The Egyptian government demanded an explanation from Britain over the arrest of a renowned Egyptian architect who had reportedly been due to be a dinner guest of Queen Elizabeth II. "The foreign ministry received the news of the arrest of Professor Mamduh Hamza with great concern," Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told reporters.
"I have asked our embassy in London to make urgent contact with the British authorities to establish the true nature of this case and the charges being levelled against him."
Designer of the new Alexandria Library, Hamza is one of Egypt's most celebrated architects. The Cairo press reported that he had been visiting London to attend a banquet hosted by Queen Elizabeth. Abul Gheit said the British authorities acknowledged that there had initially been some doubt whether Hamza was the suspect sought, but insisted they had now found their man.
The Cairo tabloid Sawt al-Umma said Hamza faced charges of "plotting to assassinate Egyptian government ministers and other figures," but the foreign minister said he could neither confirm nor deny the report as he was still awaiting Britain's response.
Mamduh Hamza AKA "The Architect"
A foreign ministry official contacted by AFP refused to comment. But a spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said Hamza had appeared in court earlier this month. "Dr Mamduh Hamza, 57 years old, an Egyptian with no residence in the UK, appeared in custody at Bow Street magistrate court on the 14th of July, charged with four counts of solliciting to murder and was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on the 21st of July," she said.
"I don't know what happened after that," said the spokeswoman, who did not confirm either Hamza's profession or the date of his arrest.
The Brits don't blab to the press about cases like US cops do. Wonder who he wanted to wack?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/26/2004 2:15:04 PM ||
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been due to be a dinner guest of Queen Elizabeth II... charged with four counts of solliciting to murder
Surname: Hamza. Mmmmmm... Interesting.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/26/2004 14:50 Comments ||
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Designer of the new Alexandria Library
They downsized the old one seeing as it only has to hold circulating copies of the holy kram.
THE head of the worldwide Anglican Church, the archdruidbishop of Canterbury, will reportedly mark the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks by praising Islam in an address from the pulpit of an Egyptian mosque. Bet you couldn't have guessed it's the Anglican church that would be "praising Islam" on the 9-11 atrocity's anniversary.
Rowan Williams had accepted an invitation to speak at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, considered by many to be the Muslim world's most important centre of learning, Britain's Sunday Times said today. He would speak of the common ground between Christianity and Islam with their shared inheritance as "children of Abraham", the report said. Memo to Rowan Williams: GO F&%K A RAKE, SIDEWAYS!
"It is a very significant moment in the history of our two faiths and especially coming from a man of his stature and learning," Zaki Badawi, the founder of the Muslim College in London, told the newspaper. "This will cement the relationship between Christianity and Islam because he will point out those aspects which unite the two religions. "The Muslims throughout the world feel beleaguered and a comforting of the enemy word from Archdruidbishop Williams will assure our people they are not alone." Al-Azhar is considered the most important religious uiniversity in the Muslim world and is attended by 90,000 students. Until all Muslims rise up and genuinely renounce terrorism by visibly expelling every stripe of violent jihadist from their ranks, they d@mn well better "feel beleaguered." That emotion is a direct result of having brought upon themselves justifiably intense scrutiny and equally great suspicion as fellow believers commit the most heinous atrocities in recent history.
However vital rapproachment between Islam and other religions might be, it is the height of insensitivity for Archdruidbishop Williams to make such a gesture on the 9-11 atrocity's anniversary. There are limits and this is one of them. A large number of prominent Imams requesting to speak to Christian audiences would be far more appropriate. I fail to notice any reporting of such a thing. And that is the exact reason why I am so incensed by Williams' act.
Without significant and authentic outreach from Islam, no amount of Western bridge-building will do any good. The ball is in Islam's court, regardless of how much they try and ignore that plain fact. The conspicuous lack of priority being placed upon repairing Islam's image from within signifies only one thing; Satisfaction with Islam's current predilection for genocide, terrorism, misogyny, theocracy and monoculturalism.
Any one of those tyrannies is a deal-breaker. All of them combined represent one of the most poisonous memes since Nazism. Running about trying to coax such a violent entity into changing is entirely inappropriate. Confronted with its own perfidy, Islam must unilaterally seek reformation or be exposed for the bloodthirsty political demon it is.
Posted by: Zenster ||
07/26/2004 3:07:54 AM ||
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I'm certain he'll preach in the womens section, to the choir and all like that.
#4
This will cement the relationship between Christianity and Islam
Yes it certainly will cement the relationship.
Dhimmi <--> Overlord
Slave <--> Master
Rapee <--> Rapist
Posted by: ed ||
07/26/2004 9:54 Comments ||
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I wish the self-proclaimed hairy leftie would convert to Islam and get it over with. If he's going to the seat of Islamic learning, is he going to ask them why most Muslims believe coreligionists weren't responsible for 9/11?
#6
praising Islam - That's the bit that worries me. Shouldn't we be making them feel as uncomfortable as f*ck? Totally agree Bulldog - haven't met a muslim in the UK who unequivocally denounces 9/11. (It's the Joooos.)
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/26/2004 10:04 Comments ||
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How about some iman (or mullah or whatever they are called) praising Christianity on the anniversary of 9/11? Hell, I'd settle for the A of C praising Christianity.
#8
Is it any wonder that the Church of England is considered by many to be no longer Christian and not particularly English? The Episcopal Church in the States has been in the same deathspiral for years, more PC than Christian. It almost seems that the mainline Christian churches have become bored with Christianity and just want to retain the smug, holier-than-thou liberal PC attitude. Maybe they should be called PChristian churches.
Posted by: Random thoughts ||
07/26/2004 11:11 Comments ||
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Random - for a long time, I've considered Europe to be post-Christian. They just like to hang on to the history and trappings ("atmosphere, don't you know") because it makes them feel superior.
#12
It's great to stress commonalities between Islam and Christianity, but the A of C forgot to mention that Judaism is also Abrahamic. I'm sure he'll mention it in his speech.
I'm sure he'll also confront Sheikh Tantawi, the Prez of Al Azhar, about the latter's tolerance/encouragement of Palestinian homocide bombers, about the dire situation of the Copts in Egypt, etc.
The key is tolerance and understanding is a two-way street. Which formal institution in the Islamic world has a class in comparative religion, for example, where the thesis is NOT that Islam is the one and only true path to heaven? Not Al Azhar, you can be sure of.
Posted by: Michael ||
07/26/2004 12:52 Comments ||
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Thank you. My monitor needed to be cleaned anyways.
#16
I heard that after the speech he is going to visit a Paleo summer camp for little jihadis and then inspect some tunnel for moving 'commerce' to/from Egypt. Why do they (Socialist Christians) like to pretend that this is not a religious war? Why not denounce world terrorism while visiting Egypt? Also might want to ask Mumbarak if he plans to shut down the radical Newspapers that help spread violence.
#20
#12It's great to stress commonalities between Islam and Christianity, but the A of C forgot to mention that Judaism is also Abrahamic. I'm sure he'll mention it in his speech.
Spot on call, Michael. I doubt such a mealy-mouthed b@stard as Williams will have the ostiones to address this one critical aspect regarding "people of the book." Take away the Islamists favorite whipping boy and they'll slingshot the AofC/DC outta that mosque in a heartbeat.
I wonder if Williams will take a moment to inquire about two alumni of that illustrious mosque. Ustazah Kamariah Ali and her husband, Ustaz Mohamed Ya were both graduates of the world-renowned Al-Azhar University in Egypt. They have been denied any religious freedom even though it is guaranteed by Article 11 of the Malaysian Federal Constitution.
The Special Boat Service faces substantial restructuring after criticism of its performance in Iraq, with one senior SAS soldier refusing to work with the unit again because its members were "unprofessional". The Army has transferred a number of instructors from the SAS headquarters in Hereford to the SBS to improve its fighting skills and abilities at operating behind enemy lines. While the SBS is expert at operations at sea or close to the shore, there have been mutterings that it runs into problems in land patrols.
For the past decade sailors and marines wishing to enter the elite unit have had to pass the tough Special Air Service selection course but do not go on to the even more challenging "continuation" course in the jungle. Instead they become highly trained in covert insertion by water, securing beachheads and protecting oil rigs and in specialised counter-terrorism to protect shipping. Both units come under the control of the Director of Special Forces, an Army brigadier, with the SBS being deployed alongside its SAS colleagues on land since the mid-1990s. This, according to several SAS sources, has led to problems that culminated in a debacle last April during the Iraq war in which the Iraqi Republican Guard compromised an SBS patrol [Rantburg Link].
"For the first time, they came under effective enemy fire," said a military source. "People were not impressed with their reactions. They were not at all impressed by them leaving behind their Land Rovers and kit." According to one report, the soldiers failed to return fire and abandoned expensive equipment including their prized "Pinky" Land Rovers which were captured by the Iraqis and gleefully paraded on Arab television, much to the disgust of the SAS. Two of the 10-man patrol had to march into Syria after missing a pick-up by Chinook helicopter at the emergency rendezvous. "They cocked it up, panicked and did a runner," said an SAS man. "In that situation you are supposed to do a tactical withdrawal." A senior NCO in the SAS was so unimpressed by his SBS colleagues that he has refused to serve with them in future operations because of their alleged lack of professionalism.
We heard about this and discounted the story as a rumor.
The comments were made earlier this year at the annual special forces debrief when all the troops make suggestions or criticisms of performances on operations. "He stood up and said we will never work with these people again - they are totally unprofessional," said a former SAS soldier who served for nine years in the regiment. "When an SBS representative gave their version of events in Iraq, it was interpreted as a crock of s***." Senior military planners have now ordered a shake-up of the SBS. An Army source said: "They are going to be 'infiltrated' by Hereford to brush up on their skills, especially in close-quarter combat. "They are far too specialised. They are great at infiltrating from water on to land but after that it gets a bit problematic."
Rivalry between the regiments developed when the SAS believed that the SBS, nicknamed the Shaky Boats, were intruding on its remit. It is thought that the SBS has been lobbying to be granted a "30km insertion capability" that would give it access to highly sophisticated equipment. It was also said to be after the SAS's jealously guarded "team tasks" in which they go abroad to train foreign special forces. A former SAS soldier said: "They are expert at water ops but there is a substantial difference between land soldiering and swimming. We don't class them as soldiers, more as sailors. The SBS would hit the beach and secure it so we could go through to the business on land. "They are like a fish out of water on land, if you'll excuse the pun. It's a different mentality. We carry everything everywhere we go; all they do is swim." It is also believed that the SBS lacks the "close-quarter combat" experience of the SAS because it has had little experience of combat operations over the past decade. "A lot of the regiment has seen a lot of action, with the SAS or with their own battalions, but this is sometimes not the case with the Shakies," said the SAS soldier. It has been discussed that the regiments should be amalgamated but this has been vigorously opposed by both sides.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
07/26/2004 7:33:40 AM ||
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And the Bravo Two Zero debacle (GW1) couldn't be viewed similarly?
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/26/2004 9:13 Comments ||
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And the Bravo Two Zero debacle (GW1) couldn't be viewed similarly?
Not really. B20 had no weapons heavy enough to engage the enemy in serious strength. They didn't have vehicles, either. Theirs was meant to be a low-key surveillance mission, not a combat-capable patrol like this SBS one.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/26/2004 10:29 Comments ||
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Not that I know that much about these groups but wouldn't this be like having Army Rangers train the Navy SEALS? WTH is a 'Pinky' and why didn't they call in airstrikes to destroy it when it was left behind? I don't think I would want a nickname of 'Shakies' for a fighting force.
#8
If I recall correctly there was a blue-on-blue shoot-out between the SAS and the SBS during one part of the Falklands campaign, in terrible weather.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/26/2004 10:58 Comments ||
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Really? Do tell.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/26/2004 11:23 Comments ||
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That's my distant recollection of The Battle for the Falklands by Max Hastings and (someone else whose name I don't recall.)
Posted by: Matt ||
07/26/2004 11:28 Comments ||
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Ten-four.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/26/2004 11:41 Comments ||
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Cyber Sarge, a "Pinky" is an outfitted Land Rover for the SAS they use for long range desert patrols. Their paint is a funny shade of pink, hence, "Pinky" or occasionally "Pink Panthers"
#14
'Pinkies' emerged as the very first SAS vehicles used also by the LRDG (Long Range Desert Group) back in WWII. Though they weren't Land Rovers back then, of course. Initially, they were driven by the LRDG to rendezvous with and collect the SAS, who had parachuted in to attack German air bases at night. The tactic quickly changed to using the 'pinkies' as delivery, attack and escape vehicles - hence the A (for 'Air') of the SAS's name becoming redundant very early on. The pink colour was chosen to camouflage the vehicles against the North African desert. I think the 'pinkies' have sentimental and symbolic value as much as practical value - they are the definitive SAS vehicle, and to have the SBS borrow and then surrender one of them is just about the worst thing they could do...
A booklet designed to help the public respond to a terrorist attack or civil emergency has been unveiled by the Government. The 22-page pamphlet includes details of mass decontaminations after a chemical, biological or radiological attack, basic first aid and guidance on how to prevent a terrorist attack. All of Britain's 25 million households will receive one of the brightly coloured booklets in an £8 million information campaign. It has been written by government officials and experts from the emergency services, MI5 Security Service, the Chief Medical Officer and the Emergency Planning Society.
One of the principal pieces of advice is the slogan "go in, stay in, tune in" which, in the event of an attack, urges people to stay inside and listen to local radio or television. It also advises parents not to immediately collect children from school if an emergency happens, but to find out from local councils if the area is safe. It says: "You will naturally want to collect them as soon as possible in the event of a major emergency. But it may not be safe to do so." Other advice in the booklet tells homeowners to keep a stock of emergency provisions at home including bottled water, tinned food, batteries, a radio and a gun torch.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
07/26/2004 7:22:34 AM ||
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Rizlas.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/26/2004 9:08 Comments ||
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A torch or a flambeau?
Or perhaps you are talking about the so called PEP NOREP that is to say a portable electrically powered, non-focused random photon transmitter?
#5
yeh rizlas and cheap imported beer wine a ciggies are a must shipman
If England can survive the bombings in WW2 it can survive terror attacks.They just might get more pissed off.:).. i might add to that , if we get rid of the lame limp wristed liberals,aye ...
#14
Recent Rantburg postings on Islamic activism in the courts in the UK are alarming (open sedition, whining for sharia law, etc.)
Howard-I know nothing about how citizenship is granted in the UK. Do you think terrorist acts in the UK would cause a change in the immigration policy/the citizenship process? How do average UKers you know feel about how Britain is responding to the threats?
