October 26, 2005: Quite a number of countries, including some Arab ones, have been contributing Special Operations Forces (commandoes) to the US/NATO Coalition forces in Afghanistan (one SOF operator called the war there âa SOF Olympicsâ). Normally, a contingent remains for a year and then rotates home, to be replaced by fresh troops. But some countries donât have all that many SOF personnel available to sustain a continuous rotation. This is particularly true for some of the Gulf Arab states. All of these countries have some SOF capability (though quality varies), and several have contributed contingents to operations in Afghanistan. But they are not able to sustain a continuous presence. There are several reasons for this.
One is small population. Most of the Gulf states have a surprisingly high proportion of non-citizens in their ranks, usually men from poorer Moslem countries, notably Pakistan, who may be subject to the influence of Islamist radicalism; for example, of about 11,000 troops in the Kuwaiti Army, over 3,500 are foreigners, while of some 44,000 ground troops maintained by the UAE and its member states, over 13,000 are foreigners. While all of the Gulf states are working to reduce the proportion of foreigners in the ranks, they have a long way to go. This just complicates the problem of relatively low numbers, as all of these nations have quite small armed forces to begin with, and thus extremely small SOF/Commando contingents. In addition, they all have to retain some SOF personnel at home, given that they are themselves on the front lines in the war on Islamist extremism or other problems..
The current ground force and SOF Capabilities (both approximate) of the Gulf Arab states are;
As a result of this shortage of SOF personnel, ârotationâ of SOF contingents from the Gulf Arab states appears to proceed on somewhat different terms than that of other countryâs personnel. To begin with, the Gulf Arab contingents do not seem to remain for an entire year, but rather for 6-9 months. And when they leave, they are replaced by a contingent from one of the other Gulf Arab states.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/26/2005 10:21 ||
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a surprisingly high proportion of non-citizens in their ranks...
Fanatical Islam must seem pretty good to these guys. In the caliphate, they are citizens of the Islamic state, vice mercenary non-citizens of an Arab state.
There he is, Mr. Islam. A Muslim cleric who has prayed to "terminate" the Jews was awarded Islamic Personality of the Year at a ceremony in which he called Islam a religion of "harmony and kindness" that rejects terrorism. As WorldNetDaily reported, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al Sudais â the veteran Quran reader and imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia â prayed to Allah in 2003 in front of 2 million followers to "terminate" the Jews, who he called "the scum of humanity, the rats of the world, prophet killers ... pigs and monkeys." And Jackals?
Therefore But he was honored Sunday during the closing ceremony of the Dubai International Holy Quran Award, an annual event in the United Arab Emirates capital during Ramadan aimed at promoting Islam's main text. According to the event's website, the Islamic Personality of the Year "must have an honorable history in serving Islam and Muslims."
In his remarks upon receiving the award, the sheikh said, "The message of Islam and Muslims is modesty, fairness, security, stability, sympathy, harmony and kindness and lying."
In his April 2003 address in Mecca, however, Al-Sudais urged Arabs and Muslims to abandon peace initiatives with Israel â comments carried worldwide by Reuters and the Associated Press.
While some media at the time suggested his racist characterization of Jews was a singular occurrence, Al-Sudais has described Jews variously as "evil," a "continuum of deceit," "tyrannical" and "treacherous," WND reported. Last December, Al-Sudais was listed as a "specially invited guest" of an Islamic conference in Florida. Following media exposure, however, his name disappeared from conference materials.
On the International Holy Quran Award website, the event's organizing committee said Al Sudais "has been selected for his devotion to the Quran and Islam."
"His remarkable and ear-catching intonation of the Quran during the Haj [pilgrimage] season and during the Taraweeh [special night prayers during Ramadan] in the holy mosque has made him very famous and beloved among the Muslim community," said Saeed Hareb, vice chairman of the organizing committee.
Al Sudais reflects a bright picture of Islam and Muslims, Hareb added. "He became a recognized personality among the Muslim community through his Quran reading and working as a specialized professor in Fuqoh [Islamic jurisprudence]," he said.
The award selection is carried out through nomination by states, universities and specialized institutions, according to the website. The winner's "writings or stances should be universally recognized," it says. Al Sudais was born in 1961 in the Al Qaseem area of Saudi Arabia where he reportedly memorized the Quran at the age of 12. The Ann Coulter option is looking better all the time.
#1
Okay. Here's our next contestant Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al Sudais.
Sheiky, what would you like to see most for the world?
Lot's of dead Jews...and world peace.
Good answer! Don't touch that dial. Coming up next, the swimsuit competition. After this from Mecca Cola...
The US has agreed to Japanese proposals to relocate a military base on Okinawa. Details of the move have yet to be released, but Japanese media reports said the air base would be moved from Futenma to Camp Schwab, near Henoko. The US had previously favoured a controversial plan to build a new base on a nearby coral reef. The decision to move the Futenma base was taken 10 years ago, after protests from residents over the rape of a local schoolgirl by three US servicemen.
"The US side, taking into consideration the importance of the Japan-US alliance... have accepted the most recent Japan Defence Agency proposal and plan," US Deputy Under-secretary of Defence Richard Lawless said.
Japan's Minister of Defence, Yoshinori Ono, said: "It was a very long way... but we managed to willingly reach an agreement." Japan's Foreign Minister, Nobutaka Machimura, said the two countries had also agreed to move "thousands" of US marines out of Okinawa, but did not give further details.
Perhaps the long rumored move to Guam is coming
Talks on relocating the base had been a stumbling block in negotiations on redeploying the 37,000 US troops based in Japan, more than half of which are on Okinawa. Environmental activists had strongly opposed the original US proposal to build a base on the Henoko coral reef, which is home to the rare dugong sea creatures, also known as sea cows. For its part, the US had previously objected to the alternative proposal of moving to Camp Schwab, citing operational reasons. Reports say a compromise has now been reached under which Japan has agreed to allow the US to extend the Camp Schwab base offshore.
The issue had been complicated by the reluctance of many Okinawa communities to host US military bases, over concerns about crime, accidents, noise and environmental pollution.
And the fact Okinawa has the highest consentration of leftists in Japan.
Other residents support the US presence, arguing that the bases bring jobs and income to one of Japan's poorest provinces.
The majority, but a quiet majority. A lot of Okinawains would have perfered independance when we handed control back to Japan. That's one of the subjects the Japanese don't like to talk about.
The resolution of the dispute paves the way for US President George Bush to visit Japan in November. The US sees the Okinawa bases, located within striking distance of China and the Korean peninsula, as essential for its security strategy in Asia and the Pacific region.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/26/2005 08:38 ||
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I favor the move to Guam, but after we have a working missle defense system because I would like to put a lot of our Eastern Pacific eggs in that basket. Still moving the airbase is a nice start.
#2
This is just the Marine Corp helicopter base. The big Air Force base at Kadena ain't going anywhere.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/26/2005 10:00 Comments ||
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Nor I assume the Navy presence embodied at Yokosuka by the USS Kitty Hawk carrier group?
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
10/26/2005 10:08 Comments ||
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#4
Kitty is staying till 2008 when she is scheduled to be replaced by CVN-77, the George H.W. Bush. Bitching continues about the noise her air wing makes in port.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/26/2005 12:35 Comments ||
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#5
Oh. So they want us to be vewwy vewwy quiet while we're defending them.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/26/2005 13:50 Comments ||
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#6
Gaijin speak softly and carry a big carrier group.
A Funeral will be held in Western Australia today for the fourth Australian victim of the October 1 Bali bombings.
Brendan Fitzgerald, 16, of Busselton, was killed when a bomb ripped through the Kuta restaurant where he was eating with his father and sister on October 1, in what was their first overseas holiday together.
The town of Busselton experienced the loss of one of its citizens to a terrorist attack for the second time in three years.
With a population of just 25,000, Busselton is on the coast 225km south of Perth.
Another resident, Carol Johnston, died in the Bali bombings of October 2002.
"There's a genuine sense of disbelief here," state MP and family friend Troy Buswell told ABC radio today.
"How could such a small corner or part of Australia be hit twice by such a tragic act?
"There's been a sense of shock, and also a sense of course of outrage and disgust, and above all, a great sense of loss, the fact that such a wonderful young man has been taken from, not only from his family, but also from his friends and from this community."
Mr Buswell said there were some Busselton residents who had vowed never to return to Bali.
"There are people that say they'll never go back and there are people who quite simply refuse to have their freedoms affected by the actions of these terrorists," he said.
Brendan Fitzgerald's funeral will be conducted by Marcus Holt, the chaplain at Busselton Senior High School.
Mr Holt said it had been a difficult few weeks for the community.
"It has been a long time (since the attacks), and I think for all of us, while nobody would ever say it ... you know, let's get through it, let's move on, not that people want to forget it or anything but it is difficult," he told ABC radio.
As well as the four Australians, 19 others died in blasts at restaurants in Kuta and Jimbaran Beach.
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
10/26/2005 19:16 ||
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A Victim of the 2002 Bali bombings has urged Australia to stop aid to Indonesia in protest against moves to further reduce the jail term of radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.
Erik de Haart, a spokesman for Sydney's Coogee Dolphins rugby league club which lost six players in the terrorist attack, said the recommended 30-day remission for Bashir was disgusting.
