#1
Meh, anyone can win 1 in a row (except the bills ha hahhh). That was probably the worst superbowl since... LAST year's superbowl. Even the commercials were subpar.
#6
Thought the game was great. I don't give a rat's ass about the commercials, that's soccer mom shit. (not that I have anything against soccer moms.) Great to see a down to the wire game. I thought Janet showed some, but wasn't positive. That's not the place for nudity, too many young kids watching. Though I'm all for female nudity in most cases, except that broad in "about schimdt".
#7
Great game, just what I wanted since I didn't have a dog in this fight. I wanted a game down to the wire and we got one.
I was playing Battlefield 1942 at half-time, did I really miss anything with Janet?
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2004 23:11 Comments ||
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#8
Nah, just enough to make me turn to my wife and say "Was that a boobie?" Great game though. I'll bet there was some serious money lost on the spread.
#9
I'm sorry, I just ain't a fan of MEDIOCRITYparity in the NFL. I liked it more when Dallas and the Niners slugged it out in the NFC championship and then beat the cr*p out of whichever victim the lesser league offered.
#10
For myself, I got pretty bored with Superbowls over by halftime. I'm a Chiefs fan so needless to say the Superbowl has been pretty academic for me for years.
#11
heck, I'm from Detroit, haven't had anything to cheer for in 20 years except Barry Sanders. The entire playoffs were phenomenal imho. Best in a long time.
#12
I'd like to see the Chiefs do well, they play offense like it's meant to be, and Priest is a stud. Too bad they have a bunch of candyasses on defense.
Public education folks have no shame about their role in society. Were there any justice, the lot of them would be thrown out of work permenantly. I donât want these folks teaching my grandkids Original pointer came from Emperor Misha I over at nicedoggie.net
BMW=black man working. Actually, in this case, it should be BMWTW: black man wanting (to) work; not as a rapper or a basketball player, but in one of the most important positions existing: the giver of knowledge and living example to children. A certain young black man fills all the squares. College educated to the hilt (double-major in liberal arts subjects, deanâs list more than once), heâs brilliant and accomplished. Heâs a member of Mensa. He interned with a US senator. He was a Rhodes Scholar candidate. Hereâs a man who could have nearly any career desired, likely with many benefits, monetary and otherwise. But what does he want to do? He wants to give something back, give a hand up to young men (and women) who may be inspired by him: he applies to become a teacher in the metro Atlanta counties (large black population).
Surely, the school district officials there would be appreciative of their good fortune at this exceptionally qualified teacher falling into their laps. Not. This young man, Marquis Harris, received this missive through email:
"Though your qualifications are quite impressive, I regret to inform you that we have selected another candidate. It was felt that your demeanor and therefore presence in the classroom would serve as an unrealistic expectation as to what high school students could strive to achieve or become. However, it is highly recommended that you seek employment at the collegiate level; there your intellectual comportment would be greatly appreciated. Good luck." [Bold mine, -Ed.]
How about that? Marquis Harris is a freak of nature, or so says the principal that refused him employment. Oh, not in so many words, of course, but the implication is clear: itâs not realistic for young black students to achieve through his/her merits alone; they usually arenât capable of it. So, to have a living, breathing example of achievement before them day in and day out would only serve to rile up those docile, inferior darkie slaves discourage them. They might start thinking that they really donât need Affirmative Action and that some just might accept them for their proven, enumerated abilities and demonstrable work ethic.
Canât have that, now can we? My best advice to this kid is to forget âgiving backâ anything, register as a republican, start his own company to make his fortune and his way through the world. He will be âgiving backâ far more in that role than he ever could working with those socialist bastards.
#5
I thought it was an urban legend as well but the source is credible and it looks like its for real.
Only the Left could come up 'Life immitates urban legend'. This is a first in my experience.
BTW, I am sure the young man will be inundated with job offers after this. Good luck to him, although he seems to have figured out you make your own luck - mostly through hard work.
#6
I have found two URLs reliable for debunking junk.
Neither of them had anything on the Marquis Harris story. Break the Chain or http://www.breakthechain.org/ Urban Legends or http://www.snopes.com/
#7
Saw an episodeof a news magazine -might have been 20-20- where an all black 1st grade class from the Bedford Styverson area of NYC was interviewed in 1975 or so. A great many of the children were very gifted. A reunion was then held in 2000 to see what they had achieved. Most of the women had at batchelor's degrees an/or owned businesses and such. The majority of the men had done time. One poor guy that had been a classical pianist with a lot of potential wandered in off of the streets. He tried to the play the piano and couldn't. It was a pitiful shame.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 20:42 Comments ||
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#8
this sounds like urban legend. If not, I hope he finds great employment somewhere or starts his own business. SH, I saw that program. Was pitiful. Inner city problems could be reduced if the father's of those kids actually stuck around to raise them and get their act together. My firm belief that the black females cannot do it all alone. Young boys need the strong male role model.
MELBOURNE, Australia -- Roger Federer won his second Grand Slam title and solidified his No. 1 ranking Sunday, beating Marat Safin 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 6-2 in the Australian Open. "What a great start to the year for me, to win the Australian Open and become No. 1 in the world," the 22-year-old Swiss star said. "To fulfill my dreams, it really means very much to me." Federer won the two-hour, 15-minute match when Safin -- who tied a Grand Slam record by playing 30 sets -- hit a forehand long on championship point. Federer is a star. He could sweep!
The Aussie Open went off without any jihadi interferance. Some may say this isnât pertinant to the WoRace. Well yes it is!
Posted by: Lucky ||
02/01/2004 1:28:05 AM ||
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#1
Lucky, you ol' blow hard. Shame, bad dog, go lie down.
#4
If Anna K isn't playing, I'm not watching. That Murissmo (sp?) is OK also. Why did whe get a tatoo on her shoulder? I hope that's not the wave of the future. If it is, Jenny C. nedds to go with the barbed wire ring option.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 11:45 Comments ||
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#5
Okay... I'' have to explain it.... you see Tannis is evidently a root/herb/concotion which staves off werevolves.
RoseMias Boo Boo is evidently a take off on Mad's satire of Rose Mary's Baby in which Mia Farrow had a uhhhh seminal role.
Does everybody understand? Dammit! I want feedback!
Posted by: Napoleon VII ||
02/01/2004 13:11 Comments ||
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Afghanistanâs former Taliban rulers rebuffed more than 30 US requests to expel Osama Bin Laden between 1996 and just before the September 11 attacks in 2001, newly declassified official documents revealed Friday. A long list of official contacts summarised by the declassified State Department document showed that Taliban leader Mullah Omar expressed interest in a confidential dialogue with Washington over the Al Qaeda mastermind. He also suggested Bin Laden be tried by a panel of Islamic scholars or that his movements be monitored by the OIC or UN. The State Department documents show most of the approaches to the fundamentalist Islamic militia took place under the administration of President Bill Clinton. Only three meetings or conversations detailed in the document, obtained and released by George Washington Universityâs National Security archive, took place after President Bushâs inauguration in January 2001
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/01/2004 12:35:19 AM ||
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#1
Yes, I remember one of those "conversations." Very public, IIRC.
I believe the one-eyed bandit's answer was unacceptable to W.
So, this wasn't just a 1st-time suggestion to W, eh? Pulled the same on Bubba. --He also suggested Bin Laden be tried by a panel of Islamic scholars or that his movements be monitored by the OIC or UN. --
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/01/2004 7:55 Comments ||
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#4
Omar employed the Iraqi stall technique without success. He didn't understand that without an Oil for Food program, the actions of the Security Coucil are less sure.
Can you imagine how long and boring a UN trial for OBL or Sadaam would be?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 11:49 Comments ||
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#5
Can you imagine how long and boring a UN trial for OBL or Sadaam would be?
It would be long.... don't know about boring, I think it would resemble the 1960 Democratic convention.
#6
Shipman, think of the Milosavich trial, but with a complete day-by-day critique of every sin committed by the US and Isreal since their founding. The stuff would all be a rehash, yet the Arab street would collect to burn the stars and stripes on a daily basis. It would be mind-numbing and stupid.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 20:47 Comments ||
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Taliban fighters have vowed to continue their "holy war" against the American-led coalition in Afghanistan after they are freed from a notorious prison in the north of the country. Many of the 400 mostly Afghan prisoners to be released from Sheberghan jail, near Afghanistanâs Uzbek border, under an amnesty offered by the countryâs president, Hamid Karzai, say that they intend to return to the fray against the West, according to prison officials and the word of the detainees.
Maybe next time they'll just get killed. It's like an infection, you know. You can't intern bacteria.
The disclosure of their plans coincided with a Taliban suicide bombing in Kabul that killed a British soldier and injured four other people and came despite assurances from Mr Karzai that dangerous followers of the fundamentalist movement would not benefit from the amnesty. "God created me a Talib," declared Khal Mohammad, 55, an Afghan Taliban commander freed under the amnesty. "He [a Talib] is one who struggles for the happiness of Allah. This is the order of the Almighty Allah - to fight the infidel. It doesnât matter if they are American, Russian or British."
Sheberghan Prison is a bleak fortress on a dusty plain and holds the third largest contingent of al-Qaeda-allied prisoners in the world, after Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Bagram airbase on the outskirts of Kabul. Most were taken there in December 2001 after the fall of the Taliban stronghold of Kunduz. President Karzai, under election year pressure from elders of his own Pathan [Pashtun] community, announced last month that the prisoners would be freed, despite the recent surge in Taliban-led resistance. In Kabul the prisoner offer is seen as a part of Mr Karzaiâs attempts to counteract the Taliban comeback by making concessions to the movementâs less-extreme wings. "The time for making people suffer and jailing them without reason is over," said a spokesman for Mr Karzai. Those eligible for amnesty were ordinary Afghans who "have every right to a peaceful and respectable life in the new Afghanistan".
... which consists of rolling their eyes and waving guns."
The security manager of the jail, Fazal Hadi, is less sanguine. "Maybe some will not rejoin but I think most will come back," he said. "They belong to the fundamentalist groups and a lot are madrassa students, and Iâm afraid that they will return."
I'm hoping they get killed next time.
The prisoners are highly adept at tailoring their views with an eye on gaining release, presenting one view to Mr Karzaiâs envoys and the opposite to other visitors. Mr Hadi recounted: "A few Americans were here recently and after they had gone these Talibs called them imperialists, and said that if they were released they would come back and kill Americans."
Western diplomats in Afghanistan have warned Mr Karzai not to compound the task facing international troops in a misguided attempt to build bridges with opponents. "We acknowledge that this is an attempt to build bridges with footsoldiers in the âmoderateâ wing of the Taliban but we would oppose any process that results in the release of violent opposition that endangers international troops," one said.
A "moderate" Taliban only beats his own wife.
When the Telegraph visited Sheberghan, support for the Taliban was strong among the inmates. Young fighters chimed in with the elders, vowing to restore the puritanical movement that pulled the country back into the Middle Ages. Abdullah, a 26-year-old from the southern province of Zabul - a hotbed of Taliban resistance - declared that he wanted the Taliban returned to power, to restore the stability in everyday life which he said was missing since warlords took control. "In Taliban times it was stable," he said. "There was no fighting, and our homes were not looted." However, not all of the prisoners agreed and some admitted to being disillusioned with the Taliban after enduring years of hardship since signing up with the movement in northern Pakistan. Conditions at the jail have apparently sapped the fighting spirit of some prisoners, who now yearn to return to family life.
Sheberghan is a bleak place of incarceration for its 463 Pakistani and 437 Afghan inmates. It was substantially rebuilt in the 1980s by the Soviets, but its cells feature lice-infested beds and crumbling walls. Meals have improved following the intervention of the Red Cross Thingy, and prisoners now eat beef twice a week, rice every day and vegetables such as carrots and potatoes. Despite this, most have scabies, gastriotisis and sciatica and at least 47 have tuberculosis. Most Pakistani prisoners at Sheberghan have no imminent prospect of release. President Karzai said that the issue must be negotiated with Islamabad. Many Pakistani inmates claim to be angry at the Taliban for tricking them into travelling to Afghanistan to fight.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 12:14:28 AM ||
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#1
" under an amnesty offered by the countryâs president, Hamid Karzai, say that they intend to return to the fray against the West,"
Simple solution:summary execution.
I thought Karzi was a pretty smart dude,guess he hasn't learned you don't negotiate with rabid dogs,you shoot them.
We all know the Quran says it it is perimesable to lie,cheat,steal from Kafirs and to enslave or kill them.That a promise to a Kafir is not binding,if they give thier Word to Karzi(a Muslem)is that promise binding?
#2
I wouldn't be suprised if one of those mutts tries to off Karzai when they get out. Lets hope he decides think a good old fashioned Soddy type prison fire is the solution to the problem.
#3
Raptor-
Of course their promise would not be binding, all they have to do is claim that Karzai is not a true muslim because he is working with the kaffirs (us). This makes Karzai even worse than a polytheist to the Izzoids.
To the Izzies, the only true Muslim is one who works to slaughter all non-believers. With such rabid dogs (apologies to all real rabid dogs out there), claiming the "high moral ground" it is no wonder the hundreds of millions of "moderate" Muslims are cowed!
#4
Karzai's fig leaf would be interpretted as weakness in the Arab world. The Pashtun world seems follows a war code that I cannot fathom based on tribal loyalties. He may have misunderstood the situation; I think that jihdis no longer recognize tribal loyalty.
In this situation I doubt that claering GITMO during the ongoing insurgency is a wise plan.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 11:58 Comments ||
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#5
Seems to me we need a JDAM solution to the problem. Just have a total lockdown early one morning, have all the guards and workers leave, and level the damned place. Anyone that crawls out from the rubble will be summarily dumped into a vat of boiling nitric acid, feet first. End of problem.
You don't negotiate with terrorists. Islamofascism - perhaps all of islam - is a terrorost organization. Behead it, rip out the guts, chop off the limbs, and run over what's left with a steam roller. The only thing these nutjobs are good for is fertilizer. The sooner we decide that's the only solution that will work, the sooner we'll end up with a world the rest of us can live in in peace.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/01/2004 12:31 Comments ||
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#6
OP---I share your sentiments (sediments?), but the nitric acid thing is a bit vitriolic, ahem..
Unfortunately, the Islamic world looks at our willingness to compromise as a sign of weakness to be exploited. In our initial offer we must leave an out (a constructive alternative). However, if they do not take that, then they must realize that there is no negotiation, that they will be annihilated. For example, Israel, I believe, made a potential fatal mistake when they started negotiating with the PA after the start of the intefada.
These "nutjobs" give no quarter, so they should get none. I am afraid that the madrassa grads are a lost generation.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/01/2004 13:07 Comments ||
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#7
I suggest a rereading of Patton's address (reenacted in the first scene of the "Patton" movie). "We will not content ourselves with shooting at the suckers, we are going to kick their asses, to make them crawl in shit and finally we will cut their balls". Or "we will use their guts for oiling the tracks of our tanks".
There are good muslims but it is time they stop thinking of wahabis and other scum as fellow muslims. They should regard them as a demon-inspired sect and don't hesitate to ally with kaffirs in order to hunt them. Because if they don't do this then it will be the wahabis who will kill them.
But for now, my impression of the moderate muslims is that they are trying to play us a game of good cop, bad cop. Or more exactly they are acting as the complce who feigns to be a hostage in order the cops hold their fire against the gangster.
I were them (the moderate muslims) I would understand that quite soon the westerners will ask for more than verbal comdemnations. And that looking the other way when people bear bin Laden's T-shirts or not burning wahabbi mosques is bad for economy. And for health.
#8
Westerners, and those infected by our notions of honor and chivalry, need to learn the most basic lesson of international relations: they ain't us. What they do, and why, is not a mystery, if you're paying attention. The mystery in this situation, and many other similar dumbass moves, is why we trust asshats, such as the resplendent Karzai (Love the hat, Dood!), and keep thinking that Islam subscribes to the same code of honor. They don't. Period. Giving parole to an honorable (Western-style) man is usually good enough. Islam's notion of honor, a twisted mix of barbarity and honor-killing, makes this action just as stupid and insane and asinine as Israel's "prisoner swaps" with the Paleos. Total madness. Karzai knows better - so this, added to their "constitution", drops him another 50 rungs on my ladder. Fuck Karzai.
Ahhh... Tradition!
Reuters
At least 244 Muslim pilgrims were crushed to death and the same number injured in a human tide during a devil-stoning ritual at the climax of the annual haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia Sunday. "There were 244 pilgrims who died in the incident in Jamarat and 244 who were injured," Pilgrimage Affairs and Endowments Minister Iyad bin Amin Madani told reporters without giving a breakdown of nationalities. The disaster happened as two million pilgrims, wrapped in white robes, flocked to Jamarat Bridge in Mena to throw stones at pillars representing the devil on the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast of sacrifice. "Some pilgrims were not organized and there was a crush this morning by people carrying personal belongings which caused obstacles (to movement)," the minister said.
They say that if you keep repeating the same acts over and over, expecting a different result each time, it's a sign you're nuts. This happens every year. Either they're nuts, or the "sacrifice" is human sacrifice...
He added that another 272 pilgrims had died of natural causes during the haj, which all able-bodied Muslims must perform once in a lifetime if they can afford it.
Guess they weren't that able-bodied...
Madani said the movement of pilgrims to Jamarat Bridge had been smoothly controlled between midnight Saturday to 8:30 am Sunday before the start of the crush.
At which point it stopped being controlled...
"I assure you that all the preparations are always made, but we donât always know Godâs intentions. What happened will be evaluated," he said.
"Just like we did last year. And the year before. And the year before that..."
The haj has seen deadly stampedes almost every year. In 1990, 1,426 pilgrims were crushed to death in a pedestrian tunnel at the holy city of Mecca. Last year 14 people were trampled to death. In 2001, 35 people died in a stampede at the bridge and 119 were killed in a similar incident in 1998. Pilgrims descended on the main pillar from all directions on Sunday, shouting "God is greatest!." Onlookers chanted "Harder! Harder!" as the faithful stoned the devil.
And trampled all over each other...
Muslims believe the pillar marks the spot where the devil appeared to biblical patriarch Abraham. The cynic or maybe its the pragmatist in me says canât we persuade them that they have to have this ceremony every week.
Posted by: phil_b ||
02/01/2004 8:13:10 AM ||
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#2
who could have guessed this would happen eh, maybe its just me but did others see this coming when the gathering started and burst out laughing when they heard anout this 'stampede', looks like the 'religion of peace' has done it again.
#3
Oh my God, the Catholics are such pikers when it comes to this. Easter morning there has to be who knows how many people in St. Peters Square for the Papal Address and nobody, I mean nobody even stubs their toe.
#5
mhw, maybe someone counted wrong and there were ONLY 243 deaths.:)
It's easy for Muslims to say insha'Allah, but the 'Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques' and his organizers must bear some responsibility.
#11
AP had an article on this too... some highlights:
Last year, 14 pilgrims were trampled to death during the ritual and 35 died in a 2001 stampede. In 1998, 180 pilgrims died.
A bumper crop this year
The annual hajj, which began Thursday, climaxed Saturday as some 2 million Muslim pilgrims listened to Saudi Arabia's top cleric denounce terrorists, calling them an affront to Islam. However, he defended the kingdom's strict interpretation of the faith.
