They don't say when this massive display of Muzzy protest and seething and marching will occur, so I can't offer the traffic alert I intended to our cousins, but it'll be, um, something, I'm sure.
Thousands of members of Britain's Muslim community are to march against what they see as oppression resulting from the "war on terror".
More than 100 Islamic organisations from across the country will take part in the demonstration across central London.
One of the organisers, Dr Imran Waheed, said three to five thousand people were expected to attend the event which will begin at Marble Arch. He said: "The basic message is that the Muslim community wants to voice its opposition to what it views as the oppression of the war on terror."
People were angry about control orders imposed on suspects and detention of people without trial in Guantanamo Bay, he said. The issues of increasing stop-and-search, detainees held at Belmarsh, and the extradition of individuals to the United States were also causing concern.
Dr Waheed added: "We are speaking out about the atmosphere which is being generated in our community. We believe our community is making a contribution the wider society. We feel that this draconian implementation of the war on terror is damaging relations between Muslims and others."
The Islamic Human Rights Commission, the Muslim Association of Britain, and Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain are among the groups taking part. Dr Waheed said groups who disagreed on many other issues were joining together to make their voices heard.
The march will end at the high-security Paddington Green police station, where a number of terror suspects have been held. "It is kind of symbolic because a lot of people are taken there and released without charge a couple of days later," Dr Waheed said. I'm hoping for a pink Kaaba, myself. It would need wheels, of course.
Posted by: .com ||
04/30/2005 2:49:28 AM ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2005 11:23 Comments ||
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It's a seethe-a-thon. Say that three times after having a few at the club.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2005 12:22 Comments ||
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I think it's a great idea! That way police along the route can review the crowd via cameras and radio ahead so their buddies can collect up any suspects right at the front gate of the prison. Saves them the time of having to track them down and bus them to jail.
#6
any possibility of extending this march to the cliffs of Dover? Lemming-like they can follow their Imams into the channel
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2005 14:49 Comments ||
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the march was meant to show a message of unity among musims as well as the horror at the kind of inexcusable bigotry posted above. with those attitudes im sure u guys would be fine with the torture of innocent men or their famiies or worse. i am neither surprised nor scared... u r all fools
Posted by: omy H ||
04/30/2005 18:09 Comments ||
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fools? No. We are on to your Religion of Peace™
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2005 18:36 Comments ||
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and you'll get a free pass no more, Wahhabist
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2005 18:39 Comments ||
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thanks for stopping by, tho! Let the Imam know the URL
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2005 19:03 Comments ||
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im sure u guys would be fine with the torture of innocent men or their famiies or worse.
#12
Hey omy ?h - whose religion is so terrified of the truth that it makes all other religions practically illegal under penalty of death (definately under penalty of torture and always under humiliation...).
Who's religion is so terrified of women that it dictates that they be covered head to food and kept at home?
Who's religion honors people who murder innocent women and children with 72 virgins in the afterlife?
Who's religion is based on a pedophile, murder, liar and false prophet? (and this is according to its own 'holy scriptures'...)
I suggest that you go look at the Iraq mass graves. How about here where your hero buried even babies in mass graves.
#13
omy H - Your comments are hyper-sensitive drivel. Your sentiments are blind to the true horrors, the far more numerous horrors, the thoughtlessly accepted by the faithful horrors, the ancient barbaric and brutal horrors - those perpetrated by Islam.
Marching around is the answer to, "What do you do if you're terminally stupid?", not to any perceived bigotry. On that line, there is no one on this planet as bigoted, in innumerable avenues, than a True Believer in Islam. Had you a shred of intellectual honesty, you'd know that as fact. The baggage of Islam is bigotry enshrined.
Your reference to torture indicates you're among the terminally dis-informed and deluded, as well. What do you know of torture? Who kidnaps, terrorizes, and tortures totally innocent people - before sawing their heads off and posting the snuff flic on the Internet? Who celebrates in the streets over burning people alive, then dragging their bodies from a vehicle's wreckage and strings them up for more amateur movie-making? Who revels in the deaths of innocents? Islam. Who tortures innocents? Islam? Who is so blind that they see no fault in themselves and always blame others for their incompetence, barbarity, failures, brutality, hatred, corruption, and misogyny? Islam.
And who posts their disingenuous ignorance, blind bigotry, and utter cluelessness on RB for the entire world to see?
The body of the Chechen terrorist leader, Aslan Maskhadov, who was killed by the Russian special forces in Chechnya on March 8th, 2005, was finally buried on April 22nd. The burial ceremony was conducted according to the functioning law about terrorism. The former fugitive president of the Chechen republic was buried in a nameless grave. Furthermore, the place of the burial is not to be exposed either, Nikolai Shepel, deputy Prosecutor General of Russia in the Southern administrative district said.
At least that's one way to get around the "They Saved Maskhadov's Brain!" jokes. Unless, of course, that's the reason they're not giving the location of the grave to begin with...
Russian President Vladimir Putin has forbidden the sale of Russian-made Iskander surface-to-surface missiles with a given range of 300 km. President Putin made his decision public after holding talks with Israeli President Moshe Katsav. Mr. Putin also said that Russia was not a leader in arms sales to the Middle East. The Middle East countries buy arms worth of $9 billion from various suppliers. The United States is the biggest arms dealer selling $6.8 billion worth of arms to the region. According to Mr. Putin, Russian arms sales to the Middle East fetch Russia less than $500 thousand.
I believe this is called the tu quoque argument. To some extent it's valid - the US is arguably selling advanced weapons to countries it shouldn't - but AFAIR it's never sold ballistic missiles to anyone. OTOH, historically the Russians have "sold" more stuff, on credit, that's turned out to be bad credit...
USA warned Russia against selling the Iskander missiles to Syria. Earlier this year U.S. Department of State said that America might impose sanctions on Russia if the latter should sell arms to a country that was deemed a sponsor of the international terrorism.
On the third hand, on the list of questionable arms sales Russia's been making, the Iskander missiles, while bad, are pretty far down the list from selling reactors to Iran. IMHO.
Meanwhile, Israel is more concerned about Russia's plans to supply the Strelets anti-aircraft missiles to Syria. The Russian Ministry of Defense says that the Israeli military received full information regarding tactical and technical specifications of those missiles. "First and foremost, the missiles are a close-range air defense system with a given range up to 5 km," said a source in the Russian Ministry of Defense last week while commenting on the sale of missiles to Syria. The source also said that a team of specialists from the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Russian General Staff had been dispatched to Israel a few months ago. The team provided all the tactical and technical specifications of the missiles to the Israeli military. The Russian specialists made it quite clear that by no means the missiles could be used as MANPAD (man-portable air defense system).
What basic reading I've been able to do around the web indicates that the Strelets "System" uses the SA-18 man-portable missile, but in a vehicle mount, analagous to the US "Avenger" and "Linebacker" systems. I don't know whether the specialists mentioned above are right or wrong. Quite possibly the missiles could be modified so that they need something on the vehicle-mounted launcher to work.
Russia earlier this year repeatedly confirmed its plans to sell the Strelets air defense systems to Syria while stressing the fact that the missiles could not be used for launching an attack against Israel. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said that a future contract for the sale of Russian-made Strelets missiles to Syria would contain a special clause enabling the Russian side to carry out surprise inspections of the deployment sites.
How they would conduct "suprise inspections" puzzles me.
"The Strelets missiles have nothing to do with shoulder-held air defense systems," said Mr. Ivanov.
Well...
Russia Is Coming Back to Iraq: Russian President Vladimir Putin Announced That Russian Specialists Would be Coming Back to Iraq.
They would help restore various sectors of the Iraqi economy including energy sector and social services. President Putin was speaking at a press conference in Cairo after his talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "We are going to enlarge our support to Iraq and the Iraqi people," said Mr. Putin.
President Putin said that despite the concerns about continuous escalation of violence in Iraq, Russia rates highly the results of last year"s parliamentary election in Iraq. According to Mr. Putin, Russia hopes that the election results could lay the groundwork for political settlement in Iraq.
Putin admitted that some foreign mercenaries were still operating in Iraq. Last year Russia ordered its specialists to leave Iraq after a few Russians were kidnapped and held as hostages. Mr. Putin put special emphasis on a pullout of foreign troops as one of the conditions required for the political settlement in Iraq. He said that several components should pave the way for political settlement in Iraq. Firstly, the government should address issues relating to fair and adequate participation of all ethnic and religious groups in public administration. Secondly, it is necessary to agree to fundamental principles on which a future constitution and political system of Iraq will be built. Thirdly, arrangements should be made with regard to "terms and a timetable for withdrawing the foreign troops from Iraq," said President Putin....
So basically he believes that any political settlement must be preceeded by a US withdrawl.
...The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that security risks in Iraq are still high to Russian citizens, said Mr. Rybinsky. "We would not consider possibilities for the return of our specialists to Iraq until the Russian Foreign Ministry declares that the situation in that country has changed for the better," said he...
Well, who's in charge, Putin or the Foreign Ministry?
The rest of the stuff remaining is more-or-less page 3, although there's a lot of foreign-relations stuff regarding the US and Russia, and an item about Mikhail Khodorkovsky of Yukos as well. I have a meeting to go to...
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
04/30/2005 12:47:58 PM ||
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again urged Iran to give up its nuclear enrichment program.
Speaking at a press conference following his talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah Friday, Putin pointed out that Russia had been consistent in its opposition to nuclear proliferation all along and that it would therefore like to see Iran open its uranium enrichment activity to inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other international nuclear inspectors.
Nuclear proliferation can be especially dangerous in the potentially explosive region the Middle East is, President Putin said, adding that it was pointless from the military point of view and inadmissible from the humanitarian perspective. As the Chernobyl accident showed, if it gets into the environment, radioactive material may contaminate areas far away from where it has originally been released, so those who contemplate using nuclear weapons against others should have no illusions about their own immunity, the Russian leader pointed out. Nuclear ambitions of the powers are an "extremely dangerous thing," he warned.