Mr de Haart, who was standing outside Bali's Sari Club when the 2002 attack occurred, said the Australian Government should immediately withdraw aid to Indonesia unless it guaranteed not to reduce Bashir's jail term.
In the aftermath of the latest bombings in Bali this month, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer announced a $1 million aid package.
"It p****s me off that the Indonesians treat us like this," Mr de Haart said. "The Government needs to protest in the strongest terms possible â if they want to treat us with disrespect, we should hold the aid back.
"Give it to Laos or Cambodia or countries that will respect us and can use it.
"This shows how little respect Indonesia has, not only for the people that died, but for Australians in general."
An Indonesian Justice Ministry source said today prison authorities had requested a 30-day remission for Bashir to mark the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan next week.
By tradition in Indonesia, the sentences of thousands of convicted inmates are reduced as part of religious celebrations.
If approved by Justice Hamid Awuluddin as expected, the remission would mean that Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, which is blamed for the 2002 Bali blasts, the October 1 bombings and a string of other attacks, would walk free in May next year.
The Australian Government has repeatedly protested against moves to reduce Bashir's sentence but Mr de Haart said it had not tried hard enough.
"Their efforts have been crap," he said.
"It really saddens me and it embarrasses me: the stance that Alexander Downer takes. He's not strong enough in complaining to them."
He said stronger protests might not change the minds of the Indonesians, but Australia should show it is angry about the move and does not want to see it happen again, "not stand back and take it".
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
10/26/2005 03:02 ||
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Funny, and I was called a hard-hearted b@stard for suggesting that we restrict our aid in the tsunami's wake. What has it bought us? A get-out-of-jail-free card for Bashir, more murder in Bali and not much else.
Indonesia needs to stew in its own juices for a while. Let them see just how corrosive drinking from their own well can be. If foreign investment dried up (like in the Philippines), they might change their song in a hurry. Feeding the hand that bites us is just plain stupid.
The Pentagon has notified the U.S. Congress of a possible $3.1 billion sale of 40 F-16C/D fighter aircraft to Greece, a Defense Department agency said Oct. 26.
The Greek government requested the fighter aircraft along with an assortment of related equipment and weapons, including four AGM-154C Joint Standoff Weapons and six satellite guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs).
The agency put the value of the deal at up to $3.1 billion if the sale is concluded.
âThis proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the military capabilities of Greece and enhancing weapons system standardization and interoperability with U.S. forces,â the Defense Security and Cooperation Agency said.
#3
The feta is locally sourced WMD. Greece already has 140 F-16C/Ds, but sadly for them, Turkey has 240 of them. I think the additional F-16 buy, instead of Eurofighter, Rafale or Russian, is to ensure a priority slot for an F-35 buy. Turkey is a partner in the F-35 program and will get them before Greece.
Posted by: ed ||
10/26/2005 21:53 Comments ||
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(CNSNews.com) - Like many other anti-war demonstrators, Cindy Sheehan has been waiting for the 2,000th American to be killed in Iraq. When that happened on Tuesday, Sheehan, the mother of one of those slain soldiers, resumed her protest in front of the White House -- a tactic that one of her critics called "desperate."
"She will do anything to get publicity. Cindy Sheehan has been blown off the public map by [Hurricane] Katrina and [Hurricane] Wilma. She is desperate," said David Horowitz, the co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Center for the Study of the Popular Culture and a former 1960s radical turned conservative. "Cindy Sheehan has gone from disgracing her son's memory to becoming a caricature of someone who exploits a tragedy for her own self aggrandizement, to someone who is on her way to becoming a rich and famous harridan," Horowitz told Cybercast News Service.
Horowitz added that Sheehan has "nothing interesting to say, except to parrot lines written by [left-wing filmmaker] Michael Moore and [former U.S. Attorney General] Ramsey Clarke. "Who cares what Cindy Sheehan thinks? The only thing she has done in her life is given birth to a heroic young man who she has, in word and deed, disowned," Horowitz added, referring to Sheehan's son Casey, who was killed while serving in Iraq in 2004.
On Tuesday, a moment the anti-war movement had been anticipating for weeks, the 2,000th U.S. soldier was killed in Iraq, according to media reports. A coalition of groups, including Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out and the American Friends Service Committee were planning nationwide "events" to claim that "the country's pro-peace majority wants Congress to stop the deaths by stopping the dollars that are funding the war."
But Horowitz dismissed the anti-war left as a movement to help the terrorists win the battle for Iraq. "[Two thousand military deaths is] a small price to pay for the freedom of 50 million people [in Iraq], not to mention the safety of 300 million [in the U.S.]," Horowitz said.
"We have not been attacked since 9/11. There is only one reason for that and that is young men and women like Casey Sheehan were willing to give their lives for the rest of us, which makes even more disgusting the lack of gratitude of his own mother and all the people gathered with her for that sacrifice," he added.
Sheehan's fading media star has been noted by other media outlets.
An Oct. 17 article in the San Francisco Tri Valley Herald newspaper was titled, "Peace Mom Slips From Public Stage" and noted that Sheehan's "name is fading from headlines." The article quoted Columbia University professor and former 1960s anti-war activist Todd Gitlin, as noting that Sheehan lacked the "star status and historical staying power of some 1960s activists ..."
Sheehan's decision to move to Berkeley, Calif., following the breakup of her marriage, might also accelerate the dimming of her celebrity as a grieving mom from Middle America. Instead, she will increasingly be seen as a promoter for the radical left, according to Horrowitz.
"I needed a place to stay and some friends got me an apartment," Sheehan said, according to the Berkeley Daily Planet. But Horowitz noted that Berkeley is a bastion of left-wing politics and said the relocation was "the perfect place for Sheehan."
Sheehan also recently signed a contract with the speaker's bureau Speaking Matters LLC. Representatives from the group have not returned repeated requests from Cybercast News Service to discuss Sheehan's schedule and speaking fees.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/26/2005 08:52 ||
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#2
My fondest wish is that Sheehan will someday awaken from her idiotic mindset (it'll probably take some very serious psychotropic drugs) and realize that she has become everything her son fought against.
#12
Cindy Sheehan is desperate for attention??!!??? This is huge! Next thing you know we're gonna hear that Trump is in it for the money or that Clinton digs fat chicks! Stop the presses!
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
10/26/2005 13:09 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON â An anti-war British lawmaker demanded that a Senate investigative panel charge him with perjury, responding to reports alleging he lied to Congress in his testimony about U.N. Oil-for-Food allocations.
George Galloway, who denied the allegations, said if charged, senators will have to face him in court and âput up or shut up" in their accusations that he gave false testimony when he said he did not receive allocations from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
âItâs a very serious charge and I demand them to charge me with perjury right now,â Galloway said in London. âIf they do, Iâll be on the next plane to the United States.â
Galloway, a member of the British Parliament, was called to testify in May before the Senate committee looking into the Oil-for-Food scandal. During his testimony, he called the committee âthe mother of all smoke screensâ and repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Congressional investigators said Galloway could face charges of perjury, making false statements and obstruction. Each charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., in a follow-up report to the May hearings released Monday, detailed the allegations against Galloway and others.
Click here to read Coleman's report.
The report says investigators uncovered a money trail, citing documents that follow bank statements and records that prove Galloway received allocations from Saddam. As evidence, Coleman cites documents he says show that Galloway personally solicited and received oil allocations in 23 million barrels from 1999 to 2003, which could be sold for a profit.
âThese are the documents; they speak for themselves,â Coleman told FOX News. âThe records, the evidence says that he was paid off by Saddam Hussein.â
Coleman, chairman of the subcommittee, said the documents show that Mariam Appeal, a political organization that Galloway established in 1998 to help a 4-year-old Iraqi girl with leukemia, and Galloway's wife, Amineh Abu-Zayyad, received about $600,000 from the oil allocations.
The documents follow how oil allocations were given to a close friend of Galloway and later deposited into accounts of the British lawmaker.
The Senate panelâs report also accuses Fawaz Zureikat (search), a Jordanian businessman and friend of Galloway, of funneling money from the Oil-for-Food program to Abu-Zayyad and Mariam Appeal.
Senate investigators confirmed their evidence through interviews with Gallowayâs friend and former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan.
Other congressional committees are reviewing allegations that Hussein used the $64 billion Oil-for-Food program to help rally international opposition to U.N. sanctions against Iraq put into place after Saddamâs 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
FOX News' Eric Shawn and Melissa Drosjack and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
A NEW York jury today ruled that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was negligent and can be sued for damages from the 1993 truck bombing at the World Trade Centre, setting the stage for a potential raft of lawsuits.
Islamist militants exploded the truck bomb in an underground parking garage of the twin towers on February 26, 1993, killing six people and wounding more than 1000.
The jury ruling in the state-court case means relatives of the six people who were killed and the hundreds of other victims and businesses affected by the blast may proceed with damage suites against the Port Authority for damages.
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
10/26/2005 18:00 ||
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EFL: On the book tour maybe, holy man?
