SANAA - President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Yemen supports Irans right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, the official news agency Saba reported Saturday. Iran and any other Islamic state has the right to own nuclear energy to use for peaceful purposes, Saba quoted Saleh as saying in talks with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Sanaa.
Iran has the right to develop peaceful uses. They signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and as long as they adhere to the rules and permit full inspection, they can build nuclear-powered electrical generating stations as they wish. That isn't the problem, and Mottaki knows it.
Mottaki also delivered a letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Saleh on developments in the region, mainly the Israeli aggression on the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples, Saba said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/13/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Did Ahmadinejad's threat to turn the Persian Gulf into a "sea of fire" have something to do with the Yemen' boot licking?
#4
Iran has the right to develop peaceful uses. They signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and as long as they adhere to the rules and permit full inspection, they can build nuclear-powered electrical generating stations as they wish.
I must respectfully disagree. When a nation such as Iran has shown itself to be a terrorist sponsor, essentially declared open war against other UN members and continues to violate nearly every human right in the book, non-proliferation signatory or not, they HAVE NO BUSINESS even tinkering with nuclear technology of ANY SORT.
Having access to even partially purified uranium would still allow them to construct "dirty bombs" and such practical experience merely gives them a fast track education on the safe handling and storage of radioactive materials. All of which are things that no rogue regime should enjoy any benefit of.
Iran has been allowed to clothe itself in the trappings of international respectability (much like China) despite flouting its concomitant obligations to the world stage at every single turn. They deserve nothing more than what the Navy calls (referring to the meltdown of a nuclear submarine's reactor); Rapid Catastrophic Disassembly.
The Royal Mail this week promised to launch an investigation after Totally Jewish discovered that donations sent from Jews in London to a charity in Israel were being daubed with swastikas en route to their destination.
We were alerted to the anti-Semitic defacing of post by David Pearl, senior partner of Pearl and Co Solicitors in Hendon, who, earlier in the summer, tried to mail a check for 50 Pounds to Ezra and Chessed in Jerusalem.
However, last week, the charity for learning disabled children returned his donation explaining they couldnt accept it in its current state both the covering letter and the check had had the Nazi symbol scrawled all over them.
Ezra and Chessed confirmed that the letter from Pearl and Co solicitors was just one of a number of donations from the UK they had received in recent weeks that had been defaced with swastikas.
#1
There's absolutely nothing that would ever cause this tool to be embarassed or ashamed. Besides which, I think he's lying through his teeth about being broke.
#3
if beaten thoroughly enough they would have to sew his jaw shut - keep this as a "happy thought"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/13/2006 17:18 Comments ||
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#4
His buddy Sadam's oil bribe money just ran out, doncha know? This guy was documented to have a high-end lifestle with no visible means of support, that is beyond what he could earn as an MP. Miriam Appeal charity also ran dry I suppose.
#6
So it sounds like he is quite willing to whore himself out as the official Lord Haw Haw of Islamic Fascism in Great Britan?
I'll bet they could get him cheap.
I detect more carefully crafted WaPo apologia and partisan flogging of the current Donk meme that we are the problem -- by fighting back.
Enough. Fuck you, WaPo. I'm fed up with your "root causes" articles and your sympathy, no matter how nuanced. The equivalency BS makes me gag. "Unease"? Yeah? Really? Gee, I wonder if on 7/8 there was "unease" among Britons who had to ride the tube? Even if reported, you can bet it was carefully "balanced" by Muslim hypocrisy and taqiya.
Muslims are a cancer. They do not deserve the largess and tolerance they receive. They have no allegiance save Islam. They are a tumor that deserves no sympathy nor quarter in this war. They are, at best, a resource pool for the jihadis which responds to the truth with rage at everyone but the guilty: themselves. 5 years ago we wanted them to drain their own swamp. Nothing happened. Now - just get the fuck out.
5 years on and the drumbeat of bullshit continues.
#4
In one of Europe's largest Muslim communities, young men face a lack of jobs, poor educational achievement and discrimination in a highly class-oriented culture.
OK. Let us accept this nonsense (for the time being).
Let us now consider the state of Bihar in India .. caste ridden, dirt poor, illiteracy, few jobs..
Conditions FAR worse than europe.
Let us look at young Santosh Kumar. He has far more excuses for "rage" than these British Pakis.
Did Santosh turn to suicide bombing?
From this week's businessweek:
Every April, some 230,000 Indian youths sharpen their pencils and sit for the intensely competitive entrance exam to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) -- the seven prestigious schools that train India's top-notch engineers and entrepreneurs. After the grueling six-hour test, only 5,000 students are offered a place in the IITs. Most come from middle-class backgrounds and prepare for the exams through private coaching. But in the past few years, a small group of desperately poor, talented students have made it into the IITs, thanks to the Ramanujan School of Mathematics.
The school, named after a famous Indian mathematician, is even more intense than the IITs themselves. Located in Patna, the capital of Bihar, one of India's least developed states, the Ramanujan School trains just 30 students a year to take the IIT exam. Anand Kumar, 33, a local mathematician, and Abhayanand, 52, Patna's deputy director general of police and a lover of physics, founded the school in 2003 to help promising locals get ahead in the caste-based society.
They scoured Bihar's least privileged communities for 30 bright students to coach for the exam, providing free lessons and housing. They call their group the Super 30. "Intelligence is not birth-specific," says Abhayanand. In the first year, 16 of the group made it into the IITs. The next year, 22 made it. "This year," Kumar says confidently, "all 30 will get into the IITs."
Santosh Kumar, 19 (no relation to Anand Kumar), is one of this year's Super 30, and his story is typical of his classmates. He's from Dumari, a village in the Bihata district, about 22 miles from Patna. Nearly all the village's 3,000 residents scratch out meager livings as farmers. Santosh's sister and three brothers studied up to 10th grade but then returned to the fields. "Studying further required money, so that was that," he says.
Santosh wanted more. His school had no roof, no doors, and no teachers half the time, but he borrowed books and tutored two young students for 70 cents a month. He also sold vegetables the family cultivated in a nearby market town. "I didn't even know which subjects I was good at, and I'd certainly never heard of IIT. No one had," he says. Then an eighth-grade teacher noticed his mathematical talent and encouraged him to study further.
Santosh saw that "education was the only way out of poverty," he says. At first, he planned to study so he could become an officer in the Indian civil service. After high school, he enrolled in the Patna College of Commerce, and then he heard about the IITs and the Super 30. "I went straightaway to Anand Kumar and told him: 'I dream of IIT, but I have no money.' He gave me his test, and I came second in the class. [He] let me into his Super 30 -- free," Santosh recalls.
For seven months, Santosh studied every morning for four hours, then sat down for a three-hour test in math, physics, and chemistry, and after a break studied three more hours. From six to nine in the evening, he attended a class in the same subjects and prepared for the next day's test until 2 a.m. His work paid off last spring, when he won a coveted seat at the IIT in Kharagpur, near Calcutta. (He ranked 3,537 out of the 5,000 students chosen.) Santosh now aims to earn a doctorate in chemistry and become an inventor. His hero is Abdul Kalam, India's current President and father of the nation's missile program. Just as important, Santosh is on track to be the first person from Dumari to graduate from university, making him a hero in the eyes of his village.
Posted by: john ||
08/13/2006 7:46 Comments ||
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#5
I think the Muslims ought to start worrying about British rage if this crap keeps up.
They can scream about how underprivileged they are, blah blah blah. Take a look at the Lions of Islam pulling this latest crap and see if it remotely fits this article's profile.
I'd be willing to bet that just like the evil group that plotted out 9/11, the ones who did 7/7 and this one were all middle class, educated, and able to move around in that society as equals. I really doubt any of them were busting their asses doing menial labor (hell, they probably had cleaning ladies, gardeners, etc. so they never would have to get their hands dirty). They've traveled outside of Britain at least once. They live a lifestyle unavailable to 98% of the people in their ancestral homelands. I'm almost certain that they sampled some of the decadent Western delights (chicks, alcohol, drugs) that would be strictly forbidden to them under a caliphate like the one they claim to support. Hypocrisy runs deep in them.
