Trial run for Halliburton's latest high-energy application?
Allah letting them know that it isn't good form to gloat about Katrina?
Psychic harmonic effects from kindred spirits in San Francisco?
EFL
Makkah Quake a Minor Event, Says Geologist
Roger Harrison & Essam Al-Ghalib, Arab News
JEDDAH/MAKKAH, 14 September 2005 â The earthquake that shook Makkahâs Al-Otaibiyyah neighborhood, about two kilometers from the Grand Mosque, at 2 a.m. on Monday has engendered a sense of shock and vulnerability in the citizens of Makkah.
There were no casualties and no damage to buildings, although residents reported dogs barking just before the shocks and a sound of rumbling or what sounded like an explosion.
The tremors, which are variously reported as occurring for between one and nine hours after the initial shock, kept tension high in the city. Suggestions that the tremors were caused by construction work going on in the city have been discounted.
Twenty-three-year-old Siraj Muhammad Omar, a resident of the Al-Otaibiyyah neighborhood, was thankful that there was no damage. He said he felt the earth move four times, with the first and fourth shakes being the strongest. He and seven other family members were scared after the first jolt and rushed to the roof of the building.
Muhammad Baid, a 22-year-old Moroccan, said he left the house soon after feeling the first shake and went back when everything returned to normal.
Seventeen-year-old Aiyman Al-Maihmadi was at the controls of his PlayStation when he heard a low rumble, followed by a soft knock and then a hard knock. He said people rushed on to Shara Al-Jazayer, where many people milled around wondering what had caused the shakes.
Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed has formed a committee to establish the exact circumstances and details of the event.
Dr. Ian Stewart, geophysical technical adviser to the Saudi Geological Society (SGS), said the scale of the shock in Makkah was ânot worth worrying about.â
The earthquake was monitored in Madinah, 300 km away, at about 3.7 on the Richter scale.
âAnything which is moderately well built shouldnât suffer anything at all. It would hardly raise an eyebrow in California,â he said.
California is an extremely active earthquake zone.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/14/2005 21:02 Comments ||
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#7
How do you KNOW it wasnt the Jooos? Ya don't, do ya? A lot of people think it was the Jooos. They could be right, for all we know. Who stands to benefit from an earthquake in Mecca? Who could pull something like this off? (Remember, thousands of Jooos were not in Mecca that day. Coincidence? I don't think so).
I'm just asking the hard questions the corporate media shills are afraid to ask.
/Moonbattery
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
09/14/2005 21:12 Comments ||
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No, he did not conclude with, "and if I am wrong, may God strike me dead.
Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd) collapsed on the City Council floor this afternoon after delivering a speech in favor of a resolution calling for troops to be withdrawn from Iraq. The 72-year-old alderman was standing near one of the exit doors to the City Council chamber, on the 2nd floor of City Hall, about 1:25 p.m. during the council's regular meeting. Ald. Virginia A. Rugai (19th) had just started to speak when another alderman got the chairman's attention by yelling, "Call 911!" yes, our rallying cry
A recess was called and proceedings came to an immediate halt as Natarus' colleagues ran to him. An aide dashed out of the room to get a defibrillator. Mayor Richard Daley had left the meeting for a funeral, and Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) had the gavel. He ordered everyone other than aldermen and their staffers to clear the council floor. Chicago Fire Commissioner Cortez Trotter was in the council chambers at the time and was among the first people to attend to the alderman. A police sergeant stood nearby. Paramedics arrived shortly after 1:30 p.m. Natarus appeared conscious as the emergency responders worked to stabilize him. About 1:50 p.m., Natarusâwearing an oxygen mask on his face, his body strapped to a gurney and an intravenous tube in placeâmade an effort to wave as he was wheeled out of the chamber to his colleagues' applause.
Before he collapsed, the alderman stood near his desk toward the rear of the council chamber, speaking in his typical strong voice. He said the issue of getting out of Iraq was probably "something that should be debated in the Congress of the United States," but added it was important the nation's cities were taking a position, and expressed hope Washington would listen. Though Natarus initially supported U.S. military action in Iraq because of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, he said the idea of imposing a certain type of government on the country did not make sense.
"We want to go all over the world and make every country like us," he said. If Natarus were not an ignorant panderer, he would know that the Iraqi Constitution bears little resemblance to ours.
Natarus' 42nd Ward is one of the most prominent of the city's 50 wards. It takes in downtown Chicago, North Michigan Avenue, the Rush Street entertainment district and the Near North Side neighborhoods of River North, Streeterville, and the Gold Coast. Chicago's Moonbat Reservation.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah yesterday received the chairman and members of the 150-strong Shoura Council at his palace and told them: âYou represent the Saudi people and you have to do it well.â King Abdullah, who was meeting the Shoura for the first time after accession to the throne on Aug. 1, said Saudi Arabia was going ahead in the right direction. âWeâll never deviate from the teachings of the Qurâan and Sunnah,â he said.
He commended Saudis for standing firm in the face of a strident smear campaign following the 9/11 attacks in the United States and emphasized that Saudi Arabia would not be shaken by such baseless campaigns in the West and East. King Abdullah said Riyadh would continue its efforts in the service of Muslims and for the welfare of humanity at large. âGod willing, you will lead the Islamic world as well as the non-Islamic world through your ethics and behavior and you can achieve that goal through determination,â he said. The king also told Saudis that they could live with honor, raise their heads and gain victories so long as they surrender to none but God. Shoura Council Chairman Dr. Saleh Bin-Humaid congratulated King Abdullah on being appointed the Kingdomâs sovereign after the death of King Fahd and winning massive popular support through pledges of allegiance.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Yasir al-Sirri is no stranger to British courtrooms. Since he sought asylum here 11 years ago the Egyptian Islamic radical has been in and out of jail, and has successfully fought off attempts to extradite him on terrorism charges to both the US and Egypt.
Now, however, in the wake of July's London bombings, he faces perhaps his greatest challenge yet as the British government prepares to join a Europewide crackdown on extremist Islamic circles and deport dozens of individuals deemed "not conducive to the public good."
As European governments lower their traditional levels of tolerance for radicalism, they are redrawing the lines between civil liberties and national security in the face of terrorist violence.
"Anything can happen," Mr. Sirri says, with a shrug of his shoulders. "I am expecting something to happen."
Last week, the Italian authorities summarily expelled a Moroccan imam and two other Middle Eastern men, giving them no chance to appeal under powers introduced since the London bombings that killed 52 people on July 7.
European human rights activists are up in arms, complaining that those sent back to their countries of origin, mostly Middle Eastern nations such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Algeria, face torture.
"It is absolutely scandalous," says Jean-Pierre Dubois, president of the French Human Rights League. "Are human rights not for all humans, or have we decided that radical imams are monsters?"
The United Nations' special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, also condemns the growing trend. "The risk is very high that these people would be subjected to torture," he warns. "Most of the Muslim fundamentalists' countries of origin unfortunately do have a clear record of torture."
Recognizing the dangers, the British interior minister, Charles Clarke, nonetheless insists that "it really is necessary to balance very important rights for individuals against the collective right for security."
Sirri, who runs the "Islamic Observation Center" in London, (he says it monitors human rights abuses in the Muslim world, but US and British police say it is a conduit for messages among Al Qaeda militants), would undoubtedly be arrested if he were sent back to Egypt.
The government there has been seeking his extradition from Britain for 10 years in connection with his alleged role in a 1993 assassination attempt by the "Islamic Group" against the Egyptian prime minister.
Britain, like other European countries, is bound by the European Convention on Human Rights, and by a UN treaty, not to send anyone to a country where he or she runs a serious risk of torture. The British government, however, is seeking to circumvent this restriction by demanding diplomatic assurances from 10 Middle Eastern and African countries that they would not mistreat any deportees.
So far only Jordan, which has been widely accused of torturing suspects, has agreed to offer an assurance. Britain says negotiations with Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and other governments are still under way.
But no such understandings would be valid, insists Dr. Nowak, an Austrian human rights expert. "Jordan is already a party to the UN Convention against Torture," he argues. "Why should they suddenly stop torturing? They are already violating a legally binding treaty, so why should they not violate a nonbinding diplomatic agreement?"
The Egyptian government broke a similar promise it made to Sweden in 2001, when Stockholm deported Ahmed Agiza only on condition that he be well treated and given a fair trial, Nowak points out. Stockholm later complained that Mr. Agiza had been tried unfairly before a military court, and he complained that he had been tortured. Sirri trusts British judges not to rubber-stamp government deportation orders. "If the government gives any judge the political agreement between the UK and Jordan, he will throw it in his rubbish bin," he says confidently.
Mr. Clarke, on the other hand, said Friday he hoped that judges reviewing deportation cases would "recast the balance" between individual human rights and national security. "The right to be protected from torture and ill treatment must be considered side by side with the right to be protected from the death and destruction caused by indiscriminate terrorism," Mr. Clarke said in his speech last week.
British judges have long protected radical imam Abu Hamza al-Masri from extradition to Yemen, where he is wanted on terrorism charges, for example. His fiery sermons appear to have inspired one regular visitor, shoe bomber Richard Reid.
Clarke last month issued a list of "unacceptable behaviors" that would prompt deportation orders against foreigners living in Britain. It includes fomenting, justifying, or glorifying terrorist violence; seeking to provoke others to terrorist acts; and fostering hatred that might lead to intercommunity violence.
That would appear to cover websites carrying videos of British soldiers being blown up in Iraq or of hostages being beheaded, and the distribution of messages encouraging jihad from such figures as Osama bin Laden.
The move appears to enjoy strong public support. A poll carried out for the Guardian newspaper last month found that 71 per cent of respondents agreed that "foreign Muslims who incite hatred should be excluded or deported from the UK."
Announcing the list, Clarke insisted that it was "not intended to stifle free speech or legitimate debate about religions or other issues." Officials pointed out that the government had backed off a plan to deport foreigners who expressed "views the government considers to be extreme and that conflict with the UK's culture of tolerance."
That is not how Sirri sees things. "Tony Blair is changing this country from one respected for its human rights to a graveyard of human rights," he charges.
In Egypt, he says, military courts that the British government does not regard as fair have handed down three sentences against him: the death penalty, 25 years' hard labor, and 15 years' hard labor. If he were sent back, he says with a bitter laugh, "I don't know which one they would apply first."
Yasir al-Sirri: 'I did nothing illegal'Yasir al-Sirri is exactly the sort of man the British government hopes to be able to expel with its new, tougher deportation policy: He keeps very dubious company and the police are sure he is up to something, but have not been able to pin anything on him or put him on trial.
In Egypt, Mr. Sirri is thought to have been a leader of the radical "Gama'a Islamiya" group, and was sentenced him to death for his alleged role in an assassination attempt against the prime minister. But British judges have refused to extradite him to Cairo, citing weak evidence. Sirri claims he had nothing to do with the plot. He did, though, have ties in those days with Ayman al-Zawahiri, now Al Qaeda's second-in-command. And US authorities want him for carrying messages for Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who is serving a life term for trying to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993.
Sirri was held in Belmarsh prison in London for eight months for providing a letter of journalistic accreditation to the two men who assassinated the Afghan warlord Ahmed Shah Massoud in 2001. But a British court finally decided he had been an unwitting accomplice in the affair, and let him go. Sirri insists that "I did nothing illegal in this country and I have not broken any law in this country." Islamic law, he adds, demands that "anyone who arrives here under asylum cannot do anything against this country. Tony Blair is just using [the London bombings on] 7/7 as an excuse to carry out his agenda."
#1
And on what grounds does Nowak suspect that torture would be used on the deportees? Because he knows they're evil people?
Or is his position that if a government uses torture on anybody, all its citizens can take refuge in the EU?
Posted by: James ||
09/14/2005 15:41 Comments ||
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#2
Deport Sirri to Manfred Nowak's country.
Posted by: ed ||
09/14/2005 15:46 Comments ||
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#1
They won't let this go, will they. They have a dead constitution, a German chancellor declaring that Germany's interests will be decided in Berlin (as opposed to anywhere else), and yet they're still clinging on to this idea of a United States of Europe. Good luck.
Posted by: Rafael ||
09/14/2005 0:53 Comments ||
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#2
Warning to the UK get out now. France and Germany are cooking up ways to hurt your economy through this ruling right now.
The daughter of a Dutch multimillionaire accused of selling prohibited chemicals to Iraq in the 1980s was kidnapped from her home in Amsterdam last night by armed men. Claudia Melchers, 37, was at home with her two young children and a neighbour when the men burst in. The daughter of Hans Melchers, the Dutch chemicals magnate, her family is one of the wealthiest in the Netherlands, with an estimated personal fortune of â¬460m (£301m). The men bound and gagged the neighbour before abducting Ms Melchers, police in Amsterdam said. Their children, one of whom managed to untie the neighbour left, were not harmed.
