AN American soldier was killed in a firefight with suspected Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan overnight, the US military said. The clash occurred in the restive southern province of Kandahar as Afghan and US troops were conducting a joint combat patrol, the US military said in a statement. One militant was killed, while one US soldier and an Afghan soldier were wounded. Other militants fled after American aircraft pounded their positions, the US military said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 15:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Key quote
"In many ways, Afghanistan is in a worse position now, four years on from the war there, than Iraq is," - Army officer
BRITAIN is set for a U-turn on its commitment to send thousands of troops to fight in Afghanistan next year, with some in the army now questioning whether the mission should be abandoned altogether.
Military commanders say that lessons have not been learned from the run-up to the Iraq war and that political prevarication has left them unable to make adequate preparation for the mission, which had been expected to involve up to 5,000 troops. Instead, an additional fighting force of only about 1,000 soldiers - almost certainly paratroops - is expected to be sent to Helmand province, in the south of the country, probably backed up by Apache helicopter gunships.
The government had initially been keen to make an impact in Afghanistan when the UK-led Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) takes over responsibility for peacekeeping in May. Ministers hoped British involvement could kick-start the faltering process of rebuilding the country, but their enthusiasm seems to have waned. And with winter closing in and no preparations in hand for the arrival of UK soldiers, the government has still to make a formal announcement on the deployment.
It is understood orders are yet to be placed for the construction of the accommodation which will house the soldiers when they arrive.
Senior officers are in despair over the chaos surrounding the mission. Opium production in Afghanistan has returned to pre-invasion levels, the police force is in disarray and there is an active and growing insurgency.
It took months of wrangling to persuade other NATO members to agree to supply troops. But one senior officer described the efforts of coalition partners as "shambolic", accusing the Dutch government of demanding United States military protection for its troops before agreeing to send them.
Another officer accused the Germans of a complete failure in their mission to rebuild the country's police force. He said German forces had trained little more than 200 officers in four years, and when the new police force was deployed in Kabul, they had promptly disappeared. "In many ways, Afghanistan is in a worse position now, four years on from the war there, than Iraq is," he said. "It is going to take years to resolve it and the insurgency is getting worse. It is being squeezed in some places but that simply means it moves to other areas."
The Ministry of Defence has consistently refused to discuss in public the number of troops it planned to send to Afghanistan, but speculation fuelled by briefings from military sources in June suggested a force of about 5,000 was being considered. A decision was expected to have been taken and announced months ago, but discussions with coalition partners have hindered preparations and Britain's ongoing commitment in Iraq has also had to be taken into account.
While General Sir Michael Jackson, the head of the army, has indicated that Britain could start withdrawing troops from Iraq next year, senior MoD sources have suggested that the Afghan deployment is not dependent on any such withdrawal.
However, there is frustration in some parts of the army that no decision has been taken on the Afghan mission and one officer said that, unless a sizeable force was deployed, it was unclear what Britain hoped to achieve. "There are people asking if we should be doing it at all," he said. "A lot of money has been committed, but it will probably take a lot more. There has been discussion about a rethink, maybe not doing it at all, though that does not seem very likely."
Another military source said the complex negotiations required to build a NATO coalition were hindering the deployment and threatening its chances of success. "Unless it is sorted out, they will just have to put up some spin-related successes and leave it at that," he said. "Whitehall wants to see results and they will trumpet the short-term gains but it won't help towards long-term withdrawal."
Britain currently has about 900 troops in Afghanistan, mainly in Kabul and the northern provinces, where they are involved in what the MoD says are peace support operations.
Under the ARRC plans for next year, Canada is expected to send 2,000 troops but Dutch ministers have postponed a decision on their deployment of 1,000 soldiers until next week, amid concerns about security in the more dangerous southern part of the country.
Dangerous? They're soldiers fer cryin' out loud!
The US is anxious for the NATO force to take over from its Regional Command South, based at Kandahar air base. That would allow it to withdraw up to 4,000 soldiers, reducing its commitment in Afghanistan to 14,000.
Pathetic. Aside from Oz, probably the UK, maybe Japan and India, we're alone. I don't think the average American has any conception of how effectively isolated we have become. Pat Buchannan could start to look prescient if the Soccer Moms ever figure this out. And the donks want to trash the PATRIOT Act. Somebody give Harry Reid a violin to fiddle.
Great photo of Michael Jackson at the link. No, not that one.
#1
EF6401: Aside from Oz, probably the UK, maybe Japan and India, we're alone. I don't think the average American has any conception of how effectively isolated we have become.
I think the misconception is that our alliances are some kind of "we're all in this together Band of Brothers-type" gatherings. They're not, and they've never been. India and Japan are not our friends, and may never be. As allies, they are, in a word, untested. India has sent no troops to Iraq or Afghanistan. Japan has sent non-combat troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
WWI and WWII were instances where, with the exception of Canada, Australia and New Zealand (all in it to defend the mother country and the Queen, their official head of state), every other Allied power was trying to save its own skin. We waded in even though significant chunks of American territory were never truly in danger of being occupied. During the Korean War, the war-weakened Euros were afraid the Soviet bear was going to roll across their borders, and sent forces to demonstrate their resolve. By the time of the Vietnam War, they thought Europe was just the center of a struggle for dominance between the two superpowers, and wanted no part of it.
However, Buchanan is nuts about the economy, and he's nuts about foreign bases. Buchanan's protectionism will get us a lot more companies like GM and Ford, loss-making albatrosses that cannot do anything right despite being in perhaps the most protected industry in America. (GM's workers get paid for not working, and some non-workers have been on the payroll for 10 years). Foreign bases are useful because they give us the capability to inflict big time damage upon anyone who does things like 9/11. At the same time, Uncle Sam has been too indiscriminate about signing up military "allies" who get bennies paid for by American taxpayers without shouldering any load in return.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/15/2005 13:18 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Elmeash Flaiter6401, I am a Soccer Mom. I'm not sure I'm typical, but all the SMs I know have been voting consistently Republican post-9/11.
I read this article as saying that Western Europe is refusing to step up to the few responsibilities they verbally accepted. But Eastern Europe is participating to the best of their ability, because they understand the importance of fighting a fascism not so different from the one whose rule they just escaped. And they are using American bennies, as you so succinctly put it, to upgrade their armed forces in the direction of the American standard so that they'll be able to do more in the future.
Is there an awful lot of anti-Americanism out there? Certainly. There has been for centuries amongst European elites. Will Western European governments do everything they can to keep from doing anything at all? Of course -- look at how they handled, in fact are still handling, the problems in post-Tito Yugoslavia. And Sudan. Zimbabwe. Iran. etc, etc, etc. And do let us not forget that Afghanistan, despite being a named country since the British Raj, has never been anything more than Pakistan's hinterland, populated by a motly collection of bickering tribes, sub-tribes, clans, cousins and brothers, all scraping a living from the earth and whatever they could steal from others. That they have made such progress as they have toward what the rest of us consider to be a normal society is, in my humble opinion, close to miraculous. That they have ambitions to go further is, honestly, practically unbelievable.
#6
It may be the "Scotsman", but there's a lot of truth in what this article says. The only nation that has learned from Iraq and Afghanistan is the United States. It's about time everyone else in the free world gets on board and starts both learning and helping out - if for no other reason than they'll have trained, experienced troops to handle the situation when it rears its ugly head in THEIR country, a la France.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/15/2005 15:22 Comments ||
Top||
#7
OP, I would suggest that Oz, India and Japan have also learned from A&I Beyond that, ostriches.
#8
And the point of my comment in the post is that it's time to stop thinking in terms of the "free world". The concept is obsolete. In what way might a dhimmi be said to be free?
A Moroccan court has jailed 14 Western Sahara human rights activists and some of their supporters for six months to three years for their role in riots in the disputed Moroccan-controlled territory. Court officials and lawyers said the court in Western Sahara's main town, Laayoune, announced the verdict early on Wednesday at the end of a 14-hour hearing. Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975, claiming historic sovereignty rights over the mostly desert territory. The move triggered a sporadic guerrilla war with the Polisario Front, which seeks an independent state in the mineral-rich territory.
A UN ceasefire was brokered in 1991 with the promise of holding a referendum to decide on the fate of the area, believed to have offshore oil deposits. Disagreements between the two sides about who is eligible to vote have prevented it from taking place.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Saudi security forces discovered Tuesday a large amount of explosives and chemicals at a villa in east Riyadh apparently used by militant groups to store weapons. Police confiscated locally assembled bombs, weapons, chemical and several personal computers and extremist books and leaflets. It was unclear if the villa was inhabited with some neighbors claiming the building was deserted, while others told the security forces that a bearded man was living there. The mystery person would leave the villa at dawn and return at sunrise, according to witnesses.
The Ministry of Interior has yet to provide further details about the discovery in Shaker ibn Abi Bakr Street, in eastern Riyadh. The Saudi authorities have confiscated large quantities of weapons and explosives earlier this year and arrested 17 men, suspected of belonging to militant groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The mystery person would leave the villa at dawn and return at sunrise, according to witnesses.
So he never left?
Posted by: SLO Jim ||
12/15/2005 11:47 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The report should have said, "The mystery person would leave the villa at SUNSET and return at sunrise, according to witnesses", proving the existence of Iraqi vampires...
In which the reporter valiantly tries to stay awake whilst retyping the RAB's tattered crossfire press release...also, his 'quotes' key seems to have 'jammed'.
A listed criminal of Sutrapur was killed in 'crossfire during a shootout' between Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and his associates in Old Dhaka yesterday. RAB said they arrested Jasim on Dolphin Lane in Lake Circus in Kalabagan on Tuesday night. He was accused of 20 criminal offences including two murders, drug smuggling and possessing explosives.
Eyelids...drooping...
"The drug lord disclosed all about his drug trade and criminal activities. He also gave information about his unregistered firearms and a den of his associates at Dhupkhola," says a RAB press release.
Must...get...coffee...
The RAB-3 took Jasim to the area "to arrest his associates and seize firearms" around 3:00am.
Oomph. Now where was I? Right, right. Confession, then long walk / short pier in the wee hours, then
"As the RAB team reached Dhupkhola playground at 3:20am, criminals opened indiscriminate fire on the elite force, prompting RAB men to retaliate," the press release adds.
OK, catching up now. Cadre sprays and prays, RAB shoots back, which means it's time for
Jasim was bullet-hit when he made an attempt to escape, but his associates fled the scene after a 20-minute 'gunfight'.
What's with this quotes key? It seems to be stuck. Oh well, one of my four layers of editors will catch it. Almost done now.
RAB men took him to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital where doctors declared him dead.
Criminy, I'm sleepy again. At least the dead guys get some rest.
The press release claims RAB recovered a .32 bore revolver, a 7.65 bore pistol, seven bullets, four bottles of phensidyl.
Done. Hit send button, get my coat, they never told us about this in j-school.
#2
Don't look at it as repetitious. Think of it as being warm and familiar, like hearing your favorite bedtime story one more time. Or listening to your favorite Barney tape 17 times in a row. I love RAB. RAB loves me.
"Return from Afghanistan" seems to be the common element here. It's unclear whether they returned to Bangladesh 'cos they were run out of Afghanland, or if they recieved orders to go home and wait for further instructions. (Ed. note: Bangla stories are a little hard to follow, I *think* these are different raids than the other story I posted.)
