Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia have rejected a renewed amnesty offer to repentant Islamist militants from Saudi King Abdullah, according to an Internet statement posted on Tuesday. "We say no surrender. Its either victory or martyrdom," said the statement signed by the al Qaeda Organisation in the Arabian Peninsula and posted on a Web site frequently used by Islamic militants. "This move shows the fear felt by the apostate government. The government is not in a position of power (because) this offer which has already expired has proven to be a failure," it said.
Al Qaeda urged Muslims in the birthplace of Islam to "burn the land" underneath the feet of Westerners. "We won't rest or live happily until the mujahideen's blows reach you (Westerners) and your slaves (Saudi monarchy)," it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Hat Tip LGF. I always seem to put these in the wrong place, so editors, do as you will! Sunday Times reporter Ali Hussain spent six weeks in Beeston, where three of the 7/7 bombers came from. He found an enclosed community, rife with conspiracy theories
The rich smell of Indian spices wafted along the road. Voices babbled in Urdu and Sylheti, a Bangladeshi dialect that my own family speak. Thick-bearded men in robes strolled the streets and youngsters wore their jeans rolled above the ankle after leaving the mosque, as Muslim custom requires. I felt both at home and in a foreign land. This could almost be an Asian city, I thought, rather than Beeston, the suburb of Leeds where two of the July 7 bombers had lived.
I had come to gauge the mood of the community after the 7/7 attacks, which struck London a year ago this week. The world I knew as a British Muslim sprang from cosmopolitan roots, and I wanted to discover what the people of this more insular community really felt about the bombers and western culture.
#1
The Muslims of Beeston and other such areas are retreating, not engaging.
The muslims of Beeston come from Pakistan, Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) and Pakistani Kashmir.
These are areas of the Indian subcontinent that were separated from the rest of British India in order to create a muslim "land of the pure" where muslims could live apart from other faiths.
Is it any wonder that people from this area do not wish to live with other faiths? That they distrust them? That they hate them?
To understand this behavior in Beeston, one has to go back in history and study the real motivations behind the partition of India.
Posted by: john ||
07/05/2006 7:12 Comments ||
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#2
Well said John, and a very good article BTW - props to the writer.
#4
There were never muzzie bombers, the US/UK conspiracy has made that up, but praise the bombers for their martyrdom.
Which is it again ?
Phalking lunatics.
Posted by: James ||
07/05/2006 13:26 Comments ||
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#6
Oh, those kids, the blow up so quickly these days. I am so freakin' tired of all the muzzie conspiracy theory/black helicopter navel gazing that it makes me sick. I'm almost to the point of just sealing them off, quartine the lot of them and let them rust from the inside out.
Posted by: BA ||
07/05/2006 13:57 Comments ||
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#7
Very good read.
The bit about mosques being more than religious buildings like churches, to be actually social places for muslims to meet and organizing the community in an organic way is very revealing; so is the confession about the true nature of the koran/jihad, far from the pc crap for the outsiders (which readily feed it to themselves, too).
It's all a matter of identity, and loyalty, and sense of belonging : do they feel themselves british/french/german/... or do they feel themselves first "muslim" as opposed to non-believers, "Us vs Them" (internal strife between turban color or country of origin being second to that)...?
I think the answer is obvious, as pointed out by the quite interesting comment by the ever well-knowledgeable John (sucking noises).
#8
There are some unique ways that Islam has developed in the Indian subcontinent.
One is the sheer number of Fatwas devoted to the presence of the Kuffar and how a muslim must relate to them - example: is a muslim still clean if he sees a dirty kaffir hindoo after he does his ritual ablutions (an actual question asked of the imams).
One maulana wrote at partition that it was a takleef (imposition) for a good muslim to come across hindus on the way to mosque.
These are not concerns of the typical arab, who is a majority in his country. It is the subcontinental muslim that has come up with rules dealing with seclusion from the dirty Kuffars whom one must live among. These were developed in India and now spread to other communities in the west, where a similar condition of minority life is found.
It was Maulana Madudi who wrote that muslims must dress demonstrably different from his neighbors, that muslim dress is a political act.
He was from India but greatly influenced the muslim brotherhood of Egypt.
It was in India that the first stirrings of muslim angst over the loss of muslim power occured.
Previously, they could always have called upon some islamic conqueror from outside the subcontinent to reimpose islam when it fell into danger as the Sikh and Hindu kingdoms attacked.
Here is the author William Dalrymple on the 1847 Sepoy mutiny in India against British rule: Later they stood in Chandni Chowk, the main street of Old Delhi, and asked people: "Brothers: are you with those of the faith?" British men who had converted to Islamand there were a surprising number of those in Delhiwere not hurt; but Indians who had converted to Christianity were cut down immediately. It is highly significant that the Urdu sources usually refer to the British not as angrez (the English) or as goras (Whites) or even firangis but instead almost always as kafirs (infidels) and nasrani (Christians).
Although the great majority of the sepoys were Hindus, in Delhi a flag of jihad was raised in the principal mosque, and many of the insurgents described themselves as mujahideen, ghazis and jihadis. Indeed, by the end of the siege, after a significant proportion of the sepoys had melted away, unpaid, hungry and dispirited, the proportion of jihadis in Delhi grew to be about a quarter of the total fighting force, and included a regiment of "suicide ghazis" from Gwalior who had vowed never to eat again and to fight until they met death"for those who have come to die have no need for food". One of the causes of unrest, according to one Delhi source, was that "the British had closed the madrasas".
When the rebellion was crushed, the muslims set up the Deoband madrassa (the wellspring of the present day Taliban).
Islamism - as advocated by Madudi, arose from this loss of power when the British destroyed the Moghul empire. Later the impending end of British rule and the coming to power of the hindu majority drove it into a frenzy The dismantling of the Ottoman empire led to the caliphate movement and directly to partition.
This is the Pakistani author Ayaz Amir: Islam was not in danger in pre-1947 India. Indeed, considering the sectarian violence and religious bigotry we face today, it was in better health then. Nor was democracy the issue because even if partition had not happened, India was getting democracy once the British left. The Indian Independence Act promised that.
So what was the compelling reason for the Muslims to insist on a separate homeland especially when there was no going around the uncomfortable fact that, no matter how generously the frontiers of the new state were drawn, an uncomfortably large number of Muslims would remain in India?
The purpose of Pakistan, transcending anything to do with safeguarding Islam or promoting democracy, was to create conditions for the Muslims of India, or those who found themselves in the new state, to recreate the days of their lost glory.
The removal of takleef of kuffar presence, the recreation of lost glory, the reimposition of muslim political rule were the driving forces of partition.
The Beeston inhabitants have the mindset of partition, of islamism. They use the old rules they developed to deal with the Kufr majority.
They wish the material benefits of the country the live in, but hate the inhabitants. It is takleef to live amonst the english.
Anyone thinking that these immigrants from West and East Pakistan can be integrated is severly delusional.
Posted by: john ||
07/05/2006 14:23 Comments ||
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#10
What many commentators in the media forget is that the majority of muslims are not arabs.
The majority live in the Indian subcontinent and they have their own bodies of islamic law.
Wahabism and saudi money is not the only driver of islamic terror. One must also take into account the deobandis from the subcontinent, especially since it is this tradition that developed amongst a majority of unbelievers, that sought to impose muslim power over the Kurf majority.
Posted by: john ||
07/05/2006 14:37 Comments ||
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#11
But that, of course, begs the question...why did they move to GB? The answer of course is that they moved to CONQUER the infidel.
They moved to gain the material advantages that life in the UK afforded.
There is a recognition that they are the minority, and the old habits come into play --- first the demand for recognition of cultural rights - dress, language, use of sharia for peronal law - marriages, divorce etc.
Then demands for greater sharia. Attempts to paint the national courts as biased. Calls for muslim insitutions. There will be a call for separate electorates, to give "oppressed" muslims a share of political power (they even convinced Winston Churchill with that one) - a guaranteed percentage of seats in the parliament. They will demand local autonomy. Bit by bit they attempt to gain greater and greater power.