Mr Melchers' company, Melchemie Holland BV has been at the centre of accusations of illegally supplying banned chemicals to Iraq, but has consistently denied intentionally violating export restrictions. A statement posted on the company web site acknowledged that gas which could have been used to make chemical weapons, was inadvertently included in a shipment which formed part of an export deal with Iraq in 1984. But the company say they recalled the shipment. It called the shipment "a one-time mistake" for which it paid a fine of 100,000 guilders (£30,000). In 1989 it was again under the media spotlight, again accused of supplying chemicals to Iraq. The company admits that it did so, but insists those chemicals were not under any international bans.
It was unclear whether the kidnapping was related to the company's dealings in the Middle East. A spokesman for the police in Amsterdam, Eric Vermeulen, would not reveal whether Interpol or the FBI were involved in the investigation, saying only: "We are doing everything that is necessary to find her."
Maybe just a kidnapping. Or not.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/14/2005 14:02 ||
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#1
In this case, a little late on that "troubled child" thing there, Dutchie Wutchies...
#1
This piece of fecal matter has killed Christains and the turned a Christian church hostage to protect him. They trashed and defiled the place. WTF is wrong these Irish people? He should be in jail waiting extradidtion for murder.
Many of Europe's governments may be skeptical about America's ambitious ballistic missile defense development program but their publics are not, A new sponsored by advocates of BMD found that more than two-thirds of Europeans want NATO to deploy such systems to protect them.
Some 71 percent of Europeans favor the deployment of a NATO missile defense capability able to protect the continent from attack by missiles bearing weapons of mass destruction, according to a poll that was jointly sponsored by the George C. Marshall Center for Security Studies and Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, the two organizations announced in Rome last week. By contrast, only 16 percent think that NATO should not have this capability.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#3
Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance poll finds that people support missile defense...zzz...in other news, Milk Council announces poll saying that people should drink more milk.
I wish the press wouldn't report obviously slanted stories like this one.
#4
In Britain the people also favor the death penalty and gun ownership. Their leaders don't. Don't know if this carries over to the rest of Europe. (Though gun ownership does not appear to be a problem in Switzerland).
#5
How about this, you help Iran with getting nukes, you get no BMD. Live with your own consiquences for once in your pitiful lives. We might shoot down an incoming nuke aimed at you, if we feel like it...and it isn't 3am.
#9
Aranging? Heck I thought it was a done deal. A deal done by the EU it's self, by the way. Let France and Germany defend them. If we did it we would be accused of an "illegal war" after all. We can't have that now can we.
Fifth Column trumps Short Attention Span Theater. Via LGF.
AS THE WAR between the United States and Al Qaeda enters its fifth year, the nature of the armed, transnational Islamist group's campaign remains a threat misunderstood. With the conflict viewed largely as an open-and-shut matter of good versus evil, nonmilitary engagement with Al Qaeda is depicted as improper and unnecessary. And why should we do otherwise against a neo-fascist movement bent on installing a religious dictatorship?
Yet developing a strategy for the next phase of the global response to Al Qaeda requires understanding the enemy -- something Western analysts have systematically failed to do. Sept. 11 was not an unprovoked, gratuitous act. It was a military operation researched and planned since at least 1996 and conducted by a trained commando in the context of a war that had twice been declared officially and publicly by them, not us. The operation targeted two military locations and a civilian facility regarded as the symbol of US economic and financial power. The assault was the culmination of a larger campaign, which forecast impact, planned for the enemy's reaction, and was designed to gain the tactical upper hand. Given Binny's rout in Afghanistan, I'd say he failed in those regards.
Overwhelmingly centered on the martial aspects of the conflict, scholars and policymakers have been too focused on Al Qaeda's ''irrationality," ''fundamentalism," and ''hatred" -- and these conceptions continue to color key analyses. The sway of such explanations is particularly surprising in the face of nonambiguous statements made by Al Qaeda as to the main reasons for its war on the United States. These have been offered consistently since 1996, notably in the August 1996 and February 1998 declarations of war and the November 2002 and October 2004 justifications for its continuation. Seems to me that an enemy's 'irrationality', 'fundamentalism,' and 'hatred' make them valid points for, you know, fighting back?
Since the attacks on New York and Washington, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri have delivered, respectively, 18 and 15 messages via audio or videotape making a three-part case: The United States must end its military presence in the Middle East, its uncritical political support and military aid of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, and its support of corrupt and coercive regimes in the Arab and Muslim world. In other words, retreat, abandon a long-term ally and otherwise capitulate to our demands. Oh, and that Caliphate thing that wasn't mentioned? Kneel before Zod.
Al Qaeda believes that the citizens of the states with whom it is at war bear a responsibility for the policies of their governments. Such democratization of responsibility rests, it has been argued by bin Laden, in the citizens' ability to elect and dismiss the representatives who make foreign policy decisions on their behalf. So cause (them blowing up civilian targets) and effect (you get your ass kicked in response) get tossed out the window, how Palestinian of him!
Al Qaeda is an industrious, committed, and power-wielding organization waging a political, limited, and evasive war of attrition -- not a religious, open-ended, apocalyptic one. Over the past year, it has struck private and public alliances, offered truces, affected elections, and gained an international stature beyond a mere security threat. If you mean 'affected elections' and gaining 'international stature' as 'more countries cowering before your threats', unfortunately you're probably right. And I don't think we buy these deceptions at 'truce and reconciliation', no matter how well you're dressing it up. I'll save the group hug for Zarqawi's hanging.
It has implemented a clearly articulated policy, demonstrated strategic operational flexibility, and skillfully conducted low-cost, high-impact operations (Riyadh 1995, Dhahran 1996, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam 1998, Yemen 2000, New York and Washington 2001, Bali 2002, Istanbul 2003, Madrid 2004, and London 2005). Of late, this versatile actor has exhibited an ability to operate amid heightened international counter-measures. For what it's worth, these point to 1 major worldwide terrorist attack each year; it looks like a constant until al-Queda is eradicated. This guy seems to have an metaphorical erection by the end of this paragraph.
No longer able to enjoy a centralized sanctuary in Afghanistan after 2002, Al Qaeda's leadership opted for an elastic defense strategy relying on mobile forces, scaled-up international operations, and expanded global tactical relationships. It encouraged the proliferation of mini Al Qaedas, able to act on their own within a regional context. I thought it was a given that al-Queda's always been decentralized subcontractors, or did I miss the second coming of Jack Welch?
Consequently, and aside from the war in Iraq, between 2002 and 2005 the United States and seven of its Western allies were the targets of 17 major attacks in 11 countries for a total of 760 people killed. In 2001, Ayman al-Zawahiri had explained the cost-effective rationale of these measures, namely ''the need to inflict the maximum casualties against the opponent, for this is the language understood by the West, no matter how much time and effort such operations take." Last month, he reiterated that commitment and announced new attacks against the United States. Yes - against civilian targets. Somehow that gives al-Queda superior moral authority here?
How can the war be brought to an end? Neither side can defeat the other. Right. The United States will not be able to overpower a diffuse, ever-mutating, organized international militancy movement, whose struggle enjoys the rear-guard sympathy of large numbers of Muslims. Likewise, Al Qaeda can score tactical victories on the United States and its allies, but it cannot rout the world's sole superpower. The U.S. is in a far better position to not just minimize Al-Quesadilla's impact, but to eliminate it altogether than they are to do to us. I highly suspect similar lines of reasoning were used to defend the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Detente doesn't work in the long run; Bush just cut to the chase.
Though dismissed widely, the best strategy for the United States may well be to acknowledge and address the collective reasons in which Al Qaeda anchors its acts of force. Al Qaeda has been true to its word in announcing and implementing its strategy for over a decade. It is likely to be true to its word in the future and cease hostilities against the United States, and indeed bring an end to the war it declared in 1996 and in 1998, in return for some degree of satisfaction regarding its grievances. In 2002, bin Laden declared: ''Whether America escalates or deescalates this conflict, we will reply in kind." Thereby blithely and piously washing his hands of any responsibility whatsoever. Data's logic circuits would've been fused together by now, trying to reconcile the 'We, the Mighty Al-Queadaa started this, but it's up to the Great Satan to roll over'. I think we're more inclined to roll over them instead.
Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou is associate director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University. Harvard - I'm just so surprised, aren't you?
Posted by: Bob Seger ||
09/14/2005 14:17 ||
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#2
In the Boston Globe's little fantasy world, this is considered doable. And it'll get done just about the same time gay marriage is legalized in Afghanistan.
Could be why the last time I bought a Globe was when I was paper training one of my German Shepards...
#3
By Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou. That explains it all. Just like Martin Borman writing editorials for the Washington Post in 1943. What, our grandfathers had a better survival skills than to do that? Deport his ass.
Congrats old money, tired, blue blooded America. You send your kids to Harvard and pay $40,000 per year for the priveledge so that people like Mohamedou can destroy you.
Posted by: ed ||
09/14/2005 15:36 Comments ||
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#4
Harvard and many, many other elite institutions have become breeding grounds for terrorist apologetics and cultural nihilism.
There is a simple reason for this: the elitists in the media and the academic world are more afraid of terrorists and rioting leftists than they are of Americans. This must change.
We bomb and shoot low-level jihadis in Afghanistan and Iraq in wholesale numbers. Yet far more important enemy operatives not only work freely in this country, they are rewarded for doing so.
The fifth column is right about one thing: This is a class war, but the opposing classes are almost the direct opposite of what the professional liars in academia and the media represent them to be.
The terrorists and their apologists represent the ruling class of cultural elitists and academic activists; as well as the sizable portion of the business community that has been bribed or coerced into supporting elitist and Islamic goals.
The opposition, the loyalists, are the working and middle classes of this country. The popular resistance continues to take shape as alternate media like LGF and Rantburg work to clarify the actual nature of the conflict.
#5
As I left Boston on Sunday, I randomly turned the car radio to an NPR station which was broadcasting a sermon, which after a long wander through the parable of the unforgiving slave, got to the heart of the matter: the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were evil! Un-Christian!
The minister seemed to be arguing that al-Queda wasn't worth a war, let alone two. That we should, instead, be forgiving them their evils, not seven times, but seventy plus seven times. (Has anyone been keeping track of the numbers of al-Queda terrorist attacks? I'm pretty sure they've long since passed 77, but I haven't done the reckoning, so I can't be positive...
This is the quietism being broadcast on a publicly supported broadcaster on the anniversary of September 11th. It isn't that the left is uniformly not religious - it's that those which *are* religious are either Islamic converts or seem to have devolved into some lowest-common-interdenominational form of Quakerism!
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/14/2005 16:32 Comments ||
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#6
"Though dismissed widely, the best strategy for the United States may well be to acknowledge and address the collective reasons in which Al Qaeda anchors its acts of force."
Fuck that. A far better strategy is for us to motivate them to acknowledge and address the collective reasons in which we anchor our acts of force.
Grab them by the nuts and yank HARD-- and their hearts and minds will follow eagerly.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/14/2005 17:02 Comments ||
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#7
Folks, the MSM (including the Boston Globe) surrendered long ago to Binny. They are just stating the obvious now.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/14/2005 17:20 Comments ||
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#8
Yes WE HAVE A WINNER!! The STUPIDEST editorial of the year. Despite FIERCE competition from the NY Times (especially Krugman and Dowd) - the award goes to the Boston Globe.
#9
I'd like somebody to ask Biden, Dean, Boxer,(somebody help her with it), Pelosi, etc. if they believe that should be the strategy in the war on terror.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari met with members of the Detroit area's Arab American community and took questions at a town hall meeting Tuesday night.
Hundreds of people gathered at the Ritz Carlton in Dearborn to get a glimpse of the Iraqi leader.
"This is a unique opportunity," said Oday Hussan, 53, of Livonia. "This is the first time we can hear from our prime minister ... and for all Iraqis this is a great opportunity because the old regime would not give us this opportunity."
Dr. Najwa Aljawad of Dearborn said she worked with the Iraqi opposition to Saddam Hussein from the United States.
"Now we see our goal has been achieved. We have succeeded so we are excited," said Aljawad, 52, and organizer of Voice of Iraq, a Web site for Iraqi women.
She said people are frustrated that Hussein has not gone to trial and that members of his Baath Party remain free, but she said people still stand behind al-Jaafari.
"I think they all show their care and love and support for him no matter what their background, whether they're Muslims or Chaldean Christians," Aljawad said.