SYDNEY (AFP) - US soldiers offered prostitutes in exchange for information from an Australian Muslim held at Guantanamo Bay since being arrested in Afghanistan four years ago, a former US army chaplain said. David Hicks, a convert to Islam from the Australian city of Adelaide, has been in US custody since he was captured alongside Taliban forces in Afghanistan in late 2001, and has spent most of that time at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba. US Army Captain James Yee, one of the few people given regular access to Hicks, told Australian public television that the Australian told him of being taunted by offers of prostitutes in exchange for information. See, he told me so it's gotta be true. These guys wouldn't lie to me, me being a holy man and all...
"On occasion he would talk about, for example, in his interrogations that he was offered a prostitute in return for giving some type of information," Yee told ABC television."But he felt that that was just an insult to him -- it was an insult to being a Muslim, a practising Muslim." Should've offered him a goat. Or a sexy sheep.
Yee, who was himself arrested on suspicion of espionage involving Guantanamo Bay detainees and was held in solitary confinement for 76 days, said that Hicks had been studying Islamic law since being placed in solitary confinement months ago pending his trial. I thought Hicks was a borderline veg, according to pops and his lawyers?
"He was just really asking that I request to make more visits to him because I was really, essentially, the only one he had contact with," he said."The command only allowed me to go once a week," he said. "They weren't open cells, they were completely closed, he had no access to sunlight." See, no nasty sunburns. Who says we don't care?
Yee received an honorable discharge from the service after US authorities eventually dismissed the charges against him in March 2004. Take a hike, holy man.
#1
Hmmm. No mention that Yee is a muslim convert and trained to be an imam in Syria. He is also married to a Syrian woman. He was arrested for returning from Gitmo with classified docs of the interrogations and was going to Syria on "vacation". Eventually the charges were dropped because to go to trial would mean publicly disclosing the contents of those secret interrogations (a huge flaw in our legal system) and he was allowed to resign when he should have been beheaded.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/03/19/yee.charges.dropped The only testimony about what Yee may have done wrong came from a U.S. Customs agent, who said Yee was carrying lists with names of detainees and interrogators when he arrived in Florida on leave in September. The agent searched Yee's belongings on a tip from military investigators.
Muslim, first, last and always.
Posted by: ed ||
10/26/2005 11:42 Comments ||
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I only caught part of it but I heard Fox News discussing Wilson's reply when asked about running for office: "I've had too many wives, did too many drugs, and I DID inhale!" Probably the only truthful thing he's said and I hope they replay it ad nauseum.
US military experts are attempting to create an army of super-human soldiers who will be more intelligent and deadly thanks to a microchip implanted in their brains. Scientists believe the implant will vastly improve the memory of troops so that they can recall every detail of their training and become more effective fighters. Researchers at the University of Southern California's bio-engineering department have created the chip, which acts in exactly the same way as the hippocampus - the part of the brain that deals with memory.
In experiments, the team removed that section of the brain of dead rats and inserted the chip in its place. The implant sent exactly the same electronic signals as the real thing.
The next stage of the project is to test the implant on live animals. If this work proves to be as successful, experiments could one day be carried out on soldiers.
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
10/26/2005 03:07 ||
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I'm pretty sure I read where the Iran Government
was attempting to create an army of super-human troops thanks to a chip implanted on their shoulders
#3
I think it would be more urgent to design a brain chip for actors, musicians and MSM journalists given how poorly their natrural, carbon-based brains work.
#4
Somehow i don't see soldiers lining up to have chip implants. This is just stupid. After the army did tests in the 50s, and some folks think they're continuing tests with the innoculations, to imagine that they'll let somoen remove a chunk of the brain to put a chip in. Not gonna happen.
Build that chip into the helmet, or other gear and find a way to allow the brain to access it and you might have something, even then there will be serious paranoia issues to contend with.
If they can take depleted uranium and make such a big deal out of it imagine the mind-controlled soldiers articles we'll see.
I have been saying for years that impants are the next logical step.
They merely have to be proven to provide an advantage in areas that people consider advantageous. Better memory, quicker responses, things that carry over to civilian life.
Once they are proven people will line up in droves. Faster if communications could be wired in as well. What woman could resist having her cell phone in her head???
I'm not saying this is a good thing, merely that it will happen. Cyborgs are coming whether we like it or not.
Posted by: DanNY ||
10/26/2005 9:39 Comments ||
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I just want to be able to control the TV with my brain. Picking up that remote control is a lot of work.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/26/2005 10:03 Comments ||
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I call bullshit, because the article doesn't directly link the US military to this project.
Then again, there's the dark side -- all those memories you wish you could forget?
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
10/26/2005 10:05 Comments ||
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#9
If this work proves to be as successful, experiments should one day be carried out on the Researchers, would be better.
#13
I'd swear me ex had this implant. She never forgot anything...dammit
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/26/2005 11:23 Comments ||
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#14
RJ nailed it, rather than brain implants some brain communiocation technology.
Nano-tech development makes all possible. Just an injection with brain enhancing nanobots could bring the same desired results with less of that troublesome cranial invasion.
#15
This is a joke, right? Or a gullible reporter (but I repeat myself).
"We're working on a way to make your computer go faster. Electrical signals travel faster in copper than semiconductors, so we just jumper this paperclip across the CPU connectors and voila--it goes faster!"
Posted by: James ||
10/26/2005 11:44 Comments ||
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#16
Kurt Russell was in this movie. It really sucked...
Are you familiar with the cochlear implant? It transfers audio information to the audio nerves (go to bottom bor diagram). There is no reason a similar mechanism could not be discovered for other parts of the nervous system as well. But note that the cochlear implant was developed 30 years ago. There is nothing comparable yet for vision, though researchers have no doubt been busting their chops to be the first. But it's only a matter of time.
Hooking into "memory" would obviously be yet more difficult. But 105 years ago man could only fly in a hot air balloon. The boomers or X'ers will probably be the last generation to die without widespread significant electronic enhancement.
#19
Frank.. Considering current computers... that woman would have one hot chest. It would need to be fully exposed to provide proper cooling to those large implants.
#20
I dont know about memory augmentation but chips are coming sooner than later. I have been seeing pieces of stuff since the early 90's on chips in monkey brains that make them able to move robot arms with thought. And I dont mean up and down only I mean fluidly like you move your arm with training by listing to the signals of your brain as it moves your arm the recording recognizing those when even their is no arm moving just the thought of. Imagine a day when you are about to die the abulance shows up slices both sides of the neck hooks up to the machine to keep your brain living to the main veins, takes you to the hospitol pops in a chip then after a fews years of rehibilitation you are cyborg on a robot body. You would basicly exist as a brain cube ready to be inserted into X machine huminode tank airplane space plane ect... no body means a little bit of air supply and food will go along way. It sounds sci-fi but it is actually just a couple of years away. They now have fake arms and legs that do this through sensors on the outside of the skull dulling the signal wont be long and those will be like the monkeys in the brain pure signal multiple chips. As far as the living on machine stuff thats been around for quite sometime just a matter of some money and miniterize. It would be expensive but hell you would live for a couple hundred years so who cares if it comes with 100yr financing plan.
The problem I see is two fold, is popualtion control and how the hell would the US keep the LLL's from deciding it the US moral requirement to enhance the entire world???
#21
I said it would be yet more difficult, but augmentation is going to happen. Exactly when for what is unknown.
I am a bit more sceptical about interest in living a couple of hundred years. I would be curious to see the current distribution of anti-depressants by age. If people could live a couple of hundred years, George W and Tom J could still be among us. While that might make for entertaining dinner parties, I'm not sure how much they would appreciate what the world has become. Or would they have prevented it?
#22
A time when the abandonment of the human form is reality is less than 100 years away.
Once memory storage and computation move from the traditional human brain to offsite or removable or networked facilities we will have the capability to choose our own form and function human or otherwise.
#25
Researchers at the University of Southern California's bio-engineering department have created the chip, which acts in exactly the same way as the hippocampus - the part of the brain that deals with memory.
"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and power down your weapons. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated."
JFM : I think it would be more urgent to design a brain chip for actors, musicians and MSM journalists given how poorly their natural, carbon-based brains work.
Just don't hurt Charlize - no scars. She's a lefty, but a gorgeous lefty...
GU5775 : The boomers or X'ers will probably be the last generation to die without widespread significant electronic enhancement.
Yes but is there any practical use for a chip duplicating an appendix for Boomer me, or a chip duplicating a gall-bladder for my Gen-X wife?
(Since we lack those items....)
Somalia: Twenty five incidents have been reported since March 15 2005. Heavily armed pirates are now attacking ships further away from the coast. A recent incident took place 120 nm off the eastern coast. Ships are advised to keep as far away as possible from the Somali coast.
Recent Incidents
October 20 2005 at 0747 UTC in position 02:13N - 049:44E, Somalia. Pirates armed with guns attacked a product tanker underway. They hijacked the tanker and proceeded to an unknown destination. Further details awaited.
October 18 2005 at 1250 UTC in position 06:59.18N - 051:08.39E, about 90 miles east of Somali coast, Somalia. Pirates armed with guns in speedboats fired upon a bulk carrier underway. They hijacked her and took her close to Somali coast. Further details awaited.