Posted by: john ||
07/05/2006 16:07 Comments ||
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked parliament for permission to send military units outside the country to prevent terrorist activity. The move follows Russia's offer of a $10m (£5.4m) reward for information leading to the killers of five Russian diplomats in Iraq last month.
President Putin has submitted the draft decree to parliament's upper house. It would permit the deployment of military personnel outside Russia to prevent international terrorism. The upper house, known as the Federation Council, is strongly supportive of the Russian president. There seems little doubt that the draft decree will be approved.
The wording of the document, as quoted to news agencies by the Kremlin's press secretary, does not mention any country in particular.
But last week, President Putin ordered Russian agents to find and destroy the killers of the five diplomats in Iraq. Russia was shocked by the deaths and called on the coalition forces occupying Iraq to provide better security for diplomatic missions working there.
#1
Interesting. He already ordered Special Forces to hunt the Iraq terrorists down last week. Is Putin planning on sending more deadly military units to Syria, Iran, and NK? Maybe we should give the former KGB our list, too, and let them take care of business while the useless UN haggles over the "strong diplomatic message" to send to Kim.
#2
Intresting, just how it correlates with
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on Israel to avoid using too much force in ongoing efforts to free hostage soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit.
July 5, 2006: While everyone's attention was focused on North Korean missiles, the real story is the North Korean economy. It continues to fall apart, and more North Koreans are unhappy about that. Worse yet, more North Koreans are finding out how badly they have been screwed by their leaders.
Meanwhile, North Korean officials engage in even more bizarre behavior. For example, food and fuel supplies sent to North Korea have been halted, not to force North Korea to stop missile tests or participate in peace talks, but to return the Chinese trains the aid was carried in on. In the last few weeks, the North Koreans have just kept the trains, sending the Chinese crews back across the border. North Korea just ignores Chinese demands that the trains be returned, and insists that the trains are part of the aid program.
It's no secret that North Korean railroad stock is falling apart, after decades of poor maintenance and not much new equipment. Stealing Chinese trains is a typical loony-tune North Korean solution to the problem.
If the North Koreans appear to make no sense, that's because they don't. Put simply, when their unworkable economic policies don't work, the North Koreans just conjure up new, and equally unworkable, plans. The Chinese have tried to talk the North Koreans out of these pointless fantasies, and for their trouble they have their trains stolen.
How do you negotiate under these conditions? No one knows. The South Koreans believe that if they just keep the North Korean leaders from doing anything too destructive (especially to South Korea), eventually the tragicomic house of cards up north will just collapse. Not much of a plan, but so far, no one's come up with anything better.
Posted by: DanNY ||
07/05/2006 08:21 ||
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#1
All your trains are belong to us!
On a more serious note, Kimmie keeps saying "look at me, look at me", but when we do he sticks his finger in our eye. I hope the Iranians are second-guessing their decision to get missle tech from the Norks, but maybe Ahmadinejad is just as nuts. *shudder*
#9
Uhh, paint, #8? I am not sure the NorKors have enough paint for a locomotive. Was that part of the Chinese aid on the trains that they stole? Otherwise, I am not sure their economy is robust enough to produce usable paint -- too many of the workers out boiling grass and the dead so that they can stay alive.
Ummm... Yeah. Launching an ICBM our way on Independence Day, that's a provocation. Even if they did flub it.
The Bush administration said Tuesday five missiles were fired by North Korea in what it called a provocation, but not an immediate threat to the United States. We do consider it provocative behavior, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said.
Four of the five missiles were short range, but the other was a long-range missile which failed after 35 seconds that U.S. officials believe is capable of reaching the United States. The short-range missiles landed in the Sea of Japan. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, told reporters, The North Koreans have again clearly isolated themselves.
White House officials at one point said six missiles were fired, but then backed off and said actually only five launching occurred.
They later said that it was, in fact, six...
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to confer, starting tonight, with her counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, over the missile firings, according to the State Department. The test firings included a long-range Taepodong-2, the communist nations most advanced missile with a range of up to 9,320 miles, and five shorter-range missiles, said Hadley.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the missile launches were no immediate threat to the U.S. In Colorado, the North American Aerospace Defense Command was put on heightened alert, or Bravo-Plus status, slightly higher than a medium threat level, on Monday in anticipation of possible activities by North Korea, said Michael Kucharek, a NORAD spokesman in Colorado Springs. NORAD and the U.S. Northern Command is responsible for defending U.S. territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Tony, Tony, Tony, NoKo is a perpetual state of isolation.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/05/2006 0:44 Comments ||
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#2
I know, I know ;)
So the Taepodong-2, which has a range of 9,320 miles 'failed' after 35 seconds - I reckon it went about 10 miles maximum (6000 mph * 35 seconds = 58 miles, and no way was it going 6000 mph). Would 35 seconds give them much data to work with? - I would have thought not, but I'm no expert in this area :)
I guess there's quite a few poor sods that were turned into kimchi for their fellow slaves to munch on.
Here's the probable launch site, courtesy of Google.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/05/2006 1:07 Comments ||
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#3
Bush should send the following note to China: "Curb your dog."
#4
Even Sputnik, or Yuri Gagarin, made at least one successful orbit which goaded peace-minded, isolationist America unto the space race. For me the true focii are the short-range missles - CHINA's prize in East Asia is notsomuch Taiwan or SoKor but the knockout of econ and regional competitor JAPAN - Taiwan, SOuth Korea, and other East-South Asian nations are all PC stepping
stones for China's ultimate regional target World #2 or #3 JAPAN. CONTROL OF JAPAN GIVES MAINLAND COMMUNIST CHINA LEVERAGE AGAINST BOTH RUSSIA AND AMERICA. Communist-Maoist may work wid Radical Islmaist, etal for now against common enemy America - ONCE AMERICA IS FINALLY GONE, BETTER BELIEVE THE GLOVES WILL COME OFF BETWEEN SECULAR SOCIALISM AND RADICAL ISLAMISM, FIGHTING EACH OTHER FOR THE REMAINDER OF HUMANITY + WORLD ITSELF.
#6
Oh great, we've been provocated with a dead weapon. Maybe we should just give in and send the NoKos some more tree bark. He's so ronery!
Posted by: Rick ||
07/05/2006 9:39 Comments ||
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#7
As to whether the Norks got anything useful from a 35 second flight, you have to wonder what sort of telemetry they have for their big missiles.
And how we can intercept and read that.
And perhaps modify the data stream. No, I don't know for sure, but ... [thump] ack!
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2006 13:11 Comments ||
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#8
be great if all the telemetry the NK's got back was an encrypted podcast of Elton John's Rocket Man...
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/05/2006 14:16 Comments ||
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#9
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
The nations negotiating with Pyongyang to resolve nuclear tensions on the Korean Peninsula should condemn North Korean missile launches on Wednesday, Australia's prime minister said.
North Korea test-launched at least three missiles early Wednesday, including a long-range missile that may be capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. The action drew strong protests from the Japanese government and condemnation from Washington.
Prime Minister John Howard condemned the act as "extremely provocative."
"I hope that what North Korea has done is condemned as provocative not only by Australia and Japan but also by other countries in the six-power group," Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio, referring also to the United States, China, Russia and South Korea.
Prosecutors said Wednesday they had arrested two Italian intelligence officers and were seeking four more Americans as part of an investigation into the alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.
The arrest of the two SISMI intelligence officials was the first official acknowledgment that Italian agents were involved in a case that prosecutors have called a clear violation of Italian sovereignty.
In a statement released in Milan, prosecutors said three Americans being sought were CIA agents, while the fourth worked at the joint U.S.-Italian air base of Aviano, where the Egyptian was allegedly taken after his abduction.
The statement did not provide names, but said the two Italians, at the time of the kidnapping, were the director of SISMI's first division dealing with international terrorism and the head of the agency's operations in northern Italy.
Italian media reports identified the two as Marco Mancini, currently the head of military counterespionage, and Gustavo Pignero, and said they were charged with kidnapping.
Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, an Egyptian cleric and terrorist suspect also known as Abu Omar, was allegedly kidnapped from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003. Prosecutors say the operation represented a severe breach of Italian sovereignty that compromised their anti-terrorism efforts, and have already incriminated 22 purported CIA agents.
