RIYADH (Reuters) - Al Qaeda militants said on Sunday they had kidnapped a U.S. engineer in Saudi Arabia to "avenge U.S. mistreatment of prisoners" in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, according to an Islamist Web site. In a statement posted on Sawt al Jihad Islamist Web site, they identified the American as Paul Marshal Johnson from New Jersey, born on May 8, 1955, and a specialist in Apache helicopters. They said he was kidnapped on Saturday. Looks like the Jihadis are zeroing in on a tactic to bring down the house of Saud.
And it's so much safer than fighting Marines...
Posted by: Phil B ||
06/12/2004 7:38:52 PM ||
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#1
Looks like the Jihadis are zeroing in on a tactic to bring down the house of Saud.
#2
These animals clearly believe in an eye for an eye, with their eye swollen from overexposure to the Islamo-Goebbels and Euro-idiotarian media. Whatever happens to Mr. Johnson should happen to a jihadi tool or carpetbagger in the West, it's all they understand. The "cycle of violence" appeasers assume a level of equivalency that has yet to be tried. Maybe real equivalency will break the cycle.
#3
Maybe what were are viewing is an inter-power play within the House of Saud with one faction utilizing the 'services' of totally brainwashed Wahhabi al-Qa'ida trained terrorists.
The goal for the enemy remains the same; total control over that Treasure of Allah (the vast oil wealth).
Resulting from ongoing kidnappings & terror attacks, westerners will eventually, as in Iran during 1977-8, be scared out of the country. The westerners in reality run the Saudi oil industry from the very top to the everyday workings of exportation.
Maybe the Saudis could operate a few gas stations after all normal people depart Arabia for safer employment.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/12/2004 22:44 Comments ||
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A Western national was shot dead in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday, Saudi-owned television channel Al Arabiya said. The Dubai-based station said the Westerner was killed in the Maathar suburb of the city. A correspondent said police were chasing suspects seen in the area. Saudi officials have so far remained silent on what measures they would take to safeguard foreigners from future attacks by Al Qaeda, which has vowed that 2004 would be âbloody and miserableâ for the kingdom, a key US ally.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/12/2004 12:14:25 PM ||
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Saturdays. Sigh.
Al Arabiya is based in Dubai but Saudi-owned. Nayef, perhaps?
It only requires a sustained effort, now - the number murdered is no longer the point. Without a major turnaround, AlQ has already won this particular phase of the game. As long as Nayef is "guarding" the infidels, Abdullah loses. The status quo favors Nayef / Turki and, by extension and paradoxically, AlQ. If Abdullah has the stones and the will, then it's time for a Palace Coup. And he had better hurry it up.
Despite new mediation efforts this week by Kuwait, Gulf states Saudi Arabia and Qatar are struggling to overcome their differences, with mutual suspicion that each is supporting the other's opponents, diplomats say. "Qatari authorities accuse Saudi officials of involvement in the attempted coup in 1996" against Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, an Arab diplomat said Friday.
For their part, "Saudi officials accuse Qatar of financing the Saudi opposition exiled in London, including Saad al-Faqih," who heads the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA), the diplomat added.
Ohoh! Wheels within wheels! I didn't know that...
It's a Ptolemic theory of subversion.
The Qatari emir and Riyadh governor Prince Salman bin Abdel-Aziz, a brother of Saudi King Fahd, held talks on a yacht off Monte Carlo on Thursday in a meeting organized by Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah. "The meeting was held ... in a brotherly atmosphere and concerned relations between the two countries and the situation in the region, and it could be followed by other meetings," Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told Al-Jazeera television Thursday. The objective of the talks was to "improve relations between the two countries," he added. Asked about future relations, the minister said: "So far, there is nothing clear, but we have today's (Thursday's) negotiations and this could be followed by others." MIRA, headed by Faqih since 1996, is a splinter of the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights (CDLR), which was formed in 1993 and immediately banned in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi authorities last month implicated Faqih and Masari in a May 1 attack in the industrial Red Sea city of Yanbu which killed six Westerners. In the framework of Kuwaiti mediation, "Qatari officials requested to discuss their accusations implicating Saudi Arabia in the 1996 coup," another Gulf diplomat said. "But the Saudis refused, totally rejecting their (Qatar's) accusations."
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't us."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 11:46 ||
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"Qatari authorities accuse Saudi officials of involvement in the attempted coup in 1996" against Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, an Arab diplomat said Friday.
For their part, "Saudi officials accuse Qatar of financing the Saudi opposition exiled in London, including Saad al-Faqih," who heads the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA), the diplomat added.
Between Lybia, Saudi Arabie, Qatar .... it pays to be a hitman in the Arab world.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 12:00 Comments ||
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#2
It's all just Alphabet soup. Myriad "parties" and dictatorships and mullacracies and thugocracies with schizophrenic interests and nuanced campaigns for and against themselves and everyone else. What a phreakin' pointless mess - and it is magnitudes worse where Islam is the norm.
-Devolutionary Committee For the Elimination of Confusion
#3
and perhaps the sun set on MIRA as Aziz and the Qatari emir enjoyed dinner on the yacht. Let's hope so.
Posted by: B ||
06/12/2004 22:03 Comments ||
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#4
The Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia is an al-Qaeda front. Their operation is somewhat like that of the IRA, which ran both an open ("Official") and underground ("Provisional") wing.
#5
this is all bullshit--its a cover for some rich arab needle dicks to score some infidel prostie europussy without having to fly the quim to the gulf--they're arabs--follow the pussy
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
06/13/2004 0:52 Comments ||
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Advocates of the 15 al-Qaeda suspects on trial for several terrorist operations announced their withdrawal from the case due to concerns over the fairness of the tribunal.
"That's it! We quit!"
The prosecution charges the suspected terrorists with blowing up the French oil tanker Limburg in Mukalla in October 2002, carrying out several bombings in Sanaâa, killing a soldier, and plotting to blow up the US, UK, French, German and Cuban embassies in Sanaâa as well as plotting to kill the US ambassador to Yemen, Edmund Hull.
Bloodthirsty little fellow, aren't they?
Advocates Mohammed Allawo, Abdulaziz al-Samawi, Khalid al-Anisi and Mahdi Tarah announced in a press statement that they were resigning from the defense of the suspects as âthere is no minimum insurance for a fair tribunal as the advocacy found itself dealing with a stateâs security court that does not have any insurance for justice like any other courts.â
"We just don't think they're gonna give 'em a good talking-to and let 'em go. They might get jug time..."
âTo avoid being used only as puppets to decorate and legitimize a tribunal that is false and weak and meant to cover the violations and abuses of the freedom and rights of those suspects over four years at the hands of the Political Security Organization (PSO) and prosecution, we announce our withdrawal from this case to stress our respect for our profession and ethics,â the statement said.
"Y'r on your own, boyz!"
The Sanaâa Criminal Court Concerned with Terrorism and Kidnapping held on Monday its third hearing, but the advocates did not attend. The court judge Ahmad al-Jermuzi decided to postpone the trial until next Saturday, asking the suspects to appoint an advocate each. The hearing continued for less than 15 minutes. Journalists were not allowed to attend the session, stopped by security men outside the court building. Advocate Mohammed Allawo attended later when the session was over and he expressed surprise that the trail session started so early. He told journalists that he and other lawyers were denied a copy of the investigation file despite the orders of the court judge last time. He accused the prosecutor Saeed al-Akel of exercising excessive influence over the judge, claiming that the time set by the judge for the advocates to prepare their defense in favor of 14 suspects, as one of them is still at large, is not enough. The statement criticized the way the suspects were treated, brought before the judge in a cage with their hands chained as well as they way they were put into the prison vehicle.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 11:30 ||
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A GUNMAN opened fire on worshippers in a mosque outside the Yemeni capital during prayers today, killing four people and injuring six, according to police. The shooter, identified by a police official as Abdel Fattah Saleh, allegedly used an automatic rifle to fire randomly during the midday prayers at a mosque in the province of Dhammar, 60km south of the capital, Sanaa. Saleh fled to his house and refused to turn himself in to authorities.
"You'll never take me alive, coppers!"
Police stormed the house and Saleh was killed in an exchange of gunfire.
So they didn't...
Investigations were under way, the official said. But he said Saleh was not a wanted militant and that a domestic dispute may have prompted the shooting.
"She don't love me no more! Where's my shootin' iron?"
#1
The shooter, identified by a police official as Abdel Fattah Saleh, allegedly used an automatic rifle to fire randomly during the midday prayers at a mosque in the province of Dhammar
But he said Saleh was not a wanted militant and that a domestic dispute may have prompted the shooting
go ahead, try and connect the logic...ROPMA
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2004 9:41 Comments ||
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go ahead, try and connect the logic
"Abdel, are you listening to me? I swear all you do these days is sit around the hut and clean that gun! And just why do you need a gun anyway, it's not like you are a fighter or anything, a real man would be across the border on jihad, that's what that nice young mullah in the mosque across the street sez, he sez its the duty of every good muslim to fight, not that you're a good muslim, just when was the last time you went to prayers anyway? Mullah Omar, he's the handsome one who chants across the street, Itoldyouabouthimediddn'tIswearidon'tknowifyoueverlistentomemornotanywaymullahomar......... Hey Abdel, where do you think you are going?"
"To the mosque."
"Why you taking your gun?"
"Gonna pray"
Posted by: Steve ||
06/12/2004 11:48 Comments ||
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From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
The British government has presented proposals to bring the countryâs asylum and immigration legislation in laws with those elsewhere in Europe. The amendments would speed up deportations, clamp down on rejected asylum seekers, and intensify scrutiny on immigrants using marriage or study to justify their asylum bids. .... Government figures indicate that between 80 and 90 percent of asylum claims are unfounded.
The amendments, in part, seek to deal with those failed asylum seekers who remain in the country, by stripping their right of appeal. It also proposes more active identification of those immigrants who use study and marriage as a justification for their asylum claims. If the amendments are accepted, foreign nationals will have to demonstrate that they have entered the country lawfully and have permission to be there. Foreigners seeking to marry will not be allowed to do so without first demonstrating that they are in the country legitimately. "There is a lot of concern in the U.K. about bogus marriages of people just marrying U.K. citizens or EU citizens, just for right to live in the U.K., and there have been figures showing that one in five marriages in London is bogus for that reason," Brown says. Another amendment involves failed asylum applicants who cannot return to their countries of origin. Such people would now be required to perform community service to earn their living until they are able to leave the country. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
06/12/2004 12:41:38 AM ||
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Cool - Can you guys, uh, forward those proposals and the underlying documentation to Canada, plz? A massive ClueBat up side the Canucks' collective noggin would be a fine follow-up.
#3
Point well taken, #2. One glaring example of American idiocy in granting asylum holus bolus to the "enemy" is what happened after Gulf War I. Bush #41 and Clinton agreed to give asylum to 6000 Iraqi soldiers, some of them intelligence officers. Per Michele Malkin: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31833 After Gulf War I, the first Bush administration and the Clinton administration recklessly opened our borders to former Iraqi prisoners of war â from conscripts to elite Republican Guardsmen. The resettlement program was launched in response to pressure from the United Nations, the Saudi government (which balked at taking in the captured soldiers), and our own feckless State Department (which has, and always will, act like a hostile foreign entity).
As a result, an estimated 6,000 enemy Iraqi soldiers have resettled in the U.S. at public expense since 1993.
Posted by: rex ||
06/12/2004 14:35 Comments ||
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Colombiaâs largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) is said to have a new leader. Senator Jaime Dussan, of the left-wing Democratic Poll, said Farc commanders contacted the party and informed them that the new leader was Alfonso Cano. Canoâs real name is Guillermo Leon Saenz and he has been the ideological head of the guerrilla army. Long-time leader Manuel Marulanda has died or is about to die of prostate cancer, say intelligence sources.
The news marks the end of an era for the Farc, one of the worldâs richest and most powerful guerrilla armies. Manuel Marulanda built the rebel force up from 48 fighters to the 16,000-strong army of today and, in doing so, became a legend in Colombia. His successor, Alfonso Cano, has been the movementâs ideological head for over a decade. Analysts believe that the announcement reveals a shift away from the military emphasis of the Farc to more political activity. Many think this could raise the chances of a political dialogue with the government. The Farc have been fighting for 40 years to overthrow the government and install a Marxist regime. Cano is known as a committed communist and the movementâs ideology is unlikely to change. What may change is that the group may move away from indiscriminate bombings and killings that have earned the Farc the label âterrorist organisationâ both in the United States and Europe.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/12/2004 9:13:22 AM ||
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Cano is known as a committed communist and the movementâs ideology is unlikely to change.
Uh, Cano - communism's dead, man except in Cambridge, MA, Berkeley, CA and Madison, WI, that is.
From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
The U.S. Treasury Department on 10 June designated Lebanese Hizballah member Assad Ahmad Barakat and two of his companies -- Casa Apollo and Barakat Import -- as responsible for terrorist financing in South Americaâs tri-border region of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, according to the State Departmentâs Bureau of International Information Programs. Barakat reportedly used strong-arm tactics and coercion to raise money that was sent to Hizballah in Lebanon and Iran. As of late 2001, he reportedly traveled to Lebanon and Iran annually. On these trips he allegedly met with Hizballah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and spiritual leader Hussein Fadlallah. Barakat also served as deputy financial director for a religious center in Brazil called the Husseinieh Imam Khomeini. Regional intelligence sources previously identified Assad Ahmad Barakatâs brother, Sheikh Akram Ahmad Barakat, as a kind of roving Iranian ambassador for Latin America. Barakat currently is imprisoned in Paraguay for tax evasion.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
06/12/2004 12:45:25 AM ||
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Money flowing to terrorist groups from South America is not limited to the tri-border region. Margarita Island off the coast of Venezuela is one place that the State Department should watch closely.
#2
It is odd that money would flow from impoverished South America back to the oil-rich Middle East. If Chavez goes down, I am hopeful that change can happen through the OAS in that region.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 2:15 Comments ||
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Not odd at all. I wonder what percentage of money financing al-Qaeda comes from princely largesse and what comes from the zakat flowing out of the pockets of the downtrodden?
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 14:17 Comments ||
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I also wonder what percentage of the zakat coming from the pockets of the downtrodden magickally turns into princely largesse.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 14:17 Comments ||
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#5
Venezuela, under Chavez has become the enemy directly below, with his various support, ranging from narco-terrorists in Columbia, as well as Islamic fanatics operating within the general region with goals of jihad northward (US).
As with Iran, Venezuela's OPEC oil profits are being misused and not benefiting the general public.
The sooner an anti-communist government rules Venezuela the better for geostrategic security for the entire geographic zone.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/12/2004 22:17 Comments ||
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we should pull all of our forces out of skor...and the Japanese need to re-arm with nukes..have the leverage the chicoms been using agaisnt us through nkor slap them in the face
Posted by: Dan ||
06/12/2004 11:16 Comments ||
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An interesting comment once heard from a US soldier who had been stationed in SK: "We are there as much to keep the South from invading the North as visa versa."
