Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Thursday refused to resign despite a mass exodus of cabinet ministers and mounting criticism over the deployment of Ethiopian troops to protect his feeble 18-month-old administration. Government spokesman Abdirahman Mohamed Nur Dinari said Gedi was instead working to replace the 36 ministers who have quit the 102-member cabinet in the past week calling for Gedi's resignation, even after he escaped a vote of no confidence over the weekend.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) began life without a home - conducting business in a Kenyan sports center. Since returning to battle-scarred Somalia in February, it rapidly found itself without a country to govern. By early June, Islamist militias seized the capital, Mogadishu, and took control of wide swaths of central and southern Somalia.
38 ministers and assistant ministers have quit in the past nine days...
Now, the TFG is facing complete collapse after 38 ministers and assistant ministers have quit in the past nine days. "What we need is the prime minister to have a clear policy to deal with moderates in the Islamic courts. As a government we have to have our principles and a strategy to talk with them," says Ibrahim Isaac Yerow, sipping a spiced cup of coffee outside the former grain warehouse where Parliament sits in the dusty provincial town of Baidoa. "We don't have that at the moment." Before resigning Wednesday, Mr. Yerow was the assistant minister of national property. Four more ministers quit Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Damn. I had such high hopes. Sure I did.
Okay. Cue the Ethiopians...
Venezuela will install an advanced air-defense system with anti-aircraft missiles capable of shooting down approaching enemy warplanes, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday.
Chavez, who has repeatedly accused the United States of plotting to overthrow him, said the missiles would help defend the oil-rich country against any "aggression."
"We're going to acquire the most modern anti-aircraft defense system," Chavez said during a televised speech in the coastal state of Falcon, where military planes and newly purchased Russian helicopters swooped overhead during a military parade. "We're going to armor Venezuela."
He said the air defense system would protect Venezuela from its Caribbean coast to its Amazon border with Brazil. He suggested he saw components that Venezuela will buy in visits to Russia, Belarus and Iran over the past week.
"The modern systems that we saw in Russia, Belarus and Tehran detect the target at 125 miles. They come with missiles that go direct, guided by the heat of the planes that come," Chavez said. "Venezuela will be armored to defend ourselves against any aggression."
Flush with booming oil profits, Chavez has been spending heavily on Venezuela's military while warning the country must be prepared in case U.S. troops one day attempt an invasion. American officials dismiss the suggestions as preposterous, though President Bush has called Chavez a threat to democracy in the region.
Chavez sealed a deal last week in Russia to buy 24 Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets and 53 helicopters. Venezuelan Defense Minister Gen. Raul Baduel has said those new deals, plus the installation of factories to produce Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition, will cost about $3 billion. Anything to keep those brain eating bats away from el Supremo.
#1
Flush with booming oil profits, Chavez has been spending heavily on Venezuela's military while warning the country must be prepared in case U.S. troops one day attempt an invasion.
Make him spend every dime of those booming oil profits. Make him so paranoid, that he thinks Delta Force is under his bed at night.
#5
I saw his convoy, in Panama, about 6 or 7 weeks ago. There was one shitty looking helicopter flying over all the rooftops, checking for snipers, two tiny coast guard vessels patrolling the Pacific coast, and about a dozen or so police cars. The entire convoy got stuck in a traffic jam on Via Israel Ave, for like 2 minutes. There he was sitting in his limo, ripe for the plucking.
I figured after the 2000 Castro assasination attempt, in Panama, he would have more security, but that didn't appear to be the case at all. If someone wants to kill this guy, I don't think it will be too difficult to get to him.
#8
He thinks heat-seeking AA missiles are "high tech and cutting edge" (especially from Russia, Belarus and Iran)? Pshaw. This could be easier than previously thought if we REALLY wanted to take him out.
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 12:36 Comments ||
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#9
Shorter Chavez: "We have always been at war with Oceania."
#10
All those SAMs won't stop a Tomahawk, won't shoot down an F-117, and won't stop some angry peon from plunking your idiot head with an AK-47 YOU supplied him, or someone slipping poison in your food, hugo. They're just fun toys that dictators love because it makes them feel big, instead of the tiny little weasels they are. Even Paraguay can whip your wimpy little a$$. What a waste of protoplasm.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/04/2006 15:29 Comments ||
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#11
Sounds like Hugo is talking about shoulder fired SAMs. I don't think he has really figured out how high the US Air Force flies.
P.S. Build the B-747 with a 100 ton bomb load.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2006 17:36 Comments ||
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#12
Hugo, helpful hint make sure you tell the russkis you want SURFACE TO AIRCRAFT missles, not their standard SURFACE TO AIR missiles.
Posted by: bruce ||
08/04/2006 17:59 Comments ||
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#13
Actually, US SF is much closer than Hugo realizes and has been since '03
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 20:34 Comments ||
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A leading human rights group in Russia has reported a big drop in the number of people killed or disappeared in Chechnya last year. In its annual report, Memorial (Pamyat) recorded 192 deaths - a 38% decrease compared with the previous 12 months. But it says a climate of fear still exists and that Chechens may be too scared to report missing relatives. Memorial points the finger of suspicion towards Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov and his local security forces. Although it only monitors some 30% of Chechen territory, Memorial has recorded far fewer murders and disappearances compared with recent years.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Strategy Page article--no permalink. Edited for brevity.
Counterfeit American hundred dollar bills have become, in practice, legal tender in North Korea. Everyone knows they're fake, but they are such good fakes that merchants call them "$70 bills," and often use them at full face value.
North Korea has, for nearly two decades, financed it's defense establishment via illegal activities. These included producing and exporting illegal drugs and counterfeit U.S. currency. Of particular concern to the United States, the fake hundred dollar bills were of such high quality that, in some respects, they were superior to the real thing.
North Korea has access to the special materials and printing equipment for producing currency. Much of this stuff is only sold to governments. However, since North Korea is a government, they get the quality materials and gear needed to make what American Treasury officials call "supernotes." These counterfeits can be detected, but with difficulty. As a result, thousands, if not millions, of them are in circulation, largely outside of the United States.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/04/2006 16:52 ||
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#1
So produce a new hundred and tell everybody the old ones are no longer valid. Complaints? See Kimmie.
#2
Gee, I can't imagine why we don't get along with these 'patriots'. They're even helping us reduce the printing costs of our $100 bills. Sounds like the basis for bilateral talks to me.
Do you like my brooch? It's a gold replica of Ned Beatty from "Deliverance" it's meant to signify strength in my negotiations with Kim Jong Il. He loved it the last time we met. We danced and drank champagne....he caressed my back fat....
North Korea has been building new underground missile bases along its east coast, targeting Japan and US military facilities in Japan, a report said Thursday. Some 200 Rodong missiles with a range of up to 2,200 kilometers (1,360 miles) and 50 SSN-6 missiles with ranges of 2,500 to 4,000 kilometers are at the new bases, the state-run Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS) said in the report carried by Yonhap news agency.
"The new bases clustered along the east coastal line are for medium- and long-range missiles targeting Japan and US military bases in Japan," read the report by Yun Deok-Min, an IFANS arms control expert.
"Combined with its nuclear weapons, North Korea's ballistic missiles provides it with a powerful deterrent."
North Korea has also constructed new underground missile bases deep in mountains near its border with China, to avoid outside attacks, it said.
The communist nation set off new alarm bells in the region with its July 5 test-firing of seven ballistic missiles which splashed in the Sea of Japan (East Sea). In 1998, it test-launched a missile over Japan.
