A U.S. soldier kidnapped by the Taliban is at the center of an escalating controversy about how he came to be captured - an event that could be a propaganda bonanza for the insurgents. I'm not the only one who caught the smell of aged mackerel, huh?
The Pentagon declined to comment on allegations that Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl left his post unarmed on June 30 before his capture in eastern Afghanistan. Reports said he strolled off base in the company of three locals. He left his weapon behind. He said on the vid that he'd fallen behind while on patrol -- which simply doesn't happen -- and was snagged.
"All I can tell you is, the conditions surrounding his capture are under investigation," spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Wright told The Washington Times. "Its not wise at this point to reach conclusions prior to the investigation being completed." I was just reading a story the other day on that dipwad who deserted his unit to North Korea in 1965 or thereabouts. Maybe this isn't another chapter of that story, but that means one of the sets of facts presented is 99 44/100 percent hooey.
Military blogger Matthew Burden, who runs the BlackFive Web site, told The Times that the soldier "walked off [his base] with a water bottle and [a military ration pack] on some kind of he-man expedition." He said he received this information from a contact involved in the massive manhunt the military has launched and confirmed it with two other sources. I used to hang around the O Club, too. Some of the stories I heard were true. Most of the ones with that extra twist of inside information weren't. Fox News military analyst retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters sparked a firestorm of controversy last weekend when he called Pfc. Bergdahl a "deserter," adding that if that were the case, "the Taliban can save us a lot of legal hassles and legal bills" by killing him. Even if the "he-man expedition" story's true, that still makes him a deserter. He wasn't ordered on a he-man expedition.
Outraged lawmakers of both parties wrote to Fox News demanding an apology for the comments. They were shocked, y'see. Shocked!
The 23 House members, all U.S. military veterans, wrote that they watched the comments "with incredulity and disgust," adding that Mr. Peters view was "was repulsive and deserves to be repudiated by your news organization." The Republican signatories include Reps. Darrell Issa and Duncan Hunter, both from California. I kinda expected that reaction. I heard Peters' remarks and I thought they were on target. They're not complaining about the accuracy, but because somebody's feelings were hurt.
Mr. Peters told The Times Thursday that he regretted his remarks. "I unquestionably over-spoke in the heat of the moment," he said. "I hope Pfc. Bergdahl comes home safely for the sake of his family, and so he can face military judicial proceedings." He'd better come up with a lot better story than he told on the vid. And get rid of the beard.
Mr. Peters added that he had been angered by what he called the news medias "lionization" of Pfc. Bergdahl. "Nothing will make me back down from my conviction that Pfc. Bergdahl does not deserve to be made a hero." He's either a deserter or a dipshit, take your pick. Neither is a hero.
A Fox News spokeswoman, who asked that her name not be used, said the network had not received the letter. "Until we actually receive an official communication, it ain't been communicated..."
Analysts say the controversy underlines the degree to which the soldiers fate is becoming a media spectacle, which could have profound implications for the way U.S.-led military operations are perceived in Afghanistan and around the world. Actually, there hasn't been all that much foofaraw about it. Domestic politix overshadows all. But what is there appears deserved. I can't think of any other U.S. troops who've deserted in Afghanistan.
"Terrorism has always been theater," said former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss. Except that we don't appear to be talking about terrorism, do we?
Pfc. Bergdahl appeared, earlier this week, in a video released by his Taliban captors, saying he was their guest and being well-treated. He said Americans were being misinformed by their leaders about the situation in Afghanistan and urged them to demand the withdrawal of the U.S. military. That ain't gonna help his case except maybe with Ramsey Clark...
Mr. Voss, who now works for Insite, a New York-based security consulting firm, said the audience for the video was "people in the region and beyond trying to decide whose side theyre on" in the fighting between Taliban insurgents and the U.S.-led international coalition. "Already you are seeing people saying this guy is being better treated than [U.S.-held] detainees at Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib ... If the U.S. government remains silent, those observations will stand." Regardless of how he's actually being treated, I'll betcha they keep saying that right up until they chop the boy's head off. Then they'll drop the subject.
