When Riyadh whispers, The City jumps. And if that means using the State's police powers to crush free speech, well, infidel, find someplace else to live.
#3
I can't believe it's the BBC that did this. Must be some renegade faction or something.
And yeah, the PC police are going to come down hard on them. It is enough that the program draws the wrong conclusions. It is worse that it uses the Muslims' own words.
#4
They had 56 hours of footage and they boiled it down to a one and a half hour documentary? They should have made it into a series so they could have shown the entire 56 hours with no editing.
#5
After investigating 56 hours of footage, West Midlands Police said that it had been advised by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the broadcaster for stirring up racial hatred, but that selective editing had helped to create an impression of Muslim hatred.
There's nothing to "create". Muslim hatred for all things non-Islamic is well documented and those who argue otherwise are useful idiots tools of the enemy.
They had 56 hours of footage and they boiled it down to a one and a half hour documentary? They should have made it into a series so they could have shown the entire 56 hours with no editing.
You're ahead of the pack, Ebbang Uluque6305. Kevin Sutcliffe needs to provide all 56 hours of footage in order to incontrovertibly refute the accusation of selective editing. I have ZERO doubt that all of the portrayals are in context and that their words represent the directly intended meaning of those who uttered them.
#7
None of these Imams have ever gotten into trouble for praying too loudly or singing too loudly in the choir. None of these Imams have ever gotten callouses on their knees from spending too long at prayer.
Several Tajik lawmakers released an open letter to the president on Wednesday objecting to the closing of many mosques in the ex-Soviet Central Asian nation. One opposition lawmaker told The Associated Press that, in the Tajik capital alone, three mosques had been razed and dozens of others closed by authorities. "We feel obliged to voice our discontent," said Khodzhi Akbar Turadzhonzoda, who was among those signing the letter. Muhiddin Kabiri, the head of the opposition Islamic Revival Party (IRP) and one of the letter's authors, told the AP it was intended to draw President Emomali Rakhmon's attention to "anti-constitutional and anti-Islamic actions" by authorities.
Rakhmon's secular government fought a five-year civil war against mostly Islamic opposition - a war that killed 100,000 people and made Tajikistan one of the poorest countries in the world.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2007 00:00 ||
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Lawyers in Australia acting for Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef have launched an appeal against the decision to cancel his working visa.
Dr Haneef was detained for several weeks in Australia, before a terror charge against him was dropped. But Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said he still had suspicions against him. Dr Haneef is now back in India and did not attend the appeal in Brisbane, which was adjourned until Thursday.
For Dr Haneef, the fight to get back his visa is not only a matter of honour and pride but one of practical necessity, the BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney says. He would like to have the option of returning to work in Australia.
Um, no.
Dr Haneef's visa was cancelled after a magistrate in Brisbane granted him bail, a decision which allowed the authorities to keep him in detention.
But even after the charge against him, relating to failed bomb attacks in London and Glasgow at the end of June, was dropped, Australia's immigration minister stuck by his controversial decision. Kevin Andrews maintained that the Indian doctor had failed what is called the character test, because of his association with alleged criminals.
Mr Andrews continues to say he harbours suspicions about the doctor. But Dr Haneef's defence team argue that the immigration laws were applied simply to keep him behind bars while the criminal case against him was falling apart, and they insist that this action was improper.
Normally it is hard to win appeals of this kind because the immigration minister has such wide-ranging powers. But the federal court judge hearing the case has already been critical of Mr Andrews' use of the character test. By the standard being applied, Justice Jeffrey Spender said that he too would have failed, because he had represented criminals during his career as a barrister.
Seventeen German journalists from leading national publications are being investigated for having quoted from classified documents in covering the "rendition" of terror suspects.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent organisation which is based in New York, has expressed its concern that the reporters were being targeted.
The investigation, launched after the head of a parliamentary investigating committee complained about leaks to the press, also concerns several members of parliament.
"We are deeply worried about the criminal proceedings launched against our German colleagues and call on state prosecutors to drop the probe immediately," said the CPJ head, Joel Simon. "With respect to the sensitivity of the information published, whoever leaked the classified documents should be investigated, not the journalists. It is their duty to publish matters of public interest. They should not be criminally charged for doing their job."
At the root of the complaint is alleged German government complicity in CIA-run prisoner flights to countries where detainees were alleged to have been tortured. The CIA flights had stopovers in Germany.
The parliamentary panel is also looking into the alleged involvement of the German foreign intelligence service BND with the CIA at the start of the Iraq war. The remit also includes investigating the kidnapping and rendition of Khalid el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese origin, and the detention at Guantanamo Bay of a German-born Turkish citizen Murat Kurnaz.
The journalists under investigation for breach of secrecy include reporters for Der Spiegel, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit and Die Welt
The journalists under investigation for breach of secrecy include reporters for Der Spiegel, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit and Die Welt. The editor-in-chief of Der Spiegel, Stefan Aust, who is under investigation with four of the weekly magazine's reporters, called the inquiry an attack on press freedom.
German prosecutors confirmed the criminal investigation after the ARD television network broke the story last Friday.
A Free Democrat deputy, Max Stadler, accused the parliamentary panel of "going over the top" by complaining about the journalists who had "a duty to inform the public".
The inquiry was launched after the head of the parliamentary investigating committee, Siegfried Kauder, told ARD: "You could read more from the classified documents in the press than what was available to the committee."
Dutch anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders has called for the Holy Quran to be banned in the Netherlands, branding it a "fascist book" in the vein of Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf', which legitimises violence. Master of the Obvious. But to say so publicly!
Sounds like a reasonable step to me. Makes a lot more sense than teaching it to impressionable non-Muslims...
Writing in Dutch daily De Volkskrant on Wednesday, Wilders said, "Ban this wretched book just like Mein Kampf is banned. Send a signal...to Islamists that the Quran can never, ever be used in our country as an excuse or inspiration for violence."
He meant "be used again," but we guessed that...
Mein Kampf, published in 1925, outlines Hitler's racist ideology. It has been banned from sale in the Netherlands since the end of World War II.
You can still buy a copy in many American bookstores, but then we were never occupied by Germany.
Ayhan Tonca, chairman of the CMO umbrella group of Dutch Muslim organisations said Wilders' comments were best ignored. You do so at your own peril, Annie.
"This is typical Wilders. This is a ridiculous idea," he said. "There is not much news at the moment so he is trying to create some."
Tonca seems to realize that the part of the Dutch population that isn't too whacked out to care is to scared of the turbans to actually try to do anything substantive about them.
Wilders, whose new party won nine seats out of the 150 in parliament in last November's elections, is well known for his firebrand remarks on Islam. From the little acorn the mighty oak grows.
He has warned of a "tsunami of Islamisation" in a country home to 1 million Muslims, and has lived under heavy protection since receiving death threats from Islamist militants in 2004.
Which kind of proves his point, if you're not into some heavy dope. Even if you're scared of the Islamists. You don't need protection from people who aren't a threat. Q.E.D.
Wilders said an attack over the weekend by two Moroccans and a Somali on a young Iranian-born politician who heads a Dutch group for "ex-Muslims" had spurred him to write.
