Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova epitomized the province's decades-long struggle for independence from Serbia and achieved cult status among some of its ethnic Albanian majority for leading them in a nonviolent struggle against repression.
Rugova died of lung cancer on Saturday without seeing his dream of independence fulfilled, leaving the province's political scene in disarray at the most sensitive moment since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999. He was 61.
The U.N.-administered province was to embark within days on delicate negotiations for a solution to its disputed final status - a process the ethnic Albanian majority hoped would end in full independence.
Serbs in the province and in Serbia view Kosovo as the cradle of their culture and insist it stay part of Serbia-Montenegro, the union that replaced what remained of Yugoslavia.
Rugova had been at the center of Kosovo's politics for more than 15 years, winning international respect with his peaceful opposition to the autocratic former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic.
The Sorbonne-educated linguist and professor of Albanian literature was a well-known writer when his path to prominence began in the late 1980s. Speaking out at a writers' forum, he confronted his Serb colleagues with demands for equal rights for his backward province and its ethnic Albanian majority.
Cracks were appearing in the old Yugoslavia and its ideal of ethnic coexistence and the first shots of the wars that would unravel the country were about to be fired.
As Milosevic's grip on the province tightened, Rugova was chosen to lead the Democratic League of Kosovo, putting him at the helm of the largest independence movement.
Popular among most ethnic Albanians, Rugova wanted to be perceived as a modest leader coming from the ranks of ordinary people, but his lifestyle sometimes drew criticism.
He lived in a sprawling villa in one of Pristina's affluent neighborhoods. For years he traveled in bulletproof cars, surrounded by bodyguards. Little was known of the process of decision-making within the party.
Rugova had many enemies. He was despised by Serbs and ethnic Albanian radicals - particularly former fighters - who held deep grudges against him for failing to support the rebel KLA.
Bombs were hurled at his residence and he escaped an apparent assassination attempt in March 2005 when a remote-controlled explosive hidden went off damaging his car.
His popularity was shaken in 1998 when ethnic Albanians began an armed rebellion against Serb forces, triggering two years of fighting that killed an estimated 10,000 people. The war stopped when NATO launched air strikes and forced Serbia to relinquish control over the province.
His appearance alongside Milosevic urging a stop to the bombing at the height of the conflict - when about 1 million ethnic Albanians were forced from their homes - dealt a blow to his image. During the NATO bombing he traveled to Italy and did not return until afterward, leading to accusations of cowardice.
Explaining his actions years later, Rugova said Serb security forces had forced him to appear in public and denounce the NATO bombing campaign or face dire "consequences."
Rugova nonetheless shot back into the political scene after the end of the bloodshed, winning all the elections he contested. He testified against Milosevic at the U.N. tribunal in May 2002 where the former Yugoslav leader faced war crimes charges.
Even after Rugova was diagnosed with cancer, he held regular meetings with Western politicians, insisting on independence even as he struggled at times to catch his breath.
Rugova is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
An 81-year-old Livonia man died Thursday from injuries he suffered in a freak accident Saturday when a dog shouted "Allah Akhbar!" and jumped off a freeway overpass and fell through his windshield. Charles Jetchick was unconscious since Sunday and died early Thursday morning at St. Mary Mercy Hospital. His family was keeping an around-the-clock vigil at the hospital since the accident.
âAt first I thought it was a rock or concrete or something like that,â said Bill Jetchick, who needed stitches for a hand laceration caused by flying glass. âThen I look in the back seat and thereâs a dog.â
Charles and Bill were headed to West Bloomfield on Saturday afternoon. They were on westbound I-96, heading toward the I-275 interchange at about 12:45 p.m. Saturday. At about the same time, a dog ran out of his yard in a neighborhood off Schoolcraft, just west of Newburgh. Michigan State Police Sgt. Mike Shaw said the dog was chasing a vehicle moving west on Schoolcraft where it crosses I-96. The chase ended when the dog made a fatal leap off of the overpass, Shaw said. I only posted this because that's My home town (and because it's weird)
Europe's most successful companies are turning their backs on EU markets because of red tape, a high-level report said yesterday.
The companies that Europe needed to survive were instead investing more money than ever in the United States and Asia, concluded the report, presented to the European Commission in Brussels.
The lack of investment was so dire that it threatened Europe's "comfortable" way of life. "Europe has to act before it's too late," said the report's author, Esko Aho, the former prime minister of Finland.
The findings made unsettling reading for the EU leaders, ripping into their pledges to build a "knowledge-based Europe" that would overtake America in 10 years.
The reality was the opposite. Not only were US, Chinese and Japanese firms outspending Europe on research and development, the gap with Europe was growing.
Perhaps most damagingly, Europe's most important countries were pouring more and more of their technology investment overseas, as they despaired of the European Union becoming "innovation friendly".
Unless EU governments took bold action to increase spending on research, freed labour markets so skilled workers could move more easily, and stopped pouring taxpayers' money into dying industries, Europe's post-war way of life was doomed.
The report said: "Europe must break out of structures and expectations established in the post-Second World War era that leave it today living a moderately comfortable life on slowly declining capital.
"This society, averse to risk and reluctant to change, is in itself alarming but it is also unsustainable in the face of rising competition from other parts of the world. For many citizens without work, or in less-favoured regions, even the claim to comfort is untrue."
Mr Aho refused to follow the lead of French or German politicians, who have attacked major corporations for investing overseas and called for more "economic patriotism".
He said: "We cannot blame them. They are trying to take care of global competitiveness. Unfortunately, these companies can survive without Europe, but Europe cannot survive without these companies. That is why Europe has to act before it's too late."
His report listed a string of gloomy indicators. In 1992, six out of the 10 top-selling pharmaceuticals were produced by European companies. In 2002, this figure had fallen down to two. European firms invested billions more in the United States than US firms invested in Europe.
The report called for better access to venture capital funding to finance innovative companies and more movement between universities and business. The total pool of risk capital investment spent in Europe had shrunk by 90 per cent since the height of the information technology boom in 2000.
European governments were criticised for continuing to pour state aid into dying industries such as cars, steel and textiles. As part of the so-called Lisbon agenda of 2001 EU leaders committed themselves to spending three per cent of their gross domestic product on research and development.
Halfway through the 10-year Lisbon agenda programme, the EU still spent a meagre 1.9 per cent, far behind the US or Japan.
The commission recently predicted that China, for long seen a source of nothing more than basic manufacturing, is spending so much on higher education and research that it would itself overtake the EU on research spending by 2010.
In productivity, the report noted that Europe badly needed to extract more productivity from each worker.
IRAQI President Jalal Talabani and Kurdish regional president Massud Barzani on Saturday signed an agreement that paves the way for a single administration to run their autonomous northern region.
Until now Mr Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party was solely responsible for running Arbil and Dohuk, while Mr Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan ran Sulaimaniyah province.
However the agreement does not merge the PUK's and KDP's departments of interior, finance, justice or peshmerga forces.
"This is an important development which will protect Kurdistan which has become a solid base for democracy, unity and national accord," Mr Talabani said.
Mr Barzani said a sole administration would "help reclaim other parts of Kurdistan," in a reference to the ethnically mixed oil-hub of Kirkuk that Kurds consider their own, located just south of their autonomous region.
Since 1998, rivalries between the two formerly warring Kurdish factions have prevented repeated attempts to set up a joint administration.
The move, originally announced on January 7, was approved by the Kurdish regional parliament after an extraordinary session in Arbil.
The naming of an executive chief was put off until next week. The two parties also decided that a Kurdistan vice president to act as Mr Barzani's deputy should come from the PUK.
US ambassador to Baghdad Zalmay Khalilzad was among the diplomats who attended the parliamentary session.
#3
I think it's time the ideology is plowed under the same sands that gave it birth. It existance is a bigger threat then tolerating it whilst some long awaited "moderate" force from with in fixes the problems it has ( which are many.)
#3
I still say the UK should buddy up to us. You know, they're bigger than Rhode Island, they could be a state, we'll let Scotland be it's own state too. Not sure about Ireland. Maybe if they behave.
#9
We want the Scots who can toss the Caber at least 1 pole.
Posted by: ed ||
01/21/2006 21:16
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#10
It's well past time to split the less suicidal Europeans from the who insist on jumping off the cliff. Start with a free trade agreement with England and extend it east to those who want to pursue economic growth and strong defence. Downgrade relations with France and her courtiers who are headed down towards civil war and extinction.
Posted by: ed ||
01/21/2006 21:25
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#11
Tell Blair that we're willing to add four stars to the flag, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The UK with US taxes would be a thing to behold.
#12
Kodos (as Bill Clinton): My fellow Americans, as a young boy I dreamed of being a baseball. But tonight I say: we must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.
A federal grand jury in Oregon has indicted 11 members of two extremist environmental groups on charges of arson and destruction of an energy facility in what the government said was a campaign of domestic terrorism in five Western states.
The 65-count indictment, unsealed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Ore., accuses the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) members of committing acts of terrorism in Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, California and Colorado from 1996 through 2001 -- including conspiracy, arson, attempted arson, the use and possession of a destructive device, and destruction of an energy facility.
Eight persons were arrested before the indictment was handed up, and three are thought to be outside the United States. Cancel their passports.
"The trail of destruction left by these defendants across the Western United States caused millions of dollars in damage to public and private facilities," Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said. "Today's indictment proves we will not tolerate any group that terrorizes the American people, no matter its intentions or objectives."
The indictment said the group committed arson with improvised incendiary devices made from milk jugs, petroleum products and homemade timers in a series of attacks in the five states. The targets included U.S. Forest Service ranger stations, Bureau of Land Management wild horse facilities, meat-processing companies, lumber companies, a high-tension power line and a ski facility in Colorado.
According to the indictment, Joseph Dibee, Chelsea Dawn Gerlach, Sarah Kendall Harvey, Daniel Gerard McGowan, Stanislas Gregory Meyerhoff, Josephine Sunshine Overaker, Jonathan Mark Christopher Paul, Rebecca Rubin, Suzanne Savoie, Darren Todd Thurston and Kevin M. Tubbs conspired to commit the acts as part of a group they called "the family," identified as members of ALF and ELF. Their parents must be so proud.
The indictment follows a series of arrests last month in Oregon, Arizona, New York and Virginia.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III described the investigation and prevention of extremism in animal rights and environmental causes as one of the bureau's highest domestic terrorism priorities.
"We are committed to working with our partners to disrupt and dismantle these movements, to protect our fellow citizens and to bring to justice those who commit crime and terrorism in the name of animal rights or environmental issues," he said.
The two organizations are accused in 17 separate attacks: 12 in Oregon, 2 in Washington and one each in Wyoming, Colorado and California. Bizzy hands are happy hands.
The cases are being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Oregon and were investigated by the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Eugene Police Department, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Oregon State Police, Portland Police Bureau, Oregon Department of Justice and the Lane County, Ore., Sheriff's Office. Thank you.
UK taxes now higher than in Germany.
ITâS official: Great Britain is no longer a low-tax economy. For the first time in recent history, Germans will pay less tax than the British this year, signalling the end of an era and Britainâs 15-year dalliance with economic liberalism. I thought Britain's economic liberalism began with Thatcher in 1979. That would make it a 26 year dalliance.
It is a hugely significant milestone in Britainâs renewed economic decline but one which predictably has gone completely unnoticed by Westminster and the economically-illiterate media that covers it.
One of the longstanding concerns of this newspaper is that the once healthy gap between euro zone tax-and-spending rates and those of Britain is being slowly and stealthily eroded, thanks to Chancellor Gordon Brown and a belated recognition from euro zone economies that they had to slim their bloated states to survive in the global economy. Now our worst fears have come to pass.
For those who still think Britain a relative tax haven and Germany a paragon of socialism, the figures are shocking, painting an economic map which most will not recognise and the government has successfully hidden. As we report on page 1 today, the share of tax and non-tax government receipts in Germany has eased significantly from 46.7% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1999 to an expected 42.1% in 2006, according to internationally comparable and reliable figures from the independent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In the UK, the share of tax and non-tax government receipts in GDP has risen from 40.7% to a forecast 42.4%. From a gap of six percentage points in the British taxpayerâs favour just six years ago, the advantage has now swung dramatically to Germany, albeit by just 0.3 points of GDP. Mr Brownâs highly-suspect Treasury figures paint a rather different picture; but unlike those produced by the OECD they are not internationally comparable.
A similar trend is true of public spending, as the OECD figures also reveal. German general government outlays have fallen from 49.3% of GDP in 1996 to 46.8% in 2005; and between 2000 and 2005 the UK share jumped from 37.5% to 45%. For 2006, the OECD expects the German share to fall to 45.7%, within striking distance of the UKâs 45.4% share.
#1
So, what is it with liberals?
Can't they retain anything actually, you know, useful?
Must be a congenital brain wiring problem or chemical imbalance. Hundreds of examples that prove that increasing taxation is regressive and economically counter-productive, yet time after time...
So, uh, how much for whackin' Brown?
Cheep. How about .01% of the relative gain over the first 4 years, with a cap at, say, â¬100M - tax free, of course, lol...
;-)
#2
There's a related article today in the Telegraph (UK), Red tape 'turning best firms away from Europe', on a report just issued summarizing Europe's business woes. Bottom line: instead of catching up to America, China and Japan in R&D spending and the creation of innovative new businesses, they're falling even farther behind.
Add that to their depressive demographics and the continuing influx of unassimilatable Muslim immigrant labor, and it looks to me like they're royally fucked.
I don't think these people are going to be much help in the future...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/21/2006 19:36
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#3
"economic patriotism"
Oh yeah, that's the ticket: corporate suicide.
"The total pool of risk capital investment spent in Europe had shrunk by 90 per cent since the height of the information technology boom in 2000."
Thud.
Of course, we can guess what will happen... they'll try to punish companies for this, if they can find a way, instead of "getting it" and giving them reasons to change this trend voluntarily.
#4
Yeah, I 'spect that's where we're at: the "buh-bye point".
Circling the drain. Death spiral. Cultural and economic suicide. Sure looks to me like my ancestors made the right decision three and a half centuries ago when they flipped Europe the bird and got on that boat for America...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/21/2006 20:09
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Aging is the name of the game when it comes to fine wine. Top producers mature their brews in oak barrels; connoisseurs will keep a bottle in the cellar for years so they can savor the complex bouquet at its peak.
For Hiroshi Tanaka, all that waiting is just a waste of time _ and he says he's got the machinery to prove it. Tanaka claims to have perfected a machine that can transform a bottle of just-fermented Beaujolais Nouveau into a fine, mellow wine in seconds, all by zapping it with a few volts of electricity.
"We can now electrolyze young wine and ship bottles of fine wine out in no time at all," declared Tanaka, president of Japanese startup Innovative Design and Technology Inc., which runs a small laboratory in Hamamatsu, west of Tokyo. "Think of the savings we'll make. Shorter production time, no need for storage, no need to invest in barrels," he said.
Wine connoisseurs are skeptical of the whole idea of immediate aging, but Tanaka's company is not the only laboratory chasing instant wine. He says his method is the most advanced and a key part of the machine that accomplishes the process has been patented.
The company is in talks with wineries in California and Washington state to start providing its U.S. affiliate, BW2 Holdings, with young wine to treat and sell, Tanaka said. BW2 hopes to sell the bottles on the Internet later this year for an affordable US$5.
The road to the Champs Elysees, however, won't be an easy one: the company has brought the machine around to Japanese wine producers, restaurants and even sake rice wine and "shochu" sweet potato spirit distillers, but so far only a small shochu maker in southern Japan has agreed to get involved.
In Europe -- where viniculture is considered a sacred cornerstone of civilization -- the idea of electrolyzed wine makes traditionalists blanche.
"I don't see how a machine could turn low quality wine into a magical and mature wine in seconds. I don't believe in it," said Emmanuel Delmas, Sommelier at the celebrated Fouquet's Restaurant on Paris's Champs Elysees.
Indeed, the techniques at Tanaka's laboratory are a long way from the vineyards of Bordeaux. In the natural maturation process, the taste of wine is enhanced by the mixture of alcohol with water molecule clusters, Tanaka says. Though the exact mechanism of water molecule clusters remain a matter of scientific debate, Tanaka claims the electrolysis treatment instantaneously breaks up water clusters in the wine, allowing the water to more thoroughly blend with the alcohol.
His company's machine is a two-chambered device roughly the size of a stereo. Wine passes through one and tap water passes through the other; a membrane the company has patented separates the two. Platinum electrodes provide the juice, driving negative ions -- the cause of acidity -- from the wine into the water.
To the untrained palate, a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau 2005 strained through the machine became a more full-bodied, complex wine. Similar treatment to a Sauvignon Blanc 2004 resulted in a drier aftertaste.
The company has its eye on zapping other types of alcohol as well. "With acceptance, we can do well anywhere -- produce good wine for Europe, good sake for Japan, good vodka for Russia, good baijiu (white spirit) for China," Tanaka said. "The possibilities are endless."
On top of a faster production time, electrolyzed wine is healthier because it doesn't oxidize easily and requires no artificial anti-oxidizing agents that are present in almost all wines, according to Akihiro Hishima, another member of the development team. "Everybody who's tried our wine agrees -- this thing is revolutionary," Hishima said, swirling his wine glass and biting into a chunk of Camembert cheese.
The company's break into the U.S. market may prove to especially lucky. Americans downed about 2,443 million liters of wine in 2004, according to the California-based Wine Institute, and consumption is growing. A study by U.K.-based International Wine and Spirits Record says the U.S. will become the world's top consumer of wine as early as 2008.
In comparison, Japanese consumed a mere 247 million liters, where the drink lags behind beer, sake and shochu.
Still, Tanaka has no illusions about overturning millennia of wine history. "I know we'll face a lot of resistance from within the wine industry -- we already have," he said, recollecting a time in 2002 the firm took a prototype of the device to a wine producer in Italy. He declined to name the producer.
"We were told to leave the room, leave the country," he recalled. "And never come back."
#1
It's easy to laugh at this given Japan's decades of effort to replicate Scotch whiskey, but there is a bucketfull of money waiting to be made from technology that makes crap wine taste better.
Long and interesting... To enter Columbia University's graduate school of journalism is to enter the highest temple of a religion in decline. A statue of Thomas Jefferson guards the plaza outside the doors, and the entry room is suitably grand. Two raised platforms proclaim the missions in bold gold letters: "To Uphold Standards of Excellence in Journalism" and "To Educate the Next Generation of Journalists." The marble floor tells you that the school was endowed by Joseph Pulitzer and erected in 1912 in memory of his daughter Lucille. A bronze quotation from Pulitzer's 1904 cri de coeur in the North American Review is on the wall:
Our republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve the public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. . . .
On my first day at Columbia's graduate school of journalism (CSJ), the poster boy for all that has come to plague elite American media--former CBS anchor Dan Rather--took to the podium at Fordham Law School to denounce the "new journalism order." On day two, the New York Times Company announced a cut of 500 employees from its already pared down workforce of 12,300. (The company employed 13,750 as recently as 2001.) On that same day Knight-Ridder slashed its Philadelphia papers' editorial staff by 75 positions at the Inquirer and 25 at the Daily News. "I get 50 calls a day about the crisis in journalism," Lemann deadpanned when I posed the "crisis" question. "Only 50?" I thought.
The story of what is going on at CSJ cannot be separated from the collapse of credibility of the mainstream media, also known as "elite media" and "old media" among its detractors. The fortunes of the big five papers--the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and the Wall Street Journal, as well as the old TV networks and big weekly newsmagazines--are visibly in decline. The upstart blogosphere is ever at the ready to "deconstruct" the work product of the old media's old guard. The very best investigative reporting is being done not by big names at the big papers, but by people like the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies' journalist in residence Claudia Rosett, who almost singlehandedly unraveled the U.N.-Saddam Oil-for-Food scandal, with much of her work published online. Dan Rather's CBS, eager to impugn George W. Bush's service in the Texas National Guard, got duped by fraudulent documents it took months to obtain and only hours for bloggers and readers to shred.
This story in its small way partakes of the seismic shift underway. Its origin is an email request from Lemann last spring: Would I be willing to be the subject of a New Yorker profile? I agreed, on the condition that I could have reciprocal access to Lemann and the Columbia Journalism School for this piece. Hedged with some qualifiers--he could not commit any of his faculty to talk to me or guarantee access to classrooms, though everyone proved to be very welcoming--Lemann agreed. Reactions to his profile of me varied among family and friends, but I thought it complete and fair. Before I sat down with Lemann I had read everything he'd written for the New Yorker and was impressed with his profiles of Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. (The Cheney profile earned Lemann some animosity among colleagues, who thought him too gentle with the only man the left fears as much as Rove.) The scorn on the center-right for the "objectivity" and "professionalism" of the mainstream media is deep and sincere. I went to Columbia to see if Lemann was the exception that proves the rule, and to test the rule itself.
What's the rule? That the elite media are hopelessly biased to the left and so blind to their own deficiencies, or so in denial, that they cannot save themselves from irrelevance. They're like the cheater in the clubhouse, whose every mention of a great round of golf is met with rolling eyes and knowing nods.
Pulitzer's acolytes at Columbia undoubtedly believe that they are members of an "able, disinterested, public-spirited press," and not a "cynical, mercenary, demagogic" one. But the widespread perception in the country is that the prestige newsrooms are filled with the latter pretending to be the former. "Public attitudes toward the press, which have been on a downward track for years, have become more negative in several key areas," the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reports. It is beyond argument that Pulitzer's dream of the press preserving public virtue has been abandoned, but Lemann is on a mission to help restore credibility to a "profession" without licensing or standards or governing bodies of any sort.