Mr. Voss said the video was "very well orchestrated ... they are feeding him, there is nothing threatening visible. They have put a lot of thought into this. Tthe Taliban propaganda effort was "increasingly sophisticated, they are learning."
"The Taliban do information operations better than anyone, certainly better than us," said Mr. Burden. Meanwhile, the U.S. "military is focused on one thing and that is getting him back."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
This is becoming more and more likely a case of desertion due to stupidity and naivete. NOBODY falls so far behind his patrol that he gets captured like that, and especially not without a struggle.
#2
i dunno, maybe he fell about 2 days behind his patrol... so far behind that he was ahead of them... so he went out with the locals to find a jinn so he could be the hero. Somebody has to do it, cause the rainbow fairies that 0bama promised haven't showed up yet.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
07/25/2009 8:34 Comments ||
Top||
#3
hmmm. You'd think he might have wanted to take his weapon and armor out on that "patrol"?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2009 10:04 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Lets get him back, sort out the details. Deserter or just stupid, he's still an American soldier. If he is a deserter he would not be a hostage but if he is, when he gets back he can do the long course at Leavenworth. Until then, he's an American soldier that needs to be repatriated.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/25/2009 11:22 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I still wonder if he went off on his own, or if he had a knife against his ribs. The "three Afghan 'friends'" may have been the original kidnappers. We won't know until(or if) we get him back, and he can tell us. Kinda hard to do that without a head, though.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/25/2009 15:29 Comments ||
Top||
#6
no telling, but the "patrol" story doesn't work. Hope he gets back alive and in one piece, regardless
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2009 15:32 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Whether Pfc Bergdahl was seduced into a he-man expedition, went a-visiting with what he thought were friends, deserted to the enemy, or indeed left with a knife/gun pressed to his ribs, awaits further evidence to determine. Certainly he calmly stated what his unit knowns not to be true, and which he must know they know, so we can hope he is thus trying to communicate with those watching the video his captors made.
#9
It's the principle, Nimble. You get your own back, regardless of what you think his character is, or what you may think the reasons were. Once you start setting conditions, it's over.
And it's 'Gold Star', by the way. Red Star is either a brand of yeast, or a communist. Take your pick.
From the western edge of the Muslim world, the King of Morocco has dared to tackle one of the most inflammatory issues in the Middle East conflict the Holocaust.
At a time when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's dismissal of the Holocaust has made the biggest headlines, King Mohammed VI has called the Nazi destruction of the Jews "one of the most tragic chapters of modern history," and has endorsed a Paris-based program aimed at spreading the word among fellow Muslims.
Posted by: ed ||
07/25/2009 16:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Morocco really seems to want to belong to a modern civilized world. Expect an Al Qaeda boom attack on the King. Hope he/they have good security
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2009 17:16 Comments ||
Top||
Seoul, July 25 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean government plans to resume humanitarian aid to North Korea through non-governmental organizations, months after it froze such state funding over the North's rocket and nuclear tests, officials said Saturday.
The Unification Ministry will present the plan in a meeting next week with about 10 humanitarian aid organizations that have requested the funding, the officials said, requesting anonymity, as the policy has yet to be publicly announced. The extent of the aid was not known.
The Unification Ministry is filled with do-gooders and symps who think that the South must always be approaching the North.
The ministry had aid groups apply for funding from February to March in a scheme in which the government matches funds collected by each of the aid groups. But the ministry halted its budget execution after North Korea launched a long-range rocket in early April, drawing condemnation from regional countries that believed the launch was a disguised missile test. Cross-border exchanges were further strained after the North's nuclear test in May.
Adding to the tension, a South Korean worker at a joint industrial complex in North Korea has been detained incommunicado since late March on accusations of criticizing the North's political system and trying to persuade a North Korean worker to defect to the South.
The reasons for the latest decision to resume aid were still vague. Officials only said it came on the grounds of the urgency of North Korea's need for humanitarian aid, as well as Seoul's policy to separate humanitarian issues from the political situation.
But the move raised speculation Seoul may be willing to show flexibility in reaching out to North Korea to break the prolonged diplomatic stalemate. Inter-Korean relations dipped to their lowest in a decade after conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office last year, adopting a tougher stance on Pyongyang's nuclear program and pledging more scrutiny over aid to the North.