Driving the point home, aren't they? That's because they don't expect anyone to do anything substantive.
The attack on Ehsan Jami, 22, caused an outcry in the Netherlands, where the November 2004 murder of Theo Van Gogh, a filmmaker critical of Islam, by a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim militant led to an anti-Muslim backlash and exposed social tensions.
That lasted all of about six months, at the outside, proving that you can always count on the European attention span to let you literally get away with murder.
"Allah sees the death penalty as fitting for those who no longer believe," Wilders wrote on Wednesday, adding this view had fuelled the attack on Jami, now under police protection. The Muslim holy book should be banned from sale, from use in mosques and private households, Wilders added.
Posted by: Fred & Nimble Spemble ||
08/09/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Geert Wilders
I knew it after reading the article's title.
Sounds like a reasonable step to me. Makes a lot more sense than teaching it to impressionable non-Muslims...
Looks like both of us are hoping that the Koran will be declared hate speech, but maybe that's just me ...
Even if you're scared of the Islamists. You don't need protection from people who aren't a threat. Q.E.D.
Another BGO (Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious).
The Muslim holy book should be banned from sale, from use in mosques and private households, Wilders added.
MY HERO! The Koran is hate speech. It must be declared as such at the soonest opportunity. No other screed poses the same large-scale threat to modern civilization. Period.
#3
I think Islam has redeeming features. Abstaining from pork and alcohol may be good for some people. Praying five times a day can give one's life a sense of structure. Alms are nice if they actually help the needy. Some of the language in the Koran is beautifully poetic.
That said, the mandate that Muslims must rule the world for Allah through unending violence and the oppressive, often nonsensical nature of shariah outweigh whatever Islam might offer to the world. They have to go, but they're also held to be eternal commands. Therein lies the great conundrum of any Islamic Reformation.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
08/09/2007 4:11 Comments ||
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#4
> Abstaining from pork and alcohol may be good for some people.
BLASPHEMY! ;) Although I do have a minging hangover RIGHT NOW.
#9
Some of the language in the Koran is beautifully poetic.
An example, please.
I second that request. If it's poetry, it's some of the most convoluted, confused and gramatically nonsensical verse ever penned. Nice to say such a thing, having heard it repeated by the MSM and others ad nauseum, but I've yet to see an example where it even comes close to the Psalms, or Song of Solomon, or even good secular writings.
#10
This may be a brilliant idea. To implement it, I would suggest using some incrementalism.
To start with, begin with a requirement that all Korans have to be printed in, or at least with, the recognized major European languages beside the Arabic text, in accurate translations. It is a strong fundamental doctrine of Islam that Korans have to be in Arabic text, but only extremists insist that it can *only* be printed in Arabic.
Included in that would be a law making it a crime to "deface" a Koran by marking out the European language text, just leaving the Arabic, which is what they would do. By calling it "defacing", it would make them gnash their teeth, because "defacing" a Koran is a terrible offense in Islam.
Then, instead of banning the Koran proper, ban the *commentaries* on the Koran as hate speech. This is an important point, because of lot of the more graphic elements of Islam, like the hijab, are not based in the Koran itself, but in the commentaries. Then subsequently make it even illegal to possess the commentaries, not just import and sale.
Then insist that all Mosque sermons be given in Dutch or other major European language. This would be tricky in the Netherlands because they are so multi-lingual. But sermons are not Koranic, so there is no requirement that they be given in any particular language. This would break up the power of radical clerics, because they knew they could be monitored.
Then and only then, and probably after some nasty incident, could you ban the Koran outright, as hate speech. But by then, from most radical to less radical, Muslims would be leaving the country.
Repeated kneeling and standing, banging your head on the floor at the end of the movement, and doing that numerous times five times a day probably works wonders for your intestinal motility.
Potentially it can at least partially compensate for a constipated brain.
#12
Ordinarily I wouldn't go along with book burning or banning any kind of book because I believe in a free and fair exchange of ideas in this world. But the problem is the unfortunate tendency of muslims to murder people who disagree with them which is obviously not fair. They can't even agree among themselves so they kill each other as often as they kill us. Jesus said that by their fruit we will know them. The fruit of Islam is violence, intolerance and barbarism so I don't feel any need to read their book. Their behavior shows me all I need to know. It's enough to make a reasonable person assume they are afraid their ideas wouldn't hold up when confronted with concepts like Christianity or democracy. If and when they ever get past that phase we can have that free and fair exchange of ideas and may the best ideas win in the end. But until then Western Civilization needs to wake up and defend itself.
#13
A little clarification. If by "redeeming" features you mean "good" features, then certainly Muhammadanism has some. If by "redeeming" you mean "justifying its existence," then I don't know of any. When you compare religions, you certainly find worse ones (the Aztecs leap immediately to mind), but that hardly justfies what Muhammad did. Whatever is true or good in Muhammadanism was borrowed.
As far as good features go:
No doubt the Salafis claim that West African Islam isn't pure, so my observations might not address Zen's question. But some Christian missions found that they had to hire Muslim drivers rather than fellow Christians (or animists), because the Muslims wouldn't drink. (Which meant they showed up to work more or less on time and didn't drive drunk.)
Posted by: James ||
08/09/2007 13:55 Comments ||
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#14
I think Islam has redeeming features. Abstaining from pork and alcohol may be good for some people. Praying five times a day can give one's life a sense of structure. Alms are nice if they actually help the needy.
Thank you for making a legitimate effort, Baba Tutu. While "Abstaining from pork and alcohol may be good for some people", where in hell does anyone get off on telling all people what they can or cannot eat and drink? Nobody, absolutely no-effing-body has the right to demand that I arbitrarily abstain from the abundance of this earth. It is a form of dietary censorship which Mark Twain summarized rather nicely when he said:
"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak because a baby can't chew it."
If someone doesn't like the taste of pork or can't hold their liquor how does that suddenly give them the right to tell me I can't indulge in those items? As a culinary enthusiast, I find the banning of bacon, ham, sausage, pâté, salami, tamales, chile verde, char siu bao, BBQed ribs, Wienerschnitzel and a host of other gustatory delights an absolutely intolerable notion. The same goes for fine whisky, Champagne, Pilsner, Cognac and all the other imbibements that can give so much pleasure.
I also believe that any credo which mandates repeated daily observance to be of a strident, controlling and insecure nature. Such negative traits tend to breed up the very worst sort of zealotry and that is what you find in Islam.
Superficially, the giving of alms would appear to be a worthy form of conduct. However, to demand it in the form of personal tithing is robbery, pure and simple. It smacks of "it's for your own good" nannyism and is indicative of a contemptuous attitude towards the contributors as in, "we know better than you" regarding how to effect change in this world.
All of this points up the overarching issue of what results from a financially empowered controlling organization of insecure authoritarian zealots. The ban upon alcohol and pork represent only the camel's nose iceberg's tip of regulations that dictate what constitutes acceptable personal conduct in almost every aspect of waking daily life. The required observances then become opportunities for regular indoctrination and mind control instead of any celebration of faith. Finally, the huge mass of financial donations are disbursed in whatever way the controlling authorities see fit. Far too often it is for the purpose of forcibly imposing Islam upon others via militant expansionism and not for uplifting the downtrodden and deprived.
