A new al-Qaeda affiliate in Saudi Arabia announced its presence via the jihadi forums on October 13. A declaration by the "Echo of Tuwayq Brigades in al-Zulfa," dated October 9, was released on the al-Tajdeed forum, announcing that the Brigades were subordinated to the Organization of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The declaration, authored by Abu Hajir al-Zulfi, is intended as an "introduction" and limited itself to declaring six principal objectives: support for the Muslims' battle with the enemies of God; clarification of its religious aims; refutation of Saudi and American propaganda; guidance on the nature of the true faith and publication of mujahideen activities and statements. A sixth objective appears to be a specific act of vengeance to be carried out imminently.
The group, which takes its name from the Jabal Tuwayq escarpment that runs north to south through the area of Riyadh, declared its allegiance to Mulla Omar, Osama bin Laden and Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi. It also pledged its loyalty to the 36 members of the latest "most wanted" list issued by the Saudi authorities on June 29, among them were three natives of the al-Zulfa region: Fahd Farraj al-Juwayr, Abd al-Rahman al-Mut'ib and Ibrahim al-Mutayyir. Forthcoming media releases include a manifesto by Shaykh Abu al-Abbas al-Zulfawi, an interview with Abd al-Rahman al-Mut'ib and a publication, "Tuwayq Echo," on doctrinal, educational, historical and cultural matters (www.tajdeed.org.uk).
From subsequent postings, the news of this new formation was welcomed--but also accompanied by frustration at the relative lack of jihadi activity in the Peninsula. The three members on the most wanted list are considered to be "second-tier" militants who had worked under more senior operatives, mostly those on the previous list of 26 that have already been killed or captured. Al-Juwayr is believed to have been involved in clashes between Saudi forces and gunmen in January in al-Zulfi, located about 300 km northwest of Riyadh, which resulted in the killing of four gunmen and injury to three Saudi security personnel.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/18/2005 14:24 ||
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October 18, 2005: On the morning October 7th a gang of 70-75 young men attacked a Shia mosque in Kuwait, shortly after morning services. Rocks were thrown, anti-Shia slogans daubed on the walls, cars were torched, and at least one man was badly beaten. Although the Kuwaiti police made several arrests, a high ranking government official attributed the whole business to âa youthful prank.â But it was actually another ugly incident in the ancient battle between conservative Sunnis and the Shia minority they believe to be heretics. Shias comprise about 30 percent of the population, and Sunnis a little less than half. There are a lot of other religions being practiced in Kuwait, which is a reflection of the areas long history of international commerce (via the Indian Ocean, and all the lands that touch it). But the same "back to basics" movement that propels al Qaeda, also inspires young men to act out against Moslems who are not Moslem enough. Sunni persecution of Shia is nothing new, but it's hitting a historical peak right now, and the unrest in Kuwait is another example. Kuwait does not want this violence to grow, because Kuwait depends on good relations with Shia Iran for commercial, and diplomatic (as in protection from larger Arab neighbors) reasons.
However, there is some major internal dissent in the Kuwaiti al Sabah family, which has run the country for several generations. While thereâs no substantial information available about the dispute, it could indicate a rift between more progressive and more conservative members of the ruling family, or it just may be no more than a couple of the cousins jockeying for the succession. This appears to be another reflection of the growing hostility, throughout the Moslem world, between militant conservatives, and more traditional Moslems who just want to get on with life, and not attempt to conquer the world. Kuwait just voted to allow women to vote, and some of the more conservative Sunni Moslems are not happy with this at all. Some blame the Shia, because Shia Iran has allowed women to vote for several generations. This, to Sunni Islamic conservatives, is another example of Shia blasphemy.
There have been a few incidents of deadly violence, by Kuwaitis against foreigners, in the last few years. But police come down hard on the Islamic radicals, and there is little public support for them. But the Islamic conservatives grow more militant and violence, the longer they suffer such lack of respect and support. When you are on a mission from God, numbers matter little.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/18/2005 09:24 ||
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Former Home Minister and Awami League leader Mohammad Nasim MP yesterday termed the banning of Harkat-ul-Jihad as an eyewash by the government that he alleged has so long provided political shelter to all these militant outfits. "Weâd banned Harkat-ul-Jihad and outlawed its leader Mufti Hannan after the Kotalipara bomb planting. What use banning it anew after giving them shelter for last four years? This is designed to hoodwink people ahead of elections," Nasim told the news agency last night in his reaction over the government action.
The former Home Minister observed that Mufti Hannan would have been arrested much earlier if the four-party alliance had not "protected" him. "After being arrested Mufti Hannan himself confessed that he had been under the shelter of the alliance and named several Ministers," he said. Nasim said the government was forced to ban the militant outfits and arrest their leaders as these "Frankenstein forces" have not only engulfed the entire society but also threatened the existence of the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Eye wash??? there something im not seeing here?? never heard that phrase used before, white wash i've heard but eye wash seems odd. Damn for a minute i thought that pic was good old Skeletor from He-Man,very similar looking guy but a bit more fleshy looking.
Posted by: Shep UK ||
10/18/2005 8:49 Comments ||
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The Indian subcontinent has its very own version of English, Shep. There has been some discussion about declaring it a distinct language, a la British English vs. American English. I think "eye wash" in this context means a bit of nothingness, less even than a gesture.
North Korea said Tuesday it doubted Washington's commitment to a landmark accord reached at the last nuclear talks, criticizing a recent U.S. allegation that the communist nation was involved in money laundering activities. The U.S. Treasury Department last month accused a Macau-based bank of helping North Korean customers distribute counterfeit currency and engage in other illegal activities. Banco Delta Asia has denied the allegations, saying its relationships with North Korean clients were legitimate and purely commercial.
On Tuesday, an unnamed spokesman for the North's Foreign Ministry said the U.S. allegation was 'nothing but a version of the trite psychological warfare conducted by the U.S. administration to justify its hostile policy' toward the North. 'This compels the DPRK to suspect whether the Bush administration has the willingness to implement the joint statement of the six-party talks or not,' said the spokesman, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency. The DPRK is the acronym for the communist nation's official name _ the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Negotiators at the last round of talks in Beijing reached a breakthrough accord, in which the North agreed to abandon all of its nuclear weapons and nuclear programs. The next round of talks _ which also involve China, Japan, Russia and South Korea _ were scheduled for November, but no date has been set.
'If the U.S. persists in its hostile acts ... the DPRK will be left with no option but to take self-defense steps to cope with those acts,' the spokesman said, without explaining what those steps would be.
Pyongyang routinely accuses Washington of being hostile to its communist regime. Washington has repeatedly said it has no intention of attacking the North.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/18/2005 09:19 ||
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Green Left Weekly is Australia's radical weekly newspaper.
In these days of growing media concentration, Green Left Weekly is a proudly independent voice committed to human and civil rights, global peace and environmental sustainability, democracy and equality. By printing the news and ideas the mainstream media won't, Green Left Weekly exposes the lies and distortions of the power brokers and helps us to better understand the world around us.
now the good bit......
CORRECTION
The article âPolice drop investigation into murder of 13 Arab citizensâ in GLW #644 incorrectly stated: âIn the first week of the demonstrations, some 100 peaceful demonstrators and 13 Palestinians with Israeli citizenship were killed in Umm el Fahm, Nazareth and Kafr Manda.â It should have read: âIn the first week of the demonstrations, nearly 1000 peaceful protesters were arrested in Umm el Fahm, Nazareth and Kafr Manda.â
From Green Left Weekly, October 12, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
European Union states, including Austria, have expressed security concerns and fear of terrorist attacks after last Friday's arrest campaign in Netherlands against who the Hague called terrorists. Austria Press Agency (APA) cited European judicial affairs commissioner as saying that Netherlands' arrest campaign have revealed that terrorism remained a threat on EU's member states.
Gee. Golly. Gosh. Shucks. When did that start?
In the last second, Netherlands' security forces prevented a terrorist plan to attack a group of Dutch politicians, government buildings and the Dutch intelligence. The security forces arrested six young men between the ages of 16-18 in addition to a 24-year-old woman among the terrorist cell. Shortly after the arrests, Dutch Interior and Kingdom Relations Minister Johan Remkes said that he would order more security measures for institutions and senior state officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2005 00:00 ||
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European Union states, including Austria, have expressed security concerns and fear of terrorist attacks after last Friday's arrest campaign in Netherlands against who the Hague called terrorists.