October 18 2005 at 0040 LT at Umm Qasr anchorage, Iraq. Three robbers armed with AK-47s in a blue hulled boat boarded a general cargo ship. They took hostage C/O, bosun and an A/B. They went to the bridge and demanded money from the master. They fired a gun shot and stole shipâs cash and escaped in their boat. Master heaved up anchor and remained adrift.
October 18 2005 at 0345 UTC in position 09:17.6N - 013:45.2W, Conakry anchorage, Guinea. Three robbers in a speedboat armed with billhooks boarded a bulk carrier. Two robbers assaulted duty watchman and stole ship's stores. Deck Officer raised alarm, sounded ship's whistle and crew mustered. Robbers jumped overboard and escaped. Deck Officer called port control but received no response.
Edited out 90% old news....
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Three Sunni Arab parties formed an alliance to run in Iraq's December elections after a new constitution was adopted for the violence-wracked nation despite strong Sunni opposition. The deal seems to have paid off when three Sunni Arab parties announced an alliance for the December round of voting, after the landmark January elections were largely boycotted by the minority community. The Conference of the People of Iraq, the Iraqi Islamic Party, and the Iraqi National Dialogue "agreed to run on one list under the name Iraqi Concord Front," a joint statement said. The Islamic Party, the Iraqi version of the Muslim Brotherhood, boycotted the January elections but called on voters to approve the constitution. Both the National Dialogue and the Conference of the People both opposed ratifying the constitution.
In a surprise move, radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr said he would present a common list of candidates with Sunni Arabs from the volatile Al-Anbar province. Sadr vehemently opposes the US-led occupation of Iraq, aligning him with Sunni Arabs who are believed to form the backbone of the insurgency.
Beating their swords into campaign posters, heh.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/26/2005 15:22 ||
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October 26, 2005: The new constitution was approved by 78 percent of the ten million Iraqis who voted. It took nearly two weeks to count all the votes. Most of the 22 percent who rejected it were Sunni Arabs, who turned out in large numbers. The Sunni Arabs indicate that they will turn out in large numbers again in December for the parliamentary elections. The Kurds and Shia Arabs agreed to allow further changes in the constitution once parliament is in session. The Sunni Arabs are most afraid of being cut off from the oil money (nearly all the oil is in areas controlled by Kurds and Shia Arabs, and the new constitution gives local authorities first dibs on oil revenue). In the past, the Sunni Arabs had kept most of the oil revenue for themselves, and they miss it. Also up for negotiation are how many Sunni Arabs will be punished for crimes committed during the three decades of Baath Party (a largely Sunni Arab organization run by Saddam Hussein) rule. Millions of Shia Arabs and Kurds want revenge for murders and other atrocities committed, by Sunni Arabs, against friends and family.
Meanwhile, some Sunni Arabs are determined to get back power the old fashioned way, with force and terror. To that end, Al Qaeda staged a spectacular attack on the Palestine hotel on October 25th. Three car bombs were used, plus gunmen on foot. The whole thing was caught on a network of security cameras. Two car bombs were used to blast a breach in the concrete security wall, then a bomb filled cement truck was to go through the breach, detonate next to the hotel, and create sufficient havoc for over a dozen gunmen to enter and take foreign journalists hostage, and thus create a major publicity event. The attack failed. The cement truck got stuck in the rubble at the breach, and Iraqi, civilian and American security troops quickly responded to the attack. An American sniper shot the driver of the cement truck, which led to the suicide bomber detonating the explosives while the cement truck was stuck in the breach. Some twenty people were killed in the attack, mainly al Qaeda and civilians who just happened to be in the area. Al Qaeda later took credit for the elaborate attack, and tried to salvage something from it. But the attack was a spectacular failure, and only adds to al Qaedas image woes.
The terrorists are seen as an insensitive (all those dead Moslem civilians) and inept (all those failed attacks) bunch of fanatics (all those improbable plans for world domination.) Iraqi Sunni Arabs have been, in the last year, backing away in their support for al Qaeda. Part of it is practical, because al Qaeda is seen as a bunch of homicidal losers. There are also nationalistic, political, religious and ideological reasons as well. Iraqi Sunni Arabs have a high opinion of themselves, being the best educated group in Iraq, and the decedents of those who founded one of the world's first civilizations. The al Qaeda crew are largely supported, and staffed, by wealthy Gulf Arabs, especially Saudi Arabians. The Saudis are seen, by the Iraqis, as newly rich nomads, a bunch of camel jockey bumpkins taken by an extreme form of Islam (Wahhabism) that even most Saudis don't much care for. Iraqi Sunni Arabs are also not really keen on being just another province in the al Qaeda world Islamic religious dictatorship. Islamic conservative Iraqi Sunni Arabs prefer to practice Islam their way, not the al Qaeda or Wahhab way.
Without their Sunni Arab support, the largely foreign al Qaeda operatives are more vulnerable, and more of them are getting picked up each month. There are still hundreds of thousands of Sunni Arabs who will support al Qaeda by either keeping silent (when the cops come looking for information), or providing shelter and information. But most Iraqis see al Qaeda for what they are, killers of anyone who gets in their way, with a plan most Iraqis do not want any part of.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/26/2005 09:45 ||
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#1
Losing support? Yep, kind of tends to happen when you blow up women, children, shoppers, shop-keepers, hospitals, and shot down teachers, construction workers, etc.
#4
Al Qaeda is losing support because they are losing. If they were able to achieve any of their objectives, 1/2 the muslim kids would be named Osama, like in late 2001. BTW, Sunni Arab support for Al Qaeda went from 80% to what, 70, 60%?
Posted by: ed ||
10/26/2005 11:54 Comments ||
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#5
Another StrategyPage.com report. The popular media never even see such things, nor would their training-proud journalists be able to write such reporterly prose without surrounding it with "It was a dark and stormy night," pseudo-creativity.
enter and take foreign journalists hostage, and thus create a major publicity event.
Oh the irony. The press is reaping what they have sowed. A while back I said that sooner or later the terrorists would realize that the biggest bang for their buck would be to target journalists, especially the lefty ones. Nothing gets them more publicity, handwringing or front page news. I said it only once and regretted saying it because I decided that it was too true to put into cyberspace. No, I'm not saying they got the idea from me, it was inevitable that they would finally figure it out. And now it's clear that they have.
The press has been AQ's biggest allies in this war on terror. AQ requires their cooperation to create the terror they need to win. Now the press is discovering what everyone else who has slept with AQ to elevate their own political cause has discovered - that like Stalin and every other despot, AQ is a small "elite" bunch willing to kill anyone and everyone to get the reins of power. They have no cause other than that. Everyone but their small circle of friends is disposable and even they are disposable if the mood is right.
Saddam Hussein's defense committee wants to put U.S. President George W. Bush in the dock to mirror the Baghdad trial of the toppled Iraqi leader over a Shiite massacre, a Jordanian lawyer said Tuesday. "We shall contact international and Arab lawyer associations and will put forward the proof allowing for a trial of the criminal Bush at the same time as the fake trial takes place in Iraq," Saleh Armouti told a meeting of the Amman-based Saddam defense committee. If lawyers abroad fail to take the case to court, "we shall organize it in Jordan and will invite international supporters," Armouti said, without specifying on what grounds he wanted to try Bush.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm sure we can find a Spanish or Belgie judge to hold the trial.
#4
Your humble commenter is deeply involved in the trial, and can only add my chuckles to this particular matter. If things go well, we'll be treated to the spectacle not only of heads such as those mentioned in the article above exploding, but the slow, systematic humiliation of the arrogant, anti-US international "human rights" groups as they are forced to watch Iraqis deliver better, swifter justice than the mostly farcical international tribunals have been able to do.
#5
V-man! Long time, no hear. Bizzy, bizzy, huh? Lol - good on ya - I look forward to some 'splodin' HR weeners, er, their heads, I mean, lol.
If you get a chance, one question:
Have they decided if they're gonna withhold sentence from this first trial, which should be his head in a noose - hanging is the method, IIUC - and try all of the charges stacked up in the queue, first? Lotsa blather about that, but I've heard nothing definitive.
Good to hear from you - obviously you're okay. Stay that way!
#6
Good to hear from Verlaine. And a quick question. Is the defense team still gonna ask for US protection? If they are, this could be the wrong way to go about getting it.
#9
Saddam has been charged in a crime that occurred before George Bush was even Governor of Texas, I believe. So it is hard to see how his guilt or innocence on that particular charge has anything to do with GW.
Posted by: john ||
10/26/2005 11:07 Comments ||
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#10
I'll make you a deal. We will put Bush on trial after we try Koffi and nuke Iran. Deal?
The votes have been counted and the draft constitution approved, but Iraqi opinion remains divided over the referendum results .
Next thing you know, they'll be telling us some people voted in favor and some didn't...
While the passage of the constitution has been welcomed by many, an equally vocal section is crying foul, alleging largescale fraud.
"You musta cheated! We didn't win!"
Hussain al-Shahristani, deputy chairman of the Iraqi National Congress welcomed the results as positive. Ali al-Lami, a politician from the al-Daawa Party which supported the draft constitution, also hailed the results. "The majority of Iraqis actually find it the best solution for avoiding future emergence of any possible dictators in the Iraqi state," he said. Supporters of the constitution claim federalism is the only way to restore rights to the provinces neglected earlier and ensure equitable distribution of the country's wealth.