All of this, poetry or no, disfigures any beauty Islam might convey or possess and instead turns it into a death cult's military juggernaut.
#15
"a financially empowered controlling organization of insecure authoritarian zealots"
This description also fits the left to a tee, Zenster.
Confluence of purpose - as per Wretchard's article "The Ichneumon Wasp".
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/09/2007 14:20 Comments ||
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#16
Ahem, I believe that's affect, not effect ;-)
Most importantly, that posts sums it up fairly well.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
08/09/2007 14:20 Comments ||
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#17
'moose, as usual, an excellent post. Permit me to suggest that another one of those incremental measures should be the banning of shari'a law.
It's enough to make a reasonable person assume they are afraid their ideas wouldn't hold up when confronted with concepts like Christianity or democracy.
Absolutely, Ebbang Uluque6305. This is the "strident, controlling and insecure nature" of Islam I mentioned previously that makes it so susceptible to humiliation and the consequent need for Dire Revenge. The cycle of violence that this breeds up is both perpetual and equally senseless. Constant internecine murder amongst Islam's followers stands as glaring proof of this fact.
A little clarification. If by "redeeming" features you mean "good" features, then certainly Muhammadanism has some.
Hokay, James. Keeping my post #14 in mind, please expand on your claim.
#22
Pedantry can also be an indication of certain developmental disorders. In particular those with Left Sided syndrome, or high-functioning autism, often have behavior characterized by pedantic speech.[1] Those with Asperger's tend to obsess over the minutiae of subjects, and are prone to giving long detailed expositions, and the related corrections, and may gravitate to careers in academia or science where such obsessive attention to detail is often rewarded.
#28
Does Islam have any redeeming features... Well some of the architecture is quite good.
Posted by: Big Angusoting5988 ||
08/09/2007 19:11 Comments ||
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#29
That's all I can think of right now.
Posted by: Big Angusoting5988 ||
08/09/2007 19:12 Comments ||
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#30
Dutch politician for ban on Holy Quran
Yea let's ban the
'nuther epithet
here too!
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/09/2007 19:30 Comments ||
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#31
Thank you, Zenster. It seems the English language has gone soft since I leaned that silly one.
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/affect.html
Here I was trying to have a little fun by being being a pia, and it turns out I'm more than a pia, I'm a moron, too.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
08/09/2007 20:51 Comments ||
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#32
Don't bet yerself up, Mike N. I adore the English language and always appreciate it if someone can set me straight on its proper use. No harm, no foul.
#33
Which claim, Zenster?
Good elements? I thought we already mentioned alms.
Good elements were borrowed? I thought that was pretty well established: there were lots of Jews and various flavors of Christian in the area to explain that God was righteous and was going to judge the world. A few of his variant tellings of biblical stories were traced to some Jewish folk-tales of the area.
Good elements don't justify designing a cult around yourself and lying about the folks you swiped the ideas from? I'd have thought that pretty obvious.
I wasn't trying to justify Nazarite-like abstaining from alcohol, just pointing out that it made the Muslims more reliable drivers.
Posted by: James ||
08/09/2007 23:08 Comments ||
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#34
Good elements don't justify designing a cult around yourself and lying about the folks you swiped the ideas from? I'd have thought that pretty obvious.
No problem, James. The point I was making in post #14 is that whatever supposedly virtuous aspects there are to Islam become perverted by its less savory practices to a degree where there simply are not any redeeming aspects to it at all.
Presidential hopeful Barack Obama was chastised on Tuesday during a debate between Democratic candidates vying for the party nomination for his remarks on Pakistan.
Headline could read: "Easy target leads to Dog Pile on the Rabbit"
Senator Christopher Dodd of Illinois
He moved? Is that why my Christmas card came back?
Ohgawd, and we have Obama and Durbin already ...
said, "I think it is highly irresponsible of people who are running for the presidency and seek that office to suggest we may be willing unilaterally to invade a nation here that we are trying to get to be more cooperative with us in Afghanistan and elsewhere."
On the other hand, not invading them hasn't worked well. Just sayin'.
Obama responded, "Well, look, I find it amusing that those who helped to authorise and engineer the biggest foreign policy disaster in our generation are now criticising me
... for trying to make a bigger one?
for making sure that we are on the right battlefield and not the wrong battlefield in the war against terrorism."
"There are no terrorists in Iraq. Everybody knows that."
At this point, Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner, slapped him intervened to say that regardless of the soundness of Obama's policy, he should avoid speaking hypothetically as a candidate for president. "I think it is a very big mistake to telegraph that, and to destabilise the Musharraf regime, which is fighting for its life against the Islamist extremists who are in bed with Al Qaeda and [the] Taliban."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
FREEREPUBLIC/WND/OTHER > Pakistan > A Bilyuhn Muslims will become suicide bombers iff Makkah, Madina are attacked by USA.
#4
As an Auburn Univ. alum, with a hatred of the Univ. of Alabama, I applaud your title's comparison of Obama to the Tide, LOL!
Posted by: BA ||
08/09/2007 10:38 Comments ||
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#5
Of course Dodd, et cetera, criticised Obama - he spoke the truth. Pakiwakiland isn't going to cooperate on ANYTHING until they have their a$$es kicked over their elbows. The ISI is involved in the Talibunnies up to their eyebrows, and need to be destroyed. The Pashtuns of the Tribal Areas need a defeat so severe they understand they're playing out of their league. Other than that, Obama is about as good a presidential candidate for EITHER party as Alfred E. Newman. He'd make a good used car salesman, or he can get elected to public office. Any REAL work is beyond him.
Where IS Dodd from, anyway? I thought he was from Connecticutt, but I'm not sure...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/09/2007 20:15 Comments ||
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A ranking House Republican yesterday demanded a hearing based on recent reports that Islamic terrorists embedded in the United States are teaming with Mexican drug cartels to fund terrorism networks overseas.
Rep. Ed Royce, ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs terrorism and nonproliferation subcommittee, said the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) document first reported yesterday by The Washington Times highlights how vulnerable the nation is when fighting the war on terrorism.
The 2005 DEA report outlines several incidents in which multiple Middle Eastern drug-trafficking and terrorist cells in the U.S. are funding terrorism networks overseas with the aid of Mexican cartels.
"I'll be asking the terrorism subcommittee to hold a hearing on the DEA report's disturbing findings," said Mr. Royce of California. "A flood of name changes from Arabic to Hispanic and the reported linking of drug cartels on the Texas border with Middle East terrorism needs to be thoroughly investigated."
Likewise, Rep. John Culberson, Texas Republican, said the DEA document revealed startling evidence that Islamic radicals are camouflaging themselves as Hispanics while conducting business with violent drug-trafficking organizations.
A couple years ago Hugo Chavez' interior minister admitted his administration had "misplaced" about 18,000 blank Venezuelan passports. Wanna bet on who got some of 'em?