Sheik Abdul Aziz al-Sheik said in his sermon there were those who claim to be holy warriors, but were shedding Muslim blood and destabilizing the nation. So go kill non-moslems
Al-Sheik also criticized the international community, accusing it of attacking Wahhabism, the strict interpretation of Islam that is applied in Saudi Arabia: "This country is based on this religion and will remain steadfast on it." That old-time religion is good enough for you and me
Calling America "the greatest Satan," Egyptian pilgrim Youssef Omar threw pebbles at one pillar where someone scrawled "USA." Now if America were the great Satan and was into terrorism of it's own, what better time for testing a nuke or two.....
#12
BBC had an article too:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3448779.stm
apparently another 272 have died of natural causes (e.g., heat stroke, exhaustion)
#14
I rather think Dr Who avoids the 7th Century in his phonebooth excursions. Prolly reads rooters dispatches.
Can you say "lemming"?
I knew you could. Just add, as Bro Dave D points out, barbarian and backward and brutal. Unfortunately, they breed far too quickly for the annual hajj insanity to have much effect. Something stronger is called for, methinks.
BRITAIN wanted to toughen its anti-terrorist legislation to prevent suicide attacks, with alleged British terrorists facing sentencing on the basis of "probable" guilt, Home Secretary David Blunkett said today.
He said the aim was to fuse the 2000 anti-terrorist law with the very controversial 2001 law, adopted after the September 11 attacks in the United States, allowing unlimited detention without trial of foreigners suspected of terrorist activities.
The Labour Government hopes to see the new measures adopted before the next elections, which must be held by 2006, Blunkett said in an interview with the domestic Press Association news agency to mark his visit to India and Pakistan.
Blunkettâs proposal, which would be the object of a public debate before being submitted to Parliament, could see the level of proof required for convictions reduced from the normal criminal level of "beyond reasonable doubt".
Instead, terror cases could have a lower evidence threshold, perhaps requiring the prosecution to prove the case "on the balance of probabilities".
Asked if British nationals suspected of terrorism should be imprisoned on this lower, civil burden of proof, he said: "Yes, I want that debate."
"Iâm hoping to get a really sensible debate about this because we have a sunset clause in 2006 and I want to have addressed these issues long before 2006, preferably before the next general election," he said.
A sunset clause is a parliament procedure which ensures laws cease to exist at a specified time.
Blunkett said he favoured the possibility of terrorism trials being held partly in secret, with certain elements not being communicated to the defence, so as to protect British intelligence sources.
He envisaged setting up a group of anti-terrorist judges who alone would be entitled to examine information judged sensitive for national defence and which would not be made public.
The proposals looked certain to restart the controversy launched by the 2001 anti-terrorist law which came under attack from human rights organisations.
In December 2003 a parliamentary committee found it discriminatory since it did not concern British citizens suspected of terrorist activities, and demanded it be revised with all urgency.
Liberty campaigns director Mark Littlewood told the Press Association: "Britain already has the most draconian anti-terror laws in western Europe.
"To add to these by further undermining trial by jury and radically reducing the burden of proof is wholly unacceptable."
He said the plans for such highly secretive trials, involving security-vetted judges sitting without a jury, would simply undermine civil rights while failing to stop terrorist attacks.
"The threat of terrorism needs to be dealt with in increasingly sophisticated ways," he said.
"Simply introducing more laws, greater powers and stiffer penalties will go a long way to undermining British justice and will not make our country any safer."
Neil Durkin from Amnesty International UK said: "We would be extremely concerned at any further erosion of the right to receive a fair trial in the UK in the name of âcombating terrorismâ.
"What is particularly worrying about these comments from the home secretary is the suggestion that there might be some wider introduction of internment-like measures that have already created a small-scale Guantanamo Bay in our own backyard by imprisoning 14 foreign nationals without charge or trial."
About 660 prisoners, mostly arrested during the Afghanistan conflict after the September 11 attacks, have been held without charge or trial at the US base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
AN accused terrorism financier arrested in the US last week had just returned from a trip to Australia where he is believed to have a child. But in a security blunder, the arrest took Australiaâs intelligence agencies, who were unaware the man was in Australia, by complete surprise. Omar Abdi Mohamed, 41, is being investigated after allegedly receiving $454,866 from a group accused by US authorities of direct links to al-Qaida. But Australian authorities were not told of any terrorist concerns surrounding Mr Mohamed before his most recent trip to Australia, which ended only last month. "Obviously this person would not have been given a visa to visit Australia if the Government had been aware at the time of any links to terrorist organisations or activity," Attorney-General Philip Ruddockâs spokesman, Steve Ingram, said.
Mr Mohamed, a Somali national and US resident, has been charged with lying to American immigration officials about receiving the $454,866, which was later tracked to money launderers active in the Middle East. A US court was told this week that in the past three years Mr Mohamed travelled four times to Australia, once to Africa and twice to Saudi Arabia. He had been living in San Diego, California, with his wife and six children and was working as a part-time teacherâs aide in a primary school. But the court heard he has a second wife or girlfriend and a child in Australia. He is believed to have left Australia in December, after three months on a visitorâs visa.
Assistant US Attorney John Parmley yesterday told the Herald Sun there was an on-going investigation of Mr Mohamedâs activities since he entered the US illegally in 1995. Mr Parmley said the US would not discuss many aspects of the case, but he assumed Australian authorities had been informed of the allegations. Mr Mohamed, president of the San Diego-based Western Somali Relief Agency, is alleged to have received the money from the Global Relief Foundation, which has headquarters in Illinois.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 12:42:17 AM ||
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well let's hope the provide some Global relief to the San Diego taxpayers for those 6 children he left behind.
Posted by: B ||
02/01/2004 19:16 Comments ||
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A visit to a Paris subway turned nasty for Franceâs tough Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy when youths besieged his entourage, heckling and hissing at him, French newspapers reported yesterday.
According to Franceâs Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper, Sarkozy - who has run a successful anti-crime campaign - turned up at the sprawling Les Halles station to discuss public transport security measures with regional police.
The atmosphere turned tense when some youths started hissing and hurling insults as his bodyguards rallied around.
The minister and his team then tried to sneak out of a side door in the subway but some 30 youths spotted them and gave chase. The officials had to sprint to their cars.
"We will come back to Les Halles to talk about public transport security. But this time we will avoid Saturday afternoons, a day of big crowds," Le Parisien Dimanche quoted Senator Roger Karoutchi, who was among the officials, as saying.
A reminder that not all terrorism is Islamacist
More than 300 people protested over the inclusion of a documentary about Basque separatists at the Goya Awards in Madrid, Spainâs Oscars equivalent. They were angry that Basque Ball, The Skin Against The Stone by Julio Medem, was nominated for best documentary. They said the film was too sympathetic to the Basque separatist group ETA, who have killed more than 850 people. Medem had earlier written an open letter to a paper saying he was shocked at opposition to the film. The protesters were led by the Association of Victims of Terrorism, who led banners criticising the film-making. More than 100 of the directorâs supporters, however, staged a rival protest. Medem is best known for his 2002 film Sex and Lucia. The film has interviews with around 70 people, including widows of a politician and policeman killed by ETA, a Basque leader who lost his leg in a bomb but calls for talks, and the wife of a jailed ETA member. deleted the rest about another film
Posted by: rkb ||
02/01/2004 9:26:00 AM ||
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A reminder that not all terrorism is Islamacist
True, but the Islamists are the world's leading exporter.
#2
Why consider the Basque "activists for independence" terrorists?
If the majority of Europeans consider the Palestinian actions justifiable then they should be at home with ETA's behaviour.
Posted by: Barry ||
02/01/2004 10:29 Comments ||
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#3
No all of the terrorists or potential terrorists come from Islamic countries. Just ask the Brits, or the Spanish, or the Italians, or the Germans, or the French, or the Canadians or even I dare say US. I fear if we start doing really stupid things anti terror wise we could see a real problem in certain parts of the country. What happens when non-assimilated Hispanics begin to clamour for the creation of Aztalan or what ever they decide to call it to be carved out of California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. We could be looking at this problem in ten to twenty years
#5
Before someone starts crying on the poor Basques let's remembert how they treat their own minorities or have a read at the texts where the founder of Basque nationalism describes the non-Basque Spanish. I doubt pre-civil war southern writers were so agressive, derogatory and racist when describing the Blacks.
But still no trip to the ranch...
L.A. Times
Moving to further repair a rift over the Iraq war, President Bush has invited German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for a White House visit Feb. 27. Schroeder will visit during a U.S. trip and the two leaders will discuss events in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East. The White House announcement didnât mention Iraq but praised Germany as "a long-standing ally" and a "key partner in forging closer U.S.-European political and economic relations." It said that as a "major contributor to the effort to bring peace and democracy to Afghanistan, Germany has led the way in expanding NATOâs international security assistance beyond Kabul."
Schroeder joined French President Jacques Chirac and Russian President Vladimir Putin in strongly opposing the war in Iraq. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger described the disagreement over the war and related issues as the most serious transatlantic rift in the post-World War II era. But with Europe eager to see stability in Iraq, Schroederâs government has sought to repair relations. In December, in response to U.S. urging, Schroeder said his government would seriously consider easing requirements for Iraq to repay its debt to Germany. The chancellorâs administration also has indicated that it would not stand in the way if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization chose to send a peacekeeping force to Iraq this year. The Bush administration has been urging NATO to take charge of the international peacekeeping force that is patrolling southcentral Iraq under Polish command.
Still unresolved is whether the administration will permit German companies to bid for prime reconstruction contracts in Iraq. The Pentagon said in December that Germany, France and Russia were among numerous countries excluded from the bidding. Since then, U.S. and European officials have signaled that the Bush administration is ready to give French and German companies clearance to take part in the next round of bidding. But no decision has been announced.
-I can see why Bush might want to open up the contracts for Germany, especially as they have assisted in Afghanistan. But I can see no reason to include the recalitrant French,who have done nothing to deserve special consideration
Schroeder and Bush met in September on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly meeting in a sign that relations were on the mend. Schroeder has not been to the White House in almost two years.
Posted by: tipper ||
02/01/2004 7:14:26 AM ||
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But with Europe eager to see stability in Iraq, Schroederâs government has sought to repair relations
I guess it sucked when the money stopped rolling in from Bagdad.
The french have demonstrated that they are are at best passively anti-American or at worst, just on the other side. We should leave them twisting and whining - but we won't.
We should adopt the "what have you done for me lately" approach
We've always had a nasty habit of trying to buy friends, and everyone acts suprised when it backfires.
I'd be inclined to throw the Germans a bone through,they have shown signs of understanding this is getting done with or without them.
#2
Do you have to remind who had the chutzpah to tell Bush was equal to Hitler?
You should read medienkritik (http://medienkritik.typepad.com) and you would see that the Germans elites are as full of hate than the French. The only difference is that Schroeder knows when to withdraw.
#3
Thanks,JFM, I'm not sure I found what you had in mind, but I did find an interesting thread discussing why (some)Germans are anti-American. The Rantburg resident psychologist can better interpret it, but to me it boiled down to guilt, resentment, and jealousy.
#4
This looks like part of the on-going effort to peel the Germans away from the French, thus shaking the notion that a "core" EU (France, Germany, Belgium, Austria) would lead the more recalcitrant members of the EU (as in, the rest of them) towards a unified Europe. Best way to fix that is to go after the least committed of the core, and that's Germany.
And the Germans HAVE been helpful in Afghanistan and in dealing with jihadis inside their own country. So a White House visit is okay -- but no visit to Crawford!
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2004 12:38 Comments ||
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You know you're the superpower when folks want to go to Crawford Texas. (Not that I have anything against Texas... or wind... or Commanche Dawg Soldiers..... I just prefer to detour).
#7
SH, I don't believe for a minute they go to Crawford for the scenery. Mesquite is mesquite, whether it's in Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, or OLD Mexico. It's the thrill of being invited to the HOME of the leader of the most powerful nation in the world that attracts them. Being invited to the White House kinda got tarnished when a certain group started selling a night there for cash. But to be invited to Crawford, well, that's even better than going to Camp David!
All that said, I'd rather spend a weekend in Glenwood Springs, or in Grand Lake... (Why do Presidents have to come from such gawdawful places?)
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/01/2004 15:08 Comments ||
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Because it is gawdawful places who forge men having the right stuff. :-)
Think in Salusa Secundus who forged the Saurdarkar and the still worse Dune who forged the Fremen.
#9
I gotta weigh in with OP here (whom I really should take the time to meet IRL sometime). I live out in Colorado too, in a ranching/farming town on the High Plains where it's all scrub, wind and sky. There are MUCH better places in the world, places much softer to live in.
So why do I live here?
It's home.
"Now way out here they have a name
for rain and wind and fire
The rain is Tess, the fire's Joe
and they call the wind Maria.."
That about sums it up, I think. Here AND in Crawford.
Ed Becerra
Posted by: Ed Becerra ||
02/01/2004 16:30 Comments ||
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Where ya goin I don't know
when will ya get there I ain't certaim
all I know is I am on my way!
#14
I'm rather sure that Schroeder prefers NOT to be invited to Crawford (his private ego might think differently though). His (ever shrinking) electorate (we're standing at 25% right now) would see that as "climbing into bed" with Bush.
The invitation to the White House was long overdue. That the leader of the most powerful nation in the world shuns the leader of the (economically) third most powerful state in the world (and btw fully democratic) is certainly not helpful for anyone.
I will still make a sharp distinction between the two leaders and their political entourage and the average German "in the street". I know it won't mean too much, but I saw an American tourist today asking his way around and was helped by five (!) passers by on his way (one even accompanied him until directions were clear). Try that in Paris!
JFM, reading Medienkritik is fine, but to judge the German press from some (naturally biased) press snippets of a disgruntled German doesn't cut it for me. I resent the words "anti-American" as much as "anti-Semitism" when they are liberally dispensed just to silence critical voices (even if these voices are wrong). This is exactly what helps creating anti-Americanism and anti Semitism. I challenge you to prove to me that Germans have more anti-Semitic voices than the U.S. (or other countries). And if current definitions of "anti-Americanism" were accurate then the U.S. would truly be much more "anti-European" (at least right now) than Europe (or Germany) is "anti-American".
Germans watch developments in the U.S. more closely than every other European nation, and Patriot Act or Guantanamo are not always easily explained to people who had to (re)learn the values of a free democratic society the hard way and have therefore developed super-sensitivity.
I'm not pretending that things have not changed... the wind blows colder here for U.S. politics but where doesn't it? Bush will never be celebrated or even loved in Europe, America can live with that I bet.
That said no one has a bigger interest in Iraq stability than Europe. If the U.S. failed in the Middle East, Europe would bear most of the fallout.
I generally agree with you as to the difference between France and Germany. I think that matches the perception that most Americans have. Most of us distinguish between the attitudes of Schroeder and his party (even when we disagree with them VERY strongly), and the attitudes of Germans, and Germany.
As an example, the respect with which American wounded were treated by Germans, both in uniform and out, when they were transported to hospitals in Germany was widely recognized. I believe that there is a deep and strong friendship between many Americans and many Germans and I think that it is quite able to survive misunderstandings (or even strong disagreements) between our respective governments.
In the case of France, on the other hand, it seems that the positions of the Chirac government are much closer to the position of the average Frenchman. Also, France's actions did not involve merely disagreeing --- however strongly --- with the United States, but involved taking actions actively in opposition to the U.S. When De Villepin can publicly suggest that arming the Communist Chinese is desirable as a means of providing a counterbalance to the United States, I have no qualm in classifying him as an ENEMY whether his position is honestly believed or merely the product of classical French dementia.
(and, I notice that the EU rejected his desires by 15-1 which suggests, rather strongly, that France's position is not representative of Germany, or Europe as a whole.)
Just one commend about Medienkritik: it's interesting to me that your reaction to it matches very closely that of a regular German correspondent of mine. He feels that it provides an overly negative view of the German press. I, on the other hand, don't see it as being nearly as negative since I view it as only dealing with certain articles, and the ones that he has cited would appear to be as he represents. To me, it suggests that the German Press averages about the same position as the U.S. "major media." That's to the Left of what I view as "objective," but is still far to the right of the articles that I've read in the mainstream French Media. (I'll admit to taking links from Merde In France; but I can, quite laboriously, translate the articles that he provides pointers to, and he's not distorted their content.)
Along the same lines, another indication of the difference between France and Germany in the minds of Americans is that while there are a number of blogs like Merde in France run by disgruntled American expatriates; there are no, to my knowledge, equivalent blogs such as Kacke in Germany; and I believe that there are more expatriate Americans living in Germany than there are in France by a large amount.
Thanks for all of your insights, and for the friendship of you and your countrymen.
Posted by: Ralph ||
02/01/2004 19:31 Comments ||
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So a White House visit is okay -- but no visit to Crawford!
The only German welcome to my place is my Uncle Henry.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/01/2004 21:16 Comments ||
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TGA,
I don't think that there has ever been much of a cooling between the American people and the French, German or Candian people. The chill was between patriotic American people and the French, German and Canadian governments.
We went through a real ugly period where our Commander-in-Chief was dissed on an alomst daily basis by government officials from several nations.
The French government was by far the worst followed by the Canadians. Many American people have voiced their displeasure economically. It is the free American consumer's method for voting for regime change in another country.
The economic middle-finger was offered mostly against France but with more effect against Canada who heavily depends on trade with the US. I don't think Schoeder is very popular here either, but Americans tend to have a high opinion of average Germans We expect a certain percentage of people in other countries to hate America - probably a third of Americans find the US detestable, but never to the extent that they want to forgo the next episode of Survivor.
It is best for the governemtns of other nations to reamin civil to our government. Many Europeans make the mistake of assuming that all Americans agree with what is written in the NYT, LAT and WaPo. I would think that a better sampling of attitudes in our heartland could be obtained by interviewing the troops stationed in Germany.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 21:24 Comments ||
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I agree. And Schroeder has had the lowest opinion polls for a German Federal Chancellor ever.
What can be said is that the shrill words from politicians were hyped and not every American has traveled to Germany or served there. But when it comes to attitudes... maybe you'd like to re-read Jersey Mike's (poster #1) comment about "willing to throw us a bone". We are really so grateful, yes really.
#19
Not to start a slap-fight, but hasn't Schoeder's behavior helped to foster a cynical attitude regarding our relations with Germany? Many people have been awakened to European diplomacy where there are no friends but interests.
#20
The Rantburg resident psychologist can better interpret it, but to me it boiled down to guilt, resentment, and jealousy.
Not sure if this is reference to me, but I'll have a stab at answering. I spent a fair amount of time in Germany a couple of years ago and I generally like working with German's. Very business like people. But they are insular. Xenophobic is probably too strong a word. They are also complacent. Most Germans have what they want and want to maintain the status quo. They resent the Americans for wanting to change things and up-setting their nice comfortable existence. Then of course irrationality comes into the equation. Their guilt driven post modern world view (German word is something like Weltschmertz) prevents them from blaming the Islamo crazies as well as 3rd world ethnic crime syndicates (its no coincidence that crimes rates are rocketing in Western Europe, while declining in the USA), So they blame the USA (and Israel by extension). Thirty years of 'enlightened social policy, especially in relation to immigration is turning out to be a major cluster-fuck and they don't know what to do about it. Blaming the Americans is just a way of avoiding the problem. Completely irrational of course! This analysis applies to Left in general.
