During a meeting to plan the recent Saudi conference on counter-terrorism the Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia claimed that arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden was "sent by the Jews." The Defense Minister, Prince Sultan Feted read a poem with the following verse:
"Long live security - may its men hold their heads high on every corner. [Bin Laden], whose ideology is sick, who was sent by the Jews, who is the architect of theft, was treacherous and sent us the criminals. This traitor of the nation tried to harm us, but his efforts boomeranged back upon him."
A clip of the prince reading the poem can be viewed on the MEMRI web-site. Though the Saudi conference was attended by leading counterterrorism experts from over 50 different countries, Israel was excluded. "We have invited all countries that have suffered from terrorism to the conference, and all have agreed to take part," said Prince Turki ibn Muhammad, assistant undersecretary for political affairs at the Saudi Foreign Ministry told WorldNetDaily.
This article starring:
Prince Sultan
Prince Turki ibn Muhammad
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005 12:17:44 AM ||
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ya can't make this stuff up.
sent by the Joooos, yet celebrated. and they have no problem with the logic.
#7
This sort of thing doesn't surprise me. When Sadr killed the rival Mullah a couple of years back the"Muslims in the Know" said "Sadr didn't do it. The mullah was killed by the jews". Everything bad that happens is attributed to "The Jews" or The U.S. or is just Allah's Will. NOTHING is ever the fault of the Arabs or Muslims. This is why they will never progress any further than they are now. They blindly follow a religion that tells them they have NO choices, they can't change anything because EVERYTHING is Allah's will so what's the point in even trying. It's easier to go with the flow than buck the current.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/10/2005 15:42 Comments ||
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How about a Golden Oldie - to keep perspective on Arab-Think, lol!
#9
Sadr is the most transparent cretin I have ever seen. He is everywhere there is trouble, but is never the blame... It must be nice to have a lot of power, and "correct" any assumptions that wander into the gray areas...
#10
What is really disturbing is that this nutjob is next in line for the job of Crown Prince. If Fahd (82) dies, Abdullah (81) takes the the Soddy throne, but how long can he last? BTW - isn't it funny how all these 70 and 80 year old princes have jet black goatees? Must be hard to keep boot polish in the stores, it's just flying off the shelfs.
#12
When in doubt, blame the Jews. Or Bush. But definitely one of the two.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
02/10/2005 22:22 Comments ||
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The thing to remember is, any enemy of the House of Saud is a 'Jew' or a "tool of Jews", regardless of what the actual ethnicty or religion is. Doesn't excuse the derogation, but pretty much shows their mindset.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Good! I don't think the Saudis know what a Pandora's box of corruption, demagoguery, and skullduggery they're unleashing, but just maybe a couple decades hence they'll be thankful for that ignorance. They'll have learned firsthand Sir Winston's dictum that "democracy is the worst system - except for all the others", and maybe they'll actually be our friends, the Saudis.
So the future holds rule by gerontocracy. The House of Sod is going to be in a similar position to the Soviets under Andropov.
Rumours about the health of Saudi Arabia's ailing King Fahd frequently prompt uncertainty and speculation, but diplomats expect a smooth succession that will not challenge stability in the world's leading oil exporter. The script calls for Crown Prince Abdullah, King Fahd's half-brother and a cautious reformist, to ascend the throne, and for Prince Sultan, currently the defence minister, to become crown prince in his stead. "The succession will be smooth, easy and simple," one Saudi official told Reuters. "There won't be a great deal of change."
But while most diplomats predict a smooth transition in the immediate future, they believe the kingdom may face difficulties once a younger generation of princes vies for power. They say there is no clear successor from the younger generation. Since the forming of the modern Saudi state in 1932, the king and the royal family have named succeeding monarchs on the principle of "an heir and a spare". Saudi kings assume the throne after oaths of allegiance by a family council of 18 princes, a custom in the kingdom whose constitution is the Quran and the traditions of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
The bai'ah (oath of allegiance) process could be completed in a day but in line with custom an appointed council of ulemas (Muslim scholars) must declare the transfer of power legitimate. Abdullah, 81, has been managing the daily affairs of the kingdom since the king was incapacitated by a stroke 10 years ago. Although he has sometimes been seen as more pan-Arab nationalist and less open to the West than his stricken brother, sources say this is more a difference of style than substance. He is a known quantity expected to solidify Saudi Arabia's strong relationship with Western allies, principally the United States, Britain and France. At the same time, he has forged strong ties in the Arab world where he commands wide respect. "Once king, the crown prince won't change the policies of the kingdom. He would not rock the boat," one Western diplomat said. "King Fahd and the crown prince have different personalities but not different policies."
Abdullah is one of 44 sons fathered by the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, King Abdul-Aziz al-Saud - Ibn Saud - who reigned from 1932 until his death in 1953. Unlike King Fahd, Abdullah is not a member of the powerful Sudairi Seven - the seven sons of Ibn Saud's favourite wife Hassa al-Sudairi. His powerbase is the 57,000-strong US-trained National Guard and the backing of the influential tribes. His daunting task has been to salvage a US alliance damaged by the Sept 11, 2001, attacks carried out mainly by Saudi hijackers loyal to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. At home, his biggest challenge came from militants waging deadly attacks to oust the House of Saud and force the kingdom, the cradle of Islam, to sever links with the "infidel" West.
As with many of the Arab world's elderly rulers, concerns over King Fahd's health surface occasionally, most recently last month. According to diplomats the origin of the rumour was that the 82-year king, who only appears in public on doctor's advice, was not seen at last month's official haj rituals. Diplomats say despite fresh rumours there is no evidence suggesting an aggravation of King Fahd's health. Under the informal rules of succession, the new king will also choose a third brother in line. The choice, diplomats say, would likely be between Prince Nayef, 72 and current interior minister and Prince Salman, 69, who is governor of Riyadh. "All indications point to Salman but politics does not always work on a rational basis," one diplomat said. "Salman is more popular than Nayef and could be third in the troika. He has charisma and a statesman's style. Nayef is structurally more powerful since he is the interior minister but is regarded as more of a hardliner," he added. Reformists, analysts and diplomats play down hopes that once on the throne Abdullah will push through bold reforms that he has not pursued as de facto leader. "Prince Abdullah is popular but it will be a troika rule ... King or no king his policy will be the same - slow and steady and no great deal of change," one diplomat said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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q: "What was Leonid Brezhnev's last words?"
a: "Andropov my coat at the cleaners."
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/10/2005 1:22 Comments ||
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Not many realize, but Yuri's middle name was "Shrevelup".
"We have no need to buy nukes. We can lease them a very reasonable rates."
Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Ali Awaad Aseeri on Monday denied a report by Time magazine that the Kingdom was trying to buy nuclear weapons through AQ Khan's network. "The basic objective of this report is to tarnish the Kingdom's image and frustrate its efforts at making the region free of weapons of mass destruction," the ambassador told Okaz in a telephone interview. Aseeri said the Kingdom had been in the forefront of countries seeking to make the Mideast a nuclear arms-free region. "Why would the Kingdom try to get this kind of weapon when it openly opposes the principle of possessing, manufacturing or proliferating weapons of mass destruction at the regional and international levels," he asked. "The Kingdom has always been seeking world domination peace and security," he added.
Meanwhile, Pakistan said on Wednesday that the case of nuclear scientist AQ Khan was still open, but it has received no new evidence to suggest that his black market network had sold technology to more countries than earlier thought. Last February, President Gen Pervez Musharraf pardoned AQ Khan after he confessed to supplying sensitive technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. But this week Time magazine reported that US officials were also investigating whether the scientist's network might have supplied Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, such as Egypt. On Wednesday, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said AQ Khan's "case is still open".
"We will quiz any of our scientists if somebody comes up with evidence to prove his links with the proliferators of nuclear technology," the spokesman said. But he said the government had "received no new evidence from any country, individual or organisation, including the IAEA" — referring to the UN nuclear watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. AQ Khan, who was once regarded as a national hero for his role in making Pakistan a nuclear power, has lived under virtual house arrest in Islamabad for the past year. On Monday, Pakistan denied that AQ Khan's network was still operating.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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The Sauds financed the Paki intelligence theft from the Atomic Energy Commission of Canada, that led to the develop of the "Islamic Bomb." The principle of quid pro quo dictates that the Sauds got something for their money.
#3
IToldYouSo, dear, please spend some time reading the Rantburg archives. Of course you know a great deal, but you do want to make certain, with a nym like that, that you are actually telling us things we don't already know.
#6
Hey Fred, the ad hominem spewers aren't balancing same with informative posts. Isn't that chippy "troll" conduct?
As a retired intelligence professional, you would be well aware that the Iraqi-Shiites-hate-Persian-Shiites line is pure spin. The cultural inter-change at the Ashoura blood fests attests to the budding unity, cum alliance, at the expense of American taxpayers. Al-Sistani is Persian; born and raised. Islamofascist tyranny has never been stronger, since the State Department sandbagged secularism in Iraq. Come on! Don't let Rantburgers rest in the transient comfort of pure illusion.
#7
Lol! Sigh. Where would us poor stupid toad Rantburgers be without you, IToldYouSo?
Pray, tell more! Explain why this isn't merely your Western brain-fart version and reflects Arab - Persian sentiments beneath the circle-jerk level of Ayatollahs. Obviously, Arab-Persian relations began when you began thinking about it. All those centuries of rivalry, hate, and conflict - not to mention that pesky little war don't count. Of course not.
Your bona-fides, please...
Please, tell us more about yourself - I find your idea fascinating - and convenient as hell - it's so Western and, therefore, so easy to follow... to think I discarded it back in 1980 during the Iran-Iraq War... all that effort of putting on Arab and Persian slippers avoided! Whew! Great!
So, let 'er rip! It's GREAT to have an expert show up who can make it all clear and easy to grasp! Speak! Speak!
All deluded Rantgurgers hate the transient comfort of illusion! Help Us!
BTW, you sound a lot like a guy who showed up here several months back and started out by posting this same Western Conventional Wisdom of a Qom-dominated Iraq. He also stated that Shi'a were the majority in the GCC, etc. He was a jackass, wrong from start to finish. You're not him, back with a new nym and riding the MSM skeer stories of Shi'a shenanigans, are you?
Naw, of course not.
Enlighten us with the facts, not mere speculative observations, that underpin your earth-shattering insights.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) chief called Tuesday for reforming religious education in the six-nation bloc hit by a wave of terror, to spread a "moderate and tolerant culture."
Starting to catch on, are they?
"It's time to develop the syllabus of Islamic education. This must be carried out by specialists among clerics, scholars and experts. I insist they must be moderates," Abdulrahman al-Attiyah told reporters here.
I'd keep the holy men out of it completely, myself...
He was speaking after opening a GCC education ministers meeting focussed on plans to reform education, which has been criticised for promoting extremism following the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, in which 15 of the 19 suicide bombers were Saudi. "Reform is an urgent matter in all fields and reforming Islamic education is a prerequisite for developing education as a whole," Attiyah said. "From my viewpoint, Islamic education should be limited to teaching religious duties." The GCC is working to spread a "culture of tolerance and respect for others ... as part of its effort to contain terrorism," he said. Also addressing the press, Saudi Education Minister Mohammad al-Rasheed said ministers adopted a resolution to "develop methods of teaching Islamic education" at schools, stressing that textbooks his country do not incite hatred.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 ||
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They might issue a FATWA against me for saying this, but....