Well, y'all have two choices: Acquiesce, or fight back.
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - (KRT) - Berkeley's Veterans Day ceremony, scheduled for Nov. 11, was abruptly canceled on Monday because the volunteer organizing committee split over the political content.
Really, politics in Berkeley?
At issue was a proposal by the chairman, singer/songwriter Country Joe McDonald, to have Bill Mitchell, a co-founder of Cindy Sheehan's organization, Gold Star Families for Peace, as the keynote speaker.
That pretty much sez it all right there
Mitchell's and Sheehan's sons were killed in Iraq the same day.
Some committee members worried that Mitchell would inject an unwelcome note of partisanship into the event, which has been scrupulously non-political in years past. "If you want to have an anti-war rally, count me in," said Linda Perry, an aide to City Councilman Laurie Capitelli. "But not on Veteran's Day. It's neither the time nor the place."
Edwin Harper, adjutant of the local Disabled American Veterans chapter, which has participated in past Berkeley Veterans Day observances, threatened that his group would pull out. "They have the other 364 days and 23 hours to make their political point," he said. "This one hour should be reserved for honoring veterans, period."
McDonald, backed by other members of the committee, disagreed, saying that not permitting Mitchell to express his point of view would be tantamount to censoring free speech. "Their position was that no matter what he said, because he was a member of Gold Star Families, he wouldn't be allowed to speak," McDonald said. "I've been doing this for 10 years, and this is the first time content and affiliation ever came up for discussion. I was shocked to find this kind of narrow-mindedness in my own hometown, in Berkeley, the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement."
Some speech being more free than others
Last week it appeared that a compromise had been reached, with McDonald agreeing to drop another proposal to include anti-war songs by the group Annie and the Vets. But on Monday, McDonald, a U.S. Navy veteran, circulated an e-mail among the committee reading, "The disagreement over the participation of Gold Star Families, with their anti-war reputation, in our 2005 ceremony has made it impossible to continue. Without consensus we have no program. The event is cancelled."
This would have been Berkeley's fourth annual Veterans Day ceremony, but the event has its origins in a memorial ceremony nine years ago, when McDonald and then-Mayor Shirley Dean sponsored a visit of the traveling Vietnam Wall - aka "The Wall That Heals" - to Berkeley. "There was no dispute over political content back then," said Perry's husband, Tim, another committee member. "But you have to consider the context: There was no war in Iraq going on back then."
Sure, you were still living in your glory days of protesting Lyndon Johnson's war.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/18/2005 15:17 ||
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#1
Plz, Plz, Plz, Al Q..consider Berkeley next time.
#3
C'mon folks. Berkeley's been celebrating Veterans day for four whole years! There was bound to be burnout from such a maximum effort.
And speaking of burnout, it's good to see that Country Joe is still around wasting perfectly good oxygen...
#6
The veterans there should hold there own parade, spontaneously, without anyone invited to speak at all. They should prearrange a start point and an end point, with veterans joining the parade en route, and if someone should attempt to get up on a podium to speak, they should as a group turn around and disperse. Any freak attempting to join the crowd will just be shouldered out.
If left to their own devices, once they arrive at their destination, one pre-designated person should loudly say, "let us pray". And then have a minute of silence before dispersing, each in their own direction.
With a few acting as road guards, the very orderliness and quietude of the event should be shocking to a corrupt city, used to shameful displays and screaming loudmouths.
#9
In all honesty there are two very different sorts of people in Berkeley. The first and largest group are middle-of-the-road Democrats. These are not all that different from the ones you would find in, say, Iowa City. Yeah, they believe in higher taxes, unions, and whatever; but they arenât actually traitors to America. Many of them have served in the military, for example, and fly American flags in their yards. These people are identical to that relative who annoys you over turkey every Thanksgiving with his idiotic, half-informed banter. Wrong, but not actively evil.
Then you have the OTHER group: radical Democrats, Greens, actual Marxists of various stripes, weak-ass pretend anarchists, ACLU lawyer types, and college professors. These are genuine, real life enemies of your nation. Although they are only 10-20 percent of the population they are very loud, very determined, and often quite naked. Itâs an ugly, harsh thing; but they dominate the cityâs government and culture. Itâs institutionalized. Most of the other inhabitants are like Syrians: they simply shrug and deal with it because they arenât going to be able to change anything.
In reality most people in Berkeley arenât all that political.... just like most Americans. Itâs a nice place to live. The public schools are pretty good, you can have a lawn party late into the Autumn, people are friendly, the cityâs economy is pretty healthy, and there are lots of good-looking young people walking down the streets on a Saturday night. The crime rate it low and the restaurants are excellent. Except for the fact that Berkeley is run by wackos itâs a nice place to live.
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff apparently gave New York Times reporter Judith Miller inaccurate information about where Valerie Plame worked in the CIA, a mistake that could be important to the criminal investigation. Miller's notes say I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told her on July 8, 2003, that the wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson worked for the CIA's Weapons Intelligence, Non-Proliferation and Arms Control unit.
Plame, Wilson's wife, never worked for WINPAC, which is on the overt side of the CIA. She worked on the CIA's secret side, the directorate of operations, according to three people familiar with her work for the spy agency. The three all spoke on condition of anonymity, citing Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's ongoing grand jury investigation into the leak of Plame's identity in 2003.
We know she was working on tracking WMD's when she pimped her husband for the Niger trip. According to the Washington Post: "The report states that a CIA official told the Senate committee that Plame "offered up" Wilson's name for the Niger trip, then on Feb. 12, 2002, sent a memo to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations saying her husband "has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." Is everyone working on the Operations side considered "covert", or is that more wishful thinking by the press?
There were several developments as the end nears for the investigation into possible criminality by people in the Bush administration who leaked Plame's identity to reporters:
President Bush declined to say Monday whether he would remove any aide under indictment. "I'm not going to prejudge the outcome of the investigation," he said.
Pentagon officials looked into Miller's claim that she had a security clearance while working as an embedded reporter during the Iraq war, shortly before her conversations with Libby. "For a security clearance you have to go through any number of specific background investigative checks," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. He said reporters who were embedded with military units during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars signed ground rules in which they agreed not to make public sensitive or secret information that they learned while with the unit.
That does not a security clearance make
The incorrect information about where Plame worked in the CIA could be a significant lead for investigators. Accurate information presumably can come from any number of sources, while inaccurate information might more easily be traceable to a single document or a particular meeting, suggested Lance Cole, former Democratic counsel to the Senate Whitewater Committee and now a law professor at Pennsylvania State University's Dickinson School of Law.
The inaccurate information could suggest Libby thought Plame was not an undercover spy, and therefore didn't know her identity was classified. The incorrect piece of information could lead back to a source or sources who were engaging in a larger effort to undercut Wilson's credibility. Or, as former top FBI official Danny Coulson suggests, it could simply mean that Libby's information came from "dinner talk" involving people who were uninformed. Presidential aides "had access to the official information and if they had used that, you would think they would have had the right stuff," said Coulson.
In her first-person account, published Sunday, recounting her meetings with Libby, Miller described her July 8, 2003, conversation with Libby and the point at which it turned to Plame. "My notes contain a phrase inside parentheses: 'Wife works at Winpac.' Mr. Fitzgerald asked what that meant," Miller wrote. "I told the grand jury that I believed that this was the first time I had heard that Mr. Wilson's wife worked for Winpac," she wrote. "In fact, I told the grand jury that when Mr. Libby indicated that Ms. Plame worked for Winpac, I assumed that she worked as an analyst, not as an undercover operative."
Posted by: Steve ||
10/18/2005 13:51 ||
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a mistake that could be important
Karl Rove giving a reporter bad info... a mistake. That's it. Gotta be.