In other words, they were some of society's "winners". And this is how they choose to pay that society back.
#6
Swamp Blondie sez: "Hypocrisy runs deep in them"
100% true. It's the fibre of their creed founded on hate, greed, ignorance and delusion of grandeur. Not to mention, inescapable mutual/mullah incitement against others. In any muzzie majority country is found that ingrained resentment of more successful nons, so actually it makes little difference whether they are the minority or majority. They must crave to be dominant, one way or another. Otherwise they cause trouble.
#7
When the news broke this week of the arrests in the alleged bomb plot, one of Hussain's two daughters, Afsheen, 15, asked him: "Why do they call them Muslim terrorists? Are we like that?"
Look how the moderate muslim Hussain lies.
What media called them "muslim terrorists" ?
In fact the media went out of its way not to link them to islam.
Hussain himself has the same sense of muslim victimhood.
Posted by: john ||
08/13/2006 8:35 Comments ||
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#8
"The identity of Muslims in the U.K. is Muslim first and foremost and British second," Ranstorp said, echoing a recent Pew global survey of Muslim attitudes that found that 81 percent of British Muslims who responded agreed with that sentiment. Only Pakistan had a higher percentage of people who considered themselves Muslims first, the survey showed.
The identity is muslim first because they come from Pakistan.
To be Pakistani is to accept the two nation theory. That muslims are a separate nation, that islam is in danger and must be separated from the majority culture. That muslims cannot live in peace with those of other religions.
Pakistan is full of people who claim to be ashraf, descendents of the prophet, of arab blood, NOT of Indian subcontinental origin. They deny their own culture and history.
Islam in the Indian subcontinent is unique because it developed in an environment where muslims were not a majority. In the post-mughal era, there was the additional environment of loss of political power.
This is unique in the muslim world. And muslims in India developed an entire culture of how to deal with kaffirs and their pollution.
There is no assimilation here. The intent is quite opposite.
Combine that with pakistani two nation theory and you have a bunch of people who, settled in the UK, will not see themselves as part of the majority culture.
Posted by: john ||
08/13/2006 8:44 Comments ||
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#9
The only rage of which Britons are capable is on display at football matches.
#10
one of Hussain's two daughters, Afsheen, 15, asked him: "Why do they call them Muslim terrorists? Are we like that?"
The women are excluded and kept clueless for the most part...reaching them is the way to transform Muslim society. No mother wants to sacrifice her son or give her daughters away to some sadistic moron.
#11
The sick 'mothers' of Palistinian terrorists willingly give their son's and daughers (and children) up to be 'matyrs'. Sacrificing them to some sadistic moron (Allan).
I think you will find these elements on all societies.
"More than any other country in Europe, Britain is struggling to cope with a surge in recruits and supporters of radical Islamic networks . . ." Because? "Britain's long tradition of tolerance has made it an oasis for immigrants and political outcasts from around the world, with its large influx of Pakistanis and other Muslims leading to the nickname Londonistan." Then what happened? " . . . during the 1980s and 1990s, Britain became the refuge of choice for scores of Islamic radicals who had been expelled or exiled from their home countries for their inflammatory sermons and speeches."
Now what about the "poor us" thing? In one of Europe's largest Muslim communities, young men face a lack of jobs, poor educational achievement and discrimination in a highly class-oriented culture."
Look. They don't want to work anyway because they're lazy and elitist.
"Prime Minister Tony Blair is the most outspoken ally of President Bush, and their policies in Iraq and Afghanistan are seen by many Muslims as aimed at Islam." It's funny that THEY equate terrorism with Islam, even though we don't (technically).
#14
John, do you have a blog?
I find your comments on Pakistan to be the most insightful I've come across.
Can you give some links to the problem of Pakistanis in the UK?
It must be really, really irritating when you are told repeatedly, NOT TO FOUL THE NEST. When Britons get tired of being sh!t upon, woe be it for the Muslims and their smooth polished stones.
The inability to integrate is a hallmark of Islam in general. Polyglot socities depend upon integration in order to ameliorate cultural differences. It should come as no surprise to Islam that its inability to coexist will eventually win it a one-way ticket to hell back home.
#16
A link is not available, but I read a Milli Gazette article on the problems caused by requirement imposed on Indian Muslims student to learn the worthless language of Arabic, and study the Koran in public schools. (Indian Muslims have constitutional rights in cultural affairs) The needs of the parasitic Mullah class are placed over learning requirements that would integrate the Muslim into the modern world. Thus, brainwashed students learn about the military exploits of their cult founder and his robbery gang, while Hindus tackle advanced Calculus, etc. The Koran is a mind-crippler.
Following the failure of the Indian sepoy mutiny and the exile of the Mughal Indian Emperor, muslims were encouraged to retreat from public education - this was when the deoband madrassah was formed.
Of those muslims who did get educated, the middle classes, the businesssmen, the army officers, many migrated to Pakistan at partition.
The local postive role models are gone.
Posted by: john ||
08/13/2006 17:49 Comments ||
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#18
It might be wise for the Islamofascists to watch their step Stateside, too. Yesterday my dear, little mother-in-law came back from her morning walk, fuming. She and her friend were pushed off the sidewalk by a pair of ill-bred Saudi-style Moving Black Objects... likely Yemeni, as she lives in Lackawanna, NY (famed as home of the Lackawanna Six). M-i-L ran with a roughish crowd in her youth, another branch of the family are second generation in the city police, and I wouldn't bet on a Moving Black Object against her.
#19
Checking in this evening at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson I saw a group of TSA employees chatting. One was a black female in full TSA uniform..... except for a black muzzie head scarf. Very impressive, very, very impressive.
#2
As this is MSNBC I would wait for further information from more sources concerning this.
In any case since the targets were US flagged carriers It would be natural that the US would prefer action over the UK's tendencies towards being PC in making arrests and also talking about doing something rather than actually doing it.
If the plan had gone through, you can bet that the press would have been full of headlines like "Bush knew". Given the amount of pro-terrorist sentiment in the US government, I doubt there is any way an anti-Bush leak could have been prevented. Just look at the leak about this UK-US disagreement. Unsuccessful indictments are better than dead civilians. You can always go for another indictment later, but you can't bring dead people back to life.
#5
I see your point, but I'd still have taken it further if I were king. My understanding is that they knew who many of the perps were and they hadn't purchased tickets yet. I don't think lives are at risk until tickets are purchased. Then you know more names and take more bad guys off the street and increase your chances of cracking other cells. Then again, there could have been other groups around to attack planes in an earlier wave that you don't know about.
If the had waited, it might have also raised a dovish eyebrow or two, especially if they busted a bunch of bad guys taking gatorade onto airplanes. Obviously, even this close wasn't enough to do it. It's even being ignored or hailed as a diversion/fabrication in "certain circles". I'm afraid it's going to take a serious bloodbath to wake the sleepy giant. They certainly aren't learning the easy way.
#6
I would not put too much into this report. On "every" takedown there will be heated and sometimes emotional discussion of just when is the right time to move on them. Law enforcement want to go now, intel guys want to wait to get them all, both are right but the final call usually goes to risk management. When the question is posed, how certain are you that you can maintain contact and how certain are you that the this dry run might not go as a real event and can we completely control the future with these guys? If the answer is weak, then any good team will take the bird in the hand and hope to get enough info later to get the rest.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/13/2006 8:55 Comments ||
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#7
It's a diversion. I wonder if Israel is too.
All the surveillance, tracking, phone taps and self-congratulary behavior for stopping a 'dry run' against known fortified targets is a resource drain diverting attention from another target. A big one.
#8
This is what scares me, it sounds like a diversion and the reason I am paranoid :) one muslims tip them off and PakiWacki help round some of this guys up hmmmmmmm.
