The usual suspects: Yoots, slackers, neo-Vichyites.
PARIS (Reuters) - French police arrested more than 100 demonstrators and hundreds of students went on strike at a Paris university as left-wing protests against president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy continued for a fourth night on Wednesday.
Some 300-400 demonstrators gathered on the Boulevard St Michel in the Latin Quarter of Paris, ostensibly to protest against a march by far-right supporters. The nerve of these people, imagining that they too have the right to march in the public streets. Why, it's positively counter-revolutionary!
Shouting slogans like "Sarko fascist! The people will have your hide!" and "Police everywhere, justice nowhere!", the demonstrators were cornered by hundreds of police close to the nearby Luxembourg Gardens. Left conformists favor majority rule only when they are the majority. "Justice nowhere" is right, but only because Chiraq and the dhimmis are still in power. Just wait.
A police officer at the scene said 118 arrests had been made by 9.30 p.m.
The protests follow three nights of violent confrontations between police and young rioters in Paris and other cities that government politicians blame on inflammatory statements from left-wing politicians during the election campaign. Such as "my goons will riot if I lose."
Although limited so far, the protests have awakened memories of the violent protests against a proposed youth jobs contract that shook France last year, especially around the Latin Quarter where police sealed off roads late on Wednesday.
Rioters in several French cities have already been sentenced for violent acts in clashes this week. Trivia note: the guillotine was last used in France as recently as 1977. The last to feel the kiss of steel was one Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant convicted of the torture murder of his erstwhile girlfriend.
Better to follow The American Plan and promote them.
Posted by: Professor Dumas ||
05/10/2007 10:45 Comments ||
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#9
JFM or A5089---please educate us on Sarkozy's options when he takes the reins of government. How are his ministers appointed? How much latitude does he have to deal with civil unrest? In other words, what are the limitations of his powers?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/10/2007 11:09 Comments ||
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AP, I'm an ignorant schmuck, so JFM will have to bring in the necessary precisons and corrections, but sarko can appoints who he wishes, and who he chooses next will be a first major indicator of where he's going (basically, if he's taking "fresh blood", that's good, if he's recycling the olde boyz, that's bad), and his minister of interior will handle civil unrest according to sarko's guideline (big issue will be justice, with for example about 40% IIRC of the judges belonging to a bona fide *leftist* union).
Note that the 1958 constitution was taylor-made for fde gaulle who fancied himself as a providential man for France, so not only does the president have all the power, and the assembly none, in short, but there's the article 16 which allows him to become a dictator, suppress civil rights, call extraordinary powers,... in case of emergency. It never has been used I think, even during the algeria war, and I doubt it ever will, but it might come in handy some day. Of course, it could be to repress french unrest, hehe (I've always thought the Establishment would prefer to arm the 'hoods against the french people, if it decided to rise against the Holy Republic, after all, the gaullists counted on the commie militias/stay behinfd armies to defend the parliament and the centers of power should the french army rebel against the surrender of algeria).
#11
It is a bit more complex. Theorically, the president appoints the Prime Minister and this one selects the government. However even when President and PM were from opposite sides teh PM has ever negotisted with eth President but I think it is not so much a Constitutional thing as a practical matter: "Mr Prime minster skip Dupont who has a record of vicious attacks against me President or I will be very, very, very nasty to you".
About Assembly, it votes the law. However laws emanating from the assembly have a lower prioriity thahn laws emanating from the government. Also in order to be enforceable, a law has to be signed by the President (but he cannot delay this indefinitley, I think he can ask for second discussion) and more importantly, the government must publish its decrees of aplication. It is not unuusual that governemnt makes a law, pushes it through teh Parliament though the fast lane but then never takes the decrees of application...
Assembly votes the budget. However French deputies are not allowed to add measures who would increase the deficit: if a deputy tries to add a spending then he musts either propose a tax increase for at least the same amount or propose a funding cut in anothere area. Same thing for proposed tax cuts: the deputy must match it with teh increase of another tax or the cut of a spending. THis is to avoid US-like pork.
The matters where the Assembly is allowed to legiferate are limitatively enumerated. The remaing is governemnt territorry.
We also have a senate (who unlike the Assemùbly cannot be dissolved) but unlike the US Senate it has not domains who are its exclsuive competency. It can modify the law voted by the Assembly but if if Assembly does not like the result it will vote the law a second time and this will overrule Seante's text.
Also ethe executive does not need either Assembly's or Seante's approval for the nominsiation of high ranking civil servants.
Voila. But I am not a jurist and anyway the little law I was teached, when I was young and beautiful, was not about constitutional matters.
#14
JFM and A5089---Thank you both for giving us some good background into the workings of the French government. Mr. Sarkozy will have his hands full come May 16. I hope that he has some real majority support for his reforms and changes to his country, because the anarchistic and muzzie minority will raise as much hell that they can get away with.
If you both can keep us Rantburgers of how Sarkozy is doing from time to time, it would be much appreciated.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/10/2007 21:27 Comments ||
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Both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Taliban have promised the world major military offensives in southern Afghanistan. The NATO-led alliance is sending thousands of soldiers into the fray to preempt the Taliban Ghazwatul Badr uprising that has been announced with a centurion call for thousands of fighters and suicide bombers to ready their ammunition belts.
Yet although Afghanistan is well into its balmy spring, the battlefield in southern Afghanistan has entered a twilight zone of cloak-and-dagger assassinations with only limited clashes. The poppy harvest is only now ending, and growing doubts about Afghanistan's future have infested the parched valleys and high mountains passes. The Taliban have not gone on a blazing warpath, and that makes everyone a little more nervous.
"It's quiet out there, Sarge."
"Yeah. Too quiet."
"That makes me .. nervous."
