AWB agreed to pay bribes to corrupt Iraqi officials, deciding that it could explain the deals to the Howard Government after the Iraq war, according to evidence before an inquiry into the scandal.
Counsel John Agius produced an AWB memo outlining a plan to pay more than $US2 million to a man who would later become the Six of Hearts in the US's pack of cards of "Most Wanted Iraqis", and to discuss it with Canberra.
The money, which was to be paid just months before Australian troops went to war in Iraq, was secretly added to the price of Australia's wheat contracts, which were then passed to the UN for approval.
The AWB memo said managing director Andrew Lindberg - who was under fire yesterday for releasing, then withdrawing, a misleading statement to the ASX - should "tell the Australian Government about the deal at the appropriate time". It noted that "timing of such a disclosure" was unlikely to be "until after a war with Iraq".
The memo said the war "may allow us a further chance of renegotiation with a new regime" in Iraq.
Mr Lindberg was asked 12 times whether he agreed to deceive the UN by inflating the cost of the wheat contracts.
The first 11 times he said "No, no, no, no" and "I don't know" and "I don't recall" and "I can't remember" before conceding the point, saying: "We had to, we had to, we had no option."
He said former Iraqi trade minister Mohammed Medhi Saleh - captured during the war and now believed to be in Abu Ghraib prison - had insisted the money be paid or he would not allow Australian wheat stranded at the port of Umm Qasr to be unloaded.
The trade minister claimed the wheat was contaminated with iron ore, and that it would cost $2 million to clean.
Mr Lindberg conceded that he never believed the wheat was contaminated, but that he agreed to inflate the cost of future contracts with Iraq, to cover the "cleaning fee".
Opposition trade spokeman Kevin Rudd said the federal Government had been warned about the kickbacks to Saddam in 2000.
"What happened here?" Mr Rudd said. "Did the Government just turn a blind eye to this?
AWB also hatched a plan to extract more than $8 million from the UN to cover an old debt that was due to Tigris Petroleum, a Melbourne-based company with links to BHP.
It was unclear whether Tigris - which is run by former BHP employees who are seeking oil deals in Iraq - was aware that the deal contravened UN sanctions.
Senior counsel John Agius asked Mr Lindberg if anybody suggested that money be paid to make the contamination issue "go away".
But Mr Lindberg was adamant. "No, no, no, no," he said.
"Nobody suggested a monetary settlement?" Mr Agius said.
"No, no, no."
Mr Agius then produced documents that suggested otherwise and, under intense questioning, Mr Lindberg conceded: "I think there was an agreement, yes."
"By you?" Mr Agius asked.
"Yes."
"In the presence of (international sales manager Michael) Long?"
Indonesians haven't quite mastered the democracy thing.
The group of West Papuans who arrived on Queensland's Cape York yesterday have accused the Indonesian Government of genocide. They were spotted by a coastwatch patrol near the Mapoon Aboriginal Community north of Weipa about 2:00pm AEST yesterday. The group of 30 Papuan men, six women and seven children displayed a banner on their 25-metre canoe, asking for help to save West Papua.
The Immigration Department says it cannot confirm if the group has sought asylum.
The Federal Government says the group are being held in immigration detention. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone says arrangements are being made to move and process them. "If they are going to make an asylum claim, we'll hear the asylum claim," she said.
Torres Strait Island journalist Damian Baker took photographs of the arrival and he says the asylum seekers' message was clear. He says there was a banner calling for the West Papuans to be freed from genocide at the hands of the Indonesian Government. "The banner said 'Save West Papua people soul from genocide, intimidation and terrorists from military government of Indonesian - also, we West Papua need freedom, peace love and justice in our homeland.'
Mr Baker says the group appeared to be in good health. "They seemed pretty healthy and in good nick," he said.
Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says there is no doubt that the West Papuans are seeking asylum. "These are the children of community leaders who have either been persecuted imprisoned or disappeared," she said.
She is concerned they will be moved to Christmas or Manus island detention centres for processing. "We're asking that that not happen," she said. Ms Curr says the group can be assessed in Australia where they can take advantage of community and church groups' assistance.
#1
Rowing a 75 footer that distance on the open sea is hard and dangerous work. If the Auzzies have no room for them, fly em to the States. We can use a few more people with that level of determination and motivation.
ABC News has learned that al Qaeda's master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert was one of the men killed in last week's U.S. missile attack in eastern Pakistan. Midhat Mursi, 52, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, was identified by Pakistani authorities as one of three known al Qaeda leaders present at an apparent terror summit conference in the village of Damadola. The United States had posted a $5 million reward for Mursi's capture. He is described by U.S. authorities as the man who ran al Qaeda's infamous Derunta training camp in Afghanistan, where he used dogs and other animals as subjects of experiments with poison and chemicals.
"This is extraordinarily important," said former FBI agent Jack Cloonan, an ABC News consultant, who was the senior agent on the FBI's al Qaeda squad. "He's the man who trained the shoe bomber, Richard Reid and Zacharias Mousssaoui, as well as hundreds of others." Pakistani authorities tell ABC News they have confirmation that Mursi was among those on the guest list for the late-night meeting. The authorities say al Qaeda's No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was also expected to attend but apparently changed his mind.
Thanx to Charlie for the headzup!
I'll be ululating and having gun sex for the rest of the afternoon, if anybody calls...
(Reuters) - ABC News reported on Wednesday that al Qaeda's master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert was one of the men killed in last week's U.S. missile attack in eastern Pakistan. The network did not say in the report on its Web site why it believed he had been killed but it reported that Midhat Mursi, 52, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, was identified by Pakistani authorities as one of three known al Qaeda leaders present at a conference in the village of Damadola.
Posted by: Fred & Thromomp Gluque9990 ||
01/18/2006
16:31 ||
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#2
Earlier we read that five bodies where immediately pulled from the buildings and secreted away after the blast. This would be the first one to be identified that leaves four more to go. Anyone hearing from Zawahiri? Hello....
#8
Excellent. Now Pakistani TV will be flooded with late night infomercials on "How to Plan an Eid Feast and Make $5 Million". It's all about who you know.
Posted by: ed ||
01/18/2006 17:56
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#9
I remeber the original story stated the Pak army was 'waiting 'til sunrise' to start pretending to search for the bodies.
#14
I had Abu Khabab for dinner last night. It was a little gamey for my taste.
Posted by: Tibor ||
01/18/2006 19:43
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#15
Ima still thinking we won't see Zawahiri picking the superbowl winner, or any other current events. Innocent villagers seem to scurry pretty hard to erase all evidence of bodies, parts, plasma, DNA paste, etc....CSI and a bottle of luminol make that a waste, though
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 20:18
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#16
Although a distant second, the silencing of al Qaeda's top brass through sheer fear is still quite acceptable. I do continue to prefer "catastrophic disassembly" and its noisy variants. One thing is for sure, these suckers aren't around to rally the troops very often anymore. That I like. Having them dead I would like even better.
EFL
Iraq's ministry of justice has told the BBC that six of the eight women being held by coalition forces in Iraq are to be released early. The six will be freed because there is insufficient evidence to charge them, a justice ministry spokesman said.
The US forces have refused to confirm the releases, but say they would not be based on any operational activities. The group holding US journalist Jill Carroll has said she will die unless all Iraqi women prisoners are freed.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/18/2006
16:20 ||
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#1
Lemme guess - the two NOT being sprung are Dr. Death and Mrs. Germ?
#2
This reeks. The odds are good she's already dead and the Iraqis must NOT set the precedent. Life is hard - indeed - but it gets a LOT harder if you're stupid enough to step onto this slippery slope.
THE west has failed to grasp the extent to which Islamic extremism is rooted in men's fear of women's sexuality, British author Salman Rushdie says in an interview to be published tomorrow.
Mr Rushdie told German weekly magazine Stern that his latest novel, Shalimar the Clown, dealt with the deep anxiety felt among many Islamic men about female sexual freedom and lost honour. When asked if the book drew a link between "Islamic terror and damaged male honour", Mr Rushdie said he saw it as a crucial, and often overlooked, point. "The Western-Christian world view deals with the issues of guilt and salvation, a concept that is completely unimportant in the East because there is no original sin and no saviour," he said.
"Instead, great importance is given to 'honour'. I consider that to be problematic. But of course it is underestimated how many Islamists consciously or unconsciously attempt to restore lost honour."
#4
Rushdie is wrong, in that such a system of "honor" is quite common among most peasants in immature societies, no matter what religion or culture.
It is tied hand-in-hand with the idea that young females are real assets to a family, assets as in property. At some point, it is even more important to "sell" them through dowry than it is to take their animals to market, as far as the family is concerned.
To start with, very young females are seen as "worthless", just extra mouths until they can be married off. So they are seen as long-term investments. Virgins have highest value, so they must be carefully protected, and this is where "honor" enters in to it. It could cost a family a fortune in lost dowry for someone to "despoil" their sellable virgin.
Over time, this basic concept of "honor" gets wackier and wackier, as neurotic and strict as the males and even older females of the household want to be. Pretty soon, *any* family failing can be interpreted as so ruinous to family "honor" that the young females must be killed.
#7
Hmmm. Having been told by 2 different expats of serious offers by Saudis to buy their daughters, well, all I can say is wrong century, pal. Hell, make that millenium.
Wacky only begins to describe how morally and ethically retarded (read: depraved) the "honor" BS is. But I believe the honor thing is the symptom, a "bug" of Shari'a which institutionalizes this shit, it's not the disease... the disease is Tribalism, IMHO.
Societies that put the premium on individuals - recognizing that this is where progress, a good thing, actually come from - revile such attitudes - as individuals are harmed, deprived of their freedom, choices, rights, regardless of how it affects any larger grouping. Those that are still Tribal have the mentality of Jean Auel's Clan of The Cave Bear. To mix metaphors, the Tribalists can go zug-zug each other.
#8
a system of "honor" is quite common among most peasants in immature societies
To elaborate: We are used to living in societies where binding contracts are pervasive. Go to the grocery store to get some soap powder and that's a legally binding contract on multiple parties.
It wasn't till I lived in Asia, I started to appreciate how much we take this for granted. Without a system of binding contracts, interactions rely on trust of the individual you are dealing with, i.e. their reputation or honor. An individual's perception of whether others view him as someone with honor becomes their over-riding concern, because without honor, they become an outcast (literally) that no one will interact with. So the honor that is protected by so called 'honor killings' is the honor of the man who is 'responsible' for the woman's behaviour and not that of the woman.
As an aside, I think this is the reason many westerners find Arab and similar cultures so attractive.
#9
More fairy tales about hillbilly Arabs not understanding the modern world. According to this crap all we need is a battallion of naked females to roam around Iraq and Islamofacists will run away in terror? Trust me on this, Achmed likes it very much that Arab women are expressing sexual freedom. Fatima's parent probably aren't that happy but the boys are burning down cities because the girls are putting out.
#11
seems Achmed the needle dick is worried the lil woman might find out that size does matter, among other things, like hygiene, personal freedom, ....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 20:21
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#12
Maybe it was Sal-bass.
"Instead of salmon, he went with bass! He just substituted one fish for another!"
#14
I think ol' Salman has a point here. The muslims throw tarps over their women so the guys aren't tempted by those wicked jezebels. The sexes are segregated so the men are not led astray by soft, sweet-smelling demons in female form. Women are not allowed to drive, which, if you have ever been a teenager, is the absolute definition of freedom. And the whole virgins-in-the-afterlife thing just reeks of insecurity. Your sexual reward is hanging out with people who know nothing about sex? I'll take the most expense whorehouse in New Orleans, thanks.
#15
I was referring to the whole Arabist thing, which has been prevalent in British upper classes for at least the last hundred years. For every Churchill who saw them clearly, there were a dozen Lawrence of Arabia types.
For a recent example read The Truth About Bravo Two Zero - worth reading for other reasons as well.
I just can't resist looking in on old Brad now and again. For a socialist moonbat he's actually not too bad of a guy, especially when compared to the rest of his peer group on the left side of the blogosphere.
Crusader (a Rantburger - see Rantburg Responds - Have I Been Pummeled?) wanted me to buy into the idea that it was acceptable to use the term âhellholeâ because it really meant something positive: âThe underlying principle that most on the right use to determine what is and what isnât a âhellholeâ is whether basic human rights (free speech, the right to vote, freedom of religion and freedom FROM religion) are afforded to its occupants (regardless of gender and race) and whether the government of the occupants was formed by free and fair democratic elections.â My view, however, is that one doesnât enter into a discourse where one is expected to use âhellholeâ or âtrollâ simply because someoneâs come up with a nifty affirmative redefinition for an otherwise derogatory term especially since the term is meant to apply to entire nations (hellhole) or entire viewpoints (troll as a term for Arab perspectives).
Let us take Crusaderâs point about rights, however, and apply it to Zeâevâs comments. If we accept Zeâveâs point that a Jewish State and its survival may indeed be incompatible with our western liberal ideas about how states ought to be - does that mean Israel is presently at risk of becoming a âhellholeâ? What if being a âhellholeâ is the means by which a Jewish State (a state of Jews run by Jews) can survive? Then how are the opponents of âhellholesâ (and they mean Arab States if that is not yet clear) to feel about Israel? Or are we to accept the implications of Zeâveâs point for Israel (but certainly then too for other States) that we might not wish to brandish all nations negatively just because they do not fit into our preconceived ideas of ideal nationhood? In short must the political nature of Israelâs Statehood match western preconceptions if the upshot of such is that it will cause a Jewish State to cease to exist? What if the only way for a Jewish State to exist entails a kind of racialist bias in terms of government decision making?
#1
The man and his admirers are hopeless. His precondition is that Israel has no right to exist, because a Jewish state is by its very nature evil. He refuses to acknowledge that ending Jewish rule would have real and deadly consequences for those now living there, and for Jews throughout the world who would once again have no refuge from persecution. I've posted arguments there several times, but I'm afraid the only difference between him and the trolls who spew their bile here is the calm and reasonable tone he adopts. Otherwise his first principles are equally inept and immovable. There is no point arguing -- he's only pretending to listen.
#2
Any and all, feel free to read what Trailing Wife considers to be "arguments" as well as the responses to said arguments (see in particular her comments on the post "Making the Inconceivable Obvious - Israeli Power, Palestinian Survival.") Pay particular attention to how Trailing Wife responds when asked (more than once by more than one)to specifically address the substance of the post instead of selling her own wares. Everything Trailing Wife states about my views about Israel and the Jews embarrasses Rantburg.com for it belies someone lacking a ... will to truth. Who is the one pretending to listen Trailing Wife? I suggest it is you.
In truth, I'm making honest inquiries and offering bold opinions but unlike many, I have not drawn any final conclusions. Defending Israel - blindly - is not in the interests of Israel.
#3
Defending Israel - blindly - is not in the interests of Israel.
TW defends nothing blindly, just look through the history in RB, she is a defender plain and simple. Questioning Isreals right to exist is just flat stupid and deserves the attacks they get. So now some ass will want to debate the 6 million killed, oh wait, that happening and we know how rational that guy is. Isreal is there to stay, its up to the Arab states to see if they can get along or have their Arab states removed.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
01/18/2006 21:56
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For those of you who don't like Dennis Miller, who is not Jewish, you may want to reconsider after reading his brilliant comments that follow. Please pass it on to your
friends.
For those who don't know, Dennis Miller is a comedian who has a show called Dennis Miller Live on HBO. Although he is not Jewish, he recently had the following to say about the Middle East situation:
"A brief overview of the situation is always valuable, so as a service to all Americans who still don't get it, I now offer you the story of the Middle East in just a few paragraphs, which is all you Really need.
Here we go:
The Palestinians want their own country. There's just one thing about that: There are no Palestinians. It's a made up word. Israel was called Palestine for two thousand years. Like "Wiccan," "Palestinian" sounds ancient but is really a modern invention. Before the Israelis won the land in the 1967 war, Gaza was owned by Egypt, the West Bank was owned by Jordan, and there were no "Palestinians."
As soon as the Jews took over and started growing oranges as big as basketballs, what do you know, say hello to the "Palestinians," weeping for their deep bond with their lost "land" and "nation."
So for the sake of honesty, let's not use the word "Palestinian" any more to describe these delightful folks, who dance for joy at our deaths until someone points out they're being taped. Instead, let's call them what they are:
"Other Arabs Who Can't Accomplish Anything In Life And Would Rather Wrap Themselves In The Seductive Melodrama Of Eternal Struggle And Death."
I know that's a bit unwieldy to expect to see on CNN. How about this, then: "Adjacent Jew-Haters." Okay, so the Adjacent Jew-Haters want their own country. Oops, just one more thing: No, they don't. They could've had their own country any time in the last thirty years, especially two years ago at Camp David. But if you have your own country, you have to have traffic lights and garbage trucks and Chambers of Commerce, and, worse, you actually have to figure out some way to make a living.
That's no fun. No, they want what all the other Jew-Haters in the region want: Israel. They also want a big pile of dead Jews, of course --that's where the real fun is -- but mostly they want Israel.
Why? For one thing, trying to destroy Israel - or "The Zionist Entity" as their textbooks call it -- for the last fifty years has allowed the rulers of Arab countries to divert the attention of their own people away from the fact that they're the blue-ribbon most illiterate, poorest, and tribally backward on God's Earth, and if you've ever been around God's Earth, you know that's really saying something.
It makes me roll my eyes every time one of our pundits waxes poetic about the great history and culture of the Muslim Mid east. Unless I'm missing something,
the Arabs haven't given anything to the world since Algebra, and, by the way, thanks a hell of a lot for that one.
Chew this around and spit it out: Five hundred million Arabs; five Million Jews. Think of all the Arab countries as a football field, and Israel as a pack of matches sitting in the middle of it. And now these same folks swear that if Israel gives them half of that pack of matches, everyone will be pals..
Really? Wow, what neat news. Hey, but what about the string of wars to obliterate the tiny country and the constant din of rabid blood oaths to drive every Jew into the sea? Oh, that? We were just kidding.
My friend, Kevin Rooney, made a gorgeous point the other day: Just reverse the numbers. Imagine five hundred million Jews and five million Arabs. I was stunned at the simple brilliance of it. Can anyone picture the Jews strapping belts of razor blades and dynamite to themselves? Of course not.
Or marshaling every fiber and force at their disposal for generations to drive a tiny Arab State into the sea?Nonsense. Or dancing for joy at the murder of innocents? Impossible. Or spreading and believing horrible lies about the Arabs baking their bread with the blood of children?
Disgusting.
No, as you know, left to themselves in a world of peace, the worst Jews would ever do to people is debate them to death.
Mr. Bush, God bless him, is walking a tightrope. I understand that with vital operations in Iraq and others, it's in our interest, as Americans, to try to stabilize our Arab allies as much as possible, and, after all, that can't be much harder than stabilizing a roomful of super models who've just had their drugs taken away.
However, in any big-picture strategy, there's always a danger of losing moral weight. We've already lost some. After September 11th our president told us and the world he was going to root out all terrorists and the countries that supported them. Beautiful. Then the Israelis, after months and months of having the equivalent of an Oklahoma City every week (and then every day) start to do the same thing we did, and we tell them to show restraint.
If America were being attacked with an Oklahoma City every day, we would all very shortly be screaming for the administration to just be done with it and kill everything
south of the Mediterranean and east of the Jordan.
Please feel free to pass this along to your friends. Walk in peace! Be Happy! Have a wonderful life!
#7
By the way, I echo Mr. Stroud's invitation. Check out what I wrote on his site (see his archives in November and December of last year), and what he writes, and decide for yourselves. I wouldn't want it said, by those whose opinion I respect, that I asked you to take my statements on faith alone.
I never have visited that site before, and after reading his post on "Interpreting Ahmadinejad's Anti-Zionist Comments", I don't think I ever could again.
Ahmadinejadâs rhetoric is certainly repugnant but the nation is in no way - at present - a danger and its history of pragmatism suggests that it will not likely become a danger provided its territorial integrity is not compromised by an misguided U.S. and or Israeli intervention aimed as âsavingâ us all from a dangerous âIslamofacist menaceâ.
I did not make that up. Iran's not a danger, everybody go back to sleep and don't worry a bit, no matter what the EU 3 say.
Brad, you owe trailing wife an apology. I read the comments she posted on that article you mentioned. She did address the topic and answered questions that were asked of her. You simply didn't like the answers she gave. "willtotruth" indeed.
#9
don't invite Brad to grace RB again - Willtotruth was outed as a bigotted liar and troll
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 23:26
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#10
Let's deal with the other side of the coin, shall we?
Yasser Arafat was Leonod Brezhnev's personal bitch. There would not be a "Palestinian" Authority save for the Soviet Union and their admirers in the EU. Were it not for the USSR, Arafat would be a joto giving head for a hand full of dates.
As the Israel's right to exist: Isreal exists and their have armed forces capable of defending their land from the legacy of Arafat.
They hold free elections something the "Palestinians" have never done and they have a free wheeling capitalist economy, something "Palestinains" will never understand under their current regime.
The Israeli nation has EARNED the right to exist and that is fully and completely compatible with western ideas.
Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go read the Bible and pray for Israel
Yeah. So?
NEW YORK - Bill Clinton said he felt others' pain. But a new brain-scanning study suggests that when guys see a cheater get a mild electric shock, they don't feel his pain much at all. In fact, they rather enjoy it. Clinton? They could've used a better example here.
In contrast, women's brains showed they do empathize with the cheater's pain and don't get a kick out it. I see they haven't got around to testing my wife yet...
It's not clear whether this difference in schadenfreude â enjoyment of another's misfortune â results from basic biology or sex roles learned during life, researchers say. But it could help explain why men have historically taken charge of punishing criminals and others who violate societal rules, said researcher Dr. Klaas Stephan. Hey! Now I know what "schadenfreude" means!
Stephan, a senior research fellow at the University College London, is co-author of a study led by Tania Singer at the college and published online Wednesday by the journal Nature. Singer, in an e-mail message, said the sex difference in results was a surprise and must be confirmed by larger studies. The researchers said women might have reacted like men if the cheater suffered psychological or financial pain instead. Tania will suffer some financial pain if they don't continue to fund this study. Hence the need for "larger studies".
The scientists scanned the brains of 16 men and 16 women after the volunteers played a game with what they thought were other volunteers, but who in fact were actors. The actors either played the game fairly or obviously cheated. During the brain scans, each volunteer watched as the hands of a "fair" player and a cheater received a mild electrical shock. When it came to the fair-player, both men's and women's brains showed activation in pain-related areas, indicating that they empathized with that player's pain. Woah, that's gotta hurt...
But for the cheater, while the women's brains still showed a response, men's brains showed virtually no specific reaction. Also, in another brain area associated with feelings of reward, men's brains showed a greater average response to the cheater's shock than to the fair player's shock, while women's brains did not. Die you cheatin bastard! Die! Die! Die!
Shut up, Hillary! You're screwing up the experiment!
A questionnaire revealed that the men expressed a stronger desire than women did for revenge against the cheater. The more a man said he wanted revenge, the higher his jump in the brain's reward area when the cheater got a shock. No such correlation showed up in women. They haven't tested any women I know.
Philip Jackson, who studies brain systems responsible for empathy at the University of Laval in Quebec City in Canada, said he found the sex differences intriguing and worth following up on. Which is what those doing studies always say. He's probably filling out the paper work right now...
The overall results elegantly tie together "a lot of things we either knew or suspected strongly" about how social interaction can affect the brain's activity, he said. ...but first, more, bigger and more expensive studies.
I'll buy into the idea that if the pain had been psychological, rather than physical, the wymyns would've responded more like the myns.
There is nothing on this Earth capable of more cruelty than a teen-aged femalian. Myns just beat each other up, heal, and prolly have a beer and laugh about it a week later. Hell, they can end up best friends if neither gives up too quickly and there's no "face" loss (only teeth and blood) involved. Femalians are very different. They say things to each other that penetrate all defenses - and never heal. Like rubber hoses delivered at light speed... the marks are all invisible, but they're there and they're mean brutal hurts. And worse - 30 years later the pain is as fresh as Day One. Vicious little shits, they are. I be sooooo glad to be a myn.
I've always figured that this difference in the socialization process was part of why myns and wymyns are always talking past each other. We don't have all that much of an overlap when it comes to fears and pains, and only slightly more when it comes to rewards and joys. Long-time unfinished theory...
#8
Hmmmmmmm.....I don't buy it. I've seen woman savage their cheatin' husbands for years, never letting go. Proving you can indeed get blood from a rock. She didn't feel his pain, she insured he'd feel it. Oh, and they share the moment for years and years with their cabal of friends. On the other hand, I've seen husbands just write it off [and write a number of child support checks] concerning cheating spouses. Now not every time, but certainly enough to question this study.
Hyper - Ah, I get it, lol. Thx! I always thought it would have been a hoot to help invent the lexicon for such movies, heh. Z-Z does hit the spot, lol.
#12
But a new brain-scanning study suggests that when guys see a cheater get a mild electric shock, they don't feel his pain much at all. In fact, they rather enjoy it.
Enjoy it? Hell, I'd like to be the one to push the button. Repeatedly.
Another BGO (Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious). It must have something to do with spending the past gazillion years being the one who has to go out and open up a can of whup@ss on the vermin who harm our women and children. F&%k with my loved ones even a tiny bit and only your hair won't hurt.
"It was what made this E.U. Three approach so successful. They [Britain, France and Germany] stood together and they had one uniform position."
-- German Chancellor
The Iran Charade, Part II
Rather than face the consequences of action before a group of apocalyptic madmen go nuclear, Europe's leaders are congratulating themselves for doing nothing in unison.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/18/2006
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#1
Bar keep, plz move to aisle 4
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/18/2006 13:58
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#2
Without a trace of irony, it is very becoming that Europe will fall under the gunsights of Iran's missile program first. Kicking and screaming, they have struggled to snatch this defeat from the jaws of victory. They deserve it.
#3
Since Iran cannot physically invade Europe, the Euros are left with the bizarre situation. "Well, if they just nuke *one* of our cities, is that acceptable? How about two?"
They are so marginalized that this is not as ridiculous as it sounds.
#4
We should've known that Europe was finished when we had to save their bacon twice last century.
This time, we should sneak in there and build underground bomb factories, then after the muzzies take over, we bomb their schools and check points and such on a daily basis. Would be fun to watch, wouldn't it ?
#5
Or just fire cruise missiles or TLAMs at random city target coords and at random times. Keep 'em steppin' lively. We could make a game show or lottery thingy out of it.
#7
Hey, buggers, I live in Europe. Had to leave all my guns in Texas. Lots of natives would use 'em if they had 'em. How do we get some arms smuggled over this way?
Posted by: ST ||
01/18/2006 18:34
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#8
Hmmm. I think revisiting the Olde Way might work. First you get your pitchforks and torches organized, then you hang the wankers who think you shouldn't be armed (use the Mussolini Model Methinks), then call home and use UPS.
"buggers"? Ahem. If you don't mean 'Burgers, then we have a serious problem, lol. ;-)
The top U.S. envoy to talks on North Korea's nuclear program made a surprise trip to Beijing on Wednesday, which South Korean media reports said could mean he was meeting his counterpart from Pyongyang.
Christopher Hill made a whistle-stop tour through Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing last week to meet negotiators on six-party talks, who group the two Koreas, the United States, Japan Russia and host China, and who last met in November.
His visit on Wednesday came as North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was believed to have crossed back into North Korea by train from China ending a rare international trip conducted under a heavy veil of secrecy.
The U.S. embassy in Beijing confirmed Hill had returned to Beijing for one day, following visits to Vietnam and Cambodia, and said he would meet Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who is also the former ambassador to Washington.
When asked if he would be meeting any representatives of North Korea an embassy spokeswoman said: "Not that I know of."
But South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the abrupt change in schedule could indicate that Hill was meeting the North's top nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, in Beijing.
The six countries were meant to meet again early this year to try to make progress on North Korea's agreement in principle to dismantle its nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and security guarantees.
But with Pyongyang angry at the United States over Washington's crackdown on its finances, the future of the talks is uncertain.
The United States has clamped down on companies it suspects of helping North Korea with counterfeiting, money laundering and the drug trade, and says sanctions are a separate matter from the six-party talks.
But North Korea has threatened to boycott the nuclear disarmament talks until the sanctions are lifted and said on Tuesday that Washington wants to bring down its communist leadership with the financial penalties.
ALKHOBAR, 18 January 2006 â Police officers in Alkhobar smashed the rear car window of a teenager because of an offensive sticker, Okaz daily reported. The teenager was cruising on Alkhobar streets proud of a sign in the back window that said âI Have Your Sister With Meâ.
Must have been out of those yellow "Sheep On Board" decals
He was stopped by police and was asked to take it out. The teenager refused to listen to police order saying it was a personal right. Police found no way but to totally smash the rear window. A large crowd gathered at the scene and was clapping at the police action urging the police to do more to stop teenage unruliness.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006
12:59 ||
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#4
Heh, that's where I lived - and I can guess where this happened.
BTW, the "cops" come in multiple flavors there, because of Aramco being nearby. You got your Tribe A (local city police), your Tribe B (Army / Emergency Forces), and your Tribe C (National Guard). And no, that's not a joke - each force is predominantly staffed by myns from a certain Tribe - and each has loyalty to either the al Sudairis (Nayef, Turki, et al) or al Shammaris (Kingy Thingy Abdullah). Within each force, they look alike. A LOT alike, lol. One of 'em, the Nat Guard guys, IIRC, seemingly all have an extremely hawkish-looking face - sharp aquiline noses and beady eyes, lol.
But when there's something going down, you end up with each force putting up its own checkpoints / traffic roadblocks - I used to go through 4 or 5 on the short trip home from Aramco when something was up - a Royal coming to town or some recent bombing or whatever.