It would also be rather forward-looking to mandate the women be taught to read and write.
#3
They are now in self-preservation mode. They figured that if the Islamofascism is on the rise, a clash of biblical proportions is inevitable (they have no illusions about the winner) and there may not be any Islam to speak of afterwards.
Q: Why do you think there aren't any muslims in Star Trek?
Sheikh Ibrahim ibn Abdullah Al-Ghaith said suicide terror attacks carried out by militants were "unacceptable by religion, reason and tradition." Although Islam deems suicide a sin, militants have been justifying suicide bombings targeting government infrastructure or police, seen as government agents, as "martyrdom operations." In a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency, Sheikh Al-Ghaith, however, reminded that such attacks were tantamount to suicide and fell under the warning in the Qur'an: "Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves, for verily God hath been to you most Merciful." The verse adds that suicide is considered an "injustice" punishable by hell.
Sheikh Al-Ghaith did not address suicide operations by Palestinians and Iraqis. Many Islamic scholars in the Arab world see attacks on occupiers as justifiable. On Sunday, Islamic Affairs Minister Saleh Al-Sheikh told reporters on the sidelines of the Counterterrorism International Conference in Riyadh that his ministry had issued an edict condemning suicide bombings as an act of terror. He added, however, that those fighting occupation are not terrorists. Sheikh Al-Ghaith said denouncing terrorism is a "duty" and accepting it is "treason." The government has been struggling to contain militants who have attacked the government and Westerners in a series of deadly attacks, which have included suicide bombings, since May 2003.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Sounds like the counterattack to the crackdown is forming up...
The Kuwaiti society should stand against all forms of violence and terrorism, say MPs Dr Faisal Al-Muslem, Jassem Al-Kandari, and Abdullah Akash. "The current security circumstances in the country should not be exploited for settling personal disputes," they add. Speaking at a symposium held by the Nation Bloc at the Diwaniya of Hayef Al-Mutairi the MPs condemned the behavior of a "misguided minority," saying "Islam has nothing to do with terrorism or extremism." They expressed their surprise for dragging mosques and educational curricula into the recent terrorist incidents, adding "we faced similar security situations in the sixties and mid-eighties. Nobody leveled such accusations at that time."
Al-Muslem said teachers and Imams should fight misleading ideologies and extremism by urging believers and youth to follow in the footsteps of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his companions. The government should seek the help of prominent Kuwaiti clerics and scientists in the fight against terrorism, he added. "Although we support the government in its fight against misguided groups we urge it not to launch any knee-jerk reactions, especially when a section of the society is keen to exploit the current emergency circumstances to settle old some old scores," the MP continued.
Meanwhile, MP Jassem Al-Kandari said despite the fact Islam has nothing to do with terrorism, the Western society continues to accuse our religion. The international community has signed some 12 treaties on terrorism where we have 19 different definitions for terrorism, he added. What have terrorists gained except killing and blood by launching attacks on the World Trade Centre and Kuwait? he asked. He stressed no religion accepts terrorism, adding "those who sacrificed their lives in defending Kuwait should be honored and their families should be adequately compensated." Although Muslims have been victims of terrorism, as in Sarajevo and other countries, the behavior of some Muslims has led to the loss of international support for a number of Arab and Muslim issues, Al-Kandari continued.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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TONY Blair yesterday moved towards the hawkish United States position on Iran, jangling nerves among Labour MPs and peace campaigners fearful of fresh conflict in the Middle East. Appearing before a committee of senior MPs in London, the Prime Minister said there was "no doubt" that the Iranian government backed international terrorism and warned the regime in Tehran not to stand in the way of a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. Anti-war activists and some European diplomats fear that the US, following the re-election of George Bush as president, is gearing up for a confrontation with Iran over its embryonic nuclear programme. Reports earlier this year suggested US special forces had already been in Iran to identify possible targets for US or Israeli air strikes.
Although Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said last week in London that an attack on Iran was "not on the agenda", there is no doubt that Washington is increasingly focusing its attentions on the theocratic government in Tehran. Mr Bush last month pledged in his inauguration speech to spread the "fire of freedom" around the world, seen by many as a warning to the Iranian hard-liners to permit more political freedoms and end human-rights abuses. Last week, the US president said Iran was "the world's primary state sponsor of terror", an assessment Mr Blair enthusiastically supported yesterday. "It certainly does sponsor terrorism, there's no doubt about that at all," the Prime Minister said.
The US State Department says elements in the Iranian regime provide military and financial support to groups such as Hezbollah that carry out attacks against Israeli interests. Mr Blair suggested that support must end. He said: "I hope very much that if we can make progress in the Middle East, Iran realises it's got an obligation to help that, not hinder it." Raising Iran's profile in the context of international terrorism is a broadening of the case against Tehran. In recent years, European diplomacy has concentrated on persuading Iran to give up any attempt to create weapons-grade uranium.
As Mr Blair spoke, Iranian diplomats indicated their patience was running out with lengthy but so-far fruitless talks with Britain, France and Germany. Talks between the two sides resumed in Geneva yesterday and began with a warning from Hossein Mousavian, the senior Iranian negotiator. "If we see tangible, objective progress, we will continue negotiations," he said. "If we think the Europeans are killing time, we will definitely [change our position]." Mr Blair insisted that Iran's possible military ambitions must be dealt with: "I don't think it's disputed that there is an issue to do with Iran and nuclear weapons capability."
Meanwhile, Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights worker who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, became the latest campaigner to warn against any armed strike against the regime in Tehran. "For the human rights defenders in Iran, the possibility of a foreign military attack on their country represents an utter disaster for their cause," Ms Ebadi, the founder of the Centre for Defence of Human Rights in Tehran, wrote in the New York Times yesterday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005 12:24:37 AM ||
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Thanks, Tony. I don't sweat the things like Kyoto if you are with us on the big stuff.
The second-term Bush administration's intention to antagonize the DPRK and isolate and stifle it at any cost has become quite clear. As we have clarified more than once, we justly urged the US to renounce its hostile policy toward the DPRK whose aim was to seek the latter's "regime change" and switch its policy to that of peaceful co-existence between the two countries. We have closely followed with patience what policy the second-term Bush regime would shape after clarifying the stand that in that case it would be possible to solve the nuclear issue, too.
However, the administration turned down our just request and adopted it as its policy not to co-exist with the DPRK through the president's inaugural address and the state of the union address and the speech made by the secretary of State at the Congress hearing to get its approval, etc.
The remarks made by senior officials of the administration clarifying the official political stance of the US contained no word showing any willingness to co-exist with the DPRK or make a switchover in its policy toward it.
On the contrary, they have declared it as their final goal to terminate the tyranny, defined the DPRK, too, as an "outpost of tyranny" and blustered that they would not rule out the use of force when necessary.
And they pledged to build a world based on the US view on value through the "spread of American style liberty and democracy."
The true intention of the second-term Bush administration is not only to further its policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK pursued by the first-term office but to escalate it. As seen above, the US has declared a new ideological stand-off aimed at a "regime change" in the DPRK while talking much about "peaceful and diplomatic solution" to the nuclear issue and the "resumption of the six-party talks" in a bid to mislead the world public opinion.
This is nothing but a far-fetched logic of gangsters as it is a good example fully revealing the wicked nature and brazen-faced double-dealing tactics of the U.S. as a master hand at plot-breeding and deception.
The DPRK has clarified its stand that it would not pursue anti-Americanism and treat the US as a friendly nation if it neither slanders the political system in the DPRK nor interferes in its internal affairs. It has since made every possible effort to settle the nuclear issue and improve the bilateral relations.
However, the US interpreted this as a sign of weakness, defiled the dignified political system in the DPRK chosen by its people and wantonly interfered in its internal affairs. The US, turning down the DPRK's request to roll back its anti-DPRK hostile policy, a major stumbling block in the way of settling the nuclear issue, treated it as an enemy and, not content with this, totally rejected it, terming it "tyranny." This deprived the DPRK of any justification to negotiate with the U.S. and participate in the six-party talks.
Is it not self-contradictory and unreasonable for the US to urge the DPRK to come out to the talks while negating its dialogue partner? This is the height of impudence.
The US now foolishly claims to stand by the people in the DPRK while negating the government chosen by the people themselves. We advise the US to negotiate with dealers in peasant markets it claims they are to its liking or with representatives of "the organization of north Korean defectors" on its payroll if it wishes to hold talks.
Japan is now persistently pursuing its hostile policy toward the DPRK, toeing the US line.
Moreover, it fabricated the issue of false remains over the "abduction issue" that had already been settled in a bid to nullify the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration and stop any process to normalize diplomatic relations with the DPRK. How can we sit at the negotiating table with such a party?
It is the trend of the new century and wish of humankind to go in for peace, co-existence and prosperity irrespective of differing ideology, system and religious belief.
It is by no means fortuitous that the world people raise their voices cursing and censuring the Bush administration as a group pursuing tyranny prompted by its extreme misanthropy, swimming against such trend of the world.
We have shown utmost magnanimity and patience for the past four years since the first Bush administration swore in.
We can not spend another four years as we did in the past four years and there is no need for us to repeat what we did in those years.
The DPRK Foreign Ministry clarifies as following to cope with the grave situation created by the US hostile policy toward the DPRK:
First. We have wanted the six-party talks but we are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period till we have recognized that there is justification for us to attend the talks and there are ample conditions and atmosphere to expect positive results from the talks.
The present deadlock of the six-party talks is attributable to the US hostile policy toward the DPRK.
There is no justification for us to participate in the six-party talks again given that the Bush administration termed the DPRK, a dialogue partner, an "outpost of tyranny", putting into the shade the hostile policy, and totally negated it.
Second. The US disclosed its attempt to topple the political system in the DPRK at any cost, threatening it with a nuclear stick. This compels us to take a measure to bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal in order to protect the ideology, system, freedom and democracy chosen by its people.
It is the spirit of the Korean people true to the Songun politics to respond to good faith and the use of force in kind.
We had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the NPT and have manufactured nukes for self-defence to cope with the Bush administration's evermore undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK.
Its nuclear weapons will remain nuclear deterrent for self-defence under any circumstances.
The present reality proves that only powerful strength can protect justice and truth.
The US evermore reckless moves and attempt to attack the DPRK only reinforce its pride of having already consolidated the single-minded unity of the army and people and increased the capability for self-defence under the uplifted banner of Songun. The DPRK's principled stand to solve the issue through dialogue and negotiations and its ultimate goal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula remain unchanged.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005 3:35:11 PM ||
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I'll give it a 5. It would have been a 4, but the "This is the height of impudence." made me imagine a high-pitched French voice, so I'll give it an extra point for arrogance. Not enough Songun for my taste.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/10/2005 15:58 Comments ||
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I'd give them an extra 1/2 point for getting "toeing the US line" correct. So many non-native English speakers use the homonym "towing" instead. But no juche or Army first. How disappointing!