#2
just get it over and admit it was not a crime, nobody knew the ditsy "Flame" was supposedly covert, given her and Joe sashaying around DC in tissue-thin cover
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/18/2005 19:24 Comments ||
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This whole affair is idiotic. The press is whipping this horse till it dies or rots away in pieces. One lesson I hope is learned by the Administration:
*Talk to the press about any bullsh*t thing you want to, but when it gets to anything substantive, do not tell them a thing, except for official press releases. They are not your friends and are just useful idiots for the LLL.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/18/2005 22:13 Comments ||
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John Q. Public does'nt have a chance with such hideous, incompetent, politic swine working on the inside.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2005 â Officials are counting the votes in Iraq's historic constitutional referendum and people are asking whether the people of Iraq have accepted or rejected their new constitution. But to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, the results of yesterday's referendum are less important than the fact that Iraq had a highly successful and relatively peaceful election in which the Sunnis participated in very large numbers.
"Whatever happens with the referendum ... the Iraqi people clearly are taking advantage of the political process to make their views known, and that's bad news for the terrorists," Rice told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.
Appearing on ABC News' This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Khalilzad agreed: "If the constitution passes," he said, "there is a path for additional changes. If the constitution does not pass - because of the opposition from the Sunni voters - it would show that their participation in the process did, indeed, make a difference.
"Either way, there will be additional opportunities for change - for a political way forward for Iraq."
Khalilzad also appeared on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer; Rice on NBC News' Meet the Press with Tim Russert. Both officials agreed that the primacy of the political process - and ordinary Iraqis' embrace of that process in yesterday's referendum - is a death blow to the terrorists who are killing scores of innocent Iraqis. "The Iraqi people are casting their lot with the political process," Rice told Russert. "That will sap the energy from this insurgency; because an insurgency cannot ultimately survive without a political base."
Khalilzad said success lies in "continuous Sunni participation in the political process" and continued isolation and defeat of the terrorists. "That's the recipe, the plan if you'd like, for success," he said. "I think we are making good progress. Yesterday was a good indication that our approach to the Sunnis is producing results."
Rice said that analysis of the voting is now underway, but that preliminary findings suggest that "as many as a million more people voted this time than in January. "The numbers in the Sunni areas are very high," she said. "The Sunnis turned out in very large numbers. That means they're casting their lot now with the democratic process."
Rice and Khalilzad acknowledged the dramatically reduced level of violence and attributed this development to excellent preparation and work by Iraq's security forces. "The Iraqi [security] forces performed very well in protecting the election process," Rice said. They're "growing in stature in the eyes of the people of Iraq."
Yesterday's referendum, Khalilzad added, shows "that violence is not the way to deal with problems. [It shows] that violence is a dead end street."
For that reason, Rice said, terrorists and terrorist sympathizers in Iraq are few in number. They do not in any way constitute a majority of the population. "Indeed, some of them," she observed, "are foreigners like those who work for [Abu Musab al] Zarqawi." Rice said many of these foreign terrorists and jihadists are coming to Iraq through Syria - and they're not simply sneaking across, unobserved, the Syrian-Iraq border.
"In many cases," Rice said, "they [foreign terrorists] are coming [to Iraq] through Damascus Airport ... [Syrian] territory," she said, "is being used to kill innocent Iraqis - innocent men, women and children - because suicide bombers are coming through there."
The Syrian government, "is permitting the use of Syrian territory for terrorists to cross Syrian territory. She said the United States and Iraq will address this issue "in a multilateral fashion ... [to] get the Syrian regime to change its behavior."
As for the formal results of yesterday's referendum, Khalilzad said "we will know late tomorrow... [but] yesterday was a great day for Iraq."
I wonder if my wife read about this in WaPo? Anybody see it in the Slimes/Times? Globe/Probe?
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/18/2005 08:41 ||
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An FBI doctor noticed marks on the back of a U.S. citizen who claims he was whipped while in Saudi custody, but the physician said on Monday he did not mention the observation in his medical report.
Richard Schwartz, a contract doctor for the FBI, examined Ahmed Abu Ali in February, 2005 as he was being transported from Riyadh to return to the United States to face charges of plotting with al Qaeda to kill President George W. Bush.
Abu Ali, 24, arrested in 2003 while studying in Saudi Arabia, has said he was tortured while in Saudi custody for 20 months.
His lawyers charge that he was whipped, kicked and chained to a wall with his arms over his head in between late-night interrogations. They said he has marks on his upper back after he was whipped in the days following his arrest in June 2003.
The lawyers are seeking to throw out statements and confessions Abu Ali made while in Saudi custody because they said they were obtained by coercion. U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee is holding a week of hearings on the matter.
U.S. prosecutors say there is no credible evidence to support the allegations of torture.
Schwartz said he examined Abu Ali on the FBI airplane returning him to the United States and noticed four "linear" marks on Abu Ali's back but did not note them in his report.
"These were areas of increased pigmentation," he said. "They were flat, not typical appearing of scarring in that they were not elevated or depressed."
"I did not record them, because with his history and physical they did not seem consequential," Schwartz said, adding that Abu Ali denied being mistreated in prison.
U.S. diplomats have testified that they visited Abu Ali while he was held in Saudi Arabia and he did not appear to have been abused.
Two FBI agents said that Abu Ali told them he had been coerced into making and signing confessions by the Saudis who used "torture techniques."
Agent Barry Cole said Abu Ali made the comments to a team of FBI agents who were in Saudi Arabia to question him about possible plots against Bush and the United States.
"The only complaint he made...(was) that he had been subjected to mental torture," said Cole.
When the FBI agents asked for more details, Abu Ali told them to "forget about it -- we wouldn't understand because it was a Muslim thing," Cole said.
Abu Ali has pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment charging him with conspiring to kill the president and with providing support and resources to al Qaeda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/18/2005 02:08 ||
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#1
Judge Gerald Bruce Lee
Or is that Judge Gerald "Bruce" Lee? /snark
MANAMA - One of the six Bahrainis being held at the military prison on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is hospitalized and being force fed, according to his US lawyer.
Golly, that's too bad.
Lawyer Joshua Colangelo-Bryan just returned from his fifth visit with the Bahraini detainees at the US-run detention centre. âI saw Isa Almurbati, and he has a huge feeding tube inserted into his nose,â Colangelo-Bryan, a member of the firm Dorsey & Whitney, said in a letter Tuesday to the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. âHe has lost a tremendous amount of weight and looks exhausted. There is nothing to suggest that he will end this hunger strike.â
Colangelo-Bryan, who in late September revealed the five demands being made by the detainees in hunger strikes that began in July and August, wrote that he was concerned about his clientâs health.
Demands? Heh.
During the lawyerâs last visit in August, he was unable to meet with Almurbati on the first day because he was hospitalized. When they met on the second day, the inmate already showed signs of fatigue from the hunger strike. âI did give to him photographs of his brother and myself from my visit to Bahrain last summer. I could tell from his face that he was pleased to see the photographs,â Colangelo-Bryan said in his letter, suggesting that Almurbati was unable to speak and that his health condition was serious, according to BCHR Vice President Nabeel Rajab.
At least two relatives of the Bahraini detainees are expected to arrive next month in London to describe the prisonersâ suffering at an international human rights conference, according to Rajab. He said that the limited access given to families through censored letters had served as harsh punishment against not only the detainees but also their relatives.
Life sucks when you're on the losing side in a war on terror.
The Bahraini press on Tuesday reported âpositive progressâ from recent talks between Bahraini Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar and US Ambassador William Monroe, and raising the possibility of the return of detainees.
US lawyers earlier this week accused US military medics in federal court of attempting to discourage the detainees from continuing their hunger strikes by inserting thick feeding tubes through their noses without using painkillers and claiming that they used recycled dirty feeding tubes used on other prisoners. Both charges were denied by US government lawyers.
The only anesthetic used generally is some 1% lidocaine gel.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/18/2005 01:08 ||
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#1
I think it's an affront to their liberties to force-feed them. Let them decide for themselves whether to eat. It'd be cheaper, too.
#2
'recycled dirty feeding tubes used on other prisoners' recycled - wtf they got a recycling center down at the bay then complete with the rubber hose recycling bank, how odd.Also 'suggesting that Almurbati was unable to speak and that his health condition was serious, according to BCHR Vice President Nabeel Rajab' yeah we believe you lol. How about anyone found lying on behalf of these Bay captives like this Nabeel Rajab fella get whisked into the bay themselves for a month or two , or year or decade :)
Posted by: Shep UK ||
10/18/2005 8:45 Comments ||
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Wars around the world are both less frequent and less deadly since the end of the Cold War, a new report claims. The Human Security Report found a decline in every form of political violence except terrorism since 1992. "A lot of the data we have in this report is extraordinary," its director, former UN official Andrew Mack, said.
