Tony Blair and George Bush were compared to Nazi war criminals yesterday by Scott Ritter, the former UN chief weapons inspector. "Both these men could be pulled up as war criminals for engaging in actions that we condemned Germany in 1946 for doing," he said.
He said the Prime Minister and the US President were "guilty of the crime of planning and committing aggressive warfare". Speaking in London at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Mr Ritter said the two leaders would have been in a much stronger position if they had got a UN resolution explicitly authorising the invasion. He also said Britain gained very little from the "special relationship". "Britain gets nothing, other than to say they are America's closest ally in Europe," he said.
Mr Ritter, who was a UN weapons inspector in Iraq between 1991 and 1998, said intelligence services had been correct to say that Iraq's missile programme had been destroyed soon after the first Gulf conflict of 1991. He recalled how he delivered a report in 1992 stating that the programme had been eliminated. It was met with "stony silence" and he was told that Iraq still possessed 200 missiles. The inspectors returned to track down the weapons, which never materialised.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/08/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I usually give someone's pedigree some credence and since I share a kindred military experience with Scott, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. But he has clearly demonstrated such a departure from anything I regard as reasonable I can only conclude that he has snapped or whiffed WMD while searching in Iraq..... what an asshat he has become!
Posted by: Just About Enough! ||
10/08/2005 0:20 Comments ||
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#2
Ritter,former Marine intelligence officer, and one time lead inspector for UNSCOM.
JAE, Ritter is a mystery to me too. course i never have met him but he appeared to have a *break* of some kind.
He was such a hard charging inspector and testified that way in front of congress. Then bingo...launches new a career. Full blown asshat, gets busted surfing for minors and the rest is history.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/08/2005 0:55 Comments ||
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#3
Don't forget to keep underage daughters away from the Burger King in the area he lives as well...
#7
Little girls (and I bet video that would get him 20 years) and $500,000 (for a film, ahem) from Saddam's agent. BTW, I wonder if Ritter ever finished the film. Either way, Saddam is getting his money's worth.
Posted by: ed ||
10/08/2005 3:14 Comments ||
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#8
Saddam bribed thousands of people. Hitchens claims that former Swedish UNSCOM head Ralf Ekeus was offered 2 Million by Tariq Aziz. Hitchens also claims that back in the 80's when he was a relatively young columnist with a relatively obscure British Socialist rag, an attache from the Iraqi Embassy came for dinner and explicityly offered gifts for favorable coverage of the regime.
Whether Ritter was bribed or extorted with preadolescent girls or is just turned into a moonbat, I cannot say. But it's not hard to believe that something is up.
Posted by: John in Tokyo ||
10/08/2005 3:20 Comments ||
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#9
Some people get used to being important, and will do anything to stay in the public eye.
#10
"Both these men could be pulled up as war criminals for engaging in actions that we condemned Germany in 1946 for doing,"
He forgets that the war crimes trials in 1946 were based on post hoc laws. One could equally well argue that Shroeder and Chirac could be condemed by a similar mechanism for willful disregard of their citizens safety (amongst other things).
Nothing could be further from the truth. Nazi comparison aside, Ritter is a former marine and has never taken an Anti-War stance. In fact he wasn't even against Iraqi regime change. He simply questioned the legality of the coalitions approach. Before the invasion of Iraq he was ridiculed and marginalized for stating opinions contrary to the Bush Administrations reasons for urgency. (Nuclear WMD program) Most, if not all, turned out to correct. Finally, anyone who believes the insinuation of Ritter being a pedophile is anything more then an attempt to discredit him needs a reality check.
#12
Personally, I think he was on the take. FOX has been doing an incredible investigation of their own on the UN, and the Oil-for-Food is just the tip of the iceberg. The MSM ignores it all, but lots of names are coming out. Advanced knowledge of contracts and awarding the bids to cronies for such stuff as troop meals is rampant. Anyone checked on his off-shore bank account?
#13
The neocons believe in what they think is a noble truth, power of the few, the select few. These are godless people who want power, nothing more. They do not have a country or an allegiance, they have an agenda. These people might hold American passports, but they are not Americans because they do not believe in the Constitution. They believe in the power of the few, not a government for or by the people. They are a few and their agenda is global.
#17
Scott Ritter on August 31, 1998 NewsHour with Jim Lehrer:
"I think the danger right now is that without effective inspections, without effective monitoring, Iraq can in a very short period of time measure the months, reconstitute chemical biological weapons, long-range ballistic missiles to deliver these weapons, and even certain aspects of their nuclear weaponization program."
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec98/ritter_8-31.html
#1
This time it will be the Christian wearing yellow cross patches on their outer clothing. European Jews and Israelis got that message already from Europe and Eurabia.
#3
I am offended when I see a Burka or the dish towel Moslems wear. They need to dress appropriately for secular society. No outward display of their religion, period. Including clothing. I don't like their diet either. It offends me when they chose to make known their distaste for pork or dog. If they wish to be part of my society they can like ribs and beer. Their religion is offensive. It should be illegal to show any vestiges of Islam in public.
#4
The principal of the school, Kjell Gislefoss, feels that the Star of David can also be interpreted as a political symbol..
And just what does he think the flag of Norway which features the 'Cross' [along with Denmark, Sweden, etc.] may be interpreted as? Quislings in the home of Quisling.
#5
Something's odd. He's not Jewish. I suspect there is more to this than is being let on.
Moose, in a story I read, he's quoted as saying he sees Judaism as being the root religion of the three major religions in Norway, and wears the Star of David to honor those roots.
You can believe him or not, but that's what he said.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/08/2005 14:37 Comments ||
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And just what does he think the flag of Norway which features the 'Cross' [along with Denmark, Sweden, etc.] may be interpreted as?
Bingo,PT. It's getting to the point where people whose sensibilities are so easily readily offended need to have their gene pools chlorinated.
The German parliament's home affairs committee will launch an investigation on Thursday into allegations that the government is using national security as a pretext for increasingly heavy-handed attempts to muzzle the press.
The dispute began last month, with a dawn raid ordered by the Potsdam prosecutor on the apartment of the investigative journalist Bruno Schirra and the offices of Cicero, a political magazine.
It has since spiralled into a nationwide controversy, with media and politicians of all hues accusing the government and in particular Otto Schily, the Social Democratic interior minister, of overstepping the mark in their attempts to silence investigative reporters.
"We have seen an increase in the number of such raids over the past few years. People now wonder whether there is an intimidation campaign going on," says Monika Griefahn, an MP and media expert from the Social Democratic party of Gerhard Schröder, the chancellor. "It is our duty to keep reminding our rulers that freedom of the press remains a fundamental right, even in the post-September 11 world."
The raid and seizure of 15 boxes of documents from Mr Schirra's personal archive were ordered when he came under suspicion by the interior ministry of acting as "accessory to the divulgence of state secrets".
