Saudi Arabia's less-than-full cooperation has hindered U.S. efforts to choke off terrorist financing, a lawmaker said Wednesday, and a Bush administration official indicated the Saudis were being prodded.
Juan Zarate, the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for terrorist financing, also said Treasury investigators have not found a direct link between al Qaeda and the illicit diamond trade in Africa but did not rule one out.
"We have not seen direct links," Zarate said in testimony before the oversight panel of the House Financial Services Committee.
Even without a direct tie, U.S. authorities are concerned that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden could be involved indirectly in trade in diamonds, gold and tanzanite or could become a direct participant, Zarate later told reporters.
Rep. Sue Kelly, who heads the subcommittee, asked Zarate at the hearing whether the Saudis have followed through on promises to take up such measures as setting up a financial intelligence unit and seizing assets of individuals believed to help fund terrorism.
Despite Saudi Arabia's announcement in 2002 that it had established such an intelligence unit, there still appears to be no unit operating, Kelly said. She said the absence of one probably "slowed or entirely prevented action against terrorist activity" in several cases.
A spokesman at the Saudi Embassy in Washington disputed that, saying that a financial intelligence unit was established in the country in July 2003.
"It's been set up, it's been functioning," the spokesman, Nail Al-Jubeir, said by telephone after the hearing. "We are working with the United States government to develop it."
Zarate said the Saudis had shown improved cooperation in freezing assets of suspect charities and other measures and "are taking this issue very seriously." He added, "We are constantly working with the Saudis to ensure" that they follow through.
Al-Jubeir said his government was cooperating in the effort. "Both sides could do better, but the cooperation is working very well," he said. "If there are areas that we can improve, we will look into it."
Earlier this month, the kingdom played host to an international anti-terrorism conference, where Saudi leaders expressed their commitment to fighting terrorism.
Some experts say there is evidence of al Qaeda's ties to the illicit African diamond trade. But U.S. intelligence officials and the independent September 11 commission have maintained there is no conclusive proof that the terror network laundered millions of dollars through diamonds before staging the U.S. attacks.
Al Qaeda and its affiliates have been linked to the heroin trade in Afghanistan, credit card fraud in Europe and the lucrative trade in counterfeit goods as means of financing their terrorist activities.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/17/2005 12:16:43 AM ||
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Wait a minute -- this report comes from CNN! And yesterday the J'salem Post reported that the NY Times reporter was kind to Ariel Sharon. Is the world coming to an end?
#3
investigators have not found a direct link between al Qaeda and the illicit diamond trade
Isn't that the purpose of using diamonds? Drugs generate cash and thus must be laundered. Gold too, since it's value is easily determined by weight. But the money trail for diamonds is like "art" or "antiques"... it doesn't leave a money trail when you pay $3,000,000 for a diamond that's only worth $300.00.
Nine civil society organizations on Monday formed a committee which will work on combating extremist ideas that lead to violence. The organizations are namely the Kuwait Teachers Society, Kuwait Journalists Association, Kuwait Lawyers Society, the Heritage Revival Society, the Writers Association, the Women Cultural Society, Kuwait Union of Women Societies, the Graduates Society and the National Union of Kuwait Students. The Kuwait Teachers Society Board Member Muteb Al-Otaibi in statements to KUNA, stressed the need for participation of all civil society organizations and other popular bodies in the fight against extremism and terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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A department to look into cases of terrorism is to be established soon with the view to speed up adjudication of such cases following investigation by the public prosecutor's office, Minister of Justice Ahmad Baqer said Monday. The establishment of the new department will not jeopardize rights of the accused in terrorist cases to a fair hearing and just trial, he said at a meeting of a charitable organization here. Baqer, while commending the Kuwaiti public's full support of the fight against terrorists, indicated that currently "about 30-35 people accused of terrorism, among them 15 Kuwaiti nationals, are in custody." He behooved all residents in the country to report to authorities any pertinent information about terrorists or suspicious activities.
As for laws presently on the books against terrorism, the minister revealed that there are Kuwaiti laws against unlawful possession of weapons or ammunition and others regarding safe air and sea travel. He affirmed that enormous efforts must be consecrated to propagating the notion that Islam is a religion of moderation and tolerance, and that all acts of terror perpetrated in the name of Islam are abhorrent and a detestable affront to the gracious tenets of Islam.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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I offer this alternative SWAT image - for those times when there is a tongue in cheek requirement.
New intelligence information strongly suggests that Al Qaeda has considered infiltrating the United States through the Mexican border, top government officials told Congress on Wednesday. In a wide-ranging assessment of threats to American security, including those posed by Iran and North Korea, the officials also said intelligence indicated that terrorist organizations remained intent on obtaining and using devastating weapons against the United States. "It may only be a matter of time before Al Qaeda or another group attempts to use chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons," Porter J. Goss, the new director of central intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The warnings from Mr. Goss and other top officials came as part of a stark presentation that described terrorism as the top threat to the United States despite what they described as successes in the last year. Mr. Goss said that the war in Iraq had served as a useful recruiting tool for Islamic extremists, and that both the low Sunni Muslim turnout in elections there and the violence that followed demonstrated that the insurgency remained a serious threat. He warned that anti-American extremists who survive the war were likely to emerge with a high level of skills and experience, and could move on to build new terrorist cells in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries.
Intelligence that "strongly suggests" that Al Qaeda operatives have considered using the Mexican border as an entry point was cited in written testimony by Adm. James M. Loy, the deputy secretary of homeland security. But he wrote that there was "currently no conclusive evidence" that this had succeeded.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/17/2005 12:19:29 AM ||
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Intelligence that "strongly suggests" that Al Qaeda operatives have considered using the Mexican border as an entry point was cited in written testimony by Adm. James M. Loy, the deputy secretary of homeland security. But he wrote that there was "currently no conclusive evidence" that this had succeeded.
So what in the hell do we do? Wait for conclusive evidence after a boom? What is wrong with the President and Homeland Security? We send people halfway around the world and put them in harm's way, and then we leave the back door open.
When people do these kind of things, there must be a reason:
1. They are all stupid
2. They have a hidden agenda
3. They don't have the cojones to stand up to all the wailers and potential squealers and do what is right and necessary.
This is disgusting.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/17/2005 10:49 Comments ||
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The reasons to Do Nothing always outweigh the reasons to Do Something.
Posted by: john ||
02/17/2005 11:22 Comments ||
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AP-We've been pointing that out, but is anyone listening and if so, did they start listening too late?
#5
CrazyFool---That is what drives me absolutely crazy. President Bush can be so decisive and forthright on the other side of the world, yet we neglect the gate to our south 40. It does not make rational sense, so something else is driving our South 40 decision of inaction.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/17/2005 17:40 Comments ||
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Give me 20 men, the necessary equipment, weapons, and the authority to use them, and I'll shut down 50 miles of the US/Mexican border to everything but a bird. There are a few thousand Marines, Army, and even a few other flyboys that can do the same thing on the retirement rolls. Call us up, give us the mission, and let us do it. I guarantee, I will have no qualms about shooting a coyote or six, and as many skunks as necessary, to close the border. The only thing missing is the guts to give the orders.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/17/2005 20:27 Comments ||
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This is a growing criticism of not only the President but the Republican party as a whole. Rush referred to it recently in a speech and he said that Washington is NOT listening are doing so at their peril.
#10
true 3dc and as a Republican I am withholding any contributions to other than my local Rep. Duncan Hunter, who's on the mark with this, and making it clear to the fundraisers who solicit me. I'm but a small giver, but this is my singular issue of concern right now
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2005 21:13 Comments ||
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OP-
Count me in. M16(expert), M1911, .38, and 9mm qualified, and I know how to work a whole lot of other neat stuff.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/17/2005 21:26 Comments ||
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I've been advocating putting mil/reservists/militas on the border for years. Only a matter of time before the islamonazis started preparations to go wetback on us. Surprised it took them this long to figure it out. Time to put a big fucking wall across that thing, & both political parties are absolutely culpable for this problem. The dems are looking for votes and the repubs for cheap labor. This has been one of my biggest gripes w/GWB. Get some nuts and let the mil execute one of it's main mandates - integrity of our border & the sovereignty of our nation.
Does anyone want to venture a guess on how Mexico treats illegal's coming across it's own southern border? Yeah, you all know the deal.
Terrorism is expanding its reach in Russia, in part because of corruption and lawlessness in government, police and the military that make it impossible for impoverished people to improve their lot, a Kremlin aide said Wednesday.
Aslambek Aslakhanov, a former Soviet and Russian Interior Ministry official who serves as President Vladimir Putin's adviser on the North Caucasus region, said terrorists were increasingly finding recruits across Russia's south.
"Terrorist attacks aren't always politically motivated, sometimes they're carried out for revenge - against the corruption of authorities, the lawlessness of police and military structures, mass unemployment and the inability to feed one's family," Aslakhanov said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"They try to do something (to improve their lot) and are not allowed to, and it's the bureaucrats who are to blame," he added.
Aslakhanov, an ethnic Chechen, said Putin had given him the task of tackling poverty in the region by creating an international corporation that would attract investment to the North Caucasus, particularly war-battered Chechnya, where he said unemployment was as high as 90 percent.
He said government forces, which are supposed to ensure order, often helped fill terrorists' ranks with their methods.
"The excessive cruelty of certain police and military structures in the country, especially the abduction of people, their torture and execution and disappearance without a trace ... has an impact on the terrorist situation," he said.
Russian forces have been fighting rebels in Chechnya for the better part of a decade, but over the past few years police clashes with Islamic rebels in other regions of the North Caucasus have increased.
Aslakhanov said he believed the various groups had ties; for example, some get extremist literature from a single source. But "organization, strict discipline, subordination one to the other - these things still don't exist, thank God," he said.
"They all use violence to achieve their goals, whether it's creation of an independent state or liberation of people who have been arrested, or revenge," he said.
Aslakhanov, 62, a former member of the Russian parliament from Chechnya, rose through the ranks of the Soviet Interior Ministry and taught criminal policy and law at the Russian Interior Ministry Academy from 1993 to 2000. He withdrew from the race for Chechnya's presidency in October 2003 to take the Kremlin position.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/17/2005 12:37:05 AM ||
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February 17, 2005: Despite North Korea's self-proclaimed nuclear weapons, Iran is a bigger threat to the world, because Iran supports terrorism, even the Sunni terrorists who consider Iranian Shias to be heretics. The North Koreans are mainly a threat to South Korea, China, Russia and Japan. These four nations are trying to get North Korea to behave, and either fix it's crumbling communist era economy, or collapse quietly and let South Korea take over. However, the people running North Korea (and no one outside the country is entirely sure exactly who that is) do not operate according to any normal logic. The constant fear is that North Korea, with its large, but weakening, armed forces, will somehow lash out. The North Koreans have lashed out once before, in 1950. They got pounded big time in return and have not forgotten that defeat.
We remember the Korean War as a meat grinder that went on for three years. But McArthur rather neatly pushed the NKors back to the Yalu. The meat grinder part came when the Chinese joined the festivities.
Since then there have been many minilashes (the Pueblo incident, the low level commando war of the 1960s, kidnapping Japanese in the 70s and 80s, some terrorism, drug dealing, and so on.) They have potential to do much damage. The big problem in the north is that the police state is falling apart. Their biggest enemy right now is cell phones (which have caused the state to lose control of information), lack of food, and lack of fuel. Corruption is growing and discipline in the police and armed forces is falling apart. The most talked about threats, like missiles and nuclear weapons, are blown out of proportion. The North Koreans have basically taken the World War II German technology found in the SCUDs, and scaled it up to produce multi-stage missiles that can, possibly, reach halfway across the Pacific.
But that's the way technology's often developed: by taking something that works, then refining it until you reach a point of diminishing returns, then designing something new from the ground up with what you've learned from Mark I.
But it is potential, at the moment, more than actual capability. The guidance system technology the North Koreans have is not first rate, and even the use of GPS for guidance is doubtful because of meager North Korean engineering resources. Moreover, there is the engineering required to make a nuclear weapon (theirs has not even been tested yet) work in a missile warhead. Their Taepo Dong 2 intercontinental missile has not been test fired yet. The Taepo Dong 1 has been used, which gives you something to work with. The range for the Taepo Dong 2 is an extrapolation (from 2,000 kilometers for the 1 to three times that for the Taepo Dong 2). It's much ado about nothing, unless it can reach the Alaska, Hawaii, or maybe US West Coast. Maybe. The "No Dong" missiles have seen incremental improvements to assist their export program. The No Dong sales are a major source of hard currency. These missiles are basically improved SCUDs.
The question becomes: do we really care to risk Honolulu or Fairbanks? Risking San Francisco, I can live with, of course, and possibly Milpetas...