On the other hand, Putin reiterated Russia's commitment to delivering on its nuclear cooperation agreements with Iran, provided that that country uses nuclear technologies for peaceful purposes only. "The Iranian people have the right to modern technologies in all sectors," said the Russian leader.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2005 2:23:39 AM ||
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#1
As the Chernobyl accident showed, if it gets into the environment, radioactive material may contaminate areas far away from where it has originally been released,
Awaiting your orders, sir. Where do you want the machine next?
#2
Thank's Pooty-Poot, for that enlightening doubletalk.
"The Iranian people have the right to modern technologies in all sectors," said the Russian leader.
How about upgrading and enforcing building codes, better sanitation systems, airports that function, etc etc? The Iranians have the cash, the resources, almost everything they need, except good management. And thanks, Pooty, for making such a fine contribution to making things better.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2005 12:27 Comments ||
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Like true Clintonism and dialecticism - just because we willingly supplied/gave you da stuff doesn't mean you have the right to use it when you want to!?
The influence of Wahhabism -- the branch of Sunni Islam popular in Saudi Arabia but which Russian President Vladimir Putin and others say threatens the Russian Federation -- is undergoing a decline in Chechnya and elsewhere across the Northern Caucasus, says a senior Muslim official with long experience there.
Coincidentally, there's been a decline in the number of Chechnyans.
In an interview carried on the Rosbalt agency this week, Mufti Shafig-Khadzhi Pshikhachev said Wahhabism's decline was because conditions in that region that had powered its rise during the 1990s have fundamentally changed.
Although many may be inclined to dismiss Pshikhachev's statement as pollyannish self-interested -- after all, he is in charge of many Muslim communities there, is certainly interested in shifting the blame to others, and is asking the government to fund traditional Islam -- the thrust and detail of his argument suggest he should be taken seriously.
Pshikhachev, who is now executive director of the International Islamic Mission but earlier served for 15 years as the chief mufti of Kabardino-Balkaria, argues three factors were behind Wahhabism's explosive growth in the North Caucasus.
First, because of Soviet anti-religious policies, he notes, the state of Islam in 1991 both organizationally and ideologically was in a bad way. On the one hand, few Muslims knew much about their faith and allowed a variety of non-Islamic ideas to corrupt it. And on the other, the number of mosques and well-trained mullahs was low.
Second, the opening of the southern border of the Russian Federation allowed the influx of large numbers of Muslim missionaries from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. These missionaries presented themselves as representatives of "true" or "pure" Islam who had come to rescue the Muslims of the North Caucasus from their past and from themselves.
And third, large numbers of young people in the region found themselves unemployed and otherwise neglected by government institutions. As a result, they were open to mobilization by the missionaries who urged them to challenge not only their elders but also the existing Muslim leaders and hierarchies.
Poor, dumb and easily mis-led. Fertile ground for a holy man.
Many young people in that region, Pshikhachev says, did just that. But very quickly, they and especially their parents became disillusioned with the Wahhabis, many of who did not practice what they preached and who seemed more concerned with pursuing a nakedly political agenda rather than promoting Islam.
Moreover, the mufti continues, the number of mosques staffed by locals increased. Mullahs received the kind of instruction that gave them a better chance to defend the region's Islamic traditions against the ideas of foreign missionaries. And traditional Muslim leaders found they could count on the government for help.
And finally, Pshikhachev says, after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, external support for the missionaries fell precipitously. As a result, Wahhabi missionaries found themselves without the resources to continue their work and withdrew.
As a consequence, the mufti continues, there is no possibility of any repetition of the kind of events which shook Dagestan in 1999 either there or elsewhere across the North Caucasus. That does not mean, however, there is no Wahhabi influence in the North Caucasus, Pshikhachev continues. But the influence now is "ideological" rather than "practical," and consequently, Wahhabism as an organized force has relatively little impact on the course of social and political life there.
Because of that trend, he continues, those who say the second post-Soviet Chechen war is increasingly a religious one are simply wrong. "The longer the war goes on," Pshikhachev adds, "the more one senses its non-religious quality."
Of course, people there use the language of Islam, he adds, but that in no way means they are fighting on its behalf.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
At the same time, however, Pshikhachev warns Muslims across the region sometimes are being radicalized by the heavy-handedness of officials. But this radicalization should not be equated with Wahhabization. And he suggests despite some bumps on the road, relations between the state and believers are relatively good and improving.
If Russian government officials there and in Moscow understand the importance of that and if they defend the rights of believers and provide support to mullahs in registered congregations and Muslim spiritual directorates, Pshikhachev concludes, then the influence of Wahhabism will continue to ebb.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2005 12:17:08 AM ||
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the branch of Sunni Islam popular in Saudi Arabia Popular? It's the compulsory state religion of SA for Sunnis. Popularity requires expression of a choice. There is no choice hence you can not use the word popular. More dissembling by the MSM.
The United States has warned the International Atomic Energy Agency that North Korea has been preparing to carry out an underground nuclear test since March and could go ahead as early as June, Kyodo news agency said on Saturday.
The report, which quoted diplomatic sources in Vienna, came a day after the chief U.S. negotiator to stalled talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions said Washington believed North Korea might be trying to harvest material for a nuclear bomb from a shut-down reactor.
According to the sources, who said the information was obtained by satellite photos and from within North Korea, Pyongyang was preparing to test a small-scale plutonium device.
The United States had called on China to urge North Korea to halt its preparations, but there were no signs that Beijing had done so, the sources said.
Japanese officials were unavailable for comment.
Last week, following a similar report, a senior U.S. administration official said that Washington had seen no evidence that North Korea was preparing for a nuclear weapons test, although it had seen "lots of stuff suggesting interesting activity."
On Friday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters in Seoul that a North Korean plutonium reactor at Yongbyon had been shut down for close to three weeks and there could be an operation under way to reprocess nuclear material.
The shutdown and the possibility of a nuclear test were of great concern to nations trying to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programs through six-party talks, he added.
In February, North Korea said it possessed nuclear weapons and was withdrawing from the talks, in which the United States, Japan, Russia, China and the two Koreas have taken part.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2005 2:22:14 AM ||
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I strongly suggest that a Nork nuclear test would be a "line in the sand" trigger, either from the US or from China, at the behest of the US. That is, we have asked China to tell them to stop; and if they refuse China's request, China will have the choice to either "regime change" Nork itself, or let the US do it. Of course, the Chinese would rather have a government friendly to them, so they face an unusual quandary.
Heh, I knew he'd find his own voice. Schwarzenegger says group's patrols against illegal immigrants have been effective. One critic calls remarks 'nothing short of base racism.' That's the classic canard to scare off meaningful discussion, debate, and effective enforcement of the law. It's one of the new "Nazi" arguments used to silence critics of the Socialist agenda. (see Godwin's Law)
Calling the nation's borders dangerously porous, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday praised the private "Minuteman" campaign that uses armed volunteers to stop illegal immigrants from crossing into the U.S. Having a presence on the border works.
Schwarzenegger said in a radio interview that the federal government is failing to secure the border with Mexico, and he cast the hundreds of private citizens who have been patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border since April 1 as a popular response to government inaction. Calling a spade a spade. Unique in CA politics.
"I think they've done a terrific job," Schwarzenegger said of the "Minuteman" volunteers, who plan to expand to California in June. "They've cut down the crossing of illegal immigrants a huge percentage. So it just shows that it works when you go and make an effort and when you work hard. It's a doable thing." Yup.
The governor added that, "It's just that our federal government is not doing their job. It's a shame that the private citizen has to go in there and start patrolling our borders." And taking shit from the Civil Service weenies for it.
President Bush has denounced the Minuteman volunteers as vigilantes. Major fuckup. Bit you in the ass, didn't it George. Paying attention, now?
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) expressed surprise that Schwarzenegger would be "praising efforts by untrained volunteers to patrol the borders. The best course 
would be to add an additional 2,000 border patrol agents." Not so sure, Madame Finger-In-The-Wind. I now trust nothing that reports to the likes of you.
The leader of a Mexican American group called the governor's comments "shameful" and "nothing short of base racism. I think we're seeing the real Arnold Schwarzenegger. The mask has now fallen," said Nativo V. Lopez, state national president of the Mexican American Political Assn. "Those of immigrant stock should have no illusions about what his real sentiments and feelings are toward them." Lol! The New Jesse Jackson - whose power exists in speaking for the illegals. No more of them or making them legal puts you out of business.
Just last week, Schwarzenegger and his aides sought to clarify his statement to a convention of newspaper publishers that the nation should "close the borders." Before his speech was over, an aide told reporters that Schwarzenegger had meant to say that the U.S. should secure its borders — not shut them down. Should've never let the PR dick start spinning. Nothing to spin, it's the law.
Schwarzenegger has frequently sought advice from former Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican who used the issue of illegal immigration to fuel his reelection campaign in 1994. Schwarzenegger also has hired several former Wilson staff members, including his chief of staff, Pat Clarey. Fornicalians know the score on immigration, but so few will stand up that they seldom get to prove it.
An organizer of what is being called the "Minuteman Project," Chris Simcox, said he welcomed Schwarzenegger's endorsement. "It's gratifying to see that elected officials are responding to the will of the people," Simcox said in an interview Thursday. Your new Best Buddy, heh.
He said there are about 15,000 volunteers who have committed to patrolling the border in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. The group is also incorporating, assembling a staff and opening a national fundraising campaign, Simcox said. He added that he planned to call Schwarzenegger. Like the spotlight, eh? S'okay, so does The Governator, heh.
Volunteers may carry firearms if they choose, he said, but they obey all local laws. Their practice is not to apprehend people but to report instances of illegal crossings, he said. "We don't involve ourselves in taking the law into our own hands," he said. They did it right and it worked. Don't change a thing.
Margita Thompson, the governor's press secretary, said: "At this point, the governor does not oppose" the group coming to California. Damned PR people. Get them away from the microphones before they screw it up. Speak for yerself, Gov.