The trigger was an article, published by Cicero in April, about a link between Iran and the network of the Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which quoted from a confidential Federal Criminal Office document.
Well you can understand the German government's position here. God forbid people wake up and realize the Islamacist threat is real and has state sponsors ...
Wolfram Weimer, Cicero's editor, who has filed a complaint with the Potsdam administrative court, says the government was reluctant to see Iran portrayed as a sponsor of terrorism just as Berlin was involved in delicate negotiations aimed at curbing the country's nuclear ambitions.
The timing of the raid, six months after the article's publication, he told the FT, also coincided with Mr Schröder's vocal opposition to "the military option" in the nuclear dispute with Iran as he sought to draw foreign policy into his electoral campaign.
Yup, that's the issue, isn't it.
"The main motivation, though, was to sniff out Schirra's sources in the Federal Criminal Office and close the leaks," Mr Weimer says. "More broadly, it was an attempt, through intimidation, to limit the scope of investigative reporting, a form of journalism which, in the era of global terrorism, is seen as counter-productive."
The German Association of Journalists (DJV) says suspicion that the government may be engaged in a vast intimidation exercise - aimed at both reporters and their sources - is supported by the sharp increase in the number of raids on journalists' offices and homes in recent years.
Hendrik Zörner, spokesman for the DJV, says that between 1997 and 2000, 150 such raids took place, and the frequency has risen since September 11 2001. "None of these ever led to a conviction," he told the FT.
One concern among publishers is that the justifications invoked for such searches - suspicions of "prohibited publication" or "accessory to the divulgence of state secrets" - are being increasingly used to cover the intimidation of journalists whose work has little to do with national security.
Last month the prosecutor's office in Chemnitz obtained permission to monitor the phones of reporters investigating the Saxony government's anti-corruption activities.
Few of the government's critics think the tension between Mr Schröder, who blamed partisan reporting for his failure to win the election last month, and the Berlin press corps played a role in recent raids.
Yet Mr Schily drew such a link at a media conference last week. After defending his ministry's role in the Cicero raid, saying that "journalists enjoy no exemption from the law", he slammed the electoral reporting as "malicious and mockingly deprecating".
Mr Schily's appearance next week before the house's home affairs committee could add momentum to the controversy. Dieter WiefelspÃŒtz, the SPD's MP responsible for home affairs, has accused the minister of diverting attention from his own "leak-prone bureaucracy".
Mr Zörner wants changes to the German criminal code, which protects medical doctors and priests against surveillance measures such as telephone taps.
An attempt by the DJV to have the privilege extended to reporters failed last year but it will try once more when the code comes under review again.
#1
This has more to do with the appeasement policies of teh Democratic Republic than it does "national security" The SPD runs the press and brooks no dissent.
#2
Remember the fuss Schroeder made before the last election when it was suggested that he colored his hair? And this time he's already losing his hold on the government.
MPs of the main government parties want to deal decisively with peace activists who encourage sabotage of military hardware. Two of the groups in the firing line are 'Onkruit' and 'Radicale Antimilitaristische Actie' (RAMA).
Speaking on behalf of his Christian Democrat (CDA) and Liberal (VVD) colleagues, CDA parliamentarian Roland Kortenhorst said the costs of sabotage should be claimed back to the last cent from the organisations and individuals responsible. He also said Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should be forced to block websites that encourage criminal damage of military property. His views were backed publicly by Liberal MP Zsolt Szabo.
MPs of the small government party D66 have not come out publicly in support of a crackdown on the peace activists.
Kortenhorst said he was shocked to find the 'Onkruit' website praising the latest sabotage action. An estimated EUR 900,000 damage was caused when activists let the air out of tires of 480 military vehicles at Majoor Mulderkazerne base in Stroe at the weekend. "Shivers ran down my spine. This is pure radical rubbish that openly calls for the destruction of equipment that citizens pay tax for," the MP said.
Kortenhorst said he was shocked to find the 'Onkruit' website praising the latest sabotage action.
He's shocked?
Doesn't get out much, does he?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/08/2005 12:19 Comments ||
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#6
Could anyone hope for a more sterling example of self-hatred run amok? Cripple your own country's ability to defend itself? The stench of treason is pretty difficult to ignore.
Dozens of African illegal immigrants who charged across the border into Spain's north African enclave of Melilla have been sent back to Morocco, officials said Friday, after a week of deadly clashes at two enclaves.
What an interesting idea: only letting people into your country that you want. We should try that sometime.
The 73 men from Mali were flown out of Melilla on Thursday evening to Algeciras, on the Spanish mainland, where they were they put aboard a ferry bound for the Moroccan city of Tangiers, said a police spokesman in Algeciras, under customary condition of anonymity. He said there were no plans for more deportations on Friday. Television images from Melilla showed the men, who were handcuffed, being escorted to planes by policemen. Other images showed them taking the ferry in Algeciras at night. They were the first group of immigrants to be expelled after Spanish authorities announced on Wednesday that they would turn Africans who made it into the enclave of Melilla over to Moroccan authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2005 00:00 ||
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The disappearance of 17 cruise ship passengers, who slipped into Canada after duping customs officials, highlights a serious weakness in the country's highly touted ports security program, analysts say.
David Harris, a former CSIS strategic planner, warns that the breach in security is alarming enough that Ottawa should consider putting more money into beefing up resources at major marine gateways.
"This does seem to be a significant failure," said Harris, of Insignis Strategic Research Inc. in Ottawa. "One of the ways we would be infiltrated by terrorists, or other enemy groups, would be by undocumented entry at ports, so one won't sleep very comfortably knowing that his kind of thing is possible."
Seventeen Chinese nationals presented fraudulent Korean passports to officials from the Canada Border Services Agency and managed to leave their cruise ship in Halifax on Sept. 9 by either claiming they were seasick or saying they wanted to temporarily get off. They then boarded a train to Toronto and haven't been heard from since.
A spokesperson with the agency said the matter is under investigation and will focus partly on how agents failed to identify more than a dozen phoney documents.
Officials in New York and Washington sought to explain on Friday why each made starkly different public statements as the news spread on Thursday about the threat to the New York City subway system, describing an apparent gap in perception brought on by different agencies' different roles.
"It is very different being an analyst in Washington looking at data as opposed to being here in New York where you have to take responsibility to protect people's lives," Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in Brooklyn on Friday.
Mr. Bloomberg issued his warning on Thursday based on information that the Department of Homeland Security was publicly dismissing as being of "doubtful credibility." He suggested that the F.B.I. and New York officials were taking similar approaches - Mr. Bloomberg made the announcement with an F.B.I. official at his side - while the Department of Homeland Security was being overly cautious.
"The F.B.I. attached more credibility to a lot of this information than other agencies," Mr. Bloomberg said. "That's just a fact of life. You'll never get consensus in the intelligence community on any one thing."
A senior United States counterterrorism official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly, echoed Mr. Bloomberg's statements when he said on Thursday that "obviously, when you're in New York, even if the information is not rock solid, you've got to take it seriously."