The Bush administration, chafing under North Korea (news - web sites)'s retreat from multilateral talks on nuclear disarmament, sought Thursday to push Pyongyang back to the bargaining table and warned that it faces increasing international isolation.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) had to confront the issue head-on as the North Koreans announced their renunciation of six-party talks as she was wrapping up her first international trip as the top U.S. diplomat. At a meeting of European Union (news - web sites) leaders in Luxembourg, she said the world community had given North Korea "a way out" and said its leaders should take it.
President Bush (news - web sites)'s press secretary, Scott McClellan, talked similarly back in the United States, telling reporters traveling with Bush that the United States still wants six-party talks.
"We remain committed to a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the nuclear issue with regards to North Korea," McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to a presidential appearance in Fargo, N.D. "It's time to talk about how to move forward."
Both Rice and McClellan played down any significance of North Korea's dramatic public announcement Thursday that it has nuclear weapons. "We've heard this kind of rhetoric from North Korea before," McClellan said.
U.S. officials believe North Korea may have anywhere from four to two dozen nuclear devices, depending on the assumptions used about the bombs' designs.
The United States, South Korea (news - web sites), China, Japan and Russia have struggled to arrange a fourth round of talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs. The last round was held last June.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said the Bush administration has failed to sufficiently pressure China to use its leverage with the North Koreans and said the administration also should consider direct, two-party talks with North Korea.
"This administration has not paid enough attention to the situation in North Korea," Pelosi said. "The North Koreans know that we are otherwise occupied in military actions in other parts of the world and they have taken the liberty to be brazen."
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he did not know whether North Korea had the weapons it claimed, but "one has to be concerned about it from a proliferation standpoint."
"One has to worry about weapons of that power in leadership of that nature," he added. "I don't think anyone would characterize the leadership in that country as being restrained."
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, noted that the North Korean government had been laying the groundwork for the announcement for some time, with less public statements aimed at revealing a nuclear deterrent.
For example, the regime privately told Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly in 2002 that it had a secret uranium-enrichment program that violated its 1994 agreement.
North Korea's announcement Thursday came one week after anonymous Bush administration officials said there was strong evidence that North Korea sold processed uranium to Libya.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005 3:33:56 PM ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005 16:14 Comments ||
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Real good, Nancy. Think you might give Bubba, Jimmah, and that Notbright woman a call and maybe ask them what the fuck happened to that deal they cut with them? Nah...
The Melbourne Magistrates Court has heard a 31-year-old Victorian man facing terrorism charges was approached by an Al Qaeda member on behalf of Osama Bin Laden to act as a sleeper in Australia. Lawyers for Joseph "Jack" Thomas have today made a third application for his release on bail. Thomas is charged with three offences including receiving money from, and providing support to Al Qaeda when he was living in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003.
He was arrested last November and is being held in Victoria's Barwon prison. The court heard that Thomas was trained at a camp in Pakistan, where he met Osama Bin Laden on more than one occasion, and continued to associate with people linked to Al Qaeda after the September 11 attacks. It is alleged Thomas was approached by an Al Qaeda member on behalf of Osama Bin Laden, who asked him to act as a sleeper cell in Australia. Ian Thomas also told the court that his son expressed horror and dismay over the September 11 attacks during a phone call within days of the strikes. His father also told the court his son's spirits are low and he desperately misses his family. Chief Magistrate Ian Gray is now considering the bail application.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005 12:04:41 AM ||
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KARLSRUHE, Germany - German federal prosecutors will be taking no action against US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over alleged war crimes, chief prosecutor Kay Nehm said Thursday. The prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe had been asked by a US organization to indict Rumsfeld for war crimes and torture in connection with detainee abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. However Nehm said the complaint would not be pursued. Any criminal investigations were a matter for judicial authorities in the United States as Rumsfeld was a US citizen.
Because the German authorities aren't nutters.
There was also no indication that any German nationals were involved in the activities, which were the subject of the complaint, he said. The New York-based Center for So-Called Constitutional Rights had filed an action in December alleging violations of German legislation which outlaws war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide independent of the place of crime or origin of the accused. It remains unclear whether Rumsfeld will attend a major security conference in Munich this weekend. The defence chief had made it know immediately after the emergence of the indictment probe that he would not attend unless the effort was quashed by German authorities. Rumsfeld last Thursday said he wasn't sure if he would attend the International Conference on Security Policy, adding that the possibility of German criminal action against him was "something that we have to take into consideration".
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2005 2:27:19 PM ||
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Good - Rummy's doing a surprise visit to the troops in Iraq, he's kinda busy right now, but applause to the German adults for taking charge....now, we need to take a look at the "Center"'s membership rolls and backing
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005 23:34 Comments ||
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#6
in 20 years theyll be complaining about the whites coming back in and displacing the poor.
And gentrification. I see a lot of those Stop Gentrification stickers as I hike around D.C. I guess I translate that internally to "Keep Our Neighborhood Crappy".
#8
in 20 years theyll be complaining about the whites coming back in and displacing the poor.
Heh.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/10/2005 14:45 Comments ||
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#9
This process is happening all across Western Europe....It's so wonderfull how European goverments are creating a Europe that will implode like Yugoslavia imploded after Tito died in about 10 to 15 years.....
#11
An interesting axiom about government: when leftists are in charge of a city, the streets and other infrastructure are in disrepair, but there are plenty of "social services" that sustain themselves on an ever-growing pool of the poor. When conservatives are in charge, the infrastructure is kept in good repair, and there are minimal "social services", the poor being strongly encouraged not to need them. This applies just as much to Little Rock, AR, as it does to London. It is also interesting to note that "white flight" is strongly happening in Little Rock, too. If London gets a conservative government, that starts to systematically 'gentrify' the run-down areas of the city, like Giuliani did to Times Square, the trend will reverse, and "whites" will come back in droves.
NICE, France - NATO Defence chiefs gathered in Nice on Thursday for talks set to focus on boosting training for Iraqi security forces and expanding a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, key fronts in the US war on terror. Meeting his NATO counterparts on the French riviera, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was notably expected to press them to commit to helping the Iraq mission either with staff or funds despite their divisions over the war there.
Rumsfeld signalled progress even before the informal talks started over dinner Wednesday night, voicing hope that elections in Iraq last month had opened the way for European nations to set aside their differences. "I think people will increasingly want to be a part of that," said Rumsfeld.
And a senior US official accompanying Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, also in Europe ahead of a summit trip by President George W. Bush later this month, said six or seven NATO countries had already offered to provide help. Another half a dozen nations were said to be considering making a contribution, either of training staff inside or outside Iraq or through a special trust fund set up to fund such projects. "I think there was a kind of coming together (on) the common purpose that the Iraqi people have given us to support their historic turn for the better," Rice told a news conference in Brussels.
The US push comes ahead of President Bush's February 22 summit visit to Brussels, where he will meet NATO and EU counterparts in what Washington hopes will be a symbolic closing of the Iraq war chapter.
While both sides seem keen to bury the hatchet, both Rice's and Rumsfeld's trips have been clouded notably by strains over Iran, as well as EU plans to lift an arms embargo on China, fiercely opposed by Washington. But one front certain to see good news this month is Afghanistan: NATO Defence ministers were expected to trumpet a decision to expand the 8,300-member NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). European NATO allies Spain, Italy and Lithuania are expected to offer to lead two more provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs), opening the way for ISAF's expanding into remote areas of western Afghanistan.
So long as they actually follow-through.
The Nice talks are likely to discuss plans, again driven by the United States, for an increasing integration of the NATO-led ISAF force with the US Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). While no concrete decisions are expected, diplomats said that resistance in Europe to the integration plan, and even an eventual merger of the two Afghan forces, appears to be diminishing.
The Nice talks are the first such meeting in France for some four decades, in what some see as symbolizing an easing of French strains with the NATO alliance. Those tensions date from long before the Iraq crisis, starting even before General Charles de Gaulle pulled France out of NATO's integrated military command in 1966. "It is an interesting signal that they are no longer hung up about it," commented one diplomat.
Maybe they figured out how irrelevant they are by themselves?
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Whole story at the link, apparently MANY people were heading to the house but the eyesore was already gone. I heard the police are looking for possible suspects, but are not confident they will ever find the perps. I know the 1st amendment purists are against me on this but I am very proud of my fellow Californians.
I heard the neighbor across the street started out being the good neighbor (took Mr. Idiot to a Kings Game!). But the love was not returned to his Jewish neighbor as the idiot started flying the Palestinian flag in his front yard! Yup they are hard-core lefties! I hear that a TP posse is forming on Friday night! Yippe Ki YAY!
#1
Nah, it's in a trunk in their attic. These knuckleheads are lying to gin up sympathy and support in their resistance to oppression in Ashkkkroft Gonzales's regime.
#2
The camouflage fatigues, noose and U.S. flag that was bundled as a head were partially ripped down by someone who fell off the facade of the house in doing so, according to neighbors. The rest was taken by someone on a motorcycle, they said.
"We think it's patriotic what we're doing," said Stephen Pearcy, 44, who lives mostly in Berkeley. Virginia Pearcy, 27, presides occasionally as a pro tem judge for the Small Claims Court of Sacramento
very nice. Assholes. Their definition of patriotic doesn't match mine. Apparently they thought being attorneys would protect them? I'd raise the premium on their insurance if I was their agent
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005 16:05 Comments ||
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#3
Funny thing is the about the ONLY politician to take their side was Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo. The local radio and TV shows (except Err Amerika) were all over this. Funny with all that coverage nobody saw the perps take down the effigy. I am waiting for it to show up on some website as being held hostage. Both Pearcys are a couple of tools and actually live in Berkley. I guess they keep the Land Park home in case they need to rest after demonstrating at the Capital. I hope they go on National TV and spout some more crap. Like Ward Churchill the aint helping the left recruit anybody from the right or from the south.
Posted by: Kim Jong Il ||
02/10/2005 16:29 Comments ||
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#4
Wonder if they hung an effigy of a Black person and flew a White Power flag, how long the media, local governmental authorties, and academica would be there defending their 1st Admendment Rights?
Posted by: Just Thinking ||
02/10/2005 17:17 Comments ||
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#5
They're lucky. Somebody could've taken it down with a flamethrower...
#6
Of course, unlike California, flamethrowers ARE legal in our wonderful state of Tennessee. However, I am still unable to locate one to purchase for home defense at this time. I wonder if I can import one?
#7
We can just think of tearing the thing down as a valid act of civil obedience; the kind of thing that is enshrined in lefty dogma. That would be their defense if local left thugs had torn down a similar effigy of, say, a commie scumbag lawyer.
The House voted Thursday to make states verify that they're not giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and to grant judges broader power to deport political asylum seekers they suspect may be terrorists.
The legislation, passed by a 261-161 vote, also would allow the completion of a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border south of San Diego by waiving environmental hurdles. About friggin time - an alliance among illegals-supporters and enviros abused the enviro laws - this overrode them!
States would have three years to comply with the new federal standards dictating what features driver's licenses must have. They could still issue special driving permits to illegal aliens, but those permits would not be recognized as identities for boarding airlines or allowing entry to federal buildings. a big "ILLEGAL" required on it....kinda kills the need, huh?