It found the number of armed conflicts had fallen by more than 40% in the past 13 years, while the number of very deadly wars had fallen by 80%. The study says many common beliefs about contemporary conflict are "myths" - such as that 90% of those killed in current wars are civilians, or that women are disproportionately victimised.
The report credits intervention by the United Nations, plus the end of colonialism and the Cold War, as the main reasons for the decline in conflict.
And about 90% of it is the end of the Cold War and the disappearance of the Soviet Union.
A leading expert praised the study, but said it was only a first step and required further investigation.
Owen Greene, director of the Centre for International Co-operation and Security at Bradford University in the UK, called it "a very significant contribution". He said its "explosion of political-cum-urban myths" was "a useful counter to some of the caricatures" about modern war.
But he cast doubt on its praise for the United Nations, saying the international body had been more successful at preventing conflicts from resuming than starting in the first place. "Its record in preventing large-scale conflict has been rather poor," he said. Yes!
The UK and France have fought the most international wars since 1946, followed by the US and Soviet Union/Russia, the study found.
But there have been ever fewer international wars, with most conflicts now being civil wars. Major powers have gone longer without fighting a war between each other than at any time in hundreds of years. Most of the world's conflicts are now fought in Africa, but Burma and India have seen the most conflict since the end of World War II. Even in Africa, the number of conflicts is dropping.
The average number of people killed per conflict has fallen from 38,000 in 1950 to just over 600 in 2002.
The report's authors do not yet have current data for the deadliest conflict in the world today - Iraq. But Mr Mack told the BBC News website it would not substantially alter his findings. "What we will see will be an increase in the average number of deaths, but not such a huge increase," he said.
"Take the biggest claim about Iraq - 60,000 battle deaths per year. Compare that with 700,000 battle deaths worldwide in 1950." Furthermore, he argues that what is happening in Iraq "is anomalous - it doesn't represent what is going on in the rest of the world".
The study also does not include Darfur, where there is little reliable data, Mr Mack says. Owen Greene of Bradford University said that was a significant omission. "Darfur could be massive," he said.
And could be brought to an end by the Green Berets.
The fall in the number of deaths per conflict is due to a change from large-scale war between huge armies with heavy weaponry to low-intensity conflicts that "pit weak government forces against ill-trained rebels. "Although often brutal, they kill relatively few people," the report says.
The report was produced by the Human Security Centre at the University of British Columbia in Canada. It was funded by the governments of Canada, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
An interesting note posted on a jihadi web forum complements a recent analysis by U.S. Maj. Gen. Richard Zahner on the course of the insurgency in Iraq. In an interview published by The Washington Post on September 28, leading military intelligence officer Gen. Zahner neatly defined the events in Iraq as "an insurgency hijacked by a terrorist campaign." In Zahner's view, which marks a shift in perception by the U.S. military command, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq group has supplanted Iraqis loyal to the deposed president Saddam Hussein as the insurgency's "driving element." Instead, the Saddam Hussein loyalists (former Ba'ath Party members and military and intelligence officers) are effectively riding the current, considered less of an immediate military danger and more of a longer-term political concern in their efforts to subvert the political process towards democracy.
Meanwhile, on the jihadi forum al-Farouq (www.al-farouq.com), a posting dated October 2 defined much of the Islamist opposition in Iraq, conversely, as "Ba'athism in the cloak of religion." The author, signing himself sarcastically "the Degenerate, Base Salafist," describes how the present Sunni religious violence dates back to the era of Saddam Hussein. He details, in what is a surprising essay to find on a jihadist forum (and subsequently removed), the innovation under Saddam's rule of the "Return to Faith Campaign" directed by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the former Vice President of Saddam's Revolutionary Council.
The campaign aimed at fanning sectarian flames to secure the suppression of the Shi'a in the south following the 1991 uprising in the wake of the allied operation to expel the Iraqis from Kuwait. The author of the posting explains the plethora of Islamist groups as fronts for the fallen regime's intelligence departments, shrewdly exchanging the Arab nationalist label for one more in tune with the times--Salafism. In addition, by associating actions with extremist takfirism (the doctrine of excommunicating non-jihadist Muslims) the escalation of violence against other Iraqis passes with less criticism.
The author quotes from a declaration posted on the forum Baghdad al-Rashid (www.baghdadalrashid.com) at the time of the Fallujah campaign, which listed names of the former regime's military security formations--all under the direction of Izzat al-Duri--along with their new religious sectarian names:
--Jaysh Muhammad (=al-Faruq Brigades, Jaysh al-Quds, Fidayee Saddam, the Black Brigades, and the 1920 Revolution Brigades)
--Jaysh al-Mujahideen, Jaysh Mujahidee Allah Akbar, Ansar al-Sunna, al-Jihad wal-Tawhid, and al-Ta'ifa al-Mansura (=formations of the General Republican Guard and the Special Guard)
--Jaysh Ansar al-Sunna (=Saddam's Special Guard)
--Jaysh al-Mu'tasim Billah, Jaysh al-Mansur Billah (=al-Fath Commandos, the Saddam Commandos, and Saddam's Scorpions and Panthers)
--Believers in the Awakening (=the special security organization "Saddam's Tigers")
The writer goes on to attribute the formation of the "Association of Muslim Scholars"--on the anniversary of the fall of the regime--to Ba'athist remnants, along with the Sunni Shura Council, and dozens of other Sunni organizations "at whose core are the official preachers, adherents of the former Saddamist foundations." He singles out the head of the Association of Muslim Scholars, Harith al-Dari, as "the leading advisor to Izzat al-Douri" who is "brazenly working to return Saddamist[s] to power in Iraq, after calling takfiris from abroad to kill Shi'ites."
Harith al-Dari has long been the subject of interest to the U.S. military in Iraq, who suspect him of fomenting resistance against U.S. troops and even in the kidnappings of Westerners, a charge he has denied. His son Muthanna al-Dari, whom the author of the posting describes as "a link between Ba'ath gangs, along with Arab politicians loyal to Saddam, and the takfiri leadership outside Iraq," distinguishes himself at present as heading the most rejectionist group in the present Constitution debate. Despite the alterations to Article 131 of the text published on October 13, which now states that "being a member of the Ba'ath Party is not grounds for prosecution and any [former] member is treated equally before the law," Muthanna continues to call for boycotting the elections and rejecting the constitution.
That the spectrum of opposition to the coalition forces in Iraq comprises many factions often with conflicting political, religious, tribal or simply criminal aims is well known. However, in the context of high-profile attacks by mujahid groups, particularly the latest anti-Shi'a campaign waged by al-Zarqawi and other groups, the posting is a useful reminder that the continuation of Ba'athist groups under new names is behind much of the religious branding of the violence in Iraq.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/18/2005 14:36 ||
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#1
I'm glad the military is recognizing the Baathists behind the violence but why is Izzat al-Douri still alive to foment trouble? If they all fled to Syria, then those that harbor terrorists are legitimate targets....and if they know they are behind the websites, why haven't they been located and taken out? Why the "hands-off" policy when it comes to Syria?
#2
I remember Saddam becoming more Islamic as the war approached and Ansar Al-Islam was already building up, doesn't matter now, their both in the cross hairs, clean up time.
October 18, 2005: The referendum on the Iraqi constitution is over, with a turnout of 63 percent, compared with 58 percent in the January elections to select the transitional government. The al Qaeda and Baathist terrorists launched a total of 13 attacks â compared with 347 during the January elections. In essence, for the fourth time in the past twelve months, al Qaeda has failed to halt an election in either Afghanistan or Iraq. The next elections, to select the parliament, are slated for December 15 pending the results of the referendum. The constitution appears to have been ratified.