"I have been ringing the bell about this serious threat of Islamic individuals changing their surnames to Hispanic surnames for three to four years," Mr. Culberson said. "Unfortunately, Homeland Security's highest priority is to hide the truth from Congress and the public. I just hope we're not closing the barn door after terrorists have already made their way in."
Mr. Culberson, a member of the House Appropriations homeland security subcommittee, yesterday wrote a letter to the subcommittee's chairman, Rep. David E. Price, North Carolina Democrat, requesting a full investigation and hearing into the matter. A spokesman for Mr. Price said the committee is contacting the law-enforcement agencies and will work closely with Mr. Culberson's office on the matter.
"We certainly want to learn more about the matter from the agencies involved," said Paul Cox, press secretary to Mr. Price.
The 2005 DEA report outlines several incidents in which multiple Middle Eastern drug-trafficking and terrorist cells in the U.S. are funding terrorism networks overseas with the aid of Mexican cartels. These sleeper cells use established Mexican cartels with highly sophisticated trafficking routes to move narcotics and other contraband in and out of the United States, the report said.
more details at the link
Posted by: lotp ||
08/09/2007 08:14 ||
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#1
There was a brief, shining moment when the world's worst people were afraid of crossing the United States. Chavez should be made to know fear.
#2
...recent reports that Islamic terrorists embedded in the United States are teaming with Mexican drug cartels to fund terrorism networks overseas.
Narco-terror marries with islamoterror. Take them both down. Pressure Mexico. Fix our border. Destabilize Venezuela (if that can be done any more than Chavez has done it). Chavez is a flaming a$$hole and needs to pay.
#3
I've suspected for many years that this country could have won the "War on Drugs" many years ago if our government was really fighting it. I remember one of the former presidents of Columbia asking a TV interviewer (I think it was Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes) why the US pressured his country to stop the flow of drugs. "You have the army and the navy," he said. "You could stop it." But the government has never allocated the resources that are needed to secure our borders. The Coast Guard, the Border Patrol, the DEA and local cops make some token busts every now and then but the flow never stops. Here in San Diego the media made a big deal about how they busted up the Felix-Arellano cartel a year or so ago. This was supposed to be the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico. But I don't believe there was ever any shortage of illegal drugs in this town as a result. It's been that way as long as I can remember and that is a long, long time. The authorities make a lot of noise about some "really big bust" but somehow it never has any effect on the supply of illegal drugs. How do I know? I'll never testify in court but when you raise kids in this town you hear things. Besides that I was once a kid myself and I remember the experience well enough. The politicians can make all the noise they want but I suspect the money ends up in the pockets of some very powerful people who have enough influence to make sure the flow of drugs, just like the flow of illegal aliens, never stops. If you don't want your kids on drugs you're on your own because the government won't help.
#4
#3 I've suspected for many years that this country could have won the "War on Drugs" many years ago if our government was really fighting it.
WORD, EU6305. The problem is, if the government actually SUCCEEDS at something, they've then got to find something else to spend money on, or a lot of government employees will be out of a job, and won't continue to vote Democrat. Busting the AFSCME and running it out of the country would do a lot to increase the efficiency of the US government. There are some other, less acceptable actions that could also be taken, but that would get me sink-trapped.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/09/2007 20:39 Comments ||
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#5
Its time for someone in our government to make a telephone call to a Mexican cartel boss' private cell number. He could say that smuggling terrorists goes from making money to making war. He could say that since 9/11 we have been killing people who harm us and killing smugglers and terrorists at the border, and going up the chain to the bosses is going to be fun and easy.
Smuggling workers seeking a better life is a crime and deserves due process and a trial. Making war at the U.S. border should result in the killing of those who try to kill us.
Seems to be some sort of cookie thing. It's sticking the viewer's cookie ID in there for some reason. I tried it from a machine with no rantburg cookie set, and it looked normal.
#8
CAIR has long since been unmasked as a dupe (kind of like the old Communist Party of the US).
We have no good reason to force CAIR to disban since it is so useful as an intel source both because their public activities provide useful information and because we almost certainly have an agent there (maybe Hooper himself).
Posted by: Mike Al Moore & the DNC ||
08/09/2007 0:35 Comments ||
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#3
Humans tend to overestimate small probabilities, so the fear generated by an act of terrorism is greatly disproportionate to the actual risk.
Unless we happpen to have some facilitating asshole that just can't resist helping the enemy.
Third, unless terrorists always insist on suicide missions (which I cant imagine they would)
Shows what this traitorous fuckwit knows.
Fourth, I think it makes sense to try to stop commerce, since a commerce breakdown gives people more free time to think about how scared they are.
Keep it up with the enemys talking points, you asshole.
Fifth, if you really want to impose pain on the U.S., the act has to be something that prompts the government to pass a bundle of very costly laws that stay in place long after they have served their purpose (assuming they had a purpose in the first place).
How about: Fifth, you STFU and stop abetting our worst foes? Ever wonder why our government has to pass so many restrictive laws? Look in the mirror you fucking asshole!
My general view of the world is that simpler is better. My guess is that this thinking applies to terrorism as well. In that spirit, the best terrorist plan I have heard is one that my father thought up after the D.C. snipers created havoc in 2002. The basic idea is to arm 20 terrorists with rifles and cars, and arrange to have them begin shooting randomly at pre-set times all across the country. Big cities, little cities, suburbs, etc. Have them move around a lot. No one will know when and where the next attack will be. The chaos would be unbelievable, especially considering how few resources it would require of the terrorists. It would also be extremely hard to catch these guys. The damage wouldnt be as extreme as detonating a nuclear bomb in New York City, of course; but it sure would be a lot easier to obtain a handful of guns than a nuclear weapon.
Clueless? This turd is totally fucking clueless. No, small-scale chaos has almost nothing to do with real terrorism. Large-scale civilian deaths and total mayhem are their goals. Your malicious nattering only provides motives and goals for the run-of-the-mill Sudden Jihad Syndrome sort of goat-fucker.
Im sure many readers have far better ideas.
Yeah, but the vast majority of them have the decency andincidentally more than two neurons to rub together whereby they dont publish their speculation in an national rag. Unlike certain other unhelpful assholes that spring to mind.
#8
With a little luck, Mr. Levitt, this idea will grow and take hold and begin to see fear spread across the country, and you receive all the credit you so richly deserve, until the last bullet fired by the last terrorist severs your spine leaving you a quadriplegic.
I would've left this as a comment at his article, but comments are closed.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/09/2007 8:14 Comments ||
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#9
First I would scare all the journalists until they gave my terrorist group good press.
Then I would scare lecturers until they gave equal moral weight to terrorists.
Then I'd mirror the talking points of traitors within their own country.
LOL, B.P.! I think they were looking for new ideas, not ones already occurred. But, I also take it, that was your point.
Posted by: BA ||
08/09/2007 10:42 Comments ||
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#10
Were I a terrorist, I'd write smarmy phony stories about the US military, using anonymous sources of course, and publish them in the NY Slimes. We have met the enemy and they is us.
#13
Mr. Levitt, I realize you are just trying to write a column on a deadline. Why don't you follow up and ask what the rest of use would do in the face of widespread attacks in the U.S. by a bunch of dipwad, death cult losers?
