KABUL - A Taleban deadline for demands to be met to secure the release of a French aid worker and three locals kidnapped by the extremist group in Afghanistan is due to expire Saturday. The deadline is drawing closer every moment, Taleban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP Friday. The French government and the Afghan government not only have not accepted our demands, but they even have not tried to contact us.
The extremist group is demanding the withdrawal of French troops or the release of Taleban prisoners in exchange for Terre dEnfance (A World For Our Children) volunteer Eric Damfreville, and three Afghans working with him. A council of elders would decide on the fate of the four kidnapped colleagues, who were captured a month ago, if the demands were not met, Ahmadi said.
Asked if the abductees could be killed, Ahmadi said the groups policy was clear. The policy of the Taleban movement regarding the foreign hostages is clear: if our demands are not met, we will act based on our policy that we have implemented with foreigners so far.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Update:
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban extended its deadline for a deal for the release of a French hostage until after Sunday's French presidential election, as three suicide bombers attacked U.S. and Afghan forces in the south.
The Taliban leadership council had put off Saturday's deadline as a sign of mercy, Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by phone from an undisclosed location.
"We have extended it (the ultimatum) until the elections are over," Yousuf said.
From Geostrategy-Direct, subscription.
In the 1980s, oil-rich Arab leaders invested scores of billions of dollars in Europe and the United States. Today, some of these Gulf Arab leaders are using their record oil revenues to prepare nest eggs in Arab and Muslim states. BOP Bug Out Plan.
Simply put, Gulf Arab rulers are preparing insurance policies in case of an Iranian attack on their countries or an Al Qaida takeover. The Al Qaida plot to attack oil and military installations in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia disclosed last week appears to be only the tip of the iceberg.
Nest eggs require lots of money. Take the United Arab Emirates. The ruling family has become the leading investor in Morocco, with a total investment portfolio of $16 billion. The focus by the UAE ruling family? Real estate, of course. The UAE princes are buying a country within a country, taking over huge tracts of land, farms, housing and tourist sites. Sort of a huge gated community.
Morocco, with problems of its own, takes the money and stays quiet. UAE companies are expected to win more than $20 billion in projects in 2007 alone in Morocco, with real estate comprising more than $12 billion.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Gulf Arab rulers are preparing insurance policies in case of an Iranian attack on their countries or an Al Qaida takeover.
$ubscription? Hell why not, this is cutting edge stuff.
#2
The Dems had better wise up on Iraq. Only 15% of that country has been explored for fossil fuel resources. And discovered oil fields are the deepest pockets ever recorded. It is highly likely that Iraq holds more oil that the Arabian Peninsula. And Nancy Airhead and Obewannabewhite want pull-out.
#3
is there some remotely possible way to "Pull Out" of Congress?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/05/2007 10:21 Comments ||
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I hope that they are buying a lot in the USA. Invest in the USA and don't attack. I also read that the Iranian mullahs are some of the biggest luxury real estate owners in Toronto. Can anybody verify?
#5
YNET/HAARETZ/Other > JORDAN HAS URANIUM FOR NUKE TECHNOLOGY [Energy Reactor]. Officios say nation has 80,000 TONS in reserve + another 100,000 TONS?via local PHOSPHATE RESERVES. However, Jordan admits will need a lot of RDI to make workable. * Even vari Russian Media Commentator(s) admit that every 000-level of working centrifuges IRAN successfully operates, THE SHORTER THE LEAD TIME IRAN WILL HAVE TO PROCESS WEAPONS-GRADE MATERIALS FOR NUKE BOMBS-WARHEADS.
A high government official yesterday acknowledged that the seven JMB top terrorists who were awarded death sentence received loans from Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB). Nazrul Islam, a high official of BRDB under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD), revealed this fact while speaking as the chief guest in a discussion meeting of the BRDB field workers of Barisal division at Barisal Auditorium. Per head Tk 50 thousand was sanctioned as loan for the seven JMB terrorists as per orders of the higher authorities concerned, he said. He, however, declined to give any details about the time, place, method, and purpose of the loans disbursed.
At that time the recipients were too low profile to be recognised as top terrorists of the future, he said. Barisal Deputy Commissioner Manzure Elahi was special guest while Khalilur Rahman, deputy director of Barisal BRDB, delivered the welcome address at the programme presided over by BRDB Director General Abdus Sobhan.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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And you ain't getting any back.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/05/2007 10:42 Comments ||
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Today's KCNA Phrase That Pays: "strong arm". When you hear it, call 1-800-KIMMY and win a tree bark and fungus sandwich.
Pyongyang, May 3 (KCNA) -- The United States has carried matters with a high hand, wielding a strong arm like a conquering hero in the international arena, only to find itself forced to pay a high price for it, says Rodong Sinmun in an article Thursday.
Branding it as an anachronistic dream to attempt to bring other countries to their knees and dominate them by a strong arm, the author of the article continues:
The strong-arm policy of the U.S. is the root cause of the harassment of global peace and security and the uneasiness and horror of the people.
The policy of strength, the strong-arm policy, can never go down with the present-day international community in which all the countries and nations are shaping their destinies independently, as it is an anti-historic criminal act aimed to dampen the independent desire of the popular masses.
There were few rulers of the U.S. who did not launch a predatory war of aggression, but the Bush bellicose group, which came to power in the new century, is more outspoken than any other in pursuing the strong-arm policy.
This gives a serious lesson to humankind. It is that humankind can never have a good night's rest and a global peace and security are unthinkable with the U.S. imperialists left alone, those who are working hard to drive the world into horror and hold sway over it by a military strong-arm action. Even the U.S. allies which had been following its lead are cutting off ties with the Bush group, sounding a note of warning against its arbitrariness and strong-arm diplomacy, saying "a lasting peace cannot be ensured with military forces alone".
The failure of the U.S. strong-arm policy is found in the stark reality of the DPRK. The U.S. has in recent years persistently resorted to the strong-arm policy against the DPRK advancing under the uplifted banner of socialism, hating it as a thorn in the flesh.