In the latest political development, the upper chamber of the Afghan Parliament (Meshrano Jirga, or House of Elders) voted this week to begin dialogue with Taliban fighters to persuade them to accept the Afghan government. A draft law says a distinction should be made among Afghan Taliban, Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters. It also seeks an end to military operations by foreign forces unless they come under attack or have first consulted the Afghan National Army.
The bill still has to be passed by the Wolesi Jirga (People's Assembly), the lower house of Parliament, and signed by President Hamid Karzai before becoming law. Similar approaches to the Taliban have failed in the past. The move follows a law providing an amnesty from war crimes committed over nearly three decades of civil war.
Meanwhile, as the time-bomb ticks toward more fighting, the rag-tag Afghan insurgency is fast morphing into a 21st-century guerrilla movement. much more at link
Somali security forces are seizing and even burning Muslim women's veils to stop Islamist militants from disguising themselves for attacks, authorities and witnesses claimed on Wednesday. The crackdown on veils is a highly symbolic turnaround for Mogadishu after Islamist leaders, who controlled the city in the second half of 2006, had instructed women to wear them. "Every policeman and government soldier has orders to confiscate veils from veiled women," senior police officer Ali Nur said in Mogadishu, saying various recent attacks had been carried out by people in disguise. "Some of the remnants of the Islamic Courts have been caught wearing veils. During the war, these remnants, pretending to be women, killed so many government troops," he alleged.
Mogadishu residents said government troops and police had been forcibly removing veils and publicly destroying them. "Yesterday, so many veils were burnt by the police," said taxi-driver Abdullahi Mohamed.
A witness saw some veiled women running away from police on Wednesday. One girl, 17-year-old Iftin Hussein, said she had left her veil at home to avoid encounters with the police. "Government troops are unveiling women. Yesterday, I was forced to run away to escape from being unveiled. This is wrong, but we cannot do anything, we are powerless," she said.
Next thing you know they'll be telling her to get a job and send her daughters to school.
Somalis are generally moderate Muslims, and most women traditionally cover their heads but not faces. Officials claim some attacks have been carried out by men disguised under full face-veils.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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"Some of the remnants of the Islamic Courts have been caught wearing veils. During the war, these remnants, pretending to be women, killed so many government troops," he alleged.
The brave Lions would not stoop so low here in the homeland of the magnificent beast, would they ?
#2
Somali security forces are seizing and even burning Muslim women's veils to stop Islamist militants from disguising themselves for attacks, authorities and witnesses claimed on Wednesday.
How is it that a backwater military is able to understand something that major industrialized nations have yet to grasp? I suppose the fact that their lives depend upon it might have something to do with it.
"Government troops are unveiling women. Yesterday, I was forced to run away to escape from being unveiled. This is wrong, but we cannot do anything, we are powerless," she said.
You want "wrong", try telling your jihadist and janjaweed buddies how wrong it is to commit genocide and use civilian disguises while in combat. Then come back and tell us all about what's so wrong.
#7
It is because they don't have an ACLU and a CAIR to sue their asses off.
It sounds like they need CAIR more than we do. Whadda ya say we ship their worthless Islamic asses over to Somalia and see how well they stir up shit over there?
#9
Throw in the democratic party for good measure.
Hey, we want the place to calm down and actually try to act civilized. CAIR is handicap enough to that. The dummycritter party would totally screw things up. Bad enough to have them here, where we have at least a semblance of control (Constitution, law, history, etc.) over them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/10/2007 16:25 Comments ||
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(SomaliNet) The Ethiopian forces in Somalia have confiscated on Wednesday a large number of weapons hidden in Mogadishu neighborhood, according to local officials.
The arms cache was found in a house located in Yaqshid neighborhood in Mogadishu where it was hidden under Koranic School.
The arms cache was found in a house located in Yaqshid neighborhood in Mogadishu where it was hidden under Koranic School. Journalists were shown the arms mostly antitank mines and mortars. The confiscated weapons comprise of 106 land mines, 460 F-1 bomb s and 48 RPGs, according to the police commissioner. A convoy of about 25 armored vehicles accompanied officials to the site where the handover took place.
In the meantime, the Ethiopian forces carried in an early morning raid in Irtogle, the biggest weapons market in Somalia taking away all the arms that were found in locked stores.
Meanwhile, the Somali transitional government has today issued warnings to residents in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Abdi Qeybdid, commander of the Somali national police force, notified Mogadishu inhabitants that their homes would be impounded if weapons like mortars and rockets are found in or under their homes.
This article starring:
Abdi Qeybdid, commander of the Somali national police force
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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notified Mogadishu inhabitants that their homes would be impounded if weapons like mortars and rockets are found in or under their homes.
Good lord -- that's as bad as the Israelis taking bulldozers to the houses of Palestinian miscreants!
Algiers, 10 May (AKI) - Western workers in North Africa and tourists are going to be the prime targets of suicide attacks, Abu Musab Abdel Wudud, the leader of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb said in a video released on Islamist websites Thursday - the first by the Algerian terrorist since the new group was formed in January from the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). "We ask Muslims to avoid sites where there are foreigners, diplomats, businessmen or tourists," he says in the 19-minute-long video.
Announcing the intensification of suicide bomb attacks, Abdel Wudud outlines his group's strategy to strike in particular touristic venues in North Africa. "Starting from now we have decided to increase suicide operations as a strategic choice in the fight between us and our enemy and we have therefore ordered all the leaders of our brigades to start recruiting martyrs," he also says.
Wudud won't be 'ploding himself personally, you understand, he'll be training minions to do that. He's too important to put himself on the line.
In the video, the terror leader gives Muslims indications on how to avoid terror attacks in a possible response to recent criticism from former GSPC leaders who have criticized the strategy of the new organization which targets civilian as well as military objectives.
Violent attacks have been increasing in Algeria since the main Islamist rebel group, GSPC, changed its name to the al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb in January, after pledging allegiance to the international terror network last September. The Algiers 11 April bombings, the first in the capital's centre in over ten years, are believed to be the country's first suicide attacks and were claimed by the new terror group.