Al-Jaafari was also scheduled to speak Wednesday at a Chaldean American town Hall meeting in West Bloomfield.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/14/2005 00:38 ||
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The major power outage on Monday just made an already-jittery Los Angeles a little more on edge.
That's because the mistake of a couple of utility workers that caused the blackout came on the heels of an American Taliban found on a tape stating that L.A. and Australia would be targets of the organization.
Adam Gadahn, the man on the tape that made the threats and an individual who has been seen on tapes making threats before, is not a typical al-Qaida figure. His parents are Jewish and Catholic, and he grew up in an L.A. suburb.
Monday, Rita Cosby welcomed Haitnam Bundakji, who knew Adam Gadahn in the '90s and terrorism expert Walid Phares to her 'Live and Direct' program.
RITA COSBY: Haitnam ... What do you know about Adam Gadahn? What type of a guy is he? And was he violent?
HAITNAM BUNDAKJI, ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: Well, actually, when I met him, he was quiet or appeared to be quiet. However, asking about the fact that whether he was violent or not, yes, he was violent, because when he was unhappy with me, he did not hesitate to come to my office, charge into my office, and slap me right across the face. So I think he's a violent person.
COSBY: Are you surprised that here he seems to be now -- at least as of this weekend -- the main terror threat, the biggest concern for us right now, if what he's saying could be true, that L.A. and Australia could be targets?
BUNDAKJI: Well, I pray to God that you will take that threat seriously. And I'm not surprised at all.
When he appeared during the elections a few months ago, I recognized him right away. And now his face is shown even more. So it's very, very clear that it was Adam Gadahn, the man that I know.
COSBY: Absolutely. We talked to Adam's aunt, actually, earlier today. And she gave us some quotes. ... She said she saw the tape, that she cannot tell if it's Adam or not. "I watched both tapes. My family cannot tell if it's him or not. The FBI has not made a definitive statement." ... But Mr. Bundakji, as you see the tape, does it look like him to you?
BUNDAKJI: It is funny that his family still do not recognize him. It is very, very clear. ...
COSBY: Well ... in fairness, that's what they said to us last time. And of course, it seemed that they did know right away. I think they're just playing it safe, of course.
BUNDAKJI: I believe so. I believe so. But I recognize him very well.
BUNDAKJI: Well, it's too close for comfort. You know, my family and I live around Los Angeles. So I pray to God that we take his threat seriously and we safeguards our country, our skies, our ports.
And I'm sure that our government is doing a great job in safeguarding our country after 9/11. And I pray to God that such a tragedy would never happen again, neither here nor anywhere else in the world.
COSBY: Yes, let's absolutely hope you're right. Now, Walid Phares, let me bring you in, if I could. How concerned should we be, Walid?
WALID PHARES, TERRORISM EXPERT: What we should be concerned about is what he represents as a model. I mean, I followed and researched his road map. If you want to become a member of al-Qaida or a jihadist, and it's very interesting.
It's not really the conversion that he had. I mean, people convert from one religion to the other. That isn't the issue. It's who basically, at the end of the day, converted him to the ideology of the terrorists.
Now, he said it. It's posted on Internet. He said that it was through Internets, through chat rooms, the same chat rooms basically which are recruiting people from around the world.
And this insistence, on behalf of al-Qaida, to recruit American-born, European-born, people with no accent, with passports, and who can basically convince others to follow the same path.
COSBY: Walid, is there anything we can make of the timing? Here I am in New Orleans. And I'll tell you, I've been out with some of the top law enforcement officials in the city. The biggest concern that they just told me about a few hours ago is another threat, something, while we're so vulnerable here, throwing us a tape somewhere else. Do you make anything of the timing of this?
PHARES: Look, Adam is American. He knows American mentality, political culture, psychology. He does his first tape last year before the elections, maximizing as much as he can. He does his second tape on September the 11th.
So every time there's a possibility for him to impact us, intimidate the American public, he'll do it. I don't think it's linked directly to an operation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/14/2005 00:29 ||
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American aviation officials were warned as early as 1998 that Al Qaeda could "seek to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a U.S. landmark," according to previously secret portions of a report prepared last year by the Sept. 11 commission. The officials also realized months before the Sept. 11 attacks that two of the three airports used in the hijackings had suffered repeated security lapses.
Federal Aviation Administration officials were also warned in 2001 in a report prepared for the agency that airport screeners' ability to detect possible weapons had "declined significantly" in recent years, but little was done to remedy the problem, the Sept. 11 commission found.
The White House and many members of the commission, which has completed its official work, have been battling for more than a year over the release of the commission's report on aviation failures, which was completed in August 2004.
A heavily redacted version was released by the Bush administration in January, but commission members complained that the deleted material contained information critical to the public's understanding of what went wrong on Sept. 11. In response, the administration prepared a new public version of the report, which was posted Tuesday on the National Archives Web site.
While the new version still blacks out numerous references to particular shortcomings in aviation security, it restores dozens of other portions of the report that the administration had been considered too sensitive for public release.
The newly disclosed material follows the basic outline of what was already known about aviation failings, namely that the F.A.A. had ample reason to suspect that Al Qaeda might try to hijack a plane yet did little to deter it. But it also adds significant details about the nature and specificity of aviation warnings over the years, security lapses by the government and the airlines, and turf battles between federal agencies.
Some of the details were in confidential bulletins circulated by the agency to airports and airlines, and some were in its internal reports.
"While we still believe that the entire document could be made available to the public without damaging national security, we welcome this step forward," the former leaders of the commission, Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, said in a joint statement. "The additional detail provided in this version of the monograph will make a further contribution to the public record of the facts and circumstances of the 9/11 attacks established by the final report of the 9/11 commission."
Bush administration officials said they had worked at the commission's request to restore much of the material that had been blacked out in the original report. "Out of an abundance of caution, there are a variety of reasons why the U.S. government would not want to disclose certain security measures and not make them available in the public domain for terrorists to exploit," said Russ Knocke, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security.
Commission officials said they were perplexed by the administration's original attempts to black out material they said struck them as trivial or mundane.
One previously deleted section showed, for instance, that flights carrying the author Salman Rushdie were subjected to heightened security in the summer of 2001 because of a fatwa of violence against him, while a previously deleted footnote showed that "sewing scissors" would be allowed in the hands of a woman with sewing equipment, but prohibited "in the possession of a man who possessed no other sewing equipment."
Other deletions, however, highlighted more serious security concerns. A footnote that was originally deleted from the report showed that a quarter of the security screeners used in 2001 by Argenbright Security for United Airlines flights at Dulles Airport had not completed required criminal background checks, the commission report said. Another previously deleted footnote, related to the lack of security for cockpit doors, criticized American Airlines for security lapses.
Much of the material now restored in the public version of the commission's report centered on the warnings the F.A.A. received about the threat of hijackings, including 52 intelligence documents in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks that mentioned Al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden.
A 1995 National Intelligence Estimate, a report prepared by intelligence officials, "highlighted the growing domestic threat of terrorist attack, including a risk to civil aviation," the commission found in a blacked-out portion of the report.
And in 1998 and 1999, the commission report said, the F.A.A.'s intelligence unit produced reports about the hijacking threat posed by Al Qaeda, "including the possibility that the terrorist group might try to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a U.S. landmark."
The unit considered this prospect "unlikely" and a "last resort," with a greater threat of a hijacking overseas, the commission found.
Still, in 2000, the commission said, the F.A.A. warned carriers and airports that while political conditions in the 1990's had made a terrorist seizure of an airliner less likely, "we believe that the situation has changed."
"We assess that the prospect for terrorist hijacking has increased and that U.S. airliners could be targeted in an attempt to obtain the release of indicted or convicted terrorists imprisoned in the United States."
It concluded, however, that such a hijacking was more likely outside the United States.
By September 2001 the F.A.A. was receiving some 200 pieces a day of intelligence from other agencies about possible threats, and it had opened more than 1,200 files to track possible threats, the commission found.
The commission found that F.A.A. officials were repeatedly warned about security lapses before Sept. 11 and, despite their increased concerns about a hijacking, allowed screening performance to decline significantly.
While box cutters like those used by the hijackers were not necessarily a banned item before Sept. 11, some security experts have said that tougher screening and security could have detected the threat the hijackers posed. But screening measures at two of the three airports used by the hijackers - Logan in Boston and Dulles near Washington - were known to be inadequate, the commission found. Reviews at Newark airport also found some security violations, but it was the only one of the three airports used on Sept. 11 that met or exceeded national norms.
Richard Ben-Veniste, a former member of the Sept. 11 commission, said the release of the material more than a year after it was completed underscored the over-classification of federal material. "It's outrageous that it has taken the administration a year since this monograph was submitted for it to be released," he said. "There's no reason it could not have been released earlier."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/14/2005 00:22 ||
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#1
Richard Ben-Veniste is the "unnamed" source for this meaningless NY Slimes article.
We all know that the pre-9/11 FAA was clueless (likely remains as such).
Besides, the 9/11 bastards gave the FAA people more credit then deserved: they used box cutters, which were allowable at the time.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/14/2005 1:07 Comments ||
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The number of Guantanamo Bay detainees taking part in a hunger strike has swelled to about a quarter of the prison population over the past month, according to Pentagon officials.
Since August 8, the number of detainees refusing food has slowly increased from several dozen to 128, according to the Pentagon.
Eighteen prisoners are in medical facilities forcibly receiving nutrition intravenously or through nasal tubes, Pentagon officials said.
Last month officials said 89 detainees were refusing to eat and 12 were receiving forced nutrition in the medical facility.
Since the prison camp at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, opened in January 2002, there have been numerous hunger strikes by detainees. No prisoner has died from starvation, according to Pentagon officials.
"Regulations are the same at Guantanamo as they are in the U.S. prison system, and prisoners will not be allowed to kill themselves by starving themselves," a Pentagon official said.
Pentagon officials said the detainees are protesting their continued detention, but past detainee protests have occurred because of perceived treatment of the Quran by prison guards and treatment of the detainees by guards.
The previous hunger strike at the prison, known as Camp Delta, was in late July, when 68 detainees stopped eating.
All of the detainees started eating again on their own before the August 8 hunger strike, according to Pentagon officials.
The Washington Post reported Monday that lawyers for some of the detainees claim their clients are refusing to eat to protest their detention as well as the beatings they allege some detainees are receiving from prison guards.
Pentagon officials flatly deny that any of the detainees are beaten, including uncooperative ones.
The Defense Department says more than 500 detainees are being held at the detention facility. Most were captured during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan against the al Qaeda terrorist network and its local allies.
More than 30 countries are represented. But citizens from Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen account for the majority of the detainees, 129, 110 and 107, the two U.S. officials told CNN last month.
News of the growing detainee protest came a day after Pentagon officials said Mullah Adbul Salam Zaeef, once the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan and its primary spokesman during the early days of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, was released after an agreement between the Afghan government and the United States.
He was flown to Afghanistan from the Cuban base. He had been held at the prison camp since January 2002 after being arrested by Pakistani authorities and turned over to the United States.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/14/2005 00:20 ||
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#1
Threaten to play more Celine Dione music if they don't start eating their 4 star lemon flavored chicken. Maybe offer Chocloate Moose as an entree?
#4
Wrong policy. First, stop any access to these animals by either lawyers or the media. No publicity to feed the LLL rave machine. Second, stop feeding any of them. Let the bastards die and feed the corpses, smeared with pig fat, to the sharks off Gitmo.
Posted by: mac ||
09/14/2005 5:35 Comments ||
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#5
"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, the hunger strike at Gitmo has ended. Last night we reviewed the evidence in every case, reached the conclusion they were all unlawful combatants, and executed them at dawn. Thank you, and God bless."
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/14/2005 7:46 Comments ||
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#6
GITMO HUNGER STRIKE GROWS
UNUSUAL NUMBER OF VULTURES SPOTTED FLYING OVER GITMO
Any chance these Boyz will carry through like Bobby Sands, et al. did two decades ago?
#8
I agree, get the media out of there. Remember hidden cameras showing them eating and stuffing their faces early on in this strike, when they didn't think they were being seen. Lawyers should be limited in some way as well. Aren't there different laws for these prisoners compared to prisoners stateside, use them.
Posted by: Jan ||
09/14/2005 11:09 Comments ||
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#9
Sounds like they are helping us(US) in our time of need......by cutting the food budget
Posted by: Dorf ||
09/14/2005 13:06 Comments ||
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#10
So let 'em starve, already. Who the hell cares?
The ACLU and their fellow travelers care, you say? OK, put one of them in each "hunger striker"'s cell and tell them they have to stay until they coax the poor fella to eat. Or they get torn limb from limb. Whichever comes first. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/14/2005 16:37 Comments ||
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#11
Even better, have the ACLU sue for them to have the right to starve. I mean, who are we to force our social norms on them. If they want to starve, by all means, I think they have that right.