The first person I met on campus, Bruce Wallace, is a student enrolled in the school's traditional program, intended to result in a Master of Science degree after an intensive year of studies. Lemann has also instituted an ambitious new Master of Arts course of study, which has provoked deep suspicion in many of the school's alums and among the faculty. But with 205 students in the M.S. program and 27 in the M.A. division, there is no doubt that the training of front-line reporters is still the core mission. "How to cover a fire in Brooklyn on deadline" is one catchphrase I hear repeated. It is difficult to picture Pat Buchanan, Newsweek's Rick Smith, CBS's Susan Spencer, or writers Mitch Albom and James McBride--CSJ grads, all--covering fires in Brooklyn on or off deadline. But the M.S. program is in essence a 10-month education in the details and practice of that craft.
Wallace is a native of Baltimore who left his job as the manager of the classifieds at the San Francisco Guardian, an alternative weekly, to hone the skills that he hopes will take him to a daily to do local political reporting. The 1999 graduate of Kenyon College had done a little campus radio before heading off to tend bar in Alaska. In San Francisco he got hooked on city hall gossip, and though he was no fan of Mayor Willie Brown, or of "corporate power allied with politicians" generally, he's certain he'll be able to bring fairness to his future job as a political reporter. When I trot out my list of "parameter" questions I use to test for basic ideological disposition--Wallace doesn't own a gun; he favors same-sex marriage--there are no surprises.
Soon Mike Hoyt, executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, arrives. With Michael Shapiro, Hoyt team-teaches the class "Advanced Reporting," into which Wallace and 15 other students are headed, and introduces me to Shapiro, who quickly welcomes me to observe the hour. Shapiro is a gifted teacher who, three weeks into the term, already knows all of his students' names and engages them with ease and good humor. The first half of this hour is given over to outlining a large assignment--a profile of some recently deceased person or the reconstruction of a crime. Shapiro is clearly hoping the students will go for the profile, and spends considerable time instructing his charges on how they might go about selecting their subject. He fences his instructions with cautions about engaging the bereaved ("You need to know, but you can't be a vampire") and tips on tracing the details of the life to be profiled. Hoyt contributes key bits of experience, and the students are curious and attentive to these practical lessons. "You need to make your first phone call today," Shapiro insists. "Tomorrow becomes the next day, which becomes next week. Good reporters make the first call on the first day."
The 16 students are not evenly split--there are 14 women and just two men. Two-thirds of the M.S. class this year are women, a reflection of what Lemann calls the "feminization" of journalism programs across the country. Robert Mac Donald, the assistant dean for admissions and financial aid, ran down the demographics for me: The average age of an M.S. student is just shy of 28, the mean is 26, the youngest is 20, and the oldest is 63. Whites make up 69 percent of the new class; 11 percent are African American, 7 percent Hispanic, 6 percent Asian, 3 percent Middle Eastern, and 4 percent South Asian. The school doesn't yet keep stats on religious background, though Mac Donald believes there has been a significant increase in Muslim students post 9/11. A fifth of the students are from the New York area, and between 37 to 40 percent are from "the corridor"--from Boston to Washington. Another fifth are from the west coast, and 10 percent are foreign. It is a pretty "blue" student body, and willing to pay handsomely for the privilege of their credentials. A year at CSJ--tuition, living expenses, incidentals--comes to $59,404 according to Mac Donald, though 85 percent of the students receive some financial aid, with packages ranging from $1,000 to $50,000. The average scholarship is $5,200, which means that these students are putting a lot of money into the program.
The "blue" nature of the student body is further confirmed by my polling of the class I attended, done with the permission of Shapiro. Six of the 16 were English majors, two studied history, and the balance spread across the humanities. No one had a background in the physical sciences. No one owned a gun. All supported same-sex marriage. Three had been in a house of worship the previous week. Six read blogs. None of them recognized the phrase "Christmas Eve in Cambodia"--though Shapiro not only got the allusion but knew the date of the John Kerry Senate speech in which he made the false claim about his Vietnam war experience. Three quarters of them hope to make more than $100,000 as a journalist, 11 had voted for John Kerry, and one for George Bush (three are from abroad and not eligible, and one didn't vote for either candidate). I concluded by asking them if they "think George Bush is something of a dolt." There was unanimous agreement with this proposition, one of the widely shared views within elite media and elsewhere on the left. The president's Harvard MBA and four consecutive victories over Democrats judged "smarter" than him haven't made even a dent in that prejudice.
The intake valve at the elite media's equivalent of the Army's war college isn't pulling in many conservatives. In fact, it isn't pulling in many moderates. After the class, a few students linger. Their backgrounds are interesting. Rachel Templeton is from Alaska, graduated from the University of Washington, and has spent a few years at the Henry Jackson Foundation. She's moving to Israel after this year, where she hopes to pick up freelance work. Bree Nordenson is from Freeport, Maine, a graduate of Minnesota's Carleton College, and is transitioning from her work as a psychiatric counselor in Boston. Andreea Plesea is from Rumania and her Facebook entry announces her goal is to "become a top notch investigative reporter" and to "pursue a degree in law." Stina Lunden is from Sweden, and spent her last year as a Washington Post intern in France working for Keith B. Richburg. Lanie Shapiro was in PR for Simon & Schuster and Random House. Sophia Chang, originally from Texas, has been a reporter for the past four years.
These six want to pursue the idea of "objectivity," and most had read Lemann's profile of me, which included my very skeptical assessment of the objectivity of the mainstream media. Lunden is particularly animated. "You can't draw conclusions that our opinions will influence our reporting," she says, launching into a familiar defense of the ability of journalists to put aside their points of view. Shapiro stresses that all of her professors have been teaching "the value of objectivity," but Nordenson isn't buying it. "It is dangerous to think you are objective." Plesea is cynical: "You don't get truth in political reporting," an opinion she didn't confine to the countries of the former Soviet Union, with which she is familiar.
I am not here to debate the proposition, but find it interesting that the three-week wonders are already committed to the defense of their new profession's reputation for objectivity. With a faculty that does not appear to count among its number even one prominent name from the center-right, but does include respected voices of the left such as Todd Gitlin and Victor Navasky, it is difficult to see where they will acquire any useful skepticism about their own craft's motives and abilities.
The worst moments in recent history for the mainstream media--Rathergate, Jayson Blair's fabrications at the New York Times, the slander by CNN executive Eason Jordan that the U.S. military in Iraq was targeting journalists for assassination--were all still in the future when Columbia president Lee Bollinger was presented with an opening in the deanship by the retirement of Lemann's predecessor, Tom Goldstein. Bollinger, a First Amendment expert, former president of the University of Michigan, and former dean of its law school (I took media law from him in the spring of 1983, and the quiet, brooding, and even moody Bollinger hasn't changed much in 22 years, according to reports) seized the moment. He launched a controversial top-to-bottom look at the journalism school, empaneling a committee that met a dozen or so times to debate the future of the school. Lemann was among the panel's members, and delivered a paper to the group in the spring of 2003 that urged the one-year M.S. degree be replaced by a two-year Master of Arts program. Bollinger obviously warmed to some part of the Lemann pitch, and offered him the deanship.
Lemann quickly realized that alumni and faculty would unite to kill any idea of a uniform two-year degree at CSJ. "Of 24 or 25 faculty," he told me, "I'd have had maybe two votes." But there are other ways to pursue change and reform. After another year of meetings with industry types, he launched a second degree track: a year-long Masters of Arts program open only to practicing journalists, aiming to enhance and deepen their skills. Lemann is clearly hoping that the best and brightest of the M.S. grads will be willing to stay a second year and also go for the M.A. This year a pool of 70 applicants yielded a class of 27. The goal is a class of 60 drawn from 250 applicants.
Iran on Saturday denied it has shifted funds out of Europe due to fears of economic sanctions over its nuclear program after a swirl of contradictory reports on whether such transfers had taken place.
A deputy central bank chief categorically denied that Iran was moving foreign currency out of Europe to Southeast Asia. The comments appeared to flatly contradict previous reported remarks by the bank's president.
"At the moment, Iran does not have any schedule to transfer its foreign exchange accounts to the named countries," Mohammad-Jafar Mojarad told the state news agency IRNA when asked if Iran has transferred the accounts to Asia.
The head of the central bank, Ebrahim Sheibani, had reportedly said on Wednesday that Iran was moving funds from Europe elsewhere after Western demands to freeze Iranian assets as a result of the conflict over Iran's decision to resume nuclear research.
The international crisis over Iran's nuclear program escalated when the Islamic republic resumed sensitive uranium enrichment research on Jan. 10, despite calls by European negotiators to maintain a halt to such activities.
"We transfer foreign currency reserves related to all sectors including oil foreign exchanges to wherever it is good for us and we have started this transfer," Sheibani was quoted as saying.
Iran is expected to earn at least $40 billion (33 billion euros) from oil production this year. In the past, Iran has deposited its oil revenues in European banks. Sheibani himself, however, on Saturday rejected the idea that such transfers had already taken place, even though he left the door open for such a possibility in the future.
so be good little dhimmis and your banks won't have to cough up more reserves to meet international standards when we move our moolah
"We will transfer Iran's foreign accounts whenever we believe it is necessary," Sheibani told state television.
The United States said on Friday that any Iranian move to transfer currency deposits away from Europe would be a sign of growing isolation. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said such market maneuvers would not deter moves to refer its nuclear activities to the UN Security Council.
"I think it is an indication that Iran is further isolating itself from the rest of the world," McCormack told a press briefing. "I don't know what it is that they hope to accomplish by doing this."
London, Paris and Berlin called an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency for Feb. 2 as Western countries aim to gather support for referring Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meanwhile called on Islamic states to use their economic power against the West.
"Along with the political war, there's an big, hidden economic war going on and Islamic states should use their potential to cut off the hands of the enemy," he said.
Farris HASSAN, the 16-year-old Pine Crest student from Fort Lauderdale who left the comforts of his $4 million family home on December 11 for Iraq, claimed that he made the trip to put his lessons of his âimmersion journalismâ class into practice, and selected Iraq out of humanitarian concerns for the Iraqi people. His story quickly caught the attention of the media, who portrayed this young man as adventurous but naive, and his worried parents clueless to his intentions until they received an e-mail from him when he was in Kuwait. Upon is return home, he would certainly face the consequences from his concerned parents, despite his ostensibly altruistic intentions.
With all of the reporters covering the story, however, it appears that no one did any research into the background of the Hassan family, or made any attempts to verify the young manâs story. If they had, they might have been compelled to ask some very basic â but extremely important questions.
Even the most basic research found that Farris Hassan was NOT enrolled in any journalism class at Pine Crest, which should automatically cast doubt on the true nature of his journey. Lourdes Cowgill, president of the Pine Crest School, said that Hassan was never given an "immersion journalism" assignment and added that there is, in fact, no journalism class at the school. Also, the school confirmed that the boyâs father, Dr. Redha Hassan not only knew of his sonâs intended travels, but authorized his absence, which is inconsistent with his initial public statements.
Further, investigation found a number of other inconsistencies in the public statements made by Dr. Redha Hassan. Although it was initially reported that neither parent knew of the young boyâs intended travels, it was ultimately revealed that Dr. Hassan actually assisted his son. He admitted that he arranged for his son's flight into Baghdad through his political connections, even though he knew the grave risks to âforeignersâ wandering the streets of Baghdad. [According to a January 2, 2005 CNN news story, Hassan's father said that he had helped his son get a visa into Iraq from Beirut. The elder Hassan said he was leaving Iraq himself when the teen called, unable to get into the country from Kuwait. He told him to go to Lebanon and said he spoke with him almost daily].
Perhaps most importantly, research and investigation into Dr. Redha Hassan found that he was arrested by the FBI in 1985 for forging 2000 Iraqi passports and military I.D. cards and seeking to forge 2,000 more. Dr. Hassan asked his next-door-neighbor and print store owner Joel Feinstein to make the passports and IDs. According to Feinstein, Dr. Hassan claimed the documents were for his family in Iraq. Feinstein reported the request to the FBI, and became an operational asset for the federal government, leading to Hassanâs arrest. Also arrested were two of Farris's uncles and a "pro-Khomeini" activist identified as Salah Jawad Shubber. Interestingly, Dr. Hassan, who also went by the name Redha K. Alsawaf, was also the President of the now defunct Florida non-profit organization World Orphanage & Refugee Relief Foundation at the time of his arrest. Authorities dropped the charges against Hassan, and Shubber ultimately pled guilty to conspiracy charges.
Farris Hassanâs initial stop was Amsterdam, Netherlands, where he claims that he bought a ticket on KLM Airlines. From Amsterdam, Hassan headed to Kuwait City, where he alleges that he tried to cross the Kuwait-Iraq border twice by taxi, but was turned away due to Iraqi elections. At that point, it appears that Hassan sought assistance from his father, who told Farris to travel to Beirut and stay with family friends. Obligingly, Farris spent ten days in Beirut, and while there, met with a media relations officer of the terrorist group Hezbollah at their Central Press Office. This meeting was arranged through the assistance of his hosts â the familyâs friends.
Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim organization based in Lebanon and tied to Iran. They have a significant presence in Iraq, and an army that is resolved to drive the Americans out of Iraq. Given the family history, the inconsistencies and the public contradictions, could it be that Hassan was going to Iraq to join Hezbollah to fight against the "American occupation?" Perhaps those are the questions that need to be asked.
#7
There is a struggle in Iraq between good and evil, between those striving for freedom and liberty and those striving for death and destruction. You are aware of the heinous acts of the terrorists: Women and children massacred, innocent aid workers decapitated, indiscriminate murder. You are also aware of the heroic aspirations of the Iraqi people: liberty, democracy, security, normality. Those terrorists are not human but pure evil. For their goals to be thwarted, decent individuals must answer justice's call for help ... So I will.
Life is not about money, fame, or power. Life is about combating the forces of evil in the world, promoting justice, helping the misfortunate, and improving the welfare of our fellow man. Progress requires that we commit ourselves to such goals. We are not here on Earth to hedonistically pleasure ourselves, but to serve each other and the creator. What deed is greater than sacrificing one's luxuries for the benefit of those less blessed? ...
I know I can't do much. I know I can't stop all the carnage and save the innocent. But I also know I can't just sit here ...
I feel guilty living in a big house, driving a nice car, and going to a great school. I feel guilty hanging out with friends in a cafe without the fear of a suicide bomber present. I feel guilty enjoying the multitude of blessings, which I did nothing to deserve, while people in Iraq, many of them much better then me, are in terrible anguish. This inexorable guilt I feel transforms into a boundless empathy for the distress of the misfortunate and into a compassionate love for my fellow man ...
Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless the one who gives them.
Going to Iraq will broaden my mind. We kids at Pine Crest (School) live such sheltered lives. I want to experience during my Christmas the same hardships ordinary Iraqis experience everyday, so that I may better empathize with their distress. I also want to immerse myself in their environment in order to better comprehend the social and political elements ...
I plan on doing humanitarian work with the Red Cross. I will give my mind, body, and spirit to helping Iraqis rebuild their lives. Hopefully I will get the chance to build houses, distribute food supplies, and bring a smile or two to some poor children.
I know going to Iraq will be incredibly risky. There are thousands of people there that desperately want my head. There are millions of people there that mildly prefer my demise merely because I am American. Nevertheless, I will go there to love and help my neighbor in distress, if that endangers my life, so be it ...
If I know what is needed and what is right, but do not act on my moral conscience, I would be a hypocrite. I must do what I say decent individuals should do. I want to live my days so that my nights are not full of regrets. Therefore, I must go.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/21/2006 21:43
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#8
Please be careful Paul and trust your own instincts, remember someone else already died for us all.
#9
I'm sorry to cause confusion but the previous post was from an essay written by Farris Hassan before he went to Iraq, however I appreciate your concern.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/21/2006 21:59
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Court documents in a Brownsville, Texas drug-smuggling case cite a wiretapped telephone conversation by one of the smugglers who said that "Osama's people" are ready to be transported across the Mexican border into the U.S.
The Brownsville Herald reported earlier this week:
"[Paperwork in the case] contains details of a December 2004 incident in which [one smuggler] tried to secure transportation for 20 Middle Eastern 'terrorists' waiting to enter the United States from Monterrey, Chiapas and Puebla in Mexico.
"Recorded telephone conversations authorized under the U.S. Patriot Act and a court order captured the [suspect] referring to the 20 men as 'gente de Osama.'â
According to these same court documents - the phrase translates into "Osamaâs people.â
The court documents cited by the Herald also revealed:
"During a Jan. 5, 2005, telephone conversation, [the smuggling suspect] described the men as 'Iraqis,' ages 25 to 33, who were willing to pay $8,000 for transportation past Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas and into the U.S. interior.
"[The suspect] mentioned that eight of the men were coming to Progreso, northwest of Brownsville. He said they were 'dangerous' and 'really bad people.' They carried guns and made the smuggler that was helping them 'afraid.'"
FBI officials declined to comment further on the case. But one federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the paper that the men labeled "terroristsâ turned out to be illegal aliens from a "nation of concern.â
The FBI declined to say whether "Osama's people" made it across the border or if authorities had apprehended them.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/21/2006
16:05 ||
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#1
"The FBI declined to say..."
Well good. What a change. BUT... That this much was put online is stupid. I can see it being included in intel briefings or circulated for legislative / funding action, but it did not need to be publicly disseminated.
Those that are happy about this intercept already know we're at risk. They "get it" and demand our laws be enforced.
Those that would throw open the borders entirely would be outraged regardless - unless these cretins killed their paymasters families.
#2
This smuggler wasn't just some jumpy coyote. He was a cocaine smuggler and unlikely to be easily frightened. How the Patriot Act Saves Lives On January 5, 2005, a drug runner named Noel Exinia, who was engaged in transporting over five hundreds pounds of cocaine from Mexico to New York City, revealed in a telephone conversation that he was interested in other kinds of cargo as well. He spoke about twenty Iraqis, all between the ages of 25 and 33, who would pay $8,000 to get past the Mexico-U.S. border and into the United States. These Iraqis were, he said, in the Mexican cities of Monterrey, Chiapas and Puebla, and were ready to cross into Texas; ultimately, they hoped to get to the Northeast. According to Exinia, they were âla gente de Osamaâ â Osamaâs people. Whatâs more, they were âdangerousâ¦really bad people.â Even Exinia, with all his experience in the drug underworld as part of the Gulf Cartel, admitted he was afraid of them.
No one would have known any of this, at least until these Iraqis committed a terrorist act on American soil, had it not been for the fact that Exiniaâs call was recorded. The recording was permissible under the U.S. Patriot Act.
Posted by: ed ||
01/21/2006 18:07
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#3
Mexican border or Canuckian border? Take your pick.
If your son or daughter came home from school last week to tell you that they voted on official Canada Election ballots, they’re not kidding. Ballots marked by students in Canadian classrooms were bona fide Elections Canada ballots.
Can the CBC guarantee us that none of the ballots sent through "special code" by Canadian schools will make their way to Election Night ballot boxes? And from a blog citing a news article in Edmonton...
Almost 100 apparently nonexistent addresses in Edmonton's downtown core - in some cases, the addresses listed fictional residences in between two genuine buildings
Hundreds of people registered to vote out of their law offices, medical offices, accounting offices, and Government of Canada offices - in some cases these may be genuine errors, but in other cases, entire families are registered to vote out of high rise office space
Dozens of people registered to vote out of office towers, but who did not list a suite number, causing the address to read similarly to ordinary residences - in many cases, these people are also registered to vote in other ridings using their home addresses, and in other cases, voters living in other ridings are only registered in Edmonton Centre
Dozens of people registered to vote out of small mail box locations and from self-storage yards - there is no legitimate way for a person to appear on the list of Electors from a self-storage yard
Eighteen people registered to vote out of a truck stop
People registered to vote out of karaoke bars, lingerie stores, dance lounges, galleries, etc...
The deadline for revising the list of Electors has now passed, and these irregular voters will remain on the list. Be sure to notice the people running the "fake" student election on REAL ballots, and their connection to local & national Liberal party and election officials, as well as the notoriously liberal CBC which has tried to whitewash the entire scandal for the Liberals. They are lining up to STEAL the government - incredible!
And the Grits may well succeed. If the Tories have less than a 10 point lead on election morning, they're going to lose ...
#1
This would cause a real revolution here in the US. Not up there however. The "scientific socialists" have power and will not let go. Look for them to align closer with China in the future. Baka!
#2
SPOD - apparently you weren't aware during the last couple elections. From St. Louis to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Washington state - the losers (democrats here, liberals there) are erasing election laws and their appointed judges allow them to do so with near-impunity. Disgusting. Of course, Jimmy the C would sign off on the results as valid
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2006 17:13
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One short test drive and Army Spc. Todd Strange is gushing "Oh, sweet! I love it!" He's been home from Iraq a little over 30 hours and already he's trading in his little 2001 Dodge Neon for a muscle car — a 2006 Mustang GT, V-8 engine, price tag $26,320. "I'm buying the car to show off, pretty much," admits Strange, 26, of St. Louis.
Business has been booming in this southeast Georgia town since just after Christmas when thousands of 3rd Infantry Division troops from neighboring Fort Stewart began returning from a yearlong tour in Iraq and finding their bank accounts flush with combat pay, tax breaks and bonuses.
"Christmas in January" proclaim newspaper advertisements for one local furniture and electronics store.
That's especially true for retailers who suffered through 2005 while some of their best customers were overseas. Now, they worry about keeping new cars and home theater systems in stock. "It's been a lonely year," said Monica Doering, manager of Freedom Furniture and Electronics, less than a mile from Fort Stewart's main gate. "It's not only the soldiers' Christmas, but what we're experiencing now is actually our Christmas."
The 3rd Infantry has 19,000 troops returning to Fort Stewart, Hunter Army Airfield in nearby Savannah and Fort Benning in Columbus. Hotels in Hinesville have been booked solid by soldiers' families attending homecoming ceremonies. Restaurant parking lots are full, and rental properties that sat vacant for nearly a year are filling up again. "We needed it badly. If they are not here, we can hardly pay our bills," said Mike Randerwala, manager of the Quality Inn in Hinesville. "Last year, I had a loss of more than $100,000."
The overall economic hit hurt but doesn't appear as bad as many feared, Mayor Tom Ratcliffe said. For the first 10 months of 2005, the latest figures available, sales tax revenues in town were down only 6 percent compared with the same period in 2004.
