Cartoonish violence ruled the day at the annual knockdown competition among advertisers Sunday, as Bud Light, Diet Pepsi, Michelob and Sprint all used physical gags to hawk their wares at the Super Bowl, the most-watched television broadcast of the year...
#1
"Sprint, meanwhile, scored laughs with a goofy spot featuring a guy in a locker room who touts the "crime deterrent" ability of his mobile phone by hurling straight at the head of another guy after tempting him to try to steal his wallet."
Reminded me of the spoof IBM commercial regarding how popular their modems were in Africa. The "interviewed" Africans extolled the virtue of the ruggedness of the modems in particular... then we find that they're used to crush nuts and things, not for telecomm. Heh.
Militants attacked government offices and a police convoy Saturday, continuing a series of assaults that have left at least 41 people dead in the southern region over two days, government officials said.
About 250 Afghan forces fought more than 200 rebels in some of the area�s fiercest fighting in months. At least 19 people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan Saturday.
Fighting began Friday with a mountain ambush on a police convoy that left 16 militants and six policemen dead and scores wounded, said Amir Mohammed Akhund, the deputy governor of Helmand province, which borders Pakistan.
The violence spread across the border as a roadside bomb exploded by an army vehicle Saturday in a northwestern tribal region of Pakistan, killing three Pakistani security personnel, an official said.
No one immediately asserted responsibility, but security officials pointed to militants linked to al Qaeda in previous attacks in the area, where Pakistan has sent thousands of troops to flush out insurgents.
Afghan officials said U.S. forces joined the battle Friday and Saturday, but a U.S. military spokesman said he could confirm involvement only in the first day of fighting.
American and British warplanes bombed suspected Taliban militants fleeing the fighting around midnight Friday, killing eight of them, said Khan Mohammed, a police chief in Helmand province. The fighting prompted dozens of families to flee their villages, he said.
A group of militants who escaped from the initial clash attacked a government office early Saturday, killing the government chief and wounding four police officers, said Akhund, the deputy governor.
Later in the day, another group of militants attacked the main government office in a neighboring district, setting off a two-hour gun battle that left one policeman and three suspected Taliban fighters dead, he said.
Militants used a remote-controlled bomb to attack a police convoy in Kandahar, the main city in southern Afghanistan and a former Taliban stronghold, said Sher Mohammed, a police officer.
A woman and a child who were walking in the area were killed, and three other passersby were wounded, he added.
Also in Kandahar, a Taliban commander, Abdul Samad, was killed by border forces as he tried to enter illegally from neighboring Pakistan, said Asadullah Khalid, the governor of Kandahar. Ten other militants fled back across the frontier.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 01:49 ||
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Tali-whackers are going to learn that running from IR sensors at night in an unpopulated Afghanistan is a losing proposition.
A roadside bomb has killed six Afghan policemen and wounded five colleagues in the southern province of Kandahar, according to a provincial official. The bomb went off along a road to the north of Kandahar city on Sunday as the policemen were passing in a vehicle, Mohammad Nabi, a senior provincial official, said. Aljazeera's correspondent reported that six Afghan policemen were killed on Saturday evening and another five were injured when a bomb hit the vehicle carrying them in Shah Wikot in Kandahar province.
US forces said six Afghan soldiers were killed and eight armed Taliban members arrested during a search campaign by US and Afghan forces in three districts in Helmand province during the past two days of clashes with Taliban fighters. The statement did not comment on Taliban losses, Aljazeera's correspondent said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/06/2006 00:00 ||
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Militias based in Sudan's western Darfur region are carrying out almost daily cross-border raids on villages in neighbouring Chad, says a rights group. The New York-based group Human Rights Watch says most attacks were by militia from Sudan and Chad, apparently with some Sudanese government backing.
Human Rights Watch has called for an expanded international force in Darfur. It says a force is also needed along the border with Chad to protect civilians.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: this is a job for a company or two of Green Berets with appropriate logistics and some air cover. Teach the people of Darfur to defend themselves, and give them weapons to do so. Have some Rangers on the Chadian side of the border working to train and improve Chadian forces. Quiet, small footprint, targeted results.
Pro-government Janjaweed militiamen are accused of killing thousands of civilians in attacks on villages in Darfur and forcing 2m people to flee in reprisals following a rebel uprising in the region.
HRW researchers said they had documented numerous attacks on villages just inside Chad by militias who had crossed over the border from Sudan. They said the militias killed civilians, burned villages and stole cattle.
And your response is more of the same failure: a UN mission.
The human rights agency's report found nearly half of the 85 villages in the Barotta region just inside Chad had been attacked and subsequently abandoned, with 16 villagers killed in a single month.
HRW said they were told by witnesses that those responsible were ethnic Arabs who wore Sudanese army clothing and spoke Sudanese Arabic. Some attacks have also been carried out by Chadian rebels who operate from bases inside Darfur. The report said most of the victims in Chad, as in Darfur, came from African ethnic groups and that the Arab civilians living in the same area were not harmed.
Human Rights Watch said tens of thousands of people in Chad had been internally displaced by the violence. "Sudan's policy of arming militias and letting them loose is spilling over the border and civilians have no protection from their attacks, in Darfur or in Chad," said HRW's Africa director, Peter Takirambudde.
Currently some 7,000 troops from the African Union are attempting to maintain security across the huge Darfur region. However, funding is running out and the Security Council is discussing changing this to a UN peacekeeping operation. HRW said any such UN mission should have a strong mandate to protect itself and civilians, by force if necessary, and to disarm and disband the Sudan government-sponsored militia.
Which won't happen, because too many at the UN don't want it to happen. China wants Sudanese oil, and Arab states won't discipline Sudan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/06/2006 00:00 ||
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A squadron of A-10s and napalm canisters would cool things off with the Jangaweed pretty quickly. Just have a couple of F-15s to run high cover for them - Sudan does have a few "modern" jets and a couple of mooks to fly them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/06/2006 15:05 Comments ||
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KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) -- An elusive Ugandan rebel leader has fled his rear base in southern Sudan and crossed into the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, a Ugandan army spokesman said Monday. Joseph Kony and 15 fighters of his rebel Lord's Resistance Army left his hideout north of Juba, capital of the autonomous south Sudan government, early Sunday following pressure from Ugandan troops who have been permitted by Sudanese authorities to operate there, said army spokesman Capt. Dennis Musitwa. Kony crossed into lawless northeastern Congo on Sunday afternoon, he said.
"Our latest intelligence reports suggest he may be heading to Central Africa and that he passed through Congo's Garamba National Park," Musitwa told The Associated Press. "We exerted pressure on their posts, and now we've got them on the run. It is just a matter of time till they are caught."
Measured on a geologic scale, any day now
On January 23, Ugandan fighters ambushed Guatemalan special forces soldiers serving with the U.N. peacekeeping mission along Congo's remote northeastern border with Sudan, sparking a gunbattle that left eight Guatemalan troops and 15 attackers dead in the Garamba park. Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa had issued a statement accusing the Lord's Resistance Army of killing the Guatemalans and offering condolences to the families of the dead.
The Ugandan rebels operate mostly from bases in southern Sudan, but some fighters fled to eastern Congo late last year following pressure from Ugandan troops. Small, highly mobile groups continue to hide in northern Uganda, where they launch sporadic attacks on civilians in Pader, Kitgum and Gulu districts.
Last year, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Kony and four other rebel leaders, calling on the governments of Congo, Sudan and Uganda to help capture insurgents it said were responsible for killing thousands of civilians and enslaving thousands of children.
"Well, that's done. Anyone for tea?"
The Lord's Resistance Army is made up of the remnants of a northern rebellion that began after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, took power in 1986. It holds no territory and is best known for kidnapping thousands of children and forcing them to become soldiers or sex slaves. Uganda invaded Congo in the 1990s, saying northeastern Congo was used as a base by Ugandan rebels. Ugandan forces were among armies from six neighboring nations involved in "Africa's world war," a conflagration fueled by hunger for Congo's mineral wealth. Most of the foreign fighters are gone, and the worst of the fighting ended in 2002, but Congo has been left in tatters. Last year, the International Court of Justice ruled Uganda's invasion illegal and ordered Uganda to pay reparations to Congo.
A man considered a mastermind of the USS Cole bombing was among 23 persons who escaped from a Yemen prison last week, Interpol said yesterday. The international police agency issued an "urgent global security alert" for those who escaped late last week from the prison via a tunnel. It called the escapees "dangerous individuals."
A Yemeni security official announced the escape of convicted al Qaeda members Friday but did not provide details.
"I will provide no more!"
Interpol said at least 13 of the 23 escapees were convicted al Qaeda fighters, who escaped via a 150-yard-long tunnel "dug by the prisoners and co-conspirators outside." A security source in Yemen told Reuters news agency that the tunnel led to a mosque near the prison.
To a mosque, eh? Must have had some Paleo diggers.
The source said authorities thought the prisoners had fled Thursday night and definitely were aided by more than one accomplice on the outside, because the tunnel was thought to have been dug from the mosque to the prison. The tunnel entry was in the women's section of the mosque, which is frequented less often than the men's section because women mainly pray at home.
Perfect cover, in other words ...
Yemeni officials confirmed to Interpol that one of the escapees was a man identified as Jamal al-Badawi, who is considered to be the mastermind of the Cole attack. Al-Badawi was among those sentenced to death in September 2004 for plotting that attack. Two suicide bombers blew up an explosives-laden boat next to the destroyer as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden on Oct. 12, 2000, killing 17 sailors.
Another one of the 23 escapees was identified as Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeiee, considered by Interpol to be one of those responsible for a 2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg off Yemen's coast. That attack killed a Bulgarian crew member and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden.
Interpol's urgent global security alert, known as an "orange notice," was issued by agency Secretary-General Ronald Noble "because the escape and unknown whereabouts of al Qaeda terrorists constituted a clear and present danger to all countries," according to the statement. Mr. Noble urged Yemen -- the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden -- to provide names, photographs, fingerprints and other information about the suspects.
Sure, that'll happen. They'll provide my fingerprints before they provide Badawi's.
Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, a Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN yesterday, "I feel very uneasy about this development. "We have so-called allies in the world that are saying they want to help us, and yet how do 23 people 'escape'? It raises some terribly difficult questions."
Babs finally getting a clue? Or does she plan to blame Bush?
She added, "It really makes our job harder. Now, intelligence has to work on something they didn't think they had to work on."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 01:53 ||
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A security source in Yemen told Reuters news agency that the tunnel led to a mosque near the prison.
Let's see, tunneling from a mosque, stashing weapons and explosives, usage as a location from which to fire upon people,.....why, it's as if the enemy is being actively aided....
Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical Muslim cleric, has said the cartoonist behind caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that have sparked outrage across the Arab world should be tried and executed under Islamic law.
The cleric said the cartoonist had insulted Islam and must pay the price, as three people were killed during protests against the cartoons in Afghanistan.
"The insult has been established now by everybody, Muslim and non-Muslim, and everybody condemns the cartoonist and condemns the cartoon," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"However, in Islam, God said, and the messenger Mohammed said, whoever insults a prophet, he must be punished and executed.
"This man should be put on trial and if it is proven to be executed."
The cleric said Muslims in Britain were not allowed to kill people who insulted Islam because it was against the law of the country.
"We are not saying ourselves to go there and start to look to him and kill him, we are not talking about that. We are talking about Islamic rules. If anybody insults the prophet, he will have to take a punishment."
He said if countries refused to put people on trial for insulting Mohammed they must "face the consequences".
Three people were killed and several were injured as protestors clashed with police in the central city of Mihtarlam.
It was the latest display of outrage against the cartoons, which were originally published in Denmark and have been reprinted in various European countries.
Protests in London over the weekend sparked concern over placards containing radical slogans.
#2
hey! Wasn't this dildo the guy who FLED Britian for fear of being tried for inciting terrorism? Is he ready to face the judgement of BRITISH common law?
I didn't think so.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/06/2006 19:49 Comments ||
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#3
we need an international wetcrew to do the odious task of taking this trash out....the correct Imams fall, the rabble has no instructions which target to destroy this Friday
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2006 20:03 Comments ||
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#4
The cleric said the cartoonist had insulted Islam and must pay the price, as three people were killed during protests against the cartoons in Afghanistan
Dear Mother,
Miss you terribly. Sorry to report there are no virgins left in heaven. I'm on my own and only the Jamaicans will talk to me (we have ashooting club here). Not what was promised, is it? Alas.
May Allan protect you,
Mahmoud.
PS. I get the jokes now - it's little different here.
#5
"However, in Islam, God said, and the messenger Mohammed said, whoever insults a prophet, he must be punished and executed.
Ergo, Bakri should be the first to go for being so incredi-fu&king-bly stupid as to disgrace his own prophet by spewing such demented bile.
we need an international wetcrew to do the odious task of taking this trash out....the correct Imams fall, the rabble has no instructions which target to destroy this Friday
Even if it doesn't work in the long run, it's still worth a try. If only to let some sniper teams find true and total satisfaction for once in their lives. Bakri, Sadr, Krekar, Qawadari, Bashir, Hamsa ... just nailing this half dozen maggots would make a huge difference. Fomenting atrocities must carry with it the ultimate price.
Advocating violent jihad needs to carry with it the risk of immediate and summary execution. Nothing less will stanch the spread of this pathological meme.
#6
Islam is a insult to Islam. Muhammand was NOT a prophet. He was a killer, a liar and a pedophile. Those who worship a thing like that are an insult to the human race.
#8
ahhh.. I forgot. Rainbow Six. As usual, Clancy was there way before me
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2006 21:41 Comments ||
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#9
Didnt Britain after the subway bombings pass a law that no hate or violent advocate support speech would be allowed by preachers or anyone?
This guy should be arrested for rabble rousing and deported. Of course I would prefer imprisoned or even better executed but in Europe I would be impressed with deportation.
#11
If you took out the threatening Imams, their flock would run around like ants that lost the trail, you know, scene out of A Bug's Life movie.
In other news, just saw on Drudge that Iran is putting up a Holocaust Cartoon contest. This sphereoid is going insane! My seethometer is heading up toward high, and getting to the gage retart protection section.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/06/2006 23:12 Comments ||
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A man who dressed as a suicide bomber during a protest about cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad has apologised for his behaviour.
Omar Khayam, 22, from Bedford, "wholeheartedly" apologised to the families of the 7 July bombings. He likened his own "insensitive" behaviour to the "provocative and controversial" cartoon publication.
Downing Street has said the behaviour of some Muslim protesters in London was "completely unacceptable".
No protesters at the demonstration on Friday and Saturday outside the Danish embassy - over cartoons first printed in a Danish newspaper - were arrested. But Scotland Yard has said a special squad is investigating the protests and has promised a "swift" inquiry.
Mr Khayam read out his apology outside his Bedford home.
"I found the pictures deeply offensive as a Muslim and I felt the Danish newspaper had been provocative and controversial, deeply offensive and insensitive. Just because we have the right of free speech and a free media, it does not mean we may say and do as we please and not take into account the effect it will have on others. But by me dressing the way I did, I did just that, exactly the same as the Danish newspaper, if not worse."
He said his method of protest had offended many people, especially the families of the July bombing victims.
"This was not my intention. What happened in July was a tragedy and un-Islamic. I do not condone these murderous acts, do not support terrorism or extremism and would like to apologise unreservedly and wholeheartedly to the families of the victims."
He added: "I understand it was wrong, unjustified and insensitive of me to protest in this way."