So let's get on the stick ACLU...
[September 12 2005] at 0330 LT in position 03:17s - 116:23e, Pulau Laut anchorage, Indonesia. Four robbers boarded a bulk carrier. They broke open bosun store and stole ship's stores and escaped.
[September 11 2005] at 0415 LT at Tg. Mangkok, Sebuku island, Indonesia. Robbers armed with long knives boarded a bulk carrier at anchor. They held duty A/B and stole ship's stores.
[September 08 2005] at 2235 UTC in position 17:52.8N - 077:06.2W, Port Old Harbour, Jamaica. Four robbers armed with knives and hooks boarded a tanker moored to buoy. Alert crew raised alarm and robbers escaped empty handed in an unlit speedboat. Harbour authorities informed.
[September 06 2005] at 2050 LT at Cochin, India. Several robbers boarded a container ship at berth. They stole ship's stores and escaped. Local authorities informed.
And from the "Better Late than Never" Department:
[August 19 2005] at 2000 LT at Ho Chi Minh City port, Vietnam. Two robbers armed with knives and sword boarded a bulk carrier moored to buoy. One robber tried to attack duty A/B who ran away and raised alarm and crew mustered. Robbers jumped overboard and escaped with ship+IBk-s stores. Police came for investigation next morning.
[August 04 2005] at Buoy no. FC-02, Ho Chi Minh City port, Vietnam. Robbers boarded a bulk carrier moored to buoy. They broke store locks and stole ship+IBk-s stores.
[July 31 2005] at 1900 LT at Buoy no. 39, Ho Chi Minh City port, Vietnam. Four robbers armed with long knives boarded a bulk carrier moored to buoy. Duty officer and crew gave chase. Robbers escaped with ship+IBk-s stores in a small boat. Port control informed.
[July 30 2005] at Xingang Port, China. Robbers boarded a bulk carrier during cargo operations and stole ship+IBk-s equipment.
[July 29 2005] at Jakarta anchorage, Indonesia.
Four robbers boarded a bulk carrier. Alert crew raised alarm and robbers escaped empty handed.
[July 10 2005] at 0200 LT at Ho Chi Minh City port, Vietnam . Two robbers boarded a bulk carrier moored to buoy during cargo operations with barges alongside. They broke open forepeak store and stole ship+IBk-s stores. Duty officer raised alarm and robbers escaped.
JOHOR BAHARU, Sept 13 (Bernama) -- The Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), Tuesday reassured that the Melaka Strait is safe for merchant ships. Internal Security and Public Order deputy director I, DCP Mohd Anuar Mohd Zain said the 780-nautical-mile strait was constantly under tight surveillance by the littoral states of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
"With facilities like control towers and sophisticated radar, we are constantly monitoring it to ensure it is safe from piracy or hijackings," he told reporters when asked to comment on a report by Lloyds (a London insurance underwriter) which said the strait posed a high risk for merchant shipping...
Anuar said, according to Maritime Institute of Malaysia statistics, there were only 17 incidents which was only a 0.02 piracy threat when compared to the 63,000 ships that passed the strait last year...
Another article said some 50,000 ships. In any case, that's a lot of traffic.
#1
Quite a lofty reassurance. May shed some light on why terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna was recently deported for allegedly doing research in Ambon while holding a tourist visa. His book suggested AQ's ongoing intention of disrupting shipping in the Melaka Strait.
#3
In other news, the Royal Malaysian Navy notes a down trend in galleon freighter traffic, but a curious upsurge in Zodiac rubber boats crewed by unkempt 16 year-olds with long knives. The navy spokesman attributed the change to global warming and the sinister influence of the authors of the Project for a New American Century.
SUBANG, Sept 13 (Bernama) -- Joint air patrols over the Strait of Melaka was launched here Tuesday to allow Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand to beef up security in the world's busiest waterway against pirates and terrorists.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who proposed the "Eyes-In- The-Sky' concept in June, launched the operations at the Royal Malaysia Air Force base here, witnessed by Singapore Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean. Representing Indonesia's Defence Minister was Maj-Gen Dadi Susanto while Thailand by Senior Expert for Supreme Command Gen Orphut Sukswai.
Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia will contribute two aircraft each for the operations while Thailand will act as an observer at the initial stage. The planes will mount two patrols per week along the designated sectors of the operation areas.
Some 50,000 ships carrying about one-third of the world trade goods use the 960km-long and 1.2km wide at its narrowest point of the strait every year which is vulnerable to pirate attacks. Governments in the region believe it is a tempting target for terrorists.
Speaking to reporters later, Najib, who is also Defence Minister, said the "Eyes-In-The-Sky" operation was a testament of Asean solidarity and its willingness to work together to safeguard its waters.
"It is also a clear signal to the international community that we are serious about it, we mean business and are willing to pool our resources to help maintain safety and security in the strategic waterway," he said.
He said the international community would be allowed to participate in the operations including the United States, without them undermining the sovereignty principles of the littoral states and their responsibility over the safety and security of the strait.
"We've provided the guidelines, we will invite them to take part in the platforms they can provide. We will determine the designated areas for them.
"But we will have our people on board together with them. If it's necessary to do any intervention, it will be done by the respective countries," he added. Najib's Singaporean counterpart, Teo, said the republic strongly supported the initiative proposed by Najib at the last Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. He described the proposal as practical, useful and served the security needs in the strait.
The Federal Government hopes the death sentence handed out to a man convicted of the Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta will deter others from engaging in similar terrorist acts. A Jakarta court sentenced 30-year-old Iwan Darmawan Mutho, alias Rois, to death by firing squad yesterday. He was found guilty of plotting the deadly bombing at the Australian embassy last year, which killed 11 Indonesians and the suicide bomber. Rois had bought the explosives and trained the suicide bomber and he initially told police that Australia deserved to be attacked because it oppressed Muslims in Iraq.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is delighted with the conviction. "I think it shows that the Indonesians won't tolerate this kind of activity and will discourage people from engaging in acts of terror in the future," he said. Three others have already been jailed over the attack, while several others are awaiting sentence.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2005 00:00 ||
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U.S. President George W. Bush warned Syria on Tuesday that it faces growing isolation because of its failure to stop foreign fighters entering Iraq and its actions in Lebanon. "These people are coming from Syria into Iraq and killing a lot of innocent people," Bush told reporters following a meeting at the White House with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. "They're trying to kill our folks as well. And the Syrian leader (President Bashar Assad) must [have] understood, we take his lack of action seriously. The [Syrian] government is going to become more and more isolated as a result of two things; one, not being cooperative with the Iraqi government in terms of securing Iraq and, two, not being fully transparent about what they did in Lebanon," the president said.
Bush did not specify what Syrian actions in Lebanon he was referring to but Damascus and its allies in the then-Lebanese government have been widely blamed for the February 14 bomb blast that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, issued a strong warning to Damascus on Monday over providing help to radical groups in Iraq and said "our patience is running out." When asked about U.S. response, Khalilzad said "all options are on the table," including military. "I would not like to elaborate more, they should understand what I mean."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
He was in charge in year 5754? 5741? aw hell, who can track all the damn details?
Same name, same man, same Syria screwing with Lebanon. History repeats itself for sure.
The US is not what Syria has to fear in this case.
It is something far more encompassing.
President Emile Lahoud is set to meet with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Friday to discuss the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559 and the international investigations into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Sources close to the presidential delegation to the UN Summit told The Daily Star that the talks with Annan will focus on the need to establish an inter-Lebanese dialogue to agree on a mechanism that would allow the implementation of Resolution 1559, which calls for the disarmament of Hizbullah and Palestinians factions in the country.
The sources added that the meeting with the top UN official will focus on the ongoing developments in the international investigations into Hariri's murder, and that the president will make it clear to Annan that those convicted in the crime will face severe punishment. Friday's meeting with Annan is likely to encompass the role of the world body's peacekeeping troops (UNIFIL) in South Lebanon. The Security Council has already renewed UNIFIL's mandate for another six months, as of July 29.
In a statement issued yesterday, Lahoud reiterated that he has a "clear conscience" regarding the assassination of Hariri. According to the statement, Lahoud told reporters on his flight to New York Monday that he will finish his term despite calls for his resignation. Four of his top generals, including the former head of the Presidential Guard, have been arrested in the investigations. "If a human being had a bloody history, he can commit such a crime. But if his hands were not tainted with blood, then his conscience is clear and my conscience is clear," Lahoud said. He added: "We must know the criminals and I will erect their gallows with my hands. We should not make this topic harm the interest of Lebanon."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2005 00:00 ||
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September 14, 2005: DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is holding itâs second âGrand Challengeâ race, on October 8th, for developers of UGV (unmanned ground vehicles.) DARPA is offering a two million dollar prize for the first UGV to complete the 280 kilometer course, in less than ten hours. The race, first held last year, has not yet been won.
The actual course is not announced until two hours before the race begins, but the finalists are told what general area to be in several weeks before the race. This is done so participants cannot electronically survey the course, and simply program an UGV on how to best navigate it. The purpose of the Grand Challenge is to motivate vehicle manufacturers to create the technology the Department of Defense wants for large UGVs that can carry supplies and equipment without the need for drivers. In theory, this capability has been possible for several years. But no one has actually done it yet. Research on this subject has been going on for decades.
DARPA was correct in assuming that the Grand Challenge would get the creative juices going, and cost the government little. Participants get no money from the government, unless they win. And if they do win, military vehicle manufacturers will be very interested in buying the technology that made it possible. Naturally, many military vehicle manufacturers have entries in the Grand Challenge. Oshkosh Truck, for example, has partnered with electronics manufacturer Rockwell Collins, and artificial intelligence experts from the University of Parma, Italy, to produce TerraMax. This vehicle has, in the last few months, consistently moved over cross-country routes at 31 kilometers an hour (and sometimes as fast as 56 kilometers an hour), meaning itâs a contender for winning the prize. TerraMax has sensors and an onboard computer that monitor the pitch and roll of the vehicle, as well as how close it is to the edge of the road, or any obstacles, and adjusts steering and speed accordingly. TerraMax has been so fast at times that the SUV âchase carâ could not keep up. Thatâs because TerraMax has no people on board, and a better suspension system for dealing with the rough terrain. The TerraMax vehicle is basically a six wheeled Oshkosh âMedium Tactical Vehicle Replacementâ (MTVR), and weighs over 14 tons, and is the largest race participant.
In the first race last year, no vehicle completed the course. In fact, the best any vehicle could do was 23 kilometers (about ten percent of the entire course.) This year, several participants feel they can not only finish, but do it quickly enough to win the prize.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/14/2005 10:16 ||
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#1
The entire "Battlebots" philosophy will do more to stimulate innovation in design than just about any other technique. Darwinistic design evolution is even being done at the software level to see if virtual organisms can be created that mimic real ones. It works.
I might suggest thinking outside the box, however. Right now, everyone probably thinks of having a complete "brain" in the vehicle, using satellite GPS for guidance. However, practically speaking, this only gives the vehicle a two-dimensional view of the terrain. This would be the way a human driver would have to do it, but the robotic guidance does not have that inherent limitation.
That is, if they permitted low and/or medium altitude guidance from a non-entrant aircraft, it could give them an essential angular 3rd dimension to evaluate the terrain with. Either a government UAV or military aircraft, providing equal info feeds to all participants.
Right now, they expect too much from their integrated guidance. Computer brains are hard-pressed to handle abstracts like perspective, instant evaluation of soil type, objective and subjective navigation, etc. So they rely too much on trying to "brute force" their way through innumerable obstacles.
Osama bin Laden was provided safe passage to Pakistan in 2001 by Afghan commanders paid by al Qaeda and sympathetic to its cause, a senior Afghan official told Reuters Speaking of "sympathetic to the cause... on Wednesday.
Lutfullah Mashal, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry spokesman, said commanders helped the al Qaeda leader escape from the Tora Bora mountains as U.S. warplanes and Afghan forces attacked his hideout near the Pakistan border in late "The help was provided because of monetary aid availed by al Qaeda and also partly because of ideological issues," Mashal said.
"Osama along with other al Qaeda people managed to go to Parachinar (in Pakistan) at the time and then Pakistani forces battled the al Qaeda runaways, killing around 70 of them," Mashal added, referring to an area in Pakistan's Kurram tribal agency.
He said commanders loyal to Maulvi Yunus Khalis had helped the al Qaeda leader escape. The whereabouts of Khalis, a top mujahideen leader from the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, is unknown.
