Via EU Referendum, Raenorth's link in the comments goes astray, but I'm sure it's around someplace. The Union's already got something on their site.
The only military explosives factory left in the UK is to be closed down, with production possibly moving to Bordeaux France, in a deal between the factory operator BAE Land Systems and the state owned French company Societe Nationale des Poudres et Explosifs (SNPE).
The unit to be closed is the former Royal Ordnance factory in Bridgewater, Somerset, now owned by BAE Land systems. It not only makes explosives for artillery shells, bombs and solid fuel for missiles, but also produces unique components for Britain's nuclear weapons.
The closure is one of two announced by BAE, the other at Chorley, near Preston in Lancashire, which produces ammunition, another facility vital to the security of Britain's defences....
#4
Well, anybody want to guess what the nationality of the tyrant that overruns Britain and can only be expelled with the loss of millions of lives will be?
I think we can narrow the list to two dozen or so.
#5
Well, anybody want to guess what the nationality of the tyrant that overruns Britain and can only be expelled with the loss of millions of lives will be?
No idea what nation he'll be from, but I got some ideas about how often he'll pray and whether he'll be concerned with the direction he's facing at the time.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/01/2005 11:02 Comments ||
Top||
#6
And I got some ideas of who they'll call for backup.
#7
Isn't the normal pattern these days when closing a production site... to reopen in China? Why did they choose to go to a country that has higher labour costs?
Posted by: john ||
11/01/2005 11:53 Comments ||
Top||
#11
BAE Systems runs the former Holston Army Ammunition Plant here in Kingsport, Tennessee. It's kind of ironic that they have provided the fireworks for the last two 4th of July fireworks displays here. Most of the management is British but they kept the operations people. This plant makes quite a lot of the explosives used by our military. I worked on the design for the newest hand grenade while contracted out to them before BAE took over. The Brits can always buy from us.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/01/2005 11:58 Comments ||
Top||
#12
All your base are belong to us
I saw a video snippet of that a few months ago; it's funny and redefines the word 'cheesy' in so many ways!
#13
Not on short notice if we don't already manufacture their calibre. As I understand it they were dependent in GWII for artillery on a Belgian factory that refused to sell to them and so had shrotages. Britain will soon be able to act unilaterally. Britain could not defend the Falklands today, nor Gibralter if the Spanish really wanted it.
It is important to note that there is not a set of Trident IIs specifically dedicated to British use. Rather Britain draws on a pool of commingled missiles kept in the Strategic Weapons Facility Atlantic at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia. Britain has title to 58 missiles but does not own them; a missile that was deployed on a U.S. sub may later deploy on a British sub, or vice versa.
Posted by: john ||
11/01/2005 12:24 Comments ||
Top||
#15
They need to outsource morons who make idiotic decisions like this. Even a Palestinian wingnut would know better.
#16
Britain could not defend the Falklands today, nor Gibralter if the Spanish really wanted it.
Hardly true, for if the British are in less than perfect shape the Argentines and Spanish are in far worse. With 2 CVs on the way (maybe built in France too) and the Ocean already deployed, re-enforceing the Falklands or Gibraltar becomes much easier.
#19
Specifics on my last post. From EUReferendum...
"Speaking to the House of Commons Defence Committee, Lord Drayson apparently told MPs that the MoD had dropped the target day of 2012 for the delivery of the first carrier, with the second to follow by 2015. No new date could be set pending âcriticalâ negotiations with defence contractors who were to build the ships."
#20
To be honest if the Argies had half a brain amung their leadership (like grabbing the islands during the winter when Naval action would have been useless) the Britts couldn't have retaken the Falklands in the first place. I'm sure that's one lesson they've figured out by now.
American-style citizenship tests and loyalty ceremonies become compulsory in Britain today following yesterdayâs soft launch by UK Immigration Minister Tony McNulty of the âBritishness Testâ, officially called âLife in the UK Testâ.
Foreigners who apply for British citizenship through naturalization must take the test and pass at least three-quarters of the 24 questions set in the computer-based multiple-choice exam, which costs 34 pounds to enter.
McNulty stressed that âbecoming a British citizen is a milestone event in an individualâs life. The measures we are introducing will help new citizens to gain a greater appreciation of the civic and political dimension of British citizenship and, in particular, to understanding the rights and responsibilities that come with the acquisition of British citizenship.â
Critics and minority groups have complained that the test is too tough even for many people born and raised in the UK, let alone those who come over from abroad. The British have never made a spectacle out of their nationalism, nor gone down the road of institutionalizing it. Flying the flag in a chauvinistic way is usually the domain of the far right neo-fascist groups such as the British National Party and the National Front.
and those obnoxious Americans who have ensconced themselves on our border with Iraq .....
The Test curriculum was set by a Home Office panel chaired by Professor Sir Bernard Crick and has been piloted in centers throughout the country with 6,000 people already having sat the test. Last year a record 141,000 people were granted UK citizenship, a rise of 12 percent on the previous year.
According to the Home Office, almost 60 percent of people born abroad living in the UK take British citizenship within six years, People born in Asian or African countries account for 40 percent and 32 percent respectively of all citizenship applications, the principal nationalities being Pakistani, Indian and Somali.
The âLife in the UKâ test was first mooted by former Home Secretary David Blunkett. Following the 7/7 suicide bombings on the London transport system which claimed 56 lives and the botched attempts on July 21, the importance of espousing British democratic values especially among Muslims living in Britain was once again propelled on the public agenda. The problem is that the suicide bombings were carried out by young Britons born and bred in this country.
The question of what it is to be British and how to engage and help foreigners integrate and share in British values and traditions assumed greater political importance, especially amongst New Labour ministers.
Prospective new citizens already need to demonstrate sufficient working knowledge of English to help them get on. The Home Office has also produced a âLife in the UK citizenship guideâ for prospective new citizens that includes information on British history and society, its institutions and political system â and also practical issues key to integration such as employment, health care, education and using public services like libraries.
Sample questions include: Where are the Geordie, Cockney, and Scouse dialects spoken? What are MPs? What is the Church of England and who is its head? Which of these courts uses a jury system: magistratesâ court, crown court, youth court or county court? What voltage is the UK electricity supply: 750 volts, 60 volts, 110 volts or 240 volts? Put the UK saintsâ days in calendar order. In what year was the right to vote granted to all 18-year-olds?
Do you agree women should have equal rights? (if no, automatic deportation)
Do you agree to uphold the laws of Britain ahead of any religious or cultural duty you may have had in your country of origin? (if no , automatic deportation)
Do you agree not to physically asault any individual even if they have offended your honour, if they are a female relative or if they are homosexual? (if no immediate deportation)
Do you agree that a woman has the right to choose her friends and who she marries? (you get the idea)
#4
Naw more like:
Was Yassir the Arafat
A. A good leader but a bad man
B. Yes
C. No
D. Sickly
Choose one and illustrate with pie charts using magenta or what-have-you.
Immigrants who want to become UK citizens will have to show the knowledge of British customs and history if they are to pass new compulsory tests unveiled by the government on Monday. The 45-minute âLife in the UKâ tests, which all applicants must sit from Tuesday, require immigrants to answer 24 multiple questions about British life ranging from knowledge of Queen Elizabeth to regional dialects. The tests, which cost 34 pounds and can be taken at about 90 centres across the country, come on top of a need for new citizens to demonstrate a working knowledge of English. âAn understanding of the British language and our way of life is vital,â said Immigration Minister Tony McNulty. âThe measures we are introducing today will help new citizens gain a greater appreciation of the civic and political dimension of British citizenship and, in particular, to understanding the rights and responsibilities that come with British citizenship.â
And make sure you don't drink on the daggone buses!
Posted by: Fred ||
11/01/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The baconburger test would tell them all they need to know.
#3
âThe measures we are introducing today will help new âcitizens gain a greater appreciation of the civic and political dimension of British citizenship and, in particular, to understanding the rights and responsibilities that come with British citizenship.â Both neive and stupid.
Probably, Mr. Reader, you did not yesterday wash five times, face Mecca, sink to your knees, and pray to Allah. Most likely, Ms. Reader, you did not cover yourself with a burka before venturing out to shop. Probably neither of you is giving up all food between sunup and sundown during the ongoing monthlong Ramadan.
For freedom from all of these obligations, you might spare a minute sometime today, and every October, to say a silent "thank you" to a gang of half-savage Germans and especially to their leader, Charles "The Hammer" Martel. Nice backgrounder on the Battle of Tours, and questions about what might have been...
#2
And to prevent this, what? A square of shaggy quasi-barbarians armed with swords, spears, and clubs. Perhaps Abd er Rahman's chief regret was that there were too few of the outnumbered foe to go around.