A man claiming to be a former Iranian spy testified Friday that Abdelghani Mzoudi, the second man to be tried for an alleged role in the Sept. 11 attacks, was involved in the preparations to hit the World Trade Center. The witness, who goes by the alias Hamid Reza Zakeri, took the stand at the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg and claimed that Mzoudi, was "responsible for part of the organization" of the suicide attacks that destroyed the twin towers in New York and damaged the Pentagon. Zakeri testified Mzoudi acted as a liaison to the al Qaeda terror network and was responsible for receiving codes from operatives.
Mzoudi, a 31-year-old Moroccan national who at one time lived in Sept. 11 ringleader Mohammed Attaâs apartment and signed his will, faces charges of more than three thousand counts of accessory to murder and of being a member of a terrorist organization. Only the second person to go on trial for the attacks, he is suspected of handling money for the Sept. 11 plotters and covering up for them. Defense attorneys argue that Mzoudi did nothing but help fellow Muslims who were living abroad.
Zakeri, who claims he worked in Iranian intelligence and defected in 2001, told the court that he did not personally know Mzoudi nor had ever seen him. He said his information came from "reliable sources" in Iran, although he declined to name them. According to him, Mzoudi underwent a three-month training course in 1997 in an al Qaeda training camp in Iran where he learned encryption techniques. Perhaps even more dramatic was Zakeriâs testimony that top Iranian officials enjoyed close relationships with al Qaeda leaders and that Iran was aware of preparations for Sept. 11. In earlier statements to German police, Zakeri said Osama Bin Ladenâs son met with high-ranking Iranian officials in May 2001 and informed them of the planned terrorist attacks. From the witness stand on Friday, Zakeri told the court that Iran and al Qaeda had discussed a plan to kill Mzoudi last month, so that he could not reveal the Iraniansâ involvement in Sept. 11. "They came to the conclusion that Mzoudi would have to be killed by a letter bomb sent from DÃŒsseldorf or Vienna, or if he was deported, that he could then be seized," Zakeri said.
Zakeriâs appearance on Friday did little to relieve the wide-spread doubts about his credibility help by Western intelligence sources. His answers to most questions were evasive and rambling, according to those in the court. During more than three hours of testimony, Judge RÃŒhle often had to ask Zakeri to repeat himself. At one point after several contradictions and incomprehensible answers, RÃŒhle said: "I donât know if you are consciously being unclear." Earlier this week, Iranâs foreign minister, Kamal Kharazzi, described Zakeri as a "swindler" and said the claims of a connection between Iran and al Qaeda were without foundation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 12:10:59 AM ||
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This guy isn't credible. It's foolish for the German government to present him as a witness in this important trial.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
02/01/2004 1:11 Comments ||
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Shame. I had hoped that this guy could shed some light on a dark secret. But lets wait till act is complete.
New York Times/Contra Costa Times
EISENHUETTENSTADT, Germany: This town is the perfect setting for the strange mood of nostalgia that seems to be taking hold in Germany lately, even if a Socialist utopia from the Stalinist former German Democratic Republic (otherwise known as East Germany) does not seem a natural inspirer of warm and fuzzy feelings about the past. But, strange as it is, a wave of what is called ostalgie (ost meaning east in German) has become a phenomenon in this country. People wear born-in-the-GDR T-shirts, or they collect Trabants, the rattling two-cylinder car that East Germans waited years to buy, or they go online to be contestants on the "Ossi-Quiz," all questions relating to East German pop culture.
Here in Eisenhuettenstadt -- Steel Mill Town -- a few miles from the Polish border, ostalgie has been provided with its own museum, officially known as the Documentation Center on Everyday Life in the GDR. It is just down the road from the giant steel mill built here in the early 1950s as an industrial showpiece. The museum is only a few rooms, mostly on the second floor of a former day care center, but it holds 70,000 to 80,000 objects from the former East Germany. About 10,000 people a year come to look at Mikki transistor radios, jars of Bulgarian plums, schoolbooks, plastic water glasses that never seemed to come in the right colors. Seeing these familiar objects clearly stirs warm feelings about the vanished and unrecapturable past. "Itâs a very nice place when you want to remember your childhood," Thomas Blechschmied, a 29-year-old visitor, said the other day. "My parents still have those egg-holders," he continued, pointing to a bright yellow object inside a case of plastic kitchen utensils from the early 1970s.
Thereâs no general wish for the East German state to be revived, Blechschmied said, explaining the limits of ostalgie. It is more a recognition that millions of people made do as best they could for the 40 or so years between the end of World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the East Germans competed in all areas of life, from consumer products to Olympic ice skating. A person might, looking at a jar of nougat, have a Proustian recollection of the shortages that plagued everyday life in East Germany. "The products are genuine and the shelves are genuine," Blechschmied said, standing inside the well-stocked store, "but usually they were more spread out than you see here, and there were lots of empty spaces."
Ostalgie is complicated, made up of various ingredients. One is clearly the disillusionment felt by many former Easterners over German reunification, which took place 13 years ago. Unemployment these days is commonly 25 percent in regions such as Eisenhuettenstadt. Rents are no longer subsidized. Doctor visits cost money. People can be fired. In addition, as Andreas Ludwig, the West German scholar of urban history who started the museum a few years ago, noted, even capitalist products break down or are shabby and schlocky. All this has given rise to a sort of East German post-mortem feeling that maybe the East had its good aspects after all, especially a certain economic security and stability, even if your best vacation option was Bulgaria.
Ostalgie got a huge lift during the course of the last year by the success of a movie, "Goodbye Lenin," which offered a poignant, very human image to life in the East. Set in East Berlin just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, itâs the story of a woman in such delicate health that she might die if she learns that her country has ceased to exist, so her loving children maintain an ever more elaborate charade aimed at persuading her that nothing fundamental has changed. The mother, for example, asks for Spreewald Pickles, a highly valued East German product that disappeared from the market after the fall of the wall (and has since, by popular demand, reappeared). When the children find a discarded bottle with the Spreewald label still on it, they treasure it as an item that can save a life.
Looking around Eisenhuettenstadt is to see that the Center of Everyday Life is a museum inside another sort of museum. Built during the course of the 1950s, the town was one of four model communities East Germany created to embody in the here and now the futuristic promise of communism. The steel mill still operates, one of the very few such socialist installations that still does so. The workersâ housing blocks, with their sometimes Stalinist-classical facades, are actually rather attractive, painted in creamy or buttery or ochre tones. There are parks, playgrounds, day care centers, schools. At the same time, the place imparts a feeling of emptiness; there is an absence of bustle, a quiet at the center of things, that is itself a legacy of central planning.
Ludwig, who comes from what was West Berlin during the divided years, proposed the museum to the state of Brandenburg, though his purpose was not then and is not now to provide props for national nostalgia. He thought that with the East German state dead, it had become appropriate to collect its artifacts and study them, just as one might have collected objects and testimonies about the American South right after the Civil War. "Thereâs no real reason to be nostalgic toward the GDR," he said. "It was a dictatorship and people couldnât get out."
People, he said, rarely come alone to the museum; more often, two or more generations of a family come together, or Ossis with Wessies, and they find that objects impart not only memories but lessons. "The thing about everyday objects is that they donât say much about politics," Ludwig said. "But people start talking when theyâre in front of things. âI remember that,â A says to B. People intervene, and that starts a discussion.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 12:05:58 AM ||
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Dan,
Interesting article; thanks for posting it.
It's not just in E. Germany; there's some growing nostalgia for those times here in Estonia.
Shirts with the Soviet logo are hot sellers here, although mostly among Russian teenagers who have a hankering for the good ol' days of empire. I haven't seen any Estonian kids wear them.
But even my Estonian girlfriend, who is an Estonian nationalist and about as anti-communist as they come, told me a couple days ago that one of her real disappointments growing up is that Soviet rule collapsed just before she was about to earn her Young Pioneer red scarf. She used to dream about wearing it when she was a kid. Go figure.
Posted by: Scott ||
02/01/2004 5:40 Comments ||
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I guess that's better than being nostolgic for the third reich.
EFL
Tech Central Station
The Sierra Club is one of Americaâs wealthiest tax-exempt organizations. In fiscal 2002, the Club reported $23,619,830 in revenues, and disclosed $107,733,974 worth of assets to the IRS. Ironically, some of the groups cash flow is generated from oil wells on club property.
It claims a national membership of 700,000 people. As Sierraâs website proclaims, "the Club is Americaâs oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization." An old Chinese curse goes, "may you live in interesting times." I thought the acient Chinese secret was actually a detergent.
Well, these happen to be interesting times for the Sierra Club. A small chunk of its membership is worried about what it calls "impact of mass immigration on the environment and quality of life for future generations" of Americans. These dissidents want the Club to promote public policy that will restrict Americaâs future population growth. In particular, they would like the Club to endorse a reduction in the number of immigrants the U.S. accepts each year. These dissidents have formed their own pressure group. They call it Sierrans for US Population Stabilization (SUSPS). These members watched Loganâs Run too many times after ingesting herbals.
SUSPS may look small, but it is becoming a force to be reckoned with within the Club. It now controls 20% of the 15 seats on Sierraâs board of directors. It hopes to expand that control after this springâs board elections. To get a feel for the tension raging inside the Club, it may help to read an email purportedly sent by Paul Watson, a pro-SUSPS Sierra Club board member, to Carl Pope, the Sierra Clubâs executive director, last March. The email documents SUSPSâ central arguments about why the Sierra Clubâs position on immigration (currently neutral) must change. Wouldnât these naturalists be more comfotatble living moving to Mexico? The immigration trend there is suitable.
Some people on the political left donât like SUSPSâs position on immigration. As the Nation magazine once put it, these activists donât want to see the Sierra Club "hijacked to fight immigrants rather than loggers and polluters." Betsy Hartmann, an academic, believes SUSPS is the thin edge of an effort by "the right wing" to "penetrate the mainstream environmental movement." She calls it "the greening of hate." For Dr. Hartmann, implying that immigrants are responsible for environmental degradation represents a kind of "racism." They should have never let Pat Buchanen join their club. -snip- opinion on how this resolves.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 1:08:40 PM ||
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This has been brewing for a long time. The Sierra club hates new development whether it is suburban tracts or Walmart. It doesn't take a genius to realize that most of the population growth in the US is because of immigration.
#3
Isn't this kinda redundant, to have a group concerned with controlling population growth? I mean liberalism professes the benefits of abortion. All we have to do is to keep them in business and they will control populations for us.
#4
LOL, SH. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were the guy who writes headlines for our local dead tree scroll. e.g. Shoe Warehouse Steps into(Town)
#6
badanov, Sierra Club policy has for years supported legal abortion for exactly that reason: lessening population. (I corresponded with them about it--objecting to such a policy.) By that logic, they ought to back war, too. And genocide. If the end justifies the means, finally anything goes. They are evil.
Fr. Tony Thurston
Posted by: Fr. Tony ||
02/01/2004 14:12 Comments ||
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GK, that sounds like the local Gazette! They do have some absolutely HORRIBLE headlines... Including Asay's cartoon on the editorial page makes up for a lot, though. I pity people that don't get his work every day.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/01/2004 15:27 Comments ||
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#8
#7. It is and I agree about Chuck Asay. He's nationally syndicated. So Rantburghers can pick up some of his work. Here's an example or go to: http://www.comics.com/editoons/asay/index.html
Asay is mostly conservative, but he'll take a shot at GW when warranted.
BTW you mentioned once that you live near Tesla drive. That puts us about 1 1/2 miles apart.
#9
"impact of mass immigration on the environment and quality of life for future generations" of Americans. These dissidents want the Club to promote public policy that will restrict Americaâs future population growth.
-no shit, I've been saying this for 5 years. Put a moratorium on all immigration into this country. The only pop growth should be from those of us already here. There's enough people already in the country, and yes, it has potential to hurt the environment. (how many more strip malls and parking lots do we need). I've seen Seoul, I can tell you how over population can fuck up an area. This is one of the smartest things SClub could support. As far as abortion goes, that's a hot button too long to fight here. I'm pro-choice, but that's my deal. I don't condone abortion for my personal life due to my personal beliefs, but I'm not about to try and stop or harrass someone from having a legal abortion.
Twelve people were injured yesterday in a grenade explosion triggered by suspected Islamic rebels in a busy market in northern Indian Kashmir, a police spokesman said.
The spokesman said the casualties occurred when the rebels hurled a grenade at a moving Indian army vehicle, which missed the target and exploded among civilians in Magam, 30km from Srinagar.
Meanwhile, Indian authorities in Kashmir said they had freed 34 prisoners and announced new incentives to woo militants to give up the gun, aimed at boosting moves to bring peace to the troubled region.
The prisoners were released from jails and detention centres across the region over the last week to allow them to join their families for the festival, said a senior official.
"The entire process was carried out away from media glare as we donât want them to be made heroes," he said.
The released prisoners included sympathisers of militant groups and rebels accused of minor crimes, he said.
Pak Daily Times
LAHORE: Police found 1,000 kilogrammes of explosive material from a goods companyâs warehouse on the Hyderabad national highway on Saturday. According to a news channel, one suspect was arrested. Police said the explosive material was transported from Lahore to Hyderabad for terror acts.
A ton of explosives makes for some fairly festive occasions...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 11:18 ||
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The explosives were being transported and the cops "found" it on the highway? Sounds, er, unusual to say the least...
Pak Daily Times QUETTA: A Pakistani court has intervened to save a seven-year-old girl who was given in marriage to a 40-year-old man to settle a dispute between families, police said on Saturday.
Yes. It's another Junior Nooky story...
The bizarre bargain took place last week in the remote town of Nushki in Chaghi district. After seeing reports about the case, Chief Justice of the Balochistan High Court Raja Fayyaz ordered the police on Friday to recover the girl, named Aziza, and arrest all those involved.
"You can't marry her! She ain't weaned yet!"
"Show me where it sez in the Koran she's gotta be weaned!"
Police said Azizaâs parents had agreed to hand over their daughter for marriage as partial settlement for a dispute over the elopement three months ago of Azizaâs brother with a girl from the other family.
Oh, horrors! The wench must be killed! Get the rocks!
The seven-year-old visited the home of her would-be-husband, Pir Mohammad, for a wedding ceremony but he had not allowed her to return, as agreed, her parents alleged.
"Bring the wench to my bed! She's got the body of a five-year-old, by Gar!"
The agreement had stated that she was to stay with her parents until she attained an age suitable for consummation of the marriage, they said.
Too late now. She's prob'ly pregnant already.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 11:16 ||
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#1
All snark aside. As my granny would say... PINCER THE BASTARD!
#3
Reminds me of the story a couple of years back when the male members of one family in the NWF got to rape the daughter of another family because her brother had committed a similar 'transgression'.
Wonder what a Pakistani 'sex offenders list' would like if it was maintained based on western values. Is there enough disk space or paper?
#4
Katze, we'd deforest the Amazon with just the sex offenders list in Pakistan. And the internet might not have enough room if we made a list for the entire Islamic World.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/01/2004 13:26 Comments ||
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#5
Wonder what a Pakistani 'sex offenders list' would like if it was maintained based on western values. Is there enough disk space or paper?
That case was even more appaling than you stated. Here is a story in an Indian newspaper. Some of the stories I read about that case say that the so-called offense was actually arranged by the accusers to cover up that they had raped him.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/01/2004 16:09 Comments ||
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#9
Is there some way to make their own nukes blow up? A nuclear wasteland would be an improvement. These people really disgust me.
#10
But looking on the bright side, guys, this is not only Pakiland but a "remote village" etc. Yeah, it's disgusting that such things happen in the first place, but a little encouraging that there are some marginally more civilized people in positions of authority there-- isn't it?
"Oh, the shame of it all!"
Pak Daily Times NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, on a two-day visit to North Waziristan Agency, urged the tribesmen on Saturday to ârealise the need of the hourâ and âchange their thoughts and behaviourâ to facilitate the progress and prosperity in their region.
"I mean, you primitives are getting out of hand, now!"
Addressing a representative tribal jirga of the Utmanzai tribe in Miranshah on Friday, the governor noted with concern that the disappearance of Punjab Sports and Culture Minister Naeemullah Shahani had âdefamed the entire Waziristan, which is being portrayed globally as an area known for illegal businesses and kidnappingsâ.
"So why don't you cough him up, huh? Please?"
The governor advised the tribesmen to think over the situation seriously and try to get rid of that reputation, as it was also damaging the countryâs prestige.
"I mean, the rest of the world is gonna think we're like you!"
The governor told the tribal elders that Pakistan would continue to cooperate with the US-led war against terrorism and would not allow anyone to use Pakistanâs soil attack on any country. âWe cannot sacrifice our interest for the benefit of others and will protect it at every cost,â he added.
"So, don't worry. We ain't gonna let the Merkins in to getcha..."
Mr Shah conceded that certain elements were also trying to harm Pakistanâs interests from within âbut we would fight such elementsâ and succeed to up hold the hounor and dignity of the country.
"Such as it is, anyway..."
He praised the Wazir tribe in South Waziristan Agency for raising its own tribal lashkar (army) to purge their area of âunwanted foreign elementsâ.
"... before we did it for them."
âWe respect their decision because they have not only upheld the tribal traditions but have also expressed their love for Pakistan and its security,â the governor said. He hoped the residents of other tribal areas would also follow the Wazir tribe to keep their area free from such âharmfulâ elements. He called upon the tribesmen to âsave Pakistanâ from âdisreputeâ.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 11:10 ||
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the entire Waziristan, .... an area known for illegal businesses and kidnappings
That's why all those Chechnyans feel right at home there.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
02/01/2004 17:07 Comments ||
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The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) neither played a role in the Talibanâs regrouping nor it had links with them, JUI-F Central Information Secretary Riaz Durrani said on Saturday. Mr Durrani called the media reports âbaselessâ and said the JUI-F believed in political struggle and not in supporting the Taliban. âThe JUI-F had neither a link to the Taliban in the past, nor it has any at present,â Mr Durrani said.
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't us. Never happened. Nope."
He said the US and its allies failed in Afghanistan and now they criticised political parties in Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 11:03 ||
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Pak Daily Times GUJRANWALA: A local court delivered life imprisonment sentences to three men accused in separate cases on Saturday. The district and sessions judge delivered life terms to Muhammad Yousaf and Muhammad Shahzad for burning the Holy Quran on March 24, 2003. The Garjakh Police arrested both accused under blasphemy charges. The court also gave life imprisonment and fined Rs 100,000 to Muhammad Baber for murdering Muhammad Ramzan over old enmity on April 4, 2003. Mr Baber would undergo another six months imprisonment if he fails to pay the fine.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 11:01 ||
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The court also gave life imprisonment and fined Rs 100,000 to Muhammad Baber for murdering Muhammad Ramzan over old enmity on April 4, 2003. Mr Baber would undergo another six months imprisonment if he fails to pay the fine.
Anyone else see something wrong with these sentences?