As far as the charge of racism against the governor, she said: "It's not racist to ask the federal government to enforce its laws. Everyone should be united in wanting to protect our national security." Say it like you mean it. Show some spine.
In his interview with KFI-AM (640), the governor said he was deeply troubled by illegal crossings and what he described as an inadequate federal effort to tighten borders. He said he was especially disturbed by footage he had seen recently on Fox News showing "hundreds and hundreds of illegal immigrants coming across the border." As should every American.
Schwarzenegger said the nation is sending the wrong signal by making water available to migrants as a convenience. F**kin' Duh.
Humanitarian and religious groups, such as Humane Borders and No More Deaths, provide water for immigrants crossing the border. Federal wildlife officials have provided water stations in the desert for animals but have been criticized for not providing enough for people. Mebbe they'd be happier if there were a string of convenience stores featuring trail mix.
Said Schwarzenegger, "What we're doing basically is, by not really securing the borders, we're saying: 'Look, here are the various water stations. Here are the places where you can cross the borders. Here is where we're going to help you.' The whole system is set up to really invite people to come in here illegally, and that has to stop." He "gets it", heh.
Enrique Morones, president of the Border Angels, an immigrant rights group, responded to the governor's comments. "I assure you, nobody is coming here for the water, and the stations we have set up by various organizations is a humanitarian effort. "We don't respond to Arnold Schwarzenegger; we respond to a higher authority. We're a nonpolitical, humanitarian organization." Uh, huh. Higher Authority. Right. You mean Fox? You're aptly named.
Asked by the hosts of the "John and Ken Show" why Bush called the volunteers vigilantes, Schwarzenegger said: "I really cannot tell you exactly what his thinking is. I'm sure he's trying to solve the problem as well as anyone can. And he maybe has more information than you and I have. Why he has a policy about the border the way he has, I don't know. I've not had that conversation with him. "But the next time I see him, I will have that conversation." I think it was a brain fart. I'd like to hear him retract it, no ifs ands, or buts.
Schwarzenegger's opponents in the Legislature voiced outrage at the governor's comments. Fingers in the wind? Check.
Agenda before all else? Check.
Heads up asses? Check.
Aides to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) said he was furious and promptly called Schwarzenegger to complain. "I'm weally weally unhappy!"
Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, a Democrat from South Gate, blasted the governor's comments as "scapegoating and immigrant bashing. To support vigilantism is completely against the oath he took" to uphold the law, De La Torre said. "It goes way beyond normal law enforcement, normal border patrol jurisdiction. It's just off the charts. For him to say this puts him to the right of President Bush. This is completely out of the mainstream in California." No, it doesn't, moron. It goes directly to the heart of the issue: enforcing the law.
In the same radio interview, the governor also asked a Spanish-language Los Angeles television station, KRCA-TV Channel 62, to remove a billboard it erected with the words "Los Angeles, Mexico." The governor said such sentiments — implying that Los Angeles was now part of Mexico — would encourage illegal immigration. It's a snark, Gov. We know you get it - don't try to placate the cowards and subversives. Go on the offensive - and stay there.
Some conservatives welcomed Schwarzenegger's comments. Heh.
"Obviously, we are very happy the governor is beginning to side more and more with those of us who have been taking the problems with illegal aliens seriously," said Mike Spence, president of the California Republican Assembly, a volunteer group. "The governor gets that illegal aliens are a problem facing California." Big, he is. Slow, he's not. Time for that conversation with Bush you promised, Gov. And keep whacking the 'tards until all of Sacramento screams in pain and realizes the gig is up.
Posted by: .com ||
04/30/2005 12:51:11 AM ||
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Arnie does have to walk a tight line. Can't be insensitive to the poor schmoes dying of thirst in the desert -- Americans are humane and don't like to see either the dying or the insensitivity. Putting the emphasis on upholding the law is right, I think.
And: what are the odds that the various Hispanic Dems flapping their gums over this really representing all the Hispanics in California?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2005 1:05 Comments ||
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#2
Am I the only one tired of hearing from these dickheads that enforcing our laws is 'racism'?
This isn't about race - I dont care if you are from alpha centari - its about LEGAL STATUS. And Enforcing FEDERAL LAWS and securing our borders.
Its also about protecting LEGAL immigrants and insuring that they have a living wage.
#3
Calling the nation’s borders dangerously porous, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday praised the private "Minuteman" campaign that uses armed volunteers to stop illegal immigrants from crossing into the U.S.
Misleading. While a number of the volunteers are armed, their weapons are not used in the performance of their duties, and their objective is only to report illegals observed to the BP; only BP officers do the apprehending.
"Those of immigrant stock should have no illusions about what his real sentiments and feelings are toward them."
Those of illegal immigrant stock definitely shouldn't be having any illusions....
#5
Article: The leader of a Mexican American group called the governor’s comments "shameful" and "nothing short of base racism.
Actually, it's this guy who's guilty of base racism. If we're going to let Mexico establish a colony on American soil, maybe we should have an open debate about this, and let people from other countries do the same. If Mexico, why not Nigeria, Russia, Pakistan, the EU, India and China? Why only leave the Mexican border unguarded and by extension, let mostly Mexicans in? Let's invite other, equally deserving immigrants. The fact of the matter is this - if we're going to have strict immigration controls at the airports and the ports (with cross-examinations of foreign nationals entering the country), we should have equally heavy policing of the Mexican border. Anything else is discrimination in favor of Mexicans and against other foreign nationals.
#6
Who's calling the shots on illegal immigration and making for the fact on the ground that we have now 20 million illegals? I say it's certain big (and not so big) business interests, not the multiculturalists who have the most political influence. Business interests are the ones the critters in Congress are listening to. Plus the Hispanic vote.
Those of illegal immigrant stock definitely shouldn't be having any illusions
And those of illegal immigrant stock are increasing yearly by leaps and bounds. Some are American born (we can never boot them) and some are illegal too. And now they want instate college tuition. The situation sucks all ways around
#8
sea cruse, That is another thing - we should not automatically give citizenship to those born of one or more illegal immigrant.
Only if *both* parents are Legally citizens or immigrants to the US (and not here on a student/tourist/business visa...) should the child be given natural citizenship.
#9
Enrique Morones, president of the Border Angels, an immigrant rights group, responded to the governor’s comments. "I assure you, nobody is coming here for the water, and the stations we have set up by various organizations is a humanitarian effort. "We don’t respond to Arnold Schwarzenegger; we respond to a higher authority. We’re a nonpolitical, humanitarian organization."
The higher power commands us to obey the law and respect our authorities. He also says we are not to show favoritism to either the rich or the poor...why do the illegals think they deserve preferential treatment and then try to claim the moral high ground, expecting American citizens to pay for all their unreasonable demands and expectations? It's gonna get ugly especially when the law enforcement we do have aren't even allowed to do their jobs and pick offenders up. Sheesh...show a little respect for the hand that cares for the world.
Romans 13: Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.
This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
#10
The best course … would be to add an additional 2,000 border patrol agents."
My take - it's not necessarily 'finger in the wind', but rather an effort on her part to latch onto one of the few areas where she believes Dem and Repub opinions coincide. In this case, she wants 2,000 extra federal employees border patrol agents. From that viewpoint, it's easy to spot such statements (that, and for their lack of frequency).
#11
The 'Pubs are vulnerable on illegal immigration. Dubya will get the credit for reviving the flagging Democratic Party if he doesn't get a grip on this, and do it fast.
The Dems are already making some tentative little noises about it, minority-racist constituencies notwithstanding. Union support means more and it is not hard to guess where they stand. Multi-cult gibberish is fine for union ideologues, but only as long as it is just propaganda. When it starts hurting them, or they can see it in the way of power, it goes out the window faster than a mugged liberal's concern for "the poor."
#12
The 'Pubs are vulnerable on illegal immigration. Dubya will get the credit for reviving the flagging Democratic Party if he doesn't get a grip on this, and do it fast.
The Dems are already making some tentative little noises about it, minority-racist constituencies notwithstanding. Union support means more and it is not hard to guess where they stand. Multi-cult gibberish is fine for union ideologues, but only as long as it is just propaganda. When it starts hurting them, or they can see it in the way of power, it goes out the window faster than a mugged liberal's concern for "the poor."
#13
"Those of immigrant stock should have no illusions about what his real sentiments and feelings are toward them."
LOL. Arnold, the anti-immigrant immigrant? Try again, fool.
I'd be very surprised if a majority of legal immigrants opposed illegal immigration. Especially the thousands of legals whose wages have been devastated by the tide of illegals over the last couple decades.
#17
What AC said. Someone on the Dem side will figure this one out--care to guess who? It's a no-brainer strategy for tilting all the mountain southwest swing states into the Dem column in the next presidential election.
Ignore the "spokesmen" for latinos. It's much more likely that most legal immigrant workingmen would support a pro-labor, pro-border control populist than oppose him. I mean, her.
When's Rove going to figure this out? After the Dems have swept the Southwest?
#18
Hilary's already moved to the center in supporting the war, and is making signs of moving more to the center on religious/social issues. I'd give two-to-one odds that she'll carve out an ooportunistically pro-border control position and try to lock up AZ and CO (nineteen EC vote between them) in short order.
#19
lex: Hilary's already moved to the center in supporting the war, and is making signs of moving more to the center on religious/social issues. I'd give two-to-one odds that she'll carve out an ooportunistically pro-border control position and try to lock up AZ and CO (nineteen EC vote between them) in short order.
Hillary's *talked* to the center. Her voting record reveals her talk to be a pack of lies.
#20
and as the '06 re-election and '08 presidential campaigns draw nearer the Reps will have votes - on real issues or symbolic issues - that define her more than her pander-talk....
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2005 16:55 Comments ||
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#21
Given the Repubs' silence and unconscionable lack of attention to this issue, do you really believe that large numbers of those concerned about border control would not shift their votes to a pro-border control Dem? nb. These are the same voters who tilted to Perot (thereby putting H's husband in the White House).