The UN Security Council unanimously condemned the latest missile tests and adopted a resolution imposing weapons-related sanctions on Pyongyang.
North Korea is said to have a large stockpile of short-range Scuds and medium-range Rodong missiles. It has also tested long-range Taepodong missiles which are in theory capable of hitting US soil.
Sales of missiles and missile technology were believed to be a main source of hard currency for impoverished North Korea, the report said.
North Korea has earned 150 million dollars a year from its missile business, according to the report which cited no sources.
Pyongyang has allegedly sold a total of 500 Scuds to Iran, Libya, Syria, Egypt, and Yemen; a small number of Scuds also to Vietnam and Sudan; and 50-100 Rodong missiles to Iran, Pakistan and Libya, it added.
A Scud missile is said to sell for two million dollars, a Rodong for four million dollars, and a Taepodong-2, the most advanced type, is expected to sell at around 20 million dollars, it said.
Nort Korea is locked in a standoff with the United States and its allies over its nuclear weapons development which Pyongyang says is for self-defense.
Pyongyang's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Thursday warned against Japan's recent US-backed military buildup which it said "is aimed to mount a preemptive attack" on North Korea.
"The Japanese reactionaries had better behave with discretion, bearing in mind that reinvasion of Korea is as foolish an act as jumping into fire with (a) faggot on one's back," Rodong said.
Japan invaded Korea in 1910 and occupied it until the end of World War II in 1945.
#2
Missile manufacture has been keeping the country functioning. This is exactly the type news Japan needs. This is why they've put up a second much more capable recon satellite documneting these locations and other critical points. I suspect Japan is moving much more quickly in a quiet fashion than anyone realizes. This time I don't think they'll occupy, just destroy and be done with it. Too bad, your populace has already suffered considerably.
#3
You'd think that North Korea's principal sponsor, those ever-lovin' Chinese Mardarins, would have reined in this sort of bellicose activity. How fitting that their lack of restraint will most likely lead to a nuclear-armed Japan. Few things could be more fitting.
#4
Three mag-lev launchers on the moon could take out the entire country of North Korea without a single nuke warhead being used. We really, REALLY need to go back to the moon, and stay there. Both China and NK would be totally screwed, and both the house of Saud and the sh$%%y bunch of mullahs in Iran would see hundreds of heads explode.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/04/2006 15:34 Comments ||
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#5
So right OP.
High ground.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/04/2006 15:37 Comments ||
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#6
A permanent moon base is justified solely by the critical need to counteract an unexpected asteroid strike's adverse consequences upon humanity's continuation. The military benefits are just so much exceptionally tasty and ultra-delicious icing on the cake.
#7
I like Zen's ideas too.
But also once a real prescence is established and indutry and infrastructure put in place, further launches become cheaper and easier.
You could launch any damn thing from the moon with very little fuel.
Maybe come back with a big hunk of Nickel or something else useful.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/04/2006 15:52 Comments ||
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#8
It is just about time to pull Kim Jong-Mentally_ill's chain permanently. He has chewed through the restraining straps.
The Pentagon plans to give South Korea wartime operational control over U.S. troops within three years and will keep U.S. troop levels at more than 20,000 over the next several years, defense officials said yesterday.
"Things are changing in Korea," said a defense official involved in the changes being drawn up in talks called the Security Policy Initiative.
Following the latest round of U.S.-South Korea talks July 13 and 14, the Pentagon and South Korean military and defense officials agreed to draw up the command transfer plan that will shift combat authority from the U.S.-led combined forces command to a new structure led by South Korean military commanders and supported by U.S. forces.
The goal is to complete the transfer of authority by 2009, but some changes could take five years.
"We are responding to the new realities on the peninsula," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Those realities include growing South Korean military capabilities, Seoul's pro-engagement policies toward the communist North, and anti-American sentiments among South Korean leaders.
The shift of operational control of South Korean forces "means that they would take the lead in a conventional war on the Korean Peninsula in deterring and defeating" North Korean forces, the official said.
As for troop levels, officials said there are no plans for major U.S. troop cuts beyond plans to have 25,000 troops by 2008. The Pentagon plans to keep 20,000 to 25,000 troops in the country for the foreseeable future, the official said, noting that the fighting power of both U.S. and South Korean forces will remain constant or increase as new weapons are deployed.
A recent statement by a South Korean defense official that the latest talks did not include discussions of U.S. troops in a future reunified Korea triggered inaccurate press reports that the U.S. planned to pull troops out of Korea, the officials said.
"We're not going away," the senior official said. "We're going to stay and we're going to stay with increased capabilities."
Future forces there will shift from the current force of large ground combat troop units to forces emphasizing air and naval power, the official said. That shift would take place only after the new command structure is set up. The reorganization would abolish current U.S.-led combined forces command structure, set up in 1978 to replace the United Nations command that dated back to the Korean War in the 1950s.
As part of the talks, U.S. and South Korean officials recently completed a comprehensive security assessment of the region and are working on a "joint vision study" that will examine the future of the U.S.-South Korean military alliance.
The study will focus on alliance changes stemming from South Korea's evolving relationship with North Korea, including the prospect of a formal peace agreement to replace the armistice that has been the basis for the half-century-old U.S.-South Korea defense alliance.
"We are trying to anticipate all these stages of evolution that might eventually end up in unification, but may not," the official said. "We may end up in a permanent situation where the two Koreas are de-conflicted, they have a peace treaty, and they're interacting between one another and the alliance will have to be fundamentally restructured."
#1
Those realities include growing South Korean military capabilities, Seoul's pro-engagement policies toward the communist North, and anti-American sentiments among South Korean leaders.
How about we just very quietly ruck-up and get the PHUECH out? Sixty sum years, should be long enough.
#3
Don't expect the press to get it right. Control by law [U.S.C. Title 10] is an unbroken line in the chain of command between the President and the lowest level ranker. We coordinate, we cooperate with allies, but by law we can not subordinate.
#4
We need to leave. Our Troops are not a merc force.
Deploy them where they are needed elsewhere.
The South has the wish to reunite. The North wants to on it's terms and under a communist government. We are not going to stop the morons in the south who wish to reunite under any cost. So lets get out and get it over with and arm Japan to the teeth.
#6
Note that these Air and Naval units that will make up our 20000 can be redeployed very quickly to other regions vs the current troops on the border that are locked into place by being on the front line.
#7
the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity
This is suspect. We will never give any nation control of our soldiers. I believe we would have to rewrite some laws to make it possible and that would never get through congress. This is an emotional hot button for most in uniform and for our law makers. I wonder why a story like this would be leaked out at this time.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/04/2006 12:45 Comments ||
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#8
I heard awhile back some U.S. Soldier refusing to don the 'blue helmet' of the U.N. for some peacekeeping duty somewhere. This was under Clinton.
Yeah, CF, the soldier is Michael New. His website is mikenew.com. He's still fighting his dismissal for refusing to wear the UN uniform. Basic stance of course was that he swore to defend the US, not the UN. He was willing to serve in the mission assigned to him, just not in a UN uniform. He's lost every round so far (since 1995) but to his credit he keeps on fighting.
#9
I would hope that no one would make such an idiotic decision. Bad move to cede authority to anyone for our troops. This is asking for all kinds of trouble.