#10
I'm for early arrests. Every phone contact made by the accused, makes the other party a suspect. Suspects have every right to present exculpatory evidence to police investigators. Some might even inform. The earlier you can get to them, the better.
#11
I'm for early arrests. Every phone contact made by the accused, makes the other party a suspect. Suspects have every right to present exculpatory evidence to police investigators.
Step Two in the al-Q Handbook for Captured Mujahids...(Step One was yesterday, with the pious "He was a good boy, loved his Ma and was kind to small furry critters" macro)
The lawyer for two of the suspects rounded up in a possible plot to bring down as many as 10 trans-Atlantic flights on Saturday criticized their treatment at the hands of British police.
Cry me a peroxide and sports drink river.
In an exclusive CNN interview, attorney Mudassar Irani listed a series of complaints, including the allegation that one of her clients had not received food and water for 26 hours. Both of the men are from the Walthamstow area of East London. They are 22 and 23 years old. She complained she was able to meet with her clients for only five minutes on Friday. The men told her they are being held in cold cells and that requests for blankets were refused. Irani said she was able to brief the men only on events surrounding their arrests and the legal process. One of the men alleged that police pushed him and targeted him with racial abuse, the lawyer said.
CNN has been unable to corroborate Irani's allegations.
But CNN is perfectly happy to report the uncorroborated allegations. They have the proper ring of "truthiness".
The Metropolitan Police tell CNN they have not been made aware of any official complaint about the detainees' treatment. Irani said that the men were upset and had been crying. She said her clients are shocked at what is happening, and were concerned about their families, whom police have moved from their homes into hotels. The men, she said, have not been allowed to call their families, contrary to their rights. "She had not had any indication from the police as to what was going to happen next," Rivers said.
Police were preparing to move the men, who can be held for up to 28 days without charges being filed, from London's Paddington Green police station to Belmarsh prison, the lawyer said. Belmarsh is a maximum security facility regularly used to hold terrorism suspects.
They should be happy. The loo at Belmarsh no longer faces Mecca.
Rivers said Walthamstow, where most of the men were arrested, is a fairly quiet, middle-class suburb where many Asians and Muslims live. A man who knows Irani's clients said they were polite and have jobs.
Ministers hit back yesterday at accusations from leading Muslims, including three Labour MPs, that Britain's Middle East policy was increasing the threat of terrorist attacks.
One of the strongest responses came from the Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells, who last month became the first member of the government publicly to criticise Israeli military tactics in Lebanon. The accusations were 'idiotic' 'facile' and 'dangerous', he said. 'I have no doubt that there are many issues which incite people to loathe government policies - but not to strap explosives to themselves and go out and murder innocent people.'
The Transport Secretary, Douglas Alexander, who alongside the Home Secretary, John Reid, has taken the lead in responding to last week's alleged plot to blow up a number of planes, denounced the suggestion as 'dangerous and foolish'.
Responding to an open letter which was signed by the MPs, three Muslim members of the House of Lords and nearly 40 Muslim community organisations, he pointed out that terrorists had targeted countries with a range of foreign policies. He said: 'No government worth its salt should allow its foreign policy to be dictated to under the threat of terrorism.'
Earlier, the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told the BBC that drawing a link between government policy and the terror threat would be the 'gravest possible error'. She said such suggestions were 'part of a distorted view of the world, a distorted view of life. Let's put the blame where it belongs: with people who wantonly want to take innocent lives.'
Nothing like a near-hit terror attack at home to focus ministers' attention.
The Prime Minister, in a statement which was issued by Downing Street while he remained on holiday, said: 'We should always remember that the terrorism affecting the West today has blighted Muslim countries for several decades.'
He said it had long preceded Britain's part in the American-led invasion of Iraq - one of the issues raised in the Muslim leaders' letter, which was published as an advert in several newspapers.
The Prime Minister added that he would be willing to meet representatives of the signatories on his return.
He should meet with them long enough to tell them what was said in this article, and then show them the door.
The protest letter singled out 'the debacle of Iraq and the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to the attacks on civilians in the Middle East' as providing 'ammunition to extremists that threaten us all.' It said: 'We urge the Prime Minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy to show the world that we value the lives of civilians wherever they live and whatever their religion.'
The letter concluded: 'Such a move would make us all safer.'
Three of the four Muslim MPs - Sadiq Khan, Shahid Malik and Mohammed Sarwar - signed the protest. So did three of the four Muslim members of the House of Lords - Lords Patel of Blackburn and Ahmed of Rotherham and Baroness Uddin. The controversy over the protest letter came on the eve of a government initiative to widen consultations with Muslim communities.
#1
"We muslims tried to 3,000 of you and it's YOUR fault infidel."
Posted by: ed ||
08/13/2006 0:23 Comments ||
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#2
Now your fifth column Muzzies have put it in writing right in front of your eyes. More beligerent every day. Charge them with treason and put them in the Tower. Meanwhile, in Dearborn, they're marching in our streets supporting Hezbollocks. We should demonstrate to them what TienemanSquare was all about.
AUSTRALIA'S top police officer has described an alleged plan to use a baby in the foiled British terror bombing plot as a chilling development.
But Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty has backed away from tougher security measures at airports, saying the idea of testing infant's milk before air travel should be left up to regulators.
Scotland Yard police are questioning a husband and wife who allegedly planned to hide a liquid bomb in their baby's bottle to bring down an airliner.
They are among the 23 suspects arrested over the plot to blow up airliners headed for the United States in mid-flight.
Mr Keelty today expressed dismay at the alleged plan to use a child in a suicide mission.
"The phenomena of suicide bombings as a new way of taking part in terror attacks is in itself concerning, but to think or imagine that anybody would use an innocent child to join them is even more disconcerting," he said on Channel 9.
"And I think it just goes to show you the sorts of difficulties that we're now facing in the environment that we're all in."
But Mr Keelty was cautious about the state of airport security and brushed aside the question of testing babies' milk.
"That's an issue for the regulatory authorities, for the airline operators, you know, we've got to think about a lot of people here, a lot of interests," he said.
"We've got airlines that need to fly, we've got a lot of people employed by airlines and in the airline industry.
"We need to take advice from the airline operators and also the regulatory agencies like the Department of Transport and Regional Services."
Mr Keelty said shutting down airports in the wake of the UK plot would hand victory to the terrorists.
"The important thing here is that we get on with life, that if we shut everything down, if we make it so hard to travel by air or by any other means, if we shut our lives down it means that the terrorists have won," he said.
"What we've got to do is work within a balance, we've got to risk manage it, we've got to understand where the risks are and deploy resources appropriately to where those risks are.
"But the reality of life is that this is a new world order and nobody's got an easy fix solution to this. We're all dealing with it."
Scotland Yard police are quizzing Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, and his 23-year-old wife Cossor over suspicions they were to use their baby's bottle to hide a liquid bomb.
Cossor took her baby with her to the police station during last week's raids but her son is now being cared for by grandparents.
Cossor's grandfather, Nazir Ahmed, 84, said Abdula had travelled to Pakistan about four weeks ago.
"We didn't understand what the hurry was and why he needed to go," Mr Ahmed said.
A neighbour at the flats where the married couple lived said he would be stunned if claims were true.
"I simply cannot believe he could have been involved in a plot like this. He is religious and seemed to love his family," the neighbour said.
"I would never have dreamed he could have been involved in anything like this."
A family friend of Cossor said she had known the arrested mother 12 years and believed her to be innocent.
"I think it is a case of mistaken identity. The last thing she'd be interested in is terrorism. They are just simple day-to-day people going about their own business," she said.
Police in England have reportedly recovered bottles containing peroxide, including some with false bottoms, from a recycling centre close to the homes of some of the arrested suspects.
It has emerged MI5 agents launched covert intrusions on the homes of some suspects several weeks ago in "sneak and peek" operations to plant listening devices and gather evidence ahead of the arrests last week.
Links between suspects in the jet bomb plot and those behind the London 7/7 attacks have also come to light.
There are reports as many as five of those arrested attended the same terror training camp in Pakistan as two of the July 7 London suicide bombers.