Police and Bangladesh Rifles, in three overnight raids on Sunday and Monday morning, arrested six suspected JMB activists and recovered a huge explosives, party posters and Islamic books from three villages in border area of Kanaighat upazila, reports UNB. The arrested were identified as Nurul Huq, 45, a mujahid returned from Afghanistan, explosive trader Safar Ali, 35, and suspected JMB activists Bilal Ahmed, 20, Foyezuddin, 18, Mostaq Ahmed, 22, and Masud Mia, 24.
Acting on a tip-off, BDR 21 rifles battalion raided a shop at Bhalukmara village at about 8.30 pm Sunday and recovered 11 shutter guns detonators, four rounds of bullet packets of high-powered explosives and six fuses. Each of the packets is weighing 110 grams, BDR sources said. They also nabbed shop owner Safar Ali and handed him over to Kanaighat thana. Later, police arrested four suspected JMB men from Lobhachhara village at 4 am Monday. The arrested are believed to be the members of JMB bomber team. In another raid, police arrested Afghanistan return mujahid Nurul Huq along with 400 posters and 800 books at 3am Monday from Chhotodesh village.
Patuakhali
Suspected JMB activist, arrested, in was sent to Dhaka Sunday for interrogation in Patuakhali Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC). Police said Al-Amin alias Sentu, 30, was taken on a five-day remand recently, which ended on Saturday. When produced on Sunday the Magistrate court granted him seven days remand again. Al-Amin alias Sentu was arrested from Mirzaganj upazila on December 4. On preliminary interrogation, he admitted that he and his six accomplices exploded bombs in the district on August 17.
In a pre-down raid, the security forces on Wednesday unearthed an arms factory, believed to be used by a banned Islamist outfit, in the Bangladesh capital and seized huge arms and explosive from there, according to the police.
The members of the elite anti-crime force, Rapid Action Battalion, and the police confiscated the arms and explosives, including 17 grenades, 14 pistols, 90 kilograms of explosives, bomb making circuits, detonators and a dice to manufacture bullets, from eastern Manda area of the city. "The explosives could have blown up many installations and well enough to kill several thousand people," said one official at the Rapid Action Battalion. They arrested one woman named, Suraya Begum, from the tin-roofed hut, where the arms factory was housed, as most of the men working there had fled sensing the presence of the security forces. Bundles of books and leaflets calling the people for Jihad against the existing system of the state and establishing Bangladesh as 'truly an Islamic state' were also recovered from the scene.
The forces launched the joint operation against an Islamist outfit, Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, widely blamed for the repeated bomb and grenade attacks that killed scores of people in Bangladesh, and arrested more than 200 suspects only in last couple of weeks. They have been trying to capture Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul IslamBangla Bhai, two masterminds of the recent spate of suicide bombings, and destroy their arms dens across the country.
In northern Rajshahi district, the member of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles recovered six grenades on Tuesday night.pprehending the presence of trained members of the banned slamist outfit, the law enforcers raided a number of in students' dormitories in the capital to nab the militants. A raid was conducted on Latif Hall of the Dhaka Polytechnic Institute on Tuesday by joint forces comprising members of the Rapid Action Battalion, Armed Police Battalion and Dhaka Metropolitan Police, who cordoned it off for several hours. In another drive, the plainclothes policemen detained four students of Dhaka College from the examination hall on the same day, suspecting them to be militants, but later released them upon the assurance of the college principal.
The head of a probe into Russia's Beslan school tragedy has said terrorists alone were to blame for it, remarks that suggested bureaucrats accused of failing to stop the raid could be exonerated.
Some 330 people -- half of them children -- died after Chechen gunmen took them hostage in a school in southern Russian for three days in September 2004.
Most died in a series of sudden explosions and firefights at the end but it is still not clear what sparked the carnage.
Many surviving hostages blame local officials for failing to stop the gunmen reaching Beslan, and for allowing the tense stand-off to end a bloodbath.
But Alexander Torshin, a senator who heads the official investigation, was quoted on Thursday as saying it was a mistake to blame anyone other than the rebels loyal to Chechen leader Shamil Basayev who launched the raid.
"Why is the public so interested in seeing guilty bureaucrats punished and not in the arrest, say, of the masterminds behind the terrorist act," he told the official daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
"Basayev is still at large and we do not know if he is planning any more outrages."
His comments contradict an investigation by local parliamentarians in the North Ossetia region which concluded last month that the bloodshed was "first and foremost the fault of law-enforcement bodies".
Ossetians have long argued that corrupt officials either ignored or colluded in the rebel group's journey to the school, and then failed to organise an effective response.
Torshin accepted officials would have to answer for failing to stop the raid, but said concentrating on their guilt was bizarre.
"The blame for the most bloody terrorist act in Russia's history lies with the terrorists ... This should not be forgotten," he said.
"It's as if on Sept. 1 they came to the school not with guns and explosives but with bunches of flowers. If people talk about those who are guilty these days, people only look for them among the security forces."
His comments chimed with the hard-line approach of President Vladimir Putin who considers the 11-year Chechen war and related raids to be attempts by international terrorists to destabilise Russia, rather than a battle for independence.
After the siege, Putin demanded -- and received -- extra political powers to allow him to stop guerrilla attacks, although he has promised that officials will be punished if they are found guilty by Torshin's probe.
Basayev himself has said the raid was a security services' sting that went wrong after rebels ignored where a Russian agent wanted them to go, and seized the school instead.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/15/2005 10:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Move along, nothing to see but a bunch of bureaucrats closing ranks. Let me know when the bribed checkpoint guards that waved through trucks full of armed terrorists get sent to the wall, along with their graft riddled commanders.
A Moroccan-Dutch translator, who worked for the Dutch intelligence service AIVD, has been jailed for four-and-a-half years for leaking confidential information to terrorist suspects.
A court in Rotterdam imposed the sentence on Outman Ben A., 34, for leaking state secrets, some of which came into the hands of suspected members of the Hofstadgroep. Ben A., who translated Arabic into Dutch for the AIVD, has consistently denied the allegations against him. "I feel really I have been treated in a rotten way," he said when the verdict was announced. He is appealing against the conviction.
Mohammed B, the man who killed film director Theo van Gogh - and 13 other Muslims are on trial in Amsterdam on charges of membership of the Hofstadgroep. The authorities claim the group is a fundamentalist Muslim terror network in the Netherlands.
Prosecutors had sought an eight-year sentence for Ben A., who has been in custody for over a year. The Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) had worked hard in this case as a very serious crime had been committed, justice officials said.
The leaked documents referred to ongoing and highly sensitive operational activities by the AIVD in relation to terrorism. Leaking this material - including the transcripts of phone taps - posed serious risks to the investigations, prosecutors argued. The court agreed, and said the leaking of the information could have posed serious dangers to Dutch society. The presiding judge made clear that the suspicion could not be discounted that Ben A. had deliberately infiltrated the AIVD to steal information.
Prosecutors said Ben A. leaked a number of documents, including the contents of an intercepted telephone conversation to Hofstadgroep suspect A. H. on 5 August 2004. He sent another Hofstad suspect M.B. a progress report on the AIVD's investigation into the group.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/15/2005 02:23 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
four-and-a-half years
If he doesn't win on one of his appeals, i wouldn't be surprised if he got out for time served
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/15/2005 2:33 Comments ||
Top||
#2
What's with the initials? Is Expatica afraid that these guys are going to get lynched or something?
#4
The leaked documents referred to ongoing and highly sensitive operational activities by the AIVD in relation to terrorism. Leaking this material - including the transcripts of phone taps - posed serious risks to the investigations, prosecutors argued. The court agreed, and said the leaking of the information could have posed serious dangers to Dutch society.
Oh, those backward Dutch! Don't they know that leaking the details of anti-terrorist operations is the highest form of patriotism? Why, it's the very duty of intelligence services to let this stuff out!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/15/2005 10:29 Comments ||
Top||
#5
It's Expatica's policy and has been for years. Something about being "Innocent unless proven even more innocent of being a traitorous murdering weasel scumbag of a loserr jihadi wannabe."
Usually I'll just run the first name and a few trial/charge sheet details through Google News to find the full name.
#6
... jailed for four-and-a-half years for leaking confidential information to terrorist suspects [ including] ... Mohammed B, the man who killed film director Theo van Gogh ...
Seems like an awfully short sentence for someone who served as an accessory to murder.
The Swedish parliament ceased all bilateral contacts with the Iranian parliament Tuesday, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The move follows a letter Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin sent asking parliaments worldwide to express their support for Israel. The letter, which was sent to more than 80 parliaments, called for an international response to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call in October to "wipe Israel off the map."
"In recent years Iran has not merely settled for verbal attacks on Israel, Zionism and the Jewish people. It has been unrelenting in its efforts to achieve nuclear military capability and has funded, supplied and provided operational guidance to several major terrorist organizations," Rivlin wrote in the letter. "I strongly feel that due to the severity of this statement, a worldwide parliamentary reaction is called for."
The Speaker of the Swedish Parliament, Bjorn von Sydow, took immediate action based on Rivlin's letter.
"Although being restricted by constitutional limitations to act in matters of foreign policies, I can assure you that I will use every opportunity I have to condemn such statements... I have made sure that we cease all bilateral contacts with the Iranian parliament," Sydow wrote in response on November 14.
He ended the letter by asserting: "I am willing to defend the rights of Israel to exist as strongly as I defend the rights of my own country to exist."
A spokesman for Sydow told the Post that the speaker sent a clear signal that parliamentarians should not engage in official bilateral exchanges with the Iranian legislature.
Rivlin's letter was delivered to parliamentary heads around the globe on November 1 by various Israeli ambassadors. It has received a broad spectrum of responses, a Rivlin spokesman said.
"Several parliaments, including Guatemala, Chile and Uruguay have passed resolutions condemning the Iranian remarks, but the Swedish government has given the strongest reaction," said Yaakov Levy, diplomatic advisor to Rivlin. "We would have liked all responses to be as strong as the Swedish response."
Levy added that the letter was also sent to the parliaments of several Arab countries.
The letter was sent as part of a new program launched by Rivlin to strengthen Israel's relationship with foreign parliaments, said Levy. The letter regarding Iran was the second letter Rivlin sent to parliamentary heads; the first discussed the disengagement.
Relations between Israel and Sweden were strained last year following a visit by Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds. The FM took Israel to task for alleged violations of international law, saying Sweden's younger generation is troubled to see these violations on television.
Freivalds raised the issue in meetings with President Moshe Katsav and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, saying targeted killings, destruction of homes and construction of the security fence violate international law, which is the guidepost for Swedish policy.
Freivalds's visit came six months after former ambassador to Sweden Zvi Mazel wrecked a display at the Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm which he felt glorified the suicide bomber who murdered 21 Israelis at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa last year.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/15/2005 02:03 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The light finally coming on?
And how about a letter to the Nobel committee who saw fit to reward the peanut farmer from Georgia who by abandoning the terrible Shah of Iran brought forth an even greater evil upon mankind.
#2
And how about a letter to the Nobel committee who saw fit to reward the peanut farmer from Georgia who by abandoning the terrible Shah of Iran brought forth an even greater evil upon mankind.
If the Shah had been abandoned even earlier, perhaps the revolution that overthrew him would have been a democratic and philo-Western one, rather than an Islamofascist anti-Western one.
Supporting a tyrant against the discontent of his own people never works well, because tyrannies are always overthrown and the people remember who aided them. Your stance towards said tyrants only serves to determine the stance of the *next* regime. It's not a coincidence that some of the most anti-American regions in the world (Iran, Latin America, Greece) once had tyrants aided by the US government, even as it's not a coincidence that countries like Poland (once enslaved by Russian stooges) now form the forefront of the anti-Russian resistance.