Prosecutors say Nasr was taken by the CIA to a joint U.S.-Italian air base, flown to Germany and then to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.
The operation was believed part of a CIA program known as "extraordinary rendition" in which terrorism suspects are transferred to third countries.
Prosecutors and a lawyer for Nasr say he is being held in a Cairo prison.
Italian media reports in recent months have said that Italian intelligence officers were also involved.
But former Premier Silvio Berlusconi maintained his government and Italian secret services had not taken part in the operation or been informed. In March, SISMI director Nicolo Pollari told EU lawmakers that Italian agents had no knowledge of the operation.
Nasr is believed to have fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia and was under surveillance on suspicion of recruiting Islamic militants, according to Italian media reports.
Both SISMI and Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro, who has been leading the probe, declined comment.
Spataro is seeking the extradition of the 22 purported CIA agents accused in Nasr's abduction. The previous government led by Berlusconi decided against forwarding Spataro's extradition request to Washington, but Spataro has said he would ask the new center-left government led by Romano Prodi to make the request.
Also as part of the investigation, the Milan offices of an Italian daily, Libero, were searched Wednesday by about a dozen police, who seized the computer of the newspaper's deputy editor, Renato Farina.
Farina has covered the case, and the newspaper said police were looking for information they thought had been leaked by the SISMI to the journalist.
In Italy and across Europe, leftist politicians accused the Berlusconi government, a U.S. ally, of complicity with the CIA, while conservatives defended the officials involved and criticized prosecutors for hurting the fight against terrorism.
European investigator Dick Marty, a Swiss senator, reported to Europe's top human rights body last month that 14 European countries, including Italy, had aided the movement of detainees who said they were abducted by U.S. agents and secretly transferred to prisons around the world.
"Today's arrest leaves this complicity beyond doubt," said a statement from Cem Ozdemir and Raul Romeva, two Green members of the European Parliament. "This arrest is only the tip of the iceberg."
But Jas Gawronski, an Italian member of the European Parliament on a committee investigating CIA activities, condemned the move by prosecutors.
"Osama bin Laden is happy," said Gawronski, a former Berlusconi spokesman. "In my country today, instead of arresting terrorists we're arresting those who are hunting terrorists."
STRASBOURG: Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Tuesday the warning by President Jacques Chirac that France could respond with nuclear weapons to state-sponsored terrorism was a necessary deterrent to protect the country from an attack. Chirac warned in January that leaders who would envisage using arms of mass destruction would expose themselves to a fitting response - conventional or other - from France. He said there should be no doubt about Frances will and capacity to use nuclear arms if its vital interests were threatened. Alliot-Marie suggested that France would extend its nuclear protection to European allies.
France is a nuclear power. We have indicated we are willing to strike if one of our neighbors existence was threatened. Its a deterrent, but of course you must be willing to use it for it to be a deterrent, Alliot-Marie told a European Parliament committee. Nuclear protection is our protection, the protection we prefer today, she said. Chirac drew scorching criticism in Europe for his comments, which had sent a warning to countries like Iran and sought to nip in the bud domestic debate about whether deeply indebted France still needs its expensive nuclear deterrent in the post-Cold War world. Frances nuclear arsenal is considered a purely dissuasive means and is not intended for a normal battle situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2006 00:18 ||
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#1
Fine and good, Chirac, but always remember the props still have to stay on for expensive aircraft carriers to do their mission. Can't help or save NATO iff the Cold War Soviet Navy considered major French warships sunk while still at anchor and not even in battle.
#3
Alliot-Marie suggested that France would extend its nuclear protection to European allies
Such frivolous mirth has made me spill cornflakes down my suit. Bugger.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/05/2006 3:32 Comments ||
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#4
Alliot-Marie suggested that France would extend its nuclear protection to European allies
Sorry but the decision about who would be covered by France's nuclear ptrotection is NOT from the resort of the defence minister.
And I see no reason why the taxes of the French should be used to protect people who haven't paid a single red cent from tyhe costs of French nukes.
#7
The French can be so frustrating, and they say the US is bad. Of all countries France needs NATO most. LOTP's reading into this is correct, and France's arrogance is showing. A Nuke responce to terrorism? Give me a break! It seems they still don't get transnational terrorist threat. They will never be able to clearly define a state sponsored attack unless the country stands up and takes credit for it. Then it will be an act of war and France will demand NATO do something.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/05/2006 6:14 Comments ||
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#8
A dichotomy mindset should never have any control over foreign policy. That is, for such incapables, there are only two options: hold bureaucratic committee meetings and endless "peace dialogings", or use nuclear weapons and destroy the world.
They cannot grasp that there are a million alternatives between the two. And they absolutely refuse to support any other alternatives, because they confuse them and make their head hurt.
But it's sad and dangerous how many people in power are just that naive, or intellectually incapable.
Such things as the EU approach to Iran, the nuclear freeze movement, much of the democratic party's foreign policy are all based on this inability to grasp bigger concepts than that there are only two alternatives to every problem.
#10
agree with anonymoose. I think this action shows how hot this situation is becoming. They are acknowledging this isn't a game anymore. What's sad is that it never was.
#11
they absolutely refuse to support any other alternatives, because they confuse them and make their head hurt.
They also cost a lot of money and require a lot of effort. It's too bad the French waste all this money on nukes, because the few French military people I have known were great warriors. Their country just wasn't willing to support them. Some of that may be the French military record of the last 150 years. That sort of thing makes nukes look like a usable and effective alternative. But nukes are useless, even for France.
#12
And I see no reason why the taxes of the French should be used to protect people who haven't paid a single red cent from tyhe costs of French nukes.
What was the logic of the EU again? I guess the taxes of the rest can go to support French socialism.
#13
It, yet again, points out that the sole rogue nuclear power at this point in time is France. France will determine the nature of the threat and its response, without regard or consultaion with any other nation. I continue to foresee a time when the nations of eastern Europe will regret having joined the EU because adherance to France's foreign policy will be backed by nukes.
#15
And I see no reason why the taxes of the French should be used to protect people who haven't paid a single red cent from tyhe costs of French nukes
Gee, I wished they'd made clear say around 1950'ish or so. The American tax payers would have saved a lot of money plying the same logic. Stuffed more money into the Navy instead of the defense of Western Europe and redirected the remaining monies to our social programs.
#16
The US has offered "nuclear umbrellas" as a tool of US foreign policy. I suspect France sees the same potential as well. After all it doesnt cost any more for the nuclear force if you do that - the force is the same size, its just the words youve said that are different.
#21
Alliot-Marie suggested that France would extend its nuclear protection to European allies.
This was probably aimed at Germany and Poland on the eve of the 15th anniversary and summit of the Weimar Triangle (France, Germany, Poland). A goodwill gesture of sorts, and welcoming nonetheless, considering neither Poland nor Germany have nukes.
Posted by: Rafael ||
07/05/2006 17:51 Comments ||
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#23
This was probably aimed at Germany and Poland on the eve of the 15th anniversary and summit of the Weimar Triangle (France, Germany, Poland). A goodwill gesture of sorts, and welcoming nonetheless, considering neither Poland nor Germany have nukes.
The problem being: How do we sound brave and strong by rattling our nuclear saber without encouraging Le Boche to build their own firecrackers?
#24
And look how well it worked out for Poland in 1939.
Posted by: ed ||
07/05/2006 18:21 Comments ||
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#25
How do we sound brave and strong by rattling our nuclear saber without encouraging Le Boche to build their own firecrackers?
Too late to put that genie back in the bottle. Someone will get nuked somewhere, sometime.
I wonder if Canada is included.
That's a separate insurance policy altogether. State Farm, I think.
Posted by: Rafael ||
07/05/2006 18:27 Comments ||
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#26
--And I see no reason why the taxes of the French should be used to protect people who haven't paid a single red cent from tyhe costs of French nukes.--
As SG1381 (you know you can change that if you wish) stated, Welcome to our world.
#28
And I see no reason why the taxes of the French should be used to protect people who haven't paid a single red cent from tyhe costs of French nukes
Having gone through all that trouble expanding the EU, I'd say protecting your investments (and dumping ground for all your goods) is a worthwhile pursuit. But then, I don't live on an island...