It's not just a year of being unable to hit the shopping malls and car dealers that has troops flush with cash. During their yearlong Iraq deployments, they earned combat pay and other incentives, and their income wasn't taxed. Several soldiers interviewed estimated they earned an extra $700 to $800 per month while in Iraq, totaling up to an extra $9,600 for some from their year overseas.
"Without the extra money, I couldn't go out and get this stuff," said Spc. Sherrod White, 21, of Fayetteville, N.C., as he picked out a $1,499 desktop computer with a $599 flat screen monitor at Doering's store. "A lot of people, they just go crazy with it," he said.
At Hinesville Ford, where Strange picked out his Mustang, general manager Fred Mingledorff said he's on track to sell more than 120 cars this month — compared to 80 during a typical month and 40 while the 3rd Infantry was overseas. And the troops aren't settling for economy cars, he said. "They've been fighting a war for a year. When they get back, they sure deserve to be able to spend their money," Mingledorff said.
The Hinesville Wal-Mart Supercenter has conspicuous gaps in its wall of large-screen TVs because impatient buyers have taken the display units. Even the shelves of pots, pans and other mundane household items have been picked practically bare as soldiers furnish homes and apartments. "This is something that typically we would never have out of stock," said Wal-Mart manager Ted Sells. "As you can see, they've just wiped us out."
And it's not just the businesses that are celebrating Christmas a month late. Heidi Harms, the wife of an Army chaplain, still has her tree, stockings and lights up and agreed not to even shop for presents for their five children until her husband gets home. "He loves shopping for the kids, so he said `Please don't do anything until I get back,'" said Harms.
Their children, ages 11 years to 18 months, haven't seemed to mind the delay, especially since they got gifts last month from Capt. Lee Harms' parents. "They just know Santa Claus was taking care of the soldiers in Iraq, and he's coming home with dad," she said.
#1
Unfortunately lots of folk take these kids for a ride.
You should see the piece of junk computer my son's roomate was sold after returning from his last tour in Iraq. $6000 for a yellow monster with 8 network cards and crashed all the time....
Now he's broke all the time...
#2
advice from friends before buying isn't non-macho, it's smart. I know Oceanside and No. San Diego County took econ hits during deployments. I hope no scams are running here, but given human nature...
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2006 17:16
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#3
When I was young/single I was always being deployed here and there, when I returned I always had a hefty bank account and a lot of comp time. It wasn't long before both were expended. Let the kids be kids and enjoy there short-term fortune.
sample: You are meant to think that most of the world's terrorism takes place somewhere other than the Middle East. So it does, just. But the thing about spin is that you can spin in two directions. Let's spin the other way. How about the Middle East, with 2% of the world's population, accounts for 47% of the world's terrorism? Isn't that something to be proud of? Funny thing, spin
#1
The guy is good. Devastatingly so. One of the most informative reads on the internet, I think.
One of the rumors I've run across is that he's actually an expat married to a Saudi woman, but that must be one hell of a rarity, given the difficulty of meeting a Saudi woman under circumstances which might lead to marriage. She'd have to be the daughter of a ranking Saudi posted overseas - a very liberal Saudi, to boot.
#2
"Imagine that in the West, you had a school system which sat the children down each day and fed them a tumbler of whisky. They might not like it at first, but they would eventually get used to it. Later on, they would start to look forward to it. By the time they left school, a fair proportion of them would be alcoholics. Perhaps not a problem if they kept it to themselves, but the ones who went out and drove over people or otherwise killed them would start to be a concern. So you would have to start a program of drying-out clinics, to cure them. And they might be successful, although there's no such thing as a cured alcoholic, just one who hasn't had a drink for a length of time. And you might just question the wisdom of spending money and effort creating alcoholics, only to have to spend more money and effort to cure them later.
In Saudi Arabia, we don't feed our children alcohol. Instead, we feed them race hate. It's a progressive thing, building up layer by layer, using the material you see above. Thankfully, many forget it, just like we all forget algebra and bits of history. But there is a proportion for whom it sticks. They are our "alcoholics". And their hatred extends not only to Jews worldwide, but also the countries that are seen to support them - North America, Europe, Australasia. And a proportion of these decide to do something about it, and sign up with the terrorist groups. Eventually they might get caught, and repatriated. And we have our own "drying-out clinics". It's a program where we get people to talk them round, to see the error of their ways, to be rehabilitated. And unlike a drying-out clinic, we keep them in prison in between times, so you can imagine that the "success rate" is a lot higher. It's documented here."
#4
#3 Add all of the madrassahs and "schools" and other "education centers" funded by Wahhabists - here, there, everywhere.
Posted by .com 2006-01-21 18:19
Why stop with Madrassahs? Did you see John Stossel's "Stupid in America" last week? You ought to consider the hate-America lessons that are fed to our public school children.
#5
...The Saudi Sense of Humor from "The Religious Policeman"
Saudis are sometimes accused of having no sense of humor. Indeed, I am sometimes accused of not being a Saudi, because I do have a sense of humor. The truth is, of course, that we Saudis are natural comedians, and enjoy a good laugh, just like everyone else. However, some things are not funny. Let me explain the difference.
This is not funny.
This might appear funny to Westerners because it depicts their notion of Islam - mysogynistic and murderous - and the way in which the slit of the ladies' veil has been used to conceal Muhammad's eyes, rather like in one of those crime photos.
Psst...That's why a fatwa (Sp?) has just been issued for Albert Brookes for his newly-launched, pro-islam comedy roadshow. Alas, the irony of it all. (at)
Part of the ransom money alleged to have been paid by the German government to win the freedom of Iraq hostage Susanne Osthoff last month was found on Osthoff after her release, the German magazine Focus said on Saturday. Without citing its sources, Focus said officials at the German embassy in Baghdad had found several thousand U.S. dollars in the 43-year-old German archaeologist's clothes when she took a shower at the embassy shortly after being freed. The serial numbers on the bills matched those used by the government to pay off Osthoff's kidnappers, the magazine said.
Efforts to contact Osthoff for comment through her mother and a friend failed. A spokeswoman at the German Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the report. The German government is known to have paid ransoms for hostages in the past, but has refused to comment on whether it did so for Osthoff.
Speculation about the circumstances of her kidnapping and release has swirled in the German media since the German government announced on December 18 that she was free. Two days after her release, the German government freed a Hizbollah member jailed for life in 1985 for the murder of a U.S. Navy diver. Berlin has denied a connection between the two events. Osthoff herself caused a stir when she said in an interview at the end of December that she did not believe her kidnappers were criminals.
#11
Everything about this affair, from the "kidnapping" to her "release" to the Germans setting a killer free despite a valid and well-known long-standing extradition request to the bizarro hooded TV interview to the aftermath and revelations such as this, stinks beyond belief.
A prostitute who has had a sex change has escaped caning for drug dealing in Singapore after a doctor confirmed her new gender, the Straits Times reports. The confusion arose because Mongkon Pusuwan, from Thailand, was identified as a man - her original gender - in her passport, the paper reported. A man could have faced up to 15 strokes of the cane, but women are exempt.
Mongkon Pusuwan pleaded guilty to charges including cocaine trafficking was sentenced to six years in jail. She underwent a sex change from man to woman 10 years ago, the Straits Times said. But her fate had been uncertain for weeks while the court waited for a medical report confirming her new gender.
She was arrested in December and charged with trafficking 1.52 grams of cocaine and 2.5 grams of ketamine. A larger amount of drugs in her possession could have earned her the death penalty.
To mark the Timkat festival, tens of thousands of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians march through the streets carrying replicas of the Arc of the Covenant, which they believe is kept safe in northern Ethiopia, reports the AP news agency.
"I don't really know what was happening to me. I was shot by the police twice, one on my stomach and one on my throat," Wubishet Solomon, 16, told the AP news agency.
He said he was listening to religious music when the shooting started. ...
A Danish fashion firm is to sell T-shirts inspired by rebel fighters, with proceeds to go to militant groups. The T-shirts have as logos the initials of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The firm, Fighters and Lovers, says it will donate 5 euros (£3) for each T-shirt it sells.
The Colombian government has protested to the Danish authorities over the sale of the T-shirts. "Financing terrorist groups is unacceptable and goes against all the international norms," Colombian Foreign Minister Carolina Barco told private Caracol Radio on Friday. "Yesterday our ambassador contacted the Danish government, we sent a protest note and have demanded an explanation."
The designers say Palestianian militant Leila Khaled and Colombian rebel leader Jacobo Arenas were among their inspirations. Money from the sale of the T-shirts will help finance Farc radio stations in Colombia and a graphics studio in the Palestinian territories.
So that other money can be used to buy guns and ammo.
The firm's website warns that purchasers "might experience legal problems because of US or EU 'anti-terrorist' legislation, outlawing financial support to organisations labelled as 'terrorists', including the PFLP and the Farc". Under Danish legislation introduced in 2002, anyone found guilty of directly or indirectly financing terrorist groups can be jailed for up to 10 years.
Fighters and Lovers spokesman Bobby Schultz told AFP news agency he was unconcerned. "We are absolutely not worried about being dragged to court and sentenced. It's our customers who decide to buy our T-shirts and support these groups," he said.
Standard dodge 101.
"And we have the right to fight for something, for justice or the right to education, which Farc and the PLFP are fighting for."
And the right to sell drugs, and the right to gun down anyone they don't like.
"We mourn, but honor the warriors who have given of their lives in the field of battle. We embrace their spirit, for they are our very breath of life. . .
Throughout time, American Indians have had to defend themselves and their way of life, American Indian warriors have a long tradition of protecting their families, tribe and nation . . ."
"By tradition, American Indian people have always embraced their warriors upon their return from battle, Embraced them in heart, embraced them in spirit .
"Great Spirit, we ask of you to receive our warriors."
#1
Semper Fi, Marine. I wish I had adequate words to thank you with. May we as a country live up to the obligations that the sacrifice of our warriors places upon us!
Posted by: mac ||
01/21/2006 13:51
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#2
This world is the worse for Cpl. Brett Lundstrom's absence, but the Hereafter will be the better for his presence. Let us hope to be worthy of the honour of being protected by such as he. thanks for posting this, OldSpook.
Screwball continues to build the case VDH notes in his opinion piece today. It's a drip-drip-drip attack on the legitimacy of Israel, and I suspect it will work with the Europeans to immobilize them.
DAMASCUS - In a new attack on the existence of Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has challenged Europe to take back the Jews who emigrated to Israel, adding that no Jews would remain in Israel if Europe were to open its doors.
Ahmadinejad delivered the challenge after arriving in Syria for a two-day visit on Thursday. Addressing Europe, he asked: "Would you open the doors of your own countries to these (Jewish) immigrants so that they could travel to any part of Europe they chose?"
"Would you offer the necessary guarantees that you would provide for their security when they came to your countries and not allow another anti-Semitic wave in Europe?" he added in an apparent reference to recent attacks on Jewish cemeteries and properties in European states.
If there's anyone who would know anti-Semitism, of course, it's Screwball.
In his comments in the Syrian capital, which Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Friday, Ahmadinejad forecast that the West would not answer the questions he had posed but would instead accuse him of "talking against global peace."
He said Europe should welcome Jewish people to prove its sincerity in supporting people's freedoms. He added he was confident that no Jews would remain in Israel if European countries allowed them to immigrate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006
11:54 ||
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#1
This AHitler-nejad guy needs some 9mm brain surgery, and soon.
Follow up on: US Army Denies Honor Guard Weapons
U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, DFL-Chisholm, announced Friday that he has cleared the way for American Legion groups to reinforce their dwindling ranks at veterans' funerals with family auxiliary groups. Oberstar said that after he made a plea to the U.S. Army, the Defense Department reversed a policy that prohibited legion members' spouses, children and grandchildren from firing ceremonial rifles at funerals.
The issue came to light last month after the head of the Duluth Combined Honor Guard objected to the Army's refusal to allow him to supplement his volunteers with the adult children of veterans. The Army had a policy that prohibited nonveteran members from firing theM-1 rifles, which the Defense Department provides. However, Army officials determined this week that the entire American Legion family of organizations, including the Sons of the American Legion and the Ladies Auxiliary, can perform the duty, according to Oberstar's office.
John Marshall, captain of the Duluth honor guard, told the News Tribune in December that the Army considered it a liability issue. Marshall said if something didn't change soon, the Duluth group, which includes the Veterans of Foreign Wars, would run short of volunteers and may be unable to honor the up to a dozen requests they receive each week to perform at veterans' funerals.
Oberstar's staff approached the Army Donations Program with Marshall's concerns. Marshall received a letter Friday from Ed Wolverton, chief of the program, notifying him of the decision. Oberstar said it will have a national impact. In 1999, Congress passed a law requiring all eligible veterans to receive full military honors at their funerals. "As the U.S. population ages, we are faced with the reality that approximately 1,800 American veterans die every day," Oberstar said in a news release. "As a result, American Legion posts are stretched thin to provide enough personnel to give the veterans the time-honored ceremonies that they earned during their lifetime."
Department of Defense officials could not be reached for comment.
The Duluth Combined Honor Guard performed at about 200 funerals in 2005. Only about 20 of the honor guard's 30 members are fully active, and the group tries to get 10 people to each service. "I'm very happy that they came to the right decision," Marshall said Friday evening from the American Legion Post 71 in West Duluth. "The bottom line is, the honor guards and veterans service organizations are the ones picking up the slack yet again. The government makes a lot of promises but doesn't always back them up."
Marshall said he's already received pledges of support from about 20 SAL members. Among them is Don Johnson Jr., 26, of Duluth who said he was discharged from the Army because of a detached retina. "I'd love to do it," Johnson said. "I appreciate the opportunity."
The H5N1 avian influenza virus can survive for more than a month in bird droppings in cold weather and for nearly a week even in hot summer temperatures, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
When people become infected with bird flu, they get a high fever and pneumonia very quickly, according to an updated factsheet from the WHO...
The new factsheet incorporates the most recent findings on the avian flu virus, which WHO says is causing by far the worst outbreak among both birds and people ever recorded.
It has been found from South Korea, across Southeast Asia, into Turkey, Ukraine and Romania. It has infected 149 people and killed 80, according to the WHO figures, which do not include the most recent deaths and infections in Turkey. Bird droppings may be a significant source of its spread to both people and birds, the WHO said.
"For example, the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus can survive in bird feces for at least 35 days at low temperature (4 degrees C or 39 degrees F)," the WHO site reads.
"At a much higher temperature (37 degrees C or 98.6 degrees F), H5N1 viruses have been shown to survive, in fecal samples, for six days."
Poultry, especially those kept in small backyard flocks, are the main source of the virus.
"These birds usually roam freely as they scavenge for food and often mingle with wild birds or share water sources with them. Such situations create abundant opportunities for human exposure to the virus, especially when birds enter households or are brought into households during adverse weather, or when they share areas where children play or sleep," WHO says.
H5N1 has different qualities from seasonal flu, the WHO said.
"The incubation period for H5N1 avian influenza may be longer than that for normal seasonal influenza, which is around 2 to 3 days. Current data for H5N1 infection indicate an incubation period ranging from 2 to 8 days and possibly as long as 17 days," it said.
"Initial symptoms include a high fever, usually with a temperature higher than 38 degrees C (100.4 degrees F), and influenza-like symptoms. Diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, chest pain, and bleeding from the nose and gums have also been reported as early symptoms in some patients."
And with H5N1 infection, all patients have developed pneumonia, and usually very early on the the illness, the WHO said.
"On present evidence, difficulty in breathing develops around five days following the first symptoms. Respiratory distress, a hoarse voice, and a crackling sound when inhaling are commonly seen."
There is bloody sputum, it said.
"Another common feature is multiorgan dysfunction, notably involving the kidney and heart," WHO said.
The WHO recommends using Tamiflu, Roche AG's flu drug known generically as oseltamivir, as soon as possible to treat bird flu.
WHO stresses that H5N1 remains mostly a disease of birds, with tens of millions infected in two years.
"For unknown reasons, most cases have occurred in rural and periurban households where small flocks of poultry are kept. Again for unknown reasons, very few cases have been detected in presumed high-risk groups, such as commercial poultry workers, workers at live poultry markets, cullers, veterinarians, and health staff caring for patients without adequate protective equipment," it adds.
"Also lacking is an explanation for the puzzling concentration of cases in previously healthy children and young adults."
#1
In the early stages of a flu epidemic as many as 80% of cases are children and they seem to be the primarily early stage vector. So getting a high proportion of children is not unusual and indicative of human to human clusters that then die out, presumably because the virus is not infectious enough to sustain its transmission outside groups of susceptible children. However the clusters in turkey do seem to be getting larger, perhaps twenty or more infected in a single cluster.
As Western governments debate how to punish Iran for its nuclear activities, Bush administration and European officials said Thursday that they wanted to avoid causing hardship or more anti-Western resentment in the Iranian public.
The officials said that sanctions were not in the offing anytime soon, and they had ruled out any early steps toward an oil embargo or other sorts of sweeping economic punishments that would not only be opposed in Europe but would also cause internal suffering in Iran.
Iran's leverage over the West because of its oil exports and trade agreements are a fact of life that American and European officials said made sanctions in that area impractical. But these officials also argue the importance of not alienating Iranians who might support the West, causing them to rally around their leaders.
"A heavy-handed sanctions approach is going to hurt an awful lot of Iranians that we don't want to alienate," said a State Department official who is working on the issue. "We're going to have to be more surgical."
President Bush and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany discussed the need for "smart sanctions" in a meeting last week, according to a German diplomatic official, with Mrs. Merkel in particular pushing for care in not angering the Iranian public.
Various Western diplomats said Thursday that one way of punishing Iranian leaders would be to impose travel bans or freeze the assets of government officials in crucial ministries or business leaders close to the theocracy. Another step might involve acting against any businesses connected to Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. Iran has denied having any such program.
Bush administration officials cited as an example the Treasury Department's move on Wednesday to freeze assets of the director of Syrian military intelligence over that country's involvement in the assassination of Lebanese political figures.
The issue of penalties has become more pressing as a Feb. 2 emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency approaches. Western officials are planning to refer Iran for action at that meeting, and proposals will then be considered in the United Nations Security Council and referred back to the atomic agency.
Even as the notion of sweeping sanctions was being discounted, however, the administration also came under pressure on Thursday to move quickly toward such penalties. Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, a leading Democrat, announced that he would shortly introduce a resolution calling for just such a step.
"We have wasted valuable time, diverted resources and ignored this problem at our peril," Mr. Bayh said, noting that he supports a ban on gasoline sales to Iran and other economic punishments. "No one wants to forestall the need to use military force more than I do, but if we are to do so, we must act now."
As a practical matter, a resolution like the one Mr. Bayh put forward might be popular among senators but would also be unlikely to be voted on quickly, especially if the administration wants to hold off on punishments while it is in the final throes of negotiating with Europeans on what to do about Iran.
Andy Fisher, a spokesman for Senator Richard G. Lugar, an Indiana Republican who heads the Foreign Relations Committee, also said the committee generally favored waiting for the last stages of diplomacy to be played out before sanctions on Iran are considered.
Even then, Mr. Fisher said, sanctions should be imposed in a way that did not replicate what happened in Iraq in the 1990's, when a ban on oil exports caused huge suffering among Iraqis but also led to profits among Saddam Hussein and his clique as they evaded the sanctions through the black market.
In their discussions last week, Mrs. Merkel gave Mr. Bush a personal example of how such sanctions affected her fellow East Germans during the Communist years, the German diplomatic official said Thursday. She recalled that she and other Germans sympathetic to the West had no problem with Western actions that punished Communist leaders but that "if we ran out of oranges or bananas, then we didn't like it."
Even attempts to put pressure on the Soviet Union by banning their participation in the 1980 Olympics were unpopular among sympathetic Germans, Mrs. Merkel was said to have told Mr. Bush.
The president's reaction was not known, but an administration official said a ban on World Cup participation was not being considered. Indeed, administration officials have maintained that permitting Iranian athletes or musicians to travel to the West should be encouraged, to help open Iran to outside influences, encourage defections and lead eventually to internal demands for change. "The focus on smart sanctions makes sense because they work the best," said Patrick Clawson, deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Big economic sanctions would not only be difficult to get, but Iran has vast foreign reserves from its oil revenues, so they can ride out what gets thrown at them."
Mr. Clawson, who has written extensively about Iran, said Iranian leaders were acutely sensitive to being diplomatically isolated so that travel bans and asset freezes "offer some pretty good prospects." A side benefit of such smaller sanctions, he said, is that "what might be easier to achieve would also be more effective."
American and European experts on Iran say corruption is a major problem and many Iranian leaders have foreign bank accounts, though they are in Europe and not the United States. Eventually, if negotiations fail to stop Iran from enriching uranium or taking other steps opposed by the West, European countries might act against those accounts, various diplomats said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/21/2006
01:52 ||
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#1
I am for total commitment, but I forsee a precision attack on the infamous $2,000,000,000 monument to Ayatoilet Khomeni, combined with threats to Qom. That would discredit the leaders who have been proclaiming "angelic" protection. The resulting polarization could lead to open revolt in the North and East. Once a provisional government was formed, the US could recognize same and play the same intervention role as the NVA in the Vietnam conflict. However, the Russians and Chinese would probably successfully pressure regime change before open US intervention.
However, none of the above can possibly happen until Bush does a 180 degree turn on his attitude to Secularism. Islam means Submission means dictatorship.
#2
Doesn't matter what, doesn't matter where, you always navigate back to your BDS baseline. If you were balanced, if it wasn't coated in your mental illness... but you're not and it is. So no one listens to you. It's beyond your control - we understand, that's part of the syndrome.
ON topic, the efforts to focus actions specifically against the theocracy, wherever possible, makes sense -- there will be an "after". Byah's playing media whore with an eye to the calendar, he has to beef up his "profile", and making sure his ass is covered so he can play either side, "after".