#4
Franks weren't the kind of undisciplined savages depicted by the article: read Victor Hanson's book "Carnage and Culture" and the Franks you will have in your mind will look far more the iron covered Norman warriors depicted in the Bayeux tapestry than to savages with horned helmets and clubs, while tactically, the Franks were closer to the Roman model (even if leagues behind) than to the Germanic hordes of yore. Did I mention that unlike other Germanic tribes the Franks had allowed Gallo-Romans in the army specially in that infantry who carried the day.
#5
I have some doubts about Muslims not well dressed enough: in Castilia (the plateau who covers most of Spain) winters can be very, very harsh. More than in the Poitiers region. What is probable is that after having destroyed everything on its path the Muslims found they couldn't expect supplies coming: they had to defeat the Frank Army or starve.
Also the reports of Muslims having broken through the Frank square and being defeated only because of the rumor Franks were looting the Muslim camp are from a Muslim historian and look suspiciously like trying to embellish things and to blame the defeat on lack of virtue in the Muslim army (a constant between Muslim historians)
#9
"Because Charlie (the Hammer) never heard of Human Rights "
yeah, which is why its called the "dark ages" The United States was founded by men like Jefferson and Adams who wanted to moved away from feudal remnants, and inscribed human rights into the Declaration and the US constitution.
#13
Occupied by the Turks in 1498, Lepanto is chiefly celebrated for the victory which the combined papal, Spanish, Venetian, and Genoese fleets, under Don John of Austria, gained over the Turkish fleet on 7 Oct., 1571. The latter had 208 galleys and 66 small ships; the Christian fleet about the same number. The crusaders lost 17 ships and 7500 men; 15 Turkish ships were sunk and 177 taken, from 20,000 to 30,000 men disabled, and from 12,000 to 15,000 Christian rowers, slaves on the Turkish galleys, were delivered. Though this victory did not accomplish all that was hoped for, since the Turks appeared the very next year with a fleet of 250 ships before Modon and Cape Matapan, and in vain offered battle to the Christians, it was of great importance as being the first great defeat of the infidels on the sea.
Well, sounds about right JFM. On that note, Shipman, Poland doesn't border Austria but that didn't prevent them from showing up to save the day from the Turks.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/01/2005 18:29 Comments ||
Top||
#16
OK, let's Google Lepanto France and see what we get.
Oct. 7, 1571, two great armadas, one Christian and one Moslem, met at the mouth of the Gulf of Patras, off Lepanto, Greece. The battle is significant for several reasons: It was the last naval battle in history in which both navies used galleys propelled by slaves chained to oars, it marked the end of Turkish ascendancy in the Mediterranean and opened the door to Christian dominance of that sea
But, what was the cause of this battle and, of greater interest to us, what was the crypto-Jewish connection?
The war, like all wars, had many causes, but one of the more significant ones was the fact that France owed 150,000 ducats to the Duke of Naxos. Turkish Sultan Salim II had conquered the Island of Naxos and appointed his close friend, Joseph Nasi, as Duke. Nasi had been born in Portugal to a family that had been forcibly converted to Catholicism. Joseph was baptized in the church and raised under the name João Migues. In time, Joseph became a principal in the House of Mendes, a major trading and banking company of the age.
As a financier, João/Joseph often dealt with the royal houses of Europe and the loan to the king of France was made while he was still openly a Catholic. For their own safety, the family had to leave Iberia and eventually they settled in the Ottoman Empire. Here they returned to Judaism and to their Jewish names.
When Salim ascended to the throne he rewarded his Jewish friend with the Dukedom.
When King Charles IX of France learned of this he disavowed his debt to the new Duke, insisting that the loan was taken from the Christian, João and that nothing was owed to the Jew, Joseph.
Joseph, however owed money to the new Sultan and could not pay it unless the French loan was collected. In 1569 Sultan Salim II gave the Mendes/Nasi banking family permission to seize merchandise from French flagged ships in the port of Alexandria. The French protested to Istanbul and Sultan Salim notified King Charles that once the loan had been paid the merchandise would be returned. The dispute continued and grew. Two years later French vessels joined an allied fleet (about 200 galleys,) consisting mainly of Spanish, Venetian, and ships sent by the pope and a number of Italian states. They defeated the Moslem fleet of Turkish and North African galleys.
OK, French anti-semitism, double-dealing and playing Let's you and him fight. Showing up with just enough force to claim to have contributed to victory. Some things never change. Like this:
By 1571 the Moslems were firmly installed in Europe. Their ships ruled the Mediterranean Sea from the Strait of Bosporus to the Strait of Gibraltar and constantly preyed on Christian vessels unless they flew the French flag.
Pope Pius V, in the last year of his papacy in 1571, tried to rally the nations of Europe to join in a Holy League to stop and roll back the Moslem enemy which threatened the entire continent. Spain, whose King Philip II was also King of Austria, responded favorably.
November 1, 2005: France is burning. For most of the last week, there have been nasty riots in the Parisian suburb of St Denis, complete with fires and many casualties. This area is home to about 500,000 Moslems. Many largely Moslem suburbs of Paris, and other large cities, have become no-go zones for the police, and anyone who is not of Middle Eastern origin. Over the last three decades, generous social benefits and immigration policies have left France with a Moslem population of some five million (about eight percent of the population.) High rise housing for them was built on the outskirts of major cities. Most of these Moslems did not try to assimilate, and by maintaining their old country culture and language, they made it more difficult for their kids to get jobs.
Among the old school customs practiced is attacking, and even murdering, girls who do not conform to a âMoslemâ style of behavior. While jobs may be lacking, crime and social welfare payments are not. So people can live without jobs, and make a little extra with some crime on the side. But when you have a lot of people participating in, or just condoning, criminal behavior, you have a very dangerous place for outsiders. Officially, the government condemns this sort of âprofiling,â but a look at crime statistics shows that high rates of robbery, murder and rape tend to coincide with Moslem areas. There are unofficial maps on the Internet, where French citizens can check about where not to get lost the next time they go for a drive.
Meanwhile, the high crime rates in the Moslem neighborhoods has been spilling over into non-Moslem areas, and there has been a major outbreak of anti-Semitic attacks on Jews, and Jewish targets (synagogues, cemeteries, Etc.). Itâs not only become embarrassing for the government, but itâs become a political issue. So the Interior Ministry has established special police units to try and reduce the crime rate in the Moslem areas. That has led to the recent rioting, arson, injuries, and advice by French traditionalists to just ignore the French Moslems. Leave them alone. Ignore them. Just like France has been doing for decades. Let the counter-terrorism police take care of any hotheads. But for the moment, the Interior Ministry is run by law-and-order types, and they are determined to at least own the streets in Moslem areas. So France burns.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/01/2005 08:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Most of these Moslems did not try to assimilate, and by maintaining their old country culture and language, they made it more difficult for their kids to get jobs. Why "assimilate" and get a job when the state picks up the tab for housing and rats? Duhhhhhh.
#3
I can't help but wonder how long until the first terrorist bomb goes off. And where it will be, since France has so many historical Christian locations.
Posted by: Charles ||
11/01/2005 13:28 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Sounds like a job for Team America!!! Sean France needs you.
Rock, meet hard place. Hard place, meet rock. No hitting.
A powerful Turkish civil servants' trade union has decided to boycott French insurer AXA after the company agreed to indemnify heirs of victims of the 1915 Turkish massacre of Armenians, the head of the union said Monday. "We must put an end to business relations with AXA. It is not possible for us to do business with a company that tramples the rights of our country," Ahmet Aksu, the head of the Memur-Sen union, told AFP. He said that Memur-Sen had appealed to its 200,000 members not to take out policies from AXA.
The insurers unleashed a wave of anger in Turkey after they agreed on October 13 to settle a class action suit by descendants of the victims of the controversial killings under Ottoman rule for US $17 million. Under the terms of the deal announced in the United States, AXA will donate at least three million dollars to various French-based Armenian charities and another US $11 million to a fund designed to pay out to policy holders of AXA units that did business in the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of the Turkish Republic. The deal, which was harshly criticised by the Turkish media, also dealt a blow to OYAK, an industrial venture representing the army pension fund and AXA's partner in Turkey since 1999. OYAK announced after the deal that it was reviewing the situation in the light of the "sensitivities of the Turkish people".
Aksu argued that OYAK should dissociate itself from the French company. "Their union hurts us deeply. Think about it: one of Turkey's most trustworthy institutions (the armed forces) is working with a company like Axa," he said. Aksu said his trade union appealed to its members to demonstrate next week in front of AXA-OYAK offices. Memur-Sen also wants AXA to issue a public apology and to indemnify Turks killed by Armenians during the last years of the Ottoman Empire. Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Namik Tan said AXA's position has nothing to do with the government's views of the Armenian massacres. Armenians say up to 1.5 million of them were slaughtered in an orchestrated genocide under the Ottoman Empire. Ankara rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife during World War I when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
#4
Hyper, the problem isn't the Armenians holding a grudge, it's the Turks refusing to admit they did ANYTHING. Fer crissake, it's a crime in Turkey to mention the Armenian genocide -- that ain't healthy.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/01/2005 18:16 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Memur-Sen also wants AXA to ... indemnify Turks killed by Armenians ...
