructure crumbles - especially their hard-currency oil industry, and mimic Chirac's absurd and pretentious pseudo-morality games in the UNSC. Truly stupid.
Your conclusion is spot-on, though: all bets will be off if Dubya gets another term. The problem will be that they won't think. I have concluded that someday, by our hand or theirs or someone else's, Pakiwakiland will be a smoking hole.
#4
That reminds me... a Pakiwaki president once told his US counterpart that we can't reach you... but if we are ever threatened, we take Mama israel down with us. Let's hope White House is rid of all the monkeys soon. Man, I'm betting on Sen. Kerry.
#7
Lol redneck. Just was a bit busy with stuff. As u know i don't get paid by anyone for the rants ... like u do :-). Jews are fine with me. zionists are not. cheers!
#9
Jeez. maybe i should weigh the monetary benefits of this vast global zionist conspiracy (VGZC) lol. i hope your mortgage rates arent too high eh. good that i live in ma dad's house so i don't have any housepayments to make. Where's Jon She(e)p of UK fame lol.
#10
Why is it that Islamist trolls always write "u" in place of "you." I've noticed the same thing on LGF. It's like reading a twelve year old's cell phone text messages.
#11
You realize of course that under a secret agreement with the royal family in 1974 the interest your father pays is being skimmed off to support Israel. It was called "Operation Shylock." I suggest you go to Lyndon LaRouche's website for further information. http://larouchein2004.net/
#13
Why is it that Islamist trolls always write "u" in place of "you." I've noticed the same thing on LGF. It's like reading a twelve year old's cell phone text messages.
Because they're sub-literate twits?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2004 12:45 Comments ||
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Why is it that Islamist trolls always write "u" in place of "you."
I only do that on my cell fone. Every other electronic communication gets the full treatment (messaging on a cell fone is such a pain).
#15
Don't worry about Israel going down, Faisel, on the bright side, they'll be taking out a lot of palis and Syrians w/them. And if we really get lucky and the wind's blowing the right way....
And all that fighting and death about Al Asqa for naught. But that's OK, some Egyptian scholars think it doesn't have significance anyway.
#16
Why is it that Islamist trolls always write "u" in place of "you."
Because that's how they learned to spell it at the madrassa? In between classes on seething, putting together a bomb jacket and twisting around the Koran, that is.
Ok Faisal, what have you contributed. You've been around Rantburg for a while - you've read comments where people have despaired over the Islamists, comments where people have wanted the all Islamists annihilated. You've got an opinion (which seems the standard "It's all Israel's fault").
The point of my post is this; the West can do what the Islamists aspire to (ie annihilate the 'others') and its been able to do that for fifty years but hasn't. It is *trying really hard* not to do that, but everything we read from the Islamists is making us in the Western World think that it's not worth the bother.
Read up on the things that Westerners did to each other in the Second World War, the First World War, the Boer War, the Napoleonic Wars and through to the Medieval Wars (and those wars were *completely* psycho) and so on and so on. Do Islamists truly want to unleash that?
In my opinion this is one of the main reasons that Westerners try to understand, and are so tolerant? of other cultures. We (subconciously?) realise what we're capable of, so we do everything we can to avoid it.
The veneer is very thin though, and barbarism is always very close to the surface.
The Islamists had better hope that the veneer remains there.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
01/29/2004 18:06 Comments ||
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TIKRIT, Iraq - Soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigadeâs 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment and Iraqi Police raided a location in Kirkuk in an attempt to capture non-compliant forces. The soldiers and police captured 19 individuals suspected of anti-Coalition activities, including a person on the brigadeâs "Blacklist."
Two additional people were captured during the raid. One AK-47 assault rifle and one pistol were confiscated.
-- A 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment patrol raided a location southeast of Al Wajhiyah during the late evening of Jan. 27 searching for a suspected weapons dealer. The soldiers captured one individual and confiscated four AK-47 assault rifles, one SKS automatic weapon, five rocket-propelled grenade launchers, one RPG round, one mortar site, ten grenades, six blocks of C-4 plastic explosives, detonation cord, two SKS magazines and 900,000 Iraqi dinar.
-- Soldiers from B Company, 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment discovered a weapons cache north of Bayji during the morning of Jan. 27. The cache consisted of 100 135 mm artillery rounds and hundreds of .50 caliber rounds. Soldiers from the same unit found another cache in a house north of Bayji later the same day. The cache consisted of three AK-47 assault rifles with magazines, one box of pistol flares, 500 loose rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition and 30 9 mm rounds. The soldiers continued their search and found nine RPGs, two AK-47 assault rifle drums with ammunition and more than $2 million Iraqi dinar.
--An Iraqi was captured in Bayji during the morning of Jan. 27 after he was seen leaving an area where soldiers from the 555th Engineer Battalion found a newly emplaced improvised explosive device (IED). The man was also carrying $1,000 in U.S. currency. The individual admitted that he had just been paid to plant the device. The homemade bomb was destroyed at the scene.
--Soldiers from A Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment found a cache of two 200 pound and 15 155 mm artillery shells with attached wire in the village of Muhyi during the afternoon of Jan. 27. An explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) team came to the conclusion that the munitions were stored at the location for future use and were not wired to explode. EOD destroyed the items in place.
--In Samarra, soldiers from B Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment located and confiscated an ammunition cache consisting of 37 82 mm mortar rounds partially buried in a field during the afternoon of Jan. 27. The mortars were still in their plastic shipping containers.
-- Soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade raided a building in Kirkuk at approximately 1:15 a.m. Jan. 28 in pursuit of an individual suspected of storing mortar tubes, mortar systems and RPGs for anti-Coalition forces. The soldiers captured nine individuals and confiscated four AK-47 assault rifles.
-- Three criminals fired at an Iraqi Civil Defense Corps patrol with automatic weapons during the evening of Jan. 27 near the town of Habis. The ICDC soldiers were investigating a disturbance when they were attacked. The ICDC patrol returned fire killing one of the attackers and wounding another. The third criminal fled the scene. No ICDC soldiers were injured in the incident.
-- Attack helicopters from the 1st Brigade Combat Team discovered seven, apparently operational, ZPU 57-2 anti-aircraft artillery weapons south of Ash Sharqat during the morning of Jan. 27. An AH-64 "Apache" pilot fired on the weapons destroying all of them.
I overhead a gentleman, perhaps one of you, saying, "What is a COSCOM?" So perhaps thatâs a good place to start. Iâm privileged to command what is called a Corps Support Command.
We have delivered an awful lot of fuel -- 186 million gallons -- and 330 million gallons of water. Four-and-a-half million cases of bottled water is what we have taken out to our soldiers, and 100,000 maintenance work orders. So we fix our equipment to keep it at a pretty high readiness level for what weâre going to do, and I will talk about that a little bit later. And then finally, we order a lot of repair parts to keep that equipment running: 4.3 million requisitions to request things, to get repair parts.
But thatâs kind of dry also, so perhaps itâs helpful if I put it another way. There is a city in the United States of America called Springfield, Missouri in the center of our country, has about 150,000 people. We have provided enough food to feed everybody in Springfield, Missouri three meals a day for a year. We have delivered enough fuel for 40,000 automobiles every day. We have got enough water out there to fill 3.2 million one-liter bottles, and everybody in Las Vegas, Nevada -- all 500,000 people in Las Vegas -- can take a shower every day with the water that our soldiers make. And we repair 400 pieces of equipment daily, turning them around and sending them out and getting it moving. All right?
Next, we have a saying that nothing happens till something moves because I can do all that, but I have to move it someplace to get it to the soldiers. As you heard before, we operate from the Turkish border all the way down to Kuwait, and thatâs how we do it. We have driven 26 million miles this year. We have over 2,000 trucks on the road every day, and we will talk about those types of trucks.
Seven thousand of those moves that we do every year are called heavy equipment moves. We move rather large tanks. We donât want to drive them on the roadways, we donât want to drive the bulldozers on the roadways, so we will put them up on heavy equipment transporters and move them around in order to save the road networks. We have been very flattered and happy to be part of the stand up of the Iraqi railroad again, and we have had over 350 rail movements just in the past four to six months as we have stood up and gotten that moving, and it has been a great asset to us also. And then we have put 8,800 flights in our Iraqi airfields that weâre around and utilize.
But to put it another way, if I had to put that in other terms, like 8,700 trips -- the 26 million miles is 8,700 trips from New York to San Francisco. We have a large company in the United States called Wal-Mart, and they have 3,000 trucks throughout the United States. I put 2,000 trucks on the road every day, and thatâs a pretty significant thing we think.
We have moved 210,000 tons of equipment. Thatâs 35 days on the trains -- thatâs 35 days of Amtrak going Boston to Washington every day. And thatâs 20 flights every day in and out of Los Angeles Airport -- 20 days of flying in and out is how many flights we have run.
And Iâll start over on your left-hand side. Thatâs where we were in June of 2003, when we first started this operation. Our soldiers were eating predominantly the Meals Ready to Eat -- the MREs, we call them, the packaged food -- or a heat-and-serve ration we call a field ration. We have soldiers on two bottles of water per soldier per day, about 3 liters of water per day, and the rest of the water had to be provided by water weâd produce and weâd make.
Less than 20 percent of our force had the new-style body armor, and we only had what we would call green trucks, or United States Army trucks, our own organic trucks driven by our soldiers. Those were the only trucks we had available to us to run the operation for logistics. And thatâs where we were at in June of 2003.
Since that time, what you see on the other chart here, on the yellow part, is where we are now. Eighty-two percent of our soldiers are eating in dining facilities that are contracted. We have four bottles of water per soldier per day. A hundred percent of the force that we have has the new-style body armor. And we now have United States Army, we have contractor trucks, and we have trucks from the Iraqi nationals who are helping us, also.
Go to Memri for the complete article
The following report from MEMRIâs Baghdad office is a translation of an article which appeared in the Iraqi daily Al-Mada,(1) which obtained lists of 270 companies, organizations, and individuals awarded allocations (vouchers) of crude oil by Saddam Husseinâs regime. The beneficiaries reside in 50 countries: 16 Arab, 17 European, 9 Asian, and the rest from sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Only a portion of the 270 recipients are listed and identified.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/29/2004 9:44:33 AM ||
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#1
In a just world, these violators would be met with condemnation from all quarters, loud and severe.
#2
Questions arise regarding at least two friends close to Jacque Chirac, and such super secret operations as England's Soco International, and Switzerland's Glencore, founded by Clinton pardon celebrity Marc Rich. If an investigative reporter is looking for something with legs, they ought to try this one.
#3
I'm hoping G. Gallaway will be imprisoned for this but i'm not sure if theres law to do that.Anyone know if these people can be put on trial for this crime,it'd be a pretty twisted state of affairs if they couldn't but it wouln't suprise me if they wriggled out of this.
#6
I googled the two names under the US and the one Canadian and was disgusted to learn that all three were prominent in lobbying to overturn UN sanctions before GWB was even elected!
In other words, these were not "principled anti-war" folk; they knew Iraq and wanted Saddam for business as usual.
They conned top Roman Catholic officials (i.e., Cardinal O'Connor), human rights groups, even former President Carter (not too difficult there) with tales of woe re: sanctions, all the time looking for that huge payoff.
I knew this had happened but still, the confirmation was sooo depressing.
I would expect these people to lock their office door with a bottle of whiskey and a pistol but they don't even have that much honor.
#7
I googled the two names under the US and the one Canadian and was disgusted to learn that all three were prominent in lobbying to overturn UN sanctions before GWB was even elected!
Well, of course. That's what the money they received was for. Saddam desperately wanted to get the sanctions lifted so he could rebuild his military, ramp up his WMD programs, and at the least hand his demon-spawn boys a country that could retake Kuwait.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2004 14:26 Comments ||
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#8
I mean, just look at some of the stuff that Vincent (US), Millholland (CA), & Khafaji (US) did and then how they sold out.
Vincent lived in the US since 1958, ran track for Boston College (he's in their Sports Hall of Fame), ran for Iraq in the '64 Tokyo Olympics, US citizen, prominent Chaldean Catholic, successful businessman.
Millholland, prominent Western Canadian oilman, donor to liberal causes, etc., etc.. He'd be a Democratic senator in this country.
Khafaji became a US citizen, made a pile living in Michigan, knew the ex-pats who'd suffered under Saddam then he bankrolls Scott Ritter's propaganda film about how bad the US treats Iraqis!!!
These guys are not shadowy figures...they are prominent members of their communities. As P.G.Wodehouse might've written, "They should be flogged on the steps of their Clubs!"
#9
Oilexco Inc., a tiny Calgary-based outfit, was the first Canadian company to market Iraqi crude, including some destined for North American refineries, under the United Nations Oil-for-Food program. It also has dabbled in some exploration projects in Iraq.
Oilexco CEO Arthur Milholland, who once described the sanctions imposed on Iraq as a âterrible burden,â is hopeful the rebuilding of oil infrastructure will be a major prize to many companies.
Posted by: john ||
01/29/2004 14:44 Comments ||
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#10
You know, it's almost funny...at least it would be if civilization didn't hang in the balance. Surfing the net you realize how pathetic national news coverage has become. You don't need the Lord Hutton/BBC fiasco to know that bribes/politics/power/greed color the news. But this...this...well..it almost makes you laugh.