#3
The headline is misleading - country to country ties usually at the ambassadorial level - this implies Sweden recalled its ambassador and closed its embassy. In fact all that happened was that one parliament stopped speaking to another - a type of relationship that isn't particularly significant or common, anyway.
#4
Supporting a tyrant against the discontent of his own people never works well, because tyrannies are always overthrown and the people remember who aided them.
Right Aris, now how about Roosevelt supporting Joe Stalin? And we can add in there supporting the colonial British Empire too. Sometimes the choice is the lesser of the two evils at the moment.
#5
Aris has the benefit of living in an inconsequential country that matters little. The choices it makes are dictated by its larger friends. It never has to make tough choices, the bigger countries do that for it. Gives him the ability to be naive and generally stupid.
#6
We should have let the communists take over Greece. After they added a few hundred thousand or million Greeks to the total in the Black Book of Communism, the Greeks would have liked us.
The surviving ones, at least.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/15/2005 10:35 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Aris is right, although he forgets that natural american policy was distorted by the Communist threat. We supported Saddam when the likely alternative was Iraq as a Communist Client state. Now that Communism has been knocked down a peg (but not eliminated), our natural pro-democracy, anti-tyranny inclinations are being allowed to express themselves.
I was in a Grad school with a very strong Iranian contingent financed by Iran who, nevertheless, agitated for the removal of the Shah. I point-blank told one, my officemate, that going communist was merely trading a domestic master for a puppet master run by a foreign power. He agreed with me, saying that communism was atheistic and contrary to Islam. He assured me that there was a religious leader in Paris, at the moment, who would straighten things out and supervise the setting up of a democratic republic. At the time, I was more naive and ignorant about Islam than I am now, and was satisfied with the answer.
Boy, If I had only known.
In retrospect, he probably thought Khomeini would be like Iraq's Sistani, but it appears there was a split in the Shiite imam ranks, with Khomeini being of the faction that advocated more religious control over the state.
I like to think he realized his countrymen made a dreadful mistake: he and all his Iranian friends all but made me an honorary Iranian and I counseled them on their advertising spin. We had friendly debates about religion and respected each other's piety enough to believe that when God/Allah called to lead us to a clearer truth, that we would follow. All were quite rational and able, I'm still convinced, to admit they made a mistake.
I can't shake the feeling that some are now dead by un-natural means.
#8
Right Aris, now how about Roosevelt supporting Joe Stalin
AFAIK Roosevelt didn't support Stalin against the Soviet Union's own people, he supported him against an external invader, Hitler.
AFAIK America had opposed Stalin before said invasion actually occurred, and opposed him again once World War II had ended. AFAIK, America would have been happy if Stalin had been overthrown in a mass revolt.
And we can add in there supporting the colonial British Empire too.
To the extent you were supporting the British Empire against Hitler, you were doing right. To the extent you were supporting the British Empire against the wishes of native peoples to free themselves from the colonial yoke, you were doing wrong.
See, it's kinda the same way that I support you when you move against Al Qaeda or other Islamofascists, but I oppose you when you grab innocent Muslim farmers and torture them to death.
We should have let the communists take over Greece. After they added a few hundred thousand or million Greeks to the total in the Black Book of Communism, the Greeks would have liked us.
The Greek people were liking America well enough after you aided its government in the civil war against the Communists in the late 1940s. Ofcourse the time of the military junta was decades later in the late 1960s and early 1970s, at a time where there was no threat of Communist takeover whatsoever -- and that's when Greece turned to hate you. The military junta was a plain move against *democracy*, not against any sort of communist threat.
But I can't expect you to keep the decades straight, Robert. Your arguments consist of a kindergartener's knowledge of history, and a pre-kindergartener's usage of false dilemmas.
#9
Right after the Shah fell I was working in an Architectural office with 2 Iranians who left Iran 2 months before. They both told me the Shah was bad but the Ayatolla was MUCH worse. They didn't blame the US for supporting the Shah as at the time there was no other (their words) alternative to the Shah. Ptah, they didn't want Komeni either. That was the reason they got while the gettin was good. Fortunately they had the means. They had no illusions about what an Islamic government in Iran would be. They were (and I hope still are) husband and wife and knew what would happen to the wife under Islamic rule. They wanted the freedoms we enjoy. They also knew that if the Shah had been overthrown earlier there would most probably been a communist government. Aris' assertion that "perhaps the revolution that overthrew him would have been a democratic and philo-Western one" has no basis in reality. It's just wishful thinking. They felt the best option was to keep the Shah and work for reforms. They are still here in the US and have become naturalized citizens.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/15/2005 11:16 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Although I believe that Aris has a valid point about dictatorships, it surprises me to learn that Greece stands alongside Iran and Venezuela in its stern determination to stem the tide of godless American capitalist imperialism... or something.
#11
If memory serves, the Greek coup was precipitated by Papandreou's (the elder) attempt to gain control of the defense ministry (a coup if you will) in order to protect his son Andreas (and future Prime Minister) from his involvement in a leftist military coup to overthrow the king and establish a leftist dictatorship. The king forced the elder Pops to resign and the leftists (who obviously were not adverse to a coup, just as long as it was their coup) caused massive demos and strikes and lots of skullduggery in government.
At this point the colonels pulled off the coup. Don't remember much opposition or bloodshed. All those who now claim to have opposed it must have been passed out on Ouzo or were in the French Resistance. It took about a year for the king to try a really botched counter coup. Again, not much support for it by the people. Don't remember citzens out in the streets with pitchforks and Molotov cocktails like in Hungary. If the Greek attitude to the coup was "Ehh", pardon me if the US attitude was the same. The US was fighting a war and was facing down the Soviets over much of the planet, including over the Arab-Israeli war. If Greeks still have hurt feelings because Uncle Sam had more important things to do than invade a shitty little country to overthrow a coup (which was initiated by a coup from the otherside of the political spectrum) that posed no threat to it, then too fucking bad. You should have asked the Turks to come to your rescue.
Posted by: ed ||
12/15/2005 11:45 Comments ||
Top||
#12
DB, it was the Shah's reforms that precipitaed the islamic overthrow. In addition to economic modernization, it was the liberalization of women, changing morals, and especially the diminishment of the mullah's power and property that galvanized the religious establishment to overthrow the Shah. I think the Shah was heading toward constitutional monarchy, but the economic, social, and religous changes were to much and too fast. The outward excuse the ayatollahs gave may have been the Shah's extravagant lifestyle and corruption, but the real reason were the hits the religious establishment was taking.
Posted by: ed ||
12/15/2005 12:06 Comments ||
Top||
#13
I do think you have a point ed, but the Shah's secrect police were imprisoning anyone who opposed the Shah, according to my friends. I only have second-hand information. In any case Aris' assertion that had the Shah been overthrown earlier there might have been a Democratic government in Iran is not supported by the reality at the time.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/15/2005 12:27 Comments ||
Top||
#14
My apologies, Aris. I admit I'm not well-versed in the recent histories of pissant backwater nations.
(And, of course, any dictatorship in Greece had to be America's fault. Everyone knows there were no Greeks involved.)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/15/2005 12:46 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Although I believe that Aris has a valid point about dictatorships, it surprises me to learn that Greece stands alongside Iran and Venezuela in its stern determination to stem the tide of godless American capitalist imperialism... or something.
"Or something" is correct -- it's probably naivety to think that the rhetoric of Venezuelan or Iranian or Chinese anti-Americanism has anything to do with actual ideology.
As for your surprise regarding Greece -- it's not as noticeable, because Greece itself is hardly as noticeable or powerful or regionally significant as Iran or Venezuela. Besides, the political elite of Greece acts on a much more *practical* level. What would this elite gain with useless anti-American rhetoric? It's not as if it has any regional allies to muster under its banner. (Not since Milosevic fell anyway, and in that case we were the followers, not the leaders)
But the actual position of Greece, even with lack of rhetoric, could be seen in the way that (alongside Russia) it was one of the two nations in the world that supported Serbia in its wars. Greek politicians kept on supporting Milosevic even after his own people had abandoned him.
More recently, and perhaps significantly for the issue of anti-Americanism, I've lost count of the number of Greek people, from the Archbishop down to fellow soldiers or taxicab drivers, whom I've heard indicate that they believe that America "had 9/11 coming".
At a hard look from me, most of those people will quickly add "Except for the people dying ofcourse. That was bad.", so the Greek people have not gone *fully* genocidal yet, but it seems to me it's the next worse thing when the "people dying" in the twin towers can be seen as a mere detail rather than the main event.
ed> First of all, *lots* of countries didn't invade Greece to overthrow the dictatorship here, that doesn't mean America's only other option was to support the regime. Let's quit it with the freezing-cold-or-scalding-hot dilemmas.
Secondly, yes, obviously the junta had lots of internal support as well. After all you didn't invade to install it either, so that it had internal support goes without saying. The Greek Church supported it, the Army supported it, lots of people supported it.
But dude, America is a convenient scapegoat to blame instead of all those respectable institutions, because of the fact that America was *also* guilty. You have only yourselves to blame for putting yourselves in such a hate-able position. The Hungarians could hate the Soviets, and the Lebanese could hate the Syrians, why did you ever think that the Greek people would not hate *you* when the dictatorship passed?
Thirdly, I don't think you can have it both ways. You can't *both* claim that leftist forces were so powerful as to almost have been able to pull off a left-wing coup and paralyze the country and whatever, and yet at the same time so weak that they managed to hold no resistance to the rightwing coup at all.
#16
I admit I'm not well-versed in the recent histories of pissant backwater nations.
That won't stop you from endlessly chattering about them, as long as you keep it insulting at least.
And, of course, any dictatorship in Greece had to be America's fault.
LOL! Weren't you, in the previous post, attempting to take *credit* for the dictatorship's supposed actions in preserving Greece against communism? Can you really have it both ways? Do you even have *any* actual opinion in there, Robert, or are you as hollow as you seem?
Frankly I'm quite prepared to say that America may have not been responsible for the dictatorship's establishment at all. That still doesn't excuse you from the sin of *supporting* this regime.
And it doesn't change the fact that said American support for the dictatorship did wonders in establishing Greek anti-Americanism in the post-dictatorship years. Because it legitimized anti-Americanism as a supposedly democratic force.
#17
Guess that means no more Swedish meatballs for the Moolahs, Olie.
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/15/2005 13:16 Comments ||
Top||
#18
Aris,
The fact of the leftist coup plot exists. Deal with it. The overthrow plot and the coverup of the guilty is what began the whole sordid chapter in Greek history. The coup plot was powerful enough to have a least one powerful political family in Greece supporting it. A bit of googling shows: In parliament and out, Papandreou, relishing to the full this renewal of the (relentless struggle", harried the government, against a background of continuous and large-scale demonstrations. ... In mid-March fifteen officers charged in the Aspida affair were convicted and the public prosecutor sought to have Andreas Papandreou's parliamentary immunity lifted so that he could be charged, along with other civilians alleged to be involved. That vs. 3 colonels (though it seems they were competent, at least plotting coups).
America guilty? The stupidity of Greeks is guilty. Your elites think they can pull off coups for the greater socialist good. Then when sonny gets into hot water, daddy brings the whole country to a stop. How stupid and selfish is that. How selfish were Greek citizens to allow 3 colonels to pull off a bloodless coup, then later, not support the king in trying to restore the staus quo. As an outsider, I must conclude most Greeks supported the coup or are the laziest people on earth. So the US could have been like the Soviets and Syrians and invaded your ass, but then that would have made enemies of what seems the majority who supported the coup. Or the US could have cut off weapons, but no the Greeks didn't want that either, with Turkey and the Soviet block next door. Cut off trade? Don't think so. Again, where was the Greek opposition, protests and sabotage?