#16
ANd then there's KOMMERSANT, among others > RUSSIAN MISSLE REACHES UN ... > Title Play = PC Disinformation/PYWAR Warning??? Article -ostensibly about Georgia's complaint to the UNO about Russia's recent alleged missle attack on Georgia's territory, but ya never know.
#17
I thought about this several years ago. I can parylize Colorado Springs and Denver with attacks on fewer than five places in each. That would cause HAVOC all across the western third of the country. I am NOT going to spew what I know all over the Internet, and become an accessory before the fact, or the instigator of such terrorist activity. This guy has too few functioning brain cells to understand that. BTW, the best way to eliminate the NYSlimes is to blow up Times Square. If you do it right, the buildings will collapse inward, and ALL be destroyed. The New York Times, TIME magazine, and Times/Warner are all located in the same general area. Of course, the terrorists would NEVER do that - they would be eliminating their staunchest supporters.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/09/2007 20:48 Comments ||
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#18
DEBKA > Al Qaeda chatter > Trucks carrying radioactive materials targeted for attacks on various major US cities.
It is time for Pakistan to revise its policy on the war against terror, said Religious Affairs Minister Ejazul Haq on Wednesday, Geo news reported. Talking to reporters in Islamabad after addressing a seminar, Haq said statements made by US presidential candidates on conducting military operations in Pakistani territory and attacking sacred Muslim sites were "irresponsible". The minister said it was time to decide whether or not Pakistan would continue to stand with the US, the channel reported.
"We should just come out and announce publicly which side we're really on. The U.S. would never dare attack the mighty Pak army, especially after we declare jihad on them and India both.
"At the same time.
"Because we're brilliant that way."
Strange, I thought the Paks had declared which side they were on a while back.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Love that photo but it needs a touch up. With a little work the brain name could be Hans Blix. That would be great.
North Waziristan Member of National Assembly Maulana Nek Zaman, while rejecting the government demand of reviewing the jirga boycott decision, has said until Pakistan solves its own problems, it cannot discuss peace in another country.
Especially when that country borders Pakistain.
He termed the joint peace jirga meaningless without peace in Waziristan.
Which is kind of an admission that the unrest in Afghanistan emanates from the Wazoos.
In an interview with NNI, he said the MNAs had urged the government to settle the problem through negotiations and jirgas instead of using force, but the government had not accepted their request.
That could be because the Taliban and al-Qaeda aren't settling problems through jirgas and negotiations. If one party is negotiating while the other party is shooting the place up, the "negotiations" aren't plural.
He said the members of Parliament and elders of North and South Waziristan were refusing to participate in the Pak-Afghan Peace Jirga in protest.
It couldn't possibly be because those selfsame members of Parliament and Wazoo elders are dispatching hard boyz to shoot up Afghanistan.
Maulana Nek Zama said it is a tribal tradition to never accept any decision taken at gunpoint, adding it was not a proper method of solving the problem.
So how come they spend so much time pointing guns at each other? Do they accept decisions taken at rocket-point? They seem to do a lot of that, too.
According to tribal customs, he said a jirga consisted of the concerned parties and points of contention. This jirga has no defined concerned parties, he added.
Isn't that because they refused to show up?
Answering a question, Maulana Nek Zama called upon the government to take solid steps for a solution to the Waziristan problem.
Killing all the hard boyz would be a positive step, but I don't think that's the one he has in mind...
He also called for the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan to allow the Afghan people to decide their fate.
They could maybe do that, if the Pak people weren't trying to decide the Afghans' fate, too.
He said the government had violated the peace pact it had signed with the North Waziristan tribesmen by increasing the deployment of troops to the check posts in the region, instead of reducing them as agreed in the treaty.
The Wazoo hard boyz were the ones who said they weren't going to raid in Afghanistan, weren't they?
He said on the one hand, the government was trying to maintain peace in the region by holding peace jirgas, while on the other it was simultaneously trying to settle the problems in Waziristan through force.
If one doesn't work the other one might.
He said the protestors had made it clear
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2007 00:00 ||
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A decision whether or not to impose a state of emergency in the country hangs in the balance and is expected any time, high-level sources told Daily Times. "It is now a matter of days," said a senior Muslim Leaguer close to the president. "The president's kitchen cabinet deliberated on the issue last night and his advisers pressed him to impose emergency in view of the current political situation in which certain unexpected decisions on various constitutional petitions including the one related to his uniform are expected," he added.
A significant portion of the country is in rebellion, under control of al-Qaeda and/or local Taliban, and he's considering a state of emergency because of his friggin' uniform?
The sources said many options including the imposition of emergency were being discussed. However, a presidential spokesman, who had earlier denied any meeting between the president and Benazir Bhutto in Abu Dhabi, said no meeting was held to discuss imposition of emergency.
And if you can't trust that guy, who can you trust?
The participants of a dinner hosted by PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said the decision to impose emergency had "almost" been taken. "Chaudhry Shujaat hinted at the possibility of emergency within days," a participant confirmed.
The sources said the president would consult his top aides today before issuing the proclamation of emergency order. They said the president had also taken the corps commanders into confidence on this issue in their recent meeting at the General Headquarters. Daily Times has learnt that many quarters in the PML are urging the president to impose a state of emergency and suspend parliament or extend its tenure for one year. The given reasons are two-fold: the imposition of an emergency will stop any intervention by the superior judiciary; and it will help handle the uniform issue, which is likely to create political unrest in the country.
Those in the PML supporting an emergency say this will help extend the tenure of the National Assembly and they will gain more time, and second, they think that the next six months are very important vis-?-vis the war on terror and during this period general elections would not be possible.
However, there are also some in the PML who oppose the imposition of a state of emergency because they think it would be a disaster. They argue that the decision to impose emergency will lead to confrontation with pro-democracy and human rights groups, especially lawyers and the media, and this situation will not benefit the president or the PML.
In case an emergency is imposed, fundamental rights would be the first casualty. According to Article 233, nothing contained in articles 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 24 shall restrict the power of the state as defined in Article 7 to make any law or to take any executive action.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I thought Pakistan was a nice name but State of Emergency certainly fits.
The United States said on Wednesday that it understood President General Pervez Musharraf's decision to pull out of a planned meeting in Afghanistan with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said that Pakistani officials had discussed Musharraf's reason for skipping the meeting with US and Afghan officials, but he would not elaborate on the explanation.
Likely Perv was afraid he was going to come home and find somebody else living in his house, smoking his cigars, and drinking his whiskey.
"President Musharraf certainly wouldn't stay back in Islamabad if he didn't believe he had good and compelling reasons to stay back," McCormack said.
Fear's a pretty good reason, I guess.
"Certainly we would understand that." US officials had earlier tried to persuade Musharraf to attend at least part of the council with hundreds of Pakistani and Afghan tribal leaders aimed at reining in militant violence now plaguing both countries. The Bush administration, which had brokered the meeting, was initially surprised by Musharraf's snub, particularly after Karzai repeatedly expressed satisfaction about the meeting during a joint appearance with US President George W Bush on Monday. The US ambassador in Pakistan, Anne Patterson, has been in touch with Pakistani officials inquiring about Musharraf's cancellation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2007 00:00 ||
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Parliamentary secretary's views not of government, says FO
Really? He's not parliamentary secretary of the government?