He explained that like in many countries, the SK military and its civilian government were on two different sheets of music; and that their military would much prefer to fight in the North than the South.
With soldiers trained to be tough and aggressive, this US soldier's opinion was that they were looking for a fight. He said a common serious disciplinary problem is that a few ROK soldiers will try to start fights, hoping it will spread to a conflict with the North.
EFL
At least six workers developing an anthrax vaccine at a hospital research lab in Oakland may have faced accidental exposure to the deadly bacterium because of a shipping mistake, officials reported Thursday. Officials with the Childrenâs Hospital Oakland Research Institute said none of the researchers has shown symptoms of infection since the first potential exposure perhaps two weeks ago, but each is being treated with a precautionary 60-day regimen of antibiotics. The researchers believed they were working with syringes full of a dead version of anthrax, hospital spokeswoman Bev Mikalonis said. Instead, they were shipped live anthrax by a lab of the Southern Research Institute in Frederick, Md., Mikalonis said.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 2:44:51 AM ||
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let's see... does Stephen Hatfill work at Southern Research Institute? Is he still a "person of interest"? WTF ever happened to our vaunted FBI's investigation?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2004 11:14 Comments ||
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WTF ever happened to our vaunted FBI's investigation?
D@mn good question, Frank G. Hatfill's background was as easy to explain as a trout in the milk pail.
A US woman and a British man are in custody after calling in a bomb threat to delay her flight to London because she needed time to find her passport, prosecutors said on Wednesday. Hatice Ceylan, an 18-year-old New Jersey high school student, agreed with Ilyas Savas, 33, of London, to call the Embassy Suites hotel near Philadelphia International Airport early on the morning of June 2 to say there were bombs on the flights she was due to take that day to London from Philadelphia via Boston. Both flights were delayed and the passengers taken off while the planes were searched. Ceylan and Savas are charged with calling in a false bomb threat to an airline and each face a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a US$500,000 ($806,000) fine. The two appeared in court on Tuesday and Ceylan has another hearing on Thursday.
Ceylan had bought non-refundable tickets to London and then realised her passport was locked in a building to which she had no access, according to court documents. She was unable to retrieve her passport and never flew to London. Savas, who is married with two children, called in the bomb threat from England and then flew to Philadelphia. He and Ceylan were arrested on June 4 as they attempted to redeem the tickets she had been unable to use two days earlier. Ceylan and Savas were both born in Turkey. Ceylan is a citizen of the United States and Savas is a British citizen. Ceylan was due to be married to another Turkish man in a union arranged by her parents, said David Kozlow, an attorney for Savas. Kozlow said it was unclear whether there was a romantic relationship between the two defendants.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 02:46 ||
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Ceylan was due to be married to another Turkish man in a union arranged by her parents
Well that explains alot.
Posted by: Charles ||
06/12/2004 14:29 Comments ||
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EFL hattip to WND
Facing criticism for methods used to interrogate terrorism suspects held by the United States, President Bush insisted on Thursday he had always ordered questioning methods to remain within the law. "What I have authorized is that we stay within U.S. law," Bush told reporters in Savannah, Georgia, when asked what measures of interrogation he would authorize if the United States had a terror suspect in custody it knew was planning an attack. "Iâm going to say it one more time. In fact, maybe I can be more clear. The instructions went out to our people to adhere to law," said Bush, speaking at the end of a Group of Eight industrial nations summit. "That ought to comfort you. Weâre a nation of law. We adhere to laws. We have laws on the books. You might look at those laws, and that might provide comfort for you. And those were the instructions from me to the government."
The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops, revealed in April, has raised wider questions over the interrogation of prisoners in U.S. custody during a period of heightened concerns over terror attacks. A March 2003 memo by Bush administration lawyers argued that the president, as commander-in-chief, was not tied by U.S. and international laws barring torture. The 56-page memo to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cited the presidentâs "complete authority over the conduct of war," overriding international treaties such as a global treaty banning torture, the Geneva Conventions and a U.S. federal law against torture.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 1:04:36 AM ||
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Mind you, Bush isn't saying much here. (The dispute is about what the law IS here, not whether he's authorized lawlessness.)
Not that the press understands stuff like, you know, the Constitution. Their mangling of the Geneva Convention should tell you all you need to know about journalistic training in law (none).
#2
Actually, you would be surprised about what jouranlists know. Many of them are law school grads, particularly those in the major papers, so they KNOW they law. They want to change the law so Americans can be murdered more easily.
See, when you have an agenda, and you care so little about our national security, you are willing to place military people in mortal danger in order to make political points; you get some sense of what journalists know.
#3
At a couple of the leftist blogs I keep an eye on, they're using this as evidence that it's all a sham, their reasoning being that "no one ever writes a memo or gives an order to make sure that the underlings stay within the law. It's just always assumed that you'll stay within the law."
This is the sort of breath-taking stupidity from the left that makes me guffaw.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2004 12:14 Comments ||
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#4
Actually, you would be surprised about what jouranlists know. Many of them are law school grads, particularly those in the major papers, so they KNOW they law.
What???? It's hard for me to believe this happening. Perhaps, there are a few lawyers who submit articles to WSJ or NYT on legal issues, but I cannot believe there are too many full time journalists who graduated from law school.
Posted by: rex ||
06/12/2004 13:01 Comments ||
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#5
I've got there torture threatment right here! It's Chirac on video eating cheeseburgers (read: weaselburger).
Posted by: Capt America ||
06/12/2004 19:05 Comments ||
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#6
Rex: there are a handful of lawyers in the newspaper newsrooms. But most of them cover the courts and legal system.
EFL - hattip to WND
The State Department acknowledged Thursday it was wrong in reporting terrorism declined worldwide last year, a finding that was used to boost one of President Bushâs top foreign policy claims â success in countering terror. Instead, both the number of incidents and the toll in victims increased sharply, the department said. Statements by senior administration officials claiming success were based "on the facts as we had them at the time; the facts that we had were wrong," department spokesman Richard Boucher said. The report, issued in April, said attacks had declined last year to 190, the lowest level in 34 years, and dropped 45% since 2001, Bushâs first year as president. The State Department is now working to determine the correct figures. Among the mistakes, Boucher said, was that only part of 2003 was taken into account... Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said this week the administration had refused to address his contention that the findings were manipulated for political purposes. Waxman had written Powell asking for an explanation. Boucher said a reply to Waxman was in preparation. "We wanted to make sure that we give the congressman the best and most accurate picture of what we know and whatâs going on as we can," he said. An unlikely conspiracy to doctor gata that no one will read. Waxman is a genius - he has his nose to the ground and is on the trail. He might just find the dead squirrel I shoveled into the bushes - good eats.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 12:51:26 AM ||
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Waxman is a genius - he has his nose to the ground and is on the trail.
That probably explains why the little turd looks the way he does.
#2
And Robert Novack documented the manipulation of economic and employment data by the Clinton Administration during the election year 2000. I'm shocked, shocked I say to discover.....
Posted by: Don ||
06/12/2004 8:48 Comments ||
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#3
"Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said this week the administration had refused to address his contention that the findings were manipulated for someone else's political purposes."
and yes, what's up with his face? Looks like he chased parked cars as a child
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2004 11:21 Comments ||
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Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols was again spared the death penalty Friday when jurors who convicted him of 161 murder counts deadlocked over his sentence, denying state prosecutors the execution that was the main reason for bringing the case. Just as a federal jury deadlocked six years earlier, state jurors could not agree on Nichols' punishment for helping executed bomber Timothy McVeigh blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people. Nichols is set to be sentenced Aug. 9 by Judge Steven Taylor, who is required by law to sentence Nichols to life in prison. State jurors announced they could not reach a verdict after deliberating for about 19 1/2 hours over three days. "No one should feel that they have let anybody down," Taylor said. "This case was not about winning or losing. This case is about justice."
Correct, and Nichols spending the rest of his life in a super-max is just fine.
The deadlock was a blow to state prosecutors and victims' relatives. "It's sad that he still gets to stay alive, and everybody else didn't have a choice on whether they would leave this world," said Debbie Miller, who was injured in the explosion. State prosecutors brought the case, which has cost $3.9 million in defense attorneys' fees alone, after Nichols was sentenced to life in prison without parole following federal convictions for the deaths of eight federal agents in the bombing. The state convictions were for the 160 other victims of the bombing, and one fetus whose mother died in the blast. Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane, who made the decision to pursue the state case against Nichols, denied that the prosecution was conducted solely for the purpose of getting a death penalty verdict. He said it was important that Nichols be convicted of killing all the bombing victims, and that the state counts serve as an insurance policy if the federal counts are overturned. "This case has always been about 161 men, women and children and an unborn baby having the same rights to their day in court as eight federal law enforcement officers," he said. "They've now had their day in court."
Can't argue with that.
I don't know, Terry is alive and they are still dead.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2004 12:27:06 AM ||
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Life in Super Max ain't gonna be fun,alot of those cons have kids and do not take kindly to people who abuse or murder children.
During his years at the United Nations, monitoring sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein after the first Gulf war, critics called Michael Soussan a baby killer. One said the oil-for-food programme administered by the UN amounted to "overseeing genocide". To Mr Soussanâs dismay, the most vocal critics worked alongside him at the UN. The genocide charge was levelled by an assistant secretary general in charge of humanitarian work in Iraq. His colleagues blamed the Security Council - especially the United States and Britain - for the suffering of Iraqis, ignoring evidence that Saddam was stealing food from his own peopleâs mouths.
They could hardly ignore the wickedness of Saddamâs regime. Foreign UN staff could sense the terror in Iraqis they met, and saw for themselves the gilded excesses of the Baâathist elite. But somehow that wickedness was taken as a given, then promptly smothered in a warm soup of moral relativism. "We have a notion of sovereignty at the UN that doesnât distinguish between governments that deserve sovereignty and those that do not. And that really skews our moral compass," Mr Soussan told The Telegraph. "[My colleagues] devoted most of their moral outrage towards the United States and the UK," he said.
The oil-for-food programme was the largest humanitarian project in UN history. Following the fall of Saddam, evidence has emerged indicating fraud and corruption on an equally historic scale. Mr Soussan, a programme co-ordinator for the programme from 1997 until 2000, when he resigned, recently testified before a US congressional panel investigating the scandal, one of several probes under way in Washington, New York and Baghdad. Mr Soussan, a Dane, found many senior UN staff did not believe in their own mission. "To them, the containment of Saddam Hussein was not a priority. They saw things through a humanitarian lens: that some countries are dictatorships, well, so be it, and the Iraqi people deserve better than being treated this way." Divisions within the international community were visible, even in the UN canteen in Baghdad. The weapons inspectors of Unscom sat at one end, mocking humanitarian officials as "bunny-huggers". Oil-for-food workers sat at the other, denouncing Unscom staff as "cowboys". Mr Soussan recalled humanitarian colleagues wearing T-shirts, bearing the accusing slogan "Unscum". "It would have been funny if it wasnât so tragic," he said.
Mr Soussan does not deny the pain caused by sanctions from the first Gulf war in 1991 to 1996, before oil-for-food sales began. A quarter of a million children died, by conservative estimates. But during those five years, it was Saddam who refused offers to sell his oil and import humanitarian goods under UN supervision. "[He was] banking that images of dying babies would eventually force the international community to lift the sanctions altogether," Mr Soussan told Congress. By 2000, there was no limit on the amount of oil Saddam was allowed to sell, and few limits on the civilian goods he was allowed to buy. Iraq was under sanctions only "to the extent that they couldnât import military goods", he said.
Yet still Saddam claimed sanctions were killing 5,000 infants a month, parading tiny coffins in the streets to ram the point home. "The UN did not stand up to this propaganda. It cowered in the face of this notion that the sanctions were killing Iraqi babies," Mr Soussan said. UN staff did not speak out when Saddam refused to buy high protein foods recommended by UN experts, or spent oil-for-food millions on sports stadiums, or broadcasting equipment for his propaganda machine. The UN turned a blind eye to signs that Saddam was bribing cronies at home and abroad with black market oil vouchers, and was skimming billions from funds meant for food and medicine, demanding secret, 10 per cent "kickbacks" on humanitarian contracts. The UN recently claimed it "learned of the 10 per cent kickback scheme only after the end of major combat operations" in 2003. A lie, said Mr Soussan, recalling the hapless Swedish company that called in 2000, seeking UN help after being asked to pay kickbacks. The Swedesâ plea was quickly lost in red tape and inter-office turf wars. After a "Kafka-esque" flurry of internal memos, the Swedes were told to complain to their own government. It did not help that, inside the Security Council, France, Russia and China openly opposed sanctions, threatening doom for any UN official tempted to blow the whistle on Saddamâs cheating. "Most high level UN employees need to be on good terms with key countries in the Security Council if they want to have a career."
Now top UN officials are under investigation. Mr Soussan hopes the shock will force a major debate on how to deal with rogue regimes. "The oil-for-food programme was a deal with the devil. The problem is, that we didnât act as if this was the devil, we acted as if this was a legitimate regime," he said. If such major questions have to wait, a little more transparency would help, for starters. If the UN had just stood up once, held a high-level press conference, and said, âWe think the Iraqi government is cheating its peopleâ, then the UN would not be in the mess it is now," he said. "It would then be an accuser, rather than the accused."
Posted by: tipper ||
06/12/2004 10:37:11 AM ||
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The United Nations suspended a construction project in Jenin refugee camp after Palestinian gunmen threatened crews rebuilding houses destroyed by Israeli forces, a U.N. official said Thursday.
A culture that glorifies a lack of self-control in its finest hour...
Many residents of the Jenin camp are complaining that their new houses, replacing those destroyed in Israeli incursions, are not big enough, said Sami Mshasha of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which aids Palestinian refugees. In the most recent attack, five Palestinians from one family barged into the U.N. office in Jenin on Tuesday and opened fire with M-16 and Kalashnikov assault rifles, said Fahri Turkman, a Palestinian lawmaker. No one was hurt, but it was the third such attack on U.N. personnel in the past six months. "We decided yesterday to freeze the construction until we can see that these irresponsible acts will not happen again," Mshasha said. U.N. officials complained to local leaders, who promised to rein in the militants, he said.
'Nother words, construction is frozen until Hell is, too...
One gunman, who identified himself as Abu Maher, said he took action because the house promised to him was only half the size of the one Israeli forces destroyed. He said dissatisfaction in the camp was widespread, with some residents saying the wait for a new home was too long.
Time for an intifadeh against the UN, I guess...
In more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, Palestinian police have become increasingly ineffective - particularly in the West Bank, where Israel does not allow Palestinian officers to patrol in uniform or with arms. Filling the void are gunmen who often resort to violence to settle personal scores. The Jenin camp, one of the most militant in the West Bank, was the scene of a fierce battle in April 2002 that left 52 Palestinian gunmen and 23 Israeli soldiers dead. Israeli bulldozers moving down the narrow streets shaved the fronts off many buildings, leaving them uninhabitable. Hundreds of homes were reduced to rubble. The Jenin raid was part of "Operation Defensive Shield," launched after 29 Israelis were killed in a suicide bombing carried out by a militant from the camp.