I'll wager this stop was done by the Nat Guard guys. They were the most aggressive and most arrogant. The kid with the sticker was certainly asking for trouble - âI Have Your Sister With Meâ is waaay over the local line.
I'll also bet his Daddy is some sort of Aramco hotshot, else he wouldn't have done it in the first place or had the stones to argue. Lol. I'll bet he'll be grounded and limited to the Camp (Little America) for a few weeks.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/18/2006 21:19
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#6
When I lived is Soddiland (left in 69), al-Khobar was the closest Arab town. It was a typical arab village: sewage flowing down the center of roads, broken pavement and sidewalks, locals with obvious glaucoma, shopkeeps pursuing you, men missing their hand, etc. NOT a happy place.
Now, I am sure, their is a sewer and the street and sidewalks are in good shape, but I m sure it still isn't a happy place.
(CNN) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has paid an "unofficial" visit to China, the country's KCNA news agency reported Wednesday.
The announcement ended weeks of speculation about Kim's whereabouts and whether he had made the trip. It was not immediately known whether Kim remained in China or had returned to North Korea.
Kim and Chinese president Hu Jintao "had an in-depth exchange of views on international and regional issues of common concern," KCNA reported.
"Both sides fully appreciated the positive results made in several rounds of the six-party talks in Beijing, and unanimously agreed to consistently maintain the stand of seeking a negotiated peaceful solution to the issue and push forward through sustained joint efforts the process of the six-party talks so as to contribute to the eventual and peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula."
Kim, the news agency reported, noted that North Korea's commitment toward the goal of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula had not changed. "He pointed out that the DPRK would join Chinese comrades in the efforts to seek away of overcoming the difficulties lying in the way of the six-party talks and steadily advance the talks."
Hu, in a banquet given in Kim's honor, pledged to continue to support North Korea in its efforts to "develop and grow strong and prosperous," the news agency reported.
#1
Both sides fully appreciated the positive results made in several rounds of the six-party talks in Beijing, and unanimously agreed to consistently maintain the stand of seeking a negotiated peaceful solution to the issue and push forward through sustained joint efforts the process of the six-party talks so as to contribute to the eventual and peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.
Translation: the Chinese jerked Kim's leash. They know that with Iran pushing on our remaining nerve re: homocidal maniacs with nukes, it is not the time to let the NORKs run loose.
Posted by: too true ||
01/18/2006 12:13
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#2
IIUC China has a lot to lose as well with a shutdown of oil exporting from the gulf, which could easily happen in an uncontrolled escalation (i.e. NK does something irrational - more than usual)
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 13:03
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#3
"Both sides fully appreciated the positive results made in several rounds of the six-party talks in Beijing, and unanimously agreed to consistently maintain the stand of seeking a negotiated peaceful solution to the issue and push forward through sustained joint efforts the process of the six-party talks so as to contribute to the eventual and peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula."
"Positive results"?!? Only if you regard complete and total stalling, heel-dragging, dissimulation, postponement and delay any sort of seeking a solution. China has purposefully exacerbated the Korean crisis as a counterweight to American military dominance in the East Asian quadrant. One can only hope that Kim's generals cap his worthless @ss eventually see the wisdom of a united democratic peninsula rather than further extension of communist deprivation and economic stagnation.
#4
"Positive results"?!? Only if you regard complete and total stalling, heel-dragging, dissimulation, postponement and delay any sort of seeking a solution.
Yes, of course.
That was the goal all along.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/18/2006 14:10
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The number of U.S. troops wounded in Iraq fell by more than a quarter in 2005 from a year earlier, Pentagon records show. Military officials call that a sign that insurgent attacks have declined in the face of elections and stronger Iraqi security forces. The number of wounded dropped from 7,990 in 2004 to 5,939, according to the Defense Department. There hasn't been much change in the number of deaths, however. Pentagon figures show 844 U.S. troops were killed in the Iraq war during 2005, compared with 845 in 2004.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006
11:29 ||
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#2
I think the number of large scale offensive operations in 2005, as opposed to 2004, is partly the cause of the reduced number of wounded. There could also be some change of classification.
The interpretation problem shows that even hindsight isn't 20-20.
Suspicious crafts: January 12 2006 at 1815 LT in position 06:30N - 056:20E, off east coast - Somalia/Arabian Sea. An unidentified craft approached a general cargo ship underway. Ship increased speed and altered course. Craft also increased speed and headed towards ship. Ship further increased speed and craft was left behind.
Recently reported incidents:
January 15 2006 at 2200 LT at Dumai anchorage, Indonesia. Five robbers boarded a product tanker at stern. Alert crew mustered and robbers escaped empty handed in their boat.
January 13 2006 at 1848 UTC in position 06:02.46S - 106:53.27E, Tg. Priok anchorage, Indonesia. Two robbers armed with long knives boarded a container ship at stern from an unlit boat. D/O raised alarm and crew mustered. Four shore security guards on board pointed their guns at the robbers who jumped overboard and escaped empty handed in their boat waiting with three accomplices. Port control was informed.
January 11 2006 at 0500 LT at JICT terminal, pier no. 1, Jakarta, Indonesia. Four robbers boarded a container ship at stern by climbing emergency towing wire. They entered engine room via steering gear flat. They stole engine spares and lowered them into a waiting boat. Duty officer raised alarm and robbers escaped. Incident reported to authorities and police boarded for investigation.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed a jaquerie citizen volunteer force to fight growing crime and hooliganism spilling from the urban ghettoes of the country. The sans coulottes "citizens' reserve" would be unpaid and storm the Bastillepatrol the "sensitive areas," he said. Critics immediately pointed out that such a force would have no legal authority and no weapons to resist aggression in the areas where they might be considered police informers.
If they set up a Directory, that would give them legal authority, wouldn't it? They could rename all the months, too.
The proposal comes a day after Mr. Sarkozy announced a plan to create an Old Guard a railway force of 2,540 police and paramilitary gendarmes that would secure trains across various jurisdictions. The need for such a force arose after a mob of more than a hundred youths, thought to be North African immigrants, terrorized passengers on atrain running from Nice to Lyon in southern France on New Year's Day. On Sunday, a group of young rappers occupied the small Chenay-Gagny railway station, immobilized a Paris-bound train and blocked other lines until they were dispersed by Royalists a tear-gas barrage.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006
10:26 ||
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#1
Sounds like a good idea to me. Militia is going to be needed rather soon in France and the EU in general the Muslims already have their gangs and religious groups and openly claim themselves not part of their host nations.
Immigrants are foreigners that come to become whatever nation they go to Invaders are foreigners that come to take over territory and reshape the nation they go to.
#2
Muslim hooligans apply for the volunteer force. France feels it must hire them because to do otherwise would show they weren't serious about their one stand since the riots earlier this year-improving integration and opportunity for Muslim youths. Mulsim youths form the bulk of the volunteer force.
Pick up where we left off on the Nice to Lyon trains...
Suddenly, your attention is caught by a bright light above the darkening horizon...Within a few seconds it has become a searing flash. Your clothes burst into flames...followed a moment later by a deafening crack. The ground heaves, and a blast wave flings you forward... A fiery mushroom cloud drifts over you now, carried by the southerly breeze, blazing rainbow colors magnificently. As solid rocks become froth and reddish-black molten glass rains down, you too become part of the spectacle-and not in a happy way.
Deep in the legendary Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia-the Rub' al-Khali-lies a strange area, half a square kilometer (over 100 acres) in size, covered with black glass, white rock and iron shards. It was first described to the world in 1932 by Harry St. John "Abdullah" Philby, a British explorer perhaps better known as the father of the infamous Soviet double-agent Kim Philby...Judging from the traces left behind, the crash would have been indistinguishable from a nuclear blast of about 12 kilotons..
This event probably occurred less than 500 years ago.
#4
Is it radioactive, if so what isotope?
Irridium means a meteor air-burst as in Tunguska.
Any other isotope could be a small nuke, remember humans have been around a whole lot longer than recorded civilization.
There's another anomoly in the British Isles, a series of vitrified walls that all face out to sea, as if there was an air-burst out to sea and the walls facing that way melted, no idea if any radioactivity was tested for.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/18/2006 21:32
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+ Cf. the islamist and converts orgs like the morabitouns, who aim (with some success) at spreading islam in south America by stressing the "islamic roots" of the latin/spanish culture (not mentioning theses "islamic roots" are due to a 800 year colonization and enslavement), and who find favorable ground in anti-Us, anticapitalist mvts like the Chiapas indians (or even in the antiglobo mvt, converting to the "religion of the poors" is the ultimate "in your face" to the Global Hegemon and the Empire).
By Frederick W. Stakelbeck
In a letter to then Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev regarding his role in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro reflected upon the possible use of nuclear weapons during the U.S.-Soviet confrontation, âIt was my opinion that, in case of an American invasion [Cuba], a massive and total nuclear strike would have to be launched.â Given Castroâs affection for nuclear weapons, it should come as no surprise to observers that the aging terrorist has befriended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Just last week, Ahmadinejad, a recognized anti-Semite and human rights violator, threatened unspecified retaliation against the West unless it recognized his own countryâs nuclear ambitions. âIf they want to deny us our right, we have ways to secure those rights,â he said in Tehran.
Given Castro and Ahmadinejadâs mutual distaste for the U.S. and Western-styled democracy, increased bilateral cooperation between the two countries presents serious national security concerns for the U.S. This month, Iranian Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani noted the importance of expanding Tehran-Havana relations saying both countries must come together to confront unilateralism of âthe big powerâ -- an obvious reference to the U.S.
In the past year, Rafsanjani has noted Iranâs desire to play a role in meeting the âtechnical and engineering requirementsâ of Cuba and other states in Latin America. Rafsanjani has also called Castro, âAn impressive character in contemporary history,â praising the Cuban leader for his resistance to the âhegemonic policies of the U.S. and anti-imperialism.â Not surprisingly, Cuban Ambassador to Iran Fernando Garcia pledged his countryâs support for Iranâs right to use nuclear energy earlier this month.
In a disquieting development, Castro visited Tehran in November where he given sacred Islamic texts in Spanish and was invited by Iranâs religious leadership to convert to Islam. âWe spoke to Castro for several hours and I think we even almost managed to convince him to convert to Islam,â said one source close to the meeting. âCastro is certain that the Cuban people are suffering from a lack of spiritually, and seems interested in Islam, above all the writings of Iranian leader Khomeini,â the source said.
But Castroâs initial interest in Islam actually surfaced many years ago. Shortly after Ayatollah Khomeiniâs followers drove the Shah into exile in 1979, Castro dispatched Cuban envoys to Tehran to rekindle bilateral relations, professing his admiration for the ârevolutionary role of Islam.â
The thoughts of an Islamic terrorist state located 90 miles off of the Florida coast are enough to keep President George Bush up for weeks.
Before his most recent trip to Tehran, Castro met with Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenehi in 2001. At that time, both leaders agreed that together they could topple the U.S. âhand in hand.â Afterward, Castro said he left Tehran with âunforgettable memories,â while Iranian president Mohammad Khatami fondly noted, âThe more one befriends Mr. Castro, the more one becomes interested in him.â
Bilateral cooperation in the area of biotechnology research and production and the transfer of Cuban biological and chemical know-how to Iranian institutions, continue to attract Washingtonâs attention. Of course, Castro has rejected allegations of involvement with Iran in the manufacture of biological and chemical weapons, saying that joint operations are instead devoted to eradicating hunger and disease on the impoverished island.
In addition to biotechnology cooperation, Iran has used Cubaâs electronic transmissions jamming expertise and the Chinese equipped electronic warfare base near Havana, to interfere with U.S. sponsored pro-democracy broadcasts into Tehran. Intelligence reports over the past year have also uncovered covert cooperation between the two countries in the development and testing of electromagnetic weapons that have the capacity to disrupt telecommunication networks, cut power supplies and damage sophisticated computers. During a time of international crisis, these âe-bombsâ can be delivered by cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles or aerial bombs to the U.S. mainland. Russian, Chinese and Iranian scientists are currently working side-by-side with Cuban scientists to develop these weapons for eventual use against the U.S. communications and military infrastructure.
Finally, like other nations in the Western Hemisphere, Cuba has become increasingly dependent on Iranian oil for its daily survival. A cash-strapped Castro has already accepted a generous Iranian trade credit line with liberal repayment terms. In return, Castro has agreed to provide Iran with a strategic outpost to gather intelligence on U.S. movements in the region.
Fears are beginning to grow that Ahmadinejad sees himself as a modern day Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire, who called himself âKing of Iran and beyondâ -- a torch bearer of an Islamic world revolution and ordained leader of a revitalized Middle East. Rich with abundant energy resources and emboldened by powerful allies such as Russia and China, Tehran will continue to make a determined push in the Western Hemisphere. The possibility of a rogue nation such as Iran offering nuclear technology to friendly nations based upon preconceived prejudices, common religious or ideological differences or temporary alliances, makes the Castro-Ahmadinejad relationship even more dangerous for the U.S.
To address emerging national security concerns related to the Cuba-Iran relationship, the U.S. must first recognize the existence of dangerous regional and global anti-U.S. alliances. Second, Washington must announce to the American people and the world what it sees as a concerted effort by certain countries such as Cuba and Iran, to actively foster strategic alliances designed to undermine U.S. democratic world authority. In this regard, top U.S. diplomat to Havana Michael Parmlyâs courageous comments last month condemning Castroâs use of what he termed âBrown Shirtsâ to assault government dissidents was right on the mark.
Third, influential nations such as Mexico, Columbia, Brazil and Argentina must be persuaded that it is in their best interests to assume key roles in the fight against a new breed of âleftist revolutionariesâ such as Venezuelaâs Hugo Chavez and Boliviaâs Eva Morales, both of whom now threaten to poison significant parts of Latin America. Finally, U.S. political, economic, intelligence and military assets should be mobilized to address the expanding âquiet warâ that Iran, Cuba and others are so deftly waging in the Western Hemisphere without a hint of reprisal from the U.S.
The result of this several-tiered U.S. foreign policy will not be global hegemony; rather, it will be the deployment of a revised âMonroe Doctrineâ to address the Cuba-Iran alliance and other emerging threats to the U.S. that may arise in the near future.
For decades, Soviet defense, economic and intelligence assistance allowed Fidel Castroâs Cuba to project its own brand of Stalinism throughout Latin America resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians. More recently, the Chinese menace has identified Cuba as a âprizeâ in the game of global strategic positioning. Now Iran, a U.S. antagonist, sponsor of terror and weapons proliferator is attempting to solidify its grip on Cuba.
To ensure a safe future for our nation, Washington must recognize the âgathering stormâ on our borders and take action in own hemisphere against tyrants such as Castro and Ahmadinejad who so frequently attack freedom, peace and democracy.
France rejected Iran's request for more talks on the Islamic republic's nuclear program, saying Wednesday that Tehran first must suspend its atomic activities.
Iran asked for a ministerial-level meeting with France, Germany, Britain and the European Union, but its decision to resume some uranium enrichment-related activities "means that it is not possible for us to meet under satisfactory conditions to pursue these discussions," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Denis Simonneau said in Paris. "Iran must return to a complete suspension of these activities."
U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas "Monty" Burns supported the idea that Iran should suspend its program and return to talks. "There is a consensus that Iran should turn back, return to negotiations and suspend its nuclear program, that would be exxxxxxcelent" Burns told reporters in Bombay, India, during a South Asia tour. "But that's not the path Iran is on now." Or ever was.
Burns repeated U.S. demands that the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency refer Iran to the Security Council - where it could face sanctions - for resuming research on centrifuges used in uranium enrichment. Russia and China oppose sending Iran to the Security Council. Earlier Wednesday, Iran's foreign minister told state radio the nation's chances of being referred to the Security Council were slim. Manouchehr Mottaki did not give a reason for his view, but emphasized that Iran wanted to restart taqiya negotiations with Britain, France and Germany.
The European states, with U.S. backing, were calling for a Feb. 2 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency to discuss taking action against Iran following Tehran's decision earlier this month to resume small-scale enrichment of uranium - a process that can produce material for atomic reactors or bombs. A draft resolution for the meeting, read in part to The Associated Press in Vienna, Austria, says Britain is proposing that the 35-nation IAEA refer Iran to the Security Council, but it stops short of calling for punitive measures. Instead, the draft urges the 15-nation council to press Tehran "to extend full and prompt cooperation to the agency" in its investigation of suspect nuclear activities.
Other members of the IAEA board, including Egypt, also are cautious about Security Council involvement. "In view of the overall situation, we regard the possibility of the hauling of Iran's nuclear case to the Security Council to be weak," Mottaki told Iranian radio. "During the past 10 days we have tried to relay our message to all relevant parties, including the Europeans, about readiness of Iran to negotiate on the production of nuclear fuel."
Mottaki said he hoped European countries would avoid taking steps that might actually work could only worsen the current situation â an apparent reference to U.S. and European talk of sanctions.
The United States accuses Iran of trying to secretly build nuclear weapons â a charge Iran denies. Britain, France and Germany have been trying to persuade Iran to import nuclear fuel, but Iran has rejected this.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Israeli security experts was in Moscow on Wednesday to meet with Russia's Security Council and Foreign Ministry in futile hopes of winning Russian backing for Security Council referral and Chinese veto.
#3
No, based on my experience the French will slither around to find a way to make a deal with a sleaze. But once they say no, going back would be a stain on their Sacred Honour. That's why I'm surprised they walked out before the Iranians. I suspect there's some intelligence behind that we'll find out about in 50 years. Ahmedijihad doesn't realize how thin the ice is.
A prosecutor said Tuesday that a dominatrix waited too long to call for help as a client died of a heart attack during a bondage session, then dismembered and disposed of the body rather than report the death.
But the woman's lawyer said in her opening statement that the man never visited Barbara Asher's makeshift dungeon and that police made up the story and bullied Asher into confessing. "No body, no blood, no DNA evidence," defense attorney Stephanie Page said. "Barbara Asher is here because of a theory." If the dog collar don't fit, you must acquit.
Asher, who went by the name Mistress Lauren M, has pleaded innocent to charges of manslaughter and dismemberment in the death of Michael Lord. The retired telephone company worker from North Hampton, N.H., died in July 2000 while strapped to a rack in Asher's Quincy condominium, according to police.
Prosecutor Robert Nelson said Asher was getting into her dominatrix outfit when she heard a commotion coming from the "dungeon" where Lord was waiting, naked, tied by his wrists to the rack, a replica of a medieval torture device. She entered the room to find Lord in his death throes, Nelson said. "His arms are flailing about," Nelson said. "There was a gasp, and his head went forward."
Asher waited five minutes before calling her boyfriend to come help, the prosecutor said. Miguel Ferrer, who is charged as an accomplice, arrived 10 minutes later. "During that time, Mr. Lord continued to hang there, and she did nothing," Nelson said.
Asher and Ferrer took Lord down from the rack and tied to revive him, but by then it was too late, Nelson said. Ferrer suggested they call for help, but Asher refused because she was worried the police would find out about her operation, according to the prosecutor. So they put the body in the bathtub and left for the night, he said.
The next day, Nelson said, Ferrer dismembered the body of the 280-pound Lord with a hacksaw and they divided his remains into eight trash bags. The day after that, they drove to Augusta, Maine, where they dumped the remains behind a restaurant which had a carnitas special the next day, the prosecutor said. His remains have never been found.
A month later, Asher confessed to police following a two-hour interrogation using equipment from her own dungeon, and that confession forms the basis for much of the state's case. But the interview was not taped, Page said, and the investigators bullied her into saying things that conformed to their theory of what happened.
"Michael Lord was never at Barbara Asher's place in July 2000," the defense lawyer said, "and certainly she didn't decide to chop up a body in a bathtub." Forensic testing of the tub and Asher's car turned up none of Lord's DNA, Page said, nor did they reveal the presence of bleach or any other cleaning agent.
She said investigators failed to follow through on possible leads in the case, including that Lord had a 20-year affair with a married woman. "That woman's husband had threatened to kill Michael Lord," Page said.
#6
tu3031, I think you kinda have it. However, on another message board I frequent a poster said that it sounds like "hotel death" (old geezer has heart attack at no-tell motel with younger partner, usually of the adultery sort), but...
Where she (and her boyfriend) stepped over the line was in failing to seek medical assistance and in hiding the body.
The fact that the dungeon is described as "makeshift" only sets off further alarm bells in my mind. And while I'm not into the scene myself, the folks I know who are or have been have always harped on the idea of consent, limits, and sanity. Tying someone up then leaving the room is not cool (unless, perhaps, this is a "game" arranged beforehand with lots of safey precautions, use of "safe" signals, and so forth.) It does make me wonder if there was something going on here beyond what is stated and if, perhaps, the woman actually was contributing to the man's demise in some manner or something else illegal was going on at the time.
#7
I knew a femalian who was into the oxygen deprivation (strangling) thing. I was not. I figure she was lowering her IQ (picture the dying brain cells) with every orgasm...
Outgoing President Eduardo Rodriguez fired Bolivia's army chief on Tuesday over his decision to have 28 Chinese shoulder-launched missiles destroyed in the United States. Gen. Marcelo Antezana later appeared on Bolivian television to say Rodriguez had made a "bad interpretation" of his role in the October destruction of the missiles, which led to accusations of treason by Evo Morales, then a presidential candidate.
Morales â who later won elections in December â revealed the destruction of the missiles by the United States and said it had left Bolivia with almost no air defense. Rodriguez said he made the decision to destroy the missiles on the recommendation of the United Nations and the Organization of American States after receiving information from the army that they were obsolete and a safety hazard.
Morales' Movement Toward Socialism Party That's a bad sign, right there. filed a suit against Rodriguez in October, with some members claiming the missiles were in working condition. Party members have distanced themselves from the suit in recent weeks.
The United States has been campaigning to rid Latin America of portable arms that could fall into the hands of terrorists. A State Department spokesman earlier said Bolivia requested U.S. help in removing the deteriorating Chinese-made surface-to-air missiles. On Tuesday, government news agency ABI reported that Rodriguez would make a formal inquiry with the U.S. Embassy to investigate their role in the matter.
The firing comes as Rodriguez, a caretaker president appointed after the resignation of Carlos Mesa in June, prepares to hand power to Morales this Sunday.
#2
Exactly. Wonder why with all the world ablaze, no one likes to talk about the Chi-coms (and their "American" enablers) roles in all this recent unpleasantness.
Posted by: Red Lief ||
01/18/2006 21:46
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Damascus (SANA)- The witness Ibrahim Michel Jarjoura said he was forced to offer a false and fabricated testimony against Syria at the international investigation committee into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik al-Hariri because he was under threats and pressures to do so.
Jarjoura told Lebanese satellite NEW TV channel in an interview overnight that some Lebanese figures, particularly Deputy and Minister Marwan Hamada, forced him, in return to some promises, to retell the fabricated story to the international probe and the Lebanese Attorney Said Mirza as well as Bahiya Hariri, sister of the slain Hariri.
He said he is a Syrian national of Lebanese mother, adding he went to Lebanon to work and before that he looked for a job in Egypt, Iraq and Oman. He went back to Lebanon 14 days before late Hariri was assassinated with a Lebanese passport where he stayed there for six months at his grandfather house. The witness said the Lebanese military detained him at an army checkpoint six months after the expiry of his residence in Lebanon as written in the passport. After that, he was taken to prison where all his former inmates were released except him.
He added that three days later he was taken the Interrogation Department in Beirut where they told him he was working for the Syrian state security intelligence, and asked him if he had any information about the assassination of Hariri. He said he denied having any information on the issue, but despite that he was left to an assistant in the interrogation called Mohammad or Ahmad, to blackmail him.
Jarjoura said he was set free three days later, but a man called Wisam contacted him. This man turned out to be an intelligence agent and a bodyguard of Marwan Hamada as he took him to Hamadaâs house. He added that he was taken several times to Information and Interrogation security offices in Beirut, and finally he met Marwan Hamada in his house and was inspected by Wisam himself.
The witness said he told Hamada that he knew nothing and he wanted no money or anything else, but Hamada hit kicked and swore him badly and told his bodyguards to coerce him into assisting them to fabricate the story about the assassination of Hariri and implicate Syria.
"They did things to me. Terrible things!"
He added that Hamada and others told him to go to Ms. Bahiya Hariri house and tell her that he had information about who killed late Hariri without saying that he met Hamada. They ordered him to tell Bahiya that he worked for the Syrian intelligence which trained him. âThey made me memorize what Iâm going to say to BahiyaâŠand tell her that Syrian General Hassan Khallouf and General Hassan Khalil had trained me to monitor figures in Lebanon, including the procession of Rafik Hariri.â He said he told her what was ordered to state, and thought of escaping to report to his government but failed to do so as he was under constant monitoring by the Lebanese security.
Jarjoura said they forced to add other names to the alleged list he was monitoring, including Saâad al-hariri, Walid Jumblatt, Marwan Hamada, Jebran Tueni, Samir Qassir, Layla Muawad, Elias Atallah, Fares Said, Boutross Harb and Samir franjieh. They also asked him to say that Syrian Gen. Hassan Khalil and Gen. Hassan Khallouf gave him these names by means of Brigadier Gen. Suheil Barakat of Palestine security branch.
He added that last time he gave his registered testimony before the investigation committee was in the presence of a Lebanese woman translator, saying they showed him the photo of President Bashar al-Assad, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister. Later they showed him the photo of Gen. Assef Shawkat and the four other detainees in Montverde but he didnât recognize them. Jarjoura said he was sadly forced into a perjury by swearing the Bible for the first time in his life, adding he is repentant to do so.
He pointed out that â I have more important things than his current testimony and would only disclose them to my government in Syria âŠ.I will not sell my country off âŠ.I received no money from anybodyâŠand I was not sentenced in LebanonâŠand all the false information came from Marwan hamada.â The witness said he sought several times to escape but couldnât.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006
09:24 ||
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Talk about incoherent stories...
He went back to Lebanon 14 days before late Hariri was assassinated with a Lebanese passport where he stayed there for six months at his grandfather house.
Hariri was assassinated with a passport? A big, exploding passport, maybe? And whose grampa was it, Hariri's or JarJar's?
Regional Secretary of al-Baath Arab Socialist Party in Lebanon Assem Qanswa stressed that Syria is innocent from the heinous crime which claimed the life of former Lebanese Premier Rafik al-Hariri.
In a statement published Wednesday, Qanswa added that false masks have fallen off faces and truth is about to appear following the disclosure of all misleading tools which seek to divert the investigation from its real route. He criticized the latest statements of Waleed Jumblat against Syria and the resistance when he described its arms as treachery.
Qanswa called on all Lebanese national parties and forces to recognize how serious is the situation in Lebanon, and necessity of working to form a wide-scale national front to face the conspiracy which targets unity of Lebanon and its relations with its Arab environment, particularly Syria.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006
09:21 ||
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Mayor Job Cohen of Amsterdam spoke out on Tuesday about his worries of disorder in the city. "There is unrest in the city", he said after talks with the chairpersons of Amsterdam's 14 districts. The meeting was organised following several incidents involving young people in a few parts of the city since the start of the year. "There is an underlying feeling whereby it would only take minor incidents to cause an outburst," Cohen said. He said there was a revival of unrest, after a period of relative calm in Amsterdam, due to the activities of about 100 young people with behavioural problems. "We are now working with justice officials to find a solution," he stated.
Cohen said officials in all the city districts are poised to nip any unrest in the bud. Moroccan-Dutch youth were involved in many of the incidents Cohen was referring to. A group of youths broke the windows of 39 cars in the southern part of the Pijp district around New Year.
Locals in the area have also complained about an increase in threatening behaviour by groups of young people. A Jewish resident was threatened and a firework was thrown through the window pane of his home. A gay couple have reported being the regular victims of harassment. A group of youths threw stones at a police station and set a car on fire in the Slotervaart district last week after a 17-year-old scooter rider died in a crash while apparently fleeing from a police officer.
But Cohen said there were many more incidents "that had not reached the media" whereby groups of native Dutch youth were involved.
#1
Mayor Job Cohen of Amsterdam spoke out on Tuesday about his worries of disorder in the city. "There is unrest in the city", he said after talks with the chairpersons of Amsterdam's 14 districts.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/18/2006 12:41
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The Dutch have one up on the French because the Dutch actually do care, even about the bad boyz. Ironically, this means that while the French ignore problems and let them fester, the Dutch will continually, non-stop try to integrate the foreigners. These unblinking efforts do erode the hostility over time--it being increasingly difficult to de-humanize people who are always trying to be friends with you.
Having stayed in Amsterdam for some length of time, it is a very international city, reflecting lots of cultures, but very little of you would think of as Dutch. Were you unfamiliar with the place, it would be hard to guess where you were.
It is utterly and almost seamlessly integrated. How the Moroccans can maintain a feeling of alienation is almost mysterious. I doubt a third generation, "Dutch-Dutch-Moroccan", will be able to maintain this hate.
#5
"But Cohen said there were many more incidents "that had not reached the media" whereby groups of native Dutch youth were involved."
Native Dutch ? Is this code ?
#6
What he's trying to say is that the non-Muslim Dutch youth are "just as bad" as the islamothugs, but that the media are trying to portray this as a purely racial thing.
In other words, he's saying "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Amsterdam does not have a Muslim problem".
Which of course it *does*, as Theo's corpse, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and the continuing problems with the Hofstad Group will attest.
#7
Beheading is too good for Muslim pigs. This scum needs to suffer the fate of a Sikh who was boiled alive, at the hands of Muslim slime.
http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/martyrs/dyaldass.html
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits Syria on Thursday in a signal to the world that the two allies, both facing threats of referral to the U.N. Security Council, will not be cowed. The two-day visit, Ahmadinejad's first bilateral foreign trip since taking office in August, comes at a time of intense pressure for Syria and Iran, caught in separate standoffs with the international community, analysts say.