Asif Nadim, from a Bedford mosque, said the Muslim community distanced itself from Mr Khayam's actions and supported his apology.
"Looking at this from an Islamic point of view, this was totally un-Islamic. We distance ourselves from the act that he has actually caused and the pain that he has caused for the families of the victims of the London bombings."
He said Mr Khayam was "very, very ashamed" of his actions and hoped that it would be the end of the matter.
Violent demonstrations
Home Secretary Charles Clarke said any decisions on arrest and prosecution were "properly matters for the police and prosecution authorities".
He said that the reaction to the cartoons across Britain had "in general been respectful and restrained".
Protests have continued throughout the world, with five people being killed in Afghanistan, and a boy killed in Somalia when demonstrations turned violent.
Rallies have also taken place in India, Thailand, Indonesia, Iran and Gaza, following attacks on Danish embassies in Syria and Lebanon over the weekend.
The cartoons were first published in a Danish newspaper last year and republished in Europe last week
Glorifying suicide bombers (he knew perfectly what message he was transmitting by disguising as one), then pretending to be sorry and doing the usual takkya stuff.
Btw, suicide bombers ARE islamic in essence, they're even revered in some part of the islamic world, and even to the Mythical Moderate Muslims, I'd venture they bring a sense of regained "power" against the much more successful non-muslim world.
They're the viagra to the lost virility/face/sense of superiority of the ummah, bringing terror to the infidel in an absolutely muslim way : each and every muslim can/must enforce islam's law and values in the face of the dhimmi, who must live in a precarious, uncertain climate, as the Master Race/Religion can come down on him whenever he steps the line; that's what the suicide bombings (and to a certain extent theses protests) are all about, terrorizing the infidel, so he acknowledges his inferiority.
I wonder if this sorry little man was outed by that UK newspaper (can't remember which one, I'm pathetic) which asked its readers to identify him?
#7
Omar's behavior, per Omar, was merely "insensitive". BUT the cartoons were "provocative and controversial". Yeah sure, I see the "similarity". Those victims of 7/7 are always way too sensitive and thin skinned if you know what I mean.
Downing Street says the Brit muslims calling for another 9/11, and 7/7, violence, murder and beheadings of the European racists were as "unacceptable" as the original cartoons. Sure, if you say so Jack Straw. I can see how one is like the other.
Omar, dressed in suicide gear, says he is JUST as guilty of being a bad boy as were the cartoonists who dared to draw Big Mo. Because, you see, Big Mo is sacred to Omar unlike freedom of expression is to the rest of Western society. Hmmm. So Omar effectively says..."I'm wrong play dress up as a suicide bomber but you guys in Denmark are equally wrong to draw cartoons of Big Mo. I won't threaten to slaughter if you promise not to draw. Deal?"
Omar says "I'm very ashamed of my behavior" (but please ignore and forget the smile of pride and definace on my face in the photograph of me in The Sun when standing next to the MET van...I had gas from eating too much marmelite.)
Omar says: "What happened in July (the 7/7 bombings) was tragic and un-islamic." Just like the burning of the embassies overseas is un-islamic, the burning of churches is un-islamic, the beheadings are un-islamic, the killing of women and kids outside hospitals is un-islamic, the and the death threats are un-islamic, and the ....oh, nevermind....you get the idea.
Omar says..."I do not condone these murderous acts, do not support terrorism or extremism..." (I just pretend to do so on the telly and for the sake of my brothers down at the mosque. I'm a moderate muslim, you know? But don't tell anybody I'm moderate cuz we're rare and endangered even though there are many who think there are alot of us. There are not many of us so you Brits better not lock up those you've got.)
Omar says..." I know it was wrong, unjustified, and insensitive of me to protest this way". But damn, just writing a stupid letter to the editor of a paper I don't even read and boycotting Danish butter cookies just didn't really get it for me, you know? Without the threat of violence, death and destruction the kufir might get complacent and then what would my imam and Allah say?
A friend of Omar, Asif Nadim, said: "Looking at this from an Islamic point of view, this was totally un-islamic. We distance ourselves from the act that he (Omar) actually caused pain for the families of the London bombings." We can't accept responsibility for the actions of Omar and the 7/7 bombers because, as we all know, they were not REALLY muslims, don't you see? It's very easy when you think about it. I don't understand why you infidels can't understand that islam had nothing to do with Omar or 7/7. Jeesh...how many times do we have to tell you this before you understand? You infidel better start to understand soon OR ELSE!!! Oh, excuse me, cough...cough... peace be upon you and all....I don't know what came over me.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
02/06/2006 15:45 Comments ||
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Meanwhile, a Muslim man who dressed as suicide bomber at Friday's protest was reported as defending his actions.
Omar Khayam, 22, of Bedford, told the Daily Express newspaper that he wanted to highlight "double standards."
"I can't make any apologies for it. I didn't go there to cause anyone any harm. I went along just to attend a protest. Yet I have almost been branded a suicide bomber overnight," Khayam said.
"Did I say, 'Kill Jews'? No. Did I have racist signs on me? No. So why this reaction?
"I would do it again to make a point. I could have gone and held up banners or something, but this made the point better. If certain people have the right to do what they want and other people don't, then that is double standards."
#11
I do wonder how Omar managed to live that day.
I mean, if he'd done this on Michigan Avenue, he would have had about 20 people tackling him and then beating the crap out of him before Chicago's finest would show up. We'd have more citizens getting others out of the way of an obvious suicide bomber, more calling 911 and demanding that the police get their asses there, and still others looking around for more trouble.
Of course, I live in America and not the UK.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/06/2006 17:05 Comments ||
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#12
Steve White's point is well taken. I can't imagine a Muslim or anyone else showing up near Ground Zero wearing an OBL t-shirt and living to talk about it.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
02/06/2006 18:20 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2006 21:06 Comments ||
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#15
3rd gen moron , too much time on his hands as he is well supported finacially by his family no doubt , so off he pops to mosque to be brainwashed and get some seething across him .
If he walked within 10 yards of my house , I'd show him the true meaning of repenting your sins .
link is to Gateway Pundit, with photos and a link to video. Brings to mind Tom Lehrer's song from the Vietnam protest movement:
(intro) One type of song that has come into increasing prominence in recent months is the folk-song of protest. You have to admire people who sing these songs. It takes a certain amount of courage to get up in a coffee-house or a college auditorium and come out in favor of the things that everybody else in the audience is against like peace and justice and brotherhood and so on. The nicest thing about a protest song is that it makes you feel so good. I have a song here which I realise should be accompanied on a folk instrument in which category the piano does not alas qualify so imagine if you will that I am playing an 88 string guitar.
We are the Folk Song Army.
Everyone of us cares.
We all hate poverty, war, and injustice,
Unlike the rest of you squares.
There are innocuous folk songs.
Yeah, but we regard 'em with scorn.
The folks who sing 'em have no social conscience.
Why they don't even care if Jimmy Crack Corn.
If you feel dissatisfaction,
Strum your frustrations away.
Some people may prefer action,
But give me a folk song any old day.
The tune don't have to be clever,
And it don't matter if you put a coupla extra syllables into a line.
It sounds more ethnic if it ain't good English,
And it don't even gotta rhyme--excuse me--rhyne.
Remember the war against Franco?
That's the kind where each of us belongs.
Though he may have won all the battles,
We had all the good songs.
So join in the Folk Song Army,
Guitars are the weapons we bring
To the fight against poverty, war, and injustice.
Ready! Aim! Sing!
#4
C'mon, is this some sort of post-modern theater of the absurd thing? I can see a few nutjobs doing this, but 3000? Maybe I shouldn't be surprised after the white hands protests in Spain after the Madrid bombing.
Kinda makes me ashamed to admit some of my ancestors were Danes (and then Swedes, then Danes, then Swedes...)
#5
Akhmad Akkari, spokesman of the 21 Danish Muslim organizations which organized the tour, explained that the three drawings had been added to "give an insight in how hateful the atmosphere in Denmark is towards Muslims." Akkari claimed he does not know the origin of the three pictures. He said they had been sent anonymously to Danish Muslims. However, when Ekstra Bladet asked if it could talk to these Muslims, Akkari refused to reveal their identity.
Imam Ahmad Abu Laban has also so far refused to reveal the origin of the fake cartoons he used in his presentations to Muslim Leaders in the Middle East.
Imam Ahmad Abu Ladan is involved in an international group of Muslims who are known for supporting the anti-Western Islamist struggle of the school of global Jihad.
So, this jerkwit has voluntarily distributed additional cartoons of unknown provenance solely for thier inflammatory value, despite not having been published anywhere.
Doesn't this sort of transparent incitement set off any alarms? Akhmad Akkari needs to be held on suspicion of incitement until he reveals where the three spurious cartoons came from. Should he have any involvement in their origin, there should be major criminal charges awaiting.
"Queen Margrethe II of Denmark has called on the country "to show our opposition to Islam", regardless of the opprobium such a stance provokes abroad.
She said: "We are being challenged by Islam these years - globally as well as locally. It is a challenge we have to take seriously. We have let this issue float about for too long because we are tolerant and lazy.
"We have to show our opposition to Islam and we have to, at times, run the risk of having unflattering labels placed on us because there are some things for which we should display no tolerance."
"And when we are tolerant, we must know whether it is because of convenience or conviction."
The folksong ninnies don't get it and probably never will. Some even thought building them a mosque would ease tensions.
I saw a bumper sticker the other day:
"If we beat our swords into ploughshares, eventually we will find ourselves under the yoke of those who kept their swords."
The time will come when that will be possible, but for now, here's to keeping our swords (and battleaxes) sharpened!
This guy went on a tour of the middle east, blabbing about how bad the Danes are and how the Moslems in Denmark have no official mosque. Probably doing it to get money, and also to cause a rukkus--the cartoons were publish MONTHS ago in Denmark, and we're just hearing about it now. The whole thing's a set-up by the jihadiis to "unifiy" the Moslem world against the West.
#8
Sorry about the spelling . . . my DOG is barking to get in and it is distracting me . . pretty insensitive of me to keep a dog, huh, since it it such an offense to Moslems.
May I recommend: http://www.nordicdog.com/ for some really great dogs -- and Scandinavian to boot!
Reminder: Have you purchased your Danish Havarti cheese today?
Also, why not send the Jyllands-Posten a note of support: http://www.jp.dk/ or email to jp@jp.dk
#9
So, this jerkwit has voluntarily distributed additional cartoons of unknown provenance solely for thier inflammatory value, despite not having been published anywhere.
Doesn't this sort of transparent incitement set off any alarms? Akhmad Akkari needs to be held on suspicion of incitement until he reveals where the three spurious cartoons came from. Should he have any involvement in their origin, there should be major criminal charges awaiting.
Hey Zenster...
I thought you were saying earlier today that the whole incitement thing was good, over on the thread on page 4?
What was it?
As I said, more cartoons, please. Get these maniacs spun up to top speed right away so that everyone gets a clear picture of their sickness. This one is for all the marbles. The sooner everyone understands this, the better.
Well, that's what Akhmad Akkari _did_.
Posted by: Phil ||
02/06/2006 13:52 Comments ||
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#10
Yes, but fabricating ultra-inflammatory and obscene cartoons in order to cause violence is entirely different from publishing relatively innocuous parodies and satires, as the Danish newspaper did.
I want the world to see how overheated Islam gets from ordinary political lampooning. If Islamists want to unfairly cobble up truly hateful garbage to facilitate their own agenda, they need to be hoisted for all to see.
There is a difference and I'm confident it's one that you are able to recognize, Phil
#11
Yes, but fabricating ultra-inflammatory and obscene cartoons in order to cause violence is entirely different from publishing relatively innocuous parodies and satires, as the Danish newspaper did.
I want the world to see how overheated Islam gets from ordinary political lampooning. If Islamists want to unfairly cobble up truly hateful garbage to facilitate their own agenda, they need to be hoisted for all to see.
There is a difference and I'm confident it's one that you are able to recognize, Phil
We're not getting to see how overheated they get from ordinary political lampooning. We're getting to see how overheated they get from unfairly cobbled up truly hateful garbage.
Posted by: Phil ||
02/06/2006 14:58 Comments ||
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#13
We're getting to see how overheated they get from unfairly cobbled up truly hateful garbage.
While that may be your opinion, I believe the Muslim world would have blown their gaskets over merely what was published in the Danish newspaper. This is why I consider it important that any attempts to exaggerate this, especially efforts on behalf of Islamists to overblow this affair, are investigated and prosecuted wherever necessary.
Simple political satire will be more than enough to stoke the fires of Islamis ire. The world needs to see this and such a demonstration of Islamic intolerance should be free of ancillary hatemongering. Of equal importance is making sure that any attempts by Islamists to underhandedly escalate the situation are exposed for what they are.
#14
Zenster, it sat there unremarked upon for about four or so months and it's only now, with the secondary distribution effort, that things have taken the turn they have.
Posted by: Phil ||
02/06/2006 16:07 Comments ||
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#15
Which is why I say that Akhmad Akkari needs to be investigated. If he is unwilling to identify the sources of the cartoons, he should be charged with their invention and be brought up on charges of incitement.
I'll still bet dollars to doughnuts that the original Danish cartoons are sufficient to ignite limitless seething. We need this to be shown for what it is so that the world understands what a humorless bunch of f%&kwits we're dealing with.
Muslims come across as skinless people living in a sandpaper world. Welcome to reality. Unless they can grow up and take a joke, they should be bombarded constantly with this stuff until they do something so stupid that the remaining world goes in and snuffs their butts.
Phil, have you taken the time to review the sort of cartoons published about Israel and America in the Arab press? They make the Danish ones look tame by comparison.
#16
The British guy dressed up in a suicide vest had this to say:
Mr Khayam read out his apology outside his Bedford home.
"I found the pictures deeply offensive as a Muslim and I felt the Danish newspaper had been provocative and controversial, deeply offensive and insensitive.
Note, he's only talking about the Danish cartoons and those were enough for him to wig out.
Let's make something clear, cartoons or not.
Holding hands in public, making movies with sex scenes, dancing in public, men and women swimming at the beach together, women walking unescorted in public ...
All of these are sufficient reason for Islamists to want destruction of the West. The list is endless and our offenses myriad. There is absolutely no way on earth for Islam to reconcile itself with what most people consider to be progressive modern society.
Either we give up centuries of progress along with our freedom or we fight to the death with a bunch of violent Neanderthal fundamentalist morons. Your choice.
#20
dayumn! - can we air-burst fiberglass insulation too?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2006 19:09 Comments ||
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#21
I have seen those cartoons. I also know most of them come from state-controlled media.
Then it should be apparent that any Muslim outrage over the Danish cartoons is utterly hypocritical in nature. Furthermore, if Islamist interests were the source for the add-on images that were much more derogatory, then that perfidy needs to be exposed as well. Too often, Islamists willingly exacerbate situations of their own accord in order to milk the press like the last cow on the farm. I suspect that this is what has happened and doubt that this case is any different.
#22
Zenster, the point is the deliberate, manufactured overreaction of the Muslim masses. It really doesn't matter whether what they are overreacting to is genuine or made up out of whole cloth by the imams and mullahs. The point is that they are demonstrating their intent to impose their rules on the rest of us by force -- unconcerned whether it be by force of arms, force of law, or force of mob action.
And someone here was right. They became overconfident and showed their hand too soon -- had they waited 10-15 years, Europe would likely have fallen to them without even a token whimper.