Abdel Wudud's message is believed to have been filmed after the attack somewhere in the Algerian mountains, judging by the background. In it, the terror leader also accuses the Arab League and other regional organizations of being allied with the West against Arabs and Muslims and pays his respects to Osama bin Laden, his second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as terror leaders and militants in Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya and Somalia.
This article starring:
Abu Musab Abdel Wudud
Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb
Posted by: Steve ||
05/10/2007 07:29 ||
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"We ask Muslims to avoid sites where there are foreigners, diplomats, businessmen or tourists," he says in the 19-minute-long video.
so maybe he's not such a bad guy after all. I'm all for this. I'll just have to rent a car instead of taking a cab at the airport :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2007 7:51 Comments ||
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Maghreb - premier tourist destination. Who would have known?
#3
For those of you playing at home, al-Maghreb is the Arabic term for the North African littoral. Sort of the same way that al-Andalus is crazy-jihadi-talk for the Iberian peninsula. Except, I suppose for the fact that North Africa has been recovered by the ummah from the infidels, unlike Spain and Portugal.
Yet.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/10/2007 8:54 Comments ||
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#5
Mr. Wife really enjoyed his time in Morocco. Welcoming people, fantastic food, lovely souvenirs to bring me... On the other hand, the wife of a colleague told of sunning on the beach of one of the international hotels, waiting for her husband, when a local gentleman walked up and said, "American woman, you wanta fuck?" She turned him down, saying that her husband would be out in a minute or two. "That's ok, it won't take long," was the gentleman's reply. Ick. I've had invitations, but somehow Mr. Wife never managed to take me on one of his business trips.
#6
I was in Morocco for six months in 1975, although no one asked me any personal questions. I did like the folks, getting around from Rabat, the capital, down past Marrakesh to Goulimine. Lovely mountains.
Agadir on the Atlantic was (in 1975) quite the hot spot for Euros, beautiful white sand beaches, posh hotels. Come to think of it, in Agadir, a lady did ask me to light her cigarrete, and it occurred to me somewhat later, innocent lad that I was, that she might have wanted me to light her fire ... so to speak, in return for some greenbacks, of course.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/10/2007 16:21 Comments ||
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Banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) threatened the district deputy commissioner (DC) to bomb several establishments including his office in one or two days.
"We will blow up some important establishments including your office within one and two days as you killed our leaders."
DC Khondoker Atiar Rahman told reporters that on Tuesday afternoon he received a letter from a person named Ripon, who claimed himself as a JMB commander. The letter was posted at a Dinajpur post office on May 6, he said. The DC said he informed the law enforcement agencies of the matter.
The letter reads, "We will blow up some important establishments including your office within one and two days as you killed our leaders." Superintendent of Police Hasif Aziz said adequate security measures were taken at different government offices including the DC office. Dinajpur police were also trying to find out the sender.
This article starring:
Khondoker Atiar Rahman
Ripon, who claimed himself as a JMB commander
Superintendent of Police Hasif Aziz
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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The 7 July 2005 London suicide bombings ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan's widow, Hasina Patel, 29, is among four people arrested on Wednesday in connection with the attacks, police have announced. Her brother Ashad Patel, 30, a second man, Khalid Khaliq, 34, were arrested together with Patel in northern England. A fourth man, Imran Motala, 22, also said to be related to Patel, was arrested in the central English city of Birmingham. They are being held and questioned on suspicion of the commission, preparation, or instigation of acts of terrorism under Britain's Terrorism Act 2000.
Khan, who worked as a mentor at a local primary school in Dewsbury near the northern city of Leeds, was one of four young British Muslims who carried out coordinated suicide bombings of 7 July, killing 52 commuters (as well as the four bombers) on three London underground trains and a bus. Patel lives with others in a two-storey mid-terrace house on Dale Street, Thornhill Lees, Dewsbury. A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said two houses were being searched in Dewsbury, two in Beeston, south Leeds, and one in Batley.
Forensic teams are searching a property in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, in Leonard Road, and police are guarding a block of student flats in Selly Oak. A police lorry removed a silver Peugeot 307 from nearby flat and a car was also removed from the Handsworth address.
Last month the first people to be charged in connection with the bombings appeared at the Old Bailey in central London. Mohammed Shakil, 30, Sadeer Saleem, 26, and Waheed Ali, 23, of Beeston, Leeds, are accused of conspiring with the four bombers to cause explosions. Metropolitan police said the drawnout inquiry into the London bombings remained a "painstaking investigation."
This article starring:
ASHAD PATEL
al-Qaeda in Europe
HASINA PATEL
al-Qaeda in Europe
IMRAN MOTALA
al-Qaeda in Europe
KHALID KHALIQ
al-Qaeda in Europe
MOHAMAD SIDIQUE KHAN
al-Qaeda in Europe
MOHAMED SHAKIL
al-Qaeda in Europe
SADIR SALIM
al-Qaeda in Europe
WAHID ALI
al-Qaeda in Europe
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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FREEREPUBLIC?WORLDNEWS > Islamist group demands release of specific Brit-held prisoners, but also allude to other Muslim-Islamist prisoners as included in thier demand. DO we have to say "Or else"!?
#2
FREEREPUBLIC/WORLDNEWS > Islamist group demands release of specific Brit-held prisoners, but also allude to other Muslim-Islamist prisoners as included in thier demand. DO we have to say "Or else"!?
#3
While it's nice to see Britain roll up these terror networks, it won't be of much help if they continue to coddle their Muslim population. They simply need to crack down on everything Islamic, much like we need to do here in America.
I'd truly like to think that our Muslim population here in America is integrating far better than that of Europe. Our nation offers so much more in the way of financial gain and material success. Then I'm obliged to recall how so many Islamic authorities revile material comfort as distracting good Muslims from the imperatives of jihad. I also have to remember how Democracy is seen as man-made laws that fly in the face of those decreed by Islam's god.