Not that it had anything to do with the reasons for cleaning the place out, mind you...
As part of the reconstruction, the U.N. agency is building 430 houses with $27 million from the United Arab Emirates, Mshasha said. Seventy apartments have been built so far, and more than 1,000 damaged houses have been repaired. At least nine alleyways have been widened to ensure that new homes lining them are not damaged by Israeli armored vehicles in the future, a U.N. worker said.
Widen the street, the houses aren't going to be as deep...
Mshasha denied this, saying the roads were widened to improve the quality of life in the cramped camp by allowing for two-way traffic and sidewalks. Whatever the reason, many residents are unhappy with the smaller new houses. Raed Karawi said the agency gave him an apartment of 600 square feet. "This is not enough for me and my wife to live. We will have children soon. This is not fair," he said, threatening to buy 20 old cars and block the new roads.
Yeah. That oughta make things better.
Not everyone is complaining, however. Near the edge of the camp is a row of gleaming white buildings, one of them the three-story home of the 12-member Aweid family. Ali and Hind Aweid said Thursday that they also received new rose-print sofa and other furniture. "The truth is that it is even nicer than before, even twice or three times better," said Hind Aweid, 52. The Aweids lived in a rented apartment until their new home was completed late last year.
Posted by: tipper ||
06/12/2004 6:55:00 AM ||
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sorry tipper - repost
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2004 9:56 Comments ||
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One soldier was killed and two others were injured in a bomb explosion in the southern Philippineisland of Jolo on Saturday, the military said. They were trying to defuse a bomb, made from an 81mm mortar shell, near a restaurant when it suddenly went off, the military said. The military said the Abu Sayyaf group might have planted the bomb to sow terror to ruin the countryâs Independence Day celebration on Saturday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/12/2004 12:25:59 PM ||
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Several members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network are still in Iranian prisons, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said today. ââThey are still in Iranian prisons and we are on constant contact with Saudi Arabia in this regard,ââ Kharrazi told reporters. Some of them have already been handed over to their home countries during the last two years. The Iranian minister did not clarify how many of them are still jailed in Iran. ââDespite the will for cooperation, we still put priority on our own national security and decide by ourselves what to do with them,ââ Kharrazi said. Tehran also rejected the possibility that the detained al-Qaeda members would be swapped for Iraq-based members of the Iranian rebel group Peopleâs Mujaheddin (MKO).
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/12/2004 4:39:05 PM ||
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âIran will not give up rights to the peaceful use of atomic energyâ
Saturday, June 12, 2004 Posted: 1652 GMT (0052 HKT)
(CNN) -- Iran has rejected any further restrictions on its nuclear program and demanded that it be bombed flat recognized as a nuclear nation with the right to pursue "the peaceful use of atomic energy."
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi accused France, Britain and Germany -- who have drawn up a tough new document that accuses Iran of not cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency -- of getting real for a change bowing to pressure from the United States. "Iran has to be leveled and de-mullahized taken seriously," Kharrazi said. "Iran is hell bent on getting attacked powerful and has to be recognized as a renegade responsible member of the atomic club, this is inevitable. Iran will not give up its rights to be glassed and Windexed the peaceful use of atomic energy as well as its right to supply nuclear bombs fuel to its resident terrorists power plants."
The 35-nation board of governors of the nuclear watchdog group IAEA is to lunch meet Monday in Vienna, Austria, and the British-German-French document will be on the agenda. The document asks Iran to please stop uranium conversion at a facility near Isfahan and to reverse a decision to build a heavy-water reactor near Arak. "If Europe, under pressure from the U.S., wants to concentrate on minor issues at the meeting of the International Atomic Agency on Monday and tries to obstruct the existing cooperation between Iran and the agency (IAEA), it will just show they are finally ready to nuke you idiots not able to operate independently," Kharrazi said. Is anyone elseâs "humiliation" meter beginning to wiggle here? The way Kharrazi says "not able to operate independently" sure makes it sound a lot like a testicular issue as opposed to a case of immediate peril (which it is).
Earlier this month, a classified IAEA report on Iranâs nuclear program said "good progress" is being made toward reaching a conclusion about Iranâs nuclear program. It compliments Tehran for its cooperation, but also notes that Iranian officials have sometimes lied through their snaggled teeth not been forthcoming with information and other times sought to thwart delay inspections. The 21-page report also cast doubt on the Islamic republicâs explanation for how centrifuge parts were processing became contaminated with highly enriched uranium. Iranian officials had said the contamination was from a really, really big batch of hot stuff imported parts from Pakistan, but ElBaradei sez no problemo the report by the IAEA says that is "unlikely."
"The information provided to date by Iran has not been adequate to resolve sh!t the complex matter, and Iran should make every effort to avoid getting turned into a parking lot provide any additional information about the origin of the components," said the report, which was obtained by CNN. The inspectors found that the enrichment level on the centrifuge parts was at 36 percent, which indicates Iran either has been importing nuclear material or has been enriching uranium itself, both of which Tehran has sought ardently denied, said a Western diplomat close to the IAEA.
The enrichment level found on the Iranian centrifuge parts is typically found at Russian nuclear reactors. Enriched uranium is a key component in making a mullah get one up nuclear bomb. The report, titled "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran" was compiled for the June 14 meeting of the IAEA board of governors. Washington has accused Tehran of pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program, but Iran has rejected those allegations, saying its nuclear program is only for killing all the Jews generating electricity.
#3
The line about "the peaceful use of atomic energy." would be much more believable if the mullahs had not already threated to destroy Israel the moment the get the bomb.
#4
Zenster--good post, even the strike-outs!
(I suppose your style just grows on a person. Hope you were paying attention this week about President Reagan and how wonderful a President he was, because President Bush is his direct heir and is just like him in all the important ways.
We're going to make a Bush voter out of you yet!)
Posted by: Jen ||
06/12/2004 19:01 Comments ||
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#5
Jen, for once I'll keep it short and sweet with a simple, thank you.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 11:48 ||
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I'm sure the outcry from the Ein-El-Hellhole "activists" will cause Sharon to release Barghouti....after all, the Cycle of Seething⢠must be slowed!
/heavy sarcasm
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2004 12:00 Comments ||
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National Liberal Party President Dory Chamoun said Friday that Syria has not yet delivered on its promises to withdraw from this country.
"I mean, it's been 30 years now..."
Commenting on Syrian President Bashar Assad's recent remarks saying that Syria would go along with whoever the Lebanese people choose as their president, the party accused Syria of saying something and doing another with regard to the withdrawal issue. "By linking the Syrian Army's presence in Lebanon with ... peace in the Middle East, Assad has made Lebanon, which is basically the only remaining Arab military front, a hostage by suffering alone the consequences of the confrontation with Israel," the NLP said. The NLP statement said that Assad's statements about Lebanon's presidential race and his need to see Lebanon on an equal footing with Syria amounted to an interference in Lebanon's internal affairs. "Syrian hegemony and patronage have created dependent and subordinate institutions in a way that Lebanon has been masquerading as an independent state while in reality its political and economic sectors are under the control of Syria," it said.
Hey! We've noticed that!
The party said that it was unacceptable to demand international legitimacy to be applied to Iraq and Palestine, while at the same timlutions [sic!] regarding the Blue Line and Shebaa Farms. "It is equally unacceptable to protest against foreign intervention in Iraq while overlooking open foreign (Syrian) intervention in Lebanon's domestic issues. In light of Assad's statements, we reiterate our demand for a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon that has been footing the bill on behalf of all Arabs and is no more capable of continuing on the same path. ... We also stress the need for a healthy relation with Syria," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 11:47 ||
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"By linking the Syrian Army's presence in Lebanon with ... peace in the Middle East, Assad has made Lebanon, which is basically the only remaining Arab military front, a hostage by suffering alone the consequences of the confrontation with Israel," the NLP said.
Thank you to Mr. Brahimi on that one.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 11:58 Comments ||
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EFL
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "We would certainly welcome any real willingness to move forward on peace with Israel and peace in the region." But, he said, "it is hard to reconcile those kind of statements with support for violent groups that are trying to kill the dreams of the Palestinians and undermine any hopes for peace." Specifically, Boucher continued, "we have been very concerned about Syrian material and other support, financial and otherwise, for groups that engage in terrorism, particularly Hezbollah"... Boucher said "we want to see something from Syria other than periodic statements." Syria is the new Libya - evil and duplicitous, yet powerless and irrelevant.
Does Assad want to be the new Q-man or the new Saddam-in-a-spiderhole?
I don't think he's decided yet.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 12:59:05 AM ||
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Snakes bite.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/12/2004 3:28 Comments ||
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Snakes bite..... Only if you get too close.
Posted by: dorf ||
06/12/2004 9:24 Comments ||
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#3
Chickens run around after you cut their heads off.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 12:32 Comments ||
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Dorf -
"Snakes bite..... Only if you get too close."
That's why we have standoff weapons.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/12/2004 21:19 Comments ||
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VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran demanded changes on Friday to a tough draft resolution that rebukes Tehran for failing to cooperate fully with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, whose board votes on the text next week. How dare you! We are Holy Men! See these Black Turbans?
The United States says Iranâs nuclear program is a front to build an atomic bomb, but Tehran denies this. The draft resolution will be debated at a meeting of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) beginning on Monday. Lying Lies by Liars!
The draft deplores Iranâs failure to cooperate fully with a U.N. investigation into suspicions that Tehran might have a covert nuclear weapons program. Diplomats said Iran wants sections cut or changes to soften the wording. "The draft reflects American and some European countriesâ stances," Iranâs chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani told Iranian state television. "If the board does not make necessary changes, it means the Europeans are ignoring their commitments," Rohani said. "It will influence Iranâs decision (on cooperation)." Oops? Did he say âcommitmentsâ? Why I believe he did... Odd word... [sniff, sniff] Do I smell a deal?
But several diplomats said the Iranians were pleased the text contained no trigger mechanism for the 35-nation IAEA board to report Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions in the event Iranâs cooperation remained sluggish. Whew! So, since Elbaradei is still âboughtâ, we can play rope-a-dope some more.
Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to generating electricity and wants a softening of the draft to reflect that. The text was sent to IAEA board members earlier this week. Of course! Our oil reserves are only good for another 90 years - we must plan ahead! And besides, we are Holy Men so you must believe whatever lame shit we serve up.
Diplomats said Iran also seeks the removal of a section that calls on Iran to end operation of a uranium conversion facility and reverse its decision to begin constructing a heavy water research reactor that would produce weapons-useable plutonium. No, no - we want heavy water for our, um, Olympic swimming pool. It helps our atheletes train. Yeah, thatâs it.
"THEY WILL REGRET THIS DECISION"
Iranâs influential ex-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran that the draft appeared to be the result of a European-U.S. conspiracy. "The draft resolution shows that the Europeans and Americans have agreed on one point -- which is that Iran should be totally deprived its peaceful nuclear activities," Rafsanjani said. Itâs not fair! We wanna be somebody - only nukes get respect!
"If it is true, they will regret this decision. We assure them that Iran will not abandon its right," he added. It is a right! Why? Cuz, um, cuz it just is!
A non-aligned diplomat told Reuters Iran would have trouble convincing the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to soften the text, given it is based almost verbatim on a report on Iran prepared by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei -- although Rohani denied this. More Lies! (I though we already bought this guy!?!??)
"We canât be seen to be contradicting (ElBaradeiâs) report," said the diplomat. European and NAM states make up the majority of the board. Curses!
Russia, which plans to build a $800-million atomic power plant for Iran at Bushehr, praised Tehran but warned it could scrap the project if Iran failed to cooperate with the IAEA. "Russia will abandon its work in Bushehr if Iran refuses to be transparent or violates any IAEA requirements," Russiaâs Interfax news agency quoted President Vladimir Putin as telling reporters at this weekâs G8 summit on Sea Island. Yes, we support the IAEA and the UN and Intâl Law and all of that shit important stuff. wink, wink, nudge, nudge
"But so far it has not happened, and Iran is fulfilling all the demands. So there is no need to give up our cooperation." Keep the money coming, boys!
Further undermining Iranâs support on the board are revelations that Tehranâs advanced P-2 centrifuge program may have been planned on a massive scale and not as a tiny "research and development" project as Iran insists, diplomats said. Must be a problem with the bereaucracy - we told them only to build one plant - we have 16 you say? Wow, somebodyâs gonna catch hell for this...
This could generate enough weapons grade uranium for several nuclear warheads a year, one diplomat said. You shoulda bought me, too. The ThugMullocracy is dancing as fast as it can. Somebody has convinced them that they canât really be held accountable and, should that happen, it would be too late - theyâd have their precious nuke and their manhoods would swell to such proportions as to amaze the world. Uh, huh. Right. Tick... Tock...
Posted by: .com ||
06/12/2004 12:41:00 AM ||
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The only functional solution is to bomb Iran now, bomb them fast and bomb them thoroughly.
Do we really need a redux of North Korea? That is precisely what we are going to get. Europe and Russia be d@mned. Just as with the Oil-for-Food program, these putative allies have far too many financial fatted calves at stake to possibly make an impartial decision. ElBaradei's toothless IAEA has all the credibility and authority of Al Sharpton.
Most ironic of all is that once the warheads and missiles are mated, Europe (along with Israel) will be the first to find themselves in Iran's crosshairs. It is the exact same blindness they exhibit about the sales of advanced arms to communist China. At least with the PRC they are resorting to the pretence of human rights agreements. With Iran, there is no such thing, only obsfucation and obstruction.
We also need some isotope samples from Pakistan post haste in order to better determine exactly where the traces of highly enriched material in Iran's centrifuges came from. It is critical to correctly distinguish points of origin so that we will know who gets glassed and Windexed if Iran attempts to launch even a single nuclear attack, be it an actual device or just a dirty bomb.
A nuclear Iran is everyone's worst nightmare. It goes beyond all credibility that so few are willing to admit this simple fact. A devastating response in kind must await not only Iran, but those who facilitated their nuclear program.
The looming crisis in Iran almost single-handedly justifies America's continuing presence in Iraq.
#3
Interesting situation! Either the last case of a state blatantly flouting 'International Law', or the start of every dingbat dictorship arming itself with nuclear weapons - Imagine ZimBobwe, the Paleos and Sudan with nuclear weapons. I suspect the Israelis will resolve this situation for us.
Posted by: Phil B ||
06/12/2004 6:53 Comments ||
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#4
A little more detail from a press conference...
#5
Either the last case of a state blatantly flouting 'International Law', or the start of every dingbat dictorship arming itself with nuclear weapons
I concur, Phil_B. Iran already demonstrated their intention, nay outright agenda, of flouting International Law when they violated international soil and took over the American embassy.