The U.S. imperialists, however, mistook the Korean people. The Workers' Party of Korea and the Korean people have resolutely shattered the aggressive moves of the enemy under the uplifted banner of Songun and further strengthened the war deterrent.
In the reality of Korea, the world people clearly see the invincible might of Songun politics capable of shattering the enemy's strong-arm policy.
I won't debate the wisdom of this three-year (!) series of talks (a very very bad idea), but I will note that the Paleo playbook is already in use...set up three factions, two of which appear to agree while the third pouts, seethes, and has a tantrum.
Divisions among Muslims in Germany were evident Wednesday as community leaders and government officials took stock of the first seven months of talks on extending German legal privileges to include Islam. Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who is chairing the round-table "Islam Conference" expected to last three years, said progress had been made but confirmed there had been some strong disagreements. "We were all in agreement that this process is the right thing to do and that it is coming along," he said. "We have to put up with the arguments." He said Islam was now a part of German society.
Islamic leaders also welcomed the fact that both sides are talking. But a senior religious leader, German-born Ayyub Axel Koehler of the Council of Muslims, said the talks so far had been "disoriented."
Berlin summoned the conference amid fears that the integration of Muslims into German society has stopped and that disaffected, unemployed young Muslims may turn to Islamism or even terrorism. A recent domestic intelligence report said an Islamist counter-culture could establish itself in strongly Muslim parts of cities.
The meeting with Schaeuble was a review of the first seven months of negotiations in working parties on plans for Islam classes for Muslims in German public schools and mosque demands for legal rights similar to churches. No agreements have been reached yet. Groups representing an estimated 3.4 million German residents of Islamic heritage out of a population of 82 million have set out complaints about Germany including discrimination.
Divisions have emerged between religious Muslims and secularists who reject traditional rules on women's dress. Schaeuble chose 15 persons of Islamic heritage to speak on behalf of Muslims: five representing the mosques and the other 10 mostly from secular backgrounds. Schaeuble said the mosques could not be sole voice of Islam in Germany.
The government and secularists have rejected complaints by conservative Muslim families about girls wearing swimsuits in the presence of boys while being taught swimming at German schools. Schaeuble said it was the "rule" in Germany that girls and boys were educated in school together. He said he had heard the objections to mixed sports, adding, "We will continue to be talking about this."
While few details of the talks were disclosed, Ezhar Cezairli, a dentist representing a secularist Turkish group, told reporters there had been very sharp differences among the delegates on the Islamic side. "The majority of us are well-integrated," she said. Koehler, the German-born spokesman for the Muslim Coordination Committee representing four main mosque groups and the head of the Central Council of Muslims, was silent about the school-swimming issue. But he said the religious groups felt Schauble had belittled them in saying they only represented 10 to 15 per cent of Muslims.
He said of the conference: "We can't continue debating without an objective. We need a roadmap."
Ali Toprak, general secretary of the Alawite Community, praised the talks with Berlin as a success so far. But he said Germany still had to acquire a political culture of "mutual respect" with Muslims.
A further review meeting is to take place later this year.
#3
Allowing Islam as a part of your society is the beginning of the end of your society. What is needed is a conference on strict compliance to German law and heritage. A Euro conference is needed to establish a consensus to declare Islam a subversive political network. Then, reach consensus to bring it under control or export it. Germans should start resurrecting some of the secret Nazi films from the camps. These should be offered each evening as part of the newscast with the warning that drastic reforms have occurred in the past in German society.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh will be addressing a conference in Rotterdam via satellite connection on Saturday. The Hamas politician had been invited to attend the Palestinian European Conference but Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen decided not to grant him a visa because Hamas is regarded as a terrorist organisation by the EU. The Palestinian Platform for Human Rights and Solidarity announced on Friday that Haniyeh would be addressing the meeting via satellite. The Platform is organising the conference on the fate of Palestinian refugees.
The gathering will be held at the Doelen conference centre in Rotterdam. The organisation says that former Prime Minister Dries van Agt will also attend. The foreign ministry reported on Thursday that Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Ikrima Sabri has decided not to attend the conference. He apparently withdrew his application for a visa. MP for the Freedom Party PVV Geert Wilders had asked Minister Verhagen to refuse Sabri admittance to the Netherlands as well. Wilders says the Muslim cleric supports suicide attacks on Jews.
This article starring:
Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen
former Prime Minister Dries van Agt
Geert Wilders
IKRIMA SABRI
Learned Elders of Islam
ISMAIL HANIYEH
Hamas
Palestinian Platform for Human Rights and Solidarity
Democrats in America are evenly divided on the question of whether George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know, and 26% are not sure.
Just what I figured. 61 percent of dimicrats are idiots
Republicans reject that view and, by a 7-to-1 margin, say the President did not know in advance about the attacks. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 18% believe the President knew and 57% take the opposite view.
Overall, 22% of all voters believe the President knew about the attacks in advance. A slightly larger number, 29%, believe the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. White Americans are less likely than others to believe that either the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. Young Americans are more likely than their elders to believe the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance.
However, just 8% of voters say the CIA was Very Truthful before the War in Iraq. Another 33% believe the CIA was Somewhat Truthful. Most, 52%, believe the CIA was Not Very Truthful or Not at All Truthful before the War.
I'm not sure the CIA knows what truth looks like.
Still, 57% have a favorable opinion of the CIA. Thirty-six percent (36%) have an unfavorable view.
Former CIA Director George Tenet doesnt fare so well. He is viewed favorably by 29% of voters and unfavorably by 49%. Just 12% have followed news stories about Tenets new book Very Closely. Another 29% have followed the stories Somewhat Closely. Fifty-six percent (56%) have not been following the news stories about Tenet.
Only people inside the Beltway follow this stuff most of the time
Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2007 15:34 ||
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BDS writ large. This is simply dispicable.
White Americans are less likely than others to believe that either the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance.
As usual, The Man is down on the coloreds! American minorities, especially blacks, really need to get over their victim mentality and pull up their own socks. Bill Cosby's searing indictment of them was incredibly spot on.