And US intelligence sources said they believed at least two of the suspects had trained in Karachi and met al-Qaeda operatives in the lead up to the 7/7 attacks.
Thousands of people gathered across from the White House on Saturday, even though the president was out of town, to condemn U.S. and Israeli policies in the Middle East.
Doesn't matter if Bush was out of town. The press was there.
...chants and speeches condemning Israeli involvement in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, U.S. support for Israel and U.S. involvement in Iraq...
Speakers in Lafayette Park energized the mostly Muslim crowd with chants and speeches condemning Israeli involvement in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, U.S. support for Israel and U.S. involvement in Iraq.
Putting together a mostly Muslim movement, are they? I thought it'd still be too early in the process, but I guess it is five years now...
"Occupation is a crime," the crowd chanted, equating the situations in the three areas. But they also called for peace and justice for all. "We all stand united against the violence and the killing in the holy land," said Esam Omesh, president of the Muslim American Society, a co-sponsor of the demonstration, along with the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee and the National Council of Arab Americans. "There is no difference between Muslim life, Christian life or Jewish life," said Omesh.
"Unless the Christian or Jewish casualties are caused by our quaint local customs. We oppose any response to anything Muslims do, anywhere, any time."
In San Francisco, about 2,000 people marched in support of Lebanese and Palestinians and against the Israel military action. "The occupiers are being seen as the victims, and I'm really ashamed of what is going on in the Middle East," said Alicia Jrapko, a member of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, which organized the rally. "End the occupation now!" one demonstrator's sign read, a call for Israel to leave historically Palestinian lands.
That'd be all of Israel, of course...
Several hundred counter-demonstrators gathered to show their support of Israel, waving American and Israeli flags. "Hezbollah out of Lebanon!" a protester's sign said.
Fox had some of the Hezbollah apologists on this evening. They had a really weak set of talking points...
Ramsey Clark drew cheers from the Washington crowd when he called for President Bush's impeachment....
Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark drew cheers from the Washington crowd when he called for President Bush's impeachment. "We've made more enemies during the presidency of George Bush than in the rest of our history combined," Clark said.
Actually we haven't. But the enemies was have made are real close to Ramsey's heart, so it must seem so to him...
Rahat Husain, 24, of Columbia, Md., said he did not have much hope that the Bush administration would change its policies because of the demonstration, but said it could raise Americans' awareness and create compassion for Lebanese citizens.
Those of us who were paying the least bit of attention started out with more compassion for the Lebs than we have now. I feel sorry for Siniora and the March 14th movement, but they're not the ones running the country. Hezbollah is, holding Lahoud's leash.
... they wanted to show support for the Lebanese and educate Americans about the situation...
Hassan Rida, 26, traveled from Farmington Hills, Mich., with his 15-year-old cousin, Hassan Mokbel, who was vacationing in southern Lebanon when the current crisis started and had to escape through Syria. He and friends Nehme Mhanna, 24, and Mona Alaouie, 24, from Dearborn, Mich., said they wanted to show support for the Lebanese and educate Americans about the situation. "There's always two sides of the story," Rida said.
In this case there are three sides: Israel, which was attacked, Hezbollah, which did the attacking, and the Lebs, who took the punishment.
Habib Ghanim, 55, of Silver Spring, Md., said he voted for Bush, but would probably vote democratic in the next election, because he is disappointed and wants to "stop the fighting on all sides."
Do that, Habib. They'll make things all better for you, unless the wind blows the other way.
Yeshaye Rosenverg, 23, traveled form Monsey, N.Y., to 'show the support for the Lebanese and Palestine people and to make clear that it's not a Jewish fight between Arabs and Jews'...
The family friendly crowd was filled with Muslims, but also contained many non-Muslims, including a handful of orthodox Jews. Yeshaye Rosenverg, 23, traveled form Monsey, N.Y., to "show the support for the Lebanese and Palestine people and to make clear that it's not a Jewish fight between Arabs and Jews."
No, it's not. Its a fight between one side that believes in individual freedom and an enemy that believes in controlling not only what the individual does, but what he believes. Have a good time with your friends, Yeshaye.
A law enforcement official on the scene estimated that there were about 5,000 people attending the rally and subsequent march through the streets of Washington, which was sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition, the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation and the National Council of Arab Americans.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
What a disgraceful whore Ramsey Clark turned out to be. The country seems filled with once honorable men who have a chronic case of BDS and their head up their ass.
#3
Refuse alert ! Brng out the water cannons. This really pisses me off to have these useless Muzzies marching in our streets when our soldiers our dying in the worthless ME.
From the New Republic Online, Kos' fave mainstream liberal publication....registration required.
There are few things more agreeably English than cricket. Time passes and times change, but cricket remains much the same. Like Shakespeare and P.G. Wodehouse, it is one of the great English gifts to civilization. This summer, however, cricket has also opened a window onto the vexed, troubling issue of how best to integrate and assimilate Great Britain's approximately two million Muslims into British society. The good news is that Muslims and other minorities have become sufficiently integrated as to grow up wanting to play cricket for England. The bad news is that many of their Muslim schoolmates consider them traitors for doing so.
This week, Sajid Mahmood, a 24-year-old fast bowler born in the northern town of Bolton, produced the finest performance of his career to lead England to a vital victory against the touring Pakistani cricket team. For his troubles, Mahmood was heckled and labeled a traitor by a section of the crowd. Mahmood took the abuse--hurled by a group of vocal British Muslims--in stride, but the moment offered a snapshot of two possible futures for British Muslims: welcome integration into the mainstream or a retreat into isolation, bigotry, and violence. Unfortunately, they're overwhelmingly choosing option #2.
During the Thatcher years, the former Tory Party Chairman Norman Tebbit caused outrage in liberal circles when he proposed what came to be known as the cricket test. As Amartya Sen explained in TNR, Tebbit said that British immigrants from the Caribbean and the subcontinent should support England, not the lands of their ancestry. Only when that happened could the process of integration and assimilation be considered a success. If yesterday's foiled plot by British Muslims to down several commercial jets is any indicator, assimilation has not only failed to take root throughout the community, but it may never do so.
That the 24 suspects arrested on Thursday for their alleged part in the conspiracy to blow up as many as ten jumbo jets were British-born should come as no surprise. Last July's bombs on the London underground were also planted by British suicide bombers. The so-called flypaper strategy of fighting terrorism in Iraq to avoid fighting it at home is obviously moot if terrorists can be born and bred at home.
The challenge of assimilation in Great Britain is daunting. A recent opinion survey of Muslims carried out by Channel 4 News concluded that just 44 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds feel Britain is their country, and 51 percent of them believe September 11 was the result of an American-Israeli conspiracy. Furthermore, 30 percent of British Muslims would like to live under sharia law, and 28 percent would like Great Britain to become an Islamic state. These findings, alas, cannot be considered the result of a rogue poll. A Pew Research Center survey this year found that 81 percent of British Muslims consider themselves Muslim first and British second. As Timothy Garton Ash noted in a prescient piece in Thursday's Guardian, "This is a higher proportion than in Jordan, Egypt or Turkey, and exceeded only by that in Pakistan (87%)." No wonder the Channel 4 pollsters concluded that nearly one in ten British Muslims "can be classified as 'Hardcore Islamists' who are unconcerned by trifles like freedom of speech."
This disdain for their homeland, it should be noted, comes despite Great Britain's record as a tolerant and liberal country--just as much, if not more, than any other European country. Britishness has always been a baggy concept, requiring little from immigrants. Unlike France or the United States, Britain has not, until now, required immigrants to make a covenant with their adoptive country, swearing allegiance to its flag and ideals even as they enrich its culture.