South Korea has executed only 1.8 percent of its yearly budget for economic aid to North Korea during the first four months of this year. Unification Ministry data show it spent only 26.91 billion won (US$21.5 million) during the January-April period out of its inter-Korean cooperation fund worth 1.5 trillion won.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Their not SKors, they or ROKs (Republic of Korea), pronounced "rocks".
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday made a formal request to the Barack Obama administration to consider re-listing North Korea on a roster of terrorism-sponsoring states since the North poses a threat to other Asian countries. By a vote of 66-31, senators led by John Kerry, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Carl Levin, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, passed a revised defense budget bill including that request.
Sure it's cheap posturing, but it's potentially useful cheap posturing. But it could have been better if the Senate had just said, let's relabel the Norks as a terrorist state. Alas, that voted failed.
The bill requires a report within 30 days evaluating North Korea's actions in the nine months since it was removed from the list of terrorism sponsoring countries on Oct. 11, 2008. It also calls for a search for evidence of North Korea supporting terrorist groups and an investigation into its record of spreading weapons of mass destruction.
The bill calls North Korea "a threat to peace and security in Northeast Asia and the world," urging the administration to consider additional sanctions if necessary. It contains revisions to an earlier version proposed by hardline Republican Senator Sam Brownback demanding the immediate re-listing on the terror roster.
The passage of the bill shows that the Democrat-led Senate feels the need to take harsher steps against North Korea. The Democrats have taken a relatively cautious stance while Republicans including Brownback and Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have sought to put North Korea back on the list. Following sanctions against North Korea by the UN Security Council, suspicions have risen over a possible nuclear deal between North Korea and Burma, leading to a more hawkish atmosphere among U.S. lawmakers.
Senator Richard Lugar, an influential Republican in U.S. diplomacy and national security, voiced his suspicion of a North Korea-Burma nuclear deal during the confirmation hearing last month on Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Kurt Campbell. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday during the ASEAN Regional Forum she was "very concerned" about such a deal.
North Korea was taken off the list of terror sponsoring states on condition that it allows international inspectors to verify its nuclear program. It had been on the list since 1988. But North Korea then did not cooperate with international inspectors and later brazenly conducted a second nuclear test, leading to criticism that the U.S. government had been fooled.
Makes you wonder who the 31 were who voted 'no'. After all, this doesn't demand that we re-designate the Norks as a terror state -- that amendment was voted DOWN -- but merely asks Obama to 'consider' it. Sorta like a strongly-worded statement. Turns out the 31 nays are all Republicans who had previously voted 'yea' to calling the Norks a terrorist state. And most of the Democrats who voted 'yea' today had voted 'nay' to calling the Norks a terrorist state.
In other words, while the Dems will point to this resolution as evidence of how 'stern' they are with respect to the Norks, they are, as usual, wimps.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Lots more details on the 3 sister and "Auntie" murdered up North.
Rona Amir Mohammed was Mohammad Shafis first wife. Finding Rona Mohammed unable to have children, Shafi married Tooba Shafi Yahya, who bore him seven. Like other Muslims with more than one wife immigrating to a Western country where polygamy is illegal, Shafi probably had told Canadian immigration officials his first wife was a relative in order to gain entrance.
But a Kingston newspaper, the Whig Standard, reported the police began to investigate the deaths as honor murders two weeks ago -- although they have refused to call them such. However, the police did confirm that they had received a letter from a relative, stating the killings were honor related.
The paper reported a sister of Rona Mohammed, Diba Masoomi, who lives in France, had sent an email both to the police and the Whig Standard saying her sister and Zinaib were being threatened for social, cultural and family reasons. She was really afraid, said Masoomi in a later interview. There were death threats.
Masoomi was also the one who revealed her sister was actually Mohammed Shafis first wife, providing photos of their wedding in Kabul.
Police are remaining silent about a motive for the killings. A Montreal neighbour of the Shafis may, however, have provided a clue as to the reason for their deaths. The neighbour claims the oldest brother, Hamed, had told him before the Niagara Falls trip Zinaib had run away because she was dating someone against the familys wishes. However, there are still many questions remaining to be answered in this very tragic case.