But the official was far more skeptical of the threat itself, saying that intelligence officials who have sifted through the F.B.I. interrogation reports from Iraq that prompted the initial warnings believe "there are real questions about the credibility" of the information.
In fact, the sense of alarm in New York was still being viewed with some astonishment on Friday in Washington, where counterterrorism officials described the differences as the latest indicator of a rivalry between two power centers. While the New York Police Department has established itself as an authority on counterterrorism matters after the Sept. 11 attacks, its approach is still viewed as primarily parochial by federal officials who say that New York officials sometimes overreact to potential threats.
"I don't think any people should be scared," said a federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. "I would take what Bloomberg said at face value. We looked at the information, we developed it, we provided it to the New York officials, and we let them determine how they need to react in terms of their own defense measures."
A police official in New York who has been informed about the threat said the department does not have the time to carefully vet a threat to determine whether it is serious before acting. "We can't wait for certainty," the official said. "It doesn't have to be a certainty for us to act."
The reserved response adopted by the Department of Homeland Security reflects a more sober approach that the department, under Secretary Michael Chertoff, has taken since he assumed control in February. Mr. Chertoff succeeded Tom Ridge, who at times was criticized, and even ridiculed, for pronouncements about threats facing the nation and safety steps the public should take, like buying duct tape.
"I don't want to get up in public and say the sky is falling if it's not falling," Mr. Chertoff said in an interview with reporters in March. "What I want to resist is what I sometimes have observed over the years, is a temptation to feed the desire for information by putting something out that we are not in a position to speak about definitively."
Given that mandate, on Thursday evening Mr. Chertoff's press secretary, Russ Knocke, did not hesitate to publicly play down the report that was causing alarm in New York, calling the threat "specific but noncredible" from information "of doubtful credibility."
Senators Susan M. Collins, Republican of Maine, and Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, the chairwoman and ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, both said on Friday that they could understand why the federal government and New York City were reacting so differently to the report.
"If I had been a New York official, I would have reacted in exactly the same way because the threat, unlike most, was so specific; there was so much detail in it, and that adds to its credibility even if you cannot confirm the validity of its source," Ms. Collins said, adding that she, like Mr. Lieberman, had been informed by federal officials about the matter.
"D.H.S. has a different role, because D.H.S. is evaluating threats across the board all the time against a wide variety of targets," Ms. Collins said. "It has a different responsibility than municipal officials. It is to be expected that occasionally state and local officials are going to reach a different conclusion than federal homeland security officials. It does not mean that any of them are wrong. It just means that they are looking at it from a different perspective."
Mr. Lieberman said that this kind of split was going to happen, on occasion, given the nature of the threat in this post-cold-war era.
"This is a situation where different people in positions of leadership will reach different conclusions about how to respond to threat information," Mr. Lieberman said. "To me, it is not a question of right or wrong. They both look at the same information and acted differently."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/08/2005 00:11 ||
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WASHINGTON -- Attempting to loosen decades-old restrictions, the Pentagon is asking Congress to allow its intelligence agents to go undercover when they approach Americans who may have useful national-security information, rather than identifying themselves as intelligence operatives. The provision found in a wide-ranging intelligence bill would give the Defense Intelligence Agency new latitude to meet U.S. citizens without pulling out their DIA badges and later sending a formal notice of their rights under the landmark 1974 Privacy Act.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: DanNY ||
10/08/2005 08:36 ||
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#1
Rockefeller favors it? Wow. Better read it again.
More eyes and ears can only help. It will be interesting to see who says and does what if it gets to a vote - and what crap the real wankers (Rangel, Kenedy, et al) try to attach to it en route.
#3
He's concerned information gleaned may result in more Muslims being deported? For crying out loud, what does he expect? We should deport Onek along with them, so he can monitor the conditions in Pakistani jails.
#4
Whether anyone is deported or jailed, as a result of this, is entirely up to them. If they choose to aid the bad actors, then they deserve what they get - and probably much more, in fact. Eventually, we will finally throw off the profiling and other moronic restrictions. This is for all the marbles, we should conduct our homeland defense with that firmly in mind.
#5
Eventually, we will finally throw off the profiling and other moronic restrictions. This is for all the marbles, we should conduct our homeland defense with that firmly in mind.
#7
Well, we both know the answer is dead Americans on American soil... so you're really saying, "How many?" - and I don't know. The truly disgusting aspect is that 3,000 wasn't enough - when 3 should've been 2 too many.
Connecticut libraries lost an emergency Supreme Court appeal on Friday in their effort to be freed from a gag order and participate in a congressional debate over the Patriot Act. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg denied the appeal and offered an unusually detailed explanation of her decision. She said the American Civil Liberties Union had made reasonable arguments on behalf of its client, of which little is known except that it is a member of the American Library Association based in Connecticut.
However, Ginsburg said the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should be given time to consider whether the Patriot Act, and its requirement of secrecy in records demands, is unconstitutional as applied to the library. "A decision of that moment warrants cautious review," she said.
The ACLU has argued that a gag order prevents its client from taking part in debate on Capitol Hill about the Patriot Act, which was passed shortly after the 2001 terror attacks. Some key provisions expire at the end of the year. A federal judge said that the gag order on the library had "the practical effect of silencing individuals with a constitutionally protected interest in speech and whose voices are particularly important in an ongoing national debate about the intrusion of governmental authority into individual lives." The government's appeal of that decision is being heard at the 2nd circuit.
Much of the Supreme Court appeal, filed earlier this week, was classified and blacked out. And the Bush administration's published response consisted of blank pages.
!!!
However, Ginsburg in her seven-page opinion gave some details of the dispute. She said that the library association member received an FBI demand for records but was told that it would be illegal to tell anyone about it. The library sued on free-speech grounds so that it could take part "in the current debate - both in Congress and among the public - regarding proposed revisions to the Patriot Act," according to Ginsburg. Federal prosecutors have maintained that secrecy about records demands is necessary to keep from alerting suspects and jeopardizing terrorism investigations.
Posted by: DanNY ||
10/08/2005 08:51 ||
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#2
I guess "emergency" just means "expedited", of "if you don't make up your minds, soon, it won't matter".
I've been jaundiced to the idea of "reading matter as evidence" ever since enthusiastic prosecutors started to submit as evidence two or three books from a library of hundreds as "evidence" of intent, while ignoring the rest of the books.
Warning: nothing he says is true. Don't want any regular reader getting high blood pressure on this one.
PARIS (AP) - A former U.S. Marine in Iraq alleges that his battalion committed atrocities against Iraqi civilians during the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, including shooting unarmed protesters.
Jimmy Massey, a staff sergeant who was in the Marines for 12 years and served three months in Iraq before being honorably discharged with post-traumatic stress syndrome, details the allegations in his book "Kill! Kill! Kill!", written with the French journalist Natasha Saulnier and published in France.