Go ahead, try to bury the news that Chirac and others were on Sadaam's payroll but there are some bits of news that just can't be buried. Rather, it is like you found out that your mother was a prostitue, or that your spouse was cheating. Try as one might to bury the hatchet, it simply cannot be buried. It will magically reappear during every argument/conversation/disagreement as the trump card. So the bottom line of what I'm saying is, that no amount of owning the news or propaganda will ever erase such news as this. Bury it on page A21. It will manage to resurface any ... and everytime... there is an argument. It's just there. It is a trump card. Ugly, but real. At least we all know where we stand.
Posted by: B ||
01/29/2004 15:10 Comments ||
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#11
The Russian state itself received 1,366,000,000 barrels.
" We didn't use any of the oil he gave us comrade, honest! You want us to give the oil back to the Iraqi's then? Um... I'll get back to you. "
Posted by: Charles ||
01/29/2004 16:51 Comments ||
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Listening to the "on the 1/2 hr" radio this eve they layed the majority blame on Boris. That signals a real ass cover going on. Sit back Miesters, the next scene is about to play.
Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Baghdad, yesterday declared that the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) and its affiliates which use northern Iraq as a safe haven would be treated as terrorist organisations by coalition troops. "President Bush has committed to end the use of Iraq as a terrorist haven. There is no place for terrorism or terrorist organisations in the new Iraq," Mr Bremer said, singling out the PKK and its "aliases", the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (Kadek) and the Kurdistan Peopleâs Congress (Kongra Gel).
The step is likely to please neighbouring Turkey, which has asked the US to take harsher measures against PKK guerrillas operating from Iraq. Mr Bremer released his statement just hours before President George W. Bush was to meet Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, at the White House. Both sides are anxious to put differences over the war in Iraq behind them. In a deal reached last October to facilitate Turkeyâs agreement to sending peacekeepers to Iraq, the US said it would "subdue the terrorist threat that might exist in this area", referring to hideouts of the PKK in northern Iraq. The US has long classified the PKK as a terrorist organisation. In the event, the US told Turkey not to send its peacekeepers because of the danger of a confrontation with Iraqi Kurdish forces.
Ankara continues to press the US to move against the PKK. General Ilker Basbug, the number two at Turkeyâs General Staff, said on January 16: "Our view is that the US must start some military actions against the [PKK] terror group within a short space of time." However, a coalition move against the PKK in Iraq would be likely to anger Iraqi Kurds. "These people are not terrorists. They are simply asking for their rights in Turkey," said Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurd and member of the US-appointed Governing Council. "The US took this step only to satisfy Turkey." Itâs going to be a huge and frustrating balancing act among the various factions in Iraq for years to come.
Kurdish parties are pressing for guarantees of an autonomous Kurdish homeland within a federal Iraq to be written into Iraqâs transitional law, due to be passed by the Governing Council on February 28. Other Iraqi groups oppose granting the Kurds such a large degree of autonomy, though Kurdish groups have threatened to take the matter to a region-wide referendum as early as this year if their demands are not met. Turkey staunchly opposes granting autonomy to Iraqâs Kurds, fearing similar demands by their own Kurdish population.
Posted by: rkb ||
01/29/2004 9:08:50 AM ||
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#1
It was about time, everything told about Iraq was a joke, no smoking guns found, no WMD weaponry etc. etc. Let at least the "war against terror" phrase be a serious one of Bush and Co.
Posted by: Murat ||
01/29/2004 10:01 Comments ||
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#2
Hey! Murat's back!
Speaking of lies, did you find the Kurds who set off those bombs in Istanbul yet?
#4
Hey, Murat, have you finally developed the spine to explain why you thought I was some Berwex-whatever guy? C'mon, you said you had proof I was that fellow -- cough it up or admit you're a lying sack.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2004 10:44 Comments ||
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#5
Korora brings up an interesting point alluded to in the Kay report. Hussein gave money to scientists to develop wmds (besides the ricin they sent to the UK) which the scientists & other top officials basically pocketed and fed Hussein false reports of progress. Hussein (the moron that he is) barked about his weapon's capabilities to neighboring countries and thus built on the myth. That's my theory as well. He may have been bluffing to keep his neighbors on edge and maintain his hitler-esque prestige in the region or he was just too stupid to know he was being hood-winked by his own r&d folks.
#7
Shipman -- that's the thing. I want to see Murat's evidence so I can be sure. I have these daily spells where I can't remember anything that happens -- they usually last eight to twelve hours (on weekends), and happen during the hours that that side of the planet would be active. I wanna make sure I'm not living a double life!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2004 12:54 Comments ||
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#8
That's odd. Has there been a helicopter crash in Iraq today? I could swear Murat only comes out when American soldiers die in large numbers.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/29/2004 13:05 Comments ||
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#9
RC do you ever wake up and find unaccountable kabob in the refrig? Do you ever think.... "Jeez that guy looks Armenian"? If so you could be the dread BedWetian.
Looks like the kettle just might come to a boil.
Jordan and Bulgaria announced Wednesday they were investigating allegations prominent citizens were involved in a scam involving illicit sales of Iraqi oil in exchange for political support of Saddam Hussein while he was Iraqâs leader. And in Egypt, activist Mamdouh el-Sheik said he would ask his countryâs prosecutor-general to reopen an investigation on the involvement of Egyptians after reports about alleged kickbacks. Eqypt and Jordan will be for show, but I wonder if the Bulgarians will be serious about this?
An Iraqi newspaper, one of dozens of new dailies that have begun publishing in that country since Saddamâs ouster last April, first reported the alleged bribes this week. Members of the new provisional Iraqi government and opponents of Saddam have since distributed a list of the accused, based on documents from the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Also on the list is the head of the U.N. oil-for-palaces food program, which ended three months ago. Benon Sevan has repeatedly dismissed previous allegations of corruption in the program, challenging those who make them to provide the evidence. The United Nations defended him again on Wednesday. "We have seen the reports of these unconfirmed allegations. The oil-for-food program which Mr. Sevan was charged with has been satisfactorily audited by Anderson Accounting many times, both internally and externally," said Marie Okabe, U.N. associate spokeswoman. Gosh Marie, you got a URL for the pdf file with the audits? No?
"The secretary-general is fully satisfied with Mr. Sevanâs performance and integrity in administering what was a massive and unprecedented humanitarian program." Please donât use the words "integrity" and "secretary-general" in the same sentence.
The list gives the names of 14 Amman-based firms and Jordanian citizens, including former government officials and legislators. "The issue is under follow-up, and we are seeking to verify if some people have acquired (Iraqi) graft," Mohammad al-Halaiqa, a deputy prime minister and minister of trade and industry, told Jordanâs parliament in response to an inquiry by deputy Saad Hayel Srour on the alleged bribes. Srour demanded an immediate government coverup investigation. "Lies! All lies!"
Al-Halaiqa said the Cabinet discussed the alleged Jordanian involvement in the Iraqi bribes at a meeting late Tuesday. Finance Minister Mohammad Abu-Hammore "was given clear instructions to cover follow up on this issue and collect any bribes dues to the First Irregular Bank Treasury," he added.
The Baghdad list also says the Bulgarian Socialist Party had sold 12 million barrels of Iraqi oil. Hmmm, even with a $1.00 commission per barrel, these guys sold out cheap. Itâs the Spiro Agnew problem.
Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov said the charge that his Socialist Party received money from Iraq was "ill-advised black humor," but he ordered an inquiry into the accusation, his office said Wednesday. The party leader, Sergei Stanishev, told journalists in Bulgaria on Wednesday: "Not a cent from Iraq has been received at our party headquarters." "It all went to our off-shore accounts. You think weâd be crazy enough to bring the loot here?"
"The Socialist Party leadership has not negotiated such economic projects with the Baath party. We have not authorized anyone to hold such talks," Stanishev said. He said his party wanted the matter to be covered cleared up. "Nope, nope, wudnât us!"
Eleven Egyptians or Egyptian companies are also on the Baghdad list, including the son of a former Egyptian president, businessmen, members of parliament and journalists. Former president: Nasser or Sadat?
Egyptian activist Mamdouh el-Sheik filed suit in May 2003 against several Egyptian politicians and journalists, accusing them of accepting bribes from Saddam, saying it violates Egyptian laws bans lobbying for foreign countries. "This list will certainly back the charges against these people, who have violated our laws. I hope that the prosecutor-general will allow the case to proceed," el-Sheik told The Associated Press in Cairo. Have a distant cousin start your car in the mornings, Mamdouh.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2004 1:20:13 AM ||
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nasser's son
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
01/29/2004 3:14 Comments ||
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MEMRI has published quite an extensive list of those bribed with awarded allocations (vouchers) of crude oil by Saddam Hussein's regime. MEMRI says it is incomplete to date. Read the background before scrolling about half way down the page to where the list starts. Recognize any individual, government, or company that surprises you?
The top finance officials from Iraq and Afghanistan will meet next month with their counterparts from the worldâs seven leading industrial countries and Russia to report on progress in reconstruction. The Iraqi and Afghan officials will make presentations at the Feb. 6-7 meeting in Florida of finance ministers and central bank presidents from the Group of Seven nations. Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor told reporters there would be a special session on Feb. 7 devoted to reconstruction issues and to a donorsâ conference set for the spring for Afghanistan. Time to get specific after Bakerâs trip.
Afghanistanâs debt will be discussed, he said. But it has not been decided if the U.S.-led effort to forgive a substantial part of Iraqâs estimated $120 billion debt will be addressed, he said, because the presidentâs special envoy on the matter, James A. Baker III, was still involved in discussions with various countries. Baker will not attend the Boca Raton meeting, Taylor said. Wonder if his briefcase will attend?
He said the negotiations over Iraqâs debt were on track toward reaching an agreement on debt relief by yearâs end. Iraqâs finance minister, Kamil Mubdir al-Gailani, and the head of the countryâs central bank, Sanan al-Shabibi, will attend the meeting. So will their Afghan counterparts - Ashraf Ghani and Anwar Ul-Haq Ahady. Taylor said the G-7 countries were anxious to hear about the progress toward establishing a sound monetary policy that will guard against inflation and provide a firm underpinning for economic development. As opposed to in Europe.
The discussions with Iraq will focus on what the country still needs to do in order to secure reconstruction loans from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. At a donorsâ conference for Iraq last year, the IMF indicated it would be able to provide around $4.25 billion in loans over the next several years and the World Bank said it had a target of between $3 billion and $5 billion in assistance. Erk. Am I alone in mistrusting the IMF and World Bank when they consider handing out large wads of cash to an emerging country?
World Bank President James Wolfensohn said last year that the United States and other rich nations would need to forgive two-thirds of Iraqâs debt burden for the country to have a chance at economic recovery. Iraq owes about $40 billion in debt to the G-7 countries and other rich nations. An additional $80 billion is owed to various Arab governments. Just might be better for Iraq to forego most of the loans and concentrate on financing what they can on the oil sales. Keep the bankers at armâs length for a while and let the politics settle down.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2004 1:08:38 AM ||
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The Iraqis better keep James Baker and the Magic Suitcase (TM) in standby when they make their presentation to the G-7. Countries like France owe the Iraqis BIG TIME for their profiting off the misery of the Iraqi people.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Teller, AK ||
01/29/2004 11:38 Comments ||
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Am I alone in mistrusting the IMF and World Bank when they consider handing out large wads of cash to an emerging country?
No, this is but the first chapter in the IMF / World Bank playbook. Chapter 2 - increase taxes. Chapter 3 - devalue the Iraqi currency. Chapter 4 - repeat Chapter 1...
The Armyâs top general said Wednesday he is making plans based on the possibility that the Army will be required to keep tens of thousands of soldiers in Iraq through 2006. I think we all knew that -- weâll probably have troops there in 2020.
Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, told the House Armed Services Committee that "for planning purposes" he has ordered his staff to consider how the Army would replace the force that is now rotating into Iraq with another force of similar size in 2005 - and again in 2006. Stretched by commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea and the Balkans, the Army has used emergency authority to go beyond the limit set by Congress on the number of soldiers who can be in uniform, Schoomaker said. He said the Army now is about 11,000 soldiers above the 482,400 limit and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has authorized the service to temporarily exceed the limit by as much as 30,000. Schoomaker said he was opposed to Congress passing legislation to permanently expand the size of the Army, mainly because it would be too costly. "Iâm adamant that that is not the way to go," the Army chief said. Hate to disagree with a smart, good guy, but Iâd work on creating a couple of new brigades of light infantry and some more civil affairs units. And perhaps some additional combat support in the active duty forces.
Even while the Iraq war continues, the Pentagon is planning a new offensive in the two-year-old Afghanistan campaign to try to stop remnants of the Taliban regime and the al-Qaida terrorist network. Orders have been issued to prepare equipment and supplies, though the operation will not necessarily require additional troops in the region, where about 11,000 Americans are still deployed, a defense official said on condition of anonymity. Northwest Frontier, here we come?
Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said he was concerned that the requirement for large numbers of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan may break the Army. "This does not mean we should pull back from our commitments," Skelton said. "We canât unring the bell. Weâre there. Weâve got to win. Weâve got to stabilize that country," he said of Iraq. "We cannot afford that to evolve into a civil war." Hereâs a smart Democrat. Why canât he run for president?
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2004 12:59:54 AM ||
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The 3rd Infantry is expanding from three maneuver brigades to five, and the 101st may be next -
#2
Increasing the size of the armed forces is not only costly, in our current circumstances it may well be counterproductive. Doing so would take our best experienced trainers and have them doing basic work with raw recruits rather than preparing existing troops for specific combat scenarios. Moreover you run the risk of getting lower quality recruits. The Navy already has a problem finding young men for sonar duty whose hearing hasn't been degraded by rock concerts or loud music over headphones.
Our military is very strained right now, but I suspect Rumsfeld & Schoomaker are right that increasing the number of active duty troops isn't the answer. Look for them to move all sorts of support functions here and abroad to hired contractors, where it hasn't already happened. That can have side effects too, but is much more likely to pay off in the short run (next 2-3 years).
#3
Use some of the operaters that have gained field experence as trainers(worked well during WW2).
Pull out of the Balkens,it's Euorpe's back yard,let France,Germany,Belguim,etc,clean it up.
Take out Kimie and Co.Without the Norks 80% of the reason for having 2ID in Korea no longer applies.
#4
I am convinced that Rumsfeld has been healthy for the DOD and military readiness as a whole with even better things to come.
It may seem unusual but I am a Navy guy who doesn't mind seeing the USN give up jobs and turf in favor of the Specops and the Army. In a healthy society - ala not NK - there exists a limited portion of the overall GDP that can be spent in defence.
For instance, the P-3 is a platform dedicated to prosecution/elimination of deepwater targets subs. While that mission still exists, it is not a primary mission with respect to the WOT. Therefore aging P-3 should be replaced with a platform that is just a modification package on an airframe that is being purchased for another mission. A while back my brother flew C-130's to provide communications to submarines that were deployed. The C-130 was replaced by the E-6 Mercury, a dedicated paltform for a specialty function - i.e. a waste in my eyes. I think Rumsfeld would have argued to contract out that function so that my brother, a carrier capable pilot, sitting in a base in Oklahoma flying missions that don't really require a warrior pilot.
We need to be be careful about making large capital expenditures for destroyers that are manned by 400 people to fulfill coastal patrol functions that can be more economically performed by frigates, reactivated PHMs, arming Minesweeper craft, increasing the size of the elements armed Coast Guard, or issuing Letters of Marque.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 8:03 Comments ||
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Light infantry is the way to go. Activate two more divisions, each with two light brigades, one Styrker brigade and an air brigade. Technology may mean that we can use fewer forces to do more, but the Army is still faced with the fundamental, time-honored problem of space and time; i.e. troops can control only so much space before they beginn to lose their effectiveness. Light rifles are the only way, IMHO, to stretch our defense dollar.
All that said, I wouldn't mind seeing two more heavy divisions, but the lights are the cheapest way of stretching our defense dollar.
SH, I like the letters of marque and reprisal. After all, which segment of any society has the biggest stake in eliminating terrorism if not the commercial sector? It is an idea whose time has finally come.
Sooo, if Congress does issue letters of marque and reprisal, anyone wanna contract a pretty good IT guy? :o)
#6
Some notes taken by an officer who had a chance to meet with Schoomaker recently. They give more insight into the Chief of Staff of the Army's thinking.
- Most important part of his vision is a joint and expeditionary mindset. "I am first a joint officer and then an army officer". He has voted in the Tank in favor of a joint issue, even at the expense of the Army as a service. So has CNO and CMDT and CSAF. He signed a piece of paper at confirmation that if a conflict between his role as CSA and his role as a member of the Joint Staff, that the Joint Staff is supreme.
- Joint Interdependence. "We cannot operate the Army the way we used to. Must move toward Joint Interdependence which means we will give up
capability to gain some other capabilities". - "All of OSD and Congress realize the next several decades will be the decades of Land Forces. We just need to organize and to get to the fight."
- Effectiveness vs Efficiency. "I don't care how hard people work as long as we win. I don't care what it takes to get the water to the soldier,
as long as when he turns on the spicket, water comes out". Bureaucracies attempt to be efficient; professions attempt to be effective.
- Training - Education - Experience. "When experience is tied to training and education, it is a huge multiplier". Mentioned the recent combat experience of 3ID and the tremendous multiplier it gives the Division's warfighting capability even through refit and reorganization.
Also defines his rational of "building the bench" - need to get future senior leaders the experience they need.
- Chaos. Some want to order it. A strategic leader learns how to move it forward.
A dedicated Peacekeeping corps, with basic infantry training, civil affairs-MP training, plus heavy language and foreign culture training, etc. Commited on recruitment to spending most of their time overseas, on model of foreign service. Recruited more from Foreign service wannabes (loads of people apply for FS and dont get in) than typical armed forces recruiting pool.
#9
A dedicated Peacekeeping corps, with basic infantry training, civil affairs-MP training, plus heavy language and foreign culture training, etc.
This is more of the usual liberal BS about the US military being too muscle-bound and trigger-happy. Peacekeeping MP's won't do crap in Iraq - note that the UN has not deployed peacekeeping MP's successfully anywhere that a shooting war was in progress. The Bosnia fiasco, with massacres of hundreds of thousands of Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs, prior to US intervention, was an example of how peacekeeping troops are overhyped (even when European troops are deployed). When a determined and well-funded enemy is shooting at you, choppers, armor and artillery* are what's needed, not MP's with rifles and Humvees. An MP is just a lightly-armed and poorly-trained target for the opposition.
* Choppers are needed to airlift quick response teams, armor is needed in case secondary ambushes are in position, and artillery is needed in cases where the enemy is out in the open. Asymmetrical power (mobility, protection, firepower) is required to respond to asymmetrical stealth (terrorists who hide among civilians).
#10
Super Hose-
As good as the PHMs would be, they're long ago gone - I saw them tied up in Charleston a couple of years ago when I went to see CSS Hunley, and they were scrapped not long after that. Too expensive, y' know...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/29/2004 10:21 Comments ||
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zhang - perhaps i shouldnt have used the buzzword "peacekeeping" im really thinking more along the lines of a nationbuilding corps, to go in AFTER the combat troops are done. And of course you would still need regular armed forces in a situation like iraq at present, with an ongoing insurgency. It is quite dramatic how much US troops in Iraq are performing nation building tasks for which they are not trained, how many problems there are with language and cultural knowledge, how there ARE some cases of soldiers doing and saying things that piss off Iraqis who could be on our side (which IS NOT a criticism of our troops, who are doing THEIR best in a difficult situation) and of course the strains on a force that never expected to be deployed so long.
Now maybe all this can be solved by bringing the civil affairs guys back into the active force structure, training the light army divisions in Marine Corps small wars doctrine, using the Marines themselves for the worst spots (like Falluja-Ramadi-Khaldiya in Iraq) etc. Maybe. The advantages and disadvantages of seperate nationbuilding corps with a different recruiting and career approach should be considered, however.
#13
Letters of Marque. I like the texture and taste of that concept. Letters of Marque were usually applied to shipping so for el-quada pirates near SE Asia/India Ocean area that could be effective.
How does one apply Letters of Marque for taking out islamo-facists on land? Like the scap bounty in the French & Indian wars or what? Thought needs to be given here.
#14
Actually Rwandan, we occupied Japan & Germany prior to Israeli state. Marshall, McArthur all dealt w/reconstruction of former enemies who later became allies. I foresee Iraqi situation maybe not so different in 50 years time. If there is a possibility no matter how remote for the muslims to grasp democratic principles and thus make the region a better place to reside then we should make the attempt. The ultimate revelations of any war or big action seem to take at least 20-30 yrs to see the fruition (minus WWII).
I think that the Regional Develpoment Teams in Afghanistan are kind of the same concept. If these teams work out, it would be great to hold them together under a permanent command structure. At that point they could be stiffened with engineering, police and civil affairs assets as needed.
I would prefer to recruit local linguists, unless the co-ops for state department can be vetted for attitude. For instance, people with a private overiding agenda can continue to flip-off America locally. Let's not send embittered malcontents off to other countries on PR missions. Most countries hate us enough already.
I would prefer a Ghurka like force with retired military working under contract to supplement security forces. Using locals is asking to be infiltrated. Using regular army or marine forces for peace-keeping would tend to dull the tip of the spear as it were. Plus, civilian casualties usually result as well. There was an instacne awhile back where some regular army forces were used to patrol our Southern border. They ended up tracking down and eliminating some farm kid who was out at night hunting.
I don't know much about the current Peace Corps and USAID so I can't speak to how they might be incorprated. My impression of USAID is that it operates as a State Dept front for transferring taxpayer funds to NGO's that are generally anti-American. This process allows the US to do good in the world without infringing on the rights of others to continue hating us.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 11:27 Comments ||
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3DC, I suggest that my favorite canine would be an effect alternative for land based letters of marque. Please turn up your volume before visiting his house.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 11:33 Comments ||
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Land Based Letters of Marque
LOL! That's a good one! Yar! We be land-lubbing privateers!
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Teller, AK ||
01/29/2004 11:46 Comments ||
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Strategic overstretch is strategic overstretch.
Also, what happens when this nice new Iraqi goverent we're creating in June turns around and says "it's been grand but please go?"
Sorry if I'm getting tired of Wil E. Coyote Syndrome.
#20
Also, what happens when this nice new Iraqi goverent we're creating in June turns around and says "it's been grand but please go?"
Not going to happen. Sunnis need protection from the Shiites and Kurds. Shiites need protection from well-funded Baathists*. Christians and Kurds need protection from everyone else. The mistake here is in looking at Iraq as a monolith. The fact is that we are the ultimate guarantor of the security of Iraq's various peoples. Iraqis may look alike, but they certainly neither think alike nor have entirely common interests. And these are life-and-death issues for average Iraqis, which is why, from the Iraqi standpoint, the US will remain the indispensable country for decades.
* The Gulf states will pick up the slack if Iraq looks like it's about to become a Shia theocracy or a country with imperial ambitions.
#22
what happens when this nice new Iraqi goverent we're creating in June turns around and says "it's been grand but please go?"
I suspect the White House (Bush or whoever) will happily oblige, pack up and leave. It provides for a suitable exit strategy. Especially if these guerilla tactics and exploding roadsides continue indefinately. Kuwait is only a hop-skip away, and with a permanent base there, it wouldn't be too difficult to keep a lid on things.
With US troops being a magnet for jihadis and exploding cars, I don't see the point of them being in Iraq if they're not actively engaged in combat. If you're not piling up dead jihadi bodies, then get out of the way and let the economists argue about how to get Iraq back on its feet. If ordinary Iraqis can't blame the US for their woes anymore, maybe they'll start pounding the jihadis themselves.
This is of course assuming the new Iraqi government will be a normal one, unlike the Iranian Talibanies.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/29/2004 12:42 Comments ||
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Part of a editorial from The Progress Report:
Article I, Section 8, paragraph 11 of the U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to "grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water." A "reprisal" means an action taken in return for some injury. A reprisal could be a seizing of property or guilty persons in retaliation for an attack and injury. It could include forced used against the perpetrators for the redress of grievances. A reprisal could even involve killing a terrorist who is threatening further harm and cannot be captured.
"Marque" is related to "marching" and means crossing or marching across a border in order to do a reprisal. So a Letter of Marque and Reprisal would authorize a private person, not in the U.S. armed forces, to conduct reprisal operations outside the borders of the U.S.A. Such Letters are grantable not just by the U.S. Constitution, but also by international law, which is why it was able to be included in the Constitution. The Letters are grantable whenever the citizens or subjects of one country are injured by those in another country and justice is denied by the government of that country, as happened with the attack by persons who were in Afghanistan.
In October 2001, Ron Paul, U.S. representative from Texas, introduced bills H.R. 3074, Air Piracy Reprisal and Capture Act of 2001, and H.R. 3076, September 11 Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001, to authorize the U.S. State Department to issue such Letters. Private U.S. citizens would then be able to hunt down, attack and collect assets from terrorists who have or are planning to commit hostile acts against the U.S. and its citizens.
Need to pass this bill if for nothing more than the fun of watching lefties heads explode.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/29/2004 12:46 Comments ||
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#24
Languages... we need to reduce our reliance on locals as translators. If we're not already doing it, we need to set up big incentives for developing language skills amongst the troops, and make the ability to speak multiple languages a requirement for advancement.
The choice of languages needs to be organized a bit so that useful languages are chosen. We don't want 90% to learn French or Spanish, for example, but in the future a squad shouldn't go out on patrol without at least one member who can speak and understand more of the local lingo than "Hands up" and "Stop"...
I dont see the Nation building corps as being manned by granola eating Peace Corps types. These will be people prepared to undergo weapons training, "hard" political science, etc. CIA manages to recruit and vet people who are college grads with international interests who are not softies - why cant that be done elsewhere, on a larger scale? I udnerstand theres reticence here about the Foreign Service as a model - aside from some selectivity based on the mission, i think the day to day needs would shape this force differently - one reason for the "softness" of the FS is that in most cases their JOB is to make nice with the govt to which they represent us = their PROFESSION is to accommodate - i dont think its so much do to any personal failings. People recruited similarly, but whose profession is to nation build would act differently.