Posted by: ed ||
07/25/2009 17:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Ah, they mulled it. Scary stuff. I bet they also mulled the Ginger vs. Mary Ann dilemma at one point, too, which is probably something that this reporter is better equipped to handle. Even still, I'd be willing to bet that he still hasn't figured out that the answer to this amusing dilemma is just a plain and simple "Yes."
The Bush administration in 2002 considered sending U.S. troops into a Buffalo, N.Y., suburb to arrest a group of terror suspects in what would have been a nearly unprecedented use of military power, The New York Times reported.
Vice President Dick Cheney and several other Bush advisers at the time strongly urged that the military be used to apprehend men who were suspected of plotting with al Qaida, who later became known as the Lackawanna Six, the Times reported on its Web site Friday night. It cited former administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The proposal advanced to at least one-high level administration meeting, before President George W. Bush decided against it.
Dispatching troops into the streets is virtually unheard of. The Constitution and various laws restrict the military from being used to conduct domestic raids and seize property. And it's probably one of the reasons why W decided against it.
Rest at link because AP is getting litigous about copying their whole article even if a link to their sucky "article" is included.
#1
I'm starting to notice a pattern here. Whenever Obama suffers some sort of negative press, the media, with no help from the Admin I'm sure..gg...releases something evil and sinister about the Bush admin. Last week it was al Queda assasinations, week before it was vast eavesdropping program, rinse repeat... It's been mentioned before but now it's really becoming obvious.
#2
"Whenever Obama suffers some sort of negative press, the media, with no help from the Admin I'm sure..gg...releases something evil and sinister about the Bush admin."
yup, they dig up that horse to beat on. When it was alive, beating on it raised their popularity. Now that the horse is dead, it doesn't seem to have the same impact that it used to.
Hey Look! Bush Administration! Bush Administration!
#3
I predicted that The One would pull the "Blame Bush" crap for a long time and it would only work for the first 6-12 months. Looks like people are catching on to it in the non-Rantburg world.
I also predict that when the "Blame Bush" scheme fails to gain any traction anymore, you will see bills for internet speech regulation disguised as hate speech or some stupid thing.
#8
I suspect that Dick Cheney was using the precedent of Operation Pastorius, in which Nazi saboteurs, while arrested by police, were then immediately turned over to the military for trial by a military commission, that eventually resulted in six of the eight being hung.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pastorius
At the time, lawyers tried to force a civilian trial, but the SCOTUS found for the military.
#10
But, but, but Federal troops facing off with the State Police at the University of Alabama in 1963 was ok.
The way I understand it is it is state's rights issue and it was Al troops in '63.Kent State and other incidences in the turbulent '60's had fed troops called out to quell riots. NY National Guard could have arrested them, just as it must be troops from Texas, Arizona, California, etc. on the border.
#12
When dealing with an enemy all courses of action must be concidered. I'm sure there was a CIA, FBI, and Customs course of action. Good ones kept bad ones tossed. Anything else would have been bad leadership and poor staffing.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/25/2009 12:19 Comments ||
Top||
#13
I hear they only changed their minds after running out of black paint for the helicopters...
#14
The conversation probably went something like this:
Some nitwit on the staff - "How about we send in troops to arrest them? They are dangerous"
Bush - "Hmm.Let's think about that for a nanosecond or so. OK, what about the posse comitatus act?"
Some nitwit on the staff - "You're right, sir. I forgot about that"
Bush - "OK. Next option, anyone?"
According to the NY Slimes, this means that Bush thought about it.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/25/2009 16:09 Comments ||
Top||
#15
tu3031: They used to build black helicopters in Mesa, AZ, and because there is only one N-S helicopter corridor in Phoenix Metro, if you spent time on the Verde River, you saw black helicopters.
If you want to see the helicopter view of the Verde River, you can see it in the movie "Blue Thunder", where the evil Malcolm McDowell throws an NVA officer out of the helicopter, onto the Vietnamese saguaros below.