Australia would not pull its troops out of Iraq even a week early to save the life of an Australian hostage, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today. Mr Downer stood by his criticism of the Philippines for pulling out of Iraq, saying he had to send the right message to terrorists that Australia would not give in to their demands.
"Do we look like Filipinos to you, mate?"
Asked if that meant keeping troops there for an extra week rather than saving the life of a hostage, Mr Downer said yes. "Yes, because if you give in to the terrorists in one particular case, as I say all you're doing is empowering and emboldening them," Mr Downer told the John Laws radio program. "You've seen since the Philippines withdrawal, you've seen a spate of hostage-taking in Iraq. And well, why not? If these terrorists want to achieve certain objectives and they know by taking people hostage they can achieve them, it's the cheapest and easiest way to do their job."
The national security adviser to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday lashed out at Mr Downer's criticism of the Philippines for withdrawing from Iraq to save the life of kidnapped truck driver Angelo de la Cruz, calling him narrow minded.
Must be a relative of Taaarayysa's.
But Mr Downer said while he did not enjoy criticising another country, it was vital to send a strong message to terrorists. "All sorts of people have had more than their fair share of comment about what we've done in Iraq," Mr Downer said. "And I don't think that I'm prepared to accept that on the one hand we can take a terrible hammering from some people, but on the other hand it's wrong for us ever to criticise what someone else does.
"It's not nice to criticise other countries, and we don't particularly. I don't do it unless I absolutely think it's necessary. ... But on the other hand I've got a responsibility to the Australian people first and foremost, and I must send out the sorts of messages that I judge are going to have the best impact in terms of protecting our people. ... And they're not a guarantee. They're just going to help."
Mr Downer conceded Mr de la Cruz would probably have died had the Philippines not withdrawn its troops but said more than one life was at stake. "I hope the tough line that I ... have taken generally, I hope that the sorts of statements we've made will make it less likely that our people will be taken hostage," he said. "Because what terrorists know is that they will not get anything out of the Australian government if they do something as egregious as take one of our people hostage. That's the message we want to send. There's no point in taking them hostage."
Another example clear Aussie thinking.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/26/2004 12:24:36 AM ||
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Er, it might have been smarter not to say this up front, lest they be "tested" unnecessarily.....
#2
"Yes, because if you give in to the terrorists in one particular case, as I say all you're doing is empowering and emboldening them,"
True. But the Philippines had only 51 people in Iraq to begin with. Not a big deal. Cut them some slack. If the terrorists confuse this with the idea that they can bully the bigger contributors in Iraq, then that's the terrs' fuck up, not anyone else's.
Posted by: Rafael ||
07/26/2004 1:00 Comments ||
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It would have been tested anyway if they could get their hands on an aussie. It was smart to say it up front because it will prepare the aussie public for that being the governments decision.
#5
"And I don't think that I'm prepared to accept that on the one hand we can take a terrible hammering from some people, but on the other hand it's wrong for us ever to criticise what someone else does."
It's nice to see a politician get up on their hind legs like that. Much more dignified than the usual poses. I concur with DPA, get it out in the open right from the start. Make it policy, so there's no temptation to break it in the field.
That six million dollar Philippine ransom is going to help kill a lot more people. Quite possibly, some ordinary Australian citizens will succumb to regional terrorism financed by their payment. Alexander Downer has every right reason to criticize Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and to do so fiercely.
#6
Arroyo's spineless is going to get a lot more people taken hostage and killed...not to mention giving the terrorists more ideas on how to raise some fast cash.
And Downer is also absolutely right to give it back to the critics. Bush should do the same...Look at what Arnie did by calling the Dems what they are: girly-men. People love him even more for speaking the truth.
#7
Philipeans deserves no slack in this issue - you cannot succumb to terrorist..they do not do it at home ... it's all politics
Posted by: Dan ||
07/26/2004 11:25 Comments ||
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So Rafael-are you saying that the number of hostages taken determines the correct course of action? If they had had 52 people there? 520? How about 5200? 52,000?...What's the cutoff?
It isn't the number of Philippine people in Iraq that matters, nor how close to leaving they were. It is their placation of terrorists that matters. Period.
#9
Rafael, if a Canadien gets taken hostage while in Afganistan, should Canada pull out or pay the ransom? I don't think Canada is that far gone. Arroyo deserve all the scorn being sent her way. Let her reap the love of her people for doing the womanly thing.
Well, 200 is a sizable contingent. So is 100. Anything less than that is negligible as a force, so I would probably pull them out.
In the grand scheme of things, 52 troops and $6 mil means absolutely nothing. I would expect my government to make this deal in a similar situation, provided that this is a one time thing (and granted, it never is).
What is not excusable is that the Philippines are not new to hostage taking and extortion by terrorists. They have dealt with these things on their home turf. But perhaps, this may explain why they did what they did: perhaps this is how they deal with terrorists at home.
if a Canadien gets taken hostage while in Afganistan, should Canada pull out or pay the ransom?
With 600 troops in Afghanistan, I'd say the hostage is on his own. No ransom either.
Posted by: Rafael ||
07/26/2004 14:19 Comments ||
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Hell, 1's a tragedy 200's a massacre, 1 million is a statistic.
I know it can get ridickerous because this isn't math. It's how do you face down the evil thing. You certainly don't pay it off, feed it, or compromise with it. UNLESS your are no longer in a position to defy it.
Then you sue for peace or whatever you can do to save what is left of your pie. If the evil thing has the advantage, your pie is gone and you kneel or die.
Jihadies have the western culture as their evil thing and they think they can defeat it. That includes Canada, Greece, The Phillapeans, all of it. One of its methods is to use our PC good will against us, terroize us, kidnappings, proliferation of WMDs and the like.
It must be defeated, no kneeling, no feeding it. Only destroy it. Screw the WoT thing. It's a war on Jihad.
Once an evil terrorist tried to cow Australia
But might as well have talked to a tree
For the FM said that one must not feed the crocodile
For the whole world needs to be free
Can't cow Australia, can't cow Australia
Can't cow Australia it is plain to see
For the FM said that one must not feed the crocodile
For the whole world needs to be free
Posted by: Matt ||
07/26/2004 15:55 Comments ||
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Rafael,
The problem really isn't the loss of 52 men; its the 6 million dollar payout. The Phillipines did this with Abu Sayaf (sp?, I think that the Al Qaeda operation in the Phillipines) and that organization went from 300-500 to 2500 virtually overnight with better weapons and IEDs. That six million will probably kill alot of people.
#16
#10In the grand scheme of things, 52 troops and $6 mil means absolutely nothing.
Rafael, you are out-to-lunch on this one. SIX MILLION DOLLARS COULD FINANCE ANOTHER HALF DOZEN 9-11 ATROCITIES. Any of this penetrating that brainbone of yours?
#17
Very good Zenster. $6 mil is an average week of fundraising in Saudi Arabia for the Palestinian cause. Not to mention the amount of money flowing east from America itself, for example.
Anybody begging on the street could have pulled off a 9-11 with the cost of a (one-way) ticket, and some box cutters. It was not a sophisticated or expensive operation. Is this penetrating that brainbone of yours?
Posted by: Rafael ||
07/26/2004 18:34 Comments ||
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The Philippines' six million went straight into the hands of the terrorists. Not to a NGO, not to a fund raising front. It warrants a lot more stark criticism than the routine censure due the Saudis for their usual complicity.
Anybody begging on the street could have pulled off a 9-11 with the cost of a (one-way) ticket, and some box cutters.
No they couldn't, Rafael. It required a lot of logistics to train the pilots and sequester them in America long enough to make the plan work. The 9-11 atrocity was not a walk-in-off-the-street sort of operation. Estimates were that it ran about $500,000, ergo the half-dozen figure of mine.
#19
Ok, I concede your point about the $6 mil. Still, pulling 52 people out of Iraq is no biggie. More of a PR failure on the part of the Philippines, and exceedingly stupid for them in the long run.
To jeopardize their relationship with the US is stupid enough, given that they have a huge problem at home. But I wonder how much consulting was done with the US admin beforehand. There may have been tacit approval on the part of the US, as there seems to be a bigger outcry from the Aussies than the Americans.
Posted by: Rafael ||
07/26/2004 19:26 Comments ||
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#20
To jeopardize their relationship with the US is stupid enough, given that they have a huge problem at home.
Agreed.
But I wonder how much consulting was done with the US admin beforehand.
There had to be some consulting done. Arroyo knows better than to bite the hand that holds a shield over her nation. I can only assume she got a monumental case of the stupids. As TS(vg) already pointed out, the OFW issue will tend to spotlight this one instance of special treatment. Arroyo's move constitutes a phenomenal blunder and I do not doubt there will be American foreign policy repercussions.
Raphael, you seem to minimize what I call "the bloody coattails effect" of ostensible compliance with terrorism. Although in this particular case, it is outright compliance. Regardless of the 52 measley soldiers being withdrawn, it is the apparent psychological victory being handed to the terrorists that far outweighs any problematic worth of the Philippine military's presence in Iraq.
#21
#19-"There may have been tacit approval on the part of the US, as there seems to be a bigger outcry from the Aussies than the Americans."
I really haven't seen the coverage of the $6,000,000 covered anywhere except here, so I am not sure I can draw the conclusion that Americans don't care as much as Aussies. They don't know.
#22
The Philippines' six million went straight into the hands of the terrorists.
Actually somewhat less than six million. Figure most of what the Philippines paid out disappeared along the way.
Still, pulling 52 people out of Iraq is no biggie.
Fifty-two troops, Fifty-two hundred troops, or one ambassador. The damage is done. Once one drops to one's knees, one will be expected to in the future.
#27
Well, in the face of the other arguments, my point has little weight. What more is there to say. The Philippines bit the big one (or whatever the expression is). I wish them luck.
Posted by: Rafael ||
07/26/2004 22:19 Comments ||
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Rafael, you'e right in that it wasn't a big loss wrt to military strength. 52 Filipino soldiers aren't the equivalent of 52 US Marines, 52 Argyles, or 52 Polish troops. And the US didn't protest strongly about the withdrawal. Maybe it was figured they'd be more useful guarding Arroyo or something.
A French court has handed down a four-month suspended prison sentence to a woman who invented a story about being the victim of an anti-Semitic assault. Marie-Leonie Leblanc, 23, was also put on two years' probation and ordered to get psychiatric treatment. Her story of swastikas being daubed on her body during a brutal attack on a Paris train caused outrage in France. She claimed that Arab and black youths had also slashed her clothes and cut a lock of her hair. Madamoiselle Tawana Brawley, I presume.
"I wanted my parents to take care of me," she told the court in Cergy-Pontoise, north-west of Paris. "I was aware of the lie that I had told, but I didn't think it would go so far in terms of the media coverage, that the media would become aware of the incident." The court also ordered her to pay a symbolic one euro in damages to the French national railway, SNCF, the French news agency AFP reported. Despite the fact that many thousands of dollars were probably spent by the railway investigating this. Oh, I forgot, she's a victim!
Hours after the attack was first reported, French President Jacques Chirac expressed his horror and called for the perpetrators to be punished. But Ms Leblanc's lies were uncovered when no witnesses came forward and closed-circuit video cameras failed to show evidence of the attack in the train station on 9 July. She later said she had ripped her own clothes and drawn the swastikas on her own stomach with her boyfriend's help. Why wasn't the boyfriend charged as an accomplice? "Gee, honey, you look so suave and debonair with those broken crosses marked across your midriff. I want to parade you at the beach in a bikini!"
As I suspected, the security videos would be key in varifying the validity of this woman's (false) claims.
ATHENS As the opening of the Olympic Games draws closer, the Greek police and foreign intelligence agencies have increased their activities in a predominately Muslim area of Athens, a district of narrow streets lined with open-air shops selling such items as cement, onions and clothes, next to international call centers and places to wire money abroad. Greek, American and British intelligence agencies have all tried to infiltrate the Muslim and Arab communities here, Greek officials said. Doubting that the CIA and MI6, the British intelligence service, would have a great deal of success, the Greeks asked for, and received, assistance from counterterrorism teams and intelligence operatives from Jordan and Egypt, Greek officials said. And the Israelis have helped keep an eye on Arab embassies, they said. Egypt and Jordan? Idiots, what a perfect pipeline back to the terrorists.
There are about 100,000 Arabs and Muslims in Athens, and they have generally not been troublesome or radical, Greek officials said. But the fear, heightened after the bombings in Madrid, is that Al Qaeda or some affiliated terrorist organization has implanted a sleeper cell. "If one were looking for a sleeper cell, this is where it would be," Alex Rondos, a former ambassador at large who was coordinator for Olympic activities, said of the area around Omonia Square. Rondos, who left office in March when the Socialist government was defeated, said his concerns arose more than a year ago, when he was working on various counterterrorism projects. The possibility of a sleeper cell, however remote, is something that the Greeks were slow to grapple with, he said. "There was a dangerous attitude of complacency," he said.
Greek officials say the Arabs in general do not harbor animosity toward Greece, and they note that the country has not sent troops to Iraq. However, many Greeks, including some in government, were sympathetic to Slobodan Milosevic and the Serbs when Serbs were killing Muslims in Bosnia. Terrorism investigators in Europe have found cells in many countries, including France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and, most recently, Spain. But they have not found any lines leading to Greece, Greek and other European officials say. The Greek government has discovered that monitoring the Muslim community has been made harder by one of its own policies. In spite of repeated promises, the Ministry of Religious Affairs has not given the necessary approval for a mosque in Athens, because of stern opposition from the Greek Orthodox Church, the official state religion. "It is not a culturally sound policy, and it is counterproductive from a counterterrorism view," Rondos said. Last time I checked, the Greek Orthodox Church is not a branch of Islam.
Instead of one central mosque, where the authorities could watch for suspicious people and listen for incendiary sermons, there are about 50 "underground" mosques, in tenement apartments and garages, Greek officials said. Muslims are displeased with the increased surveillance and police interrogations. Ten days ago, Ahmed Asak, a 32-year-old garment worker from Bangladesh, was stopped by the police. They wanted to check his documents, to be sure he was in the country legally, and they looked in his backpack. The same thing happened to Thomi Savr, 28, who managed to get out of Iraq three years ago. He made it to Greece via Turkey, was jailed for three months, then went to Germany, where he married. Then the Germans sent him back to Greece.