Posted by: Charles ||
02/01/2004 13:23 Comments ||
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#3
Happens all the time in the USA,Charles. As in, "three consecutive life sentences plus 75 years". Sometimes the judge is bound by law to be lienent like that.
General Aslam Beg is probably at the center of the proliferation, he was the Chief of the Army after Zia died. He has gained a reputation as the sane alternative to Hamid Gul, but ultimately he has a similar world view.
Jang
While the investigation on financial charges against Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan and a few other colleagues continue in full swing, there is an overwhelming view even in the senior brass of the Army that no probe can get to the bottom of the matter unless it finds out the reasons as to why the military guardians and overseers of the nuclear programme failed in their administrative, security and intelligence responsibilities regarding the KRL. "We must concede that there is a growing perception both within the country and abroad that the Army is essentially trying to cover up its failures on the KRL," said a federal cabinet minister during a private conversation with this correspondent in Islamabad on Friday. Several serving and retired officials, former retired Pakistani nuclear scientists and serving KRL scientists interviewed in Islamabad in the last few days almost unanimously agreed that being the principal overseer of the countryâs nuclear programme, the General Headquarters (GHQ) would also examine its shortcomings and failures in protecting the nationâs nuclear programme from falling into irresponsible hands, particularly during the 1990s. "Briefing on nuclear programme is provided only on the need-to-know basis; I donât think there is any need for that at this moment," replied Gen Mirza Aslam Beg, the then chief of Pakistan Army, when former prime minister Benazir Bhutto asked him about the status of the countryâs nuclear programme, during a military briefing arranged for her at the Joint Staff Headquarters, a few months after her take-over as the prime minister for the first term in 1989," according to a retired Pakistani military official who was present on the occasion.
Pakistani officials related with the countryâs nuclear programme and several retired military officials confirmed that during her two terms in power Benazir was never invited, despite her repeated requests, to visit the Khan Research Laboratory (KRL). During his first term as the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif was also denied a request to visit the KRL by Gen Mirza Aslam Beg and also by his successor Gen Asif Nawaz, according to a retired corps commander. "Gen Beg kept the programme under such a thick cover that he didnât even allow the two successive prime ministers to look inside," said another retired lieutenant general, who had also commanded a corps of Pakistan Army in the 1990s. "What do you do when the army chief thinks that the prime minister of the country is a security risk."
Several official sources have said that the military was also in full picture about secret financial assistance to the programme from a few Islamic countries. Two retired military officials separately confirmed an early Libyan monetary assistance to Pakistanâs nuclear programme. Though no accounts are available with any government of Pakistan department, Pakistani nuclear scientist community and other informed officials estimate that some $10 billion had been spent on the secret programme till 1998 when Pakistan conducted its nuclear tests. A serving KRL official said the Army as "the guardian of programme" had multi-tier involvement in the KRL affairs. "While Army chiefs gave strategic guidance and regular appreciation to scientists, Army Chief of General Staff was there to iron out significant administrative and financial issues and the DG CD coordinated research and development," the KRL scientist said. "Two separate brigadiers had hundreds of troops and agents at their disposal to run an impregnable multi-tier security network at the KRL," he adds. "The ISI had a separate detachment for the KRL."
Suspecting a possible collusion of certain military officials in the systematic pilferage of technology and knowledge from the KRL, intelligentsia and many civil and military officials are questioning the governmentâs half-hearted effort to find the whole truth. "How can you blame a person who enjoyed an explicit authority from the state to beg, borrow or steal for no less that 20 years to deliver his nation its nuclear bomb," asked a senior serving military official during a recent private conversation. "Which country in the world didnât become the nuclear state without any help from the nuclear black market?"
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/01/2004 12:06:49 AM ||
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Actually, I just remembered, that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif claimed that General Beg and the then chief of the ISI approached him with a blueprint for selling Afghan Heroin to pay for covert operations.
Sharif claimed that he turned down the request, but the fact that Aslam Beg is apparently a billionare, it seems that Abdul Qadeer isn't the only one pocketing billions from dubious dealings.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/01/2004 0:15 Comments ||
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#2
"Which country in the world didnât become the nuclear state without any help from the nuclear black market"
uh...that would be us.
Posted by: B ||
02/01/2004 19:05 Comments ||
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Associated Press
A hard-line religious coalition warned on Friday that tribesmen might fire on US forces if a planned âspring offensiveâ against terror suspects extended into Pakistan.
Perhaps we should warn them that we'll fire back. And we have big guns.
Riaz Durrani, spokesman for the opposition coalition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, which controls two Pakistani provinces bordering Afghanistan, said any move by Washington to deploy forces there would be a âhistoric mistake.â
... for the turbans.
A US official in Washington hinted this week that a planned effort to step up the hunt for Taleban or Al-Qaeda fugitives at the end of the winter could extend into Pakistan. For the past two years, thousands of US forces have been operating in southern and eastern Afghanistan, but say they havenât crossed the rugged border. The MMA â also known as the United Action Forum â said it would raise the issue in Parliament and threatened street protests if Washington did get the green light to operate inside Pakistan. âIf Pakistan gives permission to America for conducting military operations in tribal regions, it will be very dangerous,â Durrani said. âIn such a situation, the (US) army will face bullets from the tribesmen.â
And vice versa...
He said so far tribesmen in the border regions, which are largely autonomous from the central government, are showing restraint toward the presence of the revenooers Pakistani military, which have launched a number of operations to hunt down Al-Qaeda fugitives. âWe are urging them not to resist against the army,â Durrani said. âBut if Americans go into their areas, the tribesmen will not listen to us.â
"You know they lack any vestige of self-control. It's out of our hands..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 00:05 ||
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Geez, and I thought my nephew would be better off in Afghanistan. This better had been a leak to rattle their cages.
#6
A hard-line religious coalition warned on Friday that tribesmen might fire on US forces if a planned "spring offensive" against terror suspects extended into Pakistan.
Friday Times An article concerning the Islamisation of
Gujranwala, a small city in Punjab province.
No one could imagine that Gujranwala will go violently Islamist the way it has in recent years. After General Ziaâs Islamisation, Gujranwala turned to jihad and turned inward, scrutinising its citizens for moral backslidings. It first turned on the minorities and produced the famous Salamat Masih Case, accusing an under-age Christian child of insulting the Holy Prophet PBUH. Sipah e-Sahaba attacked him and his co-accused in Lahore when they were coming to attend the High Court, killing one. Salamat Masih had to be sent out of Pakistan to avoid getting murdered. The second famous Gujranwala case was about a hafiz of Quran and an amateur doctor who accidentally dropped his copy of the Holy Quran in the fire and was reported over the loudspeaker by a local rival. His neighbours came out and burnt him alive. The rural nature of the population was expressed in the way the citizens mistook the word atai (quack doctor) applied to the victim over the loudspeaker, for asai (Christian). In other words, one doesnât have to check the facts before killing a non-Muslim!
Entertainment as sin: In 1970, the city was liberal as it voted for the PPP; today it is jihadi, a Muslim League city that is increasingly attracted to seminarian Islam and is proud of having contributed to the largest number of martyrs to jihad in Afghanistan and Kashmir. The local government is dominated by the MMA while the politicians are busy doing what they do usually and the bureaucracy is carrying out their Islamist agenda by attacking entertainment. In recent months, the Urdu press reported the following incidents. According to Jang, policemen from three police stations attacked a theatre in Gujranwala and arrested four artistes including actresses Hina Shaheen and Salomi on the charge of fahashi. The police said that citizens had complained of obscenity against the producer and the actresses. According to Nawa-e-Waqt the four actresses, after being arrested by the police, were not kept by the police but transferred to the house of the magistrate where three other magistrates gathered to âenjoyâ their company.
Daily Jang on 17 December 2003 reported that in the year 2003 Gujranwala had nabbed 22 actresses, including Nargis, Hina, Salomi, etc, on charges of obscenity and prosecuted them. Sixteen theatres were assaulted and four theatres were sealed for doing obscenity. Two cinemas were sealed for showing obscenity and 47 internet clubs were closed down. All this was done by one brave sessions judge Riazul Hassan Alavi who deployed a phalanx of four judicial magistrates to cleanse the city of all sin. The four disguised themselves and secretly visited the theatres, the cinemas and clubs to see if there was obscenity going on and if the actresses were wearing clothes unacceptable to them.
Killing entertainers for salvation: Meanwhile, because of the atmosphere of extremism created by the clergy citizens took to killing women they suspected of obscenity. According to Jang, the cleric serial killer of two dancing girls of Gujranwala, Maulvi Muhammad Sarwar, would go scot-free because witnesses who had earlier deposed against him had all recanted. Moved by religious passion, Maulvi Sarwar went around catching dancing girls outside cinema halls and theatres and hotels and shooting them to death.
The example of Gujranwala: If you think that Gujranwala will be reformed if the Lahore high Court took care of the lower judiciary in Gujranwala, consider this. Since the machine of judicial reform grinds even slower than the other state institutions, it is more likely that Gujranwala will start affecting the conduct of other cities. Instead of Gujranwala coming to heel, other cities will fall victim to its savage example.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/01/2004 12:02:35 AM ||
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Any bets we (State department / NGO's / etc...) are sending them money?
From Jan 11, but relates to earlier post today about US marines training.
This month, 4,800 N.C. Army National Guard soldiers will go to a Louisiana fort for some of the militaryâs best combat training. They need it: Next month they might be in Tikrit, one of the most dangerous areas of Iraq for U.S. troops. The 30th HSB is assembling at Fort Polkâs Joint Readiness Training Center for a few weeks of battle exercises in a slice of Iraq re-created as best the Army can among the alligators and thick forests of western Louisiana. The guardsmen will patrol mock villages and a countryside populated by a cast of 1,000, said Maj. Ron Elliott, a spokesman for the center. Among the cast will be 200 Arabic speakers -- including some Iraqi expatriates -- to heighten realism. Hickman, in a telephone interview from Fort Polk, said he had already met with two Iraqi Arabs and a Kurd. Actors and Polk soldiers will play the roles of Iraqis -- innocents and insurgents -- and even journalists and workers for international aid groups. "They even have a number of goats, sheep and chickens," Hickman said. Role playing in the chicken yard with someone screaming in your ear in Arabic. Thatâs realism
#1
If you have trouble with the link click on "refresh". It should come through for you.
http://newsobserver.com/front/digest/story/3211807p-2881124c.html
Finally, yesterday 466 new Iraqi police officers graduated from the Jordanian International Police Training Center, following eight weeks of training. That is the first class to have graduated from the Jordanian center. Iraqi Minister of Interior Nori Badran spoke to the students, addressed the students during the ceremony.
A second class of 500 students has already begun its training there and will graduate in six weeks. A third class of a thousand students will arrive at the training center early next month.
Within the next three months, the training center in Jordan will have a training capacity of 3,000 students. So 3,000 students will be able to train there at any given time.
At the training center, Iraqis assist trainers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Jordan, Sweden, Finland and Austria. In addition to the Jordanian training center, the Ministry of Interior is training new Iraqi police officers at the Baghdad police academy as well.
Attackers detonated an improvised explosive device near a coalition convoy that was transporting captured individuals, killing one of the detainees and wounding 11 others yesterday morning east of Mukadiyah (sp). The wounded were evacuated to a battalion aid station, and all are in stable condition.
A raid was conducted to capture Ali Hussan Hamed al-Mushadinah (sp) and his four sons, who are suspected of conducting attacks on coalition forces for 1,500 American dollars per attack. The unit captured all five and transported them to a coalition forward operating base for interrogation.
At 12:30 yesterday, Mohammed Fadid Abu (sp) turned himself in to coalition forces. He is the primary -- he is suspected of being the primary courier of information and funding between Mudhir Karbat (sp) and his brother Musir (sp). Mudhir (sp) has extensive international building holdings -- business holdings, and we have strong evidence that he is a primary financier for ongoing attacks in Al Anbar.
Coalition patrols detained 524 illegal persons and confiscated 49 minibuses on the border. The illegal persons were re-transported to Iran and the vehicles were turned over to the Iraqi border police. Two bombs were discovered in the main court building in Al Hillah. They were disarmed by a special Iraqi police team. There were no injuries associated with this operation.
Q Iâm Ben Hasan (ph) with Spiegel (ph) Magazine. What is the current state of affairs with law 137, you know, the personal law which includes the marital status of the woman? There was a news item yesterday that Ambassador Bremer refuses to sign this law.
MR. SENOR: I think thereâs been some confusion on the procedural evolution of this particular law. According to Dr. Pachachi -- and I would refer you to Dr. Pachachi. In fact, heâs holding a press conference tomorrow, his last press conference as president of the Governing Council for this month. According to Dr. Pachachi, this law never passed in the Governing Council. It was a technical matter. I donât even think there was a sufficient quorum there to address it. So it never passed. It wouldnât reach Ambassador Bremerâs desk unless it was a measure that was passed by the Governing Council.
So itâs not an issue of whether or not Ambassador Bremer would sign it. Itâs not an issue he has considered. There are a number -- obviously, there are a multitude of issues that are taken up by the Governing Council every day they meet. Not every single one of them reaches the attention of Ambassador Bremer, simply because most of them arenât submitted for a vote, and many of them that are submitted for a vote donât pass. Then that particular measure falls in that category.
TIKRIT, Iraq - Soldiers on patrol from the 173rd Airborne Brigade discovered a cache 16 km west of Tuz during the evening of Jan 29. The cache consisted of 78 120 mm mortar rounds, 103 82 mm mortar rounds, 48 60 mm rounds, 15 rocket-propelled grenades, 22 grenades, and one complete 120 mm mortar system. This cache had been buried in a sealed, water proofed bunker. The soldiers destroyed the cache in place.
In a search of locations near Balad, soldiers from B Company, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment captured four individuals, including one person specifically targeted in the morning of Jan. 30. The captured individual is suspected of involvement in improvised explosive device attacks. The soldiers confiscated two AK-47 assault rifles, one SKS automatic weapon and one rifle. Another individual targeted for suspected involvement in improvised explosive device attacks was brought to a forward operating base a short time later by Iraqi citizens and has been detained.
First Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment soldiers captured fifteen individuals in Bajawan, including six individuals specifically targeted for suspected involvement in attacks against the Kirkuk Air Base, in the morning of Jan. 30. The U.S. Air Forceâs Office of Special Investigations investigated the attacks and provided information that led soldiers to the raided location. The six captured enemy were wanted by the 1-63 Armor Regiment for arms dealing as well. The Air Force targeted the other nine for suspected involvement in attacks and for selling Strella missiles. The soldiers located and confiscated one AK-47 assault rifle, one SMG automatic weapon and pictures of Saddam.
One person was killed when he attempted to crash through a 3rd Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps checkpoint near the village of Abu Huraybish in the morning of Jan. 30. ICDC soldiers fired at the vehicle in response to the aggressive action. They searched the vehicle and discovered one AK-47 assault rifle and 25,000 Iraqi dinar. A second vehicle eluded the soldiers and is being sought by Coalition forces and ICDC.
Soldiers from 14th Engineer Battalion discovered an ammunition cache north of Tikrit Jan. 30. The cache consisted of approximately 500 tank rounds and 700 mortar rounds distributed among 12 holes. Soldiers secured the site and notified an explosive ordinance disposal team. The munitions are scheduled for destruction.
A Patrol from 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment came under attack by enemy using automatic weapons south of Balad in the late evening of Jan 30. The patrol returned fire, killing one of the attackers. Soldiers captured three individuals and seized three AK-47 assault rifles and three grenades.
#1
"Another individual targeted for suspected involvement in improvised explosive device attacks was brought to a forward operating base a short time later by Iraqi citizens and has been detained"
Now that kind of development's good to hear
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2004 15:41 Comments ||
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MOSUL, Iraq - Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) under the operational control of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) uncovered two caches during operations Jan. 30 in and around Mosul.
Company A, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment uncovered a cache of weapons after an unknown number of enemy engaged a patrol with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades in northern Mosul. The patrol returned fire, and broke and moved to a location several blocks away. They then consolidated, reorganized and returned to secure the site. The patrol secured a cache consisting of one grenade, and six expended French Roland surface-to-air missile casings. Huh? Wouldnât have time to arm in a close encounter.
In Al Beer, Company A, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment discovered a cache that included one AK-47, one RPK machine gun, 1,500 rounds of ammunition, 21 magazines, two blocks of demolition cord and 40 electric blasting caps.
Via BBC, hence the scare quotes
About 20 Iraqi looters have been killed by an explosion at a munitions depot in central Iraq, a spokesman for the multi-national force there has said. The blast occurred shortly after midnight on Sunday about 180 kilometres south-west of Karbala. "Attackers entered the bunker and the bunker exploded, we estimate about 20 people were killed," Lieutenant Colonel Robert Strzelecki said.
"Cheeze! It's dark in here, Mahmoud!"
"Here. Lemme strike a match..."
Polish soldiers were guarding the dump, where heavy munitions such as rockets and artillery shells from Saddam Husseinâs army were stored. "I suspect that those people who entered the bunkers probably wanted to steal the munitions" to sell, perhaps to "terrorist groups", Lt Col Strzelecki said.
So they could use them to "kill people."
He said he thought the blast was caused by "human negligence", the Associated Press reported. The dump covers a large area, making it difficult to secure, the officer said. The infiltrators had been detected by radar, he added, but guards were unable to get to them before the explosion. On the one hand, the looters have earned a Mention of Merit in the Darwin Awards. On the other hand, I would like to see the Iraqi economy functioning better so that looting for $$ isnât as attractive. Assuming these were looters and not insurgents doing their own midnight requisitioning ....
Posted by: rkb ||
02/01/2004 9:23:14 AM ||
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"Cheeze! It's dark in here, Mahmoud!"
"Here. Lemme strike a match..."
Haha! I immediately thought of Yosemite Sam getting tricked into the room full of gunpowder. Have to wonder about it being an 'accident'. If there was continued looting going on, the Poles might have left a nasty little surprise for the mutts.
The handbook is not a bad read, but it runs to 124 pages
Arab News
As the Marine Corps prepares to redeploy into Iraq, theyâre honing up on more than weapons and offensive tactics. This time, theyâre also learning about Arab culture and Islam. âA better educated Marine is less likely to make mistakes on the ground,â said Lt. Col. Nicholas Klaus, deputy director of the Washington-based Marine Corps Institute. Discussing the launch of the Marine Corps handbook, âIraq: an Introduction to the Country and People,â he said, âWe want to help the Marines better understand the Iraqi people by increasing their knowledge of this region.â
High-ranking Marines have told this correspondent there are plans to increase interaction with Iraqis and emphasize respect to civilians. Most of the upcoming deployments will occur in the next two months, they said, when platoons of Marines will be sent to live among Iraqis in their towns and villages. âTo successfully do this, theyâll need to know about the people, culture, religion and history of the country,â Klaus told Arab News. âLast year, when we knew we were going back into Iraq, we thought it would be important to educate Marines and give them some background history and knowledge of the culture to help them better relate to the Iraqis. Weâre not trying to make them experts, just trying to give them general information, because with better education theyâre less likely to make mistakes on the ground.â
Recognizing that most Marines are in the 18-to-22 year age bracket, and that many have not been exposed to other cultures, Klaus said the handbook is intended to be an objective educational reference. âWe tried to put it in a style they could immediately grasp and understand,â said David Garnett, director of the Student Services Department at the Marine Corps Institute, who researched and wrote the handbook and has extensive experience in the Mideast. Last year, the handbook was only available on the web; the new edition will also be available in hardback form. âIn a deployed environment, access to computers is extremely limited,â said Klaus. âNow Marines wonât have to be plugged into anything to access it.â
How the handbook will be utilized is up to the commanders of individual units, said Klaus. âThey will be responsible in deciding how they want to use it. Some will have formal instruction and have people teach portions of it, others will just hand it out and tell them to read it.â The objective, he said, âis to ensure our Marines are not going in blind.â The newly-reissued 124-page handbook not only covers basics about the culture, history, religion, culture and people, but also delves into analysis. It has already made key changes and updates, which cover the end of conflict, the capture of Saddam Hussein, and added more history and background information. Future editions will include a specific language section and details on customs, said Klaus and Garnett.