#17
Exasperated aid: "Mr. President, somebody should shoot these goddamn reporters!!"
Bush: "No, I don't think we can do that. Now get out of here, you're fired."
#18
you can see it in the movie "Blue Thunder", where the evil Malcolm McDowell throws an NVA officer out of the helicopter, onto the Vietnamese saguaros below.
reminds me of "Top Gun" when a flameout and flat spin of the jet in desert wargames (70 miles+ inland) results in Goose's death in the ocean off San Diego. Go figure.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2009 17:59 Comments ||
Top||
#19
What are you people talking about?
I only have one thought. Mary Ann. Definitely Mary Ann.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2009 19:58 Comments ||
Top||
#21
It's been a long time since I saw Top Gun but the the Top Gun school used to be at Mirimar. Yeah they did a lot over the desert and I-15 as well but I think they did some over the ocean as well.
#22
true, but the flameout supposedly occurred in the east county desert and the plane landed in the ocean IIRC...it worked for the story....not so much for reality. Kinda like W and Cheney itching to send troops to Buffalo
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2009 20:35 Comments ||
Top||
#23
Talking about Top Gun, I heard that Tom Cruise almost died during the filming of the scene where he parachuted into the water. He got tangled in the shrouds. A Navy diver who was observing the filming realized what had happened, and dove in an rescued him.
Also, several of the fellows in my Naval Reserve unit were former pilots. They all agreed that any one of the stunts those guys pulled would have cost them their wings - no second chances.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/25/2009 23:07 Comments ||
Top||
AP, so expect a knock at the cyber door with a hand out.
The militants wore masks, carried weapons and came by the dozens. Still, they exhibited a strange sense of courtesy: They let the reporter's relatives leave the house before they bombed it.
Rehman Buneri, who works for Khyber TV in Karachi and contributes to Voice of America's Deewa Radio, was not home when the 50 or so gunmen showed up. Buneri told The Associated Press the gunmen said they'd been instructed by a "high command" to destroy the house because he had spoken negatively of the Taliban in a radio report. Fortunately for the American Press, they never speak ill of America's enemies.
Posted by: ed ||
07/25/2009 16:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
[Geo News] Speakers while addressing at the third International Khatm-e-Nabuwwat Conference in Sargodha said that the United States wants to create unrest in Pakistan but the Islam-loving forces will not let these conspiracies succeed. I'm not sure why we'd want to create unrest in an insignificant corner of the world like Pakistain, rather than someplace cooler, like Argentina or Morocco, or even Luxembourg. Pure meanness, perhaps, and an unlimited unrest creation budget. I thought the Paks were doing a pretty good job of creating their own unrest...
Those spoke at the conference were naib ameer Jamaat Islami Liaquat Baloch. Allama Tahir Ashrafi, Maulana Ilyas Chinioti, Maulana Abdul Hafeez Makki, Dr Ahmed Ali Siraj, Syed Inayatullah Shah, Maulana Zahid Mahmood Qasmi and others. The speakers said that the present government following the footsteps of former president Pervez Musharraf is taking steps against the teachings of Islam. The condemned the negative propaganda against religious madaris and demanded to remove Qadianis from key posts.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
#1
If the US is creating unrest in your country it means your country is hot $hit.
#2
ION BIGNEWSNETWORK > seems the PHILIPPINES' GOVT in Manila sez Muslim rebels are rebuilding their ties to the MIDDLE EAST, in order to rebuild and be re-supplied wid NEW MEN, $$$, + MATERIEL???
A jirga of tribesmen from Chaghorzai, Gagra and Daggar on Friday has unanimously demanded the army stay in the district to ensure safety and security from the Taliban. The jirga was called by DPO Abdur Rashed Khan at his office in Dr AQ Khan Colony in Daggar. DCO Yakhya Khan Akhunzada, District Nazim Haji Rauf and MPA Qaisar Wali Khan attended as representatives of the government. The jirga members also sought help in terms of sharing information about militancy in their surroundings to mobilise the army in time. They assured all out protection to the notables who supported the administration.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Bryant Neal Vinas, a 26-year-old from Long Island, N.Y., has been charged with attacking a U.S. military base and providing information to the Al-Qaeda terror network. Although Vinas pled guilty to the charges in January, court documents remained classified because their publication could have compromised other ongoing investigations. They were unsealed on July 22, providing insight into one of the few Americans known to have joined or trained with Al-Qaeda.