"This visit comes as part of a series of policy stances Ahmadinejad has made since taking office. Iran has already announced its support for Syria's president. This expresses clear Iranian backing for Syria in times of pressure," said Talal Atrisi, a Lebanese analyst and Iran expert. "Iran also wants to tell the world that pressure from the United States and European Union on the nuclear file will not detract it from its interest in the Syria-Lebanon-Israel front."
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has already made a point of being the first head of a foreign state to visit Iran after Ahmadinejad, a religious conservative, took office. Iran's new president seized that opportunity to vow closer cooperation in the face of U.S. pressure and is returning the visit at a time when Assad finds himself particularly isolated.
The United States and the European Union's three biggest powers, Britain, France and Germany said this month that Iran's resumption of nuclear research meant it should be referred to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions. Iran removed the U.N. seals on its uranium enrichment equipment but says it has no intention of building nuclear arms and seeks only a peaceful programme.
Syria also faces pressure from the Security Council, which passed a resolution in October demanding it cooperate fully with a U.N. inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri or risk unspecified further action. Syria has denied any involvement in the murder but has said it will not allow investigators to question Assad in the case. Lebanon has been gripped by a political crisis since Hariri's killing which has divided the country between pro-and anti-Syrian factions.
Neither Syria nor Iran face an imminent threat of military action or broad sanctions at the Security Council, but will come under more diplomatic pressure on every front, analysts say. Long fixtures on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, Tehran and Damascus are the main backers of Lebanon's Hizbollah group, itself under pressure to disarm in line with a U.N. resolution that last year forced Syria to pull its troops out of its smaller neighbour after a 29-year military presence. Hizbollah, the only Lebanese group to keep its arms after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, was instrumental in ending Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000.
Both Syria and Iran accuse the United States of seeking to force regional backing for policies that further the interests of their arch foe Israel at the expense of Muslims and Arabs. They defend Hizbollah as resistance against the Jewish state. Allies in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, Syria and Iran also face U.S. accusations that they are turning a blind eye to insurgents crossing into Iraq to derail the democratic process. Both say they are doing their utmost to control their long and porous borders with Iraq.
"Iran wants to send a message that it is not too concerned about this international pressure, that its hands are not tied because it is the United States and EU states that are split on how to pursue the threats they have made to Iran," Atrisi said.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006
09:14 ||
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#3
same plane mechanics as worked on the "Martyr's Special"?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 10:34
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I wonder what the flight path from Tehran to Damascus looks like. Better not make it too direct. The skies are not very friendly in that area. An "accident" could happen. Seriously though, I wonder how this guy will get there. Must be the longest 758nm trip ever.
#8
Just wondering: do the Iranians do kissy-face greetings like the Arabs? If not, what's the protocol in a visit like this? Inquiring minds are not sure they want to know.
Istanbul, 18 Jan. (AKI) - Three Turkish paragliders kidnapped almost a month ago in southeast Iran close to the Pakistan border have been released. The three - Serdar Durna, Yurdaer Etike and Avni Ozan - were expected to fly back to Turkey on Wednesday. A Sunni Muslim group Jundallah (Soldier of Allah) seized the three Turks on 24 December 2005. A one-million-euro ransom was demanded for the release of the three paragliders who had been making their way to Nepal when they were seized. On Tuesday the Iranian government announced that the Sunni group, which authorities in Tehran believe is linked to Osam bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, had released the three Turks. There has been no word on fate of eight Iranian soldiers, also seized by the Jundallah last month.
"Weâre very happy but of course our happiness will be greater when we see them here [in Turkey]â said Huseyin Ozan, elder brother of paraglider Avni Ozan, reacting to the news of the release. Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul said that intense efforts had been made to save the lives of the Turks and also thanked the Iranian government and Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, for their help.
Both Gul, and Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said that no ransom paid to Jundallah.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006
09:11 ||
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the three paragliders who had been making their way to Nepal when they were seized
Turkey, to Southeast Iran or Pakistan/ to Nepal. That's a long way to paraglide.
Tehran, 18 Jan. (AKI) - The Iranian government is considering transferring state funds deposited in European banks to financial institutions in Asia, in particular South East Asia, according to Iranian website Rooz-on-line. It quotes sources close to the government saying the move follows the decision by the EU negotiating team (France Britain and Germany) to press the UN's atomic watchdog refer Iran's nuclear case to the Security Council.
Getting the money out before it can be frozen or seized. Plus, the banks that stand to lose those funds will put pressure on their governments.
Another contributing factor is believed to be the decision by Italian magistrates last year to block the 700-million-dollar account of the Iranian embassy in Rome.
The main bank account of the Iranian embassy in Italy, at the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Rome, was frozen in November 2005 by the Rome prosecutors office on the request of a US court. The decision was fiercely criticised by the Iranian government. In a recent interview with the Italian state broadcaster, RAI, deputy foreign minister Saiid Jalili, said "this decision will weigh on the economic and trade ties between our two countries". "If your country does not resolve the situation, it will lose economic credibility" he added. Since then the bank account has been unblocked, though Rome prosecutors have not yet closed the case.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006
09:02 ||
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#1
As I said yesterfay, if my bank won't trade with your bank, your dollars (Dinars?) are toilet paper.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/18/2006 14:23
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The Mad Mullah's should watch the movie "The Snowman".
Deposits in 3rd and 2nd world banks can vaporize rather quickly...
Global strike constitutes a bolt-out-of-the-blue attack, a capability that has been developed wherein the President could order an attack within hours.
Since at least the middle of 2004, U.S. long-range bombers and submarines have been on alert to carry out an attack on weapons of mass destruction targets that could potentially threaten the United States. At Strategic Command (STRATCOM) in Omaha, the global strike plan has been written and refined. The choreography for bomber and cruise missile attacks has been arranged. Actual targets have been selected, and WMD activity is monitored, resulting in constant revisions of the choreography.
In May, I wrote that the plan also includes options to use nuclear weapons. But the attractiveness and feasibility of the new global strike planning is that a disarming blow can theoretically be delivered with conventional weapons alone.
The post-9/11 National Security Strategy, published in September 2002, codified preemption, stating that the United States must be prepared to stop rogue states and their terrorist clients before they are able to threaten or use weapons of mass destruction against the United States and our allies." Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld directed the military in 2002 to create the capability to undertake "unwarned strikes" in crisis situations.
If Iran continues to defy the international community and manufactures nuclear weapons materials, and if U.S. intelligence detects peculiar movements or actions associated with nuclear facilities or, say, Iranian arming and alerting of its ballistic missile or fighter force, CONPLAN 8022 could be implemented to strike at the activity.
Given that the justification for preemption and for the global strike capability is to prevent "another 9/11," this time one with WMD, it wouldn't be relevant whether the United States was confident that it knew where ever last gram of Iran's weapons were. The focus would be against Iran's ability to deliver a WMD. The objective would be to forestall another 9/11. A strike that halted preparations for attack and set back the program so that it was no longer an immediate threat would be a success under the Bush administration's plan.
This is why commentators who warn that the United States does not know where all of Iran's nuclear capabilities are missing the point. Under global strike, the objective wouldn't be to "disarm" Iran: It would be to stop it.
But equally those who froth that a strike is imminent don't get it. Sure, the President spoke of an "axis of evil" after 9/11 but since then many realities have sunk in: The U.S. is overwhelmed in Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. allies are as skeptical as ever regarding the use of force and even the government is more modest about what it "knows" after the intelligence failures since 9/11.
Someday, though, the President might indeed order a global strike. The argument on the part of the government would be that a preemptive strike on Iran was last ditch and defensive. Perhaps those who are opining about the subject should stop going around in circles about irrelevant claims and address the real program and its real justifications.
We are overwhelmed - politically. I can already hear the comparisons to the justifications for invading Iraq and how we got it wrong. With the elections coming up soon, the GOP will not want to go down that path again any time soon.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/18/2006 10:38
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you can shoot the WMD installations, and you will neutralise the ones you know about.
but it won't solve the problem or win the war.
and they will hide some and you won't find them.
The war can only be won by neutralising radical islam.
This is an ideological war. I would spend billions training imams and pressuring the mullahs to subtly move in the right direction.
#4
anon1: The war is both military and ideological. We can't retrain the imams--not directly. We can and must work harder on the PR end, but we need more Arabic/Farsi/Turkik/etc speakers and a few decades. In the meantime we have a few problems that are likely to require tools that go bang.
Posted by: James ||
01/18/2006 11:26
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Stopping the nukes buys more time to reform Islam. And it might discourage the Iranians form restarting the project if they realize we have 10 years to develop new technology to whack them next time.
I doubt Islam can be "reformed" in less than 120 years, enough time that no one is alive who remembers the glorious days of UBL. Sort of like it took 120 years for the U. S. to get over the Civil War.
"it won't solve the problem or win the war"
Name the one battle in WWII that solved the problem or won the war.
"they will hide some and you won't find them"
They don't have them yet, and we won't stop watching. You don't build uranium processing plants and thousands of centrifuges in a garage and operate them on batteries.
"The war can only be won by neutralising radical islam."
And WWII was only won by neutralising Nazi politics?
"This is an ideological war."
They're all either ideological or pure greed for power/resources (e.g., Saddam taking Kuwait).
"I would spend billions training imams..."
Iran is not giving us that much time.
"reform islam and it's game over"
Islam is not giving us that much time either. Your strategy may have had some merit a few decades ago, but that was before Islam got its hands on WMDs.
January 18, 2006: Why are U.S. troops still in Afghanistan, and why do most Afghans accept this? The main problem in Afghanistan is that the people who hosted al Qaeda are still there. Most Afghans still see these pro-Taliban elements as a threat. Most Afghans also feel that, without the United States; Pakistan and Iran would once again meddle in Afghan affairs. Most Afghans blame the Pakistani government for inflicting the Taliban dictatorship on them, and continuing to support unrest.
The Taliban were mainly leaders from a few Pushtun tribes that tried to impose their brand of conservative Islam, and tribal customs, on the rest of the country. This was never popular, but many Pushtuns still see this approach to running the country as worth fighting for. The Pushtun tribes make up about 40 percent of the Afghan population. And even more Pushtuns live across the border in Pakistan.
U.S. troops have behaved well in Afghanistan from the beginning. The first U.S. troops entering Afghanistan in October, 2001, were U.S. Army Special Forces operators, many of whom spoke the local languages and understood the customs. That went over real well. In addition, there were CIA operators who spoke the languages, and some of them had helped Afghans fight the Russians in the 1980s. These CIA guys were local heroes to the Afghans, and instantly established trust.
When regular American troops came in at the end of 2001, and into 2002, they were sent to areas where pro-Taliban fighters were operating. The Taliban had acquired a reputation as being thugs and bullies, so the Afghans were glad to have the Americans helping to chase down the diehards. The American troops also got involved in a lot of aid and reconstruction projects. Thus the Americans were seen as generous, warriors, and not a greedy neighbor. The Afghans know about 911, and their tribal code of revenge made it understandable that the Americans wanted to chase down those responsible for the attacks.
Because of the al Qaeda terrorists, Taliban marauders, and potential meddling by Iran and Pakistan, not to mention the money and goodies that accompany American troops, Afghanistan is in no hurry to see them leave. This sort of thing can go on for a long time. For example, when American troops began to pull out of Germany in the 1990s, after being there for half a century, most Germans were unhappy to see the G.I.âs depart, and German politicians even came to Washington to try and stop the withdrawals. This was mostly about jobs, but also about a good relationship between Germans and the American troops.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006
08:50 ||
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#1
The Afghans are a hard people who we have a pretty good history with in a highly strategic location. I think a long term base should be considered.
The US could probably form a foriegn auxilery of peace keeping forces from some of these nations like a afghan brigade, phillipino, iraqi, romanian, colombian, ect of peace keepers from what I can tell some decentley well trained peace keeping forces are becoming rather profitable. This would give US a force of peace keepers to use for the PR UN crap in peace time and in cases like Iraq to augment our forces by taking over in the more tame areas. Not to mention we would be basicly raising freindly's who we trained taught and know that over time would go home and take places of authority. The intel possibilities down the road are huge.
I was hesitant at first but it looks more and more that the US like it or not has been delegated the job of world stability if for no other reason than our economy. We should leverage this, use the UN/EU as a money source and take friendly nations like minded but just downtroden and form auxilary units under OUR/US command. They get training money we get peace keepers to deploy instead of our regular forces who are best at killing bad guys not walkin a beat. The UN pays the upkeep and has a deployable force that is competent and decentley trained.
#2
Afghanistan has been cursed for so long it is almost beyond imagination that it could ever be peaceful and prosperous again. Just by resoring order and some semblance of peace, the US has accomplished a miracle, even if the country had to be "softened up" first by the Russians and then the Taliban.
However, in what may be the first real chance in two thousand years, I truly wish that we could change Afghanistan's karma forever. By creating a brilliant framework for economic advancement, as Paul Bremer did in Iraq, perhaps we could break that curse.
If well done, it is bizarre to think that only 10-20 billion dollars could end two millenia of suffering and death.
#3
Very interesting ideas, C-Low. The long-term trickle down effect of those Special Forces troops on their own nations bears thinking about. It would be lovely, f'r instance, to see some real leadership in the Philippines and in Mongolia, about whom lotp and Master Fred have spoken so positively, and it would be brilliant to be able to point to the results wrought by troops from Iraq and Afghanistan -- not to mention how proud their home folks would rightfully be.
But I'm not certain the U.N. route is the way to go. I would hate to see our guys (and they would be ours, through special affection if nothing else) parked in, say, Sudan or the Israeli border, with the kind of restrictive rules of [non]engagement that the mighty Uruguyans -- or worse, the Dutch! -- are hobbled with. Rather, let's use them where NATO plays games not to go. Can you imagine Afghani troops fixing up the situation in Iraq, and vice versa? Basra would never have had a chance to get into its current fix!
#4
C-Low is proposing an American version of the French Foreign Legion. Not a bad idea, seeing how the FFL is probably the ONLY effective fighting force the French have.
...but I'm with TW on the reluctance to put the AFL (American Foreign Legion) under UN control. Anyone who voluntarily joins a military arm of the United States deserves the American Umbrella, from military AND civilian alike. I may not fight, but I sure do pay through the nose in Federal Taxes: Since 9/11 I have actually felt PLEASED on every subsequent April 15.
#6
Interesting article in today's WSJ about the booming heroin traffic in Afghanistan. That is going to be a serious impediment to the establishment of a strong central government. Hopefully the heroin issue will be a shorter term situation.
ROME (AP) -- Rome prosecutors sought help from the United States on Wednesday in locating an American soldier believed to have shot an Italian secret service agent at a checkpoint in Iraq last year. So far, the United States has not responded to Italian requests to trace the soldier's identity and hometown, prosecutor Erminio Amelio said.
"The U.S. never answered any of our requests. We did not receive any cooperation," Amelio told The Associated Press. "They have never answered and we don't think they ever will."
His name is Joe. G.I. Joe. You might remember him, he kicked the Germans out of your sorry excuse for a country.
The U.S. Embassy in Rome said it had no immediate comment.
It's not like the military would trust the State Department with that info.
Prosecutors intend to charge the soldier in the death of Italian agent Nicola Calipari, who was killed by U.S. gunfire as he was heading to Baghdad airport on March 4 after securing the release of an Italian hostage. Another agent and the freed hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena, were wounded.
"There's no persecutory intention against a person or the United States," Amelio said. "We're checking on facts and responsibilities."
He added that Italian paramilitary police had been asked to locate the soldier so prosecutors can notify him of the end of their investigation, a preliminary step before requesting an indictment, possibly on murder and attempted murder charges.
You want him? Try and take him.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006
08:41 ||
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"There's no persecutory intention against a person or the United States," Amelio said.
...before requesting an indictment, possibly on murder and attempted murder charges
So they plan to indict, but not persecute. I'm just a little American housewife -- this is too subtle and complex for me. Maybe if he'd said prosecute instead of persecute... I really need to learn Italian one of these days.
#2
"There's no persecutory intention against a person or the United States," Amelio said. "We're checking on facts and responsibilities.".
Just like our own bureaucrats in the states no longer use the term 'suspect' rather now a 'person of interest'.
How about if the Commanding General, in the Iraqi theater of operations, asks the State Department to pass on a formal request to appear before a full Article 32 investigation held concurrent with Iraq prosecuters on the cooperation with known insurgents by members of the Italian secret service? Think you'd be glad to participate?
#3
Condi ought to go on National TV and say: âNot only NO, but HELL NO.â She should then extend her hand palm out. Trust me Ameilo, if we were attempting to Kill that bitch Sgrena you would have never found the bodies.
#5
Sure, just as long as we get those terror suspects from the Achille Lauro, and some other guys we find fascinating.....
Then we'll get right on it. You bet.
But if you want to start looking for him in the meantime, have at it. His name is Harry Butz. Don't forget his accomplice, Al Cohol. Go to the Bible Belt, and tell anyone that you are looking for Harry Butz and Al Cohol. Happy Hunting, paisano!
#6
frustrating what fuckwits we have as "allies". Seems to be stretching that term to Clintonian limits
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 14:23
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So far, the United States has not responded to Italian requests to trace the soldier's identity and hometown, prosecutor Erminio Amelio said.
Your waiting is over Rome. Go F*** YOURSELVES! Next time you see a US Army checkpoint, slow down and then come to a stop or you'll be Caliparied, capiche?
#8
Not sure why, but this image immediately came to mind. I guess I'm just a visual guy. Perhaps someone will translate into Italian so there are no misunderstandings.
#10
This is at least in part part of the runup to the Italian elections in ?March?. (I should go look that up but don't have time right now.) Berlusconi is coming back strong against the left and Prodi, or was a few days ago IIUC.
SPINBOLDAK, Afghanistan (AP) -- More than 5,000 people chanting "Death to Pakistan!" marched through two Afghan border towns Wednesday to protest a suicide bombing they blame on the neighboring country.
Since they are not chanting "Death to America!", we won't see this protest on the nightly news
The blast at a wrestling match on Monday killed 21 people, making it the deadliest suicide attack since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. No one has claimed responsibility, and a purported spokesman for the Taliban rebels denied involvement.
"Death to Pakistan! Death to al-Qaida! Death to the Taliban!" the protesters shouted as they marched to the towering Friendship Gate that marks Waish's border crossing with Pakistan. The protesters also made their way through the larger town of Spinboldak, another key border crossing. Most shops in the two neighboring towns were closed because of the protest.
Afghan officials have repeatedly claimed that the Taliban and other militant groups have training bases in Pakistan and are receiving support from that side of the border - an accusation Islamabad denies.
"Nope, no training bases here. We asked and everything"
An Afghan tribal elder who spoke at the demonstration said that attackers in Monday's bombing had trained in Pakistan. "They kill us Afghans. They kill tribesmen and they want tribesmen living in Pakistan and Afghanistan to fight with each other," said Akhtar Mohammed Qabail.
Hours before Monday's explosion, President Hamid Karzai told reporters he believed most of those responsible for about 20 suicide attacks in the past three months have been foreigners, though he did not say from where. Pakistan strengthened security on its side of the border during the protest and the crossing was closed temporarily until the demonstrations subsided.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006
08:25 ||
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"Since they are not chanting "Death to America!", we won't see this protest on the nightly news"
Your right. But I did see on all three channels last night, a guy got his vet back. I consider this story more helpful to America than the vet story. But then again, I guess that's your point.
#2
More than 5,000 people chanting "Death to Pakistan!" marched through two Afghan border towns Wednesday to protest a suicide bombing they blame on the neighboring country.
#3
The story is reported on the Fox News website, so presumably it will be on-air as well. The same details posted above are at the tail end of a very confused story about those Al Qaeda Bigs suddenly sent off to Allah while at dinner. If I'm reading the story correctly, Zawahiri must have been tipped off; he skipped out of dinner, sending his best bomb-maker and a senior lieutenant in his stead, except... but... it appears... But the AP stringer did arrive on the scene long before the authorities; I wonder if he'd been invited to the dinner party, too.
The US envoy to Nato has said that a British-led military force due to move into southern Afghanistan must be ready to fight resurgent Taleban militants. Ambassador Victoria Nuland said Nato would need to provide "a strong and robust fighting force" in the region.
Scores have died in a spate of attacks in the south in recent months, among them a Canadian diplomat on Sunday. Nato has about 9,000 peacekeepers in Afghanistan and will expand its role to the south where US-led troops operate.
BBC defence correspondent Paul Wood says British troops are going to the south to guarantee reconstruction, not to engage in American-style capture and kill missions.
Swell..
But Ambassador Nuland said there should be no illusions about the "rigorous environment" in the south. "Nato forces, in providing security and stability throughout the country except to the east, will be prepared to perform missions up to and including what we call counter-insurgency, which obviously will require a strong and robust fighting force," she said.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006
08:18 ||
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British troops are going to the south to guarantee reconstruction, not to engage in American-style capture and kill missions
Hint: The reconstruction actually goes faster when you do a little capturing and killing first...
#3
NS---LOL! Troops need to be more sennnnnnnnnnnnnsitive to meet todays Jihadi challenges.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/18/2006 11:04
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WOT US warns on UK Afghan troop role
Afghanistan
IRAN
Pak Land-Balochistan
It's hard to imagine that our strategist are going to allow Nato or the Brits to backslide on all the progress we've made in the Pushtun tribal areas in the South of Afghanistan and in Pakistan.
The Taliban and their Pak helpers haven't given up the struggle for control by any means. The enemy surely would take advantage of Nato forces if they pulled back and used maninly defensive tactics.
There's so much at stake, Iran and the Nuke standoff. I hope we're already a few moves ahead.
Treating the issue of Iran's alleged nuclear ambition as a hot potato, the European trio of Britain, Germany and France have decided to pass it on to the International Atomic Energy Agency and from there to the U.N. Security Council.
"Our talks with Iran have reached a dead end," says Germany's new Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The truth, however, is that the trio's talks with Iran, which lasted three years, started at a dead end. And the Europeans knew that those talks would get nowhere. The talks began when Iran admitted that it had been lying to the IAEA and violating the terms of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty for 18 years, but promised not to do so again.
Legally speaking, Iran should have been referred to the Security Council at that time. The Europeans rejected American demands to that effect and decided to forgive Iran for its past sins.
In exchange, they asked Iran, in the words of then French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, to give them "something with which to silence the Americans." De Villepin had devised the scheme as a means of exposing what he called "the follies of American policy" as had been manifested in Iraq. He suggested that Iran be dealt with "the French way," which meant negotiations and compromise rather than knuckle-rapping or worse.
The Iranians welcomed the European offer because it did three things for them. First, it removed the threat of military action which, at the time, appeared to be serious. Second, the deal isolated the United States. Finally, it gave Iran time to speed up its nuclear program, whatever its ultimate goals.
Believe it or not, the Iranians were honest throughout the talks. They said they were prepared to give that "something" needed "to silence the Americans" in the form of a voluntary and temporary suspension of Iran's uranium-enrichment activities. They did not promise a permanent ban and made it clear that they would not relinquish Iran's right, under the NPT, to enrich uranium for fuel.
Interestingly, the European trio, presenting the deal as "a triumph for soft-power diplomacy," never demanded that Iran submit to a permanent end to uranium enrichment. The trio were anxious to be deceived, and were deceived by their own illusions rather than any chicanery on the part of Iran. All they were interested in was to score a point against Washington.
Even now the trio are not asking Iran to permanently forgo its right to enrich uranium. They cannot do so because the NPT recognizes that right for all nations. To make matters more complicated, the trio are now forced to deal with a much tougher Iranian partner in the person of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose political discourse is based on a dream of Iran as a major power on the global stage.
Having called the Europeans "nothing but corrupt midgets," Ahmadinejad would be the last person to let them dictate to him. He is also convinced that the United States, bedevilled by its internal divisions, has missed the opportunity to use the threat of military action against Iran. As a result, Ahmadinejad is actively seeking a diplomatic confrontation with the Europeans, plus escalating tension with the United States. He believes that he can take on both Europe and the United States and win. And if he does, he hopes he will emerge as the unrivalled master of the Islamic republic and the de facto leader of the Muslim world.
When Villepin and his British counterpart Jack Straw, plus their German colleague Joschka Fischer, initiated the talks with Teheran, they must have known that Iran had taken the strategic decision to develop a nuclear "surge capacity" as one of the three pillars of its National Defence Doctrine enacted in the early 1990s. The Europeans could not have been as naive as to believe that the Islamic republic would abandon that pillar in exchange for diplomatic niceties and an invitation to join the World Trade Organization. Incidentally, the so-called "incentive" of inviting Iran into the WTO is no longer relevant because Ahmadinejad regards the WTO as "a club of thieves and plunderers" and preaches "self-sufficiency" rather than trade as the centrepiece of his economic doctrine.
The Europeans are not prepared to acknowledge that the problem is not about uranium enrichment but about the nature of the present Iranian regime. More than 20 countries, from Argentina to Japan, and passing by Germany and Ukraine, enrich uranium without anyone making a fuss. The Iranian case is causing concern because few are prepared to trust the present leadership in Teheran not to embark upon some tragic mischief in the name of its Khomeinist ideology.
European-style appeasement, partly motivated by a desire to pull faces at Washington, has encouraged the most radical faction in Teheran and helped to bring Ahmadinejad to power. All the diplomatic gesticulations that are likely to follow will only compound that effect. The Islamic republic has had three years in which to prepare for whatever sanctions the Security Council might impose. It has also signed oil and gas contracts worth more than $70 billion with China, and arms and industrial contracts with Russia exceeding $30 billion, to make sure that at least one if not both would veto any harsh resolution against Iran.
The Khomeinist regime is one of those regimes that will not stop until they hit something hard. Why should they when they can pursue their objectives cost-free? Soft power may work only if it is backed by hard power.
And Europe has, once again, made it clear that it would oppose even the threat of hard power being used against Iran.
As things stand, all those concerned in this carnival of absurdities have reason to be happy: The Europeans get rid of the hot potato; the Bush administration finds a diplomatic fig leaf to cover its lack of an Iran policy; the Russians sell their arms; the Chinese get their oil and gas; and the Islamists in Teheran accelerate whatever mischief they might be up to in the nuclear domain.
But the problem of what to do with an awkward Iran in a new Middle East will remain unresolved.
#1
Well, I can't say it's much of a surprise, there've been so many - most wearing the same label: Mfg in France
But an engineered crisis - a schoolyard scheme of blind hatred and jealousy - with no thought about how to stop it, once rolling...
He hears the silence howling --
Catches angels as they fall.
And the all-time winner
Has got him by the balls.
He picks up Gideons Bible --
Open at page one -- Old Charlie Monique she stole the handle and
The train it wonât stop going --
No way to slow down.
Shitstorians born after the dust settles will look back upon this time and boggle.
#4
The trio were anxious to be deceived, and were deceived by their own illusions rather than any chicanery on the part of Iran. All they were interested in was to score a point against Washington.
I don't buy it. I've been convinced for a while that the EUros (France, in particular) actually want Iran to get the bomb. In their view: it would humiliate us and severely constrain our military options (win/win), it would be the ultimate leverage against Israel, and they believe they can buy off or deflect any threats aimed at them.
I truly believe they are duplicitous enough to do that, and I believe my view passes the Occam's razor test better that the view that they were sincere but got fooled.
#5
European-style appeasement, partly motivated by a desire to pull faces at Washington, has encouraged the most radical faction in Teheran and helped to bring Ahmadinejad to power.
Didn't their mommas tell them not to make faces because they might stick that way? Europe's startled look of horror as Iran starts dictating policy to them will be priceless. Effing morons.
Fighting is being reported between Bangladeshi United Nations peacekeepers and supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo in the west of Ivory Coast. At least three people have been killed when the UN base in Guiglo, 300km from Abidjan, came under attack and UN staff are reportedly being evacuated.
"Run away!"
France has called for calm in towns and cities in the government-controlled south after three days of protests.
Ivorian muslim rebels, who control the north, say the country is on the brink of war. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has urged an immediate end to "orchestrated violence" in the divided nation. The country has been split in two since a failed coup attempt in 2002, with some 10,000 UN and French peacekeepers patrolling between the rebel-controlled and government areas.
Mr Gbagbo's supporters are angry at international mediators calling for the dissolution of the parliament, which largely backs him. The mediators were appointed by the UN to help steer the country towards elections, due this year. The ruling party subsequently pulled out of the transitional government and UN-backed peace talks and are calling on French and UN troops to leave.
"There is not a future for Ivory Coast if the FPI succeeds in making a putsch against the peace process. That means war," New Forces rebel spokesman Sidiki Konate told the BBC's Network Africa programme. Mr Konate said the rebels, who have controlled the north for three years, remained committed to the transitional government under the leadership of Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny.
Sure, since the UN-backed transitional government seems determined to put them in power.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006
08:01 ||
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#1
The title on the BBC site reads:
UN troops flee Ivory Coast town
Thatcher's gvt in the 70's? I'm not very british-knowledgeable, but that would be a very short decade IIRC.
THE Thatcher government concocted a plan in the 1970s to search for the Loch Ness monster using a team of bottle-nosed dolphins. Whitehall mandarins planned to import the highly intelligent mammals from America to establish once and for all whether Nessie existed. The scheme followed years of inter-departmental discussion about the possible tourism benefits if the fabled creature was ever discovered.
Last week The Sunday Times revealed how civil servants had obsessed about whether there would be legal protection from poachers and bounty hunters if Nessie were to emerge from the depths. Now declassified government files, released under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that the government was prepared to incur the wrath of animal rights groups in its quest to establish the truth about the monster.
A letter written in May 1979 from David Waymouth, a civil servant at the Department of the Environment, to Stewart Walker at the Scottish Home and Health Department states: âThis department is presently considering the issue of a licence to import two bottle-nosed dolphins from America for the purpose of exploring Loch Ness, a scheme which has already resulted in opposition from the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. âInquiries have been made with the mammal experts on the Scientific Authority for Animals and their advice is that there are no conservation, or indeed welfare, reasons for refusing a licence.