#3
With the notable exceptions of Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller, nothing any Democrat says on national security can be taken at face value. They're like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown. Their support will evaporate as soon as it isn't the wildly popular thing to do because they were never doing anything but posturing. Of course, one can understand why they would be against helping to provide national security; they're one of the major dangers to the country!
Posted by: mac ||
01/21/2006 8:31
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#4
Keep in mind the worst case scenario of maybe a million or more Iranians dead. There's the hardship we most want to avoid.
#5
I don't think this was a "good faith" proposal. That is, the administration knows that we are talking about nuclear brinksmanship, here. Now is not the time to sound like John Kerry is doing the negotiating for us, unless we are just diplomatically treading water.
So, what are they really up to? They know that no sanctions at all will be permitted by China, most likely Russia and France. But by talking sanctions, what are they really doing?
My estimation is that the adminstration is just delaying while building up our defensive and offensive capability, but very discreetly.
They have long since notified manufacturers of "surge" needs in production for certain equipment and supplies, that will take months and months to deliver.
Pentagon contingency plans will probably have increased by an order of magnitude from those that were used for Iraq, incorporating a lot of the advanced battlefield systems that have evolved since then.
Most of all, the concept is one of the "counterpunch"; in which we literally have to wait until Iran commits an official "act of war" against us. Only then will we be free to respond overwhelmingly, and with such intensity that their ability to resist will collapse in short order.
It is a dangerous technique, and more than anything else it means that you must counter your attacker's first blow completely--it must not degrade your counterattack at all.
In Iran's case, it means that we must assume that we can take out three salvos of 30-40 missiles, nuclear and conventional. A 100% shoot down of as many as 120 missiles, that are trying to attack several different targets simultaneously.
If at all possible, we need to plot as many missile launch sites as we can ahead of time, and with their first "missle-alert-launch" (pre-launch), we launch our own missiles to take them out before they become airborne.
#6
Sanctions are a diplomat's game. The don't work on Cuba, they don't work on North Korea, they didn't work on Saddam... At best, they buy time to prepare an attack. At worst, they buy time for our enemies to prepare to be attacked. In this case, they buy us time so that Israel will have to perform the attack and, if that spirals out of control, then we do the "cleanup," wiping the Iranian leadership and military off the map.
If Israel attacks Iran, then Iran can only attempt to retaliate against Israel, otherwise they will force our hand to protect ourselves and the region/oil and we will be justified in doing so. And Iran probably cannot effectively retaliate against Israel. Thus our interests are best served by playing sanctions games and other delaying games until Israel strikes -- all the while being ready to follow up on Israel's strike.
#8
Moose, your scenario could be right. I do think the political situation in our country is such that GWB can't make the first overt move.
What I do know is that sanctions aren't going to work, even if Russia/China allow implementation. The Iranians are wise to it already, and as we saw with Iraq, sanctions merely enable a new wealthy class. And all the leftist yahoos (but I repeat myself) will whinge about the starving Iranian children with the birth defects from the DU that we might use.
While building a counter-punch, getting a discrete surge ready, putting together the diplomatic shell that is needed, my hope is that we're identifying and building an Iranian community that can rise up and help take down the Mad Mullahs™. I continue to be concerned that a big military strike by us will lead to a burst of mis-guided patriotism by the average Iranian and thus shore up the MMs™. Far better for us to gave them a shove and let a 'Patriotic Front for the Liberation of Iran' or some such to knock them over.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006 11:54
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#9
Thinking of a post-war scenario, a unified Iran is a problem to the Middle East, for the same reason that Russia is a problem for Europe. It is too large and inherently powerful to "belong".
For this reason, unlike Iraq, it might be better for Iran to be modestly, but intelligently, partitioned.
As an example, the Kurdish northwest could de facto join "greater Kurdistan", while de jure becoming part of Iraq.
The southwest Arabs could also join Iraq, which would balance nicely, their being 60% Sunni and 40% Shiite. Though this would deprive Iran of much of its oil revenue, but it has many other resources it could develop instead.
To the southeast, Baluchistan is probably too chaotic to become independant; it might instead be absorbed into Pakistan on condition that the Paks restore federal order to it, with no autonomy. Baluchistan has many things Pakistan desires, so it would be no great burden to them.
This would leave Iran reduced in stature, but far more able to be a member of the Middle East, rather than a dominant and oppressive force in that region.
The regional advantage to this is in the formation of a Middle East Common Market, for which a free and democratic Iran, along with equally free and democratic Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, and several others would be more than able to compete with the EU in several ways.
#10
Syria first, Iran for the next administration.
This need not play out as Iran vs America, The Thrilla in Hormuz. It is not difficult to imagine Iran supplying Iraq or Afghanistan a cassus belli, the response to which we would be happy to support. As Iran is putting Hamas in charge of Palestine, Iraqi Kurds could work with their brethren in Northern Iran. I would imagine lots of this sort of thing will go on as the public is provided UN focused diplomatic eyewash.
The Iranians are no more likely to use their nukes to attack us than were the Soviets. Their only value is to bully thier neighbors and prevent us from attacking. As long as we stay in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Iran's behaviour is likely to assure that will be a long time, and we get rid of the Syrian regime, the Iranians are contained.
#11
I am tending toward the good doctor on this. Sanctions are nothing. They do not work, and with oil money, there will always be a way to thwart the sanctions. I'm sure that the Chicoms or Russians would at the very least help the Iranians.
The US is divided, so an overt military buildup and strike now would be a difficult thing to pull off. lwe should still work and plan on the fast track toward it. We can expect nothing from the EUniks, except more of Chiraq's nuclear blather, and he won't act until France takes a major hit or two, so he sez.
Well, the clock is ticking and we are running out of time. Iran won't have plutonium in the near future unless they buy it from somewhere else, as Bushehr will not be on line. However, they will have a uranium bomb, if their UF6 centrifuges keep humming away underground.
We need to bolster up and support the opposition, and we also, either direct or through proxies, cripple their cash machine, which means electricity and oil production and transportation infrastructure. The MMs take the cash and ignore operations and maintenance costs and upgrades until they absolutely have to. So basically they need to have their oil interrupted, enough to keep them paranoid and occupied. Who knows, if it is done right, they can turn suspicions inward and have purges and devour themselves.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/21/2006 13:19
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#12
haven't we had sanctions on Iran since...oh...1979?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2006 14:00
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#13
Had President Dhimmi Carter vaporized the city of Qom in late November of 1979, none of this would be necessary.
#14
#13: Had President Dhimmi Carter vaporized the city of Qom in late November of 1979, none of this would be necessary.
Posted by: doc|| 2006-01-21 15:10
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Doc:
A nuclear-armed Iran, with its terrorist associates in Syria, Southern Lebanon, and Gaza, is Jimmuh Chartur's lasting legacy and gift to the world.
#15
No need for them to ever attack us. Just keep rattling the saber, oil goes up, they make more money, our economy gets hurt, they win. As long as thier are people speculating in the oil market, these guys just need to get us talking about war, they will be sure to raise the price.
#16
Let the price of oil go through the roof: It will help to ween us off the only thing that Islamic countries have to sell besides terror. We're already seeing a lot more interest in alternatives to muslim oil. Many of us would be happy to pay extra for alternatives. California recently passed a law promoting a huge increase in the number of solar panels to be installed, proposal is for 20% of state power to be solar in 12 years...
I think you'd see a lot less interest in Whabiism and radical shiaism if they ran out of money...
#17
As Western governments debate how to punish Iran for its nuclear activities, Bush administration and European officials said Thursday that they wanted to avoid causing hardship or more anti-Western resentment in the Iranian public.
Iraqi forces foiled a plot to mount an attack with gunmen and suicide bombers against a senior Shiite Islamist leader coinciding with the release of election results, a senior Iraqi military source said on Friday.
Speaking hours before results were issued showing continued domination by the Shiite Islamist Alliance, the source said several suspects had confessed to a role in a plot by Sunni Arab rebels to attack the Baghdad headquarters of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a key figure in the Alliance.
"About 50 people, including several suicide bombers, were going to take part in the attack just as the election results were being announced," the source said, showing Reuters official documents to support his statement.
A political source said he was aware of a threat warning and said operations against the plotters were still continuing.
Such a mass assault on a heavily guarded political compound would be unusual, although US military commanders have warned of such a threat after large-scale frontal attacks on Iraqi police and army bases over the past year or so.
The military source said the plotters had received training in Hawija near Kirkuk in the north and were counting on back-up from other groups in towns north and east of Baghdad.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/21/2006
01:50 ||
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An Arizona doctor and Muslim cleric who returned after performing Haj were taken into custody on arrival by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), suspecting them of having links with the Tableeghi Jamaat.
According to a report published on Thursday by the Arizona Republic newspaper, Nadeem Hassan, 41, called his father Zaheer Hasnain from Kennedy International Airport in New York, saying that he was in the custody of immigration officials. A few days earlier, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services had revoked Dr Hassan’s right to work and travel inside the country based primarily on his ties to Tableeghi Jamaat, which the Department of Homeland Security has identified as a terrorist organisation.
Dr Hassan, a gastroenterologist at Maricopa Medical Centre and former chief executive at the Masjid el-Noor Mosque in Mesa, has worked for many years as a coordinator with Jamaat al Tabligh (JT). The group has not been designated a terrorist organisation by the government.
However, reports the newspaper, in paperwork rejecting Dr Hassan’s application for a green card, Homeland Security described JT as “a terrorist organisation (that)... provides material support... to members of a designated terrorist organisation – Al Qaeda – and provides the same types of material support... to an undesignated terrorist organisation - the Taliban”.
Dr Hassan was informed in writing: “You are found to have engaged in terrorist activity by providing material support to an undesignated terrorist organisation.” Homeland Security and FBI representatives declined on Wednesday to discuss Dr Hassan’s case. The doctor’s father protested that his son is not a terrorist and JT “has nothing to do with the Taliban or Al Qaeda. It is a totally god-fearing organisation”.
According to Arizona Republic daily, Dr Hassan’s Phoenix immigration lawyer, Eric Bjotvedt, said that he had obtained “advance parole” papers approving his travel from the US for Haj, while the green-card application was pending. However, while Dr Hassan was still overseas, the Citizenship and Immigration Services rejected his permanent residency permit. Because the doctor was outside the country, his lawyer said, he had lost many legal rights afforded to immigrants who are inside the United States.
A report obtained by the newspaper says that Hassan provided false information on application forms and failed to acknowledge his role with JT. The agency’s findings are supported by an affidavit from a Phoenix FBI agent, who wrote: “The JT has been tied to several recent high-profile terrorism cases. John Walker Lindh travelled to Pakistan with Tablighi missionaries after converting to Islam. Once in Pakistan, he signed up for a military training camp and fought for the Taliban.”
It is interesting that the FBI affidavit at no point directly identifies JT as a terrorist group, but says that the movement “is vulnerable to being used by Islamic extremists as a cover to recruit members to engage in acts of terrorism against the United States”. Because of that, the agent concluded, “the FBI is unable to rule out the possibility that Hassan poses a threat to national security”.
The Arizona newspaper said that Al Gallmann, acting district director in Phoenix for the Centre for Immigration Studies, named JT as a terrorist organisation and branded Dr Hassan as a supporter. Gallmann said that Dr Hassan had failed to disclose former leadership positions with Momin Education and Cultural Services of Arizona and East Valley Masjid Inc.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/21/2006
01:49 ||
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An Islamic boarding school in Indonesia, accused of being a 'school for terrorists' has gone on the offensive, by inviting ambassadors, academics and religious leaders to a seminar this weekend entitled "Jihad and Terrorism" during which some former pupils will defend the school's reputation. The Al-Mukmin Ngruki pesantren, in Solo, Central Java, was co-founded by Abu Bakar Bashir, considered the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the terrorist formation that wants to create an Islamic state or caliphate in South East Asia.
âAnyone who defines Ngruki as an indoctrination centre for future terrorists has a superficial vision of the problem" said one of the seminar's speakers, Anab Afifi, a former pupil and now university lecturer in Jakarta.
Terrorism experts consider Ngruki a 'school for terrorists' and a problem that must be resolved in the struggle against Islamic extremism.
Their reasoning is simple.
It is widely known that most of the teachers in the school endorse the idea of an Islamic state in Indonesia and some do not recognise the authority of the civilian government in Jakarta. Some 30 terror suspects who have been arrested or who died in bomb attacks in the country in recent years studied at Ngruki.
Anab, who will present a paper entitled "Ngruki in the middle of Global Terrorism Issues", argues that branding it a terrorist breeding ground is mistaken and indicates a limited vision of the problem.
His reasoning is equally simple.
"Most of Ngruki alumni involved in bombings left the school 10 years before their activities. If Ngruki really was a breeding ground of terrorists it would not take that long, it will take only one or two years after it founded in 1974" Anab argued.
"They lived, experienced and studied outside Ngruki for a long time before they conducted the bombings" added Anan, who now runs a communication consultancy and teaches at the Mercubana university in the capital.
According to Anab the most important factor in converting former pupils in Indonesia and elsewhere was Hambali, the operational chief of Jemmah Islamiyah, arrested in Thailand in August 2003 and currently believed to be in an American secret detention centre, probably in Jordan.
"Hambali was the main actor in the making of most Indonesian students convicted of terrorism offences. The series of bombing in the Philippines and Indonesia were clearly managed by him since he was also a very capable merchant of the ideas of Osama (bin Laden)."
Anab makes the point that for the thirty students who embraced a terrorist vocation, thousands more who studied there have perfectly normal lives.
âAround 1,800 students attend Ngruki each year and from its foundations some 15,000 youngsters have attended the pesantren" he noted.
He says the school finances itself mainly from the 300,000 ruppiah (30 Euro) monthly fee paid by the students rather than with donations from fundamentalist sources.
He points out that the Ngruki curriculum is based on the directives of the government and those of Islamic colleges and that in 2003, a delegation from the religious affairs ministry surveyed Ngruki and did not find evidence of radical teachings.
However, recent research by the Jakarta-based International Center for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP) in 20 Muslim schools in West Java showed that terrorism allegations apart, students and clerics firmly believe there is no compromising on religion and tolerance should be limited to sociopolitical and economic issues.
"Their unbending view of religious right and wrong means no uttering of a Merry Christmas greeting to Christians, or any other expression of acceptance toward a faith other than Islam" reported the Jakarta Post.
In terms of implementing sharia law, the Jakarta Post reports, the responses were split, with some advocating the establishment of an Islamic state, while others thought creating strong morality and education were more important.
Although they deny the claims they are a breeding ground for terrorists, pesantren are fertile ground for conservative, intolerant views of other faiths, the study reveals.
A whole team of religious leaders, hired by the Jakarta government for its Task Force against Terrorism, immediately after the suicide bomb attacks in Bali last October, has said there should be more direct control over what is taught in the various Islamic schools across the archipelago, including Ngruki.
Anab studied at Ngruki for six years before embarking on a computing degree at the Pembangunan National University in the capital. Today he recalls with pleasure his education at Ngruki, though he has no formal ties with the school.
"Ngruki teaches the Jihad values, but not as a means of legitimating terror or the fighting non-combatant targets. Jihad is defined as leading our life in providing religious services whatever our role in society" he said. "Every one of us is Jihadist, when we serve our life for better things based on true faith (aqida)" he added.
Around 1,000 former pupils are expected to attend this weekend's seminar, including some coming from abroad. Ambassadors have also been invited but few have confirmed their presence. Interior minister Muhammad Maruf will open the event and one of the keynote speakers will be Maruf Amin, the head of the fatwa section of the Indonesian Ulemas Council. The council last year issued a non-binding fatwa against terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/21/2006
01:48 ||
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#1
"The council last year issued a non-binding fatwa against terrorism."
Three members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group surrendered voluntarily to the military in Jolo island in the southern Philippines, officials said Friday.
Officials said the trio -- Amin Julhari Jarad, 40; Mansul Nusuri Abdul, 35; and Julpadal Nusuri Pandithi, 24 -- handed over two automatic rifles and ammunition to Marine Battalion Landing Team 9 in Patikul town Thursday, said Maj. Gamal Hayudini, chief information officer of the Southern Command.
"They are still being investigated in Jolo," Hayudini said.
A military dossier on the three men implicated them in the kidnapping of trader Ramon Inoferio on Jolo island in November 2004. Inoferio was rescued by government soldiers four months later in Maligay village in Patikul town.
The trio was also linked to many attacks on patrolling soldiers on the island.
Their surrender came barely a month before the Philippines and the United States are to hold joint anti-terror training exercises in Jolo, about 950 kilometers south of Manila.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/21/2006
01:46 ||
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Save this one, the Looney Left is going to keep bringing it up again later ...
US Vice President Dick Cheney has said he does not believe there are close relations between Iran and Al-Qaeda, seeming to distance himself from some earlier US administration charges.
"I think you've got to remember that the Al-Qaeda organization is primarily made up of radical Sunni Islamists, of course, and the Iranian regime is Shia-dominated -- Shia. So there's not a natural fit there," Cheney said in a telephone interview with the Hugh Hewitt Show, released by the White House.
"That doesn't mean that there haven't been relationships over the years, but I don't believe it's close. I haven't seen any evidence of that," Cheney added on the heels of new broadcast threats by Osama bin Laden.
The George W. Bush administration on several occasions has accused Iran of supporting terrorism and Al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/21/2006
01:41 ||
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#1
"they're just welcome guests and useful tools, but we haven't actually swapped spit with AQ, I mean, have you seen their oral hygiene?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2006 1:52
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#2
The "grand deferrer" forgot one of the basic tennants of Islam: "An infidel enemy of your enemy is also your enemy."
#4
re: Cheney, 'Deferrer' he most certainly is not.
The threat from Iran comes via their support of
Hamas and Hizboallah, ratcheted up x10 by the open threats to Israel from the new guy/old radical. Cheney is absolutely right to distinguish that from al Qaeda - for one thing, it implicitly points out that alQ aren't the only nuts claiming to have Allah's mandate to conquer the world.
At some point, if we are lucky, the internal contradictions and power struggles in the Middle East will cause both the MMs and the Salafists/Wahabis to implode - quite likely, by slitting each others' throats.
But only if we get out of their way and don't stop that by treating them as one monolithic enemy.
And if by 'deferrer' you mean Bush, all I can say is that it's easy to talk a tough game when the lives of millions of people aren't at stake in what you say and do.
Al-Qaida's second-in-command attended a meeting last year at the home that was hit by U.S. missiles last week in a strike believed to have killed at least four of the terror network's operatives, Pakistani intelligence officials said Saturday.
The latest revelation came a day after thousands of Pakistani protesters took to the streets, chanting ``Death to America'' and calling for holy war as outrage persisted over the airstrike that devastated a remote border village.
Ayman al-Zawahri, the apparent target of the U.S. attack Jan. 13, met his deputy, Abu Farraj al-Libbi, in Damadola last year, the security official said.
Al-Libbi, a Libyan, had confessed to Pakistani interrogators after his capture in May 2005 he met al-Zawahri at Damadola, near the Afghan border, earlier in the year. Al-Libbi was captured after a shootout in another remote hamlet in northwestern Pakistan.
Another high-ranking intelligence official confirmed al-Libbi's account of the meeting, which took place a few months before his arrest. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
``His statement was later verified and we were able to confirm that al-Zawahri visited Damadola,'' the first official said.
The home was among three destroyed in the pre-dawn airstrike Jan. 13, which killed 13 villagers.
U.S. and Pakistani intelligence - with the aid of local tribesmen and Afghans - began monitoring the home after al-Libbi's confession, the officials said.
Pakistani authorities suspect al-Qaida operatives had gathered last week at Damadola to plan attacks early this year in Afghanistan and Pakistan, when the meeting was torn apart by U.S. missiles, another intelligence official said.
Officials, all speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, believe at least four foreign militants also may have died, including an al-Qaida explosives and chemical weapons expert and a son-in-law of al-Zawahri.
The Egyptian-born al-Zawahri was believed to have skipped the meeting and was not killed.
Despite the widespread protests calling for Musharraf's ouster following the Jan. 13 missile attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said his nation stands behind the United States and its fight against terrorists.
``As regards the relations between Pakistan and the United States, or our conviction about fighting terrorism, there is no question that Pakistan is one of the countries which has done the most because we believe terrorism is no solution to any problems,'' he said.
Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or United Action Forum, an opposition Islamic coalition, has organized a series of anti-U.S. protests across the country, the latest on Friday.
The largest was held in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province where Damadola is located.
Several thousand people marched from two mosques chanting ``Jihad (holy war) is our way'' and burning effigies of President Bush. Smaller demonstrations were staged in Lahore and the volatile border town of Wana. No violence was reported.
``We will keep fighting jihad with our pens and our voices. If there is need, we will fight with other means,'' Shahid Shamsi, a spokesman for the religious alliance, told The Associated Press when asked if it was advocating armed struggle.
None of the speakers at the Peshawar rally referred to the audiotape message released Thursday by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who said he was planning more attacks in the United States but also called for an undefined truce.
Radical Islamic groups oppose Musharraf for supporting Washington in the fight against terrorism, including the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan that ousted the Taliban for harboring bin Laden and his terror network.
As the domestic backlash over the missile strike continued, Pakistani authorities said they were still investigating the identities and fate of those meeting at Damadola.
Four or five al-Qaida militants are believed to have died in the missile strike, including Midhat Mursi, the Egyptian master bomb maker who is on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists, and al-Qaida leaders of attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The government, however, says they are still looking for the graves.
Several other militants are thought to have survived.
Aziz, the prime minister, said Friday no ``tangible evidence'' had been found so far of al-Qaida operatives.
The intelligence official identified one of the survivors as a foreigner of uncertain nationality, Abu Suleman. Pakistani officials accuse him of plotting attacks in their country and say authorities narrowly missed capturing him in two raids in Peshawar in the past two years.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/21/2006
01:37 ||
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Somebody please help me out here...