Mashal said he was present in the Tora Bora mountains during the December 2001 operation, and that while U.S. forces were not there in uniform, green berets in plain clothes, some disguised in Uzbek style dress were present.
He said that while 800 or 900 Arabs fled Tora Bora for Pakistan's Khyber tribal agency, senior al Qaeda leaders trekked across to Parachinar on foot, mule and horseback with the help of some Sulemankheil tribal elders.
Mashal said bin Laden later re-crossed the border to Khost where Taliban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani gave him refuge, before returning to Pakistan, this time heading for Miranshah, the main town in another tribal agency, North Waziristan.
Mashal said he had gone to Pakistan himself, searching for bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri in camps of al Qaeda militants at Parachinar, Shawal, Daddakheil and Miranshah. "I visited all the camps, where there were Chechens, Uzbeks, but I was not able to find clues about the whereabouts of Osama or al-Zawahri," he told Geo.
Mashal suspected the al Qaeda leader was still moving around Pakistan's tribal lands, guarded by the ISI Taliban and Arab fighters. "His exact location is not clear for he changes his location and is on the move ... He is guarded by Haqqani's men and Yemenis."
The United States invaded Afghanistan after the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden, blamed for the attacks on U.S. cities, and overthrew the Taliban in late 2001. He's just been "blamed;" we don't know that he had anything to do with it.
(CNSNews.com) - An Islamic advocacy group is blasting a U.S. lawmaker for his "Islamophic" comments on the design of a memorial to the 40 people who died when Flight 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania farm field on Sept. 11, 2001. As the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) believes that the crescent-shaped design of the memorial to Flight 93 victims could invite controversy and criticism "because of the crescent's prominent use as a symbol in Islam -- and the fact that the hijackers were radical Islamists."
"The invocation of a Muslim symbol" -- whether intentional or not -- "is unsuitable for paying appropriate tribute to the heroes of Flight 93 or the ensuing American struggle against radical Islam," Tancredo wrote, according to the Washington Post..
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) dismissed Tancredo's comments as a cynical political ploy designed to gain national attention. "Representative Tancredo once again demonstrates his anti-Muslim bias and his thirst for publicity," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad. "He apparently believes he can only gain attention on the national political stage by fabricating a false controversy based on bizarre Internet conspiracy theories."
Awad added that CAIR is only challenging Tancredo's implicit linkage between Islam and terrorism. He said CAIR "will respect whatever the victims' families believe is an appropriate design for the memorial."
CAIR also is calling on state and national leaders of the Republican Party, including President Bush, to repudiate what it called Tancredo's Islamophobic stance.
CAIR says the memorial's designer, the National Park Service and relatives of crash victims describe the memorial's shape as a circle broken by the flight pattern of Flight 93.
The memorial design, approved last week by the Flight 93 Advisory Commission, includes a crescent-shaped cluster of maple trees and a white marble wall bearing the victims' names.
Maple trees are green, aren't they? Except in the fall when they turn red.
The National Park Service and Interior Department must give final approval before the memorial is built.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/14/2005 09:34 ||
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#1
In Colorado, there is still debate over a proper memorial for Columbine.
In the spirit of the Flight 93 Memorial, I have proposed that the Columbine Memorial be a kid in a black trenchcoat with a gun in his hand.
After all, we don't want to exclude members of the Black Trenchcoated-American community.
#2
In other news Rep Tom Tancredo asked that when New Orleans is rebuilt, it no longer be called "the crescent city". And that amtrak not run "the southern crescent".
Cmon, if a liberal had said something this silly, about a symbol being offensive, we'd all be talking about what silly PCness it was. And rightly so.
#4
Maple trees are green, aren't they? Except in the fall when they turn red.
Steve, your point stands, but there will be two rows of RED maples forming the crescent. I have one in front of my house. It's dark red in summer and is now turning a dark green. Beautiful tree.
#5
Um... it's a freaking red crescent as a memorial for an airplane crash.... The first thing I though of was an islamic crescent. The second thing I thought of was an impact crater. Both are repulsive.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
09/14/2005 11:48 Comments ||
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#6
The 9-11 memorials are all disgusting, self hating crap. Time to kill the planners and heap their dead bodies in piles. That would be a better monument that the crap they come up with.
#8
It wasn't that long ago in Berlin that a number of trees in a forested patch were removed. A number of a certain type of trees had been planted either in the 1930s or 1940s in the shape of a giant swastika. In the Fall, the leaves would turn a pronounced red-like color that brought out the swastika shape amongst the surrounding different type of trees with green leaves. One could only observe this living monument to Nazism. From what I heard, this living monument was finally altered about 15 years ago. If this living crescent-like monument goes through, and it offends the generations to come, be assured that it too will disappear and be replaced by something compassionately complimentary for a memorial and not caustically contraversial. No one wants to honor the brave victims of this ungodly crime with fractious fighting and friction. Can you imagine what would happen if the memorial was shaped into a cross-like design? The anti-American ACLU and left coasties would have a cow! The true Americans of this great country are being over-run by mealy mouthed ingrates with no heart or soul and brainless to boot! Behold this fine trash dressed up in the robes of judges, lawyers, teachers and politicians! The anti-Americans proceed to trash this country and in time the true Americans will have had enough and have to unite against this trash. Hell.. illegal immigrants show more respect for this country than these a**holes.
#9
LH - if your vague reference was to Tancredo's comment - you have my wholehearted opposition. He's on the mark
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/14/2005 12:55 Comments ||
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#10
"Did You Know...
Use motor oil may be used to fertilize your lawn?"
(no it can't) With apologies to Fight Club.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
09/14/2005 13:13 Comments ||
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#11
A crescent is a crescent is a crescent. Apart from our usual argument about whether the Salafist ideology of the terrs is "true" Islam, the fact is that the crescent is not JUST an Islamic symbol - the crescent moon is part of western culture (and no, the buddist use of swastikas isnt equivalent, since most victims of the Nazis werent Buddists)
I mean Tancredos insistence that there is something "islamic" about a memorial in a crescent shape is on par with Farrakan deciding that the Washington monument has something to do with a Klansman.
Should we not have crosses at memorials to victims of the Nazis (many of whom were Christians) because the cross was used as a symbol by the Germans during the 3rd reich? Are 5 pointed stars to be excluded from memorials to the victims of Stalinism? Or anything red? Should anything shaped like the cross of St Andrew be excluded from memorials about slavery in the US?
#13
Let me try to understand your reasoning LH. You state the use of swastikas are not appropriate for use at Jewish memorials. the buddist use of swastikas isnt equivalent, since most victims of the Nazis werent Buddists
But you have no proplem with the use of the crescent, the unversally recognized symbol of islam, at the Flight 93 memorial.
Should we not have crosses at memorials to victims of the Nazis
How about no swastikas at memorials to victims of the Nazis and no crescents at memorials to victims of the islamists.
Posted by: ed ||
09/14/2005 13:43 Comments ||
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#14
I take your point LH but why didn't the artist pick a different shape? I honestly think that this is an attempt by the memorial's designer to be "deep" and "thoughtful" about the tragedy by evoking an Islamic holy symbol. "Thought provoking irony" is pretty much the artistic trend at the moment, if I am not mistaken.
#15
LH, you're missing the point. How would you feel about a Holocaust Memorial that, when viewed from above, was shaped like a swastika?
What if a new museum built at Bergen-Belsen were in that shape? What if the long portion of one arm was found to point directly towards Hitler's birthplace?
Cmon, what Tancredo is doing is pure PC BS.
Project much?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/14/2005 14:12 Comments ||
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#16
Symbols in art are intentional. The reverent use of the symbol of Islam in this memorial to those murdered in Islamic jihadi attacks on 9/11 isn't coincidental. It's a deliberate political pitch that Islam should have a place of honor at the site of the murder, that the crimes done in the name of Islam don't accurately represent Islam, that we must forgive and forget, and that we must incorporate this Islamic imagery into the memorial as part of the healing process and to show that we are all one happy world, living together in harmony.
In the words of a rantburg regular,
Never forgive, never forget.
#18
The families of the flight 93 hero's should be the final arbiters of the design.
No "The Crescent of Embrace", I trust.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/14/2005 14:38 Comments ||
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#19
"the crescent of embrace: just what exactly are we embracing here?
Someone on LGF made a good point. The crescent design should stand, as a symbol to remind people what (and who) was responsible for this attack.
BTW, this memorial shouldn't be "a memorial to the 40 people who died when Flight 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania farm field on Sept. 11", but "a memorial to the people on flight 93. They were attacked. They fought back."
Posted by: Rafael ||
09/14/2005 16:10 Comments ||
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#20
"a memorial to the people on flight 93, for fighting back while under attack"
Sounds better.
Posted by: Rafael ||
09/14/2005 16:12 Comments ||
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#21
I propose instead of using Maple trees, we form the crescent with gallows. We'll hang say, 40 jihadi's daily there, until the War On Terror is won.
Terrorists/Unlawful combatants may be executed out of hand when taken prisoner under the Geneva Convention. If we run out of jihadi's from overseas, we have enough here to keep going.
#24
"Through the gesture of embrace, a curving landform formally designates the edge of the Bowl. The shape enhances the form and monumental scale of the Bowl to commemorate the heroic actions of the passengers and crew of Flight 93. An allee of Red Maple trees gently descends around the Bowl, crossing the wetlands, to the focal point of the Bowl, the Sacred Ground. Behind the walkway occur forty groves of Sugar and Red Maples and a ring road that leads to parking near the Sacred Ground. Visitors can formally start their walk by ascending a ramp that allows views into the Visitor Center. Pedestrian trails through the Bowl offer a variety of entrance and exit routes to and from the Sacred Ground. Lighting at night supports the walkway through recessed lights in the radiating markers that face the Bowl. Benches along the allee have a recessed source to illuminate the path and each of their radiating extensions through the groves are terminated at the ring road with a pole-mounted downlight."
I guess they thought of it as a curving land form, not a "crescent" I guess curving land forms are out.
#25
"It's powerful but understated," said Kiki Homer, whose brother, LeRoy W. Homer Jr., was co-pilot on the plane that crashed after passengers rebelled against terrorist hijackers. "It's beautifully simple.
"My breath is taken away."
Esther Heymann, whose daughter, Elizabeth Wainio, died in the crash, agreed.
"The understatement speaks to the profoundness of what occurred here," she said.
According to jurors who chose the winner, it offers "tranquility, beauty and silence. It will be a place for everyone who visits to feel the spirits of the 40 heroes in the whisper of the trees and honor their unselfish sacrifice of their lives to preserve the lives of countless many."
I guess Tancredo understands the design better than these folks though.
#27
LH, have it your way then. Since the swastika was an ancient symbol before the Nazis appropriated it, then I submit that the next Holocaust memorial be shaped in said shape. It would be so artistically intriguing, no?
I swear, LH, sometimes you seem like a triangle with all obtuse angles. Or maybe you just have that childhood oppositional disorder I read about yesterday. ODD, I believe they called it.
Posted by: SLO Jim ||
09/14/2005 17:31 Comments ||
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#28
NOT every reference to a crescent involves Islam. However, EVERY use of a red crescent in a monument for an event involving Islam DOES NECESSARILY refer to Islam, at least on a symbolic level.
Calling a city the Crescent City doesnt refer to Islam. However, if you were to refer to Mecca as a city under the crescent, don't you think that the use of the crescent is a symbol of Islam? It is the contextual involvement of Islam which gives that particular symbol this meaning in that situation. Mecca being a place of importance to Islam, the crescent being it symbol. The hijacking being an act of Islamic terror, the crescent being the symbol of the very group that perpetrated the act.
The only way that this could be defended as having no symbolic value is if Islam were not involved; if there was no religious motivation to the hijacking. Undoubtedly some believe that to be true....
Posted by: Mark E. ||
09/14/2005 17:40 Comments ||
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#30
LH - bite my crescent moon. You protest too much - caught in a bad move, you project and blather. No crescents. Tancredo's not liberal enough for you? Don't vote for him. Just thank him when the borders' finally secure. Hawk only overseas, I see
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/14/2005 18:25 Comments ||
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#31
Why is everyone so concerned about what CAIR says, or to consider their opinions about anything? Have you really looked into the kind of organization CAIR really is? Below is a link to see the real CAIR. Thank God for Tancredo, he speaks his mind and is dead on usually. He has taken the unpopular stance many times here in Colorado, so I don't think he's making his remarks to be PC in any way.
"Not surprisingly, CAIR also backs those who finance terrorism. When President Bush closed the Holy Land Foundation in December for collecting money he said was "used to support the Hamas terror organization," CAIR decried his action as "unjust" and "disturbing.""