Mark my word: if current behavior continues, this issue will definitely bite the Republicans in the ass. The next election will turn on COlorado and Arizona. Win those states and you don't need Ohio.
#22
lex: Mark my word: if current behavior continues, this issue will definitely bite the Republicans in the ass.
As long as Hillary keeps voting the way she does, the GOP has nothing to worry about. If Hillary starts voting differently, the GOP can match her and top her moves. It's impossible to outflank the GOP on immigration, any more than it is possible to outflank the Dems on social spending.
#23
It is possible to outflank the pubs when they just stand there with their hands in their pocket on this issue (which is exactly what they are doing).
Especially if another 9/11 happens because of the wide-open borders.
#24
CF - not when all the vocal Latinos for open borders are Donks. Why doesn't someone ask the Hildabeast to do a Sister Souljah on teh LKa Raza movement? Do it now, when it could be a matter of principle rather than expediency (her 2nd middle name now). A movement to outrage legal immigrants (who went through a lot to be so) over those jumping the turnstiles will be the next Rovian maneuver. I just want the borders closed....now...to illegals. Sorry .com
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2005 19:45 Comments ||
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#25
I spent about $3000.00 (Three thousand) and drove more than 200 miles through Houston, Texas, to get a green card for me and my wife and I didn't even come here to work! (I'm retired with a Swiss pension). The process is so complicated that , I, sometimes, understand the illegals.
#26
Welcome, SwissTex. We need more law-abiding legal immigrants like yourself. I believe that most legal immigrants would like to see the process improve for skilled, law-abiding immigrants AND see much tighter border controls to halt illegal immigration.
I agree with you as far as the border controls is concerned but not about the skilled immigrants. You have enough skilled people in the US for any technical jobs but not for what I would call unskilled labour jobs.
#28
I respectfully disagree, SwissTex. Lots of engineering jobs go begging. Problem is that native-born Americans refuse, for the most part, to go for engineering and other "math-is-hard" concentrations. The great blessing of LEGAL immigrants is that they're motivated to do the work that more complacent Americans can't or won't do. That includes the hard science jobs.
#29
Welcome to america SwissTex. You are the kind of immigrant which we need - ones who go through the process legally and appreciate the chance to live here. I know what the process can be like (my wife is an immigrant (legal)) and it can be a real pain in the ass.
I think part of the problem is the intentional bluring of the lines between immigrants (who are here legally and have been granted immigration status) and the illegal aliens (who are *not* law-abiding 'good' people) by the MSM and the 'immigrant rights' groups who are really anti-immigrant (and pro-illegal-alien)'.
There are plenty of well skilled labor available on the market today from people who are willing to go thru the legal process if we would allow them entry.
I say shut down the borders and open up the 'legal' immigration channels a bit more to allow more law-abiding legal immigrants in to meet the labor market needs.
Unfortunately the elitist would never allow that - they would have to pay their gardeners, babysitters, cooks, housekeepers, and 'sex-industry-workers' a real wage instead of the close-to-slave-labor wages now.
#30
Modest proposal: open the borders to anyone who passes a security clearance and has an advanced degree in the hard sciences, or a proven record of building multi-million dollar businesses. And shut the border to the illiterate exports of Mexico's colossal political and economic failures.
Forget the Minutemen, that group of anti-immigration activists patrolling the Arizona desert in search of illegal immigrants this month. A small-town police chief in New Hampshire might have found the best way to embarrass the Department of Homeland Security into finally doing something about America's porous borders: Arrest illegal aliens and charge them with trespassing.
New Ipswich, N.H., a small town by the Massachusetts border, is not where one would imagine a major immigration dispute involving illegals from Central America would begin. The town of fewer than 5,000 residents is roughly 2,300 miles from the Mexican border, and its Hispanic population is less than one percent. Yet it has become a hotbed for border patrol issues thanks to Police Chief W. Garrett Chamberlain's efforts to get the federal government to do something with the illegal aliens he keeps finding in town.
Last July Chief Chamberlain stopped a black Chevy van for speeding. Inside were nine Ecuadorians who confessed to being in the country illegally. They said they had come through California after paying as much as $10,000 a piece to be smuggled over the border. Some had been in country as long as four years. The chief contacted immigration officials (then the Immigration and Naturalization Service), but they refused to take custody of the aliens.
"They told me they didn't have the resources to take them," Chamberlain told the Union Leader newspaper. "We had to let them go."
A few months later police discovered 11 illegal Mexicans living in the town. This time immigration did take them. Things calmed down after that, but this month they heated up again after police arrested Jorge Ramirez at a traffic stop. Ramirez had a valid Mexican driver's license, but all of his other documents were forgeries. He admitted being in the United States illegally.
Chamberlain charged Ramirez with criminal trespass. Under New Hampshire law, a "person is guilty of criminal trespass if, knowing he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place."
"Mr. Ramirez entered the United States illegally," Chamberlain told the Union Leader. "He was not licensed or privileged to be here."
On Tuesday Ramirez goes to court, where a judge will decide if Chamberlain's application of the trespass statute is legally sound. If it holds up, it would mean any police officer in New Hampshire could arrest any illegal alien simply for being an illegal alien. That is a power only federal authorities have now.
The essayist goes on to explore the laws governing trespass in the states along the U.S./Mexico border. Any Rantburgers in the police force or practicing law in a border state? This could be fun!
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/30/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Certainly works for me - and it can be applied nation-wide by every law enforcement official in the country -- and you know they're watching this story. This little precedent will give the LLL wankers nightmares, lol! More! Faster!
Hat tip to OpinionJournal. It's a Reuters article...
Belgian doctors sent an Iraqi girl home on Thursday after treating her for leg wounds caused by a bomb during the U.S. invasion, and sent the 51,570 euro ($66,650) bill to the U.S. embassy.
"We haven't heard from them yet," said Bert De Belder, coordinator of the humanitarian agency Medical Aid for Third World which brought the girl to Belgium. "I'm curious to know their reaction," he told Reuters. "We're giving them 10 days to respond. I don't think they will pay it."
The girl, 15-year-old Hiba Kassim, smiled to reporters as she waited for her flight to Jordan to meet her father. "Thank you, Belgium," she said.
Doctors brought Kassim to Belgium last year to try to save her left ankle, seriously injured by a cluster bomb that also killed her brother in Baghdad in 2003. After five operations and weeks of physiotherapy, Kassim is able to walk again, but with a slight limp.
De Belder said he sent the bill to the U.S. embassy because international law dictated that an occupying force was responsible for the well-being of the country's people. U.S. embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.
Posted by: Pappy ||
04/30/2005 3:10:30 AM ||
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#1
Send the doctors a note that we just deducted their share from the bill prepaid without interest in the butchery at Malmedy and Bastogne.
#2
"Medical Aid for Third World" is a humanitarian agency roughly in the sense that Comintern was. Here's a photo of the kindly doctor De Belder wearing his Che t-shirt and bad-mouthing our country and the UK.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/30/2005 9:52 Comments ||
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#3
I’m curious to know their reaction," he told Reuters.
Nuts!
Posted by: Gen. Anthony McAuliffe ||
04/30/2005 10:29 Comments ||
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#4
"Nuts" -- that's great -- email that one to the US Embassy.
Interesting that Rooters plays up the gratitude angle ("Thank you, Belgium") without detecting any irony.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/30/2005 10:34 Comments ||
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#5
I think we should pay it - but make a big international scheme - big press conference, over sized check with the goal of making sure that the obvious message is that *we* are the generous ones and belgium are the scrooges.
And make sure that this Doctor's name is very prominent. In fact make the check out to the girl so that she can pay her 'humanitarian' doctors.
#6
"...injured by a cluster bomb that also killed her brother in Baghdad in 2003..."
Skeptical. Where in Baghdad would we have used cluster bombs?
Here's the perspective of "Medical Aid for Third World":
http://www.livejournal.com/community/guerillanews/196934.html
Posted by: Tom ||
04/30/2005 11:48 Comments ||
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#7
I stand corrected. Apparently we did use cluster bombs against some military targets that posed imminent threat to our forces (artillery positions, etc.) and were embedded in civilian areas. But in most of the accounts I read, the civilian casualties were from later exposure to the unexploded bomblets.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/30/2005 12:03 Comments ||
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#8
The US Embassy should send a short note. ESAD commie.
#9
Them Cluster Bombs will kill you extra dead so they should be banned unless they're needed to fight colonialist exploiters or right deviationists wrecking centres.
Posted by: Red Barbie ||
04/30/2005 15:14 Comments ||
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#10
And yes, they should be used with the deployable ice-pick module against Trotskite Internationalists.
Posted by: Red Barbie ||
04/30/2005 15:15 Comments ||
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#11
I think we should bill the Belgians and all other appeaser-dhimmi tribes for the damage caused on 9-11 and for the expenses incurred in the suppression of terrorism before and since.
Without the predictable demands for appeasement and surrender, the terrorists would have no incentive to continue their outrages or, indeed, to have started them in the first place.
The maritime law enforcement agencies of Thailand and Malaysia are engaged in a joint exercise code-named Seaex Thamal 2005 in the waters off Kelantan and Thailand's Narathiwat province.
The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) and Malaysian marine police as well as the Royal Navy of Thailand (TLDT) and Thai marine police are involved in the exercise, according to Marine Region One [RMN] Commander Laksamana Pertama Datuk Noordin Ali.
"The six-day joint exercise, which started Thursday, is the first of the two series of exercises planned for this year," he said when launching the exercise at the Tanjung Gelang RMN base here Friday.
Some 200 enforcement officers from both countries are taking part in the exercise, which involves four vessels each from both countries.
Posted by: Pappy ||
04/30/2005 3:02:23 AM ||
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Any boat providing armed escort services to merchant shipping in the Melaka Straits will be detained if it encroaches into Malaysian waters because its crew can be considered as terrorists. Director of Internal Security and Public Order Datuk Othman Talib said directives had been issued to all Marine Police commanders to detain such boats and arrest their crew members if they were to encroach into Malaysian waters.