A Pentagon spokeswoman said Massey's complaints had already been investigated and found to be unsubstantiated.
So the book can be filed under 'fiction'.
Massey said he was in charge of a platoon in the 3rd Batallion of Regimental Combat Team 7, responsible for setting up checkpoints and providing armed cover against terrorists and insurgents. He alleges that over a period of a month and a half in 2003, his platoon killed more than 30 civilians in Iraq. "We in fact, I feel, escalated the violence," he told The Associated Press in an interview.
Massey, however, said in one case shortly after April 2003, Marines who heard a gunshot fired upon 10 Iraqi demonstrators shouting anti-U.S. slogans and wielding banners saying "Go Home" near the sprawling Al-Rashid military complex southeast of the city center. All but one of the demonstrators were killed, said Massey, who estimated he himself fired about 12 shots.
Massey said he later found several rocket-propelled grenades propped on a wall some 500 feet away. He interpreted the demonstrators' failure to use the weapons as a sign of their peaceful intentions. "That day we shot the protesters in the Rashid complex was when I had a moment of clarity and I understood that by our actions of doing that, we set the tone overall for what the Iraqis were seeing and the brutality of what we were doing was being displayed," he told AP.
Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Marine Corps headquarters in the Pentagon, said the Marines are committed to investigating all allegations of violations of "law of war or rules of engagement."
"Mr. Massey made allegations of genocide by members of his command, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, resulting in an investigation," she said. The investigation was completed in June 2004, "and these allegations were found to be unsubstantiated in regards to law or rules of engagement violations," Chapin said.
Which is why he went to France to peddle his lies.
The French-language version of Massey's book went on sale in France this week.
Massey said he was not surprised by the reluctance of U.S. publishers. "The picture that I paint within the book is very difficult for a lot of Americans to grasp, and I understand that," he said.
For starters, we don't react well to liars.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/08/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Thus far its tantamount to keeping the Democratic Party, aka the MSM/LeftMedia, a viable political contender by headline sensationalism and related. He "scalpelizes" almost like AL SHARPTON and KATRINA-GATE. O'Reilly keeps shooting Sharpton's anti-Bush, anti-Fed, and anti-Federalism criticisms down with "Bush vs Clinton" statistics, to which ole' AL merely argues "THATS NOT MY POINT" - in between Washington pols are publicly climbing on the anti-Fed KATRINA-GATE bandwagon, Nagin and Blanco are now quitely trying to introduce vital reforms to NOLA and State planning wid barely a whimper.
#3
written with the French journalist Natasha Saulnier and published in France
yes of course
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/08/2005 1:47 Comments ||
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#4
Didn't John F'ng Kerry go to France to meet with the Viet Cong? Massey is simply carrying on the fine tradition, a gent with a donk future no doubt.
Incidentially, this yaawho was campaigning for Kerry in Iowa in '04. I remember reading about him.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/08/2005 2:09 Comments ||
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#5
Massey will regale the the gullible French with tales of CIA missions to Cambodia Syria, silver star worthy singlehandedly blowing away a wounded teen capturing a village, and his doggie VC AQ blown off his Swiftboat tank by a mine IED and onto another Swiftboat tank. Deja, effing, vu.
Posted by: ed ||
10/08/2005 3:03 Comments ||
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#6
Cap'n, yeah, it's the same James Massey.
Posted by: ed ||
10/08/2005 3:04 Comments ||
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#7
The answer is simple. He has admitted to crimes, we should try to extrodite him and put him on trial to get to the bottom fo this publicly (especially since we know he's lying). We should harrass the French for protecting an admitted war criminal and putting him on a pedistool rather than putting him up on trial at the Hague.
Force them to admit they are either full of shit regarding (a) Human rights (b) the World Court (c) This guys book.
They say once a Marine always a Marine. Is there anyway to revoke that for bringing shame upon the Marines for profit and a fauning Anti-American public?
I mean, allegations of crime are libel per se, right? So anyone in his battalion could sue him if he published his lies in the US.
C'mon, Massey. Don't be a pussy. Publish in the US. I'm sure there are people who will support your legal defense; I know I'll help support the offense.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/08/2005 12:42 Comments ||
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#10
Massey said he later found several rocket-propelled grenades propped on a wall some 500 feet away. He interpreted the demonstrators' failure to use the weapons as a sign of their peaceful intentions.
Oh horsesheet, it means that they didn't get a chance to use it. There were plenty of fedayeen around back then to require high security.
#11
Massey said he was in charge of a platoon in the 3rd Batallion of Regimental Combat Team 7
I've never heard a Marine unit identified in these terms before. If its is real, someone from his platoon should start making noise about what really happened. Marines I've known would not be happy to have someone trying to make a buck by taking a dump on their honor and making the mission more dangerous for those still in combat. This guy is talking trash about his buddies, the nation and the Corps.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
10/08/2005 23:23 Comments ||
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Iran was interfering in Iraq, and politicians who were aware of this meddling but refused to denounce it were collaborating with the devil, according to former Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan.
Tap... Tap... Nope. Didn't budge. Maybe the batteries are dead?
Speaking to Asharq al Awsat from the Jordanian capital Amman, where he now resides, Shaalan attacked those âIraqi politicians and ministers whose interests collude with Iran. Some are afraid of the consequences of speaking while others prefer to remain silent and hold on to power.â He added, âArab politicians and some Kurdish leaders are aware of Iranian meddling but chose to remain silent for their own benefit.â
Lots of money available there. Not as much as from Soddy Arabia, but still a pretty penny...
Indicating he had concrete proof of Iranâs involvement in its neighborâs affairs, compiled during his tenure as governor of Al Diwaniyah province, Shaalan revealed that Iranian officers traveled to Iraq, after the fall of Saddam Hussein, with forged identity cards from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to harm these countries if they were ever detained. He described himself as âthe lone witness to Iranian interference which started after the fall of the former regime and continues today, and whose aim is to establish an Iranian state in southern Iraq before controlling the rest of the country.â
I don't think I'd call him a "line witness." There've been enough indications from other sources...
The ex-minister told Asharq al Awsat about the questioning of an al-Qaeda member from Sudan detained in Al-Diwaniyah in June 2004 after a bottle filled with poison was found in his possession with which he intended to contaminate water purification centers in the province. The interrogation revealed that âthis man traveled to Iraq through Iran, after the Taliban fell in Afghanistanâ, where he has received military training before entering Iraq through the al-Shalamjah border crossing and then traveling to Basra and Al-Diwaniyah. In addition, during his tenure as Defense Minister, Shaalan pointed out that two trucks filled with ammunition from Iran were discovered on their way to Najaf. Weapons in the confiscated cache had Persian writing on them saying, âMade in Iranâ. He also indicated that a Lebanese man was arrested after murdering a Spanish soldier serving in the multinational forces. He was discovered to be a member of the Lebanese pro-Iranian Hezbollah group and had identity cards signed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, âallowing him to travel around Iraq freely and requesting assistance be provided to facilitate his movements.â As governor, Shaalan revealed that he escaped four assassination attempts, the last of which was carried out by an Iraqi man trained in Iran who aimed seven missiles at his convoy but missed.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2005 00:00 ||
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On a recent visit to Kuwait as part of a high- level delegation, several Iraqi figures revealed to their Kuwaiti counterparts classified information about the current social and political situation in Iraq and the extent of Iranian meddling. They also confirmed that a mass exodus of Sunnis was taking place and said Iranian designs were being assisted by this migration and the continued boycott of the political process by some Arab Sunnis as well as their support for the insurgency.