There is zero difference between Iranian foreign policy doctrine and the goals of Mufti Shamzai:
Shamzai was the principal exponent of International Islamism which holds, firstly, that the loyalty of a Muslim is first to his religion and then only to the country of which he is resident or a citizen; secondly, that Muslims do not recognise national frontiers and hence have the right and the obligation to wage jihad anywhere to protect their religion; and, thirdly, that the Muslims have the right and the religious obligation to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction to protect their religion, if necessary ...
If Europe is so blind as to ignore this blatant threat to global stability, America must not be. One can only imagine the contingency planning going on in Israel at this time.
Britain, Germany and France penned a tough draft resolution this week deploring Iran's failure to cooperate fully with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"Deplore?" Like they "deplore" terrorism? What is it with their "hand wringing" mentality? ElBaradei is unable to recognize his own native Egypt's covert nuclear weapons program. What chance is there that he will take adequate action against another Arab country's attempts to build an atomic bomb? The only page ElBaradei has lifted from Egypt is d'Nile and its breadth is equalled only by the torrent of sludge we are expected to gulp down while these IAEA dilettants prink about.
As a simple thought experiemnt, try to imagine even one possible benefit (save for the mullahs) of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. The regional instability and potential for leakage of fissile material to terrorists are both intolerable. One need only examine the constant tension between Pakistan and India to gain insight into what awaits the Middle East.
As with Pakistan, there is also every chance that Iran will seek to become the world's new nuclear black marketplace. How would renewed proliferation of nuclear technology to all Islamic nations benefit global peace? France and Russia's naked pursuit of financial gain at the cost of turning a blind eye to Iran's nuclear aspirations is simple diplomatic bankruptcy.
I bet they wish Clinton was still in power to give them the same deal he gave NoK
Posted by: Capt America ||
06/12/2004 19:09 Comments ||
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#8
It wouldn't surprise me if the mullahs were actually more insane than Kimmie; after all, they have a "religion" backing their beliefs, whereas he only has his ego. They have ego, they have image, they have humiliation, and they have Islam - a really, really bad combination. They've stated their intentions numerous times, they're stalling for more time, and they're doing this in the belief that they're spreading the word of some mystical being. I don't normally like to push for war except if it's for a really, really good reason, such as liberation from an insane, spittle-emitting, criminal dictator, or the like - but in this case, I say get 'em now. Bomb 'em hard, but above all, bomb 'em fast.
A special-ops team taking this thing out from the ground might not be a bad idea, either. They don't have a right to nuclear weapons - not because nuclear capability is some sort of "club," but because the ones who want in are not going to be using it wisely. They want the power, and they don't care what the consequences are. And they need to be taken out before they do the same to us.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
06/12/2004 19:15 Comments ||
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#9
Kimmie and the NORKS are using the nuke stuff as a stick, but mainly they are using the nukes and related stuff for foreign exchange. It seems to me that the only thing that the Norks would have going for them for foreign exchange otherwise would be raw materials.
Iran, in contrast, is blessed with great oil and gas wealth, plus minerals. They have plenty of resources with which to creat a comfortable and stable life for their people, even they live on some rather lively geological faults. However, the black turbans are ideology driven, so they deny the wealth to their people, and instead, put their resources into uranium concentration technology, as well as nuclear reactors, with no real purpose other than to intimidate or eliminate their neighbors.
I agree with the Doctor. Living with the status quo on Iran and hoping for the best is not a proactive stragegy. The only thing I say is that we better have our ducks in line before we give the olde hornets' nest a bat with a 2x4. Things can go to sh*t quickly.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/12/2004 19:27 Comments ||
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From Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders called today for the immediate release of Abbas Kakavand, who was imprisoned on 7 June for allegedly disseminating "false news" in articles he wrote for the website gooya.com since February after leaving the conservative newspaper Ressalat. His articles criticised corruption and the political payments received by many conservative leaders. .... Charges were brought against Kakavand at a hearing of the Tehran criminal court on 7 June. The court ordered his immediate imprisonment when he was unable to pay bail of 100 million rials (about 11,600 euros). His articles criticising political corruption had appeared in both reformist dailies and on gooya.com, a very popular site which the authorities blocked along with other reformist sites for several days before the February legislative elections. He was first summoned by the judicial authorities on 3 April. On the day of his 7 June court hearing, gooya.com published an interview in which he accused most of the conservative political leaders and members of the overwhelmingly conservative parliament of "stealing from the tills of the Imam Khomeini foundation" to finance their electoral campaigns. Hadad Adel, the currently parliamentary speaker, was named.
The Iranian regime censors thousands of websites considered to be "un-Islamic." It also harasses and jails online journalists. But the Internet is flourishing in Iran, online political debates are impassioned and weblogs are spreading fast. ... Now with a total of 13 journalists detained, Iran is the biggest prison for the press in the Middle East.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
06/12/2004 12:27:20 AM ||
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A top leader of Osama bin Ladenâs al Qaeda network, in a purported audio tape aired on Saturday, criticized a proposal for reform in the Middle East as a U.S. ploy and said change will only come through "resistance." Al Arabiya television broadcast the brief recording which it said was from bin Ladenâs deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, an Egyptian militant who Washington says played a major role in the September 2001 attacks on U.S. cities. "America has nothing to do with reform, what it really wants is to replace the current regimes with new ones," the voice on the tape said.
If that ain't reform, what is?
"These supposed American reforms will not bring us independence or dignity ... the real reform process starts from within us, with planting the spirit of resistance in our souls, in the souls of our children and of future generations."
"Independence. Dignity. Those two words mean only one thing: a caliph, with a jewelled turban and dancing girls, dispensing justice from his golden throne, ruling as the representative of Gawd..."
With Zawahri as the Grand Vizar, standing right behind the Caliph and making sure he does everything he's told, of course...
It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the tape, but it appeared to be recorded after Washingtonâs Greater Middle East Initative was leaked out in February. Bin Laden has vowed to topple most Arab leaders, which he sees as traitors and lackeys of the United States. The United States and other G8 members heavily rewrote much of the initiative during a summit last week, and rebranded it as the Partnership for Progress and a Common Future with the Region of the Broader Middle East and North Africa. Arab governments saw the original proposals as part of an intrusive and paternalistic U.S. plan to reorganize the region to suit U.S. and Israeli interests. Many Arab leaders had slammed it and shunned the G8 summit in the United States because the proposal was on the agenda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/12/2004 12:06:31 PM ||
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Funny, Chirac made a similiar statement at the G-8.
Posted by: Capt America ||
06/12/2004 19:06 Comments ||
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From World on the Web
Investigators of the 3/11 Terrorist attack on Spain have found that the leader of the radical Islamic cell was a drug dealer who traded a load of hashish for the explosives that killed 191 people. Spanish authorities are finding that the al-Qaeda-related terrorists are also Âtangled up in organized crime, the underworld of robbery, counterfeiting, fraud, drug dealing, and murder. How can that be? A Muslim who steals is to have his hand cut off. Islam forbids the use of drugs. How can there be an alliance between fundamentalist Islam and organized crime?
The answer, reports Sebastian Rotella of the Los Angeles Times, is the existence of a particular Islamic sect: the Takfirs. Nearly all of todayâs Âradical Islamic groups trace their lineage to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in the 1960s. One offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood was an order called the Takfir wal Hijra. The name means "Excommunication and Exile." ÂOutwardly, members appear to be excommunicated from Islam, conforming to Western ways and even Western vices. But inwardly, they are devout Muslims in exile in a strange land. This split between their outward behavior and their inner piety is justified, according to Takfir theology, as a tactic of jihad.
"Takfiris accept drinking and vice and encourage short hair, fashionable dress, and an outwardly Western lifestyle as a holy warriorâs disguise against detection," explains ÂMr. Rotella. "In the Takfir creed of outward conformity and internal exile, crime is a means of waging war against the West." ....
The biggest breeding ground for Takfiri is the underworld of Northern Africa and Europe, with its vast underclass of Muslim immigrants. The major center of Takfiri evangelism, if one can call it that, is prison. .... Takfir is spreading beyond the European immigrant community. Reportedly, a leader of the Mafia in Naples has converted to Islam. According to an Italian prosecutor, he has set up an operation with terrorists trading arms for drugs. ....
But those who wage jihad, holy war, against non-Muslims can have their sins forgiven. Dying as a "martyr" while killing the enemies of Allah is about the only way a person can be assured of going to paradise. For a criminal weighed down by his bad deeds, knowing that he faces certain damnation, the gospel of jihad will appear as very good news indeed. And he doesnât even have to change his ways. Rather, he can feel self-righteous, even as he retains his vices, giving his life meaning as he strikes at the infidels by stealing from them, selling them drugs, or blowing them up. ...
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
06/12/2004 9:45:05 AM ||
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the muslim brotherhood was founded in 1928 for openers--and it isn't just prisoners that go for it--imho atta was one
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
06/13/2004 1:28 Comments ||
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Pakistan has been quietly trying to purge al Qaeda supporters from its armed forces since December, when Osama bin Ladenâs network made two attempts to kill President Pervez Musharraf, according to Pakistani and U.S. officials.
That's a dangerous project, almost as dangerous as leaving them there...
Defense sources in Pakistan say military intelligence is studying the files of all officers in the rank of colonel or above to determine whether they ever associated with radical religious groups. Those uncovered are being quietly shown the door, the sources say. They add that Gen. Musharraf intends to "cleanse" the army before this December, when he must retire from the military and plans to become a civilian president. He is also said to be consulting lawyers to determine whether he can remain in the army despite signing an agreement with opposition parties to retire before Dec. 31.
My guess is that he can't...
The sources say several senior generals from the era of Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq â who seized power after a military coup in the late 1970s and died in 1988 â are expected to retire by March of next year, which would make it easier for Gen. Musharraf to liberalize the armed forces. Gen. Musharraf also is taking steps to reform his military spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Western diplomatic sources in Islamabad told UPI that, on Washingtonâs advice, Gen. Musharraf has made a major change in ISI rules. Previously, some officers were allowed to stay for years in the intelligence organization, where in the course of their work they developed links to various political and religious groups. Under the new arrangement, no officer will be allowed to stay in ISI for more than three years and there will be no second tours of duty with military intelligence.
Better to dump the domestic military intelligence branch and create a civilian agency from scratch.
With 520,000 troops, Pakistanâs army is slightly larger than that of the United States â not counting the Army Reserve and National Guard â and continues to be the strongest force in Pakistan. It has ruled the country for more than half the years since 1947, and even when not in power, the army continues to have a major influence on national policies. Before Gen. Zia, the army observed rules left by the British, who strictly discouraged religious influence in the armed forces. One of the groups Gen. Zia allowed to preach to the army is Tableeghi Jamaat â the Party of Islamic Preachers. Tableeghi Jamaat does not directly participate in politics or preach among non-Muslims. Instead, it prepares Muslims for "a pure Islamic way of life," and its definition of this is very close to that of Afghanistanâs former Taliban rulers.
That makes it a domestic fifth column at the moment...
Most Tableeghi leaders come from the Deobandi school of Sunni Islam... The doctrineâs central idea is that Islamic societies have been eclipsed by European or Western culture because Muslims turned away from the original teachings of their religion in their haste to Westernize themselves. The Deobandi solution is for Muslims to return to the purity and austerity of their desert origins.
Empirical evidence says that's not the way to do it, but who am I to argue with learned theologians?
Fugitive former Afghan leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and other Taliban leaders, and their teachers in Pakistan, are also adherents of Deobandi doctrine. Many in Pakistan believe this is why so many who listen to Tableeghi sermons join extremist religious parties. "Tableeghi supporters are naturally inclined to support religious extremists because they subscribe to the same concept of creating a pure Islamic society," said Rasheed Khalid, who teaches politics at Islamabadâs Quaid-e-Azam University.
Whether it works or not...
Gen. Musharraf identified the al Qaeda kingpin who recruited volunteers to kill him as Amjad Farooqi, a Deobandi like the Taliban and the Tableeghis. The Pakistani president said Farooqi also organized the murder of captive American journalist Daniel Pearl, killed in Pakistan more than two years ago. Investigators in Pakistan say Farooqi exploited Tableeghi Jamaat preaching connections to enter the Pakistani army. They say he first befriended officers attending Tableeghi meetings, then was able to create a network in Pakistanâs army and air force. Gen. Musharraf, however, insists he is "200 percent confident" that senior army officers were not involved with the extremists.
I'm 200% certain the Easter Bunny is going to bring me Patty Ann Brown next year...
"But it remains to be seen if the extremists have only infiltrated the lower ranks or have sympathizers among commissioned officers as well," said political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi. UPI recently reported that one of the suicide bombers who tried to kill Gen. Musharraf last Christmas was a Pakistani army captain, Mohammed Jamil. His severed head was found near one of the two vehicles used in the Dec. 25 attack, but only recently identified.
"Hey! Y'know what? I ain't seen Jamil around lately! Y'don't suppose...?"
He was among several hundred Pakistani regulars serving with the Taliban before September 11, who were repatriated to Pakistan under an agreement with Afghanistan. The ISI interrogated Jamil on his return from Afghanistan and declared him clean, but the captain later joined the radical Jaish-e-Mohammed and recruited volunteers for the suicide bombings intended to kill Gen. Musharraf. Pakistani investigators say Farooqi and Jamil worked together on the plan to kill Gen. Musharraf. Farooqiâs connections can be gauged from the fact that although Gen. Musharraf has personally supervised efforts to catch him, he remains at large, hiding among sympathizers.
I notice Farooqi didn't have his head blown off. Too important to the movement, I guess...
Gen. Musharraf conceded this when he said in a recent television interview: "We came close to catching this mastermind several times, but he [always] escapes."
Funny thing, that. No, wait. Maybe "funny" isn't the word I'm looking for...
Farooqi, from Toba Tek Singh in remote Punjab province, joined the militant Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami as a teenager. In 1992, the group sent Farooqi, then 18, to Afghanistan for training in weapons and tactics. Farooqi fought with the Taliban against the rival Northern Alliance. In Afghanistan, he is said to have met Osama bin Laden and become a trainer at an al Qaeda camp. One of the al Qaeda leaders Farooqi was in close contact with was Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, reputedly al Qaedaâs No. 3 man and chief planner of the September 11 attacks. Investigators say the two plotted to abduct and kill Mr. Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, in early 2002. Farooqi provided the militants who guarded Mr. Pearl in Karachi, they say. Farooqi is also said to have had close ties to Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the British-born militant convicted of plotting Mr. Pearlâs abduction and slaying.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/12/2004 12:11:15 PM ||
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Two comments:
1. I don't think it's a great idea to limit military or civilian intelligence duty to three year terms. There is a need for career spooks. It can take three years just to learn the ropes...
2. I feel kinda dumb for admitting this, but this is the first I've heard about low-level Pakistani Army regulars serving side-by-side with tthe Taliban in Afghanistan. I thought it was just the I.S.I. that was training, funding and otherwise supporting them with illegal combatant type fighters, etc.