The little intricacies of 'military justice'. While the law says he wouldn't be under UN control, the uniform is something prescribed by his command authority. If the command authority proscribes a specific uniform, that is the uniform the troop wears. So refusing to be in the proscribed uniform is in fact a disobedience of a lawful order. Yes, we understand his intent, but the issue shifts from obeying the Secretary General of the UN which is non-applicable since the American law does not permit it, to an issues of disobedience which means hes unlikely to get relief from anyone inside the Pentagon and only possible by Congress or the President. No one said life is fair.
A SCHOOL teacher accused of terrorist activities will face a committal hearing in Brisbane in November. John Howard Amundsen, 40, of Aspley in Brisbane's north, is facing charges of using false documents to obtain explosives and preparing to commit an act of terrorism. He also is charged with using telecommunications to make a threat and a hoax threat, as well as possessing a foreign passport without reasonable excuse, making counterfeit money or counterfeit securities and fraud.
It is alleged Amundsen was found with 53kg of explosives when police raided his home earlier this year, and he is the first Queenslander to be charged under the new national terrorism laws. Today in a review of the case in the Brisbane Magistrates Court, Chief Magistrate Marshall Irwin set the committal hearing down for three weeks, beginning November 13. Commonwealth prosecutor Clive Porritt said federal police had already compiled 195 witness statements and there were more than 25 still to come. Mr Porritt said the brief of evidence would be available in four weeks.
Amundsen's solicitor Brendan Ryan said his client was preoccupied with being in jail, and that a bail application may be pending at some stage in the Supreme Court. "I know my client's in custody, he reminds me of that fact often," Mr Ryan said. "But I can't do anything about that situation until I'm better armed with the police brief, then I might be able to do something about his requests." Mr Irwin set down a further brief review for August 18 and said they would try to do it by video link to save Amundsen being brought in.
(BNA) Italian Vice Prime Minister, Massimo D'alema, affirmed the right of Syria to regain the occupied Golan heights. D'alema said in statement transmitted by Syria indicated that his country was supportive of Syria's position in defending its interest and to find a solution for this issue. He also affirmed the importance of the participation of Syria and Iran in the efforts aimed at achieving peace and stability in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
...of course when you sell sights to modernise Syrian tanks you say that...
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
08/04/2006 7:22 Comments ||
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#6
There's no archeological evidence of that, Oldcat. But under the Hasmoneans (the House of the Maccabees), Israel conquered and converted the Idumeans, in what I think is now Jordan. Will that do? ;-)
#7
My understanding is that Solomon's kingdom was more than double the size of David's, extending well into Syria. The borders of Israel were clearly defined and described in Joshua, but Israel never fully controlled all the areas described. Be that as it may, the Golan Heights are an essential part of Israel's defense. How do you say "piss off" in Italian?
Stanford University's Joel Beinin is used to criticism for his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but when a conservative commentator put the professor's photo on the cover of a booklet titled "Campus Support for Terrorism,'' it started a whole new war.
Beinin, a prominent Middle Eastern scholar, filed suit in March -- turning his ideological clash with FrontPageMag.com Editor in Chief David Horowitz into a legal one.
Horowitz removed the photo from later printings, but Beinin said the harm had already been done and is demanding unspecified damages. With the United States at war in Iraq, Beinin said, it's a scary time to be labeled a supporter of terrorism.
"Horowitz is -- if not a coordinated part -- part of a broader attack against people who speak out against Bush's Middle Eastern policies," said Beinin, past president of the Middle Eastern Studies Association. "If you don't fight back and allow the Horowitzes to do and say what they want, it pollutes the political environment to the point where you can't have intelligent discussions about what we do in the world."
While he believes what Horowitz did was libelous, Beinin isn't suing on those grounds. Instead, he selected a more clear-cut legal challenge -- copyright infringement for unauthorized use of his photo.
Horowitz, who said he didn't know the photo was copyrighted, argues he's the victim in the dispute.
"It's an abuse of the courts to chill my free speech," Horowitz said of Beinin's lawsuit. "If he wants a debate, I will come to Stanford and debate him."
Both men are Jewish, but they stand on opposite sides of a deep fault line of opinion on Israel and its actions in the Middle East. Beinin believes Horowitz's antipathy toward him stems in part from the fact that he is Jewish -- Horowitz calls Beinin a "self-hating Jew" -- and that he has criticized Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and called for a Palestinian state.
Horowitz, who is frequently seen on cable television programs such as "The O'Reilly Factor," is a 1960s radical turned conservative who founded the Center for the Study of Popular Culture. The center has since been renamed the David Horowitz Freedom Center and is publisher of the online magazine Front Page. His books include "Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left."
He calls Beinin an "apologist for terror" and not only published Beinin's photo on the cover of "Campus Support for Terrorism" but featured him in his subsequent book, "The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America."
He accuses Beinin, among other things, of saying the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shouldn't be considered a terrorist but should be respected as the Palestinian Authority's elected president.
Beinin called that a typical Horowitz distortion.
"He gets everything wrong," Beinin said. "His mode of operation is to distort and misquote and confuse people by piecing things together that don't belong together."
Arafat, Beinin agrees, was responsible for many acts of terror but as president of the Palestinian Authority needed to be dealt with internationally as a statesman.
Beinin's lawsuit reads in part, "Mr. Horowitz's most recent 'campaign' has been to attack the integrity, scholarship and patriotism of academics who question American foreign policy in an overt attempt to intimidate and silence them for fear of being labeled as Islamic terrorists or collaborators."
He is seeking an unspecified amount in damages in federal court.
Beinin was one of the nation's first Middle Eastern scholars fluent in both Hebrew and Arabic. He spent a year on the Kibbutz Lahav in Israel before earning a master's degree at Harvard. Briefly disillusioned with academia, he made doors for Dodge trucks in Detroit, where he helped Arab autoworkers understand their rights.
Talking about Israel and the Palestinians has always been difficult in the United States, he said, and during his doctoral studies at the University of Michigan, he followed his thesis supervisor's advice not to write about the subject if he wanted a job in academia. Stanford hired him in 1983 to teach Middle Eastern studies.
The Beinin-Horowitz controversy is just one example of how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has seeped into academia here and abroad. In Britain, the largest association of higher education instructors voted in May to ask its members to consider boycotting their Israeli academic counterparts who don't publicly dissociate themselves from Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.
In the United States, the activist group Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, held a conference at San Francisco State University in July and called on Palestinians to protest at the Israeli consulate, while the Philadelphia-based organization Campus Watch began asking students in 2002 to monitor their professors for perceived anti-Israel bias.
In recent years, Middle Eastern studies in the United States have come under scrutiny by Horowitz and others who believe faculty are too sympathetic to Palestinian issues and unreasonably hostile to Israeli policies, said Jonathan Knight, who directs the program in academic freedom and tenure for the American Association of University Professors in Washington.
"As long as faculty are free to question accepted ideas and notions, there will always be those disturbed by their questioning, and there will always be those who will call for restraints on freedom," he said.
Knight cited Columbia University, where the administration formed an ad hoc committee in 2005 to investigate the classroom behavior of Middle Eastern studies Professor Joseph Massad after student complaints. Knight fears such censure is having a chilling affect on academia.
Campus Watch -- a project by the Middle East Forum -- has encouraged students to monitor professors for perceived anti-Israel bias and report their findings. The Campus Watch Web site has many articles about Beinin.
To stop professors from discussing their political opinions in the classroom, Horowitz has shopped his "Academic Bill of Rights" around the country and has succeeded in getting legislation to that effect introduced in 16 states, although no legislature has passed it. Still, Horowitz said he believes his bill has influenced debate.