#23
Zenster, the point is the deliberate, manufactured overreaction of the Muslim masses.
Fear not, TW, I'm well aware of it. As I said earlier:
Simple political satire will be more than enough to stoke the fires of Islamist ire.
My point is that even the most mundane sort of ribbing will elicit this same overblown response. And by "overblown" I do refer to the manufactured aspect of this.
We are watching a well-oiled (as it were) political machine parading around as a religion. People had better take note of just how orchestrated and manipulated these incidents are. Of even greater importance is the significance of such huge numbers of people cheerfully allowing themselves to be programmed like so many robots. Such surrender of autonomy is alien to many of us westerners, to where it seems quite unnatural when we see it happening so clearly.
I cannot overemphasize how important it is that Islam's hostile intentions have been let out of the bag so prematurely. This simple litmus test should be all that is needed. Sadly, with even our own state department caving on this issue, there are more hard lessons to be learned.
#24
At some point EU and the US are going to have to face their own demons the peace-love-&-happiness LLLs. This movement is what makes the Islamist belief they can win possible. It is this movement that makes the terrorist possible. This movement is what drags this war out and makes it harder to win than it should be. This movement is what makes Dictators willing to risk things like these riots across their nations to distract there people from the real problem them.
Islamist plays to this daily in there Europes Islomophobia and the Parris rioters were not criminals they were angered Muslim youth.
At some point we will have to deal with our own demons as well. A people that wont fight for their own freedom and life dont deserve such.
Not saying that the movement is the whole problem just that it is a problem that is ignored. And its ideals are allowed to be propagated as legit, dont question our patriotism all the while they undermine a war effort, embolden a enemy, and do all they can to tie the hands of those who attempt to fight this war of survival.
They should be recognized and called out for what they are Radicals unfit for commanding a car more less a nation. And shamed out of the public spectrum as just that. Freedom of speech is great but there is no such thing as Freedom of challenge especially by reality.
A teenage boy shot and killed the Italian Roman Catholic priest of a church in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon on Sunday, shouting "God is great" as he escaped, according to police and witnesses. Officers were searching for the boy aged around 14 or 15, according to a police official who declined to be identified because of rules that bar Turkish civil servants from speaking to journalists without prior authorization. The police official would not say if the attack might be linked to the printing in European newspapers of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, which has caused anger in Muslim countries. Earlier Sunday, hundreds of Turks protested in Istanbul against the cartoons. "Whether the killing is linked to the caricatures will emerge when the culprit has been caught," Trabzon's Gov. Huseyin Yavuzdemir said.
The priest, 60-year-old Andrea Santoro, was shot hours after Mass at Santa Maria Church. A woman who answered the telephone at the church said the priest was inside when he was attacked, and prosecutor Burhan Cobanoglu said he was shot twice from behind, with bullets ripping through his heart and liver.
Pope Benedict XVI's envoy in Turkey, Monsignor Antonio Lucibello, said he had spoken by telephone with a witness who said she saw the attacker fleeing and "heard the young man shout 'Allah Akbar' (God is Great).'" Lucibello declined to speculate on the motive for the killing, but said there were "no elements" to link the attack with the protests over the newspaper cartoons. Turkey's government denounced the attack. "We condemn with hatred the fact that the murder was committed in a house of worship against a man of religion," said Justice Minister Cemil Cicek.
#2
I lost the link, but found an article mentioning this church & the murdered priest's predecessor. At that time the church went out of its way to avoid the appearance of proselytizing. It was surrounded by a high wall that obscured the building's details. It was not open to the public. Anyone seeking admission had to speak to a doorman through a small sliding door. Occasionally the priest would talk to them before they would be admitted. The fact that the priest was shot inside the church suggests either that his attacker climbed the wall or used some kind of treachery to get in.
The public prosecutor of Spain's Supreme Court has backed a bid by one of the worst ETA terrorists to be released from prison early, it was reported on Friday. Henri Parot, an Algeria-born member of the Basque separatist group, was sentenced to 4,799 years of prison for 82 killings and other crimes, but has applied to the court to be released in 2009 after 20 years of his sentence.
20 years? I thought the Euro maximum was 15, less with good behavior.
The Audencia Nacional, Spain's top court, had ruled that Parot should serve two sentences of 30 years each, which would mean he would stay in prison until 2034. The court said two separate sentences were justified for Parot since he committed his crimes in two separate periods of time through different command structures.
However, the Supreme Court public prosecutor agreed with Parot that he has the legal right to see all his sentences accumulated in one 30-year period, stating legal precedents were on Parot's side.
Aren't they always?
The criminal section of the Supreme Court, which is to rule on Parot's case, though, also has to consider a new charge against him for belonging to a terrorist group. It is alleged that in September 2002, from prison, he was still active in ETA, writing a letter from prison in which he stated to other members that they should "blow up the Bank of Spain, the stock exchanges in Madrid and Barcelona and the head offices of multinational banks". He also asked why the Audencia Nacional had not been blown up.
#1
That's one heck of a parole system in Spain. Eligible for release after serving 0.4% of his sentence.
JFM, I assume Henri Parot is French Basque. Are there many French in ETA and have they committed terrorism in France?
Posted by: ed ||
02/06/2006 8:57 Comments ||
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#2
The article "forgets" to mention that the prosecutor of Audiencia Nacional who had been the key figures in teh fight against ETA has been fired (in a way who has caused stir ven between socialist voters) and replaced by a crony of the socialist governemnt. The proposal of freeing ETA unrepentant multi-killers like Parot (1) came the day after the new prosecutor took the job.
About ETA in France: it has been a constant policy of ETA to avoid creating trouble in theirb sanctuary in France. There was a a small surge of non-ETA basque terrorism in France but it was quickly dismantled: difference between French and Spanish Basques is that teh French Basque region is not richer than rest of France and depends in subsidies and tourism of rest of France. This impàeded the development of an ideology who considers Basques as the master race. (2)
(1) 82 killings but the article also "forgets" to mention that 5 of them were children killed in the bombing of a building who housed families of policemen
(2) Sabino Arana founderr of the Basque nationalism clearly stated that Basques were the superior race and others (both Spanish and non-Spanish) were inferiors. In fact I would call them pre-nazi because of the "master race" ideology in them. But it lacks the genocidical component so it is not right. Fascist would not be adequate because while fascism sees the nation as superior and fit to rule neighbours/continent/world it does not necessarily differentiate between citizens of the master nation. Anyway Arana's idology is somewhat in the middle betwen "pure" fascism and nazism.
Independent Dutch MP Geert Wilders has received 40 death threats by email within two days for reproducing the controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed on his website. Wilders said he was shocked by the number of threats but he would not be silenced.
A leading critic of aspects of Islam and immigration in the Netherlands, Wilders went into hiding after the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in November 2004. Wilders later returned to work but still has bodyguards.
Last week Wilders placed the cartoons on his website in a show of solidarity with the artist and to underline his support for freedom of expression. He has received thousands of reactions. While the majority were positive, Wilders said he had never before received so many threats in such a short space of time. As is his normal practise, Wilders reported each threat to the police. Supporters of the radical Islamic organisation 'Hizb ut Tahrir' handed out pamphlets containing a warning to Wilders at various locations in the Netherlands at the weekend.
well, well, HuT was behind the London "kill them all" protest signs too
This occurred at the Bazaar in Beverwijk, on trams in The Hague and at a collectors' fair at the Ahoy in Rotterdam.
Residents of houses in the Geuzenveld-Slotermeer district of Amsterdam received letters in the post about Wilders and the cartoons. The authors claim Wilders has insulted Muslims and he must remove the cartoons from his site. Wilders said he would not do so.
About 1,000 people protested in Paris on Sunday against the publication of cartoons in European newspapers depicting the Prophet Mohammed, saying the drawings were an attack on Islam, police said. The demonstrators chanted "God is great" and "An attack on the prophet is an attack on all Muslims" as they marched for about two hours between two squares in the middle of the French capital.
Police said the marchers had not notified the authorities about the demonstration, which passed off peacefully and appeared to be spontaneous, with 50 initial participants telephoning or sending text messages to friends.
A young woman giving her name as Nour told French television: "Westerners do not want to understand that they have shown a lack of respect to all Muslims in caricaturing our prophet whom we do not even have the right to portray."
"Our aim is simple: we want public apologies, " said one speaker.
The publication of the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September, has sparked angry protests and attacks against Western interests in parts of the Muslim world. Three French newspapers have used the cartoons.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin who is a man on Sunday intervened in the international uproar over irreverent cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed with a call for respect for the sensitivities of other faiths. "We must pay attention to what hurts, what can shock. There isn't the same idea, everywhere in the world, of what is holy and you have to take that into account," he said on French television.
But he condemned the "spiral of violence" in the protests over the cartoons. "We are not living in any old time and we cannot act in the same way in all eras and all situations," he said, pointing to the "transparency of the world" resulting from the globalisation of the means of communication and information.
Villepin said freedom had to be defended but argued: "It is a matter of knowing that there are sensitivities, different ways of living your religion, and taking that into account," he said. "Of course we must defend freedom but at the same time and this is what living together is about and we must defend respect, respect of others ... in the name of tolerance."
How ... nuanced.
Villepin's comments echoed those of French President Jacques Chirac, who on Friday called for freedom of speech to be used in a spirit of responsibility and respect, in a bid to defuse the row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. While stressing that free speech was fundamental to French culture, Chirac "appealed to all to show the greatest spirit of responsibility, of respect and of good measure to avoid anything that could hurt other people's beliefs," according to the presidency.
While French flags burned in many Muslim countries in protests over the weekend, security forces in the Syrian capital used tear gas and water cannons to prevent demonstrators from attacking the French embassy, AFP reporters said, as an angry protest swelled over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
#1
"The demonstrators chanted "God is great" and "An attack on the prophet is an attack on all Muslims"
So what were the three cartoons that the paper never showed, that the Iman used to inflame? Apparentley Muslim's can show falsehoods to make there point, and that's OK. I thought they could'nt lie to other Muslim's?
Wake up people. Being nice to liar's just makes them realize lying works.
Thousands of Muslims staged a spontaneous protest march in Brussels on Sunday as outrage against the depicting of Mohammed in satirical cartoons spread further across the Islamic world.
Some 4,000 Muslims took to the streets of the Belgian capital on Sunday afternoon, moving from the Brussels North train station to the offices of public broadcasters VRT and RTBF on the Reyerslaan.
Angered by cartoons of Mohammed that first appeared in the Danish newspaper 'Jyllands-Posten', the protestors wanted to show the media that freedom of speech is not an absolute right. They demanded respect from the media for the Islamic faith and shouted: 'Don't touch my religion', newspaper 'De Standaard' reported on Monday.
The protest was at times tense, but the demonstration largely passed off without incident and ended at about 6pm. The only unrest involved several youths throwing stones at the US embassy. Police had sealed off the Danish embassy to ward off any problems.
But in an indication of the deep unrest among Belgian Muslims, the Arab European League (AEL) of Dyab Abou Jahjah placed three anti-Semitic cartoons on its website over the weekend.
Belgian Islamic politicians urged for calm, but have especially requested understanding from the public and government authorities for the insulted feelings of Muslims, both in Belgium and abroad. However, they also said that repeats of violence witnessed internationally would not be tolerated in Belgium.
..... The violence (in Syria, Lebanon, etc.) prompted Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller to call for calm. "It is a critical situation and it is very serious," he said.
He said further that the riots were no longer about the cartoons, warning that some "powers" were instigating a confrontation of cultures. "This is in no one's interest, neither ours nor theirs."
The EU, the US and NATO condemned the rioting. Lebanese politicians and the US have accused the Syrian government of supporting the protests in Lebanon to undermine the government.
Nordic countries last night feared that attacks on their foreign missions could spread across the Middle East after demonstrators burned down the Danish consulate in Beirut in protest at the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
The incident followed attacks in Damascus, Syria's capital, on Saturday by mobs on the embassies of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. All the Nordic countries sharply condemned the attacks at the weekend and demanded security guarantees for their diplomatic staff in the Middle East.
Per Stig MÞller, the Danish foreign minister, said yesterday: "It is totally unacceptable that governments do not secure embassies in their territory."
Jens Stoltenberg, Norway's prime minister, said: "What happened in Syria is completely unacceptable. We are going to ask Syria for compensation and we will take the matter up at the United Nations."
The US also condemned the attacks. "The government of Syria's failure to provide protection to diplomatic premises, in the face of warnings that violence was planned, is inexcusable," the White House said.
A crowd of several thousand demonstrators in Beirut set the Danish consulate alight, angered by the publication of the drawings of the Prophet Mohammed in Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, in September, and the failure of the Danish government to address Muslim concerns over the cartoons.
The pictures, considered blasphemous by Islam, later appeared in a Norwegian newspaper, making Norway also a target for Muslim radicals.
Reports from Beirut yesterday said cars were overturned and people were hurling rocks at nearby buildings, in spite of the deployment of 2,000troops and riot police. Security forces arrested 174 protesters, of whom they claimed almost half were Syrians, while Hassan al-Sabaa, Lebanon's interior minister resigned last night. Fouad Siniora, Lebanon's prime minister, said: "Those who are committing these acts have nothing to do with Islam or with Lebanon."
Denmark said it was withdrawing most of its diplomatic staff from Syria, while recommending Danes leave the country.
Norway was likewise cutting its diplomatic personnel in Syria. "We contacted the Syrian foreign ministry last Thursday, requesting additional security measures, but despite this the crowd of demonstrators was able to cross the distance of some 5km from the Danish to the Norwegian embassy on Saturday," the Norwegian embassy said.
The Iraqi transport ministry said yesterday it had frozen all contracts with the Danish and Norwegian governments.
Saturday's protests in Damascus followed reports that text messages were circulating citing plans by demonstrators in Copenhagen to burn Korans. Danish police at the weekend denied any such gatherings had occurred.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 02:24 ||
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Link ||
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#1
I'd been shocked---except I lost my ability to be shocked after 10 years of Euro support for Paleo terorism.
#3
It's more like To Kill A Mockingbird. The mockingbird is innocent, defenseless, and only sings for everyone's pleasure. It is wrong to pick on and threaten the mockingbird, for it is defenselees and means no harm.
#4
I'm just on my way to the grocery store, and I'll make point of picking up some Danish canned ham and cheese. Pity you can't buy smoked Danish herring here. I'm kinda partial to it.
#5
Buy Danish *and* Israeli. I was disappointed in the selection of Danish goods at Jungle Jim's, but managed to pick up some Mediterra feta in olive oil and some Israeli persimmons.
Damned good, both of them.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/06/2006 8:17 Comments ||
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#6
Muslims in Kanadastan. That's a market segment to reckon with. Did the Kuebeckers join in?
#7
Actually, the big Danish dairy co-op Arla supplied much of the butter and cheese throughout the ME, so it's not surprising that there's a market among expats too.
This boycott is costing them well over $1million per day. over 300 people have been laid off so far in Denmark and the toll will rise rapidly. The guy in Detroit who holds the exclusive rights to import some of Arla's products into the US is refusing to buy from them -- it will take time to go around that contract, too.
#8
it will take time to go around that contract, too.
I should think a day as the contract must have been breached in some form. Let's hope they don't have a 60 day cure period.
The other lesson out of this may be don't do business with Arabs/Muzzies when alternatives are available. That guy in Detroit will be sorry in 2 years, if not months.