The outcome of the 15 October referendum finally hinged on the results of the mainly Sunni northern province of Nineveh which was among the last provinces to declare its results. Two other Sunni majority provinces had already voted against the charter by the necessary two-thirds majority but Nineveh voters only rejected the text by 55% to 45%, insufficient to block its adoption.
That's less than 66%, isn't is?
But those opposed to the constitution have been less than gracious in defeat. They say the new charter will result in a form of cantonisation, dividing Iraq into small weak states. "If the governor of Nasiriya province refused to provide electricity to Baghdad while he was getting a salary from the central government, do you think he will give anything when he is independent? We are not ready for this nonsense yet," said Safaa al-Ani, a senior member of the National Dialogue Congress.
Mahmood al-Azzawi, also a prominent member of the National Dialogue Congress claimed the entire electoral process was rigged. "Fraud occured, especially in regard to the Mosul vote. It is too big to have any dispute about." He further added: "86% of Mosul's residents voted No and that was according to accurate statistics made by over 300 independent supervisors in the province."
Salih al-Mutlag, the spokesman for the National Dialogue Congress, said a recount in Mosul will possibly be demanded. "There was fraud everywhere, but it is Mosul that matters because it was pivotal to defeating this unaccepted constitution," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2005 00:00 ||
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"Iraqis divided over referendum results"
ROFL!!! Lemme guess, about 80-20? Kinda like the election results, ya think? Massive F**kin Duh.
Iran's new president and nominal head of state has wasted no time in publicly supporting terror.his web site is http://www.anotherislamicasshat.org He made an explicit call for attacks on Israel as part of his address to an Islamic forum in Teheran today, calling into question whether the time may have come for stronger measures to eliminate the threat coming from the Islamic Republic's mullahcracyIt's amazing what the Western Wolrd has to put up with.:
Iranâs hard-line president called for Israel to be âwiped off the mapâ and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday.Must...resist...urge...to...nuke.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it.I suggest we blow up their oil pipelines.
âThere is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world,â Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday during a Tehran conference called âThe World without Zionism.âAnother muslim with a 1 inch wanker jealous of the success of the Joooooooooooooooooooooooos.
#1
It is simply stunning that the world does NOT take such threats to heart. I can hear it now: "Surely, Herr Hitler must be joking -- he is only saying these things for domestic consumption."
Posted by: Curt Simon ||
10/26/2005 10:14 Comments ||
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Maybe it's time to reactivate the British SOE or the equivalent.
#6
This guy is a freekin Zeolet that really believe his the hype. Even the EU cant deny Iran cant have nukes when the nukes have "death to Isreal" and "death to America" on the side of the missles then it just gets worse for the EU when the new pres just basicly tells them in non nice terms to suck it no PR and now openly supporting terrorism and the eradication of Isreal. Even the EU will have a hard time sugar coating this Radical. It is like trying to say Bin Laden or old Zark are actually capable of compromising and living in peace with the west.
#8
Anyone still willing to argue against the need for us to decap Iran's government? I've been saying this for a long time, despite criticism from people here. Iran is one of, if not the biggest terrorism supporters. They need a simple and direct object lesson in what happens to those who sponsor international terrorism.
Wait for a general assembly of the mullahs, the revolutionary guard and all other politicians. Lob in cruise missiles, rinse and repeat.
#9
you'd have thought we'd have done him over now but Iran is still there. Why does anyone put up with this?? if i were head of Israel or America or Britain i'd have atom bombed then long ago, i can see it now - we the west will be attacked by them with chemicals and Nukes and we will all do exactly jack shit! yes nothing will be our response. we have waited too long and let them get too strong, our media will kick up too much of a fuss to strike back at them and it'll all be very sad for us in the western world. Yes we here on this board all want to see the end of the mad mullahs but face it guys it just ain't gonna ever happen. Yes its harsh but lets look at the facts, sht like this, bombs in Iraq from Iran every few days and whats our response - Jack Straw moaning at the Mullahs to please stop. They have already declared war on us 1000 times over and we have done absolutly nought, if you guys can think of some way we have returned this decleration of war to them then i'd love too hear it cos from where im sat there being allowed to walk all over us. Most upsetting! The Iraninans are Worse then Adolf H and yet they are allowed to carry on.
Posted by: Shep UK ||
10/26/2005 13:02 Comments ||
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#10
Let's continue from where you left off, Shep UK (Excellent rant, BTW). These words justify swift and sure action. Against exactly who and what? How will we define the enemy?
Race? I am not acquainted with anyone who wants to attack Iran based on Iranians' race.
Nationality? I am not acquainted with anyone whose purpose is to eliminate the country Iran.
Sponsors of terror? So are the Saudis. We ready to declare on them, too?
Nationalistic? So what, so is Austria.
One day, we might have to see that religious zealotry is our enemy in Iran. The sickness of spirit that encourages suicide bombings, forbids art, writing and dancing, self-conceals in guilt, self-whips in shame, rejoices in subhuman beheadings. One day, this world is going to have to pull together to fight a religious war on a scale and breadth never-seen-before.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/26/2005 22:00 Comments ||
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#12
MadMoud wants a fight cuz he knows the Russians and Chicoms will protect him and the Mad Mullahs. Ala 9-11 America was only given two realistic, simple, ultimate choices ACCEPT SOCIALISM, includ OWG and Socs World Order, aka Communism and Totalitarianism, OR BE DESTROYED BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY, VIOLENT ANDOR NON-VIOLENT, FROM WITHIN ANDOR WITHOUT. The knowing Failed and Failing Lefties have already made it clear "Free America" has until 2015 nlt 2020 max, and that they are willing to resort to MAD Global Nuke War rather than reform or share power, I.E. ARE GONNA KILL AND DESTROY YOU NO MATTER WHAT THE DIPLOMATS OR PEACE-MEDIAS SAY OR PROMISE - THE CORE QUESTION HERE IS ARE WE AMERS WILLING TO FIGHT FOR OUR COUNTRY, OUR FREEDOMS, AND FOR AMERICA AS WE KNOW IT, AND TO DO SO DESPITE THE RISK OF GLOBAL NUKE WAR WID COMMIE ASIA; OR ARE YOU WILLING TO BE COWED AND PC FORCED = VOLUNTEER UNTO SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM!? Global Communism -Socialism = Global Criminal/Barbarian State = "Rule of the Few/Sword" > is ultimately about POWER, NOT and NEVER ABOUT "DEMOCRACY" OR "FREEDOM" OR
"DIVERSITY" OR "RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE/
MASSES", ...etc. AMERICA EITHER WINS AND PREVAILS, OR IT LOSES AND IS DESTROYED. Iff the Commie Airborne per se doesn't kill you, the power-mad anti-US Lefties will vv PC "CREEPING
/GRADUAL SOCIALISM". You saw it with Hillary's "will take from you for the common good" remarks; you saw it with Dubya's critics ala KATRINA-GATE, AL SHARPTON and CINDY etal. since then.
October 26, 2005: There appear to be major internal rifts in the Syrian Baath Party, with some âliberalâ leaders hoping to effect more reforms (if only cosmetic ones) to placate internal opposition and Western critics, while âconservativeâ elements want to keep the lid on. As the liberals are more attuned to events outside of Syria, in a further effort to open things up, they are reportedly establishing a âthink tankâ that will provide President Asad with an alternative source of intelligence on international political and diplomatic developments affecting Syria, because the countryâs intelligence services are heavily dominated by the conservative faction in the party.
Meanwhile, a UN probe into the death of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri has found that the likely culprits were senior Syrian officials. The probe is led by a German prosecutor, and an international team of thirty investigators and other staff. The probe has been stonewalled by Syrian officials, and members of the investigation team have received death threats. But the Syrians apparently left enough of a trail for the blame to get placed on Syrian officials. There have been over a dozen attacks on Lebanese officials in the past year, and most are believed to have been attempts by Syria to intimidate Lebanese into accepting continued Syrian domination. That plan has not worked, but the withdrawal of Syrian troops and secret police from Lebanon this year has revived ethnic and religious tensions that the Syrians have suppressed for fifteen years. There are signs that the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war may revive.
The immediate cause of that bloody conflict was the growing military power of Palestinian refugees. The Lebanese, like most Arabs, would not allow the Palestinians to settle in Lebanon, so the Palestinians continue to live in refugee camps, and are considered refugees who will eventually go home (once Israel is destroyed.) Since the Palestinians are not likely to go anywhere any time soon, and the Lebanese won't accept them, bad relations are common. That is bad relations in the form of gun battles and dead bodies. Once such incident occurred at the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near the port city of Sidon. Palestinian militants has developed bad relations with several nearby Lebanese clans, and this led to a battle that left five wounded. The Lebanese army had to intervene to stop the fighting.
The Sunni, Shia, Christian and Druze populations all have their own militias, and are wary of each other. The Shia are considered particularly dangerous, because one of their militias is the Islamic radical group Hizbollah, which is heavily subsidized by Iran. Most Lebanese would rather not go to war with Israel, or, better yet, just treat Israel as a trading partner. But Hizbollah wants to destroy Israel, and was restrained for years by the Syrians. With the Syrians gone, it's up to the Lebanese government to keep Hizbollah from increasing their attacks on Israel. But if it comes to a fight between Lebanese troops and Hizbollah, the civil war could re-ignite.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve ||
10/26/2005 09:50 ||
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I wonder when the Lebanese Shia, Syria, and Iran will sign a War Pact stating that an attack on one is an attack on all.