Othman likened the armed crew members of the escort boats as "mercenaries being paid for performing specific tasks" whereas the crew of naval vessels were given permission to pass through Malaysian waters. He said any private security companies wishing to operate in this country must obtain the necessary permit from the Ministry of Internal Security.
Foreign news agency reports recently said a private security company in Singapore had employed former members of elite military units to provide armed escort services to merchant ships passing through Asian waters including the Melaka Straits.
"They have no power in this country and it is a violation of our territorial sovereignty," he said.
Othman said the Marine Police had started giving escort services to several Japan-owned merchant ships which were carrying high value assets such as construction materials and oil exploration equipment while passing through the Melaka Straits. The Marine Police, he said, were prepared to provide escort services to any merchant ship in the Melaka Straits as they were part of their responsibilities in ensuring national security.
Posted by: Pappy ||
04/30/2005 2:57:13 AM ||
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#1
They won't control pirates, but they will detain security guards. Typical Muslim mentality. We won't protect you, but nobody else can.
#2
That's because predation of the infidels is every muslim's right. Mine Malaysia's harbors. Escort through the minefield can be provided for a fee.
Posted by: ed ||
04/30/2005 11:45 Comments ||
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#3
Better yet, blockade their ports, interdict any rail and road traffic into the country and I'll bet you inside a year they'll sign anything we want them to.
Islam spread to Southeast Asia through Arab merchants around the 14th century. Local people converted gradually, mixing their worship of sea deities and Allah. For centuries, Muslims remained a minority on many of the islands that make up today's Indonesia. Scholars say this distinctive history helped shape the nation's moderate, tolerant brand of Islam.
Despite Indonesia's predominantly moderate beliefs, fringe militant groups have been embedded in the archipelago nation for decades, often inciting small-scale religious violence. But a terrorist attack 2.5 years ago on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people brought a new dimension to the country's Islamic movements.
Indonesia blames the militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah or J.I., for the Bali attack and a series of bombings in Jakarta in 2003 and last year.
Leonard Sebastion, a Senior Fellow at Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, is an expert on Jemaah Islamiyah. "Most of the people who gravitate toward militancy do not come from traditional Islamic families. These people come from poor farming communities in Java.
These are impressionable young minds that are courted by religious leaders with an agenda. Most of them are dropouts from the secondary schools. They are looking for someone to put an arm around their shoulder."
Leonard Sebastion says men like Abu Bakar Bashir, a Muslim cleric considered to be the spiritual leader of J.I., provide such support to young Indonesians. Bashir was recently found guilty of complicity in the Bali bombings and sentenced to 30 months in jail. Bashir, who calls himself a simple preacher, denies any connection to the bombing.
Leonard Sebastian says Bashir's gentle charisma and Islamic alternative to what many perceive as Bashir a corrupt and unjust government appeal to young recruits. "They gravitate to the kind of narrow, depiction of Islam that is adopted by Abu Bakar Bashir that is the answer to their problems and an answer to the way of improving conditions in the country. In a sense they are misled."
Many of the men convicted in the Bali and Jakarta terrorist attacks studied at Bashir's Islamic boarding school on the island of Java. Jemaah Islamiyah, whose name means "Islamic community," aims to establish an Islamic super state across Southeast Asia, from Malaysia to the southern Philippines. The Indonesian government says the group has links to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.
Sidney Jones is Southeast Asia Project Director for the risk analysis think-tank, International Crisis Group. She says the roots of radical Islam in Indonesia can be traced back to a movement called Darul Islam, which began as an armed insurgency in the late 1940s. Its goal -- to create an Islamic state of Indonesia. "Jemaah Islamiyah and virtually all other jihadist organizations are in some ways the children of the Darul Islam movement. For example, we find a number of leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah whose fathers were in Darul Islam."
Most Jemaah Islamiyah members come from Java, the crowded island considered to be the center of Indonesia's economic and political power. It is also home to more than half of Indonesia's 240 million citizens. Sidney Jones says it also has been a focal point of the Darul Islam movement. "You have to understand the dynamics of the Darul Islam rebellion, if you are going to have any idea of how Jemaah Islamiyah is likely to change. Even if you arrested every single member of the leadership structure, you would not eradicate this network. It has survived 55 years. One of the biggest mistakes is to see Jemaah Islamiyah as a static organization that will be exactly what it was like in October 2002 when it bombed Bali.
Ms. Jones says despite a government crackdown that has led to numerous arrests, Jemaah Islamiyah survives as a loose network of small, nearly anonymous cells throughout Southeast Asia.
Edward Masters, a former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, says there is a growing sense among Indonesians of being Muslim. "You can see that by Islamic dress. In the 1960s you would rarely see a headscarf, now it is very common. There is also a much greater identification among Indonesians with international Islamic causes."
Ambassador Masters adds that Jemaah Islamiyah and other radical groups have been able to reach new recruits by building on the perception that fellow Muslims are being targeted by the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
Religious violence has plagued Indonesia's Maluku islands, where fighting between Muslims and Christians has claimed more than 6,000 lives since 1999. That's why Sidney Jones of International Crisis Group says the sense of international Muslim solidarity shouldn't be overblown. "There is a real concern that the war in Iraq is going to intensify bombings and terrorist attacks in Indonesia. In fact, what is much more important is to prevent any of these communal outbreaks from erupting again in Indonesia because that is what stirs the pot in a very dangerous way."
Some terrorist experts say Jemaah Islamiyah's infrastructure is in tact and still lethal. Singapore warns that the group may strike again soon. Meanwhile, many Indonesian analysts say better governance and more moderate Islamic movements may eventually marginalize groups like Jemaah Islamiyah.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2005 12:26:17 AM ||
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Hey, credit where due. Oh, he's complaining, heh, now I get it...
The Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said that "human rights, are a weapon in the hands of our enemies to fight Islam." Speaking at the Conference for the Unity of Islam which opened in Tehran yesterday, Khamenei said: "The awakening of Muslims, had weakened the plot by America, by international Zionism and by other hidden forces on the planet implicated in a universal strategy which has the objective of fighting Islamic nations, which are a force of one and a half billion believers and with the large natural reserves." Well, shucks, Big Turb, you caught us. Yep, we're for all that human stuff and pretty much against all your turban spinning stuff. Go figure, huh?
To a mixed audience of Iranians, Arabs and other foreigners at the conference, Ayatollah Khamenei said that it was "only through the unity of all Muslims, can they confront these diabolical attempts." Diabolical. Cool. Thanks.
Khamenei also explained how Iran is viewed globally in the role that it plays within the context of Islam. As the supreme leader of the Islamic republic, he said, that the "country has contributed to the awakening of Muslims and our enemies are trying to compensate for their poverty of thought, and so they have raised the banner of terrorism and are armed with human rights in order to defeat Islam and Muslims." Lol. Nothing else need be said, Maddest Mullah. When you're right, you're right.
Posted by: .com ||
04/30/2005 3:56:18 AM ||
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From Geostrategy-Direct, subscription req'd.
Does Scott Ritter know something that we don't? Aside from underage chicks....
The controversial ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said President Bush has approved plans to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons installations. The date: June 2005. The method: a massive air attack. Blinding statement of the obvious.
Scott Ritter: The U.S. minimum goal is to destroy most of the Iranian nuclear facilities and set back Teheran's program at least a decade. Sounds like a plan.
Ritter, in a February lecture in Olympia, Wash., said the administration had a minimum and maximum goal in the air operation over Iraq. The minimum goal was to destroy most of the Iranian nuclear facilities and set back Teheran's program at least a decade.
The maximum goal was to destroy Iran's cleric regime and set the stage for a pro-democratic takeover. Ritter doubted that either goal would be accomplished. And why, pray tell does he doubt the US ability? Or is it wishful thinking?
Is Ritter's information accurate? Here's what we know: Over the past year, the Pentagon has been discussing and training for a major air and ground attack on Iran. U.S. satellites and reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles have been scouring everything above ground in Iran in a search for WMD facilities. As well they should be. Bush Doctrine 101.
In February 2005, Bush quietly approved a State Department recommendation for Washington to endorse the European Union diplomatic campaign to halt Iranian uranium enrichment. But neither Bush nor Vice President Dick Cheney gives the EU effort any chance of success. The Great Appeasement, Perdiem, and Lunch Festival with the MMs.
Instead, the White House sees the EU effort as a justification for much harsher measures after failure. Would harsh measures include a military attack on Iran in another two months? It will be time critical to take out Bushehr before it is loaded with fuel. It is also time critical to disable the U235 concentration process, too, before too many critical masses are accumulated.
Regardless, Ritter's goal wasn't to inform the American people as much as warn them of the consequences of a U.S. war against Iran. As he sees it, a U.S. war with Iran would make the 2003 invasion of Iraq a picnic. Stay tuned. So what does Ritter suggest to keep fissile material out of the hands of the MMs, or does his pathological hate of the US cause him to wish that it were so with the MMs?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2005 12:27:36 AM ||
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#1
Ritter is a brainless pedophiliac dick.
1) To attack now would unhinge the nascent internal democratic and revolutionary movements. It would give the Mullahs the reason and power to crack down.
2) It would stop the growing dissent within the caountry against the current regime by giving everyone a common external enemy to focus on.
3)It starts a hot war instead of rotting Iran by giving them and example next door: Democratic and pluraistic government that works and is primarlily secular (espcially impressive for the Shia, their brothers over in Iraq are living large now).
4) The ground forces are not anywhere near ready to stabilize another large country - this one with even more people, even more rugged terrain, and even more in-bred dislike fo the US.
5) Economically, it would disrupt oil supplies, throwing a huge shock into the world prices, and would probably knock the US into a recession.
In short, its would be a dumbassed thing to do at this time or anywhere int he near future, while we are ssstill engaged in Iraq.