Fast Facts:
A onetime Boy Scout who grew up in Medford, Long Island, Vinas was raised Catholic and is said to have liked football, baseball and video games.
Vinas' Peruvian-born father and Argentinean-born mother divorced when he was a teenager. Instead of going to college, Vinas joined the U.S. army at age 18.
He started attending Islamic services three or four years ago and eventually converted. He joined the the Islamic Association of Long Island, a mosque where most attendees are from Pakistan. While there, he went by the name Ibrahim.
Vinas became a licensed truck driver but quit his job and left home in 2007, saying he wanted to study Islam and Arabic. His parents had no idea where he went.
His confiscated computer revealed that prior to leaving home, Vinas had visited jihadist websites.
Because the young American had no previous criminal record and no connection with any other terrorist groups, he was able to travel freely through foreign countries.
Traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in late 2007 or early 2008, where he went by a number of names, including Ben Yameen al-Kanadee and Bashir al-Amriki (Bashir the American).
After a truck bomb killed more than 50 people at the Islamabad Marriott hotel in September 2008, the FBI interviewed the Vinas family about their son. According to Vinas' father, they indicated that it was just routine.
Vinas was in Peshwar, Pakistan in November 2008, supposedly to buy supplies and use the Internet, when he was arrested by Pakistani authorities. Authorities have not revealed how they located him.
He has been linked to a Belgian-French terror cell and also to Moez Garsallaoui, a Tunisian Islamist militant whom he may have met while in Pakistan.
Vinas was charged with conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens, providing information to a terrorist organization, and receiving "military-type training" from a Al-Qaeda. He originally pled not guilty but switched on Jan 28 and pled guilty to all charges.
According to court documents, he admitted to firing rockets on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan in September 2008.
Vinas informed U.S. officials of an Al Qaeda plot to blow up a Long Island Rail Road commuter train in New York's Penn Station, saying that he had provided them with details of the New York transit system. This revelation lead authorities to issue a Nov. 25 2008 terror alert.
He is expected to be a key witness in the cases of other Al Qaeda members, including that of Malika El Aroud, a Morrocan-born Belgian woman accused of recruiting Al Qaeda members over the Internet.
Vinas is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service in an undisclosed location somewhere in New York.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
- Wring him dry of everything he "knows".
- Find him guilty and hang him.
- Feed his body to the sharks off Cuba.
- Let the "word" get out about how we treat traitors.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/25/2009 15:44 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Things were going well for him until bullet number 3 when demonic activity started to take him over. I see the defense now: "The devil made me do it. I was no longer in control of myself. Or jihad is my religious principle. Or everyone was doing the jihad jig. Or I went mental. Or I was an abused child."
#4
Don't forget a few years back when the Saudi king got whacked,
idiot pleaded insanity, judge said "Yup he's crazy, cut his head off, they had to get a sword out of a museum, took 3 whacks.
So much for an insanity defense.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/25/2009 23:13 Comments ||
Top||
The main United Nations agency supplying aid to the Palestinians strongly denied an Israeli newspaper report on Friday that its director had fled Gaza after death threats from Hamas.
The assertion that John Ging fled after threats from Hamas because he refused to hand over millions of dollars in aid funds was completely baseless and "entirely false", said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency UNRWA.
"At no stage has Mr Ging ever fled Gaza and any suggestion that Hamas has any control or influence over UNRWA aid is as baseless as the absurdity about John Ging, (whose) track record in the face of previous threats and attack is a matter of public record," he said in a statement. Ging was outspoken on Gaza's suffering during the Israeli offensive in January. A diplomatic source said Ging was at his Gaza office and had been there for weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
The assertion that John Ging fled after threats from Hamas because he refused to hand over millions of dollars in aid funds was completely baseless and "entirely false",
Hey, I believe him. Since when would they have to threaten him for it?