That was used to justify Bush-bashing on the basis that Bush didn't act decisively enough to rush to protect the country from the 911 attacks.
So either the belief in the minds (used loosely) of these people is that president is an incompetent dullard or he is complicit in the 911 attacks because he knew about them and did nothing to prevent them. Not known for consistency in belief, the constant is BDS.
#5
22%. That's about the bottom level of 1) BDS, 2) support of Congress. 2) any Donk candidate who gets the nomination. This is the bottom line of party membership which will drink Koolaid. How many are willing to 'fight and die' is probably lower [though they are more than willing to expend others for their belief which means they're more than happy to take all of us with them], but they'll never ever give up their allegiance to the party above all others - country, community, heritage, etc.
#7
Did America get anything out of 9-11? There were huge economic losses as industries had to readadjust to a security based social system. The predominance of service sector enterprises, post 9-11, is a danger in itself. On every measure, in general Americans are worse off after September 11, 2001. If there was a grand conspiracy, someone would have bailed out of the scheme since disclosure would pay.
Perhaps a Commission study on conspiracy thinking might serve the public good. Of course, the "truther" weasels would include that scheme within their paranoid delusions.
#8
At first glance, the most amazing part of this is the number of Republican who profess these idiotic beliefs.
If they believe it, why the hell are they still Republicans?
A possible explanation for this is that Republican truthers tend to be concentrated in the fringe libertarian and extreme religious right elements, people who really have nowhere else to go politically.
At Free Republic, the mods will suppress overt truther propaganda, but the place is crawling with "stealth truthers," obtuse morons who desperately attempt to disrupt any string that addresses the issue.
If you check the profiles of these vermin, you will find one of two things: extreme Bible-thumping authoritarianism, or raw-meat "abolish public schools and legalize dope" libertarianism.
The detestable liar Alex Jones is by and large a libertarian, if his insane worldview can be said to have any relation to real-world politics at all.
Among the religious element, Creationist Whack-job and anti-democracy activist Kent Hovind (now in prison for tax fraud) was one of the first to publicly assert that the 9-11 attacks were staged by the US government.
(yeah, I know it's Wikipedia, but the article has a wealth of legitimate links).
I have a modest proposal for GOP leaders: Identify the truthers who are registered Republicans and expel them from the party.
Obviously, the RNC cannot change a voter's stated affiliation, but they can revoke a known truther's membership in RNC-affiliated organizations, and publicly rebuke them and refuse their contributions.
In short, the RNC can publicly do whatever is within their power to repudiate the truthers individually and they can call this process "expulsion."
This would show up the Democrats by doing something the Rodent leadership could never even consider.
#9
The corrosive cynicism engendered by pushing this baseless conspiracy theory is a huge asset to the Truthers and the rest of the radical Left. And since it is almost impossible to disprove a negative, they will continue to get a lot of mileage out of this and their "stolen elections" screed.
#11
I'm sure a big chunk of them also believe that there was a huge conspiracy involving thousands of people to kill Kennedy, and that FDR knew the Japanese were going to bomb Pearl Harbor and did nothing about it.
#13
Probably most, tu3031. And that if they close their eyes and meditate just right, they'll be levitating instead of bouncing in a half lotus on the piled mattresses.
#14
Those who believe the lunar expeditions were faked strike me as the most un-American of all. The level of willful ignorance required to both deny our technical supremacy and attribute such a perversion of reality to our government goes beyond rationality. Rest assured, the 9-11 truthers come a close second, but to intentionally desire that America be stripped of its crowning scientific achievement betrays a vicious and unreasoning hatred of our nation's well-deserved greatness.
The American National Rifle Association is urging the Bush administration to withdraw its support of a US bill that would prohibit suspected terrorists from buying firearms.
Oh, brilliant. Simply brilliant.
Backed by the Justice Department, the measure would give the attorney general the discretion to block gun sales, licenses or permits to terror suspects. In a letter this week to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, NRA executive director Chris Cox said the bill, offered last week by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, "would allow arbitrary denial of Second Amendment rights based on mere 'suspicions' of a terrorist threat."
Right. Just because Mahmoud's suspected of intending to slaughter his infidel neighbors, their little kids, and their puppies and kittens, that's no reason to deny him the tools with which to accomplish that goal.
"As many of our friends in law enforcement have rightly pointed out, the word 'suspect' has no legal meaning, particularly when it comes to denying constitutional liberties," Cox wrote.
Where do they get these people?
This article starring:
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
National Rifle Association
NRA executive director Chris Cox
Sen. Frank Lautenberg
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Has the NRA lost its fucking mind? All they need to do is push this one through and then have a terrorist equipped with American bought weapons do another Virginia Tech. You can say goodbye to your guns! Morons.
#2
Zen, both you and Cox have a point. Ideally, the bill would provide a clear definition of "supect".
That is, someone who has been convinced of terrorist related acivity in the past (even financial support of terrorist activity would do), or who is presently under investigation for such. I would expand the bill to cover religious/cult groups that espouse violence in their holy books, personally.
To profile or not to profile...
Profile, profile, profile!
But NRA is correct that the bill may serve as a pretext for a guns grab, as the term "suspect" can be pinned on almost anyone--with a bit of creative tweaking of the fuzzy definition.
#3
Anything Lautenberg is behind is anti-2nd amendment. You can count on that.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/05/2007 1:49 Comments ||
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#4
Strictly speaking, the NRA is right. Giving the government too much discretion in denying U.S. citizens a guaranteed constitutional right could serve to nullify the Second Amendment (not unlike how McCain-Feingold has served to undermine the First Amendment for an ostensibly "good" cause).
Perhaps this can best be handled with an appeals process which would force the government to provide evidence for its decision which meets a reasonable threshold.
#5
Yeah, you should remember that in a year there could be a Dimocrat in office. Half the country might be "suspects" if that would help them curtail gun sales.
#6
Think of President Clinton and her Atty Gen Edwards declaring that anyone listening to Limbaugh creates the climate of hate that allows McVeigh to commit his murder (which she actually did). Therefore they are all terror enablers and should be denied guns.