The North Korean fear of war with the United States is based on grim experience. When North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, the response by the American armed forces caused enormous damage in the north. Another war would, North Korea fears, have the same result. And they believed they might be "Saddamized" with a preemptive American attack. The North Koreans know that the U.S. Navy had dozens of warships in the area, that could let loose with hundreds of precision guided Tomahawk cruise missiles. They know that the American navy and air force are not tied down in Iraq, and are able to rush forces to South Korea faster than the U.S. army in any circumstances. Moreover, only about 15 percent of the American army is tied down in Iraq, and many U.S. ground troops, now combat experienced, are available for movement to Korea. Worse yet, the North Korean leaders know that their own armed forces have been in decline for over a decade. In the past few years, discipline has been breaking down, and new recruits are smaller than a generation ago, because of a decade of famine.
Average height of the adult North Korean male should be dropping below three feet in about ten years or so. In the event of war, it'd be The Terror of Tinytown all over again...
More government officials are engaging in corrupt practices. The North Korean leadership has a lot to be afraid of, but the United States is only one of many objects of terror for them. It's gotten to the point where North Korean generals are not sure their troops would follow through if ordered to attack the south. So there you have it. Unreliable troops and missiles, untested nukes and a North Korean population that is starving to death. And none to happy with their present leaders. Perhaps it's no surprise that the North Korean leadership acts a bit mad. They have a lot to be mad about.
But since they're nutz, they're unpredictable, and since they're unpredictable we can probably expect them to do something nutty. Something like invading the south while we're busy dismantling Iran.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/17/2005 9:37:14 AM ||
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" It's much ado about nothing, unless it can reach the Alaska, Hawaii, or maybe US West Coast"
The above is such and incredibly stupid and short-sighted sentence.
What happens to the US and world economy if Seoul and Tokyo get a daily high temperature of a few million degrees in their downtown distics, along with the plasma fireball, and the radiation?
Do you realize how little chip fabrication capacity the US has? That alone is enough to paralyze our military within months due to lack of spares after the current stocks are run through.
North Korea *IS* our problem, precisely because we get so much of our electronics, and components from Korea and Japan (and Taiwan).
We need to bascially have the hammer cocked and be ready to go if the NKORs try anythign - or if they begin to collapse we need to be able to move in quickly and secure the military stockpiles, in addition to the obvious relief missions that will be needed to help the starving populace.
#2
You have hit the heart of it, OldSpook. You also bring up the issue of the electronics and components. Didn't we used to have strategic industries and materials that we maintained so we could not get blackmailed or lose a war? We are vulnerable on oil, some strategic metals and elements, and it seems to be getting that way with chips. Seems to be ok with congress and the president....for decades now. I don't like it and it should be changed, or at least discussed.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/17/2005 16:32 Comments ||
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Don't worry AP, I've taken on the task of storing 7500 P1s. They are available at no charge in an emergency to the US government. Or you or Frank, Dave, PD, Gentle, Boris..... Stevy...
#4
" It's much ado about nothing, unless it can reach the Alaska, Hawaii, or maybe US West Coast"
The above is such and incredibly stupid and short-sighted sentence.
What happens to the US and world economy if Seoul and Tokyo get a daily high temperature of a few million degrees in their downtown distics, along with the plasma fireball, and the radiation?
Do you realize how little chip fabrication capacity the US has? That alone is enough to paralyze our military within months due to lack of spares after the current stocks are run through.
North Korea *IS* our problem, precisely because we get so much of our electronics, and components from Korea and Japan (and Taiwan).
We need to bascially have the hammer cocked and be ready to go if the NKORs try anythign - or if they begin to collapse we need to be able to move in quickly and secure the military stockpiles, in addition to the obvious relief missions that will be needed to help the starving populace.
#5
" It's much ado about nothing, unless it can reach the Alaska, Hawaii, or maybe US West Coast"
The above is such and incredibly stupid and short-sighted sentence.
What happens to the US and world economy if Seoul and Tokyo get a daily high temperature of a few million degrees in their downtown distics, along with the plasma fireball, and the radiation?
Do you realize how little chip fabrication capacity the US has? That alone is enough to paralyze our military within months due to lack of spares after the current stocks are run through.
North Korea *IS* our problem, precisely because we get so much of our electronics, and components from Korea and Japan (and Taiwan).
We need to bascially have the hammer cocked and be ready to go if the NKORs try anythign - or if they begin to collapse we need to be able to move in quickly and secure the military stockpiles, in addition to the obvious relief missions that will be needed to help the starving populace.
CIA director Porter Goss has warned that North Korean missiles are capable of reaching the United States with a nuclear weapon-sized payload. Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee a week after North Korea claimed it has nuclear weapons, Goss on Wednesday said the US intelligence community's assessment is that the North Korean missile, the TD-2, is capable of reaching the United States with a nuclear weapon-sized payload.
I think he means Anchorage as opposed to Baltimore.
He also noted that Iran is pursuing long-range ballistic missiles. Rejecting the Iranian claim that it is interested only in nuclear power, Goss said, "We are more concerned about the dual-use nature of the technology." Goss said, echoing what other officials had already said, that Iran was "supporting some anti-coalition activities in Iraq." He added that Iran could encourage attacks on Israel through Hezbollah in hopes of derailing peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He also warned the Committee that there is an emerging threat from experienced fighters now fighting US and other forces in Iraq.
Posted by: tipper ||
02/17/2005 2:06:50 AM ||
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A long time ago, there was a brief hubbub about a dummy Nork missile found in AK. This story disappeared about 3 seconds after it appeared. However, to say that our boffins are killing themselves to make an effective shield is an understatement.
#7
Wait a minute, BH. If they hit in the winter, the fallout will reach Me in Arizona. If they attack in summer (when the winds shift for the monsoon), I have no objection.
Seriously, if they actually make a credible and immediate nuclear threat, our policy has been to obliterate them without waiting. Note that even Khruschev never actually said "If you don't agree to [some demand] I'm launching the missiles at the US."
#8
Good policy. It's still tempting, though, to say, "You loony little poof! Why, you couldn't hit the broad side of Berkeley! Go on, I double-dog dare you!" I suppose we could hold off until summer.
North Korea marked the birthday of leader Kim Jong Il amid heightened nuclear tensions on Wednesday, comparing Kim to a daring porcupine routing an arrogant United States that swaggers like a tiger. But South Korea dampened the Pyongyang's festive mood, saying there will be no large-scale economic cooperation until the dispute over the communist North's nuclear weapons programs is resolved.
North Korea flouted the international community last Thursday by announcing it had nuclear weapons and was staying away from international nuclear talks where the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea have urged it to abandon its nuclear ambitions. The announcement was a key theme in North Korea's celebration of Kim's birthday this year, with its state-controlled media claiming that last week's "bombshell" declaration demonstrated Kim's "incomparable courage." Kim turned 63 Wednesday. "The Americans swagger like a tiger around the world, but they whimper before our Republic as the tiger does before the porcupine," Pyongyang Radio said. "That's because we have our Great Leader Kim Jong Il, who is undefeatable."
To the outside world, the North's latest maneuver further isolated the impoverished country. "North Korea must return to six-party talks as soon as possible," South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun told a meeting of his top security ministers Wednesday. "If North Korea has anything to allege, it should make the allegations at the negotiating table."
North Korea has refused to rejoin the six-nation negotiations until Washington abandons what the North says is its "hostile" policy. Earlier Wednesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said he told U.S. officials during a weeklong trip to Washington that his country has no plans to begin large-scale economic cooperation with the North before the North Korea agrees to end the nuclear dispute. Still, Ban said South Korea would continue to provide "humanitarian" aid to the poverty-stricken state.
In the run-up to Wednesday's birthday, North Korea has escalated anti-American rhetoric and urged its people to rally around Kim at a time of heightened tensions with the United Sates. "No matter how wild the U.S. imperialists may run, our country remains unfazed and the spirit of our army and people is sky-high," the North's main Rodong Shinmun daily wrote in a Wednesday editorial for the birthday, celebrated in the country as a national holiday.
In the capital Pyongyang, state-run TV on Wednesday displayed the usually quiet streets lined with banners wishing "good health and long life for the general," as Kim is commonly referred to as commander of the country's armed forces. Large crowds of North Koreans in colorful clothes and soldiers in uniform were shown dancing in Pyongyang squares. Kim's Stalinist regime gave its elite feasts of pheasant and venison. Media reported the unseasonable blossoms of wild flowers, citing them as divine evidence that the nature was also celebrating the birthday, the "common holiday of the humankind." Around the country, exhibitions were held featuring Kimjongilia — a red flower cultivated to blossom around Kim's birthday.
The country relies on outside aid to feed its people after suffering natural disasters. The disasters, along with inefficient communist management, began devastating the economy in the mid 1990s. Yet Kim keeps a tight control on his population with the help of a personality cult. "As long as we are led by Kim Jong Il ... endowed with outstanding commandership art and matchless courage and pluck, any anti-(North) plot of the U.S. imperialists will prove futile," Rodong Shinmun wrote.
Posted by: tipper ||
02/17/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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The "daring porcupine"? They're talking about the hair, right?
#4
That's the sad thing about North Korea. You just onlw Kimmie-boy-the-baby-killer is eating well and gettin fat on the finest food and drink offered while his people starve and try to exist on bark, grasses, and edible clay.
Meanwhile we (the US, South Korea, and the like) are feeding his people so he can free up finds to buy arms and ammo to kill us.
THE Israeli diplomat at the centre of a spy scandal has claimed his friendship with Attorney-General Philip Ruddock's youngest daughter, Caitlin, was behind a decision to expel him from Australia. The claims have emerged in a debriefing that Amir Lati reportedly gave to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Mr Lati, the second secretary at the Israeli embassy in Canberra, claimed he was invited to attend Christmas lunch at the Ruddocks' Pennant Hills home in Sydney's northwest last year, but was barred after the Government began moves to expel him.
It was on the recommendation of the Australian Secret Intelligence Organsiation - the domestic spy agency for which Mr Ruddock is responsible - that Mr Lati was given his marching orders in late December. Mr Lati's alleged relationship with a female Defence Department employee with high-level security access has been proffered as a reason for his explusion.
Mr Ruddock yesterday denied any connection between Mr Lati's links to his family and the reasons the Israeli diplomat was asked to leave the country. But he refused to divulge whether his daughter's links with Mr Lati, who is in his early 30s, was brought to the attention of ASIO.
The new twist in the spy saga follows the publication of the envoy's claims in the respected Hebrew-language Israeli newspaper Maar'iv. The report, reproduced in the Australian Jewish News yesterday, cited the Israeli Foreign Ministry as saying that Mr Lati believed his friendship with Caitlin, 26, who is an accountancy lecturer at the University of NSW, was connected to his expulsion.
The Australian has confirmed that Mr Lati first met Ms Ruddock six years earlier, when the two were studying together in Beijing, and that they renewed their friendship when Mr Lati was posted to Canberra in late 2003. But Mr Ruddock told the Australian Jewish News that "any acquaintance or contact Mr Lati had with members of (my) family is totally irrelevant to Mr Lati's departure from Australia".
A spokeswoman for the minister yesterday confirmed his comments to The Australian. When approached by The Australian at her office yesterday, Ms Ruddock declined to comment on the nature of her relationship with Mr Lati, or why he had been expelled from Australia. "You're only here because of who my father is. I have no comment to make," Ms Ruddock said. Directing all questions to the office of the Attorney-General, she refused to divulge why Mr Lati had been banned from attending Christmas lunch with the Ruddock family, or whether Mr Lati had also been in a relationship with a female Australian defence official.
"I will happily talk with you about accountancy courses, but nothing else," she said. More at the link. The government's hardline immigration policies are popular with the electorate while the Media hates them. Ruddock was the Immigration Minister so he is high on their hitlist. This may be just the MSM fishing for a scandal where none exists.
The prime minister, his senior ministers, the governor-general and top public servants will be whisked off to a top-secret location, possibly a purpose-built underground bunker, so government can continue to function after a terror strike or nuclear attack on federal parliament. Government and intelligence sources have told The Bulletin that Cabinet's National Security Subcommittee, headed by Prime Minister John Howard, approved broad elements of the government post-doomsday blueprint in mid-2004 after a formative American model was put into action following al Qaeda's September 11 strikes on Washington and New York.
Australia's final "continuity of government" plan, which deals with the practicalities of moving the executive, is now being prepared by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in limited consultation with the states and territories and their emergency service providers. Sources said Australia's plan would be triggered in the event of a nuclear strike or terrorist attack on Parliament House or any other area — for example, federal offices in Sydney or Melbourne — from which the government's executive was operating. It would also be enacted in the event of a strike which affected the availability of power, security and communications to the Cabinet.
One figure closely involved with the plan said that in the event of a major terrorist attack on Parliament House, uninjured senior ministers and advisers would be evacuated to their new, secret location from the parliamentary precinct, if possible by road, with the help of the Australian Capital Territory's emergency services providers. While the dead and injured would be taken to hospital, the formative plan did not provide for an evacuation of the backbench or opposition to an alternative, secure parliament, sources said. This implies the executive would effectively work, unimpeded, without opposition. "It is, effectively, a plan that takes into account the worst-case scenario of a terrorist or, less likely, a nuclear attack on parliament when the House and Senate are sitting," a source involved in the plan said. "What happens, for example, if there is a terrorist attack at the joint sitting at the opening of parliament and the governor-general and the prime minister and a host of senior ministers are incapacitated? Where does the country run from if the seat of the executive is badly damaged?"