For more information, log onto: www.mci.usmc.mil and click onto the square box icon on the left, entitled âIraq.â
Posted by: tipper ||
02/01/2004 7:32:39 AM ||
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#1
A good idea but my fear is that they get a politically correct version of Islam. There have been and there have very good Muslims but they are despite Islam. There are peaceful parts in Koran and the good guys (or the propagandists) cling to these parts. But for the radicals these parts are superceded by the genocidical Medina surates. I fear that the politicaly correct version these Marines will get will be a pro-Islam propaganda instead of aimed to make them understand the weaknesses of the enemy.
#2
JFM - don't worry too much about PC Marines. While all training covers theory, emphasis is always placed on the practical and real-world application. It always struck me as ironic that the same organization that has a Commandant's reading list (theory) for all ranks will also teach you to kill with rocks and sticks(practical).
#3
What's not being reported in this story is about the distribution of 1.2 million of copies of How To Live With The Marines it's full of tips like....
How keep your eyes on your feet,
If it's green it's sir,
5 ways to sit quietly,
Slow moving is Fun!
Why touching hurts,
Yes, it's a Dawg,
and my favorite chapter...
My name is Sgt. Goldstein and yes they are X-ray.
#7
Yeah, we're getting ramped up. Iraqis will see some of my bros from the 2d Marines in March. More to come for the next couple years. I'm gearing up for either this September or February '05. Just waiting on the orders. Gonna start brushing up on Arabic this summer. I know a bit about the culture from a lot I've studied. I'll probably be picking the brains of you world travelers out there on what you know about their customs and courtesies.
Reuters
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the offices of two Kurdish parties in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing at least 10 people, witnesses and medical sources said. One of the dead was the deputy governor of Arbil province, witnesses said. They said the blasts hit the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the main factions in Iraqâs Kurdish north, as officials received visitors for a Muslim holiday. Many senior officials of the KDP, which controls the part of northern Iraq bordering Turkey, were present at the time of the blast. Arbil has been the site of a string of recent attacks, including a car bombing at the interior ministry that killed at least four people in December. I somehow think that this is going to both help unite the two Kurdish parties and make them aggresive when it comes to security issues. One thing you can rely on with the Jihadis, is that they will choose the dumbest option.
FOLLOWUP: al-Jizz writes, admiringly...
The casualty toll is climbing after two bombers detonated explosives strapped to themselves at the offices of two rival Kurdish parties in northern Iraq. Sunday's blasts occurred at the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in the northern city of Irbil. Kurdish officials said casualties are still being counted but one minister said the toll could reach 100. Hundreds had gathered at both party offices to mark the start of the al-Adha feast, a major Islamic holiday.
The dead include the governor of the region, ministers in the local administration and several senior officials, said Muhammed Ihsan, the minister for human rights for the Kurdish regional government. Morgue director Tawana Kareen was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that at least 57 bodies were brought to the morgue. The two bombs went off within five minutes of each other, at the two offices in the centre of Irbil, 10km apart. "These figures are estimates but I believe about 60 people were killed at the PUK and about 80 at the KDP. There are a tremendous number of injured," said Ihsan. "On the first day of Eid we receive people and well wishers and that's why security wasn't as tight as during the rest of the days," he said.
You just can't afford to let your guard down around the Religion of Peaceâ¢...
#2
I hope soooner or later the Kurds will notice that Islam is merely a tool for keeping them in the yoke of Arabian overlords. If they haven't we should help them in that. I think it is in our inteerest to present Islam not as a religion but as an instrument of domination so it will be rejected by all but the Arabians. End result is that Jihadis or people suspected to listen at the Saudis will be hunted on sight.
#4
Mass slaughter in Kurdish Iraq, mass death by trampling and communicable diseases in Mekkah, mass televised sheep slaughter in France, all to celebrate the start of Eid - such a beautiful and peaceful religion. Where do I sign up?
#7
....it is in our interest to present Islam not as a religion but as an instrument of domination so it will be rejected by all but the Arabians. Correctamundo, JFM, after all, Islam means submission to God (or his nearest Arab representative).
Also agree with Anon (#5). The 101st and the Strykers should step back and watch the games begin. It's a sad situation, but should prove interesting.
#8
Be on the lookout for Kurds running around and hanging Sunni's from the occasional tree.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/01/2004 13:16 Comments ||
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#9
would anyone be surprized if Al J people had given logistical/info support to the bombers. Also, apparently the attackers wore suicide belts of Hamas style and used the time coordination which is Al Q style.
#10
Who would benefit the most from decapitating Kurdish leadership in Northern Iraq; Syria, Iran, or Turkey. As amusing as a Kurdish pogram against the Sunnis would be, I think this event originated outside of Iraq.
Scuttlebutt from Hammorabi and H has posted some pics of an execution on the site:
Hammorabi.blogspot.com
Indeed bribing was a policy that Saddamâs regime used to depend on for long. What leaked to the media from the oil bribes list submitted to the Iraqi GC by the ministry of oil is just the surface of the tip of the iceberg. Hoshiar Zibari the foreign minister indicated during his visit to Bulgaria that the bribes list is true. time since its control of power. In 1970s and 1980s when VIP individuals visit the country, the Iraqis used to whisper, how much they took!
In actual fact dependent sources said that the published list is just the tip of the iceberg. The real list contains hundreds of names of very VIPs individuals. Among them are Arab politicians, artists, actors and writers. There are sons of heads of states and top governmental officials. One female actor received bribes at many occasions. In only one of these occasions she received 5 Millions US Dollars! This may be Raghdah a Syrian actor lives in Egypt who used to go with a group of MPs, actors, journalist and others so often regularly in a propaganda of breaking the sanction. At least once she met Saddam publicly! ...
The execution photos are from the Kuwait war. Newsweek ran them back then.
Posted by: Anonymous2U ||
02/01/2004 2:40:43 AM ||
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#1
looks like the story is gathering speed,lets hope it leads to the collering of all those with thier slimey hands in this.
EFL
At bases across the country, the 130,000 American troops will be able to catch the game between the Carolina Panthers and the New England Patriots live (starting at 2:25 a.m. Monday, Iraqi time) in mess halls and recreation centers. If waking up in the middle of the chilly Iraqi night is too daunting, many bases will tape the game, which is being aired from Houston on the American Forces Radio and Television Service, and replay it later.
Here in Tikrit, Saddamâs hometown and headquarters of the 4th Infantry Division, troops will watch the big game at the U.S. Army recreation center â a three-story palace built by the ousted dictator, with chandeliers, mosaic floors, a sweeping staircase and a man-made lake. Americans in Baghdad can watch the game in a tent outside Saddamâs former Presidential Palace, now the main headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition. Bo Jackson, a Heisman Trophy winner in 1985 who played both pro football and baseball, will join some of the U.S. troops based in neighboring Kuwait to watch the Super Bowl. Soldiers who canât get to a television can tune in on the Internet, said a coalition spokesman in Baghdad.
Despite the early hour, some 500 soldiers are expected to show up for the party in Tikrit. Staff Sgt. Bennie Brewster, of Greenville, S.C., will be cheering the Panthers before going straight to work at the base post office. "Iâll be tired, but Iâll watch the match," he said. He and other soldiers can win door prizes, compete in Super Bowl quizzes and enjoy a spread of chicken wings, hamburgers and hot dogs. But military regulations prohibit beer from being served on base. "Thatâs the only bad thing," Proctor said, "but we have plenty of nonalcoholic beers brought in."
Posted by: Desert Blondie ||
02/01/2004 12:44:25 AM ||
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#1
"Thatâs the only bad thing," Proctor said, "but we have plenty of nonalcoholic beers brought in."
You think that's bad, wait until a Jihadist interrupts the game. There's nothing like watching a Jihadi run over by a A1M2 tank. Several times.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/01/2004 0:54 Comments ||
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#2
Proctor, beers will come.
I saw Bo Jackson throw out Seatle M's Herald Jackson from deep in left field in the 10th inning at the Big Mac (Kingdome). Herold Jackson was on second, two out. The batter(?) hit a deep shot to left almost to the wall, Bo cut it off feet from the wall, set up and threw the speedy Jackson out at home. It was beyond human capability but Bo is that kind of athelete. It was a Babe Ruthian play!
Twelve people died and at least 50 were injured yesterday in two attacks by Iraqi insurgents in northern Iraq. A car bomb killed nine and injured 45 at a police station in the northwestern city of Mosul in the latest of a series of suicide strikes on coalition forces or their local allies. Near the restive oil-rich city of Kirkuk in the northeast of the country, three US soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division died when a roadside bomb ripped through their convoy. A total of 522 US soldiers have so far been killed in the Iraq conflict, 364 in combat.
Witnesses in Mosul, Iraqâs third largest city, said a suicide attacker drove through a barricade in front of the police station before blowing up his vehicle. The attacks came on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Many of the attacks in Mosul have been linked to Ansar al-Islam, the Islamic militant group who were based in northern Iraq until last yearâs war. Last week senior American officials said they believed that attacks by Muslim militants were being co-ordinated by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an experienced Jordanian-born activist with ties to European terror networks. Last month an operative with links to Osama bin Laden, was arrested while entering northern Iraq. Hassan Ghul, a Yemeni, is believed by US officials to have met with Zarqawi to plan attacks against US and coalition forces. I thought Ghul was a Pakistani, but go on ...
The Mosul attack appeared timed to cause maximum casualties. Saturday was pay day and the two-storey police station was crowded with staff at the time of the mid-morning blast. In Baghdad yesterday, a bomb exploded under the car of a police colonel, slightly injuring five children in the street. In Kirkuk, which has been the site of significant inter-ethnic tension in recent months, unidentified gunmen shot and injured an ethnic Turkoman leader, and killed his assistant yesterday. Sounds like somebodyâs trying to stir up ethnic tensions in Kirkuk. If the perps turn out to be Kurds, my guess would be that theyâre the Ansar al-Islam or KADEK variety.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 12:36:54 AM ||
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#1
I heard about this earlier today. So whats the message. Submit! Lets all submit. Fuck you satan!
#3
364 - how many people have been murdered in DC during the same time frame. I bet it's a comparable number.
Posted by: B ||
02/01/2004 16:19 Comments ||
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#4
And what the hell does "KADEK" have to do with the shooting of anyone in Iraq? Believing that is equal to total ignorance. Why? Because for the VERY FIRST time in over 30 years, ALL three major Kurdish groups (KDP, PUK, KONGRA-GEL [formerly known as KADEK]) are united in their cause.
Where was Hassan Ghul captured? At "Hajj Umran" on the Iraqi-Iranian border. And mate, don't be SUPRISED if the guys capturing Hassan Ghul was the same "KADEK" that you are blaming for stirring up shit. (And probably later handed over to the KDP which handed over him to US administration. Most likely a revenge because of Iran handing over Kurdish [EXTREMELY SECULAR] "KADEK" members to your dear "ALLIES" Turkey.)
Associated Press
WUERZBURG, Germany (AP) - The United States was justified in going to war against Iraq because Saddam Hussein violated U.N. resolutions ordering him to disarm, the Pentagonâs second-in-command said Saturday. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said flawed intelligence about Iraqâs weapons of mass destruction should be investigated, but the inability of inspectors to find such weapons did not mean the war was unnecessary. Sure wish Wolfie had been banging this drum before the war.
"You have to make decisions based on the intelligence you have, not on the intelligence you can discover later," Wolfowitz said, while visiting the headquarters of the Armyâs 1st Infantry Division. Wolfowitz said he retains confidence in American intelligence agencies, despite their apparent mistakes about Iraqâs weapons programs. "You need to look into when you got it right, and when you got it wrong," Wolfowitz said. "Itâs important to understand we could not possibly do what we need to do in the world without intelligence." Problem is, only the insiders remember when you get it right.
Wolfowitz said deposing Saddam was important to bring freedom to the Middle East. "We have an absolutely important job to do to help the Iraqi people build a free and democratic Iraq," Wolfowitz said. "Itâs going to be a very important turning point in the war on terrorism. The Middle East has been heading down the wrong road for some years now." Keep beating that drum too!
Earlier Saturday, Wolfowitz met with troops and their families. Soldiersâ spouses complained that American troops need time to rest between their frequent missions. Bonnie McCarty said her husband is preparing for a yearlong tour of duty in Iraq. "When he comes back, does this mean in another year heâs going to go back again because the size of the Army isnât big enough?" McCarty asked Wolfowitz. "We donât want to keep going through this." A reasonable question.
Wolfowitz said the Army is considering an increase in the number of combat units to ease the strain. He said he and other Pentagon officials know that the last several years have been difficult for soldiers and their families and are trying to ease the strain. Wolfowitz said Pentagon officials are not sure, however, that permanently enlarging the Army is the answer. "Thereâs a big uncertainty about what weâre going to need in the future, " Wolfowitz said. They could move quickly to out-source a lot of less essential things, particularly state-side and in quiet spots. That would free up more people for combat and CCS spots.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2004 12:21:42 AM ||
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#1
Fund these guys. If the cadres are strechted then pump them up. Thats why a mars mission is suspect. This is a hot war.
#2
5-10 years down the pike it will probably look like we did the right thing for the wrong reasons.
In the short term we have simply exchanged one set of problems for another.
The question is whether those folks who were talking that chaos is our friend in the Mid East are still ready to eat their rhetoric as hot as they served it.
Al-jazeera
Iraq's US-installed interim Governing Council has prohibited Aljazeera satellite channel from covering its activities for one month. "Al-Jazeera was forbidden from covering from January 28 to February 27," the channel's Baghdad bureau chief, Abd al-Haq Saddah said on Saturday. "We wanted to attend the press conference by (current council president Adnan) Pachachi today but we were stopped at the door," he said.
"Beat it! Youse ain't welcome here!"
"The decision was then faxed to our headquarters in Doha," Saddah said, adding that the Governing Council took its decision based on the station's programme "Opposite Direction", which it said had criticised the interim government. During the press conference, Pachachi said Al-Jazeera had broadcast a "provocative programme in which one of its participants was very excessive (in their remarks) and made accusations against certain council members." The programme, aired on 27 January 2004, focused on "Israel's infiltration into Iraq" and featured panelists, Dr Nur al-Muradi, the spokesman for the Iraqi Communist Party and Hamid al-Kafaiee, the spokesman for the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC). The discussion, the channel said, raised issues such as "Israel's ambitions in Iraq, accusations directed against some Iraqi political leaders of spying in favour of Israel and the role of Israel in the invasion of Iraq".
I don't think Israel has to "spy" on Iraq at the moment. Iraq doesn't have any military secrets right now. All they have are terrorist problems, which are actually common to both countries.
Al-Muradi said "Israeli infiltration into Iraq, was no exagerration, but the truth". According to al-Muradi, there was, "since 1902, a project of settlement of one million Jews in Iraq but after the Balfour declaration, the project of settlement in Palestine became de facto where Jews emigrated from Iraq to Palestine". He said "the infiltration (into Iraq by Israel) began from three areas: economical, military and the political powers". Al-Muradi also accused some members of the IGC of co-operation with Israelis. "You must not be astonished", he said "if you saw (Ariel) Sharon wandering in the streets of Kurdistan".
Yeah, yeah. Damn those Zionist Kurds. You can read a bit more at the site, if you've a mind to...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 00:05 ||
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Arab News
Ousted dictator Saddam Hussein remains in Iraq and will be handed over to a special court being set up by the US-appointed Governing Council to face charges of genocide and invasion of neighboring countries, US administrator Paul Bremer said in an interview published yesterday. âSaddam is in Iraq now, and yes he will be tried publicly by a special Iraqi court when the prerequisites for setting up such a court are completed,â Bremer told Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News. âSaddam will be handed over to the Governing Council after it finishes setting up the court,â Bremer said. Asked if Saddam was cooperating with investigators, Bremer replied: âHe is not cooperating, but he is not a troublemaker either.â
"He spends most of his time sitting in a corner, playing with his lips."
âHe has not given us any important or useful information up to now and has not confessed to the whereabouts of his offshore funds, but we know for sure that he has a lot of money outside Iraq. Saddam was in good health as shown by recent medical exams,â but no new photographs of him will be released before his trial.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 00:04 ||
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#1
If nothing else, all the wailing for an "international tribunal" has come to naught ... *throws a party*
Posted by: Lu Baihu ||
02/01/2004 0:48 Comments ||
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Saddam was in good health as shown by recent medical exams
I sure the neck stretching proceedure he can expect will change that.
#3
This execution should be broadcast live. It would be bigger than the Super Bowl. There would be an added benefit of getting some other dictator's panties in a wad. Oh, and the howls from the "Human Rights" lobby would be delicious.:)
Must be some mean sheep in Turkey
A TOTAL of 988 people have reportedly been treated across Turkey for cuts and fractures they suffered while trying to slaughter sheep and cows to mark the major Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.
Several faithful rushed to hospitals with knife cuts to their hands and faces after they took to slaughtering animals themselves rather than finding a butcher to do the job, the Anatolia news agency said.
Others suffered concussion, fractured limbs, broken noses and jaws after they were kicked by panicked animals.
Anatolia quoted hospital sources as saying that most of the amateur butchers were discharged after a few stitches, but some had to be operated on for severed fingers.
A 27-year-old man was in a critical condition in the northern town of Zile after he accidentally cut his own artery while sacrificing a sheep, the agency said.
In predominantly Muslim but strictly secular Turkey, the authorities set up special abattoirs with professional butchers and ambulances for Eid al-Adha, in a bid to stop people from slaughtering their animals anywhere they want.
But many still preferred to carry out their religious duty personally.
The Eid, also known as the feast of the sacrifice, marks Prophet Abrahamâs readiness to sacrifice his son to show obedience to God and lasts for three days.
#2
A 27-year-old man was in a critical condition in the northern town of Zile after he accidentally cut his own artery while sacrificing a sheep, the agency said.
Sitting on an empty tomato-paste can on the sidewalk, arms folded around his head to cover him from the blistering sun, a young boy named Abou is trying to catch up on sleep. His day started well before dawn, with a 90-minute hike to the center of Senegalâs capital, Dakar. The frail and malnourished child, dressed in dirt-blackened rags, has walked all morning barefoot on baking roads, begging for food and a few coins to take back to his teacher and guardian. ``This is my life. I have no choice,ââ Abou says. Then, to a concert of honking horns, he rushes across the road to pick up a coin thrown from a car window.