Yesterday, I was talking with my Iranian friend who runs the Western Union office in my neighborhood. I asked him about the differences in setting up a business overseas in Iran, or elsewhere, compared to America. He responded with absolute amazement and was kind enough to relate how, upon returning to Iran in 1980 after attending university in America, his family and parents bribed their way into Pakistan, then Spain and finally over to America. He talked about how his folks had looked into starting a business in Europe and finally threw up their hands at all of the bureaucratic red tape that was so anti-business.
I reminded him how Spain was, in many ways, similar to Muslim countries because they too had outlawed the collecting of interest on loans as usury. My friend continued to reflect on how the Iranian mullahs were steering all wealth into their pockets. He also was quite clear on just how many of the Iranians absolutely detest the Shiite clergy and look upon them as usurpers of an earlier and more sophisticated Persian culture.
As we continued to talk about Muslims, he brought up how they are allowed to say anything they want, even to lie about their religious faith. His jaw dropped when I mentioned taqiyya. We both agreed that it represented one of the most heinous ethical crimes there is.
And this is where the point comes full circle. No matter how seemingly well-integrated America's Muslims may appear, there will always be a nagging suspicion that they are merely dissembling as they each await their moment of Sudden Jihad Syndrome. Until Islam is genuinely reformed by ridding itself of terrorism, sharia, taqiyya, dhimmitude and a host of other intense character flaws, I must refuse to accept their presence in this country. There is too much at stake and so little to trust about Islam that I have no choice.
Islam cannot be reformed: jihad, takiya, double morals are in the Coran itself and this is supposed to have coexisted, without a single letter changed, along with Allah itself since well before Universe creation.
#6
I'm surprised that anyone could still think that economic opportunities for Muslims will blunt the sword of jihad. The 7/7 bombers had jobs, and the testimony of Hassan Butt states that he collected funding for jihad from the highest strata of the Pak community in the UK - doctors, lawyers, engineers. Money in the pockets of Western Muslims (from work or welfare) means more jihad, either at home or abroad.
Islam cannot be reformed: jihad, takiya, double morals are in the Coran itself and this is supposed to have coexisted, without a single letter changed, along with Allah itself since well before Universe creation.
This is easily one of the most discouraging things about the future survival of Islam or any coexistence with it. That Islam is so hidebound and calcified has come about from over 1,000 years of stagnation and purposefully curtailing all avenues of reformation. This has brought about "closure of the door of ijtihad", or the process of legal decision making through independent interpretation of Koranic law. Islam, with the help of al-Ghazali, has so thoroughly exterminated the practice of ijtihad that there is little hope for any renaissance in its doctrine.
I'm surprised that anyone could still think that economic opportunities for Muslims will blunt the sword of jihad. The 7/7 bombers had jobs, and the testimony of Hassan Butt states that he collected funding for jihad from the highest strata of the Pak community in the UK - doctors, lawyers, engineers. Money in the pockets of Western Muslims (from work or welfare) means more jihad, either at home or abroad.
While there may well be exceptions to the rule, the common mode expression of Muslim wealth has been to finance jihad against the West and it remains every bit as intolerable now as it was during the Crusades.
Washington, 10 May (AKI/DAWN) - US defence secretary Robert Gates has told a congressional panel that the United States has military missions in Pakistan's tribal areas to go after al-Qaeda leaders hiding there. At a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee late on Wednesday, Gates said al-Qaeda had established training facilities in the Federally-Administered Territories (FATA) and the extremist leaders based there also had links to terror cells in other parts of the world.
"We know that al-Qaeda has re-established itself in the Federally-Administered Territories on the western border of Pakistan where they are training new recruits,” Gates told the Senate panel while defending his department’s budget for 2008. “They have established linkages now in North Africa. And so … al-Qaeda has actually expanded, I would say, its organisation and its capabilities.”
Expounding on his statement, Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat, asked Gates if there were US military missions in that area pursuing al-Qaeda activists.“Yes, sir. We are still going after the al-Qaeda leadership,” said Gates. He then explained that al-Qaeda was operating from an area which was difficult, “both in terms of terrain and in terms of politics, in terms of our ability to range freely in that area.” He said as he had indicated earlier, most of al-Qaeda activities were concentrated in the western part of Pakistan in the FATA.
"But we do have military operations that are planned … not just in North Waziristan and Iraq, but in other places as well, to go after Al Qaeda leadership,” he added.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/10/2007 07:33 ||
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Federally-Administered Territories of Pakistan. Is this the area where Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are thought to be?
A group of three suicide bombers from restive Waziristan have reached Islamabad to target government and military installations, Daily Times has learnt reliably.
Sources said intelligence agencies had communicated to the administration of federal capital that three suicide bombers from Waziristan had entered the federal capital and were preparing to attack government and military installations. The agencies, they said, have also warned that VIPs, diplomats, senior bureaucrats and key government installations could also be their possible targets. The agencies said the ongoing military operation in tribal areas especially Waziristan had caused the bombers to reach Islamabad. They could carry out suicide missions if the government cracked down on the religious forces on Jamia Hafsa issue, agencies warned.
Sources said that the intelligence agencies had directed the twin city administrations to beef up security in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Special security is demanded for the Chinese embassy, diplomats and nationals, and those working with the Chinese companies.
Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad Chaudhry Muhammad Ali told Daily Times that in the light of the intelligence reports, the law enforcement agencies had been directed to trace the suicide bombers to avert possible acts of sabotage.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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ISI guy to gov't administrator - "They're here."
Gov't administrator to ISI guy - "How do you know?"