The strike is called a "pre-dawn" strike, yet I read that there was a dinner going on and also that a thousand people were gathered outside watching some plane(s) or drone(s) for a half hour. My take on this is that dinner guests sleep over and the thousand people were awakened by the blasts and were watching some post-strike reconnaissance plane(s). Concur?
Osama bin Laden has a book recommendation for you.
In the audiotape released Thursday, the al Qaeda leader said: "If you (Americans) are sincere in your desire for peace and security, we have answered you. And if (President) Bush decides to carry on with his lies and oppression, then it would be useful for you to read the book 'Rogue State.'"
That would be "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower," published in May 2000 with a new edition in November 2005. Its author is William Blum of Washington, D.C.
But bin Laden was mistaken about a quote he read that he attributed to the Introduction of "Rogue State." He actually read an excerpt from another of Blum's books, "Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire."
"He made a mistake, he got them mixed up," Blum said.
Blum has been speaking out against American foreign policy for nearly 40 years. He said he left a U.S. State Department job in 1967 because he opposed the Vietnam War, and has been writing and lecturing since then.
"'Rogue State' was inspired by the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999," Blum said in a telephone interview from his Connecticut Avenue apartment. "We were told it was an 'act of humanitarianism,' but I didn't believe that for a moment."
NATO conducted bombing raids in an attempt to halt ethnic cleansing in that region.
America has repeatedly used "bombings, invasions, torture and weapons of mass destruction," Blum said. "It's what we do."
Blum said he sees the 320-page "Rogue State" as "a mini-encyclopedia of the many kinds of unhumanitarian actions of U.S. foreign policy."
He heard about bin Laden's comments late Thursday afternoon, when transcripts started hitting the Internet.
"I was amazed and amused," Blum said. "It's good publicity for the book."
Blum described his view of bin Laden's war on America -- although, he added, "I've not been following him as an individual" through the years.
"He sees anti-American terrorist attacks as under the category of retaliation," Blum said. "In previous tapes he's used that word -- retaliation. I don't like what they do, but it's understandable intellectually."
If Americans read his book, "they would learn what bin Laden is talking about -- our whole sordid record of foreign policy," Blum said. "I think the book would help them understand why we are being attacked."
His other books include "Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II" and "Superpower Principals: U.S. Terrorism Against Cuba."
Blum and several other writers shared a Project Censored award in 1999 for writing articles about materials supplied by the U.S. to Iraq in the 1980s that enabled the country to develop chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Project Censored, founded in 1976 at Sonoma State University in California, says it honors "stories of social significance that have been overlooked, underreported or self-censored by the country's major national news media."
Bin Laden quoted Blum as writing: "If I were president, I would stop the attacks against the United States. First I would give an apology to all the widows and orphans and those who were tortured. Then I would announce that American interference in the nations of the world has ended once and for all."
Blum said he used those phrases in "Freeing the World to Death" and in other writings and speeches, but not in "Rogue State."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/21/2006
01:31 ||
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He must be sooooo proud.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2006 1:53
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Its a problem for most foreigners. They watch the proverbial shadows on the wall, in this case, the MSM, not understanding that what they see is not necessarily America. They get the crib notes done by some slacker in class and wonder why they fail the exam. Sometimes its just funny. Sometimes it is fatal. To those with the abilities to see cause and effect, they can adjust and make corrections. For those who can not the Americans will remain enigmatic.
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in banning.
Bin Laden Starts Book Club, Vows to Crush Oprah:
When Usama bin Laden, in his most recent threatening audiotape, recommended William Blumâs five year old book, The Rogue State, its sales rank on Amazon.com jumped from 209,000 to 20. That success has launched a new business for al Qaeda that could challenge the dominance of Oprah Winfrey in the book club industry.
Members of Usamaâs Book Club will receive personal recommendations from the charismatic leader, as well as the opportunity to review the clubâs latest featured selection every 30 days âat no risk to life or limb, as long as you keep the book and pay the invoice.â
...
âMy mission is to make this the biggest book club in the world and get people reading great books again,â said Mr. Bin Laden on a reel-to-reel tape recording released today. âThis is the first step in our ultimate plan to crush the billionaire imperialist infidel Oprah Winfrey, Allah be praised, and to take the reins of power myself as Americaâs media darling.â
(caught via Cracker Barrel Philosopher)
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2006 12:02
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America's "Brokeback Molehill" Tokyo Rose occasionally provides Bin Laden a lift:
#10
Shit-for-brains dept: UK Muslim fatwah against the "animal" George Galloway, the husband of a "palestinian" slut, and current contestant on "Big Brother." Reality shows are no substitute for a good beheading vid.
There are not enough names on a list of individuals and companies subject to U.N. sanctions because of associations with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the committee monitoring sanctions said Friday.
In a report on its activities in 2005, the committee urged all countries to submit more names to step up the fight against terrorism.
In July, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution expanding sanctions against al-Qaeda and the Taliban to their affiliates and splinter groups and clamping down on terrorist financing.
Sanctions require all 191 U.N. member states to impose a travel ban and arms embargo against Afghanistan's former Taliban leaders, Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda members and those "associated with" them, and to freeze their financial assets.
The list currently names 204 individuals associated with al-Qaeda.
"This is far too few," the committee said. "The effectiveness of the sanctions does not only depend on state implementation, but also by ensuring that all individuals and entities who should be on the list are in fact on it."
During the past three years, the committee received the names of 137 individuals and one entity to be added to the list, but decisions were still pending, in many cases because of insufficient identifying information or a clear statement of the connection to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
"In the international effort to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban and their associates it is of the greatest importance that there is a consensus among states about the gravity of the threat," the committee said.
It said states increasingly see the importance of making the sanctions effective, and more countries had submitted new names or improved information about those on the list.
Nonetheless, the report said, the sanctions had not achieved their "full potential."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/21/2006
01:25 ||
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OK, let's add:
New Orc Times,
Code Pink,
the ACLU,
MoveOn.org,
. . .
The broadcast of terror tapes on al Jazeera highlights a question that has haunted U.S. intelligence for a number of years now: How do these tapes find their way to the offices of the Qatari news channel, and why can't something be done to follow their trail to Osama bin Laden's doorstep?
This question remained largely unanswered until the arrest last May in Pakistan of Abu Faraj al Libbi, one of al Qaeda's operational commanders. Under intense interrogation, al Libbi revealed that Osama bin Laden's tapes â like his operational directives â are hand carried from courier to courier in a long and intricate route that involves several dozen "runners."
According to al Libbi, it takes six to 12 weeks of travel in the remote and inhospitable areas along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahri are still hiding. Based on this piece of intelligence, the Pakistani government succeeded in infiltrating parts of these courier networks in 2005.
But because of the extraordinary precautions taken by al Qaeda's messengers, the Pakistanis were unable to trace them back to either Zawahri or bin Laden.
The system involves each courier hand delivering the tape or the written message to another courier or location without knowing the courier's identity, the origin of the tape or message or its destination. It makes it almost impossible for intelligence agencies to roll up the entire network.
Some of these intermediaries are recruited among the thousands of travelling Muslim preachers who roam Pakistan's tribal and northern areas, usually on foot.
Analysts believe this system is still in place today, and may span several countries. According to a senior Pakistani intelligence source, the latest tape was hand delivered by an anonymous source to al Jazeera's Dubai bureau in the United Arab Emirates. The tapes are usually dropped off in an envelope at al Jazeera's offices in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
Many commentators suspect a "back channel" relationship between the news channel and the terrorist organization. In 2005, al Jazeera reporter Taysir Alluni, who had interviewed bin Laden in Afghanistan several weeks after 9/11, was sentenced by a Spanish court to seven years in prison for providing help to two al Qaeda operatives wanted in connection with the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
Despite this high-profile case, there is little evidence of any formal relationship, agreement or even sustained communication between al Jazeera and al Qaeda. And al Jazeera strongly denies it.
Osama bin Laden's use of the Qatari news channel likely has more to do with strategy than ideology. With its audience of 50 to 70 million viewers around the world, al Jazeera has emerged not only as the Muslim world's most-watched news outlet but as a powerful force driving political views of Muslims around the world.
By using al Jazeera to broadcast its messages, al Qaeda is simply borrowing the network's global reach to further its own, while making sure that the message will reach the audience with little alteration or editing, and no mistranslation.
This is especially key when bin Laden or Zawahri, as Western intelligence agencies report, wish to send covert messages to their operatives across the world.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/21/2006
01:23 ||
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But because of the extraordinary precautions taken by al Qaeda's messengers, the Pakistanis were unable to trace them back to either Zawahri or bin Laden.
BS! Give us a break please. Unwilling is the operative here.
Pakistani authorities suspect that Al Qaeda operatives had gathered last week to plan attacks early this year in Afghanistan and Pakistan when the meeting was torn apart by a US missile strike, an intelligence official said on Friday. While four Al Qaeda leaders are suspected killed in the attack, several others survived and are believed to have escaped, the Pakistani official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject. Pakistani authorities have said that the January 13 attack in the village of Damadola, Bajaur Agency, had targeted Al Qaeda No 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri, who was invited to the meeting, but failed to show. The blast killed 13 villagers, but Pakistani authorities believe at least four foreign militants died, possibly including an Al Qaeda explosives and chemical weapons expert and a relative, possibly the son-in-law of al-Zawahri. On Friday, the senior intelligence official said the Al Qaeda suspects had gathered to discuss ânew attacksâ in the coming months. The targets were believed to be in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said. Several Al Qaeda militants are believed to have escaped either before or after the attack, including Abu Suleman, the official said. He declined to say how many survived or who else might have fled, only confirming earlier reports that al-Zawahri was not there. Little is known about Suleman, but Pakistani officials accuse him of plotting attacks in their country and say authorities narrowly missed capturing him in two raids in Peshawar, where a pro-Taliban provincial government is in power. Another official in Peshawar said two pro-Taliban local clerics, Faqir Muhammad and Liaqat Ali, had left their homes in Damadola with some other people hours before the attacks. The two clerics returned to the site after the attack, and apparently removed four or five bodies, said the official, adding that the bodies were later buried in an inaccessible area. Officials were still looking for the graves, he added.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/21/2006
01:22 ||
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Bring in the cadaver dogs... diggg them suckers UP!
The suicide attacks that have struck Afghanistan in the past months are clearly the work of Al Qaeda and the Taliban fighters operating with foreign support, the Afghan foreign minister said on Thursday.
Abdullah Abdullah rejected a statement from a purported spokesman of the Taliban regime that the group was not behind a suicide blast on Monday. “Security incidents come from Al Qaeda or Taliban. They get some support from outside Afghanistan, people crossing the border from Pakistan,” Mr Abdullah said in an interview with AFP.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/21/2006
01:22 ||
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Just a day after Osama bin Laden resurfaced in a lengthy audiotape, a new recording by his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, appeared today, praising the "martyrs of holy war" in Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and elsewhere.
He read a poem honoring the "martyrs of jihad," or holy war, and dedicated it to "Muslim brothers everywhere, to the mujahedeen brothers in Islam's fortified borderlines against the Zionist-Crusader campaign in Palestine and Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya and to the lions chasing the crusaders' gangs and hired hands in Afghanistan's mountains and valleys and its wounded capital, Kabul."
"I am honored to present this mujahedeen poem, written by Maulai Muhibbulla al-Qandahari, who carried the pen and the sword and was known in the circles of scholars and the training camps and the battlefields of jihad," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/21/2006
01:21 ||
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Nothing in this tape suggests when it was made so Zawhiri's Death is still in play. It is possible that the appearance of these two tapes is a signal to other merry bands of thugs to perform their appointed tasks.
#2
...I remember another poem, read over the BBC one night in early June, 1944:
The long sobs of autumn's violins wound my heart with a monotonous languor.
Zawahiri reading poetry CANNOT be a good thing.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/21/2006 10:06
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What concerns me about the latest OBL tape is that it is part of muslim military custom, going back to the days of Saladin, to offer a truce before striking the enemy. Taking this into account, along with this latest audio tape of "poems" from Al-Zawahiri (a possible 'go time' signal for cells to implement their missions), tells me that something is in the works for AQ. This concerns me.
That said, once a conflict has begun, one only asks for a truce when they are losing, not when they are winning.
So the most troubling thing about all of this is the fact that we are winning the war against AQ, and we are winning big. They are but a speck of the force they were back on 9/11/01. They've been beaten down hard and their capabilities significantly diminished. They are a wounded and desperate animal on the verge of death. And if there is one thing I fear more than anything else, it is what a wounded and desperate animal might do when confronted with the inescapability of it's demise.
#4
I think it's not an accident that during the second world war, in 1944, the code message sent by the French service of the BBC to the resistance movement in France to warn them of the Normandy [D-Day] landings [of Allied troops] was two of the famous lines of [French poet Paul] Verlaine. 'The long sobs of autumn's violins wound my heart with a monotonous languor,'" de Villepin said.
#5
eltoroverde, one thing I fear more than anything else, it is what a wounded and desperate animal might do when confronted with the inescapability of it's demise
I agree with you. One thing that I think is too often underestimated is their collective desire to "bring it on" for devout religious reasons.
#6
Regarding the French resistance and WW2, another bit of trivia is that BBC broadcasts had as prelude, the signature notes of Beethoven's Fifth - ironic to be sure that a German composer would be heard on British radio. But looking further, the dot dot dot dash cadence had other significance in Morse - the Letter "V" ... for Victory. Quoting Paul Harvey - "And now you know the rest of the story.
London, 20 Jan. (AKI) - The poor quality of Osama bin-Laden's latest message - a audio-only recording with crackling voice-distorting static, may shed some light on the whereabouts of the fugitive Islamist leader. This contrasts sharply with the clear images and sound of a video released earlier this month showing al-Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri. "Firstly, it indicates the recordings were made in different places, and hence that the two men are not hiding out together" says Hani al-Sebai, director of London-based al-Maqrizi Institute for Historical Studies.
Next time use a Shure mic and TDK tape.
"The poor quality of bin Laden's recording suggests that from his hideaway, he doesn't have access to the same technology as al-Zawhairi. Also bin-Laden speaks in a hushed tones, which could mean he didn't want to be hear by those near him when the recording was made," al-Sebai who is an al-Qaeda expert told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Or that he's in advanced end-stage renal disease and isn't feeling too perky ...
US experts have declared the message, three minutes of which were first broadcast by pan-Arab network Al-Jazeera on Thursday, as authentic. In it, bin Laden refers to an alleged US plan to bomb Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, Qatar - allowing the message to be dated at no earlier than December 2005, the time when claims of the anti-Al-Jazeera plans first surfaced.
"Had it been an old recording we would have heard him reciting verses from the Koran and some generic threats and warnings, instead the fact that he talks about current events indicates that bin Laden intends to continue his struggle," says al-Sebai, a former Egyptian Jihad activist who spent time in a Cairo jail with al-Zawahiri in 1981.
Osama needs to read tomorrow's headlines from the Peshawar Times into the mic; then we'll believe it's current.
In the message the al-Qaeda leader threatens fresh attacks against the United States, but at the same time offers a conditional truce in exchange of a US troop withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Bin Laden wants to appear before the Muslim world as a man of peace, a man who is always searching for a peaceful solution to bring stabilty to the Middle East region, in contrast with the Western image of him as a terrorist" concluded al-Sebai.
Or al-Sebai could be blowing smoke, since all Osama's offered is a hudna, which every good Moose-Limb understands right away isn't the same thing as a truce or a peace.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006
01:11 ||
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In it, bin Laden refers to an alleged US plan to bomb Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, Qatar - allowing the message to be dated at no earlier than December 2005, the time when claims of the anti-Al-Jazeera plans first surfaced.
That's BS. I heard about the alleged "plot to bomb Al Jazeera" at least 6 months ago. The former Brit official who is the "whistleblower" in that case has been peddling this story for a while.
Posted by: Tibor ||
01/21/2006 16:53
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Heh, Tibor. But, but this came from "experts" - it sez so right in the story! You meme-killer! Lol -- Go, baby, go!
London, 20 Jan. (AKI) - The poor quality of Osama bin-Laden's latest message - a audio-only recording with crackling voice-distorting static, may shed some light on the whereabouts of the fugitive Islamist leader. This contrasts sharply with the clear images and sound of a video released earlier this month showing al-Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri. "Firstly, it indicates the recordings were made in different places, and hence that the two men are not hiding out together" says Hani al-Sebai, director of London-based al-Maqrizi Institute for Historical Studies.
Next time use a Shure mic and TDK tape.
"The poor quality of bin Laden's recording suggests that from his hideaway, he doesn't have access to the same technology as al-Zawhairi. Also bin-Laden speaks in a hushed tones, which could mean he didn't want to be hear by those near him when the recording was made," al-Sebai who is an al-Qaeda expert told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Or that he's in advanced end-stage renal disease and isn't feeling too perky ...
US experts have declared the message, three minutes of which were first broadcast by pan-Arab network Al-Jazeera on Thursday, as authentic. In it, bin Laden refers to an alleged US plan to bomb Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, Qatar - allowing the message to be dated at no earlier than December 2005, the time when claims of the anti-Al-Jazeera plans first surfaced.
"Had it been an old recording we would have heard him reciting verses from the Koran and some generic threats and warnings, instead the fact that he talks about current events indicates that bin Laden intends to continue his struggle," says al-Sebai, a former Egyptian Jihad activist who spent time in a Cairo jail with al-Zawahiri in 1981.
Osama needs to read tomorrow's headlines from the Peshawar Times into the mic; then we'll believe it's current.
In the message the al-Qaeda leader threatens fresh attacks against the United States, but at the same time offers a conditional truce in exchange of a US troop withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Bin Laden wants to appear before the Muslim world as a man of peace, a man who is always searching for a peaceful solution to bring stabilty to the Middle East region, in contrast with the Western image of him as a terrorist" concluded al-Sebai.
Or al-Sebai could be blowing smoke, since all Osama's offered is a hudna, which every good Moose-Limb understands right away isn't the same thing as a truce or a peace.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006
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Besides, the other tenants in the Brighton resort have already complained to the hotel management about the noise, especially that damn disco music coming from his room.
I can't understand why we should conclude that they are not hiding out together. Are we to believe that bin Laden and Zawahiri aren't smart enough to try and foil us with a few studio tricks? More interesting to me is, who is leaking what conclusions the CIA may be able to draw from what they receive on these tapes?
#3
says al-Sebai, a former Egyptian Jihad activist who spent time in a Cairo jail with al-Zawahiri in 1981.
ok, so a REFORMED [cough, cough] jihadi, PUBLICLY gives away clues as to what conclusions we should draw from these audio tapes. oooookaaaaay, I'm convinced.
#5
Osama needs to read tomorrow's headlines from the Peshawar Times into the mic; then we'll believe it's current.
Any recent newspaper, so long as it's not a story about the RAB.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/21/2006 14:50
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no, no, NO guys - according to the LLL the release of this tape is a plot to divert attention from some lobbyist's stock holdings in Halliburton ... or something. See, Osama had to whisper and the quality's lousy because the basement of the WH has all those RFI protections, wreaks havoc with the wireless mic ....
I know it's true because Jack Cafferty told me so. And would CNN lie?
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said police chiefs have been told to review all the intelligence the federal government has given them in the last two years about al Qaeda tactics. Chertoff told ABC News: "We've seen them attack in London, for example. We've seen them attack in Spain. We've seen them attack elsewhere, so I think we have to operate on the assumption that they do have some capability and they certainly have the intent."
Good golly, Mike, ya really think so?
The police chiefs in the nation's two largest cities say they are most worried about commuter trains and airports. "Close to 50 percent of terrorist attacks in the last 15 years have been directed at transportation facilities," New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "So, we have to and we are paying additional attention to our transportation system."
TWO masters of the obvious!
Referring to LAX, Los Angeles Police Commissioner William Bratton said, "This airport remains probably the most significant target within the city of Los Angeles."
But police officials say they are not ramping up security across the board because there is no specific intelligence about an al Qaeda plot. "I think you have to react to specific information, to specifics of a threat," said Kelly. "There's no specific information in this message."
Chertoff insisted that the country has made security upgrades since the attacks of 9/11. He admitted though that a number of vulnerabilities remain. "Things we're focused on now very seriously are chemical plants — we're working with Congress on legislation there — rail security, something which I think we want to make sure we make some progress on in the near future," he said.
The FBI is now reviewing all its leads, trying to make sure no clues have been missed.
Bloodhounds, bring in bloodhounds. Sheesh.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006
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He admitted though that a number of vulnerabilities remain.
#3
Remember all those non-traceable cell phones purchased after the treasonous release of intel collecting by the NYTs? Yeah, I suspect there are still cells out there. Needing those cells and to do it in large numbers and so quickly means there's something afoot. I just hope we have a good size contingent of torte lawyers standing by to sue the NYT out of existence by the families of those killed in the attack which would have been thwarted had the NSA operation not been exposed.
The First Amendment only protects your right to print, but does not protect you from suits brought by those harmed by your willfull action.
#4
#1 He admitted though that a number of vulnerabilities remain.
You mean like THE MEXICAN BORDER???????
Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2006-01-21 02:14
___________________
Hey Bomba-Osama's-Ass: I love your posts buddy, but I have to disagre here. The real danger comes from our America-hating Leftist pals north of the border, Canada.
Read Richard Miniter's superb book, Disinformation. He argues we've been worrying too much about the wrong "broken border."
Posted by: The Accurate Fliegerabwehrkanonen ||
01/21/2006 11:03
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20, 2006 â The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (âMCDCâ) announced the release today of video footage of an incursion by a unit of the Mexican army across the U.S. border in Arizona
#7
One of the things the Air Force taught me to do was to identify choke points and targets of opportunity. I don't think Al-Qaida has had that same kind of training, for which I'm extremely grateful. I can look around me at Colorado Springs, and see hundreds of places where a bomb of the right size would cause millions of dollars' damage and tens of millions lost to delays and re-routing.