Make up your Greek mind, and with the benefit of hindsight, tell us what you want to US to do. What would benefit the US?
The colonels execute a coup in Cyprus, causing the Turks to invade Cyprus and the junta to fall. To top it all off, the Greeks then go and elect an original Aspida coup plotter that started the whole mess, to become their Prime Minister? It's as smart as Venezuelans electing Chavez after his failed coup attempt, or Hitler after the Beer Hall Putsch. Save me from Greek stupidity.
Posted by: ed ||
12/15/2005 13:36 Comments ||
Top||
#19
ed> You keep on babbling about an obviously *failed* coup, as if it somehow justifies a successful coup of the future.
Oh, wait perhaps it's not the failed coup that you blame, perhaps it was the fact that a democratically elected leader like George Papandreou Sr. felt he had the mandate to govern the country despite the unelected king's and the unelected army's wishes.
You keep on asking "where were the protests". In the year of 1973 several student protests culminated in November 17 of the same year, where many Greek students protesting the dictatorship were killed when junta tanks stormed the Polytechnic school of Athens. Their protests were all the more remarkable in the fact that though both anti-American and pro-democratic, they were not philo-Eastern bloc: a fact that indicates the basic falses in Robert's and others' either-the-Soviets-or-the-Colonels false dilemma. Either way I'm tired of your insults towards these brave students' memory.
I've never supported villainous actions of the Greek government or villainous attitudes of the Greek people, so I would very much appreciate it if you also once in a while showed the backbone to criticize villainous actions of the American government -- and America's support for the dictatorship was clearly one.
Even if you felt it unavoidable that you needed to supply Greece with weaponry, why not atleast *criticize* the regime?
And frankly, you could have begun by simply not sending *torture instruments*. Is that a baby step small enough for you?
This conversation is over. If you still cling to the idea that America did everything right in supporting the regime, then our realities are so different as not to merit discussion. I have a Harry Potter review to write which is a far better occupation than trying to talk sense to dictator-apologists.
Antiamericanism is a flower that America has itself seeded with its support for tyrants. Blame people's stupidity for not appreciating such generous gifts, but the more you go on this tactic, the more you'll have to consider pretty much every other nation in the world other than yours to be "stupid".
#20
Aris. I never justified any coup. Those are your words. I pointed out to you that the colonels coup did not come out of the blue, but was in response to the coup efforts of Papandreou and fellow stupid ass leftists, and following Papandreou Sr. paralyzing the country for the sake of his coup plotter son. A real patriot. And if you did not notice, all the coup plotters on all sides were Greek, hardly an American among them.
I am impressed student demonstrations happened 6 1/2 years after the colonels took power. But them Greeks are world famous for being deliberate in action and slow to anger, or not. It must be America's fault that other Greeks stormed the student dorms.
Thanks for all the Greek words of chastisement for Saddam Hussein, Milosevic, the Iranian mullahs. Hmm, I don't hear them. Guess Greeks are whispering them so as to not offend, or Greeks realize those words mean nothing and have no effect on dictatorships. As for criticizing the junta, but still sell them weapons otherwise Greeks would howl if cut off, what benefit is that to the Americans when so many Greeks supported the coup, especially since the original coup plotters wanted to set up a Nasserite dictatorship? And took Greeks 6 1/2 years to get tired to dictatorship? Cripes. As for Americanism being a gift. Yes it is. How many people have the Greeks liberated?
Terminate this thread if you wish. My preference is for the US to have nothing to do with Greece and Greece can return to its historic tributary role, whether Roman, Turk, German or Russian I don't care.
Posted by: ed ||
12/15/2005 14:41 Comments ||
Top||
#21
Ed,
Yep, you said it. Greece has been the football of -Europe- since 1829,* yet we're the evil Satans for going along with European "realism" and "engagement" back in the 60's over the traditional US Jacksonian isolationism. Gag.
*and Aris wants them to continue to be the EU's bureaucracy's lackeys FOREVER, having failed to catch a clue from the French EU constitution vote.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
12/15/2005 15:05 Comments ||
Top||
#22
LOL! Weren't you, in the previous post, attempting to take *credit* for the dictatorship's supposed actions in preserving Greece against communism? Can you really have it both ways?
You can. Why can't I?
I mean, christ, your #1 shtick is to tell each and every one of us what's going on inside our heads. You read our minds, judge our souls, and pronounce us all evil incarnate whenever our opinions do not line up with yours. You're doing it again in this thread.
If you can pull that shit off, I'll do whatever I can to annoy you. Particularly when you're justifying bigotry against my country when it was your own country's fault in the first place and we were just trying to deal with the world as it existed. No, we didn't clean up the mess your countrymen made. I doubt we knew we were expected to.
You know one reason Americans have little interest in the pissant nations of the world? Because we get exhausted of the endless airing of grievances, if not against us, then against everyone else. Particularly when those grievances make as much sense as this:
But dude, America is a convenient scapegoat to blame instead of all those respectable institutions, because of the fact that America was *also* guilty. You have only yourselves to blame for putting yourselves in such a hate-able position. The Hungarians could hate the Soviets, and the Lebanese could hate the Syrians, why did you ever think that the Greek people would not hate *you* when the dictatorship passed?
Hint: American tanks did not roll through Athens. We did not set about assassinating Greek politicians and sending in proxy armies. There's a hell of a lot of difference between what happened in Hungary and Lebanon and what happened in Greece.
Comparing them is childish, and that's one reason I'm not impressed.
And, no, I'm not "apologizing for a dictatorship", or claiming America is morally pure. Christ, I'm *NOT* going to take responsibility for something that was done when I was three years old, and I wouldn't expect *YOU* to do that, either.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/15/2005 15:30 Comments ||
Top||
#23
Antiamericanism is a flower that America has itself seeded with its support for tyrants.
Yet he wants to unite his homeland with the world-champion tyrant supporters in France.
Go figure.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/15/2005 15:37 Comments ||
Top||
#24
Ed is absolutely right that the overthrow of the Shah was, first and foremost, a reactionary response to his reform efforts. The mullahs were FURIOUS that he built co-ed schools with western-style curricula and credentialled teachers, imported doctors that (among other things) treated abused women and collected statistics and above all, move power away from the arbitrary thugs who ran the villages to a central government.
Now, that government did perpetrate some abuses. But if you think they were worse, rather than less, than what went on in the villages prior to his changes, you're naive at best.
Full disclosure: I was offered a job to work in Iran for 2 years. Turned it down for family reasons, but not before investigating things carefully including discussions with both ex-pats and Americans who'd been there. Shah fell 22 months into what would have been a 24 month contract .....
A group of Islamic militants detained on Monday in the Paris region have indirect contact with al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Four hundred police detained 25 people in a string of dawn raids.
They were suspected of financing Islamist militancy by staging armed robberies.
''This group had links with a number of dangerous groups,'' Sarkozy told the National Assembly lower house of parliament yesterday during questions to the government.
''We also know that this group, 25 people, have indirect links to important al Qaeda leaders and al-Zarqawi,'' he said, without elaborating.
Anti-terrorism magistrates have until Friday to decide whether to place the group arrested on Monday under formal investigation on suspicion of terrorism charges.
In July, the head of the French police service said the radical Algerian Islamist group the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat had been in contact with Zarqawi about launching attacks in North Africa and probably France.
France has been on red alert, the second highest security level, since suicide bombers killed more than 50 people in attacks on London's transport network on July 7.
Sarkozy's anti-terrorism bill, which includes increasing closed circuit television surveillance, monitoring of mobile phone and Internet cafe connections is being debated in parliament.
It also extends to up to six days the period for which terrorism suspects can be held before being placed under official investigation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/15/2005 02:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
President Bush discusses Iraqi elections, victory in the War on Terror at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Key graf:
"We removed Saddam Hussein from power because he was a threat to our security. He had pursued and used weapons of mass destruction. He sponsored terrorists. He ordered his military to shoot at American and British pilots patrolling the no-fly zones. He invaded his neighbors. He fought a war against the United States and a broad coalition. He had declared that the United States of America was his enemy.
"Over the course of a decade, Saddam Hussein refused to comply with more than a dozen United Nations resolutions -- including demands that he respect the rights of the Iraqi people, disclose his weapons, and abide by the terms of a 1991 cease-fire. He deceived international inspectors, and he denied them the unconditional access they needed to do their jobs. When a unanimous Security Council gave him one final chance to disclose and disarm, or face serious consequences, he refused to comply with that final opportunity. At any point along the way, Saddam Hussein could have avoided war by complying with the just demands of the international community. The United States did not choose war -- the choice was Saddam Hussein's."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/15/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Indian army personnel stand behind seized arms and ammunition in a garrison in Srinagar December 15, 2005. A large quantity of arms and ammunition, the biggest in haul in recent months belonging to separatist militants, has been recovered by the army during search operations in Kupwara district near the Pakistan border, an Indian army statement said.
Posted by: john ||
12/15/2005 15:12 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Photos at the link.
Lots of RPGs and AK-47s
Posted by: john ||
12/15/2005 16:21 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Pshaw. Just a few wedding noise makers.
Posted by: ed ||
12/15/2005 16:28 Comments ||
Top||
NEW DELHI: Eleven people were jailed for life by an Indian court on Wednesday for killing 11 men, women and children in the deadly 2002 riots in western Gujarat, reported the Press Trust of India (PTI). The court in Godhra acquitted 18 others in the same case for lack of evidence. Riots erupted in Gujarat after 59 Hindus travelling on a train died in Godhra after a fire started by a suspected Muslim mob.
The accused were charged with attacking a group of Muslims who had taken shelter in a village school in Panchmahal, said the news agency, quoting the victimsâ lawyer. Armed with sharp weapons, they attacked the group and killed 11 people, including six women and two children who were thrown into a well, while two elderly persons were burnt alive, it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This judgement from October 2005 is relevant to the convicted rioters
Life imprisonment means for life, not 14 years, clarifies Supreme Court
New Delhi â Life sentence means imprisonment for life and is not equivalent to imprisonment for 14 years or 20 years, the Supreme Court of India has clarified, while dismissing a writ petition â a decision that will have far-reaching implications.
Life term punishment is a class of penalty âdifferent from ordinary imprisonment and it must be treated as imprisonment for the remaining period of the convict's natural life,â the apex court has observed.
Unless it was commuted or remitted by the appropriate authority, a prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment was bound by the law to serve the entire life term in prison, it explained.
Posted by: john ||
12/15/2005 15:04 Comments ||
Top||
Afghan refugees living in Kurram Agency have been asked to leave the sensitive tribal region on the Pakistan-Afghan border within 48 hours.
Finally getting the idea, are they?
The deadline, coming two days after the expulsion of refugees from the border town of Miranshah in the NWFP on a 24-hour notice, was announced on loudspeakers in mosques across the semi-autonomous area controlled by the federal government.
"Attention! Attention! All you Afghans! Beat it! That is all!"
Kurram Agency Assistant Political Agent Nasir Khan Wazir said that refugees who did not abide by the law would be arrested and dealt with accordingly.
Of course, you gotta catch 'em first...