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: phil_b ||
02/17/2005 5:20:35 AM ||
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I'm never reassured that the only plans are those for preserving governments. If any institutions in our world richly deserve to be tossed out so we can start over ....
He was sure he saw a suspected Sydney terrorist meet the Frenchman Willy Brigitte at a Lakemba house, a court heard yesterday. But Rashid Ahmad, a Crown witness in Faheem Khalid Lodhi's committal hearing, had given police a different version - that did not include Brigitte.
Mr Ahmad admitted his recollection of events at the house shared by Brigitte, Ahmad's friend Ashid Altaf and others in mid-2003 was hazy and conflicting. He also wrongly identified Brigitte, who has allegedly named Lodhi as the Australian contact for an al-Qaeda-linked group, in Australian Federal Police photographs.
Mr Ahmad told the court the man was "the Pakistani", then he said it was "the Bangladeshi". Later, under cross-examination by Phillip Boulten, SC, Mr Ahmad agreed it was Brigitte.
"I'm sorry, maybe I made a mistake. This one ... is the French man," he said.
Lodhi faces nine terrorism-related charges for allegedly planning terrorist attacks on three Sydney military sites and the national electricity grid.
Mr Ahmad told the Central Local Court hearing he saw Lodhi meet Brigitte at the house in Boorea Avenue, Lakemba.
"They shake hands with that French man and I ask them, 'Is your friend?' and they said 'Yes'."
He said he was referring to a Pakistani man called Faheem and a Bangladeshi he knew from a butchery in Lakemba. He then admitted he wrongly told police that Lodhi had chastised him for not attending the mosque when it may have been the Bangladeshi.
Then he said he could not remember which it was. Mr Boulten said: "It seems that your memory is not very good about these issues. Do you accept that?"
He replied: "Yes".
You've got some hazy recollection about these people being at the unit, don't you? ... It could well be that you got things mixed up in your mind. Do you accept that? - Yes.
He said he met Lodhi at the house twice, although he had told police it was once.
The hearing was adjourned until May.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/17/2005 12:33:16 AM ||
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Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib and terror suspect David Hicks met at an al-Qaeda propaganda training camp in Kabul before September 11, 2001, it was reported.
Quoting "a high-level source", the Daily Telegraph said both Australians were in the Afghan capital receiving training from senior members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist group when their paths crossed.
The training ran for several days and included a tour by Habib of key sites around the city, the report said.
The 2001 trip was Habib's second visit to terrorist training facilities in Afghanistan and his fifth overseas trip since 1998, it said.
Habib's first two-month visit to the country was in 2000.
It followed extensive training in mortar and firearms handling at a camp run by an al-Qaeda affiliate in neighbouring Pakistan, where Habib was detained by authorities in October 5, 2001.
According to the sources, Mr Habib professed his support for bin Laden well before September 11, 2001, with ASIO intercepting telephone conversations in which Habib said he wanted to be a jihad fighter.
In a paid interview with the Nine network's 60 Minutes program on Sunday, Mr Habib detailed allegations that he was tortured and abused while in US custody, on suspicion of training with terrorists.
However, he refused to say whether he was in Afghanistan before his arrest or what he was doing there.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty told a senate estimates committee hearing Mr Habib had trained with a Pakistan-based terrorist group and had planned to work as an al-Qaeda mercenary in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Mr Habib's Australian lawyer Stephen Hopper said his client paid for his Pakistan trip by selling his coffee shop and added the AFP's 2001 investigation had shown his Mr Habib's finances had "stacked up", the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
He said Mr Habib went overseas in 2001 to explore business opportunities and the possibility of moving his family back to Pakistan.
"If it had come off he would have made a lot of money. It would have set him up for life," the Herald quoted Mr Hopper as saying.
Mr Hopper also said Mr Habib's claims of being tortured were backed up by a psychiatrist who is said to have examined him shortly before his return to Australia.
The details have emerged following concerns Mr Habib did not initially explain why he went to Pakistan, and allegedly Afghanistan, nor how he paid for his trip.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/17/2005 12:11:54 AM ||
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ISTANBUL, TURKEY — The year is 2007. After a clash with Turkish forces in northern Iraq, US troops stage a surprise attack. Reeling, Turkey turns to Russia and the European Union, who turn back the American onslaught.
This is the plot of "Metal Storm," one of the fastest- selling books in Turkish history. The book is clearly sold as fiction, but its premise has entered Turkey's public discourse in a way that sometimes seems to blur the line between fantasy and reality.
"The Foreign Ministry and General Staff are reading it keenly," Murat Yetkin, a columnist for the Turkish daily newspaper Radikal, recently wrote. "All cabinet members also have it."
Jeebus. There's more, none of it encouraging. What scares me is that just yesterday I was saying Russia and France are trying to woo Turkey away from the US, and that all three would see that as a "win" for their own interests. Seems like that idea's in the air over there, as well.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/17/2005 10:28:43 AM ||
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#1
Yes, Turkey, we frogs will die for you but you can't become a member of the EU.
#3
Article: After a clash with Turkish forces in northern Iraq, US troops stage a surprise attack.
This doesn't even make any sense. Uncle Sam hasn't been in the business of taking enemy territory for keeps for a while now. The Russians are more likely to make a play for Turkey than the US, but they'd push the Turks out - perhaps into the sea. Target? Constantinople, the holiest enemy-occupied site in Eastern Orthodox Christendom, now known as Istanbul. (Smyrna, Galatia and a few other cities of the New Testament are also in Turkish Muslim hands).
#4
We should encourage them. Nothing scares the Europeans more than having the Turks within Europe. Russians still have the desire to take Istanbul. This time, the US shouldn't sell the Turks any advanced weapons like Remington did in the late 1800's. Let their rediscovered religious ferver protect them.
Posted by: ed ||
02/17/2005 11:57 Comments ||
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#5
..and the European Union, who turn back the American onslaught.
#9
After a clash with Turkish forces in northern Iraq, US troops stage a surprise attack
What were Turkish troops doing in Northern Iraq anyway? Russia and Europe going to war with the hyperpower to defend Turkeys honor after Turkish mischief in Iraq seems very, very, unlikely. Guess fantasy is an Islamic thing and not an Arab thing.
Anyway Turkey would have to wait in line because we have proof of Iranian and Syrian mischief in Iraq and haven't done anything yet and both of them are much nicer targets (supporting terror and all) than Turkey.
A more likely response would be an end to US support of Turkey joining the EU and the sealing of the Turkey/Iraq border.
#15
"From our point of view, it's a philosophical and scientific calculation," he says. "It's more than a novel."
-From my point of view sounds more like a comic book; The Turks, EU, & Ruskies get their collective asses kicked either way. I think it would take too long for the EU (i.e. France) to figure out what the color scheme of their battle/surrender utilities should be. Heck, prolly couldn't even get them to agree as to what type of hair gel they should use. Gotta have a good looking salad when throwing down your weapons & haulin' ass away from the enemy - old French army motto.
Should've thrown in the chicoms to make it more interesting. Result would be the same, but at least more interesting.
The IRA has said it was not involved in the murder of a man in a Belfast pub brawl. Robert McCartney, 33, was battered and stabbed to death after a bar fight which was witnessed by more than 100 people. His family claim the IRA have intimidated witnesses to prevent police identifying the killers. A man has been arrested tonight in connection with the murder.
The Provisionals moved to distance the organisation from the gang behind the slaying. In a statement, it said it was not involved in what it described as a brutal killing. But significantly, they added: "Those who were involved must take responsibility for their own actions which run contrary to republican ideals." A top IRA man is one of the chief suspects linked to the murder of Mr McCartney. He was was one of seven people questioned by police soon after the murder and later released.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
02/17/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Meaniwhile, more tragic failings of the IRA's "republican ideals" come to the surface:
"The Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams hinted at a dramatic shift of position yesterday over his claim that the IRA was not involved in the £26.5 million Northern Bank robbery. Sinn Fein's refusal to acknowledge the IRA's role in the theft has led to a crisis in the political process, with allegations that some of its leadership knew that the heist was being planned while they held key political negotiations. But yesterday it appeared that the first steps towards a climb-down were being taken after Mr Adams admitted that he could be "wrong" to believe the IRA's claim that they did not carry out last December's robbery in Belfast."
If you take away all the bar brawlers, bank robbers, punishment beaters and drug dealers, it seems the only IRA members left pursuing lofty ideals must be the ones itching to get back to planting bombs and shooting people in uniform...
#2
Interesting to see that this murder has caused unprecedented public protest amongst the Catholic community in Northern Ireland. Maybe they've had enough of being pushed around by these thugs. Interesting to see Adams flip-flopping regarding the heist - considering he or McGuinness must have officially sanctioned it in the first place. Excellent point Bulldog - the ideologues must be McKevitt-Sands and their ilk!
Posted by: Howard UK ||
02/17/2005 5:08 Comments ||
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#3
Just goes to show how out of control the IRA / splinter factions are .. The 'leadership' carry no weight when push comes to shove .. total farce .
#4
From reading the story I get the impression that the guy who did the killing is a IRA member, but that he did the killing on his own time for personal reasons having nothing to do with the IRA. So they are cutting him loose. Not that the IRA today is anything but a criminal gang, mind you.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/17/2005 8:34 Comments ||
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...Kerry's legislation would provide tax incentives to employers who keep deployed guardsmen and reservists on their payrolls, and create new loans and grants for self-employed troops to help get their businesses running again...
Several portions of Kerry's bill — the health care expansion and increases in the death benefit, for example — are already being considered in Congress. Kerry's proposal also calls for 30,000 new Army soldiers and 10,000 more Marines, whom he says are needed not for Iraq and Afghanistan but instead for the future demands of the war on terrorism.
He used Tuesday's forum to criticize President Bush's decision not to send more troops to secure Iraq, and reiterated complaints from his failed presidential campaign that Bush has not really reached out to other nations to assist in rebuilding that country.
And he blamed his election loss on the power of Bush's incumbency, saying that the administration has since used many of his proposals, such as increasing the military death benefit and improving national intelligence.
"They had a bully pulpit that we didn't have and they have an automatic trust factor we didn't have," he said. "Americans accepted that I could be the commander in chief. What they were unwilling to do was shift commanders in midstream."
MICHAEL SCHEUER has uncovered "the most successful covert action program in the history of man." Or, at least that's what he told an audience at Council on Foreign Relations in New York City on February 3. The CIA's former bin Laden-hunter-turned-public-persona is the widely cited author of a scathing critique of the Bush administration's war on terror, Imperial Hubris. Since his resignation from "the Agency" in November 2004, he has become best known for his view that the West is really losing the war on terror. Perhaps he should also be known for his work uncovering conspiracies.
According to Scheuer, the tiny nation of Israel is not a valuable ally in the Middle East, but instead the author of a vast conspiracy to hijack the direction of American foreign policy. Scheuer explained to the CFR crowd that Israel dictates the course of its relationship with the United States. He explained, "we can no longer afford to be seen as the dog that's led by the tail." Scheuer further warned, "I don't think we can afford to be led around, or at least appear to be led around by them."
How does a nation of roughly 6 million people control the foreign policy of the world's lone superpower? According to Scheuer, Israel accomplishes this feat through a variety of clandestine activities. When asked by a member of the CFR audience to clarify what he meant, Scheuer explained:
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/17/2005 1:06:17 AM ||
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#1
No wonder the wondrous Sheurer, our bin Laden hunter, never caught dick - he loves the guy and buys into the AlQ dogma. Everything I read about him, every quote from him and his execrable, Excreable, and excretal book are breathtaking.
#2
Mt reaction was the guy has a variation on the Stockholm Syndrome.
Otherwise, Israel is disproportionately important in US foriegn policy and the Holocuast is used to justify Israels existence, but far and away the most important reason for US support is Israel is both a democracy and reliable ally. Republican support of Israel is particularly noteworthy becuase US Jews as a demographic overwhelmingly vote Democratic.
His basic arguement is the US could curry favor with the Arabs by selling out Israel. I doubt this is true for reasons we have discussed at length and the Bush doctrine of act from principle and back it up with force where necessary is in MVHO the one most likely to achieve results.
#5
Sheurer's speech will look good on his resume when he applies for a job working for the Saudis.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
02/17/2005 5:54 Comments ||
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#6
In Imperial Hubris, Scheuer previously warned of the "dangers" of questioning the U.S.-Israeli relationship,
So dangerous that instead of being mysteriously dead, leaving only empty bank accounts and an ugly odor behind, the gentleman -- if I may use the term -- has a successful and lucrative career lecturing the terminally stupid.
Obligatory Rant: A part of me is sorry to see this posted at rantburg. By posting his lies, it helps give wings to his poisonous ideas. Once again, repeat after me: There is no such thing as negative publicity. Unwanted publicity - yes. Negative publicity, no.
For each sane one of us who reads this and just rolls our eyes, there will be someone who will think to themselves, for the very first time, "Yeeeeah...there are a lot of Jews in Congress and in Hollywood and they control Wall Street too!" "Things in my world aren't perfect, maybe THAT is the reason why".