#2
There is no indication that much can be done to stop the slide in this opinion trend. Canada is not doing anything to reverse the perception at all.
#7
Some days I think I am the only Canadian that genuinely likes George Bush.
There's at least three of us. You, my friend, and I.
What else do you have to offer your largest trading partner????
For starters, that very same shale that you speak of. The biggest reserve in the world, in fact.
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/01/2005 19:59 Comments ||
Top||
#8
The Niagara Falls are much more dramatic when viewed from the Canadian side. And I seem to recall a Shakespear festival... Oh, yes, and the Toronto zoo was really nice in 1982! :-) (It's been a while since Mr. Wife enticed me away from that part of the world, and my memory is anyway a bit hazy these days...)
Farhat Hashmi, the controversial Pakistani Islamic fundamentalist, says those who died in the October 8 Pakistan earthquake were punished by God for their âimmoral activitiesâ.
"Oh, yasss! I saw them engaging in immoral activities with my own eyes! So God struck them dead!"
In a weekend interview with a correspondent of the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper, she said, âThe people in the area where the earthquake hit were involved in immoral activities and God has said that he will punish those who do not follow his path.â
So she considers all those training camps for hard boyz immoral?
Hashmi recently moved to Canada with her family and has since set up teaching classes. She told her class of around 150 mostly young Pakistani women, all in white headscarves and black abayas, âWe must understand why such calamities take place. The people in the are where the earthquake hit were involved in immoral activities, and God has said that he will punish those who do not follow his path.â
So it was all a stern lesson to Hafiz Saeed, right? Actually, that thought crossed my mind, too...
Hashmi was immediately criticised by Tarek Fatah, communications director of the Muslim Canadian Congress, who said, âWhat sort of a sick mind would suggest that the over 20,000 Pakistani and Kashmiri children who were buried alive in their schools were âinvolved in immoral activitiesâ?â
She's in Canada, see? She thinks she's safe from the Finger of Godâ¢. When she's crushed by a runaway glacier, I'm becoming a Lutheran, you betcha...
He said Hashmi has now brought her wahabbi teachings to Canada where she has opened a private school for girls. She encourages segregation and defends polygamy. One of her students, a teenager, told the Globe and Mail: âIt is better for a man to do things legally by taking a second wife, rather than having an affair.â
Why's that? Why's it more defensible to have a second wife than it is to have a mistress? Or for that matter to have an occasional hour with a highly trained professional? And why shouldn't women be allowed to present the old man with a husband-in-law, doing everything nice and legal, rather than spending Tuesday afternoons with a tennis pro named Sven and Thursdays with Eduardo the pool boy? If we're required to accomodate other cultures in our societies, other cultures should therefore be required to accomodate still other cultures in theirs. There's just as much imperative for Fatimah to embrace polyandry as there is for Nancy to embrace polygamy.
Fatah said, âMany Muslim Canadians are upset that this woman from Pakistan has been allowed to come into Canada to spread her message.â One such critic, Kausar Khan, a businesswoman, told the newspaper, â...why is this woman being allowed to bring her extremist views to our country? She poses a danger to us and our Canadian way of life.â
Picked right up on that, did you?
However, Hashmi is not without her admirers, one being Sheema Khan, president of the Canadian chapter of the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) who told the same newspaper last year, âMs Hashmiâs soothing style articulates a message of personal reform. She reminds listeners of Godâs mercy and forgiveness - in stark contrast to the dire warnings of hellfire favoured by some mullahs.â
I'm always suspicious of people who're ostentatiously religious, whether they come preaching hellfire or they lay it on in an oily manner. I categorize them with the same folks who parade their sexual preferences or who fart in public.
Fatah asks how the self-styled evangelistâs view on the earthquake victims be considered as âsoothingâ or reflecting âGodâs mercy and forgiveness?â
Pretty good point, there. I'm not really expecting an answer, of course...
Hashmi offers a 20-month course she calls Taleem-ul-Quran, claiming that she has come from Pakistan to enlighten young Muslim women about their religion.
Right. Peshawar. Quetta. Karachi. Lahore. Multan. That's where I always look for enlightenment.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/01/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
She encourages segregation and defends polygamy.
Sho 'nuff, Hashmi. Segregation saves some of those precious surprises for the wedding night. Like when your brand new hubby starts whaling the snot out of you for no particular reason. Polygamy? That's real dandy too. It makes good and sure the beatings get spread out a bit. Wouldn't want to have that wholesome bruising and fracturing all to your lil ol' self, now would you, eh?
#3
I agree: It is God's punishement for religious prosecution, wife beating, poligamy, honor killings, jihadism, hate preaching, beheadings, giving asylum to homicicaidla monsters and more.
#4
and the death told was probably increased because it happened early in Ramadan and people fasted in the daylight when the relief effort could find them
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/01/2005 12:32 Comments ||
Top||
#8
I guess this means that Pakistan is now going to try and be more devout, eh? Or, are the ravings of a lone lunatic (a female at that) in Canada just ignored in Paki-Waki land?
Posted by: BA ||
11/01/2005 13:19 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Since she is a devout muslim, it should be easy. Bribe her husband to beat her to death. Probably twice her current annual salary should do it.
Besides, he could make a shit ton of cash by saying she did something miraculous and sell knick-knacks of hers on eBay to her vast following.
He may not be able to get away with it in Canada though.
Iraqi contractors supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom are now counting dinar instead of dollars on payday. Another milestone in the countryâs economic development was reached Oct. 14 when a 3rd Infantry Division finance office issued the first payment in Iraqi currency while in theater.
Local vendors and contractors were previously paid in U.S. dollars. This is the first time in all the rotations of Operation Iraqi Freedom that a dinar check payment has been issued to local vendors and contractors within the Baghdad area of operations.
This is a huge step according to Maj. Richard Santiago, commander of 3rd Finance Company, 3rd Soldier Support Battalion, Division Support Brigade, who said paying locals in dinar benefits both the Iraqi people and Coalition Forces.
âThis is truly a win-win situation for all,â Santiago said. âIssuing dinar check payments improves the economic and financial stability of Iraq by promoting the Iraqi banks while using their local currency. It also decreases the cash requirements our finance offices need in order to meet mission requirements, as we are now able to pay the local vendors and contractors with a check instead of cash.â
Another 500 detainees were released from Abu Ghraib prison Tuesday, U.S. officials said, marking the latest in a series of goodwill gestures tied to religious holidays.
Tuesdayâs action was intended to coincide with Eid al-Fitr, the day of rejoicing which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Earlier releases that included at least 850 detainees were done at the beginning of October when Ramadan began...
...There are approximately 5,000 detainees in Abu Ghraib. The U.S. military plans to hand over Abu Ghraib to Iraqi control early next year and transfer remaining detainees to one of three newly expanded detention facilities in other parts of the country.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Saddam Hussein accepted an 11th-hour offer to flee into exile weeks ahead of the U.S.-led 2003 invasion, but Arab League officials scuttled the proposal, officials in this Gulf state claimed... Glad I brought my hip-waders.
Iraqi President Jalal Talbani ordered the release of Saddam Husseinâs half brother, Barzan al Tikriti from prison to receive treatment for his cancer. The request came in response to a letter published exclusively by Asharq al Awsat in which Tkriti appealed to world leaders to free him.
In a statement broadcast in Baghdad , Talbani said,â The Iraqi President Jalal Talbani, after examining the plea by Iraqi citizen Mr. Barzan al Tkriti, expresses his sympathy to his request, in the name of human rights which call for everyone to receive medical treatment when needed and the historic relations that bind our families together and in respect of the personal friendship between us that existed in the past. The President urges the Prime Minister [Ibrahim al Jaafari] to use all his powers to release Bazan al Tikriti from prison and allow him hospital treatment for his cancer.â
I certainly hope it's terminal.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/01/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Tikriti murder cells always metastasis. It's a genetic thingy.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/01/2005 0:53 Comments ||
Top||
#2
metastasis metastasize
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/01/2005 1:04 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I bet the Kurds have a nice new hospital wing and would be delighted to treat Sammy's kin.
#5
I'm not sure the prison is up to medical standards.
But there is probably a different reason for Talbani's stance on this and on attacking Syria: he wants to avoid a sectarian/ethnic bloodbath of Kurds vs. Sunnis vs. Shia. If things stay relatively stable, the Kurds will have retaken Mosul, the oilfields in the north etc. But if civil war breaks out in a serious way, it all goes down the drain for his people as well as for the whole country.
#6
Also, by extending this offer to al Tikriti, Talbani places himself squarely in the role of gracious Muslim ruler - a cultural factor that should not be underestimated. This gesture will resonate well with a lot of ordinary Iraqis.