#2
The Pak Army was advising the Taliban on their tactics throughout the civil war, with the use of serving and retired officers allegedly up to the rank of General.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/12/2004 23:27 Comments ||
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From the Council on American-Islamic Relations
His family says Capt. Humayun Khan, a Muslim and an American, loved his country and the military. He also believed strongly that peace would be the ultimate outcome of the war in Iraq. Khan did not live to see that outcome. The Department of Defense announced the 27-year-old was killed Tuesday in Baquabah, Iraq. It happened when suicide bombers drove into an American compound while Khan was inspecting soldiers on guard duty. Khan, who lived in Bristow, is the 20th Virginian to die in Iraq.
"Instead of running, he stood foward to the oncoming taxi to prevent it from going inside," said Shahrayar Khan, who is 11 months older than his brother. "Even being in Iraq, surrounded by moral peril, I knew he would do the right thing. That he was there to protect and to save lives." ...
Born in the United Arab Emirates, Khan grew up in Silver Spring, Md., and graduated from Kennedy High School in 1996. His family says he joined the ROTC to pay for law school. .... Being both American and Muslim, his family says Humayun was well liked in Iraq, where he was seen as a bridge between two cultures at war. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
06/12/2004 6:16:11 PM ||
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Godspeed a brave man and God help his parents in their grief.
#3
There is nothing wrong with the muslim faith. The problem is that more muslims take their faith seriously than other religions. Extremist christians and jews are just as nutty. There are just many many many less extremist in other religions than in Islam.
#4
There is everything wrong in the Muslim faith. I know Muslims who are good men but this is not because but despite Islam. Read the Kuran and you will understand.
#5
He was is a great friend of mine. He created an Iraqi program where the US Army would employ Iraqi civilians for $5 an hour, in a country where average monthly income is $60 a month. He did this because Halliburton who is in charge of providing services to the base would bring in foreigners for these jobs, but he convinced them to employ Iraqis. Everyone was asking why would iraqis do this, attack someone who is helping them become better, it turned out to be Jordanians who didn't have a clue as to what was going on.
Ignorance is the devil. And them sheikhs or bloody scholars of islam encourage violence instead of education because then everyone will recognize they are nothing but horrible manipulators under the guise of Religion.
Pakistani warplanes, backed by helicopter gunships, bombed hideouts of al Qaeda-linked militants on Saturday in a fourth day of fighting in the mountainous tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Pashtun tribesmen also heard artillery fire as the Pakistani forces intensified an assault in the Shakai area of South Waziristan, 250 miles southwest of Islamabad.
Tribal lashkar find anything yet?
"I woke up to the roar of jets. Then I saw three helicopters flying in the direction of Shakai," said one resident of Wana, the main town of South Waziristan. "There was a lot of firing, like a guerrilla battle going on all night," said a local in Shakai. Residents saw air strikes on the slopes of the nearby Tangari hills, where brush and boulders provide fine cover for guerrillas. Afghan refugees in South Waziristan were given 72 hours to leave by authorities. Locals saw many Aghans quitting the Karikot refugee camp a few miles south of Wana, and said they were headed back to Afghanistan.
"We're gettin' outta here! That ain't no tribal lashkar!"
Elsewhere, militants exploded a bomb in Dera Ismail Khan town, 80 miles east of Wana, killing one man and wounding four at the house of a senior official in Pakistanâs paramilitary border force.
Easier than fighting soldiers, ain't it? Even Pak soldiers...
"The fighting is going on," military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan told state-run Pakistan Television, adding the operation would continue to its "logical end." Air strikes this week targeted a house frequented by a known al Qaeda member, another al Qaeda safe house and a militant training camp. While the gunships have been used in earlier operations in the tribal areas that have failed to net any senior al Qaeda or militant leaders, air force jets were sent in for the first time this week to bomb houses where militants had been spotted. In Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan agency, one checkpost outside the town was damaged but no casualties were reported, officials said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/12/2004 12:17:07 PM ||
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And the beat goes on....boom diddie boom.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/12/2004 16:23 Comments ||
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nice thing with the jets - their arrival precedes the warning drums
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2004 17:39 Comments ||
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"...where brush and boulders provide fine cover for guerrillas..."
Well, those boulders and brush provide some good secondary flak & kindling when one drops a few hundred pounds of bombs or napalm on 'em...
United Nations special envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi announced his resignation a few days ago during a UN retreat, diplomatic sources in the world body told Haaretz on Saturday.
G'bye. Write if you find work.
Though the UN envoy had not yet filed a resignation letter, the sources said, a replacement for him was already being sought.
Sorry. I have a job.
According to the report, Brahimi had been frustrated for some weeks, feeling he had been sidelined by the United States in the process of setting up the Iraqi interim government. Approximately one month ago it seemed that Brahimi was a key figure in shaping Iraq's future. The country's leaders, as well as the Americans, were happy to hear that Secretary General Kofi Annan decided to send him to assist in the transfer of power over to the Iraqi interim government. Many understood that Brahimi's role was also to assist in making the major appointments in the new government. But the Americans and the Governing Council members close to them were not about to clear the way for the UN envoy.
Not good at taking order, huh?
Iraqi officials were later surprised at the massive pressure the Americans laid on Brahimi, and at his passive attitude toward the pressure. When the new appointments were announced, Brahimi's spokesman expressed concern. "This is not the way we imagined things," he said. The UN envoy seemed to have been completely taken aback by the way the 23-member Governing Council announced its choice of Iyad Allawi as the country's interim prime minister. A spokesman for Brahimi had said the envoy would now work with Allawi to form a government.
#2
Brahimi carries considerable bad baggage in his ME point of view. He should not have been assigned to a budding Muslim democracy in the first place. http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/431517.html Annan's special envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, also aroused Jewish ire recently when he said in a newspaper interview that Israeli policy is "the big poison in the region."
Doesn't Kofi Annan have any ordinary Caucasian Christian aides in the UN who could be sent to help in Iraq, who do not have personal Muslim blinders on their eyes?
Posted by: rex ||
06/12/2004 15:20 Comments ||
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Brahimi had been frustrated for some weeks, feeling he had been sidelined by the United States in the process of setting up the Iraqi interim government
Hahahahahahaha! Good.
Glad you finally picked up on that, Cookie.
Hit the road, Jack, and don't come back. And take your like-minded let's-see-what-country-we-can-screw-up-this-week UN buddies with you.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/12/2004 15:33 Comments ||
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#4
According to the report, Brahimi had been frustrated for some weeks, feeling he had been sidelined by the United States in the process of setting up the Iraqi interim government.
Sorry, Brahimi, this one's too important to let the UN fuck it up again. Did you really think you were going to have any real power? Poor, deluded soul.
To me U.N. Involvement just increases the chances of outright genocide happening...
Posted by: sonic ||
06/12/2004 15:45 Comments ||
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I guess we have to give Bremer and the Administration some credit. The worst news would be that Brahimi was happy. The best is that he was used and discarded.
#9
"Lakhdar Brahimi announced his resignation a few days ago during a UN retreat"
From where did the U.N. retreat this time? did I miss something?
"This is not the way we imagined things,"
Bwahahahahahahahaha!
Posted by: Evert V. in NL ||
06/12/2004 18:41 Comments ||
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Evert V that's perfect. I don't think it takes Hari Seldon to have predicted Brahimi's disgruntlement. It was very unlikely that America was going to put a whole lot of hard power or money to make things tip in his direction. I'm sure that each Iraqi faction sounded him out as a possible vehicle to power and discarded him when it was determined that he was a figurehead.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 22:43 Comments ||
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We kept Brahimi until we got the vote in the UN. Then he was excess baggage. What masterful maneuvering. Ahhhhhhhhhhh...See Ya!
Posted by: Remote Man ||
06/12/2004 23:29 Comments ||
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"Honey, I just canât decide! Where should we go for vacation this year? The Bahamas or Kashmir?"
At least four people have been killed and 22 others wounded in an attack on a tourist hotel in Indian-administered Kashmir, police say. Grenades were hurled into the hotel in the popular resort of Pehelgam, south of Srinagar. Most of the victims were visitors from other parts of India. A little-known separatist group, Al Nasirin, has said it was responsible. A spokesman for the group told the BBC the attack was a warning to visitors that Kashmir was disputed territory. Two of the four killed were tourists - one a six-year-old girl - police said. It was also a warning that little kids arenât safe there...
The others were staff at the Purnima hotel. Itâs not safe for hotel desk clerks and bell hops, either...
The BBCâs Altav Hussein in Srinagar says the death toll may rise, as some of the wounded are in a serious condition. The incident occurred at a time when the flow of tourists into the valley was picking up fast, our correspondent adds. The tourist industry has been recovering from a slump due to the armed conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 2:14:07 PM ||
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A little-known separatist group, Al Nasirin, has said it was responsible.
Politically correct double talk to side step identifying this "separatist group" as Muslim folks who very likely lost their way looking for peace and stumbled onto the road of committing savagery instead.
Posted by: rex ||
06/12/2004 14:39 Comments ||
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#2
why can't these folks listen to Led Zeppelin's Kashmir and decide to return to that land of milk and honey? Oh yeah, I forgot mooslims were involved....nevermind
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2004 14:57 Comments ||
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#3
A little-known separatist group, Al Nasirin, has said it was responsible.
Which is a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/12/2004 23:28 Comments ||
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The Islamic Movement of Hamas will not make any security commitments to Israel in case of a unilateral Israeli pullout form Gaza. Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader, speaking at a news conference said "We are against any sort of commitment to any security steps on any side."
"Nope. Nope. Won't happen. We prefer booming buses."
He added, "We are still in the resistance ... to free our land from the occupation."
Ummm... If they're leaving, aren't they taking the occupation with them? Or are you talking about their land now?
Zaharâs comments came as Egyptian officials worked on an agreement for maintaining security in Gaza, in the wake of a planned Israeli pullback. Zahar also said Hamas leaders abroad were expected to begin talks with Egyptian officials within several days. Zahar spoke before a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, who made a death-defying rare trip to Gaza to meet with the heads of the various Palestinian security branches and members of Palestinian political and militant groups. Israelâs Cabinet approved a plan last Sunday to evacuate settlements and soldiers from the volatile coastal strip, where 1.3 million Palestinians live in crowded poverty, by the end of 2005. "We do not trust the Israelis and we do not trust that the Israelis are going to withdraw from Gaza while they are speaking of controlling the sea and the air. Until the occupation completely ends, our resistance will continue," said Zahar. "When we hear something concrete, about full sovereignty, we will think about what is proposed to us," he said. "At this moment, our position stands firm. Our endeavor is a liberation endeavor, and if this liberation is not a full and comprehensive one, our endeavor will continue."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 2:01:25 PM ||
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Reports of a visit by a Jordanian security delegation to Jenin to discuss security arrangements in case of Israeli pullout are "false," a local Fateh movement official stressed to KUNA on terms of anonymity Saturday. The official said, however, that there was a visit by the Jordanian Moral Guidance and Television to Jenin for three days and the objective of the visit is to discuss boosting performance of a Jordanian field hospital. The official added that "several Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members had requested members of the delegation to leave the city, assuming they were there to discuss security arrangements amid talk of a Jordanian role in the West Bank." The official pointed out that Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades later understood and appreciated the situation and the delegation is still in the city. The visit was arranged with the Palestinian Authority, he added. Palestinian sources in the city earlier said the Jordanian delegation had already left the city after a two-hour ultimatum by the brigades. The PA last week protested to the Jordanian government over press reports that Jordanian officers had toured towns Northeast the West Bank without coordination with the PA. Jordan denied the incident. Still, PA Prime Minister Ahmad Qureiâ in press statements last week welcomed a Jordanian security role in the West Bank, much like the Egyptian role in Gaza. He also stressed there is Palestinian-Jordanian coordination on this issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 1:56:57 PM ||
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A car-bomb blast killed a top police officer in the Chechen capital Grozny as fighting persisted in the war-ravaged Russian region, an official in the Moscow-backed government said Saturday. The head of the police patrol service in Grozny, Bagrudi Umarov, was killed along with a driver and another officer Friday when a bomb placed beneath his car exploded, the official said on condition of anonymity. One policeman was wounded in the blast.
In other violence in the past day, three Russian servicemen and one rebel fighter were killed in a clash near the town of Vedeno, in southern Chechnya, and two rebels were detained after the firefight, the official said. Two other Russian servicemen were killed and 10 wounded in rebel attacks on Russian positions, the official said. He said there were 18 such attacks over the previous 24 hours. Russian forces targeted suspected rebel positions in several parts of Chechnya with artillery, and at least 300 people across the region were detained during security sweeps.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/12/2004 12:31:28 PM ||
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Four Saudi nationals who planned to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at Libyaâs orders are members of al-Qaida network, reports said. Saudi daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat, monitored in Beirut, quoted security sources as saying Saturday four Saudis arrested in connection with the aborted attempt against the Saudi prince were recruited from among al-Qaida operatives in the kingdom. The sources said the four Saudis were commanded by a Libyan intelligence officer identified as Mohammed Ismail. He reportedly fled to Egypt when he was alerted his conspiracy had been discovered. The sources said police arrested the Saudis during a raid on their hotel room in Mecca in November, while the Libyan officer was later arrested in Cairo and returned to the kingdom.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/12/2004 12:28:51 PM ||
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This is a relief. I thougt they were on Nayef's payroll.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
06/12/2004 18:21 Comments ||
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Islamic militant group Hamas will continue atrocities attacks against Israelis, despite Israelâs plans to withdraw settlements and military bases from the Gaza Strip, a top Hamas leader in Gaza said Saturday. Mahmoud Zaharâs comments came as Egyptian officials worked on an agreement for maintaining security in Gaza, Hamasâ stronghold, in the wake of a planned Israeli pullback of all profitable industry.
Egypt has offered to send security advisers to Gaza to help train and equip Palestinian forces. Egypt has been in talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials on implementing the plan, though some in the Arab world have criticized it, saying it is helping protect Israel. Zahar said Hamas opposes any security role. "We are against any sort of commitment to any security steps on any side," Zahar told reporters in Gaza City. "We are still in the Israeliâs crosshairs resistance ... to free our land from the presence of jobs occupation." However, Zahar later said Hamas leaders abroad were expected to begin talks with Egyptian officials within several days.
Zahar spoke before a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, who made a rare trip to Gaza to meet with the heads of the various Palestinian security branches and members of Palestinian political and militant groups. It was Zaharâs first public appearance since the funeral of Hamasâ Gaza leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who was assassinated by Israel in April. Many Hamas leaders have wet themselves gone into hiding since then, though it is considered unlikely Israel would target Hamas leaders during a meeting with Qureia. The all powerful Hama must hide behind Queriaâs robes. What persuasive evidence of Hamasâ incredible military might.
Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharonâs Cabinet approved a plan Sunday to evacuate settlements and soldiers from the volatile coastal strip, where 1.3 million Palestinians live in crowded Arafat induced poverty, by the end of 2005. Under the plan, Israel would maintain control of Gazaâs coast, airspace and border with Egypt. Zahar said that the continued employment resulting from Israeli presence was unacceptable.