The only condition would be that the US (via the CIA, a very shaky thing to trust) had a government by the Iranians that was ready to rise up, disarm and disable the IRG, and take over governance in a hurry - and even then, there would have to be a decapitating strike on the IRG command elements, as well as the ruling regime's political leadership in the person of the head Mullahs (imagine the islamic fallout from deliberately targeting Mullahs, no matter how deserving they are of an Maverick enema). And all this without demolishing their economy or hurting the moderates and freedom-leaning forces there that would be needed post-strike.
In other words, not very likely. Ritter is full of shit.
Ritter is just trying to stir shit up with the Iranians to give them excuses to send agents and terrs from the Revolutionary Guard over the border into Afghanistan and Iraq. He is a traitorous prick and should be dealt with severely. He is a c**ks**ker of the radical Arabs and UN child-rapists.
Yes, I HATE the guy. Its that visceral - nothing worse than someone that formerly served doing the work of the enemy, willingly. I wonder what the promised him, all the little girls and little boys he wants, I suppose.
If I met him in real-life, I'd be hard pressed to keep from simply throwing my best atemi into whatever target area he has open at the time (likely shomen tsuki, right under the point of the jaw), then lock him up with a kote-gashi and grind his wristbones jagged inside the joint. Listening to him howl would be a pleasure. Highly unChristian of me. But that assmunch Ritter deserves it. God forgive me.
Somone ought to hand Ritter over to the Marines and let them do what they do best to traitors who disgrace the Corps.
Anyone up for a blanket party? With concrete rebar instead of soap-in-a-sock?
#2
Soap in a sock? I my old neighborhood the use of big league wooden Baseball Bats was manditory. Winding up was considered good form I hear. That he has earned in spades.
#3
Downside is that after destroying the Ayatollahs nuke program we would have a lot less international sympathy when a mega-terror event takes place on US soil. By Iranian revenge terrorists or other Muslims
#4
Disinformation campaign by the U. S. The mmore the mullahs think we'll attack, the crazier they get internally and the les willing the Iranians are wiling to put up with them. Let them send RG into Afghanistan and Iraq. It only makes the reasonable Euros less likely to support a nuke deal with them. And the unreasonable Euros will stay bought no matter what happens.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/30/2005 8:55 Comments ||
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"The controversial ex-Marine ..."
They say: "Once a Marine, always a Marine." But I bet the Corp's willing to make an exception in his case.
#6
OS -
Two things real quick: first, does it make sense to consider that we would wait until after the Presidential elections there? If a 'moderate' (Gawd, I HATE that expression) is elected and steamrollered by the MMs or the MMs blatantly interfere in the elections, the Iranian people may take care of matters for us, which I had thought was a preferred outcome in any event. (And it may not be as preferred as we want, though that's another story.)
Secondly, I would respectfully disagree with you on the wisdom of Mullah hunting. If a couple or three senior Mullahs communed with Allah at the wrong end of a JDAM, I believe the message might be the strongest one we have sent yet, and the MMs outside of Iran might very well keep their heads down. Remember what Allah said about Death and hiding in high towers...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/30/2005 10:49 Comments ||
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#9
A massive air raid would deter other potential experimenters with nukes. And deterrence is the name of the game - I think we need to establish a point where we're through with talking. To say that American actions are split between all-out invasion and negotiations is to deprive us of an important military option. We haven't done the kind of attack mounted against Libya in almost two decades. It's time we refreshed some memories.
#10
Well, Ritter wants attention, that is a given. We are however in a race to keep nukes out of the MMs, which puts a time crunch on the MM regime change option. When Bushehr goes hot, dealing with them will that much more difficult. We do not want to make a hot lake out of the Persian Gulf.
The other problem is that we at Rantburg do not have the intel as to what is really happening in Iran. OS may have some inkling, but he's not going to tell. It is like looking for the Pribolof Islands in the Bering Sea with a plane. Blue skies as far as one can see, but a big assed fog bank below.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2005 12:16 Comments ||
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#11
Sock, a billiard ball in the toe end of a half pair of panty hose works much better.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/30/2005 19:17 Comments ||
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#12
Just more indicia that the Left wants the various rogue crises resolved before Hillary runs for POTUS - iff Der StalinReich CrockerFrau. Laissez faire-lesbos-for-Regulation-Big Government-and Mackinder wants eight years of Bill-style comparative geopol "quiet", then Iran, NK, Taiwan, ...etal has and MUST-T-T-T be resolved NOW in order for the Clintons People's Waffen SS Soviet Army of the USSA, the Global Republican Federalist Empire of the Dominion of the Union of the Confederacy, can save the burning Conestoga wagons of Clintonian Amerika's pro-National Commmunist-centric Midwest-Mainsteam from their own Potemkinist, pseudo-SPETANATZ, Radical Islam and Clintonian Fascistas, i.e. Fascists-for-Communism, Hitlerists-for Stalin/Marxism, and Amerikan Washingtonians for Moscow-and-Beijing, etc!? Good laissez faire Clintonian patriotskis demand their Global Regulation, OWG, abd Global Taxation, d*** you! Just because the Left is arming the Injuns, milyuhns and zilyuhns of Injuns, and telling them to kill America doesn't mean you have the right to fight back, or get angry about it!?
From Geostrategy-direct, subscription req'd.
Syrian troops are filing out of Lebanon and Syrian officials are quietly preparing to flee their own country. Tensions in Damascus remain high, while confidence in the Assad regime has plunged to an all-time low. Many officials are preparing for either a coup or worse in 2005. Voting with their pocketbooks and feet. "Electronic transfers, don't fail me now!"
For many officials the first step has been to transfer their considerable assets abroad. Second step is to get their considerable asses abroad. Syrian opposition sources said officials have been relaying their wealth to such countries as neighboring Cyprus, Turkey as well as longtime ally, France. In many cases, officials simply gave their trusted assistants cash to smuggle out to the West. "Here, Ahmed, take this briefcase with you on your vacation to Switzerland. Don't forgot who you got it from, kapeesh?
"Yeah, Boss. You da man!"
Are these officials low-level peons? Far from it. They include President Bashar Assad's business partner, Rami Makhlouf.
The Washington-based Reform Party of Syria reports that Makhlouf, who is also Assad's cousin, has transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to France, the Republic of Cyprus and Turkey. The transfers were conducted under the cover of front companies.
Most of Makhlouf's wealth has been in such Syria's allies as Pakistan, where he obtained a cellular phone license. Makhlouf has been a leading player in oil smuggling, drug and arms trafficking and counterfeiting. Creating value in a market economy, this chap.
Where Syrians flee, the Lebanese have already settled. As Syrian officials prepare for the departure, Lebanese officials on Syria's payroll have been leaving the country. Lebanon's security chief, Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayed, issued his resignation and was preparing to flee Lebanon. "Our work here is finished. This tub is sinking, man the lifeboats to Frawnce."
Lebanese military intelligence director Maj. Gen. Raymond Azar has already fled for Paris. Azar, Sayed and others fear that the departure of Syrian troops from Lebanon would leave them open to prosecution on charges of torture, corruption or vulnerable to revenge attacks. Or all the above and more!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2005 12:15:34 AM ||
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#1
Start expecting the eMails soon, offering 20% if you let them use your bank account.
#4
I've oft thought of setting up a throw-away bank account similar to a yahoo e-mail account, just to enjoy the twisty fish reaction for that kinda e-mail. I fear repurcussions on credit rating tho, any ideas?
Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said the "overwhelming trust" given to the new Cabinet will bring about the establishment of new political alliances. "The overwhelming trust given to the Cabinet is the first indicator of the beginning of an interim phase that will witness the holding of parliamentary elections and the establishment of new political alliances," Qassem said.
According to Qassem, Hizbullah's political alliances will be based on national principles. These include Lebanon's independence and sovereignty, the preservation of the resistance's arms in order to protect the country from future Israeli invasion, and the truth regarding the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Qassem further said Hizbullah seeks to establish good relations with Syria and refuses any kind of foreign tutelage or interference in the country's domestic affairs. He called for free and fair parliamentary elections that would produce a Parliament capable of preserving national principles. Qassem also stressed the need to hold national dialogue and to reject sectarian positions. He added Hizbullah seeks to establish an economic and social program through its political alliances that would resolve the current crisis in Lebanon and meet the demands of the Lebanese people.
"Really, just because we turned out all those people to demonstrate in favor of keeping the Syrians, that don't mean we weren't on your side all along... And those bombs that went off? That was't us. There's no proof that was us. Really..."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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A senior United Nations diplomat said Friday the UN will be sending a team to help Lebanon prepare for its parliamentary elections due next month, while pressing Beirut to invite international observers to monitor the electoral process. Terje Roed-Larsen, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy to Syria and Lebanon, told the Security Council in a briefing: "UN election experts will arrive in Beirut early next week, with the full understanding of the government of Lebanon." He added: "The secretary general has also encouraged the idea that international election observers be invited to monitor the elections. In close cooperation with particularly the European Union, we will continue our constructive dialogue with the government of Lebanon on this matter."
However, Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud told The Daily Star Lebanon had not asked for such a UN mission. He said: "We never asked for any technical help from the UN in preparing for the elections. But we won't oppose such a mission, because we want the whole world to see that our electoral process will be a free and democratic one."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Terje Roed-Larsen, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy to Syria and Lebanon
So would this count as a lateral move, or a promotion?
Syrian President Bashar Assad could be ousted from power as his regime fractures under immense political pressure, the head of Israeli military intelligence said in an interview published Friday. "His regime's stability is in great danger today, more than in the past. The economic problems will get worse" following Syria's troop pullout from Lebanon completed this week, Aharon Zeevi said in the newspaper Yediot Aharonot. "He has problems with the Americans because of terrorists infiltrating from Syria into Iraq, water problems with Turkey, and an argument over territory that he should have transferred to Jordan. He is seen as a weak leader. I'm not sure that Bashar has the strength or talent to make a decision. ... If he does not show leadership, Bashar could certainly become a victim of circumstances," Zeevi said.