BRITAIN'S Foreign Office says it is investigating the loss of a satellite phone in Iraq, amid reports it was stolen by insurgents who ran up a $1.21 million bill. The telephone, registered with the British Embassy in Baghdad, was barred from use in June after bill discrepancies were noticed. The Foreign Office would not confirm reports the phone was stolen by insurgents.
"Hello? Hello? Clive?"
"We're sorry. The number you are calling has been disconnected..."
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
11/01/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Insurgents run up $1m phone bill
With weapons prices what they are of late, a call to arms can really rack up the charges.
Let's hope these absent-minded embassy f&%kwits at least managed to get some targeting coordinates out of the deal.
November 1, 2005: The Finnish government owned Patria Advanced Solutions Oy company, has introduced a formidable new naval mine; the M2. This is a âsmart naval mine, containing its own computer, and able to detect targets via acoustic (detecting the sound of the target ship), pressure (detecting the pressure on the water a ship over head makes), and magnetic (detecting the metal in a ship) sensors. Many details of this bottom (it is placed on the sea bed of shallow coastal waters) mine are classified. The Finns are manufacturing this mine for their own defense, and export to select customers (those unlikely to attack Finland). The mine is believed to have an electrical field sensor as well, and that it can be detonated by remote control. The computer in the mine is programmable, so the mine can be instructed to attack only certain types of ships.
But the most interesting aspect of this mine is that it was made with COTS (Commercial, Off-The Shelf) components. That means that many other nations, with a sufficient supply of capable engineers, could build a similar mine. It also means the M2 is probably very cheap, without the expense of a lot of custom made (and developed) parts. A weapon like this, in the hands of terrorists, would be a very dangerous weapon. As a âbottom mine,â it is very hard to clear. Weighing less than half a ton, it could be transported and planted by a relatively small boat. A fishing boat would be ideal, if you were up to no good.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/01/2005 09:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
*cough*Taiwan Straits*cough*
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/01/2005 9:30 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Naval mines are going to be pestiferous in the future. The Cold War precluded deployment of advanced systems for 50 years, and now suddenly, the technologies are in catch-up mode.
Though anybody's guess, many of the littoral catamaran-type ships being designed now seem to take into account this potential. And the ONR devotes a lot of research into anti-mine robotics (attn: Shipman).
One interesting technique is the use of passive torpedo-like sensors that use ocean temperature to propel themselves along. Deployed dozens at a time, they "swim" from surface to sea floor and back in a sine wave pattern. With such a passive propulsion system, they can operate for several weeks without refueling.
Several waves of these sensors could "clear" a large channel near a coastline, and might even contain a small charge to blow up any mine found.
Far more popular right now is the use of "biologicals", such as dolphins, who are talented in the detection of such things. Their only drawback is that the Navy does not like to risk their lives unless absolutely necessary.
#6
(detecting the sound of the target ship), pressure (detecting the pressure on the water a ship over head makes), and magnetic (detecting the metal in a ship) sensors
*AHEM* WW II mines did this on a regular basis, ie. droped by aircraft, programed to count and sink last ship in a convoy slipping thru a harbor channel, and thereby blocking the rest of ships in harbor. [sitting ducks]
us old farts were perfect, you young wippersnappers!
Posted by: Old Salty ||
11/01/2005 14:00 Comments ||
Top||
#7
everyone well italians for sure have that kind of mines
#8
Well, Shipman, if you remember, I suggested using small, floating robotic mines to deny a major sea lane to a floatilla of less advanced ships, such as in an invasion of Taiwan. The only "must have" in the design is that they don't detonate when they bump into each other.
While such mini-mines wouldn't impact a warship, they could perhaps punch a 3" hole below the waterline in a civilian ship being used for military purposes, either seriously slowing it down or maybe sinking it.
Other ideas I suggested were that the mines be able to "swim", not just float, either to space themselves out, or two swim in the direction of a mine explosion--not to attack the same target, but to fill the gap left in its wake.
Lastly, and for larger mines, I suggested that they be designed as the body of a UAV, that would fly to its destination, then drop in the water to tear off its wings. Which is a quick way to deploy mines without risking a ship.
What you found this suggestion either hilarious or profoundly disturbing, I have no idea.
#10
Instead of using UAVs tho,I'd breed special Brown Pelicans with built in anti-amphibious logic. They would carry the mines internally and instinctively attack amphibious shipping by homing in on the galley trail.
#12
Kind of the Anacin and Bufferin "thousands of tiny time pills" thing? Meh, some like one...
On the plus side, the TOTR concept is definitely on the drawing board, and not just at DARPA and ONR. I suppose that it just seemed reasonable to tailor AI after insects and other simpler swarming critters. Real-world applications are harder to imagine, but they exist.
From East Asia Intel, subscription)
Middle East specialists recently told Congress that China is making strategic moves in the oil-rich Middle East. Blinding Statement of the Obvious, but Congress needs the point to be hammered home---repeately, until they act.
Daniel Byman, director of the Center for Peace and Security Studies, told the House Armed Service Committee that China is becoming a major player in the Middle East. Since they are a big buyer of Iranian MM oil.
âThe United States has been the uncontested security power in the Middle East since the end of the Cold War,â he said. âBut China in particular is likely to play a greater role in the years to come as its energy needs increase and power grows in general.â
China is seeking improved ties with Iran and other oil-rich nations. As it becomes a greater commercial power, âChina is likely to try to increase ties to key oil producers like Saudi Arabia,â Byman said.
Edward Walker, director of the Middle East Institute and a former U.S. ambassador, echoed the warning.
âOur situation in the Gulf is becoming increasingly complex with the entry of China into the equation,â he said. âThe prospect of Chinese naval berthing facilities in Gwadar in Pakistan dominating entry into the Straits of Hormuz is a forewarning of future Chinese expansion into the region to feed and protect its growing energy appetite and close relationship with Iran,â he told the hearing.
âBeijing may also expand its naval forces to give it the ability to project power in the region and it may also increase arm sales to countries in the region as a way to carry influence,â Byman said. The Chicoms want to be the new USSR in the neighborhood.
âIf China does emerge as a major regional player this will have profound implications for the United States. In the past Iran, Syria or other hostile powers tried to play off the Soviet Union or any potential power that could balance the United States and try to resist pressure on things like terrorism or proliferation as a result. China is likely to play this role at least in the eyes of regional states,â he said.
He also warned that U.S. allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia may âflirtâ with China as a way to avoid U.S. pressure for democratic change. âWashington is going to have to factor in Beijing as it thinks about the Middle East and that's going to complicate U.S. policy in the region,â Byman said.
Competition for oil could become âthe greatest threat we face if we cannot moderate worldwide consumption and guarantee reliable supply,â Walker said. As they say, it is all about oiiiiiil. We need to get our energy house in order. We are more and more dependent upon psychopaths for our energy supplies. Plus the billions of energy dollars are coming back at us in terrorists, booms, and the soaring cost of security. Something very wrong with this picture.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/01/2005 19:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
BEIRUT - The UN team investigating the February murder of five-time Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was back in Beirut on Tuesday one day after the UN Security Council unanimously demanded better cooperation from neighbouring Syria with the investigation. UN chief investigator Detlev Mehlis was back at work in Beirut after flying into the city on Monday evening as the resolution was being passed in New York, Lebanese security sources said on condition of anonymity. âHis arrival took place under heavy security measures and secrecy,â the sources said.
The UN resolution said Syria had provided only a âlimited degreeâ of cooperation or tried to mislead or provide âfalse and inaccurateâ information to a UN investigative panel led by German prosecutor Mehlis.
âAt this important time, the UN is holding Syria accountable for any further failure to cooperate with the commission,â US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. She warned of âclose linksâ between Syrian cooperation and further UN action.
The resolution ordered governments to impose travel bans and freeze the assets of any Lebanese and Syrian officials or other people to be declared suspects in the killing. Mehlis and the Lebanese government are expected to provide the names of suspects to a UN panel which can order the sanctions.
The resolution was adopted under the UN Charterâs Chapter 7, which allows the use of force, even though the text was watered down in order to gain the unanimous support of council members. Before the vote, earlier references to an economic embargo against Syria and a demand for Damascus to renounce terrorism were dropped from the text.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora welcomed the new resolution, saying, âI hope our Syrian brothers will now match words with deeds and cooperate fully with the international inquiry.â He expressed âsatisfactionâ with the resolution even though it had been watered down from earlier drafts circulated by Britain, France and the United States, saying it would help the inquiry. He also raised the possibility that the commissionâs mandate might be extended beyond its current December 15 expiry date âif the Lebanese government requests itâ.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/01/2005 09:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Tip of the Hat to Dan Darling at WoC)
Read the whole thing. It will only make you want to turn the mad mullahs playground into a glassy desert.
[Article by Bruno Schirra: "How Dangerous Is Iran?"]