"We do not trust the Israelis and we do not trust that the Israelis are going to change their targeting algorithms withdraw from Gaza while they are speaking of controlling the sea and the air. Until any prospect for Palestinian prosperity the occupation completely ends, our resistance will continue," he said. Zahar did leave open the possibility that he might be vaporized Hamas, which rejects the existence of all reality Israel and hopes to replace it with an open cesspool Islamic state, could change its position after a few more precision airstrikes.
"When we hear something concrete, about full payoffs sovereignty, we will think about our Swiss bank accounts what is proposed to us," he said. "At this moment, our position stands firm. Our endeavor is a political dead end liberation endeavor, and if this liberation is not a death wish nothing is full and comprehensive one, our endeavor will continue." On Friday, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called Sharon and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to thank them for not mentioning his sonâs role in the current UN scandals their joint efforts to prepare security arrangements for Gaza after an Israeli withdrawal, according to government sources.
In addition to sending security advisers to Gaza, Egypt intends to stick their nose in the tent increase the number of troops on its side of the border with Gaza and to help build new police stations and jails in the territory. Egypt has also demanded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reorganize the nearly one dozen Palestinian security forces into a special Egyptian brigade three branches and give up living much of his control over them. Zahar warned Arab leaders not to keep regular schedules cooperate with President Bush, and called on them all to reject his proposals for reform in the Arab world.
#1
Egypt finally has a selfish reason to shut down the tunnel smuggling if their troops provide security in Gaza
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2004 13:51 Comments ||
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#2
However, Zahar later said Hamas leaders abroad were expected to begin talks with Egyptian officials within several days.
" For example, Rassin's hand, which I have right here, is clearly giving the OK sign to continue the Resistance. And earlier, I was told Yassin winked in morse code a fatwa. "
Posted by: Charles ||
06/12/2004 14:21 Comments ||
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#3
I suspect that there will continue to be a very high turnover rate in the senior ranks of Hamas and an ever-increasing lack of experience and judgement. Each new leader will be frocked with the ceremonial bullseye. However, when Egypt takes control of Gaza, Hamas will be shunted aside and this sort of nonsense will come rapidly to an end because, unlike the Palestinians, Egypt does have a few things of value that the IAF might blow away.
#4
*Tap . . . tap . . .*
Nope, nothing registering on the surprise meter here; Hamas is in what they believe is a fight to the death - though oddly enough it's their death toll that seems higher. Maybe if they didn't take themselves out so often . . .
Love the cross-outs!
Posted by: The Doctor ||
06/12/2004 19:02 Comments ||
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#5
Each new leader will be frocked with the ceremonial bullseye.
A recent interpol report on pirated music and films used to fund terrorist groups has sent tremors in the entertainment business. Bollywood could be affected seriously by the new revelation, which has named Dawood Ibrahim. The piracy network is funding terrorist groups in the Middle East and Northern Ireland, according to top police officials. Contraband CDs and DVDs are becoming the "preferred method" for terror groups including Al-Qaeda to raise funds, said the report, written by Interpol Secretary-General Ronald Noble for a US congressional committee.
The report seen by the Hollywood reporter, said, the Recording Industry Association of America has evidence that two illegal CD plants in Pakistan are financed by Dawood Ibrahim, whom the US Government has named as a "specially designated global terrorist." He is alleged to be working with Al-Qaeda and funding attacks by Islamic extremists aimed at destabilising the Indian government. In his report Noble wrote: "In July 2003 Interpol concluded that the link between organised crime and counterfeit goods was well established and sounded the alarm that (intellectual property crime) was becoming the preferred method of funding for a number of terrorist groups. Developments since then have reinforced this view, and the following example illustrates how these activities continue to be a cause for concern." He explained how funds collected from entertainment piracy were going directly to terror leaders in Hezbullah. "Counterfeit goods produced in Europe are sent to a free-trade zone in South America by a group of Lebanese criminals sympathetic to Hezbullah. The goods are then smuggled into a third country, to avoid import duties, where they are sold via a network of Palestinians. An unknown amount of the money generated through this activity is suspected to be remitted to Hezbullah," he wrote. The report also said that Irish terrorist groups also used piracy to fill its coffers, but was not specific as to which groups. The Interpol report was reportedly put before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which was examining the impact of international copyright piracy.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/12/2004 12:13:02 PM ||
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#2
The free trade zone referred to in the article is the island of San Andres in the Carribean. The goods are then take to shopping malls in Colombia, called San Andresitos, where they are sold in broad daylight under the watch of the bribed Colombian National Police. I could be wrong, but the network I refer to could be used similarly.
Jamaat-ud-Daawa Ameer Prof Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, in his Friday sermon, condemned the terrorist attack on the corps commander in Karachi. He said no Muslim could do what was against the spirit of fihad and Islamic laws.
"Nope. Nope. Couldn't be a Moose-limb..."
He said âforeign handsâ were trying to defame jihad and the mujahideen.
"Prob'ly them Jews again. They been hangin' about lately, sniffin' around our wimmin!"
Jamaat-e-Islami General Secretary Syed Munawar Hassan, in Jamia Mosque Mansoora, said America wanted to eliminate all Muslims. He blamed America and the government for the attack on the corps commander. He said incidents in Karachi and Wana were an outcome of an âanti-Muslim policyâ.
"You know what them Merkins is like..."
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Deputy Secretary General Liaqat Baloch demanded the government stop the military operation in Wana. He said the operation was an American conspiracy against the Pakistan Army and the government were following it blindly. MMA Punjab President Hafiz Muhammad Idrees, addressing the Friday congregation at Jamia Al-Hudda Model Town, said that America and India had once again joined hands to break Pakistan. âThe Army is busy operation against its own people in Wana, but the Indian foreign minister is giving statements about changes to the borders,â he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 12:09:10 PM ||
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#1
hmm...from all the squawking, it sounds like we must be making progress in Pakistan.
Posted by: B ||
06/12/2004 22:10 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 11:45 ||
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Israel's former military intelligence chief in remarks published Friday accused one of his colleagues of having misled the country's political leaders by claiming that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was not a partner for peace.
I don't think "intelligence" chief really fit him very well anyway.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 12:03 Comments ||
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#2
General Amos Malka, who held his top intelligence post from 1996 to 2001, blamed Amos Gilad for having branded Arafat "a terrible danger" who believes "Israel has no right to exist."
Malka also noted that Gilad also believed in gravity and the Earth rotated around the sun, theories which Malka had personally disproved.
Sounds like the right guy stayed.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2004 12:07 Comments ||
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#3
It's incompetent idiots like this that explain Oslo and the violence cicle.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 11:27 ||
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#1
The Shi'a and the "experts" like Brahimi and this "regional expert" Alani, not to mention the US, had better think this through. So far, it appears that the Shi'a now believe they can do anything - and Shitstani seems quite willing to play the bully - cuz they view democracy as purely mob rule. The experts wave around in the clouds pontificating about whether referendums are the best means of ensuring the Kurds don't find themselves an oppressed minority in the new Iraq - meanwhile floating vague threats from the traditional external enemies of the Kurds.
Everyone seems to maintain the fictional fetish of a "unified" Iraq. That's not the point. Iraq is a confabulation of 2 "incompatible" populations, Arab and Kurd, and the Arabs are split by sect. Only the Shi'a give a shit about whether they get payback on the Sunnis or not.
The incompatibility is clear: one population gets it now and can conduct themselves in a civil tolerant democracy and prosper. The other is mired in the seventh century and may never escape it. Their society has been cast in amber for 14 centuries and it appears they will require at least 1 or 2 generations to change... maybe many more.
The Kurds have the luxury, this time, of seeing it coming - and they are both strong enough and smart enough not to be complacent victims. Only a loose confederation of autonomous states, whether 2 or 3 is irrelevant to the Kurds, will work over the long haul. Might as well "get it" now and save the grief. The Kurds aren't going to just sit there and allow yet another subjugation to unworthy backassward Arabs.
The US probably knows all of this very well, indeed, and is merely letting the Shi'a have their heads for now - to placate their "leaders" - with every intention of supporting the Kurds when the danger of the dreaded (and exaggerated) Shi'a "uprising" has passed. One can hope. But this makes the Kurds' decision to not sign anything that leads to their dhimmitude a very rational and intelligent stance.
I love the big finish: "Alani says the broad autonomy the Kurds currently enjoy was introduced solely to protect them against the Saddam regime. Now, with him gone, Alani argues there is no longer anything the Kurds need to be protected from - and no need to maintain a 75,000-strong militia as well."
#2
Well said, #1, including your passage about "one can only hope" the USA will protect the Kurds when the need arises...and we can be guaranteed about the need arising.
I would not want to be one of a handful of non-Arabs living in a Shiite town, nor would Bremer nor would Powell. Why does State Dept. think the Kurds should have trust in the Shiites? Do we see anywhere in the ME where Arab majority rule is "tolerant" of minority groups in their midst? Ask the Christians and Jews and Buddhists how welcome they are in Arab majority rule countries. Kurds are NON-ARABS like the aforementioned minorities. What is State Dept. thinking?
Posted by: rex ||
06/12/2004 14:12 Comments ||
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#3
I think that an autonomous kurdish state would be excellent leverage against that lovely ally of our turkey that hosed us during the invasion. The problem is how do we have a new nation that wont try to repatriate kurds and territory held by kurds from turkey?
#4
That's the selling point, #3. A separate Kurdistan will re-patriate all Kurds living in other countries and get them out of those countries' hair. Think of the new Kurdistan like Israel - a home for all Jews who choose to call it home. That's how the US should promote it to our ME Muslim allies[cough "allies" cough] Also, Turkey and Syria should be advised that they more to fear from unhappy Kurds than happy Kurds, if you get my drift. Also, the surrounding ME countries but for Iran have Sunni majorities and they should have their dumb Arab eyes opened to the fact that a strong Kurdistan who are mainly Sunni, albeit nominally, are better for them than a Shiite dominated Iraq holding hands with a Shiite dominated Iran. There's a big problemo for Turkey, Egypt, Syria with the latter picture.
Posted by: rex ||
06/12/2004 15:31 Comments ||
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#5
Isn't a large portion of the oil in Kurdish territory?
They should have their referrendum, take their oil and leave the Shias and Sunnis to settle the old scores amongst themselves...
Sure Turkey would be mad... So what...
Posted by: sonic ||
06/12/2004 15:48 Comments ||
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#6
We promised we wouldn't divide Iraq. If Iraq divides on its own it is not our fault. Unfortunately it means the Arabs have failed the Democracy test if we get to that point.
Independent Kurdistan depends upon an alliance with one of her neighbors or she'll be totally cut off. I would suggest Turkey since they are American allies (more or less). Kurds should be promoted to migrate from Turkey into Kurdistan. Kurds in Iran and Syria should be promoted to rise up and declare themselves part of Kurdistan. Then the US and Kurds play defense while the Iranians and Syrians send wave after wave.
#7
The Kurds didn't survive all these years by being stupid.
Back out boys. Nothing in this faux Iraqi "Republic" that's good for you. Find out what it is that the Americans and Turks want and offer it to them. Bases, oil royalties, whatever, and promise it to them in exchange for your independence.
Going along with this deal is like a girl going along with a mugger when he points a gun at her and says "get in the car". Her best chance of getting out of this unharmed is to put up her best fight before she gets in the car.
Fight for your freedom now, it's only going to get harder if you go along for the ride.
Posted by: B ||
06/12/2004 22:42 Comments ||
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Bloody attacks against foreigners in northern areas of Afghanistan previously considered the safest in the country have renewed concerns within the government and among observers that a resurgent Taliban could invalidate elections. Presidential and parliamentary polls have been set for September but in the lead-up to the elections the security situation has deteriorated in the south and southeast and along the border with Pakistan because of suspected Taliban. With the latest attacks in the north, there are fears that the insurgency is creeping into once-stable areas. The electoral commission, is concerned about the violence but was committed to holding the voting on time. The Defence Ministry remains confident it will tackle the insurgency, in combination with assistance from the 20,000-strong US-led coalition in the country and NATO-led peacekeepers. But others remain unconvinced about the feasibility of holding Afghanistanâs first democratic elections while intensified attacks continue.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 11:26 ||
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Following Nek Muhammadâs threat to launch Karachi-like terrorist attacks in Peshawar, law enforcement agencies on Friday suspended all mobile phone services in the provincial metropolis. Strict security measures have been adopted in the city to avert terrorist attacks. The threat was made in connection with the ongoing military operation in Wana and other tribal areas to hunt Nek Muhammadâs followers.
Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali Friday night asked the opposition not to blame the Pakistan Army to score petty political points.
That's like asking the ocean not to get the beaches wet...
Taking part in a debate in the National Assembly on the law and order situation in Karachi and the military operation in Wana, he emphasised that the opposition should take care of the sanctity of the Parliament. He said the Army was a sacred national institution, offering sacrifices for national defence and the opposition should spare the national institutions from point scoring. He said Pakistanis were proud of their valiant forces defending the motherland and no one should express apprehensions about the Army. He advised the opposition to talk about national issues with decency instead of mud slinging against our national institutions. He dismissed opposition charges that the military operation in Wana was launched on foreign orders. He vowed that the government would not compromise on the vital issue of the national security and the anti-terrorism drive would continue.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 11:17 ||
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Police on Friday arrested 36 suspects from parts of Karachiâs southern localities and handed them over to the joint investigation teams for questioning Thursdayâs attack. Some residents of Akhtar Colony, Mehmoodabad and Manzoor Colony told Daily Times that police and security agencies picked up 36 suspects from these localities and took them to undisclosed places. The authorities also intensified the hunt for Amjad Farooqi, a militant allegedly linked to attempts on President Musharrafâs life in December and US journalist Daniel Pearlâs murder. A security official said âa nationwide hunt is already on to arrest Farooqiâ, for the attack on the corps commander. âFarooqi has been seen in Karachi recently but escaped to Quetta before we could catch him,â an investigator said. Six of the arrested are said to have links to five jihadi outfits which have formed a conglomeration called Brigade 313.
But the Paks sprung the head of Brigade 313, whom they had in custody. Did the boss sell out his faithful henchmen? Normally, we round up the henchmen to get evidenc against the mastermind, but this is Pakland, after all...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2004 11:13 ||
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Alamoudi reportedly told prosecutors that he met with Qaddafi twice in 2003 to discuss an assassination plan. One of the Libyan intelligence chiefs who reports directly to Qaddafi, Abdullah Senoussi, convened the first meeting in June 2003. Alamoudi, "who had been summoned from the United States," writes Tyler, was present at the meeting and given instructions to work with Col. Mohamed Ismael, a Libyan intelligence officer now in Saudi custody, to start a "destabilization" campaign by recruiting among the Islamist opposition forces in London.
That merely added a second pair of hands to what was already many...