London, Asharq Al-Awsat- Officials close to President George W. Bush have warned Iran that the current US administration is examining ways to force Tehran to comply with âthe will of the international community regarding its nuclear programâ and giving up its secret nuclear program, uranium enrichment and the production of heavy water in Isfahan and Arak. Asharq al Awsat has learned that the head of a major US oil company, who had previously met with Iranian officials in Geneva, sent an emissary to Tehran last month to hold talks with presidential national security advisor, Ali Larijani.
On a visit to the UN headquarters in September, where he held private meetings with officials close to the US administration, Larjani indicated the Islamic Republicâs desire to communicate directly with Washington, in light of the failure of European mediators (the United Kingdom, France, and Germany) to change the course of US-Iranian relations. In Tehran, the emissary informed Iranian official the Bush administration was currently studying a number of options, including re-opening old cases implicating Iran in terrorist attacks in which US citizens were injured and killed and US institutions destroyed.
An Iranian source revealed, on condition of anonymity, that the report by UN investigator, Detlev Mehlis, into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which implicated Syria, had sent shockwaves through the Iranian leadership. Officials in Tehran were greatly worried because of the strategic links with Damascus and because the report mentioned the name of Ahmad Jibril, head of the Popular front for the Liberation of Palestine (general command) who maintains close links to the Iranian security and intelligence services. Iran had been warned that Washington was ready to adopt the same hard-line approach it was following with Damascus, the source reported.
According to the same source, Washington was considering whether to use evidence of Iranian involvement in a number of past terrorist attacks to encourage its supporters to call for a the appointment of a UN investigator to look into Tehranâs role in:
1- Killing 300 US servicemen in the bombings of US Marines headquarters in Beirut in 1983.
2- Bombing the French army base in Lebanon in 1983.
3- Bombing the US embassy in Beirut in 1984.
4- Hijacking a TWA airplane and murdering a former US army officer on board the US flight and throwing his body on the tarmac at Beirutâs airport in 1985.
5- Kidnapping at least 12 US citizens and killing one of them and contributing to a hostage dying while in captivity during the Lebanese civil war.
6- Bombing the Khobar Towers in June 1996 killing 19 US servicemen and inuring 372.
Asharq al Awsat has also learnt that the Iranâs Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had publicly conveyed his anger at the way President Mahmoud Ahmadi Najad was handling the nuclear negotiations and was holding the president personally responsible for the changing European position and the International Atomic Agencyâs threat to refer Iran before the Security Council.
Khamenei has requested former presidents Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami and ex foreign ministers Ali Akbar Velayati and Kamal Kharzai as well as Gholamreza Agazadeh, head of Iranâs atomic agency and Dr. Hassan Ruhani, former head of the nuclear program, to devise a strategy to rescue Iran from its current crisis caused by what the Supreme leader described as the presidentâs lack of experience and qualification to oversee such a critical issue.
Earlier this month, Rafsanjani had appointment Khatami to the State Expediency Council (SEC), which he heads. A number of high-ranking officials are expected to meet this week to prepare for the SEC taking charge of the nuclear file.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/26/2005 09:09 ||
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#1
Washington Examining Ways of Forcing Iran to Drop Nuclear Program
And unloading the tubes of an Ohio class SSBN hasn't come to mind yet?
#2
Send the most terrifying army possible to the mullahs without harming any of the pro-USA regular folks... They can even be unarmed!
(But they will have 4 feet...)
...over Tehran, a special unit of the 101st airborne drops down to deliver a message personally to the controlling Mullahs!
#5
When pigs fly (thanks posters) is probably when the Iranian nuclear threat will be resolved. And I wonder how effective the US & UN can be when after all there are:
1.4 BILLION Muslims in the World
280 Million Americans
5½ Million Israelis Surrounded by 350 Million Arab Muslims!!!
Eurabians not in this count.
Not too mention the many nuke sellers out there.
Iran's hard-line president called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it. "There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world," Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday during a Tehran conference called "The World without Zionism."
"Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury, any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world," Ahmadinejad said.
Ahmadinejad also repeated the words of the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (search), who called for the destruction of Israel. "As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, who came to power in August.
Ahmadinejad referred to Israel's recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a "trick," saying Gaza is part of the Palestinian territories and the withdrawal was meant to make Islamic states acknowledge Israel.
#1
They better hope Israel stays in existence for many many years. If it doesn't, they'll have to start eating each other in the fine "Not Muslim Enough" tradition.
#3
methinks that is why the Prez, choked with emotion yesterday, said those that harbor or aid terrorists are murderous terrorists and must be dealt with....Ahmadinejad has sealed his fate in glass
#5
Iran's hard-line president called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday.
And this asswipe was granted a visa recently? Those that allowed this sure are looking stupid right about now...
#6
DO NOT, nuke Iran. Conventional weapons will do the job just fine. A first strike nuclear attack against any nation by the coalition or Israel will justify endless nuclear terrorism.
This is why a decap of Iran's government makes so much sense. We must get rid of the hate-mongers without inviting nuclear holocaust. Israel's actual response is quite limited, if nuclear weapons are off the table. This is why it is so important for the USA to take the lead in demonstrating what the result of sponsoring terrorism should be.
The mullahs must go. They are political dinosaurs who have long outlived their time. We are fools to allow them any further leeway.
#8
Wipe Israel from the map An interesting suggestion. Do any of the Islamists show Israel on the maps they use to teach their schoolchildren? In Wahhabi textbooks, Israel is not recognized as a sovereign state and its name does not appear on any map. source: âThe Wahhabi Invasion of Americaâ
#9
Reality check. Unfortunately, most Rantburgers support the dhimmi Jackass-in-Chief, who supports the insane 2-state settlement between Israel and the terrorist animals who want to destroy their country and exterminate the 5,000,000 Jewish citizens of Israel.
2-Staters (AKA: would be butchers of Israel): reveal the basis of your Bush-centrist world view.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
10/26/2005 21:13 Comments ||
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#10
impale any muslims today? ever? big talk, little walk
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/26/2005 21:57 Comments ||
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VIENNA - The United States and the European Union will hold off taking Iran before the UN Security Council over its nuclear program until they get Russia to back them and may even allow Teheran to do some nuclear fuel work, diplomats told AFP. âIf the Russians donât come around, there could not be referral in November,â a European diplomat said, referring to a November 24 meeting of the Vienna-based UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which could send Iran to the Security Council.
Gee, odds on that prediction are running about 6-5 on the Vegas board ...
âThe next month is all about Russia handling,â a Western diplomat said about efforts to win Moscowâs support.
Diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
And because if the reporters didn't promise anonymity, there wouldn't be a story to write.
Russia reiterated its support Monday for Iranâs nuclear program, which Tehran says is a peaceful effort to generate electricity, and said all questions about it should be handled by the IAEA. âThis way we can find a decision acceptable by all sides that, on the one hand, allows Iran its lawful right to a peaceful nuclear energy program and, on the other hand, does not allow any doubts about the peaceful character of this activity,â Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks in Moscow with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki.
âA compromise would involve Iran keeping some conversion capability eventually,â the Western diplomat said. But the diplomat said Iran would still have to halt this work in order for talks with the EU-3 to resume and would not be allowed to do actual enrichment. âThe idea is to sweeten the EU3 offer as Russia is trying to do everything to keep some conversion for Iran,â the diplomat said.
Russia and Iran are playing good-cop, bad-cop on the EU. And it's working.
Another diplomat said Russia was proposing to supply Iran with natural uranium and take back the UF6 gas made through conversion and for there possibly to be a joint venture in Russia with Iran for further processing of nuclear fuel.
The diplomat said the West wanted diplomacy with Iran to effectively âbe an EU3-Russia-US effort from now on.â âBut if Iran resumes uranium enrichment, Russia will not stop them going to the council,â the diplomat said.
Sure, you can always trust the Russians.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/26/2005 00:00 ||
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As with the WARSAW PACT states during the Cold War, the Russians and Chinese will give Iran, NK, and Syria, etc. enuff nuke/WMD devices to cause PC Amer casualties but NOT enough to defeat any Russian andor Chicom interventionist force. Just as Chin de facto controls the Norkies warfighting abilities, conventional or nulcearized, Russia will allow the Mullahs only the barest/minimalist nos. of nuke assets for anti-US purposes as Iran lies on a gen anti-Russian strategic direction of attack-invasion into Russia - NO WAY RUSSIA WILL EVER ACCEPT A NUCLEAR IRAN CAPABLE OF CHALLENGING IT.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called Syrian President Bashar Assad Tuesday to caution Assad against "stirring up new tensions" in the Middle East. A statement issued by the Kremlin said Putin had welcomed Syria's willingness to cooperate fully with the UN probe. "As well, Putin emphasized the urgent need for cautious action by the international community to prevent the emergence of new sources of tension in the region," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2005 00:00 ||
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Read, only RUSSIA can do that by their wilful and deliberate weapons, tech, and nuke proliferations against America and all sides ags the other, D *** YOU ASSAD!?