[FBIS Translated Text]
Mohamad Ali Abtahi is a man whose voice has grown weary. A man for whom his faith led single-mindedly into politics, which, so it appears, after long years as a partner in power, has driven him first to melancholy calmness and then into deep resignation. Now he sits in his threadbare armchair and stares out into the world, his eyes dull. His face has grown old and grey before its time.
In truth, the Mullah Mohammad Ali Abtahi, at 47, is still a fairly young man. One who, many years ago, looked at the world and the future full of vitality and confidence, with a full, chubby-cheeked face and wily eyes, from which a mischievous gleam constantly seemed to flash. He fought for his God, for His justice, so that it could take hold in what the Constitution calls the "Only theocracy on Earth." Finally, Abtahi did this in his function as vice president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Two days before our conversation, he had resigned from his office, worn down by the constant battling with the radical hardliners of the Majlis. In the Parliament in Tehran, Iran's radical Islamist parties won a landslide victory in the spring 2004 elections. "Let us not kid ourselves," Mohammad Ali Abtahi began our conversation: "Even if the Council of Guardians excluded the most reform oriented candidates from the parliamentary elections before the election -- for the reformers in Iran this 2004 election was a disaster. The people abandoned us."
In defiance of all the reformers' calls for a boycott, Iranian voters flocked to take part in these parliamentary elections. The boycott, the only means the Iranian reformers had of presenting themselves as a politically relevant force in the country, did not take place. Even in Tehran, the metropolis of the theocracy, which actually can point to something resembling cosmopolitan niches, barely 50 percent of the voters went to the polls, and the majority voted conservative or radical Islamist. In his analysis, Mr. Abtahi became lost in deep pessimism on this October day: "This election means the failure of all reform. The consequence is a high, a very high wall; this sets in concrete for years the radical Islamist realities of the Islamic Republic, and the vision of a democratic Islamist civil society is ruins. You know the case of Ateqeh Rajabi?" he then asks softly.
"What about Ateqeh Rajabi?" Mr. Abtahi hears the question, his voice now sounds even more weary, despairingly weak. He dealt with the case of Ateqeh Rajabi. He knows all too well that there are countless cases like this one in his Islamic Republic, knows that there were also always cases like this one in all the eight years of the reformist emergence of his friend Khatami, and knows that these cases serve as examples to explain why the reformers of his country were bound to fail. Because as long as Shari'a, the Islamic system of law, is the only constitutional basis for the Islamic Republic of Iran, democratic reforms really cannot be carried out. Not against the resistance of the Islamist justice system, the Islamist guardians of the revolution, the Islamist power apparatus of the supreme spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. All those for whom Shari'a is the
absolute guiding principle of their action. Mr. Abtahi groped his way through this truth during the hours of the conversation on this October day; he talked around it cautiously, weary and resigned. Mohammad Ali Abtahi cannot voice this truth, however, because he is a Mullah. "I simply cannot put this aside," he said, "even if I do not consider anything that happened with Ateqeh Rajabi to be right."
Ateqeh Rajabi was hanged, she dangled for a whole hour on the rope, on this crane in Neka, a small town in the north of Iran. At 0600 on 15 August 2004 she was hanged, hanged until her legs finally no longer twitched. It took 11 minutes; her death struggle lasted 11 minutes. The inhabitants of Neka had all come to see her die with their own eyes. They stood and stared, mute and without moving. Since even Neka's executioner refused to discharge his duties, the Neka judge, the Haji Rajai himself proceeded to action, personally placing the hemp rope around her neck and raising her high on the crane. Ateqeh Rajabi was 15 years and seven months old when she died. For her judge, the honorable Haji Rajai, it was a matter close to his heart to carry out his duties in the greatest strictness. After all, the young girl Ateqeh Rajabi was a "corrupter of morals, much worse than a whore." That is what Haji Rajai had argued when the validity of his first-instance death sentence was examined before the Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as provided for under the Constitution.
The proceedings, the passage through the courts, took less than four weeks. Then the supreme Judge of Allah, in accordance with the Shari'a legal opinions and for the greater good of Islamic morals, upheld the death sentence against Ateqeh Rajabi. Ateqeh Rajabi was guilty, because witnesses had seen her holding hands with a man 10 years her senior in the Neka park. There was the suspicion that things had not stopped with handholding, particularly since this was not the first time she had publicly "prostituted herself." Thus spoke the Neka judge, Haji Rajai.
"I am not a whore, I am still a virgin," Ateqeh Rajabi had screamed in Haji Rajai's face during the trial; then she had lifted up her chador, spread her legs, with her finger on her own private parts and lashed out at the judge: "See for yourself!"
On this October day, Mohammad Ali Abtahi talked about this event and about what such a death sentence means for his country. It means that in the face of such a justice system, no human rights dialogue can be conducted, "nor can any be conducted between Europe and the true holders of power in my country." The day before, a Western ambassador had described this process as a "dialogue of deaf-mutes." And then admired the fine bouquet of a dry spaetlese wine.
After this story, on this October day Mohammad Ali Abtahi got up from his armchair in his "center for religious dialogue" and gave the visitor a last warning to carry with him: "We have here in our country powerful rightist extremist power groups. In the next presidential election, they can win back the last bastion of the reformers. The next half year will not only be the most dangerous period for Iran in a long time. That is even more true for Europe and the United States."
Months later, to the bafflement of all Western experts and observers, Tehran Mayor Mahmud Ahmadinezhad was elected in Iran's presidential election with a clear majority as the new president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The candidate for the reformers finished far behind. At 0300, an email reached me: "I did everything; I fought desperately. It was all for nothing. We all failed. Our country will be lost." The sender was Mohammad Ali Abtahi.
There is reason for his despair, because with the election of Ahmadinezhad the radical Islamist hardliners have now recaptured all the control centers of power in Iran. "Ahmadinezhad," Abtahi writes, "is a visionary. He dreams of a second, revolution in Iran, the Islamist one. He is the representative of the rightist extremists that I warned you about. I was always against Ahmadinezhad," he writes further. "We have always fought against him and against those who back him. Now, however, we have experienced a crushing defeat. What lies ahead for us and for you is the long night of darkness that I spoke about at the time." Behind Abtahi's words is the fear that now, since all power centers are united in the hands of radical Islamist power groups around supreme spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, "these people will play the nuclear card just the same as the card of global terror."
In fact, the new president made clear right after his triumphant election victory, "We did not carry out the Islamist revolution in order to introduce democracy." He hammered his objectives home to the rejoicing followers. "Our revolution seeks to achieve worldwide power," he said, continuing, "I am a pure fundamentalist." He repeats these principles the length and breadth of the country, castigates "Western decadence," promises "the strictest interpretation of the religious laws of Shari'a." Internationally recognized conventions on women's rights are for him "a fatal offense against the values of Islam." This is not so much a devout Muslim speaking as rather one who knows that he is in possession of the one, the pure truth. The masses follow him.
Within the close circle of his loyal followers, Iran's new state president Mahmud Ahmadinezhad revealed his great vision. It stems from the days of the 1979 Islamist Revolution. Now it harbors within it a new explosive force. "The new Islamic revolution" according to Ahmadinezhad, will cut out the roots of injustice throughout the entire world. The era of the Godless regime, tyranny, and injustice has come to its end," he prophesies. "The wave of the Islamist revolution will soon reach the entire world."
It appears that the new Iranian state president has already mercilessly pursued his enemy. The Austrian state police possess information that suggests that Ahmadinezhad belonged to the "reserves" of the killer teams that murdered Kurdish leader Abd al-Rahman Qassimlou on 13 July 1989 in Vienna. Then state President Rafsanjani gave the order for the murder. A witness who has now surfaced, who for security reasons is identified only as "D," has revealed detailed insider information to the Austrian police.
Western political leaders and security experts are evincing alarm. "The man at the head of Iran is an extremist, he wants to export the Islamist revolution," it is said in intelligence circles. "If this becomes Iran's new foreign policy, a maximum terrorist worst-case scenario threatens the West. Then the Sunni Al-Qa'ida terrorists and Shi'ite terrorist organizations will cooperate closely. Against the common enemy. Against the West."
One scenario is of particular concern to Western intelligence: Iran becomes radicalized and delivers to Al-Qa'ida in the future what the holy killers today only dream about: chemical and biological weapons for their holy war against the West.
This is not panic mongering, because Iran's new president has had an exemplary career in Iran's Revolutionary Guard and its intelligence service. "Ahmadinezhad can and will use the terrorist card every time as extortion against the West," says a member of the Jordanian GID intelligence service. "If Europe does not accommodate Iran in the dispute over the Mullahs' nuclear program, they will threaten terrorism against British soldiers in Iraq and French interests in Lebanon."
Iran's European negotiating partners now fear that what was previously only threatened will become reality after Ahmadinezhad's entry into office. Especially since their intelligence services possess alarming findings. "For Ahmadinezhad, the threat of terrorism is not a diplomatic finger exercise. He believes in the 'purity' of the Islamist revolution, and he translates into action what he threatens," assesses a Western intelligence service.