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/394
Posted by: Jan ||
09/14/2005 18:47 Comments ||
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#32
The best monument Flight 93 could have would be a piece of legislation known as the Muslim Exclusion Act banning the immigration of all Muslims in perpetuity and expelling those already here.
Posted by: mac ||
09/14/2005 19:16 Comments ||
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#33
LH,
If we were attacked on Sept. 11 by jumping cows, then yes, moons (crescent or otherwise), cowbells and udders would be an insult at a memorial to those who gave their lives fighting that evil. Context is what matters LH, and we were attacked in the most vile manner by ISLAMISTS, not cowists.
For more context, I remind you of the hijacking of the World Trade Center Memorial by the multicultural, moneyed, and artistic rabble: Hijacking the WTC Memorial But as Debra Burlingame reports, instead of tributes to the 9/11 victims, the exhibits will consist of testimonies to man's inhumanity to man, including lots of samples of America's misdeeds, from Jim Crow lynchings to Abu Ghraib. The IFC will have 300,000 square feet. The Memorial Center, which will house artifacts of the attacks, will have a mere 50,000 square feet. Ironically, those taking the lead in planning and funding the International Freedom Center are leftwing activists, including billionaire George Soros and Tom Bernstein, the head of the project. He is a member of Human Rights First, the organization that has been filing lawsuits on behalf of dirty bomber Jose Padilla, the Guantanamo detainees, and the prisoners of Abu Ghraib.
So there is already a precedence of rich multicultural subversives trying to hijack and turn the 911 memorial into a concrete expression of their contempt. Of course it was camouflaged with beautiful and gilded words, but most Americans recognize horse manure when we smell it. And we have it happening again in Pennsylvania, only not quite as in-your-face this time. Open your nostrils LH and smell the manure emanating from a Pennsylvania pasture.
By your argument LH, is it appropriate to have a swastika at the Holocaust memorial? After all, the swastika is a revered symbol in many cultures.
Posted by: ed ||
09/14/2005 19:56 Comments ||
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#34
By your argument LH, is it appropriate to have a swastika at the Holocaust memorial?
By his argument, it is.
Posted by: Rafael ||
09/14/2005 21:26 Comments ||
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#35
FLNI_Superintendent@nps.gov
if you want to let them know what you think :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/14/2005 22:40 Comments ||
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#36
Hat tip: A CLASS=ED HREF='http://michellemalkin.com/'> Michelle Malkin<
WASHINGTON - The architect of the memorial to a plane downed in western Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, said Wednesday he would work to satisfy critics who complained that it honors terrorists with its crescent-shaped design.
Designer Paul Murdoch said he is "somewhat optimistic" that the spirit of the design could be maintained.
"It's a disappointment there is a misinterpretation and a simplistic distortion of this, but if that is a public concern, then that is something we will look to resolve in a way that keeps the essential qualities," Murdoch, 48, of Los Angeles, said in a telephone interview.
WASHINGTON - The architect of the memorial to a plane downed in western Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, said Wednesday he would work to satisfy critics who complained that it honors terrorists with its crescent-shaped design.
Designer Paul Murdoch said he is "somewhat optimistic" that the spirit of the design could be maintained.
"It's a disappointment there is a misinterpretation and a simplistic distortion of this, but if that is a public concern, then that is something we will look to resolve in a way that keeps the essential qualities," Murdoch, 48, of Los Angeles, said in a telephone interview.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/14/2005 23:11 Comments ||
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#38
I'm glad they're changing it. It was a terrible idea. Anything would be better, unless the new design is in the shape of a bullseye.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
09/14/2005 23:22 Comments ||
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#39
Good news. Vigilant citizens 2 - Subversives 0. At least the Pentagon memorial didn't have to go through this BS.
Posted by: ed ||
09/14/2005 23:26 Comments ||
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#40
same atention and outrage for the "Peace Museum" at the WTC site....hijacked by globalists and anti-WOT apologists. Tenacious attention will keep these moonbats at bay. Emails and phone calls to your elected reps seals the deal (except Pelosi's district, etc)
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/14/2005 23:27 Comments ||
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A U.S. Army commander asserted Tuesday that extremist fighters in northern Iraq committed atrocities against civilians, including beheadings, torture and the booby-trapping of a murdered child's body.
The accusations by Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, included some of the most graphic and specific charges by an American military officer during the ongoing battle for control of Tal Afar, a city about 50 miles from the Syrian border that has been an insurgent stronghold.
"The enemy here did just the most horrible things you can imagine _ in one case murdering a child, placing a booby trap within the child's body and waiting for the parent to come recover the body of their child and exploding it to kill the parents; beheadings and so forth," McMaster said in an interview from Tal Afar with reporters at the Pentagon.
McMaster said Tal Afar is not yet under the control of the 5,000 Iraqi government forces and 3,500 to 3,800 U.S. troops that have been fighting together there for the past two weeks. He predicted eventual victory but said it was impossible to know how long it would take before the Iraqis can control Tal Afar by themselves.
"Is Tal Afar secure? No, it's not secure," he said. "Is the enemy on the run in Tal Afar? Yes, the enemy's on the run. And we're going to conduct some follow-on operations in the next week or so to relentlessly pursue the enemy across the city."
McMaster repeatedly condemned the tactics of the insurgents, whom he called terrorists and extremists.
"Not only were they targeting civilians, brutally murdering them, torturing them, but they were also kidnapping the youth of the city and brainwashing them and trying to turn them into hate-filled murderers," he said.
His comments came two days after the al-Qaida leader in Iraq, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, purportedly accused American forces of using poison gas in the Tal Afar fighting, a charge that U.S. officials have denied. The accusation was made in an audiotape posted on the Internet on Sunday and attributed to al-Zarqawi.
McMaster alluded to that accusation and said he believed the insurgents had planned to detonate chemicals in a building in a residential area and then claim that U.S. forces had employed poison gas against civilians.
"In one of these buildings the enemy had big barrels of chemicals that had explosives implanted in the chemicals, wires running around them. The whole house was rigged for demolition," he said.
When U.S. troops went into the house, "immediately their eyes began burning, their throats began burning. So they withdrew out of the house immediately and then we conducted reconnaissance with some chemical protective gear, with a remote reconnaissance capability, into the house. And we could tell that the thing was rigged with chemicals."
McMaster also said U.S. troops found manuals that described how to make "these kind of chemical dirty bombs and so forth."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/14/2005 00:47 ||
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#1
Ding! We have an explanation!
The terrs planted what was initially reported as a chemical weapons factory in order to manufacture a "US chemical weapons attack". Had the bomb worked, and had the chemical cloud killed civilians, the press would have had simultaneous, worldwide orgasms. It would have been impossible to refute, because the actual evidence would never have made it into any press report.
And yet, they're still trying to relay enemy propaganda:
His comments came two days after the al-Qaida leader in Iraq, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, purportedly accused American forces of using poison gas in the Tal Afar fighting, a charge that U.S. officials have denied.
Note the "US officials have denied" bit. No mention that there's no evidence anyone used poison gas in Tal Afar. Just a statement that the US denied it -- "but they would, wouldn't they?" is left unsaid.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/14/2005 8:15 Comments ||
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#2
"Zark's boyz use torture"
Ummm, I don't know how to paste a pic here so somebody please post an image. I say this deserves a visit from MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS!
Shipman! You know how to post images, get on this quick!
Its A-ok (even encounraged by the media) for Zark and his butt buddies to use torture because they are muslim - so get a free pass by the press - just as the Muslims in Sudan have been given a free pass for their genocide in Dafur and slavery of blacks and burning of churches in Indonesia and synogogues (sp?) in palistine.
And lets not forget the rape of childen and bayontting of babies at that school in Russa by 'hostage-takers' (who happen to have been muslim extreamists....).
You see only Muslims are allowed to do these things - because the MSM will give their allies a free pass. But just think about farting in the general direction of a muslim and the press is all over it for years......
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/14/2005 10:38 Comments ||
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#6
'..they were also kidnapping the youth of the city and brainwashing them and trying to turn them into hate-filled murderers,'"
and the jihad continues on from generation to generation, sigh
Posted by: Jan ||
09/14/2005 11:00 Comments ||
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#7
I hope they included lots of photos and videos unsuitable for family viewing on the evening news. We have been on the defensive in the propaganda theater far too long.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/14/2005 11:02 Comments ||
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#8
I sent Cindy Sheehan a note a couple of days ago and included the story about the Jihadis killing and mutillating children and asked if that's what she ment by "Freedom Fighters". I didn't get a response.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/14/2005 11:25 Comments ||
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#9
Oh, is that what they call beheadings?
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/14/2005 17:22 Comments ||
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May 16 issue - Don't ask America's top brass exactly how the Iraq war is going. They don't know. The various U.S. services have never managed to agree on a unified system for gauging successes and failures in the counterinsurgency campaign. Instead, everyone uses a different yardstick. Recently the National Intelligence Council, the information clearinghouse for America's spy services, produced a study of the problem. NEWSWEEK has learned that the document, which remains classified, urges that the present babel of war assessments be replaced with a coherent system, one that would help U.S. forces react faster and more effectively to shifting insurgent tactics and other challenges. The paper's overall tone is "not uplifting," according to a source familiar with its contents. In blunt terms, things are looking grim. How grim? It's anybody's guess.
Good luck finding someone in the administration to make that guess. America's Iraq policy is like a ghost ship these days. The administration has tried to lower its profile in Iraq, hoping to keep the new assembly from looking like a U.S. puppet. But concern is rising that America may have retreated too far. The Pentagon's three top civilians for day-to-day Iraqi affairsâPaul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith and William Lutiâare going soon or already gone. Now the State Department is in charge. Yet Baghdad has been without a U.S. ambassador for the past month, since John Negroponte left to become director of National Intelligence. The administration's top diplomat in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, was named to succeed him, but as of last weekend his confirmation hearings had not even been scheduled. The embassy's interim boss, Deputy Chief of Mission James Jeffrey, has already been handed his next assignment. In March, when Rice appointed career Foreign Service officer Richard Jones as her special envoy to Baghdad, State Department sources thought he would be assigned at least a half dozen aides. Now an official says Jones's team is only half that size. "State is in charge of the game now," says a senior military official, "but it's too much for them."
Nothing is going the way it was supposed to. Almost as soon as the formation of a new Iraqi government was announced on April 28, suicide bombings began again. By the end of last week, the death toll since then had passed 270. "The elections were held up as a milestone," says Tom Donnelly, a military expert at the think tank most closely aligned with the administration, the American Enterprise Institute. "And politically they were. But as regards the insurgency, they're evidently not particularly relevant at all." Nevertheless, other analysts argue that the surge of attacks reflects a growing sense of desperation among the insurgents. Iraq's Sunni Arabsâeven some hard-liners who until recently wanted nothing to do with the U.S.-backed governmentâhave grown increasingly eager to join the political process.
Hard-core Baathists and foreign jihadists are continuing the fight without the defectors. U.S. intelligence sources say an overwhelming percentage of the insurgency's suicide bombers have come from outside Iraqâin particular, Syrians, Saudis, Pakistanis, Moroccans and Algerians. Newly arrived recruits are trained and prepared by a network under the control of Al Qaeda's top man in Iraq, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, although local chapters of his group appear to have considerable autonomy in planning and carrying out missions. It's not always easy to identify a bomber from what's left afterward, but investigators sometimes gather clues by other means, and sometimes catch would-be bombers alive. An informed source says Coalition forces have recently intercepted three bombers who are suffering from Down syndrome.
There's deep disagreement on how worried the insurgents are. A former administration official says they have been "rattled" since November, when U.S. Marines drove them out of Fallujah. Zarqawi and his friends in the Tawhid and Jihad ("Monotheism and Jihad") group no longer have a place where they can feel truly safe, the former official says. Some resistance fighters see things differently. "Before Fallujah, Tawhid and Jihad worked alone," one fighter told NEWSWEEK via intermediaries last week. "It's true that we lost the battle of Fallujah, but that loss united the resistance groups." And Zarqawi's men seem to have found a new home for themselves in Ar Ramadi, a major stop on the suicide express. U.S. forces have essentially locked down the city in recent months, making access difficult via the main roads. But local residents say the city center is controlled by Zarqawi's followers. Turbaned morality patrols roam the streets, administering beatings to local women for supposed offenses against Islamic propriety. Townspeople don't dare fight back. "You can't stand against Tawhid and Jihad," says one city resident. "Even when you want to."
Still, military sources say they see signs that support for the resistance is fading, even in Sunni areas. When insurgents shot down a civilian helicopter northwest of Baghdad in April, killing six Americans, three Bulgarians and two Fijians, local residents quickly turned in the alleged culprits. The accused kidnappers and killers of British relief worker Margaret Hassan are likewise under lock and keyâagain thanks to local tip-offs. Intercepted communications between terrorists suggest increasingly that they are under severe pressure.