Posted by: Rafael ||
07/05/2006 23:20 Comments ||
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Activist Cindy Sheehan, who is leading a hunger strike against the war in Iraq, tells Norah ODonnell she would rather live under Hugo Chavez than George W. Bush... Calls for non-refundable, one-way ticket, in 3...2...1...
#8
Travelocity shows a one way coach ticket from Dallas to Caracas for only $866. Since we already have $300 pledged, it should be very easy to come up with the rest.
Of course, Mother Sheehan probably only travels first class these days in view of her exalted status. A first class ticket is only $1120.
According to Treasury and Justice Department officials familiar with the briefings their senior leadership undertook with editors and reporters from the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, the media outlets were told that their reports on the SWIFT financial tracking system presented risks for three ongoing terrorism financing investigations. Despite this information, both papers chose to move forward with their stories.
"We didn't give them specifics, just general information about regions where the investigations were ongoing, terrorist organizations that we believed were being assisted. These were off the record meetings set up to dissuade them from reporting on SWIFT, and we thought the pressing nature of the investigations might sway them, but they didn't," says a Treasury official.
In fact, according to a Justice Department official, one of the reporters involved with the story was caught attempting to gain more details about one of the investigations through different sources. "We believe it was to include it in their story," says the official.
In the briefings, Treasury and Justice Department officials laid out the challenges law enforcement and intelligence agencies have had with the traditional and still popular hawala Muslim "banking" system, which is dependent more on interpersonal dealings than on institutions and has been prevalent in parts of the world that doesn't understand the Islamic rules. "Since 9/11 we've gotten a lot better at monitoring hawalas," says a Justice Department official. "That success has forced a lot of the money into the institutional or more traditional banking systems. And that's where SWIFT has been particularly helpful."
This is especially true in the regions of the world that cater to large Muslim communities that require banking rules in line with their faith. Increasingly in countries like Malaysia, large, international banks are attracting billions in Muslim funds, trades and transfers of which could be monitored by SWIFT.
According to the Treasury and Justice Department sources, the reporters and editors appeared to have been told that the SWIFT financial monitoring was somehow being undertaken without warrants and without legal supervision. But from the initial briefings, the Times papers were shown information that clearly outlined the search warrant procedures undertaken by the federal government to track some financial transactions.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/05/2006 00:36 ||
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"We thought that once the reporters and editors understood that one, these were not warrantless searches, and two, that this was a successful program that had netted real bad guys, and three, that it was a program that was helping us with current, ongoing cases, they would agree to hold off or just not do a story," says the U.S. Treasury official. "But it became clear that nothing we said was going sway them. Whomever they were talking to, whoever was leaking the stuff, had them sold on this story."
The more I read about this, the more angry I get. As far as I'm concerned, Keller and his ilk should all be doing perp walks. Today.
#4
There's an opportunity here; set up a website with all the contact details etc of all the advertisers in the NYT and LAT.
Then, have several form letters available; "Dear Sir, ... NYT treacherous action ... withdraw support for your company ... yours sincerely"
Send message to info@bigcompany.com, customer_relations@...com, CEO@... as well as to their FAX numbers
Advertise said website on as many blogs and websites as you can find, and pass the word around. I originally wrote "non-liberal websites" but on reflection, there will be a large number of liberals who will see this as a treasonous action too.
Thoughts?
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/05/2006 1:41 Comments ||
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#5
SWIFT viewed the data requests as legal. BTW SWIFT is headquartered in Belgium and I'm fairly sure all international transfers are processed there (I've work with SWIFT systems in the past).
#6
Second order effects are DOD and other agencies will lock Treasury and DOJ out of any information loop. They will try to protect their program, and rightly so. This give the terrorists a second minor victory now that we have an information seam between agencies.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/05/2006 5:40 Comments ||
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#7
The media is the enemy.
Rope.
Tree.
Journalist.
Some assembly required.
#8
As Rudyard Kipling said, hangin's too good for them. The leakers and the journalists that published what was leaked need to be dragged through the Mojave Desert behind a deuce and a half for a week or three.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/05/2006 16:11 Comments ||
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RAWALPINDI: Pakistan and Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea have reiterated their mutual desire to further expand and broaden bilateral relations in the area of trade, economy and defence.
This was discussed during a meeting between Senior Federal Minister and Minister for Defence, Rao Sikandar Iqbal, and the ambassador of Democratic Republic of Korea to Pakistan, Ri Yong Hwan, who called on the Minister here Tuesday. Both sides underlined the need for closer cooperation particularly in the field of defence.
The Minister briefed the envoy about the steps taken by the present government for the social, economic and political development of the country. The envoy deeply appreciated the policies initiated by the government.
Posted by: john ||
07/05/2006 15:00 ||
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#1
Paks must be getting worried about their imported missiles for the defence minister to summon the NoKo ambassador..
Posted by: john ||
07/05/2006 15:08 Comments ||
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#2
For every dollar in NoKo aid that you receive, Perv, we deduct one hundred million dollars and a Fulbright scholarship from your allowance from Uncle Sam. And no whining!
A South Korean helicopter participates in a joint naval exercise between India and South Korea in the southern Indian city of Chennai July 5, 2006. REUTERS/Babu (INDIA)
Posted by: john ||
07/05/2006 16:19 Comments ||
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#4
Hmm.. a Coast Guard interdiction exercise ?
Interesting...
Posted by: john ||
07/05/2006 16:24 Comments ||
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#5
my local news had a breaking bulletin: NK says they have three more missiles on the launch pads ready to go
really banging the spoon on the highchair, aren't they? bitchslap or a public spanking is in order
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/05/2006 20:47 Comments ||
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July 5, 2006: The U.S. Army has completed a revision of its counterinsurgency (COIN) manual, for the first time in twenty years. The army has a long history of success fighting guerillas. Even Vietnam, which conventional wisdom counts as a defeat, wasn't. The conventional wisdom, as is often the case, is wrong. By the time the last U.S. combat units pulled out of South Vietnam in 1972, the local guerilla movement, the Viet Cong, was destroyed. North Vietnam came south three years later with a conventional invasion, sending tank and infantry divisions, charging across the border and conquering their neighbor the old fashioned way.
When the United States got involved with Vietnam in the late 1950s, there was good reason to believe American assistance would lead to the defeat of the communist guerilla movement in South Vietnam. In the previous two decades, there had been twelve communist insurgencies, and 75 percent of them had been defeated. These included Greek Civil War (1944-1949), Spanish Republican Insurgency (1944-1952), Iranian Communist Uprising (1945-1946), Philippine Huk War (1946-1954), Madagascan Nationalist Revolt (1947-1949), Korean Partisan War (1948-1953), Sarawak/Sabah "Confrontation" (1960-1966), Malayan Emergency (1948-1960), Kenyan Mau-Mau Rebellion (1952-1955). The communists won in the Cuban Revolution (1956-1958), the First Indochina War (1945-1954) and the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949). The communists went on to lose the guerilla phase of the Second Indochina War (1959-1970).
The main problem with COIN is that the American armed forces takes it for granted. U.S. troops have been defeating guerilla movements for centuries. Through all that time, COIN has been the most frequent form of warfare American troops have been involved with. But COIN has always been viewed as a minor, secondary, military role. It never got any respect. Even the U.S. Marine Corps, after half a century of COIN operations, were glad to put that behind them in the late 1930s. All that remained of that experience was a classic book, "The Small Wars Manual," written by some marine officers on the eve of World War II. That book, which is still in print, contained timeless wisdom and techniques on how to deal with COIN operations, and "small wars" in general.
The basic truth is that COIN tactics and techniques have not changed for thousands of years. What has also not changed is the professional soldiers disdain for COIN operations. This sort of thing has never been considered "real soldiering." But the U.S. Army and Marines have finally come to accept that COIN is a major job, something that U.S. troops have always been good at, and something that you have to pay attention to.
So when you see more news stories about the COIN manual, keep in mind the history of that kind of warfare, and how long, and successfully, Americans have been doing it.