"My model for academia is the Columbia I went to in the 1950s -- I want to see it depoliticized," he said. "I never heard a teacher one time express a political opinion. That's what I want. There's massive abuse going on."
He is incensed that in 2003 Beinin held a class lecture at a "teach-in" against the Iraq war in Stanford's quad.
The lecture that day on the Gulf War happened to be relevant, Beinin said, but was "definitely an act of solidarity with the teach-in."
"This is as close to the line of putting politics in the classroom that I've ever done," he said. "I don't hide my opinion."
#1
As usual, the commie Chronicle couches the facts with a leftist slant. Beinin is a supporter of terror. Horowitz called him on it. Beinin didn't like Horowitz' free speech. simple as that.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/04/2006 14:03 Comments ||
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#4
Let the lawyer games begin.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/04/2006 14:37 Comments ||
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#5
Horowitz isn't just a former leftwing radical, but a genuine "Red Diaper Baby." His parents were active Communist Party apparchiks through the 1950s, I believe.
I've been tracking the schools the trailing daughters express interest in through Mr. Horowitz's site, and the evidence I find there is one of the factors that will help us make the final choice. Duke, for instance, had been off our list ever since their Provost (or whatever they call the Dean of Students these days) organized that PLO conference a few years, and justified it to *me* on the grounds that his dear old, Holocaust-survivor father didn't object -- the blind, self-hating ass! Of course, where they go depends on their capabilities, interests, and scholarship money, but I still have a little longer to discover where that will lead us! ;-)
This is a battle that needs to be fought, and David Horowitz is uniquely qualified to do so. I look forward to seeing it play out.
#6
Whatever 'sins' he committed in the past, David Horowitz has long since atoned for them. He should get a medal. He's been assaulted, beaten, egged, pied, spit on, cursed and had just about every vile thing imaginable thrown at him---human excrement, you name it -- by American students, in American Universities. Why? For daring to express a different view than the moonbat professors. TW, I already scratched off more than 80% of the schools my daughter was considering because of their vile anti-Americanism.
RC, maybe Beinin actually suffers from the psychosis Horowitz alleges? I dont know enough about Beinin or the affliction commonly referred to as a Self-hating Jew to say one way or the other. But its pretty much a given that anybody that Horowitz debates will arrogantly be branded as anti-Semitic or a self-hating Jew. (Even when simply discussing policy issues.) Besides, I think most of his writing is filled with adolescent innuendos and speculation stated as fact supported by sloppy research. Just my opinion.
#8
DG - I disagree. He would be a pariah and broke if his statements were unprovable slander.
Just as we Christians (and my own Catholic Churches'Jesuit branches are a good example, particularly the "social justice" concerns) have self-loathing "progressives" that defy all tenets of their religion, there are "self-hating Jews" who despise all methods and manners by which Israeli Jews try to postpone their violent deaths at the hands of hateful Arabs, Islamists, NeoNazis, etc.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2006 17:30 Comments ||
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#9
DG - I disagree. He would be a pariah and broke if his statements were unprovable slander.
Damn didnt think a little pot-shot across the bow would illicit this banter. But let me clear. I agree with some of Horowitzs opinions but I dont care for his style. He has a habit of refuting an opposing opinion by attacking the messenger and not the message. One particular tactic he seems fond of is alleging guilt by omission and then drawing conclusions based on speculation of motives. He then he assigns a label to his opponent based on said speculation. It works great on the talk-shows where everybody shouts to be heard, but in reality, its simply another hollow argument. Again, just my opinion but Im sure Horowitz would dismiss it as the rant of another bigot.
#10
DepotGuy is right. No matter how much I may agree with the guy, I've heard Horowitz on the radio debating various commies and he comes off as a loudmouthed, bullying idiot. Our side could do a lot better. Hell, our side NEEDS to do a lot better on the PR front. Thats no joke.
Tarek Fatah, the outspoken liberal communications director of the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC), has resigned, citing concerns for his personal safety and that of his family. He said he would also resign from the MCCs board, severing all official ties with the organisation he helped found. Its not just for me. Its for my wife and my daughters, he said in an interview to the Globe and Mail, Canadas leading liberal newspaper. Part of it is also to get out of the limelight.
The report noted that Pakistan-born Fatahs socially liberal views have always been controversial within the Muslim community, and in the past month he has been the subject of an e-mail campaign aimed at the Canadian news media. In his resignation letter to the board, Fatah wrote that he wanted to step down because of an increasing heavy load of work. He said he would stay on in his current capacity until the MCC finds a replacement. Along with his resignation, Fatah has filed a report with Toronto Police detailing what he says are a number of threats he has received since 2003. A police investigation is under way. In his resignation letter, he wrote, This has been a particularly stressful three months and I have tried to do my best and times I have succeeded and at other times messed up.
The report said Fatah had always carried a high profile, both with the Muslim Canadian Congress - known for its liberal interpretations of Islam, including its support of homosexuality - and as the host of Muslim Chronicle, a CTS TV current-affairs show that focuses on the Muslim community. But in recent months, he said, he has been coming under increasing fire. There was the e-mail campaign against him and he is more worried than ever about threats after the arrests of 17 terrorism suspects in Toronto in early June. Fatahs unpopularity among conservative segments of the Muslim community flows from his being a strong advocate of gay rights for Muslims and the inclusion of secular voices in the Muslim community. He publicly and vehemently opposed the adoption of Sharia law in Canada. Recently, many Muslims were angered by his very vocal campaign against British imam Sheik Riyadh ul Haq, who was ultimately refused a visa to attend a conference in Toronto. Haqs address was transmitted live by satellite instead. Many of his Muslim critics have also accused Fatah of hogging the media spotlight.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Got your Muzzie brothers seething, eh ? Now they've repeatedly threatened to murder you and the family ? Situation normal. Turn them in to the Mounties.
A Department of Homeland Security plan to require port workers to carry tamperproof photo ID cards has numerous security problems that threaten to delay it, investigators said. In an audit, Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner said his review of prototype systems at participating U.S. ports identified vulnerabilities in the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program, known as TWIC. The weaknesses, some of which were deemed high risk, included instances of false positives in detecting which workers might pose a security risk as well as cases in which the system inadvertently disclosed sensitive personal information inappropriately. Wha does Fat Tony whackin dose two scumbags back in da 80s have ta do wit Port Security anyhow. Dey had it cumin anyways fahgedaboudit.
Portions of the report were redacted to prevent public disclosure of specific weaknesses. Its a Union thing you wouldnt understand anyway.
No problem, I'll just read the NYT on Sunday for the details.
In written responses, the Transportation Security Administration, which runs TWIC, said that it had expected to encounter some problems with its test program, appreciated the input and was now addressing concerns. "It was acknowledged in discussions with (Skinner) that a prototype system will always need further enhancements and additional work to ready it for production," wrote TSA deputy assistant secretary Robert Jamison. Congress ordered the administration to develop the card as part of port security legislation passed in 2002. Under the plan, the TSA would collect biographical information including fingerprints, name, birthdate, address and phone number, alien registration number if applicable, photo, employer and job title. Hmmm it appears theyre asking for the same requirements that Flight Attendants must submit before employment. They should ask the TSA how that works. Oh thats right they are the TSA. Nevermind.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday called on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to resign, hours after excoriating him at a public hearing over what she called "failed policy" in Iraq. "I just don't understand why we can't get new leadership that would give us a fighting chance to turn the situation around before it's too late," the New York Democrat and potential 2008 presidential contender said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think the president should choose to accept Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation."