Because the ideas are already so prevalent throughout the Moon bat world, I know they need to be addressed. But it's double edge sword, like addressing a troll. They have less credibility when ignored than they do even if successfully ridiculed.
I know we can't just ignore Scheuer. But when we address him, we are basically hitting his "tip jar" with free publicity and increased book sales....but worse, we are helping to spread his lies. And I'm sure he is very grateful for whatever attention we are willing to throw his way. /rant over/
#11
"it has also made it exceedingly "dangerous" for Scheuer to discuss this grand scheme."
Dangerous? How? If, by "dangerous," he means he will be blacklisted and will "never work in this town again," well, just the opposite has happened. He's attained celebrity status. And he's making a fortune by simply repeating his rehearsed Jew conspiracy crap. It never ceases to be a crowd pleaser.
If, by "dangerous," he believes the Mossad will be after him, he's in terrible need of psychotropic drugs.
#12
On the one hand, I'm not happy to see Scheuer get more publicity; on the other hand, I didn't know in the first place that he was a muttering-under-his-breath-about-the-zionists sort of moonbat.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/17/2005 9:19 Comments ||
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#13
I'd be looking at his colleagues, underlings and especially his supervisors who year after year (22 total) signed off on this asshat
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2005 9:35 Comments ||
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#14
good point Phil. What's more effective than posting his lies would be posting what that WE want to be known about him -that he's a money grubbing anti-semetic nut who failed to find binLaden.
Articles that discredit him personally, with just the slightest mention that he wrote a book about X, so that we know who we are talking about (but don't give the actual title) is useful. But it should be 24/7 that he's a nut with absolutely no promotion of his poisonious ideas.
Never ever put him on the talk shows to debate his ideas, but instead give the limelight to others, whom you want to give publicity, to talk about what a nut he is and how he failed to find bin Laden.
Propaganda is like poison oak - people have to come in contact with it to get infected. It's irrelevant how they come in contact with it - only that they do.
#15
and this is my beef with Fox News. All they ever do is say, "Scheuer says this...do you think he's right or wrong". They never show the pictures of our soldiers with smiling children, or have positive pieces that talk about the schools built, reconstruction, and the overall improvement in Iraq. Why is that? But don't get me started.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2005 10:45 Comments ||
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#18
I think that there is a silver lining here. I really doubt that he'll be on too many talk shows and CFR panels after this outburst. Look at how marginalized Buchanan has become.
The bad news is that this will become grist to feed the neo-Nazi and Islamist propaganda mills: "Respected CIA analyst confirms our position."
Very good point Frank G. You really gotta wonder how prevalent his views are inside the analyst bureaucracy.
#19
It really is an indictment of the CIA that they had such an idiot in charge of Binny hunting. Do they really believe that all the problems of the Arab and muslim world would cease if Israel were to disappear? We've discussed on RB before that the Arab world's problems run much deeper than that. Israel is just a convenient excuse for not addressing root-level problems. Why deal with your problems when you can blame everything on the jooos?
#20
Sounds like he's basically selling out his country to make some quick bucks peddling books, lectures, etc. to those who want to see the Joooooooooos behind everything, and giving both antisemitism and antiamericanism more momentum (as if either needed any) in the process.
If there's a lower form of scum than that, I can't think of it offhand.
#21
I cannot divulge details, but NOW - finally, you here at Rantburg can see first-hand why I said the senior positions in the CIA needed to be cleaned out with a flamethrower - and why a "cleanout" would not damage our intelligence system any worse than it is already.
After seeing this guy (and realizing that he was very senior): Do you now have any wonder left as to how we got sucker punched on 9/11, and how we got Iraq so wrong in terms of resistance and WMD?
On the whole, the agencies were looking the wrong way - and those people who were looking the right way got stifled by this type of senior staff for rocking the boat and violating consensus & conventional wisdom.
And to those who said I was too extreme in my views about cleaning house at CIA - take a close look at this guy now that he is out of the shadows. *HE* is the type of senior intel official the "old boys" club produces and promotes into leaderhip positions.
Porter Goss needs to fire even more people - and to check this guy's stuff and jail him if he spilled anything. Just like Rathergate & the Bush docuemnts, if they guy has any facts and evidence, its time for him to reoport ti to the congress and press - or else be relegated to the black-helicoter/tin-foil-beanie brigade where he can join Boris and all the other nutjob anti-Jew conspiracy whackos.
#22
So, how many of you have ever worked with Mike? How many of you agree with Pat Buchanan and his look at US overseas policies?
The true culprit on why UBL wasn't rolled up wasn't because of the intel, it was the policy makers. Ask Mansur Hijazi, who offered UBL up to the USG in the mid 90s. Go back and look at who in the IC was trying to tell policy makers that UBL was a threat. Let's take a look at who was sounding the alarm and who was sitting on their thumbs -- Mike wasn't one of the thumb sitters.
Binni declared war on the US in August 1996, published in al Quds al Arabi. Only a handful of folks besides Mike Sheuer believed we were at war and was working to prevent a disaster. The first disaster was in East Africa -- two years after the fact.
Most of the comments, IMHO, are out of line and inconsistent with what I experienced in the mid to late 90s.
Submitted FYI -- one man's honest opinion on what was going on behind the green door.
#23
H8 UBL: You make a valid point that intel alone wasn't responsible. Many people share the blame. 9/11 was like the Donner Party - a series of bad decisions, with lots of blame to go around. But your point about Mike is drowned by his drivel written above. Did you read it? Do you still defend him!? Then all you are doing is adding credence to Frank G's point above.
#24
2b - I read the original article over the weekend and I don't agree with the conspiracy thread. The point some folks might miss, however, is that this isn'n OpEd Mike wrote. It's an article where the author took a small portion of his comments and did a pretty darn good job of making Mike look like an anti-Semite worthy of having Simon Weasenthal hunt him down. I first read the article in a Wall Street Journal Post, earlier in the week.
In that light, I did think, the article was biased and really did a great disservice for all the great, unpublicized work Mike did in a system that largely dismissed his warning and thought his predicitions were "Nuts".
I think we may have missed the opportunity to comment on the central theme, which is that US-Israeli cooperation plays into the hands of the Salafists and Takfiri in the world -- count UBL, AMZ, EIJ, IG, etc -- with dry kindling. Do I think there is a conspiracy by the state of Israei -- no; Does US support of Israel have political consequences -- especially vis-a-vis the terrorist threat -- definitely yes. Regardless of how we justify our overseas policies, especially in the ME, those policies are still viewed largely as pro-Israeli by a great number Arabs, which is then translated as being anti-Palestenian, Arab, Islam, etc... Do we shuck Israel to avoid the threat of terrorists like Binni, no, but we can probably can do more to expedite an Israeli-Palestenian solution, which would eventually remove an anti-US catalyst from a volatile region.
With that said, highly recommend ALCON try and listen to the debate discussion between Pat Buchanan and Schranasky (sic) from this weeknd's Sunday talk show to drive the discussion into a good thought provoking examination on US foreign policy at large, and US-Israeli-Arab relations in particular.
#25
fine, H8_UBL, but we support the only democracy in the ME (prior to Iraq's transformation) and our current policies (along with the Fish's timely demise) are bringing bigger progress to peace than ever. I'm still of the opinion the Paleos can't go much further without a civil war to sort out a national consensus, but I could very well be wrong
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2005 18:39 Comments ||
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#26
The problem is that as an analyst, you job is not only to analyze the data, but to get inside the head of yor opponent, in order to accurately predict what he will do.
But then comes the second part: you have to substantiate your position, and sell it (yes, SELL it) to the powers that be.
If you are right, but for the wrong reasons, and come across as a howling moonbat, then you will lose credibility and no matter how accurate your analysis product, it will be discounted because you didnt support it and sell it.
Were you to have that fellow come to you with his case for Bin Laden, and then back it up by saying the Congress was Co-Opted and the whole thing was an Israeli intelligence operation to control the world, then of course you'd question EVERTHING the guy said.
So, just like a stopped clock, Scheuer was right a couple times, but for all the wrong reasons, and that caused us to waste resoruces dealing with the wrong things if his work was in fact acted upon. For his work to be acted upon, the larger threat to the US was Israel and its influence operations aimed at our congress - far more damage would be done to the US if that was true.
And if he was considered to be wrong, then we would have ignored the "Israeli intellig3ence is running congress" - as well as the things that went with it and depended upon it: the Bin Laden gang.
Scheuer is typical of the mindset that some top level people have. ANd thats why we fail and continue to fail the nation in the intelligence community. And intelligcence failures are costly in terms of lives, as Pearl Harbor and 9/11 and so vividly illustrate.
#27
hmmm...once again, nice start. But...ya see, the thing is, I'm super sensitive. I don't even need to touch poison oak to break out in a rash.
I don't know if you have been around rantburg long, but the other regular posters will be very surprised that the only thing I have to say to you is FUCK YOU LOSER ASSHOLE. As Mike's co-worker, it's clear that you too have the blood of the 3,000 WTC dead on your hands because you chose to ignore the obvious and sit quietly as you excused sign after sign after sign - in order be in with the crowd.
Do you see their faces when you go to sleep at night?
Instead of trying to justify it by blaming someone, anyone else but yourself, why don't you just ask for forgiveness? It's really not your fault. It's no ones fault.
But it becomes your sin as you try to justify it away. Maybe Mike is taken out of context. I don't claim to know. But unless he AND YOU are willing to look to seek to blame others, you can continue your descent into hell and fuck off.
I think we may have missed the opportunity to comment on the central theme, which is that US-Israeli cooperation plays into the hands of the Salafists and Takfiri in the world -- count UBL, AMZ, EIJ, IG, etc -- with dry kindling. Do I think there is a conspiracy by the state of Israei -- no; Does US support of Israel have political consequences -- especially vis-a-vis the terrorist threat -- definitely yes. Regardless of how we justify our overseas policies, especially in the ME, those policies are still viewed largely as pro-Israeli by a great number Arabs, which is then translated as being anti-Palestenian, Arab, Islam, etc... Do we shuck Israel to avoid the threat of terrorists like Binni, no, but we can probably can do more to expedite an Israeli-Palestenian solution, which would eventually remove an anti-US catalyst from a volatile region.
What Americans view as bin Laden's megalomania -- the conviction that he and a relatively small band of followers can defeat a superpower -- has its origins in the humbling of the Soviet superpower in the mountains of Afghanistan. In a CNN interview in 1997, he said that "the myth of the superpower was destroyed not only in my mind but also in the minds of all Muslims" as a result of the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan at the hands of mujaheddin.
Bin Laden's contempt for America seems even greater than his contempt for the Soviet Union. "The Russian soldier is more courageous and patient than the U.S. soldier," he told the London-based Arab newspaper, al-Quds al-Arabi, in 1996. "Our battle with the United States is easy compared with the battles in which we engaged in Afghanistan."
As examples of alleged American cowardice, bin Laden frequently cites the case of the withdrawal from Lebanon after the 1983 truck bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut and the withdrawal from Somalia after the 1993 killings of U.S. servicemen in Mogadishu. Bin Laden also has paid a great deal of attention to the symbolism of his targets. In a video that circulated widely in the Arab world earlier this year, he bragged of the attack on the USS Cole by a boat filled with explosives in Aden harbor in October 2000. The destroyer had the "illusion she could destroy anything," but was itself destroyed by a tiny boat, bin Laden said.
"The destroyer represented the West, and the small boat represented Muhammad," he boasted, according to a transcript of the videotape supplied by Peter Bergen, author of "Holy War Inc.," a forthcoming book about bin Laden.
While I actually have sympathy for the Palestinians, and want to see them eventually throw off the shackles of all those in the Arab world who would fight the Israelis to the last drop of Palestinian blood... trying to gain favor with the extremists in the middle east by selling out the Israelis is only likely to feed this perception of weakness.
BTW, I also suggest reading Bin Laden's fatwa, conveniently available here. He mentions Zionists, but he also mentions US armies of occupation in Saudi Arabia, and the millions of civilians he alleges the US killed in Iraq... now he blames US invasions and occupations on Israel, but if peace, love, and kumbaya broke out tomorrow in Israel and Palestine, we'd still have to support the Iraqi government against the Shi'ites, and still have to deal with Iran, and they'd come up with another conspiracy theory to justify what they really want to do.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/17/2005 19:34 Comments ||
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#31
Please folks, let me clarify a few pointss. There were disagreements, within the IC in the pre East Africa (Aug 98) days -- 96 and 97, on the threat UBL posed to US interests. Mike correctly pointed out well before East Africa that UBL was a threat to US interests. His shop and mine, while heard, where not nescessarily taken seriously by folks within and outside of the IC. In the post-Khobar Tower enviornment, getting more than a handful of folks interested in Sunni extremists was difficult. After East Africa, but before the USS COLE, the Binni threat was taken more seriously, but certain policy makers still thought in limited scope terms in dealing with the terrorist menace; overall policy was one more of limiting/mitigating the threat, rather than eliminating the threat. Now, we have adopted a position in which the USG's goal is to eliminate, not mitigate, the threat. We've broken the post investigative mentality and are now far more proactive in delaing with threats.