âClearly, however, there are other factors, mainly political, that you might wish to consider before the licence is issued.â
Like the fact that bottle-nosed dolphins are salt water mammals and Loch Ness is a fresh water lake
The National Archive of Scotland contains no record of a response to the letter.
However, Adrian Shine, a naturalist who has been investigating the Loch Ness mystery for several decades, said he believed the dolphin plan was the brainchild of veteran monster hunter Dr Robert Rines, founder of the American-based Academy of Applied Science who took a now famous underwater photograph, in 1972, which appeared to show a large flipper in the Loch.
Which later was found to be a "enhanced" photo of a log
The Academy of Applied Science in New Hampshire confirmed that dolphins were being trained with mini cameras and strobe lights that would have been activated if they encountered any large objects.
#1
I'm really not sure, but since dolphins are mammals, I would presume they wouldn't mind fresh water, after all there are dolphins in the Amazon river IIRC.
But, I agree, this is not very realistical.
I much prefer the krazed killer dolphins with neurotoxin-tipped dartguns on their back who went hunting for humans (most of them black people forced to feed on the dead) after the NO levees were blown up by Halliburton.
#2
Plus they're crazy American cowboy dolphins. They might've *started* to look for Nessie and then swam off to call in a airstike on the Firth of Forth, before heading to the Glasgow Starbucks...
#3
This was all before the guy admitted his famous photo was a hoax but still its pathetic. The UK government was going to spend money on something every scientist could easily discount.
How many Nessies would be required to keep a viable population alive? How long could a single Nessie live? We've ether got an eternally lasting Nessie or they are all over the place underfoot. The beast does not exist.
#5
Let me break in a moment and tell of my own Nessie sighting. Summer 87 I'm messing around on the Urqheart castle ruins with friends. Taking pictures and swordfighting with sticks. When the film was developed we saw in the background a distinct silouette of a neck and beak coming out of the water with a wake trailing behind it.
Damn we were excited. Big money, fame, fortune. HOw did we not see it while we were there? We dug through other photos until we found it again. This time with a bit better lighting. This time we could see the boat. You see the beak was the outstretched arms of a waterskier.
How many Nessie sitings didn't have the second photo for comparison? Or had the second photo hidden from prying eyes?
I'd love to believe in Nessie, or Tahoe Tessie and all the other Dilophosauri out there but I can't. Bigfoot ate them all long ago and that is all there is too it.
Last week, Japanese scientists explaced... placed explosive detonators at the bottom of Lake Loch Ness to blow Nessie out of the water. Sir Godfrey of the Nessie Alliance summoned the help of Scotland's local wizards to cast a protective spell over the lake and its local residents and all those who seek for the peaceful existence of our underwater ally.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/18/2006 11:29
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#7
Yet more papparazzi stalking innocent cryptids. Don't we have enough problems as it is, with the declining breeding pools and vanishing food sources?
I just wish people would leave our stealth subs alone , we have only just managed to make it stream-line in water ... the paddles were the issue if anyone is slighly interested
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) -- Iranian Acting Foreign Minister Mehdi Mostafavi is to hold talks in South Africa on Wednesday that are to touch on Tehran's nuclear program, the foreign ministry said.
Mostafavi is to meet with Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad in Pretoria for discussions on "political and economic relations as well as the issue of Iran's nuclear program within the context of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," said foreign ministry spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa on Tuesday.
South Africa has repeatedly said it is trying to advance international diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the Iranian nuclear dispute.
The Iranian foreign minister is also to hold talks with Acting Foreign Minister Jeff Radebe, who is standing in for Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma while she is attending meetings ahead of an African summit in Khartoum.
Can't help but wonder if this visit includes a tour of Pelindaba. This smells badly.
Actually I was thinking that they were going to talk about testing in the Kalahari like the Israelis did in the 70s, but maybe they would like to talk to the current South African regime about either processing some of their Uranium or buying some already processed "good stuff"
Boston Herald gossip column, reporting on a story in the National Enquirer. EFL. Salt recommended. On the other hand, the Enquirer has a better fact-checking unit than CBS News. On the other other hand, my son's goldfish are better at fact-checking than CBS. . . . Okay, I'll shut up now.
The National Enquirer splashes this week with a shocking story about Sen. Ted Kennedyâs secret love child with a Cape Cod woman whom the mag says he dated during his days as a swinging single. According to the tabloidâs source, the boy, named Christopher, just celebrated his 21st birthday and is âmature enough to make his own choices about his background and biological father.â "He's my dad? Him? Ted Kennedy! Eeeewww, ick, I'm registering Republican and joining a health club!"
"Mom! How could you!"
"Well, it was dark, and the moon was bright ..."
"... and I wasn't..."
. . . As for the senator, his spokesgal Melissa Wagoner last night called the tabloid tale âirresponsible fiction.â "It's no more true than that scurrilous tale about the bridge and the car that the right-wing conspiracy keeps peddling. Oh, Ted, not again! I feel so dirty when I have to do this denial crap."
Hereâs the story according to the Enquirer: Back in 1983, Kennedy, then 51, started humping took up with Caroline Bilodeau, an attractive brunette, several months before divorcing Joan, the mother of his three kids â Kara, Ted Jr. and Patrick. Bilodeauâs friends told the Enquirer the local lass became so smitten with the senator, she âhad dreams about being the next Mrs. Ted Kennedy.â
Isn't that what Mary Jo wondered?
Asked to comment on the affair, portly pepperpot Monica Lewisky was quoted as saying, "Dated a pig politician, did ya? Been there, done that. It is, like, so embarassing! I feel for ya, girlfriend!" But the love affair came crashing down when Bilodeau told Ted a baby was on the way, the mag reports. âCaroline announced to the family that she was two months pregnant around May 1984,â blabbed a Bilodeau confidante. âTed was not happy about the news. He already had three kids with Joan and knew a baby out of wedlock could hurt him politically.â According to the Enquirer, the scandal-scarred senator begged Bilodeau to have an abortion, but she refused. Now we know why he's so attached to Roe v. Wade.
âHe told her he couldnât undergo another scandal â not after Chappaquiddick, not so close to his divorce from Joanâ said the source. âHe was very angry when she defied him and had the child.â
It would have driven him to drink, but he was already there...
During her pregnancy, Carolineâs friends noticed the unemployed young woman who lived with her parents bought a black Mustang convertible, an expensive Shar-pei puppy and moved into her own apartment. âLater we learned she received about $15,000 from someone in the Kennedy camp,â said the friend.
Shucks. That's never happened before, has it?
When Christopher was born in a Cape Cod hospital in December 1984, Kennedy was nowhere near the delivery room. Surprise meter reads "off-scale low."
But he did, according to the Enquirer, take a paternity test shortly thereafter to determine if the child was his. Thereby demonstrating what Ted thinks of the women he sleeps with.
After Bilodeau got the results, she moved back in with her parents but âalways seemed to have money,â said the source. Kennedyâs former flame did eventually find love with a man she met in a pizzeria. They married and he legally adopted Christopher and raised him as his own son, sources said. âShe has always been very protective of Christopher and wanted him to have a normal life, not the life a Kennedy lives,â said the friend. Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/18/2006
06:19 ||
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#1
âTed was not happy about the news.... and wanted to go out and get something to eat and take me on a loooooooooong drive in the country to discuss it. I wasn't hungry at the time, so I stayed at home and later ordered a Papa Johns Pizza.
#5
I can't opine as to the veracity of the article, but its timing is certainly interesting. Teddy was an embarrassment at the Alito hearings. And the Owl Club item is a howler. Sensing vulnerability, the Herals prints a slime job like this. It might be taken with less salt than normal by the Baystaters. Perhaps the Senile Senator from Taxachusetts will not get to die in office.
#13
Of course the Ted wouldn't marry her -- he's a Kennedy, she's just a local girl, the kind that make good servants. Should he marry again, it'll be to an appropriate female of his class who'll fit in at D.C. parties. Someone whose wardrobe Robin G., Washington Post fashion/politics commentator would approve of.
#15
I'm going to have to take issue with the main rantburgian stream here.
Even a jerk like Sen Kennedy is entitled to a zone of private life and I don't think the Boston Herald should be reporting on what the Natl Enquirer says in such an extensive way (it would be different to have a 1 sentence blurb that the Natl Enq says 'Ted K may have fathered a child out-of-wedlock in the 80s').
What is really bad is that if Caroline B and Christopher really want a normal life, the Boston Herald is messing it up.
#16
St. Johns' Knitwear, tu? I really should pay more attention to such things, but there's this War on Terror thingy, and the trailing daughters to rear, and I just get so distracted from what's important...
#17
mhw, when one demands the perks of Royalty, one gets the annoyances of Royalty as well. If the honourable Senator and a goodly portion of his clan didn't throw their considerable weight around so, and with hypocrisy aforethought, nobody would care how often his belt failed to hold up his trousers in his private life.
#19
Danielle, it's the Patrick Kennedy who's a Congresscritter from Rhode Island (BTW - he moved to RI so he wouldn't go against his cousin Joe in Mass). Local radio jocks parody him as "The Beav" in a running gag - funny as hell, but too kind to him by half.
#20
mhw: Part of me wants to agree with you on principle, but this is the same Ted Kennedy who subpoenaed Robert Bork's video rentals at Blockbuster, and who publicized the sexual history of the woman his nephew raped. Sauce for the goose, as they say . . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
01/18/2006 18:37
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#21
That picture . . . . AAAAAAAAAGHGHGHGHGH, my eyes............!
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/18/2006 19:41
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#22
According to the tabloidâs source, the boy, named Christopher, just celebrated his 21st birthday and is âmature enough to make his own choices about his background and biological father.â
Unfortunately for this kid, he has no choice about his biological father.
Posted by: Tibor ||
01/18/2006 19:52
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#23
Jeez, youse guys are vicious. This is definitely a take-no-prisoners thread.
I love it! Keep up the good work. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/18/2006 22:42
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#24
I sure hope the kid takes after his mom in the looks department.
Everything happens in threes, they say. The first time Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shocked and dared by declaring "Israel should be wiped off the map," many thought this might be an aberration from the inexperienced, populist president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The second time, however, Ahmadinejad only reaffirmed his political incorrectness with conviction and fervor, suggesting that "if the Europeans claim that the Zionists were suppressed during the Second World War, they can place a part of Europe at [the Zionists'] disposal." This was further reasserted a few days later with his third pronouncement, "they have created a myth today and they call it the massacre of the Jews."
The Iranian president's gaffes not only showed his deep-seated anti-Israel convictions; they were also used to further Ahmadinejad's domestic, regional, and international aims - most recently demonstrated by Iran's December 31 resumption of research in its nuclear program.
Unbeknownst to many, although Iran is a theocratic state, it is also a factional one. While Iranian institutions are dominated by ideological and conservative-minded clerics and politicians, because factionalism is virtually enshrined in the political system, not all embrace the ideological resurgence espoused by Ahmadinejad. Indeed, there has been sufficient criticism of him for supreme leader Ali Khamenei to publicly declare his support for the harried president. At the same time, a former president, and Ahmadinejad's rival in the presidential election, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has resurfaced to moderate and counterbalance the president's often contentious Western political image.
Ahmadinejad faced roadblocks from his political rivals in trying to appoint members to his Cabinet and advance certain economic policies. That is why he seized upon anti-Israel rhetoric as an
issue allowing him to curry favor with the elite. Indeed, no faction publicly criticized Ahmadinejad for using the rhetoric of a renewed, pan-Islamic revivalism better associated with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Instead, Ahmadinejad now looks ever more resilient in challenging the West by attacking Israel.
Regionally as well, Ahmadinejad has positioned himself as a champion of the Arab street. His stringent rhetoric was well received in many Arab capitals, but most importantly among Iran's regional allies. Expressing the strongest support for the president's statements was the Hamas official Khaled Mishaal. In recent visits to Tehran, Hamas leaders promised that any potential attack against Iranian nuclear facilities would be reciprocated by attacks against Israel. Despite Iran's isolation, it has bequeathed to the Israelis a proxy group strategically positioned to lash back at Israel within close proximity of the country - a group whose legitimacy may increase after the January 25 Palestinian elections.
Ahmadinejad's anti-Israel statements have also played a role in buttressing his nuclear posturing. While the president insisted that Iran's program was only for peaceful purposes, among his first foreign policy pronouncements in August 2005 was to reject the proposals of the so-called European Union-3, to resume nuclear work, and even to threaten to begin uranium enrichment. Ahmadinejad's comments earned him condemnation from the international community, but they also brought mounting Israeli pressure for a possible military strike against Iran.
The rising tension has prompted the EU-3 to join the United States in calling for the Iranian nuclear matter to be taken to the United Nations Security Council, even as they, along with Russia and China, have issued a statement underlining the importance of Iran's "fully suspending" its nuclear program. However, no one desires further militarization, and the Iranian regime is aware of the complexities of the situation. But it is also aware that economic realities, with the increasing global demand for oil, make less likely the imposition of sanctions on Iranian energy supplies.
Eagerly observing other states in the "nuclear club," the Iranians believe, in line with their nationalistic ideals, that it is the North Korean model that should be emulated. This means Iran will not only succeed in building a nuclear program, but will do so under cover of entrenched back and forth bargaining. This is the ideal scenario for Ahmadinejad, who builds up his credentials by carrying through on his nuclear ambitions.
The resumption of nuclear research is another example of Iran pushing the nuclear envelope and thumbing its nose at the international community - on the assumption that Western threats are meaningless. Indeed, as British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw recently declared, "This is a matter which has to be resolved by peaceful means, but it will involve a good deal of diplomatic and other pressure on Iran." Such pressure would only benefit the Iranian regime if it extends the enrichment processing time and exposes a lack of unity in the international community.
Ahmadinejad's rhetoric, reminiscent of the Khomeini era, has re-energized the anti-Israel position of the clerical
establishment, its support for terrorist groups, as well as Iran's nuclear ambitions. While the international community plans, negotiates, condemns, and threatens, it is Ahmadinejad who has tactically trumped it yet again by exploiting the paucity of options it has at its disposal, to Iran's advantage.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
03:19 ||
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#1
Wotta load. Take care with that lumping all the West together, not to mention projecting your weak knees and incontinence, morons.
Our options, the non-ass-kissing non-Tranzi-tools out here in the West, never even contemplated either appeasing or capitulating to the insane notion that Iran should have nukes. That's wank-o-matic blather for the Jack Straw soft-power types.
In other words, our options are reality-based, so we deal with what comes, not endlessly jack off over possibilities that did not materialize. That's the chosen job of Professional DiploDancers, UN Vulture Elites, and MSM agenda-pushers, such as yourselves.
Nor has he trumped dick - the question is utterly undecided. All he has done, thus far, is scare the bejesus out of the wishful toolfools. I think it was the fact that they were sportin' Day-Glo Hot Pink kneepads from Day One that sorta gave them away.
As for the (now) endless stream of analysis such as this piece... If he's only manipulating the Iranian factionalism and hatred of Jooos for internal political gain, it does not change a thing, externally. His threats must be taken at face value - as he will be expected to deliver on them by those he has manipulated. So the nuances of how he came to power, whether or not he's a 12th Imam Looney, whether or not he agrees with the Death to Israel & America slogans painted on the missiles he now commands becomes moot. To be honest, I'm rather tired of hearing about his internal political savvy. Whether he's a stealthy sophisticated Machiavellian Iranian political figure or a simple mad country bumpkin - in the end it will be nothing more than fodder for the shitstorians to spin and jive.
We're going to defang his ass - and I hope kill off the Mullah Class in the process.
A Tip for those wild 'n crazy Mullahs, think in 3 dimensions.
#3
His threats must be taken at face value - as he will be expected to deliver on them by those he has manipulated.
Despite the incredulity I've encountered here and elsewhere, at day's end this is all that matters. Serious or not, Ahmadnejad must be taken seriously, regardless of his sincerity, so that he is held accountable for his vicious and hateful rhetoric. The spewing of such bile should not be taken lightly. Those who mean it are definite security risks and those who do not mean it still stand as inspiration to unsure individuals.
Just like with Bashir's urging jihadis to use nuclear weapons against the west. Who cares if he does not mean it? The wingnut is still provoking such thoughts in cannon fodder that is twisted enough to act upon it. Capping these rectal cavities is a priority.
Finally, Ahmadnejad has done one signal favor to the rest of the world. Those international leaders who are unable to condemn Iran's bellicose and genocidal vomiting now show themselves to be enemies of all peace-loving people. Anyone who remains silent in the face of such hatred must be consigned to the "B" list of nations ill-suited to participate on the world stage.
SCIENTISTS in Ireland may have found the countryâs most fertile male, with more than three million men worldwide among his offspring.
The scientists, from Trinity College Dublin, have discovered that as many as one in 12 Irish men could be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a fifth-century warlord and head of the most powerful dynasty in ancient Ireland.
His genetic legacy is almost as impressive as Genghis Khan, the Mongol emperor who conquered most of Asia in the 13th century and has nearly 16m descendants, said Dan Bradley, who supervised the research.
âItâs another link between profligacy and power,â Bradley said.
âWeâre the first generation on the planet where if youâre successful you donât (always) have more children.â
The research was carried out by PhD student Laoise Moore, at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity. Moore, testing the Y chromosome which is passed on from fathers to sons, examined DNA samples from 800 males across Ireland.
The results - which have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics - showed the highest concentration of related males in northwest Ireland, where one in five males had the same Y chromosome.
#1
Millions of descendents - wow, that's called fucking power, heh. Sorry, bad pun. Hmmm, I wonder if they tested for Big Willy of the publicity-shy BackDoorMan Tribe how many hits they'd get...
#7
This speaks less to his, uh, productivity than to the dominance of the Y gene in heredity and the testosterone it delivers.
If there have been 80 generations since this fellow was around it takes only 1.2 males per generation to reach 3 million today. What this speaks to is how many didn't make it in the past.
Even the great Jenjis Kahn is at 1.51 males per generation. Let's hope Jenjis Kerry doesn't have that type of persistence.
#9
A distant cousin decided to trace back our family tree and went as far as a bastard son of one of the pagan viking king Haralds. (There were several kings of the same name and she didn't know which..)
So I looked for the translated SAGAS on these guys and, after reading, told her to quit bragging. All of northern europe had to be decended from these "swingers".
#10
"In those days it really was good to be king."
Only if you, um, uh, get off on sex, lol. So many seem to be working so very very hard to deny that they do, or that they're permanently wired for it, these days, lol. Tip: Darwin 1001 sez abstract your animal drives into oblivion -- and fade out of existence accordingly... and the proof lies in the birth-rate articles we see so often...
Just a brief note that not all of the inhabitants of the North Caucasus are Basayev's drones.
Kavkazky Uzel reported that relatives of rebels killed during the October 13 operation in Nalchik had expressed indignation over the Kavkazcenter interviews with rebel leaders Shamil Basaev and Anzor Astemirov. "A young woman calling herself Fatima, whose husband died in the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria and who was left with three children, cursed Anzor Astemirov, whom she considers guilty of the death of her husband as well as other Muslims," the website wrote on January 10. It quoted her as saying: "He says that he prepared the armed campaign of Muslims many months, and brags that no one betrayed them. I would like to ask him about how he prepared this operation incompetently, knowing that there was a leak of information and in fact sending nearly a hundred people to a certain death. And if dying for one's faith is a blessing, then why didn't he himself die instead of saving his own skin?"
According to Kavkazky Uzel, a majority of the mothers of those who died in Nalchik believe that Basaev, Astemirov and other rebel leaders manipulated the religious feelings of their sons. At the same time, the website reported, the mothers believe their sons would not have allowed themselves to be used in this way had there not been "oppression" at the hands of Kabardino-Balkaria's police. "Shogenov and Basaev acted together against our children," Kavkazky Uzel quoted the mothers as saying, referring to Kabardino-Balkaria Republic Interior Minister Khachim Shogenov.
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On January 10, the day after it published its interview with Shamil Basaev, Kavkazcenter posted an interview with the man who it said led the October 13 raid in NalchikâAnzor Astemirov (a.k.a. Emir Seifulla) head of the Kabardino-Balkarian sector of the Caucasian Front. Echoing Basaev, Astemirov said that despite "heavy losses," the Nalchik raid was a strategic success. "We achieved the main thingâwe accomplished the first step on the path of the jihad," he said. "Our dead are in paradise, whereas their dead are in hell." Astemirov compared the operation to the Koran's Battle of Uhud, in which the Prophet Muhammad took part and in which the Muslims were defeated. "We had too strong a desire to square accounts with the infidels and hypocrites for the outrages they had inflicted on us Muslims, and too much self-confidence," he said. "Although we had sufficient forces to achieve and consolidate success in this operation, not everything turned out as we would have liked."
Asked about the "jihad" in Kabardino-Balkaria, Astemirov answered: "If in Chechnya the jihad has been going on for years, in other parts of the Caucasus it is only just beginning. If before we thought it would be enough to go to Chechnya and help our brothers there in their fight against infidels, we don't think this is enough now. That is why the whole of the North Caucasus, God willing, has become a combat zone and a territory for jihad." The Muslims of Kabardino-Balkaria support the rebels and help them "in every way," Astemirov claimed. "A striking example of the support by the population is the fact that the infidels and hypocrites were unable to find out about the preparations for this operation, which we prepared for many months," he said. "Only just before the very start of the operation was there a leakâbut, again, not from the population."
Astemirov also dismissed anti-Wahhabi declarations made by residents of Kabardino-Balkaria at the urging of local authorities (Chechnya Weekly, November 10 and 17, 2005). "And as for âgatherings of people' taking decisions, this is an outdated way of intimidating Muslims, which the infidels used in Dagestan in 1999," he told Kavkazcenter. "It is also a way for the hypocrites to hide their fear of us and at the same time gain dividends at the price of treachery. Their âdecisions' don't particularly concern us."
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The year 2006 in the North Caucasus has started with a new fierce battle in Dagestan's mountains. On January 2, a special police unit that was combing a gorge between the villages of Gimri and Shamil-Khala ran into an ambush and had to retreat. Additional troops sent to the area also met strong resistance and entered the gorge only after three days of non-stop shelling and bombing of the area. Yet the insurgents had left the gorge by this time and the security officials only found an empty dugout. The dugout was huge; official reports said that up to 60 people could hide there at a time. It is quite possible, however, that this hiding place is not the only one. Sources of Kavkazky Uzel in the Dagestani police say that the rebels could have a network of secret bases around Gimri (Kavkazky Uzel, January 5).
Gimri, an old Dagestani village situated in the mountainous Untsukulsky district, is the site of several fierce clashes between insurgents and federal forces that took place in the republic recently. They are not by accident: Gimri has an old, established tradition of rebellion and guerrilla war.
Khazi-Mullah, the first Imam of the North Caucasus, was born in Gimri, and it is here that a council of elders proclaimed him the Imam and the Leader of Gazavat (or Jihad) of the Caucasian nations against the Russian Empire in 1830. The third and most famous Imam of the North Caucasus, the national hero of Dagestan, Imam Shamil, was also born in Gimri. During the 19th century Caucasian War, the village was assaulted by Russian troops several times. The most famous assault took place in October 17, 1832. Almost all defenders of the village were killed, and Imam Khazi-Mullah and his assistant Shamil, the future Imam, were blockaded in a watchtower. Khazi-Mullah was killed while the wounded Shamil managed to escape.
During the period of Soviet rule, when Stalin proclaimed Imam Shamil the leader of the national-liberation movement of the Caucasian nations against imperialist Russia of the tsars, Gimri became the spiritual and cultural center of Dagestan. A memorial plaque was attached to the house where Imam Shamil was born. The village was visited by Dagestanis from all parts of the region as well as by guests of the republic.
After the first Chechen war, when various separatist and Islamic groups in Dagestan started to talk about independence and establishing Sharia law, the residents of Gimri kept silent. Their neighbors, residents of the Buinaksk district villages of Chabanmakhi and Karamakhi, openly declared Sharia law on their land, but Gimri was not ready to support them. People in Gimri silently observed how the Russian troops and Dagestani policemen were destroying Chabanmakhi and Karamakhi in 1999, after rebels from Chechnya raided Dagestan.
The situation in Gimri changed beginning in 2000. Women started to wear the hijab or even a black veil. There is still an administration head in Gimri, and the Russian national flag still flies in the center of the village, but the real power is in the hands of the Imam of the local mosque. Each decision of the Gimri administration has to be confirmed by the Imam. If, for example, the Imam wants to ban the sale of alcohol in the village or make girls and boys study separately, nobody protests this even if it violates the laws of the Russian Federation.
Two years ago, people calling themselves members of Sharia Jamaat, a Dagestani rebel group, began visiting Gimri. In contrast to the 1990s, this time they were welcomed in the village. Many young Gimri boys decided to take the path of Jihad. In 2004, local militants stepped up their activities. On October 10, 2004, Untsukulsky district police chief Khadzhimurat Azizov and his assistant were killed near the Gimri tunnel on a strategic road that runs near the town of Gimri and connects the mountainous part of Dagestan with the valley. It was the first time that security officials paid attention to Gimri. Russian military units (the 102nd Brigade of the Interior Ministry's Internal Troops and the 136th Brigade of the Ministry of Defense) combed the area after the assassination but found nothing. Nevertheless, Russian generals suspected that some rebel groups might be hiding in the Untsukulsky district. They even considered using the air force (Chechnya Weekly, October 27, 2004).
Early last November, special-task police units started a massive mopping-up operation in Gimri that lasted several days. On November 3, according to Shamil Magomedov, head of the Gimri administration, a shoot-out between policemen and insurgents took place in the village (Nezavisimya gazeta, November 8, 2004). The rebels managed to escape, and Gimri was surrounded by federal forces. Dagestani Interior Minister Adalgirei Magomedtagirov came to Gimri and demanded that the residents hand over to the police anyone who was a Sharia Jamaat member. Magomedtagirov threatened to dispatch helicopter gunships to strike the village with missiles if they refused. When this information was immediately published by the separatist Kavkazcenter website, the interior minister realized his mistake, understanding that news of a missile strike or even the possibility that Imam Shamil's native village might be bombed could enrage the entire Dagestani society. The security officials vehemently repudiated the report about the minister's threat, but the commotion surrounding the situation in Gimri forced the federal side to retreat. The plan to close the Gimri tunnel to traffic and to conduct a Chechen-style "zachistka" in the village was dropped.
In December, the police units came back to Gimri and the clashes there resumed. On December 15, Special Forces tried to surround a group of rebels in a house, but the gunmen returned fire and escaped. One soldier and one militant were killed in the shoot-out (Interfax, December 15).
After the failure to destroy the rebel group in the gorge during first days of this year, federal forces again started to cleanse Gimri. It is unlikely, however, to produce any results. Unlike their ancestors, the modern warriors of Islam in the Caucasus prefer to hide in secret mountain dugouts rather then to fight to the death in blockaded villages. However, the insurgents know quite well that, in contrast to local policemen or the Russian troops, they are always welcome in places like Gimri, where they can readily get food, shelter and everything else they need from the local population.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
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#2
If the boys are joyously choosing the path of jihad, soon there will be plenty of extra girls for the Chinese to marry. Any thoughts about whether China might be adding some spices to this particular pot of stew?
Kavkazky Uzel reported on January 10 that Aleksandra Zakharova, the London-based lawyer for Rasul Kudaev, the former detainee at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo, Cuba, who was later detained by Russian authorities for allegedly participating in the October 13 rebel raid on Nalchik, had sent a statement to the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg on behalf of Kudaev's mother claiming that he had disappeared from a remand prison in Nalchik. Kudaev's mother, Fatima Tekaeva, said she found out that her son had been removed from the prison when she tried to deliver medicine to him. Prison officials advised her to appeal to Aleksei Sovrulin, head of an investigative unit of the federal Prosecutor General's Office, concerning her son's whereabouts. Zakharova, however, reported that Sovrulin hung up on her when she called him on Tekaeva's behalf. Zakharova said she inquired in the administration of Kabardino-Balkaria Republic President Arsen Kanokov but that the head of the administration, Oleg Shandirov, said he had no information that Kudaev had been removed from the prison. Zakharova said that Amnesty International, which has already expressed concern about Kudaev's situation (Chechnya Weekly, November 3, 2005), has also directed an inquiry concerning his whereabouts to the Kabardino-Balkarian authorities. Zakharova said that if his whereabouts were not clarified in the near future, she would direct a legal inquiry to the Kremlin.
Kudaev's mother told Kavakazky Uzel on January 9 that he had been removed from the prison at the end of December after meeting with Kabardino-Balkaria Republic President Arsen Kanokov and presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District Dmitry Kozak and telling them that he had been tortured.
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#1
At least we don't lose people. That's pretty bad bureaucracy.
#7
Maybe we could ship some more prisoners to Russia and they could in turn "lose them"? Since Russia is part of that good country network that everybody seems to love nobody would raise too much of a stink if we asked them to look after most of our prisoners. Also it has got to be cheaper to keep these Jihadis in a say Siberia than in Gitmo and we would get brownie points from the left for closing Gitmo eventually. Can someone point out the downside of this?
The separatist Chechenpress news agency's website posted a statement on January 11 from the Sharia Jamaat, the armed Dagestani Islamic militant group. In it, the group claimed that its "Dzhundulla" sub-unit had killed three members of an Interior Ministry unit in the village of Novolakskoe on December 27. The group also claimed it had killed three "hypocrites" while losing one of its members in a battle in the town of Gimri on December 15, and had detonated a landmine on December 9 that killed a Dagestani policeman and a policeman from Bryansk and wounded four other policemen. The Sharia Jamaat also claimed it had detonated a landmine that derailed a freight train traveling from Gudermes to Moscow on December 8, and that its "Abdulla" sub-unit had blown up a vehicle carrying police and military servicemen in the city of Buinaksk in December, killing an unknown number of them. The group also claimed it was continuing an operation in Gimiri and had killed more than 80 members of Dagestan's OMON special police unit (Chechnya Weekly, January 5; also see article below).