"The secretary has lost credibility with the Congress and with the people," she said. "It's time for him to step down and be replaced by someone who can develop an effective strategy and communicate it effectively to the American people and to the world." Asked about Clinton's comments, Pentagon spokesman Eric Ruff said, "We don't discuss politics."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 09:03 ||
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#1
The "lake of fire" must have finally frozen over! I find myself agreeing with this wench.
#8
There she goes again, not taking her meds. I think the photo need to be sink trapped. He She give me nightmares!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/04/2006 12:48 Comments ||
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#9
I feel that "The Beast" looked at Lieberman's and her own poll numbers (with regard to 'war support') and is trying to figure out a way to "flip-flop" on the war without looking ridiculous right before the elections. She's setting up the populace with this "Rumsfeld Statement" so that, in a month or so, she can come back and oppose the war ("because nothing's changed") without looking like a 'J Fn Kerry'.
It's not a dumb move on her part.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/04/2006 12:52 Comments ||
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#10
Indeed a haunting photo! That face could have easily been a camp supervisor at Ravensbruck near Furstenberg.
#12
Waah? Rummy boinked an intern and committed purgery?
Posted by: regular joe ||
08/04/2006 13:35 Comments ||
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#13
The Hilldabeast is just trying to throw a bone to the far-left wing of her party. She's been watching what's happening to Joe Lieberman. Over in DU they've figured her out:
"If Hillary does something like this 100 more times, she'll start making up for the 1,000 times she should have done it but didn't."
"Hillary makes a sudden sharp left in the face of possible Lieberman political sudden death.
She's simply playing politics and has sensed a quick change of direction is in order. Otherwise, why did she not join in Al Gore's call for Rumsfeld's resignation -- what was it, two years ago?"
"Hillary's sudden courage is a joke and is almost more unpalatable than her hawkishness...the woman is incapable of doing something without calculation. Where was this spunk a few months ago, ie before it was clear that war-mongering wouldn't fly with Dems?"
"... and the fact that it had to get to this point with Lieberman before she got a clue does not speak well for her (hugely overrated) "political instincts". Everyone who thought Lieberman would have an easy ride ought to go sit in the corner and try to figure out why they are so out of touch with the mood of the country. Turning off cable news would be a good start."
Posted by: Steve ||
08/04/2006 14:28 Comments ||
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#14
Resign Rumsfeld or I shall crush your skull between my massive thighs!!!
Posted by: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton ||
08/04/2006 18:55 Comments ||
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#15
Rummy's head will be a nice change vs. Janet Reno's head that is usually there.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2006 19:00 Comments ||
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#16
This was all very predictable and contrived. Billary whined because Rummy had originally planned to speak in to senators in a private setting rather than on C-SPAN.
She sent Rummy a letter asking him to appear for the public hearing. When he, being a decent person, changed his plans and appeared for the public hearing, she got her sound bites.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 21:01 Comments ||
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PESHAWAR: The grand tribal jirga will tackle the presence of foreign militants in North Waziristan according to rewaj (tribal tradition) and they will not register with the government, a senior member of the jirga told Daily Times by phone from Miranshah. He said tribal tradition says that elders and clerics would guarantee the foreigners good conduct to the government and added that registration of foreigners was not on the jirgas agenda. What the jirga will decide at the end of the day will be based on tribal tradition, he said.
The tribal elder said the jirga hoped to broker peace in North Waziristan by the end of August. The jirga returned from Miranshah after a weeklong stay in North Waziristan and is scheduled to meet Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai on Monday (August 7). We met civil and military officials and shura (council) leaders of the Taliban in Miranshah. Both sides appear willing to reach a negotiated settlement, he said.
He said the armys hesitance to free the remaining militants was worrying the jirga. We have told the government that peace cannot be discussed with the militants while it is holding their men, he added. An official source in Miranshah said the release of the remaining prisoners was delayed because the government did not want to play all its cards before a substantial achievement was made. He said the Taliban also seemed ready to accept the governments most stringent condition stopping cross-border infiltration. I think the US airstrike in Damadola (Bajaur tribal region) was a good lesson for the militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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(BNA) The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) wants a role in peace building in war torn Lebanon after a ceasefire has been enforced, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Thursday. Abdullah, who is also OIC chairman, said every member country in the 57-member organisation must play a proactive role in the Israel- Lebanon conflict and be prepared to contribute troops for peacekeeping operations under the United Nations (UN) banner.
The meeting is expected to demand the inclusion of OIC member states should the United Nations decide to send a peacekeeping force to Lebanon...
The one-day conference, attended by several heads of state and government and foreign ministers of 18 member countries, is expected to issue a declaration condemning Israeli offensive in Lebanon and call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. The meeting is also expected to demand the inclusion of OIC member states should the United Nations decide to send a peacekeeping force to Lebanon. It is also expected to urge the UN and the international community to ensure a proper coordination of humanitarian assistance from OIC member states to Lebanon and Palestine.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Yet another reason to tell the UN to buzz off
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 0:49 Comments ||
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As long as their positions are well marked and visible from the air.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2006 1:04 Comments ||
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The OIC wants Muslim troops aiding and abetting Hizbollah terrorists.
Muslim "peace" resolutions are jihad by other means.
General John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said that fighting in Baghdad is at its highest level and threatens to push Iraq into civil war. ``The sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular,'' Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington. ``If not stopped, Iraq could slide into civil war.''
Members of the panel shared his fear. Committee Chairman John Warner of Virginia said he is ``gravely concerned'' by the spike in violence, sectarian attacks and instability in the Iraq's capital. ``The situation is very fragile,'' Warner, a Republican, said. ``Baghdad could literally tilt this thing if it fails.''
Abizaid said he decided to move 3,500 American troops, including a Stryker brigade from Mosul, to Baghdad to attack and kill the ``militia death squads that we are seeing operate now in Baghdad with a degree of freedom.'' The redeployment follows the failure of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's plan to pacify the capital. The United Nations said last month that more than 14,000 Iraqis were killed this year through June.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Screw it. Encircle the city, seal it off, and let civil war run its course. There is nothing inherrently bad or evil about civil war - it si simply a manifestation of two incompatible political/belief systems contesting the same space. Let the "best men" win.
Then, if the winners are radical Islamacists, carpet bomb the city - it now has nothing but bad guys left. Then let the Kurds come in and pick up the pieces.
Nobody needed outside "do gooders" setting up out in the wheatfield betwen the Union and Confederate lines at Gettysburg. Some issues just need to be settled the old fashioned way - with cold steel.
#4
It looks to me as if a lot of these women are playing for the other team. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I wonder if they would let me watch.
The European Union has enlisted Syria's help to end the fighting in Lebanon as Damascus pledged support to the Lebanese government's plan for a settlement.
EU envoy and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said following talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad Thursday, Damascus agreed to play a constructive role in settling the conflict by pressing Hizbullah to accept a ceasefire.
"We also agreed on backing the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora as time is ripe for intensifying diplomatic efforts by all parties," Moratinos said.
He said Syria backs Siniora's seven-point plan to end the conflict. "Hizbullah's present stance is unanimous with the government, and Premier Siniora represents all Lebanese parties, including Hizbullah.
"We received Syria's response to be part of the settlement in this complicated region of the world and not be part of the problems."
Moratinos said the EU is complicit in US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's quest for a new Middle East "because the present Middle East is plagued with lots of poverty, violence and misunderstanding.