Like the other children with whom he begs, Abou was placed in the care of spiritual guides, or marabouts, to be taught Islam and its holy book, the Quran. Abou has a mother and father, but was turned over to Quran school too young to remember them. He doesnât know his age, but looks 9 at most. These tens of thousands of boys, some as young as 5, are known as talibe, meaning ``discipleââ in Arabic. They come mostly from families struggling to feed too many children in Senegalâs arid countryside. Quranic schools are a tradition in Muslim West Africa, appearing in the 11th century in Senegalâs northern Fouta region. Down to Senegalâs independence from France in 1960, the schools were held in esteem. Many of Senegalâs leaders graduated from the schools. Today, urban sprawl, population growth and rural poverty mean Senegal has more of the schools than ever but comparatively fewer giving the boys a future in exchange for their childhood. Increasingly, marabouts are using the children as their work force legions laboring for the teachers at the unskilled job of begging, in the name of learning humility. ``How can I possibly take care of all of them?ââ demands Pape Seck, a 25-year-old marabout at a Quran school on the outskirts of Dakar, kicking a boy of about 4 in the head when the exhausted child dozes off during morning Quran study.
A woman is trying to break a gender barrier -- in her West Virginia mosque.Asra Nomani is filing a discrimination complaint against a mosque that asks women to enter by a side door. The Morgantown congregation also separates men and women during prayer services. Three months ago, Nomani, her mother and niece entered the mosque through the front door and began praying in the main room.Nomani claims the men then broke off the service and tried to intimidate her into leaving. She and her father -- a mosque board member -- have complained to police.The mosque board plans to meet soon on the situation, but will give no other comment.The dispute comes as research indicates more US mosques are separating men and women during prayer.
#2
I'm surprised to read "West Virginia" and "mosque" in the same sentence. I just can't envision it. Guess I'm out of touch.
(And before the smart remarks start, no, I'm not from New York. I grew up about 20 miles from the West Virginia border, and had relatives there. Beautiful, mountainous, very rural state. But mosques?)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/01/2004 15:47 Comments ||
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#3
snicker!
Today's news is just full of "you made your bed now sleep in it" stuff.
Posted by: B ||
02/01/2004 15:48 Comments ||
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Why would this surprise anyone? It is but one of the many reasons that islam does indeed suck. It is not a religion of peace. It is a religion of submission and servitude. It could be a religion of peace, if it underwent a reformation. Until then, it is not much more than a bloody death cult.
Posted by: Islam Sucks ||
02/01/2004 16:37 Comments ||
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#5
"a mosque that asks women to enter by a side door"
Unless there is a Unitarian version of Islam, I believe that ALL moskks REQUIRE wymyn to enter via a separate, usually obscure, door. The ornate grand entrance is reserved for the myn.
#6
This is the sort of action I want to see from American Muslims as the ROP is infiltrated by freedom and democracy. (Hey! It could happen!)
Kudos to this woman for standing up to these divisive gendermongering creeps (ok, I made up that word - gendermongering. Humor me, ok?). If she wins, we win. May she succeed and prosper.
EFL
The ancient kingdom of Koguryo, famed for its mighty castles and horseback warriors, has sprung back to life in a "war of history" between South Korea and China that carries alarming modern-day implications. The dispute has raised diplomatic hackles and symbolizes what many say are rival geopolitical designs on Northeast Asia, a region rich in conflict and currently riled over North Koreaâs nuclear weapons programs. nukes? means nothing to the koreans if the chins are planning a land grab
Koguryo ruled much of Korea and Manchuria, now China, until it vanished from maps 1,300 years ago. It has been dragged into the headlines by a Beijing-backed study that deems the kingdom to be an integral part of China. hmmm, ancient marxist tactic- rewrite history and let the useful idiots do the rest of the work; anybody seen comrade stalinâs airbrush?
Not so, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon insisted last week. the skors may be ingrates about saving their a**es from the chicoms, but that doesnât mean theyâre planning on giving in to beijing
"It is an indisputable historical fact that Koguryo is the root of the Korean nation and an inseparable part of our history," he said. "We will sternly and confidently deal with any claims or arguments harming the legitimacy of our rights." Chinese scholars say Koguryo tribes were among the many minorities absorbed into greater China, and that since about two-thirds of Koguryo lies within todayâs China, it is key to Chinaâs history. They further enraged scholars from both South and North Korea by releasing papers claiming Koguryo was a vassal kingdom that sought Chinese sanction for its leaders and paid tribute. i imagine theyâll eventually try to claim part of the pacific northwest as a vassal state
Outraged South Koreans began a 10-million signature petition drive to condemn "Chinaâs distortion of history," while their government backed a parallel academic study to counter Chinaâs claims. thereâs still some spine left in them, especially if the chicoms keep poking this hornetâs nest
Korean academics say Koguryo was in fact a fiercely independent state that often clashed with China until its defeat by China and a regional ally. Academics say Koguryo has future implications too. China fears a scenario in which impoverished North Korea collapses, releasing a flood of refugees - and instability - in its backyard and forcing it to establish a new frontier facing a unified pro-U.S. Korea. Koguryo is even triggering a rare alignment between communist North Korea and the capitalist South. North Korea preaches "the Korean nation was at its prime during the time of Koguryo" and uses the Koguryo legacy to whip up militaristic fervor against foreign powers, especially the United States. isnât it ironic dontcha think? china gets bit in the ass by the mad dog they created
China is North Koreaâs only main ally, but that didnât stop Pyongyangâs state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun from accusing China of "manipulating history for its own interest." no way! commies rewriting history? whoda thunk!
It likened Chinese claim on Koguryo to "stealing water from another manâs rice paddy."
#1
Here's a suggestion:
1.Withdraw all US troops from South Korea.
2.Appoint April Glaspie as US Ambassador to China.
3.She looks the other way (ala Kuwait) as China solves the Nork problem and gives an ungrateful Skor a well deserved comeuppatence.
Posted by: B ||
02/01/2004 15:46 Comments ||
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#3
The Koreans have been called to Irish of Asia for good reason. There's no way the Chinese could ever assimilate them. What could be the motive behind this? This seems to just needlessly antagonise the SKORs with little benefit. Scare the NORKs and push them into some kind of agreement to SK? Not likely either.
EFL
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Larry Klayman stepped up his call Tuesday to forcibly remove Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, whom he described as "a master terrorist" and a primary threat to U.S. security. Five Republican and three Democratic candidates seeking the vacant Senate seat created by the retirement of three-term U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Miami Lakes, spoke about their campaigns Tuesday during a two-hour forum at the 10th annual planning meeting hosted by The Associated Press. House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, was the lone Senate hopeful not to take part in the candidatesâ forum.
While health care, the deficit, national security and the Patriot Act were on the minds of all candidates, Klayman zeroed in on Castro. "Itâs time to remove Castro once and for all, by force if necessary," said Klayman, a former Justice Department attorney. "Heâs had free reign for too long." Klayman, who said last week at a GOP function in Orlando that if elected heâd file legislation to oust Castro, said the U.S. has stood by too long while the Cuban dictator "tortures, maims and rapes" his own people. He said Castro also has bioweapons and shelters international terrorists while the U.S. looks the other way. "All the politicians go around talking about how bad the situation is, but they donât do anything," Klayman said. "If we can do it for the Iraqis, create democracy there, canât we do it for the Cubans who have done more for this country?" There was no comment from Havana on Klaymanâs comments. Snip - positions by other candidates including two Cuban-Americans who favor peaceful regime change in Havana. And another hard-core conservative who vows to attempt to remove wacko judges.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 2:20:35 PM ||
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Klayman's a kook. I expect Cuba's got bio weapons if they want 'em. I also expect the bio weapons to go away as soon as the beard is gone. LOL I'm a right wing reactionary... But leave Cuba alone.
#2
I tend to agree. Cuba's a problem that's soon going to die off...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2004 20:39 Comments ||
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#3
I would hope the people of Florida vote in one of the less psychotic Cuban-Americans. I do not like the trend of different state governors making nice with Castro; a strong voice in teh Senate might be able to focus some attention on our softening of the embargo resolve.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 20:54 Comments ||
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EFL To answer some of questions about whether the kookier elementes of the Inofe article were legitimate.
At the Eighth Conference of the Parties (COP-8) held in New Delhi in October 2002, we organized a side event aimed at discussing the issue of gender and its relevance in the climate debate. The event, Engendering the Climate Debate: Vulnerability, adaptation, mitigation and financial mechanisms, was sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme. In opening the discussion, Jyoti pointed out that, in the fifteen years that the climate debate has been going on, gender issues have seldom been on the agenda.
Mainly it was wind, rain, earthquakes, ozone layers, that sort of stuff, all of which seems on first glance not to be gender-specific...
This was the only event at COP-8 where gender issues were discussed. The subject was introduced by noting that poor baby ducks women are extremely vulnerable to climate change and may bear an unreasonably large share of the adaptation burden.
I was in southeast Washington once, really poor neighborhood, y'know. Everywhere I looked, there were poor women undergoing climate changes, sometimes without warning. It was terrible...
The main recommendations which were agreed to as a result of the event are as follows.
1. It is the poor women who are vulnerable and will bear the adaptation burden despite their minuscule contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.
Women aren't allowed to drive cars, even in those places where they can afford them. And we all know ladies don't burp or fart. Except for cooking over charcoal fires, they make no contribution to global warming. It's all men, and they do it on purpose...
Funds should be mobilized for greater research in understanding the complex links between gender and poverty (with regard to climate change) and how to build the adaptive capacity of the poor. We suggest that you provide us with more cash to fund our boondoggle research.
2. Adaptation and vulnerability studies are needed to mainstream gender into climate change discussion. We suggest a worldwide tax on sales of Girls Gone Wild products.
3. It is necessary to raise visibility of the potential impacts of climate variability and climate change on vulnerable groups. It must be ensured that vulnerable groups such as women are not a priori excluded from potential Clean Development Mechanism and adaptation projects. Aleut women claim first pick of the sea lion blubber.
4. Clean Development Mechanism projects should be promoted which integrate gender concerns with regard to the sustainable development of forests, the management of biomass resources and renewable energy. Seperate locker rooms at the the local power plant, please.
5. It is necessary to build capacity and resilience to enable women and men to cope with the negative impacts of climate variability and climate change. Make sure malls are heated so that my daughter isnât chilly walking from Limited Too to Rave Girl.
6. Women should have the right to have the fuel of their choice even if it is a petroleum product. They should not be denied the fuels of their choice in the name of climate change. My wife will continue to fill up with unleaded, regardless of her new freedom.
7. Finally, gender issues should be mainstreamed in the climate debate and the climate negotiations. The relevant bodies should ensure that this issue gets attention. Renew our contract; protect our intellectual rights to our monopoly on this total scam research.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 1:34:12 PM ||
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Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 13:37 Comments ||
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#2
Enviromental Justice as also a real movement. Here is a sample of their webpage (note - it's reads like Scrappleface, but their serious):
1/12/2004 Environmental Racism Landfill Remedied, But No Reparations for Residents
After waiting more than two decades, an environmental justice victory finally came to the residents of predominately black Warren County, North Carolina. Since 1982, county residents lived with the legacy of a 142-acre toxic waste dump. State and federal agencies spent $18 million to detoxify 81,500 tons contaminated soil stored at the Warren County PCB landfill but no reparations have been paid to local residents.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 13:44 Comments ||
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#3
One of the sponsors of the Milan Enviromental Fashion Show was the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spacial Planning and the Enviroment. I was curious about what type of wrok they do. Here is a sample:
The Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment has established a subsidy scheme which sets aside 1.5 per cent of the building costs for public buildings (and 1 per cent for school buildings) to commission or purchase works of art intended to furnish and ornament the relevant building.
With respect to historic buildings and sites and architectural policy, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science works closely with the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment and the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management. More detailed information on their co-operation is given in sections 4.3.2 and 4.5.2.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs contributes in a limited fashion to cultural events and projects related to export and tourist promotion.
Finally, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs bears a share of the responsibility for international cultural relations. Some examples are the activities carried out within the Council of Europe and UNESCO, but also bilateral cultural relations. Dutch foreign policy has come under review in recent years, and as a result the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Education, Culture and Science have an extra joint sum of 16 million guilders at their disposal to invest in foreign cultural policy. There is no information available on the scale of activities carried out by the other Ministries in the field of culture.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 13:57 Comments ||
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#4
SH, you're on a roll today.
To Cop8/9: Muslim women (and 7 year old brides) have a lot greater issues than climate conditions. Correct those gender problems then get back to us.
#5
SH - I've got an idea for candles shaped like that global warming symbol (Pat Pending, of course), but instead of just wax, they'll run off fossil fuels while floating in a petrochemical pool (sweet light)
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2004 14:03 Comments ||
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#6
For those who are seeking access to the otehr side of the argument, The Global Commons Institute provides an alternative view to mine - for those interested. Here is al link to their article called Global Commons Institute - Defending the "Value of life"
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/01/2004 14:42 Comments ||
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#7
Funny they didn't mention that we men generate more ozone-killing methane (except for, perhaps, Jessica Simpson).
Posted by: Dar ||
02/01/2004 16:13 Comments ||
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#8
Wait till they hit menopuase. Gender-related climate change will take on a whole new meaning.
Jerusalem Post
Israel has embarked on a public relations campaign to end Syriaâs occupation of Lebanon, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said at Sundayâs cabinet meeting. "The time has come to end Syriaâs occupation of Lebanon, an occupation which has been ongoing since 1976," Shalom told cabinet ministers. Syria has about 20,000 troops stationed in Lebanon, and is against allowing the Lebanese army to deploy to the southern border with Israel, preferring instead to allow Hizbullah, which it supplies with arms, to control Lebanonâs southern border. Since September 17, 1982, Syria has been in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 520, demanding that "all non-Lebanese forces" leave Lebanon. Syria has occupied Lebanon since 1976, when it initially intervened in the Lebanese civil war. Syria says its presence in Lebanon is based on a âpeacekeeping roleâ.
"Syria is an occupying power in Lebanon, and Syria devours Lebanonâs resources. The time has come for the nations of the world to stop turning a blind eye to this and start dealing with this problem," Shalom said. Shalom said he would raise the issue with visiting heads of state. Shalom added that Israelâs diplomatic representatives abroad had been instructed to amplify the issue in their host countries. Most of Syriaâs occupation forces in Lebanon are based in the Bekaa Valley. In December, US President George W. Bush signed into law the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003, which could lead to the imposition of fresh sanctions on Damascus unless the administration can certify changes in Syrian behavior. The act directs the president to ban US sales of weaponry and dual-use items - items that could be used for civilian or military purpose - unless Syria abandons its support for terrorism, removes its troops from Lebanon, stops the flow of terrorists into Iraq, and abandons its pursuit of non-conventional weapons. The act also calls on the president to impose two or more sanctions from a list of six: an export ban; ban on US businesses operating in Syria; restrictions on Syrian diplomats in the US; exclusion of Syrian-owned aircraft from US airspace.
#1
'bout friggin' time! Syria's on the defensive and their economy sucks without Saddam's oil. Take advantage of the boy Assad's weakness and the obvious incapabilities of their military
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2004 12:36 Comments ||
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" Sharon good! Assad bad! Sharon gives you freedom. Assad gives you occupation. "
Future story on Al-jazerra: Hypnotizing Jews and how to kill them.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/01/2004 13:18 Comments ||
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It's called turning the tables. I was wondering when Israel would start an effective PR campaign.
You would think that, since the Jews control everything, they would have started earlier.
Posted by: Daniel King ||
02/01/2004 15:24 Comments ||
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snicker
Posted by: B ||
02/01/2004 19:33 Comments ||
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IRNA
Members of the parliament said on Sunday that the Guardian Council has violated their rights. A lawmaker from Abadan Mohammad Rashidian said that the body comprises of six lawyers and six jurisprudents who are expected not to make mistakes or tell lie. Rashidian said that the Constitution has only empowered them to supervise the election and if it had the right to disqualify the candidates, the Constitution would have noted such a right. "Unfortunately, the Guardian Council has made its own interpretation of the Constitution driving the community to a situation in which we encounter wide scale disqualification of parliamentary candidates," he said. "The artistry of the late Imam was that he brought into the scene people from all walks of life, but, to the contrary, the dignitaries are driving the people out of scene," Rashidian said.
If you set up a body from which there's no appeal, you've set up a dictatorship...
Hassan Sobhani, an MP from Damghan, regretted that such a situation has occurred and said that the article 95 of the bylaw of the parliamentary sessions does not authorize mass resignation. The number of the MPs resigning is high to an extent that the parliament has come to the minimum required for a quorum to hold formal session.
Like I say, they've got a crisis going. If they really want change, they can push this one. Students in the streets can be beaten up by gunnies and thugs. How do you force an MP to un-resign? How do you force him to govern? What if they gave an election and nobody came?
An MP from Savojbolagh Jaafar Golbaz said that the parliament is the essence of the public aspiration whose strength should be respected and safeguarded. "The Guardian Council has provided a filtration in the name of Islam upon which they disqualify one-third of the sitting MPs. They want to set up a subordinate parliament. The Presiding Board is required to defend the strength of the parliament," Golbaz said.
But the parallel machinery of day-to-day government hasn't been set up...
Representative from Kazeroun Mohammad Baqer Baqeri-Nejadian Fard said that no one has the right to violate the legitimate rights of the people in the name of independence and territorial integrity. "In light of the current situation, holding a competitive and fair election is impossible for the time being. I call for postponement of the election," he said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 11:54 ||
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IRNA
First Deputy Parliament Speaker Mohammad Reza Khatami on Sunday said that the MPs staging a sit-in believe that holding the February-20 elections under present circumstances would be illegal and that it would somehow mark the end to the reform movement.
Hard to have a reform movement when you've got a Supreme Leader™, ain't it?
Speaking to reporters in the Majlis, he added that the MPs who have staged a sit-in and or have resigned would neither participate in the upcoming election, nor would they attend Majlis sessions in future. "From now on, further approval of the nominees qualifications would be outdated and even if such green lights are given, the candidates would not have sufficient time to launch their electoral campaign. As a result, the February-20 balloting would not be taken as `Just Elections`."
No elections, no government. It's called a crisis.
In response to a question about the views of the MPs staging a sit-ins on postponing the election date, the MP said that the main issue is to hold free and valid elections and that if no change takes place in the current trend, more time would be of no use. Turning to the possibility of holding further Majlis meetings, he noted, "We had agreed to close down up to February 19 due to election campaigns. However, given the current situation and the resignation of several MPs, another open session would possibly be convened."
That's the point his spine wilted...
In reply to a reporter`s question about the proposal of the sit-in MPs, he said that it concerns a return to the law, given that the law is straightforward and has been complied with for many years. Turning to the procedure for examining the resignation of MPs, he noted, "According to Majlis internal by-law, the resignations are put on agenda case by case, each of which is discussed by the opponents and proponents and the final decision is made."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 11:48 ||
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IRNA
Iran challenged on Sunday Iraq`s US governor Paul Bremer`s allegations that members of al Qaeda had fled to Iran from Iraq, calling on him to back up his claims with proof if there was any. "Mr. Bremer must present evidence in order to substantiate the accuracy of his allegations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told reporters here during a weekly press briefing. "We have already announced that our borders are being controlled up to a very high degree and we do not allow any illegal movements (inside our territory) and that we will legally deal with any al Qaeda members whom we may find," he added.