So British Muslims, despite enjoying greater opportunities than other European Muslims, actually feel less British than French Muslims feel French. Yet no government in Europe has done more to reach out to Muslims--at home and abroad--than Tony Blair has. As Sir Derek Plumbly, British ambassador to Egypt, wrote in 2005, "I ... detect a tendency for us to be drawn towards engagement for its own sake; to confuse engaging with the Islamic world with engaging with Islamism. ... I suspect that there will be relatively few contexts in which we are able significantly to influence the Islamists agenda." Yet official British government policy has been to engage with Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood abroad while doing relatively little to counter the extremism of the most radical imams at home.
In the days to come, we will surely hear bleating that British support for the war in Iraq has increased the threat Great Britain faces. (Certainly, there is neat symmetry in targeting British and American aircraft leaving London for the United States.) But Iraq alone has not radicalized British Muslims. Nearly 5,000 British troops are garrisoned and fighting in Afghanistan, and the British youths who attended training camps in the Hindu Kush are unlikely to look too kindly upon them. In other words, Iraq may have exacerbated the threat, but it did not cause it. Anyway, to treat the Afghan invasion as a just cause for domestic terrorism is to argue that there should have been no military response to September 11.
The dilemma for the British government is simple: Can it really continue to engage radical Islam overseas and crack down upon radicals at home? And how much can it realistically do to change the attitudes of the angry, radical, terrorist-supporting elements of young Muslim Britain? How do you wins hearts and minds that are closed?
One instructive model is Sajid Mahmood, whose Pakistani-born father would ordinarily have supported the land of his birth against England. This summer, his son insisted that must change. "I think my dad had some split loyalties, but I told him he had to support England during this series." The immigrants and their children who do manage to integrate with British society can bring their families with them. But, if assimilation comes only one heart and one mind at a time, the radical minority among Great Britian's Muslim community may never pass Tebbit's test.
KARACHI: A top official of the Ittehad Tanzeematul Madaris-e-Deeniya Pakistan (ITMDP), a confederacy of five religious education boards running over 14,000 seminaries across Pakistan, said on Saturday that the government had agreed it would not pressure madressahs in the aftermath of the great London plot that was foiled by the UK authorities with active help from Islamabad.
Seminaries across the country have been worried and pushed the ITMDP leadership to secure assurances from Islamabad that they would not face action as they did after the 7/7 London bombings. We have been assured that the recent London incident would not create pressure for us, Hanif Jalandhari, chief of the Wafaq-ul-Madaris, the largest of the five religious education boards, which controls more than 9,000 seminaries, told Daily Times.
Insiders said in the first ever meeting of the ITMDP with the interior minister Friday the two sides remained confined to the concerns about possible action against seminaries. The government has agreed not to take any action against the seminaries for the time being, said an insider, but Jalandhari has insisted that it was not a matter of time but the minister had assured them that no action was in the offing against seminaries because unlike the 7/7 incidents no clue was leading to Pakistani seminaries in the latest incident. Jalandhari said that despite some clues leading to Pakistani seminaries in last years London bombing investigations, no seminary was involved in the act and time had proved this. And even this time no clues are there to justify any government action against our seminaries, he said.
"Nope. Nope. No clues here. Don't even need to look around. As pure as the driven snow, are the Pak madaris. Trust me."
He said he was satisfied with the assurances given by the government according to which foreign students enrolled at Pakistani seminaries would be given re-entry visas once they returned after their vacations and none of them would be expelled before they completed their studies. However, the government has not agreed on visas to fresh students and Jalandhari said talks would continue to settle that issue. A source in the interior ministry said that the government would not issue re-entry visas to foreign students without thorough investigations and would decide this on a case-to-case basis.
BRITISH military forces will hand over a camp in southern Iraq next month to Iraqi forces, a military commander has announced.
The Queen's Royal Hussars will hand over to Iraqi forces Camp Abu Naji, south of al-Amara, the capital of Maysan province, according to the Iraqi government.
The Guardian newspaper reported in an early edition of its Monday paper that British troops will not leave the province immediately, citing unnamed defence sources.
Instead, they will move to a base near Basra and take on long-range patrols in the province's marshlands and borders with Iran.
Lieutenant Colonel David Labouchere said Iraqi soldiers and police had been "very impressive in implementing new security plans".
He said that Iraqi authorities believed they were "well on the way to transition to Provincial Iraqi Control".
The United States should send troops to northern Iraq near the Turkish border to prevent a possible armed conflict between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds, said Richard Holbrooke, a top U.S. diplomat during former President Bill Clinton's tenure. In an article in The Washington Post Holbrooke said a Turkish-Kurdish clash might be one of several regional problems that could trigger a chain reaction, eventually leading to a global conflict.
President George W. Bush "should redeploy some U.S. troops into the safer northern areas of Iraq to serve as a buffer between the increasingly agitated Turks and the restive, independence-minded Kurds," he said, noting that Turkey is "talking openly of invading northern Iraq to deal with Kurdish terrorists based there."
"Given the new situation, such a redeployment to Kurdish areas and a phased drawdown elsewhere -- with no final decision yet as to a full withdrawal from Iraq -- is fully justified," said Holbrooke, who is known for his role in bringing an end to the Bosnian war in 1995.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Anything Holbrooke states in print should be used as toilet paper substitute
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/13/2006 0:59 Comments ||
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I have read some verbose Kurd rhetoric in the forums. If they don't exercise restraint, then they are going to lose what they have: 15 years of peace and near independence and the biggest oil pockets in the world. Ask Hizbollah what happens when belligerence escalates.
"Given the new situation, such a redeployment to Kurdish areas and a phased drawdown elsewhere -- with no final decision yet as to a full withdrawal from Iraq -- is fully justified," said Holbrooke, who is known for his role in bringing an end to the Bosnian war in 1995.
thankyouverymuch rapporteur.
I'm warning you.. I'm an EXPERT.
Posted by: Dick Holbrooke ||
08/13/2006 1:52 Comments ||
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Holbrooke. LOL. It's actually rather entertaining to see all of the never-were Camelot flacks preening their "expertise" feathers in hopes of a power position in a Donk Prez administration come 2008.
LOL, DH.
So many experts who dropped or dodged completely all of the important shit that came their way for 8 solid years still pretending they aren't explicitly complicit in creating the most dangerous trouble spots we face today. And this Dick is near the top of that heap of duplicitous self-serving band of losers.
#5
Let the Turks do hot pursuits and it will end much of the cross-border terrorism. Who cares about terrorists enough to protect them? Didn't Afghanistan get smacked for doing something like this? Don't people gripe about not being able to do much in the way of hot pursuits into Pakistan?
#6
Holbrooke seems to have cornered the market in silly ideas. If Iraqi Kurds want to shelter terrorists on their soil, they should be prepared to pay the price. The Kurds seem to think that having Uncle Sam in their corner is a license to do whatever they want, including cozying up to Iran. Maybe it's time for them to learn that Uncle Sam's friendship isn't unconditional.
#8
Is everyone who challenges a state's control a terrorist? I'd say no. Kurds have severe restrictions on their rights in Turkey to the point of being jailed for speaking or singing their own language (many well documented instances).
I don't see Iraqi or Turkish Kurds indulging in the kill the christians and jews and hindus MO of AQ. But they do have a genuine issue with Turkey.
Disclaimer: I have no time for the PKK = bunch of marxist fanticists.
#9
The difficulty is the PKK is what is causing the problem, or at least so Turkey says. It is not hard to believe the Kurds are not helping the Turks track down the PKK who are terrorizing Turkey. The Kurds need an incentive to crack down on the PKK on their own. If we don't supply it, at some point the Turks will.
Yesterday at the Lebanese Council of Ministers meeting the following positions were taken:
* Mohammad Fneish (Minister of Energy, and one of two Hezbollah in the cabinet): The position of Hezbollah is NOT TO DISARM in any part of the country until the Shebaa farms are liberated.
*Fneish then challenged both the Government and Lebanese Army to search and destroy Hezbollahs weapons by force If you are men!
* Michel Sleiman (General of Lebanese Army) stated that the Lebanese Army will not deploy one soldier until Hezbollah agrees to the whole political and deployment schedule.