"We have reached with the Syrian side common stances, basically that the situation in the Middle East is very dangerous and that hope for the region lies in the participation of all parties in finding a settlement."
Syria and Iran are Hizbullah's main foreign backers. Syria's promise to support Siniora is a significant development following more than a year of strained Lebanese-Syrian relations over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.
And the killing of several prominent pro-democracy politicos and journalists by Syria
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Hey! I have a great idea!
Lets have Syria occupy Lebanon! Then they will have a stake in it!
Yeah! Thats the ticket!
I dont know which is dumber, Eu-crats or Palieos....
#8
Andalusia, ed? What'ya got against LA (Lower Alabama)? I travel through Andalusia on the way to the Redneck Riviera (otherwise known as the panhandle of FL), lol! In fact, I've often stopped for a bite to eat in Andalusia, AL (only semi-town on that route).
/sarcasm
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 11:28 Comments ||
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#9
I'm beginning to think the Mongol solution is the only one that can bring PEACE to the Middle East. When they invaded the Persian Empire, they killed 80% of the inhabitants, destroyed the cities, poisoned the wells, etc. "They made a desert and called it peace."
They'd have better luck fighting fires with gasoline. Defying all notions of rational behavior, the EU has somehow moved well beyond stupidity (see below).
"The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Albert Einstein
"No! It's more than that! Make that a billion! That's right! There's a billion Israelis hiding from Hezbollah's rocketry! Maybe more!"
(BNA) News from north of Israel indicate that around 300,000 Israelis had left their homes and around one million others were still in underground bunkers due to missile attacks that hit their areas. Head of the internal front said that Hizbollah still had long distance missiles and was trying to fire them at Al Afoola and Beit Shan. He also stressed that war against Hizbollah will take a very long time if it did not stop attacking civilians and crippling economic facilities.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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News for jubilation in the muzzie world; reason to fire up the troops in the civilized world
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 0:51 Comments ||
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday he has recalled his country's ambassador to Israel to show his "indignation" over the military offensive in Lebanon. "We have ordered the withdrawal of our ambassador in Israel," Chavez said in a televised speech, calling Israeli attacks in Lebanon "genocide."
Withdrawn your ambassador to Sudan yet, Hugo? Then shuddup.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#9
Serious question on Oldcat's proposal. Wasn't it discussed here some time ago about how Chavez was in between a rock and a hard place? By that, I mean, aren't basically only refineries in the US able to handle Venezuelan oil (not to mention that he'd loose a big market if he actually quit sending us oil and he's used to the "high life" now). I know that Citgo is state owned (even the refineries in the US), but I can't even fathom Chavez trying to invade Louisiana if we just seized said refineries, and he'd be out of biz quickly, right? Or are there other refineries elsewhere that can handle Venezuela's crude?
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 11:14 Comments ||
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#10
BA, they are out there (provided that modifications take place), but not a large refining capacity.
I'd facilitate Hugo's shooting his own feet, if I had any say.
#11
I can't imagine there is excess refinary capacity anywhere at the moment, BA. It's been mentioned here several times recently that the crude ships are steaming in circles because there isn't even room to unload the stuff.
With global media attention focused on events in Lebanon, United Nations humanitarian agencies working in the occupied Palestinian territory today issued a statement sounding alarm about the ongoing fighting there and reminding all parties of their obligation under international humanitarian law to protect civilians.
Global humanitarian law crosses the border only in one direction, it would seem...
"The United Nations humanitarian agencies working in the occupied Palestinian territory are deeply alarmed by the impact continuing violence is having on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza, which has resulted in a sharp decline in the humanitarian situation facing 1.4 million people, more than half of them children," said the joint statement. "We are concerned that with international attention focusing on Lebanon, the tragedy in Gaza is being forgotten." Since 28 June, an estimated 175 Palestinians have been killed, including approximately 40 children and eight women, and over 620 injured in the Gaza Strip. One Israeli soldier has been killed and 25 Israelis have been injured, including 11 Israelis injured by home-made rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#8
Apparently Abbas wants a international peacekeeping force on the Israeli border, like the Lebanon is supposed to get. Utter idiocy of course -- there'd be no Gaza left for the inhabitants -- but there it is. I s'pose he thinks he'll get a pliable bunch of tourists, like what they've had at the Egypt crosspoints.
#9
mcsegeek: CF nailed it. I was more going off the title, than the text itself. The might UN is just NOW sounding the alarm about violence? Should've done that in 1967 (or if you want to just include the latest attack by the Hezzies, it would be akin to Roosevelt announcing he was worried about the violence at Pearl, oh, say, almost a month after it occurred?). Timing is all I was gettin' at. Who knows, maybe Joe M. slipped some of his meds into the Atlanta drinking water system this morning.
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 15:19 Comments ||
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#10
How typical that the UN should swallow terrorist atrocity camels whole whilst choking to death upon the gnats of Israeli defense.
#11
It's more and more obvious that the UN is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Israel needs to tell the UN it has 48 hours to get out of Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank. Anyone that's left will be considered a target. Then allow Israel to flatten both Gaza and the West bank until nothing is higher than a man's waist, and nothing human-made exists in one piece.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/04/2006 17:51 Comments ||
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Ten years ago, in a preview of the current Middle East crisis, Hezbollah guerrillas fired hundreds of Katyusha rockets into Israel. The attacks prompted President Bill Clinton and the Israeli prime minister, Shimon Peres, to agree to develop a futuristic laser meant to destroy the rockets in flight.
But last September, after spending more than $300 million, the United States and Israel quietly shelved the experimental weapon, mainly because of its bulkiness, high costs and poor anticipated results on the battlefield.
Frankly, its performance was not great, said Penrose C. Albright, a former Pentagon official who helped initiate the project. Under certain conditions you can make it work. But under salvo or cloudy conditions, youve got problems. In northern Israel, about 30 percent of the time, youve got a cloud deck.
Continued on Page 49
#7
Typical whining from the New York Times. Robert Fulton was unable to get his newly-invented submarine to sink ships during trials. So submarines can't sink ships, right? Tell it to the crew of the Lusitania.
#9
The NYT commenting on weapons systems is like an imam commenting on Judaism.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/04/2006 8:07 Comments ||
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Frankly, its performance was not great, said Penrose C. Albright, a former Pentagon official who helped initiate the project. Under certain conditions you can make it work. But under salvo or cloudy conditions, youve got problems. In northern Israel, about 30 percent of the time, youve got a cloud deck.
I get nervous when someone named Penrose Albright works in the Pentagon, much less makes comments to the NYT about this program. What a freakin' un-military name. And, note that he says it wouldn't work 30% of the time (his inference)...so protecting Israel (a country the size of a postage stamp surrounded by Fed Ex box size countries that hate them) 70% of the time is not "worth it"? PSHAW!
He and other military experts say the aborted project is a case study in the challenges of building antimissile weapons and the consequences of failure. Today, northern Israel remains defenseless against the Katyushas and other small rockets.
While I'd be the first to scrap any system which doesn't seem to work and/or is wasting taxpayer's money, this one sounds like it lives on in other programs, thank goodness. I praise Allan that the Hezzies are such bad shots with the Keytushas that Israel IS probably better off not wasting money on this, and instead further investing in the IAF, lol.
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 11:36 Comments ||
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Dr. Penrose "Parney" Albright...former DARPA weenie and longtime beltway insider.