The statement by the Sharia Jamaat, which has killed dozens of Dagestani police officers, warned "all police and other hypocrites" to "fear Allah and revenge by Muslims," adding: "We will shut your mouths with bullets." Addressing Muslims who had not joined its ranks, the group stated: "The destruction of opponents of Sharia is a forced but necessary measure prescribed by the Koran and the Sunnah. The war against the infidel will continue until all power belongs to Allah."
Meanwhile, Itar-Tass reported on January 10 that law-enforcement agents in Dagestan had detained a member of al-Qaeda. The news agency identified the suspect as Ali Soitekin Ollu, a 28-year-old Turkish national. "During interrogation, Ali Soitekin Ollu confessed to taking an active part in terrorist activities as a member of the gang led by al-Qaeda representative Abu Hafs," Itar-Tass quoted the public relations department of the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying. It was apparently referring to Abu Hafs al-Urdani, the Jordanian mujahideen commander in Chechnya.
According to the FSB, the alleged Turkish al-Qaeda member served in the Turkish army in 1996-1997 and was recruited by Islamic extremists in 2001 to carry out terrorist activities in Chechnya. "To this end, he traveled to Baku with a group of fellow countrymen, took a bus to Tbilisi and then reached the Pankisi Gorge by taxi where Abu Hafs was staying at the time," the FSB claimed, adding that Ollu was trained there for about a year as part of a group of 35 Turkish citizens led by a Turkish national known as Abu Zar. According to the FSB, Abu Hafs trained two groups of foreigners numbering 35 to 40 people each and sent them into Chechnya. Ollu arrived in Chechnya in August 2002 as part of a group led by the late Chechen rebel field commander Ruslan Gelaev and "took an active part in hit and run attacks on federal forces" across Chechnya during 2002-2004. These attacks included a June 2004 attack on the Shali district village of Avtury in which, the FSB claimed, terrorists led by Abu Hafs, Shamil Basaev, Aslan Maskhadov and Rappani Khalilov took 12 civilians hostage. Ollu was wounded in June 2004 and taken to Dagestan for treatment, where he hid for a year, Itar-Tass reported.
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Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basaev gave an interview to Kavkazcenter that the separatist website posted on January 9. Basaev, who holds the titles of "First Deputy Prime Minister of the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, head of the Military Committee-Majlis ul-Shura, and Military Emir of the mujahideen of the Caucasus," was asked what were the "objectives" and "tasks" of the "assault operation" in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, on October 13. Basaev responded that the operation's aim was to "strike at the enemy" but that it was "also partially a rebellion of the Muslims of the KBR [the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic]," who were driven by "the neo-imperialist, satanic policy of Rusnya"âBasaev's favored derogatory term for Russiaâto liberate Nalchik from "the infidels and hypocrites." Basaev said that when he was in Kabardino-Balkaria two years ago he "failed to find any mutual understanding" among the majority of the Muslims there, but that "this spring they themselves summoned me there." The main achievement of the October 13 operation, he said, was "the conscious fulfillment by the Muslims of the KBR of their Islamic dutyâŠto the Almighty and the fulfillment of their duty to wage a holy war for their faith, freedom and honor."
Basaev was also asked if the Nalchik operation was part of "a strategy of widening the war" on the rebels' part or whether the widening of the war is "objective" in nature and therefore not dependent either on the Russian authorities or the rebel leadership. Basaev answered that the strategy of widening the "jihad"âwhich, he said, was taken by the separatists' Military Committee-Majlis ul-Shura in 2002âremains thus far "subjective" in nature, meaning that it is still dependent on the Russian authorities and the Chechen rebel leadership. "Rusnya has the chance to stop the war before we cross the Volga, which, incidentally, we plan to do in the summer of 2006," Basaev said.
Still, Basaev said the widening of the war "is being successfully implemented" in part thanks to the behavior of the Russian authorities and "their local puppets" toward Muslims in the North Caucasus. "Whatever they say verbally and whatever labels they pin on us, they are showing by their actions that this war is being waged not against the freedom of the Chechens but against all the Muslims of Rusnya," he said. "Muslims do not have freedom of worship, mosques are being destroyed and shut down, Muslims are being subjected to abuse and torture because they wear beards, do not drink spirits and do not smoke. Even pregnant Muslim women are being insulted and beaten because they wear headscarves and dress modestly." Later on in the interview, Basaev claimed that a growing number of Muslims "are raising the issue of the declaration of a single Imam of the whole Caucasus" and that Chechen separatist president Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev is already "virtually" the imam of the whole Caucasus because "the mujahideen of the whole Caucasus have sworn allegiance to him." The rebel leadership, Basaev said, is planning to hold "a great unifying Majilis" this spring on the issues of naming a single Imam of the Caucasus and forming "a Shura of Alims of the Caucasus."
Basaev also attacked the Russian Orthodox Church, stating that "warlike Satanists led by the horned Putin" are in charge in Russia, and that the Russian Orthodox Church, or RPTsâwhich, he asserted, "is being served" by "residents" of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and military's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU)âis in the vanguard of these evil forces. "The RPTs leadership has the same relationship to Christianity that the Kremlin-appointed muftis have to Islam," Basaev told Kavkazcenter. "Therefore, in the autumn, at a session of the Majlis of the Caucasian front in the city of Cherkessk, a decision was taken to declare the RPTs an extremist organization in the vanguard of Rusnya's colonialist imperialist policy and to ban its activity in the Caucasus until the end of the war."
Kavkazcenter also asked Basaev whether he had "final figures" for the number of rebel fighters killed during the October Nalchik raid. He said that 37 were killed, adding that a quarter of those "who earlier were presumed dead turned out to be alive." According to official Russian government claims, around 90 militants were killed in fighting. Basaev told Kavkazcenter that 217 rebels took part in the operation and that they were unable to bring in another 150 rebel fighters because the authorities discovered one of the rebel groups on the morning of October 13 and closed roads leading into Nalchik. Basaev also suggested, as have other observers, that many of those included in the official count of dead and arrested militants were in fact civilians. Basaev said the operation was a tactical defeatâ"because we were unable to achieve the goal we set ourselves"âbut strategically "a great victory," and would still have been so "even if all the 400 mujahideen brought in to this operation had died." Basaev indicated that he was in Nalchik at the time of the October 13 raid, telling Kavkazcenter that he left the city on the night of October 15.
Asked about the situation in Chechnya itself, Basaev said that after leaving Nalchik, he visited Ossetia, Ingushetia and Chechnya, meeting with the "emirs" of most of the sectors of the rebels' Caucasian Front and visiting "many" rebel bases. Basaev said he subsequently spent a week in the mountains with rebel commander Dokku Umarov "and also held a council of the southwestern front with the participation of emirs of the Ingush and Ossetian sectors of the Caucasian Front whom I took with me when I visited Dokku." Basaev said he then visited a number of sectors of the eastern front and spent a week with Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev, reporting to him on "the situation throughout the Caucasus" and "discussing and agreeing on our plans of action for 2006." He and Sadulaev, Basaev told Kavkazcenter, did not "focus special attention on the pig show called âparliamentary elections in Chechnya' because, as our mujahideen say, âpigs may gruntâthe holy war goes on.'" Basaev claimed he was in Grozny at the time of Chechnya's parliamentary electionâwhich was held last November 27âand "saw the so-called voting on the deserted streets of the city."
Basaev concluded the interview by saying that the Nalchik raid showed Russia's weakness and vulnerability. "The jihad is expanding and the only difficulty we are experiencing now is with funding and media coverage of our jihad," he said. "But God willing we will solve these issues by the spring."
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#1
Basaev, who holds the titles of "First Deputy Prime Minister of the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, head of the Military Committee-Majlis ul-Shura, and Military Emir of the mujahideen of the Caucasus,"
So that's where all those schprockets come from! *slaps forehead*
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#6
As long as the Saud and Paki terrorist entities keep their jihad finance license, the terror-war will expand.
Will the following penetrate the warped minds of the limited-war/democratic-inclusivism fanatics (and that is exactly what you are)? The problem with Islamofascists is their lives and the solution is in popular revolution against serial Western indulgence of our mortal enemy, followed by a war of extermination against the wild animals who have forfeited their right to live. Future generations will hold pilgrimages to spit on the graves of our misfeasant leadership who allowed Muslim pigs to live in the West, while facilitating a genocidal arms buildup in their belligerent homelands (jihad terror bases).
Since the early 1990s, Western law enforcement agencies have noted an increasing reliance on criminal activity by terrorist networks around the world. Funding sources from the Persian Gulf, charities and other non-governmental fronts have been placed under pressure. This development, compounded by the arrests of several high-ranking coordinators and financiers of operations in Europe and North Americaâsuch as Abu Doha and Fateh Kamelâhave compelled jihadi networks to adapt and further diversify their funding sources. Consequently âtraditionalâ criminal activities like drug trafficking, robbery and smuggling are rapidly becoming the main source of terrorism funding. In fact, many recent terrorist attacks have been partly financed through crime proceeds.
Throughout the 1990s, European law enforcement officers tasked with combating the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) networks noticed that operatives had penetrated local criminal structures in Europe and North Africa by using ethnic and cultural links. With the jihad in Algeria at its height, the under-funded GIA became actively involved in drugs and weapons trafficking through logistics and financial support cells in Europe. GIA members such as Djamel Lounici and Mourad Dhina also trafficked stolen vehicles and forged documents. Similarly, for years the Fateh Kamel network in Montreal and an affiliated cell in Istanbul benefited from trafficking in stolen vehicles, theft and credit card fraud. One of its Montreal members, the Millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam, had also planned a series of armed robberies to secure funding for his aborted attack on the Los Angeles airport in 1999.
While a number of violent crimes involving jihadists have taken place in North Africa and Europe over the last decade, the full synthesis between criminality and terrorism took place in 1996 with a series of deadly armed robberies in the French town of Roubaix, which police initially assumed were perpetrated by criminals motivated solely by money. Following the attempted bombing of a G-7 meeting in Lille, French authorities discovered that the Roubaix gang was in fact a small Islamic militant organization that had also committed robberies in Bosnia to fund the jihad. An added benefit of these actionsâfrom the Roubaix gangâs point of viewâmay have been that these unconventional âfundraising operationsâ were, in fact, terrorizing in themselves.
In December 2005, co-leader of the Roubaix gang and French convert Lionel Dumont was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Moreover, similar groups have been dismantled in France in the past months, including in a December 13th joint operation involving five French law enforcement agencies that netted over 25 suspects as well as high-grade explosives and weaponry. The group included known jihadists, radicalized delinquents and common criminals. Some of the members of this Zarqawi-linked cellâincluding presumed leader and ex-convict Ouassini Cherifiâwere also involved in a number of armored car robberies that were undertaken to raise funds for the movement of recruits to Iraq.
While networks were initially involved in drugs-for-weapons exchanges, many eventually shifted to direct drug trafficking. Moroccan sources suspect drug money to be the main source of funding for the May 16, 2003 attacks in Casablanca. Moreover, according to Spanish police, the funding for the March 11, 2004 Madrid train attacks came from drug trafficking, and many of those who took part in the preparation and execution of the attack had been involved in criminal activities such as stolen vehicle trading, jewel thefts and various types of counterfeiting (La Vanguardia, May 24, 2005). Furthermore, over half of the members of the group planning suicide strikes against the Spanish High Court later that year were already in jail on drug-trafficking-related charges.
Additionally, in June and November of this year, Spanish police uncovered operational and logistics cells of the GSPC and the Zarqawi networks, and discovered that the suspects had engaged in credit card fraud, robberies, drug trafficking and vehicle theft. At times an operational cell may partially fund itself, as when police found 7 kilograms of hashish in the hideout of the suspects planning to bomb the Strasbourg cathedral in 2000. Although financed by Abu Doha, the group had been raising funds through drug trafficking in Frankfurt and London. Many other Islamist cells dismantled in Europe following September 11, 2001, had engaged in drug trafficking, including an al-Qaeda linked group operating in Antwerp and Brussels and a cell in the Netherlands involved in the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud.
Aside from narcotics, militants and sympathizers also traffic in precious stones and metals, mainly because they are easy to transport and difficult to trace. This was the case with a Tunisian man charged in Germany with planning attacks against Western targets, who had used a travel agency as a front for gold and silver trafficking (Agence France-Presse, November 30, 2004). Front companies are ideal vehicles to transfer illicit funds and since the mid-1990s, dozens of terrorist front companies have been dismantled in Europe. Recent arrests in France uncovered a GICM support cell (linked to the Madrid bombings) operating various business ventures, just as Ould Slahiâinvolved in major al-Qaeda plots and closely linked to al-Qaeda financier Khaled Al Shanquitiâwas first arrested in 1999 for laundering drug money through his import-export firm.
Since traffickers and terrorist organizations have similar logistical needs, there is ample room for collaboration in money laundering and even facilitating illegal immigration. Recent evidence from Morocco strongly suggests that jihadists are increasingly reliant on outsourcing to specialized migrant smuggling networks to infiltrate or exfiltrate targeted countries (La Gazette du Maroc, February 9, 2004).
There are additional concerns that trafficking channels can be used to move heavy weaponry and even weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and WMD components. In December 2004 members of Takfir were arrested in Barcelona for allegedly trying to purchase over 400kg of industrial explosives and material from a Czech source to build a âdirty bombâ (MAP Maghreb Arebe Presse, October 28, 2005). Moreover, in a recent case of arms smuggling from Russia, traffickers attempted to sell high-powered armsâand reportedly uraniumâto an FBI informant posing as a middleman for al-Qaeda.
To retain legitimacy, contemporary terrorist groups are particularly concerned about providing religious justification for their acts, criminal or otherwise. The writings of a 13th century Islamic jurist, Ibn Taymiyya, are an important source of authorization in regard to seizing the enemyâs property during jihad. During the Algerian jihad, Ali Benhadj (a leader of the Islamic Salvation FrontâFIS) quoted Ibn Taymiyya in declaring a fatwa authorizing GIA groups to assassinate and seize the property of all Muslims who opposed them. Terrorist mastermind Sheik Abdel Rahman had also authorized robbery against âthe miscreants and the apostate state,â while in 1998 Osama bin Laden echoed this in his call to kill Americans and âplunder their money wherever and whenever they find it.â In January 2004 a member of the Moroccan group, Salafiya Jihadiya admitted being shown videos that legitimized and promoted robbing âinfidels and hypocrite Muslims,â suggesting that encouraging criminal behavior is emerging as an integral feature of al-Qaedaâs internal propaganda.
While Islamists are widely viewed as uncompromising literalists, pragmatism in the search for funds is evident in the religious decree by Salafist ideologue Nasreddine El Eulmi, which authorized the use and sale of drugs during the Algerian jihad. The most radical of contemporary terrorist groups, the Takfir, explicitly encourages robbery and drug trafficking as long as a fifth of the proceeds are used to fund the Islamist cause (Le Parisien, September 8, 2002). Arrests in Morocco in 2002 confirmed that its members were encouraged by their emir to steal âjewels, credit cards and moneyâ from their victims (Maroc-Hebdo, August 3, 2002).
For terrorist organizations, the source of funding is irrelevant and only matters because it procures weapons, facilitates movement and produces propaganda. Even major operations cost relatively small sums when compared with the vast revenues of organized crime groups. For example, major operations like the Madrid bombings cost anywhere between $15,000 to $35,000, while the annual profits from cannabis trafficking in Europe alone are estimated at $12 billion.
The incorporation of organized criminality into terrorist ideology and operations shows the flexibility of terrorist organizations in adapting to dynamic fundraising environments. The border between the two worlds is ever more porous, with terror suspects now often imprisoned on multiple charges, both criminal and terrorist.
This poses significant challenges to law enforcement agencies, which have traditionally targeted terrorism and criminality separately.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
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Since the early 1990s, Western law enforcement agencies have noted an increasing reliance on criminal activity by terrorist networks around the world.
This is new? Guess the Mafia, the Corsican Union, and the IRA don't count, since they're 'homies'.
The recent upsurge of unrest in southern Thailand has increased concerns that the countryâs Malay Muslim provincesâPattani, Yala and Narithiwatâmay be emerging as a new front for cross-border terrorism in Southeast Asia. In particular, regional and western authorities fear that outside militants, including cadres with ties to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and the broader international jihadist movement could be establishing a logistical and operational foothold to further the objectives of international Islamists. Yet while the nature and tempo of violence in southern Thailand has certainly changed over the last 24 months, there is no firm indication that this transformation is the result of external influences.
The nature of the current conflict in southern Thailand differs in several key respects from the limited, sporadic and largely ad-hoc insurgency that was waged throughout the 1980s and 1990s. First and foremost, the intensity of violence today is of a far higher order than in the past. During 2004, 878 attacks were recorded in the region, which represents a 25 percent increase over the average annual incident rate for the 1990s. Total casualties were 841, including 325 deaths and 516 injuries. Figures in 2005 have continued to exhibit a rapidly escalating trend. Between January and September some 1,084 assaults took place, killing 367 people and wounding another 282 (Interview, Chulalongkorn University, November 2005).
Besides intensity, there are indications that the militants have developed the means to both produce and deploy larger, more powerful bombs. One improvised explosive device (IED) that was detonated in a car trunk on the Thai-Malay border in February 2005, for instance, weighed 50 kilograms. This stands in stark contrast to earlier rudimentary IEDs, most of which were in the 5 and 10 kg range and usually packaged in simple everyday items such as shopping bags, Tupperware lunch boxes and PVC tubing (Interviews, The Nation and Australian Embassy [Bangkok], November 2005).
In line with a higher tempo of violence, the mechanics of individual operations has steadily improved. This has been most apparent with cell phones, which are now routinely used to trigger improvised IEDs. These mechanisms are far more effective than the older, Chinese-made analogue clocks that extremists have traditionally relied on, not least because they allow for external detonations in clear line of sight of a specific target and at a particular time (Janeâs Intelligence Review, May 2005). In addition, attacks are now routinely being integrated and executed along a full modality spectrumâoften embracing coordinated bombings, arson, assassinations and random shootingsâto maximize overall impact.
The audacity and range of attacks has also expanded. In January 2004, one of the most brazen robberies ever to have taken place in the south occurred when a group of roughly 100 unidentified Muslims raided a Thai army camp in Narithiwat and made off with over 300 weapons, including assault rifles, machine guns and rocket propelled grenades (Far Eastern Economic Review, January 27, 2004). Two equally bold operations followed quickly on the heels of this now infamous foray. The first occurred on March 30 and involved masked gunmen who descended on a quarry in the Muang district of Yala and successfully stole 1.6 tons of ammonium nitrate, 56 sticks of dynamite and 176 detonators (Janeâs Intelligence Review, May 2005). The second, known as the Krue Se Siege, took place on April 28 when machete-wielding militants attempted to overrun a string of police positions and military armories in Pattani. Over 100 attackers were ultimately killed in the incident, 31 of whom were shot after seeking refuge in the central Krue Se mosque.
More recently were the April 2005 simultaneous bombings of the Hat Yai International Airport, the French-owned Carrefour supermarket and the Green Palace World Hotel in Songkla. The three attacks generated widespread concern throughout the country, not least because they represented the first time that Malay extremists had struck outside the three separatist provinces and focused on venues liable to have consequences for wider Western and/or international interests (The Bangkok Post, April 4, 2005).
Finally, the nature of the current bout of instability in the south has been marked by an explicit jihadist undertone not apparent in past years. Reflective of this have been frequent attacks against drinking houses, gambling halls, karaoke bars and other establishments associated with Western decadence and secularism; the distribution of leaflets (allegedly printed in Malaysia) specifically warning locals of reprisals if they do not adopt traditional Muslim dress and observe the Friday holiday; and the increased targeting of monks and other Buddhist civiliansâoften through highly brutal means such as burnings and beheadings (2005 witnessed six decapitations)âin an apparent Taliban-style effort to undermine society by fostering religious-communal fear, conflict and hatred (Interviews, The Nation, November 2005).
Commentators have expressed concern that the altered and more acute nature of unrest in the Malay Muslim provinces could be indicative of growing external extremist penetration involving radicals with links to both JI and (through this movement) the broader global jihadist network. In particular, these officials remain worried that a process of fanatical Arabisation similar to that which has occurred in Indonesia and the outlying Moro areas of the Philippine archipelago may now be taking place in Thailandâs deep-south, possibly heralding the emergence of a new strategic theater for anti-Western terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia (Interviews, November 2005).
Compounding these fears are reports that money from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Pakistan is increasingly being channeled to fund the construction of local Muslim boarding schools (or âponoh,â known as pondoks in Malaysia and pesenteren in Indonesia), private colleges and mosques dedicated to the articulation of hardline Wahhabist and Salafist teachings. A number of prominent clerics alleged to be connected to international Islamist elements have been tied to these institutions, including Ismail Yaralong (a.k.a Ustadz Soh, who is widely suspected of acting as spiritual inspiration for the Krue Se Siege) and Ismail Luphi (who has been directly connected to convicted Bali 2002 bombers Ali Ghufron and Amrozi) (Interview, The Nation, November 2005). A 2004 assessment by Thai military intelligence suggests there are at least 50 educational establishments scattered throughout Pattani, Yala and Narithiwat that have been decisively penetrated by Islamist forces to recruit and/or train their students for holy war (Janeâs Intelligence Review, November 2004).
To a certain extent, it is reasonable to speculate that at least some outside Islamist entity has attempted to exploit the ongoing unrest in southern Thailand for its own purposes. To be sure, gaining a logistical and operational presence in this type of opportunistic theater is a well-recognized and established practice of networked movements such as al-Qaeda and JI. That said, there is as yet no concrete evidence to suggest the region has been decisively transformed into a new beachhead for pan-regional jihadism. While it is true the scale and sophistication of violence has increased, there is nothing to link this change in tempo to outside militant forces. Indeed, in the opinion of informed local commentators, the heightened intensity of attacks reflects learning and development on the part of indigenous rebel groups, possibly combined with the infusion of an increasingly competitive criminal interplay involving gambling syndicates, drug lords and corrupt members of the security forces and political elite. Moreover, these same sources are quick to point out that unlike the situations in Mindanao and Indonesia, there is no established expanse of rebel-held territory in Pattani, Yala or Narithiwat that external extremists could use to institute a concerted regimen of international terrorist training (Interviews, November 2005).
Equally, although there is a definite religious element to many of the attacks that are currently taking place in the three Malay provinces, it is not apparent that this has altered the essential localized and nationalistic aspect of the conflict. At root, the objective is to protect the regionâs unique identity and traditional way of lifeâboth from the (perceived) unjust incursions of the Thai Buddhist state and, just as importantly, the unprecedented influx of cross border movements of trade, commerce and people. As one Bangkok-based journalist puts it: âMuslims are now standing up for Muslim rights, which together with globalization, has catalyzed the insurgency [onto a more explicit] religious planeâ (Interview, Chulalongkorn University, November 2005).
Perhaps the clearest reason to believe that the southern Thai conflict has not metastasized into a broader jihadist struggle, however, is the fact that there has been no migration of violence north, much less to other parts of Southeast Asia. Indeed, there appears to have been a deliberate strategic decision on the part of rebels on the groundâincluding those associated with the Barisan Revolusi NasionalâCo-ordinate, an ad-hoc, loosely based alliance that has claimed responsibility for many of the attacks that have occurred over the last 24 monthsâto not explicitly tie the Malay cause to wider Islamic designs (Interview, The Nation, November 2005). Again, this stands in stark contrast to organizations such as the Abu Sayyaf Group and the Rajah Soliaman Revolutionary Movement, both of which claim to be fighting for Moro Muslim interests in the southern Philippines, but each of which has been directly connected to JI as well as bombings that have occurred well beyond their primary theater (such as the 2005 Valentineâs Day bombings in Manila).
As noted above, one cannot dismiss the possibility that at least some external penetration may have taken place in southern Thailand. Accurately disaggregating the extent to which this has actually taken place, however, is of vital importanceâboth as an issue of substance and policy. To inappropriately conflate local grievances and objectives with outside imperatives will not only serve to greatly complicate the possibility of peace agreements on the ground, it also risks creating the very conditions for the type of cross-border radicalism that governments in this part of the world so fear.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
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The Commies-Maoists are reportedly suppor armed/violent Islamist groups in India, Nepal, Burma and Madagascar, etc. besides of course building naval bases and airfields - iff you build it, the Chicoms will come, Grasshopper.
Fourteen years after the ouster of authoritarian President Siad Barre in 1991 and the subsequent descent of the country into chaos, Somalia remains a lawless patchwork of warring fiefdoms. Terrorist networks have flourished in Somalia and neighboring countries, contributing to the deadly synchronized bomb attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the 2002 tourist hotel bombing in Mombasa that was planned to coincide with the (failed) shooting down of an Israeli passenger jet with a surface-to-air missile. In the absence of a functioning government, Somalia risks becoming a hub of al-Qaeda's East African network.
Somaliaâs descent into terror came with the emergence in 2003 of an elusive independent jihadi network with loose links to al-Qaedaâs East African franchise headed by Tariq Abdullah (a.k.a. abu-Talha al-Sudani). These local jihadists are engaged in low-intensity warfare characterized by massacres, intimidation and assassinations. The most visible aspect of their reign of terror came with the murder of the Italian nun Annalcna Tonelli in Boroma in the Somaliland region and the desecration of an Italian cemetery in the capital, Mogadishu. Despite their small numbers, these local jihadists unleashed a new wave of terror in Mogadishu and other frontier towns like Mandera.
The involvement of former al-Itihaad combat veterans in the new jihadi network, however, has led to the mistaken belief that this network represents a resurrection of the revolutionary movement of al-Itihaad al-Islaami, which was most active in Somalia during the first half of the 1990s. It is this false assumption that led to the group being labeled "al-Itihaad."
The new jihadi network headed by Ayro differs significantly from al-Itihaad in a number of ways. Whereas al-Itihaad had a clear hierarchy and direction and was motivated by political ideology, the new jihadists are organized in decentralized and compartmentalized networks that each contribute in a small way to urban terrorism operations. The vague hierarchy and direction of the movement coupled with the multi-layered cellular nature of its operations make it difficult to infiltrate this network or identify its sympathizers. Another major characteristic that sets this movement apart from al-Itihaad is its undeclared political and ideological goals. The networkâs known leaders also lack the religious authority that distinguished al-Itihaadâs leadership [2].
Al-Itihaad first rose to prominence in the early 1990âs when it successfully capitalized on the demise of the Siad Barre regime and the subsequent descent of Somalia into deepening chaos and misery. Islamic charities, especially those sponsored by Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states, were of key importance to the group. Al-Itihaad used money raised by charitable networks to establish military training camps, cement its ties with other Islamic terrorist organizations and fund terrorist operations against Ethiopia to force the secession of the Ogaden region, which al-Itihaad claimed as Somali land. The group was intent on reclaiming what they perceive as Somali territory from Ethiopia and establishing a Wahhabi emirate in Somalia.
Ethiopian retaliatory military operations and pinpoint raids against al-Itihaad's Somali bases in early 1997 destroyed the movementâs political and military infrastructure and damaged its operational capabilities. This eventually led to the groupâs disbandment [3]. The heavy losses that it suffered in its confrontation with Ethiopian forces in the mid-1990s set the stage for a gradual change in jihadi discourse. Since al-Itihaad's disbandment, many former jihadists and sheikhs renounced the use of violence and jihad, instead promoting a nativist Islamic ideology that, on the one hand shuns terrorism while on the other emphasizes even greater adherence to shariah law. A small faction of al-Itihaad veterans, however, still provides logistical support and serves as a communications linchpin for al-Qaeda operatives in Somalia and neighboring countries. Yet disruptions in the flow of cash from Islamic charities in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf have severely curtailed their activities.
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, an expert document forger and bomb builder, tops the list of the most dangerous and most wanted terrorists in Somalia. Counter-terrorism officials have been stymied for years by this deadly and elusive Comoros islander, a conspirator in the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 231 people. He is also believed to have played a role in the Mombasa attacks (Crisis Group Africa Briefing Nº 95).
Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu-Talha al-Sudani are another two of the most-wanted al-Qaeda suspects. Nabhan is believed to have owned the vehicle used in the attack that destroyed an Israeli-owned hotel near the Kenyan resort of Mombasa. He has been able to remain at large in part because he has support from some well-armed friends in Mogadishu. He is also related by marriage to a warlord in Baidoa. Al-Sudani is also believed to be in Mogadishu where he married a Somali woman. Other al-Qaeda suspects include Ali Swedhan, Issa Osman Issa, Samir Said Salim Ba'amir and Mohamed Mwakuuuza Kuza. The foreign jihadi contingent is suspected to benefit from the support and protection of the Ayro network (Ibid.).
The detection and capture of these well-protected foreign members of al-Qaeda and their local collaborators constitute the prime challenge for Western, Ethiopian and Kenyan intelligence and counter-terrorism agencies. The United States has stepped up its counter-terrorism efforts in the region by establishing a new command center in the neighboring country of Djibouti to oversee regional counter-terrorist operations. The Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) conducts surveillance flights and works with regional and local counter-terrorism officials to deny safe havens and material support to al-Qaeda and its local affiliates.