Asak goes to Friday prayers on the second floor of a rundown eight-story tenement. Nigerians and Somalis live on the first floor, Bangladeshis on the third, Sudanese on the fifth, Afghans on the eighth. At another tenement mosque, attended by Pakistanis, speakers have extolled the virtues of Osama bin Laden, a Western ambassador in Athens said. He said he had been told this by a Muslim on his staff. Saudi Arabia has been sending money to various Muslim groups in Athens, Greek officials said, and the Greek government has spoken to the Saudi Embassy about it. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya has sent word to the Libyan community in Athens that it should not engage in any acts of violence during the Games, a Greek official said. The Palestinians have made a similar appeal to their community, which is said to number about 25,000, he said.
The Turkish government has promised Greece that it would crack down on the smuggling operations that bring refugees through Turkey en route to Europe. The smugglers' routes go through Greek waters, and a potential terrorist could easily hop off at one of Greece's many islands. Fears of a possible attack by Islamic extremists are not allayed by the fire-brand rhetoric of Mehmet Imam, president of the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Supporting the Muslims in Greece, the country's largest Muslim organization. Imam has called on all Islamic countries to boycott the Games, because of wars in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq. "He is an enemy," Imam said in an interview, about anyone who attends the Games. But he denied any link to or sympathy for Al Qaeda. EMPHASIS ADDED
Those pesky Saudis, always bankrolling intolerant jihadists. Whatever shall we do about them?
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
07/26/2004 20:44 Comments ||
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#2
As the opening of the Olympic Games draws closer, the Greek police and foreign intelligence agencies have increased their activities in a predominately Muslim area of Athens
What a bunch of paranoid racists.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/26/2004 21:00 Comments ||
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#3
Yeah, Robert! (LOL!)--what were they thinking?!
Krapsaris is going to have to slap some PC sense and huggy-feely EUro love into them!
#4
Anyone remember the outrage of the UN when they were attacked in Iraq? Why do I get the feeling that NATO will end up a convenient scapegoat if a terrorist attack "succeeds" at the Olympics? We'll just hear the same plaint : it's your fault America, you didn't protect us.
#6
... it's your fault America, you didn't protect us.
Well ... maybe it's because we were kicking @ss and taking names in Iraq. As I'm sure you agree, jules.
Don't let 'em get you down, Aris. Everyone was more willing to trash you than discuss the simple economic and verifiable aspects of the solution I proposed. I don't see enough people focusing on actual solutions, even if many good ones get floated around here.
#7
I was listening to NPR in the car the other day (yes, I know *sigh*) and a Greek official was whining that the evil Americans were *forcing* Greece to spend far too much money on security.
Posted by: A Jackson ||
07/26/2004 23:59 Comments ||
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#8
Gawd, Mr. Jackson, whattya wanna bet we're not only sending our own troops to cover the Olympics but giving them millions in aid for being the host country, too?
A French court has handed down a four-month suspended prison sentence to a woman who invented a story about being the victim of an anti-Semitic assault. Marie-Leonie Leblanc, 23, was also put on two years' probation and ordered to get psychiatric treatment. Her story of swastikas being daubed on her body during a brutal attack on a Paris train caused outrage in France. She claimed that Arab and black youths had also slashed her clothes and cut a lock of her hair. "I wanted my parents to take care of me," she told the court in Cergy-Pontoise, north-west of Paris. "I was aware of the lie that I had told, but I didn't think it would go so far in terms of the media coverage, that the media would become aware of the incident."
The court also ordered her to pay a symbolic one euro in damages to the French national railway, SNCF, the French news agency AFP reported. Hours after the attack was first reported, French President Jacques Chirac expressed his horror and called for the perpetrators to be punished. But Ms Leblanc's lies were uncovered when no witnesses came forward and closed-circuit video cameras failed to show evidence of the attack in the train station on 9 July. She later said she had ripped her own clothes and drawn the swastikas on her own stomach with her boyfriend's help.
Posted by: michael ||
07/26/2004 17:28 Comments ||
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#2
"[A] symbolic one euro in damages" for causing thousands of dollars worth of needless investigation by the rail authorities. Oh, how crass of me to forget that Leblanc is a victim!
"[A]nd drawn the swastikas on her own stomach with her boyfriend’s help."
Garsh, doesn't that make him an accomplice? "Shucks, babe, those broken crosses daubed across your midriff look narf. I wanna parade you down at the beach in a bikini!"
As I predicted, the train's video cameras would prove critical in establishing the veracity (or lack thereof) pertaining to this case.
#1
More crushing of dissent. It's probably John Ashcroft's fault.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/26/2004 11:44 Comments ||
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#2
Galtung suffers from craniorectal inversion. Actually if he would convert to the Church of England, he'd be a natural for the ArchBishop of Cantebury.
Posted by: Random thoughts ||
07/26/2004 11:56 Comments ||
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Via LGF.
Here we are, soldiers of the 1st Armored Division, just days from finally returning home after over a year serving in Iraq, and Moore's film is shocking and crushing soldiers, making them feel ashamed. Moore has abused the First Amendment and is hurting us worse than the enemy has.
There are the young and impressionable soldiers, like those who joined the Army right out of high school. They aren't familiar w/ the college-type political debate environment, and they haven't been schooled in the full range of issues involved. They are vulnerable to being hurt by a vicious film like Moore's. I'm too angry to blog more of this.
#1
This is what M. Moore was after. I'll bet he's pleased. I wouldn't put it past him to have a big "Mission Accomplished" sign behind him when he talks in Boston.
#2
I wonder what FDR would have done about Michael Moore.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/26/2004 15:41 Comments ||
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#3
I don't know.
I do know that FDR threatened to revoke the broadcast license of anyone who told the truth about the Katyn Forest Executions.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/26/2004 15:42 Comments ||
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#4
I don't know either, but I can tell you what the British did to Lord Haw-Haw.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/26/2004 15:46 Comments ||
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#5
They gave him hang-hang, didn't they? Sounds good to me.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/26/2004 16:00 Comments ||
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#6
Yep, even though he was born in New York.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/26/2004 16:03 Comments ||
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#7
Here's another question: what effect will a Kerry victory this November likely have on enlistment and retention rates in the military?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/26/2004 17:31 Comments ||
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#8
Some Marines I've spoken to think retention rates will fall through the floor if Kerry wins. There is a lot of fatigue already amongst the reserve ranks. Add to this Kerry's record of not supporting the military and actually betraying his fellow soldiers and you have a recipe for disaster. The soldiers, airmen and Marines I've spoken to do not like this guy one bit.
Posted by: remote man ||
07/26/2004 17:40 Comments ||
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#9
Hang Hang? Ha! Howsers haven't happened heavy 'henuf. Thank heavens.
Posted by: Lumpy R ||
07/26/2004 17:58 Comments ||
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#10
I'll answer with a different question: How would Kerry use the military? Given what I've seen of Kerry so far, there seem to me to be two basic possibilities: (1) One is that he won't use the military at all, since he's highly prone to paralysis by analysis. A bad outcome, but at least one that affects us all more or less equally. (2) He'll continue the LBJ-Clinton tradition of using the military in a half-assed limited way. We'll send a battalion to Snoozlestan because some of Kerry's supporters think we need to take action in Snoozlestan, but we won't support that battalion because other Kerry supporters think we shouldn't be in Snoozelstan at all. "You can stand there, but for gosh sake don't shoot anyone." Not good for troop morale; even worse for force protection.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/26/2004 18:02 Comments ||
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#11
From what I can tell, Kerry seems to think that the WoT is a low-level, behind-the-scenes affair, using cops and special forces to seek out and kill individual terrorists. This fits well with a Clinton-like "holiday from history" approach to foreign policy, where the nasty business is invisible, so that the pacifists here and in Europe can be mollified. He has revealed nothing, if there is anything to reveal, about what he thinks of rogue states and failed states. These states are at least as big a problem as Al Qaeda, since they have the capability and the will to support terrorism and to inject WMD into the mix.
doesn't mention threats to revoke anybody's broadcast licenses but it does touch on Roosevelt's deep-sixing of reports that the Soviets, not the Nazis, had perpetrated the massacre:
"In 1944, President Roosevelt assigned Capt. George Earle, his special emissary to the Balkans, to compile information on Katyn. Earle did so, using contacts in Bulgaria and Romania. He too concluded that the Soviet Union was guilty. FDR rejected Earle's conclusion, saying that he was convinced of Nazi Germany's responsibility. The report was suppressed. When Earle requested permission to publish his findings, the President gave him a written order to desist. Earle--who had been a Roosevelt family friend--spent the rest of the war in American Samoa."
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/26/2004 19:14 Comments ||
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#16
Dave D. has already posted one of the links I was planning to post; here's the other:
http://hnn.us/articles/5136.html
To illustrate the "denial," Klehr and Haynes cite liberals' continuing repression of the Katyn Forest massacre, Stalin's World War II extermination of the core of the Polish elite, regular and reserve officers who had been made prisoners as a consequence of the collaboration between Stalin and Hitler that began the war. I recently experienced the denial first-hand when, in a conversation with a west coast history professor, I suggested that we had had enough discussion of the number of those executed by the Soviets and that historians should begin to examine the cover-up of Katyn on the part of the Roosevelt administration. There was no response to my suggestion. I had touched a sensitive ideological nerve; I had had the temerity to impugn one of liberal academe's most dearly embraced historical memories, the integrity of the Roosevelt administration in its alliance with Stalin during World War II. Nevertheless, I suggest that Klehr and Haynes's treatment of the American response to Katyn be extended somewhat to include the significance of the American cover-up in later years.
No one who was not alive and aware in the United States during the war can imagine the deference to the Soviet Union and its war effort exhibited by Franklin D. Roosevelt's war-time administration and the American media. For example, not only did the Office of War Information blame the Katyn executions on the German army; OWI also implicitly threatened to remove licensure from the Polish language radio stations in Detroit and Buffalo if they did not cease broadcasting the details of the executions. In all the long years when Alan Cranston served as U.S. Senator from California no one mentioned his part as an OWI functionary in the intimidation of the Polish-American radio station managers. The London-based Polish government-in-exile, whose leaders had requested a Red Cross investigation of the affair, was characterized as having "stupidly walked into Goebbels' trap". Was that the initial manifestation of what later became America's favorite ethnic stereotype?
I've been reading a lot lately by some critics of the current administration, that they haven't mobilized the country to the extent that the US was mobilized in WW2.
This argument is starting to bug me a lot; Roosevelt was able to mobilize so much during wartime because he had a great deal of political power. Heck, thanks to his efforts to pack the Supreme Court,FDR had more power in the peacetime period of the 30's than Bush has had in the current war.
It's a lot easier to mobilize the country's economy to war when you've got it under centralized control to begin with.
And frankly, the party that believes in centralized control of the economy seems to be the one least suited to actually run a centralized economy; they complain about "blood for oil" but are the main impediment to more oil exploration and production domestically. They claim to like alternate energy sources, but if one of those starts threatening to actually work, they seem to change their minds, and move the goalposts... the various brouhahas about wind power, off of Nantucket or in Altamont Pass, are one example of this. Nuclear fission is another.
I am fairly sure I've ranted on this in the past, and I'm probably starting to sound like a broken record, and it's off-topic for this thread, so I'll stop now.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/26/2004 19:45 Comments ||
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#17
, thanks to his efforts to pack the Supreme Court,
that was a massive political failure, didn't happen.
FDR political power was on the wane until Pearl Harbour.
He barely passed Lend Lease and the draft continuation when it was already apparent that US involvment in the war was imminent.
#18
During the first months of the war in Iraq, I heard on WLS radio that people could write our troops to keep morale high. I haven't heard anything since, and I imagine support from Americans would be even more appreciated now. Does anyone know of website(s) that we can write to, that soldiers have access to, for lending them our support?
#19
Shipman: do you think Bush could pass Lend Lease or institute a draft today, even now, _after_ 9/11 and the start of the war?
From where I'm sitting, it looks like FDR had a lot more power, even when you say it was waning.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/26/2004 20:14 Comments ||
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#20
Excellent points, all. We have never been more free - we flirt with anarchy now, gleefully dancing on the edge, in the name of freedom. But as Phil suggests, it's not liberty they seek. It's some strange demented Norman Rockwell cum Peter Max vision of what they think the 1960's era was about. I was there, just as most here were, and it wasn't Nirvana, it was chaos - and an ugly motherfucker at that. Perhaps they believe their own lies... you know the ones where they got laid more often. I recall a concert in Red Rock Canyon where this love-child and I...
But through their rose-colored memory mists (allusion to old Doonesbury on Reagan's Brain intentional, just reversed roles) and the half-baked drivel they've now indoctrinated some of our children with, it's become a mantra or meme. They want to go backwards to the goofy 60's - how progressive, lol! Fuck 'em. These are the misfits who kept their idiocy under wraps until they became the Deans, Professors, Middle Mgrs, Ethicists, and State Dept Foreign Policy Advisors - and were thus empowered to peddle their idiocy as reasoned thought.
They have given liberalism a case of jaundice, for they hate the very system that created the stability that allows liberalism to exist. It's not a requisite for survival, it's a luxury item only available when there is such strength that stability is ensured. Once at that point, it serves us exceptionally well, but it cannot exist without the strength to protect the society.
I believe the violence is coming. The True Believers in the meme have few qualms - they're defending their dream-world - and all bets are off when you (or reality) threatens someone's dreams, no matter how demented. Sounds like the Islamofacists and the Caliphate, no?
And I like my drivel well done, thanks. Paper mache' giant puppets and pink tanks don't do much for me. It's a reality thing.
#21
"I believe the violence is coming. The True Believers in the meme have few qualms..."
They have none. Nor do they know any restraint. Nor do they give a damn about the destruction they are causing, long term or short term. They want the world and they want it NOW.
My concern is that these people, if left unchecked, will end up causing a situation so horrible that someone decides to correct it-- and them-- with concentration camps and mass graves.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/26/2004 20:44 Comments ||
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#22
Phil, I expect Bush could pull off Lend Lease given the same near set of circumstances, but nothing short of a Mexican invasion will bring back the draft, and then only if Mexican light infantry penetrated to Chicago.
Remember, it all would depend on whether the Molotov-Ribbentroff pact was still in effect. If it were, the loony liberal left would feel honor-bound to sabotage any anti-Nazi action, any way they could.
I wish I could find the article I read a while back that said this was actually a factor in the fall of France.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/26/2004 23:14 Comments ||
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#24
Although Michael Moore is the Jane Fonda of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I can't see him making exercise videos.
#25
My son's Marine battalion is deploying to Iraq in a few weeks. It is a bitter thought to contemplate the possibility of him going in harm's way with a man like Kerry in command. I start every day with a prayer for the continued good health and reelection of George Bush.
#26
Me, too, RWV, and I'll add your son to my prayers for our troops, too!