#13
Even if it was a given that DEWs (Directed Energy Weapons) would not work, which is not at all true, I'd still like to hear about the efficacy of high rep-rate rail guns. Microwave radar can penetrate cloud cover and provide fire control just fine. There's no reason a linear accelerator (or cluster of them) can't spew huge quantities of ultra-high velocity slugs.
Plenty of research has already been done into using alternate format energy beams to perform "atmospheric boring" in order to create a (less perturbated) clear-path for conventional DEWs. Any uncertainty arising from this announcement is most likely due to non-release of classified information than any overall failure of this methodology.
#14
"Frankly, its performance was not great, said Penrose C. Albright, a former Pentagon official who helped initiate the project. Under certain conditions you can make it work."
I think the same could be said of the Wright Flyer in 1903. it took them until 1908 to publicly show a practical flying machine.
300 mil over 10 years sounds like alot, but it isnt.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
08/04/2006 15:55 Comments ||
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#15
I was recently reading about a mobile version of THEL. Can't recall the link
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 21:06 Comments ||
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Yep. That oughta take care of the problem. Why didn't we think of that before?
Expressing deep concern about increasing violence in Sri Lanka, particularly the escalation caused by a water dispute in the northeast, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on all sides to cease hostilities immediately, allow humanitarian agencies unimpeded access to those affected and resume peace talks.
Referring to the water dispute, Mr. Annan said in a statement issued by his spokesman that he is "disturbed by reports that there have been many civilian victims, including children, as well as large displacements of people." Noting the continued efforts by Norway to resolve the conflict, he called on the parties "to cease hostilities immediately to create a conducive climate for negotiations over the water issue," and reiterated his appeal to both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to resume peace talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Kofi always starts his comments with "I am deeping concerned....."
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/04/2006 0:53 Comments ||
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A water dispute in Sri Lanka? Doesnt it rain like 350 days of the year there?
Are the Saudis and Yemen going to have a sand dispute next?
#3
A fun and interesting fact about Saudi Arabia : they have to import all of the sand used for construction in the country. The sand in SA is such crap that it cannot be safely used in concrete or construction.
#4
Well it used to rain 350 days a year Oldcat, but then the UN set up a 'rain redistribution system' and now most of it ends up in a Swiss bank account.
Still, it gives Kofi a chance to 'express deep concern' so that's ok then.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/04/2006 5:35 Comments ||
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#5
If Bush had only signed on to the Aquato Treaty...
#8
Wait a minute, I thought all this global warming climate change stuff would increase rainfall because it's hotter and, thus, causes more evaporation to "seed" clouds, especially in coastal areas like Sri Lanka. Ah, well, I'm so confused, and I'm not enlightened, so whadda I know?
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 11:07 Comments ||
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Iran has set up a fund to compensate the families of Hezbollah fighters killed or wounded in the conflict with Israel, Lebanese security officials have disclosed.
Iran's Shaheed Foundation is making initial payments of $1,000 to relatives, in a program that was originally set up in the 1980s to compensate the families of Iranian soldiers killed during the country's eight-year war with Iraq.
Tehran is believed to have set aside $2 million for its Lebanon compensation fund, and further payments will be made to bereaved families when Iranian officials have assessed their needs.
Although Hezbollah has refused to make public the extent of the casualties it has suffered, Lebanese officials estimate that up to 500 fighters have been killed in the past three weeks of hostilities with Israel, and another 1,500 injured.
Lebanese officials have also disclosed that many of Hezbollah's wounded are being treated in hospitals in Syria to conceal the true extent of the casualties.They are said to have been taken through al-Arissa border crossing with the help of Syrian security forces.
Iran's compensation payments offer further proof of its close ties with Lebanon's radical Shiite Muslim militia.
Although Tehran has denied having any direct involvement in the hostilities in southern Lebanon, Lebanese security officials say the Shaheed Foundation has sent a number of representatives from Iran to set up temporary offices in local schools and kindergartens closed for the summer holidays to assist with the payments. An estimated 20 commanders from Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps are already based in Lebanon, helping Hezbollah with the Iranian-made rockets being fired into Israel.
Iran has previously paid compensation to the families of Palestinian Arab suicide bombers who have hit Israeli targets.
Hezbollah's operational council has drawn up casualty lists that have been passed to the Shaheed Foundation. Copies have been seen by the Daily Telegraph and have also been obtained by Lebanese newspapers, which have been pressured by Hezbollah not to publish them.
"Hezbollah is desperate to conceal its casualties because it wants to give the impression that it is winning its war," a senior security official said. "People might reach a very different conclusion if they knew the true extent of Hezbollah's casualties."
BERLIN - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would welcome the participation of German soldiers in a stabilisation force in South Lebanon, he said in an interview with a German newspaper on Friday. I have informed (German) Chancellor Angela Merkel that we have absolutely no problem having German troops in South Lebanon, Olmert told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
There is no other nation that Israel considers more of a friend that Germany ... I would be very happy if Germany participated, he said.
The German government has not ruled out sending troops to the Middle East but many citizens are uneasy about sending soldiers to the region some 60 years after the Holocaust.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/04/2006 08:27 ||
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There is no other nation that Israel considers more of a friend that Germany ... I would be very happy if Germany participated, he said.
#3
What does Olmert have against Germany? Uh, never mind.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2006 9:27 Comments ||
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#4
It would be fitting for Germany to send 15,000 real soldiers to South Lebanon, fighting soldiers, who would have to battle Hizb'Allah and sometimes die while protecting Israel. Give them a 50-year UN "mandate" to hunt down and kill Islamofascists in Lebanon.
#8
It would be fitting for Germany to send 15,000 real soldiers to South Lebanon, fighting soldiers, who would have to battle Hizb'Allah and sometimes die while protecting Israel.
You're talkin' some serious poetic justice there, Kalle. Bravo.
#9
Kalle pegged it. twobyfour, Chancellor Merkel has at least some ideas about backbones, and sometimes employs it appropriately. The next election in Germany should be interesting -- as I recall the Conservatives barely won last time, which really limited what Merkel could accomplish; the next election will reveal what the Germans really want to have done.
Chiraq, on the other hand, combines all the worst stereotypes of the French is one smarmy package.
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia will deploy 1,000 troops as part of a UN peacecekeeping force for southern Lebanon once a ceasefire is in place, state news agency Bernama quoted the countrys military chief as saying on Friday. The move comes a day after the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) endorsed a request from Lebanon to beef up the world bodys peacekeeping efforts.
We will send our troops according to the countrys requirements, Malaysian Armed Forces Chief Mohamad Anwar Mohamad Nor said. We are finalising preparations for the departure. The troops will be backed by armoured vehicles, he said, adding that an advanced party would leave for Lebanon soon to plan for the assignment.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi chaired a special emergency session of select OIC members on Thursday and said Indonesia and Brunei had also agreed to send peacekeepers. Israeli offensive, now in its fourth week, has killed at least 686 people in Lebanon.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/04/2006 08:23 ||
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They're getting a little ahead of themselves--they haven't been invited yet.
(BNA) Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa asserted that the Arab nation refused calls of disagreements among Arab nation toward Lebanon as well as Palestine. Moussa in interview with Turkish daily affirmed that reactions of Arab peoples shows their support to Lebanon and Palestine. He added that Israel aims at destroying Lebanese infrastructure and not killing Hizbullaa and they enjoying US support in doing that.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Will these retards ever learn "CAUSE & EFFECT"?
#4
"Will these retards ever learn "CAUSE & EFFECT"?"