In fact, the intelligence service of the Revolutionary Guard has been providing the leadership of Al-Qa'ida with a secure hiding place, logistical support, military training, and equipment for years. "The fact that Sunni jihadists and Shi'ites hate one another is, for both sides, no reason not to cooperate. They have a common enemy," Western intelligence services are aware.
The author of this article was able to look at a list of the holy killers who have found safe refuge in Iran. The list reads like the Who's Who of global jihad, with close to 25 high-ranking leadership cadres of Al-Qa'ida -- planners, organizers, and ideologues of the jihad from Egypt, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, North Africa, and Europe. Right at the top in the Al-Qa'ida hierarchy: three of Usama Bin Ladin's sons, Saad, Mohammad, and Othman.
Al-Qa'ida spokesman Abu Ghaib [Suleiman Abu Gheith] enjoys Iranian protection, as does Abu Dagana al-Alemani (known as the German), who coordinates cooperation of the various jihadist networks throughout the world from Iran. They live in secure housing of the Revolutionary Guard in and around Tehran. "This is not prison or house arrest," is the conclusion of a high-ranking intelligence officer. "They are free to do as they please."
Saif al-Adel, military chief and number three in Al-Qa'ida, also had a free hand. In early May 2003, Saudi intelligence recorded a telephone conversation with the organizer of the series of attacks in the Saudi capital Riyadh that claimed over 30 victims, including seven foreigners, in May 2003. Saif al-Adel gives orders for the attacks from Iran, where he operated under the wing of the Iranian intelligence service.
For years, according to the findings of Middle Eastern and Western intelligence services, Iranian intelligence services have already worked together repeatedly with Sunni jihad organizations of Al-Qa'ida. "As an Islamist, I go to the Saudis to get money," the Jordanian GID man outlines the current practice of Islamist holy warriors. "When I need weapons, logistical support, or military terrorist training and equipment, I go to the Iranians."
The blueprints for the Al-Qa'ida attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 originated in Tehran. The man refers to witness statements, documents, and telephone recordings.
Quite open and very warlike notes have also been sounded by Iran itself, however. They bear witness to the return of the Iranian state terrorism of the 1980s and 1990s in the past century. More than 60 people fell victim to a series of hostage takings and murders of Western foreigners that lasted for years. The barracks of the US Marines as well as of the French peacekeeping forces were blown up, and hundreds of people died. The perpetrators: the Lebanese Hizballah. The planners and men behind them came from the leadership of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
In 1992, under the direction of Iranian diplomats and officers of the Revolutionary Guard, members of the Lebanese Hizballah reduced the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires to rubble in an explosion, and in 1994, they blew up the Jewish AMIA social center in the Argentine capital.
Western intelligence services now fear a repetition of this series of global terrorism. In view of a large newspaper announcement, which appeared in August in the paper Partow-e Sokhan, this is a realistic prospect -- especially if the dispute between Iran and the West over the Iranian nuclear weapons program continues to escalate. The text of the notice reads as follows: "Martyr attacks are the highest virtue and the highest courage;" it is signed by the "Commando of Volunteer Martyrs" as responsible for the text. Behind this is Ansar Hizballah, the most radical Islamist death squad of the Islamic Republic. Mohammadresa Jafari the supreme commander of the "Commando of Volunteer Martyrs," is threatening the global deployment of suicide commandos and 50,000 fighters have already been recruited. In the United States and other NATO countries, suicide commandos are also currently standing by ready for action at any time. "The enemy is afraid," says Mohammadresa Jafari, "that the culture of martyrdom will become a world culture of all those who love freedom."
Behind the Ansar Hizballah and the potential suicide attacks stands one man: the owner of the newspaper Partow-e Sokhan. Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, the most radical hardliner in the Islamic Republic and the man who organized the triumphant landslide election of Mahmud Ahmadinezhad. Mesbah Yazdi's political skill led Ahmadinezhad to the presidency. Ayatollah Yazdi, propagandist of global suicide attacks, praises Ahmadinezhad's administration as "the first Islamic administration in the history of the Islamic Republic."
A threatening backdrop that could become real for Western security experts in the near future. Because in the nuclear dispute with the West, Ahmadinezhad is openly threatening the next stage of escalation. In concrete terms, he is threatening the resumption of all enrichment activities. The enrichment of uranium is indispensable for building a nuclear bomb.
According to IAEA experts in Vienna, it is true that Iran's broad nuclear infrastructure makes sense to the extent that a country wants to make itself independent of fissile fuels. It makes even more sense, however, if a country intends to build the bomb. "If I lay everything on the table that we know about the Iranian nuclear program, along with all the information that we possess about the Iran's medium-range missile program," says an IAEA inspector, "then my answer to the question of whether Iran is building the bomb goes like this: It looks like a duck, it waddles like a duck, and it goes quack quack. What, then, do you believe it is?"
The practical consequences of this answer make Western intelligence services shudder: "If anyone, the United States or even Israel, gets the idea to bomb the Iranian nuclear weapons program back 10 years into the past, then God help us," says a Western intelligence officer. "Then the Mullahs will unleash their guard dogs worldwide. They will equip and support all Shi'ite terrorist networks with the Sunni networks globally, that is, with everything that they have. For us it would be the ultimate worst-case scenario, one for which we are not prepared."
Iran and islamo-fascisn are a malignancy and need to be eliminated by whatever means available. I doubt the West has the collective cajones to do whatever it takes before it's too late. Taking out Iraq split the Syria-Iran connection (the enemy of my enemy is my friend) has only slowed the spread of the cancer down.
#1
I vote overwrought. I am sceptical that the Iranians or any othe muzzy group has these sleeper assets in the US that it held out of the 2004 Bush/Kerry election but are ready to unleash at a moments notice if we geld their nuke program. Certainly there will be a reaction, but I suspect it will be limited to the ME, maybe dhimmi European countries, perhaps something in the US. It's worth the risk to not have a nuclear equipped Iran. Whack 'em now.
If anyone, the United States or even Israel, gets the idea to bomb the Iranian nuclear weapons program back 10 years into the past, then God help us," says a Western intelligence officer. "Then the Mullahs will unleash their guard dogs worldwide. They will equip and support all Shi'ite terrorist networks with the Sunni networks globally, that is, with everything that they have. For us it would be the ultimate worst-case scenario, one for which we are not prepared."
This sounds like the threats to unleash the fury of the "Arab Street" we heard so much about after 9/11.
#3
The term wasting assets comes to mind. The way the War on Terror has been going since the invasion of Afghanistan, an arrest or a lead in, eg., Iraq results in raids in Marseilles, Rome and Across-the-river, New Jersey. Which cascades to raids in... And if in the course of such raids the FBI/CIA/police found a solid link traceable directly to the Mullahs, how much shakier would their stolen Peacock Throne suddenly become?
Having rid itself of Syrian occupying forces with a show of people power, Lebanon is now deploying its army to cut off Syrian support for its proxy â a Palestinian group behind some of the worst attacks against Israel over the years.
Except that it hasn't been doing much against Israel lately. Its orientation is toward internal Leb politix.
To many Arabs, the outfit that goes by the name of PFLP-GC, for Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, is Syria's tool in its shadowy war against its enemies. It is on the U.S. State Department's terrorist list and has lately been accused of involvement in the February assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri â the event that ended up forcing the Syrians to pull out of Lebanon.
The organization's a Syrian tool, providing muscle and infrastructure for operations in Lebanon.
Lebanese troops and armor have surrounded some of the PFLP-GC's bases in the rugged mountains along the Syrian border. The government has said it will not use force, but wants to stop weapons and reinforcements coming in from Syria which it fears will be used to stir up trouble.
I think they don't intend to lay siege to the PFLP-GC bases, but if they're going to cut off the flow of arms and ammunition to them they're probably going to end up shooting somebody, or at least at somebody.
The U.N. investigator's report that accused Syria of engineering the Feb. 14 killing of Hariri mentions "people" from the PFLP-GC of having had contacts with three of four Lebanese generals jailed on charges of planning the fatal car-bombing. However, investigator Detlev Mehlis later said its leader, Ahmed Jibril, is not a suspect.
Not directly, anyway. But if his organization's implicated, then he's implicated.
Another U.N. report this week also said that Lebanon's efforts to disarm Palestinian militias such as Jibril's have made little headway, partly because they have been receiving more weapons from Syria. Jibril has rejected all the charges, denies meeting the generals, and insists his war is with Israel, not Lebanon.
It's just coincidence that they've killed more people in Lebanon than in Israel. Could happen to anyone.
In an interview with The Associated Press in Damascus, where he lives, he said the weapons he has stockpiled in Lebanon are there to protect Palestinian refugee camps and "for the struggle to preserve our rights to self-determination and return" to homes lost when Israel became a state.