Not sure nationbuilders should be part of Department of State though. Their logistical requirements would be more analogous to military. Id see them more as seperate service within DoD, as different from Army as Army is from USMC.
The real argument against is lack of flexibility? What if we face a BIG opponent, and need more COMBAT forces, not nation builders? Wouldnt we be better off with more light infantry divs rather than Nationbuilders? Depends on your view of likely future nation building needs vs future combat needs.
#27
Rather than a "nation building corps" I would like to see special ops command (SOCOM) raised to the status of a fifth branch of service. We don't have the resources to start up a nation building corps. SOCOM already has the resources to build nations: Operators to hunt down bad guys hiding in the wood and to kill them. PYSOPS guys to psyche them out. Civil affairs units to kick off school building and sewer digging until the operators can kill enough bad guys to settle things down. Then you can bring in the NGOs and civilian contractors -- also under SOCOM command and control. If things get hairy, then you bring in light infantry, mech infantry, MPs or Armor as the situation demands. These folks are always task organized under SOCOM command. By doing this we have the guys who can be either killers or diplomats in charge; we make the best use of limited resources; we keep the guys (soldiers and marines)who only know how to kill under SOCOM operator control; and we maintain the smallest footprint necessary to keep the peace. The way I envision this happening is in the initial phase of operations, the killers (Army, USMC) are in charge. After the destruction of enemy main force units, you turn the operation over to the experts. Remaining Army/USMC units are now under the control of a SOCOM general and they are phased out as the bitter enders are killed off. The end state should be rebuilding efforts firmly in civilian hands; a national army/police force that can deal with riots and small scale uprisings, and a handful of operators in country who can keep harrassing the bitter enders until the last one is dead or walks into town, lays down his arms, changes his name and starts doing something productive.
#28
LH, currently many liberal arts colleges are set up to graduate classes of American radicals not American citizens, but that shouldn't stop things. I think the that the FBI rarely accepts applicants fresh out of college, preferring to staff up with candidates that have gained some life experience. I am predisposed for using "new" Americans for this type of work. Most 1st or 2nd generation immigrants have a very good understanding of what things about America are an improvement with repsect to other places.
I would place this activity some place else although I am not strictly a State Department basher. The ambassadors in Cuba and Venezuela are doing a bang-up job in my opinion. Solving what problems do exist in State - that lady that wants to express Saudi visas is certainly one for the dungeon - doesn't mean we need to hire a bunch of moronic Wesley Clarks Rambos that cause a bunch of senseless confrontations.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 15:18 Comments ||
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#29
Why not hire Gurkha soldiers. 3 countries already do (might be 4 - not sure if HK still has Gurkhas). By all accounts they are excellent soldiers and there are far more applicants than positions by a factor of 70 as I recall.
If this is politically unacceptable in the USA then do a deal with the Brits to recruit a few more Gurkha regiments.
EFL
The U.S. military is "sure" it will catch Osama bin Laden this year, a spokesman said Thursday, but he declined to comment on where the al-Qaida leader may be hiding. Bin Laden is widely believed to be holed up somewhere along the mountainous Pakistani-Afghan border with former Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Following last monthâs capture of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, American commanders in Afghanistan have expressed new optimism they will eventually find bin Laden. Spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said the military now believed it could seize him within months. "We have a variety of intelligence and weâre sure weâre going to catch Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar this year," Hilferty said. "Weâve learned lessons from Iraq and weâre getting improved intelligence from the Afghan people."
Hilferty declined to comment on where exactly bin Laden or Mullah Omar might be hiding, but his optimism coincides with comments from U.S. officials in Washington that the military is planning a spring offensive against Taliban and al-Qaida holdouts. American forces are pinning hopes for better intelligence from locals on new security teams setting up in provincial capitals across a swath of troubled southern and eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border. The security teams are supposed to open the way for millions of dollars in U.S. development aid and allow the Afghan government to regain control over lawless areas largely populated by ethnic Pashtuns, from which the Taliban drew their main support.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/29/2004 5:08:24 PM ||
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#1
excellent news,hope they get him,i reackon they could have him by say 7 months time,
1. Could Albright be right and they already have him in custody?
2. Could they already have proof hes dead?? (finally got those DNA samples back from the lab?)
3. They know EXACTLY where he is and have just been bargaining with Musharaff about who goes in, when, how to deal with the local Pashtuns, etc while Perv does his thing with the locals
#4
I predict the time between capturing Bin Laden, and the liberals declaring that Bush is an incompetent idiot - and the war against terror STILL a failure (and a quagmire!) - will be around 5 seconds...
I can hear them already: "Bin Laden was never a threat, and capturing him means nothing! Bush is the REAL terrorist!"
It would be funny if they weren't so pathetically predictable.
#5
Either there's more to this (is this an election year?...heh heh) ot that was a career-limiting move, making such a brash announcement. Regardless, for the Democratic "pucker factor" it was a thoroughly delicious move
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2004 17:38 Comments ||
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#6
There's been a lot of speculation from both sides that the capture of OBL might be or should be timed to coincide with the election cycle to boost GWB's chances of reelection. But doesn't it seem possible that this could against him? I mean, with Ol' Pube-Face in custody it could be argued (not by me) that the threat to the US had mostly passed, and that domestic issues should be given priority.
Must be the Islamic Microbes attacking the IDF issued DNA slide.
Posted by: Charles ||
01/29/2004 21:56 Comments ||
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#11
Surely since OBL is nothing but a CIA-MOSSAD-Big Oil-Carlyle Group-Freemason undercover agent, we know the exact day and time he will be 'captured'.
All brought to you courtesy of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracyâ¢.
Found this via GweiloDiaries but no link:If it was posted before, sorry. Islamic Tolerance in Indonesia
Islamic fundamentalists in Indonesia are taking advantage of a government decree to shut down Christian churches in the nationâs capital. According to Compass Direct News Service, Letter of Decision 137 allows the forcible closure of existing Christian churches in response to objections from the surrounding community. Certain Muslim leaders have reportedly organized such protests and complaints in several Jakarta communities against established and properly licensed Christian houses of worship, resulting in at least four closures. In at least one case demonstrators are said to have paraded in front of the churche with gasoline containers, threatening arson.
#3
Now that Megawati (sp?) was outed from the closet, why bother to pretend anymoremay have found its way???
You have to be brain-dead stupid not to see that they thought they could do it....wage Jihad...and win. They were wrong...so far. Soon enough, the tolerant Americans and Europeans will wake up and realize that our opponents have taken off the gloves and have engaged us in a death match. We need to knock them out now, before they kill us.
Posted by: B ||
01/29/2004 14:48 Comments ||
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#4
Now that Megawati (sp?) was outed from the closet, why bother to pretend anymore???
You have to be brain-dead stupid not to see that they thought they could do it....wage Jihad...and win. They were wrong...so far. Soon enough, the tolerant Americans and Europeans will wake up and realize that our opponents have taken off the gloves and have engaged us in a death match. We need to knock them out now, before they kill us.
Posted by: B ||
01/29/2004 14:49 Comments ||
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compass direct news service
"Compass Direct is a Christian news service dedicated to providing exclusive news, penetrating reports, moving interviews and insightful analyses of situations and events facing Christians persecuted for their faith.
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A military intelligence report revealed that Abu Sayyaf bandits have been massing up in Sulu in preparation for another wave of terrorist activities in Mindanao. Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko, chief of the Armed Forces Southern Command, also disclosed that reports that the Abu Sayyaf bandits are now on a recruitment binge are also being verified. Need some replacement cannon fodder, do you?
Kyamko said he also ordered all units under Southcom to continue operations against the Abu Sayyaf. Kyamko believes that the reports on the alleged massing of the bandits is just part of the Abu Sayyaf propaganda. So, are they massing or are they just saying they are massing? Or maybe, they are saying they are massing to prevent you from knowing that they are massing.
He assured that soldiers are ready to finish the bandits off at any opportune time. Today would be good.
On the other hand, the Armyâs 104th Infantry Brigade commander, Col. Alexander Yapching, said the troops will not lower their guard against domestic terrorists, while search and destroy operations continue. Iâm not sure if that made any sense.
Among the bandit bands being monitored closely include the one headed by Radulan Sahiron, which has been blamed for a series of kidnappings. At the same time, the military is verifying reports that the brother of the late Abu Sayyaf leader Mujib Susukan died in a recent clash with government forces in Sulu. Almujahib Susukan, head of an Abu Sayyaf sub unit, was earlier sighted in Maimbung, Sulu, Kyamko said. Based on accounts from civilians in the area Susukan was hit in different parts of the body that caused his instant death, Kyamko said. Multiple wounds tend to do that.
The civilian informants also claimed that Susukanâs safe house was wrecked when it was hit by a mortar shell. If he was inside, that could account for the multiple wounds.
He would not confirm the report however, saying the soldiers are still validating the report. Havenât found a body.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/29/2004 10:30:10 AM ||
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Somebody call Chekov!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2004 10:49 Comments ||
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Capt Kirk: Lt. Sulu why are you bent over like that?
Sulu: sorry sir, the Rigelian meatloaf is causing bandit massing..
An Islamic militant has been jailed for life for helping to make the bombs used in the October 2002 Bali attacks.
Sarjiyo, also known as Sawad, had faced the death penalty, but received a lesser sentence as he was not directly involved in the attack. He helped make the bomb, how is that not direct?
Sarjiyo, a 32-year-old Christian convert to Islam, is the third man to be jailed for life over the attacks, which have been blamed on the militant Islamic network Jemaah Islamiah, which is linked to al-Qaeda. Like Iâm linked to my mother.
"I wish to appeal," Sarjiyo declared as the verdict was read out. The judges found him guilty of mixing the chemicals used in the attack on the Sari Club - the deadliest of the two attacks. He also helped pack the explosives into the back of the van used in the attack. "The defendant has shown no remorse. The chemicals that he prepared were used to build the bomb that killed hundreds of people and devastated Bali," said Judge Arif Supratman. Yup, he should be counting muzzle blasts.
Although most of the group that planned and carried out the Bali bombings have been arrested, two key suspects - the suspected bomb makers Dr Azahari Husin and Dulmatin - remain at large. They have also been implicated in last Augustâs bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in which 12 people died. Theyâve been out of sight for a long time now. Wonder where theyâll pop up?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/29/2004 8:49:20 AM ||
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I guess he's just the local bombmaker, selling dozens of bombs out of his store every day. He shouldn't be held as "direcly responsible". Just a small businessman trying to make a killing in the bomb-manufacturing business.
See also: the butcher, the baker, and the candle-stick maker.
Have you considered that you are talking about an Indonesian prison? There are far more terrible things than death, and a life sentence in an Indonesian prison might just qualify.
The captain of the Titanic Archbishop of Canterbury is currently touring the Middle East and dropped in on a local today. Click on the title for a picture of yet another reason why I no longer call myself an Anglican.
Oh, shucks. Might as well put all the pix in. Too bad they don't have the ones where he kisses him on both cheeks. And then slips him the tongue...
Sorry. Couldn't resist. Couldn't control myself. I think I'll go lie down now...
Posted by: Christopher Johnson ||
01/29/2004 8:46:38 PM ||
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nice that someone wiped the blood from Arafat's hands (and the drool from his lips) so as to not dirty the Archdruid's smock unnecessarily
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2004 21:24 Comments ||
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Thank allah for the Paleostinian Melting Company. They can melt bullets into anything within a minutes notice.
Posted by: Charles ||
01/29/2004 21:44 Comments ||
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The Momentous Meeting of the Mindless. Where's the AD's silly hat? Yasshole wore his.
#6
Ok, could have done without that portrait of Yasser in the bottom right. Ewww. You would think with all the billions he has that he could afford dental floss. Or toothpaste.
After rolling out the red carpet for China, Chirac is trying his level best to squelch Taiwanâs small oasis of freedom away from Chinaâs communist mainland. He doesnât like the idea of the Taiwanese having a referendum on the issue of Chinese missiles pointed their way.
On Monday, President Chirac told his visiting Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao that holding the poll in Taiwan would be a "grave mistake" and a threat to stability in South East Asia. The French leader also reaffirmed his backing of a "one China" policy and warned Taiwan against "breaking the status quo".
Status quo, indeed. Does anyone notice a pattern here? The reason France has been working so hard at maintaining the status quo lately is that thatâs the only way it can stop its steady slide. Chirac can try his best. Thankfully, we all know how effective that is.
French secret agents foiled a plan to attack the Paris-Dakar Rally earlier this month, according to the French magazine, Le Point. It said a force of around 100 Islamic militants was going to kidnap rally competitors as they drove through Mali. At the time, the 10th and 11th stages of the event were cancelled because of what were called "security reasons". The French intelligence services reportedly learned of preparations by the militants. "French intelligence had information which led us, with our colleagues in Mali...to take decisions which you have been able to read about in the press," a Defence Ministry spokesman said.