The complex effects of the U.S. war on terrorism in Somalia and its unintended results are not all positive. The United States and its allies have scored major victories by detaining key jihadists, but widespread allegations of arbitrary arrests, prolonged detentions and abductions of terrorist suspects (who later turned out to be innocent) continue to undermine counter-terrorism operations. The kidnapping and prolonged detention of innocent people has alienated many Somalis who are already mistrustful of the U.S. war on terrorism. The U.S. alliance with a number of Somali warlords adds to these feelings of mistrust and anger (Ibid.). Confronted by a vicious cycle of chaos and anarchy, the U.S. needs warlordsâ cooperation and man-power to maximize its chances of hunting down fugitive jihadists (VOA News, February 23, 2004). Yet there is a real danger that by empowering warlords like Mohammed Qanyare Affra, Osman Ali Atto, Muse Sudi Yalahow, and others, the U.S. might end up empowering the true source of Somaliaâs problems [5].
Some warlords are motivated by criminality and lucrative deals promised by association with U.S.-led counter-terrorism initiatives in the region. Faction leaders arbitrarily round-up innocent Somalis and Arab foreigners in the hope of linking them to terrorist groups.
The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) for Somalia, established in October 2004, has been actively seeking to exploit the international âwar on terrorismâ to discredit its opponents and critics [6]. At numerous occasions, the TFG blamed terrorist attacks on its Islamist adversaries when the evidence pointed to the contrary. Disturbing evidence has emerged that incriminates TFG supporters in the murders of BBC producer Kate Peyton, a Somali woman working for an international NGO and two Somali footballers (Crisis Group Africa Briefing Nº 95). The evidence of seeming cooperation between the assassins and members of the TFG reveals new details on the âdirty warâ raging in Somalia between jihadists and counter-jihadist organizations. Death squads, disappearances and torture raise the risk of exacerbating chaos and empowering Islamic militancy in Somalia.
Notes
1. Yet there is growing speculation that Ayro, who is believed to be between 28 and 30 years old, may be not be the leader of this new jihadi movement. There are multiple reports that identify Ahmed Abdi Godane, alias Ibrahim al-Afghani, a former al-Itihaad leader, Afghan veteran and al-Qaeda associate as the actual leader of the group. See Crisis Group Africa Briefing Nº 100, âSomaliaâs Islamists,â December 12, 2005.
2. According to International Crisis Group, this new jihadi network, believed to be headed by Ayro, has no known name, its membership is largely clandestine and its aims are undeclared. Crisis Group Africa Briefing Nº 95, âCounter-Terrorism in Somalia: Losing Hearts and Minds?â July 11, 2005.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
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I could do better than this off the top of my head. Somalia is now three countries. Somaliland in the north. Puntland in the centre, and a rump Somalia in the south. The former are relatively stable although poor. The violence and chaos is largely restricted to rump Somalia and mostly results from fighting over the goodies that come with international and UN recognition. This analysis is crap.
Nearly two years after the March 11, 2004 terrorist attacks in Madrid, new militant Islamist cells continue to be disrupted in Spain on a regular basis. In 2004, Spanish Police detained almost 100 jihadists. The trend continued in 2005 with more than 80 Islamic militants apprehended. In the latest arrests, on January 10, 2006, Spanish police detained 20 suspected Islamic militants alleged to have recruited sympathizers to join the Iraqi insurgency. The alleged militants were detained during pre-dawn raids in and around Madrid, Barcelona and the Basque town of Tolosa. These staggering figures do not even include the significant roles played by common delinquents and ideological sympathizers. This period has illuminated several emerging characteristics of jihadi groups that will affect the long-term evolution of Islamic terrorism in Spain.
The first two distinguishing characteristics are the increasingly mixed nationalities in these networks and the proliferation of individuals of Maghrebi origin, especially Moroccans and Algerians. When the first Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and then Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) cells were detected in Spain in the 1990s, the cells were characterized by their national homogeneity: all members were Algerian. The few jihadi Moroccans in Spain were integrated into the Syrian-dominated Abu Dahdah network. According to a senior Spanish police official, until that point, cooperation between Algerians and Moroccans had not developed because many Algerians considered the Moroccans weak, cowardly and untrustworthy. Conversely, the Moroccans viewed the Algerians as extremely violent (Personal Interview, January 2004). These prevailing attitudes seem to have been pushed aside in favor of a more multi-national approach. The reasons for this change are not presently clear, but it is likely that counter-terrorism efforts and the globalization of jihad have been the main driving factors.
The dissolution of the Abu Dahdah network at the end of 2001 had the inevitable consequence of elevating those who, at that time, had maintained a low militant profile into positions of greater prominence [1]. They were people of varying backgrounds, including Syrians, Tunisians, Moroccans and Algerians. In addition, some of them, like the Algerian Allekema Lamari or the Syrian Almallah brothers, played very important roles in the formation of the Madrid attacks group.
After the attacks of 2004, similar configurations have occurred in subsequent disruptions of jihadi cells. This was the case in a network that formed in various Spanish prisons, and which was disrupted in November 2004. The prison network was apparently preparing a new campaign of attacks in Madrid and included both incarcerated members and those who had already been released. There were also the June and December 2005 disruptions of two large recruiting and support networks for the jihad in Iraq. Besides these networks, there were further detentions of other smaller more homogeneous cells composed of Moroccans, Algerians, and Pakistanis.
Detentions are not only revealing the diversity of cells, but are also showing that Moroccans are increasingly assuming leadership roles. For example, the last network to be unraveled by police in 2005, allegedly included 11 Moroccans, an Iraqi, a Saudi, an Egyptian, a Belarusian, a Ghanaian, an Algerian, and a Spaniard (Office of Information and Social Relations, Home Office, Spain, December 19/21, 2005). Moreover, in the latest arrests on January 10, 15 out of the 20 alleged militants are thought to be Moroccans.
The increasingly diffuse boundaries of these groups are not solely explained by the dismantlement and disintegration of older networks marked by more homogeneous national character (e.g., the Algerian GIA and GSPC; the Syrian Fighting Vanguard; or the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group [GICM]) and their consequent reconstruction from dispersed elements. What has also contributed to this interconnection between radicals of distinct nationalities is the more global political agenda of the jihad, which is overshadowing the previous national priorities. The disruption of Maghrebi networks involved in support activities for foreign jihads exemplify the threat posed by these networks to Iraq, North Africa, and other European countriesâas well as the threat of globalized jihad to Spain itself.
It is probable that the complexities of these Spanish networks will be compounded as groups previously focused on national jihads, such as the Algerian GSPC, attempt to extend their operational networks by partnering with other jihadi groups. The overtures of mutual assistance and affiliation from al-Qaeda to national groups has resulted in the call for the establishment of an âal-Qaeda Organization in the Arab Maghreb,â which, while attempting to act as an umbrella organization, might also serve to support the continued interrelations between expatriate communities in Spain (Al-Hayat, December 8, 2005).
Another new characteristic is the increasing prevalence in the number of individuals whose initiation into jihad occurred after settling in Spain. In the 1990s, militant jihad was an imported phenomenon, as cells that found refuge in Spain were principally involved in the support of jihad in other countries, primarily Algeria. Nevertheless, over the past years, the conversion to jihad has become an increasingly indigenous phenomenon.
A possible contribution to this problem has been the high immigration levels from the countries of the Maghreb, especially Morocco. The official figures place the total number of Muslim immigrants at close to a half-million, but the actual number is likely to be over one million [2]. The overwhelming majority of these immigrants are honest workers who came to Spain to improve their livelihoods. Nevertheless, a small minority are sympathetic to Islamic militants, thus enabling the recruitment drives of clandestine jihadi networks.
The radicalization of Muslims living in Spain constitutes an enormous challenge for the future. One of the areas of significant concern is the numerous Islamic centers espousing radical and militant interpretations of Islam. Recently the contents of an intelligence report concerning the state of radical preaching at Islamic centers was leaked to the press. The report notes that of the approximately 600 mosques and other Islamic centers, roughly 10 percent propagate radical ideas. In addition, six of them are thought to be in the orbit of Takfir wa al-Hijra (El Pais, December 19, 2005).
Takfir wa al-Hijra (Excommunication and exile) is not so much an organization but an ideological current of Salafist jihadism, to which many of the members of the aforementioned Spanish networks adhere. With origins in the Middle East and the Maghreb, Takfir ideology justifies indiscriminant killing and is characterized by its clandestine nature and willingness to engage in prohibited activities (e.g. drinking alcohol in public and eating pork) as a means to deflect attention from its membersâ subversive activities. As in other European countries, Takfiri recruitment in Spain has fed on individuals previously engaged in delinquent activities and has had significant success. Spanish police have estimated that around 50 incarcerated Salafi jihadists are Takfiri. [3]
The final characteristic of jihadi groups in Spain is the continued planning of Spain-based jihadi groups against targets within Spain. The hurried withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq by the new government of President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, which assumed power following the Madrid attacks, has not diminished the terrorism threat. In fact, there have been at least four foiled terrorist attacks since the withdrawal. One of these groups was composed of Pakistanis who had relationships with important members of original al-Qaeda cadres (El Pais, December 19, 2005). The other three networks were primarily composed of members with familial origins in the Maghreb. In addition to these groups, Spanish police arrested two Moroccans related to the Madrid attacks network in December 2004, who were in possession of a camera with photographs of a nuclear power plant (El Pais, December 15, 2004).
The continued hostility is perplexing on the surface, considering the distance that has developed between the Bush Administration and the Zapatero government. There are several grievances that explain this hostility. They are, inter alia: the presence of Spanish troops in the NATO mission in Afghanistan; the repeated detention of scores of influential jihadists since 1995 and the continuing âoccupationâ (as jihadists see it) of the cities of Melilla and Ceuta on the North African coast.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
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Not to mention the continuing occupation, as the jihadists see it, of Muslim Spain, Muslim France, the rest of Dar al Harb, Saudi control of Mecca and Madinah, and whatever other grievances their little minds can think of. Lots of data there, but the conclusions are a bit weak.
Russian security services in cooperation with foreign partners have suppressed activities of a number of international terrorist organisations that have been supporting terrorists and extremists in the Chechen Republic, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview published by the Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Wednesday.
According to him, as a result of joint operations conducted jointly with their colleagues from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Uzbekistan the security services detained and extradited to Russia a number of persons wanted for crimes of terrorist nature.
Patrushev stressed that criminals are extradited to Russia not only from the CIS member countries, but also from countries of the West. Thus in June 2005 Sweden extradited to Russia Musa Isayev who was placed by the Russian Prosecutor Generalâs Office on the international wanted list for his participation in the attack on Buinaksk in 1995. Stekhnovsky, a person who is accused of participation in the assassination of the Russian State Suma lower house of parliament member, Galina Starovoitova, has been also extradited to Russia in cooperation between the Belgian police and Interpol.
Speaking about interaction with foreign partners during the tragic events in the Dubrovka theatre in Moscow and North Ossetian city of Beslan Patrushev pointed out that the headquarters for informing the foreign partners was working under Russiaâs FSB and âsecurity services of a number of foreign states displayed readiness to provide practical assistance to usâ in the efforts. According to the FSB director, âMany of them offered their databases for checking the necessary information.â In the words of Patrushev, âSuch reaction of the partners to the Dubrovka theatre and Beslan events promoted deepening of our interaction in the sphere of fighting against international terrorism.â
The FSB chief noted that the understanding of the fact that Russia is facing in the Caucasus, and in Chechnya, in particular, not only separatism, but international terrorism as well is gradually coming not only to Russia, but also to other countries.
âI would like to stress simultaneously that we live in Russia, which is a multinational and poly-confessional country and are sure that it is categorically inadmissible to identify terrorism with a certain nationality, religion or culture,â Patrushev said. âThe fight against terrorism should bring closer together all the international community members and become a catalyst for the creation under the UN aegis of a global system of counteraction to new challenges and threats,â the Russian FSB director noted.
Hew said as well there should be âno double standards in the fight against terrorism, otherwise such fight becomes less effective,â Patrushev said.
âRussia and its allies have a common understanding of this fundamental principle,â Patrushev said. âProviding to terrorists, their supporters and sponsors asylum and backing in fact means the justification and even more - encouragement of their crimes. Such steps undermine unity and mutual trust of the antiterrorist coalition participants,â the FSB director emphasised.
âIn this connection the following facts cannot but cause regret â Great Britain is still providing asylum to Zakayev who is accused of serious crimes, the United States provides asylum to another figure of the Ichkeria republic â Akhmadov who acts under the cover of a mask of the fighter for independence and in actual fact he was engaged in terrorist and extremist activities in the Russian territory. Nukhayev and Udugov who are also hiding abroad have not been extradited to the Russian side as well,â Patrushev said.
The FSB director also said, âIn the process of the expansion of international cooperation the exchange of secret information is growing, including interstate, political and military-technical issues.â âOn these issues we are working with our partners on the basis of intergovernmental agreements in the sphere of protection of secret information signed by the Russian Federation government,â Patrushev noted. According to him, Russia has signed â29 such agreements, including nine - with countries members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), 17 â with the Western states and three multilateral agreements within the framework of the CIS, CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organisation) and SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation),â the FSB director said.
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Four Russian soldiers and one pro-Russian Chechen police officer have been killed in a mine explosion in Chechnya, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
The troop carrier blew up after hitting a mine on Monday in the restive republic.
In a second attack on Monday in the capital, Grozny, one police officer was killed and three others were injured in a landmine explosion, RFE/RL reported.
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About 750 militants are active in Chechnya, and they are divided into 70 to 75 small groups, the head of the Interior Troops in Chechnya said Tuesday.
Lieutenant General Oleg Khotin said fighters were concentrated in Chechnya's rugged mountains, but he acknowledged they also retained a significant presence in Grozny, Interfax reported.
Last week, officials said nearly 300 militants were killed by federal forces in Chechnya last year. On Tuesday, Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov said "a stinging blow was delivered to armed groups last year."
Alkhanov also said 121 Chechen police officers died over the past year in actions against militants and that 283 others were wounded.
Also Tuesday, Chechen President Alu Alkhanov said 77 people were abducted in the republic last year.
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For months now, the main danger to U.S. forces in Iraq has not come from insurgent combat troops but from what Americans call IEDs â the homemade bombs made from artillery shells and other explosives that can be buried beside roads and hidden in booby traps and set off in a variety of ways.
CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart reports that FBI technicians using breakthrough forensic techniques have made major strides in identifying where these devices are coming from and who is making them.
CBS News has learned that U.S. explosives experts have succeeded in identifying â by name in some instances â the terrorists responsible for building many of the improvised bombs used in everyday attacks in Iraq.
Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, are responsible for nearly half of all the U.S. combat deaths recorded in Iraq since March 2003. Reducing the frequency and lethality of those attacks is considered crucial to the U.S. war effort.
The identifications were made possible by piecing together fragments of over 1,500 exploded IEDs as well as disassembling numerous bombs that didn't go off, and gathering signature elements from each of the bombs.
In some instances experts have reconstructed entire explosive devices including their unique timing mechanism and linked them to individual bombers.
At the request of the FBI, CBS News has agreed not to report specific findings about the reconstructed devices. The FBI expressed concerns to CBS that revealing such details might compromise ongoing operations and jeopardize the safety of U.S. personnel in Iraq.
The forensic signatures led analysts to suspect that many of the IEDs were constructed by a relatively small number of master bomb makers, such as those whose "how to" videotapes were posted on a terrorist Web site. Some bomb makers were linked to dozens of explosive devices. Some have been captured as a result of the identification and other terrorist technicians, CBS News was told, have been identified by name and are being sought.
Work on the devices was conducted at the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center, a joint FBI, ATF and Department of Defense project, located at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Va.
Neither the FBI, the ATF nor the Pentagon would comment on the center or its work. However in a little-noticed House subcommittee hearing last March, FBI Director Robert Mueller talked about the center.
"Identifying and reconstructing timing devices, explosives and producing an analytical product that is distributed throughout the military or throughout law enforcement in the United States may well enable us to prevent the use of those devices in the future," Mueller said.
And clearly they've already had some success. Several bomb makers have been taken out as a result of this work. But the terrorists just keep coming back. The military now reports that insurgents have developed an IED that literally leaps into the air and detonates when helicopters are passing overhead.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:52 ||
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It'll also help to have man-portable andor vehiiickle-portable versions of MRI, includ but not limited to solid state VHR imaging. Article reminds me of a COLBERT REPORT comedy skit on Canada -"Its called a TV - signals fly magicly thru the air and lands inside a box".
COLIN Powell yesterday warned that Iran was heading down the same path as Iraq had done before the 2003 invasion and could not be trusted to tell the truth about its nuclear programme.
The former United States secretary of state said he believed Iran posed a serious threat to the rest of the world in the same way that Iraq had done, and he refused to apologise for the action the US took against Saddam Hussein's regime.
However Mr Powell, who was in Glasgow to address a Jewish group, admitted that the military campaign against Iraq was based on "bad intelligence" and that it was now clear that Saddam had not managed to amass any stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
In an interview with The Scotsman, Mr Powell said it was clear that negotiations with Iran had come to a dead end and efforts now had to concentrate on preventing it taking the same path as Iraq had done.
"We are trying to keep it from being that way," he said. "Iraq actually had nuclear weapons capability that they were within a couple of years of bringing to weapons status. The UN found that after the war, even though Iraq denied it."
But he questioned whether Iran could be trusted: "Iran has a nuclear energy programme, they say, but the concern is that for so many years they have denied full access to what they are doing and have deceived the international community.
"Should the international community believe that it is simply an energy programme for a nation that is awash with oil?"
It was Mr Powell who was sent to the UN to present the case for going to war against Iraq, a case which was based on intelligence which later proved to be badly flawed, but he said he did not believe the backlash over Iraq would hinder attempts to deal with Iran. "I think there is no dispute within the international community that over the years Iran has not been forthcoming with information concerning its programmes," he said.
He went on: "This is not just a judgment of US intelligence - the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] has made that judgment and even Iran itself has acknowledged gaps in the information it has provided over time, so there is sufficient reason to take what the Iranians are doing with some scepticism and suspicion."
But the retired general, who was chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff during the first Gulf War, said he did not believe that the case had yet been made for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. "We are not planning any military action. Everybody seems to be talking today about war," he said. Instead, he argued, Iran should be referred to the UN Security Council.
"We have been trying to get it to the Security Council for years. Our friends in the EU wanted to follow a different track and we supported it for the last two years, but now that track has run into a dead end and I think there is a strong consensus that [Iran] ought to be referred from the IAEA to the Security Council."
Questioned about which country posed the greatest threat, Saddam's Iraq or present-day Iran, Mr Powell said that Iran needed to be taken seriously, just as Iraq had been.
"They both are serious. Iraq was a serious matter in that for a dozen years it ignored all the UN resolutions that were in place against it. It had a history of using chemical weapons and a record of pursuing nuclear and biological and chemical technology," he said. Where the US had gone wrong on Iraq, he said, was in believing the intelligence reports that it had stockpiles of WMDs.
"We had bad intelligence. But I have no second thoughts about the claims we made, that this was a nation that had those intentions."
And he added: "The only error in our intelligence was that we thought they had stockpiles and it turned out when we got into the country and looked there were no stockpiles.
"So that was an error in our intelligence. But there was no error in the judgment we made that this was a country that had the intention of having such weapons, had them in the past, had the capability to develop them and if left to their own devices ... they would have returned to such developments. Neither President Bush nor Prime Minister Blair or a number of other leaders were prepared to take that risk."
Mr Powell said he was glad Saddam's regime had been toppled and he expressed surprise that so many people remained focused on what had happened in Iraq in the lead-up to the war, rather than concentrating on the future of that country.
"We ought to be looking at the fact that the Iraqi people are desperately trying to put down an insurgency so that they can have a freely elected government that can operate in peace," he said.
He added: "They have had elections in the face of bombs, in the face of terror incidents, and they still come out to vote, they come out to join the police force, they come out to join the military. Rather than celebrating that, we have this constant argument about the intelligence issue of several years ago. We ought to be looking forward."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:51 ||
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"Iraq actually had nuclear weapons capability that they were within a couple of years of bringing to weapons status. The UN found that after the war, even though Iraq denied it."
#2
"The only error in our intelligence was that we thought they had stockpiles and it turned out when we got into the country and looked there were no stockpiles.
Looks like CP is going re-revionist. A new believer or a new spin on the evidence? I don't get it.
#3
Was Colin Powell called in to Bush's meeting with retired Secretaries of State? If so, he may be responding to a polite dressing down plus new insider information.
Some of the foreigners killed in last Friday's U.S. airstrike in the remote Pakistani village of Damadola were of Egyptian origin, according to a knowledgeable source.
U.S. officials have said "very solid" intelligence indicated that senior al Qaeda members were expected to attend a dinner celebrating the end of the Muslim holiday of Eid and that Osama Bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, could very well be among them.
Although these officials believe a number of "significant" al Qaeda figures were killed in the attack, there is no evidence so far that al-Zawahiri was among them. Pakistani officials have said he apparently was not there.
The knowledgeable source -- who declined to be identified more specifically -- on Tuesday was not clear how many foreigners were killed by the airstrike, but said, "certainly some of them were of Egyptian origin," and had direct ties with al-Zawahiri.
A Pakistani provincial official said Tuesday that "four or five" foreign fighters were killed in the strike.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:50 ||
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Yup ... sure looks like innocent civilians to me. I'm astounded that this appears on CNN. /sarcasm
American helicopters in Iraq are facing a new threat from so-called aerial bombs, which are fired into the air from the ground and explode close to passing aircraft.
The new home-made weapons, known to the Americans as "aerial improvised explosive devices" have been used on numerous occasions.
"The enemy is adaptive. They makes changes in the way they fight, they respond to new flying tactics," Brig Edward Sinclair, a US army aviation commander, told Defense News, which first revealed the new threat.
He refused to say whether they had brought aircraft down. The aerial devices are placed along known flight paths and are triggered when insurgents see a low-flying helicopter approaching.
They are then fired to a height of about 50ft before a proximity fuse detonates the explosive, filling the air with thousands of metal shards.
Based on old anti-aircraft or artillery shells, the bombs would have a devastating effect if detonated close to a thin-skinned helicopter.
Any new threat to helicopters is deeply worrying for coalition forces. Rotary-wing aircraft are widely used in Iraq and although at least 25 American aircraft have crashed in the past three years, they are considered to be safer than road transport.
Ambitious insurgents also know that helicopters are likely to carry more people than road vehicles and that a crash is likely to prove fatal.
In the past fortnight US forces in Iraq have lost three helicopters. In the most recent incident an Apache attack helicopter crashed on Monday, killing two crew.
The earlier crashes of a reconnaissance helicopter and a Black Hawk, in which a total of 14 servicemen died, are still officially unexplained.
Brig Sinclair, who leads a team in the US working on helicopter anti-insurgency tactics, said the army was altering flight paths and seeking new technology to counter the threat.
But another new insurgent technique is proving still harder to counter: guerrillas have begun targeting medical evacuation helicopters.
The new ambush tactic exploits an already tested formula.
Insurgents first attack an American patrol with a roadside bomb. When troops summon helicopters to evacuate the wounded, insurgents detonate further devices pre-positioned on likely helicopter landing sites.
According to Defense News, the Americans say they have lost "more than one" aircraft to this new tactic.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:48 ||
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They are getting a LOT of outside help, training, and materiel... these are the same people who shit on their own living room rug.
#2
Its not a "new" tactic - the Commies tried it in KOREAN WAR 1, VIETNAM, and even in Central America. Iff anything is new, its the lack of numbers of US helos being used in comparison to the "heicopter war" aka Vietnam - we're still winning though.
#4
Sounds like the Bouncing Betty(tm) from hell.
I was wondering when the Hajjis were going to develop an anti-helo system. I thought they would use something like a MON 200 rigged to fire upwards, tho. (MON=soviet apers mine. MON 50=copy of M18 claymore. MON 100=Bigger version of claymore, 100m range. MON 200=Caymore Of Unusual Size(tm), 200m(!) range.
BTW how do you get that superscript (TM) thingy to work? I am such a non-HTML compliant looser.
Posted by: N guard ||
01/18/2006 9:29
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If a proximity fuse is used to trigger the device, it should be easy to detect and either trigger remotely or set a counter ambush. If manually triggered, they are probably inaccurate (speed, depth perception and reaction time) and emplaced near settlements (for the triggerman's concealment) and pose a bigger shrapnel threat for the neighbors.
Posted by: ed ||
01/18/2006 10:03
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N Guard: you can also type in "& trade ;" with spaces removed. ™
Here's a site with some of the more common characters.
BRITAIN and its European allies yesterday backed away from threatening economic sanctions against Iran if the country is referred to the United Nations Security Council over its controversial nuclear programme.
As Britain, France and Germany began drafting a resolution before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to refer Iran to the UN, an official at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said that Britain favoured a gradual, sustained build-up to force Tehran to comply with its international obligations.
âWe do not see this leading straight into sanctions,â said the official. âWe see a gradual build-up of moves that will take place over time. We are not going to [the UN Security Council in] New York to introduce punitive sanctions against Iran. That is not our approach.â
Although the UN Security Council has the power to impose sanctions, and even authorise the use of force, punitive measures are not being considered by the British.
âThe Security Council has weight and authority on the issues,â said the FCO official.
âA country cannot ignore the calls and requirements of the Security Council without cost. It brings together major players acting in concert. It can issue political calls which will have weight.â
British, French and German diplomats had begun drafting the referral resolution before the IAEA. Diplomats said that it called on Iran to âextend full and prompt co-operation to the agencyâ and called for âadditional transparency measuresâ. But it made no reference to the threat of sanctions.
The softening of the European position seemed to be aimed at wooing Moscow and Beijing, which have strong commercial links with Iran and are deeply opposed to any measures that might harm them.
âThe question of sanctions against Iran puts the cart before the horse,â said Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, whose country has a $1 billion (£566 million) contract to build Iranâs nuclear reactor. âSanctions are in no way the best, or the only, way to solve the problem.â
His view was echoed by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman who favoured âpatienceâ and the resumption of talks between Iran and the three leading European Union nations. Those talks ended last week when Iran broke a commitment to suspend nuclear research work and resumed enriching uranium, the process needed to make nuclear fuel or the core of an atomic warhead.
Iran wrote to Britain, France and Germany yesterday insisting that a compromise could still be reached. The offer, in a letter written by Javad Vaeedi, the deputy head of Iranâs Supreme National Security Council, was dismissed as âvacuousâ by the British side, which blamed Tehran for creating the conditions that made successful talks impossible.
Neither Moscow nor Beijing have made their final positions public, though how they stand in the coming weeks will be critical to the success or failure of Western diplomacy. Their policy will influence other waverers among the 35 member states of the IAEA, which will vote at an emergency meeting in Vienna in a fortnight.
British diplomats believe that at least 22 nations will vote for referral, nine will abstain and a handful of nations will oppose the move â Belarus, Cuba, Syria and Venezuela. Once that hurdle has been cleared, there will be a new dynamic at the 15-nation UN Security Council.
There is likely to be broad agreement between America, Britain, France and Germany on the need to deal quickly with Iran.
Russia and China, who as permanent members of the Council have veto powers, will be pivotal to the outcome.
It was not clear last night how Europeâs kid-glove diplomacy would be received in Washington. America has been imposing its own unilateral sanctions on Iran for nearly three decades and wants the international community to adopt a robust approach to Tehranâs nuclear ambitions.
Three Turkish tourists kidnapped in southeast Iran in December have been freed. Turkeyâs Foreign Affairs Minister, Abdullah Gul, thanked the Iranian government for helping to win the release of the amateur paragliders. Iran said that a Sunni group had abducted them but Turkey blamed drug traffickers seeking a ransom.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:46 ||
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No disrespect to Dan intended, but this article is more mush from the diplomatic community via the MSM. It's almost the same as doing nothing.
#3
BRITAIN and its European allies yesterday backed away from threatening economic sanctions against Iran if the country is referred to the United Nations Security Council over its controversial nuclear programme.
The Arab world's two major powers urged Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday to give negotiations more time in the growing diplomatic conflict over Iran's nuclear program.
As Cheney wound up a meeting with Saudi King Abdullah at his ranch outside Riyadh late Tuesday, officials close to the talks said the monarch had spoken of "the necessity of giving negotiations a chance" before pressing for Iran's referral to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
Cheney got a similar message from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak when they met earlier Tuesday in Cairo. Neither spoke to reporters, but Mubarak's spokesman said Cairo would "wait and see whether there will be a consensus" on dealing with Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
"We call for Iran to show more flexibility and cooperation, and we call for a continuation of dialogue with Iran," presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said.
He declared Egypt could not "ignore our long-standing principled position ⊠which refuses to put all this fuss and focus on the Iranian nuclear program without looking at Israel's nuclear arsenal. We cannot give support to a resolution unless it makes reference to the universality of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and unless it is free of double standards."
Israel neither denies nor confirms it has nuclear weapons, but is widely believed to have them.
Washington is lobbying the 35-member IAEA Board of Governors to refer Iran to the Security Council over its recent decision to break U.N. seals on nuclear equipment and resume small-scale enrichment of uranium a process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors as well as material for atomic bombs. Egypt is a member of the IAEA board.
The U.S. drive against Iran has met resistance from Russia and China, which hope for a compromise. They say Iran had not ruled out having its nuclear fuel processed in Russia, which would allow greater oversight. Russia and China are among the five permanent members of the Security Council who have veto power over any resolution.
While many Persian Gulf leaders are concerned over Iran's nuclear program, Saudi Arabia and Egypt in particular fear putting Iran before the Security Council could sharpen the confrontation, and both say the West should do more about Israel's nuclear arsenal.
Awad said Cheney and Mubarak did not discuss Egyptian domestic issues. The vice president had been expected to broach democratic reforms after Egypt's recent parliamentary elections, which were marred by violence and police blockades of polling stations in opposition strongholds.
The talks in Saudi Arabia were joined by intelligence chief Prince Mogrin bin Abdel Aziz, Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and the Saudi ambassador to Washington and former intelligence boss, Prince Turki bin al-Faisal.
Reporters had no chance to ask questions of the U.S. or Saudi leaders. But the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh later posted a statement on its Web site saying they "discussed bilateral and regional issues of common interest." It gave no other details.