Posted by: DanNY ||
07/05/2006 08:30 ||
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#1
The army has a long history of success fighting guerillas.
Apaches, Philippines, various banana republics, etc. However, notice that the Headquaters boys in Washington only have wanted to fight the last big war, generally giving COIN short shift at their officer schools.
The army has a long history of success fighting guerillas. Even Vietnam, which conventional wisdom counts as a defeat, wasn't. The conventional wisdom, as is often the case, is wrong. By the time the last U.S. combat units pulled out of South Vietnam in 1972, the local guerilla movement, the Viet Cong, was destroyed. Even Vietnam, which conventional wisdom counts as a defeat, wasn't. The conventional wisdom, as is often the case, is wrong. By the time the last U.S. combat units pulled out of South Vietnam in 1972, the local guerilla movement, the Viet Cong, was destroyed
Heck, the Battle of Tet resulted in the destruction of the VC in the South. From that time on, the war had to be carried by the NVA. However, Walter and his collegues in the media decided that even though we'd suffered less casualties than the Battle of the Bulge and stopped every goal of the enemy which he treated as an historic American victory, they'd portray Tet as a failure. MSM lied and millions died.
#3
The critical component of COIN is perception - information management, image, propaganda, whatever you want to call it. That's what makes assymmetric warfare work, when it does work, and fail when it fails. And that's where the West in general and the US in particular are weakest. Worse - it is not even clear that we realize that weakness, nor care.
IMO the main reason the echalons above reality do not like COIN/LIC/MOOTOW/etc., is that above the platoon level there is actualy very little for field-grade officer types to do.
Just make sure that each day the beans, bullets and band-aids get to the shooters, and PPT slides get to the political overseers, and you are one day closer to retirement. The BN and BDE CO's are reduced to politician style meet and greet with the local great and good. Its boring.
(as an aside-- my RGT CO put on 40 lbs. while in the sand box, just from having to sit and eat and talk with the local sheiks. By the time we demobed, he couldn't properly fasten his IBA vest. I wonder if he could have applied for VA disability.)
Down on the ground, with notable exceptions like Falluja or Hue, anything larger than a company just trips over itself. The Enemy seldom bunches larger than plt-company sized elements for fear of being JDAMmed to death.
Posted by: N guard ||
07/05/2006 18:37 Comments ||
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A QATARI member of the defence team of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein said Tuesday he believed any request for the handover of Saddam's wife by Qatar after she was named on Iraq's "most wanted" list would be doomed. Najib al-Nuaimi, a former justice minister, said he did not expect Interpol to ask Qatar to extradite Sajida Hussein to Iraq. Sajida, who was included in a 41-strong list of most wanted fugitives unveiled Sunday, has long been believed to be living in Qatar, although Qatari officials do not publicly discuss the issue.
"The list is illegal from the standpoint of international law, and Interpol abides by a series of rules it will not get around," Mr Nuaimi said. These include a court conviction for a specific crime against the person whose handover is demanded, he said. "The absence of treaties for the extradition of criminals between the current Iraqi government and other countries, including Qatar, would complicate any request by the Iraqi government to its Qatari counterpart for the handover of Sajida," Mr Nuaimi said.
The wanted list also includes Saddam's eldest daughter Raghad, who lives in Amman. The Jordanian government, which like Qatar is an ally of the United States, said after the list was issued that while no formal extradition request had yet been received from Iraq, Saddam's daughter had complied with the conditions of her asylum in Jordan and remained under the protection of the Hashemite royal family of King Abdullah II. Sajida was believed to be a major source of "guidance, logistical support and funding for the Iraq insurgent leadership and has access to substantial assets stolen by Saddam", the Iraqi government said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Time for a snatch and grab
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/05/2006 0:46 Comments ||
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#2
Nah, just catch her at the next wedding receiption. Make sure it is a bangup experience.
Wearing a green Hamas headband, waving a Hamas flag, swinging a Kalashnikov and chanting for Israel's demise, Bassem Shorah looks to be a prototypical Palestinian militant.
His olive green shirt, however, tells a different story. It's a spot-on replica of those worn by soldiers in the United States Army, replete with combat patches and unit designations.
Though he's a committed Islamist activist in a movement that denounces the United States for supporting Israel and occupying Iraq, Shorah proudly sports what has become the latest trend in Palestinian street wear: US military apparel.
"This is the new fashion in the market," says Shorah. "It's a show of force, because the US army is powerful. It's a symbol of strength and of our refusal to put down arms."
The US army knock-offs are part of a broader trend here. After six years of an uprising against Israel and with Gaza heading once again for confrontation with the Israeli army, militancy has become a dominant theme in Palestinian culture.
Particularly now, as Gaza's 1.4 million inhabitants sit up each night waiting anxiously for an Israeli invasion aimed at rescuing a captured soldier, air strikes and tank shells are woven into the fabric of daily life.
The masked, fatigue-clad militants who roam Gaza's streets in the name of resistance to the Jewish state are lionized by Palestinian youth.
On their television sets these young people see images of US soldiers in Iraq, and they view them as the ultimate symbol of military might.
"People look in the streets and they see gunmen, they watch TV and see the US Army, and they say, 'I want to be a militant, too. I want that shirt,'" says Omar Bilbaysi, who owns three clothing shops in downtown Rafah.
"The word 'US Army' doesn't matter," he adds. "What matters is that they're wearing military clothes."
Across Gaza, retailers say demand for military wear, US Army and otherwise, is booming.
Nearly every clothing store in Gaza is well-stocked with the sort of fashions one would expect to find at an army surplus store: camouflage shirts and pants and black paramilitary vests with pockets for ammo cartridges and hand grenades.
"The culture in Gaza now is very militant," says Ayman Jarbua, another clothing retailer here. "The youth admire the militants who are fighting in the resistance and they want to dress like them."
The trend is not limited to clothing. At barber shops across the West Bank and Gaza young Palestinians are demanding what's known as a "Marines," meaning a high and tight crew cut, the kind that is mandatory for US Marines.
Similarly, Abu Sim, a rank and file gunman in the Popular Resistance Committees' armed wing, has wrapped the barrel of his Kalashnikov with desert camouflage padding, another nod to US military fashion.
"I saw a US Marine sniper on TV doing the same thing," he says. "It's natural to copy the US military because they are powerful and so are we."
Still others, unable to read the English words emblazoned across their chest, don US Army garb without a clue.
"I just bought it because I like the way it looks, but I'll burn it now as soon as I go home," says Ibrahim Abu Zarif, 20, when told during a pro-Hamas rally that the patch on his left breast pocket says US Army.
In the 1990s, when peace with Israel seemed imminent, Palestinian youths looked elsewhere for role models. They emulated pop singers such as Iraqi legend Kazem Saher. Like the dapper vocalist, stylish young Palestinians once preferred dark suits with wide collared shirts unbuttoned at the top.
"Then, it wasn't the time of intifada," says Wasim al-Fagawy, a thoughtful 21-year-old law student at Al-Azhar University as he watches a Hamas rally rumble down a back street in southern Gaza.
"Now, times have changed and militancy is in the air everywhere."
Even women's and baby clothing stores stock generous racks of camouflage.
"It's normal in a land that knows only wars to find people attracted to this style," says Abu al-Hassan, a customer in Jarbua's store.
Hassan says he is a Hamas loyalist who hangs propaganda posters for the organization in his free time. Today, however, he's shopping for his wife: pink camouflage pants with a US Air Force logo on the front pocket.
At Baby City, a children's apparel shop owned by Bilbaysi, a poster of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin hangs on the door while the display window lures shoppers with tyke-sized fatigues, a US Army patch across the front.
"The people love their little kids to be dressed in military clothes," says Bilbaysi. "They want to teach the children and prepare them so they will be ready for the battle that lies ahead when they grow up."
#2
Hey Darth, ever watch those Pals when they high step and bounce up and down while pretending to march? Bet they can kill roaches better than any fightin' force in the world. Also, they'd make great mine detectors ... and relatively inexpensive ones at that.