Le Point said that among those targeted was the leading French driver Stephane Peterhansel and Spanish motorcyclist, Nani Roma.The attack was reportedly planned by a militant leader known as Abderrazak the Para. French agents are thought to have learned that he was buying arms and other materials, and that around 100 militants were moving towards the Sokolo region in central Mali. Abderrazak is alleged to have taken 32 Europeans hostage in the Sahara desert a year ago. One woman died before they were freed. Sixteen of the hostages were German, and the German Government has issued an international warrant for the arrest of Abderrazak, whose real name, they say, is Amari Saifi. He is believed to have been a former Algerian paratrooper who the Algerian authorities have tied to the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, which has alleged links to al-Qaeda.
The director of a Nairobi Islamic trust has been deported reportedly for his link with terrorism. Sudanese Muawiya Hassan Abu-wail left on an order signed by Mr Moody Awori. The Home Affairs minister, who is also the Vice-President, is in charge of immigration and work permits. The official line is that Mr Abu-wail, the director of Muhtada Al-Islam, a registered NGO with offices in South C, Nairobi, was in the country illegally. Yet, according sources close to him, his work permit was not due to expire till next October. A lawyer, who sought anonymity, blamed the US for the expulsion, saying it linked him to terrorism. An attempt by Supreme Council of Muslims of Kenya (Supkem) officials to intervene failed as Mr Abu-wail was thrown out after only 48 hours.
Supkem chairman Abdulgafur Al-Busaidy is also chairman of the NGOâs board of trustees. It handles relief and humanitarian activities. Mr Abu-wail was said to have been held at the JKIA on January 9 as his deportation papers were being sorted out by his lawyers and the Government. Earlier, the Government attempted through the NGO council to have Muhtada Al-Islam deregistered but the motion was rejected by a vote of 19 to 16 when it was brought before the members. Mr Abu-wailâs expulsion follows a crackdown on NGOs suspected to have links with terrorist organisations.
For thousands of years the Jewish people have looked to the moon to calculate the celebration of holidays and dictate the configuration of the Jewish lunar calendar â now it appears as though the Jewish state may send an astronaut to actually walk upon it. Israelâs Ambassador to the U.S., Daniel Ayalon, told âGlobesâ Wednesday that Israel wishes to renew its cooperation with Americaâs National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to send a second Israeli astronaut into space. âThere is a good chance that another Israeli astronaut will fly to outer space in a shuttle or other spacecraft,â said Ayalon. âI wouldnât rule out the possibility that an Israeli astronaut will land on the moon, as part of U.S. efforts to establish a permanent base there.â
#1
Okay...now if Islam (according to some rumor I hear) says that if man walks on the moon Islam will end...what happens when a Jew walks on the moon? Will Islam implode into a black hole? Will there be mass anuerysms? Will Someones turban catch on fire?
Posted by: Val ||
01/29/2004 19:32 Comments ||
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Isn't the moon Islams religious symbol? So if a Jew walks on the moon, won't Muslims have to force the moon into suicide bombing Isreal?
Posted by: Charles ||
01/29/2004 21:40 Comments ||
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What happens if an Israeli moons Hamas from the Moon?
Cigarettes and alcohol, are, naturally, out. Neither McDonalds nor Ladbrokes would find favour with Islamic investors. But investors who are more typically used to counting fuel in barrels of oil have taken to the UKâs burgeoning renewable energy market with enthusiasm. Wind power and the stable, bond-like returns it promises to investors have convinced First Islamic Investment Bank to make its first step into the UKâs complex renewable energy market. Producing electricity from wind may currently be more costly than generating it from the black stuff, but Islamic investors are hoping that getting in at the early stages of the Europe-wide push to reduce carbon emissions will pay long-term dividends.
Former Navy Cmdr. Lloyd "Pete" Bucher, who commanded the spy ship USS Pueblo when it was captured by North Korea in 1968 and helped his crew survive months of brutal captivity, only to nearly face a court-martial back home, has died. He was 76. Bucher, who lived in San Diego, died Wednesday evening at a nursing facility in suburban Poway. He had been in declining health for months, partly the legacy of his captivity, said Stu Russell, who served under Bucher and is president of the USS Pueblo Veteranâs Association.
The lightly armed Pueblo was monitoring communist ship movements and intercepting messages in international waters near the North Korean coast when it was attacked by torpedo boats January 23, 1968. One sailor was killed and 82 were taken prisoner. Bucher, who was wounded when the Pueblo was shelled, was beaten and tortured into signing a confession. During their captivity, crew members said, they were beaten with pieces of lumber, burned on radiators and had their teeth kicked out by North Korean soldiers. "The man was a giant," Russell said from his home in Eureka, California. "Being the focal point between the Koreans and the crew, he took the brunt of everything. No matter who did what, he was always punished. I simply donât know where he got the strength and courage to go through what he did."
After 11 months, the crew was released two days before Christmas, some of them crippled or nearly blind because of malnourishment. The ship remained behind in North Korea, where it became a tourist attraction. Bucherâs surrender of his small ship, loaded with intelligence information, was harshly criticized by a Navy Court of Inquiry convened in Coronado. The court recommended Bucher face a general court-martial for allegedly failing to defend the Pueblo, allowing the ship to be searched and other offenses. Navy Secretary John H. Chafee turned down the court-martial, saying crew members "have suffered enough."
Bucher remained angry that commanders had failed to come to his aid. "The U.S. at that time had enormous military forces in the western Pacific within five minutes flying time of us," Bucher told The Associated Press in 1988. "I would have thought something could be mustered to come to our aid. But everybody just forgot we were there." In 1989, the Pentagon agreed to give prisoner of war medals to Bucher and the crew. Until then, the U.S. government maintained they were detainees rather than POWs because United States and North Korea were not at war. A great man, and an inspiration to all who may have found themselves at some point in their careers charge of a âforlorn hopeâ. He was poorly treated by the Koreans, but he was also poorly treated by his country, but his crew loved him. He will be missed.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
01/29/2004 4:49:57 PM ||
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Wishing Cdr. Bucher fair winds and following seas. May G-d bless you on your journey!
#6
Well Commander Bucher, I hope MAJ (posth) Arthur G. Bonifas has a cold one waiting for you when you reach the Elysian Fields - and then I hope you guys can go get some batting practice in, using Kim Il Sung's head. Play ball !!!!!
#7
I'd like to see how the members of the Court of Inquiry would've handled the defense of the ship with 2 50cals and some small arms vs. 4 NK patrol boats.
This guy had balls. RIP, Commander.
#8
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walked'st on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
A brave man has left the struggle to other patriots. I wish him peace. My heart is at half mast.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 22:27 Comments ||
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Wonder what these people told their dry-cleaners?
Residents of Tainan learned a lesson in whale biology after the decomposing remains of a 60-ton sperm whale exploded on a busy street, showering nearby cars and shops with blood and organs and stopping traffic for hours. The 56-foot-long whale had been on a truck headed for a necropsy by researchers, when gases from internal decay caused its entrails to explode in the southern city of Tainan. Residents and shop owners wore masks while trying to clean up the spilt blood and entrails. "What a stinking mess. This blood and other stuff that blew out on the road is disgusting, and the smell is really awful," a BBC News report quoted one Tainan resident as saying. Prime Minister Chirac on line one, sir. France wants to know if they can purchase our new bomb.
Posted by: Christopher Johnson ||
01/29/2004 3:11:17 PM ||
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I would want to be hit with exploding whale parts, but it could be worse. USA Today had a short article about 50 or so people that got themselves killed by engulfmemt in a 30 foot high wave of molasses. Not even the PETA would be pleased as a cat was also killed. Just proves that when it comes to molasses, Felix don't surf.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 15:35 Comments ||
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Al Orca Martyr's Brigade.
(Sorry, had to do it. Bad taste w. the other news of the day...)
An Israeli businessman accused of smuggling nuclear weapon triggers to Pakistan can be released while he awaits trial, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Prosecutors had asked that Asher Karni be held without bail. But U.S. District Court Chief Judge Thomas Hogan allowed him to be released under strict conditions, with Karni agreeing to waive his immunity from extradition from Israel or South Africa, to pay a $100,000 bond and to be electronically monitored while he stays in Maryland.
Uck. He's here? I'm moving to VirginiaOhio someplace else...
Federal agents arrested Karni, 50, on New Yearâs Day when he arrived for a ski vacation in Colorado. The businessman from South Africa is accused of engineering the transfer of detonation devices called triggered spark gaps to Pakistan. The triggers can be used to set off nuclear weapons but also to break up kidney stones. Humm, havenât seen a lot of reports of a massive kidney stone problem in Pakiland. Of course, that would explain a lot of the seething and making faces.
Court documents say Karni tried to buy 200 of the devices from a Massachusetts maker to send to Pakistan even after the company told him the deal would require a U.S. export license. Exporting spark gaps to Pakistan without a license is illegal. Court records say Karni used a series of front companies and misleading shipping documents to buy the devices from a Massachusetts company, have them sent through New Jersey to South Africa, then on to the United Arab Emirates and later to Pakistan. What Karni didnât know, a federal officer said in an affidavit, was that authorities had intervened and had the manufacturer sabotage the devices so they couldnât be used. Well, someone used their brains.
Pakistani officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the countryâs nuclear scientists relied on the black market to supply Pakistanâs nuclear weapons program and spread the technology to countries such as Iran and Libya. The father of Pakistanâs nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, and other nuclear scientists are under investigation for possibly breaking Pakistani law. Itâs been in all the papers.
Karniâs Denver lawyer, Harvey Steinberg, did not return a telephone message left Wednesday. Hogan ordered Karni to stay at the Hebrew Sheltering Home in suburban Silver Spring, Md., under Rabbi Herzel Kranzâs supervision. Donât ask why, I have no idea either unless the Rabbi works for the Mossad. Say, now you donât think......
Karni cannot have a connection to the Internet and must pay for his electronic monitoring device, Hogan ruled. No surfing porn for you.
Karni heads Top-Cape Technology in Cape Town, South Africa, which trades in military and aviation electronic gear. In his recent statement to federal court, Commerce Department Special Agent James Brigham charged that Karni had an elaborate scheme to try to circumvent U.S. export restrictions to Pakistan and ship the triggers. Brigham said an anonymous source in South Africa tipped off U.S. authorities and provided shipping details to allow tracking of the devices, plus copies of correspondence to and from Karni. Ouch, no wonder his lawyer ainât talking.
Spark gaps can be used in machines called lithotripters to break up kidney stones, but even the largest hospital would need only a half-dozen or so, experts say. Large orders raise red flags with nuclear experts.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/29/2004 1:52:28 PM ||
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Any bets a few of those triggers showed up in Libya, which mean more than a few were resold
to Iran?
They don't work? What a scam! Bwhahahahah!
Posted by: john ||
01/29/2004 14:16 Comments ||
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Hey, doesn't bin Laden have a kidney problem? Maybe that's why these triggers were being shipped to Pakistan. Maybe al Qaeda isn't really interested in WMD -- they just want al Zawahiri to be able to treat bin Laden's kidney ailment. It's a humanitarian purchase, really.
Posted by: Tibor ||
01/29/2004 15:07 Comments ||
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Equally important,John,the reliability of all triggers from that maunfacturer are now suspect. So they'll have to be completely field tested or discarded.
Three teenagers who have been held with other prisoners at a U.S. military detention camp in Cuba have been released to their home country, the U.S. Defense Department said Thursday. They had to be forced out. Something about that Caribbean weather.
The teenagers were detained for more than a year at the U.S. naval complex at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Defense Department didnât identify the detaineesâ country. Seeing that Afghanistan was a magnet for jihadis, this could be anywhere. But we can narrow it down somewhat: Europe, Mid East, Pakistan.
They were part of hundreds rounded up when the U.S. military ousted Afghanistanâs Taliban regime for providing haven to al Qaeda, the terrorist network blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks. Those held are suspected terrorists or supporters of the Taliban. All three youths were under the age of 16, the Defense Department said. Two were captured during raids on Taliban camps and the other while trying to get weapons to fight U.S. forces, the department said. In a written statement, the Pentagon said that "the juvenile detainees no longer posed a threat to our nation, that they have no further intelligence value and that they are not going to be tried by the U.S. government for any crimes." Last year human rights groups became incensed alarmed about the holding of underage prisoners at Guantanamo, expressing concern about their welfare and treatment among other detainees. Defense Department officials have provided few details about the conditions under which the teenagers were held. The Gitmo YMCA, heh.
Thursdayâs statement said the teens had been housed in a separate detention facility and were not restricted in the same manner as adults. They also were provided educational opportunities in their native language and were allowed recreational activity, the military said. One even became a Rhodes scholar.
The Pentagon did not provide the identities or locations of where the teens are returning, citing concerns that al Qaeda or Taliban sympathizers might threaten them. They didnât carry weapons for the Taliban without some sort of guidance from their elders.
The statement said nongovernment organizations will help the youths re-integrate into civilian society. They better hurry up before they become students of the Religion of Peace(tm) once again.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/29/2004 1:18:22 PM ||
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The statement said nongovernment organizations will help the youths re-integrate into civilian society.
These youths have been appropriately brainwashed, and are now CIA moles.......muuaaahahahahahahaha...