Haji Sardar Khan Ghilji, a refugee living in the Kurram Agency, said that several refugee camps were removed from the area before the month of Ramazan. âUp to 200 families, including those who slipped back after repatriation to Afghanistan, are still living in the main town,â he said. In Islamabad, UNHCR spokesman Asif Shahzad said the displaced people who did not want to return home could shift to any other refugee camp inside Pakistan. He pledged that the UN agency would assist them in the process of shifting.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Six rockets were fired in Kohlu on Wednesday while President General Pervez Musharraf was touring the eastern Balochistan city. No casualties were reported. Police personnel said that three rockets struck near a paramilitary forces camp in Kohlu, some 350 km east of Quetta, and three rockets fell outside the city. These rockets were fired soon after Gen Musharraf landed in Kohlu. Reports from Kohlu stated that a few rockets were also defused before the explosions.
Two explosions were heard last night in the Quetta cantonment area, while Gen Musharraf was staying there, but there were no casualties. One of those rockets landed near the high-security Gulistan Road and another in the grounds of the Army Golf Club. âNo casualty was reported as both rockets fell in open places,â a police official told AFP. A man identifying himself as Meerak Baloch called the Quetta Press Club and claimed responsibility for both incidents on behalf of the Baloch Liberation Army. âWe fired the rockets,â a journalist at the press club quoted Baloch as saying. âWe Balochis are being treated like slaves. We are at war with the general and we will continue such attacks,â he quoted the caller as saying, Reuters reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
As all Drudge readers know, the NY Times's Dexter Filkens reported today that a tanker from Iran was stopped coming into Iraq, and was found to contain thousands of forged ballots. Various Iraqi pols and even one general have denied it, although the story was sourced to the police and no one from the police has denied it yet.
It's an important story and deserves some discussion here. First of all, Filkens is a good journalist. He didn't make it up, and he knows the difference between a good source and a dreamer. Second, it makes sense for the Iraqi police to stop tankers coming in from Iran, because other tankers have carried explosives, and some of them were suicide vehicles. Third, the story is completely consistent with everything we know about Iran's desperate efforts to prevent good government in Iraq. That is an existential threat to the mullahs, because they know that their own people yearn for good, democratic government.
Despite the recent stories about the religious convictions--and visions--of President Ahmadi Nezhad, Iran remains a relatively unreported story. And a large part of that is because the biggest leakers in the government (the CIA for those of you in Loma Linda) don't want to have to do anything about Iran, about which they are poorly informed, and in which they have nothing going. I keep getting reports from Iraqis and from American soldiers, that tell of abundant evidence of direct Iranian involvement with terrorism in Iraq, but these stories never make it to the MSM. An Iraqi dinner guest the other evening said that in Basra, for example, there are offices with big signs that say "Iranian Military Intelligence," where recruiting is going on. That's a British zone, and the Brits permit this to go on, even as they warn about lethal Iranian activity.
If the Americans and the Brits don't want to mess with the Iranians, how can we expect the Iraqis to be more aggressive? Iraqis know that the Iranians can blow them up, why should they confirm things like Filkens' story? Of course they will deny it, even as you and I would under the circumstances.
Reporting on Iraq and on Iran is not like covering Capitol Hill. And we need to maintain proper context. Journalists aren't any more eager to die than the rest of us; certain stories aren't going to be reported. A long way of saying "bravo" to Dexter Filkens.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 22:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The Iraqi police said Thursday, an explosive-belt strapped bomber was arrested at an election center here. A police source told newsmen that the would-be bomber was arrested at an election center in Al-Amel suburb, southeast of here. He added that a proxy card indicating that he is authorised to monitor the elections on behalf of a political entity was confiscated by the police. Also an armed man was arrested on background of firing a mortar bomb at an election center in Samerra, north of here.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 19:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Iraqi security forces caught the most wanted man in the country last year, but released him because they didn't know who he was, the Iraqi deputy minister of interior said Thursday. Hussain Kamal confirmed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- the al Qaeda in Iraq leader who has a $25 million bounty on his head -- was in custody at some point last year, but he wouldn't provide further details. A U.S. official couldn't confirm the report, but said he wouldn't dismiss it. "It is plausible," he said.
Thursday's news tops a list of reports of missed opportunities to capture the 39-year-old terrorist mastermind. An official said the military receives frequent reports of al-Zarqawi sightings, all of which are investigated. In April, U.S. troops stormed a hospital in Ramadi based on credible intelligence that terrorists were hiding there, but no suspects were found, military officials said in early May. A high-ranking Iraqi Army officer said there were rumors that al-Zarqawi was at the Ramadi medical center, and several groups affiliated with the al Qaeda operative issued statements saying the same. Iraqi Lt. Gen. Nasser Abadi said Thursday that al-Zarqawi was taken to the hospital. He added that he didn't believe Kamal's report was correct. "When we got the news, we rushed there, but he was out of there," the general said.
The Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi was almost captured in February, too, after troops received a tip that he was heading to a meeting in Ramadi, said Pentagon officials speaking on condition of anonymity. With his vehicle under surveillance by an unmanned Predator spy plane, troops set up checkpoints along his route. As al-Zarqawi's truck approached one of the checkpoints, the vehicle abruptly turned around, the officials said. He was chased for several miles, but when troops finally ran his vehicle down, the terrorist had escaped. His driver and security guard were arrested, and troops found a computer with a "treasure trove of information" that offered a clear indication that al-Zarqawi corresponded regularly with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the officials said.
Posted by: Shistos Shistadogaloo UK ||
12/15/2005 16:41 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The next time you see this devil worshipper, shoot him in the face. Do not collect $100, do not pass go.
This man is pure evil and there is no intel you may gather from him.
#4
The folks at CNN, Rooters, etc... must be really crying in their beers tonight after a sucessful Iraqi election. They have to dig up this old dead story. Next they will bring out the Prison abuse photos again....
Can't think of a more deserving bunch of bastards (the MSM that is...) to be so disappointed.
A straw poll conducted after voting closed in Iraq's election on Thursday showed the dominant Shi'ite Islamist bloc retained a strong following, but was being challenged by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's secular list. More than 500 interviews with voters by Reuters reporters across Iraq indicated strong support in Shi'ite areas for the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the senior partner in a ruling coalition with the Kurds.
The UIA says it has won 57 percent of the national vote for Iraq's first full-term parliament since Saddam Hussein fell. But Allawi appeared to have made up ground from his 14 percent showing in January's poll for an interim assembly. The Reuters poll suggests Allawi could be a force in mixed areas like the capital Baghdad, which has 59 of the 230 regional seats available in the 275-seat parliament. He has a strong following among secular Sunnis and Shi'ites in Baghdad but the informal poll suggests the test for him will be how many of his fellow Shi'ites in the capital remain loyal to the Islamist UIA, or "555" list. Voters interviewed as they left a polling station in a mainly Shi'ite area of Baghdad showed 48 percent voted for the UIA, with Allawi's list scoring 38 percent.
That doesn't sound real close to me, but I guess it doesn't include the Kurds...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 16:14 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Idiot Reuters doesnt tell us whether the Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad was in Sadr City, or in one of the more affluent areas in West Baghdad. If Allawi took 38% of the vote in Sadr City, hes won, slam dunk. If he took 38% of the vote in a Shiite area in West Baghdad, well, we've got months of maneuvering ahead of us.
#3
It's much close than it was in January, when the UIA had a 35 point nationwide lead over Allawi with few Sunni Arabs voting. Allawi should pick up a few points of Sunni Arab votes as well.
Heh. Indeed.
Thabet Waleed woke at 6 a.m., said his prayers and headed to the polling place near his home, not just to vote but also to monitor elections. It was in stark contrast to last January, when he slept until midmorning and boycotted the balloting. The story of Waleed and his family is that of many Sunni Arabs, who saw in Thursday's election a chance to make a show of strength and prevent Shiites from taking full control of Iraq. Eager to reclaim their status in politics, some regarded the ballot box as a way to start anew. Others remained nostalgic for a bygone era, when they were at the helm.
Waleed said developments since January â most notably a government dominated by Shiites and Kurds â have convinced him that staying away from the polls was a mistake. "We have been marginalized ... and humiliated," said Waleed, a lean and mustachioed 35-year-old worker for a Sunni charity. "Now, we have to contest the political process so that we can be in control." On the eve of the vote, Waleed and his extended family gathered around the television set at the family home, where he and his wife live with his mother, to watch news and election ads. All voted for the same Sunni alliance.
Grievances â real or imaginary â were a main topic. Rasheed said food rations distributed by the government are always missing some staples, and the streets are strewn with garbage. Israa complained that police raids have become so arbitrary she has to hide her brothers at her place when word gets out that one is imminent. Waleed said Sunni Arabs are subjected to unjustified arrests and squeezed out of jobs. "They (the Shiites and the Kurds) feel that we were favored by Saddam Hussein, and now they want to settle scores with us," he said. "We're living in danger."
But in the run-up to the vote, Waleed felt safe enough to hang posters promoting a Sunni coalition, go house-to-house to hand out calendars bearing the alliance's name and chant the group's slogans at a rally. On Thursday, he monitored the vote on behalf of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a member of the Sunni coalition, despite pleas from his wife who feared for his life.
Waleed said that, in principle, he didn't care if the new government was Sunni or otherwise, as long as it was fair. But on the streets of Azamiyah, residents were seething with anger at the current government, dominated by a religious Shiite alliance. On her way to the polling center, Israa stopped in front of one poster that showed photos of men â killed, injured or handcuffed. "Look! They have killed them all," she said. "It's the Badr organization," she added, referring to a Shiite militia.
In Azamiyah, voting for the religious Shiite alliance seems so out of the question, residents joke about it. As Waleed left the polling center, a neighbor sitting outside a grocery store yelled out: "So, you voted for 555?" teasingly referring to the Shiite alliance.
"Don't make me throw a grenade at you," Waleed joked.
#1
seething with anger at the current government, dominated by a religious Shiite alliance. On her way to the polling center, Israa stopped in front of one poster that showed photos of men â killed, injured or handcuffed. "Look! They have killed them all," she said. "It's the Badr organization," she added, referring to a Shiite militia.
Big fat clue to Israa: You might reqind the clock 30 years and substitute "Baathist/Sunni" for the current government, and "Shias/Kurds" being slaughtered." If you had voted a year ago things would be different, knucklehead.
A reporter from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner is embedded with the 173rd Stryker Brigade, and is blogging her experiences on the newspaper's website.
Iâm a journalist. I read the news everyday, from several sources. I have the luxury of reading stuff newspapers donât always have room to print. I read every tidbit I could on Iraq and the war before coming.
Everything I thought I knew was wrong.
Maybe not wrong, but certainly different than the picture in my head. . . .
There are houses of this city that by Fairbanks standards are luxurious. Or at least they were at one time. They are ornate and gated and in neighborhoods with schools, stores and mosques. They are also ghosts of what they once were. They are still lived in, but after years of war and lack of many basic municipal services, the houses look spent and tired around the shutters.
There is garbage on the streets, in yards, in open areas. There is a stench. There is grime. But there are also people.
They are vivid, unlike their surroundings. They are excitable and friendly and conversational. They live in conditions I hope I donât have to experience in my own life. Yet, if my neighborhood saw two wars, the breakdown of the national and local governments and decline of municipal services, Iâm not sure I wouldnât be in the same boat.
still havenât seen U.S. troops engaged or encounter car bombs or explosives. But I did see them play backgammon with some local police and Iraqi soldiers. I saw them take photos with more locals and make jokes mostly lost in translation. They gave advice and expertise to local troops on how to conduct a neighborhood patrol. They drank the local customary tea, and many admitted theyâve become addicted to it. They know several locals by name. I didnât hear one slight or ridicule of a very distinct culture. One soldier mentioned it might be a good idea to clean up the trash around one polling place, and another commented on the status of women in the culture, but they were nothing but respectful, friendly and buddy-buddy with the Iraqis they mingled with today.