Israel is still technically at war with Syria and still occupies the Golan Heights, a territory seized from Syria during the 1967 war. "People are already saying that perhaps Bashar is not supplying the goods, that perhaps he should be replaced," Zeevi said, warning that Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network "does not intend to sit by and do nothing" as Syria fractures. General Asaf Shaukat, head of intelligence and Assad's brother-in-law, and the president's brother, Maher Assad, as possible leadership contenders.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said he is happy with "visible" progress made by Syria in withdrawing its forces from Lebanon. Annan was speaking on Friday after a UN Security Council meeting on implementation of Resolution 1559, which calls for Syrian troops and intelligence agents to leave Lebanon immediately and demands the disarming of militia.
Annan told reporters at the UN that since Syrian forces had been asked to withdraw, the disarmament of the militia would have to be carried out by the Lebanese government. "Hopefully the groups concerned will agree to disarm themselves and cooperate with the Lebanese authorities because it is not going to be an easy task if it has to be done by force or imposition," he said. "I would hope governments that have influence in the region and can help in the process would do so."
His envoy, Terje Roed-Larson earlier on Friday gave a report to the Security Council on the implementation of Resolution 1559. "It was the Lebanese Civil war that led to the deployment of foreign forces on Lebanese terrority. Now, 30 years after the eruption of the Civil War, a full and complete Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon would represent a significant and important step towards drawing a final line under the saddest chapter in Lebanese history," he said.
Hizbollah leader Shaikh Hassan Nasrallah on Monday repeated the stance that the UN resolution did not apply because the group was not a militia but "a resistance (movement)".
... and then his lips fell off.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Annan was speaking on Friday after a UN Security Council meeting on implementation of Resolution 1559,
A skull with pink and white dentures belongs to an old woman, investigators said. A skeleton nearby was that of a teenage girl, still clutching a brightly colored bag of possessions. The trenches full of the skeletons of Iraqi Kurds, still in their distinctive, colorful garb, buried where they fell after being shot dead nearly 20 years ago, bear witness to the brutality of the regime of Saddam Hussein.
International forensic experts this week examined a mass grave site in Samawa, on the Euphrates River, about 230 miles southeast of Baghdad, collecting evidence to prosecute Saddam and his top lieutenants for the mass killings of ethnic Kurds and Shiites during his more than 30 years in power. Many of those buried in the 18 trenches were believed to be Kurds killed in 1987 and 1988 during the Anfal campaign, said Gregg Nivala, from the U.S. government's Regime Crimes Liaison Office. "These were not combatants," he said. "They were women and children."
During Anfal, hundreds of thousands of Kurds were killed or expelled from northern Iraq. The campaign included the gruesome 1988 chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja. The Saddam regime was carrying out a program of removing Kurds from the northern homeland and replacing them with Arabs. Many of the Kurdish victims were buried in Iraq's central and southern desert.
Outgoing Iraqi Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin, himself a Kurd, said half a million people perished and 182,000 are missing. "We must know what happened (and deal with) collective memory, so we can do justice, rather than revenge," Amin said.
The first 100 remains of an estimated 1,500 at the site would be used to certify cause of death, the identity of the victims and their origins, the investigators said. Identification cards found on as many as 15 percent of the victims link them to Kurdish villages in the north of the country. The clothing reinforces that those found in the graves were Kurds, Nivala said. Many were wearing their best clothes, or multiple layers, as if told they would be relocating, he said.
Saddam and Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as "Chemical Ali" are the main defendants facing charges for the Anfal campaign. Investigators described the mass graves as evidence of "a widespread and systematic crime, committed over a long time, we think with the knowledge and direction of high-level members of the regime."
At least some things were known about the mass graves and those buried there, the investigators said. Sixty-three percent of the victims were children or teens under 18 years of age. Ten were clearly infants. It may have been a rainy day when they were shot dead, sinking into the mud after they were struck down. They were killed with bursts of fire from AK-47s, the Russian-designed automatic rifle.
Amin said the ongoing insurgency, fueled largely by disenchanted Sunni Arabs and ex-Baathists, was hampering investigations. "The same people that did this are the same people that want to stop me doing this (investigation)," he told reporters.
No date has been set for the trials of Saddam, captured in December 2003, and 11 of his senior aides. Chief investigating judge Raid Juhi, who oversaw Saddam's court appearance in July last year, said the Iraqi Special Tribunal had interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses in connection with the Anfal campaign. "Every judge working on the case, if he finds any evidence against an accused, can interview that accused," he said. Some of the accused were being "cooperative" he said, without elaborating.
Amin said he wanted to government to contribute five percent of oil revenues to compensate Saddam's victims. "Compassion is not sufficient," he said. "Something tangible needs to be done for the victims of Saddam Hussein's regime." Send the exhumation bill to the Belgians.
Posted by: ed ||
04/30/2005 11:22:46 AM ||
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h/t LGF
A US satellite reportedly recorded a checkpoint shooting in Iraq last month, enabling investigators to reconstruct how fast a car carrying a top Italian intelligence official and a freed hostage was traveling when US troops opened fire. A little tech here and there and voila! The Commie Bitch's bullshit story totally falls apart. Gotta love it.
The report, which aired Thursday on CBS News, said US investigators concluded from the recording that the car was traveling at a speed of more than 60 miles (96 km) per hour. Directly contradicting the lies.
Giuliana Sgrena has said the car was traveling at a normal speed of about 30 miles an hour when the soldiers opened fired, wounding her and killing Nicola Calipari, the Italian agent who had just secured her release from a month's captivity. Lying sack of shit.
US soldiers said at the time of the March 4 incident that the car approached at a high rate of speed and that they fired only after it failed to respond to hand signals, flashing bright lights and warning shots. Obviously not going to stop - so they did what they had to do.
The conflicting accounts were among a number of differences that have prevented US and Italian authorities from reaching agreement on what happened. I trust the guys at the point of the spear, not lying preening communist rag writers.
CBS, citing Pentagon officials, said the satellite recording enabled investigators to reconstruct the event without having to rely on the eyewitness accounts. Go ahead, Sgrena, let's see you dispute an unbiased source confirming you are a worthless lying...
It said the soldiers manning the checkpoint first spotted the Italian car when it was 137 yards (meters) away. By the time they opened fire and brought the car to a halt, it was 46 yards (meters) away. CBS said that happened in less than three seconds, which meant the car had to be going over 60 miles an hour. Carry the 17 and divide by the phase of the moon and...
90 yds = 270 ft. in < 3 seconds = 90+ ft/sec
90 * 60 * 60 = 324,000 ft/hr
divided by 5280 ft/mile = 61.36 MPH
CBS said Italian investigators refused to accept that the Americans were justified in shooting so quickly, arguing among other things that the checkpoint was not properly marked. Bite me, Berlusconi. Thanks for nothing, you spineless politician, including the pile of cash prolly funding the current murder campaign. Iraqis should know, since they're the ones dying in large numbers.
Posted by: .com ||
04/30/2005 4:24:38 AM ||
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The way I see it, the car would have been past the checkpoint in two more seconds if not fired upon. 60 mph is insane considering they were on a road known to have multiple checkpoints.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/30/2005 9:54 Comments ||
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#2
I am also very curious if the Sat images show if the car's lights were on or not.
#5
Where is the Italian secret agent car driver in all this? What is his testimony of the speed. How does it reconcile with the commie bitch's writing they were going so fast they almost lost control of the car, as well as time stamped satellite images of the car's position.
Posted by: ed ||
04/30/2005 11:42 Comments ||
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#6
I'm interested in the odds of a leo satellite being in the right spot....
Near the Baghdad airport? It's highly possible.
A satellite in LEO orbits the earth every (very roughly) 90 minutes, and so is over any particular point for only a short while. Not impossible, just...lucky.
A satellite in GEO can be stationary, of course. But that's a loooong way up. Don't know what kind of resolution those telescopes have.
#11
I'm a bit surprised, too, Pappy, at CBS. Their sloberfest of Sgrena was sickening. Maybe they have finally realized they can't distort and hide the truth any longer. They got hit pretty hard over Rathergate. They don't need to loose any more credibility. I can see interviewing the Commie for her 4th or 5th side of the the story but they offered no rebuttal of anything she said and treated it as gospel.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/30/2005 19:09 Comments ||
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A posting on an Islamist Web site stirred speculation over the fate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, and prompted a flurry of denials on Friday that the world's most wanted man was dead.
The entry on www.islam-minbar.net Web site began by saying there was news bin Laden had died but went on to say he was alive but, as a human being, could die any time and that Muslims should be prepared for that when it happens. The unidentified author seemed to be trying to draw readers to his posting with a headline that bin Laden was dead.
London-based Islamist activist Yasser al-Serri, who monitors Web sites, said bin Laden "is alive" and was believed to have recently recorded a new video tape which may be on its way for broadcasting. "The headline of the posting did create confusion, but I believe the person who posted it wanted to urge Muslim youths to continue jihad (holy war) even if bin Laden died," Serri told Reuters by telephone from London.
Western diplomats in Islamabad cast doubt on the reports, apparently circulating on more than one Middle East Web site. Western intelligence officials usually say they believe bin Laden is holed up somewhere in the mountainous frontier region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In March, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf told the BBC that interrogations of captured al-Qaida members and electronic surveillance had led Pakistani security forces to believe they "knew roughly the area where he possibly could be ... maybe about 10 months ago." But Musharraf said the trail had since gone cold.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2005 12:05:24 AM ||
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged aid and military equipment to the Palestinians to reform, boost security and rebuild the shattered economy as he wound up a historic Middle East tour. Putin, the first Kremlin leader to visit Israel and the Palestinian territory, on Friday held talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank following a day of negotiations with Israeli officials and a two-day stop in Egypt. "Russia will continue to offer aid to the Palestinian Authority to implement reforms and construct a state," Putin told a news onference. "We support the efforts of President Abbas to reform the security services and fight against terrorism."