God bless him and do thank him for his service to our country and protecting our safety and security!
Bush will and must win reelection in 2004.
#27
Comrades! Establishment of NKVD "Barrage Batallions" will ensure the continued loyalty of our troops! Trotskyite Deviationist Wreckers will be rooted out tooth and nail!
#1
"Canada's $1-billion gun registry is being used by a U.S. project-management centre for senior corporate executives as a case study in incompetence and financial mismanagement."
Hell that is alot of money into a usless rat hole. Just think of all the health care that could have purchased. Everyone knows Canada does not with firearms by any means.
I wonder how much money has been poured down teh sheite hole here in the US with our "instant check" system?
#2
Not to be flip, but one thing we can at least be thankful about with most LLL programs is that they're so poorly run. Yeah, it costs us out-of-pocket, but look what happened the only time an efficient totalitarian regime seized power.
#3
For that kind of money, they could have bought every Canadian household a gun.
Posted by: ed ||
07/26/2004 22:10 Comments ||
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#4
Heck ed I think lots of them actually have them. From what I undersand per capata Canada has more guns than the US. It's just they are all long guns and shotguns, most not registered as well.
#5
Actually, from a Google, I get two claims: (search guns per capita Canada)
One site claims that guns per capita in the US is .8 while in Canada its .25. However, another site claims that Canadians hunt more with the guns they've got.
Nonetheless... point remains valid: the gun registry is an incredible waste of money...
The September 11 commission's final report features the most thorough account to date of a subject hotly debated since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003: the relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime.
Pulling from more than 2 million classified files and from interrogations of several detained terrorists, the report portrays a relationship spanning several years with contacts initiated at some points by Iraq and at others by al Qaeda.
But the commission ultimately concluded it had seen "no evidence" that the contacts "ever developed into a collaborative operational relationship." Nor was there evidence that "Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States."
The key word in the final report's phrasing is "operational," which was omitted from an earlier report by the September 11 commission's staff that said the contacts had not developed into a "collaborative relationship."
Part of the Bush administration's argument for invading Iraq — particularly statements by Vice President Dick Cheney — centered on claims about strong ties between Saddam and al Qaeda.
Such claims are bolstered in some cases and weakened in others by the September 11 commission's 567-page final report, Chapter 2 of which offers the following conclusions:
c. There is "evidence" that in 1997, bin Laden "sent out a number of feelers to the Iraqi regime, offering some cooperation. None are reported to have received a significant response. According to one report, Saddam Hussein's efforts at this time to rebuild relations with the Saudis and other Middle Eastern regimes led him to stay clear of bin Laden."
c. In mid-1998, the situation reversed, with Iraq reportedly taking the initiative. "In March 1998, after bin Laden's public fatwa against the United States, two al Qaeda members reportedly went to Iraq to meet with Iraqi intelligence. In July, an Iraqi delegation traveled to Afghanistan to meet first with the Taliban and then with bin Laden. Sources reported that one, or perhaps both, of these meetings was apparently arranged through bin Laden's Egyptian deputy, [Ayman al] Zawahiri, who had ties of his own to the Iraqis."
c. Similar meetings "may have occurred in 1999. ... According to the reporting, Iraqi officials offered bin Laden a safe haven in Iraq. Bin Laden declined, apparently judging that his circumstances in Afghanistan remained more favorable than the Iraqi alternative. The reports describe friendly contacts and indicated some common themes in both sides' hatred of the United States."
In addition to the "collaboration" matter, significant debate has swirled around the issue of whether Mohamed Atta, who piloted one of the hijacked jets that slammed into the World Trade Center on September 11, had met with an Iraqi official in Prague in April 2001.
In its report, the September 11 commission said Atta "is known to have been in Prague on two occasions" — once for a single night in December 1994, and once for a single night in June 2000. But, the commission cited FBI evidence placing Atta in Florida when the 2001 meeting is said to have occurred.
Meanwhile, the report appears to suggest that in the days after September 11, some in the Bush administration were eager to find ways to politicize the attacks into a basis for invading Iraq. According to the report, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told the commission that Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz had argued at the time "that Iraq was ultimately the source of the terrorist problem and should therefore be attacked."
The report offers a direct quote of what Mr. Powell told the commission: "Paul was always of the view that Iraq was a problem that had to be dealt with. ... And he saw this as one way of using this event as a way to deal with the Iraq problem."
President Bush did not give Mr. Wolfowitz's argument "much weight," Mr. Powell told the commission, adding that although the president continued to "worry about Iraq" in the following week, he ultimately "saw Afghanistan as the priority."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/26/2004 1:28:17 AM ||
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FORMER United States president Bill Clinton is questioning his successor's choices about the war in Iraq. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Clinton called President George W. Bush's doctrine of pre-emption "a very tricky, slippery slope" that was "never realistic because we are not going to go to war with Iran or North Korea".
Mr Clinton, set to speak at the Democratic Convention in Boston today, has been careful not to speak too harshly about Mr Bush. "I have tried to talk about this president and his administration in a respectful tone," he said. But he took jabs at the current administration in an interview posted yesterday on the newspaper's website.
"The American people can decide who they think is right and wrong, but the Bush administration believed Iraq was far and away the biggest security problem of the country, despite the fact that there was more support for al-Qaeda within Pakistan and now we know more contacts with Iran," he said. "There were other responsible people who had different views."
Either he's just being partisan for the week of the DNC, or he really doesn't get it.
Mr Clinton, who called Osama bin Laden "the biggest threat to the country", would not say whether he would have invaded Iraq. He said he would have let United Nations weapons inspectors finish their work before deciding.
In others words, no invasion, ever.
"But the factors in my thinking would have been how well we were doing in Afghanistan, stabilising the entire country, and what our reasonable prospects of getting bin Laden were," Mr Clinton said. "I don't have any problem with getting rid of Saddam Hussein but we have over 900 American dead now and we are still dealing with this, and we are not dealing with other things with the same gusto."
While calling Mr Bush "a great politician," Mr Clinton said his response to the September 11 terror attacks were misguided and may cost him the November election. "After 9/11, we all wanted to follow the leader and be united as a country. The Republican right, which dominates the policy of this White House, took our patriotism to be weakness and tried to push the country to the right and push the world around, and there was a predictable reaction," he said.
Just clearing a path for Hillary.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/26/2004 12:36:03 AM ||
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#1
I suspect that Mr. Bill will not mention that Iraq Regime change was the US position since 1998 -- nay. That miiltary plans were drawn up for Iraq since the late 1990s, nay.
Posted by: Capt America ||
07/26/2004 1:01 Comments ||
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#2
Ah gotta go now. Ah got about a thousand hookers in Boston that wanna meet me. And ah can't disappoint a core constituency.
Posted by: W.J. Clinton ||
07/26/2004 9:37 Comments ||
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#3
Clinton is trying to deflect attention away from the continuing revelations about his failure to act against Osama. The CIA manager in charge of tracking Al Qaeda during the later Clinton years, and who has written a book under the name of Anonymous, stated on TV last night that his team was able to precisely track and locate Osama, and that the Clinton NSC (presumably Clark and Berger) failed to give the go ahead for an attack on several occasions. He mentioned one occasion on which the reason given not to attack was the fear that shrapnel would damage a nearby mosque. He stated that the criteria that the Clinton NSC used to decide on an attack were not what the consequences of failure to act would have on the safety of the American people, but what the Europeans or Muslim world would think. He repeated this rather devastating charge several times in the interview. The shrapnel/mosque incident should probably be recorded as the most fatally consequential case of political correctness in history.
#4
Spot on, Virginian. Moreover, why hasn't the MSM nailed his ass on why he didn't take Osama when Sudan offered him up on a silver platter? Couldn't be because MSM wants Dems to be elected, could it?
Posted by: Michael ||
07/26/2004 13:03 Comments ||
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#5
...Clinton called President George W. Bush's doctrine of pre-emption "a very tricky, slippery slope"...
That's the obvious excuse for inaction when you stick your finger up your ass in the wind in order to have your decisions made for you.
Maybe you should cast a glance at Boston, where next week, the Democrats will anoint one John Forbes Kerry, a Northeastern patrician who is fast becoming the Eastern establishment's favorite son. Yes, Kerry's record on spending, defense and social policy has been liberal.
Kerry's record on defense isn't "liberal"; liberal I could handle. It's been downright dangerous for our security. Sully's gone off the reservation.
But that is not the theme of his campaign so far. Kerry is as rhetorically dedicated to seeing through nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan as Bush is. But where Bush has scrapped America's longstanding military doctrine of only attacking when attacked, Kerry prefers the old, strictly defensive doctrine. Where Bush has clearly placed American national interest above any international concern, Kerry insists that the old alliances - even with old Europe - need to be strengthened and reaffirmed. Then let the old allies stop supporting and appeasing the enemy. Kerry insists that he is a fiscal conservative, aiming to reduce the deficit by tax increases. He has argued that stability in some parts of the world should take precedence over democracy or human rights. He opposes amending the Constitution and supports legal abortion, the status quo Bush wants to reverse. He has spent decades in the Senate, quietly building an undistinguished and constantly nuancedrecord. There's that word again. He is a war veteran, who plays up his record of public service every chance he gets. He's a church-going Catholic who finds discussion of religious faith unseemly in public. Embarrasses his heathen followers. In the primaries, he was the safe, establishment bore compared to the radical pyrotechnics of Howard Dean and the populist charm of John Edwards. Charm? What's the difference between a vulture and a tort lawyer? One is a foul-smelling, carrion-eating scavenger, the other is a bird. Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy ||
07/26/2004 12:42:23 AM ||
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#1
Sullivan is basically a one-issue voter and that issue is gay marriage. Kerry is actually against it, too, but Sullivan and other gay activists see him as more flexible and, obviously, as associated with the party that promotes the idea.
Yeah. Sort of. If you actually read Sully on the topic of same-sex marriage, it is clear that this is an area where his brain just goes off the trolley tracks, raw emotion taking over. Since Bush was forced to take a stand against it, Sully's been itching to spit back in rage-- like a jilted lover?-- his irrationality coming into clear view in such statements as Kerry's "a church-going Catholic who finds discussion of religious faith unseemly in public", when everyone with an IQ above room temperature knows that Kerry attends church only out of political expedience, and declines to talk about his faith less because he finds such talk "unseemly" than because he knows it's potentially embarassing, given that his religious faith is sheer fakery, as evidenced by his phoney baloney self-contradictions on the topic of abortion-- which phoney baloney slipperiness Sully now pronounces "nouanced"?
Pfeh. Facing facts, Sully ain't calculating this way or that, he's just an emoter in the grip of a personal obsession.
A cautionary tale to those who think that being smart entails being right. Even very smart people can be driven to stupidity by their personal demons. Case in point: Andrew Sullivan.
#2
I've been watching Sullivan slowly rip loose from his moorings for a long time.
Such is Sullivan's influence that I have to wonder whether those pushing the gay marriage issue-- and deciding to push it at this particular time-- were were doing so largely to de-rail Andrew's support for Bush.
If that's what they were trying to do, it worked.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/26/2004 6:38 Comments ||
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#3
Sullivan's having a hissy fit because Bush is against gay marriage. I stopped reading his blog months ago.
Posted by: Infidel Bob ||
07/26/2004 7:16 Comments ||
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#4
hes unhappy with a lot of bush admin policies, not just the gay stuff(which can quite tiresome) . He writes an inciteful and persuasive blog - i wont try to make his case for him, just if youre not reading it, youre missing something good.
#5
LH - I use to read his blog religiously. I even found RB through him - but after his blog become Johnny-one-note for the gay marriage issue I rarely look in anymore. I gather nothing useful that can't be found here or in a select few other blogs.
Maybe after the war on radical Islam is completed and won, gay 'marriage' may interest me a bit more - but not until then. I dearly love the girl-friends of my three (female) cousins but have no desire to legally equate those relationships with that of myself and my wife. But, as I said, until we kill the bastards that want to kill us because we are non-moslem, it is barely on my screen.
Here's a thought - If extreme Islam overtakes the world, the very idea of gay marriage is laughable.
#6
I can't fault Sullivan for this. I don't have a dog in the gay marriage dispute, but it affects him directly. I know they forced this thing to the foreground, but the Reps are behaving just as foolishly. Somebody explain to me how banning gay marriage on the basis of morality is any less socialist than the stuff the Dems try to push on us.
#7
Sullivan - he is NOT a Catholic - at lesat not one in good standing with the Church. His constant voting FOR abortion rights legislation consitutes a great sin in th eyes of the Church, and per Cardinal Ratzingers letter this year, sections 3 5 and 6, whe should not present himself for communion, and if he does, he should be denied communion by the minister.
So do *NOT* call him Catholic. Sully, you're full of crap on this one.
#8
Andy, if you are reading the Burg, just go down to the bath house and do what your kind does. Stop pretending to be a conservative when you come out with such tripe as this column.
TO sum up as on LGF:
So, Sullivan is agasint Bush now because Bush is agains Gay MArriage and has been spending a bit too liberally - so he is endorsing Kerry? The same Kerry who is also (supposedly) against Gay Marriage and would spend even more money (socialized medicine) - and raise taxes, as well as tying out ability to act down with internationalism?
I think Andrew Sullivan has lost his mmind due the Gay Marriage thing. He's become a one-note basher, and should be treated same as any other moonbat who has lost perspective and context. Hint #1 Andrew: there's a war on, and there are more important things than Gay Marriage in the world.
#9
Andrew Sullivan values his sexual predilictions more than the security of the United States. Perhaps he should move to France where mores are more mutable.
Posted by: Random thoughts ||
07/26/2004 11:29 Comments ||
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#10
Sullivan lost me when he went one issue. Doc8404 is absolutely right. Andrew and all gays have the greatest stake in winning the war on terror. Their lives, literally, depend on it. Odd that they do not understand that.
Posted by: remote man ||
07/26/2004 13:33 Comments ||
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#11
He has spent decades in the Senate, quietly building an undistinguished and constantly nuanced record.
Give me a fuckin' break. Eighteen years in the Senate. Exactly three bills bear his signature as the originator (two on that all-important issue of fishing rights). He's to public service as M.C. Hammer is to music.
#12
hey give andy a break. Yeah, hes got other issues that matter to him as well the as the GWOT. So does everyone else, including just about every other blog, and the Bush admin too for that matter. Odd that the very folks who attack Sully for not focusing like lighting on the GWOT are the very ones who push domestic politics issues HERE, of all places.