Provincial governors in Iran have said they do not believe it will be possible to hold parliamentary elections scheduled for next month. The governors said there were not enough candidates for a free and fair vote on 20 February. Earlier this month, Iranâs conservative Guardians Council barred more than 3,000 candidates from the elections. The governors said a new date should be set for the vote, to give the council more time to review its decision. I.e. to take delivery from the Clue Train that keeps visiting Teheran, to no avail ....
"All provincial governors have announced unanimously that, under present circumstances, there will be no possibility of holding elections," interior ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani told the Associated Press news agency. The 12-member Guardians Council has disqualified more than a third of the 8,200 people - including more than 80 sitting MPs - who applied to run in the elections. So far it has reinstated about 700 of the disqualified candidates, after Iranâs supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered a review. It is still examining appeals and is due to announce its final decision on the others on Friday.
They're showing their power. There probably won't be many put back on the list, but even if most are, they'll have showed that they're the ones in charge...
In a letter to the interior ministry, the governors suggested a new date for the election would give the Guardians Council more time to decide whether to re-instate the barred candidates. On Wednesday, Iranâs main pro-democracy studentsâ group called on people not to vote in the elections. "There is no possibility of fair and free elections," the student movement, the Office for Fostering Unity, said in a statement. "Considering that peopleâs vote has no affect on the establishment, and there is no way to hold fair and free elections, there is no justification for people to participate in this election." The students urged reformist MPs to continue their protests against the poll blacklist. President Mohammad Khatami, himself a reformist, says he still believes the row can be resolved but warned he would not accept even a single "unfair" disqualification. "Even if one person has been disqualified unfairly, as president, I will defend his right," Mr Khatami told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The president said ministers and vice-presidents had submitted their resignations in protest over the mass disqualifications. But with negotiations continuing, he said he "will not accept resignations of any kind". Once out of office they have less leverage and cannot speak for the country ...
Posted by: rkb ||
01/29/2004 10:20:29 AM ||
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yeah, but once out of office the black hats actually have to run the govt and the provinces themselves, with no political cover from the moderates. Revolution time.
#7
So who are you rooting for in the Iranian election controversy, Faisal? Do you back the reformers or do you back the mullahcracy? Are you for ultra Allahificationm of Persian society or are you more of an Allah Lite and Less Filling type of guy? Lets hear you opinion and how you back it up.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 22:18 Comments ||
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#8
"Even if one person has been disqualified unfairly, as president, I will defend his right," Mr Khatami told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
What about the rights of non-Moslems to run for office?
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/29/2004 23:03 Comments ||
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Strained by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army will boost its forces by 30,000 through emergency authority it expects to last four years, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker told Congress on Wednesday. About time.
But Schoomaker, testifying to the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, rejected calls from lawmakers for a permanent increase in forces, saying it would undermine efforts to streamline and modernize the Army. "Right now, Iâve been given the authority by the secretary of defense to grow the Army by 30,000 people ... under emergency powers," Schoomaker said. He said the authority from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was to last for four years. Thatâs fine, you can always tweek the numbers later. We need more boots on the ground now.
The Army is already about 11,000 soldiers over the 482,000 troop limit authorized by Congress under the emergency provision the Pentagon invoked, largely through "stop-loss" orders that block soldiers from leaving or retiring and through re-enlistment incentives. Schoomaker told reporters after the hearing the Army would move quickly to add nearly 20,000 more forces, saying, "We want to achieve it as quickly as we can." He said money for the additional troops would come from the $87 billion emergency spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan Congress passed in November. Schoomaker said he wanted the additional troops to be incorporated into the Armyâs efforts to transform itself into a lighter, more mobile force for post-Cold War conflicts. Light infantry, more MPs, etc.
He rejected mounting demands from Republicans and Democrats in Congress to raise the Armyâs authorized troop levels, which he said would force the Army to expand permanently before it had made needed structural and operating changes. "What I stress again is we should not make a commitment for a permanent end-strength (troop) increase at this time," Schoomaker said. He said that would result in the kind of bloated, poorly trained force that plagued the Army in the 1970s.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/29/2004 9:02:50 AM ||
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He rejected mounting demands from Republicans and Democrats in Congress to raise the Armyâs authorized troop levels, which he said would force the Army to expand permanently before it had made needed structural and operating changes.
I've always thought we needed two more Army Divisions, but it appears that no one at the Pentagon, perhaps including Rummy, knows what we want to train any new people to be.
The MP issue is a good point: we definitely needed more MPs in Iraq, and their training will give them shoo-in jobs as civilian police, swat teams, and guards at strategic facilities, so there'll be no heartburn to let them go after 4 years.
Also, the call is significant: It means we anticipate doing more "Iraq" style actions in the future.
#2
Schoomaker does make a good point, and I say this as I support increasing the size of the Army -- we don't want to go back to the 70's. Bring the strength up carefully. I favor doing a brigade at a time of light infantry, MP's, and civil affairs units. Independent brigades would be very useful for peacekeeping/peace enforcement situations, and that would allow us to hold heavier units back in the states for when we really need them.
The "93rd Volunteer Infantry Brigade" has a nice ring to it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2004 10:08 Comments ||
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Actually Ptah, what Congress wants to do is create legislation for more boots, but not the FUNDING for those extra people. The money to pay them has to come from somewhere and that to Schoomaker means he has to cut some project the Army has to get it. On the other hand if hes using temporary orders/authorization he can always ask for more spending money for the initiative without being legally hassled.
Posted by: Val ||
01/29/2004 10:51 Comments ||
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#4
"93rd Volunteer Infantry," indeed!
The unit motto is, of course, "Let's roll!"
Posted by: Mike ||
01/29/2004 11:00 Comments ||
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#5
As I Genuflect in prayer, I pray to the Allmighty that the powers that be won't take any of our Armor from our current maneuver columns, and that the 7th ID(L) will return to the Active component in all its former greatness and splendor. The 7th Infantry Division was a light outfit perfectly tailored for Trash-can-istan, The Triangle, etc. Perhaps someday the new CSA will REMOB the Bayonets as a "Time on Target" unit speciffically designed to lay waste to insurgents, Fedayeen, Mujahaddin, and other undesirable cock-sucker-heads(TM) that we currently are facing. Long live the Cabbage Patch Kids!
#6
He said money for the additional troops would come from the $87 billion emergency spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan Congress passed in November.
The question is whether Congress will approve more funding to pay for these additional troops once funding from the $87B special appropriation runs out. If not, we'll have to reduce troop levels again.
The antagonism against Rumsfeld is misplaced. He wants to make sure that our guys go up against the opposition with the best equipment money can buy. The reason our guys got slaughtered by the enemy in the early days of WWII wasn't because we had insufficient men - it was because we had crappy equipment. Equipment development cycles have lengthened appreciably, while warfighting tempos have speeded up. This is why we need to keep a robust appropriations program going - our advantage remains equipment.
Iâd call it more of a pause, but thatâs just me. EFL:
Somaliaâs main warlords and politicians have signed an agreement to establish a new national parliament that in turn will elect a president. The deal paves the way for the setting up of the first recognised national government in Somalia for 13 years. Since the fall of President Siad Barre, Somalia has had no central authority and been wracked by civil war with rival factions battling each other. We all saw the movie.
Correspondents say the international community has been putting pressure on the Somali faction leaders to agree a peace deal and this now seems to have borne fruit after more than a year of discussions. The new parliament will be made up of 275 members, rather than 350 as previously agreed and traditional elders will be involved in selecting them, as well as warlords, reports say. Guess whoâll have more say.
The idea is that each of the four major clans will select 61 MPs and a coalition of small clans will select 31. The task of selecting who will become an MP is left to each group, but this could be a lengthy and contentious process. A MP will be whoever has more AKs.
Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka says he hopes there could be a functional government in Somalia within a month. Iâm hoping to win the lotto, I like my odds better.
Once a parliament is eventually formed, then it chooses a president who in turn will nominate a prime minister to form a government. Which the losers will attempt to overthrow.
Last week, mediators warned that tension between the self declared republic of Somaliland the autonomous region of Puntland could threaten the talks. Oh, them.
Somalilandâs leaders are the one group which is not party to the latest agreement. No problem, they only make up one third of what used to be Somalia.
There has also been an upsurge in fighting in recent weeks in central Somalia. How can you tell?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/29/2004 8:40:59 AM ||
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How can you tell?
They don't break for lunch or Qhat
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2004 9:51 Comments ||
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#2
I would like to see Puntland and Somaliland stay autonomous. The whole of Somalia is too big a stable to muck.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 13:05 Comments ||
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EFL
FAREWELL: My work [an anti Dean blog hosted by The New Republic] here is done.... Not that anybody is going to plead with me to continue...Heâs blown all his money, his campaign is in disarray, and heâs turned to an inside-the-Beltway Democrat to run his campaign.... if thereâs anybody who could make Dean attractive, itâs Kerry. Kerry is a miserable candidate, bereft of political skills, and possessing of a record and a persona tailor-made for Karl Rove. The Republicans will merely have to say about Kerry what they said about Gore--that he wants to be on every side of every issue, that heâs culturally out of touch with mainstream America, that heâs a pompous bore--and this time the sale will be easier, because all these things are far more true of Kerry than of Gore.
Posted by: mhw ||
01/29/2004 8:38:23 AM ||
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At least 10 people were killed and 45 wounded -- many seriously -- Thursday morning when a suicide bomber detonated aboard a bus on Azza Street, near Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharonâs residence in Jerusalem, Israeli police and medical sources said. The bomber also died in the attack. Yeah, they usually do.
Sharon was at his ranch at the time of the blast aboard bus No. 19 , traveling from the Hadassa Ein Karem hospital. The blast also happened near Cafe Moment, where a suicide bomber killed 11 people and wounded dozens of others in March 2002. The bombing came as Israel and Hezbollah were to begin a historic prisoner exchange Thursday at an undisclosed airfield in Germany. Israeli officials said the suicide attack would not affect the prisoner swap, which has begun. Anxious to get rid of them?
The explosion also occurred a day after Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian militants in fierce, prolonged street battles across Gaza City, killing eight Palestinians. The eight deaths were followed by demands for reprisals at angry funeral processions. ...followed by demands for refunds for their crappy AK47s.
Sharon adviser Dore Gold said Thursdayâs suicide attack had been planned for "weeks" and was not in response to the deadly Gaza raid. The suicide attack drew an immediate condemnation from chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat. "We always condemn targeting of civilians -- Israeli or Palestinian." he said. "This cycle can only end through the resumption of a meaningful peace process. I urge the [Mideast] Quartet to revive their role and provide monitors on the ground." Israeli officials said the attack proved the need for what Israel calls a "security fence," intended to block terrorists from entering the country. "Only the completion of Israelâs security fence -- which some are trying to stop using the U.N. and the International Court of Justice -- will finally provide security for Israelis against these kinds of attacks," Gold said. Next month, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, will debate the legality of the barrier, which Palestinians call a "wall" and believe is an Israeli attempt at a land grab. Sharon senior adviser Raanan Gissin called Thursdayâs attack "the ultimate deposition to be sent to the international court... This horrendous terrorist attack is the ultimate proof that no one in the world has the moral right or authority to tell us how and in what way we should defend our citizensâ right to life." Erakat said the attack shows that the security barrier is useless. Hold on, it hasnât been electrified yet.
"This just shows today that the answer to Israeli security is not going to be achieved through walls and settlements and incursions and the occupation," he said, blaming the barrier for "suffocating Palestinians, turning our villages, towns and refugee camps into big prisons." You can thank Arafat for that.
The violence has complicated modest moves toward reviving the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan and threatened another escalation in more than three years of Palestinian-Israeli violence.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/29/2004 5:45:11 AM ||
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#1
The bombing came as Israel and Hezbollah were to begin a historic prisoner exchange Thursday at an undisclosed airfield in Germany. Israeli officials said the suicide attack would not affect the prisoner swap, which has begun.
Too bad its not the same one where the Olympic atheletes died. Maybe they could bring back the West German Hostage Resue Team from retirement
#7
Israeli's will never be safe as long as the Palestinians are oppressed. No barrier, no IDF, is going to stop this freedom fight. Do you expect people to sit around and be submissive while their basic human rights are violated, while they are oppressed. No chance!
#8
America should have nuked Israel when it had the chance, this way we wouldn't have to waste our time reading about the bullsh*t that is happening over there day after day. This way we can concentrate on more important things like the SUPERBOWL!!
#9
"Palestinian security sources said the bomber, who also died in the blast, was a Palestinian police officer from Bethlehem."
These people think they deserve their own "state". Here we have proof positive that it is an OFFICIAL POLICY of Pal authorities to blow yourself up. It's one thing for LAPD cops to behave stupidly, beat someone, and be promptly fired and/or sued. It's quite another for a "police officer" for a Pal government (which is ALREADY illegitimate) to be 1. on the streets to begin with and 2. be involved in suicide bombings. Clearly, the rule of law means nothing to the so-called Palestinians and they cannot be trusted to govern themselves or any populace who embraces life and liberty.