So vital was Alamoudi to the plot that Qaddafi had all others leave the room so he could talk privately with him. "Why do you cooperate with us against the crown prince of Saudi Arabia?" Qaddafi asked him. "Because I disapprove of what the crown prince said to you," Alamoudi reportedly answered (to this observer's ear, pretty unconvincingly). Qaddafi instructed him, "I want the crown prince killed either through assassination or through a coup." Alamoudi and Ismael apparently traveled to London to locate and recruit Saudi Islamists, spending over $2 million in cash along the way.
That makes no sense. Why pay somebody for something they're already doing? Unless they're already doing it, but need more money â that hardly seems to be the case in the Wonderful World of Islamism...
Alamoudi then returned to Tripoli in early August and again met with Qaddafi. "How come I haven't seen anything? How come I have not seen heads flying?" Qaddafi demanded of him. Alamoudi assured him that plans were progressing. On August 13, Alamoudi received that $340,000 in London from Libyan intelligence.
That'd be the $340,000 that got him jugged...
Tyler notes that Col. Ismael corroborated many details of this plot and has added others of his own â such as the fact that four Saudi terrorists were to assault Abdullah's motorcade with shoulder-fired missiles or grenade launchers, apparently from a room at the Hilton Hotel in Mecca as the prince made his way to the Grand Mosque. Finally, Tyler reports "a person close to Mr. Alamoudi" saying that Alamoudi joined the conspiracy "because he badly needed money." This is confirmed by the criminal complaint, which notes that when interviewed on August 11, 2003, Alamoudi "stated that he is the President of the AMF [American Muslim Foundation] and that financing the organization's work is a constant struggle."
I'm not sure this makes any sense from Qaddafi's standpoint, either, unless the plan included additional, later actions. Just bumping off Abdullah would probably result in the princely balance of power shifting toward Prince Nayef, with more influence for the Islamists, more trouble for the secular Qaddafi. A better plan would have been merely to push support toward the Nayef faction and the clerics, weakening Abdullah but leaving him in place. Add in the Islamists to keep pressure on both, but not to the extent where they were actually effective, and Soddy Arabia becomes deadlocked â a political and diplomatic null value.
On the other hand, since this seems to be exactly what's playing out, Muammar might be smarter than we give him credit for, and Alamoudi a dupe. Anna Comnena would be impressed.
#1
I would not under-estimate Muammar's chess-playing abilities, nor would I count him as defeated. He has simply sacrificed a few pawns for the benefit of some longer-term plan. He needs to be watched very, very closely until the day he dies.
Posted by: Tom ||
06/12/2004 17:01 Comments ||
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Tom, I disagree. Qaddafi is an idiot. Pure and simple. He's a slug.
U.S. Marines have killed more than 80 militants in a three-week assault on a Pakistani Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, the military said Saturday. The tally highlights the bloody fighting that has engulfed parts of the insurgency-plagued south. "The Marines have been aggressive, relentless and successful," Lt. Col. Tucker Mansager said. "They have demonstrated that there is no refuge for the Pakistanis terrorists." American commanders sent some 2,000 Marines into Afghanistan in the spring, helping swell the U.S.-dominated force to 20,000 - its largest yet - in an attempt to put militants on the defensive ahead of September elections. Pakistanis Militants have also stepped up their operations, feeding a spiral of violence that has left more than 450 people dead across the country this year.
That statement implies that if the Marines hadn't come, there wouldn't have been an increase in Pakistani Taliban violence. Somehow I doubt that's the case.
The military says only two Marines were wounded in the latest fighting. Still, seven American soldiers have been killed in the south since the start of May, including at least one Marine, and dozens of Afghan soldiers have died in the region this year. The Marines are based in Uruzgan, the home province of unemployed potentate fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and have called in warplanes to pound a large group of militants in nearby mountains. Most of the reported fighting has been near Daychopan, in neighboring Zabul province, a rerun of clashes last summer that left more than 100 militants and one American special operations soldier dead. In another operation, Mansager said U.S. troops on Friday detained an expert bomb maker about 70 kilometers (40 miles) south of Kabul. He declined to give details.
Posted by: tipper ||
06/12/2004 9:56:21 AM ||
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Well, it's a start.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/12/2004 10:40 Comments ||
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Oooooh.... the Spiral of Violence⢠Is that the anti-W spin to use when the Cycle of Violence⢠is diminishing?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2004 10:59 Comments ||
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Frank ...lol!
I like this line too,
"The military says only two Marines were wounded in the latest fighting. Still, seven American soldiers have been killed in the south since the start of May, including at least one Marine, and dozens of Afghan soldiers have died in the region this year".
Translated, oh sure, the "spiral" was 80 to ZERO, this time, but let's go back into history. Though it be fewer American soldiers who would have died died in car accidents back home, we'll point out the grand total of 8 Americans killed and include the "dozens" of Afghans to make this "spiral" theory work.
Posted by: B ||
06/12/2004 11:33 Comments ||
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#4
hmm...I just noticed that it said since the "start of May" and I mistakenly was considering it from the beginning of the year. ......sooo......never mind.
Posted by: B ||
06/12/2004 12:05 Comments ||
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EFL - snip-
A coalition military official, who asked not to be named, added that an example of how newly resigned militia members will invigorate existing Iraqi forces could be seen in the April violence. While many Iraqi units failed to fight against insurgents in Fallujah, the 36th battalion of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) did stand its ground. This unit is not made up of newly converted Iraqi civilians, but of hardened former militia members, including the tough-minded Kurdish peshmerga... So they will run unless they are Kurdish.
Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, the former commander of the 101st Airborne Division, which last year oversaw northern Iraq, is now back in the country. He is in charge of training, and, in some cases, retraining Iraqis for police and counterinsurgency duties. ... The approximately 100,000 paramilitaries, who were not part of the insurgency attacking coalition troops, will be given the option of joining one of Iraqâs five security forces or of receiving training for civilian jobs. "Itâs an historic agreement in the pursuit of building a moderate, democratic Iraq," Mr. Senor said. He said that "sectarian tensions" made it paramount that Iraq not have multiple militias roaming the country outside state control.
That's kinda one of the basics of having a stable state, isn't it?
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said during his trip last week to Asia that the Iraqis are not yet ready to take over all security functions. "You point out theyâre not ready to take over yet. Youâre quite right," Mr. Rumsfeld told a questioner. "Weâve gone from zero to something like 206,000 Iraqi security forces. Theyâre uneven in their training. Theyâre uneven in their equipment. They have yet to develop a chain of command that runs up through Iraqis all the way to the top" ...
The Pentagon has nearly met its strength goals for the various Iraqi security units, signing up 225,721 toward a goal of 259,337, according to its most recent report. There are five main branches: the police; border enforcement; the army; civil defense corps and facilities protection. Of those, the armed forces faces the largest shortfall. It requires 35,000, but only has about 7,000 on duty. The police force already has exceeded its target of about 90,000 officers. Still, of the pool of 100,000 ex-militia, the coalition military official said, "We are certainly ready to absorb all those people."
"Hopefully, we can use these militia to help improve the security of ordinary Iraqis but I would doubt itâs appropriate to use them for months from now for any kind of serious offensive operations," said Patrick Clawson, a Middle East analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Mr. Clawson added, "The key moment will be when Iraqis accept that the countryâs future will be decided by elections and they recognize that when this new election business is working well the Americans can leave. Right now, too many people in Iraq think force matters. Thatâs been the way of Iraq for decades."
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 2:29:49 AM ||
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Gunmen have fatally wounded a senior official of Iraqâs foreign ministry in Baghdad, a foreign ministry official says.Attackers fired at the car of Bassam Qubba, the director- general of the ministry, as he was on his way to work on Saturday from his home in the Adhamiya district, said the official, who asked not to be identified.Qubba, appointed director-general of the ministry two months ago, died in hospital at about 8:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m.).Qubba, a Shiâite Muslim from the holy city of Najaf, was the first senior official to be assassinated in Iraq since a new interim government took office on June 1 with a pledge to make security its top priority. Qubba was a career diplomat who had served as Iraqâs ambassador to China during Saddam Husseinâs rule.
Posted by: rex ||
06/12/2004 3:53:02 AM ||
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#1
I'm curious.
a. Why is Qubba, a Sunni[Baathist] former cabinet minister under Saddam Hussein[ambassador to China no less]allowed on the new interim government???
b. To suggest that Qubba was killed by former Sunni pals does not make sense. Qubba was worth more to them alive than dead since he had positioned himself well in powerful circles.
Posted by: rex ||
06/12/2004 12:37 Comments ||
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#2
Yeah, this guy most likely gave info to the "intifada". My guess is we let it slip out that he was going to give us names and locations of some Terrorist cells in Iraq. He wouldn't do that, of course, but Al-Queada couldn't risk it. It's called "Getting someone else too do your dirty work".
Posted by: Charles ||
06/12/2004 14:35 Comments ||
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#3
ummm Rex? "Qubba, a Shiâite Muslim from the holy city of Najaf"....
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2004 14:55 Comments ||
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#4
You are right #3, I thought I read in another article that Qubba was a Sunni. I am mistaken because I have googled his name again and he is Shiite. However he served as a anbassador in Uncle Saddam's regime, so he must have been viewed as embodying some good Baathist party ideals, yes. And there is no contest that Qubba served at Saddam's pleasure.
Posted by: rex ||
06/12/2004 15:41 Comments ||
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#5
Aha! I found an article in Google News that confirms what I read earlier in the day, #3, about Qubba being a Sunni.
Here's the NPR news link: http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1956433 June 12, 2004 -- A top official at Iraq's foreign ministry is killed in Baghdad during an ambush by unknown gunmen. Bassam Kubba, a Sunni who had been a career diplomat, is the first member of Iraq's new interim government...
The MSM are confused themselves about Qubba's[Kubba's] religious affiliation. Regardless, Qubba held a position in Saddam's "inner circle" and that fact alone should have disqualified Qubba from holding any position whatsoever in the new interim government.[too much bad baggage]
Posted by: rex ||
06/12/2004 19:52 Comments ||
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EFL - good news so I didnât cut much. Hamida Ghafour in Masi Kalay reports on a new US weapon: combat marketing
The American soldiers had barely climbed from their Humvee when a group of villagers brimming with gratitude approached their vehicle. "We wonât let al-Qaâeda in here," said one elder, Haji Atlas, without any prompting. "If we have problems in the village we will come to you. An American officer talks with the headmistress of a girlsâ school "We support the Americans, not the Taliban because they were only for destruction, not construction." The source of their appreciation lay a few yards away: a £25,000 well funded by the American army to provide clean water for the residents of Masi Kalay, a village less than two miles from the Afghan-Pakistan border. In Iraq bombs are used to fight the war, but in Afghanistan the US military has a subtle new set of weapons in its arsenal: schools, wells and roads, or what is known in military parlance as "combat marketing". Iâm sure we would be willing to market in Iraq as well as soon as our customers Ixnay the IEDlayâs
In the remote scrub and rock valleys of the lawless border province of Khost, the military is spending £22 million on providing infrastructure in the hope of winning the loyalties of the Pathan tribes who can provide valuable information on Taliban and al-Qaâeda fighters.
They're Pashtuns. I wouldn't get my hopes up too much.
As Sgt Maj David Turnbull, of the 1st Battalion 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, said: "We can outspend al-Qaâeda and the Taliban. We are not bribing them, but making them realise that the Afghan government and American government are legitimate and we are the ones building wells, and schools for children. Their loyalties will shift and hopefully they will come out and talk."
Or they'll take what we give them during the day and try and kill us at night...
Khost was the base for at least four al-Qaâeda training camps and it was from here that Osama bin Laden escaped after the defeat of the Taliban in 2001. The currency market still exchanges Saudi riyals and the bazaars sell Osama bin Laden popcorn balls. An intelligence official said beating al-Qaeâdaâs propaganda was difficult. "Bin Laden has a lot of support in this area because he spent a lot of money on buildings, like the local mosque here," he said. "He is seen as a saviour to a lot of people. But in a lot of cases itâs the people below him who carry out the operations. We want to get the mid-level guys and work our way up the food chain." Like we did in Iraq.
A school for 67 children has opened in the Salerno military base, where the 501st is stationed. The idea is that while pupils learn the English alphabet, their parents, who may be afraid to be seen speaking to Americans in the villages, feel more comfortable talking about anyone seen purchasing weapons or recruiting fighters... The military does not have enough soldiers to patrol the entire 1,500-mile Pakistan-Afghan border and the loyalty of the local population is crucial. Lt Col Harry Glenn, the task force commander of Salerno, said the tactics were working, so far. "We are seeing people on a daily basis giving information about al-Qaâeda and Taliban. Kids stop us on patrols and say there are rockets aimed at your base and people will tell us, âDonât go on that road because of an explosive deviceâ. In the Khost to Gardez pass our stuff was ambushed on a daily basis and now we have not been attacked in two months." But sometimes the double act of military and aid organisation can backfire. After Capt Chuck Brooks finished having tea with the villagers of Masi Kalay, he signalled to one of his soldiers to play a message on the loudspeaker of the Humvee. Suddenly a voice in the local Pashto language screamed: "Lie on the ground and put your hands up. We will search your houses." Red-faced, Capt Brooks started shouting: "Wrong message, sorry. Wrong message."
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 2:39:59 AM ||
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#1
Wait a minute. This can't possibly be right. Al-Q is beloved by the Afghans because Osama built roads and schools and daycare centers!
That moonbat female CongressCritter (whose name blessedly escapes me) told us so!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/12/2004 10:46 Comments ||
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#2
That would be U.S. Senator Patty Murray from the state of Washington (voters take note) who said: "Osama bin Laden is popular in poor countries because he helped pay for schools, roads and even day care centers. We haven't done that. How would they look at us today if we had been there helping them with some of that rather than just being the people who are going to bomb in Iraq and go to Afghanistan?"
This was prior to US troops going into Afghanistan. Which according to the press and the left (but I repeat myself) would be a "quagmire and a bloodbath".
Posted by: A Jackson ||
06/12/2004 11:02 Comments ||
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#3
The one thing I have learned about the Pashtun is once they are bought they stay bought for the length of the contract. $45k (the well) is probably a long term contract. According to a marine I know (and actually an article posted here a few months ago) AQ is having money troubles in Afganistan, whereas we are tosing money everywhere, including hiring "militia" guards. OBL was popular with certain tribes because he bought militia and gave out guns. Well, those contracts are up and the tribes are turning.
Posted by: David ||
06/12/2004 12:15 Comments ||
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#4
I hope that we are doing testing of the well water for arsenic. I sure would like to avoid a Bangladesh situation with arsenic poisoning (literally killing people with kindness). There are field kits now available that that can sense arsenic down to 5 ppb. Just a thought.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/12/2004 14:51 Comments ||
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#5
selective testing, AP
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2004 14:59 Comments ||
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#6
In Iraq bombs are used to fight the war, but in Afghanistan the US military has a subtle new set of weapons in its arsenal: schools, wells and roads
Point of order: the same thing is being done in Iraq. Or is this correspondent just screamingly ignorant ?