"One o' these days we're gonna use 'em, by Gum! We'll come boilin' outta Leb and into Haifa and we're gonna take over..."
Jibril is one of those refugees. He was 11 when his family fled to Syria in 1948. In 1968, after a career as a military officer, he founded the PFLP-GC, one of several groups operating under the umbrella of Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization.
The military career was in the Syrian army...
It quickly came to notoriety with a string of bloodbaths: It hijacked one Israeli airliner, machine-gunned another at Zurich's airport, and then blew up a Tel Aviv-bound Swissair plane, killing all 47 aboard. It also mounted repeated attacks on Israelis from neighboring Lebanon. In 1987 a PFLP-GC man on a hang-glider flew into northern Israel and killed six soldiers before being shot dead. One of its greatest triumphs was to capture three Israeli soldiers during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and trading them three years later for more than 1,100 Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian prisoners.
The hang glider thing was the last operation against Israel I can recall, though I'll admit I wasn't paying close attention...
Jibril's group fought with Muslim militias against Christian and pro-Israeli forces during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war and his son, Fredo Jihad, ran operations here until he was killed by a car bomb in Beirut in 2002.
That actually might have been the Mossad, though they denied it at the time. Of course, it could also have been any number of other mini-groups, to include somebody within PFLP-GC with offended dignity. Since the Leb cops never seem to have pinned it on anyone, I suspect that's the case.
For decades the PFLP-GC shadowed the Syrian regime's unofficial policies in the region and often acted as its foil, waging Syria's campaign to oust Arafat and fighting Syria's foes in Lebanon. While the PLO mainstream has been part of the peace effort since 1990s, Jibril refuses to recognize or do any deals with Israel. But his group and its leftist ideology have been eclipsed by Islamic militant groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and if Syria's influence in Lebanon wanes, so, most likely, will Jibril's. But for now he's defiant. On Friday, addressing thousands of Palestinians in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus Friday, Jibril declared he stands in "the foremost trench to defend Syria."
Right. A group of aging, pot-bellied gunnies, occasionally waving guns and remembering when they were tough guyz.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/01/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
A Zimbabwean minister has said that many of those given land since 2000 know little about farming and this has led to food shortages. The authorities have previously blamed hunger on poor rains, while critics have pointed to the seizure of most of the country's white-owned land.
Up to three million people will need food aid this year, the UN says.
At the same time, the UN has criticised Zimbabwe for refusing aid for people made homeless by housing demolitions.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Sylvester Nguni was quoted in the state-owned Herald newspaper as saying that while a few of those given land were committed to agricultural production, many others were doing "nothing" on the farms. Although he mentioned the poor rains, he also told a meeting of the Zimbabwe Farmers' Union: "The biggest letdown has been that people without the slightest idea of farming got land and the result has been declining agricultural output."
In a secretly filmed report for the BBC, villagers said they had only been eating one meal of porridge a day since May. A woman said her two children had died after eating poisonous roots because they were so hungry.
Much of Zimbabwe's best agricultural land was previously owned by whites, but over the last five years 4,000 white farmers - out of 4,500 - have had their land seized and redistributed to blacks.
Critics say that many of the beneficiaries have been government cronies. On Monday, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan criticised the Zimbabwean government for rejecting humanitarian aid to those in need. Earlier this year, the UN said about 700,000 people had been left without homes or work by an eviction campaign that began in May.
A statement by Mr Annan rejected claims by the Zimbabwean government that it required no international assistance as it had already provided shelter for those in need. "A large number of vulnerable groups, including the recent evictees as well as other vulnerable populations, remain in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, including shelter," Mr Annan said. "Furthermore there is no clear evidence that subsequent Government efforts have significantly benefited these groups," he added.
Annual inflation is running at 360% and about 75% of the population live below the poverty line. Critics blame the disruption caused by the land seizures to the agriculture-based economy. President Robert Mugabe has always accused western countries led by former colonial power Britain of sabotaging the economy because of opposition to land reform.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/01/2005 08:22 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yo, Sylvester. Cut a brother some slack, man.
Posted by: Farmin B. Hard ||
11/01/2005 9:04 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I don't imagine we'll be hearing much from that minister in the future.
#3
"Furthermore there is no clear evidence that subsequent Government efforts have significantly benefited these groups," he added. Old Kofi, what a perceptive bugger he is, who would have known? Is he actually saying gov't sponsored wealth redistribution doesn't really work? Wow! 360% inflation? There's a retirement project for Greenspan. Sylvester? hmmm is that a Shona or Zulu name? I new a cat once named Sylvester. "Thufferin Thuccatash" oh no...sounds kinda er Anglo. You and Scooter Libby may soon have a thing or two in common, but I suspect he'll outlive YOU! Not to worry, progress is just around the corner, the white farmers are nearly gone. Sylvester, get a life and get with the program or we'll send you off to the Frunze for some 7-Habits and cultural awareness training.
#5
Besoeker, in my 28 years out there, I met a Telephone, a Danger, a Blessing, the odd Tickey, Sixpence and Shilling, and Isiah.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/news/2004/October/Friday15/814.html, a bit old....
Excerpt, "In Mhondoro, former legislator Mavis Chidzonga, Mashonaland West party vice-chairman John Mafa, businessman Sylvester Nguni and Chamu Mutyambizi are campaigning for a ticket to represent Zanu PF in the 2005 parliamentary election.
In Makoni West, sitting MP Gibson Munyoro is under immense pressure. Five candidates - Agriculture minister Joseph Made, singer Chinx Chingaira, Nation Madongorere, David Jura and one Musendo - are fighting for the seat.
Sources told the Independent this week that campaigning for the Mhondoro seat had intensified and Nguni had allegedly injected over $50 million to fund his campaign.
The Independent also heard this week that there were plans to relieve Philip Chiyangwa of his provincial chairmanship in Mashonaland West ahead of the congress in December.
Chiyangwa belongs to the so-called "Net*One" camp that has Ignatious Chombo, Edna Madzongwe, Bright Matonga and Sylvester Nguni".
Dont mean to harp on about the names, but, just in that little bit, we had Bright, Ignatius, and a Nation.
Sylvester injected 50 Million bucks into his campaign, checked it out, that's 861 US bucks at yesterdays exchange rate, if you can find it. I can see the bump-jive down in the Cotton canteen, all night long.
OK, joking aside, the stated aim of Bob is to reduce the population by half, the road on which he has begun. Once the opposition is gone, who's left? The ones who dont want to work on Sylvester's Cotton Farm, so they got to go. Sylvester is saying, "We got the farms now, work on them or die". He is an opportunistic African, probably builds dodgy buildings for the workers, and does a good email scam too.
#1
A tragic comedy set in the dark ages about two thugs turned fraudsters who used people shamelessly for money and publicity only to get caught up in a perfect storm of their own making. The ending won't be happy. McKay gets drawn and quartered after blubbering like a child. His parts are tarred and hung in an iron cage near the mouth of the Thames. Galloway, the gritfter's grifter, tries in vain to pathetically charm, talk and bluster his way out of a traitor's fate even as they take him to the gallows. The thing ends with seafolk commenting about how even the birds wouldn't bother with his thoroughly rotten flesh the day he was quartered and hung across the Thames from McKay.
Posted by: Abu ||
11/01/2005 7:52 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Let them waste their time and money on the project. When Galloway is convicted and imprisoned for taking oil bribes, scamming the public (the Maryam Fund), and lying under oath to Congress, the audience for such a film will rapidly decrease to art house levels, at best. In the meantime, it keeps the whole bunch of them happily busy and out of trouble. Much better than noisily unemployed and bothering us about Saving the Whales, or whatever their latest passion might be.
#4
Did Marion Barry lose popularity after his convictions?
Posted by: James ||
11/01/2005 10:38 Comments ||
Top||
#5
James: Marion Barry, while admittedly no longer a tax payer, is still very, very popular. I even hear rumours that the Vermont 'screamer' and his staff are working on a Barry-Clinton ticket for 2008. Certainly has a nice ring to it.
From MEMRI. It's good to see folks in that part of the world openly stand up to Islamists. It isn't so good to realize that these folks represent a small urban elite and not the conservative farmers and bazaaris that voted the AKP in. I see Askin's arrest as a real test case for secularism in the Muslim world. My gut tells me that he will go to jail and that the Islamists will win, but I still hope to be suprised.
#1
So a handful of Turks stand up to the Islamists while the rest vote them into office.
What was that about a "small handful of extremists"?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/01/2005 7:45 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Turkey is no different than Pakland or Algeria or Indonesia - they all love to behead the infidel. The Saudis are doing today what they successfully did in numerous other countries: They funnel billions of petrodollars evry year into Turkey under the guise of "cheap capital for development" - the price that Turkey and the Turks will pay in 10 or 15 years is that they will become no different than Iran or Pakiland or the rest of the bloodthirsty Islamo-fashist world, thanks to AKP and their Saudi/Wahabi cronies & money.