The question is how long the American people's patience will hold out. In a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released last week, 57 percent of respondents said Iraq hadn't been worth the war's cost. It was the lowest measure of support since the war began two years ago. A senior administration aide says the numbers have hovered near that level for some time. People will inevitably look for some semblance of progress, he says, whether it's less bloodshed or a U.S. troop drawdown. Otherwise they'll turn weary and frustrated. He speaks in a matter-of-fact tone, as if prepared for the prospect.
But that kind of progress seems out of reach at present. The insurgents appear to have an abundance of lethal explosives and aspiring martyrs. "The insurgents can keep car bombs going forever," says Donnelly. And military analysts are predicting no major U.S. withdrawals for at least a year. "The absolute best case is that we mightâmightâbe able to see a substantial reduction in American forces starting in mid-2006," says Lawrence Korb, a former Pentagon official now at the Center for American Progress.
Meanwhile U.S. leaders are looking for hope wherever they can find it. Some intelligence officials even interpret the recent bombings of Iraqi police stations and military posts as a positive sign. Successful attacks are just dumb luck, they argue, and the high casualty figures merely reflect the fact that growing numbers of Iraqis are putting their lives on the line against the insurgency. That's the way things look from a safe distance, anyway. "The administration can stomach television images of Iraqis getting killed," says a former administration official who had a key role in Iraq policy. Images of American dead in comparable numbers would be quite another story. The war's approval rating is bad already. If it gets much worse, any other gauge of the counterinsurgency will seem irrelevant.
Dan, did you pick up an old copy of Newsweek in the dentist office? This is from May and that other story is from last year.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/14/2005 00:35 ||
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NEWSWEEK has learned that the document, which remains classified,
NEWSWEEK has just committed a crime, no?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/14/2005 8:10 Comments ||
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#2
No. Treason is no longer a crime. Or, at least, no one has been charged in some 50 years.
#3
The war is basically won. Its just indian country now and the Iraqis [21st century Apache Scouts] are going to start handling most of it. Or as Rantburg's own Barbara Skolaut's comment posted at Instapundit notes of yesterday's White House press conference "I agree with Mr. Flynn, but his sentence is not complete. It should read, 'Iraq must be a smashing success - and it's obviously driving the press absolutely crazy - when Bush can hold a presser with Talabani and field only Louisiana disaster relief questions.'"
It really doesn't. We have all seen this movie before. It's the history of the American West and the plot of most Clint Eastwood westerns: The Bad Guys take over a village/town/territory and brutalize the inhabitants. Any resistance is crushed with terror, violence and death.
Eventually, Clint/The Texas Rangers/The Marines show up and start kicking ass. The locals gain hope realizing maybe they can win and start fighting back, too. The Bad Guys end up dead or in jail. Everyone lives happily ever after. The credits roll as Clint, the Rangers and the Marines ride off into the sunset.
How do we know this is the current scenario? Because the Iraqis keep lining up to join their military in spite of IED attacks on recruiting centers and because they are starting to rat out the terrs. These things only happen because the Iraqis have hope and some outside muscle on their side.
Of course, from the media point of view, it's a VietNam-esque quagmire. Quackmire! Quackmire! Newsweak should spend more time at the movies.
On the heels of an impending partial demilitarisation of the Kashmir Valley in India, secret moves are afoot to get the Hizbul Mujahideen and Jihad Council, a 13-party conglomerate led by Commander Salahuddin, and India on the table - possibly in a third country - to thrash out a roadmap to a Kashmir solution.
âTalks will be kept secret as New Delhi knows that no solution of the Kashmir dispute is possible without the explicit support of the Hizbul Mujahideen and Jihad Council,â sources privy to developments told Daily Times. âTherefore a secret meeting between an emissary of Delhi and Commander Salahuddin is on the cards.â
The sources also claimed that such a development, and pressure exerted by pro-Delhi parties in Kashmir on the Indian leadership to talk to the jihadis, were not possible without a nod from New Delhi.
Saleem Hashmi, spokesman of the Hizbul Mujahideen, confirmed to Daily Times that they (Hizb) knew that pro-Delhi Kashmiri parties and the pro-Pakistan All Parties Hurriyat Conference are all pressing Delhi for a meeting with Hizb and other major jihadi parties to make the peace process more meaningful and broad-based.
âI know that they are pressing Delhi to include the Jihad Council in the peace process to make it more meaningful, because no solution of the Kashmir dispute is possible unless jihadi organisations are on board,â Hashmi said.
Hashmi said, however, that so far there has been no direct contact between Delhi and the Jihad Council. âWe do not have any direct contact with Delhi but if we are contacted in order to beef up the peace process, weâll assess the situation on the ground and decide accordingly,â said Hashmi.
âI donât know what role the pro-Delhi parties are playing in the whole situation but if we see flexibility in the Indian stance on Kashmir and a serious commitment on demilitarisation then weâll act according to the situation,â said Hashmi.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/14/2005 00:27 ||
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On the heels of an impending partial demilitarisation of the Kashmir Valley in India, secret moves are afoot to get the Hizbul Mujahideen and Jihad Council, a 13-party conglomerate led by Commander Salahuddin, and India on the table - possibly in a third country - to thrash out a roadmap to a Kashmir solution.
Caption:
Amritsar, INDIA: Mentally retarted Indian exchange prisoner Daya Ram is escorted by police to the Institute of Mental Health for medical examination in Amritsar, 13 September 2005. Daya Ram, who was part of the prisoner exchange between India and Pakistan at Wagah 12 September, was allegedly tortured by Pakistan police and is unable to say anything except "they are merciless, executioneer" and he sometimes chants 'Ram Ram'. It is believed that he spent nearly four decades in Pakistan jails, none of his relatives came to Wagah to receive him and he was put up at a local guest house by the district administration. AFP PHOTO/NARINDER NANU (Photo credit should read NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images)
Posted by: john ||
09/14/2005 15:52 Comments ||
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Iraqi leaders said Tuesday that they had approved a final, modified version of the new constitution, clearing the way for five million copies to be printed and distributed to Iraqi citizens before the national referendum next month.
The approval came more than two weeks after the draft was formally presented to Parliament over the objections of some lawmakers.
The revisions are relatively minor, and are not likely to win the support of Sunni Arab leaders who oppose the charter and had hoped to see broader changes on regional autonomy and other issues. The four approved changes touch on water rights, adherence to international treaties, cabinet staffing, and Iraq's Arab identity, a more controversial subject on which the new draft offers a compromise position.
The leaders of the constitutional drafting committee said they had signed off on a final version, as did Hussein al-Shahristani, the acting speaker of the National Assembly and a leader of its Shiite majority. Mr. Shahristani said that he would announce the document's completion at a news conference on Wednesday, and that it would then be given to United Nations officials, who are responsible for printing and distributing it.
But in a measure of the chaos that has surrounded the constitutional process, some committee members said Tuesday afternoon that they were not aware a draft had been agreed on and suggested that more delays could be in store.
Nicholas Haysom, the head of the United Nations constitutional advisory team, said the United Nations would insist that any draft it received have the approval of the full assembly, not just the speaker or the committee that drafted the document.
For weeks, the constitution has been in a perplexing state of uncertainty. Several different versions were circulated after negotiations were said to have ended. Some Iraqi leaders held meetings on amending the charter in hopes of winning over the Sunni Arab opposition, while others insisted that the document was already final and that it would not be changed.
The delays have reduced the time Iraqis will have to study a final draft before they vote on the constitution on Oct. 15. It will take about 10 days to print the five million copies of the 39-page document, a little more than one for every household in Iraq, Mr. Haysom said. That will leave just over three weeks to distribute them, far less than originally envisioned. Nongovernmental groups and schools will assist in the effort, and newspapers and radio and television will help publicize it, he said.
One of the approved changes addresses an objection by the panel's Sunni minority. They were angered by an article describing Iraq as part of the Islamic world without saying it is part of the Arab world. The amended version compromises by stating that Iraq "is a founding member of the Arab League and is committed to its charter."
Mahmoud al-Mashadani, a Sunni member of the constitutional panel, said that was not enough to convince the constitution's opponents, who have sworn to lead a campaign against the document.
"The defense and the prosecution have rested," he said. "The case is now in the hands of the jury."
Under transitional law, the constitution will be defeated if two-thirds of the voters in any 3 of Iraq's 18 provinces vote against it. That would lead to fresh elections for a new temporary national assembly, which would be charged with writing a new constitution.
The revisions do not touch on the most controversial part of the draft constitution, a provision that allows for the creation of largely autonomous regions within Iraq. That section, written at the insistence of Shiite leaders, has ignited fierce opposition from Sunnis and some others, notably the rebellious Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, who has hinted that he may lead a campaign against the document, too.
Many Sunnis were also angered by language that banned the symbols and remnants of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, another provision that is not being changed.
The changes that were made include the addition of language making it clear that the central government is responsible for the distribution of water. Some Kurdish lawmakers, seeking control of water rights on rivers that flow through Iraqi Kurdistan, had resisted the change, but ultimately gave in, several committee members said.
Another change, specifying that the prime minister will have two deputies in the next elected government, was made in response to requests from the Kurds, who believe it will ensure some Kurdish influence over the prime minister's office.
The last change was the deletion of an article stating that Iraq would adhere to any treaties it had signed on international human rights "unless they conflict with the rules and principles of the constitution." The clause was widely seen as an effort to escape the treaties, so the lawmakers chose to drop the article altogether.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/14/2005 00:24 ||
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Taking a tough stand, President Mahmoud Abbas vowed yesterday to end internal armed chaos but warned that the Middle East conflict would not end until the Palestinians were granted independence. In a televised address the day after Israel ended its 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian president pledged to address the anarchy which pervaded large parts of that territory and the West Bank.
Yeah. I vow to get rid of this gut, too. And to grow my hair back. And to spend an evening naked with Patty Ann Brown.
However, the Hamas movement made it clear that it would not surrender its weapons and vowed to intensify attacks against Israel in the West Bank and Jerusalem, where the Palestinians want to have the capital of their future state.
That's because they can't think of anything else to do...
Rampant insecurity in Gaza threatens to become a major stumbling block for the Palestinian case for statehood.
The world doesn't need another Somalia? But states like that are so rare!
âWe will no longer tolerate from this day the security anarchy, the armed chaos and the kidnappings,â Abbas said. âThe principle that unites us is that we have one authority, one law and one legal weapon,â he said, referring to the arms of the Palestinian security services.
Pretty spunky, coming from somebody of whom it's surprising he's not dead yet...
Mahmoud Zahar responded by pledging that âour weapons will remain in our hands until the Palestinian flag is hoisted in Jerusalem. The West Bank awaits the jihad and martyrdom, and Jerusalem should expect more resistance.â Abbas has repeatedly criticized the use of weapons during the five-year uprising but fighter groups have vowed to retain their arms and continue attacks against Israel despite the pullout from Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
In a televised address the day after Israel ended its 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian president pledged to address the anarchy which pervaded large parts of that territory and the West Bank.
What are you waiting for? How about getting on with the task, instead of simply talking about it?
#2
The PA is just political window dressing for the benefit of western apologists.
Hamas is the true leadership of that death-cult of sub-human savages the world calls "Palestinians". Apparently Zahar dictates policy, while Abbas is only capable of flapping his gums.
#3
Again, the only thing these bastards understand is force. I hope the Israelis leave the next area that fires a rocket into Israel knee-deep in blood because that is the only type of response that will even slightly deter them. Israel would have been better off clearing the Strip via a mass deportation into Egypt.
Posted by: mac ||
09/14/2005 5:44 Comments ||
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#4
Meanwhile
Hamas operatives blow up wall on Gaza-Egypt border
Hamas operatives on Wednesday blew up a wall in Rafah in order to facilitate the uncontrolled flow of Palestinians and Egyptians streaming across the Gaza-Egypt border.
Bangladeshâs main opposition Awami League party called for the ouster of a minister for his alleged support for the establishment of Islamic rule in the country, sources said yesterday. Calls by the Awami League for the sacking of Industry Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami â who is head of the Jamaat-I-Islami party â coincide with calls from leftist secular groups to ban religion-based politics in the Moslem majority country.
Usually I don't agree with Leftists, but in this case I'll make an exception...
... a broken clock is right twice a day ...