The king and Cheney also discussed Iraq, ways to keep the Israeli-Palestinian peace process afloat after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke and the standoff with Syria over charges it was involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The United States is demanding that Damascus show greater cooperation with a U.N. inquiry into Hariri's killing. Arab leaders worry Washington is using the probe to try to remove Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose security officials have been implicated in the death.
The U.S. Embassy statement said Cheney also "met briefly with Lebanese Parliamentarian Saad Hariri," the slain prime minister's son. Saad Hariri is close to the Saudi ruling family and he has Saudi citizenship and a home in the country.
Arab diplomats said ahead of the Cheney-Abdullah meeting that the Saudis were expected to present Cheney with a deal in which Assad would end interference in Lebanon and extend cooperation with the U.N. investigation in exchange for an end to U.S.-led Western pressure on Assad's regime. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.
On Iraq, Arab nations want to ensure a strong representation for the Sunni Arab minority in the new government after victories by the country's Shiite majority in Dec. 15 elections. Most of the Arab world outside of Iraq is dominated by Sunnis.
Late Tuesday, Cheney flew to Kuwait to pay his respects to the ruling family after the death Sunday of Emir Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:44 ||
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"You have nothing to worry about. We'll veto any legislation requiring enhanced mileage, we're only funding pie-in-the-sky hydrogen cars, and we won't build any more passenger rail capacity."
A disruption in Iran's crude oil exports because of a dispute over that country's nuclear program would further crimp the already tight global oil market and lead to higher petroleum prices, the head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration warned on Tuesday.
"The market is so tightly balanced, clearly, we can't afford to lose a large supply of crude to the market," EIA chief Guy Caruso told Reuters in an interview.
Even though the United States does not directly import Iranian crude, Caruso said a cutoff of Iran's oil would affect the U.S. market because other countries that buy Iranian crude would compete with America to find new supplies.
"It's a fungible world oil market, and any disruption in supply affects everyone, because the price would go up for everyone," he said.
U.S. crude oil prices shot above $66 a barrel to a 3-1/2 month high on Tuesday, as the market fretted about the dispute with Iran and problems in Nigeria.
Caruso declined to say whether he believed a disruption of Iran's oil exports could send oil prices to $100 a barrel.
"I wouldn't want to speculate on that. Hopefully (the nuclear dispute) would be resolved without any disruption of supply," he said.
The United States and
European Union want the
United Nations Security Council to consider action against Iran to prevent, or punish, that country for moving forward with an uranium enrichment program that the West fears could lead the development of a nuclear bomb.
Iran says its uranium program is intended to create fuel to run nuclear power plants and boost electricity supplies.
Economic sanctions, which could affect Iran's oil exports, are possible but thought to be unlikely.
Iran, the world's fourth biggest oil exporter, has warned that global crude prices would go higher if the United Nations imposes sanctions.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:43 ||
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I'm surprised the price of oil is not already over $100 a barrel. I guess the oil commodities guys don't believe the West will really do anything to stop Iran from going nuclear, and that's why they haven't bid up the price more than $66. It's time for me to take my summer vacation -- now while I can still afford the motor fuel. How much do you think the price of oil will be after Iran goes nuclear?
#4
Even though the United States does not directly import Iranian crude,
Print this in HUGE LETTERS for all the "It's about the Oil" wankers to choke over.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/18/2006 21:57
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how's that strategic reserve going? full again? ANWR could've been online by now if the Donks and Ecoassholes were realistic patriots instead of obstructionist BDS sufferers
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 22:01
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The U.S. intelligence focus on Iraq's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction may have contributed to the Bush administration's failure to anticipate the insurgency that followed the U.S. invasion, former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer said Tuesday.
"The fact that there would be some resistance was anticipated. What really caught us by surprise was its intensity," Bremer told a Manhattan audience, when questioned about why U.S. leaders mistakenly expected a friendlier reception in Iraq.
"I suppose an argument would be that the intelligence resources were almost entirely devoted to WMD and not to this question of the insurgency," he said.
The ex-diplomat, Iraq's occupation chief in 2003-2004, spoke as part of a promotional tour for his memoir of his 14 months in Baghdad, "My Year in Iraq."
In his book, Bremer complains that too many U.S. intelligence resources were expended for too long in 2003 on the hunt for Iraqi unconventional arms, the stated reason for the U.S. invasion. He notes that in mid-2003 the weapons hunters, the Iraq Survey Group, had a staff of 1,400 intelligence analysts and others.
But the futile WMD hunt went on for many months after the insurgency gained strength before intelligence officers were finally shifted over to working on the insurgency.
On a related subject, Bremer told Tuesday night's audience he does not expect a major drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2006.
When James F. Hoge, the host and editor-in-chief of the journal Foreign Affairs, suggested some believe as many as 50,000 troops might be withdrawn this year, Bremer demurred.
"I would be very surprised if he (President Bush) is operating on a number like 50,000," Bremer said.
The Pentagon thus far has announced a drawdown of only 7,000 troops, which would cut the number of U.S. military in Iraq to about 130,000 by March.
"We would all like the Iraqis to be more and more responsible for their own security," Bremer said. But, he said, "they've got a ways to go."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:41 ||
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Sheesh...more resmume padding. Wadda maroon.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/18/2006 4:33
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"I would be very surprised if he (President Bush) is operating on a number like 50,000," Bremer said.
I was "very surprised" when President Bush put you in charge over there Paul.
1. The first message indicates that eleven Iraqi police officers were killed yesterday, Monday, January 16, 2006, during a confrontation with the groupâs mujahideen that culminated with the detonation of a car bomb in Shahraban.
2. An IED was detonated today on a âCrusadersâ convoyâ in al-Latifiya, destroying a Humvee and killing two soldiers.
3. Two employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hareth Mohsen and Harb Mohsen, were assassinated today in the al-Jihad section of Baghdad.
6. Today, Sayed Hussein, a companion of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, was assassinated in the area of al-Ghazaliya.
7. The seventh message states that a captain in the Iraqi National Guard was killed in the area of al-Dawra in Baghdad.
The Mujahideen Council, according to their statement of establishment, is composed of six insurgency groups in Iraq: al-Qaeda in Iraq, Victorious Army Group, Ansar al-Tawhid Brigades, Islamic Jihad Brigades, the Strangers Brigades, and the Horrors Brigades, collaborating to meet the âunbelievers gathering with different sidesâ and defend Islam.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:38 ||
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the Strangers Brigades, and the Horrors Brigades
#2
the Strangers Brigades, and the Horrors Brigades
Sorry, clearly I need more caffein before posting. You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up -- the name choosers are clearly suffering from the results of inbreeding.
#6
Sorry, clearly I need more caffein before posting. You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up -- the name choosers are clearly suffering from the results of inbreeding.
Actually TW, I would say that they are suffering from pan-arabic overstatement syndrome⢠... All of the people in that region are given to wild overstatement (remember Baghdad Bob?)
I used to think that this was limited mainly to arabic speakers, but reading Khomeini, the Young Turks, and hearing Ahmadinejad carrying on have disabused me of this notion.
#7
True, Chinter Flarong9283, but I'll bet you never thought to connect Pan-Arabic Overstatement Syndrome⢠(or should we be open-minded and call it Pan-Muslim, etc, or Dar al Islam, etc... near-East/Mid-East won't work, because the Israelis don't do it, not even the ones who came from that part of the world) to inbreeding. ;-) Lovely diagnosis, by the way. It's a keeper.
Thank you! You're right, I never paid attention to how close their eyes seem to be... :-)
To expand my now-approved diagnosis a bit more:
- Don't test Israel, there is too much European influence. Israel will NEVER suffer from PAOS.
- Don't test the Christians either. Some of the worst effects of PAOS are neutralized when you are heavily outnumbered and everyone want to kill you (This goes for Israel as well!)
- I think the interesting test would be: do the Iraqi Kurds suffer from it? Are they given to the wild passionate fantasies that everyone else in the area seems drunk on?
Sadly, I don't know any Kurds. So: no data = no theory.
#9
CF9283, all the Kurds I've met have been charmingly tied into reality; but I've never been to their native habitat, so I can't say if they just adjust well to their new environment. I don't know if it counts as a data point, but
the English king Richard Lionheart thought very highly of Saladin, and counted him as a friend. ;-)
A six-minute video titled: âA Message from an Immigrant Mujahid to the Scholars of the Nation,â was recently released by al-Qaeda in Iraq, questioning these Muslim scholars for their lack of support to the mujahideen. A masked mujahid sits in front of an image of the Gulf region where Iraq is highlighted in red and yellow, and asks that if the jihad in Iraq is according to Islamic Shariâa, or law, then why have the scholars branded the mujahideen âdissentersâ and allowed the people in al-Fallujah to eat tree leaves and urinate blood as many Muslims died from thirst.
As he castigates the scholars, the mujahid, also referred to as a military leader, reminds of the destruction wrought upon the people of al-Qaim, Tal Afar, Samarra, and Rawah, and alleged crimes against Muslim women and children by Americans and Shiâites. Further, he states: âWe are ignorant but we will not have mercy in the day of resurrection. We will hang to your necks and demand our Shariâa rights imposed on you by Allah.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:37 ||
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Colorful stuff. Scholars. Right. I'd say video doesn't pack the punch needed, but that's just me.
The real key is that, en masse, the "scholars" and imams haven't done much of anything except look after their own narrow asses and interests, thus far. Sadr and Sistani both make that case rather well.
#3
I thought the headline was literal. I'm dissapointed.
Patience, phil_b, patience. As soon as they're done sorting out this nettlesome Sunni - Shiite flap, they'll start whacking their own version of the decadent academic elite within Islamic circles. If all this internecine strife wasn't accompanied by a full calendar of atrocities against the West, I'd just sit back and applaud.
The capital of the European Union was in the midst of a historic celebration on May 1, 2004, when security officials learned of a sudden emergency: An airliner that had departed Norway with 186 passengers aboard had possibly been hijacked and was headed this way.
On the same day that the union expanded its borders to admit 10 new member countries, an Air Europa Boeing 737 en route to Spain did not respond to an urgent series of radio calls from air traffic controllers as it flew over Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands before entering Belgian airspace.
With fears mounting that the plane might launch a kamikaze attack on E.U. or NATO headquarters in Brussels, three countries scrambled fighter jets but had trouble intercepting the aircraft as it rapidly crossed one national border after another.
Then a flight attendant looked out the window of the airliner and saw two French Mirage 2000s flying alongside, prompting the Air Europa pilots to get on the radio and report that everything was fine. The incident ended peacefully but exposed Europe's vulnerability to a Sept. 11-style hijacking and the difficulties in coordinating a multinational response to a fast-breaking terrorist threat.
The European Union exists in large part to harmonize policy among its members. But when it comes to dealing with a hijacked airliner, those countries cling to a patchwork of contradictory rules and regulations.
In Sweden, it is forbidden to shoot down a civilian plane under any circumstances. Germany recently passed a law that gives the defense minister the authority to open fire on a hijacked plane, but the measure is being challenged in court.
Four East European countries lack their own air forces and rely on neighbors to patrol their skies, making the chain of command still more complicated. Some other countries won't divulge their policies, citing national security.
On a continent where many countries are so small that planes can pass through their airspace in minutes, aviation and security officials say the conflicting approaches make it almost impossible to prepare an adequate defense against hijackers bent on crashing a plane into a target.
"It's a very, very complex issue to come to a conclusion on because there are so many partners involved," said Bo Redeborn, director of security affairs for Eurocontrol, the agency that oversees European air traffic. "We're not there yet, that's clear. Some states are much more ready than others. We are best prepared to fight the last war. We're seldom prepared to address threats we haven't seen before."
Europe has some of the busiest air traffic corridors in the world. With passenger flights on the increase and a heightened sensitivity toward security since Sept. 11, 2001, there's also been a big jump in the number of hijacking false alarms. Reports of traffic controllers losing radio contact with pilots for a prolonged period have roughly doubled since 2002, according to Eurocontrol.
There are no hard statistics on how many such cases in Europe have escalated to the point where military intervention resulted, because countries don't pool the information. But Eurocontrol said fighter jets have been scrambled 19 times in the past two years to intercept airliners that lost touch with its air traffic control center in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The center monitors air traffic in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of Germany, tracking about 25 percent of the flights that pass through Europe each day.
During the Cold War, West European nations relied on NATO to defend against a Soviet air attack. While NATO has since expanded to take in many of the former Communist states of Eastern Europe, it lacks the authority to shoot down hijacked civilian airliners, now a far more likely threat than attack by a foreign military. That decision is explicitly left to individual countries.
"This is an awfully difficult subject," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO's secretary general, said in a September meeting with a small group of reporters in Berlin. "The notion of national sovereignty is very strong. To go after civilian airlines with passengers on them, we'll defer on that."
NATO still monitors the skies for intruders, civilian or military, and will scramble jets on the orders of local officials. It has also supplied AWACS surveillance aircraft to guard against terrorist attacks at more than 20 high-profile international events since the Sept. 11 attacks, such as the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and the funeral of Pope John Paul II at the Vatican last year.
"We are very well served by our ability to identify threats. We've got the communications, we've got the radars," said a senior NATO official in Brussels who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Our ability in Europe to see and understand what is going on is probably as good as anywhere in the world. Our ability to put an aircraft in the sky very quickly is also very good. The difficult bit comes when you have identified a renegade aircraft."
The European Union has had little success on this issue. Gijs de Vries, the bloc's counterterrorism coordinator, said security officials are working to improve Europe-wide readiness for a hijacking, but he declined to discuss details. "I can't get into any of that," he said in an interview last year.
Giles Merritt, director of New Defense Agenda, a Brussels research organization that specializes in security issues, said European leaders have placed a higher priority on intelligence-gathering and prevention. Many officials don't see shooting down an airliner as an option under any circumstances, he said.
"Let's assume some jihadist group did get their hands on a civilian plane and they were headed to the Eiffel Tower," Merritt said. "And that there was enough time for a French leader to make a decision on how to respond. No politician wants to be the guy to pull the trigger on 200 innocent people, just on the suspicion that it will crash into something. His career would be over."
European counterterrorism officials said they don't take the threat of a hijacked airplane lightly, however. French investigators believe that an Algerian radical group schemed to fly an airplane into the Eiffel Tower in the mid-1990s; the iconic structure is still considered a major target for a terrorist attack.
British and U.S. officials said last fall that they had uncovered an al Qaeda plot to hijack an airplane in Eastern Europe and crash it into Heathrow Airport in 2003. Details of that case remain sketchy.
After a man commandeered a small plane in Frankfurt in 2003 and threatened to crash it into the European Central Bank in the city's downtown, Germany approved a law that gives its military the green light to shoot down a hijacked airliner. Last year, a suicidal pilot crashed a small plane in front of the Reichstag, the German Parliament building in Berlin. No bystanders were hurt, and investigators ruled out terrorism as the motive.
The German air force said it scrambled jets 20 times last year to chase after planes that had lost radio contact for prolonged periods; none of the incidents turned out to be a hijacking. But many lawmakers have expressed misgivings about the new law, citing a clause in the German constitution that forbids the state to take the life of any German citizen. The Federal Constitutional Court, Germany's highest judicial body, is scheduled to rule on the measure later this year.
Burkhard Hirsch, a former vice president of the German Parliament who is a plaintiff in the case, cited the inherent risk of making a mistake when dealing with a hijacked airliner. He referred to the case of a passenger on a flight to Munich who reported having a bomb and threatened to blow up the plane. Two fighter jets were promptly dispatched, but held their fire. When the plane landed, it turned out the passenger didn't have any explosives, only a mobile phone.
"If I get on an airplane, I don't like the idea that the minister of defense has the right to shoot me down," Hirsch said. "There's a difference between government and God. God knows what our fate is. The military and flight controllers do not. Nobody on earth has the right to play God."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:36 ||
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#1
So manyFuckin Duh stories, today. I choose this one.
#2
Mebbe we should do an lh thingy and have a Fuckin Duh Watch - daily FDW's - on all the remarkably self-evident stories. Those with a delicate nature could use MotO (Master of the Obvious).
A major cache with unguided rocket projectiles and other ammunition has been found in the Pamir section of the Tajik-Afghan border, Itar-Tass learnt at the press service of the Tajik State Border Committee on Tuesday.
The cache, which was found during a search operation in the area of the border village of Pushkharvi, contained two unguided rocket projectiles and 10 fuses for them, over 140 fragmentation mines, several pieces of antitank shells and other ammunition - - a total of more than 300 pieces.
According to frontier-guards, the cache was laid during the civil confrontation in Tajikistan in 1992-1997.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:34 ||
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The provincial government said Tuesday that in addition to 18 civilians, four or five foreign militants were killed by the American airstrikes on the village of Damadola on Friday, but that their bodies were removed from the scene by companions. In all, 10 to 12 militants had been invited to a dinner in the village that night, it said.
The findings, the first official statement that militants had been among those killed, were from a preliminary joint investigation at the scene by government agencies.
The initial investigation found the attack was "directed against some foreign terrorists who were present in the area at the time of occurrence," the statement said, quoting Fahim Wazir, the political administrator of the Bajaur region, where the attacks took place.
The deaths of 18 civilians, among them 6 children, have stirred anger among the population in Pakistan and put pressure on the government to explain what happened in Bajaur.
Villagers from Damadola insisted to local journalists that there had been no militants in the area that night. Yet President Pervez Musharraf said the day after the strikes that there had been a foreign presence in the village, and he urged the population not to harbor foreign militants.
The government has since come under a flurry of accusations from opponents that Pakistani and American government officials have leaked false information that Al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and other militants were in the village, in order to make excuses for the attack.
The government statement goes part way to countering those accusations, since the bodies of the militants, it said, were taken away from the scene.
"At least four to five foreign elements had also been killed in the incident, but their bodies were removed from the scene within no time by their companions, so as to suppress the actual reason of the attack," Mr. Wazir said, according to the statement.
"It is highly regrettable that this attack led to the killing of 18 innocent local people," he said, "but this is also an undeniable fact, that at least 10 to 12 foreign miscreants were invited to a dinner in this village on that night." Investigations were continuing, the statement said.
American officials have said the airstrike was aimed at Mr. Zawahiri. Pakistani officials say Mr. Zawahiri was not at the site of the attack, having failed to show up for the dinner.
An American counterterrorism official said Tuesday that the attack had been based on good intelligence about Mr. Zawahiri's location, and said that there was still no conclusive evidence as to whether he had survived. The official said there were indications that the other Al Qaeda members killed in the attack had included some who, like Mr. Zawahiri, are of Egyptian origin.
In interviews, American counterterrorism officials said American military and intelligence personnel had moved in recent weeks to intensify a campaign against Mr. Zawahiri, second only to Osama bin Laden in the Al Qaeda hierarchy.
Mr. Zawahiri, believed to be hiding near the Afghan-Pakistan border, has served as Al Qaeda's primary intermediary with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian who heads Al Qaeda's efforts in Iraq. American officials believe that if Mr. Zawahiri is killed, he would not be easily replaced.
President Musharraf addressed the nation on television on Tuesday night, yet in an hour and a half speech did not mention the American airstrikes. He spoke instead on various pressing national issues, like criticism of government relief for victims of the earthquake in October.
The information minister, Sheik Rashid Ahmed, in a briefing to journalists in Islamabad, insisted that Pakistan had played no role in the attack, and despite its support for American in the war against terror, had not provided any intelligence in this case. "We have an understanding, and we support them, but in this incident no intelligence was given," he said.
"The loss of life is regrettable," he said. "Pakistan is committed to the elimination of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations but our sovereignty should also be respected."
For its part, the White House said the United States would continue to work with Pakistan to hunt down members of Al Qaeda, despite protests over the airstrike.
Scott McClellan, a White House spokesman, expressed no regret for the attack, saying the United States would continue to "work closely with Pakistan and others to go after Al Qaeda and bring their leaders to justice."
"Al Qaeda continues to seek to do harm to the American people," Mr. McClellan said. "There are leaders who we continue to pursue, and we will bring them to justice. The American people expect us to do so, and that's what this president is committed to doing."
In television interviews over the weekend, a Republican and a Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee defended the raid, while Pakistan's ambassador to the United States questioned whether it had should have been carried out.
Jehangir Karamat, the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, said Monday on Fox News that "to my knowledge there was no prior notification" from the United States to Pakistan about the particular raid.
Still at issue, Mr. Karamat said, was "whether this strike should have been carried on our side of the border, and whether there was enough intelligence, accurate intelligence, to warrant this strike."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:33 ||
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#1
Egyptians?!?
Could they be related to Mohammad Atef, Osama's Egyptian friend who got zapped by a Predator early on in Operation Enduring Freedom?
Security forces have arrested five suspected Al-Qaeda militants, including one foreigner, following a raid in Riyadh. The security forces also learned that the group was planning terrorist attacks in the Kingdom. The statement from the Interior Ministry carried by the Saudi Press Agency said: âFour nationals and one (foreign) resident were arrested during a raid on a hide-out in Riyadh.â
There was an improvised bomb-factory inside the hide-out. None of the five men were on a list of 36 most-wanted terrorists issued by the ministry last year. âDuring a search of their hide-out, the (security forces) confiscated... explosive materials in addition to electronic CDs and documents which prove that they are members of the deviant group,â the ministry said. The documents also indicated âcriminal plans to carry out destructive attacks inside the Kingdom,â the ministry said. The security forces also discovered âequipment to forge documents.â
Informed sources said police also confiscated more than SR1 million and 12 hand grenades from the Riyadh hideout after arresting the five.
On Monday, security sources said that police arrested at least four suspected militants in raids on different houses in the northeast Riyadh neighborhood of Al-Fahs Al-Dawry. Dozens of police cars backed by security forces filled the streets of the neighborhood which includes a number of male-only cafes and gay bath rest houses.
In December, security forces killed Abdul Rahman Al-Miteb and Muhammad Abdul Rahman Al-Suwailemi, who were No. 4 and No. 7 respectively on the list of 36 most-wanted terrorists. According to Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, security forces have prevented 52 terror attacks in the country during the past three years.
Addressing the global terrorism conference in London on Monday, the prince said: âWe have killed 120 terrorists and our battle against the terrorists is continuing.â He estimated the number of terror suspects who have been arrested since Sept. 11, 2001, at more than 800. He said the Kingdom had also taken a series of measures to eliminate financial support for terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:22 ||
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The White House on Tuesday refused to discuss a U.S. airstrike at a Pakistani village that has prompted outrage in the country but said Washington would continue to work with Islamabad to hunt members of al Qaeda.
"I don't ever get into discussing any specific operational activities or even alleged operational activities," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
"Pakistan is a valued ally in the war on terrorism. We work closely with Pakistan and others to go after al Qaeda and bring their leaders to justice. We will continue to do so," he said.
Protests erupted in Pakistan after a U.S. airstrike last Friday that Pakistani and U.S. sources said was aimed at al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri. It killed at least 18 people, including women and children, in a village near the Afghan border.
U.S. officials believe that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Zawahri are hiding along the mountainous border region.
"Al Qaeda continues to seek to do harm to the American people," McClellan said. "There are leaders who we continue to pursue and we will bring them to justice. The American people expect us to do so and that's what this president is committed to doing."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006
01:21 ||
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An alleged outlaw and suspect of Bamihal police killing and arms loot incident was killed in 'crossfire' between the members of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and his accomplices in Singra upazila of Natore early yesterday.
No, I don't know where that is.
Rab members arrested Nazrul Islam of Bias Union in Singra upazila at Amin Bazar in Dhaka on the night of January 16 and took him to a Rab camp in Natore, said a Rab press release yesterday evening.
"Come with us, Nazrul, we wanna have a chat with you."
On his confessional statement, ...
... aided as always by Mr. Pliers and Detective Vise-grips ...
... a Rab team set out for Bias Union at about 2:30am yesterday, taking Nazrul with them.
They certainly weren't going to leave him behind.
When they reached Ratal Dighipara area, Nazrul's accomplices opened fire on the Rab men, ...
... said accomplices having no fire discipline and worse aim ...
... prompting them to retaliate.
Prompting the accomplices to flee, leaving Nazrul to suffer his fate alone ...
Rab said Nazrul was shot as he tried to flee during the shootout.
One would say his feets failed him, but getting shot in the back of the head from eighteen inches isn't conducive to fleeing ...
He was rushed to Singra Health Complex ...
... not a Level One trauma center, though it wouldn't have mattered if it had been ...
... where the doctors declared him dead.
Where Dr. Quincy was happy to leave the case until the morning.
Nazrul was convicted and charge sheeted in a number of cases including three for murder, according to Rab press release.
Which means his mother didn't even love him anymore.
A shutter gun, three bullets and five cartridges were recovered from the scene.
After which the shutter gun was put back carefully in the police lockup so as to be conveniently available for tomorrow night's crossfire.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/18/2006
00:02 ||
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#1
*smile* As comforting as a familiar bedtime story, indeed.
#2
That story must have been told at least an hundred times here in Rb, but I still haven't the slightest idea of what a shutter gun might be.
Did I miss the memo or something, or does this fact remains one of the great unexplained mysteries?
#4
As near as we can tell, there's only one shutter gun in all the world, and the RAB keeps it safe in the evidence locker until it's time to take it out and plant find it on the corpse of the dread criminal...
#5
Same here, A5089. I can imagine several sorts of weapons from the name, but no solid clue as to which it might be. Regards the memo, well, I guess we're not on the distribution list. *sniff* ;-)
#8
When all this nonsense about a "Shutter Gun" first surfaced I made a thorough web search.
I found that a "Shutter Gun" is aparently a paintball gun.
Makes sense, you could fire other small spheres with it that are not paint filled, a lead ball at paintgun velocities would be a really severe hit, but not as bad as a real bullet
Or maybe a "Paintball" filled with acid or poison.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/18/2006 13:47
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#9
RAB stories can only go so far. I need nuggets.
#10
I came across a reference that seemed to say a shutter gun has an exchangeable chamber that allows firing of types and calibre of ammunition. Otherwise they seem to be manufactured in several countries. Why they should be so 'popular' in Banga, I have no idea.
Jordanian border police are turning away hundreds of Iraqi vehicles daily at the Karama border crossing, often without explanation, creating huge parking lots of frustrated travelers in the Iraqi desert. At Queen Alia International Airport, just south of Jordan's capital, Amman, Iraqi passengers are ushered into a room and interrogated before being allowed to enter the country. And some Iraqis who used to be able to get 30-day visas to Jordan are now being allowed to stay just a few days at a time.
Gee. Golly. Gosh. Shucks. I wonder why?
The security restrictions being applied to Iraqis stem from the bombings of three Amman hotels on Nov. 9. The attacks -- which killed 59 people, most of them Jordanians -- were carried out by three Iraqi suicide bombers; a fourth Iraqi's explosive belt failed to detonate. Jordanian security officials say the extra measures are necessary to keep out would-be terrorists.
Oh. Yeah. There is that, isn't there?
Jordan's government spokesman, Nasir Judah, confirmed that the country had imposed new border restrictions on Jan. 2 that prohibit vehicles with Iraqi license plates from entering the country. As a result, Iraqi commercial drivers are effectively prevented from taking passengers to and from Jordan, and private vehicles with Iraq's signature black license plates are stopped at the border. The only Iraqi vehicles allowed into Jordan are those with white license plates, which can be obtained only after the owner puts funds into a trust equal to the value of the car.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006
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#1
It's too bad the Iraqis don't guard their borders to incoming traffic that way...
Belgium's prime minister told President Bush on Tuesday that while the United States has improved its relationship with Europe in the last year, "there is certainly a lot of work still to do."
... and guess who's expected to do it?
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said he told Bush that the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay is driving down public opinion of the United States in Europe. He said Europeans want court trials for suspects being held indefinitely at the camp on Cuba's eastern tip.
Like we gave the werewolves after WWII?
"The president responded that that was the goal at the end of the whole process," Verhofstadt told reporters as he left the White House after a meeting with Bush. "I think it's a very important thing to say that to the American president, that that is certainly an important thing to do."
I think it's a fine idea, something to do when the WoT's over...
Guantanamo has become a symbol in Europe for what many people see as Bush administration excesses in hunting down and interrogating potential terrorists. The United States says the detainees are suspected Taliban or al-Qaida operatives or soldiers, but lawyers and rights groups say many were victims of circumstance who are not violent.
But so far they haven't offered any proof. And the results with the bad boyz we've let go suggest quite the opposite.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006
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#1
He's a bastard. I swear Live from Brussels posted what he said around 2/13/02 about how the goal is to neuter US.
#5
The Belgians are very smart people and we shouldn't underestimate them. After all, they were able to build a large, expensive bureaucracy to employ their citizens and get 24 other countries to pay for it.
A threatening phone call that forced the United Nations to temporarily close offices in southwestern Pakistan said al Qaeda would attack the world body's offices there, the top U.N. official in Pakistan said Tuesday. The phone call was received Monday by the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, and the United Nations closed all offices in the province of Baluchistan that day and Tuesday, said Jan Vandemoortele, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan. "Al Qaeda was mentioned twice in the phone call," Vandemoortele said, adding that the caller said "they were going to attack the offices." "It was found to be a credible threat," Vandemoortele said. "Since security is priority No. 1 for me, I decided to withdraw our staff from the field."
There have so far been no attacks or suspicious movements against U.N. operations in the region, Vandemoortele said. The world body has about 25 staffers in the region, mostly based in the provincial capital of Quetta. The United Nations will reassess the security situation on Wednesday and decide then whether to resume operations, he said. It was unclear who made the phone call, but the United Nations was able to log the caller's number and turned it over to authorities. Pakistani police were investigating the incident, Vandemoortele said.