In light of these comments, and the posts of my fellow Ranters ...
Frank G, I agree with your commnents and I think you're probably right that there are probably more years of violence ahead in the ME before exhaustion causes all parties to sit down and solve their problems.
Old Spook ... I would agree with your premise, but Mike wasn't addressing US-Israeli policy in 96-97, those issues were talked up by the folks in Foggy Bottom. Pre East Africa he was telling people, whether they chose to believe it or not, that we were going to be attacked, that we needed to address the problem now (96-97), not later (2001); and we had to go after the threat in such a way it would make Machiavelli cringe (my words, not his). In that context, once the policy makers demur, we all had to rehuddle and repitch the case, which was done often. Perhaps we didn't make a convincing enough case, but one would think East Africa and USS Cole would have changed some of the calculus in the Clinton White house decision circle.
For 2b, I really hope you didn't mean those comments. I've lost friends from Beirut to the Pentagon over the course of many years, spent too much time from home and family trying to prevent Binni, AMZ and his drones from doing real evil in the world, to have your words pierce too deep. Do I see faces, sure, especially the folks I knew who died on 9-11; it's quite haunting to replay why warnings and suggested actions to remove this cancer weren't acted upon. Regardless, they weren't and here we are. Fortunately, and incrimentally, we are winning, but now it will take us much longer to accomplish something more achievable in 97-99, than it maybe in 2005.
IMHO, we're lucky we had GW to execute OEF, too bad he wasn't in his current postion in 96-99
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2005 20:17 Comments ||
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#33
well...h8, you talk a good game and I would be happy to give you the benefit of the doubt. I'm still leary since you defended the vile crap that is posted above.
Perhaps it is taken out of context. If so, you have my apologies.
#34
You can always follow the links 2b and read it. I just did.
H8_UBL: I just read Sheuer's speach and most of the Q&A and frankly my opinion of him remains the same. I think that he is just plain wrong on a lot of things:
* OBL is a "rational actor."
* Pakistan is our best ally in this war.
* Afghanistan is going to blow up on us any minute.
* We let ourselves be led by Israel rather than the other way around.
On the other hand, I agree with him on a couple of things:
* We need to fight this war ferociously. Stop the "proportionate response" carp. That was supposed to die with McNamara.
* The transnational threat (called the Learned Elders of Islam or Council of Boskone here) is much greater than the national threat.
Also, reading between the lines, I don't think that he appreciates the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah threat sufficiently.
Overall, I'd rate him as probably a good tactical analyst. I don't think that he should be talking to the CFR about strategic issues. I'm very disturbed that he's bought into the "Israel controlling Congress" crap. God knows how many 3rd World "intellectuals" have handed me that line over the years. I believe that the Weekly Standard was correct to give prominence to his anti-Israel statements. Scheuer should not be an important part of the public debate.
#35
And one last thought. You said, "How many of you agree with Pat Buchanan and his look at US overseas policies?" There are two ways that I can interpret your meaning for that comment. If your intent was to support Pat's POV, then I can only say that Old Spook's comments should cut you far deeper than my own.
#37
I was an Air Force Imagery Analyst for 20+ years, including tours at NPIC, Germany, England, and Offutt. I worked with a lot of CIA folks on a daily basis, and know some 40 people that work for the Agency in Washington, DC. I haven't had any dealings with them since I retired in 1991, even though I still get a notice from a very senior CIA member every year to join him in Washington. Thanks, but no thanks.
Mike Scheur's attitude is quite prevelant among the analysts I knew in DC, and even moreso among the analysts in the State Department's Intelligence Department. It wasn't there among the imagery analysts, and it's certainly not there among the folks at NSA, but it's highly prevelant among the people at Langley. The change took place during the 1975-1985 time period, when the Agency switched from hiring senior military intel folks to hiring college graduates for analysis. The housecleaning needs to be fast, effective, and deep, and a lot of "whiz kids" with idiotic looney ideas need to have to search for real jobs - soon.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/17/2005 22:11 Comments ||
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#38
We are at war. As much so with ideas as we are with guns. The Elders of Zion myth is a lie that we were "fooled once" with in Hitler's time resulting in millions dead. It is the lie that destroys most progress in the Islamic world today.
Shame on anyone who allows it or it's ugly step child, the idea that US is led by Israel, to go unchallenged in polite circles.
#39
Old Patriot - you nailed it. CIA has their own analysts, and IMHO, they are not nearly as sharp anymore as the wizards in the more technical agencies, especially the "all source" guys I worked with at no such agency and DIA and the SCE's.
And thats why "we" (the entire IC) missed the stuff that was there in front of us.
I say "We" although I've been gone for almost a decade now, except reserve duty (and that ended prior to 9/11).
I'm getting back in, once my SSBI and PRP investigations are done and adjudicated (big backlog on those). As a part-time "contractor". Looking forward to it.
#40
I cannot divulge details, but NOW - finally, you here at Rantburg can see first-hand why I said the senior positions in the CIA needed to be cleaned out with a flamethrower - and why a "cleanout" would not damage our intelligence system any worse than it is already.
After seeing this guy (and realizing that he was very senior): Do you now have any wonder left as to how we got sucker punched on 9/11, and how we got Iraq so wrong in terms of resistance and WMD?
On the whole, the agencies were looking the wrong way - and those people who were looking the right way got stifled by this type of senior staff for rocking the boat and violating consensus & conventional wisdom.
And to those who said I was too extreme in my views about cleaning house at CIA - take a close look at this guy now that he is out of the shadows. *HE* is the type of senior intel official the "old boys" club produces and promotes into leaderhip positions.
Porter Goss needs to fire even more people - and to check this guy's stuff and jail him if he spilled anything. Just like Rathergate & the Bush docuemnts, if they guy has any facts and evidence, its time for him to reoport ti to the congress and press - or else be relegated to the black-helicoter/tin-foil-beanie brigade where he can join Boris and all the other nutjob anti-Jew conspiracy whackos.
#41
The problem is that as an analyst, you job is not only to analyze the data, but to get inside the head of yor opponent, in order to accurately predict what he will do.
But then comes the second part: you have to substantiate your position, and sell it (yes, SELL it) to the powers that be.
If you are right, but for the wrong reasons, and come across as a howling moonbat, then you will lose credibility and no matter how accurate your analysis product, it will be discounted because you didnt support it and sell it.
Were you to have that fellow come to you with his case for Bin Laden, and then back it up by saying the Congress was Co-Opted and the whole thing was an Israeli intelligence operation to control the world, then of course you'd question EVERTHING the guy said.
So, just like a stopped clock, Scheuer was right a couple times, but for all the wrong reasons, and that caused us to waste resoruces dealing with the wrong things if his work was in fact acted upon. For his work to be acted upon, the larger threat to the US was Israel and its influence operations aimed at our congress - far more damage would be done to the US if that was true.
And if he was considered to be wrong, then we would have ignored the "Israeli intellig3ence is running congress" - as well as the things that went with it and depended upon it: the Bin Laden gang.
Scheuer is typical of the mindset that some top level people have. ANd thats why we fail and continue to fail the nation in the intelligence community. And intelligcence failures are costly in terms of lives, as Pearl Harbor and 9/11 and so vividly illustrate.
#42
Old Patriot - you nailed it. CIA has their own analysts, and IMHO, they are not nearly as sharp anymore as the wizards in the more technical agencies, especially the "all source" guys I worked with at no such agency and DIA and the SCE's.
And thats why "we" (the entire IC) missed the stuff that was there in front of us.
I say "We" although I've been gone for almost a decade now, except reserve duty (and that ended prior to 9/11).
I'm getting back in, once my SSBI and PRP investigations are done and adjudicated (big backlog on those). As a part-time "contractor". Looking forward to it.
#43
I cannot divulge details, but NOW - finally, you here at Rantburg can see first-hand why I said the senior positions in the CIA needed to be cleaned out with a flamethrower - and why a "cleanout" would not damage our intelligence system any worse than it is already.
After seeing this guy (and realizing that he was very senior): Do you now have any wonder left as to how we got sucker punched on 9/11, and how we got Iraq so wrong in terms of resistance and WMD?
On the whole, the agencies were looking the wrong way - and those people who were looking the right way got stifled by this type of senior staff for rocking the boat and violating consensus & conventional wisdom.
And to those who said I was too extreme in my views about cleaning house at CIA - take a close look at this guy now that he is out of the shadows. *HE* is the type of senior intel official the "old boys" club produces and promotes into leaderhip positions.
Porter Goss needs to fire even more people - and to check this guy's stuff and jail him if he spilled anything. Just like Rathergate & the Bush docuemnts, if they guy has any facts and evidence, its time for him to reoport ti to the congress and press - or else be relegated to the black-helicoter/tin-foil-beanie brigade where he can join Boris and all the other nutjob anti-Jew conspiracy whackos.
#44
The problem is that as an analyst, you job is not only to analyze the data, but to get inside the head of yor opponent, in order to accurately predict what he will do.
But then comes the second part: you have to substantiate your position, and sell it (yes, SELL it) to the powers that be.
If you are right, but for the wrong reasons, and come across as a howling moonbat, then you will lose credibility and no matter how accurate your analysis product, it will be discounted because you didnt support it and sell it.
Were you to have that fellow come to you with his case for Bin Laden, and then back it up by saying the Congress was Co-Opted and the whole thing was an Israeli intelligence operation to control the world, then of course you'd question EVERTHING the guy said.
So, just like a stopped clock, Scheuer was right a couple times, but for all the wrong reasons, and that caused us to waste resoruces dealing with the wrong things if his work was in fact acted upon. For his work to be acted upon, the larger threat to the US was Israel and its influence operations aimed at our congress - far more damage would be done to the US if that was true.
And if he was considered to be wrong, then we would have ignored the "Israeli intellig3ence is running congress" - as well as the things that went with it and depended upon it: the Bin Laden gang.
Scheuer is typical of the mindset that some top level people have. ANd thats why we fail and continue to fail the nation in the intelligence community. And intelligcence failures are costly in terms of lives, as Pearl Harbor and 9/11 and so vividly illustrate.
#45
Old Patriot - you nailed it. CIA has their own analysts, and IMHO, they are not nearly as sharp anymore as the wizards in the more technical agencies, especially the "all source" guys I worked with at no such agency and DIA and the SCE's.
And thats why "we" (the entire IC) missed the stuff that was there in front of us.
I say "We" although I've been gone for almost a decade now, except reserve duty (and that ended prior to 9/11).
I'm getting back in, once my SSBI and PRP investigations are done and adjudicated (big backlog on those). As a part-time "contractor". Looking forward to it.
#5
Diamondbacks mind their own snaky business, and only cause problems for humans when some big galumphing hiker stomps into the snake's territory before the snake can flee. Never step over a log without looking, never reach over a log or down into a hole, and be sure you wear heavy boots in snake country. The only creatures who have to fear rattlesnakes, as a rule, are rodents.
Soros, however, is noticeably more dangerous, and generally collaborates with rats.
#6
Given how Soros has been choosing to throw around his money in the last few years, I am forced to wonder if he's had a series of mini-strokes that affected his critical thinking abilities.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2005 21:14 Comments ||
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#8
From RUSH: "Howard Dean called on the head of New York's Republican Party to apologize or resign over remarks linking the Democrats to a civil rights lawyer convicted of aiding terrorists. Dean called Stephen Minarik's comments 'offensive' and said, 'The American people deserve better than this type of political character assassination.' On Monday, Minarik said that Dean's election 'shows that the Democrats simply have refused to learn the lessons of the past two election cycles and now they can be accurately called the party of Barbara Boxer, Lynn Stewart and Howard Dean.'"
#6
Just as intersting, but below the radar screen of the mainstream press is that Hayden, Director of NSA, is in the #2 slot. Wonder who will move to NSA with Hayden's departure
#7
Nancy Pelosi just was on Fox dissing him. Why? She can't even vote one him. She is isn't a senator. This is good our internal foes will show thay are just that. Keep flaping your lips you shriveled old gas bags.
The head of the International Committee for the Red Cross has met US President George W Bush to discuss concerns about detainees at Guantanamo Bay. ICRC officials regularly visit the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban members are being held.
The committee said Mr Kellenberger had met President Bush in Washington on Monday. Their discussion "focused on ICRC concerns regarding US detention" as well as the main challenges facing the organisation in armed conflicts around the world. He also met US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and is due to meet Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday.
The Geneva-based agency said it welcomed the opportunity to "raise these issues at the highest level and looks forward to strengthening its confidential dialogue with US authorities."
The Bush administration insists the 540 or so inmates of Guantanamo - many of whom have been held without charge since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan - have been treated humanely. Human rights organisations claim say prisoners have been mistreated, and released detainees have followed the playbook and have spoken of beatings and coerced confessions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/17/2005 12:34:30 AM ||
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#1
Because obviously, there aren't enough human beings dying in various horrible ways anywhere else on the globe to warrant the attention of the ICRC. Sheesh.
#2
Here's the deal with the United States military and 'humanitarian' organizations like the Red Reticle.
The NGOs know the US military/US Government will cooperate so therefore they made absurd demands to ensure their supporters that 'soemthing is being done,' inasmuch as something would have been done regardless of their input.