We haven't had to fight a war on our own soil in a long, long time. We've forgotten how very vulnerable we could be. I doubt seriously that "homeland security" forces look at the US in that perspective. We need to reinstate the old Civil Defense Corps, update the training significantly, and use the American people as a whole for internal defense. We also need to significantly increase border security along ALL our borders, reinstate the Patriot Act, and let NSA continue to listen carefully for that "certain ring". I'd also push hard for a national militia with local units and local control under a national umbrella.
This is a huge country, and needs all the open eyes it can get to protect it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/21/2006 14:43
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#8
OP, I'm sure your training helps, but I'll bet I could figure out 75% of those just by visiting AAA and getting the Colorado Springs city map. They only need 1 in the top 25 metro Areas on the same morning to create some real chaos.
This story popped up earlier in the week but I didn't see it here. A hat tip to the Gates of Vienna, who has more information in later posts at his site.
A federal arrest warrant has been issued for a Chesterfield man after an ATF explosives investigation. NBC12 first brought you the story about the search of the man's Brandermill home one week ago. Behind bars on domestic charges in Chesterfield, Chetanand Sewraz, 24, now faces federal charges of possessing a destructive device or bomb in Florida.
A bomb-maker, you say? And a young one, too. Where'd he learn to do that?
County police spent the beginning of last week searching after a belief 24-year-old Sewraz and his then wife, Mariea Gamble, had been stealing computer equipment and making fraudulent returns at a Midlothian Staples store in March 2005.
But, while Chesterfield Police were taking pages worth of evidence out of Sewraz's home a federal search was also underway at the home by ATF agents. Federal agents now tell us they were looking at Sewraz in an attempted bombing investigation in the Vero Beach, Florida area. As a result, they say Sewraz now faces charges of possessing a destructive device on December 4, 2005 in Indian River County, Florida.
On Tuesday at Sewraz's Brandermill home his father told us his son is innocent. He says the charges come after someone blew up his daughter-in law's vehicle and her mother's vehicle in Florida.
"Lies! All lies!"
ATF agents clarify their investigation came after the discovery of an explosive device in Mariea Gamble's vehicle that was not detonated. The ATF is also looking into a vehicle fire in her mother's vehicle.
In recent weeks, both Sewraz and his now estranged wife have filed assault and other domestic charges against each other in Chesterfield. Sewraz claims his wife threatened to blow up his Brandermill home. She's now out of jail on bond.
According to the Gates of Vienna post, the young lad is a native of Mauritius. There's no overt link to a terror group which is why I'm putting this on Page 3, but there's something fishy going on.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006
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Chetanand Sewraz. Obviously from a fine Olde Virginian family. Why he hates cars so much is unclear.
#2
A fine young son of Virginia is expected to drink a fine whiskey, to sit a good horse, and to have a working knowlege of vehicular improvised explosive devices.
In an unprecedented move for the Arab press, a leading Kuwaiti newspaper yesterday called for the abdication of the oil-rich country's ruler, less than a week after he inherited the throne. Sheikh Sa'ad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, 76, was proclaimed emir last Sunday, just a few hours after the death of his cousin, Sheikh Jaber, 78, who had ruled since 1977.
Under the constitution Sheikh Sa'ad must swear an oath in parliament before assuming his duties, but there is open speculation in Kuwait that he is too ill to utter the oath - a single sentence of around 30 words.
"There! He took the oath!"
"That's not the oath! That's a drool!"
"I distinctly heard two words!"
"His lips didn't even move!"
"See, they're open right now!"
"That's the 'O' sign!"
Sheikh Sa'ad had colon surgery in 1997 and spent a week in hospital last year with high blood sugar. According to the pan-Arab daily, al-Quds al-Arabi, he is unable to concentrate or identify people and may have Alzheimer's disease.
On its front page yesterday, al-Qabas daily said national burdens had exhausted Sheikh Sa'ad and urged him to make a further sacrifice by "leaving it to who is able among the sons of the honourable ruling family".
The most likely alternative contender for the throne is Sheikh Sabah, the prime minister, who has already been de facto ruler for several years because the late emir was also incapacitated. Sheikh Sabah is himself 77 and has a pacemaker.
And probably other problems.
Members of the ruling family have held several meetings over the past few days to discuss the succession tangle. Removal of the ailing Sheikh Sa'ad would break a long-standing tradition in which the post of emir alternates between two branches of the family.
I'm available. Ask me.
I hear the money's good...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006
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KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait’s Prime Minister on Friday agreed to take charge of the country due to the poor health of the newly named Amir, state television reported. Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, who has run Kuwait's day-to-day affairs for years, will continue as de facto leader.
Shaikh Saad, in his mid-70s, automatically took over on Sunday, hours after the late Amir, Shaikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, passed away. Kuwaitis are concerned that Shaikh Saad’s deteriorating health might not allow him to even take the oath of office in Parliament. He attended the funeral of the late Amir in a wheelchair, and briefly appeared in television footage passively accepting condolences from citizens.
"Never mind the buzzards circling overhead, Timmy, shake the man's hand!"
The television reported that ruling family members visited Shaikh Sabah at his residence on Friday and called on him to accept his responsibilities in continuing to lead the country until it reaches the “shore of safety,” a reference to the uncertainty in the country because of the health condition of the new Amir who has not taken the oath of office yet.
According to the television announcement, Shaikh Sabah accepted the responsibility and asked God to help him shoulder it “under the circumstances that need ... unity.” Shaikh Sabah said he will “walk on the grave in the footsteps” of the late Amir.
The Prime Minister said Shaikh Saad’s “heroic and historic” role during the seven-month Iraqi occupation of Kuwait all the way from a palace in Riyadh and the US-led war that liberated it will “live forever.” He wished him good health and a long life with fingers crossed.
The carefully worded announcement said members of the ruling family “renewed” the confidence shown by the late Amir to Shaikh Sabah late last year. Last October, the Amir had responded to apparent criticism of Shaikh Sabah by saying he “fully trusted” and “appreciated” the efforts of Shaikh Sabah.
Members of the ruling family and parliament have held numerous meetings since Shaikh Jaber’s death to discuss how to carve up the boodle leadership of the country in light of the new Amir’s poor health.
Shaikh Saad is known for his closeness to the people. He is the eldest son of Kuwait’s most popular Amir, Shaikh Abdullah Al Salem Al Sabah, dubbed the “father of democracy” and founder of modern Kuwait.
So why wasn't he made Amir?
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006
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KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Suspected communist rebels attacked two security checkpoints in western Nepal on Friday, killing at least six policemen and stealing weapons and ammunition, officials said.
The attackers gunned down four policemen at a temporary checkpoint near the main market in Nepalgunj, about 310 miles west of the capital, Katmandu, state-run Radio Nepal said. Police were searching for the attackers, who ran away fled with weapons and ammunition taken from the police post, the radio quoted police official Man Bahadur Rawal as saying. In a second attack, two policemen were killed on the outskirts of town and five were reported missing, a police official reached by telephone said.
The official, who refused to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the missing men could be hiding in nearby areas after the attack.
Thousands of troops fanned across the Nepalese capital Friday to enforce a government curfew ordered to foil a planned protest rally against King Gyanendra. About 15,000 army soldiers and policemen were guarding and patrolling the streets of Katmandu and the suburb of Lalitpur to enforce the 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. curfew.
Streets were nearly deserted as Katmandu residents rushed to buy groceries and drive to work before the curfew began. The government said it could not allow the planned protest rally organized by Nepal's seven major political parties to take place because of information there would be violence by communist rebels.
The government also placed at least five top opposition leaders under house arrest for 90 days, sending troops to surround their homes, the National Human Rights Commission said. Those detained include the president of the Nepali Congress Party and the general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006
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Irish politicians and human rights activists are voicing growing concern at the US military's use of Shannon airport after it emerged that an average of 900 soldiers a day passed through the commercial west coast airport last year.
Groups of American soldiers in desert fatigues sipping Coca-Cola in the departure lounge or browsing the duty-free shop on their way to and from Iraq are now a familiar sight at Ireland's second-biggest airport. Government figures show that around 330,000 troops, more than double that of 2004, passed through the airport last year as military planes stopped and refuelled.
Peace ninniesfoolstools idiotsrubesrustics campaigners say most soldiers being transported between the US and Iraq now pass through Ireland, making it the favoured European stopover and calling into question Ireland's neutral status.
Until recently, many councillors on Ireland's west coast stressed the economic benefit of the stopovers, which generated an estimated €37m (£25m) for the airport last year. The former Labour mayor of Shannon, Gregg Duff, said those opposed to the presence of GIs had been accused of not caring about local jobs and endangering the US investment which fuelled much of the Celtic Tiger economic boom. In one local radio debate, a Fianna Fáil party activist warned that US businesses would pull out of the west of Ireland if locals were seen as hostile to troops.
You bet we would.
But amid new unfounded concerns that Shannon may have hosted CIA "rendition" flights carrying prisoners to countries where they could be tortured, local politicians have changed their tone. Town councillors, warning that the region's reputation is being damaged, have unanimously approved a motion calling on the government to inspect US planes at the airport. Clare county council has seen wide support for a motion demanding that the Irish army inspect every CIA-chartered flight.
I think I'd be flying loads of toys and baby duck food in and out for a while just to play with their heads.
Fine Gael's Martin Conway, who raised the motion at Clare county council, warned that Shannon's international standing was at risk. "I would prefer to see US troops not use Shannon at all," he said.
Exactly how does that endanger the airport's 'international standing'?
Brian Meaney, of the Green party, said: "You can't allow an airport's future to depend on selling sandwiches to soldiers. People have a notion of Irish neutrality, and they think it is being undermined and sold out."
The Irish Human Rights Commission and the Council of Europe have called on the government to seek US agreement that every plane suspected of transporting prisoners will be inspected. A spokesman from Dublin's department of foreign affairs said the government strongly condemned torture and had received "explicit, unambiguous and unqualified" assurances from the US that no prisoners had been transported through Irish airports.
That should settle that, but it won't, of course.
Six CIA-chartered planes have landed at Shannon 43 times over the past four years, according to the government. But Amnesty International believes the CIA landed 50 times at Shannon between September 2001 and 2005.
No evidence to back that up, of course.
Last month, peace moonbat activist Cindy Sheehan visited Dublin demanding that the Irish government inspect CIA flights. She said her son stopped at Shannon on his way to Iraq and described the airport in his last unposted letter.
Well sure, he and a bunch of other soldiers passed through.
The US leftist fool academic Noam Chomsky this week told a Dublin audience that if Shannon was being used by the CIA to transport prisoners, Ireland would be participating in a war crime as defined by the Nuremberg tribunal. Such was the demand to hear him speak that 4,000 knuckleheads people were turned away.
Edward Horgan, a former Irish soldier who served with UN peacekeeping missions for 22 years before leading a campaign against US military use of Shannon, said up to 100 peace activists had been prosecuted in Ireland since 2002.
After two retrials, Mary Kelly, an Irish nurse, was found guilty of criminal damage for taking an axe to a plane at Shannon. She plans to appeal. Five protesters accused of damaging another US plane at Shannon are awaiting their third trial after the second collapsed when defence lawyers suggested that the judge had been invited to both George Bush's presidential inaugurations and attended the first one in 2000.
Maybe, just maybe, we write the Irish off.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006
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taking their leads from the Kennedys, are they?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2006 0:34
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#3
I flew through there on the way here and hopefully will fly back through there on the way home. We drank a couple pints and didn't hear or see any problems w/the locals. BTW - I'm Irish American and have flown through Shannon a couple times in the past as well. I even plan on taking my wife to Ireland after my deployment ends. I doubt the general attitude of most Micks is that U.S. troops should not be using Shannon.
The thing that pissed me off the most about this article is the part about Cindy Sheehan sticking her nose in it & going to Dublin. (politics being left at the waters edge & all) Man, I cannot stand this b*tch - the consummate media whore. I'm fairly certain the local businesses our quite happy w/the money they've been making off us.
1) They fight side-by-side with American troops
2) They provide support personnel and material for American troops
3) An American serving in the military is allowed to buy a bottle of perfume at the airport's duty free store during a stopover
#6
Bloody micks should understand the threat if anyones does, they've often been credited with inventing bombing and terorism. Screw them all, land at Gatwick. The Brits will appreciate the business.
#8
Glad to see you're up and about, Broadhead 6. I was hoping that things were going well for you and your Marines.... and Mrs. Broadhead and the little guy back home, too.
The two rebel movements in Sudan’s western Darfur region, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, announced yesterday they were merging to create a single alliance. “The two movements have agreed to join and coordinate all political, military and social forces, their international relations and to double their combat capacity in a collective body under the name, the Alliance of Revolutionary Forces of West Sudan,” they said. “This union will strengthen the solidarity, cohesion and unity of the people of Sudan in general and that of the west in particular,” the document said. “It will further strengthen the position of the armed movements in (peace) negotiations” currently under way in Abuja.
The statement was issued in Arabic and French at a news briefing in the capital of neighboring Chad, N’djamena. “We have set up this union in the interests of the people of Darfur,” Dr. Ibrahim Khalil, president of the JEM, told reporters. “To lose time without uniting our efforts means extending the days of the (Khartoum) regime which has become a factor in the disintegration of the regime.” Both the SLM and the JEM said they opposed the choice of Sudan to head the African Union at its summit meeting next week. This pan-African gathering begins in Khartoum on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2006
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Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres on Friday signaled that Israel is ready to negotiate with Hamas if the Islamic militant group renounces violence and disarms after next week's Palestinian elections.
Peres spoke a day after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a Tel Aviv fast-food restaurant, wounding 20 people. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, and Israel blamed the group's backers in Iran and Syria for masterminding the attack. "We have definitive proof that the financing of the terror attack ... came directly from Iran, while the planning was carried out in Syria," Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said after a late-night meeting with security officials. He said the findings would be shared with American and European officials.
Hamas, which itself has carried out dozens of suicide bombings but has largely observed a truce in the past year, is expected to make a strong showing in Wednesday's Palestinian parliament election.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2006
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#1
Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres on Friday signaled that Israel is ready to negotiate with Hamas..
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Pakistan's prime minister said Friday no "tangible evidence" has been found that al-Qaida operatives were among those killed in a U.S. missile strike on a border village last week. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said security agencies in the area of Damadola "have not found any tangible evidence that a particular group or any individual was there."
Other than the blood trails from bodies dragged into the woods.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official earlier told The Associated Press that al-Qaida figures were casualties of the Jan. 13 attack, which killed 13 villagers. Officials believe at least four foreign militants may also have died, including an al-Qaida explosives and chemical weapons expert and a son-in-law of the terror network's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.
Despite widespread protests across Pakistan this week calling for the ouster of Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a close ally of the U.S., Aziz told reporters that his nation stands solidly behind the United States and its fight against terrorists. "As regards the relations between Pakistan and the United States, or our conviction about fighting terrorism, there is no question that Pakistan is one of the countries which has done the most because we believe terorrism is no solution to any problems," he said.
See, toldya Perv knew about this in advance.
But the prime minister - at the U.N. to meet with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan - underscored that the government of Pakistan condemned the U.S. airstrike. Aziz said he will raise the issue with President Bush when the two meet next week in Washington in what he termed a "wide-ranging discussion."
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006
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#1
Hint: Look for shit stains
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/21/2006 0:03
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Hamas is paying a spin doctor $180,000 (£100,000) to persuade Europeans and Americans that it is not a group of religious fanatics who relish suicide bombings and hate Jews.
"We're not a bloodthirsty genocidal power-mad faction of extremely close relatives (if you know what we mean); we only play one on teevee."
The organisation, also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, has hired a media consultant, Nashat Aqtash, to improve its image at home and abroad because it expects to emerge from next week's Palestinian general election as a major political force, and wants money recognition and money acceptance by the US and EU.
Also a blind eye for the dead rat on the living room rug. The one that's bloating, with maggots.
"Hamas has an image problem. The Israelis were able to create a very bad image of the Palestinians in general and particularly Muslims and Hamas. My contract is to project the right image," said Mr Aqtash, who also teaches media at Birzeit University in Ramallah. "We don't need the international community to accept Hamas ideology, we need it to accept the facts on the ground. We are not killing people because we love to kill. People view Hamas as loving sending people to die. We don't love death, we like life."
The facts on the ground being the subjugated, seething population of Gaza, and bits of dead Jooos decorating the buses in Tel Aviv.
Mr Aqtash, who describes himself as opposed to violence and "believing in the Gandhi route", has advised Hamas leaders to change their image by explaining that they do not hate Israelis because they are Jews. And he is attempting to persuade influential foreigners that Hamas is essentially a peaceful organisation that was forced to fight, but is now committed to pressing its cause through politics, not violence.
"Hamas does not believe in terrorism or killing civilians."
Be careful what you say, Nashat. The Prophet (PBUH) never cowered behind the skirts of a woman like you. He bravely took the fight to his enemies and prevailed every time. Even if his enemy looked a lot like a girl out for a walk with her fiancee. The djinns were all about her, and Mohammed took them all on! It was too bad about the girl, really, but there are always losses in Dar-al-Harb. And Allan acquired one more brave warrior that day.
"But Ariel Sharon pressed buttons to make people angry. Sometimes we are innocent enough to react in a way that the Israelis use the reaction against us," he said.
"Pure as the driven snow, that's Hamas!"
Next week Mr Aqtash says he will address the former US president Jimmy Carter and former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, and other prominent foreigners monitoring the election.
"You've been a lovely audience, I'll be here all week."
But he admits he and his small team working from an office in Ramallah have their work cut out. Hamas is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, killing and maiming hundreds of civilians (many of them children), although not for yesterday's attack in Tel Aviv.
Polish that halo a liitle more, Nashat.
Hamas's founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel and it wants to impose an Islamic state on all Palestinian territory.
Mr Aqtash, who says he is not a member of Hamas and does not know where it got the money to pay him but frequently refers to the group as "we", says he has told the leadership it has to change its rhetoric. He says Hamas has not helped itself by celebrating suicide bombings; he advises against celebration. And he has told Hamas leaders not to talk about destroying Israel.
"The f'ing infidels are listening, Mahmoud. Keep a lid on it."
"Abdel Aziz Rantisi [the former Hamas leader killed by Israel two years ago] was on television saying things that foreigners cannot accept, like we will remove Israel from the map. He should have talked about Palestinian suffering. He should have said we need this occupation ended. Foreigners will accept this," he said. Mr Aqtash has also advised Hamas leaders to emphasise that they are not anti-semitic or against Israelis because they are Jews. Hamas has taken the message on board. In an interview earlier this week, Muhammad Abu Tir, who is second on the Hamas election list, twice (and unprompted) offered an assurance that he is not a Jew hater. "Loving others is part of our religion. We are not against Jews as Jews, we are against oppression," he said.
Mr Aqtash also told Mr Abu Tir to rid himself of a red beard, coloured by henna, because it makes people laugh.
Drat. He caught that. Nothing sez comedy like the hennaed beards of the Learned Elders of Islamâ¢.
The PR man wriggles away from questions about whether Hamas has more than an image problem when it sends bombers on buses and into cafes. "I'm personally against killing. All civilians should not be killed. Killing Israeli civilians is not accepted by the international community. They think it is a terrorist act," he said.
"Stupid international community. What do they know?"
"But Sharon was responsible for killing civilians too. During this intifada Hamas killed a thousand Israelis, some of them civilians, some of them soldiers. But the Israelis killed 4,000 Palestinians. It's a war. The Israelis use F16s; Hamas uses people. Anyway, Hamas hasn't sent a suicide bomber in a year."
Hamas is also attempting to soften its image at home with the launch of a television station in Gaza that includes a children's show presented by "Uncle Hazim" and men in furry animal suits. The station, named Al Aqsa Television after Islam's third holiest site, says it intends to put across the group's message "but without getting into the tanks, the guns, the killing and the blood". It will instead focus on religious readings, discussion programmes and a talent show.
Mr Aqtash, however, is not entirely confident in his powers of persuasion. "How did I do?" he asked as the interview ended. "Did I make you think differently about Hamas?"
#3
Hamas is paying a spin doctor $180,000 (£100,000) to persuade Europeans and Americans that it is not a group of religious fanatics who relish suicide bombings and hate Jews.
#4
The money came from the EU in the form of a loan with conditions. If the makeover convinced the suckers in the West after 60 days, then the loan would be forgiven, and Hamas could continue its work unabated after the election.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/21/2006 13:49
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.... and the money came from where?
sounds like a Naomi Wolfe/Dick Morris blend: "drop the henna, wear earth tones, be the alpha paleo, but triangulate!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2006 14:14
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Any bets some of that $180K ends up at Air America?
(I'd say CNN as well, but they'll do it gratis...)
A prominent insurance expert has called for the introduction of insurance service to foreign pilgrims coming for Haj and Umrah as part of the government’s efforts to provide them with better health services and facilities. Dr. Abdalelah Saaty, chairman of the insurance council at Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, however, said such insurance policies should not be made mandatory on pilgrims. “It will not be possible to impose insurance on all pilgrims,” Saaty told Arab News.
He said a number of Saudi companies have already expressed their desire to offer a variety of insurance policies to pilgrims, covering services such as health care, lost baggage, accommodation, air ticket and airlift of body in case of death. “Insurance is good for pilgrims as it’ll help them receive better services in addition to the services offered by the government,” Saaty pointed out. He said insurance premiums for such services must be moderate and affordable to pilgrims.
That makes a lot of sense. That way at least there's a payoff when they're trampled in the annual stampede.
Travel insurance. How ... 19th century.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Forget the insurance, I recommend they all purchase Segways with luggage racks.
The United States has brought criminal charges against a 10th Guantanamo Bay prisoner, charging an Afghan man with conspiracy, aiding the enemy and attacking civilians, the Pentagon said on Friday. The case against Abdul Zahir means that 2 per cent of the roughly 500 foreign terrorism suspects held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been charged with a crime.
On Friday, prosecutors accused Zahir of working as a translator and money man for the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan and the al-Qaida network, and implicated him in a 2002 grenade attack that injured three journalists. He was captured in July 2002. His case was referred for trial to a tribunal of US military officers, formally called a commission. No trial date was set.