The successful referendum underscores just how impotent al Qaeda has become since the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Four years ago, al Qaeda was able to launch a coordinated attack that killed 3,000 people in the United States. Now, al Qaeda has proven unable to oppose the United States after American troops have liberated two countries in al Qaedaâs backyard. These singular failures belie the claims of a quagmire coming from the mainstream media and critics of the Administration. Al Qaeda has been rejected by the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The American strategy of bringing democracy to Iraq is succeeding. So are the tactics that are being used to implement it. While the results are unknown, just the fact that the elections were held and were mostly violence-free is a victory in and of itself. The fact remains that the United States is achieving its objectives, while al Qaeda is not â al Qaeda is even failing to prevent the American objectives from being met. By any objective standard, al Qaeda is losing the war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. The only places they seem to be winning are in a number of newsrooms in the United States, and in Spain, where a series of bombs (combined with a major public relations misstep by the Spanish government) led to a change in government and Spanish withdrawal from Iraq.
This is not surprising. A number of the major media outlets have been focusing on the IED attack du jour, while missing the bigger picture. Also, since the failure to locate Iraqâs weapons of mass destruction, the media has taken a line that the liberation of Iraq was not worth the casualties (which are half of the total of fatalities suffered by the allies on D-Day). The mediaâs tendency to accentuate the negative has given al Qaeda a bit of a lifeline â their only hope for victory is that the anti-war movement, fuelled by the mainstream media, will wear down the political will of the United States.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/18/2005 09:32 ||
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#1
I see my mustache-curse is taking effect. A little slower than I had hoped...
#3
This insurgency has been dead for a long time now, it just doesn't know it. Not only have they been long ineffectual in the field, but their strategy and tactics are pathetic.
Their swan song was Fallujah, and even that was nothing more than a trap. By itself, it concentrated their resources for destruction, and perhaps shortened the insurgency by two years.
But even before Fallujah, Iraq was long used as a honey pot to attract capable violent militants from around the world, to fight a well armed and well trained army instead of civilians and ill-equipped policemen. Every one killed saved perhaps a dozen innocent lives, by annihilating the cream of the crop of fanatical killers from a dozen countries.
In addition, it short-circuited the brimming explosion of the middle east, and threatened every dictator and prince in the region. Instead of chaos that could have engulfed millions, millions are instead engulfed by democracy and freedom.
Iraq's election commission announced Monday that officials were investigating "unusually high" numbers of "yes" votes in about a dozen provinces during Iraq's landmark referendum on a new constitution, raising questions about irregularities in the balloting.
On Tuesday, insurgents shot and killed an adviser to one of Iraq's top Sunni Arab officials as he drove to work in Baghdad, police said.
The shooting of Ayed Abdul Ghani occurred in new Baghdad, an eastern section of the capital, at about 7:45 a.m., said police Maj. Falah Al-Mohammedawi.
Meanwhile, word of the review came as Sunni Arab leaders repeated accusations of fraud after initial reports from the provinces suggested the constitution had passed. Among the Sunni allegations are that police took ballot boxes from heavily "no" districts, and that some "yes" areas had more votes than registered voters.
The Electoral Commission made no mention of fraud, and an official with knowledge of the election process cautioned that it was too early to say whether the unusual numbers were incorrect or if they would affect the outcome.
But questions about the numbers raised tensions over Saturday's referendum, which has already sharply divided Iraqis. Most of the Shiite majority and the Kurds â the coalition which controls the government â support the charter, while most Sunni Arabs sharply opposed a document they fear will tear Iraq to pieces and leave them weak and out of power.
Irregularities in Shiite and Kurdish areas, expected to vote strongly "yes," may not affect the outcome. The main electoral battlegrounds were provinces with mixed populations, two of which went strongly "yes." There were conflicting reports whether those two provinces were among those with questionable figures.
In new violence, the U.S. military said that its warplanes and helicopters bombed two western villages Sunday, killing an estimated 70 militants near a site where five American soldiers died in a roadside blast. Residents said at least 39 of the dead were civilians, including children.
In the vote count, a sandstorm also became a factor, preventing many tallies from being flown from the provinces to Baghdad, where they are to be compiled and checked. The Electoral Commission said it needed "a few more days" to produce final results, citing the need for the audit.
At Baghdad's counting center, election workers cut open plastic bags of tally sheets sent from stations in the capital and its surroundings â the only ones to have arrived so far. Nearby, more workers, dressed in white T-shirts and caps bearing the election commission's slogan, sat behind computer screens punching in the numbers.
Election officials in many provinces have released their initial counts, indicating that Sunni attempts to defeat the charter failed.
But the commission found that the number of "yes" votes in most provinces appeared "unusually high" and would be audited, with random samples taken from ballot boxes to test them, said the commission's head, Adil al-Lami.
The high numbers were seen among the nine Shiite provinces of the south and the three Kurdish ones in the north, al-Lami told The Associated Press.
Those provinces reported to AP "yes" votes above 90 percent, with some as high as 97 and 98 percent.
Two provinces that are crucial to the results â Ninevah and Diyala, which have mixed Sunni, Shiite and Kurd populations â were not among those that appeared unusual, al-Lami said. He said their results "were reasonable and balanced according to the nature of the population in those areas."
But the official with knowledge of the counting process said the unexpected results were not isolated to the Shiite and Kurdish provinces and were "all around the country." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the count.
Sunni opponents needed to win over either Diyala or Ninevah to veto the constitution. Sunnis had to get a two-thirds "no" vote in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces to defeat the charter, and they appeared to have gotten it in western Anbar and central Salahuddin, both heavily Sunni.
Ninevah and Diyala are each believed to have a slight Sunni Arab majority. But results reported by provincial electoral officials showed startlingly powerful "yes" votes of up to 70 percent in each.
Allegations of fraud in those areas could throw into question the final outcome. But questions of whether the reported strong "yes" vote there is unusual are complicated by the fact that Iraq has not had a proper census in some 15 years, meaning the sectarian balance is not firmly known.
A prominent Sunni Arab politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, claimed Diyala in particular had seen vote rigging. He said he was told by the manager of a polling station in a Kurdish district of Diyala that 39,000 votes were cast although only 36,000 voters were registered there.
Al-Mutlaq said soldiers broke into a polling station in a Sunni district of the Diyala city of Baqouba and took ballot boxes heavy with "no" votes and that later results showed a "yes" majority. His claims could not be independently verified.
"Bottom line, we can say that the whole operation witnessed interference from government forces," he said.
Al-Mutlaq and Sunni Arab parliament member Meshaan al-Jubouri said polling officials in Ninevah had informed them that the provincial capital, Mosul, voted predominantly "no" â as high as 80 percent â while the Electoral Commission reported a 50-50 split.
Ninevah's deputy governor, Khesro Goran, a Kurd, dismissed the claims. "These declarations are excuses to justify the loss, and we did not receive any complaint from the (Electoral Commission) about such fears. Besides, the whole operation was under the supervision of the United Nations ... so no fraud occurred."
Sunni Arab turnout appeared to have been strong â in contrast to January parliamentary elections that the community largely boycotted.
President Bush said Monday that the vote was an indication that Iraqis want to settle disputes peacefully.
"I was pleased to see that the Sunnis have participated in the process," Bush said. "The idea of deciding to go into a ballot box is a positive development.
Many Sunnis fear the new decentralized government outlined in the constitution will deprive them of their fair share of the country's vast oil wealth by creating virtually independent mini-states of Kurds in the north and Shiites in the south, while leaving Sunnis isolated in central and western Iraq.
If the constitution indeed passed, the first full-term parliament since Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003 will install a new government by Dec. 31 following Dec. 15 elections. If the charter failed, the parliament elected that month will be temporary, tasked with drawing up a new draft constitution.
On Monday, former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and other secular leaders announced a new coalition they said unites moderate Sunnis, Shiites and other political groups â an appearent effort to strike a middle ground in Iraq's sharply divided political scene.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/18/2005 02:36 ||
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#1
Seems to me the easiest way to solve the division of oil wealth would be to conduct a censuss and divide up the wealth evenly.
#3
CF, True enough but there are some qualifications, such as being a convicted felon or Dead. I did not add that you ust be a Democrat because that would be redundant.
#4
As someone pointed out on The Corner, the Iraqis are checking this themselves, without being forced. How many recounts do you think Saddam's 98+% wins got?
I'll also point out that the accusations appear to be rather thin on proof. At this time we have more evidence of Democrat vote fraud in the 2004 election than we have of any fraud in Iraq.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/18/2005 9:23 Comments ||
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#5
In this case having more votes than voters in an area may actually be ok. One late concession by the authorities was to allow residents from some dangerous areas to vote from somewhere safer. People who wanted to vote 'yes' might have felt especially at risk and gone elsewhere.