ISI guy to gov't administrator - "They're our guys, we sent them..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/10/2007 14:01 Comments ||
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#2
at least they arre hitting the homeland maybemusharaff will get the hint now that his days are nubered unless he cooperates with the US
Following the arrival of NATO forces, the Pak-Afghan border has been sealed to thwart any terrorist attack, said official sources. Security has been beefed up in Chaman and the areas adjacent to the Afghanistan border.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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How do NATO forces seal borders on their arrival? I haven't seen anybody do it in a thousand years
Karachi police have arrested 12 suspects allegedly planning an act of terrorism in the city on May 12, Geo television reported. According to police officials, the 12 suspects had confessed they planned a terrorist attack in Karachi on May 12, when the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) is due to visit the city. The suspects allegedly planned to shoot at the CJPÂ’s procession on Shahra-e-Faisal. They were arrested from Lines Area, Shah Faisal and Maleer and were carrying a large cache of arms. Police said this was why the chief justice of Pakistan had been asked to postpone his visit. Earlier, Aaj television quoted the Karachi police chief as saying that there was a risk of a terrorist attack on May 12. He said security would be tightened before the chief justice of PakistanÂ’s arrival.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Three Indian soldiers and seven suspected militants were killed in a series of clashes in northern Kashmir near the truce line with Pakistan. Two rebels who ignored an order to surrender and a soldier were killed in a six-hour firefight when troops and police attacked a hideout in Kupwara district late Tuesday, police officer Haseeb Mughal said on Wednesday. Two soldiers were killed and 10 wounded in two other clashes with militants along the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, AFP reported. Troops also reportedly shot and killed four more suspected militants in the same area.
Kupwara, some 100 kilometers north of the state summer capital Srinagar, borders Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and India alleges the region is used by militants infiltrating from across the line of control. Islamabad denies charges of arming and funding the rebels, insisting it is doing what it can to prevent militants crossing over to sustain an insurgency launched against Indian rule in 1989.
In a separate incident, suspected militants shot dead a former rebel in the northern town of Sopore, 50 kilometers north of Srinagar, a police spokesman said. "He was suspected of spying," the official said.
Violence has fallen in the region since India and Pakistan started a peace process in January 2004. The latest rate of killings are the highest in recent months. The regional unrest has claimed more than 42,000 lives by official count, although human rights groups put the number at 70,000.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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A majority of Iraqi lawmakers have endorsed a bill calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops and demanding a freeze on the number of foreign troops already in the country, lawmakers said Thursday. The legislation was being debated even as U.S. lawmakers were locked in a dispute with the White House over their call to start reducing the size of the U.S. force here in the coming months.
The Iraqi bill, drafted by a parliamentary bloc loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was signed by 144 members of the 275-member house, according to Nassar al-Rubaie, the leader of the Sadrist bloc. The Sadrist bloc, which sees the U.S.-led forces as an occupying army, has pushed similar bills before, but this was the first time it had garnered the support of a majority of lawmakers.
The bill would require the Iraqi government to seek approval from parliament before it requests an extension of the U.N. mandate for foreign forces to be in Iraq, al-Rubaie said. It also calls for a timetable for the troop withdrawal and a freeze on the size of the foreign forces.
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously in November to extend the U.S.-led forces' mandate until the end of 2007. The resolution, however, said the council "will terminate this mandate earlier if requested by the government of Iraq."
Al-Rubaie said he personally handed the Iraqi bill to speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani on Wednesday.
Deputy Speaker Khaled al-Attiyah told The Associated Press the draft legislation had not been officially submitted to the speaker, but was currently being reviewed by the house's legal department, apparently the final step before it can be submitted. Al-Rubaie said al-Mashhadani had a week to schedule a debate on the bill before he would use the majority that backs it to force a debate.
#2
Nah, the Iraqi Parliment is gonna show us! They're not gonna allow Queen Nancy and Prince Harry to pull us out on their timetable, the Parliment will make up one of their own!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/10/2007 12:43 Comments ||
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#3
I, for one, am sick to death of the muslim stringers used for "reports". It stinks. It stinks of manipulation and falsehoods. Screw AP.
#6
Isn't it funny how once these backwater thugs get a little breathing room they suddenly become so damned smart. I still say we need to pull in our troops for an eight week R&R session while letting things spin out of control in the green zone. Maybe a few legislators getting offed by some car bombs will inspire a little more cooperation.
Oh, and while we're at it, we really need to cap Sadr's worthless ass.
#10
Ever consider that it might be better if this effort went Tango Uniform now? The inevitable blood bath would ensue and we could begin to recover sooner rather than later.
A real war is coming, and it will be worse the longer it is delayed.
#12
On Sadr: Orrin Judd has a different view, he thinks we're protecting Sadr so that we can use him later. He thinks the future there is with the Shi'a, so that the sooner we whump all the Sunnis, set the Kurds free (if they wish) and let the Shi'a get themselves organized, the better.
I might buy into that if it then meant that the Arab Shi'a in Kuzestan would peel off from Iran and join a new Shi'astan, but I think the Mad Mullahs wouldn't like that much.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2007 16:45 Comments ||
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#13
And another thing: if the Iraqi parliament were to ask us to leave, we'd leave. Nice and easy, make sure the Iraqi army has all the training we can provide on the way out, and have a bunch of parades both there and here.
And be ready to help protect the Kurds when they break away and ask us to come back.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2007 16:48 Comments ||
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#14
From HotAir --
more of the story is revealed...
Al Rubaie said Al Mashhadani had a week to schedule a debate on the bill before he would use the majority that backs it to force one.
However, his majority might be shaky.
Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said he had backed the draft but only on the condition that the withdrawal timetable be linked to a schedule for training and equipping IraqÂ’s security forces.
“But the sponsors of the legislation did not include our observations in the draft. This is deception,” he said.
#15
i think would be more bothered by what their own ppl are doing than the US troop presence. i fit wasn't for us iran and syria would have teamed up and took their piesec of shit asses over already
#16
Hey tu...Snaggle-tooth does sneak back to Iraq on occasion...under the cover of darkness in burka. It allows him to embrace his inner-transvestite, anyway.