Yeah. Dealing with them's been the problem, hasn't it?
Iran has arrested several hundred members of Osama bin Laden`s al Qaeda network and handed some of them over to their country of origin, while holding others.
None of them have names, nor do the countries they were handed over to...
Tehran has said it intends to place a dozen jailed suspects of the terror network on trial on criminal charges committed on the Iranian territory. Last December, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi confirmed bombing threats made by al-Qaeda against Iran, which is fiercely opposed to the extremist group. "Iran has always been a victim of terrorism, especially posed by al-Qaeda," he said.
Yeah. We've seen the string of explosions up and down the length of Iran...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 11:43 ||
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Mr. Bremer must present evidence in order to substantiate the accuracy of his allegations
IOW, they're hoping he'll give up whoever is leaking these embarrassing tidbits.
IRNA
Head of Electoral Supervisory Board of Tehran, Shahr-e Rey and Shemiranat Hojatoleslam Ahmad Azimizadeh on Sunday said that given any resignation under the current conditions would be taken as interference with the elections trend, it would be subject to prosecution. Speaking at the meeting held by the council of deputy heads of Tehran Electoral Supervisory Board, he added that the recent resignations, the tone of the statement issued to the effect and the remarks made by a number of disqualified nominees showed that the Guardians Council (GC) has not fulfilled its task properly and in accordance with law. "Such approaches to legal trend could be taken as another reason for their lack of commitment to the upcoming elections and is subject to legal prosecution," he added.
Threatening to presecute the politburo Guardian Council? That can't be right...
The official voiced the board`s firm determination to cooperate closely with the executive officials to prepare the grounds for holding a glorious balloting within its legal period. "Despite the remarks made on resignation of a number of officials in this electoral center, we hope that the attempts of related executive officials, particularly the governors, district governors and members of the Executive Electoral Board would help hold elections vigorously and with wide public turnout on the scheduled day, February 1, 2004.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 11:40 ||
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Isn't it sweet? I mean, to watch the worm turn and the scum squirm like this...
Pak Daily Times
Syria has freed 30 political prisoners, mostly members of Islamist groups, and 90 more will be released in the coming days, lawyer and prominent human rights activist Anwar Bunni told AFP Saturday. Many of the freed prisoners belong to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Hizb al-Tahrir (Liberation party), were members of Iraqâs former ruling Baath party or had completed their sentences or were in ill health, he said. The most prominent prisoner being released is Fares Murad, a member of the Arab communist organization who has been imprisoned for 29 years and whose health has declined. There was no information on one of his colleagues, Imad Sheiha, who was jailed with him in 1975. More than 750 political prisoners have been freed during two presidential amnesties declared by President Bashar al-Assad on the anniversaries of his coming to power in June 2000.
Somehow I don't find springing Islamists to be a genuine step toward human rights reform...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 11:23 ||
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members of Islamist groups, and 90 more will be released in the coming days
Sounds like they needed to replenish a company of willing jihadis. Probably cut a deal- stay here in the can, or go to iraq and kill infidels. It's certainly not done out of compassion.
BBC
Israel was right to release a graphic video showing the results of a suicide bombing, a victimâs brother has said. The ministry of foreign affairs posted the gruesome video on its website following a suicide bombing on Thursday that killed at least 11 people. "The world has to see what we are going through," Yehuda Boneh told the BBCâs Newshour programme. Israel has never made such video available before and it is not being broadcast on television there. The video shows extremely graphic images of the kind Western broadcasters and newspapers would refuse to reproduce. and in most circumstances weâre right to do so. but maybe not in this one
They include bloody body parts in the wreckage of the bus and on the street, including a hand connected to a mass of bone and mangled flesh. The five-minute, forty-second video has been edited so that victims cannot be identified. The Israeli daily Maariv said the video got more than 280,000 hits in its first 48 hours on the ministry website. Hospital officials and emergency workers said it was necessary to make the video available. "I think we clean the scenes up too fast," Barbara Sofer of the Womenâs Zionist Organisation of America - which runs Jerusalemâs two main trauma hospitals - told the Baltimore Sun newspaper. She said people outside Israel thought suicide bombings merely meant "that we canât have a coffee in peace at a trendy cafe. Thatâs not what this is about. Itâs about our lives being blown to pieces. The world is not privy to this," she said. Mr Boneh, whose sister Rose was killed in the bombing, agreed. "Itâs the truth. Itâs what happens. Israel should show the truth," he told Newshour.
Police used to keep journalists away from the aftermath of suicide bombings, reporters in the region say. But amid the sense that Israel is losing the propaganda war, it has begun allowing reporters almost immediate access to blast scenes and victims in hospital. Palestinian television routinely shows the aftermath of Israeli raids. Might work. Canât hurt much, given how slanted the reporting has been.
The Israeli Government has been arguing that its controversial security barrier would have prevented the attack. "The anti-terrorist fence could have prevented this massacre," the foreign ministry website said in a note accompanying the video. "All those who criticise Israel for building the fence should take a good look at this morningâs pictures from Jerusalem," the ministry said.
Palestinians have said the barrier is an attempt to seize land. A number of countries have expressed opposition to its route, which does not follow the Green Line - the generally recognised umpteenth iteration of a border between Israeli and Palestinian territory. The International Court of Justice has agreed to hear arguments about the fence following a request from the United Nations. Israel argues that the court in The Hague has no jurisdiction over the issue. The US, UK and about two dozen other countries have filed briefs in support of Israelâs position.
Posted by: rkb ||
02/01/2004 9:34:22 AM ||
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There are 10 entities who are stealing air in Gaza and the West Banks.
#2
The barrier has had an effect. This bombing, not counting the one at the Gaza border checkpoint, was the first one inside the Green line in quite some time.
I don't know for sure but I would guess that the Fence separting Bethlehem, where the bomber came from, has not been completed yet.
Posted by: Daniel King ||
02/01/2004 15:33 Comments ||
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#3
You think the BBC will show (or host) the video? Nope...
You think CNN will show (or host) the video? Nope... to busy covering Israli Forces entering Jericho... (in which the IDF bulldozed a house with a terrorist inside after giving it a chance to leave. He lost his argument with the D9.)
EFL, hat tip - Samizdata.net First part snipped, it's in the previous post. This is most of the remainder of the article.
These fearless fighters who in an open letter titled "We the Warriors!" had threatened both factions (the so-called "Reformists" and Conservatives) of the religious oligarchic-fascist government of Islamic Republic with rebellion, wrath, and reaction, went to meet their destinies standing tall and solid with their heads held high; just as they did when they went to defend the homeland against the invading Iraqis. But this time the enemy that killed them was from within; an enemy who has become most unsettled and restless, fearing that those heroesâ sense of conscience will spread to the rest of the military and law enforcement personnel and blow the end-game horn for their wretched racket.
Posted by: Mahmoud, the Weasel ||
02/01/2004 2:44:49 AM ||
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#1
Got this feeling that Iran's about to blow. I think its better than 50/50. The Kurds, the Azeris, the Arabs, and a few more like the Baluchis will make a grab for independence. It will get very messy. Iran doesn't have much of a military left after 30 years of Mullah mis-rule.
#6
If Iran blows up it will be like the breakup of Yugoslavia on a timescale a hundred times faster.
I doubt Turkey will stay out, once a greater Kurdistan starts to become a possibility. It remains to be seen what the USA will do. I doubt the Russians will do anything. Nobody else is a player.
#7
I'll bet the old Pejmaster at pejmanesque.com (sp?) is lapping up every word of this news. How sweet it would be to have Iran reform itself from within! Fantastic news for all of the ex-patriot Iranians in the US and around the world. Freedom and choices are true poison to the mullahs.
#8
We better make damn sure their nukes are either buried under a few hundred thousand tons of rubble, or go in and take them when things go to sh*t. Which means we need better intel than we seem to have been getting. I sure hope some of the SAVAK guys were kept on the payroll.
#12
If Iran blows up it will be like the breakup of Yugoslavia on a timescale a hundred times faster. I doubt Turkey will stay out, once a greater Kurdistan starts to become a possibility. It remains to be seen what the USA will do. I doubt the Russians will do anything. Nobody else is a player.
It'll be Yugoslavia. Not necessarily 100X faster, but a lot uglier. Turkey might get involved because of the Kurds, but don't discount the Russians in this. They've had interests in this area for ages.
Via Samizdata Purging of the Armed Forces, a Double-edged Sword in the Hands of the Executioners
SMCCDI (Public Statement)
Few days ago, the reviled and unstable Islamic Republic government executed several commanders and senior officers of their ideological military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in another futile effort to purge the Armed Forces of their popular elements and to prepare for a final confrontation with an irate Iranian public. "Brigadier-General Mohammad-Mehdi Dozdoozani" was one of the founders of IRGC and a hero of the eight-year war with Iraq who, as time progressed, realized the true wicked nature of the Islamic Republic and subsequently sided with the downtrodden people of Iran, becoming a staunch critic. He and several high-ranking officers were executed solely for the "crime" of criticizing and exposing government officialsâ corruption and transgressions involving embezzlements and the heinous practice of exporting destitute young Iranian girls to Arab countries to become sex slaves....
Posted by: Anonymous2U ||
02/01/2004 2:32:58 AM ||
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#2
This is a double post with MtW's Iranian Purge Imminent. Both posts are from an opinion piece by the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran. The entire article is worth a read. Sump'ns up.
Remind me again why weâre sending a delegation there ...
Iran plans to host leading Islamic groups regarded by the United States as terrorist in a 10-day conference next week. Iranian officials said the conference to discuss strategy against the United States and its allies will begin on Sunday and last 10 days. They said Iran, in wake of an intense debate that pitted reformers against conservatives, has invited such organizations as Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad and Al Qaida allies such as Ansar Al-Islam. The conference, termed "Ten Days of Dawn," is meant to mark the 25th anniversary of the return to Iran from exile of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Officials said the conference, ordered by Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, marks Iranâs investment in fostering Islamic insurgency groups in the Middle East, Asia and South America. Hizbullah, sponsored by Iran in 1983, will have the largest presence in the Teheran conference. Hizbullah will be represented by 17 branches around the world.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 2:23:21 AM ||
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Allah must be on our side. At a time when AQ promises a "big attack" against America, it is convening in Tehran with all it's friends to make one grand tempting target. Can't be just luck or poor planning on their part.
Reformist Iranian lawmakers on Sunday began submitting their resignations in protest over an unelected hardline bodyâs move to bar hundreds of reformist candidates from standing in a February 20 parliamentary election.
Hmmm... Are those spines? How unusual...
Prominent reformist MP Mohsen Mirdamadi, in a speech to parliament broadcast live on state radio, read out a resignation statement which he said was on behalf of an unspecified number of fellow lawmakers who were resigning. "They want to cover the ugly body of dictatorship with the beautiful dress of democracy," he said, referring to the mass disqualification of candidates by the hardline Guardian Council. "This letter has so far been signed by 108 MPs," reformist lawmaker Ali Mazrouie said in a speech to parliament broadcast live on state radio. Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi later told parliament he had received 109 resignation requests from lawmakers.
The Guardian Council, which reviews candidates, earlier summarily disqualified hundreds of possible reformers for the February 20 elections. Reformers hold a significant majority in the Iranian parliament. The resignations is a first for Iran and a development for which Iranâs constitution spells out no remedy. Some observers believe it is the responsibility of Iranâs Duce hardline supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to intervene in the situation. Meanwhile, moderate President Mohammad Khatami has been taken to the hospital with spine loss a bad back Saturday and unavailable for further comment on the situation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 1:36:21 AM ||
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Meanwhile, moderate President Mohammad Khatami has been taken to the hospital with a bad back Saturday and unavailable for further comment on the situation.
A power struggle between members of a fundamentalist Mormon sect has exposed deep fissures in the largest polygamous community in North America, a town in which most men have several wives and sometimes dozens of children. A handful of congregants normally subservient to the dictates of Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet and leader of the sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have begun to rebel against his rule. The rebellion was put in motion this month when Mr Jeffs expelled more than 20 men from the church, separating them from their wives and children and forcing them from their houses, over which the church claims ownership through a land trust that Mr Jeffs controls. Invariably, in such purges, an excommunicated manâs wives and children are placed under the control of another man, who may then marry whomever he chooses, including the female children, church members say.
Last week Ross Chatwin, whom Mr Jeffs had earlier expelled, publicly denounced the leader and compared his authoritarian style to that of Adolf Hitler. In expelling the men, Mr Jeffs cited a revelation from God. However, his detractors say he did so to thwart potential rivals to his authority. Mr Jeffs, 47, a former high school principal, controls virtually everything in town; his followers say he even decides the fates of his flock in the afterlife. He routinely forces girls, some of them barely teenagers, into plural marriages, to men who are often in their 50s and 60s, according to people who are no longer his followers. Co-operation is rewarded: men who comply with Mr Jeffsâs demands are given more wives. "I knew at 13 that I didnât want to live like that," said Fawn Louise Broadbent, 16, one of the teenagers who fled recently. "I want to go to a real school, not a church school. And I want to be a clothing designer, not somebodyâs 15th wife." Lorie Wyler, who was one of four wives of a local man before she left him and the church several years ago, said more young people were rebelling. "Kids are leaving - itâs not uncommon," Ms Wyler said. "This is getting ready to explode."
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/01/2004 12:48:18 AM ||
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Sounds like this Jeff would make a good Muslim.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/01/2004 0:56 Comments ||
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In a Moslem country Fawn would be sent back to her father to be forcibly married or to be honor-killed.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
02/01/2004 1:17 Comments ||
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This is going on in Northen Arizona and is old news.At least 2-3 weeks.Kinda of surprised nobody has heard about these shinanigans.
#7
Re #1 - Fair is fair, Charles. even muslims only get to have 4 wives. This Jeffs guy is just plain greedy. One wonders if the correllary to the expression "eyes are bigger than his stomach" also applies.......
#10
Where's Janet Reno when you really need her to knock down the doors of this women swapping, child molesting cult. Let's see how well Jeffs and his buddies like it as they become the 15th "wife" of a prison gang.
Posted by: ed ||
02/01/2004 19:00 Comments ||
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EFL
President Bush has agreed to support an independent inquiry into the prewar intelligence that he used to assert that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, Republican and congressional sources said today. The shift by the White House, which had previously maintained that any such inquiry should wait until a more exhaustive weapons search has been complete, came after pressure from lawmakers in both parties and from the former chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq. Bush could have gotten out front on this and made a commission a useful exercise.
There was no official confirmation from the White House today. Vice President Cheney has begun to call lawmakers on the intelligence committees, who have encouraged the administration to proceed with an inquiry. Bushâs shift in position represents an effort to get out in front of a potentially dangerous issue that threatens to cloud his reelection bid. An independent commission would not necessarily absolve Bush politically, congressional officials said, but it could quiet the current furor and delay calls for top-level resignations at the CIA and elsewhere until after the election, diluting the potency of the issue for Democrats. Politics as usual.
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said today that convening a blue-ribbon panel is important because "weâre in danger now of seeing the politicization of the whole intelligence issue." Thatâs never happened before? Whereâs the turnip truck he fell out of?
The panel, Roberts said, would have to be bipartisan and include only recognized experts whose recommendations could "leapfrog" over the current debate and quickly tackle the issue of how to fix intelligence deficiencies. "It would be helpful not only politically, but also for the nation," Roberts said. Sources said Bush intends to endorse a commission in the coming days while remaining publicly agnostic on the accuracy of the intelligence that the administration used to take the nation to war in Iraq. Though some in the White House favor a frank admission that the intelligence was wrong -- something lawmakers and inspectors have given -- Bush and his aides have so far concluded that would only increase the pressure on them. Politicans never learn: admitting your mistakes wonât ruin you; stonewalling, blame-shifting and lying will.
The details about the commission are not yet firm, including how much authority it would have to investigate not just the intelligence gathering apparatus but also how the administration used the intelligence it was given. By joining the effort to create the commission rather than allowing Congress to develop its framework on its own, Bush will likely have more leverage to keep the focus on the CIA and other intelligence organizations rather than on the White House. Six separate panels -- the House and Senate intelligence committees, a CIA internal review team, the Presidentâs Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the newly refocused CIA-led Iraq Survey Group and an Army team -- are already investigating the prewar intelligence process. Robertâs committee is likely to be the first to conclude its work, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of March. According to congressional officials, it will also likely be the most hard-hitting, calling into question the competency not only of mid-level CIA analysts but also of the top CIA leadership, including that of Director George J. Tenet. In his defense, George was the principal architect and advocate of the successful plan in Afghanistan.
Roberts and other congressional officials said they believe any independent panel should not begin its work at least until after the Senate report has been issued. "We are going to answer a lot of questions," he said. More politix and tomfoolery at the link.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2004 12:37:14 AM ||
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I like it. Gw it's not about you. And you are grown up enough to realise it. Way to go!
#2
Think GWB knows it will lead back to Bill Clinton's major gaffes and that of his "really, really fine" Administration?
(say that last phrase in the voice of SCTV's Guy Caballero)
#4
I think we all know how the left and right use intel for their own means. We should have knows their was a problem when we bombed the asprin factory. Fire the politicos and promote from within. thats the only way to get honest Intel.
#5
Were it not for the human tragedy involved, the story of Iraq WMD is pure farce. UNMOVIC inspectors running around with Iraqi scientists who pretended to hide evidence so that Saddam would not find out that nothing actually existed. This is high comedy in the best Peter Sellers tradition.
Posted by: john ||
02/01/2004 13:20 Comments ||
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We've already had a little taste from the Hutton Inquiry.
The only party who "sexed up" anything was the BBC. The Intelligence community reached logical conclusions from what they had available.
Did you hear that Teddy K. or did you try and drink through your ear again?
Posted by: Daniel King ||
02/01/2004 15:51 Comments ||
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The rebels appear to be folding in this one, so it looks like the NIF wins this round enormous casualty figures or not - but take a look at all the bombing thatâs going on.
Sudanâs army has captured a town from rebels in the western region of Darfur and seven other rebel camps in the area, state radio reported on Friday. The radio quoted an army statement issued on Thursday as saying government forces had driven rebels out of the town of Tine, which straddles Sudanâs unmarked border with Chad. Fighting between government troops and rebels has escalated in the last month, forcing thousands of refugees to flee across the border. The UN refugee agency appealed for funds to help move 135,000 refugees to safer places further into Chad. "We are in a race against time to relocate refugees from the volatile border area to safer sites further inside Chad," Kris Janoswki, spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a briefing.
Rebels say Sudanese warplanes have been bombing 15 to 25 villages a day. Journalists on Monday saw a Sudanese government warplane bomb a house in the Sudanese part of Tine, which was mainly deserted apart from a couple of rebels. The army statement also said government forces had "recaptured and secured" seven rebel camps in Darfur, including Abu Gamra and Kornoi, both in northern Darfur state. The army said Kornoi was the biggest rebel base. It did not say when Tine and the bases had been captured.