The United States embassy here has reacted strongly to the remarks made by Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Maj (r) Tanveer Hussain Syed against the country in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Online reported.
"Are you people crazy?... Ummm... Wait. Forget I asked that question. And tell that man to quit playing with his lips like that. It's frightening."
US embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton said in a statement on Wednesday that Syed's remarks were "outrageous" and "reprehensible".
Does that means we're going to reprehend him? Or that that Paks should reprehend him?
Participating in a debate on Pakistan's foreign policy in the NA, Syed had urged the government to announce jihad against India and the US.
Brilliant. The man's brilliant. They've fought half a dozen wars with the Indians, lost them all, and now he wants to fight both India and the U.S.
"These statements are outrageous and stoopid highly reprehensible. The parliamentarian has leveled allegations that are completely unfounded and irresponsible," Colton said in a statement.
"The man's obviously a loonatic. But then, that's not uncommon in Pakistain, is it?"
Staff Report adds: Meanwhile, the Foreign Office distanced itself from the statement made by the parliamentary defence secretary in parliament on Tuesday.
"He ain't with us. Somebody left him here."
Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said that Syed's remarks were an individual's views and do not represent the government's policy.
... even though he's a part of the government.
Daily Times Monitor adds: US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said at a regular press briefing in Washington that fighting terrorism, both by the Taliban and Al Qaeda, was the responsibility of all countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Unless Pakistain decides to change sides, of course. In that case, it will be the responsibility of all countries to fight terrorism by the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the multitude of terror organizations within Pakistain, to include its government."
Answering a question concerning the contradiction between Balochistan Governor Owais Ghani's statement that there were no Taliban or Al Qaeda in Balochistan or Pakistan and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's reiteration of Taliban hideouts in Pakistan, Casey said there were definitely "problems in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas in terms of militant activity".
"That's mainly because those people wear their turbans entirely too tight."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2007 00:00 ||
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Amid conflicting reports about the detention of India's most wanted man Dawood Ibrahim by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and his injury in a shootout during a gambling brawl at a Karachi hotel, the Pakistan government and some of Dawood's close relatives in Pakistan have claimed that the underworld don is not in Pakistan at present, Ibnlive.com reported on Wednesday.
"Nope. That wudn't him shootin' up the place in Karachi. We think he's living in Des Moines."
"He is well, whereever he is," Javed Miandad, former captain of the Pakistan cricket team and Dawood's relative, said. Miandad claimed that Dawood was not in Pakistan. "He isn't here, but he is fit and fine where ever he is," he told an Indian newspaper.
"He left for Dubhai as soon as he made bail."
"He (Dawood Ibrahim) is not in Pakistan and there is no truth in reports of his arrest in Quetta," Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (r) Javed Cheema said. Cheema claimed that if anyone had any evidence of his presence in Pakistan, "we would welcome that." Even the Indian intelligence agencies denied these reports. They, however, claimed that the don was injured in a gambling brawl on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
From the looks of him, maybe he's in South Philly...
Up to 2,760 non-Iraqis are locked up in Iraqi jails, among them 800 Iranians, the Iraqi delegation to an international security meeting in Damascus revealed on Wednesday. The rest include Arabs and foreigners. Wonder how many additional the US is holding.
Posted by: ed ||
08/09/2007 16:57 ||
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First noticed at Instapundit. Red States blog has some good Glenn "Sock Puppet Boy" Greenwald swipes. But the interview is worth it alone. Listen for Alan's question about a comment from Adm. Mullen. My admiration for Gen. Patraeus continues to grow.
#1
Colmes was mostly respectful and polite, in the transcript provided by a Hewitt fan here, but this one bit of journalistic falderol really stuck out. Patreaus didn't fall for it, however.
COLMES: You know, Admiral Mike Mullen who is testifying before Congress as he is up for chairman of the Joint Chiefs said no amount of troops, no amount of time will make much of a difference in Iraq. Do you concur with that?
PETRAEUS: I think he said something beyond that. Could repeat that.
COLMES: No amount of troops in no amount of time will make difference in Iraq, and I think he's talking about unless you have reconciliation.
PETRAEUS: I think he said no amount of troops in no amount of time will make a difference if there is not commensurate progress on the political level ...
COLMES: Right. It was reconciliation.
PETRAEUS: To eventually lead to national reconciliation. And I have said the same thing. I have said repeatedly that military action is necessary, very necessary but it is not sufficient and I think he is absolutely right.
Long term national reconciliation, the achievement of what we term sustainable security, is only possibly if the Iraqi national leaders can
resolve some of these really tough issues with which they've been grappling, issues like the reform of the de-Baathification law, the oil revenue sharing law, provincial powers and provincial elections and so forth.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/09/2007 8:08 Comments ||
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#2
Folderol Fol"de*rol`, n. Nonsense; foolish talk. [Also spelled falderal and falderol.] [Colloq.]
Iraq's deputy foreign minister urged his country's neighbours on Wednesday for genuine support and said he hoped a meeting here on Iraq's deteriorating security would produce real results instead of broken promises. But key regional power player Saudi Arabia was absent from the first meeting of the newly created Security Committee for Coordination and Cooperation on Iraq.
A US delegation headed by Washington's top diplomat in Syria Charge d'Affaires Michael Corbin, attended the two-day meeting, as well as representatives of Iraq's other neighbours, including Iran, the Arab League, Bahrain and Egypt and UN Security Council permanent members. Saudi Arabia's absence was likely due to its bad relations with the Syrian government. Saudi officials would not comment, but the kingdom and Damascus have been deeply divided over Syria's ties to Iran and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. "We hope that this meeting will not be a routine one and will be effective and will come up with effective results that achieve the goal of supporting it in its current dilemma,"
Iraq's Deputy Foreign Minister Labib Abbawi said on Wednesday. "Iraq expects real and genuine support in passing through this dilemma and suffering of terrorism and violence," he added.British Embassy official Irfan Siddiq said no specific "demands" were put on the table of the meeting but expressed hope it would end with "positive and tangible results, not just talk." He ruled out any Britain-Syria bilateral meetings on the meeting's sidelines.Hesham Youssef, the Arab League's representative at the meeting, repeated Arab demands that Iraqis reconcile among themselves if the country wants peace and security. "The Arab League believes that national conciliation in Iraq is key to solve Iraq's problems and maintains its unity and achieve stability," he said. Youssef described the atmosphere after the first session as "positive."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Whaaa!?
Lesten house of saud, YOU are responsible for the death and mayhem. Least you could do is show up and ACT like you care. I tell you what, when your king falls to his knees before me in my temple, I will pretend I care also. Then I will take all your oil and kick you into the desert like the Bedoins. Fair?
The Pentagon has asked Congress for nearly $750 million to airlift urgently needed armoured vehicles to US troops facing roadside bombs in Iraq, USA TODAY reported in its Wednesday edition.