These commission proceedings are the first such war crimes trials conducted by the US since the second world war. The US charged five other detainees in November and four in 2004. Not one of their trials has been completed. The Supreme Court is expected in March to hear a challenge to George Bush's power to create military commissions to put Guantanamo prisoners on trial for war crimes. The Pentagon has promised "full and fair" trials and has not sought the death penalty against any of the defendants, including Zahir.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The United States does not plan to raise the security threat level because of a new tape of Osama bin Laden on which he says al-Qaeda is planning attacks, counterterror officials said Thursday. The White House firmly rejected bin Laden's suggestion of a negotiated truce. "We don't negotiate with terrorists," Vice President Dick Cheney said. "I think you have to destroy them." Counterterror officials said they have seen no specific or credible intelligence to indicate a coming al-Qaeda attack on the United States. Nor have they noticed an uptick in terrorist communications "chatter," although that can increase or decrease dramatically immediately before an attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Just wondering... if OBL did change his appearance by surgical means, wouldn't this be unislamic?
#2
UB---If you read the fine print, Binny could weasel an exception because it had to do with battling infidels or something like that. It is visually lying to infidels, so it is hunky dory with Islam.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/21/2006 13:00
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Lest we forget. Thank goodness for the Aussies, and damn the UN for not letting the Aussies go sooner. And damn the murderers most of all.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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I worked in Indonesia for a while, in Aceh Province. Nothing I saw there leads me to doubt in the slightest what the E. Timorese claim about the Indo military. I saw up close and personal what the Indos did to their Chinese population in Aceh in the late 90's and believe me, it wasn't pretty.
I think more people--you know, like the ones at Kos or DU--should have the opportunity to walk around a burned-out town where a minority group has been slaughtered or driven off by the majority. It's a real eye-opener, particularly when you hear first-hand accounts of the rapes and murders. When the unimaginable suddenly becomes very tangible and near, paradigm shifts are a common occurrence.
Posted by: mac ||
01/21/2006 8:26
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I amde the calculatuion that on average more Timorese were killed by year by the Indos that Palestinians by the Israelis during the 38 years of occupation.
I made the calculation that on average the left made more demonstrations, meetings, fund collecting you name for Palestinians in a month that it did for the Timorese in the over twenty five years of occupation and tyhis despite the fact that unlike the Palestinians the Timorese didn't hijack planes, slaughtereed babies in cold blood or tried to blow up maternities.
#3
I made the calculation that on average more Timorese were killed by year by the Indos that Palestinians by the Israelis during the 38 years of occupation.
I made the calculation that on average the left made more demonstrations, meetings, fund collecting you name for Palestinians in a month that it did for the Timorese in the over twenty five years of occupation and tyhis despite the fact that unlike the Palestinians the Timorese didn't hijack planes, slaughtereed babies in cold blood or tried to blow up maternities.
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkeyâs agriculture minister accused several neighboring countries on Friday of concealing bird flu outbreaks and hampering an effort to prevent the spread of the disease.
Preliminary tests indicate that 21 people in Turkey have been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, four of whom have died. The country has reported confirmed or suspected H5N1 outbreaks in poultry in 26 provinces, including areas just kilometers (miles) away from the borders with Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Georgia. Turkey also borders Bulgaria and European Union-member Greece.
âWe know through unofficial channels that the disease exists ... in neighboring countries, which are ruled by closed regimes,â Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker said during a meeting with governors of Turkeyâs 81 provinces. âThese countries do not officially declare the existence of the disease.â He did not name the countries. âThis is something that we need to be careful about,â Eker said, urging governors of border provinces to be especially vigilant.
As part of efforts to control the outbreak in poultry, the government has imposed quarantines, culled 1.1 million fowl and launched campaigns warning people to avoid contact with sick birds, Eker said.
The World Health Organization has said it expects the number of new bird flu infections among humans in Turkey to decline. âThe situation is getting better,â WHO spokeswoman Cristiana Salvi told The Associated Press Thursday. She warned, however, that it was still too early to say the crisis was over. âWe can expect a few more casesâ of infection, she said.
The UN health agency said on its Web site that âthe number of these cases is, however, expected to decline as high-risk behaviors become less common and culling operations ... reduce the number of infected birds.â By culling birds, Turkey hopes to limit contact with humans in this largely rural country, where most villagers raise their own chickens, turkeys and geese.
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Sudan's push to head the African Union is gathering pace with no rival bid emerging despite concerns that a Sudanese presidency would hurt Africa's reputation and AU-sponsored peace efforts in Darfur.
I'm not sure Africa's reputation could be hurt any more than it has been. Genocide in Rwanda, Bob Mugabe in Zim, and most of the Congo pygmies killed and eaten kinda sez goodly swatches of Subsaharan Africa aren't places civilized people want to associate with.
Sudan is hosting a summit of the 53-nation body next week, and by tradition the host takes over the chairmanship. Critics say this would undermine AU-mediated talks to end the conflict in Sudan's west where AU troops are monitoring a ceasefire. The US State Department has already indicated its opposition to Sudan assuming the chairmanship at a time when the country is widely accused of stoking violence in the western Darfur region. Spokesman Sean McCormack said. "There are certain contradictions in the idea of Sudan holding the chair of the AU while there is an AU mission in Sudan designed to help protect Sudanese citizens in part from the government of Sudan."
Y'might say that, if you're into understatement...
Sudan, under fire for its human rights record, says it has the backing of 12 East African states for its bid to take over the chair from Nigeria.
That doesn't surprise me.
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Sudanese President Omar el-Bashier is probably a good many things, but human rights advocate he is not.
The German government, facing allegations its spies in Iraq secretly abetted the US invasion that Berlin publicly opposed, has resisted calls for a parliamentary inquiry it said would fan anti-Americanism. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister, said on Friday Baghdad-based agents of the BND intelligence service had stuck to clear instructions not to pass on operational military information to the Americans at the start of the US invasion in 2003. The role of the two agents has become a hot political topic since media reports this month alleged they gathered information for Washington on bombing targets in Baghdad and acted as scouts for an air raid intended to kill then-president Saddam Hussein.
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clear instructions not to pass on operational military information to the Americans
And now Schroeder is out of office, and kissing the ring of Putin to keep bread on the table. Thus shall be done to those who choose the other side! (Sorry, Purim is coming up in a bit, and I seem to be in a Book of Esther mode. No doubt it will wear off in a bit. At this stage of the Purim story, the evil vizier Haman, caught upon the petard of his vanity, had to dress his opponent Mordechai (the Jewish queen Esther's uncle, unbeknownst to H.) in the King's robe, seat him upon the king's horse, and lead him around the city, proclaiming, "Thus shall be done to the man whom the King chooses to honour!" Lovely morality tale, with no historical possibility whatsoever.)
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2006 13:41
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Me, too, Danielle. But King Ahasuerus declared a year-long holiday throughout the land of the Medes & Persians to celebrate his wedding to Esther. And that is exactly the kind of thing that would have shown up in the royal records had it actually occurred. Hence my conclusion... ;-)
Judge Raid Juhi, head of the investigations committee at the Iraqi Higher Criminal Court, has a given a two-month time limit for the trial of former President Saddam Hussein. He also confirmed that no legal decision has yet been made regarding the resignation of Judge Rizgar Muhammad Amin, who is known as Saddam's judge, adding that Amin can resume presiding over the court sessions as of 24 January; otherwise, Judge Said al-Hammashi would be legally considered president of the court although the Debathification Committee has asked him not to practice his profession as a judge.
Judge Juhi expressed hope that the trial of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and seven of his aides in Al-Dujayl case would be concluded within two months at the most. In statements to Asharq al-Awsat made over the phone from his office in Baghdad yesterday, Judge Juhi said: "The date for the next court session has not changed and Judge Al-Hammashi will preside over the court session unless Judge Amin retracts his resignation, another more senior judge is appointed to complete the court quorum of five judges, or if a the judges hold a vote among them to choose a new court president.
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Bout time someone brought the tent down on this circus trial! No Iraqi judge has the guts to put his own John Hancock on the execution orders for Saddam, it would be like signing his own death penalty.
Al-Qaida's second-in-command, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, has praised Muslim fighters in Afghanistan, according to an internet audiotape posted on Friday, a day after Osama bin Laden warned of attacks in America.
Gotta do better than a plain vanilla audio tape that could have been recorded any time to convince me he's not 868 meat chunks embedded in a wall.
In Washington, a CIA spokeswoman said it was al-Zawahiri's voice on the tape. A US counterterrorism official initially said the tape was several years old but then retracted the statement, saying that the date of the recording was uncertain. The website which posted the recording said it was recently recorded without giving a specific date.
Depending on your time frame, the Titanic sank recently.
"I am honored to recite this jihadist poem," al-Zawahiri said, praising mujahidin fighters. "We shall remain true to our oath (with the Afghan mujahidin)." The message emerged one day after Bin Laden, al-Qaida's leader, said the group was preparing attacks in the United States but was open to a conditional truce with the Americans, according to an audiotape attributed to him.
They get kerblammed and then rush to assure the fearsome jihadis that both Binny and Ayman are still in one peace. All is not well in Jihadistan.
I suggest we nail Pencilneck so that the Syrian government can release a poorly-dubbed audio tape claiming he's still alive.
In his 17-minute tape, al-Zawahiri praised an Islamist Afghan poet, Mohebullah Kandahari: "The owner of the sword and pen, who carried both a machine gun and the Quran, known in scholarly circles ... and who could be seen in jihadi arenas from the time of the Russian communist attack on Afghanistan until the crusader raid [led by the United States in 2001]."
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"our brave mujahideen fighters against the infidel.....Russians"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2006 0:31
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Remote control leadership. How brave! That pig is fatter everytime I see his picture. I wonder if the ease of living is a major reason why worthless animals like him join terror groups? All the Paki' MMA leaders have enormous guts, and they didn't work to get them. Parasites!
A top Sunni politician appealed Friday for the release of an American female journalist and urged U.S. and Iraqi forces to stop arresting Iraqi women as a deadline set by the reporter's kidnappers was set to elapse. The kidnappers had threatened to kill 28-year-old Jill Carroll unless all female detainees are freed by Friday. No hour was specified, and there was no indication Friday that any prisoners had been released.
In a statement aired Friday by two major Arab television stations Carroll's father, Jim, described his daughter as "an innocent woman" and told the captors that sparing her life would "serve your cause more than her death."
A U.S. Embassy official said he was unaware of any contacts between a high-level hostage release team and the kidnappers. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said U.S. authorities were meeting with various figures including political leaders, particularly from the Sunni Arab community, who may have links to the kidnappers. Carroll, a freelancer for the Christian Science Monitor, was abducted Jan. 7 near the office of prominent Sunni Arab politician Adnan al-Dulaimi, whom she was going to interview. Her translator was killed. On Friday, al-Dulaimi promised to work for the release of all women prisoners but warned that failure to set Carroll free would "undermine and hamper my efforts."
"We are against violence by any group, and we call the government and U.S. forces to stop raiding houses, arresting women," al-Dulaimi said in a statement. "I call upon the kidnappers to immediately release this reporter who came here to cover Iraq's news and defending our rights." He urged militants to protect journalists "regardless of their nationality. This act has hurt me and makes me sad because the journalist was trying to meet me when she was kidnapped," he added. "After she left my office because she was unable to meet me, she was kidnapped 300 meters from my office."
Set her up, did you?
Posted by: Fred ||
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Iraqi fighters are warring with non-Iraqi fighters in the western town of Ramadi, and elsewhere in the country, the US military says. Major General Rick Lynch, a US military spokesman, said on Thursday: "We are finding indications where Iraqi rejectionists are taking up arms and informing on terrorists and foreign fighters. According to the US military, the revolt in Iraq is made up of supporters of Saddam Hussein, non-Iraqi Arab fighters, and an element they call "rejectionists" that disagrees with the presence of US-led forces.
"As part of our operation with the Iraqi security forces we are looking to drive a wedge between the Iraqi population and specifically the terrorists and foreign fighters," said Lynch. The US military believes the rejectionist element can be neutralised through political progress in the country. Lynch also said that Iraqis are increasingly informing US-led forces about the activities and whereabouts of foreign Islamist fighters in Salah al-Din, Diyala and particularly al-Anbar province.
After boycotting last January's elections, the predominantly Sunni Arab population of Ramadi, capital of al-Anbar province, participated in much larger numbers in the 15 December legislative elections. Peter Rodman, an assistant defence secretary for international affairs, at a conference in Washington on Wednesday, said: "We saw three successful elections last year... In that success of those elections, you can see the gravitational pole working on the Sunni Arab population pulling them into the political process. "We hope this will separate them from the extremists," Rodman said.
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#1
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in banning.
#2
Excellent news - though still a bit surprising. IMHO. I won't belabor any negatives in the face of such a positive turn, though. Good for them. One more step toward "getting it".
Nazi, er, CaziFartwit could find a lead lining in any story that didn't toe his egomaniacal line. Why redact a few of his spews every day? What has he posted that is actually constructive, or original, or constitutes new and useful information? A permanent size 12 hobnail boot inserted sideways would be more apropos.
#5
The Tele on moronic democracy in the gutter entity of Iraq. We should encourage Kurd independence, while ideologically cleansing the rest. A heavy dose of napalm would do wonders for al-Sadr.
Iran is ready for “detailed” discussions on Moscow’s proposal for the two countries to enrich uranium jointly on Russian territory to defuse tensions over Tehran’s suspected nuclear program, a top Russian official said yesterday. “They find our proposal very interesting and are ready to move to detailed examination,” the head of Russia’s atomic energy agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, said.
Kiriyenko was speaking during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, portions of which were broadcast on Russian television. He said “Iranian partners,” whom he did not name, were due to arrive in Russia in the coming days to talk about the plan and added that discussions between experts in Moscow and Tehran were “taking place constantly.”
Posted by: Fred ||
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And I guess they've put those seals back on, by now also...?
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Michael Fortier, the government's star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing trials, was released from federal prison Friday after serving more than 10 years for failing to warn authorities about the plot.
Fortier, 37, received a 12-year sentence after striking a plea bargain in which he agreed to testify against Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. He got time off for good behavior. His attorney, Michael McGuire, would not say who met Fortier or where he would live.
Tora Bora is nice.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has declined to release any information about Fortier, and the secrecy surrounding his release prompted speculation that he was entering the witness protection program. But McGuire would not comment on that. ``He really just wants to be with his wife and children to try to recover some of the lost time that they didn't have,'' the lawyer said.
Fortier's release received a mixed reaction from prosecutors and the bombing victims' families. The April 19, 1995, bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building killed 168 people and injured more than 500 others. ``He may have outlived his prison sentence, but he will never outlive his responsibility,'' said Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane, who prosecuted Nichols on state murder charges in 2004.
Jannie Coverdale, who lost two grandsons in the blast, said Fortier should have gotten a life sentence. She said his role in the blast was as significant as that of Nichols. ``Michael Fortier being out of prison? There's no way I can forget that. He helped murder my grandsons,'' she said.
Fortier testified that he received stolen weapons that were sold to finance the bombing, shared money from their sale with McVeigh, handled blasting caps and other explosives and had the same anti-government literature that McVeigh gave Nichols. Fortier also accompanied McVeigh on a trip to case the building four months before the bombing.
Sounds like an active accomplice to me. Sounds like a life sentence.
Aitan Goelman, who served on the bombing prosecution team, said Fortier's release was appropriate. ``He has paid his debt to society,'' Goelman said. ``Knowing about a horrible crime and doing nothing to prevent it is on one side, and on the other side of the scale is the tremendous assistance he provided to the government in order to prosecute the guys who actually did the bombing.''
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Maybe someone shouldn't report it to the government, when he's about to get his a** kicked!!
Eight Iraqi sailors detained by Iran after a weekend clash in a shared waterway have been released, but the body of a ninth sailor has not yet been repatriated. General Ahmed al-Khafaji, the deputy Iraqi interior minister, said the sailors were released early on Friday through the Shalamcha border police station near the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border and Basra, 550km (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad. The body of the ninth sailor who was killed in the clash was to be released on Saturday, al-Khafaji added. Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment.
Al-Khafaji said two Iraqi boats detained by Iran during last Saturday's clash were to be handed over on Saturday, but Muhammad al-Waeli, the governor of Basra, said Iran was going to keep the vessels. Iraqi officials had said the sailors were detained on 14 January following a clash between Iraqi and Iranian coast guard ships near the Shatt al-Arab waterway, or Arvand River, in the Arab Gulf. However, the Iranian authorities have denied claims that an Iranian naval vessel fought a skirmish with an Iraqi coast guard ship, instead saying there was a clash between Iranian patrol boats and a merchant ship headed toward Iranian waters.
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Former Thank God for that
US president Jimmy Carter expressed optimism Friday over Hamas's participation in next week's Palestinian parliamentary elections. It's not like they're neo-cons or Republicans
Carter told CNN in an interview that although Hamas were "so-called terrorists," so far "there have been no complaints of corruption against [their] elected officials." Who would dare complain?
Oh, that makes sense. They slaughter people without mercy, but it doesn't look like they're on the take, so they're okay.
I'm sure their 'so-called victims' won't complain; after all, they're all dead.
He conceded that "there is an element within Hamas who deny Israel's right to exist," but compared the current situation to negotiations with the PLO, which was still outlawed as a terrorist organization during his failed presidency. He drew an additional comparison with Menachem Begin's rise to Israel's premiership in the seventies. "The Irgun, to which Begin belonged, was also characterized as a terrorist organization," he noted. And Carter gained power in a divided country during an economic crisis, just like Adolph Hitler.
#1
Carter has always seen the Joooos as an inconvenience. This is part and parcel with his minor league Ramsey Clark-like apologia for tyrants, dictators, and killers. Jimmeh will have a lot to answer for when he meets God, and he hasn't built way enough houses (his only useful thing done)
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2006 0:15
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He is drinking bong water along with the crack he is smoking. That a former president of the US can't identify terrorists is pathetic. Dead from the neck up as always.
Six Yemeni soldiers and five supporters of slain rebel cleric Husain al-Huthi have been killed in clashes in the north of the country. Insurgents ambushed a military convoy on Thursday, killing six including an officer, in the province of Saada. Government troops countered by attacking the rebels and killing five of them, a government source said on Friday.
Yemen says insurgents loyal to al-Huthi want to instal clerical rule and preach violence against the United States and Israel. The group is not linked to al-Qaida. Al-Huthi belongs to the Zaidi Muslim sect, which mixes Sunni and Shia beliefs. The sect is named after its founder Zaid bin Ali, a descendent of Prophet Muhammad. Fierce fighting first broke out in 2004 in the north, during which al-Huthi was killed along with 200 insurgents. A new round of clashes, which the government blamed on al-Huthi's father Shaikh Badr al-Din, erupted in 2005. Later, the elder al-Huthi agreed to stop fighting and Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president, ordered an amnesty in September for all of al-Huthi's jailed supporters.
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Eye-rolling and face-making noted, women and minorities affected most.
PESHAWAR - Thousands of Pakistanis on Friday protested against a US air strike targeting Al-Qaeda leaders, burning effigies of US President George Bush and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
Around 2,000 demonstrators marched through the troubled tribal town of Wana and more than 1,000 led by hardliners in the northwestern city of Peshawar chanted “We are ready to support Osama and Zawahiri”, police and witnesses said. “Musharraf cannot protect the country because he is protecting American interests,” Abdul Ghaffar, a leader of the Muttahid Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) religious alliance, told the rally. Another MMA leader asked protestors to raise their hands if they were ready for jihad (holy war), and most members of the crowd raised their hands, witnesses said.
Great! Dan, Fred, Pappy, get their names.
Protest leaders signed a petition calling on the government to shut down the US consulate in Peshawar as activists torched dummies of Bush and Musharraf. “The demonstration was peaceful. Between 900 to 1,000 people participated,” Peshawar police chief Habib-ur Rehman told AFP. Witnesses also put turnout at around 1,000.
In Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal area, around 2,000 tribesmen marched through a main marketplace chanting ”Death to America”, “Allah is great” and “Stop killing innocent Muslims.” “The US action in Bajur shows our government’s failure. It has got atom bombs and jets but it cannot stop foreign forces intruding into its territory,” tribal elder Maulana Abdul Aziz told the crowd, referring to the Bajur tribal agency where the attack took place.
Maybe because Perv secretly wants us to bomb Osama. He gave us your name too.
About 1,500 tribesmen in Mohamand tribal district bordering Afghanistan held another rally against the airstrike. Hundreds of people also held demonstrations outside mosques in the eastern city of Lahore, near the border with India, after regular Friday prayers.
Earlier some 200 lawyers rallied outside the High Court building in Lahore while protesters gathered outside the headquarters of Pakistan’s largest religious party, Jamaat-i-Islami. “We condemn the US airstrike in Bajur and we also condemn the government for its pro-American policies,” party leader Amirul Azeem said in a speech.
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#1
About 1,500 tribesmen in Mohamand tribal district bordering Afghanistan held another rally against the airstrike. Hundreds of people also held demonstrations outside mosques in the eastern city of Lahore, near the border with India, after regular Friday prayers.
#2
Geez, wen do they ever have time to werk?
Posted by: Besoeker 2006-01-21 12:20
You just scored the $1000 prize! The demands of their religion impede their ability to be productive. Praying five times a day, in a certain direction, all that attending Mosque services, all those restrictions telling them what to do and how to do it, stifle productivity and ingenuity. It was ok for tribal nomads, but totally impossible for industrial productivity. It's an anchor that holds them down and keeps them from competing on a national scale, much less a worldwide one. I'm sure .com has more to say.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/21/2006 16:10
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Lol, OP... Well, at Aramco they don't do diddley-squat, lol. They had, in the "bad old days" when time cards were required, a column for prayer-time. It counted as work - heh - and, of course, no one ever checked to see if they actually went to one of the moskkks scattered all around Aramco. Now they don't even have to lie about it - no time cards, at least among the office-worker types. Mebbe they're still lying about it out in the field, lol.