#18
The current parliamentarians want US withdrawl so that the Shiite majority would be free to attack Sunnis. It is time to admit that, post intervention, Muslim imams of both sects were able to dominate politics in Iraq. Another election involving a better representation of Iraqis, would yield different results.
Occupied Japanese and Germans were never put into the position of legislating removal of occupiers. Let's not forget that 9-11 was executed in the name of religion.
#19
Assuming this is true, the attempt to pass this law would either affirm that Iraqis desire a continued U.S. military presence or it would enable a painless exit strategy on our part.
We could accelerate the timetable to prepare the Iraqi forces to handle their security responsibilities and begin a rapid phased withdrawal knowing that the ultimate pressure to function as a country rested on the Iraqi people and legislators.
And in the dire scenario that Iraq were to drift beyond sectarian strife and toward a civil war, our personnel would be far less exposed. Remember, there are also other hot spots in the world where we have to be prepared to intervene, if necessary.
Baghdad, 10 May (AKI) - An armed Iraqi group has in recent days begun targeting Christians in the residential al-Doura neighbourhood of Baghdad, according to an interior ministry source quoted by the pan Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat. Information obtained during probes and the interrogation of various terror suspects arrested last week indicate that this group is linked to al-Qaeda and is made up of 200 militiamen, most of them foreigners.
The terror formation has threatened with death any Christian in the mainly Sunni area. To combat the presence of what appears to be an al-Qaeda-linked cell, the Baghdad security forces last week began a series of raids, backed by US combat helicopters, which led to the arrest of various elements of the group.
In a recent interview with Adnkronos International (AKI) a Christian parliamentarian in Iraq's Kurdistan region warned that Christians in the country face mounting threats.
"Thousands of Christian families are being told to leave the country or convert to Islam or pay the jizyah (a tax traditionally imposed on non-Muslim men in Islamic states)," said the parliamentarian, Romeo Hakkari, an ethnic Assyrian of the Chaldean Church - a Roman Catholic oriental rite denomination.
According to Hakkari, who heads the House of the Two Rivers Democratic Party, which promotes the rights of Assyrian-Chaldeans, many Christians living in Mosul and Baghdad have fled those cities and sought refuge either in remote parts of Iraqi Kurdistan or abroad after receiving threats from Islamists.
He cited the example of pamphlets, purportedly distributed by the al-Qaeda-linked "Islamic State of Iraq" group that threatened to kill Christians if they did not abandon the city.
The Muslim extremists have also tried to revive the jizyah practice, which forced non-Muslism people "of the Book" (Christians and Jews) to buy protection from the authorities by paying the tax.
"Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime Christians in Iraq, and in particular Baghdad have faced persecution for the first time in the history of this country," Hakkari told AKI.
Iraq's Christian community was estimated to number nearly half a million or about 5 percent of the countryÂ’s population on the eve of the 2003 US-led war that toppled Saddam.
Thousands of Iraqi Christians who comprise a variety of churches - Assyrian Orthodox and Assyrian Catholic; Syrian Orthodox and Syrian Catholic; Armenian Orthodox and Armenian Catholic; Greek Orthodox, Latin Catholic, and Protestant denominations - have since fled the strife-torn country.
#1
So Al Qaeda, having given up fighting Coalition troops directly as too difficult, is now giving up fighting the Shiites and the Sunni tribes, and turning on the Christians as the only target they're able to handle? Pathetic.
Erbil, 10 May (AKI) - The Kurdistan Brigade of al-Qaeda in Iraq - a new military formation which belongs to the Kurdish Ansar al-Islam, has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's suicide bomb attack in Erbil. At least 19, people were killed when a vehicle with explosives rammed into the offices of the interior and security ministry of the autonomous region of Kurdistan.
The official site of the Kurdish Ansar al-Islam said "the suicide bomber who completed the attack is a member of the Kurdistan Brigade which forms part of the Islamic State of Iraq [cartel] set up by al-Qaeda in Iraq".
Groups of Ansar al Islam - a Sunni Islamist Kurdish group - have been spotted on various occasions recently near the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran, a fact which makes the authorities suspect Tehran of providing logistical support and refuge to the group.
A source within the Kurdish peshmerga militia - which allied itself with the US-led coalition in the 2003 war and serves as the main security force for the Kurdistan regional government - told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Monday that "intelligence acquired by the local authorities shows that Ansar al-Islam and Ansar al-Sunna - linked to al-Qaeda - are reorganising their ranks and deploying their forces near the border".
At the same time, a Kurdish armed group has distributed a statement in the area close to the Iranian border, threatening the 'apostates' of Islam and calling on local people to reveal the names of young people who recently converted to Christianity.
The statement, which Adnkronos International (AKI) has seen, adds that "the apostates of the Islamic religion will be the targets of a programme by the jihadi groups and the residents must collaborate with Ansar al-Islam to reveal their identities".
Kurdish MP Mahmoud 'Uthman held a press conference condemning the attack and announcing his suspicions of the Ansar al-Islam organization. He also blamed Ansar al-Sunna, a militant Sunni Arab group opposed to the US occupation and the current government of Iraq.
“The attack that targeted the city of Erbil was expected, despite the intense security operations in recent days. We had intelligence information that terrorist groups had plans to disrupt security and to bring the instability of Baghdad and central Iraq to Kurdistan,” a source told AKI.
“Large quantities of weapons and explosives” were discovered in Kurdistan in recent days, the security source said. Kurdish intelligence officials initially believed that these were destined to be smuggled into the rest of Iraq, but later investigations revealed that they were intended for operations inside Kurdish territory.
Three Iraqi journalists and their driver were killed Wednesday in a drive-by shooting near the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, police said.