#15
Hmmm. Interesting to note that whenever Sharon the monkey needs a blast... there it is. Take break. Sit down and note the dates of all blasts in the recent years. Whenever Sharon's in US or whenever some sort of a deal is around the cornet, duh there's a blast. Time to thrash the links between israel and Hamas.
#17
LOL, Jarhead!
Faisal, you're probably an Islamist jihadi yourself out to bring down the "Great Satan."
Either that or you're a Democrat or French.
They're all basically the same ideologically these days.
Make sure your tin foil kaffiyeh is on securely--those Zionist radio beams are strong, my friend!
live in a country every day and earn a better living than any of your Arab "brothers" are willing or able to provide. Participate in a society where your people are represented in the knesset. Take advantage of the benefits that living in a country that provides health care funding for your hospitals, whether you're there because you have a bad flu, or whether you've been partially blown up by your own bomb. Live in a country where even you you do kill someone under the flag of the most bestial hatred, and are caught and convicted, you won't be put to death because there is no death penalty. Live in a country that is still filled with people to whom large walls are reminders of horrible lives lived in ghettos, but would rather try that as an alternative to being slaughtered by the people to whom all these oppurtunities were offered and rejected.
International law? are you referring to the U.N.? Aren't they the organization who interrupted their weekend plans to condemn Israel for detroying a terrorist camp in Syria, without hurting anyone mind you, yet didn't have a word to say about the unspeakable bus bombings in Israel days earlier.
#20
Jennie: I'm not an islamist Jehadi. I've noted that whenever I post something that differs with the other rants, I'm declared a Jehadi or a diehard fanatic. I'm afraid that is not the case. Grow up and learn about something called difference of opinion.
#21
Hmmm.... Grow up..... Well, I have a difference of opinion Faisal. As near as I can tell, Sharon isn't a monkey. Please produce some evidence to the contrary then a discussion of the bombings can proceed.
#22
Dripping Sarcasm: Israel is a democracy? my ass. Where is it's constitution?. Well guys israel has NO written constitution. In a democratic state, any alleged "illegality" would be dealt with in a court of law, not by an army protecting bulldozers from citizens throwing stones. For a state to claim a Democratic form of government, it must have an established geographic area accepted by other nations as legitimate and defined. Unfortunately, this is not true in case of Israel. The Knesset results in a system in which the members owe allegiance to the party chiefs and not directly to the electorate. blah blah. blah. alas But americans hear only what Sharon allows the corporate media in America to receive from his minions .....
#24
Anyone notice how fat Sharon is getting these days. I got a feeling he been eating a lot of beans and is ready to let one rip. He's got WMD written all over him.
#25
Good point refugee. Maybe next time he is in America we can get Dickhead Cheney and Bushwack to give him a rectal exam to ensure. They are best qualified since they are always kissing his arse.
Neither does the UK. Does that mean they're not democratic???
Holy moly, these guys are out in force today...
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/29/2004 12:05 Comments ||
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#27
Faisal, ah, you *are* a jihadi Muslim.
When you claim that Israel hasn't been accepted as a "legitimate and defined" state, that's just rubbish and radical IslamoNazi talk.
I should have heeded that troll alert.
RB is not the place for you, guys!
You boys will want the Al Jazeera forums where you'll feel right at home.
Zorg, honey, you can mock President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Israeli Prime Minister Sharon all you won't to but it won't change the fact that you Islamist killers' days are numbered all over the world!
#30
Another boom in Israel, so the trolls just gotta dance around and waive their loin-cloths....and I left my #10 can of Troll-B-Gone® at home.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/29/2004 12:22 Comments ||
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#31
Yep, Mad Howie's pulling the dough from the TV ads and the BlogFoeAmerica is next. Paid bloggers will soon be looking for work so the trolls are trying to steal a little style.
#32
whitecolar redneck: well think of a monkey as a human with a more 'select' genetic tree. that's what he thinks of himself right?
Rafael: So UK and Israel are the same. lol. U didnt comment on the military use of force. I guess in UK they have courts to settle issues and don't use military right? :P
Jennie: Jennie, you *are* are zionist. No logic will penetrate you anyway. As you can see, zionists have a way of disregarding what others say about themselves. I told you I'm not a jihadi muslim yet you are intent on calling me one. Now i know why peace with israel is not possible. I neither watch al jazeera nor visit it's websites. They are for you to visit. can't tolerate another channel with a difference of opinion eh?. too bad.
Israel isn't accepted by its neighborhood (arab rejectionist States who, by the way are thugracies)
a state that isn't accepted can't be a democracy
ergo...
so by this logic, as long as the dictatorships of Syria, Saudi, etc. deny Israel's right to exist, Israel is condemned as less than a democracy
cool
by the way, England doesn't have a constitution either. both Israel and England have a body of law that establishs precedents
the other neat thing Faisal notes is his theory that Sharon is working with Hamas to kill Israelis to prevent peace deals
so this accomplishes a cool twofer
1. As long as Arab states are dictatorships that reject Israel, Israel can't be a legitimate state
2. Israel is to blame for Hamas bombings in Israel
this is of course the ultimate result of the Jewhatred education system in arab lands (and even in some US university departments)
Well, I think Northern Ireland is a good example of use of force. It's the cause-and-effect thing again; blow up a few cars/buses/pubs, and the military is bound to come out once in a while. It's because civilians tend to have little protection against flying debris and rapidly expanding gases.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/29/2004 12:50 Comments ||
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#35
The odds that Faisal is anything but a mentally deficient twelve-year-old are pretty low. I loved it attempting a conversation with itself earlier in this thread -- priceless!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2004 12:50 Comments ||
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#36
What's a 'palestinian'? I was looking on every map I could find, and I just can't find a nation called 'palestine'.
And God willing, there never will be.
BTW, faisal, where are you from? Just curious. Are you a moon-god worshipping follower of the pedophile false-prophet mo-ham-ed?
#37
Faisal isn't a jihadi muslim, he's a sad, naive closet case who just needs to be reminded that Israel has nothing to fear from ratbags like himself.
#38
In a democratic state, any alleged "illegality" would be dealt with in a court of law
Hmmmâ¦.I guess the USA and Britain arenât democratic states because they went after bin laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan without due process in a court of law. Hell â they went into a whole other country! String âem up!
In fact, thatâs EXACTLY what Israel is doing.
I think itâs hilarious that the defenders of Islam chastise Israel for not being perfect, when not one arab country comes close to being anything remotely like a democracy. How can anyone say such things with a straight face!
Unless they have mastered the art of self-delusion.
#39
#28 - "Not one of these trolls has said anything in defense or consolation for 10 dead and 50 wounded. Thanks for all your concern, "peace lovers". Now piss off."
#43
#28 - Let me offer some consolation. What a waste of a Palestinian life. He only got 10, and injured 50. It should have been 100,000 IDF soldiers dead and 200,000 injured beyond belief.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2004 13:49 Comments ||
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#44
#42 - That identity theft was done by me. Trolls love messing with prick's like you.
#46
BogFoeAmerica needs it bloggers back.... the usual 2 cents per word no pasting. Zorg, Rowan, Faisal come on back to work. TVs gone only way we're gonna beat Kerry in Michigan is with the Blog Bat.... so get your hippie asses back to work.
#48
Robert Crawford : "It should have been 100,000 IDF soldiers dead and 200,000 injured beyond belief."
Just goes to prove guy's like crawford are terrorists.
Posted by: Tao Gold ||
01/29/2004 14:02 Comments ||
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#49
Wow--Such a sad article and such a hilarious comment thread! This just puts me through the wringer to be infuriated about yet another moronic splodey-dope killing and maiming innocents, only to find myself in hysterics reading these pathetic attempts at trolling! The self-congratulation attempt in comments #24-5 has got to be a Rantburg first! This is one thread for the highlight reel.
Posted by: Dar ||
01/29/2004 14:07 Comments ||
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#50
Faisal--Gee, you sure are good at making up fake names! And the congratulating yourself, then hijacking RC's moniker, then insulting him under another name is just priceless. Are you the original "Army of One"? Have you thought of posting under the name "Sybil"?
Posted by: Dar ||
01/29/2004 14:14 Comments ||
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#51
Oooohhh. You said "prick". Come on son, be more creative. I know lots of naughty words but don't need them to get you to seethe. By the way I loved your work in "Black Adder". On a more serious note, as we are a virtual community, our handles are part of our personas and reputations. As such, handle theft is considered DISHONORABLE and RUDE.
#55
Back on topic now, everyone....
May the 10 innocent victims rest in peace. May the suicide bomber (yup, he committed suicide, a huge no-no in Islam, plus he killed innocent people, another huge no-no) enjoy his 72 beaten up, high-mileage, rode hard and put away wet "virgins". May they all resemble Bea Arthur with a horrible case of PMS. May bees pee upon them all.
Now, back to the rantings and ravings of the trolls.....may bees pee upon you, too.
#56
Rhetorical hypocrisy is what drives the boondock elitist dilletantes who make up the rank and file left in this country.
Note that one clueless dry-drunk victim/shithead calls Sharon a monkey, then demands that all responses respect his own "difference of opinion." Excuse me, fuck-tard, calling you a jihadi or a terrorist-sympathizer also represents a difference of opinion, and an entirely valid inference from your own stated positions.
One rule for you, a different one for others, and the ability to define permissible limits of discourse are the pop-culture conformist definition of power. See 1984 by George Orwell.
Fuck off, terror apologist hypocrites, you can't control the language here, let alone enforce a standard that gives you immunity to opposition. The fictional Ministry of Truth had the power to enforce its edicts and abolish the language of dissent. You do not. sorry.
You authoritarian terror-apologist status-seekers are out of your depth here, so piss off and take your adolescent power-fantasies and second-string cow-college rhetoric somewhere else.
Death to terrorists, ruin and privation to the fifth column.
Before this is over, you 'tards will be reduced to begging outside porn theaters and sleeping in the abandoned ruins of your parents' chicken-shit businesses.
#57
Anonymous #56 - Didn't you take you dose of prozac today. Either that or you aren't able to get it up in bed anymore....in that case take viagra before you fu*c the dog.
#58
It appears I hit the mark with my comment in #35. What a sad life one must lead when the only way to deal with criticism is to lie.
BTW -- troll-thing, if you had the least amount of spine, you'd be open about your identity. I post here using my real name, with an email account that goes to my normal email account, and giving a website that is my homepage. I have no problem standing behind my opinions.
You, on the other hand, skulk around switching handles on every comment, never putting an identity together in order to form a reputation. That's probably because you're the pathetic type of halfwit that likes to go start fights, but it could just as easily be that you're afraid to stand by the positions you take.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2004 14:43 Comments ||
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#59
#56 Anonymous - Soo much anger. You should go on the Jerry Springer show. Clowns like you belong there.
#60
You are confusing your immediate situation with a clairvoyant vision of mine.
I'm not surprised that you would focus on Viagra. It has been a great boon to "showgirls," hasn't it?
#62
Show-whore, haven't you ever heard of differences of opinion? Have you no tolerance? You cite no facts and present no logic in your response and are obviously incapable of rational discourse. Why must you resort to insults and name-calling?
You must be a monkey.
#64
Thank you, showgirl, but my feelings are anything but hurt.
An apologist for Islamo-fascist terrorism suggests that I might beat my "wives" (plural) and kids? How obvious can the pursuit of power through hypocrisy get?
Your designated leaders may not have told you, but it is Muslim men who claim the right to multiple wives as well as the right to beat those wives (plural) and, of course, the resulting children. This alleged right is still claimed and defended publicly in Muslim society; making their supporters and apologists complicit in its continuation.
It is reasonable to suppose that the culture of absolute male-dominance and privelege has a lot to do with the acceptability of suicide bombing among Palestinians and other Muslims, in fact.
It certainly accounts for their practice of hiding behind and among women and children in preference to confronting the IDF.
A bigger factor, though, is the knowledge that dilletantes and media power-seekers in the west will not hold them responsible for these actions.
#68
Yes Nuss it's me, Sybil, and SickofIsraelPalestine and Faisal and RwandanRefugee and freedom fighter and S.T.U.P.I.D. OOPs, not that last one. Sometimes it so distressing I don't who I really am....
OH OH gotta go. Here comes the teacher to lock up the lab.
#70
this is the best thread yet,love it when faisel turns up to make a fool of himself,pissin myself laughin at this fuck nozzle's comments,keep up the entertainment
#71
Faisal - it is not that your a jihadi or some bullshit like that - but simply you are an idiot. Difference of opinion yes - but get real man. When ranters see an idiot your loped into the jihadi group. Go back and read your posts - at times you sound like a jihadi - but that is the same as an idiot.
Posted by: Dan ||
01/29/2004 18:07 Comments ||
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#72
Since the last suicide bombing, Israel has killed over 38 Palestinians and injured over 314 others. Only yesterday, over ten Palestinians were gunned down by Israeli occupation troops in the Gaza Strip. The UN reports that in the last two weeks alone in one Gaza refugee camp, almost 600 Palestinian refugees were made homeless when Israel bulldozed their homes.
Where is the outrage over the continuous plundering of Palestinian land, of
Israel's daily killing of Palestinian civilians? Why does our media find discussion of Palestinian deaths beyond the pale of the permissible and the
politically acceptable.