Republicans said the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers had multiple driver's licenses that enabled them to slip through security and board the planes they flew into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and that crashed into the ground in Pennsylvania.
"There was a time when identification fraud was a matter of concern, principally, to bouncers and bartenders. But that was before Sept. 11, 2001," said Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
Ten states now don't require license applicants to prove they are citizens or legal residents: Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin and Utah. Tennessee issues driving certificates to people who cannot prove they are legal residents.
"Today there are over 350 valid driver's license designs issued by the 50 states," said the bill's author, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. "We all know it's very difficult for security officials at airports to tell the real ID cards from the counterfeit ones."
Governors, state legislatures and motor vehicle departments protested the bill, calling it a costly mandate that forces states to take on the role of immigration officers. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cost local, state and tribal governments $120 million over the next five years.
"The federal government can't seem to track the people it lets in the country, so it wants to put that burden off onto the states," said Cheye Calvo, a policy analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
A similar measure was rejected by Congress and the White House in December when it was part of a bill reorganizing intelligence agencies. It won the Bush administration's support this week but still faces stiff opposition in the Senate.
The bill is drawing criticism from Mexico as well, particularly its call to complete the building of a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border south of San Diego. "Can't hear you, maybe if you STFU, I could"
"We oppose those measures and that our migrants be denied driver's licenses," said Interior Secretary Santiago Creel. "We're against building any wall between our two countries because they are walls that increase our differences." riiigghhhtt
Democrats tried but failed to strip the bill of provisions that would let judges deport asylum seekers if they find inconsistencies in their claims rather than let them remain in the country until appeals are exhausted.
"We might as well say, 'If you are being persecuted or you are being abused as a woman or raped as a child, don't come to America.' They are raising the bar beyond the abilities of the individuals that are fleeing persecution," said Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005 11:20:24 PM ||
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#1
attaboy to Sensebrenner and "shame shame" on CA, AZ, NM, TX members for not pushing this first
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005 23:35 Comments ||
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#1
Be aware. When I posted an article on the issue yesterday, a couple of no-nothing human doormats made snide remarks. You would be better to avoid dialoguing with those termites in human form.
#2
Incredibly, Khan remains in the Bush Administration as General Counsel to the Federal Highway Administration, where heâs informed of all transports of military and nuclear weapons and hazardous material on federal highways.)
#3
Yes, indeed. The Voice Of Truth demands no dialoguing with no-nothing snide human doormats. Better yourself and avoid termites in human form, um, too. Villians. Be Aware.
The Philippine armed forces has demanded Muslim rebels in the southern island of Jolo surrender or suffer heavy casualties, as fighting enters its fourth day. More than 100 soldiers and supporters of jailed former Muslim separatist leader, Nur Misuari, have either been killed or wounded in some of the most intense fighting seen in the region for years. Chief of the military's southern command, Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza, says reinforcements dispatched to the area are enough to crush the rebels.
Clashes erupted on Jolo island on Monday following attacks by Mr Misuari's men against troops in several towns. They had joined forces with the Abu Sayyaf, who were fighting the troops. The area is a known stronghold of armed Muslim militants and the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels. The AFP news agency quotes officials as saying that his followers are demanding his detention be transferred to Jolo.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005 12:06:05 AM ||
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Tens of thousands of Iranians have braved blizzards to attend rallies marking the 1979 Islamic revolution. The government had urged people to turn out to show support for its nuclear programme amid pressure led by the US. President Mohammad Khatami told them Iran would become a "burning hell" for any country that invaded it.
Meanwhile, in Berlin, 1,000 or more Iranian exiles marched in protest, demanding democratic change in their home country. The rallies were held to mark the toppling in 1979 of the shah and the return of late leader Ayatollah Khomeini.
The biggest demonstration in Iran took place in the capital Tehran's snowy Azadi square, where tens of thousands gathered to hear an address by their president. Mr Khatami told them US "threats" of military action were "just part of the psychological war and the consequence of their failures". He said: "All the people of Iran are united against any attack and any threats. Any invader will find Iran to be a burning hell for them." The crowds turned out despite the city being virtually paralysed by heavy snowfalls in its worst winter for decades. The BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran says those in power want to show they have genuine popular support, and make it far more difficult for the Americans to topple the regime.
The counter-demonstration in Berlin went ahead despite originally being banned for alleged links with the exiled People's Mujahideen opposition, which is branded a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union. A German court overturned the ban. Demonstrators marched from western Berlin to the Brandenburg Gate, carrying signs in French and German calling for democracy in Iran and supporting the Mujahideen's exiled co-leader, Maryam Rajavi. Some of them said they wanted a peaceful revolution, but other marchers called for an invasion to remove the theocratic government from power.
US President George Bush has refused to rule out military action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons - though he also emphasised the role of diplomacy. Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. Mr Khatami said on Thursday: "We give our guarantee that we will not produce nuclear weapons because we are against them and do not believe they are a source of power." But he added: "We will not give up peaceful nuclear technology."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005 3:54:43 PM ||
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#1
the 10s of thousands are the people on the mullah's payrolls
I do like the part about it being a heavy snowfall in the worst winter in decades. It reminds me of Al Gore giving a Jan 03 speech about global warming on the one of the coldest days to hit NYC in decades.
#2
Iranians in Tehran brave the worst winter weather in 34 years to hear Khatami promise that any invader will find Iran to be a burning hell. He's lucky they didn't start doing welcoming cheers for The Great Satan.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/10/2005 21:05 Comments ||
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MOSCOW - The Russian atomic energy agency said on Thursday it would sign a key agreement with Iran on the return of nuclear fuel later this month that would complete Moscow's construction of the Islamic state's first nuclear power plant.
The ITAR-TASS news agency quoted the agency's spokesman Nikolai Shingaryov as saying that the elusive agreement, which has been delayed for over a year, would be signed during atomic energy chief Alexander Rumyantsev visit's to Iran scheduled for February 25-27. "We plan to sign, in Tehran, an additional protocol on the return of spent nuclear fuel to Russia," the spokesman was quoted as saying.
Oh yeah, I'm sure it'll all be accounted for in the end.
The fuel's return has remained the key impediment to the 800 million dollar Bushehr project. Russia and the West both fear that Iran could reprocess the spent fuel delivered from Russia by upgrading it through centrifuges to either make a weak "dirty bomb" or an actual nuclear weapon.
Russia fears this? News to me.
Tehran has in the past used various arguments to avoid signing the agreement. It has said the material was too volatile and dangerous to transport back to Russia and also that Moscow was charging too much for the fuel itself.
The United States and Israel had jointly launched an international campaign against Russia's Bushehr project but Moscow has countered that it would make sure the plant remained harmless to protect its own security interests.
And if you can't trust Vladimir Putin, who can you trust?
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2005 2:13:18 PM ||
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#1
Maybe someone more knowledgable about power reactors can answer this. What's to stop Iran from replacing the outer ring of Russian produced fuel rods with locally produced un-enriched uranium, irradiating those rods, and then extracting plutonium from them?
Posted by: ed ||
02/10/2005 14:52 Comments ||
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#2
Ahm... LOL.. that was the funnied question today! Bhwahahahahaha... ROFL
I don't want to get too technical, let's explain briefly... no, let's just summarize it: It won't work. All you'd get is un-enriched uranium irradiated rods.
Care to expand on your answer? I am no NucE. My limited understanding is that U-238 neutron capture results in Pu-239, which is highly fissile. Additional neutron capture results in less fissile isotopes. So for best performance, isotope separation is desired, but not neccessary for a crude bomb.
A quick google:
Plutonium is a by-product of the fission process in nuclear reactors, due to neutron capture by uranium-238 in particular. When operating, a typical nuclear reactor contains within its uranium fuel load about 325 kilograms of plutonium, with plutonium-239 being the most common isotope. Pu-239 is fissile, yielding much the same energy as the fission of a U-235 atom, and complementing it.
Well over half of the plutonium created in the reactor core is "burned" in situ and is responsible for about one third of the total heat output. Of the rest, one sixth through neutron capture becomes Pu-240 (and Pu-241), the balance emerges as Pu-239 in the spent fuel.
An ordinary large nuclear power reactor (1000 MWe LWR) gives rise to about 25 tonnes of spent fuel a year, containing up to 290 kilograms of plutonium. Plutonium, like uranium, is an immense energy source. The plutonium extracted from used reactor fuel can be used as a direct substitute for U-235 in the usual fuel, the Pu-239 being the main fissile part but Pu-241 also contributing.
Posted by: ed ||
02/10/2005 15:13 Comments ||
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#4
i think the issue is that those rods aint pure enough, you still got to concentrate the stuff.
#5
A sticking point in your scenario might be: The un-enriched rods would not produce as much power. The other rods would make up the difference, thus depleting faster requiring more frequent re-fueling. That surely would be detected even by the IAEA. Also, the in-core shift in power distribution to the U-235 enriched rods may produce undesired boiling, then melting then... Somebody call Jane Fonda.
#6
It's not a matter of concentration. Plutonium separation is just a matter of chemical separation, a fairly simple process. Weapons grade plutionium is made by irraditing U-238 for a few months (short time = mostly Pu-239, less other Pu isotopes). The US and other declared nuke powers use dedicated reactors for this. But what's to stop a regime like Iran from serrupticiously using a commercial reactor to do the same thing?
Posted by: ed ||
02/10/2005 15:39 Comments ||
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#7
Thanks Zpaz. But the reactor might be run at less than designed power and musical fuel rods can be played when the U-238->Pu239 rods are exchanged every few months. So what kind of monitoring will there be? Will there be an outside monitor watching the reactor ops?
Posted by: ed ||
02/10/2005 15:49 Comments ||
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#8
Ed,
Your explanation in #3 is accurate. There is nothing to stop a state from Iran from diverting plutonium.
Zpaz's description of what occurs inside the reactor is incorrect.
Also, so what if someone's monitoring it? Does anyone think the UN has the balls to do anything about it?
#9
Your welcome Ed. I had the same thought. Run at a lower power. That sounds feasible. Hopefully a spy on the ground can point out they are not running at full power or you can detect it from the amount of rejected heat. All power processes reject about 2/3 of the heat produced in the reactor. Where you reject to is typically a river, lake or atmosphere via cooling towers. You would be able to estimate power levels from the reject heat plumes. Some conventional plants use waste heat to heat buildings at which point it would be harder to detect.
Also, re-fueling is a major operation that is detectable from satellite because with the reactor shutdown your waste heat plumes go away. Everyone will be watching for those indications. More frequent shutdowns should raise eyebrows, but knowing the bureaucrats, they might write shutdowns off to poor maintenance forcing the shutdowns.
#10
Thanks Dreadnought. I am hoping monitoring may cause the Iranians to fear a US attack, not that I think the US would attack an operating reactor, but attack the regime itself.
Posted by: ed ||
02/10/2005 16:04 Comments ||
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#11
How so Dreadnought? The overall reactivity in your core is less with the U-238 heavy rods installed. That means more frequent refueling regardless of how you might try to shift power distribution in the core.