#7
The NRA is dead right on this one, You can't be denied your rights if only a "Suspect" only upon conviction for a felony.
It's "Backdoor" Gun Control, trying to get around the bill of rights by denying "Suspects" their rights.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/05/2007 10:33 Comments ||
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#8
The NRA is absolutely right here. The MSM is once again using the threat of terrorists to enable a servere weakening in the Second Ammendment. Remember all the hoopla of "Terrorists buying assault rifles and sniper rifles at gun shows so therefore we need to ban gun shows"? According to the anti-gun people anyone who owns a firearm is either a terrorist-in-waiting, is mentally unstable, or is just itching for the chance to gun some innocent person down. We are already suspects. There is too much chance for abuse of something this broad. What other Constitutional Rights are denied "suspects"?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/05/2007 10:46 Comments ||
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So many unanswered questions here.
First of all, why would the Attorney General want "a national terrorist suspect database" to be established? Does it not seem that would help the terrorists determine whose cover had been blown and whose had not?
Second of all, can a non-citizen legally purchase a gun? What about foreign visitors? Foreign visitors on a student visa?
Yes, we don't want terrorists and crazy people to be able to legally buy guns. But it just seems to me that a true "terrorist", supported by a true "terrorist organization" would not have that much trouble getting his hands on an illegal gun no matter where he was in the world.
This should be a serious discussion about limiting gun sales to specific individuals that pose a TRUE danger to society. This kind of reporting on the issue just assures that no serious discussion will take place. It puts us all in danger.
#11
Backed by the Justice Department, the measure would give the attorney general the discretion to block gun sales, licenses or permits to terror suspects.
I don't really want to see an individual deprived of rights unless by due process. "Suspects" is a vague term that can mean just about anyone deemed so by the Justice Department. Safeguards have to be built into any such bills. One has to wonder why the bill is even necessary with all the firearms related legislation we presently have. Presently, non-citizens can purchase firearms if they meet certain requirements.
#12
I can see both sides' points, but the gummint can hassle a person as a suspect forever, denying him or her of rights for years. This idea is subject to real abuse, espec with a dem administration.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/05/2007 13:50 Comments ||
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#13
This is why I enjoy Rantburg so much. Based on the posts here I've had to reconsider this. Our government's adamant refusal to correctly profile Muslims at airport security checks pretty much assures that its own definition of terrorist "suspect" will be far too vague and easily spill over into unfair denial of 2nd amendment rights. If a well-established set of specific criteria is not forthcoming in how to identify real "suspects", then I may have to agree with the NRA.
As it stands with profiling consistently being disallowed I'm forced to agree with the NRA on this. Our 2nd amendment rights are far too critical to allow nebulously defined government policy to intrude upon them. And, yes, the democrats could have a field day with this compared to the republicans.
Oh and my grazer that can shoot right through the earth
Somebody reads David Brin! (One of my favorite authors.) "Kiln People" really, really, needs to be made into a movie.
#15
If this database is the same one the TSA uses for airline security, and I'll bet it is, you can be placed on it simply by knowing someone who knows someone who lives next to a guy they think might be linked to something. And there is no way to get off it once you are on it.
First, prove they are guilty, then take away their rights.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2007 16:02 Comments ||
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#16
Here is a story in the Washington Post about the terrorist database. I'll just grab a few tidbits.
Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years
Each day, thousands of pieces of intelligence information from around the world -- field reports, captured documents, news from foreign allies and sometimes idle gossip -- arrive in a computer-filled office in McLean, where analysts feed them into the nation's central list of terrorists and terrorism suspects. Called TIDE, for Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, the list is a storehouse for data about individuals that the intelligence community believes might harm the United States. It is the wellspring for watch lists distributed to airlines, law enforcement, border posts and U.S. consulates, created to close one of the key intelligence gaps revealed after Sept. 11, 2001: the failure of federal agencies to share what they knew about al-Qaeda operatives.
But in addressing one problem, TIDE has spawned others. Ballooning from fewer than 100,000 files in 2003 to about 435,000, the growing database threatens to overwhelm the people who manage it. "The single biggest worry that I have is long-term quality control," said Russ Travers, in charge of TIDE at the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean. "Where am I going to be, where is my successor going to be, five years down the road?" TIDE has also created concerns about secrecy, errors and privacy. The list marks the first time foreigners and U.S. citizens are combined in an intelligence database. The bar for inclusion is low, and once someone is on the list, it is virtually impossible to get off it. At any stage, the process can lead to "horror stories" of mixed-up names and unconfirmed information, Travers acknowledged.
The watch lists fed by TIDE, used to monitor everyone entering the country or having even a casual encounter with federal, state and local law enforcement, have a higher bar. But they have become a source of irritation -- and potentially more serious consequences -- for many U.S. citizens and visitors.
In 2004 and 2005, misidentifications accounted for about half of the tens of thousands of times a traveler's name triggered a watch-list hit, the Government Accountability Office reported in September. Congressional committees have criticized the process, some charging that it collects too much information about Americans, others saying it is ineffective against terrorists. Civil rights and privacy groups have called for increased transparency. "How many are on the lists, how are they compiled, how is the information used, how do they verify it?" asked Lillie Coney, associate director of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. Such information is classified, and individuals barred from traveling are not told why.
TIDE is a vacuum cleaner for both proven and unproven information, and its managers disclaim responsibility for how other agencies use the data. "What's the alternative?" Travers said. "I work under the assumption that we're never going to have perfect information -- fingerprints, DNA -- on 6 billion people across the planet. . . . If someone actually has a better idea, I'm all ears."
Every night at 10, TIDE dumps an unclassified version of that day's harvest -- names, dates of birth, countries of origin and passport information -- into a database belonging to the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center. TIDE's most sensitive information is not included. The FBI adds data about U.S. suspects with no international ties for a combined daily total of 1,000 to 1,500 new names. Between 5 and 6 a.m., a shift of 24 analysts drawn from the agencies that use watch lists begins a new winnowing process at the center's Crystal City office. The analysts have access to case files at TIDE and the original intelligence sources, said the center's acting director, Rick Kopel.