#10
Yes, drinking beer can do many good things. Beer contains all the daily requirements of vitamin B(eer). Beer is also used as a catalysts in the consumption of pizza and salted snacks.
From a Native American colleague of mine who is also an Army officer:
This is a slide show that shows a Lakota Sioux wake and ceremony for a Marine that was killed in Iraq. It shows you the integration of 2 cultures and the specific Sioux culture. Native Americans have the highest per capita service of any ethnic group. We are only less than 1% of the total US population.
Native Americans do not typically allow photography at traditional ceremonial events; this is why I am sending this to you. You may never be able to see this again.
There are a couple photos with Cpl. Brett Lundstroms body in the coffin, so please review before you show any one else.
Semper Fi, Lone Eagle. We honor your bravery and sacrifice.
#1
Very touching pictures. It is a real shame a better job has not been done of integrating these people into the nation. Not that I have any brilliant ideas I've been keeping to myself. But the poverty and hoplessness of the reservations are palpable, even if one is only driving through. Semper Fi, indeed.
#2
My friend's father was career military. She was the first Native American woman to graduate from West Point. For some of her family, military service was a way to move up from poverty and despair.
Not all of her family has made it that way. But her daughter is now at MIT majoring in neuro- and cognitive science. And they have been there to help some of the family back home on more than one occasion.
She takes her young nephews and nieces to places like MIT and says, "You can do this too. You CAN do this."
#5
Way cool, lotp. My great grandmother might've said the only good Souix is a dead Souix, but that's cuz she was Comanche to the bone. Perspective, usually in the form of time, is the greatest gift...
#7
I've been to that school and gym.
In the 60s & 70s an older cousin's husband was coach there.
I ran in to the Lakota Souix again when they worked with Centennial Edu. Program at the University of Nebraska to create a written langauge for the Lakota people. I wasn't directly involved but got to know quite a few. By in large they had a hard life.
#9
You noticed that the end of the photos had a link to the previous Rocky Mountain News story about Marined who bring the bad news to the famailies of those fallen in the line of duty? It brought tears to my eyes, when I first saw it.
God bless them, every one.
Service was also they way the Irish integrated themselves into a society that disliked them, via the police and fire departments, almost a hundred years ago.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/06/2006 20:06 Comments ||
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#10
And many Eastern Europeans in WWI and especially WWII and Korea.
#12
Sheeler and Heisler's story before made me cry like a little girl. That some people do such a difficult job with such love and sensitivity. I sent an email expressing my admiration and got responses from the author and a note they were sending the "thank you for your service" on to the Marine in charge of notification in the story - truly an honorable and patriotic reporter
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2006 20:49 Comments ||
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#13
Wow... link takes you to slide show. Be sure to read the article as well. I have been teary for a half an hour now.
Karachi, 6 Feb. (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - An Islamic state has been established in the tribal area of North Waziristan, or at least that's what the Taliban alleges in a new video obtained by Adnkronos International (AKI). In the video, the Taliban fighters also claim to have set up military bases in North and South Waziristan, the tribal region which lies on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, from which they regularly carry out attacks on US forces based in Afghanistan. The Pakistan army has been battling Islamic militants in the Waziristan region since Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters fled into the area after the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Tens of thousands of Pakistani soldiers are deployed in the area.
The newly released video obtained by AKI, begins with footage of headless bodies of alleged criminals around the Miramshah Bazaar in North Waziristan. The criminals have been executed by the Taliban, who then come out into the open and appear to take over the control of North Waziristan. Thousands of people are then seen to be welcoming them as they announce the establishment of Islamic state. The second segment in the video revolves around the establishment of powerful bases by the Taliban. Thousands of young men wearing turbans are seen moving with their weapons. Their commanders select a squad among them to carry out a guerrilla mission to attack the US base in the south-eastern Afghan province of Khost. The men are seen wearing headbands bearing the slogan: "There is no God but one God, Mohammed is the messenger of God.
The youths then emerge out from their bases in the night and attack a US base in Khost. After a 30-minute battle, the US base is in flames and the members of the squad return to their base.
Oh, it's science fiction?
The video, which has been obtained in a CD format, is half in Pashtu and half in Urdu. The video claims that criminals controlled North Waziristan. These criminals were involved in a number of activities, it says, such as abducting and sexually abusing children and extorting money from shopkeepers, transport providers and even those who simply want to hold a wedding. The video claims that the criminal gangs are run by an Afghan, Hakeem Khan Zadran, and that the gangs have various sanctuaries where they take drugs, drink alcohol and keep the kidnapped men, women and children.
The Taliban video goes on to allege that the government of Pakistan pays these criminals so that they will stay clear of government officials who will then be able to continue their day-to-day activities. North Waziristan is part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Agency (FATA) where the government of Pakistan rules through a Political Agent (a standard practice since the days of the British Raj). The political agent is given an annual fund to distribute among tribal chiefs, local journalists and other influential people so that they will cooperate with government.
In explaining how the Taliban has cracked down on these criminal gangs, the video highlights an operation on December 6, 2005, when some Taliban fighters were heading to Khost to launch an operation. Some criminals stopped them and demanded a ransom before they would be allowed to pass. When the Taliban fighters refused to pay the money, the criminals did not insist and let them pass. However, a few kilometers away, they fired a rocket which destroyed the vehicle and killed four Taliban fighters who belonged to the local Wazir tribe.
The video describes how the incident became the turning point in the support among the local people for the Taliban. The local residents came out in support of the Taliban, it alleges. They converged near Miramshah and sent warnings from Shawal to Miramshah that people living close to the criminals should leave their homes. A raid was eventually conducted on a hideout. The battle lasted just 15 minutes in which several gangsters were killed, several were arrested and many fled. According to the video, it was three day operation, in which the Taliban managed to smoke out the criminals from their hideouts all over North Waziristan and they were then brutally executed in the Miramshah Bazaar.
We heard about this, they strung them up
This incident highlighted in the video is perhaps important when viewed within the context of the formation of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. The movement emerged in the same way in Zabul and Kandahar in the early 90s when a warlord abducted a girl and sexually abused her as well as another boy, something which was at the time a routine practice. The students in a few madrassas or Islamic seminaries came together under their teacher and leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, the founder of the Taliban moverment, and they publicly executed the warlords and released the kidnapped boys and girls.
And then proceeded to execute any one who dissagreed with them
#3
Mojois right on. The Pak's should say you are on your own. They can have it back in a few month's.
"After a 30-minute battle, the US base is in flames and the members of the squad return to their base. "
If they left the base in flames, whay would they go back to thier base? Sure the film of is'nt of them running from thier base? probally look the same.
#4
It's a night video. A viewer couldn't tell the difference between a burning base and a brushpile. Throw in a few exploding grenades and the local Paki Wakis will think they've just seen Star Wars Episode 7. Luckily for the US, Commander Cody was there to save the day.
Posted by: ed ||
02/06/2006 16:05 Comments ||
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#5
I think I missed that day in my 7th grade geography class - just where is North Waziristan (other than in relation to South Waziristan)?
#7
I think I missed that day in my 7th grade geography class - just where is North Waziristan (other than in relation to South Waziristan)?
Hank, If Waziristan is anything like my area of Mass, even that wouldn't be too helpful. We have three towns here: Westboro, Northboro, and Southboro. Northboro is actually to the north (but also the west), Southboro is to the east, and Westboro is to the south.
#9
I think I missed that day in my 7th grade geography class - just where is North Waziristan (other than in relation to South Waziristan)?
Western Pakistan. Boardering Afghanistan on its west, Balochistan is to the south, and IIRC the Northwest Tribal Provinces are to the north. The Punjab is to the east. Distictive language (Waziri.) Very peculiar tribal customs, which usually involve acting like idiots.
A bomb ripped through a passenger bus in a province of southwestern Pakistan wracked by growing tribal unrest, killing at least 13 people Sunday and wounding 20 others, police said. Some people were still trapped in the wreckage. In other violence, a woman, her three children and a soldier were killed by rockets purportedly fired by tribal militants elsewhere in Baluchistan province. A land mine explosion killed another civilian.
The bomb blast occurred in Kolpur, a town about 18 miles southeast of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, as the bus traveled with about 50 passengers from Quetta to the eastern city of Lahore. Provincial police chief Chaudhry Mohammed Yaqoob said 13 people were confirmed dead and 20 others injured, but he said an uncertain number of bodies were trapped inside the twisted wreckage and could only be removed by steel cutters. Yaqoob said the bomb used "high-intensity" explosives and a timer. Witnesses said the back of the bus was destroyed, but the front was intact.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, which will deepen concerns over Baluchistan, where violence between tribal militants and security forces has escalated recently in remote areas of the province. The tribesmen resent the presence of security forces and demand more revenues for natural resources, including natural gas, extracted from their territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/06/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
If you can't find any westerners to kill or bomb, other muslims will have to do. As long as you are commiting senseless acts of violence against someone, thats all that matters. Allah Akbar!
#3
Do they realize that in the Super Friends, Mohammed was no more powerful than Vishnu?
Posted by: ed ||
02/06/2006 10:05 Comments ||
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#4
"They want to test our feelings," protester Mawli Abdul Qahar Abu Israra told the BBC. "They want to know whether Muslims are extremists or not. Death to them and to their newspapers," he said.
YJCMTSU.
Posted by: ed ||
02/06/2006 10:08 Comments ||
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#6
.... officials in Lebanon have now confirmed that a demonstrator died on Sunday after jumping from the third floor of the Danish embassy in Beirut to escape a fire. Could we get his name please? He seems like a good candidate for the 2006 Darwin awards.
#7
Afghan President Hamid Karzai reiterated his condemnation of the cartoons and called on western nations to take "a strong measure" to ensure such cartoons do not appear again. "It's not good for anybody," he told CNN.
On the contrary. It's quite good that the world sees just how restrictive and lopsided Islam's worldview is. More cartoons, please. More publications of them and dispersal on the internet. More seething and more trampling, please. More Islamist insanity until this world gets fed up and finally takes some action against these violent wingnuts.
#8
This from Instapindit.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Tamara Mady emails:
Coming from an all Muslim family, I'm forced to listen to the sense of perceived injustice of Muslims concerning the depiction of their revered prophet. It's quite sickening.
I tell my family that that's just how things work in a free society: while I don't agree that the newspaper should have done something so culturally insensitive, they do have the right to do that, and attempting to make Danish society pay as a whole for it is utterly ridiculous.
It doesn't matter, I'm told. It literally means nothing to them, because in their world, everything should revolve around them and their culture, and God made the world for Muslim Arabs to control.
And this is the kind of mindset the Danish people are contending with
sums it up very nicely. They don't want to co-exist peacfully, they want CONTROL.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/06/2006 13:27 Comments ||
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#9
Maybe muslims ought to examine the root causes that drove us to draw mohammed as a terrorist.
The campaign to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon has now moved to the U.N. Security Council, but countries there have vastly different ideas of what the council should do.
The five permanent council members are split, with the United States, Britain and France hoping to pressure Iran into backing down with the ultimate threat of sanctions.
However, China and Russia do not want to incite Tehran and would prefer that the council play a limited role, with the International Atomic Energy Agency keeping the lead in handling Iran.
The Iranian government on Sunday ended all voluntary cooperation with the IAEA, saying it would start uranium enrichment and reject surprise inspections of its facilities. Uranium enriched to a low degree can be used for nuclear reactors, while highly enriched uranium is suitable for warheads.
However, in an apparent reversal, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the government was open to negotiations on Moscow's proposal that Iran shift its plan for large-scale enrichment to Russian territory in an effort to allay suspicions. A day earlier, an Iran representative at the IAEA meeting said that proposal was "dead."
For the U.S.-led faction, the IAEA's decision Saturday to report Iran represented a great success. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton had pushed for Iran to be brought before the council since his days as U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security in 2001-2005.
"It inevitably changes the political dynamic when their nuclear weapons program has been considered in the Security Council, which is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security by the U.N. charter, rather than in a specific agency of the U.N. system," Bolton said Friday.
"The Iranians know full well what they're doing, which is trying to acquire a nuclear weapons capability, and I understand why they don't want people talking about it in the full light of day."
In recent days, the diplomatic debate at the United Nations on the issue has focused on two words - "reporting" Iran to the council or "referring" it.
The distinction reflects a fundamental difference in view. The Russians and Chinese do not mind if the council is informed of the IAEA's dealings with Iran, but they do not want the IAEA to "refer" Iran to the council. That, they believe, would give the impression that the IAEA was washing its hands of Iran and asking the council to take the lead.
"We and China can accept informing of the Security Council, which is quite normal," Russia's U.N. Ambassador Andrey Denisov said. "That is the right of the Security Council to get any information it needs. But not referral, not official submitting, not handing it to the Security Council."
The debate is so important in part because the Security Council is unique among U.N. institutions as the lone body with the power to impose sanctions or other punitive measures, deploy peacekeeping missions, and grant or deny legitimacy to military action.
And though its resolutions sometimes go ignored or unheeded, there is also a symbolic shaming that goes along with bringing a country before a body whose mandate is to maintain international peace and security.
In Iran's case, the council's options include issuing a public statement without imposing any action or adopting a resolution demanding Iran stop its activities and threatening punishment if it does not. The punishment could include an oil embargo, asset freeze and travel ban.
Standing in the way of any such action is China, which has been blunt about its distaste for punitive measures.
"I think, as a matter of principle, China never supports sanctions as a way of exercising pressure because it is always the people that would be hurt," China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said.
For at least a month, in the meantime, the council will not do anything publicly. According to the IAEA decision passed Saturday, the council must wait until the IAEA's Board of Governors meets again next month before considering what to do about Iran.
One precedent is North Korea, which wrangled with many of the same players in 1993 and 1994 over its nuclear program. Through early 1994, the United States pushed hard for the council to impose sanctions but ultimately agreed to drop the threat after North Korea agreed in separate negotiations to freeze its nuclear program.
While there had been months of behind-the-scenes debate in the council, its lone resolution came in May 1993, when it urged North Korea to reconsider its decision to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Colin Keating, an analyst who sat on the council at the time as New Zealand's ambassador, said diplomats hoped for a similar result with Iran, with most discussions about its program taking place outside the Security Council chamber.
"This is a process which everybody is focused on trying to get a particular outcome, and ultimately the passage of a resolution with sanctions is probably a failure of the exercise rather than a success," Keating said.
"This is going to be an ongoing process of many months and it's one in which there will be lots of swirling around and probably very few public meetings of the council and a lot of the action will take place off stage."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 02:23 ||
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#1
Russia and China are having us on. Helping Iran to buy enough time to get a weapon.
In recent days, the diplomatic debate at the United Nations on the issue has focused on two words - "reporting" Iran to the council or "referring" it.
I submit to you, this is the same B.S. that has been going on in the U.N. with the Darfur situation for three years now. The population in taters while committee endlessly debates the definition of "Genocide". The U.N. is broken, divided, toothless, and corupt. I can't see one single benefit for us to be in (or finance) it.
#3
....there is also a symbolic shaming that goes along with bringing a country before a body whose mandate is to maintain international peace and security.
Symbolic shaming??? WTF is that exactly? Does that carry the same weight as bunker busters pulverizing manical mullahs?
Kumbaya my Lord Kumbaya.....
#4
"Through early 1994, the United States pushed hard for the council to impose sanctions but ultimately agreed to drop the threat after North Korea agreed in separate negotiations to freeze its nuclear program."
And Billiam Heiferson Clintoon and Maddy Halfbright fell for it, lol! YJCMTSU.