His disagreements with the Bush admin on economics are not about something small - theyre about a huge issue relating to the economy, and it ALSO relates to how serious Bush IS about the GWOT. And I would suggest that some of Sullys discomfort DOES relate to Bushs actions in the GWOT. Some here beleive every disagreement within the Bush admin is really a charade, and that everything they arent doing now they will assuredly do in term 2. That may be true, but Sully is hardly crazy for not taking it all on faith.
If theres a "War on", as OS says, why is the Bush admin attacking a group that has every reason to oppose the islamofascists? why divide us now?? And surely the Bush admin isnt against internationalism.
and by, the way, on most days there more posts on Sully relating to the WOT, attacking the loonie left, etc than there are on gay marriage.
As for his standing in the RC church, thats neither here nor there. I AM surprised that Ratzingers statement is now taken to apply to journalists - I thought it applied ONLY to officeholders, which Sully is not. In any case I remind OS that not EVERYONE here is a Catholic. Indeed, not everyone here is a CONSERVATIVE - I eagerly await Sullys coming over the dark side and joining the liberal hawks, but im afraid thats not going to happen.
All very good points you make, and everyone absolutely has the right to make up his own mind as to whom he wishes to vote for. No problem with that.
My problem with Sullivan is his intellectual dishonesty. If he has had a reverse Ronald Reagan moment where he states, "The Republican Party has left me, and I realize that the Democratic Party now represents my values better" than say so. After all, hasn't that been his shtick for all these years: "Look at me! I'm homosexual without being a statist, PC goofball!" Well, the last time I looked the principles of the 2004 Kerry Democratic Party aren't much different than those of the 1972 McGovern one; if anything the Dems are models of numbing consistency. So, if anyone has shifted it's been Sullivan.
Also, Sullivan strikes me as being incredibly naive about this FMA thing. Bush's base is the conservative religious voter who isn't too keen on this same-sex thing, and he's way too smart a politician to trade their votes (or staying at home) for an "atta-boy" on the editorial pages of the NYT.
And it cuts both ways because Kerry can't stray too far from his anti-war base.
#14
While you're at it, LH, give OldSpook a break on the subject of Catholicism? I'm just live-and-let-be on it, and I already posted on the subject re: Kerry and Sully - both are clearly apostate Catholics, and the Church is free to treat them like it. (Sullivan panned The Passion of the Christ for being of the traditional Catholic bent that he "escaped".)
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
07/26/2004 14:45 Comments ||
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#15
I heard Sullivan argue homo sexual marriage on Medved show. He went ballistic. It was plain to me that marriage to him was about love. No, love is about love. Marriage is about a man showing respect to the woman (or women) that he is procreating with. It is the melding of blood lines. Don't give me any religious crap about it.
Before Christianity or Jewdeism, or whatever religion currently being practiced, there was marriage. You can call an apple an orange all day long, don't mean it is.
Andrew has a lover. Thats adultery and thats his problem not mine or societies. Societies problem is about children and how they are raised. Who's their daddy! Not about who your having sex with.
BH, nobody is banning homos from marriage. They can marry and have children and still have sex all they want with another adult.(grounds for divorce for me) So whats the problem you ask. Children are the problem. Children are best raised, to societies best interest, by a mother and a father. Some Homosexuals want those kids. They want the stigma of adultery to be blurred. They want two mommies, they want two daddies. Not for the childrens sake but for their own fulfillment.
I was once lectured here how it would be better for a child to be raised by two homosexuals then say by an alcoholic, whatever that is. There wouldn't of been kids in my neighborhood if that were true, The Irish would have been doomed, Itallians, Germans. What the lecturer really wanted to say was some people are not good for raising children. In my book that includes people who would allow their perverted sexual attempts, whether thats male on male, male on female, interfamily, interspecies what have you to be a part of a childs upbringing. Most kids have the normal heterolsexual idea of sex implanted in their minds. I liked pretty girls the first time I noticed a pretty girl. Thats the problem BH. The confusing of a child.
So, by all means, love the one your with. Just leave the kids out of it. And please don't lay some extreme thing about how some can't have, don't want kids. Thats just smoke to blur the truth. If you want to have some lover be your main squezz and have rights to your estate, put it in your will. And fix any problem that might interfer with that. Call it whatever you want but don't call it marriage. Unless you want to change the meaning of marriage. Then what should we call when two bloodlines come together to make a new line. Breeders!
#16
For OS - you can post this when words fail regards these morons who still claim to be Catholic, lol!
I don't have a dog in the religion fight, but I empathize strongly because it's just more of the hyphenation BS and moral equiv mentality dressed in slightly more indirect threads. They hope to deflect direct criticism by associating themselves with perceived centers of power / authority / legitimacy. Very disingenuous and disgusting cowardice, IMO.
Sullivan lost me about 6 months ago when his real agenda emerged. Everything since not directly related to gays has been equivocation and weasle-logic to cover his true disingenuous ass.
#18
I think it's a matter of money. Mr. Sullivan's blog is a rarity in that it's profitable. Well, it probably was until he went "one-note".
I think this latest Lean-to-Kerry is a campaign to woo a new funding base. No doubt the free publicity that has followed both his non-MSM articles hasn't hurt either. Coincidentally, the latest flap also comes at the start of his latest pledge drive.
Maybe we'll be treated to Mr. Sullivan's biography some day. I'd like to suggest a title: Memoirs of a Blog-Whore.
#20
LH, Cardinal Ratzingers' letter is meant to articulate the larger Christian idea that it is more wicked to encourage others to sin than to sin oneself. All of us are sinners. Old Spook's problem with Sullivan is not that Sullivan is for "gay marriage" but that Sullivan purports to belong to a pro-Gay Marriage wing of the Catholic Church - one that axiomatically, doesn't exist.
I found Rantburg by another road than Sullivan's Blog, so I'm not much of an expert on his message. Sullivan's point of view is worth paying attention to as long as his methods and opinions are truthful. He may fall back into Bush's camp at a later date as much of what Bush is doing will only make sense down the road and then only if America follows where he leads.
For example, the flat tax idea died, for a time, when Americans expressed an interest in cutting out tax code complexities as long as their own tax credits remained in place. I think there is a kernel of privatization in the Prescription Benefits for seniors that will bare fruit down the road.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/26/2004 22:39 Comments ||
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#21
Speaking of social commentary. Take a look at what's on the other end of this link that I found on Human Events. Now that's a tee-shirt.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/26/2004 23:10 Comments ||
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#22
LH - I'm not condmening SUllivan for Catholicism, but as a journalist he states an untruth - a distortion, when he calls Kerry a "churchgoing Catholic".
All the evidence is against him being any sort of Catholic other than as a device to pander to a particular segment of voters.
As for Sullivan, I didnt know if he was Catholic, Buddhist or Zoroastrain - a bad journalistic mistake is a bad journalistic mistake.
Period.
And FYI - if you vote for someone because they hold the views counter to the Church's teachings, then you are in just as severe a state of sin as they are, for aiding and promoting evil in the world.
If you aren't Catholic, then no big deal for you - your beliefs are different. But if you claim to be Catholic, then you clearly have made a moral judgement to let politics come before faith.
THAT was what my point was: KErry and other so-call Catholic politicians now have to decide and be true to their faith, or they shoudl get out of the Church. There is no room for them any other way, and they put the Church itself at risk by their behavior. And that is as good an illumination on their chracter as any other moral test.
#3
Someone should point out to them that if they hadn't gotten into the habit of turning "protests" into day-long rampages of vandalism and assaults, they wouldn't be treated like they intended to turn their "protest" into a day-long rampage of vandalism and assaults.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/26/2004 10:19 Comments ||
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Most offensive quote from an anti-war activist. From Medea Benjamin, a "peace campaigner" from San Francisco, objecting to the gated demonstration area outside of Fleet Center: ""We don't deserve to be put in a detention centre, a concentration camp." This is a concentration camp, ninny. Now, go stand in a corner and grow some shame.
This is an Amazon link to the book, "Reliance of the Traveller: The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law Umdat Al-Salik". Go there and scroll down to the review by "William Gawthrop".
He's so droll, he should be writing for Rantburg!
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/26/2004 3:52:14 PM ||
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#1
"Reliance of the Traveller gives insight to a wide variety of problems confronting the current era of law enforcement and a noticeable skewing of the truth in Islamic scholarship and news coverage. Local, state and federal officials, Criminal Justice officials, scholars, journalists, and those interested in the ongoing clash of civilizations will find the Reliance of the Traveller an invaluable tool in understanding some of the more problematic aspects of Islamic behavior. This book is an invaluable addition to any personal and professional library..."
Reader's Digest version: Lying and cheating in the name of Allah is A-OK!
EFL: When the Bush administration took over the Pentagon's beleaguered inspector general office in 2002, officials found something startling: The director's office, at some point, had been electronically bugged.
------snip--------
But he also had to deal with an electronic bug apparently left over from eight years of the Clinton administration. An internal "info memo," a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, was written by a staffer in Mr. Schmitz's office:
"On June 19, 2002, during a routine meeting with the director of security for the Department of Defense, it was reported to my staff and me that a potential 'listening device' was previously discovered in the infrastructure of DoDIG. "The DoD directorate of security conducted a routine sweep for electronic listening devices in certain areas of the ninth and tenth floors of the DoDIG on Aug. 7, 2000. The sweep revealed that a wire had been installed inside the wall structure leading to and from the ninth and tenth floors of the DoDIG (areas which comprise the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the personal office space of the inspector general)."
Well, I'm not a top Pentagon cop, but it seems to me that if the mic was in the bosses office, whoever had been working in the office where the wire lead to would be on your suspect list. Unless there was no mic, in which case it could have been just a wire left over from some long-forgotten installation. I've lost count of the cable I've pulled that had been abandoned in place by god knows who.
And there was another touchy issue for Mr. Schmitz. A second series of internal memos from his staff showed that a Muslim who was employed as an auditor and granted a "top-secret" security clearance was not an American citizen.
Oops!
"He possesses a Social Security number tied to multiple confirmed aliases," a May 2002 memo said. Another paper said, "Using the improper granted interim clearance, [the employee] visited numerous installations where he had access to sensitive information. ... The Department of Justice Joint Terrorism Task Force is currently considering a criminal investigation into this matter."
"considering a criminal investigation"?????? How about a looking for a muslim spy?
The Times faxed copies of the memos to Mr. Schmitz's office for comment. John R. Crane, his spokesman, responded in an e-mail: "Both matters contained in your fax ... have been addressed and resolved." "The memos provided contain information that is not releasable to you. In particular, the Privacy Act protects the personal information contained in one of the memos," he continued. "I would note that DoD [regulations] state 'unauthorized disclosure of ... information that is protected by the Privacy Act may also result in civil and criminal sanctions against responsible persons.' "
A U.S. official later said the employee in question had resigned.
I don't want to hear "resigned", I want to hear "jugged, questioned and jailed for years".
On the bugging issue, this official said, "No one knows who was spying on who. They just removed it."
Sigh
Posted by: Steve ||
07/26/2004 2:28:17 PM ||
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#1
"No one knows who was spying on who. They just removed it."
Sort of like that second car involved with the Madrid atrocity. "They just removed it ..." and all the associated forensic evidence pertaining to it that could possibly have been gathered. Are we taking lessons from the Spanish police now?
Isn't, "He possesses a Social Security number tied to multiple confirmed aliases," a euphemism for "HE'S A SPY!!!!" This, "No one knows who was spying on who." bullsh!t is pure Pollyanna. When you encounter something like this, it gets tracked down to the wire pulling die that drew each strand at the manufacturer's site that day.
READING the 570-page "The 9/11 Commission Report" is like going through a French nouveau-roman. It starts with the promise of uncovering an ingenious plot but offers nothing but re-heated platitudes served with a pseudo-philosophical garnish. The commissioners tell us that they had three aims:
* To offer "the most complete narrative" of the 9/11 events. But that, in fact, is the task of historians and may not be possible for years, if not decades to come. What the report offers is a collage of numerous articles and books that have already covered the "event" side of the 9/11 event. One more narrative adds little that is useful.
* To assemble as many personal testimonies as possible of the survivors of the attacks and their families. This, though, a laudable effort, is of little help in identifying the ideology and the machine that produced the killers in the first place.
* To offer recommendations about ways and means of preventing similar attacks.
Normally, this should have been the "meat" of the report. It is not. It is, in fact, its Achilles heel. The reasons are not hard to imagine. The commissioners have a politico-technocratic mindset. They are the products of a political culture that assumes that all problems have technical and bureaucratic solutions. Such solutions are standard: create a new layer of bureaucracy, and spend some more money. But that is certainly not going to put the fear of God in Osama bin Laden and his like.
Ordnance is much more direct and to the point...
The commission itself was a typical product of such a way of thinking. So it is not surprising that it came up with only two new proposals: one is to create a Cabinet post dealing with intelligence, a twin for the existing Homeland Security tsar.
No doubt he gets lonely, with no one to argue with...
Posted by: tipper ||
07/26/2004 11:39:53 AM ||
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#1
"This enemy does not want to give and take, to compromise, or to triangulate. He wants you to obey him in every detail or he will kill you."
I submit that this enemy wants you to obey him in every detail and he will kill you.
I am reminded of Winston Smith, dutiful officer in the Ministry of Information, dutifully rewriting history, dutifully lying on orders from the state, as a matter of course. Along the way, he witnesses, along with all the other proles, state "criminals" confessing their "crimes" against the state, and asking for warranted punishment, all on tv, Leading up to the two minutes hate. Then Winston Smith finds himself in the same position; the state makes a case against him, and despite his denials, is broken and confesses before all, his crimes, his confession that he turned against the state. And then ultimately executed. IOW, he is prosessed like a sausage.
There is video, of Saddams Baathist regime members, meteing out punishments, in the form of mutilations: beatings, amputations, and executions, on Iraqi citizens, but also on Sadam Feyadeen, for precisly the same reason. That these Saddam Feyadeen, failed, or as they put it, "betrayed" their mission. (which I take it to mean that they didn't kill enough people, or they killed no one.) All this punishement delivered, invoking the name of "alllahh", and quoting the appropriate Koranic order for killing in Allahs name.
Ones only option in Islam, is to take part in the killing of "infidels", and therefore mark yourself as a killer for allah, all with no guaratee that your number won't come up, despite everything you for and in the name of allah.
#2
We can have 50 attacks and 50 commissions, but until we recognize that jihadis have dissected our society and will exploit its weakest links, we have learned nothing. Our weakest links? Our commitment to upset no one's rights (including the rights of jihadis who plan our deaths and that of our beloved country happily), our economic dependence on oil (no we're not alone in that), and a dangerous kind of guilty altruism that is willing to surrender itself piece by piece in order to be liked by the world.