#12
Ed, you are confusing FBR (fast breeder-unmoderated) reactor type with the standard type of reactor. FBR design allows for surrounding the core with U-238 tubes that get bombarded with neutrons and part gets converted to Pu-239. You need high grade fuel for this type of generation of fissile material (usually 20% of PU-239 and highly enriched uranium oxide--don't remember from the top of my head what the degree of enhancement is necessary). You need also a good metallic coolant, mercury, lead or NaK. Water won't work, will simply boil off in no time.
In the case of standard reactor, what would happen is that the outer ring of the U-238 rods would function as inhibitor on the reaction of the next ring, which would again influnce the next ring--an uneven distribution of fission process, with the temperature gradient towards central segment. As Zpaz points out, this may produce undesired effects like structural problems, namely bent rods that may lock the system. If caught in time, this may not result in meltdown. So, in the end you may get a miniscule amount of Pu-239 in the outer ring U-238 rods, but your reactor may be going into a scrap.
U.S. intelligence is unlikely to know much about Iran's contentious nuclear program and could be vulnerable to manipulation for political ends, former intelligence officers and other experts say. Amid an escalating war of words between Washington and Tehran, the experts say they doubt the CIA has been able to recruit agents with access to the small circle of clerics who control the Islamic Republic's national security policy.
Serious doubts also surround the effectiveness of an expanded intelligence role for the Pentagon, which former intelligence officials say is preparing covert military forays to look for evidence near suspected weapons facilities. "I will be highly remarkably surprised if the United States has (intelligence) assets in the organs of power," said Ray Takeyh, an Iran expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"They don't even know who the second-tier Revolutionary Guards are," he added.
Doubts about U.S. intelligence on Iran have arisen amid talk of possible military strikes by the United States or Israel against suspected nuclear weapons facilities. Former chief weapons inspector David Kay, the first to declare U.S. intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq a failure, warned that the Bush administration is again relying on evidence from dissidents, as it did in prewar Iraq. "The tendency is to force the intelligence to support the political argument," Kay said in a CNN interview on Wednesday.
He added that the CIA has yet to give U.S. policymakers an up-to-date comprehensive intelligence assessment on Iran. "We're talking about military action against Iran and we don't have a national intelligence estimate that shows what we do know, what we don't know and the basis for what we think we know," Kay said.
Problems arose for U.S. intelligence in Iran a quarter of a century ago after the Islamic revolution, when Washington cut diplomatic ties following the seizure of the American embassy by student radicals.
Richard Perle, the influential neoconservative thinker who was a driving force behind the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, said intelligence suffered a major setback in Iran with the arrest of about 40 agents in the mid-1990s. "As I understand it, virtually our entire network in Iran was wiped out," Perle recently told the House of Representatives intelligence committee. "I think we're in very bad shape in Iran," he said.
Some intelligence analysts argue a preemptive strike is the only way to delay Iranian nuclear-weapons production, despite the Bush administration's public emphasis on diplomacy.
U.S. intelligence has had a huge credibility problem over reports that prewar Iraq possessed large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and was pursuing nuclear arms. The assertions were one of several a main justification for the 2003 U.S. invasion, but no such weapons have been found. "If U.S. intelligence was bad in Iraq, and it was atrocious, it's probably going to be worse vis-a-vis Iran," said Richard Russell, a former CIA analyst who teaches at the National Defense University.
The task of recruiting useful agents in Iran faces immense hurdles posed by a secretive decision-making hierarchy and widespread mistrust of the U.S. government, experts said. "People have worked their whole lives on the 'Iran problem' and they'll finish their lives with a huge 'A' for effort and probably a 'C' in terms of recruited human sources," said a former senior intelligence official who asked not to be named.
Not even covert forays into Iran by U.S. military units would likely bear much fruit, the former official added. "They're never going to find anything out of substance except that there's some mysterious place in the desert with barbed wire and mines around it," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005 12:31:38 AM ||
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No, David, the tendency is to make prudent decisions where the burden falls on the proven reckless genocidal WMD-building rogue state up to its neck in ties to terrorism including the new global nasty variety, when the question is mass-casualty attacks on the US and its allies. Sheesh. If US intel had "huge credibility problems" then why is the world seized with the problems of nukes in NoKo and Iran? The huge credibility problem is with David Kay and like-minded folks who can't think straight or keep their facts straight or exhibit much common sense.
#3
Verlaine, interesting take. However, from what I interpret your post to mean, is David Kay speaking of "credibility intelligence"? (ie info to validate the argument about Iranian WMDs)
I'm more concerned about tactical/strategic intelligence such as "where as the bombs" ...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
02/10/2005 2:36 Comments ||
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US lacking HUMINT on Iran
Well, DUH. And on a lot of other countries, too.
For that you can thank Frank Church - may he rot in hell - and successor weasels. (May they rot there, too.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/10/2005 15:06 Comments ||
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Amen, Barbara. Few have done more to harm the US than the Church Commission.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has said Tehran will never give up nuclear technology, as international pressure on his government continues to mount. He warned of "massive" consequences if Iran was treated unfairly.
Mr Khatami said again that the nuclear programme was peaceful and needed to produce power, rejecting US suspicions that it is a cover for weapons. EU powers want Tehran to end uranium enrichment - a key part of nuclear arms production - permanently. "We give our guarantee that we will not produce nuclear weapons because we're against them and do not believe they are a source of power," Mr Khatami told foreign ambassadors in Tehran. "But we will not give up peaceful nuclear technology," he added.
In Washington, President George W Bush said a nuclear-armed Iran would be "a very destabilising force in the world" and urged the West to work together to stop such an outcome. The message was reinforced by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a tour of Europe this week. She said Washington had no deadline to refer the issue to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions, adding that diplomacy had to be given every chance to work.
While talks with Germany, France and Britain continue in Geneva, Iran has suspended uranium enrichment, which can be used to make weapons-grade fuel. But in his speech Mr Khatami said that enrichment was "our clear right" and that Iran had suspended it only "to show our goodwill". He added: "If we feel others are not meeting their promises, under no circumstances would we be committed to continue fulfilling ours.
"And we will adopt a new policy, the consequences of which are massive and would be the responsibility of those who broke their commitments."
He doesn't even have a nuclear saber yet, and he's already rattling it.
The European countries would like to use a package of incentives to induce Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions, but Tehran has said it is disappointed with what is on offer so far. It says it can only continue talks for a matter of months, not years.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005 12:23:20 AM ||
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But in his speech Mr Khatami said that enrichment was "our clear right" and that Iran had suspended it only "to show our goodwill".
Khatami added...
The Great Satan sends that troublesome infidel women to Europe to stir things up....@#$@%$^%(%(&%*$*&^%.
#2
"And we will adopt a new policy, the consequences of which are massive and would be the responsibility of those who broke their commitments."
Can't argue with that. 5, 4, 3, 2...
Posted by: Tom ||
02/10/2005 14:16 Comments ||
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The U.S. military is updating its war plan for Iran, a senior officer said yesterday, but he called the planning routine and said pressure on Tehran to curb a nuclear weapons program remains a diplomatic rather than military effort.
"We are in that process, that normal process, of updating our war plans," said Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for U.S. forces across the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of North Africa. "We try to keep them current, particularly if . . . our region is active," he said in response to reporters' questions at a Pentagon news conference.
Smith indicated the Iran contingency planning grew out of a broad, long-range effort to freshen routine plans for countries in the region and was not the product of a specific or urgent request.
"I haven't been called into any late-night meetings at, you know, 8 o'clock at night, saying, 'Holy cow, we got to sit down and go plan for Iran,' " he said. "I'm not spending any of my time worrying about the nuclear proliferation in Iran," he said, adding that at this stage diplomatic efforts by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are "adequate for our needs."
Smith's comments came after a week in which the Bush administration repeatedly warned Iran to give up what Washington contends is an effort to gain nuclear weapons.
Earlier yesterday, Rice told reporters in Brussels that the United States and its European allies have made their nonproliferation demands clear but have set "no deadline" for action by Tehran. "The Iranians know what they need to do. They shouldn't be permitted, under cover of civilian nuclear power . . . to try to build a nuclear weapon," she said.
At the White House, President Bush emphasized that the United States and Europe will "speak with one voice" in pressuring Iran. "The Iranians just need to know that the free world is working together to send a very clear message: . . . Don't develop a nuclear weapon," he said yesterday at an Oval Office appearance with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. Bush said he was "pleased" with the responses European leaders gave Rice in discussions on Iran.
Day to day, Smith said, the U.S. military is focused less on the long-range threat of a nuclear Iran than on Tehran's immediate efforts to gain political influence in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the cross-border flow of fighters from Iran that feed Iraq's insurgency.
Iran backed certain Iraqi candidates for the new National Assembly to try to gain sway over a future Iraqi government, he said. Tehran is also lending some support for the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose militia staged two bloody uprisings against the U.S.-led occupation in several Iraqi cities last year, he said.
"We have always been concerned about Iran's intentions in Iraq, and we have also had some difficulty following them," he said.
A man sought by the United States as a top leader of the Iraq insurgency, former Iraqi vice president Izzat Ibrahim Douri, could be traveling back and forth to Iraq from Iran or from Syria, Smith said. Douri is No. 6 on the U.S. most-wanted list of former Iraqi leaders.
Smith also said he thinks fighters tied to the Lebanese Shiite political group Hezbollah, whose military wing is funded by Iran, have been apprehended in Iraq. He could not confirm reports this week in the Arab news media that cited Iraq's interior minister as saying 18 members of Hezbollah had been detained in Iraq on terrorism charges. "I personally do not believe that Hezbollah has suddenly become a bigger threat than al Qaeda or former regime elements" in Iraq, he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005 12:07:45 AM ||
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I wish President Reagan was still alert and around for this one.
#2
Smith to Hezbollah guy: It seems you have been leading two lives. In one you are on a trek to an Iraqi holy site, and the other you are a terrorist for the Mad Mullahs. Only one of these has a future.
Syria backs the Palestinian president's bid to improve relations with Israel and hopes developments there may lead to peace in the Middle East, Syria's ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday. But
There's always a "but," isn't there?
Ambassador Imad Moustapha said relations between his country and the United States were much rockier than in the past and that he was "shocked" when US President George W Bush called Syria an obstacle to peace in his state of the union address last week.
"I was shocked! Shocked!"
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared a cease-fire on Tuesday at a summit in Egypt aimed at ending four years of bloodshed and reviving peace talks. "We are very supportive of what he is trying to do," Moustapha said of Abbas in a seminar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. "We are hopeful that what is happening right now in the Middle East might evolve into a comprehensive and fair Middle East peace. So we are watchful and crossing our fingers," Moustapha said.
Are you rounding up Hezbollah members and shooting them on the spot? No? Then you're not serious.
He said Syria was stunned when Bush singled the country out for criticism in his speech because Syria has tried without success to initiate peace talks with Israel during the past 18 months. The president accused Syria of allowing what he described as terrorists to use Syrian and Lebanese territory to "destroy every chance of peace" in the Middle East. "I cannot deny that on a personal level I was shocked when I was attending the speech and President Bush said Syria is an obstacle to peace in the Middle East," Moustapha said. "US-Syrian relations are going through a very difficult phase. We've always had disagreements with United States policies toward the Middle East, but we never had such similar difficulties. Sometimes we think we are being treated unfairly. We are, like, being blamed for their own failures."