Iraq's former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and other secular leaders announced a new coalition Monday they said unites moderate Sunnis, Shiites and other political groups to run in December's parliamentary elections. The coalition appeared to be aimed at striking a middle ground in Iraq's sharply divided political scene, where parties have been strictly defined on sectarian lines, including the Shiite and Kurdish groups that now dominate the government. "This conference is a major attempt to create a political bloc able to bring unity to this country and intent on saving the people from sectarian strife," said Mahdi al-Hafidh, a former planning minister.
It also could be a vehicle for Allawi to try to return himself to a position of influence. With strong U.S. backing, the secular Shiite was named prime minister of an interim government put in place after American administrators returned sovereignty to Iraq in June 2004. Allawi and his allies were swept out of power in January parliament elections _ the first national vote since Saddam Hussein's fall in April 2003. Clerical-backed Shiite parties won a majority in parliament and kept Allawi out of their coalition with the Kurds.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
The power of "umbrella secularists" is their inclusivity. Religious parties are too exclusive, often not just religiously, but culturally and ethnically. Secular parties will take anyone--you don't have to be or do anything else.
EFL Iraq's election commission announced Monday that officials were investigating "unusually high" numbers of "yes" votes in about a dozen provinces during Iraq's landmark referendum on a new constitution, raising questions about irregularities in the balloting.
Word of the review came as Sunni Arab (search) leaders repeated accusations of fraud after initial reports from the provinces suggested the constitution had passed. Among the Sunni allegations are that police took ballot boxes from heavily "no" districts, and that some "yes" areas had more votes than registered voters.
The Electoral Commission made no mention of fraud, and an official with knowledge of the election process cautioned that it was too early to say whether the unusual numbers were incorrect or if they would have an effect on the outcome.
But questions about the numbers raised tensions over Saturday's referendum, which has already sharply divided Iraqis. Most of the Shiite (search) majority and the Kurds (search) â the coalition which controls the government â support the charter, while most Sunni Arabs sharply opposed a document they fear will tear Iraq to pieces and leave them weak and out of power.
Irregularities in Shiite and Kurdish areas, expected to vote strongly "yes," may not affect the final outcome. The main electoral battlegrounds were provinces with mixed populations, two of which went strongly "yes." There were conflicting reports whether those two provinces were among those with questionable figures.
Election officials in many provinces have released their initial counts, indicating that Sunni attempts to defeat the charter failed.
But the commission found that the number of "yes" votes in most provinces appeared "unusually high" and would be audited, with random samples taken from ballot boxes to test them, said the commission's head, Adil al-Lami.
The high numbers were seen among the nine Shiite provinces of the south and the three Kurdish ones in the north, al-Lami told The Associated Press.
Those provinces reported to AP "yes" votes above 90 percent, with some as high as 97 and 98 percent.
Two provinces that are crucial to the results â Ninevah and Diyala, which have mixed Sunni, Shiite and Kurd populations â were not among those that appeared unusual, al-Lami said. He said their results "were reasonable and balanced according to the nature of the population in those areas."
But the official with knowledge of the counting process said the unexpected results were not isolated to the Shiite and Kurdish provinces and were "all around the country." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the count.
Sunni opponents needed to win over either Diyala or Ninevah to veto the constitution. Sunnis had to get a two-thirds "no" vote in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces to defeat the charter, and they appeared to have gotten it in western Anbar and central Salahuddin, both heavily Sunni.
Ninevah and Diyala are each believed to have a slight Sunni Arab majority. But results reported by provincial electoral officials showed startlingly powerful "yes" votes of up to 70 percent in each.
Allegations of fraud in those areas could throw into question the final outcome. But questions of whether the reported strong "yes" vote there is unusual are complicated by the fact that Iraq has not had a proper census in some 15 years, meaning the sectarian balance is not firmly known.
A prominent Sunni Arab politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, claimed Diyala in particular had seen vote rigging. He said he was told by the manager of a polling station in a Kurdish district of Diyala that 39,000 votes were cast although only 36,000 voters were registered there.
We took notes in Seattle...
Al-Mutlaq said soldiers broke into a polling station in a Sunni district of the Diyala city of Baqouba (search) and took ballot boxes heavy with "no" votes and that later results showed a "yes" majority. His claims could not be independently verified.
"Bottom line, we can say that the whole operation witnessed interference from government forces," he said.
Al-Mutlaq and Sunni Arab parliament member Meshaan al-Jubouri said polling officials in Ninevah had informed them that the provincial capital, Mosul, voted predominantly "no" â as high as 80 percent â while the Electoral Commission reported a 50-50 split.
Ninevah's deputy governor, Khesro Goran, a Kurd, dismissed the claims. "These declarations are excuses to justify the loss, and we did not receive any complaint from the (Electoral Commission) about such fears. Besides, the whole operation was under the supervision of the United Nations ... so no fraud occurred."
Mayor Daly, cleanup in aisle four...
Posted by: DanNY ||
10/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Are the Democrats going to send in a team of lawyers to advise the Sunnis? Maybe Bill Daley?
#3
...and when they get the results they want, they bury the reports of fraud. Tell me again why the Press* should continue their first amendment rights? cause the second seems to open to local infringement without complaint from the MSM, maybe its time for some equal treatment.
*Press - a commercial enterprise filing business and tax statements.
If your mind's never boggled before, this is what it feels like...
Palestinian factions on Monday joined together in an accord of honor stipulating not carrying arms during the upcoming legislative elections. While the accord was not signed by the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS) and the Islamic Jihad Movement (IJM), 12 other Palestinian factions signed the accord.
You mean the two parties most likely to break the agreement didn't even bother to agree to it? Which of the Fleagle brothers thought this up? Eagle Eye or Bird Brain... No. Wait. Lemme guess...
I think some of these were made up specifically so they could sign. Most of them haven't really been counted among the ranks of the gun-totin' heroes, like the elephants in the living room that didn't sign.
Sorta like the Judaean Peoples Front and the Peoples Front of Judaea.
Factions' representatives, during the signing ceremony, expressed unity and solidarity with one another in this "very crucial step" that would help in battling the common enemy and bring together Palestine's people.
I'll bet they had a group hug while the ink was drying...
The 25-article accord stipulated absolute accordance with Palestinian legislative elections' laws, a maximum of USD 1 million to be used by each party for electoral publicity with a maximum of USD 60,000 for each candidate, submitting a financial statement to the electoral committee and not accepting any money from the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) or any non-Palestinian organization.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#3
Accord of Honor:
I give you my word, Abu, that I will only shoot at joooos...
Hey, there's one behind you! Bam, Bam, Bam
Sorry Abu. Abu? Ah! The jooos have killed another martyr.
#5
An "accord of honor".
I feel soooooo much better. If you can't trust the Palestinian Fronts of the Front of the Back of the Front Front, who can you trust?
Beirut, 18 Oct. (AKI) - Syrian workmen and soldiers backed by bulldozers on Tuesday began to shore up passes and trails on Syria's side of its porous border with Lebanon in a bid to halt the smuggling of goods, including chicken, destined for Lebanese markets.
"Psssst! Hey, buddy! Want to buy a hot chicken?"
Damascus' decision to clamp down on the illegal trafficking comes in the wake of recent protests by authorities in Beirut. Lebanese retailers and merchants have been up in arms over the introduction of the smuggled goods which are sold at much lower prices than similar products available in Lebanon. But concern among consumers is also high after the seizure last week of a consignment of smuggled chickens triggered a countrywide alarm that such meat could be infected with the bird flu virus.
Humm, I don't belive it can be transmitted by chicken meat. Live birds are another matter.
Gaps and passages along the Syrian-Lebanese frontier which is demarcated by mounds of soil have allowed smugglers to drive their cars and vans into Lebanon, circumventing official border crossings and evading customs controls.
Another wall to prevent illegal border crossing, how about that. Now why don't we, never mind.....
Posted by: Steve ||
10/18/2005 10:17 ||
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Noteworthy in that they are blockading Lebanon using a similar method to how the US blockaded them from Iraq. Credit where credit is due, the Syrians learn by observation.