The emergency funding request would allow the military to fly many of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles directly to troops rather than send them by ship, which takes weeks, the newspaper said. USA TODAY quoted an Air Force spokesman as saying the flight would take 13 hours to reach Iraq.
The transportation money is part of an emergency request for $5.4 billion for the Pentagon's MRAP program for the fiscal year beginning in October. Congress must appropriate the money, the newspaper said. All told, the military seeks about $12 billion through 2008 for about 8,000 vehicles, whose raised chassis and V-shaped hulls protect troops against roadside bombs, the newspaper said. The vehicles are one of the Pentagon's top acquisition priorities. The Defence Department's objective is to acquire as many vehicles as can be produced.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Next question is -- when the Demos succeed in getting us out of Iraq quickly.... do we leave them there? Or do we request additional funding to get them back here as fast as they get to Iraq.... 'cause we're gonna need them if that happens. Each and everyone of them.
Well-- I can just see these vehicles, driving through the streets of the People's Republic of Austin.... deep in the heart of Texas!
Sadly, the good folks of Austin, would never put the two together.
#2
Iraq is the western front in the WOT.
If we retreat from Iraq the terrorists have easy access to Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Africa and Europe.
The terrorist will become more powerful and will be able to make gains on the eastern front in Afganistan, Pakistan, India and southern Asia as well.
If we retreat from Iraq it will be just as bad as succeeding western Europe to Hitler.
The terrorists will be launching attacks from Europe toward the US soft underbelly.
We will need an Iron curtain (Israeli like high wall) to protect ourselves at our borders if we let the terrorist out of the Middle East.
We will need the MRAP vehicles to patrol our border crossings to keep the terrorists out.
So much for our democracy if we look to house and senate leaders for our war strategy over the wise experience and recommendations of our field generals.
Posted by: Push over pushes back ||
08/09/2007 1:57 Comments ||
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#3
"Mine Resistant" is okay, but "Ambush Protected" HINTS at super-sophisticated ambush detection systems???
#4
If we retreat from Iraq the terrorists have easy access to Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Africa and Europe.
Terrorists already have easy access in all these places. In Arab countries because these are their home base. In Europe because it's EUrope. And in Israel, because of Bush II insistance of giving Palestinians another chance (#38976).
#5
Why to we continue to treat the phueching symptoms. I'm all for protecting our troops, but lets protect them by unleashing the dogs of war and permitting airlifters to be replaced by strategic bombers. Hit these vile bastards like we did the Japanese and Germans in WWII. It will end quickly and we can be done with this mess.
The Gaza Strip will soon become entirely dependent on foreign aid and face "disastrous consequences" if the Hamas-controlled territory remains sealed off, a senior UN official warned Thursday.
Israel and Egypt closed their crossings with Gaza to all but humanitarian aid after Hamas seized power in the coastal strip in June. The closures have exacerbated poverty among the 1.4 million residents of the already impoverished territory.
The blockade has created a highly volatile situation, and the window of opportunity for addressing it "is small and closing fast," said Filippo Grandi, the deputy head of UN Relief and Works Agency, the international body responsible for Palestinian refugees.
"Gaza risks becoming a virtually 100 percent aid dependent, closed down and isolated community within a matter of months or weeks, if the present regime of closure continues," Grandi told reporters Thursday at a Gaza City press conference.
Failure to open the crossings will "lead to disastrous consequences" and an "atmosphere of hopelessness and despair in which extremism is likely to take hold," he cautioned. UN seeks to replace the current lose-lose situation wherein Gazans suffer and hardly any Jews are killed, with a win-win situation
#8
Maybe a new graphic for the Paleos needs to be Photoshop'd. A combination of the Sympathy meter with a nano-violin?
Posted by: BA ||
08/09/2007 10:49 Comments ||
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#9
Economic disaster, political disaster, social disaster, educational disaster. Gaza could be the DisasterLand ride at the Nations Of The World theme park.
"Although statistics specifically for Gaza are hard to come by, an important 2002 Commentary article by Efraim Karsh noted that under the Israeli occupationmore fairly termed administrationthat began in 1967, Gaza and the West Bank in fact made astounding social and economic progress:
In the economic sphere, most of this . . . was the result of access to the . . . Israeli economy: the number of Palestinians working in Israel rose from zero in 1967 to 66,000 in 1975 and 109,000 by 1986, accounting for 35 percent of the employed population of the West Bank and 45 percent in Gaza. Close to 2,000 industrial plants, employing almost half of the work force, were established in the territories under Israeli rule.
During the 1970's, the West Bank and Gaza constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in the worldahead of such "wonders"as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself. . . . GNP per capita grew somewhat more slowly, [but] expand[ed] tenfold between 1968 and 1991 from $165 to $1,715. . . . By 1999, Palestinian per-capita income was nearly double Syria's, more than four times Yemen's, and 10 percent higher than Jordan's. . . . Only the oil-rich Gulf states and Lebanon were more affluent."
#17
Yup sure is a god thing you all kicked out all them Jews and elected a radical Hamas goverment. Hows that working for ya? Note: If they are still able to launch missiles at Israel they aren't suffering nearly enough.
#19
Failure to open the crossings will "lead to disastrous consequences" and an "atmosphere of hopelessness and despair in which extremism is likely to take hold," he cautioned.
As if what has preceded this is not extremism? How in hell can anyone not interpret Hamas' intent to "kill the last Jew" as anything but extremism?
This is nothing more than the usual sniveling about how killing terrorists only breeds up more terrorists. In this new interpretation not appeasing extremism somehow only breeds up more extremism. Islam represents a statistical polarity. There is nothing more extreme than the naked lust for global domination. All that's missing is the nuclear arsenal Islam requires to impose its will.
George Bush's counterstroke, which history will either judge as an act of supreme folly or genius, was to go beyond Afghanistan into Iraq. In a worthy riposte to Osama's, he escalated the struggle to the point where it was mutually mortal. If the fall of the Twin Towers was a gauntlet in America's face, the fall of Baghdad was a glove shoved down the Islamist's throat. Both Bin Laden and Bush have made compromise impossible. If the jihadis believed they could control the tempo of the conflict they were misinformed; American forces in the Arab heartland have forced a zugzwang to compel the game to the bitter end.
Yassin's assasination serves the same purpose. Israel's main problem was to escape the cycle of murder and negotiation that was slowly bleeding it to death. No matter how horribly Israel was attacked it was always expected to return, in an attitude of abjection, to the negotiating table. The Jihadis learned that any Israeli counteroffensive could be aborted by throwing the prospect of further talks into its path. Israel's superiority on the battlefield would be nullified because it would always be restrained by the "Peace Process", a misnomer if ever there was one. But the operation against Yassin reverses the dynamic. By striking at so senior a terrorist target, the Jihadis will be in no mood for negotiations. They themselves will cast away the Peace Process and sheer fury will make them forswear their favorite tactic, the faux hudna -- thereby granting Israel a meeting on the battlefield. For this is Israel's mortal challenge to Hamas which has often said it would kill the last Jew. The message, now ringing in their ears, is that the Jew will kill the last terrorist, beginning at the top.