More like being blamed for your own failures.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Assad: "Hey Abbas, I'll pretend to help you out, if put in a good word for me, next time you see Bush."
Of course, nobody ever listens to Khatami anymore...
President Mohammad Khatami warned European countries on Wednesday that Tehran could reverse commitments made on its nuclear programme, saying Iran was faced with "psychological warfare".
"If you feel that we are not respecting your engagements then we will adopt a different policy and the heavy consequences of this policy will burden those who have not respected their engagements," he said in a speech to foreign diplomats, state television reported.
Did that make any sense? Anyone? Bueller?
His comments came as the European Union pressed on with talks in Geneva to persuade Iran to give guarantees it is not developing nuclear weapons. Iran has suspended its controversial uranium enrichment work while the talks continue."Those who have being thumping the drums of war and have launched psychological warfare against Iran must know that the Iranian people will not allow the aggressors to put one foot on Iranian soil," he said in a reference to the United States. "But if this ever arrives the aggressors will be burned in the hell of the storm of the people's anger," Khatami added.
I can feel my stomach roasting in hell right now... (I gotta stop eating chili.)
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 ||
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âIf you feel that we are not respecting your engagements then we will adopt a different policy and the heavy consequences of this policy will burden those who have not respected their engagements,â Did that make any sense? Anyone?
If we translate "not respecting your engagement" as "cheating on your fiance", then this is a quite wise warning that if you cheat on your girlfriend she may then "adopt a different policy" where you will return to your apartment to find your cd collection missing and your computer soaking in the bathtub. In the best of scenarios.
#2
Darn, Aris, that must have sucked! I feel with you, man! :-)
I can supply plethora of similar experiences, based on lesser sins than cheating (which is not in my behavioral patterns at all). I am not sure why wymon have this windictive streak, cuz I don't.
#7
Simple summary - If the US comes in militarily, I, Khatami, will be trusted by no one, either the mullahs on the one hand, or the dissidents on the other. I might as well write my will now.The best I can hope for is that the current situation keeps muddling by, unlikely though that is. Therefore I will call for compromise of some kind, though in increasingly incoherent terms.
An Iraqi politician whose two sons were gunned down Tuesday blasted the attackers and the group that may be behind the killings. Mithal al-Alusi, a moderate Sunni Muslim, isn't the only one speaking out against terrorists lately. Following an estimated voter turnout of more than 50 percent in the Jan. 30 election for a new 275-member assembly, many are starting to feel more courageous. On Thursday Al-Alusi attacked the Association of Muslim Scholars, accusing them of siding with terrorists. Many Iraq politicians have said privately for more than a year that the largest Sunni Muslim political group is the political arm of insurgents in Iraq, who are believed to be a mix of former Saddam loyalists and foreign fighters.
Comes as a surprise, huh? Who'da ever thunkit?
"The Committee of Muslim Scholars is a political party. I warn them, and I mean it, to stop siding with terrorism," al-Alusi told media gathered at his house while he waited for the bodies of his sons to arrive home. "They will be punished by the criminal law."
I think it'd be a better idea to shoot them all, myself...
In Tuesday morning's attack, the leader of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation decided unexpectedly not to go with his sons, Ayman, 22, and Jamal, 30, just before their car was shot up by gunmen about 200 yards from the house in Baghdad. A bodyguard was also killed. Sheikhs of the group associated with former president Saddam Hussein called for a boycott of the Jan. 30 elections. Some other Sunni groups that boycotted, including the Iraq Islamic Party, now are asking for a seat at the table in writing a new constitution.
"We wuz just kiddin'. We'll take charge now..."
While al-Alusi stopped short of blaming the Association of Muslim Scholars for masterminding the killing of his sons, others have been outspoken recently about past assassinations. Former intelligence officials are still free who were ordered by then deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz to kill his father-in-law in 1994 in Beirut, minister of human rights Baktiar Amin said Tuesday. Assassins were paid for the job with 7 million barrels of oil that should have been monitored by the United Nations under the former oil-for-food humanitarian program, Amin said bitterly. It was impossible to verify his claim. "Tariq Aziz was a Christian puppet," Amin said. "This is an example of how oil-for-food was used for international terrorism."
And of how very useful the UN actually is...
But the Sunni Muslim Iraq Islamic Party has sounded a more conciliatory note recently. Even if it doesn't accept the new elected government as legitimate, the group wants to be involved in writing a new constitution, spokesman Tarek al-Hashimi said. "All of the sides want to keep this dialogue going," al-Hashimi said. "What we want to do is write a draft constitution." Officials from the Association of Muslim Scholars say they will not be involved until a timetable for U.S. withdrawal is agreed. Phone calls to several leaders of the group went unanswered Thursday afternoon.
And now the good part...
At the same time, Iraq police have changed their tactics in an attempt to put fear into terrorists, said Sabah Kadim, an Interior Ministry spokesman. Pick-up trucks bristling with men holding machine guns, their faces covered by ski masks, are now roaring around the streets of Baghdad, sometimes in packs. The patrols are similar to those under the former Saddam Hussein regime. "If they can't overpower these people, the situation will continue. What good are they?" Kadim said. As attackers started showing up with two or three cars packed with men and machine guns, the police decided to fight fire with fire, Kadim said. "With eight to 16 people with machine guns, (insurgents) could overwhelm one car or an officer directing traffic," Kadim said. "The police need some power."
Posted by: Steve ||
02/10/2005 3:18:56 PM ||
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AMMAN - Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Mulki said preparations were underway for a five-way meeting of Israel's neighbours in Damascus to revive an Arab peace plan, as he started Thursday a one-day visit to Syria. Mulki, in statements to Al Rai and Al Dustour dailies, said the meeting would bring together Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and the Palestinians in a bid to revive the Arab initiative for peace with Israel that was launched at a summit in Lebanon in 2002.
He said that he would discuss the meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara during his visit, as well as briefing officials on the outcome of Tuesday's landmark summit in Egypt between Israel and the Palestinians. The five-way meeting would be aimed at "coordinating Arab positions concerning the peace process and the developments surrounding it," Mulki said. He did not indicate when it would be held.
It's the Arab version of cat herding.
In the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas declared a mutual ceasefire in the presence of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II. In remarks at the summit, host Mubarak expressed hopes for a resumption of the Syrian and Lebanese peace tracks with Israel which have also been frozen for several years.
Mulki's spokesman Rajab Sukayri meanwhile told Petra newspaper that the Syrian and Jordanian foreign ministers will seek to fine-tune the Arab peace initiative which could be submitted to a summit of Arab leaders in Algiers in March. Mulki is also expected to start a two-day visit to Oman on Saturday and travels Monday to Kuwait to prepare for the Arab summit scheduled to take place March 22-23, which he said should "deal seriously" with Iraq and the Palestinian issue.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2005 2:22:28 PM ||
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Hizbollah guerrillas are trying to recruit Palestinian militants for attacks on Israelis in order to sabotage Middle East peace efforts, senior Palestinian officials said on Wednesday. The accusations, a day after Israel and the Palestinians announced a cease-fire, echoed charges from the Jewish state. The officials declined to be identified.
Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, said in a statement no such contacts had taken place, and a senior Palestinian security adviser said he had received assurances that Hizbollah would abide by the truce.
A top Palestinian official said security services were investigating Hizbollah funding for militants in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Another said links were spotted via intercepted communications. "We know that Hizbollah has been trying to recruit suicide bombers in the name of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to wage attacks that would sabotage the truce," an official said about an armed group of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction.
Another official said intercepted e-mail communications and bank transactions suggested Hizbollah had raised its cash offers to militants, but it was unclear if this reflected a heightened desire to see violence flare up or a dearth of recruits. "Now they are willing to pay $100,000 for a whole operation (suicide bombing) whereas in the past they paid $20,000, then raised it to $50,000," the second official told Reuters.
Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced a cease-fire at a summit in Egypt on Tuesday to end four years of bloodshed and prepare the ground for peacemaking. Militants have said they are not bound by the truce, but will maintain a recent calm at the request of Abbas.
Israel has long accused Hizbollah, whose attacks helped end its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in 2000, of bankrolling a Palestinian revolt that erupted later that year. Hizbollah has acknowledged some support for Palestinian militant groups. Palestinian officials blamed a recent attack in the West Bank city of Nablus on the guerrilla group. Officials accused Hizbollah of sending money to the West Bank and Gaza via relatives among the 400,000-strong Palestinian refugee community in Lebanon.
Many refugees who fled the 1948 war of Israel's creation fear that Abbas will abandon demands for a "right to return" to lands inside Israel, though he has said he would not.
Senior Palestinian security adviser Jibril al-Rajoub said Lebanese officials had told him during talks in Beirut that Hizbollah would not sabotage efforts at calm. "Hizbollah will respect the decision of the leadership of the Palestinian people of their commitment to the cease-fire."
Representatives of al-Aqsa Brigades, a disparate coalition of gunmen, denied getting help from the Shi'ite guerrillas. "We respect Hizbollah but Palestinian resistance is capable of leading its struggle alone and is able to support itself by itself," said Abu Qusai, Gaza spokesman for the faction.
A Lebanese-born Palestinian with Danish citizenship awaits trial in Tel Aviv, accused of spying and trying to recruit Israeli Arabs for Hizbollah missions. He denies the charges.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005 12:43:25 AM ||
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#4
Iran, Syria, Syria, Iran. Follow the money and ideology it leads back to Iran with Syria's assent.
Europe needs to wake up and start piling on the pressure. If they want a stable ME and a solution to the Palestinian problem Syria and Iran and their support for terrorist acts have to be dealt with.
Adel Abdul Mahdi, one of the leading candidates to become the new Iraqi prime minister, recalled the day last year when he and other Iraqi leaders were summoned to the holy city of Najaf by the country's senior Shiite clerics.
The topic was the role of Islam in the new Iraqi state. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most powerful Shiite leader, questioned whether Mr. Mahdi and the others, members of the American-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, had the legitimacy to draft an interim constitution.
"You were not elected," Ayatollah Sistani told the group.
Mr. Mahdi says he did not hesitate to answer.
"You were not elected," he told the ayatollah.
With that, Mr. Mahdi and the others returned to the capital and drafted an interim constitution intended to govern Iraqi for the next year, naming Islam as a source, but not the only source, of legislation. The language bridged one of the most divisive issues in forming the new government, whether it should be secular or religious.
Mr. Mahdi, one of the leaders of the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite coalition on the verge of capturing a majority of seats in the national assembly, recalled the moment to illustrate the limitations of the Shiite clerics in political affairs here.
"Victory is the most dangerous moment," Mr. Mahdi, 63, said in an interview at his home in Baghdad this week. "There will be some people trying to push for extreme measures. If we start with such behavior, we will lose the country."
Mr. Mahdi, a witty, affable, French-trained economist who serves as the finance minister in the current government, personifies a strong secular current that runs through the alliance. That strand is likely to resist demands for an Iranian-style Islamic state, where ultimate power resides with clerics, political rights are limited and women face harsh restrictions.