[Iran Press TV Latest] Fifty members of the Assembly of Experts have signed a petition calling on Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and the nation to fall in behind the Leader of the Islamic Revolution in the aftermath of the disputed June 12 presidential election.
In a letter released on Friday, the Assembly members dismissed the opposition's objections to the official vote result that gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second four-year term in office as "myths of the great election fraud, copied from the script of the velvet revolution."
The signatories warned that expressing doubts about the veracity of the election would result in "despondency" among the people and help the "enemies of Islam."
Given that the opposition has questioned the legitimacy of President Ahmadinejad's victory because of what they consider to have been the fraudulent counting of ballots, the letter contends that legitimacy is derived from the Leader's approval.
The Assembly of Experts consists of 88 clerics. It is an elected electoral college that is tasked with electing a new leader in the event of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution's passing.
It is presently headed by the veteran revolutionary figure and two-term former president Rafsanjani.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Al Arabiya Latest] The United Nations peacekeeping chief said there are signs an illegal weapons stockpile that exploded last week in southern Lebanon belonged to the Lebanese guerrilla movement Hezbollah.
In a speech delivered behind closed doors to the Security Council on Thursday, U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy also said that some of the people who tried to prevent U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon (UNIFIL) from investigating the site were Hezbollah members dressed in civilian clothes. "A number of indications suggest that the depot belonged to Hezbollah, and, in contrast to previous discoveries by UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces of weapons and ammunition, that it was not abandoned but, rather, actively maintained," he told the 15-nation council in the speech.
Violation of resolution 1701
He said the mere presence of such arms south of the Litani River represented a "serious violation of resolution 1701." Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the 34-day war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, banned all unauthorized weapons between the Litani River and the Blue Line, the U.N.-monitored border between Israel and Lebanon.
The weapons at the site of the explosion were from various countries and included mortars, AK-47s, artillery shells and 122mm rockets, Le Roy said. "The weapons and ammunition dated from the 1970s to the 1990s and generally appeared to be in good order," he added.
After Le Roy's speech, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff joined Israel in accusing Hezbollah of violating the U.N. weapons embargo in southern Lebanon and undermining the efforts of U.N. peacekeepers there.
UNIFIL said last week that peacekeepers had been pelted with stones by a crowd of about 100 Lebanese in the village of Khirbet Selim while trying to investigate the July 14 explosion at the suspected arms dump. Le Roy said the blast site was still being investigated.
Hezbollah denies
" The baseless American accusations are a repetition of the Israeli position and an expression of the U.S. administration's support for continuous Israeli aggression against Lebanon via its violations and spy networks "
Hezbollah parliamentarian Hassan Fadlallah
A Hezbollah parliamentarian denied on Friday the movement had any role in the disturbances and said it was keen to restore relations between UNIFIL and local people to normal. "The baseless American accusations are a repetition of the Israeli position and an expression of the U.S. administration's support for continuous Israeli aggression against Lebanon via its violations and spy networks," Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters.
He denied the blast was a violation of resolution 1701, saying it was a one-off accident that involved the explosion of an arms cache that had been in place before the 2006 war.
Fadlallah said the U.N. Security Council had done nothing to stop Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty, including almost daily military flights in breach of 1701.
Israel's U.N. ambassador, Gabriela Shalev, said in a letter to the Security Council that the arms cache that exploded clearly belonged to Hezbollah. She said the actions of Hezbollah represented "a clear violation of 1701 which gravely endanger the stability in the region ... (and) the local Lebanese population."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
It took the UN how many years to figure this out?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/25/2009 9:03 Comments ||
Top||
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.
A U.S. soldier kidnapped by the Taliban is at the center of an escalating controversy about how he came to be captured - an event that could be a propaganda bonanza for the insurgents.
Fox News military analyst retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters sparked a firestorm of controversy last weekend when he called Pfc. Bergdahl a "deserter," adding that if that were the case, "the Taliban can save us a lot of legal hassles and legal bills" by killing him.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The United Nations peacekeeping chief said there are signs an illegal weapons stockpile that exploded last week in southern Lebanon belonged to the Lebanese guerrilla movement Hezbollah.