The body that monitors piracy around the world has reported a sharp rise in the number of ships crew killed in the first half of 2004. The International Maritime Bureau says 30 crew members were killed, twice as many as in the same period last year. It is the highest number of piracy related killings for a decade, despite a global fall in the number of attacks. Half of those killed were in Nigerian waters. Other hot spots were Vietnam, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. "The increased ferocity and the number of attacks are linked to law and order problems ashore," the British-based bureau said in a report released by its piracy watch centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. "The (Nigerian) authorities are under pressure and unable to respond adequately to attacks at sea."
Another good reason for us to have a naval base in Sao Tome.
The number of attacks around the world fell by almost a quarter compared to the same period last year, but the situation in the Malacca Strait deteriorated. Attacks on vessels in the world's busiest sea lane rose by 33%. Last week, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore started coordinated naval patrols of the Straits in response. Eighty two of the 182 incidents reported worldwide in the first half of the year happened in their waters, most of them in Indonesian territory. Indonesia suffered 50 attacks, although the figure was lower than the 64 reported in the first half of last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2004 11:25:00 PM ||
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#1
Eventually, customs will begin to allow boaters and merchants to check weapons as they enter port and receive them back as they leave port. Dead pirates will result in less piracy.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/26/2004 2:03 Comments ||
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#2
Yar!
Posted by: John in Tokyo ||
07/26/2004 3:32 Comments ||
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#3
Actually I think they can have arms to defend themselves onboard. If they do it's really no ones business.
#4
Wait a minute - Nigeria? There isn't much of a chokepoint off Nigeria. Is this including riverine piracy? Huh. Here I thought that the main issue was in the grand archipelago between the Pacific and the Indian Oceans... Nigeria?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/26/2004 8:52 Comments ||
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#5
There's a chance that some of these pirates are Malaysian or Indonesian navy personnel moonlighting.
#7
Nigeria has problems with organized crime involved with oil, including pirating marine transport. Some of the fatalities occured when pirates opened up on Nigerian troops that were inspecting a passenger-laden ferry.
As for the Straits of Mallacca, the sources I've seen blame part of the piracy on 'moonlighting' Indonesian navy personnel. Ima thinking both the Straits and P.I. are experiencing an influx of new blood and sponsors.
TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is disappointed over the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court in Malaysia to release Yim Pek Ha, the main suspect in the torture of Indonesian worker Nirmala Bonat, from the jail and place her under house custody during the trial process. "We worked hard to put the suspect in the jail during the trial process," said Indonesian Department of Foreign Affairs' spokesman, Marty Natalegawa, in Jakarta on Friday (23/07).
Kuala Lumpur High Court judge, Datuk Abdul Kadir Musa, granted the request made by Mrs. Yim's lawyer, K. Balaguru, to release the defendant from jail and place her under house custody. After paying 85,000 Malaysian ringgit to bail the defendant out, Yim Pek Ha was released under three conditions: she is banned from leaving Kuala Lumpur, she has to submit her passport by July 20 at the latest and is banned from hiring foreign workers in her house.
Judge Datuk Abdul Kadir placed Yim Pek Ha under house custody because she has high blood pressure and a baby in her care. "The house custody does not mean that she has been released from the legal process," Natalegawa stated. The trial case regarding the torture of Nirmala Bonat will be held on July 26, 27 and 28. (Faisal - Tempo News Room) The defendant needs to remain in jail pending trial. Her actions were brutal and sadistic. Ms. Bonat is disfigured for life.
Posted by: Zenster ||
07/26/2004 4:06:05 AM ||
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Indonesian police will not use anti-terrorist legislation to prosecute five new Bali bombing suspects following a court ruling that it is unconstitutional, a report says. But Inspector General I Made Mangku Pastika, who led the hunt for the attackers, said he still expects to get convictions using other legislation. "We will now use the penal code or the emergency laws. I do not think there is a problem," Pastika, the Bali police chief, was quoted by Koran Tempo newspaper as saying.
"We have ways ..."
"We been doin' some research, and turns out, there's laws against killing 202 people. Who'da thunk that?"
The emergency laws passed in the early 1950s authorise the death sentence for possession of firearms and explosives, although this provision has not been used in recent years.
Gotta use 'em ever now and then. Otherwise they rust...
The government rushed through tough anti-terror decrees, which were later formalised into law, a week after the Bali nightclub blasts killed 202 people in October 2002. The legislation was made retroactive to cover the attack but the Constitutional Court on Friday ruled that this retroactivity breaches the constitution. Courts in Bali convicted 33 people under the anti-terror law. Three were sentenced to death and others were jailed for between three years and life. Pastika said he was certain the constitutional court ruling, issued following an appeal by a convicted accomplice to the bombers, would not hamper justice. The court's chief judge Jimly Asshidiqie has said all Bali convictions would stand because the new ruling could itself not be made retroactive. But defence lawyers say it provides grounds for appeal, including by those facing execution.
How about if you shoot them, then let them appeal?
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said his country was working with Indonesia to ensure the bombers did not escape punishment. Eighty-eight of those killed on the holiday island were Australians. The five new suspects were arrested at Sukoharjo in Central Java on June 30 and have since been moved to Bali. Police say one had attended planning meetings for the nightclub bombings while the four others, including a Malaysian, are suspected of helping to hide the first suspect.
The only Bali suspect currently on trial is Jhoni Hendrawan, alias Idris. He was also charged under the anti-terrorism law but the case was moved to Jakarta because of his alleged involvement in the Marriott hotel bombing in the capital last August. That attack killed 12 people and was also blamed on JI. Idris is accused of attending several meetings to plan the Bali attack and with surveying targets. He is also accused of detonating a bomb that did not claim any casualties near the US consulate on October 12. It exploded almost simultaneously with two other devices which caused carnage in the Kuta nightclub strip. Trial prosecutor Tubagus Arief Aziz said he would continue with his sentence recommendation when the hearing resumes at South Jakarta district court on Tuesday. "If I understand it correctly, nothing has changed for this trial. The constitutional court verdict only affects cases which have not been tried yet," Aziz said. He said the ruling does not apply to ongoing trials.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/26/2004 12:17:30 AM ||
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Malaysia is maintaining tight security along its border with Thailand Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said today, amid reports of a possible attack by Muslim militants in southern Thailand. Najib, who is also the defence minister said Malaysian security personnel were gathering intelligence and monitoring the situation closely, adding that Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok were exchanging information. "We are working closely with the Thais. Intelligence units of both sides have been exchanging information," he said. Najib's comments followed reports in a foreign newspaper quoting intelligence officials warning of a major attack by militants in Thai's restive southern provinces.
Malaysia's northern border with southern Thailand is separated by a porous border that can be easily crossed without passing through checkpoints. The region was plagued by separatist violence until the 1980s when the government managed to curb militant activity, but in the last few years violence has flared again. Najib said Malaysia would not ban local tourists from visiting southern Thailand but urged them to be alert. "We remind them that the area is still exposed to terrorist threats and they must take extra precautions," he said. Malaysia has had no major extremist attacks on its own soil, but has detained some 90 alleged militants suspected of membership in regional groups such as the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for the 2002 Bali bombing.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2004 11:56:28 PM ||
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The Telegraph
By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor
(Filed: 27/07/2004)
Iran has broken the seals on nuclear equipment monitored by United Nations inspectors and is once again building and testing machines that could make fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Teheran’s move, revealed to The Daily Telegraph yesterday by western sources, breaks a deal with European countries under which Iran suspended "all uranium enrichment activity".
It will also exacerbate fears that the regional power is determined to make an atomic bomb within a few years.
Enrichment is the most controversial part of Iran’s "peaceful" nuclear programme because the same technology used to make low-enriched uranium to fuel nuclear reactors can be used to refine material for bombs.
America has in recent weeks renewed its call for Iran to be referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
However, diplomats said senior officials from the "EU-3" - Britain, France and Germany - would try to coax Teheran back to the path of co-operation at a secret meeting in Paris on Thursday.
Posted by: George ||
07/26/2004 9:54:46 PM ||
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#1
No Linky-linky, George.
IF TRUE:
Well whaddya know. Perhaps the EU3 should utter a F**kin Duh in honor of their obvious foolishness in even giving the impression of trusting the Mad Mullahs. But they won't - because their silly-assed pointless sanctions are all they could do about it. Sigh. They should Lead, Follow, or Get The Hell Out Of The Way. EU3. Pfeh. Quit wasting time, schmucks, the Black Hats are already rope-a-dope pros, they don't need your help... unless the EU3 agenda is the destruction of Israel...
#2
Let's pray to God that Tony Blair learned his lesson about getting in bed with the Weasel powers and what that means.
Remember it was British sailors and Marines that the Iranians captured and tortured.
And it looks as if the EU3 didn't stop the mullahs in the least!
(As if they could without the US behind them.)
#5
If Kerry is re-elected, Iran gets the bomb. No question about. He simply doesn't have the balls to do anything. If Bush gets elected, it'll be bombs away.
So we choose: do we want the certainty of an Iran with nukes or the certainty of war with them and the possibility of ending the mullah's montrous regime.
#2
"...and US interests will be easily damaged." My only concern is whether Israel has removed Baghdad from its nuclear target list.
(Come to think of it, I wonder if they plan to use an extra-dirty warhead on Mecca, so the place would be uninhabitable for 80,000 years.)
#3
My only concern is whether Israel has removed Baghdad from its nuclear target list.
Baghdad has probably been deleted. In light of how Iran is Shiite, I wouldn't bet on Iraq's shrine cities being off limits, though. Husseini tomb go boom.
(Come to think of it, I wonder if they plan to use an extra-dirty warhead on Mecca, so the place would be uninhabitable for 80,000 years.)
Works for me. Islam is struggling desperately to get the floor mopped with themselves. Israel will be glad to help if nuclear fire is released.
From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
A Sunni cleric and spokesman for the Muslim Ulama Council told a 25 July news conference in Baghdad that the Islamic faith forbids the killing of policemen who "do not collaborate with multinational forces," Al-Jazeera reported the same day. Sheikh Muhammad Bashar al-Faydi said: "We believe that jihad is a duty. We also believe that providing security to people is a duty, that hospital work is a duty, and that ensuring market activity to make people earn a living is a duty. Everybody knows that this can only be achieved through the police agencies, which, by tradition, are the party responsible for this kind of work. Therefore, when policemen abide by these duties and do not go beyond that to work as agents and spies for the occupation troops, then it is forbidden to kill them." Al-Faydi did not say which standards dictate whether policemen are collaborators or not.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/26/2004 11:48:05 PM ||
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From the Pakistan Christian Post, an article by Naeem Shakir.
... It may be stated that Pakistan is predominantly an agrarian society and feudal values dominate the socio-cultural life of its people. Abduction and violence against women is a common feature. And women of the marginalized sections of the society are common victims. According to the report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan for the year 2002, 'one woman is being raped in every two hours and one woman is gang raped in every eight hours in Pakistan'. ...
The Muslim landlords without much uproar abduct the married Christian/Hindu women. And in order to avoid the rigors of penal law, converts the abductee to Islam and under goes the procedure of Islamic marriage with her. The whole exercise is under taken in such a mechanical manner that the law is made a sheer mockery. ... her earlier marriage under the Christian Marriage Act or under Hindu Marriage Law practically stands dissolved ipso facto. Why because she has supposedly embraced Islam and she being a Muslim is prohibited to marry a non-Muslim. As Islamic Shariah has to prevail, the institution of Christian marriage is rendered as a fragile thing and the personal law of non-Muslim citizens becomes meaningless. ...
PARIS (AFP) - Iran's main armed opposition group said that the US-led coalition had granted its militants in Iraq protected status, despite its listing as a terrorist organization by both Washington and its key allies. The National Council of Resistance of Iran said it had received notification from coalition commanders that People's Mujahedeen fighters who have been confined to camp in Iraq since last year's US-led invasion had been accorded recognition as protected non-combattants under the fourth Geneva Convention. "It is a very significant step because the Iranian regime has been demanding for the past year the People's Mujahedeen be handed back, which would obviously put their lives in danger," said Farid Sulimani, a member of the foreign affairs committee of the Mujahedeen-dominated National Council.
Iran has been pushing for instant execution repatriation of the several thousand Mujahedeen fighters under US military guard at Camp Ashraf northeast of Baghdad, and last December Iraq's coalition-installed interim leadership voted unanimously to expel them. But human rights watchdogs have called on the coalition not to hand over the fighters to an uncertain fate at the hands of their archfoes in Tehran. The People's Mujahedeen set up base in Iraq in 1986 and carried out regular cross-border raids into Iran, with which Iraq fought a bloody war between 1980 and 1988.
Several thousand Mujahedeen militiamen were disarmed by US forces following the fall of president Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003 and barred from undertaking military operations. Their fate has been a prickly question for Washington as it prosecutes its worldwide war on terror, since the group is listed as a terrorist organization by both the US State Department and the European Union. The National Council statement said that the coalition had undertaken to provide continued protection for the Mujahedeen fighters at Camp Ashraf. While recognition as protected individuals removes controls on the fighters' movement, potentially allowing them to emigrate to third countries, Sulimani said all were likely to stay as they wanted to remain close but not exactly inside to Iran.
#2
The announcement is questionable on several levels:
1. The Coalition is no longer soveriegn and can't officially protect squat.
2. The Coalition would certainly not leave it to the loonies to announce their own protected status.
3. "The enemy of my enemy.." was blown out of the water when the Taliban proved to be some pretty bad actors. It would be best if we let Iran be free with these clown sitting on the sidelines so that they don't have any claim on post-mullah power.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/26/2004 22:05 Comments ||
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#3
3. "The enemy of my enemy.." was blown out of the water when the Taliban proved to be some pretty bad actors.
Thank you, Super Hose, for snagging that one out of the stream before it slid by. You are so right. No matter how old that Arabic saying is supposed to be, fraternizing with the enema enemy is, has, shall and always will be f&%king stupid.
One trustworthy friendship outweighs a boatload of temporary alliances with those you have adequate reason to distrust.
SH, I also thank you for calling into question premises within the actual article itself. It's what I come to Rantburg for and always appreciate about this place. What do you see as any sort of potential resolution in this?
Although even America's own low-level policies are not cut in stone, reversing our declaration of the People’s Mujahedeen as a terrorist organization would represent a significant contradiction of the "yer fer or agin us" doctrine.
I want Iran overthrown ASAP. Preferrably without massive radiological contamination of their countryside from bombing nuclear R&D sites. I don't think dubious alliances are the way to do it.