The question for Iraqis, as well as the Bush administration, is whether Mr. Mahdi's secular vision extends to the rest of the Shiite alliance, or whether it is being used as cover for a more ambitious religious agenda.
The leaders of the Shiite alliance have said the new Iraqi government, if they end up with enough votes to form it, will be headed by a secular figure. Fewer than a half dozen of the alliance's 228 candidates are clerics. And a likely alliance with the Kurdish parties, which are secular, could blunt the Islamists.
Still, many Iraqis say Mr. Mahdi, secular-minded though he is, would be under fierce pressure from Iraq's clerical establishment to accord Islam an expansive role in the permanent Iraqi constitution the national assembly is to write this year.
He is thought to be an attractive candidate to the Americans. He has worked closely with the Bush administration, and helped renegotiate Iraq's foreign debt. Like many Iraqi leaders, including even many of the clerics themselves, he takes a cold-eyed view of the need for American troops to stay in the country until Iraqi security forces are strong enough to defeat the guerrilla insurgency on their own.
Mr. Mahdi's conversion from young Baath Party member to Maoist cadre to pro-American Islamic moderate is emblematic of the journey taken by many intellectuals who came of age in the 1960's, swept up in the left-wing currents of the time, only turn back to the faith into which they were born.
Yet in all of his transformations, there is, to his rivals, the whiff of the opportunist. Far from being devoutly religious himself, they say, Mr. Mahdi is a secular man who attached himself to a largely Islamist group to get closer to power, and by so doing made that group more acceptable to the outside word.
Within the wider world of Iraqi Shiites, a struggle for influence in the new government has already begun. Earlier this week, Ayatollah Muhammad Eshaq al-Faeath, one of five ayatollahs who make up the senior Shiite religious leadership here, publicly demanded that Islam be named as the "only" source of legislation, a feature that would probably render Iraq an Islamic state. Others are demanding that family and personal relations be regulated by Koranic law.
"He will be under pressure on the power of religion in the state," said Adnan Pachachi, a secular Sunni leader, referring to Mr. Mahdi. "But if he gets the job, it will actually help him resist the pressure."
Even those Iraqis, like Mr. Pachachi, who are convinced of Mr. Mahdi's relatively secular mind-set say they are concerned that he could end up becoming a pawn of Abdul Aziz Hakim, the leader of his party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as Sciri.
The steely-eyed Mr. Hakim, the former leader of the party's military wing who is believed to have close connections to Iranian intelligence agencies, is the scion of one of the most prominent Shiite religious families in Iraq. He is said to favor a broader role for Islam in the new constitution.
"Hakim has decided that he can realize his ambitions through Adel Abdul Mahdi," said Adnan Ali, a senior leader in the Dawa Party, a member of the Shiite alliance, which supports a different candidate for prime minister.
Who will become prime minister is expected to be one of the most hard-fought battles after election results are in, and with the vote-counting nearing completion, the political deal making has already begun.
For Mr. Mahdi to arrive at the spot where he is now is perhaps not as surprising as the path that he took to get there. He comes from a family active in politics; his father, Abdul Mahdi Shobar, was a guerrilla leader against the British in 1920 and later became a minister of education during the monarchy of King Faisal. He is a boyhood playmate of Ahmad Chalabi, a rival for the job of prime minister, and Ayad Allawi, who now holds the post.
Mr. Mahdi said he joined the Baath Party when it was largely a youth movement, and was even an acquaintance of the future leader, Saddam Hussein, who at the time, he said, worked in the party's Peasant Division.
Mr. Mahdi said he had joined out of a romantic attraction to the ideals of Arab nationalism and socialist economics, but quit the party in the 1960's, after it came to power and when, he said, its leaders began killing and imprisoning political opponents.
"When we saw the experience of blood, torture, executions, killings, we were shocked," he said, then turning to an Arab proverb to describe the party: "The fish was rotten from the head."
After the ouster of the Baath Party from its first stint in power in 1963, Mr. Mahdi was arrested, jailed and tortured; his jailers, he said, used pliers to pull chunks of flesh from his thighs. Five years later, as the Baath Party prepared to return to power and begin its 34-year reign of terror, he fled the country, tipped off that he was a target for execution.
Ending up in France, where he earned master's degrees in political science and economics, he said he embraced Marxism, and especially the brand espoused by Mao, which Mr. Mahdi said he found appealing for its emphasis on popular participation.
Yet even in his years as a follower of Mao, he said he never abandoned his Islamic faith.
"We weren't of those people who were trying to defy religion, trying to defy their family," he said of his youthful philosophical detours.
Like many Iraqis, Mr. Mahdi was inspired by the Iranian revolution of 1979, which appeared as a model for Iraq's long-suppressed Shiite majority and a real-life example of an Islamic-guided government. He and many other Iraqi Shiites in exile, including Mr. Hakim, began using Iran as a base to organize against Mr. Hussein's government. The two men were both founders of Sciri in the 1980's.
American officials say Sciri continues to receive support from the Iranian government, and the party's relationship to Iran has given rise to concerns, in the United States and in Iraq, about the movement's independence.
As the Iranian revolution transformed into a theocracy, it alienated many Iraqi Shiites, some of whom rejected it as a model for Iraq. Mr. Mahdi is tempered in his criticism of the Iranian government
"They have to be more open," he said. But he professes a vision of political Islam that is substantially more mild than the Iranian variety.
To Mr. Mahdi, the Shiite religious hierarchy has an important role in leading the country, but he says the religious leadership has to make way for democratic politics, in contrast to the Iranian model.
"We accept the role of the religious leadership," he said. "They are part of society. People respect them. They have a natural part. But this natural part should not stop the nation from practicing its rights. The nation should elect its representatives. Because the nation is not just the religious people but all the citizens."
Mr. Mahdi said he believed that the dangers of a full-blown Islamic theocracy coming to Iraq were minimal. Ayatollah Sistani, he said, has ruled out the use of Koranic law in governing family law.
But in saying so, Mr. Mahdi makes it clear that moderates like himself need all the help they can get.
"They have the right to be worried," he said of the Iraqi people. "I hope they would stay worried. All the people should be cautious. They should keep criticizing. I am not asking people to stop criticizing, to trust blindly."
As to the charge that he is a political opportunist, Mr. Mahdi confesses that he is a practical politician, but one who has stayed true to his principles.
"Why are you married?" he asked. "If they need me and I need them, then this is a very solid relationship."
Likewise, he makes no apologies for his intellectual evolution.
"It took 50 years to have such development," he said of his political journey. "With major events in the region going on, countries changed, their ideologies changed. It didn't take two days."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/10/2005 12:20:55 AM ||
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He is a boyhood playmate of Ahmad Chalabi, a rival for the job of prime minister, and Ayad Allawi, who now holds the post.
Mr. Mahdi said he joined the Baath Party when it was largely a youth movement, and was even an acquaintance of the future leader, Saddam Hussein, who at the time, he said, worked in the partyâs Peasant Division.
an interesting point, on how small and interconnected the elite is in Iraq, as in many other 3rd world countries. All these guys know each other fairly intimately. (well other than the Kurds, I suppose) 6 degrees of seperation, folks?
Iraqi officials said Wednesday they must recount votes from about 300 ballot boxes because of various discrepancies, delaying final results from the landmark national elections. Hundreds - perhaps thousands - of other ballots were declared invalid because of alleged tampering.
Officials had promised final results from the elections by Thursday, the end of the Iraqi work week. On Wednesday, however, election commission spokesman Farid Ayar said the deadline would not be met because of the recount. ``We don't know when this will finish,'' he said. ``This will lead to a little postponement in announcing the results.''
No partial tallies have been released since Monday in the contests for the 275-member National Assembly, 18 provincial councils and a regional parliament for the Kurdish self-governing region in the north. The most recent figures showed a coalition of Kurdish parties in second place behind a Shiite-dominated ticket endorsed by Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The ticket of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, was a distant third.
Allegations of voting irregularities, especially around the tense northern city of Mosul, have complicated the count. Some leading Sunni Arab and Christian politicians alleged that thousands of their supporters were denied the right to vote. Election officials blamed the problems in the Mosul area on security, which prevented fewer than a third of the planned 330 polling centers from opening. Gunmen seized some ballot boxes, officials said.
The commission would not say how many ballots had been declared invalid and whether they had come from the Mosul area, which has a mostly Sunni Arab population. Many Sunnis are believed to have stayed home on election day, either because they feared insurgent reprisals or opposed a ballot as long as U.S. and other foreign troops were on Iraqi soil.
Commission official Adel al-Lami said the ballots in 40 boxes and 250 bags would not be counted because they appeared to have been stuffed inside them or, in some cases, improperly folded. Some of the boxes were not those approved by the commission, and others were improperly sealed, he said.
Before the election, commission officials estimated each box should contain about 500 ballots. It was unclear whether the bags contained roughly the same number of ballots. A total of 90,000 ballot boxes were used in the election.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Allegations of voting irregularities, especially around the tense northern city of Mosul...
Balochistan Governor Owais Ghani has claimed that a foreign country is involved in unrest in the province, but would not say which country.
Samoa? Finland? Mauritania?
Elbonia?
Talking to Geo TV, he said modern weapons worth Rs500 million had been smuggled into Balochistan for 'terrorism'. "We have informed the Afghan government and the US about the arms smuggling," he said. Responding to a question, Ghani said the name of the country allegedly involved in fanning trouble in Balochistan would be disclosed at an appropriate time.
"When I say so!"
He rejected claims by tribal chiefs that they were being forced to negotiate at gunpoint. "Rather it is the government that is being forced to negotiate at gunpoint," he said. Meanwhile chief of Bugti tribe, Nawab Akbar Bugti said he was not averse to dialogue with the government. But he made it clear it would not be possible until the government arrested persons responsible for rape of lady doctor Shazia Khalid. Bugti claimed that the army captain accused of the rape was being protected as he had influential relatives.
Plus, he's a man.
Speaking to journalists at home town Dera Bugti, Akbar Bugti said tribesmen were being threatened with military action if they did not give up their protests. "But this is not possible," he added. Akbar Bugti said the female doctor was not a 'kari' (consensual) but victim of a heinous crime. He said the tribesmen consider her to be "pure and innocent" adding that "the captain is the sinner."
This article starring:
Akbar Bugti
Owais Ghani
Shazia Khalid
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Akbar Bugti said the female doctor was not a âkariâ (consensual) but victim of a heinous crime. He said the tribesmen consider her to be âpure and innocentâ adding that âthe captain is the sinner."
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is ready to meet Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, an aide to Sharon said on Wednesday. The comment followed a landmark summit in Egypt on Tuesday where the two leaders agreed to a ceasefire to end more than four years of bloodshed in the Middle East. In Sharm, Sharon's spokesman said the premier had invited Abbas to his farm in Israel's southern Negev desert and held out the possibility of a meeting in Ramallah, the political capital of the Palestinian Authority.