Add to this the facts that:
1) They are 1/2 day ahead of the US (GMT+3)
2) They call Thurs & Fri the weekend
When you think about it, there are only a couple of hours, 3 days per week, when they overlap with the East coast of the US, none with the West coast, yet they do tons and tons of business here, buying shit, training, you name it. The answer? Junkets. Lots and lots of junkets to the US. Hard to believe, lol, but they're far less efficient than US oil companies - and man that's really saying something, lol.
#4
Problem: Pigistan, like anywhere Muslims pollute, is burdened with a parasitic class of clerics. Example: almost 80% of Malaysians of Chinese origin work. Barely 50% of native Malay carpet-humpers raise a sweat. Solution: support the productive forces in those pig-pens, and work for regime change in the interests of the West. Until the leisure class of gutter entities like Pigistan, Yemen, Egypt, etc develop a work ethic, we should cut off all aid and let them eat jihad.
The two main contenders in next week's Palestinian parliamentary election pledged to avoid violence on voting day and work together afterward, but a Hamas leader ruled out peace talks with Israel. The no-violence pledge came Wednesday in Gaza, coupled with a promise that the ruling Fatah and its main challenger, the militant Islamic Hamas, will work together after the Jan. 25 election. It was a tacit admission by Fatah that Hamas will be a significant factor in the new parliament. Hamas, running for the first time, is set to take advantage of voter dissatisfaction with a decade of Fatah rule because of widespread corruption and inefficiency, as well as its inability to control internal violence, some of it directly connected to the election.
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"avoid violence" == "run before they shoot back" ?
Posted by: James ||
01/21/2006 9:27
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The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land. As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map."
So rants Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Given his apocalyptic rhetoric, we can understand why Ahmadinejad might want an arsenal of nuclear missiles. He'd be able to shake down a constant stream of rich European emissaries, threaten the Arab gulf states to lower oil production, neutralize the influence of the United States in the region--and, of course, destroy Israel.
In all his crazed pronouncements, Ahmadinejad reflects an end-of-days view: History is coming to its grand finale under his aegis. So the name of the haloed Ahmadinejad will live for the ages.
But for now, barring divine intervention, Ahmadinejad's task poses two small hurdles: getting the bomb and preparing the world for Israel's demise.
Oddly, the first obstacle may be easier. An impoverished Pakistan and North Korea pulled it off. China and Russia will sell Tehran anything it cannot get from rogue regimes. Ultimately, Moscow and Beijing will probably veto any punitive action by the United Nations.
Impotent European diplomats will always defer to such an important global figure, "ruling out" force to stop the Iranian nuclear industry as they offer money and trade deals if Tehran will just act sanely.
The United States has a growing anti-war movement, and 180,000 of its troops are busy birthing democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq. And the unpredictable President Bush has less than three years in office anyway.
But the second part of readying the world for the end of the Jewish state is trickier.
True, the Middle East's secular gospel is anti-Semitism, broadcast hourly from Syria, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. In these places, state-run media boom out tired sermons about "pigs and apes." And, again, Russia and China don't much care what happens to Israel, as long as its demise does not affect business.
But the West is a different matter. There the history of anti-Semitism looms large, framed by the Holocaust that nearly destroyed European Jewry.
So raising doubts about that genocide is now Ahmadinejad's aim just as much as targeting downtown Tel Aviv. Holocaust denial is a tired game, but his approach is different.
He has studied the recent Western postmodern mind, nursed on its holy trinity of multiculturalism, moral equivalence and relativism. As a third-world populist, Ahmadinejad expects that his own fascism will escape scrutiny if he just recites enough the past sins of the West. He also understands victimology. So he also knows that to destroy the Israelis, he--not they--must become the victim, and the Europeans the ones who forced his hand. Ahmadinejad also grasps that there are millions of highly educated but cynical Westerners who see nothing much exceptional about their own culture. So if democratic America has nuclear weapons, why not theocratic Iran? Moreover, he knows how Western relativism works. So who is to say what are "facts" or what is "true"--given the tendency of the powerful to "construct" their own narratives and call the result "history." Was not the Holocaust exaggerated, or perhaps even fabricated, as mere jails became "death camps" through a trick of language to take over Palestinian land?
We laugh at all this as absurd. We should not.
Money, oil and threats have brought the Iranian theocrats to the very threshold of a nuclear arsenal. Their uncanny diagnosis of Western malaise has now convinced them that they can carefully fabricate a Holocaust-free reality in which Muslims are the victims and Jews the aggressors deserving of punishment. And thus Ahmadinejad's righteously aggrieved (and nuclear) Iran can, after "hundreds of years of war," finally set things right in the Middle East.
And then a world that wishes to continue to make money and drive cars in peace won't much care how this divinely appointed holy man finally finishes a bothersome "war of destiny."
#1
It's comforting (in a blood-curtlingn way) to know that someone knows exactly what's going on. A precise contribution, but kind of like reading one's obituary ahead of time.
#3
Interesting point by VDH. It rings true about Europe, in that the Europeans really don't give a shit about the Jews. If Ahmadinejad decided to take out Israel, there would be a lot of hand-wringing and academic conferences on what it all means, but nothing would be done. Ahmadinejad just needs to slather the anti-Zionist, anti-Joo rhetoric on enough, and rattle his new sable enough, to provide some cover. The Euro response would be, "gee, that's bad, and we'd like to do something about it, but we can't, so we'll sit on the sidelines and complain."
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006 0:34
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If Ahmadinejad decided to take out Israel, there would be a lot of hand-wringing and academic conferences on what it all means
That's kind of easy to answer, if they knew their Bible, which they now probably don't. The last book of the Bible speaks of an invading army from the east, and a final battle in the Golan Heights :-) Look it up, if you don't believe me.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/21/2006 1:12
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#7
Is that an aura around him? Is he holy - or radioactive? "Turn out the lights, the party's over..."
#8
Ex-lib,
W/o getting into too much detail, there is a an EMP threat from an Iranian weapon, but it would best be described as local; i.e.; within the immediate area of the shot. Keep in mind EMP effects are a function of burst altitude and burst stength, and any weapon the Iranians are likely to have for a long time will be small kiloton range at best. That is not to say they couldn't do immense localized damage - an EMP burst over NYC would effectively zorch the US economy for months. But the danger tends to be a bit overstated.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/21/2006 8:22
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#9
We should take Ahmadinejad's statements as seriously as the old Soviet Union's leaders statements on global revolution. When you are screwed by demographics and geography, you invent a bigger picture in which you are winning.
It's not that I think these people aren't truly dangerous, rather, it's will they take anyone else down with them before they reach their end game of the collapse of the Iranian empire.
#10
The danger is that A-Jad reminds me a lot more of Stalin than Khruschev. Unlike Khruschev, they don't have a WWII to look back at to show them what misery war can be. If this thing comes to blows before he's gone, I wouldn't be surprised if he disappeared for a week.
#11
Hell, I wondered if something was going to happen in North Korea when Kimmie went to South China because if he ever did order an attack I would have expected him to be outside the country when it happened.
Posted by: Phil ||
01/21/2006 9:56
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#12
Unlike Khruschev, they don't have a WWII to look back at to show them what misery war can be.
They do have the Iran / Iraq War as an example but unlike Kruschev they may not view the horrors of war as a sufficient deterrent.
#13
The effect of the Iran/Iraq war on either nation and its populace is not comparable to the Great Patriotic War and its effect on everyone it touched.
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Backing away from his tough campaign talk against U.S.-sponsored trade initiatives, Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales said Friday he no longer rules out a free-trade deal with the United States and three other Andean nations. But he did not say he supported such a deal, either.
The leftist coca grower who will be inaugurated Sunday said in an interview with The Associated Press that he is now open to the idea of a joining a pact he strongly opposed as recently as November. "I understand that governing is doing good business for your people," he said.
Is he getting a clue or just tap-dancing?
The comments seemed to be further evidence that Morales, an admirer of Fidel Castro and his communist regime, is softening his stance against the free market policies he railed against during his campaign. But analysts have said it could take months to determine whether Morales will take his country down a market friendly path or push a more radical agenda.
Morales, who has often criticized the United States and who once promised to be "Washington's nightmare," left his options open. He said Bolivia could consider negotiating to be included in the proposed bloc that would slash trade barriers between Colombia, Ecuador and Peru and the United States.
But he also said the impoverished nation could be better served by joining the Mercosur trade bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay or by seeking stronger trade ties with the European Union.
Get a subsidy from the EU and do a free-trade deal with us. Best of both worlds.
Morales, wearing his trademark maroon, white and blue striped sweater, said recent talks with U.S. Ambassador David Greenlee focused on improving relations between the two countries and maintaining the war on drugs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006
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Evo, here's a tip, get on over to Joseph A. Banks and buy a nice suit.
A new poll yesterday showed Hamas deadlocked with the ruling Fatah party ahead of next week’s parliamentary elections. The results were the latest sign of trouble for Fatah, which had dominated Palestinian politics for decades. According to yesterday’s poll, Fatah would capture 32.3 percent of the vote, while Hamas would get 30.2 percent. In Gaza, the two groups are just a few percentage points apart, with Hamas grabbing 36.4 percent of the vote to Fatah’s 36.7 percent. The survey of 1,000 people by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, putting the two rivals in a statistical dead heat.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2006
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This unfortuante "deadlock" can easily be resolved via dueling Kalashnikovs. Lets hope they start immediately.
A former Defense Department analyst was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison yesterday for passing government secrets to two employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group and to an Israeli government official in Washington.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said Lawrence A. Franklin did not intend to harm the United States when he gave the classified data to the employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, one of Washington's most influential lobbying organizations. When he pleaded guilty, Franklin, an Iran specialist, said he was frustrated with the direction of U.S. policy and thought he could influence it through "back channels."
"I believe, I accept, your explanation that you didn't want to hurt the United States, that you are a loyal American," said Ellis, who added that Franklin was "concerned about certain threats to the United States" and thought he had to hand information about the threats to others to bring it to the attention of the National Security Council.
I don't accept it. I'm betting he has a wad of $100 bills buried in his back yard.
But Franklin still must be punished, Ellis said, because he violated important laws governing the non-disclosure of secret information. "It doesn't matter that you think you were really helping," Ellis said as he sentenced Franklin to 151 months -- 12 1/2 years -- in prison. "That arrogates to yourself the decision whether to adhere to a statute passed by Congress, and we can't have that in this country."
The sentence fell at the low end of the federal sentencing guidelines, which called for a term as long as 188 months. "It could have been tougher,"' said Michael Greenberger, a former Justice Department official who heads the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland.
Should have been tougher. Toss him in the same cell as Jonathan Pollard.
The sentencing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria closed one chapter of a long-running investigation into an alleged conspiracy to obtain and illegally pass classified information to foreign officials and reporters. But with the case still shrouded in secrecy, yesterday's hearing cast no new light on the information Franklin provided, whether its transmission harmed the United States and whether anyone will be charged other than the two lobbyists, who have been fired by AIPAC and are awaiting trial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin V. Di Gregory told Ellis that Franklin had reason to believe that the information could be used against the United States. "When you disclose national defense information to people not entitled to receive it," he said, "the U.S. government loses control of that information and there is no way to know in whose hands it might fall."
Exactly, and that's why he should be turning rocks into gravel the rest of his life.
Plato Cacheris, Franklin's attorney, emphasized that Franklin is "a longtime dedicated public servant" who has had "a long and distinguished career." Cacheris said that Franklin has been cooperating extensively with investigators and that he expects the government to file a motion later to reduce Franklin's sentence.
Franklin pleaded guilty in October to three counts: conspiracy to communicate national defense information, conspiracy to communicate classified information to an agent of a foreign government, and unlawful retention of national defense information.
Court documents said Franklin provided classified data -- including information about a Middle Eastern country's activities in Iraq and weapons tests conducted by a foreign country -- to the lobbyists and to an unnamed "foreign official." The Middle Eastern country was not named, but Franklin disclosed at his plea hearing that some of the material related to Iran. He also said in court that the foreign official was Naor Gilon, who was the political officer at the Israeli Embassy before being recalled last summer. Israeli officials have said they are cooperating in the investigation, and they denied any wrongdoing.
Franklin is expected to testify against the two former AIPAC lobbyists, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, at their trial, which is scheduled for April. Rosen, of Silver Spring, is charged with two counts related to unlawful disclosure of national defense information obtained from Franklin and other unidentified government officials on topics including Iran, Saudi Arabia and al Qaeda. Rosen was AIPAC's director of foreign policy issues and was instrumental in making the committee a formidable political force. Weissman, of Bethesda, faces one count of conspiracy to illegally communicate national defense information.
The FBI monitored a series of meetings between Franklin and the former AIPAC officials dating back to early 2003, multiple sources familiar with the investigation have said. At one of those meetings, a session at the Pentagon City mall in Arlington in July 2004, Franklin warned Weissman that Iranian agents were planning attacks against U.S. soldiers and Israeli agents in Iraq, sources said.
Franklin had faced a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Ellis said Franklin would not have to go to jail until he finished his cooperation with the government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2006
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"Franklin pleaded guilty...conspiracy to communicate classified information to an agent of a foreign government...
He also said in court that the foreign official was Naor Gilon, who was the political officer at the Israeli Embassy..."
Why no charges? Ahhh..the sweet smell of another vapor-scandel.
#2
"I believe, I accept, your explanation that you didn't want to hurt the United States, that you are a loyal American," said Ellis, who added that Franklin was "concerned about certain threats to the United States" and thought he had to hand information about the threats to others to bring it to the attention of the National Security Council.
#1
this idiot loser is still trying to redebate Tora Bora tactics and Bin Laden getting away. Given the chance to add more US boots to the ground, is there any doubt he would've voted against it? F*&king enemy's best friend
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2006 0:54
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#2
Is "Tora Bora" the new "the election of 2000 was stolen!"?
The comments are priceless, however. It only took a couple of them before they were debating if John F'n Kerry actually wrote it, or was it a staffer, or....well WHO COULD IT BE???
I'm thinking Karl Rove....that bastard's everywhere..... ;)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A federal grand jury in Oregon has indicted 11 members of two extremist environmental groups on charges of arson and destruction of an energy facility in what the government said was a campaign of domestic terrorism in five Western states.
Aging is the name of the game when it comes to fine wine. Top producers mature their brews in oak barrels; connoisseurs will keep a bottle in the cellar for years so they can savor the complex bouquet at its peak.
To enter Columbia University's graduate school of journalism is to enter the highest temple of a religion in decline. A statue of Thomas Jefferson guards the plaza outside the doors, and the entry room is suitably grand. Two raised platforms proclaim the missions in bold gold letters: "To Uphold Standards of Excellence in Journalism" and "To Educate the Next Generation of Journalists." The marble floor tells you that the school was endowed by Joseph Pulitzer and erected in 1912 in memory of his daughter Lucille. A bronze quotation from Pulitzer's 1904 cri de coeur in the North American Review is on the wall:
A prostitute who has had a sex change has escaped caning for drug dealing in Singapore after a doctor confirmed her new gender, the Straits Times reports. The confusion arose because Mongkon Pusuwan, from Thailand, was identified as a man - her original gender - in her passport, the paper reported. A man could have faced up to 15 strokes of the cane, but women are exempt.
A Danish fashion firm is to sell T-shirts inspired by rebel fighters, with proceeds to go to militant groups. The T-shirts have as logos the initials of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The firm, Fighters and Lovers, says it will donate 5 euros (£3) for each T-shirt it sells.
An Arizona doctor and Muslim cleric who returned after performing Haj were taken into custody on arrival by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), suspecting them of having links with the Tableeghi Jamaat.
London, 20 Jan. (AKI) - The poor quality of Osama bin-Laden's latest message - a audio-only recording with crackling voice-distorting static, may shed some light on the whereabouts of the fugitive Islamist leader. This contrasts sharply with the clear images and sound of a video released earlier this month showing al-Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri. "Firstly, it indicates the recordings were made in different places, and hence that the two men are not hiding out together" says Hani al-Sebai, director of London-based al-Maqrizi Institute for Historical Studies. 
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said police chiefs have been told to review all the intelligence the federal government has given them in the last two years about al Qaeda tactics. Chertoff told ABC News: "We've seen them attack in London, for example. We've seen them attack in Spain. We've seen them attack elsewhere, so I think we have to operate on the assumption that they do have some capability and they certainly have the intent." 
In an unprecedented move for the Arab press, a leading Kuwaiti newspaper yesterday called for the abdication of the oil-rich country's ruler, less than a week after he inherited the throne. 
The television reported that ruling family members visited Shaikh Sabah at his residence on Friday and called on him to accept his responsibilities in continuing to lead the country until it reaches the “shore of safety,” a reference to the uncertainty in the country because of the health condition of the new Amir who has not taken the oath of office yet.
Thousands of troops fanned across the Nepalese capital Friday to enforce a government curfew ordered to foil a planned protest rally against King Gyanendra. About 15,000 army soldiers and policemen were guarding and patrolling the streets of Katmandu and the suburb of Lalitpur to enforce the 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. curfew.
Irish politicians and human rights activists are voicing growing concern at the US military's use of Shannon airport after it emerged that an average of 900 soldiers a day passed through the commercial west coast airport last year.
The two rebel movements in Sudan’s western Darfur region, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, announced yesterday they were merging to create a single alliance. “The two movements have agreed to join and coordinate all political, military and social forces, their international relations and to double their combat capacity in a collective body under the name, the Alliance of Revolutionary Forces of West Sudan,” they said. “This union will strengthen the solidarity, cohesion and unity of the people of Sudan in general and that of the west in particular,” the document said. “It will further strengthen the position of the armed movements in (peace) negotiations” currently under way in Abuja.
Israeli elder statesman 
A prominent insurance expert has called for the introduction of insurance service to foreign pilgrims coming for Haj and Umrah as part of the government’s efforts to provide them with better health services and facilities. Dr. Abdalelah Saaty, chairman of the insurance council at Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, however, said such insurance policies should not be made mandatory on pilgrims. “It will not be possible to impose insurance on all pilgrims,” Saaty told Arab News.
The United States has brought criminal charges against a 10th Guantanamo Bay prisoner, charging an Afghan man with conspiracy, aiding the enemy and attacking civilians, the Pentagon said on Friday. The case against 
The United States does not plan to raise the security threat level because of a new tape of Osama bin Laden on which he says al-Qaeda is planning attacks, counterterror officials said Thursday. The White House firmly rejected bin Laden's suggestion of a negotiated truce. "We don't negotiate with terrorists," Vice President Dick Cheney said. "I think you have to destroy them." Counterterror officials said they have seen no specific or credible intelligence to indicate a coming al-Qaeda attack on the United States. Nor have they noticed an uptick in terrorist communications "chatter," although that can increase or decrease dramatically immediately before an attack.
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkeyâs agriculture minister accused several neighboring countries on Friday of concealing bird flu outbreaks and hampering an effort to prevent the spread of the disease.
Sudan's push to head the African Union is gathering pace with no rival bid emerging despite concerns that a Sudanese presidency would hurt Africa's reputation and AU-sponsored peace efforts in Darfur.
The German government, facing allegations its spies in Iraq secretly abetted the US invasion that Berlin publicly opposed, has resisted calls for a parliamentary inquiry it said would fan anti-Americanism. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister, said on Friday Baghdad-based agents of the BND intelligence service had stuck to clear instructions not to pass on operational military information to the Americans at the start of the US invasion in 2003. The role of the two agents has become a hot political topic since media reports this month alleged they gathered information for Washington on bombing targets in Baghdad and acted as scouts for an air raid intended to kill then-president Saddam Hussein.
Judge 
Al-Qaida's second-in-command, Dr 
A top Sunni politician appealed Friday for the release of an American female journalist and urged U.S. and Iraqi forces to stop arresting Iraqi women as a deadline set by the reporter's kidnappers was set to elapse. The kidnappers had threatened to kill 28-year-old 
Iraqi fighters are warring with non-Iraqi fighters in the western town of Ramadi, and elsewhere in the country, the US military says. Major General Rick Lynch, a US military spokesman, said on Thursday: "We are finding indications where Iraqi rejectionists are taking up arms and informing on terrorists and foreign fighters. According to the US military, the revolt in Iraq is made up of supporters of Saddam Hussein, non-Iraqi Arab fighters, and an element they call "rejectionists" that disagrees with the presence of US-led forces.
Iran is ready for “detailed” discussions on Moscow’s proposal for the two countries to enrich uranium jointly on Russian territory to defuse tensions over Tehran’s suspected nuclear program, a top Russian official said yesterday. “They find our proposal very interesting and are ready to move to detailed examination,” the head of Russia’s atomic energy agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, said.
Former 
Six Yemeni soldiers and five supporters of slain rebel cleric Husain al-Huthi have been killed in clashes in the north of the country. Insurgents ambushed a military convoy on Thursday, killing six including an officer, in the province of Saada. Government troops countered by attacking the rebels and killing five of them, a government source said on Friday. 
About 1,500 tribesmen in Mohamand tribal district bordering Afghanistan held another rally against the airstrike. Hundreds of people also held demonstrations outside mosques in the eastern city of Lahore, near the border with India, after regular Friday prayers.
The two main contenders in next week's Palestinian parliamentary election pledged to avoid violence on voting day and work together afterward, but a Hamas leader ruled out peace talks with Israel. The no-violence pledge came Wednesday in Gaza, coupled with a promise that the ruling Fatah and its main challenger, the militant Islamic Hamas, will work together after the Jan. 25 election. It was a tacit admission by Fatah that Hamas will be a significant factor in the new parliament. Hamas, running for the first time, is set to take advantage of voter dissatisfaction with a decade of Fatah rule because of widespread corruption and inefficiency, as well as its inability to control internal violence, some of it directly connected to the election.
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Backing away from his tough campaign talk against U.S.-sponsored trade initiatives, Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales said Friday he no longer rules out a free-trade deal with the United States and three other Andean nations. But he did not say he supported such a deal, either.