#6
However, China and Russia do not want to incite Tehran and would prefer that the council play a limited role, with the International Atomic Energy Agency keeping the lead in handling Iran.
In other words, no change from the current situation. In the meantime, Iran's work on the Bomb continues unhindered....
Sheikh Osama al-Jadaan, head of the influential Karabila tribe in Sunni Arab-dominated western Iraq, is more politician than traditional sheikh these days. He's given up his dishdasha and Arab headdress for a pinstripe suit with a silk handkerchief in his breast pocket.
He's also turned away from supporting Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and other foreign fighters in Iraq. "We realized that these foreign terrorists were hiding behind the veil of the noble Iraqi resistance," says Mr. Jadaan. "They claim to be striking at the US occupation, but the reality is they are killing innocent Iraqis in the markets, in mosques, in churches, and in our schools."
In Anbar Province, an insurgent hotbed that borders Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, US and Iraqi officials say they have a new ally against the Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists: local tribal leaders like Jadaan and home-grown Iraqi insurgents.
"The local insurgents have become part of the solution and not part of the problem," US Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told reporters at a press conference last week.
Until recently, many of the Sunni Arab tribes in Anbar and local insurgent leaders collaborated with Islamic extremist groups whose funding and manpower is thought to come largely from abroad. They had a common goal: drive out the Americans.
But Mr. Zarqawi's indiscriminate killing of innocent Iraqis has alienated many of his erstwhile Iraqi allies. His shadowy militant group, known as Al Qaeda in Iraq, is believed to have assassinated four prominent Anbar sheikhs. And in January when hundreds of Anbar men turned up at an Iraqi Army recruiting depot in Ramadi, the provincial capital, a suicide bomber killed 70 would-be soldiers.
Zarqawi's brutal methods have stirred controversy beyond Iraq, as well. When he declared an "all out war" on Shiites last September, his former mentor, Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi, publicly rebuked him and Al Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, warned him against alienating the Muslim masses.
But Zarqawi appears to have done just that. Last month, a poll of 1,150 Iraqis throughout the country, conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, the website World Public Opinion, and the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, revealed that just 7 percent of Iraqis approve of attacks on Iraqi government security forces.The same poll, which over sampled Sunni Arabs, found that only 1 percent of Iraqis support attacks on Iraqi civilians.
"There is a change," says Mithal Alusi, a secular Sunni Arab parliamentarian. "After these attacks, and after the elections, we find the people are eager to be rid of the terrorists."
Analysts say the participation of Sunni Arabs in the December elections, and the tripling of that sect's seats in parliament, has convinced local leaders like Jadaan that political participation can bear fruit, such as infrastructure, jobs, and an end to US military operations in their cities.
"We are caught in the middle between the terrorists coming to destroy us with their suicide belts, their TNT, and their car bombs, and the American Army that destroys our homes, takes our weapons, and doesn't allow us to defend ourselves against the terrorists," says Jadaan.
It was that frustration that first pushed Anbar's elders to take a stand against outside terror groups, which set up camp there and turned Anbar's highways into rat lines for foreign fighters coming in from Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
US and Iraqi forces launched a series of offensives throughout the province last year. Caught in the crossfire, Anbar's residents began looking for a way out.
"A sheikh from the Samarra tribe, which had suffered a lot from the military operations, came to see the minister of defense, and he said, 'Give me two weeks to get rid of the foreigners from our city,' " recalls Mohammed al-Askaree, an adviser to Iraq's Sunni Arab Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaymi. "The minister said, 'Take a month. If you get rid of the foreigners and the terrorists your city will avoid further problems.' "
Other tribal sheikhs followed suit. About three months ago, Mr. Dulaymi, intent on exploiting the rift between the tribes and the foreign insurgents, convened a series of meetings with Anbar's tribal sheikhs, religious leaders, and local elders. The US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, attended some of the meetings.
The provincial leaders made a number of demands in return for their cooperation, Mr. Askaree says. They asked for weapons to fight the terrorists with, but the minister refused. Instead the minister agreed to step up recruitment of Anbar residents to the Iraqi security forces.
"If you want to participate in attacking the terrorists, you have no choice but to send your sons to volunteer for the Army and give the Army information on the terrorists," Askaree says the minister of defense told the gathered Anbar notables.
Those negotiations seem to have unsettled Zarqawi and his allies. But it remains difficult to gauge just how effective and how widespread the new wellspring of tribal support for the Iraqi government is.
A report released last September by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimates that 4 to 10 percent of the country's combatants are foreigners. However, the report points out that this element represents a virulent strain of the militancy responsible for the most violent attacks. Furthermore, local insurgents have pragmatic demands and are more willing to compromise than Zarqawi-led fighters, who view the struggle in Iraq as part of a global jihad.
"If you can get real progress here, then it's a lot easier to end the insurgency by having the insurgents join the government than by hunting them down," says Anthony Cordesman, coauthor of the CSIS report.
Other military analysts have pointed to a decrease in US casualties in Anbar to show that the strategy is working.
Still, many Sunni Arab hard-liners remain defiant, and downplay the apparent rifts between foreign elements and local insurgents. "These are just a few sheikhs who want to get political power by claiming to be fighting the terrorists, and to be speaking for the resistance," says Sheikh Abdel Salaam al-Qubaysi, a leading member of the Muslim Scholars Association, a hard-line Sunni group that draws much of its support from Anbar. "They are slaves in the pockets of the occupation. They have no weight in the streets."
Mr. Qubaysi scoffs at suggestions that Anbar's tribes are starting to turn against the resistance. Last month's suicide attack on Sunni Arabs in Ramadi was not the work of the "noble Arab resistance," he says. "We know that 40,000 militants from Iran have to come to Iraq," he says. "I don't rule out that they did this to prevent Sunni Arabs from joining the Iraqi Army."
Sunni Arab politicians from Anbar also warn that this measured progress could wither just as quickly as it blossomed if the country's Shiite and Kurdish leaders don't respond to key Sunni Arab demands in negotiations to form a government.
Tariq al-Hashimi, leader of the Sunni fundamentalist Iraqi Islamic Party, laid out a 10-point ultimatum for the US and Iraqi governments last week. He demanded the release of political prisoners and the resignation of Iraq's controversial Shiite interior minister. He threatened "a massive civilian uprising" if his demands were ignored.
Another top Sunni demand, with a direct impact on negotiations with tribal sheikhs in Anbar, is ending the stringent debaathification law, which prohibits ex-Baath Party members above a certain rank from holding government positions.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Defense suddenly implemented a six-month-old order from the Iraqi Debaathification Commission that demanded the dismissal of 18 Iraqi generals, colonels, and majors. Most were Sunni Arabs from Anbar.
At a time when the government is trying to bring the provincial leaders on board to fight the insurgency, the decision sends the wrong message, says Mr. Alusi, the secular Sunni politician. "You're telling these sheikhs in Anbar that there's a place for their children in the new Iraq, but your actions say otherwise," says Alusi.
And even if Zarqawi and his ilk can be defeated in Iraq, this is no guarantee that the rest will be smooth sailing for the US. The same poll that showed Iraqi disapproval of attacks on fellow Iraqis, also reported that 88 percent of Sunni Arabs and 41 percent of Shiites approved of attacks on US forces. In case anybody has any comments, let me just say that I am becoming more and more dubious of the practice of polling in the Arab world the same way we do here in the US or other long-established democracies. All of the polls going into the Palestinians election had Fatah winning the election and now we have a Hamas super-majority.
It's a statistic that Jedaan, the tribal sheikh, is well aware of. "Iraq has its men, its honorable resistance, and we will drive out the Americans and liberate our country ourselves."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 02:06 ||
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You wont liberate it dufus, you'll condemn it to 20 years of bloody civil war. Completely killing the prospect of a better life for anyone in the country.
#2
I'm really having my doubts that these idiots are even worth fighting for. After the last two elections in the arab world I wonder if we couldnt have spent the money on something better, like bombs. Big ones.
#3
If we were to spend the money elsewhere I would suggest a bunch of pebble-bed nuclear reactors so that the US has clean power in abundance. Then we could pump out hydrogen (even at the 60% loss) to power the next generation of vehicles.
Without oil Islamofascism wouldn't spread far beyond the Islamic world. We could isolate them and let them burn themselves out on a diet of hate and sand.
#4
In a surprise shift, now the Suni's are seeing the US as the only thing that's keeping the Shia from slaughtering them. They now want the US Military to stay.
Al/ Ah the irony!
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/06/2006 20:56 Comments ||
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Iraqi police have arrested the fourth-ranking figure in al-Qaeda in Iraq, while officials are investigating whether the group's leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has fled to neighbouring Iran.
The brief report on Iraqiya television identified the suspect as Mohammed Rabei, also known Abu Dhar, and said he was No 4 in al-Qaeda. It gave no further details.
Meanwhile, a senior Iraqi security officer said the Iraqi government has been receiving information that al-Zarqawi may have moved to neighbouring Iran after hot pursuit by US and Iraqi forces in western Iraq.
The officer said Iraq's intelligence services have received information that the Jordanian-born terrorist was spotted a few weeks ago in areas close to the Himreen Mountains, 120 km south of Kirkuk and near the border with Iran.
"We are dealing with this information carefully but intelligence services are working on the assumption that he has been planning to move to Iran after being besieged in the areas where he was operating inside Iraq," said the officer, who declined to be identified further because of the sensitivity of the investigation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 02:04 ||
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What?? No suicide belt? No "fight to the death?
Oh, that's right. That's for the little people. The one's outraged by cartoons.
Iraqi authorities set up new checkpoints and warned innkeepers to watch for suspicious people - all part of security measures to protect Shiites marking the holiest day of their calendar this week.
The measures were put in place Sunday ahead of the feast of Ashoura to prevent a repeat of suicide bombings by Al Qaeda in Iraq that killed at least 230 people during the past two years� ceremonies.
Iraqiya state television reported Sunday that Al Qaeda in Iraq�s fourth-ranking figure, Mohammed Rabei, also known as Abu Dhar, had been arrested by Iraqi police.
The terror organization, led by the Jordan-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been blamed for kidnappings and beheadings of foreign and Iraqi hostages and suicide attacks against police, soldiers and civilians.
Al-Zarqawi�s group has targeted Shiites because it considers them heretics and collaborators with American forces after the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein.
Two Shiites were found Sunday bound and shot to death, apparently the latest victims of violence between rival Sunni and Shiite groups. Both were wearing black in apparent preparation for Ashoura, which marks the seventh century death in battle of the revered Shiite saint Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam�s Prophet Muhammad.
Hussein was killed in Karbala in 680 A.D. as part of a power struggle that produced the split between Shiites and Sunni Muslims. Ashoura falls on Thursday this year under the Islamic lunar calendar.
Sunni extremists have targeted the past two Ashoura festivals. Eight suicide bombers killed 55 Shiites last year. In 2004, at least 181 people died in bombings at Shiite shrines in Baghdad and Karbala.
In Karbala, the center of the Ashoura commemorations, police warned innkeepers not to rent rooms to guests without proper identification. About 8,000 troops will be on duty in Karbala, officials said, and extra checkpoints have been set up on highways to protect Shiite pilgrims.
US and Iraqi forces have also stepped up efforts to track down al-Zarqawi. A senior Iraqi security officer, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the investigation, said Iraq�s intelligence services had information that al-Zarqawi was spotted a few weeks ago near the border with Iran.
�Intelligence services are working on the assumption that he has been planning to move to Iran after being besieged in the areas where he was operating inside Iraq,� the official said.
Previous reports on al-Zarqawi�s whereabouts have proven false and he could simply be hiding among Sunni communities in Diyala, the volatile province bordering Iran.
Under Saddam, Shiites were suspected of ties to Iran, which fought an eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s. They were restricted from performing Ashoura rituals such as beating themselves with their hands, chains and the flat edges of swords in shows of grief.
Shiites resumed the rites after Saddam�s ouster, with rituals often turning into frenzied, blood-soaked outpourings of religious devotion.
The Shiites, who comprise about 60 percent of Iraq�s 27 million people, now hold key positions in the government and security services. Most of the insurgents are Sunnis.
Also Sunday, a London newspaper reported that the British government has drawn up a secret plan to begin withdrawing 2,000 soldiers from Iraq this spring - a quarter of its total forces.
The Independent said 500 soldiers would be out by the end of May under the plan, which has been approved in principle by Washington as long as there are no upheavals in the political process or security in Iraq.
Britain�s defense secretary said there had been no change in British policy.
�We will stay in Iraq until the job is done and the conditions for handover to the Iraqi security forces have been met,� Secretary John Reid said in a statement.
There are about 8,000 British soldiers in Iraq, most of them in or near the southern city of Basra.
The US military, meanwhile, announced the release of about 50 Iraqi detainees. No women were among them. The freeing of women is a demand by kidnappers of Jill Carroll, the American journalist who was abducted Jan. 7 in Baghdad.
The head of a government watchdog agency said Sunday that authorities have issued arrest warrants for a Sunni Arab member of parliament and his son on embezzlement charges.
Meshaan al-Jiburi and his son Yazin were alleged to have pocketed millions of dollars earmarked for creation of a paramilitary force to protect oil pipelines against insurgent attacks, according to Judge Radhi al-Radhi, chairman of the High Commission of Integrity.
The whereabouts of al-Jiburi and his son are unknown. Al-Radhi said Iraqi authorities have asked Interpol for help in tracking them down.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 01:58 ||
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Under Google "Images" seek "Ashoura" for some bloody images of past martyr cult festivals. Some include child abuse at its worse.
A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol detonated Sunday afternoon in southeast Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding five others and two police officers, Baghdad police told CNN. Earlier, two bodies with bullet wounds and no identification were found in a Shiite neighborhood in northwest Baghdad. Police said they assumed the men were Shiite because they were wearing the black clothes Shiites traditionally wear during Muharram, the period of mourning for Imam Hussein before the coming religious holiday of Ashura, which commemorates his death. Four other bodies, which had been blindfolded and shot in the back of the head, were found Sunday night by police in a western Baghdad neighborhood, dumped near a highway, police said. The bodies had no identification. Also Sunday afternoon, a roadside bomb detonated in western Baquba on an Iraqi army patrol, wounding four soldiers.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/06/2006 00:00 ||
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It was the third night in a row that Israeli aircraft had carried out a so-called targeted killing operation against militants in Gaza,
What's with the "so-called"? Targeted killing is about as accurate and objective a description of it as one could ... oh, right, that's the problem: accurate and objective.
#2
Israeli artillery units also bombarded northern Gaza throughout Sunday night and Monday morning as Palestinians responded with rocket strikes on Israel.
"Our artillery on Monday morning was directing sustained fire at the north of the Gaza Strip, which was also regularly bombarded during the night," an Israeli military source said.
someone here said the other day: "counter-battery fire is a bitch" LOL
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2006 18:51 Comments ||
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#3
The vehicle the pair were travelling in was gutted by the strike, witnesses said.
The one, the only, the genuine original and authentic Car-B-Q. Accept no substitutes, not available in stores, your mileage may vary, offer not good after curfew in sectors R and N.
#6
My far out theory: These are Fatah guys who are really scared now that their enemies in Hamas will be in charge, and are making targeting deals with the Israelis for safe passage.
I think it has been IJ and Al Asqa in each case, so Hamas doesn't care either.
The Israelis know a good deal when they see it. I just wish they would release one of the videos for the pleasure of the blogosphere. Not all, just one.