According to the Iraqi figures, security and municipal establishments in southern Iraq have fallen under the control of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Iranian agents were now focusing on garnering ideological support after ensuring their security control over the area through a number of militias and the purging all those opposed them, politically, socially, and culturally. The visiting delegation pointed out that Tehran was putting pressure on schools and universities, and appointing teachers that were loyal to it. It was also flooding educational establishments with books and manuals from Iranian-financed publishing houses, radio stations, and television channels as well as distributing publications by the Lebanese group Hezbollah which it has long backed. Of the estimated two million Iranians to have traveled to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the delegation indicted that 1.6 million have returned home while the others are alleged to have settled in Iraq and obtained identity cards.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
The pervasive Rantburg majority denial of the galloping cultural unification of Shiite Iran and Iraq, makes me surprised to see an article like this one get through the Bush sieve: THE PRESIDENT IS INFALLIBLE, THEREFORE WE MUST FLOCK WITH THE SHEPHERD.
Don't get me wrong: if I had my way Mecca and Medina would have been charcoal by Sept. 13, 2001, when the identities of the 9-11 hijackers were partly established. You do yourselves an immense disservice when you deny the utter depravity of the Bush-Powell butchery of Secularism in Iraq with Order #1 of the Coalition Provisional Authority. While Iran's Ayatollahs were facing implacable opposition at home, Bush gave them a present, at the cost of 200 plus billion dollars. Clearly, Bush won't export Secularism abroad, because he doesn't believe that it should exist at home.
Leave the Iraq war to the field generals, and they will deliver a bloody end to the Bush gift.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
10/08/2005 21:21 Comments ||
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#2
The pervasive Rantburg majority denial of the galloping cultural unification of Shiite Iran and Iraq, makes me surprised to see an article like this one get through the Bush sieve: THE PRESIDENT IS INFALLIBLE, THEREFORE WE MUST FLOCK WITH THE SHEPHERD.
Don't get me wrong: if I had my way Mecca and Medina would have been charcoal by Sept. 13, 2001, when the identities of the 9-11 hijackers were partly established. You do yourselves an immense disservice when you deny the utter depravity of the Bush-Powell butchery of Secularism in Iraq with Order #1 of the Coalition Provisional Authority. While Iran's Ayatollahs were facing implacable opposition at home, Bush gave them a present, at the cost of 200 plus billion dollars. Clearly, Bush won't export Secularism abroad, because he doesn't believe that it should exist at home.
Leave the Iraq war to the field generals, and they will deliver a bloody end to the Bush gift.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
10/08/2005 21:22 Comments ||
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#3
"Clearly, Bush won't export Secularism abroad, because he doesn't believe that it should exist at home."
That's a bunch of Shiite, to be sure. You think Bush prefers Shiite to secular?
If you had turned Mecca and Medina to "charcoal", Iran and Saddam would have picked up the pieces and we'd be in a far bigger mess than we are in today. If you're going to be a Monday morning quarterback, at least play to have won.
Posted by: Alcoa the Vlad Hat ||
10/08/2005 21:36 Comments ||
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#5
If you had your way, Vlad dear, there would have been a world-wide depression due to lack of petroleum by 1. November, 2001... at best.
Iraq and Iran would have turned off the pumps in response to an attack on Saudi Arabia, even though they've never been fond on those Beduin camel riders -- and most of the world doesn't have even as much of a strategic reserve as the U.S. does, and the rest have no reserve at all. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 out of fear that Roosevelt would cut off Japan's access to the raw materials, including coal and oil, that it needed to survive. In 2001, the world believed that Saddam Hussein had weaponized chemicals, probably weaponized biologicals, was getting close to a nuke, and had both his own hard boyz and hired terrorists to deliver them, even without the missiles he was known to be working on. Saudi Arabia has only ever had money and control of the haj.
So tell me, Vlad, should Bush have attacked the threat that had been feared imminent throughout the latter half of the previous decade by the leading intelligence agencies of the world, or the longer term threat that might well be brought down by internal dissent without Anerican troops to protect the ruling family?
#7
TW, FDR had cut off their access to oil and scrap steel. That's why they concluded they had to attack south to get the Oil in the Dutch East Indies. And I suspect FDR expected they would responsd.
#8
I'll trust you on that, Grereper Hupung4295. I thought he'd only threatened to, or the Japanese leadership was realistically concerned at the result if he should.
But does that fact change the logic of the argument?
#11
I want very specific targeting - symbolic targets don't impress me - they're for press consumption... That would be a waste of time since I've got the MSM on my secondary list.
GAZA: Rival Palestinian militant groups put up a united front on Saturday to denounce inter-factional kidnappings and violence that have undermined calls by President Mahmoud Abbas to maintain law and order in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "We announce that all of the military wings are united in their position and faith and that we consider any attack on any one of us as an attack on us all," the factions, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said in a statement. "Any action aimed at spreading chaos or internal strife will be considered treason," said the statement, issued at a Gaza news conference attended by gunmen. "Our response will be unified and swift."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2005 21:05 ||
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given the adequate high-temperature, most materials (including impurities) will bond. Call it unity or sludge......
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/08/2005 23:58 Comments ||
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SUNGAI KOLOK, Thailand, 8 October 2005 â Along with the ubiquitous cans of soda and packets of pot noodles, the mom-and-pop stores of violence-plagued southern Thailand are selling tickets to a new life. For 5 baht ($0.12), the stubs of paper buy a 30-second boat ride across a narrow river to Malaysia â the land of opportunity for young Muslims wanting to escape 21 months of unrest in Thailandâs three southernmost provinces. As the death toll climbs above 900 and the local economy collapses, young Muslims see little point in staying behind to get caught up in an increasingly dirty guerrilla conflict between separatist militants and more than 30,000 soldiers and police. âPeople here worry about three things. Where will the authorities arrest me? When should I leave? How will I die?â said Abdulrahman Abdulsahad, president of the Islamic Council of Narathiwat province, 1,200 km (750 miles) south of Bangkok.
Two points:
First, that death toll is mostly Thai Buddhists.
Second, the victims are teachers, policemen, rubber plantation workers and shopkeepers. Basically the entire southern Thailand middle class. The imams shut down Friday rubber production on "religious" grounds and recently came after Thusday production as well, with leaflets threatening death to anyone caught working. One estimate I posted here a few months ago said rubber production was down six percent; my guess is that the economic damage is worse than that and the damage to the social fabric of Thailand is horrific. To the Islamists, that's a feature, not a bug.