The NGOs also know they will never get this type of cooperation fron 90 percent of the world's other nations: Not Sudan, not Cuba, not North Korea.
So, NGOs are bravely making those who are not only willing to cooperate but who are staying ahead of any problems, while even more bravely acting as though such 'examples' will make the other truley crappy mobocracies/tyrannies in the world do the right thing.
#3
Put me in charge. I will execute on inmate everytime the ICRC opens it's mouth. Tell me the last time the ICRC protected a US soilder from his captors? WW2?
They can all FOAD.
#5
Badanov has it pretty much right. But I think it may even be worse than he says. The anti-US impulse in the comfortable, protected parts of the industrialized world is so strong that it seems to have infected an organization that wasn't previously that way.
Last I checked, the ICRC was even joining those who argued that the Conventions had no actual content, and no inter-locking system of obligations and privileges -- they had a laughable "legal" argument on their website that very unconvincingly tried to argue that global terrorists merit Convention POW status.
I hope Dubya had a list of his own -- at the top of mine would be to administer a tongue-lashing to the ICRC for abandoning its confidentiality doctrine several times in the last few years to the special detriment of the US. They did this both in Iraq and WRT Guantanamo.
#10
CrazyFool: The ICRC is only doing what it feels is in it's best interest to validate itself. We're one of the few countries that will meet with them to discuss their "concerns" as you pointed out with North Korea. Otherwise, they'd be gettin' around the world (and in the news) alot more often. Just smile and show 'em the door.
Not all Marines take pride in the work of their brothers.
Take Scott Ritter, a former Marine and United Nations weapons inspector, who has turned into a critic of just about anything the U.S. does in Iraq. Now he's writing for Al-Jazeera's Web site, which seems like a perfect home for his defeatist rhetoric.
According to Mr. Ritter, "The highly vaunted U.S. military machine, laurelled and praised for its historic march on Baghdad in March and April of 2003, today finds itself a broken force, on the defensive in a land that it may occupy in part, but does not control."
Offering no proof whatsoever, Mr. Ritter accuses the U.S. of conspiring with Iraqi assassination squads, and that, not foreign terrorists or former Saddam officials, is what started the post-war violence in Iraq: "Having started the game of politically motivated assassination, the U.S. has once again found itself trumped by forces inside Iraq it does not understand, and as such will never be able to defeat."
As for the enemy, which he calls a "genuine grassroots national liberation movement," Ritter is generous: "History will eventually depict as legitimate the efforts of the Iraqi resistance to destabilise and defeat the American occupation forces and their imposed Iraqi collaborationist government."
The only way out, according to Ritter, is for us to fail: "It is hard as an American to support the failure of American military operations in Iraq. Such failure will bring with it the death and wounding of many American service members, and many more Iraqis."
It may be hard for Mr. Ritter to root for the enemy in Iraq, but that's exactly what he's doing. Why he's doing that is another question.
And that's the Asman Observer.
#1
How's the diddling thing going, Scott? You square that away yet?
Blixie and Clarkie and Joe Wilson are looking forward to your induction ceremony in the Irrelevant Hall of Fame. The got the plaque ready and everything.
#7
More like DeepThroat, (of the linda lovelace variety)
Posted by: Tom Dooley ||
02/17/2005 18:24 Comments ||
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#8
Scott Ritter has to deal with Burger King's security if he is going to want to "visit" anyone. The good thing about this security is that an occasional Angus Burger with Bacon and Cheese is all he wants...
So - Al-Jazzera seems a more appealing alternative...
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2005 19:47 Comments ||
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#12
Ahhh... "he is conducting himself in the manner which we have come to expect of him..."
To quote that classic bit of military performance-rating boiler plate when someone that you have to pass an opinion upon has really, really screwed the pooch, and tact prevents you from saying so, outright.
#13
What an incredible 180 he has done with his life. I would like to know if he changed religion, one that shall not be named and justifies diddling teenage girls. If not, the UN has openings where he can partake in his little predilection.
Posted by: ed ||
02/17/2005 20:54 Comments ||
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#14
"Mr. Ritter accuses the U.S. of conspiring with Iraqi assassination squads"
-And the problem w/that is? If only that we're true, now that would be cool.
Fuck you scott, fuck you very much. Even we have our 10% of douch bags.
Al Qaeda has opened recruiting and training bases in Nigeria, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda, the United Nations said Tuesday in a report that warned the terror group's attacks should be expected to increase.
The report was written by terrorism experts appointed by the Security Council to monitor sanctions against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the regime of radical Muslim clerics that had run Afghanistan until a U.S.-led coalition ousted them in 2001.
UN sanctions require all 191 UN member nations to impose a travel ban and arms embargo against a list of those linked to Osama bin Laden's terror network and the former Afghan rulers. Members are also required to freeze the financial assets of those on the list, which includes more than 430 individuals and groups.
Terrorism involving Al Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction remains among the paramount global threats, the report said. Al Qaeda wants chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, and it is only "a matter of time" before a successful attack occurs using such weapons, the report said.
"The biggest fear we all have is terrorists getting hold of the means to cause a mass attack," said Richard Barrett, a British intelligence expert who is the team's coordinator. "Al Qaeda is a phenomenon that observes no borders. It is even harder to track now than it was a year or two ago when it had a more coherent structure."
The report said Al Qaeda is looking for "new areas to expand" and has established bases in "poorly policed" areas of sub-Saharan Africa. They are present there. The security forces of those countries agree with that," Barrett said of Nigeria, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/17/2005 12:14:58 AM ||
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AL-QAEDA remains capable of mounting "devastating attacks" and sanctions are only having a limited effect on the group, a United Nations report says.
A team of UN investigators also found the organisation is still trying to acquire chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons and it is only "a matter of time" before a successful attack occurred, the report says.
The investigation reviewed sanctions against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and predicted brutal attacks by Osama bin Laden's followers would escalate because they still have easy access to bombmaking materials and money.
Terror attacks sponsored by al-Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction are among the chief threats confronting the world, says the report to a UN Security Council committee.
UN sanctions require all 191 member states to impose a travel ban and arms embargo against a list of those linked to Osama bin Laden's terror network and the former Afghan rulers and to freeze their financial assets. The list includes more than 430 individuals and groups.
"The biggest fear we all have is terrorists getting hold of the means to cause a mass attack," said Richard Barrett, who co-ordinated the investigation.
"Al-Qaeda is a phenomenon that observes no borders. It is even harder to track now than it was a year or two ago when it had a more coherent structure and leadership."
Mr Barrett said he did not think al-Qaeda was likely to obtain an entire bomb, but rather components of weapons of mass destruction, for example, toxic or radioactive material.
Despite steps taken by UN member states to impose military-style weapon embargoes, attacks with small arms and explosives have continued, it says.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/17/2005 12:12:55 AM ||
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#1
Woohoo!! another UN investigative "report", how fascinating, what have we learned this time? Where AQ keeps the booze and the 10 year olds?
Pack of idiots, at least we don't ever have to worry about NY getting nuked, no rogue state or scumbag terrorist would want to destroy its primary ally on American soil.
UN sanctions and resolutions accomplish nothing & prevent nothing.
UNITED Nations officials would not be allowed to testify before US Congress hearings on the oil-for-food program in Iraq, the UN said in a letter released today.
"Nope. Nope. Can't do it."
The letter from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, said officials could brief privately but that diplomatic immunity kept them off-limits for public hearings. "As a matter of policy, the (UN) organisation does not waive such immunity in relation to testimony under oath before national legislative bodies," he said in a letter to Republican Senator Norm Coleman.
Mr Malloch Brown said UN officials would otherwise have to make themselves available to the legislatures of the UN's more than 190 member nations. Coleman is heading a US Senate panel looking into the scandal-plagued oil-for-food program and had wanted Dileep Nair, the head of the UN's internal watchdog, to testify. The letter, dated Monday, said Mr Nair could not testify at a hearing yesterday that saw complaints from senators about access to UN officials.
Posted by: tipper ||
02/17/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Might not be a good idea to tick off the guys who can cut off 30 or 40 percent of your budget, Koaf...
#3
So far the MSM has ignored the fact the UN is exempt from US laws and has no laws of its own (unlike regular foreign embassies where the laws of the forieg country apply). The UN is literally the most lawless place in the world.
#4
Zero surprise. As it became apparent that the evidence was there to indict UN officials, you knew the UN's High Priest Vulture Elite would scramble to cover their corrupt asses.
#5
We don't need to be blatant about punishing the U.N. Kofi is ruining his reputation far better than Karl Rove could ever mastermind (hmmm, wait a minute ...). More and more mainstream, moderate, middle-of-the-road Americans are coming to see that those UNICEF dimes they gave over the years are ending up in the hands of some rather odious people. There's a tipping point, and it's on the horizon.
We don't need to escort the UN out of New York or cut off our contributions to the General Assembly. We can deliver the message and at the same time keep the yammering yaps at the MSM from, well, yammering. Sorry Kofi, we'd generally put our tsunami relief money in your hands, but this time we're working with the Aussies. Sorry, Kofi, but if there's going to be a new multi-national force put into Insanistan, but it has to be American-led and be guided by a mission statement that we just happen to have right here.
And so on. The UN is a big, big, ship so it won't turn on a UNICEF dime, but we could start moving it in a better direction. Keeping a marginally-useful UN around might be handy.
Then again, oh hell, fuck 'em.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/17/2005 2:06 Comments ||
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#6
I haven't changed my opinion. The US out of the UN and the UN out of the US. We are not going to heal this. The cancer at the UN can't be cured.
#7
If they won't testify, make them persona non grata and revoke their visas, just like we do to Russian spies and other riffraff. If enough of them get themselves kicked out of the country, either the U.N. will have to restaff itself with people less to our disliking, or the whole thing will huffily move itself to somewhere more welcoming. Either way, we win.
#8
Actually, PBMcL, the official percentage of the UN budget contributed by the United States is 22%. Admittedly not as important as if it were 40%, but by far greater than anyone else, and wouldn't we freaking get better results out of them if it were?
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
02/17/2005 7:11 Comments ||
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#9
SPoD-
What we need is some therapy. Just like they do for cancer, in fact. Radiation therapy. We do need to test those burrowing nukes, right? Let's dig all those 3rd world hellhole diplomats a hole in a desert somewhere and test the burrowing warhead.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/17/2005 7:28 Comments ||
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#10
Have the hearings in Monte Carlo or someplace like that. Throw in free airfare and tell them they can expense their food, booze, and barely legal hooker bills. They'll be lined up out the door to testify.
#11
Steve in #5-I like what you said about the UN being a big, big ship that we could move in a better direction. I immediately got a picture in my head of the Monty Python Crimson Assurance skit--a combination skyscraper/Winnebago lumbering through lower Manhattan, eventually to fall off a cliff.
Posted by: T. Jefferson ||
02/17/2005 11:20 Comments ||
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#13
The US contributes 22% of the UN general budget. The US often contributes more to specific activities, such as 33% to US peacekeeping (no including things we don't bill for such as logistics and US personnel). I remember reading that the US provided 40% of the funding to Jan (US is stingy) Eglund's Humanitarian Affairs group.
Instead I think the US sould reduce it's contribution to no more than 5% of any UN funding and opt out of any organization that is corrupt, misusing funds, or at cross purposes with US goals.
Posted by: ed ||
02/17/2005 12:30 Comments ||
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#14
Just because they are U.N. officials and have diplomatic immunity doesn't mean we have to allow them all over the place. I'd restrict them to Manhattan and a corridor to the airport -- and jail anyone who is out of bounds.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/17/2005 12:49 Comments ||
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#15
First, lets have a banquet at the UN Building and fete all the wonderful folks there for their contributions to The Oil for Food Program. That should get most in not all in the building. Next, lock and guard the doors to prevent escape. Lastly, invite any all Iraqi poeple to stop by, hand each there own silver monogrammed UN commorative fillet knife and let them each have their choice of 1 lb of flesh. Gotta give everyone a chance. I feel justice would be served.
#16
"According to Jed Babbin, in his book "Inside the Asylum" "accountability is unknown at the U.N. and he referred to the U.N. as the "U.N. crime family." He said "the biggest difference between the Mafia and the U.N. is that the Mafia holds its employees accountable for their performance." Babbin believes the U.N. rogues have gone beyond their entitlement immunities and that, under international law, those immunities could be stripped away. An alternative would be for the U.S. to change its laws to take away those immunities. Babbin also said the secretive Annan refuses to release the results of 55 audits of the Oil-for-Food money, is not cooperating in any of the investigations, and refuses to allow U.N. employees to be interviewed or questioned."
The above was posted on pelicanpost.blogspot on Feb. 2, 2005 "United Nations Whitewash:...."
The "news" that Kofi Annan would now not allow U.N. personnel to testify on the record under oath is not news. We've known that since before the impotent Paul Volcker Commission got off and creeping. The U.S. Dept of Justice should now rev up their criminal investigations; Congress should revoke diplomatic immunity; and Turtle Bay (U.N.) should go the way of the League of Nations---into oblivion. -Jacqueline
This is pretty indispensible -- a New Yorker who was adopted from Lebanon moved there a while back. He has a whole bunch of diary entries about the country, the culture, the people, the history. And he's been doing a couple of great on-the-ground pieces about the assaination and funeral.