Decisions on what to add to the Terrorist Screening Center master list are made by midafternoon. The bar is higher than TIDE's; total listings were about 235,000 names as of last fall, according to Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. The bar is then raised again as agencies decide which names to put on their own watch lists: the Transportation Security Administration's "no-fly" and "selectee" lists for airlines; Consular Lookout and Support System at the State Department; the Interagency Border and Inspection System at the Department of Homeland Security; and the Justice Department's National Crime Information Center. The criteria each agency use are classified, Kopel said.
TSA receives thousands of complaints each year, such as this one released to the Electronic Privacy Information Center in 2004 under the Freedom of Information Act: "Apparently, my name is on some watch list because everytime I fly, I get delayed while the airline personnel call what they say is TSA," wrote a passenger whose name was blacked out. Noting that he was a high-level federal worker, he asked what he could do to remove his name from the list. The answer, Kopel said, is little. A unit at the screening center responds to complaints, he said, but will not remove a name if it is shared by a terrorism suspect. Instead, people not on the list who share a name with someone listed can be issued letters instructing airline personnel to check with the TSA to verify their identity. The GAO reported that 31 names were removed in 2005.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2007 16:16 Comments ||
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#17
The previous post completely validates my reconsideration of this issue.
#18
No way in hell I want the government, state federal or local, depriving me or anyone else of our most fundamental right on the basis of mere "suspicion". And I *ESPECIALLY* don't want a bunch of liberals making decisions on who is "suspicious", or why.
If you're concerned about guns possibly being in the hands of terrorists, then make sure plenty of guns are also in the hands of NON-terrorists, and non-terrorists are trained to use them effectively and responsibly.
#21
So -er- who decides who is a terrorist? The administration? Homeland [in]security? the TSA? Congress? Some bureaucrat in Washington DC or in your local FBI office?
Hell they refuse to even profile and possible terrorists can get a 'free' pass only because they already examined 4 muslims today.
Not to mention that this may be the first step on a slippery slide.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2007 20:38 Comments ||
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#23
I love Brin. Uplift Wars was great, whole series was great. Gamma Ray Lasers.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/05/2007 20:42 Comments ||
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#24
Brin, great SF writer, pro-collectivist moonbat.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
05/05/2007 21:57 Comments ||
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#25
#13 remember what kind of garbage "The Postman" was made into?
Never saw the movie. Even Brin declares it to be the worst ever.
I love Brin. Uplift Wars was great, whole series was great.
The second Uplift trilogy trowled it on pretty thick. A lot of it was ancillary social fabrications that did little to advance the plot. The sole standout in the entire series was The Fractal World. That one was a breathtaking stroke of imagination. The rest of it required hip-waders. Regardless, Brin's brand of hard sci-fi writing remains pretty well unexcelled.
Senior House Republicans are complaining about Democrats' plans to divert "scarce" intelligence funds to study global warming. The House next week will consider the Democrat-crafted Intelligence Authorization bill, which includes a provision directing an assessment of the effects that climate change has on national security.
"Our job is to steal secrets," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. "There are all kinds of people analyzing global warming, the Democrats even have a special committee on this," he told The Washington Times. "There's no value added by the intelligence community here; they have no special expertise, and this takes money and resources away from other threats."
Democrats, who outnumber Republicans on the committee, blocked the minority from stripping the warming language from the bill. Intelligence panel Chairman Silvestre Reyes, Texas Democrat, said the climate-change study is one of several shifts his party has made to intelligence policy. "We're concerned that global warming might impact our ability to maintain national security," he told The Times, describing the idea as "cutting edge."
Wonder what Slick would say if the intel brief came back as, "there's no national security threat due to global warming as there's no such thing as global warming"?
"We want to get feedback from the intelligence community to understand if there are possible global issues," Mr. Reyes said, noting the change was on the advice of "several former military commanders."
The panel voted 11-9 to keep the provision that directs a National Intelligence Estimate "on the anticipated geopolitical effects of global climate change and the implications of such effects on the national security of the United States," according to a Republican staffer familiar with the bill.
The study, which so far has an undetermined cost, would examine the science of climate change, among other things. Few details about its method were available, but the staffer said it would "divert already scarce resources to study the climate." The staffer added that the U.S. already tried using intelligence resources for this purpose in the 1990s. "There are other parts of the government better suited to doing this type of study," agreed Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican. "Our government should not commit expensive spy satellites and human intelligence sources to target something as undefined as the environment."
Several Republicans trotted out the statistic that the government already spends $6.5 billion annually on global-warming related issues through several agencies, including NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. But Mr. Reyes said the provision "makes sense" because of the growing international concern over climate change. "We think it's time," he said.
Republicans were critical yesterday after The Times first reported the provision on its Web site. "It's hard to imagine how anyone could believe that climate change represents a more clear and present danger to the United States than radical Islamic terrorists armed with bombs, but that's essentially what Democrats have concluded in this bill," said Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.
The House is expected to vote Wednesday or Thursday on the overall authorization measure, which identifies how intelligence appropriations can be spent in 2008. It is not clear whether Democrats will allow Republicans to offer amendments to the bill.
Last year, the Republican-controlled Senate failed to pass its Intelligence Authorization bill.
Mr. Reyes lauded his panel's work on the bill, noting that it will lead to "stronger, better intelligence," especially by adding money for human intelligence training and for sending analysts abroad. For the first time, the bill will fund a "baseline" for intelligence activities related to terrorism and Iraq, he said. He also said it will strengthen counterintelligence, enhance oversight and eliminate wasteful spending.
The completed bill, mostly considered behind closed doors because it includes sensitive information, passed the committee on a voice vote after a more-than-eight-hour markup session. Observers characterized the hearing as "chaotic and contentious."
They will move it around so much that they drop it in the long run. Maybe this commitment could be fufilled AFTER they find all the people destroying the world currently. Mother Nature can wait, she is very patient.