âNizami has been aiding the militants in perpetrating their current campaign of terror in the country,â said Abdur Razzak, of the Awami League. Nizami, however, has refuted opposition claims that he and his party had a role in the Aug. 17 blasts across the country that rocked the capital Dhaka and killed three people.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
The Awami League and 13 other small parties have announced joint plans to hold street rallies and strikes at the weekend to put pressure on the government to expel its Islamic allies from the ruling coalition. Police and other security forces have blamed the countrywide explosions largely on armed cadres of the banned militant organization Jamatul Mujahedeen.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2005 00:00 ||
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With thousands of madrasas refusing an order to register with authorities, Pakistani officials said yesterday they would seek to soothe clericsâ anger over what they see as discrimination.
If there was anything at all reasonable about Pakland, that case would have been made when the Haqqani family madrassah was busted today.
President Pervez Musharraf, addressing concerns abroad that some madrasas were breeding grounds for terrorism, ordered the expulsion of foreign students in July, and said Islamic schools should register and account for their funding. On Monday, a day after Musharraf left for New York to attend the UN General Assembly and meet US President George Bush and India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an alliance of madrasas threw down the gauntlet, saying schools would not register.
"Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna do it!"
Mohammad Hanif Jallundri, a spokesman for Ittihad Tanzeemat Madaris Dinya Pakistan (Alliance of the Organizations of Religious Schools Pakistan), derided the order as âdiscriminatoryâ, complaining that private institutions and schools had been exempted from such scrutiny.
It's only the schools that conduct weapons and explosives training, I think, that fall under the order...
Vakil Ahmed Khan, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, said the government planned to invite the representatives of madrasas for talks later this week. âWe will try to remove their reservations. We hope we will find out some solution to this issue,â he told Reuters, stressing that as yet there were no plans to penalize madrasas that failed to comply. Last month authorities began distributing forms to madrasas seeking details on the number of teachers and students and information on where they got their money and how they spent it. The forms also urged madrasas to refrain from teaching, including publishing literature that promotes militancy or sectarian hatred. âWe believe it is in the interest of the madrasas to fall under some regime so that their image is improved,â Khan said.
We believe it's in the interests of your country to shut the bastards down. All of them.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2005 00:00 ||
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British Defence Secretary John Reid called Tuesday for several thousand additional NATO troops to be deployed in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Reid suggested that the additional troops will be needed as NATO expands the geographical coverage of its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operation in the country. The Defence Secretary stressed that they would be drawn from several contributing countries, not just Britain.
He told a briefing of journalists at the Ministry of Defence, in central London, that from next April, NATO forces will be moved from their present locations in the north of the country to a new base in Helmand province in the south. A British-led provincial reconstruction team will be set up at Lashkar Gah. Reid acknowledged that the deployment will be hazardous. "The Taliban are still active in the area. So are drug traffickers. We must be prepared to support, even defend, the provincial reconstruction team," he said. Reid did not put a figure on how many additional troops Britain will commit to ISAF. At present it contributes around 900 personnel to the 11,000-strong force.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Right. Just like in the 70s-80s, the Europeans should have been providing more for their own defense. A lot of conferences, a lot of handshaking, and nothing happened. Fundamental behaviors never change.
The Gaza Strip, one of the most overcrowded places in the world, faces demographic asphyxiation if it remains cut off from the rest of Palestinian territory after the Israeli pullout, experts say. "Gaza is already suffering from overpopulation and limited land space. Without a link to the West Bank, it won't be able to accommodate one more person," said Khalil Najm, an official in the Palestinian Planning Ministry.
I'm not familiar with 'demographic asphyxiation': is that a medical term? Can we make it one?
According to official Palestinian statistics, Gaza's population density is 3,457 people per square kilometer, comparable to Singapore.
As long as we remember that Gaza isn't comparable to Singapore.
The number of Palestinians living in the narrow sliver of east Mediterranean coast is expected to climb from its current level of 1.3 million to 2.2 million people in 10 years, reaching three million by the year 2025, Najm said. The fast growth is linked to the high fertility rate, which far outpaces the Middle East average, putting immense pressure on educational, health and housing facilities, not to mention natural resources. Each married Palestinian woman bears an average of 6.8 children, compared with a 4.4 Middle East average and just 1.6 in industrialized countries.
You'd think the average Mahmoud wouldn't have either time or energy to be a splodydope ...
Experts say population growth in the Palestinian territories - expected to reach 4.52 percent in 2005 - presents serious obstacles for the Gaza Strip. "Population growth presents enormous challenges in the Palestinian territories and in Gaza in particular, with regard to water resources, infrastructure, education and health," Najm said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2005 00:00 ||
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"Gaza is already suffering from overpopulation and limited land space. Without a link to the West Bank, it won't be able to accommodate one more person," said Khalil Najm, an official in the Palestinian Planning Ministry.
Don't worry about it, Mr. Najm. With some luck, that little "problem" should soon be mitigated somewhat...
#3
And with all the "militants" that the fundies will import from Lebanon or Iran, and from all over the arab world if AQ gets an hold in Gaza, it will get even more crowded, not too mention the space taken by the assorted hardware...
Seriously, this "war of the belly", with the insane natality of the paleos (and of the muslims in general, who are well aware of the increased weight demography gives them) is suicidal... or would be, in a sane world.
It relies completely on the outside, productive Nations to be viable.
If/when the infidels stop the life support for Gaza, or stop accepting the surplus of muslim population into their own countries and thus litteraly creating the conditions for unrest (example : "french" natality of 1,2 vs migrant natality between 2,5 and 4,5 for example, with 300-500 000 adults coming each years, plus an untold number of not-counted kids, which gives us a muslim pop doubling every 20 years), then this would be strictly unbearable.
About world pop, see this nice primer by a liberal (euro-meaning) retired french businessman (shameless plug for a site I like) : WORLD POPULATION PROSPECTS
THE "ISLAMIC BOMB"
http://www.freeworldacademy.com/globalleader/population.htm
#8
'.if it remains cut off from the rest of Palestinian territory.'
and what rest of the territory would that be, more, give me more...
Posted by: Jan ||
09/14/2005 11:16 Comments ||
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#9
Condoms,
Use condoms, stupid "demographically asphyxiation"
mentally retarded hamasniks.
Anyone who uses a condom will be rewarded by 72 virgins(in hell).
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
09/14/2005 15:53 Comments ||
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#10
Maybe Israel should give the Palestinians the right of return, but to Gaza only, so they can take care of two birds with one stone. Honestly, how they think they can run an independent state is beyond me...but allowing self-rule is all right with me. Let them put themselves out of their self-induced misery.
Posted by: mac ||
09/14/2005 19:02 Comments ||
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#12
well, instead of high-rises, and in light of their tunneling ability, perhaps they can have underground multi-level "hives"
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/14/2005 19:15 Comments ||
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#13
The number of Palestinians living in the narrow sliver of east Mediterranean coast is expected to climb from its current level of 1.3 million to 2.2 million people in 10 years
BAGHDAD - The committee drafting Iraqâs new constitution was locked in last minute discussions on Tuesday to amend certain articles that were contested by Sunni Arabs, negotiators told AFP.
Two-thirds of the parliamentary committee met and examined ways of making âthree possible modificationsâ to the document aimed at satisfying the Sunnis, Shia MP Abboud Wahid al-Issawi said.
The first one concerns Article 3, which stipulates that only the âArab peopleâ of Iraq are part of the Arab nation, thereby excluding the countryâs Kurds who are largely autonomous in northern Iraq and speak their own language. âThe amended article will include words stating that Iraq is a founding and active member of the Arab League and respects its charter,â he said.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa has voiced concern in August that the draft does not refer to the whole of Iraq as being part of the Arab world, saying this âdisturbedâ the 22-member pan-Arab body.
However, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has supported the clause, which was pressed for by the countryâs Kurdish population. âIf we say that all the Iraqi people are part of the Arab nation, we would be denying the existence of a Kurdish people in Iraq,â he told Al Arabiya television in August.
Another change involves Iraqâs rich water resources, the control of which has been granted by the draft to the central and regional governments, Issawi said. The modified text will say that âmanaging water resources must be done according to international laws and conventionsâ, he said. The third amendment under discussion concerns how power should be shared between the prime minister and his two deputies, who are currently Shia and Sunni.
Parliamentâs Deputy Speaker Hussein Shahristani said an announcement will be made about the constitution on Wednesday morning, and hoped that the draft committee âwill be able to agree and submit its (final) document tomorrow (Wednesday) to the United Nations.
The United Nations is responsible for seeing the document printed and distributed to some five million homes around the country ahead of a referendum expected to be held October 15. If time runs out for distribution to homes, the charter is to be printed in Iraqâs newspapers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Just remind the Iarqis what MacArthur warned to the Japanese - make it right and fair for everybody, or the US Army will make it for you.
A U.S. inquiry into alleged abuse at Guantanamo uncovered a climate of deep distrust between military police and interrogators, who were accused during the probe of giving terror suspects personal information about their guards.
The MPs suspected interrogators gave their names and Social Security numbers to prisoners in exchange for intelligence, according to the investigation, which recommended that a senior interrogator be relieved of duty for "failure to know his enemy."
The interrogator "sees himself as a hero for the detainees, and against the MPs, on a crusade in the battle of the MPs against the detainees," one investigator wrote in the report on the inquiry that The Associated Press obtained under a Freedom of Information lawsuit.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/14/2005 00:00 ||
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KATHMANDU - Police arrested more than 300 demonstrators - including some top opposition leaders - who were holding a protest in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu on Tuesday. Another three dozen were injured when police beat them with bamboo batons in an attempt to disperse the crowd of more than 6,000 protesters who had gathered in the city center.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Guess I'm not going to Kathmandu...
Posted by: Bob Seger ||
09/14/2005 10:32 Comments ||
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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.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah yesterday received the chairman and members of the 150-strong Shoura Council at his palace and told them: âYou represent the Saudi people and you have to do it well.â King Abdullah, who was meeting the Shoura for the first time after accession to the throne on Aug. 1, said Saudi Arabia was going ahead in the right direction. âWeâll never deviate from the teachings of the Qurâan and Sunnah,â he said.
[September 12 2005] at 0330 LT in position 03:17s - 116:23e, Pulau Laut anchorage, Indonesia. Four robbers boarded a bulk carrier. They broke open bosun store and stole ship's stores and escaped.
The Federal Government hopes the death sentence handed out to a man convicted of the Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta will deter others from engaging in similar terrorist acts. A Jakarta court sentenced 30-year-old Iwan Darmawan Mutho, alias Rois, to death by firing squad yesterday. He was found guilty of plotting the deadly bombing at the Australian embassy last year, which killed 11 Indonesians and the suicide bomber. Rois had bought the explosives and trained the suicide bomber and he initially told police that Australia deserved to be attacked because it oppressed Muslims in Iraq.
U.S. President George W. Bush warned Syria on Tuesday that it faces growing isolation because of its failure to stop foreign fighters entering Iraq and its actions in Lebanon. "These people are coming from Syria into Iraq and killing a lot of innocent people," Bush told reporters following a meeting at the White House with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. "They're trying to kill our folks as well. And the Syrian leader (President Bashar Assad) must [have] understood, we take his lack of action seriously. The [Syrian] government is going to become more and more isolated as a result of two things; one, not being cooperative with the Iraqi government in terms of securing Iraq and, two, not being fully transparent about what they did in Lebanon," the president said.
President Emile Lahoud is set to meet with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Friday to discuss the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559 and the international investigations into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Sources close to the presidential delegation to the UN Summit told The Daily Star that the talks with Annan will focus on the need to establish an inter-Lebanese dialogue to agree on a mechanism that would allow the implementation of Resolution 1559, which calls for the disarmament of Hizbullah and Palestinians factions in the country.
Taking a tough stand, President 
Bangladeshâs main opposition Awami League party called for the ouster of a minister for his alleged support for the establishment of Islamic rule in the country, sources said yesterday. Calls by the Awami League for the sacking of Industry Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami â who is head of the Jamaat-I-Islami party â coincide with calls from leftist secular groups to ban religion-based politics in the Moslem majority country.
The Gaza Strip, one of the most overcrowded places in the world, faces demographic asphyxiation if it remains cut off from the rest of Palestinian territory after the Israeli pullout, experts say. "Gaza is already suffering from overpopulation and limited land space. Without a link to the West Bank, it won't be able to accommodate one more person," said Khalil Najm, an official in the Palestinian Planning Ministry. 
BAGHDAD - The committee drafting Iraqâs new constitution was locked in last minute discussions on Tuesday to amend certain articles that were contested by Sunni Arabs, negotiators told AFP.
KATHMANDU - Police arrested more than 300 demonstrators - including some top opposition leaders - who were holding a protest in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu on Tuesday. Another three dozen were injured when police beat them with bamboo batons in an attempt to disperse the crowd of more than 6,000 protesters who had gathered in the city center.