Syrian opposition liberal parties have announced a new broad alliance to unify their demands for wider political participation and the lifting of curbs on public freedoms. A gathering of a dozen liberal, pan-Arab nationalist, and left-wing political parties on Sunday, said they signed a petition named the Damascus Declaration to promote greater freedoms and demand a new constitution to usher in political pluralism. "We are calling for ending of all forms of political repression and opening a new chapter in the history of the country," Akram al-Buni, an activist among the signatories said.
The alliance, which also includes both Arab and Kurdish leftist activists, urged the government to lift the emergency law, in place since the ruling Baath party assumed power in 1963. "We demand the abrogation of all forms of exceptions in public life and the end of emergency laws and extra-ordinary judicial courts and the release of all political prisoners," said the statement.
Syria, whose Baath party agreed in June to loosen the emergency law, is under mounting US-led pressure to reform. But the authorities in the tightly controlled country say they cannot tolerate foreign inspired activism that seeks to reap political gains from mounting US and Western pressure to isolate the country.
Activists said police disrupted a meeting on Sunday to launch the alliance in the office of 72-year-old lawyer Hasan Abd al-Azim, who also heads a pan-Arab nationalist party. Abd al-Azim said the grouping was the secular opposition's first serious attempt to put forward unified demands for reforms since President Bashar al-Assad introduced a measure of political freedom when he assumed power in 2000.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I suspect the SF has something to do with this. This is right down the SF's alley.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/18/2005 18:47 Comments ||
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The WoT did not start on 9/11; this timeline goes back into the early 60's. They have cleverly used supporting quotes form presidents current to the time periods, including Kennedy, Carter (!), and Clinton.
Maybe you'll want to bookmark it.... Bobby
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/18/2005 08:35 ||
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Hmm. No Bobby Kennedy on that list. Are they saying Sirhan acted alone?
As the role of the media becomes increasingly important in the overall strategy of al-Qaeda, the network has decided to issue an appeal for help to all Muslims working in news and information. With a video broadcast on Monday on Islamist forums on the Internet, the "Emir of the Global Islamic Media Front" said: "We invite you to join the Islamic Media Front so that you can help us, through your ideas and your experience."
"We need your help and your technical knowledge. The Front is present in Islamic forums on the Internet and will be boosting its messages in the future: Come and help Islam by joining the Front" the message urges.
The recording was referred to during the latest al-Qaeda 'news bulletin', the third, broadcast last week. During the 8-minute video message, there is a close up of a man with his face masked, reading a text written on a page. THe man invites all Muslims in the communications sector to exploit their knowledge to help the jihad, underlining the central role that the Internet is playing in the battle against the enemies of Islam.
Also on Monday, the same organisation broadcast a propaganda video on the Iraqi insurgency, entitled "The Echo of Bullets", a compilation of old video clips of Baathist guerrillas and fighters loyal to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi with in the background an Islamic song which sings the praises of the Iraqi insurgents.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/18/2005 02:16 ||
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oooh, oooh, hire me! I can do it!!
A warm wind blew through the tiny little village. Babies, with empty stomachs, as big as watermellons, lay unattended on mats. No one came to answer their piteous cries. They will be lucky to live through the difficult Arabian winter.
Abdul is a young man who is angry. Angry because US imperialism has left him with no job, no medicine and no social security benefits. He carries a gun, but has no bullets. His bullets were stolen when roving bands of bandits came through his town, killed his parents and took his sister. He wanders aimlessly through the town, speaking to an occassional shopkeeper, looking for odd jobs that provide him just enough to stay alive in this dry, desolate, despairing, difficult, dangerous, disappointing, desert.
Adul makes smacking sounds as he eats what will certainly be his only meal of the day; left over bread given to him by Islamist extremists from the People's Front for Angry Young Men Out of Work and Sexually Frustrated Because They Live in Totalitarian Cess Pools Funded By Religious Fanatics. The PFFAYMOOWASFBTLITCPFBRF has greatly improved Abuls lot and he is grateful for the stale slice of bread and medicine that they give to him.
Abdul is America's worst nightmare and America trembles at the thought of him. Sheltered and fed by the Islamists, Abdul can now find an outlet for his frustration at American occupation of in Iraq. "George Bush has humiliated me" he says. I must regain the honor of my proud people.
Am I hired yet? NO? How about if I add some sound effects - pots clanking, babies crying? Come on. It's as good as anything I've seen written in the NYT or produced by NPR.
#5
err, i thought AL-Jizz already worked for em and most of the western media too, I'm confused now lol.
Posted by: Shep UK ||
10/18/2005 8:16 Comments ||
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#6
2b:
Superb! Though you might wish to add an account of depleted uranium shell fragments and how little Arab children with gumdrop tears and chocolate smiles now have a third foot growing out of their hip.
Must not forget to mention DU, and make sure it is made in the USA and has been sitting in the village since 1991 Gulf War I.
#7
Shouldn't there be at least a passing mention of OIL and ZIONISTS, somewhere? Otherwise, pretty good, I think you've got yourself a job at Al Jezeera!
The Oct. 8 earthquake that devastated Kashmir, killing about 40,000 people, also rocked the political foundation of the disputed Himalayan province.
Many Kashmiris have been livid at a sluggish response by the Pakistani government, which maintains that it cares passionately for an area over which it has fought two wars with India, in 1947 and 1965. The earthquake also has prompted some of the Muslim militant fighters in the region to take on a new role: providing emergency aid to stricken villages.
After the earthquake, it took the military two days to fan out across the devastated land, much of it in the Pakistani-controlled section of Kashmir. Although helicopters were sent to ferry out the wounded, relief aid has failed to reach remote villages. According to one US diplomat, 20 percent of the quake zone has yet to receive assistance.
Some Kashmiris admit Islamabad faced many obstacles, including giant landslides, broken roads, and chaotic and hungry crowds. But many say they feel abandoned.
Among them is Abdul Rashid, who walked down a stony mountain trail leading into Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, with a bag of belongings over his shoulder and a painful limp in one leg.
This was his second struggle for survival, he said. In 1990 as a citizen of Indian-administered Kashmir, he said, he was forced to flee to Pakistani territory to escape police brutality.
''They took my children from school and beat them. They said we were terrorists. But I was just a farmer," said the 45-year-old, lifting his shirt to show welts on his back he said were from the beatings.
The Pakistani government housed Rashid and his eight children in a refugee camp outside Muzaffarabad. They gave him a monthly stipend of 1,000 rupees, about $16, per family member, a decent sum by local standards.
But the earthquake toppled Rashid's home, injured his leg, and almost killed his family, leaving them hungry and homeless. Now, he said, his faith in the military-dominated Islamabad government, like his house, has collapsed.
''The government is doing nothing, only the private aid agencies are helping us," he said. Behind him a group of friends scampered after an aid truck halting by the side of the road. ''Both governments, India and Pakistan, are the problem. When they go from Kashmir, then we can live freely. Until then, we are in trouble."
Others share his anger.
''There is only government in name," said Abdul Majid, an injured man living in a tent provided by an Islamic charity. ''They hold press conferences in Islamabad but do nothing on the ground."
The quake has also cracked open a highly restricted areas. Until last week, diplomats and journalists were forbidden from visiting most of Kashmir. The Pakistani government was ostensibly afraid they would stumble across the state-supported militants groups who carry out attacks in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Now foreigners can roam almost anywhere in Pakistani-held Kashmir. The biggest revelation has been the area's chronic underdevelopment.
''Infrastructure, hospitals, roads, quality of life -- all have been neglected for decades," said Talat Massod, a retired army general and political analyst in Islamabad. ''If the government had spent more money on people and less on defense, the scale of the disaster would have been much less."
Villagers in the region of Kashmir controlled by India have also expressed anger at their government's perceived slow response to the emergency.
Most analysts say it is too early to predict the political ramifications of the brewing discontent. Some say it could blow over once the initial crisis passes; others speculate that it may lead to some sort of violent protest.
The quake may also provide some impetus toward compromise. After an initial hesitation, Islamabad accepted New Delhi's offers of relief aid. Last week, an Indian Air Force jet loaded with relief supplies landed in Pakistan -- the first since 1971.
What's more, circumstances have changed irrevocably for the Muslim fundamentalist groups that have long been at center stage in the 58-year-old conflict.