And this is good stuff.
More than anything in the last few days Iâve heard from soldiers and commanders that people back home donât quite get it. They donât see the real picture. They donât get the real story. Some of them, like Lt. Col. Gregg Parrish, look seriously pained in the face when he says only a part of the picture is being told; the part of car bombs and explosives and suicide bombers and death. Itâs a necessary part of the picture, but not a complete one, he says.
Iâve listened to the soldiers and Parrish about the missing pieces of the puzzles that donât reach home. My selfish, journalistic drive immediately thinks âPerfect. A story that hasnât been told. Let me at it.â
But I have a slight hesitation; I need to keep balanced. I canât be a cheerleader, even if I have a soft spot for the hometown troops, especially after the welcome theyâve shown me. I still need to be truthful and walk the centerline and report the good or bad.
But then I realize itâs not a conflict of interest. If I am truly unbiased, then I need to get used to this one simple fact; that the untold story, might in fact, be a positive one. It takes a minute to wrap my mind around it, as a news junkie that became a news writer. The great, career-making, breaking news stories usually donât have happy endings; they usually revolve around disturbing news, deceit and downfall. Nasty political doings. Gruesome crimes and murders. Revealing secrets.
But Iâve come upon something that is none of those. Not this aspect of it. There are politics to this war and controversies and investigations. But there is another side.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/15/2005 12:56 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Fairbanks Daily News Miner. Not quite the main stream. Our even smaller local daily had an employee called up for the reserves who reported while over there. It was good Ernie Pyle type reporting on the daily life of a soldier with occasional think pieces that were very balanced. No one at the paper changed their left wing slant as a result. But it was good to see that at least one of them could go over with a sufficiently open mind to see reality, warts included, instead of having the default MSM Iraq is going to hell story line. More of these locals should get attention from the WH. Bush should have a press conference with all the questions coming from people like this instead of the MoDo wannabes in the WH press corps.
#2
Glad to see someone looking at the war as it should be. Now if we can just get this bright light into mainstream media.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/15/2005 13:24 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Is it really any different from local news? If I went to any major city and listened only to the first seven to ten minutes of the local listings of murder, rape, robbery, assault, vehicular homicide, would I even consider living or raising a family there? Entertainment is done on the cheap and easy. If it bleeds it leads. That's why selling good news is so hard and the culture of the media doesn't do hard.
hack (hak) n. 1) a mediocre and disdained writer (see, Krugman, Paul; Dowd, Maureen; et al) 2) machine politician: a politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends (see, Pelosi, Nancy; et al)
#4
The great, career-making, breaking news stories usually donât have happy endings; they usually revolve around disturbing news, deceit and downfall. Nasty political doings. Gruesome crimes and murders. Revealing secrets. ..because that's how you've defined it; leaving us, the consumer, to seek alternative venues of information more representative of the TRUTH.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/15/2005 13:49 Comments ||
Top||
#5
If I am truly unbiased, then I need to get used to this one simple fact; that the untold story, might in fact, be a positive one.
Well, that certainly leave out the vast majority of the (totally biased) MSM.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/15/2005 14:46 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Everything I thought I knew was wrong.
That's why you're paid not to think, but to report.
..the untold story, might in fact, be a positive one.
Which makes it news. Not the kind that everyone else is falling all over themselves to get into print, but news nonetheless.
#7
What do you want, a f*cking medal for figuring out what was glaringly obvious from the beginning? Four years, it took you. Now you're embedded with our troops, which means we should get a decent report from you around, say, December 2009. ESAD, you ignorant tool.
#8
Good for her. It's painful to have your entire worldview stripped away and stood on its head. Also, she may never work in journalism or academia again when she gets back; the ideologues will blacklist her.
#9
"...the untold story, might in fact, be a positive one."
Wow. The understated fact of the century. I watched Senators Dingy Harry, Smuck Schumer, and a couple of other P.O.O.P.ers (Party of Obscenely Obsessive Pessimists, formerly known as Democrats) bemoan the economy, Valerie Plame, and so forth.
There's a reporter over at the Atlanta Journal Constitution who is a life-long leftist and Third World socialist sympathizer. She attended FSU and participated in every major left-wing campus organization before plying her poison on the pages of the off-campus leftist rag, the Florida Flambeau.
I bet any amount of money, she'll tilt coverage towards the negative.
"Over the last 10 weeks, I got the chance to make new friends and perhaps, even a few enemies who didnât care for the images and thoughts in the stories I filed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution."--Moni Basu
A number of soldiers blasted her. If only they knew her as well as I do, and if only they were aware of her leftist-bias, they would never have given her the time of day.
One person commented on her AJC blog:
By oconee
September 28, 2005 08:56 PM | Link to this
⦠I am glad she was able to complete her a* without any harm coming to her and welcome her back to the good old US.
I only wish all of our heroes over there would be as lucky as she was but now, please, give us someone to write the blog without a lean to the left.
#10
The Colorado Springs Gazette publishes a piece from one of the Fort Carson soldiers serving in Iraq every Wednesday. Some of the stories are pretty good, some aren't, but at least the local people are getting a glimpse of what life is like there. Being a military town, most people here are less inclined to believe the leftist spin, but it's good to have such stories to quiet the whine of the sob-sisters from Colorado College (a VERY liberal private school) and the US Olympic Training Center, a bastion of moonbatism.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/15/2005 17:27 Comments ||
Top||
Iraqis went to the polls on Thursday in a watershed election for a full-term parliament, which the international community hopes will restore stability and sovereignty to the strife-torn nation.
Despite blanket security, a huge blast was heard just after voting began, with a security source reporting it occurred inside Baghdadâs heavily-protected Green Zone that houses the Iraqi government and the US embassy.
Details on possible casualties were not immediately available.
The stringent security measures have brought Iraq to a virtual standstill as about 15.5 million Iraqis are called to vote for a new government many hope will restore stability and pave the way for an exit for foreign troops.
The ballot, the third in this year, marks a new beginning for Iraq following the chaos of a lightning US-led drive to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003, two transitional governments and the adoption of a constitution in October.
In a taste of Western-exported pluralism, 7,655 candidates and 307 political entities, nearly triple the number that stood for election in January, are competing for 275 seats in a four-year legislature, with Sunni turnout expected to be much higher this time around.
âItâs a national celebration for all Iraqis,â said President Jalal Talabani, the countryâs first Kurdish head of state, who was the first to cast his ballot in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah.
US President George W. Bush said the new democracy would serve as a âmodelâ for the Middle East, a cornerstone of his administrationâs policy in the region as Washington increasingly focuses on an ultimate exit strategy from Iraq.
Two years after Saddam was captured by US troops, suicide attacks, shootings and kidnapping are common owing to a deadly insurgency driven by Sunni Arab nationalism and partly hijacked by Al Qaeda.
Halted for the election, the fallen dictatorâs trial for crimes against humanity has threatened to exacerbate ethnic tensions in a country increasingly enmeshed in inter-communal violence.
Following purported threats from Al Qaeda to âruin the âdemocraticâ wedding of heresy and immoralityâ, virtually all Iraqâs 190,000 police and army were mobilized, with US-led troops providing perimeter security for voting stations.
Airports have been closed and land borders and boundaries between Iraqâs 18 provinces sealed. Until Saturday, civilians are banned from carrying weapons and a night-time curfew extended.
Following a campaign marred by political killings and allegations of fraud, more than 120,000 independent observers have been accredited to monitor voting.
Polling stations opened at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) and were to close at 5:00 pm. Millions will have to walk to ballot boxes with only authorised vehicles permitted to drive in order to curb car bombings.
The Shiites and Kurds, who have dominated the transitional administration, are looking to a full-term parliament as a chance to cement their grip on power after decades of oppression.
The Sunni minority, which has largely boycotted the US-led political process until now, is expected to vote en masse.
It is energised by its worst fears -- a government dominated by religious Shiites and a break-up of Iraq into autonomous Kurdish and Shiite zones.
âIf we donât participate weâll get more killing and destruction,â warned Abdelaziz Al Ani, 42, a teacher from Baghdad.
One insurgent group notorious for kidnapping hostages and often killing them, the Islamic Army in Iraq, has broken from other rebel movements by calling on its militants to spare civilians and not attack voting stations.
A clampdown on chronic instability to allow the roughly 180,000 foreign troops based in Iraq to go home, and the restoration of public services such as electricity and water, are the issues that have dominated campaigning.
âI want a strong government that doesnât weaken against anyone. We are the richest country in the world but it has been wasted by wars,â said army Lieutenant Mohammed Al Hilali, whose leg was pulverised by a bullet.
The first task of the elected 275 members of parliaments will be to appoint, by a two-thirds majority, a president and two vice presidents.
That presidential council will then have 15 days to name a prime minister, who has 30 days to form a cabinet with parliamentary approval.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/15/2005 01:56 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
monumental day! Good Luck Iraq! May the best men win!
#4
And big ups to Verlaine in Iraq, who has been working on the administrative end of the election from the Green Zone, and to Broadhead6, whose Marines have made the country more secure. Thank you both.
An attempt to detonate a car bomb on the tunnels highway south of Jerusalem or in the capital itself was foiled on Thursday afternoon. Palestinian security officials in the nearby Bethlehem region claimed that they found the car - which was filled with gas canisters and tires soaked with gasoline - and handed it over to the IDF. An IDF spokesperson confirmed that the army did have a car bomb in its possession and was in the process of neutralizing it. However, he said it was still unclear whether PA forces had uncovered the car. An alert delayed traffic at a main entrance to Bethlehem.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 20:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Jordan's new prime minister vowed Wednesday to wage a "pre-emptive" war against Islamic extremists, saying his government planned to fight terrorism by reforming religious teaching and granting greater freedom.
Speaking to parliament, Marouf al-Bakhit said the suicide bombers who killed 60 people in three hotels on Nov. 9 "only made us more determined to move forward in our pre-emptive war against terrorism and the 'takfiri' culture."
'Takfiri' is the ideology of militants who regard their Muslim opponents as infidels.
ast month's coordinated, triple suicide bombing was the deadliest terror attack in Jordan's history. Jordanians, who pride themselves on living in a quiet corner of a violent region, took to the streets in mass protests against al-Qaida in Iraq, which claimed responsibility, and its Jordanian-born leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The 110-member parliament will meet Sunday to debate a vote of confidence in al-Bakhit's 24-member Cabinet, which King Abdullah II swore in Nov. 27.
The prime minister said his government had a "national and comprehensive strategy" to fight terrorism. That included revising the anti-terrorism law to make it more specific, setting up a crisis management center and providing border posts with more staff and modern equipment to detect smugglers and terrorists.
The government also would devise a strategy for religious teaching to stress "moderation and tolerance," he said, adding that Muslim clerics would be "retrained and rehabilitated."
When Abdullah chose al-Bakhit to be prime minister last month, he instructed him to launch an all-out war against Islamic militancy while vigorously pursuing political and economic reforms.
Al-Bakhit pledged Wednesday to maintain a delicate balance between wider public freedom and security, saying "democracy without security would be chaotic and security without democracy would be oppressive and restrictive of freedoms."
Al-Bakhit also said Jordan would have closer ties with Arab countries and would continue to support Middle East peacemaking and a state for the Palestinians.
He voiced Jordan's unequivocal support for Iraq until "political reconciliation is achieved, a step that will allow for the withdrawal of foreign troops from its territory and the start of a new era of reconstruction and development."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/15/2005 02:11 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Rebels in Fatah, the Palestinian ruling party, have banded together to run for parliament on a competing ticket, sparking one of the gravest crises in the dominant faction's 40-year history.