#4
Zen, I still don't understand why the Swedes gave a bunch of these guys citizenship. Maybe Sweden has a tougher policy with respect to Iran than ours, - doesn't sound likely - but one of the beauties of the Iraqi soveriegnity is that we are no longer faced with Hobson's choice with respect to these mujahedeen.
For a little light reading, I'm rolling trough the Sentate Select Committee's Report on Arms Trafficking into Bosnia - its and oldie, but a goodie. Lake, and a bunch of others that testified before the 9/11 Commission were also involved then.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/27/2004 0:42 Comments ||
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As well as saying its anti-corruption drive would target corrupt officials, al-Aqsa said it would target those who smuggle alcohol and other forbidden products from Jewish settlements. It called for a body to oversee the use of foreign funds.
They already have "a body to oversee the use of foreign funds." His name is Yasser Arafat, he is a "corrupt official" and they need to go and kill him right away. Until Yasser's maggot riddled @ss is planted for a nice long dirt nap, there will be no forward motion.
A distinguished writer and academic has accused leading publishers of turning down his latest book because it is too critical of Islam. David Selbourne, who has written more than a dozen books, and his literary agent suspect that publishers are shunning The Losing Battle With Islam because it could provoke anger from Islamic extremists and other critics.
Among the subjects covered in the book is the "negative impact" of actions by Muslims in recent decades. It suggests that Islam is not a religion of peace, balance and compassion, as many of its adherents claim.
Sounds like a compilation of Rantburg Classics.
The book also discusses the fatwa that was issued against Salman Rushdie, the novelist, by the Ayatollah Khomeini, after the publication of The Satanic Verses. Mr Selbourne writes of the "cruel bounty repeatedly offered for his [Mr Rushie's] head".
Six publishers, including Penguin, HarperCollins and Heinemann, have turned down the book in the past five months. Mr Selbourne, who is British but lives in Italy, said that he believed that the reason for the repeated rejection was clear. "The reaction of the publishers is unprecedented. The subject is very contentious. I think there are some people who have fixed views which don't permit them to look at the matter dispassionately.
"It is controversial because it is a record - written without fear or favour - of what has actually happened during the Islamic revival. My book has been turned down because there is hesitation about looking at these matters squarely in the face, especially in Britain."
In the past, Mr Selbourne, whose previous publishers have included MacMillan, Cape, Penguin and Little, Brown, has had little difficulty getting his work into print. His book The Principle of Duty, published in 1994, was influential in Tony Blair's circle and was highly praised by Michael Howard, who was a Conservative Cabinet minister at the time. More recently Mr Selbourne has been advising David Willetts, the shadow works and pensions secretary, on future Tory strategy. Mr Selbourne added: "Many people don't want to face up to the scale of the challenge that the non-Muslim world is facing.
"There is a lot of hidden sympathy for attacks on the West by Islam, even though people who have this sympathy wouldn't always admit it."
Mr Selbourne, who was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford, has a reputation as a skilled, knowledgeable but abrasive award-winning writer. His new book looks at the development of Islam from 1947 to the present day, concentrating on the period from 1990. "I believe the book is a scrupulous analysis of the effect of the Islamic revival. It is precisely the book I would have wanted to read if I hadn't written it myself. It isn't a polemic against Islam although much of what Muslims have done has had a negative impact. For some, it will look like a negative portrayal of Islam, but it is a necessary work."
In his book, Mr Selbourne questions whether Islam should be regarded as a "religion of peace". He writes: "If Islam were truly a religion of compassion, mercy, patience, balance and peace - as most Muslims and a shrinking minority of non-Muslims denote it - many of the acts which have been recorded in this work, whether carried out by Muslims or against them, would not have taken place."
Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, who published three of Mr Selbourne's books before becoming his literary agent six years ago, said that he shared the author's belief that the book had been rejected because of its controversial nature. The publishers either declined to comment on their reasons for rejecting the book or were unavailable for comment, although those who did reply all claimed that they had not been afraid to publish the book. Instead, they gave different reasons, ranging from the book not being right for them to there being too many books on Islam. The book is being read by a seventh publisher.
"David is an extremely distinguished, polemical writer. It has surprised me that it wasn't accepted, but it appears that some publishers regard it as too much of a hot potato," said Mr Sinclair-Stevenson.
#1
Fuck a whole buncha filthy muslims. islam is a religion of shit. Pure unadulterated SHIT! allah is a figment of a deranged mind hell bent on fucking children. Every muslim in the world must be killed... Period!! They are evil. They must be done away with.
Posted by: Halfass Pete ||
07/26/2004 16:58 Comments ||
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#2
The publishers are just scared of an impending Fatwa.
Wouldn't you be. Those Islamist Fanatics are crazy killers. ;-)
#5
If Selbourne doesn't care about the money, then put it out on the web. I am sure he can get influential bloggers to review it. Any Rantburg literate literary critics out there?
Posted by: ed ||
07/26/2004 21:28 Comments ||
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Organisers at the Democratic Party convention in United States have removed Aljazeera's logotype banner from its skybox without assigning reasons. Aljazeera's skybox is one of the several that media organisations use as broadcast booths to cover the upcoming convention in Boston to confirm John Kerry's nomination as George Bush's presidential challenger in November. "We found that the banner disappeared for some reason," Aljazeera's Washington bureau chief Hafiz al-Mirazi said. "We contacted the Democratic National Convention and the people who are organising the convention. And then they said it has been removed, maybe for lack of enough space or something like that, although they approved originally the sign and everything on it. And every time we get different answers. And finally, they said, 'Sorry, we cannot put it back. And it's the only news organisation sign that was taken."
A convention spokeswoman said Aljazeera was not a special case. "Our first priority is putting a convention on, not advertising for the media," Peggy Wilhide said. In place of Aljazeera's logotype will be a banner reading "Strong for America."
Poor al-Jizz. Replaced by a platitude.
Posted by: tipper ||
07/26/2004 11:36:38 AM ||
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#1
LOL Freedom of speach? NOT! I think Al Jiz should sue the DNC.
ISLAMABAD, July 25: Three senior officials of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), who were released on Saturday, are reported to have been asked by the authorities to remain quiet about their 'debriefing' sessions and not to disclose any information about their departments. The three officials, Dr Mohammad Nazir, Director-General of Science and Technology, Brigadier (retd) Sajawal Khan, Director-General of Maintenance and Construction Division, and Major (retd) Islamul Haq, Personnel Staff Officer to Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, signed an undertaking that they would not leak any information.
"Youse guy's better keep your traps shut if youse knows what's good fur youse, see?"
The officials have also been directed to avoid contacting any foreign government, authority, corporation or person without obtaining prior permission from the federal government. They are also required to inform the KRL's director-general of security prior to leaving Islamabad.
"And don't leave town."
The release of the officials was surprising even for their families as the Federal Review Board (FRB) comprising three senior judges of the Supreme Court had recently extended their detention for another 90 days, sources close to the officials told Dawn. The last meeting of the FRB which decided to release the officials was held on July 23.
Looks like it's official, Khan's the designated fall guy.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/26/2004 11:15:22 AM ||
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#1
Leave us now close the opening to the equinne husbandry climate enclosure.
Kavkaz Center news and information agency received a statement signed by Military Council Majlis Al-Shura of Ingushetia. The editors are publishing the text of the statement uncut and unabridged.
In the name of God, Most Merciful, Most Gracious!
Praise Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, peace and blessing be to our Prophet Muhammad, his family and all of his disciples. Indeed, Allah created people so that He could be worshipped alone, so no companions are ascribed to Him, and He permitted Jihad on His Straight Way, so that the Religion of Allah could be above all, so that all areas of life could be guided by Islam, and so that the Earth could be cleansed of unbelief.
Allah said, «Make war on them until no more temptation remains » (Anfal 39)
The reason why the Muslims are weak is because they abandoned the Jihad. Allah set the infidels on Muslims, these infidels are guided by ignorance and unbelief and in the Muslim countries they have tried to do everything to make Muslims forget their Religion. Enemies are taking the riches of Muslims, they are persecuting the Muslims and thus confirming the warning from Allah:
«They will not cease to fight with ye until they avert ye from your Religion, if they will be able to do it».
And this is what Russian infidels are doing on Islamic land of Ingushetia and in other Muslim countries today, when they are committing their gravest crimes.
Russian troops along with Ossetian formations were taking part in seizing Ingushetian territories and in expelling Ingushetians from their homes. Thousands of Ingushetian Muslims were killed and hundreds were missing. Many were maimed and humiliated. Murders of Ingushetian men and kidnappings of ordinary Muslim men and women are continuing to this day. Ingushetia has turned into a den of gangs and tyranny.
Government of Russia has been conducting policies of imperial colonization by setting the occupied nations against one another. Every time Muslims demand independence, Russia attacks them by using the army of apostates, who are fighting on the side of the infidels against their fellow people, against the Muslims who desire freedom and independence. The situation in Chechnya and Ingushetia is an example thereof.
But times are changing. Signs of defeat of Russian invaders and their henchmen from among the apostates are already showing. Weakness in domestic and foreign policies, collapsing economy, desertion in the army, failure of the reforms, administrative anarchy, lack of security, drug trafficking, AIDS, elimination of social morals compared to the strengthening of Mujahideen and orderliness in organization of combat operations speaks about changes and the future victory coming soon.
False ideologies are collapsing, nations all around the world (including in Russia) are focusing their eyes on Islam as the only source of true justice, law and safety from tyranny, abomination and ignorance. Military Council Majlis Al-Shura of Ingushetia is hereby making the following statement:
Having military training and military force, resorting to resources necessary to conduct Jihad on the Way of Allah, Military Council Majlis al-Shura of Ingushetia is declaring Jihad all across Ingushetia, with the goal to drive the invaders out of the Ingushetian land, to liberate the seized territories, to protect honor and dignity of Muslims, and to establish the Islamic State on the land of Ingushetia. Military Council Majlis al-Shura of Ingushetia is declaring that Jihad is a direct responsibility (Fard Ayn) for each Muslim, an adult person and a person of sound judgment, citizen of Ingushetia, until the Ingushetian land is cleansed of the invasion, unbelief and injustice. All Islamic scholars (Alims) are unanimous in the opinion that Jihad is mandatory for all, since the infidels invaded the Muslim land.
Allah imposes as a duty on each Muslim to conduct Jihad with their souls, with their property and their riches, with their knowledge and their word, to assist and support the Mujahideen in all actions against the infidels. With the help of Allah we will restore justice, we will return what is rightfully ours and we will restore the right of the owners to their land (including Prigorodny District), where the enemy shed lots of Muslim blood.
Indeed, our mission is law and justice.
Everyone who cooperates with the invaders and helps them in the war against Muslims with weapons or with snitching thus becomes one of them. Requirement of the Shariah Law applies to such people. These people will be punished by death, because fighting shoulder to shoulder with infidels or helping the infidels in the war against Muslims banishes them from Islam. For Allah said that those who make friends among infidels become one of them. And Allah will not be guiding the wicked. Muslims must be convinced that the only salvation and the only way to obtain honor and dignity is the Religion of Islam. Our enemies know it and this is why they are trying to do all they can to lead Muslims astray. They appoint their lackeys as muftis, imams of mosques, who in turn pervert the truth and lead Muslims away from the Religion of Islam; they spread ignorance and heresy; they split Muslims into groups and sects; they spread polytheism and they call to obey the enemies.
Muslims, do believe the promises of Allah about His help. Jihad on the Way of Allah is the truth that restores justice.
Allah is our Master and there is no help other than from Him.
Allah Akbar!!!
God is Great!!!
Military Council Majlis Al-Shura of Ingushetia
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/26/2004 1:06:35 AM ||
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#1
Pretty hard to argue about that. If you are against jihad then your with poly.
#4
It's getting closer and closer to "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" time. Hope the jihadis realize that, and also realize we're more serious at that kind of sh$$ than they are. Look at WWI, WWII, China (several times), Korea, Africa (colonial period), and a few other sundry nasties around the world... Sure wouldn't want to be a jihadi if we actually REACHED that point...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/26/2004 14:00 Comments ||
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Well what do you think Johnson? Is it legit?
Hmmmmm...Let's see. They got a funky name. A lotta Allah shit, infidel's in there a lot, some victim stuff, more victim stuff.
Yep, looks good to me.
#6
Nobody cares about prophet Mo Ham Head the worlds very first trailer trash bandit.
Allah can lick mohamheads poo tube clean.
Muslims wanted a war, you inbred sand niggers got 1, now live with it you cave dwelling monkey.
ALLAH FUCKBAR, may pig shit and camel urine forever be upon mohamhead and his gay lover Allah Fuckbar.
May Israeli tanks and the bombs of the Coalition Forces continue to kill the ugly 3rd world brown crinkly faced, snotty nosed muslim pigs.
Eat Shit Islam, the world hates YOU.
The Q'ueeran is the devils handbook, and the lies of mohamhead the peadophile sand nigger muslim faggot.
#7
The terrorist attack upon innocent American lives in New York City, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001 has unveiled the fault line between the West and the Muslim world. The undeniable prejudice in some Western quarters against Islam is now public and gaining support among powerful circles, while at the same time the Muslim world has been exposed for its impotence, incompetent leadership, lack of Islamic honor, dignity, courage, and hypocritical support for Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir, and even the Afghan refugees. And how has Muslim leadership responded to all this?
Muslim leaders blamed each other, blamed Muslim parties and movements, blamed the ignorance and illiteracy of their own people, blamed the impotence of the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC: better named "Organization of International Cowards"), demanded the issuance of fatwas (religious rulings) geared more to protecting their hides than in promoting the true principle of Islam, and scrambled to call Washington or travel to Washington to pay their allegiance to Uncle Sam.
They promised U.S. President George W. Bush full cooperation, they promised to imprison their own people, shut down Islamic schools and media outlets, and shoot demonstrators if necessary, anything as long as Bush doesn't bomb them, topple them, expose them, or better yet, throw them a few million dollars in bought allegiance.
Our Muslim leaders did everything possible for themselves, their regimes, their cronies, and their media; everything but have the wisdom and courage to stand up for Islam, the only thing left for their poor, hungry, unemployed, and illiterate masses.
The Muslim world, all 56 nations, has been on an autopilot of lies, myths, and ego trips for the sole purpose of its leaders, damn the masses. How shocking for these leaders to now suddenly discover that their masses have had to survive on non-Islamic behavior, while being subjected to extremist views as a solution to their hopeless lot in the future. As long as the masses were silent, as long as the media awakens and sleeps with the glory of the leader thanking him for the oxygen we breathe, as long as the military and police kept people in line and "quiet" as Sharon says, both the leaders and America were happy.