The fear is taking its toll on youngsters in Narathiwat and the neighboring provinces of Yala and Pattani, once an independent sultanate where Muslims now say they feel like second-class citizens. âI am definitely going to move,â said Sobri, a 22-year-old Muslim university student in Pattani who wants to further his studies in Malaysia. âIf you donât agree with the government, you are their enemy.â The mainly Buddhist administration in Bangkok has poured troops into the region, where 80 percent of the 1.8 million population are Muslim, ethnic Malay and non-Thai speaking, but has failed to halt the daily bombings and shootings.
This article isn't very clear on just how many "university students" are moving away to get advanced weapons traininggo on jihad escape the violence. To my skeptical eye, it looks ominous for the Thais.
#5
I still think the Mooslimbs underestimate the Thai capability for carnage and widescale horrific violence when threatened enough. I forsee the Thai hand-to-hand equivalent of what we'll do to Iran from the air
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/08/2005 13:52 Comments ||
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A lawmaker said that the parliamentary decision to set fixed prices for goods and services in the year to March 2006 has been implemented properly, stressing that the initiative has nothing to do with the government's budget deficit. no, no, nothing whatsoever...
Asghar Geranmayeh-Pour, a member of the Majlis Plan, Budget and Audit Commission, told Moj news agency that the government's budget deficit is chiefly due to its failure to realize projected revenues and all our investors bailing out.
The country's total budget for this year amounts to over 1,600 trillion rials, one-third of which is allocated to state companies, he said, adding that the government's general budget, which constitutes the major portion of the entire amount, will not be affected by the fixed price initiative.
He said the initiative stipulates that the prices of goods produced and services rendered by state companies must remain unchanged this year. gotta keep paying for them atom smashers somehow...
Asked whether President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might choose to stop the initiative, the lawmaker said the chief executive has given top priority to taming inflation, stressing that the president will not allow prices to go up further, if he were to implement his anti-poverty programs. no poverty here!
Geranmayeh-Pour's remarks come less than two weeks after a senior lawmaker said that the government's budget deficit is expected to increase by 30 trillion rials to reach 70 trillion rials until March when the first nuke weapons are complete, blaming the huge shortfall on parliament's decision to set fixed prices for goods and services.
Mohammad Shahi-Arablou, who heads the Majlis Economic Commission, told ISNA that the government faced a 40-billion-rial budget deficit in the year to March 2005.
However this year, we are expecting an additional 30 trillion (budget deficit) rials due to the fixed price law, he said, adding that the budgeting system should have taken into account the high costs and other economic impacts of the parliamentary initiative while devising the general budget for the current year.
Energy sector has been unable to increase prices of oil products given the parliamentary decision to fix prices of energy carriers.
Billions of rials are being pocketed by goverment officials smugglers who take advantage of the huge difference between prices of oil products in Iran and those in neighboring countries.
#1
Ye olde price freeze. Excellent idea. Consider demanding an immediate 5 percent across the board increase in productivity too. And remember, there's a huge market in the infidel West for ponies.
From the dept. of: Could'nt have happened to a nicer bunch of guys
Sunday October 2, 8:49 PM
TEHRAN, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Investors are bailing out of Iran's stock market, preferring gold and foreign bourses while international pressure ratchets up against Tehran's disputed atomic programme, traders said on Sunday.
The total bourse capitalisation had dropped to $38.2 billion dollars on Sunday, down from $45 billion in late June when conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a landslide presidential election victory.
The TEPIX all-share index stood at 10,151 points on Sunday, down 27 percent in the 14 months from August 2004, when it stood at 13,880.
"Everything depends on the nuclear negotiations, and the market really craves good news," said Akbar Zarganinejad, the head of a leading brokerage.
Iran stands on the brink of referral to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions after failing to convince the world its atomic ambitions are peaceful. Iran insists it needs atomic technology to fuel power stations.
"Unfortunately, the small stockholders' fears can affect the share indices dramatically," Zarganinejad said.
He added the market had taken some solace from the appointment of former Economy Minister Tahmasb Mazaheri as a deputy minister charged with arresting the falls on the Tehran exchange.
Mazaheri held meetings with Tehran bourse officials on Saturday and is due to report to the cabinet on Sunday.
Traders noted Iranians were forsaking investment in housing and stocks for more liquid (Booze?)(Is Heroine a liquid?) assets like gold and foreign currencies.
When asked whether there was a particular flight to Gulf-neighbour Dubai, which has recently opened to its bourse to foreign investors, Tehran stock exchange spokeswoman Soheila Mostofi replied: "People could go anywhere else."
"Due to the problems in Iran's markets, people could be attracted to other markets, gold or elsewhere," she added.
The flight of capital is a big set-back for a bourse that soared 116 percent in 2003, making it a haven for investors looking to beat inflation running at about 12 percent.
Tortuous investment legislation means Tehran's bourse is not played much by foreigners, who until recently could not invest directly.
Market authorities announced plans in April to allow foreigners to buy up to 10 percent of firms listed in Iran. However, they would only be able to repatriate their capital gains and profits after three years
Posted by: DanNY ||
10/08/2005 14:02 Comments ||
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#2
ht to Drudge? That's where I saw this....
Good news. The MM's will try and portray it as "us against them", but from what I hear from Iranian ex-pats, it will only work among the ignorant MM-faithful....teh rest are well aware of what's going on.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/08/2005 14:30 Comments ||
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#3
Nothing quite stimulates change like vast amounts of money being lost.
#5
"Everything depends on the nuclear negotiations, and the market really craves good news," said Akbar Zarganinejad, the head of a leading brokerage.
Too right, Akbar! Unfortunately, the only good news there could be involves lots of dead mullahs and extremely large tracts of smoking landscape. Iran's leadership is (literally) he|| bent on converting their entire nation into one vast suicide bomber. At some point the Iranian people need to realize what sort of fate awaits them. If they come to their senses, they have a remote chance of surviving. If not, they may well perish from the face of this earth. Such a prospect no longer disturbs me so much as it once did.
Having secured most key positions in the past few months, the new generation of Iranâs Islamic revolutionaries is now invited to prepare for playing âchickenâ with the United States.
âThe Satanic powers want to play chicken with us,â says Gen. Muhammad Hijazi, the man in charge of the Islamic armyâs office of war preparation. âWe must show that we are eagles.â
The idea that the Islamic Republic faces a game of âchickenâ against the West was publicized last month by Ali Larijani, the new âsecurity czarâ in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejadâs administration. But the man who first came up with the analysis is Hassan Abbasi who has emerged as Ahmadinejadâs chief strategic guru.
Abbasi heads the Center for Security Doctrines Research of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (RGC). His friends call him âThe Kissinger of Islamâ, after Henry Kissinger who served as US secretary of state in the 1970s.