Whoa! Didn't see that one coming!
Reacting immediately, in an attempt to defuse the crisis, the official Fatah party on Thursday named rebel leader Marwan Barghuti as its head in place of Ahmed Qurei, the prime minister, who had been expected to lead the slate in January's parliamentary elections. "Marwan Barghuti is at the top of the Fatah list," Nasser al-Qidwa, the foreign minister told reporters in Ramallah after registering the official party slate. Qorei, who was chosen to head the official list by the party's central committee late on Tuesday, was relegated to number four on the actual list.
Earlier on Wednesday, Fadwa, the wife of jailed uprising leader Marwan Barghuti entered the election headquarters in Ramallah to formally present the list, signalling that Barghuti was leaving Fatah. Kadoura Fares, a leader of the young activists, said they had presented their own list of candidates for the election. Saeb Nimr, Barghuti's campaign manager, told reporters, "We have registered an independent party under the name, 'The Future,' headed by Marwan Barghuti."
Mohammed Dahlan, the powerful civil affairs minister, was number two on the list, which also includes Abbas's security adviser, Jibril Rajoub, Fatah officials said. Dahlan said:" This is a new dawn. We will remain loyal to this movement and Fatah will come out victorious."
Among others on the list were MP Qadura Fares, top Fatah official Samir Mashharawi and Sufiyan Abu Zayid, minister for prisoner affairs. All of them represent the younger generation within the ruling Fatah party. Fadwa Barghuti, who was flanked by Dahlan as she entered the office, is also a candidate.
Barghuti, serving five life terms in an Israeli prison, has won West Bank primary elections conducted by Fatah, but oldtime Fatah leaders, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, tried to insert old guard figures in the list ahead of the younger leaders, setting off the rebellion. The split is a bitter blow for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and his Fatah old guard. Half an hour before the deadline, oldtime Fatah officials came to present their list of candidates, in effect finalising the split, but they said efforts were still underway to unify the party. They called for rebels in the dominant Fatah faction to close ranks. "I am coming to register Fatah's list. We hope that there will be only one list," Nasser al-Kidwa told reporters upon arriving at a Central Elections Committee office to register, minutes after a breakaway list was filed.
Fatah, the party of the late leader Yasser Arafat, has ruled Palestinian politics for four decades. The "old guard" returned from exile with Arafat in the mid-1990s, while many of the young activists were in the West Bank and Gaza through the years, struggling against Israeli occupation. Abbas was elected head of the Palestinian Authority in January, succeeding Arafat, and did not plan to run for the parliament.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#5
Zenster's comment is ironic because the corruption and incompetance in the sewage and garbage areas is one of the major gripes against the existing PA ruling class. Corruption and incompetance in the police is also a major issue.
Saddam Hussein moved his chemical weapons to Syria six weeks before the war started, Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom says.
The Israeli officer, Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon, asserted that Saddam spirited his chemical weapons out of the country on the eve of the war. "He transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria," General Yaalon told The New York Sun over dinner in New York on Tuesday night. "No one went to Syria to find it."
From July 2002 to June 2005, when he retired, General Yaalon was chief of staff of the Israel Defense Force, the top job in the Israeli military, analogous to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the American military.
......
Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has packed his government with former security and intelligence officials responsible for serious human rights abuses, including the killing of thousands of dissidents in Iranian jails, a leading human rights group said yesterday.
After Mr Ahmadinejad caused renewed international outrage by calling the Nazi Holocaust of Jews a "myth", a report by Human Rights Watch, based in New York, took aim at his hardline cabinet - in particular the new interior minister, Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi.
Mr Pour-Mohammadi, a notorious former deputy intelligence minister, held the post from 1987 to 1999 at a time when his agents "systematically engaged in extra-judicial killings of opposition figures, political activists and intellectuals", HRW said.
The report, entitled Ministers of Murder: Iran's New Security Cabinet, links him to the murder of thousands of political prisoners in Iranian jails in 1988. "The deliberate and systematic manner in which these extra-judicial executions took place may constitute a crime against humanity under international law," said HRW.
Mr Pour-Mohammadi was in charge of foreign intelligence operations from 1990 to 1999, a time when dozens of opposition figures were assassinated abroad. "In some of these cases the hand of the Iranian government has been well established, while in others there are credible allegations of government involvement. Pour-Mohammadi is at the centre of strong allegations of direct involvement in orchestrating these assassinations," the campaign group said. The minister was also implicated in a series of political murders of intellectuals in Iran in the 1990s, HRW said.
The campaign group also singled out Gholamhussein Mohseni Ezhei, the new minister of intelligence, or "information", who had previously served as a member of the judiciary that "spearheaded the prosecution of prominent reformist clerics".
There was no immediate response from Teheran to the allegations last night.
Western diplomats familiar with Iran say the two men have long been regarded as leading members of hardline factions that have tried to roll back political reforms promoted by the former president Mohammad Khatami. "If either of them were to turn up in Europe for medical treatment there would be a case for arresting them on the precedent of Gen Augusto Pinochet," said one European official.
Not true. Pinochet overthrew a Communist government, and so of course he's evil. These mooks just want to nuke Joooos and kill all their political opponents. It's another thing entirely.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/15/2005 02:10 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called the extermination of 6 million Jews during World War II a "myth," bringing a new cascade of international condemnation onto a government that is increasingly viewed as radical even within Iran.
"They have created a myth in the name of the Holocaust and consider it above God, religion and the prophets," Ahmadinejad said in an address carried live on state television.
The speech in the Iranian city of Zahedan echoed the president's remarks at a conference of Islamic nations in Saudi Arabia last week, when he suggested that if Europeans established Israel out of guilt over the Nazi campaign, the country should be carved out of Europe.
But Wednesday was the first time Ahmadinejad declared that the Holocaust had not happened, and the assertion served to further undermine Iran's efforts to persuade other countries that it can be trusted with its nuclear program.
In Western countries, "if someone were to deny the existence of God . . . and deny the existence of prophets and religion, they would not bother him," Ahmadinejad said. "However, if someone were to deny the myth of the Jews' massacre, all the Zionist mouthpieces and the governments subservient to the Zionists tear their larynxes and scream against the person as much as they can."
Iran's official news agencies excised the offending language from transcripts of the speech in an apparent attempt by the government to limit any damage as it tries to avert U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program.
"It's really shocking that a head of state who has a seat in the United Nations can say such a thing," said Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union. He said the speech "calls our attention to the real danger of that regime having an atomic bomb."
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told reporters: "The combination of extremist ideology, a warped understanding of reality and nuclear weapons is a combination that no one in the international community can accept."
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said his government had summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires to issue a protest of the "shocking" remarks. The Foreign Ministry of Poland, where Nazis operated death camps where Jews were killed, said "the remarks of the Iranian president are causing even more outrage" than Ahmadinejad's statement last month that Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Since being elected on a populist platform emphasizing a fairer distribution of the country's oil wealth, Ahmadinejad has voiced fiery rhetoric that has emphasized his roots in the extreme reaches of Iranian politics.
A former mayor of Tehran, he came to the presidency with no foreign policy experience. He served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basiji militia, hard-line organizations committed to keeping alive the tenets of Iran's 1979 revolution, including rejection of ties with the West. On Thursday, Human Rights Watch, a watchdog group based in New York, issued a report linking two members of his cabinet with extrajudicial killings in the 1980s and '90s of Iranians the government regarded as disloyal.
While calls for an end to Israel have long been part of the Iranian theocracy's official creed, Ahmadinejad has turned up the rhetoric significantly, at a time when Iran is seeking international recognition in various ways. It has recently lobbied for membership in the World Trade Organization and for more foreign investment.
Iran's relations with the outside world are still complicated by its past sponsorship of terrorism. On Wednesday, a U.S. court in Washington ruled that Iran must pay $126 million to victims of the 1983 bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut, on grounds that the country aided the terrorists who carried out the attack, news services reported.
But as a practical matter, Iran largely gave up its ambitions to lead a pan-Islamic revolution after the eight-year war with Iraq ended in stalemate in 1988 at a cost of hundreds of thousands of Iranian lives.
During the presidential campaign, Ahmadinejad "did an effective job of concealing these xenophobic, extreme views on foreign policy," said Karim Sadjadpour, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, an independent research organization based in Brussels.
"The majority of Iranians do not look fondly on these kind of musings because it reminds them of the early days of the revolution, when Iran was isolated diplomatically and economically," Sadjadpour said. "And they don't want to see a return to those days."
The speech brought a sharp criticism from reformers who dominated Iranian politics through the 1990s. But Ahmadinejad also has run afoul of fellow conservatives, notably in the parliament that was elected last year.
Lawmakers this fall turned down his first three nominees for oil minister, an unprecedented run of rejections for an Iranian president.
This week, a fundamentalist lawmaker in the national assembly expressed revulsion when neo-Nazis abroad voiced solidarity with Ahmadinejad's suggestion that Israel be "wiped off the map." The president made the comment while attending a conference aimed at reducing extremism.
"Their support of Mr. Ahmadinejad's comments is beneath the dignity of the Islamic Republic, and the government should make its position clear about this," said the lawmaker, Heshmatollah Falahatzadeh, according to an Iranian news service. "Our officials should realize that there are many facts in the world that we should not pass our judgments on in a way that the world finds fault with."
Diplomats from E.U. countries have been attempting to negotiate a deal with Iran by which it would terminate parts of its nuclear program that could be used to make weapons. Iran says that its program is solely to produce electricity.
"Ahmadinejad has been making these comments about Israel, and people are now beginning to take a look at their own policies about how they are going to deal with this regime," said a British official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the British government's media policy.
"The kind of statements that are coming from Tehran will give everyone pause for thought," the official said.
The United States has not had diplomatic relations with Iran for 25 years, and U.S. officials said they saw little hope of engagement with the current government. "This was not an accident, this was not a slip of a tongue," a senior U.S. official said of the remarks, on condition of anonymity.
A senior European diplomat noted that the president's statements lay outside the main currents of thinking in Iran's government.
"There is a different line -- the one taken by people who handle the nuclear issue in Iran and the public statements made by the president," said the diplomat, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
But Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the cleric who holds ultimate power in Iran's theocracy, has sent mixed signals about Ahmadinejad. In sermons that double as policy statements, he has twice said it is too early to judge the new president, who took office in August.
At the same time, Khamenei has substantially increased the authority of Ahmadinejad's sharpest critic, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the millionaire cleric who finished a distant second in the June election. At a recent prayer ceremony, observers saw great significance in Rafsanjani being assigned a conspicuous position nearest Khamenei.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/15/2005 02:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Many of my wife's family died in the death camps during WWII. Maybe dipwad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could explain to them that it was a myth. Let him tell them it was all a myth. Friggin islamofascist nazi idiot boy.
#2
"It's really shocking that a head of state who has a seat in the United Nations can say such a thing," said Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union. He said the speech "calls our attention to the real danger of that regime having an atomic bomb."
I'm afraid the implication is that had he just kept his mouth shut, there wouldn't be a problem.
I gotta hand it to AhMADinejad, though: it takes some serious looniness to get the EUros to issue such unequivocal statements against you.
#4
"the remarks of the Iranian president are causing even more outrage" than Ahmadinejad's statement last month that Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Because what do the prospects of actual, live Jews matter when history is insulted? At least they are stirred by the recent statement, but it demonstrates their refusal to learn from their own history that a "wipe Israel off the map" statement elicited only a few mildly indignant comments.