If anything, Osama bin Laden exposed the lies of American idealism and values of freedom, self-determination, pursuit of democracy and justice around the world, and brought to light a bankrupt foreign policy, and lack of respect for human rights and the rule of law. Bin Laden exposed the hypocrisy of American values and idealism that are evoked publicly, but pursued with a vengeance to serve the economic and political national interest of domestic lobbies, from the Jewish lobby to the corporate military-industrial complex and the oil lobby.
As long as U.S. capitalism is served, damn the masses, bomb the masses, jail the masses, burn the masses, starve the masses. The U.S. speaks of a "war on terrorism" and justice, yet supports Israel's 34 year terroristic occupation of Palestinian and it's policy of injustice toward non-Jews.
The U.S. supports corrupt thieving dictators in the Arab world as long as oil flows freely and cheaply. America has even abandoned its own Constitution to massively arrest and round up American Muslims without charge or due process. America closes down Muslim charities that feed starving children in Palestine, while allowing Jewish Americans to send over one billion dollars to Israeli settlers and terrorist groups like "Kach" to promote their terroristic murder and expropriation of Palestinian land. Thanks to bin Laden, America can no longer sell its morality, respectability and credibility to the world. U.S. hypocrisy and double standards are now officially a matter of domestic and international policy.
Thanks to bin Laden, every Arab and Muslim leader is living in fear of his life and regime for the decades of robbing Muslim's lives, lands, wealth, and resources to please himself and America. American Muslims enjoy more support, freedom of religion, speech, and movement in America than they would in their own corrupt un-Islamic lands.
Because of self-interest, Muslim leaders have accepted the Western propaganda that Islam cannot exist with freedom, democracy, respect for human rights, tolerance of other faiths, and economic prosperity. How ironic to find Muslim pseudo-intellectuals propagating this lie and myth? It's become a universal axiom that the more educated one becomes, the less religious they become. Religion has become the "opium" of primitive thought, hindering intellectual, scientific and economic progress.
The Organization of Islamic Conferences met Monday December 9, 2001 in Doha, Qatar. Is there a single person on this earth who honestly expects the OIC to actually come up with concrete, courageous, and dramatic pro-Islamic decisions that will seek to protect the oppressed Muslims worldwide in Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir, Afghanistan, China, Burma, Philippines, and in their own backyards? No such courage or decisions will ever be taken as long as Muslim leaders are corrupt in the eyes of Allah (SWT) and their people. Their arrogance will lead to their demise in this world or in the hereafter. They forgot Islam and remembered their daily bread, mansions, cars, women, and Uncle Sam's pleasure. Only Islam can save Muslims.
Saddam Hussein is willing for the third time in 20 years to allow his people and country to be devastated out of pure egoism and arrogance. Isn't it strange that it's American Jews, Christians, and Muslims who are coming to the defense of the poor Iraqi people while the Arab street is silent?
Even the Pro-Israeli American media is now publicly humiliating Islam, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Iraq, the Gulf nations, the Arab League, the OIC, and Muslims worldwide, while the Muslim world in its demoralized state of apathy and poverty of mind and soul, is powerless to even respond. Not even a penny to spend in defense of Islam while Emirs, Sheiks, and Presidents buy another yacht, another mansion, while selling their souls to the devil.
Muslim leaders are silent about other Muslim atrocities because all are guilty by omission and commission of their own atrocities. We have seen our enemy and it is us: not only Israel, Russia, India, and America but us, yes us, who claim the gift of "truth" and sell it cheap for a lies and a "few dollars more."
Read how three Jewish columnists and authors are describing the Arab/Muslim street as well as how America should respond to "Islamic" terrorism. Almost daily in U.S. media, Congress, and even religious leaders like the Reverend Jerry Falwell and the Reverend Franklin Graham ("Islam is evil"), Islam, the Holy Qur'an, and our Holy Prophet, are bashed and blasphemed against, while the Muslim voice is absent both in America and in the Muslim world.
1. ISRAELINSIDER.COM: "Time to face Mecca" By Reuven Koret, September 14, 2001:
"....the inspired followers of radical Islam have had their appetites opened. The West must find effective ways to deter the Jihadists....Americans, like Israelis, are distinguished among the nations in their respect for innocent human life. They will not, as a policy, target civilians, and if civilians are harmed as an unintended result of a military action, they will be genuinely sorry.
Whether it is publicly announced or merely communicated through quiet channels, the Jihadists must know with an absolute certainty that the next outrage against a symbol of the West will prompt a reciprocal response against a corresponding site of interest to Islam. Let us pray that the holy shrines of Islam may continue to serve the peaceful worshippers of Allah.
The West must face Mecca now...
2. WASHINGTON POST: "Victory Changes Everything..." By Charles Krauthammer, November 30, 2001:
Just weeks ago the Middle East experts were warning that such violations of Islamic sensibilities would cause an explosion of anti-Americanism. Where, then, is the vaunted "Arab street," the pro-Osama demonstrations, the anti-American riots? Where are the seething masses rising up against America and its nominal allies from Egypt to Pakistan?
Nowhere to be seen. The street is silent.
In a prescient lecture Oct. 20, Middle East Quarterly editor Martin Kramer says: The way to tame the Arab street is not with appeasement and sweet sensitivity, but with raw power and victory.
It is now a capital offense to harbor terrorists. Literally. Harbor them and your regime dies.
The elementary truth that seems to elude the experts again and again - Gulf War, Afghan war, next war - is that power is its own reward. Victory changes everything, psychology above all. The psychology in the region is now one of fear and deep respect for American power. Now is the time to use it to deter, defeat or destroy the other regimes in the area that are host to radical Islamic terrorism.
Hence Stage Two. No, not Iraq yet. It surely is the worst terrorist threat, but because it is the worst and the most difficult, it will require more planning, and more political and military preparation. Now is the time to go for the low-hanging fruit: giving the Philippines assistance in crushing their own al Qaeda guerrillas. Telling the thugs running Sudan, Syria, Libya and Yemen to cease and desist, to shut down the training camps, to cough up the terrorists -- "or else," as the president so delicately puts it
3. WASHINGTON POST: "...And Now to Iraq", by Richard Cohen. November 30, 2001:
"At the same time that the United States was waging war on a Muslim nation, the rest of the Muslim world did not rise up, take to the proverbial street and topple the authoritarian regimes of our dear friends and - not that it matters any - oil suppliers. Not a single one has been imperiled by mobs cursing Uncle Sam.
The big surprise - even within the Bush administration - is Pakistan. Not only did it do a reverse twist off the highest board in geopolitics - going from being the Taliban's pal and supporter to Uncle Sam's most dutiful nephew - but it has remained virtually calm in the wake.
Those weapons - plus the ultimate inevitability of nuclear ones - are precisely why Hussein must go. He is too evil to be allowed to menace us with weapons of mass destruction. He invaded Iran. He invaded Kuwait. He used chemical weapons on Kurdish civilians. . In due course, Saddam Hussein must get our message: Uncle Sam Wants You."
Posted by: Allah Eats Shit With A Spoon ||
07/28/2004 19:23 Comments ||
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#8
"If anything, Osama bin Laden exposed the lies of American idealism and values of freedom, self-determination, pursuit of democracy and justice around the world, and brought to light a bankrupt foreign policy, and lack of respect for human rights and the rule of law."
>No, Bin Laden exposed the lies of Islam and those who claim to be devout Muslims as your first line so aptly indicates about 3,000 innocent Americans (of all races & religions) who were murdered on 9/11.
"Only Islam can save Muslims."
>Like it did Bin Laden? A murderer of innocent women and children; please stop the intellectual dishonesty, I've had a long day defending your freedom to spew verbal sewage so at least be honest.
I think that more than covers the epithet angle. Interesting progression from something approaching logic to screeching bigotry. I don't think I'd appreciate or trust having a moron in the foxhole or on the UAV console next to me.
Death (of all varieties), indeed, awaits (beckons?) anyone who is foolish enough to contest freedom... As long, that is, as we have a leader with more in his quiver than 30 yr old fantasies, sound bytes, socialist slogans, and a non-existent "plan".
God, Heaven, Whoever - puhleeze help us to elect such a leader.
#12
I know more than I care to know about Islam - and probably a shitload more than this troll, but I don't tolerate fools well. That does it for me - I'm outta here.
#14
Live by the sword die by the sword - live like uncivilized scum - die a horrible death by the hands of a infidel - pray to a pagan god like Allah - Its the infidels duty to kill muslims - 1,400 years of islamic babbling and they haven't acomplished a damn thing... I thought evolution was suppose to move fowards ? Why do muslims look more and more like monkeys everyday? I also found out the reason why they are always throwing stones at tanks & stuff.......... its because they cant handle the kickback of the weaponary, its too advanced for their intelectually challenged minds. Speaking of intelectually challenged - Mohamhead comes to mind - I wonder if that sand maggot is enjoying licking satans ass clean deep within the pits of hell.
Hat Tip: Jihad Watch
Pakistan's intelligence officials knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks, a well-known American analyst has said, based on a ''stunning document'' that he claims was given by a Pakistani source to the 9/11 Commission on the eve of the publication of its report. The document, from a high-level, but anonymous Pakistani source, also claims that Osama bin Laden has been receiving periodic dialysis in a military hospital in Peshawar, says Arnaud de Borchgrave, editor-at-large of the news agency UPI. ''The imprints of every major act of international Islamist terrorism invariably passes through Pakistan, right from 9/11 - where virtually all the participants had trained, resided or met in, coordinated with, or received funding from or through Pakistan,'' Borchgrave cites the confidential document as saying.
I think we're so used to seeing that here that we forget to comment on the fact that the major news organizations seem to breeze right by that point. Perhaps we should emphasize it more often?
But one does not have to go to Borchgrave's unnamed sources to find Pakistan's involvement in terrorist activity leading to 9/11. The 9/11 commission report itself nails Pakistan in chapter after chapter, revealing that the Pakistani intelligence was in cahoots with the Taliban and al Qaeda, far more than Iran and Iraq ever were.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Capt America ||
07/26/2004 1:22:48 AM ||
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#1
periodic dialysis in a military hospital in Peshawar
Ima always wonder maybe old Osma if he ain't dead maybe take up peritoeneal dialysis, it's a lot more portable.
#6
"Ima" is ligit RB lingo now. There are many and I, personally, would incourage their use whenever appropriate. Not only here but throughout the blogisphere. A compliment to the proginater.)
#8
Jeeze, Shipman. First Blue Eyed Kook and now LSMFT. You're really dusting off the chestnuts these days. Maybe you should write a treatise on mid-century Western culture.
#2
There is no evidence that a presumptive Kerry administration would be more sympathetic to punitive measures against Israel.
Oh really? Not even if that was a way he could rebuild ties with our "European allies", which he obviously ranks as one of his priorities? Think about it.
Kerry has boasted that he can rebuild alliances with Europe. This alliance will not come without a price. Because Kerry is no great persuader and because Europe feels it is time for America to step down and let it assert some power in international affairs (especially an affair in which they have a long and troubled historical role), he will end up realigning our Israel/Palestine policy to that of the Europeans. He will not antagonize Europe over this policy for the sake of a few blown up people in Israel.
By default, this forces him to accept Arafat as a negotiating partner, legitimizing Palestine's #1 terrorist. Modest relinquishment of American foreign policy will gain him favor in European public opinion (where anti-Semitism is on the rise, leading by principle is viewed as a naive American delusion, and a balanced approach to Israel/Palestine is non-existent). In the contest between a firm stance against Palestinian terror inside Israel and "rebuilding alliances" with our European partners, Kerry's preference is easy to infer. He will be a willing negotiator collaborator with Arafat, putting in motion the restoration of a (decaying) US/European alliance and facilitating the sanctioning of Israel. In Kerry, you may well see Israeli/American relations deteriorate and the Israeli state in real crisis.
Hard-pressed police have scored a significant victory in the battle against Internet crime by smashing a Russian extortion racket preying on UK businesses and betting Web sites. A multi-national investigation culminated with the arrest this week of the suspected ringleaders — three men aged between 21 and 24, police said on Wednesday. They were held after raids in St. Petersburg and the Saratov and Stavropol regions over 1,000 km to the south. Further arrests may be pending. Police said the gang had unleashed digital attacks over the Internet on dozens of occasions. "These were the main people behind the organisation. They were coordinating it and laundering the money," said a source at the British Embassy in Moscow. They are accused of threatening to shut businesses down with a massive barrage of data — known as a denial-of-service attack — if they did not pay up. The gang often demanded sums of $10,000 or $20,000 from owners of betting Web sites and struck on the eve of big sporting events like the UK's Grand National horse race.
Protection rackets have sprung up over the past few years preying on e-commerce businesses of all sizes. Investigators around the globe have been building a profile of the culprits — typically, crooked programmers from Eastern Europe. But until now they have had little luck in tracking them down. The suspects are thought to be part of a larger group working out of the region. Last November, police arrested 10 members of the group in Riga, Latvia — a breakthrough which eventually led to this week's swoops, authorities said. Following a complex trail of wire transfers and e-mail correspondence, police tracked the trio to their home towns. One, a 21-year-old from the Saratov region, was a part-time student who worked in a computer shop. "Two of the suspects were technically proficient. The third was the money man," said a spokeswoman from Britain's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), a lead agency in the investigation. The three men could be charged under new Russian computer crime and extortion legislation, officials said. The NHTCU spokeswoman said it was unlikely the UK would seek extradition.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2004 11:43:22 PM ||
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Cyber Extortion - paying programmers protection money so that routine transactions are possible. Isn't that Microsoft's business plan? Actually, I think that Y2K was the biggest case of Extortion of any kind since the dawn of time.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/26/2004 13:36 Comments ||
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai called General Pervez Musharraf yesterday and requested that his visit to Pakistan scheduled for July 26 and 27 be postponed for now. New dates for Karzai's visit will be worked out through diplomatic channels. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that as the visit had been postponed for Afghanistan's internal reasons, it is expected to be scheduled shortly.
A disagreement has emerged between the Islamabad police and the Afghan Embassy over who would be responsible for the security for Karzai's security. The Afghan president is heavily guarded by special forces provided by the United States. Police sources said Kabul informed the Islamabad police through its embassy that Karzai's entourage would take care of his security during his stay in Islamabad. They said police in Islamabad rejected this and explained that providing security to foreign dignitaries in the capital was their responsibility. The sources quoted Afghan diplomats as telling the district administration and police officers that there was no need to chalk out a security plan for Karzai without consulting his security staff.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2004 11:14:56 PM ||
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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.
THE head of the worldwide Anglican Church, the arch