âTo Iranâs new ruling elite, Abbasi is the big strategic brain,â says a European diplomat in Tehran. âMore and more officials quote him in meetings with foreign diplomats.â
According to Tehran sources, Abbasi is the architect of the so-called âwar preparation planâ currently under way in Iran.
Last month Abbasi presented an outline of his analysis in a lecture at the Teachers Training Faculty in Karaj, west of Tehran.
The lecture merits attention because it offers an insight into the way the new leadership in Tehran approaches issues of international politics.
According to Abbasi, the global balance of power is in a state of flux and every nation should fight for a place in a future equilibrium. The Western powers, especially the United States, still wield immense military and economic power that âlooks formidable on paper.â But they are unable to use that power because their populations have become ârisk-averse.â
âThe Western man today has no stomach for a fight,â Abbasi says. âThis phenomenon is not new: All empires produce this type of man, the self-centered, materialist, and risk-averse man.â
Abbasi believes that the US intervention in Iraq, which involved âslightly higher risksâ than the invasion of Afghanistan, was the very last of its kind. And even then, the US went into Iraq because of President George W Bushâs âreadiness to do what no other American leader would dare contemplate.â
According to Abbasi, the US knows that the only power capable of and willing to challenge it across the globe is the Islamic Republic. The reason is that the Islamic Republic not only enjoys âstrong backing from its peopleâ, but also has the support of millions who are prepared to kill and die for it across the globe.
Abbasi claims that the US and its allies have played three games against Iran.
The first was a âcarrots and sticksâ exercise designed to tempt a section of the Tehran leadership away from radical politics while frightening another section into submission. The next game was âgood cop, bad copâ and had the more sinister objective of confusing and dividing the Islamic leadership. Finally, and starting just over a year ago, the âsatanic powersâ played a new game which Abbasi has dubbed âtrigger-at-the-ready.â In this game they put the metaphoric gun at the Islamic Republicâs temple with their finger on the trigger.
Abbasi believes that the trigger was pulled, firing only a blank, when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed an anodyne resolution on the Islamic Republicâs pursuit of nuclear power last month.
âNow that the satanic powers have failed to achieve their goal with all those games they are preparing for a new game,â Abbasi says. â This new game is known as the Chicken Strategy in which the two sides move toward each other with speed until one side quits.â
It is not clear whether Abbasi or other mullas have seen Nicholas Rayâs âRebel Without A Causeâ. But it was in that film, starring James Dean, that âplaying chickenâ was introduced to broader audiences. According to Webster dictionary, the phrase refers to âany of various contests in which the participants risk personal safety in order to see which one will give up first.â The quitter is designated as âchicken livered.â
Abbasi and his disciples in the new Islamic elite believe that this is the best time to engage the US in a âgame of chicken.â
âThe Western regimes lack popular legitimacy,â Abbasi told his audience. âThe Western economy is based on shaky foundations that depend on oil. Divisions within the Western camp, the Westâs economic fragility, and the distrust of the people (in Western countries) toward their governments render their side vulnerable.â
Abbasi believes that when President Bush says that no option is off the table, implying that force could be used against the Islamic Republic, he is only playing chicken.
âThe Americans are not ready to send a million men (to defeat the Islamic Republic),â Abbasi said. âEven economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic will fail thanks to opposition from the Western public opinion and the refusal of most countries to implement (them).â
Abbasi claims that in a game plan presented to Ahmadinejad, he has concluded that the idea of a major US military attack against Iran is âa bluff.â
âOur game plan shows that any attempt at imposing an embargo on Iran would push the price of oil to $110 per barrel,â Abbasi said. âAnd if we were to be subjected to military attack the price could top the $400 mark.â
A brief military clash with the US at this time could do wonders for the Islamic Republic. The regime would be able to crush growing internal opposition in the name of national solidarity. It would also revive the regimeâs revolutionary credentials. The raid on the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 gave the new Islamic regime an aura of radicalism that it lacked because a revolution led by the mullas was hard to sell as a progressive, anti-imperialist movement. Abbasi also recalls that Iraqâs invasion of Iran in 1980 was âa blessing from Godâ because it gave the revolutionary regime another chance to prove its resilience.â
In true Nietzschean form he believes that since a limited war with the US will not kill the Islamic Republic; it is bound to make it stronger.
But it is not only the US that Abbasi wants to take on and humiliate. He has described Britain as âthe mother of all evilsâ. In his lecture he claimed that the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and the Gulf states were all âchildren of the same mother: the British Empire.â As for France and Germany, they are âcountries in terminal declineâ, according to Abbasi.
âOnce we have defeated the Anglo-Saxons the rest will run for cover,â he told his audience.
Abbasiâs strategy may be in tune with the current macho mood in Tehran. But the new Tehran leadership should think twice before it embarks on a potentially deadly, and totally unnecessary, adventure on the basis of childish assumptions about Iranâs power and the Westâs weakness.
The Syrian regime remains in the cross hairs of U.S. defense and intelligence concern about four other Syrian activities.
First, the Syrian regime has continued its attempts to acquire sophisticated surface-to-surface missiles. Second, U.S. intelligence officials remain concerned that the Syrian government has become custodian to Iraq's biological and chemical weapons. Third, questions remain about whether Damascus benefited from the network of Abdul Qadir Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist who sold nuclear secrets to a number of rogue regimes.
Lastly, Bashar al-Assad continues to flirt with international terrorism. The young president shows no inclination to cease the behavior that has for more than a quarter century led the U.S. government to designate Syria a state-sponsor of terrorism.
Left unresolved, such questions about Syrian proliferation ambitions, coupled with the regime's demonstrated willingness to use terrorism to advance its goals, will make any rapprochement between Washington and Damascus impossible.
More at link
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/08/2005 01:43 ||
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It's about time the government became concerned about Syria. We watched sat photos of convoys crossing the western border from Iraq and didn't even bother to put troops out there, let alone take them out. I'm worried the WMD's left Syria some time ago. Puppet Assad deceives even himself, as he is never been in control of the terrorist run state.
Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlala has announced that a fresh law for parties in Syria will be issued soon affirming the new law will deepen and boost the multiplicity in Syria. In a statement to "Al Ahram" paper, based in Egypt, Dakhlala indicated that his country has a firm stance as regards the rejection of the policies of violence, power, war and occupation.
"US pressures against Syria came because of Damascus's national stances regarding the issues of the region", Dakhlala said. Dakhlala made it clear that Damascus does not seek to create confrontations with USA or anyone. "There are no differences between Syria and USA. But the neo-conservatives block adopts pressure policies and threats by force", Dakhlala added. Syrian Information Minister reiterated his country's commitment to dialogue as a course in the international relations.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2005 00:00 ||
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Same day the Lebanese Army surrounded the Paleo camps "for their own protection"...