Despite Israeli complaints that Abbas is not doing enough to crack down on Palestinian fighters, Putin confirmed that Russia would provide military training and equipment to Palestinian security forces. "We will give the Palestinian leadership technical help and deliveries of (military) equipment and training," Putin said, while promising that "aviation technology" and helicopters would come first, along with law enforcement training in Moscow. "If we expect President Abbas to fight effectively against terrorism, we cannot expect him to do this with stones," Putin said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
I think Putty has come completely unraveled. There are far more constructive and intelligent ways of Russia getting hard currency than building nuke reactors for Iran and Egypt, and the notion he should be taken up on his offer to host a M.E. summit just bit the big one, I'd say. Putty & Co are diving off the cliff willingly. Anyone got some solid reasoning for the current Russian FP choices? I see alternatives, such as joint efforts with the US and/or US business, that make more sense than this willful decision to go it alone. And as far as I can see, that's exactly where they are, utterly alone.
#2
I don't know why but I kinda like Puty. He is imploding, can't return to the old ways, and must adopt new ones,so economically boosting his country while helping to stabilize the volatile ME, may actually help with our Roadmap to Peace. The Euros have snubbed him, the Pope dismantled the Iron Curtain, he's been plagued with terrorism and incompetents undermining him, and he has few friends except President Bush. He says he can track the missile sales to Syria, so maybe everything will leave a trail and lead directly to the terrorists if intercepted for other purposes. If we can track individual Viagra tablets, we should be able to track most anything. There are micro-chips with GPS capability that can even be implanted into enemy combatants, but don't tell the ACLU!
#5
Anyone got some solid reasoning for the current Russian FP choices?
My take is that Putin's not really calling the shots; his FSB handlers are. These are unreconstructed sovki, old soviet hacks, whose thinking follows the logic of what the sovs called the "correlation of forces": seeking advantage based solely on raw calculations of relative power. The strategic theatres are to Russia's immediate south, and things have gone disastrously for Russia in the eyes of the sovki across every front: Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Kyrgyszstan, Romania/Bulgaria as NATO staging points....
From this viewpoint, Russia's main goal is not to join the WTO or integrate with the west or stimulate the non-resource-based economy but to counter, thwart, check, match or see 'n' raise Bush wherever they can. Which means seeking to subvert our goals in the middle east and exploring areas of cooperation with China. (Note that the natural gas weapon has worked like a charm in cowing the Germans and French into submission-- no further attention needed to the western front.) This is a reactionary approach, in every sense of the word. Reacting to Bush and the advance of democracy across nearly every one of Russia's flanks. Sounds like panic to me. I doubt Putin will survive beyond two years.
#6
lex - That description certainly fits the facts. I'll have to digest it better to see whatever they see regards the logic of opposition for opposition's sake. Sounds like pure habit, not logic. Perhaps the KGB wasn't as politically sophisticated as I gave it credit for.
Putty, as the face of the regime, must be quite problematic. The idiocy of his cult following, the pop idol status given by young Russian airheads, must be comical to those pulling the strings. It will be a nuisance when the time comes that Putty either fails to cooperate or has outlived his usefulness.
Okay, regards who is behind the curtain... I presume you're saying ex-KGB and Russian mafiosi? Can you describe it better for me? I may be the world's least enthusiastic conspiracist, but you've mentioned the string-pullers several times and I can only guess at the 2 types I mentioned above.
Didn't a very high-ranking and rather debonair (excellent English, smooth talking, not scary-KGB-looking, etc.) ex-KGB General die just a few months ago? I knew the face from TV - crap like 60 Minutes - a frequently interviewed post-collapse voice of calm and perspective. Probably their disinformation specialist.
I really am disgusted with Russia thoroughly pissing away their one golden opportunity to break with the past and forge a decent future. The potential wasted. I know, for a fact, that many US oil companies would've spent large sums to help them refurbish their petro infrastructure, that segment of their industry that will generate most of their hard currency for the foreseeable future, but were jerked around and screwed over at every step in the bidding process. Total waste of goodwill, a huge capital resource, and time. It just boggles how mishandled things are. If it's just that the trogs never lost control, well, I guess that means the opportunity was a mirage.
Got any predictions for the future beyond the 2 yr shelf-life of Putty? I won't hold you to anything, just curious. What a waste is all I can say. Good people, rich in resources, good technical reservoir - and what happens? Shit. Shit happens.
#7
t aka lex puts together a scenario that ignores completely domestic politics. Does the U. S. prepare its foreign policy in a vacuum? I think Puty is the little Dutch boy running from one hole in the dike to the next. His strategy is explicable in retrospect only.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/30/2005 17:32 Comments ||
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#8
Mrs D, there is no opposition in Russia today. The liberals continue to fight among themselves and have no real following outside Moscow anyway. The only real opposition are the Communists, who've largely been co-opted by the FSB Putin's strong-man neo-soviet posturing.
The real game in Russia is entirely within the government. Which is to say that our clueless MSM correspondents won't shed any light whatsoever on this at all. Check out moscowtimes.ru, esp Pavel Felgenhauer's occasional column, for insights.
#9
I presume you're saying ex-KGB and Russian mafiosi? Can you describe it better for me?
The FSB have their fingers in a lot of pies. Consider that nearly all of Russia's spectacular fortunes are derived from commodity goods shipped across borders, and then ask yourself, Who controls the borders in a nation whose government has effectively cesased to govern?
Put it another way: it was the security services, and to a subsidiary degree the Party apparat, that created the mechanisms and modalities during the soviet era for funneling money abroad to foreign communist parties. In the free-for-all that was the Gorbachev era, this translated into massive corruption and transfers of huge amounts of gold and hard-currency reserves abroad. So when capitalism came along, who was best situated to move funds offshore from oil trading arbitrages? Ex`communists, particularly those with experience in the finance or economics ministries and those with an intimate knowledge of the foreign-subsidiary funding mechanisms described above. Scratch an "oligarch" and you'll as likely as not find an ex-Komsomol or son-of-a-Foreign Ministry official. And behind them-- the "junior" oligarchs, as it were-- are certainly high-placed officials in the security services.
It is these two groups, one in the govt and one outside the govt, both of them symbiotically linked, who call the shots in Russia today. The Yukos affair is a contest between two sets of corrupt, in fact criminal, insider groups. The FSB won out.
That's my reading, anyway. No foreigner really has the inside dope on this govt. The NYT's reporting on this is laughable. For good guesses, check out PAvel Felgenhauer on the military or a sharp western analyst, Chris Weafer, who's head of research at Alfa Bank in Moscow.
With friends like Pooty-Poot, who needs enemies?
MOSCOW — Egypt has accepted an offer by Russia to provide nuclear assistance and upgrade strategic relations. Egypt claims it discontinued its nuclear program last year. How tight are the financial control requirements for $2 billion in aid from the US? Maybe Mubarrak can buy a nuke, or at least tickle the dragon's tail.
Russian officials said Moscow has offered to supply expertise and technology to Egypt's nuclear program including energy and research projects. Egypt has accepted the Russian offer for nuclear cooperation, officials said. They said Cairo and Moscow would soon sign a formal accord that could include nuclear as well as defense and space cooperation. The whole meal deal. Be a nuclear power on your block and you will have respect. ***sigh*** Mad Mullah Lite.
Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency director Alexander Rumyantsev said Cairo and Moscow were preparing what he termed a comprehensive cooperation agreement on nuclear energy. Rumyantsev accompanied President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Egypt on April 27, where he met President Hosni Mubarak, Middle East Newsline reported. Russia has the nuke expertise, Egypt may have the cash. Just like Iran.
In 2004, Egypt appeared to shelve its nuclear energy program. Officials disagreed on the nature of Russia's assistance and the future direction of Egypt's program. "We want reactors!"
"We want nukes!"
"Hey fellas, we may have some middle ground where everybody wins." A booming win-win.
"The parties will discuss concluding technical details of the document aimed at increasing bilateral cooperation in nuclear energy," Rumyantsev said upon arrival in Cairo.
Rumyantsev said Egypt has established a regional research and medical center based on a Russian cyclotron. He said the two countries were ready to install an accelerator to produce nuclear isotopes required for medicine. OOOOH! Cyclotrons and accelerators for nuclear medicine. Great cover.
The two countries were also discussing what officials said were additional civilian nuclear projects. Officials said they included the establishment of a nuclear-powered desalination plant. Hope it doesn't go Chernobyl on ya. Your neighbors in the Med are gonna be pissed off.
"Russia and Egypt are not talking about building a nuclear plant," Rumyantsev said. So how will a nuclear desalination plant work without a nuclear reactor?
But later Putin's foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko appeared to disagree. Prikhodko said Moscow has sought to renew supplies of military equipment and spare parts to the Egyptian military, construct a nuclear power station and cooperate in space. We'll get our public story straight later.
Another member of Putin's delegation was Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Federation Council International Affairs Committee and regarded as a presidential adviser. Margelov said Russian defense and energy contractors have increased their activities in Egypt and other Arab countries. Looking for cash. Things are tight in Mother Russia.
"A new Middle East policy is an important part of Russia's mission in Eurasia," Margelov said. Bring on the arms and Nukes for whirled peas. /cynicism
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Heh, spot on, AP! Prez Putty has phucked up in more ways than can be counted, IMHO. I'm sure there are still a few who will point out something positive, such as his slim trim girlish figure, but I think he's the second most egregious disaster Russia could've had foisted upon them. Only the tool of a Russkie Mafia Don could've been worse. Oh, wait, er...
And I think ElBaradei should head up the IAEA for another tour so he can watch closely over the Egyptian nuke program. Who else can be trusted?
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.
Schwarzenegger says group's patrols against illegal immigrants have been effective. One critic calls remarks 'nothing short of base racism.'
Syrian President 
UN Secretary-General 
A posting on an Islamist Web site stirred speculation over the fate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, and prompted a flurry of denials on Friday that the world's most wanted man was dead.
Russian President 