Rumors have circulated that the quake hit some secret training camps in highland areas, killing hundreds of jihadi fighters. Among the extremists who survived, some have turned to charity.
While international relief agencies are only starting to arrive in Muzaffarabad, Jamaat-ud Dawa, one of Pakistan's most prominent extremist groups, has been providing aid for more than a week.
On a muddy patch of land near the Neelum river, Jamaat ud-Dawa has set up a bustling aid camp to treat, feed, and house the wounded. Surgeons work in an operating theater fashioned from blue plastic sheets, and diesel generators power X-ray and dental machines; ambulances roam the city looking for the wounded.
''Everything is funded by private donations," said spokesman Salman Shaheed He wore a scraggly beard of the sort usually worn by religious conservatives. ''We even have surplus supplies of food and medicine."
Jamaat ud-Dawa is more than an aid agency. It is widely viewed as a fund-raising front for Lashkar-i-Taiba, one of the largest jihadi groups in Kashmir. Banned by the Pakistani government in January 2002, some of Lashkar's senior members have been linked to Al Qaeda.
Jamaat still operates openly, running madrassas, providing free medical care, and dispatching preachers to mosques across Pakistan. Militancy specialists also contend it is a recruiting ground for jihad, an allegation denied by Shaheed.
''There is absolutely no relationship with Lashkar. We are purely a welfare and humanitarian organization," he said.
Behind him a dozen young men wearing camouflage T-shirts and white bibs loitered near a truck. They were a ''security detail" to protect aid supplies from looting, he said. Although no weapons were visible, some were armed, he added.
Still, the quake victims living in the Jamaat camp said they knew little about the group's militant past. Most were simply grateful for their help.
Muhammad Mahboob, a 60-year-old man with an injured leg, was sitting outside his tent. He had been operated on a few days earlier. ''If Jamaat wasn't here, I would be dead by now," he said. ''But the government hasn't done a thing. It makes you think: What do we need them for?"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/18/2005 02:05 ||
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''Everything is funded by private donations," said spokesman Salman Shaheed He wore a scraggly beard of the sort usually worn by religious conservatives. ''We even have surplus supplies of food and medicine."
Jamaat ud-Dawa is more than an aid agency. It is widely viewed as a fund-raising front for Lashkar-i-Taiba, one of the largest jihadi groups in Kashmir.
and the Boston Globe is only too happy to promote their cheap, propaganda fund raising effort, so transparent that only an AP/Reuters reporter would be opaque enough to fall for it.
Send money...for um...the children, yeah, that's it....the children...and poor Abdul with a limp
#3
Keep in mind that all of the ppl who become dependent on the JuD's good will are likely to remain such for the immediate future. Talk about a perfect recruiting pool from which to replenish their losses.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/18/2005 3:06 Comments ||
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#4
"1990 as a citizen of Indian-administered Kashmir,"15 years later and still showing welts,that must of been one hell of a beating.
#5
Now foreigners can roam almost anywhere in Pakistani-held Kashmir. The biggest revelation has been the area's chronic underdevelopment.
Revelation to whom?
Visitors from Pakistani Kashmir have viewed with surprise the medical school and engineering colleges in Indian Kashmir (something their diet of pakistani TV does not show). There was nothing like this in Pakistani controlled areas.
It is no surprise that the pakistani praetorian state does not spend on development. The army preceeded the existence of the state itself and takes precedence in the line for funds.
Posted by: john ||
10/18/2005 6:33 Comments ||
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#6
the Boston Globe is only too happy to promote their cheap, propaganda fund raising effort
Boston funded the IRA, too. It's in the liberal blood.
#11
Al Qaeda supporters were bought in the first place because Binny funded these poor tribes. USAID is the best diplomatic tool we have in Kashmir. What a hoot to think they even accepted Israeli aid, although it had to be disguised through a third party.
#12
"1990 as a citizen of Indian-administered Kashmir,"15 years later and still showing welts,that must of been one hell of a beating.
Pakistan has regular tours of "refugee camps" where "oppressed" Kashmiris recount their woes to foreign reporters.
One visit had a few Indian reporters. One woman related her sad tale of woe, telling of rape by Indian soldiers. The press dutifully recorded this.
Then the Indian asked, in Kashmiri language, for more details. She had been speaking in Urdu, with an english translator. There was confusion as the Pakistan army handlers realized the game was up.
They made up an excuse saying the woman could not bear to speak Kashmiri because it reminded her of her oppression. The Indian reporter then asked if it was Indian Kashmiri soldiers? The J+K regiment?
Most of their units are not even posted in Kashmir.
The interview was abruptly ended as the woman was "tired".
Posted by: john ||
10/18/2005 17:22 Comments ||
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Egypt has started building a wire fence around Sharm El-Sheikhâs tourist spots in a bid to prevent attackers from crossing into the Red Sea resort that was hit by deadly bombings in July, a security official said yesterday. âThe fence aims to block cars from entering tourist areas except from four designated points and thus prevent possible terror attacks,â the official said on condition of anonymity.
The fence would span 20 kilometers, stand one-and-a-half meters high, and be patrolled by security forces, the official said. He said work started on Saturday but did not say when it would end. Once the fence is complete, access to the city will be restricted to police-monitored entry points, equipped with state-of-the-art explosive detection equipment, he said. The opposition newspaper Al-Wafd put the fence price tag at 20 million Egyptian pounds ($3.5 million) but did not say how it obtained the figure. âHow is Egypt different from the government of (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon) that built a separation wall to stop the Palestinian resistance?â it wrote on its front page. âThis wall seeks to keep Sinai Bedouins out of Sharm El-Sheikh but it will only separate the state from its citizens ... it will not prevent terrorism, it will increase it,â it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Building fences to keep out the terrorists is akin to building city walls to keep out the barbarians, a good idea. A simpler approach would be to gather up all the radical muslims, put them someplace and build the fence around them. Even the Egyptians realize that these perverts are homicidal thugs that have no place in civilized society. The State can either kill them or exclude them; for the time being it is fencing them out.
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.
Former Home Minister and Awami League leader Mohammad Nasim MP yesterday termed the banning of Harkat-ul-Jihad as an eyewash by the government that he alleged has so long provided political shelter to all these militant outfits. "Weâd banned Harkat-ul-Jihad and outlawed its leader Mufti Hannan after the Kotalipara bomb planting. What use banning it anew after giving them shelter for last four years? This is designed to hoodwink people ahead of elections," Nasim told the news agency last night in his reaction over the government action.
European Union states, including Austria, have expressed security concerns and fear of terrorist attacks after last Friday's arrest campaign in Netherlands against who the Hague called terrorists. Austria Press Agency (APA) cited European judicial affairs commissioner as saying that Netherlands' arrest campaign have revealed that terrorism remained a threat on EU's member states.
MANAMA - One of the six Bahrainis being held at the military prison on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is hospitalized and being force fed, according to his US lawyer.
Iraq's former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and other secular leaders announced a new coalition Monday they said unites moderate Sunnis, Shiites and other political groups to run in December's parliamentary elections. The coalition appeared to be aimed at striking a middle ground in Iraq's sharply divided political scene, where parties have been strictly defined on sectarian lines, including the Shiite and Kurdish groups that now dominate the government. "This conference is a major attempt to create a political bloc able to bring unity to this country and intent on saving the people from sectarian strife," said Mahdi al-Hafidh, a former planning minister.
Iraq's election commission announced Monday that officials were investigating "unusually high" numbers of "yes" votes in about a dozen provinces during Iraq's landmark referendum on a new constitution, raising questions about irregularities in the balloting. 
Syrian opposition liberal parties have announced a new broad alliance to unify their demands for wider political participation and the lifting of curbs on public freedoms. A gathering of a dozen liberal, pan-Arab nationalist, and left-wing political parties on Sunday, said they signed a petition named the Damascus Declaration to promote greater freedoms and demand a new constitution to usher in political pluralism. "We are calling for ending of all forms of political repression and opening a new chapter in the history of the country," 
Egypt has started building a wire fence around Sharm El-Sheikhâs tourist spots in a bid to prevent attackers from crossing into the Red Sea resort that was hit by deadly bombings in July, a security official said yesterday. âThe fence aims to block cars from entering tourist areas except from four designated points and thus prevent possible terror attacks,â the official said on condition of anonymity.