#3
Fools that think a uniform will make them strong and brave, but haven't the training, integrity, or intelligence of the lowest member of any US military unit. They're not even as good as Iraq's cannon-fodder before 2003. "Delusional" is too kind a word for the idiocy of these people.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/05/2006 16:22 Comments ||
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#5
As nauseating as it sounds, hopefully it reflects the mood in the 'Arab street', that the US military is invincible. Which makes it a lot harder to drum up recruits to fight against it.
N.B.: A friend noted that after the Franco-Prussian war, with France quickly and decisively crushed by the Germans, every modern army on the planet adopted the Germanic spiked helmet, including the U.S. "It's got to be the spike."
DEBKA is pissed
Israeli security cabinet dampens military response to Hamas missile offensive which climaxed in Ashkelon Tuesday. The decisions reached by the security cabinet presided over by Ehud Olmert Wednesday, July 5, in the aftershocks of a Palestinian missile exploding at a school in the Ashkelon town center and the abduction of a soldier, boil down to nothing much in the way of concrete action.
A brief lexicon is in order here.
Following the cabinet meeting, Olmert and defense minister Amir Peretz continued to discuss with IDF and defense officials more detailed operational plans meaning, the cabinet approved no operational plans, but rather the outer limits of such plans.
The operation will be broadened to target institutions and infrastructure facilitating terrorism. The Israeli air force has long been bombing vacant land and empty buildings to little effect. No change is indicated and no takeover of Palestinian territory.
The IDFs operation will be prolonged and incremental meaning nothing is changed from the current activity.
The IDF will broaden its operations to reduce Qassam fire. Israel will consider creating a buffer zone in northern Gaza to block Qassam missile fire against Ashkelon and Sderot. Here too there is no departure from the present tactics certainly no commitment to deepen the Israeli incursion. If those tactics did not work before, why expect them to work now?
We must prepare to change the rules of the game in our dealings with the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, based on the parameters presented by the defense establishment. No one seriously pretends this was anything more than another media slogan.
It is no secret that Israels Operation Summer Rain has involved no serious counter-terror combat in the eight days since the first Israeli troops entered the southern Gaza Strip on the heels of the Hamas-led assault inside Israel that left two soldiers dead and a third, Corp. Gilead Shalit kidnapped,.
This make-believe offensive has had several consequences:
1. Gideon Shalit is now out of reach unless the IDF can stage a surprise rescue assault to free him. This option was allowed to float over the heads of the cabinet ministers Wednesday, but nothing specific was said.
2. Hamas is stepping up its efforts to kidnap Israelis servicemen and civilians.
3. Missiles continue to rain down on Sderot, the western Negev villages, Ashkelon and Netivot. Hamas and its allied terrorist groups will persist in their effort to achieve Israeli casualties.
4. The Palestinians are in the midst of a new terror offensive from the West Bank aimed at bringing suicide bombers into Israeli towns for civilian massacres. There were several foiled attempts this week. In Jenin, Israeli troops defused two large car bombs destined for a central Israeli city, followed by the interception of a Palestinian wearing a bomb vest on his way to an industrial zone north of Tel Aviv.
5. Hizballah and Palestinian terrorist groups based in Lebanon will be encouraged to launch attacks on northern Israel in support of Hamas.
Israels sluggish and ineffectual responses to Hamas aggression coincide with the test-firing of seven ballistic missiles by North Korea, one capable of reaching the American mainland, in the face of Washingtons threats to shoot them down.
After the US national security adviser Stephen Hadley said on Tuesday that the launch of 6 missiles by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) posed no apparent threat to U.S. territory as a missile that fails after 40 seconds is not a threat to the United States, Pyongyang followed up Wednesday with a seventh missile.
Tehran is displaying the same defiance to Washington and the West. After weeks of Iranian procrastination, the big powers demanded a reply to their proposed incentives for Iran to halt uranium enrichment by July 12, but the Iranians are leaving them to cool their heels until late August.
Other powers, including Russia, are taking advantage of the Bush administrations perceived immobilization by the Iraq imbroglio to pursue their own interests. In other times, Israeli prime ministers David Ben Gurion and Menahem Begin used similar periods for stunning military operations to extricate the country from extreme peril. Failing bold action against escalating Palestinian terror initiatives, Israel will continue to fall back in the face of this spiraling threat.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/05/2006 13:46 ||
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CAIRO - The Arab League has transfered 50 million dollars to the cash-strapped Palestinian territories, League Secretary General Amr Mussa said on Tuesday. Fifty million dollars have been transfered to the Palestinian Authority in full coordination with the Palestinian government, said Mussa.
Which means at least one Paleo bank will make the US Treasury's poop-list real soon.
He was speaking at a joint press conference with Nabil Shaath, an envoy representing Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas. Saudi Arabia for its part also provided 50 million dollars to the Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Shaath said at the leagues headquarters in Cairo.
The funds, which were transfered to the account of the Palestinian presidency, are the first Arab payments to reach the territories since the Israeli siege, said Shaath adding that the Arab League had already sent 15 million dollars to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and to employees and diplomats in Palestinian embassies.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2006 00:00 ||
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the question is whether the military or political wing of the bank facilitated the transfer. You can't punish both - that'd be collective punishment....
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/05/2006 0:35 Comments ||
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#2
Don't forget to flush
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/05/2006 0:48 Comments ||
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#3
I am sure they will use it to end the humanitarian crisis, in Zurich.
#4
not to be snarky - but how far can $50 million go in terms of keeping a government afloat? Especially after bribes, skimming off the top, commissions and outright theft are accounted for.
#6
Hamas is the government of the day. The last I knew they were terrorists by any definition. If given the choice of guns or butter on which to spend the $50 million, I'd bet they will spend it on guns.
#7
From what I've read, the Paleo government (I use the term loosely) has a payroll of $100 - $130 million a month. How much of that goes for graft and contributions to the Widows Ammunition Fund isn't clear to me. So $50 million gets them a week or two.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2006 13:15 Comments ||
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#8
Wha, JQC? You mean, we actually have a definition of terrorism? Get that dastardly John Bolton on the phone, pronto!
Arab and Muslim states will demand the U.N.'s top human rights forum should censure Israel for alleged abuses against Palestinians and that it halt a military assault in Gaza, according to a draft text obtained by Reuters on Tuesday. Tunisia, acting on behalf of the 57-country Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), submitted the resolution to the U.N. Human Rights Council ahead of its special session on the territories -- scheduled for Wednesday at the OIC's request.
The OIC draft text accuses Israel of arbitrarily arresting Palestinian leaders and of destroying bridges, and water and power plants. A simple majority would be required for adoption by the 47-member state forum in Geneva. Diplomats expected the debate to continue on Thursday and the vote to be close.
The forum, which has moral authority, succeeded the widely-discredited U.N. Commission on Human Rights, but has already been criticised by Israel and the United States of singling out the Jewish state.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Where's the timetable to withdraw from the UN.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/05/2006 0:49 Comments ||
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#2
No mention of the rockets the Government of Palistine has been firing into Israel - an act of war.
No mention of the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier and murder of two of his fellows by the palistinian government - an act of war.
No mention of the deliberate kidnapping and murder of an innocent Israeli civilian by the Palistinian Government - an act of war.
Just that the OIC wants Israel to immediately cease and desist from defending itself and denying the muslim's right to murder innocent jews.
We need to get out of the UN and stop financing it NOW. Kick them out of here, demolish the UN Building, salt the earth it stood on, and place a sewage treatment plant in its place.
#3
Does anyone (anyone sane that is) really care what the UN says any more? Seriously, I know that whenever the UN proclaims on something, I either totally ignore it or reflexively take the opposite stance.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/05/2006 1:10 Comments ||
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#4
CrazyFool, yes, that's mindboggling, you've described it exactly.
Black is white, right is wrong, wrong is right, up is down,...
Coming from the arabo-muslims, this is not unexpected; at the basis of their own civilization is the idea that there's no reciprocity to be expected between the warrior Master Religion and the kufrs, the former having all the rights, while the later are only here to submit and to support their (non-productive) betters.
So, they're only acting "normally" while waging war against us throught the very world order and institutions we set up after WWII that have taken a life of their own, thanks to their oil money.