#1
cool. I fwd'd to a Lebanese (maronite christian) engineer I work with - one of the smartest, nicest guys I know - he was just back there for the holidays and is really down about what's been going on...thx growler
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2005 21:48 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The Bush administration is seeking a $7.3 million funding boost for Voice of America newscasts into Iran and other Muslim countries. The requested increase follows a proposed 10 percent increase in the president's fiscal 2006 budget, which is one of the largest for any federal agency in percentage terms, the Washington Times said. It would push the broadcasting service's budget to $652 million -- a 45 percent increase since 2001.
"It's important to remember that in the decade following the end of the Cold War, U.S. spending for international broadcasting was slashed a very real 40 percent," said Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which operates all of the government's non-military international broadcasting. "Now, thanks to President Bush and key supporters in Congress, we are rebuilding from a depleted base and working to get back to where we should be." According to VOA plans, the supplemental-funding bill will allow its Persian-language satellite-TV programs to expand from daily half-hour broadcasts to one hour "News and Views" newscasts that will be repeated and updated throughout the day.
And so, it begins.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/17/2005 9:30:22 AM ||
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#1
money well spent - let's get a 50,000 watt blaster like they have in Mexico across the border - reaches Canada
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2005 12:24 Comments ||
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#2
Put another one targetting France; you have no idea of the hate speech issued by the Parisian media;
#4
About time we started funding the VOA again. It really is a shame how our government dropped the ball on this outstanding broadcast medium when the cold war was over.
There are tons of shortwave radio receivers in the hands of of the regular folks in all of the countries that we want to target. Not everyone has a stellite dish or lives in the metropolitan areas with reliable access to TV, AM and FM broadcasts.
Posted by: Mac Suirtain ||
02/17/2005 15:41 Comments ||
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BEIRUT — US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns called yesterday for an "immediate and complete" withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Speaking in Beirut as slain former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al Hariri was laid to rest, Burns said: "Mr Hariri's death should give renewed impetus to achieving a free, independent and sovereign Lebanon. "What this means is the immediate and complete implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1559, and what that means is the complete and immediate withdrawal by Syria," Burns said after talks with Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud.
Very interesting how the US has used events, quiet diplomacy, and clear thinking from the top to put Syria in the cross-hairs. And how avidly the Syrians have cooperated.
Meanwhile, Syrians said the Lebanese, who chanted anti-Syrian protests at the funeral of Hariri, would tear each other apart if Syrian troops left. "If they feel this way, then I say we should withdraw and let them break each other like falling water melons," said a student in Damascus who gave his name as Amjad.
Who's your daddy, Amjad, and what's his rank in the Syrian intelligence services?
Burns said Washington and the world would monitor Lebanon closely as it prepares to hold parliamentary elections in spring. "The Lebanese must be allowed to make their own political choices and to conduct elections free of foreign interference," Burns said.
"Today Americans join the international community in stressing the urgent importance of conduct a serious and credible investigation to bring those responsible for this act of terrorism to justice," Burns said adding that his country was ready to help.
Hammoud told Burns that Interior Minister Suleiman Franjiyeh had insisted on Beirut's opposition to an international probe of the Hariri bombing. "An international inquiry is unacceptable. If necessary, we will ask for experts from neutral countries," Franjiyeh had said on Tuesday.
"Like Iran," he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/17/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Fascinating. Not that I think a Lebanon free of Syrian forces and their puppet government would yield a utopia - far from it - but Syria has no legitimate business there. It just saw an opportunity against a weak neighbor and took it.
Sure, go home Syrians. FOAD. Oh, and take this Hezbollah shit with you, too. No more proxy crap against Israel.
Then the Leb factions can kill each other in peace.
#2
I think that several world powers would spend considerable time, effort and energy to insure that Lebanon does not run wild like it used to. That is, after Hizbullah has been utterly purged from the country, and with the blessing of the Lebanese. The Iranians would be apoplectic, too.
NYT so prepare for handwringing:
As rising instability in Lebanon increases tensions in the Middle East, the Bush administration is arguing with European governments over whether they should designate the Lebanon-based Shiite group Hezbollah a terrorist organization, American and European officials say. The United States is already stepping up pressure on Iran and Syria, Hezbollah's main sponsors. The American rift with Syria deepened this week, with suspicions that Syria might have been behind the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister in Beirut on Monday.
The disagreement over Hezbollah presents another challenge for President Bush, who will go to Europe on Sunday on a mission to fix ruptures with Europe over the Iraq war. In the past two weeks, the officials said, France has rebuffed appeals by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, which would prevent it from raising money in Europe through charity groups. The United States has long called Hezbollah a terrorist organization, but the French, American and European officials said, have opposed doing so, and argue that making such a designation now would be unwise, given the new turbulence in Lebanon...
I think it would be an ideal time, given the turbulence in Lebanon, but what do I know?
"This is a difficult issue because Hezbollah has military operations that we deplore, but Hezbollah is also a political party in Lebanon," said a European official. "Can a political party elected by the Lebanese people be put on a terrorist list? Would that really help deal with terrorism? Now with Lebanon in a fragile state, is this the proper moment to take such a step?" A European diplomat said the issue of calling Hezbollah a terrorist organization was discussed in Brussels on Wednesday at a meeting of the Clearing House, a unit of the European Union that meets in confidential sessions to review terrorist activities in Europe. The group could reach no consensus, the diplomat said."Nothing is going to change on Hezbollah because we don't have an agreement among the member states," the diplomat said. "That doesn't mean we won't get a consensus. I know the Americans are impatient, but the European Union has 25 states, and these things take time."
"Yasss...these things take time."
I know all about time. In June of 2001 I was in Weehawken NJ, looking across at the lower Manhattan skyline. The Twin Towers were magnificently framed by sunrise and looming storm clouds. I briefly thought about taking a picture, but shrugged and said, "I'll take a picture...some other time." Hope these unnamed diplos and empty suits all have their pix of the Eiffel Tower...
Posted by: Seafarious ||
02/17/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Paul Celucci, former US Ambassador to Canada and potential Republican Presidential candidate, pressured his host country to move on Hizbollah. It worked. Celucci is a straight-shooter.
I don't know, France is being relatively reasonable this week, due to Syria having blown up one of Chirac's personal buddies. Good time to see where we could move the French on the whole Syrian/Lebanese front, even if they won't budge on Hezbollah.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/17/2005 7:23 Comments ||
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#4
LOL was late I ment Belgium. I don't know Hezbollah is pretty well linked to Syria and Iraq. If they (France) want to help out Lebanon Hezbollah is part of that deal just getting Syria out is only part of the problem. Hezbollah is Iran by proxy and tolerated by Syria.
#5
A camera in the sky would record the following sequence of events:
A suicide bombing carried out by Hezbollah-many people die. A little kid's arm is over here, a grandma's eyeball is over there.
The US calls Hezbollah a terrorist organization. It pressures France to call Hezbollah a terrorist orgaization, too.
France won't, because Hezbollah also has a political wing.
Hezbollah officials meet with French officials. They have a nice chat.
A suicide bombing happens again. This time a man's 3rd finger is found here, a pelvis of a middle aged woman is found there.
Dosey-do, swing your partner round, better diplomacy can't be found. And it starts all over again.
France sees Islamic murderers as nothing worse than senators, meeting with them, giving them shelter and public voice, smiling and shaking the hands that blew up many people. Sickening what our "ally" France is willing and happy to do.
Al Hayat cited diplomatic sources in Paris for its 'last chance' report. It quoted the sources as also saying the international community had sent a clear message to the Assad regime to refrain from 'any bloodletting in Lebanon."
The message warned that assassinating ex-Premier Hariri or Druze leader Walid Jumblat would initiate a "total, final and irrevocable divorce with the international community," according to Al Hayat.
Rea-hee-hee-EALLY! So France needs a divorce lawyer, then?
#8
IIRC ETA has a political party, and we know the IRA has one, has this stopped the designation of their military arms as "terrorist"? Pure crap and wordgames
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2005 10:53 Comments ||
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Former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri was laid to rest in central Beirut on Wednesday amid scenes of anger as thousands of mourners poured into the streets chanting anti-Syrian slogans. Draped in a Lebanese flag, al-Hariri's casket arrived with some difficulty to the unfinished Muhammad al-Amin Mosque, which is located in downtown Beirut, the district he helped to rebuild and transform from a forgotten ghost area during the Lebanese civil war into a major tourist attraction. Tens of thousands of people lined up the streets along the 3.2km route taken by the funeral procession. Thousands of others thronged the roads, effectively blocking the ambulance that was carrying al-Hariri's body from reaching the burial site, located just outside the mosque.
"Syria get out, Syria get out," yelled the crowds. A woman in black shouted hysterically, "Syria messed up Lebanon. Let them get out of here. I don't want to see a Syrian face." Others called on the government to resign. "We don't recognise the current government. They are ruling us by force," Radwan Itani, 45, said. People who are opposed to Syria consider the government headed by Prime Minister Umar Karami a product of the controversial Syrian-inspired amendment of the Lebanese constitution that allowed President Emile Lahoud to extend his term for another three years last September.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam Hussein's feared cousin and expected to be one of the first of his henchmen to face trial for war crimes in Iraq, massacred Shi'ites as well as Kurds, a report issued Thursday said. Human Rights Watch said Majid, known as 'Chemical Ali' for gassing the Kurds in 1988, ordered the execution of hundreds of Shi'ites in Basra during a 1999 uprising sparked by the assassination of Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr. Saddam was blamed for killing the revered Shi'ite cleric and two of his sons. Sadr's third son is Moqtada al-Sadr, the rebellious young Shi'ite cleric who has led two uprisings against U.S. forces in the past year.
Human Rights Watch said it had a document and witnesses implicating Majid in the execution of at least 120 men and boys from the uprising, in which 40 Baath Party officials died. "Research ... strongly suggests that Iraqi security forces and Baath Party members, under the direct command and supervision of Ali Hassan al-Majid, engaged in systematic extrajudicial executions, widespread arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and collective punishment," the report said.
Iraqi officials expect Majid to be among the first of 11 Saddam lieutenants to go on trial for a range of crimes, including crimes against humanity and genocide, for his role in the poison gas attacks that killed thousands of Iraqi Kurds. Lawyers warn guilt may be hard to prove for attacks that happened so many years ago. But the evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch is recent and may be more convincing in court.
DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE
Its investigators visited Basra in April and May 2003 and obtained a four-page hand-written document from Shi'ite clerics. It had been found in the offices of Saddam's secret police when government buildings were looted after British troops entered the city in April 2003. The list is anonymous, carrying no official letterhead to link it to Saddam's security forces, a precaution that Human Rights Watch has noted with other potentially incriminating documents of the former regime. But its authenticity is strengthened by the fact that relatives have matched 29 of the names on the list with bodies exhumed from a mass grave near Basra. Neat columns list 120 men and boys aged between 16 and 36, give their home addresses in Basra, the dates on which they were executed and which teams carried out the killing.
Each page has an identical heading: "List of the names of the criminals who confessed to taking part in the event of March 17-18, 1999." The captives died in four batches, between March 25 and May 8, 1999, and the document says the order was given by "the Commander of the Southern Sector." This was Majid.
Totalitarian regimes always keep such nice records, makes it handy when they fall.
"He referred to himself by this title in official Iraqi government communiques at the time. Every person interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Basra in 2003 identified the 'Commander of the Southern Sector' in 1999 as Majid," the report said.
Human Rights Watch also found witnesses to the executions. One, a 27-year old cattle herder named Sattar, said he had stumbled on bulldozers digging three deep trenches near the Nassiriya to Basra road one day in spring 1999. "The next morning about 9 a.m., while at the same place again with my herd, four buses and six Baath Party-like cars arrived on the scene," Sattar said. He hid himself, and saw the passengers leave the buses, guarded by armed men wearing the olive green uniform of the Baath Party.
"Between 80 and 100 persons might have been on the buses. The prisoners were led in a line to the trenches where they were placed one by one ... Seconds later, the men in uniforms began shooting randomly at the prisoners with AK47s and BKC machineguns. The shooting lasted several minutes," he said.
Story never changes, does it? That same line could have been written about the Nazis, NKVD, KGB, Kamer Rouge, Bath Party or Serbian "ethnic cleansing" death squads.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/17/2005 10:26:20 AM ||
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But the US wasn't supposed to go into Iraq because it was a move of sheer US aggression-isn't that what all the lefties from Dean to Kucinich to heads of state in the "International Community" have been telling us? Guess that means we have an humanitarian obligation to put al-Majid back in place to continue his work?
JERUSALEM, Feb. 16 -- Israel's parliament on Wednesday approved a nearly $1 billion financial package for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank, delivering a major victory to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his plan to vacate settlements for the first time in 23 years.
The 59-to-40 vote in the Knesset followed hours of emotional debate, weeks of street demonstrations by settlers who oppose the plan and a growing number of death threats and barbs aimed at Sharon and other leaders who support the pullout.