The attackers armed with machine guns opened fire as they drove past a vehicle carrying the four men at about 2 p.m. in the Rashad area, 30 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said. Those killed worked for the independent Raad media company, which publishes several weekly newspapers and monthly magazines that are generally pro-government and deal with politics, education and arts. It was the second attack against Iraqi media in less than a week.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Is it just me, or are there fewer articles about troop attacks in the past few days?
It appears the brave jihadis have discovered that Journos don't fight back.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/10/2007 6:44 Comments ||
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Gaza - Ma'an – Two Palestinian citizens were injured by Israeli forces at Karni crossing, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Wednesday morning. One of the injured is an elderly man. Palestinian medical sources said that 80-year-old, Mohammad Muhsen Hajaj, and Fares Mohammad Sukar, aged 37, were injured in their legs from Israeli gunfire.
Gramps just wasn't fast enough to get out of the way. And he certainly wasn't fast enough to plant that IED.
Palestinian security personnel and ambulance teams present in the area transferred the citizens to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Medical staff said the two patients were in a stable condition.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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"I said DANCE, dammit!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2007 11:49 Comments ||
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#2
How do we know the IDF really did this: I mean wounds in the legs are geographically close to the feet, and it has been widely reported that the Paleos are notorius foot-shooters. Maybe this was Remedial Toe-Jam 101 that wentsouth.....
Gaza - Ma'an - The Al-Quds Brigades, the sock puppet armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, claimed responsibility on Tuesday afternoon for launching a homemade projectile at the southern Israeli town of Sderot.
Apparently didn't hit anything other than sand.
The Israeli army confirmed the incident. The brigades affirmed that the operation came to prove that "they are still committed to their resistance."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Thousands of Palestinian police began deploying in Gaza City late Wednesday, the first phase of a security plan approved by the Cabinet, a Palestinian official said. About 3,000 police were fanning out across the city, said Nabil Shaath, an aide to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Details of the plan were vague.
The first duties of the police would be to direct traffic and fight crime, officials said. The overall goal is to put an end to the chaos and violent infighting that has plagued Gaza, officials said. Abbas, of Fatah, ordered implementation of the plan after a series of meetings with PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
So are the cops supposed to be loyal to Fatah or Hamas? Hizballah, Iran, or Syria flavors?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/10/2007 7:25 Comments ||
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#2
So they're gonna shoot the guys who are fighting?
It is now violently apparent that Thailand's military-appointed government's policy of reconciliation toward its three insurgency-hit majority-Muslim provinces Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala was never really implemented on the ground. Instead, southern Thailand's three-year-old conflict is veering in a dangerous new direction, where the government is establishing a growing number of loosely regulated local militias, and in response ethnic-Malay Muslim insurgent groups have commenced attacks against the economic lifelines of certain urban districts in an intensified effort to empty the restive region of ethnic-Thai and Sino-Thai Buddhists.
Yala province is emerging as the showcase and test case for the insurgents' new strategy, which, according to on-the-ground monitors who regularly communicate with insurgent leaders from the BRN-Coordinate group, aims soon to seize total control of the province, including the central government's administrative hub and the police's forward command center in the region. (The BRN-Coordinate is known to be the political arm of the traditional BRN - Barisan Revolusi Nasional or National Revolutionary Front - separatist organization.)
That strategy has been most visible in Yala's Betong district, where recently insurgents and insurgent sympathizers blocked road access to the area and cut electricity and mobile-telephone signals for four straight nights. The blockade, which resulted in severe food and fuel shortages, was the first overt economic attack of the conflict. At the same time, the insurgents have increased the ferocity of their attacks on the civilian population, including a series of gruesome beheadings and burnings of their victims.
These harsh tactics have caused new waves of displaced Buddhists from both rural and semi-urban areas into Yala's main township, where they have established shelters in a number of Buddhist temples. The insurgents' aim "is no longer to just empty villages of Buddhists, but whole districts", said Sunai Phasuk, Thailand representative of the US-based rights lobby Human Rights Watch. "Their strength is rising each day and they are confident they can win what they are fighting for - a separate state."
Much more at link. This analysis is as good an answer as I've seen to the questions Rightwing raised in yesterday's post about Thailand.
#1
I see the Thais quietly going full Roman on the muzzies and driving the lot of them into Malaysia. It will be ethnic cleansing writ large. Those muzzies that don't leave will soon be dead. Losing the muzzies will be no loss to Thailand; the sooner they're gone, the sooner the terror stops.
Posted by: Mac ||
05/10/2007 8:48 Comments ||
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#2
I don't see that. I see the Thais in full retreat while they rearrange the government to one with the balls to kill the cancer of the south.
Show me headlines with thousands of muzzies killed or wounded after the real Thai army has at them, relentlessly, day and night.
Didn't get a chance to thank you for your comments yesterday. It's a sad state of affairs when the government refuses to protect her people from a criminal element. The Yaba salesman were effectively destroyed because they didn't represent one group. Because Islamist violence can be pinned on one group the PC fear intolerance. It's truly very sad.
#10
You're welcome Rightwing. I'm glad I saw your comment and was able to respond quickly. I keep looking for signs that the sleeping giant (reclining Buddha?) might be stirring and getting ready for a vigorous response. The jihadis couldn't be doing much more to provoke one.
#11
Well I sure hope that Mac is right about the future Thai response. I need to get some Thai food soon and ask the proprieter what he thinks should be done and if the Thai ex-pat community is mobilizing to help create change.
#13
Did they happen to leave behind an instruction manual?
Genghis Khan generally preferred to offer opponents the chance to submit to his rule without a fight and become vassals by sending tribute, accepting residents, contributing troops and supply. He guaranteed them protection only if they abided by the rules set forth, but his and his successor leaders' policy was widely written in historical documents as causing mass destruction, terror and deaths if they encountered a resistance.
#16
Thaksin was the only one who had a forceful respones, even tho 1/2 ass. I don't see this military junta doing a damn thing especially when it's headed by a Muslim. Thai's are just not warriors, atleast in this century.