#5
The real issue here should be that when Ahmadi Nejad says, "There was no holocaust", huge number of people agree with him in the Islamic world; probably at least 30% and, in some countries, e.g. SArabia, it is probably closer to 70%.
Oddly, among the people that believe the holocaust didn't happen, a large number also believe that Hitler was a hero for murdering millions ofJews.
I wonder if genocidal hatred is typically accompanied by a failure to see the logical contradiction.
#6
He said the speech "calls our attention to the real danger of that regime having an atomic bomb."
And Ahmadinejad's previous demand that "Israel be wiped off of the map" wasn't a gigantic bright red warning flag all by itself?
And now for the real gem:
"Our officials should realize that there are many facts in the world that we should not pass our judgments on in a way that the world finds fault with."
That sounds an awful lot like he's summoning up the concept of Al-Takeyya*. He does not seem afraid of passing incorrect judgements so much as publically pronouncing them in such a way that others take notice of them. In other words, pass judgement, but not so openly that those on the receiving end come to understand that they have been placed in the crosshairs of Islamic wrath. How doth Muslim Arabs love perfidy? Let me count the ways.
Most remarkable of all is not Ahmadinejad's bilious spewing, but that Europe and so many other "moderate" Islamic leaders refuse to do not recognize the immense peril they are placed in.
Israel's approximately 200 nuclear warheads are enough to transform every single major Muslim population center from Egypt to Tehran into smoking, glow-in-the-dark glass. However rhetorical it might seem, if there are any sane Islamic leaders in the Middle East, they will need to consider intervening with Iran, if only to preserve their own lives. Should Iran let loose a single nuclear missile, untold millions could die as a result.
Iran's belligerent spouting is symptomatic of the entire Arab Middle East's malaise. Blind hatred of Israel will bring them all to the brink of annihilation yet.
* The principle of Al-Takeyya
The Arabic word, "Takeyya", means "to prevent," or guard against. The principle of Al Takeyya conveys the understanding that Muslims are permitted to lie as a preventive measure against anticipated harm to one's self or fellow Muslims. This principle gives Muslims the liberty to lie under circumstances that they perceive as life threatening. They can even deny the faith, if they do not mean it in their hearts. Al-Takeyya is based on the following Quranic verse:
"Let not the believers Take for friends or helpers Unbelievers rather than believers: if any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah: except by way of precaution (prevention), that ye may Guard yourselves from them (prevent them from harming you.) But Allah cautions you (To remember) Himself; for the final goal is to Allah." Surah 3: 28
According to this verse a Muslim can pretend to befriend infidels (in violation of the teachings of Islam) and display adherence with their unbelief to prevent them from harming him.
I don't imagine anything's going to come of this. Nothing's come from the previous dozen deaders.
Investigators have discovered that the booby-trapped Renault detonated by remote control in the assassination of MP and journalist Gebran Tueni entered Lebanon through the port of Tripoli last March, according to sources close to the investigation. The sources said the white, early 1990s model 19 Renault, which was approved by Lebanese customs upon entry, was unregistered and had been sold several times since arriving in the country.
So who was the latest purchaser?
They added that Investigating Magistrate Rashid Mezher Tuesday interrogated the importer of the car, the owner of the agency from which it was sold and the man who delivered the car to the initial buyer. All three will be held for interrogation until the identity of the buyer is identified.
That would appear to be the key person to talk to, I'd guess. You can talk to the guy who sold me my car for ten years and there's not a lot he could tell you about me, if he remembers me at all...
On Monday police interrogated a former owner of the car, but it was confirmed that he had recently sold it.
To whom?
The sources said investigations have shown the assassination was "very carefully" planned and that Tueni was under surveillance from the moment he landed at the airport in Beirut Sunday.
I'd guess he was under surveillance before he got on the plane in Gay Paree...
It is also believed the car had been parked at the bomb scene a mere two hours before the explosives were detonated at 9 a.m. The sources further explained that the 40 kilograms of dynamite used in the blast had been placed in the shape of a cone facing the street so as to increase the destructive force of the explosion that killed Tueni and two others and wounded 30 others. Mezher has interrogated 24 individuals in the investigation, most of whom were foreign employees working near the bomb site, in addition to four factory owners. The magistrate also received a report of the damages caused by the blast, which included 44 vehicles, in addition to material damage suffered by nearby buildings, shops and factories.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
pretty quick response from the aauthorities.not like the days when syria was running the place
Posted by: john e morrissey ||
12/15/2005 11:20 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I still doubt they'll find anything, since the unofficial Syrian hard boyz have Grampaw's testicles in a desk drawer back at their secret headquarters.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 11:48 Comments ||
Top||
Lebanon's politicians, religious leaders and civil society members continued to speak out against the assassination of Beirut MP Gebran Tueni on Tuesday, demanding that the perpetrators of the attack be brought to justice to restore Lebanon's security and stability. The latest assassination in a chain of of similar attacks dating back to October 2004 drew a sharp rebuke from prominent anti-Syrian politician Walid Jumblatt, who called on the international community to bring about a regime change in Syria.
"This time this regime should change (and) should be tried," Jumblatt told CNN in the first such call by a prominent Lebanese politician. Directing a personal attack at Syrian President Bashar Assad, he said: "This guy in Damascus is sick. If he stays, we won't have stability in the Middle East. Anyone who opposes the Syrian regime is assassinated. They execute you then they cry for you; walk at your funeral. They will try to invent all kinds of excuses."
By Jove, I think he's got it!
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Some nine Israeli warplanes violated Lebanon's airspace Wednesday, drawing fire from a pro-Syrian Palestinian militia as the country was occupied in mourning for slain journalist and MP Gebran Tueni. Several violations of Lebanon's airspace have been reported recently and have been condemned by the United Nations and Lebanon. On Wednesday, two Israeli warplanes violated South Lebanon's airspace at 4:35 p.m., circulating before heading back toward the occupied Palestinian territories. Earlier in the day, at 12:05 p.m., seven Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace and circulated over South Lebanon and Mount Lebanon, according to a statement from the Lebanese Army Command.
According to the statement, five of the warplanes circulated over the northern areas of Chekka and the Cedars and then left at 1:00 p.m. heading toward the sea. It was reported from military sources that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) opened fire with anti-aircraft machine guns on the planes from a base in the town of Naameh south of Beirut.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
The PFLP-GC should be careful. Unlike 8-month pregnant women and <10 year old girls (The Paleo's favorite target) Israeli plans are quite capable (and willing) to shoot back.
#3
Lebanon needs not to worry, they are just testing their new pilots on how to react under fire. Once the pilots are comfortable with the ACE gear they will be ready for runs on Iran.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/15/2005 13:29 Comments ||
Top||
#4
....but Iran, you can now start to worry. Whahahhahaa
#5
I'd bet money at least one of those aircraft had a recce pod on the centerline rail. Getting pics, so they'll know where to aim the arty once the guys DO go to Iran, to take out the counter-attacks from Hezbollah and PFLP. I'd much prefer the US unleashed its assault on Syria the day before Israel staged its attack, so Syria would be too busy to do any retaliation. Ass-hat needs to GO, like yesterday.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/15/2005 20:38 Comments ||
Top||
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.
AN American soldier was killed in a firefight with suspected Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan overnight, the US military said. The clash occurred in the restive southern province of Kandahar as Afghan and US troops were conducting a joint combat patrol, the US military said in a statement. One militant was killed, while one US soldier and an Afghan soldier were wounded. Other militants fled after American aircraft pounded their positions, the US military said.
A Moroccan court has jailed 14 Western Sahara human rights activists and some of their supporters for six months to three years for their role in riots in the disputed Moroccan-controlled territory. Court officials and lawyers said the court in Western Sahara's main town, Laayoune, announced the verdict early on Wednesday at the end of a 14-hour hearing. Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975, claiming historic sovereignty rights over the mostly desert territory. The move triggered a sporadic guerrilla war with the 
Saudi security forces discovered Tuesday a large amount of explosives and chemicals at a villa in east Riyadh apparently used by militant groups to store weapons. Police confiscated locally assembled bombs, weapons, chemical and several personal computers and extremist books and leaflets. It was unclear if the villa was inhabited with some neighbors claiming the building was deserted, while others told the security forces that a bearded man was living there. The mystery person would leave the villa at dawn and return at sunrise, according to witnesses.
Police and Bangladesh Rifles, in three overnight raids on Sunday and Monday morning, arrested six suspected JMB activists and recovered a huge explosives, party posters and Islamic books from three villages in border area of Kanaighat upazila, reports UNB. The arrested were identified as 
In a pre-down raid, the security forces on Wednesday unearthed an arms factory, believed to be used by a banned Islamist outfit, in the Bangladesh capital and seized huge arms and explosive from there, according to the police. 
The head of a probe into Russia's Beslan school tragedy has said terrorists alone were to blame for it, remarks that suggested bureaucrats accused of failing to stop the raid could be exonerated.
NEW DELHI: Eleven people were jailed for life by an Indian court on Wednesday for killing 11 men, women and children in the deadly 2002 riots in western Gujarat, reported the Press Trust of India (PTI). The court in Godhra acquitted 18 others in the same case for lack of evidence. Riots erupted in Gujarat after 59 Hindus travelling on a train died in Godhra after a fire started by a suspected Muslim mob. 
The deadline, coming two days after the expulsion of refugees from the border town of 
Six rockets were fired in Kohlu on Wednesday while President General Pervez Musharraf was touring the eastern Balochistan city. No casualties were reported. Police personnel said that three rockets struck near a paramilitary forces camp in Kohlu, some 350 km east of Quetta, and three rockets fell outside the city. These rockets were fired soon after Gen Musharraf landed in Kohlu. Reports from Kohlu stated that a few rockets were also defused before the explosions. 
The Iraqi police said Thursday, an explosive-belt strapped bomber was arrested at an election center here. A police source told newsmen that the would-be bomber was arrested at an election center in Al-Amel suburb, southeast of here. He added that a proxy card indicating that he is authorised to monitor the elections on behalf of a political entity was confiscated by the police. Also an armed man was arrested on background of firing a mortar bomb at an election center in Samerra, north of here.
Iraqi security forces caught the most wanted man in the country last year, but released him because they didn't know who he was, the Iraqi deputy minister of interior said Thursday. Hussain Kamal confirmed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- the al Qaeda in Iraq leader who has a $25 million bounty on his head -- was in custody at some point last year, but he wouldn't provide further details. A U.S. official couldn't confirm the report, but said he wouldn't dismiss it. "It is plausible," he said.
An attempt to detonate a car bomb on the tunnels highway south of Jerusalem or in the capital itself was foiled on Thursday afternoon. Palestinian security officials in the nearby Bethlehem region claimed that they found the car - which was filled with gas canisters and tires soaked with gasoline - and handed it over to the IDF. An IDF spokesperson confirmed that the army did have a car bomb in its possession and was in the process of neutralizing it. However, he said it was still unclear whether PA forces had uncovered the car. An alert delayed traffic at a main entrance to Bethlehem.
Rebels in Fatah, the Palestinian ruling party, have banded together to run for parliament on a competing ticket, sparking one of the gravest crises in the dominant faction's 40-year history. 
Investigators have discovered that the booby-trapped Renault detonated by remote control in the assassination of MP and journalist 
Lebanon's politicians, religious leaders and civil society members continued to speak out against the assassination of Beirut MP 
Some nine Israeli warplanes violated Lebanon's airspace Wednesday, drawing fire from a pro-Syrian Palestinian militia as the country was occupied in mourning for slain journalist and MP 