Members of a Hebron Hamas cell responsible for murdering of six Israelis and wounding eight in shooting attacks in 2005, were arrested last month by security forces, the Shin Bet revealed Monday.
According to the Shin Bet, the cell members' arrests thwarted plans to manufacture explosives to be used in future attacks. The members were identified as Shakib Awiwi, 22, an owner of a clothes stall in Hebron; Mussa Vazouz, 23, who worked in a Hebron shop; and Mohammed Jilani, 23, a construction worker from Beit Kahil.
Others who were recruited to the cell but later left were identified as Awiwi's cousin Louie,19; and Kassam Aziz Jaber, 20.
Shakib Awiwi confessed to setting up the cell last year together with Mussa Vazouz on behalf of Hamas. Awiwi and Vazouz then recruited Jaber and the three underwent military training in preparation for shooting attacks.
In April 2005, Shakib attempted to shoot at an IDF post in Hebron, but failed to hit the soldiers. Shortly later, Jaber left the cell and Awiwi's cousin took his place.
On June 24, 2005, the three shot at civilians who were waiting at a hitchhiking stand near Beit Hagai, killing teenagers Avihai Levy and Aviad Mansouri and wounding three other Israelis. Four days later, they opened fire at an IDF jeep traveling on Road 35 north of Hebron, but failed to hit the soldiers. Cell members also planned to shoot soldiers spotted frequenting a billiard club in the Hebron area, but decided against the attack due to lack of sufficient weapons.
Louie Awiwi then left the cell and was replaced by Mohammed Jilani. On July 22, the cell members opened fire at soldiers manning an IDF post in Hebron, wounding two soldiers and killing a Palestinian civilian.
On October 16, 2005, the cell members again targeted Israeli civilian hitchhikers in Gush Etzion, killing Oz Ben-Meir, Matat Adler-Rosenfeld and Kinneret Mandel, and wounding three others.
On December 16, they opened fire at an Israeli car traveling on Road 60 near Beit Hagai, killing Yossi Shok. After the attack, Awiwi telephoned Al Jazeera and the Al Arabia newspaper and claimed responsibility on behalf of Hamas.
Security officials noted that the cell members cleaned the bullets used in attacks to erase traces of fingerprints, and also swapped cars they used in the shooting attacks to avoid detection. After they were arrested, they revealed the location of the Kalashnikov rifle and two Karl Gustav rifles used in the attacks.
Zviki Bar-Chai, head of the Hebron Hills Regional Council, praised the security forces for nabbing the Hamas terrorists responsible for murdering Israelis.
Singapores most wanted Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror suspect, Mas Selamat Kastari, has been arrested by Indonesian authorities. Indonesian anti-terror squad members nabbed Mas Selamat, 45, in Java last week. He had gone there to visit his son who was said to be studying at a religious school there. Mas Selamat allegedly changed his identity, assuming the name of Edy Heriyanto and obtained an Indonesian passport.
There's his problem. If only he'd had a Pakistani passport, everyone knows those are the best.
Sources familiar with the arrest said that Mas Selamat, who in 2003 was jailed 18 months for immigration offences, was arrested to assist police in their probe into several bombings there in late 2001 and 2002. They said Singapore had requested for his extradition as the island republic's intelligence division had information that he had planned to bomb the Changi International Airport in 2002.
If successful, Malaysian intelligence authorities may also question Mat Selamat.
Oh, the array of tools ...
It is learnt that the Malaysian officers want to know what he got up to in his alleged frequent visits to Johor before fleeing to Thailand and finally to Indonesia. It is not immediately known whether Indonesian authorities have acceded to Singapores request to have Mas Selamat extradited.
ADDITIONAL: Singapore, 6 Feb. (AKI) - Indonesian police have arrested and returned to Singapore's authorities top terrorism suspect, Mas Selamat Kastari, who is the country's alleged leader of the al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network. A Singapore interior spokesman said on Monday that Mas Selamat - who served an 18-month prison sentence in Indonesia on immigration charges in 2003 - was sent back to Singapore on 3 February. He was arrested on 20 January with a fake identity card, according to Indonesian police.
Indonesia and Singapore have no formal extradition treaty, and Mas Selamat's arrest and deportation to Singapore is seen as a significant step forward in anti-terror cooperation between intelligence services in the region.
Singapore's intelligence obtained information that Mas Selamat tried to bomb Singapore's Changi airport in 2002, and with al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) mastermind Hambali, hatched a plan to hijack a plane and crash it into the airport, which failed to materialise. He fled Singapore in December, following a security operation launched against JI, after the authorities discovered the JI network and its plans to crash seven truck bombs at various locations around the island five years ago, Channel NewsAsia reported.
JI is believed to have masterminded the bomb attacks on Bali's tourist areas of Kuta and Jimbaran on Bali last October which killed 22 people, as well the massive nightclub bombing in 2002 which killed 202 people, the 2003 attack on the Marriot hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people, and another at the Australian embassy in 2004 which killed 11. The group's aim is to create an Islamic caliphate in southeast Asia.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 02:27 ||
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AN Indonesian sentenced to 15 years in jail for assisting the men behind the 2002 Bali bombings has died of kidney failure in hospital, an official said today. "Hernianto died of kidney failure on Friday afternoon," said Kumbayana, from the Sanglah general hospital in Bali's capital Denpasar.
The 28-year-old died after being treated for eight days at the hospital, he said, adding that Hernianto was also admitted for kidney problems for several days in December. Hernianto was sentenced by a Bali court to 12 years imprisonment for having assisted the Bali bombers by making his home available for their meetings and an appeal court later added three more years to the original sentence. He had been serving time in Denpasar's Kerobokan state penitentiary.
The Koran Tempo newspaper reported that his body arrived at his home village of Sukoharjo near the Central Java city of Solo on Saturday and was buried at a local cemetery. Hundreds welcomed the coffin at the village with yells of "Allahu Akbar!", or God is Great, while a large banner welcomed the body for being that of a "martyr".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 02:17 ||
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Every person makes the world a better place, some by arriving & some by leaving.
Indonesian anti-terror police have arrested Singapore's most wanted terror suspect, Mas Selamat Kastari. Malaysian newspaper the Star reported that the Indonesian police had nabbed the 45-year-old Jemaah Islamiyah suspect in Java last week. The report said he had gone there to visit his son who was said to be studying at a religious school there. Mas Selamat, a father of five, fled Singapore in 2001, and Singapore is seeking his extradition.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 02:16 ||
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#4
I don't suppose it has crossed the minds of the diplomats out there that Iran now sees embassy personnel as enemy agents, spies, and potential hostages?
If you are "western", you are the enemy. Neutrality does not exist.
#5
Ooo. I wonder if they will attack and destroy the Swedish embassy next? Maybe kill a bunch of diplomats? They probably think that the Swedes are really pussies, all neutral and shit.
That would be highly entertaining. It's been a while since the Swedes have gone ultraviolent on anybody.
#6
I think Denmark has been deliberately target, because, by European standards, they have been taking a strong position on non-assimilating muslim immigrants.
#7
Moose, the Iranians made that clear back in, oh, 1979 or so.
Denmark also has been strongly supportive of the WoT and in Iraq, to the point of having had troops there.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/06/2006 19:00 Comments ||
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#8
all diplomats and furriners: evacuation is the answer or they'll end up chained to nuke facilities as human shields....
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2006 19:03 Comments ||
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#9
David Conway, on the Civitas website, suggests this fracas might have been concocted by Iran:
"...when the UN Security Council gets round to considering what form of sanctions to impose on Iran, guess to whom chairmanship of the Council will have passed. Youve got it... plucky little Denmark.
Suddenly, the pieces fall into shape. The rumpus suddenly escalated, complete with fabricated offensive cartoons, to so enflame Muslim opinion that Denmark could be intimidated directly through a threatened Muslim boycott of its goods, or indirectly by the EU fearful of a wider boycott, into voting in favour of Iran."
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/06/2006 19:21 Comments ||
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#10
Yeah that's one theory. Another has the Saudis sponsoring this to deflect criticism within the Muslim world of the haaj mess. And, if I might add, the slow progress in building an Iraqi coalition government and the stronger progress in the Afghanistan elections.
I suppose we could throw in the Hamas election (which is overstated, since they collected other candidates into their lists in various districts).
Beats me which one(s) to finger as the source. Byzantine doesn't begin to describe it.
#11
Danska ambassaden stormades
Med stenar och brandbomber gick hundratals demonstranter till attack mot den danska ambassaden i Teheran.
Vid 21-tiden på måndagskvällen fanns omkring 50 demonstranter inne på ambassad-området, uppger den norska tidningen Dagbladets nätupplaga.
Polisen försökte stoppa stormningen med hjälp av tårgas. Det hjälpte inte när omkring 400 demonstranter anföll ambassaden i Irans huvudstad med brandbomber och stenar.
Loosely (very) translated:
The Danish Embassy in Tehran was under attack by hundreds of demonstrators with rocks and fire bombs.
At 9 o'clock Monday night, around 50 demonstrators have (gotten in ???) to the embassy grounds, reports the Norwegian newspaper 'Dagbladet' (Daily News).
Police tried to stop the attack with teargas. That didn't help when almost 400 demonstrators attacked the embassy in Iran's capital with stones and firebombs."
Sorry it sounds redundant but that's (kind of) what it says...Any Stockholm Vikings wanna correct me? Please do...
#14
"...when the UN Security Council gets round to considering what form of sanctions to impose on Iran, guess to whom chairmanship of the Council will have passed. Youve got it... plucky little Denmark.
Suddenly, the pieces fall into shape. The rumpus suddenly escalated, complete with fabricated offensive cartoons, to so enflame Muslim opinion that Denmark could be intimidated directly through a threatened Muslim boycott of its goods, or indirectly by the EU fearful of a wider boycott, into voting in favour of Iran."
This one sure puts things in a new light. I'd bet my bottom dollar that the "additional" cartoons were Islamic fabrications. It is critical to prove this if there is any way to do so.
Should Iran permit the takeover of any foreign embassies, the world had better take notice of such a recurring pattern. However noxious and surreal it is, for Iran, this is their deep game. We really need to collapse this house of cards on their heads.
Tehran, 6 Feb. (AKI) - The Iranian Republican Guard has reportedly been put on alert to forestall a coup in ally Syria by military figures loyal to former vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam, currently in exile in France. In a reportage from Damascus, the Iranian website Saztab - close to the Republican Guard (Pasdaran) - announced the Pasdaran are examining the backgrounds of many army and airforce officers considered close to the former vice president.
Ah, I love the smell of a purge in the morning
Late last year, in an interview with the al-Arabiya network, Khaddam denounced the government of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad, saying it had committed many mistakes during its domination of neighbouring Lebanon. Khaddam, a veteran aide to Syrias late President Hafez al-Assad, stepped down in June 2005, almost five months after the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
According to Baztab, Abdolhalim Khaddam who several weeks ago announced he wanted to create a government in exile, is mobilising discontented officers to overthrow the regime of presdent Bashar al-Assad. The former vice president, according to the site, can count on the support of France, the US and Israel in effecting 'regime change'.
#1
The Iranian Republican Guard has reportedly been put on alert to forestall a coup ... The former vice president, according to the site, can count on the support of France, the US and Israel...
#3
Khaddam needs to be used and milked dry for any useful information or action. Afterwards, his empty shell should be discarded with the rest of the trash.
If I were baby Assad, I'd be nervous about those IRG guys. Them and the Mukbharat. How do we know they're not working for Khaddam already? Or can't be bought?
Posted by: Mike ||
02/06/2006 17:27 Comments ||
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#11
It would be nice to watch a new Syrian dictatorship that (a) turned over any WMD (especially Iraqi WMD) (b) Left Lebanon alone and cut off Hezzbolah (c) Closed the border with Iraq.
If they did those three things I think the Neocons would be happy to take them off the list and let them have a dictatorship for awhile longer.
#12
No one, but no one is more byzantine like a muzzie politician. I get vertigo just trying to follow all the permutations of this Mohammedean thingie as it continuously winds, unwinds and spawns yet another sub-group of even more crazed muzzies. How can one keep up?
#14
Gosh, I hope those little scamps in the Special Operations Forces have not been playing mischievious tricks like scattering leaflets saying "Everyone meet at Ali's house for the Big Coup". That would be soooo naughty.
#15
Boys WILL be boys, you know ..... and that desert is so boring .....
More seriously, there's a quiet trend going on here. The Iraqi general says WMD in Syria. IIRC there's an intel conference coming up in a week or two at which (supposedly) "a contractor will discuss the documents he found in Baghdad" that tie Saddam to WMD in the runup to Gulf II. A former Syrian VP announces his intent to form a government in exile. Various conservative media have begun calling for public disclosure of the contents of documents found and xlated from Iraq.
We'll see if this is all smoke or if something of substance is uncovered soon that shifts the terms of debate on the WMD front.
#16
Ah, yes, but if a tree falls in the forest, and the media doesn't report it, did it REALLY happen?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/06/2006 19:52 Comments ||
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#17
There's a sizeable IRGC contingent in Syria that serves to support the operations of Hezbollah (which may as well be IRGC irregulars) in Lebanon. The key thing to keep in mind here is that the Syrian military and most of the ruling elite is made up of Alawites who use the veneer of Baathism to stay in power as the ruling minority and have done so for the last several decades. Assad rules at the sufferance of the Alawite leadership and Khaddam, while himself a Sunni, may try to enlist them in order to depose his former boss under the argument that if they don't they could end up like the Sunnis in Iraq.
For those who are curious, Alawites follow a sort of Islamic Gnosticism. They have the Qu'ran, but use the al-Hayfat al-Sarif to interpret it and instead of traditional Muslim creeds recite "I testify that there is no god but God; Muhammad is his messenger and Ali ibn Abi Talib is his wali (protector)" in public and ""There is no god but Ali ibn Abu Talib" in private. You can easily see from that alone how far apart they are from the foundations of mainstream Islam, which is one of the reasons they are so anxious to maintain their grip on Syria at any cost.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 19:58 Comments ||
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#18
SteveS - LOL
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2006 20:00 Comments ||
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Damascus, 6 Feb. (AKI) - Radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has met president Bashar al-Assad during a two day visit to Syria. An official statement said that the discussions covered the security situation in Iraq, and the recent election results and consultations to form a new government. President Assad made an appeal for national unity in Iraq, while al-Sadr, whose party ran in December's Iraqi vote, praised Syria's position and accused Israel and the US of trying to stir up trouble among the two neighbours.
"Both Iraq and Syria are under US pressure. We have good relations, but our common enemies, Israel, the United States and Britain, are trying to spread strife among us. The people will not fall for this," he told reporters.
Al-Sadr said the Iraqi people expressed solidarity with Damascus, which is under intense international pressure to cooperate over the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, and announced that he wanted to coordinate the two nations' common interests. The delegation led by al-Sadr, which also met Syria's foreign minister Farouk al-Sharaa, is expected to go to Lebanon next. Al-Sadr came to prominence following the US invasion of Iraq, gaining support from poor Shiites in Baghdad and southern cities. He staged two anti-US revolts in Iraq.
#2
makes sense. Mucky has been saying how he'll sweep the infidel from Iraq if his Iranian masters are attacked. Just got marching orders to cosy up to Iran's only local ally.
A crowd of about 200 people pelted the Austrian Embassy in Tehran with petrol bombs and stones on Monday to protest against the publication of satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in European newspapers.