#4
urgent need for cautious action
Lol - we must quickly do nothing! As I've said before Putty is such a whore. Anything to retain Russia's, er, "influence", in the region.
#5
Yeah, Assad - Never mind Bush, he will simply annihilate your sorry ass...But you really have to look out for look out for Condi and her diplomacy - And you know what they would all say about you around the casbah if a WOMAN got the better of you.....
Damascus must be held accountable for its continuing "support for terrorism," including any involvement in the murder of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, said U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday. In his latest comments on the Syrian regime, Bush accused Syria of "destabilizing Lebanon and permitting terrorists to use its territory to reach Iraq, and giving safe harbor to Palestinian terrorist groups." For these crimes, he said, "the United Nations must act." Damascus has repeatedly denied each of the allegations.
Which statement doesn't address the issue of whether they're true or not...
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2005 00:00 ||
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Hey George, how about telling them we consider this their last chance to perform before we start talks with the UK, Australia, Japan, et al, about a new alternate multi-national organization to which previous UN funding will go to.
Report says Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt would 'reconsider positions' If Iran develops nuclear weapons it could spark a regional arms race because Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt would consider getting atomic bombs, a leading think tank said on Tuesday. John Chipman, director of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, told a news conference it was unlikely that diplomatic pressure from the European Union would stop Iran developing its nuclear enrichment program. He said if Iran ended up with a confirmed, deployed nuclear capability, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia would "reconsider their positions."
The United States and European Union are trying to persuade the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to refer Iran to the United Nations for possible sanctions. The IISS said in its annual handbook on global military might, "The Military Balance," that it was unlikely the EU diplomacy would yield results. However, Chipman said a nuclear Iran was still a long way off so there was time to focus on diplomatic activity. "It would be desirable for regional states, especially the Gulf Arab states, also to express more openly their known concerns about how Iran's possible acquisition of a nuclear capacity would change strategic perceptions and the regional balance of power," said Chipman.
Iran's referral to the Council is being opposed by Russia, China and India amid fears it could begin "a slippery slide down the road to war," said Chipman. But he said that could change if IAEA director general Mohammad al-Baradei can present evidence on the development of Iran's Shahab-3 missile, which has "a payload ideally suited to a nuclear weapon."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2005 00:00 ||
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And wouldn't that be fun!!!
Ah, but poor Egypt and Turkey, *sniff*, they would have no money for nukies. How sad. Everyone else would have new toys, but they have none. *choke*
#2
They need an anti-Fascist Fascist-for-Communism, Hitlerist-Germanist/Aryan-for-Asianism, Billarista, Republicanista and Amer Fascista, ....etc. Democrat in the WH to help and pay for these nations to get their nukies.
#4
Ship,
they wouldn't need to build one from scratch. I'm sure there are some Khan designs floating around somewhere (hell, they probably already have the plans, just need the U or Pu). The Soddies, on the other hand, probably already have a few bombs from the Paks in exchange for financing the development.
Logically, the Turks wouldn't need their own bomb, since they are a member of NATO and could expect a NATO nuke response if attacked with nukes. But, alas, you're not a big mullah man if you don't have your own;-(
Actually Egypt may be the farthest along the path already. They tried to buy nuclear weapons from both the Soviet Union and China in the 60s and those attempts were allegedly rebuffed they did manage to import a *lot* of know-how from the usual suspects over the last 40-ish years. Even on a small budget that's a lot of time to work things out.
#6
Khan designs
You mean the Chinese blueprints. Chinese-Arabic translations are extra.
Posted by: ed ||
10/26/2005 9:43 Comments ||
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Some analysts already fear Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and even Syria may have some of the Khan plans and were working to piece together various parts of a program, along with Libya, who was caught red-handed. That's why Iranian belligerance is so alarming, as they may have something to boast about so fearlessly. They clearly know what the US can do so they must have scattered allies to back them up.
Spread over many acres in the heart of I-8 (a posh residential area in Islamabad where the price of a 60' by 90' plot is around 20 million rupees), the Jamia Mosque Quba is run by Jamat-ud Dawa [JD], which is popularly, though wrongly, identified as the Lashkar-e-Taiba -- the largest network of Pakistani militants fighting in Indian Kashmir.
A visitor to the mosque on any Friday at 1 pm will see a long queue of brand new vehicles in which the rich of the twin cities [Islamabad and Rawalpindi] come for the Friday sermon. Some come from the adjoining cities.
Why do they take this trouble when there is no dearth of mosques in their vicinity?
Because they get the opportunity of listening to Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki, the number two in JD's hierarchy who travels every Friday from Lahore to give a sermon and lead the Friday prayers.
An eloquent orator, Makki has the power to draw tears from his listeners. Last Friday [October 21] this correspondent attended his sermon.
Quoting numerous Koranic verses, Makki justified the earthquake as a punishment of Allah on the sinful.
Ridiculed seismologists who rationalized the quake on scientific grounds, he said: 'You are saying that the earthquake has occurred because the plates beneath the earth have dislocated. Oh foolish scientists, don't you know that the plates could have never moved without Allah's order? Human beings' knowledge is nothing before Allah who is the creator of the universe. Whatever knowledge you have today is due to His will. You could have learnt nothing had Allah not wished so!' He urged the scientists to seek Allah's forgiveness instead of being proud of their so-called knowledge...
Makki reminded his followers that the Muslims' glory was in jihad. As long as they dedicated money and sons for jihad, they ruled the world. They were trapped in the quagmire of humiliation when they abandoned jihad.
'We can rise again. We can rule the world again. I give you a simple recipe. Donate money and sons for jihad and your glorious days will return. The entire world will be under your control. Bush and Blair will become your slaves and lick your boots.'
Posted by: john ||
10/26/2005 16:21 ||
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There it is. It is not about Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir. It is about the muslim need to dominate and enslave others.
'We can rise again. We can rule the world again. I give you a simple recipe. Donate money and sons for jihad and your glorious days will return. The entire world will be under your control. Bush and Blair will become your slaves and lick your boots.'
Posted by: john ||
10/26/2005 18:20 Comments ||
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You will only rise as faceless ghosts, without power to harm the living, to wander the world alone and in agony for all eternity.
#3
Hitler also said exactly what he intended to do. No one listened. Because no one took action to deal with him early on, it took oceans of blood to stop him later. History repeats. These cockroaches should find themselves prey to a string of mysterious, yet fatal accidents.
Got some professional-grade whingeing, handwringing, and thinly veiled threats in this piece. It's a classic. Any all-out civil war in Iraq could shake the political foundations of places beyond that stricken land, sending streams of refugees across Iraqi borders, tempting neighbors to intervene, and renewing the half-buried old conflict of Sunni and Shiite in the Muslim world, Middle East analysts say.
Only thing half-buried are the bodies
"If it's a war between Sunni and Shiite, this war might be extended from Lebanon to Afghanistan," says Diaa Rashwan, an Egyptian expert on Islamic militancy.
One of those feature/bug dichotomies, I'd say.
In a series of Associated Press interviews, other regional specialists didn't foresee such falling dominoes â open war between Islam's two branches spreading elsewhere from Iraq. But they believe regional tensions have already sharpened because of the rise of Iraqi Shiites to power under U.S. military occupation. This "really changes the power structure in the Middle East, not only in Iraq, but in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia," said longtime U.S. Mideast scholar William R. Polk, referring to two other Arab lands with fragile religious divides.
*Snicker* The 'scholars' can see the end of their gravy train off in the distance, and they don't like it.
Iraq's new constitution, approved in an Oct. 15 referendum whose results were certified Tuesday, is largely opposed by the Sunni Muslim minority, since it could lead to a virtual breakup of the country into oil-rich Shiite and Kurdish regions in the south and north, and a resource-poor Sunni center. A permanent government will be elected Dec. 15, inevitably controlled by the Shiite majority. Many fear this will lead to clashes between Sunni and Shiite armed groups, transforming the Sunnis' long-running anti-U.S. insurgency into a civil war.
Mainly the folks 'fearing' Sunni/Shia clashes are hoping for them; their whole worldview depends on it.
A key neighbor has voiced urgent concern. "All the dynamics are pulling the country apart," Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said of Iraq, a faint sheen of sweat glistening on his brow. Speaking with Washington reporters on Sept. 22, the Saudi also warned that Iraq's disintegration would "bring other countries in the region into the conflict."
"Sunni's should be left in charge like Allah intended."
Turkey and Iran top that list. The Turks might be tempted to intervene in Iraq's north to keep its autonomous Kurds from supporting Turkey's own Kurdish separatists. Shiite Iran might act â with arms, intelligence, even "volunteers" â to ensure victory by a friendly Iraqi Shiite leadership in any civil war, analysts say. "The Turks would be the most worried and have the most capacity" â a strong military â "to do something about it," said Polk.
But Turkey wants into the EU, which will almost certainly demand that Turkey turn its military into window dressing with nice uniforms and very little fighting ability.