It's not just in NWFP. All over Pakistan now, women fear the vice vigilantes
Just the other day Tahera Abdullah was driving down the spiffy Margalla Road in Islamabad, the windows rolled down to enjoy the evening breeze. A development worker, her silvery hair could tell anyone she's 50 plus. Tahera stopped at the traffic signal; an eight-year-old boy accosted her: didn't she know Islam required her to cover her head? Tahera immediately rolled up the window. "How do you argue with an eight-year-old?" she asks. But the encounter with Pakistan's religious extremism, at once frightening and puerile, has prompted Tahera to choose sweating inside the car over letting in the breeze. "We women are feeling more threatened today," she says.
The streets of Islamabad are menacing women, compelling them to be what they are not, what they have never been. Consultant Sara Javeed realised this when she lit a cigarette in her car recently. "I quickly stubbed it. I don't want strangers asking me why I'm smoking. This is the new me," she says dolefully. Sara feels the emerging extremism could Talibanise Pakistan. "I don't want to live in such a state," she declares.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: John Frum ||
05/05/2007 08:44 ||
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These are the leftards greatest allies. If they have their way, we will retreat into a new dark age with electrical power restricted to the homes of the Al Gore elite and a knife to the neck to anyone eating red meat or smoking cigarettes or "objectifying" women.
#2
"We women are feeling more threatened today," she says.
Get a clue. Sharia has always been a threat to women. It will continue to be one until the day Islam is finally recognized as the massive violation of human rights that it always has been.
Pakistan's obsession with religious purity is emblematic of how dysfunctional Islam always has been. Churchill's desription of Islam as a "retrograde" force could not have been more accurate. The outside world must finally confront the fact that, unrestrained, Muslims will try and defeat nearly a millennia of civilized progress. Should stopping such a defeat require the loss of every Muslim life on earth, it would be a small price to pay for halting any such descent into barbarity.
Lal Masjids chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz on Friday warned intelligence agencies against kidnapping his madrassa students. If intelligence agencies continue to kidnap our students, we will start to kidnap their personnel. The kidnapped personnel will be kept on Lal Masjid premises, Aziz told the Friday prayers congregation at Lal Masjid. He would not tell the devotees how many of his madrassa students had already been nabbed.
Aziz said the agencies picked up people, including women, and tortured them before handing them over to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Aziz said the agencies picked up people, including women, and tortured them before handing them over to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. The cleric claimed the closure of many brothels in Islamabad due to the mass movement of the moral-brigade of Jamia Hafsa, without elaborating on it. He defended the encroachment on government land by Jamia Hafsa, saying, when brothels are declared legal in the city, protesting over the encroachment of a few inches by a madrassa is unwarranted. He said holding talks with the government did not mean that Lal Masjid had abandoned its Sharia demand. We dont demand theocracy, but an Islamic government, he said.
This article starring:
MAULANA ABDUL AZIZ
Lal Masjid
Jamia Hafsa
Lal Masjid
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Grab his tits before t(h)at
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/05/2007 1:50 Comments ||
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#2
Grab him, pull out his beard, one long hair at a time. Continue until he's clean-shaven, take pictures of him as a non-holy person
(Clean shaven) Tell him that the next time he opens his mouth the hairs will all be re-implanted, with an icepick, again one at a time.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/05/2007 10:50 Comments ||
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#3
I call dibs on the hat.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/05/2007 10:53 Comments ||
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#4
Aziz also claimed that it was Bush's fault he was so overtly stupid, but did not elaborate.
In Pak, they consider sectarian slaughter to be the promotion of Islam.
Islam is a religion of peace and abhors terrorism, said Khan, while talking to a 65-member delegation of the Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, led by Moulana Shahabuddin Madni, here at the Prime Minister House on Friday. We will solve the Kashmir issue peacefully by ensuring implementation of the proposals put forward by President General Pervez Musharraf, said Khan.
"And then we'll kill all the infidels."
He lauded the leading role of former Prime Minister and President Sardar Abdul Qayyum in Kashmirs independence movement.
Moulana Shahabuddin hoped the recent visit of Sardar Abdul Qayyum would yield positive results for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. He pledged his full support to Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, and said he fully supported the peace process between Pakistan and India, and believed that the Kashmir issue must be solved through negotiations.
This article starring:
MULANA SHAHABUDIN MADNI
Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith
Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmad Khan
Sardar Abdul Qayyum
Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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best graphic on the 'burg.
Just IMHO, of course
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2007 10:44 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The latest Pentagon survey assessing the mental health of troops in Iraq found one-third of soldiers and Marines in high levels of combat report anxiety, depression and acute stress.
The survey also dealt with ethical attitudes on the battlefield. A key finding was that more than a third of soldiers and Marines reported that torture should be allowed to save the life of a comrade. Fewer than half of the U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq would report a comrade for unethical behavior, according to the results of the survey by the Defense Department's Mental Health Advisory Team.
The survey of more than 1,300 soldiers and nearly 450 Marines was conducted last year. It was the fourth in a series of surveys on troops' mental health but the first to include Marines and the first to look at ethics in Iraq. (Read the report)
While fewer than half of the troops agreed that "all noncombatants should be treated with dignity and respect," a quarter of those surveyed said, "I would risk my own safety to save a noncombatant in danger." When mistreatment of noncombatants was reported, the most common behavior was cursing or verbal insults (28 percent of soldiers and 30 percent of Marines). Physical abuse was reported by 4 percent of soldiers and 7 percent of Marines.
The survey found the death of a team member led to an increase in ethics violations.
Soldiers who deployed more than six months or multiple times were more likely to screen positive for a mental health issue, the survey found. "Effective small unit leadership" -- or when officers closest to the troops did a good job -- promoted better mental health, according to the survey.
Results concerning combat stress in the latest survey were similar to those from a more extensive study of veterans who sought care from the Department of Veterans Affairs after returning from combat in Iraq or Afghanistan. In that study, published in the March 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine (abstract here) and carried out by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 31 percent of more than 100,000 veterans studied were diagnosed with mental or psychological problems.