Two Muslim men were shot dead overnight in drive-by shootings in Thailand's restive south, police here said Thursday. In a separate incident, two soldiers were wounded by a bomb aimed at their convoy as they protected a group of Buddhist monks on their morning rounds to collect alms.
The violence followed a powerful roadside bombing Wednesday that tossed an army patrol truck into the air and killed all seven soldiers inside.
In Narathiwat province, police and military patrols continue their search for an undetermined number of men who detonated a bomb Wednesday, killing an army major and five of the six non-commissioned officers travelling in a pick-up truck. Their were no survivors from the seven-man patrol. One non-commissioned officer who had apparently survived the initial blast attempted to escape, though badly wounded, but was shot dead.
The attackers carried away the victims' M-16 assault rifles, sidearms and radio transceivers. Local authorities believed that the assailants may be living in or nearby Narathiwat. Two suspects who were detained for interrogation following the incident were released when investigating officers determined that they had no connection with the ambush.
#1
Judging from the conversations I've had with Thai friends, I suspect the response will be something like a burned-out muzzie village with all captured males shot dead at close range. If the muzzies don't stop this garbage quickly, this formula will be repeated until all muzzies are gone to Malaysia or dead.
Posted by: Mac ||
05/10/2007 8:52 Comments ||
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A small explosion Wednesday followed by a bomb scare in two Christian neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital caused no injuries or damage but created huge traffic jams and panic among some residents in this capital city. There were conflicting reports as to what caused the explosion in the Tahwita neighborhood, which ripped through an empty lot near the Armenian cemetery. Police and army experts said it was caused by a rusting, left over grenade that detonated because of a fire in a garbage dump. But a major private Lebanese television station, LBC, had reported earlier that a stick of dynamite or a concussion bomb was tossed from a speeding car into an empty lot.
The explosion caused panic among residents as police and armed troops deployed in the area and investigators began sifting through the dirt to pick up evidence. Two fire engines were sent to the neighborhood, which includes the Medical Association offices and a number of government buildings. Shortly afterward, army troops surrounded Sayyad roundabout , another Beirut neighborhood as they investigated a suitcase suspected of containing explosives, causing a massive traffic jam in the area. The suitcase was found to be empty.
Lebanon has been rocked by a series of explosions since late 2004, mostly targeting anti-Syrian politicians, journalists and businesses in Christian neighborhoods. The largest of the explosions was the February 2005 truck bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in downtown Beirut. Three people were killed and 20 wounded near Beirut in near simultaneous bombings on two buses on Feb. 13.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Small explosion causes panic in Beirut but no injuries
The Lebanese Armed Forces have begun deploying troops along their side of the Lebanese-Israeli border, replacing Hizbullah gunmen in certain areas where they stood only months ago, Channel 2 reported on Wednesday evening. The LAF's troops, said the report, has even begun to man an outpost bordering a road just meters from a Kibbutz.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2007 00:00 ||
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In an unrelated new item "Brooklyn Bridge shares can now be bought at ."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Taliban have promised the world major military offensives in southern Afghanistan. The NATO-led alliance is sending thousands of soldiers into the fray to preempt the Taliban Ghazwatul Badr uprising that has been announced with a centurion call for thousands of fighters and suicide bombers to ready their ammunition belts. 
Somali security forces are seizing and even burning Muslim women's veils to stop Islamist militants from disguising themselves for attacks, authorities and witnesses claimed on Wednesday. The crackdown on veils is a highly symbolic turnaround for Mogadishu after Islamist leaders, who controlled the city in the second half of 2006, had instructed women to wear them. "Every policeman and government soldier has orders to confiscate veils from veiled women," senior police officer Ali Nur said in Mogadishu, saying various recent attacks had been carried out by people in disguise. "Some of the remnants of the Islamic Courts have been caught wearing veils. During the war, these remnants, pretending to be women, killed so many government troops," he alleged. 
Banned militant outfit 
The 7 July 2005 London suicide bombings ringleader 
A group of three suicide bombers from restive Waziristan have reached Islamabad to target government and military installations, Daily Times has learnt reliably.
Karachi police have arrested 12 suspects allegedly planning an act of terrorism in the city on May 12, Geo television reported. According to police officials, the 12 suspects had confessed they planned a terrorist attack in Karachi on May 12, when the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) is due to visit the city. The suspects allegedly planned to shoot at the CJPÂ’s procession on Shahra-e-Faisal. They were arrested from Lines Area, Shah Faisal and Maleer and were carrying a large cache of arms. Police said this was why the chief justice of Pakistan had been asked to postpone his visit. Earlier, Aaj television quoted the Karachi police chief as saying that there was a risk of a terrorist attack on May 12. He said security would be tightened before the chief justice of PakistanÂ’s arrival.
Three Indian soldiers and seven suspected militants were killed in a series of clashes in northern Kashmir near the truce line with Pakistan. Two rebels who ignored an order to surrender and a soldier were killed in a six-hour firefight when troops and police attacked a hideout in Kupwara district late Tuesday, police officer Haseeb Mughal said on Wednesday. Two soldiers were killed and 10 wounded in two other clashes with militants along the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, AFP reported. Troops also reportedly shot and killed four more suspected militants in the same area. 
A majority of Iraqi lawmakers have endorsed a bill calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops and demanding a freeze on the number of foreign troops already in the country, lawmakers said Thursday. The legislation was being debated even as U.S. lawmakers were locked in a dispute with the White House over their call to start reducing the size of the U.S. force here in the coming months.
Three Iraqi journalists and their driver were killed Wednesday in a drive-by shooting near the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, police said. 
Gaza - Ma'an - The 
Thousands of Palestinian police began deploying in Gaza City late Wednesday, the first phase of a security plan approved by the Cabinet, a Palestinian official said. About 3,000 police were fanning out across the city, said Nabil Shaath, an aide to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Details of the plan were vague. 