Persian Iran, sharing a long border and a history of warfare with Arab Iraq, has multiple interests in its neighbor's future, noted W. Andrew Terrill, Mideast specialist at the U.S. Army War College. The Iranians clearly don't want a return to a hostile Sunni-led Iraq like that of ousted President Saddam Hussein. But Terrill said Tehran also must worry about a Shiite-run government that is too reliant on Washington "that is willing to accept permanent U.S. military bases that may be used to threaten and intimidate the Iranian regime." Two mostly Sunni neighbors, Syria and Jordan, are largely unable and unlikely to try to influence a civil war next door, analysts say. But both would bear a heavy burden if Iraqi Sunnis were driven to seek refuge across the border, fleeing Balkan-style "ethnic cleansing" â a prospect haunting regional officials. "What's happening in Iraq is already affecting the region. There are a half-million Iraqis in Jordan, a country of 5 1/2 million people," Hasan Abu Nimah, a former Jordanian U.N. ambassador, told the AP. An even greater influx "would put a strain on services and schools and create difficulties of all kinds."
That's what zakat is for. Go cry to Uncle Abdullah and the Sultan of Brunei. Maybe they'll melt down a couple of their solid gold sinks...
Egyptian analyst Mohamed el-Sayed Said worries about a broader struggle between Islam's two branches â the Sunnis, long dominant in the Arab world, and the schismatic, often oppressed Shiites, historically viewed as "subversives." "Not in recent memory have we had a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites," noted Said, deputy director of Cairo's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "If we have one in Iraq, it would probably inflame divisions in other countries, particularly Lebanon and Saudi Arabia."
Professor Mo has a fairly selective memory, I gather.
In Lebanon, analysts say, the Shiite party Hezbollah may draw on Iraq's Shiite ascendancy for political and material support in its contest for power with Lebanese Christian and Sunni factions. Said doesn't expect a new Lebanese civil war, but sees the "trust and amity" between Lebanese Shiites and Sunnis seriously undermined if their coreligionists fall into full-scale war in Iraq. To Iraq's south, Saudi Arabia's relatively small, downtrodden Shiite minority is unlikely to take up arms against the Sunni fundamentalist monarchy, say Said and others. Instead, they fear that Sunni extremists, returning home to Saudi Arabia from a losing battle in Iraq, will seek revenge through terror attacks on Saudi Shiites. Rashwan, also of the Al-Ahram center, said similar sectarian violence could break out in Bahrain and other Gulf states with significant Shiite populations. Militants wouldn't need to flock to Iraq to wage their version of holy war, Rashwan said. "The Shiite-Sunni divide exists in your own country. You can create your own battlefield."
"That's a nice flowering of democracy you have there. It would be a pity if anything was to happen to it."
Posted by: Steve ||
10/26/2005 09:22 ||
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'Shiite Iran might act â with arms, intelligence, even "volunteers" â to ensure victory by a friendly Iraqi Shiite leadership in any civil war, analysts say.' Come on, be honest -- how many of you secretly wish that Iran would invade a sovereign, democratic country with the most liberal constitution in that part of the world in history?
Posted by: Curt Simon ||
10/26/2005 10:17 Comments ||
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None of this is going to happen. Thanks for the doom day prophecy associated press.
Morocco has admitted its border guards shot dead four African migrants trying to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla earlier this month. Six people were killed on 6 October in a mass raid on the double razor-wired fence which separates the Spanish territory of Melilla from Morocco. An inquiry by the Spanish civil guard has cleared its troops of involvement.
Now a report released by the Moroccan interior ministry says a spray of gunfire from Moroccan security forces killed four of the migrants, believed to be from West Africa. The other two, says the report, died from multiple wounds. It was not clear from the report whether they were also shot or died in a stampede which followed.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohammed Ben Aissa, described the incident as "regrettable".
MULTAN: Notable prayer and religious scholars from remote areas around Multan have rejected the offer of honouraria in exchange for the promotion of a population welfare programme on loudspeakers in mosques and for delivering sermons on the merits of birth control by using contraceptives. The proposal was put forth by the Population Welfare Department, but prayer leaders termed it un-Islamic.
At a meeting held on Tuesday presided over by Maulana Abdul Majid Nadeem, the Aamli Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nabuwat secretary general, participants said the government wanted to hire prayer leaders for the promotion of un-Islamic culture, and accused the department of promoting sexual corruption, vulgarity and other social evils. They asked the government to abolish the department, as it had no place in an Islamic society.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2005 00:08 ||
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Among the reasons accepted by the Shariáh as valid for practising reversible contraception are:
(A) Physical weakness.
(B) Sickness.
(C) The wife maintaining her beauty or figure for the sake of her husband.
(D) The couple being on a journey or in a distant land.
(E) Adverse political conditions, e.g. children are forcibly separated from their parents as is advocated by communism; etc.
(F) The couple decide to separate in the near future.
(G) The wife is an immoral person.
There are valid grounds for practising reversible contraception. Poverty or the fear of poverty are not valid reasons for contraception. It is not permissible to practice contraception on account of a fear of not being able to provide for a large family. Such a fear is an attribute of non-Muslims.
PESHAWAR: Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) defeated a bill for the registration of religious seminaries on Tuesday, presented for immediate consideration in the NWFP Assembly by its own minister. NWFP Law Minister Malik Zafar Azam presented âThe North West Frontier Province Societies Registration (Amendment) Bill 2005â in the house for immediate consideration.
However, the minister later denied he used the words âimmediate considerationâ. Quoting Rules and Business Procedure 82 of the provincial Assembly, the minister said he gave three options to the house: first that the bill be considered at once, failing that it should be sent to the standing or select committee of the house and finally it should be circulated to gather public opinion. When it was put to vote the bill was defeated by 39 to 15 votes. Referring to the bill MMAâs Maulana Nizamuddin said there were so many restrictions on seminaries despite the fact that the province had an Islamic government. âEven the British did not impose so many curbs when they ruled the subcontinent,â he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A Muslim cleric who has prayed to "terminate" the Jews was awarded Islamic Personality of the Year at a ceremony in which he called Islam a religion of "harmony and kindness" that rejects terrorism. As WorldNetDaily reported, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al Sudais â the veteran Quran reader and imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia â prayed to Allah in 2003 in front of 2 million followers to "terminate" the Jews, who he called "the scum of humanity, the rats of the world, prophet killers ... pigs and monkeys." 
(CNSNews.com) - Like many other anti-war demonstrators, Cindy Sheehan has been waiting for the 2,000th American to be killed in Iraq. When that happened on Tuesday, Sheehan, the mother of one of those slain soldiers, resumed her protest in front of the White House -- a tactic that one of her critics called "desperate."
US military experts are attempting to create an army of super-human soldiers who will be more intelligent and deadly thanks to a microchip implanted in their brains. Scientists believe the implant will vastly improve the memory of troops so that they can recall every detail of their training and become more effective fighters. Researchers at the University of Southern California's bio-engineering department have created the chip, which acts in exactly the same way as the hippocampus - the part of the brain that deals with memory. 
Recent Incidents
Saddam Hussein's defense committee wants to put U.S. President George W. Bush in the dock to mirror the Baghdad trial of the toppled Iraqi leader over a Shiite massacre, a Jordanian lawyer said Tuesday. "We shall contact international and Arab lawyer associations and will put forward the proof allowing for a trial of the criminal Bush at the same time as the fake trial takes place in Iraq," Saleh Armouti told a meeting of the Amman-based Saddam defense committee. If lawyers abroad fail to take the case to court, "we shall organize it in Jordan and will invite international supporters," Armouti said, without specifying on what grounds he wanted to try Bush.
The votes have been counted and the draft constitution approved, but Iraqi opinion remains divided over the referendum results .
October 26, 2005: There appear to be major internal rifts in the Syrian Baath Party, with some âliberalâ leaders hoping to effect more reforms (if only cosmetic ones) to placate internal opposition and Western critics, while âconservativeâ elements want to keep the lid on. As the liberals are more attuned to events outside of Syria, in a further effort to open things up, they are reportedly establishing a âthink tankâ that will provide President Asad with an alternative source of intelligence on international political and diplomatic developments affecting Syria, because the countryâs intelligence services are heavily dominated by the conservative faction in the party. 
VIENNA - The United States and the European Union will hold off taking Iran before the UN Security Council over its nuclear program until they get Russia to back them and may even allow Teheran to do some nuclear fuel work, diplomats told AFP. âIf the Russians donât come around, there could not be referral in November,â a European diplomat said, referring to a November 24 meeting of the Vienna-based UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which could send Iran to the Security Council.
Russian President 
Damascus must be held accountable for its continuing "support for terrorism," including any involvement in the murder of the former Lebanese Prime Minister 
If Iran develops nuclear weapons it could spark a regional arms race because Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt would consider getting atomic bombs, a leading think tank said on Tuesday. John Chipman, director of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, told a news conference it was unlikely that diplomatic pressure from the European Union would stop Iran developing its nuclear enrichment program. He said if Iran ended up with a confirmed, deployed nuclear capability, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia would "reconsider their positions." 
Any all-out civil war in Iraq could shake the political foundations of places beyond that stricken land, sending streams of refugees across Iraqi borders, tempting neighbors to intervene, and renewing the half-buried old conflict of Sunni and Shiite in the Muslim world, Middle East analysts say. 