Post-traumatic stress disorder was the most common condition reported, affecting 13 percent of all Iraq or Afghanistan veterans who sought VA services, according to the study. That's slightly less than the 15.2 percent tallied for veterans of the Vietnam War, but far above the 3.5 percent reported in the general population.
#4
STUDY > Much ado about nothing. Grunts are given ROES like anyone else, including how to treat possible = known suspects, and swear for various reasons not the least of which is stress relief. E.g BAND OF BROTHERS > To truly or properly function as a soldier, one must give up all hope and start thinking he's a DEAD MAN already. IOW, COMBAT > THE LIVING MUST VIEW AND TREAT THEMSELVES = OTHERS? AS DEAD, IN ORDER TO FIGHT AND LIVE, EVERY DAY, EVERY TIME UNTIL "IT ENDS".
A source close to ineffectual Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas denied on Friday that Abbas had threatened to resign and call new elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council and the presidency. The source added that during a meeting of Fatah's central committee, Abbas had expressed his support for the PA unity government and called on the international community to remove the embargo on the PA, Israel Radio reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government continued self-destructing came under renewed threat on Friday when members of the left-leaning Labour party threatened to withdraw from the coalition following a scathing Lebanon war inquiry.
Labour, in the midst of its own power struggle, is the largest partner in Olmert's coalition government and its withdrawal could force new elections. Israel's next general election is not due until 2010. The head of Labour, Defence Minister Amir Peretz, is considering stepping down from his post in response to the Lebanon war report.
Increasingly unpopular within his own party, Peretz could be forced out when Labour holds internal elections on May 28.
Increasingly unpopular within his own party, he could be forced out when Labour holds internal elections on May 28. Israel's Haaretz newspaper quoted Olmert's aides as saying they were concerned that members of Labour would opt for self-preservation push to end their coalition partnership with his centrist Kadima party in order to form a new government.
Some coalition members have suggested that they would stick by Olmert because they might lose significant parliamentary clout if fresh elections were held now. Olmert's approval ratings have plummeted into the single digits and his deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, this week joined calls for his removal. Labour party member Ofir Pines and several other Labour leaders said that Olmert must go, even if it means early elections. "We will make an effort to build a new coalition and a new government. If we won't be able to do so, we will have to have early elections," Pines told Reuters. "It is not the best option but it's a better option than to stay with the present government."
Danny Yatom, also a candidate for Labour party leadership, said that as long
As long as Labour stays in the coalition, it gives legitimacy to a government that has lost the support of the Israeli people.
as Labour stays in the coalition, it gives legitimacy to a government that has lost the support of the Israeli people. "I will try to convince my friends in the faction and in the central committee to withdraw from the coalition and finally I hope that after such a big demonstration, they will be convinced," Yatom said.
Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Friday that he had no intention of resigning despite a mass rally that called on him to step down over a scathing Lebanon war report. "The prime minister does not intend to resign, these are speculations," Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin told AFP.
"The prime minister listens attentively to everything that happens and is trying to react in the best interests of the state of Israel."
"The prime minister listens attentively to everything that happens and is trying to react in the best interests of the state of Israel," she said.
Late Thursday between 150,000 and 200,000 demonstrators, according to police and organiser estimates, gathered in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square calling on Olmert to quit after a government inquiry blasted him for serious failure during last year's war against Lebanon's Hezbollah. It was the first mass demonstration calling for Olmert's ouster since the report was published on Monday.
This article starring:
Danny Yatom
Defence Minister Amir Peretz
Ehud Olmert
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni
Ofir Pines
Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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"The prime minister listens attentively to everything that happens and is trying to react in the best interests of the state of Israel."
Ineffectual President Mahmoud Abbas told allies on Thursday he might resign in two months if Western sanctions on the Palestinian government were not lifted, a senior official said on Friday.
The comment may increase pressure on Western powers keen to bolster Abbas at the expense of the Hamas Islamist party that won an election last year and leads the Palestinian government. Abbas toured European and Arab capitals last month in a bid to ease an aid embargo and other economic sanctions imposed in response to Hamas's refusal to renounce violence or recognise Israel. "In the next two months, if the siege is not lifted, then Abu Mazen may resign," the official, a leading figure in Abbas's secular Fatah faction, told Reuters. Abbas's office had no immediate comment.
Abbas, popularly known as Abu Mazen, made the remark at a meeting of senior Fatah officials on Thursday. It is unclear whether resigning is a serious option under consideration by Abbas or merely a negotiating gambit. Resignation could trigger an election which many fear could turn into a bloody showdown between Hamas and Fatah militants. Abbas hoped to ease factional fighting and persuade Western nations and Israel to end sanctions that have crippled the Palestinian economy by forming a unity coalition government in March, including Fatah ministers under Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. The embargo, however, goes on.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Resignation could trigger an election which many fear could turn into a bloody showdown between Hamas and Fatah militants.
We gotta wait for this for two months?
Mahmoud, you're such a tease....
#3
Thank God, A "Withdrawal Timetable" I agree with.
Bye Bye Asshole.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/05/2007 10:41 Comments ||
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#4
hmmmm - they all know what it would take to end the sanctions - it's been crystal clear for a LONG time, but are unwilling to do it. Holding your breath and stamping your impotent little feet won't do it, asshole
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2007 10:44 Comments ||
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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem Thursday during a regional conference in Sharm e-Sheikh in the first high-level talks between the two countries in years.
Government sources in Jerusalem said there was nothing in the talks that needed to concern Jerusalem. According to these officials, the reason for the talks was the legitimate US concern over Iraq, and Israel doesn't see anything negative in the US wanting to talk about issues like Iraq and Islamic radicalism with Syria. Asked if there was any concern that the US would be open to paying for Syrian cooperation on Iraq in Israeli currency, one senior official said, "Not this US administration."