A Geneva-based peace group, the Henry Dunant Centre, said on Friday three rebel groups in western Sudan had agreed to talks in Geneva next month and it hoped the government would also take part.
Aid workers and local residents said a Sudanese warplane attacking the rebels had bombed the Chadian side of the border on Thursday, killing two people and injuring 15 others. The World Food Programme (WFP), another UN agency, said it was racing to deliver food to refugees in the area. "All the ingredients for a humanitarian crisis are there -- difficult access, not enough food or water, and nightmare logistics," WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 12:33:04 AM ||
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Tine is an ethnic Zaghawa town and the center of major battles in 1990-91 when the Sudanese helped bring Idriss Deby, a Zaghawa, to power in Chad. They are an ethnicity that does not frighten easy, and if they are now in a battle with Khartoum I am sure most Zaghawa recall that it took thirty years of fighting in one war and another to bring Deby to power. This is going to cost Khartoum a lot of money before it's over, and it may not be over for a long long time.
The Sudanese government army Friday claimed to have defeated rebels and recaptured a number of towns, localities and rebel camps, including the border town of Tine, in west Sudanâs North Darfur State. Spokesman General Mohamed Beshir Suleiman, said in a statement that the army, supported by the police, popular police and popular defence forces, launched a major offensive on "the armed robbery gangs" and recaptured eight rebel-held positions and strongholds after driving the rebels out. "Entering the town of Tine, driving the enemy out of it and securing the town was a gift from the armed forces to the Sudanese people on the eve of Eid al-Adha," said the spokesman relishing his troops "victory" over the rebels. The statement said the army also seized rebel camps of Abu Gamrah and Jumaizah "after chasing the bandits out of the area" and recaptured and secured Ein Seeru, Jirjerah, Um Maraheik, Amberu and the major rebel stronghold Kernawe.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 12:30:36 AM ||
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February of what year?
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Washingtonâs point man for North Korea said Sunday that a fresh round of talks on the communist stateâs nuclear standoff could open as early as February. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, who arrived in South Korea on Sunday, said he was "mildly optimistic" about the prospects of six-nation talks. mildly optimistic is diplospeak for "we may get around to it sometime."
We "may be able to have another round of six-party talks before very long. Perhaps even this month of February," Kelly told reporters upon arrival in Seoul. "After which weâll have to huddle and talk a good long while about what to do next."
Meanwhile, North Korea claimed the U.S. military conducted at least 190 spy flights against it in January, accusing Washington of mapping in preparation for a sudden attack. North Koreaâs official news agency KCNA said Saturday that U-2, RC-135 and other reconnaissance planes of the U.S. military were used to commit "round-the-clock" espionage. Just like theyâve been doing every month since about, oh, 1953 or so. You guys ever figure out why?
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2004 12:28:11 AM ||
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Leaders of Somaliaâs warring factions signed an agreement yesterday that brings them the closest to forming a central administration they have been since the Somali state dissolved at the outbreak of civil war 13 years ago. The agreement, signed at peace talks in Kenya, is the first to include all the main warlords and feuding traditional leaders - 42 in total. It follows numerous failed attempts to recreate a national government since the overthrow of the Siad Barre regime in 1991. Most of those attempts involved loose coalitions of militia and political leaders, who were unable to extend their influence much beyond the parts of Mogadishu, the capital, that they controlled. This time, they have all agreed to the creation of a 275-seat parliament. But observers warned that the process of appointing its members, and their election of a transitional national president, would be fraught with tension. Western engagement with Somalia has been minimal since United Nations troops abandoned their peacekeeping mission there after a disastrous US attempt in 1993 to capture one of the more powerful warlords.
Recent western concern about Somalia has been fuelled by fears that the stateâs collapse into clan-based fiefdoms has made it a safe haven from which international terrorists have plotted attacks on US and Israeli interests. But diplomats said the impetus behind yesterdayâs breakthrough came largely from the region and was led by Kalonzo Musyoka, Kenyaâs foreign minister. The success of the latest round of peace talks came after Abdiqasim Hassan Salad, the leader of the last attempt at creating a national government, rejoined talks. "We honestly hope that with this positive spirit we will be able to bury the long-standing differences that prevailed among the various sections of our society," he said at the emotional signing ceremony. Observers said many of the faction leaders would be travelling back to Somalia before further steps could be taken towards a ceasefire agreement and a plan for the dismantling of militias. Moves were also afoot to win Ethiopiaâs support for the process.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 12:27:41 AM ||
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Rebels ambushed a Russian military convoy and fired on federal outposts in Russiaâs breakaway region of Chechnya, killing at least seven servicemen and wounding six in the previous 24 hours, an official in the Kremlin-backed Chechen administration said Saturday.
Four servicemen were killed and three were wounded as rebels attacked military outposts 15 times over the past day, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Rebels also ambushed a military convoy as it traveled near the village of Chiri-Yurt in the southern Shali region on Friday, killing two servicemen and wounding two.
A Russian sapper was killed and another was injured when a mine exploded as they attempted to defuse it in the Grozny outskirts on Friday, the Chechen official said.
Russian forces used heavy artillery to shell suspected rebel bases and groups of rebels in the Nozhai-Yurt and Vedeno regions in the previous 24 hours, the Chechen official said. At least 170 people were also detained during security sweeps aimed at flushing out rebel support.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 12:22:59 AM ||
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Firing heavy machine-guns and mortars, U.S. soldiers practiced repulsing a commando attack Saturday at the maximum-security prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. While the possibility of terrorists trying to break out prisoners seems remote, itâs crucial for the soldiers to be prepared, said Capt. Gregg Langevin, a 33-year-old from the Massachusetts Army National Guard. ``There have been reports that the al-Qaida are out there actively trying to buy small crafts,ââ Langevin said, suggesting a stealthy approach from the coast.
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, commander of the detention mission, said guards warned detainees that they would hear blasts that were part of a training exercise. Tracer rounds glowed red against the Caribbean Sea as gunfire pattered the water and struck a floating metal target simulating a boat. Mortar shells exploded with thundering force, sending up puffs of smoke. ``No one can get in here - bottom line,ââ Sgt. Johnny Saldana, a 30-year-old from Boston, said after firing hundreds of rounds from a .50-caliber machine gun.
The scenario of a hijacked airliner flying toward the base also was addressed, with some gunners shooting at puffs of smoke set off in the sky. Other troops patrolled the rocky hills around the prison while some soldiers manned machine guns atop Humvees. Medical teams practiced evacuating wounded to the base hospital, while a long line of cars and trucks formed on a nearby road where crews checked for bombs. Other security teams were tested by the appearance of a suspicious package, or an intruder attempting to film restricted areas. Saturdayâs drills ended four days of exercises involving about 1,200 soldiers. Such training has taken place every four to six weeks since the prison camp was established in January 2002, in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan. Because escape from the base is an ``enormously remoteââ possibility, that scenario isnât a training priority, Miller said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 12:21:39 AM ||
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#1
``There have been reports that the al-Qaida are out there actively trying to buy small crafts,ââ
Oh please, oh please, oh please ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2004 0:23 Comments ||
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Algeriaâs military said on Saturday that several members of the Islamic rebel group that kidnapped 32 European tourists last year had been killed in the desert as they transported arms bought with Western ransom money. The armed forces said in a rare statement that members of the hardline Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) had been "neutralised" when crossing into Algeria from neighbouring Mali in an anti-rebel operation on Friday. "The armed forces have destroyed a terrorist group linked to al Qaeda in the south... they were carrying important weapons, including 190 Kalashnikovs," the statement said. "The group purchased the weapons thanks to money they received from a Western government in exchange for releasing the (European) hostages," it added.
Security experts said the latest operation was a significant coup for Algeriaâs armed forces, particularly because of the amount of arms seized. It was not clear how many rebels were killed. Algeriaâs armed forces have in recent months stepped up its campaign to eliminate what remains of the GSPC -- as it is known in French -- and the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), known for slitting the throats of its victims, security experts said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 12:16:27 AM ||
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#1
Is'nt that against the rules. My respects to the berieved families.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has assured him he is ready to restart peace talks with the Palestinians, but that they were hesitant. He was recounting the hardline Israeli leader's telephone call to him to congratulate him on the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Makka. Mubarak has stepped up calls in recent days for renewed efforts to find a solution to the bloody and divisive 40-month-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians through a floundering US-backed peace blueprint known as the "roadkill" "roadmap." He said he had also contacted the Palestinian side to lobby them to open new talks. "I spoke with the Palestinians yesterday (Friday) and told them they should establish contacts with the Israeli side to restart the negotiations," he said, adding that they had also assured him they would do so.
Time to plug the old peace processor back in and set it on "puree."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 00:08 ||
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#1
And he believed 'em? Riiiiight...
Which Palestinians did he talk to?
"Hello, Mahmoud?"
"Yeah, who's dis?"
"It's Hosni, Mahmoud. Hosni Mubarak. From Egypt?"
"Oh yeah. So whadda youse want?"
"I want to tell you guys to go make peace with the Israelis."
"G'wan!"
"No, really, Mahmoud. You have to do it right away. Go and talk to them."
"Who's dis really?"
"(sigh)"
Time to plug the old peace processor back in and set it on "puree."
Fred, too, too funny!
Get the feeling that old Hosni is stuck between a rock and a hard place, i.e. between Israel and newly repentent Libya?
Gotta love it.
Gazeta.ru
The Security Council on Friday lamented the lack of progress toward an agreement between Georgia and breakaway Abkhazia on the region's future status and urged both sides to work for a peaceful settlement. "The process of negotiation leading to a lasting political settlement acceptable to both sides will require concessions from both sides," a resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation U.N. council said. The measure also urged leaders on both sides to refrain from militant rhetoric and support for military action as a way to resolve their differences. Georgia has been divided since Abkhazia declared independence in 1991 and drove out the Georgian government two years later in a civil war that killed some 10,000 people. A U.N. peacekeeping mission of 122 soldiers, deployed in 1993, works with a predominantly Russian force to patrol the separation line between Abkhazia and the rest of the country. The Security Council resolution extended the mandate of the U.N. force an additional six months, until July 31. There has been no progress on a peace deal defining Abkhazia's future political status despite 28 Security Council resolutions prodding the two sides to come to an agreement. But Malkhaz Kakabadze, Georgian minister for special affairs, told the council earlier this week that Sunday's inauguration of Mikhail Saakashvili as Georgia's new president left him optimistic that progress would be made in talks in Geneva next month on Abkhazia's future status. Kakabadze accused the Abkhaz leadership of turning the peace process "into a hostage of the separatist regime." The Security Council in the past has faulted Abkhazia for balking at negotiations. But he said the Georgian government was encouraged by expressions of support from Russian President Vladimir Putin for Saakashvili and for a resolution of the Abkhaz problem.
I can't quite understand the desire to take a small state like Georgia and break it into even smaller states like Abkhazia and Adzharia. I realize there are language and (to me) minor cultural differences, but it's not a small-state world anymore.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/01/2004 00:04 ||
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Well, it's like you've said before:
[best Abkhazian accent] "You ain't from 'round here, are yew?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2004 0:13 Comments ||
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I don't understand why the people who generally support multi-culturalism in the west, also tend to support the creation of small mono-ethnic, mono-cultural states in the third world.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/01/2004 0:37 Comments ||
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but it's not a small-state world anymore.
What a strange statement Fred. In large parts of the world the ethnic group that gets to be in charge of the government then proceeds to exploit and abuse the other ethnic groups. There are too many examples to list them.
#4
I think what Fred's saying, Phil, is that most small states are unsustainable. They must import most or all of their energy, a significant portion of their food, and have limited capability to defend themselves or even police their borders. There's always some kook that wants to take what little these people have, just because they can. Small micro-states, unless they're extremely lucky (Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino, Monaco) require some sort of agreement with their larger, more capable neighbors to help them survive (see above). If you don't have strong friends to back you up, you're vulnerable. The Balkan quagmire is a prime example.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/01/2004 14:23 Comments ||
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Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who helped put "Freedom Fries" on House restaurant menus in the run-up to the Iraq war, is championing a new patriotic cause. He wants Fox News to fess up about the controversial past of one of its commentators on Middle Eastern affairs. In a letter last week to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Ney identified Alireza Jafarzadeh as the head of an Iranian exile group that the U.S. government lists as a terrorist organization. Itâs a Marxist Islamic outfit called the Mujaheddin e-Khalq, once allied with Saddam Hussein. "The MEK has killed United States military and civilian personnel in the past, aided in the overthrow of the American Embassy in Tehran and targeted American civilians for murder," wrote Ney, who used to teach English in pre-revolutionary Iran. "I watch Fox News, I like Fox News, but I was shocked to see him on there," the congressman told us. Ney demanded that the network inform viewers about Jafarzadehâs background, saying, "I donât think theyâre fair and balanced on this issue."
I watch Fox News. I like Fox News. I've never even noticed the guy. The ayatollash are on a high horse about MEK, which is, I think, why we've been hearing more about them lately. I still think they've been defanged.
"This is old news," said Fox spokesman Paul Schur, declining to comment further."Absolutely false," Jafarzadeh said yesterday of Neyâs claims. "The MEK is not headed by me. Iâve been in this country for 29 years and the MEKâs headquarters is . . . in Iraq. Itâs ridiculous for somebody to say MEK is headed by me, sitting here in Washington." In August, officials from Justice, Treasury and State shut Jafarzadehâs Washington office, where he had worked in recent years as the U.S. representative for the National Council of Resistance of Iran. According to State Department officials, that group is an alias for MEK. But Jafarzadeh says he worked there before it was designated as a terrorist front group. He described himself as a supporter of bringing democracy to Iran. "The mullahs of Tehran have been trying to silence me," he said. "Who do you think revealed the major nuclear facilities of the Iranian regime in the past year and a half? It was me."
See what I mean?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 12:04:06 AM ||
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Intelligence indicating that al Qaeda terrorists are seeking to release a chemical or biological agent aboard an airliner, or transport a radiological device in cargo, was one of the factors that prompted the cancellation of six international flights scheduled for today and tomorrow. The intelligence on a weapon of mass destruction remains vague, and officials remain concerned about hijackings and other methods. The use of such weapons would be a new tactic. All the canceled flights are overseas flights arriving in the United States, as were the flights by foreign carriers canceled around Christmas. But yesterday, for the first time, a flight by a U.S.-based carrier was canceled. Continental Airlines Flight 17, scheduled to fly today from Glasgow, Scotland, to Los Angeles with a stop in Newark, was canceled because the carrier was "unable to obtain the necessary security clearances from the Department of Homeland Security and their international counterparts," a Continental spokesman said.
British Airways canceled Flight 223 from Heathrow Airport in London to Dulles International Airport today and tomorrow, and Flight 207 from Heathrow to Miami today, after the airline was ordered to do so by the British government for "security reasons." A return flight from Dulles to Heathrow, Flight 222, also was canceled today and tomorrow. Flight 223 was canceled several times during the holiday season for security reasons. Air France also cited security as the reason for canceling Flight 26 from Paris to Washington today and tomorrow. The return flight, Flight 27, which would have used the same airplane as Flight 26, also was canceled for both days.
In discussions with British, French and American airline officials, U.S. authorities required enhanced tiered security precautions that some airlines could not take. "It became easier to just cancel the flights," an administration official said. Several intelligence officials said yesterday that al Qaeda appears desperate to mount a spectacular attack to show followers, new recruits and financial donors that it remains viable. CIA officials say 75 percent of al Qaedaâs leadership has been killed or captured since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. U.S. intelligence officials say they do not know for certain why al Qaeda may be particularly active at this time. One possible reason, some officials said, is that the five-day Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, called the hajj, climaxed yesterday. The three-day Eid al-Adha celebration begins today.
I'd say it's because they made their brag that they're going to pull something off and now they're trying to come through. If they don't, they look like blowhards.
There was no indication that todayâs Super Bowl is threatened, but the Federal Aviation Administration imposed flight restrictions over Houston today as part of stepped-up security. A Department of Homeland Security official said there was no plan to raise the nationwide threat level, which now stands at "yellow," and that officials would deal with the new threat through more precise security measures, such as canceling particular flights. Intelligence officials and others said the information about unconventional weapons does not indicate a precise tactic. "There is some sketchy information that inserts [weapons of mass destruction] in connection with aviation," another intelligence official said.
The possibilities, as described by three intelligence officials, include releasing an undetectable biological agent, such as smallpox virus or anthrax spores, aboard a plane that passengers would then unknowingly spread; releasing a chemical agent to debilitate the passengers and crew so the plane could be hijacked, and sneaking a radiological device aboard a plane inside a piece of luggage. The vagueness of the threat forced airlines, airports and law enforcement personnel late Friday to consider how to address it. The Department of Homeland Security decided not to deploy special hazardous material units as long as the flights in questions were canceled. Some of the nationâs highest-risk and highest-profile airports have the capability to detect radiological materials, usually through an agreement with local law enforcement personnel who are trained to use such devices, said Carter Morris, vice president of transportation security policy for the American Association of Airport Executives. Morris said radiation detectors have been used on aircraft while passengers were kept on board.
Airport officials across the country have discussed how to detect biological agents aboard planes since the SARS outbreak in Asia last year, Morris said, but that threat is more difficult than radiation to address. "It gets very specific by the type of agent," Morris said. Aviation sources said the Transportation Security Administration ordered that the cargo on specific flights be screened before takeoff and after landing. Cargo is considered to be one of the most vulnerable areas of aviation security. Despite the billions of dollars the U.S. government has spent since 9/11 to screen checked luggage for explosives, very little of the cargo carried on passenger planes is physically inspected. A Transportation Department inspector general report in June 2002 found that security for cargo on passenger aircraft is "easily circumvented." Although officials have tightened restrictions requiring carriers to know more about the companies shipping goods on planes, the lack of physical screening led members of Congress such as Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) to call upon the government to screen cargo similar to the way luggage is screened. Markeyâs bill to that effect did not go to a House vote.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/01/2004 12:02:25 AM ||
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#1
I thought that the Super Bowl angle was a day early. But I'd still keep an eye out for some jihadi showing the flag.
#2
Hey, its Super Bowl Sunday. How appropriate that we have the set-up for a "play action" bomb or flea flicker when least expecting it! I just cannot believe they are that stupid and with fixed tendency to try pax planes again. It could all be a feint to set up a container shipment via sea or one of those semi's they learned to drive.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/01/2004 7:21 Comments ||
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just cannot believe they are that stupid and with fixed tendency to try pax planes again
Agreed. 10 Jihadi's ready to raise hell with BARs in the Mall of America.... Super Bowl... Super Tuesday, Fargo much more worrisome than trying to take over an aircraft....
#4
CNN has more on this including the following which I thought was interesting.
Continental Airlines also canceled Flight 1519 from Washington to Houston, Texas, on Sunday because of security concerns, spokesman David Messing said.
"We weren't able to obtain the necessary security clearance from the Department of Homeland Security," Messing said.
A senior U.S. official said the airlines, not the U.S. government, decided to cancel the flights.
"We did not want to cancel" the French and British flights, the official said. "We have been working all week to try and prevent that. Once it gets into the airlines' hands, however, then this is what happens."
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.