The protesters, chanting "God is Greatest" and "Europe, Europe, shame on you", smashed all the diplomatic mission's windows with stones and then tried to hurl petrol bombs inside.
Austria currently holds the presidency of the European Union. Protesters also waved placards and shouted slogans against the EU's stance on Iran's nuclear program.
The bombs exploded in flames against metal grilles guarding the windows. But the building did not catch fire and the flames were quickly put out by police with fire extinguishers.
Iran has withdrawn its ambassador to Denmark and Iranian Commerce Minister Massoud Mirkazemi said on Monday that all trade with Denmark had been severed because of the cartoons, first published in September in a Danish newspaper.
"All trade ties with Denmark were cut," he was quoted by the Iranian student news agency ISNA as telling a news conference.
Mirkazemi said from Tuesday Iran would stop any Danish goods from entering its customs' areas. Iran imports some $280 million worth of goods a year from Denmark.
Trade ties were under review with all countries where the cartoons were published, he said. Islam prohibits any depiction of the Prophet Mohammad.
Further demonstrations were planned for later on Monday outside the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Tehran.
Danish diplomatic missions in Syria and Lebanon were set ablaze and ransacked over the weekend because of the cartoons.
The Austrian Foreign Ministry said the Austrian cultural center building was also damaged but no injuries resulted.
The demonstration was announced in advance and organized by members of the official Basij militia, a volunteer force affiliated to the hardline Revolutionary Guards.
EMERGENCY MEETING
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called for an emergency meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to discuss Islamophobia in the West.
"Insult to Islamic values and Muslims' sanctity in the West has become a main challenge facing Islamic nations now. It is vital to seriously confront this challenge," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized the argument of freedom of speech employed by European newspapers to justify publication of the cartoons.
"If your newspapers are free why do not they publish anything about the innocence of the Palestinians and protest against the crimes committed by the Zionists?" the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted him as saying.
More than 200 lawmakers from Iran's 290-seat parliament also denounced the cartoons. "Apparently, they have not learned their lesson from the miserable author of the Satanic Verses," they said in a statement carried on the official IRNA news agency.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual father of the 1979 Islamic revolution, passed a fatwa in 1989 ordering the killing of British writer Salman Rushdie for his book "The Satanic Verses" which many Muslims deemed blasphemous.
Although the Iranian government promised Britain in 1998 that it would not send an assassin to kill Rushdie, Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards pledge on every anniversary of the fatwa that Muslims will one day carry it out.
#1
"Trade ties were under review with all countries where the cartoons were published, he said. Islam prohibits any depiction of the Prophet Mohammad."
They were published in France. Dare ya to cut off trade with them. Double dare ya.
Lebanon apologized Monday to Denmark after rampaging Muslim demonstrators set fire to its diplomatic mission in Beirut, while violent protests escalated throughout the Muslim world against the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Western newspapers.
In Afghanistan, hundreds of demonstrators clashed with police and soldiers during a protest in the central city of Mihtarlam, killing one person and wounding seven. Police fired on the crowd after a protester shot at them and others threw stones and knives, said Dad Mohammed Rasa, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.
Police used batons and rifle butts to break up a crowd of 200 protesters in front of the presidential palace in Kabul, the Afghan capital. At least three people were injured and seven arrested. Some protesters also threw stones at a guard house outside the main American base in the city, but no injuries were reported.
Elsewhere, violent protests broke out in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. Hundreds of demonstrators hurled rocks at the Danish and American consulates in Surabaya, while protesters burned Danish flags in other cities.
The main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir came to a standstill as shops, businesses and schools shut down for a day to protest the drawings. Dozens of protesters torched Danish flags, burned tires and shouted slogans across Srinagar. Police used tear gas and water cannons to break up protesters in New Delhi.
About 400 Muslims also stomped on Denmark's flag outside the country's embassy in Bangkok, Thailand.
European leaders, meanwhile, called for an end to violence. "I understand that, when religious feelings are hurt, that can be expressed, but violence cannot be a means in the discussion," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
The prime ministers of Spain and Turkey appealed for calm in a column in the International Herald Tribune, saying: "We shall all be the losers if we fail to immediately defuse this situation, which can only leave a trail of mistrust and misunderstanding between both sides in its wake."
All of us except the Islamacists, of course. In the short run, anyway.
The Lebanese Cabinet apologized to Denmark following a late Sunday emergency meeting. Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said the government had unanimously "rejected and condemned the acts of riots ... that harmed Lebanon's reputation and its civilized image and the noble aim of the demonstration."
At least one person died, 30 were injured and about 200 were detained in the violence Sunday, officials said. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said the arrested included 76 Syrians, 35 Palestinians and 38 Lebanese.
The protesters set the building housing the Danish Embassy ablaze and threw stones at a Maronite Catholic church the first attack on Christians since the protests began. Muslim clerics also denounced the violence Sunday, with some wading into the mobs to try to stop the attacks.
The day before protesters in neighboring Syria burned the Danish and Norwegian embassies, a fire that also damaged the Chilean and Swedish missions, which share the building. The United States accused the Syrian government of backing the protests in Lebanon and Syria, an accusation also made by anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians.
The Middle East has for months been a powder keg of anti-Western rage over the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But some observers say the furor over the drawings may have been exploited or intensified by some Muslim countries in the region to settle scores with Western powers.
Syria and Iran face growing pressure from the Americans and the Europeans on the issues of foreign extremists infiltrating Iraq's borders and on Tehran's nuclear program. And Egypt, one of the first to publicly criticize the series of cartoons, has been critical of the Danish government for funding critics of human rights abuses.
"This is an organized attempt to take advantage of Muslim anger for purposes that do not serve the interests of Muslims and Lebanon, but those of others beyond the border," Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Nayla Mouawad, a Christian, said Sunday after riots in Beirut.
But Syria blamed Denmark, criticizing the Scandinavian nation for refusing to apologize after the caricatures were first published in September in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he disapproves of the caricatures and any attacks on religion, but insisted he cannot apologize on behalf of his country's independent press.
The caricatures were republished recently in several European, Australian and New Zealand newspapers as a statement on behalf of a free press. One caricature showed the revered prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse.
Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depictions of the Prophet Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.
Not by all - as the rich history of such pictures shows.
In Lebanon, Interior Minister Hassan Sabei submitted his resignation at the late Sunday cabinet session following widespread criticism of the failure of the Lebanese security forces, which appeared to lose control of the streets for about three hours.
But Sabei defended their actions.
"Things got out of hand when elements that had infiltrated into the ranks of the demonstrators broke through security shields," he told reporters. "The one remaining option was an order to shoot, but I was not prepared to order the troops to shoot Lebanese citizens."
Sabei, like other Lebanese politicians and Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims, suggested that Islamic radicals had fanned the anger.
#1
Lebanon apologized Monday to Denmark after rampaging Muslim demonstrators set fire to its diplomatic mission in Beirut, while violent protests escalated throughout the Muslim world against the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Western newspapers.
How about keeping the "demonstrators" under control, so that an apology would have been unnecessary??? Is that possible, or is Lebanon basically still in a state of anarchy?
Syria's anti-terror forces early Sunday calshed with armed terrorist group in Damascus countryside of Kafer Battna, SANA reported. The group was planning to launch terrorist acts in Damascus city and countryside.
The group's leader was killed and two members of the group arrested by the Syrian security forces following a clash that lasted for more than half an hour.
The security forces confiscated weapons, explosive materials and ammunitions in the flat which the group has hired, in addition to documents provoking for terrorist acts, SANA added.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 03:11 ||
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#1
A 'terrorist' in Syria is either Muslim Brotherhood or Kurdish, unless of course Jumblatt has got the Druze stirred up.
IRAN'S hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today brushed off a decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency to report his country to the UN Security Council as "funny" and labelled his country's enemies as "idiots".
"You can pass as many resolutions as you like and be happy about it, but you cannot stop the progress of the Iranian people... We thank God that our enemies are idiots," he was quoted as saying by Iranian news agencies.
"We don't need you. It is you who need the Iranian people. This is the funniest decision I've seen," said the austere president. "They are angry at the Islamic Republic, because the Iranian people have reached the summit of science and technology."
And in a direct challenge to the West, he said: "You know you cannot do anything, because the era of domination and repression is over and we are no longer in the Middle Ages."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 02:55 ||
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#1
"They are angry at the Islamic Republic, because the Iranian people have reached the summit of science and technology."
A summit which was passed 60 years ago.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/06/2006 7:42 Comments ||
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#2
we are no longer in the Middle Ages."
Tell that to idiots that are burning down the the Dane embassy!!!! Your NOT quite out yet!!!
#4
IRAN'S hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today brushed off a decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency to report his country to the UN Security Council as "funny" and labelled his country's enemies as "idiots".
#5
"We don't need you. It is you who need the Iranian people. This is the funniest decision I've seen," said the austere president. "They are angry at the Islamic Republic, because the Iranian people have reached the summit of science and technology."
Denmark and Norway said yesterday that their nationals had begun to leave Syria after protesters torched the buildings housing their embassies there in events the Danish foreign minister said were beyond comprehension.
Danes were also told to leave Lebanon and Norwegians there were advised to remain indoors, after protesters in Beirut attacked the Danish consulate in protest against the publication of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) cartoons in both countries.
I am horrified to see the way violence and attacks are spreading throughout the Middle East, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller told reporters yesterday. The actions in Lebanon and Syria yesterday are beyond comprehension and totally unacceptable, he said.
Some of the 70 Danes living in Syria left the country late on Saturday and others departed yesterday, foreign ministry spokesman Lars Thuesen said. Those who had not yet left were advised to stay indoors until we have found a way to get them out of there, he said. The Danish government is not currently providing transport for those wanting to leave but has offered assistance, he said.
Thuesen said some Danes were reluctant to leave Syria as the situation appeared to calm down somewhat yesterday. But the foreign ministry insisted: The situation is still critical for Danes there. Those who opt to stay must be very careful.
We have been working all night to contact our people and get them out (of Syria), Norwegian foreign ministry spokesman Oeystein Boe said. Of the up to 90 Norwegian nationals in Syria, 12 left Damascus for Oslo via Vienna, while 26 Norwegian families opted to stay in Syria for now.
Norwegian embassy staff, including the ambassador, were operating from a hotel in the Syrian capital under police protection. Following the violent protest in Syria and further attacks in Lebanon, where the Danish embassy was set ablaze, Norway told all its embassies in Muslim countries to tighten security.
We have sent out a precaution order to embassies in the Middle East and other countries with a large Muslim population to review their security contingency plans, to get in touch with the authorities and ask for extended security, Boe said.
Norway also told its nationals living in Lebanon to remain indoors but has not, as yet, advised them to leave the country. Denmarks Stig Moeller said he was worried about the proportions the protests had taken. It is now a case that is much bigger than the issues of the drawings. Forces outside the political systems are now setting the agenda, he said.
Stig Moeller said he had asked the Syrian and Lebanese governments to investigate the events, which he said went beyond damaging the relationship between those governments and Denmark. Its damaging the whole diplomatic system if countries cannot be sure that their embassies are safe, he said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Danes gathered in Copenhagen yesterday to appeal for peaceful dialogue to resolve the row. Local artists, couples and families assembled on the capitals main square in a demonstration that organisers said was apolitical and independent of different religious beliefs and cultures.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 02:28 ||
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#1
In a rational world, it would probably be time for all westerners to permanently depart Islamic lands - and stop doing buisiness with them - in totality. Unfortunately, due to the crude petroleum situation, the west is accursedly tied to those barbarian lands.
I wonder if there are ANY armament or ammunition manufacturers within the Islamic world?
Let the Islamic world descend back ino the 12th Century - as they are so fervently seeking. Expel all practitioners of Islam from all western nations - to spare them the "vulgarities" of 21st Century life.
Let them all go back to 12th Century life spans, and 12th Century standards of infant mortality, medical care, nutrition, and technology.
When I "connect the dots" of increasingly bizarre and savage behavior by ever-increasing numbers of Muslims, in ever more widespread locations, against ever-broadening populations of targets, it is CRYSTAL CLEAR what lies ahead, if the West meekly allows the current violent absurdities to stand, with only "polite regrets."
Twenty or thirty years hence, surviving civilized people are going to look back on the leaders of the civilized world in 2006, and ask themselves "what were those leaders THINKING to allow what was then the festering pestilence iof Islam to grow in strength to become the murderous plague of the mid-21st Century.
Pandering to the sensitivities of the Islamic barbarians is doing one thing only: Helping them toward achieving their goal of imposing upon the population of earth a 12th Century, Sharia-based theocracy. Nothing less - and that is without even a HINT of exaggeration.
The western world will NEVER have a better posture with respect to winning the Clash of Civilizations than it has today - February 6, 2006. Next week, Islam will be a modicum stronger, and the West an iota weaker. It is absurd. They know that they are in a battle of annihilation (or - at best - forced assimilation). They must be absolutely astonished at the naiive blundering of the leaders of the Infidel world - allowing those who are its sworn enemy to grow in strength.
Until today, I restrained myself from openly and decisively advocating global genocide of the Islamic culture and religion. That time has now come - if, indeed, it is not already too late.
It is them or us. Progress into an improving and enlightened world future, or descent into a brutal medieval theocracy. Those are the two choices. Connect the dots - The binary nature of choices becomes clear.
#2
Welcome aboard, Lone Ranger. I read the writing on the walls when I read Bat Yor's (spelling) report on Dhimmitude and Europe's acceptence of same. The time is now.
Crowds set fire to Danish and Norwegian missions in Damascus and storm the Danish Embassy in Beirut. Gunmen seize European offices in the Gaza Strip.
The Middle East has for months been a powder keg of pent-up anti-Western anger over the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the European publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad seems to have been the spark that lit the fuse.
But the genuine anger displayed by crowds in Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and Iraq also may have been exploited or intensified by some Muslim countries in the region to settle scores with Western powers, observers said.
Syria and Iran face growing pressure from the Americans and the Europeans on the issues of foreign extremists infiltrating Iraq's borders and on Tehran's nuclear program. And Egypt, one of the first to publicly criticize the series of cartoons, has been critical of the Danish government for funding critics of human rights abuses.
"This is an organized attempt to take advantage of Muslim anger for purposes that do not serve the interests of Muslims and Lebanon, but those of others beyond the border," Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Nayla Mouawad, a Christian, said Sunday after riots in Beirut.
Syria blamed Denmark for the protests, criticizing the Scandinavian nation for refusing to apologize after the caricatures were first published in September in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he personally disapproves of the caricatures and any attacks on religion _ but insisted he cannot apologize on behalf of his country's independent press.
The caricatures, which have been republished recently in several European and New Zealand newspapers as a statement on behalf of a free press, provoked a genuine and deep anger among many Muslims as Islamic tradition forbids any depiction of the religion's holiest figure.
One caricature showed the revered prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse. That image that reinforced the belief among many Muslims that the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not simply in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks or the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, but part of a Western war against Islam little different from the Crusades of the Middle Ages.
Although many Muslims were appalled by the terror attacks on the United States, images of abuse by American soldiers at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and reports of deplorable conditions at the Guantanamo Bay prison also have reinforced suspicions that Arabs in general have become targets of the anti-terror war.
The fact that the biggest riots occurred in the Syrian capital and in Beirut also raised questions: Syria has an extensive security network to make sure that little happens inside its borders without the approval of the national leadership.