But the official admitted that the meeting did represent a change in US policy, which for the last few years had been to isolate Damascus. The official said Israel was "not taken by surprise" by the meeting. "They tried to ostracize Damascus, and that didn't work," the official said. "So now they are meeting, but this does not represent negotiations."
The official said the meeting would not change Israel's position toward talks with Syria, which is that there was no reason in entering negotiations with Syria until Damascus stopped actively supporting Hamas and Hizbullah, and kicked out the terrorist organization headquarters - including those of Hamas - based in Damascus.
A US military spokesman in Baghdad said ahead of the Rice-Muallem meeting that Syria had taken action on stemming the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq - a chief demand of the United States. "There has been some movement by the Syrians," Maj.-Gen. William Caldwell told a news conference. "There has been a reduction in the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq" for more than a month.
The Bush administration has shunned Syria, accusing it of fueling tensions in Iraq and Lebanon. It sharply criticized a visit to Damascus last month by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But the White House has been under pressure to open dialogue with Syria and Iran.
Still, a substantive US-Iran meeting appeared less certain. The Iraqi government is pressing for Rice and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to hold talks during the gathering, saying Washington's conflict with Teheran is only fueling the instability in Iraq. Rice and Mottaki "exchanged pleasantries" over lunch, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said. "They said hello, that's about it," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Both the US and Iran had also spoken favorably of a possible meeting, but the chances for that remained unclear, and neither side had commented publicly on any immediate arrangements. Rice and Muallem were seen by journalists entering bilateral talks on the sidelines of Thursday's conference. Earlier, Muallem had confirmed the two would meet, and a senior US State Department official said they would discuss "Iraqi security issues."
Baghdad and the US hope Thursday's and Friday's conference of nearly 50 nations will rally strong international support - particularly from Arab nations - for an ambitious plan to stabilize war-torn Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki opened the conference by urging all countries to forgive his country's enormous foreign debts - estimated at approximately $50 billion. Another $100b. has already been written off by the Paris Club of lender nations. But Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal made no immediate public pledge, saying only that his country was in talks with Iraq and would consider such forgiveness.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Asked if there was any concern that the US would be open to paying for Syrian cooperation on Iraq in Israeli currency, one senior official said, "Not this US administration."
#2
JERSUALEM POST [JPOST.com] > Columnist Commens THE FRUIT OF HIZBULLAH's VOCTORY PART ONE > Author believes Condi Rice trying to forge a PC/PDeniable "surrender date" of Iraq over to US nemeses IRAN + SYRIA. Dare ISRAEL + ME democracy be next on the surrender list?
Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami met with Pope Benedict XVI for talks the Vatican hoped would help heal tensions left from the pope's remarks on Islam and violence, but the Iranian said the wounds were still very deep.
Khatami, a reformist in power from 1997 to 2005, had been scheduled to meet with Benedict in October but the meeting was canceled. No reason was given, but it was just weeks after Benedict's speech in Germany about Islam touched off protests across the Muslim world.
On Friday, the two men spoke about the importance of "a serene dialogue between cultures intended to overcome the grave tensions that mark our times," the Vatican said in a statement after Khatami's 30-minute meeting with Benedict.
But visiting a Catholic university in Rome before going into the talks, Khatami said that "unfortunately the wounds of this world are very deep and they cannot be healed easily and a single meeting may not be enough," the ANSA news agency quoted him as responding to a question about Benedict's speech.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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the Iranian said the wounds were still very deep.
The truth cuts deeply, Khatami. That's why you're hurting. And it will keep hurting until you face the truth. That all your rage and violence is sublimated shame. Shame at the pitiful, failed and insane cult of death that is Islam. Staring into a mirror of horrors, Khatimi is "wounded" by the truth.
#2
Displacement and transferrence of blame are some of Islam's most powerful weapons. As a previous president of Iran, Khatami is a past master at such deception. With its perverted sense of purity, Islam furiously casts the first stone in all directions even as it lives in a glass house of monumental proportions. It is time for the West to return the favor.
Under fire for stalling a 130-nation nuclear meeting, Iran on Friday accused the US of being the real culprit, as the conference adjourned for the weekend in deep deadlock over Teheran's opposition to language of the gathering's agenda. With the dispute in its fifth day, several non-Iranian diplomats at the conference said it could be dissolved without progress by Monday unless differences were resolved. At issue is Teheran's refusal to accept a phrase calling for the "need for full compliance with" the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
That position has delayed adoption of the agenda since the conference opened Monday. Teheran argues the language could lead it to become a target at the meeting because of its refusal to heed UN Security Council demands to cease uranium enrichment and other parts of its nuclear program that could be misused to make nuclear weapons. "If I reduce it to a simple sentence, it's this: The Iranians are blocking things," said a senior European diplomat.
But Iran's chief delegate to the meeting said Washington was to blame, accusing it of manipulating the meeting's chairman to work against Teheran. "I'm sure the United States is hiding behind and pushing him," said Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, referring to conference chairman Yukiya Amano of Japan, in comments to reporters outside the meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2007 00:00 ||
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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.
KABUL - A Taleban deadline for demands to be met to secure the release of a French aid worker and three locals kidnapped by the extremist group in Afghanistan is due to expire Saturday. The deadline is drawing closer every moment, Taleban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP Friday. The French government and the Afghan government not only have not accepted our demands, but they even have not tried to contact us.
The American 
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 
A source close to 
Israeli Prime Minister 
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem Thursday during a regional conference in Sharm e-Sheikh in the first high-level talks between the two countries in years. 
Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami met with Pope Benedict XVI for talks the Vatican hoped would help heal tensions left from the pope's remarks on Islam and violence, but the Iranian said the wounds were still very deep. 
Under fire for stalling a 130-nation nuclear meeting, Iran on Friday accused the US of being the real culprit, as the conference adjourned for the weekend in deep deadlock over Teheran's opposition to language of the gathering's agenda. With the dispute in its fifth day, several non-Iranian diplomats at the conference said it could be dissolved without progress by Monday unless differences were resolved. At issue is Teheran's refusal to accept a phrase calling for the "need for full compliance with" the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. 