And the concept of the Ba'athist Party "rejecting power politics" is just downright ludicrous.
NEWARK, N.J. -- Muslims say a federal report supporting charges that New Jersey counterterrorism officials were compiling reports on Muslims solely because of their religion confirms what they have been claiming for years. "This shouldn't surprise anyone," said Yaser El-Menshawy, chairman of the Majlis Ash-Shura of New Jersey, the state's council of mosques. "Although it's wrong and it's bad law enforcement, Muslims understand that we have fewer rights than anyone else right now. I'm sure people in law enforcement realize that and know they can get away with things with Muslims that they can't with any other group."
The Institute for Intergovernmental Research, at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, reviewed a dispute in New Jersey over state counterterrorism investigators entering 140 reports into a law-enforcement database. Fearing they would be accused of racial profiling after being ordered by the federal government to halt the practice of targeting motorists based on race, New Jersey state police prohibited the state's Office of Counter-Terrorism from entering any more of their intelligence reports into the database. On Monday, state police yanked 14 troopers from the counterterror office, prompting acting Gov. Codey to intervene in what he called a turf war between state agencies, undoing some of the moves and stripping the state Attorney General's Office of much power over the anti-terror agency.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: DanNY ||
10/08/2005 08:47 ||
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#1
Right ... you shouldn't jump to conclusions ... suicide bombings could be the work of those Buddhist extremists after all.
ISLAMABAD - Pakistanâs government parties celebrated on Friday after scoring convincing wins in nationwide mayoral elections in which Islamist parties were the main losers.
While political parties were barred from taking part, candidates did little to hide their loyalties. The outcome reinforces expectations that President Pervez Musharraf, a strong ally of the Westâs war on terrorism, will be re-elected in 2007. âWhat we are seeing is that enlightened, progressive and moderate candidates are winning. This is a welcome development and it will spur a new wave of progress in the country,â Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told state-run Pakistan Television.
'progressive', 'moderate', and 'enlightened' mean something different in Pakiwakiland.
Opposition parties whined like Nancy-boys cried foul after Thursdayâs third and final phase of the local polls to elect councils and mayors, known as nazims, for Pakistanâs 110 districts. There were accusations of ballot rigging and money politics, but few reports of violence, in contrast to earlier rounds when media reported scores killed and hundreds hurt.
The Pakistan Muslim League (PML) won all but a handful of the 35 districts in the central province of Punjab, while it swept interior Sindh and its government ally, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), captured the southern provinceâs two main cities, Karachi and Hyderabad.
Having lost Karachi, the Islamist alliance of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) also suffered major setbacks in Pakistanâs two other provinces, Baluchistan and North West Frontier. The MMA, the largest opposition block in the National Assembly, controls the provincial governments in both tribal-dominated provinces, but its grip appears to be slipping two years ahead of provincial and national polls.
That's a shame. Golly. Perhaps they'll end up like the Whigs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/08/2005 00:00 ||
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A split between the two major components of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) surfaced in Senate for the first time on Friday when JI Senator Prof Ibrahim sought the Upper Houseâs support against NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, who is from the JUI-F. The JUI-F and JI fielded separate candidates during the local council election in the NWFP, suggesting that both MMA components were at loggerheads.
As Senator Ibrahim targeted Akram Durrani in his speech, JUI-F Senators Azam Swati and Prof Hidayatullah Shah interrupted him and asked him not to raise the issue on the floor and should talk to Akram Durrani on the telephone in case he had any grievances against him. The JI senator blasted the NWFP chief minister for targeting him in the media and trying to implicate him (Prof Ibrahim) in a bogus votes case against Akram Durraniâs cousin in Bannu district. âThe chief minister has threatened to have me arrested on TV and in the press for bringing fake women voters to cast votes against his relative,â he added.
Urging the Senate chairman to address his grievance because he was a member of the House and that he deserved the Senateâs support, Prof Ibrahim said, âI am not afraid of being arrested or of jail or of Akram Durraniâs threats, but I am seeking this support because I am a member of the Upper House of parliament.â
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Dozens of African illegal immigrants who charged across the border into Spain's north African enclave of Melilla have been sent back to Morocco, officials said Friday, after a week of deadly clashes at two enclaves. 
Speaking to Asharq al Awsat from the Jordanian capital Amman, where he now resides, Shaalan attacked those âIraqi politicians and ministers whose interests collude with Iran. Some are afraid of the consequences of speaking while others prefer to remain silent and hold on to power.â He added, âArab politicians and some Kurdish leaders are aware of Iranian meddling but chose to remain silent for their own benefit.â
On a recent visit to Kuwait as part of a high- level delegation, several Iraqi figures revealed to their Kuwaiti counterparts classified information about the current social and political situation in Iraq and the extent of Iranian meddling. They also confirmed that a mass exodus of Sunnis was taking place and said Iranian designs were being assisted by this migration and the continued boycott of the political process by some Arab Sunnis as well as their support for the insurgency.
GAZA: Rival Palestinian militant groups put up a united front on Saturday to denounce inter-factional kidnappings and violence that have undermined calls by President Mahmoud Abbas to maintain law and order in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "We announce that all of the military wings are united in their position and faith and that we consider any attack on any one of us as an attack on us all," the factions, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said in a statement. "Any action aimed at spreading chaos or internal strife will be considered treason," said the statement, issued at a Gaza news conference attended by gunmen. "Our response will be unified and swift."
SUNGAI KOLOK, Thailand, 8 October 2005 â Along with the ubiquitous cans of soda and packets of pot noodles, the mom-and-pop stores of violence-plagued southern Thailand are selling tickets to a new life. For 5 baht ($0.12), the stubs of paper buy a 30-second boat ride across a narrow river to Malaysia â the land of opportunity for young Muslims wanting to escape 21 months of unrest in Thailandâs three southernmost provinces. As the death toll climbs above 900 and the local economy collapses, young Muslims see little point in staying behind to get caught up in an increasingly dirty guerrilla conflict between separatist militants and more than 30,000 soldiers and police. âPeople here worry about three things. Where will the authorities arrest me? When should I leave? How will I die?â said Abdulrahman Abdulsahad, president of the Islamic Council of Narathiwat province, 1,200 km (750 miles) south of Bangkok.
Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlala has announced that a fresh law for parties in Syria will be issued soon affirming the new law will deepen and boost the multiplicity in Syria. In a statement to "Al Ahram" paper, based in Egypt, Dakhlala indicated that his country has a firm stance as regards the rejection of the policies of violence, power, war and occupation.
ISLAMABAD - Pakistanâs government parties celebrated on Friday after scoring convincing wins in nationwide mayoral elections in which Islamist parties were the main losers.
A split between the two major components of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) surfaced in Senate for the first time on Friday when JI Senator Prof Ibrahim sought the Upper Houseâs support against NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, who is from the JUI-F. The JUI-F and JI fielded separate candidates during the local council election in the NWFP, suggesting that both MMA components were at loggerheads.