* Sanioura (Prime Minister of Lebanon) called Berri (Hezbollah representative) who assured him that the position regarding unity has not changed. This prompted the Unanimity with Reservations scenario.
The cabinet then gave themselves 24 hours. They were hoping that the Israeli Cabinet would oppose UN Resolution 1701. Then they would blame it on the Israelis. But when the Israeli Cabinet agreed they decided to postpone todays emergency cabinet meeting to avoid further internal clashes.
In sum, as Lebanese we are looking and and suffering under a disgusting match of empty rhetoric bathed in lies and hypocrisies. God Help us for these leaders and politicians.
The media here remains totally and utterly biased. None here gives any opportunity to convey the true feelings and aspirations of our people. From Pajams Media
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/13/2006 18:22 ||
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I think the Hizzies are well and truly phuqued. Or at least, I hope so...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/13/2006 20:22 Comments ||
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Time to face reality. When the Hezbos can start and end a war, they are the government. Time to clean out the entire cess pool.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/13/2006 20:48 Comments ||
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Uri Grossman, 20, killed in Lebanon; his father slammed expended IDF operation
Neta Sela
VIDEO - In a press conference convened by author David Grossman along with fellow writers A.B. Yehoshua and Amos Oz last week, the three pled with the Israeli government to reach a cease-fire agreement two days later, Grossman's son, Uri, was killed in Lebanon.
Uri Grossman, 20, died after an anti-tank missile hit his tank in southern Lebanon Saturday. His name was cleared for publication Sunday evening.
#2
consider it the fault of all them dead Israelis who didn't vote the right way. Appeasemeant should be like Crack, and scar their worshippers the same. We would certainly know who's who, then, wouldn't we? Kinda a moral Hansen's leprosy
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/13/2006 19:47 Comments ||
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#3
Sorry, but I don't support/respect the father's motivations...apparently the Son didn't either
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/13/2006 19:53 Comments ||
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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel is willing to discuss a possible release of Hizbollah prisoners in exchange for freeing two Israeli soldiers abducted by Lebanese guerrillas last month, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Sunday.
The report was published on the newspaper's Web site as the Israeli cabinet met to approve a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a cessation of the month-long conflict which is expected to go into effect on Monday.
Spokesmen for the Israeli government could not immediately be reached for comment.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he will not negotiate to free the soldiers Hizbollah captured in a July 12 cross-border raid, but Israel has traded prisoners for its own captives in the past. "Israel has done, is doing and will do all it is able to do in order to effect the return home of the sons," Olmert told his cabinet at the outset of its weekly session on Sunday.
Israel Radio quoted Olmert as telling ministers he would name a senior official to deal with the issue and "a tremendous struggle is being waged to free them."
Haaretz said Israel would negotiate the release of the troops and that in exchange Israel would be ready to free several Lebanese prisoners and about 20 other Hizbollah men it has captured during its current offensive in Lebanon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/13/2006 12:36 ||
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#1
In short the Isreali people suffered rocket attacks, weeks in bomb shelters and terror.
So that Olmert can SURRENDER to Hizbollah and give them whatever they want.
Does this include that one murderer who bashed the head of that child after murdering the child father in front of him/her? You know the one the MSM has been calling an 'innocent civilian'....
The weekend's news about expanded operations in Lebanon and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's acceptance of a United Nations resolution calling for a cease-fire gave politicians on both the Right and the Left reasons to attack the government.
MKs on the Right said Israel would regret accepting the cease-fire, those on the Left said it was wrong to send so many troops deep into Lebanon and politicians from across the spectrum said the government had mismanaged the war.
MK Zvi Hendel (NU-NRP) said the opposition would resume efforts to topple the prime minister, ending a self-imposed hiatus on attacking the government during the war. He said inquiries would be made into Olmert's handling of the war and that his mistakes would be exposed.
"Olmert is not fit to stay in power, he won't last one day longer," Hendel said. "The ministers should listen to [Hizbullah leader Hassan] Nasrallah's satisfaction with the cease-fire to understand how bad it is for Israel."
MK Silvan Shalom (Likud) said the cease-fire was one of the worst Israel had ever been offered. He said Israel would not achieve any of its goals, including returning its kidnapped soldiers and the disarming of Hizbullah, while issues like the return of Mount Dov (Shaba Farms) and the release of Lebanese terrorists from jail had been put on the agenda.
"If we would have known that this would be of the result of the war no one would have supported it," Shalom told The Jerusalem Post. "Just last month Olmert called UNIFIL worthless pensioners and now they are being entrusted with protecting our country."
Shalom said he was also not happy with the news about the IDF reaching the Litani River because the IDF should have entered deep into Lebanon a long time ago.
On the Left, Meretz leader Yossi Beilin said that the expansion of operations in Lebanon was a "prize for Hizbullah" that would entail weeks of arduous warfare and heavy casualties.
Meretz and Peace Now began demonstrating against the war on Thursday and a columnist in the left-leaning Ha'aretz joined Hendel in calling for Olmert to quit in a column under the headline, "Olmert must go."
"If Olmert runs away now from the war he initiated, he will not be able to remain prime minister for even one more day," wrote Ari Shavit. "Chutzpah has its limits. You cannot lead an entire nation to war promising victory, produce humiliating defeat and remain in power. You cannot bury 120 Israelis in cemeteries, keep a million Israelis in shelters for a month, wear down deterrent power, bring the next war very close and then say - 'Oops, I made a mistake. That was not the intention. Pass me a cigar, please.'"
Posted by: ed ||
08/13/2006 09:07 ||
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Using solar and wind power to operate remote military bases in Iraq.
Al Gore won't know what to think of it
Posted by: Mike ||
08/13/2006 9:13 Comments ||
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I, for one, am strongly opposed to windmills being built within sight of my wife's lovely Vineyard estate.
Posted by: John F. Kerry ||
08/13/2006 11:25 Comments ||
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Click the attached link (given Moderator approval) and you can read the most articulate statement of the Iraq-pullout position that I have read. The author was a former staffer for Z Brzezinski, thus should be treated as a Dem military pundit. My views are 180 degrees opposite to what is posted, with the exception that I would work against terrorists even where they have a political wing. I don't believe in the "Democratic Domino" theory. I chose not to post the article because it should be Fisked by someone with military experience. However, it illustrates what stay-the-course and hardliners (myself) must argue against. Does anyone want to Fisk this?:
Middle East presence
Do Americans stabilize region or not?
Recently on national television, Vice President Cheney warned that withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq would prompt the collapse of governments in other countries in the region, namely Pakistan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, putting them in the hands of radical Islamist rulers.
Cheney has it exactly backwards. Our continued entanglement is what is destabilizing the region...
----------------------
Reminder: as of last Monday, the President's declared enemy is "Islamofascism."
An interview (by reporter for "Hindu" India) with Iran's terror chief was posted on the dictator's website. Matter of fact stuff, but Drudge hints at some incendiary comments against GWB, that will appear on "60 Minutes" tonight. Death threats will serve a pretext for war which, with the terrorist also boasting about extorting Europe and destroying Israel, could only be waged with nation killer weaponry. Zero tolerance folks.
Q: "Last year, at the U.N. General Assembly, you made an interesting proposal for a multinational fuel cycle but the other countries did not respond. Is it possible that on August 22, you will make another proposal, so as to keep the path for dialogue open?"
A: "What we have announced is that we are going to study the package of incentives, and later we are going to express our opinion on this. We are interested in continuing with negotiations. But their most recent behavior is reason enough for us to doubt their sincerity. "Given everything that has happened, we no longer have any confidence, any trust. We assume that the whole idea of presenting us with a package was a political exercise more than anything else. So it has become very difficult for us to remove from our mind the conclusion we have arrived at, which is that they are less than sincere. "It is difficult for us to believe they have given up their colonial practices. Of course, there is a lot of possibility, a lot of likelihood, that we are going to continue the packages more and we are going to come back with a response. We are trying our very best to do just that."