BUT, that this whole mess is somehow taken seriously and no denounced by the West, and is actually even encouraged and enabled, is a different indicator, telling how deep we've fallen down.
This values inversion is but a symptom of our own rot and decay.
#5
agree with posts above. I think we are moving beyond the point where it matters anymore. In the end, they are just little yappy dogs, too stupid to realize that the big dog is now showing his teeth and giving them a warning growl. So they yap some more. So what? What good will that do them when the real fight begins?
#6
Sometimes, it is easy to get so close to something you can't see it properly. Take a step back and what you see are cave men who, due to advances of the 21st century, were unfrozen and forced to suddenly live in a modern world - over a century beyond their realm. Up to this point, and due to our need for oil, they have been given a pass. We stop for them, like I stop for the geese who pass in front of my car, who then flap their wings and honking at ME.
They don't have a chance. They don't have a clue. They only rely on our charity. Thus you see all the bluster about abuses, but when the petal hits the metal (so to speak) the honking is meaningless.
Think about it. It's like they want to fight with sticks and spears against machine guns. They might get a nuke and kill people, but they are so very far behind both in mindset and technology that they have no chance of winning. Sure, in their little caveminds they think they can. But that's because they are still operating under the assumptions of a culture that isn't going to survive in today's world.
They've got bluster and tactics from over a century ago. We are currently fighting with our hands tied. Soon enough, they will do something stupid and the real fighting will begin. It's not even going to be close.
#7
Yes, but what about the REAL war, IE the demographic inbalance between the West ands the still-growning for now muslim heartland, and the mass migrations?
I don't fear a takeover of France or Europe by hordes of scimitar-swinging jihadis (though push comes to shove, and europeans start reacting harshly and actual fighting erupts, I can very well picture north african armies, and muslim volunteers from all over the world coming to help their fellow True Believers), but through the deadly combination of 1) western deathwish (be it due to cultural marxism, or related to post WWI loss of values, etc, etc,...) + 2) demographical growth in islamic countries (this WILL have to have consequences for us and them) + 3) mass migrations and population shift (see 1 & 2).
This is the real deal. The purely "military" aspect of this is a sideshow, unless of course nukes are involved.
#8
Nukes don't need to be involved. Once the infrastructure and trade patterns that support the agriculture that feeds all these people is disrupted and destroyed, we will see large scale starvation and disease the likes of which the western world has not experienced for 600 years.
#9
that's a good point and you are right. I guess I'm assuming that they won't pull it off because they are too impatient and aggressive to pull it off.
It is their bold unrelenting. aggressiveness that allows them to make the inroads they do into our society. I can't help thinking that it is that same bold, unrelenting, aggressiveness that will cause outright war and end in a result dictated by human nature rather than some pie in the sky pc bullsnit.
BURMA'S military junta has attempted to buy nuclear weapons technology from North Korea's rogue regime in an alliance that presents a frightening new threat to regional security. The US issued a heavy-handed warning to Burmese military dictator Than Shwe to cease and desist all such activities after discovering Rangoon's bid late last year.
The prospect of the two pariah states of Asia joining together has alarmed Western intelligence agencies, with the US privately circulating a draft resolution condemning Burma's actions for the UN Security Council. The terms of the resolution would say that Burma constituted a "threat to peace and security". This would be a Chapter Six resolution, which does not imply that the Security Council would authorise the use of force against Burma or move directly to sanctions. But it would be the first time Burma has been formally censured by the Security Council. It is understood that no nuclear material has been transferred.
I'm starting to come around to the idea that we should give up our nuclear weapons, if only because having them will put us in the company of the most dirtbag nations on the face of the earth: NKor, Burma, Iran...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Khan and Kimmy need visible horrible deaths to deter future repeats. Perhaps kimmy could be eaten by his slaves/workers.
#2
BURMA = like Osama > was "Our Man", or one of them, during the Cold War against the USSR. Still say America is paying the price for focusing on larger regional nations like India and Thailand, etc. - my recommendation to Dubya would be less UNO, more Western direct investment-development. Its Burma's turn.
#3
Diplomacy won't work against the proliferation/Islamization circus that is dominating world affairs. Do we not owe our children a future where their security is assured? If so then why the hell don't we take the military means to neutralize these threats? We couldn't do it under the NATO/Warsaw Pact alignment system. We can now. What the hell are we waiting for?
#4
We really don't need nukes anymore. I agree Fred, cold war weapon, not really needed. We had Nukes because they could scare the hell out of the Russians and keep them in check. The weapon worked on a mass scale to insure hitting the target. Now we can remove a government with conventional missles in a mass strike.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/05/2006 6:20 Comments ||
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#5
Once the ABM system is operational I agree ICBM nukes become rather old news. That just means more money for robotic warefare toys. :)
#7
"Diplomacy won't work against the proliferation/Islamization circus that is dominating world affairs."
Worldwide, Islam IS the problem. Until a decision is made to destroy Islam and force its surviving adherents to convert or die, it will continue to be the slowly growing cancer it has always been.
#8
Problem is, forcible conversion of a strongly-held religion doesn't work, it just creates martyrs. I'm afraid the only answer I see at this pass is annihilation; them or us. Hate it, but my kids don't deserve the world it looks like we're leaving them...
#9
forcible conversion of a strongly-held religion doesn't work, it just creates martyrs.
Martyrs and subversives. And cynical hypocrites of those who weren't strong believers in their former religion, but absolutely don't believe in their new one. All in all a poisonous snake taken to the bosom. The Catholic Church in Spain discovered this to their sorrow post-1492, when the Jews and the Moors were given the choice to convert or be expelled. The decendents of those are stilled called Marranos, and in some places still not wholly trusted, as I've been told. Families that to this day still take a pair of ancient silver candlesticks out of hiding before Friday night dinners, and for some reason don't eat bread during Easter week...
THE three Bali bombers on death row will appeal their convictions in an attempt to avoid an Indonesian firing squad, angering the families of Australian victims. Their appeal will be based on the fact that the anti-terrorism legislation used to convict them of the October 2002 bombings that killed 202 people was enacted after the attacks, lawyer Wirawan Adnan told The Australian yesterday.
Imam Samudra, 36, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, 43, and Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, 46, have already said they do not want a presidential pardon for their crimes. But Mr Adnan said the planned application for a judicial review had "no connection" with their guilt or otherwise. "Even criminals deserve justice. So they must be tried under the criminal code, not under the anti-terrorism legislation," Mr Adnan said. "We have already received the power of attorney from our clients to lodge the review. They themselves (the bombers) have requested this. If the review is accepted, there will be a new verdict in a new case."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#2
I seriously doubt that these lads will be executed or serve any significant sentence - I think getting the GPS co-ordinates of the prison would be an idea for the Aussie air-force to consider.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/05/2006 5:19 Comments ||
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#3
Howard's right, I believe. Indonesia is now a state sponsor of Islamic terrorists, when judged by actions. What once was, assuming they were ever actually helpful in the WOT, is no longer the case. Not really much of a surprise, though.
Tehran, Iran, Jul. 04 The European Unions foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Irans chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani will likely meet in Brussels on Wednesday, the government-run news agency Fars reported on Tuesday.
The report quoted an informed source as saying that the talks would most likely be held in Brussels and last for several hours. Larijani and Solana are expected to accomplish nothing except waste time and enjoy lunch discuss a package of incentives offered to Tehran by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany in return for it to suspend uranium enrichment.
UPDATE: BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iran postponed crucial nuclear talks with the European Union on Wednesday in apparent anger at an exiled opposition leader's visit to the European Parliament, but the meeting will go ahead on Thursday.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who last month put to Tehran a package of incentives offered by major powers for it to give up uranium enrichment, voiced surprise and impatience after a phone call with the chief Iranian nuclear negotiator. "I was surprised to hear that Ali Larijani ... has decided at the last minute to postpone his trip," Solana said. "I have made clear to the Iranians and to Dr Larijani that we want to proceed rapidly to examine the ideas I put to him early last month," he added in a statement.