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
06/12/2004 19:22 Comments ||
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#7
Carl in N.H. is absolutely right. I seem to remember something like 87 BILLION DOLLARS!
From The Washington Post
Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq, borrowed heavily from a list of high-pressure interrogation tactics used at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay. ... The U.S. policy ... was approved in early September, shortly after an Army general sent from Washington completed his inspection of the Abu Ghraib jail .... Before last October, they could be imposed without first seeking the approval of anyone outside the prison. That gave officers at Abu Ghraib wide latitude in handling detainees.
Unnamed officials at the Florida headquarters of the U.S. Central Command ... objected to some of the 32 interrogation tactics approved by Sanchez in September, including the more severe methods that he had said could be used at any time in Abu Ghraib with the consent of the interrogation officer in charge. As a result, Sanchez decided on Oct. 12 to remove several items on the list and to require that prison officials obtain his direct approval .... These were not dropped by Sanchez until a scandal erupted in May over photographs depicting abuse at the prison. ... Officials have said that Sanchez approved the use of only one of the more severe techniques -- long-term isolation -- on 25 occasions after Oct. 12 and before the third set of rules was issued this May. ....
One of the documents, an Oct. 9 memorandum on "Interrogation Rules of Engagement," which each military intelligence officer at Abu Ghraib was asked to sign, sets out in detail the wide range of pressure tactics approved in September and available before the rules were changed on Oct. 12. ... The document states that the list of tactics in the memorandum is derived from a Sept. 10, 2003, "Interrogation and Counter-Resistance Policy" approved by Combined Joint Task Force-7, which Sanchez directs. While the document states that "at no time will detainees be treated inhumanely nor maliciously humiliated," it permits the use of yelling, loud music, a reduction of heat in winter and air conditioning in summer, and "stress positions" for as long as 45 minutes every four hours -- all without first gaining the permission of anyone more senior than the "interrogation officer in charge" at Abu Ghraib. ....
No formalized rules for interrogation existed in Iraq before the policy imposed on Sept. 10, one day after Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller -- who was then in charge of the Guantanamo site -- departed from Iraq. He was accompanied on the Iraq visit by at least 11 senior aides from Guantanamo, including officials from the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency. While that list of options was subsequently truncated on Oct. 12, some military personnel at the jail told Army investigators that they lacked awareness or understanding of the changes.
For example, Spec. Luciana Spencer, a member of the 66th Military Intelligence Group who was removed from interrogations because she had ordered a detainee to walk naked to his cell after an interview, told investigators that the military police did not know their boundaries. "When I began working the night shift I discussed with the MPs what their SOP [standard operating procedure] was for detainee treatment," Spencer said in a statement. "They informed me they had no SOP. I informed them of my IROE [interrogation rules of engagement] and made clear to them what I was and wasnât allowed to do or see."
A civilian contractor, Adel Nakhla, an interpreter for military intelligence, told investigators he was briefed on interrogation rules only after being implicated in an abusive event. .... Moreover, when intelligence officers arranged for military police to help impose some of the more severe tactics, they often failed to specify how to do so, leaving wide latitude for potentially abusive behavior. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
06/12/2004 9:19:54 AM ||
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Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq, borrowed heavily from a list of high-pressure interrogation tactics used at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay. ... The U.S. policy ... was approved in early September, shortly after an Army general sent from Washington completed his inspection of the Abu Ghraib jail .... Before last October, they could be imposed without first seeking the approval of anyone outside the prison. That gave officers at Abu Ghraib wide latitude in handling detainees.
It's too bad that the people at the WAPO can't write clearly.
Borrowed heavily? The way this is worded, it sounds like SANCHEZ (or someone) was tightening procedures by saying things that they could previously do at AG, WITHOUT permission, now REQUIRED permission. And as you read further down, it sounds like Sanchez only allowed the "long term isolation" between October and May and none of the other more severe measures that he heavily borrowed from Guantanamo.
But I really don't know, because the WAPO writer can't write worth a damn. Maybe I can't either, but then...I don't get PAID to be clear.
Posted by: B ||
06/12/2004 13:07 Comments ||
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These WaPo journalists make it up when they don't have anything else to stick on page one.
Posted by: Capt America ||
06/12/2004 19:12 Comments ||
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Seven Turkish hostages seized in Iraq this week were freed on Saturday, but a Lebanese and two Iraqi hostages abducted in a separate incident were killed, diplomats said. The Turks, employees of Turkish food services and construction firm Serkat Insaat, were kidnapped by gunmen in the restive town of Falluja on Monday. Dubai-based Al Arabiya television aired a videotape on Thursday showing what it said were four of the seven held by a group calling itself the Jihad Squadrons, an Iraqi Islamist group, which demanded that Turkish companies leave Iraq. "They have been released, they are in good health," a Turkish diplomat in Baghdad told Reuters, adding that the seven former captives were on their way home to Turkey. "No one has claimed responsibility," the diplomat said, declining to say whether the embassy had helped to negotiate their release.
I thought it was the Jihad Squadrons?
Another Turk, identified as Adnan Azizoglu, had been kidnapped on the same day along with an Iraqi driver, but was freed a day later. There was no word on the fate of the driver.
#1
The three killed had their throats slashed...not mentioned in this article but I found it in another. http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,4789_W_1233895,00.html
"Kidnappers cut throat of 3 hostages in Iraq"
Iraqi insurgents blah, blah
Savagely killing their own. Well, on the bright side, this is better than their killing our GI's.
Posted by: rex ||
06/12/2004 13:20 Comments ||
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One is obliged to wonder if the interim government's officials fully realize the subtle but distinct connection between any approval for Sadr's insurgency and the continuing attrition they are experiencing at the hands of other terrorist elements within Iraq.
via AP from Miami Herald - Subscription Reqâd Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr has told worshipers that he will cooperate with the new Iraqi prime minister if he works to rid Iraq of U.S. forces. Did that make sense to you? Nope, me neither. Bobby Reid must be a pseudonym, lol!
BY ROBERT H. REID
Associated Press
BAGHDAD - A radical cleric whose uprising two months ago has left hundreds dead and threatened to enflame the Shiite heartland said Friday that he would cooperate with the new government if it works to end the U.S. military presence. Clarification: Hundreds of Madhi Army dead and there has been no "inflamation" except for sore Marine trigger fingers and Scots Guardsmen with dish-pan hands from cleaning their bayonettes. And the text is still clear as mud. Bobby, câmon, what do you really do for a living? You canât seem to write a concise sentence for shit, son.
Meanwhile, a police station south of Baghdad was blown up in the fourth such attack on Iraqi security installations in less than a week. You left out the "by whom" part: Taterâs Twitters.
The conciliatory tone by cleric Muqtada al Sadr came during a sermon read by an aide to a congregation in Kufa, scene of recent fighting between his Mahdi Army militia and U.S. forces. Did the "aide" go to nuance school?
In the message, Sadr said, "I support the new interim government" and asked his followers to "help me take this society to the path of security and peace." Oh yeah, Taterâs in the lead, here.
"Starting now, I ask you that we open a new page for Iraq and for peace," the message said. Um... a hudna?
Sadr had dismissed the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi as a tool of the United States. But he apparently softened his stand under pressure from mainstream Shiite leaders, who brokered a truce in Najaf and Kufa this month between the Mahdi Army and U.S. forces. Pressure? Or continued lack of enthusiasm for joining up with a loser and dying in droves?
OVERRIDING CONDITION
In an interview Friday night with Al Arabiya television, Sadrâs spokesman, Ahmed al Shibani, said the cleric was ready for a dialogue with the government "on condition that it works to end the occupation and clearly announces to the Iraqi people and to the world that it rejects the occupation." Well that certainly clears everything up. Bobby - are you Tater in disguise?
"It has to put a timetable for the end of the occupation," Shibani said. "This is the main and principled way to recognize this government and cooperate with it." Oh yeah - a deadline. Right. Got that from the moronic European Govâts, did you? No doubt Tater rides the shortest bus.
The U.S.-led occupation formally ends June 30 with the transfer of sovereignty to Allawiâs government, and a U.N. resolution approved Tuesday by the Security Council sets a deadline of 2006 for ending the multinational military presence. Unless the twitters like Tater run home to Iran / Syria / Saudi or get themselves aced, whichever occurs first.
The resolution also allows both the interim government and the one due to be elected in January to end the mandate for the force -- although that appears unlikely. Find a mirror, boy, they be talkinâ bout you, again.
Remarks by both Sadr and his aide suggest that the firebrand cleric is bending to pressure from the influential mainstream Shiite clergy while trying to preserve his image as a leader who stood up to the United States. The word youâre looking for, Bobby, is âsalvageâ methinks. Or âsurvivalâ. Better get some 8x10âs while you can, son - that may be the only surviving âimageâ of you.
Although Sadrâs forces are still battling U.S. troops daily in Baghdadâs Sadr City district, the Americans forced the militia to abandon Karbala and to accept a truce this month in Najaf and Kufa. The truce has generally held despite a flare-up of fighting Thursday between the militia and Iraqi police. That was just a little test to see if they were a soft target. You canât chew anything else, eh Tater?
U.S. plans to reduce the American profile rest on the ability of Iraqâs security forces to maintain order in the face of insurgency and widespread lawlessness. If they show spine, weâll let them have you.
TESTED BY INSURGENTS
However, insurgents have begun challenging that strategy through increased attacks on Iraqi police in a bid to sap morale and shake public confidence in the new administration. Time will tell. Of course, if it looks like theyâre not ready - or are cooperating, weâll bring the Varsity back onto the field, sonny.
In the latest assault, assailants arrived in seven cars Friday afternoon at the police station in Yusufiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad, and attacked the building with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, police Lt. Sattar Abdul-Reda said. Did they double-park?
After the outgunned police fled, the attackers entered the building, rigged it with explosives and blew it up, Abdul-Reda said. He said police called for help from the U.S. military, but the troops reached the station five hours after the attack began. Anyone believe this is an accurate recounting of the facts? Nope, me neither. Try again people. Tater makes Skeery look positively resolute - and that takes some doing. Bobby Reid should return to Miss Debbiâs School of Cosmetology - heâs not cut out for journalism - even as loosely as that term is bandied about at the AP.
Posted by: .com ||
06/12/2004 4:10:05 AM ||
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Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr has told worshipers that he will cooperate with the new Iraqi prime minister if he works to rid Iraq of U.S. forces.
So if the new Iraqi PM does al Sadr's dirty work, he will go along with the PM. What a guy....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/12/2004 5:56 Comments ||
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Tater: "I voted for the new government before I voted against it."
Say, ever notice that you never see Muqtada al Sadr and John F. Kerry in the same place at the same time?
Posted by: Mike ||
06/12/2004 7:37 Comments ||
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Will someone rid me of this troublesome cleric?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2004 00:53 ||
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UNRWA decided, after a debate on the issue, to take 15 percent of the original area of each destroyed house and use the area to widen roads so that in the future it would be possible for Israeli tanks to pass more easily.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Power pylons toppled. Fuel pipelines blown apart. Foreign engineers gunned down and yanked out. Insurgents are stepping up attacks on Iraq's fragile infrastructure even as the U.S. pumps in billions of dollars to rebuild it. But with electricity in Baghdad flowing at less than half prewar levels and a scorching summer ahead, many Iraqis see the struggle to ensure adequate power as a metaphor for a U.S.-led reconstruction mission gone bad.
In Baghdad, anger is boiling over as the city of 5 million inches into a summer where temperatures are expected to rise to 120 degrees. On Friday, it was 106. To cope, most people rely on roaring generators to fuel air conditioners and fans. At night they bring out lanterns and candles, and sleep on rooftops outdoors.
Restoring stable electricity supplies is widely considered a benchmark of progress for Iraq's American rulers since they toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003. But the U.S. struggle to turn the lights on - and keep them on - hasn't been easy. Every step forward seems followed by another step back. On June 3, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers resuscitated a turbine at northwest Iraq's 660 megawatt Haditha hydroelectric dam, marking the first time it operated at full power since 1990. A few days later, insurgents bombed a pipeline fueling the 700 megawatt Musayyib power plant south of Baghdad, cutting its capacity in half, said Hamid al-Suri, an Electricity Ministry spokesman. Saboteurs struck again Wednesday in central Iraq, blowing up another pipeline at Beiji, forcing a 10 percent cut on the national grid.
Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi condemned the violence, saying such strikes had "caused a nationwide loss of power of more than four hours per day." He said saboteurs have attacked vital oil pipelines 130 times in the last seven months, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and lost revenues, and were increasingly targeting infrastructure.
Guerrilla fighters have also targeted foreign experts the coalition has contracted to help carry out technical repairs and bring in badly needed spare parts. Iraqi authorities have deployed about 6,000 "electricity police" to guard key sites over the last three months to prevent the sabotage, al-Suri said. But a senior coalition official said attacks were lately "more spectacular and aggressive." "It seems now there is real focus on the infrastructure, to wreak havoc, to turn the Iraqis against the interim government," the official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Before the war, Baghdad residents enjoyed about 20 hours of electricity a day. Today, they're lucky to get eight, usually broken into two-hour runs, or less. A coalition electricity spokesman conceded the capital had "significantly less power," but said Saddam's regime drained supplies from the rest of the country to keep the lights on in Baghdad.
After a $1 billion American aid injection, Iraq's national grid briefly topped prewar levels of 4,400 megawatts in March and averaged about 3,900 megawatts in May. Baghdad's problem is that American authorities redistributed electricity evenly across the country - everybody now gets 8-12 hours a day. Despite the redistribution, Iraqis all over the country complain about electricity. Even in places where the power situation is better than before the war, Iraqis grumble that if the Americans can put a man on the Moon get pictures from Mars they ought to be able to ensure 24-hour power.
Allawi, whose government assumes power July 1, said: "It's our people that are sitting in the dark because of these cowardly and traitorous attacks, not our occupiers."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2004 12:36:06 AM ||
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The full version of this is actually the classic distortion piece out of Iraq -- check out the "metaphor" reference in the first paragraph. All the elements are there -- the relevant facts that belie the theme and headline buried deep in the article, the Iraqis' clueless whining.
Best of all, anyone notice how the "electricity story" completely disappeared the instant progress started to be made .... only to reappear now, when it's part of a "metaphor" for "reconstruction mission gone bad". WTF -- "gone bad"?? Not perfect is "gone bad"? Not done already (I mean, it's been a whole year almost) is "gone bad"? Not meeting the childish silly expectations of the few cherry-picked "angry Iraqis" is "gone bad"? Great example of "journalism" that has clearly "gone bad."
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I am gratified to see new people here at RB who get the media is the problem. Note that it is not until para 7 until they say Iraq is producing more electricity than in the Saddam days and the reason Baghdad is getting less is because everyone else is getting more.
An accurate headline would be "Americans ensure fair electricity distribution"
Posted by: Phil B ||
06/12/2004 3:24 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