Some opponents of the pullout, which would encompass Gaza and four small settlements in the most northern part of the West Bank, have distributed posters labeling Sharon "Hitler's partner." The prime minister, who was a chief architect of Israel's program to establish Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has had to post security guards at his wife's grave; extremists have threatened to dig up her remains to protest the exhumation of other Jews' remains that would become necessary if the Gaza withdrawal takes place.
That's going too far -- who do you folks think you are, Paleostinians?
"If this battle ends here today, it will continue, on the streets, in the hearts of the people, on the sand dunes of Gush Katif [a group of settlements in southern Gaza], at the gates of the settlements, in the schools, in the houses you want to demolish and in the synagogues and the cemeteries you want to desecrate," Effi Eitam, a member of parliament from the pro-settler National Religious Party, told lawmakers before they voted. Eitam was Sharon's housing minister until last June, when he quit over the Gaza plan.
Wednesday's parliamentary vote was one of several that Sharon must win if he is to begin the Gaza pullout in July, as he has proposed. The withdrawal of about 8,200 settlers from 21 Gaza settlements and about 500 from the West Bank settlements of Ganim, Kadim, Sa Nur and Homesh is expected to take about three months. Thousands of Israeli troops who protect the settlers would also be evacuated. Israel has not decided what would happen to the houses and infrastructure left behind.
The Gaza pullout would be Israel's first withdrawal from territory seized during the 1967 Middle East war since Israel left the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 under the Camp David peace agreement. Many of the relocated Sinai settlers moved to Gaza and now are faced with having to move again. Some settler families have raised children and grandchildren in Gaza. , surrounded by about 1.2 million Palestinians, and are bitterly opposed to giving up their homes and businesses despite frequent rocket and mortar attacks by militant Palestinian groups.
Sharon has said Israel does not want to continue its rule over Palestinian-populated areas and, for strategic reasons, should quit the Gaza settlements because of the drain on the budget and the cost in Israeli lives. His aides have said that, while giving up settlements in Gaza, Sharon also aims to strengthen Israel's hold on settlements in the West Bank. About 243,000 settlers live in 140 settlements in the West Bank, which is home to about 2.2 million Palestinians.
Gaza folks won't trust moving to the West Bank, having been moved already.
Sharon still has to win additional votes in the Knesset and his cabinet to implement the Gaza withdrawal, including passage of Israel's 2005 budget. If the budget is not approved by March 31, his government will automatically fall.
The approved compensation package sets aside just under $1 billion to pay settlers for their homes, land, businesses and resettlement. Each family will be paid according to a formula that weighs the size of its household, the square footage of their home, the length of time they lived in Gaza, their salaries and the area where they are moving, among other factors. For instance, a family of four living in the Gush Katif settlement bloc for nine years in a house on a 1,500 square-foot plot could receive about $230,000, officials said. When the operational costs of the withdrawal are included, the total cost of withdrawal is expected to be about $1.6 billion; when presented to parliament in November, the compensation bill was estimated at between $450 million and $650 million.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/17/2005 12:16:37 AM ||
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The more land Israel gives up, the more the Palestinians will want. And we're springing for the check.
#2
WHat is amazing is the Israelis haven't hit up the diaspora for money specifically geared for relocation. I think if they did they would get beaucoup bucks.
They should hit up George Soros. And the Hollywood elite.
#3
I think they have wisely tried to minimalize politicizing overseas fundraising, in either direction. Theres enough social needs in Israel. Besides if the peacenik types really want to give for dovish stuff only, theres plenty of places to give. Back when I used to volunteer to make calls for federation, and some jerk said he wouldnt give cause of the "poor palestinians" i sometimes said, thats ok, are you giving to American Friends of Peace Now? Hang-up was the usual response.
"Mr. Chairman, defeating terrorism must remain one of our intelligence community's core objectives, as widely dispersed terrorist networks will present one of the most serious challenges to US national security interests at home and abroad in the coming year. In the past year, aggressive measures by our intelligence, law enforcement, defense and homeland security communities, along with our key international partners have dealt serious blows to al-Qa'ida and others. Despite these successes, however, the terrorist threat to the US in the Homeland and abroad endures."
#2
To hear it on NPR he only talked about how Al-Qaeda is going to nuke us and how it is inevitable. But then they played their sound clip and he clearly said that it [i]may[/i] happen. Sounds like he believe that we can catch them at it . . .
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/17/2005 7:59 Comments ||
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Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday defended plans to resume studying the feasibility of an earth-penetrating nuclear warhead, saying many countries are burying targets underground and "we have no capability, conventional or nuclear" to go after them.
Last year, Congress, by a single vote, refused to continue funding what was begun in 2002 as a three-year technical study. The goal is to see whether the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories could come up with a concept for a warhead casing that could carry a nuclear device down through rock or hardened earth, keeping it intact to explode and destroy an underground facility. Opposition to the study came from House and Senate members who saw it as the United States working to create a new nuclear weapon when Washington is attempting to stop other countries, such as Iran and North Korea, from having atomic weapons.
At the House Armed Services Committee meeting yesterday, Rumsfeld said what was involved was a feasibility study and not development of a weapon. Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified that Gen. James E. Cartwright, the new chief of Strategic Command who has to deal with countering underground targets, "certainly thinks there's a need for this study," and that the other Joint Chiefs agreed. "It's not a commitment to go forward with a system," Myers said.
Though once you've stated the need and done the research ...
On Tuesday, Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, whose laboratories had halted work on the project when the budget was eliminated, said Rumsfeld had asked that he support resumption of the study and funds had been included to complete it in fiscal 2007. The Defense Department is "a very important customer and one that we try to work with effectively and so we have done so at their request," Bodman told a Senate panel.
He described the project as "design work" that does not involve nuclear materials. Instead, he said, "it involves understanding the physics of having a projectile hit the earth, and to determine just how deep the device goes and what happens to the internal structure." Bodman said questions include whether the warhead can "retain sufficient structure that a nuclear device that might be inside . . . or a non-nuclear device, be protected until it reaches some depth in the ground."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/17/2005 12:10:04 AM ||
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In Popular Science's issue last June in an article outlining weapons of the future, space-based kinetic-energy weapons were mentioned. Someone from globalsecurity.org suggested that a 20' tungsten rod placed on top of an ICBM might give the desired effect of destroying a buried target.
#5
"a 20' tungsten rod placed on top of an ICBM might give the desired effect of destroying a buried target"
Allow me to kill that idea at least for now. One of the big problems with the "rods from god" idea (ala Jerry Pournelle) was that the re-entry velocities described and their temperatures obtained resulted in even metals like tungsten becoming plasma and fluidic in nature (going close to mach 30 and hitting temperatures that turn even tungsten into fluid). This basically resulted in lost of aerodynamic properties and instabilities in order to control any projectile accurately. What a couple of studies are looking at currently is whether its feasible to have some kind of tip coated with ceramics along with a superdense core for the penetration.
#12
Why would we need burrowing nukes? Just keep spanking the opening in the ground until the guys inside are nothing but radioactive jelly. Think Heinlein with his rocks in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress only with real, dirty nuke instead of big rocks.
But that would be bad for the environment. Maybe we should talk Greenpiece's into having a protest around here, so I can work out my aggressions.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/17/2005 7:24 Comments ||
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#13
BrerRabbit, then you'd have the PETA heads on your ass.
#14
It depends, Jame. If the hole could be presented as preparing a wetland wildlife sanctuary, I imagine Greenpeace would conduct a fundraiser for it. Sierra Club would want to be involved, too ;-)
#16
One of the big problems with the "rods from god" idea (ala Jerry Pournelle) was that the re-entry velocities described and their temperatures obtained resulted in even metals like tungsten becoming plasma and fluidic in nature (going close to mach 30 and hitting temperatures that turn even tungsten into fluid).
As I understand it, that's where the ICBM angle came in; a satellite-released rod would be going too fast and might result in the weapon's destruction instead of the target. An ICBM's highest trajectory isn't that far up, which supposedly would make the rod's speed when it came back down a little slower, hopefully enough to do the job. An interesting concept if it can be made to work, as it doesn't involve the nuke bugaboo.
INDIA and Pakistan yesterday agreed to open a historic bus link between the capitals of divided Kashmir in the first tangible sign that more than a year of peace talks over the disputed region are beginning to bear fruit.
Good luck. You're going to need it.
The bus service along a rutted mountain road in the folds of the Himalayas will reconnect families separated for decades by the True Believers on both sides Pakistani and Indian armies. The agreement raises hopes that the nuclear-armed neighbours, who have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, including two over Kashmir, might one day find a permanent peace.
Kashmiris on both sides of the ceasefire line were delighted by the news. "It is a dream come true," said Deen Mohammad, a university student in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir. "The bus will reunite thousands of families. Something great is happening to blood-soaked Kashmir after a pretty long time."
The service, between Muzzafarabad on the Pakistani side and Srinagar on the Indian side, will start on 7 April, according to a joint statement read out during a visit by Natwar Singh, the Indian external affairs minister. Khursheed Kasuri, the Pakistani foreign minister, said travel would be granted through an "entry permit system", rather than a passport, once the identities of travellers are verified. Shyam Saran, India's foreign secretary, said it would be open to all Indians and Pakistanis, not just Kashmiris. "We have come a long way over the past year or so. I'm convinced that co-operation between our two countries is not just a desire and an objective, it is in today's context an imperative," Mr Singh said. "The people of both countries clearly desire it."
Mr Singh's visit is the first bilateral trip by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan since 1989 and is part of a dialogue aimed at burying 57 years of hatred between the South Asian rivals. The deal has been in the works for months, but its consummation was still dramatic and the most tangible success of more than 14 months of peace talks that have at times seemed stalled. It is a welcome change from the rhetoric of the past few weeks, which has seen New Delhi and Islamabad squabble over a dam India is building on its side of Kashmir. More than 66,000 people have died since an Islamic insurgency began about 15 years ago, many at the hands of Indian troops. New Delhi accuses Pakistan of funding and training the rebels, but Islamabad insists it gives only moral and political support.
Which amounts to the same thing.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
02/17/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Think the drivers on this route demanded additional compensation? Lol!
Open a Bus Route to Peace! Why didn't someone try this before? Oh, they did? It was just another "bear" in the shooting gallery? Ah, I get it. And this time it will be different because...
#3
One of the most beautiful places in the world ruined by Islamic bullshit . Time I spent there was fantastic and the people warm and welcoming , then a year later things started going booom regularly . I just feel for the indigenous friendly locals who just wanna live well and prosper .
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 department to look into cases of terrorism is to be established soon with the view to speed up adjudication of such cases following investigation by the public prosecutor's office, Minister of Justice 
February 17, 2005: Despite North Korea's self-proclaimed nuclear weapons, Iran is a bigger threat to the world, because Iran supports terrorism, even the Sunni terrorists who consider Iranian Shias to be heretics. The North Koreans are mainly a threat to South Korea, China, Russia and Japan. These four nations are trying to get North Korea to behave, and either fix it's crumbling communist era economy, or collapse quietly and let South Korea take over. However, the people running North Korea (and no one outside the country is entirely sure exactly who that is) do not operate according to any normal logic. The constant fear is that North Korea, with its large, but weakening, armed forces, will somehow lash out. The North Koreans have lashed out once before, in 1950. They got pounded big time in return and have not forgotten that defeat. 
CIA director Porter Goss has warned that North Korean missiles are capable of reaching the United States with a nuclear weapon-sized payload. Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee a week after North Korea claimed it has nuclear weapons, Goss on Wednesday said the US intelligence community's assessment is that the North Korean missile, the TD-2, is capable of reaching the United States with a nuclear weapon-sized payload. 
North Korea marked the birthday of leader Kim Jong Il amid heightened nuclear tensions on Wednesday, comparing Kim to a daring porcupine routing an arrogant United States that swaggers like a tiger. But South Korea dampened the Pyongyang's festive mood, saying there will be no large-scale economic cooperation until the dispute over the communist North's nuclear weapons programs is resolved.
The prime minister, his senior ministers, the governor-general and top public servants will be whisked off to a top-secret location, possibly a purpose-built underground bunker, so government can continue to function after a terror strike or nuclear attack on federal parliament. Government and intelligence sources have told The Bulletin that Cabinet's National Security Subcommittee, headed by Prime Minister John Howard, approved broad elements of the government post-doomsday blueprint in mid-2004 after a formative American model was put into action following al Qaeda's September 11 strikes on Washington and New York.
The IRA has said it was not involved in the murder of a man in a Belfast pub brawl. Robert McCartney, 33, was battered and stabbed to death after a bar fight which was witnessed by more than 100 people. His family claim the IRA have intimidated witnesses to prevent police identifying the killers. A man has been arrested tonight in connection with the murder.
UNITED Nations officials would not be allowed to testify before US Congress hearings on the oil-for-food program in Iraq, the UN said in a letter released today.
Former prime minister 
INDIA and Pakistan yesterday agreed to open a historic bus link between the capitals of divided Kashmir in the first tangible sign that more than a year of peace talks over the disputed region are beginning to bear fruit. 