#3
In mitigation, I suggest that Turkish secularists are not like their squishy liberal counterparts in the West. That being said, at a particular point, they will rise up and smite the Islamists, a reoccuring motif in Turkey.
The opposition in the NWFP Assembly erupted in protest as the provincial law minister attempted to introduce the Hasba Bill on Monday, forcing the adjournment of the session till Tuesday. The treasury and opposition benches exchanged slogans of âHasba Bill zindabadâ and âHasba Bill murdabadâ, and lawmakers hurled abuses and papers at one another as the house descended into chaos. The opposition did not allow the law minister to introduce the bill in the house. Abdul Akbar Khan, PPPP parliamentary leader, said the MMA government had ruined the reputation of the province and its people with this âunconstitutionalâ bill.
They don't feel shame like we do.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/01/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"They don't feel shame like we do."
So true, though they have an entire menu of "shames" that make absolutely no sense, unless you're an indoctrinated Islamonut. I believe you've pointed out in the past that they spend more time walking out than actually conducting whatever nightmarish perversion of democracy they have - and if it weren't so bizarre and tragic that millions are at the mercy of these insane assholes, I'd laugh my ass off.
Open question to all who actually study the PakiWakis:
Is there any reason to believe they will evolve - or is this it, the best they can manage? Wrapped up in that is the question of the US's arrangements with Pervy - is he just the little PakiBoy (in the spiffy sash with schprocketts, of course) with his finger stuck in the dike, holding back the inevitable?
I guess I want to know if the hardcore folks here, up on all the players and factional gobbledygook, the full spectrum of the Nitwits of Doom, accept this particular accommodation as necessary and viable. It truly sticks in my craw as failed, in the main, very limiting, precisely when we need hard actions, and sure to bite us in the ass, in the end - so to speak. TIA for opining, if you can.
Also, I've asked before, but got no reply, if anyone had any info regards the Paki nukes - and if there is any truth to the hints I've read that the US occupies some link in the chain of control - any sort of veto capability. TIA for anything on that, too.
BTW, I really appreciate the expertise you folks bring to the 'burg. I wouldn't want to follow this mess that closely - other messes hold more interest for me, lol. :-)
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, president of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, on Monday urged Pakistan and India to demilitarise their zones of Jammu and Kashmir and allow Kashmiris to move across the Line of Control (LoC) freely. Talking to reporters during his visit to tent villages set up in Islamabad for earthquake victims, Qazi said Pakistan and India should withdraw their forces from both sides of the LoC and the area should be declared a ânon-military zones.â He said he was not supporting President General Pervez Musharrafâs view on the issue but it was his own thinking that the LoC was a âbloody lineâ which divided the Kashmiris. âNow is the time we allow Kashmiris to freely move across the LoC,â he said.
That'd include the hard boyz, of course...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/01/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
There are Indian Army Divisions in Kashmir that are not engaged in counter insurgency. Thay face Pakistani and Chinese formations across the International borders.
Demilitarization would leave northern Indian undefended, the entire gangetic plain vulnerable to a devastating attack.
Posted by: john ||
11/01/2005 9:14 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"Demilitarize! ...Er....you first"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/01/2005 10:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Actually, under the outdated UN resolution that Pak is fond of bringing up, Pakistan is obligated to withdraw all troops from Kashmir, allowing Indian troops (amount necessary to maintain order) to take their place. Only under this condition was a plebiscite to be held (with the sole options of joining India or Pakistan). The subsequent settling of Kashmir by Punjabis and Army vets by Pakistan and itls illegal ceding of Kashmiri territory to China have made this moot.
Posted by: john ||
11/01/2005 10:24 Comments ||
Top||
#4
From BBC
Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh said: "[Demilitarisation] can't be done unilaterally... After all, [Pakistan is] in occupation of our areas. Over-verbalising doesn't help. Every second day there is a statement from [Pakistan]."
Posted by: john ||
11/01/2005 12:21 Comments ||
Top||
EFL
PRESIDENT George Bush of the United States of America (USA) despatched, yesterday, to President Olusegun Obasanjo a letter requesting full investigation into the Saturday crash of the Bellview flight 210 from Lagos to Abuja. All 117 passengers on board and crew members perished in the crash. Among them was a US army major. Vanguard gathered yesterday that security men investigating the crash were not ruling out sabotage. The police have already set up a team of crack detectives to investigate the crash.
President Bush's letter was conveyed to President Obasanjo by the US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer. President Obasanjo has already ordered special and detailed investigation into the crash. The US President who also sent his condolence on the death of the First Lady, Mrs Stella Obasanjo expressed concern over the death of the American military officer identified as Heydon Joseph. Joseph was said to be the Chief of the Office of Defence Co-operation.
In a statement issued after her visit to the State House, Abuja yesterday, the US Assistant Secretary expressed profound sympathy to Nigerians over the crash, saying: "I would like to express my profound sympathy and condolences to President Obasanjo and his family at the loss of First Lady Stella Obasanjo.I would also like to extend condolences to the families of the victims of the Bellview flight that crashed at Ifo. The Embassy is directly affected by the crash because it was confirmed yesterday (Sunday) that Major Joseph Haydon, the Chief of Defence Cooperation, was among the passengers. A team of Embassy officials, including the Lagos Security Officer, visited the crash site yesterday (Sunday) afternoon and will go again today (Monday). In the meantime, the US military officials are working to support his family members in Nigeria and in the United States."
Other foreigners identified as being among the victims of the crashed Bellview flight are John Moru, Justice Akuri and Chiwuba of ActionAid, a non-governmental organisation engaged in HIV/AIDS advocacy. The others are Oumar Diarra, Ecowas Deputy Executive Secretary in charge of Political Affairs, Defence and Security, Emmanuel Quanye, ECOWAS Director of Finance in Nigeria, Peter Andreas, a consultant to the sub-regional group and Adele Lozenbo, a South African television producer who was on an assignment in Nigeria.
Also, the US government has offered to assist Nigeria in investigating the crash of Bellview Airlines' flight 210. The US offer came on a day the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, dismissed suggestions about terror attacks as the cause of the crash...
Emergency workers, meanwhile, continued with the gruesome task of disentangling the shredded bodies of the passengers from the widely scattered remains of the jet, which came down in a cocoa grove in the village of Lissa shortly after taking off from Africa's biggest city. "There's no chance of survivors, as you can see. Bodies in pieces and human parts are being picked up by the rescue team," said Borisade.
As he spoke, a police officer nearby scraped body parts into a polythene bag. "It is not possible to get a complete body of any victim. The bodies were scattered all over the place. Some human parts were hanging on trees," said Nigerian Red Cross official, Bayo Fasoranti. Nigerian accident investigators believe that the main body of the plane ploughed into the ground, but some witnesses said the aircraft blew up in mid-air. A farmer identified as Tajudeen said nothing so terrifying had happened in the 62 years he had lived in the village. "I was in my room on that night when I heard a loud noise and there was fire. Because it was dark, I could not locate the exact spot of the explosion. The next day, around mid-day, I saw policemen moving towards the scene and I followed them. What we saw was terrifying. Human parts, clothes, slippers, shoes littered everywhere. We also saw some damaged parts of the aircraft," he said.
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.
Immigrants who want to become UK citizens will have to show the knowledge of British customs and history if they are to pass new compulsory tests unveiled by the government on Monday. The 45-minute âLife in the UKâ tests, which all applicants must sit from Tuesday, require immigrants to answer 24 multiple questions about British life ranging from knowledge of Queen Elizabeth to regional dialects. The tests, which cost 34 pounds and can be taken at about 90 centres across the country, come on top of a need for new citizens to demonstrate a working knowledge of English. âAn understanding of the British language and our way of life is vital,â said Immigration Minister Tony McNulty. âThe measures we are introducing today will help new citizens gain a greater appreciation of the civic and political dimension of British citizenship and, in particular, to understanding the rights and responsibilities that come with British citizenship.â 
In a weekend interview with a correspondent of the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper, she said, âThe people in the area where the earthquake hit were involved in immoral activities and God has said that he will punish those who do not follow his path.â
Iraqi President 
Having rid itself of Syrian occupying forces with a show of people power, Lebanon is now deploying its army to cut off Syrian support for its proxy â a Palestinian group behind some of the worst attacks against Israel over the years.
The opposition in the NWFP Assembly erupted in protest as the provincial law minister attempted to introduce the Hasba Bill on Monday, forcing the adjournment of the session till Tuesday. The treasury and opposition benches exchanged slogans of âHasba Bill zindabadâ and âHasba Bill murdabadâ, and lawmakers hurled abuses and papers at one another as the house descended into chaos. The opposition did not allow the law minister to introduce the bill in the house. Abdul Akbar Khan, PPPP parliamentary leader, said the MMA government had ruined the reputation of the province and its people with this âunconstitutionalâ bill.