PARIS (AP) - France and Italy, along with predominantly Muslim Turkey and Malaysia, signaled willingness Saturday to send troops for a beefed-up U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, but consultations are still needed to hammer out the force's makeup and mandate.
Lots of consultations, all done in posh surroundings in Cyprus and New York.
New Zealand and Ireland were among smaller nations saying they might contribute peacekeepers for the mission.
The resolution, drafted by France and the United States, authorizes 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to help a similar number of Lebanese troops take control of southern Lebanon as Israeli forces withdraw. Analysts said France would be well-suited to lead such a force, given its diplomatic success in acting as go-between in negotiations involving the United States and Lebanon.
As France had argued for, the resolution strengthens the existing U.N. force in southern Lebanon - UNIFIL, which now has 2,000 soldiers acting as observers and has been in place since 1978. Washington has been concerned over UNIFIL's ineffectiveness in containing violence along the Israel-Lebanon frontier and it originally pressed for the deployment of a new international force separate from UNIFIL.
The strengthened U.N. force is to monitor a cease-fire, ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians and back up the Lebanese army in asserting government control in the south. The resolution authorizes UNIFIL to use "all necessary action" to make sure "its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind." Its troops could use force to ensure the movement of aid workers and protect civilians in imminent danger.
Further discussions are needed to pin down exactly when and under what conditions UNIFIL can use firepower. And the Security Council said UNIFIL's mandate setting out its roles might be "enhanced" in a later resolution.
This is all chickenshit nonsense. The rules of engagement should be simple: any Hezbie with a weapon gets exactly one chance to drop the heat and get his mitts in the air. And no second chances.
French President Jacques Chirac said his country will "play a role in putting the new resolution into place, particularly in regards to the new UNIFIL."
France - which already participates in UNIFIL along with China, Ghana, India, Ireland, Italy, Poland and the Mighty Uruguayans Ukraine - will determine how many more peacekeepers to send after evaluating the force's mandate, Chirac said.
Several modern armies in that list, and not one of them had the stones to tell the Hezbies to knock it off over the last six years. Any reason to think the new, improved UNIFIL will be any better?
His country is seen as a likely leader of the U.N. operation. By leading a peacekeeping force with a large European presence, France could strengthen its own role in the Middle East, analysts say.
The Brits used to call it the French 'smell factor' in the Levant.
That could, in turn, benefit the European Union, and ensure France a greater role in carving out the bloc's foreign policy, said Barah Mikail of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris. Given France's relations with Washington and its historic ties with the Arab world, "France seems the best-placed to lead this force," Mikhail said.
Or at least to protect its Lebanese and Syrian interests, which comes first.
Italian Premier Romano Prodi and his foreign minister, Massimo D'Alema, confirmed Italy's willingness to take part. They said Italy will be involved in talks "in the next few days to determine the composition, articulation and mandate" of the force.
Predominantly Muslim nations also expressed willingness to provide peacekeepers. Ottoman Empire Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said his government would look "very favorably" toward sending peacekeepers, but only after a full cease-fire.
In Malaysia, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said his country was preparing about 1,000 soldiers to take part in the mission once fighting stops. Razak also said two of Malaysia's Muslim neighbors, Indonesia and Brunei, were prepared to participate, although there was no official comment from those governments.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/13/2006 00:00 ||
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There are some good fighters in this mix, if they were to be given the opportunity.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/13/2006 1:08 Comments ||
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I can see it now. A bunch of blue-helmeted soldiers carrying peashooters vs. Hezzies armed with anti-tank weapons. Hmm. "If you don't kill us, we won't try to report you."
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Lebanon's Cabinet accepted the U.N. cease-fire plan to halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah fighters on Saturday, moving the deal a step closer to implementation, the prime minister said. "It was a unanimous decision, with some reservations," Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said in announcing Lebanon's acceptance of the resolution after a four-hour Cabinet meeting.
Hezbollah's Mohammed Fneish, minister of hydraulic resources, said the two members of the Islamic militant group who are part of the Cabinet expressed reservations. Particular concern was raised over an article in the resolution that "gives the impression that it exonerates Israel of responsibility for the crimes" and blames Hezbollah for the monthlong war, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/13/2006 00:00 ||
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All you need to know about whether or not this 'resolution' is a good one is that the Lebanese Govt and the Hezzies agreed to it.
CRAWFORD - President George W. Bush told Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Saturday that he hopes a new UN resolution will dismantle what he called Hezbollahs state within a state in southern Lebanon. White House National Security spokesman Frederick Jones said Bush called Siniora and the two spoke for eight minutes about he resolution and their common efforts to bring about a cessation of hostilities.
It was the second time Bush had spoken to Siniora since the crisis erupted July 12. In the weeks after their July 14 conversation, Siniora repeatedly called for an immediate cease-fire but Bush resisted, saying the root causes of the conflictnamely Hezbollahs influencehad to be addressed.
The president stressed the need to dismantle Hezbollahs state within a state in order to build Lebanese democracy, Jones said. He expressed his view that Iran and Syria were arming Hezbollah in order to exert unwanted influence over Lebanon.
That suggests that Dubya understands very well what's happening there, and the resolution is the best he can do right now with the weak hand played by Olmert.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/13/2006 00:00 ||
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Hello, Cry Baby? Yes, this is George Bush.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/13/2006 1:09 Comments ||
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Am I the only one rather puzzled by the near-desperate desire on the part of Bush to favor the Leb "government" with legitimacy?
That Leb is still a Syrian and Iranian stooge is obvious. The people of Leb may, or may not, be stupid enough to believe otherwise or believe that this farce hasn't been complicit in the Hezbollah BS from day one.
In my generous moments I tend to believe that many Lebs aren't happy with that fact, that they actually thought they were going to be "free" of Syria and become a real country again, but their blind inculcated hatred for Israel and Jooos makes it a distinction without a difference in practice.
As always, such blind hate negates any sympathy for their dilemma.
#7
Orrin Judd thinks the best way to handle this is to create a new, sovereign Shi'a state in south Lebanon. Split it off from Lebanon proper, and the rest of the country can organize itself with Sunnis, Maronites and Druze each with a piece of the government. Judd thinks that if the Shi'a have their own state, with a defined border with Israel, that the Hezbies will be SOL.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/13/2006 14:37 Comments ||
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MOSCOW - Russia said Saturday it expected all sides involved in the conflict in Lebanon to abide strictly by a new United Nations resolution calling for an end to the bloodshed. We expect all sides to abide strictly to the decision by the UN Security Council, the Russian foreign ministry said in a written statement.
The resolution adopted Friday is a first important step on the path to overcoming this extremely dangerous crisis, the statement said.
Resolution 1701, drawn up by the United States and France after protracted haggling, also calls for Israeli troops to be withdrawn from southern Lebanon after an end to the fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to tell him the resolution presented a chance for a political settlement, the Kremlin said. Putin stressed that it was the only reasonable alternative to an expansion of the ground war in Lebanon and called for its rapid implementation.
Hmmm, implement the resolution or expand the ground war. Decisions, decisions ...
The Russian foreign ministry said an initiative put forward by Moscow to adopt a brief resolution on a humanitarian ceasefire had helped speed up a consensus in the Security Council on the US-French proposal.
The statement also stressed that the original reason for the conflict in Lebanon was the absence of a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. One of the main aims of the international community should be to focus efforts on creating the conditions for a resumption of the peace process in this region, the ministry said.
Yep, gotta fire up the peace processor!
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/13/2006 00:00 ||
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How about it Putin you get your guys to go in and disarm Hizb'allah. The French have already stated thay have no intention to. That being the case I can expect that Israel might reject the UN Security council resolution,
Russian boots on the ground not taking no for an answer.
#6
Russians traditionally have been sticklers for the letter of treaties, violating the hell out of the spirit, however. That is why they intensely argue the exact language--to insure they have loopholes to do what they want to do, while the other side is restricted.
They would be there solely to protect their old ally, Syria, from the Israeli army.
Scary! More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.
The national survey of 1,010 adults also found that anger against the federal government is at record levels, with 54 percent saying they "personally are more angry" at the government than they used to be.