Meanwhile, Israeli ministers will discuss on Sunday who will make up the first batch of 500 Palestinian detainees to be freed by Israel following a landmark Middle East summit, an official source said on Tuesday. "The inter-ministerial committee on prisoners is due to meet just before the next weekly cabinet meeting to discuss the 500 prisoners Israel is committed to releasing," said a statement from the Sharon's office.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 ||
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how would you like to be responsible for security fo Sharon's visit?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2005 15:50 Comments ||
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#2
How would you like to be in Paleoland the day he gets hit?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/10/2005 15:59 Comments ||
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Israel has proposed extending its ties with NATO to include cooperation in areas such as fighting terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction, its envoy in discussions with the alliance said. The proposals do not include talk of Israeli membership of NATO or any role for the alliance in solving the Middle East conflict. But they are seen as a big step for a country which in the past has been wary of ties to multilateral institutions. "What Israel wants to see is to what extent NATO can give us a positive response," Oded Eran, the Israeli envoy to the European Union in Brussels, told Reuters late on Tuesday. "We want to see progress across a broad front," he said in an interview of proposals he presented recently to NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Without endorsing the ceasefire declared at the landmark Middle East summit, Palestinian resistance groups have said they will hold off on attacking Israel for now. Two major groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, reacted on Wednesday to pledges by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to end violence at the Sharm al-Shaikh summit. Both resistance groups said they were not bound by the truce. But the two did not seem ready to alienate Abbas when they reiterated their readiness to observe a one-month "period of calm" as agreed with the Palestinian leader in late January. "Hamas endorsed (the need for) calm and will respect that to allow Abbas to ease into his job and exert pressure on the enemy," a spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Some lying low - between 20-30 mortar round were fired by Hamas in Gaza strip on Thursday morning.
Perhaps they were celebrating the cease fire?
#3
But... but.... but... its the religious obligation of all muslims to kill jews and christians! So its not breaking the ceasefire to follow one's religious obligations....
The leader of an armed group in Somalia has urged followers to attack foreign peacekeeping troops being sent to support the fledgling government in Mogadishu. The call by Osman Ali Ato, a government minister, for Somalis to attack troops from historic foe Ethiopia revealed fresh signs of division in the new government under President Abb Allahi Yusuf Ahmad — elected at the peace talks in Kenya. Diplomats said the remarks by Mogadishu militia baron Ato boded ill for a peace mission agreed to this week by the 53-nation African Union (AU), which plans to send troops shortly from five countries - including Ethiopia - to shore up the new government.
The government, which has remained in Kenya's relative safety since its formation, plans to return to Somalia on 21 February. Ato, who is housing minister in the government, said in a radio interview broadcast on Tuesday evening and again on Wednesday that Ahmad's new government did not need AU help to stabilise Somalia, which plunged into chaos with the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. He accused Ahmad of stirring divisions between Somalia and Ethiopia in a plot to further Ethiopia's alleged ambitions to control Somalia, echoing a widespread view of Ahmad and his closest colleagues as northerners manipulated by Addis Ababa. "I urge all Somali people to prepare to fight against our enemies, be they Ethiopians or Somalis," Ato told Radio Shabelle from Kenya, where he and most of his colleagues are still based. "President Abd Allahi Yusuf [Ahmad] is the first person who wants clashes between Ethiopians and Somalis."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Isn't it about time? I started mine years ago. And there haven't been four assassination attempts against me...
The government has started compiling lists of militants and extremists, which will contain information about the individual and his/her organisation, sources told Daily Times on Wednesday.
Of course, it being Pakland, they're gonna have to have the census bureau do it...
"The government has asked all security agencies of the country to start preparing the lists," sources added. "The government made the decision to keep a complete profile of militants working for different militant organisations including those that are part and parcel of the United Jihad Council," they said.
To include Lashkar e-Taiba? Want to bet they're not on the list, even though they're part of the UJC?
The lists' purpose was for the government to keep track of militants across the country and to pre-empt terrorist activities in Pakistan, they added. "Another reason for the collection of the data was that the government wanted to maintain lists of militants who had left their parent militant organisations and had formed small militant groups," sources said. Militants who had formed their own small militant groups were more active in terrorist activities, sources said, claiming that such militants were behind terrorist activities within the country including the suicide attacks on President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
And they're just now getting around to it? Well, I guess they can get a head start on the list by using the payroll list...
Sources said this was the second time that the government had started such an exercise after the 9/11 incident.
I guess the magnitude of the task was pretty daunting, wasn't it?
Police on Wednesday registered an FIR against Saifur Rehman, chief of the defunct Ehtesab Bureau, former Sindh inspector general of police (IGP) Rana Maqbool and other police officials for torturing him. Police said registration of the case was ordered by the Karachi South District and Sessions Judge Sher Bano Karim on Zardari's complaint. Others who were booked are former Karachi deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Farooq Amin Qureshi, former superintendent of Karachi Central Jail Najaf Mirza and Mujeebur Rehman, the brother of Saifur Rehman.
The FIR has been registered under sections 323, 109, 120 and 34. Police said they would arrest them if court issued warrants. Zardari on Wednesday accused them of torturing him while he was in custody six years ago, Zardari's lawyer Shahadat Awan said.In an application submitted to police, Zardari alleged that these "people tortured me and tried to kill me at the behest of the government," according to the lawyer. Zardari said that in 1999 he was taken to an interrogation centre from jail and was tortured in custody with the intention to kill him, Awan said. During the process his tongue was cut, Zardari alleged.
Ugh! Pakman speak with forked tongue!
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Tribal militant Abdullah Mehsud on Wednesday played down Monday's peace deal between the government and fellow militant Baitullah Mehsud, saying he would continue jihad in South Waziristan Agency. He called the peace deal Baitullah's "personal thinking" and said he (Abdullah) had "nothing to do with the deal" nor would he abide by it. "I am not involved in this deal and will continue struggling against the government," Abdullah told a local journalist working for a foreign radio. Abdullah was not being given amnesty by the government because of his involvement in the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers and the killing of one in October last year. "The fight will continue and my struggle won't be affected by the deal between Baitullah and the government," he said by phone from an undisclosed location.
I guess they don't have caller ID in Pakland...
Abdullah said he did not commit any crime by kidnapping the two Chinese engineers and called it a part of his struggle. "Our jihad is as international as US terrorism," he added.
"Therefore it's not a crime, even though they're dead. It's... ummm... something else."
Condemning the people trying to get him pardoned from the Chinese government, Abdullah said, "I will not beg for forgiveness. I prefer martyrdom over being pardoned."
Sounds pretty good.
He also denied involvement in the killing of two tribal journalists in Wana on Monday evening. He alleged that the government was behind the incident and was blaming him. "Whatever I do, I admit to it," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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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.
During a meeting to plan the recent Saudi conference on counter-terrorism the Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia claimed that arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden was "sent by the Jews." The Defense Minister, 
Rumours about the health of Saudi Arabia's ailing 
Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan 
The 
The head of the 
TONY Blair yesterday moved towards the hawkish United States position on Iran, jangling nerves among Labour MPs and peace campaigners fearful of fresh conflict in the Middle East. Appearing before a committee of senior MPs in London, the Prime Minister said there was "no doubt" that the Iranian government backed international terrorism and warned the regime in Tehran not to stand in the way of a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. Anti-war activists and some European diplomats fear that the US, following the re-election of George Bush as president, is gearing up for a confrontation with Iran over its embryonic nuclear programme. Reports earlier this year suggested US special forces had already been in Iran to identify possible targets for US or Israeli air strikes.
The second-term Bush administration's intention to antagonize the DPRK and isolate and stifle it at any cost has become quite clear. As we have clarified more than once, we justly urged the US to renounce its hostile policy toward the DPRK whose aim was to seek the latter's "regime change" and switch its policy to that of peaceful co-existence between the two countries. We have closely followed with patience what policy the second-term Bush regime would shape after clarifying the stand that in that case it would be possible to solve the nuclear issue, too.
The Bush administration, chafing under North Korea (news - web sites)'s retreat from multilateral talks on nuclear disarmament, sought Thursday to push Pyongyang back to the bargaining table and warned that it faces increasing international isolation.
The Philippine armed forces has demanded Muslim rebels in the southern island of Jolo surrender or suffer heavy casualties, as fighting enters its fourth day. More than 100 soldiers and supporters of jailed former Muslim separatist leader, Nur Misuari, have either been killed or wounded in some of the most intense fighting seen in the region for years. Chief of the military's southern command, Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza, says reinforcements dispatched to the area are enough to crush the rebels.
Tens of thousands of Iranians have braved blizzards to attend rallies marking the 1979 Islamic revolution. The government had urged people to turn out to show support for its nuclear programme amid pressure led by the US. President Mohammad Khatami told them Iran would become a "burning hell" for any country that invaded it.
President 
An Iraqi politician whose two sons were gunned down Tuesday blasted the attackers and the group that may be behind the killings. 
AMMAN - Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Mulki said preparations were underway for a five-way meeting of Israel's neighbours in Damascus to revive an Arab peace plan, as he started Thursday a one-day visit to Syria. Mulki, in statements to Al Rai and Al Dustour dailies, said the meeting would bring together Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and the Palestinians in a bid to revive the Arab initiative for peace with Israel that was launched at a summit in Lebanon in 2002.
Hizbollah guerrillas are trying to recruit Palestinian militants for attacks on Israelis in order to sabotage Middle East peace efforts, senior Palestinian officials said on Wednesday. The accusations, a day after Israel and the Palestinians announced a cease-fire, echoed charges from the Jewish state. The officials declined to be identified.
Iraqi officials said Wednesday they must recount votes from about 300 ballot boxes because of various discrepancies, delaying final results from the landmark national elections. Hundreds - perhaps thousands - of other ballots were declared invalid because of alleged tampering.
Balochistan Governor 
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is ready to meet Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, an aide to Sharon said on Wednesday. The comment followed a landmark summit in Egypt on Tuesday where the two leaders agreed to a ceasefire to end more than four years of bloodshed in the Middle East. In Sharm, Sharon's spokesman said the premier had invited Abbas to his farm in Israel's southern Negev desert and held out the possibility of a meeting in Ramallah, the political capital of the Palestinian Authority.
Without endorsing the ceasefire declared at the landmark Middle East summit, Palestinian resistance groups have said they will hold off on attacking Israel for now. Two major groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, reacted on Wednesday to pledges by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to end violence at the Sharm al-Shaikh summit. Both resistance groups said they were not bound by the truce. But the two did not seem ready to alienate Abbas when they reiterated their readiness to observe a one-month "period of calm" as agreed with the Palestinian leader in late January. "Hamas endorsed (the need for) calm and will respect that to allow Abbas to ease into his job and exert pressure on the enemy," a spokesman said.
The government has started compiling lists of militants and extremists, which will contain information about the individual and his/her organisation, sources told Daily Times on Wednesday.
Police on Wednesday registered an FIR against Saifur Rehman, chief of the defunct Ehtesab Bureau, former Sindh inspector general of police (IGP) Rana Maqbool and other police officials for torturing him. Police said registration of the case was ordered by the Karachi South District and Sessions Judge Sher Bano Karim on Zardari's complaint. Others who were booked are former Karachi deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Farooq Amin Qureshi, former superintendent of Karachi Central Jail Najaf Mirza and Mujeebur Rehman, the brother of Saifur Rehman. 
Tribal militant 