Solana said he would meet Larijani in Brussels on Thursday and again on July 11, keeping up Western pressure for a clear answer before leaders of the Group of Eight industrial powers meet in St Petersburg on July 15. The United States insisted it wanted an Iranian answer on the incentives offer three days before the summit. "We have made it clear ... that we expect an answer by the 12th before the G8 summit begins," said White House spokesman Tony Snow.
Britain expressed disappointment at Iran's postponement of Wednesday's talks. "This adds to a suspicion that Iran is playing for time," a Foreign Office spokesman said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2006 00:00 ||
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So much for that much-coveted reservation at that fashionable restaurant. Poor Mr. Solana is going to have to eat his wife's cooking again.
The EU will pressure Iran at talks on Wednesday to reply fast to a major powers' package of incentives designed to end a standoff over its nuclear program but Tehran says it must have more time. Diplomats said divisions in the U.N. Security Council over what action to take on Iran meant there was little chance of it rushing to respond either at the Brussels meeting or before a July 15 summit of G8 leading industrialized nations in Russia. "Iran holds all the cards," said one European diplomat with a Group of Eight (G8) country, adding that Russia and China were likely to oppose U.N. Security Council sanctions as long they thought Tehran was giving serious consideration to the offer.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Foolish me, I thought this is what they've been doing the past two years or so.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/05/2006 0:51 Comments ||
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#2
Grady is dictating a very very very, thats 3 very's, mean letter to show the U.N. means business. If they dont respond - Madeline Albreight will be sent in to negotiate a solution. Former President Jimmy Carter has also vowed to vist Iran to calm the current disagreement if Bono lends him a personal jet and some bread to accompany his peanut butter.
Posted by: Rick ||
07/05/2006 14:27 Comments ||
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#4
Unfortunately, it won't happen in time for the November election.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2006 13:13 Comments ||
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#5
Steve
Actually I think a lot of people think we may well get a $10 to %15/barrel decline in late Oct if gasoline use stays at the same level as in 2005 until then (where it has been the past two months), if we get no cat 3 hurricanes in the gulf of Mex and if the economy cools off (to say +2.5% annualized growth). But if we do get the decline the donks will say it is a Rovian plot.
#6
So we should hold out hope that it will be going down, sometime in the future?
Won't happen, let me tell you why.
The oil market is too easy to manipulate. Pirates in the Straits of Malacca, Rebels in the Niger Delta, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Venezuela, South Africa, Bolivia, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico...ect. ect..ect.
If any one of them have a bad day oil goes up
If opec decides the price is too low, they cut production, the price goes up.
If we have a hurricane in the gulf, the price goes up.
If some asshole energy broker decides the gas inventories are a little too low, the price goes up.
#7
I think oil prices will spike as elections near. The OPEC nations see it in their interest to paralyze US actions and promote infighting. The best hope of that is to have Democrats gain control of the House or Senate.
Posted by: ed ||
07/05/2006 15:23 Comments ||
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Why would producers keep oil at sea at $75 a barrel waiting for prices to drop?
U.S. demand is only part of the reason that world oil prices are high. We produce almost half our need. China and India produce diddly squat [technical term]. As long as their demand goes up, world prices will too. The only producer ramping up production is Iraq and that new half million barrels is a drop in the bucket.
And they licensed a new reactor. Whoopdie doo. They haven't even broken ground yet, much less addressed the avalanche of law suits that will have to be resolved before one electron is generated.
As for oil supplies, the amount he shows in inventory is about 1 month of imports for the US or about two weeks of overall need. Yeah, that'll quench demand. Ummm..., larry, how ya gonna refine it? Refineries are at max and some will be going down for the usual summer maintenance cycle.
A year ago, Larry was praising the Chinese for their stable currency policies. The ones that keep our trade deficit artifically high and help support the Ponzi scheme that is the Chinese economy.
#11
I could swear I heard recently that the government study on the impact of boutique blends found that they have no significant impact on gas prices (yeah, right). IIRC the recommendation was to leave the system as-is.
#12
The Energy Department just announced that crude oil supplies rose 1.4 million barrels
I don't know if the guy is being deliberately deceptive or just doesn't know what he is talking about, but the increase is in inventory not supplies. And as anyone who knows anything about supply chains will tell you, maximize inventory of the product(s) most in demand.
So rather than being an indicator of prices going down, it's an indicator prices are going up.
#15
Wife: Look at it this way. The price per barrel is at record highs. That is only a small component of the price you pay aqt the puump. As long as the finished product, gasoline, is selling high, buyers will stock up and inventory the raw material. If retail goes higher, they then have a supply bought at a lower than current market price and their profit is that much more.
You don't really know what the price per barrel was of the gasoline you just put into your car. $40 or $70? Depending on the stockpile...
#16
So when the price of the raw material is high, and inventories go up, that just means the speculators are buying on the hope of making even more money... or that wise managers are working against future price increases. Am I close?
#17
Possibly. But it could also mean that when prices go up end use customers are cutting demand by driving less. So now the producers, who have responded to the higher prices by producing as much as they can, have more product than the market wants at the price they are charging. So they can lower the price or sit on the inventory. You can only sit on the inventory so long and then you have to cut prices. In the grocery business this is known as sell it or smell it.
#18
Actually, inventories these days are a bad thing in supply chains.
The key is to optimize the processes (be them process industry related or manufacturing industry related) such that you can produce what is in most demand -- and meet that demand without having to utilize buffer stocks, WIP or worst yet Finished Goods stores.
The burden on carrying inventory is unecessary and a complete waste, as is the application of resources to what is now (in view of the supply chain) a dead duck just sitting there.
Yeah, yeah in the real world we have to have inventories, but the reduction of and the refinement of the process to build what is in demand ON demand is the prime goal of supply chain management.
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.
Sunday Times reporter Ali Hussain spent six weeks in Beeston, where three of the 7/7 bombers came from. He found an enclosed community, rife with conspiracy theories
Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked parliament for permission to send military units outside the country to prevent terrorist activity. The move follows Russia's offer of a $10m (£5.4m) reward for information leading to the killers of five Russian diplomats in Iraq last month.
STRASBOURG: Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Tuesday the warning by President Jacques Chirac that France could respond with nuclear weapons to state-sponsored terrorism was a necessary deterrent to protect the country from an attack. Chirac warned in January that leaders who would envisage using arms of mass destruction would expose themselves to a fitting response - conventional or other - from France. He said there should be no doubt about Frances will and capacity to use nuclear arms if its vital interests were threatened. Alliot-Marie suggested that France would extend its nuclear protection to European allies. 
A QATARI member of the defence team of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein said Tuesday he believed any request for the handover of Saddam's wife by Qatar after she was named on Iraq's "most wanted" list would be doomed. 
CAIRO - The Arab League has transfered 50 million dollars to the cash-strapped Palestinian territories, League Secretary General Amr Mussa said on Tuesday. Fifty million dollars have been transfered to the Palestinian Authority in full coordination with the Palestinian government, said Mussa.
BURMA'S military junta has attempted to buy nuclear weapons technology from North Korea's rogue regime in an alliance that presents a frightening new threat to regional security. The US issued a heavy-handed warning to Burmese military dictator 
THE three Bali bombers on death row will appeal their convictions in an attempt to avoid an Indonesian firing squad, angering the families of Australian victims. Their appeal will be based on the fact that the anti-terrorism legislation used to convict them of the October 2002 bombings that killed 202 people was enacted after the attacks, lawyer Wirawan Adnan told The Australian yesterday. 
Tehran, Iran, Jul. 04 The European Unions foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Irans chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani will likely meet in Brussels on Wednesday, the government-run news agency Fars reported on Tuesday.
The EU will pressure Iran at talks on Wednesday to reply fast to a major powers' package of incentives designed to end a standoff over its nuclear program but Tehran says it must have more time. Diplomats said divisions in the U.N. Security Council over what action to take on Iran meant there was little chance of it rushing to respond either at the Brussels meeting or before a July 15 summit of G8 leading industrialized nations in Russia. "Iran holds all the cards," said one European diplomat with a Group of Eight (G8) country, adding that Russia and China were likely to oppose U.N. Security Council sanctions as long they thought Tehran was giving serious consideration to the offer.