The United Nations has six main agencies operating in Baluchistan, another U.N. official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Included in the closures were local offices of the World Food Program and the UNHCR. Two years ago, aid workers from the United Nations and other international agencies sought refuge in a heavily guarded hotel after Pakistani authorities received intelligence reports that the Taliban were targeting their offices with suicide attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006
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#1
"The caviar and Cristal are rigged to blow!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 0:03
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PATUAKHALI, Jan 17: Charge sheet against 4 JMB men for their alleged connection with bomb blast on August 17 last year in Patuakhali district headquarter have been submitted after 4 months and 13 days after the incident. Abul Hossain, SI of Patuakhali Sadar thana and the investigation officer of the incident submitted the charge sheet on December 31.
Charge sheeted accused were identified as Al-Amin alias Mintu alias Abdullah, (28), and Mostafa Hassan, (30), of Islampur village under the district of Barguna in Sadar Upazila, who also charge sheeted on the same issue in Barguna, Name of the rest two accused persons, were not disclosed by police. All of them are of Barguna residents.
Sadar Thana police arrested Al-Amin, regional chief of JMB (Patuakhlai-Barguna) on December 4 from Kathaltali health sub-centre under Mirzagonj Upazila and Hafej Mostafa arrested Barguna Sadar Thana.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/18/2006
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... which is all very nice, except that he also offered to sprout wings and fly to the moon...
Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II, once volunteered to go to Afghanistan to kill or capture Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a gesture to the United States, a newspaper report said Tuesday.
The mass-circulation Hurriyet published excerpts from letters Agca wrote from prison over the past few years before his release last week after a quarter of a century behind bars in Italy and Turkey. In a letter dated September 1, 2000, addressed to the then head of Turkish intelligence, Agca wrote of U.S. help to Turkey in capturing Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya the previous year. "America gave us Ocalan as a gift. Let's give them bin Laden in return," wrote Agca, then jailed in Istanbul, one year before the September 11 attacks in the U.S., Hurriyet reported. "I'm ready to go on my own to Afghanistan, penetrate bin Laden's organization and hand him over to America, dead or alive," he wrote. "I really hate terrorism. If I become a national hero in America, this will be to the great benefit of the Turkish nation and the Turkish state," he wrote.
Many consider Agca, 48, to be deranged, while others believe he is a sly operator playing the madman. He has pronounced himself as the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and Hurriyet said some of his letters were signed "The Messiah." In another letter, he wrote that he refused a Vatican offer of $50 million and the title of cardinal to convert to Catholicism. "I'd rather be a monkey in Africa than a king at the Vatican," he reportedly wrote.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006
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Gunmen killed two Jordanian U.N. peacekeepers and seriously wounded a third Tuesday at a checkpoint in a slum in Haiti's capital that is a stronghold for supporters of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a spokesman said. The three Jordanian peacekeepers were manning the checkpoint when they came under fire, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. One was apparently killed instantly while the other two were taken to a hospital where one died of his wounds. The other was listed in serious condition, he said.
The shootings came a day after Haitian politicians and business leaders rallied in front of U.N. headquarters in Port-au-Prince to press the peacekeepers to end violence jeopardizing the Feb. 7 presidential and legislative elections. The rally took place a week after a general strike was called to protest a wave of kidnappings by armed gangs that has terrified people and overshadowed efforts to restore democracy. Late last week, chanting protesters filled Cite Soleil's narrow streets to denounce violence and political chaos after clashes between gangs and U.N. peacekeepers reportedly left one person dead and at least 17 wounded.
I don't think that getting herds of chanting protesters together does anything particularly productive. Hunting the hard boyz down and killing them without mercy might work better.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006
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SAUDI authorities are looking for Fatwa from scholars around the world concerning working out a new method for the symbolic stoning of the devil.
In a bid to avoid any deadly stampedes in future, the latest of which claimed the lives of 363 people last week, the authorities also unveiled plans to replace the current Jamarat passage with a 10-level structure, to ensure the safety of pilgrims on this site where incidents over the years marred one of the five pillars of Islam.
"Step right up! New and improved stoning of the devil to your right! Devil-stoning stones, SR1 each. Show us how holy you are, and don't throw like girls!"
According to Maj-Gen Eng. Mansour Al Turki, spokesman of the Saudi Ministry of Interior, the planned 10 levels would be built in the next 10 years. The first four will be completed within the next two years. Workers have reportedly begun work soon after the last day of Haj, tearing down a platform at the Jamarat on orders from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz in order to rebuild it with better access to prevent deadly stampedes.
The Al Jamarat platform, where three pillars representing the devil are located, will be rebuilt with one underground level and four 100-metre wide ramps that can accommodate 250,000 pilgrims per hour, said Osama Al Bar, Head of Haj Research Centre. There will be 12 entrances and 12 exits. The current site has just two levels, including one 80-metre wide ramp leading to a platform from which pilgrims pelt stones at the pillars.
They'll stone the devil from an underground level?
On Thursday, some 600,000 pilgrims were squeezed in at the ramp when about a dozen people stumbled over baggage, tripping others behind them and causing the deadly crush. The disaster happened as pilgrims flocked to the Jamarat Bridge in Mina to hurl stones at a pillar representing the devil.
He said the construction, which aims at both preventing accidents and accommodate the expected increase in pilgrims, would be completed within two years. Other improvements being made include multiple vehicle tunnels to facilitate traffic flow and a landing area for helicopters that might be required to rush in medical aid.
Haj Minister Fouad Al Farsy thanked King Abdullah for sanctioning the SR4 billion project. The first phase of the project , which is a four-floor facility, will allow 500,000 pilgrims to perform the ritual in one hour. This will accommodate three to five million pilgrims per year. This year around three million pilgrims performed haj.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/18/2006
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#1
We can't be so lucky to use the Iranians for contractors?
#12
I envision a sort of multi-tier golf driving range sort of devil-stoning structure. Despite all sorts of advance civil engineering and all the fatwas in the world, I'm also confident they'll still figure out some way to trample the sh!t out of each other.
#13
My guess is that the 10 level stoning platform will end up not supporting the weight of 250,000 eager devil hating rock tossers and... well, you know.
#15
Call me dense but 10 levels would let a missed rock reach near terminal velocity as it arcs downward. The folk on the lower levels are going to be creamed by all the rocks heading their way.
#16
Rather simple, really, 3dc. Adulterers, political prisoners and rapist stabbers will all be assigned tethered positions on the lowest floors in order to make best use of those errant missiles.
#18
much simpler... forget about the ramps. Change pebbles to AK47's (in far greater abundance in the neighbourhood than stones) or suicide belts. Why should the 3 stone devils get softer treatment the the Greater and Lesser Satans?
2 ramps - facing each other and everybody takes home 76 virgins. The details, of course, lie in the Cleaning Detail.
#20
Shit. Why spoil a good thing? This has been going just fine for hundreds of years. We can count on these dumb asses stomping several hundred to death each year, as it is. I laugh for days every time it happens.
#23
Is it just me, or did anyone else think of Dante's Inferno (the book, not the party club) with the different levels all leading down to....the devil at the bottom?
How do they assign who gets what level, anyway? Money, how "sinful" you are, what's the criteria?
#24
This is a 12-story group access block combining classical devil-stoning features with the efficiency of modern fatwas. The pilgrims arrive here and are carried along the corridor on a conveyor belt with extreme piety, past murals depicting Arabic scenes, towards the rotating tramplers. The last twenty feet of the ramp is heavily soundproofed. The blood pours down these chutes and the trampled flesh slurps into these â¦
ISLAMABAD â Pakistan âcannot accept any action within our countryâ such as the US missile attack â apparently aimed at Al Qaedaâs No. 2 leader â that killed civilians in a border village, the prime minister said yesterday.
So go find and kill Zawahiri yourself. We won't mind, really we won't.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, however, stressed that Pakistanâs relationship with the United States remained important and reiterated he was pressing ahead with an official visit to Washington. He is due to depart Pakistan later yesterday.
He made the comments surrounding the purported CIA strike targeting Ayman Al Zawahiri in a joint Press conference with former US president George H.W. Bush, who is currently touring Pakistan as the UN secretary-generalâs special envoy for the relief effort in areas affected by Octoberâs monster earthquake. âPakistan has committed to fighting terrorism but naturally we cannot accept any action within our country which results in what happened over the weekend,â Aziz said. âThe relationship with the US is important, it is growing,â Aziz said. âBut at the same time such actions cannot be condoned.â
Many in this nation of 150 million people oppose the governmentâs backing of the United States, and there is increasing seething frustration over a recent series of suspected US attacks along the porous and ill-defined frontier aimed at militants.
No frustration, however, at the ISI/Taliban attacks along the same border.
âMy trip to the U.S. is there on schedule because we want to engage on many issues, including how we fight terrorism, and this incident will also be discussed,â Aziz said at a joint news conference with the former U.S. president.
Earlier in the day, Pakistanâs Cabinet condemned the loss of life, and Aziz said that he would take up the matter with US President George W. Bush, when he meets him later this month.
I'd love to be the fly on the wall for that one.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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What the PakiWakis will and won't "condone" is pretty fucking flexible, methinks.
#3
Pakistan won't accept repeat of âCIA airstrikeâ
Fine, next time make it a full Air Force carpet bombing. We've got an endless list of change-ups to deliver. Pakistan's ISI makes the Saudis look like trustworthy friends.
#5
Which begs the question as to why we're so ballsy there and so timid elsewhere.
Or, perhaps, why we are so open there and so secretive elsewhere. Are you quite certain our guys had nothing to do with the recent airplane crash in Iran that was full of Iranian generals? ;-)
#6
Which begs the question as to why we're so ballsy there and so timid elsewhere.
Because the Pakistani government was eyeballs deep in the 9/11 attacks and Musharraf knew if that if their involvement became general knowledge (i.e. covered by the major news networks), the US would be at war with Pakistan. For example the head of the ISI, Gen. Mehmood Ahmed, wired $100,000 to Mohammed Atta via Ahmed Omar Sheikh. The same Ahmed Omar Sheikh that cut off Daniel Pearl's head because he was pursuing Pakistani involvement. I found it an interesting coincidence that Gen. Ahmed was on Capitol Hill the day of the attack and had ringside seats to watch it all. And that is why I think Flight 93 targetted the White House, not Congress.
Posted by: ed ||
01/18/2006 19:53
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BS for domestic consumption only. Embarrassing to Perv, et al that some of the bodies were "of interest" as the FBI sez of Hatfill....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 21:08
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Are you quite certain our guys had nothing to do with the recent airplane crash in Iran that was full of Iranian generals?
Actually, it is far more likely that the crash (and its sabotage) was a direct result of internal dissension or strife between Ahmadnejad and Kahmeini. If not that, there is still the problem of the Revolutionary Guard's recent refusal to fire upon crowds of Iranian demonstrators. Too bad these internecine squabbles aren't likely to balloon into total anarchy within Iran anytime soon.
At least four foreign militants died in last week's air strike that targeted Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, but apparently missed him, Pakistani authorities confirmed today.
Hurrah!
Friday's attack by CIA drones armed with missiles killed several women and children, and sparked angry protests across Pakistan, whose government said it had lodged a formal complaint with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Witnesses and local officials say four jets also bombed the mud-brick compound, which they said was under surveillance by drones for four days before the attack shortly after 3 a.m. Friday.
If they knew it was under surveillance, that's why Ayman didn't show.
But in a statement today, Pakistan's federal administrator in the border region confirmed that the house was targeted because 10 to 12 foreign extremists had been invited to dinner there to celebrate a Muslim holiday. Four or five militants died in the strike, and villagers took their bodies away, according to a statement issued by authorities in Bajaur, one of seven semi-autonomous tribal areas where support for Muslim militants is strong among the mainly Pashtun population.
Guess you'll have to beat them until they tell you where they are, won't you?
Two fugitives described as al-Qaida facilitators, Faqir Mohammed and Maulana Liaquat, were also present when the house was attacked, Fahim Wazir, federal political agent in charge of Bajaur, said in his statement. "It is regrettable that 18 local people lost their lives in the attack, but this fact also cannot be denied, that 10 to 12 foreign extremists had been invited (to) a dinner," the statement added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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It seems like this could cause some bad blood within the organization. Zowie skipped a dinner which was then bombed, suggesting that maybe he knew or suspected what would happen. But he didn't warn the others, and some of his colleagues are now dead as a result. Wouldn't that make some people angry?
Canada's Conservative Party, which would be more in line with Bush administration policies, appeared to gain strength in its quest to end 13 years of Liberal Party rule as campaigning for national elections entered its final week. Opinion polls released Monday show that Stephen Harper's opposition Conservatives were holding an advantage of 8 to 13 percentage points over Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberal Party â a gap that analysts say will be very difficult for the ruling party to overcome by Jan. 23, when voters will cast ballots for the 308-seat House of Commons.
Posted by: Fred ||
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As per POLIPUNDIT.com the Conservatives reportedly are trying to collect NDP supp while the NDP wants Liberal supp - lets all hope and pray that the new elex don't result in Canadian versions of anti-Canadian Canadian, anti-Unitarian Unitarian, Treason = Patriotism, Capitalism = Socialism RINOS and CINOS, whom like America's Clinton-led/centric Dems will vote for a Canadian agenda before voting against it before......before.....before.............@. The Chicoms ala Defense Minister Hitian want to eliminate a mere 200M Americans out of America's 300M plus take over 1/2 of CONUS - dibs on how many Canadians and Western democratists get the honor and privelege of being righteously exterminated in OWG/State-planned holocaust/
genocide for the good of China, the CCP, enviro and the world, once America goes down for the count.
#5
Nothing like a good ol' "the Conservatives might win!" media scare tactic to rally the Liberal base. Same thing happened last time around, with polls showing a tiny Conservative lead. What ended up happening? The Liberals trounced everyone in Ontario, and the election was over by the time polls opened in Vancouver.
I'll wait until election day, thank you very much.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/18/2006 16:31
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The ordinary Canadian is more and more a kind of "real" conservative (note the lack of CAP) - sick to death of "hug a thug" mentality and tanking abilities.
I have no idea where the "death to American" mentality comes from and I'm getting tired of it.
A minority is all that's needed for a start to return the country to some sort of balance.
Despite the inherited Liberal infrastructure, common sense might return. A balanced Harper (need to pull him a little centre of the right tilt he's on), but the checks and balances of the infrastructure (civil servants, senate, judicial) quo may help.
The vagarities and stupidity of Toronto (my city, alas) may perpetuate the criminal machine.
Home of crime waved in on immigrants and illegals from the same area - cherished by Liberals, released by Liberals and set to continue killing with their blessing. Nothing loves a thug like a thug.
#7
"Canada's Conservative Party, which would be more in line with Bush administration policies..."
"More in line" is kinda relative here. I think it is worth pointing out that even our "right wing" Conservative party is more like the left wing of the US Democratic Party. So, American readers, don't expect us to shift too much to the right. Even when we had Mulroney with two massive majorities and Reagan and Thatcher out there, we didn't exactly become hawks....but I am hoping!
#8
I have no idea where the "death to American" mentality comes from and I'm getting tired of it.
Some of it comes from the immigrant population, some of it comes from America itself. I ran into one of those self-hating American types, now residing and working in Canada. Can't let 5 minutes go by without interjecting how she loves the fact that Canada isn't like the US. She can't vote yet, thank God.
BTW, a lot of it also comes from the Liberals and Martin himself. Wasn't it the other day when Martin said that Canadians and Americans don't share the same values? WTF??? That's a rather broad generalization, and if true, says more about Canada than the US.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/18/2006 21:47
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Here's wishing our Canadian cousins a good election -- it'll help us all.
Iran urged the European Union on Tuesday to resume talks on its nuclear dispute with the West, as world powers appeared split on how to handle the crisis, with Russia and China resisting calls for UN action. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tehran should first restore the basis for negotiations by halting the nuclear fuel research it resumed last week. "Talks presuppose an obligation. The Iranian obligation was to stick to the moratorium," Lavrov said. "Now Iran [has departed from] the moratorium on scientific research." He also sent a strong signal of Russia's opposition to sanctions and indicated it is not yet ready to refer Tehran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council.
An Iranian source in Vienna said Iran had written to the EU trio proposing that talks restart immediately and saying Tehran was ready to "remove existing ambiguities regarding its peaceful nuclear program through talks and negotiations." However, a senior British official dismissed the offer, saying: "That is vacuous because the Iranians have created the conditions to make [further talks] impossible."
Posted by: Fred ||
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"we're not done screwing with you yet! C'mon back!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 0:19
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However, a senior British official dismissed the offer, saying: "That is vacuous because the Iranians have created the conditions to make [further talks] impossible."
I demand to know this official's name!
And then pin the Victoria Cross on him or make him a Knight. *applause* Such statements will make it harder for the French or German reps to pretend any of this matters.
Nachshon Battalion soldiers shot and killed the senior Hamas commander in Tulkarm, Tabeth Salah a-Din, early Tuesday when he opened fire while attempting to evade arrest. One soldier was wounded and was evacuated to hospital in Israel. Soldiers searching Salah a-Din's home uncovered a makeshift bomb factory containing 10 kilograms of explosives, home-made bombs and electrical components used to make detonators.
Rafat Nasif, a Hamas leader in Tulkarm, blamed Israel for provoking bloodshed and warned that Salah a-Din's death would be avenged. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Nasif said "this crime was committed while Hamas is abiding by the state of calm. The aim is to torpedo the calm; we will not remain silent."
Posted by: Fred ||
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"A state of calm before we blow you up" - typical Paleos BS. A weapons factory? Nice catch and no prisoners...Finish the wall
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 0:02
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Hamas is "abiding" nothing. These maggot weasels merely let someone else take credit for the ongoing bloodshed. As if they're not arming more people, building more bombs and rockets and planning more mayhem in the interim. Until Hamas drops its insistence upon destruction of the state of Israel, they can go p!ss up a rope.
Sunni Arabs will be offered six Cabinet posts in the new Iraqi government, equaling their representation in the 36-member interim government elected last January, according to Iraq's national security adviser. The Shi'ite grouping that won a plurality in elections last month, according to preliminary results, will ensure that "there will be no government without the inclusion of the Sunnis," Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said in a telephone interview from London.
Election officials, meanwhile, announced that preliminary results from the parliamentary elections -- with Sunni-led parties winning 18 percent of the vote -- would be substantially unchanged when final results are announced later this week. Inclusion of the Sunnis, a group that has dominated Iraqi governments since the 1920s, is seen as vital to stemming a Sunni-led insurgency that has bedeviled efforts to rebuild the country. "People believe their inclusion may well quell the insurgency and will help form a strong government," Mr. al-Rubaie said. "This is not nominal; it is a meaningful inclusion."
The British-educated Shi'ite said it had not been decided whether the Sunnis would be allocated one of the two crucial security positions -- interior minister or defense minister. But he said that in his personal opinion, those posts should be awarded based on the merit of the candidates, not the political affiliation.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The Kurds should start building their Southern Friendship Fence immediately. It will help to simplify things later, methinks.
I don't much care about the remainder, the Arab areas. Since Iran has decided to go for broke in committing suicide, it makes the fears and worries over the Shi'a and the influence of Qom, at least partially, moot for the moment. What will eventually shake out after the decap / denuke campaign is somewhere far beyond the mist. There may be 5 or 6 "countries" that fall out of this shitstorm, eventually. Some of them may even glow in the dark.
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in his first policy statement Tuesday that he hopes to start working on a final peace deal with the Palestinians after Israel's March 28 elections, and hinted that Palestinians in Jerusalem might not always be under Israeli rule. Olmert became acting premier January 4 after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke. Sharon's condition remained unchanged Tuesday evening, said Hadassah Hospital spokesman Ron Krumer. Sharon, still in a coma, is in a critical but stable condition, Krumer said.
Olmert-watchers say he is more amenable to talks than was Sharon, who didn't consider the Palestinians to be trustworthy negotiating partners. "I hope that after [January 25 Palestinian] elections results are in, and after our election results are in, that I will able to enter into negotiations with Abu Mazen ... on a final status agreement between us and the Palestinians," Olmert told a news conference. A condition for resuming the talks, Olmert said, would be Abbas' disarming of militant Palestinian groups - the same condition Sharon had long set before embarking on his unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006
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A condition for resuming the talks, Olmert said, would be Abbas' disarming of militant Palestinian groups
UNITED NATIONS - If Europeans and the United States succeed in referring Iranâs nuclear program to the UN Security Council, sanctions or other enforcement actions would be a long way off, if imposed at all. But at a minimum the West is counting on a political and diplomatic embarrassment for Teheran, which this month removed UN inspection seals on uranium enrichment equipment, deepening suspicions it is seeking nuclear arms.
Otherwise Teheran would not be fighting a referral, diplomats and other experts say. âIranians are very proud and donât want to become a pariah state like North Korea,â said Edward Luck, a Columbia University professor specializing in UN affairs. âI think they would find it very unattractive.â
That sound you hear from the east is the sound of the Mad Mullahs⢠laughing their turbans off at you.
Russia, and especially China, are against imposing penalties on Iran, although Moscow has moved closer to Western views on a referral to the Security Council. Both nations, along with the United States, France and Britain, have veto power in the 15-member council.
Even if no oil embargo or blanket sanctions are enacted, the council could impose an arms embargo, a travel freeze on individuals or call on countries to reduce diplomatic ties, Luck told Reuters. Other possibilities include granting the IAEA enhanced powers to conduct intrusive inspections in Iran.
Let's give the toothless tiger a toothbrush!
Council diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case was still pending, envision a step by step approach that would very, very, very slowly ratchet up pressure.
Slowly on a geological time-scale.
The first move probably would be an appeal to Iran to abide by recommendations from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, which has sent inspectors to Iran. The council would also ask IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei to submit a report within a month.
An appeal, then a report. The MMâ¢'s ae laughing louder.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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MadMoud has called for the wiping out of a legit fellow UN member-state and signatory, i.e. ISRAEL - call me weird but isn't this a specific kind of situation what the Founding Fathers at San Francisco wanted the UNO for.
#2
Otherwise Teheran would not be fighting a referral, diplomats and other experts say. âIranians are very proud and donât want to become a pariah state like North Korea,â said Edward Luck, a Columbia University professor specializing in UN affairs. âI think they would find it very unattractive.â
Experts say? Lol, ya sure. The most remarkable thing is that most of them probably actually believe their bullshit. I'm thinking they have very heavy callouses on their palms - a prerequisite for the Moonbat A-List - on both side of the Atlantic.
#4
The problem with the UN and the EU is that they think that threats that are effective for THEM are equally effective for EVERYONE, including power mad muslims with delusions of helping the Islamic Messiah (the Mahadi (sp?)) arrive. For all their blather about being so multiculturalist, they are showing a cultural paternalism and secularism that is blinding.
#8
As Ptah hints, if the UN or the EU or the IEAI issues a condemnation, the likely response from the mad mullarchy will be "ah-ha, the 'end times' are coming".
This isn't all bad because it makes discredits the mullarchy among those that believe in different 'end times' scenarios (I think Hamas has their own scenario) and also it creates even more snickering among the 'here and now' jihadis (al Q for example). Maybe more than snickering because disagreement leads to gunfire between the factions (or popcorn among the rantburgians).
You'd sooner get a fisherman to be abashed about exaggerating the size of his catch. Iran's convening a conference to assess 'the scientific aspect' of the Holocaust should be proof enough.
(2006-01-17) â Former Vice President Al Gore, who won the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election, yesterday made another in a series of speeches condemning the man he beat, President George Bush, and made a surprise announcement that he would add movie acting to his already diverse resume.
Mr. Gore told a tri-partisan gathering of political activists that heâs been cast in the lead role of Ang Leeâs sequel to âBrokeback Mountainâ, the Golden Globe-winning cowboy adultery story.
An unnamed spokesman for Mr. Lee said the film, âBrokerecord Mountainâ, âwill tell the heartbreaking story of a manâs love for the sound of his own voice, and his futile crusade to convince others to love it as well.â
So far, no one else has been cast for the movie, according to the source, adding that âperhaps we shouldnât have announced the deal with Al Gore until we got the rest of the actors under contract.â
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.
ABC News has learned that al Qaeda's master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert was one of the men killed in last week's U.S. missile attack in eastern Pakistan. 
Suspicious crafts: January 12 2006 at 1815 LT in position 06:30N - 056:20E, off east coast - Somalia/Arabian Sea. An unidentified craft approached a general cargo ship underway. Ship increased speed and altered course. Craft also increased speed and headed towards ship. Ship further increased speed and craft was left behind.
French Interior Minister 
U.S. Undersecretary of State 
A prosecutor said Tuesday that a dominatrix waited too long to call for help as a client died of a heart attack during a bondage session, then dismembered and disposed of the body rather than report the death.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits Syria on Thursday in a signal to the world that the two allies, both facing threats of referral to the U.N. Security Council, will not be cowed. The two-day visit, Ahmadinejad's first bilateral foreign trip since taking office in August, comes at a time of intense pressure for Syria and Iran, caught in separate standoffs with the international community, analysts say.
Tehran, 18 Jan. (AKI) - The Iranian government is considering transferring state funds deposited in European banks to financial institutions in Asia, in particular South East Asia, according to Iranian website Rooz-on-line. It quotes sources close to the government saying the move follows the decision by the EU negotiating team (France Britain and Germany) to press the UN's atomic watchdog refer Iran's nuclear case to the Security Council. 
But the love affair came crashing down when Bilodeau told Ted a baby was on the way, the mag reports. âCaroline announced to the family that she was two months pregnant around May 1984,â blabbed a Bilodeau confidante. âTed was not happy about the news. He already had three kids with Joan and knew a baby out of wedlock could hurt him politically.â According to the Enquirer, the scandal-scarred senator begged Bilodeau to have an abortion, but she refused.
When Christopher was born in a Cape Cod hospital in December 1984, Kennedy was nowhere near the delivery room.
Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basaev gave an interview to Kavkazcenter that the separatist website posted on January 9. Basaev, who holds the titles of "First Deputy Prime Minister of the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, head of the Military Committee-Majlis ul-Shura, and Military Emir of the mujahideen of the Caucasus," was asked what were the "objectives" and "tasks" of the "assault operation" in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, on October 13. Basaev responded that the operation's aim was to "strike at the enemy" but that it was "also partially a rebellion of the Muslims of the KBR [the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic]," who were driven by "the neo-imperialist, satanic policy of Rusnya"âBasaev's favored derogatory term for Russiaâto liberate Nalchik from "the infidels and hypocrites." Basaev said that when he was in Kabardino-Balkaria two years ago he "failed to find any mutual understanding" among the majority of the Muslims there, but that "this spring they themselves summoned me there." The main achievement of the October 13 operation, he said, was "the conscious fulfillment by the Muslims of the KBR of their Islamic dutyâŠto the Almighty and the fulfillment of their duty to wage a holy war for their faith, freedom and honor."
Security forces have arrested five suspected Al-Qaeda militants, including one foreigner, following a raid in Riyadh. The security forces also learned that the group was planning terrorist attacks in the Kingdom. The statement from the Interior Ministry carried by the Saudi Press Agency said: âFour nationals and one (foreign) resident were arrested during a raid on a hide-out in Riyadh.â
An alleged outlaw and suspect of Bamihal police killing and arms loot incident was killed in 'crossfire' between the members of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and his accomplices in Singra upazila of Natore early yesterday.
Belgium's prime minister told President Bush on Tuesday that while the United States has improved its relationship with Europe in the last year, "there is certainly a lot of work still to do."
A threatening phone call that forced the United Nations to temporarily close offices in southwestern Pakistan said al Qaeda would attack the world body's offices there, the top U.N. official in Pakistan said Tuesday. The phone call was received Monday by the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, and the United Nations closed all offices in the province of Baluchistan that day and Tuesday, said 
PATUAKHALI, Jan 17: Charge sheet against 4 JMB men for their alleged connection with bomb blast on August 17 last year in Patuakhali district headquarter have been submitted after 4 months and 13 days after the incident. Abul Hossain, SI of Patuakhali Sadar thana and the investigation officer of the incident submitted the charge sheet on December 31. 
Gunmen killed two Jordanian U.N. peacekeepers and seriously wounded a third Tuesday at a checkpoint in a slum in Haiti's capital that is a stronghold for supporters of former president 
On Thursday, some 600,000 pilgrims were squeezed in at the ramp when about a dozen people stumbled over baggage, tripping others behind them and causing the deadly crush. The disaster happened as pilgrims flocked to the Jamarat Bridge in Mina to hurl stones at a pillar representing the devil.
At least four foreign militants died in last week's air strike that targeted Al Qaeda's deputy leader 
Canada's Conservative Party, which would be more in line with Bush administration policies, appeared to gain strength in its quest to end 13 years of Liberal Party rule as campaigning for national elections entered its final week. Opinion polls released Monday show that Stephen Harper's opposition Conservatives were holding an advantage of 8 to 13 percentage points over Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberal Party â a gap that analysts say will be very difficult for the ruling party to overcome by Jan. 23, when voters will cast ballots for the 308-seat House of Commons.
Iran urged the European Union on Tuesday to resume talks on its nuclear dispute with the West, as world powers appeared split on how to handle the crisis, with Russia and China resisting calls for UN action. Russian Foreign Minister 
Sunni Arabs will be offered six Cabinet posts in the new Iraqi government, equaling their representation in the 36-member interim government elected last January, according to Iraq's national security adviser. The Shi'ite grouping that won a plurality in elections last month, according to preliminary results, will ensure that "there will be no government without the inclusion of the Sunnis," 
UNITED NATIONS - If Europeans and the United States succeed in referring Iranâs nuclear program to the UN Security Council, sanctions or other enforcement actions would be a long way off, if imposed at all. But at a minimum the West is counting on a political and diplomatic embarrassment for Teheran, which this month removed UN inspection seals on uranium enrichment equipment, deepening suspicions it is seeking nuclear arms.