Widespread resentment and alienation toward the national government appears to be fueling a growing acceptance of conspiracy theories about the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Suspicions that the Sept. 11 attacks were "an inside job" -- the common phrase used by conspiracy theorists on the Internet -- quickly have become nearly as popular as decades-old conspiracy theories that the federal government was responsible for President Kennedy's assassination and that it has covered up proof of space aliens.
Seventy percent of people who give credence to these theories also say they've become angrier with the federal government than they used to be.
Thirty-six percent of respondents overall said it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them "because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East."
"One out of three sounds high, but that may very well be right," said Lee Hamilton, former vice chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also called the 9-11 commission.) His congressionally appointed investigation concluded that federal officials bungled their attempts to prevent, but did not participate in, the attacks by al Qaida.
"A lot of people I've encountered believe the U.S. government was involved," Hamilton said. "Many say the government planned the whole thing. Of course, we don't think the evidence leads that way at all."
The poll also found that 16 percent of Americans speculate that secretly planted explosives, not burning passenger jets, were the reason the towers of the World Trade Center collapsed.
Conspiracy groups for at least two years have also questioned why the World Trade Center collapsed when fires that heavily damaged similar skyscrapers around the world did not cause such destruction. Sixteen percent said it's "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that "the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York was aided by explosives secretly planted in the two buildings."
Twelve percent suspect the Pentagon was struck by a cruise missile in 2001 rather than by an airliner captured by terrorists.
University of Florida law professor Mark Fenster, author of the book "Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture," said the poll's findings reflect public anger at the unpopular Iraq war, realization that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction and growing doubts of the veracity of the Bush administration.
"What has amazed me is not that there are conspiracy theories, but that they didn't seem to be getting any purchase among the American public until the last year or so," he said. "Although the Iraq war was not directly related to the 9-11 attacks, people are now looking back at 9-11 with much more skepticism than they used to."
#1
Apologies but I will not sanitize the following..sinktrap if you must....but - WHAT A LOAD OF SHIT! This Hamilton had better stay far away from my neck of the woods...I've sooooooo had it with these assholes. I've got a yard full of dog shit with his name on it.
Hey....see ya all in the trap! Woot!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/13/2006 2:30 Comments ||
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#2
Well I think 99% of the people who believe this are ignorant. When I told my wife about this 'poll' she said she could not believe that many people where that ignorant in this country as well.
I suspsect the truth is most people hate the government because of the Congress of the United States is the problem..
All the failures that are laid at the feet of "government" or executive are mostly really rightfully set at the feed of the legislative branch.
Because of that hate they are ready to believe anything. Just my not so humble opinion.
#3
This is crap. Not a single American that I have talked to believes anything like this. This is for some kind of internal consumption, external consumption be damned. Much like Hezb'Allah's "news" releases are designed to elicit responses from those who would be extremists. They don't care about those who don't believe it because they are targets anyway.
#4
If there's any legitimacy to the poll, then we know who to thank - from our Socialist Tranzi MSM to the fumblefuck "education" system to the incessant drumbeat of renegade Government BS cranked out by TV and Hollyweird - the dumb-down equivalency machine which has arisen over the last few decades to control "the message".
I wish Atomic Conspiracy would come back to give this the proper response. He would have a fine time with it.
#6
I think it depends where you ask. Hang out around the "reality based" communities of Berserkley and Hollyweird, and yeah, 30 percent sounds about right. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that 30 percent of Daily Kos readers believed it, too.
But out in the real reality based places, aka flyover country, no way in hell is it that high. There's still a unhealthy contingent of the tinfoil brigade out there, but not as many.
#10
OK...some sleep and I'm better now. FYI...I work in San Francisco and I can tell you straight up that this poll accurately reflects popular opinion and in fact may actually understate it. I hear on a daily basis, people discussing matter of factly how 9-11 was a govt conspiracy, blah blah blah. Everything that happens in the world is the work of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove...blah blah blah. Otherwise very intelligent people thoroughly compromised by BDS. Sickening. Though they are a minority...it's not small enough for my comfort.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/13/2006 12:19 Comments ||
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#11
San Francisco != America
This 'Poll' is supposed to be 'National'. Looks to me like they polled out of the San Francisco and Seattle 1st Hill Phone books.
#13
While I consider the 'results' of this poll rubbish, I can't escape the fact that the majority of Americans care more about the winner of American Idol, than care about our very way of life being under attack. If the poll concluded that 'more than a third of US citizens are mindless PC lemmings', I'd say the numbers were low.
#14
More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.
How many Muslims were part of this poll?
More importantly, that even this percentage of the interviewed actually believe such utter rubbish is a firm indicator that it will require an even more heinous atrocity than 9-11 to awaken "the sleeping tiger" in America. This is very disspiriting because what's next is probably a terrorist nuclear attack upon a major American metropolis that will set our nation back a solid DECADE.
This poll should serve as a message to the White House that, lame duck or no, it has absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain by unilaterally neutralizing Iran (and Syria) RIGHT NOW. It would be a huge favor to the United States and the remaining world. Even as a Bush detractor, I would still vigorously support and defend any of his actions on this account.
#16
Well, people who draw conclusions from poll results are usually drawing the conclusions they were looking for in the first place.
#1: Poll wording is the key here. Q: "Is it possible that the government allowed 9/11 to happen?" is a helluva a lot different than "Did the government allow 9/11?" Some folks who think the CIA/FBI did a piss-poor job tracking jihadis could even answer "Yes" meaning the government allowed 9/11 to happen through incompetence, political correct BS, etc.
#2: Are you angry at the federal government? These nuts think that if you answer "yes" that you're gearing up for another Kerry run at the White House. Bet you the vast majority of folks who say they're angry at the gubmint are angry because of the reluctance to name the enemy and fight him with no reservations. Hell, a lot of posters on this site are probably fed up with this #*@! "patty-cake, patty-cake, jihad man" approach to the ongoing conflict.
I'll stop before I have a Michael Savage breakdown.
#19
We have political polls every two years in America and those are the only ones that count. In the past poll showed:
Bush would lose in 2004 = Right
Americans generally support Gay Marriage = Nope
Americans want trust Demoncrats on Securtiy = Sure they do, the polls said the same thing just before the Republicans took over.
Luckily we run our government based on a vote and not by polls.
#20
Hope the folks in San Francisco understand when the rest of America says good riddance when the next Big One hits SF and they fall into the sea. San Francisco was an interesting place in the 60s and 70s. Now it is just a dumping ground for rich fools.
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
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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
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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.
The lawyer for two of the suspects rounded up in a possible plot to bring down as many as 10 trans-Atlantic flights on Saturday criticized their treatment at the hands of British police.
Thousands of people gathered across from the White House on Saturday, even though the president was out of town, to condemn U.S. and Israeli policies in the Middle East. 
KARACHI: A top official of the Ittehad Tanzeematul Madaris-e-Deeniya Pakistan (ITMDP), a confederacy of five religious education boards running over 14,000 seminaries across Pakistan, said on Saturday that the government had agreed it would not pressure madressahs in the aftermath of the great London plot that was foiled by the UK authorities with active help from Islamabad. 
PARIS (AP) - France and Italy, along with predominantly Muslim Turkey and Malaysia, signaled willingness Saturday to send troops for a beefed-up U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, but consultations are still needed to hammer out the force's makeup and mandate. 
CRAWFORD - President George W. Bush told Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Saturday that he hopes a new UN resolution will dismantle what he called Hezbollahs state within a state in southern Lebanon. White House National Security spokesman Frederick Jones said Bush called Siniora and the two spoke for eight minutes about he resolution and their common efforts to bring about a cessation of hostilities.
MOSCOW - Russia said Saturday it expected all sides involved in the conflict in Lebanon to abide strictly by a new United Nations resolution calling for an end to the bloodshed. We expect all sides to abide strictly to the decision by the UN Security Council, the Russian foreign ministry said in a written statement.