[emphasis added]
For better or worse, Islam has been made to paint itself into an ideological corner. It must either foreswear central tenets of militant jihad and imposition of the global caliphate or openly embrace them with all the concomitant consequences. For those of us who wish to survive, it can only be for the better that Islam has been forced to tip its hand while it is still in a position of weakness.
So it has been with Gaza. By destabilizing the Palestinian power structure, Israel has accelerated Hamas' intentionally lengthy narrative of hudna and false negotiations towards its true logical extension. Namely, that of perpetual mayhem, genocidal bloodlust and parisitism upon the Palestinian people themselves.
In a similar fashion, the Global War on Terror has taken Islam's preferred formula of zero-sum equations and fed it back to them by the fistful. Gaza's implosion is but one small demonstration of what awaits an Islamically dominated world. The global community owes Israel a tremendous debt for so deftly unmasking the true intent and end results that Islam embodies.
Gaza IS an economic disaster - of their own making.
"The Gaza Strip will soon become entirely dependent on foreign aid"
You mean they're not already?
"Gaza risks becoming a virtually 100 percent aid dependent, closed down and isolated community within a matter of months or weeks"
The paleos wanted the murderous Ham-ass. They got the murderous Ham-ass. Egypt and Israel closed their border crossings with Gaza, for their own safety. Cause, meet effect.
Gaza (and the entire Middle East) is awash with guns. Anyone can get one - or a lot. Anytime the majority of the inhabitants of Gaza decide they want regular lives more than they want to kill Jews, they can rise up and kill Ham-ass and have a regular country. Until then, tough.
My Sympathy Meter™ is not just busted, it's reading in the negative numbers.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/09/2007 16:09 Comments ||
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#21
My Sympathy Meter is not just busted, it's reading in the negative numbers.
I believe that when the readings are "negative" it's considered to be a positive reading on the Schadenfreude Meter
The Lebanese government disclosed that a secret underground telecommunications network has been set up by Hezbollah throughout south Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut. Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh revealed that the installation of underground cables, which run parallel to the state's phone system, had been "discovered by chance and following ample rumors" in the southern town of Zawtar al-Sharqieh in the Nabatiyeh district.
Hamadeh said authorities would launch a "speedy" probe into the set up of a new phone line networking by Hizbullah in south Lebanon. Hamadeh said that Defense Minister Elias Murr, Justice Minister Charles Rizk and Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa will join in efforts to look into the matter immediately. "(The ministry) has discovered by chance that a new telephone network is being created along that of the state in Zawtar al-Sharqieh," Hamadeh said in a radio interview.
He said that "technical reports" later showed that the work has expanded to reach Yohmor in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, with another wireless networking being set up between the port city of Tyre and Abbassieh as well as in other regions of the Tyre province. Hamadeh also uncovered similar works are underway in Beirut and the southern suburbs (Dahiyeh).
During a cabinet session on Monday, the ministers discussed what Hamadeh termed a "violation of the Lebanese sovereignty" and called for setting up a ministerial committee to investigate and settle the issue. Meanwhile, residents of Zawtar Sharqieh issued a statement attacking the cabinet's move regarding their village. Given the vast influence of Hezbollah, the tone of the village residents sounds all too familiar. "Residents of Zawtar al-Sharqieh were surprised by the government's measures designed to sidetrack the citizens from the real crises they are facing," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Kinda depends on how you define "nation" and "sovereignty". YMMV.
The United States will be closely watching Aoun's finances and the Lebanese businessmen and other wealthy resident and non-resident Lebanese allegedly donating money to General Michel Aoun
and his Free Patriotic Movement.
The daily An Nahar on Tuesday, citing prominent sources, said "any citizen is subject" to the executive order issued by U.S. President George Bush which aims at blocking property of persons undermining Lebanon's sovereignty or its democratic process and institutions.
It said the move reflects the U.S. administration's "never-ending concern" over the possibility of Aoun's participation in any activity that could lead to the emergence of another parallel government or hinder upcoming presidential elections if he figured he was not going to win and made any desperate moves.
The sources uncovered that the donors include renowned Lebanese businessmen from various sects.
They said these businessmen own property, companies, factories as well as houses in the United States, adding that they are known for their close relations with Aoun and for providing him with financial aid.
Bush last Tuesday declared a "national emergency to deal with the threat in Lebanon" aimed at undermining Premier Fouad Siniora's government, reasserting Syrian control and undermining state sovereignty.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2007 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Several Tajik lawmakers released an open letter to the president on Wednesday objecting to the closing of many mosques in the ex-Soviet Central Asian nation. One opposition lawmaker told The Associated Press that, in the Tajik capital alone, three mosques had been razed and dozens of others closed by authorities. "We feel obliged to voice our discontent," said Khodzhi Akbar Turadzhonzoda, who was among those signing the letter. Muhiddin Kabiri, the head of the opposition Islamic Revival Party (IRP) and one of the letter's authors, told the AP it was intended to draw President Emomali Rakhmon's attention to "anti-constitutional and anti-Islamic actions" by authorities. 
Dutch anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders has called for the Holy Quran to be banned in the Netherlands, branding it a "fascist book" in the vein of Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf', which legitimises violence. 
Presidential hopeful Barack Obama was chastised on Tuesday during a debate between Democratic candidates vying for the party nomination for his remarks on Pakistan.
It is time for Pakistan to revise its policy on the war against terror, said Religious Affairs Minister Ejazul Haq on Wednesday, Geo news reported. Talking to reporters in Islamabad after addressing a seminar, Haq said statements made by US presidential candidates on conducting military operations in Pakistani territory and attacking sacred Muslim sites were "irresponsible". The minister said it was time to decide whether or not Pakistan would continue to stand with the US, the channel reported.
North Waziristan Member of National Assembly Maulana Nek Zaman, while rejecting the government demand of reviewing the jirga boycott decision, has said until Pakistan solves its own problems, it cannot discuss peace in another country. 
A decision whether or not to impose a state of emergency in the country hangs in the balance and is expected any time, high-level sources told Daily Times. "It is now a matter of days," said a senior Muslim Leaguer close to the president. "The president's kitchen cabinet deliberated on the issue last night and his advisers pressed him to impose emergency in view of the current political situation in which certain unexpected decisions on various constitutional petitions including the one related to his uniform are expected," he added.
Amid conflicting reports about the detention of India's most wanted man Dawood Ibrahim by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and his injury in a shootout during a gambling brawl at a Karachi hotel, the Pakistan government and some of Dawood's close relatives in Pakistan have claimed that the underworld don is not in Pakistan at present, Ibnlive.com reported on Wednesday. 
Iraq's deputy foreign minister urged his country's neighbours on Wednesday for genuine support and said he hoped a meeting here on Iraq's deteriorating security would produce real results instead of broken promises. But key regional power player Saudi Arabia was absent from the first meeting of the newly created Security Committee for Coordination and Cooperation on Iraq. 
The Gaza Strip will soon become entirely dependent on foreign aid and face "disastrous consequences" if the Hamas-controlled territory remains sealed off, a senior UN official warned Thursday. 