When pundits claim that today's attack broke the "relative calm," it unfortunately makes clear that Palestinian lives are considered dispensable and their deaths unworthy of outrage. Attacks on innocent civilians can never be justified or condoned, but we have witnessed selective outrage for too long. On a very basic level, media coverage could contribute to Mideast
peace by expressing equal grief and outrage at all loss of life.
Posted by: Tao Gold ||
01/29/2004 18:09 Comments ||
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#73
Israeli occupation troops continuous plundering of Palestinian land Israel's daily killing of Palestinian civilians
Gee, no bias there, eh? Every argument regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be boiled down to whether you believe that Israel has a right to exist as a nation or not. Simple as that.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/29/2004 18:24 Comments ||
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#74
Only yesterday, over ten Palestinians were gunned down by Israeli occupation troops in the Gaza Strip
...yep, as they were trying to do the same to IDF soldiers. Must be hard for those Paleo gunnies to aim while hiding amongst civilians.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/29/2004 19:20 Comments ||
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#77
To answer your unasked question Tao... it's because Jooooooooooos are smarter.
Posted by: St. Corrie of the IHOP ||
01/29/2004 20:04 Comments ||
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#78
#36: no i'm not a worshipper of a moon god. btw, did u know that the talmud is basically just meaningless babbling of some idiots that pre-date christ. Strange how intelligent people like you believe in such crap. i think you have a very important task at hand: to decide WHO the God of Israel is :-). And to the christians, here is how Jesus is revered in thetalmud: the bastard boy who "uncovered his head" and was conceived in the filth of menstruation
#79
Take me to Laguardia, Faisal...and step on it, you Islamic scholar you. And no tours of Brooklyn. I know my way around. Save that shit for the tourists...
#80
As I said in another post, the only ones I feel bad for are the children who are caught in the middle of this shit storm. I have no irons in this fire for the most part. I'm not Jewish nor Arab and don't have much inclination to go to the holy land w/my bro's in arms to un-fuck it. (or send my son to) I also don't know enough *real history* about the situation to have a very educated opinion about whose right, wrong, blah, blah, blah. I get to hear the pundits from both sides state their case daily though. All I know is that we're talking blood feuds, incompatible religious beliefs, and tribalism that dates back thousands of years. Some of the above posts illustrate my point completely. From my limited observation I'd say the Israelis should be allowed to exist as a nation and be left in peace. The Paleo's should also be granted some sort of statehood & also be left alone. Both sides will have much compromising to do. Problem is, hardliners and assholes on both sides don't want that. It is an all or nothing proposition to them. Not to mention the UN is too fucking inept to help fix it. The Arab neighbor govt's need the paleo conflict to keep fanning the flames from their own plights. As for the Israelis, many of the ones I've ran into in my occupation or other circles feel the U.S. OWES them military aid and technology. Now, I don't have a problem w/an allie asking for help, but, don't pull that we owe you anything crap. I personally don't owe them one cent out of my taxes.
itâs gone from ridiculous to obscene.
Defence lawyers at the international court to try people over the 1994 genocide in Rwanda have gone on strike. The strike has led to the postponement of three trials at the court, based in the Tanzanian town of Arusha. The lawyers say the tribunal is skewed in favour of the prosecution and one told the BBC "a fair trial is impossible." Officials deny the claims. Certainly true if youâre a dead victim hoping for justice.
Some 46 people face charges in Arusha for the killing of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The trial involving one of the alleged masterminds of the genocide, Theoneste Bagosora, is among those postponed. The trial of the first woman to be charged with genocide, former Minister of the Family and Womenâs Affairs Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, was also delayed. She is accused of inciting the rape of Tutsi women during the genocide, among other charges. Family and womenâs affairs? Which family, al-Ghamdiâs or Tony Sopranoâs?
Striking lawyer Christopher Black told the BBCâs Network Africa programme that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was being used as a political tool for the United States. "Itâs all Americaâs fault with their emphasis on justice and accountability!"
"The tribunal wants us here to make it look legitimate but it doesnât want us to represent the suspects effectively." He said that defence investigators were not given as much money as the prosecution teams. The lawyers also want better access to their clients and to be given the names of prosecution witnesses, many of whom testify anonymously at present. Think there might be a reason for that, Chris?
Mr Black denied that the lawyers were striking to get more money from the United Nations-backed trial for themselves, insisting the action was to protect the interests of their clients. Pure as the driven snow.
Correspondents say the tribunal has speeded up its work in recent months and has now convicted 17 people in eight years. The Rwandan Government had accused it of being too slow and inefficient. Two a year? Yep.
Last year, Hassan Jallow from The Gambia replaced the excreableCarla del Ponte as chief prosecutor.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2004 1:39:28 AM ||
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Striking lawyer Christopher Black told the BBCâs Network Africa programme that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was being used as a political tool for the United States.
Huh? How?
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
01/29/2004 2:23 Comments ||
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#2
This is exactly the kind of circus you get with "international tribunals."
These people are war criminals, genocidal monsters, not some guy who killed his wife. Layout the evidence. If the defence lawyers don't want to do the trial, get rid of them and get some who will.
#3
Too bad the reavers didn't strike while the genocide was in progress. Maybe the deathtoll would have been smaller if the war-criminals had been more organized.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 13:06 Comments ||
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#4
Might have gotten the goods on Kofi and Chiraq.
I just ran across this:
Rwanda May Indict French Military for Their Role in 1994 Genocide
By Brian Carnell
Monday, September 16, 2002
Last month Reuters reported that Rwanda may try to indict several French military officers for their alleged role in aiding the 1994 genocide in that country as well as providing protection for the former Rwandan government as it fled the country in the summer of 1994.
In 1998, a French parliamentary commission looked into the charges and found that there had been "errors of judgment" but no direct French participation in genocide.
Beginning in 1990, the French government had been a major supporter of the Hutu-led government, supplying it with large amounts of military aid and training, including the loaning of French officers. The charges surrounding the French involvement with the genocide include:
#5
Well, when they resolve this strike and finish with the Rwanda backlog....and Milosevic.....they should be ready to deal with Saddam, right? It will only take about another 500 years or so....
With regard to the note yesterday about a 9/11 website, the first one I saw after 9/11 is still (IMHO) the best: The Black Day. It has a certain raw power and still chokes me up.
Fred, feel free to delete if you want -- just thought given yesterdayâs comments that Iâd put this in.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2004 1:32:16 AM ||
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#1
Its good to remind ourselves what happened.
Especially since the "popular press" refuses to show the "jumper photos". "They are too controversial" (meaning they remind people that we should be angry, and at whom we should direct our anger).
Its as if, like a 3 year old covering his eyes, they think they can make history go away if they ignore it long enough: they dont like it because it makes people rise in righteous anger at the evil behind such things.
And the liberal powers in the press don't like having it demonstrated that there *is* true evil in the world: it forces them to realize there is a moral dimension and that their relativism is wrong in the stark face of objective reality.
Furthermore, they still want to deny that if you don't go hunt the wolves, they will eventually be at your door.
I still think the amoral relativistic anti-militaristic anti-americanism liberalism on display these days (on the left) should be diagnosed as a form of schizophrenia - a psychosis where you build facades against facing facts in the real world, to the detriment of yourself and others whom you delude into accepting the same falsehoods. For example, Look at the mental contortions the poor souls at Indymedia put themselves into just to avoid confronting reality that contradicts their deeply held beliefs.
#3
Depends,Chedder.If there were only"the little people"at work at the time,then the big media moguls would have done the same.Look at what they have done concerning people like Daniel Pearl,as far as I can see all they have done is say"Pooh,pooh.How terrible,shame on you."
If it had been me,I would have given the governments in charge of the investigations 1 year to catch the killers,if no results after a year there would have been a million $ bounty for the the heads of each and every one of the animals.
#4
I had the misfortune to see this in person. I'll never get over it. I'm reminded of how its a very good thing for the Arab world that I'm not in charge.
#6
It isn't just the press but the left in general who are holding their hands over their ears, eyes, and mouths and/or using it for their own political gain.
#7
The scary thing is, the left just blame Bush for 9/11. If/when we have another major attack, they will blame Bush again.
Interesting paradox: Arabs blame Jews, left blames Bush for every problem. Everyone is a victim.
Posted by: john ||
01/29/2004 9:55 Comments ||
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#8
I knew a guy that died in the Pentagon impact zone. He watched out for me during my plebe year at the academy. Rantburg helps me remain mindful of his tragic death and those of the other victims.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 11:42 Comments ||
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#9
I saw the "Here Is New York" 9/11 photo exhibition in Houston and was grabbed by one photo of the north tower. In the spot where the first plane went in, there is a woman with red/brown hair, dark top and light pants, perched at the very edge of the hole made by the impact, looking out. I often wondered what happened to her. The second photo in the "Black Day" site answers my question.
The photo I saw in Houston is #5088 at the site:
http://hereisnewyork.org/gallery/thumb.asp?CategoryID=3&picnum=13
#10
I sent this link to somebody and they claimed it had a "Trojan" virus. I run linux and mozilla so I wouldn't normally be affected by virus or trojan traps so I wouldn't notice. To test I cleared up my cache and ran a sniffer (ethereal) on my gateway before access:
I looked at the results by hand and I saw only a link to sitestats.com that tried to load a java script from db2.sitestats.com named "2955.js". There was no java script at sitestats.com named that so it returned a 404 Not found. If this is the trojan request then you are likely safe to access this site, as sitestats.com doesn't have the script. Perhaps, the javascript request is a relic of some infection on the creator's web page creation software. If that isn't it then it and the infection does exist then it is very complex and could take a long time to make sense of. Could the author please check for infection?
If the author wants I can send a transaction log somewhere with my ips edited out.
Forecast for Tokyo tomorrow: couple inches of spittle from the southwest.
Japanâs lower house passed a bill Thursday to make it easier to impose economic sanctions on North Korea, a step aimed at pressuring Pyongyang to hand over relatives of Japanese abducted decades ago. Backed by both the ruling and main opposition parties, the legislation passed easily with a majority of lawmakers standing in show of support. There was no official tally of the vote. Wow, parties working together.
The bill does not mention North Korea, but lawmakers say it is aimed at the reclusive state. Not the Esquimouxan Republic?
Officials in Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumiâs government also have said they donât have any plans to impose sanctions, but the government is trying to build pressure on North Korea to agree to talks on the abductions. "Economic sanctions are one tool of diplomacy," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said before the bill was passed. "It would be beneficial to have such a tool for policymaking." I wouldnât count on it, witness Iraq. And Cuba.
The bill will go to the upper house for consideration next week. The legislation would enable Japan to take measures including banning imports of North Korean white slag goods and freezing remittances from North Koreans living in Japan. The money is badly needed by the isolated countryâs devastated economy. Ahead of the Thursday vote, North Korea warned the bill would exacerbate tensions in the region. See, itâs already raining working!
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2004 1:26:45 AM ||
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Link ||
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#1
Sanctions against NK by Japan may be more effective as Japan is an important market for NK. China and South Korea's bargaining position with Kim will be improved by the elimination of a large buyer for NK products.
IMO the embargo against Cuba has been effective in that it has denied Cuba cashflow from an incredibly large, near contiguous market. Cuba still trades with the engagment crowd but realizes less profit. Limits on cash flow does not limit Castro's repression of his own people but it does limit the amount of damage he can cause throughout Latin America. If Venezeula were to become unfriendly to Fidel and the US to freeze remittances (the actual result being a reduced flow of cash into Cuba,) I can't see that Castro would have too many options left.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 8:14 Comments ||
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#2
The biggest economic lever Japan has over NKorea is all the remittances the NKor population in Japan (some of the them there for generations) send back to NKorea...
Posted by: Carl in N.H ||
01/29/2004 11:54 Comments ||
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#3
What i don't get is - negotiations with the Norks takes forever irrespective of what you're negotiating about so if we were serious about negotiating, i would have thought that we would have been in constant talks with them over the past months instead of this once every 5 or 6 months business.
This is just giving them more time to build nukes and nukes change everything. I can understand that if they only have 2 or 4 now that they want to keep them but if we give them much more time (see the IISS report from London) they will have 8 or 10 of the damn things and they will face massive pressure to sell them.
What are the options for the US? 1) sit back and say it ain't our problem 2) continue talking for a few years hoping beyond hope that Kim dies or that the country disintegrates and praying he doesn't sell any nukes 3) catacylsmic nuclear war. 4) convince China and Japan that they MUST get serious about this and blockade the Norks and stop all shipping and flights in/out and stop the remittances from Japan which have kept this regime alive for so long.
The 4th option seems the best at first glance but it would lead to war.
#4
Guyjean, for China, NK is an extremity that is hemoraging cash through it's primary artery. SK is protected from masses of refugees by the DMZ; China is not. NK will make appreciable advancement of their nuclear programs only at a snails pace and at the cost of food for it's people. The whole gambit of declaring their nuclear programs stems from the severe brokeness of NK internally. Although their Juche society is akin to Chistian Science, in this case the patient is under presure to capitulate before he bleeds out. We do the North Korean people no service by blinking and bailing Kim out so that he can continue to repress and kill them.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2004 14:18 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.