Mosque preachers in Syria have been rallying the faithful over the caricatures for days. Mahmoud Hussam, a Syrian lawyer who closely follows Islamic affairs, said he does not support violence but "it is a justified violence when our religion is under attack."
Syria's Sunni religious leader, Grand Mufti Sheik Ahmed Badr-Eddine Hassoun, said the demonstration turned violent because of "some infiltrators who do not understand the language of dialogue with others and turned it into destroying and burning of properties."
In Iraq, many protests that have not turned violent were organized by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is believed to have ties to Iran.
In Egypt, human rights activists privately contend that the Egyptian government, one of the first to raise complaints about the cartoons, is using the controversy to protest Copenhagen's generous aid contributions to critics of President Hosni Mubarak.
In Lebanon, the riot in Beirut may have been a spillover of the trouble in Damascus. Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon last year under international pressure, but Damascus is believed to maintain considerable influence within the country after a 29-year military presence.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora alluded to the possibility of a Syrian role.
"It is as if they (the Syrian riots) were a lesson to some in Lebanon to do the same," Saniora said.
Lebanon's Sunni Muslim spiritual leader, Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, also spoke of infiltrators whose aim was to "harm the stability of Lebanon." He did not elaborate, but many Lebanese see the hand of Syria in virtually everything that happens.
Lebanon's own sectarian tensions may have provided a catalyst. The country has not fully recovered from the 15-year civil war between Christians and Muslims that ended in 1990. Lebanese protesters hurled stones at the St. Maroun Church, one of the city's main Maronite Catholic churches.
Even as enraged Muslims continue to protest, some Arab commentators are saying things have gone too far.
The editor of Soutelomma, a weekly independent paper in Cairo, blasted those who have rejected European apologies and efforts to calm the controversy.
"Why do we want more than this? Do we want Denmark to convert into a Muslim (nation). Do you want to conquer Denmark or do you want the terrorists to attack innocent people and kill them?" the newspaper asked.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/06/2006 02:19 ||
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#1
The British Press seems to have comncentrated blame on the Arab League as a galvaniziing force behind the protests - a real group effort, so to speak.
BTW, I don't remember any fuss when Muhammad (Pigs Be Upon Him) appeared as a superhero on South Park.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
02/06/2006 3:40 Comments ||
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#2
BTW, I don't remember any fuss when Muhammad (Pigs Be Upon Him) appeared as a superhero on South Park.
Give it time.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/06/2006 7:54 Comments ||
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#3
" . . .many Muslims were appalled by the terror attacks on the United States . . ."
#4
S'okay, ex-lib - it didn't actually happen, it's just a variation of the meme thingy "fake but accurate", methinks. BBC revises history to fit.
Now how they handle the CogDis rebound is interesting - at least among those who experience it. Those that don't, well, heh - the wiring is definitely different in that non-sapiens model. ;-)
#6
" . . .many Muslims were appalled by the terror attacks on the United States . . ."
Many, some, a few, eleven, what's this big problem with numbers we have.
Posted by: Snaggle P ||
02/06/2006 17:12 Comments ||
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#7
The Middle East has for months been a powder keg of pent-up anti-Western anger...
Months? Try centuries. At least along the bleeding edges.
Lebanon's Interior Minister Hassan Sabeh has announced his resignation after a mob attacked the Danish consulate in Beirut in riots sparked by controversial Prophet Muhammed cartoons. Almost 30 people were injured as furious crowds on Sunday stormed and set ablaze the building housing the Danish consulate, despite the presence of riot police who had initially used tear gas and batons to keep protesters at bay. "I submitted my resignation to the government after criticisms were raised," Sabeh said after an extraordinary cabinet meeting.
He said he had refused to give security forces the order to fire on the protesters because "I did not want to be responsible for any carnage. "Despite the intervention of more than 1000 members of the security forces, we were unable to impose order because of the determination of the protesters, who numbered several thousands."
"I'm outta here. These people are crazy."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/06/2006 00:00 ||
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Federal prosecutors said Friday they have charged two Germans with spying and violating German export laws in a case media reports have said involves delivering weapons technology to Iran. Prosecutors identified the men only as Volker St., 46, head of an unidentified company based in the eastern state of Thuringia and specializing in vibration technology, and Peter Paul K., 65, responsible for developing and exporting the company's "vibration test systems."
The pair are charged with violating German export laws by selling a vibration test system for 200,000 euros to a procurement agency employed by an unidentified foreign military intelligence service, prosecutors said in a statement. German media have reported the technology was intended for Iran, to be used in its Shahab, or Shooting Star, medium-range missile program that can carry a nuclear warhead and reach Israel and various U.S. military bases in the region. Frauke Scheuten, a spokeswoman for prosecutors in Karlsruhe, refused Friday to comment further on the charges, which were filed on January 23. According to prosecutors, the equipment was sent in January 2002 to a company in a third country, who delivered it to those who had ordered it.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/06/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Iran is a tough nut. Looks like any hope of a coup and/or younger Iranians rising up against the mullahs is not going to pan out. We're going to have to crack it by brute force and lose another generation of Persians. Sad, but better than the conflagration they seem to have in mind.
They chanted, "Shame, Shame," and waved placards protesting "European bigotry."
"This is hate speech, plain and simple," declared Nahid Noori, 19, of Fresh Meadows, describing the caricatures of the prophet Muhammad in several European newspapers. Like many of the 400 New York-area Muslims who a braved biting wind yesterday to join a protest at the United Nations, Noori viewed the cartoons as not just blasphemy, but proof of rising Islamophobia.
"There are atrocities happening to Muslims every day," said Noori, a Hunter College student, who stood with several dozen women at the back of the plaza, separated from the men at the front. "Even in New York, people stereotype me because of my head scarf. ... It's too much and we have to put a stop to it."
that's an atrocity?
But in sharp contrast to the Muslim demonstrators in Syria and Lebanon, who burned embassies and made death threats, nearly every speaker at yesterday's rally organized by the Islamic Circle of North America, a Jamaica-based national group, decried violence as a response.
"We don't want a clash of civilizations," said Ghazi Khankan, a former Islamic Center of Long Island spokesman, who emceed the rally. "We want a dialogue among civilizations. ... Islam champions freedom of speech, but you cannot offend the religious beliefs of another person. It's like yelling 'fire' in a theater."
Generally, the reaction by American and Canadian Muslims to the cartoons originally published in the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten has been more muted than overseas. Islamic teachings forbid depictions of the seventh-century prophet as a form of idolatry; however, non-satirical representations of him are seen in some art by Shia and Sufi sects.
At the rally yesterday, a few speakers suggested that responding with angry mobs and violence simply played into the stereotypes of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim groups.
"We can't act like a mob and destroy people's embassies," said Wissam Nasr, head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in New York. "We have to remind all Muslims of this. And we have to educate America about our prophet."
The crowd erupted in chants of "God is great," and waved placards that read, "Hate Speech is not Free Speech," "European Bigotry Ignorant of History" and "Prophet Taught Kindness, Not Violence." A half dozen police officers stood on the sidelines, but there were no disturbances.
Nearly every speaker expressed the conviction that the Muslim community was, in fact, under assault by the West.
"An attack on Islam is nothing new," said Shafee Behzad, of The American Muslim Alliance in New York, which seeks to engage Muslims in the political process. "It has been going on and will keep going on, until we show them that we are not as weak as they think. We should do everything in a peaceful way. But we will not tolerate any insult on our religion or on our prophet. Enough is enough."
When a reporter asked about the demeaning caricatures of Jews and sometimes, Christians, that appear in Middle Eastern newspapers, a group of teenage girls holding picket signs said the comparison was a false one. "We do not protest against drawings of imams or Muslim leaders," said one girl. "It is the difference between a demeaning cartoon of a priest, and one of Jesus Christ, who is the prophet. This would be like showing Jesus Christ as a pimp."
or as Kanye West. or a cross in a bucket of piss or ....
#1
I swear. The banners, placards, and the talking points have been changing EVERY SINGLE DAY in response to what the Western punditocracy chooses to focus on. There is NO WAY this is rising up spontaneously on the streets of Lahore, Multan, and Khoun Yanis. This is being directed by forces in the West. My guess is London, since that's where all the al-Q mouthpieces hang their turbans, and a big printing press assist from Red Ken's Commie pals.
#4
Whose going to play Mohamed? Who else but Ron Jeremy.
I hear there's a former star from Green Acres who needs work.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/06/2006 10:49 Comments ||
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#5
But in sharp contrast to the Muslim demonstrators in Syria and Lebanon, who burned embassies and made death threats, nearly every speaker at yesterday's rally organized by the Islamic Circle of North America, a Jamaica-based national group, decried violence as a response.
Anyone else notice a glaring qualifier there?
Nearly.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/06/2006 10:50 Comments ||
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#7
Islamic Circle of North America: Experts have long documented ICNA's ties to Islamic terrorist groups. Yehudit Barsky, a terrorism expert at the American Jewish Committee, has said that ICNA "is composed of members of Jamaat e-Islami, a Pakistani Islamic radical organization similar to the Muslim Brotherhood that helped to establish the Taliban." Pakistani newspapers have reported that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a leading architect of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, was offered refuge in the home of Jamaat e-Islami's leader, Ahmed Quddoos. Another Pakistani Islamist leader who has had dealings with the ICNA is Maulana Shafayat Mohamed. On September 27, 1997, Mohammed, who attended a fundamentalist Pakistani madrassa (religious school) that served as a recruitment center for Taliban fighters, played host to an ICNA conference at his Florida madrassa.
Such connections have led many observers to label the ICNA a front group for Jammat e-Islami, a charge the ICNA has denied. But in 2000, the CNSNews.com made public a press release, posted on a Middle Eastern website, from a July 2000 ICNA meeting plainly establishing the connection. Stated the press release: "Jamaate Islami's supporters have an organization in America known as ICNA " The press release also recounted some of the views expressed at the meeting. Among them was that "Islam must be translated into political dominance"; support for "jihad" in "Chechnya, Kashmir, Palestine, Iraq (against U.S. forces), southern Sudan, and in Bosnia/Kosova [sic]"; an appeal for unity among Pakistani Muslims against "Hindu Brahmins and Zionist Jews"; and an endorsement of Muslim women's inclusion in carrying out jihad.
CAIR: Omar M. Ahmad founder of CAIR said: "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant" he said. "The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America , and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth," he said. (via Daniel Pipes)
American Muslim Alliance: In 1998 the AMA, along with CAIR and the American Muslim Council, sponsored a rally at Brooklyn College in New York City, where militant speakers advocated jihad and characterized Jews as "pigs and monkeys."
Posted by: ed ||
02/06/2006 11:24 Comments ||
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#8
But in sharp contrast to the Muslim demonstrators in Syria and Lebanon, who burned embassies and made death threats, nearly every speaker at yesterday's rally organized by the Islamic Circle of North America, a Jamaica-based national group, decried violence as a response.
Smart. NYC's finest lost a lot of officers on 9/11.
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Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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A roadside bomb has killed six Afghan policemen and wounded five colleagues in the southern province of Kandahar, according to a provincial official. The bomb went off along a road to the north of Kandahar city on Sunday as the policemen were passing in a vehicle, Mohammad Nabi, a senior provincial official, said. Aljazeera's correspondent reported that six Afghan policemen were killed on Saturday evening and another five were injured when a bomb hit the vehicle carrying them in Shah Wikot in Kandahar province.
Militias based in Sudan's western Darfur region are carrying out almost daily cross-border raids on villages in neighbouring Chad, says a rights group. The New York-based group Human Rights Watch says most attacks were by militia from Sudan and Chad, apparently with some Sudanese government backing.
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) -- An elusive Ugandan rebel leader has fled his rear base in southern Sudan and crossed into the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, a Ugandan army spokesman said Monday. Joseph Kony and 15 fighters of his rebel Lord's Resistance Army left his hideout north of Juba, capital of the autonomous south Sudan government, early Sunday following pressure from Ugandan troops who have been permitted by Sudanese authorities to operate there, said army spokesman Capt. Dennis Musitwa. Kony crossed into lawless northeastern Congo on Sunday afternoon, he said.
A man considered a mastermind of the USS Cole bombing was among 23 persons who escaped from a Yemen prison last week, Interpol said yesterday. The international police agency issued an "urgent global security alert" for those who escaped late last week from the prison via a tunnel. It called the escapees "dangerous individuals."
A teenage boy shot and killed the Italian Roman Catholic priest of a church in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon on Sunday, shouting "God is great" as he escaped, according to police and witnesses. Officers were searching for the boy aged around 14 or 15, according to a police official who declined to be identified because of rules that bar Turkish civil servants from speaking to journalists without prior authorization. The police official would not say if the attack might be linked to the printing in European newspapers of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, which has caused anger in Muslim countries. Earlier Sunday, hundreds of Turks protested in Istanbul against the cartoons. "Whether the killing is linked to the caricatures will emerge when the culprit has been caught," Trabzon's Gov. Huseyin Yavuzdemir said.
The public prosecutor of Spain's Supreme Court has backed a bid by one of the worst ETA terrorists to be released from prison early, it was reported on Friday. 
Independent Dutch MP Geert Wilders has received 40 death threats by email within two days for reproducing the controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed on his website. Wilders said he was shocked by the number of threats but he would not be silenced.
Thousands of Muslims staged a spontaneous protest march in Brussels on Sunday as outrage against the depicting of Mohammed in satirical cartoons spread further across the Islamic world.
A bomb ripped through a passenger bus in a province of southwestern Pakistan wracked by growing tribal unrest, killing at least 13 people Sunday and wounding 20 others, police said. Some people were still trapped in the wreckage. In other violence, a woman, her three children and a soldier were killed by rockets purportedly fired by tribal militants elsewhere in Baluchistan province. A land mine explosion killed another civilian.
The campaign to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon has now moved to the U.N. Security Council, but countries there have vastly different ideas of what the council should do.
A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol detonated Sunday afternoon in southeast Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding five others and two police officers, Baghdad police told CNN. Earlier, two bodies with bullet wounds and no identification were found in a Shiite neighborhood in northwest Baghdad. Police said they assumed the men were Shiite because they were wearing the black clothes Shiites traditionally wear during Muharram, the period of mourning for Imam Hussein before the coming religious holiday of Ashura, which commemorates his death. Four other bodies, which had been blindfolded and shot in the back of the head, were found Sunday night by police in a western Baghdad neighborhood, dumped near a highway, police said. The bodies had no identification. Also Sunday afternoon, a roadside bomb detonated in western Baquba on an Iraqi army patrol, wounding four soldiers.
Singapores most wanted Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror suspect, 
AN Indonesian sentenced to 15 years in jail for assisting the men behind the 2002 Bali bombings has died of kidney failure in hospital, an official said today. "Hernianto died of kidney failure on Friday afternoon," said Kumbayana, from the Sanglah general hospital in Bali's capital Denpasar.
Indonesian anti-terror police have arrested Singapore's most wanted terror suspect, 
IRAN'S hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today brushed off a decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency to report his country to the UN Security Council as "funny" and labelled his country's enemies as "idiots".
Lebanon's Interior Minister 
Federal prosecutors said Friday they have charged two Germans with spying and violating German export laws in a case media reports have said involves delivering weapons technology to Iran. Prosecutors identified the men only as Volker St., 46, head of an unidentified company based in the eastern state of Thuringia and specializing in vibration technology, and Peter Paul K., 65, responsible for developing and exporting the company's "vibration test systems."