No. They're genetically (inbreeding) incapable of seeing themselves as anything other than the center of the universe. Why should they change? Don't we understand that their Arabness and Islamic beliefs make them superior to us? Why can't we just accept their obvious superiority?
(BNA) Jordanian Monarch, King Abdullah II, held a telephone conversation with Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, during which he discussed the developments in Lebanon and the Israeli aggression against. King Abdullah also affirmed the importance of an immediate cease-fire to pave the way for a political solution and called for the exerting of more efforts towards stopping the destruction and the retaining of security and stability in the region. He also hailed the call by Prodi for a cease-fire highlighting the importance of international support for the Lebanese government to overcome the crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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(BNA) Hizbollah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, threatened today to fire rockets at Tel Aviv if Israel were to strike Beirut. In a televised speech transmitted by Al Manar television, Sheikh Nasrallah said that the battle which the resistance was conducting along the front line South Lebanon against Israel has become more fierce and wider despite Israel air force raids. Sheikh Nasrallah, also stressed that the fight has taken a new shape as Israel began recalling it reserves and using all the force that it had to achieve success in its battle which it has failed to do so until now. He also affirmed the resistance's solid position in its confrontation against the Israeli force.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Its one thing to fire a rocket at Tel Aviv, its another to hit it.
#2
Shortly after I heard this on the radio last night, I heard the IAF was bombing Beruit again. Called his bluff, did they?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/04/2006 6:09 Comments ||
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#3
We have now dared Nasralla to send rockets to Tel Aviv.
I guess if he swallows bait he will send a few ZilZal missiles on their way to Tel aviv, clearing the way to an Israeli full war declaration on Siria (initially) and on his secret Master Pupeteers TM the vererable Ahmadinagad and the Ayatollas.
This will be the best opportunity we will ever have of sending a few well aimed nukes at the Iranian reactor and Uranium enrichment sites.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
08/04/2006 6:18 Comments ||
Top||
#4
(SPAN CLASS = channeling Dean)
"And, we'll take them on from Tyre to Beirut to Damascus to Ankara, all the way to Tehran...YYYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
(/SPAN)
Posted by: BA ||
08/04/2006 11:21 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Why is this scumbag still stealing vital oxygen from far more deserving creatures like lice, cockroaches and slime moulds? Somehow, I doubt very much that his speech schedule was pre-announced.
The Bush administration has imposed sanctions against seven foreign companies, including two from India and two from Russia, for business dealings with Iran involving sensitive technology, according to an announcement Friday. Also subject to sanctions were two companies from North Korea and one from Cuba. All seven were found to be in violation of the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000.
The announcement in the Federal Register, which reports on official actions by the U.S. government, said the two Indian companies were Balaji Amines Ltd. and Prachi Poly Products Ltd., both chemical manufacturers. The Russian companies were Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi. Also sanctioned were Korean Mining and Industrial Development Corp. and Korea Pugang Trading Corp., both North Korean. The Cuban company was the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
Under the sanctions, U.S. government dealings with any of the seven are prohibited.
Y'all have been warned. Best to cut ties immediately!
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.
Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Thursday refused to resign despite a mass exodus of cabinet ministers and mounting criticism over the deployment of Ethiopian troops to protect his feeble 18-month-old administration. Government spokesman Abdirahman Mohamed Nur Dinari said Gedi was instead working to replace the 36 ministers who have quit the 102-member cabinet in the past week calling for Gedi's resignation, even after he escaped a vote of no confidence over the weekend.
Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) began life without a home - conducting business in a Kenyan sports center. Since returning to battle-scarred Somalia in February, it rapidly found itself without a country to govern. By early June, Islamist militias seized the capital, Mogadishu, and took control of wide swaths of central and southern Somalia. 
A leading human rights group in Russia has reported a big drop in the number of people killed or disappeared in Chechnya last year. In its annual report, Memorial (Pamyat) recorded 192 deaths - a 38% decrease compared with the previous 12 months. But it says a climate of fear still exists and that Chechens may be too scared to report missing relatives. Memorial points the finger of suspicion towards Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov and his local security forces. Although it only monitors some 30% of Chechen territory, Memorial has recorded far fewer murders and disappearances compared with recent years.
A SCHOOL teacher accused of terrorist activities will face a committal hearing in Brisbane in November. 
A Department of Homeland Security plan to require port workers to carry tamperproof photo ID cards has numerous security problems that threaten to delay it, investigators said. In an audit, Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner said his review of prototype systems at participating U.S. ports identified vulnerabilities in the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program, known as TWIC. The weaknesses, some of which were deemed high risk, included instances of false positives in detecting which workers might pose a security risk as well as cases in which the system inadvertently disclosed sensitive personal information inappropriately. 
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday called on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to resign, hours after excoriating him at a public hearing over what she called "failed policy" in Iraq. "I just don't understand why we can't get new leadership that would give us a fighting chance to turn the situation around before it's too late," the New York Democrat and potential 2008 presidential contender said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think the president should choose to accept Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation." 
PESHAWAR: The grand tribal jirga will tackle the presence of foreign militants in North Waziristan according to rewaj (tribal tradition) and they will not register with the government, a senior member of the jirga told Daily Times by phone from Miranshah. He said tribal tradition says that elders and clerics would guarantee the foreigners good conduct to the government and added that registration of foreigners was not on the jirgas agenda. What the jirga will decide at the end of the day will be based on tribal tradition, he said. 
(BNA) The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) wants a role in peace building in war torn Lebanon after a ceasefire has been enforced, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Thursday. Abdullah, who is also OIC chairman, said every member country in the 57-member organisation must play a proactive role in the Israel- Lebanon conflict and be prepared to contribute troops for peacekeeping operations under the United Nations (UN) banner. 
General John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said that fighting in Baghdad is at its highest level and threatens to push Iraq into civil war. ``The sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular,'' Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington. ``If not stopped, Iraq could slide into civil war.'' 
The European Union has enlisted Syria's help to end the fighting in Lebanon as Damascus pledged support to the Lebanese government's plan for a settlement. 
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday he has recalled his country's ambassador to Israel to show his "indignation" over the military offensive in Lebanon. "We have ordered the withdrawal of our ambassador in Israel," Chavez said in a televised speech, calling Israeli attacks in Lebanon "genocide."
With global media attention focused on events in Lebanon, United Nations humanitarian agencies working in the occupied Palestinian territory today issued a statement sounding alarm about the ongoing fighting there and reminding all parties of their obligation under international humanitarian law to protect civilians.
Expressing deep concern about increasing violence in Sri Lanka, particularly the escalation caused by a water dispute in the northeast, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on all sides to cease hostilities immediately, allow humanitarian agencies unimpeded access to those affected and resume peace talks.
(BNA) Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa asserted that the Arab nation refused calls of disagreements among Arab nation toward Lebanon as well as Palestine. Moussa in interview with Turkish daily affirmed that reactions of Arab peoples shows their support to Lebanon and Palestine. He added that Israel aims at destroying Lebanese infrastructure and not killing Hizbullaa and they enjoying US support in doing that.
(BNA) Jordanian Monarch, King Abdullah II, held a telephone conversation with Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, during which he discussed the developments in Lebanon and the Israeli aggression against. King Abdullah also affirmed the importance of an immediate cease-fire to pave the way for a political solution and called for the exerting of more efforts towards stopping the destruction and the retaining of security and stability in the region. He also hailed the call by Prodi for a cease-fire highlighting the importance of international support for the Lebanese government to overcome the crisis.
(BNA) Hizbollah leader, Sheikh 
